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dajaregambler · 3 years

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AAside - Gyroaxia Band story - Chapter 4 (full)

Translation of Gyroaxia’s band story from the game ‘Argonavis from Bang Dream! AAside’.

This post contains all parts belonging to Chapter 4.

(Recommendation to read this along the ingame band story, since it’s all fully voiced!)

Part one - “Joint declaration”

-----At GYROAXIA’s sharehouse

Reon: Kenta-san, have you seen this?

Kenta: What?

Reon: How members of Fantôme Iris are dissing us, and that from there fans started to fight each other…

Miyuki: I saw it too. Like, how Fantôme’s comments started it all, although I’m suspicious if they actually did say that

Reon: I was thinking so too but….

Reon: On the contrary, our fans went out to get revenge after Fantôme’s live had ended…

Kenta: I’m aware of it. I had shrugged it off as baseless rumors that would disappear on their own soon.

Kenta: And then it turned out to be a bigger commotion than I had expected it to.

Miyuki: What’re we gonna do? Are we gonna leave it be or

Kenta: The leader of Fantôme shall be coming here tonight. I intend to discuss what we should do about it.

Miyuki: Haha, always first on the move ain’tcha now

Reon: It’d be good if it didn’t influence the voting for the starting live, but…. today they’ll be announcing the results, right

Kenta: What now, are you not confident?

Reon: That’s not….

Miyuki: Well, I’m not worried about our ranking, it just doesn’t feel too good thinking how these strange rumors still out there

Kenta: I’ll be taking care of it. Leave it up to me

Miyuki: Yeah, yeah. Please do so, Kenta-sensei

----A few hours later

Felix: ---Then, I shall be taking care of the draft for the statement. Could you verify it for me once I had sent it after returning home as soon as possible?

Kenta: I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll respond as soon as possible.

Felix: I could say the same. Ah… that reminds me, I had forgotten to mention something

Kenta: What may it be?

Felix: Congratulations on reaching first place at the starting live. It’s still an amazing accomplishment, even without the impact of the rumors.

Kenta: Thank you very much. However, I believe that you are not intending to leave things as they are now, right?

Felix: Why of course. We may have ended up last now, but one could say it was a mere warm up for next time.

Felix: It ought to not take long before we get tired of staring down on your backs.

Kenta: …..GYROAXIA will not lose.

Felix: I see… fufu. Now then, I suppose it’s time to---

(Door opening)

Nayuta: Any coffee

Nyankotarou: Nya~

Felix: Good evening, Nayuta. Pardon my intrustion. And hello to you too, you must be Nyankotarou

Nayuta: …..A guest, eh

Kenta: You seem to be well informed, to the point of knowing his cat’s name.

Felix: Only because I have checked the official blog of your band. A fan ought to know this much, or am I wrong?

Kenta: Haha

Felix: Now, I shall be taking my leave. I would love to sit down and have a nice chat with you when possible, Nayuta

Nayuta: ………

Felix: À bientôt. And to you too, Nyankotarou

Nyankotarou: Nya~

Nayuta: …..What did you talk about

Kenta: I had consulted him about what we should do about these baseless rumors. Nothing that should concern you.

Nayuta: ‘Kay

Kenta: Ah, right there is coffee. I’ll go make some right now

Kenta: (Even though I’m doing everything I can to not distract Nayuta with any unnecessary trouble, it has to blow over as soon as it can.)

Kenta: (If... this would put an end to it, though...)

Part two - “Joint interview”

-----At an office

Miyuki: Soft and fluffy chairs, some way too delicious coffee…. at last, the kind of treatment we deserve

Nayuta: ….Oi, Sakaigawa

Miyuki: Mh? What’s up, Nayuta?

Nayuta: It’s time. Let’s leave

Miyuki: Eh? I mean sure it’s been a while since it was supposed to start but… wouldn’t it be good to wait for a bit at least!

Nayuta: Tch….

Miyuki: The management of the Fes had set this interview up for us too. Hold it out just for a bit, okay!

Miyuki: Handling advertising is also an important part for the Fes, didn’t Kenta say so too?

Nayuta: Where is he

Miyuki: He said he suddenly had a meeting to attend and is at the office now

Nayuta: ………

Miyuki: I’ll contact the person in charge too, c’mon sit down!

Interviewer: Excuse me. My sincerest apologies for being late!

Shu: So sorry for bein’ late. Was busy with school an’ all that

Reiji: Forgive us for making you wait.

Miyuki: Eh? You guys are Epsi’s….

Nayuta: ….What’s the meaning of this

Miyuki: Wasn’t it supposed to be Nayuta’s interview today or...

Interview: Huh? Have we not informed you about it? That it’s a joint interview with the frontmen of the participating bands...

Shu: Aah, that’s ‘cuz I asked to not let ‘em know. Wanted to get a good scare outta ‘em!

Nayuta: ….We gotta leave

Miyuki: Heey hey now! This kinda interview isn’t too bad, is it! And it’s not like you speak a lot on your own to begin with!

Reiji: My deepest apologies for spoiling the mood. Ujigawa has a tendency to enjoy pulling suck pranks...

Shu: Aw c’mon, stop talkin’ as if I’m some lil’ kid

Interviewer: We are very sorry for the lack of communication on our part! I promise it will not take too long, so please….!

Nayuta: ………

Interviewer: ----Now then, could you tell us what you think of each other’s bands?

Nayuta: Got nothing

Shu: Eeeh, that’s makin’ me sad. I’mma big fan of Gyro! Nayuta-san’s vocals are a given, but the rest of the band---

Miyuki: Wonder if it’s okay for Nayuta to act like that….

Reiji: Isn’t it more exciting to have an interview with a feeling of tension in the air

Reiji: It’s quite interesting, like Asahi-san himself

Miyuki: Haha… A relief to hear that then

Reiji: ….Speaking of which, that secret live from the other day was exciting too wasn’t it

Reiji: Somehow to the point of Asahi-san collapsing from singing too much….

Miyuki: Hm, aah… that. Yeah, Nayuta just went a bit overboard with giving his all

Reiji: Is his physical condition stable?

Miyuki: All good, good! Not a big deal at all!

Reiji: Then that is fine…. The vocalist collapsing must be undeniably troublesome for the members too.

Miyuki: Well… honestly, what came after that was more troubling than him collapsing

Reiji: Had something happened?

Miyuki: Nah well, it was more silly if anything you know, like a whole coup d’état was being staged!

Reiji: Coup d'état…. Haha, that does indeed sound quite funny.

Reiji: If you don’t mind, could you tell me more about it?

Part three - “Stand and talk”

Miyuki: ---And with that, the whole coup fell apart. And one way or the other we all got back together again.

Miyuki: See? Told you it was silly, right?

Reiji: ….It’s necessary for the surprise attack to land its mark, if one wants a coup to succeed.

Reiji: For that moment, you have to bow down to those in power and patiently await your turn to strike...

Miyuki: Uum… What’s that about?

Reiji: ….History that I had learned in class about.

Reiji: Either way, thank you very much for talking with me.

Reiji: We’re respectively having our own fair share of issues due the nature of our frontmen, however we shall be doing our best for the Fes going on forward.

Miyuki: Seriously mature for your age, aren’t you….

Nayuta: Let’s leave, Sakaigawa

Miyuki: Sorry, sorry. Got caught up in talking. So, how did that interview go?

Nayuki: Dunno. You’ll see tomorrow when we get back

Shu: Nayuta-san, good work. Was plenty of fun to talk with you!

Reiji: Thank you for your time too, Sakaigawa-san. I wish you good luck at the live tommorrow.

Miyuki: Ah, hold on Nayuta! Sorry for this, we’ll sit down to talk again some other time

Reiji: ….How did it go with him?

Shu: Wasn’t fun at all. That mister wouldn’ react at all despite pushin’ his buttons

Shu: Anyway, you seem to have heard somethin’ interesting?

Reiji: Yes. Exactly the kind of thing you enjoy.

Reiji: I’ll go collect evidence from the livehouse and hospital at once. I’ll be able to have it done in a few hours.

-----At GYROAXIA’s sharehouse

Ryo: Ah, Miyuki-kun and Nayuta, welcome baaack

Kenta: Welcome back, good work today

Miyuki: Huh, you got back too?

Kenta: Yes, it was a simple meeting. More importantly, how did the interview go?

Miyuki: It was… the whole thing turned out different than expected. Nayuta had to do a joint interview with Epsi’s Ujigawa-kun

Kenta: With Ujigawa Shu.... Was there anything strange that happened?

Miyuki: Nah? It went pretty smoothly, right Nayuta?

Nayuta: Don’t remember. Don’t care

Kenta: Then, that’s fine….

(Door opening)

Reon: Ah, Kenta-san! Did you check online!?

Kenta: What is it, have fans started arguing again?

Miyuki: We commented on it, shouldn’t it have calmed down?

Reon: Not that! Look, it’s about this!

Miyuki: Uuum… “GYROAXIA’s vocalist, Nayuta Asahi has been spotted at the hospital! Troubles arise regarding the continuation of the band”----

Ryo: “Which leads to tension between the band members! Are they on the verge of breaking up with LR Fes right around the corner!?”

Miyuki: ...What, what the hell!? Where did all of this come from?

Kenta: I had assumed the possibility about hospital-related rumors spreading but…. not that it would reach about the state of the band itself.

Reon: It’s strange right! And way too detailed! To the point of a coup being mentioned!

Nayuta: ….What’s the meaning of this?

Kenta: I can only think it was one of us that had leaked it. But, how…. doesn’t anyone here remember this?

Miyuki: Think about it, going out of your way to talk about th--

Reiji: If you don’t mind, could you tell me more about it?

Miyuki: ….Eh? Don’t tell me….him!?

Kenta: Is there something you know, Miyuki

Miyuki: ……..Shit! Sure did it this time!!

Part four - “Reiji’s strategy”

Miyuki: While… Nayuta was doing the interview, I had talked to Epsi’s drummer…

Kenta: The drummer…. Karasuma Reiji

Miyuki: But, we didn’t talk too long ago, and I didn’t say anything about Nayuta’s asthma either!?

Kenta: There was more than enough time to spread rumors online about it.

Reon: It’s about an illness, and with how he collapsed at a live, you can make up as much as you want about it….

Kenta: ….There were a lot of awful rumors about Epsi when they were in Kyoto. How they’ll do anything to crush whoever piques their interest, and the like

Kenta: Which makes me suspect that they’re the ones behind our trouble with Fantôme.

Ryo: Why…. why would they do such things?

Kenta: To cut down the amount of rivals for the Fes…. I wouldn’t know for any other reason why.

Reon: Still, to go like that about it… it’s way too foul!

Kenta: They’re still middle and highschool students, but have plenty of funds and human connections to make use of.

Kenta: An example of what happens when a child who doesn’t know any better becomes drunk on power, I suppose

Nayuta: ……….

Miyuki: Goddamnit….!!

Reon: What do we do? Make another statement?

Kenta: Compared to last time, these rumors aren’t completely baseless. Any wrong moves will increase our amount of problems….

Miyuki: I’m sorry, everyone…. All because I just can’t keep my mouth shut….

Kenta: Apologies are for later. We need to focus on what to do about this right now...

Nayuta: Ain’t gonna do a thing

Miyuki: ...Eh?

Nayuta: We’re gonna rehearse. Get ready

Reon: Is it really fine to just leave it at that!?

Nayuta: Don’t give enough of a fuck to play around with some shitty brat

Kenta: Still… will the fans agree to it?

Nayuta: As if I know

Reon: “As if” you say….

Ryo: Then… wouldn’t it be better to admit to everything?

Miyuki: …..Eeeeh!?

Ryo: Let’s admit it at the beginning of the live. About Nayuta’s illness, and our coup d’état too

Kenta: …..Isn’t that asking to invite even more chaos?

Ryo: It’ll be all good!

Reon: How even

Ryo: ‘Cuz we’ll be doing a live right after it?

Ryo: Once our live starts, everyone’s worries will fly right out of the window and they’ll become happy!

Miyuki: What’s with that…

Kenta: ….I see

Reon: You’re agreeing with him!?

Kenta: Because… it might be a chance to demonstrate our power. Rumors and facts, GYROAXIA’s music will bring it all to the ground

Kenta: If it goes smoothly, we’d be back on track for the Fes...

Nayuta: ……..

Miyuki: Nayuta, I’m sorry…. It’s my fault that your fans came to know about your illness…..

Miyuki: But, it’s as Ryo and Kenta said… If it’s with you…. with our performance, everything will be blown away

Nayuta: Cut it out with the whining….

Reon: You’re so….!

Nayuta: I’m only gonna sing

Part five - “What about it?”

----At the livehouse

Gyro fan A: Hey, did you see it? Those rumors online. Like, “Gyro in a crisis of disbanding” and all…

Gyro fan B: Isn’t that fake? And, Nayuta’s illness….

Gyro fan A: Yeah but… there’s also how Nayuta collapsed during the last song at this secret live the other day, right?

Gyro fan B: Yeah… and it does seem that the members often fight too….

Nayuta: …...Listen

Gyro fan A: Eh…. He’s gonna talk? Isn’t this unusual!?

Nayuta: Everything online, those shitty rumors--- All of it is true

Nayuta: I have a respiratory disease. There’s guys that started going on about quitting

Nayuta: But… what about it?

Nayuta: Even if I fall, I’ll sing. Even on my own, I’ll sing.

Nayuta: As long as I live

Nayuta: …...GYROAXIA

Reon: (All you had to say or what… still… it really fired up everyone!)

Miyuki: (Amazing, eh… that it wasn’t “us” either.)

Ryo: (Yeah, this feels nice… everyone looks happy)

Kenta: (Go, Nayuta…. crush them….!)

Gyro fan A: GYROOO!!!

Gyro fan B: NAYUTAAA!!

Gyro fan A: Hey, is that illness part true!? He’s still going at full power during the encore!!

Gyro fan B: The instrumental part was amazing too! No way that they’re breaking up!

Ryo: Aah, how nice… this kind of atmosphere… it’s very happy….

Reon: Haah..haah.. alright! The best performance…. yes… yes!!

Miyuki: Fuuh... for real, he’s some kinda monster... the fact that he pulled off a live beyond flawless

Kenta: You did it, Nayuta…. Alright, time to wrap it up

Nayuta: …….

Kenta: Nayuta….?

Nayuta: Oi… dunno if you’re here… some damned guy that has the nerve to pull some shit---

Nayuta: Whatever you wanna do, don’t drag me in it

Nayuta: That shit won’t crush my music

Nayuta: Still, you’re an eyesore. Don’t get in my way a second time. And if you wanna keep going...

Nayuta: I’ll destroy you… at the Fes battle

Miyuki: Haha… As if he’s some pro-wrestler

Reon: He.. was considerably angry

Kenta: Really? Isn’t that---

Ryo: Yeah, it’s the Nayuta that we know

Gyro fan A: That was so awesome! But… what Nayuta said at the end there...

Gyro fan B: “I’ll destroy you at the Fes”.... does this mean that a participating band spread rumors?

Gyro fan A: Seriously… that’s straight up awful

Reiji: ………

Reiji: (Failure, huh… No, they turned the tables around….)

Reiji: (There’s many other bands that aren’t this straight-forward… Well, whether it succeeds or not, either is fine.)

Reiji: (As long as Shu has been entertained)

#aaside #gyroaxia #nayuta asahi #kenta satozuka #Miyuki Sakaigawa #Ryo Akebono #Reon Misono

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walpurga-nacht-academy · 3 years

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Djinn’s Bride! ~A Celebration of Love~

Part 5

[Walpurga Nacht Academy]

[Prefect Meeting Room]

Marcia: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?!

Rosa: … Hey, hey, you’re kinda going overboard with the whole surprised reaction, you know? We’re already way past that.

Marcia: Haaaaaa? Don’t treat this like it’s just an everyday occurrence!

Rosa: Huh? But shouldn’t you be happy?

Marcia: Ha?! What’s there to be happy about?! Can’t you sense the situation here?

Rosa: Grr! I can! I totally can! That’s why I thought you’d be ecstatic to have all your problems solved like this! Isn’t this what you’ve been hoping for?! That ‘rich overnight’ type of success story?!

Marcia: YOU IDIOT!

Rosa: ?!?!

Marcia: Stuff like that doesn’t exist in reality! If something is too good to be true, then it definitely is! Don’t just take it for granted that things will work out so easily!

Rosa: E-Eh? What’s with this speech?! Since when did you have such a strong moral code?!

Marcia: It’s just common sense, Rosalia. Money that’s not earned through hard work will just trickle down between your fingers.

Rosa: Th-That was surprisingly cool coming from someone like you… It’s kinda scary seeing you like this.

Marcia: These things aren’t matters to laugh at. If I don’t take them seriously the old man will get disappointed in me.

Rosa: Marcia…

Marcia: That’s why, under no circumstances, can I just throw everything I’ve worked on to get married to this guy!

......

Besides he’s totally not my type, anyway.

Rosa: What’s with these standards all of a sudden?!

Marcia: Sorry~ I just don’t go for guys that look this silly~ I want a super cool looking husband that’s also filthy rich~

Rosa: Haaaaaaa?! Then what was with that speech just now?! Make up your mind already!

Marcia: Hehehe~

Blanche: Goodness gracious. This has gone on for long enough.

June: Tch. Fuckin’ headache.

Diana: …

Cass: U-Um, in that case, you wi-will not take Mister Djinn’s offer, Miss Py-Pyroeis?

Marcia: No way, no way! Hahahahahaha! It sounds super troublesome, you know?

Vita: What a shame. To think that you would willingly discard your golden goose just like this. My expectations were surpassed. Fufufu~

Marcia: … You still sound like you’re looking down on me, heh… In any case! That’s how things stand. So as you can see, I’m gonna have to turn you down. I mean I’m flattered and all that, but our timing just isn’t right~

Rosa: Geh, what’s with that obviously fake line? And turning him down in front of everybody…

Diana: These sort of things should be blunt.

Rosa: I-I guess, but you know…

Djinn: Ah, so that’s how it is?

Blanche: … He’s taking it surprisingly well.

Cass: Se-Seems like he’s an u-understanding person. Ho-How fortunate!

Marcia: Yeah, yeah. So sorry again~

Djinn: …

Marcia: Ah, but don’t look glum! I’m sure you’ll find someone who’s just your type~ Just keep looking! The world’s your oyster!

Djinn: … Hm.

Marcia: …

Djinn: …

Marcia: Um, i-in any case! Since you won’t be fulfilling any wishes, guess you can go back to your lamp now! Ah, don’t worry! Our dorm will take super good care of it and won’t be bothering you or anything.

Djinn: …

Marcia: … Ah? Uh?

Djinn: …

Rosa: … Hey, he’s still here… What’s up with that?

Cass: Ma-Maybe he needs help returning to his lamp?

Marcia: O-Oh! Hahahaha! Why didn’t you say that, man? Don’t be shy to ask for help! Here, here! As your kind master I’ll help you get back in the lamp and-

Djinn: … Actually.

Marcia: Ye-Yeah?! What’s wrong?

Djinn: That won’t be happening.

Marcia: E-Eh?! What do you mean?!

Djinn: Well, getting back there, is kinda, you know…

Marcia: Ye-Yeah?

Djinn: A huge hassle~

Marcia: … Huh?

Djinn: It’s~ sooooo~ lame~

Rosa: Geh! He’s just lounging on the table like it’s a sofa!

Blanche: It’s not as if he was much of a charming figure before, but…

Cass: Hi-His whole personality to-took a sudden shift…

Agatha: … Annoying.

Marcia: La-Lame? I mean, I guess I understand, but still… Didn’t you say the place is great?

Djinn: Ah, that… I was lying.

Marcia: Huh?!

Djinn: Yeah, it’s kinda small and cramped. Not to mention super dark. Can barely see anything in there.

Marcia: A-Ah…

Djinn: And it’s super lonely too~ Playing mancala against yourself is super depressing. Especially since I can barely see the board in the first place.

Rosa: … This guy’s life sounds sadder the more I hear about it.

Djinn: Haaa, I guess you’re right on that part, fluffy hair.

Rosa: Flu-Fluffy hair?!

Agatha: GYAHAHAHAHAHA.

Rosa: Do-Don’t laugh so loudly! It wasn’t even that funny!

Djinn: See~ That’s what I’m talking about! I want somebody to banter with and have fun. I’m super jealous of you guys~ Aaah, to be able to enjoy the world so freely~

Blanche: … He’s deeply misread the situation.

Diana: Mm.

Djinn: That’s why~ I’m looking for a wife~

Cass: He’s ju-just lonely in the end…

Rosa: Hmm, I guess we can’t fault him for this, huh? Alright, Marcia!

Marcia: Huh?

Rosa: Just go with him!

Marcia: HAAAAA?! NO WAY!

Rosa: But I feel super bad for him! Didn’t you just hear how pathetic he is? You’d be doing him a service!

Cass: Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Miss Morgainne! We can’t sa-sacrifice Miss Pyroeis li-like this!

Rosa: Eh? But didn’t you get that weird pitying sensation in your stomach when you heard him talk? Isn’t Marcia going with him the nice thing to do in this situation?

Cass: Um… I-I-I…

Vita: It would certainly solve this little issue~ I for one wish to congratulate you on your upcoming nuptials my dear magpie~

Marcia: He-Hey! Don’t marry me off, just yet!

Agatha: Hehehehehehehe… How… nice… you… get… to… be… a… March… bride…

Marcia: Nooooo! Listen to me!

Diana: Agatha. You’re wrong.

Marcia: Diana! You’re coming to my rescue?! I will worship the ground you walk on-

Diana: It’s June a bride should aim for.

Marcia: IS THAT REALLY THE PART YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT?! HAAAAAAAAAA?!

June: STOP YER YAPPIN’, DAMN IT!

Marcia: AAAAAAAAH! YOU MONSTERS! YOU’RE CASTING ME AWAY JUST LIKE THAT?! I’LL HAUNT YOU! I’LL SERIOUSLY HAUNT YOU ALL!

Vita: Oh~ What a delightful concept~ Is it not so, my dear Agatha?

