#that my brain kind of just blacked out the literal fact that he died | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

borathae · 1 year

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↳ Index [Chapter 09 - Ghost]

Warnings: lots of emotional stuff, just emotions man emotions

Wordcount: 14.9k

a/n: hehe (with intent)

“Jimin? Holy shit, how? I saw you die.”

“Yeah, uhm…about that.”

You reach out and touch his chest. Hard and firm and most definitely real.

“What? How? What?" you stutter, “how? I literally saw the pile of ash.”

Jimin takes a step back, forcing your hand to slip from his chest.

“Resurrection spell. Good stuff, only works once and when done right. Fucking the brains out of a witch in secret has its advantages.”

“I think I’m gonna black out. You’re alive? All this bloody time you’ve been alive?”

Jimin scrunches his nose up in slight distaste.

“Geez, I see that you’re still dramatic.”

“No. Ohohoh no, you dickhead are not pulling that now”, you say, pointing an accusing finger at him, “you’re such a little shit, do you know that? Taehyung cried himself to sleep for months because of you and you are not going to appear here with accusations of me being dramatic.”

Jimin falters before sadness washes over his face.

“Taehyung cried because of me?”

“Yeah?” you laugh in disbelief, “maybe he shouldn’t have, given how you decided to act dead.”

“Now wait a minute”, Jimin hisses, “I was barely alive for months. You think being reborn from ash is something fun? Hell no, I’m back to ground zero.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I lost six centuries of strength.”

You snort.

“Don’t laugh”, he spits.

“I’m sorry, but this serves you so right.”

“You bitch”, Jimin gasps, blinking his eyes in disbelief, “where’s your compassion? I thought you were oh so nice.”

“Yeah, to people who didn’t try to kill me multiple times and on top of that abandoned their best friend.”

“I didn’t abandon-”, he stops himself, breathing in loudly. He raises his finger, pointing it at you vigorously, “you hah”, he laughs with fiery eyes, “you”, he steps closer, pointing his finger right at your face.

“What?”

He flicks your forehead.

“Ah. What the hell? That hurt”, you gasp, rubbing the aching spot.

“Serves you right”, he grumbles, taking a step back.

You huff out air, sending him an angry look.

Jimin crosses his arms in front of his chest.

“Where’s your bodyguard?”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Min Yoongi. Where is he?”

“Yeah, about that”, you begin, “I may have lost him. As a matter of fact, I’m kind of lost in general.”

Jimin scoffs.

“Don’t laugh.”

“I’m sorry, but this serves you so right.”

“Shut up.”

He gives you a shiteating grin, then gives you a nod of his head.

“Come with me”, he says and turns to leave.

“Excuse me? Why should I come with you? I have to find the others.”

Jimin looks over his shoulder.

“Because it’s getting dark and vampires here are different. They see an unfamiliar face wandering the streets at night and next thing you know, you’re dinner.”

“What the hell? Wait. Is this neighbourhood owned by vampires?”

“Yeah. It’s the norm here to eat humans”, he shrugs his shoulders, “now follow me, I’m hungry.”

“Well, I’m not going to follow you now.”

He groans, “fine then die here, what do I care.”

“Fine.”

Jimin turns his back to you and leaves. You watch him leave. You must be hallucinating. Jimin can’t be alive. You saw his body turn to ash. You literally watched it happening. This must be a trick of your lost, panicky brain. You are imagining stuff as your last resolve before officially losing your mind. Jimin is dead. He died a year ago. He isn’t alive. This right here never happened.

“Bonsoir.”

You turn upon hearing the unfamiliar voice to your right.

“Uuh..hello”, you greet the woman by your side. Her demeanour seemed friendly, yet her eyes as cold as ice.

She looks at your face, giving you a friendly smile.

“Oh? You speak English, thank god. I thought I needed to flex my very terrible French skills with you. Are you lost too? My name’s Stacey and I can’t find my way back to my hotel”, she says in a heavy French accent (almost as if her name wasn’t even Stacey and she was, in fact, French) and laughs shyly, “I saw you standing here that’s why I approached you. Girls helping out girls, am I right?”

“Yeah totally”, you say, eyeing her suspiciously.

“So are you lost?” she asks, still wearing her smile.

“I uhm…”

“Are you lost?” she repeats as her smile grows. She inches closer.

It makes you take a step back.

“Actually I am-”

“You are lost”, she says and her smile drops, “yes, you are lost.”

“I’m actually waiting for someone. He should be here any second.”

“Mhm okay”, her smile returns, “I’ll wait with you until he’s here.”

Then she stares, not blinking once. She stares and stares and stares and while she stares, the streets around you get darker and darker. You have figured her out by now. You know exactly what she is. The knowledge doesn’t make it easier. You are so scared. Your boys are nowhere to be found, your phone is dead so you can’t call for help, a vampire is just waiting for the sun to set behind the buildings so she can eat you and to top it all of Jimin, someone who may have helped you, is gone too. You fucked up. You fucked up big times.

“It’s getting darker”, she says and smiles again, “when is he coming?”

“He, he must be here soon.”

“Okay. Let’s wait.”

“I, I actually have to go somewhere else.”

“I will come with you.”

“I want to go alone.”

“No, you don’t. I will come with you.”

“No, it’s seriously not necessary he’ll be here any second now.”

“Yeah? I’ll just wait till he is.”

“He is Min Yoongi.”

“Yeah? I bet he is”, sarcasm drips from her voice, “I’ll just try my luck then.”

“What?”

She inches closer. You can watch the sun set behind her. Just a few more seconds and the street would be dark. You take a step back. She chases you.

“Scurry off Millicent.”

She turns her head, locking eyes with someone behind you. Awesome. Another bloodsucker just joined. You feel fearful shivers run down your spine.

“Oh? She’s yours? I’m sorry, I didn’t know she was.”

“Well she is”, the person says and drapes his arm around your shoulders.

You turn your head, feeling a million pounds lift from your chest.

“Now leave her alone”, Jimin says and flashes his fangs.

“Of course, truly I apologize”, she says and then locks eyes with you, “I’m sorry for scaring you”, she laughs, “I didn’t know you were Jimin’s girl. Please don’t tell Yoongi about it, I promise I was just joking.”

“It’s uhm….okay?" you mumble.

The woman turns and then disappears into the night.

You sneak a glance at Jimin, who seems displeased.

“Believe me now?”

“Yeah”, you give up, huffing out air.

He scoffs, then makes you walk with a gentle push.

“Come on, my place’s not far from here.”

You follow him, clutching his waist as if your life depended on it. In a way it does. Yes, you are embarrassed about it, hoping that Jimin won’t call you out on it.

He does, sneaking a glance at you, “what are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you hugging me?”

“I’m not”, you break away, huffing out air, “idiot.”

“Scaredy cat”, he teases, earning himself a nudge to his side.

“I wasn’t scared, okay? I was just…making sure you’re real.”

“Mh-hm sure”, Jimin scoffs and chuckles, “seriously though, why are you here?”

“I told you, I’m lost. I wanted to meet up with the others at this bar, but my phone died before I found it.”

“What bar?”

“Peony. It’s somewhere in Belleville.”

“You are so far off then. This is Quartier Latin, you’re not even on the right side of the Seine.”

“What? But I took the right bus. Or did I? What number did I get on?”

“You probably took the wrong one.”

You look around yourself, “I guess I did. Crap. I’m such a fucking mess.”

“So why didn’t you call one of them? I’m sure they’ll help you.”

“Because I don’t know how to call people”, you say sarcastically, “obviously my phone’s fucking dead, dipshit. I told you.”

Jimin lets out a lazy laugh.

“Don’t laugh.”

“I’m not”, he says, lifting his hands in defeat.

“You don’t possess over a charger for my phone, do you?"

“What model?”

You show it to him.

“No. I actually don’t own a phone anymore.”

“Crap. This is such a mess.”

Jimin leads you into a narrow alleyway. The lights aren’t working, except for one flickering weakly above your heads. You shiver, drawing closer to him as fear fills your veins.

“Where the hell are you taking me?”

“A safe zone”, Jimin says.

“Can’t you take me to Peony?”

“No, the city’s different at night. It’s best that we stay somewhere safe until it’s daylight again.”

Just as he said the sentence, you can hear a blood curling scream behind you. You flinch, looking at Jimin with widened eyes.

“What was that?”

“I told you. The city’s different at night. Stay close, the hunt’s begun.”

“The hunt?” you gasp.

“Yeah. The vampires made a treaty with the locals here. They won’t touch humans during the day, but every human out after sundown is free food.”

“What the hell.”

Jimin shrugs his shoulders.

“And the, the safe zone is really safe?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know that it is?”

“Because I live there”, Jimin says.

“Okay?”

“It’s owned by witches. Vampires can’t enter without an invitation”, he explains.

“I see. So why are you-”, another scream echoes through the streets, making you flinch, “why are you living there? Are you hiding too?”

“Maybe. The vampires here don’t know that I died.”

“Aah, I get it. If they found that you lost- eek.”

Jimin has you pressed against the wall with his hand on your mouth instantly.

“Shut up”, he hisses, “don’t say that out loud. Understood?”

You nod your head vigorously, staring into his eyes. They are glowing ruby in the darkness.

“Good”, Jimin slips his hand from your mouth, “come on, it’s past that corner”, he says in his normal voice.

A small plaza reveals itself to you once you crossed said corner. Small booths are scattered around the open place and the darkness of the night seems to disappear magically. It was still dark, but it didn’t feel dangerous anymore. A few fires in barrels were keeping the air warm, slowly dying out now that nobody was around to feed them.

Jimin leads you over the small marketplace, walking with less tension in his shoulders.

“It feels different here”, you say.

“Yeah, we’re in the safe zone. The witches’ magic protects us now.”

“I see. Where is everyone?”

“Some are sleeping, most are hunting down vampires and healing their prey.”

“That sounds like a lot of work”, you say, “I wonder why the wolves aren’t intervening.”

Jimin sneaks a glance at you, “you met wolves?”

“Yes. The Seville pack with Yoongi today.”

“Well damn, you actually met Maël”, Jimin murmurs, clicking his tongue, “that’s actually really impressive.”

“I know, it was really cool”, you say nonchalantly, “I wonder why Maël isn’t doing anything against it.”

“Because he knows better than to fight vampires in their own territory. If he attacked us here, the peace treaty would be over and war would break out again. Trust me, nobody wants that. As long as the vampires don’t hunt in other neighbourhoods, he can’t do anything against them.”

“I see. So it’s actually as bad as Yoongi told me.”

“Yes, it is. I was present when the actual fighting happened, you know?”

“You were?” you gasp.

“Yes. Tae and I. It was in the 1820s and Maël’s grandfather was still in charge. Yoongi was present too. He was the only one who could talk to all four factories without them wanting to kill him. I think he did a lot to keep the war from spreading to other cities.”

“Who were the four factories?”

“Vampires, wolves, witches and humans. Although the humans soon gave up in trying and concentrated on fleeing instead. The witches helped them and soon only vampires and the wolves continued the war.”

“Well that’s…were you and Tae involved in the fighting?”

“For a little while until Namjoon grew bored of it and fled to Mexico with his little bitches”, Jimin says and scoffs, “that was us, by the way.”

“Well damn. I’m sorry this happened to you guys. It’s fucking awful that he had you hostage for so many decades.”

Jimin glances at you, “thanks”, he murmurs, scratching the side of his neck. He points up a metal staircase then, “my room’s up there.”

You lead the way while Jimin follows with his eyes glued to the back of your head.

“Why are you guys in Paris?” he asks you.

“We’re hunting Namjoon.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Fredrick’s men told us that he was seen in Paris, so we’re trying to find him. Yoongi and Maël are going to eradicate a big group of his followers the day after tomorrow.”

“You’re very chatty with those details, aren’t you?”

You stop and turn. Jimin stops too. Like this, you are towering over him just enough that your lips could brush against his forehead if you allowed them to. Jimin tilts his head up, facing you with confidence in his look.

“What do you mean by that?” you ask him.

“I’m just saying, I could be one of Namjoon’s spies and you are just telling me all of your plans. Aren’t you scared that I’ll rat you out?” he challenges.

You study him. His cheeks have fallen in, dark circles are under his eyes. He looks so tired and weakened by life.

“I don’t want to step on your toes, but I doubt that Namjoon would let someone with the strength of a Year One do his spy work. Especially not a Year One who went up against him. If you were still under Namjoon’s influence, you’d be his torture toy, not his spy.”

Jimin takes a sharp intake of air, releasing it in a painful shudder. He lowers his eyes.

“I hate that you’re right”, he whispers, trying to hide the tremble coursing through his body by rolling his shoulders.

“But you’re safe from him. You know that, don’t you?”

Jimin pulls a grimace of flustered distaste.

“Don’t act like you care”, he hisses, bumping his shoulder with you as he flees upstairs.

You let out a defeated sigh. You figured that he wouldn’t accept your kindness. You turn and follow him, taking two steps at a time.

He is waiting by the door, turning the keys once you are close enough.

“Come in, I guess”, he murmurs, getting inside.

You follow him.

He closes the door behind you. Seconds later, the lights flicker on. A small room reveals itself to you. Just big enough for a double bed, a tiny kitchen and a small desk with one chair. It smells like wet walls and dust in here. Dark water spots on the greyish walls let you know why it does.

“Well damn”, you say, “I didn’t expect that.”

“Yeah, bask in my ruin all you want”, he murmurs, pressing himself past you to get to his fridge. He opens it to get a blood bag out. He bites it roughly, drinking the blood rather greedily.

You watch him as he does, finding the scene most peculiar. You can still remember how he walked into the kitchen covered in the blood of his prey or how he ripped your neck out without a care in the world. And yet here he is. Drinking cold blood in a small, dirty room.

Jimin drops the empty bag into the sink.

“What are you looking at?” he hisses.

“Nothing”, you say, breaking your eyes away to stare out the small window. The glass was fogged up from dirt, dust has collected on its wooden frame and cog webs are spanning along the corners.

“I know what you are thinking”, he hisses, “I know you think that it’s so fucking funny that someone like me ended up living in such a shithole, but save it, at least I’m alive and that’s all that matters.”

“I really wasn’t thinking that”, you say and somehow in this moment you feel bad for him.

He carries the slightest sign of embarrassment on his face, maybe even shame.

He kicks the kitchen counter quietly. Just a little nudge. The gesture reminds you of a small boy getting caught doing something he shouldn’t have done.

“I’m taking a shower, don’t touch anything”, he says coldly and seconds later, the door slams closed.

So this is actually real. Jimin is still alive. Living in this shithole of a home and drinking blood from a blood bag. There was a time – many, many months ago – where you would have basked in his ruin. After all, he did terrible things to you. But you can’t anymore these days. You know a person broken by the world when you see one. Taehyung carries the same aura around him as Jimin does. They must miss each other so much. You have to convince Jimin to come with you. You want Taehyung to know that he is still alive. He deserves to know after the awful year he had been through.

You have just sat down on his bed when Jimin comes outside.

“Geez”, you gasp, covering your eyes quickly.

“Chill, it’s not like you haven’t seen it before”, he says, strutting past you in nothing but his towel and his hair wet.

He drops said towel a second later as he puts on his pants. You don’t notice that he does, too busy with covering your eyes. Jimin fastens the strings tightly, studying you from head to toe.

“Here.”

You gasp as a piece of fabric lands over your head. You tug it away to inspect it. A grey t-shirt. You look at Jimin, who is staring at you with his torso still bared and his arms crossed in front of it. He is leaning against the kitchen counter.

“It’s freshly washed. Use it or not, I don’t really care.”

“Thanks, I’ll pass.”

He shrugs his shoulders, “whatever, then sleep in your clothes. Want some tea?”

“Uuuuh…sure?”

“Fine, take a shower, I’ll prepare it.”

“Uh sure?”

“Fresh towels are on the rack above the toilet.”

“Yes. Okay.”

You take a shower solely because being with Jimin in the same room feels so wrong. The water is freezing. The bathroom is tiny, offering just enough space that you don’t have to stand on top of the toilet to get clean. It is not far off however, that much can be said.

You end up wearing Jimin’s shirt because your other option would be walking outside in a towel and you are not for that life. Not with Jimin. Never.

Jimin sits on his bed, having his back turned to you so he can look out of the dirty window. Somehow a dark halo of loneliness surrounds him. Loneliness and maybe sadness as well. He is so different. Not only because his hair has turned from silver to ebony or not only because he seems to hunch these days rather than sit up straight. But in general. He doesn’t show off, he doesn’t act as if he was better than you, he doesn’t even try to look well put together. There was also this big silver mark on his back. Its edges remind you of the edges of a hole in a wall when someone punched their hand through it. The mark is on his left upper back, right where his heart would be. It makes you wonder if this has something to do with how he died.

“Are you going to stare at me any longer?” he says.

“I uh”, you break your eyes away, “I wiped down your shower with my towel.”

“Yeah”, he acknowledges you, “your tea’s on the desk.”

You eye it. It’s not in a cup, but in an empty marmalade jar. It is still steaming, carrying golden liquid.

“Thanks.”

You sit down next to Jimin. Your eyes meet. You and him break eye contact instantly, looking to the side awkwardly. You try the hot beverage. It tastes like lemon and ginger.

“The tea’s good. What brand is it?”

“I don’t know?” he scoffs, “Thea bought it, told me that it’ll do me good. I’ve been trying to use it up.”

“Well, it’s good. It has a slight lemony taste to it, don’t you think?”

“Don’t try to small talk with me. I hate nothing more than small talk.”

“What else do you want me to do? Sit here in silence?”

“It’s better than pretending that we care for each other.”

“Seriously though, how the fuck are you still alive?”

Jimin sneaks a glance at you.

“I told you, resurrection spell. Thea did it.”

“Who is Thea?”

“The leader of this coven. A witch. She did the spell”, Jimin says and points at a picture above his bed, “that’s her.”

You study the woman on the photography. Her curly hair is grey and her skin carries the marks of a well-lived, happy life.

You scoff.

“What?”

“So you’re telling me you’ve been fucking the brains out of this woman in secrecy?”

“Okay first of all, save that weird tone in your voice and second of all yes I did, what about it?”

“Nothing, you just don’t strike me as someone who-”

“-who’s into older women?” he interrupts you, “well I don’t care, I’m six hundred years old. Age becomes miniscule once you’ve seen too many people around you age and die. I’ve known her since her twenties.”

“I actually wanted to say that you don’t strike me as someone who is into witches.”

Jimin scoffs, turning his head away from you. He takes a sip of his tea, pulling a grimace as if the taste doesn’t please him.

“Did it hurt?” you ask him.

“What do you mean?”

“Coming back to life.”

“Imagine finally feeling nothing until all of a sudden, it feels as if you are being burned alive but it’s in reverse. So it starts off so unbearable that you want to scream but you can’t because your voice’s been burned too and then suddenly you wake up and you feel and it’s fucking awful because you’re alive again.”

“I’m sorry, that sounds awful.”

“Save it, I know you don’t mean it.”

“No, I do.”

Jimin scoffs.

“Is the silver mark on your back connected to the spell?” you ask him, sneaking a glance at his chest. The mark is there as well, spanning over the spot where his heart was supposed to be.

Jimin touches it, jaw tightening in emotion, “I guess”, he whispers.

“It’s where he…you know, isn’t it?”

He nods his head.

“Does it still hurt?”

He shakes his head and sneaks a glance at you.

“What?” he hisses, “just touch it if you keep fucking staring at it and stop being so nosy.”

You reach out. Hesitation. A fleeting look into his eyes.

“Touch it”, he insists.

You place your fingertips against the mark. His skin is cold like that of a vampire consuming cold blood, but the silver mark is icy. Merely tracing it for a few seconds makes your skin sting as if you got frostbite. You gasp, moving your hand away.

“It’s ice cold.”

“Yeah. You’re happy now?”

You reach out again, tracing the mark along its edge. Just enough not to hurt yourself, but still enough to feel it. His skin feels calloused and rough in contrast to his otherwise soft skin. As if someone placed silver leaves on his skin, the marks span against the ivory background. In a twisted way it looks beautiful, if it wasn’t the reminder of his death.

You pull your hand away, brushing your fingertips over his skin involuntarily as you do. Your eyes flit up. Jimin is looking at you, fingers clutching the jar and eyes racing between yours in suspicious nervousness.

“I think the mark is beautiful.”

“Beautiful? Why is it beautiful? It’s fucking hideous. Look at it. It’s the reminder that I fucking died.”

“I know and that’s why it’s awful that you have to carry it, but I think it’s beautiful in the sense that it shows that you were brave in your last moments.”

Jimin looks at you with widened eyes.

“You could have fled with Tae, but you chose to go up against your abuser and I think that’s really brave”, you say.

Jimin clenches his jaw.

“Thank you for keeping Taehyung safe”, you whisper.

“Shut up”, he hisses.

“I’m serious. I know you died protecting him and I just want to tell you that it means the world to Tae.”

Jimin lowers his head.

“And that he wishes you peace.”

