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#and yes this is based on the scene in the fourth movie i really love the rendition of the fight against nyx
crescentfool · 2 years
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at the top of tartarus 🌕
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silenzahra · 25 days
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Fics I'm working on ✨
Hey there! I just thought that, since I'm a veeeery slow (and chaotic) writer, I could let you guys see a list of all the fics, AUs and HCs I'm working on or intend to work on in the near future! ✨
@itsavee4117 @vulpixfairy1985 @keakruiser @peaches2217 @bberetd would you like to take a look? 🥰
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Since I take my notes mostly in Spanish, I'll comment and translate a few things:
-Firstly, two of those fics were inspired by two beautiful pieces I LOVE and could stare at forever: this one and this one. Guess the fics they've inspired are both pretty obvious 🤭😝 ("chillando" means "screaming" btw 🤭)
-Secondly, you'll see two AUs that are not mine, but to which I'd like to add my personal take! I'm pretty sure you're all familiar with @multicolour-ink's Anastasia AU 😍 I did write my own version of the ballroom scene, but still gotta go and correct it very deeply (that's actually what "corregir muy a fondo" means). Also, when Multi posted their Hunger Games AU, I mentioned that a few months ago, I went and wrote what could be the beginning of the Hunger Games with Mario and Luigi in the roles of Katniss and Prim, so that's there too! ("repasar y editar" = "revise and edit").
-Thirdly, I wanna go and finally finish my Luigi's Mansion fic, since the third and last chapter is long overdue! The Dream Team one is only a mere idea right now (haven't even taken notes yet), but regarding Superstar Saga, I have written one of the two fics that I mention up there! I gotta go and edit it and then write the other (for this one I have taken notes). Oh, and that Luigi's Mansion 3 fic you see there... Yes, it happens to be the angstier thing I've ever written 🤭 Gotta work on it so I can start posting it soon!
-... Yes, I have four AUs in mind 😬 I've actually written down notes for three of them (and I have the fourth in mind), but... The first two are based on two shows that I don't know how famous are around here? 😬😅 So I'm pretty unsure about posting them 😅 The other two are based on two famous movies, so I do intend to bring them someday. I just don't when yet 😅
-I also have a few HCs that I'd like to share with you guys soon! And of course they had to be focused on Luigi, my favorite Mario character, and Luaisy, my favorite couple 🤭 I love them so much I just couldn't resist! (Also: "cuquis" means "cuties" and is pronounced exactly the same way as "cookies"! 🥰) And about that last one... I've been wanting to write Luaisy smut for a few months now, and @itsavee4117's fic (please go read it if you haven't yet!) inspired me to give it a try (and your words of encouragement too 💖), but I'm still so insecure about it! 😅 I don't know if it'll end up happening someday, but hey, at least the intention is there! ("quiero pero no estoy segura socorro" literally means "I wanna but I'm not sure help" 😂 So yeah, you can see I am truly doubting on this one 😅)
-Last but not least, please allow me to bring back something from almost two months ago: this post. Yes, it's been too long, and I feel terribly sorry for @peaches2217 and @itsavee4117 since you both sent me prompts back in January (which I'm deeply grateful for 💖) and I still. Haven't. Answered. 😬 Dishonor on me and my cow for real.
But hey, you see the first two fics I've listed? Those are the prompts that you sent me and both have been written and are almost ready to finally be shown to the world! 😁 I actually intend to post one of them later today, so if you finally wish to see your questions answered, stay tuned! And again: sorry to keep you waiting for so long. I really hope the wait will be worth it 🫂🤞💖 (Also, thanks to @keakruiser, who also sent me a prompt from this list back in January, I wrote this fic based on Dream Team, so thanks a lot for your prompt, Kea! 💖)
This is it for now! If you have anything to say or ask or comment or whatever, feel free to do so! My asks are open! 💖 (I'll answer my pending asks tomorrow, btw! Promise! Thank you for sending them and sorry for taking too long to answer, I'll really work on fixing that 🫂💖)
Here's my AO3 in case you wanna go check any of the fics I've posted so far! ✨
If you read everything, thank you so so much! 🫂 Love you, dear friends! 💖
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i-am-baechu · 1 year
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♡ Summary: Another nightmare. How many more can Jimin handle at this point? He fought so hard to be with Y/N but his brain kept bringing him back to his most desperate hours. He just wanted to be happy with her.
♡ Paring: Established relationship; Jimin x Reader 
♡ Rating: Pg - 14
♡ Genre: Established relationship, Time traveler! Jimin, one scene of underground fighter! Jimin, Yoongi’s younger sister! Reader, angst, PTSD, violence, some blood and fluff 
♡ Based on the one-shot; Spiral
“Don’t hurt her!” 
Jin turned towards him and smirked at the beaten Jimin. After Jimin lost their fight, Jin knew what he wanted and he was going to get it. He walked towards Jimin and stomped on his hand causing the younger man to let out a loud painful groan. He continued to stare at Jin with hard eyes and this made Jin laugh. He kneeled down and glanced at his Namjoon with a small smile, “This is your best fighter? I know there’s better in your gang. How sad.” 
Jin stood back up and snapped his fingers. His gang members grabbed Y/N and she looked at Jimin with pure fear in her eyes. Jimin slowly got up when he saw her eyes and he coughed up blood as he did so. 
“Ji-Jimin, don’t-”
“Namjoon, he’s going to take her away, I’ll be damn.” 
Jin slowly turned around and scoffed at him, “Stop being a hero.” Jin walked up towards Y/N and pushed some hair behind her ear as she shivered in fear, “You lost Jimin.” 
Jimin went to walk forward but fell to his knees as the pain took over him. Y/N went to go help him but Jin’s gang members held her tighter, “Jimin!” 
“Fuck, don’t touch her Jin.” 
“Tell Yoongi I say hi.”
“NO!” 
Jimin sat up in his bed as sweat went down his forehead. He clenched his blankets tightly and turned his head to see Y/N sleeping. He smiled softly to himself when he saw her parted lips, it made him feel better for a second. He pushed the blankets off and headed towards the kitchen to grab a glass of water. 
It’s been a month since Jimin fixed the future and his heart was happy but his brain wouldn’t let him enjoy it. It was awful. Seeing his old high school friends brought memories, memories of losing Y/N always circled back. Yoongi was having the same problem and the two talked about their problems but they never solved it. They just talked about it. Y/N was worried about Jimin and tried her best to help but he couldn’t tell her that he time traveled to save her from death. He just couldn’t tell her. 
He brought the glass to his lips and took a sip of his water. He let the water relax his body as he leaned against the fridge. It’s the fourth night in a row that he couldn’t sleep and he hated it. Y/N was by his side and that should make him happy but his brain couldn’t process that. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the fridge. It wasn’t until he felt a soft touch on his hand.
He opened his eyes and looked down to see Y/N looking at him with a concerned look, “Jimin, are you alright? Is it nightmares again?” 
Jimin sighed and placed the cup on the counter. He wrapped his arms around her waist and sighed, “Y-Yeah...I’m sorry that I woke you up babe.” 
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around his waist, bringing him into a tight hug, “Don’t ever say sorry. You're going through a hard time.”
He kissed the side of her head and breathed in her cherry blossom shampoo, “I just feel bad waking you up.”
“It’s fine. I don’t really care.” 
The couple moved into the living room and cuddled up on the couch together. Jimin laid on the couch with Y/N laying on top of him. She turned on the t.v and played a random movie to have background noise. She kissed his naked chest and tilted her head at him making him look at her, “Yes?”
She smiled and kissed his chest again, “I just love you so much, Jimin. Have you thought about seeing a therapist?” 
“Me and Yoongi have....” 
“You would go together?” 
Jimin nodded his head at this and glanced at the t.v, “Yoongi-hyung, understands...”
She frowned at this and laid her head on his chest, “I’m worried about you guys. I just want to help you more.” 
“You being here helps me more than you can ever know.” She looked at him and bit her lip, not knowing if she should say what was on her mind. Jimin raised his eyebrow at the silence and glanced at her to see her in deep thought. He pushed some hair behind her ear making her look at him, “What’s on your mind?” 
“When you were sleeping...you kept saying my name....you were saying please don’t die. Is that why you haven’t slept?” 
His body tensed up at this and stared down at her eyes. He didn’t want her to hear that. Jimin sighed and looked down at the carpet, “Yes....”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s hard to talk about it...it’s vivid.”
Y/N sat up from him and shut off the t.v. She turned towards him with a determined look, “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”
Jimin sat up and sat next to her, “It’s hard to talk about it.” 
“Do you want me to get you a journal?”
“I never thought of that...”
“See you need to talk to me so I can help you.”
Jimin glanced at her and then back at the carpet, “I’m just scared to write it out.” 
“Babe, why?”
“Because I don’t want to read about losing you....I don’t ever want to lose you, Y/N. Not again.” 
Y/N looked at him with a confused look but she quickly shook her head at this. She didn’t want to ask anything. She sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist, “Jimin, you will never lose me. No matter what.” 
Hearing her say this made his eyes widen and he held her tighter. His head dropped and he started crying into her shoulder. She was shocked at this but she just held him tighter. No matter what, he will never lose her. She rubbed his back and let him cry into her skin. This was the first time Jimin was crying in front of her and not hiding in the bathroom. It was a step forward. 
“Y/N, I love you so much...”
“And I love you so much, Jimin. That’s why we're getting married.” 
“I know...fuck I’m tired now.” He moved his head off of her shoulder as he sniffled. She wiped his cheeks gently and softly kissed his forehead, “I guess crying does that.”
Y/N let out a small laugh and pushed some hair back, “We should go to sleep baby. Maybe tomorrow we can call Yoongi and discuss plans of recovery. No matter what, I’ll be here for you guys.”
“It’s going to be hard...I’m scared to talk about it.”
“That’s okay, baby steps. There's no rush in healing, remember that.” 
He smiled at this and leaned forward placing a quick kiss on her lips, “Yoongi-hyung, is a little worse...but I think we can get this together.” 
She nodded her head at this and smiled. She got up and grabbed his hand, heading back to their bedroom, “No more talking, we need to sleep.” 
“Yes, love.”
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bengiyo · 1 year
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Moonlight Chicken Ep 4 Stray Thoughts
Yesterday, we delved deeper into the demolition plotline and considered the global impacts of gentrification and how they can turn people against each other as Wen and Gaipa are connected to the process. We met Jim's landlord, and I joined Li Ming in expressing disdain for him. Wen came clean about his role with the company, but not his relationship with Alan. Li Ming is failing school and wants to work abroad, but he's also falling for Heart in an adorable way. Finally, Alan appeared for all of ten seconds, and I was thrilled to see First.
Ah, yes, starting with the most endearing boys. Something terrible is going to happen this episode if they're trying to suck me in.
Okay, Fourth and Gemini are just too adorable. I'm so curious about the training they've been through in the last three years.
Chapter 4: The Midnight of Lifetime
Lol, the next scene, Aof? He said, "Let me use the overwhelming cuteness of Li Ming and Heart as direct comparison for how cold things are between Alan and Wen."
There's so much in this breakfast scene. Alan and Wen still share an apartment, and so have to talk about domestic concerns. They aren't together anymore, but I feel like Alan is still invested in the social cachet of their appearance as a couple. Alan can quickly pay a bill online, and some of their household items look like goods we might use in the West.
Gong is so correct.
I know Jim is worried, but he should respect his nephew's privacy.
Earth and Fourth played that fight so well. These two characters are both aching and so tired.
Important Chin Tickle Update: Gemini did it to Fourth when Heart was trying to cheer up Li Ming.
Ah, yes. The gays wrestling over a hose. A staple trope.
I love that Gemini has gotten to play cheesy and romantic twice. Putting his crush in a cute shirt that says "Touch me if you can" is sending me.
Crying over this birthday cake scene, because it takes a village, you know? Sometimes families have troubles, and it's their friends and neighbors who need to nudge them just enough to help them see each other properly.
Wen ain't shit for doing a surprise birthday party and excluding Gaipa.
Important Chin Tickle Update: Jim did it to Wen.
"When you decide on something for him, you think he's too young. But when you expect him to do something, you think he's old enough." Where is Wen from, because it takes other people a long time to learn this?
I like a personal shirt for Jim as a gift. Anything to fancy might have offended him. And of course, we can use it to make him take off his shirt.
Beam really did a number on Jim. I like that he won't touch Wen now that feelings are involved.
If I had a man hitting on me that pushed me to watch my favorite romantic movie that I can't seem to enjoy anymore, I would fold, especially if I was asked to describe it because the disk failed.
I need to know what Alan did that made Wen sneer like that. Also, I want to see what First and Mix look like when they're not at odds with each other.
First is a special actor, his physicality as Yok, Akk, and Alan have all been distinct. Alan seems to default to the seme stance.
Poor Gaipa. He's sweet, but it's just not what Jim wants.
You could see envy radiating off Alan when he recognized Jim, and then you saw him calculating because Jim didn't recognize him at all.
Gaipa and his mom seem to be doing okay, based on the house and clothes.
Add Gaipa's mom to the list of good parents. Saying she doesn't regret him being gay, but would regret if he didn't love anyone, and then demanding he get a boyfriend for her sake. She also asserts that parents always know. Oh, gay boys and their moms.
I don't think there are a lot of Christians in Thailand, but the Jesuits are just so persistent.
The teens are on the loose! Begin the gay date montage!
It's very sweet of Li Ming to bring Heart somewhere he can connect to other people.
Suddenly Ford. You better sing, boy!
The final sequences with the narration were lovely. First does a good job playing up Alan's increasing anger. There's just so much to love in the last couple of minutes about the complexity of life.
Um, what is this preview? Heart better not be hurt!
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snarkivistfic · 5 months
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20 questions writer meme.
Thank you @heyholmesletsgo for tagging me :)
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
89 .
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
1,055,134
3. What fandoms do you write for?
Mainly Untamed/MDZS, KinnPorsche now.  I have written in a variety of other fandoms (Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Jane Austen’s Emma, Torchwood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Game of Thrones) but mostly just Untamed and KPTS now.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Talk to Him - A KPTS fic where Tay goes to visit Big in the hospital and the nurses think they are dating so Tay just plays along.
Common People - Another KPTS fic. This one Tay starts having a fling with Jom. I sort of based it on the song "Common People" by Pulp.
Never Have I Ever - KPTS - It's so funny to me that this is so high because it is a short little one shot that I wrote in one sitting. Basically, Tankhun press gangs some of his friends into playing the drinking game Never Have I Ever.
I'm Ready to Suffer, I'm Ready to Hope - The first KPTS fic I ever wrote. It's a Big/Chan fix it.
Give Me One Good Movie Kiss and I'll be Alright - KPTS again - Big/Chan post canon getting together.
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
DEFINITELY. I am here for the community and all the friends I have made in fandom have been through commenting on their fics or them commenting on my fics. This seems even more important now that twitter is well what twitter is these days.
6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Hmmm I am a happy ending type of gal but I guess The Loves of Ianto Jones (Torchwood) ends with a bit of angst. I always meant to write a sequel, I started writing it, but then I kind of left the Torchwood fandom.
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
I guess like they all have happy endings but I think maybe When A Young Cultivator is Happiest (Untamed) because that was meant to be the last fic in my Wen Ning/ Ouyang Zizhen series (I wrote a little post script for Wen Ning's birthday this year) so it wraps everything up and ends with three pairs of characters getting married.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
I have gotten some hate on my Game of Thrones fics and once on a ZhuLiuHai rpf but generally I am not at all popular enough to get hate - thank goodness!!
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
Lol like okay I think that I write incredibly sentimental stories about really nice people who are super shy but find each other. And then once they do they bang the shit out of each other in an incredibly graphic sex scene that in no way fits with the rest of tone of the fic.
10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
I love crossovers! I don't know that I've written any crazy ones. So I will link to my favourite all time crossover the These Rainy Hearts series in which John Hart from Torchwood randomly meets Ethan Rayne from Buffy and after Ethan mistakes John for Spike, they hook up and fall in love. The subsequent fics brought in more Buffy and Torchwood characters and the last fic even included cameos from characters from What We Do in the Shadows. I don't really write Torchwood any more but I have thought of writing a fourth in this series which would include both Untamed and KPTS characters.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not that I know of?
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
No.
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
YES! Tragically my friend Serpens Caput on AO3 doesn't write fic anymore so we can't continue our ridiculous jokey RPF series The Untaming of the Crew - about the poor put-upon crew on the set of the Untamed.
14. What's your all-time favorite ship?
I have a lot of love for Tay/Big (KPTS) but the ship that I always come back to is my beloved Wen Ning/Ouyang Zizhen.
15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?
I started a sequel to my Untamed fic I"ve Been to Koi Tower, But I've Never Been to Me and it just got so unwieldy and had so many characters and so much plot that I just gave up. I want to finish it but I doubt I will. It was going to be called "Don't Cry for Me Jinlintai".
16. What are your writing strengths?
This is so hard for me to answer. I guess I am occasionally funny?
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
So many - writing description of scenery. Having my characters do anything but just stand there whilst talking. Inability to use a comma properly. Writing smut.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I am only fluent in one language. But I have written in the description that the character says something in English (when the rest of the dialogue is assumed to be in Thai) which comes up any time I have written Vegas or Ken for KPTS since they often throw in English words.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
I don't know if this counts because I have never posted it anywhere but I saw the trailer for the film The Eagle and wrote this whole fic in my head without ever seeing the movie. I eventually wrote it down on paper. I did eventually also see the movie and I mean I was way off but whatever. But I guess the first fandom I wrote for that I posted was Game of Thrones.
20. Favorite fic you've written?
AAAA!! That's so hard to pick!!! I generally like most of my fics. I can't pick one. So here's 3:
From Torchwood - From Out of the Pain - A fix it involving film archiving.