Agatha: Hehehehehehe… seeing… the… chowder’s… agonized… face… would… be… fun… ehehehehehehehe

Marcia: HEARTLESS! ALL OF YOU! ABSOLUTELY HEARTLESS!

Cass: Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Miss Pyroeis!! Please!! Do-Don’t lie on the floor like this!

Marcia: AAAAAH, I DON’T CARE ANYMORE! YOU MONSTERS CAN JUST DO WHAT YOU WANT!

Cass: Mi-Mi-Mi-Miss Pyroeis!

Blanche: …. Djinn.

Djinn: Hm?

Blanche: I would like to make a request of you.

Djinn: Ha, didn’t you hear me, bunny? Wish granting ain’t happening here today-

Blanche: No, that is not what I’m referring to.

Djinn: Hm?

Blanche: As you can already see Marcia has no intention of following through with this arrangement. Forcing her against her will would only result in a miserable affair. This is why I believe it would be best for everybody to be done with this and move on. Don’t you agree?

Marcia: Blanche… BLANCHEEEEEEE!

Blanche: Do-Don’t cling to me like this! It is unpleasant!

Marcia: But!! I didn’t think you’d come to my defense like this! You’re an angel! A goddess! I’m eternally grateful to you!! My children will know of your-

Blanche: I understand already! So please, stop this right now!

Marcia: Blancheeeeeeeee!

Rosa: I-I guess Blanche is right after all. Forcing somebody to marry against their will is just…

Marcia: That should be common sense in the first place!! Seriously, why is your head screwed on backwards, Rosalia?!

Rosa: Huuuuuh?! Are you seriously calling me dumb right now, when I’m agreeing with you?!

Marcia: Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you almost sold me out! My only ally here is Blanche!

Cass: We-We’ve truly done something unforgivable…

June: Yer too harsh on yerself, Cass.

Marcia: And you’re not even trying to act compassionate at all!

June: HAAAA? WHAT WAS ‘HAT?

Marcia: Blegh!

June: I’MMA RIP ‘HAT TONGUE OUT RIGHT NOW, YA LIL’-

Blanche: I-In any case, I believe it has been made clear to you why I’m making this request.

Djinn: ................

Blanche: ...................

Djinn: … Gotcha.

Rosa: That was easy! That was way too easy!

Djinn: But… no can do on that one either, bunny.

Rosa: I KNEW IT

Blanche: ... Excuse me?

Djinn: As I told you girlie, sitting in that lamp is mind-numbingly boring and I don’t wanna do it anymore!

Rosa: That’s exactly what a brat would say!!

Agatha: That’s… ironic… coming… from… you… hehehe

Djinn: So given the situation, there is only one solution~

Marcia: Eh, what do you meAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

[BOOM, CRASH]

Rosa: Wh-What’s with this wind current?! It’s like we’re sucked in!!

Blanche: It’s from the lamp! Take a good look at it!

[BOOM, CRASH]

Djinn: That’s right, that’s right~ We’re gonna settle this inside the lamp~

Marcia: I DON’T WANNAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Rosa: OUCH! HEY! DON”T PULL ON MY HAIR LIKE THAT! WH-WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!

Marcia: THIS IS PAYBACK FOR BEFOREEEEEEE-

Rosa: EEEEEH?! YOU’RE DRAGGING ME DOWN WITH YOU?! HOW MUCH OF A VILLAIN CAN YOU BE?! LE-LET GOOOOOOO-

Cass: Mi-Miss Morgainne!

June: CASS! SHIT!

Blanche: Himalia-senpai, your grip’s too strong!

Diana: ....

Agatha: Let… go… you… dumb… land… animal… Big… Big… Sis… !

Vita: My~ I shudder to think what a wondrous adventure awaits us all~ Fufufu~

Marcia/Rosa: THIS IS THE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORST-

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#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland fanschool #twisute #twist #twisute oc #twist oc #rosalia morgainne #blanche dion #marcia pyroeis #june himalia #diana arrow #cassandra delphinne #agatha voisin #vita dies #wna event #djinn's bride

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minijenn · 4 years

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Universe Falls Chapter 79

Ayyyyyy its here fam, the chapter right before RMD is finally done which means I’m ALMOST ALMOST THERE AHAHAHHAHAHAH IM SO FUCKIN HYPE! But for now, enjoy this fucking preliminary angstfest, which I also really like even if it is a teeny tiny lil chapter. Just as well since RMD are all boutta be fucking monsters in terms of length. Anyway enjoy!

Previous: https://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/618035050504732672/universe-falls-chapter-78

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Chapter 79: Alone on the Lake

TN XBAVUSA SUL ZUSALLZF GSL ZLZBKX IFK AJUWLK DPNZ BWMSL LUZ OACM HV YW KLKHXJ GGBZ EKBIJK?

“Ok, Lapis, we’re almost there!”

“I think I’m starting to guess the surprise, you two,” Lapis noted with a small smile, still keeping her aquatic wings wrapped over her eyes as she followed Steven and Mabel’s enthusiastic lead.

“Your eyes are supposed to be closed!” Steven reminded brightly.

“Sorry,” Lapis chuckled, following his instructions this time as the pair continued to guide her onward. “Are you still back there, Dipper?” she called, glancing over her shoulder behind her, though keeping her eyes shut all the while.

“Hm?” Dipper looked up, his hands shoved away in his pockets as he kept pace quite a bit behind the trio as they traveled down the dock. “Oh, uh, yeah, I’m here.”

“Mind telling me where we’re going?” the blue Gem continued addressing him with a small, playful smile. “I have an idea, but these two aren’t giving me any hints.”

“Cause that would be cheating!” Mabel pointed out, resolute. “And it would ruin the surprise.”

“Speaking of surprises, wait here just a second.” Steven and Mabel both relinquished their holds on Lapis’ hands, running over to join Greg and Stan near the edge of the dock before unveiling what they had in store for the day. “Surprise!”

Lapis let her wings retract, opening her eyes to see something that she didn’t really know what to make of at first. The wide lay of Lake Gravity Falls spread out before the group from the small dock they were all on, its murky waters dully glistening in the mid-morning sun. And resting on that lake, tethered to a post, was a moderately large boat, one that looked rather fancy and modern, aside from the bizarre, out of place skull and crossbone flags draping from its sides and hanging from its flagpole.

“We bought a boat!” Steven proclaimed excitedly.

“Correction, we rented a boat,” Greg chimed in. “I may be rich, but buying a boat would be going a bit… overboard!”

“Ugh, please someone make him stop,” Stan groaned insincerely. “He’s been making lame boat puns ever since we picked this thing up from the rental place. I’d fire him for them… if he still worked for me.”

“What can I say, Mr. Pines?” Greg let out a small chuckle. “I just keep reeling ‘em in!”

Steven and Mabel were quick to join in on the former rock star’s amused laughter, and though it took Stan a moment, he ultimately folded with a bit of a wry smirk himself. “Uh… what’s with the pirate theme?” Dipper spoke up as he looked over the boat.

“Er, the rental place was out of the “Family Friendly Day On the Lake” boat package,” Greg explained. “All they had left was the “A Pirate’s Life for Me” package, which is really just those flags. Oh, and I think there’s a stuffed parrot and a set of decorative swords on board.”

“There’s also a bunch of peg legs, pirate hats, and eye patches stored under one of the seats,” Stan added dryly. “So, ya know, you kids can knock yourselves out with those.”

“Ooo!” Steven mused, intrigued.

“I call the eye patch!” Mabel quipped, raising her hand.

“Oh no, ya don’t,” Stan pulled said eye patch out of his pocket and slipped it on. “I already beat ya to it, pumpkin.”

“Aw, dang it! Not again!”

“Steven, Dipper, Mabel,” Lapis spoke up, glancing over at Stan and Greg, somewhat confused. “Who are these people?”

“Ah, Greg Universe,” Greg introduced himself, holding out a hand for her to shake. “You, uh, busted up my van trying to use the lake to fly back to your homeworld?”

“Lapis Lazuli,” the blue Gem offered him a somewhat awkward smile though she didn’t return his handshake. “Nice to meet you.”

“And Lapis, you remember Grunkle Stan, right?” Mabel asked as she came to stand alongside the conman.

“Oh right!” Lapis nodded. “You’re the guy who looks like Ford, but isn’t Ford.”

“Ugh, if I had a nickel for every time I heard that one when I was a kid...” Stan rolled his eyes, disgruntled.

“That’s ‘cause Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford are twins,” Mabel informed the blue Gem with a smile as she suddenly pulled Dipper close beside her. “Just like me and Dipper!”

“Ugh, Mabel! Knock it off!” Dipper huffed in annoyance as he quickly pulled away from her. He paid no mind to the curious looks the others were sending his way as a result of his sudden harshness as he instead went to take a seat at the far edge of the dock instead.

“Aw, c’mon, bro-bro, I was just… aw, ok…” Mabel sighed in quiet defeat as she watched him sullenly walk away.

“Yeesh, he’s acting even more Dippery than usual,” Stan remarked bluntly before oblivious moving on. “Anyway, we’d better get a move on. The ice in that treasure chest-shaped cooler on deck is only gonna keep those sandwiches cold for so long.”

“Good point,” Greg agreed, trailing after the conman. “Let’s get the boat started.”

As the pair headed aboard the rented vessel, everyone else hung back on the dock for a bit, particularly Lapis as she hardly even seemed to be focused on the boat at all. “What’s going on with Dipper?” she asked Steven and Mabel with newfound concern. “He seems… upset about something.”

“I don’t know…” Steven frowned. “Yesterday he seemed so excited about our plans to bring you out here to spend the day with you, Lapis, but now…”

“I-I think I might know what’s up,” Mabel said, glancing down apprehensively. “Last night I overheard him talking in his sleep--which he only really does when he’s having a nightmare--a-and it must have been a pretty bad one cause he said something about… a-about you know who…”

“No,” Lapis shook her head, confused. “Who?”

“Oooh…” Steven immediately understood, however, his expression quickly turning grave. “Again? I thought he stopped having those kinds of nightmares after we put up the unicorn shield around the shack.”

“The what?” the blue Gem tried interjecting once more, completely out of the loop.

“Yeah, well… you know Bill,” Mabel said, her tone and expression both taking on an air of disdain. “He never quits, even when he really should. And if he can’t mess with us for real anymore, I guess dreams are the next best thing for him.”

“Wait, slow down,” Lapis said, putting her hands up. “What are you guys talking about? Who’s this Bill person? Someone who’s been messing with Dipper?”

“Messing with all of us, actually…” Steven rubbed his arm. “He’s this really powerful, really mean demon who we’ve been fighting against all summer. We’ve been up against him a bunch of times, but the worst was when he-” The young Gem stopped short at this, particularly as he met the sight of Mabel silently shaking her head, her lips pressed in a thin line and her eyes wide with worry. Steven was quick to understand her intent, however, when he happened to glance between Lapis, who was looking to him with expectant curiosity, and Dipper, who was still sitting alone, forlorn as he stared into the lake from the edge of the dock. “Uh… h-he, um…” Steven stammered, unsure of how to explain exactly what had happened what felt like ages ago now. Especially to Lapis, of all Gems, who cared so much for Dipper and had, at least in some way, been the very driving force for him striking the dangerous deal with the dream demon that he had back then. A deal that was clearly still leaving it’s heavy, painful mark on him, even long after it had ended.

“L-long story short,” Mabel cut in just in time with a brief, largely safe explanation. “Bill tricked Dipper into making a deal with him that went pretty sour pretty fast and it, uh… m-may or may not almost got him, um… k-killed,” she winced, a familiar pang of guilt filling her as she so much as said the dreadful word.

“W-what?!” Lapis exclaimed, aptly alarmed.

“O-oh, but don’t worry! It didn’t actually, o-of course,” Steven rushed to interject. “A-and my healing powers helped patch up everything else‒eventually. So, everything’s fine now! W-well… almost everything…” The young Gem frowned as he looked in Dipper’s direction himself, wishing there was more he could do to help heal what was an entirely different kind of wound now.

“B-but, I don’t understand,” Lapis shook her head, her expression awash in immense worry. “Why would Dipper make a deal like that anyway? Even if he was tricked, I know he’s smarter than to fall for something like that.”

Steven and Mabel exchanged an uncertain glance at this, knowing that the last thing Lapis needed was to know exactly why Dipper had taken a chance on such a risky bargain in the first place. “Uh… w-who can say?” Mabel shrugged, forcing out a harsh, fake chuckle. “It doesn’t really matter anymore anyway since it’s all said and done and we can forget about it and move on with our lives! S-so instead of talking about all that depressing junk, let’s talk about something way more fun instead! Like this boat! What do you think about it, Lapis?”

“Oh, uh… it’s… nice,” Lapis said somewhat absently as she finally pulled her gaze away from Dipper. “But... I don’t know…”

“Look, Lapis,” Steven took a deep, steadying breath, noticing the hesitation in the blue Gem as she turned her attention to the lake in particular. “We know you spent a really long time fused with Jasper at the bottom of the lake, but… you’re not Malachite anymore. And water is part of who you are. You can’t let one bad experience take that away from you!”

“It was more than one…” Lapis sighed, crossing her arms.

“Well… maybe we can turn all those bad times around and make a brand-new good time instead!” Mabel encouraged warmly. “We promise that this is gonna be the most fun you’ve ever had!”

“Thank you, but I… I don’t deserve this…” Lapis shook her head fretfully.

“Of course you do!” Steven insisted. “We even named her Lil’ Lappy!” He nodded over to the boat, where Stan and Greg were attempting to tape a banner with this new name to the side of the boat, only for it to slightly slip off to reveal the vessel’s true title: the S.S. Misery”.

Despite this, Lapis was unable to hold back a snort of an amused laugh at such a ridiculous sight, one that told just how hard the kids were working to put all this together for her. “Ok, I’ll give it a chance. But just one.”

“That’s the spirit!” Mabel beamed. “Now c’mon! We better get on board before Grunkle Stan hogs the rest of that super cool pirate gear to himself!”

“Too late!” Stan called from on deck, clad in the eyepatch, captain’s hat, and fake peg leg alike.

Even so, Mabel and Steven hurried on ahead to climb aboard, though Lapis stayed behind, largely so she could go over to join Dipper as he remained at the edge of the dock. Along the way, she couldn’t help but let her thoughts wander, both to the deepest concern for the boy himself, and quiet, yet fledgling fury for the mysterious demon who had apparently put him through so much lingering distress. “H-Hey,” she greeted him as casually as she could manage, despite all this. “Aren’t you coming along?”

“Oh! Y-yeah,” Dipper was quick to stand, though he made no move to go over to the boat as he offered Lapis a concerned glance instead. “Are… are you sure you’re ok with this? I tried telling them that taking you out on the lake might not be… the best idea, considering… well…”

“N-no, it’s ok,” Lapis assured him with a small smile. “I think it’s really… sweet that you guys went to all the trouble to put all this together for me. Even if it might be a bit… too much.”

“It’s always too much when Steven and Mabel are involved,” Dipper finally let out a small chuckle, one that set Lapis’ worries to ease as she hoped that maybe he wasn’t as upset as he seemed. At least for now.

“Need a lift?” she asked, summoning her wings as she extended a hand out to him.

“Sure.” With this, Lapis easily swept Dipper up off the dock, giving him an easy landing on board the boat alongside Steven and Mabel before she came down to join them herself.

“How do I say it again, Mr. Pines?” Greg’s voice echoed from the ship’s intercom on the bridge. “Mighties?”

“It’s ‘maties’, Greg,” Stan deadpanned, not realizing the mic was already on either.

“Got it; maties,” Greg actually turned to the intercom so he could properly address the group on deck. “Uh, ahoy, maties! Are ya scurvy land-lovers-”

“Landlubbers,” Stan corrected once more.

“...What the hey is a lubber?”

“Ugh, gimme that!” the conman promptly took over the intercom at this. “What he’s trying to say is, are you all ready to take off or not?”

“Aye, aye, captain!” Mabel and Steven proclaimed in unison, both of them presenting dramatic salutes.

“...Yes,” Lapis said simply as Dipper nodded his agreement as well.

“Good,” Stan said simply, hanging up the intercom line. “You do know how to work this tub, don’t you, Greg?”

“Uh… w-well… It can’t be that tricky…” Greg looked over the ship’s rather complicated control deck, though he did manage to find its starting clutch. “Aha! Full speed ahea-” The former rock star was abruptly cut off as the entire boat jolted hard as it began to take off, knocking everyone on board about. However, as it did, the force of the vessel’s abrupt movement suddenly ripped the post it was tethered to, one that neither Greg nor Stan had thought to untie it from before climbing aboard. “Aw, geez…” Greg shuddered upon glancing back to see the post skimming behind the boat as it ventured out onto the open lake. “You think anyone will notice?”

“You better hope no one does,” Stan remarked. “Trust me, Greg, you do not want a run-in with lake police. I learned that the hard way…”

Despite the pleasant, late summer weather, not too many other boats were out on the water, meaning the group largely had the lake all to themselves. As soon as the boat had settled into a more relaxed pace out near the center of the water, Lapis and the kids went to join Greg and Stan up in the bridge, largely to inquire about the wooden post still lagging behind the ship.

“Yeah, I-I think I did a number on that deck,” Greg scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Maybe someone else should take a shot at being captain instead…”

“Ya think?” Stan deadpanned.

“What do you say-” Greg grinned as he took his captain’s hat off and turned it over to Lapis instead. “Captain Lazuli?”

“I-I shouldn’t…” Lapis winced fretfully.

“Go for it, Lapis!” Steven encouraged.

“Yeah! You’ll make a great captain!” Mabel chimed in enthusiastically. “You can even use this spare eyepatch I stole from Grunkle Stan when he wasn’t looking!”

“Wha-” Stan took pause, reaching near his eye to find that his eye patch wasn’t covering it anymore. “When did you-”

“Don’t put me in charge!” Lapis suddenly snapped, agitated. She drew in a small, anxious gasp as she realized just how intense her refusal had been, to the point that all three of the kids were sending concerned looks her way.

“Lapis…?” Dipper spoke up, by far the most worried of the already very worried trio. And as soon as Lapis caught his concerned gaze, she made a very rushed effort at righting herself, more for his sake than anyone else’s.

“Oh, uh… s-sorry,” the blue Gem shook her head to clear it. “I mean… y-you shouldn’t trust me with the boat.”

“Uh, that’s ok,” Steven said, trying to brighten the tense mood once more. “Don’t worry about it. We can all be first mates, so there’s no pressure. Only fun stuff today!”

Lapis nodded, allayed by this plan, even if she was still discreetly trying not to pay too much mind to the wide lay of the lake all around them. “Lapis, you can still wear the hat if you want,” Greg held said hat out to her again.

“Thanks,” Lapis smiled. “But I’m not putting that on my body.”

“What about the eye patch?” Mabel asked, eagerly offering it to the blue Gem until Stan intercepted it instead.

“Give me that!” he swiped the patch, proudly placing it over his eye once more. “Ah, now that’s better.”

“Ok, everyone,” Greg grinned, putting the captain’s hat back on as he took the boat’s wheel once again. “Let’s set a course for fun!”

Though Lake Gravity Falls was quite sizable, it was still a rather small lake compared to the boat itself, which was why there really weren’t too many places it could go upon it. Still, that hardly stopped the small group aboard from enjoying themselves in whatever ways they could. They snacked on their small stash of cold cut sandwiches alongside a bottle of sparkling orange juice served in fancy glasses (a ritual Lapis didn’t quite understand and didn’t really know how to indulge in even as everyone else did). Still, Lapis watched on the sidelines as Steven and Mabel engaged in a pretend “pirate duel” with the decorative swords on deck (a duel Greg was quick to put a nervous stop to when he realized the swords, however dull they might have been, were still made of actual metal). After that, they all took a break to lounge out on the boat’s open deck, soaking in the rays of the warm summer sun, though most of the while, though Lapis found herself preoccupied with two other completely different sights instead. The first was the lake, its calm, quiet, cerulean waters practically taunting her with thoughts of the dark, empty prison she knew lay just beneath them. But then there was Dipper, who was hardly engaging in the activities Mabel and Steven had planned as he instead leaned against the boat’s railing to stare out at the lake himself. Lapis took a break from “sunbathing” to join him, hoping to ask him more about what Steven and Mabel had only hinted at before. And yet, before she could get as much as a hello out, the aforementioned pair rushed over to pull them both back into more of the “fun” they had in store.

That next bout of fun was up on the bridge, namely in the form of the ship’s pull horn. Though Lapis didn’t understand the appeal at first, she quickly did upon giving it a small, experimental tug, only for the horn to loudly blare out, echoing across the entire lake. The blue Gem couldn’t help but be completely charmed by the rather grating noise, letting out a full, genuine laugh as she pulled on the horn over and over again, much to the kids’ delight and Stan and Greg’s chagrin. Even Dipper couldn’t help but muster a small, warm chuckle upon seeing just how much Lapis seemed to be enjoying herself through something so simple, even if it wasn’t the easiest on the ears.

After about an hour or so, the nearly-nonstop bellowing of the horn finally fell silent, a relieving change of pace for Stan and Greg in particular as they continued fishing off the far side of the boat. “Oh thank god, they finally stopped,” the conman let out a sigh of relief as he uncovered his ears. “I thought I was gonna go deaf. Well, even more deaf,” he said, tapping his hearing aid.

Greg let out an amused laugh at this, though as he did, he happened to notice Lapis and the kids coming down from the bridge to join them. “Oh, hey, you guys!” he greeted them with a smile. “Finally get enough of that horn?”

“...WHAT?!” Steven shouted obliviously, his ears still still blaring with the lingering noise of the horn.

“What are you doing?” Lapis asked, curiously eyeing the pairs’ fishing rods.

“Catching fish,” Greg explained, casting his line out into the water once more.

“Or at least we’re trying to,” Stan grumbled, boredly leaning against the railing. “Those suckers just aren’t biting today…”

“Oh, maybe I can help!” Lapis volunteered, her tone surprisingly eager. Taking in a deep breath, she easily connected with the body of water before her, calling upon a massive swath of it just below the surface. Everyone else watched in apt awe as she easily pulled that swath up, an immense mass of water rising up into the air just above them, one that encased more fish than they could have ever hoped to catch swimming inside.

