#he was so popular they had a fan wall for him full of letters and drawings | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

no-pucks-given · 3 years

Text

TYSON JOST | LIGHT MY WAY HOME

A/N: More than 12.000 words later, more than a month after the initial request from Taylor popped up in my notifications. What a freaking ride. My longest fic I've ever written, and maybe even my favourite one. Thank you, to everyone who hyped me up, send me inspo and send me sweet asks. I couldn't have done this without all of you. Special thanks to @dumb-and-dunner, @chicagoblackhawkslover96, @heybarzy and Chrissy (who doesn't have Tumblr unfortunately).

Warnings: Angst, ‘can I strangle him yet?’ Tyson, swearwords, some major character development and (how could I not?!) a happy ending.

Also: Gabe and Melissa Landeskog play a big part in this fic, so if you aren't comfortable with them, you might want to skip this one.

Word Count: 12.1K

Requested: Yes.

The NHL lifestyle, or the ‘popular’ lifestyle was attractive to all young, hormonal boys. You’d known that for a long time. You stood by Tyson’s side when he got drafted into the wicked world of the NHL. Parties, drinking, sex, training until you can barely move, fights, games, wins and losses. It all had it’s charms, but it also had its dangers. Just like any other guy Tyson wanted to experience it all, the whole package,

You assumed you fell under that ‘whole package’, you were his girlfriend for a reason, right? And you did, for a while. You partied together, came home together, did everything together. But the moment Tyson became older and ‘known’ outside the regular hockey fans, that title didn’t mean much anymore. He became more and more the type of guy you didn’t fall in love with, the type to take you for granted, the type to enjoy the attention of other people, other women in particular. You weren’t the jealous type, you didn’t want to claw out the eyes of every woman that looked at him, but you were at a breaking point. Maybe you were jealous, you weren’t jealous of those other women, you were jealous of the attention Tyson gave them. Attention he should’ve been giving to you, his freaking girlfriend.

You were however the loyal type, the type to come home after a long night. And that’s exactly where things went wrong with Tyson. While you were waiting for him at home with a meal, a warm bed or just simply anything else, he was out. You had no idea where he was exactly, he was simply ‘out’, whatever that might mean. You tried to talk to him, you tried to make him see that this wouldn’t end well for either of you, but he simply waved off your concerns, shrugged his shoulders and moved on.

How do you talk to someone who rediscovered himself? How do you talk to someone who thinks he’s on top of the world? How do you save someone from the downfall of success when they don’t want to be saved? You knew one day he’ll come down from this high, one day he’ll realize that he screwed up. One day he’ll come to the conclusion he let something special slip through his fingers, and for what? Fame? Drinks? A rush of adrenaline? One day. But you knew that it wouldn’t be today.

However today is the day that you’re done. Absolutely fed up with all the bullshit excuses Tyson has been feeding you, all the coming home late or not even coming home at all. You have no idea what he’s been up to these last months, he’s barely home. Even when he’s home it’s like he isn’t really there. You can’t even remember the last time the two of you slept together or the last time you actually went to bed at the same time. Breakfast together? A lifetime ago. A lazy day together? Can’t remember. Date night? Months, months ago. Even thinking about it pisses you off to no end, the pain and hurt slowly making place for a new emotion: anger.

It’s frustrating to say the least. You love and take care of him like he means the world to you, and he does. Tyson on the other hand seems to take you for granted, or forgets you’re here at all. It seems like you’re talking to a brick wall instead of your boyfriend. No matter how hard you try, your words have no impact, your tears don’t make him feel anything. It’s like he’s a totally different person. You barely recognize him anymore these days, he feels like a stranger inside the body of the man you love. It feels like you’re both living your life, besides each other instead of with each other. It hurts, that’s for sure.

Like any other day you’ve prepared dinner, put it on the table and sat down on one of the chairs. All you can do now is wait, wait and pray he’ll show up this time. You even texted him, begged him to come home and simply eat dinner with you for a change. Of course you didn’t get a response, of course it’s complete radio silence from his side. God, you were desperate at this point, you don’t even try to deny it.

With every passing minute your hope disappears little by little. You stare at the food on the table until it’s completely dark outside, no sign of Tyson. Hours passed and you barely noticed it, it isn’t until you try to stand up and your muscles ache from sitting in the same position for a long time that you realize how much time actually has passed. “Fuck this, why am I even trying anymore?” you mutter to yourself, shaking your head. This isn’t worth it, it hasn’t been for a long time. Maybe, just maybe you’re finally ready to admit it to yourself.

Deciding to choose yourself over Tyson is a major decision, one you probably should’ve made sooner. It doesn’t matter, what does matter is that you’re choosing you now. You make the split second decision to just grab your stuff, just the necessary stuff. You remember Gabe’s offer, at the time you waved it off with a smile, pretending it wasn’t as bad as it might look to the outside world, but now? You want nothing more than to take him up on his offer. So what’s stopping you?

Even though you were excruciating calm this whole time, the moment you step into your bedroom, or Tyson’s bedroom, you break. This is real, this is really happening. You grab your bags, filling them with some of your stuff. Some clothes, some toiletries, your makeup, everything you might need. It’s a tough job, it’s even harder when you almost can’t see past the tears. At some point you lose track of things you did and didn’t grab, just shoving random items into your bag.

You let out a frustrated sigh, your body sinking down on the floor. In your hands the box containing all your high school love letters, all the small gifts you made each other. Tyson was quite handy, who would’ve thought that? You smile at the memories, sorting through the box. You frown at the feeling surging through your body, is this how heartbreak feels? Looking down at the contents of the box you sigh, wiping away the tears streaming down your face. Why couldn’t life be as simple as it used to be? It shouldn’t be this hard, right? You grab your prom picture between your fingers, smiling sadly at the two people in the picture, both smiling like they just won the lottery, both utterly in love with the other. How time can change..

You throw the box on the bed, maybe it will remind Tyson what the two of you had was special, maybe he’ll realize what he’s about to lose. If it doesn’t, well, it’s his loss. Hauling your bags downstairs is a full workout, you intended to bring ‘just the essentials’ but you have way more important stuff than you originally thought. You aren’t planning on returning to this house any time soon.

Shutting the car door after you loaded in your stuff gives you some form of relief. You let out the breath you’ve been holding in. You made your decision, it’s time to follow through now. You make your way back inside, and into the kitchen. Cleaning up all leftovers from dinner, which obviously is a lot more than you expected. Although.. did you really think he would show up? You shake your head again, putting the leftovers into the fridge. After you finish the dishes you retreat back to the living room, falling down on the couch with a loud sigh. All you can do now is wait.

You could’ve just left and never look back, but that isn’t your style. If you’re going to leave, you’ll do it the right way. You won’t leave without giving him a piece of mind, letting him know he fucked this up for good. You try to focus on the movie playing on the screen, but your heart keeps beating harder and harder, at this point you wish you would’ve just left instead of waiting for Tyson to show up. God, why did you have to do it the right way? Because you know, deep down, you would’ve wanted him to do it the same way. It’s the humane thing to do, it’s only right after spending such a long time together.

The front door opening brings you out of your thoughts. Honestly you don’t even know what time it is, but frankly you don’t care. All you want right now is to get this off your chest and leave. Tyson’s eyes widen when he comes face-to-face with you, surprisingly he doesn’t seem that intoxicated. You suspected he went out, but at this point he could’ve been anywhere.

“You’re still up,” Tyson says, walking past you and flopping down on the couch.

“Yep, and you missed dinner,” you counter, crossing your arms. Tyson simply shrugs his shoulder, clearly not caring enough to explain his absence. “I texted you to make sure you would be here,” you say, even though you know it doesn’t make a difference.

“Yeah, I was busy,” Tyson answers, looking down at his phone.

You almost feel the need to chuckle, to start laughing at his stupid behavior, but this is anything but funny to you, it fucking hurts. “I’m done, Tyson. I’m fucking done,” you say, shaking your head, trying so hard to keep the tears away.

Tyson looks at you with dull eyes, no emotion visible on his face. “Then go to fucking bed, I really can’t deal with your problems right now,” he sighs, turning his head back to the phone in his hand.

Right now, at this moment you know you made the right decision. This isn’t behavior of someone who’s in love, this isn’t even behavior of someone who loves. “You don’t have to deal with me anymore, because I’m leaving. I’m done, we’re done,” you tell him, emphasizing the last part. Tyson’s eyes shoot to yours, the panic clearly written all over his face now.

“No, we’re not. You can’t break up with me, y/n!” he almost shouts at you, standing up from the couch.

“Yes, I can and I will. You don’t get to act like you care all of the sudden, Tyson. You haven’t acted like a boyfriend in months. You haven’t given me any reason to stay, so I won’t. I’m done with whatever this is,” you say, waving between the two of you. Tyson grabs your wrist, tears starting to pool in his eyes. He opens his mouth to say something but you cut him off. “No. No. You don’t get to do this. It’s over. You put on quite a show, but I can’t say it was very entertaining. This curtain fucking closes right now, show is over. You can act like you care, but I know by now that you don’t,” you tell him, ripping your arm out of his grip.

You walk over to the front door, keeping your head high. Now is not the time to break down, your time will come. You hear Tyson behind you, muttering how sorry he is, excuse after excuse leave his mouth. You open the door, turning around one last time to look at Tyson. “Don’t tell me you’re sorry, ‘cause you’re not,” you say while shaking your head. You close the door behind you, not looking back at what you’ve left behind, only looking forward to what’s yet to come.

It’s when you’re in your car mindlessly driving around when you realize you have nowhere to go. You forgot to call Gabe, and it’s probably way too late now. You quickly check the time, 2am, shit that’s late. You doubt he’s still awake, you feel bad for even thinking about waking him up. Two young children, both of them under the age of 2, and being a professional hockey player probably cost him enough energy already, you don’t need to add to that. “He did say I could always call him when I made my decision,” you say out loud, more to convince yourself that it’s okay than anything else.

You easily find Gabe’s contact, immediately pressing the dial button before you change your mind again. The line only rings twice before Gabe picks up. “I’m guessing you either finally broke up with him or there’s a fire somewhere,” Gabe says from the other side of the line. You chuckle, shaking your head. “And since you’re calling me and not the fire department, my guess is on the first one,” Gabe continues, trying to make you smile some more.

“I did it, I broke up with him, couldn’t stand to be there any second longer,” you sigh, brushing your fingers through your hair.

You hear Gabe’s sigh of relief. “I’m proud of you, y/n. I know this isn’t what you had in mind, but it’s better like this, I promise.”

Gabe turned into one of your best friends over time, Melissa is the older sister you never had and you love their children like they’re your own. Gabe and Melissa welcomed you into their family immediately after meeting you. You hadn’t expected to make friends and you definitely didn’t expect to make friends with the captain and his wife, but you’re so grateful you did. The support you receive from them is overwhelming, you couldn’t wish for better friends. So when Gabe first made you this offer, you were thankful he did, although you were still convinced at that point that Tyson would change.

“Uhm, you know.. that offer you made me? Is that still on the table?” you ask, praying he’ll say ‘yes’, praying you don’t have to sleep in some random hotel tonight.

“Of course, the guestroom is already prepared. Melissa expects you to be here as soon as possible, apparently she ‘really needs to cuddle her little sister’,” Gabe chuckles, you can almost hear him rolling his eyes at his wife.

“Thank you, Gabe. I owe you,” you say softly.

“You don’t. You’re family, y/n,” Gabe says, and you know he means every word he just said. Family. “Now get your ass over here, before Melissa starts a search party,” Gabe chuckles, making you laugh some more, because you know she would. You quickly say your goodbyes, promising you’ll be there in a few minutes. It’s just a short drive from your apartment, or Tyson’s apartment now, to Gabe and Mel’s place.

You kept up your appearance, keeping the tears at bay, but the moment you step out of your car and into Gabe’s arms you’re done. “Come here, I’m so sorry,” Gabe says softly, his hands rubbing soothing circles on your back.

You stand there for a few minutes, simply crying on your best friend’s shoulder, until Melissa squeezes herself between the two of you. “Hush, I need some sister time. Why don’t you grab her stuff?” she says, smiling sweetly at her husband.

Gabe sighs dramatically, sending a wink your way. “Whatever you say, wife.”

Melissa pulls you close to her, an arm around your waist, her head resting on your shoulder. “Come on, I’ll show you your room,” she softly says, leading you into the house. You’ve been here so many times already, but never like this. You’ve never been in a situation like this before, you’re not sure how to handle this. “I can hear the wheels turning in your head. It will be okay,” Melissa says, rubbing your arm soothingly. You sigh, shrugging your shoulders, not sure what to say.

Melissa leads you to your room, pushing you down on the bed, while she takes a seat on the edge of the bed. “I know you’re probably exhausted, but do you want to talk?” Melissa asks softly, her face showing nothing but compassion.

You lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about all that has happened. “I don’t even know what to say, Mel. I don’t even know how I feel right now. I’m just so...” you trail off, not knowing the right words to describe everything that you feel and think right now.

“Confused, relieved, mad?”

You sit back up, looking back at Melissa. “All of the above, I guess? It hurts, but I’m glad I did it. But I also regret it, because I love him, you know? I’m mad he didn’t try harder for me, for us,” you say, trying hard to keep the rush of tears away.

Melissa wraps her arms around you, pulling you close to her. “I know, sweetheart. It will take time, but you’re going to be okay.”

You sigh, knowing she’s right, even though it probably will take more time than just ‘some time’. You did just end a long relationship, it will take a lot of patience and time to work through that. “Thank you, Mel. For letting me stay here,” you mumble against Melissa’s shoulder.

“No need for that. You’re my sister, remember?” Melissa smiles at you.

Gabe softly knocks on the door before opening the door. “Brought your bags, thought you might need them before you go to sleep,” he says, smiling at the sight before him. Your friendship might be unconventional, but he couldn’t care less what other people think about it. Gabe absolutely adores the sister bond you and Mel share, he hoped the two of you would get along, so this? Picture perfect.

“Thanks, Gabe,” you smile at him.

“Do you mind if I steal my wife from you?” Gabe asks, making you and Melissa laugh out loud.

“Nope, she’s all yours,” you chuckle, waving at their retreating backs when they walk out of the room.

You strip out of your clothes, pulling on a sweater. You sigh, realizing you packed some of Tyson’s sweaters out of habit. His smell infiltrates your senses, making it damn hard to keep your emotions under control. It’s right this moment you know exactly how you feel. Heartbroken. The realization that your relationship with Tyson is really over doesn’t give you the satisfaction you hoped for, it doesn’t give you peace, it just fucking hurts. You simply feel hollow, even though deep down you know this was the right choice, this was what needed to happen. You know damn well why you feel so empty, you gave your heart to Tyson a long, long time ago, never expecting to be in a situation you might get it back. You don’t want it back, but you might need it back.

You realize it’s morning when the light softly shines into your room. You sigh, knowing damn well you’re lucky if you slept more than an hour this night. Rolling over you look at the clock on the wall, 9 am, perfect. Deciding it won’t do you any good if you stay in bed any longer, you force yourself out of bed and into the shower. The hot water warms your cold skin, soothing your sore muscles. All the twisting and turning you did all night surely didn’t help the way you feel right now. Why couldn’t life be a bit easier by simply letting the shower wash away all of your hurt, all of your pain? A fresh start, a clean slate.

You slip on some skinny jeans and a soft sweater, not in the mood to even think about doing your makeup. You dry your hair, before making a quick ponytail out of it. You walk down stairs, the chatter and laughter greeting you as soon as you walk into the kitchen. “Morning, guys,” you say, smiling at all the happy faces before you. A round of greetings sound throughout the room.

“How’d you sleep?” Gabe asks you as soon as you sit down next to him with a bowl of cereal.

“Can’t even tell you, suddenly it was 9 am,” you chuckle, shrugging your shoulders at Gabe’s raised eyebrow. “Do you have any idea where my phone is?” you ask Gabe, knowing he grabbed all your stuff out of your car.

“Uhh, I do, but I don’t know if you really want to look at it,” Gabe says, scratching the back of his head before pointing towards the kitchen counter. It’s your turn to raise your eyebrows, walking over to where Gabe’s pointing at.

You unlock your phone, quickly checking your notifications. “Oh damn,” you mutter, looking at the absurd amount of missed calls and messages left by none other than Tyson himself.

You sit back down next to Gabe, dropping your head on your arms. “What do I do now, Gabe?” you groan. “Why does he care all of the sudden?”

Gabe rubs his hand over your back before answering your question. “Because he lost you, y/n. He never thought he would.” You turn your head towards Gabe letting his words sink in.

Gabe gets ready to leave for practice shortly after you settle on the couch with Lucas in your arms. The little man has a fascination with your hair, maybe it’s all babies who have that, but you like to think that you’re special. “Don’t pull out all y/n’s hair, baby boy,” Gabe chuckles, giving his boy a soft kiss on his head. He gives you a kiss on your cheek, softly squeezing your shoulder. You open your mouth to say something, but Gabe cuts you off. “I know what you’re thinking. Don’t worry about it, I’m his captain, but I’m your friend, okay? Just relax, make sure Lucas doesn’t puke on you and go do whatever it is that you women do all day,” Gabe chuckles, knowing you better than you know yourself. You mouth a quick ‘thank you’ to him, wishing him good luck with practice before he runs through the house trying to find his girls to kiss them goodbye.

“Your daddy is a good guy, you know that, Lucas?” you smile at the baby on your lap. Lucas coos, his hands grabbing onto the strands of your hair. “Your daddy and mommy make me feel so loved, even though their children like to see me in pain,” you joke, trying to free your hair from Lucas’s small hands. “Buddy, you’re way stronger than you look,” you mumble, when Lucas pulls on your hair again.

Melissa laughs out loud the moment she walks into the living room. “How many times did I tell you that you need to keep your hair away from him and his grabby hands?” she says, expertly freeing your hair from her son’s fists.

“Apparently not enough times,” you chuckle at her. Melissa joins you on the couch, while Linnea Rae plays on the ground with some of her toys, happily showing you what she got every now and then. It’s times like this that you’re extra grateful for Melissa and Gabe, the way they welcomed you into their family has been nothing but perfect.

“So, what’s going through that pretty head of yours?” Melissa asks, while scrolling through series to watch on Netflix.

You shrug your shoulders. “I don’t know, I’m kind of worried about practice, I think? I don’t want to put Gabe in this position,” you say, keeping your eyes on Lucas.

“You know Gabe would do anything for you, huh? You don’t know how many times he came home utterly frustrated by the way Tyson treated you. He never said anything, because you were still with him, I can’t promise you he will stay quiet this time,” Melissa says, squeezing your shoulder. “He’ll be fine, this isn’t Gabe’s first rodeo.”

You look at Melissa, who simply gives you a wink. “I know, I know. I just don’t want him to get in trouble or anything,” you say, smiling back at her. You trust and know Gabe, so hopefully there won’t be a lot of trouble today.

“If he does though, he probably deserves it.”

Gabe surprises you all with some takeaway when he gets home from practice. It’s been nice eating with other people for change, it’s been way too long. The amount of lonely dinners has been through the roof lately. Gabe nudges you with his elbow, causing you to look up at him. “No frowning at the table.”

Melissa rolls her eyes at her husband while you just stick out your tongue at him. “Sure, dad,” you say, causing Melissa to almost choke on her bite of food before she lets out a loud laugh.

“Yeah, dad. Leave us alone,” Melissa laughs, winking at her husband. Gabe shakes his head at you and Melissa, a grin plastered on his face.

It’s during dessert you find the courage to ask about Tyson. You weren’t sure if you needed to ask Gabe, you weren’t even sure if you wanted to know anything, but now you know you do. “So, did anything happen during practice?” you ask him, playing around with your spoon.

Gabe shakes his head, giving you a small smile. “Not much, just some chirping. Told him I’m his captain and he needs to fucking focus on practice. That seemed to do the trick,” Gabe says, shrugging his shoulders, continuing to eat his dessert.

You look across the table at Melissa who has the same expression on her face as you. Not convincing at all. ‘Sure,’ Melissa mouths at you from across the table. You shake your head at her, furrowing your eyebrows at Gabe’s statement. ‘Nope,’ you mouth back at her, finishing your dessert. You decide to let it go, you don’t even know why you care so much. You shouldn’t, right? You broke things off with Tyson, so why do you care so much what he does and thinks? The answer to that question is pretty simple the longer you think about it. Because you still love him, that’s why.

You thank everyone for dinner and dessert, promising to cook something from them later this week. Right now all you can think about is your bed and a decent night of sleep. God, that sounds like a true dream right now. You strip out of your clothes, crawling into the soft and cozy bed. It doesn’t take long before you fall asleep, showing just how exhausted you truly are.

The weeks that follow are filled with all kinds of activities, the 5 of you falling back into a comfortable rhythm, surprising you considering the situation you’re in. It isn’t every day you take in the ex-girlfriend of one of your teammates, or your best friend, whatever way you want to see things. When you aren’t working you spend a lot of time with the kids, trying to make things easier for Melissa and Gabe whenever they are busy or simply need some time for the two of them. You happily take on some of their care, even if it’s as simple as making sure they get their food in time. Honestly they are two of the sweetest children you’ve ever come across, they always find ways to make you laugh, even though most of the time it isn’t on purpose.

It’s been quiet around the house tonight, Melissa went out with a few of her friends, while she left Gabe and the kids with you. Apparently she needed some ‘alone time’ which didn’t include kids, and definitely didn’t include Gabe after he mentioned he wanted some ‘alone time’ with her as well. You love their friendly bickering, the love they have for each other visible in everything they do. So when Melissa gave her husband a dirty look and flipped him the bird the only logical thing to do was to start laughing at their exchange. “Have fun with them, sweetheart!” Melissa had yelled at you when she walked through the door, leaving the four of you behind.

Together you decide to just have a movie night. It’s late enough for both children to be asleep already, yet early enough to squeeze in a full size movie marathon. “Gladiatorrrrr!” Gabe exclaims excitedly while scrolling through the movie selection on Netflix, pausing on his all-time favorite movie.

You groan, covering your face with your hands. “Please no, have mercy, Gabe,” you laugh, knowing damn well you’re going to sit through this movie again. How many times has it been already? 12? You wouldn’t even be surprised. This dude really loves his movie. You look at Gabe from between your fingers, seeing the look on his face which makes you groan even more. “Fineeee, one more time, Gabe. One more time,” you whine at him, secretly enjoying his taste in movies, something you don’t plan on telling him ever.

It’s a little after 10pm when the doorbell rings. You look at Gabe, who looks just as surprised as you are. “It’s a bit early for Mel, don’t you think?” Gabe asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Definitely, unless she drank the whole bottle of champagne again,” you chuckle, thinking back at one of the craziest parties you’ve ever been to with Mel and Gabe.

“Oh God, please don’t remind me of that,” Gabe shudders at the memory of that night, standing up to see who’s on the other side of the door.

Gabe hates to say that he isn’t surprised to see Tyson’s face as soon as he opens the door. Honestly he had expected him at his door days, maybe even weeks ago. The moment Tyson found out you were staying with Gabe he broke, Gabe expected him to fight, to yell, to scream, he expected him to do anything except cry. Which is exactly what Tyson did, breaking down in the middle of practice. For a moment the whole place went quiet, only Tyson’s cries echoing throughout the building. No one knew how to act, no one knew what to do, until Gabe realized he’s the captain for a reason. On and off the ice. It was a weird experience, one Gabe still feels extremely conflicted about. He comforted his teammate, his friend, while his other friend was at his home, utterly heartbroken, trying to get over the guy who was bawling his eyes out on the ice.

After Tyson got over the initial shock the anger took over, just as Gabe expected. It made him almost drop the gloves, something he tried to avoid, not wanting to hurt Tyson. He let him say his things, things that absolutely didn’t make any sense, until he got everything out of his system. “Now can we continue this fucking practice, Jost?” Gabe told him after everything calmed down. Gabe tried to avoid the Tyson/y/n topic as much as possible after that, not wanting to get in the middle of things more than he already was. Until tonight apparently.

Gabe raises an eyebrow at the boy before him. “Why are you here, Tyson?” Gabe sighs, already knowing the answer to that question.

Tyson looks around, eyes flickering from left to right, clearly uncomfortable being here. “I, uh, can I talk to y/n? I know she’s here,” Tyson asks, scratching the back of his head before putting them back in his pockets.

Gabe shakes his head at him. “You can’t, if she wants to talk to you she will find a way to contact you. As long as you don’t get your shit together and prove to me, but most of all to her, that you’ve changed, I won’t let you anywhere near her,” Gabe declares, starting to get annoyed with the way Tyson acts. There’s no way he lets him close to you until you feel like you’re ready to see him again, no way.

Tyson opens his mouth, but Gabe gives him a look that immediately shuts him up again. “I’m saying this as your captain, and definitely not as your friend right now. Go home and leave her the fuck alone. You had your chance, you fucked up and now you have to deal with the consequences. How you deal with those said consequences is up to you, but I suggest you leave now and think about everything you did and didn’t do, okay?” Tyson nods his head, turning around to walk back to his car.

When he’s a few steps away from his car he turns around, smiling sadly at Gabe. “She’s my home, Gabe. Home doesn’t feel the same without her. You out of all people should understand that.”

Gabe chuckles low, shaking his head at his clueless teammate. “I do. I do know what home feels like, but I never, never choose anyone or anything over my ‘home’. Never. You sure as hell did, time after time,” Gabe says frustratedly, before shutting the door, leaving behind an even more frustrated Tyson.

You didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you caught the sound of Tyson’s voice when you walked to the kitchen, grabbing some more popcorn. You didn’t mean to listen to their conversation, but it felt like you were glued to your place, unable to take another step, unable to do anything but listen.

Gabe walks back into the room, the look on your face immediately letting him know you know. “How much did you hear?” he asks softly, approaching you slowly.

“Enough,” you whisper, before breaking down, no longer able to keep the tears locked away, no longer able to keep your emotions to yourself.

With two steps Gabe is in front of you, grabbing the bowl of popcorn you held onto between your trembling fingers. He guides you back to the couch, urging you to sit down, which is a true challenge for someone who can barely feel the ground they walk on. Gabe wraps his arms around you the moment you sit down, allowing you to cry onto his shoulder as much as you want and need. He whispers sweet nothings while softly brushing your hair out of your face, making sure you have room to breath. Time after time Gabe proves what kind of friend he is, always making sure to be there for you when he’s needed, always doing things with the best intentions. Even if it’s just holding you until you calm down, even if it’s just speaking the truth against Tyson, even if it’s just simply being there for one another.

“Sooner or later he would’ve realized what he lost, what he gave up for an evening of clubbing or God knows what. Apparently it’s sooner rather than later, however make sure you make him work for it, if you ever decide you want to give the two of you another chance,” Gabe softly advises you, when you finally calmed down a bit.

“I will, you know I love him, Gabe. But I don’t know if I should?” you mumble, not sure if it’s a question Gabe has the answer to.

“Sometimes the heart wants what it wants. If he’s serious about you, he will work his ass off to earn back your love and trust, I promise you,” Gabe comforts you, after knowing Tyson for so long he’s positive he knows that Tyson goes above and beyond to get what he wants in life.

Maybe it’s Gabe’s comforting words, maybe it’s knowing deep down Tyson still cares, maybe it’s your own strength, but for the first time in a while you feel a tiny flicker of hope, a little bit of light at the end of the dark tunnel. Maybe, just maybe this was all worth it, maybe this is what needed to happen to get better and move forward. Maybe this is how it was supposed to go.

It’s a weird feeling, knowing your ex still cares about you, but also knowing you aren’t ready to let him back into your life like that. You don’t feel like you’re capable of seeing him yet, let alone talk to him. The need to know how he’s doing, how he’s holding up grows, but also confuses you. It’s simply a weird and confusing situation to be in. Choosing between two, maybe even more ways to handle this, while also waiting for Tyson to make a move, which he obviously can’t since you don’t want to see him or speak to him, is a hard task. A task that will require a lot of thinking. You just need a bit more time to gather your thoughts, give all of your confusing feelings a place, while making sure you put yourself first, you need to put yourself first this time.

So when Gabe invites you to one of his home games a few weeks later you say ‘yes’ right away. It seems like the perfect time and place to see Tyson from a distance again, without putting too much stress on yourself, you can just watch and enjoy the game, you don’t have to force anything. Of course your seats turned out to be way closer to the ice than you expected them to be, although... what did you exactly expect with Gabe? You know he’s been talking to both of you, kind of acting like some sort of messenger. He tried to keep it casual, just slipping in some information during a conversation, but you noticed what he was trying to do. Frankly you’re thankful for his meddling.

Steadily your heart starts to beat faster and faster the more players appear on the ice to warm up. When Gabe appears you aren’t surprised to see Tyson close to him, knowing Gabe they probably had a little chat before they went on the ice. Tyson’s eyes shoot to yours the moment he’s close by, completely forgetting the ability to skate. You gasp when he lands on his ass on the ice, earning himself a round of laughter from the people around him, including Melissa and you. Gabe skates over to him, extending his hand and helping him upright again, but not before clearly telling him he’s ‘a dumbass’. Now that’s something you can agree on.

You know Tyson has something up his sleeve when he skates off to the bench, clearly busying himself with something you can’t see. After a few more stolen glances at each other Tyson skates closer and closer to you, until he’s right in front of the glass. His left hand catches your attention, until he gives you a small and almost shy smile. “Look at him, he’s blushing!” Melissa whispers next to you. You shoot her a quick ‘shut up’ look, before you focus your attention back on Tyson.

Tyson shows you the puck in his gloved hand, mouthing to you to catch it. It takes him two tries before the puck lands on the other side of the glass, safely in your hands. Tyson gives you one last quick smile before he skates off to get ready for the game. Melissa nudges you softly, bringing you back from your thoughts. “So, what’s on there?” she asks, knowing damn well you haven’t even checked.

“I don’t know if I want to look, Mel,” you tell her honestly. Melissa gives you a sad smile, throwing her arm around your shoulders.

“Let’s look together?” she suggests. You don’t know why you’re so nervous, how much can you actually write on a puck? He seemed happy to see you, so there’s no need to be nervous that it’s a bad thing. You look at the puck, turning it around in your hands so you can read the whole thing. ‘Talk after the game?’ is written on the puck, you immediately recognize Tyson’s handwriting and his little smiley face, or.. something that should resemble a smiley face.

“That wasn’t that bad, right?” Melissa asks softly, squeezing your shoulder.

“What if I’m not ready?” you ask her, a question that has been on your mind a lot lately.

“Then you take a step back, you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone, you don’t have any obligations. But he’s trying, y/n. You’ve heard all of Gabe’s stories, you’ve seen it yourself just now. It can’t hurt to at least talk to him.” You think about Melissa’s words, she does have a point there. Talking is something you should’ve done ages ago, or at least Tyson should’ve done that. So this is progress, he’s at least trying this time, that’s more than he used to do.

It’s hard to keep the smile off your face, you can’t even pinpoint why exactly you’re smiling. Whatever the reason is, it’s a good feeling to smile again. The game sure as hell plays a big part in it, the guys are on fire, scoring goal after goal, never giving the puck away for long. There’s barely any time for you to give Tyson a thumbs up, indicating you’re up for a talk after the game. Whenever you look at Tyson when he’s off the ice he’s smiling, whether it is to himself or to one of his teammates, that smile won’t leave his face.

You follow Melissa down to the locker room after the game is over. You’ve done this so many times, but this time it couldn’t be more different. You greet all the girls who are patiently waiting on their man, getting enough comforting words from them to last you a lifetime. When the door to the locker room opens you come face-to-face with Mikko, someone you haven’t seen in a while. Mikko’s face lights up when he spots you outside the locker room. “y/n! I haven’t seen you in so long,” he says, while hugging you tightly.

“I missed you too, goof. It’s great to see you,” you smile at him, wiggling out of his iron grip. Dude’s definitely stronger than he looks.

“Between you and me, Tyson’s a good kid, he just needed to grow up a bit,” Mikko whispers against your ear, before leaving you alone again.

You raise your eyebrow at Melissa, who just shrugs her shoulders. Weird. After a few more minutes Gabe and Tyson appear in front of you, both of them joking around. Tyson nervously looks around, not sure if he should come any closer. Gabe hugs you swiftly before throwing his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Make sure you bring her home safely, Jost,” Gabe warns him, before quickly saying goodbye to both of you.

You watch them leave, your mouth agape by the way they just left you here. Rude. “Did they just really do that?” you ask no one in particular, still shocked by their actions.

You turn around, looking back at Tyson, who still appears to be nervous. Is he nervous to talk to you? Why would he be nervous? It’s just you. “Hi there,” you smile, looking up at the man in front of you.

“Hi beautiful, it was nice seeing you tonight,” Tyson softly says, giving you a small smile.

Your insides flutter with his use of words, it’s nice hearing them even though you’re not completely sure if he means them the way you hope he does. “It was. You played great, I had a lot of fun,” you say, smiling at the proud look that crosses Tyson’s face for a moment.

Tyson leads you back to the rink, which is now completely deserted, thinking it would be a nice place to chat. For a while the two of you fall back into small talk, ‘how’s life?’, ‘how’s work?’, all that bullshit. You know Tyson and you are avoiding the actual topic that needs to be discussed, or topics? Whatever it is, there’s a lot to talk about. “I missed it here, I forgot how much I loved being here,” you tell Tyson, looking at the lights that lighten up the place, thinking back at the memories full of fun and happiness you both created here.

“I missed you, baby,” Tyson blurts out, completely catching you off guard.

Your eyes shoot back to his, you feel the panic rising inside your body. “Tyson...,” you start, warning him he’s walking on thin ice here.

