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todoscript · 3 years

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SEQUEL TO “don’t forget it”

SYNOPSIS: One week after accidentally blowing you off on your date, Bakugou Katsuki seeks your forgiveness.

pairing: bakugou katsuki x fem!reader

genre: fluff, very little angst

word count: 5.4k+

warnings: none really accept maybe a character sustaining an injury

author’s note: hellooooo this is a very very very late part 2 of my don’t forget it drabble that many people asked for! i hope this lived up to your expectations and was worth the wait!

Since the events that led you to leave Bakugou’s room in a fit of bitterness after attempting to penetrate that thick head of his, he hadn’t been able to speak to you for a week.

It goes without saying he did his best to chase you down the hallway from his room and toward the elevator the moment he realized his faults. But at the stink eye you shot him through the minimizing slit of the elevator doors sliding into place, he knew he had no right to reconcile with you after pulling a stunt like that. Nor did he think you’d want to spare him any more words to begin with. It was clear you were done arguing with him.

“C’mon man, it’s probably best to let her cool down before you try to make up with her,” was the advice Kirishima offered when Bakugou returned to his room, disgruntled as he heavily fell back into his seat next to the desk. He did the bare minimum to acknowledge his friend’s words with a grunt before resuming tutoring the redhead, his method of teaching suddenly harsher than how it began thanks to his soured mood. He lapsed the day away by pounding Kirishima with problems upon problems against that hard noggin of his, both literally and figuratively.

At the very least, Kirishima earned himself a passing grade on their exam as a result of his hard work and their rigorous tutoring sessions. But what followed Bakugou’s and your relationship was still undetermined.

Days later and you were relentless in giving him the cold shoulder.

Bakugou was met with nothing but empty glances and blatant disinterest whenever he crossed your path. It felt like the wall you slotted between him grew another layer at each encounter, your defenses so impenetrable, it could give Kirishima’s quirk a run for its money. He couldn’t so much as utter a word in your direction without you effectively dodging every possible interaction in favor of joining another conversation nearby.

At first, Bakugou shrugged it off, calling your “childish attitude” unwarranted for something he thought was incredibly trivial. In his eyes, it was just an ordinary date at some run-of-the-mill restaurant he just happened to suggest to you because he took a liking to their spicy food. Not like it was some fancy dinner reservation serving caviar on dry toast beside a pretty, city night skyline. To him, it was nothing special.

However, as the week continued to roll by, it became clear to him how much he hurt you due to his selfishness. In a hangout with the Bakusquad, he learned that you apparently told Mina, along with the rest of the girls, everything during one of your girls’ nights. Which included the events prior to your heated argument in Bakugou’s dorm. And Mina, being just as peeved as you were at how Bakugou stood you up that day, had to let the blond know of the damage he’d done.

“I swear, Bakugou Katsuki, I know you can be an asshole sometimes—”

“Make that all the time,” Sero quietly adds in the middle of Mina’s rant while he lounges backward on Kaminari’s bed. If it wasn’t for his current dilemma, Bakugou would have elbowed him in the back of the head.

“—but this is crossing the line!” she finishes. Her arms are thrown exaggeratedly over her chest. The amber surrounded by the black scleras of her eyes points a beady look at the ash-blond crisscrossed on the floor between Kirishima and Kaminari.

“Poor girl sat there for hours waiting for you, only to find out she got blown off because you couldn’t even properly check your reminders!” She paces back and forth in the room, feet excessively stepping across the floor as she’s engulfed by the emotions she feels for her friend. “What’s worse? She comes back and finds out you’ve been doing your own thing with Kirishima the whole time!”

“Hey! It’s not like we were playing around! We were actually having a very serious study grind, thank you very much,” the redhead immediately clarifies. Though his explanation doesn’t alleviate Bakugou’s case in the slightest, who pounds his palms against the surface of the table they’ve gathered around.

“Look. I fucking get it, Ashido. I screwed up, okay?! Now what the fuck do you want me to do about it?!” he exclaims, anger overpowering his voice, but it does little to deter Mina.

“Fix it, obviously!” she quips back with equal fierceness, leaning in eye level with Bakugou.

“And how do you propose I do that, Raccoon Eyes? Hah?” Repositioning his elbow to rest on the table, he leans his cheek against his hand. “Y/n won’t even let me within five fucking feet in front of her and you still expect me ‘fix this’?”

Despite the situation weighing heavily on his shoulders, no immediate answer is bestowed upon him. That is, except the obnoxiously loud crinkle of a chip bag popping open next to Bakugou that cleaves into the scene like a record scratch. As if unable to read the mood in his own room, Kaminari fishes a chip to throw in his mouth, stirring the awkward silence into tension.

“Wow, Bakugou. I know you’re bad with girls and all, but you really messed up this time,” he remarks. His voice is slightly muffled as he munches his chips, continuing to wrinkle the bag for more. It incites a vein to swell on Bakugou’s forehead. He amasses all the willpower within him not to blast the bag of chips to ash, and the boy alongside it.

“If you dunce faces are just gonna sit here and throw salt in my wound then I’m outta here.”

“No, wait!” Kirishima catches Bakugou’s wrist before he fully lifts himself off the floor. “Come on, Bakugou, I’m sure we can think of something! We just need to put our heads together! Right, guys?” he assures. Finding it hard to deny his friend’s hardened conviction, Bakugou gives Kirishima the benefit of the doubt, albeit with slumped shoulders and a tentative raise of his brow as he slowly sits back down.

“Right! Everyone, let’s get some brainstorming done!” Mina yells encouragingly.

The atmosphere of Kaminari’s room is consumed by moderately thoughtful silence for the next ensuing minutes. A few hums pass, followed by an exchange of contemplative looks as four of the five rack their heads together to uncover a solution. The one in need of help only hunches in his seat, waiting with mild disinterest.

“Oh hey, don’t we have hero training with All Might tomorrow?” Sero is the first to comment, scooting to the edge of the blond’s bed.

“Yeah. So?”

“He said we were going to work on group exercises this time around. You know, teamwork and stuff,” he explains further.

At that, Mina snaps her fingers, the work of a brilliant idea flickering in her head. “Sero, that’s it! Tomorrow, during training, we’ll just form a group together with Y/n! After all, she’ll have to talk to Bakugou if you two are on the same team!” She claps her hands in front of her, her enthusiasm rippling through her body and shown energetically with each raise of her voice. “Then, while the rest of us ‘split up’ to cover more ground, that will be your chance to make everything better with Y/n! It’s genius!”

“You missed one fucking crucial detail, Pinky,” Bakugou gruffs. “That will only work if Y/n doesn’t join another group. The moment she sees I’m on yours, she’s not even going to hesitate making a u-turn.”

“Worry not~ I’ll just text all the girls except Y/n about the plan later and ask them to help sort everyone out!” She solves the problem with relative ease—quick as a click of her phone lighting up and finger sliding open to her messages.

“Uh, another thing though.” Kirishima raises his hand to spare his concern. “All Might says we’ll be splitting into groups of five at most, but there’s already five of us here.”

There’s a brief moment of deadpanning until Mina speaks casually. “Oh, that’s right. Kaminari. Take one for the team and make sure to join another group, ‘kay?” She settles without batting a lash.

Kaminari almost chokes on a mouthful of chips. “H-Huh?! What?! Why me?!!” he sputters.

“Because you’ve been eating chips this entire time and haven’t contributed to anything.”

“Hey, I offered the room, didn’t I?!” He tries justifying but is inevitably rejected by Mina’s wagging finger.

“Ah-ah, no complaints! Besides, it’s only one day of training. If we want this dilemma between Bakugou and Y/n fixed then we all have to play our part, got it?” Mina finalizes with a firm point of her finger nearly grazing the tip of the blond’s nose as he leans back to avoid it, eyebrows scrunched in discontent at the role he’s been reduced to.

“Alllllright!” Kirishima springs from his seat with outstretched arms and tightened fists. “Operation: Get Y/n to Forgive Explosion Boy is underway!”

“Dude, that’s a terrible name!” Sero laughs but rises from the bed to join the redhead’s cheer alongside Mina, the group already in high spirits.

Despite rolling his eyes at their swell of confidence, Bakugou does not object to the state of things. As crazy as it sounds, one could almost decipher the cusp of a grin pulling the seams of his lips as a possible sign he’s actually all for this extravagant little plan. Quite a first for Bakugou, but then again, there’s not much else he can do in this situation except rely on his pack of chumps.

Meanwhile, Kaminari grumbles something beneath the salty grit between his teeth.

“Alright, can you all get out of my room now?”

The scowl etched on your face carries a strong air of disdain that dampens the mood around your teammates considerably. Well, no one should be surprised. With Bakugou standing across from you, staring into the void of your expression, it’s to be expected that you wouldn’t be happy with this outcome.

No, “unhappy” doesn’t quite do your circumstance justice. You are beyond livid.

You feel your eyebrow twitch as you try quivering your lips to form a tinge of a smile. Unfortunately, all that quickly falls apart when you suddenly recall the disaster of last week, triggered by an accidental glance at Bakugou’s mug.

Trying to simmer down, you release a mental sigh amidst the turmoil boiling inside you.

Okay, maybe you’re over-exaggerating. Maybe you’re still just a bit too bitter for your own good and letting your emotions get to you. But in a class of twenty or some students, how did you end up in a group with the one person you were actively trying to avoid?

The moment All Might gave everyone the go-ahead to form their teams for today’s training exercise, you swiftly made a beeline toward two particular star students. Midoriya and Todoroki.

It was simple really. Your experiences throughout the school year told you Bakugou planned on staying away from his rivals when it came to teamwork, regardless of whether you’re there or not. He’s a competitive ass whose goal is to beat anyone he deems a threat in his climb to be the number one hero. It’s only logical you partner with people he adamantly dislikes to evade him.

Yet it seems fate has other plans for you today. By the time you found yourself pacing over to the two students you had in mind, they’d already gone and picked their own group members, forming teams before you could even ask.

Your nose wrinkles like you’ve taken a whiff of something rancid. Or, to be more specific, something fishy. Hooking an arm around Mina’s elbow, you drag the pink-haired girl off to a corner somewhere while tilting your head back at the three other boys.

“Ex. Cuse. Us.” Your words sound as stiff as cardboard. It comes out in practically a hiss when your eyes cross Bakugou. Once you’re positive you’re out of earshot, you whip your head at Mina.

“Mina, what the hell? When you dragged me over here to form a group with you you didn’t tell me he’d be there,” you groan. Childish and petty as you may sound, you just couldn’t fathom the idea of confronting the boy so soon.

Mina holds her hands out, ready to rationalize the whole ordeal. “C’mon Y/n, this is actually an advantage for us! With us four plus you on our team, we’re sure to knock the rest of the other guys out during training today! I mean we showed pretty good teamwork together at the sports festival, didn’t we?”

Steadying your gaze, you hold a finger below your chin as you slowly buy into the explanation. The reasoning is there. It’s hard to argue against a case like that, fully aware that being on the same team as explosion boy will easily snag good results for you and your party. ‘Cause as much of an arrogant jerk as he is, you have to admit Bakugou Katsuki knows his way around hero action like the back of his grenade gauntlets.

“Besides it’s not like you could avoid him for the entire school year. I mean, you two are in the same class. It was only a matter of time before you had to—”

“I know, Mina,” you interject, not wanting the rest of her sentence about the inevitable fall to your ear. “I just… Agh, you know what I mean!” You ruffle your hands through your hair in confliction, unsure how to piece your thoughts together.

Tilting your head over Mina’s shoulder, you sneak a glimpse at Bakugou, watching him as he’s cast to the side with the others. He’s fending himself from Kirishima and Sero’s combined jokes, that usual look on his face sending glares at the two and yelling something you could almost pick up on if you honed your ears a bit more. Surprisingly, when his eyes meet yours for a split second, he stands there looking nonchalant again. Both of you immediately avert your gazes.

Mina pats your shoulder, bringing you back to the conversation at hand. “I know, I know, but after this, I’m sure you can go back to ignoring his ass. After all, it’s just one training exercise, right?” she says. As her words deliver some relief to your ill-timed situation, you give in with a sigh.

Unbeknownst to you, turning your back to Mina and striding toward the rest of your teammates again, you miss the small glint in her yellow eyes, along with the subtle gestures she aims at the three boys, waving her pointed thumbs over your head secretively.

“So I take it you’re on the team with us, Y/n?” Sero asks when the two of you return. You nod in reply and the boy flashes his pearly whites in a wide grin that Kirishima mirrors. He nudges Bakugou at his sides which you subtly catch in the far corner of your eye.

You raise a brow suspiciously at their fidgeting, wondering why having you on their team warrants such enthusiasm, but you’re thankful for their energy at least. Someone has to lift the atmosphere for this not to be a complete drag and Bakugou surely isn’t going to be the mood maker of the group.

The blond scoffs. “Yeah, well, if you dumbasses are going to form a team with me, you’ll follow under my leadership, got it?”

The three readily agree. Though you roll your eyes, you don’t challenge his position, considering no one else is that much up to the task as he is. You’ll simply have to deal with the fact that you’re forced to tread through the day under his leadership. So with no objections, the five of you walk back to the class, gathering around the entrance of today’s battlefield.

Jumping into the activity, All Might goes about explaining today’s lesson to the four sets of teams—consisting of a group exercise to heighten teamwork. The name of the game? Capture the flag.

In short, each team will be split off into different sections of the labyrinth where their assigned flag is stationed. The objective is to not only protect your flag from being stolen but also try and steal an opposing team’s flag from their base and escort it safely to your home field. Nice and simple.

Not long after All Might’s explanation, the gate to the training grounds opens and you all scatter off into your teams, navigating through the twists of the maze to locate your flags. Once your group situated themselves onto your home base, you assemble in a huddle to devise a strategy before the game starts.

“So what’s the plan?” Kirishima asks, eyes darting around his teammates until they rest on Bakugou—the team leader. The ash-blond crosses his arms, a confident sneer plastered on his face as he’s already thought of his plan of action the moment All Might announced the mission.

“Easy. I’m going straight to the front-lines to swipe one of those dumbasses’ flags. You lot are gonna stay here and guard ours until I come back.” He delivers the strategy in a matter-of-fact tone that you quickly don’t take a liking to. Your fist curls in irritation.

“What kind of a plan is that?” you question audaciously, your voice louder than you intended. “So you’re just going to do all the work while we sit around and wait for you?”

Bakugou grits his teeth, leaning further into the huddle to direct his senseless logic. “Look, it’s the fastest and most surefire way to snag our victory without sacrificing anyone,” he says. Playing over his words again, he finds it surprising he even chooses to offer his reasoning. Because if it were anyone other than you he was arguing with, he’s certain he’d leave it at that.

Knowing the current tension between you was a result of his misjudgment, it feels only right for Bakugou to make an effort in communication. He ignores the antsy expressions belonging to the others who signal from behind you to follow along with their original plan.

You don’t seem to catch the hint, nor do you buy into his ridiculous strategy. “Oh, so you’re that confident you won’t get taken out by the other team then?” you quip. As a result, Bakugou’s brows tighten at your noncompliance.

“I know how to take care of myself. You of all people should realize by now that no other nerd in this whole damn class can outmatch me.”

“And what about an ambush? How do you know they simply won’t anticipate your strategy and see you coming?” You fire another counterargument and the boy purses his lips, beginning to find this quarrel spiraling into a headache rather than a step in the direction of reconciliation.

While Sero and Kirishima stand there, shifting their heads back and forth throughout the fiery exchange, Mina speedily reacts. The gears of that cunning mind of hers click into place again.

“You know what, Y/n’s right. Why don’t you two go together then?” she proposes boldly. Her suggestion catches you by complete surprise. You veer in her direction with an incredulous look blown in your eyes.

Before you can open your mouth to protest, the two boys standing beside her immediately back her up.

“Hm, Mina has a point. The chances of you falling into a trap wouldn’t be much if you two work together,” Sero remarks.

Kirishima follows, “Yeah, you guys can watch each other’s backs while going to collect the flag! It’s safer to go in a pair than by yourselves I’d say.”

The three seem adamant about the idea, sharing equally content expressions, and with all that said, you find it hard to dig yourself out of this situation. In a way, you practically volunteered yourself after questioning Bakugou’s plan and doubting his abilities. The group only feels it’s right you come along as his support since you clearly must be worried about his well-being.

Pushing your objections down your throat, you reluctantly agree to tag along with the blond. What you find exceptionally shocking is how Bakugou doesn’t oppose these new conditions. Given his hard-headed temperament, you thought he would’ve scoffed and turned his back at being paired without notice, but no such things were happening here.

...Odd.

“Tch, whatever. Let’s get going then,” is all he gives, starting in the direction into the urban area of the training course.

You trail behind him. “Coming, Boom-Boy…” you mutter the last bit but don’t suppress the urge to let your words be known. Bakugou turns his head and gives you a look akin to an uptight six-year-old you just offended at your local playground. You shrug in response, a corner of your lip pinched upward. He doesn’t pick a fight over the nickname, but his eyebrows remain fiercely slanted, and coupled with his heavy steps and the excessive swinging of his gauntlet-clad arms, it tells you of his emotional constipation plain as day.

The journey toward the other teams’ flags is cloaked in strained silence and the physical gap between you two does not encourage any of you to speak up. At this point, both of your levels of annoyance for each other have mellowed out. Now it just feels... awkward—strange. You don’t see his expression, nor does he see yours. It feels like you’re being left in the dark, having only the back of Bakugou’s head to stare at the entirety of the way, and though you supposedly have his back, Bakugou feels precarious in this state as he trudges along at the front, not daring to turn his head to cross your eyes.

The ambiance is reminiscent of the ancient Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Where Bakugou walks through the depths of the underworld, seeking you out in hopes you’d join his side once again. If he turns around now and spills his thoughts to you too soon, he fears that your forgiveness would be whisked away, thoroughly beyond his reach, and replaced with your promises of retribution.

That was the eloquent version of the situation anyway. To put it bluntly, Bakugou was just impatient as hell to say something to you. The silence suffocates him to the point where the words are nearly about to be squeezed out of his throat, but he bites his lip to snuff out the urges.

The more he keeps them in, the more fidgety he becomes, hands itchy and mouth trembling with grit between his teeth. The idea of not letting his voice be heard was something Bakugou detested. Mainly because it was already such a challenge to even keep his mouth shut, given his fiery attitude and lack of patience.

Man, what the hell am I hesitating for? he asks himself, that outspoken side of him spurring him on.

Ah, screw the uncertainty, he thinks. If he doesn’t say anything now, then he won’t get to say anything ever.

Bakugou stops in his tracks, turning his head. Here goes nothing,

“Hey, Y/n, I–”

“Katsuki–”

Words collide into each other, jumbled and incoherent, which take you two by surprise as you meet each other’s furrowed gazes. It’s quiet as you both piece your way through this, eyes trained like you haven’t seen each other in months when the reality is that a week of bitterness has somehow made you act like strangers. The bewildered look crossing his features is foreign to you; you’ve never quite seen Bakugou as taken aback as he is now.

“You first,” you grant before Bakugou could mix up your words again. Even being given permission, the blond still isn’t sure what to say, his thoughts lost on him the moment his voice clashed with yours. He takes a deep breath, calming his senses and steadying his mind for what he wants to convey.

“Look, Y/n, I don’t know how to put this as nicely as I can,” he begins, tone consistent yet wary, assessing your expression, “but I know I fucked up and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you there all by yourself. I shouldn’t… have blown you off like that and forgotten about you.” He delivers this bluntly—honestly—as open as a boy of his nature can muster with arms spread out, willingly exposing him to his faults and your reprisals.

Looking at you, he finds your eyes are cast to the floor, assuming to be reflecting on his words carefully. After some deliberation, you come across the vermillion in his eyes.

“Frankly, I haven’t entirely forgiven you just yet. But I will say that despite how I’ve been acting, I’m not as mad at you as you think,” is what you give, and Bakugou would be lying to himself if he didn’t achieve relief at your statement. He mentally releases a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding throughout the exchange. However, you aren’t done yet.

“I just want you to understand what moments like those mean to me. It’s during that time where I can share my feelings and learn more about you—understand who you are,” you say. Bakugou latches onto every word. “And it goes both ways, you know. It’s hard to want to stay in a relationship with someone who doesn’t make an effort to make time for you.” It’s obvious you aim that comment at him as Bakugou’s eyes soften slightly hearing it. His calloused, glove-clad hands wrap into his palms. Man, he really was a jerk.

“Still… I know you’re making an effort to be sincere and that you’re genuinely sorry for what happened, especially considering how the others seem to have set this whole conversation up, right?” Bakugou winces over the Bakusquad’s ploy coming to light and makes a note not to follow along next time unless those dummies can scrape up a more elaborate plan.

Despite that, he presses on, “So, what does this mean?” A smile settles on the curve of your lips, sensing his impatience as his voice hastens you along.

“Well…” you begin, speech drawn out in anticipation as you step toward him to where Bakugou follows your movements. That is until he catches a few shadowy figures shifting around atop the small building behind you. Before you can open your mouth to continue, his instincts flare to life.

“Hey, look out!” he exclaims, already acting on his warnings by lunging forward to push you out of the way. Your breaths draw back into your lungs, your body thrust abruptly into the opposite direction. Landing on your butt, you wince at both the shock and the pain, but your whines desist when you witness Bakugou taking a force to the head as a result of coming to your aid.

“Katsuki!” you yell, immediately getting off the ground to rush to his side, but he can’t find it in himself to respond. Afflicted with a substantial blow to the crown of his head, his whole being throbs and his vision spins.

Fuck, is Y/n, okay? is the first thing on his mind, ignoring the liquid trickling down his forehead. His question is answered upon turning his head to meet your anxious expression—your eyes wide and lips quivering as they move to say words he can’t exactly make out beneath the pounding sensations consuming his mind. As he feels a set of arms wrap around him, he tries discerning his surroundings to form a reply, but can only capture bits and pieces.

“—tsuki! ...old… n!”

“...god—! I’m so dead!”

A sputter of words tangling together is the last he hears before his vision fades to black.

The next time Bakugou awakes, his eyes slowly sever open to come face-to-face with a blurry white ceiling. The lights assault his vision as his senses take time to adjust, unraveling the environment to realize he’s laying on a bed—a hospital bed to be precise.

He attempts lifting himself but is met with retaliation in the form of his pulsating head which he immediately flinches at. His hand goes to rub his scalp to soothe the ache and he finds bandages wrapped tightly around him. “What the hell happened?” The last he remembers is traversing the urban area with you for the capture the flag mission before finally confronting the subject that had been plaguing your minds for a week now. After that, he caught sight of some object descending toward you and before he had even realized it, his feet had moved on their own. Next thing he knows, he’s waking up in the nurse’s office with a headache from hell.