“Whoa…” Dipper said, quite impressed. “Lapis, that’s amazing!”

The blue Gem practically beamed upon hearing this, more than happy to meet the bright smile he was sending her way. A smile that she unquestionably treasured, yet unfortunately hadn’t seen enough of today, as much as she wished she had.

“That’s a pretty… uh, fancy way of catching fish…” Greg noted with a bit of a nervous chuckle.

“Fancy?” Stan scoffed. “Pfft, some might call it overkill.”

“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel chastised, hoping that the conman’s rather callous remark didn’t offend the blue Gem.

“That’s ‘cause Lapis is supa strong!” Steven proclaimed with a dramatic flex.

“Well, uh… I appreciate the gesture,” Greg said, trying to be as tactful as he could. “But I-I think it would be safer to stick to the old-fashioned way of doing it…”

“Oh, uh… sure.” Flustered, Lapis was quick to pull her “catch” back down into the lake itself, creating a sizable wave in the process, one that shook the entire boat before the water settled itself back down. “So… how do you fish the old-fashioned way?”

“Oh, it’s pretty simple,” Greg reeled his line back in so he could demonstrate. “You start with a rod, and you put a hook at the end of your line. And then, when you feel a nibble, you reel it in. And there it is; you’ve caught yourself a fish to eat!”

“Or to sell if you manage to catch a peppermint angelfish or a freshwater polka dot stingray,” Stan piped up. “Those kinda puppies will land you the big bucks, whether you’re sellin’ em legally or not‒n-not that I would know.”

“But why would a fish ever bite a hook?” Lapis asked, confused.

“You got to bait it,” Greg said, reaching into his nearby tackle box. “Put something on it you know it wants, like a worm or a $20 bill.”

“Now that’s my kind of bait!” Stan grinned greedily.

“We’ll keep that in mind the next time we need to fish you out of a lake, Mr. Pines,” Greg chuckled alongside Steven and Mabel. At the same time, he cast his baited line out into the lake to properly show Lapis how fishing was usually done.

And like how fishing usually went, the group ended up waiting quite some time for even a nibble to become apparent. Stan had all but fallen asleep in his sunchair, his own fishing pole completely forgotten as Greg minded them both instead. Lapis and the kids lazily leaned against the boat’s railing, keeping an eye on the water, even if there was no sign of any sort of underlying fish to be found.

“So when does the fish part happen?” Lapis asked boredly.

“Well, sometimes it isn’t about the fish you keep, but the company you catch,” Greg said with a sly wink, though none of the others really caught his drift. At that exact moment, however, a sharp, sudden pull on his fishing pole caught the former rock star’s attention instead. “Whoa! I got a bite!” Greg tightened his grip on the fishing rod as whatever it had caught began to pull aggressively against it. “Lapis, here! Give it a try!” he offered the blue Gem the pole, and though she had her reservations, she took it.

“Like this?” she asked, starting to reel the line in.

“You got it!” Greg grinned as the kids crowded close to watch. “Looks like it’s a big one!”

Lapis set her focus on her rod as she continued to steadily reel it in, though whatever was on the hook quickly tugged hard on the line, abruptly yanking the blue Gem forward along with it. Lapis stumbled forward, but fortunately everyone else was quick to respond, calling out to her in concern as they hurried to help hold her steady so she could keep the struggle going.

“Y-You got this, Lapis!” Steven encouraged with a loud grunt as he and Mabel clung onto the straining blue Gem. “Reel it in!”

“It’s… pulling… so hard!” Lapis shouted, pulling back against the unseen fish or force that she was so, so close to landing. So very close to the surface, yet still so far away.

Just as Malachite had been all that time.

Lapis gasped just as the fishing rod suddenly snapped under the immense pressure completely. Its other half flew into the water as whatever it had caught got away, leaving everyone to run to the side of the boat to see if they could catch so much as even a glimpse of it. Lapis in particular kept a close eye on the lake as it calmed once more, her sudden panic starting to die down as she realized the only reflection she saw on the water was her own.

“Dang it, Greg!” Stan fussed as he finally awakened from his brief nap. “We weren’t supposed to break any of these!”

“Yeah…” Greg winced as he looked over the broken rod. “Looks like this pole rental just turned into a pole purchase. But, you did a great job tangling with that beast, Lapis.”

“Yeah! I totally thought you had it!” Mabel added, hands on her hips.

“B-but don’t worry about the one that got away,” Steven encouraged with a small smile.

Lapis simply returned their praise with a terse, unreadable nod as she realized that their party was now one short for some reason. Mostly since that missing one among them had quietly slipped away long before her fight against that unknown catch had even begun.

“Welp, that’s my adventure quota for the day,” Greg concluded as he began putting the tackle box away. “I’ll be at the controls. Holler if you need me.”

“And I’ll be raiding that cooler to see if there’s any of that fancy orange juice left,” Stan said as he also began to head out. “Fishing’s thirsty work; it’s got me parched.”

“But Grunkle Stan, you were just napping most of the time,” Mabel pointed out.

“Yeah, well napping’s thirsty work too.”

With the adults heading off to their own devices, Mabel and Steven were more than ready to keep their excitable plans for the day going, even if fishing had gone somewhat awry. “Ok, Lapis, what do you…” Steven trailed off as they both realized the blue Gem had also stepped away at some point. “Lapis?”

For her part, Lapis had returned to the main deck, where it didn’t take her very long to find Dipper. He sat on one of the lounge chairs, his chin perched against his hands as he silently watched the dark clouds that were starting to roll in over the lake. And as the blue Gem slowly came to take a seat alongside him, she noticed just how tense and apprehensive his expression really was. She had every reason to suspect why that was, and couldn’t help but feel guilty that she hadn’t done more to try and change that. Though still, she figured now was better late than never.

“Dipper?” Lapis spoke up, finally breaking him out of whatever thoughts he had been distracted by.

“Oh! Lapis!” he started, quickly turning to her as he put on a clearly fake smile. “H-how’d fishing go?”

“It… went…” the blue Gem glanced down. “Why’d you leave?”

“Ah, I-I… just wanted a little peace and quiet, is all,” Dipper said, offering an excuse Lapis could see right through the moment he said it.

“Oh,” she replied, though this time, she refused to simply leave it there. “Dipper, a-are… are you all right?”

“What?” Dipper blinked, caught off guard by the question. “Y-yeah, of course I’m all right. Why wouldn’t I be? Are you all right, Lapis?”

Lapis flinched, not wanting to face such an inquiry, especially as she accidentally stole another small glance toward the lake once more. “I-I… l-let’s focus on you instead,” she countered as evenly as she could. “You’ve been so quiet all day. I know something’s wrong-” she hesitated, not wanting to give specifics about how or what she knew just yet. “So… if you want to tell me about it, then I-”

“No!” Dipper said, a bit too fast and a bit too forcefully. “I-I… I mean, it’s… seriously nothing, Lapis. You don’t have to worry about it. It’s really not important.”

“It’s important to me,” Lapis said earnestly, knowing, practically feeling that he was lying to her. “If something’s bothering you, then… maybe there’s some I can help somehow. I want to help.”

For a moment, the most Dipper could do was look to her in disbelief before he shook his head almost bitterly. “Lapis, I-I appreciate it, but really, I don’t need any help. Besides, today isn’t supposed to be about me; this whole lake trip was supposed to be to help you.”

“B-but I don’t deserve help!” Lapis argued far more fiercely than she had meant to. “Everyone’s so worried about making me feel better, but we should be worrying about you! Especially after what you went through!”

“After what I-” Dipper stopped short at this, confused. “Lapis, what are you talking about?”

The blue Gem faltered at this, knowing that the last thing she wanted to do was openly bring up what was obviously such a painful memory, but she couldn’t help herself. He needed to know just how much he needed this. “T-the deal, Dipper! I’m talking about the deal you made with t-that… that Bill guy that almost got you killed!”

Dipper froze, completely taken aback, upon hearing Lapis mention that terrible deal. A deal he’d done all he could to keep her from finding out about ever since she returned, for more reasons than one. “W-what… h-how do you know about-”

Before he could even get another stunned word out, the entire boat was suddenly rocked as something seemed to crash hard into the side of it below the surface of the water. Just as the ship seemed to settle once more, it took another heavy hit, one that nearly knocked Dipper and Lapis off their feet completely as they wondered to themselves about what was happening.

Mabel and Steven wondered the same thing as they took a detour on their way back to the main deck to stop by the bride to check in with Stan and Greg. “I-is everything ok, First Mate Dad?” Steven asked, concerned.

“Shh!” Greg quieted, glancing up from the boat manual he’d been pouring over. “You hear that?”

The group paused to listen for any further disruption below the boat, but strangely, they were only met with silence on all sides. “Uh… no?” Mabel frowned, confused.

“Maybe whatever it was is gone now,” Steven theorized.

“Well, at least that’s one good thing,” Greg sighed. “I think something’s wrong with the boat.”

“Augh!” Stan growled, trying his hardest to move the boat’s otherwise stiff wheel. “Nope, something’s definitely wrong with the boat. The rudder won’t move for anything. Something down there must be throwing it off.”

Mabel let out a sharp, dramatic gasp at this. “Maybe it’s the Gobblewonker!”

“Or Mr. McGucket’s Gobblewonker robot!” Steven added just as zealously.

“Would you two pipe down?” Stan rolled his eyes as he began fiddling with the ship’s control panel. “It’s not a robot or some stupid lake monster. We probably just hit a rock or something. What’s that manual of yours have to say, Greg?”

“I-it’s really not any help,” the former rock star frowned as he flipped through the book. “It’s mostly just advice on sun tanning and what crackers go with caviar!”

“Well, what crackers go with caviar?” Steven asked.

“Water crackers!”

“Ayyyy!” the pair exclaimed, exchanging a set of wry, playful grins. The levity was immediately broken, however as the boat violently shook once more, this time accompanied by a small, yet prominent explosion from somewhere inside the ship itself. The group wasted no time in rushing down to the boat’s small engine room, though as soon as Greg pried open the hatch, thick, dark smoke immediately started pouring out from it.

“Oh, crud! The engine!” Greg exclaimed, distraught. “I-I don’t know anything about fixing an engine! Do you, Mr. Pines?”

“Er… I can take a swing at trying, but I can’t make any promises,” Stan said as he began looking over the busted engine. “But either way, we’re gonna be out here for a while…”

Mabel and Steven exchanged a fretful glance upon hearing this, but all the same, they left the pair to work on the engine so they could relay the unfortunate message to the boat’s other two passengers. In the aftermath of the explosion and how it shook but the boat once again, Lapis was in the midst of helping Dipper back up onto his feet, checking over him to make sure he was unharmed as Steven and Mabel arrived.

“Uh, guys?” the young Gem spoke up. “We have some… not-so-great news. There’s trouble with the engine and… it looks like we’re stuck out here for now…”

“Great…” Dipper muttered as Lapis let out a low, disappointed sigh. “As if anything else could go wrong today…”

“W-well, let’s try to look on the bright side!” Mabel chimed in. “At least it’s not raining!” Almost at that exact moment, however, raindrops began sprinkling down from the dark, dreary skies above, growing more steady with each passing second. “...How did I do that…?” Mabel wondered, amazed by her apt timing.

“I-I’m sorry!” Steven professed to Lapis in particular. “This whole thing is our fault! We just wanted you to have fun, but everything’s turned into a mess. We shouldn’t have made you come on this trip…”

“No,” Lapis spoke up, her tone cold as she turned to face the side of the ship. “It’s my fault. I’m the one to blame.”

“What?” the young Gem shook his head. “No, it’s not-”

“I’m really trying to enjoy it out here, but… I can’t stop thinking about being fused as Malachite,” Lapis confessed, not even noticing Dipper tense up beside her at the mere mention of the twisted fusion. “How I used all my strength to hold her down in the lake, and how I was always battling against Jasper to keep her bound to me…”

“Lapis…” Steven began, though Dipper was quick to interject before he could say anything else.

“W-what does any of that even matter anymore?!” he countered harshly, clearly agitated by the mere discussion alone. “That’s all over now! Malachite’s gone. You don’t have to be with Jasper ever again!”

“T-that’s not it…” Lapis said quietly, shame filling her expression as she finally glanced back at the kids behind her to reveal the horrible truth. “I… I miss her…”

“What?!” All three of the kids exclaimed, shocked by the very thought.

“W-we were fused for so long…” the blue Gem practically whispered, shaken as she wrapped her arms around herself tightly.

“But… she’s terrible!” Steven protested anxiously.

“I’m terrible!” Lapis argued, fully turning to the trio. “I did horrible things! I left Ford behind on Homeworld! I stole the lake! Go on! Tell me I’m wrong!”

Steven and Mabel were more than prepared to try and do exactly that, but once again, Dipper beat them both to the chase on a seemingly different tangent entirely. “You miss her…” he began, letting out a bitter scoff as he did. “Even after everything she put you through, after everything she did?! After everything I did to try to help you?!”

“Dipper-” Lapis tried to counter, though he was far too incensed to back down now.

“I know what you went through was awful, I get that. But you have no idea what I put myself through to just to get you back!” he practically shouted, outraged that she’d make light of all the sacrifices he’d made by so much as hinting that she wanted to go back to what he’d only barely managed to help rescue her from. “I was ready to do nothing else but sit on the shore for the rest of the summer waiting for you! I stayed awake for nights on end trying to figure out a way to help you! I risked my life several times against Malachite and you did basically nothing to stop her! And worst of all, you asked me about that deal I made with Bill earlier? Well, you wanna know why I even did that in the first place?”

“Dipper, stop-” Mabel tried to interject, especially as she noticed the growing, fearful alarm in Lapis’ eyes brought on by his outburst. Yet even so, he kept going with the truth he could no longer keep buried under the surface, even for as horrible as it was.

“For you, Lapis!” he finished, tears starting to brim in his eyes even against his immense fury. “I nearly lost my body, my life‒all because I wanted to save you! And what do you want, even after all that? To go back to being with Jasper, back to being Malachite, like the rest of us‒like I don’t even matter!”

For a moment, the most Lapis could do in response to such a harsh accusation was remorsefully accept it, largely because she had no idea how to argue against it. Because really, if all that was indeed true, if Dipper really had almost lost so much in a last-ditch effort to help her, then that was just another reason--perhaps the very worst of all--on the already substantial list as to why she didn’t deserve any sort of kindness or support at all after every terrible thing she’d done.

Once again, Steven and Mabel wanted to speak up to try and ease the heavily palpable tension between the pair, yet before they could, that tension was broken altogether by the boat heavily jolting once more. This time, however, the steady tremors didn’t stop as something heavy latched onto the ship’s anchor chain, lurching the entire vessel to the side as something, or rather someone, began to climb up it. For a few breathless, uncertain seconds, the group on board glanced around frantically, unsure of what was happening. That is, until that someone finally reached the deck itself, the last Gem any of them could have expected--or wanted--to see: Jasper.

The orange Gem easily heaved herself onto the boat, ignoring the shared gasps of shock from everyone else as she rose to properly stand, a wide, almost demented grin spread across her face as she set her sights on Lapis in particular. “Finally,” she said, a burst of heavy thunder crashing over the lake at the exact same time. “I thought I’d never catch up to you!”

“J-Jasper…” Lapis barely managed to choke, though at the same time, she instinctively held a protective arm in front of the trio of kids behind her. “You… you’ve been following us?”

“I’ve been following you,” Jasper’s menacing grin deepened as she took a bold step forward.

Lapis flinched back in apt fear at this, though Steven was the first to step forward, his shield already formed over his arm. “Stay back!” he shouted bravely as he came to stand between the two Gems. Likewise, Mabel brazenly joined him, even without her grappling hook (which she hadn’t brought along on the trip) in hand. Dipper, on the other hand, hung back behind Lapis, taking a small step backward as he watched the frightening situation unfold carefully, quietly. Just out of Jasper’s notice all the while.

For her part, Jasper let out a twisted, amused laugh as she glanced down at the young pair before her haughtily. “This dulled-down version of Rose Quartz works for you now? Along with one of her dumb human pets?” she sneered callously as she nodded back up to Lapis. “You’re pointing that shield the wrong way. She’s the one you should be afraid of.”

“T-that’s not true,” Lapis tried to protest, though there was no conviction behind her words.

“You can’t lie to me,” Jasper asserted. “I’ve seen what you’re capable of. I thought I was a brute, but you… you’re a monster.”

Lapis froze, terror filling her entire form, though it was hardly aimed at Jasper. Instead, it was fear reserved solely for herself, for what she knew she could do, what she had done. Fear that what the orange Gem had just said was true; that she really was a monster after all. “I-I…” she trailed off, unsure of how to argue against that blatant truth. Even if Steven and Mabel were more than ready to do that for her.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Mabel defended, resolute.

“Yeah! Lapis doesn’t want anything to do with you!” Steven added just as firmly as he held his shield steady.

Jasper let out a severe, aggravated growl at this show of resistance, one that she didn’t hesitate to remove from her path through sheer force alone. “This is between US!” she shouted, brutally lashing out at the pair. Fortunately, Steven’s shield took the brunt of the heavy blow, but it was still enough to send them both flying across the deck, resulting in them roughly landing quite a ways behind the orange Gem.

“Steven! Mabel!” Lapis anxiously called, aptly alarmed. Likewise, Dipper nearly made his first move to join the confrontation, though he stopped short upon seeing that Steven and Mabel were largely fine, if not a bit disoriented from the attack.

At the same time, Jasper stopped Lapis in her tracks, tightly grabbing her by the wrist with both hands as she fell to her knees before the blue Gem. And then, she looked up to her manically, almost desperately even as she made her horrific proposal. “Let’s be Malachite again!”

Needless to say, Lapis was completely caught off guard by such a bizarre, demented request as she practically felt the orange Gem’s obvious madness from the tightness of her clinging grip alone. “Why… why would you want that?!” she dared to ask, unable to imagine why anyone would willingly, eagerly desire to go back to being chained down and trapped like Jasper had been with her.

“I was wrong about fusion!” the orange Gem professed with an unhinged smile. “You made me understand! Malachite was bigger and stronger than both of us! We could fly!”

“L-Lapis!” Steven shouted as he began to help Mabel back up. “Don’t listen to her!”

“Stay out of this!” Jasper barked back at him as she stood once more.

At the same time, Lapis shook her head incredulously, her thoughts racing far too fast for her to even try to keep up with any of them. “I… I was terrible to you…” she began, her voice shaking just as much as her entire body was. “I liked taking everything out on you. I needed to‒I hated you! Malachite hated existing so much! It was bad!”

“I-it’ll be better this time!” Jasper argued, taking her hands once more, even as she tried to pull them away. “I’ve changed! You’ve changed me! I’m the only one who can handle your kind of power! Together, we’ll be unstoppable!”

Somewhere in the distance, thunder echoed off the lake once more, though Lapis barely heard it as she let Jasper take her hands once more. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as everything else grew hazy and distant, save for the orange Gem and what she was trying to promise her, what she was trying to get from her. And for the briefest of moments, that offer, that plea, almost sounded tantalizing. Because if Jasper was right about anything, it was that Malachite was powerful, that she had felt powerful while they were together. That, for the first time in centuries of being trapped and lost and alone, she had felt strong, she had felt like she had actually been in control of something, even if that something was a twisted, self-loathing mess of a fusion. It was an appeasing kind of control, even if it came at the expense of someone else and even herself. And for the briefest, tiniest of moments, she honestly considered taking that control for herself once more.

And yet…

“And what do you want, even after all that?” Dipper had asked her just moments ago, tears in his eyes and anger in his voice. Anger that made complete and perfect sense, all things considered. “To go back to being with Jasper, back to being Malachite, like the rest of us‒like I don’t even matter!”

Is that what she wanted? Did she really want to tear herself away from people who she genuinely cared about, who cared about her in return‒people like Dipper and Mabel and Steven‒just to go back to someone she unquestionably, deeply hated like Jasper? Was whatever kind of demented control she had as Malachite really worth it to betray their trust, to turn away from their kindness, to do the very thing Dipper had accused her of by making his own sacrifices for her completely meaningless in the end?

All it took was the smallest of glances at Steven and Mabel far ahead of her, and perhaps most importantly of all, the most discreet look at Dipper still standing behind her, for Lapis to make the choice she knew she’d always stand by from here on out. Because she knew, above all else, what truly mattered to her most of all.

“No!” she exclaimed firmly, tearing her hands out of Jasper’s as she glared up at her bravely.

“What?” Jasper hissed, narrowing her eyes down at the blue Gem.

“What we had wasn’t healthy!” Lapis said, resolved and unshaken. “I never want to feel like I felt with you. Never again! So just go!”

“But Lapis!” Jasper tried to argue, though she didn’t get very far before someone else stepped in between her and the blue Gem instead.

“She said no,” Dipper began coldly, sending a relentless glare up at the much larger orange Gem as he came to stand protectively in front of Lapis. “So leave her alone!”

“Dipper… I…” Lapis trailed off, unsure of what to say. Yet even so, Dipper briefly glanced back at her with a small, assuring smile, one that carried the promise that he was on her side, no matter what happened.

Briefly, genuine surprise filled Jasper’s expression at this intrusion, until sharp, sweeping rage rushed in to take the place of that surprise instead. “You again…” she growled hatefully, recognizing the continually interloping human before her immediately. “You always have to come to her rescue, don’t you? You may have ruined Malachite for me before, but I’m not about to let you take her away from me this time!”

In an instant, Jasper latched out, though this time, it wasn’t toward Lapis. Instead, she abruptly grabbed Dipper by the arm and roughly yanked him toward her, pulling him out of Lapis’ reach even as she made a panicked, yet failed attempt at saving him. Of course, from the very moment Jasper latched onto him, Dipper began struggling against her heavy hold, though all his attempts to pull away and free himself did little against the orange Gem’s immense strength as she found a way to turn the tables on Lapis completely. “Listen, Lapis, you “care” about this human, right?” she asked, sending a disgusted, disgruntled nod down at Dipper as he beat against her arm with his free hand as hard as he could. An effort that she easily ignored, despite how desperate it was.

