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samasmith23 · 5 months

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Evangelion: You Can (Not) Marathon — (Part 13)

Neon Genesis Evangelion, “Episode 13: Angel Invasion/LILLIPUTIAN HITCHER”

Continuing my Evangelion re-watch marathon with NGE, “Episode 13: Angel Invasion/LILLIPUTIAN HITCHER.” For my thoughts on the previous episode, click the link to the post below:

Happy New Year everyone! Yeah… it’s been quite a while since I posted my last episode analysis of Evangelion, hasn’t it? The last time I discussed an episode was back in August 2023, as I had to temporarily postpone this marathon due to being preoccupied with Graduate School classes. But since I’m currently on Winter Break in-between semesters and I’ve only got one more class to complete before I finally get my Master’s degree in History of Ideas, I thought it was finally time to resume my marathon of every episode and movie from the EVA franchise! So with all of that out of the way, let's dig into the 13th episode of NGE!

Aww! I love how right off the bat this episode reiterates the deep-seated admiration that one of the three main NERV staff members, Maya Ibuki, holds for the organization’s head scientist, Ritsuko Akagi. Specifically, the episode opens in Central Dogma where Ritsuko & Maya are conducting a routine system’s check-up on the facility’s advanced supercomputer, the MAGI system. Not only does Ritsuko complement the speed at which Maya enters the code sequences into the database, to which Maya replies, “Of course. Did I have any choice with you as my boss,” but Maya can’t help but stare in awe at her screen when Ritsuko types in a more rapid command-function, stating to herself, “Wow… she is the master…”

In addition to emphasizing Ritsuko’s skill and proficiency as a computer programmer, which serves as a central focus for the episode, this opening scene also subtly hints through the former’s interaction with Maya that the latter might view her relationship with Ritsuko in a much higher regard than just a mere master-&-apprentice bond. Specifically, I along with a lot of other EVA fans interpret Maya as a lesbian who’s secretly in love with Ritsuko.

The subject of queer-coding in Evangelion will become of greater significance when I eventually get around to discussing the character of Kaworu Nagisa in Episode 24, but this interaction along with several other scenes from future episodes of the series heavily infer that Maya secretly possesses romantic feelings for Ritsuko based on her dialogue and mannerisms when interacting with her. Although Maya’s attraction seems to be one-sided since it will later revealed that Ritsuko is sleeping with her boss Gendo Ikari in a failed effort to try and emotionally connect with her dead mother (which, again… GROSS…).

But while it would also be inappropriate for Ritsuko to instead get together with Maya due to the mentor/student power imbalance in their relationship, I can’t help but feel that Ritsuko would be in a much happier and healthier place in life if she also came out as gay and dumped the bastard Gendo for a female love interest. Heck, I’d personally ship Ritsuko with Misato! considering that the two are both best friends who attended university together, plus there was also some potential queer-coding in that brief moment of a swimsuit-clad Ritsuko suggestively bumping into Misato back in Episode 1!

One last aspect of Maya’s queer-coding that I’ll briefly elaborate on here is that many fans have pointed out that her character design heavily resembles that of the main protagonist, Shinji Ikari, further visually coding Shinji as potentially being a trans-femme egg! I absolutely love it!

Lol! As soon as I start talking about shipping Ritsuko & Misato, the latter then shows up to see if Ritsuko’s done with the MAGI’s system check-up. As Bane from The Dark Knight Rises once famously stated:

Alright, if I recall this is the first time the viewer is provided a visual diagram of the MAGI and how it specifically functions. While the MAGI has been referenced in passing throughout previous episodes, where it was portrayed as an advanced supercomputer that assists in and analyzes the effectiveness of battle strategies for combatting the Angels, as well as serves as the de-facto governing body for Tokyo-3 in place of an ACTUAL human mayor (who’s stated in Episode 11 to be a simple figure-head), it is here in Episode 13 that we first get a real glimpse of exactly how the MAGI operates.

According to the monitor diagram, the MAGI is divided into three separate systems that function in conjunction with each other, and are distinguished by the names “Melchior 1,” “Balthasar 2,” and “Casper 3.”

The names for the MAGI system themselves serve as yet another Biblical reference, specifically to the Three Wise Men from the Book of Matthew. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Magi, in Christian tradition, the noble pilgrims ‘from the East’ who followed a miraculous guiding star to Bethlehem, where they paid homage to the infant Jesus as king of the Jews (Matthew 2:1–12)… Eastern tradition sets the number of Magi at 12, but Western tradition sets their number at three, probably based on the three gifts of ‘gold, frankincense, and myrrh’ (Matthew 2:11) presented to the infant… In about the 8th century, the names of three Magi—Bithisarea, Melchior, and Gathaspa—appear in a chronicle known as the Excerpta Latina Barbari. They have become known most commonly as Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar (or Casper).”

Furthermore, the episode’s opening also alludes to the later twist that the MAGI is far more than simply just a set of 3 advanced supercomputers. Specifically, following the routine system check-up the scene immediately transitions to a weary Ritsuko alone in the bathroom where she looks at her reflection and states, “Everything checked out. As usual, Mother’s in good shape, but… is it just me getting older?”

Not only does Ritsuko’s line effectively foreshadow that her late mother, Dr. Naoko Akagi, was the MAGI’s original inventor, but also the revelation that Naoko digitized her own consciousness into the system itself.

Also, that final line of Ritsuko’s, “Is it just me getting older?” Not only does this line indicate that Ritsuko is potentially experiencing a mid-life crisis, but it is also reflective of the emptiness that she feels due to her existence being solely defined by her association with the inventions of her late mother whom it later revealed that she had a strained relationship with due to the latter career-oriented pursuits as a world-renowned scientist. Here, Hideaki Anno & crew effectively communicates through simple visuals and dialogue that Ritusko is burdened by her desire to understand and connect with her mother by routinely tending to her living legacy.

Also also, another fan online pointed this out, but these shots of Ritsuko leaning at the sink and staring at her reflection directly parallel those of Asuka later on in Episode 22, who similarly pilots her EVA Unit-02 due to being haunted by the specter of her own emotionally neglectful mother. Once again, Anno truly is a master of being able to convey so much information and character nuance through subtle visuals alone!

Lol! As hilarious as it is to listen to Asuka’s complaints about having to completely undress alongside Shinji & Rei as they enter a decontamination for a special harmonics synchronization test with their respective EVAs, I do legitimately love how the animators here utilize the three pilots’ silhouetted postures (only the character’s faces & feet are left unobscured) behind the glass to distinguish each character’s unique personality traits!

Despite Asuka’s justified protestations of being required to strip down for this test, we see that she’s standing proud and firm with both hands on her hips, which is contrasted against the frustrated expression on her face, conveying how Asuka utilizes her boastful pride as a facade to mask her insecurities in front of others. In stark contrast to Asuka, Shinji is unable to hide his embarrassment and anxiety, since in addition to having a nervous expression he’s placing both his hands over his crotch to desperately preserve his modesty, which is reflective of the character’s fears of opening himself up to others. Finally, Rei is once again presented as the neutral middle-ground to Shinji & Asuka’s opposing ends of the emotional spectrum, as she simply gives a blank deadpanned expression while standing completely still in a non-exaggerated manner, highlighting her struggles to emotionally connect with herself and others.

Also, I’m totally with Asuka here! I sincerely hope that Ritsuko is telling the truth when she reassures Asuka on the intercom that the security cameras have their monitors temporarily shut off as the pilots exit their decontamination showers to enter their EVAs. At least… that’s what I’m hoping the red light suddenly appearing on the camera following the two’s conversation…

Still, however, I am somewhat surprised that the exit hallway lacks any guard railing between the shower doors to protect the pilot’s modesty from each other. I know that I would personally want such a feature, especially as someone who’s always HATED and refused to utilize open-door public shower facilities! UGH! That’s always been a major pet peeve of mine!

Whew… at least we as viewers can breathe a sigh of relief in the fact that Ritsuko was at least telling the truth about the naked pilot’s visuals being obscured from the test operator’s computer screens since they’re only presented as green silhouettes inside of their Entry-Plugs. Although Shinji seems to be the only one among the trio wearing a safety belt inside. Weird…

So I’m rather curious as to what the purpose of this specific harmonics test is exactly. Like, I understand the idea that the reason Ritsuko had Shinji, Rei & Asuka undergo decontamination and sit inside their Entry Plugs completely naked was so that she could determine how well each pilot synchronizes with their respective EVA Units without any foreign contamination (which feels like a callback to Episode 8 when Asuka forced Shinji to sit inside the Entry-Plug with her and she initially experienced a program error due to Shinji’s Japanese thought patterns interfering with her Unit being pre-conditioned for her native German language).

But what’s NERV’s specific end goal here? To simply see whether or not the pilots can better synchronize with their Units without the presence of their usual plug-suits?

While the exact answer is left incredibly vague and unanswered, I personally subscribe to a fan theory that I encountered online a while back (although I can’t remember where it originated from), but I believe that Ritsuko and NERV intend to utilize the data collected from each pilot’s unfiltered and decontaminated synch-ratios from this test as part of the dreaded Dummy-Plug system program in later episodes, since those specific Entry-Plugs are stated to perfectly imitate the thought-patterns of a pilot to trick an EVA-Unit to engage in an auto-pilot function even without the presence of an actual human pilot inside the plug.

Although... this theory does have some holes in it since it’s also later implied that NERV’s Dummy Plug system is specifically derived from the thought patterns of dozens of Rei clones (and that SEELE utilizes her counterpart Kaworu for the Dummy Plugs for the Mass-Production Evangelions in The End of Evangelion).

Also, I just realized something else! The fact that Shinji, Asuka & Rei are sitting inside of their Entry-Plugs naked (which is somewhat akin to a fetal position), and that the Entry-Plugs themselves are symbolically reflective of a mother’s womb due to the EVA-Units containing the souls of their dead mother’s (at least for Shinji & Asuka’s respective units…), and that the pilots are also submerged in Liquid LCL while inside of their Entry-Plugs, and LCL is the primordial soup that humanity was originally birthed from by the Seed of Life known as Lilith…

Geez, this scene alone takes all of the pre-existing Freudian imagery that EVA is known for, and pumps it up on steroids!

Moving on from that though, we get more foreshadowing of the true nature of the MAGI when Ritsuko coldly remarks, “You can sure feel their creator’s original personality can you,” in response to the 3 supercomputers suddenly processing a mysterious dilemma.

In addition to Ritsuko officially confirming to Misato (and by extension, the audience) that her mother Naoko was the original inventor of the MAGI system, we also get to see the initial signs of cracks beginning to form in Misato & Ritsuko’s friendship. Despite Misato’s high-ranking status as a NERV military officer and her promotion to Major in the last episode, it is evident that Misato is still in the dark concerning NERV’s more intimate secrets. While Ritsuko is willing to chastize Misato’s ignorance regarding the MAGI system due to the former’s personal connections with the classified hardware, Misato will grow increasingly distrustful of the other secrets Ritsuko is guarding for Gendo and will be inspired by her lover Kaji to try and unravel the conspiracy behind NERV.

Also, Misato’s annoyed retort, “That’s because unlike me, you never talk about yourself Ritsuko,” feels intentionally hypocritical on Anno’s part since Misato frequently attempts to hide specific aspects of her personality from others like Shinji due to her internal Hedgehog’s Dilemma. Although this exchange does convey that in contrast to Misato’s more emotionally extroverted persona, Ritsuko’s personality is more introverted, presenting herself more coldly and rationally due to her nature as a scientist.

I love the early ominous visual representations of the “dilemma” that the MAGI is responding to. First in the form of a visual graph up in Central Dogma’s mainframe, which Aoba & Fuyutsuki describe as “corrosion of the 87th protein wall” that they attribute to recently-installed parts to the system, as well as what appears to be a purple acidic burn-mark on the walls of one of NERV HQ’s tunnels.

Not only does this help provide initial intrigue and suspense for the viewer concerning this mysterious “dilemma,” but Fuyutsuki & Aoba’s dialogue debating the potential causes of the system error in highly-detailed technological detail reminds me of why I’ve always nicknamed this, “the Techno-Babble episode” of NGE!

Trust me when I say, there is going to be so much techno-babble in this episode alone that it would make Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation blush!

Also… that corrosion is creepy as all heck!

Lol! Both Ritsuko & Fuyutsuki make the exact same comment, “Ikari would chew my ass off,” in response to letting the corrosion interfere with their synchronization test! It’s like the old saying goes: “Two great minds truly think alike!”

Wait a minute… so the pilot’s EVA-Units are in their usual holding cages during this test? Then what exactly is that fleshy unarmored EVA-arm submerged in water and connected to half-a-dozen wires outside the window of Ritsuko’s control room supposed to be? Is it part of Rei’s EVA Unit-00 but on the opposite side of the wall-locks, or something else entirely? Either way, the fact that Ritsuko tells specifically Rei to move her arm in conjunction with that submerged severed arm does seem to suggest my earlier theory that this test is actually somehow connected to the Dummy Plug system…

Oh crap! Glowing red sparks appearing on the purple corrosive wall stain as soon as Rei synchronizes with the submerged EVA arm! Definitely not unusual and foreboding in the slightest! Not at all!

I’ve gotta say, I’m really enjoying the nice change of pace this episode takes in regards to its action scenes and building suspense! Instead of the usual strategic planning and bombastic Mecha vs. Kaju fights, Episode 13 takes full advantage of its focus on computer science by having Ritsuko utilize her technological expertise to try and quickly quarantine and prevent the spread of the corrosion of the 87th protein wall into the testing chambers.

Despite initially seeming inherently less exciting on the surface, from a cinematography and editing perspective the flow of action in this scene feels incredibly intense and suspenseful due to the fast pace and quick cuts between the various computer screen alerts & graphs, Ritsuko’s technical commands, and the closing of doors & pipes to prevent the spreading of the corrosion! Anno & GAINAX certainly know how to make even the seemingly mundane incredibly captivating from an action standpoint! That takes incredible talent!

Also, I don’t know why but I FREAKING love the design of those water drones that Ritsuko deploys into the testing pool!

Oh, I see now! The pilot’s Entry-Plugs are actually connected to 3 full-flesh unarmored EVA bodies inside the testing pool! I just couldn’t tell at first due to the previous camera angles of the pool framing the scene from outside the control room window, which combined with the darkly lit underwater conditions helped obscure the other two EVA-bodies! Also, the fact that the heads are missing and are replaced with wires (which I’m assuming are connected to each pilot’s main respective units…), aided in my confusion in thinking that these were just arms.

My mistake! Lol!

But being serious again, all that tension built up with Ritsuko’s technical commands & counters comes to a roaring head as the mysterious corrosion finally reaches the testing pool and causes the arm of Rei’s EVA-body to move against its will and try and breach the window of the control room (mirroring the flashback EVA Unit-00’s failed test in Episode 5)!

Holy FREAKING Crap! Even though Ritsuko & Misato fortunately had the arm of Rei’s EVA severed before it could break the glass and forcibly ejected the pilot’s Entry-Plugs out of the pool, the worst possible case scenario is confirmed when the drones fire their lasers at the mysterious corrosive force, only for said force to suddenly repel their attacks with an AT Field! That’s right, NERV HQ has just been infiltrated by the 11th Angel, Ireul!

Out of all the Angels presented in the series so far, Ireul is easily one of the most distinctively unique due to its lack of a consistent physical form, being primarily represented in the form of either a corrosive substance on the wall or as a pixilated glow on the test EVA’s.

Speaking of which, dang is the animation of Ireul infecting and possessing the arm of one of the other test EVAs so FREAKING cool! It has this unique red-digitized effect to it! I can’t even begin to imagine how tricky it must have been for GAINAX to animate the hand-drawn frames for the Ireul infection scenes! I sincerely hope that they were paid well for their work…

Also, regarding this specific Angel’s name, according to Wikipedia, “Iruel (イロウル, Irouru), also known as Yroul, Yrouel and Ireul, [is referred to] n religious texts as the angel of fear.” In addition to Episode 13’s primary scriptwriter, Mitsuo Iso, stating that the primary inspiration for Ireul’s abstract design was to showcase “a battle against an invisible enemy,” the historical theological interpretations of Ireul as the “Angel of Terror” were noted by ThingsAnime blog writer Will Raus in his article Neon Genesis — An Angelic Vision, who stated that, “the episode featuring Ireul is marked by panic from the lab techs that operate the MAGI.”

I’m curious as to what exactly was going through Ritsuko’s head as she just coldly stared at Ireul breaking the glass while the rest of the staff fled the control room. Was she merely so distracted by her scientific curiosity that she completely neglected her own safety? Or is this indicative of Ritsuko having suicidal ideation?

Knowing what I know occurs later in Episode 23, I have a strong feeling it’s the latter option, especially since Misato is similarly the one here to try and snap out of her trance before Ireul can flood the room.

The sheer amount of scenes that directly mirror each other in regards to subtle details in animation & character framing that I’m noticing upon rewatch is honestly FREAKING phenomenal! Anno certainly took a page from George Lucas’ playbook as a director!

Oh boy, we’re getting some more foreshadowing to the conflict between Gendo & SEELE since immediately after getting off the phone with another “Sound-Only” screen, he orders the rest of the staff to lie about the presence of an Angel inside of NERV HQ being just “an error in the alarm system.”

Lol! It looks like the computer diagrams confirmed my fan theory regarding the purpose of the harmonics test, since the 3 EVA bodies inside of the pool, or “Pribnow Box” are labeled as “Dummy 1-3!”

Oh crap! More foreshadowing in the form of Fuytsuki & Gendo whispering to each other that Ireul’s contamination of the systems is spreading “too close to Adam.”

Double crap! Even more foreshadowing in the form of Gendo prioritizing the safety of Unit-01 above that of Units 00 & 02 when ordering them to be launched without the pilots to prevent them from being infected by Ireul!

Triple crap! The foreshadowing just keeps on going as we now see Kaji randomly exiting an elevator inside of the tunnel to Central Dogma directly below Ireul’s contamination zone! Continuing to play the double/triple agent game I’m guessing!

Leave it to Fuyutsuki to ask the million-dollar question on everyone’s mind: “How exactly can you fight an Angel without an Evangelion?”

Man do I love just how unapologetically science-oriented and techno-babble-heavy this particular episode of EVA is! It’s honestly pretty cool watching Ritsuko and the rest of the NERV staff’s attempts to try and counter Ireul’s spread by increasing the ozone levels in the heavy water boundary of the testing pool, only for Ireul to rapidly adapt and increase its resistance to ozone before evolving into an organic electronic life form capable of hacking its presence into NERV’s computer files to infiltrate the MAGI system!

While a lot of the technical and computer programming terms completely fly over my head and are borderline gibberish to me, the scene itself is so tightly edited and quickly paced that it’s NEVER boring and the natural flow of dialogue makes the increasing threat of the Angel clear to the viewer even if they’re not computer scientists themselves! That takes a lot of skill from a writing & and directing standpoint!

Also, Shiro Sagisu’s soundtrack further elevates the tension in this scene in near-perfect symbiosis with the editing and dialogue! The sequence of musical scores from “The Day Tokyo-3 Stood Still,” to “Harbinger of Tragedy,” to “The Beast” really serve to gradually increase the suspense and fear derived from this scene, even though all we’re doing is basically looking at computer screens & graphs & listening to techno-babble! I love it!

Also also, Ritsuko provides the first direct indication of the Angel’s ability to repeatedly evolve and adapt to its surroundings to actively counter NERV’s defenses to try and reach “Adam” in Terminal Dogma! While the Angel’s environmental adaptation capabilities were already established with Sandalphon from Episode 10 being born in the heart of a magma chamber, here we get our first glimpse of the Angel’s evolving intelligence as Ireul learns how to hack the MAGI system to utilize NERV’s own supercomputers as a weapon against them!

The sheer speed at which Ireul completely infects Melchior which it then utilizes to try and hack into Balthasar next before Ritsuko enters a fail-safe code-sequence to halt the Angel’s spread for 2-hours next is legitimately FREAKING terrifying!

Fuyutsuki’s words, “The MAGI have become our enemy,” are even made more disturbing by the panning shot showing the 3 giant red boxes that serve the supercomputer mainframe directly below Central Dogma’s main command deck, emphasizing that the Angel is directly under NERV’s feet.

As Kakashi once famously told Sasuke during the survival exercise in Naruto, an attack from below is the most dangerous since it’s the least expected!

Also, the way Ritsuko describes Ireul as having evolved into a nano-machine-esque living computer virus, now all I can think of is the Ms. Marvel villain Doc.X, who’s also a sentient computer virus!

I love how Ritsuko immediately and harshly rejects Misato’s recommendation to Gendo that they self-destruct the MAGI system to destroy Ireul.

While Ritsuko justifies this by countering to Misato that “destroying the MAGI means destroying headquarters itself,” it’s clear that Ritsuko is desperately trying to preserve some piece of her mother’s legacy, still desperately struggling to understand the individual who prioritized her roles as a scientist & a woman over her role as a mother.

I am totally NOT foreshadowing anything with my specific word choice of “scientist, woman & mother!” NOT at all! Lol!

The transition from Misato’s exasperated anger towards Ritsuko’s stubbornness to calm yet confused questioning of the latter’s refusal to “share the responsibility” or “trust someone else” is honestly quite profound. You truly get the sense that Misato is desperately trying to understand her friend’s inability to rely on the assistance of others. It effectively illustrates Misato’s self-awareness concerning the Hedgehog’s Dilemma, as she’s able to recognize and wants to help others who are struggling from a similar place as herself. Whether it be Shinji and now Ritsuko.

Also, I can’t help but appreciate the irony of the fact that Ritsuko was the one who first informed Misato of the Hedgehog’s Dilemma back in Episode 3, but is now clearly shown to be struggling with her own version of said dilemma as she’s emotionally closing herself off from others in a misguided effort to connect with her dead mother, just like Misato does with her dead father.

Despite their contrasting personalities, Misato & Ritsuko truly are very similar to each other. It’s no wonder the two formed such a close friendship. This makes the gradual deterioration of their trust in each other as the series all the more tragic…

Alright, we finally get a run-down of Ritsuko’s plan to defeat Ireul! Essentially, Ritsuko intends to utilize the Angel’s evolutionary survival mechanisms against itself by reprogramming the final remaining MAGI supercomputer, Casper, with a program designed to regress Ireul’s evolution and force it to self-destruct within the system.

Just like all of the previous strategies portrayed so far in EVA, there are considerable risks involved since not only can Ireul be exposed to said program by intentionally deactivating the firewalls preventing it from hacking into Casper, but Ritsuko needs to introduce her counter-program into Casper’s mainframe much faster than it will take the Angel to fully infect the system. And once again, I think this strategy is FREAKING brilliant due to how insane and risky it is!

It is also worth noting that Ritsuko’s plan to introduce a counter program into the MAGI that will force the Angelic computer virus to delete itself is heavily reminiscent of the scientific phenomenon known as Apoptosis, which Susan Elmore of the National Library of Medicine refers to as, “the process of programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is generally characterized by distinct morphological characteristics and energy-dependent biochemical mechanisms.”

You can certainly tell that Anno & crew engaged in a lot of scientific research for this specific episode!

Also, I can’t help but notice the fact that it is the Casper supercomputer that is the one that will inevitably result in Ireul’s self-destruction. I’m skipping ahead a little, but it will later be revealed at the end of the episode that Naoko designed each of the MAGI supercomputers to embody the three main aspects of her identity, those being herself as a scientist, a mother, and a woman respectively. Furthermore, it will later be revealed that Naoko was not only having an affair with Gendo which led to her committing (which her daughter is also now engaging in), but that Casper is the supercomputer which specifically reflects Naoko’s identity as a woman, or more accurately a lover.

So basically, Ritsuko is channeling both her mother and her own self-destructive sexual characteristics to kill the 11th Angel.

Honestly, this feels incredibly reminiscent of one of the core themes that will become increasingly apparent as the series progresses: the Freudian dichotomy between sex & death.

Dang! I love the physical design of the MAGI mainframes, which similar to the Evangelions are a hybrid of mechanical & organic components. Not only do all the wires and pipes appear to have a blood-like red texture to them, but they’re arranged in a pattern that is heavily reminiscent of a brain. An association that is made even more visibly apparent through the central core of Casper being what appears to be literal brain matter and tissue!

Given that Naoko transferred pieces of her consciousness into the MAGI, combined with the future twist of Rei being a clone of Shinji’s mother Yui Ikari, I feel like this is heavily implying that Naoko cloned her own brain matter to make these computers operate. If so, that’s honestly kinda disturbing…

Lol! Not only do we get more hints of Maya’s romantic attraction towards Ritsuko through her fan-girl reactions to the hundreds of the original developer’s notes taped all across the interior walls of Casper, but we also see the kanji, “Ikari, you jerk,”angrily scribbled across one of the pipes!

I’m not sure if it was Naoko or Ritsuko who wrote that specific note, but either way, I’m all for insulting that bastard Gendo!

I love the little bit of Ritsuko smiling, “Thanks Mom, with your help we can make it,” as she begins crawling into Casper’s interiors. It implies that she seemingly does care about & and misses Naoko, however much she tries to deny it…

Also, the imagery of Ritsuko crawling inside of the computer that’s essentially her mother is once again incredibly Freudian, reflective of how the EVA-pilot’s Entry-Plugs metaphorically represent a return to the womb. Or in Ritsuko’s case with the MAGI, a return to the brain?

Aww… Misato can’t help but reminisce on her and Ritsuko’s college days together…

I am curious though as to what specific memories mirrored their current situation of doing engineering and programming work inside of a tightly cramped space…

Interesting! Not only does Ritsuko disclose to Misato that the MAGI utilized a personality transplant system that transferred Naoko’s consciousness into the system, but that the exact same transference system was utilized for the Evangelions, once again foreshadowing that the souls of Shinji & Asuka’s dead mothers inhabit their respective EVA Units!

Also, it’s here that Ritsuko truly reveals her complicated feelings towards her mother. When Misato questions whether Ritsuko’s desire to protect the MAGI is motivated by love for her mother, Ritsuko instead states that in actuality she “never really liked [her] mother,” and that “[her] decision was that of a scientist.”

Does this imply that Ritsuko’s efforts to try and understand her late mother, whether it be through maintaining & protecting the MAGI or sleeping with Gendo (again… EWWW!!!), are motivated solely by scientific personality? That Ritsuko is actively attempting to reject the womanly side of her mother in favor of the scientific side? Or is Ritsuko lying to herself and there’s a part of her that secretly does love her mother like Misato suggested?

This kind of multifaceted and nuanced character-writing is a major aspect of why I love Evangelion so much! Nearly all of its characters are such fascinating and human messes of psychological contradictions that you can’t help but become invested in their personal struggles!

Wow! The actual initiation of Ritsuko’s counter program is once again FREAKING intense! Not only does Ireul manage to quickly hack into Casper once the firewall is lifted, but in what has got to be the most prolonged single second in the history of fictional media, Ritsuko & Maya manage to enter final code-sequences and command keys necessary just in time before the Angel can infiltrate what is quite literally the last single tiny block of uninfected data on Casper’s diagram!

And as soon as Ritsuko engages the counter-program, the tension is finally alleviated as that tiny blue square of uninfected data quickly spreads out and consumes the corrupted red data blocks across all 3 MAGI supercomputers, indicating the Angel’s rapid demise!

Like… dang! I’m honestly impressed by just how suspenseful Anno & GAINAX managed to make this back-&-forth computer-hacking battle against the Angel, especially since this more down-to-Earth tone deviates so heavily from the series’ usual formula of epic and otherworldly giant-kaju battles! It just goes to show how EVA can so efficiently balance various genres and tones into a cohesive whole.

Additionally, it was also a nice change of pace to witness a character outside of the main trio of EVA pilots be directly involved in the defeat of an Angel, while also utilizing said battle to heavily flesh out Ritsuko’s character similar to the previous episode’s heavy emphasis on Misato’s character development!

Speaking of the EVA pilots though, I couldn’t help but chuckle when we cut back to Shinji, Asuka & Rei STILL inside of their Entry-Plugs after all this time!

Not only is it hilarious knowing that the trio are completely oblivious to Ireul’s infiltration and Ritsuko single-handedly defeating it, but I can’t help but sympathize with Asuka’s embarrassment and irritation since they spent all that time undressed inside of their Entry-Plugs floating alone in the GeoFront lake without any access to outside communication! That’s gotta super suck!

Lol! Ritsuko’s tired but relaxed line, “I must be getting old. These all-nighters are really rough,” is such a clever bookend! While the episode began with Ritsuko’s exhaustion regarding her mid-life crisis and anxiety of being solely defined by her mother’s shadow, she now can’t help but feel content in the fact that she protected Naoko’s legacy from being annihilated, staying true to her promise despite her complicated feelings towards her mother.

Also, it’s here that Ritsuko reveals the MAGI’s true nature to Misato as the dichotomy between Naoko’s respective identities as a mother, scientist, and woman. What I can’t help but find fascinating though is that according to Ritsuko, “Those three aspects are struggling for dominance within the MAGI. She intentionally implanted the dilemma to imitate the human experience.”

Honestly, that kind of blending between humanity & machinery makes for an incredibly fascinating concept, since it subverts the emotionless rationality that usually defines A.I. in science fiction media, instead exploring the possibilities of how a machine would function with more human characteristics.

And the episode concludes with some further insight into Ritsuko’s relationship with the late Naoko, clarifying that while she respects her mother as a scientist, she struggles to understand her as a mother while hating the side of her that is a woman. That latter comment in particular does make me wonder if the reason she’s sexually involved with Gendo is because she wants to spite that aspect of her mother instead of merely trying to misguidedly understand it. Or maybe it’s a little bit of both…

Either way, it truly does feel like Ritsuko embodies a mixture of the Oedipus complex which characterizes Shinji, and the Electra complex which characterizes Misato, which I honestly find to be incredibly intriguing…

Also, one last piece of foreshadowing in the form of Ritsuko’s ominous statement that it was the woman aspect of Naoko’s personality that she stayed true to to the very end!

