#they were all the young dudes and juxtaposition | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

solarwonux · 1 year

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Business Proposal || knj (1/?)

pairing: namjoon x f!reader || ex friends to lovers!au friends to lovers!au

Genre: fluff, angst, smut, slow burn, fwb!au, non idol!au, unrequited love

Warnings: slow burn, angst, namjoon is pretty much not the nicest dude lol (will add more as it progresses), kinda sugar daddy au but not really. It will make sense I promise.

Rating: mature, 18+

w.c: 7.9k

Synopsis: Namjoon is living on borrowed time, and it’s time to cash in. His father is months from taking his last breathe and his life long dream is to watch his oldest son say “I do”

m. list || next

Taehyung’s house had a certain vibe to it.

A certain–je ne sais quoi–if you will.

The young artist had easels stacked against every wall. Some finished with his own creations and some waiting patiently for the young artists’ random bursts of inspiration. Everywhere you looked there was something in relation to his God given talent. Old paint brushes above the kitchen sink drying. Paint palettes disguising themselves as coasters. If you opened any drawer in his house you’d find all sorts of paints organized by brand or color scheme.

It was a mess. An organized mess, in which you could easily navigate yourself through. A huge juxtaposition to Namjoon’s almost soulless apartment. Yet, if you knew the artist long enough you’d know that his apartment screamed Kim Taehyung, renowned, self-made artist. A charming man like no other. Who loved throwing parties just as much as he loved getting lost in his art.

A party for every occasion. And tonight’s party was an innocent friendship anniversary between you Jimin and Taehyung. Fifteen years strong, thirty percent of fifty and just as important according to Taehyung himself.

The only reason Namjoon had known about it was through the Facebook invite he had received from the party crazed menace himself. The only other reason he even knew Taehyung in the first place was through his younger step brother–Jungkook. And the only reason Jungkook came to know Taehyung was through the girl he copied his history notes from all sophomore year of college–you.

Everything always came back to you, and your ability to always be there. It’s why Namjoon decided to put a tiny pause in his research on the Metaphysics and Epistemology in some of his favorite Korean Artists’ work. Not like he could focus on it anyway. His parents were starting to get impatient, breathing down his neck, wondering when he would finally leave his life as a very eligible bachelor and settle down.

It’s not like he didn’t try to find someone. The problem was that he did. He tried everything. Blind dates, dating apps, even went out to the club a few times foolishly thinking he’d find his next wife. Everything ended in a failure which was why he was here, looking for you, and a promise made long ago. One he had agreed to.

Truthfully he had forgotten all about it until recently when he was laying down on his bed, surrounded by his navy sheets, wide awake because he had drank too much coffee. Five cups, the same amount the two of you had consumed that afternoon in the old coffee shop located just in between his apartment and your parents house.

As if on autopilot his body jolted awake again, eyes shooting wide as the memory came flooding in.

“If we aren’t married in ten years time, let’s just marry each other.” You suggested; like it was the greatest idea ever. Your hands were shaking from all the caffeine you had consumed and your eyes were red rimmed and wide from all the crying you had done. It matched his own as well.

A part of him hates that he had agreed to it, but could you blame him? He was distraught over the fact that his girlfriend of four years had blindsided him with the whole “It’s not you, it’s me,” speech; and a nice chocolate cake to soften the blow. That did anything but that, and instead he had cried until he had to meet up with you for your weekly tutoring session.

It’s where he noticed your red rimmed eyes and the watery snot coming down your nose. He didn’t ask about it, just offered you a piece of his break up cake and a listening ear when you were ready. It wasn’t until the third college algebra problem he had you doing that you broke down, and told him everything. From the moment you laid eyes on your ex. To the moment you realized you loved him and to the final heartbreaking seconds when you found him cheating on you with his calculus professor.

It was a wild revelation, one that had you spewing things out of disparity. Including the cliche marriage pact.