From Untamed - Tentacles Lift Us Up Where We Belong - just because it's such a ME idea - Wen Ning's black veins are actually tentacles - canonical monster fucker Ouyang Zizhen is MORE than okay with that.
From KPTS - What if We Kissed in a Farmhouse Bread Factory? - I love that I put as many references to Farmhouse bread in this as I could and I also love the pairing - Pol / Chan because it's so improbable but I think it really works
Tagging @unfortunatelycake , @jaggededges123 (look I am an anxious person and I don't know who else would want to be tagged so if you're reading this and want to do it, please consider yourself tagged and tag me at the top so I know that you want to be tagged in future things) OBVIOUSLY no pressure to do this!!!
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tiny012 · 11 months
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Some people...
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First of all
What?? What the hell?? Where you pull this from? Thin air??
Second of all
ChibiChibi is not even Sailor Cosmos in the 90's anime which they are basing all this from. The 90's anime fucked that up and made her Galaxia Star Seed and a damn sword, the light of hope which shadow form LOOKS like Cosmos but was never conformed. . And using the cake scene( the scene ChibiChbi throws cake at S.AD. face when they was at Usagi's house when they was all up in Usagi space when they was trying to tell her they was a Starlight) as evidence to should that she's trying to fuck up the timeline because in her timeline she got closer to S.A.D? Even tho ChibiChibi is NOT Sailor Cosmos in 90s anime canon?
Third of all
Sailor Cosmos is Ambiguous! No one really knows if she's actually Usagi from the future or another Sailor Moon from a different timeline. I said that in my response which they said it was " lost in translation.."
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I had to pull out wikimoon on them... We just know it's a future version of Sailor Moon who made some mistakes dealing with fighting chaos but we don't know if it's actually Usagi.
Fourth of all
THE REACH!
Lord the reach!
Ship Usagi and S.A.D all you want but reaching this hard that you can dislocate your arm?? and using a tragic character like Sailor Cosmos to do it??
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Yes Sailor Comos is making sure Usagi makes the right choice because in her time she only with Mamoru because of Chibiusa but is in love with S.A. D. So she is trying to make sure her past self doesn't cheat or kiss S.A.D which is why she threw cake at Seiya's face ... Also she's destroying the Cauldron because she didn't choose the life she really wanted with Seiya but with Mamoru which still end up in pain.
WHAT??
Just pretty much dismissing the fact that Usagi is constantly annoyed by S.A.D and told them many times that she have a boyfriend..
And dismissing the fact ChibiChibi is not even Sailor Cosmos in 90's anime canon but Galaxia star seed that ruins both of their plotlines.
And the fact Sailor Comos is Future Sailor Moon but might not be future USagi Tsukino..
And the fact the whole Cauldron plotline is not even in the 90's anime because they didn't even leave earth. They didn't even travel to the Galaxy Cauldron or Galaxia home.
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!
THE
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REACH!!!
Do any one respect the narrative and what being presented or just say " Fuck the narrative. I'm going to warp it beyond belief to make it fit my needs." ?
Or mix two completely different canon ( 90's canon and Manga canon) in a blender to create a theory that fix your needs but totally doesn't make sense in the narrative because narrative have been changed in one canon that doesn't fit the other canon.
I love headcanons and fan theories but in the realm that is believable to the narrative! That can actual makes sense in the narrative. That is plausible to the narrative. This ain't plausible because of the fact ChibiChibi is not Sailor Cosmos in the 90's anime!
It would be only plausible if you was talking about manga canon since ChibiChibi is Sailor Cosmos but even then Sailor Cosmos idenity is still ambiguous. Also the fact the unrequited storyline is not played up in the manga like it is in the 90's anime. Usagi is literally blocking out the fact she saw Mamo die in front of her.
But using the cake scene in the 90's anime as evidence to back up your claim??
whew!
When these two movies come out...
Help the fandom....
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FNAF MOVIE THOUGHTS UNDER THE CUT!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED.
I have never felt so conflicted over a movie in my life.
Okay, to give some perspective, there are two sides of me at play here:
1. Film/show critical
2. FNAF Fan
Disclaimer: when I refer to the books, I am referring to Fazbear Fright's and Tales of the Pizzaplex. When I refer to the trilogy, I mean The Silver Eyes, The Twisted Ones, and The Fourth Closet.
I'll be honest. Looking at it from my own critical standpoint, the FNAF movie was not very good. The story was very convoluted, and yes, I am aware that I'm complaining about the convoluted plot of a movie based on the convoluted plot video game. But the thing is, I am an enjoyed of both the games AND the books. And if there's anything to be said about the books, convoluted is one of the first things that comes to mind, so the issues I have are purely about the movie. My main and overall glaring issue was the reveal of William being Vanessa's dad. There was little to no build up to that, and I felt the more reasonable decision was to make her related to one of the missing kids, and perhaps having her see them being lured away. It would serve as a nice parallel to Mike, and her mindset of "letting it go" could still be present as an opposition to Mike's clinging onto the past.
Besides that, another problem I have is the lack of William Afton.
He's in the movie for maybe like 20 minutes? Possibly less. Which wouldn't be too bad if he left a lasting impact and his scenes were sprinkled throughout the movie, rather than condensed in the beginning and end. Seeing Afton in the first trailer got me so hyped I most literally could not function properly, to the point I was stuttering. But to see him not really be in the movie is such a let down. And the scenes he was in, besides the parts at the end, he was not really threatening, just sort of an awkward guy. And this sucks even more because Matthew Lillard did an utterly incredible job being threatening in those parts, and I would've loved to see that more.
Besides that, another character I take issue with is Golden Freddy. We see the five kids in the woods. But Golden Freddy is in this movie for maybe 2-3 minutes, max. Which is annoying, because he was shown far more in the trailers and promotional material. I personally would've like more Golden Freddy, more Willy A, and perhaps to see these two being enemies.
Ending off my negative criticism, the horror. I was not very impressed by the horror of this film. You see, I wasn't one of the people adamantly opposing the film being PG-13, in fact, the people who were so heavily against it annoyed me very much leading up to the film's release. The way I saw it, FNAF was never really a series about the guts and gore. Yes, there were moments that were grotesque, but never in detail (well, besides the descriptions in the books; I'll get to that later.) I expected this film not to scare me, but instead, to disturb me. I cannot count the amount of times the FNAF series has managed to disturb me. Things like the blueprints of Funtime Freddy in FNAF:SL, the ending of Help Wanted where you simulate getting stuffed into a Freddy suit, even down to the jumpscare sounds in the first game, FNAF does an incredible job of disturbing and or otherwise unsettling me, and this isn't even touching upon the anxiety of playing the games, especially FNAF 4, or the absolutely brutal situations in the books. I would honestly argue that the books provide more horror than the movie did. The only times I felt truly disturbed during this movie was when William Afton came in with the Springbonnie suit, and the opening credits with Springbonnie leading the kids away. There were other times that momentarily scared me, yes, but none made me feel a deep rooted discomfort. FNAF can provide a type of horror without guts and gore, but I just feel it didn't transfer well into the movie.
Some things I did enjoy though; the drawings. The whole movie feels center around a theme of drawings, and I may be biased due to being an artist, but I honestly loved it. Drawing being a big part of the story, Abby's character, and the eventual solution felt very smooth.
The practical effects. I have absolutely no complaints. The animatronics looked incredible, and I loved every moment they were on screen.
The integration of the FNAF fandom. This leads me into my FNAF fan section, but before doing that, I would like to acknowledge something.
I came into the movie with high expectations without realizing it. The 9 minute teaser got me way too excited, so being let down in these aspects only hurt more. But the main thing I want to cover is my own bias towards the story of the games.
A few paragraphs ago, I suggested more scenes of William and Golden Freddy/Cassidy being enemies. This is because it's something in the games I adore, and would love to see expanded upon. But looking through my critiques and organizing my thoughts made me realize:
I'm not upset that the movie is convoluted, I'm upset at how it's convoluted.
The books, including the trilogy, are convoluted, yes, but they all have connections to and follow the main story, even just a little bit. The movie has the same premise as the first game with details form the first three, haunted animatronics and springlock suits and what not, but it's an entirely different situation with characters who share little to nothing but names to their in-game characters. This is just one of the theories I've come up with for why I don't like the direction of the movie as much as I could.
Now it's time for the FNAF fan in me to shine.
I'll be honest, I teared up multiple times during this movie simply from nostalgia. After the opening credits, the dream theory book, the MatPat Cameo, the ending credits when it started playing the OG FNAF 1 TLT song - it was all so much and if genuinely touched me. This movie is like the Super Mario Bros. movie in this regard; it's a love letter to the fans. Despite the things I didn't like, I could feel the love for this franchise flowing from the screen. Despite all the things that push me away from this film, I can't help but care for it on a deep level. I feel like crying while typing this. I know the amount of passion and love that went into this and it makes my gripes feel all the more unserious. I'm happy we've just finally gotten this movie, a movie that cares about the fans of this series. This movie doesn't try so hard to be what it isn't, and is just plain, relatively unserious fun rather than a complex masterpiece. I'm feeling tired now and want to finish this up before I sleep.
So, yeah. Those were my thoughts on the movie. Will definitely be watching it again to try and catch more details, and maybe change my opinion on it. For now, that'll be all. Might come back and add more or edit this.
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britesparc · 9 months
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Weekend Top Ten #591
Top Ten Moments in Indiana Jones Movies
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there’s a new Indiana Jones movie. Directed by James Mangold – who made Cop Land, Walk the Line, and Logan – it stars the 108-year-old Harrison Ford, Fleabag, and that bloke who always plays baddies playing a baddie. It’s called The Dial of Destiny and based on nothing but my own assumptions (and the fact that it seems as if Mads Mikkelsen’s Nazi ne’er-do-well might not have aged between 1944 and 1969) that it’s gonna have something to do with time travel. I reckon Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood – last seen marrying Dr. Henry Jones Jr – has died (sniff) and when he gets his hand on this “Dial of Destiny”, Indy’s gonna have a moral moment a bit like at the end of Last Crusade, where he could put this immense power out of enemy hands for good, or use it himself to bring his wife back.
Or maybe I’m completely wrong.
Anyway, to celebrate the release of Dial of Destiny I actually re-watched all four prior Indy films this year. I could rank them, but there’s, like, four, so it’s not really a top ten. But then I thought, well, what are the best moments in the movies? Because these are films just built on moments. Even the lesser ones have some tremendous action scenes, fight scenes, stuntwork, and prolonged chases. Crystal Skull – the much-maligned fourth outing – is at its best when it’s on the hoof, with a great warehouse escape in the opening sequence, a bike chase through a university, and a chase through the jungle that ends up going down a waterfall. These are excellent moments of action cinema that really showcase just how adept at this sort of stuff Spielberg is.
And Crystal Skull isn’t even the best film! I mean, it’s not the worst either, but it’s down there a little bit.
What I’m trying to say is that the whole Indy saga is just a phenomenally well-constructed series of breakneck, nail-biting, expertly choreographed action scenes. I’m not really sure why Spielberg isn’t talked about more as an action director, because he stages the heck out of these things, and is capable of not only giving us exciting cinema, not only framing it in such a way as to be decipherable and easy to follow, but also injects a huge amount of humour and heart and character into these things. From the very first moments of Raiders, we have the core tenants defined: yes, it’s a great, exciting, action set piece; but it’s also inventive (the idol, the arrows, the boulder!). It shows Indy’s ingenuity and knowledge but also his fallibility; he cocks up by mistaking the weight of the idol and so triggering the booby traps. He runs hell for leather, appears knackered and beaten down (we also have that sublime moment where grabs a vine, thinks he’s safe, cracks a relieved smile, and then the vine starts to tear away and he panics again). Then he’s captured, taunted, has the idol taken from him, but manages to escape anyway with arrows raining down around him. And he hates snakes! He hates ‘em!
The boulder scene hasn’t made this list, shockingly; yes, I’m even angry with myself. But bloody hell fire, there’s just so much in these films. Almost every one of them has at least three or four simply phenomenal action scenes. There are absolute all-time iconic scenes here. Any list of the best action scenes of all time ever that didn’t include at least one Indiana Jones sequence is not to be trusted. And yeah, okay, whilst there may have been a little bit of trying to give every film a fair shake here, I do think that all of them have their merits and then some. Even the really stupid bit in Temple of Doom when they jump out of an aeroplane in a dingy is still a cool stunt.
All this said and still I think the best thing about Indy is the heart and humanity of the series. Yeah, okay, I guess he’s a cad and a bit of a graverobber and all that, but the whole franchise is about how, deep down, he cares so damn much. He believes in stuff. He loves people. He gets hurt but he keeps getting back up again. And again, and again, and again, long after he probably, realistically, should have stopped making these films. Which is why not all of these moments are really action – some of them are drama and some of them are comedy. But we still have that propulsive excellence that defines these movies.
Indiana. Let it go.
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The truck chase (Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981): one of the greatest stunts in history as far as I’m concerned. It’s a great car chase which features clambering over and around trucks, people getting punched out of windows, and – oh my god – the classic Stagecoach-riffing moment where Vic Armstrong crawls underneath a moving truck and edges his way to the rear before climbing up the back of the vehicle. It’s stunning. And, again, it’s a sequence that features so many great Ford reaction shots and instances of him getting battered.
The tank chase (The Last Crusade, 1989): another excellent chase through the sand, with Indy once more going on and around a large moving vehicle. Here, though, we have multiple things going on, with Henry and Marcus in the tank, and Sallah helping out on horseback. There’s great ingenuity – the rock in the gun barrel – and ups and downs as our heroes score minor victories and then get clonked on the head. And then the tension of Indy trapped on the barrel, about to hit a rock, and then the glorious gag of the tank going over the cliff and a bedraggled Indy joining his companions as they stare over the edge.
The Brody cut (Crusade): yep, not really an action beat, but I did just say “moments”! This is such a funny bit and one of the best jump cut edits of all time. We slowly track in on Indy as he taunts the Nazis with Marcus Brody’s skills and accomplishments; “with a little luck, he’s found the Grail already.” Smash cut: Brody walking through a market loudly asking if anyone speaks English. What more is there to say? He got lost in his own museum.
“Let it go” (Crusade): still on Crusade, a film that’s one percent not quite as amazing as Raiders but is still just so damn good. This is almost an action scene as it’s a tense bit of stuntwork and effects as Indy falls into a crevice and stretches out to retrieve the Grail, his fingers touching it. The simplicity of his dad calling him “Indiana” for the one and only time in the movie – acknowledging his son’s choices, having grown to understand and accept them – is so touching it kicks Indy out of his Grail-mania and allows him to be saved, choosing life – and therefore death – over the Grail’s promise of immortality.
Anything Goes (Temple of Doom, 1984): my least-favourite of the four films (by a gnat’s wing) still has some blinding moments, including the best opening of the series. Spielberg scratches his musical itch about thirty-five years before West Side Story will a beautifully choreographed Busby Berkeley-esque dance sequence of chorus girls, and future Mrs. Spielberg Kate Capshaw singing in Mandarin. When Indy drinks poison and scrambles for an antidote there’s a knockabout, slapstick quality to the proceedings, with things getting kicked away amidst a riot and a fight, and then – and then! – they end up in a car chase through Shanghai, before the great final gag. Nice try, Lao Che!
The plane (Raiders): the story of the production of the plane fight is legendary – George Lucas snapping two wings off a model because it would be too expensive to build full-scale – but the sequence itself remains extraordinary. Another great example of Indy getting the shit kicked out of him, it’s also a great showcase for Marion as she batters a Nazi pilot with some chocks and attempts to steer the plane, its rotation – and spinning rotors – a recurring threat as Indy fights a Nazi man-mountain. After all the tension and drama of the fight, we get that great moment of gore as the spinning blades hit our adversary; just the right gruesomely funny coda to a terrific scene.
The castle escape (Crusade): the whole sequence with Indy and his dad in the Nazi castle is brilliant, with their banter just terrific right from the off, and then it evolves into another of those almost Rube Goldberg-like escalating action scenes. There’s the attempt to escape from being tied together on chairs, a rapidly escalating fire, and a secret revolving fireplace. And then, out of the castle, there’s a brilliant bike chase, with pursuing Nazis sent flying like Stormtroopers on speeder bikes. It all culminates in Henry’s brilliant speech about the Grail being life, about this being a battle against evil. So good.
Young Indiana (Crusade): prequels, eh? Whatcha gonna do? But here we see the most perfect prequel of all time – possibly because it’s only, like, fifteen minutes long or something. But in this microcosm we see every element of Indy, from the superficial to the significant. He gets his whip, he gets his hat, he gets the dinky little scar on his chin; but we also see his resolve, tenacity, his desire to preserve these ancient antiquities for the wider world… his fear of snakes. And we see the difficult relationship he had with his dad. It’s everything you need in a prequel, with a hot, charismatic, terrific actor playing the younger version of our hero. And it’s just so fun; the chase through the desert, the various train carriages… it’s an amazing opening sequence.
The mine karts (Doom): like the world’s best videogame level, this has ups, downs, and everything in between. To describe it as a rollercoaster isn’t doing it any justice; I think they actually did turn it into a rollercoaster. But this is just another one of those iconic sequences, with all the various jumps and spills, characters going in and out of different karts; so iconic, in fact, that it’s been homage and replicated time and again. Donkey Kong Country owes it a big debt, for instance. It does beg the question, though: why did the Thuggees build this crazy, impossible, multi-mile-long network of higgledy-piggledy train tracks? It makes no damn sense!