So that was NGE, “Episode 13: Angel Invasion/LILLIPUTIAN HITCHER,” and overall it was another incredibly solid entry to the series! For as much as I snarkily joked about the heavy emphasis on the techno-babble aspect in this particular episode, I was legitimately impressed by the immense levels of tension & suspense Anno and crew were able to generate through a non-traditional Angel battle in what essentially boiled down to a computer hacking contest, as well as the specific focus on Ritsuko’s character and fleshing out her strained relationship with her late mother Naoko. Furthermore, I was not expecting the large quantity of subtle foreshadowing to future twists and revelations across the series in just this one episode, including but not limited to Ritsuko & Naoko’s dommed relationships with Gendo Ikari, the Dummy Plug systems, the presence of human souls inside of the EVAs, and Gendo’s conflict with SEELE. It highlights just how tightly written and cleverly interconnected Evangelion’s narrative and characters are, despite some behind-the-scenes issues that fundamentally altered the thematic and tonal trajectory of the series as a whole.

But that’s stuff I’ll begin delving into next time in my discussion of Episode 14, which will likely be less lengthy compared to my other posts in this marathon concerning the actual content of the episode itself due to its first half essentially being a clip-show (albeit, a rather creative clip-show)… although I will use it as an opportunity to delve into a lot of the behind-the-scenes trivia and drama surrounding the production of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime! It should be an interesting discussion at the very least!

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thepermanentrainpress · 2 years

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THE PERMANENT RAIN PRESS INTERVIEW WITH LINDSEY BLACKWELL

If you haven’t heard of her name already, it won’t much longer until you do. Lindsey Blackwell is a rising star, and with a starring role in Netflix’s newly released coming-of-age flick 13: The Musical, she shows she is a force in the industry. Blackwell has been performing since the age of four, making her big screen debut a year later, and already amassing a resumé of film, commercial, print, and voice-over credits.

You began acting at the age of four; when did you know that you wanted to pursue a career in the arts, and can you describe the feeling you get when you perform?

The arts have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember, so it’s very hard to pick a specific moment that made me want to pursue this career. Honestly every time I see the final product of a project I work on further encourages me to continue with the career path I’ve chosen. I feel extremely fulfilled and proud when I get to perform. Being able to know first-hand how far I’ve come in my career is really encouraging and I am forever grateful.

Congratulations! We can now see you as Kendra in Netflix’s 13: The Musical. Were you familiar with the Broadway musical prior to your audition and being cast?

Yes! I was a little familiar with the Broadway musical prior to my audition and being cast. I knew that Ariana Grande and Liz Gillies were in the original cast, so I was totally fan-girling when I first got the audition. After doing some research on the Broadway musical and learning more, I became a huge fan! Jason Robert Brown is a musical genius for sure :)

How did you prepare for this role, and was there space to make this character your own?

I researched Kendra and the original Broadway production as much as I could before sending in my initial audition. Then, for callbacks they had me learn a clip of “I’ve Been Waiting” and a dance to “Brand New You,” which really made me so much more excited for this role. In the final rounds, I had chemistry reads with some members of the cast before they gave us the big news. There definitely was space to make this character my own. Our director Ms. Tamra Davis really made it a point to give us some creative control. Ms. Tamra, Ms. Naketha Mattocks, and I had open discussions about letting Kendra rock her natural hair which I loved.

What qualities did you enjoy about playing Kendra, and what challenged you in playing her?

Kendra and I are extremely similar, and being able to connect to Kendra made playing her so much more enjoyable. The fact that she sings and dances was enough to make going to set everyday a blast! Kendra is a little naïve and you’ll see in the film that this trait leaves her hurt in the movie. So, one of the challenges of playing Kendra was getting emotional in the scenes that required that.

Which was your favourite musical number from the film?

My favorite musical number from 13: The Musical is definitely “I’ve Been Waiting” because it was so much fun to film. Working with JD McCrary was really cool, and we had great chemistry on camera! I’ve also realized that “Bad Bad News” is one of my favorites from the film too, but it’s so hard to choose because they’re all so great!

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You worked with a talented young ensemble cast. What are some of your favourite memories from set, and spending time with your co-stars?

We spent so much time together on AND off set! One of my favorite memories with the cast is when I turned 15 and they threw me a surprise birthday party and filled my trailer with balloons and gifts. I felt so loved and appreciated by them! Also, whenever we used to break out in song in between scenes was a lot of fun. They’re like my forever family!

Your director, Tamra Davis, has a lengthy resumé of directing films, TV episodes, and music videos. What was your experience like working with Tamra?

Working with Ms. Tamra was such an amazing experience! She really made us feel seen and understood. She let us make choices for our character without judgment. It was really a collaborative moment every time I stepped onto set. Ms. Tamra is also just an amazing person to be around! I really look up to her and I am very thankful to be able to say I’ve worked with her!

What do you hope viewers take away from 13: The Musical and what did you take away from being a part of this film?

I hope viewers take away the messages that friendship and forgiveness are so important. 13: The Musical really has the ability to appeal to everyone! The messaging is very universal and there are many great life lessons in the film. I hope that the people watching can see a bit of themselves in the characters and the story. As for me, it was the first time I had to sing, dance, and act on a project and it was really a great challenge. But, I totally learned to live outside my comfort zone.

You are an ambassador for Girls For A Change, whose mission is to empower Black girls and young women to create change, and provide support and opportunities in areas of academics, career, and wellbeing. Why is this cause is important to you personally?

Girls For A Change is an organization that focuses on giving young girls the support they need as they enter womanhood. Their mission is to prepare Black girls for the world and the world for Black girls. I am a proud advocate of GFAC because I believe that as young women we need a space free of judgement where we can be our complete selves. The staff and girls participating are such a joy to be around.

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You co-hosted their Diva Bag Auction in June. What was that experience like, and is hosting/public speaking something you would like to do more of?

Co-hosting their Diva Bag Auction this year was SO MUCH FUN! I got to show my support for a cause that I’m passionate about. Being able to experience firsthand what it was like to be supported by amazing Black women and experience sisterhood with girls like me was unforgettable. The experience was empowering and fun and I can’t wait to do more with them!

You also have a passion for music! When did this love for music start, and how long have you been singing and playing piano for?

I think the first time I remember being able to express my love for music started in my church here in Atlanta. My church family has always supported my love for music and I have been singing at church for as long as I can remember. I started playing the piano early 2017, so about 5 years now! My piano teacher, Phyllis Beatles, has had a major influence in my life and she gave me the ability to show my skills on a stage with our annual recital!

Who are some people that have supported you in your music journey (writing, recording) and helped you find your voice and sound?

My former vocal coach, Heidi Huelskoetter, really helped me find my voice and sound, all while maintaining a healthy placement. I really thank her for all of her contributions to technique that I still use to this day! Also, my church family has always supported my music journey and encouraged me through the process. They truly helped grow my confidence and stage presence!

You have an EP that will be released very soon! What can you tell us about your original music?

Yes, I am super excited about my first EP. I will actually be releasing my first single on August 19, 2022. My single is entitled "Flowers" and the song is a big metaphor! It’s about someone treating you the right way and you ultimately making each other better by being the thing that makes them happy. Being someone’s flowers is about knowing that you are beautiful and knowing you’re worthy of being loved the right way.

For people visiting Atlanta for the first time, what are a few of your favourite places to visit (either for activities or of course, food!)?

One of my new favorite places to visit in Atlanta is the Starlight Drive-In! It’s super fun to go with friends or family; I’ve been so many times in the recent months. Two of my favorite places to go for food in Atlanta is Paschal’s and Sublime Donuts! Atlanta has so many hidden gems for sure.

Our signature question: If you could be any ice cream flavour, which would you be and why?

Being my full and complete self and using all of my gifts and talents is important to me. I also like to have options… so I think I would probably be Neapolitan ice cream.

Thank you to Lindsey for taking the time to answer our questions! We can’t wait for what’s to come on the acting, philanthropic, and music fronts!

To stay updated with Lindsey’s projects and activities, visit her website. She can also be followed on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Photo credit to: Stephanie Eley

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shihalyfie · 3 years

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Adventure and 02′s production philosophy and its impact on the storywriting (or: “a series made with love is best understood with love”)

It’s hard to really judge a series too much by its production details, but Adventure and 02′s staff has been very open about discussing background and production to the point we’re able to involve it in discussions. In fact, to a certain degree, we’ve gotten rather reliant on said production notes to explain too many things that weren’t clearly depicted or stated in the series -- I’ve spent a fair share of time complaining about how frustratingly subtle this series is -- and you see a lot of strange conspiracy theories or myths about production that circulate in all sorts of different directions. Undeniably, it’s a series that spoke to a ton of people, but there are still so many things that have perplexed people over the last two decades, and when you ask someone “what’s good about this series?”, people struggle to say it in clear words, often only able to resort to a rather oversimplified explanation like “the character development is good” (but what is character development, anyway?). A lot of times, some small things that initially don’t seem to track have led to some pretty wild, far-reaching fanbase-endorsed theories, when in fact the actual reality of the situation is much more mundane.

I think, in general, the best way to “understand” Adventure and 02 is simply to have an open mind about everything in regards to it. This is something I can only say because we currently have more than enough evidence, given production testimony, that this is the kind of series that was made with that kind of philosophy -- I will not shy away from the fact that there are things in this world that are made maliciously, meant to “one-up” the audience or using half-baked explanations as a way to cover up the fact that it wasn’t well thought-through. But in the case of Adventure and 02 specifically, almost everything we have heard about it is to the contrary, and, in practice, I find one can get much more out of the series by adjusting one’s mindset to think about what they’re looking out for and not, because once you have, the beauty of the series opens itself up even in places you’re not looking for it.

Let’s talk a little about the production philosophy behind Adventure and 02 and how it shaped a series that left such an impact on so many kids, and what we can learn from it!

“Something important that we wanted to tell the kids who were watching”

The two most important figures to know when it comes to Adventure and 02 production are its producer, Seki Hiromi (who would eventually go on to produce Tamers and Frontier as well, along with being supervising consultant on Kizuna), and its director, Kakudou Hiroyuki. I would say that both of these figures are probably the most influential people in shaping the series as we know it, but in different ways -- Kakudou was the one most responsible for building the world of Adventure and 02 and setting up the standard for having all sorts of background worldbuilding details that weren’t shown in the series, whereas Seki was the one who pushed for them to include family backgrounds and things that ought to be relatable to the average kid, so that they could empathize with the problems shown on screen.

Both of them had different ways of going at it, which is all for the better because it allowed the story to be enriched from both sides, but the common thread between the two was that they wanted to use this opportunity to “show the kids important things”:

Kakudou is the kind of person I would say is very “media literate” -- he was very well-read in books and well-versed in cinema, not just Japanese but also internationally, and also very in-tune with the Internet by the standards of a director in 1999. (Part of the reason we know so much about Digimon production now is that he still keeps up with everything on social media and throws in a few comments here and there.) His comments on the final episode of Adventure include a list of all of the things he credited for inspiring him during this series, and he later stated that he had a goal of conveying all of those “interesting things” to the kids watching, so that they could also find it interesting. So in other words, Adventure and 02 were basically his love letter to everything in media that he’d come to appreciate.

Seki was the one who pushed for humans to be involved in the series so that the audience could empathize with them, and for all of the “real world worldbuilding” like the kids’ family backgrounds. She’s also functionally responsible for the base premise of 02 at all, having been thoroughly alarmed by the story of a young boy skipping grades into university (to the point this plotline resurfaced a whole 20 years later in Kizuna). It can be said that the heavy “human drama” elements and family background emphasis continuing into Tamers and Frontier are probably her doing, and in terms of Kizuna, she also was responsible for personally vetting the dialogue to keep the kids in character, and it was said that it came off like she loved the characters as if they were her own children.

The result is that, firstly, Adventure and 02 is a series that is very well-thought through. Ridiculously well thought-through, in both background lore and character backgrounds and mentality. So many surface-level criticisms of Adventure and 02 come with an accusation that the writers were “lazy” or “did a writing cop-out”, but we actually have more evidence that the Adventure and 02 staff thought out so many details in the background that they kept forgetting that they hadn’t actually told the audience about it yet. (No, seriously, there’s a thread of official staff repeatedly forgetting that they may not have actually outright mentioned one of the background details they’d planned out in advance.) Even despite all of the extra information we’ve gotten since in the drama CDs and Animation Chronicle and such, it seems there’s still way more information that was planned out that we still haven’t learned about, and it’s presumably why there are so many little things that are too consistent to be coincidental and yet were still never actually stated. It may have been awful at communicating those details well, but those details were most definitely there, and both series have a shocking amount of consistency in adhering to them.

The second is that not only did the producer and director want to convey those important things, they also encouraged the rest of the staff to do it too:

One of the concepts behind the prior series was for us to pack in as many interesting things that we’d seen, heard about, or read about as we could into it, so for 02, we thought, what else could we put in beyond even that?, and so we looked over what we needed to have, and put in all the things we could so that they wouldn’t be left out, and the story became a multi-layered one, overlapping and accelerating. It was to the point that, after we’d gone through 02‘s story, the scriptwriters told me that they’d worn everything they had out to the ground.

So in other words, Adventure and 02 were basically a sort of potluck where they encouraged everyone on staff to come up with interesting things that they wanted to show the kids, and throw it all in -- and it’s presumably why the second half of 02 is so “crowded” (more on this later), because you had everything from all of the writers on staff adding another thing into the potluck, until everyone could get it out of their system. Yoshimura Genki, one of 02′s head writers, said outright that she used the famous 02 episode 23 to convey her concerns about some very real and horrible things happening to kids at the time, and it’s easy to imagine that all of the other writers and staff members were given similar encouragement to do so. Even the (in)famous 02 episode 13 was something originally created from Kakudou seeing Dagomon, thinking he was really cool and wanting to make an episode about him, and remembering that Konaka was good at Lovecraft and basically going “he’s gonna love this, we should get him to do an episode.” In fact, it’s said many times that a huge attitude behind production was to “not be ashamed of anything” and try whatever they wanted.

Which means that the result is a series that isn’t actually all that well-organized in plot or structure -- 02′s plot writing is of course an infamous pile of knots, but even those who are willing to be a bit more critical of Adventure often point out that its plot is simply more linear, being basically a video game-esque boss rush of “evil enemy, followed by even more evil enemy”. Most people do not watch Adventure or 02 for the actual plot writing. What they do watch it for is all of this stuff mentioned above -- that all of these different people on staff were given the question “what do you want to say to this audience of kids?” and took the opportunity to say something fun or meaningful. And, hence, why it’s best to understand Adventure and 02 not necessarily by the minutiae of its plot, but rather, “what was this series trying to say?”

Writing the series as it went along, under massive constraints

In general, Japanese anime is produced as it goes along -- even the character writing is subject to change depending on the voice actors’ performance (this was cited for Adventure specifically, but it’s well-known common practice for non-adaptation anime in general). That said, Adventure didn’t even have a guarantee of how long it was going to be at first -- it was generally expected that it’d be a one-year series (like most Toei series), but they weren’t even sure about it. This resulted in a very “loose mindset”, in which they decided to basically wing it, and the only thing determined for sure was that the epilogue (that we now know as the 02 epilogue) was going to be at the end of it.

As I mentioned above, scrutinizing the plot of Adventure too closely reveals that it’s not actually that coherent of a narrative, just more linear -- and, even by official admission, Hikari wasn’t planned to be the eighth child at first nor was the Tokyo arc of episodes planned to be that long, and yet this entire section is one of the most famous parts of Adventure. A lot of the best parts of Adventure and 02 seem to be the result of sheer accident...

...Or was it accident? Can you say that “going in with a positive mindset and a desire to do something meaningful” is accident? Even if you didn’t plan things out from the beginning, if you go into everything with an attitude of wanting to make the best out of something and make the best out of opportunities you see and hear about, is that really an accident? Couldn’t you perhaps say that this kind of thing is why Adventure and 02 hit so well with people to begin with?

By the time we get to 02, 02 started off as a very different series from the get-go, and it’s always struck me as very odd that people act like 02 was tacked on and didn’t have nearly the exact same staff. It was Kakudou himself who petitioned for 02 to start off with a light atmosphere, and the series itself was fundamentally meant to be addressing the new concepts of “relationships” instead of Adventure’s “self-assertion”, and explore concepts that hadn’t been covered in Adventure. The reason 02 is so different from Adventure is exactly because the staff didn’t want to rehash things for another year, and instead wanted to take the opportunity to cover stuff Adventure didn’t. And the fact that 02 is lighter than Adventure at first, but quickly gets darker, is also by design:

The story had gotten rather heavy by the time of Digimon Adventure, so we decided to make it come off as brighter. And then, it actually ended up getting even heavier somewhere down the line, but there was no way we could just avoid depicting important life problems.

Which is also a similar sentiment reflected by Seki herself, when thinking about how her suggested plotline ended up making the story darker:

An overly intelligent child, prone to falling into loneliness, cut off from his friends and family, and with a Digimon slowly coming and staying close to him…I remember that kind of image forming. We were supposed to have been aiming to have them going to the Digital World with the mood of a picnic, but the fact it didn’t end up so easy for them may have been my fault…or so I remember thinking as I reflected on it.

02 didn’t get dark for the sheer sake of getting dark, and in fact it’s not like the staff necessarily wanted it to get that way, but there were so many meaningful things that they wanted to tell the audience of kids that they allowed it to. It’s also kind of odd how the fanbase has this idea of there somehow being staff conflicts or people bickering in order to produce 02, but there’s no indication of this at all -- at most, 02 unusually had two head writers instead of one, Yoshimura Genki and Maekawa Atsushi, but it was even said that they had a clear division of roles, with Yoshimura on the “villains” side and Maekawa on the “protagonists” side, and there’s no sign of conflict.

(A lot of people also tend to give more credit to Yoshimura since the villains are some of the most masterfully crafted part of both Adventure or 02, but this is still somewhat reductive; Maekawa is very open about the fact that he was rather inexperienced during 02′s production, and considering the fact that the 02 protagonists aren’t nearly as underdeveloped as the fanbase claims they are, and Maekawa would later go on to write a PreCure entry that basically saved the franchise and a very well-acclaimed Super Sentai entry, both with many parallels to 02, his role should not be discounted, especially since 02 is often liked by its fanbase for the duality between both its lighter and darker sides.)

So we had the staff basically on a roll of throwing in everything important they wanted to say to the kids, both “fun” and “meaningful”, and then, two things impacted the way it ended: firstly, they weren’t allowed to go with their initial proposal for the final enemy because it was too gory, and secondly, the decision was made midway through that they would not be making a third Adventure series, and would have to end more quickly than expected.

I think, whenever you hear stories of “we were originally going to do this but couldn’t,” people generally tend to assume that they should have done the original plan (especially if the original plan was particularly gory or brutal, because everyone loves to think that edgy is better), but, perhaps fittingly for a series that’s about not drowning in past regrets of “what should have been” and learning to move on, the staff has never really shown any indications of really, thoroughly regretting any of the decisions they made for 02, even if the second half came out messy. If you look at that original proposal they had for 02′s final enemy, in which it would be an enemy “reduced to an idea”, it certainly explains a lot about why BelialVamdemon was defeated by the power of sheer positivity in the final ending -- obviously that would make a lot more sense with a conceptual embodiment of malice, instead of a returning enemy from the prior series -- but at the same time, that loss of that concept led to the creation of Oikawa, Archnemon, and Mummymon, which have consistently been praised as one of the most compelling parts of 02 and its finale, and Yoshimura herself even gushed about the concepts they got. So it’s not “we couldn’t do what we wanted,” it’s more “we couldn’t do what we initially wanted and made something out of it, arguably an even better something in certain ways.”

And as for the lack of the third Adventure series, all indications point to the fact that this was something by personal choice of the staff, not by higher-up mandate -- not that I enjoy speculating about other people I don’t know, but if you actually follow what Kakudou has said about his work on Adventure and 02, and the fact that he considers his later work on X-Evolution to functionally be getting everything else out of his system (even saying that he liked Bandai doing a lot of the work for him), Kakudou doesn’t seem to want to be the main leader of his projects for the most part, mostly seeing Adventure and 02 as the one time he got to dump all of his one-time ideas that he personally wanted to accomplish, and otherwise being satisfied doing episode direction work for others -- testimony as to the handoff between 02 and Tamers consistently depicts him as expressing sentiments similar to “please let me have a break.” (As of this writing, he still does work for Toei, but has never been lead director on a full series since.) Kakudou didn’t like having to deal with a bunch of increasingly canon-contradictory works because, as an infamously detail-oriented and consistent person, dealing with that kind of thing didn’t really seem to agree with him, and moreover it’s understandable that he (and the other staff) would feel that it was better to end it there instead of overstaying its welcome and stretching things out.

Certainly, when you look at the second half of 02, its plot is “crowded” in nearly every direction (not as incomprehensible as people like to claim it is, but definitely going in a lot of places at once). The infamous 02 epilogue is probably the biggest example of the disparity between staff thought and how it came off; remember that it was one of the first things decided about the series at all, meaning that the staff was deliberating over it and under the impression they were building up to it for a whole two years, but when it finally dropped everyone was blindsided and even often made accusations of the staff coming up with it at the last minute while drunk or something (not helped by the staff clearly being so fixated on their own production that they even included details that were completely incomprehensible to anyone not aware of the potential third series plotline). Yet, ever since then, many people who have sat down with it have figured out that it’s not that incomprehensible and that many of the aspects of it make sense on a theoretical level or are foreshadowed in the series -- it’s just that they tacked it onto the end of an excessively crowded finale with no warning and didn’t sufficiently communicate their reasoning for it, requiring people to spend the next 20 years puzzling it out and Kizuna to come around to drop even more clues, and also failed to realize that one of humanity’s most die-on-a-hill issues about media (shipping) would make people a lot more offended than they likely intended. (PreCure has successfully pulled off “adult timeskip” epilogues in recent years, and they’ve all been received well, but the difference is that they actually pad out the episode with a proper lead-up instead of just chucking it in your face right after Oikawa dies.)

And, ultimately, the staff has never shown any signs of having regret over this. Kakudou takes the stance that they were able to close out 02 in a good way, despite all of the circumstances. The rest of the staff, including Seki herself, and overall Toei as a whole, has doubled down further on the latter half of 02′s plot events and the epilogue’s place in canon despite the infamous controversy around it, and I have to say that I do at least understand why they’re like this when you consider the circumstances and their likely feelings on it -- regardless of everything, they’re proud of the work they did on it, and even if not everything went according to original plan, they loved taking the opportunity to use the sandbox to express things they may not have been able to in their other projects, and the epilogue was their baby that they’d been raising for two years. It’s the ultimate question of “satisfying the creators vs. satisfying the audience” -- not to say that I completely agree with the call to be this unaware of how people were going to read this, because it’s not good to blindside your audience or hurt their feelings, but at the same time, it’s said that you will never be able to satisfy an audience at all if you’re not satisfying yourself first. And in the end, despite everything, that something in Adventure and 02, built out of that earnest desire to say something, came across in some ways and touched the hearts of kids all over the world.

So the result was that the Adventure and 02 staff did everything they wanted, got it out of their system, and handed an imperfect but carefully-crafted baton to Seki, who decided that it was a good opportunity to do something completely new, and deliberately picked Tamers’s director Kaizawa on the grounds that he’d had no experience with the series before. Remembering that Seki was on Adventure and 02 and was clearly happy with it, her decision to do something new with Tamers was just that -- to do something new -- and it’s honestly kind of saddening that the series’ respective fanbases treat each other with significantly less respect than their actual creators do, since both series still shared a lot of staff, Kakudou went on to be an episode director for Tamers (and even calls it a “masterpiece”), and Konaka clearly has a lot of respect for his predecessor series as well, with Tamers being its own product made with conscientiousness and a desire to make things meaningful for kids (Kaizawa himself has expressed a lot of strong opinions on this topic). A lot of anti-02 folks have often spread a conspiracy theory that Tamers came out of a “writer revolt” because they hated being “restricted” by 02 and wanted “more freedom” -- but that is completely contrary to the above evidence where 02′s production process arguably gave the writers too much freedom, and Tamers head staff was picked deliberately due to their lack of connection to the prior series so that they could do something conversely new and fresh...

One thing that’s interesting about Kizuna is that its director, Taguchi Tomohisa, has spoken very often about his love for the original series, right down to respecting its ability to cover very serious topics. His recruitment philosophy for the movie also seemed to have “being a fan of the series” as a big plus factor, and he moreover shows a lot of respect for the staff members involved in production, both the people he recruited and the long-timers like Seki. “Being a fan of the series” doesn’t necessarily constitute skill by itself, but there’s a lot of similar sentiments in “let’s make something that shows respect and does something interesting and important” and “let’s make sure the staff gets to do something without regrets” also seem to be pretty huge factors in consideration here, rather similar to the original series...

What this means in terms of understanding the series

I do not think that, just because a creator clearly had good reasoning for putting in what they did, the audience necessarily has to accept that. It may have had good intentions, but "intentions” don’t justify things coming off the way they do, or at least, the 20/20 hindsight can make us all get together and think “if that was your intention, there were probably a million better ways to execute that.” And, as someone writing this blog, there are times I really think “if you could have please just thought a little harder about making those ideas clearer so we wouldn’t have to have these arguments...”

However, I do think there is something illuminating about the idea of “adjusting one’s mindset” in response to the above revelations, and going in with an open mind when trying to get something out of the series for one’s own sake. I mean this truly in the sense of encouraging others to find something interesting and new -- this is not a blog I write expecting people to see things the same way I do, as much as I like encouraging people to look out for things they might have not noticed beforehand.

I started writing for this blog regularly last year (I hadn’t even planned to start regularly doing it) after a rewatch of Adventure and 02 with some friends and some honest discussion about the series after it, and one thing we all agreed to do when we did that rewatch was “we are not going to go in with the intent to criticize it.” That is to say, we decided to throw out all of those sentiments that you have to “admit” everything wrong with any series when even bringing up its name -- which is not to say that we’re glossing over potential criticisms or their validity, just “we’re doing this rewatch to have fun and to enjoy and appreciate things, and that will be our priority going in.” After making that agreement, something really magical happened, and it was that we started catching things without even looking for it, things that had clearly been planned but hidden in the background, or things that were caught by one person in the group watch chat and pointed out to the others, and it turned out that a huge chunk of the “criticisms” we might have originally gone in with actually did have answers, we just hadn’t realized it because we were too brainwashed into the mindset of dismissing things as “well, that part’s just bad writing.”

Of course, we’ve seen bad writing -- it’s not like we were going out of our way to absolve everyone for every mistake -- but that base mindset allowed us to better appreciate things we might have missed earlier that weren’t immediately apparent. I’ve said many times that I don’t think the things I write on here are that huge speculation -- in fact, in writing meta, I often throw out a lot of stuff because I think “yeah that’s too absurd, let’s just stick with the simplest explanation” -- as much as I just thread things that are in the series but are frustratingly subtle, because I’m taking things that seem like throwaway details and going “hm, well, instead of just dropping it the first time like ‘probably bad writing’, let’s maybe look at this one more time and see if there was a reason?” And those reasons present themselves surprisingly easily without even that much effort, and after a while you come to realize: this is a really consistent series!

It’s actually very rare that things outright contradict themselves, because it really does not take long to piece together a rational explanation (because those things are in the series, just buried)! This was a detail-oriented series that had a ridiculous amount of attention paid to it, even if it didn’t communicate that! Whenever I post meta, I often get comments from people who say outright that they’d had the same impressions, they just didn’t know how to put it in words! There’s been multiple cases of people independently coming up with readings of the series that the fanbase historically dismissed as a reach, only for official to come out and confirm they were absolutely correct, and a common thread between all of these is that they were referenced in the series, it’s just that people kept wanting to dismiss them because “there’s no way they’d be that detailed”! A truly contradictory series falls apart when you subject it to higher scrutiny (even when you’re being optimistic about it), but there’s a strange thing about Adventure and 02 in that they actually fit together even more when you look closely -- and, again, things start coming in when you don’t even expect it, just because of your mindset.

I suppose the take-home here with all of this is that a series like this is best understood when you have an open mind and a desire to listen to what it has to say. As I said before: Adventure and 02 (and especially 02) are not series that most people watch for the plot, and, to be honest, it’s clear that plot wasn’t even a priority for all of the staff in the first place as much as it was about conveying important ideas and sentiments. And I’m not going to say whether not prioritizing plot or not is a “good” or “bad” thing -- for some people, that kind of thing is understandably very important, and a series like 02 can be very frustrating to deal with as a result! -- as much as, for those who have a genuine interest in sitting down and understanding these series, I cannot recommend scrutinizing the plot too much simply because it will not get you very far, and, to be honest, whenever I see a lot of analyses of Adventure and 02, I really do often wonder if they actually understand the core of the series and the sentiment and emotion behind it, or whether they’re just doing it on a technical surface level so they can say they did (which is usually partially as a bid to passive-aggressively dunk on later series to prove Adventure is superior). The entire concept of objectivity is a lie in itself, but this is not a series that you can get much out of if you try to evaluate it with that kind of detachment; it’s a series that spoke to you through theme and passion first and foremost, and to receive that message and “enjoy” the series is most effectively done when you detach all of those doubts and approach the series without malice.

(By the way, this is not me claiming I’m inherently a “better” analyst just because I also prefer to use this mentality when approaching it; it’s just that I’m a bit frustrated that this kind of approach is so hard to find, despite Adventure’s popularity, because losing out on the heart causes so much rich potential to get lost. This is also the reason I recommend @analyzingadventure‘s work so much -- I’m so sorry about tagging you for the third time here! -- because they’re as positive about Adventure as I am about 02, and their insight and thought into the series coming from the angle of “appreciating” it with genuine positivity is something I believe is truly valuable in a climate where this is very hard to find.)

And this is what I mean, “to approach it without malice”. I don’t mean that you should go in prepared to never have criticisms of it ever again, nor that you should just absolve everything and assume that everything is fine, but rather that going in with a mindset of “we’re going to look for things to love” instead of “we’re going to ‘look past’ the bad” alone has the magical effect of shifting your entire view of the series, way more than I would say with any other. And, again, that’s only something that can happen when the base product was made with this much sentiment and honesty to begin with, and moreover fighting against the mindset to criticize is tough when we’re dealing with a fanbase that’s acted like being “fair” requires “acknowledging” the faults of everything in the same breath you praise it until the horse is beaten for two decades and everyone’s exhausted. (And then yells at you if you dare criticize anything that’s put on the fanbase’s pedestal.) It’s kind of the question of: should this really be about media criticism and whether it’s “objectively” good or bad, especially since this has been brought up so often for two decades now, or might it be better to think about how to have a more positive experience with something that you may not have had before?

