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reyalvr · 1 year

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IN THE MIDST OF IT ALL | 2

୨⎯ in which a reef boy proves himself worthy of a forest girl’s attention. ⎯୧

genre┊ slight slowburn, angst, & e2l, idiots-to-lovers, fluff, two-shot

pairing┊ao’nung x fem-sully!reader

wordcount┊7.9k

warnings┊ movie spoilers

author’s note┊ thank you so, so, SO much for all of the kind words and encouragement for part 1, my heart feels so happy T^T. i hope you guys like this part as much as the other! i might even make a part 3 but rn my plans for that is to just make it into an extra drabble or a bonus chap (¬‿¬) happy reading!

song recs┊ void, heart to heart, happiness is simple.

《✧》, 《✧✧》

They say starting anew can be done at any given moment. What they don’t tell you is how excruciatingly slow the actual process is. Starting over was never going to be an easy feat, that you were well aware of. But that didn’t necessarily mean that you were used to it. You stared at the Metkayinan boy in front of you, who was practicing the Omatikayan way of shooting an arrow.

“Stronger, Ao’nung.” You adjusted his arms, straightening them out until the bow was aimed properly.

He tried again, this time positioning it slightly better. “What is the point of this again?” His tone wasn’t angry, per say, just slightly exhausted.

“If you truly wish to understand me, you must know how I do things. That includes my skills.” Your reply was curt, your attention only focused on how badly he was holding your bow. You hissed under your breath, moving towards him to adjust his stance once again.

You heard his breath hitch as your hand came up to his back, pushing his shoulders down. He had tried to cover it up with a cough, but you had already caught it. You peeked at him from the side, your brow slightly raised in concern.

“Did that hurt?” You asked, removing your hands instantly.

“No,” He quickly replied, followed by a swallow. “Just- tired. That is all.”

You shrugged, carrying on with your needed adjustments. Weird, you thought. You moved to guide his hands towards the makeshift target you had painted. Once you made sure that he was locked on it, you paused to take note of his stance. You skimmed over his figure, making sure that he was properly distributing his weight throughout his entire body.

“Better.” You said as you stepped away from him. “Let go when you are ready.”

He took a deep breath in, fixating his eyes on the target. He shot the arrow as soon as he breathed out, hoping – praying that it would hit the stupid dot this time. You guys had been here for nearly an hour already, and not once had he been successful. He kept his eyes closed the entire time, stupid, he knew, but he found that he worked better if he couldn’t see you.

You didn’t speak for a few moments, and he was dreading opening his eyes. But the feeling of dread was washed away as soon as he heard the faintest hint of your laughter. He opened his eyes to see that he had hit the target, not directly at the center but close enough to garner your impressed reaction.

“See,” You said as you made your way towards the arrow. “It’s very simple.”

Though your tone meant to be criticizing, the small grin beginning to form on your lips said otherwise. Ao’nung watched as you pulled the arrow out of the trunk with ease, admiring how precisely you were able to do so without damaging the tree itself. You faced him unexpectedly, saying something along the lines of ‘are you hungry’ or ‘what time is it’, he wasn’t exactly sure.

In all honesty, he didn’t hear you. He had been too focused on you to pay attention to anything, really. Only when you were finally in front of him did he snap out of his haze. He would be a goner if he asked you to repeat yourself, so he settled with a simple “Hm?”

“I said you look hungry.” You said once more with the same tilt of your head every time you questioned him. “Are you?”

“I am fine,” He said as he handed you your bow. “Although, I am thirsty.”

“Water boy is parched, who would’ve guessed?” You teased, quickly taking the bow from his hands.

Your next movements were a complete blur to him as he watched you (again) climb swiftly up one of the trees, bow strapped to your back. He had that bow in hands only a minute ago, and though it wasn’t super heavy, it wasn’t exactly light either. To see you not only climb so easily after today’s training but to also have something weighted strapped against you while doing so was, without a doubt, impressive.

“Stop standing there and get over here!” You shouted at him, signaling for him to stand under one of the branches of the tree. “Keep your hands out, do not drop this.”

He ran quickly, looking up at you to make sure he was at the right spot. You nodded, and drew your bow back as you aimed for one of the hanging clusters of fruit. Using the same techniques that you were teaching him, you took a deep breath in and focused. Archery had always been one of your strong suits, and you proved so by cleanly shooting through the stem, the fruit falling intact into Ao’nung’s arms.

When you were back safely on the ground, you gestured for him to follow you back onto the ledge. The eclipse had just set, the warm sky slowly fading into darkness. You sat down, your feet hanging over the cliff. Ao’nung did the same, though he sat slightly behind you. Your turned, arm outstretched for the fruit. He handed it to you, and you split it into two with your knife.

“Here,” You said, giving him the bigger half. “You’ve earned it.”

He smiled slightly as he took the fruit, appreciating your kindness. Or tolerance. He couldn’t tell, but at least you weren’t actively trying to kill him. He took a bite, savoring the sweet juice that was stored inside it. It was silent between the two of you as you continued to eat, both of you lost in your own thoughts.

A fortnight had passed since your guys’ first meeting, and surprisingly things had been going smoothly. Ao’nung had kept his promise, meeting you here before or after eclipse. He was diligent in his learning; watching carefully as you taught him your people’s culture, keeping up with your speed and agility, eagerly waiting approval from you after doing something correctly.

Life in the village had gotten easier, too. Nobody knew of your guys’ excursions, but it wasn’t like you were trying to hide it. No one asked, so you said nothing. During the afternoons you all would sit together by the reef, exchanging stories and jokes after a long day’s worth of training. Your siblings had started to feel better too — most especially Lo’ak.

He and Ao’nung had started to get along, and it lifted a weight off of your shoulders. You guys were finally starting to be one with the Metkayina, and you couldn’t be anymore grateful to the Great Mother. You had prayed a long time for this to happen, and she finally heard your prayer.

You finished your half of the fruit and turned your head slightly to look at Ao’nung. You saw that he had already finished his half a while ago, so you wondered why he remained silent. Usually he was chattering away, talking non-stop by the end of every session with you. He looked at you then, his eyes widening slightly to acknowledge you.

“You are very quiet today, reef boy.” You said, now fully facing him. You sat crossed-legged, mirroring his pose.

“Maybe I am just tired, forest girl.” He replied, smiling softly as he did so.

Your heart skipped a beat every time he called you that, and you couldn’t understand why. Rotxo and Tsireya had called you the same endearment, but they never made you feel like this. You shook it off as exhaustion taking over your body. Without another word, you got up and started packing your things for the day.

Ao’nung remained in his place, keeping his gaze on you. He too, wondered why he was all of a sudden so enamored with you. He instantly turned away from you, shaking his head slightly in the process. Enamored was too strong of a word to associate with you. He did not see you that way – did he? No, he couldn’t.

He supposed that he was just fascinated by you. Yeah, fascinated. Fascinated by your ways, fascinated by your skills… fascinated in you?

Ignoring whatever else his mind would conjure up in this silence, he moved to help you pick up the arrows scattered all over the ground. He cringed at the memory of his failed attempts from earlier. He knew now what this sort of embarrassment felt like – the very feeling that he made you feel. Eywa, he felt miserable.

Truly in his heart did he not understand how you could continue to look at someone like him, let alone speak to someone like him. But here you were, abiding by his request, or rather, plea for forgiveness. He handed you whatever arrows he had collected, avoiding your eyes. He could not handle eye-contact with you at this moment.

“Oh, thank you.” You said in surprise. He only smiled and nodded in response.

“Well I have to get back,” You said, adjusting the straps of your quiver. “Tomorrow again?”

“Of course,” He said, his hand gesturing for you to head down first. “See you.”

You smiled slightly before making your way down. On the pathway home, you kept your focus on the stars of the night sky. Today was unusually odd between you and Ao’nung. Not that it wasn’t already odd between you and him before, but today just felt different. You squinted your eyes as you continued to entertain your thoughts, each one making you even more confused than before.

May Eywa give you a sign of stability and strength soon, or you might just lose your mind.

You sat quietly inside your marui pod, helping your mother chop the vegetables harvested earlier today. You needed this, needed to focus on something other than training and him. Your mother, though initially surprised, happily agreed to letting you help her.

You saw from the window that your siblings and friends were sat together at the usual spot, talking intently with one another. You smiled, happy that all of you were now comfortable enough to be in each other’s presence. You saw Kiri smile widely after something Lo’ak had said, and you presumed that it was most likely another stupid joke of his.

Then you saw Ao’nung speak up, moving away from his leaning position against the tree. He spoke with your brother, and he had the exact same look when he would be explaining things to you guys. You furrowed your brows in confusion as the other Metkayinan kids started to speak up against Lo’ak as well. What was going on?

“Ma’ite,” Your mother said, suddenly pulling you out of whatever fixation you had. “You can go to them if you want to.”

You hadn’t realized how focused you’d been, finally noticing the way your ears had perked up as if you were trying to listen in on the conversation.

“It is fine, mama. I just got distracted.” You said as you continued chopping whatever was left on the cutting board. “I’d just like to be away for a while, is all.”

Your mother paused whatever she was doing and moved to sit closer to you, her attention now solely focused on your feelings. “What is wrong?”

You shook your head to assure her that nothing was wrong. Nothing was wrong, but you felt weird ever since that night with Ao’nung. The last few sessions with him were short and simple, and the overall atmosphere between the two of you was just so drastically different.

“Mama,” You put the knife down and faced your mom. “When you met dad, you didn’t like him right?”

She smirked slightly, surprised that you were asking this out of the blue. “Yes,” She replied. “I didn’t like him – in fact, I tried to kill him.”

“So why the change of heart?” You asked.

She paused for a moment, her eyes looking deeply into yours. The story of your parents was one that you always enjoyed as a kid, and sometimes you still did. They were legends among the Omatikaya, their story living on forever as they solidified their place in the clan. Fierce warriors with an even fiercer love story. Your mother held your hands, placing them onto her lap.

“Your father was a skxawng, a big one at that. He was arrogant, too human for his own good.” She paused to laugh, seemingly reminiscing her first encounters with your father. “But he learned the truth of our home, our land. He saw me, saw everything. I didn’t fall in love with him simply because I changed my mind – I fell in love with him because he proved himself to me, ma’ite.”

Proved himself to her. You sat there, taking in her words. Proved himself to her. Your dad had put aside his differences and learned her ways, her skills. It sounded all too familiar, and your heart sped up as you tried to separate each of your thoughts.

“But didn’t you hate him for what he did?” You asked, trying to calm your jitters in the process.

“Of course I did, what he did was unacceptable. When he realized that what he was doing was wrong it was too late. Of course I hated him.” She brought her hand up to tuck one of your loose strands away. “But you cannot fully hate someone, just like you cannot fully love anyone either. They balance each other out. Without the balance it wouldn’t be love, nor would it be hate.”

You swallowed hard. Her words had gone directly into your heart, each of her explanations getting closer and closer to what you had started feeling for Ao’nung. Even thinking that sounded crazy, you and him were the last two people anyone would ever pair together.

You hated him, didn’t you? Yes, you hated everything about him; his mischief, his arrogance, his infuriatingly bright grin. You nearly slapped yourself with the last thought.

Eywa, you have officially lost your goddamn mind. You quickly excused yourself from your mother, reassuring her when you stood up so suddenly. You nearly ran into your dad as well, muttering a quick apology to him as you made your way past him. He called after you to ask if you were okay, but you continued on, waving a dismissive hand.

“Is she alright?” Jake asked, approaching Neytiri with the slightest look of concern on his face.

“Yes,” She breathed out, handing him a basket of wrapped meals that needed to be placed atop the fire. “Put these there please.” He didn’t complain, only complying with her request. She sighed as Jake had made himself comfortable next to her, leaning against him for support.

“She asked about us,” She said as she continued to fan the flames. “Asked about how I first met you.”

He hummed in response, intrigued by your sudden interest. “What’d you tell her?”

“That I tried to kill you. And that I hated you.” Neytiri replied, her expression remaining nonchalant. “When I told her everything, she looked like she was remembering something similar to herself.”

“Okay well, ignoring the first part,” He said through his small chuckle. “Maybe she’s just going through something. It’s normal at this age.”

Neytiri only nodded. Normal, yes. But to you? Not so. She said a silent prayer to Eywa, praying that you would get whatever it was you were going through sorted out.

Eclipse had already set, yet you were nowhere near your getaway. You were at the opposite end of it, actually, sitting alone at the empty beach. You couldn’t remember how you had gotten here, hell you couldn’t even remember how long you’d been here. You knew that you would need to get back home soon, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to move just yet.

You felt terrible, Ao’nung had probably been waiting for you to meet him hours ago. But you couldn’t face him like this – you couldn’t risk doing something stupid.

You continued to look at the sea, resting your head comfortably atop your knees. You felt the same way you did the morning of your agreement with him, alone in your peace. It wasn’t as relaxing though, since your head continued to spin the harder you tried to think of anything other than him.

It wasn’t like you would be able to avoid him forever either- he was everywhere. Not to mention the chief’s son as well. You were bound to bump into him sooner or later, but right now you were thankful for the solace in being alone.

You hated this feeling; not knowing what to do. Most of the time you were able to think of a solution to your problems, but right now you had nothing. With your mind too clouded to even think of a cohesive plan, you settled for not thinking of anything at all. You willed away any lingering thoughts, only focusing on the low tide.

From the distance, though, you swore you could see somebody on an ilu. At this hour? The fishermen would have already packed up for the day, so seeing somebody out on the water didn’t make sense. You squinted, your eyes further adjusting to the darkness. They were slowly making their way back to shore, and you soon realized who it was. You don’t remember the last time you had moved so hastily, almost tripping over your own tail while doing so.

What was he doing out here? Why was he out here? You ran to hide to the closest place with coverage, which happened to be one of the rock formations nearer to shore. Great thinking, [Y/N]. You thought sarcastically.

You kept quiet as you peeked above the rocks, watching as Ao’nung made his way to where you were sitting only a moment ago. What the hell were you even doing? Nothing was happening between you two, nothing. So why, in Eywa’s name, was your heart beating so fast? Why did you run and hide? You saw that he was carrying a speargun, as well as a sack of what you presumed was fish.

What else would it be? Of course it was fish. You argued against yourself. Who goes out into the sea with a speargun to catch anything but fish?

Your imaginary fight with yourself ended as soon as it started though, as Ao’nung had faced towards your direction. You quickly dove back behind the rocks, but your efforts for staying quiet were wasted as you had accidentally cut your arm on one of the jagged edges of the rock. You held your hand over your mouth, preventing yourself from making any more noise.

You hoped that he didn’t hear you. You’d have no explanation for yourself, and your mind was too preoccupied to think of a believable excuse. Not to mention the growing pain in your arm. Though the cut wasn’t deep, it still stung as it continued to remain unprotected. Blood had also started to drip down onto the sand. If you left now you would definitely leave a trail behind.

“Who’s there?” Ao’nung suddenly called out, his voice sounding extremely intimidating.

Shit. Not good, so not good. You took a deep breath, calming yourself. Being senseless would not help your situation. You decided to stay hidden, not coming out until you were sure he was gone. You listened carefully as his footsteps got closer to your spot, and you prayed and prayed that he wouldn’t see you.

Your prayers were too late, however, as you made eye-contact with Ao’nung. He peered over you, the defensive look on his face dropping as soon as he realized it was you. You felt a sense of deja vu; you were in this situation before, only now the roles were reversed.

“Hi, you.” You said, breaking the awkward silence. You winced, momentarily forgetting about your arm.

His eyes widened as he finally noticed your injury, and he quickly jumped over the rocks to access your arm. He gently grabbed it, not waiting for you to protest against his help.

“I have so many questions,” He said as he continued to examine you. “But they can wait. Come, we need to get you treated.”

You opened your mouth to say something, but he dismissed whatever it was with a look. You sighed in defeat, slowly getting up to follow him. So much for avoiding him. You bent to pick up the speargun he dropped in his haste to make it over to you, but he quickly snatched that away from you too.

“Do not exert yourself, you are bleeding for Eywa’s sake.” He said, his words laced in growing concern. “Come.”

You swallowed back any argument and nodded your head. He guided you in front of him, making sure that you were okay to walk without any support. Again it was silent between you two, no bickering, no sly comments. Just silence. It made you feel uneasy, like something was out of balance.

Your mothers words rang in your head. Without the balance it wouldn’t be love, nor would it be hate.

It annoyed you, really, these thoughts coming and going with the worst timing. It felt like there were two people in your mind; one rational and one irrational. The rational half of you wanted to tell Ao’nung that all was forgiven, that you didn’t need to continue meeting up anymore and that he definitely didn’t need to take you for treatment.

But the irrational half, oh Eywa, the irrational half fought to look for excuses to remain in his presence.

You guys had reached the village now, and he placed his hand on your lower back to guide you into the medical pod. You stopped yourself from jolting at the feeling of his touch. It had no lingering meaning, he only wanted to make sure you were going the right way. You were sure of it.

“Sit.” He said, dropping his things by the entrance.

You did as you were told, enjoying the comfort of the plush mat. You watched as he rummaged through the medicinal baskets, going through different jars until he found what he needed. It only hit you then that he wanted to treat you. Not any of the other healers, not even his own mother. He intended to do it himself.

“You know how to treat wounds?” You asked, trying not to sound so shocked. You failed.

He chuckled slightly at your surprise. “Of course I know how to treat wounds. My mother is Tsahik, she would have me used as akula bait if I refused her lessons.”

You let out a small laugh at his response. High and mighty Ao’nung, scared of his mother’s wrath. Not hard to picture though. Your past sessions had allowed you to see another side of Ao’nung that you couldn’t believe existed. Just like now, his smug hunter demeanor nowhere to be seen.

He approached you, sitting in front of you with all of his treatment materials. He held your arm close to him, leaning down to get a closer look as cleaned the dry blood. He was gentle with his movements, careful to make sure that he didn’t hit the sensitive parts of your wound.

“So, are you gonna tell me how you got this?” He asked, still not taking his eyes off your wound.

You bit your bottom lip nervously, not wanting to tell him that you were trying to avoid people – avoid him. He looked up at you briefly, waiting for your response.

“Um,” You finally breathed out. “Well I was just at the beach. You know, resting.”

He hummed in response, his attention back on your injury. He was done cleaning it, and now he moved to reach for the paste he had made a few moments ago. The paste smelled fresh, much like the old concoctions that Kiri and your grandmother used to make back home.

It really was shocking to you that Ao’nung knew how to do this. He seemed like the type of person to only be focused on his duties, especially because of his rank. But then again you were wrong about a lot of things, so there was that.

You coughed, stopping yourself from drifting into your thoughts. “I didn’t notice how much time had passed until I realized it was eclipse.” You looked down, not wanting to look at him in fear of him seeing right through you.

“And then I saw you coming and I freaked, I didn’t know what to do. So I hid, and I cut myself trying to stay away.” You motioned at your wound, and he only nodded. Shit.

“Everything slipped my mind today.” You admitted begrudgingly. “Ao’nung I am so sorry, I forgot about our meeting.”

“You do not need to apologize, [Y/N]. I understand.” He continued applying the healing remedy onto your wound, but you could see that his expression changed. “Admittedly, I was worried. I waited until eclipse but you still hadn’t come.”

The feeling of shame- no, regret crept up on you once again. Now you really felt terrible. You had assumed that he felt bad, but now hearing him say it himself felt like a giant wave of terrible feelings crashing into you. Your ears perked down, your shoulders going limp.

“I figured you were probably somewhere else, doing your own thing.” He said, finishing up the treatment for your arm. “So I left for the day, did my own thing as well. Gave me time to be by myself as well.” He wrapped your arm securely, and once he was sure that the wrappings wouldn’t budge he let go of your. You suddenly felt cold, the warmth of his healing hands leaving you.

“Thank you,” You held your arm close to you. “You didn’t have to do that. I appreciate it. A lot.” You rambled.

He leaned back, arms outstretched behind him. “You’re welcome.” He said through his smile.

The moonlight was bright tonight, the radiance of it seeping in through the openings of the marui. Ao’nung was sat directly in front of the entrance, and he was basked in the night’s comforting glow. He was breathtaking like this, his features sharpened by the shadows. Your heart sped up once again, and you quickly got up before you could think of anything else.

“Thank you, again.” You repeated yourself, slowly making your way out of the pod. “Tomorrow, then?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

You were just about to leave when he called out for you once more. You held onto one of the posts, peeking back inside to hear what he had to say. He got up then, standing closer to you. Your cheeks tingled, heating up as he looked down at you. He leaned against the same post you were on, though his arm was placed further up.

“The funny thing about today was that even though I was alone, free to do whatever I want,” He paused, turning his head slightly to face away from you. “I still kept on thinking of you.”

You were taken aback by his confession. He was thinking about you? Your lips parted, not knowing what else to say to him. Actually, you weren’t going to say anything else to him. Not now at least, not when your heart felt like it was about to explode.

You let go of your hold on the post, finally creating some distance between the two of you. “Good night, reef boy.” Was all you said, your tone light and smooth. Thank Eywa you didn’t stutter.

Ao’nung turned to face you now, a small smile beginning to form on his lips. You could tell that he hadn’t expected this reaction from you, but still he kept smiling.

“Good night, forest girl.” He finally said. “See you tomorrow.”

Unlike most mornings, you were the last one to wake up. Your arm was slightly sore, a reminder of the ongoings from last night. You were lucky to get home while everyone was still awake, avoiding the definite scolding you would have gotten had you gone home any later.

When they asked about your arm and who treated it, you came up with an excuse that even Kiri seemed to believe. You sat outside your family’s pod, your feet dipped into the cool waters of Awa’atlu. You had finished your training earlier than usual despite being late, and you took the well deserved break that you needed.

From your position, you were able to see your siblings in the water. The only one missing was Tuk, who was still inside playing with her toys. She had a different style of training, one less rigorous because of her age. She wasn’t allowed to go out into the water on her own yet, she always needed to be accompanied by someone.

Tsireya was her guide, and she would be here soon to fetch Tuk for her ilu session. You made your way back inside, patting your younger sister on the head. She smiled up at you, her eyes so full of wonder. Sometimes you wished you were her age again, oblivious to the real world. You wouldn’t have to worry about your heart or your mind; only focusing on living in the moment.

“Hey,” Ao’nung’s voice suddenly filling the empty air. “Is Tuk ready?”

You and your sister both jumped at his sudden arrival, and you were confused as to why it was him that was here for Tuk. You looked past him to see if Tsireya was beside him, but again, to your surprise, she wasn’t there.