The bike chase (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 2008): the scenes and sequences in Crystal Skull might not be quite as iconic – although the image of Indiana Jones, a WWII-era throwback to nineteenth century adventurer-explorers, framed against a mushroom cloud is pretty dramatic – but this prolonged fight-cum-chase is an excellent example of Spielberg’s inventive direction. Tapping into its fifties milieu, we have a greasers-versus-jocks brawl, and our heroes on a Harley pursued by sinister besuited figures, Indy moving in and out of vehicles (this is a franchise staple that I don’t think I’d quite clicked on until this list), at one point dragged along on foot, before the chase enters the university itself, riding through a library to allow Indy to give some advice to Tom Hanks’ son. It’s a wild, escalating action-packed sequence full of character and comedy, and shows that even after all this time the series still had it.
Another good bit from Crystal Skull? Jim Broadbent sadly reflecting that they’ve reached the age when life “takes more than it gives”. It has quite a nice, melancholy air that film, that’s often overlooked.
And, god, what bits haven’t I mentioned? Marion’s bar! Asps! Toht’s coat hanger! The bridge! The bugs! The zeppelin! They named the dog Indiana!
Anyway: Indiana Jones. Fab, innit?
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crowdvscritic · 9 months
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round up // JUNE 23
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The best things come in pairs in this Round Up. A few repeat offenders this June: 
Jason Schwartzman
Harrison Ford
Brad Pitt
Pixar
Archeological digs
Sports stories
1943 musicals
Tap dancing
‘80s pop-rock records
Two Tales of Cities
And, as always, Crowd and Critic are best when they’re in tandem. These are my top picks for June 2023 in the order I experienced them:
June Crowd-Pleasers
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1. Shooting Stars (2023)
As a sports dilettante, I knew nothing about LeBron James’s pre-NBA life. (Full disclosure: I don’t know much about his post-NBA life either.) This sports drama probably sands off some edges (James produced this movie based on a book he wrote), but it hits its marks. It’s inspirational but not schmaltzy, and thanks to great performances (including an always stellar Caleb McLaughlin and I’m-always-glad-when-he-pops-up Dermot Mulroney), this story of five basketball-obsessed kids growing up is much better than you’d expect for a direct-to-Peacock movie. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10
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2. Elemental (2023)
Pixar is back to basics with Elemental. In the best way, that means Pixar is up to their old shenanigans, but in another sense, it means this movie is, well, basic. Read my full review at ZekeFilm or watch my segment on KMOV to give you an idea on whether Pixar’s latest is for you. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10
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3. Flamin’ Hot (2023)
What Flamin’ Hot lacks in heat it makes up for in heart. With its relatable stakes and the comedy it finds in skewering corporate culture, this kind-of-true story of the creation of the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto (yes, really) is about as good as it could be. Read my full review at ZekeFilm. Crowd: 8/0 // Critic: 7/10
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4. Coco (2017)
Finally watched after being one of my top “oops, I haven’t seen this yet” titles for years. Yes, Pixar did make me sob again. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9/10
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5. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Do you love to feel nostalgia or to be surprised? Do you like old school action or newfangled special effects? Do you enjoy historical adventures or stories about modern issues? Then the fifth Indiana Jones episode is for you! Literally the only thing this needed to achieve was to surpass the quality of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but why settle for that when you can make an action-packed adventure better than most summer blockbuster fare? Given that Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade are two of the best adventure movies (or perhaps, just movies) of the 20th century, it’s no insult to say The Dial of Destiny ranks third for me in Indy’s canon with Temple of Doom and Crystal Skull following in distant fourth and fifth places. Crowd: 10/10 // Critic: 8.5/10
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6. Bananarama-thon + Bangle-mania + Go-Go-palooza
What says “summer” more than 1980s girl pop-rock bands? (Or really, 1980s pop-rock period?) Bananarama, The Bangles, and The Go-Go’s made excellent summer soundtracks with their respective albums Deep Sea Skiving (1983), Bananarama (1984), and True Confessions (1986); All Over the Place (1984), Different Light (1986), and Everything (1988); and Beauty and the Beat (1981), Vacation (1982), and Talk Show (1984). Also, does Bananarama’s debut album have the greatest cover art of all time?
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7. Sports Night (1998-2000)
My binge of short-lived behind-the-scenes shows continues! Clearly Aaron Sorkin and pals like Tommy Schlamme were still learning the ropes of TV, and they were not helped by the fact that premiering in the ‘90s mandated a laugh track in the first season. But the bones of Sorkin’s future are there: Josh Charles and Peter Krause’s bromance feels like laying the track for some of the best of The West Wing, and Felicity Huffman is one of his iconic strong female leads. Robert Guillaume’s elder statesmen of TV (both in front and behind of the camera) is the glue that holds the show together, and the show’s love for sports is so infectious it draws in non-sporty girlies like me.
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8. Legal Eagles (1986)
A legal dramedy starring Robert Redford directed with the light touch of Ivan Reitman? This art heist murder mystery co-starring Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah is a hidden gem of the ‘80s...and also an addition to my Favorite Tap Dances list on Letterboxd? Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7.5/10
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9. The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses (1989)
A Rolling Stone article I shared last month got me curious about this band (whom I know nothing about beyond that article), and this album has been scratching The Smiths itch that lives in me.
June Critic Picks
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1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
It’s a visual wonder with stellar voice work, especially Jason Schwartzman’s clever villain, and once we get to the Nueva York universe, everything flies. But boy, does it take a while to get there. I normally reserve my Round Ups for praise, but since Across the Spider-Verse’s nearly universal acclaim won’t be tarnished by my critique, the spirit of transparency compels me to complain this film is at least 30 minutes too long. When you’re trying to be both a Gwen Stacy movie and a Miles Morales movie, the somber first hour slows down even more and delays revisiting the stuff we loved most in the first film. The kids next to me were antsy well before this was over, my dad fell asleep in the middle (which he never does), and then it rivals Lord of the Rings for fake out endings. Here's hoping Spider-Ham and Spider-Man Noir get to make up for their lost time in part 3! Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 8/10
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2. Ninotchka (1939)
When Soviet Greta Garbo travels to Paris on Communist Party business, can she resist the city’s charms? She and her fellow comrades find themselves succumbing to the amenities, champagne, and romance they can’t find in Mother Russia. An Ernst Lubitsch-directed rom-com co-written by Billy Wilder can’t miss! Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10
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3. Little Women (2017)
Another Round Up, another version of Little Women. I immediately pushed this PBS miniseries to the top of my watchlist when I dug into Little Mermaid star Jonah Hauer-King’s past filmography and discovered he performed alongside Angela Lansbury (!!!). Though I expect the budget was smaller than a big screen feature’s, the extended runtime allows for moments we haven’t seen depicted on film before. The cast of ringers includes Lansbury as a delightfully cranky Aunt March and Hauer-King as a lovelorn Laurie, as well Maya Hawke as Jo, Kathryn Newton as Amy, and Michael Gambon as Mr. Laurence in an 1860s Concord as bucolic as ever. Like a warm, encouraging hug!
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4. Past Lives (2023)
This bittersweet romantic drama makes me want to call up my boyfriend who moved away the summer after 7th grade and the guy I never dated in college who studied abroad and then transferred and that boy I met at a party a few years ago who said he was moving next week to sail boats in Delaware and then be disappointed none of them are as I remember or imagined who they would become. The best film of the year so far? Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 10/10
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5. Double Feature - Silly 1943 Musicals About Marrying for Money: Du Barry Was a Lady + Higher and Higher
Movies today should try being as weird as ‘40s musicals. In Higher and Higher (Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), a one-time millionaire tries to marry off his maid to a wealthy bachelor, though she may prefer to romance Frank Sinatra (playing himself!) instead. In Du Barry Was a Lady (7.5/10 // 8/10), Lucille Ball is trying to snag herself a rich guy, though she may prefer to romance Gene Kelly instead. (This is a much more obvious addition to my Favorite Tap Dances list on Letterboxd.) Both are silly, but when you’ve got Sinatra singing or Kelly dancing to Cole Porter songs, you’ve still got wow moments. More movies today should detour into 18th century dream sequences!
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6. Valley of the Kings (1954)
Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker go on a high-stakes archaeological dig in the early 1900s set in front of gorgeous photography in Egypt. A fun prototype for Indiana Jones and The Mummy! Crowd: 7/10 // Critic: 8/10
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7. Asteroid City (2023)
Something Wes Anderson does not get enough credit for: The man has never made a film longer than two hours. This spring’s trend of Wes Anderson-inspired social media may have brought attention to the previously unacquainted, but it took only a few of those superficially xanthic posts to exhaust my Instagram feed. Most social filmmaking is ugly and chaotic, but Anderson’s attention to detail when blocking his troupe of players in the golden ratio, designing perfectly-shaped mushroom clouds, and using color theory to select his palette doesn’t just hold up on a big screen—it deserves it. Read my full review at ZekeFilm. Crowd: 7/10 // Critic: 10/10
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8. Double Feature - ‘90s Brad Pitt: Legends of the Fall (1994) + The Devil’s Own (1997)
In Legends of the Fall (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10), Brad Pitt’s nonconformist Tristan upends the lives of his family members (including Anthony Hopkins and Julia Ormond) as they strive to keep their Montana estate through World War I, Prohibition, and the Great Depression. In The Devil’s Own (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9/10), Pitt’s IRA terrorist Rory upends the life of the family who takes him in (including Harrison Ford) when he escapes to America. One is a soapy historical epic, one is a gritty police thriller, but both show the promise of Pitt’s career.
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9. A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
A pretty good adaptation of one of my favorite high school English class reads. Though the nuance and depth of the Mr. Charles “I Get Paid by the Word” Dickens novel can’t be captured in just two hours and the portrayal of Lucie is, well, a lot, Ronald Colman’s Sydney and Blanche Yurka’s Madame De Farge are pitch-perfect, and it’s as moving as its source material. Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10
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10. Good Reads
The incessant onslaught of more-TV-than-can-possibly-be-watched is reaching critical mass: 
“The Idol and Our Backlash Times,” NYTimes.com (2023)
“‘The End of Peak Television:’ Has the Era of Prestige TV Just Ground to a Halt?” TheGuardian.com (2023)
“Peak TV Is Over. Welcome to Trough TV,” slate.com (2023)
“From Warrior Nun to Three Women, TV Shows are Being Cancelled. Yet Somehow Emily in Paris Lives On,” TheGuardian.com (2023)
“Media's Succession Obsession,” axios.com (2023)
Thoughts on our moment in diversity in TV and movies: 
“Box Office: Early Summer Tentpoles Cash In, Fueled by Diverse Stars,” HollywoodReporter.com (2023) 
“‘Why is Bridgerton’s Race Twisting Acceptable?’ The Real Problem With the Show’s Black Fantasy,” TheGuardian.com (2023)
The Hollywood Reporter continues its impressive breadth of Writer’s Strike coverage: 
“Tom Hanks, Baby Jessica and Lessons from a Three Strike Writer,” HollywoodReport.com (2023)
“Guest Column: If Writers Lose the Standoff With Studios, It Hurts All Filmmakers,” HollywoodReporter.com (2023)
And a grab bag of pieces on baseball, basketball, and Beyoncé: 
“The Team Trying Very, Very Hard to Be the Worst in Baseball History,” slate.com (2023)
“Beyoncé Caused Sweden Inflation Bump, Expert Says,” politico.eu (2023)
“The 100 Most Significant Political Films of All Time,” NewRepublic.com (2023)
“The Flash Was Never Going to Run Away From Its Problems,” TheRinger.com (2023)
“Employee of the Month Rewarded With More Work,” vice.com (2023)
Also in June…
I’m processing a lot of emotions about what’s going on at Turner Classic Movies, and I’ve yet to figure out how to put them into words. Until I get there, I’m constantly adding to my list of movies I’ve watched thanks to the people who work there, and you can see the almost-350 of them on Letterboxd. 
Until the end of July, you can see what I’m watching in real time on Letterboxd. Yes, I’ve seen Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One; no I can’t talk about it until after the review embargo lifts on July 5th. 
Pending Twitter doesn’t self-implode before you read this, you can also find me there.
Photo credits: Bananarama, The Stone Roses, Good Reads. All others IMDb.com.
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auniverseforgotten · 1 year
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13 16 21 for the pokemon ask game!
o boy here we go
13. favorite antagonist team
This one is hard because I enjoy a lot of them for different reasons. Like I love that Team Rocket is just straight up the mob, they are definitely a legitimate Threat, but then like I also love Team Skull because they are TEAM SKULL.
But for a favorite...well, Team Aqua and Team Magma are tied. I enjoy the fact that they are both just so dumb??? They want to improve the world for Pokemon but they somehow never took an earth science course (even though Maxie ABSOLUTELY has) and thus don't know that expanding the land or the ocean has Serious Consequences for everyone. Like I enjoy that the ideas/goal aren't fundamentally evil, but they are so misguided that they fall to doing evil things to accomplish their goals. And they are just...so, so stupid, I love them.
BUT to avoid a tie, I'll say my fave is Team Magma, solely because, going by the ORAS redesigns, I love that these idiots wear sweaters in a volcano.
16. least favorite shiny pokemon
Honestly I have SO MANY. I love a lot of shinies but just as many are...so bad. But the reason why this one is hard isn't because of like, degree of ugliness of colors as much as it is that my least favorite shinies are the most disappointing ones. With that in mind, my least favorite shiny is Leafeon, because we could have had AUTUMN COLORED LEAFEON and instead we got Slightly Darker Leafeon.
I am gonna give a couple runner-ups. Kecleon, because Pokemon Mystery Dungeon had the Kecleon Brothers and I think the shiny should have been purple and green like the brother instead of slightly different yellow markings and blue stripe instead of red.
And my other runner-up, Dragonite, and this one IS because I dislike the colors because we go from lovely pink and gold to very questionable purple and green. And purple and green is a color combo I do enjoy together, but...not these shades.
21. favorite legendary/mythical pokemon
I am bullied, BULLIED I SAY. Now I AM going to cheat and list a legendary and mythical Pokemon because they are two separate categories.
So, legendary. This one is very hard because I love two legendary Pokemon very much, but I am going to go with Suicune. Aside from a whole lotta love for the Johto games fueling this choice, I also adore Suicune's design? The color palette is one I enjoy, I like the ribbons and the mane, I am heavily biased towards water types, and as a kid I definitely wanted to ride on it like a horse. It also plays an important role in the fourth Pokemon movie, which is one I remember very fondly.
The runner-up here, if anyone cares to know, is Articuno, the OG Kanto version. Love me an ice birb and that TAIL.
And Mythical is even harder because I have many emotions about many of them and I love so many. Manaphy especially has a place in my heart because of how desperately I wanted one and how IMPOSSIBLE it was for me until they were rereleased, I even tried the Pokemon Ranger thing and it didn't work lol.
But one of my two fave mythic Pokemon is Jirachi. I cant really explain why; is it the zero thoughts looking face? The eye on the stomach, because I love me some eyes where they don't belong? Or is it the wish-granting mechanic? Who knows, certainly not me.
Also I am calling this one a TIE because I ADORE Celebi. Teeny bug with the power of time, what will it do. Yes I know Celebi is Psychic/Grass but it is bug in my heart. I love the design and the colors, grass Pokemon being another weakness, but once again I also have built emotions based on other Pokemon media. The fourth Pokemon movie is Celebi-centric and amazing, ESPECIALLY THE HEARTBREAK OF THAT SCENE, but in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky, she was also a very important character.
Thanks so much for the ask, this was a ton of fun!! :D Feel free to send more in if you like!
The ask meme: Clicky
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floral-poisons · 2 years
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ooh i'd totally place you in pomefiore. your writing has a romantic aspect to it. i get the vibes of contemporary with a mary shelley or giacomo leopardi flair to it ??
i'd love to hear about the topics in the arts and the humanities that you're into ! at the moment im graduating high school and likely going to double major in world history as well as literature and then eventually i'll get a law degree.
im an avid reader and writer, but i also delve into art through paintings and sketches. stem ?? idk her bc i cannot with stem-
on the topic of the humanities and arts though , i'd like to point out the 'why the curtains are blue' argument because i personally find it absurd. our english teachers were honestly trying to teach us critical thinking skills as well as opening our eyes to the ideas of symbolism. the argument is just stupid , to be frank.
i like to think that the little bits of symbolism that are claimed to be "unimportant" were subconscious. for example , im writing a drama novel that takes place in tahirid yemen and one of my protagonists furrowed his brows once a mabkhara brushed against his skin in the first chapter. at first i wrote it because he was worried since having the incense burner so close to the table's edge is dangerous, but then i wrote my fourth chapter and accidently gave him more reason to dislike mabkharas.
<3 genie anon <3
honestly it's probably because i go with vibes in my writing. like i'm all about description because my imagination is super vivid and i have super vivid scenes that play out like a movie.
i also don't know stem. we don't talk about her lol. i am a woman in humanities.
YES YES AND YES!! HIT IT RIGHT ON THE NAIL!! ironically enough i actually had a section of my final paper for my victorian literature class about the "why are the curtain blue?" meme. the fact that people look down upon humanities because "we're pulling at threads" is really absurd and it kind of stems from misogyny. humanities is 1. deemed "feminine" and 2. a lot of fears about reading stem from women reading and women becoming passionate about what they're reading. it's also based in capitalism. humanities isn't seen as "successful" and our degrees are seen as "useless" which is the funniest thing ever. in stem, ethics is extremely important so for stem people to disregard humanities as "useless" is super funny.
i personally like symbolism and i think reading into things more is also important for media literacy (which people clearly lack nowadays). symbolism, imo, makes things better (and so does philosophy but i'm apparently one of the rare few that thinks philosophy makes everything better).
i am a literature major actually genie anon! but i am specifically concentrating in cinema studies which means i am studying movies. symbolism in movies is a lot easier to portray than in books honestly which is why i think symbolism improves. i do love what i'm doing so much that i even write critical essays about film in my spare time!! rn though i'm more or less focusing on applications and on making sure i fulfill my undergrad requirements.
