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crimson-ace-reviews · 1 year

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This maybe a dumb question, given there’s are 10 Years After movies series for Super Sentai, what is your ranking of them?

I guess we can go over all four of the official "10 Years After" movies and see how they hold up.

Ninpu Sentai Hurricaneger: 10 Years After

One thing that I like about this movie is the intrigue the first act sets up. While Nanami, Kouta, Ikkou, and Isshu have mostly settled into their new lives in addition to being heroes, the fact that Yousuke is working with the bad guys adds a lot of intrigue.

I also like how they don't really drag out the whole "Yousuke is evil" thing for too long. Towards the end of the first act, it's revealed to be an act so the villain doesn't hurt his new student, named Tenkai, only for said villain to immediately double-cross him as soon as he has the Shinobi Medals (the things the heroes use to transform), so the next ten can focus on the team reuniting after ten years.

The new kid, Tenkai (real subtle naming there) is an okay character. A lot of his scenes are connected to the story, and how he's the reincarnation of the Evil Will. The Evil Will was already a very vague threat in Hurricaneger itself, and it's not really explained how it became the more noble Sacred Will or how be became the next Shurikenger. There's nothing offensive about the character, I just feel like the concept behind him needed more work.

Also, even though he become his successor, they don't really talk about Shurikenger that much, if at all. I get he died ten years ago, but you would think since he acted as a mentor to the team, he would at least get a few mentions, seeing how Yousuke is essentially now in his role.

Hell, Mugensai and Oboro barely get to do anything in the two scenes they get. For a reunion movie, a lot of characters were really underutilized.

The final battle was honestly pretty underwhelming. While it was really cool to see Yousuke and Tenkai using the same technique together, there was less action and more focus on comedy. While Hurricaneger was a more comedic season, you would think for a movie where the team wasn't able to transform for most of the runtime, we would get more scenes of the actual Hurricanegers fighting instead of scenes where the team deals with the footsoldiers using techniques related to acting and dancing. The final attack was pretty cool too.

Overall, the movie was just okay. Nothing too special, but if you're a Hurricaneger fan, I'd at least give it a shot.

Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: 10 Years After

I love how much effort is put into worldbuilding and how SPD has evolved over the past ten years. Not only was the new base (obviously meant to justify the fact that the old sets weren't available) created as a result of how Agent Abrella's final attack involved hijacking the DekaBase, so it was moved underground, but a big part of the plot involves traveling to this planet where time moves differently to explain why all of the Judgment Time scenes are so short.

While it's a pretty cliche idea, I still like the way the Dekarangers have been estranged, as it's mostly in-character for all of them. Sen-Chan and Umeko are still on the original team, Ban is with the Fire Squad, Hoji is slacking off on the job (it's explained later on), Jasmine is a mother, and Tetsu is the acting chief of the Earth branch after Doggie was framed for murder.

In spite of that, the cast all does a great job with their roles, and while Hurricaneger's 10 Years After special didn't really do a lot, there are plenty of scenes showing the characters reunite, and they feel so genuine, showing how close friends they all are.

There's also plenty of fanservice here too. They explain stuff like Jasmine being an ESPer or Sen-Chan's thinking pose like in the show, and they also play with some running gags like Hoji's "I'm not your partner" line. This is a special that really sets out to pay tribute to Dekaranger after all these years.

The climax is just so much fun. Each of the Dekarangers is revealed to have their own plan to help prove Doggie's innocence, and it's so exciting to see how they play off each other, and the resulting battle is also really cool.

Overall, it's just a really fun movie to watch, and feels like a love letter to one of the most popular Sentai seasons.

Engine Sentai Go-Onger: 10 Years Grand Prix

Right off the bat, I don't really think this movie does as good a job at maintaining the tone the season its based off had compared to the previous two movies. The plot is more serious, with the Go-Ongers essentially being made criminals by the government. Go-Onger was arguably goofier than Hurricaneger was, yet a plotpoint early on to explain why the Go-Ongers themselves are outlaws involves the fact that Hiroto was framed for a suicide bombing. Yeah, it was obviously not true, and there are still goofy moments scattered through the film (they even make a joke about how dumb the actual circumstances behind the alleged bombing were), but it's strange that they even mention stuff as serious as suicide bombings and terrorism in the first place.

That's not to say the plot is bad. After all, the Go-Ongers arguably had one of the strongest senses of justice out of any Sentai team, so the idea of the law itself turning against them leads to an interesting idea on how to achieve peace, as the villain tries to use his political power to bring his own twisted form of peace to the Human World.

In my opinion, this special does a really good job at showing how things have changed in the ten years after, as it points out how technology has changed. When we see the return of the reformed Gaiark generals, they point out how electronic waste has become a concern in recent years, what with smartphones, computers, and video games becoming more mainstream.

Hands down, the dumbest part of the movie has to be that it takes way too long for the Go-Ongers to realize that they're being tracked thanks to the advanced microchip devices the main villain developed for citizens to use while he was disguised as Japan's Prime Minister. You would think that since the Go-Ongers are being hunter down by the government, and since everyone was using these, including the obligatory kid who got tangled up in this mess, that maybe that's how the government is tracking them down. They don't even realize this until about halfway through.

Also, the main plot twist that the micro is pretty much the same as what Plankton did to the citizens of Bikini Bottom in the SpongeBob movie, down to turning Saki into a mindless drone.

Thankfully, the final battle more than delivers, with some well-edited flashbacks to the events of the show, Kegareshia temporarily becoming Go-On Yellow, and seeing a giant robot crush the main villain for a change. It was pretty fun.

Overall, while I think this is my second least favorite of the four, it was still a pretty decent movie to watch.

Also, for some reason, the ending where the kid the Go-Ongers helped learns to fight back against his bullies references Jin's death from Gosei Sentai Dairanger, down to the coin flipping and the sunset. Yeah, they don't show anything happening to the kid, but... why would you reference that scene of all things to close out your Go-Onger anniversary movie? I'm sorry, that just really bothered me.

Kaizoku Sentai: Ten Gokaiger

YEAH, BABY! Gokaiger, the first Sentai I ever saw finally gets a fancy reunion movie! Sorry, had to get that out of my system there.

But yeah, while structurally, I think Dekaranger's 10 Years After was better, this is my personal favorite, if only because I love Gokaiger so much.

What really makes this movie stand out to me is that it avoids a lot of the pitfalls and overused cliches you expect from tokusatsu movies. Right after the opening scene, we see some past Sentai heroes fighting each other in a battle royale game called "Super Sentai Derby Colosseum". Instead of making this the main conflict by focusing on infighting or revealing that the veterans are being forced to fight, we soon learn that not only did they all agree to willingly relinquish their powers for the game on the condition that they get them back when the Earth is in danger, their lives aren't in danger because the Ministry of Defense reverse engineered Basco's technology to create clones to use their powers, and even most of the money earned from people placing bets is used to finance the Earth's defenses. It's only later on that it's revealed to be a front, but it's still a welcome change of pace from the stereotypical death game that's become far too common in tokusatsu this past decade.

This extends to the main villain, the Minister of Defense. Like with Go-Onger's 10 Years After movie, you'd think he's really an alien in disguise, but nope. He just works with some aliens and plans to create an army out of the Ranger Key clones because after seeing the Earth get invaded by aliens for so long, now the Minister wants to be the one invading, a unique take on how humanity would see the events of the past Sentai seasons.

The Gokaiger fanservice is, of course, on point as well. One of the workers for the Ministry of Defense is revealed to be the kid who inadvertently inspired Captain Marvelous to start seeing the value in a planet like Earth in Gokaiger's second episode, and seeing the Gokaigers all play up their roles as part of their shared plan is a welcome treat. Seeing the Gokaigers fight to return the Ranger Keys back to humanity is a great way of showing how far they've come to value their predecessors and successors. They even acknowledge the fact that they accidentally left Navi behind during the events of the Zyuohger team-up.

The one thing I'm not a fan of is the ugly powerup the team gets at the end thanks to the fragment of the destroyed Gokai Galleon. They say it's the Galleon's "Ultimate Power", but it just comes out of left field. It's a decent idea to show the Gokaigers' ship contributing to the action, but it's not as impactful as something like the Going Merry saving everyone on her final voyage.

But overall, it was a really fun movie to watch, and a good way to cap off this little marathon.

I'm probably going to make a post about the Hurricaneger and Abaranger 20 Years After movies once those come out with fan subs.

#crimson ace reviews #super sentai #ninpuu sentai hurricaneger #tokusou sentai dekaranger #engine sentai go onger #kaizoku sentai gokaiger

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dededaio · 2 years

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Kirby Light Novels Retrospective (Part 1)

Early-installment Weirdness Era.

I sure hope this won't die after part 1!!!

Kirby novels. This weird, weird thing that exists and recently started getting more and more traction among western Kirby fanbase. Despite the series starting in 2013, it didn't get popular (or even translated) in english (at least via fan efforts) until mid-2020. Ever since then, novels started to become essentially our bread and butter during times where HAL wasn't willing to share any game news coming up.

Kirby novels have a lot of great qualities and interesting stuff going on that I would love to dissect. In this retrospective I decided to look over novels in chronological order.

At their best, Kirby Light Novels is genuinely great series of family-friendly books that take it's target audience actually seriously and provide entertaining character writing with engaging world-building and consistent continuity.

At their worst... Well. You'll see.

There's a reason that novels caught the eye of western fans only years later after they first started coming out. And the reason for that being that early novels... Especially the first two are... Rough around the edges, to put it lightly. Let's dive into them then, shall we?

1. The Dangerous Gourmet Mansion (2013)

Score: 2/5.

After 00s which was a fairly rough decade for Kirby, franchise started to expand again in early 10s in Japan after few successful game titles in a row. Super Star Ultra (which was at the time the fastest-selling Kirby game upon launch in Japan specifically), Kirby's Epic Yarn, Return to Dream Land: all notable titles that started redefining Kirby as a Nintendo game series force to be reckoned with. So naturally, a series of light novels launched in 2013. What, it seems random to you? It shouldn't, since light novels based on videogames is fairly common Japanese practice. What is peculiar is that barely any *platformer* series get such luxury.

If you go looking for Mario or Sonic light novels you won't find any, trust me, I looked.

So why Kirby? If I were to assume it's kind of match made in heaven if you think about it. Epic Yarn introduced storybook "motif" into the series, it's full of colorful memorable characters full of personality and fairy-tale like setting that lands itself perfectly to children's book series.

The Mysterious Gourmet Mansion and all novels afterwards were written by Mie Takase. A veteran writer, who worked on many various light novels (including videogame adaptations like Shin Megami Tensei, Ace Attorney, Persona 2 etc) as well as stuff like horror-stories.

In hindsight, it seems like a bit of a random choice, because from my research of her bibliography, she never really wrote anything so specifically children-oriented before. But perhaps her skill and reputation was the reason she was taken for the job. And I mean, hey! This series still goes strong, nearly 10 years later, so it was probably a good choice in the long run.

Doesn't mean that this series didn't need a bit of time before coming into it's own however.

I won't be afraid to say that The Dangerous Gourmet Mansion is kind of. Bad.

Going back to this novel after all the ones that come much later was honestly a trip in itself. It's been almost 2 years since I first read this one so I had memories of few "iconic" moments, but otherwise, I mostly forgot a lot of details. And oh boy, there's a REASON why I forgot a lot of details.

Plot of this novel is remarkably simple --

A rich lady called Mrs. Parfaitski (or how she was "localized" in currently available fan-translation, Mrs. Pairfaitlike) moves to Dream Land and announced a party dedicated to her birthday with a huge feast with a ton of delicious food.

Obviously, Kirby and King Dedede, being huge gluttons they are, want to get to said party, but since the only way to get there is through invitations and neither of them got any, the only way they could get there would be through becoming Meta Knight's "partner", who conveniently got such invitation which can also bring one other person...

Obviously, this leads to Kirby and Dedede stacking together and pretending to be a different person entirely, a woman called Dedeby.

This plan works well (to huge dismay of Meta Knight who got greatly embarrassed during the party due to "Dedeby"), until a conspiracy starts to rear it's head with Chef Kawasaki going missing.

Right off the bat, plot of this novel is super messy. It's a lot of different elements that just don't go well together.

I didn't mention it in my general overview of the story, but novel doesn't jump straight to Meta Knight having invitation, no, first 3 chapters or so are focused on pointless sub-plot of Kirby trying to become one of Parfaitski's chefs to get to the party.

It's a very useless plotline because it does nothing to progress the story nor it does anything to tell us about the characters. Kirby being food-obsessed fanatic who isn't "picky" about what he eats or makes and Waddle Dee being neurotic cautious friend is a dynamic that was apparent ever since their very first interaction in the novel. There was literally No Need for this plotline to happen.

You can argue that this portion of the book exists to establish Kirby and his abilities to new readers. But considering Dedede and Meta Knight for the rest of the book are literally just... There. They don't use any of their fighting skills (hell, I don't think Galaxia even shows up on any of the illustrations until 4th novel, though I might be wrong on that) through out or anything, this argument seems moot since it's not like novel goes out of it's way to establish abilities of every character. Kirby himself demonstrates copy ability in the latter portion of the story where it actually has relevance, which makes this "introductory" portion even more redundant.

One third of the book is essentially filler until Meta Knight comes and SOME semblance of the plot started to get going.

Now, don't get me wrong, Dedeby sub-plot is probably the most entertaining part of the novel, partially due to overall absurdity of the idea of Kirby and Dedede cross-dressing together, but it is, also, is quite useless in grand scheme of things, considering both of them discard this disguise midway through, it never gets brought up again nor it impacts their characterization going forward (it doesn't make them bond or grow together as a team).