Wait, what about you? Were you okay? Surely, he had to have pushed you out of the way in time, right?

His head moves quicker than it should’ve, revealing the other hospital bed in the room to be unoccupied, vacant. He sighs and his relief is further bolstered by the door to the nurse’s room opening to unveil you unharmed with only your heavy look of concern troubling him.

“Katsuki, oh thank god, you’re okay!” you say, quickly pacing over to his side with a glass of water in hand. You leave it at his bedside, sitting before him. Gauging your appearance up and down, Bakugou tries making out even the smallest details.

“You aren’t hurt?”

You’re appalled he would ask this despite clearly being the one patched up in a hospital bed right now, and likely sporting some serious head trauma.

“Of course I am, you’re the one that lunged forward to protect me,” you tell him. Bakugou looks down at his lap, figuring that was what happened, but hearing it from you comforted him more than he thought. However, his comfort is wretched from him by the intense pressure persisting in his skull. Seeing him in pain, you urge him to lay down and rest.

“How the hell did I end up here anyway?”

You fidget with your fingers, hesitating on answering. At that, the blond lifts a brow, suspicious.

“Mineta… accidentally dropped a rock on your head.”

“...You gotta be joking, right?”

Bakugou leers hard, finding the reason he was out of commission to be a damn pebble hitting his head a detriment to his pride. And because of Mineta of all fucking people. Still, if he hadn’t acted as quickly as he did, you would’ve been the one to meet his fate instead, and he weighed this outcome to better than the former.

Then you explain how the teachers had temporarily intervened to bring his unconscious body to the nurse’s, where the old lady went about tending to his injury. Said she did her job and all he needed was to rest and let her quirk take fuller effect within that time.

“So did we win the game?” He switches the topic to today’s mission of capture the flag that was cut short on his end.

You shake your head, but at least grant him the benefit of knowing Mineta’s team ended up placing last. At that, his eyelids shut and he crosses his arms behind his bandaged head. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t my intention to win anyway.”

You give him a look. “...Liar.”

Bakugou cracks an eye open at you. “Hah? What do you mean I’m a fucking liar?”

“I know you, Katsuki. I dated you, after all. And the Katsuki that I dated is an arrogant, competitive jerk who thinks of being the best above all else.” Bakugou scrunches his nose, wondering what you’re implying through your... overly frank descriptions. “Still… he’s sweet and caring at times… and reliable when he needs to be,” you continue, tone softening that draws Bakugou in, “And the kind of guy I want to give a second chance to.”

Absorbing your words, Bakugou blinks. “S-Seriously?” He doesn’t mean to stutter, but the offer catches him off-guard. He replays what you just said. That’s what he heard, right? A second chance?

You giggle at how uncharacteristically astonished he sounds. “Yes, seriously.”

“Does that mean you forgive me for what happened last week?”

You hum between pursed lips in playful contemplation. “Well, maybe you can redeem yourself by going on another date with me then?”

Hearing your proposal, a wide grin arcs his lips, edging into a smirk.

“That’s it? Well, I can definitely fucking do that,” he states, confidence rejuvenating his body at the new, hopeful chance before him.

“Oh, just one more thing though,” you suddenly add.

“What?”

“We are not going to that Chinese Restaurant again.”

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #bakugou x reader #bakugo x reader #bakugou katuski x reader #bakugo katsuki x reader #katsuki x reader #bnha imagine #mha imagine #bakugou fic #bakugo fic #bnha fic

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kekoma · 4 years

Text

— semi as your boyfriend.

can’t imagine not crushing on this man. hope you enjoy.

many many thoughts with this man.

so many that it hurts in good way.

first of all, semi MOST LIKELY named one of his guitars after you.

and i’m not talking about some ordinary guitar that he may occasionally play or anything— nah, i’m talking about the most expensive one that’s gorgeous.

takes the utter most care of that guitar since he plays it often and no one is allowed to touch it.

def learns the songs you like and covers them because this man has bomb ass vocals. i said what i said and won’t take it back.

or he just plays the melody, asking that you sing instead (if you’re up to it)

when semi isn’t covering/playing songs for you then he’s writing them about you.

you’re his sole inspiration for most of the songs he ends up creating and you’re also the first one to hear it before anyone else too.

also something to point out— he creates most of those songs during the night when you’re around.

semi knows most late nights can pull out the strangest topics but it can also open you and him up at the same time when it comes to emotions.

so he’ll be staring at you from his computer chair with his guitar resting on his lap, listening precisely to every word that slip pass your lips as you laid on his bed; rambling about your emotions and how you’re thankful that the universe has put you two in the same timeline.

suddenly he starts strumming a soft tune that makes you feel like you’re floating and turning those words you said not too long ago into something lyrical, something that you two will understand but those that hear it would need to decipher (because there’s no way he’s making it easy for outsiders to understand)

AND if you know a few things about music, can sing well from taking lessons/taking a chorus class in school and/or play an instrument then semi is going AWOOGA 😍

def can see him wanting to collab with you or asking if you could be his hidden vocals/use your voice in general (meaning he would ask you to record a fake voicemail or say his name a certain way so he can put it in the song)

although if you aren’t comfortable with that concept then he understands and won’t push you to do anything.

whew let me move on because i could literally go on and on about this man being musically talented.

anyways, semi def creates a bunch of playlist for you.

each one having a description for why it was made and the feeling he wants to give off with it.

something i feel like he may also do is send over songs he currently listens to and says you should listen to it too so you both feel more connected.

BUT really stepping aside from music.

he’s extremely caring and respectful towards you.

truly studies you, making mental notes about everything and makes sure he avoids cause any discomfort.

when it comes to caring— semi semi here might go out his way to show you through his actions if he feels his words and physical touches may not be enough.

i’ll say he’s a bit clingy— dude loves being around you no matter what.

for sure invites you to his volleyball practices and games.

you’re his lucky charm and he enjoys the thought of knowing you’re supportive of him when it comes to volleyball.

also he’s supportive of anything you do as well, even shows up to your events too (but if it clashes with a volleyball then he won’t be able to go obviously but he makes it up by ordering food in and asking you to tell him all the details about what happened)

now i briefly brought pda earlier and its about that time to talk about it... does eita like it?

yeah he does but it’s not very common in public.

the best you’ll get from him is holding hands, small pecks on the lips/cheeks and ONCE in a blue moon will he wrap his arms around you from behind.

there’s no real reason for why he’s like that but hopefully you’re understanding.

now in private; he does a bit more pda. kisses become a bit more frequent, won’t pass up the chance to hold you in his arms through cuddling or whatever.

side fact: semi definitely likes when you’re in between his legs, your back pressed against his chest and the guitar would be settled on your legs— basically teaching you how to play (if you ever asked him to)

“where do i place my fingers next?”

“right here... you’ll bring your pinky up a bit but keep these two fingers on the the second fret.” he’ll carefully move one of your fingers just to put them in the correct place.

“then you’ll strum. i’ll let you try it without my help this time.”

literally would smile when you do it, finding himself falling deeper in love with you than before.

semi adores that you’re willing to learn something he’s very passionate about it and appreciates you for even taking the time for it when you could do other things.

vvv soft and we stan that here.

moving on— lets talk about nicknames really quick.

drumroll please 🥁🥁🥁

top nicknames: my melody/melody, love, angel and occasionally he’ll toss in lotus along with bambi.

had to keep it cute and interesting <3 semi isn’t going for the basics.

something to mention, we’ve all seen the way he dresses in casual clothes... now you can either a) hype him up about his clothes to the point he’s no longer concerned about how tendou says he looks uncool or b) help the boy out with his style just a bit. all up to you cutie.

heh now let me discuss dates right because whew~ dates with this cutie? hits deliciously.

of course most of the dates are music related so tickets to a concert is on there, going to certain places (such as a park with others and a little picnic set up) to see free performances from new/upcoming artists and etc.

“that last set was actually good, don’t you think so melody?”

“yeah~ i liked the emotions the singer had in her voice. it really connected with me but what do you think?”

“same thing as you. however, did you notice how they had a shift in the cords that created the perfect harmonic? and it wasn’t completely soft too.”

“now that i think about it, my ears didn’t catch on the first time but yeah. oh look! the next act is going up~!”

but when he isn’t dragging you out for that then he mainly takes you out for a drive/walk around the city, cafes, those karaoke places that also serves food, shopping and stay-at-home dates which he tries his best to make them fun (there’s probably more but im just naming a few here)

dates are normally chilled with him and always fun so we loving it.

bonus: semi FOR SURE has you as his lockscreen. no doubt about it.

he loves waking up to your picture in the morning or even checking the time because he gets to see how adorable his love is.

also on his sns (instagram mainly)— he has a highlight called ‘me and my melody 🎶🤍’ which is filled with a bunch of pictures of you two together.

the pictures are so cute that they end up on Pinterest and everyone starts spamming your dms with “so 👀 does your boyfriend have any siblings?”, “can you drop a tutorial on how to get a fine boyfriend like yours?”, “ayo 😳 think i can have him on the weekends and you get him for the weekdays?” and much more crazier things we won’t mention here.

another bonus: probably sings you to sleep if you’re having trouble sleeping. don’t try fighting me on this because i won’t allow it.

ANYWAYS, to conclude this before i have complete semi brainrot— dating this man is a 10/10 and it’s worth it.

we love semi eita over here <333

539 notes · View notes

lockefanfic · 4 years

Text

Business Trip: Pt 29 - Devil

“Do you want to-“

“Fuck no,” she snaps, “fuck, please don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping. I want this. I want you. I want you to fuck my ass.”

You reach up with your right hand, past her hips and her right breast, to her chin, turning it slightly until you are able to kiss her. You spend several long moments there, your lips and tongues playing with each other.

“Now keep going,” she says as she breaks the kiss, “fill me. Fill my ass. Fill me, and fuck me.”

You aren’t one to refuse such an order, and so you press forward - all the while, your eyes are glued to hers as she looks over her shoulder at you, your hand still grasping her by the chin, those eyes glazed with pleasure and lust and just a hint of pain and discomfort. You have never seen her like this - so much in need. You’d seen her face when she is filled with your cock for the first time, seen it during sex, when she is moaning and sighing and gasping, seen it twisted in pleasure when she cums - but never like this. Never twisted in a heady mix of pain and pleasure and pure, unfiltered lust.

It takes minutes or hours or days later, you weren’t sure - but soon you are fully inside her, buried to the hilt inside Minatozaki Sana’s ass.

It is at that moment that you both hear the bathroom door open, and two women walk inside.

Sana’s eyes go wide with surprise.

---

The older you got, the more you wanted to just be at home. You would've given anything to be at home. Or anywhere, really, other than where you currently were.

And it wasn't because you hated the place - Seoul had a newly flourishing craft beer scene, as it turned out, and this particular bar was one of the more popular ones.

And it certainly wasn't because you hated the people. Most of your company, after all, comprised mainly of beautiful young women, most of whom you'd had more than a couple intimate experiences with. Even the few guys that were there were dudes you got along with - in your limited interactions with them, anyway. There was worse company to be had.

No, it was mostly because you wanted, needed some time alone, away from everyone else. Tomorrow was going to be a pretty big day, and you figured you should be at home, resting, preparing yourself for what was to come… or maybe playing some Modern Warfare. Either or.

Tomorrow was the chosen date for the SM operation - the day that Nayeon had decided she would infiltrate SM's headquarters office, using the entrance she had procured from her interrogation of Jay, in an attempt to find the evidence she needed to incriminate SM.

You all should have been at home. You wanted to be at home.

And by "home,” you really meant your hotel room - you were, after all, in Korea, thousands of kilometers from your actual home. You'd spent way too much time in hotel rooms over the past year, and truth be told you'd almost forgotten what "home" really meant. That apartment back in your home city, sitting empty for so long now, seemed like a distant memory. To go back there now would be like going to a foreign place. "Home" was whatever hotel room you were currently staying in. Your possessions were limited to what you could pack in that duffel bag and luggage carrier that had become your constant companions.

You wanted to be back in your hotel room, but you found yourself here in downtown Seoul, mostly against your wishes. Sana had insisted that everyone go out one last time before the big day tomorrow, mostly in an effort to get everyone to relax and cool off. And so when the clock hit 5 she dragged everyone, some of you physically, out of the office and into this bar.

You swirl your half-empty glass of pale ale in your hand as you watch Dahyun and Jeongyeon play darts across the room. It wasn't an ordinary cork dartboard - like many things in the technologically advanced South Korean capital, it had been enhanced with the latest technology to look more like an abstract science-fiction version of the traditional bar game.

Dahyun is hopeless at the game as she was with drink orders, it turns out, and two of the three darts she tosses towards the circular target miss altogether. She cringes in embarrassment as the two wayward darts strike the plastic facing of the machine instead. Jeongyeon chides her playfully for her misses before she takes her turn, and true to form, she makes two high point hits, the third just barely missing her target. The girl had a knack for physical games as well as digital ones, it seemed.

As she collects the darts from the board she turns and catches your eyes. You raise your glass slightly in toast to her ability, and she blushes lightly, brushing away her newly short hair with a shy smile before stepping behind Dahyun as the shorter girl takes her turn.

"You should go out with her already," comes a voice to your left, "you clearly have feelings for each other."

You turn to find Sana has taken the seat next to you, placing her glass of beer on the table as she does so. Alcohol has given her cheeks a soft pink blush to go with her newly dyed pink hair. She looked stunning, as always, and it wasn't hard to notice that she had already captured the full attention of every other male - and some females - in the building.

"Jeongyeon and I are just friends," you state - it was becoming a bit of a routine, at this point, explaining your relationship with the IT specialist to everyone around you. Was it that obvious, the way Jeongyeon felt about you?

"Sure, you think you're just friends. But what does she think?"

You take a moment to ponder Sana's question. Jeongyeon had made her feelings for you clear, and you knew that all it would take was a simple conversation, a simple act of admitting you felt the same way, and bam - you'd have a new girlfriend.

And it wasn't like you didn't have feelings for Jeongyeon, either - she was smart, and beautiful (sometimes breathtakingly so, when she wanted to be), and a genuinely good person, fiercely loyal and protective to her friends and those she held dear. But beyond all that, and perhaps most importantly, being around her made you feel comfortable and cared for in a way that none of the other girls did. She made you feel special.

In another time, in different circumstances, you would have already been with her. But it just didn't feel right at the moment, not now, and not so soon after your breakup with Momo.

"Now's not the right time," you finally answer, swirling your beer around in its glass for the umpteenth time, "we have too much going on to think about starting a relationship."

Sana doesn't seem to believe you, and she lets out a smirk and a "mmmhmmm" as she takes a sip of her own drink.

"What about you?" you ask, eager to change the subject away from Jeongyeon, "what happened to you jumping on me the second I was single, the way you said you would when we were in Hawaii?"

Sana takes a moment to compose her answer, a sly smile appearing on her lips the way it always did when she was formulating some plan in her head. She always seemed to be planning and plotting, always seemed to be thinking the game a few moves ahead of the rest of you. You had experienced first hand what her plotting and scheming could bring, and while your suspicion of her had eased somewhat in recent weeks, you never really could shake the thought that Minatozaki Sana had a little bit of a snake in her.

"I still plan to," she admits, "but I'm going to take my time for the same reason you and Jeongyeon aren't already together. It's too soon. I'm not a monster."

She takes a sip of her beer as she gives you another one of those sly smiles - venom laced with honey.

You smirk at the Japanese girl. She leans forward on the table, bringing her arms together, ostensibly to cup her glass shyly with both hands - but it also had the added side effect of emphasizing the low cut of the sparkly top she wore and the tantalizing cleavage it produced. She wasn't the most endowed amongst your little group, but she certainly knew how to use what she had. You didn't doubt for a moment that everything she did and said was for a purpose.

You knew how this night would end. You’d spent enough time around this group of girls to know where it was leading. You knew what was about to happen, and while the angel on your shoulder kept trying to convince you to call it an early night, the pink haired, Sana-shaped devil on your opposite shoulder was whispering sweet nothings in your ear, and telling you it was okay to indulge in the pleasure that was surely coming.

"I remember you said something in Hawaii... what was it?" she begins, tapping her lip with a finger playfully, "Oh, that's right. You told me there was somewhere else you could put it. Too bad we never got around to it."

"That's too bad," you answer, happy to play her game.

"Mmhmm, too bad. I suppose we could have, but with Mina and Choa leaving, I didn't think it was the right time. I'm not a monster," she repeats.

"Oh yeah? Then what are you, Sana?"

"I'm an angel," she says with the confident tone of a woman who believed it, "Most of the time. Other times, I'm a devil."

"And what are you tonight?"

Sana smiles, one of those slick, sly, devilish smiles of hers - the smile of a hunter that has come upon an animal helpless in her trap. She looks up at you, gives you a playful, cute shrug, and quickly downs the rest of her glass.

Slamming the empty vessel down on the table, she rises and saunters towards the bathrooms, slowly, every little step highlighted with an exaggerated sway of those perfect hips, knowing you - and indeed every other male in the room - was watching.

When she reaches the small hallway that leads to the bathrooms, and just before she disappears into it, she turns halfway to where you are still sitting before biting her lip and giving you a smile that was all devil, and very little angel.

—-

Every step of the way from your table to the bathrooms, you knew the eyes of every single male - and perhaps some females - were on you. Each pair of eyes glaring with jealousy, envy, perhaps a little lust, as you follow the gorgeous young Japanese girl into the women’s bathroom.

What they would have given to be in your position now - standing in one of the stalls, with that same girl on her knees in front of you, her wavy, pink hair bobbing up and down as she took your shaft in and out of her mouth, her tongue pressed hard against its underside, lathering it with slick saliva as it pumped in and out between her lips.

Sana had wasted no time - she rarely did. A few moments of hurried, frenzied kisses, tongues duelling with impatient knowledge that it was all just an appetizer for what was to come. Her fingers worked with practiced ease at your belt, and within moments she had drawn your pants and boxers down to your knees, the newfound freedom of your shaft short lived as it found itself imprisoned by another, significantly more pleasant prison - Sana’s mouth.

You let your fingers graze through her pink hair, a color that you’d thought was daring and outandish on any other girl but was perfect for her. It only amplified the dichotomy that was Minatozaki Sana - that duality of angel and devil that was the core of her.

She lets your cock pop out from between her lips, those perfect pink lips wrapped tightly around your hard flesh as she lets it exit the warmth of her wet mouth. She looks up at you as she presses the sensitive head against her tongue, letting you see first hand the face of an angel engaged in an act that was not at all angelic.

She rises from her knees, wiping the excess saliva from her lips with the back of her hand.

“Fuck me now,” she says, almost a hiss, a sexy but almost angry look in her eyes. She turns around, facing the walls of the bathroom stall, and quickly undoes the belt and buttons of her small, tiny pair of black shorts she is wearing beneath the already extremely short hem of her sparkly blue dress.

You press yourself against her, both of your hands reaching under the hem of her skirt for the waistband of her shorts and pulling them down with a roughness that surprises you, revealing the pale skin of her perfectly shaped ass, round and full. You give her right butt cheek a firm slap, one that elicits a yelp from the surprised Japanese girl.

She turns halfway around to you and bites her lip.

Your right hand snakes around and dives towards her crotch, and you are unsurprised to quickly feel the slick wetness between her thighs. She wanted this, needed it, just like you knew she would.

You take your shaft in your right hand, still slick and glistening with her saliva. She bends slightly at the waist, her hands pressed against the green wall of the stall - but the rest of her upper body is quickly pressed against it when your shaft parts her wet lips and you slip inside her wet, hot body.

Being inside Minatozaki Sana was otherworldly, as it always was, but here, in the women’s bathroom of some random bar in Seoul, on the eve of the most important operation of your career and with all the stress of past and future relationships clouding your mind, she felt downright heavenly. She was a release from all the stress, a valve for all the frustration and unease boiling in your mind.

Sana lets out a sharp gasp as you fill her for the first time, the same way she did every time. You never tired of hearing that gasp. It was a gasp of pleasure, of relief, of being filled and completed - a puzzle finished with a missing piece. She squeezes her walls around you, her body thankful for the sensation, if the intense tightness and slick wetness were any indication.

When you withdraw your glistening shaft for the first time you relish in the feel of her walls gripping you, not wanting to release you - but just as quickly they welcome you back inside as you penetrate her again. Soon you are pumping in and out of her at a slow, steady pace, her soft gasps turning quickly into long, drawn out moans as she is fucked against the wall.

You spend long moments with your gaze downward, watching as your shaft drills in and out between those round cheeks of hers. You need more, need more of her body, and so you reach up with your left hand to her chest, finding the top of her short dress and pulling downward.

Her breasts bounce free from their tight prison, and Sana gasps in surprise at being newly exposed - not that she minded in the slightest, so lost was she in the pleasure fling her mind and welcoming the potential new source of it. You reach up and squeeze her soft, round mounds with both hands, enjoying the feel of her warm flesh in your fingers and the tight, hard nipples poking your palms.

“Oh, fuck!” Sana hisses, your hands on her breasts bringing her torso upright, until you are both fucking almost vertically.

You increase your tempo, satisfied now that Sana was ready for more, and before long you are truly fucking her, drilling in and out of the tight hot warmth of her body with quick, deep strokes. With each stroke you don’t pull out more than halfway - you concentrate instead on pumping hard and fast, getting as deep as you could inside her given your standing position.

Soon Sana is cumming, and you are only partially surprised at how quickly she is coming to her first orgasm given the circumstances and the audacity of sex in a bar bathroom. Her mouth opens in a frozen, wordless “O”, her body tightening and pulsing around you, her small frame quivering and shaking as she momentarily loses control of herself.

It takes every effort not to join her in bliss, and you knew she certainly wouldn’t have minded if you did so - but it was her that brought up what you had spoken about in Hawaii, and you weren’t about to disappoint her.

You release her naked breasts from your hands, and she slumps forward against the wall of the bathroom stall, breathing heavily, still recovering from her orgasm. You slip out of her, your rock hard shaft drenched with her juices - and almost quivering with anticipation. The low bathroom light glistens on your cock, and you are satisfied that it is wet enough for what is to come next.

Sana’s head is still hanging between her arms - but when you bring your palms to the cheeks of her ass and spread them slightly, her head rises and turns to look at you.

You had seen Sana deep in the throes of lust and passion before, but you’d never seen her like this - so filled with devilish lust and need at what was about to come. She locks eyes with you, bites her lip softly, and gives you the slightest of nods.

Her cheeks spread apart with your palms, you point the head of your cock at the opening of her ass and begin to press forward.

Sana gasps as your head presses against her tight opening, her body refusing to let you in at first - but you press forward with your hips, slowly parting her entrance. Sana squirms and quivers as her opening slowly parts, and soon you are finally inside her.