In truth, Namjoon wouldn’t have given it a second thought when he finally remembered that afternoon. He would’ve pushed it to the back of his head like he had for years and tried a different dating app. But just like that afternoon, he was desperate. This time for a different reason.

He was running out of time, especially after the last conversation he had with his father. His future and livelihood were on the line. Including the large sum of money and the prestigious job at his Alma Mater as the head Philosophy professor.

Now, sitting on Taehyung’s paint splattered leather couch. He hopes you remember. It’s been years since he’s last seen you. You still look the same, pretty enough to be passable but plain. There’s nothing exciting about you. Even now that he’s watching you from across the room in a short lavender dress, with white leather knee high boots. Your hair is shorter, up to your shoulders and a different color from your natural one. Your arms and chest glitter due to the body glitter you had lathered on.

Even though you sparkle underneath Taehyung’s dim lights. To Namjoon you’re still dull, lacking excitement compared to all the women he’s met in his life. Sure, he sounds like an asshole but he couldn’t deny the truth. It’s one of the reasons why he never found you attractive and also because you were Jungkook’s best friend; and Namjoon knows that there’s a rule out there which states that a brother’s best friend is strictly off limits.

He should’ve felt at least a little bit bad about your confession to him all those years ago. For a while he couldn’t get the heartbroken look on your face out of his head when he told you he didn’t feel the same. Only to be quickly replaced by anger for all the accusations you so wrongly threw at him.

Namjoon didn’t lead you on. You had read too much into things. He was nice to you because he saw you as a little sister. Not a potential partner.

Pretty ironic because now he’s hoping the joking pact made between the two of you was serious. Otherwise, accepting Taehyung’s invitation would’ve been useless.

He didn’t necessarily need a wife. Only a placeholder for a wife until further notice. To buy him enough time and get his parents off his back. He’s so desperate that he’s considering pulling out all the stops. Money, a house, and the job of your dreams.

Anything to get you to agree.

Now, all he needs to do is hope for the best, while simultaneously expecting the worst. From the small snippets of stories he hears Jungkook tell his mom. You’re still a little similar to what he remembers. Just a tiny bit more confident and outgoing. That much he could’ve figured out on his own, especially now that he’s been studying you from across the room. It should be easy enough to convince you; but of course that’s only if Namjoon lived in a perfect world.

Unfortunately he doesn’t and time is ticking and your friend–Jimin–hasn’t left your side all night. You’re on your third drink, your eyes are slightly dropping with intoxication. And with the way you keep laughing at whatever the other man keeps whispering in your ear, he assumes you’re well on your way to pure drunkeness. It makes the hold he has on his glass tighten. With A fiery hot spark coursing through his body the more you cling onto Jimin.

Namjoon isn’t aware of your relationship status. Selfishly he hopes you’re single so things run more smoothly. And seeing you make doe eyes at someone else in front of him makes him a little bit angry.

Only because he wants to avoid the drama at all costs. He values the peaceful quiet, and to be honest he doesn’t have the patience to deal with someone else’s jealousy. Fighting over women was so high school and he has better things to do than that. But he’s also stubborn and once his mind is set on something he will knock down anyone in the way.

He’s confident that by the end of the night–that’s if he gets you alone–he will leave Taehyung’s cliche artists looking humble abode with you as his fiance.

Well…Fake fiance.

The moment Namjoon stood up to use the bathroom he knew he had made a mistake. Not only was his spot on the couch taken by one of Taehyung’s artist friend; but he had broken the seal and you and that Jimin guy were nowhere to be found.

This was the third time he had to use the bathroom in the past thirty minutes. He hopes his bladder is empty enough to last him an hour or so. But Namjoon has been in this game for far too long and he knows that once the seal was broken there was no going back.

“Took you long enough.”

Namjoon’s eyes meet yours just as he’s a foot out of Taehyung’s guest bathroom. The hand he had hovering above the light switch falls down to his side. A knowing smirk makes its way onto your lips, while you push yourself off the far wall.

