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imagines-r-s · 4 years

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The Irony of Soulmates

chapter 1: sex,money,feelings,die//Lykke Li

What happens when soulmates and mobs collide? An already messed up world combined with the idea of a person set to be perfect for you, something is bound to go wrong. When soulmates are brought into the world of the three most powerful mobs in London, what will happen? This is all bound for destruction, but love appears in the most ironic ways sometimes.

series masterlist || prologue || chapter 2 ||

A/N: i’m so sorry this took so long, school just finished, so I should have more time to write

WC: 2.7k

taglist: @spideyyeet @quaksonhehe @whatdoyxumean @ineedmorestyles (comment or send an ask if you would like to be added)

You might not have known much in your 21 years of age, but there were a few things that you were for sure about: mobs and soulmates do not mix; mobs and friends do not mix; mobs and love do not mix.

Any sort of connection in this line of work was dangerous, it didn’t matter the degree. Friends were dangerous, soulmates were dangerous, and love, in general, was dangerous. Soulmates made this line of work hard, you had to completely give up any idea or hope of meeting your soulmate.

You couldn’t even fathom the idea that the universe somehow had your perfect match set up for you. Joining you together with a stupid mark that showed up when you were 18 that matched you with who you were meant to be with and then once you kissed, you’d be able to communicate telepathically. It was a ridiculous concept that you paid no mind to.

Whenever doing work, your mind always went back to the time before you were as involved in all of this, back to when you still had friends, when your parents were still here, and before thinking about this stupid rivalry took up a majority of your time.

Being made second-in-command of one of the biggest mobs in London at the age of 16, after the death of your parents, was a major change that happened in your life even at the age of 21, you still haven’t completely adjusted to it if you’re being completely honest. The only thing keeping you together was your older brother and your best friend.

Everything in your life before you turned 16 was perfectly fine, you had friends, school was great, you could live a normal life without certain stressors, and people you trusted at one point weren’t your enemy. But here you are 5 years later, working hard as second in command, living with your brother in a huge mansion, and living the lavish life while committing crimes and getting away with it every single time.

Around this time of year the annual Gala of London, your favorite event of the year, you got to dress up, look nice, dance, and annoy the Hollands--which was your favorite part. This event made it easy to pull stunts against the Hollands and the Hughes, without terrible repercussions as it would lead to bad publicity.

14 days before

The sound of your heels clicking was the only thing you heard as you walked down the long hallway of your mansion. The smell of bourbon mixed with cigarettes filled your nostrils as you finally reached Harrison’s office. When you knocked and didn’t get an answer you walked in, assuming correctly that he was on the phone.

You rocked on your heels as you waited for him to get off the phone, which lasted a shorter amount of time than you anticipated. “What do you want?” you asked as you sat at one of the chairs near his desk. “Well, hello to you, too,” you grinned.

“What’s up?”

“Just letting you know, that there’s a possibility I won’t be there at the Gala,” you were confused as to why he said it so calmly, but you were shocked to hear the news.

“What do you mean you won’t be at the Gala?”

“I mean I have things to do that I can’t necessarily tell you right now, but if I can’t make it you’ll need to get information from the Holland’s,” he continued without looking at your facial expressions,” they’ve apparently interrogated one of our men that went rogue, but to find out who it is, we need the file from their computer.” Haz stopped talking and finally looked up at you, “what’s wrong?”

“So you mean to tell me that, a.) you won’t be at the Gala, b.) you want me to go on a solo mission while being in the Holland mansion, and c.) one of our men went rogue and you didn’t tell me. Haz, you can’t just keep shit like this from me, I’m your second, I should at least be informed on these things,” the feeling of betrayal after hearing he kept secrets from you and then expected that much of you, was a lot to take in all at once.

“Yes, y/n, you’re my second-in-command, I am in charge here and although you help, you don’t always know everything as soon as it happens,” you scoffed. “Ok, Harrison, ok.”

You left as quickly as possible, making your way over to the east wing of your mansion where you assumed your best friend, Zendaya, would be. Luckily for you, Zendaya was also a part of the Osterfield mob, her parents were friends with yours when they were still alive, so you and her grew up together. She was only two years older than you were, making her and Haz the same age. She was able to move into the Osterfield mansion when she turned 18, she was family to you, being the older sister you never had.

You tried hard not to cry, you usually didn’t. Keeping the basic, heartless facade that helped you get by in this line of work, but the fact that Harrison was the one to say something that hurt you bothered you more than you cared to admit. You and Haz acted the way that normal sibling rivalries go, but you would also literally kill anyone that hurt the other. The one thing that you both bonded over the most was leading, now that he was leaving you out of things--or that you became aware of it--hurt you more than anything.

By the time you made it over to the east wing, you saw Z reading in your library. “Z, I need your help,” you smiled at her, knowing you probably interrupted her reading time.

She glared at you, “You’re lucky I love you, y/n/n, so lucky. What do you need?”

“Soooo, the gala is coming up…” you said, hoping that she would catch on to what you were implying.

“And?” she said waiting for your explanation. “And I need your help to find a dress to wear. Subtle, not too slutty, but slutty enough.” She simply rolled her eyes at you, “yeah, I get what you mean.”

You and Z headed to your favorite boutique in London, just so both of you could find the perfect dress. After trying on as many dresses as you could find that you liked, you finally settled on a velvet, emerald green long sleeve dress with a slit, that went up to your mid-thigh; the only issue was the dress showed way too much of your shoulder, which is where your soulmate mark is.

You had mixed feelings about your soulmate mark. Your soulmate mark was an outline of a crescent moon on your left shoulder, the mark was beautiful, but you couldn’t show it. If you did, anyone would be able to use it against you. You didn’t want your soulmate to be harmed because of your actions. You always had to alter your clothes to where it couldn’t be seen, but you’d done it for the past 21 years and you would continue to do so until you died.

“So, what happened between you and brother dearest today?” you expected her to ask sooner, but the question still took you by surprise nonetheless. “Uh, I don’t know honestly. He didn’t tell me some information and it just bothered me that’s all.”

“Well, did he say why he didn’t tell you?” she had made a valid point, maybe if he had told you why you wouldn’t have gotten so upset. “No, he didn’t tell me why.”

Zendaya, being the only rational person in your life, made you realize that maybe if you talked to him, he’d tell you what was up.

When you got home Harrison was nowhere to be found, so you just left it at that.

10 days before

“I’m just going to bring in the shoulder part of the dress, that way it covers your mark,” you nodded in response to Robert, your tailor. Even though the people in the mansion did work for you, you had grown close to many of them over the years.

Robert was always able to make alterations that covered your soulmate mark, and you were so thankful for that. “Ok, y/n, how does this look,” you looked up at the full-length mirror in awe, you were already in love with the dress and you were thankful that it could be fixed.

“I love it, it looks great,” you beamed at how nice the dress looked on you, “thank you so much.”

“Make sure her mark is covered,” a voice you hadn’t expected to hear, said. You honestly hadn’t anticipated to see Haz for a few more days, so hearing his voice surprised you a lot more than you wanted to admit.

“It is, trust me,” you replied, not looking away from your reflection in the mirror.

“Robert, if you’ll excuse yourself, I need to talk to y/n,” Robert nodded and left the room quickly, shutting the door on the way out, “look, I’m sorry about the other day, but you have to understand that I only keep things from you to protect you, I wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt you.”

“I appreciate the apology, but please know that I can hold my own and I understand you keeping info away from me for my safety, but piling it all on me in one sitting was just a lot. Now, how do you like the dress?” Haz smiled at the fact of how quickly you deflected the conversation.

“It’s very nice, but I know someone that will be happy to see it,” he smirked as he saw your smile falter.

“If you mean Holland, then stop.” You and the oldest Holland had a strange relationship. Before your life went to hell, you and him were extremely close, considering the fact that you were on opposing sides. You two had been through a lot, but when things got difficult between the mobs, everything changed. The exact reason you knew that friendships never worked in this line of work.

“You’ll definitely grab his attention, but on the topic of the gala, the meeting I was at didn’t go as successfully as I had anticipated, so I won’t be at the gala.”

“I can’t go to the gala alone and try to get information, especially at the Holland mansion,” he was asking a lot of you, but you still had doubts.

Harrison made his way over to you, “y/n, you’ll be fine. I already know that you aren’t scared of them, and I know Tom wouldn’t hurt you even if he had to,” he laughed.

“Just because he’s gone soft doesn’t mean anything,” Harrison scoffed at your statement, he knew better than anyone how much of a soft spot Tom had for you, he hoped that you were smart enough to notice. “The only soft spot he has is for you. I hope you realize that.” Haz left you without saying anything else; you were smart enough to know that Tom did have a soft spot for you, it was very obvious, but you didn’t want to think about that much.

6 days before

Physically, you knew you were ready for this mission. Everything was set: the dress, the look, the plan, everything. Emotionally and mentally, not so much. You were so used to Haz being there with you, that it was a weird transition to be on your own.

Haz had left early this morning, you still didn’t know where, but after he apologized you could respect it to an extent. You were hopeful that when all this was over he’d be able to actually share information with you, but you could only hope.

The past few days had sped past you in a blur, as they were just you doing the same things every day: wake up, have breakfast with Z, fill out paperwork or do anything Haz needed you to do, shower, and go back to sleep. You had a simple routine that you made sure to always stick to, especially when Harrison was gone.

2 days ago

You were trying not to overthink the situation, knowing that it would only make things harder for you. The plan was simple: don’t draw too much attention, then get in, get information, and get out. You knew that you would be fine, but the looming thought that something could go wrong was running through your head. There was also the fear that you would disappoint Haz, this mission was necessary, especially considering the fact that you needed to figure out who the person who had gone rogue was.

You were brought out of your thoughts with a knock on your bedroom door, “come in.” Zendaya walked into your room and sat next to where you sat at your bay window. You two sat in comfortable silence for a while, until she finally broke it.

“You know you’ll be fine, right. Plus, I’ll be right there if you need anything.” You didn’t say anything, because, in all honesty, you didn’t know what to say. You knew she’d be there and you knew there was only a slight possibility that things went wrong, but you weren’t prepared for what would happen if it did go wrong. “Everyone will be on their best behavior while at the Gala, the only person you might have to worry about is maybe Corina, even then we both know you could take her easily,” you couldn’t help but laugh at her statement, “plus, as much as you don’t want it to be brought up, you and the Holland’s still have a history no matter how much you avoid the conversation. Now, please, get some rest. You have a very big day ahead of you.”

Z leaned down to kiss the top of your head and you couldn’t help but smile at the gesture, “goodnight, Z. Sleep well,” and with that, she left your room.

The day of

You woke up a lot later than what you usually do, immediately going to take a shower and do your morning routine. Once you got out of the shower, you made your way downstairs, making sure to greet Robert and Pepper, your chef, on the way to your office. You kept to yourself for most of the day, until around 3pm, when you had to start getting ready for tonight.

Although you had the accessibility for other people to help you get ready, you preferred to get ready yourself. You wanted to keep the look simple to draw the attention to your dress. You started off with your hair, doing a simple, yet elegant, half-up-half-down look that accented your features well. Then came the makeup, sticking to a more simple look, a natural smokey eye, keeping it basic by wearing red lipstick, and adding minimal highlight.

You waited a while to put on the dress, saying as you had enough time before you had to leave. You allowed the emerald train of the dress to flow as you walked down the stairs,” woo, look at you,” you looked up to see Z waiting at the end of your stairs grabbing her clutch. “Not too bad yourself, Z.”

You grabbed your diamond choker from your clutch, asking Z to put it on you as you put on your Osterfield ring. You gave yourself one last glance in the mirror and once you were happy with how you looked, “are you ready, y/n/n?” You nodded your head in confirmation.

The drive to the Holland mansion was filled with talk about anything and everything and also the occasion Beyonce song to hype you both up. When you felt the limo finally come to a stop, you forced a breath out. “You’ll be okay, just don’t draw too much attention and you’ll be able to find me if you need anything,” Z said, reassuring you again.

You two made your way up the stairs outside of their mansion, arm in arm. You took one more deep breath before walking through the door. You slowly made your way through the entrance looking around for everything you needed to when the echo of shoes were heard throughout the ballroom causing you to look up at the source of the noise, only to be met with the people you didn’t want to see: Sam, Harry, and Tom Holland.

#mob au #mob!tom holland #tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland imagine #mobster!tom #au #tom holland imagines #tom holland series #tom holland x you #tom holland x y/n #mob!tom x mob!reader #tom holland x osterfield!reader

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analyzingadventure · 3 years

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Psi: What we’ve learned so far (1-8)

Before we get into the actual thing, I wanna explain what this post is going to be about and why I’m writing it; if you’re not really interested in that you can skip ahead

On my first watch of Psi’s first 19 episodes, I’ve had this struggle with the series. To me it has often felt like the world of Psi feels empty and hollow, the characters shallow, and the pacing of the first arc has felt off, like the pace of the overall story going at a snail’s pace and little to nothing actually happening in each episode.

