#this interests maybe 5 people besides myself /j

[scary-monsters]

(posting just in case i don’t get much of a chance tomorrow during the day)

my bday gift to myself: my specific version of modern au diego who drinks la croix like it’s the only thing that will sustain him!!!

it’s cropped so it doesn’t verge too far into n sfw territory, but i did two other spicier versions which i’ll throw on my patreon next month 😈

[gammija]

The final Web!Martin evidence list

Now that canon is done, and we’ve got word of god confirmation that Web!Martin wasn’t complete nonsense, I decided to go back to my lil chronological evidence list and actually clean it up a bit, delete parts that in hindsight weren't all that indicative, and put everything in a slightly more readable format. (Obligatory disclaimer that i don’t and never did believe or advocate for some kind of evil web!martin, and that I'm not intending to connect a moral judgement to martin (or anyone else for that matter) having some of these traits)

So here: The (hopefully, please) final list with Web!Martin Evidence! Presented in order of importance, according to. me

The final (hopefully) Web!Martin evidence list

(In order from most to least obvious)

Spiders

I mean, it’s called the Web. TMA reiterates quite a few times that Martin liked spiders. Sometimes it IS that easy.

MAG022: Martin: "I like spiders. Big ones, at least. Y’know, y’know the ones you can see some fur on; I actually think they’re sort of cute -"

MAG038: | Sasha: "A spider?" Jon: "Yeah. I tried to kill it…" [...] Sasha: [Chuckles] "Well, I won’t tell Martin." Jon: "Oh, god. I don’t think I could stand another lecture on their importance to the ecosystem."

MAG059: Jon: "I have done my best to prevent Martin reading this statement in too much detail. I have no interest in having another argument about spiders."

MAG079: Jon: "Apparently, biologically, his account of the spiders doesn’t make any sense according to Martin."

MAG197: Martin: “What? Because I like spiders? Well, used to.”

Lies and subterfuge

Martin is able to use lying and subterfuge to achieve his goals, and is called manipulative a few times.

Lies:

MAG022: Martin: "[He] became slightly more co-operative after I lied to him and told him that one of the upstairs residents had buzzed me in."

MAG056: Martin: "I lied on my CV."

MAG158: Peter: “But you said –” Martin: “Honestly, I mostly just said what I thought you wanted to hear.”

MAG164: Jon: "You – I actually believed you!"

MAG189: Martin: “Sorry. Sorry, John. Not sure how much everything up there actually understood what was going on. But, y’know, I didn’t want to take any chances so it made sense to… um…” Jon: “Put on a show?” Martin: “Yeah, basically, more or less.”

MAG191: Martin: "That's not true." Arun: "Liar!"

Subterfuge:

The plan in 118, which revolved around convincing Elias that Martin was only “acting out”, to create a distraction for Melanie. (Also compare the way he evades giving a straight answer here with the way Annabelle talks in 196.)

Working with Peter in s4 under false pretenses, to distract him from Jon and eventually try to learn what Peter wanted.

Manipulation accusations:

These, I know, are somewhat contentious, since it’s mostly villains saying this to him. I’m still including them, since

1): From a media analysis standpoint, being mentioned 3 times is a sign to pay attention, even when it may not be the full truth.

2): I only see it as describing Martin’s behaviour in the previous points, not as a moral judgement; Especially since he almost always ‘manipulates’ people in positions of power over him.

Still, if it bothers anyone, feel free to ignore these.

MAG138: Martin: "That’s it? No, no monologue, no mind games? You love manipulating people!" Elias: "That makes two of us."

MAG186: Martin: “I can be a real manipulative prick, you know that?” Also Martin: “Oh yeah.”

MAG196: Annabelle: “Because you always managed to get what you wanted through smiles and shrugs and stammerings that weren’t nearly as awkward as they seemed.” [SMALL SOUND OF MARTIN’S CONCESSION TO THE POINT] Martin: “Point taken.”

The Lonely/the Web

The Lonely and the Web sometimes affect Martin to similar degrees.

In season 3, when Martin is getting used to reading statements for the first time, most of them leave him emotionally affected: MAG084, MAG088, MAG090,

MAG095: Martin: “S-S-Statement… done.” [HEAVY BREATHING & TREMBLING AS MARTIN STEADIES HIMSELF] “I don’t like recording these. There. I-I said it.”,

MAG098: Martin: [Panting] “End of statement.” [Deep breath] “I, um, I think I might need to sit down. Oh. Yeah, I am. Right. I don’t, uh, I’m not really sure if these are actually getting easier or harder. I mean I don’t feel –”

Only the last two statements he reads are remarkably easier. This might be a hint that Martin is just getting used to reading them, but the quote from MAG098 seems to contradict that. Either way, it’s likely not a coincidence that those last two happen to be the Lonely and the Web:

MAG108: Martin: “Statement ends.” (exhale) “That wasn’t so bad…”

MAG110: Martin: “Statement ends.” [...] “I mean, I think it sounds like a Jurgen Leitner book. About spiders. Hm. Good John didn’t have to read this one, anyway. I know he’s not a fan. Although, this one wasn’t too bad, actually! I – yeah. Anyway.”

In season 5, there are two powers’ Domains that actually affected Martin mentally, as opposed to only physically: the Lonely’s, in 170 (and arguably 186), and, depending on your interpretation, in 172, when Martin went exploring without knowing why he did so.

Proximity

Martin investigates a lot of the Web statements during season 1 to 3 (in other words, when the archive team still researches statements). The only ones he isn’t mentioned in during this period are MAG019 and MAG020, when he’s being harrassed by worms, and MAG081, which Jon records by himself outside of the institute.

Most notably, he’s the one who discovered the statement in MAG114, ‘Cracked Foundations’, which is the one statement in the entire show that sets up the interdimensional properties of HTR.

The Web!Lighter passed through Martin's hands first, before he gave it to Jon.

Similarly, Annabelle mostly spoke to Martin in season 5, despite most other Avatars usually focusing on Jon.

Aesthetics

Apart from the above obviously Web related areas, there are some other aesthetics which are mentioned in connection to both the Web and Martin, throughout canon.

These are describing the Web;

These are describing Martin.

Tapes:

Martin is the only character to treat the tape recorders as friends - any other character is either indifferent, or treats them as enemies.

MAG039: Martin: "I think the tapes have a sort of… low-fi charm."

MAG154 Martin: “Oh. Hi. Hello again.” … (small laugh) “Sorry pal, false alarm this time.”

MAG156 Martin: “Mm? Oh.” [HE LAUGHS, GENTLY.] “Yeah. (rustling paper) I was going to read one. Hate for you to miss it!” [SHORT, FORCED LAUGH, AS HE FLAPS THE STATEMENT AROUND.]

MAG170 Martin: “Oh. Oh, hello. What’s this? Wow, retro! What are you up to, little buddy; just – listening? That’s okay. It’s nice to have someone to talk to.”

MAG190 Jon: "[The tapes] seem to like [Martin]."

Retro:

MAG069: Statement: “I only saw Annabelle Cane once during this period. She wasn’t hard to pick out. She dressed like a vintage clothing store exploded on her, and her short bleach-blonde hair stood out sharply against dark skin.”

MAG160: Jon: “Anyways, don’t tell me the phonebox down there doesn’t appeal to your retro aesthetic.” Martin: “It – might. Maybe.”

MAG163: Annabelle/the Web callying Martin via an old payphone: [ A PHONE RINGS. IT’S NOT THE TINNY, ELECTRONIC SOUND OF A CELLPHONE – NO, THIS IS A TRUE, HEAVY, CLASSIC RING.] Martin: “Uh. John? Uh, J, John – the, uh, payphone that’s – here, for some reason – it’s ringing?”

Hatred of burns:

MAG067: Jack Barnabas’ statement: “I looked up and noticed within the corner of the room, where there had been a spider’s web this morning, there was just a faint wisp of smoke.” “Another held a bag that seemed to be full of candles, while a third had a clear plastic container filled with hundreds of tiny spiders.”

MAG139: Statement by member of Cult of the Lightless Flame: “The Mother of Puppets has always suffered at our hand; all the manipulation and subtle venom in the world means nothing against a pure and unrestrained force of destruction and ruin.” Agnes burned down Hilltop Road.

MAG145: The Web ties Gertrude to Agnes, stopping the Desolation’s ritual (the only Power whose ritual the Web is known to have prevented).

MAG167: Gertrude enlists Agnes’/the Desolation’s help in order to burn her assistant Emma, who was Web aligned.

MAG169: Martin: "Look, I just – don’t want to get burned, all right? It’s, it’s like my least favorite pain ever. [...] I, I legitimately hate burns, alright? They’re, they’re awful, and they scar horribly, and they just – it – it just makes me sick; I, I hate it. Hate it!"

Phrasing:

MAG039: Martin: "I’m trapped here. It’s like I can’t… move on and the more I struggle, the more I’m stuck. [...] It's just that whatever web these statements have caught you in, well, I’m there too. We all are, I think."

MAG079: Martin's poem: "The threads of people walking, living, lovi–"

MAG117: Martin: "This last couple of years, I’ve always been running, always hiding, caught in someone else’s trap, but, but now it’s my trap, and, well, I think it’ll work. I know, I know it’s not exactly intricate, but it felt good leaving my own little web. Oh, oh, Christ, I hope John doesn’t actually listen to these. “Good lord, is Martin becoming some sort of spider person?” No, John, it’s an expression, chill out! Besides, spiders are fine. I mean, yes, people are scared of them, obviously, but actual spiders, they just want to help you out with flies."

MAG167: Jon: “Methinks the Spider dost protest too much.” Martin: “Jon –” Jon: “Joking! Just joking.”

Personality:

How applicable these are depends heavily on how you interpret Martin's own personality, so your mileage may vary.

MAG008: Statement: “Nobody ever said a word against Raymond himself, though, who was by all accounts a kind and gentle soul [...]”

MAG123: Jon: "The Web does seem to have a preference for those who prefer not to assert themselves."

MAG147: Annabelles statement: "I discovered a deep and enduring talent inside myself for lying. [...] My manipulations were not intricate, but they were far beyond what was expected of a child my age, and I have always believed that the key to manipulating people is to ensure that they always under- or overestimate you. Never reveal your true abilities or plans."

Word of God and Annabelle

I kinda wanted to ‘prove’ that Web!Martin had quite a bit of evidence to back it up, hence this header being last. But of course, in this post-canon world, there are a few lines that most obviously confirm the theory:

MAG197: Martin is Web enough to be able to read the 'vibrations', like Annabelle, and see Jon and Basira (the latter being especially notable, as he hadn't known she was there beforehand): [CHITTERING, BUZZING AND HIGH-PITCHED SQUEALS CHANGE CADENCE] Martin: "Wait… Wait, hang on, is that him?" Annabelle: "Yes. I guess you’re better with the Web than we thought." Martin: "And – Wait, ha– No, uh… is that… Basira? He – He’s got Basira with him!" Annabelle: "Yes."

Season 5 Q&A part 2: Jonny: “Essentially, it was fascinating looking at the fandom and, like, the Web!Martin believers, because what they were doing was correctly picking up on hints dropped in the early seasons that were later, like, not exactly abandoned, but it was much more like, ‘Well, no, he does have like aspects of The Web to him, but he is moreover The Lonely.’ And that came about very… very organically, really. Because throughout Season 3 and going into Season 4, we had this conversation and we were like, ‘No, actually he's like-” Alex: “‘It can't be, it cannot be, it must be the other way round’ Yeah.”

(Note that they say “throughout season 3 and going into season 4,” which likely means that season 1, season 2, and at least part of season 3, aka half of the entire show, were written with Web!Martin as an intentional possibility.)

If you read all that, thanks so much! Obviously, Web!Martin never really came to fruition, so it's fine if you still don't like it. This is just a post explaining where it was coming from, at least for me and the other theorists I've spoken to.

[werewolfinthelivingroom]

Rating Different Versions of Will Blake

Because Fever Swamp Brain is real

Official

OG Book: Not much to say, he was clearly just a dude. A guy alright. Twist is there just because we need a twist, but you can feel a good chunk of personality whenever Cassie antagonizes him.

8 R.L. Stines/10

Graphix: Great design since the art style is killer, and absolutely love the way it’s more obvious here that he’s actively interested in Grady for some reason. The gay undertones are slowly becoming apparent.

10/10

OG TV Show: Will’s actor has to take on both Will and Cassie’s roles in the story since Cassie got cut, but he really does bring Will to life as a character. He’s a more active threat, even if he canonically dies in this version. The eclipse scene though? * Chef’s kiss * absolutely gay as hell, if Will Blake was in Twilight (and the actors were all the same age) he would’ve bagged Bella AND Edward. 

11/10

Movies: My personal headcanon is that the monsters in the Manuscripts are beta versions of the characters in the official books, and this is why almost none of them match their book versions in either personality and design. The design is absolutely killer, but it’s obviously not the twelve-year-old if his six pack and tattoo weren’t obvious enough. Even the branding makes it clear that this is “The Werewolf of Fever Swamp” as a character, rather than Will Blake.

If he was a character in the book I can totally see him as like, Will’s cooler older brother who’s also a Werewolf and maybe Will would have less trauma in my fic.

0/10 as a Will, but 10/10 as a Design.

Horrortown: Just like Bart.

IDK maybe the designers just saw the word “flat-top” and went buck wild, I would believe his character design belonged to CONAN before Will Blake (ToT). Personality wise, he’s straight ;^; also if he wants Marty to leave Courtney alone, he should just date him - boom, problem solved. When he isn’t being the “Am Am Werewolf” in Courtney King’s General direction he’s pretty fun since he’s basically a Dogboy.

6/10

- IDK if Will cameos or even gets a mention in the Fever Swamp comics besides sharing the name “Blake” with a main character. Hit me up if he ever appears in anything else. Fanfic Will’s in the Readmore.

Non-Canon

The Werewolves of Fever Swamp by Monokuma_memes(X): My own Will and I’m not deluded enough to rate my own writing, so read it yourself and make your voice heard. He’s gay and has trauma and that’s all I’m spoiling now.

?/10

You Never Grow Out of Your Goosebumps Phase by bluemandycat(X): Kickstarted me actually sitting down to write my fic, mostly because I wanted to put my own fucked up Will out there. Beware because Grady and Will aren’t really healthy at the point the protags of this fic find them, but you do feel a little bad for Will when he’s not being a dick. For what little we see of him, very interesting.

6 bullets from Cassie/10

Goosebumps United... (2014) by Lord Candycane(X): Aw yes, the Infinity War of Goosebumps/j. Not much for Will to do in this fic besides cameo every once in a while, since there are like...100 characters here. Though I do like the idea that Grady and Cassie just keep him in check like it’s their job. He also gets to be emo about being a Werewolf here! No gay undertones, since Grady holds most of them in that one chase scene.

5/10

Goosebumps United (2021) by Sweetiebuttons(Ao3:X and FFN:X): Okay, so SB made a fic based on Candycane’s fic(basically their own take on the idea) and just went hamwild. It’s crossposted on FFN and Ao3 but for some reason under different names and also FFN has more chapters uploaded(maybe they’re retooling the fic for ao3??). SB portrays him much more sympathetically, sometimes to a kinda cheesy degree? Honestly. it’s pretty endearing in a “webkinz milk cat” kind of way. Absolutely love him becoming friends with people that did this to him:

Not to expose myself for having terrible taste as a kid, but I like the touch of comparing Will to another gay-coded werewolf. Will gets to meet other werewolves and it’s definitely fascinating to think how he’s the only lycanphobic werewolf in GB canon - there’s even some more Fever Swamp lore based on what little we had in the first United fic. I do like how Will is now the straight man and just has to deal with constant BS from his fellow werewolves, and I especially like the idea of Will not being comfortable with how gung-ho Grady is about being a werewolf. 

The dialogue is kinda confusing, and Will just goes all over the place and never finishes the interactions so we don’t get much. But I do like the ideas that are presented here.

6/10

Werewolf of Fever Swamp by sweetie buttons(X): Okay this fic is a revisionist piece on Grady having a Father/Son relationship with the Swamp Hermit, and Grady doesn’t become a Werewolf. Will is irrelevant in SB’s sequel to this fic, but for what was shone he sticks closely to his book counterpart. Except for the reveal, because like...Will did not even feel like he wanted to eat Grady. Like every description of him felt like Will wanted to cry and throw-up over how beautiful his boyfriend is. This Will would’ve bit Grady on purpose 100% and the Hermit and [REDACTED] were homophobic to get in the way of that/j.

5/10

Welcome to Goosebumps High by DanielDaponte(X): Not much to say, its Monster High but Goosebumps and it got put on permanent hiatus. But Will shows up for one chapter, now an adult and the school’s gym teacher(C.E. Teacher??), which is honestly the funniest thing that has happened with the character. I also forgot about the main character thirsting after him, which is doubly funny.

10 Werewolf Thirst Traps/10

The Goosebumps School(and it’s many sequels) by SquadMemberK17(X): This series is so fascinating, I could go on about how bonkers the sequels get and how weirdly engaging this self-ship fic about the hat guy from the Dead House live action episode. Like, a bunch of Goosebumps protags are brutally murdered in this fic it is so mindboggling. BUT we are here for Will and he’s a side character in the MC’s friendgroup, in fact, he’s the first person she meets. Will is weird because the author has a bunch of weird ships besides the main one with her self-insert, but Will gets paired with Hannah Stoneman from Werewolf Skin in what I can only call...Monster race shipping? Will honestly had more chemistry with the main character and Grady. Speaking of Grady!

The plot has Sarabeth doing weird shit to destroy the main character for some reason and it would take forever to explain, but one of her plans include getting the Swamp Hermit to kill the MC and Will. You see, in this canon the Swamp hermit killed Grady when he got turned and reveals Will’s past to the MC. Will then saves MC and kills the hermit, and after this traumatizing event it’s never talked about again?? Also, Grady’s cameo just involves his severed head so have fun with that (ToT). Will still had better chemistry with a Dead Grady than he did with HANNAH. 

Goosebumps Adventure by Stone-Man85(X): It took me too long to realize this fic plagiarized the Haunting Hour movie, and even a more embarrassing amount of time to realize Grady and Will don’t show up (even in the Fever Swamp chapter). This led to a rabbithole that decimated one of my non-GB discords, but as for the Fever Swamp chapter I did not expect that much homophobia to be thrown into my face. Also, RL Stine is a real person in this fic and dies in the first chapter.

-85/10 a plague upon the Author’s house.

- I’m not talking about the fic where a dude’s fursona has a yaoi moment with the Movie version of Will. Or the Wattpad selfship fics. 

[kareofbears]

plainly in truth, chapter 2/5

“Without you around, it’s sorta like stuff is just kinda…bleh.“

—

Or: hiding, confiding, and misguiding.

read on ao3 or below the cut :)

Yusuke wasn’t too sure if what he was doing was of the right mind, but his heart is definitely in the right place.

There’s a lapse in time between Jails and hitting the road. Everyone is out soaking in the last of Sendai; Ryuji and Akira (and by extension, Sophia) are on a quest to buy any last minute supplies that they might need while the girls and Morgana are taking in the sights that they didn’t quite manage to explore as much as they’d like.

Well, the girls who like crowds and sightseeing are on a quest, at least.

Futaba and Yusuke are in the trailer by their own volition—he didn’t need to see anything else that wasn’t a timeless statue, and he learned early in his life that if you pace your spendings, you can then use that money to spend in the future. Quite the contrary, Futaba has had a little too much excitement these past few days and is more than happy to hide away in her top bunk with only her laptop charger peeking out from the bottom of her fleece blanket.

(A cartoon rendition of the Sendai temple is printed onto the fleece. Apparently Haru had yet to see Futaba purchase anything ‘tourist-y’ and action figures of various anime characters don’t seem to count.)

He tugs on her laptop cord. “Hello.”

“...What?” she grunts, voice slightly muffled. Through the thin fabric, he can see the illumination from her screen.

“I need help reacting to something.”

“And you decided to ask me?” she deadpans. “The literal shut-in?”

“The previous shut-in,” he corrects. “You haven’t been a shut-in in nearly a year. A marvelous feat, if I do say so myself.”

“Yeah, and this is my way of celebrating.” The lump on the bed seems to curl further in on itself. “Begone. Do a painting or something. This is my me time. The equivalent of guzzling down a boat load of Arginade. There’s barely any time to be by myself considering the whole group is treating this RV like a pimped out party bus, so shoo.”

J-pop starts playing from inside the blanket fort, and even Yusuke knows a dismissal when he hears one. That won’t stop him, though.

He tugs again, harder. “That is the reason I’m asking you now. I can’t have this be heard by prying ears.”

Had there been a cat on the bunk bed, its ears would have twitched. “Is this…?”

“Yes,” he nods sagely. “It’s a secret.”