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IOTA Reviews: Rocketear
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The Rocketeer is a 1991 Disney movie set in 1930's America where a test pilot gets a jetpack and uses it to fight Nazis and— Wait, what? “Rocketear”? Oh, damn it!
Let's get into the eleventh (chronologically the seventeenth) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Rocketear.
We start off with Carapace and Cat Noir struggling to hold back some T-Rexes brought back to life by a scientist Jurassic Park style. Seriously, they reference the movie in the same scene.
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Why wasn't this the plot of the episode again?
After managing to tame the dinosaurs with a whistle of all things, Ladybug notices something's wrong with Nino after he gives the Turtle Miraculous back to her. Apparently, he's wondering why Rena Rouge (who he knows is Alya) wasn't recruited with him today. Ladybug tells him that he was the only help she needed today. In reality, it's because Alya has adjusted to her new role of supporting Ladybug behind the scenes in her new form, Rena Furtive.
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And I'm not a fan of the new form. I get the camo, but it doesn't really help her blend in when her suit is bright blue. I think it's based off the arctic fox, but that animal is able to camouflage itself because it's fur matches the snowy environment. I'm sure a bright blue jumpsuit won't stand out when she tries to blend in at all. Also, the fact that Alya can just change her hero form gives even less excuses as to why Ladybug's new form is only when she uses her Lucky Charm.
Alya is struggling to keep this a secret from Nino because they don't have a lot of secrets in their relationship. Marinette says she can kind of get it because she had to keep her identity a secret from her friend and has to keep keeping her identity a secret from everyone else. Basically, she's telling Alya to suck it up because this is what being a superhero is.
So the next time she sees Nino, Alya tells him she's no longer Rena Rouge, but not about Rena Furtive, which troubles her. The very next scene shows Alya showing Marinette pictures she took of her new costume and asking her which version looks better.
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You could always try reviewing Akuma fights. I heard there's one blog that does it when they're not criticizing the famous director Thomas Astruc on social media.
Yeah, in case you can't tell, Alya was only able to rent her brain for a few episodes because she really doesn't seem as understanding about being a superhero as she was in earlier episodes. In episodes like “Optigami” and “Sentibubbler”, we saw Alya use more strategy and show discretion as Rena Rouge, seemingly taking her job more seriously, but then this episode just had to go and piss it all away. I also love how the first time the animators made Alya's skin the same when she's transformed is in a single frame for a joke.
Alya thankfully deletes the picture, but Nino overhears her talking about struggling to find more content for the Ladyblog, and decides to go to the movies with her to help take her mind off things. Nino, in turn, proceeds to give the same reaction to the in-universe Ladybug movie that Astruc gives to the PV.
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Apparently, that movie's already getting a sequel and it has a teaser. So was the sequel animated at the same time as the original like Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III?
Nino gets pissed the next movie in the Ladybug Cinematic Universe will feature Rena Rouge and not Carapace... even though Rena Rouge debuted first. The teaser then shows Rena Rouge falling for Cat Noir (yet another creative liberty taken by the writers or something Astruc's self-insert threw in himself), and takes it like it's the real thing. Dude, the first movie said Ladybug was afraid of cats, and the director yelled at the person it was based on for judging it. He clearly has a hard time distinguishing fiction from reality.
Alya leaves Nino early so she can go on patrol, but Nino sees Cat Noir heading out as well. He then watches a video on the Ladyblog where Alya praises Cat Noir which is totally not Astruc projecting or anything.
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I don't know what your definition of a prince is, Alya, and I honestly don't want to know.
So Nino takes this as evidence that Alya is in love with Cat Noir and decides to tell Adrien, who naturally laughs him off. And just before you think we have an episode where Adrien plays the straight man, Adrien decides to visit Alya because he's afraid he accidentally charmed Alya.
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Yes, because Cat Noir is so charming, girls are just fighting over him, aren't they?
We then cut to a black and white film noir monologue by Nino (dressed like a detective with a fake mustache), who decides to spy on Alya. When Cat Noir asks Alya if she is attracted to him, she naturally laughs him off, though Cat Noir is thankfully a good sport about it, even giving her a hug to apologize. Unfortunately, Nino took this the wrong way.
The next day at school, Nino takes Adrien into his “office” (it's really an excuse to reuse the boiler room setpiece), and shows him the picture of the hug. Adrien says that Alya would never fall for Cat Noir because she's always dedicated to finding out the truth and telling her boyfriend everything. What's Nino's retort?
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Okay, several problems with this bit. First of all, why would Nino even tell Adrien any of this? What would it accomplish? Why not say all this to Alya while confronting her about her alleged unfaithfulness? Second, Ladybug didn't give Nino and Alya their Miraculous at the same time until it was an absolute emergency. She outright said in “Hero's Day” that she didn't have time to recruit Nino and Alya separately.
Ladybug: I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. I know I'm revealing your secret identities but I don't have time to find a good excuse to give them to you separately. Rena Rouge and Carapace, I need you both!
Nino and Alya kept their identities secret from each other until then, with Alya even keeping the fact she knew who Carapace was a secret as well. Nino didn't find out because “they don't hide anything from each other” (which I plan to talk about later).
Other than that, I actually liked Adrien in this scene. It was really investing to see him try to justify the whole secret identities rule while Nino blatantly said there was an exception. This is the kind of stuff I wanted to see when it came to Adrien doubting Ladybug, not him destroying things in his anger.
While Nino rants about how Cat Noir “stole” Alya from him, Shadowmoth sends an Akuma his way, turning him into Rocketear.
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And the design he has is just boring. It's just a blue jumpsuit with some black spots that look like teardrops, a teardrop-shaped head and a visor. I think the reason this season's been relying more on past Akumas and using more Sentimonsters is because DQ is terrible at character designs. I mean, compare this suit with Aigraon from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (his Power Rangers counterpart is Wrench from Dino Charge).
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The design does so much more with the teardrop motif, giving him a perpetually miserable face with tear lines going all over his body. Add that to a more diverse color scheme, and you have a much more visually stunning design. And this was created in real life, not rendered on a computer. I'm not sure if this is a budget thing or a laziness thing, but if it's the former, you really need to do better, animators.
The powers are meh, giving Nino the ability to fling explosive tears at enemies. It's a clever idea, and it makes sense he gets a power that parallels Cat Noir's, but I think maybe it would have been more interesting if he couldn't control the tears at all. Like, imagine if he was constantly crying like Blue Diamond, and with every tear he shed, Rocketeer could send it at whoever he felt was causing him misery, mainly Cat Noir, all while serving as a metaphor for people who blame others for their own personal issues. Better yet, make him look like the detective outfit Nino wore for the second act. It would have made him more unpredictable instead of making his tears generic projectile weapons.
Marinette and Alya see the fight and transform into Ladybug and Rena Furtive respectively, the former summoning her Lucky Charm, a projector. Is it just me, or has this been happening with Ladybug a lot recently?
Back to Rocketear, we get a good moment where Cat Noir intentionally lets the Akuma hit him so he can get a chance to resolve things diplomatically. See, this is a moment where Cat Noir's self-sacrificing nature feels heroic and not selfish like when he does it without Ladybug's permission to spite her. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go anywhere as Ladybug shows up and plays the recording Nino took (Alya found his phone earlier), while Rena Furtive uses her Mirage to give the audio to what actually happened that night.
Rena transforms back into Alya and embraces Rocketear, who apologizes to her for his behavior. And then he just... rejects Shadowmoth's power while looking like it wasn't that much effort.
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At least when Chloe and Alya did it, we saw them struggling for a little longer. I guess maybe it's because Nino is motivated by his love for Alya, but I think it should have been fleshed out more. So Ladybug purifies the Akuma, gives Nino a Magical Charm, and Cat Noir is still unsure about his feelings for Ladybug at the moment, though they still pound it.
Back in his room, Adrien ponders why Alya and Nino get to know their identities while he and Ladybug can't, but Plagg points out it's because she's the Guardian. It's brief, but I do like seeing Adrien start to doubt Ladybug's judgment, and it looks like it'll foreshadow future episodes. This is a problem I've had since “Hero's Day”, and I'm glad the writers are finally acknowledging this double standard. I just hope they don't end up blaming Marinette for whatever happens later on.
Marinette, of course, apologizes for what happened between Alya and Nino, and I have to say... yeah, no. It's obviously Nino's fault here.
Nino really pushed personal boundaries in this episode, much like Marinette's friends in “Gang of Secrets”. Yes, honesty is a valuable trait, but sometimes, people have secrets they want to keep to themselves. Nino's idea of “not hiding anything from each other” is somewhat controlling, like he's demanding Alya tell him everything whether she wants to or not. The fact that he immediately assumed Alya was cheating on him without giving her freedom to make her own choices doesn't make him look good. Let's be honest, a more realistic outcome would be Alya choosing to break things off with Nino or at least lecture him about how she can do what she wants and keep the secrets she wants. But instead...
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And that's how the episode ends.
Okay, Marinette just said she trusted Alya to make the right decision, but I highly doubt she meant this. Marinette strictly said Alya had to keep Rena Furtive a secret, and now she's telling Nino this despite the risk? The whole reason Marinette and Luka broke up was because Marinette had to keep her secrets from Luka, but now it's okay for Alya to be completely honest? How is this not a double standard?
This episode was just dull, and there’s not even much I can really say about it.. There were a handful of standout moments, and the stuff with Adrien was somewhat compelling, but Nino's behavior was just insufferable and dragged the episode down. The Akuma fight was weak, only lasting about four minutes at most, and while the Lucky Charm was more creative this time, the plot was just frustrating. It's really one of the weaker episodes this season.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch the better Rocketeer.
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libra-kirishima · 3 years
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Three Times All Might Kept Izuku From Losing His Virginity and the One Time He Didn't (Midoriya Izuku x Reader)
Day 13: Corruption/Loss of Virginity
(Hell of a title...)
Reader is All Might's daughter.
This was also originally just the ns/fw scene which I wanted to add more to.
NS/FW Content Warning (loss of virginity, a bit of femdom)
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I.
The sound of the doorbell ringing caused your heart to leap out of your chest.
Panic set in as you wrapped your wet body in a towel before rushing down the stairs to the front door. 
“I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m coming!” You shouted as you made your way down the stairs, through the living room, and into the foyer. “Did you forget your keys again?- Oh.” Your eyes were met not with your father, but Izuku. Green eyes looked your form up and down quickly. Soon after, a fiery blush spread across his face and down his neck. “Hey, Izuku.”
“Hi, (Y/N).” His eyes shifted to keep from staring at you. “I’m, um, here to see All Might.”
“Dad’s not here right now.” Tension formed in Izuku’s shoulders once those words left your lips. He wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or grateful. “He’s still at the school, I think. Although he did mention swinging by the store to pick up groceries on his way home, so he could be closer than you think.” Your words sort of fell on deaf ears. Izuku was so consumed by his thoughts of you that he caught maybe every third or fourth word you said. “Come in. Please. Make yourself at home.” You stepped aside to let him in.
“Oh, I shouldn’t.” He answered, though it came out as more of a mumble. He tried and failed to conceal how excited and nervous it made him to think about being alone with you. When you grabbed his hand to lead him inside he gladly went along, lacing his fingers into yours as you pulled him along.
“Don’t be ridiculous. He won’t mind, and neither do I. Have a seat.”
He timidly sat down at the far end of your couch. You smiled kindly at him as you stood in front of him, moving directly between his open knees. Izuku swore up and down that you were trying to kill him. “Besides, I hardly get to see you anymore. You’ve been so busy.” You cupped his burning cheeks in both your hands. It took all of his strength just to look you in the eye. “I’ve been so lonely. I miss seeing you all the time.” You cooed. “I’ll be back. M’kay? Don’t go anywhere.”
You dashed back up the stairs to change, leaving Izuku alone with his thoughts.
“Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it.” He mumbled to himself. “This is not how you should think of your mentor’s daughter!” No matter how hard he tried to push his thoughts of you out of his head, your words still rang like a bell.
I’ve been so lonely. I miss seeing you.
He could still feel the cool touch of your hands on his flushed cheeks. Part of him wondered if things could be different  were you not All Might’s daughter. If you were any other girl, he wonders if he could hold you in his arms at night, knowing that he could call you his own. Feeling the love in your eyes and knowing that he was the only man you felt that way about. 
“Stop thinking about it!”
“Stop thinking about what, Izuku?”
“Nothing!”
You shot him a confused look, but shrugged and left it at that.
“Alright.” You moved back towards him, taking a seat right beside him.  You knew he was trying to keep his distance from you, but you refused to give him the satisfaction. “See any good movies lately?”
He shook his head hurriedly. You shrugged your shoulders again and resumed watching a docuseries about sea creatures. It was this time while you were distracted that Izuku allowed himself to look at you.
He swears you were trying to kill him. You wore nothing but a bra and pajama shorts, with a flannel loosely hanging off your shoulders covering you barely at all. Arguably less covered than you were in that towel.
You turned back and met his stare with a wide smile. The embarrassment on his face filled you with an odd sense of pride. When he looked away in shame, you smirked.
“Get comfortable.” You encouraged, curling yourself into his side. “You seem so stiff.” One hand reached across his chest to to rub his shoulders. “Think of this place as your house too.” The hand on his shoulder slid up his neck to his cup his jaw again. He leaned into your touch when you used your thumb to stroke his still burning cheek. “My dad says you’re practically his son anyways.” You giggled.
Your laugh was the sweetest sound in the world to him. You were working some kind of magic on him that he couldn’t describe. He was staring again. Equal parts wonder and shame. The implications of his mentor thinking of him as a son while Izuku had fallen for his daugher loomed over him. He could push them aside for a while. “What’s wrong Izuku?” You followed the direction of his stare down to your breasts.
Oh...
“You’re acting like you’ve never seen boobs before.” You added with a small laugh.
“I- uh-”
You cut him off with a gasp. 
“You haven’t?”
He shook his head.
“No way!”
Unsure of what to say, he shook his head again.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe- don’t you live in a dorm full of girls?” You asked, eyes wide with curiosity.
“It’s actually mostly boys. There are only six girls in my class.” He answered. He missed the root of your question, but you were too intrigued to care.
“I thought you and the little brown-haired girl were a thing.”
“That didn’t really work out.” He admitted shamefully.
“Oh?” You knew you were probing, but couldn’t help enjoying how flustered he got. “Why not?”
“Both of our feelings got... complicated. There was someone else. It kind of drove a wedge between us...”
“Hm...” Your full interest was on him. “Have you even made it to first base?”
Your tone wasn’t condescending or snarky. It was warm and inviting. Smooth like velvet with a charm that made him want to tell you everything without question.
“No.” He answered. Part of him wondered if he should have lied to impress you. He probably would have if he stopped speaking without thinking first. “Not because I don’t want to, I’m just-”
“Scared?”
He chose to respond with silence. You gave him a signature sweet smile.
Just where you wanted him.
“You don’t have to be scared with me, Izuku.” You cooed. “I’ll help you.” You shifted so your breasts pressed right up against his chest. “If you want...”
While his brain was still trying to process what you were offering him, you pushed yourself up to kiss him.
Quick. Chaste. A soft peck to serve as just enough to leave him craving more.
Izuku was stunned into silence, but his strong arms wrapped around your waist to keep you close to him. ”I- I’m- I, uh,” He stammered, desperately hoping that the logical part of his brain would return and remind him how wrong it was to form a relationship with his mentor’s daughter behind his back. How if he got caught, he might never be forgiven. He mumbled a weak “We shouldn’t- I shouldn’t-”
“Izuku...” Your body moved to fully straddle his waist. Your other hand reached up to cup the other side of his jaw. “Kiss me.”
Rational part of his brain be damned. What All Might doesn’t know won’t hurt him. He reasoned with himself. It took no time at all for him to melt into the taste of your lips and the feel of your skin. The feeling of your hands in his hair made him regret not bending to your will immediately.
The hand in his hair tugged at the locks, evoking a whine from his lips and establishing yourself as the one in control. “Lay back.” You mumbled against his lips. He didn’t hesitate for a second to shift himself so he was laying horizontally on your couch while keeping you tight over his waist. One of your arms pulled one of his from around your waist and pinned it above his head, lacing his fingers in yours. An oddly tender gesture considering how determined you were to ravage him.
Just as he felt confident enough to slide his free hand from your waist down to your ass, you pulled away. Once you both heard the sound of keys jangling in the door from the foyer, you both scrambled apart and tried to look unassuming.
“Dad! Izuku is here!” You called before rushing off to help him with his groceries.
You turned back to Izuku and shot him a wink before leaving the room.
That familiar warmth rose to his cheeks again. A feeling he would quickly start to associate with you.
II.
The shadow of the Heights Alliance building loomed heavy over your head.
Before knocking on the door you took a deep breath and hoped he was home. 
You rapped your knuckles against the door, and after what felt like an eternity the door opened a crack. Three heads popped out from the small opening, one of which was a pretty girl with pink hair. 
Before you could speak a word, a voice called your name from behind. You turned your head towards the source, and your eyes were met with brilliant emerald green.
Izuku was sweaty and tired, clearly returning from training with a tall blue haired man in tow.
“Izuku!” You pulled him into a tight embrace. “I’m so glad you’re here. I was looking for my dad and I got lost.” You lied.
“I think All Mi-” He stopped and shook his head, hoping to play off the panicked glare you gave him at the mention of who your father was. “I think all my teachers are in a meeting.” He corrected himself.