Now there’s three main elements that I think could be causing this impression on me. First, it’s the unavoidable comparison to Adventure, a series I am far too familiar with for my own good if we’re being honest, and a series where I could probably list off every imporant detail from each episode from sheer memory. Second, I often enjoy a series better on a rewatch, my first impressions tend to be incredibly luke-warm and because I’ve only experienced the story once, I don’t remember it quite as well as something I’ve seen at least a dozen times. So between these two factors, it is very possible that my first impression of Psi’s first 19 episodes has felt as negative as it did due to nostalgic overfamiliarity vs unfamiliar first impressions.

But there is that third factor too. It is entirely possible that Psi just isn’t written like Adventure (not nececarily better, more like “in a way that panders to me”), and my observations of it so far have been accurate

And really, I just want to get to the bottom of it. I want to try and figure out why Psi has felt the way it has to me so far, and that is why I’m going to make these posts (because this post is way too long already and I had to split it into two parts)

So what this is going to be is quite simple to be honest; like I mentioned above, I could probably list every major story element in Adventure for each episode from memory, where as with Psi I can’t do that. So in this post I am just going to rewatch each episode of Psi and write down what we learn about the series in each episode; what we learn about the world, the characters, the mechanics, the lore, the beings that live in it. This is mainly so that I can form a better, slightly more objective view of Psi in my mind instead of depending on the vague memory I have of it so far.

And yes, this is going to be just, mostly, me writing bullet point notes of obvious things we learn in each episode; not plot summaries or a timeline of key-events, just things we can “learn” from the episode. For example, while a Digimon evolving is a key-event, if we don’t learn anything new about the Digimon that relates to their backstory or personality, then it’s not worth mentioning, and will try to do my best to not repeat information that gets re-inforced through out different episodes. Also, this isn’t a critique of Psi’s writing

Also, I am going to do my best to write these from the perspective of “not knowing anything”, in the sense that I’m trying to parse out info and write it out like someone who knows nothing about Digimon would be able to get out of it. Also, I won’t nececarily write these in the order they happen in the episode, rather I might write what we learn from specific subjects in bulk (character establishment, world building, etc)

One last thing, I could possibly do this for Adventure later on, just for comparison’s sake, if I have the time, but first let’s just start with this.

Episode 1: Tokyo Digital Crisis

Opening Monologue doesn’t get too many points for what we learn from it as it is an opening monologue, stating kind of obvious stuff we’ll learn very fast, but none the less; it’s the year 2020, our world is connected by the Network, and in there live Digimon

Tachikawa Computer; minor foreshadowing for later

We're introduced to the main character Taichi, supporting cast Koushirou, getting a decent idea of their main personality traits (Taichi is friendly and very open, while Koushirou is polite, a little bit more withdrawn/closed) and briefly get to see Hikari (as well as Mama Yagami and Miiko)

Taichi is putting great effort into preparing for the summer camp; he’s the type of person who likes to plan ahead it seems. That said he can also rush into action without thinking if he’s worried enough/the situation is dire enough; this is elaborated when Taichi learns his family could be in danger, when he leaps in to catch the falling Koromon, or when he leaps into battle with Agumon

Taichi is surprisingly calm when realizing he’s been spirited away and sees a weird little disembodied pink head floating in space, only really appearing shock after a small dinosaur speaks to him; he sometimes needs a moment for everything to settle in before he even knows how to react

Taichi is more than willing to get physical beat up weird monsters

Koromon knows Taichi’s name, and Taichi somehow heard Koromon calling him; there’s a mysterious connection between these two

Agumon is more than happy to see Taichi, immidiately willing to both protect him and help him achieve his goals; Agumon seems to love Taichi unconditionally, despite only meeting him for the first time

We learn that one of the primary features of Digimon is their ability to evolve, Koromon evolving all the way to Greymon and the unnamed enemy’s (Algomon’s) evolutions being examples of this

There is a mysterious, unknown force in this universe, one that tends to manifest in the form of mysterious, glowing symbols (the Crests), that will appear in certain moments to certain people (our main characters), almost like it’s reacting to said people’s actions and/or feelings

Taichi and Koushirou are both granted mysterious devices, which we soon learn can be used for communication purposes as well as evolution, the devices coming from seemingly the same mysterious light/force as the symbols

Digimon causing issues within the Network have an immidiate effect in the electronics of the Human World, and the Digimon rampaging in the Network are willing to hurt and kill other Digimon too (not that many seem to be present there); they are an active threat to everyone but themselves and need to be dealt with

We see glimpses of other children who seem to have a 6th sense, reacting to Taichi’s actions (establishing the connection between the kids); foreshadowing

Taichi and Koushirou aren’t the only ones who have been sucked into this mess with Digimon, there’s another child within the Network as well, with his own Digimon along side hime

Episode 2: War Game

The villian of this Opening Arc, the Algomon, seems to act like a hivemind

Yamato is established as being distant and somewhat cold, seemingly uninterested in others as he’s more focused on other (more imporant?) things. He also seems to be more experienced in dealing with the Digital World/Digimon (in Taichi’s mind who wonders how experienced Yamato really is with Digimon). Despite how cold he seems from the outsite however, Yamato will quietly make plans and put them into motion, expecting others to catch on and follow up. His general unwillingless to intentionally and clearly team up is a character flaw for him though, it causes issues during battle and it’s something he struggles with. But he also worries about causing harm to Garurumon (and Greymon), so he does care for the well-being of others; all of this could suggest that Yamato is a tsundere

Greymon and Garurumon are established as knowing each other, implying they have a history

Greymon and Garurumon both tell the kids they can handle the rough plan; they’re comforting

The episode fleshes out the severity of the danger Digimon rampaging within the Network can cause; it can reach nuclear disaster leveks

We learn that Digimon can fuse

Feathers appear to Hikari and Takeru; foreshadowing for later. When the feathers touch their hands, mysterious symbols appear once more, implying a connection between them coming in contact with the feathers (and what they symbolize) and the fusion of Digimon

Episode 3: And to the Digital World

Taichi clearly loves his sister and takes good care of her

Hikari seems to know more than she lets on

A connection between Yamato and Takeru is established, as well as the fact that Yamato isn’t in Tokyo (at the moment at least)

Sora is established, us learning that she is a character much respected and liked by her classmate and that she and Taichi know each other really well (also we see an unnamed character fumbling comedically; foreshadowing for later)

When the danger was cleared, Taichi and Yamato were returned were they came from; whatever summoned them will also return them when their duty has been completed

A new mysterious threat is introduced to have been born, its birth causing massive power outtages and electrical issues

We see three lights fly through the gates of the Network, followed by three other lights;we learn that six children have been spirited away

We see the Digital World for the first time. Unlike the Network’s surreal, Tron-like landscapes with no sentient life in sight, nor water, clouds, plants or anything, the Digital World is alive and beautiful, though clearly fantastical based on the strange, arching mountains in the distance, and it’s fantastic, digital inhabitants

The fused Digimon is super duper strong and has some special powers that Greymon and Garurumon didn’t have; there’s a distinct difference in the level of power

Episode 4: Birdramon Soars

We get to know Sora a lot better in this episode, she could be described as being Just Really Cool; she seems to be super chill (not like “laid back”, more “cool”), taking in being thrown into a different world really well and calmly, not even surprised by the existence of Digimon aside from them being able to talk. Sora was also in the middle of buying supplies to get through the power outtages before getting summoned to the DW, so she’s come in well-prepared. Whether she went out to buy the supplies because she was requested to, or she did out of her own inniative, it does indicate she’s very responsible and trusthworthy. Much like Taichi too, Sora isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, being more than willing to come rescue Piyomon from the mouth of a giant mantis monster

Piyomon, scared out of her mind, doesn’t really do or say much for a long time, only clinging onto Sora for her dear life, until a calm washes over her as she seems to remember or recognise something; when Piyomon wakes up, she knows Sora’s name without ever being told it, much like how Agumon knew Taichi’s name, and Piyomon tells Sora she’s been waiting for her. Sora being present also brought confidence to Piyomon, inspiring her to be active instead of fleeing from danger, as she now has someone to protect.

We’re introduced to the kind Tentomon and his odd Osaka-accent; Tentomon, being more familiar with his home world, explained all sorts of things to Koushirou. Tentomon, much like a parent would, thanked Taichi “for looking after Koushirou”, indicating that while the two have only known each other for a short time, Tentomon is very fond of Koushirou, much like Agumon is of Taichi

We are introduced to an ominous silhouette, most likely a future villian

The DW lies within the deepest part of the Network, so the DW isn’t a separate world from the Network, just a specific section of it. Also, athough we had previously not seen Digimon the Net beyond the relevant characters Whamon being there do imply that some Digimon do indeed just like to hang out within the Network

Within the Digital World there are tablets and stone ruins of an ancient civilization, with text written on them; the Digivice react to the ancient texts, guiding the children to them and using the children as vessels, translate the message to them. The texts are instructions to guide the children, meaning whoever wrote them centuries ago, for-saw the coming of the children. At the mountain we see more ruins mysterious writings and ancient statues of winged figures. If it is a temple as Sora thinks, then that implies the existence of a religion that is or was worshipped in this world

Moving away from the lake, what we next see of the DW looks like a tropical paradise, with lots of lush jungles and forests with plants both familiar and strange. But through out the world there are these tiny visual “glitches” all around, small colorful lines and dots scattered through out, which give the world a subtle, artificial feel. There’s also a glittery rainbow mountain in the distance, further driving in the point that we aren’t in Japan anymore

We do learn that despite the world looking like a paradise, the Digimon do seem to hunt and eat each other for food; the aren’t many food sources then (like Meat Trees), or if there are, some Digimon ignore those for the Fresh Meat instead

The episode starts out kind of suggesting that maybe Sora ended up in the Digital World by accident, but as the episode progresses it gives out suggestions and hints that maybe Sora didn’t come by accident after all until she finally gets her Digivice. This is foreshadowing for the idea that none of the Children came by accident, they were brought there on purpose and for a reason.

We learn that while the kids can make the Digimon evolve, the Digimon will revert back once a danger is cleared

Episode 5: The Holy Digimon

Koushirou can remain calm even when swallowed by a Digimon, as long as he has his comfort item (tablet); foreshadowing for later

Koushirou can be a little bit shy, embarassed to repeat himself saying that maybe they were meant to meet

Tentomon really loves Koushirou

We learn that Orgemon (whose name we learn in this episode) can’t speak very clearly, which probably implies he’s not very smart; not all Digimon have the capacity to full-speech it seems

We see the super ominous silhouette of a yet unnamed villian sending orders to Orgemon; we have a hierachy, and this guy is at the top of it

We learn for sure that the kids are being specifically targetted and being tracked by the dark Digimon, the troops being lead by Orgemon and some small surveilance Digimon (SoundBirdmon) that can control other Digimon with the power of sound, as well as send messages between Digimon

The Holy Digimon tells us that the warriors that fought in the war long ago were reborn, Agumon, Piyomon and Tentomon being the reincarnations; the three take notice of specific Digimon in the Holy Digimon’s vision (themselves no doubt) and the sight brings them to tears; although they can’t remember anything, their souls/hearts can, and what they experienced must’ve been sad

Agumon doesn’t remember evolving into Omegamon, despite remembering meeting Taichi; this must imply that evolving to Omegamon was a blur even for him

There once was a large city in the location of the temple, with beautiful, artistic architecture; the former civilization here was truly prosperous

The rainbow glitter wasn’t as much of a mountain as it was a desert (or a mountain range, hard to tell which)

We learn that this land mass of unknown size (is it an island or is it a continent? Never stated) isn’t the only ones, there’s oceans at least one continent beyond it, its name being Cloud Continent

We see a small village in the middle of the forest, the houses looking sort of like hollowed out pumpkins with palm leaves coming from the top; while major civilization has crumbled in this post-apocalyptic Digital World, with most Digimon seeming to live on their own like, minding their own business, some Digimon do form communities

We learn the name of the Digivice

We learn that the statues at the temple are depictions of certain Holy Digimon, and that with the last of their powers they had left a message for the children from beyond the grave as they’ve passed a long time ago

The Holy Digimon had had a premonition that human children equipped with Digivices, also known as the Chosen Children, were “a power” that could surprass the natural law of evolution

It’s not quite explicit, but we are vaguely introduced to the evolution stages and their names (the natural law of evolution)

We gain confirmation that the feathers we have seen through out the series so far are indeed connected to the Holy Digimon

We learn that the Holy Digimon were ones that “governed the good of the Digital World”, most of them and the city that once stood in the place of the temple perishing in a great war between light and dark when dark Digimon disturbed the balance between the two.