Futaba’s head pops out, eyes wide and nearly glowing in excitement. If there was one thing that she liked more than recovering her energy, it's uncovering every nook and cranny of people’s lives, whether they want it or not.

“Inari, you should’ve said something!” She throws the blanket off herself, snatches her laptop in her arms and jumps down. Slamming it down on the booth, she throws herself on top of the smooth faux leather. “Tell me everything. The deets, the specs, all down to the last dirty drop of tea.”

He slides in to join her, albeit much slower. “Before you tell me that I misled you, I want to make it clear: I don’t know what the secret is.”

“What!” she slaps her forehead, groaning. “Yusuke, why would you do me like that? That’s false advertising to the max, and I do not appreciate you tricking me.”

“There wasn’t a trace of trickery. What I’m about to say really does have to do with a secret, but I need your help with how to deal with it.”

“I’m gonna level with you here pal,” she puts a hand on his wrist. “I’m not the right person for this, but I’d be darned if I let you walk away without telling me anything. So let’s hear it! I’m ready for some juicy goss. Oh! Can I guess? Is it about Haru?”

He frowns. “No. Is there something about Haru?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I was asking you!” she says, patting her hands rapidly on the table. “Come on, just spill the beans already.”

“There are no ‘beans’ to spill yet, and besides, that sounds like a waste of perfectly good food.” He leans back against the plush cushion. Only a pinch of guilt arises in him as he says it. “It’s about Ryuji.”

“Ooo, Skull himself. Gotta admit, I wasn’t expecting him.”

“It relieves me that you said that. I share the same sentiment—it wasn’t until I had run into him the night before when I had started to truly suspect something. And what I found was…” he trails off.

Her lips pull downwards. “That bad?”

“It was worrying, to say the least.”

She sighs. Most of the energy in her seemed to have filed out in the presence of a more serious topic. “Dang. I knew it was fishy when he left, but he’s always been able to just hash things out on his own.” Her expression changes as an idea pops into her head, and it morphs into one he recognizes. “Does—?”

“No. Akira doesn’t know, apparently.”

Futaba splutters, and he has to resist the urge to nod his head at her reaction. “He—Akira—wait, what? He doesn’t know? Oh, it must be bad bad.”

“My thoughts exactly. Initially, I had thought that whatever this was, it was manageable. Like that time he had spent his month’s allowance on a claw machine to win Makoto that light-up buchimaru.” Idly, he touches her keyboard lightly, appreciating the kaleidoscope of colors that emanate from it. “You know how I feel. We’re the Phantom Thieves; we can’t allow anyone to suffer alone, even if the one we’re helping is a Phantom Thief himself.”

Futaba raises an eyebrow. “And how do you want to help him?” she asks. “By talking to him? Let’s be real, you and I have the lowest social stat in this group. Combined, we can maybe reach the nerd student council president, and the guy who can and should handle this doesn’t even know about it!” Biting down on her lip, “Should we tell Akira?”

“Absolutely not. That was the one thing he had requested, and we cannot go against it. By extension, I don’t think we should tell anyone else.” A thought comes to him. “Wait, he mentioned that Ann knows of his situation.”

“Great! Someone who knows how to deal with people’s problems and isn’t us. What are we waiting for?” She reaches for her phone, and Yusuke proceeds to smack her hand out of the way. “Ow?”

“Don’t call her!” he hisses. “Ryuji said that she’s, and I quote, ‘part of the problem’. We can’t have her knowing that we know something.”

“Ann is?” Futaba exclaims, shoving her glasses up her nose. “This is getting too deep. We don’t even know anything yet, and it’s really starting to feel like we’re part of some conspiracy.”

“That’s right, we don’t know anything, and it is our largest road block.” Yusuke crosses his arms. “We don’t know what happened between Ryuji and Ann, or if something even occurred between Ryuji and Ann. What if they had an argument? What if they’re fighting, and it becomes irreparable between them? What if it begins affecting our Jail runs?”

“You really gave this some thought, huh?”

“But of course. I must nurture the few friends that I have managed to treasure.” He glances outside and sees the crowds clambering to see their tourist spot. “We may be different from most teenagers, but I don’t believe we’re immune to the nature of cliques or dramas or even insecurities.”

“God, what a good friend you are, it’s bugging me,” Futaba accuses. “So what the heck, Mr. Philanthropist? We’re stuck between a rock and our friend group here. This mission was doomed before you even dragged me out from my hideout,” she says, eyes drifting away to stare longingly back at her bunk bed.

“Stop making that expression. There’s a reason why I talked to you about this.” He leans forward. “What I’m asking is, to be frank, unfavorable, but I really do believe that it’s worth it to do this.”

She looks at him, and it only takes her a few seconds for realization to set in. Her jaw drops. “Oh Inari, that’s vile.”

“If you’re uncomfortable with it—”

“I didn’t say I was uncomfortable with it,” she cuts in. The grin on her face is wide; a woman in her element. “I just thought you’re the one who’d be all against this kind of thing.”

Futaba pulls her laptop towards her. “Sit back and observe the master at work.”

He watches as her fingers breeze through the keyboard, eyes inscrutable as light reflects off of her glasses. “So you can do it?”

“I’ve hacked into the Diet Building’s security cameras on a dare back when I was twelve,” she snorts. “This is Mario Kart Baby Park with the railings up.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It means—” With a flourish, she hits a key before glancing up at him, smug. “That this will be very easy. I’m thinking we can start with their text messages and work our way up to the big stuff.”

“Oh, right. You can go through our phones,” he grimaces. “You’ve stopped doing that, yes?”

“Of course I have! By the way, did you figure out what courses you wanted next term? I saw your advisor was bugging you about it, you should really email her back.”

“Yes, I’ve finally decided on sculpting as opposed to visual photography since it lets me focus on the anatomy of...” he pauses. “Wait—”

“Okay, looks like I got his text messages with Ann, so let’s all focus on this now!” she says loudly. “Scooch over, let’s go through ‘em.”

He does, and she moves to sit next to him. Yusuke peers at her screen. “Nothing out of the ordinary. There is a significant drop in the frequency of his replies, but that’s been the case for me as well.”

“Same here.” She continues scrolling up rapidly, so fast he wonders how she can keep up with herself. “Memes, memes, lots of ‘where you at’ texts, more memes…”

Something catches his eye. “Hold. Go down slightly, I think that link might be interesting.”

“‘How to treat knee pain: 11 steps with pictures’?” she reads aloud. “His knee is acting up again?”

“What’s peculiar is that I haven’t seen any sign of it.” He squints at Ryuji’s response to it—generic gratitude. “Even in Jails, he runs around without a care in the world.”

“What’s even weirder is that Ann is actually sending Ryuji wikihow links on how to treat his knee,” she snorts. “Let’s put a pin in this one and move on, Ann’s chat is chalking up to be a dead end.”

Rubbing her hands together, she straightens up like a professor in front of a lecture hall on the first day of classes. “Now Yusuke, when you’re looking to crack someone open like a tasty, moist omelette, there are two things that you must look into: their email and their bank account.”

After some clicking, Ryuji’s email pops up. “Email is obvious, since this pretty much tracks anything big. Delivery shipments, subscriptions to websites, acceptance letters. It’s all here in a neat little bow, ready for us to read.”

“‘Manga’s are 20% off for this weekend only,” he reads. “‘Anime convention next weekend’, ‘Pizza coupons’.”

“Ugh, he’s so boring! Next!” Clicking sounds through the RV, emphasizing how much they were snooping through their friend’s private life. “Bank account, show us your wisdom.”

“My word,” Yusuke gasps when the tab opens up. “That’s quite a lot of funds.”

“Inari, four thousand yen is definitely not a lot of money. How much do you have in yours?”

“I don’t have an account,” he admits. “I was on my way to the bank to open one, but I ran out of train fare. By the time I had gotten there, it was already closed. Quite rude, considering that it was only two o’clock.”

She levels him with a look. “Was it a Sunday when you did all this?”

“Why does that matter?”

“Never mind,” she shakes her head. “Okay, so nothing conclusive or even embarrassing. That means that whatever this is, he really doesn’t want anyone knowing about it.”

Futaba hops out of the booth and starts rummaging through everyone’s luggage. “That means we unlock the secret, classic, never goes out of style method of snooping—” with an expression of triumph, she showcases Ryuji’s backpack to him. “Going through their stuff IRL.”

Yusuke winces. “Don’t you think we might be going too far?”

“Hey, what’s with the cold feet? Where was your ‘justice’ from before?”

“I’m all for justice,” he watches her unzip the backpack, recoiling. “But even this seems a little excessive.”

“Look, we already went through his email, his bank account, his text messages. At this point, it’s kind of weird if we don’t find anything. Like—” she throws a pair of shorts behind her as she rummages. “What kind of teenage boy doesn’t have anything to hide? And also, it’d be kinda messed up to go through his stuff and come up empty-handed. If we didn’t find anything—” she pulls out several t-shirts and a crowbar and places them on the ground next to her. “Then we’d just be a bunch of snoops.”

“I suppose you’re right,” he reluctantly agrees. “Above all else, we need to find out what’s happened in his life to make him so upset.”

“Exactly. Oh man, wouldn’t it be crazy if we just found some porn mags or something? Retro to the max, but I can totally see him as the kind of guy to lug something like that along. Unless it’s of Akira.” She makes a face. “Ew. Funny thought is no longer funny.”

“Karma, if you will.”

“Shut it. Oh ho ho, what do we have here?”

“You found something?”

“It’s some fancy looking letter.” Futaba flops herself on the ground. She clears her throat. “'Sakamoto Ryuji. This letter is to inform you that…'” she stops all of a sudden.

“Futaba?” he probes.

“Um,” she blinks, and laughs nervously. “Um?”

He reaches over, and she doesn’t resist when it slips out of her hands. Skimming through the letter, only his eyes dare to move. When he finishes, he lets out a breath. “Oh no.”

“We shouldn't've read that,” she whispers, a perfect summation of what he was feeling. “We really should not have read that.”

—

There’s something to be said about the quayside in Sendai, in the way that it’s almost exactly like Tokyo.

Sure, the buildings here are definitely shorter—gone are the towering structures back home, and instead they’re replaced with shorter structures with cute local designs and colorful patio restaurants. The people here are different, too. Maybe it’s something to do with the water here, in how it’s cleaner and how you can actually see some fish down in the canals if you know where to look. Don’t even get him started in the air; jeez, do they infuse the oxygen here with something? He hasn’t stopped taking deep breaths ever since they got here.

But despite all of those discrepancies, the feeling of Akira’s hand in his is just like being home.

“And it’s actually really interesting,” he hears vaguely. “Because back in Leblanc, there used to be a couple issues about the temperature and stuff, but in my hometown there’s…Ryuji? Are you even listening to me?“

Akira’s telling him something. A story about Morgana? And Ryuji’s sure it’s very interesting, but he’s too focused on the way that sunlight hits his cheekbones.

“I’m listening,” he lies. “Keep going. This is just my listening face, I promise.”

“Sure, sure,” Akira agrees easily. “That’s just your listening face, rather than me and my wicked good looks, right? I totally believe you.” He wiggles his fingers. “Give.”

Ryuji offers him the caramel ice cream cone in his other hand, letting him bite into it like some kind of psychopath. “Done?” he asks, shifting the tote bag tucked into the crook of his elbow, careful not to rattle the eggs inside. Akira bravely offered to carry the groceries, but he had obviously refused.

“Mmm. That’s good stuff.”

“Right? I read about the ice cream here when I was younger, and they were really hyping it up on the ad.” He takes a lick, grinning when the taste hits his tongue. “And on a summer day like this? Unbeatable. It’s really reminding me of last summer when we hung out everyday in your room eating crap, taking naps, and playing games.” It also helped that hanging out with his crush was a daily thing, he thought.

“And I got to hangout with my crush a lot too, so that’s always a plus,” Akira adds.

Ryuji stops, and Akira turns around to give him a weird look. “What?”

“You get me,” he says in awe.

“I sure hope so,” he tugs him forward, and they continue their walk, their shoes rhythmically landing on the wood in unison. A comfortable silence takes over, but that’s no good. Ryuji wants to hear him talk.

“So imagine you get ten million yen,” he starts. “What do you do with it?”

It’s not the first time he’s asked this. They discuss it often, eagerly like the dreaming boys they both are. Akira considers it and Ryuji loves that about him. It doesn’t matter how stupid his questions are—he will always answer them with as if it were a serious question.

“For starters, Yusuke’s getting a place as soon as possible.”

“Duh,” he snorts. “Apparently, his roommate brought someone back to hook up with them. Poor guy got so traumatized he slept over at Haru’s.”

“We should be glad that he didn’t ask them for poses,” Akira laughs. “Next, I’m making sure that Sojiro has enough for retirement.”

“Obviously. Rest in peace Leblanc—you make fire coffee, but no one’s there to drink it.”

“And then I’m making sure your mom has the funds for retirement for sure.”

“I love you,” he sighs.

“I know.” Akira starts swinging their hands back and forth. “Then with the rest, I’ll buy us some new shoes for when we start training again together, and whatever’s left we can split it up with the rest of the Thieves and they can do what they want with it.”

“I bet Ann would go on a shopping spree in France,” he says.

“Haru would probably donate hers.”

“Makoto’s is going straight into university. I can see her going in to get a Masters with that kind of money.”

Ryuji refuses to let his expression fall. “That’s her. Big bookworm with a capital B.” Stop talking about this, stop talking about this. “How about you, Sophia? Any clue what you’ll do with a boatful of moolah?”

A harmonic beep rings through the air and Akira passes her over to him. “I would invest in cryptocurrency and turn ten million into one hundred million,” she says cheerfully. “Then I would take that hundred million and turn it into one billion yen.”

Ryuji coughs, sliding her into his back pocket. “You know what? That’s my bad. I should’ve expected that, honestly.”

Akira plucks the remainder of their ice cream cone from his hand and throws it in his mouth, munching. Wordlessly, he takes out a pack of wet-wipes from his pockets and hands it to Ryuji.

“Thanks.” Reluctantly dropping his hand, he thoroughly cleans through his sticky fingers. “You didn’t ask me what I was gonna do with my money.”

He nods in a go ahead way.

“After I give most of it to my mom, I was just gonna give the rest to you.” Ryuji kicks a stray pebble. It skirts off the edge of the boardwalk. There’s a tug on his arm. “Yeah?”

Akira covers his mouth with a hand, before making an incomprehensible garble of noise.

“Huh? My bad, I didn’t catch that.”

A few seconds of vigorous chewing, he swallows. “I said,” Akira says, eyes glimmering the way it does when he gets really excited. “I was going to do the exact same thing.”

“Dude!” Ryuji throws his arm around his shoulders, tugging him in close. “You understand me like no one else does. What the eff!”

“I’m glad,” he says softly. Wrapping his arm around him, Ryuji blinks at the unexpected hug. “It’s nice that we're on the same wavelength.”

Suspicion tingles across Ryuji’s skin. “Hold up.” Pulling away, he squints his eyes at him. “No.”

Akira immediately looks to the side. “What?” he says, defensive. “It’s nothing.”

“No freaking way.”

“I think I saw a cool arcade back there, it has cool prizes that I think you’d like, and—“

“Kurusu Akira,” he says sternly, grabbing his face between his hands. “Don’t tell me that you’re jealous.”

“I’m not!” he insists, pushing his glasses higher on his nose. “I’m not, you know I’m not that type of guy.”

“But?” Ryuji prompts.

“But…” he hesitates. “I’d be happy for you, if you find that it’s easier to talk to other people that aren’t me.” Akira straightens up, pulling out of Ryuji’s grasp but inspects his hand like it were something to be studied. How strange it was to see his long, elegant fingers grasp his brutish, blistered ones. “I’m relieved that I didn’t leave you alone. I just...miss being your go-to, I think.”

“Akira.” He says slowly. “My man. The love of my fucking life. You are never not gonna be my go-to. You’re my go-one.” Rapping his knuckles against Akira’s temple carefully, “Your hometown is messing with you up here, making you say weird shit like that.”

“I know, I know.” Running his index finger down his wrist, Ryuji can feel how cold he is. “You knew what you were getting into when you started dating an overthinker.”

“As a chronic underthinker, no, I did not.” He kisses Akira’s palm. “But it works out, so it’s all good.”

Turning them both around, Ryuji starts walking. “I know this is super duper impossible for a guy like you, but I’m gonna have to ask you for a favor.”

“Anything.”

“You have got, to the best of your ability,” he bumps into Akira’s shoulder. “Stop stressing out.”

He frowns. “It’s my job to stress out.”

“It’s our job to stress out,” he corrects. “You and me. Founding Thieves. We share the burden, bro. We got into this together, we’re getting out of it together. That includes you worrying about our relationship outside the ‘Verse, and extend it all the way to what dingy hometown you took the bullet train from.”

“I’ll try,” he says doubtfully. “You’re kind of enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean? No way I can enjoy the most perfect person on the planet be a little jealous over his boyfriend getting attention, what kind of asshole would I be?” And before Akira can say anything, “I know, not jealous, but I’ll take what I can get.”

“I love you.”

“I know,” he flashes a peace sign.

“I know you know.” A group of middle schoolers pass them, chattering about nothing and pointing out random things on the quay, all enjoying their summer vacation. “You know that you can tell me anything, right?” he asks suddenly.

Unable to help himself, he ruffles Akira’s hair, pitch black and hot to the touch. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

“I don’t?”

Gray eyes look into his brown ones, earnest and trusting. Just like that, the light feeling in Ryuji’s chest vanishes. “No,” he responds slowly. “You don’t.”

“Good,” Akira nods, and sees where they were heading towards. “Oh, you took that seriously?”

“You bet your crisp ass I did,” he says, pushing the glass door open. The arcade is bright, neon, and littered with claw machines. Add that to the list of similarities from Tokyo. “I don’t fuck around with arcades. I’m in the top hundred players in the Gun Gale in Shinjuku.”

“Was that with Shinya or without?”

“Not important.” He surveys the area. “There it is. Can you grab us some change? I’ll pay you back.”

Akira waves his hand, walking towards the coin machine. “Don’t. What kind of a boyfriend would I be if I let you pay for our dates?”

“A hot one!” he yells. When he turns the corner, Ryuji collapses into a bright red racing chair. “Fuck,” he hisses, heart beating too damn fast for it to be normal. “Chill out, Sakamoto, jesus.”

It only gets worse when a familiar beep rings out. “Ryuji, your heart rate is at 160. Is everything alright?”

“Sophia!” he wheezes out, relieved. “Can you—will—” he stops, scrunching his eyes closed. “I’m having a panic attack, I think.”

“Searching for how to treat panic attacks,” she says immediately, and he sags into the cool plastic gratefully. “Deep breaths will help, slowly to the count of ten.”

His heart is beating so hard that he can barely hear the jingles and the whirrs of the machines around him. “Count out loud. Hurry, before he gets back.”

She does, and he grips the side of the chair as he focuses on breathing. The attack passes by faster than he hoped it would. “Thank god,” he breathes. “Thank you.”

“No prob,” she says, before hesitating. “Akira—”

“Will not know about this,” he cuts her off, rubbing his hand over his face. “I’ll tell him eventually, don’t worry, et cetera. I know all this. Ann’s been hounding me non-freakin’-stop. Just don’t tell him, Soph. Please.”

Before she can say anything, Akira comes back, pockets full of change and that signature small smile resting on his lips.

—

The bright side about missing out on Sapporo’s snow festival is having its tourism as its lowest point when you visit it in the summer.

Even the shopping district just outside Susikino isn’t very crowded; there��s the usual street vendors and shops with bright pastries and cute clothes. But even having it right beside the Sapporo Tower, it’s still nothing uncomfortable. At least, it’s not uncomfortable when you get to observe the environment through a phone lens.

“This is nice, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve had much of an opportunity to talk to you yet, which is quite rude of me.”

“No prob,” Sophia replies easily. She was swaying from Haru’s neck, hanging by a silicone phone holder that she had bought from a convenience store. Futaba had guffawed when she saw it, but Sophia’s happy about the purchase. It’s fun, and it lets her people watch from the perspective of one of her friends. “I have been meaning to talk to everyone one by one as to better understand each of you.”

“Oh, good! What better use of a nice chat while doing some shopping along the way?” Haru chirps, thumbing through a rack of out-of-season clearance sweaters as they pass. “I have to admit, I’m not the best when it comes to fashion and whatnot. Most of the time, I ask Ann-chan to accompany me.”

“I can try my best! Online websites are constantly updating in order to provide their readers with the newest trends.” Idly, she takes a peek. “Wide-legged pants are back in style.”

“That’s a relief,” she sighs. “I never pulled off skinny jeans too well. Long, flowy skirts have always been my thing. It just gives off such a nice aesthetic, doesn’t it?”

