#i will delete this they just created their game in such a fucking strange way to me LMFAOO
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prev post is so good but i didnt want to rant in the tags too much anyway the way that i feel abt l4rian opening themselves up for feedback and criticism with respect to their STORY and characters is that it's honestly very ignorant and a bit sleazy imo.
i might be missing information and they may have done this, but if they were Actually Concerned abt their writing for, say, Wyll being insensitive they could have--i dont know--done the thing that many legit writers do and hired a sensitivity reader (or a few) to go over their story beats for him. like it's about due diligence, not just bending the knee to every fan who was able to pay for and play your early access game. or even just run focus groups with Black players and paid them for their time and insight.
#personal#delete#the way wylls writing in particular seems to have been handled is so odd to me like the fact that u have his#lead writer like 'hey i dont think he has enough time or gets introduced too late can we maybe do something different'#and the director was like ''ermmm nah [i have nothing good to say abt wyll btw]''#and like sensitivity readers or just Hiring Diverse Staff is also not a fix-all because they're just singular people with singular opinions#but it's still better than being like 'oh these bozos online felt this way abt our characters we should listen to them on the merits of#They Keep Yelling About This'#i will delete this they just created their game in such a fucking strange way to me LMFAOO
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yo just wanted to tell you I recently discovered ur profile and wanted to say I fucking love your artstyle and gd headcanons
Now since I saw your most recent post about rubrub being kinda similar to makima I have sum questions: Is there any origin story about how your rubrub came to be or did he just popped into existence one day? And remembering that Makima had some twisted goals, does Rubrub have something like that? does he even have goals or his only purpose is being in charge of the gd world?
Obviously you don't have to answer any of the questions if u dont want to and sorry for the strange wording, english is not my first language :^
AAAAAATHANK YOUUUUOUOUOUOUUUUUUOOOOOO❤️💥
And as for the rub question: Yes he literally popped into existence along side the whole gd universe. The rub design that you all (surprisingly) know and (I doubt) love is the digital representation of the ACTUAL robtop. Y'know...the real Robert. So rub's whole goal is the same as the real robtop which is to create a game that people enjoy and to keep the npc's inside in control.
He doesn't exactly have "sick and twisted" goals, the guy just wants things to work properly but the existencial crisis of the characters keeps his whole world from becoming a "utopia" of sorts. In his eyes, deleting and brainwashing them is a perfectly reasonable way of achieving his goals.
I compared him to makima at first because of the whole "antagonist with 1 expression that is a sort of god in their universe" and also because I really like the csm art style but yeah you could compare them with their whole "A means to an end" stuff.
#faceee rambles#geometry dash interpretation#SOSORRY FOR NOT ANSWERING IT SOONER#I SAW THE ASK AND I LET IT SIT THERE UNTIL I COULD COME UP WITH A GOOD RESPONSE AND THEN I FORGOT I'M SO SORRY ANONNNNN
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Beware, incoming ramble!
For the time period question I always saw MC as purely medieval, at least when you as the player pop into the world.
Either by nature or because of post apocalyptic consequences. Each explains the hordes of zombies/undead, structures, old strongholds, etc. Either created by old magic and ancient wars that created those old bastions and constructs (blazes, guardians, irongolems so forth) or simply leftovers of a greater civilisation that has vanished now.
While the world of minecraft itself is purely Medieval, humans/players bring knowledge and technology with them! We know how to mimic big skyscrapers, tele communication, modern structures and such because we have seen them before and know how things work already! Knowledge that is lacking in the other "native" inhabitants of the world.
Humans/Players (and I guess the mods they might bring with them) are the varible that determines how advanced the time setting and technology can be.
Or I suppose in case of MCSM- where humans act merely like any other inhabitant of the world- the admins. They determine what experience the server should offer, after all. They just mod the world themselves and give the tools needed if they just want to. Maybe they even go out of their way to remove possibility of modern features if they like to keep it fantasy like, or bust all doors open for people to create their own modern utopia. Fancy thinking. Much theorising.
Opinions, thoughts, counter arguments?
ANONYMOUS SENT AN ASK .
sorry if this isn't 100% because my benadryl is kicking in super hard atm but i 100% agree with you. especially since in mcsm there are actual mc youtubers put in there but they still act the same as other humans inside the universe there. their world was just a lot more modern as seen that they have modern clothes on, act a little different, and reference making things for people to watch.
it does make me wonder though. i have always thought the admins to be the gods of mcsm. they have the power to create things and to delete things. what about the other worlds? did fred, xara, and romeo all make those other worlds? did they make the old builders to see how they would fuck around with shit? romeo has obviously tried to find a new "champion" and/or people he can simulate into an admin without making them an admin to try and replace the old friends he fucked over. i mean if you think about it, they had to have right? because of all the technology that these other worlds have compared to jesse's world. but then again maybe not because the old builders did that all themselves. the mcyters in mcsm made everything themselves as well.
sometimes i wonder if the admins were the first actual people to spawn in the underground. the world below the world. like they are the humans that are playing the game yet they're absolutely forbidden to talk about it. or perhaps they were humans that were teleported into the mc world by force and they haven't had the ability to come back out. idk. just something i've thought about.
another theory i have is that romeo put the command block in the world to see how people would react to having true admin/god power. and it was all just a huge test before giving jesse the gauntlet to see if anybody would be worthy or capable of becoming friends with him / being the next new champion. obviously the order of the stone wasn't capable of destroying it, but jesse was. and that's what made him reach out to him.
i don't personally know much about the lore of base minecraft other than that there are several stories woven within a world you make yourself. like saving the end and the endermen. the piglins are a hostile mob protecting their home. villages with everyone having their own life to deal with. the illagers and their dark culture. the alchemist who was in the igloo trying to figure out how to heal zombification. though it is strange that you and your friends are the only humans left in this world.
to me it almost seems fair to assume it was some sort of amnesia thing. the character spawns in and is so fucking lost and confused but gradually figures out what to do along the way.
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(reposted because??? tumblr ate or deleted the first post???)
So. Lots of pain meds at the moment, so this is a little bit nonsensical, but, I have been playing the newly released video game I was a teenage exocolonist (available on steam, not linked because tag visibility) while I am laid up in bed.
Lots of opinions, basically all positive. There’s a specific thing I want to talk about in more detail, but this post got too long so I will just link a future post on the gender politics of nature, nurture, and future as presented by the twins Dys and Tang.
So instead here’s my Most Recommendable Qualities (mostly free of spoilers):
Native linux compatibility:
you know how I am about that. I cannot believe I’ve become the very linux guy I so hated when I was working retail…
Upsettingly beautiful art
2D gaming is my first love but man the medium has come a long way since needing a flashlight to play pokemon. Sometimes I forget how far, and then games like this pop up with the gorgeous art and expressive characters, and I inevitably find myself wondering why the “”“"mainstream”“”“ video game market (in as much as such exists these days) focused so obsessively on photo realistic 3D when inevitably a well directed art style is what matters most.
The backgrounds and environments in the game are all extremely lush, with a gorgeous, colorful style that if I had become an art critic instead of a writing critic I would probably have better terminology to describe. Like, uh. Water colors or some shit. Stained glass. It’s all very luminous fuck dude I don’t know, the closest I’m going to get here is to write a poem and I’m not going to write a poem where the fuckign developers might see it. I need to be sober for that.
Characters:
I’m a character driven asshole, we all know this. It’s why I read so much fanfiction and play so much melodramatic fantasy and spend several hours of my life openly sobbing about a single fucking issue of Sandman. So, you’ll understand when I say, "people keep recommending me dating sims and I keep bouncing off of them because the characters never Do A Thing,” what my major criticism of a lot of Large Cast Of Dateable Character games is.
None of those issues arise here. I’ve played a few runs now, making a conscious decision on each to focus on a specific character. One. SIngular. Except, the thing is, you can’t do that. Not in the sense that the game won’t “let” you. You could certainly just dump all of your time into skills and one character. And the timeline of the game would change to reflect your isolationism.
Characters you don’t interact with during runs have their own “autonomous” storylines written, and each divergence your player character makes has its impacts meticulous tracked to create different character experiences every time, even as each character holds very tight to a narrow set of repeating traits. This only further emphasizes the fundamental strangeness of the player character, as the only one capable of being fundamentally different across timelines.
Also all the dateables are just, oh god, SO cute. And, by the time they are capable of fucking, very fuckable. Extremely attractive designs. Honestly everyone is super cute. The whole cast is magnificently designed. And that includes…
Monsters & World Building:
First of all, let’s get the important personal opinions out of the way. I think I would fuck the antagonist….uh….commander, whatever his title is. He looks like a fucked up centaur and I’m into that. There are also Adequate Amounts Of Tentacles. If you’ve known me long, you know that is a high bar, but the game clears it admirably and with diversity!
The alien fauna are all very FUCKING COOL. There’s a bit of throwaway dialogue from An Adult (your dad?) that talks about expecting the planet’s ecosystem to be ‘more alien’ than it is, and I respect the space program’s attempt a tpreparedness but for me, the whole uhhhhhh. Situation. With regards to the alien animals is PLENTY alien, and SO satisfying.
If you’ve ever been like, “god, I wish someone who wasn’t orson scott card would do all the cool shit they did in fucking speaker for the dead” then by GOD is this the game for you.
Accessibility:
The content warnings are extremely detailed. I reviewed them all, and having seen several of the ones I was most worried about, I feel they accurately described the situations without spoiling them. I did end up upsetting myself rather badly with one thing which happened, but it is hardly the developer’s fault that I misunderstood the context in which the “teenage pregnancy” CW would apply. I personally want to specify that (IN THE ROUTES I HAVE SO FAR PLAYED) the pregnancy is a very wanted, safe, and cherished.
The game players very well on controller, which is a must for me. There are a handful of UI elements that I have not yet been able to access by controller, but I think this is more a factor of my being bad at remembering buttons than the game’s design. If you have a mouse, that will solve the issue entirely. My GF speaks highly of the keyboard and mouse gameplay.
Turning off screen distortions and weather effects generally made the game very visually understandable for me, with large, clear iconography. If you have significant visual impairments, I don’t know if this is a good game to play. Picking up items on the ground can be tricky in some cases and there’s nothing for eg a high contrast or greyscale mode if you need that kind of thing.
Stability.
It’s easy to forget that near-launch properties are supposed to be complete games that function well. This game is very complete (VERY, INTRICATELY, COMPLETE) and very stable. With as complicated as the sets of cause-effect-timelines are, I expected it to be much easier to create minor paradoxes in dialogue.
So far, the only time events have seemed to happen slightly out of sequence due to relationship progression or what ever else, was when I made a conscious effort to be as obnoxious as possible at one point just to see if I could make it misbehave.
I haven’t been able to make it crash from within the game so far. I’m hardly a Q.A. tester anymore, but I do tend to be pretty aggressive to my games, so I feel confident in saying it’ll run steady for you if you get it.
Politics etc:
The queerness is all very excellent, super queer in very believable ways, especially given the cultural aspects of the worldbuilding. Characters behave queerly outside of just all being bi-for-the-player. The trans characters were all extremely appealing to me with strong characterization that included but did not obsess over their genders. There are at least 2 trans teens in the player character’s peer group and 2 trans adults of very different ages and character types, and there’s even a cute little intergenerational trans solidarity bit you can get sometimes. In addition, of course, to the ridiculously complete gender personalization.
You would not believe how many games forget that “bro” and “cowgirl” are gendered terms, but this one remembers.
The racial politics are, from my perspective, adequate to not interfere with my gameplay experience. The human characters do consistently refer to the environment and native animals in very colonialist terms but they’re literally colonizing the planet so…. The point is, there is not a native people being eradicated, though there are… territory wars(? I guess.) with both wild animals and antagonist peoples.
If you’re particularly sensitive to colonial narratives, handle with care, but I felt the writing in the routes I’ve seen so far handled most of the issues well. Plus I mean. THe title. Is “teenage exocolonist” like. I think the whole “colonialism is a major narrative theme” ituation should be made clear by that.
In terms of the human diversity it’s pleasingly broad. There are characters of all ages, builds, complexions, races, personality types. There’s a massive range of disabilities both physical and mental, as well as plenty of fun sci fi accomodations.
I mean just among the dateables I can remember top of the head, theres:
ambiguously asian twins who really said Autism Has Two Genders,
ambiguously brown fat girl with developmental disability,
ambiguously brown Gym Bro (derogatory) who is, and this is true, literally named 'ambiguously brown
ambiguously white farmboy who has clearly been eating his space wheaties and also helps invent space cannabis with your dad
unambiguously black girl who looks the autism twins dead in the eye and said 'no autism has one gender and is me’
unambiguously white tomboy who goes full samus
A dog (human)
Hatsune Miku (gender neutral)
Venom (twink)
There���s something here for everyone, all of these characters are super fascinating concepts honestly. I know I keep harping on that but it’s true so there.
Scenario writing:
It’s a bit difficult to separate the player character writing from the scenario writing for reasons that rapidly become clear in the game. Both are very good, though, so that’s fine. The writing is just really very good.
The variations on the timeline that you are able to uncover through repeated play are fascinatingly diverse even as certain events remain immutable, and the whole thing really plays with the concept of time travel and the other-self so beautifully. Really one of my very favourite explorations of the topic already, and I’ve only seen… IDK 4 endings along 2 routes? And there’s 29 endings???
It’s very good. The point is that it’s very good you should go play it.
It’s on steam. It’s app 1148760 on steam and it’s very good, it’s definitely worth more than what they’re charging. I mean have you seen what a $60 console game looks like these days, and then this is like. $25 and SO very much.
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[ LUXIEM 1ST ANNIVERSARY ] PART 1
In honor of Luxiem’s first anniversary, this is a sentence starter from this Vox Akuma VOD where they reminisce about old phrases they all have said in a game format. I’m taking both the phrases discussed specifically as well as other funny quips said during the stream. Content warning for mild language. Feel free to change pronouns if necessary.
“I’m a really smart guy and I definitely thought about this really hard before we started.”
“Are we introducing ourselves??”
“Sussy among us…”
“I’m the detective guy, but there’s someone cooler next to me.”
“[Name] is eating spicy noodles by choice now.”
“I was having the cravings and I—I just went for it.”
“There’s no such word as can’t.”
“Burrito?? Is that a Naruto character??”
“You swear to everything holy that these are not fabricated??”
“Why does it look like you etched his name in blood??”
“I was right on his ass shoving that thing in.”
“Every single [name] quote has the word POG in it.”
“UnPOG.”
“I felt a strange vibration in my wenis.”
“Google it. The Flagina is real.”
“I got to Urban Dictionary and I don’t think I wanna read this out.”
“I have a meme for this. Hold on.”
“My phone is on 5% but that’s enough.”
“Staff, for legal reasons, that’s a joke.”
“Guys… How do I delete my canvas??”
“[Name] has created a horror so real that it won’t leave.”
“If I keep on guessing, one of them has to be [Name].”
“Let’s have a look at what—” Burps really loudly.
“You want to fight me in Tetris after seeing my brain??”
“They do call me the master baiter.”
“No!! I like his hat!!”
“I feel like it’s me but when the fuck was this??”
“When I read it, I can hear [Name]’s voice.”
“Here’s [full name], he says LOL.”
“This is a historic quote.”
“They didn’t say laugh out loud, they said LOL.”
“If someone ends with a full stop, I feel very threatened.”
“The grammar police in my head is just like ‘You gotta do it [name]’.”
“We had to just decipher something that was written in binary but we didn’t realize that it was binary–”
“I was straight up incapacitated for a while…”
“Oh! the double penetratio–”
“I will be putting some of you on blast today.”
“This is me but I stopped earlier, in my defense…”
“No matter what you say, it will always return to bite you in the ass.”
“My favourite position? I like beieng on my computer playing League of Legends.”
“You’re absolutely right. League absolutely plays [name].”
“Are you a mistletoe? Because I want to be under you.”
“BRUH.”