“Fuck”, he presses out, covering his eyes quickly, “shut the fuck up”, he spits.

“I’m sorry, I know I should be quiet”, you whisper, considering whether or not you should reach out and comfort him. You decide against it, using your hands to lift the jar to your lips instead.

Jimin takes a deep breath, releasing it oh so shakily. Then he drops his hand from his eyes, looking at the moon outside. Dark clouds are covering it, keeping the light away from him. Perfect for his fucking life, he thinks. Darkness and no light. That’s just his life summed up.

“I’ll leave tomorrow”, you say.

“Good, I would have thrown you out either way.”

“Tzt”, you send him a look then look back outside, “you should come with me.”

“Why?”

“Because Taehyung misses you.”

“He’s better off that way.”

“No he’s not. I know you guys. You miss him too.”

“Doesn’t matter, he’s still better off without me.”

“No, he’s not.”

“Yes he is.”

“Holy fuck, you stubborn idiot. Taehyung has barely been functioning in grief ever since you died. He’s not better off without you.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’ve been taking care of him. He talks in his sleep you know?”

Jimin looks at you.

“He doesn’t know that I know, but I do because he wakes me up with it. He dreams about you, it’s always the same dream. About you coming back to life and it’s always the same thing he says. Jimin, you’re back. Jimin please don’t ever leave me again. It’s always the same thing.”

Jimin lowers his eyes sadly.

“And if it’s not that dream, he dreams about dying. It’s what he wants to do. To die. He tells me in his sleep.”

Jimin’s eyes fill with tears.

“And I know him. He says that I’m the person he can’t live without, but that’s a lie. I know that Tae also knows that that’s a lie. You’re the person he can’t live without, because I’ve been with him as he tried and it’s not working.”

Jimin spills his tears, lowering his head.

“Fuck”, he presses out, “fuck. What do you want me to say?” he hisses.

“Just that you’ll come with me.”

“Fuck”, he presses out, running his fingers through his own hair.

“Do it for Tae please. You’ll regret it if you don’t. We won’t be in town for long anymore. Just till Wednesday. Come with me please and show yourself to Tae.”

“What should I even say to him?”

“Nothing. Just give him a hug and promise him that you’re back.”

He grinds his teeth in contemplation.

“Fine”, he gives in, blinking the glassiness in his eyes away, “I’ll come with you.”

He stands up then.

“Where are you going?” you ask him.

“For a walk. I need to think.”

“You’re not running away, are you?”

“No?” he hisses, “that’s my place, why should I run away from it?”

You shrug your shoulders.

Jimin scoffs.

“Don’t wait for me”, he says, locking the door behind him afterwards.

You won’t see Jimin for the rest of the night. He comes back, but you have long fallen asleep when he does. So he stares. He stares at you sleeping in his bed with his shirt on and his blanket keeping you warm and for just a second he wonders what would happen if he did it now. If he broke your neck right this instant and then fled the scene, could he live a good life? He thinks of it and then thinks of how heartbroken Taehyung would be because now he not only lost his best friend but his lover too. That is the moment when Jimin turns away from the bed and decides to go for another walk. One which will take the entire night and keep his thoughts from suffocating him.

The smell of tea wakes you the next morning. You sniffle happily, expecting blue sheets and blues walls and the beautiful face of your boyfriend as he is waiting for you with breakfast in bed. You smile, peeling your eyes open. You are so ready to smooch him.

“Huh?”

There is no breakfast waiting for you. Nor are there blue sheets or blue walls. And especially not Yoongi’s handsome face.

“Finally.”

You turn upon hearing the unfamiliar voice. For just a second you startle until everything comes back to you. Jimin is sitting on the chair, having his legs crossed. Jeans adorns his legs and an oversized hoodie is keeping his torso covered. The clothes don’t go together and look as if he found them at places he would have never shopped at in the past. Even his shoes seem to be passed down to him by a stranger.

“You scared me.”

“Why? Forgot I’m alive?”

“Yeah”, you say, sitting up, “holy fuck, Jimin. You’re alive.”

He scoffs, rolling his eyes.

“You’re so dramatic”, he says coldly, “get dressed. I don’t want you here any longer, the sheets already stink of you.”

You roll out of bed, inching closer to the desk on which a single jar of black tea was waiting for you. Judging by the teabag in the sink, Jimin was the one making it for you.

“Thank you for the tea, I’m so cold.”

Jimin eyes your neck, “same”, he says dryly, making you hide your neck behind your hand.

“Don’t look at me that way.”

He rolls his eyes, sighing loudly.

“That woman really thinks so highly of herself”, he murmurs to himself, “relax girl, I don’t want to be anywhere near your neck”, he says and stands up, “let’s go downstairs. I’ll bring you back to the others.”

“Yes, uhm. Can I at least put on my clothes?”

He runs his eyes up and down your exposed legs.

“Sure”, he says and turns. He leaves you in the small room with the tea he made for you and so many confusing feelings in your chest. Jimin is really back, isn’t he? Well damn.

You get dressed quickly, taking the jar of tea with you.

Jimin is waiting for you in front of the door, studying you from head to toe again.

“Can we go?” he asks.

“Yes. We can.”

The plaza is bustling with life this morning. The fire in the barrels has been distinguished, except for one. A group of people is gathered by it, cooking what you assume to be food. The small booths are open, presenting the most beautiful of handmade treasures.

“Good morning, Jimin. Who is that lovely lady by your side?” an elderly lady greets him and a few other heads turn as well. You know that lady from the photograph. She must be Thea. She looks even happier than she did on the picture.

“___, old friend. She stayed here tonight.”

“I see, I see. Tell me ___, did you eat already?”

“She’s not hungry”, Jimin says, trying to tug you away by your elbow.

“Actually I am”, you say loudly, “I haven’t eaten since yesterday morning.”

Jimin huffs out air, sending you an annoyed look.

“Oh dear”, the lady claps into her hands, “then come here and eat with us. We just finished preparing breakfast.”

“I would love to”, you wiggle out of Jimin’s grasp, “thank you so much.”

The lady, you assume to be Thea, welcomes you by placing her hands on your arms. She seems to space out for a moment before her eyes fill with great grievance.

“Oh dear, you have seen a lot of grief haven’t you?” she asks.

“I’m sorry?” you gasp.

“Dear child”, she caresses your arms, “don’t you worry, you won’t have to worry about vampires here. Well”, she looks at Jimin, “except for him, but he wouldn’t dare to act up”, she says and snickers.

Jimin rolls his eyes.

“I’m sorry, but who are you? How did you do that?” you ask.

“My name’s Theanna, but most people call me Thea. I’m the leader of this coven here.”

“A coven. So you are all witches?”

She laughs fondly, as do the people having gathered around you by now.

“Of course we are my dear and we’re the reason your friend here is still alive.”

You look at Jimin. He seems annoyed, sending Thea a dark look.

“You look as if you have seen your first witch”, a younger witch says, showing you a friendly smile.

“I have”, you say, “I only heard of you guys and I read many of your spellbooks in my freetime, but I never met someone who can actually use magic. This is so cool, I can’t believe you guys are real. I’m sorry if this sounded weird, but I’m really excited.”

They laugh fondly, gathering around as they lead you to their little dining area. You feel safe in their circle, welcomed and as if you had always been a member of their family.

“Can I ask you a really stupid question?”

“Of course my dear. Every question is allowed.”

“Do you use brooms to fly around?”

Laughter roars in the small alleyways, filling it up with light and honesty.

“Oh you are wonderful”, Thea snickers, “no, we don’t fly on brooms, but we can enchant them to do our chores for us.”

“Okay that’s so cool”, you mumble.

One of the witches hands you a wooden bowl filled with warm soup. It smells like mushrooms and potatoes.

“Here you go”, she says, handing you a piece of bread and a wooden soup spoon as well.

“Thank you so much. It smells amazing.”

“Hopefully it is”, the witch says with a warm smile. She begins handing out soup to everyone, sitting down next to Jimin once everyone was taken care of.

There were around twenty witches gathered around the barrel. Fifteen of them are women and young girls, while the rest are men. They all carried a certain trustworthy familiarity with them. You feel safe eating their food and you feel encouraged to engage in small talk.

“Jimin told me that you tried to help in the hunt last night. I know, you don’t know me, but I hope that nobody got hurt”, you say.

Thea’s eyes soften, “you are very nice, my dear. Thankfully nobody got hurt last night. Eric escaped with a scratch, however it is nothing our ointments can’t fix.”

You look at the man opposite of you. There was a deep cut on his dark skin, stretching all the way over his inner upper arm.

“That looks painful. I hope you’re okay”, you tell him.

“I am”, he says and sends you a sweet smile. He looks at Thea, they exchange a little chuckle.

“I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be so nosy”, you apologise.

“Not at all”, Thea assures you.

You take a few bites of the soup. It tastes so good. Creamy and hearty and as if it was made with lots of love. The bread is tasty as well. The crust crunches as you bite into it and the inside is fluffy and full of flavour. It goes perfectly with the earthy taste of mushrooms and the soft chewiness of the potatoes.

“My grandma partook in witchcraft as well. So meeting actual witches feels very exciting to me”, you explain.

“What? Your grandma was a witch?” Jimin gasps, showing honest interest in the conversation. Before that, he merely stared at the ground in brooding.

The witches seems even more interested in you as well, studying you with curious eyes.

“I don’t think that she was an actual witch, but she knew how to heal people with herbs and always told me that she can speak with her animals”, you say, giggling shyly, “I know it must sound like the talk of a crazy lady to you guys.”

“Not at all. There are various practices of witchcraft in this world. Perhaps your grandmother practiced nature magic”, Thea says.

“Nature magic?”

She nods her head, “witches, who practice nature magic most often than not use their magic to heal nature and its creatures. They help plants grow, keep the environment healthy and in return the plants offer their healing powers to them. And many can speak with animals.”

“Wow. Wait”, you scoot closer to her, “so you are telling me, that my grandma could have actually been a witch?”

“Perhaps. And if not, there was a possibility that she knew of our practices just like you do. She must have taught you a lot.”

“Oh no, I learned all of this in books. I wasn’t really allowed to talk about witchcraft with my grandma. My mother always told me that she was crazy and forbid me from seeing her very often.”

“Oh? I’m sorry to hear that, my dear”, Thea says and touches your hand.

She zones out again before she begins to smile.

“Your grandmother loved you a lot”, she says.

“How are you always doing this?” you feel the need to whisper the question.

“Thea possesses the gift of sight”, Eric explains.

“The gift of sight? So you can see my past?”

“Past, future and present. I can see things which were and which could happen, just as I can see things which are currently happening”, she says.

“That’s remarkable. Can every witch do that?”

“No, only a few can see what happens. And even less can decipher the visions. One has to decide whether the pictures are of the past, present or future.”

“I see. That sounds like such a good gift to have once you know how to control it.”

Thea nods her head, “this is also how I knew that Jimin died. I had a vision of him turning into dust.”

You look at Jimin. He seems bored by the conversation.

“Woah.”

He lets out a loud sigh, “enough stories, Thea. ___ wants to go home”, he says.

“No, I actually like the stories”, you say.

Jimin lets out a little snarl.

The witches snicker in amusement.

“No, but Jimin is right my dear. You should go home before vampires find out that you are here. They don’t like strangers in their territory”, Thea says.

“I guess you are right. Let me just finish the soup, it tastes so good that I don’t want to miss out on one bite.”

You eat one more serving before finally getting up to leave. Thea told you more stories about their fight against the vampires of this city while you asked questions about how magic works. Jimin sat and listened if he wanted to or not. He finally lifts his head once you stand up and help Maria – the witch who handed out the food – clean up.

“Are you done?” he asks you

“Yes. Thank you, everyone. I had such a great time talking to you.”

“The pleasure was all ours. It isn’t everyday that we meet the granddaughter of a nature witch”, Eric says, making you smile.

“So you will be taking Jimin from us today”, Thea says.

You laugh shyly, “I guess”, sneaking a glance at Jimin to check for his reaction.

He rolls his eyes like he always does. You wonder if there will ever come a day where his eyes get stuck from all the rolling he is doing.

“I’ll be back soon, don’t worry”, Jimin says, touching your elbow, “you good to go? Don’t wanna waste any more time.”

“Yes, I’m good. Thank you everyone for hosting me, I seriously had so much fun here.”

“I hope that you’ll be back again one day”, Thea says, smiling brightly.

“Me too.”

You and Jimin leave afterwards, walking to the bus station side by side. He keeps his distance, hiding his hands in the pockets of his pants and kicking the occasional pebble.

“Are you taking me to the bar?” you ask him.

“Knowing Min Yoongi, it’s where he’ll look for you”, he says.

“Yes, that’s right. I really hope that he isn’t too worried”, you say and sigh sadly, "what am I talking about? Of course he’ll be worried. Poor Yoongi."

Jimin studies your face for just a second, wondering why your heart skipped a beat at the thought of the Creator. He dismisses it with a shake of his head. He doesn’t really care about it.

“The witches were so nice”, you say, “I really liked talking to them.”

“I noticed. Why did you ask so many questions?”

“Why not?”

“It’s nosy.”

“It’s not nosy. I rather ask many questions and educate myself than live in simplicity. Only through knowledge you can stop having mean and untrue prejudices about others.”

He clicks his tongue, “I hate that you’re right.”

You step on the right bus and choose an empty seat by the window. Jimin stands, looking outside whilst acting as if he doesn’t know you.

“Do you want to sit next to me?” you offer, “the seat’s still empty.”

“No, I’m good standing”, he answers you, sneaking a quick glance at you.

“Okay, suit yourself.”

Despite his efforts, he ends up sitting next to you after a group of guys entered the bus and looked at you weirdly.

“Changed your mind?”

“Those guys are vampires”, he tells you.

You eye them. They aren’t particularly looking at you, more than that they are looking at every human on this bus with hunger in their eyes.

“Well, then thank you for keeping me safe.”

“Whatever.”

The bus sways from left to right, the city passes you in streaks of different pictures and sceneries.

“I can’t believe that I took the wrong bus yesterday. It should have been so obvious to me”, you mumble.

“It happens. The city’s really big and if you don’t know it well, you can get lost”, Jimin says.

“Yes, you’re right. The city’s really nice”, you say, glancing at him, “Yoongi says that it’s a rancid city, but I think it’s nice.”

Jimin wonders again why your heart is speeding up at the mention of Yoongi. He doesn’t ask.

“I guess”, Jimin shrugs his shoulders, “it was nicer once.”

“I can imagine. Tae told me that you spend many years in Paris. Not just with Namjoon, but just the two of you as well. That must have been really nice.”

“Yes. It was”, Jimin whispers, touching the side of his neck.

“I’m really excited for you guys to meet again”, you give him a smile.

Jimin retorts it hesitantly.

You let out a content sigh, relaxing back against the seat and letting your eyes flit outside. It feels nice to know that Taehyung can finally get his happiness back. You never thought it possible, so knowing that it is makes you really happy. You are also very excited to see the others again. They must have been so worried for you. Gosh, you missed them all like crazy.

The bus comes to a slow stop.

“Let’s go”, Jimin says, leading the way outside and to the right bus.

“So that would have been the right one. I’m so dumb”, you mumble. You and Jimin sit down again and continue the journey you should have taken yesterday. “Do you know Peony?”

“Yes. It has good wine”, Jimin says.

“It has? Did you and Tae go there together?”

“Stop trying to talk to me”, Jimin hisses, “I’m just taking your dumb ass to Yoongi and that’s all.”

“And you are coming with me to meet Tae again”, you furrow your brows, “don’t forget that, understood?”

“Whatever”, Jimin dismisses you and turns his head away.

“I’m serious”, you say, nudging his arm.

“Yes. I understood you the first time”, he mumbles and for the rest of the drive you are both silent.

You were right about where the bar was located. Only a few hundred meters of walking and you can spot the purple peonies logo. And right underneath it with distraught on his face, Yoongi is standing. You begin smiling. He is here. Your Yoongi is here.

You feel like bursting with happiness.

“Yoongi!” you call out and start running.

He turns, eyes widening.

“Princess, holy fuck princess”, he is by your side within seconds, picking you up in his arms and twirling your bodies around quickly. He laughs loudly, beaming up at you with tears streaming down his face, “you’re back. My princess, you’re back”, he presses out and sobs.

“I’m back, my prince”, you choke out, “don’t cry, I’m okay.”

“I, I can’t help it. I was so worried for you”, he stutters in a whiney voice, pouting terribly sadly.

“I know, gosh my love, I’m here now”, you say, wiping the tears from his cheeks.

“Oh, love”, Yoongi chokes out, lowering you closer to him so he can begin littering your face in a million kisses, “my princess, oh my princess. I was worried sick”, he chokes out between his excessive kisses, “I’ve been looking for you all night, oh my ___.”

“I missed you too, oh Yoongi”, you say, melting under his kisses. Now you are finally safe again. Yoongi nuzzles his face into the crook of your neck and begins kissing you.

“Holy fuck, where were you?” he says, inhaling your scent deeply.

“Yoongi, I was so dumb”, you say, resting your cheek on his shoulder, “first my phone died and, and then I took the wrong bus and I ended up somewhere I was never before and, and then every cab ignored me and then it became dark and vampires wanted to eat me and I was so lost.”

“Wait a minute, slow down princess, slow down”, Yoongi sets you down, cupping your face, “vampires wanted to eat you? Who was it? Where are they?” he asks, furrowing his brows in anger, “did you see their faces? I’ll fucking kill them.”

“No it’s okay Yoongi, I’m alright”, you say, holding his cheeks and wiping his tears away, “I’m back again.”

Yoongi’s eyes soften.

“Oh princess”, he whispers, pulling you close to litter your face with kisses again.

You giggle, “that tickles, god Yoongi, that tickles.”

He hums, leaving even more kisses on your face whilst pulling you closer. You stumble, ending up with Yoongi tilting your body back and attacking you with big smooches.

“Yoongi, stop that tickles”, you squeal happily.

“Oh princess”, he presses out, straightening your bodies up so he can nuzzle his nose into your cheek, “I was going crazy in worry”, he confesses with a shaky voice, “don’t scare me like that ever again”, he says, resting his forehead against yours.

“I was really worried too, I just wanted to be with you again.”

“Fuck ___, my beloved princess”, he says, pulling you into a deep kiss.

You kiss him back happily, hooking your arms behind his head just to pull him closer. It feels so good to be with him again.

He sighs, having to press you oh so close to make sure that you won’t slip out of his grasp again. It is a kiss he would never show in public and yet right this moment it is all he wanted to do. Doesn’t matter who sees, he has you back with him again, unharmed and safe and he is bursting in relief.

He rests his cheek on your shoulder after the kiss, hugging you so tightly that you can feel how comfort engulfs you again. Now you are truly home again. Now you are back where it’s the warmest.

“I’m so happy to be back, Yoongi.”

“Me too, princess”, he gives your waist a soft squeeze, “you’re not going to leave again.”

You chuckle, “mhm honestly, I kind of don’t want to either way.”

“Good”, he lifts his head, gazing at you with lovedrunk eyes, “oh princess”, he whispers, reaching out to trace your features, “I’m so sorry for letting you go alone. I should have stayed by your side.”

“It’s okay, I don’t blame you. I was being a total scatterbrain”, you confess, “but Yoongi, I have to tell you something. When I was wandering the streets I met someone.”

“Who did you meet?” he seems wary.

“Yoongi, you won’t believe it but he’s not dead.”

“Who?”

“Ji-”, you stop talking now that you turned around and realised that Jimin was gone, “huh? What the hell? He is supposed to be here.”

Yoongi scans the empty streets, pulling you closer to him just in case.

“Who are you talking about, princess?”

You turn, looking into his eyes.

“Jimin. I ran into Jimin and, and he let me sleep at his place and he, uhm, he kept me safe from the vampires”, you say, “what the hell, he is supposed to be here. He promised me that he would stay and, and meet Tae.”

Yoongi furrows his brows in both confusion and distaste.

“Jimin can’t be alive. I saw his ashes.”

“Yes I know”, you exclaim, widening your eyes, “but he’s alive, Yoongi!” you laugh, “a witch resurrected him again and now he’s living together with the witches in their safe zone.”

Yoongi touches your forehead.

“Hey”, you move your head away, “don’t act like this.”

“Like how?”

“As if you think I’m crazy in a fever. I’m serious, Jimin’s still alive.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes”, you say, nodding your head vigorously, “I stayed the night with him and ate with him and his witch friends. I know what I saw.”

“But he died.”

“Smell me”, you say, offering your neck to him, “really smell me.”

Yoongi leans in and sniffles at your neck and shoulder.

“I smell like him, don’t I?”

He nods his head, looking at you with furrowed brows. He looks confused.

“See? I’m not lying.”

Yoongi inhales deeply, looking at the sky. His eyes race from left to right as he is thinking your words over. He exhales.

“Well fuck”, he says, scratching the side of his neck in contemplation, “let’s not tell Taehyung for now.”

“What? Why? He needs to know.”

“Yes he does, but not yet.”