Once you get rid of that mindset of “critical by default”, you start to realize things that the series did knock out of the park, or were exceptional, that got too obscured by the distractions of fixating on its plot -- 02 is a plot mess for sure, but I have never seen any series that is so sincere and earnest about its actual themes and things it wanted to say, and it’s something I love it even more for. And buried under that criticism of everyone not getting “equal attention” from an evolutionary forms perspective is the fact that, from a story perspective, they deliberately went out of their way to make sure everyone gets mostly equal focus, which is something that sticks out especially when you start watching other long-running series that aren’t as good about this, and although it’s not completely perfect by any means, they do a damn good job keeping everyone in the 8- and 6-person groups relevant to the very end, which is pretty impressive! And, in the end, you end up having a much healthier relationship with the series -- again, it’s not glossing over everything to pretend nothing is wrong per se, but rather, you’re able to appreciate it and love it for what it is, instead of constantly feeling like you’re making up for its “mistakes”.

#digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #shihameta

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closedafterdark · 4 years

Text

Double Trouble

Kang Hyewon & Kwon Eunbi x Male Reader

11613 words

categories: smut, oral, threesome, mommy kink

Read on AFF

Darkness falls upon another day in Seoul. Today in particular was very stressful: hours wasted being stuck in meetings, signing/organizing piles of papers on your desk that blocked your view of the outside world, and a boss who was seemingly never happy with whatever you did, even if done following their specifications. You were happy to finally be at home in your bed, relaxing.

Just then, a phone on the nightstand dings. The bright screen comes to life showing a new email has been received. You reach for it, easily able to unlock the phone with a simple flick of your thumb.

Good evening Ms. Kang,

Please look over the files I have sent you for tomorrow’s meeting. It is crucial our investors are impressed with the pitch of topics we have planned in order for us to receive bonus funding. You are also in charge of meeting minutes. Get a good night’s rest and I’ll see you in the morning.

Regards,

Kwon Eunbi, IZ*ONE Company Senior Chief of Marketing

You let out a deep sigh. The company you are working for had some major projects lined up, it really was crucial that the investors be impressed with the fiscal year sales pitch. For the past month, you and your coworkers have been pulling almost 12 hour shifts all 5 business days. Everyone in your department was determined to make it a success, but morale was slowly dwindling from the ridiculous workload and high expectations set by Chief Kwon.

"Who is it, babe?” your coworker Kang Hyewon asks you as she releases your saliva covered cock from her mouth with a loud pop. Your eyes momentarily break away from the phone, seeing her stroke you with her delicate hand while sticking her tongue out to give your balls quick, repeated licks. Her tongue running along your scrotum tickled, you had to compose yourself before answering.

“Boss wants you to go over the materials for tomorrow’s big meeting. She says you’re in charge of meeting minutes too”

Hyewon plants more wet kisses on your balls, a thin string of saliva connecting them both whenever she pulled away. She giggles at the sight, slicing through it with her finger before continuing on with her task. Her nose brushes along the base of your shaft while doing so.

“Tell that busty vixen I’m too busy sucking your dick to read her stupid proposals right now” Hyewon finally replies as she strokes your cock. You end up replying to your boss with her phone by using one of the automated responses. Hyewon opens her mouth again once more and engulfs your shaft. You groan, spreading your legs and running your hands through her freshly dyed chestnut hair. Her saliva dripped down onto your silk bedsheets, staining the fresh set you had placed this morning.

Kang Hyewon and you started at the company pretty much at the same time. The application process was fierce: 96 applicants applied for 2 open positions. The two vacant spots were for a 13 member marketing division. When you both first started, others around you referred to you both as the awkward, quiet new recruits. With time, everyone got to know both of your personalities through company retreats and other personal gatherings. Hyewon became your drinking and karaoke partner, through the combination of sheer dumb luck and your other coworkers pairing off before you had a chance to ask anyone else.

Nowadays, you and Hyewon were no longer rookies. Two years have passed since then. The past few projects have proven to be successful with the general public. The higher ups in corporate are hoping tomorrow’s investor meeting further propels the momentum your division earned and establishes the company as one of the most profitable in Seoul.

Your professional working relationship soon changed one random weeknight last year. Everyone else on your floor had gone home for the night, leaving only you and Hyewon. The cleaning lady was running the vacuum through the carpet, politely asking if you two could leave for a little bit and that it shouldn’t take long. Frustrated and not wanting to be at work any longer, Hyewon goes to you and says it would be best to call it a night. You agree, tiring yourself out only for the workload to increase in the morning wouldn’t produce good results. After wishing the cleaning lady a goodnight, you both get into your car and head to a destination Hyewon inputs in the car’s navigation system. Arriving at the restaurant was the last thing you remember: a blur of grilled meat, soju bombs and clothes flashes through your head until you are woken up by the sun’s rays burning your face, signaling morning has come.

You rub your eyes, wiping off the crust that has built up and place your hand on your head. It was still pounding from the large amounts of alcohol you consumed. You gather what little excuse of strength you have left, only to find yourself being pulled back down. Uncovering your blanket, you discover Hyewon's naked body cuddling you.

"Hyewon, wake up" you say, shaking her shoulder.

"Mmm, it's so early. Let's sleep in babe, it's the weekend" she replies, nuzzling her face on your chest.

Hyewon's eyes immediately open after she realizes what she just said. She screams, covering up her body with the blanket.

And so began your physical relationship with Hyewon. At first it was purely physical, no emotions - just sex. Over time however, something changed between you two. Hyewon would spend the night more and you'd wake up to the delightful smells of her cooking breakfast in her panties and your dress shirts. The two of you would take turns alternating which person's house to stay at. You would also carpool to the company together, with mainly you driving as Hyewon loathed it. This raised a bit of suspicion and gossip from coworkers on your floor as well as the various other departments, but it was honestly more curiosity than being nosy. Hyewon would sneak in kisses with you whenever she could, mainly in the staircases or employee outdoor relaxation area. While you were both strictly professional in the workplace, Hyewon would occasionally have a slip of the tongue and call you babe or oppa when trying to get your attention for something. She would look around to see if anyone noticed, but thankfully everyone would be focused on their work. You would give each other finger hearts discreetly. Sometimes, Hyewon would ask you to look over a file she was about to hand to Chief Kwon. Upon opening it, you find she has placed various colored sticky notes telling you where to meet her. Most of these brief rendezvous would consist of making out or Hyewon satisfying her cravings for your dick.

"Babe, you know I can't say that. Plus that she devil already hates me enough as it is" you reply after the automated message is sent. After closing the email app you smile, seeing Hyewon's home screen background: an adorable selfie of the two of you during an outing to see the cherry blossoms bloom. You were grinning holding the phone while Hyewon kisses you on the cheek.

Hyewon licked your shaft from base to tip, impatient you weren't giving her all of your attention. How she was sucking your tip was different than usual: she usually took her time to lick, suck and lather you with passion but it seemed like she wanted to blow off some steam tonight. You didn't mind, it was a nice change of pace from the usual good girl act she put on at work. Trying to ease her irritation, you grab onto her left cheek and pull it softly.

"Please keep sucking, Hyewon" She giggles at your request and nods.

"I'm telling you, that bitch needs to get some dick. Then she won't be so shrill and high maintenance all the time" She says, kissing your tip with such passion before engulfing you in her mouth once more.

Hyewon was a different person in the bedroom. Sometimes, it felt like she had an insatiable libido. During your first few intimate encounters, she wanted to do it anywhere and everywhere. She would completely drain you. She loved talking dirty and was sassy whenever you brought up work conversations that include other females while she was pleasuring you. A rough pounding was usually all it took for her to forget why she would be annoyed at you.

Seeing that you returned her phone on the nightstand, Hyewon let out a very cute squeal of excitement before spitting on your cock. She generously applied it all over, licking up your precum leaking from your slit. You couldn't contain your moans, the loud volume of it being heard from how good she was making you feel.

"That feels so good" you groaned, both hands gripping Hyewon's head. You let her still be in control, as her tongue made waves on your frenulum. Hyewon's technique and talent for giving head became refined over time. She knew the exact anatomy of your penis, where to suck and lick to get the most pleasure drawn out of you. Hyewon has made you blow your load quickly several times before, but usually relished in the fact that she had full control over you whenever she wanted to tease.

Tonight was definitely one of those nights she wanted you to burst quickly. Probably to prepare you for the rest of the evening. Hyewon loved playing with your tip just as much as she loved deepthroating. It wasn't out of the norm for her to spend long periods of time licking every square inch, she would ask her nail lady to give her a few more inches on her nails so she could scratch your tip and balls to tease you.

"You're not as loud as usual" Hyewon states, releasing you from her mouth with another sexy pop. She gives several long lips along your shaft.

"Sorry Hyewon, I'm just really nervous about tomorrow. Chief Kwon will never let us hear the end of it if things go wrong"

"Awh babe. Don't worry, I'll take extra good care of you" Hyewon's encouraging words betray her naughty actions as she strokes you in an aggressive jackhammer like motion with her hand. Loud squelchy sounds accompanied the action, it always sounded so satisfying to you. "You feel so hard in my hand, but even better inside me”

Hyewon strokes your throbbing shaft several more times before getting up and spreading her legs, holding onto your cock as she aligns it with her lips. You both groan as your tip enters her. Inch by inch enters her agonizingly slow until she is fully impaled on you. No matter how many times you’ve entered her, Hyewon was always painfully tight.

"We have the whole night ahead of us. I'm gonna ride this dick until you empty everything inside me. I won’t be satisfied if I don’t feel sore tomorrow”

The dreaded morning has arrived. You wake up before the alarms, gently removing Hyewon's arm from your body as you got out of bed and went to the balcony. You breathe in the fine dust and sigh, another stressful day awaited you. Turning down Hyewon's invitation to go another round in the shower, you sip on a freshly brewed cup of coffee, scrolling through your phone looking at the day's news.

"What're you looking at?" You turn your head slightly to see Hyewon looking at your phone. Her body was wrapped neatly by a towel, showing off the slightest hint of cleavage. She used another towel to dry off her hair. It took everything in you not to fuck her.

"Just the most beautiful woman in the world" you reply, smiling sweetly at her.

"Ugh, stop babe. You're lucky I like you" she pretends to vomit, giving you a quick kiss on the lips before pushing your face away.

After the early morning rush hour bumper to bumper traffic that also had Hyewon yelling at various drivers loudly even though the windows weren't open, you two finally arrive at the company. The two of you scan your ID tags before approaching the elevator. Hyewon wore a very professional outfit today - different from her usual short skirts and body hugging barely buttoned tops that she preferred. Though she did in fact end up wearing a tight fitting top, she complimented it with a matching pair of red colored slacks and blazer, ending the outfit with white heels. Hyewon twirled her neatly brushed let down chestnut brown hair with her finger as she began telling you an embarrassing story of how she used her friend's iPad as a tablemat for a meal. The elevator finally dings, signaling it has now reached the lobby from whatever floor it was previously at. Upon entering, you find that you had the lift all to yourselves. Pressing the button for the 12th floor, Hyewon tiptoes and gives you a quick kiss as the elevator doors begin to close.

"Wait! Please wait!"

The voice causes you two to break the kiss as you pressed the door open button. A hand squirms its way through similar to a zombie film, startling Hyewon slightly. As the door opens you both see who it belongs to.

“Ms. Kang, Oppa. Ohayo" the woman says in a very obvious Japanese accent.

Miyawaki Sakura, the social butterfly of your department. She was one of three members who were reassigned from the Japanese branch. Hailing from the Kagoshima prefecture, she was instantly popular among the various departments in the company. While most of the initial talk was about how attractive she is, many found her even more appealing since she was an avid gamer. After having a short bob haircut for the longest time, Sakura finally let her hair grow out. As if she needed a reason to be even more beautiful.

You both bow to her.

"I take it you spent the night at oppa's, Ms. Kang?” She asks Hyewon.

"How did you know?" She replies, flustered.

“Well, you have the same tie and bag from yesterday" Sakura says, her eyes looking down at Hyewon's designer handbag.

Sakura was the only person who knew of your relationship with Hyewon after finding out by accident. Hyewon dragged you into what she thought was an empty restroom, not knowing Sakura was in the stall next to yours. After hearing everything you two did, you were greeted by her mischievous grin the moment you opened the stall door. She promised to keep it a secret, granted you send her a video of yourselves for her... research as she called it.

“Oppa, I’m sure you didn’t forget my request?” Sakura cheekily says to you.

“Yes, Sakura. Hyewon and I recorded last night’s session… I still find it weird you want to watch a video of us having sex” you sigh, shaking your head at her.

“It’s two good looking people fucking, what’s not to like?”

Answering your prayers the elevator finally dings, indicating you have finally reached the 12th floor. The three of you get out and enter the main conference room. You’ve grown to hate this place having spent more time here than in your actual home. The bright sunlight from the room’s full sized windows shine through, eliminating the need for the overhead lights to be on.

“Oppa!”

You look around to see the owner of the voice and find Ahn Yujin waving her hand frantically to get your attention. She is one of the youngest members of the department joining at least a year before you and Hyewon. You considered her as a little sister, getting her snacks and drinks to cheer her up or listening whenever she needed to vent. Yujin was extremely positive and energetic, you realized you never saw her without a smile on her face.

“Goodmorning, Yujin. Ready for today’s meeting?” You ask her as she hands you, Sakura and Hyewon each a cup of coffee.

“Of course! We’re gonna crush it” She replies, raising a fist to show she is determined before asking you for a fist bump. You take the open seat next to her while Hyewon and Sakura sit across from you both.

Most people in other departments were jealous that you were the only male in an all female department. Most of them asked if you slept with anyone, even before your unofficial relationship with Hyewon. What they don’t realize is how boring it is to not have another male to talk to. Yes, you do work with attractive women but once they get together and have their girl talk you sit there, unable to follow along.

The door opens once more and two extremely tall men enter the room along with a smaller statured woman. Chief Kwon has finally entered with the investors. Everyone else in the room stands up and bows. Once the men take their places, Chief Kwon sits at the front seat, you and Hyewon on either side of her.

“Let’s get this meeting started, shall we?” Chief Kwon was pure business from the very beginning. Her outfit was similar to what Hyewon would usually wear: a skirt that was a bit too short you thought for the chief of marketing, a black blazer that seemed one size over and a simple tucked in white blouse with black accents. Her hair was tied into a lazily made ponytail. As she leaned over to read the notes on her clipboard, you noticed her breasts were firmly resting on the table. The lanyard of her ID was being pushed forward because of this. Both men and women talked about her body: The men being usual perverts who talked about her tits or ass and how they wanted to sleep with her, the women more so the same but out of envy since many believed it was unreal how Chief Kwon was very fit yet it seemed like no bra could contain her chest.

“Ever since Director Ahn Joonyoung’s rigging scandal to overcharge consumers on the products we sell, our company took a very large hit financially. However, we have been able to win back the general public through community outreach and environmentally friend PSA’s. So far, responses have been good. But we have to do more if we want to secure IZ*ONE’s status as a top company”

As you stare at her chest and wonder how genetics were able to create such a wonderful specimen, Chief Kwon’s next words immediately grab your attention.

“Ms. Kang, why don’t you and your partner explain to everyone what you and your team have come up with” She says sternly.

You and Hyewon slowly stand up, Chief Kwon’s eyes never breaking contact with yours as you both nervously reach the front of the screen. With deep breaths, you click the pointer and begin the presentation.

“As Chief Kwon has mentioned, the company took a major hit when it was revealed to the public that Director Ahn had overcharged consumers and possessed a hidden slush fund he planned on using when moving over to Dreamcatcher Company” you begin. “Our stocks nosedived and we were in the red for several months. But once more information was released, the general response was supportive and empathetic about our situation”

“Ms. Miyawaki’s proposals about community outreach and informative PSA videos were essential in turning public perception around. Although the company was losing a lot of money, donating our time to help the less fortunate and raising awareness to certain topics made us appear more human to consumers” Hyewon continues.

“It’s safe to say we should continue with community service and the PSA videos. They’ve proven to be effective and by continuing it, we won’t been seen as having done it just to earn sympathy. Which brings us to our the future of IZ*ONE company”

Throughout the meeting, Chief Kwon’s expression remains the same: blank. She taps her pen on the clipboard, seemingly unimpressed with whatever you and Hyewon were saying. The investors on the other hand, gave you both their undivided attention. They occasionally whisper to one other during the presentation.

The presentation finally ends after what feels like a year. Upon reaching the end, everyone claps at you and Hyewon. Everyone, except Chief Kwon. She was the first to leave the room immediately after the presentation ends. You and Hyewon give each other a warm smile, relief washing over the two of you. After the two of you exchange pleasantries with the investors, you see Sakura and Yujin approaching.

“Unnie, oppa that was amazing! The investors were so impressed with you two!” Yujin beams.

“Goodjob, oppa” Sakura says as she fist bumps you. “As expected of the department couple"

Hyewon hits Sakura on the shoulder playfully, blushing slightly.

"Why don't the four of us get lunch? I want to try the new cafe that opened up" Yujin jumps up and down in excitement.

As everyone files out of the room for lunch, you softly grab onto Hyewon's wrist.

"Why don't you guys go ahead? I need to talk to Ms. Kang about something, alone" you say.

"Oh I get it... a "personal" talk. Have fun, you two" Sakura says as she winks at you both. "Make sure you don't pull out" she whispers in your ear. Your body shivers at her words.

"What are they going to talk about?" Yujin curiously asks as Sakura links arms with her and they leave the room.

Now only you and Hyewon remained. She approaches the closed door and locks it.

"Babe, we have to be quick. The room's going to be used again in an hour" Hyewon says as she approaches you, unbuttoning her blouse.

"Stop, Hyewon. That wasn't a code for sex, I really do want to talk to you alone" you reply, removing her hands from your chest.

Ms. Kang, your hair is so pretty today

"Oh... What did you say? You have my attention" Hyewon's tone reflects the mood in the room, serious. She grabs your hand and you both sit where she and Sakura were during the meeting.

"There's something that's been on my mind for awhile now. What exactly are we? Are we dating or not? Am I your boyfriend?" You manage to say, nervousness heard in your voice.

"So many questions at once. Why the sudden interest though? You've never brought it up before" she says as she takes your hand in hers.

"What we have going is great. It's just... I need to know. Where you and I stand, what exactly is all this. I can't let this continue until we address things. What am I to you?"

"Babe" Hyewon replies, rubbing your hand gently with her thumb. "I'll admit, after the first time we slept together I wanted to keep things casual. We'd be each other's booty call and nothing more. After a few months though, I began to miss you. Whenever I came home from work, I realized I had no one to go home to. You were always so sweet whenever you stayed over, cleaning the apartment or taking care of me even though we were both so tired from work. Usually, you and I would have sex and then one of us would leave the other's place after it was over. But that one time I told you I was too tired to go home, I was lying. I wanted to cuddle with you and experience how it feels to spend time with the person you love"

Hyewon places her other hand on yours before continuing. "Luckily that week I would be spending four days at your place. Since we hadn't started carpooling together, I was able to have overnight bags in the trunk. I kinda didn't ask for your permission if I could leave things in your house. Sorry about that by the way. Anyways, after awhile I had enough stuff in your house that it felt like we were living together. You got used to me staying over and cooking you breakfast. I know I'm not the greatest cook, but I'm thankful you pretended to like it for me. That time I got to spend the whole week at your place was amazing. Even if several of the days consisted of us being lazy and spending the entire day in bed, I felt truly in love. What I'm trying to say is, I never really brought up asking if we were official because to me, we are. You've always been my boyfriend. My drooling, stinky butt boyfriend. I love you" Hyewon poured her heart out. You were unable to say anything, choosing instead to pull her into a hug.

"I love you too my 4D princess"

Hyewon hits your shoulder softly as she tiptoes to give you a kiss. You lean down and smile at her, puffing her cheeks together as she pouts. You both laugh as you exit the conference room.

"Hopefully the others are still having lunch. I'm starving" Hyewon says as you two are approaching the elevator.

"Oppa! Unnie! There you guys are!" You feel a tap on your shoulder as you see a young girl smiling when you both turn around.

"Hi, Wonyoung. You're back from lunch so early! What's up?" You reply.

"Chief Kwon said she wants to see you in her office"

"Did she say why?" You asked.

"Nope. You know how she is, she just asked me where you were and that she wants you to report to her office as soon as possible"

You sigh heavily, rubbing the back of your head.

"Have a good lunch with the girls. Tell them something came up when they ask where I am" you say to Hyewon.

She nods, squeezing your hand as the elevator doors open. "Be careful" she says, nodding to you and Wonyoung before the doors close. You give her a somewhat reassuring smile to calm her nerves. The last thing she sees is Wonyoung asking you how the both of you are doing.

You knock timidly on the large black doors.

“Come in”

Chief Kwon’s office was large enough that a person would be able to live in it. As you approach the black couches near the door, you see her hard at work, reviewing a stack of files on her desk. Her office was very minimalistic, with only the most essential office items and her various awards hanging on the walls. Her table proved to be an even better support for her breasts, the image of them still in your mind from this morning’s meeting.

“Do you know why I called you in here?”

“N-no, boss. I’m afraid I don’t”

“You see, it’s time for our annual mid year evaluation. To see if the work you do facilitates the need to implement increases in pay grades” Chief Kwon says. “And I plan on doing a thorough evaluation on you”

“I’m sorry?”

“Have a girlfriend? Wife?”

“I don’t think that’s an appropriate question to ask me at work, boss” you reply.

“Kim Minji. 26 years old. Born in Daejeon. Current President of Dreamcatcher Company” Chief Kwon says as she brings her clipboard and begins reading off it. She sits on the sofa across you and continues.

“Son Seungwan. Also 26 years old. Director of SM Entertainment’s Red Velvet Division. An old flame of yours from your days in Canada, first girlfriend I’m assuming? After graduating college and returning to Korea you would eventually date one of her company’s singers”

“That being Miss Kim Yerim. 21 years old. Seoul born. You both gradually became distant due to work. Your nickname for her was Squirtle. Most people believed it was because her face is cute and she resembled the Pokemon, but the main reason was she was quite the squirter in the bedroom. More of an open relationship this time, you would have brief sexual encounters with Bae Joohyun and Kim Hyunyi”

What kind of background check is this thorough? Chief Kwon is insane!

“Shin Jiwon. 24 years old. Born in Bundanggu, Seongnam. I must say, it’s impressive how you manage to upgrade girlfriends each time. That is some body she has on her. I’ll make a note of it to reach out to her company and see if she’d be interested in being the model for our lingerie line”

“Ma’am is there a reason why you just recited my entire dating history out loud? Better yet, how do you know about some of those things?”

“Last but not least, Kang Hyewon. 21 years old. Born in Yangsan. IZ*ONE Company Marketing Team Leader and your current girlfriend” Chief Kwon says, her face mere inches from yours. Your face has begun to turn red from the close proximity.

“Do you want to know why you’re the only male in this department? It’s because I made it that way. When going through the list of potential employees, yours was approved by the entire selection committee. But ultimately, I have final say. So, I did some research on you. And the results were astounding”

“It’s not surprising that you and that slut Kang Hyewon got together. Again, I was behind everything. I hired you two together. During our team dinners and company outings, I made sure to pair off everyone so you two would have no choice but to be partners. Who ended up having to do the most work and be the last two to leave work? That’s right, you and Hyewon”

“You are crazy”

“What?” She replies, briefly caught off guard.

“I said you are crazy. There is no way anyone can be that much of a psycho to pull off something like that. For everything to happen in that specific list of sequences…”

“Trust me, it’s real. And I’m not just talking about my breasts. Speaking of which, I see you ogling over them and my ass whenever I walk by your desk. I bet you’ve thought about what it would be like to fuck me. Sorry to say, I’m not an easy girl like Hyewon is” she says, blowing a gentle puff of air into your face.

Turning around with loud clicks of her heels, Chief Kwon slowly removes her blazer. Her blouse did a poor job of hiding the outline of her bra. She turns around once more and looks at you, a mischievous smirk on her face as she gently begins to unbutton her shirt.

“I bet you’ve fantasized about how my big, soft tits would feel in your hand. Or putting your hard cock in between them” Her voice oozing seduction with every word. You were getting turned on at the sight of each button being undone.

"How-how did you find out about Hyewon and I?" You ask, your erection beginning to grow from the sight of Chief Kwon teasing you.

"Chaeyeon saw you two having sex in the conference room. You really should lock the door before doing such inappropriate acts in the workplace" she replies, going to her own door and locking it. "Like so"

“Chief Kwon…”

“Shh” Chief Kwon puts her index finger on your lips. She kicks off her heels and straddles your lap.

“When we are alone you will either address me as Eunbi or mommy. Understood?” Her breaths began getting heavier.

“Yes, I understand”

“Yes what?”

Yes, I understand. Mommy”

“That’s a good boy. Now be a dear and help mommy remove this blouse”

You oblige, nervously grabbing onto the her blouse and removing it from her skirt. Eunbi had already removed the first two buttons, giving you a view of her perfect cleavage. You were salivating at the thought of tasting her breasts. Her purple silk bra was not enough to contain them, practically spilling out. While unbuttoning the third button, your hand gently brushes against her breast. She giggles while you look away in embarrassment. All it took was Eunbi sitting on your lap to make you forget you were mad at her for her very personal background check on you. You eventually managed to unbutton her blouse, Eunbi forming a T pose with her arms as you remove the blouse. She grabs it from you and tosses it to another side of the room.

“Holy shit” you exclaim as her breasts are now in full view. They were even bigger now that her blouse was off.

“Like what you see, baby?” Eunbi asks.

“Yes mommy, they’re wonderful” you reply, instantly fondling her right breast. She moans in response. You begin to plant a trail of soft pecks down to her collarbone.

“I know what you’re thinking. I just told you I’m not easy like Hyewon is. But the truth is, I love dick. My last boyfriend called me a sex freak from how often I wanted to do it. You may have heard of him, he’s the younger brother of Lia from Itzy. I planned on sleeping with you first, but that whore Hyewon beat me”

You wrapped your arms around Eunbi until you are able to unhook her bra. In one swift motion, her breasts are finally exposed. You resume your kisses from her collarbone, doing your best to make sure every square inch of her chest was kissed.

Eunbi removes your shirt and tie, licking her lips at the sight of your now exposed chest. She reaches down and slowly unbuckles your belt, taking it off before removing the button and zipper on your slacks. You kick your shoes off, doing the impossible task of removing your socks with just your feet. Eunbi hovers above you slightly to lower your slacks to your ankles. She was now sitting on your thighs, grabbing onto your boxers and reaching inside.

“Tell me, baby. What have you thought about doing to my body?” Eunbi asks, gliding her thumb across your cheek while her other hand begins to stroke you. “Choose your words carefully”

You never were good at expressing yourself. All the women you’ve been with were the ones to express their feelings for you first. And almost all of them involved alcohol induced one night stands that developed into a relationship.

“I thought about spending days in bed with you having slow, passionate sex” you reply, sticking a finger inside her already wet crotch. Eunbi moans once again, squatting temporarily so that she could remove your boxers and slacks before removing the last remaining article of clothing on either of your bodies: her panties.

You lay down fully on the couch as Eunbi’s body is on top of yours. She cups your face, her warm delicate hands giving you a sense of relief. Her gentle breaths cause a tickling sensation on your lips, the aroma of cool mint lingering in the air. She grabs onto her ponytail and removes the scrunchie holding onto it, her voluminous hair covering you both as she silently pushed her body against yours, grinding both of your crotches together.

“Have you and Hyewon… been using protection?”

“No” you reply. “Hyewon hates condoms and I prefer to have raw sex anyways”

Eunbi’s mouth quivers as she wants to moan again, feeling your erection on her butt. She licks her lips before speaking again.

“Good. I hate condoms too, if I’m going to get fucked, I want to feel all of it in me. Bonus points if we get to cum simultaneously”

“So you just want a boy toy?” You asked, lightly brushing your lips against hers.

“It looks that way doesn’t it? I do want a boyfriend, but with how the company’s been lately, there’s not enough time to be dating. Casual sex makes things easier”

Eunbi brings you in for another light kiss, using this to her advantage to switch your positions so that you were now on top of her. She wraps her legs around your hips, pulling you closer to her.

“Is Hyewon prettier than I am?” She whispers quietly.

“You’re the prettiest, Mommy” You say into her ear.

“Ah~” she weakly says as you kiss her a bit harder this time, gently sucking on her neck.

“She’s so lucky… getting to feel these big, heavy balls unload inside her constantly” Eunbi’s hand made her way down, cupping your sack as you tease her.

You both look at each other face-to-face, her eyes carrying all of the emotions she has been harboring. She wrapped you around her body, you were powerless but at the same time embraced by her warmth. Perhaps it was because she was a bit more emotional than Hyewon. Eunbi’s body was on par with Jiwon’s as both were in the top two of sexual partner’s you’ve seen naked.

While she was patiently waiting for you to answer, you chose to instead smile at her. You kissed her slowly, sensually. Your tongues brushed against each other as she resumed grinding both of you together.

“Now, it’s mommy’s turn” you said, pressing your forehead against hers as your breaths started to become more shallow. You slowly began to run your fingers from her chest down to her stomach.

Eunbi moaned softly as your hand went down further and inserted a finger inside her. “Are you just going to tease mommy?” She asks in a serious tone.

“No” you reply, planting a kiss on her lips. “If you really want to do this, I’ll help you”

“Baby…”

“Hmm?”

“You’re crazy… wanting to fuck your boss in the workplace”

“It’s not like I haven’t had sex in the workplace before. Plus who wouldn’t, with a body like yours” you said, fixing a strand of her that fell over her beautiful face before kissing her again.

Eunbi deepened the kiss, soft little moans could be heard escaping her mouth as she placed her hand on top of yours which was at her core. She held onto another finger and inserted it.