“Hey,” You drawled out. “You teaching her today?”

“Yeah,” He said awkwardly, obviously nervous. “Tsireya had to help my mother with something, so she couldn’t be here today.”

You nodded slowly, waiting for Tuk to respond. Ao’nung switched between looking at you and looking at the small girl, gauging either of your guys’ reactions.

“If you don’t feel comfortable it’s fine,” He quickly added. “We can cancel for the day, it’s really no problem.”

Your sister had a quizzical look plastered onto her face as she stared at him, as if she were trying to figure something out in that brilliant brain of hers. She looked up at you with the same look, analyzing you the same way she had just done for Ao’nung.

“Tsmuke, what do you think?” You broke the silence.

She waited a few moments before replying, still keeping that same look on her face.

“Sure, I don’t mind.” She finally said, her face morphing back to her happy-go-lucky self. But before you could wish them well, she grabbed your hand and pulled you with her. “But I want you to go, too.”

You looked up at Ao’nung, searching his face for any disapproval. There wasn’t any. How could he be so calm after last night, so composed? You had promised you were going to meet with him again later today, but you weren’t even sure if you’d be able to keep that promise.

You nodded slowly, though you were still reluctant to tag along. “Of course.” You smiled at her, squeezing her hand.

Tuk laughed happily and breezed past the two of you, getting a headstart to the beach. You shouted at her to slow down, and you heard Ao’nung quietly laugh at you. You spun to face him, giving him a puzzled look. He waved you off, still grinning as you guys made your way to where Tuk was at.

“What?” You asked, eyebrows slightly furrowed.

“Nothing, it’s just,” He paused to offer you the lead as you guys walked. “You scold her like you do me.”

You faced away from him almost instantly, preventing him from seeing the purplish tint on your cheeks. What the hell was going on with you? Everything he did started taking effect on you, your old composure with him non-existent as the days continued.

“I am not scolding her. She’s my sister, it's a basic sibling concern.” You said, not looking back at him. “It’s different with you.”

“Oh?” His voice laced in sudden interest. “Different how?”

You were glad he was behind you because if he wasn’t, there was no way you would have been able to form a cohesive sentence.

“Well for one, she is a child. It’s inevitable for her to make some childish mistake.” You said. “You, on the other hand, you are just a skxawng.”

He sped up his pace to walk beside you now, and you could hear him continue to laugh. If you had said this to him two weeks ago, you would have been met with snide remarks and sneers from him and his friends. Now it felt different, though you couldn't exactly explain how. All you knew was that you were comfortable enough in each other’s presence and could bicker with each other without having to feel like complete shit.

“You guys, come on!” Tuk yelled, instantly pulling you both back into focus.

You caught his glance at you, and you finally laughed with him as you hurried to catch up with your sister.

You watched carefully as Ao’nung guided Tuk on one of the ilus. He was unexpectedly patient with her, gentle with his words each time she had to go again. It was a stark contrast to your lessons with him – you hadn’t forgotten how he made you feel, nor had he. You supposed that this was another way for him to atone for his wrongdoings; starting anew not only with you but with your siblings as well.

“Good, Tuk.” He praised, this time no longer holding her. “Be steady, focus on the bond.”

Your sister giggled as she started circling around on her own. She waved at you from afar, and you smiled at her as acknowledgement of her achievement. She willed the ilu to swim closer to you, splashing you lightly in the process.

“[Y/N] look! I’m doing it!” She cheered.

“Yes, I see that tskxevi.” You said as you wiped your face. “Keep it up.”

She laughed as she swam away to one of the marker points, carefully navigating through the floating ropes. While she was busy enjoying herself, Ao’nung came and stood next to you as he waited for her to finish the obstacle courses. You moved a step forward, your body automatically creating distance between the two of you. If Ao’nung noticed, he didn’t mention it as he continued to focus on your sister’s movements.

“She’s a quick learner,” He said, nudging your shoulder. “Too bad she doesn’t take after you.”

You scoffed, though it wasn’t out of annoyance. You turned to face him, trying to stop yourself from smiling after smacking him lightly on the head. All he did was smile in return, hands up in feigned defense.

“She doesn’t learn much from you either though, does she?” You teased back, arms crossed. “This is all Tsireya’s work, you were just lucky that she finally mastered her skills today.”

He was about to say something when his smile dropped. You looked at him, confused and maybe even a little scared at what could have changed his expression so quickly.

“Watch out!” Was all he had managed to get out before you were suddenly pushed by a strong force, nearly toppling over him. He tried to move you out of the way, though it was too late as both of you came crashing down into the shallow waters.

You heard Tuk’s voice shout a quick ‘sorry!’ before she turned away again, riding steadily once more as she took control of her ilu. You groaned, holding your head. You tried to look down, still blinking away the blurriness from the water in your eyes. Once you had finally regained your vision though, your body immediately tensed.

Though you weren’t fully on top of him, one of your arms was draped over his chest, causing him to be trapped underneath you. His hands rested at your waist, his grip still tight as he held you close to him in fear of dropping you.

Neither of you said anything, eyes wide as you both remained unmoving. From this angle, you were so close to him; close enough to notice the white bioluminescent freckles that were scattered across his face. Close enough to notice the long lashes that curled perfectly against his sea-green eyes. Close enough to feel his heartbeat, which sped up the longer you continued to stay in this position.

He coughed, breaking you out of whatever trance you were in. “You alright?”

You hurriedly moved your arm away from him, slipping out of his grasp. You sat next to him now, pushing the damp strands of your hair away.

“Mhm,” you hummed out, avoiding any eye-contact with him. “What about you?”

“Fine.” He breathed out. “I, uh, think that’s enough for today.”

He got up almost instantly, water cascading down his back. You closed your eyes, finally regulating your breath. You were still processing what had happened – not even sure if it even happened, but your warm cheeks and beating heart said otherwise.

You stood up, shaking yourself. Composure, damnit. Tuk and Ao’nung made their way towards you now, her little hand clasped around his. You put on a quick smile for her, outstretching your arms to bring her closer to you. She wrapped her arms around your thigh, looking up at you again with those wondrous eyes of hers.

“Thanks,” You said to Ao’nung, slightly stuttering. “For, uh, today.”

“It is no problem.” He said almost shyly. “Tonight?”

Right. Tonight, you almost forgot. “Yes, see you then.”

You lead Tuk out of the water, walking her back to the marui. On the way back home, you could hear her giggle quietly. Though she was a curious child, it was odd seeing her laugh at nothing.

“What is it, tsmuke?” You asked, hand stroking her hair.

“You like that boy, don’t you?” She said through her mischievous grin.

You nearly choked on your spit, and you quickly rushed her up the bridge. You stooped down to her level once you were outside your family’s pod, both your hands resting on her shoulder.

“Why do you say so?” You asked, half in curiosity and half in defense.

She shrugged. “I can just tell. You two act like mom and dad.”

She remained nonchalant as she walked into the pod, sitting down to play with her toys as if she hadn’t just said what she said. Your mouth was agape as you sat outside, processing her words. You quickly went after her, settling yourself beside her. You tried questioning her further but she only shook you off, too focused on her wooden figurines.

Eywa give me the strength, you thought to yourself.

It was well past eclipse now, and your feet dangled over the tree’s wide branch as you waited for Ao’nung to meet you up here. You had caught him earlier at the docks, and you told him to meet you at the ikran’s resting tree instead of on the cliff.

After Tuk’s training session, you had time to think about everything you had been feeling for the past weeks. You didn’t want to admit it, really you didn’t, but your sister had made you realize something that you fought so hard to keep suppressed.

Somehow, in the midst of it all, you had actually grown fond of the reef boy.

Excluding the times where he was a complete nonce, Ao’nung had proven himself to you, just like he had promised to do. Your train of thought was halted as soon as you heard the leaves rustle. Your ears perked up as you recognized his footsteps, and you anxiously fiddled with your hands as you waited for him.

“Hi, you.” He said, the awkwardness from earlier seemingly gone.

You smiled at the phrase. You got up from your seat and walked towards him, reaching into your pouch for the extra visor you had snatched from Lo’ak.

“Have you ever wanted to fly?” You asked directly, not even pausing to acknowledge his greetings.

His face scrunched up in confusion. “Yeah, why?”

You handed him the visor, and it took him a couple minutes to guess what it was. Once he realized it though, his expression morphed from puzzlement to excitement to hesitation. He looked at you as if to say ‘are you sure?’ and you nodded encouragingly.

“Do you trust me?” You looked deep into his eyes this time, no longer hiding your feelings.

“Yeah, forest girl, I trust you.” He said through a slight grin.

“Good.” You turned, calling out for Sìlpey.

Your loyal banshee came flying straight onto the branch. You calmed her down, stroking her leathery wings. She screeched, clearly excited to see you again. You giggled at her, nudging her head with yours.

“Ftue, Sìlpey. Tam-tam.” You said as you continued to soothe her excitement.

You swiftly made tsaheylu with her, looking into her eyes as soon as you were done. You could feel her heightened emotions within you, and you took a deep breath before speaking to her once again.

“Ma’Sìlpey, we are flying tonight.” You whispered, your hand coming up to stroke her jaw. “The sea boy wishes to join us, will you allow it?”

Her neck snapped towards Ao’nung’s direction, her eyes examining him as a whole. It was quiet between the three of you, and you waited anxiously for her response. Her eyes squinted, surveying him even deeper as you tried to flow your memories of him into her.

When you heard her roar of approval, you sighed in relief. You mounted her, fastening yourself securely. You gestured for him to join you, and he moved quickly as he was putting the visor on. You held out a hand for him, and this time he took it without hesitation. He sat behind you now, arms wrapped around the extended leather straps of your handle.

“You ready?” You shouted, looking back at him to make sure he was secure.

“More than ever!” He shouted back, his grin now twice as big.

You flapped the visor down and reeled your ikran in before finally diving down from the tree. You screamed in delight – you would never be able to get over the freeing feeling of flying. You banked hard, swerving up before you could hit the water. Sìlpey’s feet glided against the surface of the sea, spraying both of you slightly.

You laughed as you heard Ao’nung shout in excitement, feeling his adrenaline as you continued to guide your ikran in the air. You looped around the rock formations, flipping and lunging as you did you.

“Go forest girl!” He cheered, hands pumping up.

You couldn’t tell if it was his words or the butterflies in your stomach from flying that made you feel happy; you presumed that it could be both. The night sky was beautiful, each star burning brightly as you flew past them. Your hand came up to his thigh on instinct, holding him tightly as you dove down closer to the water again.

Instead of pulling you away though, he rested his hand atop of yours and he wrapped his other arm around your waist. You turned to look at him, eyes as wide as the moon.

“I don’t want to fall!” Was all he said as he smirked at your reaction.

“If I wanted to drop you I would’ve already done so!” You yelled back, though it didn’t stop you from grinning like an idiot.

You shouted at the top of your lungs as you grazed the water, splashing Ao’nung in the process. His laugh vibrated through the night, and you couldn’t help but laugh along with him as you soared. Your heart was heavy, but in a good way this time. Your body felt more alive the longer you continued to fly, and you couldn’t remember the last time you had felt so euphoric.

You continued flying the same paths for a while until you landed at the deserted beach Ao’nung had found you in. He hopped off first, waiting for you to safely break tsaheylu with Sìlpey. He helped you down, his grip gentle as he tried to avoid your bandaged arm. He watched as you instructed your ikran to fly back, and he waited until you were done before speaking up.

“That was,” He breathed heavily, his heart pounding like a drum. “That was incredible!”

Your laugh was like music to his ears, and he felt a sense of pride in being able to garner such an angelic sound from you. Oh Eywa, your mere presence was a sight to behold; in his eyes, the Great Mother had blessed you with such beauty that rivaled herself.

He had always been entranced by you, but he couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason. Now he was finally understanding why. His foolishness – his arrogance had blinded him of you. You were so much more than just a girl from another clan. You were more than Toruk Makto’s daughter, more than just a taronyu from the Omatikaya.

You were you; strong-hearted, alluringly beautiful you.

“That was amazing,” He said, looking at you with so much hidden desire that it nearly killed him. “You are amazing.”

You heard his words, this time no longer glancing away or spinning around. You smiled, his compliment filling you with so much glee. If somebody told you two weeks ago that Ao’nung would be making you feel good about yourself, you would have laughed in their face.

“I mean it, [Y/N].” He took a step closer to you, his eyes wandering your face. “You are so unbelievably astonishing.”

You let him ramble on, enjoying the sensation of praise. Your smile never faltered, only growing as he continued to speak.

“May the Great Mother have mercy on me for how I have treated you, [Y/N].” He said, his tone genuine.

“Oh she will.” You replied, pushing your visor up so you could look at him properly. “Because I have. Believe it or not, reef boy, but you have earned yourself a place in my heart. I think I am actually growing fond of your skxawng ass.”

As soon as those words left your mouth, it gave him the confidence to finally close the gap between the two of you. His hands came up to cup your face as he kissed you, stroking your temples as he did so. Your own hands wrapped around his wrists, your body melting into him as he kissed you for what felt like an eternity.

Ao’nung couldn’t think straight, not with you finally in his arms like this. He felt light-headed, and the feeling only grew as he kept you close to him. You felt the same, your heart exploding the moment you felt his lips touch yours.

When you finally parted from him, you took a second to admire the way he looked right now. This was the Ao’nung that had captured your heart; gentle with a sense of vulnerability. Gone was the boy you had hated – loathed, in front of you stood a Metkayinan boy who’s only hope was to make you feel happy.

“So,” He said, catching his breath in the process. “I take it that I am forgiven?”

You laughed, your hand coming to stroke his cheek. “Yes, you skxawng, you are forgiven.”

He kissed you again quickly before pausing to say something. He swallowed hard as he held your gaze, wanting to make sure that you heard what he had to say.

“I see you, forest girl.” His words were tinged with a slight nervousness as he waited eagerly for your reply.

You only smiled as you wrapped your arms around his neck, bringing his mouth down to yours once more. “I see you, reef boy.” You whispered.

tags┊ @neteyamslovrr, @normspellsman, @netegf, @a-queen-blr, @seashelldom, @ilupearls, @randxmthxughts, @aonungmyaddiction

#aonung #aounung #ao'nung #ao'nung x you #ao'nung x reader #ao'nung fanfiction #ao'nung x fem!reader #ao'nung angst #ao'nung fluff #ao'nung imagine #avatar ao'nung #avatar the way of water #ao'nung atwow #avatar 2022 #avatar 2 #atwow fanfiction #avatar imagine #✎ maxi’s works

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agentnico · 2 months

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Dune: Part Two (2024) review

I’m fully aware that the Dune sequel has been hit by acclaim from both critics and audiences, and I shall share my own thoughts in due course, but also whilst presenting itself as a serious and sophisticated piece of artsy science fiction tackling challenging themes of religion and politics, from a marketing standpoint this film has been a major farcical meme. From the popcorn buckets shaped like suggestive sand worms (or more so accurately as deformed buttholes) to the viral TikTok video of an unnamed man riding a makeshift sand worm around a cinema lobby on his way to Arrakis, or more likely to one of the gazillion screenings of Dune: Part Two. But yes, absolutely mad bonkers advertising techniques, and not at all reflective of how seriously and straight faced the actual film plays. Anyway, let’s talk Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuneee…..

Plot: Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the universe, he must prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

Controversial opinion - I was not a fan of the first Dune. I thought it was all spectacle and no substance, and even then in regards to said spectacle, it was just sand. Lots of sand and bland dark visuals. I understand that the first movie acts as a massive exposition piece with lots of world building and introductions of all the characters and various political families and the spice trade and all that sweet jazz, but honestly it all felt so dragged out. Also a lot of narrative choices felt really immature and I did not buy it. In fact, the only memorable part for me was that female voice screaming on the music score every time something crazy happened, and my does that woman have some strong vocal pipe work! Like damn, her screams…. I really felt them!

Going into Dune: Part Two, I was very much of two mindsets. One was more so a feeling of obligation to watch it, as I wasted 3 hours of my life watching the first one that I felt I deserved some kind of closure for my efforts. The other being Denis Villeneuve. Aside from the first Dune, he’s a director that has constantly impressed me with his unique vision and style. Simply look at his past filmography! Prisoners. Enemy. Arrival. Sicario. All impressive pieces of genre filmmaking. Then there’s Blade Runner 2049, that took the classic Ridley Scott movie and managed to improve on it and become one of the most thrilling science fiction epics of the last decade. Also the trailers looked appropriately exciting, and it seemed like the second movie was actually gonna deal with some serious shit finally. Again, my problem with the first Dune wasn’t that it was slow. I mean, I can happily watch Paris, Texas any day of the week and be mesmerised by the empty yet beautiful takes of the American desert. It’s more-so that the first Dune felt aimless and messy. As for Dune: Part Two?

Well, if we’re going to use The Lord of the Rings terminology, and boy am I happy to refer to the dear-to-my-heart Middle Earth whenever I have the chance, then Dune: Part Two holds the scale of The Two Towers. I may not agree with all of it, and there are still some moments that drag, though The Two Towers is also guilty of that - I’m looking at you Treebeard! But overall this is one hell of a cinematic experience and achievement. Visually for one this is eye-candy. And yes, yet again there’s lots of sand, but this time around Villeneuve manages to find very creative ways to add/take away colour to make many sequences truly impressive. There’s an early scene where the Fremen are fighting Harkonnen goons in the desert and the entire thing is seeped in this blood orange palette, reminiscent of the Martian Chronicles, and then there’s the part where we are introduced to the Harkonnen home planet where the entire screen is drenched in hardcore intense black-and-white due to their sun only giving out white and black light, and instead of fireworks there are these watercolour stroked exploding in the sky, to of course the much talked about eye-dropping sand worm riding into battle scene that had the feel of the giant elephants appearing in The Return of the King, and yes that was another most delightful reference to Lord of the Rings! As I was saying though, the entire movie visually is certainly something to be in awe of.

Also Hans Zimmer’s score!! Of course the man’s a genius, having composed so many of cinema’s greatest musical compositions. I can recommend his Live in Prague performance! Hit after hit, and I find myself spinning it on my record player a good few times. Hans Zimmer’s Dune: Part Two soundtrack feels like a thunderously bombastic continuation and expansion of the first film’s more quiet and moody opener, and that shift in tone allows for some truly spectacular weaving of the composer’s thematic tapestry for Dune – with the finest new thread being the absolutely gorgeous love theme for Paul and Chani. A truly beautiful piece that echoes the heartbreaking tragic nature of the central romance of the film. Needless to say I’ve already pre-ordered the limited edition coloured vinyl of Dune 2’s soundtrack from Mutant (the new Mondo).

As for the narrative, as that is where I felt the first film faltered the most in my humble opinion (which I share so publicly online). I really do feel like the sequel is a major set up, for since the first one focused more on the endless word building and set-ups, this movie is all about the character developments. The scope is still big with the various political and religious elements that are tackled and explored throughout, however at the same time Dune: Part Two manages to feel more intimate compared to its predecessor, with the unravelling of the romance between Paul and Chani, but more so the inner struggles of Paul Atreides, as he tries to balance his emotions of revenge with the feeling of wanting to belong somewhere, as well as his denial of being called the so-called Messiah to the Fremen people. Look, the idea of the chosen one has been a concept that has been done over and over again, however I felt here they managed to really make it feel unique and different, with Paul choosing not to take this major responsibility due to visions of the future where he sees this choice result in darkness and dread, yet at the same time realising he has no choice but to follow his destiny and calling. It’s powerful stuff.

The cast list is stacked in this one. Timothee Chalamet is a rising star, having previously excelled his dramatic chops in Call Me by Your Name and his charismatic whimsy in last year’s Wonka, but this is by far his most impressive acting feat. You truly feel his character turning from boy to man, and it’s a real and raw performance. Zendaya shares great chemistry with him, but also in her own right gives a strong turn as a warrior Fremen conflicted with what she sees and thinks. Javier Bardem’s Stilgar adds a slice of surprising humour to the mix, being so obsessed with Paul being part of the prophecy that anything he’d do, Stilgar would find that to be part of what has been foretold. Paul Atreides could literally fart and Stilgar would observe in wonder proclaiming “as it was written”. There’s also a tiny No Country for Old Men reunion with Bardem being joined by Josh Brolin, who’s alright by the way, though it’s a typical Brolin brute role. Charlotte Rampling as the Reverend Mother continues being truly despicable and honestly that wench deserves to be put in her place - the movie’s ending is very satisfying in this regard. There’s also some newcomers to the Dune world too. Florence Pugh as the Princess reminded me a lot of Padme from Star Wars, and Christopher Walken I felt was tad miscast as the Emperor. Don’t get me wrong, Walken is a great actor, but his way of speech has been impersonated and overdone so many times that it is difficult to take him seriously in a role like this. Minus a couple of strong deliveries Walken felt really lazy here. You know who wasn’t lazy though? Austin Butler! This guy understood the assignment, playing the psychotic nutter Feyd-Rautha and he’s truly unrecognisable. Even his voice is different. Gone is Elvis and in cometh his Skarsgard impression! He’s brutal and maniacal and was honestly superb, and I wish there was more of him in this movie.

Again, it’s far from a perfect movie. There are parts still that drag, and certain times where things feel surprisingly rushed, but overall this is an experience through and through, and unlike my feelings after the first film, here I find myself really looking forward to the inevitable third part. In fact f*ck it, who am I kidding - this movie is bloody incredible!! Like I can’t even - it’s abso-fricking-lutely spectacular!! And by the way I read a bit about the Frank Herbert Dune books now and the future sequels are gonna be mad, just saying. Paul’s son becomes this half-man half-worm known as the God Emperor! Things are gonna get weird! Anyway, Dune: Part Two - go see it if you haven’t already. And in Austin Butler’s voice: “may thy knife chip and shatter”.

Overall score: 9/10

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honeylations · 8 months

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SON JIWOO x FEM!READER

Prompt: You attend a party in celebration of exams ending, only to find your crush being cornered by her ex boyfriend

Warnings/Notes: uni au, drinking, kissing, mentions of cheating, suggestive at the end

———

“Chanelle! Y/n! Welcome to the party-“ Yeji interrupted herself upon seeing your outfit tonight. “Wohohoho look at you Kwon Y/n~ Is this really you?”

You rolled your eyes playfully, unable to hide the proud smile creeping your lips. Yeji was right though, you had decided to go all out with your look, wanting to impress everyone (more like SOMEONE) with your visuals.