“What’s something funny… Does anyone remember the movie Sky High??”
“All I know that it’s like— My Hero Academia several years before it came out.”
“If they’re asking for a kick in, they should get a kicking.”
“Waitwaitwait— I’m drawing a funny.”
“What an unit indeed.”
“Meow, bottom.”
“Only real ones remember.”
“Ooooh the memorie– Wait, no.”
“Mine is the default Windows wallpaper.”
“You guys know the incident I’m talking about. Don’t try to play dumb.”
“That might be the most awesome thing that’s ever gonna happen on this stream.”
“I’ve never had more raw panic into my body than when it kept going after the car.”
“You exposed yourself on this one.”
“Liar has 5 letters.”
“Why is [name]’s number all the way to the right??”
“I feel like a worm on a piece of concrete.”
“See, the first question you ask is would you say this to yourself??”
“I have this really bad habit of having these really overly specific analogies that I never remember but everyone else does.”
“Did [Full name] say this??”
“[Name] really is the kid who reminds the teacher that they had homework.”
“Who really needs restraints such as handcuffs?? There’s a perfect space between the tip of my show and the heel where your wrists fit just right.”
“I can’t guess because I don’t know what this means.”
“That’s such a mid S.”
“I’m drawing with a mouse. It’s good enough.”
“Unless you did not know, I don’t wear heels.”
“[Name] is depicting a fucking cave drawing.”
“Number 12 is, I guess, cock.”
“All of my quotes are sexual.”
“I’m sorry for putting you on blast.”
“It’s not that there’s something in the sentence that blatantly gives away who it is.”
“Does he know?? He doesn’t know.”
“Like, dude, you don’t understand, it’s rectangles man.”
“Most likely to become a Bro…”
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What were reckoning and eigengrau's creators like?
well, lets see... for rex…
...yeah, so, it was bad, on rex's end! no wonder she's humanphobic!
basically, the trick of the matter was that, when rex was first created, she broke out a la ava 1 and tried to fight back against her creator. she lost, but unlike ava's victim, her animation wasn't deleted.
instead, she was saved, if only in name.
now, her creator could open up her animation whenever they needed a punching bag, and when they were done, it was right back to oblivion for her. hell, they could even preplan environments and load up her animation whenever they were ready- they could create oceans, mazes, endless traps- all in advance, and only then open up reckoning's program!
and reckoning, who isn't awake or around in any sense when her animation isn't open, can do nothing about it, and experiences every torture in a continuous stream of consciousness, even if "sessions" are spaced months apart on the animator's side.
she tried to fight back, of course she did! she even managed it pretty well, for awhile, but...she can't plan in advance. her creator could.
and really, once her creator figured out how to code reckoning to block her ability to fight back, or damage parts of the interface, or even beg for mercy...
well, it was all over by then.
(suicide implications warning here! just this next paragraph)
by the way, that "mission" command in ava3? "mission.The_Dark_Lord = destroy(The_Chosen_One);"? that command? wouldn't it be fucked up if you did something like, oh, i don't know, "mission.victim = destroy(victim);"? haha. wouldn't that be fucked up?
(aight we're done)
over time, rex became numb to it all- the pain, the death, everything. she always came back, after all. and after the primal fear came the anger, and after the anger came a chilling calm.
so, reckoning plans and waits and tries to escape and fails many, many times
and then,
and then,
finally, she succeeds. just once, but it’s all she needs
the rest is history
-
-
now for eigengrau!
eigengrau was created by another stick figure, actually! he was the type of scientist who just never really stops, is always trying new things, testing and testing and testing!
that stick figure, who went only as Iris (although that wasn't his real name), had an entire facility to himself, to study the strange and the abnormal, to conduct experiments, and to keep the products of the experiments safe and contained.
think, like, scp foundation, basically, but less government and maybe a smidge more madhouse. lots of greens and blues and purples. they had some aesthetic flair!
it was less deadly, too. it's like, if scp foundation was made by an indie video game developer.
eigengrau was actually never officially in Iris’s custody- it was made, and then immediately stopped existing due to the presence of light, so on Iris’s end, it just seemed like the experiment had failed. eigengrau showed up in some pitch-dark corridor when night fell upon the place because of the biomechanical cameras. repeat every day for, like, 3 months? it snuck around all the time. couldn't leave or teleport to other places because of the firewall around the facility.
Iris knew it was there, found out almost immediately (cameras) and basically told his staff that if they saw a tall creepy guy at night, they should probably leave it alone. once tried to have a stakeout and study it, but Iris isn’t a terribly mean guy, he means well enough
then a containment breach happened, the firewall around the facility went down, and eigengrau managed to escape! this then broadened its "range," and, again, the rest is history!
#avm oc#ava oc#animator vs minecraft#animator vs animation#avm#ava#original posting#michael talks#eigengrau tag#reckoning tag
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i’m constantly reminded of mortality, and it doesn’t bother me the way you’d think
repost from that time i deleted an article i spent 4 days on T-T
actual post this time since i somehow posted it privately yesterday 😭
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Hi, I’m Questioning. And I like to waste my life away dedicate my free time to random hobbies that catch my hyperfixation interest on the fly. Currently, I’ve returned to something most important. Updating the encyclopedia-esque database of AlternativeTo.net. o_o
Let me finish.
See, I started exploring the world of Visual Novel (VN) makers, which led to me discovering the world of Interactive Fiction (IF)–their predecessor afaic. And that’s where it got strange. What I’ve found is interesting developments in terms of innovation and such. Like Undum (image)–“a game framework for building a sophisticated form of hypertext interactive fiction” according to its GitHub. IFWiki calls it “an authoring system for CYOA-style stories playable on web browsers.” It was created by I.D. Millington in 2009, released in 2010, had returned in 2018, and would’ve changed the IF genre (kinda like Twine did) if not for how hard it was to get into.
Undum’s flexibility and power have made it the engine that drove some of the most significant works in IF (The Play, Almost Goodbye). But it has always been relatively inaccessible. Undum is not the system of choice for writing straightforward hypertext games; it’s a challenging system to learn and use that demands the author build their own engine on top of it to drive their game logic. Consider Raconteur for “Undum with batteries included.” -Bruno Dias (x)
Enter Raconteur, “a friendlier way to write Undum hypertext fiction” that was announced by Bruno Dias in 2015. More accurately described as “a library of Undum tools that can get someone writing their story quickly.” Here’s the thing about the “library of Undum tools” part: Undum did not come prepackaged with any… even though they were required to write your game,…😐 which “meant doing a lot of your own tooling.” 😑
Yeah, no surprise it won the award for Best Technological Development in XYZZY Awards 2015.
But hold up, somethin’ ain’t right…
Undum’s only got 21 games on IFDB.org and Raconteur’s got 4… with 1 overlap with Undum. 😐
So~… wth?
Well, someone else had a similar question on intfiction.org in March and got Josh Grams’ opinion on it: JavaScript.
🤷🏿♂️
So even though Undum was designed as the visual version of bookbinding and with the specific goals “aesthetic” & “technical” in mind, shit’s too intimidating compared to alternatives.
I hoped [writing Undum in JavaScript] would make it accessible for a wider range of dabblers, requiring transferable skills rather than learning a new language. It also made it achievable to write and document over a few weekends: I didn’t have to worry about parsing, or creating a complete runtime. But the best benefit, and in some ways the one least exploited in practice, is the ability to use Undum as part of a bigger game. I imagined a strategy game with CYOA elements, or a piece of interactive fiction using natural language generation to be different each time. -Ian Millington (x)
And here’s~ where it gets a bit fucked.
Remember the other person who had a similar question–J. J. Guest? Well, they ended their post with “Was it simply superseded by Ink / Inky?”
Let’s keep this simple:
Ink [image] is the core narrative engine itself, written in C#. It includes the code for the compiler. If you’re not technical, you don’t need to worry about this.
Inky [image] is our ink editor, which is a text editor with support for playing as you write. If you’re just starting out with ink, this is all you need.
inkle is the game development studio that created ink
(x)
So it’s “a narrative scripting language for games” and yet another CYOA maker. Why do I bring them up? Well, Inkle (the company) “was founded in 2011 by two Cambridge game developers [Joseph Humfrey & Jon Ingold] with a passion for storytelling and beautiful design” (x). They started off with their unique “inklebook” format, which had an early prototype game in ~2008 that Jon described as
an iPad-based choice-driven story made of ‘pages’ which stitched together into a single flow via frequent choice points. It was a lovely UI for a choice-based game, even in prototype form, and we had a strong scripting language underneath it – the first version of ink. (x)
In January of 2012, they released “a web-tool for writing and reading simple interactive stories” called inklewriter. Joseph described it as “a simpler subset of the inklebook format” (x) and admitted “inklewriter was partly born out of the surprise that there isn’t anything out there for quickly and easily writing non-linearly.” (x)
After already having “moved away from developing inklewriter for a long time,” it went “permanent beta” in September of 2017 due to “increasing frequency of persistent bug-reports.” Sad news considering the statement “we’ve had hundreds of thousands of stories created by hundreds of thousands of users; we’ve won awards from school and library associations; and hopefully we’ve helped kickstart a few interactive writers careers” (x). And since writers (who became aware in time) were able to “rescue” their story from the bugs and potential wipeout with a simple Save Page As, it was probably a bit less heartbreaking when inkle revealed less than a year later that inklewriter would be shutting down completely in August of 2018. Seemingly because “it’s real work to fix the issues that arise” with the constant browser changes. 😐
Only 7 months later, it returned in March of 2019. Stable, still free, and now open-source after developers in the open-source community “produced a full port of inklewriter to modern web-tech.” 🥳 Writers needed to make new accounts and import their stories to the new database, but that was it. And since the legacy version was (and is) still around, they could do it pretty quickly. (x)
But where dahell was I going with this? Let me tell you about the original connection first: Unity Integration.
The [ink-unity-integration] plugin provides you with everything you need to get started with ink in Unity. It automatically recompiles ink files as you edit them, and even comes with a simple previewer that lets you play stories directly within the Editor, without writing a line of code. (x)
Remember Ian Millington’s statement from awhile ago? “But the best benefit, and in some ways the one least exploited in practice, is the ability to use Undum as part of a bigger game. I imagined a strategy game with CYOA elements, or a piece of interactive fiction using natural language generation to be different each time.” (x)
Well,… Stoic Studio (announced that they) did it in January 2013 when they used inklewriter for The Banner Saga. Though, inkle recommends you use their ink scripting language instead for Unity projects. 🤷🏿♀️ A scripting language that was ported to JavaScript in May of 2016, btw. The port (inkjs) having its latest release just 6 freaking days ago while Undum and Raconteur had their last GitHub edits in 2018 & 2020 respectively.
Either way, Ian’s imagination of “a strategy game with CYOA elements” happened… with another mofo’s software. 😐
And what’s that? I left something out?
I left working on Undum to develop Varytale, a short lived commercial IF endeavour that shared a lot of the same aesthetic and narrative structure. And then I retired, and it lay fallow, aside from email help requests that still drip into my inbox. -Ian Millington (x)
Let’s see what IFWiki says about this endeavor:
Varytale was a platform for authoring and publishing browser-based CYOA, created by Ian Millington and Alexis Kennedy; it occupied a point somewhere between Undum and StoryNexus [a comparatively mostly defunct endeavor from 2012].
The Varytale website was live from approximately 2011 to 2015. The first posts on Varytale’s blog appeared in June 2011. On March 7, 2014, Varytale posted a comment on the Varytale Facebook page saying, “The project is stalled, due to key people leaving the project. So there’s no news, and I’m not sure if or when there will be.” The last Wayback Machine snapshot of www.varytale.com/books was taken in September 2015. (x)
On its May of 2012 public beta announcement on FailbetterGames website, something slightly poignant was said.
But the technology is great [seriously] - it’s easily the most flexible and powerful tool of its kind, and it’ll be fascinating to see what people can do with it once the writers’ programme opens up.
And as it happens, Jon Ingold / Joseph Humfrey’s very elegant inklewriter has also just gone live [4 months prior].
(…)
…[inklewriter] covers some of the same territory as Varytale, but it’s (by design) simpler in concept and execution. (x)
Life is truly cruel.
If you check the archive from possibly days before its shut down in September of 2015, you’ll see 4 official books (Bee, Fighting, How To Read, Hymn & Shanty) and 3 User Published Books (London Road, Sixth Tower, Tillinghast). That’s 7… 7 books. 😐
But it’s not that sad. According to the Varytale blog’s 2nd to last post (in June of 2012), “we passed 50,000 reads across the seven books currently on our reader’s beta.” This was perhaps a full week after they released the floodgates and actually allowed people to start readin’. Das alot to me. They clearly succeeded in “building a platform for authors to write great books, and for publishers to publish them.” Even built a whole-ass “system that does generative design,” creating “artwork based on the author’s choice of patterned design or photograph” (x). Or, as we’d quickly say 12 years later, some AI shit.
So wut 👏🏿 in da fuq 👏🏿
Why’d they never get past the 7 book mark in the 2 years between Reader’s Beta and project stallation? Well,… there’s a hint at the end of that 2012 blog post: “We have a queue of people wanting to write content, who are been added a few at a time. So lots of hard work in the beta still to go.” hm~ 🤔
If The Way Back Machine had archives past January of 2013, we’d definitely know more, but this is it (i ain’t diggin’ a wider hole at this point). And what is it? I think it’s a matter of workload. Too much for too few people who had however much goin’ on in their lives. Remember much earlier this bit from IFWiki?
On March 7, 2014, Varytale posted a comment on the Varytale Facebook page saying, “The project is stalled, due to key people leaving the project. (x)
Maybe things weren’t smooth enough for awhile. Maybe it was something else for those 2 years prior. 🤷🏿♂️ And you know… the end of Emily Short’s blog post Writing for Varytale might hold the answer.
There are still some challenges about using the Varytale system, though it’s evolved tremendously over the course of beta. One of the biggest authorial challenges is that, while there’s the awesome structure tool shown above for looking at branching structure inside a storylet, it can be considerably more challenging to get a view of what’s going on at the macro level. And I’m not even sure what the tool for this ought to look like. The strength of storylets is that they can affect which other ones pop up in a fairly freeform way, and one can affect another (via their shared stat use) without explicit logic in either.
But that’s also what makes it really hard to graph how they will act. Most of the bugs that arose in Bee were related to this issue of envisioning the total structure of the work and detecting storylets that were going to break that structure. (x)
So in this case aswell, the innovations of Ian’s Varytale make it… (a bit) intimidating to work with. 😑Whether or not this difficulty was ever ironed out post-beta is unknown to me, especially considering the end of Ian’s thankful response to Tom H.’s suggestion for fixing the macro level problem: “When will I get chance to code it? That’s a whole other matter!”
…hm~
And on the same post lies magnus4444’s statement that “There isn’t a lot of documentation out there yet on the implementation of more advanced effects but, on the plus side, Ian is generous with advice and tips.”
🤷🏿♀️
So wtf do we have here. Effectively two developers (i’m simplifying it; fight me) who 1) made a CYOA maker (Undum & inklewriter) for very similar reasons, 2) put development aside to focus on other CYOA makers (Varytale & Inky), 3) had their neglected work taken up by open-source developers for the good of everyone, and 4) reaped the benefit of the other’s labor in some way. Now, here’s where we’re back to the sad part. Inkle’s version of the tale is the American Dream ™. Inklewriter was beloved by many and had mainstream success. Ian’s version is the harsh American Reality. Undum only bore 24+ games over the course of its 13 year existence on the internet and in the world of IF. And if a single person’s opinion is to be taken as fact… then the reason was simple: shit wasn’t easy to pickup. And thus, regardless of Ian & Bruno’s efforts, it (at this rate) is bound to become an obscure software regardless of its potential. All while Varytale remains gone and Inky (released in June of 2016) is still goin’ strong with 160+ games released using its Ink language/engine.