He’s at a loss for words because sure he’s been waiting to get you alone all night. Yet, now that he has, you’ve caught him completely off guard. What’s worse is that you’ve caught him off guard in the most vulnerable place known to mankind.

The bathroom.

“Are you going to just stand there or are you going to move?” The indifference lingering in your voice brings him back down to the moment at hand. He blinks a few times to regain his focus and soon enough he’s looking down at you.

You’re standing inches away from him. Close enough to smell your perfume. A scent he remembers so clearly, yet it’s slightly different because it has mingled with another one. A more masculine one. He assumes he knows who the culprit of such intrusion is, a certain individual with a crescent laugh and pillowy lips; but he chooses not to focus on that. Right now he has a chance. A gateway to a forbidden conversation and his only opportunity to just get it over with.

Namjoon mumbles a short apology while stepping to the side giving you enough room to walk in, barely grazing each other. He doesn’t get a chance to actually think his actions through before his body is responding on autopilot. Next thing he knows he’s stepping in behind you, closing the door behind him and locking it.

Your turn around, eyes full of surprise. Namjoon needs fight the smirk threatening to break across his face. You’re the one caught off guard now, in the bathroom and it gives him some sort of twisted sense of satisfaction.

Ha.

“If you weren’t done using the bathroom you could’ve just s–.”

“We need to talk.” He brushes you off, waving a hand around almost as if he were pushing your words out of the way to make room for his.

You sigh, rolling your eyes in annoyance. If it wasn’t for the few drinks you’ve already had and the taxing conversation you just finished having with Jimin about the state of your relationship–If you could even call it that. You would've fought against Namjoon. Then again he was the least of your worries, you assume he wants to talk about your past, ask how you’ve been. All that jazz. So, why not play into it?

Right?

“Fine, I mean there are other places in which we can talk. Tae’s house is pretty big.” You shrug, taking a seat on the closed toilet seat, crossing your arms in front of you. Waiting for him to start reminiscing about your past.

When he doesn’t, you take matters into your own hands. “So, how have you b–”

“I don’t have time for that.” Namjoon interrupts and you have to force all of the anger currently bubbling up inside of you, down. “I have a proposal for you.” He finishes, walking closer and leaning his right hip against the bathroom counter.

You squint your eyes suspiciously while looking up at him. They always say curiosity killed the cat and maybe that’s what it will do to you in the end but you urge him to continue. Slightly interested in what he has to say.

“We need to get married.” He says softly like it literally pains him to be saying those exact words out loud. Suddenly while the words are vanishing into the air between the two of you, the bathroom starts to feel hollow. He continues, “We made a pact that if we weren’t married by thirty, we’d just marry each other. You’re almost thirty and I have been thirty for a while, so, let’s just do it…wait, I mean we don’t actually have to go through with it just pretend for a while, just long enough to convince my parents an–”

Namjoon stops his not so smooth ramble. Confused is an understatement. He’s downright baffled watching you double over in laughter. A sound that used to bring a bright smile to his face. Now, as it bounces off the four walls of Taehyung’s tiny guest bathroom he can’t help but cringe.

“You c-can’t be s-serious,” You say, hand against your chest trying to calm yourself down. When you do, a snarky smirk threatens to appear on your face.

With a tilt of your head you say “How much have you had to drink?”

Namjoon scoffs. Sure he’s had a bit to drink but not enough to be drunk. Tipsy maybe, but not drunk. “Three whiskeys,” he replies, rolling his eyes.

You tongue your cheek nodding your head. “Explains why you’re out here saying utter bullshit.”

To keep himself from bursting out in anger he grips the counter with most of his strength. “I’m not drunk. I never get drunk off whiskey.”

You chuckle, giving him a side glance. “Sure you don’t. All those times you snuck into my room at three in the morning because you had too much whiskey were because you weren’t drunk.” The sarcasm laced in your voice annoys him the most.