“Yes! Mr. Aizawa mentioned a staff meeting taking place this afternoon for the first year teachers.” The blue haired man added.
“Oh, what a pity.” You pouted softly. “I’m (Y/N), by the way. Apologies for not introducing myself sooner.”
“Iida Tenya. Pleasure to meet you. I take it your father works here?”
“He does, yes. He’s a first year teacher.” You answered with a kind smile and flirtatious eyes. Before your conversation could continue any further, you felt an arm pulling you to the side and the sound of Izuku’s voice mutter “You can come in if you’d like.” You waved goodbye to Izuku’s friend and followed him inside.
He spared you of introductions to his other classmates and pulled you up to his room. You had been there once before, when the walls were still bare and he had just moved in. The room was now undoubtedly his. Uniquely Izuku.
"Sorry, I just didn't want you to feel uncomfortable."
"Mhm?" You smirked.
"What?"
"Are you sure?" You took a seat at the edge of his bed and giggled when he shot you a quizzical look. You patted the space beside you for him to sit, and he did. "I feel like that's not the whole story. What, with the way your eyes were burning into me while I talked to your friend and all." His expression turned anxious. The panic in his eyes vanished as soon as it came, hoping you wouldn't notice. "I think you were jealous."
"No, I- I'm not- I-" He stammered.
"So you are jealous!"
"I'm not jealous of Iida. He's my friend-"
"Seems a little bit like you are. Unless you brought me up here for another reason?"
"You're safer with me than anyone else in my class while you wait for All Might-"
"Because I'm in so much danger with a class of pro heroes in training..." You drawled.
Based on the way he clenched his fists into the comforter beneath him, Izuku was getting worked up in just the way you intended. Better put him out of his misery sooner rather than later.
Before he could speak another word, you reached over to press a kiss to his lips. Slow and sweet, but still entirely too short for Izuku's tastes. "I think you just wanted to get me alone again." His face flushed cherry red at your accusation, but made no move to deny it. You kissed him again. "Well I think we're alone now."
He was at a loss for words. Thoughts of you took over every corner of his mind and left him unable to form full sentences.
You placed a cool hand on his warm cheek and tilted his head to look you in the eye. "What are you waiting for? An invitation? Kiss me."
And he did.
A little uneasy at first, but you gladly took that as an invitation to take control again. Once again, you tugged at his hair to inform him who's in charge.
You slipped your tongue into his mouth, and he soon found himself addicted to the taste of your lips. It was obvious that he didn't know what to do with his hands. You moved to straddle his thighs, breaking the kiss to grab his hands in your own.
"(Y/N), I-"
"Shh..."
You moved his hands up to your clothed chest, resuming the kiss once you felt his hands root themselves there. "Don't be afraid, Zuzu." You assured him. "I don't bite... Unless you want me to."
"What does that mean?"
"Oh, my sweet innocent boy." You cooed, hands returning to cup his jaw. "You know, I'd love to show you, but... Can I be honest with you?"
He nodded frantically.
"Um... This is kind of weird but it feels like my dad is watching me corrupt his successor through these posters and I can feel his disappointment from the walls of your dorm..."
III.
Soft kisses trailed down the column of Izuku's throat until you stopped at his collarbone. His eyes opened in confusion until he felt you nip at the skin there, and soon after soothe the bite with your tongue. He wasn't sure what to make of the feeling until you did it again on the soft skin of his shoulder. When you bit at the meeting point between his neck and his shoulder, he let out a small moan.
"Is this what you meant by biting?" He asked curiously. You chuckled against his pulse.
"Mhm." You answered before tilting his head a bit further and sucking a dark bruise into the skin there. Your hands undid the last button of his uniform shirt and pulled it off his broad shoulders.
Once his shirt was off, your hands drifted lower and lower down his skin until they reached his belt buckle. His heart stopped beating in his chest when your cool hands passed his naval. "Are you okay?"
He nodded.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. I'm just-"
"Scared?" You asked. He gulped. You could feel his hands starting to sweat. "I told you, Zuzu, you don't have to be scared with me. Just sit back. Relax."
You pressed soft kisses to his lips as you undid his belt buckle and pulled his aching cock out of his pants. You pulled away to look at him while your hand started stroking up and down his length, using your thumb to smear the precum at the head.
The sight before you was addicting. Absolutely immaculate. You watched his innocence melt away with each stroke. The hungry look in his eyes told you that didn't know how to handle what he was feeling, but begged for more of it.
He felt himself on the brink of orgasm when you heard the front door open. All Might's voice called to you, announcing that he was home.
"Fuck."
Once again, you scrambled to put yourselves back together before you were caught. You kissed him sofly before calling "Hey! Izuku is here for you!" You took his hand and pulled him out of your bedroom, right as your father climbed up the stairs. "I wanted to show him the sad clown painting I bought at the thrift store."
Izuku would be concerned with how good you are at lying, if it wasn't something that worked in his favor.
I.
Ding-Dong
"I'll get it!" You called, racing down the stairs. Your dad answered the door first anyways. "Ugh."
"Young Midoriya!" You heard from the foyer. "I wasn't expecting to see you here-"
"Oh, he's not here for you, he's here for me." You added, stumbling into the room in your heels. "I'm his prom date."
"Oh."
"I told you about this."
"You didn't tell me Young Midoriya would be accompanying you."
"Must've slipped." You shrugged. "Sorry, daddy." You wrapped your arms around Izuku. Besides, isn't it better Izuku than another boy in his class?" You didn't give him the chance to answer before you were ushering Izuku out the door while muttering rushed goodbyes to your father. "Bye dad! I love you. I'll be back... Eventually."
Once you slipped out and shut the door, you shot Izuku a familiar look. He knew at the start of the night that you intended to ravage him. You quickly concealed the look with a kind smile and a bat of your lashes. The perfectly innocent girl everyone thought you to be.
"Let's go?"
"Yeah," Izuku sighed. "Let's go."
The train ride back to U.A. was agonizingly long. Your hand rested on his thigh, just high enough to make him nervous. He couldn't tell if he wanted you to stop or if he wanted more.
Despite the agonizing pace of the trip there, the dance itself seemed to pass him entirely. The last thing he remembered was taking pictures to send his mom before you kissed his lips and pulled him off to the side.
"Look at you, taking initiative, I'm so proud of you." You teased. Your shoe had snapped at the heel moments ago. Izuku lifted you up in response and carried you away from the dance, but where you weren't sure. That was until you recognized the area surrounding his dorm from the darkness. You looked back at his face and cupped his cheek, just as you had a thousand times before. He had to fight off his own urge to look you in the eye. If he met your gaze, he was sure his heart would stop. And he was too protective of you to drop you. Instead he holds you closer to his chest and asks you
"Did you plan this?"
"No." You giggled, burying your face into his neck. "Did you?"
"Not your shoe breaking." He admitted.
You kept yourself busy by pressing soft kisses to the skin of his neck. His blush was so rosy that you could see it even in the dark.
You caught the eye of the brown haired girl you thought was Izuku's crush, with her lips locked on those of a pretty girl in a suit that you recognized from the third year class.
"Oh, that's why things didn't work out."
"Part of it, but I'm not too upset about it anymore." He muttered, rushing you into the elevator and up to his room. "Besides, she helped me prepare. So I really owe her one."
"Prepare what?" You asked. He said nothing as he fumbled with the door to his dorm. He entered without turning the lights on and just stood there, holding you closely with your legs wrapped around his waist. "You can put me down now."
"Oh, sorry." He kissed your lips softly before releasing your thighs. You hit his mattress with a soft thud. Izuku stripped himself of his suit jacket, trying to hold himself back from looking your way. He knew you were watching. The innocent façade was long gone, leaving the girl Izuku has come to know in its place.
"Prepare what?" You asked again.
"Oh! I want to show you something." He moved frantically across his room before you could say anything, stumbling over a pair of his shoes on the way. He flicked the light switch on to reveal a setting completely different from what you were expecting. The walls were draped with dark fabric. Sheets, you presumed. Christmas lights were hung up around his room with push pins, casting a warm, dim glow in the room. He sat beside you on his bed as he spoke.
"I wanted you to feel comfortable." He admitted. When you met his eye you almost burst into tears. He watched you with all the love in the world. To Izuku, you held the stars in the sky. You were the reason the sun shines and the rain falls.
He loved you already and he'd show you every day until he was confident enough to tell you.
"Izuku..." You looked around at how pretty everything looked, amazed that he did this all for you. "Izuku, I-" You started, but you were completely at a loss for words.
"Too much?" He asked nervously.
"No! You didn't have to do this all for me." You swallowed your emotions and looked back at his nervous expression.
"I'm gonna ruin you." You told him in the sweetest softest voice he's ever heard. You moved to pounce on him, but he stopped you before you could take things any further.
"Does this mean I can call you my girlfriend now?"
"Oh..." You laughed softly and he stared to panic again. "I thought I was already your girlfriend." You admitted. "I was actually going to ask if you thought we should tell my dad about our relationship when you took me home." Izuku buried his face in his hands.
"Yeah we probably should."
You smiled softly as you undid the buttons of his shirt.
"You can go back to what you were doing now," He assured you. "Girlfriend."
"Good to hear." You said against the skin of his neck before leaving a purple bruise there. "Anyways, boyfriend," You tugged your dress off before fully straddling his waist. "I'm gonna ruin you."
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bluejayblueskies · 3 years
Note
for the kiss prompts series? 67+jontim (or really Tim+anyone?) 🥺
67 - When One Stops The Kiss To Whisper “I’m Sorry, Are You Sure You-” And They Answer By Kissing Them More
i stuck with jontim! takes place pre-canon when jon and tim worked together in research, featuring mutual pining <3
cw for alcohol
.
“Okay, that was hands down the worst holiday party I’ve ever been to,” Tim says as soon as they’re outside the Institute, tugging on the tie around his neck to loosen it. It’s adorned with little reindeer and it lights up. As Tim had so eagerly demonstrated the moment he’d met up with Sasha and Jon.
 Jon doesn’t like parties in general, so he doesn’t think he’s the best judge of what makes a party good or bad. He takes a guess. “Because of the alcohol?”
 “More like the lack thereof,” Tim grumbles as they start toward the tube station. “I know it’s a work party, but come on. Not even spiked eggnog? Not even wine? What kind of person has a party without wine?”
 “Elias, apparently.”
 Tim groans. “Don’t know what I was expecting, really. The man looks like he’s never had fun in his life, ever.” Tim slings an arm around Jon’s shoulder and pulls him into his side as he walks, and Jon tries to pretend like his heart rate doesn’t skyrocket at the contact. He’s just glad it’s dark enough out that Tim can’t see the flush of heat across his cheeks. “So, then. Back to mine?”
 Jon’s heart rate has, apparently, not yet reached maximum speed. “What?” he manages to say, his pulse hammering in his ears. He’s just glad that the word comes out mostly normal, if a bit choked.
 “The night’s still young,” Tim says, oblivious to Jon’s internal turmoil, “and I’m still in need of a drink or three, especially after all of that. I’ve got a batch of eggnog in the fridge. I’ve also got a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon—that fancy brand you like.”
 Tim knows what brand of wine you like, one part of Jon’s mind supplies. The other part says, Of course he knows what you like; you’ve been friends for a year and a half. It doesn’t mean anything.
 “Oh,” Jon says. “Yes, I’d love to- er, that- that sounds… nice?”
 He barely holds back a wince. Very smooth, Jonathan.
 “Great!” Tim says, unbothered. He pulls Jon a little tighter against his side, and when Jon shivers, it’s not just from the chill of the night air.
 In the time it takes them to get to Tim’s house, Jon has relaxed a bit, settling into a comfortable rhythm of laughing at Tim’s jokes, offering his own awkward attempts in return, and letting the warmth of Tim’s laughter soak into him like the summer sun. It’s fine, he tells himself as Tim puts a hand on his shoulder, lingering just long enough that Jon can still feel the weight of it when Tim pulls away. It’s the same as always, he tells himself as Tim grabs his hand on their way off the tube, gently guiding him through the late-night crowds and into the bite of the open air. (Tim doesn’t let go until they get to his house, which Jon tries very hard not to have a minor crisis about.) It’s just Tim, he tells himself as Tim places a hand on the small of his back as he reaches around him to grab the glasses from his kitchen cabinet. (Jon almost drops the bottle of wine he’s holding. Which would have been quite embarrassing.)
 It’s not even like this is new. This tightness in his chest, the way his breath catches a bit every time Tim smiles at him, the way he sometimes finds himself staring at Tim’s lips and wondering if they’re as soft as they look. And Jon’s not naïve. As much as he despises the word itself, he knows that at some point, he’d developed quite a potent crush. He just tries very, very hard to ignore it.
 Because, well. He hasn’t been in a relationship since Georgie, and while their breakup had been unspectacular by most standards, it still ate a hole in his chest filled with a nagging certainty that if they’d remained just friends, he wouldn’t have had to go through the pain of falling slowly out of contact with her. And he doesn’t want that to happen with Tim. So it doesn’t matter how badly Jon wants to hold Tim’s hand and curl up into his side and kiss him. He’ll ignore it like he’s been doing for the past three months, and it’ll be fine.
 But it’s getting harder and harder. Especially at moments like this one, with Tim pressed up against Jon’s side on the couch and his voice right next to Jon’s ear as he points out his favorite parts in the movie they’d put on. Jon’s unsure if the heat in his cheeks is from the proximity or from the three glasses of wine he’s consumed, and he’s fairly certain that Tim’s on his fourth glass of eggnog. Tim’s glass is shaped like a little reindeer head, which he thinks Tim had said is a reference to something. He’d been too busy looking at the way Tim’s rolled-up shirt sleeves showed his forearms to process what, exactly, it was a reference to.
 “You know,” Tim says, cutting through Jon’s train of thought, “I never really understood the whole ‘love at first sight’ thing.”
 Jon’s heart jumps into his throat. “Sorry, what?”
 “You know,” Tim says, shifting from his position against Jon’s side so he can set his glass on the table before propping his feet up next to it. His socks have felt reindeer antlers on the sides of them. Jon’s beginning to notice a theme. “One person lays eyes on the other and boom. They’re in love.” He gestures toward the screen, which is currently displaying a quite detailed kissing scene. Jon looks away, face burning. “Do people really do that? Just know that they love someone with- without knowing anything about them? Feels a bit shallow, if you ask me. You’ve got to just go based on- on physical appearance or something.”
 At a loss, Jon says, slowly, “Yes, I… I suppose?”
 “Right.” Tim nods once, like he’s settled something. “Me, though, I need to know somebody first, you know? Always used to get me in a bit of trouble in uni, falling in love with my best friends and all that. But isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? Your partner is your partner, yeah, but they’re also your friend.”
 “Right,” Jon says faintly. His heartbeat is hummingbird-fast, and he thinks his hands might be shaking just a bit. “Tim, what—?”
 “It just- it doesn’t make any sense!” Tim turns to face Jon then, his cheeks flushed and his hair a bit messy from where he’d tugged some of it free from its bun. “It’s like- like, I love the way you look, yeah, but also- also the way you laugh and the way you take your tea and the types of books you read as a child. You know, the things that make you you. I fall in love with all of the little things, piece by piece, and then I’m just- just in love. Full stop.”
 Jon thinks he might actually be dreaming right now. Or dying. One of the two. “Um,” he says, the word choked by the lump in his throat. “Are- are you using the universal ‘you,’ or…?”
 Tim is quiet for a moment. His eyes are heavy on Jon’s face, as if searching for something. Then, sounding very much like a man who’s just decided to jump off a cliff and hope that there’s something below to catch him, he says, “You, Jon. And I promise that it’s not the rum talking.”
 “Oh,” Jon says quietly. “I… I see.”
 He realizes a beat later, when Tim’s face has folded ever so slightly inward and he’s begun to move away, how dismissive that had sounded. Quickly, and a bit panicked, Jon reaches out and wraps a hand firmly around Tim’s upper arm, like if he doesn’t hold on tightly enough Tim will slip away. “No, it’s- I’m, sorry, I just- I didn’t—”
 Jon makes a noise of frustration, because of course, now that he needs them, the words won’t come easily. His eyes find Tim’s face—the gentle slope of his nose, the small birthmark by the corner of his eye, the five o’clock shadow across his jaw—before settling on his lips. And before Jon makes the conscious decision to do so, he leans forward and kisses him.
 Tim makes a surprised noise against Jon’s mouth, something low and breathy. After a moment, Tim pulls back, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry,” he says, more hesitantly than Jon’s ever heard him before. “Are- are you sure you—?”
 Yes, Jon wants to say. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I’m sure about this. I’m sure about you.
 Instead, he leans forward and captures the rest of Tim’s sentence with his lips. After a moment, Tim’s hands go to Jon’s waist, pulling him close, and Jon slips his hands up to the sides of Tim’s face, feeling the heat of Tim’s skin against his as he kisses him and kisses him and kisses him.
 At some point, weeks later, Tim will joke that they have Elias to thank for them finally putting an end to the mutual pining, and Jon will give a full-body shudder and say that he would rather not think of Elias when remembering their first kiss, thank you very much. But for now, Jon holds Tim close and kisses him and lets the light, giddy feeling in his chest overtake him until it feels like he’s weightless and floating, grounded only by the feeling of Tim’s hands on his hips and the way Tim smiles against his lips and whispers, softly and reverently, I love you.
 I love you too, Jon says, resting his head against Tim’s shoulder to hide his smile and to try to breathe around the affection blossoming in his chest. I love you, I love you, I love you.