The major parties on the side of light in that war were a great army of holy Digimon, eight special holy Digimon, six warriors and even Omegamon, who managed to vanquish the darkness at the cost of their own lives

We do learn that the six warriors turned into eggs, and are told that the Chosen Children would appear to guide the ressurected souls once the enemy would make a move once more

We learn that Taichi and co must go find the Holy Digimon of Light and Hope at the Cloud Continent as they will fight along side them against the dark Digimon

Although the Network is tightly connected to the Human World, the Digital World isn’t; disaster taking place there won’t affect the Human World. We also learn that monitoring the spread of dark in the Network is impossible to do from the Digital World

Episode 6: The Targeted Kingdom

We’re introduced to Mimi, the queen of Mimi Kingdom, the village we saw in the previous episode that she took over between being spirited away and Taichi’s group arriving.

Mimi, much like Sora is pretty cool with the situation she’s in. Ehile we do learn she was lonely after being stranded in the DW alone, after Palmon joined her side she’s been seemingly a-okay, not afraid at all of being (as far as she knows) the only human in a different world. In fact she is super into ensuring her kingdom remains peaceful and her underlings well-fed, as she has put great efforts into making sure Tuskmon don’t come and steal all the fruit the Tanemon live on. Mimi has a kind heart, and that she hates seeing others suffer.

We also learn the Tachikawa Industries we had heard about was her family’s, her grandpa being the chairman. Mimi’s grandpa must be important to her as hearing his words on video touched her, reminding Mimi she has to do what she can, which to her translated to taking care of her adorable underlings. Those same words later inspire her to leave her beloved kingdom behind to help the other kids

Palmon adores Mimi a lot, acting in a kind of enabling way, playing into and encouraging the whole Queen-thing just to make sure Mimi’s confortable and happy, feeling loved.

The Tanemon have a signaling system to pass messages on; whether this system was set up and taught to the Tanemon by Mimi or if they have invented it before Mimi took the kingdom over is unclear

Although Orgemon seems to lack intelligence based on his very basic speech, we do learn that he is a Digimon of honor, and losing his horn has gravely hurt his honor

This landmass does seem to be mostly forest as far as the eye can see (aside from the rainbow mountain range/dunes and the lake-area)

We learn time passes at a different rate between the Human World and Digital World, the DW being much faster, the time becoming more distorted the deeper into the Network you go (the Digivices somehow bypass the distortion to ensure communication happens at the same rate)

We see what a near-death Digimon looks like; colors washed out, glitching in and out a little, but evolution will instantly heal the Digimon from that near-death state back to full health

Episode 7: That Boy is Kido Jyou

We learn Mimi likes tea and has been teaching Palmon how to make tea; she also seems to enjoy things that make her come off like she’s a KIND, LOVING pampered rich kid, as indicated by her cup and chair etc

We learn that Palmon was familiar with the area and was able to guide the kids to the ocean (something Agumon and Piyomon couldn’t do)

Jyou is so serious about passing his exams it’s kind of becoming an unhealthy obsession for him, to the point he might somewhat lash out and take his anger out by beating up trees and even self-harming. This kid, is super stressed out, the weight of his family’s achievements (everyone being doctors) really pushing him down. Due to this, he is super unwilling to go save the world, all that matters to him is making sure he can study and pass his exams so he can have a prosperous future. Jyou also doesn’t seem to like himself much, as he asks if Gomamon was disappointed by what his partner human was like

Jyou is studying for his exams, as he has priorities set straight and nothing will stop him from passing his tests, not even being spirited away into a different world all alone. While seeing other kids did make him somewhat glad, it was only because he assumed it meant there was a way out of this world so he could get back to his life.

Although Jyou said he wouldn’t participate in the world saving business, he did keep an eye Gomamon, and seeing him get hurt did send Jyou running; while Jyou tried to seem like he didn’t care, he did, a lot

Unlike Jyou, Gomamon is super willing to go save the world; if Jyou’s duty is to study, Gomamon’s duty is to save the world, and Gomamon would like it if Jyou realized they share their duties. Even without Jyou, Gomamon is willing to help as much as he can, even if he’s alone

Gomamon is super observant, seeing how and why Jyou is struggling, and he just wants to help Jyou too, Gomamon even “nursed Jyou” back to health after finding him passed out in the DW

We learn that Taichi, Sora and Jyou (as well as Koushirou) do go to the same school, its name being Musako Elementary

The hut we’ve seen was either built by Gomamon (which implies that Gomamon is super crafty), an unknown party or was always there; Jyou didn’t build it as he woke up inside it after Gomamon brought him there

In the Human World we see it is now evening, the kids having been spirited away sometime around noon-afternoon.

We do see that Jyou has spent at least one night in the DW, which could mean the other kids have as well, if not even more

Episode 8: The Children’s Attack

Ikkakumon is strong enough to swim across the ocean while carrying 4 kids and 3 Child Digimon

We learn Jyou gets motion sickness and that he can’t swim

Jyou is somewhat irritated and/or imidated by a kid 3 years younger than him having so much info and being more aware of the current situation, which ties into his need of trying to be in-control of the situation and lead the group; this leads to Jyou trying to be responsible and ensure everyone survives unharmed by surrendering to the enemy (his heart is in the right place)

We learn that Yamato has been on his own this whole time; considdering the other kids were brought to this world, scattered around a little, it is possible Yamato was brought directly onto the Cloud Continent

Yamato is charmed and touched by the other kids and the Digimon cheering him on and believing in him, despite him being so cold to them; he is super tsundere

The first thing we see of the Cloud Continent is a beach with high cliffs and a lone fortress guarding it. On the outside the enemy fortress looks like old and realistic (in the sense that you could probably find a fortress like this in our very real world), but is straight from a sci-fi movie; the enemies have access to some advanced technology

With this episode taking place over night, we are moving onto at least Day 3 (if not further)

We see the Black Miasma for the first time

#Psi #Text post #Me? Posting researched content in 2020? That's just unheard of #For the record I have completed the rewatch and written the notes for the remaining episodes (up to ep 19 since that's what I was rewatching #I just need to read through the notes and edit them so they're like legible and in a comprehensible order #And cut out unnececary commentary #So yeah I have gotten started on the second part of this but it's not done and IDK when it'll be done #Depends on when I decide it's a good time to procrastinate #Also I doubt I'll do this for the rest of Psi because it does take a lot of time to do #(To the point I was actually rewatching Psi at double speed so I could get through the episodes faster)#(Which is valid because I take forever to write notes and I don't have all day to do this)#Also the purpose here was to come to a conclusion of the writing in the first arc or two (hard to divide them rn)#And I do think I have come to a conclusion about it already #But I'll save that for later

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papers4me · 4 years

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fellow fruba friend here! What are your expectations on what each of the four main characters will achieve or gain at the end?

hi fellow furuba friend! by the main four, I suppose you mean yuki, kyo , tohru & shigure! All the traumatized characters in furuba deserve all the best & everything good given to them. They are all genuinely broken souls & I love them all. However, not everybody will actually be given everything for realistic reasons.

(1)-I’ll start with the easiest: Yuki. Yuki’s wish was stated so early in SE01, ep12 & ever since things have been moving so straight forward towards his goal: discovering his own self, finding friends who accept him w/o a mask & finding love. As Se02 is heavily focused on him, he got all that & more. it is very clear that the writer has decided that Yuki is the character that will get everything:

He opened his lid, faced akito & his fears & started laughing more.

He is shedding his mask & the prince persona.

He realized his familial feelings to tohru.

He accepts & supports tohru/kyo as couple & doesn’t feel envy/sadness.

He faced his mother calmly & decided his future. Altho he doesn’t need her any more, it is clear that he is civil with her & doesn’t blame her. She thinks of him as a tool that helps her glows & I’m sure she views his success as part of her & in the future, she’ll proudly say that’s my son if he was brought as a topic in any social gathering. My point is, given yuki’s stance to forgive the past, he won’t cut ties with her.

He completely forgiven his brother & is proud of him publicly.

He got a friend who is a mix of the two person yuki envies the most : kyo & aya. Also, kakeru is very designed to fit yuki in every way, so even if yuki never got anymore friends, kakeru is the one for life.

Altho yuki’s story could still be good without romantic love in canon as it can be hinted as sth he’ll get once he’s in college, he is getting a romantic love now with someone who doesn’t pity him nor admires him, sees the real him. Someone whom yuki can be a “tohru” to her & “support” her & be a “kyo” to her in the same way he’s been observing kyo & envying him for being the only one to see the real tohru. Yuki will be the only one to see the real machi.

What more can I say...What more can the writer give yuki.. I’ve been thinking hard... but I duno...perhaps sth to do with kyo & their views of each other.

I’ll leave number #10 open cuz I’m sure there’s more the writer will give him..but I duno regarding which character...um... shigure? The writer has been impersonating yuki so much in Se02 & giving us direct lessons thro his voice as much as I wish she tones it down as this disrupts the flow of a story, making yuki speaks on behalf of other characters whose voice has been blocked, it also doesn’t trust the viewers/readers to “learn the lesson” without directly given to them. So I’m positive 100% there will be more yuki telling us learned lessons us especially after critical moments similar to some of SE02 big eps.

(2)-Kyo: Kyo is always given one ep of inner thoughts per season. However, each ep is big & so influential for both his character development & the story’s plot as a whole. His thoughts were essentially blocked at first for mystery reasons due to his involvement with kyoko but ever since Se02, ep9 it was exposed that he knows her, it’s now blocked for building the “climax” reasons. However, the writer is skilled in writing kyo as a character that is easily read, someone who doesn’t know how to act, so you can decipher his feelings from his actions. I don’t mind him not giving inner thoughts if his actions can replace that & communicate his feelingsto the viewers which is so well-done with kyo but badly done with tohru,(but more on tohru later). what I expect for kyo... it is hard to say!!! It depends on how the writer will solve kyoko’s damned “ I won’t forgive you” words!!! Cuz i see this as one of the most difficult plot twists & obstacles. Kyo’s issues are different from yuki. It isn’t abt self discovery, warmth, or finding friendship or love. It is abt having a right to live, guilt & believing that he isn’t harmful, kyo knows that there are few ppl who loves him but to him these few ppl are the most important ppl in the world, he doesn’t want to hurt them. His life experiences has taught him that his loved ones always end up dying in his place. he carries immense guilt & self-loath. So what to expect... i duno.. Moreover, kyo being the opposite of yuki, so I don’t think he’ll be given everything even if he, just like yuki, deserves everything good. There are things in kyo’s life that cannot be fixed.

Kyo will for sure open his lid, but it will be ugly cuz he’ll have to confess abt his mom’s suicide & him witnessing/being involved in kyoko’s death. He’ll have to tell tohru kyoko’s devastating words & her last painful moments. I duno what to expect beside pain!!!!

“forgiveness/ or lack of ” is kyo’s theme!! will tohru forgive him?? I duno! I find it hard to believe tohru-my-mom-is-my-idol” will do that unless sth changes. But It really doesn’t matter if tohru does or doesn’t, cuz kyo himself will NEVER forgive himself!! There’s comfort in being punished. ppl with genuine hearts & conscious, don’t like escaping punishment for their wrong deeds. If kyo believes truly that he’s at fault somehow, he’ll want to be punished.

Kyo has stated that “ I won’t take anything away from you anymore” thinking abt tohru. He has given up on her cuz he believes he took her mom from her. His thought process is very realistic & his actions are very logical & matches his trauma, so I don’t know where this will lead to.. I know the writer won’t be cruel with him more than his story already is, but it is so complicated!!!! He can’t accept tohru’s love!! she shouldn’t!!

Unlike yuki’s mother, kyo’s father refuses anything regarding kyo & doesn’t even consider him human. He pushes forward for his imprisonment. I don’t see the writer giving kyo’s father the tiny redemption moment she gave yuki’s mom. Nothing will make kyo’s dad be proud of kyo as he considers kyo to be the cause of all his misfortune. Kyo’s dad is the person kyo shouldn’t & mustn't become. However, kyo got another father who truly loves him & is already proud of him. I love that the writer didn’t cut off kyo’s attachment to his bio dad simply caz he got shisho. Kyo’s dad is a huge reason of why kyo is traumatized. it is not the curse itself. it is the toxic broken home. Every toxic thought in kyo’s mind is imprinted there since early age intentionally by his dad & unintentionally by his mom. So how do I expect kyo will overcome his mom’s gohst & his dad’s demon? I duno too! T_T. ..XD.

his mom & kyoko are dead. If kyo believes he’s the reason...how he’ll ask forgiveness?? I love the theme of dealing with broken things that can’t be fixed. The writer will forever be one of my best authors if she convinced me that she can handle such tough theme.

I feel like I’m repeating I duno a lot, but yeah kyo’s story could go so many directions!!!! but I have trust that wherever it goes, it will be as satisfying as yuki’s. The writer has chosen to put kyo’s behind for epic climatic showdown, it will be thrilling, painful, dramatic & so satisfying. kyo will not be furuba’s tragic ending, the writer showed she prefers ’s optimistic & positive paths despite the trauma. Besides, kyo is tied to tohru, no way such kind soul will be crushed twice by losing her mom & her first love.