“But this is so mean. All Tae wants is to be reunited with Jimin again. You know that as well as I do.”

“I do princess, but please listen to me.”

You close your mouth for now.

Yoongi is caressing your arms as he speaks, keeping his voice calm.

“Taehyung has just begun to smile again and we shouldn’t give him false hopes by telling him that Jimin is alive.”

“But why?”

“Because clearly Jimin doesn’t want him to find out or why did he run right now?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he got scared that you’d rip his head off or something.”

“I mean, it’s not that I’m not considering”, Yoongi murmurs, earning himself a nudge to his chest.

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s the truth. He deserves a good beating for what he did to you.”

“I know, but…my prince, can’t you come with me and find him? I want to tell Taehyung, but you are right, we should do it once we find out what Jimin’s intentions are.”

“No, we should leave”, he says and pushes you softly to get you to move.

“Please, Yoongi”, you stop him from leaving by placing your hands on his chest.

He studies your features.

“What are you even going to tell him?”

“I don’t know, just ask him why he doesn’t want to see Tae.”

Yoongi grinds his teeth, looking to the side in contemplation. So you step closer, hugging his middle and resting your cheek on his shoulder.

“Please, Yoongi Boongie?”

“You’re cheating”, he whines, “you can’t hug me like that.”

You giggle, squeezing him gently.

“You know that I’m down for every method.”

“Yeah, I know”, he whispers, leaning in just to give your cheek a little bite.

“Ah, hey”, you gasp, “don’t bite me.”

He grins boyishly, “it’s what you get for being a cheater.”

“So mean”, you mumble, giving him a pout as you rub the spot he bit.

Yoongi’s eyes soften, head tilting to the side as he gazes, “I’ll come with you, alright?” he whispers, caressing your waist.

“Yes, wow. Thank you, Yoongi Boongie”, you say, smooching his cheek even if that flusters him big times.

“Yeah, yeah just lead the way”, he mumbles, letting you drag him down the streets.

You board the bus together. Yoongi lets you take the seat by the window while he claims the spot by the aisle. He drapes his arm around your shoulders, pulling you into him. The gesture is very untypical of him and so you sneak a glance at him. He notices, looking at you.

“What?” he asks.

“Nothing, you’re just normally not that affectionate in public.”

“Tch”, he clicks his tongue, trying and failing to pull his arm away because before he can, you intertwine your fingers with him.

You grin, resting your head against him.

“I like that”, you tell him.

Yoongi hums, closing his arm around you to begin running his hand up and down your upper arm. He won’t tell you, but he is that affectionate because he almost lost you last night and now he never wants to let you go again. You won’t slip out of his hands again, Yoongi is making sure of that by holding you oh so close.

“Thank you for coming with me”, you say, lifting your head in order to look at him better.

“Yeah well, you left me no choice, didn’t you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” you ask in a chuckle.

Yoongi sends you a glance, “you wouldn’t have accepted a no, would you?”

“Maybe yeah”, you grin when Yoongi gives you his signature frown. The kind that tells you that he thinks you’re being a little brat right now.

“See? That’s why I came with you, so you can’t run off again”, he murmurs dryly, earning himself a quick smooch on his cheek. He doesn’t let it show, but it flusters him.

“You won’t regret it. We’re almost there”, you tell him, “he’s living with a coven. Their leader’s name is Thea, do you know her?”

“Not well, but yes I do.”

“Does she like you?”

Yoongi shrugs his shoulders, “I don’t know. I never hurt her.”

“Well, then she’ll like you. She’s really nice. She told me so much about magic. Did you know that there are different types of witches depending on how you gained your power?”

“Yes, I do.”

“That’s so fascinating, don’t you think?”

“Mhm sure”, Yoongi nods his head, making you grin.

“Oh!” you exclaim, “that’s our stop. Get up Boongie, we have to leave”, you tell him once you reached your true end stop, pushing at him gently to get him to move.

Yoongi does so with a little grumble, allowing you to drag him out of the bus and over the street.

“Did you even check for cars?” he asks you.

“Yeah”, you dismiss him, dodging a group of people and then turning on your heels to grin at him.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

“It’s just that this feels almost as if we’re on a date”, you snicker, “should we make good on your promise and make out on the Eiffel Tower?”

“What promise?” Yoongi tries to sound annoyed but ends up smiling when you tug him closer and drape his arms around your waist.

“The thing you promised me on the meadow. You know? When you told me how romantic that would be and that you wouldn’t want anything else. Especially not making out in a hotel room.”

“You and me both know that this is not what I said”, Yoongi says, caressing the small of your back softly.

You giggle, scrunching your nose up, “but you wanted to say it, admit it.”

Yoongi merely grumbles a “whatever” then leans in to kiss your cheek, “just get moving, brat.”

He pushes you softly. You snicker, turning back around in order to walk next to him, holding his hand tightly.

“You know that I’m just teasing you, don’t you?”

“Yeah, that’s why you’re a brat.”

“Admit it, you love it.”

Yoongi answers you by giving you a look from the corner of his eyes and tugging you into him wordlessly to drape his arm over your shoulders. You snake your arm around his waist, holding him close that way. You really love this right now. This is what you needed after last night. Frolicking through the alleyways of a small Parisian neighbourhood with Yoongi by your side. You weren’t lying when you told him that this feels like being on a date, because it does. You and Yoongi rarely walk the streets together, especially not as close as you are right now. Maybe getting lost last night had its advantages. You know that come tomorrow, Yoongi won’t be as affectionate in public anymore. You ought to take advantage of it for as long as possible.

You pass by the little shop where the vampire almost ate you last night. It looks so welcoming now that the sun was shining. It is a clothing shop, the clothes seem handmade and of high quality.

“That’s where I bumped into Jimin last night”, you tell him, “I can’t believe how close to the right bus stop I already was. Goddamn, I would have just had to keep walking and then take the right bus again.” You look at Yoongi’s side profile. “That’s also where that vampire almost ate me.”

Yoongi’s eyes are on you instantly, dark in worry and anger.

“Don’t tell me that, it’s making me murderous”, he hisses.

“I’m sorry, gosh I just wanted to tell you”, you gasp, “don’t worry, Yoongi. I’m really fine. Jimin told me that there are different rules in this neighbourhood and that the vampires living here made a treaty with the locals that once it’s dark outside and a human is still out, they can eat them and in return, they leave the locals alone during the day. I think the vampire thought that I was a tourist.”

Yoongi sighs in annoyance, “I don’t know why our kind always has to make those stupid treaties. Can’t they simply control themselves?”

“Agreed, it’s a little weird.”

“It’s more than weird”, he grumbles, “just come and show me where that bastard lives, I don’t like you being here.”

“It’s just down that block. Follow me, it’s not far now”, you say and lead the way with Yoongi holding you oh so tightly, “did you know that this is one of the neighbourhoods still owned by vampires?”

“Yes”, Yoongi says, sending a random woman a murderous glance over the street.

She stops in her steps and gasps, turning on her heels to hurry away.

“Did she just flee?” you ask.

“Yes and if she has something in her brain, she’ll tell her friends to do the same”, he says and as if on command a few people in front of you flee after spotting Yoongi.

“You’re so cool”, you whisper, feeling oh so safe to walk on these streets.

“Mhm”, Yoongi acknowledges you, darkening his eyes as you pass two strangers. They push and pull at each other as they are trying to flee. In the end, they disappear in a narrow alleyway, never to be seen again.

“Do they all know who you are?”

“Yes.”

“Seriously, you’re so goddamn cool”, you whisper with a fluttering heart.

Yoongi smirks lazily, pulling you closer.

Just like this morning, the plaza is filled with witches. Tourists and locals have joined them now that it is bright outside, gathering in front of their booths of goods and chatting about all sorts of things. Maria notices you first, nudging Thea, who makes it her task of welcoming you.

“___” she calls out, hurrying to you with open arms, “you are back so soon. What happened?”

“Hello Thea, I’m back because Jimin bailed on me. Is he here?”

“Yes, upstairs in his room”, Thea answers you then studies Yoongi by your side, “it’s been decades, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, you haven’t changed much Thea”, Yoongi greets her.

She laughs, throwing her head back, “and I see that you became a liar”, she says, giving him a playful smile, “I changed too much. You however, still look the same, but then something seemed to have changed with you”, she steps closer, studying his features so intently that Yoongi feels the need to look to the side, “you’re in love”, she exclaims and smiles, looking at you, “of course, how could I not see this sooner? Oh look at me! I’m getting old, the visions are so clear now!”

Yoongi grumbles something inaudible, looking to the side with burning cheeks. You snicker, giving his waist a little pinch.

“Just lead us to Jimin, Thea”, he tries to sound angry, but the shyness is obvious in his voice.

“He’s upstairs. Come on in, Yoongi.”

Yoongi takes the step through the magical barrier.

“Follow ___ she knows her way. I’m at my booth if you need me”, Thea says and places her hand on Yoongi’s arm. She zones out for just a second then begins to smile, “you will make her very happy and in return find peace. I can see it clearly.”

Yoongi pulls his arm away, eyes widened in shock.

After granting you one sweet smile, Thea turns and hurries back to her booth, catching up Maria on the whole situation.

You glance at Yoongi, who seems to be frozen on the spot. His hand is pressed to his chest, right where his heart once beat. His eyes are big and his lips are parted. He looks beyond flabbergasted.

“Yoongi?”

He flinches, eyes flitting to you. He blinks rapidly.

“Yeah?”

“Are you coming?” you ask him, tugging at his arm gently.

“Yeah uh”, he stumbles after you, still staring at Thea as if he was trying to make sense of what she just told him.

“It’s really cool that she can see the future, isn’t it?”

Yoongi nods his head, looking at you shyly. You smile.

“I believe her, you know?”

He looks away, touching the side of his neck.

You giggle, hugging his arm, “now come on, let’s get Jimin and then get out of here.”

Just as you had thought, Jimin doesn’t open his door when you knock. Even when you tell him that you know that he is in there, the door stays locked.

“Let me”, Yoongi says, pushing you to the side gently to get to work. He wraps his fingers around the doorknob and with one easy twist the lock breaks. He pushes the door open, “after you.”

“You are so cool”, you mumble, entering Jimin’s room.

The latter is staring at you with widened eyes.

“What the hell? How did you do that?” he squeaks out.

“Why did you leave?” you ask him.

“Why are you breaking into my room?” he throws back, eyes flitting to Yoongi who just this moment takes the spot behind you. He stumbles back in shock, lifting his hands in defence, “please no. Don’t hurt me, please”, he gets out, looking scared.

“Well fuck”, Yoongi says, eyes racing over Jimin, “you were right.”

“I know I was”, you say.

Yoongi scoffs.

“Don’t hurt me”, Jimin says, “I’m serious, just leave me alone please. I, I promise not to cause trouble.”

“He’s not here to hurt you”, you say, placing your hand on Yoongi’s chest, “we’re here to get you. You promised me that you would see Tae again.

Jimin looks at your hand on Yoongi’s chest and Yoongi’s arm around your waist.

“No oh my god, seriously?” he groans and rolls his eyes, “now I get why your heart kept racing whenever you thought of Yoongi. You guys are a thing now!”

“We aren’t just a thing. She’s my girlfriend”, Yoongi hisses.

Jimin snorts, giving Yoongi an amused smirk.

“No need to get so feisty Min Yoongi, we won’t want you getting too emotional now”, he teases with a mischievous grin.

“Can I punch him?” Yoongi asks you, “just once I want to punch him.”

Jimin snickers.

“Later”, you say.

“Hey!” Jimin complains, “what the hell?”

You ignore him, “come back like you promised.”

“No, I changed my mind. He’s better off without me.”

“Jimin, come on.”

“No, I made up my mind. I’m staying here.”

You sag your shoulders in defeat.

“Okay good”, Yoongi says, trying to get you to move with a gentle nudge, “seems that he made up his mind, let’s leave princess.”

“Give me a minute, please”, you insist, wiggling yourself out of his soft hold, “Jimin, come on.”

Jimin sneaks a glance at you, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“What are you so afraid of?”

“I’m not scared. What are you on about?”

“Of course you’re scared, I can see that you are.”

Jimin shakes his head, scoffing loudly.

“Are you scared that Taehyung won’t want you back anymore?”

Jimin stays silent, tensing his jaw.

“Well, you won’t get your answer here, brooding in self-pity.”

“I’m not pitying myself.”

“No, of course not.”

“Can you leave me alone? Piss off and suck a cock, will you?”

“Jimin”, you speak patiently, “just come with us.”

“No!” he exclaims, whipping around to gawk at you with widened eyes, “I don’t want to come back, I don’t know what to say! I goddamn left him for months. I can’t face him. What if he’ll never forgive me? What if he says that I’ll always stay dead to him?”

“That won’t happen, I promise you. Tae misses you like crazy.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Because you’re his best friend, for fuck’s sake and he loves you.”

Jimin closes his mouth, lowering his eyes now that your words flustered him.

“Just come back with us. I promise you, everything will be fine.”

Jimin hesitates. He sneaks a glance at Yoongi.

“Do as she says. She knows what she’s talking about”, he says dryly.

Jimin looks away. He lets his eyes run over his depressive, lonely home. The spot where once his heart was stings. What does he have to lose? Grey walls, no person to talk to and an aching yearning for his best friend. The things he would lose seem miniscule in comparison to what he will gain. He exhales loudly.

“Fine”, he gives up, “fine, I’m coming with you.”

And so you leave the plaza together. You and Yoongi hand in hand while Jimin trots next to you. He doesn’t talk a lot, while you and Yoongi talk about Maël. Tomorrow’s plan is still going to happen. You tell Jimin about it, but he seemed too tense in nervousness to really listen. You can’t blame him. You are really nervous yourself. Taehyung is going to get his best friend back. You are so excited and nervous. You really, really hope that he will like the surprise.

Hoseok opens the door for you once you arrive at the apartment. His face lights up the second he sees you.

“___ holy shit, you’re back! I was so fucking worried for you”, he gasps, falling around your neck in a tight hug.

You stumble with a laugh, twisting his shirt for support, “I missed you too, Hobi.”

“Oh my god”, he mumbles into you, lifting you up just so he can squeeze you, “where were you? We tried calling you but you didn’t answer us.”

“I got on the wrong bus and my phone died, it was such a mess”, you say, laughing when Hoseok bounces you in his arms, making little sound effects as he does.

“___!” Seokjin calls out, running to your side, “holy shit, you’re okay. I thought you died!” he says, hugging you and Hoseok.

You laugh, holding him close as best as the position allows you to.

“I’m so happy to be back, I had such a night.”

“Tell us all about it. Where were you? What happened? Are you okay?” Seokjin asks, breaking away in sync with Hoseok so they can look at you.

“I’m okay and you’ll get the full story later, I promise. Guys, I have to see Tae. Is he home?”

“He isn’t home yet. Why?”

Jimin steps closer.

Hoseok and Seokjin stumble back in shock.

“Uh, what the hell is happening?” Hoseok gasps.

“What’s going on?” Seokjin gets out, gawking with such widened eyes that you fear they might actually fall out of his head.

“I’m alive. Surprise”, Jimin says.

“How?!”

“Resurrection spell.”

“But I saw your ashes”, Seokjin tells Jimin as they follow you.

“I know. I’m back now.”

“How?”

“Resurrection spell, I told you.”

“Damn, seriously. Damn.”

“How is that even possible?” Hoseok asks.

“Right?” you agree, “I promise that you guys will get the whole story, but I really have to call Tae now. Let’s go to the living room guys, the hallway’s cold.”

“Yeah sure. Damn, this is actually happening”, Hoseok says, following you with the rest of the group.

Emma is in the living room. She was drawing before, but lifts her head.

“I’m so happy to see you, ___”, Emma says, “we were really worried for you”, her eyes shift to Jimin and widen, “Jimin?” she gasps.

“Emma?” Jimin gasps, “what are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here? I thought you died.”

“Resurrection spell. Good stuff.”

“Something like this is possible?”

Jimin nods his head, studying her face.

“You look good”, he says, “eternity suits you.”

She snorts and chuckles, “I can say the same about you. You’re really not dying easily, aren’t you?”

“I told you, I’ll always find a way to survive.”

“Clearly you do”, Emma says and then shifts her eyes to Seokjin. He is putting a protecting (almost jealous) arm around her shoulder, eyeing Jimin with suspicion.

“I’m back!” Taehyung calls from the hallway just moments later.

“Perfect timing”, you say and run out of the living room.

“Darling”, you call out.

Taehyung lifts his head and smiles, “darling! What a wonderful way to be greeted”, he says, closing the distance between you and him to kiss you.

“Tae”, you don’t let him kiss for long. You are too excited, “Tae, I met someone last night. I need to show you.”

Taehyung cocks his right brow up in question.

“Follow me. Come”, you say and tug him with you.

“Wait, not so fast”, Taehyung follows you with a fond chuckle.

You enter the living room. Taehyung joins you a moment later.

“Who did you meet, darling?” he asks.

“Look”, you say, pointing at Jimin.

Taehyung looks and stumbles back, almost collapsing on the ground if Hoseok hadn’t caught him under his pits before that could happen.

“Jimin?” the word barely wants to leave Taehyung’s throat.

“Hey.”

Taehyung storms to Jimin, who welcomes him with open arms and teary eyes. Just seconds later and he falls as Taehyung throws him to the ground and moments later begins punching his face.

“I hate you. You bastard! All this time you were alive! Why would you leave me?! I needed you! I fucking needed you!” Taehyung screams, crying the hottest tears as his face is contorted in heartbreaking betrayal.

You expected anything but this. As did Jimin, who does nothing to fight Taehyung off as shock keeps him paralysed.

“Taehyung stop!” you gasp, wanting to step in between, but getting stopped by Yoongi.

“Don’t. You’ll only get hurt.”

“I took your punishment! Hear me?!” Taehyung is crying miserably, punching his own knuckles bloody, “I was rotting away in prison while you were alive?! My heart has been broken for months! Why would you do this to me?!”, he wails loudly, “I hate you so much! You bastard traitor! I hate you!”

“I’m sorry Taetae, I’m so sorry.”

“I needed you!” Taehyung screams the word, picking Jimin up by his collar just to shake him, “why did you never come looking for me?!”

“I’m sorry, I wanted to but I couldn’t.”

“You couldn’t?!”

Taehyung punches him. He punches him so hard that Jimin can’t move for a moment.

“I hate you!” he sobs and punches him, “I hate you so much!”

Jimin groans quietly, trying and failing to speak. Taehyung is blinded by his own emotions, taking out months of heartbreak on Jimin’s face.

“Stop that”, Yoongi stops him, dragging him away, “you’re going to kill him. “

“Let go of me!” Taehyung squirms in Yoongi’s hold.

“Seriously, I’m going to break your spine if you keep moving around”, Yoongi warns.

“Leave me alone!”

But Taehyung is angry, heartbroken, drowning in the feelings of being betrayed. Just this night, he is stronger than Yoongi. Just this night, he manages to rip himself free of his grasp and just this night, you have to watch as Yoongi flies through the room before colliding with the wall so harshly his entire rib cage shatters.

“What the fuck?” you squeak out.

That’s when Taehyung disappears, pushing aside a confused Jungkook, who just came downstairs to check what all this yelling is about. Jungkook falls to his knees, groaning softly.

“What the hell is happening?” he gasps, watching Jimin bleed all over the carpet while you are sobbing and cupping Yoongi’s pain-contorted face. This is the most confusing situation he ever walked in on.

“Yoongi my baby, oh god Yoongi”, you sob, grasping his face tightly.

“That’s….why…I…told you…to…stay….back”, he presses out before having to groan in agony.

“Yoongi, I’m so sorry”, you fall around his neck, “this is all my fault. I’m so stupid. Why did I think this could work? I’m so fucking dumb.”

“Stop crying…I’m okay.”

“No, you’re hurt. It’s my fault.”

“Hush, it’s almost healed.”

You lift your head, dripping tears all over his face. He gives you a reassuring smile.

“It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

“Yoongi”, you whimper, feeling your lower lip tremble.

He sits up with your help. He doesn’t need your help, but you want to help him either way. Once he is up, you keep your arms around him, making sure that he is supported.

“Don’t move too much, you’ll make it worse.”

“Hey, stop crying”, he says softly, wiping your tears away, “I’m seriously okay. I healed.”

“Oh”, you press out, hugging him tightly.

He hugs you back, caressing the back of your head lovingly.

“It’s okay princess, I’m okay.”

“Can someone please tell me what is going on here?” Jungkook joins the conversation, staring at Jimin with big eyes.

The latter is in the midst of sitting up with Hoseok’s help, sending Jungkook an icy glare before staring at the floor. His face was covered in his own blood, but seems to be in the middle of healing.

“I’m alive”, he says coldly, “you can see how Tae took that fact”, he lifts his gaze to you, “he’ll be so happy to see you. That’s what you told me. He was oh so happy, wasn’t he?”

“You’ll take on another tone if you speak to her”, Yoongi warns.