“Nerdy architecture student Y/n?! No this is womaniser Y/n!!” Chanelle did jazz hands as if you were her successful experiment. Which is technically true.

Upon finding out your crush was going to be at this party, you cried to Chanelle on the phone about dressing you nicely like a doll. Of course, she was more than happy to help you despite the 3 hours it took of actually finding an outfit in your dull closet.

Chanelle was also right on the ‘nerdy architecture student’ title because every lecture, every brunch, every dinner, you stuck with the same purple Champion hoodie that Yunah got you for your birthday 3 years ago. The colour had faded and some threading came loose but you refused to wear anything else as you quoted: ‘I am attending a 2 hour lecture. Not a fashion show’.

Your friends tried to convince you by using Son Jiwoo, your campus crush, as an excuse to dress better but your buildings are on complete opposite sides of the University so what was the point? It didn’t matter.

Well now it did matter. You had your hair down for once, revealing the outgrown wolf cut that Ruka offered to trim and retouch, and Chanelle organised a simple black long sleeve button up and slacks to help scream ‘lesbian’.

She suggested for you to wear your contacts but you remembered doing that last time while being absolutely wasted and you ended up forgetting to remove them before you passed out in bed. Wasn’t a pleasant morning afterwards, having to deal with sore blood shot eyes for the week.

“You dressed her well, Chanelle. I feel so proud of our Y/n-ie!” Yeji fake cried before letting you fully step into the loud dorm. It was dark but the little neon lights allowed you to see just how many people were here, recognising a few from your classes.

“Jiwoo is in the kitchen if you’re wondering” Funa said in your ear, making you jump.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

The girl laughed and ran her hands from your shoulders down to your arms. “Wow you look great. So pretty but so handsome, rawrrr!”

What you didn’t notice was Jiwoo eyeing you from the kitchen doorway, shooting daggers at Funa who’s hands could not leave your shoulders. Taking a sip from her red cup, she walked back into the kitchen for more liquor.

“Are you drunk? You’re very handsy” You chuckled at Funa.

She gave your shoulders one last squeeze. “You work out so well, I’m jealous. And no, I’m not drunk”

You shrugged at her. “Gotta stay in shape or else the ladies won’t love me”

“Ladies? You mean Jiwoo” She winked. “Get yourself a drink, Y/n. You deserve it after studying so hard”

You nodded and bid her a goodbye before making a beeline to the kitchen that had lights on, being better for you compared to the dark noisy living room. Chanelle was already on her 5th cup, having a good chat with Minju by the drinks table. They both noticed your presence.

“Hey Y/n! I didn’t even recognise you!” Minju beamed, eyeing you from head to toe.

“I’m gonna get that a lot tonight, huh?” You smirked and poured yourself some vodka and sprite.

“Let loose Y/n-ie! Our future architect deserves a reward” Chanelle winked your way, being enough of a reason for you to chug your drink and pouring a second round.

For the next half an hour, the effects of the alcohol got you more extroverted than you usually are, talking with classmates to talking with strangers, most of them being pretty med students that marked you as their eye candy. But they weren’t Jiwoo so you turned down any offers of taking things upstairs.

Being on your god knows how much cup, you were leaning your back against the counter while chatting with Ryujin about your childhood together when Yunjin appears with her hand around Chaewon’s waist.

“Hey there, architect” Yunjin grinned.

“Hey lovebirds, enjoying the party?” You asked with a smiling Ryujin.

“Better question is, how come you’re not making any moves on Jiwoo, huh? You’re dolled up like this and not expecting to get laid?” Chaewon tilted her head at you mockingly.

“I don’t just go up to someone like that, Chae” You laughed.

The three started a whole new conversation when you looked over Yunjin’s shoulder and saw the girl you’ve been thinking of getting cornered by a guy. You sighed and took another big gulp out of your red cup, turning around to pour another. Ryujin slapped your arm

“Slow down there, Kwon. You’re gonna kill yourself”

“What’s the point. Jiwoo’s getting talked to by some dude that could’ve been me” you grumbled, drinking your new pour with ease, going straight for another.

They all looked at where Jiwoo was, Yunjin frowning as she realised the situation. “Uh, doesn’t look like she’s into it actually. She looks uncomfortable”

Throwing your eyes back to your crush, you could see Yunjin was right. Jiwoo had her shoulders up with a disgusted look while the guy was trapping her between the wall and his body.

“Isn’t that Hwan?” (OC character) Chaewon questioned.

“Didn’t they break up two months ago? What could he possibly want?” Ryujin questioned next.

“Look away” You simply huffed and set your empty cup down before walking your way to the two students.

“This is gonna be so good” Yunjin smirked, Chaewon and Ryujin joining in as a small audience.

“I’m back now, baby. It can be us again” Hwan whispered into Jiwoo’s ear, kissing at her ear before he got pushed away by your hand.

“Ever heard of consent?” You hissed.

Jiwoo could finally breathe, holding onto the back of your shirt while she hid.

“And you are?”

You gulped and thought of the first response that came to mind. “Her girlfriend. Is there a problem?”

Jiwoo’s eyes widened, clutching your shirt tighter as her heart rate quickened. Being called her girlfriend was something she dreamt of for way too long.

“Cut the bullshit. She needs a real man and I’m the closest thing to that compared to you” He jabbed a finger at your shoulder.

You took a step closer, killing him with a deathly stare that Jiwoo nor anyone hasn’t seen before, causing an uncomfortable aura around you. “Having a 3 inch dick doesn’t make you a man, Hwan”

His eye twitched before trying to reach around to grab Jiwoo but you aggressively pushed his hand away and grabbed at his polo collar. “Don’t you fucking touch what’s not yours” You growled.

Jiwoo gasped and was quick to grab onto your shoulder, trying not to distract herself from the yummy muscles she was feeling. The touch made you look at her.

“Y/n baby, please don’t. He’s not worth it”

Releasing a heavy sigh, you pushed Hwan away with your eyes piercing angrily into his. You snapped out of it when you felt arms slide up your neck, making you face Jiwoo who held you close. “Please don’t hate me for this” She whispered, not letting you question it the moment her lips pushed into yours.

Instantly closing your eyes, your hands went around her exposed waist while kissing deeply back. You opened your eyes briefly to lock eyes with an embarrassed Hwan as you squeezed Jiwoo’s waist. The man cursed under his breath and left the party.

Jiwoo gently pulled away, fixing your glasses that got wonky from the kiss. Your hands never left each other. “I’m sorry, Y/n”

“Don’t be, please. Just felt the need to save you. Who was he anyways?”

“My ex. He’s insane, don’t worry so much about him” She sighed and ran her hands over your strong shoulders.

“May I ask what happened between you two?”

“Cheated on me, that’s all. I don’t care anyways since I’m here with you. I’ve wanted you for a while now, Y/n” she smiled.

You were about to melt from the blunt confession. “Same here. I didn’t even know you knew my name”

“I’m mutual friends with Chaewon. The moment I saw you, I had to ask her for every detail”

“Stalker much” you joked, letting her head rest against your chest.

She went on her tippy toes to give light kisses under your jaw, marking it with her red lipstick. “You look so fucking good tonight. You don’t understand how crazy you made me, Y/n”

“Oh believe me, I’ve been worse”

She then placed lipstick marks on your cheek to the rest of your face. “Glad you’re out of that same purple hoodie you always wear” She giggled.

You looked at her shocked. “Hey, don’t be mean. I love that hoodie because Yunah gifted it to me!”

“If I buy you a new hoodie can you let that purple one go for once?”

“If it’s from you, I don’t mind anything”

Jiwoo shook her head from your cheesy words.

“Well Miss Son Jiwoo, how about we change this fake girlfriend thing to something real?”

She looked up at you and bit her lower lip. “Hm. If you make me forget everything tonight, I’ll consider it”

You noticed the seductive tone in her voice, easily intertwining your hands and walking towards Yeji’s spare bedroom.

“WOOOH YOU GO Y/N!” Ryujin yelled.

“GET IT BABY!!” Yunjin screamed afterwards.

A/N: Yes finally wrote for mommy Jiwoo :p I can write a smut part if y’all want😭

#Son Jiwoo #gxg #wlw #r u next x reader #r u next #Son Jiwoo x reader

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wystericwoes · 8 months

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Doomed, Sukuna x reader Pt. 2

Masterlist

Warnings: Cursing, violence, gore, descriptions of blood/death, anxiety, it’s JJK so death and fighting are inevitable. Season 1 and Movie 0 spoilers

Adding a whole new character to a pre-established story means some things in the canon are going to be changed. I try my best to stay on the same line and remain honorable to the original characters personalities/timelines so keep that in mind if something doesn't make sense. Or give me some feedback! I'd love to hear it.

“He was her dark fairytale and she was his twisted fantasy. Together they made magic.”

His state was laughable.

To say Sukuna felt a storm of emotions was the understatement of the fucking century.

He’s going crazy. That’s it. He’s been away from his own soul and was in his own domain for so long he’s hallucinating.

“Yuuji is currently harboring a special grade curse. I told you he never ceases to impress me!”

Gojo said with confidence, Yuuji smiled from the compliment.

You locked eyes back to where the second pair was, but when you went to look back all that was there were two eye shaped scars.

“A special grade curse? Like the thing I saw?”

“Oh no. That was just a grade 3. A special grade is the highest level, almost in the same league as I am.”

You didn’t know the extent of Gojo's power, so whenever he would say shit like that you didn’t really have a frame of reference. So, you took most of what he said with a grain of salt, because assuming there was a reason for all his confidence and it wasn't all just talk- that he was actually as strong as he said he was, made you feel abnormally peeved.

That brief second you had seen those eyes you felt a sense of Deja vu. But not a nostalgic one, one that stuck with you like a glue trap.

Life moved on. You met the other students and teachers, slowly sinking into this new and flawed reality that has become your life. Gojo never leaves your side the whole day.

Your attempts at channeling cursed energy were a total bust. And quite frankly- very embarrassing.

You tried everything that your very annoying mentor told you.

“Focus”

“Breathe.”

“Think of something negative.”

"Try thinking about things that stress you out."

"Try a reallyyy bad memory!"

"What's something that gets you angry?"

“Close your eyes and count to five, then start again.”

“Have you tried breathing?”

You couldn’t conjure anything. It’s like you didn’t even have powers at all.

You felt like both a disappointment and like giving up. Gojo kept on fucking insisting that you keep trying for some reason. He would just not let it go.

“Maybe you’re just a slow learner. That’s fine- “

You groaned in frustration.

“Maybe I don’t have any ‘magic powers’ and I’m just really unlucky and can only see them.”

At first you were excited, you had superpowers. What could you do??

But that opinion slowly changed as the sun began to set. It had felt like hours that you were out here trying all these moves and techniques. After so many times hitting the air and straining your muscles you began to feel ridiculous.

You had barely even seen it in action, so you didn’t even have anything to go off of

You were about to give up when Gojo stood behind you and put a hand on your shoulder, fanning his breath against your ear.

“Come on. Just one more try, hm?”

He snaked his hand down from your shoulder to your waist, and with the other one he held your arm out.

Heat rose to your cheeks as you tried to hide the increasing tension that he had created.

“Think of something that makes you feel strong emotion.”

The first thing that came to mind was what it would feel like to fuck the man behind you. Was he doing this on purpose?

What he was into, all the positions. If he’s really as strong as you think he is what could he do to you?

Images flashed through your mind of the not holiest of things, your body heated up as he rested his chin on your shoulder, and you struggled to keep your hand held out as goosebumps were sent down your spine from how close he was to you. Each breath sent a shock through your body as you grew increasingly more sensitive.

He was definitely doing this on purpose.

“Satoru…” you had whispered out.

His hand on your waist moved down to your hips as he began to squeeze harder, that made you feel something carnal. A warmth spread through your body, and you suddenly felt electric as the tips of your fingers lightly pulsed.

You were facing him, faces so close you thought he would kiss you.

He went to nibble on your earlobe which elicited a small moan from the sudden sensation.

His chin rested back on your shoulder.

“Look.” He whispered softly in your ear.

You looked forward for the first time in a moment and noticed a white light was emitting itself from your hand.

“WOAH!”

You were shocked out of it, and it quickly flickered out and died as you jumped back further into Gojo's arms.

“Easy now…” he supported your weight as you leaned against him for support.

“That… did that happen?”

Your heart was racing.

“Mhm.”

He spun you around by your waist as you looked at where his eyes are through the blindfold. You didn’t know if he could see you, but you pretended he could.

“I did that.”

“You sure did.”

He was smiling warmly as if he had just accomplished something.

“You’re not fucking with me?”

“Nope”

“You didn’t do that.”

“Correct!”

“I did that.”

You awkwardly laughed.

“How?”

“I knew you could.”

That praise he had given you along with his smile drove you mad. You both wanted to kiss him and pounce on him and hug him. All at once maybe.

"Go rest. You deserve it."

You felt accomplished and proud of yourself. although a bit disappointed he didn't want to come with you, you took a win as a win, and happily walked away.

The second you turned the corner, his smile dropped.

Gojo returned to his home, deep in thought.

he took his blindfold off and took in his surroundings.

It didn't make any sense. You didn't make any sense.

His whole worldview had been shifted within the span of two days. There's never been many points where the great Gojo Satoru had been completely stumped. Well, he had his theories. But those were just theories. had to figure out how to test them.

He paced around his house as he contemplated whether or not to ask for help. His pride was inflated, but he could admit when he was unable to do something.

Gojo: NANAMIIINN~ I have a question.

Nanami: Do you need to ask me?

Gojo: You're the only one who knows how to keep a secret- everyone else blabs :(

Nanami: That entirely depends on your question, Gojo.

Gojo: Has any sorcerer you ever know ever used reversed curse magic on accident?

Nanami: Why would I know that any better than you?

Gojo: I really need help.

Nanami: How serious is it?

Gojo: If I'm asking you for help...

Nanami: I have a mission tomorrow and will be at the academy for a brief period. If you catch me before then and keep it quick, we can talk.

Gojo: Ok!!! what time is your mission?

Gojo: Nanami?

Gojo: NANNAAAMMMIIIIIIIII >:0

Gojo tossed his phone aside. He had a blank expression on his face.

Every time he would find an answer there’s be more questions. One step toward two steps back

"What are you hiding, Y/n..."

The next day Gojo had left early before you’d be awake when Nanami always gets up (how he is always at work at 5:30 precisely is beyond him)

He sat impatiently tapping his finger at Nanami's desk reading “5:28”

Just before Gojo was tempted to start digging through his stuff Nanami walked in.

“Now, what’s the issue?”

Nanami sat with his elbow on the desk fist clenched against his mouth.

“I see.”

“When I tell you to keep this a secret, I mean it.”

Nanami understood when Gojo was being serious, which was exceptionally rare- and respected that.

“I have no interest in sharing this information.”

He sat deep in thought eyebrows furrowed and eyes closed.

“And I’ve never heard of anything like that, no.”

“I figured.” He sat with the chair facing backwards and his legs on either side.

“You should go to Shoko about this. I’m afraid this isn’t something I know much about.”

“It’s not just that, there’s more to it.”

Nanami listened respectfully as he began dutifully typing away on his computer and started working.

“I can’t see them, Nanami.”

At that he stopped typing, eyes slightly widening.

“I don’t know much, but I know three things. They have a subliminal cursed technique protecting them from six eyes, they naturally used reversed cursed energy, and- “

He took a deep breath.

“Sukuna has been awfully quiet since they arrived.”

Gojo wasn’t proud of seeking help. But Nanami was one of the closest things he had to a friend, and he was the only person he knew at the academy that had no incentive to tell anyone like Mei Mei for money, or power.

The thing about him was that he was loved by everyone but also- no one could fucking stand him. He knows that most his fellow faculty was not above snitching him out to the higher ups or using his emotions against him. Finding a weakness for him was rare after all.

But also, he was consistently lying to everyone around him about you. So, if they had found out about this, there would’ve been too many questions. And being entirely honest with people was sometimes so tiring.

Gojo's desperation was a new look on him. He managed to keep most of it under wraps around you and his peers, but he was losing it.

He had one option left wherein he could get answers.

Hidden to only a select few is a sacred library of sorcerer archives. There it contains every recorded detail of jujutsu history, every student, every crime and name.

It was buried deep within the thousand doors by Tengen, alongside the special grade curses.

It was dusty, and papers with engravings on them were sprawled in every corner.

He shifted through books trying to find what he was looking for, or anything relating to his situation.

There were thousands of years of history, documents, death dates, curses, and the works. He went over all of those without a second glance.

“Reverse cursed energy”

Was the first title to grab his attention.

He flipped through the pages at an ungodly speed, until he reached the page of all known documented users who have used mastered reverse cursed energy.

Present time: (2000- )

-Shoko Ieiri

status- active duty

A very skilled woman who serves as the school's doctor. Has a full understanding and mastery of the technique.

-Geto Suguru

status- deceased

A special-grade sorcerer whose activity was hard to monitor after he went rogue. Not much is known about all he’s capable of except that he can access the technique with the skill of at least a Grade 1 sorcerer. During his time at the academy, he was incredibly skilled, and most likely had control over the technique.

-Kinji Hakari

status- student

A third-year student of immense potential currently suspended for clashing with authority. He has demonstrated immense control over the technique and has a promising future outside his behavioral conflicts.

-Gojo Satoru

status- active duty

A current teacher at Jujutsu high, along with many other mastered techniques he also demonstrates a full control over this technique.

-Okkotsu Yuta

status- student

One of the youngest special-grade sorcerers, Yuta's powers are still not fully understood. A prodigy-born sorcerer who without any extensive training can use it at a skilled level. With no prior knowledge of reverse cursed energy, he successfully healed his peers using the technique in the battle of Geto's invasion.

A person having natural control over reversed cursed energy or knowing it without being taught wasn’t completely unheard of.

What stumped Gojo was that it was the first ever cursed technique you used, and just how enigmatic you were overall. All while being seemingly unaware.

This had proved to be almost entirely useless. He flipped through the pages again scanning to see if anything else would be helpful, he almost skipped past the historical section in the old archives, but decided looking at it wouldn’t hurt.

He browsed through alphabetically of all known sorcerers to have used the technique at a profound mastery or skilled level.

When he got to R something stood out.

Ryomen Sukuna

And just like that, the first red string had been drawn across the cork board tying a correlation.

He closed the book. Somehow a little more satisfied and more frustrated than when he first went in.

Sukuna. Sukuna. Sukuna.

You said his name over and over again in your mind like a prayer.

When Gojo mentioned that name you couldn’t get over that odd feeling that came over you

You wanted to be near him again. But also felt a gut-wrenching nervousness overcome you. Drawn to him like an addictive substance, something you can tell will be bad for you, but you just can't get enough.

Deep deep down something told you to run.

But you suppressed that carnal urge and instead let your brain guide you to your innate desire to know more about him.

You assumed because of curiosity. People can actually get possessed? Well, Yuuji didn’t look very possessed. I mean, all you had to base was on movies, so your judgment wasn’t exactly valid. You didn't know what to look for, blood from the nose, head spinning backward, ominous floating?

You speculated on that until you heard footsteps approaching your door. You were excited because you wanted to see Gojo.

You jumped up to open your door and instead of being met with him, you were met by Yuuji.

“Um hey, I’m supposed to bring you down so we can be briefed on a mission.”

He seemed hesitant; you assumed it was just because he didn’t know you that well.

“Mission...?”

You were so mad at Gojo. His pretty ass face didn’t make it up to you this time.

The day after you managed to conjure up the smallest amount of energy, he lets you be thrown headfirst into the actual field.

“This is going to be a way to test your range of abilities and get some hands-on experience!” That is what he told you before he left to go far away for something. He said that he was gonna be gone away for a while and was gonna be far.

So, then it was you, a man with glasses and dark hair, and three high school students.

The man with the glasses barely spoke a word on the drive there. You were going in almost completely blind, in this scenario you wondered if ignorance was truly bliss.

The remains of a long abandoned middle school. The sky was cloudy, the air was stale. You already didn’t like the feeling of this place.

The man in black addressed the four of you.

“The curse inside is most likely above your grades.”

Megumi was the only one who didn’t appear to be phased by that. What does he mean above? He could see the concern on all of your faces.

“Then why are we here?”

“Unfortunately, in this field, the availability of sorcerers is spread thin.”

His brows were furrowed, and he seemed concerned for you all.

“I only have one piece of advice for you going in… If this curse ends up being a special grade your two options are to run or die.”

If you weren’t scared before, you were now. You could feel your heartbeat inside you, did you have a choice? I mean you weren’t supposed to fight… they just wanted you to watch or so they said.

“I wish you luck.”

He muttered words under his breath, and above you a dark cloud engulfed around the building in a dome shape, effectively trapping you.

“What the hell?!”

Seeing your shock Megumi explained it to you.

“The veil is a way to make sure no passerby’s see, because of the stress it inflicts it could cause problems for us.”

Megumi was quieter between the two of the eccentric characters, he was a bit of the odd one out between them. But his seriousness was a good balance to the playful nature of his comrades. Tactile and good at making decisions in stressful situations.

Yuuji- well you didn’t know much about him other than what Gojo told you. But he seemed nice. Nervous, but a sweet kid. And also, incredibly passionate about finding any survivors or at least their bodies. You admired him and also feared of that.

The mission was simple- destroy the cursed womb, or retreat and take minimal casualties.

Your brain went back to the sight of the woman who had been murdered in front of you. Was this another curse like that? Some gangrenous mutant of absolute evil?

You had to calm yourself and trust that Gojo wouldn’t have let you be put into danger.

And so, you approached the abandoned building.

You wanted to prove something. You weren’t sure what or to who, but you felt the burden of expectations laid onto you.

Megumi quickly briefed you all on what he was instructed to do, and what role everyone was to play. An underlying tone of irritation laced his words, probably because he was stuck with three people who barely knew what they were doing.

Yuuji was supposed to stay with you at all times, and ensure you were never left alone. Yuuji specifically.

Nobara was there to add extra power, and of course give her some in the field experience.

You were told to just “stay in the sidelines” which felt a little degrading considering you were their senior.

Megumi was to make sure everyone followed their roles and keep everyone safe. His cursed ability allowed him to scout areas and cover more ground.

That was a lot of responsibility for one person, but if Gojo trusted him, you did too.

Megumi was essentially the group leader, and as much as you were embarrassed by having to follow orders from someone younger than you- you knew your safety was on the line.