(3)-Tohru: The female protagonist with everything individual & personal abt her pushed until Se03 with the most minor foreshadowing & the most trivial symbolism. lol..She doesn’t have eps of inner thoughts abt her own issues like yuki & she doesn’t have big influential eps abt her like kyo... what did she have so I can predict: (a) the nightmare which tells us tohru is still grieving her mom’s loss & (b) the little flashbacks where it shows sth bad traumatized her when she was a baby & it involves her mom locking her? or sth. (c) tohru telling rin that she has things she can’t give up. I don’t have predictions for tohru. I have wishes. I want her to want things for herself. screw the curse, the sohma’s issues, the mom-tohru, the savior-tohru, the supporting-tohru. All that is typical tropes done many times already. Give me a unique female protag who can be kind, but is hurt by her own kindness, someone so altruistic & realizes that I can choose my self first!!! it is okay to be first for once!! Give me someone who even after showing the world I’m okay & optimistic is NOT okay & optimistic but is actually scared & lonely despite all the love surrounding her by the ppl she “saved”. a female protag pursuing her OWN happiness shrewdly but kindly in the most epic combination! This is the tohru I want. how she’ll decide to forgive kyo? I duno. I’ll cheer if she did & I’ll cheer if she didn’t. both situations suit tohru’s mindset.

(4)-Shigure:big giant I duno...lol.. I need to understand this dude first!! He’s the most intriguing.

#Fruits Basket #Anime Only #asks #anyamyomus friends #Lovely anon #fellow furuba friend #anonymous friends #responding paper

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for-the-exiled · 4 years

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Cute ChellDOS Things I Think About Vol. 1;

(AKA some scenarios or headcanons.)

Chell having a comfy set of blankets/pillows etc. and laying on a panel in GLaDOS's chamber. GLaDOS pulls the panel up and rests her head close to Chell. It's kinda napping/sleeping together, and GLaDOS can be kinda warm.

GLaDOS rubs her head against Chell in an act of affection. Very brief, and she'd never admit to doing it intentionally. Alternative: GLaDOS bumps Chell lightly to show affection. Very brief, and played off as accidents or Chell imagining things.

Chell being able to get away with being a little shit because the most GLaDOS will do is a brief joke punishment. As long as she can't harm anything (or specifically anyone) , GLaDOS doesn't care.

Chell befriends turrets (not in tests) and cores and GLaDOS gets a little jealous but lets it happen as long as it doesn't interfere with testing. Bonus: Wheatley and the Space core make it back to Aperture by luck and GLaDOS is ready to punish Wheatley but Chell forgives him for his crimes and keeps her gf from at least straight up killing him.

Chell sleeping on GLaDOS like a hammock. This is probably a popular thing but god do I love it.

GLaDOS sings to Chell when Chell is upset (panicked/had a nightmare/etc.) and since GLaDOS's singing voice is a new thing to Chell, along with the new trust they would have, it proves as effectively soothing.

(This is kinda 5 + 6) GLaDOS noticing Chell's not feeling the best, scoops her up gently with a claw and rests Chell on her back and proceeds to sing lightly in the hopes it'll help a bit.

Partially a trust-building exercise and partially just communication; Chell draws out her feelings/ writes words or phrases down to express them and shows them to GLaDOS. Starts as them just trying to get along, develops into a way of expressing love once they actually form their romantic relationship.

Chell being the only one who can calm GLaDOS cuz she knows GLaDOS wouldn't do shit to her. Picture: Wheatley annoying GLaDOS and is one second from having a panel crush him. Chell notices, and calmly walks to GLaDOS and just, gently kisses her. GLaDOS gets very distracted by this and it calms her enough to let Wheatley live for the time being.

Chell holds GLaDOS's head the best she can and gently pulls it to her and just, rests their foreheads together. They both can rest into this position for a while, not forever but a good amount of time. Alternative: Chell kisses GLaDOS's face and GLaDOS responds in silence and her fans becoming more audible.

#chelldos #chell #glados #portal #portal 2 #im not original with some or a lot if these but fhhng ah well #im just tired and wanted to write those out #i should make a fic sometime #chelldos? in 2020? more likely than you may think

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mostfacinorous · 3 years

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GO Whumptober Day 29: I think I need a Doctor [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]

There were many benefits of being immortal and immune to disease, aging, and the sorts of bodily decline that flesh was heir to.

However.

That did not apply if you were, say, hit by a car on the way across the street to fetch a pastry, and knocked unconscious, and rushed to the emergency room.

Aziraphale came to looking up at a white ceiling full of whiter lights, surrounded by bright stark white walls and curtains, and the smell of antiseptic, and for a moment he thought he was in Heaven, again.

He panicked.

And that was before he noticed the plastic tubing in his throat.

His heart rate spiked, and the monitors he was wired to began their shrill calls, sending two nurses scurrying in to speak with him.

“Mr. Fell, it’s alright. There’s been a little accident, but you’re going to be okay.” The first assured him.

He could not speak but he did his best to still, and wrinkled his brow in the hopes of communicating his ongoing confusion at the circumstances that led him to this.

He reached up and touched the tube coming out of his mouth, gently so as not to upset it, but intentionally so as to make his question known.

“We need to leave that in just a bit longer.” The second nurse told him, looking apologetic. “You took some damage I’m afraid, and one of your lungs had collapsed by the time you got here.”

Aziraphale greatly doubted it was still collapsed, but he couldn’t say as much. He simply and obediently moved his hands away.

“Mr. Fell, we know who you are from your shop, but I’m afraid you have no medical file that we could find. Do you use a different name, or perhaps have a family member we could contact to get your information from?”

The business of records was always a problem-- Aziraphale was such rubbish at tracking when one alias was meant to be dead of old age and the next needed to take over and, being as he was usually safe from all but the most severe of harm, he had no need to go to the doctors or a hospital.

And he wasn’t sure what to do about that-- he couldn’t suddenly miracle records into existence, if he didn’t know what was meant to be inside of them. As for a family member…

He wondered if Crowley would know any better than he would, and knew that foisting the problem off onto him would not be a kindness, but at the same time, no doubt he was wondering what had come of Aziraphale, and, given recent happenings, had probably whipped himself into a frenzy of concern some time ago.

Aziraphale raised a finger, and the first nurse came closer, offering him a pen and pad.

Azirpahale wrote down “Call Anthony Crowley- tell him where I am.” And scrawled Crowley’s mobile number beneath it.

That done, he made a point of collapsing back against his pillows, feigning exhaustion. It seemed to work; the nurses looked sympathetic, and the second nurse tucked him in, checking to make sure everything seemed as comfortable as possible.

“You rest, we’ll take care of letting him know.” He lifted a small grey box, also attached to a wire, but this one running to the bed. “If you need anything, just go ahead and press this button-- it’ll send us an alert, and one of us will come to help.”

Aziraphale nodded at him, making his eyes smile even if his mouth was thoroughly hindered.

“What a nice man.” The first nurse said, after they left the room, her voice still audible in the hall. “I can’t believe some of the yelp reviews for his store.”

“You never know,” the second nurse followed up. “People are different when they’ve been injured. It’s humbling, isn’t it?”

Aziraphale sighed and leaned back, resting his eyes while he waited for Crowley to show up and spring him out.

It didn’t take long; as expected the demon was beside himself with worry, so when he burst through the door, paying little heed to the nurse trailing behind him trying to ask questions like,

“Do you happen to know his full name, next of kin-- what’s your relation to the patient--?”

Instead, he focused in on the sight Aziraphale made, laying on his back, intubated, hands laced together quite calmly and resting on his stomach, listening to some panel show or other.

“Oh, angel, you’ve only gone and done it this time, haven’t you?” He asked. He gestured upwards and the nurse stopped with his questioning.

“I’ll just… leave the two of you be, shall I?” He said, and quickly backed out of the room, closing the door behind him.

With another quick demonic miracle, the tube was laying on the table by Aziraphale’s side. He worked his jaw, delighted to be free of the damned thing.

“Ah, Crowley, hello.” He smiled up at him peevishly. “Apparently I was hit by a car!”

“Well there’s no need to sound so bloody delighted about it, had I known you would enjoy it so much I’d have offered years ago!”

Aziraphale pouted. “I’m not delighted, per say, it’s just that it’s such a new experience, and one that’s… admittedly the tube was quite awful, but… you can only imagine my relief when I woke up to this and discovered it wasn’t heaven.”

That seemed to knock all the bluster from Crowley’s sails. He looked around. “Knew I hated hospital for a reason.” He mumbled.

“I’m afraid it gets worse, too-- they know I’m ‘Mr. Fell’, but I’ve no records or proof of existence.”

“File taxes, don’t you?” Crowley asked sharply, and Aziraphale laughed.

“That’s nothing to do with being counted as a real person, and you know it. So. How do we get out of here?”

“I think… malpractice.” Crowley said, a mischievous glint in his eye. “A case of mistaken identity, perhaps.”

With a quick miracle or five, Crowley was back out the door, this time dragging Aziraphale with him, leaving screaming machinery in his wake.

“Who admitted him?” Crowley demanded, in full drama and fury mode.

“He was brought in by ambulance.” The woman nurse from earlier said, standing up to him quite handily despite her shorter stature.

“There’s been some mistake.” Aziraphale said simply, and she stared at him.

“Your lung was collapsed! There was internal damage-- how--?”

“I think you’ve the wrong man.” He said apologetically. “You called me Mister Fell, if I recall?”

“That’s right, Mr. Fell of Fell and Co books!” Her voice had gone up a bit in shock.

“Here’s his wallet right here.” Crowley said, holding out what was definitely Crowley’s wallet, but contained a brand new fake identification card with Aziraphale’s face and some new name on it.

“Alright, Herman, be that as it may, it does not change the fact that I saw you with blood coming out of your mouth.”

“Well he hasn’t any now. And he might have said as much, if you hadn’t needlessly put aquarium bits down his throat!” Crowley hadn’t dropped the act of angry partner, and Aziraphale knew it was his time to step in and play good cop-- or angel, as the case may be.

“Now, dear, they were only trying to help. But as you can see, I am fine, and really, it seems your treatment was most unnecessary. Is there anything we can do to just… sweep this whole affair under the rug? I understand things are hectic, but I don’t want a bill, and I’m sure you don’t want some sort of court proceedings, so…” He smiled benignly.

The poor woman looked shaken, and finally sighed. “Just go. Not much I can do if we don’t know who you are, is there?”

Aziraphale gave her a winning smile.

“Thank you, dear. You have a lovely day now!” He gave her a little blessing-- her feet wouldn’t ache after long shifts anymore, and she would be off bedpan duties for the foreseeable future. It was the least he could do in exchange for all the trouble they’d caused.

“What were you after that got you hit like that anyway?” Crowley asked mildly as they got into the Bentley.

“Oh-- my pastry! It must have been hit as well!” The thought was upsetting to Aziraphale, and Crowley heaved a sigh.

“Are you still in the mood for pastry, or would you rather something else?”

Aziraphale thought about it. “Perhaps a curry. Not takeaway, though, I want to sit down somewhere and soak in the atmosphere.” And the spice would help to burn away all of the antiseptic scent that clung to him.

Crowley nodded and took the next right. “Remind me to show you how to put emergency contacts in your phone, in case it happens again.” He said.

“Oh… I think that’s back at the shop.” Aziraphale mumbled, feeling quite sheepish. Crowley handed the mobile in question to him, and Aziraphale pocketed it a little shame facedly.

“Dishoom, then?” Crowley asked, and Aziraphale brightened right back up.

“Oh yes, let’s!”

#GO Whumptober2020 #Aziraphale #cw hospital #cw medical #Crowley #GO fic #Whumptober #that writing thing I do

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nico-idc · 4 years

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What to do if someone is having a panic attack

TW: Panic Attacks

Please note that Panic attacks are different for everyone. This post is just going to be general tips, and what helps me personally. If you have any tips to add, please do. If you have any questions, feel free to send me an ask.

What you should and shouldn’t do:

If someone is having a panic attack, you need to stay calm. If you're trying to calm someone down while your panicking, you could send them even deeper into a panic attack. The person can probably tell if you're freaking out, and two people panicking doesn't help either calm down. If you're panicking, it's also very hard to keep your voice even and calm, and sudden changes in tone/pitch/volume may startle someone, and that is the last thing you want to do to someone having a panic attack. Also, if you're not calm, you may say things that you don't mean, such as 'why did you have to freak out now' or 'now you're making me panic too'. If someone is having a panic attack, and if you make it seem as though they are doing something wrong (whether intentionally or not), they may go deeper into the attack, worrying about being an inconvenience.

If you can't stay calm or calm yourself down, you need to leave the situation. While it’s never a good idea to leave someone who is having a panic attack alone (as in leave the room/building they’re in while no one else is there) because they may hurt themselves, if you need a moment to breathe and calm yourself down, you should probably step out for a minute before you try to help them.