Sophia smiles. “I think you’d look good in anything. Have you considered going punk? You’d look very dope and intimidating with a black streak in your hair and a leather jacket.”

“Now that I can agree with, but that’s more Mako-chan’s style, I’m afraid.” She pauses. “Actually, I bet Mako-chan would actually like that. Sometimes I feel as though she isn’t willing to branch out of her circle of clothes past a pair of Oxfords and a deep-coloured sweater. A push might be what she needs.”

She considers this. “Is it possible to buy clothes for her? That can be a possible ‘push’, quote unquote.”

“Hmm, I don’t think so. She would never let us do such a thing.”

“One moment.” Pulling out a few files from inside her memory storage, she clears her throat. “According to my data analysis, Niijima Makoto has high difficulty straying away from well-mannered behaviours. Do you think that includes saying no to gifts given to her? That can be advantageous.”

Haru stops walking and pulls the phone up so that they’re at eye-level. “Sophia-chan,” she beams. “I have a feeling we’re going to be very good friends.”

They continue walking down the street when Haru gasps suddenly. “You literally can’t shop, can you?”

“Of course I can. I can get anything in the world for you,” she says proudly. “Anything.”

“Alright, we’ll have to test that later, but I mean you can’t use what you buy,” she frowns, eyes troubled. “Your sweater is adorable, but you’re forced to wear it everyday, right? Can you even do your hair differently? Is it possible for you to pin it, or even let it down?”

Sophia finds it endearing that she would let such a thing bother her. She doesn’t even have a social insurance number, but Haru’s worried about hair clips. “No, but I quite like it the way it is. It doesn’t get in the way when I do my work, and in the Metaverse, it gets completely hidden as to let me do my fighting,” she explains, karate chopping in her screen. “But I can understand the human desire for change.”

“Would you like that?” Haru asks gently. “To change? Um, change out of your clothes, and change mentally. Either one.”

“Change mentally, of course! I’d love to understand my friends better and understand how to help them. It’s a vast mountain of knowledge, but I’d want nothing more than to decode the mystery of the human heart,” she says eagerly. “But for clothes...I’m not sure. I haven’t tried it. I’m pretty sure I can’t try it.”

“That settles it,” Haru looks both ways before crossing the street, jogging slightly.

Sophia perks up. “If you’re heading somewhere specific, I can give you directions.”

“No need.” She has an intense, hungry look on her face, not unlike the one she had when the new axe Akira bought had finally arrived at their RV. “We’re just about here.”

They stop in front of a store, and she can barely read the sign from the phone’s angle. “‘Case in Point’?”

Haru pushes the glass door open, greeting the cashier. “It’s a phone modifier shop.”

There’s no effort to explain anything else, but Sophia can confidently add ‘anticipation’ onto her growing list of experienced feelings.

—

“Out of curiosity—” Haru begins as they exit the modifier store, the cashier still bug-eyed from the tip she had left at his counter. “Can you see everything inside Akira-kun’s phone?”

“Yes,” she replies. The environment that she lives in, and more specifically, Akira’s phone, is now a bright, perfectly polished shade of rose gold with a mint outline. A far cry from the matte black that it was before. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” Her voice is sweet as sugar. “Out of curiosity once again, is there anything interesting? Anything worth noting?”

She jumps as Sophia’s voice suddenly morphs into Akira’s without warning. “Nice try,” the phone plays. “But no.”

And just as quick, Sophia comes back to the phone. “Sorry about leaving,” she says. “Akira had asked me to play that clip if someone ever, and I quote, ‘tried me.’”

Haru giggles. “Just like Akira-kun to be so thorough. Impressive as always, leader.” She peers down at her watch. “I suppose it’s about time to head back, isn’t it?”

“We still have eight minutes to spare.”

“We do. Perhaps we should take a stroll around the park?”

“Cool,” she says. “Wanna ask Futaba and Yusuke if they want to come with?”

“Sure?” Haru blinks. “That’s very specific.”

“On your two o’clock,” she points out. “In front of the book store.”

They watch as Futaba and Yusuke stand across the street from them. Futaba is aggressively pointing her finger at the books on display, then slapping her fist against her palm like she was devising a war strategy. Yusuke shakes his head wildly, comically putting his hands in his pockets and revealing that there was nothing inside. She sighs and walks away, tugging along a dejected boy behind her.

“Aren’t you going to ask them?”

“In a moment.” Haru takes them to the front of the store. “This isn’t a bookstore, I don’t think. What’s it called Sophia?”

After a quick search: “‘Sapporo’s School Supply Store’,” she says. “The alliteration makes it fun to say.”

“Indeed it does.” Peering into the store, Haru makes an introspective noise. “Now isn’t this interesting?” she hums. “Do you mind if I make one more purchase?”

“Not at all,” Sophia says, thrilled to add another point she had learned: If Haru wants something, there’s nothing that will get in her way.

—

“So,” Makoto starts, and Ryuji has to hold back a groan. He knows that tone. He’s memorized that tone. All the second years can feel her tone from a mile away. Hell, Ann probably took an instinctive step back just now. “Have you started to think about university?”

“Nope,” he says, wiping the sweat off his brow as they jog around the corner of Odori park. Back before he had left for his hometown, Akira and Ryuji would be up at dawn to train. Lately though, he’s been using any free time he has that isn’t planning for, prepping for, or actively doing a Jail run to sleep in the RV. And hey, he has no beef with Makoto, and it’s not like she can’t keep up with his training (she can most definitely kick his ass in hand-to hand), but she has a tendency to push when it comes to this sort of stuff. “Not a single thought towards it. It’s been pretty good, actually.”

“I can tell,” she agrees. “It’s almost like you blocked my number.”

“I did not!”

“So you actively choose not to answer any of my texts?”

“Ugh, don’t set me up like that,” he winces. “You know I’m stupid enough to fall for shit like that everytime.”

“Hold on.”

Ryuji grunts as he feels a hold on his shirt, forcing him to stop. “Ew, don’t touch my back, it’s Nigeria there.”

“First of all, it’s Niagara.” She spins him around. He’s only a little taller than her, but something about her always seems to tower over him. “Second, do you know why I keep pushing all of you to go to university?”

“Because you hate us?” he mumbles.

Makoto glares at him. “Try again.”

“...Because you don’t hate us?”

“Because I don’t hate you,” she repeats. “You’re all rowdy and wild and sometimes I don’t understand the jokes you make—”

“You’re just mad ‘cause you fell for a deez nuts joke.”

“But I do, inexplicably, love all of you,” she pushes on, and that shuts him up. “I know what you’re all capable of. Amazing things! I understand you all believe that I’m the be-all end-all, and I appreciate your compliments, but there are some things that only Ann can do, or Akira, or Yusuke.”

Makoto continues running, and he reluctantly follows suit. “And you. You can achieve things that I can’t even dream of, Ryuji.”

He resists the urge to yawn. “Thanks for the pep talk, Niijima.” Looking left, the gelato is looking real good. “Wanna get something to eat? I’m starving.”

“You aren’t very good at hiding secrets, Ryuji.”

Now that grabbed his attention. “Whoa, whoa, whoa there, prez!” Speeding past her, he holds out a hand to make her stop. “What do you mean by that?”

She raises a brow. “Nothing in particular, but your reaction is showing me that I should have meant something by it.”

He gnaws on the inside of his cheek roughly. “Okay, but why did that come into your brain? Why do you think I have some kinda secret?”

“I live with a prosecutor everyday of my life, of course I know when something’s afoot.” Pushing her hair back, she squints up at him. “You’ve been more...jumpy lately, yet somehow more laid-back than usual. I wanted to talk to Akira about this—”

Blood pours into his mouth when he accidentally bites too hard. “You talked to Akira?!” he half yells, red dribbling from the corner of his lips.

“Oh my god!”

“Fuck,” he clamps a hand over his mouth. “Sorry. Bit too hard.”

“N-no! Don’t apologize!” she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a napkin, pulling him to a stone ledge. “Sit and take this so you don’t bleed all over yourself. I’ll be back.”

He doesn’t bother speaking, only nods as she turns around. When she comes back, she’s holding a water bottle. “Here.”

Taking it gratefully, he takes deep gulps before spitting it out. “Why the hell does this taste like the beach?” he splutters.

“I didn’t say to drink it! It’s salt water to get rid of infections!”

“Why would you do that to me?!”

“Because I thought you knew to do that from the second-year health class!” she shoots back. “Gargle it and spit. Near the gutter, mind you, it’s rude to spit in front of kids. They might get the wrong idea.”

As if kids are gonna see him and think that there’s something worth remembering. He sips, sloshing it around his mouth before gently letting it dribble into the grated sewer. “Blegh.”

“You’re welcome. Keep at it. And while you’re doing that,” she sits next to him, shoulder to shoulder. “Do you want to tell me what’s been making you anxious?”

He pauses. “Anxious?”

Makoto gives him a stern look. “‘Experiencing worry, unease, or nervousness, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.’ It was covered in your midterm.”

“Ah, right,” he mutters. Gripping the fabric of his shirt, his heart is beating too quick for it to be normal. Then again, when was the last time it wasn't? “You think I’m anxious?”

“I’m not sure. Keep gurgling,” Makoto chides.

He does, the salt water still red whenever he spat, and she continues. “All I know is when my anxiety gets really bad, I chew on my lip. Sae used to chide me when we were younger, but you know, she got busy,” she shrugs, as if he didn’t know how much it pained her to lose her only family member to a career of protecting the wrong people. “When I mentioned it to Akira, he took it upon himself to check up on me regularly during exam weeks.”

To prove her point, she takes her lower lip and flips it out for him to see—white teeth marks, but old scars instead of anything fresh. Letting go, her expression is smug. “He hasn’t felt the need to check in for a while now.”

Spitting, water finally running clear, he grins. “Good for you. I’m glad to hear that, dude.”

“Thank you, but that wasn’t the point. My point was that I was only able to get better because I told someone about it. Someone I trusted.” Makoto turns to him, her gaze serious. “I know that’s what Akira is to you. Habits like these are harmless at first, but they can turn into something else more dangerous. I won’t stand for that. My own justice won’t stand for that.”

Ryuji opens his mouth, before closing it. I’ll tell Akira, he wants to say. How many times does he have to repeat that line before he starts believing it himself? “Okay,” he says, because it’s the only thing he can say without hating himself even more.

“Okay.” She pats his knee before standing. “I can get us some gelato.” She stretches, wincing as her joints crack into place. “If you’re feeling up to it, start your cool down. Unless you wanna keep training?”

“I’m good. Felt enough blood rush for the day.”

She goes to the ice cream stand, and he stares up at the blue sky.

Makoto’s right, because of fucking course she is. She’s right, he knows she’s right. But she doesn’t get it. To her, Akira’s a friend. A guy who helped her out and changed her life, yeah. If he hadn’t met her when she did, maybe she would’ve become a scummy adult who didn’t look up from market pricing and hedge funds.

But Ryuji? Ryuji would be dead without Akira. That’s a fact and a half.

To Makoto, Akira’s a friend. To Ryuji, he’s Akira, and you can’t be on a higher pedestal in his mind than that.

—

It was Yusuke who took the first step.

“Ann,” he greets cordially. “How do you do?”

She gives him a weird look. “Kinda trying to focus here,” she says, gesturing at the scene in front of them. They, Morgana, and Sophia were in the B team as they watched the rest of them try and get rid of the remaining Shadows in Mariko’s Jail, tersely attentive and waiting on Joker’s word in case they needed a last minute switch. The Jail was environmentally brutal; the ice underneath the soles of their shoes makes them skid more often than they’d like. It almost makes the fights seem quicker, one notch faster than usual.

Yusuke pays her dismissal no mind. “I, myself, am learning many new things lately. Can the same be said about you?”

In the corner of his eye, Futaba pauses typing on her laptop to face palm.

“Are you...” Ann says after a brief pause. “Is this a threat? Are you threatening me?”

“No—”

“Panther!” Akira’s clear voice rings out.

Ann dashes forward without question, high-fiving Morgana as they trade spots.

Futaba marches forward, glaring at Yusuke like he was crazy. “You dolt!” she hisses. “What was that supposed to be? I said be slick and cool, not act like a fool!”

“While I admire the rhyme scheme, I don’t understand what you want from me. That was as ‘slick and cool’ as I’m capable of,” he furrows his brow. “I even opened with a question that seemed as though the conversation would be a normal one, but then used that to transition into what I actually wanted to discuss.”

“Stop looking so proud of yourself and—”

“Fox!”

“Back in a moment,” he says before he’s gone, Makoto taking his place, leather uniform still smoldering from when she took a fire move head-on.

“What was that about?” Haru asks, swinging her axe like a picnic basket.

“Nothing, Noir,” Futaba sighs, plopping back into place where Ann had stood. Carmen had kindly left a warm patch of concrete in her wake. “Just Inari became a big ole’ dumb-dumb.”

“I see,” she hums. “So this has nothing to do with what you two have been conspiring about lately?”

Her eyes shot wide open. “Con...conspiring?” she stutters out. “What do you mean by—”

A particularly loud scream rips into the air, and everyone turns their heads to see Captain Kidd slam his hook into the ground, purple arms erupting from the snow and wiping out a huge chunk of Shadows all in one go.

“Hot damn,” Futaba says, directing her focus back to her laptop and making sure Ryuji has enough health to keep going.

“He’s strong,” Haru observes, all playfulness gone.

“Too strong.” After Futaba gives everyone on the main team a good amount of health, something on her screen makes her pause. “Huh…?”

“Noir.”

Haru turns around to see Makoto waiting for her. “I need to discuss something with you.”

“Of course,” she steps closer to her and drops her voice. “Is everything alright?”

“I’d bring this up with Joker, but I don’t want to bother him if I’m not sure if there’s anything wrong yet,” Makoto pushes her mask up. “But have you noticed Skull's been acting strange lately?”

“Mona!”

He swaps with Ann, her pigtails covered in snow. “Ugh,” she grimaces as she shakes it out. “I could try and melt it, but it’ll just drip down my back and freeze later on, and I do not want that.”

“Panther, I’d like your input as well, if you don’t mind,” Makoto says.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I was just talking to Noir about this, but did you notice anything strange about the way Skull’s acting lately?”

Ann takes a step back. “Well, what—No—I mean, that’s your opinion, I think!” she exclaims. “To me, Skull's acting is completely normal. He’s normal—actually, scratch that, he’s better than usual. Nothing about him is wrong, I think, and that’s pretty outstanding and impressive once you consider that he’s the one with the life-long injury. Not that that has to do with anything!” Ann yells. “I just wanted to point out how far he’s come, and how much he’s kicking ass right now. Actually,” her voice shifts to a stage whisper. “Don’t mention this because I don’t wanna cause drama, but Fox has been a little weird.”

“Weird how?” Makoto whispers back, looking extremely lost.

“Just earlier, he asked me how I was.”

“...I’m not following.”

“No, Panther-chan has a point,” Haru breaks in. “I can’t say for certain, but I have a strong feeling that Fox and—” she points at Futaba conspicuously. “Are up to something.”

“Sophie and Fox?” Ann breathes.

“Panther!”

“Damn, again? That’s what we get for going into an ice Jail,” she grumbles, swapping with Yusuke.

Haru sighs. “Panther-chan isn’t the best with context clues, is she?”

“Hello ladies,” Yusuke greets. “What were we discussing?”

Makoto gives him a suspicious look. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

His jaw drops, bewildered, but before he can say anything, Futaba waves him over. “Get your fox butt over here!”

“I...Alright,” he says, resigned.

“Look at them,” Makoto nods at the pair. “I think you’re onto something.”

“I think so too, but I don’t want to be too hasty. After all, the two of them are such good friends now; it would be unfair to assume negative outcomes without evidence, or at least confront them first,” Haru says nonchalantly.

She understands immediately. “You have evidence?”

“Something of the sort.”

“Noir!”

“Duty calls,” she gives her a thumbs up, before Ann comes back once again.

“I can’t wait for us to go to a really hot place again,” she kicks the snow with her heels. “Then I’ll be comfortably in the B team because all the Shadows have fire resistance to the max.”

“Oh good, she’s back,” Yusuke’s expression is one of relief.

“Fox—” Futaba warns without looking up from her laptop.

“Come here. There is something we would like to discuss with you.” Whether or not it was intentional, he rests his hand on the handle of his katana.

“Okay but before we start, I just wanna ask—what are you doing with Sophie?” Ann accuses. “It’s fine to be friends with her, but you have to be careful. She’s really susceptible to what we say right now, and if you try anything funny—”

“What are you even saying?” he says, offended. “I barely even talk to her!”

They all glance at Sophia, who had been standing perfectly still and silent. She gives them a wave. They all awkwardly wave back.

Makoto places a hand on Ann’s shoulder. “Panther, Noir meant Fox and Oracle.” Ann flushes red as she continues. “And while we’re all here, I wanted to bring this up with you as well. Have you all noticed something strange with Skull?” Futaba stops typing. “I’m not sure how to explain it, but I think he’s extremely anxious about something. You all know that I’m an overthinker, so I might have the wrong idea but…” she trails off.

Futaba glances at Yusuke. Yusuke glances at Ann. Ann helplessly glances at Ryuji, still fighting alongside Akira and the others.

“I know nobody asked me,” they all jump a foot in the air when Sophia speaks beside them. “But I can at least confirm for suresies that there is something strange with Skull.”

“Which is…?” Makoto prods.

“I don’t know the specifics.” Ann, Yusuke, and Futaba let out a breath. “But he did have a panic attack recently.”

“I knew it!” Makoto snaps her fingers. “He’s had signs of being anxious, but I wasn’t too sure about it.”

“Queen!”

She runs out, and Ryuji comes in, looking exhausted but pleased. “Hey y’all, what were we talking about?”

It was dead silent before Sophia steps forward. “Look what I can do!” she exclaims, changing the expression on her screen to be an emoji with a flower.

“Whoa!” His eyes bug out, and they all sigh in relief. “That’s awesome! Can you do more?”

“That’s super cool Sophie, but,” Futaba looks at Ryuji, skeptical. “Don’t you feel weak right now? Your health is way down.”

“Oh, I didn’t even notice,” he rubs the back of his neck. “Sophie, you mind?”

“Not at all.” She calls for Pithos and green sparkles fall on him. “Better?”

“Thanks, I owe you one.”

“Skull!”

“When the king calls, his knight answers,” he salutes, sprinting out as Makoto comes back in.

“So,” she glares at the rest of them. “What do the rest of you know?”

Ann groans. “Even if I did know something, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

“Wait,” Futaba points an accusing finger at her. “What do you know?”

“What do I know? What do you know? And for that matter, what does he,” Ann points at Yusuke. “Know? Noir said you guys are doing secret stuff together!”

“That’s preposterous,” he scoffs. “If it was secret, she wouldn’t have known.”

“That’s the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard.”

“How is it dumb?” he asks. “You can’t possibly think that just because Futaba and I are doing ‘secret stuff’ that it has anything to do with Skull’s situation!”

There was a pause. “Are those two connected?” Sophia asks. Futaba buries her face in her hands.

“That was...not the question I expected,” Yusuke answers weakly.

“Sophie!”

“God, I wish Joker would call for Inari instead,” Futaba groans.

Rushing out, Sophia high-fives Ryuji on the way. “Guess who’s back, motherfuckers?”

In an effort to bury their conversation, they all begin cheering overenthusiastically, Yusuke clapping politely. Bewildered, Ryuji instinctively gives them a thumbs up. “Thanks guys. Usually, my jokes don’t really land, but that made me real happy.”

“Uh, Skull,” Futaba raises an eyebrow. “How do you keep losing health? I didn’t even notice you taking a hit.”

“I’m low again? Damn, I didn’t even notice,” he groans loudly. “Queen, can you—”

“I’m on it.”

Just as Johanna heals him, Akira calls out once again: “Skull!”

“Joker really does rely on you, doesn’t he?” Yusuke observes.

Ryuji laughs. If they didn’t know any better, they would think it sounded a little nervous. “Well, gotta jet!”

High-fiving Makoto, he runs out. She stares at the remaining members of the B team. “You all know something,” she accuses. “And I understand if you’re all being loyal to him by keeping what you know close to your hearts. But remember this:” she takes a step forward, and they all take an unconscious step back, Futaba scooting from where she sat on the ground. “There comes a point where it’s actually more important to keep a person safe and healthy than to uphold a potentially dangerous secret.”

They all digest her words for a second, and flinch when a flash of blue flame appears, taking Akira’s Persona away.

“Finally.” He stretches his shoulders, satisfied. “That took awhile. Good work everyone, let’s keep going.”

Making their trek deeper into the Jail, Futaba half-jogs, half-speed walks to Ryuji. “Your health again,” she chides. “Seriously. I know I like to play around, but I always have my eye on you guys when you’re fighting. I literally have not seen you take a hit, but you’re getting drained like milk in a sink.”