From the shadows underneath Megumi's hand emerged a monster- no. A dog. Megumi explained that he was there to help you all keep track of your surroundings and smell out the threat. When you saw Nobara and Yuuji petting him you couldn’t help but join in. You felt a bit more at ease.

Yuuji was in a mission the second you all walked in. You admired the passion in his eyes as he made a promise out loud that these families would be getting their kids back, or at the very least closure.

When you walked in you were overwhelmed by the sight above you. A series of intricate pipes and structure that went on for seemingly dozens of stories above you.

“Wasn’t this a two-story building?”

Nobara asked concerned.

Megumi was focused, deep in thought as he took in the surroundings around him. Then his eyes widened as he turned around, a moment of realization hitting him like a harsh slap.

“The door…”

You all turned around much to your dismay to see that the door you had come in was gone.

You were fully in the lion's den now. And all that anxiety you had was intensified as you realized there was no turning back.

That all too familiar feeling of shallow breaths and adrenaline shot through you as you did what you could to keep it together. It would be really embarrassing if you had a panic attack in front of these three strangers.

Megumi continued forward supernaturally calm, which made you feel slightly better. He was treating this like it was entirely normal, Yuuji and Nobara followed behind making you feel left out by how unnerving this situation made you feel. Like a sheep, you followed the herd on instinct.

Walking through the halls of this building was an absolute fever dream. You felt disoriented as you wondered this new territory.

Megumi sent one of his demon dogs out as you and the group continued on until you entered a big empty room- something grabbed you and Yuuji's attention.

A dead body, severed in half.

His eyes were bloodshot from fear, mouth agape and surrounded in a pool of dark liquid.

You had become frozen in shock, feeling bile rise up in your throat that you had to hesitantly swallow.

“Is… is that…”

You had your hand against your mouth.

Yuuji approached the body without a second thought, crouched in front of it he read the name tag.

“This is that lady’s son.”

The entire mood shifted. Megumi was unfazed, Yuuji looked angry.

He picked the remains of the body up and sling the torso over his shoulder.

“What’s re you doing?”

Megumi furrowed his brows at him.

“We need to bring the body back to her. we couldn’t save him, but she at least deserves closure.”

“Our job isn’t to save people Itadori, it’s to eliminate curses.”

“How can you say that? No one deserves to not know what happened to their own kid!”

The argument became heated quickly. The air was tense, you and Nobara awkwardly standing next to each other.

“We have to prioritize ourselves first. Don’t go around thinking that saving someone is always worth it, this guy here? He’s responsible for the death of a girl.”

Yuuji's eyes widened, he was still angry, but he was stunned quiet.

Just before he opened his mouth, Nobara fell into a dark hole right next to you.

You gasped from shock and jumped back.

“Can you two stop arguing, I think there’s something more important to fucking focus on right now!”

When your anxiety was full swing you didn’t have that much of a filter. Which was justified, considering that as these two boys were having their pissing contest and someone next to you just fucking sank into the ground.

They turned their heads over to you, but before they could say anything they both froze into place from absolute primal fear.

Something was standing next to them.

You watched wide eyed and terrified as a white humanoid creature with four eyes stood between them. Appearing out of nowhere. The most sickening and visceral smile on its face.

Before they even had the time to process it Yuuji went to punch it, his pure reaction time was incredible. And his ability to not be scared in the face of danger.

Megumi wasted no time.

“RUN!”

The one who was supposed to be the strongest and in charge just instructed you to fucking flee, so you weren’t gonna question it.

The last thing you remember was absolute chaos ensuing. Yuuji was missing a hand, blood spraying from random directions upon where the impact had happened.

Megumi sent one of his cursed techniques after it, but it immediately vanished as it was eviscerated into a pile of black goo and sunk into the ground evaporating into nothingness.

That thing had killed it as quick as it had appeared.

Run. Run. RUN

“Go!”

Megumi and Yuuji still persisted as they blocked a path for you to retreat to safety.

You had turned around to book it, the purest of instincts was absolutely encompassing you in stress. It pushed past your anxiety; you had no time to overthink the situation as your feet carried you.

The hallway closed itself off in front of your face to solid wall. You had just barely stopped yourself from slamming into it, bracing your hands against the hard material, palms stinging.

A deer in headlights, a mouse on a landslide, a baby bird to a snake.

You wanted to help. You realized there was no sure way of escape, and that these two boys were fighting themselves to death so the curse wouldn’t reach you.

Guilt, dread, fear, anger, and above all else frustration. You had just lost your whole life, been dragged to some high school and your only explanation to how they were dealing with it was “we’re taking care of it”

You could’ve lost your job by now, your house could’ve been robbed in your absence, your life had just been turned around and with no fucking reasonable explanation.

You took a step back, the environment around you was fucking warping itself- you weren’t in the same building.

Buried in your basest instincts and fear deep down resided a feeling you had never felt before.

Watching Yuuji lose his arm served as a catalyst for something awakening itself inside of you. A rage that you had suppressed, a protective instinct.

Something that had been dormant for years- buried beneath every stress and inhibitor of your life. You were just so tired of being weaker, of not knowing anything.

There were no thoughts about what happened next. There was no reasoning or technique or explanation. Which seemed to be the new theme of your life.

You ran towards the curse. Megumi was knocked down, and Yuuji was losing so much blood it was almost surreal.

You raised your arms up before the hit landed, and when its fist went to meet you, it hit nothing. Or, more specifically, it stopped inches from you, an invisible barrier had manifested over the spot it tried to reach its impact.

Its sick smile dropped.

“Yuuji!” You shouted at him.

Wasting no time to seize the opportunity of this invisible barrier, you took action.

He was dazed from his blood loss; he blinked up at you.

“What will it take you to get Sukuna out?!”

His eyes widened.

“I-I can’t while I’m not alone. He could hurt you and Megumi!”

“Can’t you choose when he comes out?”

“Yeah, but I can’t see what he does while he is…”

He was in pain, albeit keeping his composure well considering his circumstances. Megumi was still standing but a hand clutched his side and breathing heavily.

You realized that you were the adult. You were the only one capable of making decisions. You didn’t allow yourself the privilege of thinking, you just acted.

“Do it! I’ll get us out of here!”

Yuuji looked at you with uncertainty.

You turned your head over to Megumi.

“Can you escape??”

He nodded. Whatever was the reason he trusted you, he did without second thought unlike Yuuji.

From the shadows emerged a giant bird-like creature, Megumi hopped on as he looked at you with a fleeting worried look.

“Go without me, look for Nobara!”

The curse had attempted to launch itself at Megumi, but before it could Yuuji intercepted it bloodied and beaten, a look of concentration etched into his face as he punched it right in the face.

You felt a sliver of hope inch its way back into you. Yuji seemingly making his own self-discovery and making a breakthrough.

You watched Megumi fly upwards out of sight.

He didn’t know why he trusted you, it could’ve been stress, or maybe he was just that out of it and shocked.

But what he did know was that the cursed energy he felt off of you was the strongest in the room.

“Do it now!!”

“What about- “

“JUST FUCKING DO IT!”

You felt a little bad for yelling at him, especially with the shocked face he gave you. But considering the circumstances, and the fact that hesitance could lead to death- you couldn't feel bad right now.

A small part of you was worried, worried about what Sukuna was like, and if he would hurt you. But you also knew that as long as he did come out, the curse would be dead and everyone else would be safe.

You were heaving and had never felt more adrenaline in your life.

A chemically induced high was pumping through your very veins each second as the stress of the environment around you increased.

You were in a zone of intense focus past any feeling anything had ever given you before. Sports, drugs, sex, anything.

You didn’t know if you had the raw power to take it head-on, but a newfound power and recklessness had overcome you in that moment.

You braced yourself to be hit again, knees bent and stance strong. Nothing in your life had ever been as clear to you as the sight in front of you.

you were so in tune with your environment that when you watched the curse lunge at you it was as if it was in slow motion, the things you only ever saw in movies were happening in front of you.

You could feel and hear each individual beat of your own heart, each pump of blood was felt throughout every end of your body.

Then, like lightning, the curse stepped away from you terrified.

You were confused. Why did this keep happening to you. Were you seriously that badass? Or maybe even curses couldn’t stand you.

“How annoying. Stupid fucking brat.”

A low gravelly voice behind you resounded through your brain and settled in like water to an open flame.

A man stepped between you and the curse, and in what was no more than a fraction of a second the curse's head twisted like a soda can, and it collapsed with a crude thud.

You stood there unmoving. Now you were really a deer in headlights. Staring at Yuuji… or at least Yuuji's body- completely and indubitably in shock.

One hand in his pocket, other sticking out

There was no primal instinct. There was no more fear. There was only a feeling of blankness every second you stared at him.

He turned around slowly to face you.

He had Yuuji's clothes, hair, and his face…

But it wasn't Yuji.

When his eyes met yours, you had just experienced a feeling you hadn’t felt before.

A solar flare, a word about to be spoken, the brief moment before the wick of a candle lights up as the match is held to it.

His eyes… those infinite Irises that looked straight through you as if there was nothing that could ever be secret. You were glass, completely transparent and vulnerable to him- So easy to break.

You two stood in silence for a moment. His face was unreadable, unlike yours which was lit up like you had been struck by lightning.

It was something inside of you metaphysically that was magnetized to him. Even though you knew you shouldn’t. Instinct fighting emotion.

He eyed you up and down putting his other hand in a pocket. You were so stunned you hadn’t even realized that he had hands again.

You opened your mouth to speak but nothing came out.

He turned around from you and just began walking away.

“Wait...”

You began to become dizzy before you could finish, you almost fell over from the feeling of vertigo spreading across your body faster than you had time to think.

Your knees buckled under you and your vision faltered. You saw double as you tried catching yourself but ultimately fell down to one knee.

“Your body isn’t used to cursed energy.”

You looked up at the voice to see him facing you again.

You tried to pull yourself up but failed, a sudden pain in your chest and limbs growing heavy as your fighters high left.

“You overexerted yourself. Don’t try to get up.”

“Aren’t you supposed to... to hurt me?”

You said between ragged breaths.

You closed your eyes for a split second, and he was on his feet crouched over, looking into your eyes.

“Does it look like I want to hurt you?”

Still his expression was entirely blank. He was completely unreadable.

“I don’t know… that's what… what everyone says.”

You tried again to get up, but your body collapsed onto itself, and you barely held yourself up with your knees and hands.

“What did I tell you moron? I try to do something nice, and no one listens.”

“Sorry…”

You didn’t know why you were apologizing to him. He sighed and stared right into you.

“You’re more useful to me if you stay alive this time.”

He said sounding frustrated.

Before you had the chance to think about that, he pressed a finger to your head, and you collapsed unconscious.

Your mouth was dry, body was sore, and on top of that, you woke up in a bed that wasn’t yours.

You felt exhausted in every way and did not have it in you deal with being in a stranger's home.

Y’know that feeling of being hungover on whiskey? Yeah, that. But also add a triathlon marathon, a forming migraine, and seven bar fights.

You sat up barely, able to get your bearings and take in your surroundings.

White bed and silk sheets, modern furniture, abstract art…

Expensive lights, hardwood floors.

A rack of expensive black sunglasses.

Wait.

There’s no way. What the hell happened between the fight and now??

With very slow and careful motions, you managed to get up from under the sheets and sit on the outside of the bed. Your back was slouched, and hands gripped the comforter as you struggled to fight against what felt like seventeen dumbbells sitting on top of you.

You managed to finally stand up and move around, albeit slowly and sluglike.

Rubbing one hand to your forearm you looked down to notice a half healed yellow bruise several inches in length.

“What the hell...?”

Maybe you were actually in seven bar fights.

As you took each step your migraine blossomed further into discomfort.

You let out an audible groan as you moved around feeling like seven bags of horse shit left out in the sun too long- and smelled like it too.

Limping your way out of the room you squinted your eyes at the sudden invasion of light. Huge windows covered what you could assume was the living room.

It was daytime, how long had it been though?

You were in more pain than self-conscientious and began shamelessly rummaging through cabinets absentmindedly looking for anything.

Advil, ibuprofen, some fucking weed even?

You had a sharp pain to you ribs which made you almost fall but you managed to catch yourself with one hand on the expensive marble countertops of an absolutely stunning modernized kitchen.

“Don’t hurt yourself even more while you’re here, I’ll feel bad!”

A voice shocked you out of your painful daze.

You whipped your head around which made your migraine peak into a spike of pain, causing you let out a sharp hiss.

“Satoru.”

You said angrily, but honestly you were somewhat relieved. A familiar face after all the shit that you had been through the past few days was nice.

“You probably have a lot of questions huh?”

Your eyes were closed shut as you rubbed your hand in circles against your temple trying to alleviate the pain. To sore to even make a “no shit” remark

“Well first of all sit down.”

He pointed to a stool against his kitchen island

You immediately went to do it. Not having the energy to protest.

He began opening up drawers and pulling things out as he spoke.

“I’ll just go ahead and start from the beginning. You were assigned to go fight a special grade curse with a few first years including Sukunas vessel- Yuuji.”

He popped open a bottle of pain killers and filled a glass of water

“Because of you everyone made it out alive.”

Everyone? So Megumi and Nobara made it out safe. You relaxed a little feeling slightly less stressed. At least your state of shittiness was worth something. He slid the glass and pills over to you from across the counter

The first thing you noticed was his shirt. He was wearing a loose long sleeve that barely hung over his shoulders, showing his perfect fucking collarbones and neck off to you.

“You look slutty.”

You said before you popped the pills and downed the glass of water like you had never drank any before.

Choosing to ignore your remark, he continued speaking.

“Everyone is safe. And that’s because of you.”

“I think you’re giving me too much credit. Megumi and Yuuji did all the fighting.”

“That’s not exactly true, but even then you told everyone what to do and led them all out safely, without even having done this before. I was pretty impressed when I heard.”

You weren’t gonna admit that you liked his praise, but you turned your head away from him so you didn’t make eye contact to hide your flushed face.

“They found you unconscious on the side of the building. Do you remember anything?”

You recalled the events to him the best you could, but it was all a blur. You remembered going in, Nobara vanishing beneath you, Yuuji losing a hand… all the traumatizing and gory details.

“So you don’t remember what you did?”

“A little… I think I got in the way of one of its hits and that’s why I’m so sore now.”

He smiled and chuckled at you smugly

“Oh no. If you were actually hit by it you would totally be dead by now,”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“Not this time!”

He leaned himself on the opposite side of the counter to you with his elbows and one hand under his chin.

“You used cursed energy. A lot.”

“How?!”

“You tell me babe! All I know is what Megumi and Yuuji told me.”

You didn’t remember seeing any cursed energy…

“You seriously don’t remember what happened?”

You shook your head at him annoyed

“You took several hits from it. But you managed to concentrate cursed energy to the places just before it hit it, so the brunt of the force was blocked but some of the energy still hit you because your technique is still very underdeveloped."

You stared at him half with curiosity and half with confusion, he took your silence as a way to keep talking.

“Your body isn’t used to manifesting or controlling cursed energy like most sorcerers do, and the raw power output you were emitting was more than you could take. It’s probably why you passed out.”

You were lost in thought. There’s something missing. You don’t know what…

“Also, you got really lucky. You got out just before Sukuna did, and so the curse was successfully exorcised, you did good work!”

The more you tried to look back on memories of what happened the more your migraine increased. You wanted to ask questions, but you didn’t know what to ask. There were too many blank spaces and fragments missing from it, he was hiding something.

“Why am I here?”

Gojo perked up and stuck a pointed finger up

“Because my superiors want you dead.” He said so as if it was nothing like the weather report.

“WHAT?!”

You were nearly shocked out of your migraine.

“Relax, they’re not gonna do anything about it.”

“Why do they want me dead?!”

“Because you’ve got something that they haven’t seen in a while, and they’re all conservative old goats who are scared of change.”

Your mouth was agape, staring at Gojo and how nonchalant he was about this.

“You’re acting really calm about this.”

“Well that’s because they’re not gonna do anything about it. Not as long as you stay close to me.”

“Wow I’m honored.”

“You should be! Now, go get ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“We’re going out!”

Even though this wasn’t the first time, it was still a surprise being spoiled like this.

Part of you felt bad but also part of you started getting used to it.

Gojo had thrown on a loose button down shirt, and a pair of his signature specs.

At first you were worried that he wouldn’t have anything for you, but as if he couldn’t have gotten more stalkery before by kidnapping you from a hospital bed and putting you in his- he had also broken into your house and taken some of your clothes.

“You didn’t do anything to these did you?”

“Not this time. Next time maybe”

He teased and you rolled your eyes

He had taken you that night to a semi nice restaurant. You thought it was super fancy but Gojo insisted it was just “okay” which absolutely infuriated you.

You could tell he was breaking you in when you accepted the expensive champagne.

From an outsiders perspective, you two looked incredibly romantic. Combined with his flirtatiousness and touchiness and your bluntness, you got those stares of jealousy from so many random people being seen with him. He loved the attention, the stares and the sparkle in everyone’s eyes when he smiled at them, you on the other hand, had never felt more out of place.

He kept getting numbers from left and right, and he accepted them all. Which was just a crude reminder that you weren’t special, and that this treatment hes been giving you probably was given to someone else before too.

You managed to keep your bearing and nod along as you started walking through the streets at night and admiring the stars. Still a little tipsy from the champagne.

“You’re being awfully quiet.”

You looked over at him and he had slightly pink cheeks from being buzzed himself

“Just nothing to talk about”

You lied

“Wanna head back home then?”

Home. When he said it like that it almost sounded like you two were a couple. You closed your eyes and fought the urge to fantasize about domestic bliss. That this was just a normal date out with a guy who liked you and not him being forced to take care of someone.

You nodded your head slowly. Anxiety creeping it’s way back into your veins as you felt like a burden to him

“You’re sad.”

“Am not.”

“I’m not an idiot.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

He sighed and put his hands in his pockets

“That’s how I know you’re sad. Because if you weren’t you would’ve disagreed with me.”

You didn’t know if it was hormones, the alcohol, or the fact that your life has been ripped from you in the past few days but you were getting emotional.

“I’m not!”

You looked away from him and your lip quivered. You couldn’t cry now, you would’ve just proven him right

“Okay then what’s wrong.”

“Nothing wrong.”

You were starting to get annoyed that he kept persisting but also deep down didn’t want him to stop caring.

You sniffled up some snot and exhaled deeply

“I just don’t want to be a burden on you. You’ve done so much for me recently a-and…”

Your eyes watered and you looked up to try and prevent them from falling

“Aw. Come here, you big baby.”

He pulled you into a hug and that just absolutely sent you into a downhill spiral. You leaned your weight against him and quietly cried into his shirt. Thinking that since he couldn’t see you he wouldn’t know.

You might’ve been a little more than tipsy…

He rubbed your head in circles as your body jerked with each sob. You managed to remain totally quiet which caught his attention but he wasn’t gonna mention anything about it

“This field is selfish y’know.”

You opened your eyes and loosened your grip around his torso a little, listening.

“Being a sorcerer doesn’t give you anything. Objectively speaking, some people like the money or the power. But all you get in return for that is the burden of knowing you have to be the one to save them.”

He was opening himself up to you, which made you feel a little better

You wanted to look up at him but knew that you looked like absolute hell.

“It takes and it takes. And it’s never gonna show you mercy. You were taken from your life and thrown into this one, and you didn’t want that.”

You still were sniffling, but the tears stopped flowing

“I’m sorry…”

“For what babe?”

“I don’t know…”

He had a gentle smile looking down at you. Your face was pressed against his chest giving you a natural pouty face. He thought you were cute

“Do you want to be here?”

“No…”

“Close your eyes.”

You didn’t know what he was about to do but you obliged anyway.

You felt that feeling in your stomach like being in an elevator when it’s going down. A very subtle but still there drop in your stomach.

The second thing you felt was soft sheets instead of a hard metal bench.

You looked up from him to see that you were in his room

“You can fucking teleport?!”

“Mhm.”

“Of course you can.”

You said so annoyed but you were smiling

You stifled a laugh as he made a dramatic pose showing off with a kissy gesture and a hand under his chin

“One of my many talents!”

You chose not to dwell on it for your own peace.

You sat in silence for a moment, just enjoying his warmth.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

Even though you stopped crying, you were still emotional. The strong facade cracking under the building pressure of all the recent events.

He moved his hand to you chin and lifted it up

“You have a lot more to offer than you think.”

He had a sincere smile on his face

You giggled quietly between sniffles. But you were quickly humbled when you looked back down and noticed the huge grey spot of snot and tears from where your face was

“Oh my god!”

You wanted to die. Right then and right fucking there.

How expensive was that shirt? How grossed out is he? Why would you let yourself cry on him? Does he hate you now?!

“I’m so s-…”

Your rushing thoughts went to sudden stop when he began unbuttoning his shirt and slid it off, tossing it at the foot of the bed

“-orry….”

Your eyes widened and for the first time in a minute he had completely flustered you again. You weren’t one to be left speechless but goddamn was he even finer than you imagined.

“You’re staring.” He had a shit eating grin.

You had pulled yourself back by now and you didn’t know if it was the alcohol talking or if he was just that hot, but somehow you two ended up kissing.

What’s a recipe for disaster?

1 Night alone,

2 lonely people,

3 too many drinks.

And 4 days of building sexual tension.

Pt3

118 notes · View notes

temporarilyunstable · 9 months

Text

it's a monster of a ppp essay

Finally writing about this film I’ve pretty much obsessed over for months! Hopefully I can put some order into this but in case I ramble you have been warned lol. Spoilers will be discussed.

I first saw this film in Japan on opening day— prior to that I tried to gather as much information as I could via JP tweets and impressions, especially those of the pre-golden week screening on April 29, then adding more info as soon as spoilers were lifted to increase my understanding. And now a couple of months later, I finally have full context, but really happy that most of the information I got was accurate, and the only details that I had to clear up were related to the more complex elements of the plot, plus the ever-important talk-no-jutsus (tnj) in the film.

If I were to give this film a score, it’s a 9/10. Prior to this, my fave iteration was case 3, being the ever-economic-just-over-an-hour-but-does-everything-right entry to the series. Maybe it’s my Akane bias but PPP just knocked that one right out of the park. The animation was great (I am not well-versed in this so you won’t hear me talk about it much), even if wonky Arata took me out despite the emotion in the scene. Voice acting, no one does it better than the JP actors, I will not be convinced otherwise. It’s my preference and frankly if you’ve never watched this in sub I do think you missed out. The music was TOP-TIER. I’ve not stopped listening to this OST ever since it came out, blessdt Ennio-Morricone-esque Is this your choice, Akane Tsunemori? track #27 CD2?!!?!??! *INHALE*

I can’t actually use technical film critic jargon here so in short, I LOVE this film so much.