“Mommy is so wet” you said after briefly disconnecting your mouths from each other.

“You made me this way. Do you know how wet I got reviewing the footage of you fucking that slut?” She said while breathing heavily. “I was so turned on, imagining it was me in that position instead of her”

You used your fingers and gave several, short shallow strokes as you spread her wetness in a circular motion. Her body reacted by slightly arching upwards. You smile at her, pecking her lips and continuing to move your fingers back and forth.

“Are you sure you won’t regret this?” You asked her.

“I could never. Mommy gets what mommy wants, and right now mommy wants you to fuck her” she replied as her walls began sucking your fingers in. You continued to finger her slowly, rubbing the bottom of her clit with your palm. Eunbi moaned louder as she managed to find your cock and began to stroke it.

“You’re so hard for mommy” she says, squirming as your fingers moved in and out repeatedly. Eunbi was beginning to struggle to keep her eyes open.

“There’s one thing I do regret though” you say to her.

“What is it?” She asked, rubbing her thumb along your tip.

“W-what do you regret, baby?” She pleaded as you finally remove your fingers from inside her. The cool air from the air conditioner hitting the surface of your skin which was now coated with her juices.

“I get turned on when a woman takes control” you whispered, putting your fingers into your mouth.

Eunbi moaned quietly, immediately grabbing hold of your body and turning you around, pushing you roughly into the couch. You were briefly surprised by her abruptness, but even more turned on knowing what was about to happen. Her lips collided with yours violently, sucking on almost every part of your mouth. Her gaze changed, she looked like a rabid predator feasting its eyes on their prey. You thought she was about to rip you apart with how focused she was.

Her body hovered above yours as she was still on top of you, her thighs cradling the sides of your hips. You were trapped in her spell, and Eunbi knew this. The sweet smell of her strawberry lotion was causing you to go crazy. Her stare was dangerously seductive, piercing your soul with invisible daggers.

“This will feel good… for both of us” she said. Your hands make their way down to her hips, sliding underneath her as you squeeze her butt, causing her to yelp.

Eunbi stroked your cock several more times before lining it up with her pussy. She slowly lowers herself, slipping your cock inside her. She moaned heavily, as she sunk herself gradually deeper.

“Fuck…” you both say.

“That feels so good, mommy” you said once your cock is fully inside Eunbi.

“Ahh… it feels so good baby”

Her warm walls squeezed you tightly as she held onto your chest, slowly rocking her body back and forth.

“Your pussy feels amazing, mommy” you said, watching as her breasts bounced hypnotically, jiggling each time she went down your shaft.

“Do you like them?” She moaned, closing her eyes. “Do you like watching my tits bounce as I ride you?”

“I love them, I want to play with them everyday”

“Babe!” She giggled, hitting your chest softly. “If you fuck me every night, they’re all yours” she said, swallowing hard.

You were quite happy having Hyewon as your girlfriend, but the thought of being able to fuck Eunbi everyday turned you on even more. You began to fuck Eunbi harder, thrusting upward. She screamed loudly, spreading her legs wider as you tried your best to go inside her as deep as you could go.

“Yes! Yes! Fuck me harder, baby!” She cried repeatedly.

You grabbed her hands and removed them from your chest, intertwining her fingers with yours as you returned control of her riding you.

“You feel so much tighter than Hyewon, mommy”

Eunbi removes her hands from yours as she places them back on your chest, fucking you faster than before, moaning incoherent words.

“Oops” you were trying to tease her, but Eunbi impaling herself on your cock was proving to be too much. “Is mommy upset I mentioned Hyewon’s name?”

She ignores you as the sounds of your pelvis hitting her ass filled up the room. It was strangely satisfying, her loud moans mixed with the all too familiar squelching sounds of intercourse.

“You’re riding me so rough, mommy. Is that all I have to do to turn you on? Mention my own girlfriend’s name?”

“Shut up” she said, slapping your face.

"Oh my god-"

You roughly held onto her hips, embracing the feeling of being inside her. She dipped her head back, anticipating what was next.

Just then the phone on Eunbi's desk rings, causing both of you to stop and look at it. You pout at her as she giggles, pecking you on the lips before getting off. You both moan, immediately missing the feeling of being inside her.

She composed herself, regulating her breathing before answering.

"Yes?"

"Boss, Ms. Kang has just returned from her lunch. Should I send her in?"

“Right away, please” Eunbi replies, still a bit out of breath.

She removes her finger from the buzzer and looks back at you with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

“Hyewon’s coming here? I have to leave!” You exclaim, quickly getting up and looking for your scattered clothes on the ground.

“You’re not going anywhere. I still haven’t made you cum” Eunbi growls, her voice laced with anger.

“But boss-“

A slap across the face is what greets you. “I told you to call me mommy when we are alone”

Eunbi kneels down and you tilt your head back as you feel her lips wrapping themselves around your cock. She moaned as she took all of you in her mouth.

“M-mommy, please” you groaned. “That feels so good… so, so good…”

She continued sucking your cock furiously, gripping onto your thighs for support while her tongue was twirling around your shaft. You could feel yourself reaching your limit. The orgasm was building inside you, ready to explode at any moment.

“I’m going to cum soon, mommy” you say to her, running your fingers delicately through her hair.

“Cum in my mouth” was all she says to you.

“It’s c-coming. I can’t hold it” you moaned loudly as she jerked you off roughly while wrapping her lips once more onto your cock.

You both fail to hear the door being opened.

“You wanted to see me, boss-“

Your vision went blurry. All you could see and feel was Eunbi sucking the cum out of you as you exploded into her mouth with long pulses, each sending an indescribable sensation that could be felt from your head to your toes.

“Oh my god…” you weakly blurt out, feeling like Eunbi just took your life force.

You held onto her head, bobbing it several more times. She opened her mouth and showed your creamy white present for her. With a twinkle in her eyes, she tilted her head upwards slightly and swallowed it all in two gulps, opening her mouth up once more to show you nothing was left. She licked up every possible remaining drop.

“That was hot, right?” She asked you as she stroked your cock several more times. “I told you casual sex makes everything easier”

“Oppa?”

You froze, knowing all too well whose voice it belonged to. Timidly, you turn around and find Hyewon looking at you both in shock.

“Hi love, I was just taking your dear boyfriend here out for a test run” Eunbi says to her with a warm smile. You don’t know how she could be so brazen after what you two just did.

“Is this true oppa?” Hyewon’s words making you feel guilty about what you have just done.

“Hyewon, I-“

“Unnie, you promised you’d stay away from him! This isn’t the first time you’ve taken a man away from me”

Not the first time? You wonder.

“Oh please, that manwhore you used to date just wanted to get his dick wet. He didn’t even fuck good” Eunbi replies.

“How was she, oppa?” Hyewon asks.

“What?”

“How was Eunbi unnie? Was she better than I am?”

Both pairs of eyes are now looking at you.

“Well, there’s only one way to settle this” Eunbi chimes in. “Both of us are going to have sex with him”

“What?” “Unnie!”

“What? One of the conditions you requested was there be a man in our department. I hired one and did everything in my power to make sure you two would end up together. Although I wanted to sleep with him first…” Eunbi trails off.

“Is this true, babe? You want us to have a threesome with our boss?” You asked Hyewon, her face turning a strawberry shade of red as she hides behind your naked body.

“Your girlfriend is not as innocent as she looks…”

You kiss Hyewon softly on the lips, the sweet taste of cake still lingering on her skin.

“Wait, why are you kissing her?” Eunbi pulls you away from Hyewon, smacking her butt while doing so.

“I can’t kiss my girlfriend?”

“She was my girlfriend before you” Eunbi replies as she strips off all of Hyewon’s clothing, leaving her in only a matching set of black bra and panties. She reaches inside Hyewon’s panties and gently rubs her clit, causing her to moan immediately. “See how wet she is for me?”

Hyewon shook her head at you. “Baby… I’m not…”

“Tsk, tsk. You know better than to lie to your sweet boyfriend. I’m going to prove to him how much of a slut you are…” she replied, kissing Hyewon sweetly from her neck to her shoulder.

“I-I’m not… ahh”

“You keep saying you aren’t and yet here you are, dripping wet. Slut”

“S-stop, please. I really like him unnie”

Eunbi smirks at you and lets go of her hold on Hyewon, pushing her back to you.

“Wonyoung, please clear my schedule for the whole day. A client of ours wants to discuss something important and it seems like it’ll take up a lot of my time” Eunbi says.

“Yes, boss”

Eunbi looks up and smiles, seeing you and Hyewon crash your lips into each other. Hyewon was grabbing onto your face fiercely, pulling you into her as if she was trying to suck your soul away.

“I love you, babe. I love you so, so much, you know that right?” She whimpers weakly to you.

“Are you two going to keep sucking faces or are we going to fuck?” Eunbi says in a slightly annoyed tone.

“Let’s show her how good you fuck me” Hyewon says, pecking you on the lips once more.

You go back to the couch and lay down. Eunbi helps Hyewon remove her bra and panties before they go to the couch and pounce on you.

Eunbi’s lips reconnect with yours. The ever so subtle taste of mint was still in her mouth, even after swallowing your cum. Her lips were less plump than Hyewon’s. The pink lip gloss she had freshly applied before the meeting was now on your cock, though you had to admit you enjoyed her thinner, slightly firmer lips. You had lusted after your boss for so long and now here she was, seemingly throwing herself at you.

Hyewon on the other hand, snuck underneath you both and was now between your legs. “Babe, you’re so fucking hard… You’re so hard for Eunbi unnie”

“N-no, I’m hard for you” you said, breaking free from Eunbi’s lips momentarily.

Hyewon smiled and slowly started to stroke you.

“It’s okay honey, you don’t have to lie. I would be hard for unnie too. Look at her body”

“Are you not going to touch mommy? Hyewon has you everyday, you can touch her whenever you want” Eunbi said, a hint of desperation and jealousy in her voice.

“Ugh, you’re doing the whole mommy thing again? Unnie, not every guy has a mommy kink” Hyewon said as she spit on your cock.

“Kwon Eunbi is my mommy”

Both of them stop what they are doing and stare at you. Eunbi was very pleased to hear this, while Hyewon was continuing to stroke you with a confused look on her face.

“Well then let me show you how your mommy likes to be touched” Hyewon gets up and tilts Eunbi’s head capturing her lips from behind. She grabs a handful of her tits, causing Eunbi to moan in Hyewon’s mouth. With her other hand, she gently caresses her back until she reaches Eunbi’s butt and squeezing it.

“Now it’s your turn” Hyewon said, winking at you as she sits on one side of the couch observing the both of you.

Eunbi looked at you with such a seductive gaze, biting her lips at the thought of being touched by you.

“Come on, baby” she said, guiding your hand to her breast. “Show your girlfriend how much you appreciate mommy’s body”

You squeeze both of her breasts, flicking her sensitive nipples before grabbing onto her hips. You part Eunbi’s legs, kissing her inner thighs before carefully making your way towards the center. Eunbi was beginning to leak from how aroused you were making her.

“I’m so wet right now…” she moans, holding onto your hair.

You hold onto her thighs for support as you gently swirl your tongue up and down the creases of her thighs. You finally make your way to her crotch after being satisfied teasing her, pressing your face against it and feeling the warmth of her lips. Eunbi holds onto your hair and pushes you into her pussy roughly. You inhaled her sweet, intoxicating aroma.

“Mommy smells so good” you breathe onto her.

You rub the outline of her pussy with your tongue, feeling the folds of her lips. You pucker your lips over her clit, kissing it sensually.

“Ahh…”

You continue kissing her pussy. Eunbi became needier, gripping onto your hair roughly. “Oh my god, baby…” she opens her legs wider and starts grinding her pussy against your mouth in a circular motion.

“I can’t let unnie have all the fun” Hyewon said, not wanting Eunbi to show her up in front of her own boyfriend.

“Hyewon, his mouth feels so good” Eunbi moaned above you, continuing to rub her pussy lips back and forth. If you were to die right now from eating Eunbi’s pussy, well that would be one of the best ways to go out you thought to yourself.

“Fuck…” you moaned due to your mouth being stuffed.

Your body was starting to go numb, lightheaded from pleasure coursing through your body as you soon realize that while Eunbi was riding your face, Hyewon’s mouth was tugging on your cock below.

“Touch me” Eunbi moaned, grabbing both of your hands and forcing them onto her ridiculously soft breasts.

“And you called me the slut” Hyewon said in a not too loud whisper, jerking you.

“What can I say, we have good taste in men”

“We?”

“Yes, we. He may be your boyfriend but he wouldn’t have been if I didn’t hire him. He deserves to be my boyfriend just as much as yours”

“Holy shit, he feels so good…” Eunbi exclaims as she guides your hands on her breasts. “He really knows how to use his mouth”

You continued to lick and suck her folds, savoring the unique taste of a pussy that wasn’t Hyewon’s. Eunbi squirmed above you, moaning loudly without any real substance. Eventually her body tired out, dropping all of her weight on your face. Her pussy began overflowing in your mouth.

“Mmm… mmm…” she cried, holding onto the sofa for support. You regretfully remove your hands from her tits and place them back onto her waist, slurping up her delicious juices, occasionally blowing cold air into her pussy lips.

“Why does this feel so good” she moaned.

“You’re such a slut, unnie. Suffocating my boyfriend with your used pussy” Hyewon said to her after releasing your saliva covered shaft from her mouth.

“You’re one to talk! I’m not the one who fucked four guys in the restroom”

“I only fucked two of them! The other two came in my mouth when I was giving head”

Eunbi finally removes herself from your face, giving you a rather aggressive kiss as a thank you for pleasing her. She goes next to Hyewon and pulls her in, making Hyewon taste her juices. The two of them then use their tongues as they being sliding up and down your length repeatedly. Both of them giggle while making eye contact with you.

Eunbi and Hyewon formed a tag team, taking turns sucking your cock while the other would suck your balls and vice versa. Them doing so at the same time allowed you to observe the differences: while Eunbi was rough and messy, Hyewon was sensual and soft.

“He would’ve cum by now, especially since it’s now two mouths pleasuring him” Hyewon whined.

“He came in my mouth when you first entered, remember? What can I say, mommy has that effect on people. You should know, you’ve eaten mommy out several times” Eunbi replied. “ Although I will say I’ve never swallowed that much cum before”

Your eyes were closed at this point but you immediately knew who it was when you felt a pair of lips sucking you faster and faster - Eunbi. You reached down and managed to find her head, gripping onto it as you pushed her down. Eunbi loved you ravaging her mouth, gargling on your cock inside her throat while Hyewon was sucking on your balls, gently.

The two of them orally assaulting you was proving to be too much, you could feel yourself ready to burst.

“He’s about to cum” Hyewon said as she released her suction grip on your balls. “You better not swallow this load”

Eunbi’s body was already tense, she began rubbing her clit in excitement. “I can feel my own orgasm too”

Hyewon tries removing Eunbi from your cock but it becomes futile as your orgasm finally arrives. You push Eunbi’s head down as you thrust upwards. This triggers Eunbi’s own orgasm, her love nectar spilling all over the sofa.

“Unnie you selfish whore! You’ve swallowed his cum twice now!”

“And his loads were yummy. Thanks for making mommy feel good, baby” Eunbi says to you as she kisses your cock.

Hyewon sulked and turned around, her back facing you and Eunbi.

“Babe, are you mad?” You asked her.

Hyewon ignored you and sighed deeply, getting up and looking for her clothes. You got up and grabbed onto her wrist gently.

“Babe…”

“Let go of me” she replied, pushing you away from her.

“Awh, is my little kwangbae sad mommy swallowed her boyfriend’s load?” Eunbi teased from behind. “Don’t mind her, baby. She’s always mad whenever she tells you to do something and you don’t listen. I never mind it though, she’s hot when she’s mad”

“Baby, I’m sorry. I heard you say she shouldn’t swallow my load. But her blowjob was so good…”

“So she sucks your dick better than I do?” Hyewon replies.

“What I meant to say was-“

“Calm down you whore. Just because you’re good at fucking doesn’t mean you’re good at everything. That’s now two of your boyfriends who said I give better head”

“Psh, whatever. Just cause your tits can engulf his dick better than mine can”

“Show mommy how your boyfriend likes to get fucked, Kwangbae. I’ll put these big tits to good use and smother him”

Hyewon’s head dipped backwards slightly as Eunbi inserted her fingers into her pussy. “Look at how wet you are for mommy”

“Mommy, ah- please”

Eunbi began sliding her fingers inside rather aggressively as she took Hyewon’s mouth into her own. “You’re pretending to be mad at us and yet you’re practically soaked. Stop being petty that you’re not the best at giving blowjobs. Just cause I can use my mouth better and get your boyfriend off when I suck his cock doesn’t automatically mean I’m a better fuck. Even though I am”

“Ahh… shut up, unnie”

“You whore. Are you wet at me touching you? Or the thought of knowing your boyfriend likes when I suck his dick”

“Baby, make this whore’s ego feel better and fuck her please? Show her just how much of a slut she is while she eats my pussy”

You pull on Hyewon’s folds gently, brushing the surface of it with your tongue across her clit at a slow, agonizing pace. She moans, wanting to push your face into her.

You get up and kneel behind her, doing your best to clear your thoughts as you position yourself. You push the head of your cock in, Hyewon was so drenched that you had no difficulty slipping inside her.

“Babe, your pussy is squeezing my cock so hard” You said, smacking her ass.

“Ahhh!” Hyewon moaned.

You began to pump her deep, her walls painfully continuing their death grip on your cock. Her pussy sucked you in like she was using her mouth instead. You wondered how it was possible to be even tighter than usual. Was it because you were both sharing the experience with someone else? After several thrusts, you got used to her walls and were able to effortlessly move inside, burying your cock inside her warm cavern.

“Oh god…” Eunbi moaned loudly as Hyewon’s face was now buried in her pussy. Eunbi spread her legs apart widely, moaning from Hyewon tongefucking her clit. She grabbed onto the wonderful chestnut brown hair, pushing her face deeper.

You held onto Hyewon’s ass, fondling it for several seconds as you watch it jiggle back and forth with each smack of your hand. Her butt was smaller than Eunbi’s but that didn’t bother you at all. You wanted to taste Eunbi again, but Hyewon’s tight pussy wrapping around your cock was too good to pull out of. Small streams of her juices began to leak out, staining both of your thighs and dripping onto your balls with each thrust. Hyewon continued to stifle out muffled moans as you increased the frequency of each slap on her ass.

“Fuck that slutty pussy, baby” Eunbi yelled. “Show this whore how you felt when mommy rode you”

“Stop talking” you reply to her “You’re both whores who need to be punished”

“Then prove it, baby. Prove to us why we’re whores for your cock. Show us why we don’t need any other man”

You thrust into Hyewon several more times before finally pulling out. Hyewon removes her face from Eunbi’s pussy, looking back at you and pouting. You pay no attention to her and flip Eunbi’s body over. You are now greeted with both women on all fours in front of you.

You take Eunbi’s words of advice and bury your cock inside her. You go on alternating between the two, both women screaming in pleasure as you fuck both of them.

“Just admit you like fucking mommy’s pussy, baby. I told you you’d get to fuck me every night if you do” Eunbi yelled, her voice shaking from how roughly you were thrusting into her.

You pay no attention to her as you fuck each woman from behind. You were a sweaty mess from how long you and Eunbi had been going at it, the air conditioner was useless at cooling the steamy environment in her office. While you were able to observe the difference in their blowjob techniques earlier, now you made notes of their bodies. Hyewon’s body and pussy were tighter, her ass and tits were noticeably smaller than Eunbi’s. Where Eunbi was lacking in having a tight pussy, she more than made up for with her chest and meaty thighs, visually pleasing to the eye. There was just something about Eunbi’s body that made you prefer it more than Hyewon’s. You thought about being able to fuck Eunbi every single day for the rest of your life, never pulling out and planting your seed inside her body.

“I take it you chose mommy instead of this whore?” Eunbi asked after a high pitched scream.

“Shut the fuck up, slut. Just take the pounding and be quiet!” Hyewon cried, her voice cracking slightly.

“Mommy wasn’t asking you!” Eunbi replied, kissing Hyewon roughly.

You continued thrusting into Eunbi fast and hard, causing her to scream in such a loud volume that it echoed throughout the office. Hopefully no one is nearby to hear.

“Answer me!” Eunbi yelled, squeezing her tits as she continued to moan.

“Don’t! Just cum inside one of us and that’ll be your-ah-answer!” Hyewon moaned while gripping onto the sofa.

“You just want him to cum inside you, whore! Baby, you better cum inside mommy. Who knows how many loads of yours have already been inside her!”

You were currently inside Hyewon, slowly removing yourself from her in order to enter Eunbi once more. Hyewon pushed her body backwards onto your cock. “No! Don’t fuck that slut yet, keep fucking me”

“You bitch!” Eunbi yelled as she squeezed Hyewon’s tits so hard my body reacted to it.

You really wanted to pull out and cum inside Eunbi, but listened to your girlfriend and kept going.

“Fuck! That feels so good… so good…”

“Whore” Eunbi snarled.

You spanked Eunbi as hard as you could, immediately pulling out of Hyewon and entering her. She was surprised by the sudden intrusion as you continued slapping her ass.

“Stop calling my girlfriend a whore, you slut” You growled.

“Bab-“

You slapped her ass again. And then slapped it again.

“Your whore pussy feels so good” you yelled.

“Baby!” Hyewon and Eunbi yell at the same time.

You grabbed onto Eunbi’s hair, yanking it roughly as you continue fucking her from behind. Your other hand fondles her tits as they clap from your violent thrusts. Hyewon got up and began rubbing Eunbi’s clit, her hands occasionally brushing against the underside of your cock. A symphony of screams and moans rang through your ears as Eunbi’s orgasm arrived: her walls constricting your cock as she groaned through the pleasure.

Hyewon captured Eunbi’s lips, both of them moaning in each other’s mouths as their tongues fought for control over the other.

It was too late to announce that your orgasm arrived, but Eunbi knew. She felt your cock swell inside her as you released your seed. You throbbed, thrusting several times as what little cum you had left was deposited into Eunbi.

Hyewon breaks the kiss and removes Eunbi from your body. All three of you are breathing heavily. Eunbi’s breasts rose up as she struggled to catch her breath, her body drenched in sweat.

“Babe” Hyewon asked, crawling upwards before laying down next to you. “Did you cum inside her?”

“Yeah” you replied, giving her a kiss. “Are you mad?”

“Of course not. I could never be mad at you. I’m glad you did, she’s been stressed for awhile” she said, giving you a sweet smile before pulling you in for another kiss.

“That was so crazy” You replied, still trying to catch your breath. “Who knew threesomes could be so intense”

“Don’t get too used to it, baby. You are my boyfriend after all. But I will allow you to fuck Eunbi unnie whenever you or her want” Hyewon laughed.

You kiss her one more time as her fingers wrapped themselves around your cock, trying to get you back to full erection. You both hear a noise and look over to see that Eunbi has fallen asleep, exhausted from the activities that just took place.

“I have to get back to work. But keep fucking her brains out when she wakes up”

A young woman is walking home after an extremely long day at her company. The alleyway to her apartment was dimly lit, the overhead light burned out a few weeks ago and the city has yet to come by and fix it. As she approaches the front lobby, a bag is draped over her head as three men grab her and toss her into an unmarked van, driving away.

A new morning has arrived and you are heading to the elevator as Hyewon clings onto your arm. You hold onto her coffee as she fixes her bow before giving you a kiss. When the elevator finally reaches your floor, you’re immediately greeted by Sakura’s mischievous smirk. Word spread quickly about your afternoon meeting with Chief Kwon and Hyewon. Everyone else in the room had the same expression as Sakura, causing you to cover your face in embarrassment and Hyewon hiding behind you. Eunbi enters and quickly captures your lips in front of everyone. She pulls away and does the same to Hyewon.

“I trust you both are well rested after yesterday’s… meeting?” She asks you, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, we are… mommy” you replied into her ear.

She laughs as she hits your chest playfully.

“Oppa, there’s a letter addressed to you” Wonyoung said.

“Who’s it from?”

“No clue. Just that it was shipped priority”

“I wonder where Yujin is, she’s never late to work you” thought to yourself.

The three of you reach your desk and find the mysterious letter. It was a plain white envelope, only containing IZ*ONE Company’s address and that it be delivered to the only male in the marketing division, that being you.

You open it and examine the letter.

If you want to see Ahn Yujin alive again come to the abandoned tower across town tonight. Alone. If you call the police, she dies. If anyone else comes besides you, she dies.

Your hands shake while holding the piece of paper. Hyewon and Eunbi’s eyes widen as they read the letter. The rest of your coworkers have worried expressions on their faces from seeing how the three of you reacted.

“What do we do?” Hyewon asks.

“Get a hold of the police. Hurry!” Eunbi yells.

Everyone quickly gathers around Hyewon and Eunbi as they read the letter. The peaceful morning a few minutes ago has now become chaotic. You try to compose yourself, your hands shaking even more with each press of the button.

Come on, come on. You mutter to yourself.

After three agonizingly long rings, the call connects.

“Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Starship Precinct. This is Kim Jiyeon, how may I help you?”

#kpop smut #kpop fanfic #izone smut #izone eunbi smut #kwon eunbi #kang hyewon #male reader #reader insert

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johnkrrasinski · 4 years

Text

So It Goes...

full masterlist

Pairings: Rock star/Bassist!Bucky Barnes x female!reader (AU)

Word count: 7,149

Warning: fluff, SMUT! but mostly just me falling in love with bucky, really.

Summary: natasha romanoff aka your annoying roommate coerced you into the howling commando’s live performance at a divebar near your dorm. little did you know, it was going to lead you to the man of your dreams aka the charming rock star boy/bassist, james buchanan barnes.

a/n: this one’s written for @sourpatchkidsandacokecan‘s “Little Darlin’s Mysteru AU” challenge. i chose band/rockstar au. here’s another love letter to bucky barnes because i love that man with my entire heart and every fic that i write about him is basically just me expressing my deep affection for this man. hope you guys enjoy this one cause i certainly do! also, rock star/boy band bucky is such a concept omg i’m in love

You laid in your twin-sized bed as you heard the chirping sounds of the birds outside of your window. They were singing cheerily as if they knew what you were feeling and they were celebrating with you. It felt like you were in a Disney movie that you used to obsess over as a kid, where you are the lovestruck princess because you just met a handsome prince who swept you off your feet at first sight.

The birds outside of your window are your animal pals who swoon over you swooning and they spontaneously harmonize and dance to this newfound joy. You couldn’t resist the smile taking over your face. It was too early for you to be awake on a Saturday morning. You were always up by 10 AM. No more, no less. But it was currently 8.45 AM and you still had at least one more hour to get up and be productive.

But not today. Today, you were going to welcome this exhilarating sensation in your bones, and you were going to savour every second of it. Because you couldn’t shake away those baby blue eyes and that suave, boyish charm. The way, they electrified you by first glance and made you tremble when those pupils dilated. You could still feel the way his soft, plump lips hypnotized you last night. And the raunchy way he held you at the bar.

Even when all was said and done, he found a way to haunt you in your dreams.

And you didn’t mind one bit.

You were currently in the middle of a crisis due to your upcoming final week. If there’s any word to describe you as a college student, it would be ambitious. The idea of failing or getting less than B+ makes you go ballistic. You were an active student. You joined multiple organizations that expanded your social life. You got along with mostly everyone in your classes and you had your professors’ respect too for your excellent grades and polite manners.

But your lack of dating life irked no one else more than your roommate, Natasha. You loved Natasha with your entire heart, really. She was like a sister to you. You were an only child so you cherished her older sister role in your life. She was, in fact, several months older than you and she always protected you like her own. Starting from the asshole that broke your heart in high school, despite only knowing him through your story, to incessantly pushing you to stop being such a nerd and have more fun.

Natasha was the kind of woman you don’t wanna mess with. She was loyal, brave and quick-witted. She knows how to keep her GPA high, whilst also maintaining a fun social life. She managed to do it all so effortlessly.

“C’mon, y/n! Just one night! You need to let loose and release all tension on your shoulders, baby. It’s good for your brain before finals start!”

“Noooo, Nat. Rock bands are not my thing and I’d have a higher chance of acing the tests if I study now, okay? Just go. Have fun without me and tell me how it goes.”

“But my boyfriend’s performing, y/n. And I want you to meet him! I promise they are really good. Even if you're not into the music, you can still go for the drinks, right? Also, they’ve got other cute members available so, you might find your own rock band boyfriend too if you go.” She winked. Her smirk was menacing.

“Ugh, I’m not interested in finding a boyfriend, Nat.”

“I know, but wouldn’t hurt if you do, right? Then we can go on double dates and have them write songs about us. Oh God, it’s going to be awesome.”

“Whoa, slow down. I haven’t even learned their names, yet and we are already discussing double dates?”

“Alright, let’s just start with putting on your sexy clothes and meet them yourself. Then we can move onto picking one gorgeous beast for you.”

“What makes you even think that they’d be interested in me?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, y/n. Have you never owned a mirror? You are a total babe. You just need to get yourself more action.”

“Ugh, I don’t know, Nat…”

“You are going. And I’m not leaving until you get up and put on something cool. I have patience, baby and I’m going to annoy you all night if you stay. What do you prefer? Going out and have fun and meet some cute boys or me annoying you all night so you can’t study productively.” She glared at you. Her tone indicated that there was no compromise.

“Alright, I’m going. But that’s only because I wanna meet your boyfriend, alright? Not because I wanna find a boyfriend or whatever stupid shit you’re thinking.”

“Yay!” She jumped in excitement. Her face was content with joy and satisfaction from succeeding in persuading you. “Alright, let’s dig through your clothes.” She started rummaging your shared closet and observed meticulously each one of your outfits. “Hmm… Let’s try this one!” She picked up a strapless black sequin dress that you hadn’t worn in forever. You didn’t even remember packing it up in your baggage and brought it with you to your dorm.

You began stripping yourself out of your oversized hoodie and high-waisted shorts. You didn’t feel embarrassed changing in front of Natasha, you had seen each other naked many times. You were roommates after all and sometimes, you just had to be comfortable with the fact that you had private body parts underneath and within the course of four years, eventually, you had to get used to flashing one another at some point.