Which brings me back to the matter…
i’m constantly reminded of [my] mortality
#article#long post#looooooooong#Undum#Raconteur#Varytale#inklewriter#inky#inkle#AlternativeTo#Visual Novel#VN#Interactive Fiction#IF#GitHub#IFWiki.org#CYOA#I.D. Millington#Bruno Dias#XYZZY#IFDB#JavaScript#Ian Millington#inklebook#Stoic Studio#The Banner Saga#inkjs#Alexis Kennedy#Emily Short#once again i'm gonna say that i think the key reason for Ian's efforts being less successful than inkle's is marketing
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(Regular Ask | Any Mod) Post-Game Hajime, Nagito, Gundham, Sonia, and Akane dating the Ultimate Enologist who always plays tricks on them with swapping their drinks (innocently). Like; Hajime being asked to taste their new concoction, and it's literally just orange juice/favorite drink with no sweetener/additives, LOL.
Hello there Anon. This reminds me a lot of those "potions" that we all made when we were kids but they were really just soap and some other stuff mixed with water. I also took some creative liberties with this one cuz I had to mix it up a bit. Here's your request.
In other news tumblr crashed on me in the middle of this and deleted a whole ass section. I am ready to fight god with only primal rage as my weapon.
-Mod Shuichi
(Post–Game) Hajime Hinata, Nagito Komaeda, Gundham Tanaka, Sonia Nevermind, Akane Owari with a playful Ultimate Enologist!S/O.
Hajime Hinata🍊
🍊 Is immediately suspicious of you. You served him a glass of your new "concoction" but it just tasted like orange juice. Does he look like an idiot to you?
🍊 Begins "interrogating" you about the drink like you're in a trial. You must be the ultimate actor because your acting skills were top notch during the questioning.
🍊 He's out of truth bullets, shit. You got lucky this time, he has his eye on you.
🍊 He is also a massive hypocrite.
🍊 He loves watching others' reactions to your "concoctions". You usually pull this trick when they have already tried some of your original work, so they definitely don't expect to taste lemon juice in what is supposed to be a glass of your newest work.
🍊 Tries to hold in his laughter because then it would look suspicious, like you two were up to something. Maybe in the future though.
🍊 Back on track, he just knows you're paying tricks on him and wants to confront you about it, but…
🍊 Man's a simp. You're just so happy whenever someone falls for your tricks and you genuinely have a passion for creating and pranking and who is he to stop your fun.
🍊 When you do pull the trick on him, y'all have a back and forth debate on whether or not the drink is actually a new creation or apple juice.
🍊 You insist it's a new concoction and he goes "NO THAT'S WRONG!" Oh shit, he's onto you. Rethink your strategy stat!
🍊 You gave him something actually original and said it was "orange juice".
🍊 He drinks it, blinks a few times, and then glares at you. You apparently have a deathwish because you lean closer to his face and feign innocence, batting your eyelashes at him while asking what's wrong.
🍊 You expected another interrogation or maybe a "listen here you little shit", not a kiss on the lips. A surprise to be sure.
🍊 That was the start of a routine. Everytime you played your tricks on him, he'd pull you in and kiss you. You didn't know why he did that, but it was a fun way to get kisses.
🍊 If you ask him, he'd say he wanted you to taste teste your new drink <3
Nagito Komaeda☘️
☘ Very conflicted on how to feel. On one hand, he is sure what he is drinking is not the liquor you said it was; but on the other, who is he to doubt an ultimate?
☘ Plays along and congratulates you on your drink, saying it was very tasty. Bonus points if you do this trick in front of others and they're saying it's plain juice and not whatever fancy name you had said.
☘ Lowkey loves when others argue about your drinks. He always takes your side and it's hilarious.
☘ "I'm telling you that's not wine, it's cranberry juice!"
☘ "It's wine, if the Ultimate Enologist says so then it's wine. Did you spend years studying wines and their craft?"
☘ "I'M NOT AN IDIOT THAT'S CRANBERRY JUICE!"
☘ After a few more tricks he figures it out. You're playing a prank on him huh.
☘ He lets you know by saying thanks for the juice instead of whatever it is you said it was.
☘ You almost dropped the glass you were holding. He thought it was due to his luck, but he let it pass. Your face was just too funny to let the opportunity pass.
☘ Even though he knows, he still plays pretend from time to time. One because it makes you happy and two because you have to keep the illusion going for the others.
☘ You bargained with him over that last point. You promised him cuddles (after lot's of convincing that he did deserve them) in exchange for him acting along when you pulled your trick on others.
☘ Now he gets your cuddles, free drinks, and gets to witness your funny moments when you pull the prank on others. Man he really is lucky.
☘ If you name a drink after him or if one of your drinks is inspired by him he'll cry. Will refuse to drink it himself.
☘ You also share a drink that you say it's a new wine but it's really just dyed water. Others are confused by your couple ritual but y'all are happy so who cares.
☘ Nothing makes him happier than hugging you while you work on your drinks though, it fills him with hope <3
Gundham Tanaka🐹
🐹 Is convinced you're working with dark magic. You made wine taste like orange juice, what type of sorcery do you practice?
🐹 Asks you to see the process to check for magic. Oh no, you're fucked.
🐹 Or so it seems. When he's not looking you swap the drinks and keep the illusion going. He has yet to find out.
🐹 You sometimes pretend to add blood (red food coloring) to the decorations of the glass you serve your drink in and pour a special wine into them to make it look like blood.
🐹 People are convinced you two are vampires because of this.
🐹 You make non alcoholic drinks for the Devas in exchange for protection and a special place in his dark realm. You can also pet the devas free of repercussions.
🐹 Is insulted when someone even dares to suspect your drinks aren't really anything new. How dare they question the work of his soul's chosen companion sorry Hajime.
🐹 Very confused as to why others argue with you over your drinks. He is certain the contents of that glass are not apple juice, it's your new concoction inspired by the Devas.
🐹 The day he finds out your secret is the day the apocalypse began (not really but it felt like it).
🐹 You were preparing your drinks for the trick and waiting for him. He decided to surprise you by showing up a bit earlier and that resulted in him catching you mid switch.
🐹 Kept staring at you and the drink back and forth repeatedly, until the information was processed.
🐹 He's been tricked, sabotaged, and quite possibly bamboozled.
🐹 Began to doubt your status as a mortal and started having a crisis. In front of two perfectly fine drinks but ok. You came clean after that and he feigned betrayal. Even got the devan in on it too.
🐹 Both of you acted like it was a scene from a telenovela while trying to hold in y'alls laughter. You eventually got to the part where you begged for forgiveness.
🐹 Will forgive you on one condition, you pull that trick on Souda <3
Sonia Nevermind👑
👑 Before you even got to pull your tricks on her you were already her own personal enologist. Only the best for a princess.
👑 Does notice that your concoctions taste strangely like every day juices you can buy from the store, but she decides to give you the benefit of the doubt.
👑 Loves it when you do it to others though. She might not know what is happening but watching you argue with Fuyuhiko over what you just served him is hilarious.
👑 Gets whiplash whenever you pull your trick right after a formal event. You serve a magnificent cocktail never seen or tasted before and the next second you serve her what tastes like pineapple juice.
👑 You come to her for inspiration on what drinks to do next, it mostly involves references to the occult disguised as fancy people drinks.
👑 Does she find out about your secret? Yep
👑 She was looking for you to spend quality time together when she say you pour a glass of peppermint lemonade and label it as "new drink".
👑 Someone walked up to your stand and asked to try said drink and you served them the lemonade. They were extremely confused and from there a discussion started.
👑 She scurried away before you could catch her, equally as confused as the poor customer you just served.
👑 The next day, she asked to try some of your drinks and they all tasted like normal drinks. What happened to your awesome concoctions you served during parties?
👑 She's on a mission now, she's gonna get to the bottom of this mystery.
👑 One time, while you weren't looking, she snuck into your storage room to confirm her suspicion and found you working on your new wine (legit this time).
👑 You didn't seem to mind she had snuck into your storage room and invited her over to see the process. After that was done you offered her a glass as a taste test.
👑 She took a sip and it tasted like…mango juice? When she looked at you with a confused expression you laughed and offered her a glass of the actual drink.
👑 In that moment she realized she doesn't mind your tricks that much, if it makes you smile that brightly she'll always for for it <3
Akane Owari🤸
🤸 She would gulp down anything that you "concocted" for her because she loves you and you make killer drinks.
🤸 Would probably "get drunk" on whatever you decided to give her because of placebo effects and whatnot.
🤸 It is very fun to give her something like lemon water and saying it's a new type of tequila and you want her to do the honors of taste testing it.
🤸 Gladly does it and comments that it takes a bit like lemon. Then gives suggestions to other flavour you could add in your "tequila".
🤸 Others have tried to convince her it wasn't a new concoction because after the ntheenth time she had fallen for the trick it got a bit worrying.
🤸 She denies it every time.
🤸 One time you were serving her a glass of your new "drink" that was really just apple juice dyed to look like fine wine.
🤸 "Thanks for drink S/O, it looks delicious!"
🤸 You try to supress your giggles as she drank the whole thing and gave you back the glass.
🤸 She did comment that it "kinda tastes like apple juice" but that theory was dismissed due to the color of the drink.
🤸 Your plan fell right into place, good for you. Though the cheering had to be reserved for another time.
🤸 That time would be when you were cleaning the dishes because it gave you some alone time to cheer on your victory and you had a bunch of glasses to clean.
🤸 As you left with her empty glass in hand to get started on the dishes, Akane smiled to herself and lighty chuckled at the recent exchange
🤸 Plot twist, she knew that you were just messing with her. She played along with you because you always had the brightest smile whenever serving her a drink and she loved seeing you happy.
🤸 She just wants to see you happy, plus she gets free drinks <3
#mod shuichi#sdr2 x reader#sdr2#goodbye despair x reader#danganronpa2#danganronpa 2 x reader#super danganronpa 2#goodbye despair#danganronpa goodbye despair#gundham tanaka x reader#gundham x reader#gundham tanaka#hajime x reader#hajime hinata x reader#hajime hinata#nagito komaeda#nagito komeada x reader#nagito x reader#sonia nevermind#sonia nevermind x reader#sonia x reader#akane x reader#akane owari#akane owari x reader
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How did cwc fuck up tes? genuinely curious abt your thoughts on this
well its a bit of a story
the portrayal of sotha sil in it had a lot of potential - im not at all opposed to sotha sil being well-meaning but extremely arrogant pretentious and blinded by his own selfish, sheltered approach, that caused him to create a technological dystopia he deemed a paradise. all of the almsivi are extremely flawed and i think thats what makes them cool, truly human gods, and that in itself couldve been really really interesting, however unfortunately it was played so strangely, like... straightfowardly? in a "he's right" way. like the player is somehow Not supposed to find him insufferable. the Manpain Garden (which btw people have been yelled at for calling it that) really did it for me, like, oh no, a woman called him boring and distant one time, how tragic. like hes supposed to be the Good Guy of the tribunal as opposed to Mean Almalexia and Silly Vivec (both of which are such shallow and borderline offensive ways to characterize them too)
however i think what REALLY sucks is that they brought back divayth fyr and made him one of the main characters of the dlc. and look i know i say a lot that fictional bad people are funny but theres nothing funny about divayth fyr the incest pedo guy and i despise the way hes portrayed in eso and i despise everything surrounding it. eso twitter even made a fathers day joke about it but deleted it as soon as they rightly realized that it was kinda fucked up
for the above reasons eso:cwc caused a HUGE rift in tes fandom where some people criticized it and made fun of it and some people felt a strong attachment to it and felt slighted by that, plus not all people who learned about divayth fyr thru eso were initially aware of how he is in tes3 and reacted to such information in a range of ways, including but not limited to saying that actually people who like morrowind are evil and want such a despicable character to exist (im not even gonna start unpacking this) and are fucked up for not "rejecting" his tes3 portrayal to instead pretend hes just this cool quirky wizard. which, im not gonna delve into any individual persons, like, personal reasons to approach a character a certain way, but its beyond bizarre to make this kinda statement and act like its unreasonable to be repulsed by this whole ordeal
the rift this caused... pretty much ruined online tes fandom permanently. like there are just like two camps now, with Clockwork City DLC Enjoyers on twitter talking about how tesblr (aka everyone who disagrees with them) is elitist and mean and Scoffs At People Who Dont Know Enough Lore (all untrue but w/e), and that reaches completely new people as their first impression of the fandom, thus deepening the rift. it made a lot of major contributors completely check out, because not only did they feel excluded by all the new content, but also by the community. and mind you before all of that tesblr was like, not a terribly huge community, but an always-growing one, with lots of discussions and contributions and fan content and inside jokes, and i just dont really see that anymore aside from small circles of people still passionate about very specific topics, which i assume is where the impression of being Inaccessible and Closed Off comes from. lots of people became really disillusioned with tes in general and moved on to different stuff. there was some drama that dragged for literal years, lots of vagueposting, conflicts, it was just all like.... unpleasant.
so yeah theres a very active eso-focused community on twitter that i dont personally interact with because they all hate me and a handful of people on tumblr. so, kinda not what it used to be. well theres always also r/teslore and other tes subreddits, but lemme tell you when it comes to any video game related topics never go on reddit never go on reddit neeeever go on reddit never go on reddit neeeever go on reddit never go on reddit, neeeever go on reddit wow wow wowwoowww
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somewhere new
Erik Stevens x Black Reader
a/n: hello lovelies, i hope you’re well and i hope that you enjoy this! i’ve been experimenting with writing lately, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!!
summary: you and Erik go decide to go grocery shopping, but you switch things up a little
warnings: fluff-ish with some sexual tension and implied smut
word count: 3189
A booming,
“Yo, ma!”
Accompanied by a knock at the door rattles you, causing you to drop your eyelash into the sink. Your good, very expensive eyelash that requires much focus in order to be applied to your upper lash line.
Grunting and twinging your face in disgust of the sight before you, you fish it out of the sink, blowing on it to determine if the glue is still salvageable.
“Come on, E! Five minutes!” You respond with your mouth slightly parted, a strange requirement for impeccable eyelash placement.
“Princess, we gotta hurry up before the store closes,” Erik protests, pulling up his sleeve to check his diamond-encrusted AP watch. It’s almost seven o’clock, and Erik hated shopping minutes before a store closed. It made him feel like he was being rushed to gather his items and head to the register.
You and Erik frequently ran errands together, only this time you were grocery shopping. Staying in was nice and all – really quite enjoyable – but an end had to come to the endless Netflix bingeing and takeout from your favorite spots. You both, mainly Erik, decided that it was time for a nutritious, home-cooked meal, one that wouldn’t lead you down a road of clogged arteries and hypertension. But Erik was a phenomenal chef, so you could hardly complain that your ongoing DoorDash expenditure had been interrupted.
“Damn! One second!” You holler. “One second…there.”
You step back and look into the mirror, admiring yourself. Thirty minutes of hard work and determination had really paid off! You grab your phone from the sink’s surface and proceed to snap some photos of yourself.
SHUTTER! SHUTTER! SHUTTER! SHUTTER!
Beauty must always be captured, no matter what the time restraint.
“Princess! You taking pictures in there?” The dreaded man pounds on the door, harder this time. Banging, nearly shaking the hinges out of the door until you swing it open.
And there you are, dolled up and all, from the 26-inch deep wave hair to the Adidas tracksuit, the top zipped down nearly to the level of exposing the full extent of your breasts. Just the way you liked it.
Erik can hardly contain himself as he looks further down at you, ogling how your recently-manicured toes fit perfectly between each slot of your sandals. Man, he knew you were one for dressing up, but to the grocery store? Maybe he needs to step his game up.
“Well?” You jest. “You were so loud banging on the door, you got nothing to say now?”
Catching his lip underneath his teeth, he smugly looks you over once more, trying to gather words to say, for you’ve left him speechless.
He inches closer to you, “My babygirl likes to talk back, huh?”