Nothing would change if there was some other way they could sneak to the party or even if Meta Knight could just take both of them from the start no problem. It all feels like padding because the actual plot of this novel been resolved in literally 3 chapters. Even then I would argue it didn't need to be 3 chapters since there was a lot of unnecessary fake-outs and build-up towards Wheelie and Lord Kibble being actual "bad guys" of the story, despite Parfaitski being the villain is incredibly obvious twist at this point.

Considering she's just a stuck-up rich lady, she doesn't really have any combat skills, so the actual climax of the story is our good old trio of Kirby, Meta Knight and Dedede arguing with her on why her locking up chefs in the secret rooms in her mansion forever (which is honestly kind of messed up when you think about it) is bad and it's. Very interesting way to handle third act of the story.

The way it actually resolves is also very interesting. Kirby uses mike ability to sing a song and "change Parfaitski's mind" but all he ends up doing is sing nonsense very loudly to the point of causing this woman to have a breakdown which they read as her having "remorse" for her actions. Mind you, other than that, they don't hold her accountable. Like, even if she freed all of the chefs, she's like... Not gonna face any further punishment? No? Alright, then, book.

It's such. Weird resolution. I guess it's supposed to be comedic subversion or something, but it didn't really work for me.

But honestly. Weird plot with weird pacing is not the main reason I dislike this novel. Main reason I dislike it is characterization.

Kirby and King Dedede in this novel are awful.

And I mean it.

Kirby has essentially no personality in this novel outside of loving food. None of his noble heroic, compassionate qualities are demonstrated. All his actions are motivated by food. And it genuinely gets grating after a while. It seems like only point of reference for Kirby's characterization Mie had while writing earlier novels was Squeak Squad, because I swear to god.

There was not a single action in this story that Kirby did that wasn't motivated by food somehow. It's so one-note and the running gag of him being carried away and mishearing everything and starting mumbling about food gets grating as well. This running gag actually reappears in future novels, but the reason it works there, while it doesn't work here, is because "Kirby loves food" is the only character trait he has here, while in the future he gets much more fleshed out and becomes more believable character in the process.

Now, King Dedede. OH KING DEDEDE. King Dedede in this and few following novels is essentially "Anime Dedede Lite". Despite having a passage in the very first chapter about how he has "empathy" and "manly traits", he demonstrates none of them in this novel and in fact won't demonstrate any of these qualities until at least the third one. Here he has little to no redeeming qualities, ALSO can't shut up about food and not taken seriously by anyone, not even his subordinate Waddle Dee.

Speaking of which, he is awful to Waddle Dee. I assume that Mie is genuinely been taking inspiration from anime while characterizing Dedede (because, look what's on the cover here?)

Anime Castle Dedede. Y E A H.

And what do I mean by being awful to Waddle Dee? He quite literally physically abuses and insults him a few times in this novel? Like, what in the actual fuck, pardon my French?

Anime Dedede's treatment of Escargoon was already pretty questionable, but at the very least they were both adults. While Waddle Dee's age was never really stated, in this novel and all novels that will come later, he's essentially treated as a kid, the same age group as Kirby himself.

Which essentially means, that this Dedede literally kicks around a kid who does nothing but pampers him even if he doesn't really deserve it here.

This is actually so wildly out of character for Novel Dedede, I forgot this was ever a thing, so when I reached the part when it actually happened I had a huge whiplash. At this point I wouldn't doubt that this novel is not even considered to be a part of novel's "canon" due to how weird and out of place many of it's writing decisions are.

Waddle Dee in general is treated pretty terribly here, he's basically only genuinely likeable character in the novel, gets no respect and kicked around AND shafted for majority of this novel, basically vanishing after 4th chapter until the very end, missing from the part of the book that actually tackles the story.

Other somewhat tolerable character is Meta Knight, who acts as a straight man of the group alongside Waddle Dee. But while he is tolerable, I can't say I particularly enjoy the way he was written here either. It's not bad, it's just kinda. Vanilla? Anime influence showing.

Novel's new character, Mrs. Parfaitski left no impression on me except for out of place resolution of her "conflict".

But with how much I berated this novel, is there anything I enjoyed about it? Even though writing and characterization in this book ranges from mediocre to annoying, there are some genuinely amusing bits of character interaction here and there shining through.

Kirby and Waddle Dee's friendship is genuinely sweet and pretty pure (for the most part) as early as this novel and will continue being one of this series' highlights

Look at them... Babies...

When Meta Knight comes into picture, I must admit, preparation for "Dedeby" and banter between Kirby, Meta Knight and King Dedede genuinely can get pretty amusing at times.

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

These are the moments that showed potential of Mie's writing. It felt like she genuinely enjoyed herself writing these characters interactions when they didn't involve mean-spirited bickering every 5 seconds or forced jokes about how much they love food.

Ultimately, this novel didn't age the best exactly.

2. The Big Panic in Gloomy Woods! (2014)

Score: 2/5.

First novel was very rough around the edges. But that's what sequels are for, right? To iron them out, to focus on the aspects that worked, to throw aspects that didn't work... Yeah, this novel didn't really do that.

Well, and did and did not at the same time. Quick summary time.

The band of frog kids that want to become "the more vile villains in the universe" decide to use Kirby's powers to get to the tastiest fruit in the universe in the Gloomy Woods all to themselves. Problem being that they don't know how Kirby looks like... So they confuse Dedede for him (since their characteristics of being very round and gluttonous are very similar). Dedede wanting to get to said tastiest fruit pretends to be Kirby.

This doesn't last very long however, as the ruse gets exposed and he gets split up from the rest of the cast, which makes him meet up with shady fellow who presents himself as the wood keeper and confusing Dedede for "a hero" wants to use his strength to get to "the starlight fruit" and mysterious "starlight crystal".

Let's start with the improvements from the last time, plot this time a bit more coherent. It still has quite useless elements, but not as much as the last novel and most of them feel like they justify certain plot-points more or less well. Climax in this novel also feels actually... Climactic instead of whatever was in the previous novel, which is also a plus.

Genuinely raw illustration.

My main issue with the plot of this novel is that, considering it came out in 2014, it's essentially a tie-in to Kirby Triple Deluxe. But unlike all following novels which actually *adapt* videogame stories into novel format, this one just... Takes broad strokes of Triple Deluxe's plot and "babyfies" it.

- Kirby and Dedede get mixed up because of them being "similar".

- Dedede is confused for a hero by a main antagonist and uses him to achieve his goals (even organizing a "fight" between him and Kirby, however not through possession, but misunderstanding, because Novel Dedede at this point in time is still asshole and dumbass)

- Setting overall is nature-themed (forest and shit)

- Debut of Bell Copy Ability and Ringle

- There is miracle fruit and hypernova involved in the climax

Which on one hand helps the plot of this one feel more coherent, but on other hand it feels frustrating that instead of just straight up adapting the plot of the game (which would help rerail certain characterizations like Dedede or Kirby) they decided to do this weird roundabout approach. Another reason why I believe Mie didn't think much of these novels at first and treated them purely as books for very little kids, knowing the lengths she will go while adapting some of the later game stories.

Majority of my complaints with previous novel also still stand.

Kirby is still characterized as food-obsessed brat who doesn't do anything out of goodness of his heart but just because FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD. He is not concerned that Waddle Dee is worried for King Dedede, he is not worried for the fate of so-called "stardust crystal", he does everything in this novel only for the sake of food. And it's genuinely, so, so, SO grating.

In this sense, it's even worse than the first novel, because first novel at the very least was very low-stakes slice-of-life sort of deal. This one attempts to to tell more "adventurous" story and it doesn't really work all that well. Not only because a lot of the story is meandering around these woods with no memorable setpieces/scenes to break up the pace, it's also because none of the characters have any "heroic" motivations per say, except Waddle Dee, of course, who keeps being only likeable characters in these books for now.

King Dedede's characterization once more suffers from the same issue as the last novel, so I don't have as much to say on it here. Admittedly he's slightly *less* insufferable than in the last novel, but it's probably purely because he gets less spotlight than Kirby this time.

Meta Knight in this one feels even more like his anime counterpart, because he essentially doesn't do anything except for dumping exposition about Gloomy Woods and the stardust fruit. Once again he doesn't do anything fighting, but at least he brought his sword with him this time, I guess.

Now, what about this novel's original characters? There's much more of them than in the last novel, after all.

Honestly, I genuinely have nothing to say about them. Their designs are... alright, I guess, the wood keeper looks like Magolor rip-off while frog kids look like Kirby anime OCs rejects.

Issue with them as characters, is that there is too much of them for this kind of story. They all kinda blend together. I don't really recall personalities any of the frog kids and all I can say about them is that they went through "redemption arc" before they could even do anything of their own agency as characters, while wood-keeper is genuinely just. Magolor-lite. Pretends to be a good dude, but lies through his teeth and wants some sort of artifact.

Only lacks any of Magolor's charisma or personality that made him such iconic character to begin with. Fairly mediocre cast all things considered and I don't see the reason why there needed to be so many new characters introduced at once.

This novel feels more competently made than the first one, but it doesn't go above it too much in terms of quality. It often faces the same faults and got a few of it's own (like being fairly poor tie-in into then recent videogame).

Though, honestly, I think I might prefer the first one over this. Why, you might say? Well... First one might be very bizarre and have unlikeable mean-spirited characterization of the cast, the fact that it's SO WEIRD makes it very memorable and it has genuinely funny character interactions at times.

This one didn't really make me smile one bit and it being more straightforward in terms of the story just made it more boring in the result. It being slightly more competent kinda removed "so bad it's good" factor first novel had going for it, so it ends just being "eh".

Ultimately, what it comes down to it, both novels aren't awful. But they are very mediocre kids books with nothing special about them.

I can see the target audience getting the kick out of them and they probably did, considering that series continued way past those two. But again, issue lies that this novel series itself proved that it can be much more than this. It can be more than mediocre kids books that sell you with colorful cover-art and familiar characters. They can be genuinely great stories with great characters that give you insight on the side of Kirby's universe you wouldn't get in the games.

But these novels don't really give you that, which is a shame. However, I'm glad that they exists. Because thanks to these two novels being a success, we have all actually good novels to read and enjoy, where all potential that shined here and there in these novels finally got to be fully realized.

However, there's really little reason to go back to this one unless you really want to read entire series through. It might just give you wrong impression and discourage you from trying reading out future installments. I recommend going back to these ones only AFTER you got into the novel series, just to see these humble roots of what became one of the most long-running tie-in Kirby series.

And to laugh at Meta Knight Blimp.

#kirby #king dedede #meta knight #waddle dee #kirby light novels #kirby light novels retrospective #gosh this is a LOT lmao #longpost

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xpeachesncream · 3 years

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off the grid | four

summary: it was as simple as swapping places with a stranger from across the world to get away from everything back home. that is - until you meet Jimin. things become more complicated as he unfolds a new chapter in your life that you were initially trying to avoid.

pairing: reader x pjm

genre: post-college au, christmas/holiday au | angst, fluff, smut (to come)

words: 3.0k

chapter warnings: slight cussing, possible inaccurate depiction of transportation, events and whereabouts in South Korea since i only did my research thru the internet, flirty, sweet jiminie so pls tell your heart to be still

> series masterlist <

"Y/N." Jimin whined. "Just stay still for 2 more seconds, please." Jimin laughed at how much you were fidgeting as he rose his polaroid camera. He quickly snapped a photo of you sitting on the ground, in the middle of the white birch tree lane.

"I'm so happy I'm here!" You squealed as you stood up and dusted yourself off. Jimin had taken you to Nami Island for the day, being that you had talked all night about the infamous gingko trees and how beautiful they looked in pictures. Unfortunately, since it was winter, the trees barely had any leaves left, but you didn't mind. You were just happy to be there.

"Okay, come on. There's still so much more to see." He led the way with you following behind him. You continued to walk through the remaining tree lanes before heading over to the gardens and the petit french village.

"Wait, this is so pretty." You gasped, instantly posing in front of one of the colorful replica houses. Jimin snapped his picture before you decided to capture some footage for your instagram and snapchat stories.

"I'm really glad you're enjoying this."

"I hope you are too."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you've probably been here thousands of times. You must be tired of it." He shook his head and pouted.

"Nope." He chuckled. "Absolutely not."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Huh." You scratched your head. "Like Disneyland is a huge staple of LA but I'm tired of it." He shrugged.

"I don't know, this is probably a little different. We're not really waiting hours in line for rides in a super packed amusement park. Plus, waiting under the scorching hot sun? No thanks."

"Very true."

"I just enjoy being out and exploring, even if that means doing it over and over again with you. I don't mind." You smiled. The feeling you felt being around Jimin, the butterflies - you couldn't explain. It felt new, yet unreal, almost like you had to pinch yourself to remember this was actually reality. You were living it right at this moment. How could he exist as the pure, wholesome angel he was? You had no idea, and it caught you off guard every single time.

But you were scared, because when this is all over, what happens? You and Jimin go back to living life before you even knew the other existed? That'll suck.

Fuck that. You weren't trying to think of that now.

"I really do appreciate you taking me around."

"It's nothing." He flashes his pearly whites. Majority of the time, you're running to pose for the camera, already feeling completely comfortable in Jimin's presence. He took you through the village and through the gardens, where you strolled slowly side by side. His arm brushed against yours a couple of times, and you couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to experience a super affectionate and flirty Jimin. The thought kind of intrigued you. What if you were reading too deeply into this? What if he was just really nice and didn't have feelings for you like that? What if—"Y/N." You heard him call your name as he looked down at you and laughed. "Did I lose you?"