Don’t touch the person without making sure its ok first. Don’t just put your hand on their back without asking if you can touch them first. Depending on the person, situation, and/pr trigger, touching someone who is having a panic attack may only make them panic more, even if you warn them beforehand.

If they are in public move them to a more secluded area if possible. If someone goes into a panic attack on stage for instance, all the attention being on them probably won’t help. If you can, help them walk somewhere where all the attention isn't on them. If that isn't an option, whether because they’re uncomfortable with touch or there isn't anywhere to go, try to get the attention off of them. If there’s other people there, try to get them to move people away, or cause a distraction so people aren’t all focussing on the person panicking.

Avoid sudden movements/sounds/lights if possible. Sudden sounds/lights/movements may startle the person. Which as I stated, is one of the worst things that can happen to someone having a panic attack. If you have to shift/move, do so calmly and slowly, so they have time to process what’s happening. In a storm for example, if the thunder and lightning is startling them, try to make it so they can’t hear the thunder or see the lightning. (I’m using thunderstorms as an example because at times they can trigger me into a small attack)

Get them away from the trigger if possible. If you know the trigger (which you very well may not know, sometimes the person panicking doesn't even know what triggered it), Attempt to either move the person away from the trigger, or move the trigger away from the person. For example, if a large crowd causes the attack, it would be very hard for the person to calm down while still in that large crowd. So attempt to either move them out of the crowd, or to the edge where they’re not surrounded on all sides.

Make sure they know what you are doing. Just communicate with them about what you’re doing. If you’re going to rub their back to try and comfort them, tell them that you’re going to do that. This prevents you startling them.

Make sure they are ok with everything you are doing. Before you do anything (such as touch them, try to get them to move) just ask if that’s ok. Otherwise you may make them uncomfortable, which could make them panic more.

Don’t do anything they are even slightly uncomfortable with. Even things that the person would usually be pretty much fine with normally can make things much worse. If the person is having a panic attack, they are already very uncomfortable. So if you do something that they are even mildly uncomfortable with, it could be like what would normally be a simple tap is now a full force punch.

Try to calm them down. This one is fairly obvious, but I still wanted to put it on here so that this list could be as detailed and helpful as possible. Just try to get them to calm down. At the end of this post, I’ll add some things that help to calm people down.

Be clear with what you’re saying and asking. If you want to make sure that its ok to touch someone, don't just hover your hand over their arm and say “Is this ok?” If you do that, they may not be 100% sure as to what you’re asking, so they may just agree blindly, or panic more because they know they should be able to understand. When someone is having a panic attack, their mind gets clouded with the panic, so simple things that they should be able to process in a half a second, may be impossible, or very hard to process. Instead say “Can I touch you?” By being clear and direct with what your asking, you make it easier for the person to process exactly what it is you’re asking.

Warn them before you do anything loud/sudden/potentially triggering. If you have to yell, say to get someone’s attention or something, make sure you tell them that you’re going to yell. And if possible wait for them to respond (whether verbally or not). the yelling may still startle them, but if they know its going to happen, it may startle them less than if you just yelled.

Don’t force them to talk. In certain instances, the person may not be able/want to talk. If they don’t want to/can’t talk, then don’t force them. If you have to ask questions, ask them yes or no questions, or multiple choice. For example, if you need to ask if they want to go somewhere else or stay put, you can either A. Ask them “Do you want to stay here?” so that all they have to do is nod yes or no. or B. Ask them “Do you want to stay here, or go somewhere else? Hold up a 1 to stay here, or a 2 to go somewhere else.” Try to avoid the second one if possible, but sometimes you have to ask a question that isn’t yes or no.

How to help people calm down:

Have them breathe in for 4 seconds, hold their breath for 7 seconds, then breathe out for 8 seconds. It’s ok If the person can’t do this right away. When you’re having a panic attack, it can be difficult to breathe. Just reassure them that it’s ok and try again.

Have them breathe in for 4 seconds, hold their breath for 4 seconds, and breathe out for 4 seconds. I personally have never used this but I’ve heard its helpful.

Have them name 5 things they can see, 4 things they can touch, 3 things they can hear, 2 things they can smell, and one thing they can taste. If the person doesn't want to/cant talk, you can still do this one by asking them to just nod when they’ve got all the things they can see/touch ect.

Have them do the thing that Katniss does in book 3 (I think) of the hunger games. To people that aren’t hunger games fans, sorry if that header confused you. Basically just have them say their name, their age, where they are, and any random facts they can think of about themselves. (For example: My name is Jon Doe, I am 27 years old, I am at work, I’m from Austin, Texas, My best friend is Bob Johnson, My dad is Josh Doe, and my mom is Jane Doe [this is random info if you couldn't tell]). If the person isn’t a fan of hunger games, I wouldn’t recommend trying to get them to do this one while they’re panicking, because it’s a lot to process and explain. However, at some other point you can recommend it to them so they can use it when they have a panic attack.

These last two are gifs made to help people calm down.

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lifepros · 4 years

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#8180

Teach people how you want to be treated by 1. Responding and not reacting 2. Enforcing boundaries 3 Communicating your feelings

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to share a few things I've learned on teaching people how to treat me with respect.

Because it can be so frustrating and disheartening when someone behaves badly towards us and we wish SO MUCH that they can see their bad behavior and correct it.

But unfortunately, we can't change anyone's rude behavior, but I want to focus on what we can control...and that is us.

So here are 3 examples of how we can be in CONTROL and teach others how to treat us with RESPECT, especially when we find ourselves in awkward and disrespectful situations.

The first way we can teach others how we want to be treated is to

Respond don’t React

Say you’re in a good mood, minding your own business. You’re watching your fav youtube channel, and then out of no where your significant other, let’s call him Bob, storms into the room, starts yelling about how enormous the electricity bill is this month. Then he starts blaming it on you, because you like to keep your heater on. And he starts calling you names..like stupid and careless

When this happens, what emotions are you feeling? You’re probably feeling a variety of emotions. Angry that Bob stormed in and yelled, confused as to why the bill is so high, guilty because you think you may be the culprit of the high electricity bill, and mostly hurt because Bob is being disrespectful.

And you’ve got a couple of choices on how to address this situation:

• 1. You can choose to react negatively which means you change your good mood and take on the negativity, which now puts YOU in a BAD mood and then you fight back and start yelling at Bob and calling him names. OR

• 2. You can choose to respond positively. Which means that you don’t engage with his negative actions. Instead you calmly say “I understand that you may be feeling frustrated right now, Bob. However, I don’t want to talk to you when you’re yelling at me and calling me names. I find it completely disrespectful. So, I’m going to leave the room and when you’re a bit more calm, then I’ll be more than happy to talk with you.

See the difference. When we choose to react, we take on whatever emotion the other person is feeling and we wear it. Our good mood gets ruined and we immediately go into a negative headspace.

But when we respond, we’re not going to take on negative emotions. We’re not going to allow ourselves to get pushed down to the other person’s level. We take control of the situation and distance ourselves from it, so it doesn’t affect us at all. When we do this, we TEACH the other person that we don’t accept that kind of behavior towards us.

I like to look at this situation the same as if you were dealing with a toddler throwing a tantrum. Because essentially this is what the other person is doing--acting like a toddler. And If a toddler yelled and screamed at you, you wouldn’t yell and scream back, right? You would calmly explain what is an acceptable way to talk to you. You don’t yell back at them and call them names, because you’ve got to role model and SHOW THROUGH YOUR ACTIONS what is acceptable behavior. That’s how they learn. Right?

The exact same principle applies to adults. Whenever we run into someone who is acting disrespectful towards us, we respond by staying calm and in control of our words and actions, instead of reacting negatively by mimicking the other person’s rude behavior.

The next way we teach people how to treat us is to:

Enforce Boundaries

Say you’ve had one of the most stressful work days of your life and you have a coworker who invites you out to dinner. But you are EXHAUSTED and all you can think about is wrapping yourself in a blanket, grabbing your fav snack, and vegging out to your fav Netflix show.

So you’ve got two choices to make when this kind of situation happens: You say yes to your coworker and spend the rest of the evening probably regretting your decision.

Or you can set a boundary and communicate your wants and needs. A boundary is basically understanding what is best for you -emotionally, physically, and mentally. So, in this example, what you may feel is best is to say “no” because you want to rest. So as a response to our coworker we can say “Thanks so much for the invite. I won’t be able to make it tonight but I hope you have fun.”

Now, if we say yes, even if we don’t want to go…we may be the type of person who says yes to everything, regardless of what it is, because we don’t want to disappoint anyone or we don’t want to be seen as the boring person. The problem with this is that we become the “yes person.” People start to know us as the “yes” person, so they think they can ask us to do anything, because we will ALWAYS agree… Why do they do that? Because we’ve unintentionally taught people that’s what we do. If we never stand up for ourselves. If we never say no, then people learn… “oh ok, she says yes to everything, so if I ask anything of her, I know she’ll do it.”

Now, if we have the courage to say no, then sometimes we have someone who doesn’t respect our boundaries and tries to push us to do something anyway. And usually there’s some flattery or guilt thrown in like…

“please it won’t be the same without you!” or...”just this one time…you hardly ever go out” or “you don’t want to leave me hanging do you” Do these responses sound familiar to you? It’s hard to say no when we get these sort of responses, right?

But if we change our response from no to yes…then without even realizing, we teach people that they can push our boundaries if they want a certain response from us.

Again, this situation reminds me of communicating with a child. If a child asks for a piece of chocolate and you tell them they can’t have any…then they may throw a tantrum, or use flattery or try to guilt you by saying “you never let us have chocolate” or “pleaseee I’ve been so good today” you’re the best mom in the whole world”

If you give in and say yes, then that teaches the child that they can push your boundary to get what they want when you say no.

So, whenever we say no, it needs to be firm. Whenever we enforce any kind of boundary, we need to be firm with it.

When we do this, we teach people that we respect ourselves and they should do the same.

The next way we teach people how we want to be treated is by:

Communicate Your Feelings

Say you have a family member who always picks on you about your career. In so many words, they tell you that your job isn’t good enough and that you need to make more money. When they do this, it can make you feel angry, upset, or frustrated, because it makes you feel as if you’re not good enough even though you LOVE your job.

When this kind of situation arises, whenever a family member picks on you about something, usually two things happen, o You give the silent treatment and avoid this family member like the plague or

o You just take it. You sit there. say nothing. and maybe even kinda laugh it off a bit

But when you do those two things, it’s not addressing the issue that is at hand which is: when that family member says unkind words to you, it makes you feel worthless. And because you’re not communicating with that family member, you’re essentially showing them that it’s ok to say those things.

So, what we should do instead is communicate our wants and needs with that family member. We should tell them how we feel when they say something that offends us and that we would appreciate it if they stopped.

Now some family members are completely oblivious when they say hurtful things to us. They aren’t intentionally trying to be mean or hurtful…they just have no idea that what they’re saying is offensive. And it takes us standing up and communicating with them, so they can realize that their words are actually hurtful. When this happens, they usually feel pretty bad and change their behavior.

Other times, you have family members who keep repeating the bad behavior, which at that point, you’ll have to set and enforce some boundaries, which may mean that you have communicate to them that you are going to distance yourself until they are able to correct their behavior.

Otherwise, if you do nothing, they don’t take you seriously and continue with their behavior.

#life pro tips #life pros #lifehack #tips and tricks #life advice

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askthelittleassistant · 5 years

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You Got A Friend In Me

((At long last, I’m finally posting this properly! I just wanna say thanks to everyone who’s waited around for this, just keep in mind, this will actually be part 1 of this particular story, so I hope you enjoy!))

Shop was finally on her way to the septic’s house to see what was taking Dark so long. She knew it was impatient of her to assume that they would be done in a snap, but she had a pretty good idea of who and what they were talking about, and she wanted a say in it all. There was a sense of admiration towards Dark for taking charge and wanting to prevent any harm from befalling the shifter, but she also did not enjoy being tucked away like some priceless heirloom.

Shoving her hands into the pouch of her hoodie, Shop trudged along down the now rather familiar path, making sure she was the usual ego size; she’d rather not have to be so worried about being grabbed and tossed around, further proving to the others to be able to take care of herself, not that anyone doubted it. Shop was staring hard into her own footfalls that she almost passed by the cabin, stopping swiftly in her tracks as she turned towards the front door. She would have knocked immediately, but as she grew closer to the front door, she could hear the distinct sound of multiple people yelling over each other. Hesitantly, she lifted her fist, and knocked.

---

It was complete chaos inside the cabin. How in the hell did a simple meeting turn into an insane rendition of search and rescue?