You put it on as you started to feel a little uncomfortable. You weren’t used to wearing skimpy dresses. Already wearing it for less than three minutes, you were constantly lifting the hem of the dress to prevent it from exposing your boobs and revealing your inner thighs. And the material felt itchy on your skin too. “Nat, I’m not sure about this. Let’s just wear a leather jacket and jeans.”

“Nonsense! You look bomb! Give your leather jacket and jeans a break, alright? Okay, turn around so I can see your behind.”

You twirled as she said, restlessly.

Tonight was going to be a longspun night…

The air felt crisp against your skin, as the breeze swept through your freshly curled hair, causing a few strands shading your sight. You struggled to walk steadily in your 7-inch heels that belonged to Natasha because you didn’t have a pair of your own. You were cool with wearing ankle boots pairing them with a sparkly dress. But Natasha didn’t think it was a cute look.

“What? Boots and dresses don’t go along, honey. Oh my, you need a serious makeover!” She was derailed.

You eventually settled with a silk red dress with a seductively low cleavage on the front, exposing the globes of your breasts. You were already as uncomfortable as it is, this dress didn’t make it any easier to act normal.

So you had to endure walking in these deadly shoes of torture, whilst clad in nothing but a scanty material with makeup painting your entire face. Great. What had you gotten yourself into? Damn you, Natasha.

You and Nat were walking arm in arm to the bar where “The Howling Commandos” were performing. That’s the name of the band that Natasha’s boyfriend was in. They have been a group for 5 years now, they had been doing this since they were in high school. Clint and the rest of the members were several years older than you and Nat. As soon as they graduated, they decided that they wanted to keep making music rather than working mundane, dead-end jobs.

Yep, Natasha told you that much.

Clint and Nat had been dating for two years now. They rarely saw each other due to the band’s packed schedule. Although, they would FaceTime each other every night, talking about each other’s days. You heard it all, from their most disgustingly adorable flirtations, to the most inappropriate, not so PG-13 confession.

They would literally pretend to smooch one another through the screen when you were doing your homework or when you had your nose deep in a book. You’d try to cover your ears by putting on your earbuds and turning up the volume so you could give them privacy but also, you didn’t wanna hear them talking about what they wanted to do to each other if both of them were here.

You knew Clint well enough to not feel like you were meeting a complete stranger. Natasha would often tell you to say hi to him and she had told you a lot of wonderful things to Clint. Clint would often talk about the band too on the phone, how someone called “Bucky” would piss him off by stealing his leftover sandwich. Or someone called “Sam” would often interrupt their chat by reminding him that it was soundcheck time.

“I gotta go, babe. Sammy’s not gonna stop yelling.”

“Aw, okay, tell the boys I say hi! Love you.”

“Love you too, baby.”

It’s like a daily podcast for you every night.

The dive bar where The Howling Commandos were performing thankfully wasn’t that far from your dorm. Natasha was super thrilled when Clint told them that they were going to perform here. They were finally able to see each other after a while, and because this was going to be their last gig until they come back with a new album, he said he was going to stay and spend some time with Nat.

You were happy for both of them. You’d never say it out loud but, a part of you was secretly jealous of their love. They managed to maintain such a fun, loving, and healthy relationship despite the distance and differences. Natasha once told you that she was never one to settle with a man for too long but, Clint changed the game for her. You smiled at the thought. They were genuinely in love. If you were to find yourself a boyfriend, you wanted the type of love that they had.

But not tonight. You were okay with being single. Just because a part of you wanted what Clint & Nat had, doesn’t mean that you actually need it or you’d die. You were too much of a goal-oriented person to be chasing over something that should come naturally. You had grown so comfortable in being alone, that you stopped desiring love so much. It wasn’t getting you anywhere. So you lived your life, being grateful for your friends and family. You invested your time in your education and passion. You were content.

When you arrived at the bar, the room was full with a crowd. You walked in with Natasha trying to make a space for yourself so you could walk through them. You could barely anything else due to the number of bodies blocking your view. Natasha held your hand as she took the lead and fought through the crowd to get to the front, where she could get the best view.

There was a blonde-haired woman standing on the front, so close to where the band were going to play. When Natasha slightly grazed her whilst trying to stand next to her, she didn’t look the slightest bit happy. She glared at Natasha as Natasha noticed. She glared back at her.

“Excuse me, there’s more space in the back, maybe you can stand there instead of cutting through the line.”

“Excuse you, miss. I’m dating the band’s drummer, so I can stand wherever I want, thank you very much. If you don’t like that, then the exit is right there.” She pointed to the door of where we walked in from.

The blonde woman rolled her eyes as she folded her arms against her chest. After you stared at her reaction, you realized that you actually know her. She was in the same social science class with you. You had never really talked to her because she often sat in the back and immediately left after the class was done, but you remembered her name. Her name was Dottie Underwood. Your classmates called her Dot. The ones that she liked anyway.

You decided to stay quiet and let it pass. It’s not like she even recognized you even if you start a chat with her. You don’t think it was a good idea either since she and Nat literally just snarked at each other. You directed your sight to the stage and waited for the famous Howling Commandos to appear.

One of the spotlights turned and highlighted a man walking on stage before he talked into the microphone at the centre. “And now, ladies and gentlemen, a group of brilliant lads, that make all the ladies go feral wherever they go, and their showstopping music are going to make us sing and jump tonight. Please welcome, The Howling Commandos!”

The crowd roared with cheers, the sounds of their enthusiasm filled the atmosphere. Their claps were jovially in sync as four, drop-dead gorgeous young men stepped into the stage as their presence shifted the energy in the room.

The first one was a blonde-haired with breathtaking bone structure, forming a ridiculously handsome face. His hair shone under the spotlight like the sun amidst the clear sky. He had an amiable demeanour about him. His smile was gentle and welcoming. He waved to the crowd and stood directly behind the microphone.

The second one to walk in was a dark-skinned man with an undeniable charisma oozing out of him. He had a neatly trimmed beard that only added to his spicy appeal. His smile was radiant as he also waved the crowd. He stood on the left side of the stage, a couple of steps behind Steve who was apparently the lead singer.

The third one to walk in was Clint. He was everything Nat described him to be. Placid and nonchalant. His smile was amenable as he greeted the crowd. He walked directly to the background, where the drumset was placed. He sat down on the drummer’s chair as he picked up the sticks he was going to play with.

The last one to enter was a literal Disney prince coming to life. His prominent boyish charm completely bedazzled you. His blue eyes gleamed under the spotlight as they lingered on you for a second. He immediately shifted his gaze as he kept walking towards the right side of the stage, but you swore that when he caught you staring dumbfoundedly at him, you could see the flash of a quick smirk on his face.

He only nodded to the crowd as he confidently picked up the bass guitar that was previously placed on the floor and put on the leather straps around his neck. His eyes turned back to you as you found yourself still bluntly staring at him. Something about him just enchanted you. He had that boy-next-door charm about him but also, a bad boy persona that was irresistibly enticing.

That flash of smirk that you saw earlier resurfaced and it was getting harder for you to pay attention to anyone or anything else in the room other than him. His gaze grew more intense as the noises of the crowd faded into the background. You were lost in this lethal game of eye contact until Natasha accidentally elbowed you by screaming her lungs out to respond to the lead singer’s introduction.

“Good evening, SHIELD’s Nest! How are we feeling tonight?” The lead singer vivified the crowd. They responded with a reassuring reaction. “I’m Steve Rogers and these are my buddies,” he turned his head to the left, as he started introducing the other band members. “The handsome guy right there is Sam, and in the back, there’s Clint, our brilliant drummer boy and this ladies’ charmer right here is Bucky.” As he pointed to the magnetic man who had held your attention hostage since he first walked in.

“And we are The Howling Commandos.” He paused for a second before carrying on with his prelude. “Alright, so the first song that we’re going to play tonight is called ‘Rusted Love’. Enjoy.” Steve removed his mouth from behind the microphone and started cueing the band to play. “1,2…”

Sam and Bucky started strumming the first few notes as a few people cheered. Then Clint jumped in, flaunting his talent in mastering the drum with his sticks. The energy in the room felt more energized as people started moving a part of their bodies. Then Steve amazed the room with his sultry voice, singing the words that echoed through the Sound system of the bar.

“I’m a flying kite in a hurricane, you paralyzed me with your touch and your lips got me addicted…” Steve shut his eyes, relishing the rune. You had a feeling that those lyrics wouldn’t just stay lyrics tonight…

They played another four songs that night. The crowd danced, jumped and screamed the words to their song passionately. You, on the other hand, was probably the most tranquil person in the crowd. You didn’t really know much about the band, let alone their music. So when everyone was constantly pushing you because they were too lost in the moment, you eventually tried to get out of the crowd and sat on the bar instead. Natasha was also too lost in supporting her boyfriend, that she almost didn’t notice you leaving.

Through the vibration of the crowd and the music, you had to really lean in to get Natasha’s attention and to get her to hear you. “Nat! I’m gonna sit in the back and wait there. I’m a little thirsty.” She had a giant smile on her face due to the zest the band inflicted. “Okay!” She yelled back, then carried on with her foxy moves.

You struggled to walk through the crowd, trying to not step on anyone’s feet as you made your way to the barstool. What you didn’t notice was, Bucky’s disappointed on his face when he saw you walking out on him. He noticed that you weren’t exactly as thrilled as anyone else. Although, he noticed your stolen glances as you shied away from him when he stared back. He even tried to wink at you once but you immediately looked to the floor, hiding away your blush. He swore he saw the way your cheeks reddened. Not that he wasn’t used to getting that reaction anyway…

You exhaled a breath of relief as you finally broke out of the congested mass of people. You sat on the barstool as you ordered a glass of rum and you waited as the music still reverberated robustly in your ears. You sat there as you started looking through your Instagram. Nat’s icon was the first one to appear in the row and you clicked it to see what you were expecting. She recorded a video of the band, then zoomed in to Clint, as he was ardently drumming the beat.

She put on a heart eyes and fire emoji with the text; “that’s my man!”. The next one was her and you singing along to the second song they played that night. You were able to actually mouth the words after they played the last chorus and you were a quick learner, so you memorized the repeated words easily after the third time. You scrolled through your feed a few more minutes until your order finally arrived.

“Enjoy, miss.” The waiter winked at you. He was probably in his mid-20s, he had warm brown eyes and a sweet smile. His dark hair was slicked back as you stared a little longer than you should. He was obviously attractive, but, you didn’t say anything back to him. You just smiled back in a friendly manner and uttered silenced thanks.

After sitting by yourself for about a half and an hour, like all good things, the show must come to an end. Steve Rogers concluded the show with a final thank you and goodnight as the spotlight shut down, like the drapes closing over a theatrical show. The crowd clapped and some of them started leaving, while others immediately went to the bar to quench the thirst from screaming along to volatile rock music and jumping up and down, getting lost in the tune.

Natasha patted your back as she jumped on the empty chair next to you. Thank God, she was quick on her feet, otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to get a seat. “Hey! God, I need a full shot of whiskey right now.”

“Yeah, go crazy.”

She scoffed. “Huh. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, back there.” She signalled the bartender to make an order. “So, what do you think? That was fun, right?” The cute bartender from earlier walked to her as he asked her what would she like to drink and she quickly replied.

“Yeah, they’re pretty good.”

“Pretty good? They’re damn talented. Especially the drummer back there. He totally killed it.”

“Yeah, okay, they are amazing. But you know their music isn’t my kind of music, so can’t say I really enjoyed it that much.”

“Okay, but you must’ve at least enjoyed the view, right? Don’t think I didn’t catch you and bass boy making several eye contacts back there.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You took another sip of your glass to cover your embarrassment.

“Oh my God, you totally do! Look at you blushing!”

“I’m not!”

“Yes, you are! Admit it! You like Bucky, don’t you?” She playfully pushed you to tease you.

“Oh my God, shut up Nat! You’re causing a scene!” You tried to lower yourself, now that you’re able to speak in a normal volume.

“Nope, I won’t stop until you admit it. Don’t worry, y/n, Bucky’s always been a charmer, so I totally get your attraction.”

That caused a peculiar sickness in your chest. It’s not like you were falling in love with Bucky, no. You didn’t even know him enough to like him. He may be an eye-candy but if he’s really as “charming” as everyone is saying, then that means, he’s one of those dangerous fuckboys that you should avoid at all cost. Because that means, he’s probably only going to manipulate you into thinking that he really cares for you, when in reality, he only wanted to get in your pants. Nope, not gonna happen to you. You weren’t going to be a new notch in his belt.

“Well, then that means he is bad news and that gives me even more reason to feel anything but attraction toward him.”

“Oh, no, y/n, I don’t mean it like that. He’s really sweet, and he’s always been the most chill one in the group. Trust me, you’re gonna love him. Just, give him a chance first, alright? I’ve known him long enough to know that he’s into you.”

“Into me? Nat, he doesn’t even know my name.”

“He will.” She winked again, as she took a sip of her whiskey.

Not long after that, Clint appeared from behind, without Nat realizing. He surprised her by wrapping her waist from behind as he whispered into her ears; “how’s my best girl?” Nat was slightly stunned but as soon as she realized it was her boyfriend, her expression instantly turned into a joyful one. “Hi, baby!” They immediately smooched as she wrapped her arms around his neck while standing face to face now.

“Did you like the show?”

“I loved the show, you guys killed it as always. Oh, and by the way, this is y/n, my number one bestie and the best roommate anyone could ever ask for. Now you finally meet her in person!” Her excitement was genuine.

“Hi, y/n! Heard so many great things about you, but you probably can’t say the same, huh?”

“No, actually I can. Nat wouldn’t stop talking about you every night even when I’m blatantly ignoring her.” You joked.

“Well, is that right?” He looked at Nat to assess the truth on her face.

“Yep,” you carried on. “She would say you’re hot, funny and kind, and all these wonderful things. Including the ones that I’m not supposed to hear.”

They laughed. They kissed once more, as Clint stood next to her seat, ordering a drink for himself. Next to you, you could hear Nat saying, “oh, where are the boys? Are they not thirsty?”

“They’re just packing up, babe, they’re gonna join us in a few.”

“Good, ‘cause I think there’s someone y/n would like to meet.” She teasingly wiggled her eyebrows at you, as you sent her a murderous glare. Your lips silently mouthed, “what the fuck?” but Clint picked up her tone and he quickly got the message.

“Oooh, who is it? Is it Steve, Bucky, Sam? Just let me know which one you like and I’ll deliver them at your door tonight, y/n. They’re all single and ready to mingle anytime now.”

You laughed nervously. “No, no, no, no. Nat’s just saying shit.”

She turned her head to her boyfriend and shook it. “No, I’m not. She and Bucky practically eye fucked on stage.”

You instantly slapped her arm, staring deadly into her eyes. “Ouch!” She put her hand on the spot that you struck, even though it wasn’t even that hard. Classic Nat. Dramatic as always. “Nat, you can’t just–”

Before you even managed to finish your sentence, she darted her eyes to somewhere behind you as she pointed at whatever got her distracted. “Oh, here they are!” She smirked. She raised her eyebrows at you before she stood on her feet and hugged the anticipated men.

“Hey, guys! Killer show back there!” Nat started hugging Sam and he kissed her cheek, and then she moved onto Steve and the last one to join was Bucky. You muttered ‘shit’ to yourself as you pondered on how you should act. Should you act like nothing ever happened during the show between you two? Or were you going to address the elephant in the room, and just straight up flirt with him, now that he wasn’t being so closely watched anymore?

You didn’t know which would be the best option so you just took a big gulp and drank down the entire glass of Rum you had left. Maybe if you were less sober, you wouldn't excessively overthink. You weren’t even sure whether he was really staring at you or not. For all you knew, he could be staring at another beautiful girl in the crowd that was standing beside or behind you. And if you act impulsively now, this would be like that cheesy moment on Rom-Coms, where a girl waved back to the guy who she thought was waving at her but it turns out, he was actually waving at another girl who was coming from the same direction as her.

Nope, you weren’t going to be that girl.

So you just smiled and nodded along as Natasha introduced you to the rest of the boys. You didn’t want to be rude so you sat on your chair, facing them with an interested look, even though all you wanted to do was just shrink and leave this goddamn place.

“Hey guys, here’s my bomb-ass bestie slash roomie. Her name’s y/n! Isn’t she stunning?”

When Steve was about to offer his hand to you, Sam immediately inserted himself in front of you and Steve. “Well, hello, good-lookin’. Can I buy you a drink?” Sam, being the cool dude he was, he leaned back against the bar counter on his elbows as he shamelessly flirted with you.

“Nope, thank you. I just had one.”

“Oh, you look like you could use another one. Here, let me get that for you.” He cued the bartender to make an order and you instantly tried to stop him, telling him that it wasn't necessary, but it looks like the bartender was already taking his order for you.

And then, out of nowhere, Bucky suddenly stooped in like a hero. “Hey, Sam, why don’t you back off? This one’s mine, alright?” That elicited a questioning look out of you. “Mine?” He didn’t even know you.

“Oh wait, so this is the one you told us about in the dressing room?” What the hell? You thought. They were talking about you as if you weren’t there at all.

“Yep, so why don’t you fuck off and get out of here before I get myself drunk enough to shit on your bed?” His tone was menacing but you could tell that this was a normal, daily conversation between the two.

“Jeez, alright. I’mma leave. You don’t need to wave your dick all over my face.” Before Sam moved to another spot, he patted you on the back and said, “good luck.”

What? What the hell was that for? The bartender came in with your order and served another glass of Rum right in front of you.

“You don’t need to drink that if you don’t want to.” He carefully spoke to you, as if he was trying to not scare you away.

“No, I think I need to. Tonight’s been a pretty crazy night.” You took a sip, the cold drink felt nice on your tongue.

He chuckled. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

“Oh, how crazy can it be for you? Isn’t this like, what you do, every night?”

“Yeah, but, you never really get used to it, you know? Sometimes you just wanna sit in the bar and have a nice talk with a pretty gal and hide in the booth or something.”

That… Warmed up your heart. Damn, if this is his way of flirting, it was truly working. You could see now why everyone was calling him ‘a charmer.’ He really had a way with words. And stares. His baby blues really know how to captivate you and froze you on spot.

“I’m Bucky, by the way.” He offered his hand to shake yours.

“I’m y/n.” You shook it with a smile.

“Did you like the show?” He asked.

“Gotta be honest with you, buddy, your music isn’t exactly my kind of music. But you guys were awesome.”

He paused for a moment as if he was contemplating what he was going to say next. “Think I got a little distracted up there.”

“Oh yeah? Why is that?”

“Cause there was this pretty lady in a red dress that I couldn’t take my eyes off of.” His gaze even grew more intense now. He was looking at you like you were the only thing in the room. Then his eyes darted to your lips, as he licked his. And before you knew it, he started inching his face closer to yours as he held his gaze on your plump, painted lips, while you could feel his breath more and more as the seconds went by.

And then… His lips were on yours. It’s like the clock just stopped ticking and every noise faded into the background and you were the only two people in the room. His lips felt soft against yours, and the way he licked your bottom lip made your head spin. You ajarred your mouth to let his tongue enter as it got tangled with yours.

You were aware that Nat, Clint and Steve who were having a conversation are now watching you like hawks, but you couldn’t care less. Not when Bucky’s hands grabbed your face, so he could have more control over your mouth. You were practically out of breath by the time he looked into your eyes, that are now slightly darker than a few seconds ago. He loved the sight of you, with your lips slightly swollen.

“Let’s go somewhere more secluded.” You could only nod and then took his hand after he offered you his as you got off the stool. He led the way and you couldn’t help but notice the glances that were thrown by several women along the way. They were staring at him with incontrovertible full of hunger eyes, one even shamelessly put her hand on his shoulder, as she coquettishly smiled at him. Bucky only smiled back and nodded at her but he kept walking with you in his hand.

Even if you were practically a pair, you felt invisible. Everyone’s eyes were on you, but not precisely on you. This must’ve been something normal to him, you thought. You weren’t used to big crowds and inundated with attention, and you weren’t used with unquestionably holding a stranger’s hand and letting him take you wherever he had in mind. But you did anyway, and you weren’t having second thoughts.

Bucky led you to the cramped lavatory and locked the door. The lack of space made it even harder for you to breathe when Bucky was this close to you. He pressed his body to yours, as he kissed you once more. Slowly, but you felt the spell in your bones. “All I could think about on stage was tasting those luscious lips.”

You were spellbound by his magic. You could barely speak another word when his baby blue eyes were looking at you so intensely like that. But you gathered every cell in your body to utter the words anyway, “do it again, then.” You boldly challenged him.

He grinned a Cheshire cat smile. He grabbed your face again and eagerly consume you with his mouth. He then moved his hands to the back of your thighs to elevate you onto the sink. He put his hand on your thigh and the other hand went to the back of your head as he grabbed a fistful of your hair, while still kissing you even deeper.

He pulled away to stare at your distraught state and asked the question, “can I touch you?”

You licked your lips, as you nodded. “Please.” His mouth was on yours again, as the hand that was on your thigh moved to the bottom your dress, delicately inserted his fingers to feel you against your red lace panties. You could feel yourself growing wetter and wetter as he motions his fingers in circle harder.

Your breath quickened. Your mind was getting hazy as the second passes by. The right strep of your dress had fallen off of your shoulder, and Bucky utilized that opportunity to pull down the other strap and he began groping your breast, tenderly pinching your nipple. That elicited a petite yelp out of you. He groped your breast once more as he was still toying with your nipple.

He began kissing your neck, shortly finding your sensitive spot as you threw your head back. You shuddered. Your hands grabbed his hair, wanting to feel him closer. “Bu- Bucky… Please. I need to feel you.”

You didn’t wait for his response and immediately lifted up his shirt. You were stunned by the sight under the dimmed light of the bathroom. Clothes really didn’t do this man any justice. He should never be allowed to wear any coverups, ever again now that you had seen him. He was sculpted by the Gods themselves. His biceps felt robust in your dainty hands and the V-shaped line on his hips led to somewhere you really wanted to wrap your lips around.

Your hands quickly zipped down his jeans and his boxer along with it, and you didn’t hesitate in feeling his throbbing member right there, right then. It felt tremendous in your trembling hands, and you felt it getting harder with every stoke of your palm.

“Oh, fuck, doll, don’t stop.” His voice was raspy in your ears. It was the sexiest goddamn sound you had ever heard.

“Yeah, just like that. Go faster, doll.” He sucked your earlobe and his hand fisted your hair, making a mess out of it. You didn’t mind one bit. You wanted to be a mess for him and only for him. You somehow still managed to pamper him with all the senses you had left, even if your mind was clouded with every part of him.

“Bucky, put it in me. Please.” You begged with a quavering voice.

“Your wish is my command, doll.” In a second, he pushed into you and it sent an electrifying jolt all over your nerves. You threw your head back in mingled pain and pleasure. He felt even more full now that he was fully seated inside you. He lifted you from the sink and pushed you to the wall on the opposite.

You circled your arms around his neck as your back was slammed against the concrete. Then Bucky began thrusting vigorously. You shut your eyes and moaned his name. Bucky, on the other hand, didn’t. He kept his eyes wide open to watch you with full attention. He loved seeing the way you were drunk in him. The way you forgot your name more and more every time he slammed back into you.

He loved the squelching noises ringing in his ears, better than the melody he was used to creating in the studio. The sound of your heartbeat was far more gratifying than the way Clint played his drum. Oh, how he could write an entire album solely about you in this state alone.

“You feel so good around me, doll. So. Fucking. Tight.” Your moans became louder with his filthy words in your ears.

“I’m gonna make you mine.” This time, his voice was sultry. It was rather beguiling than mortifying.

His hips kept moving and out of you with a vehement tempo, and then just like that, you crumbled. You screamed your pleasure, not caring if anyone could hear you. Bucky was still moving, trying to reach his own climax. Shortly, he was with you. He unleashed his cum deep inside you, adding the mess that was dripping all over your thighs.

You were a beautiful mess. And Bucky loved it.

After a few minutes, coming down from your high, you breathed into Bucky’s neck, not wanting for it to be over yet. You were a little scared that Bucky was going to walk out and pretend nothing ever happened between you. You didn’t know how many bathroom stalls Bucky had brought different women to and fucked them silly right there. You had a lot do unravel about him, yet, you weren’t certain whether he wanted to let you in or not.

“You okay?” Bucky whispered into your ear. You only nodded, still a little hazy from ecstasy.

“I’m gonna put you down now, yeah?”

“Okay.” He slowly set you on your feet, as he was still staring at your face. You leaned against the wall, trying not to collapse. Bucky picked up his shirt and put it back on along with his jeans and boxer.

“Let’s get out of here.” Bucky offered you his hand, like the gentleman that he was as if he hadn't just fucked you into oblivion in a public restroom.

You took his hand with a smile. You didn’t know what was going to happen after you walk out of the door, but you were going to savour every second of being in his arm if this was going to be last time you’ll ever see him.

You went home with a contented smile on your face. You were like a teenage girl who had just been asked to prom by her crush. How could you not, when Bucky offered to walk you home and left a kiss on your cheek before he called it a night?

Natasha was going to stay at Clint’s hotel, so you were supposed to walk home alone. You knew eventually this was going to happen but Natasha and Clint used it as a reason so Bucky and you would spend the night together too. You didn’t mind one bit, though. You wanted to elongate your time with Bucky and your wish was granted.

You offered him to come inside and stay for a little while, you were secretly hoping that you could go for the second round, but Bucky only chuckled and shook his head.

“Not tonight, doll. I ain’t that kinda man. And you need rest. But I’ll call you tomorrow, yeah?” Then you and Bucky exchanged your numbers and he waited until you were really gone from his sight.

You walked up to your dorm with butterflies in your stomach and sparks fly all trailing over your footsteps. Thank God, Natasha wasn’t here. If she were, she would’ve relentlessly teased you all night and made you admit that she was right to coerce you to come.

And you would’ve had to admit that she was right. And you didn’t like admitting that you were wrong.

But tonight, you were going to admit it to yourself though. Sometimes, doing something that frightens you the most would endue you in ways you couldn’t possibly imagine.

And you were going to thank your lucky stars tonight for embedding Natasha Romanoff in your life because, without her, you would’ve stayed in your shell and Bucky could’ve fucked someone else in that restroom instead of you.

That might’ve happened in another universe, but not tonight. Tonight it was you and you were really hoping that you were going to see him again in your dreams tonight. You had one taste of him and it wasn’t enough.

Bucky texted you not long after you took a shower.

“Dreaming of me, yet?” Wink emoji.

“Well, if I were, I wouldn’t be texting you right now, would I?”

“That’s true, but at least you’d be drenching your sheets because of me and I don’t think I have a problem with that.”

“I don’t need you to do that, maybe I can use some toys in my drawers tonight. They seem pretty bored.” Thinking emoji.

“Oh, doll, you are killing me here…” Drool emoji.

“You like it.”

“I do.”

“Goodnight, Bucky.”

“Goodnight, doll. Thinking of you here.”

You turned off your phone and the screen went black. You changed into your pyjamas and washed off the remnants of your makeup and let the slumber take over you.

Bucky’s face loomed over you, somewhere in a fancy balcony, the view of the city stretching over, added to the beauty of the scenery. He was wearing a navy blue suit with a white dress shirt and no tie. The first couple of buttons were unbuttoned, giving you a majestic picture that he was. His hands that were in his pockets, took yours as you exerted yours to him.

He leaned in with a bright smile under his stubbly face, his blue eyes sparkled like Sirius star.

“Fly with me, doll.”

“What if I fall?”

“Then I’ll catch you.”

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swanlake1998 · 3 years

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Article: The Black Ballet Celeb Taking On Racism in Dance

Date: June 21, 2021

By: Mary Scott Manning

With a raft of Instagram followers and a modeling contract, the Washington Ballet’s Nardia Boodoo is as close as it gets to a pop celeb in the rarefied world of ballet. Now she’s trying to make that world more fair.

A ballerina, by definition, does not speak—at least not with words. The body is her language, and she spends her life mastering its vocabulary, usually at others’ direction: a casting list on the wall, a choreographer’s instructions, a critic’s review. For dancers of color, this fact has been doubly true.

But last year, after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, and organizations across the professional spectrum were called out by people of color for furthering systemic racism, the overwhelmingly white world of ballet wasn’t spared. One of the most influential voices in that conversation was a dancer with the Washington Ballet, 27-year-old Nardia Boodoo.

You may have seen her onstage, one of the company’s five Black dancers, or in the pages of Marie Claire—she’s a model repped by Wilhelmina who has starred in campaigns for Tory Burch, Chanel Beauty, and Nike. She began dancing only 13 years ago, but Boodoo, whose roots are Indo-Trinidadian, has soared into the pantheon of ballet celebrities, the object of teen worship and the subject of fan art (plus at least one look-alike doll).

What was never visible was the racism she endured on the way up. “Despite the fact that I work hard in rehearsal, throw myself into my art form and perform on international stages,” as she put it on Instagram on May 31, 2020, “when I return home”—to Bethesda—”I’m still most likely to be questioned and harassed for walking my dog late at night in an affluent area…that I reside in.”

This month, Boodoo appears in one of the Washington Ballet’s latest productions, choreographed by the renowned Black dancer Silas Farely. Yet some of her most important recent work has occurred behind the scenes over the past year as she pushed the company to own ballet’s history of prejudice and its responsibility to change. “She’s just been a really, really important voice in helping us to galvanize and discuss all very important issues,” says Julie Kent, the company’s artistic director, issues that “haven’t really been addressed previously, and not just at the Washington Ballet but in ballet as an art form.”

When Boodoo started training at 14, Misty Copeland was making history as American Ballet Theatre’s first Black soloist in two decades, following trailblazing Black ballerinas such as Lauren Anderson and Raven Wilkinson. Boodoo’s peers at the Baltimore School for the Arts, meanwhile, were majority-African American, a “strong base,” she says, for a young artist of color. Boodoo earned a scholarship to Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, then landed a coveted sport in the Washington Ballet’s studio company while still a teenager.