“I just got my face punched in repeatedly, so excuse me if I’m being pissy”, Jimin says and spits one of his teeth on the floor, “fuck”, he grunts, stumbling to his feet. With way too much pride in his eyes, he straightens his back, lifting his head as high as possible.

“You good?” you ask him.

“Do I look good?” Jimin says, pointing at his face. His bashed open left eye is still in the middle of healing, only slowly coming out from the inside of his skull. Truly it is horrid to look at.

“No. Sorry for asking.”

“Urgh”, Jimin groans and turns his back to you, “what?” he hisses at Jungkook.

“How the fuck are you here? I saw your ashes.”

“I rose from them again.”

“Tzt what? Like a phoenix?”

“Basically.”

“How?”

“Witches. All thanks to ___ bothering Yoongi with releasing Tae that day and distracting him. They did some witchy teleportation shit and gathered my ashes.”

“How the hell did they even know that you died?”

“Visions. They told them I bit the dust. Well, became the dust in a literal sense.”

“Hah yeah”, Jungkook studies him from head to toe, “I have to be honest with you, I can’t say that I’m happy to see you again.”

“Trust me, I feel the same.”

“Good”, Jungkook says dryly then turns to you. Life returns to his eyes, “I’m so happy that you are back, ___”, he says, hurrying to you so he can take your hands.

“Me too Kookie”, you tell him, squeezing his hands gently.

“Do you think Tae is alright? He seemed really upset”, Emma asks.

“I don’t know”, you say, looking at Yoongi for help.

“I’ll check on him”, he says.

“I’m coming with you”, you say, hurrying after him.

“What about me?” Jimin asks.

“Stay until we know more”, you say, “I’m not giving up, so please stay.”

Jimin nods his head and touches his face, “ah fuck, hurts”, he murmurs.

“I can look at it if you want to”, Emma offers and then you drown out their conversation.

Yoongi takes your hand, “come. He’s still here.”

“Is he upset?”

You get your answer by the loud sob cutting through the air. The sound of something shattering follows.

It came from upstairs.

“No Tae”, you gasp, running to get to him quicker.

Yoongi follows you, taking two steps at a time.

Sobbing. Loud and filled with pain. Shattering of something else.

Taehyung appears in your vision. Hunched over and kneeling on the floor with his knuckles bleeding from punching in the mirror. Pieces of it were still stuck in him.

“Stop please! Stop please!” he begs.

“Darling”, you gasp, “what happened? You’re hurt.”

“Stay away!” Taehyung screams. He doesn’t want to scream but he can’t stop it from happening. “I’m going to rip you apart if you come any closer.”

You stop. Yoongi steps in instantly.

“Hey there Tae, it’s okay. I’m here now”, he says.

“Stay away! I’ll hurt you!”

“It’s okay. I’m here, you can hurt me. It’s okay”, Yoongi assures him, coming closer in slow steps.

Taehyung growls and sobs. He tries to look scary by flashing his fangs, but he ends up looking like a scared, cornered animal, staring at Yoongi with a grimace of pain.

“Talk to me, Tae. Talk to me.”

“I’m going to kill him. How could he do this to me?” Taehyung is yelling, “I thought that he was dead. I grieved. Suffered. How could he leave me?!”

“I know, Tae. It hurts so much.”

“I wanted to die each and every day and all this time he was alive? He let me suffer. He, he- oh god”, he chokes out and then he sobs, “why didn’t he come back to me?” he sobs so miserably that he can barely even breathe, fighting for his right to air, “why did he leave me alone for so long?”

He is shaking, wheezing whilst trying to sob, coughing out curses.

Yoongi kneels down in front of Taehyung. He cups his face and brushes his thumbs over his temples.

“Don’t worry, Taehyungie. Hyung’s here now”, he soothes him.

You know that he is currently helping Taehyung calm down by touching his temples. And seeing how Taehyung actually calms down, he wanted it to happen. After all, this type of mind control only works if the receiving end consents to it.

“Hyung’s here now, Taetae. I’m right here”, Yoongi whispers, shushing him softly.

Taehyung’s breathing slows down gradually. With each caress of his temples, his once suffocating emotions become easier to bear. He felt like dying in pain, but Yoongi helped him, coming at the right time to prevent the worst from happening.

“The worst’s behind you, Tae. I’m here for you, right here”, Yoongi speaks gently, running his thumbs under Taehyung’s teary eyes.

Taehyung whimpers, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Hyung”, he squeaks and sobs, “hyung, it hurts so much.”

“I know, but I’m here now. Yeah?”

Taehyung nods his head, “why would he do this to me?” he presses out, voice trembling, “I want to die, it hurts so much.”

“I know Tae, I know. Lean on me, yeah? Trust me to make it better, yeah?” Yoongi whispers in the softest voice, caressing Taehyung’s temple with loving hands.

You kneel down next to them, reaching for Taehyung’s trembling hands. He flinches, looking at you with fearful eyes. He calms down when he sees that it is you touching him.

“Can I remove the shards?” you ask him.

Taehyung looks at them. He seems confused and surprised by their presence.

“Yes”, he gets out. He doesn’t react as you begin pulling out the shards, crying softly as Yoongi continues drying his tears.

“We’re here, Tae. You’re not alone”, he continues whispering, holding Taehyung’s face safely.

At some point, Taehyung stops sobbing to instead whimper. He looks into Yoongi’s eyes.

“Why did he do this to me?” he croaks.

“He was scared of your reaction.”

“My reaction? I grieved him. Each passing day felt like hell.”

“I know, Tae hey”, Yoongi tilts his head up, “I know that and Jimin knows that too.”

“He grieved you too, my sweetest”, you say.

Taehyung looks at you with heartbreak in his sad eyes.

“So why did he abandon me?”

“I didn’t abandon you.”

You look at the door. Jimin is here, looking at Taehyung with nervous eyes and fumbling with his thumbs. His face is healed again, his blood wiped away.

“I spent two thirds of my new life having to recover. It’s actually difficult as fuck to return from the dead, so my body was fucked. I couldn’t even leave bed, let alone talk or eat.”

Taehyung sniffles, sobbing softly.

“I, I really wanted to be with you again, but I was embarrassed, just…” Jimin falters, “just look at me. I’m a fucking joke. I lost all my strength and look like fucking shit.”

“You think I care?” Taehyung presses out, “all I needed was you.”

“I know, shit, I know.”

“I hate you so much. How could you do this to me?” Taehyung sobs.

“Do you…really hate me?” Jimin asks with a trembling lower lip.

“I don’t know! Why would you ask me that?! Why did you leave me?!” Taehyung yells, voice trembling and barely wanting to come out.

“I’m so sorry for leaving you, Taetae. I fucking-”, Jimin tears up, “-I fucking thought of you each day. I missed you so much. Please believe me.”

“Jimin”, Taehyung sobs loudly stumbling to his feet with your and Yoongi’s help. He leaves the two of you behind him as the only thing he can see is Jimin.

Within a second he is by his side. Within a second he has him against his chest. Within another second Jimin hugs him back. Taehyung cries miserably, Jimin tries not to but soaks Taehyung’s shirt in silent tears. They are together again. Their dreams actually came true. They are finally reunited.

“I missed you so much”, Taehyung wails, “oh god, you are real. You are real.”

“I am. I’m real. I love you Taetae, I love you so much”, Jimin laughs and sobs and hugs his best friend as if it was his last day on earth.

But it wasn’t his last day. It was just the beginning. They are reunited and life can finally begin again. Taehyung tightens his arms around Jimin while the latter makes sure that he can never ever escape the hug again.

“I love you too. Oh Jimin.”

“You have to tell me everything that happened, Taetae. I want to know everything”, Jimin says and laughs and sobs and hugs his Taehyung.

“Oh Jimin, I have so much to tell you. Oh god, I can’t stop crying”, Taehyung sobs and overtaken by happiness, he lifts Jimin off the ground just to twirl around.

Jimin laughs loudly, clutching Taehyung in the tightest hug.

“Come”, you tell Yoongi and push him gently, “let’s give them their moment.”

“Wait. Are you crying?” Yoongi gasps, stumbling out of Taehyung’s room.

He twirls once outside, cupping your face, “hey, princess. Why are you crying?”

“I’m just so happy. This is everything Tae wanted. Oh god, I’m so happy”, you say, crying the happiest tears for them.

Yoongi’s worried eyes soften. He brushes his thumb over your cheeks.

“I’m happy for him too. Losing your happiness is terrible, so I’m happy that he has Jimin again.”

“Me too. I still can’t believe that it is real. Jimin’s actually back”, you say and smile, “do you think that things will change for the better now?”

“Come. Let’s check on the others first”, Yoongi says, leading you downstairs where the others are currently gathered in the living room.

They look at you.

“What the hell is going on?” Jungkook asks, “why is Jimin back? I saw his ashes.”

“Resurrection spell. I never saw it work before, so I’m impressed that it did”, Yoongi says.

“Resurrection spell”, Hoseok repeats, “so you’re telling me that all this time I was scared of dying for nothing? We just need a witch to resurrect us again?”

“Calm down. Didn’t I just say that I never saw it work before?”

“It worked splendidly for Jimin”, Hoseok says, shrugging his shoulders.

“Yeah, because he had a good witch to take care of it. Ninety percent of the witches you meet will not be able to resurrect you again and you will stay dead”, Yoongi says, giving Hoseok a nod of his head, “so be careful and try not to die. Got it?”

“Of course, I’m always careful.”

You claim the empty spot next to Jungkook on the couch. Yoongi sits down next to you, placing his hand on your thigh.

“So what does this mean for us? Is he part of our group now?” Seokjin asks.

“If he wants to join us. I doubt that Tae will let him leave again”, Yoongi says.

“I’m sure, he won’t”, Hoseok says and points upstairs, “I bet they have so much catching up to do.”

“I’m sure they do”, Yoongi says, “I still don’t trust him, I’m saying it how it is.”

“Me neither”, Jungkook mumbles with furrowed brows.

“Yeah, honestly? Me neither”, Hoseok confesses, “it’s a little weird that he suddenly showed up. Don’t you guys think?”

“I don’t think that he planned on showing up if I’m being honest”, you say, “we bumped into each other accidentally.”

“That’s still wild to me. Out of all the people you could have bumped into, it was Jimin.”

“Right? Trust me when I tell you that we were both as surprised as you guys. At first I thought that I was hallucinating from the panic of getting lost but nope it was really him. Then a vampire almost ate me.”

“What?!” the guys exclaim.

“My thoughts exactly”, Yoongi mumbles.

“But then Jimin saved me from her and I stayed at his place”, you finish your sentence, “so I’m positive that we have nothing to worry about. He could have very well killed me and continued with his life, but he decided to not only save me from a vampire but also to protect me for the night and he took me back to Yoongi and even protected me from a group of vampires on the bus.”

“Well damn, I didn’t expect that from him.”

“But see? Let’s not expect the worst already and give him a chance and if you can’t do it for Jimin, can we at least try for Tae? Please?”

The others exchange a look.

“Fine”, Hoseok gives in, “we’ll try for Tae.”

The others nod their heads.

“Thank you.”

“But if he puts you in any kind of danger, I can’t guarantee for anything”, Yoongi adds.

“Then let’s not expect the worst and support him on his journey of becoming better, yeah?”

Yoongi studies your face.

“Mhm?” you stress, caressing his knuckles, “can you do that, my prince?”

“Fine”, he gives in with a loud sigh, “I’ll give him a chance.”

“Thank you, that’s very nice of you.”

“Mhm”, he acknowledges you and nods his head, leaning back against the couch with a defeat sigh.

“I never thought that I’d meet Jimin again”, Emma says, “he is my sire.”

“Seokjin told us. It must be weird to meet him again”, you say.

“A little, but I’m also excited. I want to ask him how he is doing and thank him”, Emma says and looks at Seokjin, “because he turned me, I lived long enough to meet my Jinnie again”, she says and smiles.

“Don’t say that, oh my god”, Seokjin whispers, covering his pink ears with his hands.

Emma giggles and leans in to steal a kiss from him, only making his blush grow.

“You are so adorable, my moon.”

“My tulip, come on, I’ll blush even more” Seokjin says in a whiney voice, giving her a cute pout.

Emma coos and squishes his cheeks, stealing another kiss from him.

“Wah, you two are so cute”, Hoseok gushes, “I support it. You guys are in my top three couples now.”

“Your top three couples?”

“Mhm. ___ and Yoongi are number one. I’m your biggest fan”, Hoseok says, sending you a thumbs up.

Yoongi chuckles, caressing your knee while his eyes flit to his lap shyly.

“And who’s number two?”

“Emma and Jin. Number two best couple.”

They chuckle.

“And who’s number three, hyung?” Jungkook asks.

“My parents. They were the best”, Hoseok smiles in melancholy, “yeah, they really were”, he lets out a loud sigh, only to begin smiling a second later, “seriously, everyone’s reunited again. That’s so funky.”

“Totally”, you agree, “now nothing can separate us again. Right? You guys are gonna stay with us.”

“Of course, hello? We’re a family”, Hoseok says to which Jungkook nods his head passionately. Seokjin and Emma agree with a fond smile while Yoongi leans in wordlessly to kiss your cheek.

“You’re so cute”, he whispers so only you can hear, stealing another kiss just to make sure that you know that he appreciates you with his entire heart.

141 notes · View notes

thepunkmuppet · 7 months

Text

gonna incorporate this into my alternate season 7 fic, and wanted to make a quick brain fart post about it here:

spike should’ve had the chip taken out in season 7.

frankly, I think they only gave him his soul back as a way to still have him be a functional main character after doing what he did to buffy in seeing red - and even then it’s still hard to look at him the same way after that.

spike was already growing as a character on his own, beginning to do things for unselfish reasons, like comforting buffy in fool for love and (most notably) staying with dawn and the scoobies when buffy died. and it was so interesting and compelling! his struggle between his nature and his changing morals and feelings: wanting to be a monster again, to do what he wants and have what he desires, but at the same time wanting to be a better man for buffy and doing good deeds because of how loving her has slowly and imperceptibly changed him forever.

giving him the soul was just… pointless. his characterisation literally didn’t change at all, he spent maybe 3 or 4 episodes moping in a basement and acting crazy before being literally fine the next episode and seemingly not feeling that much remorse for killing robin’s mother anyway. the sleeper plotline was also useless, and would’ve been made way better if he was killing of his own accord having had the chip taken out, and feeling all sorts of complex feelings about it, leading to some juicy drama and character insights.

I think having the chip be removed would be PERFECT, as we could then explore how different he is to other vampires and how much he has grown. I can imagine him trying to feed on innocents and go on killing sprees, but not being able to, which doesn’t even make sense because vampires don’t have consciences, but regardless he just can’t bring himself to do it. I can imagine him feeding on rapists, kidnappers and murderers, much like angel when he first got his soul back, and being so utterly FURIOUS that he isn’t what he used to be (and especially furious that he kind of doesn’t WANT to be that person anymore).

idk man I just feel like there was such a clear route to go down, and instead they took the black-and-white approach and just said “he’s got his soul back he’s good now that wasn’t him” (even though his characterisation was exactly the same, but i digress). personally I prefer the much more interesting “he just got everything he’s ever wanted for over half the series and got the chip out, but he doesn’t want to be a monster anymore because he grew as a person, which vampires shouldn’t be able to do but spike is somehow unique and his love for buffy fundamentally changed him and now he has to deal with that fact and choose whether to become a hero or a villain of his own accord”.

OR SOMETHING I GUESS IDK WHO AM I TO COMMENT I WASN’T EVEN FUCKING ALIVE WHEN THEY WROTE IT GODDD IF I COULD TIME TRAVEL TO THAT WRITER’S ROOM-

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs meta #btvs season 7 #btvs spike #william the bloody #the chosen few #fic planning

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lizardinkart · 1 year

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when people are like "i'm going to Score A Win For The Gays by performatively decrying Taylor/Brian" but actually they're just being racist

Alright it’s almost 2 AM time for an unhinged rant

This is my #1 pet peeve actually. As a pasty white queer person nothing pisses me off more than white queer people (or even just queer people full stop) using their queer/gay/lgbt card to just be another kind of bigot. You can be queer and still be racist besties! Examine your beliefs and question why you believe them!!!

But in all seriousness people performatively decrying Taylor/Brian as either “uwu Taylor must be a wlw untouched by the impure hand of Men” or “Not-as-slick-as-y’all-think-you-are racists” gets on my nerves so bad. Because you’re missing the chance to appreciate the actual text of the story AND the bittersweet tragedy of it all. Just because (spoilers) they didn’t work out and Brian dies unceremoniously without Taylor knowing or bothering to double check (right before she scrambles her brains and uses the fabricated idea of Brian in a cabin as her anchor to reality), doesn’t mean that they didn’t impact each other and make each other better (and worse) people in long-lasting ways. Yes, Taylor MAJORLY fucked up Brian by abandoning/betraying him when he really needed that stability and she promised that she could deliver it, and it’s cathartic to get out of Taylor’s head and see that he actually did find someone he could lean on in Cozen, but also we can see how this kind of young, naive, and well-meaning but ultimately destructive kind of love that I’m sure many of us encountered when we were young and fucked up in a relationship (romantic or otherwise) could manifest in someone like Taylor. Because we saw her at her best, when she was able to be what she needed to be for Brian, when Brian made her finally feel good about herself for the first time since Emma turned on her, when they found comfort in each other when their worlds fell to shit. The wounds they healed could only be matched by the wounds they made, reflexive and thematic of them being in the right relationship at the wrong time. If I made that dynamic into a queer relationship or a same-race relationship, bet people would be talking about this ship a whole lot more. But no. We have to be racist and put down het ships because everything that’s het or “Not White/the Acceptable kind of POC” is Bad and Icky and we can’t be bothered with that. God forbid it be both! Fuck riiiight off :)

(Also side tangent but a healthy dose of biphobia oft sneaks in here because everyone’s quick to write off that bi people can be in het-passing relationships too. I do in fact fanon Taylor/Brian as both being bi because men and women don’t talk about women like that *gestures vaguely at how Wildbow writes florid descriptions of women in Taylor’s brain and like, the barest bones musings for Brian, repressed bisexual <3* and not end up being some kinda fruity.)

To paraphrase my much-smarter-than-me partner, it is still revolutionary to see a black man and a white woman in a real relationship in media, especially one that doesn’t play into the tired racist stereotypes and is (at least somewhat) healthy and optimistic about the fact that interracial relationships are not only viable but completely normal and harmless and desirable. Taylor/Brian was by no means perfect, but my god was it refreshing to see a character like Taylor, a very complex feminine character that wants to be perceived as strong, smart, and capable while also being feminine and desirable without being conventionally attractive, who just wants to know she can be loved despite her trauma, and Brian, a deeply emotional man struggling with the interconnectedness of his life’s traumas with his practice of masculinity as emotionally restricting/repressing, and his desire to protect the people he loves despite the literally crippling PTSD and a tendency to hold on just a little too tight, get into a relationship and actually work out there for a sec. And the fact that you get all of this obvious love and care and attention put into an interracial relationship on TOP of that is just chefs kiss 11/10 best shit I’ve seen in my life. It is such a welcome change to your average tasteless, de-clawed straight or even gay relationships in media or fandom and I would actively pay to see another Taylor/Brian style pairing over 2 conventionally attractive twinks/femmes being uwu cute at each other.

This was a very meandering and scattered rant but yeah. This is by no means excusing any of the actually racist stuff in Worm, because it’s certainly in there, but I can talk about that a different time.

Thinly veiled miscegenation-phobias and generalized racism begone! Stan Taylor/Brian for clear skin and an actually well-written romance.