Okay there were times in which he would have too much to drink and always ended up crashing at your place. Sneaking out before your parents woke up, but those were special circumstances. His taxi app only had your address saved for when he had to call one for you whenever you and Jungkook drank at his place. It was too much of a hassle to save his own, especially because the only time he remembered to save it was when he was drunk.

Defeated, he replies, “Whatever that’s not important, I’m serious when I say that we need to get married.” He hopes he sounds as convincing as he perceives. Though, the look on your face says otherwise. You’re confused and probably a little more upset than he can tell.

A dry laugh escapes you and you stand up shaking your head. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re planning but you’re a lot smarter than this. Considering the way we parted ways and haven’t talked in years because of it, what makes you think I would agree to this?” You stand in front of him, almost sizing him up, burning your gaze into his.

“Just hear me out okay.” He puts his hands out, making space between the two of you. You raise your eyebrows in amusement and wait for him to continue. “My parents are breathing down my neck asking me when I’ll finally settle, in which I have no desire to do so anytime soon. But my dad’s health is getting worse and he says that if I don’t get married he will make sure I’m left jobless and out of the will.” He finishes, breathing out an exasperated sigh. He feels so out of breath, almost like he just finished running a marathon; but maybe that’s just because he’s awkwardly close to you.

There’s a slight pause before you’re bursting out laughing again, holding onto your stomach as you double over. Namjoon can feel the annoyance he had done so well at keeping down, threatening to leave him disguised in fiery hot words he’s kept hidden for a long time. He always hated having serious conversations with you. You never took shit seriously, it's one of the reasons why he would never see you as someone he’d be interested in romantically. More so because you’re so dramatic in every sense of the word and he has no idea how he put up with it for so long.

“Are you done?” He takes his hands out of his pockets running them multiple times through his hair before crossing his arms in front of him.

You wipe a fake tear away from the corner of your eye and straighten up. “Yeah, I’m done and the answer is no.” You roll your eyes turning to face the door. This was the icing of the cake. Not only was he adding to the long list of problems you already had, but he’s making your night worse than it already was.

Jimin and you had been secretly–not so secretly–seeing each other for a while now, in ways two childhood friends should never be seeing each other. Spending nights tangled up in each other under pale ivory sheets, and days acting like nothing was wrong. When in reality everything was wrong. It was inevitable that someone was going to start seeing the other as more than a friend. The only problem was that you had always assumed it’d be you and not him. That he’d finally be the one to break through the cold ice caging your heart in when Namjoon inexplicably broke it.

In which the latter was now playing some cruel joke on you. All you wanted to do was to go home. Escape underneath your warm sheets, and avoid the world as much as you were allowed too. Even if Jungkook had let you know ahead of time that his darling step brother was going to make an appearance. It had not prepared you for this.

Namjoon’s eyes go wide and he won’t lie, he's panicking now. “But we promised.”

“Yes Namjoon, we did. But we were young, stupid and heartbroken.” You cross your arms staring directly into his eyes. “Maybe if we were still friends my answer would be different, but we aren’t. So, my answer is no.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Yours Namjoon. You broke every promise you made me and you expect me to just waltz back into your arms and share a life with you?” You say ludicrously.

Namjoon pinches the bridge of his nose, letting out a frustrated sigh, “Look, let's set aside our differences–”

You let out a humorless laugh, cutting him off. “You’re a smart man Namjoon, but this is literally the dumbest thing I have ever heard you say.”

Namjoon has to fight every fiber in his being to not stomp his foot on the ground like a child. He’s now realizing you aren’t the same person that he used to call best friend. You’re even more stubborn than before and kind of a bitch.

“What if I can convince you?”

“How? Are you going to take me out on a date?” You exclaim, standing up and walking towards him. “The answer is no, I’m the wine and dine type, and I’ve heard that you’re not.” You reach your hand past his body and take hold of the doorknob. You’re only able to unlock it because as soon as you try to open it, Namjoon is leaning his entire body against the door. Arms splayed out like a cactus blocking every possible way out.