Tyson’s face falls a bit, seeing the anxious look on your face. “I��m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Tyson groans, rubbing his face harshly, utterly frustrated with himself and the situation.

It’s quiet for a minute, both of you completely lost in thoughts. “Why is this so hard? We used to be able to talk about anything and everything. What changed, y/n?” Tyson wonders out loud.

You feel a painful pang in your heart, because you know damn well what changed. “You did, Tyson. You changed,” you almost whisper, the truth behind those words more clear than ever before.

You watch as Tyson’s whole composure changes in the blink of an eye, in just a split second he goes from the ‘happy’ guy to the guy who’s just as heartbroken as you are. “I did, didn’t I?” Tyson whispers, the tears pooling in his eyes. “I fucked this up, how could I be so stupid?” he mumbles, burying in face in his hands. “I’m so sorry, I regret this more than I could ever admit to you. I’m so sorry, baby,” Tyson cries, trying to keep his eyes focused on you. It’s hard to keep your own tears at bay when the guy you love so much has a breakdown in front of you, so you don’t. You just let them fall.

You don’t make a move to comfort him, you do give him room to let it all out, give him time to gather his composure again. “I looked through the box, the one you left on our bed?” Tyson says, his voice still broken, still thick with emotion. You nod your head, it was something you hoped he would do. “I had no idea you kept all of that throughout the years,” Tyson smiles weakly at you. “It made me realize what a moron I have been these past few months, maybe even longer,” he continues, shaking his head in disappointment. You listen intently at him, this, this is what you hoped for all this time: realization.

“I’m not telling you that you weren’t a moron, because you absolutely were. But I’m glad you came to the same conclusion.”

Tyson chuckles at your statement, giving you half a smile. “I know, I’m a dumbass. I’m a dumbass for acting this way and a dumbass for letting you go. Any guy would be on top of the world with you by his side, and I just let you slip through my fingers,” Tyson tells you, finally showing he knows he’s been a fool all this time, he knows he let something special go.

“Is it too late for us? Can you give us another chance?” Tysons asks you, his eyes flickering between you and the ground.

You sigh softly, knowing this question would come. It’s something you gave a lot of thought, something that crossed your mind daily. “I don’t know, Tyson. I really don’t know. You really fucking hurt me, you know? I can’t just look past that, I need to heal from that,” you tell him. Tyson nods his head, a guilty expression on his face. “You made me feel worthless every single day. You didn’t even give me a second of your time day after day. All you cared about was being away. Being away from me?”

It’s right that moment Tyson interrupts you by grabbing your hands. “No. No. That’s not true, you need to believe me,” he tells you as fast as he can.

“But how can I believe you when you never gave me a reason to? Your actions showed me exactly that, Tyson. I need answers, I need to know why,” you exclaim, starting to panic again, your anxiety taking over.

“Easy, baby. I’ll tell you everything you want to know, everything you want, but right now I need you to breath. Breathe, baby,” Tyson says softly, trying to calm your shallow breathing back down to normal. “Listen to my breathing, try to follow the way I breathe.” You do as he says, following the rise and fall of his chest, gaining back control of your own breathing.

“I’m sorry,” you apologize, while Tyson just shakes his head at you, letting you know it’s okay. “Can you take me home, Ty? We can talk later, okay?” you ask him, suddenly feeling the need to crawl underneath the covers of your bed and just simply sleep for a while.

“Anything you want, y/n,” Tyson says, leading you out of the room and back to his car. You’re pretty sure he mumbled something under his breath, something very closely resembling ‘your home isn’t there, it’s with me’.

The drive to Gabe takes longer than expected, giving you more time to think about Tyson’s earlier question. You still need and want to know how he spent his nights, where he spent his nights, and why he acted like you didn’t exist. That conversation might need to wait until another day, you aren’t up for any more information, any more realizations, you still need to process everything you heard, saw and felt today.

Tyson stops the car in front of Gabe’s house, looking back at you with hopeful eyes. You know he still hopes he gets an answer to his earlier question, and you want to give him at least that. “You need to show me you changed, Tyson. Show me you changed for real and I’ll try to get past everything that happened. I can’t promise you anything,” you tell him softly, meaning everything you just said.

Tyson nods his head, a smile of relief on his lips. “I will, I promise you I will show you I changed and that you’re everything to me. I promise, baby.”

So that’s exactly what Tyson does the next few weeks, every free moment he tries to show you just how much you mean to him, without smothering you. Whether it’s taking you out for dinner, although you’re still waiting for Tyson to actually make you dinner by himself one day, to small coffee dates and fresh flowers at work. It’s been a lot to process, a lot of adjusting to this ‘new’ Tyson, or rather seeing the ‘old’ Tyson again. And you missed him, God you missed him so much.

Tyson seems happier, more at peace with himself these days, it’s a pleasant change. Often you wondered what was really going on inside his head, but you stopped trying after he waved it off again, and again, and again. The late night phone calls, or facetiming during road trips have become a habit again, something you didn’t think you would ever experience again with him. You still take things slow with Tyson, deciding to rather allow yourself to slowly start trusting him again than diving head first into a relationship again. Maybe it will never come that far again, you don’t know how the future will look like for the two of you, but for now it’s enough.

You come face-to-face with a smirking Melissa when you get home from yet another ‘iced coffee and donut’ date, even though you’re pretty sure Tyson isn’t allowed to eat any donuts. “Oh no,” you groan at Melissa’s expression.

“It’s time we have a little sister-sister conversation, don’t you think?” she asks you, ushering you into the living room.

“Do we?” you groan again, not in the mood to handle whatever Melissa wants to talk about now, because you already know it’s either about you, Tyson or you and Tyson.

Melissa flops down on the couch, patting the place next to her, indicating for you to sit your ass down. “Did you already talk to him about it?” she asks, straight to point in pure Melissa-style.

You let your head fall back against the cushions, sighing loudly. “I didn’t. We’re doing great, we’re having fun. I’m going to ruin it if I start asking questions again.”

Melissa stays quiet for a minute, trying to figure out the right way to approach this sensitive topic. “You know you deserve the truth, right? You can’t rebuild a relationship when not everything’s on the table, sweetheart,” Melissa says softly, knowing you’re struggling with this.

“I promise I’ll talk to him after the road trip, I don’t want to create any unnecessary negative energy before,” you promise Melissa, although she gives you a ‘who are you trying to fool here’ look before switching topics.

A few days later you find yourself back at Tyson’s place. It’s weird being here, knowing you don’t live here anymore. Nothing changed, absolutely nothing, Tyson kept everything the way you did, whether it’s out of laziness or out of hope you’ll come back on day. Either way it’s weird coming back to a place that’s no longer your home. You came here to talk, nothing more nothing less. You promised Mel you would, and if you’re being honest with yourself it’s time to know the truth, time to reopen old wounds and finally get some answers. You’ve grown closer and closer to Tyson, without knowing everything, without knowing you’d be able to forgive him if he ever made a misstep. It’s time.

Tyson has been a nervous wreck ever since you called him last night after he returned from the road trip to St. Louis. He knew this was coming, but he prayed you would simply forget, even though he knows that’s not fair at all. He can’t excuse his behavior, and he won’t, not anymore. You deserve nothing but the truth, the full truth. He’s not proud of it, but you leaving him opened his eyes, showed him he really needed to change. Tyson feels like that’s something he truly did, he changed for the better, he can only hope you’ll feel the same way. He can only hope you’re still on the same path after tonight.

“You did great these last games, Ty,” you smile at him. You’re proud of the way he’s been performing these last couple of games, he really stepped up his game.

“I know you didn’t come here to talk about my performances on the ice, so can we please skip the pleasantries?” Tyson sighs, catching you completely off guard with his rather harsh approach. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way, I’ve just been so fucking nervous since you called me,” Tyson curses, frustratedly brushing his fingers through his curls.

“You’re right though, I did come to talk. I think it’s time we lay all our cards on the table,” you tell him, nodding at your own answer.

You nervously bite on your lip, playing with the cup of water in your hand. It isn’t every day you ask your ex these questions. Questions you want the answers to, question you maybe don’t even want to hear the answers of. “I need to know if you cheated on me, Ty,” you blurt out, keeping your eyes on the ground, not wanting to see the look on Tyson’s face.

“Look at me, baby,” Tyson says, urging you to look up at him. “I never cheated on you, I wouldn’t do that to you. I promise.”

You shake your head at him, not knowing what to do with these emotions surging through your body. “It doesn’t make sense, Ty. Where were you all those nights? Where were you every time I lay in bed alone waiting for my boyfriend to come home? Waiting if he actually comes home this time or stays out all night again? Where were you?” At this point you’re past the civil conversations, past the friendly banter, you need answers, you need to know why he did what he did. The reason doesn’t even matter at this point, you need to know why. Why did he leave you alone so many nights, worrying about his well being, worrying about if he would come home at some point?

“Fuck, y/n! I know I fucked up, I know I did. But I swear on everything, I swear on my career, I swear on you that I never, never, touched another woman. I never kissed another woman, I never even danced with another woman, I did not cheat on you,” Tyson exclaims, hoping, praying you hear what he’s saying, that you’ll believe him. He didn’t do anything with another person, it was always you, it still is only you and he’ll do everything in his power to prove that to you every damn day.

“Then where were you, Ty? If you weren’t with another woman, then where the fuck were you every night you didn’t came home? Please enlighten me, because I’m so lost, so fucking lost,” you say, feeling utterly frustrated with yourself, with Tyson, with this shitty situation.

Tyson takes a deep breath, placing his cup back on the table. “Shitfaced drunk to the point I couldn’t even remember my own name, or so stoned I saw freaking elephants running all around town. Spending my money on unnecessary shit at clubs and bars, all to forget, trying to forget the fact that I had a perfect girlfriend waiting for me at home, while I did stupid shit. Fuck, this sounds even worse out loud than in my head,” Tyson groans, burying his face in his hands.

“But...,” you start, before Tyson cuts you off.

“I felt ashamed and guilty, y/n. Ashamed I let it get that far every time, guilty I didn’t tell you, guilty I didn’t come home again. One of the guys would just take me back to their place out of sympathy, letting me crash on their couch, trying to sleep off my haze.”

You try to come up with words to say, with anything but nothing comes out, you just feel.. empty? “I don’t understand, Tyson,” you say, at this point not even sure what you don’t understand.

“I tried, y/n. I tried to just come clean, but I couldn’t when you were so nice all the time, I couldn’t when I knew you would hate it, hate me. You know I’m a fucking lightweight, that makes it even worse. But those are no excuses, there aren’t any. I fucked up,” Tyson sighs, giving you a sad smile, “I couldn’t face you, I didn’t know how to show you my vulnerable side without letting it change the way you saw me. I didn’t want you to see me any different, but I didn’t notice I changed until you packed your bags and left me standing in the doorway.”

You’re absolutely speechless, there are so many things you want to say but you can’t form any sentences, any words. You just stare at him, your mind racing with an unlimited amount of thoughts. “Are you okay, baby?” Tyson asks softly, reaching out to put his hand on your arm.

You shake your head from side to side, wiping away the tears that spilled out. “I’m not okay, I’m definitely not okay,” you tell him. “I feel terrible knowing you didn’t feel like you could come to me, like you couldn’t talk to me. I’ve always been your biggest supporter, nothing would’ve changed that, Ty.”

Tyson gently wipes the tears away from underneath your eyes, scooting closer to where you’re seated. “Come here, baby,” he softly says, opening his arms for you. You hesitate for a second, not knowing if this is the right thing to do. Fuck the right thing, you definitely need a hug right now, and judging by Tyson’s facial expression he needs one as well. You lean forward, putting your arms around his neck, breathing in the familiar scent of his body. How long has it been since you hugged each other? You can’t even remember, way too long. Tyson closes his arms around you, pulling you as close as possible to his own body.

“I missed this, Ty. I missed you,” you confess, the feeling of his arms around you, the feeling of Tyson, bringing back so many memories, so many happier times.

“I know we still have a long way to go, but I hope we’ll do this together. I can’t even tell you how great it feels to have my arms around you again, even if it’s just for a moment,” Tyson says, after you both let go of each other.

“We do, but I’m in if you’re in, Ty,” you agree, wanting nothing more than to work through the issues you still have. It’s time to forgive, time to let go, time to change and time to move on.

“I’m all in.”

The talk you had with Tyson that Wednesday evening did wonders for the both of you. You still had a long way to go before you were even remotely close to where you used to be with Tyson, but the most important thing was that you were working on things. Slowly, but steadily the two of you worked on trusting each other again, telling each other important things again, just simply working on being in a healthy relationship again. Although the word never came up, you were nowhere near ready for that commitment, so you settled on something less intimidating. Friends.

It was supposed to be a regular, normal Friday evening with just Melissa and the kids. Gabe and Tyson were playing one of their most important games this season, both of them begged you to come, but it was too late to find a babysitter. Not wanting to be by yourself there and leaving Mel alone, you decided to sit this one out as well, promising to cheer them on in front of the tv. It’s the least you could do. So there you are, seated on the couch wearing your Jost jersey for the very first time again, just as you promised. Weird, like nothing ever changed, even though the exact opposite is true.

You’re bouncing a giggling Linnea Rae on your knee, looking down at her adorable mini jersey. “Look it’s your daddy!” you exclaim excitedly, pointing at the closeup shot of Gabe.

“Daddy!” Linnea Rae giggles just as excited.

You catch Mel softly smiling at your little interaction with her daughter, enjoying the love you share for each other. It’s been a blessing to have you around here, the way you care for her children, but also for her and her husband has been phenomenal. Mel couldn’t wish for a better friend, for a better sister than you.

“Oh no,” you whisper when Tyson gets slammed hard into the glass. Melissa grabs your hand, squeezing softly.

“He’s going to be fine, he’s a tough guy,” she says, trying her best to comfort you. And he is, like the tough guy Tyson is, he gets up again, shaking off the hard hit. The game continues and you’re glad Tyson is fine, skating like he didn’t just get squeezed between a glass wall and a 200 pound hockey player.

All goes well until Gabe decides the best place to smack his stick is directly against Tyson’s face, again. “Not his face, Gabe! Not his fucking face again!” you yell at the screen, thanking Mel for already putting the kids to sleep.

“Shit, that looks bad,” Melissa almost whispers, squeezing your hand again.

You don’t know many things for sure in life, but you sure as hell know Tyson will be spotting a black eye for weeks. But like the tough guy he already proved to be, he just goes on with the game, trying his absolute best to work as hard as he can, giving himself completely to the game, anything to get his team the victory.

“That’s the second time you gave my man a black eye, Gabe. Why do you keep hurting him?” you whine the second Gabe walks into the living room. For a moment the room stays awfully quiet, until you realize what you just said. “I really said that, huh?” you ask, fighting to keep the smile off your face.

“You sure did. But I’m sorry, it was an accident. Again,” Gabe chuckles, shrugging his shoulders.

“Uhu, again,” you say, rolling your eyes at your best friend.

Gabe grins at you, flopping down on the couch next to Mel. “I’ll try not to hurt his pretty face again, okay?” Gabe laughs, shaking his head at you in a playful way.

“Is it weird if I, you know.. went over to check up on him?” you ask your friends, suddenly insecure about the thought of just showing up at his door.

Gabe gives you a soft smile. “I’m absolutely convinced he’d love that, y/n,” Gabe says, pulling Melissa closer to him.

“I know he would, sis,” Melissa agrees with her husband.

“Fine, okay. I’ll be back in a few. Don’t enjoy yourself too much,” you tell the two lovebirds before finding your stuff and almost running out of the front door.

You’re giddy the entire drive to Tyson’s apartment. This could go two ways, either it goes extremely well or this backfires completely. You’re hoping for the first one. Seeing Tyson get hurt gave you some realizations. One of them is that you absolutely hate to see him hurt, and you want nothing more than to be there for him, care for him, to tell him everything will be alright. Which brings you to your second discovery of the evening: you still love him, you’re still completely and utterly in love with Tyson. You can’t, really can’t imagine your life without Tyson in it. It’s your turn to tell him you need him, tell him you don’t want to do anything without him, tell him you still see a future together.

You pick up his favorite comfort food on the way over, cake. You know his nutritionist will hate you for this, but he deserves a treat after taking a stick to the face. You chuckle to yourself when you think of the small cake you bought, it’s stupid and childish, but you love it. The fun you already had makes it absolutely worth it. You park in front of the building, hopping out of the car and quickly making your way over to the floor Tyson occupies.

You rummage around in your coat pocket for the lighter you bought alongside the cake. Quickly placing the cover back into the bag, and lighting up the ‘2’ shaped candle. You snicker to yourself, enjoying this way too much. You knock on the door and patiently wait for Tyson to open up. You hear Tyson approaching, making it harder and harder to keep your composure.

The moment he opens the door his face shifts from slight annoyance, to confused, to happy, and back to confused again. “y/n?” he asks softly, looking between you and the cake, confusion clearly written all over his face.

“Happy second black eye!” you yell, before bursting out in laughter.

Tyson can’t help but join you in your laughter, if there’s one thing he loves about you, it’s your wicked sense of humor. “You really are something special, aren’t you?” Tyson chuckles, shaking his head softly at you, a smile playing on his lips.

“You tell me, Jost,” you say, giving him a wink before walking past him and inside his apartment.

“So you bought me a cake?” Tyson asks you, looking over your shoulder to the cake on his kitchen counter.

“I sure did, thought you’d deserved a treat after what Gabe did to you, again,” you laugh.

“He sure likes to hit me in the face with things. But thank you, this really means a lot to me, baby,” Tyson softly says, squeezing your hip with one of his hands, before grabbing two plates. While Tyson cuts the cake you look for something to drink, deciding water will do for the night.

You flop down on the couch next to Tyson, immediately bringing the fork with a piece of cake to your mouth. “Oh God, that’s so good,” you moan out, you picked some killer cake.

“Don’t make those noises, please,” Tyson groans, stuffing his face with cake.

“I’m sorry I picked such a good freaking cake, mister,” you laugh, nudging him with your foot. Tyson rolls his eyes playfully at you, grabbing your foot with his free hand before you can nudge him again and again.

“Movie?” Tyson asks after you both finished your plates, although Tyson finished the last few bites of your piece. Like he said he’s a needy and hungry man.

“Sure, but just something light and funny, Ty. Nothing dark,” you tell him, knowing he’d love to scare you throughout some horror movie.

While Tyson scrolls through the movies, you make yourself more comfortable on the couch, laying back against the cushions with your feet against Tyson. He looks at you, scanning your body, clearly thinking about something since his eyebrows keep furrowing and relaxing.

“Come here, Tyson,” you softly say when he finally picks a movie to watch, opening your arms for him. His eyes shoot to yours, like he can’t actually believe you just told him that. He gives you a quick smile, before moving towards you, laying down beside you.

He rests his head against your chest, just like he used to do so long ago, his arm wrapped around your waist. “Is this okay?” he asks you, making sure you aren’t uncomfortable, even though you’re the one who suggested this.

“It’s perfect, Ty,” you reassure him.

Halfway through the movie you can’t resist the temptation to run your fingers through his curls any longer. Tyson groans softly when your nails rake over his scalp, sending chill through your body. “That’s so good, please never stop doing that,” he groans out, pulling you tighter against him.

“I wasn’t planning on it, Ty,” you tell him, smiling at the way his eyes shoot to yours.

“You aren’t? Are you serious?” he asks you quietly, eyes still locked on yours.

“I am, love. I came to the conclusion that you’re worth all the risks in life. You’re my light, my guiding light in darkness, my light at the end of the tunnel,” you say, leaving a soft kiss on his forehead. You try to express your emotions towards Tyson, trying to make him feel what you felt when you came to the sudden realization he’s worth taking a risk.

“What does that mean, baby?” Tyson asks you softly, an uncertain smile on his lips.

“It means I’m willing to give us another shot, another go. I want to try again, Ty.”

You can’t help the smile that forms on your lips when you look at Tyson’s face, the realization setting in, the happiness and the gratefulness spreading all over his face, the relief flooding through his body.

“How does that work?” Tyson asks again, clearly trying to rid himself of any insecurities, any questions he has. You gladly take those insecurities away from him.

“A clean slate, completely starting over again to give us both a fresh start. How does that sound?” you ask him.

Tyson nods at you, the happiness radiation off him. “A fresh start, I like the sound of that,” Tyson muses. The changes on his face fascinates you, it seems like he goes through a whole range of emotions in just a few minutes. Until he reaches one you know all too well, mischief. He looks at you, the familiar glimmer in his eyes tells you he’s definitely up to something. He sends you a soft and sweet smile, that almost melts you into a puddle right there and then. “Hi, I’m Tyson,” he says, extending his hand to you. You can’t help the laughter that bubbles out of you, this is exactly how Tyson is. Funny, charming, an absolute dream.

“You’re a goof, you know that?” you tell him, softly shaking your head at him, but the big grin on your face tells him you loved that. Tyson intertwined his fingers with yours, squeezing softly. When he doesn’t make any other moves you take matters into your own hand, slowly leaning in and softly pressing your lips on his. The familiarity, the rush of emotion flooding through your body hits you like a ton of bricks. The feeling of his lips against yours light something deep inside of you, and just like that you finally feel complete again.

#tyson jost #tyson jost imagine #tyson jost fic #tyson jost x reader #nhl imagine #hockey imagine #nhl fic #hockey fic #nhl fanfiction #hockey fanfiction #tyson jost fanfiction

371 notes · View notes

stellar-imagines · 4 years

Text

NSFW SCENARIO REQUEST: ❝jealousy bloomed.❞

[ Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia ] [ Characters: Bakugou Katsuki ]

「Scenario where Bakugou and you are dating, but no one knows. You’re quite the popular girl in UA, a lot of boys hit on her and lust over her. It didn’t take long for Bakugou to get pissed off. And he eventually drags you to remind you who you belong to.」

BAKUGOU KATSUKI

Bakugou, surprisingly, didn't want to brag to anyone about the fact that he managed to get a girlfriend. It didn't really bother you at all but it was shocking when he said he wanted to keep quiet about it. He didn't want people asking a lot of questions regarding your relationship. So, you both kept it a secret and it was actually kind of thrilling in a way. Quick kisses after training where you and Bakugou would purposely stay back a bit longer to meet up with one another. On the weekends, you'd both coincidentally go out, making an excuse that you were going to buy something or whatnot. But it only ends up with the two of you going on dates.

No one knows that you're both dating and Bakugou intends to keep it that way. However, it annoyed him that you're quite popular among the males in UA. This guy knows that you're a nice person who talks with people with a smile and always sees the good in people. To top it all off, you were pretty and there were people who actually looks up to you. As a third year student, you had built up quite the reputation, earning admirers from female students and male students. But Bakugou was very unhappy at one specific thing.

"[First Name]-senpai is quite pretty.”

He has heard people complimenting you for your looks and personality. At first, he was pretty smug about it, knowing that the two of you are dating and that those extras will only be able to admire you from afar. But these days, guys are very open with their emotions and don’t seem to care what others think. Bakugou was waiting for you in front of class with plans on training together with you in one of the unused gym. He spotted you in the hallway, a guy standing in your way and attempting to start. The ash blonde narrowed his eyes at the nameless guy.

"Are you sure you don't have a boyfriend, doll?" one of the guys asked.

Bakugou felt his eyebrow twitch. Over the years, he had really mellowed down and he was no longer as the guy who yelled at the littlest things anymore. However, he was known for his intimidating looks and the fits of anger he had occasionally. The ash blonde has gotten better with handling his temper and honestly, he thanks you for that. If he was the same person back then, he would've grabbed the guy by his neck, yelling profanities and threatening to kill him.

"You look really hot in those thigh highs, it shows off your legs."

"Yes, thanks I guess?" you find yourself responding. It happens all the time and you seem to be used to it. Bakugou knows that you're loyal to him and that you have for only him. The guy knows that you'll handle it somehow on your own, after all, he has full faith on you. But it just pisses him off. He wants to run over to beat the shit out of them for talking to you like that.

"Sorry, Katsuki. Thanks for waiting." you skipped over to the blonde who looked irritated. Bakugou was glaring at the two males who were flirting with you. Gazing at him with a confused look on your face, you slowly grasped his hand to gain his attention.

”Is there anything wrong?” you asked him. Bakugou shakes his head furiously. The last thing he wanted was to appear like some annoying, overbearing and childish boyfriend. He had the tough guy image to keep around you.

”Nothing.”

Surprisingly, Bakugou doesn't really express when he’s jealous or not. You were aware of how popular you are in school and it was thanks to the UA School Festival where you were unwillingly signed up for the Beauty Contest. Thanks to that, you earned quite a lot of fans.

Honestly, he gets jealous whenever people hit on you but always forces himself to hold back. There was no reason for him to get jealous, not when you’re always giving him that lovestruck look in your eyes and kissing his cheek whenever you find the chance. Bakugou stared at you while you had your attention on the manga in hand. He studies your features, the way your eyes widen at a sudden turn of events and how you pressed your lips when something interesting happens. It was just so cute. Bakugou found himself pressing your lips with his index finger which earned a confused look from you.

”What’s wrong, Tsuki?” you questioned when he moved to lay down on the bed.

”Nothing at all.” he mutters, cheeks bright red. Its not fair that just from hearing you call him with an endearing he can turn into a blushing mess. He hears you close your book and felt you moving around. Just as he was about to get up, you laid right on top of him, resting your head on his chest.

”Sorry that I haven’t been giving you attention. Are you upset?” you asked innocently.

Bakugou released the breath that he didn’t realize he had been holding in. Now he felt like an idiot for being jealous and angry at the people flirting at you. The male sighed, running his hand through your hair before wrapping his arms around your body. The last straw was what happened today.

You remembered that the weather was exceptionally nice and commented on how it was the perfect weather to go on a date. Bakugou rolled his eyes in response and told you that he's not taking you on one. A laugh escaped your lips when he said that, you told him that it was a joke. Although, it would be nice to go on a date with your boyfriend. But you were both busy with school and all that. The ash blonde seemed to be pointing fingers at you though. He said that since you were whining about going on a date, he would take you to your favorite ramen shop later to shut you up. You giggled, knowing that he was just making excuses to take you out. After all, you never whined about anything.

Uraraka and Ashido greeted you by the school entrance. Both you and Bakugou joined the two girls and headed to your respective shoe boxes to retrieve your indoor shoes. When you opened the small door, you spotted a light blue colored letter sitting atop your shoes. It didn't even take you long to realize what this meant. While the girls teased you for such a popular girl, Bakugou seemed displeased by this. No one knew about your relationship with Bakugou and only assumed that you two were close friends. You mentioned that you wanted to buy a drink right after this and waved at the girls who decided to go on ahead.

"Another shitty love letter?" you heard your boyfriend's voice behind you.

"Come on, its not shitty. It takes a lot of courage to write something like this you know." you smiled gently at the boy who followed you the entire way to the vending machine at the end of the corridor.

"Look, I'm gonna turn them down nicely at the back of the school and we can eat ramen afterwards." you fiddled around with your coin pouch and bought a drink from the machine while the male leaned against the wall with an annoyed look on his face. He really didn't like how popular you were with guys and to this day, he's kind of surprised that you wanted to be his girlfriend. Of course he wasn't complaining at all. Besides, dating in secret is quite fun in a way. Bakugou was snapped out of his trance when he felt you peck his cheek.

"Don't be so pouty, Tsuki. Wait for me after school okay?" you smiled before skipping ahead.

Bakugou found himself waiting nearby. He was tapping his foot while looking through his phone. You had left earlier, telling him that you would meet up with him as soon as possible. He has spotted you walking to the back of the school and quietly followed you without you knowing. With his back against the concrete wall and his bag placed on the ground, he pretended to look busy but in reality, he was trying to listen to the conversation between you and this extra. Though it annoyed him how this extra is dragging on his confession, he was somewhat glad that he had decided to wait nearby.

"Go out with me, [Last Name]-senpai.”

This guy pissed him off, alright.

"Thank you, I really appreciate your feelings but sorry, I don't feel the same way as you do." It was almost like you were an actress from a drama. The line sounded like you have practiced it over and over. And honestly, it was the same response you would give to the people who confessed to you.

”Are you perhaps dating anyone right now?” he asked further.

”Eh? No but—“

”Then think about it. I’ll cherish you properly. After all, someone as pretty as you should be treated like a princess.” the guy added, which made you awkwardly laugh in response. When he started moving closer to you, the first instinct was to back away. The moment your back hits the wall, you mentally scolded yourself for telling Bakugou to wait for you elsewhere. Honestly, the chances of you having to deal with a persistent person like this is very low. But you should've considered the possibility.

”If you date me, I'll treat you right. I've experienced a lot of things, you see." he lightly grabbed your chin to make you turn to him. When you felt his arm around your waist, you instantly knew that it was time for you to make your leave.

"Well—“

"Hey."

The voice itself made you and the guy shudder. Honestly, you were supposed to feel relieved that Bakugou came by to actually save you from this predicament. However, just from the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes, you could tell that you were probably in trouble as well. Your class has gained quite the reputation and everyone seems to know Bakugou as the cool and intimidating third year student. Even for Bakugou who has started to control his anger better than before, he lost his patience the moment that extra put his hands on you.

"You're 100 years too fucking early to be asking her out." Bakugou said, grabbing your wrist and dragging you away.

You felt stupid for actually believing that he would keep silent and remain calm. Honestly, you were quite surprised that he lasted this long. A relieved sigh left your lips when you finally left the scene and rejoined with your boyfriend. The odd silence between the two of you somehow made you uneasy. It was supposed to be something that you often did but this was completely different. Bakugou ignored the greetings from your fellow classmates who were relaxing in the common area and you made up some dumb excuse about needing to study together or whatnot.

"Tsuki?"

“That fucking extra had the nerve to touch you.” Bakugou’s voice was right in your ear which made you shudder. His voice was low and it wasn’t hard to hear that he was really pissed.

Before you could even say anything, he kissed you. He was quite rough with it too. You weren’t given a chance to match his rough and unbelievably fast pace. It felt like you were going to melt from how good it felt. His tongue was dominating your mouth, forcing its way into your mouth aggressively. Your hands threaded themselves into his hair, tugging lightly as you moaned into his mouth. The instant Bakugou pulled away, his lips instantly attached themselves to your neck.

He growled, his teeth nipping at the flesh of your neck. You gasped in response, losing yourself in the feeling of his mouth attacking your neck. At the same time, his hands made quick work of your uniform, unbuttoning the buttons expertly and took off your clothes. His hands trailed up, running up your skin to grope your breasts. The sudden attack made you weak on the knees and when his hands pulled away, you were in a daze. You never knew you craved for his touch and you could imagine and feel the lewd things he would do to you — having his fingers thrusting into your cunt while he licks at your clit, making you beg shamelessly for him to fuck you with his cock which will result with him fucking you so roughly that will leave your muscles sore for a few days.

”Your ears are sensitive right?” he pulled your earlobe with his teeth while his hands wandered around your body, groping at your flesh lewdly.

”Down here too.” he smirked devilishly while rubbing his fingers against the crotch of your damp panties. The mewl that left your lips didn’t go unnoticed and Bakugou wasted no time ridding you of your skirt and panties. Just one step backwards had you pinned up against the door with your boyfriend towering over you as if to assert his dominance.

"You're already this wet. I know that you like it rough."

He slid his fingers down your thighs, spreading your legs apart slowly to expose your glistening folds to him. He let his fingers ghost over your lower lips, spreading them slighting before you slid one finger inside. It was enough for you to shudder and moan. He started with one finger before adding another one into the fray. Your head knocked against the door and you allowed yourself to moan. Thrusting two fingers inside your cunt, Bakugou set a fast pace that had you twitching and moaning in pleasure. You held onto his shoulders for dear life, legs shaking and panting heavily.

”K-Katsuki.....” your face was red as a tomato and your head was spinning.

"You're already dripping here. My fingers feel good don't they?" without having to look at him, you could already see that smug grin on his face.

You had your eyes screwed shut when Bakugou decided to step up his game. He let out a low growl before flicking his tongue over your clit and your folds, making your hips raise as a loud moan leave you. He can’t help but let himself drown in your melody, the cries of his name and unfathomable pleasure were music to his ears. He allows you to thrust against his face which effectively pushes more of his tongue inside your velvety walls. The contrast you felt from your back pressed against the cool door and the heat between your thighs was such a pleasurable feeling.

“Hm, you’re making such cute noises. Does my fingers feel that good inside your cunt?" he teased, pushing his fingers all the way in until it hit that one particular spot inside you.

"Ah! Haa.....Wa-Wait! I'm going to come already......" the lewd squelching that resulted from his fingers pushing in and out of your pussy made you even more embarrassed. Bakugou watched in delight as you began squirming, nails digging onto the flesh of his shoulders while his tongue moved sinfully against your clit.

Your back arches up towards him and your hips quiver in pleasure as he continues to finger you through your climax. Cries of his name echoed in the room and you were certain that anyone within the vicinity could hear your cries. While you came down from your high, Bakugou stood up and began to unfasten his pants. You gasped when you felt his hard cock pressed against your skin and his lips on your ear, nipping at the lobe.

"My fingers are soaked, you came so much, did it feel that good?" his fingers were evidently soaked in your essence and at that moment, you thought to yourself — was is that necessary to show you that?

“You’re gonna take responsibility for making me hard aren’t ya, princess?” he growled into your ear, teeth tugging at the lobe lightly. You hummed and gave a nod in response, not trusting your voice.

Bakugou looked down at where you were kneeling on the floor between his spread thighs. His pants were unbuttoned with his cock out, his large hand wrapped around the base of his thick length as he leisurely stroked himself. Precum dripped from the tip, down the shaft to meet his hand. Your eyes followed it, subconsciously licking your lips at the thought of having the taste of him on your tongue. Bakugou groaned at the sight of you, grabbing hold of his shaft and licking at the tip like a kitten.