Sana’s hands tighten into fists against the smooth surface of the bathroom stall, and a grimace of pain overtakes her partially turned head as you penetrate her ass for the first time. She lets a long hiss escape her lips, and you kiss the back of her head in an attempt to comfort her, bringing your left hand to match hers on the wall, covering her small hand with your own.

Soon you are halfway inside her ass, and you go no further, letting her get used to the new penetration. When you stop moving Sana lets out a long breath that she didn’t know she was holding.

“Fuck,” she spits, “fuck you’re so big inside me.”

“Do you want to-“

“Fuck no,” she snaps, “fuck, please don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping. I want this. I want you. I want you to fuck my ass.”

“Now keep going,” she says as she breaks the kiss, “fill me. Fill my ass. Fill me, and fuck me.”

It takes minutes or hours or days later, you weren’t sure - but soon you are fully inside her, buried to the hilt inside Minatozaki Sana’s ass.

It is at that moment that you both hear the bathroom door open, and two women walk inside.

Sana’s eyes go wide with surprise.

“I think we’re ready,” says one of the voices - Jihyo’s.

“I think so too,” agrees another - Nayeon.

“We’re ready,” Jihyo says, “the real question is whether you’re ready.”

“Of course I am,” Nayeon answers with all the confidence in the world, “I always am.”

You wonder what your ex-girlfriend would have said if she’d known that you were just a few feet away, fully buried inside the ass of one of his colleagues.

Jihyo and Nayeon continue their conversation - mostly mundane details about tomorrow’s operation. As they speak, you slowly draw your shaft outside of Sana’s tightly grasping ass for the first time, and once it is halfway out, you slowly push back inside her.

Sana is a quivering and squirming mess, and soon you are slowly pumping in and out of her body, your pace relaxed as you enjoy the tight, hot flesh of Sana’s body wrapped around your cock.

Sana’s tightness is overwhelming, to say the least - her pussy was tight, but her ass on another level altogether. Not as wet, of course, but almost overwhelmingly tight and hot, grasping you tightly with each entrance and exit like a glove. You weren’t sure how much experience she had had with anal sex, but soon she was taking you in and out of her ass smoothly, the pain and discomfort of your initial penetration quickly lessening and giving way to the novel, new sensation of pleasure from having her ass filled.

Sana lets a short, sharp gasp escape her lips when you fill her to the hilt - one she clearly regrets, given the surprised and embarrassed look on her face. You reach up with your right hand to cover her mouth, and soon you are fucking her ass with your hand clasped over her lips as she tries her best to stifle her moans. Her eyes are glazed over now with pleasure, still locked to yours even as you pump in and out of her asshole.

After awhile her gasps lessen and then end completely as she becomes used to the hard length pumping in and out of her butt. She reaches up with her right hand to cover yours, and she pulls it down her face, until it is at her throat. You didn’t know she was into choking, and she had never shown much interest in it before - but you’d never had her ass before either. You feel her warm neck pulsing beneath your palm. She squeezes the outside of your hand slightly, causing you to clamp a little bit around her slim neck.

The slightly reduced airflow at her throat causes her ass to clench even tighter around you - and the added tightness brings succulent pleasure to your mind that makes you think you are going insane.

The novelty of it - of fucking Sana’s ass, your hand around her throat - and the danger - being in the bathroom of a busy bar, with your colleagues outside and two of them actually in the same bathroom, seemingly oblivious to the lewd act taking place a few paces away from them - it was all overwhelming.

Outside the bathroom stall, mere feet away, Nayeon and Jihyo are continuing their conversation. Thankfully, the stall you are occupying is a little ways away from the mirror and sinks where you presume they are having their conversation, meaning there was little chance of them noticing what was happening unless they were standing directly outside of the stall.

“...and we’ll be in the van, keeping an eye on everything,” Jihyo says, “Me, their tech specialist, one of the girls from their Tokyo office.. What was her name? The one with the pink hair. Oh, and... him.”

Nayeon lets out a scoff.

“How did he take it, anyway?” Jihyo asks, “I mean, how did he react to your... interrogation techniques?”

“I don’t give a shit what he thinks. I know it turned him on enough to fuck that slut that runs their office in town while they were watching.”

“And you don’t care that he’s got a little harem of girls that he fucks whenever he wants?”

There is a short silence. You imagine Nayeon is considering her answer.

“No,” she says finally. Maybe you were imagining it, but she sounded a little less sure, a little less confident of herself just then.

“Hmm. I could’ve sworn maybe you still had feelings for him.”

“A long time ago. When I was young and stupid.”

“And those feelings won’t ever come back?”

You tense and ready yourself to hear the answer, but all you hear is the sound of the door opening, and the sound of their heels on the tiled floor as they finally leave the bathroom.

The whole time they were speaking, you were continuing to pump in and out of Sana’s ass. It surprised you you lasted this long. And you were more than willing to let yourself fall over the edge.

Your thrusts quicken in pace as you near the edge.

“Cum inside me,” Sana gasps, free to speak now that Nayeon and Jihyo had left, “Choke me!”

Sana’s hand, the one stop your hand at her throat, tightens as though willing you to increase your grip on her windpipe. You are still afraid of hurting her - you already felt guilty for causing her pain and discomfort, however temporary, when you first entered her ass. But her hand on top of yours, clasped around her throat, dismissed any worry you may have had about taking things too far. Your orgasm beckons, and the hand around Sana’s pale throat tightens involuntarily with each thrust in her hot, tight hole.

“Do it... own me. I’m yours. Choke me while you fuck my ass... while you use me! Fill me... Fill my ass with your cum!”

With a few final, short, hard thrusts into Sana’s ass, you bury yourself as deep inside her as you can before finally letting go. Thick, hot cum spurts from your shaft into Sana’s willing depths, her hot, tight ass squeezing and pulsing around your cock as if milking every last drop from you.

As you cum your hand around her throat involuntarily tightens, and the moan that escapes Sana’s throat turns into a gasp - the dark part of you takes obscene pleasure in that fact.

Both of your bodies quiver and shake as the intense pleasure of your orgasm overwhelms your senses. It seems to last forever - longer than any other orgasm you’d had lately. Nothing else exists for those long seconds, aside from Sana’s shaking body in your arms and the hot mess you’ve made inside her.

Your cock pulses a few final times as your orgasm slowly subsides and releases the last spurts of cum into Sana’s body and you regretfully come down from your high. After a few more seconds of treasuring the feel of the hot, creamy mess you’ve left inside her, you slowly draw your half-soft cock out of her body. Within seconds, white, pearly semen begins to leak out of her and onto the reddened, sore cheeks of her ass.

You collapse against the opposite wall of the bathroom stall, trying in vain to process what had just happened. Your eyes remain glued to Sana’s still-quivering form as she tries and mostly fails to collect herself. Slowly she turns so that she too is leaning with her back against the opposite wall, her naked breasts and crotch still exposed, her black shorts still around her knees.

Her inner thighs glisten, your juices and hers flowing down her naked skin.

“Fuck,” she gasps. A cute smile that you find oddly out of place given her current state of undress appears on her lips, and you smile right back.

In an action that would have been intensely adorable had she not been half naked, mere minutes from the dirtiest sex she had ever had, Sana blows away a stray strand of pink hair that has fallen into her face before smiling cutely at you.

The devil satiated for now, she lets a little bit of the angel return.

—-

“HQ to Blue 1, come in.”

“This is Blue 1, loud and clear,” Nayeon responds.

It is noon the next day, hours before the scheduled start of Nayeon’s operation. You are standing in the underground parking lot of JYP as Nayeon tests the connection and clarity of the miniature communication earpiece she had hidden in her ear. From the open rear door of the van, where she is overseeing all the technology involved in the operation, Jeongyeon gives you a thumbs up.

“Can you adjust the camera on her jacket? The picture isn’t quite centered,” she adds as she slides back into the rear of the van on her wheeled chair.

You reach for the small pin, which was in truth a miniature wireless camera, on the short blazer Nayeon is wearing, adjusting the angle as Jeongyeon requested. Nayeon fidgets and squirms, clearly uncomfortable with your sudden proximity.

“Will you sit still for a second?” you ask, sounding a little more annoyed than you wanted to.

“Will you hurry up? It’s a goddamn pin, it’s not that hard to straighten,” she replies with a similarly annoyed tone.

You huff under your breath at how difficult she was being - she had been this way the entire morning. Having done what you could, you turn back to the van.

“Jeongyeon? What about now?”

A couple of moments pass as she reviews the video feed.

“Yeah, it’s still a little crooked. Let me see what I can do on my end,” she yells from the van.

You stand there awkwardly with Nayeon, both of you unsure what to do next while Jeongyeon worked on the video feed. Nayeon fidgets with her blazer and earpiece, and you pull out your phone and pretend to look through your emails.

“So… why did you choose Blue as your callsign, anyway?” you ask Nayeon, not taking your eyes away from your phone. You wanted to break the awkward silence somehow.

“I… It’s my favorite color. Thanks for remembering.”

You smirk at Nayeon’s comment.

“It was years ago, Nayeon. People forget things.”

“It’s a pretty simple thing to remember. Pretty much everything I gave you was blue.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Including that blue hoodie I gave you for our second anniversary. The one you wore for like a year straight, the one you loved so much? But who cares, you probably threw it away a long time ago,” Nayeon finishes. You look up from your phone to see that she has turned away from you, looking blankly at some of the other parked cars in the lot.

You go back to wondering about just why she was so upset today. The two of you had settled on being coldly indifferent towards each other at work and ignoring each others’ presence altogether outside of it, but today something had changed - from the moment she had come into the office this morning she had seemed angry and upset at you.

“What exactly is your problem today, Nayeon?” you demand, wanting to know just why you were being treated this way.

Nayeon crosses her arms, still facing away from you.

“It doesn’t matter,” she says after a short silence as she casts her eyes downward, “forget about it.”

“Nayeon-”

You are interrupted by the sound of a woman jogging into the parking lot from the nearby elevator. It is Sana, her hair a flurry of wavy pink strands as she pulls back the hood atop her head.

“I’m so sorry I’m late! I slept in…” she says, catching her breath. She fans herself with one hand and with the other she unzips the blue hoodie she is wearing…

Your blue hoodie. The one you gave her what seemed like a lifetime ago, when you spent your first night together in Tokyo. The same one that was given to you as an anniversary present, so many years ago...

You turn to Nayeon to see that she has already noticed what the Japanese girl is wearing. She tried, on the surface, to keep composed, but you had seen that look before - it was the same look she wore when you told her about the job offer from JYP, the same one that would mean the end of your relationship. It was a look of someone whose heart had just been shattered, but whose pride was keeping her from outwardly showing it.

“I… Sana, I think Jeongyeon needs some help in the van, can you help her out?”

Sana is puzzled at your request, but not being any wiser, she nods an affirmative to the both of you and moves to join Jeongyeon.

You turn to Nayeon, who is almost shaking with fear and hate and heartbreak.

“Nayeon, I-”

“No, don’t even start,” she hisses, holding up a hand as though physically stopping you from going any further, “Don’t.”

You notice she is quivering with equal parts hate and anger and hurt, her hands balled into fists as she struggles to contain the emotions overwhelming her.

“I’m such a fucking idiot,” she says under her breath, “for still having feelings for you. For hoping you still had feelings for me. And for taking this job when Jihyo asked, and going halfway across the world for the chance that maybe, just maybe, you and I could give it another shot.”

You want to say something, want to tell her it was all a big unfortunate mistake, a big misunderstanding, and that Sana wearing the blue hoodie meant nothing.

“But here you are,” Nayeon continues, her voice and tone wavering, “and you’ve done nothing but parade the train of sluts that you’re sleeping with in front of me - hell, you even fucked one while I was in the same goddamn bathroom, because that’s how much of an asshole you are. And you even gave her the hoodie I gave you, just to rub it in my face. That’s how much you wanted to show me I was just some girl you’d fucked and left behind in your hometown. Just another girl. Just another hole. Just another slut.”

You are shocked speechless by Nayeon’s confession, and you are unable to defend yourself from her accusations. All you can do is stand there, dumbfounded, as the woman you once loved so much struggles to compose herself.

“But really, I should be thanking you. Because I loved you. I thought for a minute that maybe I still loved you.”

Nayeon pauses, and in that moment a single tear falls from her eye, down a face that is shattered by emotion.

“So thank you, really - for convincing me that you don't deserve my love.”

Nayeon turns and leaves the parking lot back in the direction of the elevators, and just as it was so many years ago, she leaves with a broken heart.

---

#kpop fanfiction #kpop fanfic #kpop smut #pov smut #male reader #twice sana #minatozaki sana

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motherjoel · 4 years

Text

Leading Lady (Spencer Reid x Reader)

chapter four- talented little thing

wc: 1.8k

summary: you get to know the team a bit more before your first tech rehearsal

a/n: hope you guys like it! im also taking oneshot requests if you guys feel like you’d like to request something :)

chapter index: chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3

It wasn’t long before your small apartment felt even smaller- the team had showed up within 5 minutes and although you were extremely overwhelmed, you knew that this was the safest you could be. Reid was frantically running around, talking to various people in FBI jackets and you felt like you were standing in the eye of a hurricane. You sat down at your kitchen table and put your head in your hands, trying to calm down when you felt a presence next to you. Looking up, you saw the blonde agent you had met the other day, Agent Jareau was her name.

“It’s going to be okay, I know the chaos can be a little much but this is how you know we're working our hardest,” she said, resting a comforting hand on your arm.

“I know, and I'm really grateful. You've all been great, and Spencers… he's… great,” you decided, smiling to yourself. So, hey, maybe you had a little crush on the guy. It wasn’t like you could act on it, with him sleeping on your couch, but you couldn’t help the butterflies when he rambles about facts or blushes when you notice him looking at you.

“Yeah he is,” she smiled. “And he seems to feel the same way about you. I haven’t seen him this worked up about a case in awhile,” she said, her voice sounding a little suspicious.

“Oh,” was all you could muster. Maybe he just feels responsible for you and he doesn’t want to mess up. Before the two of you could continue your conversation, the team made their way over to you with a woman on a video chat screen who you remembered to be the bubbly Garcia. Spencer had his eyes trained on the files in his hand, the rest of the team was focused on you. The woman with black hair, Prentiss, spoke first.

“Y/N, is there anyone in your life that has been acting differently recently, maybe taking more interest in you?” she asked. This was surprising to you.

“You mean… I know this crazy stalker killer?” you asked, shocked. You thought it was just some random dude who has a vendetta against thespians. Morgan spoke next.

“Well, the thing is, none of the other victims had been followed this closely. It’s a change in his MO, leaving these photos on your door. He's taking special interest in you, and we think it's possible he's killing these other women as a way of playing out his fantasies of you,” he says with a concerned look.

“So… this person is killing all of these women because of me?” you questioned, your chest growing tight. You looked to Spencer for comfort but he was still looking down at the file. You know you shouldn’t feel guilty, there wasn’t any way you could have caused this, but you couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling. It seemed like Agent Jareau could sense your panic and she grabbed your hand in hers, Morgan put a hand on your shoulder.

“It’s a strong possibility,” said Hotch. “Which is why it's important that you continue to go about your daily schedule as usual. We don't want the unsub to panic once we're onto him and get more people hurt. Spencer will continue to live with you and go everywhere with you, it's only a matter of time before the unsub messes up and makes himself known,” he finished. This was definitely a lot to take in, and although you appreciated the comfort of Agent Jareau and Agent Morgan, the one person you really wanted to comfort you was in a different world.

“So I can still go to my rehearsal tonight? It’s important that I don’t miss it, it’s the start of tech week” you said, hoping that it wasn’t too soon to be out in public.

“Tech week?” questioned Morgan.

“Oohhhh, how exciting!” said Garcia and you smiled at her, grateful that you still had the show to keep you sane.

“Tech week is the week before the opening performance of a production where all of the technical aspects of the show are present and used in the rehearsal process,” Spencer said, as if on instinct, without looking up.

“Yeah,” you agreed, “and it's kinda important I’m there…” you trailed off.

“Oh my gosh, I forgot we're protecting a talented little thing! Eponine is a dream role of mine!” Garcia almost shouts.

“Aw, stop you’re making me blush,” you laughed, briefly forgetting the situation you were in. That's when you noticed the stern look from Hotch and you looked back to see Garcia with wide eyes mouthing “I'll text you.” You smiled and gave her a thumbs up, returning your attention to Hotch.

“Yes, you can go. If the unsub knows your schedule, he knows that it would be out of the ordinary for you to miss this rehearsal,” said Hotch, much to your relief.

The agents soon finished up at your apartment, and Agent Jareau (who you now call JJ upon her request) gave you her phone number in case you had questions or wanted to talk, which you thought was very nice and you were glad the two of you hit it off.

Your apartment was now empty aside from you, still seated at the kitchen table and Spencer sitting on the couch. The agents were only in your home for an hour or two but it felt like an eternity. You hadn’t eaten yet all day so you decided to ask Spencer if he wanted to get lunch with you. You walked over to the couch and sat on the opposite side from him.

“So… wanna get some food?” you asked hoping he would look up from his work, and he did, but his face didn't show the soft smile that you had grown accustomed to.

“You want to go out now? Right after a stalker left a menacing envelope on your door?” he asked, with a skeptical look on his face. His harsh tone took you by surprise and your face visibly fell.

“Well I have a rehearsal later anyway, so we have to go out eventually…” you trailed off, his eyebrow still raised at you. “Fine, I guess we can order a pizza,” you huffed and walked back to the table where your phone was.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and you turned around, surprised.

“For what?” you asked, genuinely curious. He didn’t have anything to be sorry for, it's not like he was stalking you and killing these innocent women.

“I’m sorry that this is happening to you and I’m sorry you're stuck with me as company,” he said, looking away.

“Well I guess that first part makes sense, but you're great company!” you told him. He looked skeptical. “Seriously,” you continued, “I don’t know if any of the other agents would have ‘delved deep into their psyches’ with me, or gotten me to tell them about my dead dad,” you said bluntly.

“Well to be fair, you kind of did that without me asking…” he said with a slight smile. You gasped in fake shock.

“Ohhh, so that's how it's gonna be,” you laughed, the tension in the room dissipated. “Well I'm ordering the pizza now, cheese okay?” He nodded and smiled before focusing on his files once again. You were satisfied with yourself, glad that things seemed normal again.

Hours had passed since you ordered the pizza, which the two of you shared on the couch while watching Gilmore Girls (Reid, even being the genius he is, remarked how fast they talked in that show). It was time to leave for your rehearsal, and although Spencer insisted on driving, you could use the fresh air on a walk to clear your mind (or as fresh as the city could offer). You grabbed your purse, your script and water bottle and walked out the door with Spencer in tow, locking the door behind you. He offered to hold your script and you were hesitant but ultimately gave in.

The second your foot hits the sidewalk outside of your apartment you feel off. Maybe you were overreacting, but it was a similar feeling to the one of being watched that you had experienced a few days ago. You picked up your pace and Spencer seemed to notice and he did the same, his hand instinctively resting near his holster. You tried to make small talk in case anybody was listening in.

“So, the rehearsal is probably gonna be pretty long, but it might actually be entertaining. I mean you’ve read Les Mis in a couple languages so the show should be pretty easy to understand,” you jokingly told him. He chuckled beside you.

“And it's okay that I watch? Your director wont mind?” he asked.

“No, I'm sure it's fine if I just tell him once I get there. Fantine’s boyfriend watches rehearsals all the time,” you reassured him, before realizing what you had just said. “I mean not that you’re my, you know...” you said before he leaned down and lowered his voice.

“It's okay- the cover, remember? As far as anyones concerned, I'm your boyfriend,” he told you. This did about as much to reassure you as it did to give you butterflies. You just nodded and did your best to hide your blush. It wasn’t long before you were outside the theater, and you were thankful for that. You trusted that you were safe with Spencer but you couldn’t help being on edge

The two of you stepped inside the lobby area where your director was finishing up a phone call. He hung up the phone and turned to greet you.

“Y/N, hello! Thank you for being on time,” he said, his voice laced with stress. You wondered who he was mad at for being late.

“No problem John. Oh, is it okay if my boyfriend sits in on the rehearsal? He’s visiting from out of town and he loves theatre,” you said, trying to seem as convincing as possible, although you didn’t hate the lie of Spencer being your boyfriend.

“Fine, he can take a seat in the back. Go get your costume on, mic check in 30,” he said, barely addressing Spencer before darting off and picking up a phone call.

“So… I guess i'll see you soon. I might be able to sneak around and watch the first part of the show with you, I'm not onstage for a while,” you told him while leading him into the auditorium, seating him in one of the last rows.