"No, sorry, I'm just taking it all in." You chuckled.

"No, that's okay. I was just saying that Jungkook fell into the bushes over there." He pointed at the shrubs.

"Wait, what?"

"He tripped and couldn't catch himself in time so he fell in there. It left an indent." He laughed.

"Are you guys always chaotic when you go out?"

"What, us? Never." He smirked. "Seriously, we aren't. But we do have our moments." His smile instantly fell when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. "Speaking of—" He quickly flashes you his phone, showing Taehyung's name on the screen. "Mind if I pick this up really quickly? Just in case the boys need me to bail them out."

"No, go for it." He smiled toothlessly before picking up the call. You both continued to walk slowly while he spoke to Taehyung on the phone. He began to laugh, his cheeks tinted with a rosy color. He rose his voice and groaned playfully, which was followed by a ton of 'okays,' 'shut ups,' and 'ughs' before finally telling Taehyung he had to go and that he would see them later. "Is everything okay?" You giggled.

"Yeah, they're just being a pain in the ass." He cleared his throat. Little did you know that Taehyung and Seokjin just spent the last couple of minutes teasing the hell out of him about you. "So, the guys wanna head to the ice skating rink tonight and told me to bring you along. Only if you wanna go, of course. No pressure."

"That sounds fun! I'll come. But, I have to warn you. I'm not very good at ice skating."

"It's okay, I'll be there. Taehyung isn't either, nor is Hoseok. I've had to hold them a couple of times." You laughed. "I'd definitely rather hold onto you than them." He quickly looked at you, realizing he let that slip out without catching himself. He felt his cheeks get hot due to the embarrassment that overcame him, but instantly felt relieved when he saw you smile and laugh at the statement. He definitely meant it though.

"I'll be sure to not be a piece of work tonight."

"Ah, you'll be okay. I believe." The rest of the time at Nami Island was spent walking through the the rest of the garden and going through the Gapyeong Rail Park on a two-seater bike. The view was spectacular and you honestly couldn't picture doing this with anybody else. At the end of the ride, Jimin took you to get some hotteok, which was just the snack you needed after the activities and walking you had done on the island. Before leaving, you saw a musician singing at the entrance while playing his guitar. There was quite a crowd, so you gently pulled Jimin to your side to stand and watch with you.

"He's really good." You clapped quietly to yourself as he wrapped up a song. "You should go sing up there!"

"I don't sing, though."

"Really? So all those times I've heard you, you weren't singing?"

"Mmm, nope. Don't know what you're talking about."

"Please?" You pouted and clasped your hands together. Your pouty face was becoming a huge weakness for him, making it incredibly difficult to say no to you.

"Y/N, I-I don't even know if he's--" You rose your hand and dragged him to the front. You signaled to the musician that Jimin wanted to sing. Jimin politely asked if he could sing a song, which the musician happily stood aside to let him take over the mic. Jimin showed him a song on his phone and asked if he could somehow strum along to the tune. He began to sing We Don't Talk Anymore - Charlie Puth x Selena Gomez, which had your heart skipping a few beats. His voice was the most angelic thing you have ever heard and he looked so fucking good singing. At the end, he smiled sheepishly and thanked the crowd and musician before waddling back over to you. "I hope you feel special."

"Me?!"

"I obviously don't like to put my singing voice out there, but I knew it'd make you happy."

"Why not? You have such an amazing voice."

"I don't know, it's just a fun past time for me. Nothing serious."

"Well, I really like it and I wanna hear more of it." He chuckled and nodded.

"I'll see what I can do."

"Jimin." You whined.

"No promises, princess." He shrugged. "Race you to the car?" He flipped the switch and began to run off before you could even respond. You ran as much as you could because running definitely wasn't your thing, but eventually you made your way to the car, where Jimin was catching his breath.

"See, look at you. All tired from that unnecessary effort." You laugh.

"Good race." He high-fived you before unlocking the car. The ride back would be about 2 hours, so you both would be making it just in time to meet his friends at the ice skating rink. You had fallen asleep without realizing, with Jimin smiling and silently laughing to himself as he glanced over. He made sure the car was warm and comfortable enough for you, before taking one more glance at you. He didn't know how someone could be so effortlessly cute, and it's crazy, because before you came around, he was fine minding his own business. He wasn't looking for love. His last relationship ended a year ago, and he had just been taking it day by day with the boys. No negativity on his end, no bad blood, nothing.

Then, you came along. You came along and changed things for him. Quick, too. He couldn't even explain it, even if he tried. He just knew he had become undeniably attracted to everything about you and he didn't give a fuck about anyone or anything else.

"Y/N." Jimin gave you a gentle squeeze on the arm. "We're here. Are you still okay to ice skate?" You opened your eyes and fixed your position in the passenger's seat, catching his concerned facial expression.

"Yeah, I'm okay." You gave off a good stretch just to fully wake yourself up. "Shoot, I didn't even realize I fell asleep."

"That race to the car really did it to you." He laughed, making you playfully hit him on the arm. Getting out of the car, you both had to walk quite a bit before finally seeing the ice rink in view. The first person you spotted was Taehyung, but he was speaking to another tall gentleman, who was dressed in a plain white tee, light denim jacket, black distressed jeans and black chucks. He had on a black hat, where the brim covered his face pretty well.

"Jimin-ah!" The unknown gentleman yelled as he held his arms out, in which Jimin openly accepted. They hugged each other and patted each other on the back before Jimin turned to playfully smack Taehyung on the arm as his greeting.

"Hey Y/N! I'm glad you came along." Taehyung engulfed you into a hug.

"I can't miss out on ice skating!" You chuckled.

"Y/N, this is my Jin-hyung." Jimin stepped aside as Jin also held his arms out to hug you.

"Nice to meet you, Y/N." He caressed your back as you pulled away. "I'm surprised you're not sick of him yet." He tilted his head towards Jimin.

"Eh, he's not too bad." You joked, watching Jimin shake his head and bite onto his bottom lip. "Where's Jungkook?"

"Buying a snack with Hoseok." Jin replied as he dug his hands into his pockets. "Which reminds me, did you want to eat now or later Y/N?"

"It doesn't matter to me, whenever you guys want."

"Are you okay to hold off until after ice-skating?"

"Yeah!"

"Hey, why don't you ask us?" Taehyung nudged him, making him shake his head.

"It's simple. You guys don't matter. Only Y/N does." Jin winked at you.

"Stop flirting, hyung. It'll make Jimin ma--" Jimin grabbed Tae by the shirt and pushed him against the wall, pretending to beat him up. You bit your lip to prevent yourself from laughing and smiling too big, but you heard that for damn sure. As the two stopped playing and made their way back to you and Jin, Jungkook finally made it back with another gentleman dressed in a black beanie, black and white track pants, a black fitted hoodie, brown coat and sneakers. How in the hell were Jimin and all his friends so damn good looking?! You couldn't understand it for the life of you, but you sure as hell weren't complaining.

"Y/N! Jimin-ssi!" Jungkook yelled as he waddled over to you and hugged you before making his way to Jimin.

"He always calls me like that." Jimin murmured as Jungkook swung him around. Jin laughed and pointed at how ridiculous the two looked on the side.

"Y/N, Hoseok." Jin took the initiative to introduce you while Jungkook and Jimin continued to play around.

"Hi!" Hoseok waved and smiled sweetly. "You can call me Hobi."

"Nice to meet you." You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear.

"How was Nami Island?" Hoseok walked by your side as you followed the group to get your tickets and skate rentals.

"Fun! It's beautiful."

"Isn't it? I'm glad you were able to go with Jimin. It's definitely a must."

"Yeah, he's been taking me to a couple of places already. I appreciate him enough." Hoseok smirked.

"You two are cute."

"Need any help?" Before you could respond, Jimin interrupted as he walked over, already on his skates. You bent over to slip the skates on, doing your best to tighten the laces as you tied them.

"I think so." You tried to get up, but instantly stumbled on your own two feet, causing Jimin to hold your wrist.

"Woah there." He laughed and held your hands to help stabilize you as you tried to stand. "Good?"

"Yeah, I got this, no biggie." You chuckled nervously. You held onto his arm as he walked you into the rink, where Taehyung slowly took his time to try and get used to the feeling and Jungkook was already skating freely. Jin was accompanying Hobi on the side, giving him words of encouragement to get him to let go of the wall.

"Okay, take it slow and hold onto the wall until you get a feel for it." Jimin stayed by your side as you tried to get your two feet to work properly in the skates. It didn't feel too bad, but every time you got a little too excited, you squealed and clung onto the wall due to your skates betraying you. Jimin laughed and held out his hand. "Come on, you can do this Y/N." You grabbed his hand, your legs stiffening without the support of the wall.

"Ah, Jimin!" You yelped. "Please don't go too fast!"

"We're going a whopping 3 miles per hour. Maybe even less."

"I am not that slow!"

"Highly debatable." He laughed. "But it's cool because you'll become a pro in no time." He reassured you and pointed. "See! We're getting faster. Progress." You started to get the hang of it, releasing the stiffness as Jimin continued to coach you through alternating the movement with your legs. Sooner or later, you were feeling a little more comfortable as you held onto his hand and kept a solid, slow and steady pace.

"I got it!"

"Wanna try to go alone?" At this moment, Jungkook appeared in front of you, holding his hands out, signaling for you try and skate to him alone. He nodded and reassured you, watching as Jimin slowly released his hand from yours. You stood there in a slightly bent position, afraid to move an inch.

"Y/N, I promise you'll be okay! Come to me." Jungkook said. You practiced the movements you had just done not too long ago and quickly grabbed his hands as soon as it was in reach. Because of the abrupt movement to rush over, Kook had to hold onto you to make sure you wouldn't fall, making Jimin laugh.

"So cute." Jimin said as he bent over to grab his stomach while laughing. "Y/N you don't need to rush, we aren't going to leave you."

"I'm just scared!"

"You're doing great! Look at Hobi, he hasn't even left the wall. The kids are skating around him." You laughed as you began to slowly skate on your own, eyeing Hoseok and how frightened he looked while hugging the sides and damn near doing the splits trying to move from point A to point B. Jin had obviously given up on reassuring the guy, leaving him to do whatever he pleased to do at this point. You had gained more confidence as time went on, skating on your own with Jimin popping by your side every now and then. It made the hour and a half go by rather quickly, but you all were starving by the end of it.

The group decided to walk down the street to a nearby boba cafe that apparently also had really good rice bowls and snacks. The walk wasn't too bad, but your jacket wasn't thick enough to mask the cold. Jimin had taken notice of you shivering, peeling off his coat without hesitation to put on your shoulders.

"Here." He says as you grab the coat to wrap it around you tightly.

"Aren't you cold?"

"I have this cardigan on, I'll survive. I'm used to this." He smiled down at you. Entering the cafe, you all had ordered your food and drinks and sat on the barstools near the wall. Jimin stood in front of you, while Jungkook and Hoseok sat on the remaining stools next to you. Jin and Taehyung pulled up some chairs from a nearby table, and you all had faced each other to talk about the day and everyone's whereabouts. Not to mention, there was a whole Hoseok roasting session due to his performance on the ice today. Jin had discussed his plans for his late birthday celebration coming up and demanded ever so politely that you grace him with your presence.

Getting home later that night, you felt exhausted to the bone. But, you had a ton of fun and really enjoyed spending more time with Jimin and his friends. The loft was quiet, only bringing in sounds from the cars out on the nearby streets. You revisited your photos and videos from the day, smiling to yourself at the memories you were able to capture, especially of Jimin enjoying himself and having fun with you.

[Y/N] 11:38: I know I say this time and time again, but I really do appreciate everything you've been doing for me, Jimin.

[Jimin] 11:39pm: You're welcome, cutiepie. Glad you're enjoying yourself. Get a good night's rest for me. I'll see you tomorrow.

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Alexa, play: Good Company x Mahalia

#bts #bts fanfiction #jimin fanfiction #jimin #park jimin #pjm series #pjm x reader #off the grid #otg #writing #jimin x reader #jimin fluff

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dannyphantom-rewrite · 3 years

Text

Character ref for; Jack, Maddie and Jazz,

Art by @gally-hin / @gally-hin-phantom

Okay so first off; in terms of Actual redesign, I didn't change a whole lot. I'm actually very fond of Jack and Maddie's design's, my only real issue was with their proportions. Like...look as a lady person who is also thiCC I do not have a fucking wasp thin waist and I'm sure I'm not the only one, lmao. As for Jack? Godamnit he looked like a brick on toothpicks. Just Let him be a fucking Bara man! Anyway of course I asked Gally to do this one bc they're fucking great at drawing different body types

I also cannot and will not take credit for Jazz's outfit. I didn't have any issue with her canon clothes aside from them being a bit plain, so what she's wearing here was literally pulled straight off of her original concept art, which I will link here.

Anyway, getting to the Actual character lore now, let's start with

Maddie Fenton

-Full name is Madeline (I haven't decided on a maiden name yet)

-Born and raised on a farm in Arkansas, had a southern accent that she trained herself out of in college bc it was just one more reason for people not to take her seriously. Still sometimes uses "y'all" completely unironically bc old habits die hard.

-She has a really big family, and they're proud of her accomplishments but feel like she's wasting her talent studying ghosts, because really, up until the Fenton portal was up and running there wasn't even any solid proof they existed. Her sister Alicia is the one outlier there, and even if she doesn't understand, it she completely supports her.