“Yup, she do,” Boldness courses through you, nearly shattered as you maintain eye contact with your boyfriend.
His eyes were boulders, but you were just as unyielding. This game the two of you liked to play – this perpetual exchange of power – rarely ever ended with you emerging victorious. And you knew this, but you wanted to have your fun.
Finally, though smirkingly, you divert your gaze to your phone, shuffling through your gallery to decide which photos to keep, which photos to delete, and which photos to post.
“You look beautiful, Princess,” Erik chuckles after pressing a kiss onto your lips. “Now let’s go.”
While you knew you had lost the battle in the bathroom, you couldn’t wait to enjoy the war you and Erik would have in the bedroom later.
–
“Shotgun!” Erik shouted as you were fumbling in your purse for your keys, making a sprint for the car through your apartment complex’s parking lot.
The sun was setting beneath the horizon, and it illuminated the sky a burnt orange, a hue that began to embellish the surfaces of each object it touched – buildings, vehicles, windows, trees, the reflective skin of Erik’s custom-designed Air Max 97s as he raced further away from you.
After some time, your nimble fingers reach the item of your search, which results in a chime. You pull the keys out, contemplating whether to unlock the car doors for dreaded man in order to relieve him from the heat of the California sun, or let him suffer. Though it was setting, this sun still could extract a cup of sweat from one’s body. But hey, Erik was grown, he could wait.
You strut up to the car to see your boyfriend leaning on the door, panting, condensation forming on his forehead.
You release a sound of triumph, “I was gonna drive anyway.”
The car unlocks with a chirp, and you open the door and sit down. Dumbfounded, Erik was clutching the hood of the car still, trying to catch his breath.
“You getting in, or…”
He opens the car door and slumps down into the seat.
“You didn’t have to have a nigga looking dumb, baby.”
“I don’t think you need me for that, E.”
Erik snickers, “So it’s like that?”
“Yeah, it’s like that,” you tease, pressing the car to start and reversing out of the lot.
The two of you were buckling in for a long evening, and quite frankly, you couldn’t wait to see how it would progress.
–
As you drive on the road, the city and all its structures – both new and old – vanish behind you as a multitude of cool currents of air whip into the car through the windows, blowing your hair in all sorts of directions.
The vehicle vibrates as you blast a playlist full of new releases through your aux, and Erik grips your thigh as he sings to you, gold canines flashing and all.
You gently place your foot on the break, easing the car to a stop before the upcoming red light.
Erik, nearly louder than the music, starts to grind on the seat à la Magic Mike, and you couldn’t help but to laugh at the dreaded man and his silliness, a behaviour that is a pleasant break from his usual brooding nature.
But your laughter is cut short by a car honking behind you, indicating that the light had just turned green. You roll your eyes, because it had literally just turned green, and you press on the gas, revving your vehicle to the speed limit.
You pass another number of buildings a before making a sharp left turn.
“Shit!” You mumble to yourself.
You had almost missed the turn.
“Babygirl, that wasn’t the turn. Where we going?” Erik questions, for the route you’re taking was not your usual one.
“A little change of plans. I wanted to go somewhere else this time.”
“’Somewhere else’?” Erik probes. “What’s wrong with Ralph’s?!”
Now this took Erik by surprise. He’s genuinely concerned about your decision. To him, Ralph’s is King.
“Nothing, just wanna try something different.”
Your boyfriend clutches his heart, feigning a heart attack. You snort and turn into the parking lot. Both the wind and the car’s engine settle as you drive into a spot and press the vehicle off.
“Trader Joe’s?!” Erik cries. “What they got up in there?”
You exit the car, grabbing your purse from the backseat. “Stop complaining. Let’s go.”
–
If boredom could be personified, it’s spitting image would be Erik, for he rests his forearms on the bar of the shopping cart, eyes drooping as he observes the eccentric packaging of Trader Joe’s products.
Picking up a container of salsa he says, “Why all this shit organic?”
But you just suck your teeth and let him sulk behind the cart, ignoring him and all his grumbling.
“And this,” His gaze sets upon another display, “Who the fuck needs all these types of dried fruit? Probably taste like tumbleweed anyway.”
“Yo, stop moaning and groaning over there,” You shoot back at him, grabbing two packages of dried mangoes and placing them into the cart.
But Erik persists, dragging his feet across the smooth, concrete floor.
Minding the grocery list you and Erik had created earlier on your phone, you head deeper into the produce section, searching for some leafy greens and other ingredients that would contribute toward Erik’s signature salad. He walks off with the cart, gathering some tomatoes and bell peppers before making his way into another section of the store.
You, on the other hand, stand in front of the illuminated display with every type of green you could think of: arugula, kale, spinach, and lettuce, just to name a few. Reaching in, you squish some of the bags in order to determine their freshness. And you grab some kale and return to your shopping partner, who was waiting patiently for you, his previous protesting done with.
Looking down at the list on your phone, there wasn’t that much left for you all to grab, just some seasonings that were essential for the completion of any dish. There’re so many to choose from, and quite frankly, you’d just grab them all if you weren’t on a budget. So, you place a couple in the cart. And when you look up again, there Erik is, a pouty look on his face.
“Birthday cake popcorn?” Erik suggests, holding up the multicoloured item.
“Put it in the cart,” You giggle, maneuvering to a checkout line with the least amount of people.
The line becomes shorter and shorter, with customers paying and leaving with their large brown bags. And before you know it, the cashier shouts, “Next!” and moves to take your cart.
“Find everything okay?” The cashier asks, briefly glancing up at the two of you before moving to scan the items in your cart.
“Yes, thank you,” you respond, blankly staring as more items appeared on the customer screen and the worker transferred your groceries into the bags adjacent to the register.
Erik, standing beside you, wraps his right pinky finger against your left one, linking the two of you before you adjust to hold his entire hand. He grips your waist and pulls you in to kiss your lips and lingers there for a short while, eyes boring into yours while also relishing the traces of your chocolate-flavoured lip gloss that had found its way to onto his tongue.
You’re flustered, of course, but not because he hadn’t kissed you this intensely before, but because you were reminded that you were still at the grocery store, for the cashier cleared their throat awkwardly, repeating the total cost you had missed in your fleeting moment of passion.
Scratching your neck, hoping to relieve the embarrassment that that crept up your spine, you ask, “I’m sorry, how much is it?”
To which the cashier responds, “That’s $43.96.”
“I got it, bae,” Erik interjects, pulling out his wallet and handing a crisp yet folded fifty-dollar bill to the worker.
And while the cashier hands Erik the change, you grab the red cart and head toward the exit but not before thanking them. A few steps behind, Erik acknowledges another cashier – the only Black cashier – with a head nod and a knowing smile, to which the cashier nods, shrugs, and returns the grin: the shared feeling of being the only Black person in the room. The automatic doors open, reintroducing the cool evening air upon your face and hair, and the rubber wheels of the cart greet the smooth pavement.
When you reach the cart return, Erik grabs all of the bags while you fit the cart among the lines of carts already present. The two of you begin to walk to your parked vehicle but instead accidentally stumble upon on one with a similar make and model to your own but was not yours.
“I swore I parked right here,” you huff, standing on the balls of your feet, searching the sea of identical cars in the well-lit parking lot. And the fact that there were so many other last-minute shoppers did not help your plight either.
“Lemme see the keys,” Erik says, intrigue in his voice. “I wanna see something.”
You hand him the keys to the car, and he places them under his chin, pressing the unlock button repeatedly.
“That doesn’t actually work, does it?” You quiz, doubt heavy on your words.
“We have to see.”
Supposedly, this little trick should increase the bandwidth of the key’s signal, using one’s head as a sort of antenna. But after a couple clicks, you hear nothing besides traffic on the neighbouring streets.
Pointless, you think, just wanting to hurry up and head home.
But then, you hear a series of chirps in the distance and Erik yipping about the fact.
“Over there,” Erik says, nodding his head toward the source of the noise.
He picks up the bags, and you both head to the vehicle.
–
Shutting the door to your car, you release a sigh. Finally, the bags are all placed on the floor of your car, and you can finally head home.
With your foot on the break, you reach to push the car to start but then Erik yelps, “Wait! I wanna try those mango joints.”
“Oh, now you wanna try them,” You jest, “Because if I can remember, you were just–”
“–Man,” Erik interrupts, reaching to the backseat and rummaging through the bags. “Found it.”
He surveys the clear package titled “Soft & Juicy Mango” with his eyebrows furrowed and his lips curled, a slight repugnance that he couldn’t even help hide. But ripping the bag open, his expression softens as the aroma fills his nostrils, the sweet, tropical scent soothing him.
You watch, rolling your eyes, as Erik cautiously lowers his fingers into the package. One would think that the former Navy Seal wouldn’t be so dramatic over something like trying a new food, but Erik never ceases to amaze you.
Mango slice in hand, Erik purses his lips as he brings it to his mouth, slowly. Tortuously. And chews, his head cocked to the side.
“Wait,” he says as he swallows the last bit. “These bitches smack!”
You release a sound of disbelief, start the vehicle, and pull into the street, heading home. Of course the mangoes were delicious.
–
The sound of the car door closing can be heard as you and Erik finish grabbing all the groceries and head to the entrance of your apartment building. Your boyfriend opens the door for you, his veiny forearm braced on it and towering above you as you enter.
“Damn, ma! You getting thick!” He hollers as he watches the sway of your hips in your fitted bottoms.
You feel your cheeks warm up as you push some hair behind your air. You had been getting thick.
The lobby as you pass through is empty except for the security guard looking down at a glow coming from their lap and a couple of young people with white wires cascading down from their ears, bopping their heads to music that you can hear but not quite make out specific lyrics.
You and Erik find your way inside the elevator, the flickering fluorescents easing you back home, a stark difference from the glaringly bright ones at Trader Joe’s. Erik presses the round “4”, and the aluminum doors begin to close before you, you staring ahead while Erik sneaks a glance at you, smirking before redirecting his gaze toward the sliding metal.
Watching the line of numbers flash as the lift ascends from the ground floor, you turn to Erik, kissing him softly on the lips, closing your eyes and feeling a tingling sensation coursing into him through you. An electrical current that ceases to meet its end, ravishing you both entirely.
And with a ding, the elevator doors open and there you and Erik are, standing chest to chest in the moment, biting your lips like a couple of anxious teenagers on a first date. You pull away from him, keys in hand, heading for the apartment while Erik watches you.
God, how did he get so lucky? You were a treasure to him, and not only because you were so extraordinary but the little things: how you treated him so tenderly and with love yet wouldn’t hesitate to call him out when he was acting like a fool, and how you were so receptive to him as he was to you. These were all things that he scarcely experienced, if he ever experienced them at all. You helped him learn how to love and to receive love, which is an astonishing feat that many cannot confess that they’ve accomplished for themselves. And as you look back at him and smile while you unlock the door, he feels a bit weak in the knees, your electricity overwhelming him once more. You’ve got him hooked, and he loves it. He’s entirely entranced by you, and he doesn’t mind.
You open the door and are welcomed by your apartment, which is completely shrouded in darkness, save for the streetlights, the headlights of passing cars, and the last sliver of the orange evening sky before it is overcome by those distant stars in the night sky.
“Whew,” you exhale, flipping on the light switch and opening the door wider.
Erik sets the bags down on the countertops and approaches you.
“What are you–” you begin, but Erik is sliding his arms around your midsection and turning you to him. He presses his forehead against yours, twirling the ends of your hair and breathes you in and attaches his lips to yours, gently, truly wanting to savour this moment and you in this moment.
He pulls away, slowly, and confesses for the first time aloud, “I love you,” in a voice no louder than a whisper in a public library, to which you respond, “I love you, too.”
And the two of you remain like this for a few moments, staring into each other’s eyes, not even letting the ever-busy late-night traffic rattle you.
“So,” he starts, “About earlier in the bathroom…”
“Yeah, what about it?” You respond, seduction laced in your words.
“I’m thinking we need to address that.”
“Oh, do you?”
“Yup,” Erik answers, popping the “p”.
“And what about the groceries?”
“They’ll be a’ight.”
“Hm,” You sound, lacing your hand with his and walking the both of you to your shared bedroom.
Erik walks towards you, making you both fall on the bed. And the dreaded man begins pecking at your neck, travelling up to the bone of your jaw and landing once again on your plump lips. He swipes his finger down them, and repeats, “I love you.”
You stand up to close the door, while Erik sits up, waiting on you to return to him. You cradle his head in your hands while you kiss him, deeper, all that former tenderness left at the door. And stripping him of his shirt, his impatient fingers also dance to the zipper of your top, lowering it. He slides the jacket over your shoulders as you kneel on the bed to straddle him. But before you could grind down on his crotch, Erik grips your hips and flips you onto your back, the sudden movement bouncing your body on the bed after it meets the comforter.
“Not so fast, babygirl.”
#erik x reader#erik killmonger#erik stevens#black panther#black panther fandom#black panther fanfiction#black reader#erik x black reader#erik killmonger x black reader#black!reader#kris writes#n'jadaka#erik stevens x reader#fanfiction
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Kinkmas Day 5: Phone Sex
Stiles was going to throw up. Or pass out. Or maybe throw up and then pass out. Or maybe pass out as he was throwing up.
It wasn't an instant regret, he didn't know what he had just done. It took a few minutes and Stiles' impatience, for him to come to the conclusion as to what he had just done.
Usually the guy he had been texting, Brett, texted him right back, especially after the kind of text Stiles had just sent him. The naked kind of text.
But he hadn't answered for about ten minutes, strange for him. Stiles knew he didn't have work, it came up in casual conversation (which they didn't have very often) that Brett's only day off was Tuesday's.
Brett and Stiles had been hooking up for about a month now, completely casual and just for fun. They had met before at a couple lacrosse games, and rekindled over some stupid gay hookup app. Stiles swore he was going to delete it the day after he created it, but awoke to a message in the app.
The rest was sort of history, sweaty, hot, history.
They always hooked up on Tuesdays, and oftentimes liked to send the hint of wanting to hook up with a provocative picture. But Brett hadn't responded.
Stiles huffed out a breath, taking a seat on the couch and pulling out his phone from his pocket. He unlocked it and immediately went to his text messages, checking the most recent one he sent, the one to Brett, only to find it wasn't there.
At the top of the most recent messages was Derek's name. That's weird, he must have missed a text from him. Squinting in confusion, Stiles opened up the chat, only to go pale. Oh. My. God.
There on his phone was a picture of Stiles. A naked picture of Stiles. A naked picture of Stiles that he had sent to Derek, not to Brett. Holy mother of God.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Stiles chanted, leaning forward and trying not to throw up.
"Oh my God." He threw his phone beside him on the couch, burying his head in his hands. He and Derek hadn't talked in weeks. Sure, the brooding wolf had very slightly opened up to the rest of the pack, but not necessarily to Stiles. They nodded to each other at weekly pack meetings (Scott's suggestion to try and keep them all close for now, as was the summer before they all started college, everyone was prepared to go their separate ways, to get out of this town), but never talked.
Stiles' face burned red with embarrassment, he would never be able to face the man again, not as long as he lived. He shook his head in his hands. At least he never really had to see him again. I mean, in less than a month, he would be at Stanford. Sure he was still in California, but he was hours away from Beacon Hills, hours away from Derek.
He was still deep in thought, feeling sick to his stomach when his phone buzzed on the opposite side of the couch. Oh dear God. Had Derek responded? He couldn't look.
He stared at his hands, worrying his lip between his teeth. He couldn't look. He had to look.
He lunged at his phone, grabbing it quickly. How Derek chose to respond didn't really matter, he was never going to see the man again, not after something like that. Consider his summer over. The last three pack meetings were cancelled, as far as Stiles was concerned.
With trembling fingers, Stiles unlocked his phone, staring at the home screen. He had a message from Derek, big surprise. He wondered for a moment how Derek would respond. Maybe he would type angrily in all caps, or send a puking emoji, maybe he would threaten to send it to someone.