A bit of background info from the recent interviews Director Shiotani participated during the roundtables/live stages in JP - the “switching” of the timelines were at the behest of the producers (Fuji TV), including the introduction of new characters, in order to continue the story indefinitely from a TV perspective (link). It was a ballsy move, and in hindsight it paid off, but not without its pitfalls which I will touch on later. PP3/FI was developed during PPSS, and PPP was developed during PP3/FI, so you can imagine the difficulty of making sure the creative team have crossed their t’s and dotted their i’s. That being said, apart from telling the story it wishes to tell, the purpose of this film was to tie the past to the present, and I think that they did it very well.

My thoughts are still evolving, but interestingly enough, most of my impressions haven’t changed. So I’ll talk about some elements of the plot that interest me, then I’ll go to specific characters, and ofc I’ll talk about the ship (not the Grootslang 😉).

There’s a clear three-parts to this film: up to Saiga’s death, up to Atsushi’s death, and Akane’s career death (if it is to be said, so it is lol). Each part had their pros and cons, but it’s quite a feat managing to squeeze all the information in. There was no dull moment for me.

I think the deaths here (especially of the characters we were supposed to care about)— the manner and speed in which they perished, and at a certain point in the film, all for nothing— were part of the point.

Before I watched this with subs I actually thought that it would be more difficult to understand, but I have to say that the nolan-esque expositions were well executed and nicely placed, for example the talk about possession between Kogami and Shion was a good prep for the audience for when we actually get to hear about how it works from Akira. Also a great way to show both Kogami’s detective skills that have not dulled the slightest, and his and Shion’s closeness(?/familiarity? Call it what you want). Another example is the Mika-team essentially telling the audience what’s about to happen prior to us seeing Sugo get things done in the sky (also I forgot he was just flying a drone and was out of harm’s way ehehe). I would say that the hardest parts to piece together have to do with the elements related to PP3, including the involvement of Bifrost. I’ll touch on this later.

I’ve talked about Saiga’s death to my friends way before the first trailer ever released. Him not being present in PP3 was the biggest clue, and not that I wanted it to happen, but it was necessary to raise the stakes and make it personal. As a fic writer, admittedly I’ve never been happier to be right 😅. His scenes with Akane and Kogami at the beginning of the film were standouts. I particularly love how Saiga and Akane are so at ease with having a simple conversation— they’re talking about work but he could so easily talk about his doubts regarding Atsushi, for example. I love how he’s the same with Kogami, how he clearly states his allegiance to Akane, and ofc reminding Kogami to apologize (and something else I picked up that I will discuss later).

I can say that despite the initial ridiculousness of the Divider/possession, the way it was explained was quite convincing to me compared to how they brushed over how Arata’s mentalist skills worked in PP3. Also, there’s kind soul from the JP fandom who attempted to explain how it could probably work irl (link). It’s creepy, if you think about it, and well-documented too. Have a read if you’re interested.

Action scenes, definitely a strong suit of this film - you just know they can’t help themselves sometimes LOL. Kogami v Akira is definitely the best one (RIP Kogami’s balls hihi), and I’ve said this before but they definitely have perfected Kogami’s animation when it comes to fighting, and he is always the most flawlessly animated, however I think they did Gino really well here too. There’s this other really wonky one where Sugo falls down the escalator and it just looks like he’s a solid object and not a human body asdlfkjaskldfj. Honestly I finally understood the critique that the Sugo drone scenes were definitely way too long (I didn’t notice this bec it was hella entertaining when you don’t have subs plus it was super fun if you watch it in 4dx/mx4d).

Really dropped the ball on the Stronskaya Papers imo. I think, for something that was meant to be so important, the exposition regarding its use was really a lazy excuse. “SEAUn essentially proved its value” ain’t gonna cut it. If this is something so important people choose to kill/die for, then the implications of it should have been shown to the audience, not told.

I only noticed after the third subbed rewatch, but to me, everyone is being measured against Akane in this film. I will elaborate later.

Sibyl as an AI

Finally, the little complication about using the term "AI" when describing the Sibyl System. When the first impressions of this came out, there were a LOT of dissatisfied JP fans. Until it was described as such in the film, since the system constitutes actual human brains, then the interpretation is that it is human. I’m not sure if this was a general interpretation btw, but since this is the first time the term “AI” was used to describe Sibyl, ofc it rubbed people the wrong way, especially bec it feels like the whole concept of Sibyl was retconned.

I somewhat agreed with this interpretation— I had always considered the Sibyl System as an independent character in this series, who was meant to be impartial but somehow acts/reacts as a human would— and it's not hard to think so, when you look at the way the system has acted and evolved throughout the show. At times, the system is shown to be curious, greedy, and even cruel. I am ofc talking about them as a whole and not their androids (Kasei, Misako, Chuan Han, Hosorogi, even the dude in Case 2, etc)— individual brains act as human with a CA constitution (so still slightly different from a normal human), that’s clearly shown in the series.

When I read about this through interviews of Director Shiotani, I didn’t quite get the full context as it was used in the film. My initial interpretation was that the system was human, but the mechanisms that make it work (the claws swapping brains supposedly without human intervention, the city/country-wide whole network/surveillance system, the immediate reaction to process a Dominator’s request, etc) were powered by AI. I thought that they used the term AI to update the terminology, since this technology is quickly becoming commonplace irl. Now I've seen PPP with subs and thought a bit more about it, I still somehow think this is the case but also, all things considered, the term AI also makes sense.

Bear with me as I try to break it down. The Sibyl System is a system that is bound by its raison d'être: the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people (very important: not all). To achieve this, it has taken over control of the lives of its citizens via the Psycho- Pass, a quantified measure of mental states/psychological tendencies and aptitudes— a supposedly objective measure. This includes law enforcement, as the system is able to predict an individual’s tendency to commit crime. We also know that the Sibyl system has auxiliary functions, like planning citizens’ lives or recommending the best option for the individual’s happiness, matchmaking, art/cultural/historical/religious control. Its role is very simple: assign the best possible job that one is most capable of (essentially eliminating non-productivity as a society), and through psycho-pass measurements, maintain/execute (criminal) law and order under the PSB. It can be implied that other non-criminal laws can’t be divorced from Sibyl, since its functions make all these possible within the confines of what Sibyl constitutes as “right” (and is implied,) based on the rule of law. Sorta like a chicken and egg situation, but the law, being at the base of it all. Sibyl came into legal force - it is, first and foremost, lawful.

Applying that to the definition of AI, we could say that at its inception, the law would be Sibyl’s code/algorithm, prior research (be it criminal/non-criminal data/aptitude/psychology/physio etc etc) and eventually its actual application is its data set, and the use of human brains as its processing mechanism. If we review how the system has "acted" so far, it's all consistent with the fulfillment of their purpose, EVEN if exceptions, limitations and anomalies exist.

A key concept that has been repeated in the show’s run is Sibyl’s “evolution”, which coincides with the same concept of AI “developing/learning automatically”. If I still have your attention, you will probably know that the main driver of Sibyl’s evolution has always been Akane, be it directly (S1, PP movie, PPP), or indirectly (PP2, PP3). This has been introduced from the start, with Sibyl itself acknowledging its imperfection, but insisting on the need to maintain its perceived perception in the interests of a peaceful society.

What makes it a bit contentious is the fact that the individual brains ARE very obviously still human - so I think that the “the Sibyl System is an AI” really feels off somehow, or at least conceptually feels like it should have been carefully defined rather than left up for interpretation, given what we’ve seen in the series thus far. In any case, here are some references to help you think about it and make your own interpretation.

World Affairs (OffiPro)

Genesis 1-2

Genesis 3-4

Characters - I’m just gonna put this disclaimer, basically if I quote something from the film please just understand that it’s mostly paraphrased.

Akira

Definitely one of my favorite additions to this massive cast. Not the first one to say it but what a shame (he’s so sexy UwU). He’s probably less complex of a character than Atsushi (oh we’ll get to him), since his motivations are not “heavy” enough for me to believe such a sacrifice. He volunteered to be a double agent, burned his face to prevent identification, took on the mental (physical, actually) load of the chips in his brain and for what? For the greater good? Where did we see that anywhere? It is implied that as an immigrant he’s had his fair share of exposure to wars/conflict - we all know this was the same case with characters like Kei and Maiko, for example, but if we’re simply relying on the context of this film, I got the impression that he was merely doing it for his brother.

Things I love:

Dropping the machine gun post shootout with Kogami, signaling that he has no intention to go that far (gonna talk about the other side of this coin in a bit)

RECITING THE GREAT ASO on top of that holo cliff *chills*

In the JP version, his very VERY noticeable voice change when he surrendered to Kogami and Gino

His “please take care of Kei” never fails to make my heart ache T-T AKIRAAAAAAAAAAA

Atsushi (& a bit of Yabuki)

One of the best characters in this film (who no one will invite in their wedding— oh the irony lol). I think that a good baseline from watching PP3/FI really helps appreciate him, though I didn’t actually care much if not for Niki making me notice in PP3 that there are conflicting accounts about him (a malicious one c/ o Obata in her testimony, vs Arata’s POV of him as a good and loving father), plus the more I learned about the complexities of Bifrost the more I got interested in him, too. Atsushi is clearly a morally grey character, and in this film it both comes out of his mouth (as a form of admittance in his speech), and shows in his actions. His speech: "The right choice can be wrong in a different time, that’s because righteousness is relative, but the truth is absolute. What we need is the truth, the means to accept that truth and choose the path where no one gets hurt." is clearly directed at only four people in that room. The speech also served as an admission of his guilt— and once again, the theme “he did what he had to/someone had to do it”.

There’s a line during his interview with Akane where she says “you don’t make mistakes. Everything you do puts you a step further in your career, as if you’re following a path laid out before you.” When she seems to have hit the right line of questioning, he was clearly about to confess, but alas, it was not to be. I remember reading an interview where Director Shiotani said “he doesn’t get to have it easy” and you know what, ok fine.

Atsushi and Yabuki’s approach is, in a nutshell, big picture thinking, the end justifies the means. They make difficult decisions, get things done and can’t avoid people from getting hurt. This is also driven home by Yabuki’s words to Frede “ideals are not enough to bring about change”. (He also said something good about needing that kind of power to exact justice and being prepared for the infamy that would result - help me if you remember this was my takeaway from it). To me, they both represent the kind of people who are about to become obsolete in Sibyl society IF it is heading towards the path people like Akane and eventually, Arata, are aiming for (put a pin on that).

We know that he was a Bifrost Inspector, and interestingly enough, it seems that Yabuki is too since they’re communicating via the terminal we saw Kei use. As is on trend for anything related to Bifrost, you do not see the hands of these guys getting dirty despite all the dirty work they actually do. That said, Akira, Milcia and most likely Saiga, are probably foxes.

Things I love:

I think that he and Tonami, while they must have believed there was no other way at the time, acknowledged that there was no excuse, and as a result are inspired (or in Tonami’s case, persuaded though begrudgingly) to trust the newer generation to do it better than they could. I feel like Atsushi already knew his time was coming the moment the deaths of those he had personal ties with started piling at his door.

His conversation with Kasei/Sibyl: “we’ve been watching you for a while”, implying Sibyl being complicit in all the dirty work he’s had to do. “Do you believe in the potential of humans?” and the response “of course. this is the reason why we exist” — really rubs the god/religious themes here, handing him the gun that will take his life as their parting gift, as if to say “this is your judgment”. I’m gonna touch on this again with Akane.

I’m not the first person to say this but with the exception of Yabuki, who was killed, at the end, Milcia, Akira and Atsushi’s acts were extreme, and I’m just not gonna gloss over this, cowardly. Choosing to die instead of living. Choosing to be absent instead of being present (in his brother’s life, in her daughter’s life). Atsushi preached it to his son (“do not dive without a lifeline”) but not only failed to act on his teachings but continued his approach. You could say it was the only choice at the moment, but all their previous choices led them there, and it’s even worse that they got someone else involved and killed, even if that wasn’t their intention.

HOWEVER, and this is going to be brought up again: someone has to do it, and therein lies the nuance in the other main character in PPP we’ll talk about later.

Saiga

I don’t really have much to add except they made him especially handsome in this film… 😳 And ofc I love that he picked up the lack of people in the building, he really said you can’t hide anything from my keen observation skillz. I loved that he was pretty chill about it too, maybe he was trying to cool down his favorite student 🤗

Things I love:

Akane visited him at 23:41 in the evening, I am assuming on that same day (it’s the time stamp on his laptop, also confirmed by Director Shiotani). I guess the concept of after office hours does not exist bec it looks like they left for Dejima immediately after.

“People aspire for comfort and find themselves unable to escape it, like me” and Akane immediately saying that’s not the case 🥹

Coffee on the lips. Leaning back on the couch. The toast and the chuckle RIP

“She’s not a saint/bodhisattva”: I’ve understood this to mean that she WILL enforce Kogami if it comes down to, hence he better apologize to her while he can.

His very meme-able criticism of Kogami before they got on the elevator

“Well, that was crazy!”

HIM BEING PEAK HANDSOME WHEN HE HAD A KNIFE ON HIS THROAT LIKE?!?!

The desperation and VERY obvious there is no other way here when Akane’s whole body is about to fall just trying to hang onto him

That they muted Akane’s scream when he fell

That she went straight down to him without so much as looking back at the fighting still happening

That she fixed his body 😭

I’m really gonna miss him. I always used to hc that Akane and Kogami would have a moment with him at some point in the future, calling back to their visit to his house in s1 but alas… we can’t have everything we want, huh?

Tonami

AHHHH old man, old man.

My favorite part about Tonami is that they clearly improved on making sure they don’t paint him as an evil guy. They tried to do this with Garcia, but frankly the novel did a better job at making him look more nuanced than the movie did— and that’s saying a lot since like I said, I love case 3. This is probably because they had the benefit of time, of course, and we’re gonna touch on this again later, they spend less time making Kogami look good (i mean, not physically) in this film.

They were very economic with how they portrayed his character, too. With just that one scene of him and the kid, you immediately empathize and are forced to listen to what he’s actually saying. My favorite scenes of any iteration is the “reckoning”/tnj that Akane has towards the end, basically summarizing the thesis of the story, and the questions it poses to the audience. This film is probably the best at presenting the most nuanced argument of the series so far between two sides. Very simple, very straightforward, and the movie’s prior scenes have done the legwork for the viewer to connect the points each is trying to make, like neat little puzzle pieces that make you go oh.

Things I love:

“Don’t forget you were the ones who made me this way.” (mic drop).

Akio Otsuka’s voice acting, especially when Akane was crawling to grab the Dominator. THE FRUSTRATION IS REAL.

This was pretty much confirmed and I’ll touch on it again later: he was not going to kill Akane (link) . I thought this was up for debate at first, but actually after seeing the subbed version I am convinced this was actually not up for debate due to the following:

It was him talking to Kai when he killed Milcia, he asked “You killed her?” and said “You messed up, Kai”

We do not actually see him kill unless there is a purpose. Killing the SAD guys to get to Milcia, killing the SAD guys to get to Saiga. He revived Bokamoso because he needed to get the papers (wasn’t convinced that Saiga really didn’t have it, as already established by Saiga a few scenes prior), and was biding their time when he engaged with Frede & Gino after Kai confirmed the papers were not there, probably waiting for Kai to finish with Kogami (“time is up”). Decided the ops team (Ko, Gino, Frede) needed to die after they were exposed and the safety of the General and Raphael were put in jeopardy.

He shot Akane in the same place he shot Kogami a few scenes prior— this is also why I do not believe this is random, but rather just a means to incapacitate them while he needed to do what he needed to do: possess Kai bec he now knows where the General is and needed him out of there, (unclear whether he knew at the time that Kai had the papers but likely he did since he referred to the memory chip during his first meeting with Akane), and have Akane not bother him while he possesses the peacebreakers in battle).

Shooting Akane again, not fatally wounding her.

Akane’s line “why don’t you just kill me?”. Like, really, why didn’t he? The link above sheds some light on the creator’s vision on this and it’s delicious, lol. IMO, if he had wanted her dead they’d not have even talked. Very simple.

This is not to justify his actions btw, in fact, Akane even called him out “the same wars you helped perpetrate”, and her lichrally saying “I promise to expose the truth about the peacebreakers, but this doesn’t excuse what you’ve done”. Madame Justice said YOU WILL BE JUDGED BY THE POWER VESTED IN ME AS AN INSPECTOR OF THE PUBLIC SAFETY BUREAU ETC ETC

He cares about Kai/Akira (the line to Atsushi “so Kai is your pawn, too?” at the helipad, and his concern about the divider overloading and his reaction that Kai is choosing to die). He clearly cares about the peacebreakers, too. Nuance, man. Delicious.

“You can’t stop what you started here” CHILLS. Definitely reminds me of Kamui’s tnj in S2.

Frede

I have a soft spot for her. She’s clearly more loyal to Yabuki & the MFA than to Saiga, and, judging by her character we’ve seen so far, she’s taking after Yabuki as well 😉

The reason why? #21 in Director Shiotani’s Q&A space last June 15 (link).

So pretty when she was conflicted about not telling Saiga/Kogami about le grand ̶f̶a̶i̶l̶ plan

I like how she calls Yabuki “boss” 🥹

Fave scene when Kogami calls her out for lying to Saiga LOL, I just love that he can just do that and that she doesn’t even bat an eye, I like that about them.

Gino

He’s not my fave, but I’ve grown a bit soft on him here I have to admit. Love that they gave his devotion to Akane more context, and that this whole system of trust between them (and the rest of Div 1) is shown.

He is right, it’s his ego talking (the boat convo). Akane didn’t and isn’t staying/tied to the CID bec of them (Ko & Gino) jeez man. It’s not about YOU. LMFAOOoOOOOooo

Little Ginomika moment, I loved that. Speaking of…

Mika

“This is no time to be playing politician” sis— did anyone ever tell you that you have an aptitude for it? The whole plan about selling them out if they all die so she could save their asses, then actually coming to their aid when it truly mattered? Does your fave ever?!?!?!

While she’s probably the one who has one of the best charadevs in the show, I fear a little that she’s starting to become a gag character, ALTHOUGH i’m arguing that she’s clearly still a writer’s fave with the way they give her critical hero moments when it counts (the whole rock star raid at heaven’s leap in PP3, then this “I got it covered” in PPP). I think Mika best displays the balance required to stay (sane) in this job. She’s able to take on what she needs to, and accomplish the role she’s set out to play, and at the end of the day she probably goes home and has a boba, binges netflix and has a good night’s sleep.

I dunno where I read this - but there are main characters, and there are main side characters. This is Gino and Mika’s fate in the grander story, with their arcs pretty much over since Case 1.

Finally, the good stuff. If this ain’t much of an overly long essay already.

Kogami

Before I go off, my experience is as follows:

When the first trailer of PPP came out, his words “I have no regrets” were so jarring to me. I didn’t quite understand how that was supposed to add up to the Kogami in my head, the hopeful man who was ready to come home at the end of Case 3, and the guy who said sorry at the end of PPFI. This led me to find some answers by machine translating the PP3/FI novels, and the case 3 novel.

In a nutshell, I had thought that the ending of case 3 meant that he was going to turn a new leaf and fight for the same justice Akane was (in short, no killing). Guess what? I forgot that he did kill Jackdaw in PPFI, and the novel pretty much confirmed his actions and thoughts around it (aka, he was really going to kill the guy— I mean, he came into the scene guns blazing, you know? AND I FORGOT ABOUT IT (I call this my akane-tinted glasses 😉).

Another line in Akane’s monologue that cemented my reinterpretation of Kogami, and I was immediately reminded of this passage when Akane sadly spoke to him right after he shot Tonami:

“Believing in the meaning of the stars was something only she herself held, and it was as if she was being told that the stars were just stars by the others she believed to be her comrades. When she began to consider that perhaps it was not the incomprehensible others who were truly isolated, but rather herself, true loneliness arrived. The moment of being cast into the sea of true loneliness, without even the stars or the sound of waves.” (the stars here was implied to be either law, or justice)

It’s been confirmed by Ryo Yoshigami that Akane’s monologues in the PP3/FI novels were written with the plot of PPP in mind— so you all know, this was intentional. The novels really helped me take a step back and assess what I was really looking at as a character, and Kogami’s role in the overall story. I thought he was someone who was on his way to change, I was wrong. I thought that his values have aligned with Akane, again, wrong. Now I know what some of yall are gonna say, that you didn’t misinterpret him. Sure, this statement isn’t for you then. BUT don’t lie to me, those who DID. 🤪

As for the rest, go read and form your own opinion (PP3 Novels)

Kogami’s sense of justice

As a main character of the series, Kogami’s journey has been up and down, but one thing that’s consistent about him, in the simplest terms: his justice is personal. Whether it’s one of revenge, which he had closed the door on post case 3, his inability to turn away from injustice, and in PPP, his acceptance and taking responsibility of what he stands for, and what he can do.

In the beginning of Case 3, he was making an effort to avoid killing— even using it as a condition for cooperating with Kinrei on the raid in the train station. This was during a time when he was clearly at a loss of what to do, still swimming in his regrets and just letting himself go in whichever direction life takes him. Come the end of Case 3, we see his hopeful decision to return, and, in PPP, clearly stated during his convo on the boat, his reasons. He did not come back to die, but to help people. This is essentially an explanation of his choice and lack of regret that he failed to explain properly to Akane, but if it wasn’t clear yet, this is also where the lines have been drawn between the two protagonists, interestingly enough, since the beginning of the series. Akane’s sense of justice is directly tied to the law, whereas Kogami’s does not (and, I think a moot point to argue now, will never).

He does what he does because it’s what he can do. The difference between Kogami S1 and Kogami PPP/PP3 is that he’s found a purpose/place that aligns with his sense of justice. He owns it, and takes full responsibility for it. It’s a facet of growth, though probably not in a direction that would bode well for him if he fails to look from above, as was Saiga's last words to Akane. I can take this apart in a few ways, firstly, and especially towards his “belief” in Akane, he’s a hypocrite (LOL). Says one thing, does another. Wanting to be judged after the fact is like, are you kidding me, man? Right in front of the blood of someone she just tnj’d “you will be judged according to the law”?!?!?!!

Let's take a break, I’ll throw him a bone.