-She majored in engineering and minored in psychology at Wisconsin EDU. Her, Jack and Vlad were all in the same engineering class, and that's where they met.

-Maddie is particularly interested in how ghosts think, analysing their behavior, their motives. Not only that, but they aren't just dead people with unfinished business, they've built an entire culture in the Ghost Zone that is completely seperate from humanity, and she wants to understand all of it.

-skilled marksman and 9th degree black belt, (which is. The highest fucking level there is holy shit? I looked it up after I saw it on her wiki page.)

Jack Fenton

-He's from Minnesota (Amity park is in Illinois and him and Maddie didn't move there until after they got married)

-okay, "but why minnesota specifically" you ask? Because. I crave. Foot ball discourse.

-minnesota vikings vs green bay packers guys do you UNDERSTAND WHERE IM GOING WITH THIS

-The funny thing is that Jack only watches football casually while Vlad is a fucking die hard so when these two got together to see a game it was like....

-Jack: Here to chill and have a good time.

-Vlad: Primed and ready to start a fist fight at any given moment.

-I am never not going to be salty about how Canon Jack was portrayed like a complete moron 99% percent of the time. Like no...theres a difference between Actual Stupid and ADHD induced dumbass-ery.

-Am I saying Jack Fenton has ADHD? Yes. why? Because I also have ADHD and I have always vibed So Hard with his Character.

-Jack is loud and easily excited about things that interest him. He's impulsive and fidgety and yeah, a bit absent minded. He has a mouth that clearly runs so much faster than his head. His train of thought doesn't get derailed so much as it stops and takes several different detours on the way to it's final destination.

-and that's only the tip of the iceberg, really, I'd need an entire essay to get into this completely, but I just really relate.

-Jacks skill-set / interests regarding ghosts vary a bit from Maddie's, most notably in the sense that he doesn't believe that they're static entities already set in their ways, completely incapable of change.

-Jack majored in engineering and minored in Biology at Wisconsin EDU.

-Jack's work with tech is a bit hit or miss. He definitely HAS the engineering skills, but the intrest isn't always there and he's constantly jumping back and forth between different projects. He tends to focus on the concept work and schematics and leave most of the assembly to Maddie as a result. It's an arrangement that works well for them, and has drastically decreased the number of unintentional explosions in the lab.

-A lot of Jack's work tends to revolve around ghostly biology and Ectoplasm, figuring out how ghosts are made, what makes them tick, what the hell Ectoplasm Actually Is, how it's used as an energy source, ect.

-and yes, that does also mean he handles the dissections.

-See that facial scar? Yeah, that's not actually there at the start of the series rewrite but it's very important for plot reasons so I had to include it. Can't say much more on the subject because SPOILERs owo.

Jasmine Fenton

-Jazz is a 18 years old, and a senior at Casper high.

-Which means she prepping to go away to college and won't be around to keep an eye on Danny.

-Obviously that doesn't mean I'm just writing her out of the story, oh no. Know why? Because she's also gonna go to Wisconsin EDU. ya know who else is in Wisconsin? Fuckin' Vlad.

-Jazz is autistic, Although she passes for neurotypical in part due to symptoms being completely over looked in girls due to gender stereotyping and also the fact that she doesn't have any special interests that are considered " "too weird.""

- Her hyperfixation with psychology started at a young age in an effort to better understand people, and social/emotional cues and all that.

-Jazz is well liked at school but she's not popular or apart of any specific group or clique. She's very kind and compassionate to people, and just about everyone knows her, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who actually Considered her a friend. Except maybe Spike.

-I'm gonna have to give spike his own Character ref at some point, but he's this scary looking goth kid that's been held back twice. He's actually super sweet, just really fuckin' quiet and anxious. Him and jazz kinda ended up gravitating towards each other. She might do most of the talking, but they look out for each other.

-its not like jazz doesn't try to socialize, but it's difficult and she's found it much easier and less stressful to just. Keep to herself and let her interactions with her peers stay shallow and superficial. Sure, it's lonely sometimes but it's better than constantly worrying about saying the wrong thing or making some other misstep.

-One of Jazz's other special interests is football, and it's not so much the players or the game as it is the strategy of it? Started out as one of those things you do to bond with your dad, and she ended up getting really into it.

-She absolutley winds up getting into stupidly intense discussions with Vlad about it, too, lmao.

-Her and Danny probably bonded over SBNation bc that shit has both sentient satellites and ridiculously complex football mechanics.

-She's completely oblivious to the fact, but Dash has a massive crush on her bc holy shit this girl understands football (hey bud your toxic masculinity is showing put that shit away)

-I mentioned that Danny was in Cheer for a bit in middle school so it makes sense that she'd also be pushed into doing some kind of extracurricular activity.....so.....she was in a martial arts class for a bit thanks to Maddie and has a good grasp on self defense.

I think that's everything? I feel like I'm leaving things out tho? Idk if I did I'll come back and add on to this later and also pls don't hesitate to ask questions bc it really helps me flesh things out better.

#danny phantom #art #danny fenton #maddie fenton #jack fenton #jazz fenton #ref

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boop-le-snoot · 4 years

Text

PARTY FAVOURS | A MYSTERIOUS INTERLUDE

first time reader click here

This is a scrapped chapter. Originally, I was planning to 1) give Reader a longer, more intense destructive streak before her ending up with Tony. I planned three or so chapters that involved an abusive Quentin Beck, but, ultimately decided that to be too cliché. 2) I had planned to write at least 30% of the fanfic in Tony's/third person POV. This chapter would have been number 11/12 - Tony would have rejected her advances in the lab & she would have got hooked on Beck's charming facade.

Why am I publishing this? It seems like a waste if effort to shelf it, plus, it's Tony's POV. You can skip it since it has no relation/bearing on the current story. Just a tiny "what might have been" tidbit.

It was a moment's notice. One second, they're standing in a group, laughing, soaking in the warmth from the fireplace, chattering amongst themselves, telling tall tales and sipping their liquor. It all goes black briefly, and then they are surrounded by darkness - it's nearly impenetrable, so thick that their voices echo in it.

Tony's body was encompassed by the nanotech suit immediately after his eyes and his brain adjusted to the rapid change of surroundings. His teammates, too, had their skills honed on an instinctive level - the faint thump of Mjölnir in Thor's hands, the golden-green glow of his brother's magic, whirring of Barnes' prosthetic arm. Steve's shield stayed tucked behind the living room couch but his enhanced physique and readiness to fight 24/7 has him covering the unenhanced Clint and Natasha in mere seconds.

Tony was mostly angry rather than afraid. The team was having a good time at his party and the chance encounters of weird shit like this had been reduced to nearly zero percent possibility thanks to Friday's screening process: supervillains, Hydra agents and the likes strictly prohibited on Stark-owned premises.

It was a strange coincidence Banner had to take a break to check up on one of his experiments not even five minutes before the rest of the team was experiencing the strange change in scenery. Speaking of Strange, the sorcerer also was nowhere to be seen - Tony distinctively remembered seeing Stephen ten feet away from the bar, engaged in a hearty debate with the lead of SI's Medical Engineering department.

"This is not magic," Wanda piped up from behind him, confused. "I don't feel anything on the usual frequency. It sounds more like Friday humming in the walls, like electricity."

Good to know, Tony thought. It was nice having someone who was familiar with the undiscovered side of science - after all, Tony had always considered anything 'magical' to be science he had not personally understood yet. Wanda's most redeeming quality in Tony's eyes was the fact that more often than not she seemed to be as clueless as everyone else when it came to her powers and didn't act so high and mighty as some other people. Cloaked people, and horned people, for example.

"The fuck, man? I was hoping, just one evening, one normal evening with my beer and wings," Clint whined. Tony could hear Natasha huffing in annoyed agreement.

"Mr. Stark, what are we going to do?" His very own spider-child, on the other hand, sounded distraught. Peter's voice has this funny thing it does when the boy is upset but tries to hide it: it quivers on the vowels, wobbles slightly.

Tony had to blindly grope the air for a moment before his arm found Peter's shoulder. The boy was shivering and took the offered comfort eagerly, folding into the older man.

"Okay, whoever is pulling this stunt, my advice is: don't," Tony sighed, 12 000% Done With This Shit™, exclaiming loudly. "If that's a prank, stop it or speak up. If you got beef, then you got some nerve doing this in my tower. Show yourself."

He could feel the fine hairs on his neck stand up as the team tensed next to him, readily gearing up to pounce. Peter was vibrating in Tony's arms and the billionaire suddenly remembered the curious side-effects of Peter's powers, the spidey-sense. It must have been going absolutely haywire - the kid nearly hyperventilated himself into a heart attack.

"Stark, I must apologise for the uncomfortable circumstances. Believe me, it was a necessity - you always demand attention, whereas I need people to pay attention to me for a moment. Don't worry, you'll get yours when the time is due."

The voice was vaguely familiar. Male, slightly nasal but quiet and creeping. Insinuating. It lacked the usual boisterous bravado of a mid-grade bad guy, Tony had to take an educated guess that the owner of the mysterious voice was well-off, white. Privileged. No hint of desperation in it, as if the man was pitying everybody.

"The fuck? Q, is that you?"

Oh shit, Tony realized in muted horror. She must've been hanging around somewhere in their vicinity - which wasn't unusual, the girl usually orbited around Barnes, Wanda, Peter or Bruce. All of whom were present at the party. Tony had forgotten about her, to his shame, somehow having had automatically assumed she trotted out of the room on Bruce's heels. His science bro and her acted like conjoined twins when it came to their scientific ventures.

"Stop talking," The man growled, the voice suddenly coming from a very different direction. Tony heard a distinctively feminine yelp, albeit muffled. Peter violently jerked in Tony's arms. The engineer put the superstrength of his suit to use, holding the teenager down.

"Aw, hell no!" She yelled, the indignant shrieking followed by the sound of a moist palm slapping something glass...y? "What the fuck? I am asking you again. Are you... Oh my God, are you wearing a fishbowl on your head? Ow, motherfu-" The rest of the sentence is muffled, garbled. Whoever this "Q" was, she obviously knew him and he had silenced her. And, apparently, Q had an uncanny choice of headwear.

Tony was sure the rest of the team had followed his lead on doing a spit-take. They've fought enough supervillains with more than questionable fashion sense but a fishbowl? That was new.

"Be quiet, baby. It's for your own good. I don't want to hurt you if I can help it," The Fishbowl chastised her.

Tony's confusion once again returned to irritation at the frivolous way the villain addressed his science buddy. Peter's friend would have been more accurate but Tony had put her into the 'science bro' category not too long ago. They were close, as much as they could be, with the age gap and totally different interests and... The immense amount of guilt Tony felt for his attraction towards the girl. He was a dirty old man and she was barely an adult.

Every damn day Tony did his best to avoid making a shiny, big, new problem. Yet her brains and her wit and the uncanny ability to pull anybody into a conversation had a firm hold on his attention.

"Leave her alone," Stark angrily declared, powering up a repulsor. "What do you want? Party crashing isn't allowed in my tower anymore."

"What I want, Stark, is for you to give credit where it's due," The man answered simply, giving Tony just enough time to shove Peter behind him towards Natasha and take a tentative step forward.

The soft glow emanating from the repulsor illuminated barely two inches around his hand. The darkness surrounding it seemed to swallow the light. Tony moved on quiet feet towards the voice, easily avoiding furniture. His memory was good and he knew his tower, his home, better than anyone else.

"Did I hear that correctly, you're accusing me of plagiarism?" Tony tried for indignant, hoping to provoke the man into an inevitable, drawn-out speech where he lists all the wrongs Tony ever did him, giving the team precious time to regroup and form some semblance of a plan.

"Yes," Q simply answered, pausing for a second. "I hope you enjoy your next adventure. It certainly will show you the potential of my creation."

Tony shared a muted sound of confusion with the rest of the team.

"Q, I am very disappointed," To Tony's horror, th girl stared talking again. She sounded somewhat breathless, and closer to him than before. "Stop it with the dick measuring contest, you're a grown ass man. Go work for OsCorp, or Hammer, drink your sorrows away." She sounded so tired. And even closer to him.

"This is not a dick measuring contest!" Q roared suddenly and wow, that man was unstable. "This was my life's work, my creation, he insulted, berated and threw away!"

"I get it, I really get the whole 'being discarded and thrown away' thing," She replied, somewhat sarcastically. "But you know what? I'll be damned and I'll be fucked if I give some piece of shit any more of my undivided attention. They don't want me? Fine, they can fuck off and take their complaints with them." Her speech was periodically interrupted by shuffling noises.

Tony didn't dare to interrupt, seeing now the possibility of Q being actually calmed down by a teenager (probably) quoting some teen drama TV show.

"But going full Joker? You're a brilliant man, Quen, I wouldn't even look at you twice if not for your brains and your baby blues, however I don't fuck with the bad guys. That shit kills," The hand that rested on the wrist cuff of Tony's suit unmistakably belonged to her. She had the remnants of some sort of wire around it, sleek and quicksilver-shiny, irritating the tender skin under it. "And I want to live. You've gone and pissed off an entire crew of supers and I don't know what to do. I don't know what to think, Quen," There was genuine sadness in her voice.

Tony stood silent in confusion.

Whoever this Quen was, they obviously shared a close relationship. Tony's brain ran through the list of her friends, her relatives - there was nobody named Q, Quen or even remotely similar. Natasha had mentioned a possible boyfriend at some point but the man sounded too old for that, he was at least thirty. Or maybe? Tony wouldn't put it completely past the girl, if judging by the blatant way she flirted with Bruce. With himself.