He shrugs, unperturbed. “Whatever. You see my hits today, though? They were tough.”

“Yeah,” she agrees reluctantly. “But your health is still low. I’ll call Joker about that.”

Before she can turn, he grabs her wrist. “Nope,” he says. “I’ll ask Panther. Thanks though!”

Ryuji goes to Ann, and he can feel everyone’s eyes on him, watching him, surveying his every move.

All eyes except for the one that really matters.

[fenristheorem]

Asks/Headcanons/Stories

Rules, Details and Other Important Information

Updated May 22nd, 2021

Status: Currently NOT accepting requests / asks 

See my Masterlist here!

***The ask box will be closed within a couple days of the updated post date (April 30th). It will be closed for a couple of weeks while I bring my request count down (it’s reached over 30 requests) and due to my schedule limiting how much time I can spend writing. Any new asks I receive will be immediately posted stating the box is closed (although I’m still open to receiving comments and other questions via ask box). 

How long for an answer: About a month depending on how much work will go into it, my askbox is quiet as of late but I have many that I’m working on currently. I have almost 20 drafts and a nearly equal amount of untouched requests in my ask box.

(Rules under the cut)

Hello! If you’ve reached this post you may be interested in asking/requesting something - go ahead and do so! Just make sure you keep in mind the information I list here because if an ask/request is outside my rules I probably won’t write it (there may be some exceptions heavily depending on certain factors). Therefore, please read everything (even if it’s just skimming) so you get a basic idea of what to expect from me.

The only fandom I write for is Eldarya, if you couldn’t tell by my posts lol.

Who do I write for? (Romantically)

Primarily Lance, he’s the only route I follow on my two accounts and I’ve spent a lot of personal time nit-picking and analyzing his character so I’d say I have a thorough understanding of who he is and how to write him.

I'm second most comfortable writing Valkyon, he was my route in Origins. Even though Origins is past now, I'm still happy to write about him

I’m not very interested in the other routes, but I have a general idea of what they’re like, so I’ll write for Leiftan and Nevra, too (although what I write differs. I’ll always write friendly or fluffy relationship stuff, but I draw the line around in-depth, intimate asks. I don’t know them too well so I don’t mind writing semi-vague things about them, but they won’t be very specific). I’m more comfortable writing Leiftan than Nevra overall.

I won’t write for Mathieu as I don’t know him well enough, he seems to be a pretty basic character but I doubt that’s the case so I don’t want to write something I know will likely be nowhere near relevant to who he is.

I may write for Koori, but not as of right now; I’ll update this if I decide to do so later when I know her better.

Other than what’s detailed here, I won’t write romantically for any other characters.

Have a request that’s not romantic? Awesome, I’ll write general headcanons for any of the characters.

General headcanons basically means anything not too intimate (or an ask that covers many different topics, but that's besides the point right now), I’ll write friendly requests, but not romantic ones. Have a request that seems to walk the fine line between friendship and a platonic / fluffy relationship? Go ahead and ask anyways, I may write it and even it I don’t, it helps provide an example of what I will or won’t write.

I'm happy to write any characters as Origins instead of New Era, just be sure to specify in your ask.

What do I write? (I will add warnings for NSFW and certain angst or violence prompts and how heavy it is in the writing)

Nearly anything, really

Romance

NSFW 

Friendships/friendly fun stuff

Angst

Violence

A lot of others

There may be some things I’m not thinking of currently, but again, I’ll write pretty much anything (and I’ll keep updating this list in time)

That being said, I’m comfortable writing some genres with some characters and others not so much. But again, if unsure, ask anyways.

What DON’T I write?

Non-con (no consent)

Yandere

Suicide (I’ll write how it effects others, but I won’t write the specifics on how an actual character does it)

How to specify your ask:

So I’m a very specific person, and I can go on very long rants; just take this headcanon and this second one as an example. However, I know some people prefer small and short, so I’m asking that in your request/ask you specify which type of writing you want so I’m not constantly thinking ‘oh try and keep it short - but maybe one more bullet - oh god how did this get so long? - m a y b e   I   s h o u l d   j u s t   w r i t e   t h i s   a s   a   s c e n a r i o  - did they want headcanons or a scenario/short story?’ Don’t care about how long my response to your ask is? Cool, don’t worry about specifying length, just send your ask (but seriously, be prepared for something close to a novel lol).

In order of shortest to longest:

Mini-headcanons - Usually the fastest to write - Not as ‘mini’ as you may think. It’s not entirely short, I’ll still put in my fair share of thoughts, but I won’t go on major rants about one thing during the ask. It’s a very straightforward / to the point ask. Not interested in possibly reading an essay on why I think this is this and how I feel this effected this person? This is pretty good for you then.

Normal headcanons / headcanons (otherwise known as medium or long headcanons) - Writing time can differ based on how much I rant, but will usually take longer than mini-headcanons - Are you ok if you end up reading a small novella or a post with so many words it rivals a dictionary? Awesome, this is the type for you! Depending on the ask, I can’t promise that I’ll go on major rants that take centuries to write, but it gives me the freedom to specify and clarify things, while also adding in a few of personal comments. This type of ask really allows me to be creative and provide examples or special situations with the characters.

Scenarios / short stories - Will most likely take longer than both types of headcanons - This type of response doesn’t take place in bullets. It’s exactly as it says - a story. I won’t include my personal opinions / theories in this as stories are a narrative, not an analysis for me. This type is a bit restrictive for me as I will press myself to stay as close to canon as possible, improvising my own theories / headcanons only when necessary to bridge aspects within the story (unless otherwise specified in the ask), but other than that I don’t like to intrude my own thoughts / theories in a story. Good for readers who want drama, descriptions, scenarios, or who feel headcanons just won’t fit the ask this time. These are typically a couple hundred words long for me.

Like mentioned above - if you don’t care about how it’s formatted, don’t worry about specifying anything or just add in the ask that you’re flexible to any format. In this case, I’ll choose what format to write in based on what I feel can fit best the ask while being written well. My default is usually headcanons, though.

Other important information:

This’ll be updated more in time

Have any specific details you want about the ask? Be sure to mention it!

I’m fine with writing asks with gender-neutral characters and such. Writing the S/O’s and reader-inserts are female by default for me, but I have nothing against writing different gender alignments

Writing takes time, especially since I try my best to write quality on every ask. It will usually take me no longer than 5 days to a week to write nearly anything, however, if my ask box is busy or there’s a particularly long request that I’m writing, it could take me within 2 to 3 weeks to write some things. I’ll try to keep it first-come-first-serve, but as some asks may be shorter than others, or I’m feeling a bit more productive on certain asks than others, response time may change a bit. I’ll keep a general idea on how long to expect a response post underneath the status listed at the top of this post

I will write for OC's (original characters)! If you're comfortable with it, I would recommend you send these asks not anonymously; I'll probably DM you to get more information. Otherwise, be sure to DM me saying what your ask was so I can connect the details you give me with the specific ask. I don't mind receiving some details via Anon ask, but it would greatly restrict me if I can't clarify some things so I can write better. That being said; if you would like your ask to be anonymous but need to DM me for details, I promise I'll keep your identity a secret. It's none of my business why you wanted to send anonymously, so I won't go revealing anything.

I have a tendency to swear, but only to stress points humorously or sexually. It’s really only to add to the tone of the story. However, if you’d like to request no swearing specifically then I’ll honor that.

With that: go ahead and ask! I always look forward to writing my next request!

Over all, I’ll write nearly anything, and if you’re unsure, just ask anyways and I’ll clarify if I’ll write it or not. And the more specific you are in your ask; the better I can write it (with reason, of course. Too much limitation will hinder).

Have a request? Ask them here!

Submissions are open! Just click on me!

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Belgium brings their ex-vocalist back to Rotterdam 2021

Here we chop chop boys like we chop chop wood

This review space would’ve been reserved for Belarus. Unfortunately, their broadcaster was not ready to make nice, and ultimately refused to serve EBU with anything but not-even-so-thinly-veiled propaganda, so much so that EBU, after all they’ve given the time for them for to snap out of it, finally had to be like “bye bitch” (- Lizzo) with enough push from the fandom, and informed everyone that Belarus will miss this year’s contest <3

Which means that I don’t have to deal with 41, but with 39 writeups to do overall, if my timing permits! The Roop could’ve always used a little less competition, anyway /j

Speaking of The Roop’s competition, time to aim at another one of their semifinal folk with a review. Come forth, Belgium!

ARTIST & ENTRY INFO

Hooverphonic, eventhough they’re not as big of a name as Flo Rida, is the biggest act to compete in this year’s Eurovision, and even had lasted longer as a thing than Flo Rida. He barely even got his proper famous kickstart around in the 2000s. Hoover have been around at least for 5 years more than him, if “Years active” section on Wikipedia is anything to go by. And back then they were just known as Hoover, correct. Their lineup of singers has changed for quite some time, but otherwise the band since its inception is rooted in basically two men: Alex Callier and Raymond Geerts. They used to have a keyboardist too but was he a part of their glory years in 2000? No? Thought so, he’s irrelevant then. In fact, their first vocalist wasn’t even present on their first album, so they went to have another one, who did just one album with them before 2000 and left. Now I’m only constantly and consistently bringing up 2000 because that’s when they had their break out moment in relevancy - after they changed their singer once more before they found someone called Geike Arnaert - the woman you’re seeing on the MV’s thumbnail right now, and not someone certain for whom there was a public outcry for she is the only Hooverphonic component that’s not coming back from 2020 to 2021. But more on that later. I’m here to present you the break-out hit, for those who just don’t know:

I used to like to think of Hoovers as trip-hop sensations, well not in the style of Massive Attack because they have their trip-hop sound with actual hip hop thrown in, Hooverphonic’s style is that but with a tinge of symphonic.

Well, “Mad About You” wasn’t really the only hit they had, before that they got a bunch of minor and domestic hits, and their music was used for soundtracks. So it’s a little bit cheating still to think of “Mad About You” as their breakout hit, but that’s still the biggest song of the band. If I were to recommend you stuff from them that aren’t necessarily the biggest hits but still, “The Night Before” with yet another one of their vocalists is pretty good.

So when I tell you that Hooverphonic is a band of a very long career. Well some bands do survive a lot without having their lineup change for 10+ years, but Hooverphonic vocalistes come and go sometimes, and for 2020 forray, when they were first announced, they came in to that talk show studio where they were guests in with a promising little starlet Alex Callier found at The Voice Belgium (for the Flanders region) and was her mentor there, Luka Cruysberghs, as their current vocalist.

Is it just me or her and Stefania Liberakakis look like they could be cousins?

All went smooth and dandy, until Alex started spouting stuff about Eurovision the fans found not amusing, such as calling Eurovision a circus or something, later begging and pleading to medias that his statement was “lost in translation” - now I would say it happens to the best of us, like for Tornike, but deep inside I think I know Alex meant what he meant, inside or outside context. Because everything just went even more sour when everyone found out Hooverphonic were missing from the common song “Love Shine a Light” for the 2020 consolation programme in place of Eurovision, and when they were forced to explain, Alex just straight up said he didn’t like the song, so he decided to not do it. Fuck, I myself don’t adore the 1997 winning song, but I like it, and would’ve still done a piece of that song out of respect. Take it or leave it, god damn. Also they were noted to be the only people plugging in their other material in the time when Eurovision 2020 artists on the consolation programme were either saying inspirational stuff or “hope to see you soon!” or a combo of both, once again, courtesy of mostly Alex. Now I’m not saying his ego is bigger than Kirkorov’s... of fucking course not, no one has an ego bigger than Kirkorov’s. The only thing that can beat him in that regard is if someone booked Kanye West for Eurovision last minute.

Following 2021, they were very excited to jump on the “leave 2020 songs behind” train, while a few artists like VICTORIA and The Roop rallied for to keep their entries in tact if they were allowed to. And with that, in late 2020, they went ahead and celebrated the 20 years of “Mad About You” by getting rid of Luka as a vocalist and bringing back the aforementioned Geike to reprise her part. Seems pretty reasonable, but for the Eurofandom it was simply seen as a dick move, and mostly for the reason that all 2020 artists deserve a 2021 chance, even if they’re band members. What felt more dickish is that Luka was straight up told “byeeee u’re no longer our bandmate xo” on a Zoom call between band members. Like, it’s fine to be told you’re fired in person, even if still humiliating, because what’s the other better way? What’s equally worse is to be told this via email, but the email you were sent was sent like a few months ago and you only read it NOW. At least I guess that proves we know what the “sad and losing game” was that Luka asked to be released from now, heh.

Not to worry Luka-stans, as Alex will still have her, just as not the part of the band anymore. But instead give her a solo career. Yeah well we’ll see how long that lasts.

With the 2000 glory heydays lineup of Hooverphonic we have their entry be “The Wrong Place”, as the completely quite different song they promised (or didn’t) when saying that they will certainly and absolutely get rid of their old one for the 2021 if they had a choice. What they didn’t get rid of is the theme of the worse part of relationships - “Release Me” is about probably wanting to be let go of and released rather than kept by the side when it’s probably not working out. “The Wrong Place” is one of those episodes that probably happened during then - they had a house conflict, she chose to have a smoke to forget about it, the man’s after her Johnny Cash T-Shirt. Not much else to say about the song’s technicality fortunately than I’ve already said so much about the band, so how does it fare in the Hoover-lore, for me?

REVIEW

See, I would like to root for Luka ever having her chance to get to experience Eurovision if she wishes, but maybe it’s lowkey for her own benefit she wasn’t the chosen vocalist for the song, as Geike could do “Release Me”, but Luka wouldn’t be able to do “The Wrong Place”.

“The Wrong Place” is well-suited to the first vocaliste’s melancholic blend-in timbre, and a singer like Luka would sound a little too light on this with her soft-spoken sound of her voice. Besides, I don’t think she could be old enough to relate to the lyrical subject’s domestic struggle issue. Not to say 20 year olds don’t smoke and drink, it’s just that “The Wrong Place” feels a little bit too much mature enough.

Although I think that both of them could absolutely rock the music video visuals.

The song itself is very Hooverphonic. They used to do this kind of standout triphoppy sound back in the days, but as of lately they kind of grew out of the label to do more of the music that kinda sounds like movie soundtrack music. Idek the exact label I could give it to their music so move soundtrack music it is I guess. It has a decently paced structure (could’ve done without the overly repetitive ending where they repeat “you’re in the wrong place” over and over, like ffs I know where I am!!), and interesting lyrical choices. Such as “organic cup of... tea”, as in, WOW! HOOVERPHONIC HAS ENOUGH WITH THE TEABAGS FULL OF GROUND AND GRINDED TEA! THEY WILL ONLY MAKE TEA FROM PURE HERBS AND FLOWERS, AS IT WAS USED TO BE DONE! and acting like her Johnny Cash T-Shirt is the kind of prized possession her man is not allowed to wear to rub it in her face. Imagine if it was something more mundane. “Don’t you ever dare to wear my... pink polka-dot T-shirt”? Damn right it doesn’t seem to suit the mood lol.

It’s not what I exactly wanted from Hooverphonic, but probably what I subconsciously needed from them anyway, ever since they were announced for 2020. I only got into “Release Me” sometime AFTER the contest, “The Wrong Place” is a bit more instant to stand behind. So well done to them to commit to their craft.

Approval factor: I guess I do have to stamp this with my stamp of approval. It’s nice and all. Follow-up factor: “The Wrong Place” follows up as a more of a Hooverphonic discography track after the fairly average and overlookable “Release Me” (eventhough the latter has the tinge of theirs as well because it’s a more symphonic ballad, and they do have symphonic stuff on their discog afterall). As a Eurovision entry, it comes across as even better somewhat, and even slightly more standout, but that might not necessarily work in their favour. Qualification factor: And that’s because they’re absolutely stranded in the semi with too many qualification choices to name. Belgium gets to be a bit quasi-obvious, but they’ve failed with a Hooverphonic-penned song before, plus, the pop girlies of this semi are more likely to eat out a band like this alive, but I wouldn’t exactly say Belgium is doomed to fail either, because I am positive Hooverphonic will think of something. I’m just saying that shocking things can happen every now and then.

INTERNAL CORNER

Well, considering Alex Callier is not running his mouth this time as much as he did so last year’s season, I think it’s safe to say that Hooverphonic have had nothing to write home about.

No, wait...

Well I did mention that Luka got replaced as one of the events that happened to Hooverphonic’s lifetime, but thank God that Alex promised her a solo career, right? Right?

Well, apparently, we’re getting towards it.

And the first lyrics of her first solo forray post-Hooverphonic-vocalist-duties features the lyrics about possibly her making someone “regret it”. Lol now watch this song to be a karma kick into Hooverphonic’s ass if Belgium happens to not qualify this year. Luka forewarned y’all with sharp precision.

Annnnnd that’s pretty much it, besides the band jumping on the trend of turning their entries into a Festivali i Këngës 59 acoustic night European version by presenting their own acoustic version of this track. I did not have the kind of courage to link to the Azerbaijan’s “slow version” on their review in fear of overruning my post even longer than they would usually be for these reviews, but at least it moves people to a certain degree

Well, my question of the days is, does “The Wrong Place” in acoustic make you sad twerk?

ANY LAST WORDS?

Belgium’s big weakness is when it comes to stage their entries, notably for the last two years where the Eurovision actually happened. Sennek was awkwardly put in the middle and succumbed to the curse of Lucie Jones of grimmacing too much and therefore ruining her score in the process, possibly. Eliot was just simply upstaged by the decision to include big drums on stage. Alex Callier acknowledges all that sort of thing, so if anything goes absolutely right and Hooverphonic manage to make it to Rotterdam (which I think they can do because Belgium and Netherlands are neighbours lol? unless their lockdown rules get super strict in May), he should get on to mending all the flaws that Belgium had in the past for staging, and have a spectacular vision. Because it’d be sadly hilariously ironic if Hoovers miss out on the final due to the staging again. Can’t just constantly blame the vocalist - Geike would be flawless live, if Hooverphonic trusted in her for so many years. Can’t blame the song - it’s not too bad. So staging, I guess.

Good luck Hooverphonic, you’ll certainly need it. Also can RTBF consider that they could send anything else from the Wallonian music scene other than The Voice Belgique acts~

[joliepixie]

I’ve been reading almost everyday since April 16th thanks to the stay at home order. Not that I’m complaining but I feeling like it’s time to return to work if only for my activity level! its become a struggle to remove myself enough to go for a walk or run. Anyways onto the books.

Left to right:

1) I ordered this book when I was in the middle of the Throne of Glass series as a nice book to break up the series (can’t read series books back to back I get bored that way) but also to fulfill the Sarah J. Maas craving I was having without having to invest in a series. I don’t know was expecting with this book but for me it made me realize I’m not that into superhero books... don’t get me wrong it was a good book and I think I gave it 3 stars?? It just didn’t resonate with me. I didn’t much enjoy the characters and I had a hard time believing catwoman was this super badass didn’t lose one fight to anyone type of character that had assassin training. I preferred the early chapters when she was just a kid trying to make a living by fighting I think following that would have been a bit more interesting. Ok Just checked rated it 4 stars... This is why I do these “reviews” cause sometimes I don’t know how I feel about a book till I sit down and start blabbing about it. So yes a 3 star book for me.

2) Ok I have a serious addiction apparently. After reading the Throne of Glass books I wasn’t done with Sarah J. Maas’ writing style yet so with me having a week of uninterrupted home time left and having a serious book hangover I decided to re-read the ACOTAR series again.. probably just the first two because I like the build up to Rhys and Feyra’s relationship. Needless to say other then having to spend the majority of this book with Tamlin I love this book or more specifically the under the mountain trails. Going into the book for the first time last year I wasn’t expecting the trails and being a huge fan of competitions, trails, etc. I was enthralled. Love this book and love the second book even more. Oh and I promise I will be branching out from Sarah J. Maas soon considering I’ve had all her books read and just waiting for breath and sky now.

3) Another re-read/slowly trying to read every book on my bookshelf after a reading slump of 3 years. As I’ve been saying to my friends. I’m weeding out the weak deciding what to keep and what to give away. Anyways, absolutely love this book. Say what you will about Nicholas Sparks but he knows how to tug at the heart strings. When I first read this book I was in highschool and getting through those last 100 pages is tough is a terribly sad type of way. I remember I had to give my dad a hug when he got home after sobbing on the couch for hours. This book broke and I went in knowing this and I spent my entire night crying, let my dad know I loved him, and woke up with sore and puffy eyes so bad that I couldn’t read at all the next day. Regardless of how much I love this book I’m keeping it for the sake of the memories I have with it and as a reminder to let my parents know I love them unconditionally and never stay mad.