“Such a good girl." he threaded his fingers through your hair and tugged you closer, urging you to take more of him into your mouth.

You took his cock into your mouth without any complaints, choking when you A low groan erupted from his throat at the sensation of your warm mouth enveloping his length. Your eyes fluttered back into your skull as you finally tasted him. You set a pace not too fast yet not too slow, making sure to not let your teeth hit him. It wasn't a comfortable position with your knees against the cold laminated floor. You took much as you could, a little more than half of his length and your hand made up for whatever you couldn't fit in your mouth. It didn't take you long to relax and take his entire length inside your mouth, bobbing your head slowly before taking it out.

Bakugou threw his head back when your tongue licked up the underside of his dick while fondling his balls. He looked down to see you peering up at him with those lust filled eyes that drove him absolutely insane. He grabbed onto your hair tighter and guided your mouth back onto his aching cock. You set a slow pace at first but it didn't last long when he began to buck his hips into your mouth. His thrusts grew more desperate and it didn't take long for him to take the reigns over this situation. He pushed your head further onto his cock until the tip hit the back of your throat.

"Fuck your mouth feels so damn good. You're taking it so damn deep." Just before he could let loose into your mouth, he was tearing you away from his cock. A loud popping sound emitted as you released him from your mouth. You felt dizzy, whether it was from being deprived from air or from the pleasure he had given you — it was hard to tell.

With constant training, Bakugou became strong and he was able to effortlessly pick you up. You were starting to gain feeling in your legs despite having such an intense orgasm earlier. He captured your lips into a kiss while his hands gripped onto the back of your thighs. You were backed onto the wall, chests pressed together as your tongue danced. You instinctively wrapped your arms around his neck to pull him deeper into the kiss. He had his left hand against the door while his other was around his cock which was prodding against your soaked entrance. He filled you slowly using his free hand to guide you down his length.

"F-Fuck, you feel so tight around me...." Bakugou bucked his hips, letting out a groan at the feeling of your pussy walls fluttering around his cock.

"Aaaah! It's deep inside....!" you moaned loudly when he was buried all the way to the hilt. Tears pricked at the corners of your eyes at the sensation of being so full. Bakugou grabbed your ass and began thrusting into you feverishly. He latched himself onto your neck, biting down hard and sucking on your skin to leave a mark. He had his eyes glued on your face the entire, watching as you slowly lose into the world of pleasure. Your cheeks were red, eyes unfocused and your mouth was hanging open, moans and pants spilling out from them. It was truly a sight worth a billion yen.

"Just a little bit more. Hold onto me properly." he buried his head onto your neck and pushed in deeper. All you could hear was your own moans, his groans and the sinful noise of your skin slapping. You heed his advice, digging your nails onto his shoulder hard enough to leave marks. Narrowing his eyes, Bakugou thrusts faster while you throw your head back against the door.

"Wait! It's too fast! Aaah, Katsuki.....Hyaaaah!" your entire body shuddered at the feeling of his cock throbbing deep inside you.

"Feels fucking good right....Mnmm, you're all hot and tight just for me. Those extras who're always lusting over you will never get to see you like this. Tell me, baby. Who do you belong to?" Bakugou's gaze was like fire and if you gazed at him for a long period of time, you'd surely burn.

"Yours, Katsuki.....I'm.....Aaaah.....all yours!"

"Good girl." he whispered, capturing your lips into a searing kiss. Your moans were muffled and you couldn't imagine how loud it would've been. Just thinking about it made you feel embarrassed so you quickly shook away the thought.

The feeling of his hips snapping against yours and his cock pushing into your cunt repeatedly was starting to become unbearable. The knot inside your stomach finally snapped and you scream out his name one last time while Bakugou let out a groan of your name. Bakugou felt your insides clench around him tightly, twitching and pulsating like crazy as your fluids began to coat his hard cock. He hissed through clenched teeth, pulling out from you as he came all over your stomach.

You let out a sigh as you finally came down from your high. Bakugou slowly lowered you back to your feet only for you to slide down against the door, your legs completely weak and feeling like jelly. You heard the sound of water running and you assumed that he was cleaning himself up in the bathroom. He returned wearing a new set of clothes and a damp towel which he placed at the bedside before walking over to you. With a small glare, you moved your thighs together, pressing them up in an attempt to cover yourself up.

"Thanks to you I can't even get up." you grumbled with an annoyed look on your face. If this was your attempt to be mad at him, you gotta do better than that because this guy thinks that you're being fucking adorable with that pout on your face.

"Feels too good that you can't even feel your legs, huh?"

"Stop making fun off me and help me up." you huffed, outstretching your hands for him to pull you up.

Bakugou picked you up and put you on his bed. On the side of the table, there was a towel which he picked up before sitting in front of you. He took responsibility of cleaning you up with the towel while you laid down on his bed in exhaustion. You sighed and rolled around in the bed, it would be nice if you could just fall asleep right there without worrying about anything. But alas, you were interrupted by the sound of your stomach growling. It took you a while to remember that you both didn't eat anything when you got home. Bakugou glanced at the clock to see that it was past dinner time.

The two of you decided to head to the kitchen to get something to eat. Much to your surprise, a lot of people are still around but the moment you arrived, they were staring at you both. There was Midoriya and Jirou who was doing everything they could do to avoid looking at you. Upon closer inspection, you noted that their cheeks were slightly red.

"What are you idiots staring at?" Bakugou narrowed his eyes at the closest person which happened to be Kaminari.

"Well! We didn't mean to! I mean, it is by accident so we did nothing wrong right? It's an accident!" Kaminari was avoiding Bakugou's gaze, in fear of being yelled at for saying stupid things — which happened quite often.

"You guys weren't exactly......quiet." Kirishima rubbed the back of his head.

"I'm surprised you could do something like that with people around." Sero muttered.

"But we were at the 4th floor?! Was I that loud?" you cried out, burying your face into Bakugou's back in embarrassment.

Total: 4102 words Published: 17.08.2020

Thank you for requesting! ｡٩(ˊᗜˋ)و*｡ As you all can see, we got carried away. It’s been a while since we actually wrote a smutty scenario for our lovely readers. So it’s a bit rusty. But we do hope you all enjoyed it! ― author Lou

Thank you for requesting! It’s already mid-August and its just a day away from the day we will reopen out ask box. We’ve actually updated our blog, changed our theme and all that. The new features can only be seen through desktop. We do hope that these features (upcoming events, status) actually help everyone somehow!― author Natsuki

Requests are closed for now! Matchups are closed!

Please do not mind the grammar mistakes and typos.

734 notes · View notes

holycow99 · 3 years

Text

石田お寿司 12/9/21 stream translation Part 7

This is not the full translation of the stream. I only translated the parts I could understand & interpret or parts I found interesting/important. I’m still a beginner in Japanese, so the translations may not be accurate. If you want to repost, please repost at your own risk.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(t/n: ** means translation may not be accurate.)

I: Any other suggestion for the project?

C: I want you to create Choujin X first chapter with assistants.

I: I wanna see what’ll happen if I hire 100 people. I wanna try draw them with 100 assistants. It’ll probably take an excessive amount of time.

C: Having the viewers as your assistants.

I: That’s a bit interesting. A manga just for that. If it’s the side story’s one shot, then it’s okay. It’d look like a prank if I let you guys draw the real thing.

C: How about playing with Rod?

I: That’s a good idea.

*He’s talking about Saito Naoki again.

C: an overseas fan wrote that you’re gonna eat 1 million fan letters to celebrate 30, 000 subscribers.

I: It’s getting weird. Not 1 million fan letters. It’s head hunting 100 assistants and eating 10 years’ worth of fan letters.

C: How about becoming Fukuoka’s Banksy? (t/n: Banksy is a slang for people who do street arts.)

I: I wanna scribble on the wall too.

*Ishida trying to avoid people shooting at him while escaping from the place after killing the target.

I: They (the guards) remember who I am. Forget me, forget me. This is the opposite of unravel (TG op). Forget me 2x. Please forget me!

*Ishida trying to knock people out but ended up killing them.

I: Ah, I accidentally killed him. Whatever, people will one day die either way.

I: Reverse of unravel will be ravel. (TMI: According to Merriam-Webster, both unravel and ravel mean the same thing.)

I: The assistant head hunting suggestion is a good idea for the 30,000 commemoration. Goubaru probably can do it, though he’s working elsewhere. He’s working someplace else, where he gets sexually harassed. People touched his butt everyday. So pitiful. “I hate it!” (t/n: Ishida imitating Goubaru.) He receives body check from people.

Y****: Please do a career consultation.

I: I’m okay with that. Well, we’ve known each other for a year already. It’s because I was able to distinguish between you and S******. I’ve got to considerably know what you guys are like. Y****is in the theatre club, while S****** is the one who addresses Hikakin (a Japanese youtuber) as ‘that guy’. S****** has a sharp tongue.

I: Y****, where do you wanna go to in the future?

*Ishida reading this person’s comment.

I: You’re in the theatre club, but you wanna be a musician?! Lots of dreams you got there. You have so many dreams. You’re 16, 17 years old, right? You can just be anything, then. How about trying it out? Which one do you wanna do?

C: You can still become a musician even if you’re in the theatre club.

I: That’s true. Hoshino gen also did theatre before, if I’m not mistaken. I’m not sure though. It’s okay if you haven’t decided yet. There are still many possibilities for you.

(t/n: Hoshino Gen is an actor & singer)

C: Theatre requires high ability to express yourself, so I think it’s applicable to music as well.

I: That’s right. That applies to both. You can use the ability to express yourself that you’ve gained from theatre in music. Likewise, since music has various genre, I think it offers a lot of things to theatre. Just like you said. I think either way is good.

I: I think it’s just a matter of where you’ll end up eventually. It’s not like I’ve been writing manga all this while. I dreamed of becoming a mangaka because I didn’t want to get a job. I didn’t want to work, so I wanted to become a mangaka.

C: Well, you can learn anything.

I: Exactly.

C: I wanna quit being a member of society.

I: I didn’t say anything about that.

C: I’m 21, but I wanna be a high-schooler.

I: That’s impossible. Turning back time is impossible. Let’s focus on the real world.

C: Can I decide on my future dream based on impure motives?

I: I think it’s okay. It’s not a bad thing to have that kind of reasons. It’s okay to wanna be popular or wanting money. I think just having that is enough. But what happen after you achieve that is gonna be another story.

C: Sometimes, you can be happy just by drawing and playing games.

I: That is important.

C: My beloved dog that I’ve had for 14 years died recently. What should I do with this lingering affection that I have?

I: I understand how you feel. This is a difficult topic. I think it’s good to have a lingering affection. You can’t help but to have that kind of feelings when you lose a life. Time is the only way to heal wounds.

I: in the end, which one did Y**** choose? Did it end with him saying he’ll do his best? He’s having a trouble deciding whether to go to a vocational school or enter university. I see. Vocational school or university… You’ll spend 4 years in university and you need to manage your own time, so if you don’t have any confidence you’ll be able to manage yourself, it’ll be hard for you. But university is a good place for you if you wanna experience various things and obtain various knowledge.

* Ishida then continued giving a super long speech about Y****’s worries without knowing that he’s already slept.

C: Y**** already said good night.

I: Seriously?! He’s gone to bed?! You’re kidding me! Eh? He’s already sleeping?

*Scrolling for the guy’s comment.

I: “I feel much better now. Good night.” Hahaha. That guy’s gone to sleep. So irritating! What’s up with him? Even though I did my best to give him advice.

MM: On the contrary, don’t you have any worries, sensei?

I: MM’s here again. I’m gonna pin this.

I: My worries? I do have though, but I won’t tell you guys. It’s not really a worry, just something I should think about. Even if it was something serious, I’ll solve it by myself.

*Ishida continued answering the fans’ worries related to school and work. (t’n: I didn’t translate this part because I feel like I’d be disclosing personal info, so I refrained from doing that. I only translated if it’s related to manga or mangaka’s questions.)

C: My relative told me that it’s hard to make a living as a mangaka. As expected, am I dreaming too much? What do you think?

I: I don’t know. It depends on your ability and the effort you put in. Your relative might’ve seen your work and gave some comment. Even for me, people wanted me to quickly give up pursuing this path. I heard about it later though. So, no one knows what will happen in the future.

I: It’s hard to make a living as a mangaka? If it was before, I can understand that. On the contrary, this notion is now no longer applicable. Now, whatever jobs you do is hard. If you were to say you wanna work in a restaurant, people will be opposed to it, but you wanna be a chef no matter what. Anything you do is gonna be tough, after all. First of all, you’re allowed to choose what you wanna be no matter if it’s tough or whatever. And relatively, being a mangaka has a wide scope of jobs. It’s just that people don’t know about it. I think when there’s a will, there’s a way. If you wanna pursue that because you want it to be made into an anime or drama, then it might be difficult for you since that depends on luck.** Well, I’m able to manage my life better than other professions, especially in this period since I can just do my work at home.** Also, if you think it’s okay for you even if it’s tough, then I think you can just do whatever you wanna do. I’m not talking about you putting effort. Even if it’s tough, just by aiming for it is fun. Something like that. If you can live in such manner, then you can just go for it no matter if it’s tough or not.

C: I don’t wanna be a mangaka. I just wanna write manga.

I: That’s good. Let’s write one.

*He continued giving advice to fans.

Part 8

#ishida sui #tokyo ghoul #choujin x #chojin x #jack jeanne #ishida sushi channel

26 notes · View notes

wits-writing · 3 years

Text

What’s so Funny About Vengeance, the Night, and Batman? – Two Superhero Parodies in Conversation

Back in 2016, the first trailers for Director Chris McKay’s The Lego Batman Movie hit. A spinoff of the take on the iconic hero, voiced by Will Arnett, from 2014’s The Lego Movie. Those trailers spelled out a plot covering how Batman’s life of crimefighting is turned upside down when Robin unexpectedly enters the picture. It was a funny trailer, promising another insightful comedy from the crew behind The Lego Movie. A promise it handily delivered on when it came out in February 2017 with an animated feature steeped wall-to-wall jokes for the sake of mocking Bruce Wayne’s angst filled crusade that can only come from understanding what’s made the character withstand the test of time.

But there was a thought I and others had from seeing that trailer up to watching the actual movie:

“This seems… familiar.”

Holy Musical B@man! is a 2012 fan-made stage production parody of DC Comics’ biggest cash cow. It was produced as the fifth musical from YouTube-based cult phenomenon Starkid Productions, from a book by Matt and Nick Lang, music by Nick Gage and Scott Lamp with lyrics by Gage. The story of the musical details how Robin’s unexpected entrance ends up turning Batman’s (Joe Walker) life of crimefighting upside down. Among Starkids’ fandom derived projects in their early existence, as they’ve mainly moved on to well-received original material in recent years, Holy Musical B@man! is my personal favorite. I go back to it frequently, appreciating it as a fan of both superheroes and musicals. (Especially since good material that touches on both of those isn’t exactly easy to come by. Right, Spider-Man?)

While I glibly summarized the similarities between them by oversimplifying their plots, there’s a lot in the details, both major and minor, that separates how they explore themes like solitude, friendship, love, and what superhero stories mean. It’s something I’ve wanted to dig into for a while and I found a lot in both of them I hadn’t considered before by putting them in conversation. I definitely recommend watching both of them, because of how in-depth this piece goes including discussing their endings. However, nothing I can say will replace the experience of watching them and if I had included everything I could’ve commented on in both of them, this already massive piece would easily be twice as long minimum.

Up front, I want to say this isn’t about comparing The Lego Batman Movie and Holy Musical B@man in terms of quality. Not only are they shaped for vastly different mediums with different needs/expectations, animation versus stagecraft, but they also had different resources at their disposal. Even if both are in some ways riffing on the aesthetic of the 1990s Batman movies and the Adam West TV show, Lego Batman does it with the ability to make gorgeously animated frames packed to the brim with detail while Holy Musical often leans into its low-fi aesthetic of characters miming props and sets to add extra humor. They’re also for different audiences, Lego Batman clearly for all-ages while Holy Musical has the characters cursing for emphasis on a regular basis. On top of those factors, after picking through each of these for everything worth commenting on that I could find, I can’t say which I wholly prefer thanks in part to these fundamental differences.

This piece is more about digging through the details to explore the commonalities, differences, and what makes them effective mocking love letters to one of the biggest superheroes in existence.

(Also, since I’m going to be using the word “Batman” a lot, I’ll be calling Lego Batman just “Batman” and referring to the version from Holy Musical as “B@man”, with the exception of quoted dialogue.)

[Full Piece Under the Cut]

Setting the Tone

The beginning is, in fact, a very good place to start when discussing how these parodies frame their versions of the caped crusader. Each one uses a song about lavishing their respective Batmen with praise about how they are the best superheroes ever and play over sequences of the title hero kicking wholesale ass. A key distinction comes in who’s singing each song. Holy Musical B@man’s self-titled opening number is sung from the perspective of an omniscient narrator recounting B@man’s origin and later a chorus made up of the Gotham citizenry. Meanwhile, “Who’s the (Bat) Man” from Lego Batman is a brag-tacular song written by Batman about himself, even playing diegetically for all his villains to hear as he beats them up.

youtube

Holy Musical opens on a quick recap of Batman’s origin:

“One shot, Two shots in the night and they’re gone And he’s all left alone He’s just one boy Two dead at his feet and their blood stains the street And there’s nothing, no there’s nothing he can do!”

We then get a Bat-dance break as the music goes from slow and moody to energetic to reflect Batman turning that tragedy into the driving force behind his one-man war on crime. Assured by the narrator that he’s “the baddest man that there’s ever been!” and “Now there’s nothing, no there’s nothing he can’t do!” flipping the last lyric of the first verse. For the rest of the opening scene the lyrics matter less than what’s happening to establish both this fan-parody’s version of Batman and how the people of Gotham (“he’ll never refuse ‘em”) view him.

Lego Batman skips the origin recap, and in general talks around the death of the Waynes to keep the light tone going since it’s still a kids movie about a popular toy even if there are deeper themes at play. Instead, it continues a trend The Lego Movie began for this version of the character writing music about how he’s an edgy, dark, awesome, cool guy. While that movie kept it to Batman angry-whiteboy-rapping about “Darkness! NO PARENTS!”, this one expands to more elaborate boasts in the song “Who’s the (Bat) Man” by Patrick Stump:

youtube

“In the darkest night I make the bad guys fall There’s a million heroes But I’m the best of them all!”

Batman singing this song about himself, as opposed to having it sung by others aims the crosshairs of parody squarely on the hero’s ego. His abilities make fighting his villains effortless, like this opening battle is more an opportunity to perform the song than a life-or-death struggle. Even Joker’s aware of that as he shouts, “Stop him before he starts singing!” This Batman doesn’t see himself as missing out on anything in life, even if he still feels that deep down. Being Batman is the coolest thing in the world that anyone would envy. He’s Batman, therefore everyone should envy him.

The songs aren’t only part of the equation for how these two works’ opening scenes establish their leading hero. While both songs are about Batman being cool, they’re separated by the accompanying scenes. Lego Batman keep the opening within the Joker’s perspective until Batman shows up and the action kicks in. Once it does, we’re shown a Batman at the top of his solo-hero game. Meanwhile, Holy Musical��s opening is about B@man building his reputation and by the end of the song he has all the citizens of Gotham singing his praises with the titular lyrics. Both are about being in awe of the title hero, one framed by Joker’s frustration at Batman’s ease in foiling his schemes yet again and the other about the people of Gotham growing to love their city’s hero (probably against their better judgement.)

That’s woven into the fabric of what kind of schemes Batman is foiling in each of these. Joker’s plan to bomb Gotham with the help of every supervillain in Batman’s Rogues Gallery is hilariously high stakes and the type of plan most Batman stories, even parodies, would save for the climax. Neatly exemplified by how that’s almost the exact structure of Holy Musical’s final showdown. Starting with these stakes works as an extension of this Batman’s nature as a living children’s toy and therefore the embodiment of a child’s idea of what makes Batman cool, his ability to wipe the floor with anyone that gets in his way “because he’s Batman.” It also emphasizes Joker as the only member of the Rogues Gallery that matters to Lego Batman’s story, every other Bat-villain is either a purely visual cameo or only gets a couple lines maximum.

The crime’s being stopped by B@man are more in the “Year One” gangster/organized crime category rather than anything spectacle heavy. Though said crimes are comically exaggerated:

Gangster 1: Take these here drugs, put ‘em into them there guns, and then hand ‘em out to those gamblin’ prostitutes! Gangster 2: Should we really be doing these illegal activities? In a children’s hospital for orphans?

These fit into that model of crime the Dark Knight fights in his early days and add tiny humanizing moments between the crooks (“Oh, Matches! You make me laugh like nobody else!”) in turn making the arrival of B@man and the violence he deals out a stronger punchline. Further emphasized by the hero calling out the exact physical damage he does with each hit before warning them to never do crime again saying, “Support your families like the rest of us! Be born billionaires!” Later in the song his techniques get more extreme and violence more indiscriminate, as he uses his Bat-plane to patrol and gun down whoever he sees as a criminal, including a storeowner accidentally taking a single dollar from his own register. (“God’s not up here! Only Batman!”)

A commonality between these two openings is how Commissioner Jim Gordon gets portrayed. Both are hapless goofs at their core, playing more on the portrayal of the character in the 60s TV show and 90s Burton/Schumacher movies than the serious-minded character present in comics, Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, and other adaptations. Lauren Lopez’s portrayal in Holy Musical gets overwhelmed by everything thrown at him, eventually giving up and getting out of B@man’s way (“I’m not gonna tell Batman what to do! He’s Batman!”) Hector Elizondo’s Gordon in Lego Batman clearly reached the “stay out of Batman’s way” point a long time ago, happy to have “the guy who flips on the Bat-signal” be his sole defining trait. While the characterizations are close, their roles do end up differing. Lopez’s Gordon sticks around to have a few more comedic scenes as the play goes on, where Elizondo’s exist to set up a contrast with his daughter Barbara and her way of approaching Batman when she becomes Police Commissioner.

These opening sequences both end in similar manners as well; the citizens of Gotham lavishing praise on their respective Batmen and a confrontation between Batman and the Joker. Praise from the citizenry in Holy Musical comes on the heels of a letter from B@man read out on the news about how much they and the city of Gotham suck. They praise B@man for his angsty nature as a “dark hero” and how they “wouldn’t want him any other way!”, establishing the motif of Gotham’s citizens in Holy Musical as stand-ins for the Batman fandom. Lego Batman uses the praise of the Gotham citizens after Batman’s victory in the opening scene as a lead in to contrast their certainty that Batman must have an exciting private life with the reality we’re shown. Which makes sense since Lego-Batman’s relationship to the people of Gotham is never presented as something at stake.

Greater contrast comes in how the confrontations with the Joker are handled, Lego Batman has an argument between the hero and villain that’s intentionally coded as relationship drama, Batman saying “There is no ‘us’” when Joker declares himself Batman’s greatest enemy. The confrontation in Holy Musical gets purposefully underplayed as an offstage encounter narrated to the audience as a Vicki Vale news report. This takes Joker off the board for the rest of the play in contrast to the Batman/Joker relationship drama that forms one of Lego Batman’s key pillars. While they take different forms, the respective citizenry praise and villain confrontation parts of these openings lead directly into the number one common thematic element between these Bat-parodies: Batman’s loneliness.

One is the Darkest, Saddest, Loneliest Number

Batman as an isolated hero forms one of the core tenants of the most popular understanding of the character. Each of these parodies picks at that beyond the broody posturing. There’s no dedicated segment in this piece about how these works’ versions of the title character function bleeds into every other aspect of them, but each starts from the idea of Batman as a man-child with trouble communicating his emotions. Time’s taken to give the audience a view of where their attitudes have left them early in the story.

Both heroes show their loneliness through interactions with their respective Alfreds. Holy Musical has the stalwart butler, played by Chris Allen, try to comfort B@man by asking if he has any friends he enjoys being around. When B@man cites Lucius Fox as a friend he calls him right away, only to discover Lucius Fox is Alfred’s true identity and Alfred Pennyworth was an elaborate ruse he came up with to protect Bruce on his father’s wishes. Ironically, finding out his closest friend was living a double life causes Bruce to push Alfred away (the play keeps referring to him as Alfred after this, so that’s what I’m going to do as well.) After he’s fired he immediately comes back in a new disguise as “O’Malley the Irish Butler” (same outfit he wore before but with a Party City Leprechaun hat.) That’s unfortunately the start of a running gag in Holy Musical that ends up at the worst joke in the play, when Alfred disguises himself as “Quon Li the Chinese Butler” doing an incredibly cringeworthy “substituting L’s for R’s” bit with his voice. It’s been my least favorite bit in the play since I first saw it in 2012 and legitimately makes me hesitate at times to recommend it. Even if it’s relatively small bit and the rest holds ups.

That disclaimer out of the way, that conversation between B@man and Alfred leads into the title hero reflecting on his sadness through the musical’s I Want Song, “Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight.” The song’s split into two halves, the first Alfred reflecting on whether he played a part in Bruce’s current condition and the second B@man longing for a connection. The song does a good job balancing between the sincerity over the hero’s sadness and getting good laughs out of it:

“Think of the children Next time you gun down the mama and papa Their only mama and papa Because they probably don’t have another mama and papa!”

The “I Want” portion of the song coming in the end with the repetition of the lryics “I want to be somebody’s buddy.”

Rather than another song number, Lego Batman covers Batman’s sadness through a pair of montages and visual humor. The first comes after the opening battle, where we see Batman taking off all his costume except for the mask hanging out alone in Wayne Manor, showing how little separation he puts between identities. Compared to Holy Musical where the equivalent scene is the first we see of Bruce without the mask on, which may come down to practicality since anyone who’s worn a mask like that knows they get hot and sweaty fast. Batman is constantly made to appear small among the giant empty rooms of his estate as he eats dinner, jams on his guitar, and watches romantic movies alone.

Ralph Fienne’s Alfred coming in at the end of this sequence witnessing Batman looking at a photo of himself as a boy with his parents for the last time. Alfred outlines Batman’s fear of being part of a family again only to be met with Batman denying he has any feelings ever. Pennyworth’s role as a surrogate father gets put into greater focus here than in Holy Musical, as we get glimpses of Alfred reading a book titled “How to Deal with Your Out-of-Control Child.” Also shown in smaller scenes of Alfred dealing with Batman’s insistent terminology for his crime fighting equipment, like calling his cowl an “armored face disguise.”

Batman’s denial of his pain contrasts how B@man wallows in it. Though he’s forced to confront it a little as the Joker’s plan ends up leaving him with no crimefighting to fall back on to ignore his issues. This montage gets set to the song “One” by Harry Nilsson and details Batman, unable to express his true feelings, eventually letting them out in the form of tempter tantrums. There’s also some humor through juxtaposition as Batman walks solemnly through the streets of Gotham City, rendered black and white, as the citizens chant “No more crime!” in celebration, while flipping over cars and firing guns into the air.

A disruption to their loneliness eventually comes in the form of a sensational character find.

Robin – The Son/BFF Wonder

Between both Bat-parodies, the two Robins’ characterizations are as close as anyone’s between them. Each is nominally Dick Grayson but are ultimately more representative of the idea of Robin as the original superhero sidekick and his influence on Batman’s life. The play and movie also both make the obvious jokes about Dick’s name and the classic Robin costume’s lack of pants at different points. Dick’s origin also gets sidestepped in each version to skip ahead to the part where he starts being an influence in Batman’s life.

Robin’s introduction to the comics in Detective Comics #38 in 1940, marking the start of Batman’s literal “Year Two” as a character, predating the introduction of Joker, Catwoman, and Alfred, among others. Making him Batman’s longest lasting ally in the character’s history. His presence and acrobatics shift the tone by adding a dash of swashbuckling to Batman’s adventures, inspired by the character’s namesake Robin Hood, though both parodies take a page out of Batman Forever and associate the name with the bird for the sake of a joke. Robin is as core to Batman as his origin, but more self-serious adaptations (i.e., the mainstream cinematic ones that were happening around the times both Holy Musical and Lego Batman came out) tend to avoid the character’s inclusion. These two works being parody, therefore anything but self-serious, give themselves permission to examine why Robin matters and how different characters react to his presence. Rejection of Robin as a character and concept comes out in some form in each of these works, from Batman himself in Lego Batman and the Gotham citizens in Holy Musical.

The chain of events that lead to Dick becoming Robin in Lego Batman are a string of consequences for Batman’s self-absorption. A scene of Bruce barely listening as Dick asks for advice on getting adopted escalating to absentmindedly signing the adoption paperwork. Batman doesn’t realize he has a son until after his sadness montage. Alfred forces Batman to start interacting with Dick against his will. The broody loner wanting nothing to do with the cheery kid, played to “golly gee gosh” perfection by Michael Cera, until he sees the utility of him. Batman doesn’t even have the idea to give Robin a costume or codename because he clearly views the sidekick’s presence as a temporary measure for breaking into Superman’s fortress, made clear by how he lists “expendable” as a quality Dick needs if he wants to go on a mission.

This makes Robin the catalyst for Batman’s shifting perspective throughout Lego Batman. When Robin succeeds in his first mission, the Dark Knight is hesitant to truly compliment him and chalks up his ward’s feats to “unbelievable obeying.” Other moments have Robin’s presence poke holes in Batman’s tough guy demeanor, like the first time Batman and Robin ride in the Bat-mobile together, Robin asks where the seatbelts are and Batman growls “Life doesn’t give you seatbelts!”, only for Batman to make a sudden stop causing Robin to hit his head on the windshield and Batman genuinely apologizes. They share more genuine moments together as the film goes, like Batman suggesting they beatbox together to keeps their spirits up after they’ve been imprisoned for breaking into Arkham Asylum. Robin’s representative of Batman gradually letting people in throughout these moments.

On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, B@man needs zero extra prompting to let Robin into his life. Nick Lang’s Robin (henceforth called “Rob!n” to keep with this arbitrary naming scheme I’ve concocted) does get brought into his life by Alfred thanks to a personal ad (“‘Dog for sale’? No… ‘Orphan for sale’! Even better!”) but it’s a short path to B@man deciding to let Dick fight alongside him. The briefest hesitance on the hero’s part, “To be Batman… is to be alone”, is quelled by Rob!n saying “We could be alone… together.” Their first scene together quickly establishing the absurd sincerity exemplified by this incarnation of the Dynamic Duo. An energy carried directly into the Act 1 closing number, “The Dynamic Duet”, a joyful ode between the heroes about how they’re “Long lost brothers who found each other” sung as they beat up supervillains (and the occasional random civilian.)

That song also ties into the contrast between the Batman/Robin dynamic and the B@man/Rob!n one. While Holy Musical is portraying a brotherly/BFF bond between the two heroes, Lego Batman leans into the surrogate son angle. While both are mainly about their stories’ Batman being able to connect with others, the son angle of Lego Batman adds an additional layer of “Batman needs to take responsibility for himself and others” and a parallel to Alfred as Batman’s own surrogate father. It also adds to the queer-coding of Batman in Lego Batman as Batman’s excuse to Robin for why he can go on missions is that Bruce and he are sharing custody, Robin even calling Batman’s dual identities “dads” before he knows the truth.

In the absence of the accepting personal responsibility through fatherhood element, the conflict Rob!n brings out in Holy Musical forms between B@man and the citizens of Gotham. “Citizens as stand-ins for fandom” is at it’s clearest here as the Act 2 opener is called “Robin Sucks!” featuring the citizens singing about how… well, you read the title. Their objections to Rob!n’s existence has nothing to do with what the young hero has done or failed to do, but come from arguments purely about the aesthetic of Rob!n fighting alongside B@man. Most blatantly shown by one of the citizens wearing a Heath Ledger Joker t-shirt saying Rob!n’s presence “ruins the gritty realism of a man who fights crime dressed as a bat.” It works as the Act 2 opener by establishing that B@man and the citizens conflicting opinions on his sidekick end up driving that half of the story, exemplified in B@man’s complete confusion about why people hate Rob!n (“Robin ruined Batman? But that’s not true… Robin make Batman happy.”)

Both Robins play into the internal conflict their respective mentors are going through, but what would a superhero story, even a parody, be without some colorful characters to provide that sweet external conflict.

Going Rogue

Both works have the threat comes from an army of villains assembled under a ringleader, Zach Galifianakis’s Joker in Lego Batman and Jeff Blim as Sweet Tooth in Holy Musical. Both lead the full ensemble of Batman’s classic (and not so classic) Rogues at different points. As mentioned before Joker starts Lego Batman with “assemble the Rogues, blow up Gotham” as his plan, while Sweet Tooth with his candy prop comedy becoming the ringleader of Gotham’s villains is a key turning point in Act 1 of the play. Part of this comes down to how their connections to their respective heroes and environments are framed, Sweet Tooth as a new player on the scene and Joker as Batman’s romantic foil.

Lego Batman demonstrates Batman and Joker are on “finishing each other’s sentences” levels of intimate that Batman refuses to acknowledge. Shown best in how Joker’s plan only works because he can predict exactly how Batman will act once he starts playing hard to get. When he surrenders the entire Rogues Gallery (without telling them) and himself to police custody, he describes it as him being “off the market.” He knows Batman won’t settle for things ending on these terms and tricks the hero into stealing Superman’s Phantom Zone projector so he can recruit a new, better team of villains for a take two of his masterplan from the start. Going through all this trouble to get Batman to say those three magic words; “I love hate you.” Joker as the significant other wanting his partner to finally reciprocate his feelings and commit works both as a play on how the Batman/Joker relationship often gets approached and an extension of the central theme. Batman is so closed off to interpersonal connections he can’t even properly hate his villains.