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binniesthighs · 3 years
Text
call me babydoll | reader x chan
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a/n: chapter threeeee here it is!!! hehe thank you all for being patient for this update and thank you as always for giving this fic your love!! i start out the first part of this chapter in 3rd person which is a lil different, but i wanted to try it out! hehe i love hearing what ya thought of the chapter too! 😊
Pairing: self insert, female reader x bang chan 
Genre: action, mystery and suspense, fluff, smut, angst 
Tags: (of this part) bodyguard au, secret agent au, royal au, moderndayprince!chan, secretagent!reader, secretagent!jeongin, secretagent!jisung, collegestudent!seungmin, skz side characters, 3rd person for the first section, adventure and mystery, action and peril, plot driven, running out of time, slow-ish burn, growing feelings, sexual tension, explicit language, mentions of food, brief talk of gaining weight while travelling, there’s a few spoilers hidden in this one...can ya find them? ;) 
CWs: blood and other wounds, shooting at a convenience store, thoughts about death and dying when in peril 
Word count: 5.6k 
Parts
ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR
Two years of pocket change and Seungmin had finally saved up enough money to afford to study abroad. It had nearly taken him life and limb, and he might’ve suffered (1) concussion from a bowl of soup being thrown at his head, but, he had done it. 
With grease stains on his sneakers Seungmin traversed the long and stretching corridor of the airport terminal with his backpack strapped onto him tightly. The air smelled different here. It was fresher than he was used to--coming from a large city center--everything here felt more pristine. Outside of the tall glass windows, airplanes lifted off into the sky like massive metal giants. He couldn’t remember properly, but the last time that he must’ve been on a plane, it likely had been when his mother...
Seungmin shook the dusty and cobwebbed ideas out from his head. 
No more sad thoughts. 
I’m gonna like it here. He thought to himself, then clipped the little buckle to his backpack straps over his chest with a determined huff. 
I’m really going to like it here. 
With his phone in hand, he tried his best to decipher what the signs said above him. Mostly, they looked like a jumbled mess of symbols, but luckily he had spent some time trying to learn the language between shifts and sneaking peeks at his little dictionary under the diner counter. The whole terminal buzzed with a lovely kind of energy, and he was thrilled to get to know it better. The first wonderful thing about travelling abroad was that no one knew who he was, and he could be whoever he wanted. In this new land, no one knew him or anything about the dingy little apartment that he had lived in. No one knew about his less than honorable roommates or the debt that he had put himself under to go to college in the first place. 
I could be a prince for all they know. 
Seungmin liked that idea a lot. 
His stomach grumbled as he passed by food stands, however he hadn’t had the chance yet to change his currency, so he knew that he would have to wait just a minute longer. Seungmin had been assigned a host family by his college, and he hoped like crazy that they would be the kind to cook for him. Seungmin had heard somewhere that kids who go on study abroad gain a ton of weight at first...but he didn’t mind. Where else would he get the chance? 
There had been a host father that had sent him an email a couple weeks ago--that he promptly had to run through Google Translate--who told him that he would meet him outside the main luggage claim area after his flight landed. Seungmin had tried to look up and see if his host family were on social media, but he could find no such profile of theirs. He decided it probably was better that it was a surprise. 
Seungmin lugged his two large suitcases out to the summer air of the new and strange land, and it finally hit him. Standing on the solid ground of another land thousands of miles away from his home, it was really all happening. 
The landscape outside was like that of a movie scene: rolling hills and jagged mountains capped with snow, adorable little homes built into the countryside and tiny cars with horizonal license plates. The sun was warm in the cerulean sky that puffed with perfectly white clouds. On the air, the scent of flowers wafted, and he was certain that there was a lake nearby too--he had researched it. There were old men in their caps with a crook in their back, and ladies with long floral skirts and dresses with Mary Janes. Each of them had smile lines on their faces and under their eyes as if they had all lived lives well lived. There were pretty girls too with slender legs and delicate arms swaddled in light scarves. 
Seungmin wouldn’t have minded getting a girlfriend on this trip. While he kept the fact to himself, Seungmin had never really done anything with a girl before outside of some awkwardly handsy kissing in middle school. Maybe this time around, he would finally get his chance: he had read somewhere that girls often like foreigners. 
“Seung Min! Seung Min?” A man’s voice called. 
The young college student whipped his head around in the direction of the sound, finally finding a middle aged man with salt-and-pepper hair with whiskers of the same color. He had red cheeks and a large nose, and looked a bit like a character from a comic. Seungmin waved back, greeting his new father. When they met, the older man threw him into a large hug with a chuckle. He smelled a bit like Tabaco and old leather. He had a couple missing teeth, but that didn’t lessen his bright smile. 
“English?” Seungmin’s host father asked. 
“Yeah! I can speak English.” He returned with a welcoming grin. 
“I thought it would be good for us to speak English since I don’t know your tongue and you don’t know mine...meet in the middle?” 
“Thank you for coming to get me!” He said, handing the man his suitcases which were just a bit too big for the tiny trunk of the car that looked as if it had come from the 80′s. In the end, they decided to put his bags in the backseat. 
The man beamed with smiling eyes. “Of course...son!” 
Seungmin gave him a little bow, “Heh, thank you.”
“Get in the car! You must be hungry right? Long flight?”
“Oh yes, it was really long.” 
“You will eat well here! Mother knows how to feed well. She will put meat on your bones. She did with me!” He guffawed out with hearty laughter, and Seungmin already knew that he would really like this man. 
“We have a room ready for you back at home, and I will show you tomorrow how to use the buses. Okay?” 
Seungmin nodded with a bit of rose to his cheeks. He found his hand wandering down to his arm which he pinched at lightly--cliché as it was. His host father coughed and the engine sputtered, then they took off away from the sounds of jet engines to the countryside which was scattered with churches with protruding steeples and all kinds of homes with red-orange roofs and perfectly symmetrical windows. Seungmin couldn’t help but keep his eyes glued to the window as they drove on to take in the whole scene. Never had he seen a place so beautiful or magical looking. They drove on past a crystal clear lake that stretched on and on to the base of a mountain appearing to claw at the heavens, and adorned in emerald green pines and other deciduous trees. If it was even possible, he had never seen greener grass in all his life. 
“Beautiful, eh?” His host father said while tuning the radio. 
“It’s amazing.” The young student said in his amazement. “Oh, do you know if there is somewhere I can change my money? I don’t have any of your money yet.” 
“Ah!” The older man said with a wink. “I know of a place. I can take you there first.” 
The radio hummed with a static fuzz as Seungmin’s host father messed with it, skipping over the channels, blurring the music and the talk radio all together. 
Seungmin tried out the best he could to make out the words he knew, but even then he didn’t focus too hard, not when he had all this to take in. 
Mad....crime....joke...violence in the South...drugs...unknown...information...hiding...red... 
“Ah!” His host father called out after changing the channel once more, “I love this song!” He held his chest with an affectionate grasp. “The song of my homeland!” 
Seungmin whipped his attention back, trying to listen to the song that sounded anthem-like, and was sung by what sounded like several men harmonizing. Seungmin tried to focus on the melody--it was nothing like he head heard before. It sounded very...honorable. 
The small car whipped up to what looked to be a gas station on the edge of the town with one single pump and a little convenience store attached to it. In the window he read the yellow and black sign saying Currency Exchange. 
“This is what you need?” 
Seungmin nodded in his thanks then stretched his legs out once he exited, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Are you coming too?” 
The older man shook his head and took out a pack of cigarettes. “I’ll gas the car, you go in.” 
The young man gave his host father one more nod, then set fourth inhaling the immaculate summer air into his lungs. It was as if the very oxygen there held the vitality of life; he almost felt bad wasting it on himself. 
The door swung open with the tiny tinkling of bells and he entered to the smell of cured meats hanging on hooks along side the dry scent of the refrigerators holding their display of soft drinks with labels that he had never seen before. He chuckled a little seeing the giant slab of meat with twine hanging from the ceiling as such. 
“Free sample?” The attendant said while he picked his teeth with a toothpick. “Foreigner?” He added after looking Seungmin up and down. 
“Yes, and no thank you. But, can I exchange my currency here?” 
The unamused man nodded in the direction of the little kiosk in the corner of the shop. He went back to reading his tabloid where he slumped in a stool surrounded by an assortment of candy and cookies. 
Seungmin picked his mother tongue first on the little screen, robotic and green, thankful to see Korean for the first time in this new place. He navigated to the options screen. Behind him, the little bells tinkled to the shop door again, followed by the sound of the attendant scrambling out of his stool, metal legs scraping the floor. 
The student turned his head around in the commotion, taking in four very strange looking customers. Firstly, they were all covered in blood in one way or another, and each of them wore clothes--pajamas from the looks of it--which were shredded, torn, and blackened by something that might’ve been soot. Three men and one woman, and they all had a bit of a crazed look to their eyes. Clearly, none of them cared that they had walked into the store looking as such. 
Seungmin pressed his body to the corner of the shop, as if this could make him invisible. The attendant cowered behind the counter with a series of scared sounding whimpers. 
“Wh-what do you want?” He asked in his native tongue with quaking breaths. 
One of the men in the group wearing a flannel with chocolate brown hair threw open one of the fridges, took out a water bottle, cracked it open, then greedily slugged the liquid down his throat. 
“Pay the man, Fox.” He said to a man with pure white hair and shattered glasses. 
The man with white hair and glasses nodded, digging through his pockets. The man with the flannel then proceeded to revenge the place, opening up snacks and shoving the cheesy dust into his mouth with gluttonous moans and crunching loudly with an open mouth. Had he not been doing something as unsavory as such, Seungmin thought that he was pretty handsome, and somewhat familiar. The other three simply stood and watched as he did so calmly, and surveyed the shelves themselves after a moment. 
The attendant clocked Seungmin with fearful and confused eyes and Seungmin truly didn’t know what to do besides melt into the corner with the currency exchange kiosk. 
A man in running clothes ran a hand through his deep brown hair, then turned to grab several first-aid supplies in his hand. Seungmin noticed that he had a horrible gash over his eye that crusted and bled into the white of his sclera. The woman approached the attendant with arms crossed over her thin camisole that was stained a number of different colors which Seungmin didn’t want to identify. He noticed that she was only wearing white socks that were nearly stained green. 
“You do currency exchange right?” She said with a bold kind of confidence. “EGP?” 
The attendant shook in his boots, then pointed a trembling finger at Seungmin. The young man nearly felt his heart stop. The woman had stern eyes that were bagged with exhaustion, but that didn’t make her any less intimating. While she too looked a wreck, there was something about her so cold and threatening that Seungmin felt like crumpling up into a ball. Over it all, she was startlingly beautiful too. 
“Are you done?” She asked him kindly, and Seungmin struggled to get out a feeble “yes.” Of course, he hadn’t actually drawn any money out yet, but this seemed to be the best answer. 
The man in running clothes dumped a large arrangement of goods on the counter with an emotionless expression: coffee drinks, shooters of alcohol, gauze and tape, Band-Aids, anti-bacterial ointment, gum, a couple lighters and toothpaste with four tooth brushes, combs, several bottles of water, sour candy, and, oddly, condoms. 
The man with white hair came behind him to provide the cash to pay, and the attendant rang the odd group up with nervous glances to the man in the flannel who destroyed the store further. That man laughed maniacally as he popped open the plastic packaging to a pastry, then shoved in as of much of it as he could, smearing white cream over his lips. 
“Bee!! You have to try this!! A day driving through the woods and this is fucking fantastic!” He jumped up and down like an ecstatic toddler--but this was a strange juxtaposition to all the blood staining his arms and the fabric of his flannel. 
“Have some decency, Your Highness.” The woman chided, then held out her hand as the bills dispensed from the little machine. 
“Your Highness?” Seungmin muttered, not really understanding why he was still in there in the first place. 
“Fucking scam.” She muttered. “Is this all that you have??” She growled at the attendant. 
“It’s a little thing!! What do you expect??” He stammered with hands thrown in the air as if she had pointed a gun at his head. 
“F, tell Carroll to wire us when we get to Egypt. This’ll barely get us a place to stay.” 
“When I get internet access, sure, I’ll try my best.” The man with white hair said with an edge to his voice, sarcasm clearly giving it a type of bite. He then took to shoving all of their goods into plastic bags since the attendant had been too fearful to do so. He slid a few spare bills onto the countertop. “This is for everything that he ate.”  
“Do you have a bathroom?” The woman demanded, and the shopkeeper nodded, giving one more fearful glance to the college student. 
“Is there somewhere around here to get clothes?” The man with running clothes asked. 
“I-In town, a couple minutes in--” 
Outside of the little store, the sound of tires screeching on cement screamed, and all four of the strangers whipped their heads in the direction. Seungmin jumped too at the sound, and held his backpack to his chest tightly as if it were some kind of safety vest. 
The four strangers gravely exchanged terrified glances before throwing their bodies to the floor without a word. 
“GET DOWN!” The woman screamed, and in milliseconds, the rapid-fire crack of machine gun bullets came shattering the glass of the convenience store. 
Seungmin too threw all of his weight to land on his stomach on the cold linoleum floors and pressed his cheek against it while his ears rang. Tiny shards of glass pricked at his hands, but this adrenaline didn’t even let him feel the pain. He was certain that he must’ve been hyperventilating, because the room had started to spin among the relentless sounds of metal shells hitting the ground and metal shelves being upended from the force. The room filled with the smell of dozen different kinds of foods as packaging was ripped open and food and drink came spilling to the ground. The shopkeeper whimpered out loud prayers in his native tongue while he hid behind the counter. 
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as three of the strangers whipped out hand guns from their waistbands and knelt down behind the remaining shelves to shoot back at the black van outside. 
Seungmin pinched his arm with eyes shut. 
He wished he hadn’t. 
oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. He bit the words into his lip. 
“Hey kid!” The man with white hair growled at him. “You okay?” 
While the two of them looked nearly to be the same age, this other man with snow white hair seemed to know what he was doing, so Seungmin decided to take the smallest bit of solace in that over the deafening sound of bullets. 
“I-I think so?!” 
“Keep your head down!” He said with gritted teeth, then angled his gun with a squinted eye. 
“Bee??? Bee?” The fourth man with the flannel cried. 
“Head. Down.” She said while firing more shots. 
The room filled with a thin haze, and Seungmin covered his ears with bloody fingers. 
The strangers fired their guns until there was nothing left, then escaped hiding behind the shelves with heaving chests. The young man had curled up into the fetal position, mouth feeling deathly dry with hot tears streaming down his cheeks. 
Seungmin didn’t know that he had gone on this trip for his life to end. 
How fucking cruel fate was. 
His body shook, and he clung to his bag for dear life, waiting for it all to end, and for his time to come. Seungmin would’ve thought that in the moments before he had died, he wanted to think of all the good things that had happened in his life, but, he was disappointed to find that all he could come up with was fear. 
“Did you get a look at him?” One of the strangers yelled on the other side of Seungmin’s muffled ears. 
“NO!” One of them barked back. 
“He was wearing the crest!! The red!!” The woman called out. 
The world was black behind his eyelids, but anything was better than the scene that was actually unfolding before the terrified college student. Soon, the sounds faded, and Seungmin was then really convinced that it had finally happened. This was it. He was even still scared to open his eyes. 
A grip at his arm pulled him up. 
“You okay? They’re gone. You kinda blacked out there for a second.” It was the woman had pulled him up to his feet. 
His head spun seeing the carnage of the destroyed store, and the student became dizzier by the second. 
“I-I think I’m about to black out again--” His knees felt week and his vision blurred. 
“Hey! Hey!” One of the other strangers, the one with the running clothes scooped him back up and gave a light pat to his face. “You’re alright! See?” 
Miraculously, Seungmin really was unscathed. 
“Who-who are you? Who...who the hell were they? What the FUCK was that?” 
The four of them exchanged glances once more, communicating some kind of silent understanding between all of them. 
“What’s your name kid?” The white-haired one said as he put his gun back into his waistband. 
“S-Seungmin?” 
“Ok Seungmin, there’s a lot going on here that you really shouldn’t be aware of, and there's a lot of answers that I can’t give you, I just need to to trust me, alright?” 
“O-okay?” 
Now that the shop was devoid of windows, the summer breeze came blowing into the store--an odd contrast to the mess that was made all over the glass shards and food. 
“You’re safe now. They’ve gone. No one can hurt you.” 
“A-are you sure about that?” 
“We need to get going. I don’t know why the hell they leaved when they had us cornered, but we can’t be here for long.” The man in running clothes said with a tentative bite to his lip. 
The woman nodded. “You’re right Two.”
“What do we do with him though?” The man supposedly named Two said, motioning to Seungmin. 
“D-do?” His eyes widened to frightful full moons. “D-do????” 
“We take him with?” The man in the flannel suggested and shrugged. 
The woman rolled her eyes. “You don’t call the shots on stuff like this, Your Highness.” 
“H-Highness? What??” Seungmin blabbered. 
The man with white hair snatched the young student’s bag from his hands. “You got a laptop in that bag of yours?” 
“--H-HEY!” 
He man pulled out Seungmin’s dismal Chromebook that he had also saved several months for. 
“Hm. This will do.” 
“I guess we don’t have any other choice...” The woman rolled her eyes. “Introductions later. They could be coming back.” 
“Hey, HEY!” The shopkeeper yelled, then rose from his hiding place to look in despair at his destroyed shop, and his aging cured meat slab stuck with bullet holes on the floor. 
“We’ll take care of it all. We apologize.” The man in the flannel bowed deeply. 
Sunlight stung Seungmin’s strained eyes, and he realized that he had completely forgotten about his host father in his little car from the 80′s. To his surprise, the little car was nowhere to be seen. 
“M-my dad??” He said under his breath, also realizing that all of his belongings had gone with the man too. All he now had left to his name was his passport, a spare set of clothes, his laptop, and a couple school journals. 