"Baby, this is not about you. I don't want to hurt you," Quen replied, a hysterical edge to his voice. Something began flickering in the distance, attracting Tony's attention to the shape of a man with a round sort of helmet and a red, billowing cape (hello, 2012-Thor!).

"Too late, Quen. You've tied me up and you went on to attack my friends. I've already told you that if you yell at me one more time, I will leave you. So I guess this is it," Her voice broke at the end, pitiful sniffles following the statement.

Tony watched the exchange, mildly uncomfortable and very concerned. The man yelled at her? That was absolutely unacceptable, however, what else could one expect from a maniac with a flair for the dramatic?

The girl bodily placed herself in front of Tony, standing, doing nothing but rubbing her wrists. It was then that the engineer noticed Q nearing them, the shape becoming distinctively closer. And - yep, there it was - the fishbowl on his head. It completely obscured him, making his face invisible, unrecognisable.

The man seemed rather fixated on the girl standing in front of Tony. He floated in front of her, ignoring Tony, taking her bound hands in his own. A brief click and a hiss later, her wrists were released and the contraption fell freely to the floor where it landed with an oddly heavy thud. Tony hoped there was no lead in that thing - supervillains were dangerous but lead poisoning was cancerous and fatal.

"Baby..." Quen timidly touched her face with a leather-bound glove. "I didn't mean to yell at you. I'm sorry." Tony took the chance to examine the man's costume. If anything, it looked somewhat steampunk-y? There was a lot of bronze, and the chest brace had some sort of glowing lines on it. Power storage units?

She stared up, towards the man's hidden face. "M'sorry, Quen," She mumbled, going in for a hug. Or that's what Tony thought. The majestic cape that billowed behind Quen was unceremoniously yanked from his body as the girl ducked, covering herself with it, yelling: "TONY, NOW, SHOOT, SHOOT!"

Tony did just that, shot Quen flat in the chest and the man stumbled backwards, tripping on the cape - such a stupid, unexpected thing. But Tony knew, his girl was clever and resourceful. Pride swelled in his chest as he shot the man again, Rogers running out from behind him blindly, body-slamming Quen into the ground for good measure. Two hundred pounds of supersoldier later, the battle was over before it even started.

"No!" The villain shouted as Steve pressed and popped the hilarious glass contraption on his head. The accessory was no match for the Captain's super strength. Tony immediately recognised the man as his former employee, Quentin Beck, and it clicked for him. It was totally a personal vendetta.

"This stuff is tough, plexiglass, maybe," The Captain remarked, pointing at the scattered shards around Beck's head. "It appears to be augmented too, some kind of tech, I don't know. You're good at this, Tony," Steve chuckled humorlessly, roughly turning Beck around and securing his hands with a pair of vibranium-reinforced handcuffs. God only knew where he'd gotten those from.

"Good at what? Making enemies?" Stark couldn't resist the self-depricating joke.

"Stop it, Tony," Natasha's gently admonishing voice interrupted Steve's incoming lecture. Tony, for once, was thankful that the Widow interrupted. He was in no mood to listen to another one of Steve's speeches.

"Who do you work for?" That deadly gleam in Natasha's eyes was terrifying and Beck was only a man.

"I don't work for anyone but myself, thanks to Stark," He spat venomously.

Natasha cocked an eyebrow in Tony's direction.

"Fired him years ago, this guy was going nuts. Brilliant but crazier than a bag of cats," Tony replied, feigning nonchalance. He could feel a mild headache begin to gnaw at his skull. "We worked on a project together, he got upset that I refused to weaponize it. We had a falling out. End of story." With that, Tony stood up, retracing his suit to only leave the gauntlets on his hands, gathered the various pieces of tech the good captain had removed from Beck's persona and made way towards the nearest table.

Or where he thought it was. All of them were still surrounded by the uncanny darkness. The anxiety that Tony forcefully shut down reared it's ugly head as soon as he lost physical touch with his teammates. He stumbled, his foot catching onto something on the ground.

"Ow, motherfucker!"

"Buttercup, I haven't fucked your mother nor I plan to," He snarked back automatically, flooded with relief at the sound of the familiar voice.

"Hope so. She'd probably bite your dick off if you try," A hand was groping his calf and then she stood up in front of him, still clutching the ridiculous cape. It appeared to be a source of light, which was very strange. The girl looked positively demonic, illuminated by red light, face scrunched up, eyes puffy, and clothing in disarray.

"You good?" Tony managed to choke out, confusion and worry and anxiety making his chest tight.

"Balmy. My boyfriend is a homicidal maniac with an inferiority complex," She sassed, an edge of panic to her voice. "Oh, and he tried to kill one of my best friends. I am fine and dandy."

"Your boyfriend?" That was the only thing Tony heard. Bat-shit crazy Beck, his babygirl's boyfriend? There was no way in Hell he'd allow such a thing...

"My ex-boyfriend, I guess," She sighed, removing the cape from her persona. Refusing to meet his eyes, fiddling with the hem of her top. "Here," The girl abruptly thrust the cape at him. "This is a funny thing, it's like a hologram but you can actually touch it. You should, uh, probably disinfect it, or something. I've been on-uh, around it many times," It was so unlike her, the fumbling, the embarrassment, Tony wanted to wheel her straight to medical to check if she's gotten concussed again.

Then his brain caught up and all he saw was red. Figuratively and literally - the cape was still in his face, loosely hanging from her outstretched hand. She must've seen the look on his face.

The step she took back was quick and worrying. "Forget I said that, I don't know why I said that. Oh, god."

"What were you thinking?" Tony inhaled a solid lungful, prepared to make his opinion very clear. "Getting involved with a lunatic! For a second I actually thought you were smart, there isn't a chance you missed that the guy is short of a few marbles," His voice was quiet, the one of a calm fury. His words cut deeply and he could see the hurt, the shame in her eyes, on her face. Tony knew he'd regret it later however his brain insisted it was a necessary evil. He continued ranting until he ran out of breath. "Not to mention he's, what, twice your age? And he yells at you and tells you to shut up? It didn't ring any alarm bells in that pretty little head of yours?"

"Tony, stop," Steve's hand landed on the engineer's shoulder and he simply shrugged it off, staring at the quivering girl in front of him.

She was crying, silently, few tears pooling in her eyes and streaming down her cheeks, leaving ugly streaks in her make-up. Tony expected her to sass him, to argue back, to yell obscenities like she usually did when something or someone upset her but he was met with hurt, stunned silence. His worst fear came true when she looked away, shrugging.

He'd seen this sort of dejected shrug the time her father drugged her and... She just took it. She expected it, even, his outrage, his disappointment. Being hurt and mistreated was the norm for her, Tony realized belatedly. There were too many parallels between them both that made him uncomfortable deep inside. His chest felt tight, regret washing over him like a tsunami wave.

"I'm turning on the lights, close your eyes for maximum comfort," Strange's voice announced suddenly, causing everybody to jump and shudder. Tony complied begrudgingly. The sudden influx of light was painful even from behind closed eyelids. His headache became a full-on dull throb.

"What happened?" "Are you okay?" "Is everybody alive?" Resonated across the room. Tony spied several small drones smoking and crackling next to the exit door, Stephen Strange closing a portal he must've used to evacuate the civilians.

The puddle of red holographic cape on the floor. And her hastily retreating back. Damn.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub @mostly-marvel-musings @vozit @littlegasps @pilloclock @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads @hermione-grangers-wife @individualistfem @sleep-i-ness @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn @justanotherblonde23 @fanngirl19 @persephonehemingway @softie-socks @schemefrenzy @letsby @cutenessloading @romeo-the-cactus @jelly-fishy-babie

#party favours #bun writes #Quentin Beck #tony stark fanfiction

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thewolfmanslayer · 3 years

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Honestly the amount of people who say artists and writers should do stuff for free, or try to rip them off on comissions still royally piss me off.

I think the worst part of it is the entitlement, I dont want to make this too much about generations but a lot of commissioners are millenial/Gen z's who grew up on the "steal and pirate everything" mentality, take everything that you can because no one else is going to hand it to you. which I can get behind, when you are screwing over MULTI BILLION DOLLAR COMPANIES. NOT THE STRUGGLING ARTISTS AND WRITERS who are trying to keep food on the table as desperately as you probably are!

It's simple, you wouldn't walk into a restaurant, order food and tell the server "sorry I don't have any money, but I've got like a few thousand followers on social media, I can get your name out there, get the restaurant some exposure" NO! They don't need "exposure" they need you to pay the damn bill!

On top of that, most of these artists and writers ALREADY HAVE FOLLOWINGS. They already have thousands of people following them, waiting for the chance to get a commission, who are willing to pay for said commission, they don't need "exposure" when they're already out there! He'll even the artists and writers with a few hundred don't need it, they'll get more followers as time goes by, their skill alone will see to it.

And what is with people trying to get free art and writing? It's not going to work! You can't harass someone until they cave, trust me, you'll be long since blocked before you even have the opportunity. I don't do comissions, online anyways, but my own friends and family, people who actually know me STILL PAY ME whenever they ask for me to do art for them because they KNOW it takes TIME AND EFFORT.

How many times do we need to have this discussion???? Like when is it going to finally click that people who need to pay their bills just as much as you do AREN'T going to do this shit for free!?

Here's the thing about art and writing, that you've heard a billion times but still aren't getting; IT. TAKES. TIME. AND. EFFORT. TO. GET. DONE. the art isn't going to magically appear and the writing isn't going to suddenly write itself, if either were so convenient YOU WOULDNT BE ASKING AN ARTIST OR WRITER IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Look at that, you see that? The first picture I did back in 2012-13, the picture beside it? I did that TWO YEARS AGO. I didn't suddenly know exactly what to do, or had anything close to a god given talent for drawing (I'm not that talented). The first picture WAS THE ABSOLUTE BEST I COULD DO AT THE TIME THAT I MADE IT. In the time between these two drawings I admittedly took a break from art, but then I got back into it four years ago. EVEN STILL that was four YEARS of starting over from the basics, relearning everything, learning new things, wanting to actually improve my art.

Which, guess what, DID NOT HAPPEN OVER NIGHT. It was HOURS UPON HOURS of my limited free time as an adult drawing over and over and over and over again, every single goddamn day to get to the point that I was able to make that redraw look as good as it does in comparison. He'll, my art now puts them both to shame! Because I spent the time improving my quality!!

Now look at these artists doing comissions, they've probably put EVEN MORE of their time to get that good! They've put in LITERAL YEARS of sweat, blood, tears, frustrations and dedicated hardwork. Some did the same as me, self teaching and lots of practice, others probably had to go to school, which definitely wasn't cheap. But all of us put in that time and effort TO REACH THESE POINTS. Of being better artists, developing our styles, getting faster at drawing.

And maybe you think that this is super easy, right? That I or every other artist can just fire some art off and boom its good and done in like an hour?

FUCK. NO.

Even now it takes me several hours a day OVER MANY DAYS to make something exceptionally good! It doesn't matter how good an artist is, it still. Takes. Time.

Maybe the issue is that you don't understand how much actually goes into art, let me break it down for you, the steps that most people follow to finish ONE drawing.

-Rough draft: general character outline, get a feel for what I want to draw.

-Rough sketch: I start doing a bit of pencil to start filling in details like mouth, nose, eyes, hair, clothes. Ect.

-Penciling: I go over the rough sketch and clean everything up, maybe do some editing, this is when you can start making out all the details.

-Ink: I trace over the finished pencil with a pen tool and actually have the line art, everything looks clean, presentable, it actually looks like a character now. I'll spend time editing this and possibly redoing the inking many times over to get to a point where I like it.

-Flat color: I decide on which colors to use for skin tone, clothes accessories. Ect.

-Shading/highlights: I figure out where my light source is and how strong it is, I then apply the correct amount of lighting and shadows to the color to give it depth, I also have determine the texture of skin, clothes and accessories to make everything look real and natural.

-Blending: I smooth out the shading and highlights so that it looks more natural and isn't too hard (noticeable difference between color) so that it looks as natural as possible.

-Finish: I go over last minute details, finish any editing or corrections that need to be done. Once it's good I call it a day.

Each process is longer in length then the previous, with the exception of the final editing (as long as everything looks good) and even the rough draft can take some time. Over all this is SEVERAL HOURS of work for a SINGLE DRAWING.

So is it sinking in yet? How much is put into doing even a single character drawing? God forbid if its done with background. This isn't a "scratch a pen around and be done with it in ten minutes" kinda deal, no, this is SEVERAL HOURS OF SOMEONES LIFE BEING PUT INTO THIS

And if you still have the AUDACITY to try and wrangle free art from an artist then there's no helping you, you're just a selfish piece of shit, no question and I want nothing to do with you.

Someone might say "But I got free art/writing from.-" look I don't give a shit if someone did something for you THAT ONE TIME, these other artists and writers? Totally seperate and different people. You're one freebie experience does not, and should not apply to other artists and writers.

"But what if I really want this commission but don't have the money right now?" Well, that's tough shit. Save up and properly commission them when you can, it's not their problem.

"But what if I'm in a really bad financial situation and really want it?" That sucks, and I'm sorry, but again, not their problem. Chances are this is their only source of income and they need to make money so that they don't end up in a similar situation.

"They have a gift! They should share it!" What kind of cheap ass- LOOK, just because someone is talented or really good at something does not automatically obligate them to do anything for total strangers in anyway shape or form. These are living, breathing people, the same as you. They need to eat, they need to pay rent/mortgages, they need to pay vet bills, send their kids to college, do their taxes and everything else that YOU YOURSELF need to do. Asking anyone to spend their time doing something for free, when that something is how THEY ARE SURVIVING is beyond asinine. Not only that, this obviously isn't a hobby to them, it is very clearly THEIR JOB. Would you want to do a job where you didn't get paid at all? Doing a shit ton of work for absolutely nothing? No? Didn't think so.