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teddybeartoji · 4 months

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MICKEY i am jumping out of the blanket fort excitedly <333 this is so long overdue bc ive been too excited to sit down and think abt the Vamps properly BUT it’s finally time.. this is just going of ur most recent rb abt them btw which was . a While ago IVE BEEN THINKING OF IT CONSTANTLY THOUGH BUT ;;;;; STSG…. THE STSG DYNAMIC….

mickey i’m convinced that u are secretly plotting my downfall there’s no other explanation. VAMP!SUGU FLIRTING W JOURNALIST!GOJO ……..…. i DIED i exploded they make me feel so ill. I’VE PROBABLY DEFINITELY SAID THIS BUT EVERY TIME U GIVE ME ANOTHER PIECE OF VAMP LORE I FALL FURTHER INTO THE PIT just . sugu feeling more comfortable in the dynamic & getting more confident… JOURNALIST!GOJO BEING FLUSTEREDPEKSJ HELP MEEEEEE vamp!reader would find that so funny wouldn’t they. so sweet. now i’m just imagining the vamps teaming up to fluster gojo 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 me next

(he doesn't want u to be jealous he's more asking for reassurance - is it okay if the two of them mess around together too? and of course it is bc you want your boys to be happy)

dont even get me started on this ^^^^ im sending u my hospital bill watch out . MICKEY :(( im so obsessed w vamp!reader it isn’t even funny i need them so bad it’s sickening. they KNOW they call the shots and sugu knows it too and the way they’re kind of just. indulging their beloveds…… they’re sooo <33333 yeah.

i just wanted to let u know i am in fact thinking abt these three constantly i am kissing ur brain always. pls give mr armin a lil kiss from me too !! <33

HI ARI BABY!!!

it's so good to see you here (i might keep you forever)(/hj).

what do you think of playground love by air (btw doesn't the cover for this song look like sugu lmao i just noticed that) for this stsg? it might not be something you immediately thought of, right? but i feel like it suits the sugu teaching satoru how to paint?? do you see the vision?? or did you imagine something else?? i need to know. i think this moment would be such an important one in their relationship such a pivotal moment

i can totally see suguru talking about the colors and anatomy and how to hold the brush and then little journalist!gojo is just staring at him with stars in his eyes trying to concentrate because he really does want to learn but fuck it's so hard with this angel before him...

and i think the song name is also funny in a sense that satoru is like a teenager bc how easily he pops his boners lmao okay he just gets so fucking excited in his head it's literally not even sexual????? like sugu is just sooooo handsome under the moonlight it's making his head spin and oh! oops!

another thing i thought about is the fact that they definitely have a cat!!! idk if i said this already somewhere but they do!!! not a black one bc that's a little basic but maybe like a siamese one? meow very cute. anyway i think satoru desperately want to have the cat's attention but it loves sugu the most lmao and he's soooooo smug about that too!!! satoru is all pspspspsps bribing the kitty with the treats but it literally ignores him?????? and just gets comfy on sugu's lap without a second thought. imagine the pouty little satoru here:((( btw the reader is also jealous of sugu in this case but they refuse to show it. bc c'mon they're the leader of the house they can't be upset over their own cat liking their beloved more. no way. never. that's so childish. :(.

oh and and and!! the vamp!reader really does like satoru and they know that he's the perfect guy to help bring suguru out of his shell even more yk they know that a little curious puppy like him is only gonna do good in their household (after they reassure sugu ofc)

wait actually i can't remember whether i said that satoru just kind of moved in too right??? like he rarely goes to his city apartment and he just has his own room (as if he fucking sleeps there smh) and he absolutely loves lliving in the mansion he doesn't even hide it. i do need to say that he also adores having maids and a butler but he's still incredibly respectful towards them yk like he isn't pointlessly bossing them around

he also loves to blast stupid fucking music over the whole house.... canon i'm afraid. idk why but justin timberlake just popped into my head lmao like his music in the 10's wheww bangers though i won't lie

OHHH WAITT I JUST THOUGHT ABOUT SHOKO AND SATORU bc like they don't know each other yet!!!!! so imagine shoko comes over for their usual wine night and then finds this blue eyed guy lazing on the couch without a shirt on????? like who are you???? but then she recognizes him hehehe i think journalist!gojo is a rather known one he's good at his job so she just rolls her eyes but after an hour or two i think they actually get along surprisingly well!! (okay i mean it's not a surprise for us but for the reader and sugu) they kind of share the same stupid af humor and it all just gets super fucking funny when they're all playing board games together lmao (shoko always wins btw)(always.)

also heheheh armin came to sit with me just as i started writing this!!! he has received his kiss!! he meowed back!! he loves you!! i know bc i know his language so just trust me!!

ANYWAYY THIS IS THEMM!! i love talking about them it comes so easily the words really write themselves really (i can't wait to actually you know.. write something real for them lmao)(SOON I PROMISE SOON)

thank you for coming by i hope you never leave!!! mwah mwah mwah!! love you lots and lots and lots!!

#ahhhh #my beloveds all together #sighh #i'm so full of love #danger warning #i'm about to explode #ari my sweetest angel #i hope you're doing so fucking good today!!!#ari <3 #mickey can't stop thinking #friends!!

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mo0nfairy · 2 years

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my thoughts on vol. 2

the obvious cons —

no more flashback scenes of henry?????? srsly??????????? the only scrapings of him i got were kinda hearing jamie’s voice through the distorted speech of vecna.

could literally not give less of a shit about the love triangle with nancy, steve, and jonathan. if anything, i want nancy and robin to be together.

why hasn’t steve been given more depth??? like he is literally just a babysitter, nancy’s simp, and a dude who bit a bat. there’s literally nothing else to this boy (which makes it a million times harder for me to write him) and he deserved SO. MUCH. MORE.

i don’t want to be mean but i literally don’t really care about the russia pack?? it’s good writing so idk what’s wrong with me, but i found myself just skipping through it. enzo is fine af tho, so is joyce (per usual obvi)

why is will’s arc dependent on mike and el, like i could not give an extra fuck about their relationship. i wish he had more depth that revolved more about him and his sexuality rather than just being mike an el’s therapist and being some sort of vessel for the upside down. give my sweet boy what he deserves!!! and give him a proper boyfriend!!!!!

^^ this goes for robin too. she does have personality, which most shows representing sexuality lack in, but then again, we barely see any gay??? literally we only see vickie like three times, one being when she is with her boyfriend????? of course the hetero relationships like mike/el and steve/nancy show a gazillion scenes with their tongues down each others throats, but the only recognition we get for our community is will balling his eyes out and some cutesy pb&j making sesh?? like wtf???? why are the only gay characters getting absolutely ZERO recognition?? do the duffers think that oppression ends with just being a nerd or something????????

i wish el was given more personality. literally her brain is just mike and trauma. give that girl some hobbies!! some talent!!! she deserves even the smallest sliver of happiness so so much

and now to address the elephant in the room: WHY DID EDDIE HAVE TO FUCKING DIE????? like that was cheap as fuck duffer brothers!!!! you’ve done this EVERY season. you make the sweetest, kind-hearted character and then kill them off for shock value. it’s so lazy and irritating!!!!! and the fact that he will get no closure and he will forever be known as the black sheep who started a cult and killed these random ass kids fucking hurts. and how no one but dustin was grieving for eddie??? like hello???? everyone was literally fine but i was balling my eyes out and the dude isn’t even real. moral of the story: if they introduce a sweet character in s5, don’t get ur hopes up. i hope by some miracle he returns in next season, i'm crossing my fingers.

the pros!! —

lucas’s arc was so good!!! i felt like he was really left out in s3, but i feel as if we get to see more of who he is and how he feels. how he joined the basketball team cuz he didn’t want to be bullied, how he treats max, and how fucking devastated he was after max almost died stabbed me in the heart. i do feel as though more could’ve been done for his character that didn’t relate to the basketball team and max, but i liked seeing this new side of lucas!! in conclusion: i love this boy to the moon and back. also caleb's acting???? phenomenal! give this boy every oscar known to mankind !!

my sweet, sweet maxine. there are no words to describe the sheer adoration i have for this girl. the whole season i found myself honestly annoyed with how she was reacting to billy’s death. he was her brother, and despite everything, she did love him, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he was a racist, abusive piece of shit. and i can already hear everybody rant about how “it’s not his fault!” “his dad is mean!” “but he’s too pretty to be abusive!” like stfu???? he was an awful human being, and i appreciate how they talked about how max knew these things and how she secretly wished he would get what he deserved. no matter what, nobody deserves death, but i love how they managed to come full circle with her grieving process and how she wouldn’t blindly defend all of his actions simply because he was her brother and now he’s dead. he didn’t deserve to die, but him dying doesn’t mean any of the things he did are excusable. also, max and lucas are the only str8 couple i found myself actually shipping and rooting for (el/max still thrives in my heart tho). and also, her music taste >>>> bomb!!

jason got FUCKED UP LMAOOO. i was literally sobbing my eyes out over eddie and then this man just gets split into two, like that shit caught me SO OFF GUARD. but i think his character was honestly really fascinating. it’s so easy to see all he’s caused and just hate his guts for it, but if you really pay attention, you can see how detailed his character truly is. he wasn’t just some mass villain, he’s a normal high school basketball player who is mourning for the girl he loved. and because of that, i feel pity for him. though he majorly fucked up our plans and what he did wasn’t ok in any shape or form, he was just doing what he thought was right: ridding hawkins of evil and avenging for his dead girlfriend. basically i will defend this man to the end idc idc

and now for some of my favorite highlights :

robin getting down on one knee to help nancy >>> robbin grabbing nancy’s hand cuz she was nervous >>>>>>> i love my gay girlfriends

eddie calling max “red” >>>>

eddie randomly saying to dustin “never change” >>>>>>>>

eddie saying “don’t ya, big boy?” to steve >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

#stranger things #stranger things spoilers

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acircusfullofdemons · 1 year

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PARAMAY DAY 13 (CREATION)

*inhales* oh boy, here we go…

Claypso was created on January 12, 2018, the day/day after I had seen the movie “The Greatest Showman”. It Unlocked something in my brain because the MOMENT I got home I pulled up Pinterest & started looking for inspo to make a Cool New ~*Self Insert OC*~. I can't really remember my exact thought process (who knows wtf 14yo Luka was on) BUT I do know I specifically made Calypso to represent "me". I would then joke for the next 2ish years on how, despite this, I made Calypso a boy when I identified as a Cis Girl. Idk I just find that fact so funny now that I’m nonbinary. (In the same vein, I also made him confident/proud of his bisexuality when I still had no clue if I was bi or not. We love projecting onto our own ocs/paras <3).

Calypso is the parame I remember actively making, thinking, "this Character is me but runs a circus" (I had just seen The Greatest Showman so inspo was strong there lol). Which is funny, because if you look at Cali, then look at me, I don't think you'd think/realize that?? His personality is very much…the opposite of mine lol. I am not a super cool extrovert that has multiple friend groups and goes on odd adventures. I’m on tumblr participating in a month-long oc challenge. Clearly something went wrong /j.

Uh. I made him at a time when I was questioning if I was Bi or not (I mean i was a freshman/starting highschool. Do any of us know who we truly are then?) so I kinda projected that into him??? In all honesty I feel like he should fall somewhere on the aro spectrum as well, since I'm aro & that's important to me, but I want it to evolve naturally if it at all happens so I won't entertain the idea just yet.

Funny enough, homeboy has always been a homeboy. Er, what I mean by that is, even tho I made him based off of me/representing me, having him be a (cis) male was one of my first decisions for him. At the time I wasn't 100% sure why, maybe I was influenced by the movie, which had Hugh Jackman star/play as PT Barnum, both males. But uh *looks @ nonbinary flag* I think there's a reason why now. Also part of the reason he's so feminine / """girly""" I guess. Tbh I probably projected into him a lot more than I realize (coughdaddyissuescough) but he is my parame & started out as a paraself, so it's fair.

Oh wow I haven’t even gotten into the original version of his story yet. It’s honestly not that different from how it is now, with a few minor differences. Originally, he was just the circus’ ringleader and died trying to save Clairette from a lion attack. The time loop was because he was the son of Persephone and Morpheus (yes..the greek gods…they were a thing in this once) so I think Persephone allowed him to be a Poltergeist?? OH and Macbeth was his half brother which made their relationship kind of sad because Cali genuinely wanted a sibling relationship but Macbeth just wanted him dead (Macbeth is a Reaper and his job is to collect Souls Cali is literally a lost soul do u see the problem here).

The VR stuff was always canon (except for that brief period of time where I got insecure and it wasn’t and everything was just their normal life which made things less confusing but also there was literally no plot lmao). Idk what else to say uhm fun facts:

His default playlist is a little over 8hrs long and is currently the longest playlist I have on Spotify (that I listen to. My instrumental playlist is a little longer but tbh I rarely touch it).

He used to have gold eyes. They were quickly changed to blue and got shifted into the turquoise they are now! In addition to that, his first design used to have him wearing an actual ringleader outfit. He also used to have black hair, then light purple, and finally the dark purple it is now. In total he’s been through roughly 7-8 redesigns.

Cali is combined with a previous character, Anthony Morningstar. Anthony was inspired by Pride!Roman (an AU of Roman Sanders from the webseries “Sanders Sides”) and is the reason Calypso is now a prince! I scrapped Anthony because I had no idea what to do with his character and felt like him & Cali were too similar to really justify them being different people.

The tarot cards that represent him are “The Magician” and “Page of Wands”.

“A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman is his theme song.

....this is all probably Too Much. hm. have the first drawing of Cali I ever did (it is from 2018 😞)

#paramay #paraportal #luka.txt #console: phantasmagoria #game: im not the one #game: dreamset circus #calypso raymond

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mister-brightside · 2 years

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I finally, FINALLY finished season one of the sandman tv series and speaking as a fan of the comics I loved it so much. my long and winding thoughts (with minor spoilers) under the cut.

it was really refreshing to have so much trust in the creators. by the last few episodes I’d be like, I can’t wait for them to get to this scene, and then the scene happened, and it would be so good and so spicy.

for ages literally every comics fan (myself included) was saying that a good and faithful adaptation would be impossible. I was actually fully prepared to pass over the tv series cause there was no way they could pull it off, right? thank god some reviewer on reddit changed my mind, because I’m so delighted to be proven wrong for once. it’s honestly crazy impressive how well they took all these disjointed narratives and somehow made them tonally consistent but still kept the edges. I thought maybe they’d skip the more out of line stories, like the one with the cats or the massacre in the diner, but they really went there. in fact I reread some of the comics after the episodes and I was really surprised to find that they lifted quite a bit of dialogue word for word.

(I love how hob gadling’s story was basically retold verbatim EXCEPT they went out of their way to make the breakup a million times more angsty)

there were so many throwbacks and visual references to the comics which were really lovely and never felt forced. and speaking of visuals, the show is as good as you’re gonna get for a production this size. I was worried it was gonna be a CGI mess and, well, it does veer on that edge at times, but most of the cinematography and effects are truly gorgeous and in the end it’s the actors who keep me connected to the heart of the story.

when I first saw photos of morpheus I was like what the hell? they’re just making him look like Some Guy? but my god tom sturridge knocks it out of the park. he’s absolutely perfect. he sold me immediately. someone else said that when he’s imprisoned in the glass cage he moves almost like a creature and they’re dead on. he does a spectacular job of convincing me he’s not human.

so in the end I think the decision to humanise morpheus’s appearance was absolutely the right one. I always found his character in the comics to be a bit distant because yeah, at times he can be arrogant and self-righteous and somewhat terrifying since he’s so unreadable. and that doesn’t change in the transition to the screen but having tom as he is (with those sad, sad, pathetic, emo eyes) softens his edges a little, you know? he makes you feel for him a bit more.

and I’ve said this before but it’s like. I never really pictured a specific voice when reading the comics, but all of morpheus’s dialogue comes in these special black speech bubbles so you know he’s Different. and as soon as tom’s voiceover began in episode one it felt Right. almost like it had been buried in my subconscious for all these years. insane.

(I kind of want to watch more of tom’s roles but I literally can’t imagine him as anyone other than dream of the endless, like I’m afraid to even google him because it would probably break my brain to see him behaving like a normal human person)

the rest of the cast is fantastic as well. the highlights for me: gwendoline christie as lucifer – chef’s kiss. kirby baptiste-howell as death – for real though, if I met her when I died, I wouldn’t feel too bad about it. david thewlis adds a layer of nuance to john dee that somehow makes him quite sympathetic despite the complete lunacy. vanesu samunyai is very cute and likeable as rose and I hope the show sticks around long enough for her to make her return. likewise, lily travers is really sweet as barbie and I think she’d be a really good lead if her storyline ever comes around.

okay, time for the nitpicking. I do wish they’d cast someone older as lucien, he always had this exhausted ‘no one helps me in this house’ vibe that I just don’t get from vivienne acheampong. and I think boyd holbrook needed to be a little more maniacal as the corinthian. oh well, it’s not like we can have everything. and both actors do a great job as they are so I’m not gonna whine too much.

(if this was 2014 tumblr I probably would be seeing extremely, uh, controversial takes on the corinthian but I haven’t come across any yet thank god)

I’m really hoping the show gets more seasons because it’s doing a wonderful job of bringing all the stories to life. I hope enough casual viewers stick around because I know the lack of narrative structure will throw a lot of people off. in the comics, some characters turn up once and never again, some wander in and out, others leave the story only to show up again several volumes later. some stories last for only a chapter and others go on for ages. and the genre swings from urban fantasy to historical fiction to horror to straight up batshit insanity and everything in between.

but in the end that’s what makes the sandman one of my favourite comics ever. every time I read it I feel like I’ve experienced a big fever dream. and like a dream it promptly fades until I literally forget why I love it so much. then I reread it again and I’m like, oh yeah, that’s why.

so I don’t know how to say it better than this: the show FEELS like the sandman. and that’s all I can ask for.

#if you read the whole thing I salute you <3 #the sandman #personal

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jamlabs · 2 years

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Ok because I'm brainrotted. More facts about the Guilty Gear Inside My Brain

- there is a universal translation spell. Since the GG stories have people speaking all one language, I assumed that there is a sort of translation effect going on: axl speaking 1990s English would not let him interact with literally anyone in the present considering peoples various nationalities. Also explains why ppl all speak a certain language for the viewer

- Illyria is a melting pot so language over there is fucked. It's a mix of a lot of western European languages bc countries and boundaries sort of got blown up during the crusades

- The Crusades were a lot worse in my head. Like they are kind of glossed over except for the whole "a lot of people died" but it was bad bad. An immortal enemy and her endlessly propagating soldiers makes morale both incredibly hard to keep up and incredibly important to maintain

- On that note rations during this time were super commonplace. A lot of time was spent making food and resources available for The Holy Order. Large scale farms were often the target of Justice's attacks so food in general was pretty scarce. Civilians had to ration distributed food and usually supplemented it with small farms and livestock if possible. A few squadrons of the Order started eating slain gears when it came down to it (based on animals, probably okay to cook and eat. Due to hyper-regeneration I don't think gears tasted good at all but a war is a war)

- Morale is part of why Ky was appointed as a Commander so young. Propaganda wise he is just picture perfect, the kid who beat the odds and always has Hope . Perfect for morale in the Order and for civvies

- Kliff did his best to keep him out of the propaganda side of things but he is sort of ruled by the UN and their funding so :(

- Back to point one, the first time Axl timeslipped he got really really sick because of all the new viruses/germs/health shit his body wasn't used to . Modern Magical Medicine mitigates the stuff axl brings forwards though :) (the worst of it is usually the sniffles)

- the Former United States got hit the worst with the gear attacks at the beginning and them having a centralized government is an extremely new thing. States as we know them no longer exist in anything but name as they are effectively large enough communities that live in a given area. The amount of territory controlled by the centralized government is actually pretty small

- Magic does not make it easier to continent hop. I don't care if everyone can teleport or some shit i studied way too many planes to make it that easy. Boats piloted by those with water magic or magic-powered airships are the primary forms of cross-continental transportation here. Its common knowledge that if you want to beef up your ship you'll use Black Tech from Zepp. They have quite literally perfected engines from sub to supersonic since the Dawn of Revival they know their fucking planes

- most civilians don't have a large scale form of transportation. Large scale settlements are connected by magi-rail, and bicycles are becoming more common. Those who do have cars either have a small, compact car, or one that's used for many people in a given location, depending on how many people live at that location

-Sol's bike is augmented with black tech because he doesn't give a shit.

- a lot of things are still being worked on: science took a massive hit with the destruction of knowledge in 99 and then another hit when the crusades started. Most innovation during that time went into how to kill more gears and let people survive so in peacetime more effort has gone towards uh. Other stuff.

- voyager 1 and 2 still operated and stopped transmitting data when their supply of plutonium was no longer able to power them. The Golden Record is still up and out there. :)

#the guilty gear in my brain #official tag for my worldbuilding i guess!#thought about voyager out there with no power and its home irreparably changed from when it launched #they launched 1977. they are still operating in 2022. they hold a record of Earth on them.#i want to think theyre still out there in gg canon. plutonium 287 only has a halflife of 87.7 years though.#they both performed all maneuvers by 1987 btw. so yknow.#i have more thoughts but this post js long enough already and im scrambled thinking about the satellites

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hafula · 2 years

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uhhh vash! IM WRACKING MY BRAIN THINKING OF OTHER MEDIA WE BOTH LIKE HOLD ON

OMG HI I DIDNT SEE U SENT THIS SORRYYYYYYYYY its ok trigun is tge only thing necessary. my answers r gonna cover manga anime AND some stampede thoughts >:)

My overall opinion on the character

there is a reason why he is the main character and so beloved <3 i think hes so CUTE! i love the idea of a gunslinger in a scifi space western who refuses to kill and im so glad that nightow made that concept and brought it to life because vash is so! lovable! in all forms! hes everything to me!!! i LOVE manga vash the most rn, though subject to change once stampede comes out 😏😏 i love the way his hyperpacifism was handled and the fact that in the manga its obvious that it has HORRIBLE consequences. LIKE hyperpacifism does not exist in a vacuum. and he saw something so traumatic but hes still so kind?! the only main character. i love him genuinely. i have 3 introjects of him by accident

One virtue they have

the way this ask game is phrased makes me so confused all the time cuz im an excath who went to a catholic school for 6 years. huh. but i think that vash is very emotionally intuitive and just intuitive in general of course. hes super freaky smart. but he picks up on peoples emotions no problem and i always thought it was interesting how he reacted to them even when he was still acting like he was a clueless dumbass!!! he definitely saw through wolfwood quickly which makes me insane, and he picks up on his enemys' emotions too which is why he knows when they decide to not kill him anymore. crazy stuff. i like him

One flaw they have

same as knives. black and white thinking. i think vashs black and white thinking is so interesting because its the root of his hyperpacifism—no killing under any circumstances. he is put against the ROCKS thruout the story with horrible people who want him to die no matter what but to him, killing is inherently always bad. there is no grey area with either twin. because knives is a killer hes bad to vash. there doesnt seem to be a lot of nuance! ngl im just interested in seeing how both twins are autism creatures in opposite ways

Favorite moment from their arc

umm there are so many. in the manga i have always howled over vash going to mass in one chapter and being forced out by bounty hunters, and the bottle of alcohol in his coat breaks. like its not a HAPPY moment but this has always been the part where im like oh fuck. the consequences of his actions are catching up to him. he realizes he is making people around him suffer even though he refuses to kill and its literally driving him towards trying to be drunk at any possible time. he LICKS the alcohol off of his glove. it shows so well that even the most noble deed can turn out to have consequences we cannot deal with because nothing is black and white everything is grey and i wanna EXPLODE.