“Okay,” he smiled. “Go break a leg,” he said, which sounded a little unnatural coming from him but it was really cute. The two of you laughed and you walked back out into the lobby to get changed in your dressing room, not taking notice of his eyes following your retreating form.

taglist: @mcntsee, @diesinspanishbcimhispanic, @chickens-are-life, @rexorangecouny

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid/reader #spencer reid angst #Criminal Minds #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds reid #derek morgan #spencer reid x you #spencer reid/you #penelope garcia #jennifer jareau #emily prentiss #aaron hotchner #hotch #david rossi

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sodalitefully · 4 years

Text

Enter freely and of your own will [GNR, Sluff AU]

I know, I know, I've written vampire AUs before… Several times. But I had to write something about what a nerd Slash is for vampire fiction! Mostly inspired by interviews Slash gave after gnr covered Sympathy For The Devil for Interview With A Vampire (so any digs at the movie adaptation are based on Slash’s opinion, not mine – I’ve never seen it!). Occasional mentions of blood and stuff, but not particularly graphic. This fic is expanding on an AU I originally drew here.

~~~~

In my mind, it all played out like the plot of a paranormal romance novel. I’ve gotten familiar with those lately, thanks to the collection hidden in the bottom shelves of Slash’s library, buried below the gothic horror classics, the crime thrillers, and about a mountain of nonfiction. Hell, I could probably write my own! “Tall blonde unexpectedly falls for rock and roll bad boy with a dark secret,” yeah, the readers would eat that up. Of course, our love story didn’t really start when the unsuspecting protagonist moved to a new city, or when the leather-clad love interest showed off his supernatural shredding skills. No, I’d say it started a couple years later, when I found out Slash’s other deep, dark, embarrassing secret.

It wasn’t a dark and stormy night… but it was a movie night at my place, a tradition for Slash and I. Whenever we needed a break from the so-called rockstar lifestyle, we’d get together for a night in, smoke some pot and put on a movie. Slash laid back on my couch while I dug through a cabinet packed with VHS tapes and listed off a few options:

“Let’s see, we have Jurassic Park, Alien, Interview With a Vampire – Uh, sorry, I guess that would be weird huh?” Slash made a sour face.

“Ugh. I hate that movie, it’s such a bad adaptation. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, seriously?”

“Wait,” I dropped The Empire Strikes Back and Blazing Saddles onto the growing heap of tapes and sat back on my heels to look at Slash in surprise. "You’ve seen it before?”

“Uh…” Vampires may not be able to blush but I'd known Slash long enough to tell when he’s flustered.

“And you’ve read the book?”

“… Yes?” I laughed, Slash ducked and hid his face, obviously feeling self-conscious, but I didn’t mean to laugh at him. It was just…

I’d assumed that a real-life vampire would roll their eyes at the cliche, over-romanticized movie interpretations of their kind. Instead, I learned of Slash’s (nearly) indiscriminate love for all things vampire, anything from Carmilla to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He was a sucker (hah, get it?) for dripping fangs, swishing capes, even those crazy accents, ever since he was a kid. And I can’t lie, it was pretty endearing. I wasn’t in love with him yet, but the more he told me about his obsession, the more warm and tingly I felt, charmed by how genuine he was – Hell, I barely even teased him about it! Somehow, that conversation felt even more personal than finding out he was a damn vampire. I was really touched that he felt comfortable sharing his interests with me, that he trusted me with his softer, nerdier, more romantic side.

I resisted the temptation to press for more details that night, but a month or so later, I caught him in the act! I remember waking up in the afternoon after crashing at his place so late it was early the night before. I wandered around his big, spooky house until I found Slash curled up in one of his fancy antique armchairs, his legs dangling over the armrest and a paperback book cradled in his lap. I couldn’t make out the curlicued script on the cover, but from the captivated look on his face it was a favorite – his eyes were bright as they darted across the page, and his lips curled into a warm, gentle smile.

I couldn’t stand to disturb him, so I snuck off before he noticed me in the doorway, and headed down the hall to the room he’d transformed into a tiny library – The man had a library in his house; between that and the subtly gothic decor it was hard to believe I never noticed that Slash was playing up the vampire aesthetic, consciously or not! Anyway, I poked around until I found where he hid his collection of vampire lit, and snatched a few that were, shall we say, not quite as acclaimed as Dracula or even The Vampire Chronicles. I don’t remember the titles, but there were a couple paperback romances and a horror novel with a badass-looking dude on the cover.

I had to see what all the fuss was about, you know? Yeah, this kind of thing wasn’t exactly up my alley, but Slash usually had good taste, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to check it out. Plus, if it was important to Slash, I wanted to know about it! And not just the well-known classics either; I wanted the guilty pleasures, I wanted to see what it was that could make Slash smile like that when no one was watching.

I’ll be honest, it wasn’t bad. I wasn’t a big reader at the time, but I raced through the horror novel in just two days, and trust me, I barely slept the night in between! The trashy romance was more enjoyable than I would ever admit; even with all the cliches and melodrama there was something compelling about unraveling the tangled web of forbidden love in a world full of the supernatural.

At this point, I was very cautiously beginning to entertain the idea that I might see Slash as more than just a buddy and a bandmate. As friends, were were closer than ever, hardly spent a day apart, and I was beginning to notice things that I hadn’t noticed before. Things like the way he always smiled at my lame jokes, the way he leaned on my shoulder when he was pretending to be drunk, the way he tossed his hair on stage… And I couldn’t help wondering whether Slash identified more with the heroine or the love interest. Did he want to be the cool, mysterious vampire lover, or the unsuspecting protagonist who gets drawn into an alluring new world?

I got my answer a couple months later, in town again after a leg on the road. It was a steaming hot summer day back in L.A., and Slash was dozing on his couch. This wasn’t unusual in and of itself, Slash’s sleep schedule had been fucked for as long as I'd known him. No, what made this instance significant was that I was also on the couch, reclined with my feet over the armrest and Slash draped across my chest. Tales From The Crypt played at a murmur on a brand-new TV set, but I wasn’t paying any attention.

See, at this point I’d recently learned that, when Slash focused hard enough, he could hear a living person’s blood pulsing in their veins and detect changes in body temperature. And that had me wondering: Could he tell that my heart beat faster when he leaned against me on stage? Could he tell that my ears got warm every time he turned a smile my way?

Could he tell how much I was affected by his weight on top of me?

He was like a huge cat in my lap, relaxed from head to toe. If you paid attention, you could tell that he was breathing more slowly that an ordinary human should be and his bare skin was slightly cool. Other than that he looked completely normal… Except for his teeth. His mouth was slightly open, allowing his pointed, knife-sharp teeth to scrape against his lower lip.

To Slash’s chagrin, they weren't gleaming white, perfectly straight fangs; instead they more closely resembled a shark’s jaw, crowded with small flesh-tearing blades. It was rare to see them exposed, Slash was careful to limit himself to tight-lipped smiles and mumbled dialogue whenever his secret was at risk. Even in private he was self-conscious about it, and I considered myself lucky when he grinned openly in my presence.

“Hey, Slash?”

“…Hmm?” Languidly, he shifted until he was looking up at me. Midafternoon sun leaked through the blinds brightly enough for me to make out a hint of red in his eyes, the other (un)dead giveaway that was usually obscured by his sedately lidded gaze.

"You know how you said the other day that you have really strong senses? Well... I was wondering what other, uh, non-human traits you have. How true are the myths about vampires, really?”

“Well… Hm. My eyes are pretty sensitive to daylight. And technically I’m nocturnal. But I don’t have fangs, I don’t really look like a vampire and I don’t have superpowers.” I swear to god, he pouted a little. "All things considered I didn’t really get any of the cool stuff."

“No super-strength? Or mind reading? Can you shapeshift into a bat?”

“Don’t you think I’d tell you if I could turn into a bat? At least I don’t have any of those stupid weaknesses, I can be in the sun and eat garlic and whatever.” He paused ponderously. “…You know, I might be immortal, I was around a long time before Tony and Ola took me in. Guess I’ll find out in a few decades.”

“That would be pretty cool.”

“Yeah, maybe."

“So... do you enthrall your victims?” I prodded, in a spooky, menacing voice belied by my goofy grin.

Slash snorted a laugh and shook his head at my antics. “No, I can’t do that either. Well, I don’t know, do you feel enthralled?”

I laughed awkwardly and counted my blessings when Slash didn't notice that my unspoken answer was an empathetic Yes.

Slash chuckled with me, then sighed. “Fuck, I wish vampires like that were real, though…” he confessed softly.

“Like what?”

“You know, badass, seductive, awesome powers…” He waved a hand toward a pinup poster on the wall with a corset and fangs, then let his head fall back to my chest. He mumbled into my shirt, “Is it really so much to ask for a sexy vampire to come and sweep me off my feet?”

“Slash, I hate to tell you this, but…” I couldn’t make it through the sentence with a straight face.

He swatted my bicep – pretty hard too, was he sure he didn’t have super-strength? “Fuck you, Duff, you know what I mean."

And, yeah, dreaming of being wooed by a beautiful, badass, intelligent and darkly mysterious vampire? Who appeared in my life and changed it forever, who blew me away with his capability and his passion? Who could captivate me with just a look?

Yeah. Believe me, I could relate.

~~~~

Happy Halloween!

#don’t think too hard about the timeline in this au #my sincerest apologies to any of you who is sick to death of my vampire aus #hell I’M not even that into vampires #I’m just into slash being into vampires…#slash #saul hudson #duff mckagan #gnr #guns n roses #guns and roses #halloween #gnr fanfic #guns n roses fanfic #sodafics

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nobody-wants-ice-cream · 4 years

Text

Everything Wrong With The Umbrella Academy. Episode 5, Number Five.

We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals

Run Boy Run

Extra Ordinary

Man on the Moon

Disclaimer: This is all in good fun! I wanted to do a really nitpicky re-watch of the series and found some really cool and interesting things I didn’t notice before. This is meant to have a Cinema Sins-esque tone. However, I did take off a lot more sins than Cinema Sins would have because I do genuinely like the series and the people that made it possible. So all of the good things got one sin off and all the bad things got one sin added. This is a really long post, so grab some popcorn. If there’s anything that I missed, feel free to add it!

I would also like to add that normally you wouldn’t watch a show this way. I am purposefully looking for mistakes, easter eggs, and other things that we’re not supposed to notice. I am watching not with the goal of entertainment, but for analysis. So most of the things that I sin, I am seeing for the first time.

Number Five

The apocalypse looks incredible. Well done special effects team! I know I already shouted them out, but they deserve another one. Or two. -2

Five shades Dolores with an umbrella. What a considerate dude. -1

Heat of the Moment is an awesome song. -1

Five’s survival gear. Well done costume department. -2

Also, the progression of skill and age is really well done. -1

Dolores’s little santa hat. -1

And her sunglasses. -1

“Do you remember that little mansion just outside city limits where we-- yeah” Noodle incident. However, the way Five says this implies that I really, really don’t wanna know. +1

Argyle Public Library. Suddenly the reason why Five went there makes sense. -1

How did Five get all the way up there on the library walls? Did he use a ladder? If so, that was begging for him to fall and break his name. +1

Sean Sullivan (who plays Old Man Five) does an excellent job imitating Aidan Gallagher’s vocal patterns and movements. -1

The Handler is the first person Five sees after 45 years of isolation. +1

Title screen lunch box! -1

Also, Five kept a lunch box to remind him of his family. He had Vanya’s book but nothing else with their images on it. I’m sad now, but glad that Five at least had something. -1

Five is so hungover. +1

Luther looks like he’s about to cry when Five tells him about finding their dead bodies. My boy! +1

Tom Hopper is an excellent actor. -1

Five also looks like he’s about to cry. +1

Aidan Gallagher is an excellent actor. -1

Luther lifts up Diego and holds him like Diego is an angry toddler. This amuses me. -1

See! I told you. Diego figured out that Five was involved with the shootings at Griddys and Gimbel Brothers on Patch’s doorstep! -1

“They work for my former employer. A woman called The Handler.” No one in this show is allowed to have a reasonable name. +1

Underneath how callous Five is about Patch’s death, he shows genuine concern for Diego. -1

Diego has not slept at all. And he is planning to go after Hazel and Cha Cha. Good luck with that, buddy. +1

Luther finally gets tired of Five vagueing everybody. Good job, I’m curious too. Er, I was when this was my first time watching it. -1

The Handler decides to wear three inch red pumps to the apocalypse. +1

The Handler is as vague as a Multi Level Marketing schemer would be.+1

The Commission decides to wait 45 years to recruit Five instead of a more reasonable number. Like zero years. Honestly, if I was the Handler, I would have picked up Five as a young, impressionable thirteen year old. Then he would feel indebted to the Commission and wouldn’t have had time to come up with the equations to escape. The Commission has no logical reasoning skill. +1

“You’re saying that I could actually leave here? Go...go back?” Heartbreaking. Sean Sullivan gets another sin off. -1

“All of this, was supposed to happen”. Kate Walsh is a kick ass actress. -1

The Commission is composed of dicks. +1

Five asks Dolores for permission before running off to join The Commission. -1

Five’s mustache. +1

I would watch a spin off of Five’s time in the Commission. Hopefully season 2 explores this more. Dallas plot, here we come? Sin until we get some answers. +1

You can see Five’s epiphany in his eyes. His expression says “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” -1

The words on Vanya’s book look real. The props department did not have to go that hard. -2

However, whatever notes Five wrote are indecipherable. And for good reason if he was attempting to fool an entire time commission. -1

The fire extinguisher Klaus throws confirms for Five that the portal works. -1

Also, Five is clutching Vanya’s book. It’s like he’s nervous to see them again after so much time. -1

The fall from the portal to the ground doesn’t break, scratch, or hurt Five at all. +1

Also, Dallas plot foreshadowing? Remains a sin until we have answers. +1

I hope that they show Five picking up his hat, radio, gun, and possibly the fire extinguisher and that is why we never found any of those in a grassy knoll. Season 2 better resolve this. +1

“But that’s murder”. Luther, you threw people out of buildings when you were twelve years old. That is also murder. +1

Aidan Gallagher kills the delivery in this scene. Well done. -1

Klaus still has Dave’s blood on his hands. Also, putting Klaus through even more trauma. +1

Robert Sheehan and the heartbroken thousand yard stare. -1

The music choice really works. -1

That emotional, awful scream. -1

The briefcase exploding may foreshadow Klaus’s comic powers. Sin until we get answers. +1

Hazel and Cha Cha casually murdered Claudia. +1

“Unauthorized round trip travel to 1968”. This is how we found out where Klaus went. It requires a bit more brain power to figure out the Vietnam war from here, however, I think that this was a clever way to do it. It brings us back to the reason Klaus ended up there. -1

Honestly, Hazel was right to not carry the briefcase on him. If Five had seen it at Gimbel Brothers then he would have taken it because he knows what it is. It would be an insurance policy or could be used as leverage. Either way, Hazel and Cha Cha were going to lose their briefcase. +1

Allison, you were there when Vanya made breakfast plans with Leonard. Is the coffee and bombolini your way of trying to distract Vanya? Because based on the makeup and the nice scarf, it isn’t likely that you will be successful. +1

Vanya has a framed piece of sheet music. Either that’s some really valuable manuscript or its something kitschy. Either way, it’s a sin. +1

“What are you concerned about?” Vanya, the red flags are everywhere. +1

“Like a woman who’s based her whole life on rumors.” Ouch. Allison is trying to give you genuine advice, Vanya. This was uncalled for. +1

Leonard is getting progressively creepier. +1

“Can you imagine sharing your birthday with six world-famous assholes who all know they’re better than you?” Choke on that irony. +1

Leonard doesn’t stop her by saying, “Wait, that’s salt!” he waits until she already put salt in it. Dick. +1

“What happened to the other girl?” Harold, you know damn well. +1

Good use of Beethoven. -1

Klaus is back in the bath. Bookends to his tourture. +1

Klaus is haunted by memories of Vietnam this time instead of just ghosts in general. Trauma. +1

I made eye contact with Aidan Gallagher again. +1

Klaus doesn’t want to talk about Vietnam with Five because the last time he tried to connect, Five jumped away. +1

Five looks really excited to connect about time travel with somebody in his family. -1

Five doesn’t care that Klaus was tortured by Hazel and Cha Cha. +1

Five, Klaus has been tortured and then was in some war (Five wouldn’t know yet) for almost a year. This proves that Five’s decision making is impared. Presumably by his hangover. +1

Diego takes out his dagger from episode 1’s bank robbery. This is significant because of something Patch said. That Diego runs around as a vigilante to prove that what he did with the Umbrella Academy had meaning. Now that that has gotten Patch killed indirectly, he feels upset and confused. The dagger that he used as a child is now a symbol of what he did to Patch. -1

The fridging of Detective Patch. Yes, I’m still pissed about it and will continue to be pissed about it. +2

At this point, Klaus doesn’t know about Mom’s “death”. And I don’t think Five does either. The Umbrella Academy of Not Talking To Each Other should be the school’s full name. +1

Allison and Cha Cha don’t see each other when getting into or out of the chairs right across from one another. +1

Allison is doing the equivalent of social media stalking her sister’s boyfriend. Smart. -1

Extra Ordinary bites everyone in the ass. Thanks, Vanya. +1

Five and Allison have the same slow, blocky handwriting. Did Reggie teach them to write as slowly and as large as possible? +1

Hazel and Agnes’s flirting. It’s cute? -1

Klaus ran down the stairs wearing Grace’s heels and broke his jaw when they were twelve. Trauma. +1

Diego can’t park for shit either. Diego and Five need to learn how to park vehicles. +1

Klaus’s little “Hey, Dave” when he sees Dave’s picture. -1

The show fakes out the vet confronting Klaus. Clever. -1

Diego is genuinely concerned for Klaus. -1

The vet is itching for a fight. Asking a drunk person to apologize? Dumbass. +1

“I’d like to apologize...that you are depriving some village of their IDIOT!” -1

Klaus and Diego get into a bar fight in less than five minutes. Checks out. -1

Agnes sees the birds the way Hazel sees normal people. I like the analogy. -1

Agnes does not own Griddys. Who does? Is she the manager or something? +1

Hazel and Agnes theme. -1

Diego’s face when Klaus says he lost the only person he ever loved more than himself. He’s thinking, “Klaus lost his Eudora”. -1

No way in hell Five would have been able to get up as high as the chalk goes. +1

Five is still using Vanya’s book as a notebook. Checks out. -1

The rifle Five pulls out looks a lot like the one he points at the Handler. It doesn’t look like the one he pointed at Kennedy. Why would Five lie about this? +1

Luther, you murdered people when you were twelve. +1

Luther dangles Dolores out the window by her neck. Logical, yeah. Fucked, also yeah. +1

The level of concern Five has for Dolores. -1

Also, well done creating tension, show. My heart was beating like crazy. -1

The Gigue from Partita No. 2 in D Minor by Bach is one of my favorite pieces. -1

No one stops playing like that. +1

Allison takes her not-stalking info to Vanya and presents it really accusingly. At this point, Vanya is sick of your shit, Allison. +1

“You’re trying to dig up dirt on a guy that I like, who does that?” Everyone with an internet connection does this for the people they care about. What Allison did was hella extra though. +1

Vanya is getting more assertive. -1

Vanya is a dick to Allison. +1

“They’re a real frickin’ mess”. Understatement of the century. +1

Cha Cha wouldn’t know about the moon mission because Vanya’s book came out before it. Also, Vanya wouldn’t know that Five could time travel. +1

Diego you haven’t slept at all, as soon as you drop you’re gonna sleep like a baby. +1

The motel clerk doesn’t notice Cha Cha’s pistol, which was directly in his line of sight. +1

Diego doesn’t notice Klaus’s footsteps. +1

“Yeah but you also told me that licking a nine-volt battery would give me pubes” “We were eight”. Sibling culture. -1

Klaus saves Diego from gunfire the best he can. Even though Diego still gets shot, sin off for Klaus’s heroics. -1

“Was this all part of your master plan” “Shut up”. Sibling culture. -1

Audition panels are always dicks. +1

If you start an audition the way Vanya just did with the shaky bow contact, you’re fucked. +1

Imogen is a great violinist. Ellen Page is not. It’s really easy to see when they switch out. +1

Allison goes to Leonard’s place with no backup. Come on, even Diego has backup! +1

Allison doesn’t tell Five and Diego about how she got into Leonard’s house when they were breaking in again later. The window would have been much better than breaking the door. +1

Vanya’s powers are distorting her music. It sounds like her intonation is gone. Yet the conductor looks impressed. +1

Allison almost finds Helen Cho’s body. +1

The camera cuts to the attic entrance to show that it will be significant later on. -1

The Hargreeves car has HERMES on its licence plate. A.) nice comics reference. B.) Hermes is the God of Travelers. C.) Of course Reggie has a vanity licence plate. -3

Five and Luther connecting over their forced isolation. -1

Also, Aidan Gallagher and Tom Hopper play off each other really well. -1

“I’ve lived a long life, but you’re still a young man. You got your whole life ahead of you. Don’t waste it.” Luther’s face amuses me. -1

Five threatening while Hazel and Cha Cha doesn’t look ridiculous. I genuinely belive it. Props to Aidan Gallagher. -1

Five and Luther look so confused by Klaus and Diego arriving in an ice cream truck. This is such an underrated scene. -3

Ride of the Valkyries -1

Klaus’s little wave. -1

“Whee” I love Ben. -2

I want to know how they shot this. The behind the scenes after the Handler showed up and stopped time must have been strange to look at. -1

Luther protects Five with his whole body without question. -1

Five puts his hands in his pockets but then they’re behind his back in the next shot with no motion to explain it. +1

The Handler is a creep. She’s into Five. +5

Where and When did Five get that pistol? +1

So many memes come from this scene. -2

Five doesn’t have his finger anywhere near the trigger in some shots, but in others it’s two seconds from shooting the Handler. What’s up with that? +1

The Handler is so, so creepy. The hand caressing Five’s cheek? Eww. That all but confirms that she wants to be his Mrs. Robinson. +5

Kate Walsh plays an excellent villain. -1

Five made a deal with the devil because it was his only option. -1

[Gerard Way and Ray Toro’s “Happy Together” playing.] -1

Cha Cha was planning to abandon Hazel. Otherwise why else would she open the briefcase? +1

Ben gets shotgun. -1

Klaus finally gets to flip off Hazel and Cha Cha. -3

“SHIIT” Cha Cha, you got played. I love my smart boys. -5

Vanya did well at her audition! I’m proud of her! -1

Leonard knows the exact words Reggie would have used to describe Vanya’s powers. And he uses them here. +1

“I got first chair!” Congratulations, Vanya! -2

“No one’s ever believed in me like this.” Fuck you, Reggie. +1

Having sex with Leonard/Harold desereves a couple sins. +2

Helen Cho and Reggie’s book reveal. Leonard is a creep confirmed. +2

Dr. Pogo? More like Dr. Complicit in Reggie’s Bullshit. +1

Overall Review:

In case you couldn’t tell, this is one of my favorite episodes. Finally, all of our characters are invested in the apocalypse plot, even indirectly. Vanya’s powers emerge, the Handler and the Commission enter the chat, and Leonard is revealed to be a murderer and to have Reggie’s diary. Things are really heating up in this episode.

I had a really hard time finding anything wrong that wasn’t character flaw is character flaw and villain character is a villain. This is a fun episode. If I wanted to show someone an episode of The Umbrella Academy to get them hooked onto the show, I would show them this episode. It moves at a perfect pace and has enough mystery to keep everyone on their toes. When I first watched this episode, I decided to stay up all night and binge the rest of them. Before I was watching one every couple of days. Episode five is what really hooked me. Props to everyone that worked on it!

I want to give a special shout out to Sean Sullivan. He did really well playing Five! I hope we see him in season 2 for that one scene. If you’ve read the comics then you know the one.

Sins: 4

Sentence: Watching Klaus’s breakdown after Vietnam was more than punishment enough.

#The Umbrella Academy #all in good fun #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #Allison Hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #leonard peabody #hazel and cha cha #the handler

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kassies-take · 5 years

Text

Friend From Beyond Pt.1

Warning: ???

Avalance, Ava Sharpe x Reader

Word Count: 1461

Like Mxyzptlk you were from the fifth dimension well Earth-one’s fifth dimension, but for safety purposes you renamed yourself as (y/n) (y/l/n). Wouldn’t want anyone to trick you into saying or writing your name backwards.

As an imp from the fifth dimension you had the powers to change reality to how you wanted it to be. Those powers include but are not limited to clairvoyance, conjuration, teleportation, telekinesis, super strength and invulnerability.

The Time Bureau’s magic ohmmeter had glimps and blinks of you but were never able to catch you. An alert went off, and with the Bureau a mess it was up to the Legends.

Ava sat at the bar in an early 2000s club. The Legends tried to pinpoint the fugitive but Ava kept getting hit on my some dude.

“Hi pretty lady,” Ava rolled her eyes.

“I’m not interested,” she sipped on her glass.

“Playing tough to get are we,” he leaned his elbow against the bar counter.