"It shouldn't be about the money!" Well unfortunately, as with almost every other job, it is. We live in a world where we desperately need to make money in order to survive. That's the painful fact of the matter. If money never had to be an issue ever again then this would be a very different story. But it's not, plain and simple as can be.

Look, these people are just like you, artists and writers who are just trying to get by in a shitty ass world, using the one thing they have that let's them have an income. Leave them be, don't try and trick them, guilt them, or cuss them out when you don't get your way. Either properly comission or leave them the hell alone, plain and simple.

#artists #writers #art #writing #rant #comissions #people

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clean-bands-dirty-stories · 4 years

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The Best Things ~ J.V. (Part 5)

A/n: I... really like this series. I hope you guys do too. It's gonna be a tad different from the show, but I also have like a lot of things I find quite clever about it so I'm just super excited lol. Hope you guys like it as much as I do.

Word Count: 5100+

Playlist

MASTERLIST

Jerome's hand tightened as he gripped Y/n's side. His arm was draped around the other boy's, both of them asleep. The movement woke Y/n though and he looked over, confused until he saw the look of soft distress on the redhead's face. It was an odd expression for someone who was asleep. There was a strain, but it battled for place on features that obviously wanted to relax and rest.

Y/n frowned before reaching up and stroking Jerome's face. This was an extremely rare sign of softness or affection. With Jerome it was destruction and sex. Being stuck in a prison for the criminally insane didn't allow for dates, but Y/n got the feeling that Jerome wasn't much of a candle light dinner kind of dude. He didn't mind. There was a time and a place for romance, and this was not the place but it did seem that this was the time. "Jerome?" His hand moved to the redhead's shoulder and he shook gently.

There was a soft jerk and a little squeak as Jerome's eyes slammed open like someone ramming open a door. His body began to shake a little and Y/n immediately became intensely concerned. He sat up, leaning over Jerome and looking to see if he was hurt or something had happened to him. He seemed fine... but he obviously wasn't. "J? What's wrong?"

It was at that moment that Jerome finally took a breath in and Y/n realized he hadn't been breathing since he'd open his eyes. That was only a few seconds, but still. Y/n stroked his face and neck very softly, leaving a little kiss on his shoulder. Jerome took deep breaths, his body shaking a little. He didn't speak. He didn't move. It was as if he was trying to pretend he wasn't awake or that this wasn't happening. It was incredibly out of character for him and it made Y/n feel very scared for him. The boy just kept touching Jerome and saying his name softly and leaving little kisses here and there. Neither boy spoke for a very long time.

Finally Jerome calmed. "Did I wake you up?" He asked very quietly. He was continuing to make the choice to be still, and between the complete lack of dramatics and the chilling softness of his voice, Y/n felt like they were hiding from something very dangerous. It felt for a second like they were in some horror movie. Y/n could almost hear the soundtrack. It was unnerving.

"No," he lied. "I have a habit of waking up at random times at night. I don't usually sleep solidly." Which was a partial truth. Ever since his parents had died he hadn't gotten many nights of solid sleep. He hadn't had much of a problem with it since being with Oswald though, and it had lessened even more when Jerome and him had started sharing a bed. The redhead was warm and comfortable- there wasn't much room for anxiety.

That didn't seem to be the case for Jerome.

Jerome sat up. "It seems I fell asleep in the wrong bed." He looked at Y/n and giggled, but the sound was choked and weak. Y/n offered a small smile because Jerome seemed to want it. He had been right- Jerome immediately relaxed. The older boy leaned over and planted a sloppy kiss on Y/n's cheek before standing and moving sluggishly to his bed. Or, sluggish for him I suppose. He was still putting up a solid effort to seem normal.

Once both boys were in bed, it got quiet again. It seemed both of them were waiting for the other to fall asleep. Y/n fell asleep first. Hearing the younger boy's even breathing was incredibly soothing to Jerome, who closed his eyes. He pushed away the far too vivid images of a trailer and a twisted expression red with rage. He tried to push away the memories that had translated into a nightmare. One he should have been used to having, but could never seem to adjust to.

Y/n helped. It was like he drained all of Jerome's pretenses. They could just be themselves around each other, unapologetically. Jerome was never sorry for being himself, but it was definitely refreshing to have someone feel the same way. Y/n wasn't bothered by the way he did things or the things he said or anything. Jerome could relax. He could let down his barriers, just a little. Which meant he felt less of a need to put on a show and instead just had fun with it, but it also meant that the things he blocked out of his mind came crawling back, begging for attention after a lifetime of hiding them away from even his own mind.

Maybe Y/n was bad for Jerome. He'd been fine before. Now he was damn near happy, but he was also suffering from nightmares again-something he hadn't had since he had finally gotten rid of his bitch of a mother. Maybe Jerome should stop with the whole Y/n thing. Get someone easier. Someone like those fun people from that cult of his. Those who held high expectations and were thrilled every time he met them. Who expected bigger and better each time and were never disappointed...

And yet, the thought of Jerome not having Y/n in his life anymore made Jerome feel terrible. No one was as fun as Y/n. As adaptable. Y/n had a softness to his insanity that was very... alluring. He had never woken up to someone comforting him before. He'd never had great sex and then gone to bed with an even better cuddling partner. He'd never had someone who fit everything he wanted and needed. Someone to do anything and everything with. They could kill. They could have sex. They could just sleep. They could make jokes and flip off all of Gotham. They could do anything. It was amazing. Y/n was special. Jerome didn't want anyone else...

Fuck! What was HAPPENING to him?

His arm felt right around Y/n's shoulder. It had become their usual position. Whether Jerome was walking or sitting or laying down. Whether Y/n was next to him or being pulled around by him or being whiny or willing or horny or sleepy or whether the boy was sitting down or tucking into Jerome's side, half asleep and mumbling quietly because he was ranting about something or another. Whether the two boys were talking or silent - they were always connected by that arm.

Jerome tried to do it with someone else. He lounged his arm across one of the other inmates, dramatically monologuing about a vision of the future he had. His other hand moved through the air, fingers spread, as he painted a picture that he wanted the other person to see. It didn't quite fit though. The shoulders were too broad, and Jerome was too tall. Most people brushed his arm off of them, or kept their distance from him in general. Y/n was the only one who liked being by him. The only one who sought out his touch, and missed him when he was gone.

It was becoming a problem. Jerome could always fill a single space with many different possible candidates. That way if one left: no problem. Next person please. Jerome could not, for the life of him, fill Y/n's spot with anyone else.

The problem was that he'd never had a person that took this role in his life before. He'd never had a steady sexual partner or someone who really cared about him. He'd never had someone gentle and sincere who also fulfilled his sexual needs. He'd never had someone who was both sexy and loving. Someone who knew him and didn't mind what they saw. Jerome hadn't put Y/n into a role- the boy had entered into Jerome's life and made his own damn place. Carved an Y/n shaped place just for him to lounge in. Jerome had never seen anyone like him before- how would he find a second someone?

Long story short: he wouldn't.

Eventually he stopped trying. Y/n really was special. Everyone had that one person. The best friend or the boyfriend or the sibling. He'd thought he had Jeremiah but that had quickly been cleared up. If everyone else was allowed to have that special person, so could Jerome.

It was nifty too. Y/n was down to do anything for him.

Anytime he was horny, he didn't have to hide it or go hunting for someone who was down. He could just kiss Y/n and pull him close and he was satisfied every time.

When he was bored, Y/n kept him entertained with people and places that didn't exist. Y/n was very interesting- past just how much he enjoyed Jerome's twisted mind. He also had ideas for little stories he had created a long time ago and characters in those stories that he had drawn. Jerome wanted to see Y/n draw. He wanted to see Y/n draw him. That would be cool.

If Jerome was feeling needy or upset, Y/n was there to comfort him. Jerome didn't even have to say something. He could just lay his head in Y/n's lap and the other boy would play with his hair. He could lounge across Y/n and Y/n would rub his back. Jerome could put his arm around Y/n's shoulder and he would immediately lay his head on Jerome's shoulder or pay attention to the redhead. Y/n was always listening and paying attention, intently, like every word that Jerome ever said was the most interesting thing anyone could ever say.

If Jerome wanted a change, Y/n would cut or style his hair or switch up the conversation or the way they had fallen into sex since the last time Jerome had gotten bored. Y/n seemed to be learning Jerome's very small cues for different things, to the point that Jerome didn't even have say anything for Y/n to respond appropriately and begin fulfilling whatever thing had been bothering Jerome just a second before.

Jerome tested it time and time again, but Y/n never failed to take up the unspoken task and solve the problem with efficiency. Even if it wasn't really a problem, like Y/n's elbow was pressed into Jerome's side. It wasn't painful, just a little uncomfortable. Jerome shifted; Y/n immediately moved his arm into a different position until Jerome stopped being bothered by it. Even if he ended in the same position. Somehow Y/n just seemed to know exactly what the problem was, and then it was gone.

"Why do you do that?" Jerome asked one day.

Y/n had talked one of the guards into getting him books, for good behavior. He was reading it now. He had been reading it alone before, but then Jerome had sat next to him and began to lay down. Before he had even moved more than an inch, Y/n was moving the book out of the way and shifting his legs to where Jerome preferred them. Now the younger boy looked up from his book, as if he hadn't really noticed Jerome at all. "What do you mean?"

Jerome frowned. He didn't know how to word it. "Fix everything." He tilted his head like a child looking at something odd. Jerome often did very childish body movements. His emotional expression was very young-looking... unless he was having sex or murdering someone, but that wasn't the point. "You know when something is bothering me, and then you kind of just... it stops bothering me."

Y/n smiled. "I don't know. I don't really think about it or mean to. It's subconscious." That was a big word. Jerome's eyebrows pushed together and his lips parted to ask a question Y/n was answering before Jerome could get it out. "Kind of like muscle memory. Magicians can do magic tricks without thinking. A painting style becomes habit, and the hand follows the learned path without having to even think about it. Or how people walk and they just do it without real, purposeful thought. The second you start thinking about it, you trip. Like breathing. It just happens. Your body reacts.” He shrugged.

Jerome was still frowning. "And how do you always know what I'm going to say or what I want? Like you can read my mind?"

Y/n giggled. Jerome felt his body relax. That sound. GOD that sound. "I cannot read your mind. I can, however, read your body language. I've always been very good at it actually. I learned from a young age, because a lot of people only wanted to be friends with me because I was rich or famous, or because they wanted some gossip or news about the Wayne son who everyone was deeming a failure from the very first time Bruce was talking. People have always been very easy for me to understand... for the most part. Mostly men. Women get a little tricky, which is probably why I'm gay." He sorted. "I don't like people who are hard to read. Makes em hard to trust."

"And I'm easy to read?"

"The easiest I've ever met, actually. You make your intentions clear, and everything you do means something. You don't hold back or beat around the bush- you express every little thing that bugs you. It's very easy to understand what is bothering you. Like when you didn't know what subconscious meant. Your frown got a little deeper and you turned your head just a little. I figured you didn't know what it meant, because there's really no other reason to be so confused by that word."

Interesting. "Do you do this for everyone?"

Y/n was quiet for a while. It made Jerome a little nervous, which didn't make sense. Jerome was never nervous. Jerome was also absolutely never this curious about anyone. He didn't ever care this much. Why did he feel this way for Y/n? Why did he... care for the other boy? Why did he care at all, when he lived a life where he ruled the world by not caring, especially for other people? "No." Y/n answered the question Jerome had forgotten he'd asked, knocking the redhead out of his thoughts. "You’re special."

Jerome looked away. He didn't say anything to that.

After a while, Y/n returned to his book and with his time back to himself, Jerome let his lips turn into a small smile.

He was Y/n's special person too.

Gonna be real with you: Y/n and Jerome were getting far too comfortable being gay in public.

It was less of a problem being in Arkham, where there were few people that weren't either afraid of or loyal in some way to Jerome. The redhead had used every free moment to win the favor of person after person, and now he practically ran the place. This was his turf. It didn't stop brave people from sometimes stepping up, or saying something, or guards being nasty every once in a while. No one would touch Jerome, but the same could not be said about Y/n, especially when Jerome wasn't around.

The two boys had spent the day cuddled up, with Y/n leaning against the wall, Jerome perched between his legs and Jerome's back pressed to Y/n's chest. Y/n had rested his arms around Jerome's shoulders, his clasped hands on Jerome's chest. Jerome had his elbows propped up on Y/n's knees. He was talking to one of the other inmates, telling a story about how much he missed killing and creating havoc.

Leaning forward, Y/n pressed a quick kiss to Jerome's shoulder before shifting to stand. Jerome leaned off of him with a begrudging sigh, making Y/n chuckle. The Wayne boy stood, stretching out his limbs a little bit. He did this every once in a while, walking around the room and profiling people, or just looking at the blank wall and looking at the pattern of the dots and making little pictures with them as if they were stars in the sky lining up to make constellations. Halfway through his lap around the room, Jerome finally stopped checking on him and Y/n was oblivious, completely relaxed. At least until a hand grabbed his shoulder, ripping him out of the room and into the hallway. He gasped, suddenly thrown into a situation that had totally taken him off guard, which didn't allow him to speak before there was a strong hand gripping his shoulder and a gun barrel pointed at his face.