Sweet Tooth, while clearly being a riff Heath Ledger and Caesar Romero’s Jokers fused with a dash of Willy Wonka, doesn’t have that kind of connection with B@man. Though there are hints that B@man and his recently deceased Joker may have had one on that level. He laments “[Joker]’s in heaven with mom and dad. Making them laugh, I know it!” when recalling how the Clown Prince of Crime was the one person he enjoyed being around. This makes Joker’s death one of the key triggers to B@man reflecting on his solitude at the start of the play.

What Sweet Tooth provides the story is a threat to B@man’s new bond with Rob!n. Disrupting that connection forms the delicious center of the Candy King of Crime’s plan in Act 2. He holds Rob!n and Gotham’s people hostage and asks the citizens to decide via Facebook poll if the sidekick lives or dies (in reference to the infamous phone hotline vote from the comic book story A Death in the Family where readers could decide the Jason Todd Robin’s fate.)

With the rest of the villains under the leadership of the respective works’ main antagonists, there’s commentary on their perceived quality as threats. When Holy Musical has Superman talking to Green Lantern about how much B@man’s popularity frustrates him, he comes down especially hard on the Caped Crusader’s villains. Talking about how they all coast by on simple gimmicks with especially harsh attention given to Two Face’s being “the number two.” Saying they’re only famous because B@man screws up and they get to do more damage. Which he compares to his own relationship with his villains:

Superman: You ever heard of Mr. Mxyzptlk? Green Lantern: No. Superman: No, that’s right! That’s because I do my job!

Lego Batman has commentary on the other villains come from Joker, recognizing that even all together they can never beat Batman, because that’s how a Batman story goes. The other villains get portrayed as generally buffoonish, struggling to even build a couch together and described by Joker as “losers dressed in cosplay.” Tricking Batman into sending him to the Phantom Zone provides him the opportunity to gather villains from outside Batman’s mythos and outside DC Comics in general. Recruiting the likes of Sauron, King Kong, Daleks, Agent Smith from The Matrix, and the Wicked Witch of the West, among others. When I first saw and reviewed The Lego Batman Movie, this bugged me because it felt like a missed opportunity to feature lesser-known villains from other DC heroes’ Rogues Galleries. Now, considering the whole movie as meta-commentary on the status of this Batman as a children’s toy, it makes perfect sense that Joker would need to go outside of comics to break the rules of a typical Batman story and have a shot at winning.

The Rogues of Holy Musical get slightly more of a chance to shine, if only because their song “Rogues are We” is one of the catchier tracks from the play. They’re all still more cameo than character when all’s said and done, but Sweet Tooth entering the picture is about him recognizing their potential to operate as a unit, takeover Gotham, and kill B@man. The candy-pun flinging villain wants all of them together, no matter their perceived quality.

Sweet Tooth: “We need every villain in Gotham. Cool themes, lame themes, themes that don’t match their powers, even the villains that take their names from public domain stories.” (Two Face’s “broke ass” still being the exception.)

Both Joker and Sweet Tooth provide extensions of the shared theme of Batman dealing with the new connections in his life, especially with regards to Robin. However, Robin isn’t the only other ally (or potential ally) these Dark Knights have on their side.

Super Friends(?)

The internal crisis of these Caped Crusaders come as much from how they react to other heroic figures as it does from supervillainous machinations. In both cases how Batman views and is viewed by fellow heroes gets centered on a specific figure, Superman in Holy Musical and Commissioner Barbara Gordon (later Batgirl) in Lego Batman. Each serves a vastly different purpose in the larger picture of their stories and relationship to their respective Batmen. Superman reflecting B@man’s loneliness and Barbara symbolizing a new path forward for Batman’s hero work.

Superman’s role in Holy Musical runs more parallel to Lego Batman’s Joker than Barbara. Brian Holden’s performance as the Man of Tomorrow plays into a projected confidence covering anxiety that nobody likes him. Besting the Bat-plane in a race during B@man’s Key to the City ceremony establishes a one upmanship between the two heroes, like Joker’s description of his relationship with Batman at the end of Lego Batman’s opening battle. Though instead of that romantically coded relationship from Lego Batman, this relationship is more connected to childish jealousy. (But if you do want to read the former into Holy Musical B@man, neither hero has an onstage relationship with any woman and part of their eventual fight consist of spanking each other.)

B@man and Superman’s first real interaction is arguing over who’s the cooler hero until it degrades into yelling “Fuck you!” at each other. B@man storming off in the aftermath of that gets topped off by Superman suggesting he should get the Key to the City instead, citing his strength and longer tenure as a hero (“The first hero, by the way”) as justifications. This only results in the Gotham citizens turning on him for suggesting their city’s hero is anything less than the best, which serves both as a Sam Raimi Spider-Man reference (“You mess with one of us! You mess with all of us!”) and another example of the citizens as stand-ins for fandom. Superman’s veil of cocksureness comes off quickly after that and stays off for the rest of the play. Starting with his conversation with Green Lantern where a civilian comes across them, but barely acts like Superman’s there.

One of the play’s running gags is Superman calling B@man’s number and leaving messages, showing a desperation to reach out and connect with his fellow hero despite initial smugness. Even before the first phone call scene, we see Superman joining B@man to sing “I want to be somebody’s buddy” during “Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight” hinting at what’s to come. The note it consistently comes back to is that Superman’s jealousy stems from Batman’s popularity over him. This is a complete flip of what Lego Batman does with the glimpse at a Batman/Superman dynamic we see when Batman goes to the Superman’s fortress to steal the Phantom Zone projector. The rivalry dynamic there exists solely in Batman’s head, Lego-Superman quickly saying “I would crush you” when Batman suggests the idea of them fighting. Superman’s status among the other DC heroes is also night and day between these works. Where Lego-Superman’s only scene in the movie shows him hosting the Justice League Anniversary Party and explaining he “forgot” to invite Batman, Superman in Holy Musical consistently lies about having friends over (“All night long I’m busy partying with my friends at the Fortress… of Solitude.”)

Superman’s relationship to B@man in Holy Musical develops into larger antagonism thanks to lack of communication with B@man brushing off Supes’ invitations to hang out and fight bad guys (“Where were you for the Solomon Grundy thing? Ended up smaller than I thought, just a couple of cool guys. Me and… Solomon Grundy.”) His own loneliness gets put into stronger focus when he sees the news of Rob!n’s debut as a crimefighter, which makes him reflect on how he misses having Krypto the Super-Dog around. (The explanation for why he doesn’t have his dog anymore is one of my favorite jokes in the play and I won’t ruin it here.)

Where Superman’s a reflection of B@man’s loneliness, Rosario Dawson as Barbara in Lego Batman is a confrontation of Batman’s go it alone attitude. Her job in the story is to be the one poking holes in the foundation of Batman as an idea, starting with her speech at Jim Gordon’s retirement banquet and her instatement as commissioner. She has a by-the-book outlook on crimefighting with the omnicompetence to back it up, thanks to her training at “Harvard for Police.” Babs sees Batman’s current way of operating as ineffectual and wants him to be an official agent of the law. An idea that dumps a bucket of cold water on Batman’s crush he developed immediately upon seeing her, though that never fully goes away.

Her main point is that Batman “karate chopping poor people” hasn’t made Gotham better in his 80 years of operating. A contrast to Holy Musical’s Jim Gordon announcing that B@man has brought Gotham’s crime rates to an all-time low (“Still the highest in the world, but we’re working on it.”) She wants to see a Batman willing to work with other people. A hope dashed constantly dealing with his childish stubbornness as he tries to foil Joker’s schemes on his own, culminating in her arresting Batman and Robin for breaking into Arkham to send Joker to the Phantom Zone.

Barbara’s role as the one bringing grown-up attitudes and reality into Batman’s world does leave her in the role of comedic straight woman. Humor in her scenes comes from how she reacts to everyone else’s absurdity rather than anything she does to be funny. This works for the role she plays in Lego Batman, since she’s not there to have an arc the way Superman does in Holy Musical. She’s another catalyst for Batman’s to start letting people in as another character he grows to care about. Which starts after she lets the Dynamic Duo out of prison to fight Joker’s new army of Phantom Zone villains on the condition that he plays it by her rules. Leading to a stronger bond between Batman, Robin, Alfred, and her as they start working together.

The two Batmen’s relationships to other heroes, their villains, Robin, and their own solitude each culminate in their own way as their stories reach their conclusions.

Dark Knights & Dawning Realizations

As everything comes down to the final showdowns in these Bat-parodies, the two Caped Crusaders each confront their failures to be there for others and allow themselves to be vulnerable to someone they’ve been antagonizing throughout the story. Each climax has all of Gotham threatened by a bomb and the main villains’ plans coming to fruition only to come undone.

Holy Musical has Sweet Tooth’s kidnapping of Rob!n and forcing Gotham to choose themselves or the sidekick they hate sends B@man into his most exaggerated state in the entire play. It’s the classic superhero movie climax conundrum, duty as a hero versus personal attachment. Alfred, having revealed himself as the “other butlers”, even lampshades how these stories usually go only for that possibility to get shot down by Bruce:

Alfred: A true hero, Master Wayne, finds a way to choose both. B@man: You’re right, Alfred. I know what I have to do… Fuck Gotham, I’m saving Robin!

B@man’s selfishness effectively makes him the real villain of Holy Musical’s second act. Lego Batman has shades of that aspect as well, where Batman gets sent to the Phantom Zone by Joker for his repeated refusal to acknowledge their relationship. Where the AI running the interdimensional prison, Phyllis voiced by Ellie Kemper, confronts him with the way he’s treated Robin, Alfred, Barbara, and even Joker:

Phyllis: You’re not a traditional bad guy, but you’re not exactly a good guy either. You even abandoned your friends. Batman: No! I was trying to protect them! Phyllis: By pushing them away? Batman: Well… yeah. Phyllis: Are they really the ones you’re protecting?

Batman watches what’s happening back in Gotham and sees Robin emulate his grim and gritty tendencies to save the day in his absence makes him desperately scream, “Don’t do what I would do!” It’s the universe rubbing what a jerk he’s been in his face. He’s forced to take a look at himself and make a change. B@man’s not made to do that kind of self-reflection until after he’s defeated Sweet Tooth but failed to stop the villain’s bomb. He’s ready to give up on Gotham forever and leave with Rob!n, until his sidekick pulls up Sweet Tooth’s poll and it shows the unanimous result in favor of saving the Boy Wonder. Despite everything they said at the start of Act 2, the people want to help their hero in return for all the times he helped them. All of them calling back to the Raimi Spider-Man reference from Act 1, “You mess with one of us. You mess with all of us.”

Both heroes’ chance at redemption and self-improvement comes from opening themselves up to the people they pushed out and dismissed earlier in their stories. Batman takes on the role he reduced the Commissioner down to at the beginning of the movie and flips on signals for Barbara, Alfred, and Robin to show how he’s truly prepared to work as a team, not just with his friends and family but with the villains of Gotham the Joker pushed aside as well. Teamwork makes the dream work and they’re all able to work together to get Joker’s army back into the Phantom Zone but like in Holy Musical they fail to stop the bomb threatening Gotham. Which he can only prevent from destroying the city by confessing his true feeling to Joker

Batman: If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have learned how connected I am with all of these people and you. So, if you help me save Gotham, you’ll help me save us. Joker: You just said “us?” Batman: Yeah, Batman and the Joker. So, what do you say? Joker: You had me at “shut up!”

The equivalent moment from Holy Musical comes from B@man needing to put aside his pride and encourage a disheartened Superman to save Gotham for him. This happens in the aftermath of a fight the two heroes had where Superman tried to stop B@man before he faced Sweet Tooth, B@man winning out through use of kryptonite. That fight doesn’t fit into any direct parallel with Lego Batman, but it is important context for how Superman’s feeling about B@man before Superman finally gets his long-awaited phone call from the Dark Knight. Also, the song accompanying the fight, “To Be a Man”, is one of the funniest scenes in the play. What this speech from B@man does is bring the idea of Holy Musical B@man as a commentary on fandom full circle:

B@man: I forgot what it means to be a superhero. But we’re really not that different, you and me, at our heart. I mean really all superheroes are pretty much the same… Something bad happened to us once when we were young, so we dedicated our whole lives to doing a little bit of good. That’s why we got into this crazy superhero business. Not to be the most popular, or even the most powerful. Because if that were the case, hell, you’d have the rest of us put out of a job!

This speech extends into an exchange between the heroes about how superheroes are cool, not despite anything superficially silly but because of it. Bringing it back to the “Robin Sucks!” theme that started Act 2, saying “Some people think Robin is stupid. But those people are pretentious douchebags. Because, literally, the only difference between Robin and me is our costumes.” The speech culminates in what I genuinely think is one of the best Batman lines ever written, as B@man’s final plea to Superman is “Where’s that man who’s faster than a gun?” calling back to the trauma that created Batman across all versions and what he can see in someone like Superman. So, B@man sacrificing his pride and fully trusting in another hero saves Gotham, the way Batman letting Joker know what their relationship means to him did in Lego Batman.

Each of these parodies ends by delivering a Batman willing to open himself up to a new team of heroes fighting at his side, the newly minted Bat-Family in Lego Batman and the league for justice known as the Super Friends in Holy Musical. Putting them side by side like this shows how creators don’t need the resources of a Hollywood studio to make something exactly as meaningful and how the best parodies come from love of the material no matter who’s behind them.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

108 notes · View notes

moonlit-mizukage · 3 years

Text

Chapter six: Hello Mrs. y/l/n, do you have a second to speak with us?

Summary: Popular punk band, Skull crusher, had to find a new drummer due to the sudden disappearance of the last one. As band manager and lead singer, Semi Eita’s girlfriend, Y/l/n Y/n brings Kyotani, a rising internet drummer they found online into the picture. Everything was great at first, then Kuroo, the lead guitarist, started getting creepy messages and presents. Y/n is determined to find out who is trying to sabotage the band when things only take a turn for the absolute worst. Who could be the mysterious stalker really be? Is it their new band mate? Or could it be a close friend of one of the members?

Tw: Swearing, mentions of body parts, mentions of vomiting

Word count: 1K

An: I posted a Matsukawa smut yesterday even though I said no updates cause of my test jfkvbardfsl Requests are still open as well !! Also Smau pictures will return soon don't worry!!

AN: Also come hang out in my discord server! I haven’t been super active lately but as soon as the weekend comes I will be again!!

_______________________________________________________________

Third Person Pov

Y/n sat on the couch in Semi and her’s shared house. Semi had a blanket wrapped around her as he held her close to him. They left the venue not too long ago after they called the police about the contents inside the box. The band had followed choosing to stay and comfort Y/n as they have never seen her so terrified in all their years together.

“Do you think this could be related to the letter?” Matsukawa said, finally breaking the silence.

“I think it might be, we should definitely consider it at least.” Akaashi said back.

“Who the fuck just does that?” Kyotani said angrily.

“Sick people.” Semi said. Kuroo and Y/n remained silent on the couch.

A few more minutes of silence passed as a knock was heard from the door. Semi stood up and headed over.

“Hello, we just have a few questions about what happened tonight. Our team has run some DNA samples on the item and we need to discuss further before we release that info to you.” Said the police officer at the door.

“Okay come in. The whole band is here.” He said as he moved aside allowing the two men to come in.

“Hello Mrs. y/l/n, do you have a second to speak with us?”

“Yes Sir.” She said as she led them over to the dining area’s table.

“After running some DNA tests, only two people’s fingerprints were on the box. One of the matches was yours. We would like to take a statement about what happened. If my partner or I feel you may be holding information, a lie detector test may be ordered.” He said reading off his sheet. “Any questions before we begin?”

“No sir.” She looked around him at Semi who was standing in the kitchen doorway watching.

“Why did you grab the box in the first place?” He asked.

“Can I just,” She let out a loud sigh “Can I just tell you the full story of what I know? I just think it may be more helpful this way.”

“Okay go ahead Ma’am.”

“Well first we found a box, and it was empty, well actually Matsukawa and Akaashi did, and it was addressed to Kuroo and so I opened it, with his permission of course, I screen their fan mail cause of some crazy stuff that has happened in the past, but I opened it and it said like try again I think? But anyways after the show Yachi and Kiyoko found it. I opened this one too.” She said barely pausing to take a breath.

“Did you leave the area at any time during the night?” The one officer asked her.

“Yes I did. I went to the washroom last song and missed the encore. Can I ask why?” ‘

“We know from the security guards no one else besides staff and your friends were backstage. You just confirmed the suspicions. After gaining the information from the other women at the scene, we know no one else besides backstage staff had access to this area.”

“Does that mean it was… it was someone one behind the stage?”

“Yes we believe so at least, whoever it was, was extremely careful in their work. No fingerprints of the perp were left behind.” He said back monotonously. .

“I thought you said there were two different DNA prints on the box?” She asked.

“Yes the other belongs to the owner of the finger.”

“Can I ask who it is?” She asked nervously.

“It belonged to Sawamura Daichi.”

“Daichi?.” She said feeling herself become dizzy. ‘ Is he… is he.. alive..?” She asked with disbelief in her voice.

“We believe it is a possibility. Due to the finger being fresh, we assume it happened earlier today. There were no signs of decomposition yet.” Y/n stood up and ran over to the sink throwing up as Semi held onto her, basically holding her up at this point.

The police moved to the other room and talked to a few others before heading out. Y/n was now drinking water at the table, tears streaked down her cheeks as she stared off at the wall.

“Hey are you guys okay in here?” Akaashi said as he walked in the dining area followed by the other guys.

“Holy shit Y/n??? What’s wrong??” Kuroo came running over to her sitting down in the other chair beside you. She looked up and around at all the other guys there.

“The finger it was… it was..” She swallowed a large lump in her throat, “it was Daichi’s.”

“Daichi’s, he's- he's alive?” Matsukawa said as he sat down quickly.

“They said the finger was pretty fresh like today's fresh.” Semi spoke up.

“Well there was a lot of blood on it.” Kyotani added.

“So he is alive?” Akaashi asked.

“Yeah, they said no one entered the back area other then Y/n after she came back from the bathroom.” Semi added.

“Does that mean… it was an inside job?” Kuroo asked. Fear was seen in his eyes as he asked.

“They said most likely. We have to keep our eyes open from now on guys. The only ones we can trust are each other.” Semi said. Y/n was no longer listening at that moment. Instead she sat staring at the wall as to what was assumed thinking about Daichi.

“Who do you think it could be? Like maybe we should get a suspect list going?” Matsukawa suggested.

“The fucking bitch who wouldn’t stop touching Kuroo and I tonight.” Kyotani said.

“What was their name?” Akaashi asked as he pulled open notes on his phone.

“That Nametsu girl. The new stage crew member.” Kuroo said.

“Okay, anyone else we can think of.” Akaashi asked.

Everyone went silent for a moment looking as if they were hard debating saying something they may regret.

“Yukie.” Y/n said just above a whisper.

“What was that love?” Semi asked her as he moved a little closer to her.

“The letter…. It smelt like Yukie.”

______________________________________________________________

Previous | Masterlist | Next

Taglist: @satan-ruler-of-hells @elianetsantana @elephantloser @putmeinyourdeathnote @levithansbabygirl @megumitodoroki @idontknow-whatto-callthis @jellyfishsart @freakydeaky226 @atria-avior @doodletingz @kac-chowsballs @twistedvalkyrie @ranu-chan @why-couldnt-it-be @thisnoodlewritesao3

#haikyuu horror #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu yandere #yandere haikyuu #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu x you #haikyuu x y/n #haikyuu x manager #haikyuu band au #haikyuu horror smau #semi x you #semi x y/n #semi smau #kuroo smau

49 notes · View notes

rosewould · 3 years

Text

*･༓☾ bloodshot // johnny ☽༓･*

chapter i // masterlist

*pairing* you x johnny + jungwoo

*chapter rating* mature

*warnings* gore (I'll put a marker up to where it starts and ends for the squeamish), explicit sexual content, mentions of slurs and sexism

*word count* 2.4k

*disclaimer(s)* I obviously don't think johnny or any other members would act this way. Please don't take anything I write seriously as it is just for fun. I in no way view idols differently and inappropriately in real life because of my smuts or any of their contents!

((TW: you “injure yourself” in this chapter but it’s not driven by any mental health circumstances))

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

Well, everyone thinks you're crazy now. You really didn't think kicking a toothpick under your toenail would catch this many headlines. Or maybe it was the reason you did it that has everyone's panties in a twist.

"Popular Streamer _____ Injures Herself After Altercation with Fellow Streamer jonssuh"

You had to prove your point. You had no desire to be cordial with that son of a bitch.

"Come on, ___. You love me, right?" Johnny taps on his cheek with his index finger. The gesture was seemingly in slow motion as your blood boiled. You wanted to knock that stupid grin off his face. You balled your fists tightly as the men- no, boys laughed at his joke. Or lack thereof.

"You're so overdramatic." Lucas rolls his eyes at your stubbornness. You felt triumphant as you felt the boys getting upset. Finally their smug acts were over. It was suffocating. You glared at the two massive men as they leaned on the kitchen island, glaring back at you.

"You actually hate Johnny?" You turn to see Mark on the sofa, pushing himself forward a little so he can see beyond the other men on the sofa. His face read of concern. Good. He should be concerned.

"That's what I've been trying to fucking tell everyone. My viewers, you guys, the commentary youtubers, your viewers, everyone! I'm not joking, I was never joking, I could sleep easy knowing I'd never see Johnny again." You turn your gaze back at Johnny who had that amused smirk back on his face.

"You're so full of shit, you know that?"

"And why is that?" You maneuver around the island to stand firmly in front of the human skyscraper. You felt your adrenaline pumping as the air grew more tense.

"Okay guys this is getting stupid. Stop before you do something dumb." Taeyong piped up, you could hear the annoyance in his voice. You stayed put, awaiting Johnny's response. He tilts his head upward and crosses his arms, feigning deep thought.

"Well I don't know, you always seem to be around me. And hm... I don't know... the fact that I did nothing to you." The venom in Johnny's voice made you shift in place with glee. It was very difficult to not smile. You were successfully getting under his skin.

Finally a man among your mutual streamer friends was the one someone made squirm for someone else's amusement. No more sexism and just flat out being a jerk for shock value. Or to just solely make you feel like shit while everyone else laughed. Now you were laughing while Johnny gritted his teeth.

"You see, you did do something and you know you did. Look it's just my personal opinion that you're a piece of dog shit." You finally let a smile stretch across your features as you let one of his signature lines rip.

"Ah, so that's what this is about?" Johnny scoffed, shifting his weight.

"Those are just jokes. You always take them way too seriously."

You feel the power dynamic shifting again. No, you weren't going to let him use this idiotic defense to gain his position back.

"If those are jokes then you're a shitty comedian." You walk closer to him, looking straight into his eyes as you over-enunciate each letter in your insult.

"Everyone else seems to like them." Johnny shrugs, keeping his composure. The dynamic was shifting once more. You snort at his reply.

"Who's "everyone"? The little boys in this room?" You hear the boys grumble in protest around you.

"Or your 12 year old fans who think saying the N word is a punchline. Very impressive audience, Kevin Hart." You chuckle. Johnny stayed quiet for a while nodding as he shifted back and forth. You could feel how no one was on your side, but you muscled forward, trying to ignore it.

"So you're telling me you hate me, because of some stupid jokes-"

You laugh loudly.

"Of course you take two steps back when you're backed into a corner."

"We're not stupid, ____. I get it, I'm a popular streamer and beef with me would get you some decent numbers. But keep it on stream, babe." He pats your shoulder and attempts to move past you.

"I would rather kick a toothpick under my toenail than be forced to coexist with you. I promise it's not a publicity stunt." You cross your arms tightly.

"Oh yeah?" Johnny's footsteps thunder past you as he reaches for a package of toothpicks. He brings them to the island, dumping them onto the countertop. Countless toothpicks clatter onto the granite, some spilling over onto the linoleum tiles. The guys groan and protest in the background, most notably, Taeyong.

"See- This is what the fuck I'm talking about, man. You guys are so fucking ridiculous."

(gore marker)

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

It was the anger that Taeyong didn't understand why you loathed this man. It was the way Johnny's nostrils flared at you as he gestured to the toothpicks that egged you on. Your movements are theatrical as you take two fingers to lift a single toothpick from the countertop.

"No fucking way?!" Lucas cackled in disbelief. Everyone watched in awe as you saunter to the nearest wall, placing the toothpick under your right big toenail.

"____ cut it out! What the fuck?" Taeyong shot up from the couch, attempting to stop you but it was too late. The mixture of searing pain and screeches of disbelief and disgust overwhelmed your senses. The room spun as your eyesight faded in and out. You stumbled backwards but Taeyong caught you before you could fall. Your toe was burning hot while blood ran down from the wound in various directions. You didn't want to look at it. Taeyong scoops you up and quickly whisks you away to the bathroom.

The maddening discourse was just blurred background noise as Taeyong sat you on the toilet. Your vision was going blurry, hearing going in and out as Taeyong reprimanded you. You couldn't decipher a word he was saying.

"Could you shut up and take it out please." Hot tears poured down your cheeks. Taeyong paused, shutting the bathroom door. The decrease in volume brought you back down to earth. Unfortunately, this meant the pain was clear as well. You inhale sharply before exhaling shakily. Your foot shook violently as you finally saw the viscera. You whimpered worriedly, in disbelief at yourself. Your hands shook as well as you grabbed for something, anything. One hand landed on Taeyong's arm. The other tugged a towel off a bar, the poorly assembled bar coming down as well with a loud clang.

You began to sob, not knowing how to deal with the excruciating pain. You choked, looking away as Taeyong finally removed the toothpick. Your lips tremble as you attempt to stifle your sobs. You squeeze Taeyong's arm but your body never stops shaking.

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

"I'm sorry... I didn't know you were serious."

"You still laughed." Your voice quivered. The words came out louder than you anticipated. Johnny probably heard that. Great.

You hiss loudly as Taeyong applies peroxide.

"You need to go to the hospital, this is worse than I thought."

"Yeah, whatever." You stay turned away from him and the wound. You hear him sigh.

You gave permission to Lucas to tell the story on his stream. You wanted people to know that you will not just sit pretty and giggle while a greasy man talks down to you. You do not associate with Johnny Suh. And now the world finally understood this fact.

Except, your plan backfired. People think you're insane. For good reason. The more days go by, the more idiotic you feel. Of course if backfired. Also, "jonssuh" was bigger than you. Of course people would side with him no matter what.

"People hate me now." You see the opportunity to steal Jisoo's knight, so quickly you do so.

"Checkmate." Jisoo utters as you realize your king is fucked from all directions.

"Fuck."

"You always take the bait so fast. Also, who cares if a bunch of racist white boys hate you. They're all probably 13 anyways." Jisoo starts to put the pieces away but you stop her.

"One more round. Also, that's what I said. But let's be real, they're not all 13. Full grown adults are calling me over-sensitive. Some of them are female as well. That shit hurts." You set up your side with a pout.

"Even so, their opinions still don't matter. They have horrible senses of humor. If "go make me a sandwich" makes them laugh, their opinion is no longer valid." You make you first move.

"I guess."

Even so, the comments and tweets still stuck in your brain. Some of the boys defend you over social media which made you feel a lot better. At the same time, however, it made you feel worse. Your mind flashes back to that night, the things the guys screamed were finally clear.

Mark was just repeating "oh my god" over and over while gagging. Lucas obnoxiously screamed "YOOO!". Typical. While Johnny... well he pressed both hands to either side of his head, repeating,

"You were serious?"

Yes you dipshit. How could he be so dense?

How are men this influential over you?

You wished Jungwoo streamed. He's so funny and sweet. Not to mention he would stick up for you with no hesitation when you were with the other streamers.

"I would've just slapped him as soon as he said you take his "jokes" too seriously."

"I know." You melted into Jungwoo as he traced shapes into your arm. Your cheek squished against his bare chest as his other hand smoothed over your hair. Your legs tangled together under the covers. Jungwoo kicks them away, muttering something about being hot. The motion causes his legs to brush firmly against your panty clad core. You whimper, digging your nails into the flesh of his bicep.

"Are you needy, princess?"

You nod sheepishly, humping lightly against his leg. He climbs on top of you, spreading your legs apart with his own. He grinds his bulge against your mound, sending shots of electricity up your legs. You look up into his dark eyes. His dark hair messy and half wet. His mouth hung open as he looked at your half naked figure with want.

You twitch, trying desperately to get as much friction as possible. His motions deepen as he grinds against you. You wrap your legs around his waist, pulling him closer. His thrusts get shorter, brushing perfectly against your hardened clit. Your lips brush against his, both breathing heavily. Your moans become audible as your legs quiver slightly.

He pulls away before freeing his newly erect penis. He jerks it a few times before pushing your panties aside and entering your sopping hole. Strangled noises escape your throat as he bottoms out. You use your legs to pull him even closer. You whimper loudly at how deep his tip burrowed into you.

His hips are poetic as they sway back and forth. His cock was warm and hard as a rock as it moved in and out of you. Your noses bump against each other as he bites your bottom lip. His moans whine and tempt as they twist into your ears. He bites the lobe of your left ear as his love noises increase in volume. You dig your heels into his ass as you let out shallow open-mouthed breaths.

Jungwoo slides his hands underneath your ass to give it a firm squeeze. While doing so he pushes himself even deeper than you imagined he could go. You curse and writhe, raking his back with your fingernails. You bite his shoulder, tears threatening to spill as your stomach tightens. Your wetness spread all over both of your upper thighs. His cock was nearly lost in a sea of your juices as it plummeted deep inside you.

Getting closer, you start bucking upwards. You chased your high feverishly, encouraged by the passion behind your hatred for Johnny Suh. You thought of him. You thought of him as you snapped your hips towards Jungwoo's. You grunt hungrily, thighs quaking as you blindly chased your high.

"I'm so fucking close-" You breathe out as you grind your hips up to meet his. He snaps his hips against yours, movements more erratic and moans more determined. Your pelvis feels hot, stomach tightly wound, and legs going increasingly numb as his cock barreling into you sends you over the edge. Your moans border on a scream as you tug at Jungwoo's hair.

You trail your nails down his neck and back as he continues to thrust sloppily. His hips snap violently a few more times as he ribbons sperm into you. Your chests heave against each other, skin searing hot to the touch.

"Is all that pent up frustration gone now?" He nuzzles his head into the crook of your neck as he laughs. You just nod breathlessly. Your stomach flutters as he peppers soft kisses all over your neck and shoulder.

"I could tell that guy really pissed you off."

"Well it was more than just Johnny."

You were both silent for a moment.

“Taeyong too?” He lifts his head to look at you cautiously. You just nod wordlessly.

“It’s also the constant losing fight. I think it may be better to just separate myself from them completely.”

Jungwoo slides off of you, snuggling into your side.

“It must be really difficult.”

You pout slightly, tears pricking at your eyes. You were being such a baby.

“Yeah.”

“Especially with Taeyong not siding with you before the toothpick intervened. I honestly thought you and Taeyong would be an item.”

“Me too.” You chuckled, it seemed so stupid now.

“But he’s in a relationship now, with someone he knows I’ve hated for years now.” Saying it out loud, you couldn’t chuckle anymore.

“This is just a shitty situation, huh?” You force a smile, looking over at Jungwoo. He was far from smiling, however. It almost looked like he was going to cry for you.

“I’m so sorry you have to go through this, ___.” Jungwoo snuggled even closer to you, nuzzling his head into your shoulder again.

“Yeah, me too.” You replied numbly. You didn't know if you regretted Lucas telling his stream or... the entire thing.