“Is everything okay here?” You said from behind the counter as you cleaned a glass cup.

“Oh yeah everything is okay here,” you raised your eyebrows at Ava.

Some random dude ran over, pulled the guy away and whispered something in his ear. He turned towards you and apologized before running away. You snapped and a puddle appeared on the floor as he slipped and fell onto his back.

Sara rounded up the Legends as nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Ava stood up just as you passed her a drink.

“Oh no I didn’t order this,” Ava waved her hands.

“On the house, seems like you need it after...,” you gestured to the man rubbing his back.

“Yeah,” Ava took the drink in her hands. “I just wish men disappeared from the Earth.”

Ava finished her drink and headed back towards the Waverider. She was that last one in from the Cargo Bay, as the rest of the Legends sat around the Bridge.

Ray and Nate were being best buds and fanboying about the early 2000s, Mick and John were biting off each other’s heads. At this point, Sara and Ava got tired of playing the time moms they made eye contact with each other, rolled their eyes before a blue spiral like light surrounded the guys. In a blink of an eye Ray, Mick, Nate, and John disappeared.

“Finally I thought they would never shut up,” Charlie leaned back in a leather arm.

“Get up Charlie! We’re not done cause our magical creature just sent the guys away,” Sara headed to the panel.

“I don’t see why that’s a big deal, boys are nasty creatures,” Charlie shrugged her shoulders.

“Well even so, the boys are family. We don’t turn our backs on family.”

“Charlie do you have any idea what kind of creature we’re dealing with?” Ava crossed her arms.

“Hey girls, you might want to take a look at this,” Zari said warily from the Captain’s office.

The rest of the girls made it into the office and watched as the news anchor spoke about the incident. Men off the face of the Earth.

“Don’t leprechauns have magical reality shaping powers?” Mona questions.

“Yeah but Red won’t do that.”

“Is there another magical creature in that prison that could shape reality?”

“Yes...”

A blue flying light zapped from the center of the room like lightning in a storm. It zigzagged around the room like a fly escaping the flyswatter. And soon enough the light materialized into a physical form, you.

“An imp.” Charlie went to punch you only to hit air.

“Charlie! No, no you’ve got it wrong I’m not an imp, I’m a god,” You reappeared onto the different side of the room.

“You’re the bartender from earlier,” Ava marched.

“The lovely Ava Shar-”

“You did this, you bring them back!” Ava interrupted.

“Well my dearest you wished for them to be sent away. So I sent them away.”

“And where are they exactly?” Sara crossed her arms in question.

“Mars. The planet of wars, they might as well fight to the death because they’re nothing without us, ladies.” You winked towards Ava.

“And what do you want?” Sara glared.

“To marry Ava.”

“That went from 0 to 100 real fast,” Zari commented.

“I’m not going to marry you!”

“You’re right, this isn’t the best place to get married.”

You swiped the room like it was a hologram and ended up on a hill overlooking the city. Flowers sat scattered over the hill, and candles danced freely in the wind.

Ava stood in a Monique Lhullier wedding dress, alone. You stood in front of her in a suit.

“It’s just you and me.”

“I’m not marrying you, not now not ever.” Ava glared at you.

“I wanted to meet you.”

“How do you even know me?”

“I’ve watched you across the dimensions. There’s no one like you where I’m from. No women as strong, or independent, beautiful, or as brave.” You snapped and showed a violinist appeared playing some romantic music.

“I’m a clone manufactured in 2213,” Ava crossed her arms.

“I can make you the one and only Ava.”

“I already have everything I want.”

“Oh I know what you’re doing.” You chuckled. “You’re playing hard to get. I’ll see you in a little while. You snapped. With a blue light mist Ava was back on the Waverider as if nothing happened.

The boys returned as Ray and Nate would not stop talking about their experience on Mars. Mick grabbed himself a beer as John was ready to take send the creature to hell. Sara jumped to her feet and immediately shouted for the boys to stop talking.

“Alright love, what kind of beast are we dealing with?” John rubbed his hands together.

“A fifth dimensional being who possess powers that can reshape reality as we know it. For years Mallus picked and tried to get this Imp on his side and she was the only one who he feared.” Charlie explained.

“Why do you know so much about this Imp, anyway?” Zari asked.

“And surely this Imp has a name other than Imp. Calling her Imp is a bit rude don’t you think?” Ray commented and placed his hands up in defense when the Legends rolled their eyes at him.

“She does have a name Gspxytlk. If magical creatures were feared because we were different, Gspxytlk sealed the deal and locked us all up.”

“Why kind of name is that?” Mick laughed.

“Fifth dimensional beings are known for their weird names.”

“Well Nate and Ray hit the books, see if you can find anything about this...” Sara struggled to pronounce the weird name. “fifth dimension being. Charlie, Mona, John find away to track her. Ava see if the Bureau can spare any extra men in case she is as dangerous as Charlie says she is. Mick and Zari you’re with me back at the bar to see if we can spot this Imp.”

When Sara, Mick and Zari reentered the bar there was no sign of you at all. Sara, by herself, headed towards the elevator to check to other floors. Once the elevator doors closed you reappeared behind Sara.

“Ah Sara Lance. Don’t worry no need to panic,” The elevator dinged. “You’re floor is here.

The moment Sara walked out of the door Ava was right next to her like earlier in the day. The person in front of Ava tripped and the glass of bear flew into the air. You however froze everyone in there place except Sara.

“What have you done with time?” Sara asked.

“I took away tomorrow,” You said as you looked at your fingernails.

“Why would you do that?”

“I took away hope.”

“But why?”

“Cause I’m,” you poured yourself a drink from the counter and took a sip. “I’m planning on staying here in the third dimension. And no one is making me leave this time.” You teleported in front of Sara.

“You won’t win.”

“I don’t think you should try,” You chuckled. “You see the human body is used to time.”

“Unfolding linearly, yeah yeah I heard this all before.” Sara rolled her eyes crossed her arms.

“Yes, you Legends have dealt with the side effects. But see as time doesn’t pass, they start to fall apart. Mortals don’t seem to do well without their tomorrows, with no hope... they die.”

“So why didn’t you freeze me?”

“I wanted to show you that there ain’t nothing you can do to stop me,” You smirked.

Sara reached to choke you, only to grab onto a bouquet of roses. She looked around in search for you when everything went back to normal, well normal for an hour ago.

#dclegendsoftomorrow #dc legends of tomorrow #legends #legends of tomorrow #dc legends of tomorrow imagine #dc legends of tomorrow imagines #sara lance #ava sharpe #avalance #ava sharpe x reader #charile #zari tomaz #ray palmer #nate heywood #john constantine #mick rory #mona wu

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djemsostylist · 4 years

Text

An Arthurian Film Adventure, Part 2: The Arthurs

How do you rank King Arthurs (Kings Arthur?)? I mean, it certainly seems like the question of “What King Arthur is the Best King Arthur” is going to come down to pure nitpicking. I mean, after all, the movies are about King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. Surely King Arthur would be the character we put the most care and concern into, right? Surely Arthur, a Good King and Noble Knight who United a Kingdom would be an easy character to create, especially when the movie is literally about him?

WRONG. So, so terribly wrong my friends. King Arthur is, in fact, often the worst parts of the movies I watched, and ranking them was easy only in so much as he was literally only an actual character in like, two of them. I mean, sure he ~existed in the others, but did he have a character? I mean no. I have ranked our King Arthurs below. (Under a cut for length)

1. Camelot (1967)

This King Arthur is the best King Arthur, and not just because he is played by Richard Harris. Firstly, he is one of only two King Arthurs who actually does anything independently without being literally coached by Merlin or taking 60+ years. Also, he actually has a character, which seems like it should be a foregone conclusion, but is really, really not. When we meet Arthur in this movie, he is young and energetic and full of ideas for his kingdom. He does listen to Merlin, but he has his own ideas and thoughts and feelings. He’s full of a sort of boyish earnestness, and his excitement and enthusiasm are infectious. In fact, it’s his enthusiasm, vision, and convictions which here allow Guinevere to fall in love with him as a person, not just as a King. He is friendly and kind and outgoing, and his initial meeting with Lancelot is full of joy and happiness at meeting someone else who is as excited about his kingdom as he is.

As we progress through the movie, we can see the toll kingship takes, and his interactions with both Mordred and Lancelot and Guinevere are full of melancholy regret over lives that might have been lived. Mordred is mentally unstable, but Arthur is kind and loving, and it is clear that while he might regret the circumstances of Mordred’s birth, he in no way resents Mordred. Even his treatment of Guinevere and Lancelot is kind and understanding. They all love each other, and he is aware of their affection for each other, but he also trusts them completely. There is this truly wonderful scene where you can see how much he cares for both of them, and how much the situation hurts him, both because he wants them to be happy, but also knows that there is no easy solution to their love for each other. Even the song he sings with Guinevere in this scene is the two of them trying to find happiness amidst their grief, acknowledging their love and how much simpler things were in the past.

The Arthur who condemns them to die is grief stricken and heart broken, a king whose kindness and belief in the kindness of others is what ultimately leads to his downfall. This Arthur is one who it is easy to see as a High King. He is kind, competent, and has a plan and vision for the kingdom and the ability to bring it about. It’s truly a tragedy when everything falls apart.

Attractiveness: This is the second hottest Arthur, because while young Marcus Aurelius could get it, that haircut is a choice I don’t approve of.

2. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

While this King Arthur is Uther’s son and also the rightful king of England, he also grows up as a streetkid in a brothel, and speaks kind of like a chav. However, despite the truly bizarre backstory, this Arthur really is very much like Camelot’s Arthur, or the Arthur of the tales. He is kind and caring and charismatic, and he is also excellent at understanding people. He inspires loyalty, and he is able to easily gather people to him. Here, Arthur’s skills are shown through his relationship with his merry band of friends rather than Guinevere and Lancelot, and true, he isn’t actually a king until the last 35 seconds.

But if this is an origin story only, I can see this Arthur becoming the Arthur of legends. He is brave and a touch reckless, but he also values the lives of others above his own. He cares for people, regardless of station, and he is good at making plans and creating his own future.

Attractiveness: This is obviously the hottest Arthur, because Charlie Hunnam. Also, he is weirdly only the 2nd blond Arthur.

3. Knights of the Round Table (1954)

So, this Arthur is fine in that he is a king who obviously people like, and he is kind and also does rule a kingdom so I guess he’s pretty good at his job. Also, one time he gave Lancelot a “friendship” ring because he loved him so much, so that was pretty great.

Other than that, this Arthur comes in third mostly because he is blandly boring enough not to be offensive, and he doesn’t do anything actively stupid. Also, he is actually Arthur, so that alone earns him third place.

Attractiveness: I guess 4th place, in that he’s less attractive than Clive Owen here, but I think only because the actor who plays him usually has dark brown hair and when they dyed it blond for the role he ended up looking like a straight up corpse.

3. Excalibur (1981)

Sigh. Look, this gets 4th place ONLY because the other two are so terribly bad. This Arthur here is mostly just supremely stupid. He has the charisma of a rock, and also is just deeply, deeply stupid. Like, when he pulls the sword from the stone, despite literally being at a meeting where people are actively trying to pull the sword to try and become king, he still does the whole “oop this seems like a useful sword” which is honestly just makes him seem extremely dumb. His dumbness does not improve, I mean, he literally only makes peace because Excalibur uses some magical mind tricks on Uriens, and he literally marries Guinevere because he thinks she is pretty (which I know is sort of canonical re: Malory but also makes for a dumb story.) His knights pretty much don’t respect him and he is mostly deeply forgettable.

Attractiveness: Literally last place. I cannot even. All the makeup and costuming choices in this movie serve to make otherwise ordinary looking people look hideous. This movie is literally so offensively ugly, I just.

4. First Knight (1994)

Okay, this movie is actually the worst thing, except that the 2004 movie exists. In this, Arthur is like, in his mid sixties. He has spent literally the past 50 years trying to unite England and has succeeded in uniting no one. He has a tenuous hold on Camelot, which is just a tiny city. He had like, maybe 15 knights of the Round Table, and they function as less of a fellowship then some sort of strange praetorian guard. He has literally no friends and is halfway to death's door. He marries Guinevere, the daughter of his friend, because he is old and sad and just doesn’t want to be alone anymore. He does absolutely nothing of worth in this whole movie, and then he just dies in the end. The only thing that keeps him from being dead last is the fact that he is Uther Pendragon’s son and an actual Briton and also has a Round Table in a city of Camelot. That’s literally it.

Attractiveness: I mean, it’s Sean Connery. He reminds me a little of my grandfather, plus I literally hated this Arthur, so I didn’t find him attractive but. He ranks above Excalibur Arthur only because he doesn’t look like he got dressed in the leftovers from a donation box that was left in the rain, and also because his beard is acceptable and he sounds like Sean Connery.

5. King Arthur (2004)

Okay, so the thing is, this isn’t King Arthur? Like, at all? It’s some roman dude named Arturius, and he mostly just like rides around doing Roman things? I’ll be honest here, this movie was boring af so I sort of deeply tuned out in the last hour and a half, but considering he was a) not a king, b) not British, c) didn’t have a Round Table with Knights, and d) didn’t have Camelot, I’m gonna rank him as the worst Arthur since he wasn’t even Arthur at all.

Attractiveness: I mean, they worked pretty hard not to make Clive Owen look like a lawyer here. A for effort. 3rd hottest Arthur.

6. Monty Python doesn’t rate, because it fucking sucks.

#arthurian legend #arthuriana #king arthur #an arthurian film adventure #djem reads arthurian legends

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baekkieberry · 5 years

Text

𝕦𝕟𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕪 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧!𝐚𝐮 𝐛𝐚𝐞𝐤𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧 1

Genre: demon!AU, Fluff. (angst + smut in future chapters), Supernatural

Characters: Baekhyun, EXO (mostly beagle line + Kyungsoo)

Pairing: Baekhyun x Reader

Summary: Baekhyun had been a demon and living in hell his whole life, hanging with his friends and having way to much fun, until one day he gets kicked out for going too far. He's forced to live in earth until he redeems himself, until he met you, and maybe he doesn’t want to go back anymore.

Warnings: none

Word Count: 2411

A/N: hii im sorry this took so long :( I’ve been busy but already had more chapters done! I’ll update more often. Hope you like it! (and yes it’s still inspired by @youxidol ^^)

I’ll make a masterlist soon! And more storiesxdrabblesxoneshots from other members and baek! stream city lights, you, thats okay and what a life!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

masterlist: intro chap1

Chapter 1:

Baekhyun walked the whole way home feeling extremely bubbly and dangling his zootopia lunch box like a little kid. When he got home, Sabrina was outside already waiting for him “Hi sweetcheeks listen, somethings has been happening to me” she was looking at him while in the back, only for Baekhyun’s eyes you could see his best friend playing with her hair “Ican feel that someone is behind me and playing with my hair but I don’t see anyone” “Well Sabrina I couldn’t tell you cause NO ONE is behind you” he emphasized the no one so Chanyeol could lay her off “Oh well maybe is your beautiful face that’s always stuck in my head sweetcheeks” and just when things got weirder she leaned and kiss him in the cheek. She left to her apartment leaving a very traumatized Baekhyun and Chanyeol behind.

“Ok what the fuck” “Dude you barely talk to the girl you actually like and this old lady just kissed you. Maybe you should reconsider the whole sugar mommy thing” Baekhyun slapped his best friend and they both laughed. Once in Baekhyun’s apartment, Chanyeol finally asked his best friend how were things “You know Yeol I think she may be able to like me back, she laughed at everyone of my jokes and she loved the oreo mini cake that Soo made” “Yeah well Soo it’s not gonna like coming everyday and cook for you”

Chanyeol was right, his now soon to be personal chef was not gonna like doing this everyday, so Baekhyun decided to give it a try, but with his powers. After Chanyeol left, Baekhyun spent all night trying to recreate Soo’s recipe and when he finally achieved it, he made 500 of them to have for the rest of the week, you did ate like 15 of them.

In the morning Baekhyun was greeted with a Chanyeol, Sehun and Chen but all disguised as Sabrina “Oh my beautiful sweetcheeks come here so I can kiss you” Sehun started “Yes let’s make out and since you already seen my underwear it shouldn’t be a problem” Chen said laughing and making his disguise disappear. “Can’t believe you told them Yeol, I already thought I had enough with you” he said while going to his living room. “C’mon you didn’t expect me to keep it to myself, If you want I can tell your girlfriend too” “Don’t you dare”.

They spent the morning talking and watching tv until it was time for Baekhyun to get ready. He couldn’t keep smiling and dancing to every song that he heard. He even danced to Sabrina’s loud personification of Dancing Queen. When he finally got ready he went to the park and he was surprised that you were actually looking for him. “OMG I thought you weren’t coming to meet me, you know me the crazy oreo lady” “I kinda like getting my food stealed” you laughed and looked at his outfit and how it seemed to be tight but well fitted at the same time. You didn’t noticed that you were checking him out a little too obvious “Well do you want to eat the mini cakes or do you want to eat me?” Baekhyun said with a smirk “Oh I’m sorry I didnt I mean not that I don’t but I just… Ok give me the cake and ignore this” You said while blushing and sitting in the grass.

“Don’t worry, I know that if you had to choose, the cakes would totally beat my ass” You looked at him and laughed. “So tell me you mini cabaekkie, what do you like to do besides… baking” he actually laughed at the new nickname you gave him and you realized how much you liked his laugh “Cabaekkie I like that. Well if I may speak for cabaekkie he actually likes playing games and obviously doing Sabrina’s laundry, that is my favorite hobby of them all” “Well how could you not love it? Old lady underwear? Hell yeah” You two continued to joke about Sabrina and you actually learned a lot about him.

He was obsessed with PUBG, loved his friends but specially his best friend Chanyeol. He seemed like fun so you wanted to meet him but Baekhyun said he didn’t want that to happen because Chanyeol would expose him “Oh come on I want to hear your little things from when you were little” “That ain’t happening, he knows too much. He’s actually very lucky that he’s still alive”

This little meetups continued for another two weeks. You would meet him and he would give you his little cakes while you talked about everything that happened the last day or funny stories that you had. It was getting extremely comfortable. After a week Baekhyun finally asked for your number and it was possibly the best thing you guys had. You had this little game of trying to find ordinary people that looked like a celebrity. This originated from one time you saw a woman that looked like Elton John.

Baekhyun went to sleep with a smile in his face and started listening to love songs more often, maybe even singing them in the shower. “Yeez hyung you are acting like a child today” Kyungsoo said one day “He was always been a child” Junmyeon said from the kitchen. “Look you guys she is one of the best things that has come in my life and I want to invite her to dinner today so i need some help” “Help with what? Literally you’re a demon like..” Kyungsoo hummed “No hyung with what can I say” “Just be yourself she seems to like it… weirdly” Junmyeon said.

Baekhyun was extremely nervous when he picked his zootopia lunch box that day. You guys had been bonding a lot, calls and texts daily, going to the park at the same time everyday and he was ready to take it to the next level. “Hey so what if we went somewhere nice to eat? not just pastries like real dinner, I know some nice restaurants” he said while you ate “Are you asking me on a date?” “Thats exactly what I’m doing” he said while smirking at you, ‘always so cocky’ you thought “Why are you always so fearless?” You said jokingly at him “Is that a yes?” you wanted to play so you took your time and smiled “It would be my pleasure to go” and at that moment his eyes light up and if he wasn’t pretending to be human, he would have fireworks appear. “The i’ll pick you up at seven” he said standing up “Wait hold up, today?” you said confused “Yeah today, now gorgeous write your address in my phone so that I can pick you up and just worry about… nothing” he said smiling at you like a happy puppy “Oh okay” and like that he left. And that’s when you noticed, it was the first time he had called you beautiful.

——-

When you got home, you went directly to your roommate bedroom screaming “OMG IRENE YOU WON'T EVEN BELIEVEEEEEE WHAT JUST HAPPENED” Irene’s face popped out of her door that was barely open “he did it didn’t he?” “YES HE DID FINALLY OMG QJXHQJHXNWHD” and with that you throw yourself into her bed and started screaming “OMG WHEN IS IT?” Irene joined you with happiness “Today but he didn’t say an hour so I need to get ready now” and just as he seemed to have heard you, your phone beeped, he was picking you at 7.

“Oh my god maybe he’s gonna murder you” Irene said behind your shoulder “Fuck off and help me” “Do you want help or do you want me to leave” “Can you do both?” you said laughing.

Your best friend and you spend the whole day trying to find an outfit that you liked and you went with a red dress that revealed enough skin but not too much, and by 8:15 you were all done.

Baekhyun on the other hand was going crazy to leave. And when he arrived he was nervous to ring the bell (yes he was going to ring the bell). He had bought flowers and he was afraid they were going to die, so he decided to put a spell on them so they would never die, plus it was a nice gesture. He ring the bell on your shared home and another girl answered the door “Hey wow” she said when he looked at him “Ah yeah hi are you Irene?” She looked extra confused “Yes?” “I'm here for your beautiful roommate is she here?” Irene giggled “You’re Baekhyun, come in I’ll let her now you’re here” and he entered their home. It was a small house but had it’s charm “Hey cabaekkie” you said casually “Wow you look perfect” He said looking at you up and down with love eyes and you immediately blushed “Oh my god get a room already” Irene was clearly making things uncomfortable so you guys decided to leave. Once outside you saw that he had a grey audi “Seriously what do you do for a living?” he smirked and opened the door for you “One day I’ll tell you, right now let’s get some dinner I’m starving” you entered his car and then he joined, “Where are you taking me Baekkie?” he took your hand and said “You’ll love it”. And he kept your hand in his, listening to music and singing everything “you have a lovely voice” you said smiling “That’s certainly not the only thing lovely about me” he said “I have a lot of secret charms” you looked at the window and said “Can’t wait to know all of them”.

The restaurant was very amazing. Candle lighted and had a beautiful lake at the back, it had simplicity but was fancy still “Wow baekkie seriously you can afford this?” “Omg stop and enjoy okay beautiful?” he said taking your hand and asking for a table “Do you want outside?” he asked “No I will be cold” he smiled and asked for a table near the windows.

The rest of the night was as romantic and fun as it could be. He was himself with you. “So I gotta ask you something” he said while you eat dessert, you nodded so he continued “Besides cake and oreo’s, do you like something else?” he was desperate to know how you felt about him. Because even though he was certain you liked him, he needed to hear those words.

“Okay so we’ve been talking for a while and you haven’t learned anything about me? You even invited me to a date and you don’t know anything about me? Seriously Baekhyun, the nerve yeez” you said shaking you head sarcastically. He laughed, of course you would answer like that. You didn’t want to say it yet. You liked drama, and drama means telling him you like him at the end of the date with a kiss on the lips and leave him lovestruck.