He simply cannot turn away from injustice and would rather get his hands dirty than allow others to get away with their crimes

This is a great callback to his time with Garcia “you hesitated, and now someone’s dead.” See? Charadev. (I’m being sarcastic). It must suck for him that though he didn’t hesitate, Saiga is still dead.

To me, he’s started walking forwards post case 3, and while he still regrets everything he did before that, he’s left that behind to fulfill a new purpose in his life

In this scene specifically, he would rather kill than have Akane be killed.

Very personal, very short-sighted, very impulsive, reactive sense of justice. That he agreed with what Tonami had said, for all that talk of his belief in Akane, he’s a funny ̶l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ guy, isn’t he?

I’ve always argued that if his aim was that good (and again, Tenzing commented on this, he CAN shoot to disarm someone), then why didn’t he? Kogami in PPP, in every scene, operates on a shoot to kill. I’m no longer here to apologize for the guy, even if he did, three years too late. I think that it helped me come to terms with their differences, and this is fundamental. Don’t get me wrong, I still like his character, maybe even more now that we’ve learned quite a few things about his… shortcomings (lol), but I’m not gonna make excuses for him in the same way he doesn’t make excuses for himself. He chose. He still chooses to. Cool motive, still murder.

Where this will lead him, it’s been alluded to in the film. Tonami is what a misguided Kogami could become, and even Saiga clearly reminded him of it. That’s a matter for his future, but know that this movie is sowing seeds the creators may decide to reap someday.

Things I love :

He got his balls kicked!!! Love that for him 🤣

Used to complain about how lousy his shirt looked is in pp3 and whoooaa he took the jacket off and I'm sweating

WET HAIR

TACTICAL GEAR

The PP OST and the dominator UI, before he takes his first shot *chills*

Despite all my beef about him, I still really do love the guy. Now I just dunk on him every chance I get, it's fun. And ofc, I still have a tiny bit of hope about his future, and I’ll be holding him to that standard, otherwise yeah, he can die in a ditch (or if we’re going there, he can die whilst leading an uprising to destroy Sibyl) 😉

Akane

So when I said earlier that everyone is being measured against Akane, I really meant it. She had taken a back seat since the PPSS films, and in PP3/FI the whole mystery surrounding her imprisonment was an invisible hand driving many elements of the show. PPP is HER film, and as a character, her continued relevance to the series' thesis cannot be discounted.

“The law doesn’t protect people. People protect the law.”

If Kogami was consistent about his sense of justice, she is even more so. What makes her leagues above him is that she’s driving change, and change DOES happen in the manner that does not allow her to break her principles… that is, until the end of PPP 😉. I’m not going to elaborate on her sense of justice, it’s pretty straightforward even if the series likes to throw stones at it as if following it is the hardest thing in the world. What makes Akane stand out is that it's actually not hard. Look, ask yourself whether it’s easier to kill another human being or not— I’m not talking about exceptional circumstances, but even then, I think you know the answer— there’s a moral and ethical basis here that she shares with a great number of people. Killing is wrong, it’s against the law to take another life. To me, the point of each iteration is to keep stacking odds against her through characters, each with their own complexities and nuance that the audience is made to empathize with and contrasted to her sense of justice, resulting in making it look like her principles are ideal and impossible to achieve, when actually, they're not.

One of my favorite lines of the film, when Tonami says to Akane, “these are the facts that lie in the shadow of the peace that you enjoy”. Let’s be real. Akane is privileged. She’s not had to fire a gun to defend herself in a war torn land— but the argument against this is the same argument for it— it’s because she doesn’t have to. Kogami is back in Japan, it stands to reason that he must adhere to its laws, because despite his experiences abroad, he is not and will never be above the law.

I’m gonna touch on something I already discussed on twitter, because there’s a difference between the way Kogami has killed, versus the way Gino and Sugo have.

As far as the series has shown, the following are Sibyl-sanctioned “killing”, the last one specifically relates to PPP:

As judged by the Dominator (LE/DD)

In cases of national defense/during the execution of duties as members of the NDF

In cases of self-defense in the course of an official operation

It stands to reason that just because they are sanctioned does not save the person from their hue deteriorating, because that part is directly related to a person’s view of guilt. Throughout the show, the audience is constantly reminded that the act of (indirectly) killing does not necessarily impact one's hue (e.g. the PP of the person who manufactured the gun is not the same as the person who fired it, the whole premise of the foxes in PP3, etc), hence the "guilt" associated with the act falls on the person who does it, which may result in a higher cc. A person is able to absolve themselves precisely bec they know they're doing it within the confines of the law, but this doesn’t always follow (e.g. Sugo’s hue deteriorating in Case 2). There's a good example of this in action during Akane's operation in PPP, when Tonami issues the order to kill, and the team, who had been disarming/arresting everyone a few minutes before, was left with no choice but to defend themselves, often resulting in a kill.

While the Peacebreakers were able to hand over this guilt to Tonami via the Divider, Gino and Sugo could not. At the start of the film, they only used the guns when the Dominator was not functioning. The difference with their actions in the last third of the film is they participated in an unsanctioned operation with Akane, have killed as a result and are now likely above regulation. Had no idea the words “once the hounds have thrown away their collars, public safety will never tame them again” also served as foreshadowing as this is probably why Sugo and Gino were requested for transfer to the SAD. And if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that Gino actually gets the job done with fewer bullets than Kogami does. Kogami, from the start, comes into the scene, kills all his enemies on sight without hesitation. This is a huge difference, and this is what Akane is trying to keep him from defaulting to. Violence to fight violence was not the answer, but they clearly do not align on this. It’s a perspective thing. 😉

So why did she do what she did?

In principle, she made herself an anomaly, directly challenging the decision to repeal the law, by committing a crime in public while not having her PP deteriorate. In short, she pretty much broke the law to protect the law. So how did she objectively know that her plan would work?

I had a few discussions on twitter surrounding this, and frankly the “she knows she’s doing the right thing, not for herself but for the greater good” doesn’t cut it for me, nor does the premise of “leap of faith”. To do this, she HAD to have known with certainty that her hue would not deteriorate because if the dominator suddenly activates for her, then it was a pointless act, and more importantly, she was fully aware (as stated in the PP3 novels) that she was committing a crime.

There are cases to be made of course, the first being she knew that Kasei is merely an android and that Akane avoided shooting the brain (effectively keeping Kasei alive), but that still doesn’t establish the fact that Akane does not absolve herself of the act, and again, that she needed to objectively know this would work. This is theory time, but the only thing I can think about are two specific things, one in the film, one not.

Defying Sibyl orders to enact her own operation in the Kuril Islands - this is directly disobeying Sibyl, using her Chief Inspector authority to assign temporary roles to Kogami and Frede so they could participate, loading the Stronskaya Docs to her Dominator and giving it to the General, all these, unsanctioned and should have at least raised her PP. My guess is, in the aftermath, she noticed that it had not, despite the scale and the effort and potential losses had things gone wrong, and decided that was enough to go ahead with the “answer” she found for herself.

She had to have procured a gun. This was not in the film - but procuring the gun establishes her intent/motive, and should have also raised her PP - my guess is it did not. This would have been sufficient, but you can imagine, until the point of carrying the gun to the venue (probably hidden inside her hat), the fact that she wasn’t flagged basically made it certain her plan would not fail.

In the June 25 roundtable (link) , Director Shiotani wished that if he had 3 more minutes to add, he would have added a scene right after Atsushi’s death where the men in the roundtable ultimately decided to proceed with the abolition of the law. In hindsight, I think adding this scene would have been better, because it takes away room for interpretation that Akane was actually in a desperate situation, and not just frustrated at the close of the case. In the movie, this was supplemented by Kogami’s line “what Tonami said is probably going to come true, the law will likely be abolished.” Not as desperate, if you ask me.

Deviants

The difference between Akane and Atsushi is that, Atsushi, in his capacity as a double agent and methodology as a Bifrost inspector, is like a puppet master holding the strings, indirectly enabling change and leaving mere traces of his impact while others either take full credit (or fall) from it, whereas Akane pushes change by directly challenging Sibyl head-on. We have yet to clarify Atsushi’s motivations in rising the ranks of Bifrost (he was alluded to be on the way to being a congressman or that he had the talents for it), and the fact that he’s played double agent for so long with his methods steadily growing shady over time just goes to show that there was clearly a better way (and he ofc acknowledges it).

In the same way a CA can only be recognized by Sibyl by committing crimes OR if a Dominator was wrongly pointed at them, Sibyl becomes aware of these deviants (I’m gonna call them that) the moment they start defying Sibyl while being able to keep their hues clear. Perhaps Atsushi would be an imperfect version of a deviant, Akane the better one, and Arata probably the ideal despite being CA, sort of like Genesis 3-4’s Makami Sou. It would be interesting if Akane becomes APA, let’s see (read the Genesis links above 🙂).

“Do you believe in the potential of humans?”

Post-op Akane was forcibly promoted to Atsushi’s role (iirc, a Department Head of Statistics in the Ministry of Welfare c/ o Steohsama's translation). I think it can be read two ways: one, in the context of the recently closed case, to get her fully out of the way and busy with other, bigger stuff that she was already dipping her toes in prior to Atsushi’s death (referred to during their convo, about her not “making a fuss”). Two, that she really did have the aptitude to be someone like Atsushi— only that her methods would clearly be different. Now that she’s back in the CID, there’s obviously a question of Akane’s future as a statutory enforcer (fun fact, the creators pretty much confirmed that it’s just a name for someone judged according to the law but whose PP did not deteriorate / someone who was appointed as an enforcer whose PP is below regulation ( link / link ). If Hinakawa will be promoted to an Analyst, then there’s a spot open for her in Division 1, assuming she’ll be playing detective. While I think this is likely to happen, I think it’s a boring outcome for her. Like Atsushi, I want her to move up in the world, especially if the world is gearing towards Sibyl going public. It’s going to be interesting what role she’ll play in the future, especially because, as Niki had so nicely put, “she can’t do this alone”.

Oh, Koaka.

Objectively, I no longer think the ship is romantic in canon. I’m gonna copy-paste some thoughts I already shared at length in discord and edit parts of it, but if you’ve seen me the last few months, this isn’t new.

This is nitpicking, because I'm a writer and facts like they don't know each other, not really (they spent not more than 100 days in s1, maybe a few days in PPP) are things that are at the back of my mind always. I have yet to see Kogami and Akane treat each other more than the pedestals they put each other on (arguable for Akane but I think this is also why she keeps getting disappointed that their sense of justice doesn't align).

This divide between their sense of justice is their biggest flaw as a potential couple, and one that is too fundamental. I do not see compromise here, especially after the events of PPP. If Kogami were to gear towards a positive change, then there’s hope, but I leave very little room for that now. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, either. I see it as a potential stance that the show is trying to make. “You murdered someone, you can’t go back.” If he had been heading towards change it should have been on the way for a while, not a “possibility” that he keeps failing to live up to. Getting over this hopeful assumption took me a while, but I think that it also helped me appreciate the wider story being told.

That being said, I think that romance in stories is important and I would like to see the writing team go there, not just from a shipping perspective but from a storytelling/amping up stakes perspective. In PPP I felt how Gino was much, much closer to Akane, and I didn't see this previously. In the past he was more like a controlling dad esp in s2, undermining Akane's POV, improved a bit in the pp movie though he still felt a bit on the overprotective i know better than you side (nicely resolved in ppp where we see a piece of his mind btw)— there's a whole lot of trust there. With Kogami and Akane, while they cleared the air after the infirmary scene, once again I saw that trust shaken when he shot Tonami.

These characters are depicted as human beings, and I think that entails grounding. While meaningful connections can be made through short moments (destiny, if you will), relationships built over time like literally and not let's have a nice moment in a film i'll see you next movie kind of thing, is something that, to me, means more. That said, Kogami was separated for a long time and it's lichrally impossible, but they're in the same place now. Where does that lead them? This is where part of my hope lies, small as it may be. Granted, this is not that kind of show and I'm fully aware of that, which is also why I'm happy to get what we get and that artists/fic writers are there to fill those gaps.

I still ship them but a lot less— I find it funny because even before PPP, I was always looking for more (I'm greedy haha!). I always saw the PPFI scene as just the beginning of their relationship— I wasn't convinced that scene was enough, despite the romantic undertones. And let me tell you the betrayal I felt when I found out the reason why they did the whole back to back thing in PP0308 was because... IT WAS AWKWARD FOR HIM TO CROUCH DOWN THE LITTLE WINDOW OF HER CELL and not the little romantic shit I had going on in my head— I just ( ╯°□°)╯ ┻━━┻

I went through the five stages of grief but at the same time it's not as bad since it's not like I didn't think that way from the start (it's just me being anal about it all, really. Because I would end up writing whatever I wanted anyway and canon didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things).

I do like their dynamic now given the recent developments, Kogami especially being particularly unskilled in the romance department just makes it all the more funny (I'm not capable of writing him that way though so I guess all my fics are ooc now 🤣). If they don't develop past the Arguably Platonic™️ way they treat each other then I won't be surprised if I stop creating for the ship, likely bec it will no longer satisfy my enjoyment of it.

Final Thoughts

I think it’s pretty much confirmed we’re getting more, it’s just a matter of when (can’t believe I’m staying here forever, huh?). Director Shiotani wishes that he will be making PP in the next 30 years, gotta love him for that.

As the series progresses, there was a clear tonal shift and hopeful direction it seems to be heading towards. To me this is partially because in a practical sense, this benefits the prolonging of the show (which we already know is true), but in a thematic sense, destroying Sibyl means the end of the series overall. No Psycho Pass without the Psycho Pass. And to this I give credit where it’s due. This is not the kind of progress you’ll see if Urobuchi is still in the writer’s room, and frankly, the complexity and depth of the show ever since he left has pretty much taken off in great strides. I had wished they were heading towards a natural conclusion (Sibyl going public) and leave it alone for a decade before they pick it up again, but I guess the producers have other plans. After all, they don’t have any other IP that has withstood the test of time, is ahead of its time and continued to remain relevant as time went on. While not perfect, this is an amazing feat of a series, and this movie is a stellar addition to it.

They’ve got a dilemma of course, because until now it seems they went with a serialized format (with a definite ending) versus an episodic one (criminal of the week). By choosing to expand the world and explore other facets of society, all the while connecting the threads in an overarching plot, they have to complete the “passing of the torch" before going back to an episodic format, which means they MUST give the new kids their time of day,̶ a̶n̶d̶ ̶e̶x̶c̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶a̶s̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶e̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶n̶k̶s̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶a̶i̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶a̶l̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶S̶h̶i̶z̶u̶k̶a̶. Shifting the timelines allowed them to usher in the new cast, but now they’re marketing the legacy cast and have to contend with their obvious popularity compared to the new, fully knowing that the legacy cast is returning to the back seat once we kick things off again. This is a problem that can be solved if a spinoff is decided for SAD, because at least a chunky (huehue) part of the cast will be cordoned off doing their business in Dejima, while the CID with its usual players can stay where they are. I think if you’ve been following Director Shiotani though, this is not happening without him in the driver’s seat, so it’s like… if they’re smart he will delegate this task to someone he trusts and we’ll get both a main and a spinoff, then a converging point somewhere in the form of a movie. ��Psycho-pass forever!🎶 (to the tune of Emilia Clarke "best season ever" GOT S8 interview, iykyk).

Finally, I’m just gonna say that I love Akane so much, I’m glad she got the spotlight on her in this film. To be able to experience this film is unforgettable, I’m so grateful that it was possible for me. I’m training myself to expect she’ll take a step back next time I see her, but more than anything, I hope to see her happiness fulfilled, no matter what that entails. Once more, I just can’t thank these creators enough. They’ve made a series and a world I’m obsessed with, makes me think and makes me evaluate its implications in real life, makes me create!!!!! I’m so happy that they continue to believe in the stories they want to tell. I hope they are all healthy and resting now (until the next one, eheh!)

I’ve talked way too much and it’s really just because I want this out of my plate so I can start writing my fics now lololol. If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Always happy to discuss!

#psycho pass #psycho pass providence #pp #akane tsunemori #kogami shinya #ginoza nobuchika

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orionsangel86 · 11 months

Text

Subtext Glorious Subtext! A Dreamling on Netflix analysis in The Sandman - Part 3

1589

Insert distracted boyfriend meme here...

1589 is when the queer coding starts ramping up a notch. Let me tell you how I am fascinated by their choice of actor to play Shakespeare - a twink with stars in his eyes - amazing. Bravo. Not even Hob manages to look at Dream like he wants to be utterly ruined by him the way this actor looked at Tom Sturridge. Here on Tumblr.com I am sure we are all very much aware of the theories and speculation about the actual Shakespeares sexuality with the consensus being that he was probably bisexual, and my GOD have they decided to lean into that on this show.

There is a lot to analyse in this scene. Hob’s dialogue about what he has been up to is almost word for word the same as the comic, but Ferdie’s delivery is perfect with its mix of flirtation and desperate need to impress. Look at this dramatic fool:

Dream’s curious reaction to his bragging is almost as if he is trying to figure him out, but unlike the comics/audiobook, the conversation between Shakespeare and Marlow is interspersed with this one, with Shakespeare pulling Dream’s attention before Hob has even finished talking. This adds extra tension to the scene and raises the emotional stakes. In the comics, Hob had already finished talking when Shakespeare gets up and starts reciting Faustus to the point that he draws Dream’s attention prompting Dream to ask Hob who he is.

One of the interesting changes made is the removal of Hob’s description of Kit Marlowe as “bent as a pewter ducat.” A wise choice as it comes across as somewhat homophobic, but its removal also serves to not “other” Marlowe and therefore “other” the idea of homosexuality as something different to Hob. The other similar change to the show was the removal of Shakespeare flirting with the waitress whilst Marlowe claimed he’d “stick to boys, my horned “actresses”.”

It’s funny to me that by removing the moments in this scene that canonically confirm one characters queerness, the show also removes any interpretation that could “no homo” the other characters, ultimately making everyone appear much gayer in general!

(My giffing skills are woefully inept so have an image of Shakespeare's heart eyes instead)

When Dream approaches Shakespeare in the show it is insanely heated. The music swells with mystery and intrigue, Shakespeare stands and stares at Dream in complete awe. Enraptured by Dream’s gaze. The whole

“Have we met?”

“We have, but men forget in waking hours.”

Sounds like the ultimate pick up line. It's basically a play on One Upon A Dream from Sleeping Beauty in my opinion! This line is in the comic, and also in the audible book, but the delivery of the line in the show is the only time it comes across like a come on. Tom Sturridge please explain yourself?!?

In fact, all the acting choices here blow my mind. Seriously. I wanna know what the director told these two. Its really easy to see Dream’s proposition to Shakespeare as something beyond a business transaction. With the mysterious and rather romantic music, the soft candlelight, and the cameras keeping in close up of the two characters as they hold each others gaze... It’s a moment where you raise your eyebrows and wonder if the show just implied that their lead character just took THE Shakespeare off for a one night stand passionate enough to inspire the entire “Fair Youth” series of sonnets.

Joking aside, it doesn’t help the extremely queer undertones when the camera cuts back and forth between Dream, Shakespeare and Hob looking on at them with an expression one can only describe as hurt.

(Gif link)

It’s the editing in this scene that really sets it apart from the comic and audible book. Dream is distracted throughout Hob’s talk, and continues to look over at Shakespeare much to Hob’s apparent distress. When he eventually gets up to leave, he holds a hand up to stop Hob talking and simply walks away. Which only causes to further upset Hob and heightens the emotional intensity of the moment. As Neil Gaiman said in the episode 6 watch party - Hob is having to watch his date get up and leave him half way through. It’s specifically framed in a way to emphasise the hurt Hob feels, as well as the envy towards Shakespeare.

This is far more subtle in the comic and practically non existent in the audible audiobook where Dream actually tells Hob “Excuse me” before approaching Shakespeare. I found this funny because where the audiobook interpreted Dream’s behaviour in the comic as rude and clearly sought to attempt to change that, the Netflix show makes his behaviour worse by framing it as Dream abandoning his date. Playing up the emotions of the moment and making the whole scene come across like a live action distracted boyfriend meme!

I do encourage every Sandman fan to listen to the Audible audiobooks, but fair warning, the tone is NOT the same. The meeting with Shakespeare is played completely straight (in both senses of the words). This is in no way a criticism of the audiobook, but it is an excellent indication of director decisions and how different elements in different mediums can convey certain tones. I find that the show in general plays heavily into Dream being other and oftentimes it is very easy for other to be subtextually layered alongside queer (see the entire history of queer coding in cinema and why gay people love the horror genre). Interestingly, the audiobook doesn’t give Dream this same vibe. People such as Hob, Shakespeare, Constantine, etc, they just treat him as a bit of a posh lord. His otherness isn’t heavily emphasised in scenes set in the Waking World, indicating he is better at blending in than he is in the show.

So after Dream goes off to ravage Shakespeare - ahem - make a business arrangement with Shakespeare, the final 1589 scene is Hob’s final reaction. The line is the same across all mediums.

“Everything to live for, and no where to go but up.”

In the comic, the final panels here do not give any indication that Hob is upset by Dream’s leaving. He get’s distracted by the joys of having white bread. Simple pleasures please comic!Hob far greater than mysterious black clad lords.

The audiobook follows this along to the letter. Audible!Hob is joyful, laughing and happily reminscing about killing for bread (NGL I don’t particularly like Hob in the audiobook. No offence to Mathew Horne but 1. I can’t separate his voice from Gavin in Gavin and Stacey, and 2. I just think he comes across as really laddish and I find it offputting.)

In the show, Ferdie gives an absolute brilliant performance with just the right mix of hurt at being ditched for a young twink, and hopeful optimism for the future. Gone is any mention of killing for white bread, and in it’s place is a thoughtful Hob who looks at the spread of food laid out for his Stranger, and accepts it almost as a consolation prize. He’s gonna eat through his hurt and try to forget about this for the next century, but we all know he won’t forget at all.

Follow on to Part 4 to read my analysis of 1689

#Dreamling #dreamling meta #the sandman #sandman meta #dreamling week #dreamling week 2023 #sandman comic spoilers #dream of the endless #hob gadling

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koko-doodle · 1 month

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Demon Vamp AU: Chapter 4

Summary: You’ve met two monsters now, brothers as it seems. What happens next, what kind of impression will you get from these strange monster twins?

Words: 3,136

Chapter 1: Life’s End

Chapter 2: Life Anew

Chapter 3: The Meeting

Chapter 4: First Impressions

AO3 Link

“You’ve been through a lot in the past 24 hours, I am certain you must be hungry or thirsty at least.” The monster in front of you says.