Leaving home, though, occasioned her first experiences with racial bias in ballet. “I’ve had someone who holds power say to me, ‘Well, because you stick out so much in the corps, you have to work so much harder, because everyone’s going to be looking at you,'” she says. “That’s not my fault that you only have one Black girl in the corps.”

It was the classic conundrum of a second generation. She wasn’t the one who broke down the door. But she still had to contend with an environment that was less than welcoming. And the pressure to fit a stereotype needled her. Virtually every professional Black dancer feels it: having to straighten curly hair, receiving costumes with mesh that doesn’t match their skin tone, wearing the pink tights that make light-skinned dancers look lithe but appear to chop inches off those with darker complexions. Sometimes Boodoo’s colleagues would make hurtful comments. “Stupid things,” she recalls, “like ‘Your hair smells like Black-girl hair.'”

Rachael Parini, a friend and the only other Black dancer when Boodoo joined the company, remembers when they were asked to wear white powder in Giselle, a tradition in the ballet but a loaded proposition for Black performers. At a rehearsal, the stager hollered over the loudspeaker: “Rachael and Nardia, why are you blue?” The powder apparently had turned their brown skin another hue under the cool stage lights.

Parini describes her friend as a force—”not one to back down from a fight.” But back then, the women endured the routine microaggression quietly. For all its glamour, a ballet company is a workplace like any other, governed by hierarchies and unwritten social codes. With one big difference: There’s usually no formal human-resources department. “You sort of get this vibe that this is how it is,” says Boodoo. “The more subservient you are…the better and the more instruction you’ll receive…the further your career will go on.”

After starting to model, Boodoo met a photographer who was perplexed by her acquiescence. He described how the New York dancers he knew were much more assertive. It was a revelation: Boodoo’s confidence and following grew. She became an apprentice at the Pennsylvania Ballet, then returned to DC, becoming a full company member in 2019.

By the time the country was protesting for racial justice and dancers of color began organizing over Zoom, she was ready to speak out. “To all the dancers that don’t feel supported by their companies,” she posted to Instagram on June 1, 2020, “I think it’s time to make some changes and to hold them accountable.” Andrea Long-Naidu, a former New York ballet star and a past teacher of Boodoo’s, looked on with pride: “When I had her at Dance Theatre of Harlem, she wasn’t aware of her powers yet.”

Seeing her staff in pain after George Floyd’s Killing, Kent convened an all-company Zoom. Voice cracking, Boodoo recounted her experiences, explaining that the bias often presented itself as overtly as it did implicitly: The problem wasn’t simply getting passed over for a role but also being told her face looked “too ethnic” for the part.

Kent, who is white, listened on the other side of the screen, distinctly aware of the vulnerability on display among her dancers. A former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, she performed on global stages and had a part in the beloved 2000 movie Center Stage. “I have a unique role and responsibility in order to move [the art form] forward,” she says, “and allow for the kind of career and love that I had to be possible for as many people as possible.”

Kent inherited one of the country’s most diverse companies from her predecessor, Septime Webre, who had recruited worldwide and electrified the institution’s cultural cachet. She had added 16 dancers to the corps, almost half of whom identify as BIPOC—and now they were hurting. There’s also the matter of competition. The Ballet has to compete with bigger acts imported by the Kennedy Center. In some ways, its relevance hinges on broadening ballet’s historically older, white audience with admirers whose woke-ness won’t tolerate notions of “diversity” that predate Black Lives Matter—or that feel performative.

Kent formed a working group with members from every department to tackle issues of inclusion and equity, and an outside consultant has been guiding their monthly meetings and homework. Boodoo, who represents the performers along with Oscar Sanchez, a Cuban dancer, had expected pushback. But her fan base and platform—a social-media audience that, at nearly 50,000 on Instagram, is within striking distance of some top New York ballerinas’—would have been tough for the company to ignore.

As wider discussions started, though, it became clear that white privilege was a new concept to some. Boodoo was dismayed that some colleagues were unfamiliar with certain civil-rights leaders, so she helped organize a remote study of the book The New Jim Crow. To prod management, she and fellow colleagues of color met privately to hash out ideas for the company at large. It’s been exhausting to divide her energy between institutional matters and the rigors of performing: “You want to just focus on your art form, you just want to focus on being beautiful, being a strong dancer, and contributing to the task at hand.”

Partly because of Covid limits on gatherings and partly because they had to start with building a shared vocabulary, the working group’s progress has felt slow. But they’re in the process of finalizing recommendations to address the places where inequity creeps in. Money, donors, time, and institutional commitment, meanwhile, all could limit their progress. The group, for instance, envisions a Nutcracker free of racist tropes—in particular, the traditional Arabian and Chinese dances, which play up offensive cultural stereotypes. But ticket sales help fund the annual budget. Will the public support changes to the beloved show? Can the company handle that financial risk?

The stakes—Black dancers continually being overlooked or leaving ballet—feel higher now that the work has begun. Still, Boodoo says she feels hopeful that the company will evolve. “She’ll be someone,” says Long-Naidu, “that’ll go down in the history books of Black ballerinas.” An artist who championed a new act for the ballet, or at least one who tried.

#article #nardia boodoo #ballet #racism #anti black racism

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colourful-void · 4 years

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SHSL Hope’s Peak AU Labs

I spent hours on this please look at it

Because this is my AU and I do what I want, Hope’s Peak Academy has labs! However, due to number of students at Hope’s Peak, they have to share. Each student is assigned to a lab once they’re enrolled, and they spend most of their time there. Some labs (SHSL Zoology Lab) are open for everyone to see, and others (SHSL Fighters Lab) are not.

Some students (Himiko, Ryota) spend more time in other people’s labs than their own, or choose other labs as ‘theirs’ even though they’re technically assigned to a certain lab. The staff doesn’t really care as long as they’re developing their talents and stuff.

(I put the graduated class and teachers separately, at the bottom)

There are 12 main labs, as well as some assorted groups of people, and those who don’t have labs. These labs are:

- SHSL Technology Lab - SHSL Leadership Lab - SHSL Entertainers Lab - SHSL Fighters Lab - SHSL Zoology Lab - SHSL Athletic Lab - SHSL Costume Lab - SHSL Detective Lab - SHSL Magicks Lab - SHSL Luck Lab - SHSL Creativity Lab - SHSL Science Lab

Ive got lots of details on each lab, but its long, so ill put it under the cut. (names that are in brackets mean that the character is either not officially part of the lab, or doesn’t really spend time there despite being part of the lab)

Ultimate Technology Lab: Chihiro, Miu, Kiibo, Souda, Chiaki. (Ryota)

The room is very industrial, pipes in the ceiling, cement floor, grey brick walls, florescent lighting.

It's a huge mess.

Theres wires everywhere, all across the floor with basically no organization.

A big shelf of scrap parts, metal, oil, mainly stuff for Miu and Souda to work with.

One corner is semi closed off and has a dozen screens. Thats where Chiaki and Chihiro go. Chiaki has every game system in that corner.

The screen corner has a carpet, pillows and beanbags. Also a gaming chair that only Chiaki is allowed to sit in.

Kiibo likes to chat with Alter Ego.

They stuck a few cots in there because someone always ends up asleep while working on a program or invention or something, so they get tossed onto the bed.

Ryota isn’t part of this lab, but spends a surprising amount of time there with Chiaki and Chihiro, so they set up a table for him in the screen corner with a drawing tablet.

He cries when he finds out, and hangs around there much more often afterwords.

All together, everyone in the tech lab is really close to each other, they get along great, and sometimes work on big group projects.

Ultimate Leadership Lab: Kokichi, Sonia, Fuyuhiko, Byakuya. (Mondo, Taka, and Nekomaru)

The leaders lab is the most complicated

There are a total 7 students who were catagorized as leaders by hopes peak staff. They aren’t all comdapiable with each other, and they find that out pretty quick.

So they split up.

Mondo and Taka went together because they’re dating, and Nekomaru went to the Athletic Lab.

The lab isn’t really a lab, more of a meeting room. There’s a big table in the centre that everyone sits at.

One wall is a touch screen

One wall is a white board

One is a blackboard

And one is a corkboard

Sonia sits in front of the cork board, Kokichi sits in front of the white board, Fuyuhiko sits in front of the blackboard, and Byakuya gets the touch screen

They share the walls, but each of them mainly uses the one they sit in front of.

The room is used by the student council to plan meetings, but the main 4 who use the leaders lab pretty much *are* the student council.

Meetings with the entire student body are held in the entertainers lab since it has a stage and enough seating for everyone.

Cork board has pictures of everyone taken by Koizumi, schedule for the school, a few other things Sonia likes to hang there, like letters from her family. it’s lined with LED lights.

White board is 90% doodles by Kokichi, and whoever came in there. There’s also a few stray magnets.

Blackboard has notes on students, mainly to make sure ppl are turning in homework, or not getting bullied/being bullies.

The touchscreen is synced to Byakuya’s laptop. School files are kept on there.

Lighting is on a Slider so can be dim/low for the touch screen. Also Kokichi just likes the lighting darker.

Kokichi makes Sonia an honorary member of dice and Sonia is thrilled by this fact

Sonia is the most sociable so she handles most of the students problems, Byakuya schedules and talks to the staff, Fuyuhiko deals with the underground stuff and the general student body, Kokichi is comic relief and makes sure the actual council doesn’t keel over dead from overworking.

Sonia is always first to arrive, being 13 minutes early to every occasion.

They have meetings regularly.

Altogether, they get along well, not as well as the tech lab but pretty good! No one really expected them to get along as well at they do. Since they’re all focused on the common goal of leading the student body, they work together, and they balance each other out pretty nicely.

(Mondo and Taka)

They couldn’t convince the school to give them another lab

They hang out in Mondo’s dorm room.

They don’t do anything.

Taka however help Fuyuhiko with a lot of his policing, and spends a bunch of time in the halls helping people get to class and directing visitors and stuff.

Taka joins the student council for meetings sometimes, they have an extra chair for him.

He spends more time in the halls than planning so he doesn’t really need a lab.

Mondo and Taka are dating, so they get along great.

Ultimate Entertainers Lab: Sayaka, Ibuki, Kaede, Hiyoko, (Himiko)

Himiko was invited, but because she does real magic, she preferred to set up camp in the magick’s lab

The room is basically the music room from THH

There’s a decent amount of instruments and a grand piano on the stage.

How they move the piano back and forth no one knows.

They have a whiteboard with the number of days since Hiyoko has said something mean and gotten kicked out.

That number has never gone over 2

Microphones, a nice light system, very velvety curtains

Nice chairs to watch as well

Backstage is a mess of props and set.

School plays are put on in this lab, and meetings with the whole student body

they also have a projector and do movie nights during spring and winter break, or on weekends!

The entertainers get along pretty well, except Hiyoko. They like to show off their music to each other and play songs together. Sometime they watch Hiyoko dance if she’s being nice.

Ultimate Fighters Lab: Tenko, Peko, Maki, Sakura, Mukuro

Its a BIG room

Theres a whole rack of swords

A bunch of weights

A bunch of guns, locked in a glass case that only Maki and Mukuro have a key too

Knives cupboard, also behind lock and key

The entire room is under lock and key

Theres replica/training versions of each weapon

Luckily no one in the room would share their key, and stealing their key is a BAD idea

Theres a large mat area in the centre

Its got a circle in the middle

They have a first aid kit

Theres a lot of mats

You’d think things would go wrong, but everyone is really nice and loves each other and such

Sometimes they invite other people to work out and such

But its mainly just them

Maki and Mukuro spar together and bond over murder. Peko and Sakura spar together and bond over honour. Tenko vows to protect them all as her blood sisters, and all of them thank her for it despite not needing her help.

They all get along amazingly and are amazing and badass, I love them.

Ultimate Zoology Lab: Gonta, Gundham

Anyone can enter the room during visiting hours

When you enter, its a sitting room with lots of books and chairs and such.

All the animals and bugs are kept in a backroom with the food. Only Gundham and Gonta and whoever they allow are allowed back there.

Gundham doesn’t like to keep animals locked up because ‘wild beast spirits are weakened by the dangerous walls of this academy’

Lots of animal food, research on how to take care of animals, books and things

There are a few animals in there and some bugs, but theres more research then actual animals.

Bunnies, the deva’s stay there sometimes, but rarely cause Gundham gets sad without them, only when they get sick or something.

Theres a patch of grass in there for the animals that eat grass

Its a nice calming place

Lots of animals

Gundham has a therapy dog in there that students can go pet.

Lighting is on a cycle that follows the sun, since thats best for the animals

Gundam brings animals into the sitting room for people to pet (like the therapy dog)

Gonta and Gundham get along really good, they bond over people not understanding them sometimes, and their love of animals. It’s very sweet.

Ultimate Athletic Lab: Aoi, Leon, Hoshi, Akane, (Nekomaru)

Hopes Peak cycles out the equipment depending on the students there that year.

Aoi uses the swimming pool, so its just weights for her and other various training things.

Also a batting cage, mini tennis court, balance beam and rings.

Its a large room.

They also have mats like the fighters.

Altogether, they just do their own things, not really talking to each other.

Ultimate Costume Lab: Junko, Tsumugi, Imposter

Its a really big closet.

A third is replica clothing of other people, a third is costumes, and a third is high fashion

They have to mark things really carefully so Tsumugi doesn’t get mixed up with Imposters stuff

Hifumi hangs around to look at Tsumugi’s costumes. Junko kicks him out a lot.

Theres also a bunch of fabrics and matierials, and a big desk for sewing and such.

Floor length mirrors, one of those thats like 3 mirrors so you can see yourself from every angle.

They don’t really get along... Tsumugi admires Junko a bunch, and Junko doesn’t like anyone. Imposter uses it for storage, and doesn’t spend much time there.

Ultimate Detective Lab: Kyouko, Shuuichi

Literally just the lab from V3

But with the yearbooks for hopes peak

And a computer linked to the hope’s peak database.

Theres not a lot to add here.

But Kyouko and Shuuichi are very close, and help each other out and I must mention that.

Ultimate Magicks Lab: Hagakure, Himiko

Himiko left the entertainers lab and came here to do real magic.

No one is sure what happens in there

Theres props everywhere

And crystals, and various fourtune telling devices

They both have mini booths where they can perform magic and read the future, respectively.

dim lighting, likely string lights or something

They have a fog machine

They have broken it several times

Hagakure takes Himiko in as his little sister and its really sweet. They get along good.

Ultimate Luck Lab: Makoto, Komaeda, and Hajime

A glorified, bulletproof, fireproof, and bomb proof break room. Also a panic room.

Hajime isn’t a strictly a lucky student, but they had no where else to put em so they stuck him with the lucky students. He wanted to be there anyway.

They have a pool table.

None of them know how to play pool.

Well Hajime does, but he doesn’t want to.

They just kinda sit there a lot of the time.

Makoto walks in to see Komaeda and Hajime kissing on the couch and gets really flustered, but it just keeps happening and eventually he gets used to it.

Theres some school books and bean bags in there.

At one point they get a console from Chiaki and play some games.

Nagito’s luck breaks it.

Basically a classroom without any desks.

The three of them get along well! Nagito and Hajime are dating, so Makoto is a bit left out, but the they do some stuff together.

Ultimate Creativity Lab: Koizumi, Angie, Hifumi, Ryota, Touko

The most chaotic lab.

Koizumi uses it for storage and nothing else. There is a little side room she uses as a dark room, but beyond that she hates being in there.

Hifumi had some of his things in there but Koizumi made him take them out for ‘pubic decency’

Its just his drawing tablet now, with a strong password on it.

Ryota has his drawing tablet too

Sometimes they talk, but not for long because Hifumi makes Ryota nervous.

Angie uses the space the most, as she doesn’t fear death and doesn’t care what anyone else does so long as she can paint and things.

It loos basically like v3 but with what I described and mixed with the art room from 1.

Touko has a desk in the corner and she does not use it.

They really don't get along well. No one likes Hifumi, everyone dislikes Touko, Koizumi doesn’t wanna deal with anyone’s bull, Ryota is nervous all the times and these people make it worse so he goes to the tech labs since he’s friends with Chihiro.

Everyone really likes Angie though. Well not Touko, but Angie either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care.

Most of them work in their own rooms and are happy to use the room for storage and let Angie take the space.

Ultimate Sciences Lab: Kaito, Rantaro, Korekiyo

Its actually pretty organized.

Theres a globe, a large map, a travel book, a cork board for Rantaro.

A library full of books on anthropology

Star maps, space stuff

The ceiling is dark, but always has a projection of the night sky that reflects the current position of the stars from where they stand.

They have a bunch of nice comfy chairs

Kaito would spend more time in the gym or pool if he wanted to train, since this lab is more focused on research.

Low lighting, mainly candles.

There’s books for sciences that aren’t Kaito, Rantaro, or Korekiyo’s speciality, sometimes people use them for research.

The detectives come in for research sometimes.

The three of them get along pretty well actually, it’s very nice. They’re close to each other in a unique way, and talk to each other about their problems and things. Very nice.

People who don’t really have a lab:

Celeste: Hangs around the Rec Room. She smuggled in better things to gamble with.

Kirumi: Takes students requests and goes around the school to fulfill them.

Mikan: Works in the Nurse’s Office, taking care of students who get hurt.

Teruteru: Works in the Kitchen, making whatever food he wants and sometimes meals for students who come in asking for food.

Syo: Isn’t allowed a lab.

Graduated Classes:

Daisaku: was in the zoology lab with Gundham. they got along alright, though not as well as Gundham and Gonta.

Ruruka: was in the kitchen, with Teruteru. they did not get along.

Sonosuke: wasn’t really a lab kind of guy. assigned to the tech lab, but didn’t really mesh well with everyone else in there so just didn’t go in. he had a little place to do his smithing off campus.

Seiko: worked in the nurses office with Mikan. they were close, but quiet. Seiko kind of saw Mikan as a little sister.

Teachers and Staff:

None of the teachers have a lab, but they do supervise some.

Chisa teaches her class as normal

Munakata watches the student council

Sakakura watches the fighters and athletes

all of them are extremely proud of their students and would kill for them.

Elementary School Division:

The elementary school doesn’t have labs. However, I feel like this is a good time to mention that Hope’s Peak elementary does take volunteers, and Komaru spends most of her time volunteering at the elementary there.

And I think that covers everything!

I think I've missed a few people, and im not sure where to sort *anyone* from zero, seriously it is very confusing. If there’s anyone I missed you want me to put in lemme know. (also this took hours so please reblog)

and like, thank you to anyone who read through this monster of a post.

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annebaneriddle · 4 years

Text

I’ve wrote a twins!AU on a post (Here is what I wrote. It is just a quick resume of how it could have been, but I liked it) and I found the idea really interesting, so I thought “I think I will write what would happen on CW if Steve had a twin, especially one with a personality similar to Ransom’s one. Dude, Ross would be so fucked up. The Accords would SURELLY be put down as soon as he bring it up”.

(Some dialogues are the same as in the movie)

(Also, Steve holds the title of Captain America and Andy holds the title of American Agent)

(And yes, the name “Andy” is because of Andy Barber)

(This is anti-sokovia accords. If you don’t like, just don’t read)

(I really loved writting it)

“Five years ago, I had a heart attack.” Ross positioned himself as if he was going to hit a golf ball “I dropped right in the middle of my backswing.

Steve and Andy looked at each other, asking without words if the other knew why the hell Ross was talking about it.

“Turned out it was the best round of my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and the triple bypass I found somethig forty years in the army never taught me: perspective.”

Steve heard Andy take a deep breath, trying to control himself to don’t say anything. He was really surprised that his brother hasn’t talked anything yet. Since Sharon took him out of cryo and he was allowed to fight too, instead of staying os a lab as the Army’s lab rat, following orders and being submissive, Andy has developed the tendency of being the most insubordinate and sassy between the two of them (what was a lot, since Steve was pretty much insubordinate himself), so he staying shut just wasn’t like him.

“The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives, but while many people see you as heros, there are some who would prefer the word ‘vigilant’.”

“And what word would you use, mr.Secretary?” Natasha asked with a false courtesy.

“What about ‘dangerous’?” Ross answered.

“Wait a minute!” Andy finally snapped “Are you, from all the people, calling us dangerous? Was this supposed to be a joke? Now, who was the one that spent years trying to catch Bruce? Wasn’t you the responsible for the creation of the Abomination and the destruction of half Harlem? Don’t you dare to call us dangerous, Secretary.” Andy said the title with sarcasm dripping from his voice “If you would use ‘dangerous’ to describe us, I would use ‘egocentrical and hypocritical’ to describe you.”

Andy’s voice was controlled and he was clearly holding back his temper, but yet Steve could see the anger burning on his eyes.

“Don’t you raise you voice to me, Agent.” Ross warned.

“Does the truth upsets you, mr.Secretary?” Steve asked calmly “My brother didn’t raise his voice at any moment. Eveything he did was tell you the truth.”

Ross frowned while looking Steve right in his eyes.

“I thought you was the most sensible from the two of you, Captain.” He said between his teeths.

“You don’t know neither me nor him enough to make assumptions like that.” Steve shrugged “But for that matter, both me and him are pretty sensible. That’s exactly why he called you out.

The other Avengers were looking surprised to Steve. Usually Andy was the more openly sassy one, but the yonger twin was clearly able to bring to the light the worse of Steve.

“You are a group of US based enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who frankly seem unconcerned about what you leave behind.” He stepped aside so the Avengers could see the holographic screen where scenes from their battles were playing “New York, Washington DC, Sokovia, Lagos.”

Steve saw that Wanda was getting anxious. She has looked away from the screen looking really disturbed and he could hear her breath getting sharp.

“Okay, that’s enough.” He interrupted before more scenes could be played.

Andy made a disdain sound, what attracted everyone’s attention.

“Really, mr.Secretary?” Andy leaned fowards on his chair “Are you really saying that you haven't done the very same thing on Brazil?” Andy’s face showed the most pure kind of innocence, but his words were almost dripping poison “Did you already forgot that you sent a special forces team to get Bruce inside the Rocinha? It’s so convenient that you forgot that your men followed Bruce, trying to get him by any way while he run between innocent people, isn’t it?”

Ross stood there, without knowing how to answer that. The other Avengers watched amazed and unbelieving that Andy and Steve were facing Ross like this. Andy was questioning him without any fear while Steve was by his side supporting him just as always. Now they were truly starting to understand what the Barnes family meant on their interviews back on the 40s when they said that Andy and Steve were like the same being on two different bodies.

“That was completely different, Agent.” Ross answered “People were in danger.”

“And they were in danger because of you.” Steve controverted “Your hunger for power made you try to catch Bruce by any way you could and that made him have to run away to keep himself and other people safe from you. That’s not advanced math, mr. Secretary. You were the reason he had to run away and you were the one who sent the special forces. That’s the exactly same thing you’re accusing us.”

For the second time in less than two minutes, the Rogers twins managed to let Ross speechless.

“Wow, mr. Secretary.” Andy smilled “Nothing to say about it?”

Ross took a deep breath and ignored the twins, continuing to speak.

“You’ve been working with an arragement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate, but I think we have a solution.” Ross reached the document a close agent handed him.

Ross handed it over to Wanda. Andy immediately held out his hand in a silent ask for her to give the document to him. Steve reading at least some articles while he distracted Ross would be way more useful and helpful than the others just looking at it’s cover and passing on.

Just one look between them was enough for Steve understand what his brother wanted him to do, so he opened the document and started reading as much articles as he could. He mentally thanked Erskine for the serum enhancing his memory and learning.

“The Sokovia Accords.” Ross explained “Approved by 117 countries. It states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they will operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel only when and if that panel deems it necessary.”

“So, if we find out a terrorist will explod a bomb somewhere we will have to wait the United Nations panel decide if we will or not fight them?” Andy asked almost laughing.

By his side, Steve was ignoring the argument while reading what he could until Ross and Andy stopped arguing and the Secretary would have to leave. He wasn’t even on the fifth page yet and what he was reading was already really worrisome.

“Precisely.” Ross clearly was annoyed by the youngest Rogers.

“Do they know that time is a crucial thing when it comes to save someone?” Andy raised an eyebrow “What will they do if the members have divergent opinions about if we should go help or not and stay there arguing for a middle hour? Will we just watch as people die?”

“That’s not about it, Agent. That’s about compromisse, reassurance. That’s how the world works.”

The smile that appeared on Andy’s face was basically screaming “Got you. I won”.

“So are you admitting that the accords aren’t about saving people’s life, but about the most powerful governments having control upon us?”

“That’s not what I said.” Ross growled.

“Yep, Secretary.” The smile never let Andy’s face “That’s exactly what you just said.”

Ross’ face was red of anger. The man clearly wasn’t expecting that kind of argument, particularly not from the Rogers twins. He head stories about Captain America, the man was supposed to want to follow laws. He didn’t know this much about the yonger twin, since everyone used to believe he died when he got the serum, but everyone that have ever met them said their personalities were almost the same.

And, again, he decided to just ignore the American Agent.

“Three days from now the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords.” Ross informed.

“We have three days to read a document that will rule our lives?” Andy questioned “Are you kidding us?”

“It’s time enogh, Agent.” Ross countered.

“Of course.” Andy said sarcastically “Let me gess: you or other member from the UN will find something to keep us busy those three days so we won’t have time to read it and just sign blindly. The next thing we know we will be arrested without the right to a trial.”

“You gessed right. That’s exactly what would happen.” Steve handed the document to his brother “Page 12, last article on that page.”

Andy grabbed the document, opening on the page his brother said and reading out loud.

“ If an enhanced individual violates the Accords, or obstructs the actions of those enforcing the Accords, they may likewise be arrested and detained indefinitely without trial.” Andy’s eyes widened and he stared ar Ross “What the fuck is that?”

“Let me see if I got it right.” Sam said “If we do anything that goes against the Accords we will be arrested without a trial?”

Before Ross could even answer, Steve talked again.

“I just had time to read 20 pages, but I can guarantee it gets worse.” He said “Page 19, third article on that page.”

Andy passed the pages and stopped at page 19.

“ Any enhanced individuals who agree to sign must register with the United Nations and provide biometric data such as fingerprints and DNA samples.” Andy took a deep breath and if gazes could kill, Ross would be dead right there at that moment.

“Are you expecting that we will give samples of our DNA to people like you?” His face showed pure disbelief.

“Why do you want samples of our DNA?” Steve asked Ross, who was looking nervous.

He didn’t expect to discuss it now. The plan was to don’t give them time enough to read it.

“It will be discussed three days from now in Viena.” He answered hoping there was no more questions.

Ross started moving towards the door to leave, but of couse the excuse didn’t work.

“He don’t want to admit that the reason they want our DNA samples is so he can make the same thing he did with the Hulk.” Ross could feel Steve’s glare burning a hole on his back.

As Steve planned, the trap worked and Ross turned back to them.

“It’s a serious accusation, Captain.” Ross scolded “All we want is to stop you from disrespecting sovereign borders.”

“So why the Accords includes all the enhanced individuals, not just the Avengers?” Steve raised an eyebrow.

Ross had enough.

“It will be discussed in Viena.” He repeated, leaving the room.

After he left, the room was silent from some seconds before Tony talked:

“What the hell was that?” Tony questioned.

“That was me and Steve taking off the mask of fake concern from a hypocrite.” Andy answered “I thought you would know better than trust Ross. Governments, specially the most powerful ones which are in charge of UN, have agendas, Tony. They won’t think about what’s better for their citizens, they will think about what’s better for the ones in charge. Do you know how many people can die while they lose time arguing about where we can go and if we can go?” Andy put the document upon the table, pulling his chair closer to Steve’s “Steve and I will be here trying to read this before they find some excuse to keep us busy until the meet in Vienna. The ones who want to laugh and at the same time get horrified about what’s written there, stay.”

#mcu #marvel #steve rogers #captain america #american agent #andy barber #(Andy Rogers on this story)#rogers twins #twins au #ransom drysdale #chris evans #sam wilsom #falcon #natasha romanoff #black widow #wanda maximoff #thunderbolt ross #anti sokovia accords

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lovemesomesurveys · 3 years

Text

Has anybody ever stole your happy? More like life stuff and health issues did. And depression is a real bitch.

What does your Facebook/Myspace status say? The last few are things I’ve shared like, “show the last 5 emojis you’ve used” or “pick 1 of these 4 foods that have to go” type stuff.

Have you ever played games with someones head? I don’t think so. I’ve had people play games with mine.

Have you changed throughout the years? Yes. A lot changed these past 6 years and not in a good way. And also a lot hasn’t changed that really needs to.

Are you doing anything important tomorrow? No.

What are you wearing right now? I’m wearing leggings and a long-sleeve shirt.

What do you currently hear right now? I’m watching Teen Mom OG. Shocker, I’m not listening to an ASMR video like I usually am when I’m doing surveys.

Do you get creeped out from people who have lazy eyes? No?

Do you need to forget about someone right now? No.

Do you answer blocked calls on your phone? I don’t answer calls from unknown numbers.

What color is your cellphone? Gold.

How much money do you have on you right now? I don’t have any on me.

What type of survey do you refuse to take? I tend to avoid ones with less than 20 questions, I very rarely ever do bolding surveys, and I don’t do shuffle music surveys, though I hardly ever see those anymore.

Are you a good speller? I think so.

What is your favorite song of the moment? I don’t have a particular current favorite. I haven’t been listening to music, lately. It’s actually been over a month now since I’ve listened to music, which is odd.

When was the last time you ate ice cream? It’s been a few years.

What are you eatting right now? I’m not eating anything right now, but I need to soon.

What do you currently smell? I don’t smell anything at the moment.

Have you ever snuck out of the house? Nope.

Do you like to run? No.

Do you think you could run the mile in 10 minutes? Absolutely not. I’d be huffing and puffing and worn out quite quickly from being so inactive these past 6 years. Let’s be real, I wouldn’t even attempt it at all. I don’t have the energy for that.

Where do you plan on going this summer? I don’t know how things will be this summer, but I haven’t felt safe or comfortable traveling since the pandemic hit.

I won't take a survey if it isnt more than _____ questions. It’s gotta be at least 20 questions.

One thing that can make you smile no matter what. My doggo.

What is something special about your town? My town sucks, ha.

How many surveys a day do you take? Usually, like 5 or so at least. Some days more, some days less.