He watched you eat the cake with the biggest love eyes “What?” you asked “Yes beautiful?” he said taking a strand of you hair that was blocking his view. You locked eyes with him, he was certainly the most beautiful human being in the whole universe and he was looking at you like you were the only girl he will ever like “You know I like when you eat cake?” he said smiling “Why?” you blushed “Well you look so happy and I love to see you happy, plus your eyes shine a lot lately, wonder why?” he knew why they were shining. You looked down and whispered “If you already know why do you ask” he laughed. You continued talking about little stuff and sometimes you didn’t talk, but you were comfortable with the silence between you two.

When you both finished dinner he decided to take you to the little lake at the back. It was beautiful, the moon was shining on it and there were little christmas lights near the edge so that it wasn’t so dark. He turned to look at you “Will you, princess y/n walk with me?” and he proceeded to kneel and extend his hand towards you, you laughed cause it was so exaggerated “Of course young prince” you bowed and took his hand. You laughed but never let go of each others hand.

The moon was beautiful that night and Baekhyun never thanked more than now, that he was sent to earth, he met you. You two walked holding hands and then he stopped “Y/N you look beautiful and not just today, like you always look beautiful and it amazes me so much. I never thought that i would met someone like you. You are truly a unique piece of art” he started getting closer to you “I know you like me and you know I like you, I want to be part of your life for as long as you let me, and maybe I’m coming a little to strong so for now I will just kiss you, because you don’t know how long I’ve wanted to” his warm hands cupped your face and you felt shivers everywhere, suddenly everything outside wasn’t important anymore. All that mattered was in front of you. He leaned and finally, he kissed you. His lips were soft and warm and he tasted like the strawberries he ate from the cake. you continued the kiss and his hands moved to your hips and at the same time you wrapped our hands around his neck, never separating from each other. He was intoxicating and was a very good kisser. You didn’t want to pull away and Baekhyun wouldn’t even dare to do it. You were everything he has been imagining, you were his new drug and he wasn’t going to stop kissing you.

When you separated he whined and you laughed “Okay you big baby, you basically kissed me without my consent” “Did I?” he said with a pervert face, you rolled your eyes and said “And yes I like you too” he smiled like a puppy and you smiled back “You remind me of a corgi” He didn’t let go of you hips but he laughed out loud “You remind me of my new girlfriend”

#baekhyun #EXO baekhyun #byun baekhyun #demon baekhyun #baekhyun fanfic #exo imagines #Demon AU #demon boy #exo #exo scenarios #exo baekhyun fanfic #baekhyun aesthetic #baekhyun boyfriend #chen #Kyungsoo #chanyeol #sehun #exosoft #baekhyun fluff

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purplesurveys · 5 years

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647

Have you ever done a craft that you found on Pinterest? I’ve never gone on Pinterest for reasons other than looking for interior design ideas lmao, so no. I’m no good at crafts anyway so it’s not like looking at Pinterest will make me feel good or motivated. Do you get scrapbooking layout ideas from anywhere? I don’t do scrapbooking, but if I do start (and I’ve always wanted to), I’d definitely get some tips from the internet or from people I know who are artsy. What do you do to wipe off the dust from ordinary life? Drink. Are you content with mystery, or do you wish you knew everything? I wish I knew everything, no matter how bad the news may be. What do you do when someone irritates you on Facebook? Unfriend them, duh. I could still see them in real life anyway, but I can very much hate their presence online enough to unfriend/block them haha.

Are you judgmental? If I meet a person for the first time only after I’ve heard a couple of stuff about them, I might judge them for a bit yeah. Then I’ll brush it off first and see if they really are what I was told they’d be. Do you think your hair looks better natural or dyed? I’ve never had it dyed, so I wouldn’t know if it looks better. Do your parents disrespect you? My mom does; and she’s typically a disrespectful person. My dad’s pretty chill. Have you found that love covers over a multitude of sins? Sure. People just have to watch out and make sure love doesn’t reach such a point that it ends up becoming a cover-up for toxic behavior. What was the last Grand Opening you went to? Popeye’s HAHAHAHAHA. They opened their (second) first branch in the country around a year ago and we didn’t have classes that day, so we went. Do you have anything coming up tomorrow? No Monday classes for me, so the day would just consist of me doing schoolwork at home, or in a coffee shop, or whatever works for tomorrow. What's one thing that makes your stomach hurt? DAIRY. I’m having milk tea right now and it is a nightmare. But it tastes so good, so lactose town it is. Ever had a living nightmare? You mean the last 22 years of my life? Sure. Do you have a lot of haters? Idk, it’s possible but I don’t worry about that kinda stuff.

Do you think successful people always come with a pack of haters? Of course. People are alllllllllways envious. Do you have supernatural abilities? No. Do you kick yourself when you make mistakes? Do you say, "I wish I would have" a lot? Yeah I do this a lot. It drives my girlfriend nuts and she hates when I start on could have/should have rants, but it’s my thought process most days. Are you doing the most you can with your life? 'The most’ is probably pushing it. I know I can still do more like join contests, volunteer, be in more orgs, etc. but it doesn’t mean I’m unhappy where I am and with what I’ve done. I can still call myself satisfied, and I hope it means I’ve been doing something right. Do you let people walk on you? No. At least I don’t think so. Are you ok? Thanks for asking :’) I could be better, but at least I’m functioning and that’s better than being a vegetable in bed all day. Do you have a friend you miss right now? Yeah, I always miss Angela. Do you ever write snail mail to your friends? We don’t do that anymore dude. Do you make your life look better than it is on Facebook? Yeah. There’s like this quiet mutual understanding among people (at least in my generation) that Facebook is for impressing your relatives and showing how good of a life you have, and Twitter is where you air out your sadness and rants and all the mess in your personal life haha. Do you feel God's presence regularly? There is no presence to be felt. Do you experience chronic pain? Nope. Do you believe God loves you and is rooting for you? Don’t need anyone else other than my friends and myself to do both of those for me. Have you ever dreamt that you were falling? I’ve never dreamt it but I’d sometimes get that sensation when I would almost fall asleep. What would your dream career be? Lawyer. If I wasn’t such a fucking crybaby in arguments I think I’d survive law school just fine HAHA. Are you a daydreamer? Sure. Do you daydream so much that you wonder if there's anyone who doesn't? Not really. I just daydream when I’m bored. Do you ever just sit and daydream for awhile? ^ Again, only when I’m bored. Is the snow falling where you are right now? Snow has never fallen in the Philippines. What is your favorite part of nature? Mountains, and the spectacular views they can give. Do you wish you could be a world traveler? Sure. Do you wish you could live in another city for a year? I wish I could migrate to another country – that’s how much I want to get out of here. What city would you like to visit? I’m eyeing Bangkok for my next trip abroad if that’s ever going to happen :) What has been your favorite city that you've visited? Locally, Vigan or Sagada. Abroad... probably Bali. If you had kids, would you take them to Disney World? I’m definitely going to be that parent who takes my kids every year and lets them wear whatever costume they’d want. Have you ever stood in line to get a Disney character's autograph? No. Do you own a birthday crown? I had a tiara for my 7th birthday party, but I’m not sure if my mom was able to keep it. How long does it usually take your hair to dry? Do you dry it naturally or blow-dry it? I have it dry naturally because I get bored blow-drying it. It usually takes an hour or two. Do you straighten your hair? No. I have bad experiences with that because as a kid/teenager, my mom would force me to have my hair rebonded even if I never wanted to have it done to my hair; so these days, when someone asks if I prefer my hair to be straightened, I shudder and say no. Do you sleep with a teddy bear? No and I never did. I was never into stuffed toys. Would you consider yourself a free spirit? To an extent, I guess. I do enjoy being independent and trying out new things, but I always want people to be with me along the way. If I’m gonna travel the world, I need a travel buddy. If I’m gonna go hiking in Sagada, I’d feel better having a companion. If I’m gonna try worms or bugs for the first time, it’s always nicer having someone who’s just as daring when it comes to food. I’m basically a free spirit who never wants to feel lonely, haha. Do you need to clean out your closet? I need to refold some of my clothes, but otherwise I know where everything is. Do you watch YouTube videos regularly? Yeah, I watch at least one video a day. What's your favorite coffee shop? Starbucks will always be my first love for their ambience, but Coffee Bean is pretty great too. Is your Pinterest page cluttered? It’s not used at all. Do you want to start a collection? Yes, I always said I would start collecting all sorts of WWF/E memorabilia once I’m able to afford having a steadily-growing collection. My future house is definitely gonna have its own ~man cave~ except it’ll be for wrestling merch, and it’ll have its own TV and sound system too for when I want to hide from the world and just find solace in wrestling. Are you a role model? Would you consider yourself a good example? I’ve had people say they look up to me for certain traits, but this isn’t something I actively try to become. I have bad habits and vices of my own, so I definitely don’t endorse myself as a role model. But if I can help people in other aspects, then that’s more than alright with me. Are you a leader or a follower? Follower. I like being a leader whenever I can, but there’s too much pressure in being the leader all the time. Who's your favorite person? My girlfriend, durrr. Who have been your favorite American Idol contestants? Siobhan Magnus, Adam Lambert, and Pia Toscano. Did you used to name your Barbies? No. I never liked playing with Barbies either. I think I only ever got one Barbie doll as a present, and it’s because I always preferred playing with toys for boys given that I grew up with mostly male cousins. What unnatural hair color looks best on you? I’m not sure. I’ve wanted to dye my hair either red or green, though. Is your life boring? No. It’s certainly picked up in the last few months. Do you usually feel better around people or alone? I do great for both situations. It depends on what I need at a particular time. Is there a broken relationship in your life that you want to fix? There’s a broken relationship, but I have no desire to fix it. Do you ever think about Heaven? A part of me finds a level of solace in the idea of getting reunited with lost loved ones when I die, but I mostly think there’s no afterlife. Are you ready for Heaven yet? Are you afraid of where you're going to go? No. I’d like to think I’ll end up somewhere in the universe, and it’s enough to calm me down. Do you have a tree outside your window? Yes, but it’s dark and we have curtains so I can barely see the trees. Do you feel better now than you did last night? I wouldn’t say that, even though I’m feeling okay tonight. I was with Gabie last night, which automatically makes last night better. Is your sleep schedule messed up? It’s still a little bit distorted, yeah. But I’m not too worried about it because at least all my classes this sem start at 10 AM, which means I get to sleep in unlike last sem when I had 7 AM/8:30 AM classes :) Does your body have any problems with it? It gets tired during the day because I’d usually take naps in the afternoon, but it doesn’t affect me too badly. Are you doing ok spiritually? I don’t think about that aspect. Have you taken any huge risks lately? I had a long, blunt talk with Gab last night and it involved topics regarding our relationship that have long been denied and shelved finally acknowledged and let out in the open; and I think that in itself is a big step to take. Silence or songs? I can prefer either depending on my mood. Tea or coffee? Coffee. Books or movies? 10 year old me would say books. Today me would say movies. Do you ever watch your favorite movies from when you were a kid? Yes. I do a Toy Story rewatch at least once a year. ^If you were going to do that, what would you watch? Mostly Disney movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Game Plan, etc. Do you ignore rude people or do you call them out? Call them out. Do you have trouble staying organized? Yeah, but then again I’m messy-organized so even though I find it hard to maintain being organized, I still end up remember where everything is placed (most of the time). What has been your most favorite adventure? Walking around Bali and my family not knowing where the hell we were or where we were headed. What has been your greatest mistake? I hate questions like this. Are you happy with your life right now? I’m like 75% happy with it, which I’d say is a decently healthy amount. Do you take anything to make your feel better? No. Are your parents still together? Yes. What color socks do you have on? Currently barefoot. Are you under a blanket right now? Nope. It’d be nice to be that right now, though. Are you hopeful? Always.

#survey #surveys

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crownedbyluke · 5 years

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Long Road Ahead (Chapter Ten)

Estelle Finley has been friends with Ashton Irwin and Luke Hemmings for three years. When the boys bring her along on a jam-packed road trip to Cape Cod with the rest of the band, their adventures are just beginning. Through long hours driving, exploring cities, and hidden secrets, something more is bound to happen on this journey. How will this road trip change Estelle’s friendship with the friends she’s come to love so dearly?

Word Count: 3,500

{Chapter One} {Chapter Two} {Chapter Three} {Chapter Four}{Chapter Five} {Chapter Six} {Chapter Seven} {Chapter Eight} {Chapter Nine}

The room was too bright for my hungover eyes as I sat up in my bed. It felt like someone was hitting me in the head over and over again. My movements were slower than usual as I pulled the gray hoodie over my head. My feet thudded against the stairs as I went down to the kitchen for breakfast.

“Hey Mike,” I said, voice rough as I pulled the refrigerator open.

“Hey Luke,” he said, his tone a little suspicious.

“What’s up?” I asked, pouring myself a glass of orange juice.

“Nothing. How’s the hangover?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as he watched me lean against the counter.

“Pretty rough. My head hurts, but nothing out of the ordinary. How was last night?” I asked, turning to search for something light to eat.

“Oh fine. I heard you and Cal come back last night,” he said, an edge to his tone.

“Shit. I’m sorry Mike. Most of last night is kinda hazy,” I admitted, sighing as I grabbed some bread to make toast.

“Oh I bet. You sounded pretty wasted,” he said as I caught the glare he was giving me.

“And I’m sorry. Did something happen last night when I came back?” I asked, confused as to why he would be staring at me with such a harsh look.

“Nope. Nothing at all. I’m gonna go get ready to head to Central Park,” he said, pushing off of the barstool he was on.

I watched him leave, still confused as to why he would be mad at me. Usually when I was drunk, I didn’t do anything horrible to the boys. So had I done something stupid that had annoyed Michael? I grabbed my toast and headed towards my room. As I was walking, I saw Calum leading Estelle down the stairs. My eyes went wide as the sight of them. What was she doing in his room? When we came back last night, I had assumed that she was asleep or at least with Ashton since she had cut me off the day before. I took in the baggy shirt she was wearing, Calum’s. I noticed it right away, it being one of Cal’s favorite to wear when he was in a mood. Why the hell was Estelle wearing his shirt? She stopped in her tracks as our eyes met. I watched as anger flashed in them. What happened last night that Estelle was having this reaction to me? I knew that she said we couldn’t be in a relationship and left me confused in her room, but was it really something so horrible that she would be angry with me?

“Morning,” I said in hopes of just being able to get a response.

“Mornin’” Calum said, a glare coming from him too.

Estelle refused to look at me as she continued walking. I felt the tension radiating from her as she walked by. It hurt to know that there was something bothering her to the point of her not speaking to me.

“What’s up?” I asked, Estelle continuing down the stairs as Calum met me on the landing.

“Nothing dude. Just talking,” he said with a shrug.

There was anger in his eyes too. What the fuck happened between my downing that last shot and coming home?

“About what?” I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.

“How you’re a fucking idiot to be perfectly honest,” he said, anger in his tone.

“What the hell did I do?” I asked, feeling like I was being attacked.

“Why don’t you ask the girl you had shove her tongue down your throat while people took pictures and put them on Twitter?” he accused before walking away.

“Wait, what?” I asked, confusion taking over my brain.

Had I seriously let another girl kiss me last night? Or was Calum just messing with me? As I looked at him, I realized that it wasn’t possible for him to mess with me this way.

“Take a look at Twitter then think about how you’re gonna fix it this time,” he practically growled.

I groaned, hanging my head and staring at the food on my plate. Had I seriously messed up so badly that Estelle didn’t even want to look at me? I sat on my bed and took out my phone. There were thousands of tweets with pictures of me kissing some girl I don’t remember on the dance floor of the club last night. What made it worse was that in the pictures, it almost looked like Estelle. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes as I continued scrolling. How did I let this happen? I felt like a horrible person without a way of apologizing. How could Estelle forgive me for this? If she even could, would we be able to be together?

➢➢➢

Estelle sat the farthest she could on the way to Central Park. Even at Central Park, she stayed by Ashton the whole time. It suddenly didn’t feel like I should be there with them. I watched as they walked together, Estelle pointing her camera at different things and making everyone else pose for her and Ashton smiling at her. Was there something there? There was clearly something between her and Calum. Had I really ruined our relationship with one night away from her? My heart jumped when she turned around and snapped a picture of me. Our eyes met and saw the hurt and love causing a storm in her hazel eyes. She turned away quickly, going back to talk to Ashton. It was his birthday so I understood the attention being on him, but the look her eyes stayed with me longer than anything else. I had hurt this one person that I had come to love so much over the past three years of our friendship, particularly more in the past year and a half. Was she trying to move on now because of my actions? I sighed, deciding to just hang back a bit so I wouldn’t make her more upset. I let my thoughts wash over me as I walked along, not really finding the park as beautiful as I had the first time I saw it.

“Why are you so upset?” Michael asked, walking next to me.

“I made a mistake last night and I don’t know how to fix it,” I said, my eyes catching someone with a giant camera following us.

“You did make a mistake. Hey why are you walking faster?” he asked, trying to keep up.

“Mike, cameras,” I whispered, glancing over at them again.

He moved with me, making sure we could keep some privacy.

“Luke, what the hell?” Estelle asked as I pulled her hood of her hoodie up.

“Paparazzi,” I said quickly, looking up at Ashton.

He nodded and we rushed her towards the car, letting her get in quickly. Calum, Michael and Crystal followed shortly after.

“The rockstar bullshit doesn’t work here so grow up Luke. I’m not a toy you can play with and then refuse to have people see me!” she yelled, taking myself and everyone else in the car by surprise.

Her eyes were filled with anger and I could tell how long she had been holding in her feelings.

“Estelle,” I said, trying to calm her down.

I reached out to touch her shoulder, but she slapped my hand away. I stared at her in shock, seeing the tears that were in her eyes.

“Don’t touch me,” she said, her voice breaking slightly.

Ashton wrapped an arm around her and practically shielded her from me. It was like I was on the outside looking in.

“Okay, let’s just go back for a little bit and then get ready for dinner,” Crystal said, watching all three of us closely.

“Yeah,” Ashton and I agreed at the same time.

I sat there, looking out the window the entire car ride back. How was I supposed to make this better?

➢➢➢

ESTELLE’S POV

Ashton sat on one of the chairs that was in my room. I felt nervous about giving him the gift that I worked on. I picked up the sleek black box with a ribbon on it before turning to look at him.

“What do you got there bugs?” he asked, eyes twinkling as he took in the box.

“Happy Birthday Ash,” I said quietly, a small smile on my face as I handed it to him.

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” he said, running his fingers over the box.

“Yeah well, it’s your birthday so you should know better by now,” I teased, still standing in front of him.

I felt my palms starting to sweat as he slowly opened it. A smile blossomed over his face as he took out the book I made.

“Estelle, this is-”

“A personalized photo album of our friendship over the years, including the boys and when I met your family for the first time,” I explained, seeing a few tears well up.

“It’s perfect. Thank you,” he said, a crack in his voice before he stood up.

He wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug, almost squeezing me too much. I laughed into his chest at his reaction, but let him hug me as much as he wanted.

“I love you bugs,” he said, pulling away and kissing my forehead.

“I love you too Ash,” I giggled, smiling up at him.

It felt like the first time I was really smiling since the whole Luke debacle. Ashton always knew how to make me smile, cheer me up, or even make sure that I was enjoying at least some part of my day. He really was the perfect best friend.

“So, you and Luke,” he said, a strained tone in his voice.

“I didn’t mean to yell at him,” I admitted, sighing a little.

“It sounded a little out of nowhere,” he said, laughing a little at me.

“I know, I know. He just came out of nowhere with the sudden touching and protecting and he was all over someone else last night. It just pissed me off,” I said, walking over and falling back on my bed.

“I know, but bugs, you just went at him,” he argued, moving so he was lying next to me.

“Ugh, I let my anger take over and ruined your birthday,” I said, looking over at him.

He had a smile on his face instead of being upset.

“Estelle, you didn’t ruin my birthday. It’s okay that you were upset, but I really think you should talk to him. You’re never gonna know or understand until you do,” he said, giving me the look of you know I’m right.

“And what would I be finding out? That he thought some other girl wouldn’t matter? That if we weren’t together, he didn’t have to wait for me?” I said, my tone full of venom.

“Estelle, listen. You know how Luke is when he’s drunk. There’s a lack of paying attention to his surroundings. Do you honestly think he went out looking to makeout with some girl he didn’t know?” he asked, his words ringing in my ears.

“No,” I grumbled, hating that he was right yet again.

“Okay. So do you think he meant to hurt you?” he continued, making me sigh.

“No,” I repeated, frustration in my tone.

“Okay then what’s the harm in talking to him?” he asked, sitting up to look at me.

“Finding out that he won’t wait for my dad to stop being an ass,” I admitted, unable to meet his eyes.

“Bugs, he will. I know he will,” he reassured, taking my hand in his.

“I’ll try to talk to him then,” I said, giving in slightly.

“Great. Now, get ready because my birthday dinner is a very fancy one and I won’t have you not looking like a million bucks,” he teased, pulling me up with him.

“And whatever shall I wear for the birthday boy?” I asked, letting him drag me over to the closet.

“Hmm, let’s see here,” he said, laughing a little while he searched through my closet.

He pushed hangers until he halted completely, a smile coming over his face.

“This one,” he said, taking the dark green, skater dress from my closet.

“Yeah?” I asked, watching him pretend to make it twirl around.

“Yes. You’ll look stunning,” he said, handing it over to me.

I took the dress from him and pushed him out of my room.

“I’ll see you soon bugs,” he said, waving before running down the stairs.

I laughed, closing the door and staring at the dress. It wasn’t much, but it was still a dress that I loved for how it flowed around me. I gently zipped the dress up, admiring how it looked in the mirror. The clasp on my nude heels felt cold against my ankle and I took in my appearance one last time. Ashton was right, I looked like a million bucks.

➢➢➢

Crystal and I took a cab separately from the boys so we wouldn’t be harassed by the paparazzi. Ashton sat at the head of the table once we were seated at Ristorante Morini. I sat on one side of him, Luke across from me and Calum next to me. The tension between myself and Luke had dissipated slightly, but now Luke was glaring at Calum for some unknown reason.

“And what can I for you miss?” the waiter asked, his eyes trailing up and down my body.

I rolled my eyes before putting on a fake smile.

“I’ll have the Parmigiano Tortelloni please,” I said, giving my tone a sickly sweetness to it.

“And to drink?” he continued, his eyes landing on my chest.

“A miele,” I said, my accent for the Italian names sounding perfect.

“And for you sir?” he asked, turning to Ashton.

“One, I would appreciate it if you didn’t ogle my girlfriend. Second, I’ll have the salmon with a glass of sparkling prosecco,” Ashton said, his tone full of ice.