4) If you remember I picked this book up on one of my thrifting trips with my friend. Funny story I accidentally bought two copies thinking they were different stories. I have a obsession with Paris (even though I haven’t gone.. just waiting for covid to end so I can get out there) which was the main reason for this purchase and I’m glad I got it. I read this immediately after Kingdom of Ash because I needed something quick and what better then a book of short stories some involving Paris? I loved the majority of the stories in this book and will definitely be re reading a few someday. I tried reading this author other book me Before You when I was really young but being so young I don’t think I appreciated it as much as I should have. After picking up this book and being reacquainted with this authors writing style I think I’ll be trying some of her other books and probably dusting off my old copy of Me Before You.

5) I’ve been having an tough time with thrillers recently where I’ve read a lot that just didn’t sit well with me. This one reminded me why I like thrillers so much. I found this one fast paced and didn’t have to sit through chapter after chapter of the characters drinking while she took her medication. Sometimes I find with thrillers we are always given these characters that are so dependent on there vices which are used against them to make them seem crazy rather then something actually happening which drags on and sometimes used as a crutch in writing do you get what I’m saying? Even though this book did have a bit of this happening it wasn’t used nearly as much as other books and like I said very fast pace. It was neat how there wasn’t a grand reveal but the main character just worked it out on her own. I was happy with the ending as well and thought it ended the book well. All and all I liked this book a lot.

6) Was hoping I could write about book 6, 7, and 8 altogether like last time but I have very different feelings about each book so here we go. I love this book probably just as much as Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows. I really loved getting to see all the characters interact like Manon joining up with the crew. The skull bay fight with Lysandra was definitely one of my all time favourite scenes and having Dorian slowly master his powers was fun to read as well. My favourite part of this book was definitely Lorcan and Elide parts. Elide was a character that I could give or take when I first met her but she’s slowly become my favourite character and I loved everyone of her chapters as well as the slow building romance with Lorcan. And if you know me you know I have a great hatred for Chaol so this book got a added bonus for not having a single chapter from his perspective!

7) This was a struggle. I looked up if I could just skip this book but unfortunately it had major plot points you couldn’t miss. I was dreading this book. I read a lot of reviews about how people hated Chaol but still really found this book likeable so I went in hoping that would be my experience too. It wasn’t. I actually ended up buying the audiobook because I really couldn’t picture myself sitting and reading this book... it’s not that I hated it I just don’t like chaol and besides Yrene and Borte didn’t really care for any of the characters in this book. I’m glad I listened to it because I definitely needed this story to continue and I really did try not to hate Chaol so much but I just can’t stand him.

8) Ok. The final Throne of Glass book. I gave it 4 stars. The middle three books are my favourite and I will re read over and over this one I don’t see myself going back to it. I have it four starts because I’ve followed these characters through a eight book series and a month of my time. I’ve fallen in love with these characters and there stories, I will always love these character, and of course Elide and Lorcan! Now here’s why I didn’t like this book as much nor think I’ll read it again (other then Lorcan and Elide story.) throughout this book I felt like Rowan became a background character like I’m all for a strong female lead and her doing shit her own way but Rowan was suppose to be her equal and I just felt like he did nothing. Like the final fight he spent the majority of it chasing Aelin? I get it she didn’t have her full powers but she was handling her own couldn’t you do the same? It just didn’t sit right with me that this character that was introduced to us in Heir of Fire that trained Aelin and is her equal was just kind of brushed aside and became this clingy male that spent the majority of the book following Aelin around not doing anything other the pleading her not to leave him. Like what happened to the badass Rowan that I grew to love...? Also was really angered me Aelin losing her powers? What’s up with that?! It just felt so cheap to me.. after again reading about how strong she is and then forging the lock which did nothing by the way what was the point of that anyways, and then she just loses all her power only having a ember left??? I hate when authors do this.. I also felt the scene with Erawan, Maeve, and Aelin was just dull. I was still upset that Aelin wouldn’t get to use her powers against them and in the end it was more of a match of words then a battle just felt a little cheap to me. I was just disappointing , Aelin a character we have come to love and watch grow and get stronger hardly hold her own against Maeve... This book has a all around different feel to it compared to the other books and maybe it’s because it was the final battle and and the final book to the series I was a bit disappointed with it but I did enjoy it and felt a huge accomplishment when I finished the series. Reading that finally few chapters really put me into a hangover knowing it was over and like Aelin felt when everyone was heading home I felt that too. It’s goodbye for now.

[sooibian]

catch up tag 🌱

tagged by the lovely @j-pping ❤

1. what do you prefer to be called name-wise?

nia :)

2. when is your birthday?

27th february

3. where do you live?

i live in mumbai, india!

4. three things you are doing right now?

drinking tea while typing this and squinting because i don’t have my glasses on. i have a chill day planned - maybe i’ll binge on a couple of episodes of the untamed? then work for an hour or two later in the evening

5. four fandoms that have peaked your interest?

supernatural, harry potter, kpop (exo and nct) and the untamed

6. how has the pandemic been treating you?

i answered this question at the very end because djdksk there’s so much i want to say but i don’t know how to say it. umm....it was really difficult in the beginning because it was fiscal year end when the lock down was imposed (i work in accounting) so the coordination effort was a beast! the whole experience made me slightly negative, lazy, and complacent. things only went downhill from there (professional life wise) with regard to my attitude. but since the last two months, i’ve worked on disciplining myself and i feel like i’m doing better. now i even go to the office once/twice a week on rotational basis which is a huge plus.

7. a song you can’t stop listening to?

november rain - kris wu, work it - nct

8. recommend a movie?

can i recommend shows instead? :P 

derry girls and schitt’s creek for them very necessary warm and fuzzy feelings, killing eve, the undoing and big little lies if you’re looking for some edge of the seat, nail biting drama and somebody feed phil if you want to live vicariously through someone’s travel experiences.

9. how old are you?

i’m younger than soo but a noona to sekai, definitely unnie to most of you here.

10. school, university, occupation, other?

occupation but i’m always thinking of going back to university for more :)

11. do you prefer heat or cold?

i live in mumbai so i’ll always prefer the cold!

12. name one fact others may not know about you?

if i have a lunch date planned with friends, i will spend most of the previous evening obsessing over the restaurant’s menu. 

13. are you shy?

irl, i am very shy except with the ones i'm comfortable around. i am known to have a beagle like personality once i'm made comfortable. online, i'm mostly fearful of saying something that may be hurtful because the said personality renders me a motormouth? it's why i take very long to type messages too... with ol interactions, i tend to think twice before hitting send.

14. preferred pronouns?

she/her

15. biggest pet peeves?

tardiness and chewing sounds.

16. what is your favourite -dere type?

i only know of two - yandere and tsundere. the easy answer is tsundere. 

17. how would you rate your life from being 1-10, 1 being crappy and 10 being the best it could be?

i’ll go with jae’s answer - 7.5

18. what is your main blog?

i’m soon going to delete @/baekislub so this one :)

20. is there something people need to know about you before they become friends?

nothing besides the fact that my replies may not always be prompt :)

wait! where’s the 19th question tho!!! ajdjsdkj

tagging a lot of my friends because i would love to hear how you guys are doing ❤ @making-me-blush @littleflowercrown13 @thedeviousdo @fightoh @vampwrrr @his-mochi-cheeks @blackberrykai @kyungseokie @ninibears-erigom @amyeonzing @crossandchange @is-that-baekhyuns-shirt @vitaminbtob @xiusoomygod @abunnycotton @yeolville @bbyunz @leewalberg @pororodks @ohsenhun @rosetvler @saintloey @riajae @xingsbby @smooshdelia (hope the notif wasn’t annoying eeeeeeek) as always, please do this only if you’re comfortable 💗

[purplesurveys]

1062

survey by chrissylee22dc

A

Achievements: I guess I’m being asked to list some of mine...some of the ones I’m proudest of, at least, are graduating university with honors, landing a job (liking it is a big bonus), and taking up leadership positions.

Age: I am 22, but never felt quite like it.

Are you planning something right now? Kind of. I’m eyeing a long road trip to Tanay with just myself and go to one of their coffee shops, but idk when I’ll be able to do that. My wallet and bank account are still beat from Christmas lol (and until now I’m still buying gifts for friends), so it might have to wait until sometime next month.

Arizona or Alaska: I think Arizona weather is already quite like ours here, so I might enjoy Alaska a bit (if not a lot) more. There’s generally a lot more factors I find interesting with Alaska, like their food.

B

Birthdate: April 21st.

Build: I’m quite thin and underweight, but I actually recently made plans to start working out - both to make an effort to be healthy with myself, and also to feel good post-breakup. I’m hoping to see some changes in my body and build in the coming months.

Babies, do you have any? None of those, not sure if that’s still the plan for me.

Blonde or Brunette: Brunette.

C

Childhood sweetheart: Erm, does Gab count? We technically weren’t kids anymore when we first got together. I wasn’t attracted to anyone as a kid and was more concerned with growing my Pokemon pogs collection.

Current mood: I’m hungry and can go for savory breakfast foods right now, like shakshuka or huevos rancheros. Also a little anxious because I really don’t want to think about work, but tasks continue to pile up for a certain client.

Children, are there more in your future? There aren’t even any to begin with.

Coke or Pepsi: Pepsi just because it reminds me of Punk and my chaotic wrestling fangirl years.

D

Dad's name: Edgardo, but no one calls him by that full name. He has two nicknames; one of which he hates and only family and friends use, and the other is the name he has permanently introduced himself as in his workplace.

Dating anyone: Not anymore.

Do you plan on having lots of money? Don’t most people?

Dogs or cats: Dogs.

E

Elementary School: I’m not sharing that.

Eye color: Dark brown/black.

Ever going to China? Probably not right now considering the present situation. I’d love to go to the rural cities and have a peek into their country life.

Early or Late: EARLY. Lateness is a big pet peeve, unless the excuse is super reasonable like Manila traffic or a car accident.

F

First Crush: The first person I felt remotely attractive to was Andi, from 6th grade. Then she moved to New Zealand and the crush quickly faded out.

Fears: For concrete things, I hate cockroaches and fair rides. For bigger concepts, I fear getting left behind, failing, and not getting approval, and the idea of never being satisfied or happy with who I am, what I’ve done, or where I’ve gone.

Future goals: Have a place of my own, be able to sustain myself, and keep myself alive.

Funny or Serious: I think everyone has to have both sides. I wouldn’t want to hang out long with people who can’t be sat down to just shoot the shit with conversations that go a little deeper. At the same time, I’d be quickly bored with someone who talks about existential or philosophical topics 24/7 and takes everything seriously.

G

Grandparent's names: On my dad’s side, Dolores and Federico; on my mom’s side, Agnes and Jun. My maternal grandpa is the third in multiple generations of Abelardos in the family, but his nickname is simply ‘Jun,’ because Philippines.

GPA: We don’t measure our grades with that, but we do have a GWA; I’m just not sure how that can be converted to GPA. Mine was in the 1.47 range, which was good enough for cum laude honors. I barely missed out on a magna cum laude honor (which required a 1.45 GWA), so that’s something I’ve always been pressed about and I know I could have clinched it if the pandemic didn’t cancel my final semester, which would’ve given me the chance to pull up my grades.

Going anywhere this weekend? I don’t think so. I want to spend the remaining 5 days of my break completely unproductively.

Giver or Taker: Giver. I like pleasing people.

H

High School: I attended one school from kindergarten to high school.

Hair color: Black.

Hate anyone for life? I don’t think so. I dislike some people, but I can’t tell if I’ll feel that way for the rest of my life.

Hairspray or Gel: When I’m going somewhere or attending something fancy, I use hair gel to hold my hair down.

I

In 8th grade, who was your best friend? Eighth grade is freshman year of high school, right? In that case, my best friend was Gabie.

Is ignorance bliss? Sometimes it is. I like no longer being updated about Gabie’s life. Back when I still tried to push my way in, I was miserable. I stopped doing so over the holidays and I just stopped reaching out, stopped trying to communicate, everything. I’ve been a lot happier that way.

Is there anything you wanna share? That’s kinda the goal with every survey I take.

Ice Cream or Cake: Right now, maybe ice cream. I’m very picky about cake, and I don’t like the spongy ones aka most cakes I know.

J

Jumped rope for fun: That’s exactly what I use jump ropes for. I don’t think I ever used it for fitness or working out except for maybe PE.

Junk around you right now? I mean, not really. I have my embroidery stuff in a pile beside me, but I don’t consider them junk.

Joining anything anytime soon? Not planning on it. I briefly considered joining a gym as a new thing to do for 2021, but in the end I figured working out at home would be enough. Angela recommended the latter as well, so that’s how I abandoned my gym plans quickly haha.

January or July: I guess July? January always feels just a teeny bit stranger than other months, considering it’s the beginning of a new year.

K

Killed anyone: ...This serious?

Keeping a secret? I keep different secrets from different people.

Kicking someone off your top friends today? I don’t think that’s a thing anymore. Hasn’t been for a while.

Kiwi or Apple: Apple, just because I’ve never had the chance to taste kiwi.

L

Lost anyone close to you: I’ve lived 22 years, of course I have. I’d be very surprised if someone has lived that long but has never experienced losing people, whether from a fallout, from death, etc. Just this year alone I lost a great-aunt on my maternal grandpa’s side, and a ton of relatives from my maternal grandma’s side.

Last kiss, when and who: Gabie, three months ago.

List 3 people that you'll love forever: I can only think of Angela. And of course, Gab.

Lover or Fighter: Fighter, I suppose. I can be relentless. Right now with my breakup has been the only time I allowed myself to take a step back and not forcibly take things under my control for once.

M

Middle School: We don’t follow the concept of middle school here. The levels in middle school fall under elementary school as well.

Marital Status: Single.

Mom's name: Abigail.

Music or TV: TV.

N

Northernmost state you've been to: Batanes, which is as northernmost as northernmost gets in the Philippines.

Nickname: A lot of family members call me Byn, but for the most part Robyn has always been my main nickname.

Name your future boy and girl: I have yet to make up my mind about this.

Naughty or Nice: Nice. I never particularly feel ~naughty, and since the breakup I especially haven’t felt the need to be sexual.

O

Opened a piece of mail that wasn't yours? Sometimes I’ll open the electricity or water bill addressed to my parents out of curiosity just to find out how much we consumed in the last month. But nothing more than that.

Occupation: I’m an associate at a PR agency.

Owe anyone money: Nope.

Outgoing or Shy: Shy at first but I can get outgoing once I’ve warmed up to a person/situation.

P

Place you most want to be? Right now? I’d love to be at a coffee shop or bar at a higher altitude, with a view of the city. I used to go to a lot of these before the pandemic hit, but now I’m thinking of doing it again.

Purposely destroyed someone’s life? No.

Planning a major trip? Not really. Most tourist spots require swab tests and I am not having anything go up my nose.

Pink or Black? Love both, but I like pink ever so slightly more.

Q

Quit a class: I’ve never dropped a class. I’ve wanted to, but there was so much paperwork to fill out to do so and I also didn’t want to be behind on my overall schedule.

Quickly...the first word to come to mind: Whistle, because the pink/black question reminded me of Blackpink.

Quitting your job soon? No lol I’m barely two months in.

Quiet or Loud: I can be both, but these days I’ve been quieter.

R

Riding in an airplane: I have no idea what this is asking.

Ride, tell me about yours: ^ Same.

Running for any political office in the future? No plans to.

Rain or Snow: I guess rain, since it’s the only one I’ve experienced.

S

Siblings names and ages: Nina is 20, my brother is 17.

Shoe size: I fit anywhere between a size 6 to 7.

Shave daily? It used to be daily, but I haven’t had the need to since the quarantine began.

Shower or Bath: Shower.

T

Turning 21 was (will be): It’s been a year since then.

Texas, ever been? No but I have relatives who live there, so it’s one of my choice states to visit and stay at if I ever plan to go to the US.

Think you'll live to be 100? I doubt it. I don’t have any relatives who lived until that age.

Tame or Wild: Idk, tame I guess?? I don’t know what this is asking.

U

Unique quality about you: I feel like this is a question best answered by other people who see and interact with me more than I do myself.

Underwear on? Yeah.

Under your bed lies: Large containers with all the magazines I collected from childhood that I can’t bring myself to throw out.

Under or Over: Idk, you have to be more specific.

V

Virgin? No.

Vacation time left? I have five days left, including today :( I plan to be the most unproductive or bum-y I’ve ever been, because I have no clue when I’ll have a break this long again.

Voting in the next Presidential election? Of course.

Volleyball or Swimming: I like swimming more, but I like watching volleyball.

W

Went white water rafting? I don’t think so, but I would give it a shot.

Wearing right now: A hoodie that’s around two sizes bigger for me.

Write a sentence about you: About anything? I’m a little upset with myself for having been a bit lousy with survey-taking during the holiday break. I planned on taking a lot to catch up on the ones I’ve missed out on, but so far I mostly take just one a day lol.

West Coast or East Coast: East.

X

X-Rays in the past month: 0.

X-Mas plans: Had a get-together with my mom’s side of the family on the 24th; we hosted our own Christmas party on the 25th; and we visited my dad’s side of the family on the 26th.

X, does it mark the spot? Idk.

X-Tina or Britney? Britney.

Y

You lost "it" when? I mean, I’ve had more than one moment where I freaked out...

Your favorite song:  I’m really in love with Saw You In A Dream by The Japanese House. My favorite songs come and go, but this one has been a constant.

Your favorite place on Earth: Sagada.

Yes or No: Idk. I’m not enjoying these vague ass questions.

Z

Zodiac Sign: Taurus.

Zodiac Sign: Idk, I’m still a Taurus.

Zippos are neat, agree? I don’t have an opinion.

Zoo or Circus: Neither.

[tropicalfreckles]

Friends Again CH 5

MASTER LIST found here

SUMMARY: A new dilemma has risen in Lydia that she takes to the only one she can talk to about it.

SOLIDARITY

B**TLEB*BES DNI

(TW mentions of J*no, mentions of murder(no murder tho), mentions of bullying, mentions of the wedding death scene)))

Another day of school, another day of Lydia having complex feelings bubble up in her stomach. This was getting borderline exhausting with all the thoughts she kept bottled up inside. Even though she had become more comfortable with her therapist, she still wasn't sure if she wanted to just spill her guts out about these thoughts. Closing the front door behind her, she swung her backpack off while exhaling a long groan. No one was home yet except for the Maitlands, of course. They were probably upstairs since she didn't see them after scanning the living room. Rummaging through her backpack on the table she pulled out things she needed for homework then sluggishly retreated upstairs. School wasn't engaging and often times left her yearning for more. The Maitlands had recently found a way to help make her learning more simulating through their ghostly powers. They were still learning themselves. They tried learning more from the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. However, as Adam put it, it 'read like radio instructions'. Lydia didn't have too much of a hard time understanding it personally. Though that probably was because she loved deciphering the nonsensical text.

Should she let the Maitlands know she's home?

She usually would announce herself. Yet, that feeling wasn't leaving her stomach. It dampening her mood. Lydia didn't want to bother the ghostly couple with her problem. Since she still didn't understand it entirely herself. It was days like these she wished her mom was still alive. Regret wove itself in her every once in a while for leaving the Netherworld. Missing her chance to reconnect with her mother again. She knew deep down it was for the best. She would've also liked it if Delia and her dad had waited for a while before getting wed. She understood though they felt the fleetingness of life and wanted to make the best of it as long as they both were breathing. That would be another can of worms for Lydia to tackle another day. Lydia tossed her things on her bed when she entered her room. Closing the door behind her then took off her shoes. Her nerves were starting to get the best of her when she walked over to her mirror and gazed at herself.

"Why are feelings stupid..." She muttered. Grabbing a hair tie off of her stand, she ran her fingers through the raven locks tying it up.

"That's because you breathers have too many feelings; It makes shit complicated." A gravely voice chimed in. Lydia flinched for a moment then turned to scowl at the older man.

"I told you that you couldn't come into the house yet!" She snarled at him. Lydia began rubbing the pads of her forefinger and middle in circles against the temple of her head. Beetlejuice snorted then crossed his arms.

"You ain't exactly the boss of me kid. I do what I want. Within reason of your dumb rules. Besides, I was bored waiting in the stupid cemetery. There weren't any breathers to mess with today so I couldn't get anyone else to say my name." Beetlejuice rambled on, giving Lydia a shrug. The young teen threw herself face first on her bed. She thought over for a moment how risky this was.

"You didn't let Barabara and Adam see you, right?" Lydia questioned, sitting up a little on her elbows. Beetlejuice hummed while pulling his eyes out from their sockets.

"Nope, not a peep!" He snickered while tossing them in the air like a pair of die. Lydia looked on unamused before rolling on her back to stare up at the ceiling. The demon popped his eyes back in.

"Oh boy, are you having one of those angsty teen moments again? Am I gonna have to leave while you recite goth poetry or some shit?" He floated up from the ground then whipped over to her. Lydia inhaled deeply before giving a loud groan.