“L-leave him alone!” Lapis begged, her hands held up in tight, shaking fists as she looked between Dipper and Jasper anxiously. “Please, Jasper, this is just between you and me. He isn’t part of this. Let him go!”

“I’d say he is part of this since he’s the reason you even agreed to fuse with me in the first place! And he’s gonna be the reason why we fuse again,” Jasper retorted, tightening her grip on Dipper’s arm to the point that it felt like it was going to snap right in two. Lapis winced as she heard him let out a small, involuntary cry of pain, one that shook her to her very core, especially as Jasper continued her cruel demands. “Either you form Malachite with me right here, right now, or…”

“O-or what?” Lapis practically whispered, her eyes wide with terror all the while.

“Or I take your precious human here somewhere you’ll never be able to find him,” Jasper finished, her tone deadly serious.

“Dipper!” Steven and Mabel both exclaimed, aptly horrified upon hearing this. Without hesitation, they both acted on the same beat, joining hands as they prepared to form Maven so they could take Jasper head-on and save him. And yet, just before they could, Dipper managed to glance back at them, the fear in his expression obvious, though something else was there too. A certain sort of steadiness that came paired with him putting a silent hand up to stop them, almost as if he was sending them the unspoken message that he had a plan. Which, by all accounts, he did, especially as he noticed one of the decorative swords that had fallen by the wayside earlier lying on the ground just a few feet away from him.

“I… you… you can’t do that to him!” Lapis shouted at Jasper, furious yet deeply afraid all at the same time.

“I can, and I will,” Jasper coldly assured. “It’s either gonna be you, Lapis, or your human. Your choice.”

By this point, Lapis was nearly on the verge of tears as she glanced down mournfully. Because without even thinking twice, she knew what she had to do. She had already made the choice against becoming Malachite again on her own volition, out of her own desire to. But if it was for Dipper, if it could keep him safe now just as she had once thought it had before, then she would gladly, readily make that choice to give up her freedom again for him. For him, she’d do just about anything.

“O-ok…” Lapis whispered softly, sadly, as she prepared to return to the prison she’d hoped she’d never see again. “I… I’ll fuse with you.”

“Perfect,” Jasper said with a beaming, leering grin. Lapis simply closed her eyes as Jasper extended her free hand out to her once more, and yet just before it could reach the blue Gem, her approach was brought to a literal swift stop.

It happened in an instant so quick that Jasper didn’t even catch it until after it happened. A blade that was otherwise completely dull came down on her hand with such a great amount of force behind it that it sliced through her wrist completely. Her hand instantly vanished into particles of the light her form was composed of, and as she let out a startled gasp by the unexpected amputation, her other hand just so happened to release its firm hold on her captive that had done this to her in the first place.

Jasper only briefly paid any attention to her now stub of a wrist as she instead noticed Dipper, now free and armed with one of the decorative swords, taking his place between her and Lapis once more. The orange Gem glared daggers down at him, but Dipper met her ire evenly with his blade in hand, ready to use it in an instant if need be. “You will never, ever fuse with Lapis again,” he told her, his tone icy and unyielding. “Not as long as I’m around to help her.”

Jasper let out a loud, infuriated shout at this, her helmet forming over her head as she easily reformed her missing hand. “Then I guess that means it’s time to get rid of you ONCE AND FOR ALL!” she yelled, raising her head to bring down a vicious attack. Yet it was one that never landed, even though Dipper was brazely ready to face. For instead, at that very moment, Lapis reacted to rush to his rescue instead, throwing her hand up swiftly into the air. Along with the movement, a massive, powerful fist of water also burst through the boat itself, breaking through the boards just under the orange Gem’s feet before striking her hard. The incredible force of the blow was more than enough to send Jasper flying, not just off of the boat, but away from the lake entirely as she was helplessly flung far away into the surrounding forest. Her threatening presence gone for now, but hardly forgotten.

In the immediate, newfound peace that followed, Dipper let out the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding in as he lowered his sword and turned to Lapis with a small, relieved smile. “Lapis, that was-”

She immediately cut him off as she swiftly pulled him into a tight, protective embrace, her form still trembling with remnant terror as she rushed to check over him. “Are you ok? Did she hurt you?” she asked him frantically, holding his face in her hands so she could inspect it for any sort of injuries.

“N-no, I… I’m fine,” he assured her, placing a comforting hand against her arm. Lapis responded by loosening her grip on him, letting out a small, tired sigh though she hardly returned his allayed smile.

“Dipper!” Almost out of nowhere, the pair was caught off guard as Mabel suddenly crashed into Dipper, wrapping him up in a tight, elated hug. “What you just did was totally awesome! I mean, cutting off Jasper’s hand? That was like the most metal thing I think you’ve ever done, bro-bro!”

“Heh, thanks,” Dipper chuckled somewhat bashfully.

“And Lapis, you were amazing too!” Steven chimed in brightly, beaming at the blue Gem. “The way you stood up to Jasper was so brave! Not to mention how you sent her packing at the end there.”

“Yeah…” Lapis frowned, glancing away in shame. “Brave…”

“I-is everyone all right?!” Greg called as he and Stan turned the corner to arrive on the main deck. They were quickly met with a surprising sight, however, as they noticed the gaping hole in the center of the vessel, one that was quickly causing it to sink lower and lower into the water with each passing second.

“Geez, I probably could have fixed the engine in like, an hour or two,” Stan remarked, hands on his hips. “You kids didn’t have to go and just trash the thing like this.”

“W-wha… what happened?” Greg asked, aptly distraught by the irreparable damage.

“Uh… It’s… kind of a long story,” Steven said, leading the way to the highest edge of the boat. Lapis was quick to create another large hand of solid water, one that most everyone was easily able to fit on for the ride back to shore. The blue Gem stopped Dipper short of hopping on it however, as she instead silently offered him a different mode of transportation as she summoned her aquatic wings instead. He took the hint and climbed on her back, holding on as she took flight and guided the watery hand she’d made for the others across the lake, leaving the now abandoned, defunct vessel behind as it sunk into the water entirely.

“I guess I bought a boat after all,” Greg sighed as he watched the boat disappear below the depths.

“Yeah, one you can’t even use,” Stan remarked. “What a ripoff! Oh well, at least I managed to snag the treasure chest-shaped cooler on our way out.” He grinned, holding up said cooler for everyone to see.

“Ooo, well that’s better than nothing, right, Dad?” Steven said with a small grin.

“Yeah… I guess it is,” Greg agreed, fondly ruffling his son’s hair.

It didn’t take long for Lapis to get everyone safely back to the dock they’d started from, though instead of landing upon it herself, she instead took flight once more with Dipper in tow. “Huh, I wonder where they’re going,” Mabel said as she watched them take to the skies. “Maybe we should follow them? Just to make sure they’re ok?”

“...I think they’ll be fine,” Steven assured, keeping his sights set on the pair as well. “Looks like they just need some time to themselves.”

At the same time, Dipper couldn’t help but glance back at the dock they were leaving behind from his spot on Lapis’ back. Instead, she seemed to be taking him up toward the falls above the lake, something that couldn’t help but confuse him given her relative silence since the boat had sunk. “Lapis, what’s going on? Where are we going?” he finally asked her a moment later.

“...We need to talk,” was all the blue Gem said as she kept going, not even bothering to so much as even look back at him. The rest of the flight was steeped in silence on both sides, even as they arrived at the top of the waterfall cliff. Yet almost as soon as Lapis set Dipper down on solid ground, that silence swiftly, suddenly came to an end.

The moment Lapis landed, she was quick to turn to face him, her manner and tone quite severe, even though the underlying hints of fear and worry were clear in both as she spoke adamantly. “What in the world were you thinking, Dipper?” she asked. “What you did back there… Standing up to Jasper like that… you could have gotten yourself killed!”

“W-what was I thinking?” Dipper countered in disbelief at such a question. “I was thinking about how I was willing to do whatever I had to to keep you from fusing with her again! You’d already told her no, but then, when she threatened me, it was like suddenly none of that even mattered anymore!”

“It didn’t matter!” Lapis shot back fiercely. “Why don’t you understand that all that matters to me is keeping you safe?! Why else do you think I even fused with her in the first place?!”

“Oh, so what Jasper said is true, then?” he countered angrily. “The only reason you became Malachite to begin with was because of me, right?!”

“Ye--no!” she quickly corrected herself. “No, of course that’s not true! I… I just…” she sighed, bitterly. “I fused with Jasper because I thought it was the only way I could keep her as far away from you as possible. That’s why I was ready to do the same thing again today. I… I don’t want you to get hurt; I never wanted that…”

“Well, it’s way too late for that,” he scoffed coldly, crossing his arms as he turned away from. “When you fused with her, when you trapped yourself at the bottom of the lake, it did hurt me…” He paused, shaking his head remorsefully as he tried his hardest to fight back tears. “It hurt me so, so much because I knew, right from the very beginning, that it was all my fault. You were gone, a-and I missed you, and you were just down there suffering non-stop and… and I couldn’t do anything to help you. A-and every time I tried… I… things always just got even worse…”

For what seemed like ages, Lapis was silent as she watched Dipper take a solemn seat on the edge of the cliff. Not knowing what else to do, she joined him, waiting an hesitant moment or two before posing a question she knew she shouldn’t even ask. “W-what actually happened?” she began slowly. “W-with that Bill guy, I mean. Steven and Mabel told me a little, a-about how he tricked you into making a deal to help me, but… I don’t know much else outside of that.”

Dipper let out a long, weary sigh, placing his face in his hands as he finally decided to come clean. “It was stupid…” he muttered crossly. “I was stupid. He promised he’d help me figure out a way to save you in exchange for a puppet. But what he didn’t tell me was that I was actually the puppet he had in mind. So he stole my body, took it for a joy ride, intentionally hurt it--practically killed it, and nearly did the same to Mabel and Steven too until they barely managed to kick him out of it so I could take it back. But even then, i-it’s taken me a really long time to recover, both inside and out. Sometimes I wonder if I ever really will at all”

Lapis didn’t initially say a word in response to this tale of incredible woe as she let it sink in, along with the heavy wave of guilt that came along with it. “Y-you… went through all of that… because of me…” she said, her voice barely a whisper, though it was heavy with shame all the same.

“N-no, Lapis, I… I shouldn’t have said that earlier,” Dipper quickly countered. “I-I didn’t mean it, I was just upset-”

“And you have every right to be!” Lapis interrupted sharply. “You were right, Dipper; you did so much to try and help me, a-and what did I do? I nearly went and fused with Jasper all over again like it was nothing!”

“But you were going to do it for me,” he retorted firmly. “And that’s not nothing.” Unsure of what else to say, he sighed once more, lying back to lay in the grass as his feet dangled over the edge of the cliff. It didn’t take Lapis to join him, and for a long, quiet, almost peaceful moment, the pair rested in silence, watching as the stormy clouds above began to clear out for sunny skies once more. “Isn’t that messed up?” Dipper finally said with a small, yet bittersweet laugh. “How we both put ourselves through something so terrible just so we could try to help each other?”

“Yeah…” Lapis muttered fretfully. “It is…”

“Maybe… maybe that’s not how this is supposed to be,” Dipper continued, his tone sincere. “There’s gotta be better ways to protect your friends out there than losing your body to a psychotic demon or trapping yourself in an unstable fusion deep below a lake.”

“Well, if there is, I’d love to hear it,” the blue Gem remarked as she rested her hands behind her head.

“...Sword fighting was what helped me,” Dipper said as he sat up once more. “It gave me a better way to keep the people I care about safe, a-and best of all, it finally helped me feel safe again when I wasn’t sure if I ever world. So… maybe we just need to find something like that for you too.”

“We could always start with fishing,” Lapis joked, eliciting a small, warm laugh from Dipper that she couldn’t help but join in on. Once the beat of much-needed levity passed, however, there were still hints of worry lingering in the air between them.

“Lapis…” Dipper began earnestly. “Are you alright after… well, everything?”

“Yeah,” the blue Gem nodded as she properly sat up herself. “I think I’ll be ok. What about you? Steven and Mabel mentioned something about you having… ‘nightmares’?”

“Oh, those…” Dipper frowned, wishing that the pair hadn’t been so presumptive, even if they were correct. “They’re just… I-I… I don’t know where they’re coming from. I mean, Bill is a dream demon so I guess it makes sense that he keeps showing up in my dreams, but, it’s not like he can really do anything since Grunkle Ford and I put that barrier up to keep him from getting into the shack. Still, I-I don’t know, it’s just… weird. Nobody’s even heard anything from Bill in a really long time and now suddenly, right out of nowhere, he keeps popping up in my nightmares again when he hasn’t in weeks? I know I’m probably wrong‒I hope I’m wrong, but… I can’t help but feel like something really… bad is about to happen soon…”

“Well, if this ‘Bill Cipher’ does show up trying to hurt you again,” Lapis began with a hint of firm resolve in her tone. “Then you better believe I’ll make sure he never gets the chance to again. He won’t mess with you again, not as long as I’m around.”

Dipper couldn’t help but smile upon hearing this, knowing that this comforting promise essentially echoed his own to the blue Gem. And perhaps, if the need ever arose again, then they could both find better ways to keep those promises than they had before, in the hopes that they would never need to be so cruelly separated as they’d been before ever again.

A beat of gentle, contented silence passed between the pair just as the late afternoon sun started to set beyond the distant cliffs. It cast a bright, almost golden glow upon the waters of the lake far below them, a lake that had once been a place of such strife for them both, but now, only seemed to radiate peace and tranquility instead. “You know,” Dipper said with a soft, easy smile as he enjoyed the view. “The lake really is beautiful from up here.”

“Yeah,” Lapis earnestly agreed as she gently, affectionately ruffled his hair. She had no doubts she’d always treasure moments like these, because even if they’d been so hard fought for by sacrifices and guilt and grief on both of their ends, they were moments they’d finally managed to somehow win at long, long last. “It is.”

#again pelase read this on ao3 or ff.net instead dumblr is blueh #jen writes #universe falls #steven universe #gravity falls #steven universe gravity falls crossover #crossover fanfic #au #alone on the lake #lapis #dipper #mabel #steven #jasper #greg #stan #alone at sea #keyword is fishing

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omg-baeyoung-baeran · 4 years

Text

Marked with the Kiss of Death: Chapter One (A Mystic Messenger AU Fanfiction)

Archive on Our Own Link

YT Trailer

Genre: Crime, Action,Thriller, Romance, Comedy, Drama

Pairings: Saeran/MC 2, 707/MC 5; more to come

Summary:

Would you rather be famous but live with a criminal?

"I swear he finds me anywhere I go! I see his white hair in all---"

The feeling of freezing arms snaking around her waist gave her sudden reconsiderations of her life decisions.

"It's just how it is, Princess."

Or would you rather hide from a criminal and live as a beggar?

"Sorry, I don't have coins," he muttered as he ran his hand through his unruly red hair.

His boyish charm has sufficed her eyes, but not enough to please her stomach.

"Big bills are fine."

He never knew beggars can be so picky.

o-o-o-o

Every waking minute, she wondered… just what the hell is wrong with him?

“Yes, princess—”

“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again—my bodyguard is broken.”

o-o-o-o-o

Ayu clipped two braided blonde locks in a half ponytail. Although she preferred a full braid, her chin-length hair forbade her to do so. She sometimes wished she had not cut her hair, but the barrage of compliments from her social media had tickled her narcissistic side.

It took merely a week before she eventually grew bored with the limited variety of styles she could do.

“Pink or nude? Red is good too, though?” Ayu shook her head. “No, that’s trying too hard.”

Looking into the mirror, she pictured two versions of herself, one sporting a pink shade, the other with a nude shade. At first, it was a simple dilemma that boiled down to three choices— would she go for a feminine, striking, or a subtle kind of beauty? With the striking red out of the picture, her options narrowed down to a subtle nude or a feminine pink.

Eventually, she set down the other two tubes, settling for feminine, “Pink it is.”

Twisting the cap open, she looked at the mirror and swiped the applicator on her lips. She smacked her lips twice to even the colour out. Once she was done, she placed it back in the tube and twisted it close.

For her most dreaded part—contact lenses. As the fanmeet fiasco happened fairly recently, she was yet to get used to poking her eyes.

‘I just got your messages~!’

Ayu switched off the alarm notification and checked the time— 2:00 P.M.

There was no time for contact lenses.

“Guess I’ll go nerdy.”

o-o-o-o

When she says her heart almost leaped out of her chest, of course, it was an exaggeration...

...but there was no denying that he scared the living daylights out of her.

“Do I know you?”

There was no knock on the door; not even a text message—as she opened the door, she found herself face-to-face with astranger in a black suit, waiting in the front door.

“Sorry I’m late,” he bowed. “I was told a princess needed a bodyguard?”

‘Princess? Bodyguard?’

Frowning, Ayu eyed him up and down; he was of average height—with her stopping just below his ear—and had white hair with its tips a faded red. Despite the white hair, he did not seem old—he looked to be in his early 20s, in fact. Just like her.

Was it too late to take out her pepper spray? He might attack her anytime.

“Bodyguard?” she scrunched her brows. No one informed her about a new bodyguard. “How would I know if you’re telling the truth? Do you have any proof to validate your claims?”

“Yes,” he fished through his pocket and pulled out a phone. He quickly tapped his fingers on the screen, then handed it to her. “You can call your dad.”

Though suspicious, she took the phone from his hand.

His contacts book had only one contact in it— Big Boss.

Her lip curled into a sneer at the name, ‘Big Boss? Cringey.’

She pressed the ‘Call’ button and held the phone against her ear. Two rings later, the other line picked up.

“Ray? You called?”

Sure enough, it was her father’s familiar deep voice. And he knew Ray… So Ray was not a random die-hard fan trying to get close to her.

“Dad?”

“Oh, princess, it’s you. I see Ray has arrived.”

“What’s this about a bodyguard? What about Mister Park?”

“Ah, about that… I replaced him. I figured Ray would handle the job better.”

So he was still hung up about the fanmeet incident! Granted, it only happened three weeks ago but...

“Dad! I swear he did nothing wrong! It happened so fast; no one could have foreseen it!”

“Still, it was his job to act fast.”

Ayu let all her stress out with a sigh. As his only daughter, her father cared for her too much that it bordered on overprotectiveness.

Scratch that; it was not borderline—he certainly was overprotective.

“Okay, Dad. I’ll call you later. I have to go.”

After saying their goodbyes, Ayu tapped ‘End Call’ before handing it back to Ray.

“So…,” she crossed her arms, “you’re Ray?”

He took the phone from her, then nodded with a polite close-mouthed smile that screamed forced. Being in the showbiz industry had exposed her to such smiles that she was no stranger to it.

After all, she herself was an expert at that sort of smile.

“Just Ray.”

Uncrossing her arms, she nodded. “Well, at least you’re on time. I’m going to have lunch with my friend. Do you know where Chamwon Restaurant is?”

“No, but I can use Noogle Maps.”

“Alright,” she nodded and walked past him. “Let’s go, then.”

o-o-o-o

“Zen-oppa!” Ayu excitedly waved, bouncing on her heels.

A handsome long-haired albino turned his head to her direction, “Ayu!” He waved back, motioning them to come over.

“Hey,” she tapped Ray’s shoulder, then whispered, “Does my hair look good?”

“Of course, Princess,” Ray vigorously nodded. “You’d still look good even without it!”

‘Is complimenting me also part of his job description? Dad really did things overboard.’

Though weirded out, she led him to their reserved spot, with Ray following exactly five steps away.

Multiple eyes followed their move, but no one dared to get close. With the peaceful atmosphere and customers minding their own businesses, she could not help but feel that their lunch would go smoothly.

“I’m sorry! Did you wait long?”

Zen shook his head. “No! Come on, let’s order.”

Pulling their chairs back, they were about to take their seats...

Ayu paused, wearing a look of plain confusion on her face. Zen, too, had an identical expression on his face.

Source of confusion: her new bodyguard.

It must have been a strange sight: three adults, pausing mid-sit with their asses hovering over their chairs.

His first day working for her and he was not doing a good first impression.

‘What does he want?’ Standing straight, Ayu held Ray’s arm and pulled him up. “Zen-oppa, will you excuse us for a moment?”

“Um, sure,” Zen said, confused, but sat down anyway.

“You can order now! We’ll be back reeeaal quick!” She faced Ray and released his arm, cocking her head to the side and motioning him to come with her.

He nodded, following Ayu as she led him further from the table. With Zen out of earshot and taking a menu from a waitress, Ayu placed a hand on Ray’s shoulder and pushed it down, making him bend to her height, and whispered, “Okay, I know Dad told you to be this overprotective, but I promise to give you a bonus payment later—just please! Sit somewhere else!”

Ayu made sure her smile did not falter. Personal space in public places was a luxury celebrities like her could not afford. A headline of "Idol caught mistreating her bodyguard?!" would prove detrimental to her image… especially in Zen’s presence.

Ray whispered back, “A bonus payment is hard to enjoy when I'm missing my head.”

‘You coward. Can you even call yourself a bodyguard?’

“You don’t have to worry. Just enjoy your date—”

“Shh! It’s not a date!” Blood rising to her face, she darted her head side-to-side, then sighed in relief. So far, no one noticed.

The showbiz industry was an unforgiving one—she was basically “owned” by her fans. Being in a relationship was seen as something of a betrayal to them. Even being seen with Zen was a surprising sight, and rumours about their “dating scandal” used to pop up.

It had caused an uproar within the fandom so as a result, she always assured her fans that they were just friends.

Unfortunately.

The explanation seemed to satisfy them, as hanging out with Zen was not much of a shock anymore.

“And don’t mind me. I promise you’ll forget I even exist! Trust me," he beamed at her with an innocent smile on his lips.

"Does this face look like it trusts you?" she hissed back in a harsh whisper.

Ray studied her face, and for a moment, he thought he was looking at something utterly hideou—

"Yes," he answered briefly.

“Fine,” she sighed. “Let’s go back. Oppa must be hungry.”

Heading back to the table, Ayu took slow strides to calm her nerves, gazing longer at Zen who was intently reading the menu, unaware of the attention she was giving him. Even from afar, Zen gave off an aura of unrivaled beauty and charm. Hell, even the way he flipped pages stirred in her tingles of teenage giddiness.