The waiter flushed, nodding and quickly jotting his order down. I flashed an appreciative smile towards Ashton before I listened to Luke’s order. He ordered the same thing as me except he got a salad with it too. Once the waiter was gone, everyone went back to normal conversation, no one acknowledging what Ashton had done. I weaved in and out of the conversations, always letting Luke’s voice catch in my ears as I passed between trying to ignore him and trying to talk to him. My attempts for both were futile, never feeling like it was the right time or the right place to attempt a conversation of any kind. A warm hand landed on my leg. I looked up, meeting Calum’s brown eyes. He gave me a small smile and squeezed gently.

“Don’t worry Elle. You guys will work it out,” he whispered after leaning towards me so only I could hear him.

“We’ll see,” I whispered back, giving him another smile.

He went back to talking to Michael about something. I turned back to talk to Ashton when I caught Luke’s eyes on me, almost like they were burning a hole through my body. My eyes hesitantly lifted to meet his, catching the jealousy and hurt at war in the ocean blue. It made me wish that things were different right now, that he was the one next to me instead of Calum. The food came, taking me out of my thoughts and away from looking at Luke. We all ate quietly, only a few notes about how good the food is here and there. It wasn’t until they brought Ashton’s birthday cake out that we all really started talking. He laughed while we all badly sang “Happy Birthday” to him.

“Happy Birthday Ash!” I cheered along with everyone else.

He blew out the candles in one fell swoop and we all clapped like we were impressed. I felt the night winding down, but I saw the look in Ashton’s eyes.

“Boys! Let’s go out for a bit and let the girls take the rest of the night off,” he suggested, staring at his friends.

It was dangerous to say no to Ashton on his birthday, we all knew it. They all nodded, Luke’s being a bit more hesitant than the rest of the boys. Crystal and I got up before they could leave. I pressed a kiss to Ashton’s cheek quick.

“Don’t get too wild now,” I teased, waving to the rest of the boys before heading out.

“He won’t make the same mistake tonight you know,” Crystal said once we got back.

“What?” I asked, a little confused by what she meant.

“Luke. He’ll be with Ashton and he knows that he was a dick last night, so he won’t do the same thing again,” she said like it was that simple.

A part of me knew she was right, but the other part of me got angry.

“He shouldn’t have done it in the first place,” I mumbled, walking up to my room.

“Wait, do you not know that he went out because Ashton let it slip that you can’t be with him right now?” she asked, staring at me in shock.

“No. Ashton didn’t tell me that,” I said quietly, thinking about what that would have done to Luke, stopping in my tracks.

It still didn’t add up to him making out with some other girl though.

“Yeah, Cal took him out so he could just let off some steam. Luke wandered off though and Calum couldn’t find him until he got back here,” she explained and stopped on the stairs up to her and Michael’s room.

“Cal said that last night,” I mentioned, realizing that not everyone knew I was in Calum’s room last night.

“Um, go back. You were in Cal’s room last night?” she asked, an arch to her eyebrow.

“Yeah. He came into my room after he got back looking for Luke and found me on the floor crying. He basically carried me up to his room to talk and try to calm down,” I said, walking towards my room.

“Well, you know that Luke won’t do it again right?” she called after me.

“Yep!” I lied, closing my door softly.

If he wouldn’t do it again, he shouldn’t have done it in the first place.

➢➢➢

LUKE’S POV

I helped Calum get Ashton into the apartment, his drunken nature making him too difficult for just one of us. He stumbled over his feet as we sat him on the bed.

“Best birthday,” he slurred, making us laugh.

I shook my head before letting Calum take over. The need for a shower was strong right now. My feet carried me up the stairs, but I paused when I heard Estelle’s voice. She sounded hurt and angry, but I could tell that she wasn’t talking about me to Crystal. The small crack in her door was too tempting to just go into my room.

“No I promise that we aren’t together dad. I did as you asked,” she said, a crack in her voice.

I wanted to push the door open and comfort her, but I knew that wouldn’t be okay right now.

“He was just trying to keep me out of pictures. I swear that I’m not doing anything against what you asked,” she said, her voice strained.

It sounded like she was fighting back tears. It hurt me to hear her so distressed. The sound of a thud made me want to open the door more. It was followed by the clear sound of her crying and it cut through me. She was already mad at me and if I went into her room, she’d probably be even madder. I went into my room, but didn’t close the door in hopes that she’d walk in and talk to me this time.

“Are you gonna go in there?” Calum asked quietly from the doorway.

“No. I don’t want to make it worse,” I admitted, taking off my boots.

“Luke, you know that she’s more hurt by what happened last night than anything right?” he asked, leaning against the door frame.

“I know. There’s a connection between us and I know that isn’t an excuse for my behavior. I just don’t know what’s happening though. We were good for like one day and then suddenly, there’s just a reason she won’t tell me about why we can’t be together,” I said, shrugging off the suit jacket and hanging it back up.

“She’ll tell you when she’s ready Luke,” he reassured, giving me a look.

“I hope so,” I sighed, giving him a small smile.

“I’ll go check on her though,” he said, nodding towards Estelle’s room.

“Thanks. One sec though,” I said, reaching into my dresser and taking out my white tee that she loved.

“Give this to her in case she wants it,” I said, knowing that there was slight jealousy behind my actions.

“I will. I’ll get you if I need to,” he said, giving me a slight nod before closing my door.

I stood there for a moment, hoping that she’d take the shirt in her hands and know that I wanted everything to be okay. It was a risk right now, but it was Estelle and every risk was worth it for her.

Well, I am so very sorry for the long wait for the next chapter. Life’s been a little hectic recently. But here we go, back at it again.

tag loves: @24kcalum @thruheavenandhighwater@slimthicccal @notoriouslyhood @bbycal @tommossoccer @a-little-international @cashton-queen @thebookamongmen@jetblackyoungblood @kiss-the-kat @no-guilt-in-living

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darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts · 6 years

Text

Enter the Kitsune - Prologue pt1

Summary:

Being thrown back in time is hard enough without it being in a completely foreign country.

Aerion Foxx is a creative department employee at a fashion magazine. She was finally doing her dream job when this happened. Now trapped in the past she has no choice but to play along with whatever life throws at her next so she can get back to her own time alive.

The inner circle of warlords thought they were able to handle everything. from the daily running of their own fiefs to full-scale war. With the arrival of the new tomboy Princess, each one of them finds something new that they were not prepared for. For one warlord, in particular, his world is about to get a lot more entertaining and maybe even a bit brighter.

Warnings: Strong Language

Masterlist

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Prologue part 1

Modern-day Kyoto

One place I never thought I’d find myself was here. Thanks to a frantic phone call placed to my department about some messed up photos from an important fashion shoot we needed for next month’s spread, I found myself now wandering the busy streets of somewhere I only ever got to see pictures of. I should have been cursing my luck to have the work put on hold back home but I just couldn’t, finally, I had a bit of a break and got to travel on my job.

I was one of the lucky ones. At least that was what most of my friends from college said when I landed a job after graduation. I was so excited to be hired at a popular magazine publisher. I was an ordinary office worker back then. It was hardly my dream job but it takes time and experience to get to the level of being able to be put on a team to discuss trends, layouts and hot topics that go to print.

Last month I was over the moon when they said I could take part on the team dealing with the rise in the trend of Japanophilia. Naturally, other magazines were looking at different aspects of the land of the rising sun’s cultural history and beauty but we had gone with a “Trends across Time” theme. And if you wish to show off traditional kimono the first place everyone thought of was here in Kyoto. The fact there was still a large number of historical buildings also made this the best backdrops for the photos.

It had been a seriously long day. If it hadn’t been issues with the photographer who was a Pro at everything except communication without insulting people who were not in front of the lens then we might have finished earlier. Still, the shots were in the bag and emailed back to the main branch. One of the models had suggested a great local shop that seemed to cover everything from ramen to Teppanyaki. The idea of sizzling thinly sliced pieces of meat and vegetables cooked on a hot plate was too much of a temptation to ignore after standing around all day plastering a smile on my face and doing damage limitation in order to get the job done.

Now I had eaten my fill I was feeling a little sleepy. I stifled a yawn as I made my way in a direction, I thought my hotel was, it was darker and the lights of the city were on. The air pressure must have changed a little so I dragged my favourite hoodie out of my backpack and pulled it on over my head. It would be my only defence against the approaching chill in the air. The soft fabric made me smile and as I pulled the hood up, I caught a glimpse of my shadow on the ground now sporting animal ears. I rounded a corner of a building and realised I was actually more than a little lost now. Did I come this way? Dammit! Ok going to have to pull out my phone and check google maps here. I began patting down my pockets in search of my elusive smartphone. I pulled it out the back pocket of my jeans only to sigh at the low battery warning flashing on it. Great.

I noticed something that looked like a landmark ahead of me. If I can figure out what it is, I might find the route back with no problem. Moving forward I discovered that what I had found was, in fact, a small monument at a site for a temple. The words carved into it weren’t in any way readable to me so I looked at the curator sign near it. “Oda Nobunaga 1534 – 1582” Oh it’s a memorial then? Ok. As I worked out what I was looking at I heard the sound of someone approach me from behind. Turning my gaze, a little I saw a young man dressed in a green shirt, dark trousers, glasses and what looked to be a lab coat. There was an ID badge clipped to it but I couldn’t see what it was. Guess he is either from a lab around here or maybe that big University I saw the other day.

He must have noticed my staring and looked back at me silently for a moment before starting to speak in Japanese and after registering my confusion corrected himself attempting English instead.

“Sorry. Good evening.” He seemed to be friendly enough even if his face didn’t move much more than to open and close his mouth as he spoke.

“Oh! Yes, Good evening.” I gave s small nod and an awkwardly sociable smile in reply. I felt it before I really saw it. A big fat raindrop landed on the back of my hand that was holding onto the strap of my bag. “Great…”

“Are you alright? Do you have an umbrella Miss?” The young man looked a little concerned and shifted closer. Honestly dude its just a bit of rain.

“Somewhere just not with me right now. Might have left it back where I’m staying.” I shrug knowing I’d left it on my bed in the room. The wind whipped up and then there was an almighty crack as a blinding light touched down near us. “AH!” Looking at the point of impact I could clearly see the modest stone monument had snapped in two. Did that bolt of lightning do that? The hairs of the back of my neck stood up straight at the thought. If I had been closer it might have killed me.

“Please be careful Miss…”

I looked back at the young man who seemed to be holding a hand out to me but almost as soon as I’d seen that he had disappeared. No, it wasn’t just him everything had vanished, swallowed up in some sort of impenetrable fog. Along with the loss of visuals, I felt something like the worst ever drunken night out experience. That feeling you get if you have more than one too many and you are stuck in a limbo between having a wide-awake hangover and that curious detachment from your body shortly before passing out. God, I feel sick. I squeezed my eyes tight shut the hand on my bag tightened its grip while the other just balled into a fist. Anything in an attempt to try to keep control over myself while I just felt that floating, swirling sensation wash over me in the empty darkness.

– SMACK, THUD –

Burning… something’s burning. I opened my eyes and was hit with a lancing pain piercing through my brain.

“AH!” I cried out and groaned as I held my head in my hands. It was so sharp I ended up having to scrunch my eyes shut again a few times in an attempt to get used to it enough to focus on what was going on around me. Did I hit something? Remembering the smell of burning I looked around and saw the ribbons of smoke and flame licking at the building I was in. How the hell did I get here? The thick smoke was creeping around me clinging to the breathable air turning it against me. Pulling my collar up higher to cover my nose and mouth I tried to scan my surroundings to see if there was a way out.

Of all the unbelievable situations to find yourself in on a business trip, this was one that was going to make everyone in the office call me crazy. I couldn’t see the man from before anywhere. I edged closer to what I thought could be a stable exit and then found something that might as well have been a scene from a movie.

A Japanese soldier laying on the floor in full armour that looked like it was right out of a museum. There was a shadow moving that was darker than the others in the room, it was getting closer to the soldier. No that’s no a shadow… The light of the flames glinted off what the shadow had in their hand and my blood went cold. The cold unyielding gleam of metal reflected in the darkness cutting through the acrid smoke.

“Look out!” I called out before I even knew what I was doing. The shadow turned quickly and fled leaving the fallen soldier on the ground alone. I rushed to the soldier crouching down to look him over. Wait… was he asleep? Who the hell sleeps through a burning building? “Hey. Wake up!” I shook his shoulders urgently making his body rock on the hardwood flooring. With a small groan, the man opened his eyes. It’s ok no need to rush not like the building is about to collapse or something.

“Who are you?” The soldier's voice sounded deep and was almost rivalling the creaking timbers of the building that were struggling with the heat from the flames.

“Introductions will have to wait we have to get out of here.” I made sure my bag was secure on my shoulder before holding out my hand to the still-sluggish looking man on the ground. “Come on.” After hauling him to his feet we took off running through the building chasing the clean air to freedom.

Once making it outside I doubled over. That thick smoke had gotten into my lungs and as I gulped for air I glanced behind at where we had just been. A traditional looking building was in full flame now. Parts of the roof were already starting to creak and collapse in sections. Thank god we got out of that in one piece.

“Someone tried to do away with me while I slept? Audacious, but foolish. Killing my guards and getting that close to me are another matter. You there. Woman. Let go of me.” The soldier I ran from the building with addressed me and I then realised I still had hold of his hand.

“Ah. Sorry.” After giving a quick apology I dropped his hand and straightened up again. I hadn’t noticed in the smoky room but the guy was actually not a bad looking one. He was observing me clearly thinking of something. His black hair looked like it was absorbing the light, which probably had something to do with the soot in it making it appear even darker. His eyes were like a fine dark wine, the red of them was so deep and mesmerising you could easily be lost in them. If we had met in another way I might have been put under their spell easily.

“You saved my life. You may be some girl the monks snuck in for amusement, but I owe you my thanks.”

“Amusement? Seriously is burning down a building what passes for amusement these days? And what do you mean Monks? I have zero idea how the hell I even got in there.” With each confused, exasperated word that left my mouth, I felt a throbbing skull-splitting pain. I’d probably kill for some Advil right about now.

The breeze around us had managed to find something wet that was seeping down the back of my neck from where I had my hair tied back. The cold dampness on my skin was such a contrast to the heat of the burning building that it made me shiver. I really don’t want to look into what that is right now. Did I hit my head on something? The man in front of me looked every bit like a screen print of some historical samurai. The armour, the stance, hell even that cold calculating brutal look in his eyes all screamed of power you couldn’t ignore. That sword hanging from his side just added to the “do not ignore me” feeling.

“What are you staring at? Surely you know who I am.”

“Not a clue.” I sighed giving a slight shrug and small apologetic smile.

“You saved me without knowing who I am? Not expecting reward or favour? So be it. I shall tell you my name. I am the man who will rule all under the sun –” As he was speaking, he seemed to stand up straighter and taller than before. He was intimidating but it was the way he spoke and puffed out his chest that really set off a small beware alarm inside me.

“You really don’t have to tell me who you are.” I blurted out, cutting his introduction short.

“What?” His powerful gaze looked at me once more, full of interest and I’m guessing from the way his mouth was a little gaped he was also slightly surprised. Something about this whole thing makes me think I’m not going to enjoy solving the mystery of who you are.

“You’re a curious one, woman. No one’s ever spoken so impudently to me before.” He burst out into loud echoing laughter. I guess I missed the part of this where any of it is funny. “You intrigue me, which is almost as worthy of praise as saving my life. I am the Lord of Azuchi Castle and Daimyo of Owari, Nobunaga Oda.”

“That’s nice… Wait, what?” Part way through accepting who he was my sluggish brain caught up to speed with it and stalled. He just said Nobunaga Oda, as in that guy that got that monument at that old temple site. That Nobunaga Oda? I began turning my head around looking for the guy with a camera that I was certain was about to jump out at any moment and tell me I had just been Punked. I saw the engraved sign on a gate. Honno-ji. So that building back there was a temple? “This is going to sound very strange but excuse me. Could you tell me what year it is?”

“It is 1582. Why?” Nobunaga asked inclining his head. This has to be a bad dream. No way this is real. I put my hand on my arm and pinched it as hard as I could. Ouch! Ok… bang goes that theory. “What are you pinching yourself for? I’ve given my name. It’s your turn.”

“Huh? Hey!” I cried out as I realised Nobunaga had stepped forward and abruptly used his hand to tilt my chin to force me to meet his gaze.

“Give me your name.” His voice was deep and commanding but it also made me bristle automatically. I am not something to be commanded. And clearly Please was not something this guy was taught as a child. Matching his gaze with a glare of my own I stubbornly refused to allow my body to react to him. Well, I guess there isn’t much harm in telling him my name.

“My name is Aerion Foxx.”

“Aerion then? A good name.” He had a smirk on his face that was like a child that just won a game. Ok, that is another annoying thing. I don’t mind games but there is something about this one that makes me think it's not one set on a foundation of mutual respect.

“Thank you I like it too. Now let go of me.” Brushing his hand away I was quick enough to put a gap between us again. Seriously ever hear of personal space? I need to work all this stuff out but I just can’t get my head to stop pounding. I don’t know if it was pain or shock but I felt my body start to tremble. I could feel a rumbling sensation under my feet. I had visions of that iconic scene in movies where you see a glass of water quake just before a huge monster arrived. Looking around I saw a wall of armoured figures approaching.

“Nobunaga, my lord, you’re safe!”

---

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noxus-the-venomous-blog · 5 years

Text

Part 1 Toxic tranquility

“Alright I'm checking the hallway,” Frank said dishonestly into the walkie talkie hanging from his shoulders........

He instead adjusted his position on his chair, fulfilling only the spirit of his duty by glancing at the security monitors in front of him. Nothing as always. “Looking all clear from my end.”

His earpiece mumbled acceptance, then asked for more in depth clarification.

Frank briefly sighed in annoyance. “Yeah I went out into the hall but I haven't been to the lobby. I’m on my way.” He slowly stood with a grunt and exited the small security room. He chuckled to himself and spoke into the receiver, “hey maybe Bob’s back and messing with the security system… You don't know Bob? Also remember to say over, I have to hit a button on my end how do you not know that?”

He switched a few lights on and proceeded down the hallway slowly, glancing into each room, his footsteps echoing a hollow sound across the narrow corridor. Offices, laboratories, storerooms, nothing out of the ordinary that he could see.

“Ok so full story, Bob was a techie who fixed computers around here. You have to have seen him, mousy little dude tiptoeing to servers and scribbling in a notepad. So like last week the big bosses from the science department come in and start making cuts in IT and this dude was on the list. But when it happened he didn't take it well. He started crying… Yeah really crying. Saying he won't leave, bringing up his kids… Three I think.”

Frank reached the lobby, a dim and soulless room. He took a seat at the receptionist desk and began booting up the computer.

He continued to elaborate on his story while waiting for the dated grey relic of a computer to load.“When he was walking out we all just stared. If this was grade school we would have laughed and threw paper balls, but no one flinched. In that moment we all felt his pain. I'm no wuss but I don't think I would have handled it better in his shoes. He trudged into the elevator and no one saw him again.”

Frank finally was able to check the cameras, each small was screen empty and unchanged.

“Nope no Bob…” He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean did you not get any part of the story? The guy was broken. We have a betting poll on what day he comes back to shoot the place up… Ah you’re just naive, it’s absolutely possible! And if he does im the one left dealing… Hey we got a flicker on ground floor… That's when a door or window sensor says its open then closed then open. Is this your first night?”

His supervisor’s apparent airheadedness aside, it was probably nothing. Sensors misread all the time. But as he started walking away from the computer a feeling in his gut stirred. He glanced back at the monitor, focusing on the small flickering pixels slowly blinking on and off.

Frank hung his head back in resignation and pressed the button on his receiver. “Nah I’m gonna check it anyway, its annoying though… Its cool I dont mind, besides if Bob’s back i wanna catch him tonight, or tomorrow, I bet on the whole week.” He then changed his course, heading in the opposite direction towards the origin of the problem.

------------------------------------------------------------------

The man fumbled in his chair, sitting alone at the diner.

A waiter walked over and asked, “sir? Are you waiting for anyone? You haven’t ordered.”

He nodded his head wordlessly and stared deeply at the cheaply stained wood table. He began to tap his fingers on it but that quickly escalated into scratching a small line into the wood. He gazed at the line he was his nail was carving so deeply it took him a full moment to realize the man was still standing there. He stumbled over his words a little, “I’m… I’m sorry im just...”

“Nervous?” The waiter sat down across from the customer and placed his notepad in his lap. “It’s a big date isn't it?”

The customer nodded without looking at the man across the table. “She's almost here and we need to have this big talk that she doesn't even know she needs to have…“

“Want my advice?” the man offered with a smile. The nervous patron met his eyes. “If it’s a request then ask it with boldness, If it’s a confession then say it with humility and if it’s a declaration then be ready to mean it. “

The corner of the man’s mouth twitched. “Hm… that works. Thank you.”

“No problem. Does she have red hair? You’re going to wanna take a breath.” The waiter then stood up to help seat the woman who had just entered. She was guided over to the now much calmer man sitting in the booth, who had conveniently slid a napkin over the small scar in the table.

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“No that was the old company name, they changed it after it got sold… Yeah why do you think this place has downsized so much lately? New owners new problems,” Frank grumbled as he continued through a small empty cold storage room.

“I used to have a security team to back me up. Three on each shift. We had a real job to do too back then. Kids from the university constantly sneaking in after hours. Sometimes for some mischief but every now and then just to squeeze some extra time in to finish whatever assignment they were stressing over,” he explained while walking to towards a window to check the sensors. A small solid green light on each sensor let him know the equipment was functioning and the windows were latched shut.

“That’s room 204 clear too, are you sure you’re looking at the map right? None of these rooms could be were the flicker is coming from.” This wild goose chase was starting to become annoying.

He walked out of the room and in to the hallway, slowly scanning in both directions. He swore he had already checked each cluster of doors, and their interconnected rooms.

“Hey I think I might’ve missed 209. I’m gonna check it out just to say I got all of em…” the voice in the earpiece protested slightly. “No I see your point but I’m here so I may as well check all of them. Besides I have nothing better to do. At least you're more talkative than the last dispatch. We should get drinks some time, I'll pay for it. You don't work a job this boring without a few drinks.”

He approached the room slowly and paused just before he entered. Something didn't seem right. He saw computers and monitors set up around the rooms perimeter. Dust had acquired on each keyboard as they waited for future fingertips to bring them back to life. He glanced to his left and saw the the window sealed and the indicator light green. He glanced to his right and saw no other windows or any other types of exits. But something still didn't feel rightl.

“Does the flicker look like it matches 209? No way I just walked out of 204 I’m telling you something wrong with 209. There's like a cold chill in here... Wait a second… it's cold in here. Like a breeze.” Frank’s eyes widened, he rushed over to one of the monitors at the desk and slid it over, revealing a window wide open. The sensor hanging off of it, damaged and blinking sporadically. “We’re gonna have to talk drinks another time. Bob’s back.”