"Quiet now," said the person in front of him. Y/n swallowed. At first he wasn't too scared, since it was a guard in front of him, but then he saw the look in the man's eyes. A look he had seen before. A look he knew belonged to those who hated people like him. Men who liked men; women who liked women. The man tugged Y/n forward before sliding behind him, now guiding him with a push instead of having to walk backwards. The gun rested threateningly against the back of his head. Y/n closed his eyes. How ironic was it that after all this time, it wasn't the criminally insane people locked up that were the bad guys- it was the people who were supposed to be in charge of them? One of the "sane", "good" people who were part of the community and trusted by everyone. The law keepers.

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Y/n asked quietly, more to himself than to be heard.

The guard shoved him into a side room. The pair had passed several other guards, but none had even looked over despite the obvious sign of danger Y/n was in. Once again, the law had failed Y/n. Every second that passed was yet another second that Y/n hated human beings and this cursed city more and more. The world in general. Why did people like this deserve to live? Long story short: they didn't.

Once they were alone, the door closed, the guard smiled. "You and that psycho waltz around this place like you own it. You got a cell together and pretend we can't hear you both fucking like rabbits." The guard made a look of complete disgust.

Y/n sighed. "You call him a psycho, but he's not the one with a gun pointed to another person who's done nothing wrong to him."

"This is a jail," the guard spat. "And you're insane. He's a murderer, and you're with him like it's not wrong. It would be bad enough for a chick to be with that maniac, but you? Don't you have any respect for yourself? For your family?"

Y/n's expression turned dark. "My parents know I'm gay. They don't care."

Something hard smacked against the side of Y/n's face, and he was immediately dizzy and on the ground. "They KNEW," the guard seethed. "They're dead now, aren't they?" He snorted. "I bet they hired someone to kill them. They must have been so ashamed of you. And they're lucky too. Poor parents having to watch their son be locked up in a place like this, and acting like you are now with a person like that."

Y/n spit blood and then grinned, giggling softly. "Now are you mad that I'm fucking a murder, or are you mad that I'm fucking a man?" A foot planted in Y/n's gut, causing the boy on the ground to grunt. The guard went to speak, but Y/n forced himself to suck in a breath and continued instead. "Do you feel justified in beating me up because I'm gay?" He asked weakly. "You're a grown man- I'm a teenager. You're taller and stronger and more experienced than me. You even have your gun out. Are you so scared of me that you can't just face me hand to hand at the very least? You think that I'm gonna take you down?" Y/n looked up, still grinning even as his body began to ache. This he had gotten directly from Jerome. Enjoying the pain. Reveling in the look of fear and disgust on the guard's face. The way it made the older man so nervous to look at the face of such a young boy covered in blood as he lay curled up on the ground, but remained smiling nevertheless. "Big bad man is gonna put an end to the homos one prick at a time, huh?"

The guard kneeled down, gripping the front of Y/n's shirt and bringing their faces close together. "Shut. Up."

"Or what?" Y/n pressed. The guard was shaking now. "You're gonna kill me?" Y/n busted up laughing, spraying a little bit of blood onto the guard's face. The man shoved Y/n away, groaning as he stood, wiping off the red liquid hurriedly. "You should," Y/n finalized. "Jerome is going to destroy you if he ever finds out this happened. Maybe not while we're in here. But ater, when we get out. Because we will get out one day. One day you're gonna think you're finally safe, and that's when we'll come for you."

The guard looked genuinely afraid for a second. Then he was kneeling down again, pinning Y/n by sitting on top of him. Y/n immediately felt crushed. He couldn't breathe or move, and it filled him with fear. That pure terror that Y/n was becoming a little too familiar with. Maybe he was a little crazier than he'd thought. Maybe it wasn't just Jerome's influence anymore. Because, when he felt that fear, Y/n smiled even wider. It excited him. It riled him up. He saw the guard pull his fist back and he closed his eyes, ready for the impact before the man had even drawn his fist forward to make contact with Y/n's nose.

The first hit finally came. Then the second. The third. It went on for a while before Y/n's smile fell off and he groaned. The whole world was spinning and he blinked, trying to orient himself. The guard finally stopped, standing, only to continue again with kicking instead. Each blow hit a different part of Y/n's body. Chest. Stomach. Arm. The guard stomped on Y/n's hand and the young boy screamed as his hand light on fire with agony.

In the distance, the door opened. "Stop!" Someone yelled. "That's enough! You're going to kill him."

"So what?"

Someone slapped someone else. "Listen to yourself! He's not even a real criminal. He's a boy and he's in here because he got caught up with the real bad guy. Even if he is guilty for something terrible like they're thinking, or he's capable of doing something terrible, you're just as bad as he is for acting like this."

"You didn't do much to stop me before."

A pause. "Fuck off, Jameson. I have to make sure he doesn't die now." Another pause. "GET OUT! Someone's coming to visit him later and he needs to not be dead." There was a sudden drop in the air. Ah yes, fear. They were feeling it now. Fear of getting caught. Fear of paying for the shitty things THEY did. Fear of losing respect or their job at the very least. Fear of the repercussions of the Waynes coming after him for hurting one of their own.

If Y/n could be considered that anymore.

Footsteps. The guard left. Y/n finally opened his eyes and then immediately groaned and closed them again. Someone kneeled down, reaching out to touch him gently. He flinched away. "I know, but you're safe now. Well-" A sigh. "As safe as you can be. I'm going to help you a bit here, okay?" Y/n groaned. The person sighed again. "Take your time, until you can sit up. I need to make sure nothing's broken.

"Why?" Y/n demanded. It was a little muffled. A little slurred. His jaw hurt, especially when he tried to talk.

The other person seemed to consider that for a moment. "I can't stop guards from being assholes, but I can stop them from being murderers. I at least have that authority here. Couldn't stop it from happening, but I could help with the aftermath."

Y/n scoffed, causing him to have a headache. "What so now you're a good person?" He finally opened his eyes to see a woman. The world had stopped spinning and she frowned down at him, her head tilting. She looked sad. "Who are you?"

"I'm the therapist around here," she said with a heavy tone.

Y/n giggled then flinched. "What's your name, Doc?"

She smiled a little, weakly, lifted up a bit by Y/n's casual, light mood. "My name is Harleen Quinzel. You can call me Dr. Q if you want."

"Harleen," Y/n tried out. "Doc HQ." He gave short, soft chuckles and she smiled a little wider, taking the time to analyze his actions and state of being as best she could. He seemed fine for the most part, if a little cheery. His smile was very contagious. She liked it. "Do you have any fun nicknames?"

"How about you sit up really fast and then we can get to know each other, hm?" With her help, Y/n did sit up. She looked around before going into a cabinet, bringing back a first aid kit box. She opened it, taking out some things here and there. "Now I'm not great at this- I studied mental health, not physical. But I did learn a thing or two when I learned I was coming here. And then some more after I saw just how bad things are here." She pulled Y/n's arm into her lap as she began cleaning up the smeared blood here and there. "This might hurt a little bit, okay?" Y/n nodded. She moved to Y/n's face and he hissed, flinching away. "Don't move," she scolded.

Y/n sighed. "I hope you're not doing this because you want sex or something. I'm-"

"Gay," she finished, nodding. "No, it's nothing like that. You're the most decent person in here, though, and it's nice to see someone like me being so confident and chill."

Y/n started, his eyebrows coming together in confusion. "Like you?"

She smiled shyly. "I mean, I understand how you feel. I don't like men the same way you don't like woman." Y/n's eyes widened. She laughed at his expression. "What, you don't think you're the only person around here who's different from everyone else, huh?" He relaxed, smiling softly. "You can't tell anyone though, okay? I mean anyone. Not even that redhead friends of yours. I can't have anyone finding out. I could lose my job, or end up like you just now, and I can't take a hit as well as you can." She immediately frowned. "Not that I like the idea that you can take a hit. You've probably had to get used to that."

Y/n shrugged. "Not really. I'm just durable." She nodded then went quiet. Y/n suddenly had a lot of questions. "So, only girls?" She nodded, focusing on cleaning him up still. "Huh. Cool." He held his fist up and she paused before grinning and fist bumping it. "Solidarity."

And so a friendship was made.

She did her best to clean him up and then bandage some cuts and wrap his hand, which she determined was pretty messed up though not broken as Y/n was able to move his fingers. She also wrapped up an especially dark, tender spot on his arm to offer some buffer incase it came in contact with anything else, like a wall or Jerome. Then they both stood - slowly, as Y/n was immediately sick to his stomach as he got to his feet - and left the room. Harleen kept his arm around her shoulders and kept her eyes down as she passed other people. Y/n left his hand over his ribs, only allowing himself a few steps before pushing away from his new friend to show strength by walking on his own. As if reading his mind, she let him the second he moved away from her. The second they were around a corner with no guards in sight, Harleen was immediately there to make sure he was okay.

The pair ended up in a new section of the building Y/n hadn't seen before now. They went through a ton of check points, Y/n moving to stand on his own again as he limped next to Harleen. The pair were surrounded by guards as she got him through check mark after check mark until they ended up in a large room that had the same grey, bare walls as everywhere else, except that it was cut in half by a large slab of plastic. There were chair on either side of the glass, each lining up with little slabs that acted like a desk of sort, and a phone. It was the visiting room. Y/n had seen some rendition of it on TV before plenty of times.

He looked for the occupied booth that he was meant to be visited at. He didn't know who he was expecting, but when he saw Alfred he was surprised. Maybe he shouldn't have been shocked; it just seemed odd that it was Alfred, alone. It would have made more sense if it was Bruce, Alfred in the back to accompany him. That wouldn't have made much more sense though. Why would Bruce be visiting him? Why was Alfred?

Y/n finally picked up the phone as Alfred did. There was a moment of silence as Alfred took in Y/n's poor condition. He seemed torn between anger and worry. Despite everything, Alfred was still Y/n's caretaker before anything else. Even though there also seemed to be a little bit of relief in Alfred's gaze. Y/n wondered if it was because Y/n looked like Bruce that Alfred was worried. If it was that Y/n wasn't Bruce, even though he looked like him, that Alfred was relieved. "Hi," Y/n greeted shortly.

"Hello," Alfred said back. His voice was tight. He seemed awkward. "Master Bruce wanted to be here but-"

"He actually didn't?" Y/n interrupted.

Alfred's expression grew dark. "He was kidnapped."

Y/n paled. The calm and chaos he’d been holding onto and honing into mania suddenly shattered and he felt like the same kid who Alfred had to tell his parents had died. Like the last four years hadn’t happened at all. "What?"

#wayne reader #gotham #joker #cameron monaghan #valeska twins #jerome valeska #jerome x reader #jeroem valeska x reader #joker x reader #gotham x reader #gotham imagine #joker imagine #cameron monaghan x reader #cameron monaghan imagine #male reader #jerome velaska #valeska twins x reader #valeska twins imagine

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bluealmondpie · 4 years

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haikyuu!boyfriends!

ho ho ho me and my love for side characters has struck again~ the coaches are all so underrated and it is not fair so here is some love for our wonderful swan coach

bf!akira (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

* the picture of reliability

* this man knows. he is observant to details

* totally can tell when you're angry or upset or excited. he pays a lot of attention.

* i imagine he would be nervous on the first date, and it might b a lil over the top? a nice restaurant and an uncomfortably dressed (see: formal) akira with flowers. it's adorable (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

* he is easy to tease. cute reactions. he usually will gently rebuff after being surprised or shocked, but he doesn't mind on the inside. actually it's q obvious he doesn't mind so you can keep teasing him if u want he will tease you back, and it's an enjoyable sort of push and pull

* nowadays dates are more chill, usually hanging around his apartment (you've practically moved in at this point) cooking, watching movies or reading together

* akira is p laid back. a little short of happy go lucky, he goes with the flow most days. his easy going nature makes your relationship really comfortable. it's such a cute little relationship filled with domestic scenes and just so... simple and sweet ugh.

* imagine: he's late home because of volleyball practice. he comes back to see you asleep on the couch with lukewarm pudding on the table, and just softly smiles. the tiredness melts away. he puts the pudding in the fridge and gently lifts you up to move you to the bedroom. akira? you mumble, your eyes fluttering open. mm i'm back, he says softly. rest, i'll join you in a bit. you pull him closer and he kisses your forehead to seal the promise as he places you under the covers. he washes up quietly and slips in next to you, and you curl into his chest. he wraps his arms around you and closes his eyes. you both drift off to sleep.

* i imagine he likes plants but he's not v good at taking care of them. you've set up the reminders on his phone to water the different succulents he has (just two, because he's killed enough to make him sad. you bought the first one for him when you were out grocery shopping and you noticed him staring at the little baby succulents. when it passed away he admitted he wasn't good at taking care of plants and you replaced it, setting up watering alarms for him. the other was a gift from a student.) he's feeling a lot more successful about this recently. the succulents are on his phone lock screen. you are the home screen.

* when you're sick he will take you to the doctor's. he will bring you warm porridge and feed you. he will sit beside you while you sleep and read or watch game tapes on headphones. one of his hands will be holding yours.

* when you're angry he will get flustered. he will send flowers and cards and balloons. he doesn't want you to be angry, and he's usually p observant so it's probably pretty rare for you to be angry at him.

* if you're angry about work or something he will rub circles on your back while listening to you rant. will totally buy you bubble tea (or your choice of favourite drink) so u feel better. he thinks you're cute when you're ranting

* the shiratorizawa kids don't know he is dating. tendou has an inkling, but he hasn't said anything cos he cannot confirm. washijou sensei doesn't know either, but anabara knows. maybe anabara introduced you two, bc he thinks that saitou needs more female friends. he probably didn't think you two would hit it off so well. in hindsight he thinks he should have seen it coming.