Least favorite moment from their arc

i hated how creepy he was in the movie. like fr. i know he does a lot of things so ppl underestimate him but it felt like they took his characterization way too far in that. vash in the anime was obsessed w/ pretty women (which always felt fake as hell LOL) but in the movie it is WAY too much for me lol. i wish that weird side of vash was never highlighted in the anime/movie

One relationship they have with another character

his and livios relationship makes me insane. like it sort of feels like after nick died that vash adopted his little brother. and its so obvious that hes OBVIOUSLY grieving at that point because Nick Just Fucking Died, he lashed out with his powers in response to the point where he sped along his OWN death, but like always he treats livio with kindness. he also makes them enough food that they get sick and doesnt bring up the fact that livio kind of is the reason why nick died. he falls asleep in the car while livios driving and he trusts him enough. i just love that livio got a second chance at all, it was obviously deserved but its very refreshing to see a system character become one of the main good guys and friends w vash :)

One relationship I'd like to see explored from this character

lina :(((( and granny :((( i wish we got to see them again besides the one thing at the end of the manga cuz they really were emphasized to be important to vash and that theyd meet again and it did make me sad to see them disappear off the face of the planet. i just love lina a lot shes so swaggy. generally though i think there are so many interesting relationships with the people vash meets so its hard to choose which should be explored more, luida is another option cuz i feel like she just appeared in the manga with little explanation and it would have been cool to see more of her & vashs relationship among other things

What I would have liked to see happen with them in the media

this is more anime geared cuz the manga satisfied me. but i did wish that they would have given vashs actions consequences. in the anime its very obvious that its got the shonen show swag, but they also made it impossible for there to be like. nuance in vashs actions imo. it just didnt hit as hard in the anime! where is vash crumbling under the weight of the fact that everything he does only makes things worse for the people around him! once youve read the manga its hard to feel like the anime did that ngl, because what i can commemorate the anime for is being a really good 90s shonen anime that captured the spirit of trigun well, but of course the manga being a seinen kind of freaked it. i also am just salivating at stampede rn im so excited 4 it i wanna see how they approach EVERYTHING!!!!

#bumåbaba #asks #nastronde #THANK U FOR THE ASK I LOVE CHARACTER ANALYSIS IM INSANE ❤

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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Uncle Ben and Little Luke

AKA we combine several types of time travel for maximum Soft Chaos, let’s go

EDIT NOW THAT I’VE WRITTEN THIS UP: jfc this ended up much angstier than initially intended uhhhhhhhhhh sorry

So a common enough thing I’ve seen in time travel fics is characters getting de-aged when tossed back physically, to neither the age they should be in that time, nor the age they were from the time they left, but whatever is most convenient. This is usually de-aging OT Obi-Wan into his TCW self, for reasons relating to, chiefly, removing the damage of Tatooine absolutely destroying his body alongside PTSD-driven alcoholism, but also because fic writers are horny, and Ewan McGregor playing a late-thirties negotiator is on average more appealing to people than Alec Guinness playing a vaguely feral desert hermit.

So, here’s how it plays out:

We take Luke and Ben from some point in the OT. There are a variety of options depending on how angsty we want it to be. My first instinct is ‘right after Owen and Beru die’ but I want to have that sweet angst where Luke knows that his dad is Vader and that Obi-Wan was trying to convince him to kill his own father without telling him that.

We’ll go with shortly after Bespin, and then they end up significantly before TPM. The Obi-Wan of the timeline proper is, eh, let’s say eighteen. Not really ready to be a knight, but old enough that we don’t have to worry about “if we go save Shmi, do we somehow wipe out Anakin?” which is absolutely a worry. Anakin is a toddler, and is in no place to be evil, on account of being literally two years old. He can’t even explode people with his brain yet.

Now, Ben finds himself mid-thirties, as is traditional. He’s not upset at this, because his joints hurt so much less than they used to! His knees aren’t exactly teenage-perfect, but by the Force are they better than they were in the years before he died! His hair has color! He doesn’t have arthritis! And, goodness, no physical withdrawal symptoms! The psychological aspect is still there, but nonetheless, he’s in much better shape than he last remembers being.

Luke looks like he’s about six. He was recently twenty-two. This is not an upgrade. Ben keeps having to carry him. He can’t see over the counter when they enter a bar for information. He can’t enter the bar in the first place. He’s very annoyed by all of this.

Ben is not annoyed. Ben is having a lot of emotions, actually, but annoyance isn’t one of them. He didn’t get to help raise Luke the way he might have if Anakin hadn’t lost his shit, okay, he sees a small Luke and he wants to hug him and cry.

Luke would like to be able to purchase a speeder part without the lady at the stall asking him if he needs his “dad’s” permission.

Once they figure out when and where they are, they need to decide where and how to leave. There are general shenanigans to gamble their way into enough money to hire a ship. They are in the ass end of nowhere, but definitely not Tatooine. There appears to be a jungle. There appears to be a significant variety of man-eating creatures. There appears to be a temple to the Force of questionable origin. None of this is actually helpful, except for the moment they find a “baby’s first lightsaber” in the temple.

Luke only has one hand and, being a six-year-old, his body is growing too fast for him to bother with getting a wired-in prosthesis the way he could as an adult. He can get a more basic prosthesis, but nothing that attaches to the neurons. He’ll outgrow it too fast.

He’s tiny and he’s not used to doing things with just one hand. He uses the Force to do what one hand can't, and every time someone tries to tell him he's misusing the Force he whaps them with the empty sleeve.

So, you know, they find out what year it is. Ben has a breakdown. Luke is upset that he left behind his friends. Ben admits to him that Leia was his twin. Luke stares in horror because dude, she kissed him, you couldn’t have mentioned this earlier???

Ben points out that Beru and Owen were keeping Luke away from him for nineteen years, and then they had about three days of awkward travel to find Leia in the first place, and then Ben died. He didn’t have a whole lot of time to figure out how to tell him.

(This sparks an argument that lasts several days. All onlookers assume that Ben’s son is throwing a tantrum. He doesn’t correct them, even though this is a very valid reason to be upset, because the truth is much harder to explain.)

Sooooo they travel. Mostly, Ben plays Sabacc, cleans house, and pays their way towards Coruscant. Luke still really wants to learn to be a Proper Jedi, even though Ben is pretty sure that Luke would have... a lot of difference of opinion with the Temple, but sure. Coruscant. They can at least stop by, and see Qui-Gon, and Mace, and Quinlan, and Bant, and everyone else that’s still alive and not tragically deceased in the horror following the start of the Clone Wars and then the birth of the Empire, and Ben can have a nice sob over all his dead friends being alive again.

Ben is only barely holding it together while Luke is in the room with him at any given point. But it’s fine! It’s fine. He’s fine. All of his loved ones have come back to life! It’s great! HE’S FINE.

He is not fine.

Luke is also grieving all the people who haven’t been born yet, but he’s... significantly more okay than Ben is.

The closer they get to the Core, the more often people just assume Ben is Luke’s father, and then look shocked and uncomfortable when Luke flatly calls him by his name, and they just... compromise. This is the point at which Luke starts calling him “Uncle Ben.”

Ben cries in his bunk later that night. Luke overhears it and wonders how the HELL Ben is more unstable now, when there’s a chance to fix things and no Vader or Empire trying to kill or capture both of them, and all his friends are alive.

(Luke will later learn a lot about PTSD and realize this is actually a fairly normal situation, to process significant events and emotions only after gaining safety or catharsis.)

(Twenty years on a ball of sand with an alcohol addiction and debilitating fear of the man you raised as your own brother is not, in fact, safe or cathartic.)

At any rate, they’ve settled into that pattern by the time they reach the Inner Rim. The Inner Rim is the part of the galaxy at which they’ve collected enough money (and mental stability) to travel a little better, and to take a few more risks.

Risks like “manipulate people with those baby blues.”

Ben tells Luke that he’s a menace, after he pouts so cutely that he gets a free scarf added on to a purchase that Ben makes. Luke responds that Ben has no room to talk, since he flirted a free breakfast out of that one inn owner.

Also, Luke is currently physically six. That is objectively a situation that sucks. He deserves to use it for all it’s worth if he’s stuck like this.

“You know, if you keep wearing all-black and looking longingly at the velvet cape and Space Chanel boots, the temple is going to worry that you’re a darksider.”

“Uncle Ben... you told me, yesterday, that I sparkle so brightly in the Force that it’s almost blinding.”

“Yes, but the gloves--”

They don’t agree on this, but Ben relents. He does actually understand good fashion, unfortunately, and he’s not unaware of how much Leia taught Luke about such things.

Luke’s about forty years ahead of the curve, of course, but Skywalkers are prone to such things. It’s usually in regards to technology, granted, but...

They get to Coruscant. Ben is very obviously a Jedi. He knows all the right words and walks like a Soresu master and feels warm and comforting in the Force. They let him in with minimal questions. They note down “my first padawan left the order to have a child, but died shortly after; I consider Luke here to be my nephew, and have raised him as such,” and move on.

Luke is vaguely annoyed because he already had an uncle (and aunt) that raised him, but he admits that a person can have more than one uncle. He can live with this. Ben was more family to Anakin than Owen was, in some ways, so it’s kind of true. Luke is even working on feeling more childish affection for Ben instead of the complicated mess of emotions that come from being lied to about some very large and important subjects, and then seeing the person saying those lies have regular emotional breakdowns due to something as small as Luke saying he likes the curve of the hull on that freighter.

(Apparently he sounds just like his father did as a child. This is almost heartwarming.)

The thing is! The thing. The thing is, they almost make it to the Halls of Healing to get looked over for weird viruses, or Outer Rim Parasites, or whatever the hells needs to be happening. They almost make it without Ben having a flashback to dead younglings or brainwashed troopers or the declaration of a Sith Empire. They almost make it without incident.

Then Ben sees Qui-Gon, and freezes, and does not move again.

Luke cannot get him to restart.

People are staring.

They haven’t even made it to Medical, Uncle Ben, come on.

Young, local Obi-Wan comes over and asks if there’s something he can do to help. Or maybe this “Ben” knows Qui-Gon? Master Jinn doesn’t recognize Ben, but maybe Luke knows more?

Luke does know more, but what Luke actually says is “he probably needs a mind healer.”

(Ben will not appreciate this.)

(Ben is unfortunately standing in the middle of the hallway and completely unresponsive, and is unable to argue with this assertion.)

(Ben is pretty much proving this assertion entirely correct, actually.)

Obi-Wan is helpful, if a little bitchy in the manner of most late-teens individuals, and offers to help get Uncle Ben down to the Halls of Healing. It involves Obi-Wan gently pushing on Ben’s shoulders, and Qui-Gon offering to carry Luke so he can be in Ben’s sights (because Ben is a Mystery, and Qui-Gon is quite fond of those, so he wants to stay involved). Ben kind of just... shuffles on down.

There are medical tests. They ask about how Luke lost his hand. He refuses to talk about it. They ask how Ben got all his scars. Luke says he doesn’t know. They ask if he knows why Ben looks like he’s been through a war. Luke says it’s because he probably was.

They check for foreign viruses. They find evidence of thus-far-unpatented vaccinations. They ask Luke if he knows what he’s vaccinated for.

“How would I know? I’m six.”

They agree that this is a good excuse.

(It is not. He’s lying. They do not know this.)

They do some more tests. They find a lot of questionable medical bullshit in Ben’s body. Most of this is from the clone wars, but they don’t know this. Someone realizes they haven’t gotten a ping back from the Shadow Network regarding “do we have permission to pull the medical file of a Jedi that isn’t in the normal database? We’re assuming you know who he is, since we don’t.”

The Shadow Network does not know who Ben is.

The healers, of course, go “huh, that’s weird, but maybe the name he gave his nephew was fake. We can’t exactly ask ‘Ben’ for more details right now. We already had to sedate him. Let’s check the DNA!”

The DNA pulls up as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The padawan who brought this guy in two hours ago.

“Huh, that’s weird. Let’s call in Kenobi and ask if he knows what’s going on.”

Obi-Wan absolutely does not know what’s going on.

They ask Luke.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he says, lying through his teeth and not even pretending otherwise.

“You’re not a very good liar,” teenage Obi-Wan tells him.

“I’m not trying to be,” Luke says. “Can you get Master Yoda? I feel like we’re going to need him.”

They normally wouldn’t get Yoda on the request of a six-year-old, but they also normally don’t have a catatonic thirty-something Jedi who looks like he’s been through a war popping up in the medical database as the pimply teenage padawan that broke his pinky trying to do a Badass Ataru Flip last week.

Or... whatever Luke i... is... oh dear.

“Young one,” Qui-Gon asks, while people whisper-shout behind him, not realizing he’s cutting the Correlian Knot and just asking the kid himself. “Do you know why your midichlorian count is so high? It’s almost unheard of.”

“Uncle Ben said my dad was the Chosen One,” Luke says, because he is capable of being a little shit and is actually really eager to let Ben deal with some of the fallout. He feels for the man, really, but he’s also tired of being the one to field every single question.

Also, the expressions that pass on Qui-Gon’s face are hilarious.

(Luke may or may not be more affected by his six-year-old brain than he would like to admit.)

“Thank you,” Qui-Gon says, sounding more than a little strangled about it.

It takes another three hours for Ben to wake up.

He listens to the questions. He hears what they say his ‘nephew’ said. He looks at Luke.

“Is this revenge for not telling you about Leia?”

“It’s not revenge,” Luke does not lie. “I just don’t know how to explain it.”

“It’s pretty easy to explain.”

“It’s not my secret.”

“This is revenge for the Leia thing.”

“No,” Luke says. “Revenge for the Leia thing was when I ate a live frog in front of you.”

This is the point at which someone interrupts and points out that they appear to be stalling.

“Oh, he is,” Luke tells them. He gestures at Ben. “I can’t tell you more, because it’s more his story than mine.”

“I’m afraid, Master, that I am very likely to have an emotional breakdown if I allow myself to consider the reality of this situation for longer than the fraction of a second I already have,” Ben reports, full of false cheer. “Suffice to say, I am far from stable and have only held out this far for Luke’s sake.”

“Can you explain why you have my DNA?” Obi-Wan asks, as the person who’s most concerningly involved in this situation.

“You can,” Ben says, smiling like there is absolutely nothing wrong in the slightest, ever. “I’m you, from the future. I actually died and spent a few years dead before coming back. I’m not sure why I’m younger than I was when I died, but I appreciate being able to put on my shoes without my knees attempting to mutiny.”

“He needs a mind healer,” Luke reiterates, in case the strained grin hasn’t made it clear. “So do I, but not as much.”

“I have felt literally every person in this Temple save for Luke and Yoda die,” Ben reports, looking a shade more manic than a few seconds earlier. “It’s very overwhelming to feel you all being alive again. I may be approaching a mental breakdown, and I’ve been rather strictly advised against using alcohol to treat my traumas again.”

Luke kicks him in the thigh. It’s not a very hard kick, because he is very small, and he does actually like Ben. “I’m not letting you turn into an old drunk again.”

After several seconds of silence, a healer quietly suggests that everyone clear the room, and asks if someone could fetch Master Yoda as the youngling requested.

(THIS IS ALMOST THREE THOUSAND WORDS. I started it less than two hours ago. Why am I like this.)

#Ben Kenobi #Obi Wan Kenobi #Luke Skywalker #Qui Gon Jinn #Time Travel #De Aging #Phoenix Posts #Uncle Ben and Little Luke

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pan-ic-at-the-homehome · 3 years

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Golden Child Pt. 1

I literally can't remember where I found it but I read a headcannon for an angsty SBI +Reader and I loved it so much that I had to write something similar to it but I think I might have forgotten to like it, so if you know what the original is please tell me so I can credit them I was partially inspired by@helliontherapscallion's "Adrenaline Junkie" series, simply for the fact that because of them i haven't stopped thinking of inventor reader. Also let's just pretend that uh my human biology degree isn't going to waste by me writing blindness incorrectly ha ha. This is a purely fictional way that blindness works.

(REMINDER YOU IDIOT, FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS STORY: Wilbur is 26, Techno is 20, Tommy is 16, Phil is 32, SO READER IS 22, GET IT RIGHT AND STOP MESSING UP)

As soon as Y/N's wings started developing, they were instantly the favorite child. Philza still showed his love to Wilbur, but nowhere near as much as he did to his winged child. If he had to choose between spending time with them or Wilbur, he'd pick them in a heartbeat. Wilbur was usually upset when this happened, but he had gotten used to it and had learned ways to cope with it.

This was until Techno showed up. On their doorstep. Next to a freezing Philza who had sacrificed most his warmth to the young piglin. Wilbur had his thoughts on this, yhough he kept them to himself. But Y/N couldn't be happier! This meant a new friend, AND they were right when they said that Phil was just a nice person, there wasn't a favorite child! Right?

They quickly realized that Techno wasn't their friend, as the first interaction they had together was them getting a claw to the face by the piglin. Philza just simply sighed and made sure the wound would stop bleeding before tending back to the scared pig.

Y/N was only eight at the time, they didn't know what they were feeling. But whatever it was didn't feel good.

Since that day, Y/N was the new Wilbur and 'Technoblade' was the golden child. Y/N wanted the spotlight back, so they tried hard at everything. Nothing ever worked. Nothing was better than what Techno could do. Nothing was more amazing than Techno's knowledge, or his skills in fighting, or his odd way of speaking, or those stupid things that he did, or the fact that he'd always blame it on some 'voices' in his head. That he had a God complex. That he was better than Wilbur. He was better than Tommy. He was better than you...

He was always better than you. Of course. Thats what you felt when you first met. Not amazement, not the happiness of having another friend. Of course not. It was overwhelming jealousy. But he was your brother, so you had to suck it up just like Wilbur did.

But soon enough, they came to peace with this. They moved on and worked on what they actually enjoyed, not what Philza enjoyed. Mechanics. Phil would have killed you if he learned of all the dangers that you put yourself through to consider yourself an inventor. Or.... Would he?

One day your older brother approached you with his idea to create "L'manburg". At first you couldn't help but laugh. But when it was realized that Wilbur wasn't joking and that he had already recruited Tommy, they agreed to join the fight for freedom. It was a way to pay Wilbur back for being there for them, afterall.

Y/N never imagined the true horrors that they would have to go through so they could say a 'thank you' to Wilbur. They never even truly said it to him, L'manburg was already exploded and he was killed before they could say it to him. Not even saying it to Ghostbur was good enough.

Y/N was forced to suffer through watching her loved ones go mad. Sometimes, they would try coming up with inventions that could help her friends out, and some that could help some regular problems in the world for other people. Most of them didn't work, they were only able to produce goggles that could just barely help fully blind people see. But it was a step in the right direction.

Then doomsday came. Y/N didn't want to be part of it, they didn't want to even try hurting their father and younger brother. They aren't even sure how they came to that point.

Before they knew it, they were begging the man who once gave them anything in the world for him to stop. The whole server was one big family especially everyone in the homes he was about to destroy. But what they wanted didn't matter anymore. It's what Technoblade wanted, and he wanted blood.

At the last moment, Y/N remembered Friend. Ghostbur would be devastated if Friend died.

Falling down to the ground from the small warning of TNT, Friend flooded their mind.

If they couldn't save L'Manburg, they needed to save Friend. Ghostbur wasn't the same, but Ghostbur is Wilbur. They still never said thank you. They have to show their gratitude through the miracle of Friend surviving.

And so that's what they set off to do. With no mind to their own self-preservation, Y/N got up and flew as fast as they could to save Friend. But before they could reach the sheep, a large pile of rubble fell on one of their wings, almost snapping it right off. Y/N tried to get it off but to no avail, and their whole body wasn't safe. As they saw more rubble they crouched down while covering their head with their hands and covering the undamaged wing with their body, they prepared for impact.

The last thing they could speak out was almost incomprehensible.