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“The food here is sub par,” the young man says nervously, trying to form an N shape in his mashed potatoes, “but it’s affordable to a degree that makes its quality seem better.”

“The chicken is bomb though,” the woman leaned over with a piece of meat on her fork, dipping it into her boyfriends mashed potatoes. His eyes widened staring at the streak she made in his nearly finished starch sculpture. She gave a flirty smile.“And you went through that burger like a lion gnawing on a squirrel.”

“When would a lion meet a squirrel?” he said with a smirk as he began scultpting what's left of his potatoes into an O shape.

She pointed at him with her fork. “City lions. People with bad vision think there buying a house cat but it never stops growing.”

“Who doesn't have that one crazy lion lady in the family because of that?”

They both stared at each other for a moment and then giggled. The woman leaned forward and spoke quietly, “so what has you so nervous. Your food handwriting is off its game, that Q looks terrible.”

He glanced away from her. “It's an O… I’m just… I have a reason to invite you here.” He looked over at the rest of the restaurant, then back to her and lowered his voice, “I have something to tell you but there's no sane way to say it. You’re going to think i’m crazy and then your going to think lying but when you realize i’m not you’re going to be angry. When that happens all I ask is that you hear me out and let me tell my side of the story. Will that be ok?”

Her smile had faded. She leaned in with gravely serious expression. “Ok but… I want to guess. I want two guesses before you say anything and that's the only way I'll hear you out.” The man almost replied but then just nodded his head. She continued, “ok… You’re going to propose to me?”

He shook his head.

“Ok then… I’m gonna go out on a limb here… You dress up in all black, wear a gas mask and steal from science factories under the name Noxious in an attempt to take over the world.”

His heart dropped. He couldn’t breathe. His pulse raced and his vision blurred. When a comet rushes through space it plays many roles. Sometimes it orbits a planet as a satellite. Sometimes it collides into mass and creates a planet. Everything it becomes will change eventually and over billions of years it will slowly play every role it possibly can in the stages of the universe. In that one shaken moment, Noxious wished desperately that that comet would play the role of destroyer and take the entire restaurant out.

He stammered ‘I... Its not-”

“I’m in.” She smiled sweetly at him.

“In what?”

“I want to join you. I want to be your partner in crime” she stated proudly while awkwardly finding her drink straw with her mouth.

This wasn’t real, was it? “How did you know?”

“I checked your computer under the folder marked ‘Noxious Agenda’ and I even corrected some grammar in a few of the documents. You have good use of metaphor for your journals,” she spoke proudly, showing she was far more prepared than he thought to accept his “devastating” news

Noxious could barely believe what he was hearing. “Wait when did you use my computer you've never stayed at my house?”

She waved a hand dismissively. “I wandered in at some point. I’m so bad about fidgeting with other peoples electronics.”

His jaw dropped. “I can’t believe you’re ok with this. I thought you would leave me and report me to the police. We have so much to talk about and so much to plan.” He felt light headed and giddy. This tremendous weight had been lifted off him. He felt so relieved that she understood his scenario that he failed to see the down side of his girlfriend admitting she broke into his home and spell checked his manifesto. He felt accepted. More so he felt affirmed in his conviction. He now had a partner to aid him in his wicked remodeling of a broken world. They were both strange and off putting, and his is why they worked.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frank scrambled around the storage room, checking the inventory. “How long until the cops show up im getting my ass played over here! Three boxes of materials are already missing and I can’t find a trace of Bob! Hello? Dispatch dont do this to me. Alright that’s not working,” he said in frustration as he returned his radio to the holster to his belt.

He reached for the cell phone in his back pocket and the moment he couldn't feel it an annoying thought dawned on him. He had left it on the security desk. Frank was all alone as he searched each room, following seemingly just behind the trail of the mysterious intruder. His concentration was broken when he heard a door shut from down the hall. He ran over and pulled out his sidearm. All he could see was more corridors of shut and open doors. He came up on one slowly.

He clutched his radio and hit the button. “Ok not sure if this is going through but Ive narrowed down his location to three doors. If it's Bob then he's manic. I'm gonna start kicking doors down and corner the rat.”

Frank flinched at a reply in his earbud. He took a deep breath as he heard the news. “Shit don't do anything, and don't confront him! Bob ain't crazy but he may have snapped, i'm running to your post as fast as I can!” He booked it.

With all the urgency he could muster he took stride down the hall, through the lobby and then down another hall. He glanced over at his security booth mid stride but couldn't see his phone immediately. Deciding to ignore it he continued up the stairs and rushed down the painted tile path until he could see the security dispatch. The place was covered in smoke, bellowing out the open armored door.

He covered his mouth and rushed in, scanning the thick smoke with his flashlight in order to find dispatch or the source of the smoke. Finally under the desk a piece of warped plastic caught his eye. It was a tube covered in tape and burnt at one end. An improvised smoke bomb.

As he saw it the door shut and latched behind him. He kicked it twice causing his firm boot to boom like a drum off the metal door. When that didn’t work he searched through the thick smoke to find the control panel. He tried the electric door release, no luck, instead he turned on the air circulation.

As the smoke began to suck out of the room he began to see two shadowy figures forming outside of the bulletproof glass observation window. Frank gritted his teeth as their figures became clearer, he pressed the intercom button and yelled, “who the hell are you two?! Get me outta here! So help me if you hurt the dispatch lady !'m gonna shove my pistol up your ass and play hide the lead!”

The two figures were fully visible now. On the left was a man with a dark hoodie, gloves and a black leather gas mask. On the right was a woman in a similar concealed outfit with a small lock of red hair falling over her goggles and respirator. She leaned in and pressed the equivalent intercom button on her side, speaking in a familiar voice, “it wasn't Bob… Over.”

----Writen by poison, edited by chem trails

#Noxus

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kootenaygoon · 5 years

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So,

At first, I was nervous about tackling news stories.

I knew the stakes from my summers at the Whitehorse Star, had seen how small fuck-ups could have large consequences. Telling someone else’s story is a huge privilege, a power you have over them, and it can be intoxicating. But if you do it wrong, you will hear about it. I preferred the lighter elements of the job, like taking pictures at the Pride Parade or typing up an exhaustive feature on the Capitol Theatre’s production of Chicago. I was a hype machine, excitedly Photoshopping my images and then sprawling back in my desk chair with the newly printed paper’s pages flung open to reveal my handiwork. I floated through the summer of 2014 high on the experience of it all, letting myself fall in love with each new artist I interviewed.

Some people believed the proliferation of artists in the Nelson area was thanks to the town being situated on a bed of magical quartz, but I figured it was more a case of kindreds being attracted to one another. People were looking for a life less ordinary, far from the city. Most locals had some sort of regular job and then spent the remainder of their time investing in creative endeavours, whether that meant painting a mural, starting a food truck or playing in an 80s cover band called Val Kilmer and the New Coke. I started learning the names of local authors, meeting up with poet Tom Wayman and short story writer Myler Wilkenson. I wrote a feature about a photographer named Ryan Oakley who had crowd-funded a book called Humans of Nelson, based on the viral hit Humans of New York. It featured daily portraits of people he met during his lunch breaks, along with a pithy quote that captured their essence. One young singer named Anilah had just landed her Enya-esque tracks on some TV show, a spoken word poet named Magpie Ulysses was releasing a chapbook and a popular saxophonist named Clinton Swanson was playing relentless gigs around town. I giddily funnelled their stories on to Facebook and Twitter, where I obsessively watched the engagement numbers climb. Within a month or two our web presence had exploded, and pretty soon Calvin was bragging that we had the best social media numbers in the Kootenays.

But every now and then, things got dark. The first heavy story that landed on my desk involved a quartet of teenagers who had gone missing the day before I arrived in town. It was eventually discovered that they’d commandeered a canoe and gone adventuring right into a windstorm on Slocan Lake—a body of water so enormous it almost looks like the ocean in places. Authorities were able to recover the canoe pretty quickly, and found a young girl near death. Though they rushed her to medical services, she died in the hospital. There was no trace of the others, three dudes ranging in age from late teens to early twenties. The grief was heavy in the community, and right away I felt it settle in my chest — a clenched fist of empathy. I interviewed the RCMP as they conducted a large-scale search, checking in each day to hear if there was anything to report. At one point it looked like they were going to call it off, but then the families hired a husband-wife duo from the U.S. who had a submersible specially designed for these sorts of retrievals. Within a few days they’d located the boys, down in the darkness, and dragged them back up into the light. I shuddered when I thought of how they must’ve looked after that long underwater, after being cradled to the surface with a claw. The people I interviewed talked about the closure that brought to the families, and I quoted various people silver lining it, but it was the sort of tragedy that was so random it felt cruel on a cosmic level. Like a deity reaching down from heaven to smudge out a few people with his thumb.

“We cannot presume what happened. Our best speculation is misadventure. It wasn’t a very big canoe,” RCMP officer Darryl Little told me.

“It was more of a swift water canoe than a lake canoe. There wasn’t much space below the gunnels and we figure the wind came up and that was it.”

During those weeks I kept running into people who knew the kids, and saw the impact plain on their heartbroken faces. One woman burst into tears while I was renewing my car insurance. I decided to interview the school district psychologist, Dr. Todd Kettner, to get his insights into the community’s grief process. We met at Lakeside Park and shot a video of him sitting on a park bench, calling out the provincial government and Premier Christy Clark. They had docked his pay during the teacher’s strike, right while he was in the midst of putting in overtime to coordinate a critical incident crisis management plan for the Slocan community. He was the only psychologist for the district, which according to him was chronically under-funded. For him it wasn’t about the dollars they took off his cheque, it was the overall neglect rural schools were receiving that really set him off. In an online open letter that went viral around the province he laid out some of the routine cases he was dealing with from day to day, underlining the ways the community was failing to support students with mental health issues.

“I was awakened Sunday morning by a phone call informing me that a student at one of the 21 schools I’m responsible for was on life support in ICU after an accidental drug overdose,” he wrote.

“Monday morning, while continuing to support the staff at the school where the hospitalized student learns, a dedicated and caring school administrator and I were informed that we were needed at another school to help the staff there prepare to gently inform their students that their classmates’ parent had been killed in a tragic accident.”

Kettner was eventually reimbursed for his pay cut, but didn’t see any change at an institutional level. At the end of the day he was still doing his job the best way he could in seemingly impossible circumstances. In the newsroom Tamara filled me in on the realities of SD8, and the issues were deeply systemic. The whole system was cash-starved because the undeclared income of the cannabis industry meant that, on paper, it was the poorest district in the province. The local high school was past capacity, there were multiple elementary schools that should have been demolished years ago, and sitting through board meetings meant hearing about financial snafus of the highest order.

“Those school board meetings, Will? Worst part of my job, easy. You wouldn’t believe how boring they are. All the ‘motion to accept this’ and ‘motion to accept that’. Makes me want to blow my brains out,” she said.

“The key is, you have to get to know the trustees, the superintendent. Once you have them as a connection, they can pretty much talk you through anything.”

“You think the strike will last much longer?”

“Shit, I don’t know. Those teachers are pissed, and they’re not going to back down.”

Around this time I came to an instinctive conclusion about the type of reporter I wanted to be: not aloof, or unfeeling, but the type that engages to an almost scary degree. If I was going to write a story, I wanted to understand it on a far deeper level than I needed for the paper, I wanted to be the guy in town that was the ultimate expert on that topic — right down to its human nuances.

The story commanding my most fervid attention was the trial of Andrew Stevenson, the bank robber that Cass had told me about. Calvin, Tamara and I spent a good half an hour scouring through Facebook trying to find a photo of him and his co-accused, Krista Kalmikoff, so we could have something to illustrate Greg’s stories about the court hearings. We were unsuccessful. The guy was being charged with seven robberies over the course of about six months, of both banks and pharmacies. The NPD had identified addiction as the driving force behind the crimes, and had been able to predict the exact day of his last robbery: April 25, 2014. In my free time I interrogated anyone who knew anything about what happened, picking up scraps of information here and there. A drunk woman at a party described seeing him come careening out of the bank’s parking lot on a bike, cutting in front of city hall and hurtling down towards the lake as cops sprinted after him. I wanted, so badly, to know what this guy looked like. Calvin sent me down to the court to get a shot of him walking in handcuffed—a goon shot—but then it turned out he was appearing by video link. Foiled!

As I got to know the NPD cops, attending one of their award ceremonies, I met a soft-spoken sergeant named Nate Holt. He had thickly muscled arms, a neatly trimmed blond beard and spiky hair that was nearly white. Not only was he holding an award for bravery, he was also one of the guys who was at the bridge that day, with Andrew Stevenson's stolen money raining down from the tree like confetti. I pictured the bank robber squirming on the rocks, trying to crawl away, while they descended on him like blue wraiths. The thing about Nate was you could feel the toll his work took on him, and you could see it in the way he carried himself. He was piggy-backing a lot of sadness. One suicidal dude came at him with a butcher knife and Nate didn’t even pull his gun. No, he got close enough to tackle him in a bear-hug, wrestle the knife out of his grip and save both of their lives. Sometimes I thought about those two men, rolling on the Baker Street sidewalk in that guy’s blood, while shocked residents looked on. I couldn’t believe that someone could have an experience like that and return to work the next day. But that’s exactly what he did.

Before Paisley moved into our new place, Muppet and I got a few days of lackadaisical meandering. I took her to Kaslo May Days with me, slaloming along the highway up Kootenay Lake in a state of giddy bliss, thinking yes I think I made the right decision while I gazed out at the water. I spotted a weird gargoyle sculpture on top of a house on Front Street, and wondered to myself what the deal was there. I spent a lot of time wandering through parks with my camera, approaching strangers and asking to take their photos. Cass would later jokingly call these spreads “All the people Will met at the park the other day”. Eventually I decided I had to see this bridge Andrew Stevenson jumped off, so I got on the highway out to Castlegar and went looking for it. We turned off the highway and followed a switch-back down to the Columbia River, just a few kilometres up from a massive hydroelectric dam. I parked at one end of the bridge and walked Muppet out across the dusty concrete to the middle so we could see the spot it happened. It was a clear, sunny afternoon, and I eventually identified the small cedar he’d attempted to jump into. Below was nothing but a rocky slope to the river, twenty feet further on. This was where it all ended for him, after evading the cops six times. Maybe it was the new pot I was smoking, or maybe it was something else, but I was feeling an electric need to understand this story. I’d been struggling for years on a novel that wasn’t coming along, partially because I was finding it difficult to invent new parts of the narrative, but here was a true fucking story that I could actually throw my weight into. I stood there for a long time, while cars rocketed by in the distance and wind hurtled through the canyon. The air smelled delicious.

I stood there drinking a Slurpee while Muppet panted happily.

The Kootenay Goon

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roseisread · 6 years

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My Year in Movies: Favorite Non-2018 Feature Films (Part 1)

I watched a LOT of movies this year. At last count, I had logged 229 features and 126 shorts; and that doesn’t count rewatches--only movies that were new to me.

I set a few challenges for myself as well this year. The first one was to watch at least one non-English language/US release per week--this exposed me to so much world cinema and some really amazing filmmakers. Anyone who avoids foreign films because “I don’t like subtitles” is really missing out, and I found myself craving these narratives from voices I don’t ordinarily get exposed to in my everyday life.

Other personal challenges: Watching as many horror movies as possible in October (with horror defined pretty loosely so I could include entries from silent era and onward, as well as some comedy cult classics that have horror/thriller elements); participating in Noirvember (in addition to attending Noir City in Chicago); crossing off some major blindspots from my list (such as Bicycle Thieves, The Producers, Lethal Weapon, A Few Good Men, Grease, Home Alone 2, Brazil, and Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom); and trying to watch movies and short films from every decade that motion pictures have existed.

In 2019, I hope to do similar personal challenges with a focus on movies made by women, LGBTQ+, and people of color, in addition to filling in the gaps of my classical/canonical movie knowledge.

OK, so that’s enough preamble. Let’s get to the list! For this list, I’m excluding movies that were released in 2018--that’s coming but this is for movies released before that.

50. Linda Linda Linda (2005, directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita, country of origin: Japan)

High school girls recruit the Korean exchange student (Doona Bae, of Cloud Atlas and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) to join their rock band a few days before the school talent show. This is just a feel good film, recommended if you enjoyed the likes of Sing Street, We Are The Best!, and The Runaways. Unfortunately, it’s out of print in physical form; but last I checked someone had uploaded it to YouTube so you might want to get on that before it’s removed. You can watch the trailer here.

49. The Blue Dahlia (1946, directed by George Marshall, country of origin: US)

This film noir stars Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, and like any good noir, it deals with dark subjects including murder, blackmail, political corruption, and PTSD. It’s been on my watchlist for a long time, and thanks to Noir City Chicago, I got to see it on the big screen at the Music Box Theatre. For small screen viewing, you can catch up with it via rental on Vudu, Amazon, iTunes... the usual suspects.

48. Siren of the Tropics (1927, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Etievant, country of origin: France)

My dearly departed Filmstruck had a spotlight on the films of Josephine Baker, and this was among them. I fell in love instantly with the lively, beautiful Baker, here playing a woman named Papitou who deals with some super scummy dudes but manages to be herself in the face of all that nonsense. Silent films can sometimes be tougher to engage with for modern audiences, but this one flies by and contains some unexpectedly racy sequences for the time. Its racial politics don’t meet today’s cultural standards, but considering Baker’s parents were former slaves and their daughter went on to become the first woman of color to star in a major motion picture, this is still a landmark film worthy of our consideration. She broke down many barriers and contributed a great deal to both the entertainment world and the Civil Rights movement, and this serves as a nice entry point into her career. It’s available on DVD through Kino Lorber, and hopefully one day soon it’ll pop up on another streaming service that carries on the Filmstruck legacy.

47. I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore (2017, directed by Macon Blair, country of origin: US)

Here’s a film that goes to some unexpected places. I had no idea what to expect from Macon Blair, who frequently appears in the movies of Jeremy Saulnier; but in his debut feature for Netflix, he pulled out all the stops. Hilarious, violent, and intense, with memorable performances from stars Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood, this is a movie about getting in over your head and just going for it anyway. I don’t want to tell you about the plot because it’s best discovered through watching--just go to your nearest device and add it to your Netflix queue.

46. Song of the Sea (2014, directed by Tomm Moore, country of origin: Ireland)

Absolutely gorgeous animation from the team that previously brought us The Secret of Kells, and a touching story that combines family and mythology. I adored this one. Watch it on Netflix or rent on the usual streaming sources--for a preview, click here.

45. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942, directed by Michael Curtiz, country of origin: US)

I always watch Independence Day on the Fourth of July; but in 2018, I decided to mix it up and cross this patriotic musical off the watchlist. I’d seen James Cagney’s gangster movies like White Heat and The Public Enemy, but seeing him sing and dance was a whole new joyous discovery. This movie is entertaining, funny, touching, and full of iconic sequences that other films would go on to borrow from. I absolutely loved it. Pretty sure I saw this on Filmstruck originally, but since that’s no longer possible you should be able to find it at your local public library or you can rent it for a couple bucks on Amazon, YouTube, iTunes, and the like.

44. The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950, directed by Felix Feist, country of origin: US)

This tightly wound noir thriller pits brother against brother against the backdrop of 1950s San Francisco. Lee Cobb plays an aging bachelor and an accomplished police detective who falls for the wrong dame. His younger brother, played by John Dall (Gun Crazy, Rope), has just joined the police force and idolizes his older brother. Trouble strikes when the dame murders her no good husband and needs help from Cobb to cover it up. Naturally, Dall gets assigned to the case and as he begins to piece together the clues, he doesn’t like where they’re leading him. The climactic sequence is one of my favorite endings to a noir film, and I’ve seen a lot of them. Watch it for free if you have Amazon Prime; otherwise, there are a few versions uploaded to YouTube of varying quality or you could wait for it to pop up on TCM.

43. Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003, directed by Thom Andersen, country of origin: US)

This documentary edits together clips from movies of every era that were filmed or set in Los Angeles, and explains through voiceover narration the significance of each location and the history of the motion pictures in LA. That’s it--very simple concept but also fascinating. I split this up over a couple nights because it’s pretty long, but if you’re a film fan or a Los Angeles native, this is well worth your time. The voiceover is kind of hilariously flat in its delivery--kind of a Steven Wright sound actually--but that sort of adds to the charm for me. Get a taste by watching the trailer, and then you can rent it on YouTube for $1.99.

42. A Simple Plan (1998, directed by Sam Raimi, country of origin: US)

It’s been almost two years since we lost Bill Paxton; I don’t know about you but I don’t think any other actor can really fill those shoes. This year I caught up with three films that showcased his talent: A Simple Plan, One False Move, and Frailty. He plays very different characters in each one but in many ways they all start off with a similar premise: Ordinary guy dreams of becoming more. What that “more” is for each character is what sets each film and performance apart, but Paxton provided a great canvas to paint these unique characters onto. He inhabited the ordinary man better than just about anyone.

In this film, which I watched during Noirvember, Paxton plays Hank, a college-educated guy working a blue collar job in a small town, trying to make a better life for himself and his family. He’d like to get away from those small town roots, but his socially awkward brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) relies on him. Unfortunately, Jacob is often accompanied by the hard-drinking loose canon Lou (Brent Briscoe). When the unlikely trio discover a crashed plane in the woods containing a suitcase full of cash, they each have ideas for how to handle the situation. Of course things escalate from there, and the way the movie explores human nature and family ties set this story apart. Available for online rental on the usual platforms.

41. The Iron Giant (1999, directed by Brad Bird, country of origin: US)

Given my obsession with Vin Diesel in the early 2000s, it’s pretty shocking I never saw this movie til now--sure, he and his glorious muscles don’t appear on screen, but he does provide the voice of the title character after all. When the Iron Giant made a controversial cameo in this year’s film adaptation of Ready Player One, I decided it was time I saw the source material for myself.

This gorgeously animated fable unfolds during the Cold War era, and features an ET-inspired story arc of a young boy befriending an unlikely being that the government is looking for. If you’ve never seen it, this is definitely a must-watch. Currently available on Netflix, but rentable on other platforms too.

40. The Unsuspected (1947, directed by Michael Curtiz, country of origin: US)

I adore Claude Rains, star of this film and supporting actor in Curtiz’s more famous work, Casablanca. Here, he plays the host and narrator of a popular radio show that revolves around tales of murder--basically the Law and Order: SVU of its day. We learn early on that he sometimes draws inspiration for his broadcasts from real life criminals. When people in his own life start dropping dead, the plot thickens and he finds himself at the center of the action. A very suspenseful and well-plotted film noir, which is available from the Warner Archive collection on DVD. I got to see it at Noir City Chicago, and loved every second of it.

That’s all for this entry--stay tuned for part two of this list, posting soon!

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