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　끝　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

72 notes · View notes

sweetkyu · 4 years

Text

blue | sunwoo

genre: angst, fluff.

warnings: swearing, mentions of alcohol.

word count: 3.7k

n/a: i was inspired by some of jaden's songs to write this fic, this is the first time i post something so be kind hehe

i lost the count of how long i was standing in the middle of my living room, watching the rain fall down through the balcony door, holding onto my cup of chamomile tea with both hands. my mind had already given all the laps around the world as i just stood there. eyes locked to the world outside. empty head, no thoughts. nothing but kim sunwoo breaking into tears when i decided to end our relationship, three months ago. every day has been painful and sorrowful like this, since then. of course sometimes i can manage to just take a deep breath and try to live a day without thinking too much about it. today is the worst day until now because it's the day we would complete five years of dating, that is if we were together. to celebrate it, we had plans of traveling to norway to see the northern lights, a dream we dreamed together since we were kids.

i met kim sunwoo way before he became the boyz' main rapper sunwoo. i could never think that i would be this crazy in love with him when we met, but we don't know nothing about fate, i guess. and me and sunwoo, we were destined to be together, made for each other just like adam and eve. we have so much in common, we share the same dreams, we want to achieve the same things. our moms were university best friends, we didn't have much contact as kids, until the day our mothers decided to put us on the same school to study together... but why would they do that? nobody ever thought we were going to fall in love with each other, but when it happened, to our families it was just perfect. however, ten years after the first day in school together and here we are, here i am completely devastated and drowned in regret, chasing for sunwoo in every place. i thought i would be strong after all these years of relationship, after all the silly fights and misunderstandings i thought i would be able to ignore everything and stay by him, for him. and still i didn't.

his fans knew everything about us, since we started dating before he debuted. i was always there, at all concerts, fanmeetings, music shows. whenever i had the time, i was there in the backstage. deobis were mostly okay with us being together, some of them had social media accounts dedicated for us, i would see everything... and by everything, i mean literally. especially the fans who would hate me and send me messages saying that they wanted me dead, that sunwoo would be better off without me and so much more. that was when i became weak and started to believe in them. that was when my life became a mess in all areas, i was going through a major crisis in my job, my father was sick, some close friends stopped talking to me for no reason at all and sunwoo was on a one-month tour in japan. i was feeling lost, lonely, and i had to do something.

it was raining just like today on that night. i was preparing another cup of tea for me, my third round that day, when he got into the apartment. sunwoo was happy that he was finally home, he would tell stories about the tour and i would just pretend i was listening to them. he could notice something was off and asked me about it. in a whisper i replied him, "i wanna break up". it got silent for long and hard seconds, until i collected courage enough to look at him. the most painful thing i've ever seen, little did i know that scene would be tattoed in my mind for months. beautiful round eyes that i adore so much locking the tears so they wouldn't fall down, he nibbled at his bottom lip before asking "are you serious?" and i took a deep breath before nodding my head as a yes. sunwoo, then, began with the questions, demanding to know where all of that came from considering that we were so happy together. i was rude in my answers, saying that i was tired of the relationship and that i needed some time for myself. moments later and sunwoo went out, slamming the door behind him after i claimed that was the end.

i've been living under this nightmare ever since, hating myself more every second because i was the one who put myself under this situation, who put sunwoo under this situation. for the past six months i had to just watch sunwoo through his work and social media, and sometimes i would know two or three things about him through chanhee, his fellow groupmate and best friend. chanhee was the only one who knew the truth about the break up and i made him swear he wouldn't tell no one, especially sunwoo, and so he did. in exchange, three months after, chanhee let me know about a mixtape sunwoo would release, mixtape which came out earlier today at midnight. i was kinda excited about this, it is his first solo work and i know how much he wanted to create something with his own touch, his own feeling. the mixtape is called 'blue' and it has only four songs, each named with every letter of the word blue. the songs tell a story on their own, so they make better sense if listened in order and all at once. in the lyrics, he talks about everything he had won as an artist and all that he lost because of that, all in a confused mix of feelings, sometimes full of anger and other times he would sound calm, and it's pretty clear that he is talking about me when he mentions a girl. since his group is now one of the most popular boy groups in korea, it didn't take long for his so waited mixtape to reach #1 in all digital platforms. i was so happy for him and so proud of his work, i even typed a text to send him but i just couldn't press the send button. instead, i expressed my happiness to chanhee, who was extremely comprehensive like always.

as expected, i spent the entire day of today listening to this goddamn mixtape. every time i would hear his painful words it was like someone was putting a knife into my heart and, oh god, why did i brought so much suffering into this boy's life? this question kept on hammering my head the entire day until i decided i wouldn't listen to it anymore. i finished my shift at work without listening to any music, the background sound would be enough to make me company. i got into the subway with my coworkers just like any other day, they would say something about going out since it was friday and i would pretend i had some other important thing to do. and now, looking at all this rain that is falling outside, i think it was the best i could have done. i look at the clock ticking on the wall and although it's not even 10pm i decide to call it a day. i turn off the tv, let the empty mug by the kitchen sink and drag myself to the bedroom, laying down on my bed, getting comfortable around my pillows and under my fluffy blanket, letting the sleep take full control of my body.

it's still dark outside when i finally managed to free myself from the dream i was having. a dream where everything was fine and i could be found inside sunwoo's loving arms again, feeling his heart beat against mine, smelling his scent, hearing his sweet nothings being whispered at me. but then, so sudden, i looked deep into his eyes and recalled that it was only a dream. i would cry so hard while he would just look at me with a smile on his face. it's been a while since i had dreams like this one. i woke up with tears falling from my eyes, body shaking from head to toes. it took me a while to calm down, when i finally did i decide to have a glass of cold water. after going to the kitchen to drink it, i find my forgotten cellphone onto the dinner table. once i unlock it, i find some unread messages from chanhee.

[00:14] choi chanhee: y/n, i'm sorry but i think it's better for me to tell you

[00:14] choi chanhee: we were at a bar, sunwoo was drunk and started talking about you, saying he had to see you and he left

[00:15] choi chanhee: anyways he is going to your place, we couldn't stop him i'm sorry

[00:15] choi chanhee: call any of us if he acts weird okay? he seems to be out of himself this days...

i let out a heavy sigh after seeing the messages were sent forty minutes ago, he will be here any time soon. to see sunwoo right now is what i want the most, surely, without any doubts. i miss him with everything that i have. but at the same time i don't feel ready enough for this, i'm not in my best moment, i don't know how i will react when i look at him; once it will be our first encounter after everything that happened between us. without noticing, i start pacing back and forth in my living room, feeling confused and nervous, anxiety growing inside me one more time that night and i feel my legs losing their strength, i sit by the couch as i try to take deep breaths in order to calm myself down again. this can't be happening, this can't be happening, this-- my thoughts are interrupted by the doorbell, followed by knocks on the door. i don't know how but i manage to get up and walk to the door with my jelly-like legs. i don't need to check before opening it. just like i had dreamed moments ago, sunwoo is right in front of me. dark circles around his beautiful eyes, the tip of the nose a bit red and he smells like he has been drinking and smoking for the past few hours. he is wearing black hoodies, black pants and black converse. all black, just the way he likes. i'm still giving no reactions, blinking at the sight of him, hoping for this to be another dream.

"hi" it’s all i can say.

"c-chanhee told me, y/n" he hiccups, taking a deep breath after "he told me everything" i look at him, trying to come up with a sentence but i just can't talk "a-about the haters and how that made you break up with me"

"sunwoo, i--" i stop in the middle of the sentence, couldn't finish because he literally jumped into my arms. a couple minutes later, i close the door behind us before readjusting his arms around me. with the head against his chest i can feel his heart bumping fast and his chin hovering above my head, and somehow it is recomforting. we stay like this for a couple moments, i stop feeling nervous and anxious as i feel his arms around me, calming me down, until his sobbing come into my ears "are you okay?" he nods, kissing the top of my head.

"i just..." i lift my head to look at him, red teary eyes looking deep into my eyes "why didn't you tell me, y/n? huh?" he holds my face with both hands "you can't do this, my love. how can you believe in what other people say when you know i'll love you forever?" he puts his forehead against mine and mumbles "please come back to me, i miss you so much"

"sunwoo..." i take a deep breath and whisper "i don't know..."

"please, my love, please... i do anything!" his breath smells like alcohol "if you want me to leave the group, i'll do that right now!"

"stop saying nonsense, you know you can't do that!" i shake off his hands away slightly and he seems pretty offended, getting some steps away and looking back at me with angry but still sad eyes, tears now running down his cheeks without permission. a muscle in his jaw twitches making him look scary, yet i'm not afraid.

"it isn't nonsense! it's the truth!" he shouts "how could you believe those words when i am madly in love with you?--" sunwoo paces around the living room, hands messing his hair as if he was having an attack.

"sunwoo, you're screaming--"

"i can't eat, i can't sleep! all i can think about is you!" he takes a deep breath “i have my own pride! you can’t do this to me--”

"it's late, please lower your voice--"

“you can’t just leave me sick like this!” i scratch my forehead at his screamed words “you can’t throw away what we had, not this way!”

“sunwoo, please--”

"why did you have to do this?” he goes on “we've been together for so long, how could you let us just fall all apart?"

"sunwoo..."

"i can't breathe when you're not with me, y/n! fuck!" he slaps the flower pot that once was on top of the table, making it fall into the ground and break into pieces.

"oh my god, kim sunwoo! stop acting like crazy! look what you did!" he stares at me, gasping. i feel my cheeks getting red at the sudden wave of mixed feelings.

"i'm s-sorry" sunwoo looks to the ground and sighs before dropping on his knees, hysterically sobbing "it hurts so much, y/n. you're my everything! i can't stay away from you anymore" he lets out while crying "now why... why would you?" i don't know what to do, but i still keep watching him while holding back some tears.

it doesn't take too much until i can't take this agonizing scene anymore. i know he is tired and confused and i'm definitely not on the mood to fight, that's why i kneel down in front of him and let my hands cup his cheeks. i lift his head, taking a good look at his face as i start to wipe his teardrops away, still fighting back my tears, feeling my heart break into tiny little pieces "why don't you take a shower so you can calm down and then if you're not too tired we talk this through, huh? what do you say?" he opens a sad smile and nods, softly leaning his head against my hand as he searches for more of my touches.

with a certain difficulty, i manage to get him back on his feet but somehow he lost his balance, hardly being able to stand on his feet, so i help him walk to the bathroom while he keeps on muttering that he is sorry for everything and that he wants me back, making this even harder. once we are in the bathroom, i help him with his clothes before pushing him under the shower, i open the faucet, letting the water fall on his head.

"ah! it's cold!" he complains in a hiss, hugging his now naked body.

"i know, but you need it" i close the bathroom shower door, hearing as he mumbles something about not having extra clothes, making me sigh at the fact that he had forgotten that he owns at least three drawers in my dresser.

i walk back to the living room and clean up the mess sunwoo made. when finished, i decide to have a couple more glasses of water to calm down. i still can't believe this is happening. i draw in a long breath as i walk to the bedroom, i open one of sunwoo's drawers, which is exactly the same way it was the day he left. i pick up some clothes for him and soon when i stop hearing the sound of the water falling, i get back into the bathroom to hand sunwoo his clothes. he shyly thanks me before i walk out the room to give him some privacy. few minutes go by until sunwoo shows up in the room, wearing the navy blue pajamas i picked for him, dragging his body to the bed, where i am sitting on.

"i'm sorry, my love. sorry i'm a mess up" he mumbles, stopping in front of me, just by the look on his eyes i can feel that he is completely exhausted, like he would sleep for an entire day if he could. i don't say much, sighing only before getting up to take his hand and sit him down on the bed. i take the towel away from his hands and start to dry off his hair. i feel his hand touch my waist lightly, his thumbs caressing my skin over the material of my shirt, touches ever so soft just like his voice when he whispered "don't be mad at me"

"i'm not" i quickly answer back.

"yes, you are. you're not even looking at me, y/n" he puts his hands on my hands, making any movement of mine stop and then i finally look into his now swollen eyes, all i can see is sadness and sorrow.

"i'm not mad, sunwoo. i just don't like seeing you like that," i try not to cry but it's barely impossible "it makes me sad and it's even worse to know that you're suffering because of me" he wraps his arms around my waist when i drop the towel to the bed, covering my face as i sob uncontrollably.

i find shelter in sunwoo's arms moments later, when he makes me sit on his lap. i curl myself up inside his embrace, snuggling my nose on his neck and feeling his fingers going back and forth on my skin, sometimes he would kiss my temper and whisper some words, reminding me that he was there with me, calming me down.

"i'm so, so sorry for all of this" i hear myself saying after long minutes went by, he holds my face on his hands, looking deep into my crying eyes "i was weak and made us suffer this badly" he nods at my words "i was in a bad place back then, i thought you wouldn't understand and got us all stuck in this even worse nightmare" he runs his thumb across my cheeks, wiping away some teardrops "i should've talked to you but i was afraid..."

"there was nothing for you to be afraid of, my love... we would have talked this through and find a solution together" i bob my head in comprehension as i feel his fingers put a lock of my hair behind my ear, tears falling silently this time "just like we will find one now, you are not alone. i’m with you, y/n"

"i'm so happy that you are here, sunwoo..." i let out in a whisper and i can watch his lips curve into a smile "i tried to text you before but i just couldn't" he nods.

"i understand, y/n. and it's totally fine" we grin at each other “and i’m sorry i didn’t call all this time and--” he is interrupted by a sudden yawn that makes us laugh, he apologizes right after "sorry, my love, i'm just feeling tired" he blinks lazily as i cross my hand through his hair.

"no, babe, i'm sorry for putting you up to this at this time, we should've talked in the morning" sunwoo shakes his head in denial, mumbling that it's okay "let's call it a day, shall we?" he nods once again that night.

"perfect idea, my love" i smile at him.

my hand fall from his hair to his chin as i put the other one on his shoulder. i lean myself and only closed my eyes after i saw sunwoo closing his, i get closer and closer until our lips locked. our kiss is small at first, slow and soft as if we were afraid of hurting each other but soon it grew bigger and full of desire. it was like my kiss had woken him up, his hands are now everywhere; first holding my cheeks then running down my arms until he got them on my waist, pulling me closer as if it is even possible. my own hands flew to the back of his head without me even notice and i feel his ones running up and down my spine, then holding me close.

"i love you, y/n" he mumbles in between our making out session, lowering his kisses down my neck and shoulder.

"i love you too, love you so much" i let out in a whine, panting under his caresses and this makes him smile. sunwoo stops all the kissing and leans his body backwards for a moment, taking his time to look on my face. good thing is that i can take a good look at his as well. he is gasping through his big and swollen red lips, black hair still a bit humid because i didn't make a good job at drying them, beautiful and swollen eyes that had stopped crying now stare at me with passion, making me feel like i am the prettiest woman on the planet, shirt all messy on his body and i swear this is the most beautiful scene i have seen, the dim lights from the bedside lamp only helping him to look even better.

"please don't you ever leave me again, my love" sunwoo prays in a whisper, one hand going up my cheek and i put mine above it "i don't know what i'll do without you" i lean my head to give his caressing hand a kiss.

"i'm not going anywhere" a smile dances on his lips and then he pulls me closer, making us fall on the bed and laugh together at it, before sunwoo kisses me again.

three months ago when he left, i could feel an emptiness growing inside of me, as if sunwoo had taken a piece of me along with him. but now i can assure that the hollow space i was feeling before sunwoo entered my apartment earlier today, that feeling is gone. kim sunwoo had always been that one source of happiness in my life and i don't know how i had the courage to doubt that nor how i managed to live all this time without him. again, we are like adam and eve. we are not perfect, we make mistakes, we are simply soulmates, born to be together. and i know that from now on i'm going to be fine, we are going to be happy.

107 notes · View notes

juminhanswife48 · 4 years

Text

Jumin X MC: going to watch Zen’s play

hehehe had this idea for a while, hope u all enjoy!!!

“MC, slow down!” Jumin quickly shuffled behind her, almost falling victim to the crowds that were accumulating on the sideways. “What is the rush?”

MC grasped his hand tighter, as if she were the mother to a toddler. His heavy feet dragged behind her, protesting every turn she took. He sighed loudly, making faces of annoyance at every sign or mention of the mysterious event. MC fled through the crowds with Jumin attached to her. “Sorry!” MC yelled back with a sweet smile as she bumped into anyone. No one could stay mad at her sweet smile, so even the street punks just brushed off the tiny alterations.

Jumin took note of his surroundings, they were in the heart of the city. The only things there were the theatre, restaurants, clubs, and shops. They’d already had dinner, it was too late to shop, so she was taking him to the club or the theatre.

“We are here!” MC smiled as she stopped in her tracks and looked behind her. There Jumin stood, his eyes relaxed with a look of absolute disgust.

“Why did you take me here?”

MC looked up and pointed to the lighting up sign: ACTOR ZEN GOES BACK TO HIS ROOTS IN...TEI’S TEA LEAF!! PREMIERING FOR ONLY 3 DAYS!! The sign read in glistening golden letters.

“MC...i’m not sitting through an hour of him galloping on stage as his fan girls drool over him.”

“Come on!” MC pleaded. “We have to support our friends.”

“Your friend.” Jumin quickly corrected.

“No, he’s apart of the RFA and we all need to get along.” MC dropped his hand then moved closer to him. “He’d really appreciate if everyone showed up. Seven is already busy with work and can’t come, so i’m sure he would appreciate it if you did.”

“Ugh,” Jumin scoffed. “I’m only going to sit through this for you.”

MC smiled, then grabbed his hand again. “He gave all the RFA members access to the balconies, so we can all watch from there together.”

MC began walking to the entrance with Jumin dragging his feet behind her. “So excited.” He sarcastically nodded.

“Oh! And he told everyone to meet in his dressing room before the show.”

Jumin looked up at the night sky before they entered the building.

This is going to be a long night.

_______

“Hey!” Zen smiled wide as MC opened his dressing room door. “I’m so glad you came!” He got to MC’s level and gave her a friendly hug.

“Hi Zen.” MC quickly hugged him.

“Back up.” Jumin appeared into the doorframe.

“Ugh why did you have to bring this JERK?” Zen rolled his eyes obnoxiously as he backed away from MC.

“Don’t hug MC like that.” Jumin immediately shot back.

“We aren’t doing this tonight.” MC said as she put herself in between the two men. She knew things would escalate if she didn’t intervene, and although it would be so entertaining to watch them hash it out, now wasn’t the time.

“Jumin, it was just a friendly hug. And Zen, stop calling him names.”

Jumin smirked at Zen, then grabbed MC’s waist and pulled her in close to him.

“Anyways!” Zen said. He turned quickly, his long ponytail swaying in the air. “Seven couldn’t make it. And Jaehee said she might be a little bit late.” He sat on his chair, then made direct eye contact with Jumin. “Thanks to her lovely boss who exploits her labor-”

“Oh my god you guys need to stop.” MC interrupted.

“I haven’t said or done anything yet to incite an argument.” Jumin said innocently. He looked around the room and saw a red couch, up against the wall. Jumin quietly took MC’s hand then walked to the couch and they sat shoulder to shoulder.

“Zen, don’t you have to do makeup or something?” MC asked, quickly changing the subject. Maybe it was a mistake taking Jumin to the musical, but she thought it would be a sweet gesture to support Zen.

“No, i just have to change my clothes before the play starts.” Zen answered.

MC always loved when the whole RFA spent time together, although it was really hard to get those gatherings.

Jumin already had a busy schedule, Jaehee too. Seven was constantly backed up with work, and Zen got mobbed in the daylight. When the RFA got together it was usually in private, or at night time. There was a flip side though, Yoosung was usually always free and loved hanging out with MC. Jumin didn’t mind when they hung out too much; he just requested that MC texted him every half hour.

“Hellooo!” Yoosung proudly announced as he answered the room. The awkward veil got lifted, as Zen smiled back. “I had to ask for directions back here and the security thought I was Zen’s fan...Oh, hey MC and Jumin!”

“Hi Yoosung.” MC said cheerfully. Jumin raised his hand up then waved.

Rather quickly Zen and Yoosung began talking amongst themselves.

Jumin focused his attention back to MC, then placed his hand on her thigh. She looked at him, her eyes big with a rose blush appearing on her cheeks.

“Jumin…” She whispered. She rubbed her nose then smiled. “About what Zen said…I feel really bad for Jaehee,” She placed her hand on top of his. “She works so hard for you, you don’t exploit her, but she deserves a break once in a while. You should go easy on her.”

“Please MC, not right now. Let’s talk about this later.”

“I’m sorry.” She was slightly embarrassed.

“Hey!” Yoosung said as he looked at Jumin. “I’m surprised you came...”

“MC just dragged me around town, she didn’t tell me where we were going.”

“Ohh, now i get it. That’s smart, MC. Good one.” Zen chimed in.

“Super smart!” Yoosung said.

Yoosung and Zen resumed their conversation, then Jumin looked into MC’s eyes. “I’m sorry if i hurt your feelings. I didn’t mean it that way. I just want to keep my work separate from my personal life.”

“I get it, it’s ok.” MC said. Jumin smiled then squeezed her thigh.

“Heyyy! So gross and handsy!!” Zen laughed loudly.

Jumin quickly took his hand from her thigh, then rolled his eyes. “You both are so childish.”

“Ignore them.” MC softly said. Jumin’s face was lit up with shades of red and pink, he tried to cover his face but it didn’t work, which Zen blissfully pointed out.

Zen and Yoosung continued with their laughter, until a tiny feminine voice said ‘Hello’ at the door.

MC looked up and saw Jaehee standing there, nervously twiddling her thumbs. She was wearing a simple, yet elegant dress. It was peach colored with light sparkles and layered with lace.

“Jaehee you look so beautiful.” MC said. Zen nodded in agreement.

“You do too, thank you so much.” Jaehee said as she slightly lowered her upper body to bow.

“Hi Jaehee.” Zen and Yoosung said in union.

Jumin simply looked up at Jaehee and nodded his head.

“I’m really grateful you all came,” Zen started. “I work really hard for my plays and it means a lot that you guys want to see that.”

“I know you work hard, that’s why i wanted everyone to see how talented you are.” MC said.

Jumin felt a hit of jealousy to him with that comment. He knew MC didn’t mean to make him jealous, but he still felt it. Jumin looked back to MC’s face and stared. It was something he did to silently get her attention, or when he needed to mask his own insecurities. MC looked at Jumin and saw his eyes, then she knew how he was feeling. She grabbed his hand then intertwined her fingers with him. Dammit, she thought to herself. She always forgot that supportive comments towards Zen usually made Jumin feel a certain type of way.

“I’m happy i get to experience your plays live, they usually sell out very quickly!” Jaehee smiled.

“Yeah you’re getting really really popular.” Yoosung agreed.

MC felt really bad for Jaehee. As many times as she tried to convince Jumin to not overbear her with work, he only partially listened when MC started to get frustrated, which always ended up with the same old “work life is not part of my personal life, blah, blah, blah” defense. MC had even offered to take up some of Jaehee’s work, but Jumin always respectfully declined.

So whenever MC noticed Jaehee not taking proper care of herself, or drowning in work, she would always swoop in and take Jaehee under her wing. MC couldn’t count the times that she had sent food to Jaehee, or spent hours with her organizing documents and helping her write up reports behind Jumin’s back. Jaehee and MC had a tight bond, wether Jumin denied it or not.

“Well, the show starts in 20 minutes so now that everyone is here maybe you should go to the balcony,” Zen started. “You guys just walk down this hallway, there should be stairs. Then just go to the right there should be a security guard, he’ll tell you where to go from there.”

____________

The show was going great. Zen’s performance was very respectful, and his talent poured out of every line and song he performed. MC had never viewed any of his work until then, but she had quickly realized why he was famous.

Jaehee was enjoying herself more than ever before, and although Yoosung was intently engaged with the play, it was obvious he was a bit confused as to what was going on, often times whispering to Jaehee for confirmation to this questions.

But MC couldn’t seem to focus or enjoy the play, there was something slowly eating away at her conscience. She could feel that Jumin wasn’t enjoying himself. Well, he probably wouldn’t enjoy himself in the first place; musical theatre and Zen weren’t his favorite things. But she could sense he wasnt feeling the best way, about a different topic.

“Jumin,” MC whispered into Jumin’s ear. He jumped a bit, surprised of how close she was. The loud musical number wasn’t helping her case, as it was really hard to hear anything besides Zen’s singing. “We need to talk?”

He nodded his head, then they got up and walked out of the balcony, which drew the attention of Jaehee and Yoosung.

“Be quick!” Yoosung smiled. Jaehee looked at the couple then sighed, they were ruining the beautiful moment, in her mind.

Jumin followed MC out to the vacant hallway, where she balanced herself up against the grey wall. This hallway that connected to the balcony was for VIP guests only, so it acted like a storage space away from the general public. Carts full of wires, books, and costumes flooded the sides of the hallway.

There was always something so eerie and creepy about empty hallways, especially during a musical. You were still able to head the distant echos from the theatre room, but the hallways amplified the tiny sound to make it sound like something out of a horror movie.

“When i’m being friendly to Zen, it’s nothing more than that. I’m just trying to be supportive, and i know it bothers you sometimes. I just want you to know I only have eyes for you.” MC said. Jumin got in front of her, then blinked a few times.

“I’m sorry, you just know how him and I don’t get along, sometimes i feel like he takes advantage of your kindness to get back at me.”

MC smiled. “I...I don’t think Zen is that malicious towards you. He’s just a friendly and flirtatious person.” She put her hands on his chest then began to smooth out his jacket. “But. I know when to draw the line with him.” She picked a piece of Elizabeth’s fur off of his jacket and looked up at him. “And i always do.”

“I would hope so. I’m serious when it comes to things with you.”

“Me too, Jumin. I really love you. But with that being said, if there’s something that you want me to stop doing...then I will.” She took her hands away from his chest, letting her arms rest by her side. “I care more about your happiness, and us at the end of the day.”

Jumin nodded his head then pulled her in for a tight hug. “Just stay the way you are with me.” MC felt a light kiss on the top of her head.

The rest of the night played out well, Jumin and Zen were still bitter towards each other, but Jumin felt more secure with his relationship with MC. It was getting easier for him to realize that her support for Zen only came out of the place that made him fall in love with her in the first place: her kindness and regard for others.

#mystic messenger headcanon #mystic messenger head cannon #jumin #jumin x mc #jumin fanfic #jumin han x reader #jumin han #jumin han x mc #jumin x reader #mystic messenger #mysme jumin

102 notes · View notes

theliterateape · 3 years

Text

I Like to Watch | Zack Snyder’s Justice League

by Don Hall

Mythology is fun.

As a kid I loved reading Edith Hamilton’s book on the Greek gods and the myths. Hercules, Perseus, Apollo, and Hera—this fell completely in line with my love for superhero comics. The strangely petty human traits of envy, greed, and lust combined with the power to level cities make for some great storytelling.

Zeus was basically Harvey Weinstein in the retroactive revision we’re mired in today. If Harvey could’ve changed into a golden animal and boned unsuspecting ladies looking for careers in Hollywood I’m pretty certain he would. The gods and demi-gods of the Greeks dealt with daddy issues, mommy issues, bad relationships, and fighting. Lots of fighting. Sometimes for the good of humanity but more often for the glory of winning.

Zach Snyder is in the business of tackling myths and reframing them with a style all his own. His career has become its own myth.

From Dawn of the Dead (not so much a reboot of Romero's zombie mythology but a philosophical reimagining of the genre that arguably jumpstarted The Hollywood fascination with it), 300 (a borderline homoerotic take on the myth of the Greek underdog), and Watchmen (a ridiculously ambitious attempt to put one of the most iconic takedowns on the potential fascism of the superhero legend machine ever written) to his nearly single-handed hack at answering the Marvel juggernaut with Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Snyder is in the artistic business of subverting and re-envisioning the mythologies we embrace without even seeing them as such.

Snyder's style is operatic. It is on a grand scale even in the most mundane moments. The guy loves slow motion like Scorcese loves mobsters and Italian food. When you're tackling big themes with larger than life stories, the epic nature of his vision makes sense and has alienated a good number of audience members. With such excess, there are bound to be missteps but I'd argue that his massive take on these characters he molds from common understanding and popular nomenclature elevates them to god-like stature.

Fans of Moore's Watchmen have much to complain about Snyder's adaptation. The titular graphic novel is almost impossible to put in any other form than the one Moore intended and yet, Snyder jumped in feet-first and created a living, breathing representation of most, if not all, of the source material's intent. Whether you dig on it or not, it's hard to avoid acknowledging that the first five minutes of Watchmen is a mini-masterpiece of style, storytelling, and epic tragedy wrapped up in a music video.

Despite a host of critical backlash for his one fully original take, Sucker Punch is an amazing thing to see. More a commentary on video game enthusiasm with its lust for hot animated chicks and over-the-top violence that a celebration of cleavage and guns, the film is crazily entertaining. For those who hated the ending, he told you in the title what his plan was all along.

The first movie I saw in the theaters that tried to take a superhero mythology and treat it seriously (for the most part) was Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie. Never as big a fan of the DC characters as I have been of Marvel, it was still extraordinary to see a character I had only really known in pages to be so fully realized. Then came Burton's Batman movies. The superhero film was still an anomaly but steam was gaining. Things changed with Bryan Singer's X-Men in 2000, then Raimi's Spiderman, and those of us who grew up with our pulpy versions of Athena, Hermes, and Hades were rewarded with Nolan's Batman Begins. A far cry from the tongue-in-cheek camp of the 1966 TV Batman, Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne was a serious character and his tale over three films is a tragic commentary filled with the kind of death and betrayal and triumph befitting the grand narrative he deserved.

I loved Singer's Superman Returns in 2006 because it was such a love letter to the 1978 film (down to the opening credits) but by then, the MCU was taking over the world.

Snyder's first of what turns out to be an epic storyline involving perhaps seven or eight movies was Man of Steel. It was fun and, while I had my issues with the broodiness of Kal El, the odd take on Jonathan Kent, and a redheaded Lois Lane, I had no issue with Superman snapping Zod's neck. Darker and more tragic than any other version of the Kryptonian, it was still super entertaining.

Then came Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. By 2016, Marvel had codified their formula of serious characters wrestling with serious issues of power and responsibility peppered with lots of good humor and bright colors. Snyder's desaturated pallete and angst-filled demi-gods was not the obvious road to financial competition.

I'll confess, I hated it. BvS felt half-rendered. Lex Luthor was kind of superficial and played as a kind of Joker. The whole Bruce Wayne wants to kill Superman thing felt undeveloped and the "Martha" moment was just stupid.

When Joss Whedon's version of Snyder's Justice League came out in 2017, I was primed for it to be a turd and I wasn't surprised. So much of it didn't work on any level. I dismissed it as DC trying and failing miserably and was comforted by the coming of Thanos.

Following Thanos and the time heist was COVID. Suddenly, we were internationally sidelined and the movie theater industry caved in. Streaming services started popping up like knock-off smartphones and Hollywood was reeling, doing anything and everything to find a way back. Since Whedon's disastrous helming of Snyder's third act, fans online had been demanding to #ReleasetheSnyderCut but no one was ever really taking them seriously until all movie production was shut down for a year.

The stage was set to remedy a mistake (or at least make some bucks on a do-over of a huge box office failure). Snyder had left the production in part because of the suicide of his daughter and in part due to the constant artistic fights over executives looking for the quippy fun of the MCU but he still had all the original footage. Add to that the broiling accusations that Joss Whedon was "abusive" during the reshoots, the path seemed destined. For an additional $70 million and complete control, Snyder delivered a four hour mega-movie streamed on HBOMax.

Of course, I was going to watch the thing as soon as I could.

The Whedon version opens with an homage to the now dead Superman (including the much maligned digitally erased mustache on Henry Cavill). The SynderCut opens with the death of Superman and the agony of his death scream as it travels across the planet. It's a simple change but exemplifies the very different visions of how this thing is gonna play out.

Snyder doesn't want us to be OK with the power of these beings unleashed. He wants us to feel the damage and pain of death. He wants the results of violence to be as real as he can. When Marvel's Steve Rogers kicks a thug across the room and the thug hits a wall, he crumples and it is effectively over. When Batman does the same thing, we see the broken bones (often in slow motion) and the blood smear on the wall as the thug slides to the ground.

The longer SnyderCut is bloated in some places (like the extended Celtic choir singing Aquaman off to sea or the extended narrations by Wonder Woman which sound slightly like someone trying to explain the plot to Siri). On the other hand, the scene with Barry Allen saving Iris West is both endearing and extraordinary, giving insight to the power of the Flash as well as some essential character-building in contrast to Whedon's comic foil version.

One thing I noticed in this variant is that Zach wants the audience to experience the sequence of every moment as the characters do. An example comes when Diana Prince goes to the crypt to see the very plot she belabors over later. The sequence is simple. She gets a torch and goes down. Most directors which jump cut to the torch. Snyder gives us five beats as she grabs the timber, wraps cloth around the end, soaks it with kerosene, pulls out a box of matches, and lights the torch. Then she goes down the dark passageway.

The gigantic, lush diversity of Snyder’s vision of the DC superhero universe—from the long shots of the sea life in the world of Atlantis to the ancient structures and equipment of Themyscira— is almost painterly. Snyder isn't taking our time; he's taking his time. We are rewarded our patience with a far better backstory for the villain, a beautifully rendered historic battle thwarting Darkseid's initial invasion (including a fucking Green Lantern), and answers to a score of questions set up in both previous films.

Whedon's Bruce Wayne was more Ben Affleck; Snyder's is full-on Frank Miller Batman, the smartest, most brutal fucker in the room. Cyborg, instead of Whedon's sidelined non-character, is now a Frankenstein's monster, grappling with the trade-off between acceptance and enormous power. Wonder Woman is now more in line with the Patty Jenkins version and instead of being told about the loss of Superman, we are forced to live with the anguish of both his mother and Lois Lane in quiet moments of incredible grief.

To be fair to Whedon (something few are willing to do as he is now being castigated not for racism or sexism but for being mean to people) having him come in to throw in some levity and Marvel-esque color to Snyder's Wagnerian pomposity is like hiring Huey Lewis to lighten up Pink Floyd's The Wall or getting Douglas Adams to rewrite Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

I loved Snyder's self-indulgent, mythologic DC universe.

So much so that I then re-watched Man of Steel and then watched the director's version of BvS (which Snyder added approximately 32 minutes). The second film is far better at three hours and Eisenberg's Lex Luthor now makes sense. Then I watched Zach Snyder's Justice League a second time.

After nineteen hours of Snyder's re-imagining of these DC heroes and villains, I saw details that, upon first viewing, are ignored or dismissed, but after seeing them in order and complete, are suddenly consistent and relevant. Like Nolan or Fincher, Snyder defies anyone to eliminate even one piece of his narrative no matter how long. With all the pieces, this is an epic story and the pieces left at the extended epilogue play into a grander narrative we will never see.

Or maybe we will. Who knows these days?

#I Like to Watch #Zach Snyder's Justice League

12 notes · View notes

blankdblank · 3 years

Text

Ridikulus Pt 36

“Among word of an incoming engagement to both Elven King and Lord on the heels of a soon to be named premier of Jaqi Black’s latest cinematic appearance comes with another new tidbit to clarify a long since pondered puzzle. Not a few months past the win of the Kenmare Kestrals, the team which won the Quidditch League Cup with Miss Black at the helm of Thief, an unmistakable pregnancy was announced by Rita Skeeter. Such conditions are protected and some fans have questioned if the Kestrals should have relinquished the trophy as their Thief has possibly broken that rule against harm of any possible child conceived at any duration of a pregnancy.