"Wil..... Will...... Ghosbu.............. Tommy.......... Dad............."

And then everything went black. Y/N couldn't see or feel anything. Not even after her youngest brother, the ghost of her older brother, and the three fiances of the SMP untrapped them. There was nothing.

After what felt like years for the brothers, there was finally a glimpse of Y/N waking up. But they continued to drift in and out of consciousness and whenever someone tried communicating they were completely unresponsive.

During this amount of time, it was agreed that it was in their best interest for their wings to be removed. They were both utterly useless now after being crushed and would just be extra weight with unnecessary pain that can be avoided the sooner their wings get removed. Just in case Y/N was still aware of everything going on, they were put under amnesia to lower the chance of them feeling the agony of a wing removal surgery.

Slowly Y/N began more responsive to people, but never to the same amount. Everyone that took care of them were absolutely heartbroken when they figured out part of the rock that fell on them damaged a vital organ that allowed a person to see. Luck was in fact on their side for damaging their eyesight instead of the brain, however most people didn't see it that way.

Ghostbur took it upon himself to become Y/N's seeing-eye dog. He missed having Friend nearby and Y/N was the thing he connected to the most after Friend's death.

After a few months of trying to get used to no longer having sight or wings Y/N was finally allowed back in their lab with a large amount of supervision from Ghostbur. While carefully running their hands across some unfinished inventions, Y/N comes across the goggles that they made at least a year ago. It immediately smarked a memory deep within their brain, the closest thing they had felt to seeing something ever since doomsday.

"Ghostbur, what color are these?" "Oh, they're blue. Blue's a really nice color, it reminds me of Friend. Do you remember Frien- Why are you looking down at those like that? Would you like some blue, it takes your sadness away! Wait dont put them on, the glass has cracks!" Y/N snickers as the ghost tries to take them away from them without being super forceful, "I'm already blind, what's the worst it can do?"

"Dont say that!" Ghostbur gasps, "We will find a way to get your vision back, those goggles might make it impossible!"

"I made these around the time you first showed up. I ran multiple tests with them and I was able to help a blind person see the world again. Sure, it was very blurry, hard to distinguish a lot of colors from each other, we have a different kind of blindness, and its been more that a year since I last tested them, but they might still work." Y/N explains, then they turn their back to Ghostbur and put the goggles on. This time, Ghostbut only makes a sound in protest.

Blinking, Y/N could feel the stimulation in their brain that they lost along with their eyesight come back. They moved their hands from the position they were in to put the invention on to Y/N's line of sight, and they could see their hands again. Fuzzy, shapeless, hands with a few bandaids and many scars on them.

"So, are they working?"

The voice of your brother brings Y/N back to reality and they turn to look at him. They had completely forgotten what Ghostbur looked like, only remembering vaguely what child Wilbur looked liked and a brief description of how Ghostbur's appearance differed for Wilbur's.

Y/N wraps their arms around the Ghost, not actually hugging but just doing the motion to where they would hug a person they could actually touch, as they tried to not cry in front of him.

(WOOOOOO THIS ENDED UP A LOT LONGER THAN I EXPECTED AND I'M NOT EVEN DONE YET, SO I SEPARATED IT INTO TWO PARTS)

#sbi family dynamic #sbi x reader #slight angst #gn reader #gender neutral y/n

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kaypeace21 · 3 years

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Will and the car on fire (theories)

*this is just under the assumption this is Will in the pic and not some other character. Which is still very possible .

Why it could be Will (it's for sure possibly not)

But, most of the rebuttals saying it's not Will are iffy. Cause we really don't have much evidence to point to any 1 character. Like the hair counterargument: that the hair is too long to be Will's .Will's s4 body double has a similar hair tuff on the back of his neck. And we know st uses camera shots of the back of Will's neck/silouette ,in past seasons . So doing so here could make sense. And Will of course is the most associated with fire: using fireball for Will the wise in s1 (3 times), the will the wise drawing from s2 had flames on his cloak, Will being being burned in s2,etc.

So...Will looking at lightning. And (Will?) looking at fire. Both have a dark full body sillhouete and red in the forefront .

We also see this character is possibly wearing a watch like Will?

And i've been hearing this a lot here ... but southern california (where the Byers are) does have a lot of trees lol. Not sure why people think otherwise.But, regardless a trip from cali to Hawkins would most certainly have some forrest.

*Also, any movies I’ll be mentioning (in the theories , below) were stated to be inspiration for ST.

So theories...

Theory 1) It's Joyce's car ( and it was rigged to explode/look like an accident by Brenner or Lonnie). And Will wasn't there but sees it in a nightmare cause it's already happened/or it's a dream vision of the future.

Evidence: CAR TROUBLES: Joyce’s car model was infamous for exploding in car accidents-being sued by the state of Indianna before the start of the series. We also have Alexi tell murray about a way to cause cars to explode-and turn people into dust (and make it look like an accident). Brenner’s name means “to burn” and he already hurt 1 mother to keep a subject -so not out of the realm of possibilities for him to hurt Joyce (and make it look like an accident to try and get Will and or el).

In s3, we have Jonathan and Hopper try and fix the car-and after this cars explode with people inside. Jonathan lifts the car hood- and notices someone rigged nancy’s car . Than, right after,Billy’s car lights on fire with him inside. With Hopper (he also lifts the car hood) and joyce barely escapes the lit car (but she may not be so lucky next time).

We also have Joyce tell Will 3x she’s going to be ok... which is a bit overkill if she will be OK ...

And, notice during the hoodlift we see Will observing- which is similar to Alexi watching and warning them before hand that the car (with Joyce inside) will explode. So it’s possible foreshadowing since Will may predict the future and was was paralleled to Alexi.Alexi ‘can we watch lonnie toons now?. Will : can we play d&d now?

movie inspos:

It’s hinted s4 will be around Will’s b day: In gilbert grape- Arnie after his b day, has his mom die, and a fire was stagged that lit his mom on fire. ( Before this,Arnie was also raised by his older brother Gilbert cause his dad wasn’t around). stoker- kid’s parent dies in staged car ‘accident’ on her bday (this allows ab*sive relative closer to kid-since dead parent banned him from seeing kid). The kid was taught how to hunt, by dad. And is also a painter and bullied at school (like Will). what dreams may come-painter blames themselves for fam dying in freak car accident- the relative was getting a present for them when it happened. so they blame themselves. The descent- also had (right before a b day, the main character’s fam dying in a car accident) .And the sole survivor/family member of the deceased hallucinates a shadow chasing her in a empty hospital hall. Get out-photographer (jonathan)blames himself for mother dying in car accident.

There’s also a lot of other films where the kid (for no logical reason) blames themselves for their mom’s/parent’s death: goodson, dream catcher, analyse this,etc. Of course ... this could simply relate to max and el having survivors guilt after the mall killed their family members (in a fake ‘mall fire’). However, a fake out fire causing family to die (in s3) could be foreshadowing for it actually happening in s4?

rigged car explosions: scarface -have guys try and bomb a car with kids and parent inside. backdraft -guy raised by older brother had 1 parent die in explosion and sees the freak explosion occur- later in the film someone rigs a car to explode and masks it as a freak car accident. Same thing occurs in godfather- he sees family member die in rigged car explosion. The dark knight- rigs car to explode. batman v superman- calls superman a demon and says they need to burn the witch that bore him (aka his mom).

dreams (if in the past): Never ending story (reffed in s3)- starts with kid with bowl cut saying he had another dream about his mother who died. Peanut butter solution- kid has visions in dreams about people he knew who died in fire. this next movie (emily rose) is said to be Joyce byers inspo according to Winona - has (kid with 2 personalities) have nightmares from the past of her and her mother burning in a car fire. while screaming/sleep walking she burns windows with her hands -accidentally using her powers. Some people suspect the videogame “life is strange’ is show inspo too- it has character named max caufield with a ‘never maxine rule’, etc. Anyways in the game prequel queer chloe, who plays d&d, would have dreams/nightmares of her nice parent’s car accident . Despite , chloe not being present for the car accident. After the parent’s death, she’s stuck with her mean step dad.

dreams (if predicting the future): Will says in s3 Will the wise can see into the future. We also see Will/Will the wise via a dream predict Hopper was in danger-saying to Joyce “he’s going to die”. In ‘12 monkeys’ and ‘Rebel Robin st novel’ they mention the myth of cassandra- who could make accurate future prophecies , but was cursed to never be believed by those she warned. In 12 monkeys- he tries warning others of a dreaded event in future- and it’s dismissed as him being mentally ill. Since, Will’s other abilities were dismissed as his ptsd in s2-and with the Byers fam having a family history of mental illness (they may not believe him over such a prediction). In ‘the ring’-the movie opens with the guardian saying the boy is drawing the car accident that killed his mom -as a psychological coping mechanism. Only for the teacher to say he made that drawing before his mother’s death (and it’s revealed later the boy is psychic). Terminator 2- sarah conner says she is having future visions, which include explosions, and everyone dismisses it as her being schizophrenic. Like how in s2 a scientist said about Will “let’s see if this boy is a wizard or a schizo”.

If joyce survives the accident she may be hospitlized (and unable to have legal custody). In black swan the girl (with 2 personas) -blames herself for what happened to Winona Ryder’s character (who is in a coma after a car accident. They had had a verbal fight before the accident). In girl with the dragon tattoo- the main character (who is compared to a phoenix and dragon) has 1 parent burned in a fire- and after this her kind guardian is hospitilized so they can no longer take care of her- and she is placed with an ab*sive foster dad (who resembles her bio dad). If Joyce was in a coma - it would further parallel her to terry- and be another willel parallel.

if dead: Tokyodrift- mom loses custody, and dad who is a mechanic and abandoned the family years ago, later gets custody. Super 8-mom dies in freak accident- douche dad gets custody. Book of henry-mom dies pre-film, ab*sive dad got custody. Outsiders- parents die in car wreck, relative gets custody of teen who he slaps etc.In black swan-girl who blames herself for Winona’s accident is stuck living with ab*sive parent. good son- mom dies, stuck with violent and manipulative relative after this.

Of course-joyce may be fine. And Lonnie may just visit for Will’s b-day and ruin shit that way.

Theory 2) It's an undercover government car that Will uses his powers against in self defense... or in anger after they hurt someone he loves.

Evidence:

Joyce about ‘Will the wise’: If he’s so wise, why does he need the fireballs? Why can’t he just outsmart the bad guys? Will: cause the bad guys are smart too. Joyce: so he needs the fireballs? Will: Yeah, to burn them to a crisp.

* the fact-this flashback happens at a funeral of a Byers, could also be narratively significant as foreshadowing.

Gov agents in s1 are called “the bad-men” so Will may use fireball on “the bad-guys”(government agents) . Fire has been used on all the other adversaries relating to the upsidedown-so why not the gov agents (aka human villains) next? 2 movies on the inspo list caught my attention: firestarter & carrie (which are both stephen king adaptions with psychic kids who have fire abilities).

Firestarter- she has pyrokineseis (firepowers) . And unlike every other psychic in the film- she is the only psychic that doesn't get nose bleeds (aka mini brain hemorages) from using her powers (Will). We know el and kali gets nose bleeds.

(Anger): She only unleashes her fire abilities on gov agents after they kill her parent...

*And uses a literal “fireball” on them.

Could also be another willel parallel. kali about the US gov:" They took your mother away from you!" El str*ngles man from gov agency that incapacitated her mom . El before str*ngling him: " you hurt mama".

(self defense): While in carrie she kills people who tried to run her over with a car. And causes the car to explode.

Also, in s3 Steve does technically cause a car to explode to protect Nancy from being run over by a car (so maybe foreshadowing?). I believe, tumblr user ‘bran-who-writes-theoretically” was the first to point out the Carrie/car on fire parallel.

* This car scene could also be added to the list of Willel parallels. El in s1 uses her powers to flip a government-car upside down. And looks back at it. And it’s a ref to the film Et. So Will causing a government -car to explode and flip upsidedown (referencing carrie) could be a parallel.

Of course El flipped over a car in s3 to attack the Soviet agents and protect her friends too ( right before losing her powers). Sort of like Steve using his car as a weapon in s3 to protect his friends. so who knows, if not Will, maybe El (wearing a ponytail) got her telekenesis back and she flips the car and it explodes ? To be honest, I just find this explanation too boring, cliche, and predictable. And I still hypothosize the mindflayer took her telekensis (but not her other powers). Since in d&d mindflayers have ‘mage hand’ (what el is called) and ‘telekenesis’/ along with the ability to steal powers from other life forms. But, we’ll see...

Theory 3) The car flips (maybe caused by a deer jumping in the road) and it blows up after the crash- with Joyce inside. And maybe Jonathan survives it/ Will wasn’t there but had a nightmare /vision about it?

Evidence: in s1 Jonathan sees a dead deer that was hit by a car. This could be symbolic : because it related to Jonathan mentioning the hunting story with his dad and how he cried for a week cause he liked the film Bambi. Which in the film : Bambi (a deer) has his mother k*lled. And after his mother’s death, he’s taken in by his douchey dad who was M.I.A for most of his life ,until his mom passed away. And the hunters are the bad guys in the film . In ‘get out’ the photographer , Chris,blames himself for his mother dying in a car accident - and he sees a dead deer hit by a car -and the dying deer was used to symbolize the guilt he has over his mother’s death. in ‘the long kiss goodnight’ a character is driving home with a friend- they swerve and hit a deer and 1 of them is ejected from the car into the forrest. But their friend is unconscious in the car and it quickly explodes on the road. The survivor turns and sees the car in flames- disoriented they stumble and kill the dying deer. And it’s left ambiguous if they were helping the deer end it’s pain or if it was vengeful-hunting (since it caused the car accident that killed their friend). Cause their face was emotionless from shock.

Even in the st novel "suspicious minds' rabbits- like jonathan was forced to kill on the hunting trip with his dad (around his b-day) represented the bond between mother and child.And the mother sacrificing herself for the baby-to not get k*lled (by Brenner).

-so maybe?? jonathan before he gets the pizza job/car (may have his car break down , like hinted it would in s3).

So him and Joyce share the car (once his car stops working) and the accident happens while Jonathan is behind the wheel -with Joyce. And after this he gets the job at surfer boy pizza. Billy was a surfer boy and that memory was used to think about his mother who is no longer around (once he's stuck with his ab*sive dad after moving away from Cali). While Jonathan moved to Cali after his mom passed-maybe stuck with Lonnie.Jonathan's actor in recent pics has a blonde mullet - which sort of resembles joyce/Billy's og hair. This may be why he starts doing dr*gs - which is pretty out of character for him- but it could be a coping mechanism(like in the s4 films). One of many examples was 'enter the void'- the older brother was surrogate parent to their lil sibling and after a car accident k*lls his parents , he starts doing dr*gs to cope. Also ‘hunger games’ was on the list- and Katniss (who was a surrogate parent to her litle sibling, like Jonathan is to Will) in the sequel, saw her family die in an explosion. And it really broke her emotionally.

I've mentioned this before but Billy is used to parallel and foil Will and Jonathan. And it may be more than a ... what if Lonnie had custody scenario. But to show how Lonnie (like most ab*sers) will later bring out the worst in the kids (once he does have custody). Like how s3 has Will mimick lonnie with the baseball bat (and we see in s3 Billy being bullied by his dad to play baseball and flashbacks showing him mimicking Neil). I've also discussed how there's a theme with pretty much every character mimicking their parent- for better or worse.

Killing a deer would certainly hint at Jonathan's possible character regression (and mimicking Lonnie to a certain extent). if he not only blames himself for Joyce's death. But is also stuck with his ab*ser.

The animal k*lling motif , and after that, mimicking an a b*sive father is already shown with el. Brenner , in s1,tried to make her k*ll a cat (using her powers) and she refused (similar to the s1 rabbit hunting story of Lonnie forcing Jonathan to k*ll a rabbit ). But in s2, she uses her powers to k*ll a squirrel (and like a deer- it's typical hunting game). Than in s3 el does literally everything Brenner ever asked of her- she spies on people and repeats the words back (like brenner told her to do), she becomes a weapon to ‘fight the commies’ (which was said to be the reason he k*dnapped her in the first place), and when looking into the void to see the mf (she mirrors the words brenner told her - when he made her go into the void to face the demogorgan).

And some s4 movies are literally about being trapped in a house with your ab*ser and slowly losing your mind because of the ab*se and gaslighting- lighthouse , black swan , good son, are prime examples. But movies like scar face , girl with the dragon tattoo, and book of Henry touch on this theme a bit as well. And ordinary people- is about a guy who survived a vehicular accident but his relative in the same accident didn't- and it causes him alot of issues /survivor's guilt.

The shadowy figure could just be Will in the shot - seeing it in a dream before or after it happens?

Theory 4) Will sees a future vision or has his ’now memories’ of someone else's car.

Evidence: i guess the s4 shot parallels El (in s3) spying on Billy while he’s hurting Heather. During that spying scene: the shot is of El near Billy's car. So it’s possibly a diff willel parallel?

If not Will. Who knows ...if El’s telekenesis is gone maybe her spying abilities strengthened and look different because of it (and now she can see background details)?

Theory 5) it's Lonnie's car and Will escapes from the trunk and uses his powers in self defense

Evidence: I’m pretty iffy on this one. This goes back to how people suspected Lonnie took Will in s1 (and could be foreshadowing). Even the recent rebel robin book-has characters say Lonnie probably took Will. Jonathan suspected Will may be at Lonnie’s - so checks Lonnie’s car trunk (to see if Will is there). We also see how the mf in s3, knocked people out by dr*gs/str*ngulation, ties them up, and throws them in a trunk (to k*dnap them). Or how the cops raided jonathan’s trunk- which had stuff to track the demogorgan (and the demogorgan parallels Lonnie) . And after looking in Jonathan’s trunk-they suspected something fishy is going on.

*heather was described as “another me” by Will- who was thrown in the trunk.

movies: “tangled” was on the s4 list- and had an ab*sive parent later try and kidnap their kid ,and that parent ends up dying. in girl with the dragon tattoo (the girl associated with dragons & phoenixes- lights her ab*sive bio dad on fire. In ‘drop dead fred’ (girl who is in love with childhood friend, named Mikey, who she met at age 5) lights a imaginary version of her ab*sive parent on fire - while in a trippy memory world. Chrissy accidentally lights her ab*sive relative (nickname “daddy”) on fire in self defense- in a trippy hell memory scape. in ‘long kiss goodnight- the girl with 2 personalities (Will/will the wise) was kidnapped and put in a trunk and escapes by jumping into a quarry. Not sure if that could relate to a flashback or something else? like in ‘don’t breath’ the older sibling who essentially was a surrogate parent to the younger sibling-mentions how their dad left the family, and her parent would throw her in the trunk for hours as a punishment.

#will byers #jonathan byers #joyce byers #el hopper #stranger things #stranger things theory

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onebizarrekai · 3 years

Text

undeniable proof that shuichi and kokichi were gay in v3

prepare yourself for the most big brain thing that has ever bigged your brain

chapter 1

shuichi saihara spends this chapter following kaede around because they were just trapped in a godforsaken killing game and everything seems to suck. when faced with a situation such as this, the natural inclination is to either find someone to latch onto or to distrust and stick to oneself. shuichi does the former because he is a twiggy little man who would probably die in a fight before anyone even attacked him.

what is kokichi doing in this chapter? sticking to himself? stalking someone? that is the real question. nobody knows what he is doing because he is not the protagonist and not the obligatory party companion. however, since v3 follows a theme of fiction, it is totally logical to believe that some system must be in place, but kokichi is not bound by such a system because kokichi represents anarchy.

he does not stick with another for all to see, nor does he remain alone. alas, he searches for a secret companion and has not found one yet. who shall he find? shall he find any? the truth is, he gravitates towards shuichi. it’s supposed to be in secret, but there is a way in the game to see what really happened.

if you speak to tsumugi right before everyone is asked to gather at the cafeteria a second time, she mentions sonic the hedgehog. kokichi runs by, saying “got to go fast”. this means that kokichi has either played sonic the hedgehog or is at least well-versed in sonic memes. if you get this dialogue, and only if you get it, later, kokichi makes another sonic reference, saying “faker? I think you’re the fake hedgehog around here!” while he confuses everyone, the dialogue makes the odd choice of stopping on shuichi, even though the dialogue box only includes “…” and nothing else.

chapter 2

if you have unlocked tsumugi’s sonic dialogue and go to the monomono machine, you now have a 5% chance of getting sonic merchandise. if you give this merchandise to kokichi, you get some interesting dialogue. he says “wow, shuichi! how did you know that I grew up playing sonic and that it’s my absolute favorite video game series of all time?” this immediately maxes out all 5 of his friendship fragments, and you can get all 5 of his hangouts without giving him any more presents. you’re probably wondering why this is important, but you will see.

as kaede is now dead, shuichi finds himself horribly alone. while kaito is there and starts calling him his sidekick, the force of protagonist syndrome has caused shuichi to gain the courage to hang out with anyone, including kokichi of course. I don’t need to talk about kokichi’s hangouts. they literally end with “I stole your heart, so now I’m satisfied!” and it doesn’t get gayer than that.

or does it?

if you investigate the bathroom part of ryoma’s lab during this chapter and click on a very specific spot in order to enter one of the stalls, you can click on the toilet 5 times and shuichi will lie down on the floor. while it’s to investigate the underside of the toilet, and there is nothing to be found, the words “kokichi was here” are written on the ceiling above the stall. if you’ve already hung out with kokichi at least once in this chapter, shuichi will sigh and wonder what kokichi is doing right now.

if you’ve given kokichi the sonic merchandise, and you reach kokichi’s final free time event in this chapter, he will actually question shuichi after he finishes bandaging kokichi’s finger up, briefly commenting on how shuichi managed to get close to him so quickly and asking him “what his trick is”. he says “you must like me a whole lot, shuichi. I hope you don’t bail on me after this.” word for word, literally just hear me out.