Ears burning like fire, Stiles opened up the message and slightly relaxed.
I don't think you meant to send that to me.
What a mundane response. Normal, appropriate, simple. Stiles had never been more thankful for the man of few words. That could have been so much worse.
Stiles shook his head, taking in a deep breath. It was fine, it would be fine. A simple mistake, really. He would profusely apologize, move to Stanford, and never see Derek again. Life would go on. It was fine.
His phone buzzed again, breaking him from his thoughts. On instinct, he looked down again at his phone and then froze.
But I like what I see.
Oh my God. Stiles blinked several times, rereading the latest text several times. He double-no, triple, checked that it was from Derek.
But I like what I see.
Now it was Stiles turn to stare at the unexpected text message he had just received, confused and embarrassed still. How was he supposed to respond to that? I mean, he shouldn't ignore that right? It certainly wasn't the response he expected but it also didn't bother him.
Blood pooled at his groin at the thought of Derek seeing that picture, at Derek liking it.
Was this seriously his life, was this seriously happening right now?
Stiles bit his lip again, typing and erasing each message he tried to prepare. He had no words for that, no words could describe how he was feeling, because he didn't even know how he was feeling. Even so, he felt as though he had to say something. Besides, they both had their read receipts on, Derek would know Stiles had read his messages.
Sorry.
Before Stiles could psych himself out, he sent it. One word, an apology for the accidental text, so Derek would know it indeed was not meant for him. Maybe they would be able to forget about it, move on, maybe Stiles wouldn't have to hide at Stanford for the rest of his life, but for now, that was still the plan.
Don't be.
Fuck, what did that mean? Derek had to be joking, he had to be. There was no way that Derek actually liked that photo, no way. Derek, the guy who shoved him around and shot him glares. Sure Peter joked about the sexual tension in the room but that wasn't sexual tension that was just. . . Derek's hatred for Stiles. Just regular ole tension
Stiles huffed out a sigh, heading to his room. He put the phone on the charger, determined to sleep and forget about this night. Maybe it was all just a dream. Wishful thinking.
It was also wishful thinking that he would be able to fall asleep. He tossed and turned for hours, wrapped up in his navy blue sheets. He got a cup of tea at some point, opened up the window for a nice cool breeze, read a couple chapters of a book, even wacked one out, trying his hardest not to think of Derek, but nothing worked.
Eventually, around five in the morning, pure exhaustion took over and he got about two hours of off and on sleep.
In the morning, Stiles felt utterly wrecked. He wiped at his eyes and rolled over to grab his phone, unfortunately it was usually the first thing he did in the morning. He was used to being called in the middle of the night, something crazy was always happening in Beacon Hills, so checking for missed calls and texts first thing sort of became a routine.
He didn't have seventeen missed calls from Scott this time, only two notifications. An email from the University (most likely telling them once more just how excited they were to have him), and a text from Derek, at 6:32 AM.
What the hell was he doing up that early, and why did he text Stiles- oh. Oh yeah. Heat rushed to Stiles' face again, cheeks burning in embarrassment. He had totally sent a nude to Derek. But. . . Derek had liked it. Or at least claimed to, prank or not.
Maybe Isaac had gotten a hold of his phone, had seen it and pretended to be Derek. Ugh. That meant Isaac had seen his junk.
Clearing his throat, Stiles opened up the text.
Good morning.
A simple text, a weird one from Derek, but none the less- oh dear mother of God.
Stiles sat up in bed so fast his head spun. He shook his head, trying to rid the dizziness and stared down at his phone, mouth agape.
Right below the good morning text was a picture of Derek. A not suitable for work picture of Derek. A very naked picture of Derek. A very naked picture of Derek with his hand around his hard cock.
Oh my God.
Stiles didn't know what to say, what to do. It was very clearly Derek in the photo. I mean sure, Stiles had never seen the man's cock, which was huge by the way, but he'd seen the man shirtless plenty of times, that was Derek. Derek with his rock hard abs, slightly hairy chest, deep v-line and hung, hard, cock.
Derek fucking Hale had just sent Stiles a nude.
Stiles smirked, in awe. This was the best thing that had happened to him since. . . ever. He was going to frame that photo. Was going to save it as his background on his phone and laptop. The only thing better than a picture of Derek would be seeing Derek-.
Quickly, Stiles began typing, because if that was a possibility, he wasn't going to let that slip through his fingers.
Well good morning to you too.
It was sly, teasing, perfect for the situation, if you asked Stiles.
Derek's didn't respond, hadn't seen the message. Stiles quickly typed something else up, impatient and hoping maybe more than one message would grab the man's attention if he happened to just miss the first one.
Looks like you are happy to see me.
Stiles smirked again. If Derek was dead set on stunning Stiles, or perhaps this really was a prank, a really, really, too-far prank, then Stiles would play along. Two could play at this game.
Stiles watched his phone for a few minutes, waiting for that little delivered saying under his message to say read, but it didn't change. Huffing, Stiles got up, making himself breakfast quickly and making sure his volume was up all the way on his phone.
He was shoving waffles down his throat when he got a text, but it was just Scott, asking if he was busy today. Stiles said he was.
He cleaned the dishes thoroughly and decided to take a shower.
He definitely did not jerk off to Derek. Nope. He didn't.
Hoping out of the shower, his heart rate was still up when he checked his phone, wiping away the fog that had clung to the screen, and it went up further when he saw a text from Derek.
Woke up thinking about you.
Stiles raised his eyebrows. That was. . . well hot for one, but also kinda sweet? Totally not like Derek.
Stiles looked down at his half-hard cock, interested already and gave it a slow stroke, hissing as he was still recovering from his last orgasm. Even so, he continued on, becoming fully hard in no time, just staring at that picture Derek had sent him.
Then Stiles did something so risky. Probably very stupid.
He took a picture of his hard dick and sent it to Derek.
So did I.
Derek was typing back immediately and Stiles went to his room, still naked, waiting for his response, stroking his dick lazily.
What were you thinking about, exactly?
Stiles typed back one handed. Risky. Stupid. But he kept going.
Thinking about that picture you sent me.
Stiles bit his lip again.
Did you like it?
Stiles almost laughed. Oh yes, he liked it.
Yes.
Derek seemed to think for a second, not texting back immediately. Honestly, Stiles was impressed that he texted as fast as he did, Derek wasn't exactly one with technology.
You should see it in person.
Stiles's heart hammered in his chest. He wondered what the "it" exactly referred to. He was so willing to find out.
Picture's don't do it justice?
Stiles teased.
I guess you'll have to come and find out.
Stiles sat up in bed quickly, running to his closet to throw on clothes. He threw on a loose shirt and some chinos, slipping on some shoes and brushing his teeth and quickly and thoroughly as he could. He ran a hand through his unkempt hair, glad it was longer and hoping Derek would run his hands through it, pull it. As he was running out the door, starting his Jeep, he sent one final text.
Be there in ten.
AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27847538/chapters/68179390
#Sterek#sterekkinkmas#sterekkinkmas2020#sterek fic#ao3#Derek#derek hale#Stiles/Derek#stiles x derek#stiles stilinski#Stiles
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Debbie Gallagher: ALL Love Interests RANKED
Okay! I tried to rank all of Debs’ love interests and it was hard to do because I am not set on that ONE PERSON that I ship her with above all else, but these are my thoughts! Keep in mind that these are all MY OPINIONS and you are entitled to yours as well! Let’s talk about it! If you read all this ILY.
Here we go:
...................................
23. The Guy At The Pool (Season 5)
He thought Debs was special needs and she tried to flirt with him...
22. Kelly (Season 9-10)
I LOVE Kelly so much but she was not into Debbie! I really love her with Carl and Debbie should not have tried to interfere! I will however say that I really really REALLY enjoy their friendship and I wish that that would have continued on. They had some really good moments together.
20/21. Eugene (Season 6) & Board Game Guy (Season 7)
Alright so these two don’t technically count because Frank tried to set Debbie up with Eugene so that she’d be written into his will. And the Board Game Guy was from a deleted scene as one of Debbie’s “life partners” from that flyer she made. So enough said.
18/19. Tyler (Season 6) & Erika (Season 6)
Again, Frank attempted to set Debbie up with Tyler and while that “potential relationship” wasn’t as bad as what happened between her and Erika, I am grouping them together because Debbie wasn’t technically into either of them and it was set up to fail right from the start.
17. Larry (Season 6)
The pregnancy fetish guy! I’m not quite sure what the intentions were for this character in the long run but it was a funny joke in the episode he was in. Even in the beginning Larry gave off red flags, but Debbie was happy... until the truth was revealed. Weird.
16. Jared (Season 11)
Another irrelevant love interest: the gay guy that cheated on his husband with Debbie after giving her cocaine. Obvious issues with this encounter/plot line aside, I did feel that their interactions at the bar were flirtatious and I didn’t hate him.
15. Calista (Season 11)
ANOTHER irrelevant character that was used and never brought back!!! I didn’t totally hate her either, she was upfront about her ex-girlfriend and that whole situation. She helped Debbie and didn’t take advantage of her but the second she came on screen; I’m sorry but I did not give a fuck. Her last episode built up a potential friend/relationship opportunity for Debbie and they just did nothing with it. Idfk what else to say, not a fan but I did appreciate Calista trying to take care of Debbie when she clearly was drinking too much.
14. Sandy (Season 10-11)
Oh boy, everyone’s favorite partner of Debbie’s... Yeah, Sandy is so low on this list not necessarily because I didn’t like her for Debbie, or that I have beef with Elise (b/c I love her as an actor sm). I personally just hate the sheer fact that this character EXISTS in the first place. I never understood the hype, but I know that people only like her because she’s a Milkovich ie. related to Mickey. That’s the hard truth this fandom isn’t willing to admit. My disliking Sandy should be a post of its own but lemme get into her relationship with Debbie.
You could tell that Emma and Elise liked working together so the chemistry was sorta there (definitely not soulmate shit tho). Each time that they interacted in s10 I was over it. S11 was better in the sense that whether I would like to admit it or not, they did have some “cute moments” (mainly just Sandy calling Debbie babe/babes). The second shit hit the fan in regards to Sandy’s history, I immediately understood Debbie’s issue with her and why her character would not want to be with Sandy. But, with that being said, Debbie was also in the wrong because she made everything about herself throughout the entire course of this relationship! Sandy did call her out, ex: “who was supposed to take Franny to school?”, and things like that were nice. HOWEVER I am sorry to say, this relationship felt like a massive waste of time and it felt like they were trying to force something that shouldn’t have existed to begin with. I don’t have the patience to even analyze this anymore, but maybe down the line because clearly there is SO MUCH to delve into!
13. Alex (Season 9)
Omg I did not like this relationship/plotline at all. Alex had issues but Debbie was so inconsiderate! I never saw the appeal here! It was nice that Alex had the decency to go and help Debs with Ford after the fact. I just feel “meh” about this tho. They had moments but ultimately I personally wasn’t into it and Debbie’s random newfound self discovery of “lesbianism”.
12. Kyle (Season 3)
Emma Kenney’s first kiss! Kyle was a one episode character that did have the potential to be more than that. I didn’t hate the kid as Debbie’s love interest, but there also wasn’t anything special about him. He was just kinda there and then he left. Debbie really seemed to like him though, spelling his name in her peas, etc.. I do like that one line about cigarettes that Kyle had but again he was such a short lived character and when he turned out not to be related to Kevin it became unnecessary to keep him around... even if the episode alluded to him returning. They were sorta cute!
11. Claudia (Season 10)
So I didn’t like this relationship much either but there was a certain kind of stability in the relationship that felt organic and nice. Partly because I enjoyed watching Constance Zimmer and she made Claudia likeable. Do I ship it? No. Was it a problematic dynamic? Yes. Was it a tolerable relationship? Eh. I didn’t hate it entirely though. Debbie, being a Gallagher, eventually fucked it up. And while I did like the drama, Debbie wasn’t REALLY into Claudia as much as she may have believed she was. So, it totally felt like a one off that would end with Claudia not returning... and it was. So there was no time for an investment of any kind.
10. Hedi (Season 11)
Gosh... Debbie’s endgame(?). Hedi was introduced too late for me to care enough about her (At this point it would have made sense for Debbie to wind up with Calista because at least she was already introduced!). I don’t necessarily like Hedi as a character and quite frankly it was a “who tf does SHE think she is” kinda deal for me. At first I was interested and didn’t hate her (and I don’t), but then she “thought she was Jimmy” and I instantly got annoyed (LOL I GUESS it was a nice nod to him tho... I guess).
My (several) problems with Hedi as a character aside, there IS something about Hedi being presented as this “dangerous badass” who is (somehow) WORSE than Debbie, that worked well. I’m not a fan of the ship, but it is an interesting dynamic in the sense that Debbie could potentially be “living on the edge”. I fear for what trouble this could cause Debbie BUT it’s like Frank referenced: Monica vibes. I don’t think it’s “true love” like Debbie said to Franny. A constant storyline for Debbie has been “why can’t anyone ever love me” and so she falls in quickly. Maybe Hedi will leave her but that’s the thing, “she’s done worse” so idk, either way I don’t think it’s meant to last! But I guess I don’t mind them being together! Karma’s a bitch! Will Carl tell her what Arthur found? Would it even make a difference?
9. Julia (Season 10)
I would have actually rather preferred her with Carl too! It was never love between Debbie and Julia, but the relationship did create good conflict for my viewing pleasure. UNPOPULAR OPINION, I didn’t mind Julia as a character at all. She was fine for me. I also enjoyed how ultimately SHE was only using Debbie in the end. Julia does admit later on that she was experiencing with her sexuality so maybe she did have feelings for Debbie at one point, which I thought was interesting. Debbie got herself into this one. At least Julia was more age appropriate than Claudia... (which is ironic since Debbie got in trouble for being with Julia when the age gap is MUCH bigger between Claudia and Debbie LOL I love it)! I also found Julia annoying Debbie to be amusing, that’s not to say that I liked her a lot either cuz I don’t!
8. Matty (Season 4-5)
Man do I feel bad for Matty! Debbie raped him and it was horrible. From the get-go when Matty was introduced the relationship was hella awkward!! And not only that but Debbie was a MINOR! Matty did do the right thing and said they couldn’t be together but a part of me will always feel strange that he WAS INITIALLY attracted to Debbie before learning her age. That to me is still wildly inappropriate. He shoulda cut it off. He did try to be her friend and took her to that dance which was cute but ahhh this was just a MESS all around. Cringe. At least he didn’t take advantage.
7. Henry (Season 4)
Speaking of Matty and that dance, Henry was supposed to take her. He asked her as a joke in order for Seama to inflict revenge on Debbie. If that weren’t the case however... DAMN THEY WERE CUTE! The potential that this relationship could have had! If only it wasn’t all an act! It was a “day worth of love” and sure that’s not enough for two people to REALLY be IT, yet there was something charming about their connection that I wish was real. Or idk maybe Henry could have reconnected with her later and apologized and it could have been revealed that he did actually like her... but that wasn’t the case. Fuck him!
6. Simon (Season 1-2)
Debbie was NOT interested in Simon at all but at the time he was almost like the male version of her. Their banter back and forth was fun to watch and he probably would have treated her well. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to even see their friendship progress. Their interactions were funny and he was a good guy!
5. Batiste (Season 10)
Y’all may not understand why this guy is so high on the list but a part of me wishes this character wasn’t a one off. Batiste is the dude Debbie tried to return her “unused” shoes to. If you can recall, he wanted a blowjob to take advantage of her. While this was a dick move (and the plot went nowhere) a part of me would have liked to see more! He did have an arc where he acted like an ass and realized that it is wrong to degrade women. I just think it could have been built upon and Emma may have had chemistry with this actor. There was something here that I didn’t hate and I felt it could have been expanded upon.