From none other than Newt Scamander we have our answer, Boa Red Panda Cubs. Known upon further research to have used Morphers as surrogates in the past while Miss Black and then fiancé David Tennant had been guarding their surrogate for their little girl on a protected island question of survival through the oncoming battles brought on a wish to leave some good behind should the worst come to pass. An old offer from Newt, known to be good friends and mentor to Miss Black since discovery of her Basilisk on Hogwarts grounds, was taken up and together have forged a new brighter future for a once marked to near endangered status with populations soon to be thriving with hoard of daughters in the fifteen cubs born, fourteen of which are female.”

Process of impregnating was next along with statistics that even before the war they were marked for extinction if they had not been regimes to your islands anyways through the destruction of their home territories in the war. With a stunning two month gestation period to calm any nay sayers on you being so heavily pregnant for such a short time out of nowhere. Some more it carried on filling in details on the rare breed and then branches into how this was a much needed good bit of news on the heels of a chunk on the yearly pox push that was marked as successful branching into news on the fostered youth in the Elven and Dwarf territories.

Letters plopped onto the end of the table and Regulus said, “Jaqi, from Newt.” Waving the letter he lifted them opened at your approving nod reading, “Apparently Newt has been hearing whispers on an inquiry into the validity of your win on terms of pregnancy. He submitted memories of conception and birth to go with his official statement on the event along with documented notes on the Panda populations. Apologizes for not warning you sooner.”

You shook your head, “Had to come out soon enough with the new season.” Continuing to finish feeding Em so you could eat before your first class.

The second page however was turned to and Lindir said, “Oh,”

You looked at him as Regulus asked, “Oh?”

Lindir said, “It’s a death notice. It reads, speculation and rumor has spread around the absence of a driving force of our allied forces these near on two decades past. Harry Potter, upon the discovery of Auror Nymphadora Tonks, wife of freshly elected Minister of Magic Remus Lupin, has been revealed to have sacrificed himself to push Auror Tonks and another to safety in the call to flee. While hope was held out in the search of the final missing duo and searches of the new lands were approved by the leaders of said lands coming up moot with the exception of the discovery of another kingdom named Rohan.

Aged just out of his teens brave young Harry is survived by numerous aunts, uncles and cousins along with his newborn son now in the custody of his godfather Sirius Black.

For now this is just a notice of death with another issue to follow enlisting all of those lost to the flight and battles prior destroying our old world. While talks of a memorial are still in discussion within the Ministry walls to be forged and no doubt unveiled in the summer breaks of our magical schools to ensure all will be available to attend.

Again the Ministry is continuing its plea to not use the flue system until all grids have been inspected. Out of a yet to be explained fluke formerly assumed deceased Leta Lestrange was discovered by her distant relation along with that of her oddly still toddler aged baby brother Corvus Lestrange. Their arrival came on the heels of the feather and spider barrage from the flue system making it all the more puzzling as no other long since deceased figures have been discovered as of yet.”

Sirius said in shifting the bottle in Fin’s mouth, “We had to say something. People kept asking on Harry and no doubt would when Leta was spotted.”

Em swallowed her last spoonful and Regulus smiled taking her on his knee as you said, “Not a bad explanation.”

Neville said, “Well Hermi and I are off to check on Lockhart today, see what he remembers.”

You asked, “Luna not going?”

Luna answered, “Oh they have me helping Draco with possible ideas for the memorials. I was thinking of involving Thestral charms somehow, or Nifflers if the former is too morbid for some.”

Neville, “Besides, we figure since we know him a bit more than others he might be more open to sharing with us.”

Ginny said in your glance her way accepting the crescent roll bin she passed your way, “I get to go with Regulus to gather notes from Star Speakers from the Elven Kingdoms to pass onto our Astrology classes. I get the impression it will take a while.”

Again Lindir turned the page taking in each odd article until he said, “Three headed puppies for sale... Is that accurate?”

He asked looking to Regulus who leaned in, “They’re not meant to sell those in papers. Strictly protected creatures requiring licenses.” Reading over the ad he said, “Cerberus do have three heads, however these are memorabilia on the mascots for a pro Quidditch team. Selling homemade goods to honor their favorite teams prepping for the future season and no doubt stashing up funds for tickets.”

Lindir looked your way asking, “Does your team have a mascot?”

Ginny answered as oh were eating, “Kenmare Kestrals have golden harps on a green background. Other than that they are known for using Leprechauns on occasion.”

Lindir looked to the paper in search of an ad for that and Regulus chuckled, “True Kestral fans buy from the source. Their own shops in Ireland. Badge of pride for them getting goods with the official seals and details around signatures from their favorites.”

Lindir nodded, “Yes, Lord Glorfindel informed us of the tradition of autographs. Quite interesting gifts from those you admire.” Again he looked to his paper and you held back your giggles at his tries to blend in on his second morning he had slept over the night prior. Figuring out himself how he fit into the incoming future of dwelling with his One. Before long however you were off to school claiming a kiss from Em on her cheek as well as one for Fin then hurried off through your door to make it to your desk in time for your students to enter. All seeing your hands smoothing around the waistband of your jeans ensuring your blouse was tucked in properly still. Questions still lingering in their eyes with a few papers spotted in between making you say, “Alright. Before the lesson, anyone have any questions about today’s paper?” All the hands shot up and with a smirk you went a desk at a time answering each to calm any confusion or concern from those stunned by some of what was in the papers.

Tucked in a private suite in the bustling floor for energy maladies Lockhart laid back in his assigned bed still under watch of the doctors there ensuring nothing else had befallen the popular Wizard. Upon seeing the familiar young Ministry Members he inched up in his seat grinning at the pair collecting a silver framed compact and another small trinket now rested on his lap. “Miss Granger and young Longbottom, I was curious which of my old students would be sent my way to question me.”

Pulling a duo of stools from the wall over the teens sat and Neville asked, “Feeling better? Remus said you were rather queasy last time he saw you.”

Lockhart nodded and said, “Yes, and I am pleased to have been so prompt in checking on me. While it appears mainly my captors were only able to drain my energy I was able to ascertain much more. And while some may not believe me to be of much use sans powers my plan worked out brilliantly.”

Hermione’s brows arched up, “Your plan? You planned to be captured?”

Lockhart nodded with a spreading smile, “You see, we arrived here and there were whispers of a Wizard hiding horcrux and deeming to endanger us all. How better to draw out such a fool than with a chance to take a hostage. I make quite the damsel, and I knew you all would find me soon enough. The Elf Lords did share which lands were known and which might be more likely for said baddy to be hiding in. Starting off, I have this for you,” passing over the silver framed compact to Neville closest to him. “Mirror glass charm contains my travels and especially the castle they kept me in, which is where I found this,” into Hermione’s palm a golden ring with runes of Khuzdul around a large rectangular sapphire narrowing her eyes recognizing Durin’s marker inside the band. “There were two more I couldn’t reach. But that one I managed to get close to. I know they said that Wizard had an affinity for using rings for his misdeeds so I assumed that might be the most useful.”

Neville asked, “Where did they take you, any idea?”

“Just past Gondor within a ring of mountains, not Mordor, I know Mordor has a volcano, there was one in the distance, perhaps one of the Elves might know where I was. Upon our flight back however there was a destroyed little village we flew over similar to where the Dwarves were met heard those houses were in hills. Caught sight of Mordor and a set of islands in the distance all coated with white glowing trees.”

Journals were brought over from his night table as well copied to ensure he had full record of all this adventure the pair flipped through listening to his sharing exact details around symbols they knew to be where he would embellish later. And when they went to leave he grinned saying, “Some might find it a bit mad however this will make a perfect plot for my next best seller.”

His next round of tests had the duo leaving trading nods and handshakes with the former Professor on their way to head to your house first to go through the memories and journals more thoroughly. Leaving the possible basilisk venom dip of the ring to you later so any memories from it might be tapped by you for more help in the search for the remaining Dwarf Rings from Sauron. A report was drafted up to share with the Ministry to be edited later for full disclosure once you had consulted the memories and Elves for information on the unknown lands and any more cursed items securing all threats to peace had been quashed.

To their evenings off the duo relaxed while Fred and George at the shop caught their first glimpses of a few Dwarves eyeing the shop known to be yours. The brothers stealing glances at one another from across the sales floor making note to share with you more clients for the gender swap potion clearly successful by Thorin’s demonstration.

Ginny’s evening however seemed to drag on while Regulus gleefully delved into learning about the stars and constellations of this world. For his hope to possibly use a name for a child of his own with Lindir the rule limiting that sank his mood a tinge at least until the next tale was shared. Copies of each record was made by Regulus who would compile them later to fit better way for sharing with the schools for one of a set of encyclopedia’s of sorts on this new world and lands to be sold and used in schools to inform the masses to study.

Post feeding at lunch you did get a glimpse of Regulus’ notes brightening your mood on having to keep delving into the painful subjects covered in the paper. Though after school a wish to have some time to yourself brought you to the open pastures beyond the stables in the middle of the trees you walked eyeing the branches above. Soft hoof beats behind you and a warm breath to follow shifting your raven ended silver ponytail across your back turned you around to find Turo there, “Hello Queenie, care to run?”

Grinning up at him in a stroke of his cheek he lowered his head to receive more, “Only if you’re up for it. Just needed some time to myself before heading home finding others.”

“Sometimes silence and solitude can be cleansing to a wounded heart. Our youngest require supervised runs, come and run with us, allow the forest to speak to your pain.”

“Thank you,” you said stroking his neck in a turn for the stables to dress the Great Elk hoping this run may help to lighten your spirits.

Scattered between the hoof beats stray tears flew off your cheeks in tiny gems nestling into the grass sprouting wild flowers for the opening steps of the run until the smaller elk came into view and surrounded you. The response to your letter to the Pear clan about the papers was thankfully supportive with actual glee that Em was never in risk for being harmed. Each of them so proud to hear of your special task of aiding an endangered species supporting the affection you have for magical creatures they treasured highly since first meeting you. They had put up with so much, the whole David mystery and dissolution of whatever that was just as suddenly as it had popped up, Em out of nowhere before the nonexistent wedding, and now hearing you carried cubs for a giant cuddly creature. You just hoped Em, if she learned the truth, she wouldn’t hate you for what some could be seen as a bold faced lie.

The boys were well aware that they were adopted, had memories of their families you knew they were holding back on to spare your feelings. So much like their wish to be older than they are, even to the point of barring playtime in fear of harming their clothes. There was so much you had to unlock for them and somehow in balancing the weight of all your godchildren with help of the new Ministry this generation would be a safer and happier one. Stolen strokes of your hand down Tuo’s shoulder in slowed breaks allowing another young one to pass him up had him glancing back to you in subtle checks on if your mood was lightening. A break for water however for the young ones had his head turn again to spot your downward gaze at the grass and he asked, “Are you in pain, Queenie?”

Your eyes met his and shaking your head you replied, “Do you get orphans in your herds?”

“On occasion. We have heard of the young ones you have gotten charge of. Is one of them unwell?”

“No, I just, another woman carried my daughter. I don’t want her to hate me when she finds out. Everyone knows about it now.”

Underneath you on his hooves his body weight settled and facing you as fully as possible he replied, “No greater gift to claim a young one who requires a clan. The sons you have accepted in your heart are beyond content to have been welcomed they will always bear a fondness and love for their adopted mother. Your daughter will be proud to have such a mother to guide her.”

That had a tear drop down your cheek causing him to inhale deeply, “A lot of people are dead because of me, and there was no shortage of people who wanted me dead. So many cruel people that never hesitated when I was a child to sentence me to be beaten and imprisoned. Only thing I can think of when I remember the names of people I’m responsible for their deaths is if I killed enough. If my little girl is ever going to have to be afraid to tell people her name like my dad was.” Another tear fell and you wiped your cheek on your shoulder saying after a sniffle, “It hurts so much, how easy it could have been for me to have killed them all, anyone who tried to hurt or insult me. I could have put even Melkor to shame I bet, all the chances they gave me to turn dark. Em shouldn’t have to be afraid, least of all of me, what I had to do to get us here where she could be safe.”

His mate had come up beside you turning your head with a comforting nuzzle of her head into your belly, “All our fathers face painful seasons we may not weather to build our herds stronger. Your pain will not be lost to your daughter.”

Tuo spoke again, “There is honor in kindness little Queenie. In mercy. A strength some will never face. Hard lessons must be given to our young and we must stay the path we cannot shield them from all suffering and trials.”

“Thank you,” you said stroking her face and his neck again. “I don’t mean to sour the mood of your run.”

Another of the Elk stated, “You have soured nothing. Runs are great times for clan discussions.”

One of the other females added, “We have seen the birth and growth of many a young one, the troubles are welcomed among our herd. Your daughter is your first child, always the most worrying along with your final child.”

The bounding steps of her youngest from his full belly of water had you giggle at the circle around her he made joined by his cousins around the legs of their own parents starting the second round of the run. It was nothing new you had heard but somehow with the hoofed creatures you felt more support in hearing it from them. Back to the stables you got swinging your leg over the front of the saddle to drop down and begin undressing Tuo who pressed his head into your belly glad for the gentle hug to his head and peck to his forehead as a goodbye freeing him back to his family. “Pleasant run, Darling?”

Turned around your eyes fell on Glorfindel in his moment to wet his lips looking you over in this stolen time alone, “The baby elk are adorable.”

However you hoped to sound closing the distance he asked with hands smoothing from your shoulders downwards, “Something is troubling you.”

“Just over thinking the reaction Em might have to hearing I didn’t carry her when she’s older. The Pears are relieved, like others have been that she wasn’t in danger at all.” Inching his head closer to silently urge more from you he sighed to your stating, “I’m fine.”

The distance between you was closed and what was meant to be a brief kiss found him again pressed into that moment of that evening he had to leave you from such a warm chance at entangled matrimony to finally be all yours. Firmly his hands pressed into the small of your back melting more into the kiss that lured your hands from his middle upwards. Clearly he had hoped for a place more secluded, yet in the stroke of your fingertips along his jaw in a path towards his ear the stall he felt you step back to would have to be accepted for now. Two blind steps and he readied to lift a hand to open the gate to at least be inside for some semblance of privacy only the back of his hand met silk. In the blind fumble a decision of your own called your enchanted doorway that brought you straight inside the King’s apartment, unknowingly into the back of the King.

From the papers in hand his eyes rose turning at the body that pressed into his back. Pink lipped in a break for air Glorfindel straightened up a bit as you turned your head to catch the turning King’s gaze that warmed in seeing it was you. “Hello, Dew Drop,” you managed to squeak out with a hint of a blush that made the corner of his mouth tick upwards.

“Hello, My Darling Starlight,” his eyes scanned over your face.

Glorfindel said, “Apparently our Love is fine.”

“Hmm,” Thranduil hummed and shifted a hand to stroke though your hair behind your ear, fingers finding their own strands of curls to tangle in at the warm demanding kiss, through which Glorfindel’s hands stroked along your back and side. The moment his lips left yours however to press to your cheek below your ear Glorfindel moved with a hand raised to your neck, thumb extended to angle your head in a slow tilt granting the King a straight path to trail his lips meeting your shoulder when you turned your head again. Hungrily now claiming your neck Glorfindel moved in what would be the tipping point to a blind tugging path to get the three of you on the lounge in the bedroom now locked to prevent the children coming in.

Against the back of the lounge you rested still on a knee stretching to give Thranduil more neck to claim. His hand you found only partially certain of its owner to ease up under the end of your disheveled shirt for the snapping of the tether or restraint. Your shirt went first and down your chest to your back he moved guiding you to melt more into Glorfindel’s kiss so he might selfishly steal the first taste of your skin and claim as many strokes and caresses as possible until Glorfindel gained the courage to be more bold. Their shirts were next and again in a tangle of lips that same hand was smoothed along your thigh in a silent path to the waistband you had magically undone.

Permission was given and while your hands worked the pair into a frenzy around you his to make you come undone first while his moan parted lips savored the bare skin revealed between those obstinate loose curls failing to bar him from that tempting silky skin on his newly made wife. Easily they crumbled first and in an experienced albeit rusty endurance Thranduil made easy the task of turning you to lay you against Glorfindel’s chest to wiggle your lower layers off and see to your release next.

Slow and tender his lips found yours upon your recovery and with a chuckle blending into your soft giggle to Glorfindel’s question of, “How do I touch you?” Thranduil simply kissed you while you did the instructing, until he had the chance to lay you against his chest to hold you through the finale of your lesson, hands loose and wandering to the helpful nibble on your ear.

Just breathing in the silence you sat between the pair, like kittens nuzzling their heads affectionately to yours with stolen kisses in between, both allowing you the first word in joint adoration of this blissful union. “I take it this means we’re married now.”

Those were the magic words and with a thumb used to turn your chin in a blissful hum Thranduil replied, “We are married,” claiming the lingering kiss to seal those words into being contractual. All it took, the offer of matrimony after the physical union and with agreement and kiss the marriage is born.

Of course you didn’t get the depth of that offer for them and how long they had waited to have this one particular moment they had dreamed of come true. Glorfindel was next not missing his chance to reply, “We are married,” beginning a kiss for which reason why you couldn’t help but struggle against the moment ending smile fighting to spread across your face.

The next silent moment however came with your hand smoothing over the droplet of milk now leaking out down your belly. “I should probably take a bath and pump.”

“Of course, a bath sounds wonderful.” Glorfindel said in his pop up with smile down at your bringing out yours at the Elf with haphazardly loose pants still open and threatening to fall that matched his lopsided curls your hands had eased one side slightly out from the ribbon wrapped down the length of his ponytail. Into his offered hand yours settled and you found your feet with crownless King smoothing his fingers through his out of place hair ignoring the open pants shifting down his hips in each step.

Thranduil, “Give us a chance to give you a massage as well if you wish.”

The pair while you dipped a foot into the hot spring in the open bath tugged off their boots and pushed the last of their coverings down to step into the water to help you down into the seemingly bottomless pool of a tub. “How deep does this go?”

Thranduil, “Not far, the bottom is lined with abyss crystals however that deepen the appearance of it. There is a bench inside here.”

They both helped you to sit down and while he worked the ribbon wrap from his hair Glorfindel said, “You most certainly were not fine when I found you. Would you care to discuss it? We are your husbands and here to aid in your burdens.”

Softly you sighed watching Thranduil’s long arm bring the floating soap bowl over in case you wanted to use some of his. “I was doubting if I killed enough of the despicable people from my world so Em would never have to be afraid they would do to her what they did to me.” They shifted closer to your sides in the lift of your feet onto the bench in front of you. “I’m never going to be perfect, I have moments or days even where I get so helplessly lost in the pain of all those wrongs. Seventeen years I didn’t have a life that was mine, I didn’t matter except as a shield, and,” you inhaled looking between them with tears bubbling into your eyes mirrored by theirs at the darkening or your roots.

“75 adults on the Wizengamot sentenced me to Azkaban when I was eleven years old, ‘by any means necessary’ they were told to get me to surrender Tulip. That’s what the records said along with notes of the names of seven ‘suspect’ Wizards who could have argued against the decision they kept from knowledge on the vote. They had me for a month before I was found. People have no idea how many chances I had to go dark, how easy they made it, and people would have still supported me. I could have put Melkor to shame. I spent so long with people that made my skin crawl, with a mark from the man who tortured my mother to death and tried to kill me and Harry. I can’t say how many times I wanted to snap and just blow up entire buildings with thousands for my death count.”

A tear dropped down your cheek furrowing their brows in focus to not cry themselves sensing the pain you were expressing. “I lost it once, I thought my aunt Bellatrix had killed my dad, I had her head in my hand and, I slammed it into the ground. And I kept punching her until she stabbed me in the side to get me off her. I lost it,” you whispered out to another two tears falling and you shook your head lifting a hand to wipe your cheeks. “Remus managed to snap me out of it, and I managed to get back, to the plan. I haven’t been able to breathe for seventeen years, and it hurts to breathe a bit right now. But, I’m trying, to see who I can be now.” Your eyes shifted to Thranduil saying, “I wouldn’t trust me to be in power right now. I’ll try to help you both if you need it, but-,”

They moved closer and smoothed their hands over your arms and Glorfindel said, “Take your time. There is no rush. No one is going to force you into anything you don’t want to take charge of. We have charge here.”

Thranduil drew your gaze adding, “No one is harming our little ones. There is an army to guarantee that now, all of the Elf Lords would send armies should anyone dare to be foolish and harm a child in these lands. A promise the Dwarf councils will surely back as well.”

“I’m sorry,”

You said and he again shook his head saying, “You owe us no apology.”

“There always was a goal, a job to do, no mission.”

Glorfindel said, “You will find peace, that was very much my same pain upon my return. The restlessness. I know you will handle the pain better than I had.”

Thranduil chuckled saying, “Made it his mission to collect every uncut quartz stone in our river beds. Took him months and upset countless beavers and bears in the process. Five hundred years of watching him drenching wet being chased by some creature roaring after him. You make mistakes, you learn and heal.”

You nodded and said to the ripple of your hair to silvery blue again calming them a bit at your pain retracting its claws, “Well whoever cleans that couch will be furious, I’ll charm it when we get out.”

Glorfindel began to smooth his hand down to your leg he claimed, “Pay no mind to the couch,” massaging it while Thranduil claimed the other.

Couch charmed and wrapped in a towel you dried your hair with your wand using a jet of warm air you shifted to help the others with theirs afterwards giving both a time to smile in your fingers again traveling through their long locks. Again in fresh pants the pair found you now in shorts and a tank top, lip tucked between your teeth in thought widening their curious smiles on the path to your sides for another cheek cupped kiss for the both of them from their loving wife once you had finished pumping your milk. Both speaking to you sweetly all the while and helping in the transition between bottles when the two were filled and capped the third when you had tapped out halfway.

Behind his back however Thranduil kept the hand holding the box with gift meant for just this occasion to Glorfindel’s hand being offered that snapped you from your thoughts. “Might we discuss something with you a moment?”

You nodded and joined them back on the couch, wetting your lips in the cross of your legs to look at the pair on the foot stools in front of you. Glorfindel anxiously bumped Thranduil’s arm with his and you looked between them and then to the expanded then retracted smile on his face that preceded his throat being cleared. “Our Love, now, with this new deepening of our union comes certain tokens to bestow and so after much deliberation and sleepless nights put to use between us we wished to present this to you. Like a small metal book the box now resting in your palm waiting to be opened in the retraction of the King’s hands from leaving it there. His fingers hovering a moment then reaching out to open the lid that caused your heart to skip.

Inside on 4 overlapping bands, 2 black, 2 silver with white glowing stones lining these. In the center a yellow heart also surrounded by more of the white glowing stones with two black antlers extending above it. “Oh wow,” you whispered to yourself.

Glorfindel said, “The black metal is Galvorn, a black form of mithril, among some of my properties returned to me upon my awakening from Gondolin and the lemon quartz stone is also from my gatherings that we chose together.”

Thranduil, “The rest of the ring is silver mithril with the remaining white stones that are from my collection of Lasgalen stones from Doriath carved out of the heart of a fallen star gifted to my line from Valar Queen Varda.”

Carefully you lifted the ring from its box that felt impossibly light for how heavy it should be. “Is this the, do you have separate engagement and wedding bands or is it all in one? We haven’t discussed this before.”

Thranduil, “Upon meeting your father we have chosen to adapt to your customs of using engagement rings, now, we are bound by marriage for our kin though a ceremony of sorts could be planned according to your customs. Also we are aware these rings sit on separate fingers to ours that sit upon our index finger and this has been fitted to your chosen ring finger.”

“You measured my finger?” You asked with a hint of a grin.

“Estel was bribed to help us with that.” Glorfindel answered, smiling as you watched as he eased the ring onto your finger that fit perfectly, “When you are ready to discuss a ceremony we could possibly discuss designs of what a wedding band might be.”

A moment you bit your lip and said, “I need some dirt.” Parting his lips at your pull back to ease over the back of the lounge you swung your legs over to head for the window revealed in the magical ease of the curtains back in its opening to let you pass through it. The pair of them stretched to see what you were doing, watching your stroll across the patch of grass looking between each of the bushes in the marked off garden plots, beside a patch of orange flowers they saw you charm two handfuls of dirt out of the ground, careful to leave the few small worms back in the garden. A bit confused a pair of guards tilted to watch your path back through the window that closed and covered itself again leaving you just in the sight of the duo.

Glorfindel, “You need dirt, for, what exactly?” He asked watching you ease back over the back of the lounge you sat cross legged on top of again.

“Not exactly fair if you both don’t have something shiny of your own.” Their brows inched up only to see your skin begin to shimmer in the multicolored hue of your eyes that grew lighter in spectrums of color to the deeper the breath you took in. Out of your lips around the dirt clump above your left palm a white flame escaped your lips while you mentally recited the Draconic spell splitting and contorting the clump in half. More and more they compressed making the shapes of rings, in the center an oval mystic quartz stone sat between two wide flat black metal edges of the ring that dipped for a platform for the stone, down the band the ring grew thinner and held white opal shapes between strips of the black metal.

A second breath drew their focus back to you on the lift of the second clump that you blew out over the clump that split into three, this time for two more black metal sat around five round green opals, the one in the middle the largest that around the top and bottom had five emeralds closing it off. The third had the same metal and shape, merely with blue opals and sapphires around the top and bottom of the center opal.

At the dim of your glow they watched your hands to shift and offer the both of them the larger of the two styles of rings then locked their eyes with yours as you said, “These should morph to fit whatever finger you slip it on and won’t break, for your engagement rings if you like them.” Timidly the pair accepted the rings, lost for words on the skill of the gift you had made for them, looking next to the pair of green rings that they stared at taking in every detail of these as you slid them over the ends of their index fingers to the last knuckle. “We’re married,” that had their eyes shoot up to yours again missing the ripple of the stones’ colors turn to yellow, “Ceremonies for my culture can wait, we can have a family dinner or something. You’re a King and a Lord, you deserve to have your status marked. If anything I can always just put in the paper I eloped.”

Thranduil, “These,” he said clearing his throat to steal a second glance down at his hand that had him exclaiming, “It’s yellow now!”

“They change colors, I can make them stop-,”

“No,” they both said and after a shared glance eased their engagement rings on above their wedding bands. Tenderly with free hands Thranduil took the wedding band from your hand he eased onto your left index finger locking his eyes on yours. “I have never seen rings of this skill before.”

“I rarely make rings, yours must have taken months-,”

Glorfindel eased his hands around your free hand, “Thank you falls utterly short. Elleths rarely forge in our culture, merely hire a master craftsman. We will be the envy of all with your unmatchable gifts.”

Thranduil said, “Yes, truly. These five opals alone would have taken weeks to shape and I do not doubt several months to find the proper shade. I am flattered as well that they change hues. Five, we did not cover significant numbers for importance in our cultures, seven is sacred to our kin, five is sacred to yours?”

“No,” you said looking between them to say, “I thought, we have, five kids, between us.”

If they thought it was impossible to breathe upon seeing the ring that was nothing to now at realizing this was not just a wedding back but a sort of birth celebration as well that Legolas especially would be honored to have been included in. Glorfindel said, “Birth celebration as well, then truly this is beyond precious to us and will be to our children when we share it with them.”

“Well, um, my mother had one from my dad for theirs. Used to spark up around the stone when I got hurt. Um, Leg’s is in the middle, since he’s, well, fully grown, bad luck to put his anywhere else, and they’ll grow as the kids do and get their little crowns of emeralds.” Quickly you looked down and then up again in time for Thranduil’s lean in to steal a loving kiss trailed by a moment of foreheads tapped together. “I’m guessing you’re behind the antlers on mine?”

Lowly he chuckled and replied inching back to allow Glorfindel to claim his own warm kiss and pause with joined foreheads to Thranduil’s reply of, “It was a joint decision, as was the choice of yellow, your favorite color.”

“Thank you,” you said in their inch back and tangling of their hands in yours on your lap again. “Never really thought about engagement rings before, I mean, Barty gave me the rose gold pink teardrop ring, and it was beautiful, I was really grateful for it, I just…I guess you just don’t think of what you might want until you meet the person who you’d be needing it for.” You inhaled at their spreading smiles and said, “I’m rambling.” The narrowing of your eyes a moment had their brows twitch up tick only to hear you say, “There’s someone in my study.”

Glorfindel, “Is, that forbidden?”

“No,” you said uncrossing your legs in their rise to stand and help you up, “There’s just, someone there.”

Thranduil released your hand hurrying to the closet, “Grant us a moment and we shall inspect this together for any danger.”

“It’s not a danger,” Glorfindel turned in the doorway of the closet accepting the shirt tossed his way he found the bottom to that parted for his arms to slide through to the sleeves, “How is this so weird to say, you don’t ever just, know, something. Like you randomly pull the toast off a bit early or it will burn or you go to check on your chicken coop even though it’s not laying day to find that there’s now a huge gnawing blackberry bush taking over the back of the enclosure that has to be moved or it’ll ruin the fence? Places to go aren’t really unreasonable to explain but sometimes I just feel I have to say something and usually it goes terribly wrong but I just have to say it because I guess no one else will.”

Glorfindel, “Such as?”

You sighed, “Such as I had to tell a girl Margerie in the year of the Triwizard Tournament, she came from Beauxbatons, the school Fleur studied at.” The pair nodded in securing their shirts and robes after having tugged on their boots to their knees, “Never met her a day in my life, never spoke a word to her, walk right up to her and have to say ‘How did you like the Trout in Their Pajamas?’ She slapped me across the face and storms off! Two days later, I have this other girl Ophelia coming up to me hugging me. Saying that there’s this whole convoluted plot that had been buried with Margerie’s family that goes all the way back to a Unicorn thief who had stolen this useless children’s book from Margerie’s ancestor and then used it to break into the conservatory where Ophelia’s family had been keeping their Unicorn herd. Nearly got the ancestor locked up from his name written inside the book cover.”

Their brows narrowed in confusion as you mimed and explosion on either side of your head, “I didn’t get it either, but apparently I pissed off Margerie and she went steaming mad and ranting back to their tower and Ophelia overheard it. Apparently they both had been compiling their own internal investigations over the years and they sent what they came up with back home and they caught the guy 87 years later.” Your hands popped up at your sides and fell again, “I don’t get it, just had to say it.”

Glorfindel, “That, must be tiring, does it happen often? Was it a voice you heard?”

“Not a voice, no, I’ve been down that road, no, that time it was the cover of the book popped up in my head. Which reminds me I have to settle a flight time for the Pegasus foals, could we fly over your forest, they don’t like flying over towns they aren’t fond of seeing people.”

Thranduil, “Our forest, and yes, absolutely, these, Pegasus, are they another Quidditch team?”

“No, they’re winged horses,” parting their lips, “They also mostly have fangs, and tend to not like people, well, most people. But they have a new bunch of foals and they have a traditional first flight that has to be a long one and usually we would take them to Sherwood forest for that but the Muggles aren’t situated enough right now for us to get the Prime Minister involved for the approval of memory charms. Still a work in progress on the tolerance of us for them at the moment.”

Glorfindel, “You have flying horses and yet you do not ride them,”

“They attack people. Viciously. Their nests are normally high in cliffs out of reach from people. We just have the tolerating herd at Hogwarts in the Forbidden Forest now quadrupled from those we saved in the move here otherwise Hagrid would have handled it, the new ones think he’s going to eat them.”

Thranduil, “Why do I imagine that day Thengel will drop by unannounced?”

“Well it has to be tomorrow you can have him for tea I guess. I can show the boys, even bribe a Unicorn to drop by possibly. Buckbeak could use a nice long flight I can take him instead of the bike this time still have to get myself a new broom. He’s been anxious waiting for his baby sibling to hatch.” The confused pair followed you out of the bedroom and through to your door linked to your house where you heard voices inside of your study.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Draco said only to be answered by Neville’s sigh.

Neville, “I know that, but he told us, he did it on purpose.”

Draco, “And they let him teach us?!”

Papers were shifted and once in the doorway you caught Neville’s eye and he smiled in relief, “Here’s Jaqi, Lockhart says he went there on purpose to play Damsel. Gave us his journal and this mirror glass charm of his travels and that place they locked him inside of. And, found this.” In his palm was the glass jar holding the ring Lockhart had found that lured the Lords in around you to see it.

Thranduil, “That is Durin the Deathless’ crest. King Thror bore that ring.”

Neville, “Said there were more rings but he only could manage that one.”

“Hmm,” you said setting the ring down the accept the journal you lifted to sniff, “This is a copy, it smells like guava.”

Draco, “Kept the original for his next book.”

“Ah, naturally.”

Neville, “Says he was kept in the mountain but wasn’t Mordor. No volcano but it was in sight of an island with glowing white trees,” that had the Lords’ heads tilt to look at him directly, “And there was a city like the Shire that was destroyed on the way back.”

Glorfindel, “That is not possible, the only island with that description was taken by the seas ages past.”

Looking back at him you asked, “Which Lord would have ruled that one?”

Glorfindel, “Lord Elros. That would be Numenor, if they are correct.”

“Hmm,” you accepted the Mirror Glass Charm saying, “I’ll tend to the screaming ring later, for now, I’ll see if the Lords can help us find out where he went.”

Draco said, “We’ll keep the twins posted if you need a sub tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” you said turning back for your room leaving the pair to share their mutual notice of the ring on that particular finger, and into your closet where you confused your husbands in the tug of your shorts off to hop into a pair of jeans and long socks you added tall boots to your knees.

Thranduil asked, “How you were dressed was acceptable.”

“Not for a Mirror Glass Charm. Last time I went in one of those took me three days to get out and it was nonstop gales and moors.” Over the top of your tank top you pulled your silver low cut sweater that hung over your thighs that once the neck was tied over top you added a black rib covering vest and the holster for your wand from the pile of clothes you had sent back earlier during your bath to the vest pocket.