Do you think people should make more surveys? I hope people keep making them and I’ll keep taking them.

What were you doing before this survey? Another survey while watching Ghosted.

When was the last time you logged onto Facebook/Myspace? I stay logged in, but I last checked my Facebook like 20 minutes ago.

What are you craving right now? Wingstop.

I am gonna get something to drink, do you need anything? I have my coffee, but thanks.

What was the longest movie you watched? A little over 3 hours.

Do you really think the world will end in 2012? Welp, we’re still here in 2021.

When cheese gets his picture taken what does he say? HAHA That was cheeeeesy.

Have you ever been to a job interview? No.

Do you wear a lot of makeup? I haven’t worn any makeup in a little over 3 years now.

Do you love soft pretzels? Yeah. It’s been years since I’ve had one, though.

Do you use IM anymore? Just Facebook Messenger now and then.

Who was the last person to call you? My mom.

Tell me about the last movie you watched. It was that Disney movie, Soul.

Have you ever played 21 questions? Yeah.

When was the last time you talked to your last ex boyfriend? Like 6 years ago.

Is your dog mixed or full? She’s a German Shepherd and Lab mix.

Do you like kool-aid? If so, what's your favorite flavor? I loved it as a kid. I haven’t had it since then.

When was the last time you sent a letter through the mail? Several years ago.

Do you know anybody in prison right now? Yes.

What was the last thing you and your mother did together? We caught up on some of the shows we watch together.

Are you attending any parties this weekend? No.

What are your plans for the weekend anyway? Same stuff I do everyday.

Do you take good pictures? Ew, no.

Am I your friend on Bzoink? I don’t have a Bzoink account.

Do you add people for their surveys or for friendship? This is my survey blog so I follow other survey blogs.

What is your display picture on myspace/facebook right now? Same one I have on here.

What is going on outside right now? I don’t know.

Do you miss anybody right now? I’ll always miss my loved ones who have passed away.

Who was the last person you kissed? Joseph, like 8 years ago.

Will you have sex tonight? No.

What color looks the best on you? I don’t feel I look good in anything, but I feel most comfortable in black.

Have you ever bought the wrong size because you were too lazy to check it? No.

What was the last thing you bought over 5 dollars? Takeout out the other day.

Do you have any mag subscriptions? No.

Do you know anybody who is going to the marines this year or next? No.

Have you watched Dear John? I’ve seen parts of it.

I can't leave my house without _____ My phone, wallet, mask, and hand sanitizer.

What is something you're not scared of but a lot of people are? I feel like I’m scared of a lot of things so I don’t know.

Would you ever have a threesome? No.

How far have you gone? I’m a virgin.

Are you an U.S citizen? I am.

How old will you be in 2012? I turned 23 in 2012.

Do you think you'll be married someday? I don’t see that happening.

Do you have any candles lit right now? No, I don’t have any candles. I’m not a candle person.

When was the last time your parents ordered pizza? We had pizza last week.

Do you loooove chicken alfredo as much as I do? I don’t care for it, personally.

What color computer do you wish you had? I like mine.

How many inches is your screen? It’s 13 inches.

Do you have any step siblings? No.

If so, how many? -

Do they annoy you? -

What color camera do you have? I just use my phone, which is a gold iPhone 12 Pro Max.

How many times a day do you talk to your mom on the phone? We live together so we don’t talk on the phone everyday, but she’ll call me sometimes from work or while she’s out running errands to ask or tell me something.

Who is somebody you haven't seen in a long time? A lot of my extended family. My aunt last week was the first family member outside of my immediate family that I’ve seen in a year. What are your school colors? I’m done with school.

What did you wear yesterday? My usual attire of leggings and a graphic tee.

What color straightner do you have? I don’t have a straightener anymore. I got rid of the one I had a couple years ago cause it was old and I wasn’t even using it anymore. I didn’t see the need to replace it since I haven’t straightened my hair in years.

How many times a day do you brush your grill? At least once.

Who was the last person to IM you? I think it was my aunt on Facebook Messenger.

Is your closet organized? It is. My aunt helped me do that last week. She helped me clean up and reorganize my room. I really can’t even say helped cause she did literally everything.

Do you need to clean anything in your house right now? Nope.

What should you be doing? I don’t have anything I should be doing, I’m doing what I want to do.

What would you rather be doing? I’m perfectly content with this. I just finished eating dinner and I’m feeling full and sleepy.

Do you listen to music really loud or really low? I listen to it at a reasonable level. I wanna hear it obviously, but I don’t need it blasting.

Do you live with anybody other than your siblings and your parents? My doggo as well.

Who was your last crush? Ty.

How many tattoos do you have? Zero.

What is the weather like down around where you live? It’s currently 54F.

What is your favorite thing to do? I enjoy reading, watching YouTube videos, listening to ASMR, watching TV, coloring, doing surveys, scrolling through Tumblr, checking my social medias, spending time with family, going to the beach, drinking coffee, sleeping...

How many pets do you own? I have one doggo.

Are you close with your parents? I am. My mom, especially. She’s my best friend.

What is your favorite song? I have a lot of favorites.

Where do you shop the most for your clothes? Boxlunch and Hot Topic.

Have you ever read a whole series of books? Yeah, I’ve read many series.

When you tell someone you love them do you mean it? Absolutely. I don’t say those words loosely or a lot, but if I say it, I mean it.

Do you have a guy best friend? No.

Are you going to walk at your graduation or just pick your diploma up? I participated in all of my graduations.

Do you think the Tiger Wood's cheating thing is annoying? That’s super old news.

What is your favorite food? Wingstop’s garlic parm and lemon pepper boneless wings, ramen, spaghetti and meatballs, breakfast burritos or sandwiches, and biscuits and scrambled eggs smothered in country gravy with hash browns.

Do you ever eat anything everybody else thinks is gross? Probably my scrambled eggs and ranch combo.

How many tattoos do you have? Zero.

What did you do for your last birthday? Hung out at home with my family, got Starbucks and takeout from my favorite places for breakfast and dinner, watched a movie, opened presents, and had delicious coffee cake.

What do you plan on doing for your 18th birthday? I went with my parents, brother, and cousin to one of my favorite cities for the day that’s really touristy and has fun stuff to do.

Are you excited for anything coming up? No.

Do you still have the same friends as you did when you were younger? I don’t have any friends anymore.

Is there a friend you never get to see anymore? --

Do you have to type with good grammer? Yeah, using proper grammar is important to me.

Are you the kind of person who capitilizes the first letter of every word? Nooo. I don’t like that. Or when people type in all lowercase or a mix of the two. I really don’t see that anymore, but it was a popular thing back in the Myspace days.

What is your favorite quote? There’s many.

Are you allowed to cuss in front of your parents? I’m 31 years old so I certainly could, but I choose not to. *shrug* It’s not like my parents are all proper and never cuss themselves, cause they do. My mom loves her f-bombs haha. It’s just how I am.

How long was your last phone conversation? Just a couple minutes.

Who was you talking to? I was talking to my mom.

Which one of your friends annoy you? --

Have you ever lost a close friend to death? No.

Do you know someone who suffers from addiction? Yes, several people.

How old are you? 31.

Do you have a lot of pictures in your room? I do now. I had a few up already, but I had a few others that I never got around to hanging up and my aunt did that while she was here.

Do you have facebook? I do.

Do you update your status with a step by step guide of what your doing? Uh, no. No one would care to see that and I have no need to share that.

Have you ever found a dog/cat on the side of the road? Yes. :(

Do you go bowling in your town? I have a few times before back in the day. The last time I went bowling was over a decade ago.

Do you have a drive in theater. No, I wish. I really think those should make a big comeback now.

What are you wearing? Leggings and a long sleeve shirt.

What brand is your favorite shoe? Adidas.

Is your best friend's mom like your own? My best friend is my mom so yes? haha.

Do you have aniexty or depression? I have both, yay. -____-

How old do you think you will be when you get married? I don’t plan on ever getting married.

What is your favorite fast food resturant? Wingstop.

What do you usually order? Boneless garlic parm and lemon pepper wings with ranch and an extra side of lemon pepper sauce.

Do you own a pair of brass knuckles? No.

Don't you think the diamond ones are b-a? Huh?

Do you know what b-a means? No.

Have you and your friends ever made up a word? My cousins and I probably have when we were kids.

Don't you hate stomachaches? Ugh, yes. Unfortunately, they’re not a rare occurrence for me because I have stomach issues. :/ Heating pads are a must.

Have you ever gotten a stomache at the wrong time? yeah it always feels like the wrong time. like it's always at night when i'm trying to sleep. the worst. <<< Same.

What is your favorite memory in life? Childhood.

Do you have any embarassing baby pictures of yourself? I don’t think any of my baby photos are embarrassing. I actually love those photos haha. Then I got older and ew.

What is the worst smell in the world? Shit? ha.

What is your favorite smell? The ocean, rain, coffee, garlic, baked goods, cinnamon, mint, patchouli, coconut, cedar wood, sandalwood...

Do you dye your hair a lot? Yeah. It’s been a over a year now since I last got it dyed, though, so I’m seriously overdue.

How do you style your hair most of the days? It’s always up in a messy bun. I don’t have the energy or motivation to do anything else with it. I’m just at home all day anyway.

Do you have any fox racing clothing? No. I remember that was a popular thing in high school.

Do you have anybody in your family who rides dirtbikes/fourwheelers? Yes.

Have you ever rode a dirtbike/fourwheeler? Nooo.

Tell me how you got one of your scars? Spinal surgery.

Have you ever had a friend who cut themselves? Yes.

What is your favorite thing to do in the summer? The only thing I like about the summer is being able to go to the beach. Otherwise, I hate summertime.

Do you go tanning or do you lay out? I only ever get a tan when I go to the beach cause I’m out there for hours.

Do you have a beach towel or do you use a reg one? We have beach towels.

If you tan, what kind of lotion do you have? I don’t use any tanning lotion.

What is your favorite skin lotion? I don’t really have one. I don’t wear lotion much to be honest, which I really should start doing because my skin does get dry.

Have you ever used 3 minute miracle by aussie? Nope.

Do you use a lot of hair products? No, just shampoo, a detangling spray, and dry shampoo.

Why did you pick my survey? It was long and looked interesting.

Are you glad it's long? Yeah.

Or did I bore you? Nah, it’s fine.

What is your longest relationship? Whatever it was Joseph and I had went on for 3 years.

How long have you known your best friend? Since I was in the womb, ha.

Who is your favorite aunt? I’m really close to the aunt that came and stayed with us last week.

Do you have a cousin you dislike? No.

Do you own a pair of chanel earrings? Nope.

What is your favorite band? Linkin Park will always be one of them.

Have you ever heard theroy of a deadman? I think so.

What is your comfort food? Ramen.

What is your favorite color? Pastels, rose gold, sea foam green, coral, and yellow.

What color is the color of your walls? White.

Do you own anything zebra striped? No.

What kind of straighner do you have? I don’t have one, we’ve been through this already.

Are you obsessed with your hair? No. I don’t do anything with it. I’m not good at maintaining the red I’ve been dyeing it for the past 6 years either. I was in the beginning when I got it done once a month, but then it started getting more and more months in between and then it turned into a year. I’m currently a little over a year overdue. Sighhh. I just don’t have the energy or motivation to do that or much of anything else. I barely get outta bed most days.

#personal #text #survey #surveys #long survey

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myssparklesbookrants · 4 years

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FICTIONAL CHARACTERS I WISH WERE TRUE SO THAT I COULD DATE THEM or stare at them from afar

HIWow! It was hard choosing a first topic to talk about. I felt like I needed to talk about something big and glamorous to blow the brains out of… of someone. But alas, this is my best, for now..

So, I chose the first one that I had listed on the top of my head ever since I first started reading.

BOOK BOYFRIENDS!

This is a list of MEN or BOYS who tickle the romantic bone just right! (I had dreamed that there was such an organ in the human body, just near the stomach)

I selected these FICTIONAL BOYFRIENDS as potential members of my harem If I ever defy normal Filipino conceptions of marriage and take up polyandry.

The criteria I used is simple.

Choose the fictional partners that I can imagine existing in real life (not too much of an alpha and rich or good looking that borders on unbelievable). The type of characters that I can imagine talking to, who I find fascinating and can be a potential long-time partner, casual hook up or best friend.

I originally wanted to stick to 10. But as I wrote, a lot of names popped up and I can’t not put them in the list but still, I am sure after I have this article published (Char! Haha) there will be a lot of “Shoot! Why did I not put him on the list???” exclamations. So, maybe I will eventually make another continuation list???

This list is based on the BOOKS I READ so if you have a bet that I didn’t list, please don’t hesitate to give a recom. A new book to swoon over is always welcome.

Most Importantly: READ THE BOOKS WHERE THESE AMAZING CHARACTERS CAME FROM. I liked them because of their wit, their personality, how they interacted with other people, their dreams and how their love for their other half made them better people or vice versa. MEANING: THE BOOK WAS WICKED AWESOME AND THE AUTHOR WAS A GOOD STORYTELLER.

(I must apologize for the lack of female to female romantic partner mentions given my current lack of FF Romance reads, which is something I will rectify soon. But if you have recommendations, feel free to comment below and maybe add some MM ones too!)

Anyway, meet…

1. Clayton Danvers and Lucas Cortez

Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Underworld Series

Genre: Horror fiction, Paranormal romance, Urban fantasy

This series is adapted on screen called ‘Bitten’ which is available on Netflix.

Clayton Danvers is the strong, silent, and smart type. He is a professor in a university where he met Elena(his student) and a werewolf! His devotion to Elena was sweet, passionate and faithful to the point that bordered on obsessive but not off putting. The best thing about him was how un-Alpha he was. Although he was strong , his relationship with Elena was a partnership.

This is what romance needs today guys! A PARTNER not a rich and condescending daddy!

Lucas Cortez, on the other hand, is a lawyer/sorcerer, young master of a Cabal Group, who informally separates from his family's company to pursue a life as a lawyer protecting the rights of other magical beings against abusive Cabals(including his family's). Unlike Clayton, he was slender with brown eyes behind glasses. So basically, a cute, smart nerd who is the 'good' black sheep of the family.

(they are in separate books with different female romantic partners)

2. Quinn Sullivan

Penny Reid’s Neanderthal Meets Human

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Quin…*sighs*... So awesome! He was quiet, mysterious,unsmiling, rich and had an almost perfect handsome face. I love that the author imagined small flaws like almost unnoticeable crooked bottom front teeth and differing sizes of his ears with one prominent feature -his hawk-like stare. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, he took Janie's quirkiness in stride. Asking questions, debating, protecting, annoying, kissing…. You know the drill..😉

3. Beau Winston

Penny Reid’s Beard in Mind

Genre: Contemporary Romance

On first read, Beau was a good looking, charming good boy who is looking for his path after his twin, Duane left to pursue his own.

What I loved about him was how he dealt with Shelley's(Quinn's Sister) clinically diagnosed mental illness(OCD). He researched about it and made efforts to make it easier for her and was just overall supportive.

It was awesome how much the author has put an effort in researching OCD facts to make details perfectly accurate and how it was NOT at all a hastily placed plot device to get the story going.

4.Ted Beaudine

Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Call Me Irresistible

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Hello to my favorite romance book of all time!

I think I have read this many times already and have to put off re-reading it again for next year(2021) to give my brain some time to forget some of the plot. We need to keep the mystery going! amiright??

Anyway, Ted was the perfect genius, good boy and people pleasing guy. He is perfectly polite, straight laced and has basically carried the whole town in his muscled shoulders for years. (Did I tell you he was the Mayor?)

Meg's carefree life and struggles basically tickled his good boy bone the wrong way.

Read this novel to witness how a perfect boy and wastrel girl turned out in the end. Seriously Please Read!

5. Patrick Jason 'Pick' Ryan

Linda Kage' Be My Hero

Genre: Contemporary Romance

He was the tattoed, orphan softie on the wrong side of town who thankfully did not grow up a thug because of a vision he got when he was young from a moled witch.

One day, his tinkerbell, the star of his visions, enters the bar he works at, but PREGNANT!

Gosh! I loved this so much. This was part of the Forbidden Men Series but can read as a stand alone. Although, I advise you to read the other books also, they were all awesome!

6. Colin Bridgerton

Julia Quin’s Bridgerton Series

Genre: Historical Fiction/ Romance

Charming, green eyed and younger son, Colin was considered a catch of the ton.

He had a case of wanderlust and couldn't stay at one place without getting an itch. I can't say more without giving a major spoiler, but I loved that the author made him major insecurities.

Because secretly,too perfect is boring, right??

7. Sean Cassidy

Penny Reid and L.H Cosway's The Player and the Pixie

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Wewowewowewo. *sexy flames*

Imagine a gorgeous jerk of a jock with sexual inexperience and a rainbow haired goody goody shoes girl (whose brother is his ultimate enemy) who is willing to be the TEACHER!

But it was more than that, I liked how the authors highlighted the perils of kleptomania, the privilege of the rich and how gorgeous jerks are set straight by their women who would not suffer in a relationship with a class A insensitive jerk just because he was good looking and rich.

This was a ride! I lost count how many times I re-read this book.

8. Elend Venture

Branson Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy

Genre: High Fantasy

Elend was the angsty boy part of the elite class who is disgusted by his privilege and looks for ways to make the government better by reading outlawed books that spark rebellious and forward ideas. In short, he was a closet revolutionary.

Throughout the series there were some major changes in his life from a closet reader to a person who pursues ideas he just once read in books?

How do they say it? Walk the talk or in his case, Walk the read? (talking about it would mean death)

9.Archer Devereux

April White’s The Immortal Descendants Series

Genre: Time Travel Romance/ Historical Fantasy

Dumdumdumdum. Imagine a conservative college boy from the past your future self time traveled in, spends time with you, helps you in your quest, likes you secretly and is shy about it and becomes a vampire stuck in immortality waiting to meet the 'present' you.

Talk about love lasting through time! This was a great book if you love time travel stories with historically accurate and interesting facts injected heavily into the story!

10. Rupert Carsington

Loretta Chase’ Mr. Impossible

Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance

A hellion younger son of an earl who loves an adventurous carefree life who is without inhibition, just goes along the ride and has a set of surprisingly caring and dependable muscled shoulders.

Meets a beautiful tempered scholar who needs his help finding his kidnapped brother in the sands of Egypt.

This is perfect for those who love adventure romances, and topics on the papyrus, mummies and the french and British looting conflict in the African colonies.

11. Sebastian Ballister

Loretta Chase’ Lord of Scoundrels

Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance

My favorite Historical Romance book ever!! Like Ted Beaudine's book, I try to read this at least once or twice a year to forget some of the plot and keep the mystery going.

He was called the Marquess of Dain and has been raising hell since childhood and in the present day France where he meets the blue stocking Jessica. The author throughout the book continually refers to them as the Beauty and the Beast.

What makes this book SPECIAL is how intelligent, witty and funny most of their conversations were. It's funny how many books are under many sexy, funny and witty lists on goodreads but only some of those on the list are actually true! THIS BOOK IS ONE OF THEM!

Jess was not annoying or shy or too much of a fighter and Dain was not too obnoxious. It was perfect.

And if you have not read this book or others from this author or genre, I command you to start reading after you finish this article.Break some cherries!

12. Hardy Cates

Liza Kleypas’ Blue Eyed Devil

Genre: Contemporary Romance

A blue neck Town boy chasing dreams outside of town to leave the shithole of a living. He has white knight complexes but leaves the damsel in distress after the case is solved. Also, muscular and has the blunt and bluest eyes on Texas

This book I have also reread many times because it talks about dealing with domestic abuse and moving on after an abusive relationship, dealing with people who have narcissistic disorder and the life of the privileged.

13. Connor ‘Mad’ Rogan

Illona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy Series

Genre: Paranormal Romance (PNR)

Wootwootwoot. Imagine a former military but now head of the House 'Mad' Rogan successfully publicly kidnapping you in broad daylight using only wads of cloth. Talk about a powerful telekinetic!

I loved that he was once again, A partner in the relationship and not an overprotective ape despite him being awfully more powerful than Nevada.

14.Phil Tucker

Jennifer Crusie Welcome to Temptation

Genre: Contemporary Romance

This is written by an author whose ALL BOOKS WRITTEN i have read and loved.

Phil is part of a long line of male Mayors in the family and meets almost fugitive-like Sophie.

Read as they deal with each other, try to take down a production of town porn video, deal with an enemy, try to dirty Phil down to win the next election and spend time reading a romance classic.

15. Ansel Guillaume

Christina Lauren’s Sweet Filthy Boy

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Known for the many explicit sexy times that can be read throughout the book. So, if you want to stay green in the ears, skip this one till you're legal.

Ansel is a sweet, full of life French Lawyer celebrating with friends in LA and Mia with her friends also, celebrating their newly graduated from college selves.

Ansel is soft, a daydreamer, magnificent bringer of orgasms and game with all things Mia is willing to do.

They married through Elvis and decided to not divorce yet to explore the beautiful France and a possibility of a good relationship.

AND DONE!

I actually have a lot more but these are for now.

CONSIDER THIS LIST AS A BOOK RECOMMENDATION FOR AWESOME ROMANCES WITH WELL WRITTEN AND SWOON WORTHY CHARACTERS

Topic for my next blog entry:

How to Find the Next Good Book to Read:

A Guide to Good Sources of Book Recommendations

#bookaholic #penny reid #jennifer crusie #christina lauren #ilona andrews #loretta chase #lisa kleypas #susan elizabeth phillips #kelley armstrong #april white #brandon sanderson #julia quinn #book boyfriend #bookstagram #books to read #boys #men #love #romance

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eliteprepsat · 3 years

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With 2020 in the rearview and the hopes of a better year in sight, resolutions have no doubt been on many minds. New Year’s resolutions can be a great way to reset at the start of the calendar. They allow one to check in with themselves and to assess what deserves greater personal focus into the future.

Whether making a resolution (or two, or three) is new to you or a common practice, here is a list of resolutions specific to high school students that you might consider undertaking in 2021.

1. Improve your grades

Whether it’s resolving to score higher on your weekly reading quizzes or to go from a B to an A in math, try taking actionable steps to reach your goal. What is necessary to better succeed on those reading quizzes? Taking better notes? Going over assigned chapters twice? And what do you need to achieve that A? Staying after class to ask your teacher about the problems you missed? Visiting your school’s tutoring center? Improved grades don’t magically happen to us. Instead, we need to take the initiative to make them happen. So, go the extra step, and see how your grades improve.

2. Become a better student

The best students aren’t simply those with the best GPA. Beyond improving your grades, you can also resolve to become a better overall student this year. Participating more in class, asking teachers about extra credit opportunities, assisting classmates who could use extra help in a strong subject of yours. These are just a few ways that you can become a better student. What other ways come to mind?

Becoming a better student has many benefits. For example, voicing your thoughts by participating more in class can aid in developing your critical thinking skills. It also displays to teachers your interest in their course and your ability to lead. This likely won’t be forgotten when teachers calculate your final course grades, and it will also come in handy when you hope to receive a favorable letter of recommendation from them for college.

3. Focus on actual learning

Grades are important. Even more important, though, is actual learning. This means not just memorizing a vocabulary list for a quiz only to instantly forget it. It means internalizing lessons for greater purpose.

How do you go about this? Build a course schedule that will assist in a career you could imagine yourself pursuing. This might mean taking classes at your local trade school or taking AP classes so that you can test out of required courses in college to focus more on your major. Regardless, in all of your classes, always consider how the material can help you in practical, real-world applications.

4. Expand your mind

Don’t forget that there is also so much to learn beyond the subjects offered in high school. What new things would you like to try to learn or do this year? Learn how to code? How to tap dance? Or throw a pot on a ceramics wheel? The possibilities are literally endless, and so are the resources available to you. Research what kinds of classes are offered to high schoolers at your local community college. Perhaps your own school even offers enriching clubs you don’t yet know about. And, of course, there is no shortage of books, documentaries, and podcasts out there (many of them often free) to assist you in expanding your knowledge, too.

5. Expand your sphere

In addition to expanding your mind, you may also wish to expand your sphere in the new year. “Networking” can be very important for success—in school and beyond. So, whenever you can, reach out to teachers, counselors, tutors, and even friends to build up your network. You never know when you might need to call upon those you know for help.

6. Focus on your school-life balance

Education is extremely important, especially as a young person hoping to succeed in high school, college, and into the working world. But it is also extremely important to experience fulfillment outside of school. For more on improving your school-life balance, see our previous articles “4 Tips For Finding Balance: How to Study and Still Have a Life” and “A Guide to Achieving a Healthier School-Life Balance”.

7. Focus on self-care

After 2020, we could all stand to focus more on our personal self-care. Self-care involves nourishing all facets of one’s mental and physical health. What requires tending to in your self-care routine? Getting more fresh air or exercise throughout the day? Drinking more water or sticking to a regular sleep schedule? Stretching, meditating, or even just committing to flossing every day are all good goals that will add to your mental and physical wellbeing.

8. “Unplug”

While social media keeps us connected, helps us learn, and supports our creativity, it also has damaging effects. Studies have shown that too much scrolling on our phones increases feelings of isolation, inadequacy, depression, and anxiety. This likely isn’t news to you. But how do you break the cycle? If you think that you may spend too much time on social media, resolve to limit your use in the new year. A few tips include disabling notifications, leaving your phone behind when you go to bed for the night, and even removing one or more social media apps from your phone altogether. You can also redirect your attentions from social media to your offline friends and interests.

9. Break a bad habit

Excessive social media use can be quite a bad habit. What other bad habits might you benefit from axing in the new year? Biting your nails? Eating too many sweets? What about gossiping or even cursing? Write your intention on a piece of paper or share it with a family member or friend who can support you in your quitting efforts. And feel free to reward yourself when you’ve made strides toward achieving your goal.

10. Kick procrastination to the curb

But what if your bad habit is putting things off? Kick procrastination to the curb this year by trying to identify the cause of your procrastination. Are you easily distracted? Do your best to eliminate distractions at the outset of tasks. Are you simply overwhelmed by the task at hand? Break it down into more manageable parts on a to-do list. And again, don’t forget to reward yourself—both as you cross steps off of your to-do list and when you finally complete an entire task.

11. Get organized

Can you never seem to find your favorite pen? Your comfiest sweater? Does it take you ten minutes just to locate that history report on your laptop because your home screen is loaded with so many files? Perhaps your New Year’s resolution could be to focus on your organizational skills. Work to declutter your desk, your closet, your computer, or any other area in your life that always seems to be in the most disarray. Clear your space, and you will also clear your mind.

12. Become a better citizen

Once you’ve decluttered your closet, why not donate your unwanted clothes to a local shelter or thrift store? This is just one way that you can resolve to be a better citizen, giving back to your community in the new year. Other ways to help make the world a better place include assisting with food drives, collecting blankets and other necessities for animal shelters, and becoming a reading buddy for young learners. There should be no shortage of volunteer opportunities in your area. And with a simple Google search, you can discover them all.

13. Reach out to old friends and/or family

Miss your best pal from seventh grade? Only talk to your favorite cousin on holidays? Give them a call or shoot them an email to initiate a closer relationship this year. Don’t be afraid to take the first step. It’s amazing how quickly and seamlessly true friends and/or family can pick up where they left off when they reconnect.

14. Make a new friend

Alternately, you can always add to your roster of exiting friends. No number of friends is too many—especially when the friends are quality. Is there someone you know as more of an acquaintance who seems like a potential pal? Ask to sit with them in class or at lunch. Invite them to an event. Though it may be awkward at first, you’ll find that most people appreciate being reached out to as a friend. After all, don’t you?

15. Be a better friend

Although it’s true that no number of friends is too many, it’s also true that—as the dictum holds—quality is more important than quantity when it comes to relationships. So, how can you be a better friend? Practicing being a better listener is a great place to start. These articles from The New York Times and Psychology Today provide great tips on how to be a better listener.

16. Practice gratitude

This can take many forms. For example, you can practice gratitude by more regularly writing “thank you” cards to loved ones. Or you can begin each day by naming out loud three things that make you happy. You could also keep a gratitude journal, board or jar (on/in which you regularly write down things for which you’re thankful). Practicing gratitude can help to make you feel more outwardly compassionate and more inwardly positive and satisfied. According to a Harvard medical study, it can even improve your physical health. So, try one or a few of these practices in the new year, and see how it makes you feel.

A few final thoughts and recommendations

Remember that your resolutions can be as small or as big as you like. Often, setting smaller, more manageable goals is best, since you can more readily and frequently see your progress along the way. But don’t be afraid to set “shoot for the moon” goals, as well. Indeed, the old adage is true that you can accomplish just about anything you set your mind to. But also remember the wise words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said that the greatest accomplishment is “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you into something else.” So, whatever your resolutions for 2021, just be sure that they are right for you.

Serious about keeping your New Year’s resolutions? Check out Day by Day, Habitify, or Habitica—just three of many apps that allow you to keep visual track of your goals and your progress in achieving them. Such apps can help you to stay better focused and motivated on resolutions, and each is unique—from the more analytics-driven Habitify to the RPG-style Habitica.

And if you would prefer an app that is more tailored to a specific resolution, check out this list from PCMag, which includes apps for working on better eating, exercising, budgeting, and more.

Stacy G. is a writer and teacher who has taught composition, literature, and creative writing courses at a number of public and private universities across the U.S. She has also taught SAT, AP English, and Literature SAT Subject Test courses at Elite Prep. She likes poetry, dogs, and poetry about dogs.

#high school #studyblr #student life #study tips #New Year's Resolutions #goals #college prep

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jmalkki · 4 years

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Team Stamets

Finally! A proper group shot, to feature some of the uncredited regulars of the Disco family. Hopefully this is only the first of few more to come.

Haven’t done a ‘cast post’ like this in a while, but here goes:

(Though, before the cut I also need to make the customary mentions of this work on instagram, on twitter, and that the Disco works are all listed here).

I am so ecstatic to finally have gotten this done! I've been attempting to do group shots of the various Disco teams for the couple past years now (as some may recall me lamenting on several occasions). Poster type, posed things, which always failed at unnecessarily intricate planning stages (trying to figure out who to include, how to group them, and not wanting to leave anyone out), or couple times having already started drawing, to my attention just wandering off to more interesting scenes, away from illustrating just frigid poses.