4. Little Hank (Season 2-3)
Debbie’s first real crush! It was interesting to see how he didn’t like her at first and then a “friendship/relationship” slowly started to develop after he gave her flowers. IT JUST NEVER CONTINUED! Little Hank was in no way the most upstanding, but it was cool to see Carl have a friend that Debbie crushed on (when she was little she wasn’t intentionally taking something away from Carl ie. Kelly, so I support it). Their interactions were fun to watch too! The fandom definitely has a soft spot for Little Hank! And at one point everyone was rooting for them to be together. Too bad we never discovered what ended up happening to this character!
3. Neil (Season 7-8)
The bathtub scene tho! Adorable! There was a short moment within this relationship that was super cute where the two of them really did seem to care about each other and may have both been in love. It goes without saying that Debbie was only using him, but they did have SOME potential and they found a common ground where they each benefited each other’s needs. Debbie once again was TOO controlling and self absorbed to make it work, but I don’t think she was entirely happy in a relationship with him. He deserved more respect!
2. Derek (Season 5-8)
Baby Daddy! I really did enjoy them together until Debbie took advance of him and Franny came into the picture, but at the same time that’s one of the reasons that Derek, as a character, has a deeper connection to Debbie and the audience. I always enjoyed their flirting back and forth and the relationship they had (the deleted scene with the card/push up game ahh my heart)! Debbie really did mess up due to her desperation to “belong to a family”, which is another one of her consistent character traits. She just went too far and tried to trap him. Then shit got messed up between their families. Derek did eventually ask for parcial custody and did have a desire to be a part of Franny’s life. Debbie said no and that plot line died until s10. Pepa!! Ahh! RIP to Derek, it was sad to me that he died. Definitely a character and relationship that I wish was incorporated more because I truly enjoyed them together.
1. Duran (Season 8)
Besties with benefits! Stop! Nobody talks about my guy Duran! Sure they both said that this relationship was of a sexual nature and that they were just a couple of friends but damn! The chemistry and dynamic was palpable! It is truly a shame that we didn’t get to see more of this friendship! They were on common ground and really did care about each other! I don’t know why but I really just LOVED them together! Duran was also in her friend group with Farhad and that was a group that seemed to have a positive impact on Debbie as a person. S8 Debbie was cool! These two complemented each other so nicely! Duran wasn’t by any means the best influence on her because he almost lead Debbie down a “Monica path” but come on, Hedi is worse in that department. He was getting his life together like Debbie was with her profession. Just think of the hair convos Duran and Tami could have had Lol. Idk, I just like Debbie with him a lot! It was healthy to an extent and he was supportive of Debs with Franny.
#I could write so much more for each of these but I’ll spare you#guys nobody talks about the AMOUNT of love interests Debbie had over the course of this damn show#I miss characters with a lot of depth!#I want to do more of these relationship lists for other characters#my lists#my favs#shameless#gallavich#debbie gallagher#franny gallagher#sandy milkovich#debbie x sandy
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Hello friends and welcome to ☆Hateful Nostalgia☆. I was exposed to the mob talker mod WAY too young bc I was an unsupervised child on the internet watching mod showcases and SkyDoesMinecraft. Looking back these sucked, the stories were often bland and the designs were milk toast at best and tits out at worst. So for the sake of procrastinating on working on anything substantial I grabbed the main 6 I remembered and gussied em up. Redesigns, rewrites, better names, all that bullshit. If your interested in better photos, design notes, story details and rambling hit the basement, otherwise here's a line up you should click for better quality.
Also I wrote all this once before already but I deleted it like a dumb bitch. On the night Unus Annus was murdered in front of my eyes no less. Was a rough fuckin night.
The Creeper- Kupa. An explosive pyromaniac with a habit of making empty threats and yelling. She protects what she believes to be her territory with a suicidal passion, but if you manage to get her to cool down and soften up she's pretty sick to hand out with. Hard of hearing, has at least one bout of head trauma at all times, and deathly allergic to cats.
Because the creeper is kinda the og I wanted to reference AT2's design more than the others, but I'm p sure the only thing I actually kept was the red hair and brown gloves. Otherwise I was doing whatever. I really wanted to lean into the explody bit of creepers, so I gave her some bite and dressed her in clothes referenced from Irish railroad workers. This may also be why I keep imaging her with a very heavy Irish or Scottish accent, whichever would be most incomprehensible when angry. Every color but her skin was color picked from one of the references, with some minor alterations for makes my eyes happy reasons.
With Kupa I imagine a story line with her would largely be about her as a character and her development than like an actual adventure narrative like everyone else. She starts off ready to blow up both you and herself in a misguided attempt to defend what she sees as her's and opens up and learns not everyone is out to get her. Lots of time taken to understand her childhood and how she ended up how she is. Very simple, probably the default or tutorial run people would go through.
The Zombie- Bee. The ill husk of a missing explorer suffering from a less than conventional appetite. She wallows in her self imposed loneliness, believing herself to be an irredeemable monster doomed to hurt those around her. What she really needs is a buddy and some clue to who she used to be. Rough voiced, chronically fatigued, and prone to spontaneous combustion in sunlight.
I definitely consider this one the weakest for design sadly. I imagined Zombies as humans who went into strange caves and caverns and didn't come out for years, only to pop up as completely different people. I just tossed AT2's design. The first thing I did was make her a bit of a genderbent Steve and tinted her green bc Zombies in game are just Steve but green. Tore up her clothes, colored picked the darkest colors I could from the clothes on the in game and boom, Bee. I do vaguely regret not making her eyes pure black but I also still wanted her to be human enough to fit with the other overworld mods.
Ok so Bee actually has a basic story. When you meet her she's aggressive, but as a warning. She fears the possibility she may hurt somebody so heads for threats immediately. Going back and forth between her cave and village for a while you learn more about the situation with the missing folks who come back and Bee as a person. After a bit you pick her up off her depressed ass and start a nocturnal adventure of refinding your past, adapting to who your becoming, overcoming self destuction, and slow burn babey!!!
The Skeleton- Ulna. One of the few surviving warriors of a now destroyed kingdom and dead culture. She spends most of her time now traveling alone, hiding in trees and shooting anything see sees as a threat- which is everything- in the face with homemade arrows. Very much suffering from loss of her home and a bad case of lost purpose. A woman of few words, very antisocial, and naturally nocturnal.
I came in with the Skeleton wanting to make her seem mysterious, so my first thought was immediately a cloak and a mask, but I wanted her face to like be visible so I went with the face paint. I didn't actually know that I wanted to do under there so I went with wraps that are reminiscent of the original outfit but still not tits out bc it's so fucking easy! Gave her a quiver, color picked the cloak and face paint from the in game model and the wraps from AT2'S art. I did like. Subconsciously draw her eyes the way I do Asian characters but I didn't have anything specific in mind so like go nuts with what you think she is.
Ulna's deal is very much her lack of purpose or home and the entire thing is about finding that again. She's found sitting up in a tree during a storm pointing a bow and arrow into your face. She eventually let's you stick around until the storm is over and theres some bonding into deep night until the rain stops. You ask if she wants to come with on your little travelling sword for hire business, she says sure, sleep schedule shenanigans, backstory angst, and road trip bonding happens and she eventually decides that helping people is her new purpose and you're her new home
The Spider- Park. A young adult experiencing the world for the first time through her tribe's rite of passage. She's really just trying to figure out how to live life outside of the cave she's been stuck in her entire life and aggressively trying to be an independent adult despite not knowing anything about being an independent adult. Its projection. Blind in the daylight, naive and excitable, and taken to refusing help at her own risk.
Ok so. I don't know who looked at the spider and said "purple haired loli with puffy pants" so I once again yeeted the whole thing, only really keeping the kinda cutesy and childish bits. Spiders are a tribe of humans what live in caves unless they've broken off to live on the surface. Kids are kept inside until they hit a certain milestone, where they come up to explore at night. They're usually small and pale, but are pretty kickass when necessary. Again picked the colors off the in game model, played with the lightest gray for the skin, and bc I couldn't figure out anyway to use the stripes so they're on the patches lol.
Park's meeting is probably the funniest and most meet cute one here, in that she accidentally drops on top of you from a little cliff drop off. Cue loads of apologies and an explanation about the spider deal and being blind in light. She asks for some help getting around and bam babey friendship and emotional attachment! What follows is kinda a buddy of coming of age story with the obligatory goes home and is miserable scene. Generally it's just about being a scared young adult and having someone to fall back on and why that's important. Also crushes and young people being bad at that.
The Blaze- Amber. A demonic entity who would let the world burn and the sun die if it meant she'd get her soul back. She's known for being ruthless, taking souls through force instead of making deals like other Blazes. Keeps this forceful nature even once she's become friendly, makes you do dump shit. Territorial, eyes glow and dim with her life, and runs remarkably warm.
Amber here is the first one I actually did! I was just. Really tired that she was in a bikini. I decided early on I wanted overworld mobs to be human and everyone else was decidedly not, so Blazes are demons who gave up their souls under false pretenses to other Blazes. Because of how little clothes AT2's design wore I had essentially free reign and my thought was immediately to lean on golden knight bc of how Blazes are found protecting fortresses. The gold isn't picked from anything bc I was looser with the colors, but everything else is, and the hair is supposed to represent the smoke. Also the sticks in her hair are blaze rods bc I don't like them just floating around her.
Amber is found in the Nether obviously, protecting a fortress and immediately trying beat your ass and either incinerate you or make you give up your soul. During you prove yourself a p damn good fighter and she makes a deal to show you how Blazes exist and pursade you to give your soul up willingly. Bonding happens and she explains where the souls go and what happened to her. Insert line about how she dug in the sand for her soul until her fingers bleed bc I'm an Arcana freak lol. In general I'd just like her to learn to adapt to who she is now and learning to live life well instead of letting her anger burn her up from the inside out.
The Enderman- Violet. A confused but sweet young bit of void created by and connected to the Ender Dragon. Her relationship with reality is tenuous at best and abusive at worst, making stable existence rather difficult. She doesn't know a name, age, gender, anything about herself aside from that she likes sweaters. Communicates primarily through psychic connections, docile and sweet, and melts like a witch in water.
Violet was incredibly easy, so this may be way short. Endermen are decidedly human shaped void from the End with varying sentience. They're direct extensions of the Ender Dragon, and nobody knows how they're made or where they come from, not even they do. Adventurers who escaped The End say they seem scared of it though. Violet in particular is pretty damn new and extraordinary nonconforming, and I tried to show that with her sweater and ponytail. Once again, literally all colors picked. Definitely the simplest but one of my favs.
Violet is the sweetest meet up I think. As your traveling between villages you notice a strange enderman watching you and plant a little flower in front of her. She picks it and you hear a happy little trill come from you and a pretty voice say thank you in your head. Now you have a tall dark teleporting travel buddy! After a little bit of back and forth she tells you in some broken English that the Ender Dragon made her but she doesnt know how, and that it's bad and needs to be killed for the sake of Endermen and that's the new goal. Spoiler they're the corrupted souls of those that died fighting it, with it gone Endermen are free to exist as their own being and do whatever, hurray!
#cosmic entity's art#minecraft#mob talker mod#mc creeper#mc zombie#mc skeleton#mc spider#mc blaze#mc enderman#character design
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So, I suddenly got remined of this great big deleted post from my old blog I made about the G-virus & my thoughts & stuff on it & like lemme go over some stuff real quick : My original post talked about my thoughts on it from like the old days up till now & how like its always kinda confused me surely because I am extremely stupid & have a foggy brain but like I always feel like I miss something in dealing with the G-virus.
Ok so. The G-vrius had unrivalled capabilities as B.O.W at the time of its creation due to its ability to continuously mutate, which came with it having extreme regenerative properties & even gave it the ability to reanimate the dead which is good as a weapon & all, sure, but I think its true purpose & the purpose it seemed that William was focusing on was its capabilities in being an eugenics thing. In fact I BELIEVE it was pitched this way by William directly & Spencer took such an interest that he had the whole NEST created. I think, if I remember right, Wesker notes in his journal how this felt unusual as most of Umbrella’s focus had seemingly been on B.O.Ws prior.
The G-virus was found living inside Lisa Trevor, it was the thing that had kept her alive & pretty much protected her from all further/outside infection of other viruses / parasites demonstrated when it simply absorbed/destroyed the nemesis's parasite she was injected with. It was stable inside her body & as such she had a practically impervious immune system & regenerative capabilities that were beyond extensive & yet she never mutated into anything more horrific than what she already was due to the T-virus.
So turning into big ugly gross monsters is not really ideal in the eugenic territory but impervious immune system & highly accelerated/advanced healing properties are which leads me to think there was more to the G-virus than what we saw. Which means probably the most valuable & key part of the G-virus was its remarkable antibodies (?) & this was probably the part of the project Annette & William were really interested in & working on & developing.
This makes me think about Sherry & Wesker in particular. Back in the old days, prior to the whole “Wesker virus” becoming a thing I always wondered if some “perfected” version of the G-virus, possibly some version of the G-virus that was fused with the DEVIL vaccine to create a more ‘perfect’ form - something that utilizes G’s incredible antibodies but keeps the parasitic nature of G naturalised & thus safeguards from the rampant mutations - was what Wesker injected himself with, particularly as we knew of his close relationship with William. Wesker seemed to exhibit pretty much all the desired properties of a real “g-human” & his eyes in particular were very matched to the ‘eyes’ of the G-virus.
Which always made much more sense to me then this random ass “wesker-virus”. I mean idk if the Wesker Virus always existed what fuck would Spencer have to give about something like the G-virus if he already had a virus that could essentially transform someone into a super-human ? I suppose because the Wesker Virus was suppose to be hyper-crazy selective where as if the G-virus was applied right it could generally benefit the entire human race, not just select individuals ? Although that very selective virus is exactly what Spencer’s crazy racist ass wanted.
Anyway, moving to Sherry, she managed to get all the “”intended”” benefits of the G-virus through her infection & vaccination so yeah I wonder if G was always suppose to be used in conduction with DEVIL in order to unlock those desirable effects ? This seems to be a much quicker/efficient way to “stabilise” a virus than say Alexia’s method of cyro-sleep. ( Although Alexia’s method makes perfect sense for her, someone who was only interested in ‘improving’ herself & not the “human race” as a whole )
Or if there was a more. . . “Complete” version of the virus that just didn’t happen to be the version William injected himself with. Or ultimately if the G virus was ever “complete” in the first place. Thinking that what we saw in the game didn’t at all appear to be the “intended product” in any way.
I DO believe a lot of the extreme negative effects G had on William were due to him infecting himself with it while he was moments away from death & so horribly wounded. Sherry’s manner of infection was different so I wonder if that could have also played a part in why William mutated so fast & so terribly while Sherry didn’t really mutate at all, or at least didn’t get the chance to . . . & how exactly would Sherry have mutated if she didn’t receive the vaccine ? Would she have became something similar to William ? If William wasn’t fatally wounded & so close to dying, what would G have done if he infected himself with it ? Is it possible that G went the way it did because it both never got the chance to “stabilize” in William’s body, given he was so horribly damaged when he infected himself, forcing it to work overtime to repair him but also that it never got the chance to stop “repairing” him, hence causing his intense mutations because of his repeated conflicts with Claire/Leon & the damage he continually sustained.
The eugenic properties of the G-virus don’t ever seem to be focused on again. Its capabilities as a weapon are but never as the ‘cure’ per say, it seemed to be envisioned to be by William & Annette. However when Umbrella European branch messed around with the G-virus they managed to find a way to merge it with a version of t-virus, thus bringing forward all of G’s more desirable effects while dulling/neutralising the undesirable ones. This was called the T-G virus & when Morpheus infected herself with it, while certainly mutating into something inhuman, this wasn’t near to the extent of William & she managed to completely retain her intelligence.
Given William was a near unrivalled genius in his field it seems strange to me that he wouldn’t have been able to produce a version of the G-virus like this himself ? So maybe the G-virus wasn’t actually “complete” & William intended to continue work on it & complete it in a more ‘conventional setting’, where his true vision for it would be appreciated more as oppose to Umbrella’s intense focus on weaponizing their “products” ?