"Go away if you're gonna be an ass." Lydia reached out for a pillow to grab. Beetlejuice tensed up as he knew it was meant for his face. He deflated a little when he saw her hug then bury herself against it. Just as the teen hated when he would get moody, he felt the same about her. Though it was strange, the past three months now that they've been hanging out he has started to feel something he never had before. Was it that gross thing called empathy? He sighed deeply while busying himself with picking at his nails. This was going to require some finesse.

"Alright, you twisted my arm Lyds. What's bugging ya? What can your ol' pal Mr. Betelboose do to, ugh, 'help'?" He peered from the corner of his eye to see if she'd budge. She did not. He did get a grunt in response. Some progress was a win for him. Lydia flailed her legs a little as a muffled groan rose from her. The demon patiently waited for her to speak.

"As bizarre as it is to say.." Lydia dug her fingernails into her pillow as she pulled it away from her face finally. Her features scrunched up, her lips pursed. Relaxing after a moment of what looked like deep contemplation from Beetlejuice's perspective she finally spoke. "I think you might be the only person I can talk to about this." Lydia softly spoke.

Now, this was interesting.

She was actually being vulnerable to him. He only saw her do that once and that was when she summoned him back from the Netherworld. That was because of everything that built up from before. This seemed to be a new dilemma on the young girl's mind. He waved his hand to let her know she could continue.

"Beej. When did you discover that you had feelings for guys, too?" Lydia drawled out while shiftily gazing around the room. Anywhere other than making eye contact. Beetlejuice stroked his scruffy chin while trying to figure out what she meant by that. Was there a boy she liked? Did his stoic bratty friend actually have sappy feelings as well?

Wait.

"You're asking how I knew I was into more than just women? Well, first off, there is one thing ya gotta know about the Netherworld. Most folks swing both if not all ways." Beetlejuice jokingly conjured up a baseball bat and took multiple swings in different directions with it. It earned him a snort which he grinned at before continuing.

"It kind of came as an easy realization for me. I know that the stupid shit you breathers go about here on the mortal plane carries off into the Netherworld sometimes. It doesn't stick for long cause who the hell are you gonna complain to? No one." He rolled his eyes remembering all of the bigoted folks that would come through and get their panties in a twist at how the rest of the Netherworld was. While he wasn't the biggest fan of staying there all the time it wasn't always horrible there. The world of the living was more of a party for him.

"How did you really know, though?" Lydia hugged the pillow closer to her while sitting up. Beetlejuice plopped himself onto the bed next to her. Lydia had a surprisingly smart melon in that goth head of hers. He was curious why she was doubting herself so much.

"Probably when I made out with that one famous painter." He picked at his teeth. Lydia arched a brow.

"Which one?"

"You know me, scarecrow, don't kiss and tell." He grinned at her. Lydia gently smacked his knee.

"Oh BS, you always name drop famous people." She snorted. Beetlejuice snickered, moving his hands behind him then slid back more on the bed.

"You're right, I just don't remember the guy's name right now. Listen. I guess I get it. I've been observing you breathers for almost a millennia. Feelings are gross. But I know when it comes to this stuff it can be hard. Especially for kids. If there's something ya gotta blab to me about." He tilted his head in her direction while making sure he had her attention. She gave a slow nod for him to continue, "Then I'm listening."

Lydia inhaled deeply. This was nerve-racking. She just didn't know how to even express herself.

"I... I might have." Lydia banged her head into the soft pillow and gave a small whine. "I might.. like a girl at school." She spoke barely above a whisper. Beetlejuice leaned over since he could barely hear her. Lydia wrinkled her nose at the smell yet allowed him to do so.

"What was that kid? Gotta speak up." He gave a coy smile. Lydia scowled at him then looked away.

"I said... That I might like a girl at school. I'm not repeating myself again." Her cheeks were heating up at how embarrassing this was. Not so much expressing her feelings. It was more talking about a damn school crush to her stupid demon friend she was starting to make amends with. She looked over to him after a moment of making sure he wasn't going to tease her then noticed him grinning wide.

"Yeah, that's what I thought you said. HA. Of course, you're into girls! Look at you, you're tiny, snarky all the time and goth." Beetlejuice yammered on as he elbowed her side.

"Ha-ha, is this amusing to you or something? I just spilled my damn guts out." Lydia frowned, her cheeks flushed. Beetlejuice shook his head.

"Eh, maybe a little, I just find it funny that widdle Lydia has a crush. Always figured you were too feral and hated people too much for that." He pinched her cheek. She was close to snapping her teeth at his fingers. She opted for batting his hand away. Lydia wiped her cheek with her sleeve. He snickered in response then rested his elbows on his knees.

"Call me 'widdle' again and I'll throw you off the roof as I did before." She stuck her tongue out at him then took note of him smirking at her. "What?"

"Nuthin'. Just weird seeing you actually act like a teenager instead of your usual dry, deadpan self." He patted her hard on the back to which she grunted at him. "Good for you! Better to be your real self than locking that shit away. Dolores and Chuck'll probably be. I don't know, what's that word you breathers use now? 'Woke'? About this. I know the Maitlands will be. Ugh, they are just soooo supportive it's disgusting." He gagged at his last sentence to which Lydia rolled her eyes.

"I don't know if I'm going to tell anyone. At least not yet." Lydia softly spoke as she played with the pillow resting in her lap. Beej quirked a brow at her then snorted. He gave a soft bap on her head with his fist.

"Listen. I don't normally give pep talks that aren't about scaring, murder or crap. I guess I can try to understand. Daphne might be too intrusive about it. Chuck might just be super awkward about it and say something embarrassing. The other nerds are definitely gonna dote on you." Beetlejuice picked at his teeth. "Eh, take your time if you wanna. Just know that the Netherworld when ya shed your meat-sack body is gonna be fine with who or what yer into. Fuck what anyone else thinks." He let out a long yawn then stretched a little. "Trying to be nice makes me wanna take a nap or doing something nasty. Or hurl. Can't decide, this is gross."

Lydia looked over the demon while taking note of his words. She snickered at him dramatically pretending to upheave then shoved him.

"Stop being gross for five minutes." Lydia snorted then sat back on her bed finally letting go of her pillow. "Honestly.. My stomach is in a knot still. Part of me kind of wants to tell her however I don't want people to.." Midway through Lydia trailed off into a soft whisper. "I just don't want more of a reason for people to target me at school. I can handle myself for the most part. Just kind of hard when they gang up on me." She tugged at the edge of her school uniform. Without skipping a beat Beetlejuice responded.

"Want me to kill 'em for ya? I mean, if they're that big of lil assholes I'd probably be doing their parents a favor." Beetlejuice grinned while taking out a knife from his sleeve. "I'll 'cut' them down to size!" He cackled while swishing the knife around. Lydia ducked down then snorted.

"No. Murder isn't the answer to everything, BJ. Those girls are jerks but they aren't the root of the problem. Kids don't naturally act like bigoted brats. It's probably coming from their parents or something, to begin with." Lydia grabbed his arm to make him stop swinging the knife. Beetlejuice clicked his tongue then thought over what she said.

"Alright. Kill the parents and the brats. Two for two-plus no sad little orphans!" Beetlejuice hovered off the bed in glee while throwing his arms up into the air. "It'll be a real scream Lyds! Just let me loose on 'em! Come on! I haven't killed anyone since Juno!" He flexed his fingers while looking to her like an overjoyed child in a candy store. Lydia raised her hand up with a shake of her head.

"Didn't I just say murder wasn't the answer to everything?" She answered dryly while quirking a brow at him.

"I don't know, you murdered me pretty fast to try and kick my ass into the Netherworld," Beetlejuice muttered. Lydia inhaled deeply through her nostrils then slapped his thigh with her pillow.

"I'm serious. No murdering people on my behalf. I appreciate the enthusiasm but I don't want the cops on me. Making people suffer is more fun anyway." Lydia dropped the pillow then stretched her legs out. Beetlejuice floated back down to the bed then gave a little pout.

"Bah. Thought you were more fun than that, kid. Though torture also sounds like a blast." He stroked his scruffy chin. The goth teen kicked her feet against the edge of the bed.

"I was thinking more about pranking." She chuckled. "You know.. I might try talking to that girl. Just not yet." Lydia lulled her head against her shoulder to peer back at the demon. "I hate to stroke that big ego of yours. I wanna tell you that I kind of appreciate you talking to me about this. It's nice to talk to someone else who is attracted to the same gender." She took out her phone then opened the browser.

"Plus I see myself as more than one gender. Though that's a topic for another time, kid." He waved his hand as a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Lydia swung her head up to stare at him.

"Oh; does that mean you're genderfluid?"

"Gender what now?" Beetlejuice quizzically stared at her while scratching the top of his scalp. Lydia quickly brought something up on her phone then showed him.

"You identify as more than one gender. See?" Lydia began scrolling through a website about the LGBTQ+ community while Beetlejuice crossed his arms and tried reading over it.

"Huh. Well shit. Guess so? Then what's being attracted to more than one gender?" He quickly snatched the phone out of her hand to look over it more.

"Well, that is a broader category. You could be either Bisexual or Pansexual." She sat up on her knees as she pressed the pad of her forefinger into the screen. Slowly she scrolled back up on the browser and pointed out the two. Beetlejuice hummed then plopped the phone back into her lap.

"Learn something new every day!" Beetlejuice grinned. The two froze when they heard the familiar voice of a woman echoing through the house.

"Lydia?? Are you home? We can get started on your homework if you want!" Barbara's hand began phasing through the door. With that Beetlejuice flung himself out the window as Lydia swatted grave dirt he left behind on her bed.

"Coming Barbara!" Lydia called.

She couldn't keep hiding him forever.

[diarybutablog]

Yesterday I had an amazing day!

I’m sorry I didn’t post anything since May but I really felt like I didn't had time to post anything and many things happened and I'll try to write the most important things in the other posts and now I'll try to say what happened yesterday.

The day before yesterday my father told me and my brother to got to sleep before midnight so we could wake up early. He wanted to go with us on a trip to Brighton because i wanted a comic from a Graphic Novel Shop that was there near the train station and also go somewhere to eat. Yesterday I woke up at 11 AM and he wanted to go with us on 10 AM… ALRIGHT. He opened our door to our room (i live with my younger brother in the same room in UK) and just said "So we're not going to Brighton?". To which i responded "Hello :>"… I guess he didn't like that because he just closed the doors. I waited in my room scrolling through Reddit on my laptop and seeing the same jokes reused with different images. I saw a meme where someone said the if you add Mr Bean to anything it will automatically become funny. It was so stupid that I felt weird because I wanted to chuckle for a moment when I saw this stupid picture.

Suddenly 12 AM came on a clock and I decided to dress up. After I did that I went and washed my hair. I think I was washing it for really long because I came out of the bathroom an hour later. I decided to go to the main room.

It’s not living room because it’s too small.

My dad was as always on his phone on Facebook when I came out of bathroom and I told him that I am hungry so I made myself two toasts, one with butter and pate, and the second with pepper cream. I ate them and drank some soda. My stomach hurt because I don’t usually drink sodas. Anyways, my dad told me that we could go together without my younger brother because he's asleep, so we did. My dad bought 4 tickets for us. Each one of us had one for return and one for going onward. My dad was telling me to keep the tickets somewhere like my right back pocket so i won't lose it heh. When we were riding we discussed Poland and UK as well. After the gossip about horror and thriller movies we arrived. First we went on an expedition to find the Graphic Novel Shop to buy me a comic book but so we were walking and walking and… we found it.

(Kinda i did it because my dad was totally lost)

I was broke but my dad had some to buy me a gift up to 20 pounds. I was searching around and found some cool comic books like the ones about Scott Pilgrim and based on D&D. Also i saw the 13th volume of a series called Giant Days which chapters are called troubles.

(I don't know why they call them troubles heh)

After searching for a while i noticed the comic section called LGBT and i wanted to check if something interesting was there AND THERE WAS! I really liked She-Ra and the Princesses Of Power and I noticed a book written by it’s creator Noelle Stevenson which is called The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures.

It’s basically her diary but she adds her doodles and thoughts to it. I highly recommend it to anyone and I think I might do a Twitter thread describing my day but that’s not important now and probably won’t happen. I also saw a little comic book that was about tweets from our lovely Donald J. Trump but ilustrated as satirical pictures.

Basically boomer humor.

I showed it to my dad and he told me kindly that he wasn't interested in buying that for himself or for anyone. After that me and my dad came out of the store and we went to get something to eat for dinner but… my dad wanted to buy a bag and something to put a gift in. We were walking around the stores and he was stopping like every 5 SECONDS to check the next store and see if they sell something to put a gift in. We entered the Pride Shop or something like that and I wanted to buy the mug that was on the exhibition which presented Batman and Superman kissing. Also I was looking at the pride flags and pride pins but I didn’t give any signs about them to my dad because I don’t want him yet to know that I’m trans, or I think I am. When my dad was coming to these shops, I was coming with him to some of them, but if I wasn’t I was just standing outside waiting for for. In one of them there was a Moomins Handbag which I really wanted but my dad told me that he only would buy it if it costed up to 3 pounds but it was worth 8 so I didn’t get it… When I left the Moomins Handbag store I heard and saw two goth kids coming right beside me and I only heard them say that the girl in this conversation had a Moomin faze and collected everything related to Moomins… 

Does that mean that I’ll become a goth kid as well?

We were looking for a place to eat for a couple of minutes and I noticed a place where last year I saw a dude that was playing drums very nicely and it was cool to listen to him. We didn’t stay there for long because we still went to the restaurant to eat something but before we went there a random lady gave FREE COOKIE ICE CREAM to us! While I was walking I held my book without it’s cover because it’s pink and I don’t really wanna go out with pink stuff because I feel like I am showing too much of my secret side with this color. Me and my dad ate these ice creams before we went inside the restaurant but my dad got angry because instead of physical menu to pick up we had to scan the QR code but he was too much NOT FRIENDS WITH TECHNOLOGY that he just came out of the restaurant and I went after him. We were walking and found a pizzeria that we went to last year and ordered two pizzas. Before we got our pizzas we got plates filled with olives, potatoes with onions and cream, eggplant parts and some weird green vegetable.

(Probably a zucchini slices)

Also I got apple juice with 4 ice cubes in it and my dad got one beer like a dad. We were eating our pizzas peacefully and suddenly something amazing happened. A obese young adult lady with red dyed hair FUCKIN’ stole my pizza and tried to run away… and she did, but one of the stuff workers chased her and saw her coming into another pizzeria and… did the same thing, but the whole thing wasn’t only STEALING MY PIECES but also taking someones pizza slice and throwing it at them, scratching one of the stuff ladies arm and when leaving this pizzeria blocking the exit doors and not letting the stuff member that was chasing her leave the restaurant. Instead of being sad because someone took my pizza I started to laugh under my nose quietly so others wouldn’t notice. My dad only saw my smirk and asked me if I feel alright and I said „I think it’s the most entertainment I had in UK so far”. I think I kinda understand why this woman took MY piece of pizza. It was probably because me and my dad sat on the seats next to the exit so it was easier for the crazy lady to take something that was near exit than at the back of the restaurant. One of the stuff members came and told us „I’m sorry but these FUCKING… I mean stupid people will not bother you anymore”. After that she left with the rest of my pizza and gave me a new one FOR FREE! I ate the one piece and we asked the stuff to help us pack the pizza to take it outside so they gave us a pizza box to take with us. My dad before coming out of the store with me asked the Scratched Girl if everything is fine and she said that it’s just a scratch and also asked where were we from, so my dad said „We’re from Poland” and she said „Well… I’m from Russia”. I have no idea what was the rest of their conversation but my dad made a joke that the EASTERN EUROPE was being attacked. If I was good from history I would make a historical joke or a meme now, but I’m not… so not joke for today. Before we left police came to check if everything was ok, but they weren’t stopping us from leaving so we… left. On the way back we were looking at the city of Brighton and right at the train station my dad checked if he had his train ticket and… IT WAS GONE! My dad started to panic but had an idea how to fix this problem. He took his ticket receipt and tried to show it to the woman that was standing next to the ticket receiver. Surprisingly it worked and we waited for our train. When our train came my dad wasn’t sure if it was the right one so he asked me to ask the conductor if we’re in the right one and he said that we were in a right one.

TONGUE TWISTER

When we were heading back to Hastings I decided to start reading Noelle’s book. It was very touching and nice to read. When we arrived to Hastings I was on the 132nd page and I had to close it for a moment and when we came back home I needed to use a toilet and also I used this situation so I could continue reading this amazing book. I finished the entire 194 paged book in a day but everyone probably would do that. After finishing reading it I wanted to tell my friends about my day because I think it was great. After telling some of my friends how was my day I decided to eat my supper and watch with my dad the second episode of Beastars. My dad did like this episode and the whole show. We watched it because we made a small tradition while I am in UK. One day I read one chapter of one of my Warrior Cats books, and the other day we watch a singe episode of Beastars. After all of that I decided to sit and write my day down as a Tumblr Blog post.

Thank you for reading my summery of my day. 08.08 was an amazing day I probably won’t forget because of this post and maybe because I told my friends about this. As I said I'll try to post tomorrow how my other days have been because there’s so much stuff I wanna get off my chest.

[tbr-agency]

triple t. (too much tequila)

“What proof?”

summary ⟶ The girls were given one last practical exam, as a whole group, which is currently an on-going case to carry out their task, along with their sister unit, The Blossom Angels as a back-up for the first time. 

timeline ⟶ February 2020

characters : The Bloody Roses, The Blossom Angels, Jay Park, H1GHER Music, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐌 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐒

warnings ⟶ none.

“Am I the only one that is nervous?” questioned Haejin out loud as she looked towards her other members who were busy preparing themselves.

They could only look at her with a slight scoff and a small smile as they shook their heads.

“No, Haejin. I’m actually nervous ever since the senior officer gave us the reports,” answered Ahrin who was driving while glancing towards the rear-view mirror to see Haejin pouting.

Haejin couldn’t remember when was the last time that they were doing a mission. If she wasn’t wrong, the last time was when Got7 surprised them in their house.

The Bloody Roses couldn’t lie that they missed Got7 since they would always accompany the boys almost every day - as if it was like every routine even if it’s one day per week kind of basis.

What’s worse is that almost all of the Got7 members are in a committed relationship with each of their own bodyguards.

Ever since the day that The Bloody Roses girls step onto Virginia, it was as if they had limited time to update the Got7 members - but the girls tried their very best to give them a call or a message, an update regarding their well-being.

The same goes for the Got7 members.

It’s been 4 months since they went abroad to Virginia, to study at the same time helping the officers in the university to carry out their on-going missions by each one of the members attending internship.

Each of The Bloody Roses members gained so much knowledge and they were one step ahead from getting their official badge and licenses. Their last task was to be undercover in a club to catch a drug dealer.

What’s interesting is the owner of the club is none other than Jay Park.

“But why does Jay Park owns a club in L.A, U.S.?” questioned Nara as she was reading the reports.

“Because he has his company building in here too, that’s what Eunjae told me,” replied Eunhee as she was glancing at her watch.

“It’s time,” stated Eunhee as she looked towards Ahrin who gave a nod, as well as a smirk.

Hyunji smiled as she looked towards the dance floor, to see Haejin and Yeonji basically splitting up as they began their mission. It was the first time seeing Haejin stepping into the dance floor just for a mission.

During her old days, Haejin wouldn’t even glance towards the dance floor. 

It’s probably thanks to Jaebeom oppa that made Haejin to slowly forget her trauma.

“Hello? Hyunji? Can you hear me? Tug your hair behind your right ear if you can hear me.” Nara’s voice suddenly appeared on her earpiece and Hyunji quickly followed her best friend's instruction.

Hyunji somehow felt uneasy; since it was Nara. They would only use the earpiece when something happened not according to their plans. 

“Okay cool. Just saying, Eunhee and Chaeun caught the dealer. Just stay in your position till either Ahrin or Haejin gives us our next moves.” giggled Nara at the other end and Hyunji can’t help but to clench her jaw in annoyance and weirdly, in relief.

I’m gonna kick her ass after we graduated.

“I have never seen you before. Are you from Korea?”

Hyunji turned towards the voice to see an unfamiliar face that she couldn’t recognize. 

“Yeah I am. I’m sure you’re from Korea too since it is obviously coming from your pronunciation,” answered Hyunji with a slight smirk, causing the guy to look taken aback.

“Woah... How did you know? Well.. I assume that you don’t know me, so let me introduce myself. My name is Lee Hwimin, and I’m in a duo group called GroovyRoom.”

Haejin looked around the room as she watched Eunhee and Chaeun apprehend the drug dealer. At the same time, her attention goes to the dance floor and for the first time, she smiled.

Haejin smiled.