How anyone could look perfect just by doing nothing was something Ayu once thought impossible. But the first time she laid eyes on him, she realized just how closed-off her world had been.

She was not alone in thinking that; almost everyone in the room had their eyes fixated at Zen, and not just because he was a famous celebrity.

The closer they got to their table, the more the surroundings blurred for her, and the more focused Zen’s beauty became. Ayu somewhat hated the paparazzi, for despite how perfect Zen looked in every angle, they lacked the skill to capture the breathtaking beauty he possessed. A disgrace to photographers around the world, was what they were to her.

At least the paparazzi's incompetence worked in her favour, for she was one of the lucky few able to admire his beauty in the flesh

“Sorry about that,” Ayu spoke as she reached their table.

“It’s fine.” Zen handed her the other menu.

“I haven’t introduced you guys to each other. By the way, this is my new bodyguard, Ray! He replaced Mr. Park just a while ago.”

“It’s fine! So, are you ready to or… der?” Zen’s voice faltered at the end.

Confused, Ayu followed his line of vision and frowned. She was willing to give him a second chance since not everyone should be judged by their first impression but this…

Ray, arms crossed over his chest, stayed rooted by Ayu’s right.

“Oh,” Zen was the first to regain his senses, “don’t you want to join Dongwon? You might feel out of place.” he pointed to a nearby table where a tall, bald man sat, reading a menu.

“It’s fine. Just enjoy your meal, Sir.”

“But—”

“Ah, don’t mind him,” Ayu dismissively waved her hand. They were just wasting their time. Smiling through gritted teeth, she gave Ray’s arm a squeeze. “Ray here! He’s just really,” she squeezed it tighter, “reeeaaally… passionate about his job.”

Ray pulled his arm out of her grasp, “Ahaha! You overestimate me, Princess!” He said, sporting a big smile on his face, intensifying in Ayu an urge to rip it off of his face.

“Ooh, 'Princess' ?” Zen said with a playful quirk of his brow.

“Ah! That’s what he used to call his bosses! It kinda just… stuck to him! Old habits die hard, you know?”

‘How dare Ray embarrass me in front of Zen?! What if he found it cringy?’

“If you say so, Princess!” Zen teased. For some reason, "Princess" sounded far better coming from his lips. As usual, Zen will always be the exception. “Well then, at least take a seat,” he requested and gestured to the chair beside Ayu.

Ray shook his head. “Oh no. I’ll stay here.”

“You’ll,” Ayu choked out her next word, “what?”

“You know, I need to act fast if something happens to you,” he said matter-of-factly.

She did not know what potential her father saw in Ray; all she could see was Ray teetering on the fine line between caution and paranoia.

“Ah, you don’t have to!” She forced a smile, shaking her head. Surely, not even he was dense enough to miss her straightforward message.

‘Seriously. You. Don’t. Have. To.’

“Oh, what’s wrong?”

Dongwon walked over to their table, then slightly bowed. He stood by Zen’s side, mirroring Ray’s position.

“Oh, um, want to sit with us?” Zen offered, albeit confused.

To Ayu’s dismay, Dongwon shook his head. Things seemed to be going in a direction that strayed from her original vision.

“Hmm, I see?” Zen said. “We’ll order takeout for you after, how does that sound?”

The two bodyguards nodded, mumbling their thanks.

“Okay! Now that that’s settled… Ayu, is there anything you want?”

Humming to herself, Ayu flipped a page and shrugged, “I’m not sure. Whatever you think is good.”

“Okay! I’ll just order the usual then.” Zen raised his arm, catching not only a nearby waitress’ attention but the other customers' as well.

They must have wondered if their presence was an elaborate endorsement; after all, having two celebrities hanging out in basically any place—from five-star restaurants to junkyards—was bound to bring attention.

The waitress that came over was a young woman, possibly around 18 to 19, with a name tag that says "Jihyo".

“Yes?”

For a second, Ayu was unable to suppress the frown from showing. Once she noticed, she quickly replaced it with a smile.

‘Who the hell does this girl think she is?’

Being in the entertainment industry made it easy to discern that type of voice—one she heard a lot from girls; it was the voice that made her want to slice her ears off.

Ayu looked in disgust, as the waitress swayed her body side-to-side, bouncing on the balls of her feet and looking at Zen with an awestruck expression.

‘Please mess up our order.’

“We’ll have Set C….” Zen showed her the menu, pointing at their order.

The way the Jihyo girl’s face got closer to Zen’s triggered within her an urge to….

Jihyo scribbled their order on her notepad, particularly slow for a two-word order.

‘Hurry up.��

Once she was done, she bowed and left the table. Ayu’s murderous thoughts were finally put at ease.

“So… about your role!”

Zen’s face lit up. “I’m glad you asked!”

“What’s your role?”

“Okay, so it’s a murder mystery show. Basically, my character is a lawyer prodigy. Something happened in his past that made him into who he is, which I won’t say because it’s a spoiler. So anyway—”

Not once did she chime in or cut his words off, only nodding every so often. The combination of Zen’s perfectly-sculpted features, enchanting red eyes, melodic voice, and passion for acting never failed to capture her in a trance.

“I’m sure you’ll do a good job!” Ayu gushed. “Can’t wait to watch it!”

Zen chuckled, “When I first heard the summary, I thought it might be something you’d like.”

“You thought so?”

“Here’s your order.”

To her relief, a different waiter came with their order. After turning the grill on, he set down two trays of raw meat and plates of side dishes—kimchi, fish cakes, japchae, steamed eggs, and baby potatoes.

“Order’s complete. Enjoy your meal." The waiter dipped his head, and left.

o-o-o-o

‘Discomfort by proxy’—did such a term exist? If so, that was the perfect way to describe what Ray currently felt, what with all those stares directed at the two celebrities. How could anyone get used to this? It was hard enough to eat with just one person staring, but more than one? He might as well be a zoo animal, then.

Glancing to his left, Ray spotted a group of high school-aged boys five tables away, two of them holding menus in front of their faces, trying to catch a peek of his oblivious boss. Today was a lucky day for those boys, as their idol crush was too busy making disgusting googly eyes at Zen to notice them.

“You mentioned you wanted to try acting, right?” Zen asked.

“Oh… yeah. I just wanted to try it out like once, but I’m not really actively looking,” Ayu shrugged.

“Hmm, if you want, the director told me he has a friend who’ll be directing a film! And she’s looking for actresses who can star in her movie.”

“Ooh! What’s it about?”

“Not sure yet. I’ll ask him.”

“Tell me, okay?!”

With another glance to the left, Ray saw that those boys now had phones discreetly peeking out from their menus.

Ray rolled his eyes. Seriously, who were they fooling?

He shifted to the left, blocking Ayu from their view. Though faced away from them, he could hear them whining how perfect the photo would have been were it not for “that photobombing tofu”.

He suppressed a snort, ‘Tofu? That’s the best you can do?’

As derogatory as it sounded, it did not bother him at all. After all, pale skin such as his own was sought after.

“So Sienna—”

The brief frown that rose from Ayu’s face did not go unnoticed to Ray’s eyes.

Sienna Park, the visual, center and lead vocalist of the girl group his boss’ daughter was from—Dandelion; also considered the second-most popular member after Ayu.

Zen, however, was unaware of the sour change of mood, for her face reverted back to its over-the-top cheerfulness in an instant.

‘Well, idols have to keep up a facade…’

It jarred Ray as to how she could switch from sweet to murderous with ease.

Click!

Ayu’s head instinctively snapped up. “Oppa!” She squealed.

‘Oppa,’ Ray almost sniggered at that. ‘Do girls actually think they look cute saying that?’

“Hmm, what caption should I put?” Zen sang teasingly.

“Delete that!” She threatened with wide eyes, only for her growing grin to render her threats futile, as though she enjoyed being teased by him.

‘Get a room…’

“Why not? It looks cute! See?”

Zen held his phone in front of her, which showed a candid shot of her, mouth slightly open, in the middle of talking and flipping over a piece of beef.

“Cute?” A dust of pink slowly spread on her cheeks as she turned her head away.

“Yeah. I rarely see you with your glasses on. It always looks so new to me.”

“Oh… Maybe I should’ve worn my contact lenses instead,” she pouted, before adding a new set of strips to the grill.

“Nah, that’s not what I meant. I think you look cute with your glasses.”

Her hold on the tong loosened.

Shing!

“Ah!” She exclaimed, recoiling as the meat sizzled and spattered oil droplets on her.

Zen took the tong from her, taking over. “Do you disagree that much?” He chuckled at her flustered face.

“O-Oppa! You’re such a joker!” She sheepishly laughed. Without the tong to keep her occupied, she fanned her reddened face with both hands.

Ray wanted to throw up all over their fishcakes. It was hard to stand there with a straight face.

Before he could actually throw up, Ray stopped listening in on their conversation. It’s not like there was anything interesting to take from it.

As for her father, he could finally sleep at night without worrying about Zen stealing his only princess away. From the looks of it, his paranoia was baseless, as it was all unrequited on Ayu's part.

With a father like that, he pitied any guy unfortunate enough to catch Ayu’s fancy.

“Ooh, I think this is done,” Zen said, switching the grill stove off. One by one, he took each slice and placed them on another plate.

“Hmm!” Ayu gushed as she inhaled the barbecues’ mouth-watering aroma. “This looks so good!”

“Eat up,” Zen said, handing her a pair of metal chopsticks.

“Yes! Thank you for the food!”

She waited until Zen took the first bite. “Is it good?”

“Yep!”

Using his own chopsticks, he pinched a chunk of rice, adding a small slice of pork along with it. With a palm below to catch any falling grain, Zen brought it closer to Ayu’s mouth. “Say ‘aah’!”

‘What do you think you two are doing?’

They were famous celebrities; would it kill them to be more careful? Surely, this would cause a dating scandal.

And a scolding from Big Boss as well.

Just in time, he could already see someone pulling out a phone from two tables away.

Eyes closed, Ayu leaned forward and opened her mouth, “Aaaahh.”

‘You’re not helping matters at all, dummy.’

Ray moved to her left side, just before she took a bite, hiding her from the photographer’s view before giving the camera a “little” smile— an apology for ruining what should have been a perfect shot.

But his apology seemed unwanted, as they scowled both at their phone screens and him.

“Is it good?”

“Mm-hmm!” Ayu nodded, simpering, and seemingly disconnected from the real world.

“I’m glad you liked it,” Zen nodded, before facing Ray. “Mister Ray, you really don’t want to sit?”

“It’s fine,” he shook his head with a forced smile. “I’m not hungry anyway.”

“Hmm, I see—”

Bzzt! Bzzt!

“Oh, just a moment,” Zen said, glancing at his vibrating phone, then at Ayu. “Sorry. Can I take this call? It’s a bit urgent.”

“Sure! Take your time!” She nodded.

“I’ll be quick!” Zen held the phone near his ear, speaking in a hushed tone as he headed to the bathroom.

With Zen away to take the call, the whole table was quiet. Ayu continued eating without him.

This was bad. The absence of a tall and handsome guy like Zen to be intimidated by made it easier for average no-name guys to try their luck.

Not even 10 seconds after Zen left, a young man, holding a journal and pen, was heading towards their table.

How foolish. Ray may not be as tall or breathtakingly handsome as Zen, but it didn’t matter. Now that he was paid to be stuck by Ayu’s side, the chances of ever coming near her were close to nil.

The date had numbed his mind so much, he might as well amuse himself.

Taking advantage of Ayu’s absentmindedness, Ray sidled to her left, placing a hand behind her and resting it over the chair’s rail.

Ray’s protective stance prompted the young boy to stop in his tracks, looking as though he was having second thoughts.

He flashed the young man a cheeky smile that was in no way welcoming.

Put off by the hostility emanating from his smile, the boy’s conflicting thoughts were put to rest, and he finally backed out.

With his intimidation a success, he straightened his posture.

“Okay, done!”

Her rat-tailed friend finally arrived.

Zen announced, then pulled his chair back and sat. “Did you wait long?”

“Nope, not at all!”

“Soooo… how’s this charity thing of yours doing? Something… F.A? ” Ayu questioned with a slight tilt of her head.

“RFA? It’s doing well! Hmm, we still don’t have a set date for the next party, though.”

“Oh, I see,” she nodded.

“I’ll send you and the girls an invitation once our party coordinator decides on the date.”

A split-second pout crossed her face but was immediately replaced with a full grin.

“Yay!” Ayu clapped. “What will the party theme be?”

“Umm…”

Their heads turned at the stranger’s sudden arrival.

“O-oppa…”

‘Oppa? The princess wouldn’t like that.’

The barely noticeable twitch in her eye was enough proof.

A slightly chubby girl approached their table, accompanied by another girl who looked the same age as she did.

“Go on,” said the other girl, giving her friend a light push towards Zen.

“Yes?” Zen flashed her a polite smile.

“U-um…”

“She wants an autograph!” The friend said, sipping from her mug and positioning herself near Ayu.

“I-I…!”

“Oh, sure!” Zen said, easing her nerves. “No problem at all!”

Etched on his boss’ face was an uncomfortably wide smile that failed to reach her eyes.

“R-really?!” The girl smiled, handing to him a DVD case of Tei’s Tea Leaf, the film that skyrocketed his fame, making him a beloved household name.

Smiling, Zen took it, “Mm-hmm!” He stretched a palm out to his bodyguard, who then placed a black marker pen on it. Uncapping it, he asked, “What’s your name?”

“Y-Yoori!” The girl blushed, leaning closer to Zen.

Hidden underneath the table was Ayu’s tightly-clenched fist, nails digging in her palms sure to leave a crescent-shaped mark.

“Okay! Yoori, ” Zen mumbled as he wrote his message. “May you always be happy and healthy. Make sure to always eat your meals…”

Face still close to Zen, she snuck a glance at her friend, mouthing something before giving a slight nod.

Something seemed off.

Ray jolted his head to his left. Something was definitely off. No one, not even Zen’s bodyguard, paid attention to the mug in the girl’s hand, hovering above Ayu’s head, and slowly tilting downwards.

Quickly shifting to the side, he reached out to grab the girl’s wrist.

“Ow! W-what the?!”

“Ray?!” Ayu abruptly stood, widening her eyes at him. “What are you doing?! Let her go!”

She reached a hand out to pull Ray away from the girl, but was too slow to stop…

the tea…

from spilling…

on…

Zen.

Splash!

“Ah!” Zen stood, hair dripping wet and clothes stained with black tea, squeezing the liquid from the drenched part of his shirt.

Ayu snapped her head towards Ray, “What did you just do?!”

She had on her face an absolute look of disgust.

“Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry! He didn’t mean it!" She panicked. "What to do, what to do…?” Ayu grabbed a fistful of tissues and dabbed them on his damp shirt.

“This has gotten… a bit out of hand,” Zen lightly chuckled, rubbing his nape. “Take out?”

o-o-o-o

“I forget this usually happens when you’re famous.” Zen joked once they reached their car.

“Same.…”

For the first time since meeting Zen, his humour was lost on her. She’s always laughed even at his unfunniest jokes, but now... How could she laugh when the day she’s been looking forward to the most turned into such a wreck?

“It’s weird. You know, I sometimes invite Sienna here—”

‘Sienna this, Sienna that.’ That cursed name always brought out a frown on her face.

“—but this never really happened.” Zen scratched his head and chuckled. “You be careful, okay?” He held the door open for Ayu, handing her the take-out bag and waved. “Make sure Mr. Ray doesn’t skip a meal!”

With zero enthusiasm, she nodded, forcing out a smile that failed to reach her eyes. “Sure!”

The windows rolled up, and they sped off. Ray did not turn the radio on this time and simply drove in silence, occasionally glancing at her from the rear-view mirror.

As for Ayu, she was too busy cooking up a plan on how to get away with murder.

o-o-o-o

Ayu slammed the door open, hitting the wall with much force, and stomped her way in.

Following exactly 5 steps behind was Ray, carrying a box package under his arm and staying silent all throughout.

Coming to an abrupt halt, Ayu kicked her wedges off of her feet and flung them to opposite directions.

“I hate her. I hate her. I hate that… UGH!” She tightened the grip on her handbag’s strap, knuckles turning white and fingernails digging into her palms. The temper she kept contained the whole car ride was now bubbling beyond her control.

Skipping the mandatory 5-second countdown, she snapped her head at Ray and snarled, “YOU!”

Stomping her way towards him, Ayu jabbed a finger on his chest. “First day working and this is what you do?! Why did you have to mess this up? What right did you have to ruin everything? Everything was going well until you decided to literally spill the tea on Oppa!”

Ray said nothing, simply watching her seethe with anger.

“AND. THAT. SIENNA. He had barbecue with Sienna before… me? Huh?”

Ayu grabbed fistfuls of her hair, yanking it at its roots. A glimpse of Sienna eating and laughing with Zen flashed in her mind—fleeting, but enough to fuel her rage.

Taking deep breaths, she paced back and forth around the living room. With gritted teeth, she let out a soft scream, controlled and barely a scream at first, gradually rising to a crescendo.

And thus came the apocalypse.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

She picked up a throw pillow from her couch and hurled it towards Ray, who barely avoided getting hit. “AAAAAAAHHHHH! I CAN'T EVEN!”

Nothing was safe in her presence. Any object unfortunate enough to be within arm’s reach was practically Sienna and Ray in her eyes.

She grabbed three more pillows, hurling them one by one in every direction. “AAAAAHHHHH! CURSE! EVERYTHING!”

Even her Louis Vuitton handbag was not spared from the madness. She unzipped it with much force, almost detaching its zipper, and dumped all of its contents on the ground.

She picked up her first victim—a pressed powder around ₩78,000—and threw it across the room, letting out a long, ear-piercing battle cry. Not even the slightest hint of regret crossed her mind as it collided against the wall, dropping to the floor with a loud crack. Her ₩78,000 pressed powder was now barely worth a cent.

Her second victim—a flower vase she received from a fan two Christmases ago—met the same fate as the first. Who cares if it was a gift? Who cares if they were expensive? She. Wanted. Everything. Destroyed.

Imagining the scattered ceramic shards as Sienna’s face was doing nothing to curb her bloodlust. Driven by the memory of their disastrous date, she picked them all up, not caring about the wound or even worse, the infection she could get.

It’s fine as long as they die before she does.

“AAAAAAAAHHH!”

From the corner of her eye, Ray was darting his head side to side.. The chaos unfolding before him went beyond his control.

It was not enough. Thrashing the whole living room was not bringing any satisfaction at all!

If laws did not exist, she would have killed those two already!

Lastly, she caught sight of her phone, grabbing it and dialing the only person she knew would understand her.

At the first ring, the other line picked up.

“Yes—”

“FIRE HIM! FIRE! HIM! I WANT ANOTHER BODYGUARD! IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE MR. PARK! ANYONE BUT THIS PIECE OF TRASH! THROW HIM AWAAAAAAAAAAY! AAAAAAHHH!” She screeched at the top of her lungs.

“P-princess, calm down! What’s wrong?”

“MY BODYGUARD IS BROKEN!”

“What?”

“RAY! HE… RAY! HE RUINED EVERYTHING! I’LL NEVER GET THIS CHANCE AGAIN AND HE–HE! UUUUUGGGGH!” She repeatedly stomped her feet.

“Deep breaths, Princess, deep breaths. What did he do?”

“RAY! HE SPILLED—"

Then followed a string of curses befitting a sailor. If her words could be censored, it would merely be a continuous, uninterrupted beeping noise.

“Give Ray the phone. I’ll speak to him.”

“FIRE HIM, OKAY?”

Ayu tapped the loudspeaker button, stomping towards Ray, who was standing still, carrying a box package under his arm.

She shoved the phone on Ray’s free hand. “You’re screwed.”

Ray held the speaker near his mouth. “Yes, boss?”

She crossed her arms and loudly tapped her foot. If looks could kill, Ray would have been shish-kebab by now. To be more precise, he had already been impaled by her death glares immediately as they stepped out of the restaurant.

“What just happened? I don’t understand what she’s saying. She said you spilled a girl on her tea? And someone’s shirt was drenched with this Zen? What? W-what does that mean?”

“Ah. That.”

“So you really did something?”

“Yes, but not in the way she makes it out to be.”

Ayu uncrossed her arms and stomped her foot. “JUST GET TO THE FREAKING POINT ALREADY!”

“I’m not done talking,” Ray coldly snapped.

She gaped at him in a scandalized manner. ‘How dare you?’

“And she’s right… somewhat.”

Irritated, she huffed a few stray hair strands away from her face, ‘Somewhat my ass.’

“I did spill the tea on Mr. Zen but I was only trying to stop the girl’s friend from spilling the tea on your daughter.”

At Ray’s words, the frown on Ayu’s face slowly faded and was soon replaced by confusion. The tea was meant for her?

Stills of that unfortunate incident flashed in her mind—malicious intent hiding behind a useless piece of trash’s youthful smile, aiming a water gun at Ayu’s eyes, hellbent on blinding her with whatever unholy mixture she had concocted.

If Ray had been with her back then… would he have prevented it? She watched the conversation between her father and her bodyguard, a somber look marring her face.

“What? Why would they do that?”

“Simply put, they dislike Ayu..”

“This is unbelievable! How could anyone dislike my Ayu?”

“Heh, I wonder how as well,” he sneered as he sent a sidelong glance her way.

Ayu’s spirits sank lower. All this time, she was lashing out at someone who... did not deserve it?

Having tea spilled on her was not nearly as dangerous as the time she nearly went blind. Unlike then, the one from the barbecue place was merely an expression of hate rather than a desire to harm, but still….

“Tell me their names! I’ll make sure—”

“Stop!” Ayu marched towards Ray, snatching the phone from his hand. “No need! Goodbye, Dad!”

“Princess—!”

She ended it before he could say another word. She knew it was rude, but she did not care anymore. He’d forgive her anyway.

She looked around her, at the mess...

'Mess' was an understatement; it was a trainwreck brought about by her rampage— the aftermath of a friendly date gone horribly wrong.

With the anger ebbing away, only silence was left between the two.

“Are you being honest with me right now?”

“Yes.”

“You know I could fire you anytime, right?”

“Yes.”