“Get in.” The man named Two said while throwing open the door, but then gave him squinted wink. “Been to Egypt before?” 
━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━
“This mission is fucked.” Jeongin muttered to you, voice echoing slightly in the cobblestone alley. 
“Yeah, it certainly seems like it.” 
You fiddled with you new blouse. It was two times as itchy as you had expected and two times as expensive, but you had been desperate. With all of the spare supplies destroyed in the bombing, you and your partner had found yourselves hopelessly empty handed. 
“Carroll is gonna have our asses. Fuck...” Jeongin slicked a hand through his hair with a bandaged arm. “We can’t take that kid to Egypt with us!! We already have to be on high alert for the prince...and now this??” 
Your partner threw his head back incredulously against the brick wall, then stopped to watch the rest of the group sitting outside of the café and garnering odd glances from passerby's. 
“Well what the hell else to do we do??” 
Jeongin shrugged, then looking to the side shamefully. “You...know what the protocol is. We can’t stay here to watch over him until someone from the agency comes...and, we’re running out of time...White Rabbit is waiting for our correspondence..” 
“Absolutely not.” 
The poor young kid, naïve as he was, you couldn’t but help but feel bad for him. Not only was he all alone out there as he had explained, it appeared as if his host father had made off with all of his things too. It was hard to not pity the kid. 
“Y/n, you know that he’ll only drag us down. If we take him with, his life becomes our problem. If he dies, we’ll have to answer to whoever his family is and we both know that could get messy. We already have a mission: get the intel, then get the prince home. Not take that kid along with us for the joyride.” 
“You’re forgetting that they’ve seen him with us now. He’s associated with us. If we leave him in the dust, there’s gonna be an innocent kid dead in a foreign land, and it’ll be our fault for letting that happen. Do you want that to happen?” 
Your partner sucked at his teeth in thought for a moment, then groaned out. 
“I really fucking hate this babysitting thing.” 
“It’s the three of us and the two of them. The odds are still pretty much in our favor.” 
“It’s still dangerous odds.” Jeongin threw his hands onto his hips, then paced the length of the alley for a small stretch. “As of now, you’re assigned to the prince. Forget about the kid, Two and I will worry about him. The prince is the priority. If shit hits the fan, don’t even think twice, take the prince and get out. Okay? You should never leave his side.” 
You nodded in agreement, feeling a sneaky sense of pride. After all of the chaos and the uncertainty, Jeongin was really coming into his own. 
From the little patio where the others were, it looked as if Chan and Seungmin were getting a long swimmingly. You assumed that it had something to do with shared trauma. Weirdly, Chan had taken to the young man like a bit of a pet. Knowing all that the prince was going through, it made sense...perhaps this also could’ve explained why he had kissed you more than once. Anyone in his position would’ve acted as frantic as such--at least, this was what you had convinced yourself. 
Two sat with the two men wearing thick black sunglasses to hide his gnarly eye wound, sipping espresso. Jeongin started walking back towards the group when you grabbed at his arm. 
“--Wait, I need to talk to you about one more thing?” 
Your partner’s rather gaudy Hawaiian-themed shirt flapped in the breeze. “What’s that?” 
You drew him in closer. “What do you make of Two? He doesn’t strike you as suspicious?” 
“Suspicious? Why?” 
“I-I don’t know...it’s just a feeling that I’m getting. We know next to nothing about him--” 
“--But isn’t that how this goes? We’re not supposed to know things about each other? That’s the point? He’s stuck with us this far...and...” 
A couple passed by the two of you with linked arms, and Jeongin stopped his thought out of distrust of the two of them listening in. 
His voice lowered even further, “If Carroll trusts him, so should we.” The young man nodded, then patted your scratched shoulder. You winced, and he quickly apologized. “It’s...fine that you’re suspicious. Its best for us to be, you know?” 
“Expect the unexpected?” 
Your partner dished out a little eyeroll, “Yeah. Something like that.” 
━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━
It was as if His Royal Highness Prince Chan had never seen the inside of a public airport before. Everything was just so novel to him, and he gasped out at all the little trinkets and tchotchkes. 
As excited as he was, he still tried his best to keep a solid composure under his disguise: a cap, a hoodie, and thick framed sunglasses. The royal didn’t look the most non-descript, but you figured that it was better than nothing. 
The young kid sulked seeing the inside of the airport once more, as he had claimed that he had just left from there. You still didn’t know what to make of him all the way, but at least you could tell that he had a good heart. While in the car he told you and your companions how he had saved up all this money to travel, studied the language and arranged to go to school here too. While all of his plans had been thwarted, at least the kid was still getting to travel...with a price on his head...but still...he was getting to travel. 
Now that Jeongin had been able to contact HQ thanks to the kid’s computer, everything was arranged. Flight tickets, sleeping arrangements, supplies and Bun even knew that you were on your way. You had little desire to see that man considering how you had heard that he was one to live up to his eccentric reputation, but there was little other choice. Jeongin’s words ran through and through your head, “If Carroll trusts him, so should we.” 
Over it all, it was the prince who had worried you most. He was out in the open, and undoubtedly whoever those bastards were with the red crests would be close on your tail. Your neck strained with a pain that only seemed to grow stronger with every corner that you turned to ensure that no one was there. While the handsome prince liked to joke about how his life was on your hands, it was much more serious than that. 
You had seen the fear in his eyes that night--it was so tangible that you could practically hold in your hands. He was a man terrified of death, and he knew that he had little control over it. You had control over it, but you knew that you could only stretch yourself so far. 
Your group of five neared your gate in the international terminal lined with several dozen different kinds of multi-colored flags. You situated yourself between Two and the Prince on one of the thin teal chairs with flattened cushions. Chan tapped his hands on this knees impatiently as he inspected the place. 
“Kind of exciting isn’t it?” He said with a tiny grin. 
“What?” You moved to look at him with his obscured features. “Exciting?” 
“Yeah, you know, travelling together. It kind of feels like an adventure. I mean, they’ve got a gun to our heads, but at least we’re together right?” 
You scoffed, simply amused at how he had taken the severity out of the situation. It was clear that this prince knew little about the concept of perspective. 
“I’m not following.” 
“I get that...we need to be careful, but who said that we can’t, say, enjoy the journey?” 
“You’re saying that you want us to have fun while we’re running for our lives?” 
The prince smiled. “You know that I like having fun. That and...I’m just trying to be optimistic.” Under his cap, he slicked his brown strands back. “The three of you seem to be so tense all the time. Obviously, that can’t be good for your health--” 
You cracked out with laughter. “You’re being ludicrous, Your Highness. We have to be on high alert at all times--” 
“I said, that you could call me Chan, remember?” He rather languidly spread out his legs in his seat, removing his glasses for moment. “How about, when we go to Egypt, I take you out somewhere nice to eat? We can relax, talk, get to know eachother more--” 
You raised your hand up to silence him. “--If this is just a ploy to get me alone, I politely rescind the offer. Here I was thinking that you were concerned about all three of us...” 
“--I am!” Chan quickly piped, “I-I’ll take you all out for dinner! But...but...you’ll have to allow me to take you out for drink then. Just the two of us. I still hold to my word of wanting to get to know you.” 
The prince’s face was puffed and bloated, and scraped with little pink and red cuts, but nothing stopped him from pulling out his signature charming and persuasive grin. 
“Try to kiss me again, and I won’t hesitate. You might be royalty but I don’t ca--” 
“--Hmmm no promises.” Chan then cut in, his grin turned even more indulgent while you watched him inspect your frame in that god-awful scratchy blouse. 
Next to you, Two let out a particularly amused sounding scoff of a laugh. 
“Forward as ever, Your Highness.” Jeongin deadpanned, then buried his nose in his coffee and newspaper once again. He hadn’t gotten to finish doing so earlier. 
Seungmin, the young student stifled his own laughter which then gradually got louder and louder. “I can’t fucking believe this. Me. Kim Seungmin, the most normal-ass person in the whole world with you four: a fucking prince, secret agents...and now we’re going to Egypt??? Egypt???” 
“Why does that sound like the set up to a shitty joke?” Two popped a bubble he had blown with the gum from the convenience store. Turns out he actually had a bit of a “gum habit” as he called it. 
“Settle down kid.” Jeongin said without his eyes leaving his paper. “You’ll make a scene.” 
The prince yawned, sliding his sunglasses back on. 
“I never really did end up getting as much sleep as I would’ve liked.” If you could’ve seen his eyes, you would’ve then seen him eye your shoulder. “May I?” he politely asked. 
Rather than giving him an answer, you rolled your head around as if to say do I need to? 
Chan let out a happy little hum after resting his head on your shoulder, nuzzling in slightly. 
You met your partner’s side eye, and he repeated for you, I really fucking hate this babysitting thing. 
“Thank you Bee.” Chan softly muttered, almost too quiet for you to hear. “I really do owe you everything.” He was careful at first, but he reached out his hand to rest it atop of yours. While the action made you twitch at first, you remembered how the same action had calmed him in the van when you had escaped the gala. 
You told yourself that you were just being nice. 
The young kid pulled out a journal from his backpack and started scribbling something, Two popped a bubble, snapping it on his unnaturally white teeth, and Jeongin sipped at his coffee. 
This really was the set up to a shitty joke. 
A woman cleared her throat over the intercom and announced, Flight C1180 to Cairo will be boarding in one hour. Thank you for flying with us today. 
~🌹~
Bunch of (Ro)ses! 
@minaamhh @dazzlehoseok @synnocence @jjewibeans @hyunsluvv @unexceptional-h @bobawithchaitea @lechanters @sailorhyunjinz @silencefavarchive @eunaeiekim @lunarskzzz
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katsukikitten · 3 years
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WARNINGS : N!SFW 18+ AGED UP AU! SOME SCENES MAY CONTAIN GRAPHIC CONTENT, READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. YANDERE THEMES GIF MADE BY ME
It started out with a package.  
Roses really, neatly tucked away in plastic and a glass vase that nestled into loud styrofoam.
Or at least that's when you started to notice it.
Actually it started with a phone call didn't it?
Just a few days ago the old rotary phone,  the one you bought for nostalgia, rang. This in itself was not odd, you picked up the aged yellow receiver and pressed the cool plastic to your ear.
But you did not speak, waiting patiently for the other line to come to life. After a few moments of silence you figure it to be a telemarketer, the automated type that doesn't start its spiel until it hears a tone, a voice. So you hang up.
The random call lost to both time and thought.
But you cannot forget this package that acted as a catalyst, to what you were not sure.
You just knew it was something.
The white box with the flower company's name on the side of the cardboard sat on your concrete steps, just past the waist high fence. You were returning from a run, huffing as you bent over, you figured it was most likely for your neighbor but it had your address. The recipient's name had been worn off from the poor handling of the package, you had figured the contents to be broken. Despite the state of the box the roses were perfectly intact. Crystal vase sparkling even through the opaque wrapping, a note on top that read.
I'll love you always.
Ah so this was not for you. You scoff, this was meant for your neighbor as you first originally thought. It made more sense that way. What with his boyfriend being long distance, it was obvious. He most likely remembered his address wrong and put yours in error. As you're haphazardly closing the box, keeping the note in hand, your neighbor waltz from his door.
"Ah, um Denki-kun" You call,  a bright smile beams on his face as he makes his way to meet you at your shared fence.
"Love!" He greets, strong hand giving your bicep a soft squeeze, "Ah flowers? Spill!"
"Well they aren't mine. I...I think they're yours. Here." You shove the box and note into his hands, stupid tears trying to prick your eyes.
Why? You were unsure.
Maybe you were a bit jealous. Thinking back you couldn't remember the last time you had even had a flirtatious comment or cat call sent your way. You lived a normal quiet life with your "abnormality". Quirkless. You worked from home, spoke to a select few and hardly left your house. It contributed to your wait gain thus adding to your small list of places to go.
The grocery store.
And the gym Denki invited you to or around the block for a run.
After a gurgling amount of time you finally achieved your dream body. Now all that was left was to maintain it.
"Wait!" Denki calls, "This isn't my boyfriend's handwriting."
Furrowing your brows, hand on the handle the answer comes to you.
"Probably just one of those fonts meant to look like handwriting."
"No, come look. It was made with a ballpoint pen." Nothing escapes his pro hero trained eye, his finger slides beneath the words, "He seems passionate! Lucky duck look at how deep love is."
He passes the card to you, giving you a wink as he passes the white box. Sure enough there are divots in the card stock, love is the deepest. Deep enough it almost ripped through the thick paper. You swallow thickly racking your brain, your job requires you to have answers to every question. Logical answers. So it's no surprise your mind wanders until it comes up with something. Your eyes shift to the right, you were lucky enough for your little house to be on the corner of the block.
The delicate roses must have been intended for your neighbor diagonal from you. You wait until Denki is halfway down the block before you rush across the quiet street to set the flowers up neatly on the porch. Throwing the box and wrapping into the trash before you speed walk into the safety of your sanctuary.
Your cats prance to the door to greet you and then sprint to the kitchen to be fed. As if you hadn't just fed them before your run a little less than an hour ago.
The rest of your night is uneventful. You curl on the couch, nestled deep within an old cardigan and the comfort of your leggings with a pile of work to be analyzed. To find the devil in the details and solve what seemed unsolvable.
The answers were always there, under your nose. Found easily by your trained eye but how could you not see the obvious answers when you had the luxury of a bird's eye view. The luxury of knowing the whole story from the shakey beginning to the bitter end.
A luxury you would not have for your own story.
The shrill ring cuts through the comfortable silence causing you to jump from your skin, the cats perk their heads up lazily to see what disturbed them before tucking their head back down.
You tell yourself it's a wrong number, a telemarketer but curiosity is beginning to get the better of you.
And curiosity is a deadly, loud thing. Louder than reason. Reason you had learned from the safety of your home, from other people's mistakes. The same very mistakes that sit on your lap with harsh red ink labeling them C L A S S I F I E D.
It rings a fourth time as you stand, the bell calling out for your attention, demanding you speak. You lift the receiver, again there is silence on the other end.
You wait patiently, is this another automated telemarketer? Had you entered your real number by mistake for one of those stupid store discounts?
You must have, still you resist the urge to tap the speaker of the phone to see if it would trigger the recording.
Instead you drop the receiver onto the base, rattling the hidden bell.
And that was that, you return to your work. Pouring over the details to find the pattern, to build a psychological profile to avoid a tragedy in the future.
Ironic how you cannot prevent your own.
It isn't until a few weeks later does the first letter find its way into your mailbox.
It seemed harmless enough you thought it to be an accident, just neatly looped words proclaiming their love. But it was never fully addressed to you and when you tried to pass it off to Denki, again he denied that the letter belonged to him.
Still, those looping letters twist into your memory, coming to the forefront of your mind every now and again. As if the paper that lies on your dining room table reads itself aloud, from beginning to end at the top of every hour.
As if the ink doesn't want you to forget.
"I am not sure when it started, but it did. I had fallen for you despite my efforts not to. A half of a year I've told myself to forget it, to forget you. And yet I cannot bring myself to stop, the more I try the more you come to mind. And the more I find myself near you. It's as if you're a bad drug I can't quit. I've been watching you. Everything you do is done in such cautious beauty. Please answer next time my dear."
Silence for weeks after that, at least as far as the rotary phone and the mailbox were concerned. You would occasionally get a text from an unknown number.
A transposed number, an error on the sender's end. Or so you assured yourself, especially when they would seem a bit too coincidental. When you were out for a jog or out at the gym at a different time than usual a text would come through.
For a second your mouth would go dry, your blood ice cold as you read the black letters atop the white screen. Huffing as your lack of breath came from a psychological response as opposed to your physical running.
Why aren't you home?
See you soon?
But these couldn't be intended for you. How could they? You could list the people you knew outside of your family and work place on one hand.
Denki.
And only because he spoke to you first!
So these texts, these little messages laced with concern could have been for an estranged spouse, a forgetful spouse or some partner who lacked the ability to properly communicate.
You just knew they weren't for you.
Or so your new mantra goes.
Paranoia didn't begin to sink it's sharp teeth into you until you noticed your cats' odd behavior.
In an immeasurable amount of time they went from lazy, happy go lucky animals to hostile even aggressive creatures. As if they were suddenly feral.
Oddly enough they only acted this way during certain times, mainly at night. Their moon eyes saw things you could not, their enhanced hearing heard things you could not, things you labeled, rat or mouse.
Would a mouse or rat cause a cat to hiss at shrouded corners? To claw at the wall with a howl that sounded more like a scream? Would it make them avoid the closet door in your room?
Maybe it was bigger? The floorboards above did groan more often than not lately. Maybe it was a raccoon even.
Yes, that had to be the cause of their behavior.
And yet there was still that one time, that one instance you sometimes dream about waking in a cold sweet.
The thing you cannot explain away, nor label as mouse, rat, not even a raccoon.
A cocktail of a tired mind and a trick of the eye but simply not vermin.
It was overcast, a sickly grey as the day wept deep into the night. The weather, naturally, caused you to melt into the plush material of your couch as you consumed comfort movie after comfort movie. You were given a reprieve from your worry as your cats seemed normal, sleepy just as you were that day. Even Nyx chose to laze on your chest as a temporary throne. Your couch is flush against the arch way that leads into the dining room and kitchen, giving it's back to part of the hallway towards the main bathroom and your bedroom at the back.
This angle always caused you great anxiety but there was no other way your luxury couch could fit in the small living room and so you always sunk low into the cushions.
Suddenly Nyx's ears twitch and her eyes snap open, waking only a cat knows how. On high alert to a sound totally lost to your draft ear. Her eyes widen, pupils dilating to adjust better to the shadowed room. The glow of the TV casts such a glow on the objects around you, flicker in soft and harsh lights. Slowly Nyx cranes her neck to see what exactly disturbed her sleep, just as her eyes lock on whatever is behind you, you see it for just a fraction of a second.