This half-staged looking approach seems like it was the way to tricking my brain into sticking through with it. This looks it could very well be a paused scene in-universe; the (available) team gathering for a group shot mid workday, for some introductory organization PR clip or some such (though, Paul’s looking rather unnaturally mellow here for any Fleet propaganda nonsense *ha*).

This duo continues to have a special place in my heart. LtJG Harrington, played by Devon MacDonald, was introduced in ep3 of the first season, and was the first one of Team Stamets to ‘welcome’ Burnham to the Engineering in Paul’s absence. They were also the one who found Paul by the escape pods after the poor fellow had discovered and wandered off with dead Hugh later in the season (scene, which btw reeked of unresolved possibilities). Unfortunately we haven’t seen them after that (please, bring them back! ...if Devon is still up to play them, that is).

Chris O’Bray. This fellow should get so much more recognition! They’ve played several roles in the series already, as a Klingon, Kelpien, Andorian, ‘red shirt’... more? As well as continuously appearing as a Science officer on Team Stamets (I hear they even played opposite Anthony in season 2 in a scene of frustrated Paul, and though the interaction was ultimately cut, you can see a glimpse of it in an episode opening montage scene where the team is trying to figure out how to recover Tilly from the network). Yet, uncredited, Disco isn’t even listen on their imdb-page. I keep waiting to see them to get invited to Trek cons eventually, alongside older ‘minor role alumni’, having already gained such a repertoire of Trek roles.

Speaking of O’Bray, they were the one who’s mention of the name ‘Anna’ introduced me to this redhead on the left, too: Anna Popowicz (thank you!). I had been keen to know their name since season 1, where they are a prominent regular at the controls of the reactor core at that top level in the engineering room. In their most prominent screenshot I thought they greatly resemble Yeoman Mears from TOS.

Often appearing at the same station is also ‘Buddy’ - as I had gotten to calling this jovial looking fellow in the middle here, before learning they are played by ‘Jordan’ (name according to their instagram profile). Their most prominent on-screen appearances in season 1 include this lovely moment in ep 4 (with Paul Marion Landais, who didn't make the cut here, but was previously featured in this one), and the team briefing scene in episode 13. In season 2 they can be seen ie. standing behind Paul at Airiam’s funeral.

Then there is this Science officer on the right. They are the only one yet to wear earring with their uniform, and were thus first most recognizable to me too. Appearing several times in season one at a fairly regular spot at the controls in the Engineering. Previously featured way back in here (with Harrington), and since discovered to be played by one ‘Naima’ (real, or a stage name?).

Often alongside ‘the Earrings’ in season 1 is also this, as of yet unidentified character in the far background here. First appearing in ep 3 with ‘Earrings’, in that first Engineering scene with Burnham and Harrington, they’ve continued to be one of the most familiar presences around the premise all the way through to season 2 too. Their most prominent appearances in season 1 include that same celebratory sweep across the team in episode 4 mentioned above with ‘Buddy’, and running to the collapsed Paul’s aid in the spore reaction chamber with Saru, Tilly et co, after the mushroom man had taken upon himself to dose with the Tardigrate dna. In season 2 you can see Paul instructing them to a task in episode 13 (incidentally, while chatting with ‘Buddy’).

And this I haven’t asked in a while, but: if anyone recognizes them and knows to give a name, I’d love to credit them, and perhaps find more of them to help with featuring them more in any future works too. Any hints much appreciated.

Edit: Identified as one Michelle Browne. Yaay! So awesome to finally have the name to such a stable member of the Disco crew. Thanks to O’Bray, again <3

And lastly, there is also the fellow reading the PADD, an Engineering Ensign portrayed by Christian Rodriquez. Previously featured/identified here alongside both Buddy and Harrington, and in this season 2 starter piece with several other familiar faces. Oh, and in this one, too. Their most prominent scene on screen must still be their first season 1 appearance: they’re the one on duty when Burnham sneaks into Paul’s mushroom garden.

Oh, and there are of course Nilsson and Tilly of the credited cast there too, but much like Paul, I doubt they really need any introduction.

Obligatory hands/arms appreciation shot <3

Gosh, this was rewarding. Wouldn’t seem like the same ship without the recognizable crew aboard. Much kudos to the casting for keeping things consistent. Next, Bridge or Medical?

#star trek #star trek discovery cast #star trek discovery fanart #star trek fan art #dsc art #DSC fan art #Paul Stamets #Starfleet #USS Discovery #sylvia tilly #lt nilsson #airiam #anthony rapp #mary wiseman #sara mitich #chris o'bray #christian rodriquez #star trek cast

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svankmajerbaby · 4 years

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13, 20, 30, 40 !!

thank you so much for the ask!!!!!!

13. Describe your writing process from idea to polished i’m not really sure, but i think i’d go something like this: i get the idea usually by either being obsessed with a property (whether it’s frankenstein, beetlejuice or barbie) or by thinking up characters and adding traits and backstory to them, and then thinking up possible dynamics for them to have with other characters. then, i try to figure out a particular context (place and time) that could fit these characters, and i make sure to think it up in such a way that it doesn’t really conflict with the source material (for my barbie-frankenstein fanfic, for example, i didn’t want to set it in early 19th century, because i wanted vivianna to be able to become barbara roberts at some point, and as such it was more comfortable to preserve the victorian aesthetic while also being closer to the 20th century); if there’s not a proper space and time these characters can feel comfortable in (whether because of a particularly tense political situation, persecution, or simply The Wrong Aesthetic Choice), i make up one. after that i begin to write dialogues and location descriptions, try to picture it all in my head as clearly as possible. then, after i have some scenes written and some interactions done, i try to organize them, thinking what should come first, what can lead to a good finale, what would be the most important moment for each character and so on. when this is done, i usually already figure out the ending and can structure everything to lead up to it. after that, it’s all a matter of sitting down and writing between the scenes i’ve already done, editing them and adding whatever new ideas i get in the meantime. usually this is what takes the longest, because by this point i’m losing steam and interest and become distracted by new projects... but sometimes i manage to finish it and by then the editing process starts on full, checking for any grammar or spelling mistakes, wrong pronouns or words or names, usually cutting down on redundant descriptions or dialogues, adding things if i think something is not clear enough or erasing things if they seem too on the nose, and then i do this over and over until i feel it’s good enough.

20. How many WIPs and story ideas do you have? oh boy do i have plenty. i’ve sorta finished the first novel of the story of Olimpia Gómez -the first one is simply called “La Ejecutora, 1938″; i’m currently writing the second, the third and the fourth ones -”La Ejecutora, 1946″, “La Ejecutora, 1954″, and “La Ejecutora, 1966″ respectively. then i also have almost finished my stage adaptation version of “Corpse Bride”, which i renamed “Death and Marriage”. i’m a chapter away at finishing my toy story fanfic, “Sitting On The Shelf”. i’ve written a single chapter of a beetlejuice fanfic about the maitlands that i still haven’t found a proper name fore, but which i’m very excited about. i’m writing several chapters at once of a massive addams family fanfic, focused on most of the main family characters’ backstories or developments beyond the nineties movies, which i’m calling “Family Beyond Blood”. i’ve started a little princess tutu fanfic that i’m not sure if i should continue, but which is a stylistic deviation of what i’ve been writing so far, so that’s good. i’ve kind of abandoned another fanfic idea i had, “Vulnavia & Vulnavia”, from one of my favorite horror movies, “abominable dr phibes”, which i have to come back to... and like the madwoman i am, i’m planning on rewriting the star wars sequel trilogy, so i got that in my to do list, as well. besides those fanfics, i got a sci-fi novel being developed, called “Los Prototipos”, about two twins that escape the enclosure where they had been raised to find out they were being studied to make a single-minded working force (kind of like the replicants in blade runner) with an expiration date -all this set in a dystopic 1960s country somewhere in latinamerica, tackling issues of economic imperalism, forced labor and independece through revolution. this is one of my most political works, so i’m giving it a lot of space to breathe. i’ve also began some time ago a series of noir/horror short stories set in Buenos Aires, one of them based on a short movie script i’ve written, which i’m really excited to do -because i’m usually crap at writing short stories -but i’ve left it in standby until i finish the bigger projects first... and then I Have Scripts, Baby! “Mi Amiga Carolina”, about a possessed doll that emotionally manipulates a depressed teenager that moves alone into her grandmother’s old house; “El Moderno Prometeo”, a (mostly) faithful retelling of frankenstein set in Argentina, focused on the family drama of the frankenstein family and on the relationships between victor, daniela (justine, here being his older sister), quique (henry) and elsa (elizabeth); a screen adaptation of a novel of a friend of mine, “La Chica Que Trabajaba Los Sábados”, about a non-practising jewish woman in Buenos Aires who falls in love with a rabbi, and how their relationship ebbs and flows; and “Verano en los Manzanos”, about a boy who lives in rural Córdoba who falls in love with a girl from Buenos Aires (i try to write what i know, usually), and who as they grow up become a couple, have a kid, and ultimately wind up apart due to his struggle with depression and her own struggle with acute anxiety, all of this interweaved with his own return to the little forgotten village he grew up on, where he reflects on the life he used to have. so, in total... 16 WIP. plenty.

30. Favourite idea you haven’t started on yet i just now realized that i forgot to mention it in the last point, but technically i havent’ even started, so yeah, it’s just an idea: a series of sci-fi books about a parallel history in which India was the first country to go to the moon, and in which South America has the ASADE (Asociação Sul-Americana D’exploração Espacial), where they train cosmonauts to explore the vastness of space: set in an alternate 1930, a team of specialists on several fields and from several countries (the ones I got thought up already are captain Alfonsina Shua, from argentina, and copilot Adolfo Chaviano, from a paraguayan-argentinean couple) go on the fifth ever tripulated voyage. on an exploration, copilot Chaviano gets lost and disappears in space, cut off from his crew, and ends up going through a wormhole and crossing a threshold between sci-fi and fantasy of a blooming star -rendering him immortal but extremely radiated, which allows him to continue exploring space (ending up in several planets, registering his encounters with varied extraterrestrial cultures) while back in Earth the ASADE and his family try to locate him and bring him back home -it’s basically “The Martian” meets “The Little Prince”. and then, there’s the sequel series, about the three grandchildren of Adolfo Chaviano, who, after his death, discover that their grandfather had been developing a time machine alongside Alfonsina to go back in time and look for a way to revert the effects of the radiation in him, in order for him to live longer -and, perhaps, to find the way to become immortal and continue exploring the deepest limits of space. set in an alternate 1971, where space travel is now commonplace, the three siblings, Lena, Majo and Laucha embark on a space mission, meeting all sorts of new characters similarly affected by radiation and some mysterious magical/space properties, in order to find Alfonsina and ask her to give them one more chance to ask questions and say goodbye to their grandfather. so yeah, i got a lot of ideas, but i haven’t been writing any scenes yet -it’s still all in my head so far.

40. Share some backstory for one of your characters well, the original character i’ve got developed the most is Olimpia Gómez (whose birth name is Beatriz Moreno), the orphaned daughter of two spanish union workers who were killed in the Semana Trágica on 1919 by the mysterious Society (of course, working in cahoots with the repressive government), and taken in by that same Society and raised to kill supposed “criminals and dangerous subjects”. trained in the countryside, taught to always be ready to die an honorable death for peace and justice while on duty, she’s taken to Buenos Aires to prove herself by stealth-killing the targets she is given, who she is told are people beyond salvation. she’s never been popular, but her closest friend, Eugenia Menéndez, always tries to get her to open up and join her own attempts at having a normal social life -which is quite difficult when being a spy and “executioner”. Olimpia has a boyfriend, fellow agent Evaristo Gutiérrez, but by the time they’re nineteen their relationship feels cold and strained, and at the same time there’s the pull of one of the most powerful members of the organization, Azucena Velázquez, daughter of two high-ranking agents: she’s kind-of out as a lesbian (only able to be so because of her high status), and has always been interested in Olimpia; Olimpia has to wrestle with her own internalized homophobia, feelings of guilt and bisexuality in order to finally decide who she wants to be, alongside her discovery of precisely how the Society is corrupt and extremely politically motivated when electing its “targets”, which leads Olimpia to try to escape it -despite knowing that the Society is everywhere, and if she can manage to escape, it’s because the Society allows it in the first place.

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fezixsevi · 3 years

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jess-rewatches-prodigalson · 4 years

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Episode 17: Stranger Beside You

SPOILERS and thoughts ahead.

0:13 - How freaking creepy is this? She just pops up from the floor. Did Malcolm not see her there as he was approaching? Why didn’t he acknowledge her presence as he approached? ALSO - he’s excited about muffins? Does that mean muffins are one of the only foods he eats? I find this surprising. ALSO - last episode we learned that Malcolm can’t cook…why does he have a muffin tin? I know this is a dream but still.

0:45 - Ok. Story time. I watched this episode when it premiered. It was the first week I had moved home from university since the whole COVID-19 stuff. My younger brother (20) and my mom (45) who have never seen this show decided to watch it with me. Ugh. Our family dynamic is generally a lot of sarcasm and teasing. I’m the only one in the family interested in crime shows/whump. When Malcolm said “This is when the scary thing usually happens.” both of my family members started cackling like buffoons. For the next week my brother quoted that line to me. They both now tease me for loving this show so much…so that happened.

1:18 - This is kind of sweet. I don’t like Eve but I like seeing Malcolm this happy.

1:56 - This is such a good sibling conversation. Ainsley is setting Malcolm straight. I know Malcolm is right but honestly - Ainsley has a point. Malcolm has a tendency to accidentally sabotage his own relationships because he can’t trust people and he doesn’t believe that he’s worthy of love.

3:15 - Look at this. Just. Look. JT is happy to see Malcolm. They’re bantering like brothers. This relationship has blossomed and I’m so happy…also I google “sip and see” because I really wanted them to be fake. They sound ridiculous, but they’re real. IDK. I don’t have kids but it seems crazy to organize a big fancy party right after you give birth. Invite friends and family over - sure. Order a pizza and a cake. But hang out in something comfy and keep it casual. Maybe that’s just me. IDK.

3:42 - Malcolm’s projecting again. “Perfect can be an allusion.” Honestly. Is he even aware that he does this?! Also, is he projecting about his childhood or his relationship with Eve. Either way, I’m concerned for him….though I do like how happy he’s looking right now.

3:47 - hahaha OMG. “With the stiff!” Gil is so done.

4:30 - I thought this was interesting. 1) Do dead bodies actually do that? Compress? Huh. Cool. 2) I like the way that Edrisa and Malcolm are so totally absorbed in how cool/weird the cause of death was that neither of them notice Edrisa’s hand on Malcolm’s chest. 3) Gil pointing out Edrisa’s hand makes things a little awkward - but honestly I see it as a gentle warning. He knows that Edrisa is socially awkward. She’s not in trouble and he’s not mad. He’s just reminding her that stuff like that isn’t appropriate.

5:04 - Watching this after realizing that Tally is pregnant brings a whole new weight to all of JT’s comments. Every time he mentions babies, baby swag, moms - he looks either scared, stressed (because money), or excited. It’s freaking precious.

6:15 - “It’s a cloud of love. Nothing to be ashamed of.” Again. More proof that Malcolm is an A+ adult male. Who speaks like that?

7:05 - Do I need to be scared about Dani now too? I do not like the way that Martin says her name. Wait. Is Martin going to go after every person that takes Malcolm’s time away from visiting him? I can totally see it. Martin escaping - killing Gil for replacing him as Malcolm’s Dad. Killing Jessica for trying to keep Malcolm from him. Killing JT, Dani, and Edrisa for being his friends. Can’t decide if he’d kill Ainsley…

7:41 - HOW is this show so dark and yet so funny?!?!

8:20 - I know that Malcolm knows that Tally is pregnant…but after the pizza roll comment there’s no way Gil and Dani don’t suspect. Look at their faces!!! And the way JT looks down way too quickly. He’s clearly hiding something.

8:55 - Look at Gil’s face. He’s concerned and a little scared. I am too. What the hell does Malcolm mean by “Mom’s love me”?!?! Is this some weird sex thing?

9:05 - Dani is a queen. We stan. She is the friend Malcolm deserves. I especially love the fact that later we find out that she told JT about this conversation. As though she thought Malcolm needed “guy advice”.

10:00 - Yo. People like this shouldn’t be allowed to have children. Kids are not a fashion statement - they are human beings who need to be nurtured and loved.

11:10 - So, I don’t usually like it when Ainsley snoops around for a story and gets all determined - but this time I do.

12:00 - Does Ainsley really not understand that what she did was a total invasion of privacy?!? She doesn’t look sorry. At all. The fact that Ainsley actually talks to Eve about it is kind of awful too? Like it’s one thing to do a background check on someone - it’s another thing to talk to them, unprovoked, about what you found.

12:12 - Poor Jessica. She looks upset. Between her two “socially bizarre” children ( lol ) she really has a hard time making friends. Although…..I will admit. It’s a little weird that Jessica is making friends with a woman young enough to date her son.

12:32 - Soooo this means that Malcolm has an instagram account (at least a fake one for work anyways). I feel like Malcolm is one of the people who don’t have a personal instagram account. Because a) he has like 3 friends and b) he doesn’t strike me as the type of person to take pictures of food, people, events, or himself.

12:40 - So Malcolm’s sitting at that desk again…..forget about the gitb… I want to solve the desk mystery (and the mystery of JT’s name).

12:57 - Damn it JT! We were about to get a super awesome father/son moment. Ugh. When I said I wanted the writers to give JT more screen time I didn’t mean this.

13:13 - Aww…look at how proud Dani is of herself. Girl made a cool discovery and she’s proud/excited about it. <3

13:22 - ARE YOU KIDDING ME. We finally get a good look at the desk from the front. No name plate in view?!? UGH. This is killing me.

13:33 - hahaha look at these faces! JT looks confused/freaked out that Malcolm knows so much about babies feeding habits. Dani looks so annoyed that she’s been put on Malcolm babysitting duty again. I don’t blame her. Gil is always making her babysit Malcolm. JT never has to take a turn.

13:55 - The most annoying thing about this episode is that we never find out how Alessa cut her arm. It’s a weird place on your arm to get a cut and I’m curious about it.

14:35 - I respect Malcolm a LOT in this scene. He’s asking some tough (but necessary) questions. He’s calm, kind, and respectful. He’s not minimizing Alessa’s stress, her loss, or her devotion to her daughter.

16:30 - Soooo if Christine’s (ex) husband lives in Canada - does that mean he’s Canadian (or dual citizen)? Or does he just have a work permit? I’m curious about what that means for Christine’s citizen status. I find this odd though - even if Christine isn’t Canadian - if she was last seen in Canada and her husband reported her missing - the RCMP would’ve been looking for her. They NYPD would know that. Although - she is using a fake name. Huh. There’s a reason I’m not in law enforcement. People are too crafty. I’ll stick to math.

17:55 - Look how mad JT looks that Christine tried to abduct Nina….he’s going to be such an overprotective, good dad. <3

18:25 - This is a really cool moment. This scene is the first since 1x9 when JT and Malcolm have a heart-to-heart. JT also gives Malcolm some really good relationship advice. Damn. No wonder JT’s been married for 7 years. He gets it.

18:55 - I love how manic Malcolm looks and how concerned JT looks when Malcolm goes off on his little rant about being a suspicious person. I wonder if JT is wondering why Malcolm trusts Gil, Dani, Edrisa, and himself? They are, by all means, good things in Malcolm’s life. Is he suspicious of them?

19:25 - Does Martin know about Malcolm’s sensitive stomach? I’m really curious.

19:44 - This scene is awesome. Malcolm is sad, upset, a little anxious, and angry (at Martin) throughout the scene. Martin, even though he is a crazy serial killer, actually gives Malcolm some good relationship advice. I guess it makes sense. Martin could never have tricked Jessica into marrying him unless he acted like a perfect, good dude with good relationship skills.

20:04 - Martin actually believes he was a perfect father? Nope. I can’t. Any parent who genuinely believes that should have a psych eval. No one is perfect. Parents aren’t excluded from this rule.

20:56 - This is such a powerful moment. You can see how pleased Martin is because he got through the Malcolm. You can see how desperately Malcolm wants to love his father and how painfully aware Malcolm is of who his father is and how much he despises it. Malcolm shouldn’t have to remind himself to hate his father. No one should. Watching Malcolm grapple with that (through his facial expressions) is heart-wrenching. He actually looks close to tears for a moment. ALSO screw Martin for still trying to manipulate Malcolm into loving him.

22:10 - I’ll just say it. We’re all thinking it anyways. Malcolm’s soft voice when he’s confused is so freaking cute.

23:08 - Look at JT’s face during this scene. He just about had a freaking heart attack. I feel soooo bad for him. I can only imagine how bad he feels. Gil gave him one (1) job: protect the baby. JT’s probably thinking, “If I can’t even protect this stranger’s baby - how will I ever protect my baby? Will I be a bad father?” Someone give this man a hug for me.

23:25 - Look at the way JT touches the infant to make sure she’s real. That is a man who is on the verge of a panic attack.

24:00 - AND now JT is worrying about Tally’s health throughout her impending pregnancy. Good Lord. What a rollercoaster he’s on tonight.

25:25 - Concerned!Gil for the win! Gil hasn’t been around Malcolm much this episode. Yes - Malcolm is obviously upset right now, but it makes me wonder if Jessica and/or Ainsley have called Gil because they’re concerned about Malcolm right now. Did they call Gil and ask him to send Malcolm home?

26:25 - Look at that. Malcolm looks crushed. Not surprised just disappointed. He truly believes that he’s not worthy of love. Eve just confirmed it for him. I honestly don’t know how this dude will ever trust any romantic partner ever again. My heart is shattered.

26:43 - Look at how brave he’s being. He’s trying to mask his pain with a smile and a self-deprecating joke as usual. Problem is - his eyes look tortured and he’s trying to lie to the two women who know him best. They see through his mask and they’re concerned for him.

27:00 - Ainsley is such a strange character to me. Right now as she tells Malcolm about Eve, she is looking at Malcolm with dread, concern, and determination. In 1x7/1x10 she publicly embarrassed him and revealed his personal, private details with the world - without remorse. I know that Ainsley is really obsessed with the progression of her career. However, it shouldn’t blind her to the emotions of her big brother. Ainsley needs therapy.

27:08 - soooo Eve has a key to Malcolm’s place? After two(ish) weeks? For a dude who doesn’t trust easily this seems like a stretch. I’m choosing to believe that Malcolm left the door open when he saw Ainsley and Jessica.

27:15 - THIS is so important. Jessica’s “How could you?”. See her face? She’s devastated. The first female friend she’s had in probably 20 years just stabbed her in the back. To make matters worse, this woman also just broke the heart of Jessica’s very emotionally vulnerable son - thereby also breaking Jessica’s heart. Furthermore - Jessica is definitely already paying rent in the self-loathing hotel because she traumatized her children because she married a serial killer. NOW she’s also dealing with the guilt of knowing that she’s the one who brought Eve into Malcolm’s life. That look hurt or devastation on Jessica’s face which later transforms into rage and hatred is haunting. Props to Bellamy Young.

27:26 - This. Look at Malcolm’s face. Eve looks like she’s close to tears. Malcolm is looking at her with compassion. Yes - you can tell that Malcolm is devastated and hurt by Eve. However, he also clearly empathizes with her. Again. Malcolm. Bright. Is. An. A+. Dude. Fight me.

27:40 - Can we all just pause for a second and praise Tom Payne’s acting in this scene? He captured the raw emotion of a trauma induced panic attack perfectly. Look at how utterly broken Malcolm is. Hands shaking on his head. Tears in his eyes. Ragged breathing. Followed by a brief angry outburst which leads to more shaky, anxious breathing and eyes on the verge of tears. The end result is physical and emotional exhaustion.

27:45 - Ainsley looks shocked and a little scared by Malcolm’s outburst. Has she (HIS SISTER) never seen him have a panic attack? They grew up together. I refuse to believe it. Ainsley shouldn’t look shocked - she should look sad and resigned to it.

28:06 - This is heartbreaking. Malcolm genuinely thinks that there is something about him that makes him unlovable. I know he’s already in therapy - but they need to stop focusing on his trauma for a hot second and focus on his self-worth issues. I aM nOt OkAy.

28:22 - Can we all just take a minute to appreciate Dani Powell. She has been such a good friend to Malcolm. Probably the first true friend Malcolm’s had since he was 10 years old. Even in the midst of extreme emotional turmoil a work-related text from Dani makes Malcolm smile. Because Malcolm knows that Dani - a woman who isn’t related to him and has no obvious crush on him - doesn’t hate him. In fact - she likes him enough to be his friend. Right now that’s enough. That’s a big comfort to Malcolm.

28:36 - This is sheer panic on Jessica’s part. Check out those eyes. She just saw pure self-loathing and anger in her son’s eyes. She’s terrified for him. Maybe this look is reminding her of a look he got as a teenager when he became suicidal (it’s my headcanon that Malcolm had a period of active suicidal ideation as a teenager)?

28:40 - “I can’t solve this.” Is Malcolm referring to himself here? I mean - he clearly thinks that he is the problem; despite the fact that Eve came into his family’s life with the intention of getting information on his serial killing father. Ugh. His sad eyes and messy hair (that tends to indicate Malcolm is in severe emotional distress) is breaking my heart.

28:54 - Ok. So - who is this woman? How did Christine find her? Why did Christine go to her? It doesn’t look like a women’s shelter - it looks like a random lady’s residential home.

29:00 - Again. Let’s all praise Queen Dani. The bestest friend this dude has ever had. She just goes out and asks him what’s wrong. She’s concerned about him BECAUSE she knows he’s upset about something.

29:20 - I love that Malcolm is comfortable enough around Dani to be honest with her about the really hard stuff in his life. Look at how sad Malcolm looks here. Look at Dani’s reaction. She isn’t judging him or pitying him. She isn’t pushing him to talk. She’s just supporting him. She’s a little shocked, a lot upset on his behalf, but mostly she’s just concerned. She’s being a good friend and I love her for it.

29:36 - Lucas is a scum. Anyone who abuses a spouse, child, or family member has a special spot reserved in hell.

29:52 - Look at Dani as Christine tells her story. She’s sympathetic, respectful, and concerned. Either this isn’t the first time Dani’s been around a battered woman on the job or Dani has personal experience with abuse. Maybe a friend/family member was abused? Hell - maybe Dani had an abusive boyfriend or something?

30:20 - I really respect Malcolm in this scene. He knows that women who are fresh out of an abusive relationship (or still in one) with a male are weary of men. Usually, when Malcolm gets this type of information about a case he starts speaking quickly, loudly, and intensely. He starts gesturing a lot with his hands. IN THIS SCENE - Malcolm reigns himself in. He stays relatively calm and still as he speaks. He knows that his usual hand-gesturing and loud voice would terrify a woman who was just beaten by a man who was supposed to love her. This. Is. A. Good. Dude.

31:10 - Malcolm just shows Dani his cracked phone screen. I’m curious - does she ever ask about it? I’d like to hear that conversation.

33:05 - I LOVE THIS. Gil is terrified for a) Malcolm but b) Alessa and Nina too. This is a side of Gil I’d like to see more often. ALSO notice that the second that JT realizes that Gil is suffering from a parental panic attack he floors it. JT is going to be a good Dad. <3 He knows how to love and he has a big heart. That’s the most important thing.

34:34 - Again. Malcolm is currently displaying empathy and sympathy for a murderer. This dude has the biggest heart in the world.

35:45 - Alessa is a badass. Nina is a lucky little girl.

36:04 - I love this scene. Gil looks so relieved that Malcolm is in one (mostly unharmed) piece. He’s so proud of Malcolm for keeping Alessa and Nina safe. I’m certain that Jessica and/or Ainsley called Gil about Malcolm’s panic attack which exacerbated Gil’s worry over Malcolm.

37:07 - THE SCENE. The scene. This scene is easily my favourite of the episode. I love watching JT and Malcolm’s friendship in real time. Look right here this is two guys chatting about how cool someone is. <3 Look at how happy and proud JT is of a woman he just met. I promise you he’s thinking about how awesome and badass of a mother his wife is going to be.

37:28 - JT’s scared face coupled with his softly spoken “Dude.” stops my heart. It’s as though talking to someone other than his wife makes the baby seem like more of a scary, real responsibility. You can tell that he’s excited but still terrified about fatherhood. He’s not quite ready to tell people yet.

37:37 - “The thing’s the size of a peanut.” - I googled it: Tally is about 9 weeks pregnant. ALSO how freaking cute is it that JT is so excited about his unborn child that he knows how big it is. <3 I can just see him panic researching about pregnancy and caring for infants in the middle of the night while Tally sleeps. <3

37:44 - He doesn’t want to jinx it? Does that mean he and Tally have had trouble getting pregnant in the past? Miscarriages? Infertility? Or is JT just scared from everything he’s been researching about pregnancy? Either way - if Tally looses this child I will riot.

37:50 - “You don’t do happy.” - Malcolm’s face twists into a look of hurt and sadness. He genuinely believes JT’s words - even though JT meant them as a joke. JT sees that too because he immediately starts teasing Bright. JT is concerned about Malcolm.

38:39 - So Eve does have a key. Nope. Not cool. Not in-line with Malcolm’s trust issues. I refuse to believe it.

39:11 - I hate watching Malcolm be this sad. Look at his nose. It’s just a little red - he’s been crying. His fragile ability to trust has been shattered again and Eve’s apology is quite honestly not very good.

39:45 - Can we all just pause on Malcolm’s shirt? It looks like the orange sweater Gil wore in 1x13. Did they go shopping together? Did Malcolm buy the shirt because it reminded him of Gil? Does he only wear it when he feels sad because the fact that it reminds him of Gil comforts him

40:35 - What’s the story of Eve’s Dad? What’s his deal?

41:40 - I’m really proud of Malcolm for being brave enough to face the truth and have this really difficult conversation with Eve.

43:09 - Ok. I’ll say it. Malcolm is too nice. This woman shattered his heart last night and now he’s hugging her? Bro - you don’t have to do that. You’re allowed to be upset. You’re letting her walk all over you.

Thanks for hanging out Prodigies.

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