Blue eyes scrutinized his mint ones, intently searching for the slightest hint of a lie… at least something to justify her outburst...

However, Ray held his ground, staring her down with the same intensity as her. He looked as though he was challenging her, disregarding the fact that he was still working under her…

...as if he thought they were equals.

“Are we clear? Can I go now?”

She was the first to break eye contact. “Do… Do what you want,” she said, casting her gaze on the ground.

He bowed, carrying the box package under his arm, then left.

o-o-o-o

He had seen better content from Nat Geo Wild.

Ray rolled his eyes and scoffed. Handling his boss’ daughter’s tantrums was not part of his job description; last time he checked, he was a bodyguard, not a babysitter.

Her shrill voice was grating to the ears. He knew how much her father doted on her. Judging from his boss’ stories about her, he expected a spoiled princess wannabe…

...not the batshit crazy woman package that came with it.

He was expecting at least a "thank you" from her, even when his effort deserved nothing short of a bow of gratitude. Were it not for him, those dirtbag fans of hers would have flooded in, asking for autographs and ruining her date. She should have been thankful that he was considerate enough to help her enjoy her date in peace.

| From: Big Boss

|You did a good job today. Keep it up. Be ready by midnight sharp tomorrow.

Ray shot a glance at the box package under his bed. Another one? He’d have to be extra careful around Ayu, then.

“Tsk, tsk… useless brat….”

‘Condoms exist to prevent the birth of such abomination.’

o-o-o-o

As Ray stepped foot in the dining area, he was greeted by the smell of bacon and butter.

Ayu, who was seated at the other end of the table, glanced up at him. Upon meeting his eyes, she hung her head down, playing with the ends of her hair instead.

Across from her, at the spot he usually sat on, was an untouched plate of five greasy bacon strips and scrambled eggs. Beside it was a plate of pancakes stacked atop each other, drizzled with syrup and topped with slowly melting butter.

Bzz!

A fly flew past him, then landed atop a strip of bacon.

Ayu waved it away, but it was a stubborn one, moving on to another strip instead. “TCH!” She shooed it again, and the fly eventually gave up and went away.

“You should’ve eaten it sooner if you didn’t want flies getting to it.”

“I don’t eat these stuff.”

“Why is it here, then? Is Boss coming over?”

“No.”

“Ah. How about that pretty boy?”

“I don’t invite men to my house. And Zen is too much of a gentleman for that.”

“Ah. Your frie—”

“AH!” Ayu slammed her hands on the table. Testing her patience first thing in the morning was not good for anyone’s health. “JUST EAT ALREADY FOR GOODNESS—!” She stopped herself before she could continue further. Closing her eyes and taking a sharp inhale, she composed herself.

“Eat it now if you don’t want it to go cold,” she said in a somber tone.

This brought about a scowl to Ray’s face. Was it that hard to say sorry? She was in the wrong, yet she still held her pride.

He figured her father had probably instilled in her mind how she never needed to apologize.

“Tough luck, then, Princess.” Ray reached for an apple in the fruit bowl, then bit into it.

She felt annoyed at how the seconds ticked at an unbearably slow pace, and his loud munches only worsened it. Was it that hard to eat? If it was a matter of taste, there was nothing to worry about. She can cook if that’s what he was worried about.

After what felt like an eternity, Ray swallowed. “I don’t eat those kinds of food too.”

He stood up and headed straight to the door, leaving her sulking.

‘Go choke on your pride and bacon. See if I care.’

#mystic messenger #mystic messenger fanfiction #mystic messenger saeran x mc 2 #mystic messenger 707 x mc 5 #mystic messenger zen #mystic messenger fanart

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rkevent · 5 years

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The new episode starts with the highlights of what happened last week. The best performances get their own seconds to glow, as well as disappointed faces during the eliminations. With each week providing a new setup for challenges, the contestants are brought back to the set to show something completely new. If they’ll impress both the public and the judges is not something they can be completely sure until it’s their turn under the spotlight.

As the many chairs are filled with the remaining contestants, the CEOs make their way towards their own chairs waiting for them high above the ground and appearing much more comfortable than any object you may have in your house. “Welcome to the fourth episode the Mnet Global Auditions.” Tiger JK greets the hopefuls below him as well as the public at home. “Today, we’ll take on the second round of duo challenges. All partners were switched for this moment and we’re expecting some good results to come out of this.” The man nods.

“Let’s bring the first duo to the stage, please. ZHOU JIEQIONG and LEE SUWOONG.” The contestants leave their seats for the center wearing silk and black. “Hello!” The two greet enthusiastically in chinese before introducing themselves individually. “Don’t blink, or you’ll miss something amazing.” Suwoong is the one to say it before they’re getting into their positions. “Jieqiong and I had problems at first,” the boy comments during his interview, “but we worked it out quickly!”

They sit on the floor with their backs to each other and blindfolds covering their eyes. The cheery energy from their introduction turns into something more serious as the chosen song starts to play. Their movements are all perfectly calculated to follow even without being able to see each other or the stage around them. Desperation is their act and they act following it. Jieqiong removes his blindfold first and later he’s the one to take hers off. She runs and jumps to his arms, the two twirling together on the stage. They stand close to each other until they separate again, bringing an end to their performance.

"Everyone says I look scary when I’m not smiling because they’re not used to it!” Suwoong adds. “And to be honest, when Jieqiong looked at me all super serious for the first time, I was scared too! It’s not something you see from both of us, but we worked really hard to make sure our expressions were right since it’s a really emotional performance.” Jieqiong appears next to comment as well. “I want to be in the top 3 so so bad and I know I should be grateful, but I can’t help it.” She raises a hand to her cheek. “Everyone wants to be number one, right?”

“I am pretty sure the performance between Suwoong and Zieqiong caught everyone’s eyes.” DO KYUNGSOO gave an awkward smile. “Jieqieong and Suwoong were really risky! I love that.” TAKADA KENTA says. “I kind of understand why Suwoong said I’m too cute to be sexy now because he himself is clearly a sexy master. They had good chemistry, and they’re both really captivating onstage.” He nods. “I think it’s one of my favorite performances on the show so far, actually.”

Two boys are next, and they’re more than ready to introduce themselves. “Hello, everyone. I’m your right-wing, YOO TAEYANG,” the first one says. “And I’m your left-wing man, NAM JOOHYUK.” Together, they announce their team name. “We’re the SPIKERS!” They finish off their introduction with a high-five to complete their volleyball reference. Joohyun appears in his interview before their performance starts. “He’s literally one of my best friends and to be able to perform with him in the MGAs no less, is something I wouldn’t forget ever.”

As their song starts to play, the two start fighting over the flowers one of them is holding. Taeyang twirls away as Joohyuk tries to catch one, all while singing and dancing to the music. They eventually each hold a flower just in time for the chorus. Later on, they incorporate their hats into the choreography as well, making their movements big for the performance. They pose with big grins at the end, proud of what they did. “My performance with Joohyuk today was very different from what I’ve done so far.” Taeyang comments. “I eagerly dipped my toe into the waters of singing, which is a skill that I want to become stronger in, and out stage overall gave off a different vibe. I think that I did well today, with him by my side.”

There are two more boys that go next, this time WONG YUKHEI and PARK WOOJIN. “Hi, we are the big bad wolves!” They say together with a hand up to imitate claws. Each of them gives their personal introduction and bow to the judges before getting into their places. “Xuxi was really fun to work with,” Woojin says with a nod. “He wasn’t as in-charge as Kyulkyung-noona was, but that made for a different experience,” Yukhei adds his thoughts in as well. “Suwoong is so loud, and Woojin is a lot quieter. This week I had to sort of step up and do that myself, since Woojin’s less talkative. That was fine though, he’s a nice guy and I think we got along well together.”

Their performance starts with the two dancing together and following the same movements. It’s when Woojin comes slightly forward that he’s the first one to start singing. With a spin, the boy is more towards the back and Yukhei is the one singing the chorus. It’s a song with a sensual message, but nothing that ever went overboard. Unlike his usual dance-focused performances, Woojin does even the needed ad-libs instead of Yukhei, who had been singing since the start. The latter tackles a rap instead, proving that he can be successful even with such skill. Before the last portion of the song, Woojin scratches Yukhei’s chin like he’s a pet. It all ends with a final dance break.

“They really looked good together.” HWANG YEJI says. “I really enjoyed their performance, it was great.”

Next comes two more people, a boy and a girl with a flowy red dress. They’re TAKADA KENTA and MIYAWAKI SAKURA, the two japanese contestants. “We’re the global couple duo! And this is our performance for today!” The girl is the one who introduces the duo. “We’re going to take you around the world! Please enjoy!” He adds before they’re moving to their positions. “It’s like, oh hey a fellow japanese person!” Sakura smiles brightly during her interview, chuckling a bit in her seat as she shifts herself slightly. “He’s great to work with off the cameras. We’re good friends!

Kenta is the first one to sing and gestures to the judges while Sakura dances behind him. When the girl starts singing in Spanish, he joins in the dance. She spins under his arm and they dance close together before parting once more. They harmonize some of the parts together and it all eventually leads to a final rap verse for Sakura to perform. The boy dances around her and gets on a knee as she finishes it. They end their performance with her hand reaching for his chin.

“I think they did the best today, chemistry-wise.” PARK WOOJIN comments. “Kenta-hyung really pulled out his charms this time, though it makes me a little awkward to watch.”

For the next performance, two more people appear with an interesting introduction. “La da da dah, it’s the one and only H.y.e.joo,” the boy introduces SON HYEJOO first before she’s the one to do it to him. “La da da dah, you know I’m rapping with H.y.eon,” she introduces LEE HOHYEON. “it was great to work with her,” Hohyeon says in his interview. “I really felt that, by the end of the week, we were a proper team and I am confident that we could continue to work well together.

It’s the girl who starts rapping the song while the boy stayed behind her waiting for her verse to finish so he could rap as well. When he’s the center, the two start to dance together to their prepared choreography. It stops eventually, and they continue to only rap up until the end of the song. They bow once they’re done, thanking the judges. “I’m happy with it,” Hohyeon says. “I think we both showed our skills and proved our abilities.” Hyejoo also comments on their performance. “I love this song and it was an honor being able to perform it on a stage like this. I could only hope I brought justice to it.”

“Ah… Was I the only one who saw Hyejoo’s transformation?” SHIN RYUJIN comments. “The stare she gets when she’s getting serious gives me the chills, it’s just too breathtaking. Not to mention the performance itself with Hohyeon, I wish that I could have been part of that myself.” DO KYUNGSOO adds his comments after. “Hohyeon and Olivia’s performance was not one of my personal favorites because the song started so…abruptly. I feel like I missed the first part of a movie and got thrown right into the action bits.”

It’s time for two more boys to tackle the stage, SOHN YOUNGJAE and KIM YUGYEOM. “Bang bang! Shooting for your heart, we are sharpshooters!” They say in unison along with finger guns to match. “It was fun getting to work with him and choreograph our performance together.” Yugyeom comments, followed by his partner. “I mean he’s totally cool and an absolutely amazing dancer, but hyung! Please stop doting on me already! I’m not a little kid!”

They take their places on the stage and along with the start of the music comes the voice of someone else to which Youngjae mouths along to, followed by Yugyeom who does the same. They act as if they’re trying to one-up each other with every new line, dancing along to their prepared choreography. In the end, they pose together but try to get in front of the other. It’s when a new song starts to play and they act like they’re friends dancing together instead. They smile at the camera when it’s the official end of their performance, happy with their performance.

“It felt good getting out of my comfort zone with dance and working together with Eric had really made it fun.” Yugyeom nods.

The first duo of only girls appears in the form of SHIN RYUJIN and SIA KIM. One of them introduces herself with someone people should already be expecting from her. “Do you see me? I’m Sia Kim!” The bow to the judges before the start of their performance. “She’s like a little sister?” Sia says. “I was a little worried because she’s so young that she wasn’t getting enough rest, but every day she’d come in and make sure that we were both refreshed and ready to work. She’s very diligent, and I admire her for it.”

Their performance starts with only silence and Ryujin’s rap on top of it. The two girls walk towards the center of the stage where they meet. As the rap goes on, the song starts to play around them as well. They share a secret handshake that follows the beat of the song and it ends right at the start of Sia’s verse. Ryujin uses her fingers as a crown to put on Sia’s head, and the singer mouths some of the rap lines along with her partner. They end it with their fingers making an x to match the title of their song. “While I was lucky I hope that she won’t suffer from being paired with me,” Ryujin comments. “She has been by the top three two weeks in a row already so the pressure and expectations are high. I hope that our duo was satisfying.”

“I’m sure I’ve mentioned Ryujin before,” NAM JOOHYUK says, “I’ve always considered her stage presences one of the stronger ones out there. I think she’s a phenomenal dancer and she could really get far in this industry.”

After them, there is still more, and more would come after these as well. SEO CHANGBIN and HWANG YEJI are the ones this time and they bow to the judges before introducing their team name. “Hello we are Banji,” they say in unison. “It stands for be authentic and never jeopardize individuality,” Yeji says this in English while Changbin changed it to Korean. “I want to show different sides of myself but I think that getting picked as the best dancer that one week, as much as i appreciate it…” Yeji says, “it has felt more like my achilles heel, I’m a good dancer but I want to improve in other areas as well.

They start by standing side by side, moving along to the song while the intro played. The girl starts it off by singing her lines first, and then Changbin goes after with his rap. Unlike during performances of the original song, Yeji got a dance solo by herself to show off her dancing skills, as expected of the considered best dancer in the competition. In the end, the two strike a pose and hold big smiles on their lips. “We wanted to show a new side to ourselves – something more fitting of summer and light-hearted,” Changbin comments “so I think the portrayal came through to the judges”.

A new pair steps up to the challenge in the form of PARK JUNHEE and KIM MINKYUNG. They move towards the stage and prepare their starting positions, waiting for the song to start. It all starts with the girl’s lines who gesticulates as she sings. The chorus requires both of them and they harmonize together. Minkyung playfully shoves Junhee without any actual power in her action and the boy moves onto the last few lines of the song, bringing their performance to an end. “I think Minkyung and I did well,” Junhee says, “We worked very efficiently together and I think that showed in our performance.”

“Truthfully, ever since her first performance, I’ve kept a close eye on Minkyung,” LEE SUWOONG comments on the performance. “She has this energy that fills up the stage, even though she’s only singing.

Next come two more people, NA JAEMIN and JEON HEEJIN, both who walk to the center of the stage and wait for their song to start. “I enjoyed working with Jaemin a lot,” Heejin says. “I feel like I’m very lucky to have been paired up with good partners for these last two stages.”

The girl starts to sing and she moves simply along to the music as her words follow the lyrics. Jaemin takes on the rap after her verse ends, and then it leads onto the chorus. They intercalate their parts going back and forth, echoing one another. Her voice fades out after the last line and the track fades along with it until their performance is completely done. “Even if we don’t get high recognition like I’m hoping for, I have confidence that our duo will be fine.”

“Heejin is very stable and consistent.” KIM SEUNGHUN says. “I don’t think there’s any performance that I didn’t enjoy. Her voice is really nice! I like how she worked with Jaemin this time. I felt bad for not giving him proper attention before because he’s super talented too. They were a great duo this week! The best in my opinion.”

Two girls go next and, once they’re on the stage, they introduce themselves. “Hello, I’m LEE NAKYUNG!” And just like she did, the other also says her name. “Hello, I’m KIM JUNGEUN!” And with that, they move over to their starting positions.

They stand on their starting positions at the stage wearing suits and the first song to play is something probably unexpected for the two of them. It’s a strong song by Tiger JK himself and a camera makes sure to zoom in on his surprised expression. Neither of them is rapping, however, and only follow along to a choreography they had prepared. It doesn’t take too long before the song cuts and changes completely to a song of yet another CEO, except this time it’s Katie Lee who also gets her face on the screen. They throw away their suits to sport brighter songs instead and this time they also sing to the famous lyrics sporting the winks and smirks of a typical Katie Lee song.

“I think we did well,” Nakyung says. “Since we changed partners, everybody is different, so we had to think of something different to do. I think people could agree that our performance was at least surprising. I hope the CEOs thought we did their songs justice, at the very least. Maybe we won’t win today, but I don’t think we’ll be eliminated.”

“Nakyung has a tendency to throw away her coats.” LEE SUWOONG comments. “This is the third time, isn’t it? What does she hope to gain from that?” He cocks his head. "Her performance with Jungeun wasn’t bad, but she had better chemistry with Minho last week. You remember it, right? The cat and dog one? It came together really well and deserved the best duo win.” KIM SEUNGHUN appears as well. “Nakyung always surprises me! I think there’s always something smart and creative about her performances and it wasn’t different this time. Mixing completely different songs from Tiger JK and Katie Lee and doing it well was a smart move and I have to applaud Nakyung and Jungeun for that.”

There are two more girls after them, this time LEE CHAERYEONG and JO YURI. Yuri sits on the floor in front of Chaeryeong with her arms wrapped around her legs, head down. When the music starts, she raises her head and her arms crossing at the wrists and then sways with Chaeryeong above her. Soon after, they’re sitting side by side in chairs. Chaeryeong raps to her part confidently, followed by Yuri’s vocal lines. They stand up from their seats to dance and sing at the same time. The vocalist shoots finger hearts in the direction of the judges and the two have fun dancing together. They stand back-to-back, in the end, to bring their performance to a finish.

“It was fun to perform together and her voice is really pretty, right?” Chaeryeong starts. “I hope I conveyed the message of the song well with my rap, too.” Yuri goes next. “The performance went off without a hitch, so…” She shrugs. “I think we did well.”

After girls, come two boys. The two steps onto the stage, KIM SEUNGHUN and CHOI MINHO. The latter one is the one who introduces himself first. “Hey, I’m the fiery red rose of the group, burning with my passion for you.” Minho kisses the rose in his hand and throws towards someone seated on the chairs, LEE NAKYUNG, his partner for the previous week. “Hello, I’m the duo’s innocent daisy and vocalist, Kim Seunghun, so you don’t have to pull petals off to know my love for you.” The other boy throws his flower as well, and it lands on KANG HYUNGGU’s hands. “I accidentally threw a flower at Hyunggu-ssi today,” Seunghun admits. “I apologize for that! But I hope you liked it.”

While the instrumental that starts playing is of one song, Seunghun starts singing another which signalizes the start of a mashup. Minho is the one who sings the lines of the first song, bringing the two together. After the chorus, he also gets to show off his rap. On the other hand, the singer gets to show off his vocals with the help of some well-executed high notes. They smile at each other when they're done and then bow to the judges before leaving. "I think we bloomed on stage, don’t you?” Minho says. “Ah, Spring has come and the flowers are beautiful.” Seunghun goes next. “Now that I think about it… Did it look well on the screen? He’s more handsome than Hyunbin-ssi, I hope I didn’t look like a goblin beside him.” The boy laughs.

“They also did great.” KIM HYOJIN says. “The reversal from one type of sexiness to another type of sexiness was really wow!”

Two more boys appear ready with their own introduction. “F2!” Both KIM HYOJIN and KANG DANIEL say in unison while the latter plays a chord on his guitar. “You’re excited to see what we’ll do next, right?” He says before introducing himself, the other boy doing the same. “Everyone says nice things about their partners, but Hyojin is a really good singer– like, really good,” Daniel says. “We got along well, and our styles really complimented each other.”

They take their places on the stage, each with a microphone stands in front of them. It starts off with a short guitar intro, followed by Hyojin’s vocals, the one who also has a keyboard prepared. The two intercalate their verses, one singing popular korean songs while the other takes on the most famous western hits. The beat builds up and drops down, following the changes that come with a mashup of so many different songs. They finish it off with a harmony, voices blending together until the end. “We spent a lot of time on the details and refining everything so that it’d sound good, and I think it turned out well in the end,” Hyojin says. “I hope we manage to get some compliments this time around.”

“Daniel did a very nice performance, with Hyojin.” YOO TAEYANG comments on their performance. “It was clever using a medley, that way they can show many different genres and many different techniques.”

Heading into the final three performances, the next duo shows up on the stage with their own special introduction. “Byeol su!” KANG HYUNGGU shouts. “Byeol gu.” DO KYUNGSOO says back, this one much less energetic than his partner. Together, their arms form a cross in front of the two. “Cross!” They say it together this time. “Hello, everyone, we are Star Cross!”

The two start on the ground, their backs against chairs and looking away from each other. Hyunggu starts the song off and when it’s Kyungsoo’s turn, they face each other, jumping onto the chairs. They rest their heads on each other’s shoulder, but only for a second before they pull away. They dance along to the chorus, continuing to act along to their concept of lovers who couldn’t bear the idea of being any further away. The boys bang against an invisible wall that should be between them before changing places on the stage as if looking for each other. In the end, Kyungsoo takes his chair and walks away, leaving Hyunggu behind, the end to their tragic romance. “I feel like I’ve been improving, slowly but steadily,” Kyunsoo says. “Hopefully the judges can see I am a fast learner and capable of demonstrating multiple performance skills, which is necessary to become an idol.”

“Kyungsoo’s dancing is really improving through this show, right?” TAKADA KENTA says. “It was fun watching the two of them, the song choice was so pretty and I think their chemistry worked well together!” SEO CHANGBIN comments on this as well. “Hyunggu… I was surprised by his song choice with Kyungsoo, but I think it was actually quite moving.”

Two performances left and two more people move on to their performance. It’s JUNG EUNJI and HA SUNGWOON who introduce themselves as Nala and Simba, respectively, a reference to their chosen song. They sit down on stools, facing each other as their song starts. Their song is the classic duet from the musical and they show off their vocals singing along to it. While they sing and their performance gets closer to the end, a timer appears at the bottom of the screen to show the public how much time they have left. When it reaches two minutes, the song stops playing, but the two contestants continue to sing.

It takes Hyun Bin grabbing his microphone and telling them to stop for them to do so. “You went over your time limit.” He says strongly, his features clearly not at all content. “I’m sorry.” Eunji bows immediately and soon the two contestants return to their seats without finishing what they had prepared. “I wanted to challenge myself to try something new,” Sungwoon says. “I don’t know when else I’ll get the chance to experiment with different styles of music like this again.” And then Eunji appears in her own interview. “I... don’t know what to say,” she pauses. “We messed up.”