”No.” You quickly respond, hearing the word thirsty made you uncomfortable. You had only been a hybrid vampire for an hour, drinking blood…. was the last thing you wanted to do, now or anytime in the future. The monster seemed to understand where your thoughts were and his smile softened.

“I meant food dear, regular food. And a drink of water maybe? Or milk, we might even have some juice too if you’d prefer that.” He taps a finger on his temple while he looks over to the fridge with a thoughtful gaze. “I have quite a few things I can make; are you in the mood for some breakfast food or would you like something more like lunch? It may be afternoon already but you are just getting up.” He chuckles.

“You mean… you aren’t going to force me to…” You trial off, not even wanting to say the words out loud.

“Drink blood?” He finishes for you. “No, you will need to at some point but not right at this moment. You have enough to try and digest already, we don’t need to push things so quickly. Let’s just take things one step at a time, okay friend?”

You hear the vampire mutter something to himself across the room, glaring unhappily at the monster in front of you. It didn’t seem like he liked the idea of taking things slow but the monster simply waved a hand at him without turning to look at him.

“And don’t mind him, his bark is worse than his bite. He’s really just a shy monster with terrible social skills.”

“Excuse me?!” The vampire snaps.

“You know, we haven’t even had a proper introduction! How rude of me, terribly sorry friend. My name is Sun, the grump over there is my brother Moon. And you are?”

You give him your name and he gives you a small bow.

“Well it is lovely to meet you, albeit under…. troublesome circumstances.” You must have had an unpleasant look on your face because he nervously adjusted his collar and cleared his throat with an awkward smile.

“So, back to business! If you could have any kind of food right now what would it be? What sounds good to you? What are you craving right this very second?” Sun says, apparently still focused on feeding you.

“I don’t understand… Why would a vampire need food?” You ask confused. Moon bursts into laughter and Sun stifles a laugh himself.

“Vampires don’t only drink blood dear, that’s a human myth. We need it to survive, yes, but we can’t survive on blood alone. We eat food just like any other monster or human.” Sun replies, hiding his laughter behind a soft smile.

“I find human knowledge of monsters so funny, like, how did you manage to get the biology of monsters so wrong over the past 500 years? Did your ancestors not write that down somewhere?” Snarks moon in between laughs.

“It’s not- ahem. It’s not funny” Sun corrects, clearing laughter from his own throat. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions, I encourage you to. I uh, apologize for the inappropriate reaction, your question just caught us off guard.”

Moon is still chuckling in the corner, amused. You frown, diverting your gaze from the brothers. If they were human you might have been embarrassed by them laughing at you but they weren’t, it only made you mad and uncomfortable.

“So, food?” Sun asks again.

You sigh. “Anything?” You ask, figuring he wouldn’t stop asking til you answer. “Mmhm!” He nods. It took you a moment to think of something but an answer did eventually come to you. “French toast kind of sounds good...” You reply softly.

“Mmm good choice!” He claps, making his way to the fridge. “I have some eggs I actually need to use up so that works out perfectly. Do you want a drink while you are waiting? It will only take me a few minutes to whip it up for you.” He pulls a carton of eggs and milk out of the fridge and sets them on the counter.

”Just some water…” You respond, watching him busy at work gathering more things from various cabinets.

“Make me some too while you’re at it, that sounds good.” Moon chimes in with a mouthful of chips, shoving the bag back into the cabinet he was digging through.

“You can make your own, I’m still mad at you.” Sun retorts, cracking eggs into a bowl.

“Wha- seriously?! You are going to be all petty over this?” Moon says annoyed.

”We will discuss this later when we don’t have a guest listening.” Sun replies.

“You’re joking right? You’re really that mad?” Moon jests.

“LATER Moon.” Sun snaps back in a sharp tone. “Now be useful and get our friend a drink please.”

Moon grumbles angrily but eventually walks to a cabinet and grabs a glass, he then fills it with water from a pitcher he pulled from the fridge and slams the door shut making glass clink loudly together from within. When Sun shoots an unpleasant glance at him he just responds “Oops” and makes his way to you to hand you the drink. So far these two act like a pair of young teenagers or children, you had seen similar behavior in the youth around the towns you patrolled. You never had siblings so you can’t relate to the feeling of sibling rivalry but you at least know what it looks like. You can’t tell their age exactly but you guess they might be just a bit older than you, in appearance at least. Or were they younger than you? How do you even tell a monster's age?

”You are welcome to have a seat at the table while things cook, don’t feel like you have to stand there the whole time.” Sun says cheerily while whisking the egg mixture together with some spices.

You comply, sitting down at the small table that is directly across from the island that sat at the center of the room. You take small sips of the water and the cool sensation feels good against your dry throat and mouth. Moon takes a seat at a chair across the table from you and fiddles with the bell on his hood, soft chimes echoing in the room occasionally. He doesn’t look at you directly, he steals glances when you are busy observing other things around the room but as soon as you start to look back his way he shifts his gaze in the opposite direction. This went on for several minutes, the only sound was the sizzling of the stove Sun was cooking on and Moon’s bell. It was weird and kind of annoying. He clearly isn’t afraid to speak his mind so why he was avoiding you now is odd.

“What?” You bark after having enough of his strange staring. “What yourself, what’s your problem now?” He retorts.

”You’re staring at me, stop it.” You grumble.

“Don’t flatter yourself, I’m not staring at you. I’m simply observing you.” His bell jingles and he gives a sly smile.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I’m able to see you in more detail with the light, I can see better how inhuman you look now.” He places an elbow on the table and leans his head into his hand. “How does it feel to be a monster now dearest?” He sneers with a wicked smile.

You were about to protest with a snide remark when a wet towel hits him right in the face with a loud SMACK. He jolts back in his chair and rips the towel off his face in surprise, turning his head to glare angrily at Sun who was approaching with a plate in hand.

“Oops.” Sun says dully. “My hand slipped.” He sets the plate in front of you where two pieces of French toast were stacked artfully on top of another with a light dust of powdered sugar on each piece. There was a little square of butter on the top that was starting to melt into the bread, it smelled delicious and looked like something you would be served at a fancy diner of some sort.

“Here you go! It’s my mother’s special recipe, perfectly sweet but a hint of spice for some extra flavor. One of my favorite breakfast go-to’s as well.” He smiles down at you. “Oops! I forgot the syrup, silly me.” He makes his way back to the counter grabbing a bottle of syrup, some utensils, and another plate. He places the bottle and utensils in front of you then sets the other plate down in front of a chair next to you. He looks over to Moon who is still wiping the water from his face with a displeased look. “There is batter and bread on the counter, feel free to cook it yourself.” Sun says with a passive aggressive tone as he sits down.

Moon growls yet again glaring daggers at his brother who gives no reaction of course, until he finally relents and gets up to begin cooking his own breakfast for lunch. Sun waited patiently for you to pour the syrup on your plate before he did the same, although he didn’t start eating right away. He watches you with an eager expression as you take your first bite, that is, after he stared at you awkwardly enough for you to understand that he wanted you to start eating first. The taste was sweet mostly from the syrup and had the classic French toast flavor you were familiar with but there was a hint of something else. A spice taste lingered in your mouth after you had swallowed but it was not a hot kind of spice, it was a nutty and woody kind of flavor that reminded you of Christmas time. It was delicious.

“Sooooo? What do you think? And be honest, I haven’t cooked for many humans before so I don’t know if it’s an acquired taste or not.” He says.

”It’s good, I don’t think I’ve had any French toast that tastes like this before. What is that aftertaste?” You ask.

“Ground cinnamon and vanilla with a hint of nutmeg. Gives a little more kick to the flavor besides just eggs, milk, and bread.” He hums a soft laugh. “If you want more just let me know, I’m happy to get it for you.”

”Thanks…” You say softly.

It felt odd to thank a monster but he had been nothing but kind to you since you met, it seemed rude to not say something for preparing you a meal. Your head starts to spin with questions, not like you didn’t have many before but now it was hard to get your mind to focus on just one. Why was this monster being so nice to you? His brother was threatening to kill you moments earlier, didn’t he feel the same way? What did he mean when he said he ‘hasn’t cooked for a lot of humans’, were other humans down here? Where exactly is here anyway? And what was going to happen after you finished eating? It didn’t seem like Sun was going to let Moon treat you poorly at least, but he also gave no indication you could go back to the small village you patrolled. What would Jeremy or Mike think if they saw you, would they even recognize you? Probably not… Your life as a human is gone, even if you could manage to escape any knight would drive a blade straight through your heart the moment they see you.

Sun notices you stop eating and stare blankly at your plate, a hollow expression on your face. He sets his fork down gently.

“Hey, I know this is a lot to process and I can’t even imagine how you feel right now…” He pauses giving you a saddened look as if he is searching for the right words to say. “Why would you care how I feel? You don’t even know me…” You whisper, not sure if you even said it out loud or not.

“You’re right, I don’t. But I would like to.” He replies. “I know humans and monsters haven’t gotten along in the past but that doesn’t mean that is how it has to be. A lot of us don’t want a war, we don’t take pleasure in killing or fighting any more than humans do. We may be different in appearance and ability but that doesn’t make us evil. We aren’t soulless killers.”

”But villages and cities… they are being attacked by monsters, I’ve fought in them first hand I know what it looks like. Supplies are stolen, houses raided, humans injured or killed, brutally most of the time. How can you say you aren’t evil when you’ve only shown hostility towards us?” You ask.

”Have you ever given us a chance to speak for ourselves?” Moon says, placing his plate on the table loudly. “Your kind locked us down here under a barrier for 5 centuries, did you really think that wouldn’t cause hard feelings if the barrier were to ever break?” He sits, snatching the bottle of syrup.

”What my brother means is, yes there are some monsters who do resent humans for what they did but it is a small minority. Most of us just want to live in peace, to coexist once again like we had before the war.” Sun states.

“But you humans made your assumptions about all monsters based on the actions of a few. You’ve put your defenses up so high, we couldn’t approach you even if we tried. You’re humans, we’re monsters, you don’t care if we want to be friends; you strike first and ask questions later.” Moon shoves a big bite of French toast in his mouth and Sun sighs.

“That’s not true!” You argue.

”Isn’t it?” Moon says with a mouthful.

“Moon, manners.” Sun jabs a glare at him but he just shrugs.

You think about what he was saying and the more you think about it, the more you realize it might be true. You were told from the beginning that monsters were bad, that they want nothing more to enslave humanity but that was based on knowledge from hundreds of years ago. If people can change so can monsters, maybe humans had thrown up their defenses too quickly. Moon might have a point, and that thought filled you with rage.

“If you want to be friends with humans so bad then why would you turn one? Why threaten to kill them moments after you claim you ‘saved’ their life. If being forced to become your play thing is what you call friendship then I’ll gladly decline your generous offer.” You hiss, your mind flitting back to earlier when he threw you against the wall. “If you truly want to make peace then reverse what you did and let me go.”

Moon only smiles and chuckles sinisterly, taking another bite of his food.

“I’m afraid that isn’t possible…” laments Sun. You look at him, trying not to let a pleading expression cross your face. “Vampire blood now runs in your veins and it’s bonded to your soul, your body has undergone a permanent physical transition. There is no way to undo it, even if we could you would go back to how you were before the blood entered your system which means you would be dead. What's done cannot be undone… I’m sorry…” He reaches out a hand and places it gently on yours, trying to comfort you.

You pull your hand away from his.

”So that’s it then. I’m stuck like this with no choice but to be some sort of hybrid pet for you to play with? Just some- some THING that isn’t supposed to even exist. Something to keep you entertained from your boring lives!” You huff, your gaze looking coldly across the table at Moon. “I’d rather be dead.”

They both say nothing. Moon stops eating and fiddles with the fork in his hand, your stare seeming to make him consider the situation for the first time. Sun looks at you, to his brother, then resigns to staring at his plate. You all sat in silence for what seemed like forever, not knowing what to say next. It was taking everything in you not to let all the weight of your thoughts come crashing down on you. You feel helpless and vulnerable, the same feelings you felt when your parents died. You’re alone again. The unknown of the future and great burden from the events unfolding, it was making you feel sick to your stomach.

“I don’t know what my brother has said to you but I do know that what he did was wrong and unfair. He had no right to do what he did to you but I can promise that you are not going to be some pet.” Sun says softly, his words feeling like they echo through the room. “We’ll help you through this, teach you what you need to know and answer any questions you have. We will go at your pace, whatever you feel comfortable with. You have my word that no harm will come to you while you are here. You will not be forced to do anything you don’t want to.”

Sun’s eyes lock with yours and you can see very faint indications of pale irises that you hadn’t noticed before. His expression is genuine, showing no sign of ill intent or hostility. He has a softer aura about him that Moon doesn’t have, a friendly and inviting one that makes you feel like you can truly trust him and his word. His actions in the short time you’ve known each other have been nothing but kind, maybe this monster really could be trusted. Perhaps even a chance that you could be friends.

“Is that enough to put your mind at ease at least a little?” Sun asks, concern in his voice.

You look over to Moon, his eyes narrow as his gaze was set on his brother then briefly flits to you. There was an expression there that only lasted a split second, so brief that you feel you could have imagined it. It wasn’t a look of frustration or anger, when his eyes shifted between the two of you, it was… softer. Guilt maybe? Concern? Confusion? No. Whatever it was it was hidden well behind his cold, sharp eyes. He was heartless, he made that very clear already.

You take a deep, shaky breath.

“It’s a start.”

#demon vamp au #vampire moon #writing #demon sun #vampire y/n

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riddlerosehearts · 6 months

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OKAY SO i said yesterday that i would make a post about how anime weekend atlanta went, so... basically it was a bit of a mixed bag because while i got to see tons of cool cosplays and merch and go to some neat panels, we (as in me and my dad who was traveling with me) ended up not only having car troubles the entire weekend but also had some absolutely ridiculous problems with ordering food. just as an example, one night we ordered a pizza and it took 3 hours to arrive and we never got told there would be any kind of delay 😭 BUT i will go ahead and share my cosplays and then list off some good things that happened! i'm slightly embarrassed about posting my face on here since i've never done that before but here goes:

i was edward elric on thursday and friday at AWA and lilia vanrouge (pop music club version) on saturday and sunday! i did a bunch of thrifting and DIYing (and pulling things i already owned out of my closet for lillia lmao) for both of these and i am especially proud of that automail glove. i also went to two twisted wonderland cosplay photoshoots on both saturday and sunday which was definitely fun, and i met todd haberkorn while in my ed cosplay and got him to autograph the same fullmetal alchemist artbook that i've previously had signed by caitlin glass! i also bought a handful of silly little trinkets and i will put photos of all this other stuff under a cut so people who don't care don't have it clogging their dash too badly.

^ full group photo + some diasomnia photos of the saturday twst photoshoot. shoutout to the summer lilia who offered to princess carry malleus and the person who showed up as meleanor--two things which are both seriously impressive to me in different ways.

^ the photo i took with todd haberkorn + the artbook cover he signed. you can see where he signed his name right over ling and where, when i met caitlin last year, she signed her name right over winry. i met him once before but it was literally 10 years ago and it was great to be able to meet him again. he told me he thinks ling deserves his own FMA spinoff, and i very much agree with him.

^ some of the silly merch i bought. i also wanted to buy the official castle in the sky artbook as well as these kingdom hearts plushies so badly and still might buy them online later:

and uhhh i think that's all i feel like sharing on here?? i wish i had gotten to go to more panels but the various unexpected issues i had throughout the con kept me from having the time to go to many, although the ones i did get to see were great. there was one where a nuclear propulsion plant operator and NASA software engineer graded various sciencey anime on how good or bad their science was and did a very thorough examination of whether or not the premise of planetes--a screw hitting a spaceship, putting a hole in it, and taking out an intercontinental suborbital flight--was plausible. he concluded that it is and gave the overall series an A+ for scientific accuracy, and i've never seen this show but now i want to.

okay actually NOW that's all! if you cared enough to read this post then you deserve this bonus photo from when i got home yesterday, decided to put my ed cosplay back on and take extra photos of it, and subsequently got attacked by my cat:

#anime weekend atlanta #awa #twisted wonderland #fullmetal alchemist #cosplays #<- tagging those simply because i would LOVE to know if anyone on here ran into me in these cosplays or was at the twst photoshoots

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omegasmileyface · 8 months

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The Forest, the Trees, the Fire I: CATALYST

Chapter 3

woawoawoa chapter 3 :) this chapter more than doubles the word count of the story thus far! Authors: @ectolemonades, me, @attackradish. Artist: @/crunchysart

For the full characters list, word count, content warning, and a directory to all the currently available chapters and related content, see the Table of Contents!

full summary: The world outside of Amity Park has learned about the existence of ghosts, and the time for first impressions has arrived. The delicate public consciousness could be disrupted by the slightest ripple. Danny Fenton is being ripped apart from all sides, and when he finally breaks, the ripples will be very big indeed.

warnings: self-worth issues, small meltdowns, that kinda thing

words: 3388

AO3 link

first chapter

previous chapter

next chapter

===

October 6, 2006

Danny tried to find a way to rest his head without the school bus vibrating his brains out. They’d left city limits forever ago, and the excitement that gripped everyone this morning had died down. Sitting next to Tucker had fought off the boredom for most of the trip, but conversation ran dry a couple miles back. Even the back of the bus had gotten quiet. There’s only so many unique 'would you rather?' scenarios that a group of teenagers who already see each other every week for football anyway can think up.

Danny leaned his head against the seat in front of him, the bitter bus seat smell prickling his nostrils. Gravity dragged his body into an increasingly uncomfortable slouch, the vinyl clinging to his forehead and stretching his facial features upwards until his skin stung. Bone ground against bone as his vertebrae tried to accommodate the unnatural arch his neck had been forced into. Eventually the discomfort won over the exhaustion, and Danny sat up straight again, unsatisfied and unchanged. Bound to do it again. Like Sisyphus.

They had to have been on this bus for AT LEAST, like, half an hour.

“You’d think they’d build a laser tag place a little closer to the city. You know, so people could actually go there,” Tucker remarked.

“Well, isn't this some GIW thing? I bet they saw one of those dilapidated roadside fun-whatevers and just said ‘kids like these, right?’ and nabbed it without thinking.”

“Well, they’d be right. Laser tag rules." Tucker slid off his headphones. "Really, how badly could they ruin something like laser tag?“

“It’s the GIW. They’ll find a way.”

“C’mon, Danny. A year ago you woulda been even more excited for this trip than me! Even if it is about hunting ghosts, it’s not like we haven’t done that before." Tucker rubbed his shoulder against Danny's and adopted his best 'cheer up, Sport, we're on our way to Disney as we speak!' voice. "Could be fun!”

As patronizing as he was being (and Danny immediately got him back for that shoulder rub), Tucker was right. Spending half the school day at a laser tag place should have been a dream come true! Maybe he could let himself enjoy this.

“Tell you what," Danny said. "I will keep myself open to the possibility of having fun! Whether it happens or not is none of my business."

“That’s more like it! I was beginning to worry Sam’s goth spores finally took over your frontal lobe.”

“Not yet, Tuck. I haven’t fallen that far.”

“I dunno, you seem pretty close,” he teased.

“Am not!”

“I’m gonna come to class one day and I’ll see you in a long sleeved striped shirt and guyliner.”

“That’s emo, not goth.”

“A-HA! And since when do you care about that distinction, my friend who totally isn’t infested with spores?”

“Shut up!” Danny shoved him playfully.

“You’re just saying that because…”

“HEY! I THINK I SEE IT!” shouted Mikey from the front of the bus. Conversation burst from its grave as the students clamored to catch a glimpse of their destination.

“Alright, everyone, settle down! We’re almost there, but let’s stay professional and orderly.” Mr. Lancer shakily stood up at the head of the bus. “What did I say about opening windows? Mr. Baxter! Stay on your side of the aisle.” He plopped down again.

“Hey, Danny, what do you see?” asked Tucker.

Braving the buzz of the glass, Danny pressed against the window for the widest view ahead. Amid the fields of soybeans and rotting grain elevators stood a warehouse with a highlighter-colored wall and a parking lot. Out front was a sign in an inscrutable font on an impressive pole. He couldn’t read it at all through the vibrations.

“Well?”

“It’s big. I think the front is spray painted or something.”

“Oh, maybe the building’s an independent thing. You know how the government is about spray paint.”

“Let’s hope,” Danny sighed.

They lurched around in their seats as the bus slowed and veered into the parking lot, where another bus was already unloading. Danny waved when he saw Sam in the crowd, but she didn’t look over. The bus parked, and Mr Lancer rose to block the front.

“Okay! Just a reminder that we are not going to be rushing inside right off the bat! We are going to gather by the front of the bus and then go in in an orderly fashion.”

Danny and Tucker stayed in their seats as the A-listers barged to the front of the bus. They only followed once they were urged to hurry up.

When Danny got a better look at the spray paint mural, disappointment settled on his shoulders. It was covered in gross-looking cartoon ghosts getting shot at by some guy in sunglasses. Sighing, he braced for the ectophobic propaganda that was undoubtedly going to be inside. Damn. Right after he got his hopes up.

There was way more going on in the foyer than he expected. It wasn’t just a tight room with a front counter; there were a couple arcade machines and quite a few benches. They seemed to be prepped for larger crowds, at least for Amity. Plastered on the walls were some “informative” posters about ghosts and what to do if you see one. Guides on how to support the GIW in your community and bullshit like that. There was also a sorry-looking ball pit in the corner.

Mr. Lancer and Ms. Driftwind, the bio teacher, had ganged up on some of the staff. They were all huddled around a clipboard and pointing at students intermittently.

“C’mon, Danny. I see Sam brooding near the ball pit. Whatever we're waiting for, it’s gonna take a while, so we might as well hang out.” Tucker gestured for him to follow with a jerk of his chin.

Sam started talking without even looking up at them. "Do you think they have a snack bar here?"

Danny looked around. "I don't see any."

"Me neither. But it would be weird not to have one, right? At an entertainment center?"

Tucker boldly stuck his feet in the ball pit without even looking. "Maybe they can't get catering all the way out here?"

"You don't get catering for a snack bar. You just get ingredients shipped."

Danny grabbed a ball out of the pit and ignored the way Sam recoiled in disgust. "If the GIW owns the whole building, it's probably weird. Maybe they have a sketchy cafeteria in the back. 'Hello, hip kids! Come on back for a radical snack! We have hot dogs, and they're made out of normal meat.'"