-about an hour earlier-

“Thank You For The Coffee Henrik, You Didn’t Have To Make Any Food Though.” Dark swirled the near pitch black liquid in his mug before gesturing to the sandwiches that had been placed out before him as the septic’s doctor pulled a seat out for himself to sit with Dark, his brows knit as tightly as the sweater he wore. “It is no problem, and do not worry about the food, I figure it would be good since you have been in here for a while now, but I digress, where were we? How are ah- how are you and Shop doing after eh…” Henrik, still not sure what to call their previous experience with the fusion Shark, simply waved his hand in uncertainty before Dark raised a hand with an uncharacteristically kind smile on his face, chuckling. “We Are Doing Just Fine, Shop Is Back To Her Usual Chipper Self Thankfully…” His expression darkened as his hands gripped the steaming mug, glaring down the doctor from his seat, forcing his aura out just a small bit in a show of control. “But You Know Full Well That Was Not What We Were Talking About. We Need To Talk About… Him.” Henrik sighed, his shoulders lowering. “Ja- We all know Anti can be… intense. At times…”

“When Is He Ever NOT Intense, Doctor?”

Henrik twiddled his thumbs, seemingly deep in thought. “Well, we tend to just. Deal with it, as it were… I am sure you know how it can be, what with the company you share within your own walls.”

“At Least My Company Does Not Intentionally Attack Humans For Sport.” Dark spat aggressively, growing defensive.

Henrik almost choked on his coffee at the statement, the silent confusion enough for Dark to see that he might’ve gone too far, and needed to reel it back in, not to mention that Henrik seemed to be out of the loop of what happened, so he assumed that Doctor Iplier had not told him everything. He took a deep breath, his aura and ringing coming back down as he calmly explained what had happened, only glancing from the doctor as others came past the dining room to get to the kitchen.

At the same time, the magician known as Marvin was in his room, his corner of the house, practicing some new, and remembering some old spells, muttering to himself, so he didn’t quite notice when Anti slunk into his room. The glitch knew no sense of personal boundaries, so the others of the household just learned to tolerate his presence, even when he was spewing threats and the like. Everyone was aware that Dark was in the house talking with Henrik about… well, Anti, so when he giggled, threatening to knock over some bottles with his knife, Marvin sighed and just continued reading and muttering to himself.

“ O͟h c̶o̢m̡e̢ ͠o͜n҉ ͟M͟a̕r̡v͜,͜ ̷ḑon̷’͏t ҉yo͜u̸ c͟a̵re͟ ab̕out͘ these̵ ̨bot͢tles̀ ̨of…. ̶S̵t̢uf̴f͜?̧ ”

“Not enough to pay attention to you-”

“ Àẃ͢͠!͢ ̴͠Y͡͞a͏ ́͘D̀́Ó ͏̛͞c͟a̛re̴ ̵abǫu̷t͘ ̵m͢e!͟!̢͜”

“You didn’t let me finish-!!” Marvin was given no time to react as Anti mockingly hugged the magician from behind, making him yelp in surprise.

“What Was That?” Dark sat up at the distance cry.

“Hm? Oh that must have been Marvin, he said he would be practicing some things today, I suppose Anti saw that as an invitation to go bother him. I am sure he is fine.” Henrik explained rather bluntly as Chase and Jackie peeked into the room at the cry.

“That Did Not Sound Like Being Fine To Me Doctor…”

“Oh no no, Anti doesn’t really do much around here aside pull pranks and be a general nuisance-” Henrik is cut off by Chase letting out a ‘HAH!’ in response to the explanation, the hero ego smacking his shoulder lightly before pulling him out of view. “Sometimes he has a habit of slipping into Jack’s videos in the form of random glitches, just to mess with the community, we try to tell him to stop that and wait until he’s needed for a proper video, but he never seems to listen.” He clears his throat and waves his hand, as though to clear his thoughts, knowing Dark would want to continue discussing the issue at hand.

“Anti for the last time, let me be!” Marvin was starting to get real agitated with Anti, swatting him away like a fly buzzing around his ears. The glitch cackled and continued to lean in closer and closer to Marvin, bothering him with all sorts of questions and annoying sounds.

“Alright, I’ve had ENOUGH of you!!” Marvin shouted as his hands glowed, preparing a spell, any spell at this point, that would shut the glitch up, flinging his now glowing green hands towards Anti, who glitched out of the way with a maniacal giggle as the manifested spell ricocheted off the walls and out the open door that Anti had oh so courteously opened, watching the wad of magic bounce around before entering the next room, cheering to himself as he heard a rather frantic ‘Scheiße!’ from Henrik, running into the dining room with a wild grin plastered on his face to witness the magic’s effect on the afflicted, quite surprised to see Henrik unaffected, sauntering with a sneer.

“ S҉hi̷t, ҉t̢ha̸t’s ҉n͡o̸ ̴fun͠, Ma͏rv͝’̢s ҉m͠a͞ǵi͢c ́didn’̸t͝ ̡do͞ ͞an̴yt̕h̡i͜ng ta y̴á.”

“It-it did not hit me…”

“ W͢ell̨ ́w̡h̀o̴ e͡lse c͟o̷uld́ ͞it͏ have-̸ ͝o̧h ͞h̨o,̷ oh h̵òhơ̸̴h̢̕ho͘͟͠h͘͟oḩ̵͢o̡o̶h̴̢̡o͘͡҉h̸h̸h̢̨̢o̴̕o̷̴͜ó̶̕Ó͝!!!” Anti melted into a cackle when he sees a lifeless little crocheted version of dark laying on his chair, picking him up as Marvin ran into the room.

“ M͠a҉rv̀, ͝y͘o͟u͏ ͟w͢e̛re ̧goǹna̧ d͏o t̴his̷ ̡to ͟me̵?͝ ̧I’m̛ ͘húr̀t̨,҉ t̨ru̶l͟y Ì ͘am̀!͝” he giggled more as he rolled Dark in the palm of his hand, eyeing the details he exhibited. “ I҉ c̶òu͞l̡d̀ ùs҉e h͘i͢m͘ as̵ a ͟l͢ítţle̢ p͝in͘ ͠cush̛ion!̀”

Henrik recoiled at that statement and shot up, snatching Dark out the glitch’s hands. “You will do no such thing! Marvin! You need to change him back this instance!”

“W-what?! B-but, I dunno how!”

“If you cast it there must be some way to reverse it, no?”

“Well, o-of course, I just-” Marvin rubbed his hands nervously, he hated being put on the spot like this, but even he knew the importance of getting the ego back to normal, especially if that curious human of his got worried and tried to come to them on her own.

“Alright, alright I’ll try-” Marvin managed to get out as he shook out the nerves from his hands, taking the crocheted ego from the doctor and giving Anti the stink eye; mumbling some words to try to think through a plethora of spells, he doesn’t notice the bubbly Jackie popping out from a nearby corridor with a excited greeting, making Marvin lose his concentration and accidently cast a reduction spell, making the already small doll start to shrink in his hands as he jumps, sending Dark flying.

“J-jackie!! I was trying to focus!”

“Yeah, on that doll you were holding; what was it for anyway?”

“THAT WAS DARKIPLIER!!”

It took the hero a moment to process that, Anti breaking down in a mess of glitches and giggles, Henrik already on his knees, looking for the ego.

“OH FUCK.”

The three were on the floor in a matter of moments, yelling over each other as Anti cackled before they heard a few solid knocks on the front door.

-----

Shop grew more worried as all the noise stopped, she went to knock again after hearing rustling and laughter, all followed by silence, but it was unneeded was the door squeaked open, as if scared to welcome her inside as Henrik’s face drained of color. That wasn’t a good sign.

“A-ah! Hallo Shop! You seem to have grown since the last time I saw you! H-how are you!”

“I uh… I’m fine, is Dark inside? I came to check on him since y’all seemed to be having a rather lengthy chat, ha…” She fidgeted with her hands she spoke, a bit nervous.

“Ah! Ah… er… He is! Just… taking a break at the moment, please, feel free to come in!” Henrik ushered Shop inside, biting his lip as she walked past him before leading her into the dining room to sit, where everything was in its place, except Dark. She glanced at the mug that she presumed to be his as Henrik excused himself to the next room, assuring Shop that he would be right back.

Shop exhaled slowly as soon as she was alone; something didn’t sit well with her; she knew Dark wouldn’t just up and leave, so where was he? There was that, along with the fact that last time she was here, she was unconscious and still in a bit of pain. Shop drummed her fingers on the table, fidgeting. She couldn’t wait, so she tucked her head between her arms to try and calm herself, looking at the little details on the floor below, her eyes following the dark patterns of grain in the floorboards before her eyes fell on something… odd. Shop tilted her head, curious as she tried to see what it was from her seat, but it was just too small to make out. Glancing around, seeing as the doctor wasn’t back yet, and the house seemed quiet and devoid of activity for the most part, Shop stood up and crouched down, shrinking back down to her normal size before walking towards the object, still cautious as she approached.

“A doll?...” Shop reached out to pick Dark up, looking him over. “You look like Dark, heh… but what are you doing down here? And why are you so small?...” She rubbed the little crocheted hand gently between her fingers, not thinking anything of the action. “I wish he’d just show up already… I’m really worried about him…” Shop scoffed at herself. “Tsk, look at me, sitting under a table talking to a do-” Shop froze, she could’ve sworn she felt the hand she was holding… grip her hand back? But that was impossible… wasn’t it? Then again she was a magic cabin in the woods full of giant egos, so who was to say what was impossible?

“I- um…” Shop blushed bashfully, lifting the toy up more towards her face. “Dark? Buddy?... can you hear me?...” She waited patiently, worried she was actually going insane before the little hand moved again, wrapping itself around her thumb before the other hand slowly twitched to life, the crocheted brows on his face seemingly breaking out of place to emote a scowl, as though it was taking an immense amount of effort to move.

Henrik walked back into a seemingly empty room, a bit surprised as he quietly called out for Shop. “Ah, erm, hallo?... Shop?...”

The shifter jumped as she heard her name, clutching Dark close to herself before she peeked out from behind a table leg. “Still here! Just uh… found something… or rather, someone.” She walked out with the doll in her hands, barely visible, even as Henrik knelt down and adjusted his glasses, his eyes going wide as he realized what she was holding. This was enough for Shop to confirm that this was, in fact, Dark, and so she puffed out her chest and stood tall as she spoke. “What’s going on Doc? How’d this happen hm?” She wasn’t gonna leave without a proper answer and-

“Marvin was practicing his spells when things got a little out of control and well. This happened!”

Well that was easy.

#Shop writes #toy!dark #((his design here is entirely based off Terri's little crocheted Dark I was gifted))#((Inspired me all too much))#((be on the lookout for part 2!!!))

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firelord-frowny · 5 years

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it’s Helpful to remember that a lot of people who are “oversensitive”... have perfectly good reasons to be that way. Oversensitivity isn’t inherently irrational. It might seem irrational on the surface, but I think a hell of a lot of the time, oversensitivity is a perfectly rational response to having been, for instance, bullied or ridiculed or otherwise mistreated because of a Certain Thing.

Like?? People will gripe about how ~oversensitive LGBT people are~ and how some members of those communities will flip what seems to be a disproportionately large shit about being accidentally misgendered or about being called “gay” instead of “lesbian” or about someone describing theirself as bi even though they’ve only dated women or whatever their particular sensitive spot is. but like???

odds are, people who React like that are still feeling like they need to be Ready To Fight bc it’s likely that people have been intentionally malicious toward them about those things in the past. It’s likely that they’ve dealt with being vilified or invalidated or just outright bullied by people, and they’re just accustomed to needing to defend theirself.

And the way to disarm a person like that isn’t to yell back at them and condescend to them about how oversensitive they are. It’s to say, calmly and sincerely, “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings/made you uncomfortable/etc. I’ll do my best to remember your preferred terminology in the future, but if I do forget, I want you to know that I’m happy to apologize and correct myself if you can just remind me.”

10/10 chance that the individual in question will 1) be pleasantly surprised 2) be very appreciative 3) maybe even feel just slightly bad about having jumped straight to being hostile instead of first attempting to express theirself calmly.

Basically, by responding to people’s so-called “oversensitivity” with patience and compassion instead of annoyance and condescension, you help show them that it’s safe for them to let their guard down sometimes, and they don’t always have to be so Ready To Fight.

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dorkyungsoowrites · 5 years

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I've basically fallen from. The face of the earth, I ended up doing construction full time??? It's awful 10/10 do not recommend. Have ghosted everyone and everything. I come back and peep but am a giant scaredy cat to interact. If you're still down I'd love to hear director's commentary about Fatal Ties?? 😭

It’s very flattering that you’re this interested in my writing. I already sent you a private message about the other parts of this ask so this is all commentary. I had way more to say than I thought but it was fascinating to re-visit these passages and realize some things I missed before, and just expose myself I guess haha.

Before I start this is one of two warnings. I hardly ever get to talk about my writing in depth so I’m going to be indulgent. In other words, this will be lengthy. I’m putting it all under a read more.