The first thing that goes onto her mind was Jaebeom. Memories of her first coincidentally meeting Jaebeom in Deepshower’s club.

“Jb? What are you doing here?!”

“How about you? What are you doing here?”

“What are you— I’m doing my job of course!”

“If you are worried if people might see us, you don’t have to worry about that,”

If Haejin could compare herself, her old self was truly a tragic story and Haejin was planning to just live her life with her old memories but she didn’t know that what was waiting for her.

Haejin was truly grateful for Jaebeom. He made her open up her heart, her closed-off thoughts, and her closed-off feelings. But what made Haejin cherish Jaebeom more was what he said to her during one of her dates in his studio, back when he returned back from the world tour concert.

“We should visit Jaehwan. Since you’re going to Virginia for 5 months, I’m sure he misses you. Well, if you don’t have the time, we could go as soon as you return back home. I have some things to tell him and one of it is I’m thankful to him that he created a girl that has so much compassion and consideration for her family, her friends, the people that she surrounds herself with,”

Though there were misunderstandings between Jaebeom and herself, Haejin knew they could overcome it since both of them trust each other and they would always communicate whenever one is feeling upset.

Haejin could say that she has changed a lot in just a spent of 4 months in Virginia. Not just herself, the other girls too. They were more confident and somehow, they have become more gorgeous too. 

To put it in Haejin’s words, The Bloody Roses are no more the bloodied roses, they were becoming into a blossom.

“Hayeo--

Haejin’s fast reflex made her to quickly grab the one that was about to hug Haejin behind her back, causing her to tightly grip onto the one’s wrist. 

Haejin finally realized who it was as her eyes widen.

“J-Jay?” Haejin muttered as she stared at the one and only Jay Park, who was just a foot away from her that if anyone sees their position, they would think both of them were about to kiss.

Haejin quickly moves away from him, releasing the grip from his wrist.

“Hayeon-ah...” Jay mumbled drunkenly and Haejin tilted her head. 

She finally realizes that the CEO of both H1GHER MUSIC and AOMG is drunk. It was obvious after seeing his reddening face.

“Jaebeom, I’m not Hayeon.”

“But you look just like her.”

“That’s because we’re cousins.” Haejin dead-panned as she shakes her head, immediately texting the other The Bloody Roses.

“Yah! Check if he is being drugged!” instructed Nara on her earpiece and Haejin quickly grabbed Jay’s redden cheeks, as she somehow checks his eyes. She heave a sigh of relief.

“Clear. He’s safe.” stated Haejin and before she could even took a step back, she was being engulfed by a tight hug from Jay, causing Haejin to shriek really loudly. 

“Oh god! Hayeon is gonna kill me! Yah! Get off! You smell like tequila!” Haejin shrieked as she groan in annoyance, as she tried to push Jay away but he was too strong for his grip. The latter was mumbling nonsense that she couldn’t guessed.

Maybe because Haejin was too busy thinking and hoping that her cousin wouldn’t thing wrongly. 

“Need help?” 

Oh no.

Haejin knew whose voice it was as she quickly gulps in nervousness. She looked towards the voice to see Hayeon basically smirking while folding her arms.

“Hayeon, it’s not--

“I know, I got a call from Eunhee that you are screaming for help that Jay is suffocating you,” Hayeon cuts off the younger one. 

With a strong grip, Hayeon managed to just single-handedly yank Jay away from Haejin. 

“..And I heard you panicking just now so, no worries - and I trust you,” added Hayeon with a smile as she pats Haejin’s shoulder while trying to carry the drunk Jay by supporting him.

“Let me help you!” Haejin offered as she went to Jay’s opposite side. As she was helping to support Jay on her shoulder, Haejin didn’t realize that Hayeon was staring at her.

“It’s good to see you, by the way. We have a lot of catching up to do, Haejin. A lot of catching up.” said Hayeon with a warm smile as she looked at Haejin. 

“Okay, everyone. Our job is done - almost. We are just waiting for The Blossom Angels and their team, well... mainly Eunjae and her team. I’m just going to check in the club to see the situation.” stated Eunhee through the walkie-talkie as she proceeded to go into the club.

They were supposed to catch the drug dealer without causing any scene - which is already been done. It was easy for The Bloody Roses as the girls manage to fight some of the drug dealer’s guards. They have been doing these for more than a year so it was done fast.

As she was doing her roundabout, there was a shriek coming from a group and Eunhee immediately went towards the group to already see Hyunji on the floor crouching beside the body.

“Is he dead?!” yelled Eunhee slightly towards Hyunji who was basically checking for the man’s pulse and she looked towards Eunhee. 

“No. His pulse is still beating,” answered Hyunji as she began opening his eyelids slightly and Hyunji suddenly gasp. 

Eunhee decided to see for herself by checking the man’s eyes and she immediately took out a vaccine from her pocket and immediately inject him.

The man is being drugged and Eunhee guessed that he drank the drugged tequila and as result, he fainted due to the drug. Ahrin told her it is fine for someone who consumes the drug but the consumer would suffer from a high fever if they didn’t get vaccinated as soon as they fainted.

“I should tell Hwimin about this,” mumbled Hyunji as she immediately took out her phone.

“Who’s Hwimin? You know this guy?” pointed Eunhee towards the man on the floor.

“He is Park Gyujeong, a member of GroovyRoom. His partner is Lee Hwimin. Both of them are under H1GHER Music.” explained Hyunji as she was already calling for back-ups.

At the same time, Eunhee decided to go near his face, checking for his breathing as she went near his face, directly at his nose to hear him peacefully breathing.

Eunhee can’t help but go towards his mouth for a sniff, for precautions. 

Urgh, tequila.

In just a second, Gyujeong’s eyes immediately shot open as he tried to sit up, not know what is going to happen next. 

His lips landed onto Eunhee.

“It was an incident, Eunhee. Stop worrying..” 

“He kissed me, Ahrin! I’m as dead as a piece of bacon if Jinyoung finds out!” Eunhee exclaimed as she was messily rubbing her hair in annoyance. The thought of Jinyoung finding out could just make Eunhee insane.

She knew how possessive Jinyoung can become and it would somehow lead to an argument if things get heated.

“Well you didn’t kiss him back! You literally pushed him away! We saw it happen!” added Yeonji as she was watching the older one, walking back and forth on the pathway. 

They were waiting for the others who were still on the job, the 3 of them are the only ones who finished their duties.

“We will back you up if anything happens, Eunhee-ah. Stop thinking about it,” advised Ahrin softly as she grabs her shoulder. Eunhee looked at the younger one with a worrying look.

“Besides, Jinyoung won’t find out unless someone wants to be a creep and took a picture of you.” shrugged Yeonji and Ahrin nodded in agreement.

Eunhee sighs as she rubs her face in exhaustion and worry.

“Good job, Eunhee. Thank you for saving Gyujeong for me.” A familiar voice said and Eunhee knew who it was as she went towards her for a hug.

“No worries, Eunjae.” mumbled Eunhee with a small smile. Eunjae raised her eyebrow as she scans Eunhee’s face.

“You look dead.”

“That’s because she is worrying about Jinyoung finding out that Gyujeong kissed her.” revealed Yeonji at the back and Eunjae tried her best not to laugh. Seeing her cousin’s reaction, Eunhee frowns.

“Yah! I’m actually freaking out! Can you imagine if Sik-K finds out his girlfriend was kissed by a guy?” exclaimed Eunhee and Eunjae rolled her eyes.

“Firstly, it won’t happen to me and lastly, it was an incident, Ahn Eunhee. I’m sure Jinyoung would understand,” explained Eunjae who was already folding her arms, seeing her panicked cousin.

“We tried to tell her that.” added Ahrin and Eunjae raised her eyebrow towards Eunhee.

“Okay, look. If somehow Jinyoung founds out or you tell him and he doesn’t believe, you can just contact me and I will show him the proof.” Eunjae made a deal, causing Eunhee to frown.

“What proof?” inquired Eunhee as she tilted her head.

“A proof,” answered Eunjae plainly with a smirk on her face.

Just then, the other members of The Bloody Roses as well as Hayeon of The Blossom Angels came out of the club, and that was the queue for the police officers to go into the club to escort the customers out for more investigations.

“Well, this is it. I have news from your senior officer. ‘Congratulations, The Bloody Roses. You have completed your internship and you have another month to go through the last few courses just for additional knowledge - then you will graduate’.” announced Eunjae as she read the message from her phone, causing The Bloody Roses members to groan and whine in frustration and tiredness. 

“Great. We have another extra month!” yelled Haejin sarcastically, causing Eunjae and Haejin to giggle to see the other girls reaction.

masterlist : Got7 Bodyguard Au

[baby-army-ff]

meet cute -- Monte & Yoongi

God, the bells at the entrance to Catfish Vinyl echoed in Montego Bridges' worst nightmares.

Worst yet, Monte wasn't asleep or dreaming. And the bells gave away the fact that she was once again fifteen minutes late to clock in. Glancing around the empty lounge, she might have escaped the lecture this time.

It wasn't her fault that she didn't have reliable transportation to work. Of course, she might've lied about it in the interview. And maybe she would have reliable transportation if she didn't blow all her money at the recording studio. But it wasn't her fault. That's what they get for paying minimum wage!

Once she was clocked in, she took her place behind the cash register, whipping out her phone. Chances were no one would come in for the first hour of her shift. That's usually what happened anyways. Why Bruce was such a stuck up about being on time, she'd never know.

"Don't think I didn't hear you come in late again."

"Speaking of the devil." Monte set her phone down on the counter, standing up straight.

"Is that what you do when you're out here alone? Pray to the dark lord?"

She smirked. For all she knew, he could have been into that kind of stuff himself. Bruce had owned the vinyl lounge for longer than she'd been alive. He was one of the few people that could intimidate her, probably due to the fact that he looked right out of one of those mafia murder movies.

"No, I just mindlessly scroll on social media until my eyes glaze over, my brain goes numb, and I start believing that birds are actually government robots recording every aspect of our daily lives."

He shrugged. "That would make a lot of sense."

"And you say I'm the one on my phone too much." She went back to scrolling, popping a mint from the candy jar into her mouth. It was for the customers technically, but she hadn't had to refill the jar in a month. She was doing them a favor really. If they sat for too much longer, they'd probably poison someone.

"Funny, my phone says 4:30. Didn't your shift start at 4:00?"

Groaning, she set her phone down once again. "Are we back on that? If you want the truth, I lost my house keys and was looking everywhere for them."

"Did you find them in your nightstand?"

"How'd you know?" She feigned astonishment.

"That was yesterday's excuse too."

Shoot. She forgot she didn't use the house got flooded excuse yesterday.

"This is strike two, Monte." Bruce gave her the disappointed father look. Not that she knew what that really looked like—she never really got that look from her parents a day in her life.

"Bruce, come on. You know I'm the best worker here. And no one stops by before 5 o'clock."

"Your schedule says 4 o'clock. Period."

She shut her mouth, holding back the groan. When Bruce was serious, he really was serious. She didn't want to push his buttons any further. Though she was tempted to.

"I promise I'll be on time tomorrow. And I don't promise often."

He seemed appeased by her answer as he went back to sorting through vinyls. She was pretty sure they were in alphabetical order already, but he seemed to really like flipping through the tracks. It really was his passion.

"Is there anything I can do to make it up to you? That disappointed father look on your face is killing me." She was half joking. The other half was her just being bored and hoping he'd give her something to do.

"Sell a vinyl to this customer." He nodded his head towards the entrance.

She hadn't even noticed anyone walking towards the shop. Tucking the phone away in her pocket, the nightmare bells jingled again as her first customer of the day walked in.

"Welcome to Catfish!" She voiced towards the front door. She couldn't really tell anything about the guy that walked in, besides the fact that he had snow white skin. A baseball hat and sunglasses hid any other defining features.

She gestured to Bruce to go to the backroom. She hated when he judged her vinyl knowledge, and he always managed to steal her thunder with all that he knew. She wasn't about to lose this challenge.

She watched over his shoulder, taking note of which vinyls he chose to flip through. His choices were random at first. Of course he flipped through the Beatles. Everyone did that. Eminem. J. Cole. Not much of a selection there, but she could stan them.

"Are you looking for something specific?"

He turned around to look at her still standing behind the counter. "Me?"

She snickered. "No, the ghost next to you." She walked towards where he was standing. "If you like rap, then be prepared to have your world shook. Follow me."

He obeyed, trailing beside her and sipping the large iced coffee in his hand. Black coffee. He must be really desperate to have to drink that stuff.

"We have to stop by Animal Collective, because, well, they're my favorite. And this album is perfection. If I were stoned, not saying I've ever been there, this is what I would want playing in the background. Don't tell anyone I told you that though."

Without words, the boy smiled. That was enough to boost her confidence and keep the album under her arm as an option. Who knows, maybe he'd want it after all.

"Moving on, for rap, this is the best vinyl in the building. Wu-tang Clan. If you haven't heard them, you're missing out. It is my absolute favorite, and, if you don't buy it, I might just buy it for you myself because it's that good."

Pocketing his sunglasses, she was able to see his face as he took the vinyl in his hands. He was clearly Asian, with eyes that looked like they could shoot daggers. Though he looked innocent and gentle, and maybe not a day over twenty. She was a bad judge of age though.

"You know a lot.." He smiled, holding the vinyl carefully.

"I like vinyls. And rap. Unfortunately our rap vinyl collection here is kinda sucky."

"You like rap?"

"I love rap. I actually perform around the corner sometimes—"

"You rap?" His eyes lit up with amazement.

She was used to people being shocked that she wanted to rap. If there was an image to fit, she definitely didn't meet it. But the look in his eyes was more than just surprise. He looked excited.

"Just a little bit." She lied. She'd spent nearly every day for the past month recording at the studio down the street. It really wasn't a big deal though. It was a friend's recording studio, not like a record label or anything. That was still a far off dream.

"That's so cool." He walked to the counter with her, taking longer sips of his coffee along the way.

"So, where are you from?" She made small talk as she rang him up. Usually she hated these parts of the conversation, but she was actually interested this time.

"South Korea."

"What brought you here?"

"Music."

She watched his eyes. He was being genuine, that much she appreciated. She was so over the guys who came in acting like they knew everything about music and vinyls.

She handed over his receipt. "I'm Monte, in case you ever hear about me in the future or anything."

She smiled at his laughter, forcing it into her memory.

"I'm Yoongi."

"Well, come again, Yoongi." Please.

God, where was her head?

The bells jingled as he headed out the door, waving at her one last time. She waved before turning towards the office.

Bruce was already standing in the doorframe. "Are you okay? You look a little.. red in the face." He could hardly hold back the bubbling laughter.

"Whatever." She pulled her phone back out, blocking out his mocking. Why was she so shaken by the boy? There wasn't anything exceptional he said or did. Maybe that's what it was. He was genuinely authentic.

And he liked rap. So that was a plus in her book.

"He bought a vinyl?"

"Two." She said matter of factly. "He bought two."

"Consider your sins repaid. Now go get a drink of water before you overheat."

She ran a hand across her forehead. Since when did he keep the lounge so hot?

[renjunvinates]

From Me To You

Summary: At one point all of them liked you, but there’s someone who has  kept their strong feelings for you this entire time. Different liking timelines, but one same boy. Seven anonymous letters with Seven boys, but ONE secret confession letter leaked. Who wrote the letter?

word count: 2.7k

slty masterlist - prologue 1 - prologue 2

1 Mark Lee - The Childhood Best Friend 2 Huang Renjun - The Next Door Neighbor 7 Lee Jeno - The Basketball Captain 3 Lee Donghyuk - My Brother’s Roommate 5 Na Jaemin My Brother’s Best Friend 4 Zhong Chenle - My Astronomy Partner 6 Park Jisung My Dance Parter

-

Huang Renjun The Next Door Neighbor

I sighed in disbelief at Mark telling me the person in love with me has a J in their name, that’s like FOUR BOYS, I mentally screamed. The next person was my next door neighbor Huang Renjun. I mean yes I liked Renjun, do I still now? Maybe? I mean there’s Jeno but it doesn’t exactly hold the same feelings like I did for Renjun. I’ve known Renjun ever since we were kids, ever since I moved here into that house, I mean he’s always been there for me whether I liked it or not, and that's what I liked about him. He was always willing to stay by my side even if I didn’t want anyone by my side, he would sit beside me in silence leaving his presence there, and I wasn’t going to lie, it helped me alot and I appreciated it so much. He’s talented when it comes to drawing and painting and it’s so cute when he gets new inspiration or when he shows me his new art works. Maybe that’s why I fell in love with him when we were younger? He was so innocent and cute and always so supportive even when I tried pushing him away, he’s seen many sides of me, awkward, loud, shy, quiet, different personalities that I didn’t mind showing because I felt comfortable around him, but as time passed, I gave up on Renjun because it seemed like he was more invested into friendship than relationships, which I didn’t exactly mind, but it hurt a little bit. Regardless, it seemed like he wasn’t interested in me, or didn’t care enough so I decided to move on, but now finding out that he also wrote a confession letter that changes all perspectives and feelings, and I wasn’t going to lie, it gave me hope to believe maybe he liked me? I like Jeno, but nothing beats Renjun, he’s always going to hold a special place in my heart.

I looked at the other 2015 letter, May 2. I could only assume it’s Renjun, I mean we’ve known each other ever since we were kids, but even then it could maybe Jisung. Jisung and I have been dance partners ever since we were kids too, and it doesn't help that his name has a J too.

I sighed really loudly and plopped onto Mark’s bed as he looked at me and plopped down next to me too.

“Whatcha thinking?” He asked.

“The letters, Renjun, and Jisung. Just everything,” I replied.

“The May 2nd 2015 letter?”

“Yeah, they mentioned the words ever since we were kids, and I’ve known Renjun, Jisung, and you ever since we were kids,”

“Oh they have J’s in their name,” He laughed.

“I will sock you, if you are trying to make this situation funny,”

“It’s just a joke, please don’t hurt me,”

“Mark, what do I do, what if Renjun or Jisung still like me, what if I can’t return their feelings, especially with Jisung,” I whined.

“Wait, didn’t you like Renjun at one point?”

“Well yeah, but like, I’m kinda over him and I like Jeno,”

“That’s right, I mean rejection is part of life?”

“This isn’t funny Mark. I don’t want to hurt them. Jisung is like my little brother and my dance partner imagine losing him because I don’t feel the same way!!!”

“That’s also a thing,”

“I just, if Renjun liked me? I don’t know how to feel, I mean it took me so long to suppress these feelings and to move on, and now that I have and I’ve moved on to Jeno, I don’t know,”

“You really love all of us don’t you?”

“You guys are like the best boys ever, I can’t bare to lose you all,”

“Relax, it’s going to be okay, we’ll always be by your side,”

“I know, you know I hate hurting people,”

“I know you do, but we’re boys we can take it, I mean look at me, I did,”

“Mark Lee this isn’t about you,”

“I know, but seriously don’t think about it too much,”

I sighed in frustration and took Mark’s pillow and screamed into it, and as that happened the doorbell rang, and I assumed it was one of the boys or Areumi. I laid there looking at Mark’s ceiling, and then I heard a knock on the door, and there it beholds Renjun.

“Hey, Mark said you be up here,” Renjun said.

“Hey,” I replied.

“The rest of them are downstairs, thought you should know,”

“Oh yeah, thanks,”

“You seem in distressed, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just you know rough day at school,”

“Oh tell me about it,” He smiled.

My heart kinda fluttered, his smile will always be cute and pure and something I cannot resist.

“Nah, I don’t want to bore you, besides we’re here to have a good time, not here to listen on my tragic anger stories about teachers and people I hate at school,”

“You know I really don’t mind,”

“I know you don’t you’ve always been like this, and I can appreciate it alot, thanks Renjun, but we should go and head down the stairs,”

“Okay, you know i’m always here for you and always all ears,” “I know you are,” I smiled.

I got off the bed and proceeded to head out the door, and then Renjun followed me after. I went down the stairs and saw everyone at the couch already snuggling with each other and already comfortable. Areumi and gave me a weird look and then waved at me, and gave me a mischievous smile.

“Didn’t think to call us?” Renjun said.

“Oh please, it’s not like you want to watch a movie,” Donghyuk jokes.

“I will personally walk up to you and choke you,” Renjun glared.

“Oh no, Mark save me,” Donghyuk said.

“Choke him,” Mark encouraged.

“Okay, no choking, we’re here to watch a movie, it’s a friday night, let's please keep it peaceful,” Chenle said.

“And this is why I adore you Chenle, you’re such an angel,” Areumi said.

“Yeah a big head angel,” Jisung jokes.

“Hey you have a big head too,” Chenle said.

“Yeah big head,” Mark said.

“Mark Lee don’t be talking like that, when your big head too,” I said.

“Are we gonna watch the movie or not,” Donghyuk complained.