* i've said he is easygoing, but he isn't a pushover either. the emotional support pillar of shiratorizawa, he is the teacher they look up to because he is fun and so relatable. washijou obviously knows this and leaves the rapport up to akira. you think it's cute how he stays up late to reply to tendou's strange and silly life questions or giving comments on the latest shounen jump, or teaching goshiki calming down strategies. sometimes you think he puts in too much effort since he gets really tired staying up late, but he is happy doing that so you hold back your criticism and just make sure he gets more rest on his off days.

* i imagine the team finds out one fine day after they've all graduated. tendou is especially excited to know more about your relationship. akira will be flustered, but it will be okay. you've heard enough about them that you know who is who before they introduce themselves. the boys will find it heartwarming to know that their coach loves them enough to talk about them with you. you secretly want to adopt all of them. akira will oppose they have families! we can't tear them away /ahhh but you want to, don't you, you tease him.

* domestic dates! imagine 2: it's sunday evening and you're both hungry and decide to cook dinner. there's no food in the apartment as usual (he usually goes out or gets takeout) so you both head to the nearby super. you argue lightly about how to tell fresh produce apart and which is the cheapest/most value for money deals. the cashier mistakes you for a newly wedded couple. akira laughs, blushing slightly. neither of you correct the cashier. the walk back to his apartment is filled with quiet expectation. akira wonders what kind of rings you like, and what kind would look good on you. he glances at your interlaced fingers and smiles. he can't think of any better than a wedding band.

*******

i know haikyuu is one of those mangas with a huge huge cast and even tho people consider hinata/kageyama to be the main mcs and to a certain extent karasuno as main also and therefore all the other teams are side characters, but this makes our coaches truly the most sideline characters ever. but still they are all quite well written support characters and so ive always wanted to give them a little more fleshed out stories. also domestic akira is so cute they r also so underrated. the young hq coaches all deserve our love! ukai obv but so is our coach saitou here and let's not forget mizoguchi and naoi. anabara is a lil older than them i would think~ (i'm a little annoyed at those people saying that they like older men but they only talk about keishin like oooook sure idk maybe but have u considered that u just like bad boys with a soft heart and not older men??)

requests are open, rules are here ♪( ´▽｀)

masterlist here (♡-♡)

next hq!bf post will only have the same team tagged, cos there's so many to link now (;-;) please click on masterlist~

#haikyuu #haikyuu!!#hq!!#haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #saitou akira #shiratorizawa

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kdramaanalyst · 4 years

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THE KING: ETERNAL MONARCH REVIEW

EDIT: I AM SO SORRY, THIS IS A SECONDARY BLOG AND I JUST LEARNED THAT I CAN'T REPLY TO COMMENTS. PLEASE CHECK MY PINNED BLOG WHERE I WROTE ABOUT THIS PROBLEM. THANK YOU!

Spoilers ahead!!! Read at your own risk. Once again, I am not an expert and these are my personal opinions. If you have disagreements, let's talk it over. Don't judge me, let's judge the show together instead and have an understanding.

For the first drama that I am going to review, I chose The King: Eternal Monarch. A lot of viewers who supported the show with all of their hearts could still not get over its ending. Others who like to binge-watch are relieved because they can finally watch the entire series without waiting for a new episode to air. While some are still mulling over about watching it. Well, I hope I could help you with this review.

• Introduction to the Drama

Short gist:

The story revolves around Lee Gon, present King of Kingdom of Corea. He witnessed his father’s death when he was young, an incident that haunted him until he grew older. Due to unfortunate circumstances, a legendary flute with powers called Manpasikjeok that can open different worlds was cut in half. He was able to get hold half of the flute, while the other half was obtained by Lee Lim, his uncle who killed his father. Lee Lim had been going back and forth two different worlds, plotting foul pursuits to fulfill his evil desires, and disrupting the peace between the two worlds. In order to restore balance and order, Lee Gon also traveled between worlds, meeting Jeong Tae Eul who soon became a significant person in his life.

If you've been watching Korean Dramas for quite a while now, you must be familiar with some of the characters of The King: Eternal Monarch, especially the lead.

If you call yourself a k-drama fan and you don't know who Lee Minho is, give yourself a slap (just kidding, please don't take that seriously). Lee Minho has a good reputation because of his experience, acting skills and obviously, his gorgeous face. He has an impressive list of successful dramas and movies! Most of us probably knew him through his breakthrough role in Boys Over Flowers.

Meanwhile, Kim Go Eun, despite being fairly new to small screen (she first started appearing in movies), is also highly distinguished by a lot of k-drama fans. In all three dramas she starred in, including The King, she always got the lead role. His leading men are no joke either. And because of Kim Go Eun, many of us still wants to be the goblin's bride.

Among the cast also includes the familiar faces of Woo Do Hwan, Kim Kyung Nam, Jung Eun Chae, and Lee Jung Jin.

Anyway, I'll try to share every thought I have from the first time I watched it until it ended. I will also try not to give so much spoilers because the drama just ended. I will talk first about my experience watching it and then I will list at the very bottom some of the issues I have and that list contains major spoilers so watch out for that. As you notice, I always warn you with spoilers using red font color.

• The Experience

When I watched the first teaser of the drama, I got intrigued and a little confused. What worlds are they talking about? Do they have super powers? Is this a historical drama? Questions were instantly formed in my head.

It also reminded me of the drama Queen In Hyun's Man because of a similar scene where the leading man is riding his horse in the middle of the city and finding his woman. But that's just it, the two dramas are completely different. I just mentioned it because others may have felt the same way.

I don't usually watch dramas while it's still fresh. I wait for about two to three weeks before the schedule of the ending so I can binge watch without waiting so much. When I watched The King, there were already 12 episodes available on Netflix. Usually, I would finish 12 episodes in 1-3 days, and if the drama is really good and it's MY STYLE (i said that in an obviously fake Korean accent), I could watch it for an entire day.

However, I finished those 12 episodes in 2 weeks...

Why??? Why did it take me that long???

I wouldn't say I was bored, it's just that during the first few episodes, nothing caught my interest yet. I wasn't convinced that it was a good drama. There was nothing special and I didn't know what to look forward to that's why I couldn't watch it continuously. I got lazy. The pace was slow and the story build up was a little stagnant. It was too slow that I even started watching a long length saeguk just so I can watch something else.

I could have skipped some parts and dropped it but I continued watching and gave it a chance. Though it was a good thing that I didn't stop because as I watched more episodes, the story actually became more exciting. Finally, I saw some progress. I started to get invested in the drama after the eighth episode. That's when the story felt more alive. Finally, there were revelations, more conflicts arose, more emotions were shown, and the story got deeper. I began to appreciate the drama. However, I still don't like the fact that it took me 8 episodes before I started to like it.

• Points that I Liked About the Drama

1. The plot seemed like it's going to be too science fiction-y but it's just the right amount. I was worried that it might be too much for me to handle but it was just okay (i am a potato who dislikes thinking so much, but that depends on my mood lololol). I liked how there's a mix of history in the drama, as well as of politics but it still feels modern. There is a balance.

2. The distinction between the Kingdom of Corea and Republic of Korea is impressive. It's obvious that they put a lot of effort in building their vision of KOC to life.

3. Many people were saying that it's hella confusing and so much was going on. I don't think so. They actually made it easy for viewers to understand about parallel worlds. You don't have to study science facts just to get this drama's concept. I think the slow pace did its job well in this part.

4. The story is unpredictable. You never know what's going to happen next, that's the strength of The King's concept. Because of the two different worlds and the crazy number of characters, there could be a lot of possibilities and backstories.

5. The action scenes are commmendable. I liked the action scenes, the one during the last episode is probably my favorite.

• Points that I Didn't Like About the Drama

1. The slow pace. I don't think I still need to explain more but it totally ruined my whole experience of watching the drama.

2. Many characters didn't leave much impact. Their acting was great, however, I don't see a lot of personalities that standout. The most remarkable ones for me are the characters played by Woo Do Hwan. The other characters, especially the lead, the prime minister and the traitor were okay, too. The others were just bland and years from now, I probably won't remember most of them.

• The Ending (spoiler alert!)

The ending was good. It didn't feel rushed and everyone had a separate ending of their own. I just wished there was more Nari and Eunsup / Yeong and Seung A moment in the end, the conclusion was fine though. I don't like that Prime Minister Koo ended up in jail but Luna became a cop...

I just have one issue regarding the ending that they decided on. In the end they didn't show if Tae Eul became a queen. Well, it would be weird if she became one considering there is Luna in KOC. They can't be together in ROK, too because Gon's counterpart was able to live. So... what? They just kept traveling whenever they have time? Because if that's the case, doesn't that mean they will hide their relationship forever??? I liked that they ended up together but I wish they also kept this in mind. Because it kinda makes me sad. Lol.

• Final Thoughts

Overall, it was alright. It was over-hyped by netizens due to the amazing casting and promotions, but it's not bad at all.

Would I watch it again? No.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Give it a try! I honestly thought I wouldn't like it but I still did, even if it took me 8 episodes, I wouldn't say it wasn't worth it. If you enjoy fantasy dramas with complicated twists and conflicts, this drama is for you. Just have patience and prepare yourself mentally when you've reached the middle. This drama is gloomy and a little heavy, too. It was serious and has a very few humorous scenes.

I am giving The King: Eternal Monarch a 7/10. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

• The King: Eternal Monarch OST Top 5

There are 13 songs in total and everything is so good! I wish I got to hear more of the songs in the drama, some were just played briefly. I swear every song makes me feel things. Choosing just 5 songs is really hard. If you don't watch dramas but love music, give these a listen!!!

My Day Is Full Of You by Zico, Wendy

Orbit by Hwasa

I Fall In Love by Ha Sungwoon

I Just Want To Stay With You by Zion.T

Please Don't Cry by Davichi

Now I'll move on to some of my "issues". This section isn't really what you think. The word "issues" is just intriguing ㅋㅋㅋ but this is just a compilation of my opinions, observations, feelings and other stuff no one might care about in the series. If you have answers for my questions or if you can explain it for me, please enlighten me. Major spoiler ahead!!!

• Issues

1. During the time when Lee Gon was time traveling and finally got back to Repuplic of Korea, it probably took him a lot of time, right? He even took his time to take care of Tae Eul in the hospital. I wish they also showed what was happening in Kingdom of Corea during that time because he's a king and his absence might have caused a ruckus in his kingdom. I can even picture the palace lady Noh getting really worried as Lee Gon travels. The moment he came back, they only gave him updates as if everything was okay.

But since they didn't show it, I guess it is safe to assume that nothing much happened in his kingdom back then. 🤷‍♀️

2. When Gon and Tae Eul met again in Gwanghwamun, why did Tae Eul hug him? In my understanding, at that period of time, Tae Eul only met him twice—once when she was 5 and once when she was 27. So why did she hug him suddenly as if she knows he's going to be a significant person in her life? Their dialogue when they met again when she was 27 wasn't even enough for her to act that way.

3. I hope they also gave Nari more lines and importance. Maybe it's just me, but at first, I thought she and her KOC counterpart would have more significant roles. When I think of it, even without her, the story could still go on. Though this is just a minor issue. ✌

4. Prime Minister Koo. She was a villain, but I didn't really hate her until the last 4-5 episodes (can't recall the exact episode, sorry), though I wouldn't say I hated her so much. I actually liked her at first! She's ambitious, fierce, independent and intelligent. She just got blinded by greed.

My issue here is, am I really supposed to feel like that? In my opinion, her character has the potential to become more heinous and despiteful. I was wondering why they didn't turn her into someone like that? She was just greedy, bitchy, a little sly and annoying.

5. Lee Gon's and Tae Eul's love for each other was a little shallow. Sure, the man who saved Lee Gon when he was a child, had Tae Eul's ID. But how sure was Lee Gon that the woman who owns the I.D. is not a villain? The woman in the ID could lead him to the man who saved him, yes, but it still bugs me how easily they fell in love especially on Lee Gon's part. Maybe I'm just thinking too much. I am sorry. 😅

In spite of that, I still liked their love progression. I didn't ship them that hard but their chemistry wasn't cringey and forced.

6. The scene where Lee Gon gave Tae Eul flowers and then left, was a little confusing. It didn't break my heart, too. I just felt a little sad while watching that scene because Kim Go Eun's acting was good.

7. Who the f is thay yoyo boy??? My guts tell me he's a part of the flute or something because he knows a lot. But I wish it was explained more. It looked weird how he just suddenly appears sometimes and suddenly talks some sense. He remains a mystery.

8. Why the f is Jeong Tae Eul a flat earther??? Well, at least she had a character development in the end. It just annoyed me lmao

9. I don't get why people keep comparing The King: Eternal Monarch to Goblin. Why??? They don't even have the same plot or concept.

10. Court lady Noh was from Republic of Korea... What? Was that necessary?

Don't mind me. Don't mind me. Don't mind me.

Anyway I hate how tumblr wasn't able to save my draft when I was writing additional content. I lost half of it and it makes me furious!!! I had to redo the draft but I can no longer remember some of the things I wrote. I am sad because I lost something that can't be brought back again. This experience earned me a lesson.

That's it for my first review. What are your thoughts? I am a horrible reviewer, I know, but I will do better in the future. Thank you for reading!!!

#the king: eternal monarch #the king #kdrama #korean drama #korean series #lee minho #kim go eun #woo dohwan #kim kyungnam #jung eunchae #lee jung jin #goblin #queen inhyun's man

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