“Eunji and Sungwoon… they had a technical difficulty,” PARK JUNHEE leads, “Eunji is a very hard-working person, and I admire that about her... she’s been through a lot. I wish that the focus wouldn’t be on them getting cut off so suddenly... they both did well.” KANG DANIEL appears next. “They went over their time limit, and I’m…worried for them. In my eyes, it’s not a big mistake, but the judges may feel differently, and it’s their call in the end. I want them to stay, though, or to at least go home due to their skills instead of this.”

After that, comes the final performance. “Hello, judges! I’m CHOI YEWON your favorite cute rapper ready to upgrade my status and show you a new, cooler side of me.” The girl says in her bright orange outfit. “Hey, I’m Vernon,” CHWE HANSOL introduces himself while also wearing a bright orange outfit. “It’s about to get a little hot in here.”

The song starts to play and Yewon is the first one to go, showing off her rapping skills but this time going nowhere closer to her cutie title. While she does so, Hansol adds some hype to keep her going. He has his own verses after, projecting his lyrics into his mic. When the beat drops, he drops his microphone as well but takes it with his other hand instead of letting it fall on the floor. As they change the title of the song once again, they get back to each other’s side until the beat halts to its end. Yewon throws her hair over her shoulder and shows a peace sign.

“I think my performance this week shows a different side of me that I haven’t yet shown on this stage before.” The girl says. “A lot of my other performances were very sweet or cute, but this week I get to show my girl crush side, which I don’t think a lot of people realize I have,” Hansol comments next. “It was a new challenge for her and helping her, I learned some things about myself and we came together to hopefully create a catchy and hype stage for everyone.”

With all the performances done with, it’d normally mean going into results, but something else seems to be happening. Clips of the performances that were just shown play again but only small seconds and all in a wide shot. Slowly, the camera zooms into two empty seats that were there all time long until the screen shakes and all the contestants there disappear. On the previous episode, six contestants were eliminated, and this is their time to show any performance that they’d like to win over the judges and public once again.

Instead of having the presence of 17 duos, there were only 3, and the first one was called onto the stage to perform. YOON JEONGHAN and HWANG MINHYUN who didn’t get there together were paired to show what exactly they had to show. “We’ll be singing for you today. We’ll do our best to impress you.” Jeonghan is the one to say it, and then they move to take their spots. “The stakes are high, now. Higher than before. I know I’m not mediocre. I’m not some kid with a pipe dream - I’ve worked too hard for too long to be told i’m not good at what I do.”

They each got their stool and the boys were sat on it. Jeonghan closes his eyes as Minhyun starts off the song only to have the other join him at the end of his line. They had chosen an emotional song to perform, and as they move their heads along to the beat they try to pass on that feeling. There are high notes spread throughout the song and each time it’s one part of the duo who sings it. Then the instrumental starts to quiet down, notifying the coming end of the song. They continue seated, letting the song fade away.

“I think Jeonghan hyung and I did our best,” Minhyun says. “Our fate rests in the hands of the big bosses now.”

Next comes the two other boys under the same situation, WANG JACKSON and PARK JINYOUNG. Their introductions are formal and brief, and there are no props for their stage. The two just stand on the stage waiting for their song to start. They jump right into a harmony, followed by some high notes here and there at the end of their verses. Throughout the song, they are switching roles, at one point someone carries the main lyrics while the other carries on with the ad-libs, and then they change their position for the other to show off what he got as well. They harmonize the final few words and then let the song go until its very end.

“I know they don’t owe me anything, they’ve made their decision and I won’t go against that.” Jinyoung comments. “All I’m going to say is I’m glad we at least got a chance to prove them wrong. We got lucky compared to the others. Or maybe we’ll just get sent home again.” He chuckles. “That’s also a possibility. But we had the chance to perform again, and that’s as good an opportunity as any other.”

It’s time for the only two girls there to show what they got. SONG YUQI and CHOI YOONA walk towards the stage and bow to the judges before saying a few words. “We’re so happy to have this opportunity to redeem ourselves, thank you for allowing it! I hope you enjoy much better this time!” Yuqi says. “Again, thank you for allowing us this opportunity. We promise you won’t be disappointed.” Yoona adds her own few words before they take their starting positions.

There are a few seconds before Yoona is the one to start them off, taking on the first verse. They rap the chorus together only for Yuqi to come through with her own rap afterward. Once she’s done, they tackle the chorus once again, leading the song towards the end, which also meant the end of their performance.

“I know there are mixed opinions on what happened,” Yoona says, “but in the end I… I don’t know, there’s a reason I was in the bottom. I was disappointed, but at the same time, watching all the performances, I can see why.” Yuqi appears next. “Well, I hope that Yoona and I make it back onto the show,” she says with a shrug. “I hope that the judges see how much we want to be here. How much it matters to the both of us.”

The six of them stand together on the stage side by side. The time is now for them to find out what their destiny will be.

“You all did a great job today,” Baek Jiyoung starts to comment. “I know it wasn’t easy to come here in the situation that you are right now, so we hope that you’ll take the experience you had here with you for life. Just because your road in this show came to an end, it doesn’t mean this is the end of your dream.” She smiles at the six people below her before continuing. “Sadly, from the three duos here today… only one will be able to return to the show.”

The woman presses her lips together. “We believe you all got to show the best of your skills, but we came to an agreement on who should move on.” Right before they can announce any results, the screen returns to these filled with the other contestants, and a different judge picks up his microphone to comment. The results to who would return will only come later into the episode.

“I think it’s safe to say that we had some of the best performances of the season here today.” Seo Jisub comments even if the happiness in his features can only be seen in one of the corners of his lips. It’s important to keep a poker face in these situations, but something more would have been gladly welcomed. “It was a very close vote, but we’re ready to announce the top three performances of the day.”

Just as before, tense music starts to play. The camera pans over some of the seated contestants and then the other judges before it settles on Seo Jisub once again. “We’d like to call on the stage SHIN RYUJIN and SIA KIM, KIM SEUNGHUN and CHOI MINHO, and KIM HYOJIN and KANG DANIEL.” The others clap politely as the teams make it onto the stage and stand in a line. “Two of you already familiar faces in his position,” the camera zooms on Minho and Sia, “but you shouldn’t let it get to your heads. All three performances showed us the caliber that we’re looking for. Your song choices were all very interesting and refreshing, and it leaves us wondering what exactly you could come up in the following week. However, as close as voting was, we had to choose one performance as the best, and that duo is…”

With some more zooms and cuts, the screen finally shows the two winners of the day, “SHIN RYUJIN and SIA KIM.” People clap for them as they are deserving of. “You truly managed to make the song your own and turn it into an interesting performance. As said before, we can’t wait to see what you’ll be able to come up with next. It’s great to see the change of image throughout the episodes and with only some left, I’m sure things will get each time more interesting. Congratulations to all the three duos and especially you two girls. You may return to your seats now.” With the return of the claps, the six contestants get back to their places knowing that they’re safe for the time being.

Baek Jiyoung picks up her own microphone to speak. “You weren’t the only best duos today.” The camera focuses on some other faces, capturing any sign of surprise. “Earlier today, those eliminated in the last episode got to perform another song for a chance to return to the competition. From the three duos formed, only one of them which was considered the best performance got to return. So, please, welcome our returning contestants to the stage!” With a hand motion, the CEO points forward, drawing everybody’s gaze to where two people are coming from. They are two men, WANG JACKSON and PARK JINYOUNG. They are welcomed with the proper cheering and stand on the center of the stage.

“Wang Jackson and Park Jinyoung were able to show the best of their skills on the stage and received this great new opportunity. We believe they may continue to shine on this show if they wish to do so as well. Please, take your new seats.” The two empty chairs receive their new owners and with the end of these announcements, it is time for the real deal.

As things work, a different judge is the one to announce what’s next. “And now, from the seventeen other duos who performed here, three of you will be eliminated. This means that six contestants in total will be leaving us today.” Katie Lee is the one to share the news, although things are working the same way as last week. “As close of a vote as it was for choosing the best, we thought a lot about who we should send home today as well. With each passing week, only the best remain, which means the performances are overall each time better as well.”

Her gaze stops on a few contestants as she takes a look around the room which probably made some think their name would be the first one called. “With this in mind, the first duo leaving us today is… SON HYEJOO and LEE HOHYEON.” She nods in their direction before continuing. “Perhaps you were trying to show a lot and the many things the two of you can do, but there were parts that felt empty and parts that went a bit over what would probably be the best for you two. While we’re certain there are a lot of things that you could show us, that, sadly, won’t happen in this competition any longer.” With one down, there were only two left to go.

“The second duo leaving us today is... “ the screen shows different faces, some that were probably your favorite contestants, others that you wish would leave, “PARK JUNHEE and KIM MINKYUNG.” The woman nods again, this time to the new pair. “While it felt like the previous duo showed a lot, it felt the opposite with you two. You got to show some of your skills but it felt a bit lacking. Choosing a fun song doesn’t necessarily make the stage fun. You also had to put in your weight, which was probably what was missing.” And with that, there is only one duo left.

Katie Lee looks down at what’s in front of her and swallows. “The last duo to leave us today is… JUNG EUNJI and HA SUNGWOON.” She stares them from where she’s seated, the microphone waiting in front of her lips for her to say anything else. “The instructions to the mission were clear to all the other duos except the two of you, it seems. Each performance was only allowed a maximum of two minutes and you passed that during yours. Since that went against the rules set, it made your elimination the easiest of the day. We hope you’ll get to reflect on this for your future.”

And that’s how the eliminations end. Maybe it’s a high note for some and definitely a low to others. There are only thirty contestants left in the competition and it’s time for a new challenge to meet them with a few perks that haven’t yet appeared on this season. Still, something new and something old is what this season promised, and the judges are ready to announce it.

To see all the of this season’s contestants, click here!

And now, let’s see what’s in store for our fifth episode!

After the announcement of the latest eliminations, those who moved on to the next challenge were once again organized in a new format. Instead of duos, the contestants were organized in trios. All people involved should show at least one of their performance skills. The theme is to impress and to manage to show your colors even when sharing the stage with someone else. A list of the trios can be found below:

#5002 - CHOI MINHO #5013 - JEON HEEJIN #5050 - ZHOU JIEQIONG

#5004 - CHOI YEWON #5007 - DO KYUNGSOO #5039 - SEO CHANGBIN

#5006 - CHWE HANSOL #5022 - KIM JUNGEUN #5045 - TAKADA KENTA

#5011 - HWANG YEJI #5017 - KANG DANIEL #5036 - PARK JINYOUNG

#5014 - JO YURI #5033 - MIYAWAKI SAKURA #5047 - WONG YUKHEI

#5018 - KANG HYUNGGU #5025 - KIM SEUNGHUN #5026 - SIA KIM

#5020 - KIM HYOJIN #5042 - SOHN YOUNGJAE #5048 - YOO TAEYANG

#5027 - KIM YUGYEOM #5035 - NAM JOOHYUK #5046 - WANG JACKSON

#5028 - LEE CHAERYEONG #5030 - LEE NAKYUNG #5038 - PARK WOOJIN

#5032 - LEE SUWOONG #5034 - NA JAEMIN #5040 - SHIN RYUJIN

From the ten trios, the bottom five will have one of their members eliminated. This means that even if your entire performance is considered sub-par, only the contestant who was considered as having the weakest performance will be eliminated. Make sure to work well together and choose something that fits all people involved. Or not! If you were waiting for a time to try making yourself stand out maybe this is the time to do it.

Of course, there’s a new twist. Unlike in previous episodes, the contestants will be recorded during their preparation time. How will this be done? Just like the season before, the five companies prepared one of their practice rooms with cameras and will allow the trios to practice inside with free use of the high-tech equipment available in it. As mentioned above, however, each company is giving one practice room for use. With ten trios and five rooms, this means that these rooms will have to be shared and the cameras will be watching for any conflict that may grow between the groups. The companies each trio will be in can be seen below:

SPHERE ENTERTAINMENT - TRIOS 1 / 2

NOVA ENTERTAINMENT - TRIOS 3 / 4

TRC ENTERTAINMENT - TRIOS 5 / 6

KT ENTERTAINMENT - TRIOS 7 / 8

ROYAL ENTERTAINMENT - TRIOS 9 / 10

All contestants are supposed to make their own way to the recording studio prepared specially for this episode. The set will be slightly modified and will look something close to this. On each side, 15 chairs will be prepared for the contestants to sit on and watch each other’s performances. The trios should sit together and, to ensure so, the seats have been marked with their numbers. Starting from the first chair on the left and going all the way to the last one on the right, the numbers will follow the list of trios found above. Just because most eyes will be on the performance doesn’t mean no one will be paying attention to you. A set of cameras will have their lenses ready to capture any sort of interesting reaction from those watching (beware of the evil editing) while a couple more will allow different angles of the main performance to be captured.

Sitting on the higher ground, much more comfortable chairs are lined in front of the stage — five in total. This is where the CEOs of each big company will be sitting to make sure only the most captivating contestants will continue their journey to make this the best season yet.

Tune in next Saturday, the 27th, for our fifth episode!

MGA Season 5 episode five preview: With a new challenge ahead, the contestants also have a new setting to get used to. Now that they are able to practice in the same building as the CEOs, will this make a change in their performances? Will it make people fall for them or realize what they’re really all about? Tune in next week to find out

[ All of the performances were aired in their entirety. Cuts from the show itself were uploaded to Mnets’s Official Youtube Channel. ]

If you made it this far, either if you were eliminated on this episode or not, you may add +3 POINTS IN A PERFORMANCE SKILL to your points tally. Make sure to link back to this post for verification.

Contestants have until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 26th, to post their 200+ words solos about the trios challenge in front of the CEOs. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5trios. They’ll have three minutes to perform their chosen performance to capture the attention of the CEOs (as long as it doesn’t break any laws). Good luck! Song choices should be submitted to the rkevent inbox. Two trios performing the same song will not be allowed and this will be chosen on a first come first serve basis. Any group chats made for plotting should include both Mod Bianca (luvseungjoon on twitter) and Mod Gab (jindeukii on twitter) for monitoring.

After the last performance is done, the CEOs will leave to discuss their thoughts privately. While this happens, the contestants will be taken one by one into a small room to be interviewed on their thoughts of the current state of things. They will be asked a variety of questions and some may be included in the list found below! Feel free to come up with your own questions if you think they can be fitting.

What did you think of the results last week?

How was it like working with your trio?

Did practicing in the company’s practice room make a difference?

Did the trio that shared the room with you ever interfere on your plannings?

How do you think you did?

Were there any performances you liked?

Were there any performances you didn’t like?

What did you think of ___’s performance?

Which trio do you think complemented each other the most?

Was there anyone you think that brought their group down?

Is there anyone you are certain will move onto the next phase of the MGAs?

Is there anyone you are certain will be eliminated today?

Once they’re done, they’ll be taken back to their seat to wait, or may go to the bathroom if needed.

You may also write an extra 200+ words solo about your muse’s interview, as explained above, to also be posted until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 26th. For doing so, you may earn +2 CHARISMA OR CREATIVITY POINTS and these can be added to your points tally as soon as it is posted. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5trios. Please link this post as verification.

#rkmga5 #rkmga5duos2

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pass-the-bechdel · 6 years

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Marvel Cinematic Universe: Iron Man 2 (2010)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, three times.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Three (15% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Seventeen.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

A mess of illogical plot contrivances that does nothing good with the themes of the first film, but still entertaining on a basic level.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

‘Natalie’ attends to Pepper; they pass again later. Pepper and Christine trade a line.

Female characters:

Pepper Potts.

Natasha Romanoff.

Christine Everheart.

Male characters:

Ivan Vanko.

Anton Vanko.

Tony Stark.

Howard Stark.

Happy Hogan.

Larry.

Senator Stern.

Justin Hammer.

James Rhodes.

JARVIS.

Elon Musk.

Goldstein.

Major Allen.

Nick Fury.

Phil Coulson.

Jack.

Meade.

OTHER NOTES:

Naturally, Tony’s opening presentation includes a bevy of half-naked dancing girls, because Tony loves women as shiny pretty objects. Yay.

Don Cheadle is a superior Rhodey. Terence Howard was good, don’t get me wrong, but I get so much more organic personality from Don Cheadle.

Hammer calling Tony ‘Anthony’ at the hearing is such a power move. It’s really the only power move (or at least the only successful one) Hammer makes in the whole movie.

Happy, you asked for that ass-kicking, and you know it.

“I want one.” Cool, Tony. She’s a person. If you had a respectful history with women at this point, I would let this line pass without mention, but...ya don’t.

Pepper is VERY rude to other women. It’s not endearing.

Second-hand embarrassment over Hammer is so so real.

Ah yes, glass showering everywhere. My kind of party.

Tony requesting a phat beat is gold. I don’t know if him cracking up laughing as he said it was scripted, ad-libbed, or pure accident on Robert Downey Junior’s part, but it’s what sells the line. It wouldn’t have been half as funny if he’d just said the line straight-faced.

If you missed the post-credits scene at the end of the first Iron Man, then this is Nick Fury’s first appearance: asking Tony to get out of the giant donut. The narrative here really treats Fury like we’re totally familiar with him at this point, and considering the extreme brevity of that post-credits scene, it’s kinda weird.

So, wildly-rich Howard Stark had his partner DEPORTED for daring to want to make money from his work? He didn’t actually do (or attempt) anything nefarious, he just wanted to get paid? And we’re supposed to shrug it off and think deporting him was the right call? Howard kept his partner’s work - including the profits! - for himself, and hung the other guy out to dry like a total jerk, and, what? The whole thing is just kinda mentioned in a throw-away fashion as an explainer, with no implication that Howard was in the wrong at all, and it’s VERY dissonant. What the fuck.

Those strawberries look very plastic.

So, how did Howard magically know to hide those blueprints to a new element in a scale model that would one day save his son from Palladium poisoning that Howard had no way of knowing he would have? This is so many levels of idiotic nonsense I don’t know how they convinced themselves to bother.

Did we NEED Happy oggling Natasha as she gets changed? Was it necessary?

It’s played for laughs, but I appreciate Rhodey making the distinction that even though he’s apologising to Tony for his own behaviour, that doesn’t make all of this any less Tony’s fault. You can be sorry for the way you personally handled something without letting the other person off the hook for their own culpability. Good, important distinction.

The Big Bad ends up being taken down SUPER fast. Disappointing.

“you guys look like two seals fighting over a grape.”

The good:

1. Robert Downey Junior’s maddening charisma allows Tony to be great fun despite his many and sundry personality flaws; it is charisma with the strength to carry the entire film, and that’s saying a lot because the film really, really needs the help.

2. It may have a significant amount to do with the quality of the content being given to the character, but Don Cheadle definitely makes something of Rhodey where the first film barely gave him more life than your average prop.

3. Tony continues to progress in his relationship with Pepper, with the script allowing space for her to be assertive and express grievances, as well as having Tony respond by actually hearing her this time, considering her perspective, and acknowledging his own shortcomings if not exactly making inroads on overhauling them. It’s not a lot, but there is at least some evidence that we’re making good on Tony’s attempted self-improvement from the first film by working on his basic respect for other people. Damn, it’s REALLY not a lot.

The less good:

1. the introduction of Natasha ‘Black Widow’ Romanoff isn’t terrible, but it’s not strong either, and I ALWAYS forget that she’s even in this movie until I’m watching it and she shows up. The narrative attention paid to how she’s ~super hot~ is frankly overdoing it - her ability to use her appearance as a tool/weapon IS relevant to the kind of character/operative that she is, but the framing hammers the LOOK HOT button so hard it all but obliterates any other presence or function she has in the story. She gets a pretty cool fight scene, but even that is so preoccupied with LOOK HOT (and is also fairly inconsequential to the plot) that it tends not to compute as a demonstration of character, and ultimately Natasha doesn’t leave as much of an impression as she could have with just a little less objectifying camerawork and a little more narrative purpose. Much like with Bruce Banner, I feel like you can ignore Natasha’s introductory film and just pick her up from The Avengers without missing a beat.

2. Also low on purpose: Pepper Potts. Where the first film gave her several plot-instrumental actions to ensure she wasn’t just ‘Tony’s annoying love interest’, this movie doesn’t try very hard to give her a reason for sucking up screen time. Low point: a gratingly unnecessary amount of screaming and not throwing Tony his suit-case (hehe, geddit?) while Happy rams Vanko with his car. The entire set-up is stupid, but the screeching (from Pepper and Happy both, really) sends it all way overboard. Happy also has no real purpose, but the difference is, I don’t care. When Pepper is one of only three female characters around - and one of only two with significant presence - I really, really want the story to give her something more memorable and functionally plot-relevant than screaming in a car.

The bad:

Everything else? This movie has no shortage of problems: it has too many plot threads, and it leaps from one to the next with no sense of cohesion or narrative pacing and then never follows any thread to competent completion. Tony is dying, and that leads to some self-destructive behaviour but ultimately has no relation to any aspect of the plot before it is suddenly and ridiculously rectified in the single most nonsensical contrivance of all the nonsensical contrivances that compose the flimsy backbone of the film. Some daddy issues are sprinkled in there like seasoning, but again, they don’t go anywhere or matter in any way, which is both weird and deeply unfortunate since the idea of Tony dealing with his father’s legacy is both a clear carry-through from the themes of the first film, and extremely relevant to the half-assed Vanko story-line. The plot (’plot’, for lack of a better word, we’ll keep privileging to call it that) doesn’t seem willing to actually get in the dirt with Howard Stark’s transgressions, against his son or against his old business partner, and so we get a handful of telling-not-showing exposition-exchanges with none of the emotional fallout or follow-through that such bombshells deserve. Justin Hammer is in there somewhere (and Sam Rockwell is good fun, but the content doesn’t rise to meet him). There’s also a hearing at the start where Tony defends his right to the Iron Man technology, but the rest of the film completely ignores all of the valid and serious concerns raised by Tony’s arrogance and lack of accountability (topics which will be revisited in future films, with infuriating results), and the obvious conversation - expanding on the first film’s themes again by looking at the Stark weapons-manufacturing legacy - falls completely by the wayside within minutes so that we can focus on the completely unfocused senselessness of the rest of the ‘story’. Oh! And don’t forget the completely awkward inclusion of SHIELD! What better way to set up for The Avengers film than to just drape some pointless extra character presence over an already overstuffed ‘plot’?