Fatal Ties Director’s Commentary

Chapter 1:

Firstly, I’ve edited this chapter on my own and it reads completely different now. No, I will not be posting the edited chapters here. I’ve change the pov and given each character a different name in order to make it a full, original mafia story. I have not gone back and read this story in months at this point though so the thoughts that spring to mind should be interesting/informative if not entertaining.Also of note real quick, there will be dark and less than savory topics mentioned; namely violence, child abuse, human trafficking, nonbinary erasure, drugs, and sexual violence. None ad nauseam, but they are themes strung throughout this story and I feel it’s important you’re warned before continuing. If you are sensitive to these or think you may be triggered please do not force yourself to read this. Most of it is in chapter 5, but still. That being said, it won’t be all doom and gloom so let’s just jump into it.

Typically I enjoy starting off a story with dialogue or an action. Here, it was dialogue. Baekhyun entering the Boss’ manor to meet them. I think the best starting point for a story is the inciting incident for the main plot-line. Many mainstream scripts are structured so you see what the main characters lives are like on the regular before the balance is upset, but in writing I feel that bogs down the first few chapters so I skip it. This is fanfiction for fun so who cares about setup. It’s Baekhyun. There’s an arranged marriage. You know the drill.

For “Fatal Ties” the Boss has been working on this truce for years, but the main plot of the telling is them actually meeting Baekhyun, and how that changes them as their relationship grows. The Boss doesn’t like the idea of marrying a stranger. Let alone someone from the rival syndicate. Who would? Baekhyun, as they find out rather quickly. He’s too amorous about it all. They don’t trust Baekhyun. They believe he’s a honeypot the other boss sent to spy on them. I mean, of course they think that. Baekhyun is clumsily flirting and overly flattering. Spitting compliments out excitedly at every turn even though it’s clear he knows nothing about them. Calling them princess and doll. They’ve worked too hard for too long, and sacrificed too much to suffer being mis-gendered in their own home by some immature idiot. They don’t suffer being looked down on or erased anymore. They will be recognized for who they are, and as an equal to every other mafia boss.

Their rage boils inside them with every slip. The moment the Boss grabs Baekhyun’s collar is when I tried to set up how precarious this all is. That threat isn’t empty. The Boss will kill him and the rest of his family if this contract doesn’t work out. They’d rather just sign a contract though. Less work and no sloppy transition times as mentioned in the next chapter.

Speaking of which, this contract isn’t legally binding. It’s more an honor contract than anything. That’s why Baekhyun is there to marry the Boss. It’s really just another business deal to the Boss. That’s how real mafias joined their houses in the past. I made this more clear by adding this line to the Boss’ dialogue in the edit: “Also contracts in our…realm of business aren’t legally binding so it’s insurance. Symbolic more than anything, really, but that’s that.”

As a side note, I ended up doing far more research than I anticipated for this. Most of the knowledge I acquired hasn’t been utilized yet, but I refuse to think I wasted hours of my life reading business, money laundering and fraud law for nothing. Limited liability, shell corporations, deficits, ugh it’s giving me a headache just thinking about all the jargon I had to sift through.

Okay back to the thing. I made a conscious decision to describe the Boss’ manor as such. Their dad built up the drug business. They’re just tweaking it to be more profitable. It hasn’t been revealed yet, but their dad wanted to surround himself with expensive things to feel more important and successful since he started from near nothing. The Boss, on the other hand, doesn’t enjoy living in this big house. It’s too cold and empty. They want to live in a normal home further from the city and have their only worry be about if their garden is getting enough sunlight. A peaceful life. That won’t happen unless a truce is called between them and Baekhyun’s family. It truly means everything to them that this marriage go well.

Had someone tell me it was so satisfying when the Boss smashed that mug over Baekhyun’s head. That felt good. I figured that’s the first major tell of their character. They get annoyed at being mis-gendered and harassed, but instead of leaving or yelling or anything a regular person might do, they lash out with violence. They were raised in the mafia where mistakes were atoned with blood. You ever seen “John Wick 3”? Fucking love Keanu Reeves. Some of my favorite action movies. Anyway, sort of like that. The Boss has very little mercy in them. Or patience. Bad combination. But for good reason. Any small slip-up could result in life in prison, so yeah.

The other major tell of character was in what the Boss did right after. Cleaning up the broken mug. They take responsibility for what they knew was a mistake. They clean up their own mess. They immediately know to call for Yixing the doctor and calmly explain things to Baekhyun when he wakes up. I intentionally never had them say “sorry.” They admit they were wrong to hit him, but they don’t apologize. Even so, the moment Baekhyun sees a glimmer of a chance for approval from the Boss he jumps in to help cover it up. Knowing that if his parents found out they hit him any peace that might’ve been forming would be tenuous at best. More likely, his dad would take it as a personal attack and retaliate.

Then right at the end Baekhyun shows some kind of guilt and/or concern for causing their hand injury and it throws off the Boss’ instincts. Suddenly he’s willing to shoulder the blame and offering to help. Being respectful. A total flip from before. It makes the Boss harden their guard more. Proving he shouldn’t be trusted. Or, at least, they can’t entertain the possibility that he’s trustworthy. Not yet. Still, he’s saving them significant stress by lying to his parents about his head, so the Boss is much more gentle in turning him down before going to bed.

Chapter 2:

Despite what it looks like, this sex scene was not put in gratuitously. It’s very, very important setup for just about everything else, and it’s filled with foreshadowing. I knew it would be important to get a glimpse at the Boss’ secret affair in it’s normality before it got twisted a few chapters later. It shows a peek into the Boss’ hidden personal desires. They crave real affection. Their issues prevent them from actually believing that Kyungsoo loves them, but deep down they hope it’s true. They’re wary of entertaining those hopes however, because that means they could have a weakness for others to exploit. See literally any secret agent plot-line ever. The loved ones are threatened first and used as leverage for the villains. So the Boss denies that it’s anything more than physical.

I tried to convey the timeline a bit better later, but just so it’s clear Baekhyun meets the Boss three years after they’ve taken over from their dad. So Kyungsoo and them met back then and very painfully slowly the tension grew. I will admit to having fun imagining this bit in my own head just cause I love sexual tensions that build until they break and it’s this massive burst of passion. The Boss doing their best to keep everything professional, turning Kyungsoo down when he tried to talk to them, until finally they caved. Realizing after having a few conversations with him that, “fuck…I’ve liked him this whole time.” They’re around each other literally all the time. A bond had formed without them even noticing. Once it was noticed it took yet another year of Kyungsoo flirting and finding excuses to touch them, like, on the base of their spine, their hair, their hand, etc, before their will broke and they gave in. They’re both horrible at communicating it, but they do care for one another. Maybe at varying degrees, but they care. I hope that was made clear in this chapter.

Of note, Kyungsoo’s immediate hatred of Baekhyun, the fact he brought it up after the Boss had already switched off their brain to be submissive, the pet names he uses, the fact that the call for silence at the end is explained from the Boss’ perspective, and when he brings up the idea of wiping out Baekhyun’s family without a contract there’s this sentence: “He was back on this nonsense again.”

The theme here is control, if you didn’t notice. The Boss enjoying a space where they’re safe out of control, Kyungsoo trying to convince them not to give up sole control of their business by partnering, etc. That’s not all the foreshadowing, but I don’t want to make the plot too easy to predict by giving them away.

The last few paragraphs are the deep dive into the Boss’ motivations and reasoning. I think it’s also the second time Baekhyun’s family’s business is alluded to, but I’ll reveal that in a later chapter commentary when it’s possible for the reader to have deduced it on their own. It also shows in the last few lines where the Boss’ priorities are. The contract is number one. They will sacrifice everything for it. Even what may be their only chance at something close to love.

Chapter 3:

This is the second time I’ve written the main character eating eggs on toast. It’s delicious, and I lack the creativity to describe different foods. It’s just to pace the scene with actions because they’re eating instead of just sitting around. If one day my works are looked at by English professors they’ll probably say it symbolizes the Boss’ practical, fast-paced lifestyle. It doesn’t. I just like eggs on toast.

The fact Baekhyun doesn’t lie about snooping is the first big revealing thing showing that he doesn’t really want to. He doesn’t care about being caught because he just doesn’t care that much. He makes the remark about firing the guards posted outside his door as a joke. Ha-ha I walked around your house doing nothing with no supervision. He doesn’t realize how grave a mistake that was. He doesn’t realize that remark was the cause of two lives being ruined by the Boss. He will understand later because, as you learn later, he listens in on the Boss’ meeting with those guards via bug he put in their blazer. I have not written the effect of that yet, but it did affect Baekhyun. There’s a very clear butterfly effect from this one small choice.

Next he tries to get Kyungsoo to talk. He plays it off as trying to get to know the head of security. Needling the Boss to try and prove his hunch that it was Kyungsoo he heard them fucking the night before. I didn’t bother insinuating he had suspicions about anyone else because Baekhyun is smart and he knows that 1) Yixing is the only other person he’s met so far and that wasn’t his voice. 2) Kyungsoo is at the Boss’ side all day, and he hasn’t spoken around Baekhyun yet.

When he sees the Boss is about to leave he uses the name “kitten.” Baiting them by antagonizing them. Switching his tactics. The day before he had played up the whole “I’m here to do what you want” thing and now he’s realized he should be more domineering. He doesn’t always succeed because that’s not entirely in his nature, but here it sort of works to, as John Mulaney and JJ Bittenbinder would say, “throw them off their rhythm.”

I amuse myself by adding in little quirks to the Boss. Each time I describe a room it’s meant to be pictured immaculate and modern with everything in perpendicular lines. Showing that they’re a little peculiar about style and cleanliness. Anal retentive one might even say. All their clothes are tailored, most of them are suits, the mass of cabinets in the kitchen so the counters are clear, etc. Another side note, this is set in the 2000’s mostly for law reasons. Some didn’t exist until later which made what the Boss does near impossible to get away with, but I wanted cell phones and I’m picky about realism like that. So 2000’s decor. Black and white with pops of color in the decorations, chrome, clean finishes. I work in interior design so I was a little particular about some stuff for no reason other than my own amusement like the big kitchen with white countertops, and the blue and grey paisley wing-back chairs. When I edit this chapter I’m going to go into more detail on the rug though to give a clearer picture when the blood ruins it. Which really did cause the Boss dismay just like the bloody hand wrappings. For cleanliness but also they don’t like conducting business at home outside of paperwork and research. I thought it showed more about their character that they were upset over the bloody wrappings rather than the dead body and such.

My favorite part about writing the Boss’ character is how they’re constantly in a shade of darker grey. Everyone operates in shades of grey, but I love it when I see characters that are closer to the black and yet you’re still cheering for them. They’re morally corrupt and objectively not a good person, but you still like them. They’re still the hero, so to speak, of the story. That’s what I’m trying to achieve with the Boss. Back to “John Wick.” He’s a good example. So is Loki. They’re mass murderers, but we as an audience still love them because they feel like real people. Their motivations garner sympathy, and it’s their methods that are skewed. I love the challenge of threading that line between the Boss being the protagonist and villain simultaneously. Referring back to a line Kyungsoo had; they may need to be protected from themselves. Disney villain style I guess. Their actions cause their own doom. Not necessarily because the hero did anything. Gaston, Clayton, The Evil Queen, Frollo, Scar, etc, etc. You get it. I love that. That’s not giving away the ending, by the way. I don’t like following formulas too much. I honestly haven’t even decided on an ending yet. There’s lots of options. I’ll decide when I get there.

Anyway, this chapter was my attempt at showing more of that dark grey for the boss. They could have just as easily let the guards off with a warning, or broken a finger or something, but instead they went for the extreme. “Their offense was too great” as the chapter says. All they did was let Baekhyun out of his room, you might say. The Boss doesn’t see it that way. They don’t know what Baekhyun did unsupervised all night. But somehow he already found out about one of the few secrets that could topple everything out of balance. Their affair. Not that his family is sensitive over infidelity or anything, but it was what the Boss was afraid of; Kyungsoo being used against them. A weakness. Baekhyun found their weakness just like that, and they thought the reason was the guards letting him out. If Baekhyun hadn’t gotten restless legs, or just not teased the Boss about walking around that morning, they probably wouldn’t have checked the security footage, and those guards would’ve survived.

Instead, the Boss outright kills one and mutilates the other. Framing him so he’d go to prison. They enjoy taking out their frustration on the guard. In their mind he deserves it for being careless.

Had someone comment a reference to Yixing with the whole “act of kindness, act of cruelty. Balance” thing, but that was actually inspired by a scene in season 2 of Fargo. Although both people end up dying in that show. Love that show. Inspired this whole thing actually. I know I’ve mentioned that somewhere else before, but it’s true. It’s one of my favorites it’s so brilliant. I don’t think this will ever be up to par with that, but I’m okay with that.

Point being, consequences. Baekhyun’s choices had a ripple effect, and they continue past this chapter.