Glorfindel, “Three days?”

“Surely this time we can just skip to the end and miss any weather but I had to go day by day last time to figure out where they hid one of our Aurors a few years back in a Muggle Born raid.”

Pt 37

#Thranduil x OC #Glorfindel x OC #The Wedding #Trading Rings #Gifts #Bad Day #Big News #Calming the Storm #Lockhart's Damsel Display #Neville #Hermione #Draco #HP Crossover #Ride With Tuo #Talk With the Elk #Mirror Glass Charm #Off to Rivendell

11 notes · View notes

geekywritings · 3 years

Text

Rise of a Queen - Nikolai Lantsov x OC - PART 2

"We will need support at court.", Zoya stated, as they were all sitting around the fire, barely a two day journey away from the capital. "There is no saying whether the Grisha will support Alina."

"There is also no saying how the rest of the court will react to me.", Nikolai threw in. "I doubt my brother will want to roll out the carpet for my return."

"Is there anyone we can count on within the palace?", Mal asked and Aline's eyes moved to Nikolai.

"What about that friend of yours? You did mention that she comes from a powerful family." Now Nikolai cursed himself for having talked about Taya more than once with the sun summoner. Maybe she could help, but still. If this was to be his first letter to her after all these years...

"Well, we should use any chance we have.", Mal said with a shrug and so Nikolai almost felt peer pressured into writing those damned lines and sending them ahead to Os Alta.

________

Whether it had been with Taya's help or not, their arrival at the capital was quite the sight. People littered the streets to catch a glimpse of the returning prince and his glorious sun summoner. All the shows they had put on before now culminated in this grand finale, even though Alina had made it abundantly clear that she wanted no part in the story he had fabricated. And as they rode through the streets of his childhood towards the palace, Nikolai wondered himself if the story had been a mistake.

The court had gathered in the gardens to welcome him, his parents at the front, but Vasily nowhere in sight. He had probably left to gamble somewhere or appear busier than he actually was. Surrounding his parents he spotted more familiar faces, but his eyes stopped on one. He had almost missed her for a split second, but it had to be Taya. Taller, more womanly and dressed in the latest fashion, she looked like everything she never wanted to be. And her expression carried both surprise and anger. It could only mean that his letter had reached her after all.

Before he could even think about speaking with Taya, he was swept up in the commotion. His parents were glad to have him back but furious with Alina. There were many questions to be answered and before he realized it, two days had passed without him seeing more than his parents, the little palace, and his bedroom.

That evening however, there was a ball to be held in his honor and while he disliked the idea, it was the perfect opportunity to finally speak with Taya and explain himself. What he would say? He honestly had no idea.

________

Fine silks, colorful brocade, happy music, and fine food... just another annoying ball full of empty flattery and court intrigues. Even if the occasions changed, the balls themselves never did. But this ball Taya was not annoyed. Not like usual. This event was held in Nikolai's honor to celebrate his return after his long absence. Five years to be exact. Four of which he hadn't sent even a single letter to her. He had practically vanished off the face of the earth and the next time Taya had heard of him, he was rumored to marry the sun summoner. She wasn't angry at him for that. No, she was angry for having been worried about him without a letter. She was angry for him to only write a few lines to her two days ago, asking about the mood at court. She was angry at him for not taking the time to find her after his return.

But she couldn't show that anger, as she walked around the ballroom with the glass of champagne in her hand that she would love to empty in one go. And then she spotted him, practically glowing amongst all the other guests in his uniform. For a moment she glanced left and right until she realized that he was walking towards her. Instantly she straightened her back, ready to greet him, but instead, he just mouthed a familiar line to her. "Meet me in the garden." Even after all these years, she still understood perfectly.

Making sure nobody noticed, she sneaked out of the ballroom and headed into the garden, still careful to remain unseen. She slipped through a wall of ivy and found herself in their secret spot. There he stood, looking unbelievably handsome and nervous and so very very real. Not one to hold back, Taya rushed to him, throwing her arms around him and holding him tight. From the way he tensed, it was obvious that he had not seen that coming. "I was so worried.", she said. She felt his arms sneak around her, returning the embrace, but after only a second she pushed him away, hitting him repeatedly with her fan. "Why did you never write?! Why did you just disappear from the army?! Why is the first letter I get from you after all these years only three sentences long?!"

"I would explain if you would stop hitting me.", he said, putting up a feeble attempt to defend himself. "You do know that hitting a prince is a crime, right?"

"Not when he absolutely deserves it!", she snapped back. She looked glorious, Nikolai realized, even as she stood there, mad at him. She had been a very pretty girl, but now she had grown into a beautiful woman. Her dark curly hair was already escaping from her tight updo, some strands falling out and her blue eyes were only enhanced by the light makeup around them. The dress she wore underlined her womanly figure and he caught his eyes wandering from head to toe twice. It only earned him another hit with her fan.

"You owe me an explanation."

"I have none...", he said. He had thought about what to tell her, but he honestly didn't have any kind of excuse or story to tell her. The only thing he could offer was the truth, which he tried to shorten as much as possible.

"You became a pirate?"

"Privateer."

"You had your own ship? And a crew? And real adventures?"

Funny how those were the things she seemed to be stuck on. There was admiration in her eyes, but also disappointment. Because those had been her dreams, as well, he realized.

"I should have written to you.", he said, really meaning it. "But I got lost in that new life."

"You were free.", she stopped him. "You let go of everything."

The words cut him like a knife.

"Why come back now?"

"Because Alina can stop the Darkling and destroy the fold."

"And what about you becoming Tsar?"

So she had heard about that. Of course, the rumors had flared up the moment he had reentered the picture. From what Nikolai had gathered, Vasiliy wasn't exactly regarded as a good candidate for the crown. With his achievements and popularity among the army and the people, the younger brother suddenly had good chances to be named as the Tsar's successor after all.

"That is my plan, yes.", he admitted to her and Taya just accepted with a nod. Silence fell between them. The kind of silence they had never experienced before. It was uncomfortable, cold even, as if they were strangers.

"How have you been, Taya?", Nikolai asked into that atmosphere, if only to fill it with talking.

"I have been well. I've even grown used to the embroidery and dancing."

A ghost of a smile passed over Nikolai. "I don't believe it. You?"

He expected her to joke back, but she didn't. "I had to.", she just said. "It was a small price to pay to stay unmarriagable." A problematic wild woman was far more likely to be married off to the next best man, while a proper lady was a prize to be won.

The news of her being free still was surprising to Nikolai, based on her family and appearance, but he was also strangely relieved to hear it. "Vasily has not started chasing you?"

"I didn't say that." Ah, so his brother had made his move. "He just isn't fast enough to catch me."

The first genuine smile crossed their lips and the awkwardness melted away. "I'm still mad at you though.", she reminded him, giving him another hit with her fan for good measure. "And now tell me, how can I help you?"

____

You can also follow the series on my Wattpad!

https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/275585861-rise-of-a-queen

#nikolai lantsov #nikolai lantsov x oc #nikolailantsovxoc #grisha #grishaverse

2 notes · View notes

jay-cult · 4 years

Text

Static and Stars: Episode 1 - Jay Day

Index

Jay and Nya haven’t been on a date in like... ever. So when they finally do go out on their own, some unexpected memories catch up with them.

AUTHOR’S NOTES: Hey guys! At long last, S&S continues. I hope it hypes you up just like it does me! I was planning this for OC Day when I realized that it actually didn’t have any of my OCs in it (yet) so I’m happy to throw it out now. This episode is quite guiltily Jaya-centered but PLEASE understand that it will be the only one. I laid out my plan for this fan season and I liked it, so I’m following through with having it kick off like this. This is a Jay fan season. Not a Jaya fan season. Thank you!

A patronizing BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! rang out beside Jay.

He groaned and sat up, hair messily flying all over his face. He slammed his hand onto where the sound was coming from, but found he slapped the smooth surface of his phone. He let out another grunt while the alarm was still judging him.

He shot out a small current through his fingertips and the beeping stopped. Right… he forgot. They weren’t in the Bounty anymore.

Jay climbed out of his sleeping bag and looked to his right, where Kai, who had just awoken, was trying to quickly rearrange his bed hair. Further past him, Cole was still sound asleep.

Kai noticed that he was still as a rock and, mid-hair-fixation, kicked him hard.

“Ow! Dad! Fine, I’ll get ready for dance practice-“ Cole jerked awake and then looked at Kai scorningly.

“This sucks,” Kai groaned. He plunged his arms into his “hygiene” kit and pulled out a hairbrush, some cologne, and a bit of blush fell out.

Jay stood up (while making sure his plushie stayed safely tucked in his sleeping bag) and smiled. “Aw come on guys, it’s not that bad!” He said, stretching.

“Whatever you say,” Cole sighed, tying his hair up in a bun.

In full pajamas, Jay exited the tent. Outside it was full sunlight, with shadows of leaves dappling the ground. He gazed at Ninjago City in the distance; it looked so much quieter from the outskirts.

Zane was already outside making a meal for breakfast. He slept outside. Jay didn’t see the appeal, but he said that it was better for him to be out with the stars and one with the (mild) wilderness.

“Good morning, Jay.” He smiled with ease. “You should really wash those gloves.”

He took a look at his hands. “Funny coming from you, ya barely change your clothes,” he playfully argued, knowing already it was a useless excuse. Zane sat there in full gi wear and looked up.

“I do not have the rather disgusting human body which pollutes cloth,” he responded simply.

“Any updates on how the monastery is going?” Jay asked, changing the subject.

“Indeed!” He flipped a pancake with a spatula. There was a whole contraption set up so that Zane could do his thing, even outside. “I have been notified that it is going smoothly.”

Jay nodded. He sat on a cushioned log. “I’m still so glad it’s over.”

“The First Realm was certainly a tiring event.”

“Yeah, and Garmadon… that fight was insane, huh?” Jay scratched his head. He was grateful that even with this makeshift living situation, they could rest.

“You don’t even know the half of it.”

The two ninja looked up. Nya was strutting toward them, tying up her hair casually. Unlike Jay, she had already gotten dressed.

“Nya!” Jay brightened up, even more energized from the sight of his girlfriend. The morning sun made her look quite phenomenal. She sat down by him, very close, physically. Zane’s (literal) inner timer dinged, and he stood up. “Breakfast is ready!”

At that moment both Kai and Cole rushed out of the tent, still very unready. Kai’s hair was half-done, his arm through just one sleeve of his jacket, and he was still pulling up his pants. Cole had yet to do much. He was just running out with his pajama pants on, and… that was it.

“What were you guys doing?” Jay asked.

“Shut up,” Kai said immediately, his eyes suddenly very focused on the pancakes that were now out and ready.

They all sat in their eating area on the cushioned logs in their circle beside Zane’s cooking tools and contraptions. It was a very average day, at least, for one where they had to camp together without a strong shelter and where they had nobody to fight anymore. But there were obviously some things missing.

Nya turned to Jay. “Well,” she shrugged, “Lloyd and Wu are off on their things.”

“As they have been for a while, making their own camp in Misako’s space,” Kai interjected, eyes narrowed. “Meanwhile we have to make it out here, in the wild, the cold-”

She ignored him. “And we have nothing going on, finally. So.. well… we haven’t really done much recently. And you were off in the realm for…. A while.”

Jay swallowed a chunk of bacon. “Right! How long exactly has it been since we’ve done something, just you and me, that didn’t involve snake venom or the fate of the world?”

She looked at her paper plate of food, thinking. “Like. Never?”

“Yeah.” He chewed more, a bit unbelieving. They’d only ever done fun things with at least one person from the team or when a villain was on their tail. Or if it was work or training.

“We have never really had a normal date, like, at all, have we?” She looked straight at him, making her point.

“Okay, today is perfect!” Jay finished the last of his meal happily.

“Alright, you guys, calm down,” Kai stood up, smirking. “I know that must mean you’re all very new to this, so if you’d like to ask the master-”

And then Cole just straight up picked Kai up. He just yoinked him from off the ground and slung him over his shoulder. He turned toward the pair, genuinely smiling. “Hahah, he’s one to talk. Come on buddy.” As he carried him back to the tent, Kai let out yells of protest, but it was nothing against Cole’s strong hold.

Zane smiled. “You enjoyed your meal, I hope?”

“Breakfast was great, Zane,” Nya commented, laughing.

“I guess this means we’ll finally have a day all to ourselves,” Jay winked, standing up. “I’ll devote this day to being Nya Day.”

She winked back. “And I, Jay Day.”

“Let me just go put on my clothes first.”

The wind of the mountains blew fresh through the couple’s hair. Jay had dug through his bag to try and salvage what he could of the nicest clothes in there and had just barely scraped out a clean look. He’d stepped back outside, surprised to find Nya in a brand new, somewhat formal outfit.

“Oh,” she had said, reddening a bit. “Maybe I should go get that other stuff back on.”

“No! No,” he’d interjected immediately. “You look really nice.”

Now they were climbing down the rocky side of a steep mountain that led down to Ninjago City from their camp. Or, well, they weren’t exactly- their hybrid elemental dragon guided them down slowly, walking so as to not be easily detected.

“Where are we going?” Jay asked from his spot behind Nya, who had the reins.

She glanced at her boyfriend quickly with a sly smile. “You’ll see.”

Jay grinned and kept his silence for a little while. But inside his thoughts were racing quite a bit. He felt tense and nervous- and not because of the date. It was all so familiar. Too familiar. Sitting behind Nya, holding onto her... the feeling of the dragon’s spine beneath him and the thrum, thrum of what was the dragon walking but what his brain turned into the panicked beat of wings. His thoughts wandered through that old experience and he wanted it to stop. But he decided not to say anything.

At the edge of the city they, to Jay’s relief, put away the use of their dragon and grabbed a ride from a surprisingly mellow fan who was happy to provide service to the “folks who’d saved the city’s ass more than once.” Nya whispered the destination into his ear and he chuckled. “Well y’all enjoy your time, n’.”

“Shut your eyes, boltbrain,” Nya pleaded, trying to hold back a laugh.

“I wanna see, though,” Jay whined with a smile, trying to swat her hands away. She was reaching from her spot in the passenger seat of the car.

He (eventually) complied and they stepped out onto what felt like some concrete. Jay heard the car drive away.

“Okay,” Nya giggled, sounding slightly embarrassed. “You can look.”

Light flew into his eyes as he shot them open. He blinked a few times and observed the building in front of him. It was a fairly average-looking concrete building on the outside, but the windows were plastered with 80s-themed patterns, stickers, and paint. He gazed up at the sign that marked the building, which read in bright neon letters, “Ninjago Roller Rink.”

He turned to his girlfriend with a shy smirk. “Nya, what is this?”

“Okay, okay, so. It looks a bit run down. But I remember that you were into roller skating as a kid. So I just thought-“

He pulled her into a tight hug, his excitement growing. “This is awesome! Let’s go!”

He tried to rush to the door, but Nya got there first and held it open for him. “Ladies first,” she said.

“Ha-ha,” he joked, unable to hide his grin. They stepped confidently into the building.

The floor, cheap carpet with an 80s pattern, stretched out beneath them. There were party tables all around them, broken up by counters on the side of the right wall selling the snacks and roller blades. And on their left down a ramp, in all its glory, was the large wooden rink with a disco ball hanging above it. Popular 80s music played but it was barely heard among the conversations of the many people in the building.

The couple got stares as they entered, but they were too excited to care too much. They rented their skates and set off towards the rink.

They stepped out onto the floor and the rink suddenly cleared. Bunches of people crowded around the edges to watch two ninja in fancy clothes do normal people stuff.

While Jay eased on Nya stepped on immediately, and almost fell to the floor but grabbed hold of the edge just in time. She looked surprised.

“You’ve never done this before, huh?” Jay questioned, sympathetic.

She shook her head, blushing. “I didn’t know it was that difficult.”

“Well it’s not, once you learn. Here, let me show you.” He held out his hand.

She grunted but took hold of it.

A scene flashed in Jay’s brain. He was forced to remember. The rooftops of the tall, wide building of the city stretched before him, and he felt a feeling of dread, the intrusive thought that this was where it started. He dropped her hand suddenly.

“Jay? Are you okay?” Nya asked, worried.

He took her hand again quickly. “Yeah,” he lied. “Just a little nervous, I guess.”

He took her along the walls of the rink, guiding her with his words. But all the while, he was wondering what had happened. It’s not like it was the first time they’d held hands, of course. So why get so heavily reminded of that now? He was fooling himself. He knew the answer. None of the other ninja were around. Just like… he shook his head. No, stop Jay, you’re literally on a date, he told himself.

They were eventually off of the walls together, rolling slowly and steadily around the rink. Since it was empty, there was no need to go in the required circles, so they freely went where was best.

“Alright,” he said gently. “I’m gonna let go now.”

She looked at him, panicked. “Wait! Don’t!”

Jay gave her a serious look. “I’m going to, okay? Are you ready?”

She paused for a second and then nodded.

“You sure?”

She nodded again.

“Go!”

With a gasp from the crowds, they let go together and Nya rolled ahead. She picked up her pace as they cheered, feeling confident, and then promptly lost her balance and fell down in a tangle of girl, skates and kimono.

“Nya!”

She punched the ground. “This is never going to work!”

Jay frowned. “Don’t say that, you’re doing real good! Look,” he brightened up a bit, “next time I’ll wait until you really want to do it yourself.”

Reluctantly, she nodded, and took his outstretched hand again. As he pulled her up the music turned to a certain kind of song. An incredibly sappy, incredibly overly fitting song.

“Oh.” As Jay scratched the back of his head, getting all red, the crowds murmured in wondrous anticipation. He looked around and saw the guy behind the counter put his phone down with a wink. “I guess this isn’t really what you expected,” he told her nervously.

“It’s cool,” she shrugged, smiling. “Besides, I wanna show you off.”

He chuckled. “I wanna show me off, too.”

And then it became perfect.

Nya picked up the skating incredibly quickly and was able to do very well by herself after just a few seconds. They rejoined at certain points and laughed. When he caught gazes from the crowd, Jay did some age-old skating tricks from way back, rousing several cheers. He always looked back at Nya wherever she was, who was always sporting a proud smile. It was foolish. It was childish. It was fantastic.

But their finish wasn’t as strong at all.

They met up towards the end of the song and started to feel something deep in the memories of their bones. Deep in their roller dance, they didn’t think and posed in a way they’d done before- in a fight. Like an instinct of feel-good thrill, they posed, and Jay suddenly gripped his head and fell to the floor.

It was dark and they were on top of a shining tower. Maybe they might’ve been able to hear the sounds of the black ocean, just maybe, if not for the cries and shouts of leader-blinded, bloodthirsty pirates. They were back to back, their swords drawn, fighting off the swarms of their enemies that no longer even existed within their realm. Jay thought of the lighthouse and this time he couldn’t stop.

“Jay!” Nya gasped, and the crowd let out shouts of concern. He was brought back to reality with their noise- somehow not hers. He was breathing heavily, still on the dirty wooden floor.

“I can’t…” he was almost okay when the music switched to something that bored into his brain. He’d never heard it before but it was saying things that couldn’t be unheard.

“We’re alone together, in a familiar place.”

He couldn’t stand it.

“Waves beat upon the rocks and moonbeams shine upon your face.”

It was pop and terrible but it still existed, and as Jay continued to fall in and out of reality he felt himself being hoisted from the floor by someone strong. “Let’s get you some water… ‘SM, this music… c’mon, Jay…”

Nya was leading him out of the rink and back onto the carpet, and in her hold he found himself back in the roller rink’s building- but not completely. She sat him down at one of the tables and left him staring at the ground for a moment. When she returned she put an opened bottle of chilled water right in front of him, and wearily, he took a few sips.

A teenage girl from the crowds, who were now mostly filtering back onto the roller rink, shuffled up to them shyly. “Is the blue ninja okay?” She asked.

“Yes,” Nya snapped, which quickly sent the girl scuttling away.

“Better?” She asked, her voice edged with worry. Jay nodded. She sighed, smiling in relief. “That’s good.”

“Oh, but I ruined it…” he groaned, staring at the top of the table.

“Ruined what?” She asked, confused.

“Our date…”

Nya gave his hair a ruffle. “No ya didn’t. Let’s go talk about this over some lunch.”

Twenty minutes later they were ordering their favorite dishes from Chen’s Noodle House. They sat along the edge of the kitchen and a familiar face decided to pop into their conversation.

“I think I know what happened,” Nya answered after said familiar face asked.

“Oh, what then?” Pushed Skylor, leaning in.

“I just can’t get it out of my brain. Now that we decided to do something on our own, I guess,” Jay frowned, feeling absolutely terrible.

“What?”

“It’s difficult to explain,” Nya said quickly, before Skylor delved too deep into speculation.

The redhead left for a brief moment to grab their food, and returned looking excited for a tale.

Jay picked around at his noodles. “You’re not gonna believe me, but it’s a different timeline. That only Nya and I remember, I think. It involves a lot of evil pirates, and everyone being trapped in a sword, and Ninjago being in the sky. You were part of my ninja replacements,” Skylor gave him a weird look as he was mid sentence, “and Nya even…”

He paused and dropped his chopsticks back in the tub. Nya stopped eating suddenly, and looked down, feeling sick.

“Nya what?”

“Nothing important,” Nya said, trying to force another bite of food into her mouth.

“Well, hm,” said Skylor, looking a little put off, “sounds like you guys need to somehow sort this out.”

“Yeah,” Jay stared at his food. “I know. You’re right. We have to stop pretending like it never happened. We have to think about it. Sort out all the lost… stuff from it.” He reached into a pocket to pull out his wallet, but Nya was there first, holding her card out to Skylor with a smile.

She shook her head. “Today’s on me, ya crazy lovebirds. I just hope things are okay for you from now on.”

“Thanks,” said Jay with an exasperated sigh. “You’re a life-saver, Skylor.”

“Well, where do we start, then?” Nya asked when Skylor left them, looking at Jay with some nervousness.

He narrowed his eyes and gave one of his eyes a rub. “The lighthouse.”

#ninjago #ninjago fan season #fanseason #jaya #jay walker #nya smith #static and stars #kai smith #cole brookstone #zane julien #skylor chen

40 notes · View notes

mylovelyfandoms · 4 years

Text

Hansol’s Backstory

The Symbol of the Raindrop

Basic Information

A/N: Sorry this took so long to write, I was kind of uninspired for a while and I didn’t have much time

Warnings: Bullying, attempted drowning, beating, choking (not the kinky kind), and I think that’s all

(GIF not mine)

- Hansol didn’t grow up in a tragic household like many of the others

- His parents loved him the moment he was born

- They were one of few unaffected that had absolutely no negative feelings towards the affected at all

- They knew that there was a big chance that Hansol would be an affected, so they tried to prepare him as much as possible

- So when Hansol started to be able to push the wind with his hands, he knew exactly what was going on

- At first he was nervous to show his parents, having heard so many things on the news about affected children

- But they welcomed his newfound powers with open arms and even helped him try to master it

- Hansol loved his powers, so it was obvious how excited he was after his fifth birthday when his air manipulation remained the same

- Hansol was the complete stereotype for air elementals

- He was shy and quiet and and easygoing and often spaced out

- (which made him get in trouble at school a lot)

- He was known to be the most gentle boy, never wanting to hurt anyone or anything

- He wanted to have a lot of friends, but he could never bring himself to talk to them first

- And most of the kids thought he was a weirdo because he was so shy poor bb

- So when a group of the most popular boys approached him, inviting him over for a pool party, he was ecstatic

- Little Hansol sprinted home, his air manipulation making him run faster than the average unaffected kid

- Hansol’s parents were hesitant at first, knowing full well that these kids were never quite interested at him

- But Hansol convinced them

- His trusting manner made it too easy to convince his parents that these boys were good people

- When the day finally came and he made his way to the address that the little boy gave him,

- Hansol was so excited

- The entire time his mother walked him to the house, Hansol was talking her ear off

- He never really talked, but when he did, it was a lot of words and fast, too

- The boys greeted him when he got to the door and politely greeted his mother

- The pool party was everything a little boy could ask for

- There was music, toys, food, games, food

- And even a nice and shiny-looking Jacuzzi

- The boys invited Hansol to sit with them, so he immediately did so with a pep in his step

- And when the boys asked to have a breath holding contest, Hansol was ecstatic

- Finally, a way he could show off without risking too much exposure

- Hansol was smart, so he knew that all he had to do was hold his breath for a minute and a couple of seconds to beat these boys

- Right before they all went down, Hansol sucked in a deep breath, though not filling his lungs all the way

- He dove down to the bottom of the Jacuzzi, squeezing his eyes shut and counting the seconds

- When 65 seconds were passed, Hansol jumped back up with a wide smile, only for his head to hit something

- When he cleared his vision, he realized that the Jacuzzi cover had been placed on

- Hansol started to push on the cover, only for it to stay in place

- Outside, he heard the boys giggling and immediately felt his heart leap with hope

- “Guys! Guys I got stuck! Can you help me?”

- There was no answer to his shouts, only more giggling

- “Guys? Can you help me?”

- Again, more giggling

- Hansol just assumed that maybe they couldn’t hear him and sighed, sitting against the wall

- Knowing that he didn’t have enough air, Hansol just decided to hold his breath

- After a couple of minutes, the cover opened again

- The boys’ faces, which were filled with pride and amusement, immediately dropped when they saw Hansol, patiently waiting, completely unaffected from the lack of air

- “Oh hey guys! You found me!”

- Hansol was completely oblivious to what they had just tried to do

- The boy who lived at the house immediately turned, sprinting into his house and screaming for his mom

- The rest of the boys stared at Hansol in horror for a moment before following after the first boy

- Confused, Hansol climbed out of the Jacuzzi and walked after the group of boys

- “What’s wrong?” He asked, walking into the house, only to see the group of boys hiding behind the first one’s mom

- Hansol’s heart dropped when he saw the soldier uniform that he had been told many times to avoid

- What happened next was a blur of events

- Hansol remembered the soldier-mom taking him home

- He remembered the daydream he had while the soldier-mom started talking to his parents about facilities for people like him

- He remembered packing his clothes and the face of his parents as they assured him that he would be back

- He didn’t quite remember the ride to the facility, but he did remember what he daydreamed the facilities would be like

- Needless to say, it was nothing like he thought

- The soldiers were cruel and violent and Hansol just couldn’t figure out why

- The moment he arrived, they pushed him into a room for testing as if he was a lab rat

- They even held him down and drew some sort of tattoo on the back of his neck

- That was the first of the pain Hansol felt at the facility

- Hansol had a room in the facility, rather than the cells that he had heard people talk about in the dining hall

- It was small and plain, the only thing in it being a plain bed

- He didn’t know exactly why he had the room rather than a cell, but he just looked on the brighter side; he wouldn’t have to deal with too many people for a long amount of time

- Hansol was quick to learn how things worked around there and what exactly his job was

- They gave him a bracelet that had a GPS embedded in it

- It gave him the coordinates of exactly where he needed to go to drop off messages

- There was always someone that monitored him, shocking him with the bracelet if he went off the course

- For a year, Hansol kept to himself

- He sat alone in the dining hall away from everyone, he didn’t talk to anyone when he was sending messages, he didn’t even reply when the soldiers talked to him, spacing out instead

- Of course, this got on a lot of their nerves, so they sent him to the south wing to get beaten for ‘disrespecting their authority’

- The first couple of times, he cried and screamed as they hit him, but as time went by, he just decided to space out

- He thought of a better world

- A world where he wasn’t hated for who he was or what he could do

- They were always different circumstances

- Sometimes he was just in a peaceful world where the only thing he had to worry about was school and friends

- Other times he was famous, making people happy and having millions of fans

- In all scenarios, there were no affected or unaffected, there were just equals

- One day, while Hansol ate alone as he usually did, a boy who looked around his age approached him

- “Hi, can I sit with you?”

- Hansol stared at the boy in shock for a moment. Of all the time he’s spent there, no one had tried to talk to him

- But then again, he didn’t try to talk to them either. After what happened with the pool party, he was scared of meeting new people

- The boy took in Hansol’s confused expression and shifted on his feet

- “The older elementals won’t let me sit near them.”

- Feeling like he could relate to the boy, Hansol nodded, gesturing to the space in front of him

- The boy gladly took a seat and started to eat their flavorless food

- “What’s your name? I’m Lee Chan.”

- Hansol gave the boy a small smile

- “My name is Hansol.”

- He made a split second decision

- “But you can call me Vernon. It’s my middle name.”

- This way he would be able to feel connected to his mom. After all, it was her maiden name

- “Oh, well in that case, you can call me Dino.”

- Hansol couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped from his lips

- “Why Dino?”

- Dino lit up at the chance of being able to explain

- “Because I’m an earth elemental, and the way I stomp around to manipulate the earth makes me feel like a dinosaur.”

- The two spent more time talking and getting to know each other

- It was the most Hansol had spoken in the year he had been there

- But it was enough to help him out of his shell

- He started to talk to soldiers, asking them about their lives

- It was mainly to try and get on their good side, but eventually, Hansol had started to get interested in their lives

- It was nice to see that these people actually had humanity

- As time went by, Hansol was easily the most liked affected in the facility

- That didn’t quite mean much, though. It just meant that they tolerated him more than others

- One day, Hansol had been running around the facility, delivering letters and mail back and forth on the roofs when he saw something strange in the trees

- Being a messenger, Hansol had been everywhere in the facility

- He often saw the large trees, but he never saw anything like this inside the tree

- Looking around, Hansol made sure none of the soldiers were looking before he jumped off the roof and onto the tree that was just a couple of feet away

- The branches were large enough for him to walk on and there were so many leaves that it covered him from anyone’s sight

- Looking around, Hansol saw a strange cage hanging from the edge of the branch he was on with a boy sitting inside

- Curious, Hansol walked closer until he was crouching down on top of the cage

- “Hello.”

- Hansol’s voice seemed to have scared the boy from the way he jumped, making the cage sway slightly

- Hansol brought his hands to the side, trying to manipulate the air around the cage so it would stop swaying

- “This seems like a cruel and unusual punishment.”

- The boy let out a bitter chuckle

- “Tell me about it. You trip over your mop bucket three times and all of a sudden, you’re in a cage.”

- Hansol knitted his eyebrows together

- “Do you want me to get you out?”

- The boy waved him off casually

- “Nah, they’ll let me out in a day or three. If I get out any earlier, they’ll just do something worse.”

- “What exactly is this? I’ve never seen it before.”

- The boy sighed. “It’s a punishment for water elementals only. They bring us up here so that we could be away from any form of water.”

- Hansol frowned in confusion. “Isn’t there water in the tree?”

- “Well, yeah, but like I said, if we get down or use our powers, the punishment they’d give us is even worse.”

- Just as Hansol was about to ask another question, he felt a shock on his arm and shot a glare to his bracelet

- “I should probably-ow! Get going,” Hansol said, walking back to the branch. “Good luck with all this.”

- Hansol hopped off the branch, landing on the floor with grace as he ran in the direction that his bracelet gave him

- When he finally approached his destination, he handed the letter to one of the soldiers that were impatiently waiting for him by the gates

- “That’s for the base in the land of the unaffected,” Hansol explained as the soldier stuffed the letter in his bag

- The other soldier handed Hansol a stack of letters

- “And this is from the land of the unaffected.”

- “Parents,” The first soldier spat. “Lord knows why they even try to contact these monsters.”

- Hansol gave the soldier a tight smile as the second one entered the coordinates into his bracelet

- “Maybe they miss their kids,” Hansol shrugged, looking at the bright side as he always did

- The two soldiers just exchanged a look and rolled their eyes

- The second soldier practically threw Hansol’s hand back at him and turned, making their way out of the gates that were opening

- Hansol stared out into the distance for a moment. He started to daydream about what it would feel like to be free. To finally be able to see the world from the outside of the walls again

- He was only brought back to reality when one of the guards at the top of the gates shouted at him to leave or else they would shoot him

- With a sigh, Hansol turned and jumped onto the roofs of the buildings, running and jumping until he finally got back to the command center

- “General,” Hansol greeted. “These are more letters from the land of the unaffected.”

- The general let out a groan and pointed to the table in the middle of the room

- “Sort them out. If there’s a name you’ve never seen before, throw it out. Hand me all the important papers.”

- “Yes sir.”

- Hansol immediately got to work

- He tossed out most of the parent letters, but saw a name that he had recognized

- ‘Boo Seungkwan’ had been a name he had become familiar with

- The first couple of times he saw the name, he tossed it out, not quite remembering that he had seen it before

- But the letters just kept coming

- Hansol felt a small twang of jealousy

- His mother had only written to him once at the beginning of his time there, but the general made him throw it out

- “If they really care about you, they’ll write again.” He had said

- They never did...

- Shaking his thoughts out of his head, Hansol placed the letter in the ‘keep’ pile and continued to sort through the rest

- Once he finally finished, he tossed the large pile of letters in the trash and grabbed onto the ‘keep’ pile

- “These are the important ones-” Hansol handed the general the three letters that were from the other bases- “and these are the letters to the affected. Should I send it to them?”

- “Of course, you should know that by now.”