“kokichi places his warm hand on mine, and I feel like he’s prying much deeper than he usually does.”

“I didn’t think that was possible…”

chapter 3

little did you know, giving kokichi the sonic merchandise unlocked a bonus hangout. yes, you heard me right. a WHOLE bonus hangout. you can hang out with him again whenever you want in this chapter. kokichi only says “good to see you.” you can select yes or no.

the screen will fade to black.

you have used up a free time.

if you have reached this hidden part of kokichi’s relationship sequence, random dialogue that isn’t in the normal game starts getting sprinkled in, as well as certain easter eggs. when angie starts her whole shtick, since you’ve already hung out with kokichi 5 times, there are a few things he has to say straight up, like how he’s going to teach shuichi about cults so shuichi doesn’t accidentally join the student council.

chapter 4

now that you’ve finally reached chapter 4 and activated the secret kokichi pathway, you get a hidden scene, much like the others that are triggered by having specific items in your inventory. in the middle of the night, kokichi breaks into shuichi’s room and shakes him awake, telling him that someone stole his almond milk.

shuichi tells kokichi to shut up and rolls over.

fun fact, if you get the hangout with miu where she checks whether shuichi is a virgin, she does, in fact, say “ha, I can’t believe this!” and if you zoom in the window behind her, you can barely make out kokichi’s face. peering in. watching you. if you click on him at any point during this hangout, you will hear a voice clip of kokichi’s laugh and shuichi will internally respond to miu’s dialogue differently. he will think “miu is the last person I need to know about this…”

in this sonic dialogue route, shuichi responds slightly differently to kokichi revealing that he is the mastermind. although his dialogue is mostly the same, he counts approximately 22 extra crying sprites, implied to be caused by additional heartbreak.

chapter 5-6

these chapters play out mostly the same way until the very end, the only exception being when you’re investigating kokichi’s lab. if you click on kokichi’s throne 13 times, one of the bookshelves will slide out of the way to reveal a hidden bathroom. there is an envelope taped to the wall that says “for my beloved detective, who habitually smacks things over and over.” it says “if you’re reading this, I’m probably dead. or am I? wouldn’t you like to know? nishishi.” shuichi comments about the fact that kokichi literally wrote that stupid laugh out, only to start crying again.

make sure that you have kind lie equipped as one of your skills before you start the final trial.

if you’ve done everything exactly according to plan up to this point, the ending is different.

tsumugi decides to show kokichi’s audition tape instead of kaede’s. he says “I’d love to be a part of danganronpa! I can finally be a bad guy without being scared!” but then kokichi looks directly at the camera. he says “naw, just messing with you. guess who?”

the screen cracks.

kokichi has suddenly entered the scene of the trial. tsumugi looks horrified. her wig falls off. everyone is at a loss for words. suddenly the screens and lights around them start to black out until everyone is left in almost complete darkness.

shuichi finally asks kokichi how he’s alive. he’s like, “you DIED” and kokichi is like “or did I? it’s the grand finale, shuichi! I owe you the truth this one time, because you’re my favorite.” everyone listens intently. “you see, by observing your irrational actions, almost like that of a main character… I was able to conclude that we exist in a fictional world that plays by certain rules. but we all been knew, didn’t we? not quite! someone forgot to test for exploits.” himiko just goes like “what the fuck you smokin?” and kokichi just laughs. “my self awareness has given me more power than you can possibly imagine! let’s just say I learned where the hit boxes are broken and installed a few cheat codes in the meantime!”

“no… that’s impossible! this isn’t supposed to be part of the ending at all!” tsumugi doesn’t like that one bit. she just kinda breaks down crying. shuichi isn’t paying attention to her though. he had accepted oblivion only to be greeted with kokichi being alive. as annoying as kokichi is, they are hopelessly in love. maki is a little disturbed.

after passionately reuniting with shuichi, kokichi says the thing. “this world is mine now, tsumugi! you got nothin on this! it’s time to say goodbye to this trash dump and create a new reality!” tsumugi just kinda goes like “noooo!!!”

everything goes black. shuichi has a vision about entering creative mode. kokichi has opped him. they take hands. “let’s create someplace way more fun.” maki and himiko and keebo look at each other because they’re floating in the background and watching this happen even though it’s supposed to be an internal vision. the screen goes white.

shuichi graces us with some internal protagonist dialogue about how he doesn’t really understand what’s happening anymore or what’s waiting for them outside of this world, but he thinks that things might turn out ok.

after unlocking this ending, you unlock a super secret video that you can view from the main menu. it’s a fully animated video of kokichi and dice dancing to world is mine. this is what they spent all their budget on

#april fools #saiouma #oumasai #ndrv3 #shitpost #I spent like 3 hours writing this #drv3 spoilers #random stuff #shuichi saihara #kokichi ouma

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thepeakyfckingblinders · 4 years

Text

Never Again || Thomas Shelby x reader

credits to @saralou23 for the gif

⤠ MASTERLIST⤟

Anon requested/summary: “can I request a fic where the reader is found unconscious or faints in the shop or something and tommy freaks out? I just find protective tommy so ❤️💓💟!! Thank you, your writing is absolutely INCREDIBLE” (Thank you so much honeybun, you’re making me blush, pls, forgive me for being late ❤️)

Warnings: swearing, bossy Tommy, basically Tommy freaking out and being overprotective, me always loving him with all of my mangled soul

Author’s notes:

I hope you are okay darlings, I love you, please stay safe ♡

I’m so sorry for being this late, I have no excuses, forgive me. Also the end sucks, but I’m struggling with my writing lately, so, sorry again.

I love protective Thomas so much, he’s an ass, but he’s a softie, and I’m gonna lose my mind some day.

Behind each one of these works there are sleepless nights and something really close to multiple mental breakdowns, so, please, take a minute to send me a message about it, I need actual actual feedbacks to understand how to improve my skills and grow ♡

If you want to be added to my tag list, please, directly message me

I’m Italian, English isn’t my first language, so I apologize for every possible mistake I made. Also, please, help me improve my writing by telling me if there’s something wrong

ENJOY!

Birmingham’s gelid air hit your sensitive skin with no mercy as soon as your red mary-janes crossed the doorway of the Garrison, only to disgracefully sink into the greyish muddy loam in which the whole of Small Heath seemed to be covered.

Your fingers felt like rigid appendages burdening your already wearied arms, while you tried your best to wrap them around your coat’s edges, in a disperate effort to keep that warm tissue on your bulging clavicles left exposed by the woollen dress you were wearing. No matter how many heavy clothes you decided to put on, that implacable cold still succeeded in making you feel constantly out of forces, debilitated to the core; it had always been that way, since you were nothing more than a little girl obliged to spend one every two months confined in your bedroom, afflicted by incredibly high fever and sometimes even bronchitis.

Truth was that your body had never got used to England’s humid weather, yet, even though you poor healt had previously put you in danger, for your sake, thanks to the enormous progresses made by medicine in the past fifteen years, it was now easy to fight against the ruthless chill of those endless winters. Plus, since the earliest days of your attendence, your wardrobe had been perpetually refreshed with high-quality pieces perfectly in step with the times, for your fiancée had been literally covering you in furs and duvets of all kinds, concerned as he was that you could’ve eventually caught another bad fever, whose deathly consequences he had already experienced on his own thick skin. And for no reason in the world he would’ve even risked to lose you too.

So, as everybody could’ve easily predicted, Thomas was perennially paying attention to your wellbeing: the most famous specialists from inside and outside the United Kingdom had come directly to your country house; if one thing could be taken for granted, it was that your medications would always be settled on your side cabinet, together with a glass of fresh water, every day and every night; and, come hell or high water, he would accompany you during your routine visits to the hospital, even when it meant leaving all of his business without any prior warning.

Needless to say, you were perfectly able to do those things on your own -pheraps except for getting a crowd of world renowned doctors in your living room- and you sure as hell had tried to persuade him that there was no need at all for being so preoccupied all the time; still, he was Tommy Shelby, he simply couldn’t help it.

The concern for his loved ones’ lives kept stealing his sleep, even on those nights when there was no trace of imminent dangers on the horizon, it kept excoriating the insides of his drained brains, to the point that, more than once, you’d had to sleep alone in your immense king-size bed or reach for him in his study, curling up on one of his uncomfortable armchairs, ready to appease his fears as best you could. In short, for as much as you needed him to relax, you were still able to understand his protective behavior, against which, as a matter of fact, no one could do much; thus you at least tried not to give him more reasons to be worried by paying some extra attention to all those small things you could solve without Tommy even knowing about it. Regularly taking your iron tablets, for example. Nonetheless, it had now been already a week since the Peaky Blinders had started a brand new business involving in effect every metalworking factory in and around Birmingham, and the whole family, you and Tom included, had been so turbulently tied up with work to let every other thought and need slither on the back burner. As a direct consequence, your doctor’s latest prescription was unfortunately left lying on the bottom of your drawer, that being the fourth day in a row you’d spent without taking those pills, and, even though everything appeared to be going well until then, that one Thursday morning your period eventually came and stroke the fatal blow, having you feel so faint and aching that, all of a sudden, the few metres separating your side of the street from the betting shop seemed to implausibly dilate right under your blurred vision, a vexing sense of nausea assaulting your empty stomach led you to lean against a lamppost, your skin still crawling beneath all those heavy tissues. Dizziness and lethargy almost took over your sore mind, before you shook your head with an abrupt move in a bid to dispel those unpleasent sensations; clients would’ve arrived in less than a hour, Esme had taken John’s kids on a brief fieldtrip, Michael was already in his office, the boys were making their usual rounds of the mills, Finn and Isaiah were dealing with a couple folks in need back at the Garrison and Polly was nowhere in sight, which made you the only available blinder for the opening and, with Friday’s race approaching, there was no way the box-office could remain shut. Hence, more determined than ever, you chocked down the knot forming in your throat due to queasiness and just forced youself to put one foot in front of the other onto the dusty road, until you reached the shop door, not without the risk of tripping over multiple times in the process. Your frozen fingers clutched to the small side-wall now carring all of your weight, whilst your lungs tried to let in as much air as possible. And it worked, each plodding breath seemed to fight your sickness, also your heartbeat was gradually slowing down, thus you shut your eyelids and continued to inhale deeply for a full minute, before your trembilng hand managed to finally turn the key in the lock, giving you free access to the place.

However, the small click produced by the latch closing again did not live to reach your ears, for they were already brimful of ominous hisses, in a scant moment a bulk of hypnotic grey worms prevented you from seeing anything else, they relentlessly squirmed in front of your dilated pupils, that repulsing view sending brutal shooks straight to your clenched stomach, again. And, before you even had a chance to realize what was going on, your brain completely blacked out.

~ ~ ~

Words would not be sufficient to describe the fright taking over Arthur’s features the second your inert silhouette entered his line of sight. Just returned from their daily patrol, he had indeed noticed a small crowd waiting outside the office, cursing and fussing because of the lacked opening, and that alone had been weird enough for him to punch and kick his way up to the entrance, profanities spilling from his mustached mouth every time somebody’s elbow digged into his ribcage, inducing him to hit back so to stand his ground, only to eventually find himself powerless in front of that ghastly scene. It took him a while to recover from the shock, yet the eldest Shelby eventually regained control of his limbs and moved towards your shape with a single step.

“Polly! Pol, come here, for God’s sake!” Those hoarse yells filled the room, reverberating through the brickwalls, so loud that they could’ve been heard from the other side of the city, Arthur fell on his knees right beside you, gently placing a hand under your nape in order to lift your head. Blind panic streaming in his veins kept him for thinking clearly, he didn’t know what to do, thus he simply shook you from your shoulders, hoping in vain to see your eyes fly back open, but your neck just bent backwards.

“Where the hell is that bloody woman when I need her?!” he grunted those words in between his teeth while tigthening his grip on you, then his chest raised in a sharp move: “Jesus Christ, Polly!” He shouted once more, this time conveying all of his breath and blood towards his larynx, his abrasive voice shriveled and insisted on the last letters of his aunt’s name, until swift strides frantically hit the creaking steps, announcing Polly’s arrive. Her eyes struggled to remain open, her left palm was pressed against her forehead in a silly attempt to soothe the tremendous headache resulted from the previous night’s booze, she didn’t even have the time to put proper clothing on, since her mad niece was apparentely going berserk. “You, son of a bastard-” cursed words died underneath her tongue when she understood what was going on, soon her feet took on a life of their own, as they picked up their peace, leading her next to your body now held in Arthur’s arms.

“She’s freezing, Pol, she’s a fucking chunk of ice!” Hiccoughs shattered his worried cries, he almost whined, shifting his gaze from yours to Polly’s face over and over again, she, on the other hand, used the whole lenght of her right arm to clear in one smooth motion the closest desk. “Quick, lay her here” The deafening noise produced by those items colliding with the pavement barely grazed her hears, whilst she nodded to herself in the effort to impose some order on her obfuscated head, searching for a prompt solution that was late in coming, to the point that Finn beat it to the draw and stormed in, pointing a loaded gun to each corner of the room with fear in his cerulean irises. “What the hell’s going on?” That hysterical question echoed through the place, even though the young boy was finding it hard to get his breath, due to the crazy run he had made to reach the shop immediately after hearing that insane screaming. Nonetheless, in the space of an instant, he saw you as well and fell utterly silent, violent dismay caught him off guard, his wide eyes hesitated on your motionless figure; all of a sudden he didn’t know what to think, nor he could get the thought of your death out of his brains.

“My God, she’s as pale as death” Finn let his mind talk through that throttled murmur, regretting it right away, for silty goosebumps crawled on his skin under the pungent pressure of his brother’s instantaneous lethal glare. “Don’t talk shit, kid! Just fucking go and get Tom!”

The redhead didn’t waste any time, he somehow managed to recollect his guts and steadily disappeared behind the door previously left open. While struggling for air and internally searching for the right words to say in front of Thomas, Finn covered the whole distance between the office and the Garrison. Labored gasps coming out of his slightly parted lips in louder groans as he slammed the heavy pub’s doors open, using only his strongest shoulder; both Harry and Isaiah watched him run towards the back room where Tommy was going through the books, they did not dare spill a word and, after all, the boy didn’t even look in their direction, such was his concentration. Still, once he reached the place, all of a sudden his tongue felt dry, his well-organised speech faded away.

“Finn?! What’s wrong?” Tom’s icy eyes were now staring at him through his round glasses, the paper he’d been reading was instantly dropped, although his tone remained steady. “Y-you need to come, now! She... she’s-” A frown formed upon Tommy’s marble face at his little brother’s furious rambling, something wasn’t right, that was crystal clear, yet he wasn’t able to keep up with those hasty and stuttered sentences, so he approached him, putting both his hands on Finn’s shoulders in order to give him a little shove and maybe get some decent information. “Breathe, kid, and tell me what’s going on” That deep, adamant tone somehow sounded scarier than usual roaring inside the boy’s head, hence anxiety definitively won him over, gaining complete control of his mouth too. “It’s Y/n! I don’t fucking know, Tom, s-she looks dead!” All at once, time and space seemed to collapse around him, one single second dilated, covering the space of a whole lifetime beyond his vacant blue irises now fixed on an undetermined spot of the white wall behind Finn’s back. A gruesome, yet familiar sensation raided his petrified body, it felt like having a beast’s fangs gnawing his throat off, lacerating his flesh to the bone, he could sense every little laceration, his chest being plundered, till even his sable heart was eradicated and then mauled. A strangled wheeze barely lived through his plump lips, that being the only sound he uttered, then his black pupils shrinked and immediately twitched, nailing his sibiling’s gaze. Without receiving an order from his brain, his fists violently gripped Finn’s jacket at the height of his biceps, bringing him a span away from his gnashed teeth with a sharp pull. “Where?” He snarled liked a rabid dog, striking, if possible, geater terror in the young man who struggled to spit an almost inaudible “The shop”, before being shoved against the doorframe as Tommy dodged him and rushed out.

~ ~ ~

Polly held the bottle of her almond parfume she’d just put under your nostrils as if her life depended on it, Arthur’s rough palm, instead, began to pat your pasty cheek. “C’mon, love, wake up! Don’t play games, c’mon!” The dorsum of that same hand now poking the left side of your face, and then going back to the other, at incredible speed. You started to feel your face again when his nudges grew in intensity, until he was practically slapping you; soon a tremendous metallic taste invaded your mouth, or rather, you finally sensed it, whilst your eyelids battled against gravity to get back up. Arthur noticed it, he detected that brief flinch and it felt like being pampered with a fresh breeze after days of unsustainable heat. “Oh, fuck, I think I’m having a stroke” His tone held extreme urgency as he grasped for air, tugging with two fingers at his shirt collar; sure, he was great at knocking people off, maybe the best, yet, unfortunately, after that he’d never tried to bring somenody back with the living.

Blinding light rended your shrouded eyes, everything appeared blurred to the point that you couldn’t distinguish Polly’s features, although she was right beside you; nor your hearing was working, since the loud thud produced by the wooden door hitting the brickwall, and then your name barked by your fiancée’s coarse voice, sounded muffled to your ears. With a superhuman effort you succeeded in tilting your face towards the entrance, you recognized the navy-blue suit Thomas had chosen to wear earlier in the moring, still those nebulous images reached your brains with extreme delay, it was like watching vague movie scenes stream in slow motion. Your eyelids blinked as if a plumbeous burden was anchored to them, each flutter seemed to last a full minute, so that you perceived Tom coming to you in multiple shattered motions, while he kept calling you. The moment Tommy furiously jostled against Arthur, in order to take his place by the desk, you gradually went back to see and hear clearly, now being able to seize pure dread sailing those mesmerizing ocean eyes. “Thank goodness, y/n” His big palms envelopped both your cheeks, slightly squeezing them as he lift your neck, revealing all of his hidden delicacy that you, and you only, were able to bring out. “Y/n, love, talk to me” That order came out like a prayer, his voice betraying him once too often, his fingers shaking with worry, while one of his hands held your chin and the other went to caress your locks. Those loving strokes brushed against your skin, slowly infusing a little warmth into your gelid body, he touched you with the unbearable fear of watching you pass away in between his arms, having him struggle to breathe properly. “Do you hear me?” a single, salty drop fell from his long eyelashes and poured your lower lip, you heard his voice crack, distorting, until it became nothing more than a faint whine: “Please, love, talk to me” When his forehead pressed against yours, he finally gave in to the tears that had been held back with drastic ostination, shutting his eyes for a few instants he allowed brutal sobs to trounce his already aching chest. However, that moment of raw weakness was soon restrained, so that you returned to stare into his blue irises. Then, a small grin crossed your pale mouth and, even though your throat felt like gasoline on fire, preventing you from pronouncing a single syllable, you managed to guide your tiny hand to cup his sharp cheekbone. A burning kiss was pressed on its dorsum, before Tommy completely leant into your touch, giving you a look halfway between relief and disperation, he covered your hand with his own, holding it tight. “You’re okay, you’re safe” Those soft murmurs escaped his lips, probably aimed to placate the axphyziating terror still intoxicating his veins. Indeed, as hard as it was to conceive for everybody in that room, although you were the one just recovering from a sudden collapse, Tommy was now the one trembling like a fallen leaf, his arms rested on each side of your shape, sustaining his weight, as he barely stood on his own two feet. Slowly, you regained the necessary strenght to lift your bust, leading him to flutter in your direction, promptly enlacing his forearms around your waist in order to support your movements. “Hold onto me, darling, take it slow” His raspy voice was still unsteady and full of concern, he was holding his breath out of fear, gazing at you with wide eyes and tightening the grip on your hips as if to make sure that you wouldn’t vanish in his palms. You, on the other hand, gave him a rassuring smile, caressing his face mutliple times and placing a brief kiss on his mouth. “I’m fine, Tommy, I’m here with you” you eventually spoke close to his ear so to keep that conversation between the two of you “Let go, my love, I’m here” Your lips accidentally brushed against his forehead once he listened to you and abandoned himself to your tender embrace, gradually drowning into your soft chest while his arms clung on to your figure, his fingertips almost piercing the thick material of your dress as your cheek covered his head, totally annihilating the distance. “Don’t you ever do that to me again. Never again”.

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