“If you guys make room on the couch, that would be great,” I said.

“Jaemin, Jeno scoot over, there’s no need to hog the couch, we all know you guys love each other,” Donghyuk said.

“We do not love each other, we’re bro’s” Jeno said.

“Awh Jeno, why can’t you just admit we’re in love,” Jaemin said.

“Because we’re not,” He rolled his eyes.

“Okay well make room, and let’s start the movie please,” I said.

Jaemin scooted over and so did Jeno, I sat in the middle and then Renjun sat next to me, I didn’t know what had gotten over me because usually I don’t care but ever since finding out about the confessional letters and knowing someone in this group liking me, yeah it essentially made me even more nervous. I sat there having my heart beat like it was some kind of a heart attack and suffered immensely sitting there panicking for like an hour and then finally deciding to excuse myself from the others to go get a drink.

I walked to the kitchen and took a deep breath and grabbed a drink from the fridge and placed it on top of my forehead to cool down, as I was pacing back and forth, Areumi walked in and looked at me.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Oh you know panicking and having a mental breakdown but what else is new?” I replied.

“What happened?”

“Well good news, Mark doesn’t like me, and I eliminated one of the letters. Mark knows who’s in love with me but won’t tell me, he gave me a hint telling me it’s someone that starts with a J. Which doesn’t help because that eliminate two boys not including Mark. So it’s either Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, or Jisung,”

“You’re speaking too fast again, jeez your habits, please breathe and speak,”

“I’m lost and confused because I have one letter with me and it’s the other 2015 letter since Mark took the other one already, and it’s the one that talks about ever since we were kids, and it could only mean that it’s either Renjun or Jisung, and they have a J in their name and I don’t know but my feelings for Renjun could be resurfacing? But then again, I like Jeno now i’m just doubting myself. It doesn't help when I was sitting between them during the movie either,”

“Breathe (y/n), breathe,”

“I just don’t know,” I frowned.

“I mean you do, you’re just lost, you’ll find a way and understand, don’t panic too much. If you have the courage to ask Mark, then you could ask Renjun and Jisung,”

“Okay then what? What if one of them is in love with me right now? What do I do?”

“You follow your feelings dummy, like you’ve always have,”

I could feel tears seeping in and I tried hard fighting them, I just felt so overwhelmed with everything. Areumi saw me in shambles and came and hugged me reassuring me everything was going to be okay, and it wasn’t until Renjun walked in and saw us hugging and then I made awkward eye contact with him and he saw my teary faced and came rushing over.

“Hey what’s wrong?” He panicked.

“I’m going to leave you two alone, I think something needs to be discussed,” Areumi said.

“Something that needs to be discussed? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, just talk to her, but don’t rush her. She’s overwhelmed,” Areumi said as she left.

“(y/n) talk to me, what’s wrong?” He asked.

“Noth-.. Nothing,” I sniffed.

“Hey come on, don’t lie to me. What is Areumi talking about?”

“Nothing, okay, it’s nothing,”

“I’m going to stand here until you talk to me, and I’m not going to let you leave either,”

“Renjun please,” I begged.

“Seriously what’s wrong, I knew something was wrong when I asked, but now you’re just blatantly lying to me,”

“I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE,” I yelled.

I was filled with anger and annoyance, not wanting to deal with Renjun and his pushiness today, nor was I ready to deal with the others anymore. I was already filled with annoyance with the letters and being frustrating with these dumb letters. My tone raised and Renjun’s face was taken aback, more tears were flowing. I was about to leave the kitchen until he grabbed my hand and looked at me, he kept persisting.

“I will not leave you alone, until you tell me what the hell is wrong with you,” He said.

“Nothing, it’s fucking nothing Renjun,” I replied.

“When are you going to stop being so hard headed and open up to us. When are you going to stop and let us in. I’M TRYING TO BE HERE FOR YOU AND I CAN’T DO THAT WHEN YOU’RE ACTING LIKE THIS,” He yelled.

I’ve never once thought Renjun could raise his voice like that, I flinched when he yelled and I completely lost it, I yanked my hand away and then all of a sudden everyone entered the kitchen and saw me with tears in my eyes as Jeno came towards Renjun and pulled him by the collar.

“Renjun what the hell did you do,” Jeno said.

“Hey Jeno, calm down and release him. Let him speak,” Jaemin said.

“He’s right hyung, calm down,” Jisung said.

“I did nothing wrong, I asked her what’s wrong and she kept ignoring my question. I was just trying to be there for her,”

“You made her cry,” Jeno said.

“No, I didn’t. She was already crying when I came in, ask Areumi,”

“She was, but I guess she’s just more overwhelmed,” Areumi said.

I felt all eyes on me, and I felt mortified, fear had taken over me and without thinking I ran out the door and could hear Renjun pushing Jeno off of him and chasing after me out the door. He grabbed my hand and we stood outside out of Mark’s house.

“(y/n), I’m really trying, I’m really trying hard not to push your buttons and I want to be here for you,” Renjun said.

“Are you.. Are you in love with me?” I hesitated.

“What..?” His face blanked out.

“Are you in love with me?” I asked again.

“What.. what makes you say that?”

I sighed and pulled out the letter that dated May 2nd 2015 and handed it to him. His eyes widened and his face turned red, and then he looked at me with panic.

“Where.. Where did you get this?” He asked.

“It was mailed to me, I got 8 confession letters mailed to me. So, tell me did you write this letter?”

“I.. I did, but this was years ago,”

“Oh… So you’re not in love with me anymore right,” I asked.

“Why does it matter? Why does it sound like you’re disappointed I’m in love with you,”

“Renjun that’s not my intentions at all,” I frowned.

“It’s fine, I get it, you don’t want me to like you, I know. Don’t worry I’m not in love with you, besides I know you like Jeno,” He replied.

“Oh.. So you did like me at one point did you?”

“I did, I mean I was head over heels, but as time passed you started looking at Jeno romantically and so I gave up. Don’t worry I’m over you,” He faintly smiled.

“I’m sorry,”

“Don’t be, besides it’s all in the past, this was written 4-5 years ago,”

“I know but still, you must’ve been hurt and torn because of me,”

“It happens, but we all learn and deal with pain, it’s part of life,”

“I just, I got 6 more letters to deal with. I don’t think I can do this anymore,”

“6? But you got eight.. Did you figure out one other person already?”

“Yeah, Mark. I found out he use to have a crush on me, but he told me he’s over it. He also gave me a hint telling me that someone that has the letter J in their name is in love with me, but since you’re not one of them that leaves three people left,” I sighed.

“Are you hoping it’s Jeno?” He asked.

“I.. I don’t know. I never really thought about it,”

“It’s okay, if he makes you happy, that's all that matters,” He smiled.

“I want everyone to be happy,” I frowned.

“We can’t have what we want,” He shrugged.

“A person can try,”

“You’re right. I’m sorry for raising my voice at you, I was just very frustrated with the situation. It breaks my heart seeing you cry and being in stress mode,” He apologized.

“I get it, I’m sorry for being a stubborn ass. You know how I am,”

“I know,�� He smiled.

“Thank you though, thanks for not giving up on me,”

“Anything for you,” He smiled.

I opened up my arms and he saw and he came in for a tight hug, and I hugged him back tightly. Part of me kind of hoped he was in love with me, but I was wrong. It was a bit disappointing but things can’t be helped sometimes.

“It’s getting late, I should go,” He said.

“Already? We should both come back and into the house and explain to the boys we’re both okay,” I insisted.

“I think you should head back in and check up on Jeno and tell him you’re okay. Also tell him I did nothing wrong,”

“Are you sure Renjun?”

“I’m sure, I have things I have to do anyways,” He reassured.

“Okay..” I replied.

He released me from the hug and started walking off into the dark streets, I watched him walk until he was engulfed by the shadows and disappeared from my eyes. So if it wasn’t Huang Renjun the Next Door Neighbor, then it was on to the next. Since Mark told me it was someone that has the letter J, it was time to eliminate Donghyuk and Chenle. Which convinced me I should start with those two and find out which confession letter they wrote. So I guess up next was Lee Donghyuk, My Brother’s Roommate.

-

slty masterlist - prologue 1 - prologue 2

1 Mark Lee - The Childhood Best Friend 2 Huang Renjun - The Next Door Neighbor 7 Lee Jeno - The Basketball Captain 3 Lee Donghyuk - My Brother’s Roommate 5 Na Jaemin My Brother’s Best Friend 4 Zhong Chenle - My Astronomy Partner 6 Park Jisung My Dance Parter

[chanyattaa]

Welcome!

Hi! I’m Akira but you can call me Aki. I used to be @lyhta​ but I’ve moved to this account for a fresh start. To start us off I thought I would make an introduction post about myself! I got these from a website that had 100 questions...I don’t think all 100 are necessary so I just picked my favs lol 

1. What would you change about yourself if you could? 

     I would probably change the fact that I get burned out on things too quickly.

2. What is your favorite game or sport to watch and play?

     I don’t really do sports but if I do go to a sporting event it’s hockey. I love to watch it! Game-wise I LOVE Overwatch! I like to watch Overwatch League as well. 

3. What would you sing at karaoke night?

     If I picked a Korean song it would be Martini Blue by DPR Live...are we even surprised by that statement at all? If I picked a western song, I would probably pick a Panic! At The Disco song or something.

4. What are two of your biggest pet peeves?

     Closeminded people and loud chewing.

5. Where do you see yourself in five years?

     In South Korea teaching English! I’m currently going to school for it. 

6. What’s your favorite holiday?

     I don’t know if people really consider this a holiday but I love Halloween! I work at a haunted attraction and it’s so much fun! I love spooky vibes and scary stories.

7. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever eaten?

     Frog legs? Maybe chocolate covered ants?

8. What song would you say best sums you up?

     I’ve never really thought of this but for some reason Just Do It by BSS is what popped in my head first...

9. How many languages do you speak?

     I’m fluent in English and American Sign Language and I’m okay at Korean!

10. What other interests besides kpop do you have?

     Gaming, Marvel, fashion, dance, writing, photography, body modifications, plushies.

11. Who knows you the best?

     Myself and I barely know myself.

12. What groups are your ults?

     BTS, GOT7, Stray Kids, NCT/WAYV, Astro, Seventeen, MCND...I stan a lot of groups but they’re not necessarily my ults hehe

13. Who are your ult biases?

     BTS-Yoongi and Jin, Stray Kids-Chris and Jeongin, NCT-Johnny, Chenle, Ten, Taeyong, and Yuta, Astro-Jinwoo and Eunwoo, Seventeen-Jihoon and Mingyu, MCND-Castle J and Win

[justmeandmyinnermostthoughts]

Vacation Time Part 4: Telling Truths

Enjoy part 4 of my MIB series! Let me know if you want to be tagged or not. 

Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 (You are here) ~ Part 5 

“There’s no way!” J laughs, shaking his head. “That can’t be true!” 

Celestial laughs, picking up her water glass. “It is! It was a mess and a total disaster but the kids loved it.” She takes a drink of water and sets the glass back down. “The parents on the other hand weren’t super thrilled about it.” 

J leans back in the booth. “I’d expect not.” 

“Oh and it was absolutely horrible to clean up to.” She takes a bite of her pie. 

J picks up his water. “Did you manage to keep it from damaging the books?” He takes a sip. 

Celestial waves her hand, swallowing. “Oh no, we held the event in a separate room. No books in there. Thank the stars. It would have been so much worse if we had to try and salvage damaged books too. That would have been a nightmare.” 

“I can imagine.” 

She props her chin up on one hand. “So what about you? Got any good stories you can share about your work?” 

J chuckles and shakes his head. “I do but you wouldn’t believe any of them, trust me.” 

Celestial sets her fork down and links her fingers together, resting her chin on them and leaning towards him a bit more. “Try me.” 

J looks at her for a moment, his grin frozen on his face. There’s no way she’d believe him and it’s against policy to discuss MIB with civilians. But… there’s something about this girl, about this Celestial Stargate. He feels the need to tell her the truth. The need to need to tell her everything is so strong it’s almost a physical sensation. He thinks back to the Cupid in the park. He’ll have to pay him a visit. And he does have the Neurolizer with him. If she doesn’t believe him or thinks he lying he could always use it. Even if she did believe him he could use it anyways. That thought doesn’t sit well with him but it helps him make up his mind. He sighs and rubs his forehead. “Alright.” He sits straighter, and puts his forearms on the table, leaning towards her a bit. “I doubt you’ll believe me but I’ll tell you.” 

She smiles at him, setting her clasped hands on the table. “I’m all ears.” 

“Okay. So, this was my first mission at my job right? I had just been hired and was still in training under uh, we’ll call him my mentor.” His hands move is small gestures as he talks, his arms not leaving the table. He keeps his voice low. 

Celestial holds out a hand. “Wait, wait, wait. Are you some kind of spy or something?” She asks, half a grin pulling at the corners of her mouth. She keeps her voice low as well. 

He gives her a mock stern look for interrupting. “Hush. Just listen.” 

She holds her hands up in defense. “Okay, okay. I’ll be quiet.” She rests her chin on a hand again. 

J gives her a small grin and continues. “So my mentor is training me right? So he’s like ‘let’s go on patrol and check in on some people’ so I’m like yea sure seems normal enough. By mid morning I had helped deliver a freaking baby on the side of the road, and that was just the beginning. So my mentor thought something was weird about that hold situation, besides the obvious weirdness. He was like ‘what would make a father risk a warp jump with a newborn, we should check the hot sheets.’ And I’m basically covered in slime and baby vomit, ‘cause yea the baby threw up on me. And I look at him like what the hell are you talking about?” Celestial’s expression changed from shock at the baby delivery, eyes wide and mouth ajar, to confusion at the warp jump, eyebrows furrowed. Her nose scrunches up a bit when he mentioned slime and baby vomit. She stares at him, perplexed, trying to figure out if he’s messing with her or not. He holds up a finger. “I know you’re confused and will have questions, you probably have some already, and I promise I’ll answer them when I’m done. Okay? Just let me get through the story first.” 

Celestial takes a deep breath and nods. “Okay. Continue.” 

J nods and starts back in on the story. “So he drives us into town right, and stops at one of those stands on sidewalk corners that you can get newspapers and magazines and stuff from. And he buys several of those supermarket tabloids that always have those outrageous stories in them that no one really believes. And I don’t know what to think at this point ‘cause I’m like ‘these are the hot sheets? Really? You’re going to look for tips in these?’ and he’s like ‘they are the best place to look, read the New York Times if you want but these are better.’ And I remember thinking to myself, what kind of job do I have now? He then drops one down on the hood of his car and is like ‘I’m not looking for, I’ve found something.’ And I think the article on the front cover said something like ‘My husband’s skin was stolen by an alien’ or something. I can’t quite remember.” He takes a sip of water and sets the glass down. “So we drive out to see this lady and there’s this big crater in her driveway and a truck that looked like it was torn in half sunk into it. Well we talk to this lady and she says that there was some loud crash the night before and her husband went out to look. And when he came back he was a completely different person. He demanded that she give him water with sugar in it and then he grabbed the back of his head and pulled his skin back so that it stretched unnaturally. She said she fainted after that. So after we get her story my mentor does this weird memory wipe thing with a tool that’s got a light that flashes and the light wipes the memory of a set amount of time from the person who sees it. We then go out to that crater and he takes another tool out of some pocket in his jacket. He scoops up some dirt from the crater into the tool and he watches as some lights flash on it and he’s like ‘don’t be green’ but apparently that’s what it was ‘cause he stood up and asked me some ridiculous question that I had no idea what half the words he said was. I mean it was like he was speaking another language. He called the boss and said we were dealing with a bug. And he explained to me that it was like a giant cockroach with anger issues and an inferiority complex that live off of the death and destruction of other species. And I will say that he massively undersold just how big those bugs are. I was expecting something like human sized right? Maybe six-five at most. No, these things are well over eight feet. Just freaking huge and super ugly too.” He pauses and studies her for a moment. 

She’s looking at him intently, waiting for him to continue. She raises an eyebrow. “What?” 

He tilts his head, raising his own eyebrows. “You sure you want to hear the rest of this story? It gets weirder from here.” 

She nods enthusiastically and reaches across the table to take one of his hands in hers. “Yes! I’m invested now. But I’m going to have a lot of questions for you at the end.” She warns him. 

He gives her a smile and squeezes her hand. “I expect you will.” He launches back into the story. 

~ 

“So my mentor and I are sitting on the ground absolutely covered in this nasty goo. And I mean nasty. You don’t ever want to taste the stuff. But we’re sitting there, and I still can’t believe that he got swallowed just to get his gun back, but it worked I guess. So we’re chatting, taking stock of everything, right. Trying to process everything that just happened when this stupid bug jumps us from behind and tries to swallow me, and then bam, it’s exploded and we’re covered in another layer of bug goo. Apparently you’ve got to destroy a bugs head and body, cause cutting it in half doesn’t kill it. So after that heart attack, my mentor and I look behind us and the morgue lady is standing behind us holding the big gun that I had dropped earlier.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “And I distinctly remember what she said. She goes ‘Interesting job you guys have.’” He shakes his head at the memory. He chuckles and leans back in the booth, rubbing his chin before crossing his arms and looking across the table at Celestial. “So that’s what happened to me during my first two days. In short I helped save the Earth, a galaxy, and got absolutely covered in bug goo. Took forever to get that stuff off.” He falls quiet. He feels relieved to finally share this part of his life with someone, even if it’s just a small piece. He begins to feel nervous the longer the silence stretches and begins to bounce his leg under the table. He hasn’t been this nervous in a while. J realizes with a shock that he wants her to believe him, almost needs her too. J bites his lip and reaches for his water  glass. “Well?” He takes a big drink of water. 

Celestial is looking at him from across the table. She had linked her hands together again and rested her chin on her thumb a while ago. She’s studying him. “Give me a moment. That’s a lot to process.” She stays that way for a few minutes, J’s nervousness growing. After what seems like forever she shifts in her seat and crosses her arms on the table. “So. What happened to the morgue lady?” 

J sits back up. “She joined us for awhile. Was my partner for a month or two before she decided she wanted to go back to the morgue.” 

“So you wiped her memory?” Her head tilts a bit to the side. 

J nods. “Yea, had to. Company policy.” 

“And the company is?” She raises her eyebrows expectantly. 

He knew she’d ask this sooner or later. “We’re called the Men In Black.” 

She nods. “Okay. A bit dramatic but alright.” 

He chuckles. “Yea, I guess it is.” 

Celestial uncrosses her arms and puts her hands palms up on the table. “So, let’s see if I’ve got this right.” She lowers her voice a bit more and J leans in. “You work for a super secret government agency.” 

J grimaces. “It’s not really a government agency.” 

She frowns but nods. “Okay. You work for a super secret agency. The point of this agency is to protect Earth from aliens. So are you some kind of alien hunter?” 

J shakes his head. “No. We don’t actively hunt down aliens. We work with them, make sure they have the proper paperwork, get them settled on Earth. We keep track of them and make sure they are following the laws and doing what they are supposed to. If we have to enforce those laws we do and unfortunately sometimes we have to use force to do so.” 

She nods. “I see. So you’re like Border Patrol.” 

J holds his hand out flat and rocks it back and forth. “Sorta. We’re Earth’s first line of defense.” 

Celestial nods again, the corner of her mouth quirking up. “Okay.” She studies him for a minute, eyes narrowing. “You’re not fucking with me are you?” 

J shakes his head, eyes open and honest. “No, I’m not. It’s all true, I swear.” 

Celestial continues to look at him with narrowed eyes. “Pinky promise?” She lifts a hand from the table, pink extended. 

J looks from her to her hand and back again before raising his own hand and hooking his pinky with hers. “Pinky promise.” 

Celestial straightens up, putting her hand back on the table. “Then I believe you.” 

J’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “You do?” He asks her, not quite believing it. 

She nods. “Yep. I believe you.” 

He leans back in the booth, relieved. “I’m glad. I didn’t think you would.” 

“Are you going to wipe my memory now?” She asks quietly, head tilted to the side. 

J’s eyebrows shoot up in shock. “Why would you ask that?” 

She gives him a halfhearted smile and shrugs. “Company policy? Civilians aren’t supposed to know are they?” 

J shifts in his seat, uncomfortable. “No, they aren’t supposed to know.” He keeps his eyes on the table. 

“So? Are you going to do it or not?” 

He makes an important decision in that moment, one that will end up saving his life.

“No.” He meets her gaze. “I’m not. I don’t actually have the device on me right now. Guess you’ll just have to keep my secret.” 

She smiles at him. “That I can do, Bluejay.” 

A man sitting at the bar smiles. He’s got on multiple jackets and a red and white knitted hat with earflaps. He’s been watching the interaction. “Oh. So this is that reality. Good. He needs some happiness.” He turns back to his pie.