- Hansol nodded and made his way out of the room

- He knew the drill, he could only deliver the letters if the affected were in isolation

- It had something to do with the riots that would break out if the rest of the affected knew that they were getting letters from their families

- Hansol felt bad that he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone, but he was too scared of what the soldiers would do to go against them

- Looking through the list of affected in isolation, Hansol was slightly disappointed to see only one name from his pile of letters

- He knew it was a cruel thing to wish isolation upon any of the affected, but if it meant that they would get to hear from their family, it was worth it, he thought

- Otherwise, the soldiers would make him throw the letters out

- As Hansol walked in, he put his hands up with the letters in his hand like he always had to do when entering the isolation wing

- The soldiers walked up to him and patted him down, making sure he had nothing on him before opening the door

- Hansol took a step in and saw the boy, Seungkwan, sitting in the corner of the room

- Seungkwan was a screamer, Hansol had noted from the muzzle on his face

- “Hi, you have a letter,” Hansol said, holding out the envelope

- Seungkwan blinked at him in confusion for a moment before standing up and taking the letter from Hansol’s hands

- He shot Hansol a confused look and Hansol immediately understood what it meant

- “Sometimes the general let’s the affected write letters back to their parents and making sure that they made it so they sounded happy and everything. It’s usually when the parents are really adamant about talking to their kid, and I think yours sent in two letters a day so far.”

- Hansol let out a little chuckle at the end of the sentence, but Seungkwan didn’t seem to notice, ripping into the envelope

- Hansol felt sympathetic as he watched Seungkwan’s eyes skim the paper before turning glassy

- Feeling the need to comfort him, Hansol reached out to put a hand on his shoulder

- “Hey, it’s okay.”

- Just before his hand was going to touch his shoulder, Seungkwan flinched back, making Hansol guiltily retract his hand

- “Sorry, I should leave you to it.”

- Hansol started to make his way towards the door until he paused, hand on the doorknob

- He didn’t know what it was. Maybe it was the fact that Seungkwan looked like he was around Hansol’s age, maybe it was just that he had a muzzle, but Hansol just felt the need to befriend him

- “I’m Vernon, by the way. Hansol Vernon Chwe. It was nice to meet you, Seungkwan.”

- And with that, Hansol rushed out of the room, heart pounding against his chest as he rushed out of the building

- He usually never made the first move in a friendship, but Seungkwan was different

- A couple of days later, Hansol and Dino were sitting together during mealtime like they usually did

- Until someone plopped down right next to Hansol, making him jump

- When he regained his composure, Hansol immediately recognized the boy as the one from the cage

- He turned to Hansol with a puppy-like smile and offered a hand

- “I never properly introduced myself. My name is Mingyu.”

- “Vernon,” Hansol awkwardly replied, shaking Mingyu’s hand

- Mingyu turned to Dino with the same attitude and the two exchanged names

- Mingyu talked and went on and on about the randomest things, but Hansol stayed quiet

- He was a new person and Hansol wanted desperately to be friends with him, but too many scenarios about what could go wrong ran through his hand

- So when mealtime ended, Hansol was relieved

- He went on with his day as if nothing happened

- Until the next day, when Mingyu sat with them again

- Then the day after that

- And the day after that

- And before he they knew it, Hansol and Dino had a new friend

- As time passed, Hansol learned that Mingyu was a very social person, almost completely contradicting his own personality

- Mingyu knew basically everyone and everyone knew Mingyu

- And because of that, basically everyone knew Hansol and Dino too

- It was just the three of them for a while

- (Well, sometimes it was just Hansol and Dino because Mingyu would go around and talk to other people)

- But then one day, Mingyu came up to the table with his arms around another boy that looked a little older than Hansol and Dino

- “Hey guys! This is my new friend, Junhui. He just got transferred into here from Facility C!”

- Hansol raised a skeptical eye at Mingyu

- Though Mingyu knew a lot of people, he had never brought them over to formally introduce them to the two

- But, Hansol trusted Mingyu. He knew that no matter how friendly he was, he was still cautious when it came to people. So if this boy was good enough for Mingyu to introduce, then he would have to be trustworthy

- Hansol smiled kindly at the boy

- “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Vernon, that’s Dino.”

- The boy beamed back, taking his introduction as a sign of acceptance.

- “You can call me Jun.”

- Jun fit into their little group perfectly

- He was funny and almost as social as Mingyu was

- Hansol enjoyed the little stories he told about his experiences in Facility C and was just fascinated with the stories of Jun’s best friend in the facility

- A while after Jun became a part of the little friend group, he pulled Hansol aside

- “I have a favor to ask of you,” Jun said in a low tone

- Hansol was bewildered

- What kind of favor could he possibly do?

- “You have access to the command center, right?”

- Ah, that’s what.

- “I’m sorry, Jun, I already told the other guys, I can’t smuggle family mail or else they’ll actually kill me. It’s happened to the other messengers before.”

- Hansol was taken aback when Jun started to shake his head

- “No, no, not the letters. I just...is there any way you can access the affected files? I don’t want to see it, I just want to know if my friend is here.”

- Hansol frowned, thinking back to all the stories Jun had told them

- “The friend you’re always talking about?”

- Jun nodded. “Yeah, he was transferred a year before me. I never knew where, but if there’s a chance he’s here, I want to look for him.”

- Hansol thought for a moment. The affected files were in a cabinet that was usually left unattended with no lock. All he would have to do is open it when there was no one around. It shouldn’t be too hard...right?

- “What’s his name?”

- Jun smiled. “Xu Minghao.”

- Hansol went back to work

- He spent the day delivering letters like usual, anxiously thinking about how he would get the letters

- Hansol was usually easygoing, but when it came to plans, he needed control or at least an idea of what was happening

- It was the only thing that wasn’t quite air elemental of him

- When he finally got back to the command center, he had everything mapped out to the second

- blame overthinking

- “Sir,” Hansol said to the soldier that was currently in the command center. “The general has a message for you.”

- At the sound of the general, the soldier stiffened, just as Hansol expected

- “He wants you to report to the gate. There’s a package waiting for you.”

- The soldier nodded once and made his way out of the room

- Taking a breath to calm his nerves, Hansol looked around and made his way to the cabinet

- He opened the bottom one first, searching through them for the letter ‘x’

- When he didn’t find any, he closed the drawer and opened the next one

- Finally finding the letter ‘x’, Hansol started to search the files one by one

- How do so many people have last names that start with an x?

- Hansol’s heart nearly skipped a beat when he saw it

- Xu Minghao, (F) Raindrop

- Hansol took a moment to celebrate; his plan had actually worked!

- “What do you think you’re doing?”

- Hansol’s plan didn’t work quite as well as he thought

- At the sound of the chilling voice, Hansol dropped the file and pushed the drawer back in, jumping up to face the general as if nothing had happened.

- “S-sir.”

- “Were you just doing what I think you were doing?”

- There was no backing out now

- Hansol hung his head. “Yes sir.”

- The general scoffed, stalking over to where Hansol was standing

- He wasn’t surprised when the general’s fist connected with his face, causing his head to bang into the metal cabinet

- Hansol started to space out, distracting himself with more scenarios

- It was only when the general spoke up did he come back to reality

- “I’m not finished with you.”

- Hansol let out a gasp as the general’s hand wrapped around his neck

- That was the first time Hansol was choked

- The next day, when Hansol met up with his friends at mealtime, they all immediately badgered him with questions and looks of concern when they saw the bruising around his neck

- Since his throat hurt too much, he tried not to talk, only nodding and shaking his head

- After mealtime was over, Hansol grabbed onto Jun’s arm

- “Xu Minghao,” He rasped out before nodding

- Despite the news, Jun’s face fell

- He placed a hand on Hansol’s arm, squeezing it before pulling him into a hug

- “Thank you...so much.”

- A week later, Jun skipped his way to the table with a less-than-enthusiastic boy at his side

- “Guys! This is Minghao, my very best friend in the whole wide world!”

- The boy rolled his eyes.

- “Call me The8.”

- As time went by, the group was quick to adjust to their new friend

- Especially since he snuck them extra food since he was a fire elemental and worked in the kitchen

- It was just them for a while until Mingyu brought over another new friend

- He was a lightning bolt, a healer, named Wonwoo

- Wonwoo was shy and introverted, so Hansol got along with him well.

- Hansol was sorting through the letters in the command center one day when he found another one addressed to Seungkwan

- Of all the affected, Seungkwan was the one who got written to the most

- Hansol had gone to give him letters so many times that the soldiers were getting suspicious of him

- To them, it was strange that a messenger would be so excited to visit another affected

- So, they banned him from delivering Seungkwan his letters

- It was a recent ban, so Hansol wasn’t sure if Seungkwan even noticed

- But Hansol couldn’t help himself

- Maybe it had to do with his own family not writing to him or maybe it was just because he liked Seungkwan, but he couldn’t just not deliver the letter

- He made his way to the isolation wing, checking the list with hope

- And much to his joy, Seungkwan’s name was written on the list

- Hansol walked to the soldiers, fully practicing his lie as he approached them

- “I have a letter for Boo Seungkwan.”

- The soldiers exchanged a look

- “Get lost. You know the ban.”

- Hansol gulped. “The general said I could give him this last one. Then the ban will begin.”

- At the sound of the oh-so feared general, the soldiers stiffened and opened the door for him.

- Seungkwan was laying in the corner of the isolation room, sitting up when he heard Hansol walk in

- Hansol smiled when Seungkwan’s face lit up and he sat down in front of the boy, crossing his legs as he handed Seungkwan the letter and a dull pencil

- He studied Seungkwan’s face a little, and felt his smile slowly slipping away

- From what Hansol could see of Seungkwan’s face, it was scattered with purple bruises

- “Did you get beat?”

- When Seungkwan nodded, Hansol let out an empathetic sigh

- “It’s okay, I do too sometimes. But I just space out and think about something nicer whenever they do”

- Seungkwan nodded again and looked down at his paper

- As Hansol waited for him to finish writing his reply, he started to think about the punishment he would face if the general found out

- A part of him believed that the soldiers wouldn’t take it up with the general, but the other part of him knew that they weren’t that stupid

- When Seungkwan finished his reply to the letter, Hansol took the paper and pencil, waving his last goodbye before making his way back to the command center

- Once he finally arrived, the general was furious, as expected

- He threw a punch across Hansol’s face, knocking him to the floor

- The general then continued to kick at the fallen boy, not caring where his foot connected

- Then, when he was nearly satisfied, the general flipped Hansol onto his back and grabbed onto his neck with both hands, squeezing just hard enough so that Hansol couldn’t breathe

- It was only the second time, but Hansol knew he hated it

- The next day, when he met up with his group of friends, their eyes all widened at the marks on his neck

- He did have to admit, they were darker and more evident than the first time

- “What happened?” The8 asked with concern

- “Are you okay?” Wonwoo questioned

- “That looks worse than last time,” Dino commented

- “I’m fine,” Hansol croaked, seeing his friends cringe at his raspy tone. “I was visiting a friend and the general didn’t like that.”

- Mingyu’s eyes widened and a smile spread to his lips. “A friend? You made a friend?”

- “Ah, I’m so proud of you, Vernonie!” Jun cried.

- “Our Vernon. All grown up,” Dino sniffed.

- “I’m older than you,” Hansol grumbled.

- When meal time was over, they all made their ways out the door

- Hansol spaced out like he usually did, thinking and daydreaming as he followed the crowd out the door

- He was only brought out of his mind when someone bumped into him, scaring the living daylights out of him

- Hansol turned his head to see who it was and saw someone that looked a lot like Seungkwan walking past him with his head ducked down

- “Seungkwan?” Hansol called, his theory getting confirmed when Seungkwan turnend at the sound of his name

- “What are you doing in here? Are the screamers doing some sort of work in here or something?”

- Seungkwan immediately nodded, making Hansol slightly confused

- Screamers weren’t usually allowed near the other affected, but maybe they changed the policy

- “Oh, you are? Is it construction or cleaning?” Hansol asked, waiting for Seungkwan to either put up one or two fingers to answer

- Instead, Seungkwan gestured to his own neck, having Hansol’s face fall slightly

- “Oh...um.”

- There was no way Hansol could tell him he got choked because he gave Seungkwan his letter

- “I got in trouble for spacing out a little. It’s no big deal, I just did what I usually did and spaced out again.”

- Hansol let out a small chuckle at the end, finding humor in his own irony

- Before Seungkwan could mime something as a reply, another screamer walked up to him and grabbed his wrist, pulling him into the crowd and out the door

- “Who was that?” Mingyu asked

- “That was my friend,” Vernon replied

- A couple of weeks passed

- Mealtime had gotten quiet because Mingyu and Jun got in trouble and were sent to the cages

- (Though, no one really knew that Hansol knew that)

- Since the two loudest ones were gone, it only left Dino to make conversation

- But it wasn’t the same

- Hansol couldn’t sleep one night, so he did what he usually did

- He snuck out of his room

- Being an air elemental, Hansol was light on his feet

- So it was pretty easy for him to climb out of his window and onto the roof

- The soldiers really underestimated air elementals

- Hansol was just walked around the roof, enjoying the fresh air and the peaceful quiet until he saw something

- In the far distance, there was a light

- Curious, Hansol jumped from building to building to get closer to it

- When he saw what it was, his heart dropped to his feet

- The tree was on fire

- The tree

- The tree that had two of his friends and probably half a dozen more water elementals in it

- Hansol started to run towards the tree, but ducked down when the soldiers started running around

- He crouched down helplessly at the building a couple feet from the tree, waiting for the soldiers to clear out

- Hansol could hear the shouts of the water elementals from inside the tree and it took everything in him not to jump out of his hiding place

- But he knew if he did, he’d be taken down before he could get to his friends

- All he needed was some sort of distraction...

- And as if on cue, the gates opened

- All of the soldiers started running towards it, and Hansol took the opportunity to jump into the tree

- It was uncomfortably hot, but Hansol didn’t care. All he knew was that his friends were in trouble

- “Mingyu! Jun!” Hansol called, looking around at all the cages

- There were only a couple, Hansol noted, so it would be easier to get them down

- “Vernon!” Jun shouted

- Hansol perked up and jumped from branch to branch until he found his friends

- “Guys!”

- “Vernon, what’s happening?” Mingyu asked

- “Someone set the tree on fire, we have to get you out of here!”

- “How?”

- Hansol looked around desperately

- “You’re gonna have to get the water from the tree.”

- “But the soldiers-”

- “The soldiers can’t punish you if you’re burnt to a crisp!”

- That was enough for Mingyu and Jun to jump into action

- They took the water away from the tree

- “What now?”

- Hansol didn’t want to admit it, but he was thinking about the cage since the first time he saw Mingyu in it

- So that meant he had a plan

- “Manipulate the water around the lock and use your ice breath to break it. Then I’ll carry you down.”

- With a nod, Mingyu did just that.

- Hansol scooped him up and jumped down to the floor that was 20 feet away

- Then, once he was sure Mingyu was alright, he went up for Jun, then the rest of the water elementals

- When they were all on the floor, Hansol saw the rest of the affected were out in the courtyard and the soldiers were ushering the rest of the water elementals towards the tree with buckets of water

- Mingyu and Jun and the others blended in with them perfectly, trying to get the fire under control, so Hansol ran away before he got caught

- He found Dino who then explained that the soldiers called them out of their cells in the middle of the night to keep them all in one place

- After that night, the facility was on lock down

- There were stories passed around about some of the affected escaping, but Hansol thought it was too good to be true

- Conspiracies were passed around about some group called ‘Seventeen’ that seemed to be behind the ‘escapes’ but Hansol thought it was just a myth

- Until a couple weeks after the lock down was lifted, Mingyu came barreling into the dining hall

- “Guys! Wonwoo was...” He panted, trying to catch his breath. “I just...I saw...”

- “Words, Gyu. Words!” The8 snapped.

- “Wonwoo escaped. He’s gone.”

- “What do you mean gone?”

- Hansol couldn’t believe it

- All of the rumors were true

- And his own friend was a part of it

- Hansol was happy that his friend was able to leave, but there was a small part of him that was jealous

- Just a small one though

- A week after the news of Wonwoo’s escape, everything had gone back to normal

- Or as normal as things could get with the new and upgraded security

- It was just a normal day until the doors busted open

- There were two well known soldiers carrying rifles pointing them at everyone to get down, even the soldiers

- Hansol and the rest of the affected fell to the floor, terrified of what these soldiers would do

- Some sort of loud scream sounded from inside the room and shouts of pain sounded all around

- Curious, Hansol looked up to see the a pair of feet walking on the bench that they were all just sitting on

- As the pair of feet neared, Hansol quickly turned his face back to the floor, not wanting to die for ignoring instructions

- “Vernon”

- At the sound of someone whispering his name, Hansol looked to his friends, but they were all facing the floor

- “Vernon it’s me!”

- Now, not only did Hansol turn his head, his friends did too

- Looking up, Hansol saw that the pair of feet belonged to a friend of his

- “Seungkwan?”

- Seungkwan smiled widely, and that’s when Hansol realized he didn’t have his muzzle on

- “Get up, we’re busting you and your friends out of here.”

- Hansol turned to look at his group, and before anyone could say anything, they scrambled to their feet

- “They’re coming!” Hansol heard one of the soldiers with rifles shout from the doors

- “Okay, we gotta go, like, now.”

- Seungkwan turned and started to run along the bench seat

- Hansol hopped onto it, following after

- He sent one glance back to make sure his friends were following him and continued to run

- Once they got to the door, Hansol saw crowds of soldiers running straight for them

- “Cover your ears!” Seungkwan shouted at the group of elementals, having them comply

- Muffled, Hansol could still hear a loud and high pitched scream coming from Seungkwan’s mouth

- Hansol could have sworn that he saw ripples in the air

- The soldiers paused for a moment, bringing their hands to their ears before continuing to run

- “I don’t get it, that was supposed to mess with their earpieces!” Seungkwan exclaimed

- “Move,” Dino said, pushed past Seungkwan and facing the soldiers

- He stomped down on the floor and lifted his hand, having the earth follow his movements

- Dino pushed forward and the block that he took out of the floor pushed the soldiers in the middle of the crowd back

- When the soldiers kept running forward, Hansol stepped up to help his friend

- He took a deep breath before pushing the air around him, causing the soldiers to step back

- “Your head’s glowing!” Seungkwan said to Hansol, but he ignored it, pushing the wind harder

- When the soldiers started to fly back, Seungkwan started to run straight towards the crowd of soldiers since they were in the direction of the gates

- “Come on!”

- Hansol and the rest of his elemental friends ran after him

- As the soldiers started to stand up, Hansol saw The8 glowing an orange color as he waved a streak of fire at the soldiers, having them back away

- Hansol had seen each of his friends using their powers before and knew about their glows, but each time it amazed him

- Once the group was out of the large crowd of soldiers, they just focused on running

- Hansol knew he could run faster than any of them, but he decided that staying with the group was probably the best

- They ran through the facility and when Hansol turned back, he could see the large crowd of soldiers running after them

- They were nearing the gates, but Hansol frowned when he saw they were closed

- How would they get out?

- “Mingyu! No!”

- Hansol whipped his head around and watched in horror as Mingyu fell back, right into the soldiers arms

- “What happened?” Hansol exclaimed

- “He pushed me forward!” Dino shouted back

- “We’ll come back for him!” Seungkwan yelled

- As they got closer to the gates, the floor seemed to rumble from under them

- Hansol observed in shock as a branch slowly grew in front of the gates in a slope

- His shock slowly faded away when he saw who was standing at the top of the wall

- “Wonwoo!” Hansol cheered

- “Hurry! They’re right behind you!”

- Hansol fell back, ushering everyone onto the branch

- “Vernon, get on!” Seungkwan shouted

- Hansol shook his head and ran to the side as Wonwoo lifted the branch up so that the soldiers couldn’t get on and the group could walk to the wall

- Hansol took a breath and started up at the gate

- It was a higher distance than he had ever jumped, but if it meant he would be free, he had to try

- Hansol got into a running start before he jumped up, pushing the air below him so he could get higher

- He barely made it, reaching the edge of the wall and grabbing onto it before he fell

- Someone Hansol didn’t recognize grabbed onto his arm and pulled him up

- “Where’s Mingyu?” Wonwoo asked, the most frantic Hansol had ever seen him

- “I was...” Dino’s tone was regretful. “I was falling behind so he...he grabbed my arm and pulled me forward so that the soldiers would get him instead of me.”

- “What?!” Wonwoo scrambled over to the edge of the wall, but Seungkwan and another boy held him back. “We have to get him back!”

- “There’s no time, Wonwoo,” The boy who helped Hansol up said. “We have to go now”

- One of the boys that was standing on the side dropped the string he was holding down the side, holding onto one end

- “You better hurry,” He said as he tied it down to a bar at the edge of the wall

- “Where’s Ming Ming?” Hasnol heard Seungkwan ask as his friends started to climb down the rope

- “Didn’t make it,” The boy that helped Hansol up shook his head

- When they were all down, the boy that helped Hansol up started to run into the forest, having the rest of them follow

- After what felt like hours of running, they finally arrived at a camp

- There, Seungkwan introduced them to everyone and explained to them that they were the clan ‘Seventeen’

- Hansol learned that the boy who helped him was the leader, S. Coups, the boy that helped Seungkwan hold back Wonwoo was Dokyeom, the boy holding the string was Hoshi, and the two soldiers with rifles were just shapeshifters names Jeonghan and Joshua

- After he was introduced to everyone Hansol went off on his own, taking in all of the tents and people that were walking around

- No daydream could ever compare to how freedom felt

40 notes · View notes

adultswim2021 · 3 years

Text

The Brak Show #1: “Leave It To Brak” (AKA “Mr. Bawk Ba Gawk”) December 21, 2000 - 5:15AM | S01E01 regular series version aired October 7, 2001 @ 11:00PM

I’m trying to break the habit of assuming only my friends are reading my various blogs, but I failed in one fundamental way: I didn’t really describe the premise of Sealab 2021, like, at all. Despite digging into it’s roots somewhat by watching it’s various pilots, I failed to include even a paragraph with the basic premise of the show. I’ll try not to make the same mistake with Brak. Instead I'll make a DIFFERENT mistake by writing way too long of a blog entry.

On December 21, 2000, after Sealab 2021, The Brak Show, then titled “Leave It To Brak” debuted. Who the fuck is Brak? Brak began life as a villain on the 1960s iteration of Space Ghost, a fairly garden-variety Saturday morning action kid’s show. He appeared in, I wanna say, a very small handful of episodes. I’ve seen the whole series, and I don’t think he was like, a regular or anything. Without looking it up I'll say he was on it twice. In the show he was a space pirate and had whiskers. He has a very memorable design. I’ve never been sure if we’re actually looking at Brak’s face or if he’s wearing a helmet. His fangs imply that we’re looking at his actual face (or at least his actual jaw), but that little curtain thing that hangs down from his, uh, ears? Is that a naturally occurring part of his head? It suggests that his wardrobe is actually his body, and vice-versa. He just looks absurd, making him perfect fodder for an absurdist revision.

Brak as we know him today was first used (barring some kind of Cartoon Network commercial that I’m unaware of) in Space Ghost Coast to Coast, appearing with Sisto. Sisto is his twin brother who appeared in the 60s show. Why Brak was targeted for comedic revision and not Sisto eludes me. I’m guessing “HI MY NAME IS BRAK” just sounds funnier than “HI MY NAME IS SISTO”. Anyway, in the first Coast to Coast episode they are voiced by C. Martin Croker (RIP) doing a Beavis and Butt-head parody. Eventually Andy Merrill took over the role, basically turning Brak into a, uh, childish adult. Okay, he’s basically doing a retarded guy voice. Sorry, but it’s time to grow up.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast debuted in 1994 and remained a cult hit on the network until it was moved to Adult Swim and eventually canceled in 2004. The concept of Space Ghost Coast to Coast was Space Ghost, a super hero from the 60s, now hosts a modern 90s late night talk show, interviewing live-action celebrities on a monitor that hangs over the set. Random obscure Space Ghost villains would show up with skewed personalities from their original 60s counterpart. Brak was easily the runaway star of the touted rogues gallery. He would come in and cheerfully sing a song about beans or something else equally wacky. He rarely had a definable role on the show, he was just a figure that was around and would wander into the set.

A second 90s Space Ghost spin-off was commissioned called Cartoon Planet. This was an actual kiddy show that aired during the day as opposed to Space Ghost Coast to Coast which was kid-friendly but meant for adults. This time Space Ghost, Zorak (Space Ghost’s bandleader on Coast to Coast), and Brak would host an hour of classic cartoons, with little absurd skits between segments set in a studio SORTA like the Space Ghost Coast to Coast set but different. LOTS of Brak’s fandom is based on these skits, which were a little more silly and lighthearted than the material on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The skits were popular enough that they repackaged them into their own half-hour show, sans classic cartoons. This was an early point of confusion for me. Beloved Brak songs turned out to be from Cartoon Planet and NOT Space Ghost Coast to Coast, so I'd tune into Space Ghost wondering if they cut out all the Brak segments or what?

Cartoon Planet would answer viewer letters (conceivably real ones; they DID include various ways to contact “Ghost Planet” at the end of both Space Ghost Coast to Coast and, I’m guessing, Cartoon Planet, which I never did see in it’s original form). They actually answered the reason for Brak’s lack of intelligence (brain-damage caused by Space Ghost, using an actual clip from the 60s show). I bring this up not out of genuine concern for continuity or canon; these aren’t huge concerns for the writers of these shows. The real reason Brak is dumb is because Andy Merrill thought the voice was funny, probably. I bring it up because generally the premise of Space Ghost in the 90s is that even though he IS a super hero with super hero abilities, he’s also an actor who makes cartoons about being a super hero. So, it can be concluded Brak’s brain damage is from a stunt gone wrong and not carried over from the fiction of the show.

The premise of Space Ghost Coast to Coast is that Space Ghost has captured evil villains Zorak and Moltar and is forcing them to work on the show. But they also freely reference their personal lives outside of the show, breaking character. They are actors who are sticking to a premise only when it’s convenient. Yes, it’s fun for the kids to pretend that Space Ghost has enslaved his enemies to work on his talk show, but the reality is that when the camera turns off they all go home to their apartments or wives or whatever. This concept feeds directly into The Brak Show: we aren’t watching Brak’s real home life; Brak, cartoon character and actor, is playing himself in a sitcom. His mom isn’t his real mom. His Dad isn’t his real dad. Zorak isn’t his real best-friend. They are all actors. This isn’t played up in any significant way on the show itself except for a few moments and certain episodes, but THAT IS WHAT’S HAPPENING and you wouldn’t really understand that just by watching this episode and nothing else. You would have to have been paying attention all this time to Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Cartoon Planet, and also, yes, Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak.

Okay, Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak isn't REALLY required viewing for this series. But guess what? I watched it for the first time ever in preparation for this and now we all have to deal with Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak (sorry I keep repeating the full title which is Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak) was a two-episode special presentation that aired on Cartoon Network while Space Ghost was on hiatus and before The Brak Show's stealth premiere. It (Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak, that is) was a Sonny and Cher style variety show, featuring Brak and Zorak on stage together performing songs, intentionally corny sketches, and a LITTLE BIT, but NOT A LOT of backstage drama; which could be argued to have been part of the show itself. Variety shows doing sketches fictionalizing the backstage antics of the production is nothing new. There are also live-action integrated celebrities, and the show comes to a screeching halt whenever they show up. Maybe their performances are hampered by having to perform on a green screen, but these segments come off lame and pandering. Space Ghost Coast to Coast would make it's name featuring washed-up, kitschy, or counter-culture celebrities. Here we are treated to Monica, Freddie Prinze Jr. (whose segment in particular really drives me up a wall), some wrestler guy, and a lady who's name I don't remember. Okay, I admit I fast forwarded through the second of the two episodes a LOT. Sitting through one episode in real time was just too much to bear.

Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak is written off by a lot of Brak fans as a substandard product, and they're not wrong. I myself never sought out the whole special until I started writing this blog. But there's one thing I'll give it, the visuals (minus the live-action celebrity parts) are actually pretty fun. There's a lot of weird character designs, and the same playful use of stock footage and kinetic editing from Cartoon Planet carries over into this. Skipping past the celebrity guests and watching the special on mute would be the preferred viewing method here. Honestly, I've never been that charmed by Brak's songs. I never cared much for Cartoon Planet.

Brak Presents the Brak Show Staring Brak eventually became The Brak Show, but with one more step: a scrapped audio-only pilot. This pilot appears as an audio commentary track on The Brak Show Volume 1 DVD set. I discovered it by accident. In preparation for this blog I popped the DVD in, saw there was commentary for Mr. Bawk Ba Gawk, and pressed play. Instead of Andy Merrill and Pete Smith dryly talking about their creative process, I was treated to what would have been the audio for a Brak Show pilot (there are stage directions being read in lieu of visuals), roughly the length of an 11 minute episode. This version plays up the backstage antics of Brak's variety show much more, kinda like Larry Sanders meets Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. Returning from the show is Brak and Zorak, along with Allen Wrench, a talking Allen wrench that appeared in Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. On Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak, Allen had a crazy high-pitched voice. In this audio pilot he sounds closer to Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Also present in the audio pilot is Thundercleese, who curiously sounds like the regular series version of Thundercleese. In “Leave it to Brak”, Thundercleese sounds slightly different. Maybe they went back and rerecorded Thundercleese for the DVD?

That FINALY brings us to the actual episode. “Leave it to Brak” was the first episode of “The Brak Show” proper to air (though if I remember correctly from what was reported way back when, they wanted to call the actual show “Leave It To Brak” but couldn't for legal reasons). It feels more like a first episode than Goldfish does, which was the first episode I saw when Adult Swim officially began in 2001. “Leave it to Brak” introduces each character with fake studio audience applause. They even introduce Sisto, who simply walks in front of the camera, farts, and is not seen again. The premise of the show is this: Brak stars in a family sitcom. His mom belongs to the same species as Brak, but his dad is a tiny human voiced by George Lowe doing a Ricky Ricardo voice. According to this episode; Brak is roughly high-school aged, but it's all a pretense to get this cast of weirdos together under one roof. Again, Brak is a cartoon character playing himself here, so we're not meant to actually think these are his real parents; Brak is not half-human, necessarily. It's all just for the sake of this dumb show.

The plot of the episode is this: Zorak, Brak's best friend and worst influence, convinces Brak to help him kidnap the mascot of their rival high school, a chicken named Mr. Bawk Ba Gawk. Having done this, Brak grapples with the morality of his actions, tries to deceive his parents by dressing the chicken up like a little man, is caught, and is taught a lesson. There's a comedic final scene that reverses the lesson Brak supposedly learned, and then it ends. Somewhere in there we are introduced to Brak's giant robot neighbor who blows up Zorak for ripping up his lawn.

The Brak Show was possibly the most anticipated show when Adult Swim was announced. We all quietly ignored how much Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak sucked; mostly because this was touted to be a show for adults. Afterall, Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak's biggest shortcoming was the fact that it was the first Brak-centric product to pander directly to children. Brak was always seen as a uniquely weird creation that just so happened to appeal to kids, kinda like Pee Wee Herman or Joe Camel. Also the idea of parodying the sitcom genre seemed novel, despite the fact that it wasn't really a new idea. Now it just comes off like a shallow observation: boy, old sitcoms sure were corny, right?

I don't know exactly how to pinpoint what was so disappointing about this show. I can see there was a genuine effort to make it funny. Dad was a decently funny character. They weren't just trying to mock sitcoms, they were trying to build a genuinely strange world that resembled our own. Brak lived in the suburbs but there were aliens and robots everywhere. Sci-fi situations casually reared their ugly heads into the lives of these characters. I mean, look at the plot description of Brak stealing a high school mascot; it's an ACTUAL SITCOM PLOT. There's no real subversion to it other than the fact that Brak and Zorak from Space Ghost Coast to Coast are doing it. This could have been decent as a one-off special like Tim & Eric's Bag Boy staring Steve Brule. But they made more.

Oh wait, I figured out why The Brak Show sorta sucked. It's the fact that the show was a musical. Fuck, I hated that so much that I blocked it out of my head until this moment. Every episode had musical numbers in it sung by Brak and the family. Ugh. They were supposed to be funny nonsense but I never liked it. In fact if there were ever an edit of the show without the songs I would probably remember it much more fondly.

This version of the pilot had very simplistically drawn backgrounds. When the show went to series they redid the backgrounds with photo-realistic settings and props. It's a much more appealing look. This version of the pilot was briefly featured in an episode of Sealab, where Murphy was flipping through the channels on his monitor. He flips past this and Aqua Teen Hunger Force and maybe Space Ghost? This was back in the early days when every show seemed like it was connected to each other. I miss that. The “regular series” of The Brak Show used to give the show a different parodic on-screen title; “Mr. Bawk Ba Gawk”, which aired fifth on Adult Swim, had the opening title “B.J. And the Brak”. “Goldfish” used “Leave It To Brak”, which causes some episode guides to get confused over which episode is which. In fact, Adult Swim's website features the pilot version of this show and incorrectly uses the plot summary for “Goldfish”. I'm not linking to it because the listing says it expires today. But go look for it if you want.

The other big difference between this version and the “regular series” version is there are a few missing bits here and there. For example, the pilot version starts with Dad asking Mom for another biscuit. She sighs and says “maybe later”, to which dad just shrugs off. There's also a cut song I call “Kiss you hot” that dad sings to mom. There's probably other differences here and there. Oh, Brak's clock is the beeflog illustration from Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. Isn't my life fuller for being able to make that connection? God, I'm so glad I watched Brak Presents the Brak Show Staring Brak last night instead of getting an extra hour of sleep.

So what's good in this? I REALLY like the scene where Bawk Ba Gawk is at the dinner table and everyone keeps stealing his little hat to wear. Mom scolds Dad for wearing the hat, to which he mutters “I'll do what I damn well please”. Mom then plucks the hat from his head. When we cut to the wide shot, she's wearing it. Funny! SOLIDLY VERY FUNNY. But the series generally suffers from them trying to cram in weird pointless bits of absurd comedy. Only sometimes does it work. Not sure why. But that's how it goes, I guess.

#the brak show #brak #space ghost coast to coast #space ghost #brak presents the brak show starring brak #adult swim #adultswim2021

11 notes · View notes