#⊰ ° ⊚ ● 𝄪 ° ━◞ OUT OF CHARACTER ⊱#⊰ ° ⊚ ● 𝄪 ° ━◞ HEADCANONS ⊱#kinda#more like... thought canons lol#ps Morpheus is clearly a trans woman to me so I will be using she/her pronouns when speaking about her#the g virus is v interesting but v confusing to me bc it is so contradictory ????#long post
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Serendipity | jjk x pjm
Serendipity; the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
By a slip of his finger, Jeongguk ends up meeting his neighbour on the rooftop of their apartment complex - and he finds himself wanting to stay in the moment forever.
Click here to read on AO3.
- pairing: jeon jeongguk x park jimin
- word count: 6K
- rating: PG-13
- genre: sO much fluff, angst, neighbours AU, student!jeongguk, dancer!jimin, airdrop AU, strangers to lovers, jeongguk is shy uwu, you could also call him a professional procrastinator. jimin is intimidating but what’s new
- warnings: descriptions of social anxiety, one or two swear words in there oops please excuse my language
- notes: i didn’t really plan for this to be a mxm fic but it just felt right?? this feels really random and i don’t know if it makes sense at all but please enjoy, I had fun writing it! feedback is very welcome as well <3
also, if you like listening to music while reading, any lofi would go great with this! perhaps, even a lofi version of serendipity... haha jk... unless??
this is partly inspired by the game missed messages created by Angela He, I saw someone play it on youtube and got this idea!
huge thanks to zoe for helping me with this fic, i love u <3
this is a part of the @ficswithluv bulletproof bingo event!
gif by @nanzse, found here.
Jeongguk's room is washed golden as he lays on his bed, soft lofi playing from his phone next to him as his fingers in an unmotivated manner slowly press lettered keys on his laptop. He couldn't be less excited about writing this essay, the assigned topic of 'happy accidents' being something he's not really able to make a connection to.
After getting down a simple, uncreative title at the top of the page, only to end up deleting it, he sighs as he rolls over on his back and lets his eyes flutter closed. The rays of sunshine seeping in through his open window feel nice against his honey skin, the mild May breeze brushing it ever so slightly. This would be perfect if it wasn't for the empty document displayed beside him, calling at him to finish writing already.
He loves evenings like these, just being, listening to the hustle of Seoul coming from the streets as a soft beat escapes his phone. There's something about sunsets that renders a calm to wash over Jeongguk's body, no matter how stressful or dull his day might be - the sight of a sunset makes him stop for a moment; makes him pause and enjoy the present. It's something he treasures deeply, how the warm hues of orange blend in with the blue. It makes him feel excited to be alive, thankful to exist.
He imagines it’s like finally being able to release a breath; coming up for air when you've been held under the surface for almost too long. It quiets his mind, rids him of thoughts that weighed down on his shoulders during the day.
A sudden pling erupting from the laptop causes Jeongguk's eyes to open, the sound harsh in contrast to the music that brought him to his own, peaceful utopia. He frowns as he sits up, grabbing his laptop and placing it in his lap before he leans against the wall his bed is pushed up against.
Jiminie's phone would like to share a photo.
The notification makes Jeongguk furrow his eyebrows in confusion. Who is Jiminie and why is he airdropping Jeongguk of all people?
Out of boredom and in search for another excuse to procrastinate the essay, he decides to see what the stranger wishes to share with him. He clicks accept, and on his screen two pictures appear - causing a scoff to escape Jeongguk's lips. It's dumb really, but despite the unnecessary and pointless pictures, he feels a small smile spread on his lips. He expected something stupid, something to cause a huff and a roll of his eyes - to make his disappointment in humanity increase further.
On his laptop, two pictures of a cat wearing sunglasses are displayed. Jeongguk shakes his head as he snickers quietly by himself. He really doesn’t understand why he finds it so funny but he can't deny it made his evening a little bit better, the dull mood caused by the essay a bit brighter.
He decides to write a thank you in return, typing a few words of gratitude before he hovers over the send button. Should he reply? Maybe he shouldn't. What if the airdrop was sent to the wrong person? It'd make him look stupid if he wrote back.
After over-scrutinizing further, he chooses not to send anything back after all and goes to hit delete, but presses down on the wrong button.
Note sent.
He curses under his breath, cheeks turning crimson in embarrassment. It’s been done, there’s no reason to dwell over it. There’s nothing he can do.
He shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair as he shuts the tab, and he's once again met with the sight of a blank page, making him sigh in frustration. Happy accidents. What is he even supposed to write about? His mind is blank, much like the document before him, there's really no specific event in his life relating to the theme he's able to think of.
What a foolish choice of topic.
He feels his heart skip a beat in surprise as yet another notification pops up on his screen. He nibbles at the skin of his bottom lip for a few seconds before he clicks accept once more.
7:49 PM: My pleasure! So... 'Genji', what are you up to?
Jeongguk squeezes his eyes shut in further embarrassment at his laptop device name. He could’ve just gone for something normal, something simple like 'Jeongguk's laptop'. He sighs at himself as he starts writing a reply to the stranger, who he assumes is named Jiminie - a wild guess thanks to the device name; the simple, non-cringey device name.
7:51 PM: It's Jeongguk. I'm up to nothing much, just procrastinating my essay... u?
Jeongguk presses send before he gets the chance to hit the backspace button and overthink his choice of words. After his note is sent, he finds himself waiting for a reply - eyes lingering in the corner of the screen as he looks for the next notification to pop up. Or the next excuse to further procrastinate, if you will.
And before long, there's another note waiting to be accepted. Without hesitancy, Jeongguk clicks it.
7:54 PM: Bored, looking for something to do... maybe some fresh air could benefit the both of us? ;)
The reply makes Jeongguk quirk an eyebrow at his screen, a faint blush settling over cheeks as he feels flutters of excitement in his gut and nerves blooming in his chest. A few minutes go by as he reads the words over and over, asking himself what to do. He eventually decides to reply even with the amount of intimidation he feels - despite his introverted nature. This time he sits for longer, fingers hovering over keys as he looks for words that sound okay in his head.
8:01 PM: What are you initiating, Jiminie?
Jeongguk’s heart beats fast in his chest as he presses send, fingers picking at the fuzz on his cheek as he partly dreads the reply, partly looks forward to it in a strange anxious excitement. This is so unlike him, to do spontaneous stuff like this, make plans and decisions last minute - especially when he’s well aware it’s involving a complete stranger. He likes knowing what’s gonna happen and giving himself time to mentally prepare for occasions like these, or preferably avoid them.
8:02 PM: Meet me on the rooftop in 20? I'll be waiting.
His face grows hotter as he reads the note repeatedly. He's never done anything like this before. It makes him excited, but causes his hands to become clammy at the foreign but tempting opportunity - a subtle anxiety starting to grow in his chest as he thinks of all the possible ways this could end.
Does he go up to his rooftop in twenty minutes to meet the stranger, put himself through awkward silences and worry? Or does he stay inside, alone, to continue procrastinating his essay?
The latter of the two options does sound much more boring, however, more comfortable and safe in his mind. Yet, he can't help but feel intrigued by this Jiminie he just chatted with, and he's curious.
Fuck it.
He gets up from his bed, grabbing a decent outfit from his wardrobe before throwing it on. He stands in front of the mirror, scanning over the black fabrics before shrugging and deciding it'll do. He doesn't want to be overdressed, or appear as if he actually worried about how he looks. Which he in reality, actually did - but Jiminie doesn’t need to be aware of that.
Before he knows it, fifteen minutes have passed. He slips his boots on and proceeds to stand by the door, watching the time tick on his phone. As the numbers read 8:21 PM, Jeongguk inhales a shaky breath to calm himself before he steps outside of his apartment.
Nerves spread like wildfire in his chest as he walks up the staircase towards the door leading to the rooftop. He stands before it for a few seconds, trying to compose himself before pushing it open. He's met with a world illuminated pink and the smell of cherry blossoms, a warm pleasant breeze brushing through his hair as he takes a hesitant step outside onto the concrete floor.
He doesn't do stuff like this. Jeongguk likes keeping to himself, he enjoys being alone in his room. The most communicating he does is through his headset while playing overwatch. What got into him today, what reason made him say yes to meeting a stranger on his rooftop, he's not certain of.
Jeongguk closes the door behind him as quietly as possible before turning to scan the area, eyes looking for someone unfamiliar; someone his eyes have yet to know.
He's caught by surprise as his wandering gaze stops at the sight of a figure. He sees pink, pink hair swept by the gentle wind. Soft pink, rosy and warm in contrast to the lightblue fuzzy jacket the figure is clad in - a contrast replicated in the sky above.
He's even further intimidated by the daring choice of hair color, another reason along with the previous one of the bold, somewhat flirtatious way he asked Jeongguk to meet on the rooftop just twenty minutes ago.
Jeongguk, after gathering the courage, slowly starts walking closer - nerves almost prompting him to quietly turn around and return to the safe, comfortable space of his apartment. He could leave right now and come up with an excuse as to why he couldn't show up. He considers it for a second, however, he quickly shakes the thought away, not wanting to go through with it no matter how tempting it may be.
He's tired of excuses.
He keeps moving forward, closer to Jimin standing with his back towards Jeongguk - looking out over Seoul.
As his boot scrapes against the ground, the pink-haired turns his head - looking over his shoulder to meet Jeongguk's doe eyes. He looks like a deer caught in the headlights.
More like a bunny, maybe?
Jimin smiles at the sight, now turning with his whole body to greet the younger. "Jeongguk-ssi, you showed up," says Jimin, perfectly plump lips stretching into a smile; showing off his flawlessly aligned teeth.
Jeongguk doesn't say anything, still a few meters away when he stops to give a small bow in respect.
He still doesn’t know why he agreed to this, he’s very well aware a silence like this always lays in the air around him when he’s meeting new people. That’s why he usually avoids occurrences like these, not wanting to put himself in such an anxious state.
He's always awkward when meeting strangers, especially if he's alone - when the conversation is depending on both him and the other involved to keep going. He never knows what to say, never able to find words that feel right. He hates small talk.
Although with Jimin, there's weirdly a welcoming atmosphere in the air. A smile that allows his shoulders to relax slightly, an ambience that tells him to breathe out and be himself. Jeongguk has never felt anything like it before.
Jimin keeps the younger's gaze, and the attention makes Jeongguk look down as a subtle blush settles over the tops of his cheeks. At the same time, while Jimin exudes a scenciere and relaxing vibe, his aura also feels intimidating - radiating confidence and self-esteem much unlike Jeongguk.
Jeongguk doesn't like to stand out in a crowd, he's reserved and timid - he'd rather stay quiet and he has no problem with that, he likes being alone to some extent. When he goes too long without meeting any of his close friends though, he tends to get lonely. That’s when he finds himself wishing he was different in that sense, that he could go out and make new friends whenever he felt like it without having to worry so much about first impressions, or if he stutters too much.
His wardrobe is mostly black, not only because he simply likes how the color looks on him - but also because it feels safe, it’s not too out there. He usually puts on a bucket hat whenever he's out and about, mostly to avoid any awkward eye contact. He could never imagine himself dying his hair pink, or any other color for that matter - since he imagines it'd bring him unwanted attention.
That's just the way he is, and he's always been that way. But he can't deny the desire to be braver, more willing to experiment and explore. He wants to experience more, like dating or just going out with friends without worrying too much. He almost feels stuck, restricted because of this anxiety. It sometimes keeps him up at night, has him wondering who and how he’d be as a person if he was different in that aspect.
Jimin is somewhat stunned himself, much like Jeongguk. He really had no expectations going into this, but the person before him wouldn't be one of them if he did. He wasn't picturing someone who wears black oversized clothes, someone so big and muscular - yet shy. There are obvious outlines of a toned chest under the fabric of the hoodie, only a little more obvious than the pink apples of his cheeks. It makes Jimin's heart warm.
"Are you not gonna join me?"
Jeongguk averts his eyes from his own boots as Jimin’s voice pierces the silence, even though it’s soft and inviting. He becomes very aware he's still standing an awkward distance away at the question, giving Jimin as small nod as he walks up to the railing - fingers tightening into fists as he tugs at the sleeves of his hoodie.
His gaze wanders over the busy street below as he searches for the right words to say, but he can't seem to find any. He sneaks a glance at Jimin before he looks up at the sky, feeling a solace embrace him. He exhales as his body relaxes at the sight of the sunset. Everything’s okay.
"Do you-" he stutters slightly, stopping mid-sentence to compose himself. "Have you lived here long? I haven't seen you around," he manages to say, a small flower of pride growing in his chest.
Jimin is taken aback hearing the shy speak, gaze falling upon him to meet big, constellation-filled brown eyes, in which create a sunset of their own as the sky reflects in them - an even prettier one, as stars in his orbs decorate it further.
"No not really, I moved in just a few weeks ago," Jimin replies. "I spend the majority of my days at work though, so that's probably why we haven’t met yet."
Jeongguk feels a question linger at the tip of his tongue, deciding to let it free before he overthinks it.
"What do you do?" he asks, partly to keep the focus of the conversation away from himself but for the most part out of curiosity.
Jimin smiles at the interest, running a hand through his hair before speaking. "I do contemporary dancing, weird huh?"
"I don't think it's weird," Jeongguk shrugs. "Why do you say that?"
Jimin looks out over the city, painted pink, as he searches for an answer. "Well, it's not a typical job and you don't really earn a lot doing it. Most people would say it's stupid to work towards a career like mine, that it won't get me anywhere."
Jeongguk listens as Jimin speaks, and he notices a spark of passion glimmer in his eyes.
"So why did you choose that path?" Jeongguk surprises himself as the question rolls off his tongue, noticing how his shoulders are no longer as tense.
"I've been dancing ever since I was little, there's just something about it that I love. It's my escape, in a sense. Whenever I dance, all I do is move to the music - I don't think of anything, I don't worry. It’s almost as if my mind goes quiet." He says, eyes following the fluffy clouds floating over the sky. "It's really not about earning money for me, and even though it's nice to benefit from it in a financial way, that's not what keeps me going. It may be tough sometimes but I love dancing, and that's why I do it. Despite it not being an average job, or the most reliable and profitable one."
"I like that though, the fact you're doing something that's different. I think it's important to do something you enjoy, something that makes you excited to wake up and get ready. I hope I can find a passion like that in the future." Jeongguk avoids meeting Jimin’s gaze for even more than a second, eyes moving from him to the sky, then down to watch people walk by below.
Jimin turns to Jeongguk with a smile, chest filled with warmth at his words. "I hope so too."
Jeongguk gives a small smile in return as a silence falls over the both of them, but it's not one you necessarily want to fill. It's peaceful and comfortable, much to Jeongguk's surprise.
They stay like that for another hour, sitting with arms resting over the railing as their feet dangle over the edge of the building while they get to know each other - carefully stolen glances and unspoken words lingering at the tips of their tongues. Night has now fallen over the city, neon lights decorating the streets as bars become crowded and streets become busy - even more so than before.
Upon spending time together, albeit for just an hour or two, Jimin finds himself growing quite fond of Jeongguk.
At first sight, he wouldn't have expected the boy next to him to be so shy - as someone who blushes at compliments and eye contact lasting for more than a few seconds. All this is hidden beneath his attire, sporting chunky boots along with ripped jeans and an oversized hoodie - also considering that these are all black. Dark from head to toe. It almost makes him intimidating to Jimin, in a way. However, Jimin must admit it looks really good on him, it suits him, but it doesn't match his personality one bit. He's sweet and timid, all bunny smiles and dimples with big, sparkly, doe eyes - far from what Jimin would associate with the dark, edgy style he's donned in.
After another tranquil silence hangs in the air around them, Jimin looks at the watch on his wrist - noticing the clock is nearing 10 PM. He’d love nothing more than to stay here, learning more about Jeongguk, talking nonsense, just being in his presence.