All of it together is an absolute mess of a movie that feels kinda like it was constructed by a game of beer pong, with different plot ideas written on Styrofoam cups and the creative team way too fucking smashed by the end of it to realise that beer pong is the wrong way to build a story. In my review for The Incredible Hulk, I said there were other contenders for worst MCU film to date, and this is one of them. The Incredible Hulk at least had cohesion up until it went to pieces at the end, whereas the different pieces of Iron Man 2 are so disparate and lacking in gravity that the whole film seems to go for about a decade too long and builds absolutely nowhere in the process. The only entertaining advantage Iron Man 2 can boast is that same old saving grace, Robert Downey Junior, making Tony Stark enjoyable even when you’re not so sure he deserves to be enjoyed. It is a good advantage, no mistake. But there’s only so long you can coast on that, and only so far, and this movie abuses the Hell outta that power until we all welcome the end credits with at least a little bit of relief.

#Marvel Cinematic Universe #MCU #Iron Man 2 #Bechdel Test #female representation

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btsxyou · 7 years

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Can’t We Make it Up to You?

Anonymous asked: Can you please do a threesome smut with Jimin x reader x V? Also can the story line be you are working on a group project at your house ?? Pleaseeee 💜

Warnings: SMUT, just some nasty threesome smut, language you know the drill

Note: THIS IS REALLY LONG FOR ME, ,95 line, ouch (why do i picture 95 line like the twins from ouran….so mischievous.. ) this was so fun tho THIS IS A LOT OF SMUT OKAY

“Guys, can you listen for like five seconds? We really need to finish this, I don’t want to be stuck procrastinating and doing it the night before its due, I actually want it to be good.”

Jimin groaned. The two of them were sitting together watching some video on Taehyung’s phone. Tae’s eyes didn’t bother to leave the screen but Jimin was looking at you, head leaned back against the seat of the couch behind him. You sat across from the duo, papers scattered across the floor, the beginning of a powerpoint on your computer screen waiting for completion. That won’t happen however, without the cooperation of your partners.

You sighed out of frustration, tucking some of your hair behind your ear as you leaned closer to the computer screen. You didn’t want to be stuck doing everything yourself, but that’s usually what happens.

“I should know better than to partner with you guys. It’s always the same.” You said to them, shaking your head.

“Ugh, don’t be so worried. We will work on it with you. We promise.” Jimin leaned forward, now looking at you more intently.

“Yeah, we promise.” Tae finally spoke.

“We will work with you really hard for half an hour if you allow us to apologize to you for causing you stress.” Jimin reached for his backpack, pulling out a notebook from the class that your project was due in. You look at him skeptically, they usually did always make it up to you, you had to admit that. For some reason, they both caused you so much trouble but always had some sort of apology that made being friends with them sort of worth it.

“Why do you think we never do anything, Y/N? We’ve worked on this project on our own in our own time, just because we aren’t putting together the presentation doesn’t mean we haven’t done the work you asked us to.” Tae handed you his notebook, along with Jimin’s full of much needed information and notes from class.

“It would have been nicer if I had this two hours ago…” you thought to yourself, that way you would probably be done. But you should’ve known, this is how it always is. You breathed a sigh of relief after noticing that they actually did do what you asked of them, doing the needed research and adding the sources along with their information.

You quickly typed the information on the slides, editing and formatting the text and photos you had found, adding the sources at the end and doing any finished touches that the presentation may need. All that was left was to arrange the speaking points of each slide and assigning those to each group member and making sure everyone would have their speech points.

“So, for the information we all found, how about we present those to the class individually, please, please, please, have a good speech to present about your topics and don’t embarrass me.” You begged, hands clasped together in front of your chest. They were never bad speakers, but they always tended to go a little overboard.

“Of course, we know what to do.” Jimin stated, Tae nodding along with his words with his wide smile plastered on his face.

You let out a deep breath of relief, flipping their notebooks back to their covers, and closing your laptop. You stood, gathering your belongings to put away and prepare yourself for whatever the duo had in mind for you. Usually they would immediately make up for their actions, whether it was just who they are, or if they enjoyed toying with you, they were pretty good at making you forget all about it. One time, they accidentally caused you to drop your phone, resulting in a small crack on the corner of the screen. An hour or so later, they appeared with a new phone.

They liked to play tricks on people, making things disappear and them placing them back was a very simple but equally frustrating little ploy. It made you feel insane… you had just seen it. Things didn’t grow legs and walk away, but with them around, they usually did.

And then theres that one time that you broke the radio in your car, and then woke up to found your car missing. After several hours of freaking out and trying to come up with excuses to tell your mom when she got home…. Your car appeared again. And out of it came Jimin and Taehyung, as if nothing had happened at all. Even after all the anxiety that it caused you, you couldn’t stay upset for too long. They replaced your radio at a shop with an even better one, and even brought you dinner. That’s how it usually was… Your life was filled with constant stress only interrupted by gifts and acts of their kindness. There was no doubt in you that all of their intentions were pure, obviously they felt pity on you for causing you trouble.

Jimin and Tae stood also. Since Taehyung was taller than Jimin, he easily slid his arms around his shoulders giving him a back hug, and laying his chin against Jimin’s shoulder. This was a usual position for them. They adored you almost as much as they adored each other. They rarely parted, and, when apart you were more able to decipher their true personalities. They were different but didn’t clash. They were almost like the ultimate human: smart, attractive, successful at deceiving others and knowing just how exactly to get what they want. As much as it seemed that they lacked innocence or sympathy, they constantly reminded you ow thoughtful or caring they actually were, and it started with each other.

“Y/N…We were thinking. We can get dinner later, but there’s something else we want to do now.” Tae said, a devilish grin appearing on his face. He was blinking at you through the hair that slightly covered his eyes. His appearance was always a lot more child like than Jimin’s. They sported similar hairstyles, the only difference being the part. Taehyung’s hung close to his eyes, making him appear much younger, almost like a puppy who was a little messy and followed you everywhere.

“Yeah, it will be fun, we promise. We think you’ll like it.” Jimin said, the same grin flashing across his lips. They broke away from each other, moving to surround you. He, on the other hand, allowed his hair to part ever so slightly on his forehead, allowing just a teasing look at his forehead.

You looked up at both of them, a slight fear washing over your body in a wave. What are they doing? You weren’t going to hold it to them, they’re usually a little weird with each other and sometimes with you. So this wasn’t exactly beyond them…

“Ah, Y/N, sorry for stressing you out.” Taehyung deep voice vibrated against your ear from behind you, causing a wave of goosebumps over your skin. “You seem so tense, we’re sorry.”

“Yeah, don’t you trust us? We won’t hurt you. This will feel good.” Jimin added, taking a step towards you and wrapping his arms around your waist.

You looked at him, sensing how both of them were positioned in front and behind of you, slowly taking in the situation with realization. This was even a little far for them, but you had to admit… You liked the idea of it. You nodded, feeling hands on your hips as Tae pushed his crotch into your ass, slightly grinding into you. Jilin’s eyes were glued to your lips as if they were the most fascinating things he’s ever seen in his life. You were too afraid to reach out, as if you might ruin their plan. Who knows how long they’ve had this whole situation in mind. It could’ve occurred to them just today, or months ago. You had yet to fully figure out how they worked.

Jimin pushed his plush lips against yours, already having such a perfect rhythm with you, as if you’d known each other this way for years. He was soft, and inviting and it felt so comfortable. Tae roamed his hands all over your body, he was definitely a more curious lover than Jimin already. They slipped over your hips, moving to cup your ass and then sliding up over your stomach, rising high enough to cup your breasts but never quite getting there.

Grasping along your hips again, he pulled you backwards down the hall towards your bedroom. Jimin broke your kiss to pull your shirt off over your head, giving him a good view of what he had in store for when he removed your bra. His eyes were honest, taking in each part of your body as it became exposed to him. Tae on the other hand was tugging on you, reminding you that he was there too.

“Y/N!” He said happily “You cooperate so well. A lot different than us, huh?” He approached you quickly, his lips attacking yours, then slipping lower to your neck. His actions were playful, taking his time to suck marks along your neck and collarbones, and gently nibbling at any free skin he could get. Each bite was making you gasp, feeling yourself get wet as Jimin slid his hands over your ass, hinting that your pants would be the next item to go. He slipped his fingers underneath waist band of your leggings and slid them down slowly.

“You’re amazing…” Jimin said, grabbing handfuls of your ass and squeezing, causing you to let small gasps into Taehyung’s mouth.

“Really amazing.” Tae added after pulling away from you, looking at you as he ran his tongue over his teeth as he smiled openly. “But! One more thing!”

He reached behind you and quickly undid the clasp of your bra causing it to slide off your shoulders before you even registered what was happening. Jimin grabbed your hand and led you to your bed, pushing for you to sit down.

The duo stood back and took in the sight, Tae wrapping his arm around Jimin’s shoulder as they contemplated what to do next. Or they already knew what they were doing… and just wanted to make you more nervous than you already were. No matter how deceptive they acted, they expected people to catch on and deceive them as well. They were often quick to know when someone was lying, which made it impossible to make up any excuses to avoid their shenanigans for just one day.

There was actual little doubt in your mind that they hadn’t planned all of this. Just one look at each other, as if they had telepathy, they were able to know what to do next. No real words needed to be used, just simple looks. How they knew what each other was thinking was beyond you.

“Y/N… Tell us who you want first.” Jimin said. You looked between the two several times.

“Yeah, we really wanna taste you. It doesn’t matter who you choose, but if you don’t hurry then we might change our minds.” Tae added, looking a little bored by your hesitation.

Although they had different personalities, they were equally devious. Tae was a quicker lover, definitely more playful, which means he would get you there fast… and Jimin was caring and slow, which means he would be agonizing but so so so sweet.

“Jimin.” You said calmly, although you were far from it. He walked towards you slowly as did Taehyung, and you were trying to prepare yourself for what was to come.

“Oh, wait, this isn’t fair. Jimin, we should take off our clothes shouldn’t we?” Taehyung was already stripping himself of his shirt as he spoke, and Jimin followed suit. Within seconds they were both stripped down to their underwear. You took in the sight of both of them, seeing them shirtless many of times and of course in shorts but this was different. Usually it was never anything that brought you much attention, other than the warranted God, they have such nice bodies. Now you could feel yourself clench in hunger for one of them to finally touch you and make your wetness seem more validated. Each of them were extremely toned, although they had different physiques they were both equally attractive.

Jimin kneeled in front of you, gently slipping a hand between your knees to open you up to him. He tried his best to not look too pleased by how sweet you looked to him, your folds glistening so slightly in the dimmed light of your bedroom. Tae perched himself beside you on the bed, dying to touch you but not starting to yet. Instead his eyes drifted over your skin, marking out places in his head that he really wanted to feel the most.

Jimin brought himself closer to you, you could feel the cool air from his breathing against your wetness, your patience dwindling. You wanted someone to touch you, to relieve all of your arousal and make it worthwhile.

“We share so well, Y/N. You know that.” Tae was smiling, raising his hand close to you, waiting to touch you the minute that Jimin placed his mouth against you. “Are you ready for us? Please say yes!”

“Y-y-yes.” You were shaking from anticipation, and hoping that neither of them noticed.

Jimin kissed both of your thighs before diving into you skillfully, the strokes from his tongue were slow and sensual but not too slow. He desired to taste you fully, to feel your wetness soak his tongue. He took time to reach every spot, focusing especially on your clit. You were trying to enjoy the sensation as much as possible as Tae’s hands roamed along your body once more.

“How about, we make it a pattern. Jimin, then me. Then I fuck your mouth while Jimin fucks you, and then we will switch.” Tae said to you as he squeezed your breasts, only stopping to pinch lightly at your nipples causing your moans to raise in pitch. You nodded quickly, not wanting to answer with your voice since it was already being used elsewhere.

“Okay, that’s good for us. Oh, and you can cum however many times you like. I hope we are good enough for four times… But it’s up to you.” He bright smile was replaced with a smaller much more devious one. He was acting as if he already had plans for how many releases you would have. Taehyung already knew that he could get you there, and quickly. He was low-key especially glad that you picked Jimin first, knowing that Jimin was crazy good at getting someone worked up, and that he would take it from there usually.

He attached his lips to your skin, his tongue trailing across your skin wherever he wanted, sucking lightly on places you never thought you would even enjoy. Jilin’s tongue was also fixated on you, only leaving when Jimin took the time to suck your clit into his mouth and squeeze at the sensitive bud.

Tae moved his lips to your neck, kissing up one side while his hand was wrapped around the other.

“God, I never thought your moans would sound this great.” He said into your ear, goosebumps rippling across your skin from his voice again. It was so low, so sensual and like a velvet you wanted to hear it all day long… and sometimes you did. But never like this. “Aren’t you going to cum for Jimin?”

His words hit the pit of your stomach with a pang, and it seemed impossible for you to get any wetter but you felt yourself flooding into Jimin’s mouth at his question. Your stomach was already twisting but you were putting it off, trying to hold off on this bit of ecstasy.

“Come on, Y/N. We are doing this for you, please enjoy it, yeah?”

Jimin sped up his tongue a little, sliding his fingers into you and causing you to moan into Tae’s mouth, but it was just what you needed to let go. Your body was shuddering under the feeling, although you were still trying to fight how good it felt since your body would have to go through this so many times. Not that you had to, but you deserved it.

Jimin pulled away from you, leaving wet kisses along your thighs before switching places with Tae. Taehyung giggled cutely as he took in the sight of you, completely ready to taste you as he positioned himself between your legs.

“Oh, Y/N, I hope this is as fun for you as it is for me.” He winked before diving in between you legs with no warning. He licked harshly over your clit once, then over every place available to him. He was so curious to feel you on his mouth, in his mouth. He loved the way you felt and the way you tasted and wanted you to feel that good.

HIs tongue felt as if it was moving at lightning speeds over your clit, bringing you closer and closer, your voice raising higher and higher in pitch as his hands grabbed at your thighs and hips. He acted as if he couldn’t get enough of you. He was digging his tongue into you, lapping up your juices as you were squeezing your thighs around his head. You couldn’t help but grind yourself into his face, your hips bucking at all of the overstimulation he was giving you after Jimin’s turn. It was agonizing but it was so so so sweet, you wanted him to take you there and he was as quickly as he possibly could.

You could feel yourself getting closer and closer, clutching into Jimin’s hair and pulling as he was kissing your lips, your face, your neck, and down your chest. He was trying to soothe all of the pleasure that Tae was giving you, afraid that things might be too much for you, ready to stop everything when you gave the word.

Your orgasm hit you like a truck, it was so heavy and loud. You wanted to scream but there was nothing, absolutely nothing leaving you. You were wide eyes and mouth, only releasing breathy grunts after the first few seconds. Tae continued with his tongue on you, but slower now, just helping your finish what he started.

When you managed to come down from you high, he began to leave you, but reluctantly. He kissed on your clit gently causing you to shudder, then bit out at your thighs before taking a place on the bed opposite Jimin.

Tae took his place with a smile, completely ready to have your mouth around him, as Jimin placed himself behind you, his hardened cock lined up with you and ready to enter at your word. He caressed along your back with his hands, then placed each one on either hip.

“Y/N, is this fine? Are you ready?” Jimin rubbed along your back again, following his question.

“I’m ready.” You eyed ever Tae’s cock, it was hard as a rock as oozing from the tip. He was beyond ready for your mouth and you had barely even done anything to him yet. You lowered your mouth onto him and Jimin slowly slid into you, allowing you to get comfortable with his size before moving.

Tae was laughing through his moans, his face in complete heaven as your head bobbed around him, trying your best to treat him as good as he treated you. You swirled your tongue around him a few times, nibbling along his head with your lips.

Jimin was thrusting into you, it was gentle but somehow so harsh, moving his hips in such a way that it was making your arms and legs weak just feeling it. It was a steady pace, knowing exactly how to please you where exactly you wanted it without even having to ask. They way that they were able to read you – or anyone was completely amazing. They knew exactly what you wanted without you ever having to open your mouth, but they would ask you anyways just for the satisfaction.

You hummed around Tae’s cock each time Jimin hit that perfect spot and angle and they both knew that in no time you would be close. You paid extra attention to Tae, switching your speeds from slow to fast, earning loud groans and a mix of shit and fuck from his perfect lips. You used one hand to cup his balls, squeezing lightly. His brows furrowed as his head dropped back, fighting how good it felt because this isn’t where he was wanting to let go.

He only lasted a few seconds like this before he gently pushed you away, a pained smile on his face as he did so. God, he looked so beautiful like that, he was almost helpless under your touch and it made you feel amazing to see him on the other side for once. You let it go, allowing yourself to focus on how Jimin was making you feel again, this time now going to be the second time you came for him, and the third time overall. Your limbs were feeling tired, and your stomach was starting to ache from all the clenching to reach your release and to make Jimin feel equally as good inside you.

You pushed yourself back into Jimin, begging with your body for him to thrust a little harder, to get you there and help you let go. He sped up his pace a little, remembering exactly the spot that made you shake and squeal underneath him from pleasure, and he continued to hit it as you fell apart completely underneath him. He leaned forward to kiss down your back as you laid there trying to catch your breath and ready yourself for the final round.

Tae slid a finger under your chin that was resting against your sheets and lifted your face enough to look you in the eyes.

“Are you okay?”

You were too tired to nod so you smiled to him, and he kissed you sloppily before switching places on your bed with Jimin.

Jimin laid against your headboard, allowing for you to have your complete way with him while Taehyung had his way with you. Jimin reached forward to caress your face while you hovered over his dick, taking glances down at it. He was gentle as always, allowing you to take your time and do as you please.

“Are you okay?” Jimin looked at you sweetly. You always felt like you were experiencing deja vu with them, which you almost were. You nodded to him and he smiled.

Tae on the other hand, was busy sliding the tip of his cock along your wet folds. You could hear him behind you groaning slightly every time he made a pass at your hole, the vibrations from his low voice raising all of the hairs on your body on end.

We share so well, you know that.

You bounced Tae’s sultry deep voice around in your head. They did share really well, that was obvious. They each had their own styles which made sharing so simple and fluid, and fun.

“Y/N, ahh, I can’t wait to be inside you. Can you wait?”

“No,” You hummed against Jimin’s cock, so hard and waiting for your mouth.

Light groans were coming from behind you. “Don’t you wanna taste yourself on Jimin? What are you waiting for… You’re delicious, trust me!” He pushed himself inside of you slightly, only to the base of his tip, but it was already so amazing you couldn’t help but to gasp.

You dropped your open mouth down over Jimin, taking him in as far as possible before sucking off harshly as Tae pushed into you completely. It wasn’t as big of a shock as it could have been since Jimin was just inside you, but it was still a new feeling and equally as amazing as Jimin.

You returned the same level of gentleness and care that Jimin showed to you, making sure not to tease him too much. You were losing energy, not having nearly as much stamina as either of them and you were grateful that this was going to be the last round.

You focused on sucking of Jimin pretty simply, but throwing in some extra stimulating actions here and there. You couldn’t help but enjoy the sounds coming from him, small moans here and there mixed with whimpers and whines and it sounded so angelic. His voice was almost harmonizing with Tae’s from behind you, his grunts were low, especially his moans, both in complete different octaves.

Tae began slowly, knowing that you were tired but was almost giving you energy with each thrust. He was definitely more playful and curious, his hands grabbing at your hips and around to your breasts, then in your hair. His pace was a lot faster than Jimin’s, even taking the time to swirl his hips around and give you a new sensation.

“Fuck, Y/N, you feel so amazing I have no idea how Jimin lasted so long back here…” It was subtle hint between gasps that he wasn’t going to last much longer, but he didn’t want to admit it. He took great pleasure in releasing his energy this way and never wanted to appear lesser than his counterpart, but he knew that Jimin was struggling hold on also.

“Y/N, ah” Jimin was whimpering under you, his voice breathy and breaking. “Shit… can you please cum one last time for us?”

Tae began to thrust into you roughly, and reached his hand around to rub at your clit. You jumped slightly at the feeling, it was still so sensitive from everything before but you knew it would help you reach that final ecstasy much quicker. Your moans were busying your mouth so much that you had to break away from Jimin. He moaned as he took in the sight of your lips, so plump and swollen from all of their work, covered in a mix of saliva and pre-cum.

You already know that your body would be so sore tomorrow, it was already beginning to hurt as your clenched around Tae, your stomach muscles tightening once more to allow you a release. You didn’t want to give up, So you took Jimin in your mouth once more, sucking on him much more harshly than before, digging your tongue into his slit and playing extra attention to his very sensitive tip.

You clenched around Tae at the same time, trying to milk both of their orgasms out of them so you could all release at the same time. Within a few thrusts you felt yourself breaking again, falling down into that agonizing heaven, your body almost completely giving out beneath you this time.

Tae pulled out of you, allowing you to ride out your orgasm on your own as he pumped his cock behind you, followed by Jimin in front of you, both of them spilling their milky white seeds out onto your back in a unison of groans, moans, and whimpers.

The room was filled with loud panting, each of you trying desperately to catch your breaths and cool down from the previous 4 rounds of activities.

You listened to the shuffling of feet on your floor in a tired daze, not even startled by the cold towel that was cleaning off your back.

“Y/N, are you alright? Here, pull this on. I think we all need a nap now.” Jilin’s voice was sweet, handing you a large shirt to pull on and also a pair of your underwear.

“Ah, wasn’t that so much fun? I hope you liked it. We thought you really deserved something nice.” Tae added, standing beside Jimin, his arm over his shoulder once more.

“I really did actually…” You admitted your defeat, they always got to you in the end with all the things they do for you.

“We’re glad we could make it up to you.” They said in perfect unison, then climbed into your bed with you, ready to rest.

#taehyung smut #jimin smut #bts smut #taehyung scenarios #jimin scenario #btsxyou days of the week #taehyung day

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