In the reflection of those moon eyes you see it. Distorted only from the curvature of her lens and the grain of the TV but there is no denying its shape.
A crude outline of a man, broad shouldered and faceless in the dark.
You freeze, mirroring your cat. Breath held as you watch the figure in the pitch black pupil. Wishing, hoping and praying that what you see is not really there.
After an eon of a moment, Nyx begins to shrink in on herself before silently slinking from the couch to find shelter beneath it.
You are not brave enough to move, to crane your head just as your cat did before you to confirm if what you saw was real. And in the milliseconds that the TV goes black you avoid the corner the figure should be standing in. Goose flesh breaks out over your skin, making you feel vulnerable and cold. While your feet burn begging you to get up.  
To run.
After a lot of mental reassurance and silence you begin to settle down. Easing yourself back into the rational world. Even becoming brave enough to stare into the TV, into the corner where the figure should be reflected in.
Each passing second as you wait for that small moment of blackness sends your heart into an irrational pace. Finally it happens and when you see nothing you sigh with relief.
Mentally giving yourself an "I told you it was nothing." talk.
That is until you hear a sound, a thump and a click from the back bedroom.
Your bedroom.
But the sound seems as if it came from within, as if it were your closet door.
Your heart explodes into frantic erratic beating.
The shrill ring of the old rotary phone rips through the dialogue of the movie but it can be barely heard over the hum of your blood.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING
BRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIING
Tonight you are frozen in place, whether that be from petrifying fear or sheer stubborn denial you cannot say. You just know one thing.  You do not want to deal with the automated telemarketer who never seems to speak.
It rings four more times before it stops.
You chalk it up to coincidence. To nothing.
Late evening turns into late night and sooner rather than later you find yourself in the mouth of the hallway. Staring down your bedroom door as your mind plays on repeat the sound of a door closing from earlier that night.
You cannot let the boogie man keep you from sleep. Slowly you enter, flicking on all the lights.
Everything seems to be in place, the small pile of laundry still lies abandoned by your hamper, your bed neatly made, pillows haphazardly lying about the comforter. Hell even your inherited diamond drop necklace still sits snugly in the jewelry dish on your night stand.
The townhouse makes an odd sound, you jump out of your skin. Clutching your phone so hard the lock and volume buttons imprint into your palms.
No longer can you ignore the elephant in the room as the silence from this particular space screams at deafening volumes until you dare to look. Your eyes flicker to your left and there it is.
Your closet door, seeming to yawn and stretch even in the harsh hue of the overhead light. A closet is always an ominous, odd place and the sounds it may or may not have made cause a great twisting in your stomach. The shine of the knob calls to you with deadly wonder. Begging you to turn the gleaming metal to reveal the darkness behind the bland white door.
It should be inspected shouldn't it? If you ever wanted to sleep soundly you would need to reveal what may lurk in the dark.
Creeping towards the door with baited breath until finally your hand hovers over the knob.
"Open me." It seems to whisper in delighted glee, elated to see your stressed, scared features distort in its polished brass. You retract your fingers as if burned, biting onto your lip as you scrape your large armchair against the wood. Shoving it into place against the closet door.
You sit on the edge of the bed, staring at the door until your eyes burn. You turn off the overhead light but keep the soft light of your nightstand lamp on.
You dream fever dreams of flashing lights as a storm passes overhead. Dream of the closet door laughing in the night, of cool fingers pressed into your skin.  
Jolting awake you reach for your phone as your senses slowly come to you. Your eyes fly to the armchair in the mid morning light. It rests in the same spot you left it ominously staring at your bed.
Something seems off about it or maybe you just imagine that there is a deep divot in the cushion, as if someone or something sat in the armchair most of the night.
You close your eyes and go over rational explanations. Always bringing back to yourself the same question.
Who in the world would want you?
Bringing you back full circle, that you were getting ahead of yourself. The cart before the horse in a sense and letting your mind race without restraint.
Letting the season of Fall try to creep into your bones and cause an artificial fear.
Still it's not too long after that do the cats avoid your room altogether.
While you choose to do what you've always done, push the problem aside and explain it away.
The phone rings as you're lacing up your running shoes. You pick up the receiver without bringing it to your ear and place it down gently.
It's just a wrong number anyway.
Tonight air bites at your nose, leaves crunching underfoot as wind whips around buildings and trash, carrying with it the promise of a harsh winter to come.
Your feet carry you slowly back to the direction of home as they beat down your normal, safe route.
A right from your little townhome, straight for two blocks before you would find the winding black pavement. It would snake past the backs of homes through some small trees but never a path that was fully hidden.
Always out in the open but giving you the ability to peer into people's lives as you passed. Witnessing dinners, arguments and heated moments of passion. Silently you thanked Kami you were not positioned on this route.
You keep your eyes focused ahead, the music in your ears low to listen for possible passers such as a bike or a better runner than yourself.
You pass a tree that seems thicker than normal, your phone buzzes on your arm band.
An email, it has to be an email.
Yet your mind wanders to those worried texts, lingers on the thoughts of if that tree had always been that wide, if the quickly setting sun had always cast the path in blood red. The maroon leaves flutter overhead, falling to the ground.
More crunching than what you think your feet should produce has you running faster. Forcing yourself not to glance over your shoulder. Your breathing becomes rasped as you borderline sprint home, still the crunching comes closer.
It isn't until someone brushes your shoulder as they pass do you let out a blood curdling scream. Huffing to catch your breath as you take a step back.  The jogger, your neighbor from across the street that you occasionally run into, removes his earbud.
"You okay?" He addresses you by your name and suddenly you're embarrassed that you do not know his. He takes your silence as an answer, his brow furrowing.
"I thought you'd be less skittish since your new boyfriend's been coming around." Your mouth goes dry.
"Wh...what?"
"Yea he seems so sweet. He always checks the windows to make sure they are locked at night." He takes in your response and shrugs, "It's getting late. Since I didn't see your boyfriend there yet, I'll jog you home."
The jog home is agonizing,your mind racing far faster than your feet can go.
What did he mean he saw him checking the windows? What boyfriend?
Maybe, maybe he mixed up your house with Denki's again. It's happened once before when he was returning mail. So there was a good chance he was mistaken again.
Still the closer the two of you get to home the worse you feel. A brick sits in your stomach as he jogs in place before your fence. He gives you a knowing smile and a wink as you wave him goodbye.
It isn't until you turn to face your home do you notice it, the white rectangle stark against your black door.
There is an envelope taped to the thick oak, addressed to no one but "My beloved".
You rip it from the wood with ragged breath as you bring it inside. Already you can feel the contents squirming, fidgeting as it waits to be read.
Polaroid photos fall to the hardwood floors, pictures of you running down your favorite path. Blurred images of you walking down the aisles of the grocery store, and even a photo of you taken between the cracks of the fence in your front yard.  
There are no more photos after that, at least not this time. Just that fucking letter written in long looping ink  You feel the words tighten around your throat as horror wraps its spindly fingers around your guts and yanks them towards the floor.
Your knees threaten to buckle as your eyes rapidly move along the page.
"In these moments you are the most beautiful. Blissfully unaware of prying eyes. In my time I've come to care for you I've noticed I'm not the only one watching. People gaze at you with whispered murmurs, with pitying eyes as they spin tales of your life. Speculating gossip as you prance about the neighborhood. Flaunting in those tight running shorts that hold every godly curve of your thighs and ass. Of the light jacket you leave unzipped so they can get a better view of your bouncing breasts tucked in your black sports bra. I wonder, would they bounce like that when you ride on my cock? Would your hair stick to your forehead like that as I rail you from behind. Would that angelic voice squeak out for more? For me? Ah I'm salivating thinking of it, harder than I've ever been. Please do not wear those out while running. In fact you don't have to run anymore Doll. You just need to let me take care of you God damn it. You little fucking whore. You seductive vixen with your God damned doe eyes. Just...just fucking answer please."
Rage and fear fight for control as you reread the letter for the fourth, fifth time before you finally move. Rage, for once, wins. You slam the door behind you locking the deadbolt before running to the back bedroom. Throwing the heavy chair from the closet door and ripping it open.  
Nothing lies within it, just clothes that begin to smell of neglect. Of old running shoes you didn't have the heart to throw away.
Of relief that whoever was sending these letters, these ones that weren't meant for you. Wasn't currently in the house.
The floorboards overhead groan and for a moment you have half a mind to tuck your cats away into their carrier, buy a one way train ticket to bumfuck nowhere and set your house ablaze.
Instead you move the chair back in front of the closet, grabbing things from your back bedroom to start your new life on your couch.
Time passes as the trees become more bare, their spindly fingers reaching out to tap the roof at odd hours of the night.
Tomorrow you promised yourself you would run.
And yet you find yourself dressed, lacing up your shoes before slowly opening the door. Your jacket is zipped all the way up, your hair neatly tied back and just as you step foot out the front door a heavy wind rips through the yard causing Denki's unlatched gate to slam. You jump back startled as your fear clings to you like a second skin. The letter begins to overlap in your head and the polaroid photos you had trashed a few weeks ago burn into your retinas. A faint snap and a whirl comes from close by and suddenly your stomach churns. Bile rushes up your windpipe too quickly, slamming the door shut and running to the bathroom. You barely make it as you dry heave into the porcelain bowl, huffing in the air of fresh toilet water. The smell starts a vicious cycle of nausea until finally your clammy skin begins to cool, pressing yourself to the side of the tub. In your panic your skin becomes sensitive, hyper aware of each stitch in your jacket, your sports bra and your jogging leggings. Your rip at your clothes until you peel them off of you, huffing as you scramble to get into the shower.
It does not matter that the water is not yet hot. Hell it isn't even lukewarm still you find yourself in the stream as it becomes scalding. Scrubbing at your skin with soap over and over and over. Nails pulling away already raw skin until that burning water begins to cool. A floorboard creaks overhead causing your head to snap up. The ceiling holds no secrets and yet no answers until you see it. A small hole, one you aren't sure if it's always been there, gaping from the attic over your shower and bath. It's too dark to tell if there is someone peering down at you from above or not.
Instead of freaking out your head slowly tilts away from the haunting discovery. Turning off the water, opening the curtain and wrapping yourself in a towel. As if it were every day you see something like that, as if it were nothing more than a spider lingering that you'd wish to forget.
It's fine It's always been there
But that would be the last time you would take a shower in that house.
Even though you hardly left your couch, things would still go missing in yourself. Things like the remote or one of your hundreds of phone charger cords. Even documents to cases but you didn't care, couldn't care. Otherwise you would break. Shatter.
Your days consisted of lying on the couch and consuming an ungodly amount of television. Doing so until your eyes burned although you begged them to stay open. Sadly everyone needed sleep and so you did. Giving into exhaustion as your eyes fluttered closed and your body weak, relaxing into the comfort of the couch.
Hours are lost to you so you dream and dream. Of a better time or of yourself in one of your files to dissect. Giving yourself that perfect bird's eye view and wondering how the victim never saw it coming.
In your dream you feel something along your face, smooth fingertips trace down your cheek over and over at a lulling pace.
"So perfect." A whispered serenade melding in with a snap and a whirl. A flash of lightning from a passing storm.
Except there was no storm coming in.
Your eyes snap open as you jerk to a sitting position frantically looking around the room.  When your eyes find nothing you allow your beating heart to settle back into your numbed state, more than ready to melt into the couch.
Until your stomach growls forcing you to focus on a new problem.
When was the last time you ate? Your stomach had long forgotten about food, choosing to conserve energy in case you needed to run from whatever the hell it was in your head.
Forgoing dressing you place your hand on the knob, wallet in hand. Two sets of glowing eyes watch you from beneath the couch. Twisting the metal to yank the door open you are greeted with cold fall air. The wind whips hair into your face as your mind quickly wanders. You half imagined a man to be standing in the middle of the street. Mouth stretched too far over gleaming teeth, lips parting enough as the wind brings with it the sound of your name.
Frantically you move your hair from your face, eyes searching up and down the street to find no one, nothing.
As it should be at 10am on a weekday. Suddenly the weight of going outside sits on your shoulders, despite the convenience store being a ten minute walk both ways, the thought of you going alone scared you.  Slowly you shut the door, falling to your knees before lying face down on your floor openly sobbing.
A creaking board sends you back to high alert, you remove your jacket and decide to order take out instead.
The knocking at your front door jolts you awake, the TV drones in the background with hazed over words as you quickly come to. Heart slamming into your chest before your stomach growls loudly. Right, food.
Your hand hovers over the knob as if suddenly you cannot move, as if the person on the other side of the door is an imposter lying in wait. Another knock comes at the door, he announces who he works for which eases your phobia a bit. You swallow thickly before finally opening the door, hands sweating as the anticipation of the identity of the stranger on your porch.
He seems to check out, his outfit covered in logos for your takeout restaurant of choice, car labeled as such as well. He holds the receipt towards you. His eyes wander over the face of the house, giving you sudden chills.
The question falls from your numb lips.  
"D...do you see anyone in the windows?" The delivery guy visibly jarrs, eyes darting to the windows of your room and the living room. Suddenly his face changes as a knowing smile spreads on his lips.
"This is a prank isn't it? For Halloween right?" He chuckles, but when he sees the pen shaking in your grip his face goes stone cold. Eyes darting to your left, to the bedroom windows. He taps the paper, indicating where you need to sign, you take a moment to do so.
The old rotary phone screams from the living room, making you both jump.
"Guess I better get that." You gesture, grabbing for your food. He nods affirmation before stepping off of your small porch a little too quickly.
You slam the front door, appetite washed away by each shrill of the small bell. Hesitantly you reach for it,  you have to know, need to know who could be on the other side.
The receiver is cold against your ear, the other line is quiet, although you can hear something soft in the background.
Talking, it sounds familiar, like an echo or almost as if there is a delay. It almost sounds like the same commercial that's playing on your TV right now.
Gently you set the phone down, the soft click echoes in the space around you. You sit on the couch before lying, covering yourself in your blanket as your takeout sits by the door, forgotten.
It wouldn't be too long before it begins to rot, almost as quickly as you.
The phone rings
And rings
And rings.
Nightly in fact, for the next few weeks as you cry silently trying to ignore the sound. Turning up the TV as loud as it can go, 24/7 until finally the speakers blow and you are left with nothing but that shrill shriek. The demand of the small plastic item that was meant to bring to a comforting memory from the past comes more often. Every four hours, every three hours, every hour until finally when it comes to an end it breathes again.
Screaming into the night tearing away your hearing, your sanity until finally you get up from your spot on the couch. Clothes falling away from your frame as they had grown in the time you sat. The time that you watched.
Each step is agonizing as sobs rack through your body, shaking hands making it hard to reach for the cool receiver.
You press it to your ear and for a final time your mind attempts logic. It is just an automated telemarketer, a glitch or determined program but the thought crumbles as your ears strain to hear the soft breath on the other line.
"Please…please stop." You sob into the receiver when no one speaks. The silence deafening as your mind can no longer keep with the charade.
That everything is okay and has always been okay. That the red flags you studied for a living were never there, washed away by your feigned ignorance.
"Finally got a response out of you." A velvet voice chimes, agitation lacing his syllables, "Gods, I just cannot wait to have you. It was worth it you know? Living in your walls for months."
"Why are you doing this?" Your voice barely a whisper, a soggy huff more than anything.
"I'm glad you asked." You body goes rigid, a haze blankets your mind and smothers the scream tearing up your throat.  
"Now walk out the door to me. Don't worry I'll bring your cats back to our home later."
You hang up the phone, body moving on it's own as you walk towards the front door. A door you had chosen to avoid and for good reason. But you should have known the danger lied within these four walls. Although your body feels heavy it moves normally despite you trying to fight it. Or as best you can with your worn down mind.and will. It is not as joyous as a moment for you and it is for the man in the street. His lilac hair is illuminated in the moonlight while his amethyst eyes glow iridescent. His smile is as you imagined, twisted and screwed up in such a way it makes your stomach churn. Lips stretched out almost too far over gleaming white teeth. Your face does not reflect your horror as it stays neutral, only your eyes give you way as tears fall from your cheeks.
The answer was there, under your nose, the devil in the details that you normally saw with your bird's eye view. One you didn't have the luxury of for your own story.
"Come now pet. It's time I finally teach you about what it means to be mine."
EPILOGUE
Everything is hazed over and slow, as if watching an old silent movie through the static and snow of the screen. Trying to read their lips to figure out what they are saying only for the text box to come too late.
"Perfect. Now get on your knees kitten. Open wide." You follow his orders numbly body moving on it's own as he smiles down at you. "God, you're so so perfect."
Long fingers tug at his belt before the shrill of a ring tone cuts through the silence. It is the same sound of your rotary phone at home except with an added element. The foreign sound of your whimpers and pleads for the phone to stop can just barely be heard. He looks down at the cell phone and answers.
"Denki, Baby I know I said I would come tonight. I'm just running late okay?" Amethyst eyes rove over to you and it is then that it hits you. The horror of the realization is like ice water dumped over you as you put two and two together.
The first time you saw him, visiting your neighbor over a year ago. It was such a quick exchange, eye contact and nothing more as his lips were pressed to Denki's.
Your mouth goes dry as it hangs open, slowly it becomes uncomfortable.
He changes his voice to sound like someone else's, someone with a gruff deeper tone.
"Oi quit talking to dunce face so we can finish this shit!" He removed the device from his mouth
"I'll be home after this patrol. Love you bye."
He tosses the phone before gripping your chin to spit into your mouth, his hand rests on the hem of his pants.
"Now...where was I?"  
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