Chapter 4:

Obviously you find this out later, but Baekhyun was listening to the Boss and Kyungsoo on those headphones. Not music.

The Boss gives in to talking with Baekhyun in the car because they find it cute he’s acting like a puppy. Also because he might let something else slip. Oh, also, the line about them lying about nothing being wrong was them being worried about Baekhyun blabbering about their affair with Kyungsoo.

Baekhyun attempts to have a normal conversation, but it doesn’t stay that way for long. All the Boss can talk about is work. If you’ve ever watched “Hot Fuzz” I imagine this interaction playing something like the first day Nicholas and Danny are together. It’s not as sharp as in that movie, but the feeling of a less experienced person questioning this serious person with the least serious questions. Baekhyun sees this as a game or a movie more than something real and dangerous. He only heard the meeting in the last chapter, after all. He doesn’t realize yet that the gunshot killed that guard. He’s watched his mom get married to a mafia leader and live rich like an actress. He’s naive of the price it takes to stay comfortable like that. It’s still a movie where people are killed off screen and there are no major repercussions. Even in his answer about the knife he says he would kiss them as if it were some James Bond film.

I tried to make it clear, but just to spell it out, Baekhyun is the rival leader’s step-son. He has two step-brothers from the rival leaders’ two previous marriages–Minseok and Jongin. So he didn’t grow up in this dark, depraved world like these other characters. He was folded in at an older age. He’s more the black sheep of the family because he’s not blood related. That’s why he says he was happy to marry the Boss. But it’s still seeing through this movie lens. He doesn’t know what it really means to learn how to run a syndicate, and the Boss sees that. They scoff at him and can’t take him seriously.

At the meeting the reason the Boss wants to crack the mask of Minseok is to feel out his real personality. In their mind, every lawyer is an actor who writes a script before trial and reads it for an audience–the jury. They wanted to see Minseok when not acting. When they see he has a spine, oh buddy, they would’ve dropped Baekhyun for Minseok right then and there if it was their choice.

Oh, yeah, and they’re totally straight up manipulating Baekhyun. Using that nickname as faux affection. Letting his family think Baekhyun’s honeypot skills were working, and Baekhyun that his regular charm was getting them to like him.Baekhyun’s mom mentioning they operate hotels, yes, interesting. She’s also in fantasyland if you can tell. Planning their wedding as if they were in love and not out of business arrangement. She’s not naive to the real purpose of the meeting, but her focus and excitement is in the wedding which is why everyone’s just kind of letting her do all the planning.

The last thing I’ll say on this chapter is from part of my response to someone asking about the Boss’ goals. They want to gain customers, profit and influence. Expand their drug empire. It’s a smart business move. Simple as that. If you want more detail, then they want symbiosis. It’s a hassle having to work an underground drug ring when there’s cops, let alone another gang out for their blood. Getting Baekhyun’s family to stop the violence against their group and help is the only smart move in their eyes.

Chapter 5:

Oofda strap in this one gets real dark. This is the chapter most of those warnings at the beginning were for so feel free to skip to the next chapters commentary if you want.

Yes the lapel grab was an intentional mirror of the one Baekhyun did at breakfast in chapter two. Just felt like it. No special reason.

An extreme disconnect from human lives? Hotels? Even the Boss thinks it’s wrong? What the fuck does Baekhyun’s family do? Congrats if you’ve figured it out already. The major giveaway is in a bit though.

The whole, “I like things that are beautiful and strong” thing is a reference to a video game character named Zevran who’s a pansexual assassin and one of the loves of my life. Life-changing, that dialogue. Perfectly worded how my pansexuality felt. It meant a lot at the time so it’s stuck with me. When I edit this though I’m gonna change it around a bit. It’s too close to the actual game dialogue right now.

When the Boss retreats it’s because they felt breathless. They’re in denial about being afraid, but it’s cause they’ve never felt attraction like that before. Sincere fondness, and it went both ways. They actually felt something for Baekhyun. So they counteract it to the extreme and pretend to be emotionless and dismissive. To the point of being cruel when speaking about him to Kyungsoo as if he were a dog that needed to be locked in its kennel.

The throwing things is just Baekhyun being petty. He is angry, but not super mad. Enough to want to make the Boss hear his anger. Not enough to keep it up for long though.

More foreshadowing once Kyungsoo comes in. There’s been other stuff in between too. I like reading it and cackling in villainy because I know all the secrets.

Now let’s take a moment while reading the first part of this sex scene and just reflect on how Baekhyun is listening to everything happening.

…

Alright let’s continue. We stan a man who’s good at oral.

Okay sorry let’s actually continue. I’m delaying the inevitable here.

This section was hard to write, and I know it’s hard to read too, but it’s important to the story to have it described. Not only for awareness, as I have experienced something very similar and didn’t know what was wrong, or why I felt the way I did afterward, until much much later. But also because this is a major event that drastically changes how the Boss interacts with just about everyone, and their relationships. I know there are stories out there that use sexual violence as a plot device, and I’ve tried my best not to do that. I hope I’ve handled it with sensitivity and care. Being mindful of how certain things are worded and such. If you don’t take anything else away from this I do want you to know this: this is consensual. It is not rape. The Boss is just as confused about what happened as I’m sure some of you are. They’re deeply conflicted about it, but they push it down and ignore it at first. That’s the point. Shades of grey. Conflict. Revelation of characters. Okay, on with the rest of it.

The consent. The unreadable twinkle in his eye. If it wasn’t obvious, Kyungsoo gets off on having control over the Boss. This possessiveness is turning into a poison. Hearing that they want him unequivocally ends up being the toes hanging off the edge of the cliff before the plummet.

“He took what he wanted from you and you gave willingly.” That’s the line that explains why the Boss doesn’t do anything when Kyungsoo starts going too far with the pain levels. Gripping their thighs too hard. He already gave them the tension release and satisfaction. They were reciprocating, they thought. They felt safe with Kyungsoo. That’s why their trysts worked. They trusted Kyungsoo to keep them safe at all times. They could let go and not think, but for some reason that night turns out to be different.

When Kyungsoo screws his eyes shut, it’s the point of no return. No matter what they did from then on it would end the same way. He’s blocking out the expression on their face. He’s trying his damnest to focus on finishing. He’s lost control. As stated, some conflict is making him frustrated, and he’s taking it too far. He should have stopped, but something makes him keep going.

When they hold Kyungsoo closer, they’re in denial. And they’ll stay in denial that anything wrong had happened for a while. Kyungsoo slows at this point and there’s hope that he’ll come back to himself. He moves them into a more comfortable position and removes his hands from their bruising grip. Kissing their neck and chest even. The pain when he thrusts inside is more layover from the previous actions than rough treatment in that moment. They could still call the night rough play. Let’s call this the good timeline.

I still have so many emotions when his hand clamps tighter on their mouth and he mutters, “almost there.” The desperation and pain and guilt laced through his tone in my head breaks my heart a bit.

The Boss is not a fragile person. They’ve always been able to exert some amount of control in their life. But when they can’t stop Kyungsoo suddenly they feel helpless. The person they trusted is hurting them, and it’s not even malicious. They can’t even think through all the pain.

After Kyungsoo finishes neither of them have time to process what happened before Baekhyun screams. By the emotions flickering on Kyungsoo’s face though, it’s implied he knows he fucked up very, very badly and is experiencing clarity.

I really just added in the Baekhyun struggling with guards in his underwear thing for some levity in the transition between heavy things. He could’ve been dressed and just yelling from his doorway, sure, but that’s no fun.

Baekhyun ends up confessing to planting multiple listening devices after convincing the Boss to get Kyungsoo to leave. But instead of their first thought being one of anger or worry over leaked secrets, the Boss thinks about his confession. It’s the second time this chapter they’ve thought about Baekhyun in a positive light when there were more pressing matters.

“I know the difference between playing rough and abuse. I know what real pain sounds like. Trust me.“ And, "Kyungsoo is much more suited for working for my family. You know that right?” are the two biggest clues about what Baekhyun’s family does. Have you guessed yet? Locked in your answer? It’s prostitution and sex trafficking.

When Baekhyun says he was terrified hearing their screams it’s because he’s scarred from his step-dad’s "hotel business.” Saying that Kyungsoo is more suited for his family’s work implies things about his character that the Boss refuses to question. However Baekhyun crying is also out of relief that he didn’t find them more severely injured. With his family he was powerless to help the people they extorted and manipulated and took advantage of. He was able to do something here, though. He was able to scream and kick and call attention to it, even if he was a little late. He was able to help. Which is why he so readily agrees to get rid of the bugs to get the Boss to call Yixing.

Right before he leaves he contemplates trying to kiss them. His relief doesn’t overpower his smarts though, and he thinks better of it. I think the Boss would’ve called Yixing anyway, but they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to also get something from Baekhyun.

Chapter 6:

I am so…emotionally exhausted from that last chapter, but there’s not much left at this point so let’s finish.

Jongdae calling himself Greased Lightning. Just felt like referencing Grease that day I guess. Wanted a dumb code name no one actually uses.

Agh that should say white collar crime oops.

“I’d call you a genius, but I’m in the room.” Lazy reference to Sherlock. Should take it out.

“Opening him up balls to brain.” Honestly that’s just straight up out of Game of Thrones. I loved the line too much haha. Took inspiration from Petyr Baelish on the bit about killing an innocent man with the guilty one to throw off suspicion too.

I actually did math the figure out the dimensions of the tie grid cause I’m like that I guess.

Originally the Boss was gonna reward him by just spending more time with him, but after the…incident, they decided to teach him a bit too. They realized he was smart and amicable to change.

“They know, and they know when to bail” is actually a reference to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood with something Olivier said up on the North wall.

The “there are plenty worse than you” realization hits a lot harder knowing his family does what they do. It still gets me reading that line. He’s been through so much.

Pretty self explanatory on why the Boss doesn’t give in to their desires about Baekhyun. He’s too submissive still. They want someone to challenge them. Baekhyun gives them a glimpse at the possibility he’s capable, but it disappears just as fast.

As I was describing the city they’re driving home from I was thinking of Chicago, but as someone who’s visited many major cities it could be any of them really. In my head it’s Northern California though, mostly because 1) there’s plenty of stories out there now about mafia in New York or Chicago or Las Vegas. 2) they have history with mafia in real life that moved up there from the L.A. areas. 3) lots of coastal cities up that way where Baekhyun’s family could be doing business. Let’s not even get into all the organized crime in San Francisco and San Jose. Of course for this fanfiction version it could be in South Korea who knows. I only know American law so that’s how I think in terms of writing the Boss avoiding cops and what-not.

The fact the chapter didn’t end with the ties being purchased should’ve been the warning that something bad was gonna happen. This chapter was going too well, and there’s still no major conflict. Enter gunmen.

Also side note, I always end up doing way more research than necessary on almost every story. Spent a few hours reading about and looking at videos of bulletproof cars being shot with different calibers and doing 180’s and stuff to more accurately write this chase. I just like doing research I suppose. Definitely love learning new things. I’ll go down several google deep dives on any given subject during a month. It’s fun learning new things. The last one I did was a deep dive into fashion in the 1700’s which I think I’ve decided to use in the next requested story. They didn’t ask for it to be historical, but now I want to write about elaborate dresses so there.

“It was lucky.” It wasn’t. I can’t explain why yet though.

Chapter 7:

Y'all ever experienced stitches before? The scars are hard to get rid of. Okay that’s my commentary on that.

Actually no. If Baekhyun had gone to a legitimate doctor they probably would’ve used glue so the scar would be faint, but mafia doctor. Okay moving on.

There are handguns that hold more than seven rounds, but I couldn’t pass up referencing “John Wick 2.”

“I don’t know. Were you thinking, ‘holy shit holy shit, I just almost got shot’?” is a reference to the movie “Get Smart.” Y'all seeing a pattern yet? haha. Mostly just wanted a joke there. It sprung to mind. Although I do have a few lists with lines or words that I’ve seen and written down to use later, then I try to work them in somehow. It’s a dangerous method. It’s breed whole chapters and stories before. But I have a horribly inconsistent memory. Gossamer is a good example. Saw that word used somewhere, went, “ooh I like that word”, wrote it in the list, then used it in this chapter. While we’re on writing technique, I also really love using alliteration to emphasize certain sentences or pretty-up descriptions. It started because I was writing a character that talks in prose and poetry, and he does that all the time, but I liked how it sounded so I just kinda kept doing it. That character is Cole from Dragon Age by the way.

The rest of this is just setting up the mystery. Who in the car was the target? Who was shooting? Who’s the mole? Is there even a mole, or is someone simply following them? Will Baekhyun keep pushing for answers? Will the Boss cause the trouble they’re trying to avoid by retreating inward? Will any of them get killed? How could Baekhyun’s decision near the beginning possibly butterfly more?

Interesting, yes, hm. Time for more sinister cackling.

#thanks for asking #ask game #fatal ties

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