His friends laughed. Somehow, they ended up talking about how weird American commercials for Japanese video games were, and before they knew it they were all in the ball pit, passionately pelting each other with plastic while doing impressions of overly-enthusiastic TV gamers. Danny went wide with a ball aimed at Tucker, and it hit Mr. Lancer in the side. He glared. Whoops.

Ms. Driftwood clapped her hands rhythmically to get the scattered teenagers' attention. "Ravens! A third of you will be heading in to hear the rules now. If and when we call your name, please group up neatly by this door."

Before long, Dash's wish had come true and they were both in the first group together. Better yet, Danny's friends weren't joining them. Joyous day.

"Alright, kids! Have fun!"

As they passed through the door, someone yelled "kill somebody, Baxter!" and Danny felt the weight of an omen there.

As soon as he could, he got out of Dash's line of sight and to the back of the line. He knew he'd be found eventually, but at least for now there were a couple other A-listers in the group, and they were too busy hyping each other up to even look in his direction. When the door opened, they were the first through it.

As the rest of the students filed in, he saw a few people’s shirts light up, and a wave of nostalgia washed over him. Years ago, he’d begged his parents to take him to a local rock show when he’d heard there was a meteorite, and while he was there he saw some rocks that fluoresced under UV light.

He wondered if ghosts were fluorescent. Crap. What if he was fluorescent? He couldn’t just step out of line, everyone would notice and there would be questions. The door was several steps away. Ancients, what if this was the end? Shit shit shit shit. Shit!

Ghosts do not fluoresce under UV light.

Danny relaxed his shoulders. He hated being this paranoid about everything. It was over, he was okay, that’s what mattered. Breathing as deeply as he could without getting stares, he waited for the blacklights to start being fun again. They didn’t.

“So. Who here has played laser tag before?” asked a laser room employee. Several hands shot up.

“Okay, cool, cool. So you know how this is going to go. Everyone else, this is for you. See the vests and blasters against the wall? You’re going to need to put the vests on, making sure the big triangle is centered on your chest.”

There were students suiting up before the instructor had finished talking. Danny subconsciously calculated how long he should wait until grabbing a vest of his own to draw the least attention.

“Ok, everyone is doing good so far! Now, as some of you have already heard, this is going to be a little different than usual laser tag. You’re going to be taking the role of GIW operatives, fighting against ghosts hidden in the maze. Fake ones, of course.” The instructor chuckled at his own joke.

“There’s a variety of targets hidden in the maze, some ghostly and some harmless. The more ghosts you shoot, the more points you get! If you shoot a civilian target, you lose points. And it’s not just a glorified shooting range, you gotta be careful and have sharp reflexes. If you don’t shoot the ghost within a few seconds after it jumps out at you, you lose a life. Everyone got that?”

The group nodded and murmured with agreement.

“Are you guys ready to kick some slimy ghost butt?”

A halfhearted “yeah” rippled through the room.

“Alright, we can do better than that! Are you guys ready?”

A “yeah” that was equal parts excited and begrudging rang out. Danny wished he could melt people with his mind. First they desecrate laser tag and blacklights, then they talk about how he’s less than human and deserves to fucking die, and they stick him in a confined space with his bully and demand that he play enthusiastic? Fuck you.

The instructor seemed appeased.

“Alright then, soldiers, let’s go go go!” He swung open the doors to the course and the crowd bolted out, with Danny caught in the flow. The techno music hit him like a wall. He didn’t see Dash, and he didn’t want to. He’d already turned a corner by the time he called out.

“Hey, where’s Fenton? I need him to watch my six.”

Danny unwound his shoulders a little. That wasn’t a problem he’d have to deal with for a while.

Turning another corner, he nearly slammed face first into a fluorescent green cutout. He shoved down his instinctual response to go ghost, instead swinging his gun up and shooting at the little black thing in its chest. His gun flashed and made an approving noise, and the cutout folded back against the wall.

As Danny made his way deeper into the maze, his mood brightened. Not by much, but… noticeably. The beat got his blood pumping, he was waist deep in fog, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t shot ghosts before. Even the blacklights were regaining some appeal.

The next cutout was of the Box Ghost, who he happily gunned down. A shoddy representation of Technus swung out behind him, and was taken down just as fast. It felt good. Pretty much all the ghosts here were either perfectly generic or ones he had grudges against. They even had that jerk with the red eyes and the memory powers, who Danny took out with a masterful 360 no-scope. Not that his gun had a scope, but it was still cool.

His spirits dropped when he turned a corner and saw Dash Baxter in the middle of the path. He was looking down another hallway, and hadn’t noticed him yet.

Dash lowered his gun, smiling like he’d cleverly avoided a trap. A second later, his vest buzzed violently.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?“

Curiosity got the better of Danny, and he jogged over to see what had Dash worked up. It was a cutout of him. Well, of Phantom. Dash’s vest buzzed again.

“I’m not shooting Phantom!” Dash threw down his gun with a loud clatter. “This thing’s freaking busted.”

His vest buzzed a third time, and a loud recording rang out overhead. “Player sixteen: eliminated.”

“No, some genius set up the course wrong! I’d better get a second round after this.”

A tinny laser sound rang out, and the cutout sprung shut.

“Phantom’s a ghost, idiot,” said Elliot, before running off to score more points.

“Idiot?! You think I'M the idiot here?! He's on our side!” Dash’s nose crinkled into a full snarl, and his eyes flashed in Danny’s direction.

“I bet you feel the same way, Mr. Fenton Works! Huh?” Dash marched up and seized him by the shoulder straps. “Bet you’d shoot him down while he was distracted saving someone, or some shit, because… I don’t know, there’s something fuckin' wrong with you or something!” Dash threw him aside.

The commotion was drawing a crowd. There were two students behind Dash, and Danny heard footsteps behind him. He wasn’t getting a chance to appease Dash, not that he wanted that asshole to think they were on the same side of anything.

“Fact, we all got saved by Phantom just a couple weeks ago when that weirdo meat lady attacked at Star's birthday party!"

“Dash, Phantom’s putting on an act. We all know that,” said Valerie.

“What act? You think he’d be risking his life every night saving people from ghosts if it was all an act? If he wanted us dead he’d let us freaking die!”

Liam scoffed. “He wants us to think ghosts can be trusted, duh. And it looks like it’s working. Why do you care? Do you have a crush on him or something?”

The tensed muscles in Dash’s neck spelled death. “Why you little—!” Dash lunged forward. A hand seized his arm.

“Hey!" One of the staff materialized from the shadows. "That kind of behavior isn’t going to fly here. Mr. Baxter, right? You’ll be coming with me.”

“Hell no! Why don’t you explain why Phantom’s set up as an enemy? Trying to get us to turn on our local hero? Thinning out the competition?”

“You’re coming with me, this isn’t a request. We’ll talk about this later.”

“Make me!” Dash squared his shoulders and puffed out his chest.

The staff member shrugged. “You look like you play sports. Think for a moment. You’re at a school-sponsored event. Wanna bet that there won’t be consequences?”

Dash scowled, then his shoulders sunk. He sulked after the agent, leaving awkward silence in his wake. Danny just stood there. You don’t just start playing again after something like that.

===

In time, the round was officially over, and Danny went back into the lobby without looking at the leaderboard.

“Man, Danny, you look almost as bad coming out as you did going in. Was it really that bad?” Tucker asked.

Danny blew through his teeth. “It’s complicated.”

“Complicated?” Sam’s fork foraged through the green stuff she brought from home. “Does it have something to do with whatever Dash did that got him escorted outside?”

“In fact, it has everything to do with what Dash did.” Danny scowled.

“Well, don’t leave us hanging, what did he do?”

“Must’ve been something pretty bad. He never gets more than a slap on the wrist.”

“He decided to make a big old scene about Phantom being a hero, how he saved our lives and shouldn’t be hated like other ghosts and whatever.”

Tucker glanced around, then leaned in close.

“Isn’t that… a good thing, though?” he whispered.

“No,” Danny hissed. “I’m not letting myself be endorsed by Dash fucking Baxter. He's the worst bully at Casper, he doesn’t get to like Phantom.”

Sam shrugged. “Maybe this could be to our advantage. He might leave you alone if he thinks you’re on the same side.”

“Maybe!” Danny cursed himself and lowered his voice. “It might’ve been nice to catch a bit of slack. But I’m not gonna degrade myself by walking up to him and telling him he’s not alone, that I care about Phantom too and no hard feelings and we can help him together and it’s all going to be ok. I’m past groveling for his approval.”

“…Are you past buying dumb tracksuits too?” asked Sam dryly.

An icy shock stabbed through Danny's chest. It was just a joke. He knew it was a joke, they teased each other like this all the time. This was stupid. It’s no big deal. It’s not like he didn’t deserve it.

The shock faded into a buzzing ball of dread and weight. Tucker’s concerned face had been replaced with a lighthearted smile, and the corners of Sam’s lips were turned subtly upwards. They didn’t mean anything by it, on any other day he’d have laughed and quipped right back.

He stood up. Everything was just a bit too much. Tucker said something, but Danny was already on his way to the front doors.

Fresh air filled his lungs. He hadn’t realized how much the echoing cacophony was getting to him. Out here, every sound was clear and distinct. Bits of gravel left over from snow season crunched under his feet. Cars occasionally whooshed past on the highway. Getting caught out here could mean trouble, but he doubted anyone would come out. Eventually settling for a yellow parking bumper near the corner of the building, he sat down and braced his elbows on his knees.

Right as his shoulders were relaxing, he heard the weather stripping of the front doors scrape across the concrete. He bolted out of sight.

“Mr. Lancer, I think you know what I brought you out here to discuss.”

Danny’s ears perked up.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what got into him. He’s a good kid, best quarterback we’ve had in years.”

“I’m sure he is, he didn’t strike me as a delinquent. Neat hair, strong posture, and as you said a football player. Good all-American young man. But that boy’s been exposed to some dangerous ideas, and it seems like some of them have begun to take root.”

Mr. Lancer sighed, with a concern that Danny wasn’t used to hearing. “Is he going to be put on a watchlist?”

“No, nothing that drastic. He’s a teenager, he’s bound to make some stupid mistakes. The government understands that. But to make sure nothing worse comes of this, it would be a good idea to sign him up for some mandatory counseling sessions on ghosts and respecting authorities.”

“I’ll make sure that happens. Thank you for being so understanding.”

“Of course. The GIW is here to keep you safe, not to bring down the hammer on impressionable teenagers.”

Danny sneered at that last sentence. As if.

“Thank you again, regardless.”

He heard them go back inside. Knowing that they had just used the front door made getting back in unnoticed suddenly feel a lot more daunting. Maybe he’d just wait around for the trip to end and merge in with the rest of the students as they lined up for the bus. Look for ladybugs in the grass or something. And he wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences of bailing on Sam and Tucker either. He could just wait until they forgot or it got too awkward to mention so they wouldn’t try to apologize to him even though he was the one in the wrong.

That’s what he’d do. It was gonna be a long wait.

#danny phantom #my writing #invisobang 2023 #the forest the trees the fire #ftf catalyst

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noona-clock · 1 year

Text

The Flight Attendant - Part 2

Genre: Flight Attendant!AU

Pairing: Yunhyeong x You (Female!Reader)

Warnings: None

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | Words: 2,417

You weren’t sure you’d ever let out a bigger breath than you did when the plane finally landed.

Even though the flight had only been a little over two hours, it had felt much longer; at one point, as you were helping Yunhyeong serve drinks and snacks about halfway through, you were fairly certain you’d been up in the air for about two days. When you’d murmured this to your co-worker as he poured a Diet Coke for a passenger, he had simply chuckled and shot you a good-natured smile.

(His smile had actually made your stomach flip, but that wasn’t super important right now.)

“This is exactly why everyone’s first flight is domestic,” he whispered to you before leaning over and setting the now full cup on the passenger’s tray. When he stood back up, he nudged you gently with his elbow. “Don’t worry. It’ll be over before you know it. And you’re doing a great job!”

You simply replied with a wilting grin, and Yunhyeong chuckled softly again.

But, surprisingly, he had been right.

When the plane landed and you let out the biggest breath in the history of breaths, you realized... it had been over more quickly than you’d thought.

Thinking back on it now, it seemed like you’d just been standing at the door only five minutes ago greeting passengers as they arrived. And now here you were, standing at the door yet again and thanking everyone for their patronage and wishing them a nice day.

Almost as soon as the last passenger disembarked from the plane, Yunhyeong appeared at your side with two rolling suitcases behind him -- yours and, presumably, his.

“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked with an incredibly friendly smile curving his lips.

“No,” you sighed, shaking your head slightly in response to his question. “No, it really wasn’t.”

Yunhyeong wheeled your suitcase around and presented the handle to you, his amiable grin still present.

As you took it from him and began to make your way off the plane and out into the airport, Yunhyeong fell into step beside you and said, “You did great, by the way. I’m very impressed that this was your first flight.”

“Yeah?” you asked, eyebrows raising as you glanced over at him. “Well, you really helped me a lot. I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have done half as well without you.”

Yunhyeong’s words assured you that wasn’t true, but the expression on his face and in his eyes said otherwise. It was obvious that he was proud of how well you’d done under his tutelage -- and he had every right to be!

You, of course, had never flown with anyone else as your co-flight attendant, but even so, you were certain your first flight wouldn’t have gone so smoothly if you’d been with anyone else.

But as the two of you neared the end of the jet bridge, the busy airport in sight, you realized... you had no idea when you would see Yunhyeong again. Your airline was fairly huge; there were thousands of flight attendants employed!

The thought you may not see Yunhyeong for who knows how long did not sit well with you. He was friendly and kind and helpful and really good-looking, and you didn’t want to just leave with a simple ‘good-bye’!

So, as soon as you stepped into the waiting area for the gate, you inhaled sharply, prepared to ask what his plans were now that you’d landed.

But... he beat you to it.

“When’s your next flight?” he asked curiously, slowing his steps and herding you off to the side so you wouldn’t be in the way of traveling passengers.

If he’d asked you before this flight, you would’ve been able to tell him with no hesitation. But now your mind was completely blank. And you weren’t sure if it was because the last couple of hours had been a blur or if it was because Yunhyeong had taken you by surprise by asking.

...Probably both.

“Uh --” you stuttered, reaching into your jacket pocket to get out your phone.

But your phone was off, of course!

“I -- I think it’s later tonight,” you answered, though you didn’t sound at all confident. But you wanted to answer him instead of making him wait for you to turn your phone on and navigate to your calendar app.

“Oh, good,” Yunhyeong grinned. “I’m here overnight. Have you been here before?”

You started to shake your head, but then you quickly stopped yourself. “Once when I was younger with my parents, but I don’t think that really counts,” you answered with a somewhat nervous laugh.

“Okay, one more question,” Yunhyeong nodded. “Do you like sushi?”

Your brow furrowed in slight confusion even though the answer was an easy one: “Yes.”

Yunhyeong’s handsome face split into a wide smile, and he said, “Wonderful. There’s an amazingly good sushi place only about twenty minutes from here that I want to take you to -- my treat.”

Your heart flipped inside your chest.

He wanted to treat you to amazingly good sushi?

Apparently, your ever so slight hesitation made Yunhyeong think you were going to say ‘No,’ so he quickly added, “To celebrate your first flight and how well it went! Plus, who knows when we’ll get assigned to the same flight next. You’ve got time, I’ve got time --”

“Okay,” you interrupted, hoping you didn’t sound quite as breathless as you felt. “Sure. I would love some sushi.”

You would love sushi, of course, but... you would also love more time to spend with him. You were definitely shameless enough to admit that.

I mean, you would have to be blind, deaf, and not interested in men to not be attracted to Yunhyeong.

As it happens, you were none of those things, so you were attracted to Yunhyeong -- for better or worse. (Maybe worse because he was your co-worker and you were very doubtful you would get to see him often.)

“Perfect,” Yunhyeong replied, somehow grinning even wider than he had been. “Come on, we can drop our bags off at my hotel.”

You decided to immediately bury the fluttering thoughts that had popped up in your head upon hearing the words ‘at my hotel’ come from Yunhyeong’s mouth, instead forcing a distraction by thinking that you would get a sneak peek of what your life would be like eventually -- overnight layovers and getting to check into hotels and finding good restaurants in new cities.

Even though you most likely wouldn’t be with Yunhyeong when you did this in the future, you knew he could still teach you a lot -- show you the ropes, so to speak. He’d done so much for you on the flight, so you sort of assumed he would continue giving you advice and mentoring you now that you were both on the ground.

At least, you hoped he would.

Yunhyeong headed to the nearby counter for your airline, greeting your co-workers there with his signature friendly grin -- you’d only known him for a few hours, and you already knew that smile of his was what he was known for. It had to be!

You waited sort of off to the side, clutching the handle of your suitcase and watching as he chatted and laughed with the man sitting behind the counter. After a minute or two, he handed Yunhyeong what looked like a brochure, but when Yunhyeong re-joined you, he showed you it was his hotel and food vouchers for the night.

To be honest, it was all pretty fascinating. You’d known, of course, that being a flight attendant was more than just handing out drinks and snacks on a plane. There were complicated schedules and tons of small details, and you were now incredibly glad that Yunhyeong had offered to take you to dinner -- you had no idea when you’d have your first overnight layover, but you now felt more prepared when that day finally came.

You followed Yunhyeong out past baggage claim and to the Transportation exit of the airport, where all of the taxis and ridesharing cars waited to pick up passengers. He quickly hailed a car, and after setting your suitcase inside the trunk, you slid into the backseat.

The hotel wasn’t very far from the airport, which made sense, but it also meant you didn’t have time to see too much of the city. But you still rode the whole way with your nose practically smooshed against the window so you could see anything and everything you could.

Yunhyeong talked the whole way, but it was the kind of talking that didn’t require you to respond. He could obviously tell that you were excited to be here and wanted to be a tourist, so he didn’t try to have an actual conversation with you. There would be plenty of time for that over dinner!

It took about an hour to reach the hotel, get Yunhyeong checked in, drop off both of your suitcases in his room (where you quickly popped into the bathroom to freshen up and spritz on some perfume to cover up the stale air from the plane), find another taxi, and get to the sushi restaurant you’d heard such great things about.

Now, over an hour after getting off the plane as a flight attendant for the first time, you were sitting at a counter with sushi menu in front of you -- and thank goodness, because you were starving. You’d been too nervous to eat anything during the flight, but now that all of your anxiety had settled, your stomach was screaming at you to do something about its current empty state.

“What do you suggest?” you asked with a frown. Literally everything sounded delicious, and even though you liked sushi, you wouldn’t call yourself well-versed in everything the world of sushi had to offer. There were too many options!

“Everything I’ve tried here has been amazing,” Yunhyeong replied, leaning over a bit to look at your menu. “It just depends on what you like.”

“Well, that’s the problem,” you chuckled, glancing over at him with an amused expression. “I like pretty much everything.”

Yunhyeong returned your chuckle and swiveled on his barstool to angle himself toward you. “That’s a good thing,” he reminded you. “But... do you like avocado?”

“Love it.”

“How about spicy mayonnaise?”

“I can tolerate it.”

“Tuna and cream cheese?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“All right,” he said with a definitive nod. “Then how does this sound?: One order of the Avocado roll, one order of the Dragon roll, and one order of the Cheesy Tuna roll.”

Your eyes skimmed over the menu, finding those three options and hastily reading the descriptions. Avocado... spicy mayonnaise... tuna and cream cheese.

And since you were far too hungry to keep looking for something else -- and because those three sounded absolutely delicious -- you set your menu down on the counter and said, “Well, I’m ready.”

Yunhyeong, now beaming and looking more handsome than ever, waved over a server, and the two of you placed your orders. He almost asked for a bottle of sake, but then he remembered you had a flight in a few hours -- he most certainly would not be responsible for you getting even the tiniest bit tipsy before your next job. Not ever, and definitely not on your first day!

You tried to convince him that he could have some. Just because you had to work soon didn’t mean he shouldn’t be able to enjoy himself! He was here overnight, after all.

But Yunhyeong insisted. There was no need, and he would feel rude if he ordered alcohol by himself.

...Well. One more thing to add his ever-growing list of things that made him practically perfect.

He was a true gentleman.

As it turned out, neither of you even needed one drop of alcohol to have a good time. The two of you sat at the counter for nearly two hours, eating and chatting and laughing. Yunhyeong mainly told flight attendant stories, and you hung on his every word. But when you told your own stories, he did the same. He listened intently and asked questions and made sure you were completely done speaking before he did so himself.

Even though you two had just met earlier today, there was no awkwardness between you. You felt like you’d known him for years instead of just hours -- that’s how comfortable you were.

When you finally realized that your next flight was leaving in an hour, Yunhyeong hurriedly paid the tab before rushing you out the door and into a taxi.

“You can get back to the airport on your own?” he asked once the two of you arrived at his hotel room to collect your suitcase. “I can go with you if you want me to.”

“No, I can manage,” you assured him with a grin. And since you had exchanged phone numbers back at the sushi restaurant, you added, “But I will call you if I need anything, I promise.”

He’d already made you promise that in the taxi on the way here, but you felt like bringing it up again just to give him peace of mind -- and give yourself peace of mind, to be honest.

“Okay,” he nodded before rolling your suitcase over to you. “Have a safe flight.”

“You, too,” you replied, trying to ignore the butterflies forming in your stomach.

You were nervous about the flight, of course -- especially since Yunhyeong wouldn’t be there to help -- but... there was something else. It wasn’t just nerves.

Right as Yunhyeong reached around you to open his hotel room door, it hit you. You realized that, along with the nerves, you felt... regret. Anxiety from leaving Yunheyong and not knowing when you would see him next.

So, before you stepped out into the hallway, you quickly turned and rushed out a “Thank you. Again. For everything. I -- I’m really glad my first flight was with you. And I had a really nice time tonight. So... thank you.”

And then, without another thought, you stepped up to him and placed your lips on his cheek.

“Okay, bye,” you muttered hastily, and as you swiftly left his room and speed-walked down the hall to the elevator, your cheeks began to burn.

And they would probably burn for hours to come.

Days, even.

Part 3

#yunhyeong scenarios #yunhyeong imagines #yunhyeong fanfic #yunhyeong au #yunhyeong fluff #ikon scenarios #ikon imagines #ikon fanfic #ikon au #ikon fluff #kpop scenarios #kpop imagines #kpop fanfic #kpop au #kpop fluff #yunhyeong #song yunhyeong #ikon #kpop

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