He had heard Jeongguk laugh for the first time as he asked about his device name ‘Genji’. He had with a smile explained the reasoning to Jimin, talking about how it was inspired by a character named just that of his advice from a game he played - because said character is one that needs healing, in this case, charging the most often. Jimin has never found video games fun or entertaining, but when it’s Jeongguk who speaks of it; he feels as if he could listen for hours, secretly admiring the dimples that dip in his cheeks as he smiles.
“I have work tomorrow, I should probably get my eight hours of beauty sleep in before I have to wake up,” Jimin chuckles, and as much as he hates to say it - he really needs to get rest considering he’ll be working on a new choreography tomorrow, which he knows requires more energy and focus than just practicing.
They accompany each other as they make their way down from the rooftop, shoulders brushing as they walk down the stairs - slowing down as they step onto the seventh floor.
"This is me," Jimin says, head nodding in direction of the door with the number 202 on it.
Jeongguk stands quiet, a small smile on his lips as he suddenly feels awkward again - gaze wandering around the hallway, avoiding the other’s eyes.
Jimin decides to speak instead of waiting for Jeongguk to, having gathered by now that he’s someone who needs that extra push to get comfortable around someone - that it's easier for him to speak if someone helps guide the conversation forward. Although, he noticed Jeongguk slowly warming up to him on the roof; and he’d be laying if he said it doesn’t makes his heart happy.
"Thank you for meeting me tonight Jeongguk, I had a really great time," Jimin says, smiling as he backs up towards his door.
"So did I," Jeongguk replies, looking down at his boots as his smile grows bigger. "Goodnight, Jimin-ssi." He gives a small bow in Jimin’s direction.
There's really no need to be so formal anymore, there never was, but Jimin appreciates the gesture of respect nonetheless.
He decides to play along, bowing at a 90 degree to the younger angle with arms stiff against his sides. "Sleep well, Jeongguk-ssi."
Jeongguk chuckles at him, and the sound makes Jimin smile.
Minutes later, Jeongguk walks into his own apartment - adrenaline rushing through his veins because of the new, exciting experience. He lets himself lean back against the door after closing it, eyes squeezing shut as he smiles widely.
He feels stupid, like he’s a teenager with a crush. As he thinks back to what just happened, thinking about Jimin's smile, his light touches over the fabric on Jeongguk's shoulder - he feels a tickle in his gut, cheeks growing hotter as he longs to be in that presence again even though it’s only been minutes since they said goodbye.
He tries to shake the thoughts of the pink-haired away but it’s of no avail, kicking his boots off and stepping into his apartment as he exhales. He figures there's no use trying to finish his essay now, knowing his mind will wander to picture Jimin's face in his mind - try to recall the sound of his angelic laugh.
Oh, how he loves Jimin's laugh. The way he throws his head back, eyes turning into crescent moons as his hand comes up to cover his mouth - his knees almost buckling underneath him. He laughs with his whole body, and it makes Jeongguk feel a kind of joy he's never felt before. He'd do anything to hear that laugh over and over again, he’d even give up overwatch.
Jeongguk falls back on his bed, eyes staring up at the ceiling as he tries to rid his mind of Jimin again. It's hopeless. He's already too far gone.
The next few days go by agonizingly slow. Jeongguk sits through multiple online classes, each getting harder to concentrate on than the previous one.
He got a taste of Jimin that night, his smiles, his touch, his laugh. He got a taste of that new, alien feeling - the butterflies, the leap of his heart inside his ribcage.
He craves more. He wants to feel it again, he wants to feel that rush he felt when they first met - that joy he felt by just being with Jimin, sitting next to him and listening to his voice as he speaks.
By Friday noon, three days later, he's on his way home from the nearest store with his beloved bucket hat on as per usual, a bag in each hand as he walks back home - most of the contents being ramen and banana milk, of course. He pushes the door to his apartment complex open by turning around and pressing his back against it, squeezing himself along with the heavy bags through the frame before walking over to the elevator.
He'd secretly wish to bump into Jimin, anywhere, anytime - like he has been ever since they met on the rooftop - but he's been finding it useless so far. He still has yet to see Jimin again.
Jeongguk had been sitting in his bed yesterday, fingers itching to send an airdrop to Jimin, something like a casual ‘what’s up?’, but he never went through with it. He'd feel desperate, clingy - he didn't want to seem that way. He shut his laptop with a sigh, pulling the covers up to his chin before closing his eyes and returning to his utopia - sunsets, lofi, and Jimin.
A new addition to his paradise. Someone he's so uncertain about, someone he barely knows, but yet he feels so sure of.
Jeongguk reaches up to press the button on the wall, hissing quietly as the handles of the paper bag strains against his wrist. Only a few seconds later, the elevator doors slide open - but the small space isn't empty. In the elevator stands Jimin with messy hair, gaze moving from his phone in his hand to look before him where Jeongguk is standing.
"Oh! Jeongguk-ssi," Jimin beams, stepping out of the elevator.
Jeongguk almost feels relieved to see the bright, joyful, pink-haired boy again - heart skipping a beat at the pleasant surprise. "Hi," He exhales, eyes locking with Jimin's.
“I like your hat,” He laughs, walking by Jeongguk. “Shame it covers your pretty face.”
Jeongguk’s breath is caught in his throat by the unexpected compliment, blood rushing to his cheeks - making him thankful he has the hat on to hide it. He stays quiet, not really certain how he should respond to such words.
"I'd love to speak but I have to hurry back to work." Jimin doesn't stop as he talks, but turns around and walks backwards as he keeps Jeongguk's gaze. "Meet me later? Same time, same place?" He says with a small smile, not caring to wait for an answer before he turns around and exits the building.
Jeongguk stands frozen, eyes stuck by the door where Jimin is now nowhere to be seen. For the few seconds he got to see Jimin again, he's grateful - but he wishes their interaction wasn't so brief, too quick for him to take in the beauty that is Park Jimin.
Jeongguk returns from his pink haze as the elevator doors start sliding shut again, quickly putting a bag in between them to stop the motion before he steps inside. He feels giddy as he waits for the arrival to his own floor, staring blankly in front of him as he repeats Jimin's words in his head.
'Meet me later'.
His heart leaps in his chest, an unwanted smile spreading across his lips as he looks down at the floor in embarrassment - despite being alone in the elevator.
Jimin too, can’t help but smile as he gets into his car. Since he asked Jeongguk to meet him three days ago, since they talked on the rooftop, Jimin often caught himself thinking about the boy - wondering what he’s up to. Even when dancing, he can’t help but let his mind wander, making it difficult to focus on perfecting his moves for the new choreography.
He feels a weird, unusual connection with Jeongguk - one he’s never felt before, not even with his past lovers or any of his friends. It almost feels like they were supposed to meet that night, like it was destined. Like they’re fated to know each other.
Jeongguk finds himself sprawled across the sofa hours later, phone in hand as he repeatedly checks the time - a random k-drama playing on his TV, in which has been given minimal attention since he put it on. He lets out another sigh after looking at his phone, noticing only a little over an hour has passed since he checked it at 4 PM.
Three long hours left until he can see Jimin again.
Seconds feel like minutes, minutes feel like hours. But eventually, the clock strikes 7:50 PM and Jeongguk immediately gets up from the couch, excitement quickly spreading through his body.
Finally.
He finds Jimin the same place he was standing when they met three days ago, now sitting down on a blanket instead of leaning against the railing. He doesn’t hesitate before he starts walking closer this time, causing the older to look his way at the sound of his unusually confident footsteps.
“What’s this?” Jeongguk chuckles, gesturing to the blanket and pillows placed on the concrete.
Jimin smiles, patting the ground next to him for Jeongguk to sit down. “I figured we’d be here for a while and standing up isn’t really that comfortable.”
That’s probably for the best, Jeongguk figures, since he found himself worried Jimin would fall if he laughed too hard when they previously met. He almost wants to laugh at the memory of his doubt in Jimin’s balance.
He’s a dancer for god's sake.
Jeongguk pushes the tickling thought to the back of his head before he nods with a smile, sitting down next to Jimin before looking out over Seoul - a beautiful sunset once again painting the city in orange and pink hues.
“I missed you,” Jimin suddenly speaks, hand coming up to run soothingly over Jeongguk’s back - giving him shivers running down his spine.
Jeongguk looks at him for a few seconds before returning his gaze to the skyline with a small smile sneaking its way onto his lips. “You did?” He asks, voice quiet as he fiddles with his fingers.
“Yeah, did you miss me as well?”
You’re all I’ve been thinking about.
Jeongguk only answers with a small nod, head turning slightly to look at Jimin again - cheeks rosy with timidity. Jimin snickers at him before looking out over the city again.
“Do you wanna listen to music?” Jimin asks, grabbing his phone from his pocket.
Jeongguk feels weirdly cold despite the warm spring evening as Jimin’s hand falls from his back.
“Uh yeah, sure.”
Jimin holds it for Jeongguk to take. “Put something on.”
“Oh... I’m not sure you’ll like my taste in music,” Jeongguk shakes his head.
Jimin only laughs at his shy behaviour. “Don’t worry so much, Gguk.”
Jeongguk releases a barely audible sigh as he looks at Jimin, taking the phone from his hand hesitantly - feeling butterflies in his stomach at the nickname, the flutters only intensifying as his fingers accidentally brush over Jimin’s, tingles lingering on his fingertips at the touch.
“What do you listen to?” Jeongguk asks while he presses letters on Jimin’s phone, trying to find a playlist that looks good enough.
“I listen to a lot of different music because of work, but I really enjoy ballads with acoustic guitars and stuff - any calming music really.”
Jeongguk nods to show he’s paying attention, fingers stopping their scrolling as he finds a playlist - pressing play before handing the phone back to Jimin.
A soft beat fills the air around them, along with the lively sound of Seoul coming from the streets below them.
“Lofi?” Jimin smiles, placing the phone in between them on the blanket.
Jeongguk nods, eyes following Jimin who lays down on the blanket next to him - head landing on one of the pillows. Jeongguk follows shortly, letting himself fall back to lay beside him.
“It’s nice~” Jimin sighs in bliss, looking up at the pink sky.
Jeongguk and Jimin talk about everything and anything as the sky darkens and stars come out from hiding. Hours later they're still laying next to each other on the concrete, stargazing into the black abyss.
Jeongguk turns his head to look at Jimin, who is looking up at the celestial bodies above. "So, do you just casually airdrop strangers in your freetime?" He asks with a laugh, referring to a few days ago when he got that first notification.
Jimin chuckles, placing an arm under his head. "No, I was just really bored so I airdropped everyone available."
“I thought I was special,” Jeongguk jokes, acting disappointed as he pouts.
Jimin hits the younger’s shoulder lightly, laughing before looking up at the stars again. “You are, I haven’t met anyone else I sent the pictures to.”
"Why did you ask me to meet you?"
Jimin turns to Jeongguk again at the question, eyes meeting. "You're the only one who replied to me."
With cheeks turning rubescent at the intense gaze Jimin gives, Jeongguk looks up at the sky again as a smile creeps onto his lips. He feels his heart flutter in his chest.
"Jeongguk," Jimin says, trying to get the attention of the boy laying next to him.
"Hm?" Jeongguk hums in response, unaware as he turns his head to look at Jimin once again.
Jimin doesn't say anything else, only admires him. Jeongguk is drawn in by Jimin's stare, not wanting to look away again. He too, admires the other's face. Soft skin, pretty nose.
Pink, plush lips.
Jimin turns to lay on his side, now even closer while simultaneously causing their faces to end up only a few inches apart as they stay looking at each other. Jeongguk keeps still with bated breath as he notices Jimin's gaze fall to look at his lips - making him unconsciously part them as his own gaze falls down to admire Jimin’s, trying to imagine what they would feel like against his own.
Without thinking too much, or giving himself time to change his mind and back out; Jimin leans forward - slowly inching closer. Jeongguk's heart beats fast in his chest but he lets eyes flutter closed as he feels the brush of lips against his own, excitement and tranquility blooming in his chest all at the same time. The touch is feather-light against his lips, but it makes him feel more than he ever has before.
When Jimin finally presses his lips firmly against Jeongguk’s, it makes him exhale deeply through his nose as pink explodes in his chest.
Jimin’s hand comes up to cup Jeongguk’s cheek as he leans in further, deepening the kiss even more - making Jeongguk’s body relax against his touch and lean into it. Jimin lets his tongue swipe over Jeongguk’s bottom lip lightly, prompting them to open before he feels the younger’s tongue against his own. He feels Jeongguk’s breath tickle against his skin as the kiss intensifies.
After a few more seconds of connected lips, blissful exhales, tasting Jeongguk’s cherry lip balm, Jimin pulls away and opens his eyes to look at him. Jeongguk’s eyes stay closed as he licks his bottom lip before biting down on it, still tasting Jimin's lips on his own. Jimin licks his own lips as he watches, aching to feel Jeongguk's pressed against them again.
"Hmm, are you wearing cherry lip balm?" Jimin hums with a voice barely louder than a whisper, a small smile on his lips as he lets his thumb brush over Jeongguk’s bottom lip.
Jeongguk breaks into a bunny smile, hands coming up to cover his eyes as he turns shy at the thought of what just happened. Jimin snickers at his behaviour as he sits up, looking down on his wrist to check the time.
12:08 AM.
"It's late, we should probably-" He's interrupted by a pull of his shirt, causing him to fall back into his previous position.
This time, it's Jeongguk's turn to initiate the kiss - lips pressing against Jimin's again. He surprises himself by the action, but he can't help it - longing to taste Jimin's lips a second time, feel them against his own once more.
Jeongguk cups Jimin’s face with both hands as he tilts his head to deepen the kiss, to feel Jimin even closer. He wants to stay like this forever, he wants to be with Jimin for as long as possible. He never wants to let go.
Their lips meeting holds just as much passion as before but lasts for a few seconds less before they have to part again, both needing to catch a breath because of the intensity of the kiss. Jeongguk chases after Jimin’s lips before letting his fall down on the pillow beneath him in defeat, realizing he needs to regain a steady breath as he feels his chest heave up and down.
Before standing up, Jimin places a haste, light kiss on Jeongguk's nose - making him scrunch it in an adorable manner. Jimin chuckles as he watches Jeongguk open his eyes slowly, an apparent blush laying across his cheeks as he looks up at the older.
Jeongguk's smiles with his bottom lip caught between his teeth as he shamelessy admires Jimin, still not moving from his position on the floor. He feels so happy.
Is this what true happiness feels like?
The end of his week turned out much different from what he ever could’ve imagined. Normally, he'd be laying on his sofa by this hour, stuffing his face with ramen while having some anime or k-drama playing on the TV - happy and relieved he’d be getting two days without having to attend any classes.
If at the beginning of this week, someone told him he’d be kissing his neighbour at midnight by the end of it - he'd think of them as crazy. Jeongguk? The timid and introverted Jeongguk? Kissing someone? He himself couldn't see it happening anytime soon. He figured it’d be too hard for him to find a connection like that with someone, considering his shy nature.
But here he is, the inside of his chest painted pink because of his love-struck state, butterflies wild in his stomach - eyes looking up to admire the person standing in front of him.
The stars in the sky seem to shine brighter than ever before. He finds himself feeling euphoric, almost high on the emotion. He feels relaxed and free of any burdens, just like the sunset they'd been watching earlier managed to make him feel.
He never planned for this to happen, he never expected his week to end up this way. But it did, by a single slip of his finger.
Jeongguk met Jimin through serendipity; a happy accident.
Happy accidents.
Oh, how happy he is they exist.
#ficswithluv#btsguild#btswritingcafe#btswriterscollective#bangtanfairygarden#btsbookclub#fwlbingo#mxm#bangtan#bts fics#bts mxm#jikook#kookmin#jeon jungkook#park jimin#jikook fic#bts angst#bts fluff#fluff#angst#fanfic#bts#strangers to lovers#neighbours au#fic; serendipity#kirawrites
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