“A job, I can offer you a job.” He rushes out through labored breaths, like this entire situation is causing him to lose the ability to breathe. Maybe it is. Maybe he’s forgotten how impossible you could be. Or maybe he hates the way you’re looking at him like he’s now worth your time.

The boredom on your face is replaced with intrigue. Like he’s said the magic words and now has you under his spell. It disgusts him because ever since he could remember people have only flocked to him out of personal gain. You used to be someone who made sure he was more than just his brains, looks and money. Yet, you’re standing in front of him ready to listen because now you can take from him too.

“My department is looking for a new rhetoric professor, the job is yours if you agree to this.” He finishes, watching your face light up with joy to then shut down immediately as soon as you realize the undisclosed requirement for the job.

You scoff, shaking your head. It’s tempting, it’s your dream job. As much as you want to agree. You know that working in the same vicinity as him will do more harm than good. Plus nepotism isn’t always a good look.

“No,” You say firmly pushing your side body into his to scoot him out of the way. It’s unsuccessful, he’s as still as a stone pillar and you hate that you can tell how firm he’s gotten over the years. Jungkook often told you about his gym sessions with Namjoon every other day. Now, you see that it’s not just Jungkook who’s been benefiting from them.

“I’ll pay off half of your student loans along with the job, and you can have one of the house's dad owns” He tries, sounding more hopeful than you have ever heard him sound.

Again, it’s tempting but again that would make you tied to him longer than you would like. So, this time you push against him with all the strength you can muster making him stumble as your answer. You open the door slightly and squeeze yourself out, leaving him hanging.

Namjoon is in the air and he panics, he rushes out behind you matching your sped up steps. He grabs your hand pulling you into Taehyung’s bedroom, closing the door behind him and blocking it with his body.

“God, you are so fucking annoying Namjoon. I said no, why can’t you understand that?” You whisper yell, running a hand through your hair.

“Because I need you.” He says matching your tone, sighing and relaxing against the door. “I’m supposed to have brunch with my parents on Sunday, please just think about it.” He begs, clasping his hands in front of him.

It’s the first time you see him like this, and it’s selfish of you to admit that it feels good. His entire future relies on you and only you. Maybe you will give in, but seeing him suffer a little longer feels to good, especially when you know you’re his last option.

“If you don’t show up, I’ll drop it but the job is still yours, your essay and resume were impressive.” He finishes and exits the bedroom, leaving you behind with one more thing to add to your ongoing list.

One thing is for sure.

You’re in a big mess.

Sleep didn’t come to you all night. The minute you left Namjoon behind in Taehyung’s bedroom you had left without saying goodbye to anyone. Jungkook had followed you out and walked you home without uttering a single word the entire time. Instead, he tried his best to match your heated steps. He even stayed over, taking his rightful spot on your living room couch.

He made you coffee in the morning and a small breakfast before walking to the flower shop together for your morning shifts. The silence between the two of you lasted almost an hour until he finally broke and the questions came flooding out.

You had to give him credit he was persistent. He kept going on about it, annoying both you and Yoongi. If it wasn’t for the latter threatening both of your jobs you would’ve taken the events that took place the night before to the grave.

“I think you should do it.” The flower shop owner says, shrugging his shoulders.

“No, that’s stupid, why would she want to deal with that bullshit?” Jungkook exclaims. Yoongi brushes him off, rolling his eyes. Both of them have been arguing in front of you like you didn’t exist, while you finished the last order of flower bouquets for the night. An order placed for Yoongi but instead he was sitting on the counter, reading a GQ magazine while Jungkook paced back and forth with his apron hanging from his arm.

“Well she’s single and getting a good deal out of it so why not?” He shrugs, flipping to a new page, rubbing his chin.

“She has Jimin, things are strange now but they’ll figure it out.” Jungkook is almost hopeful. Though, he was protective of you and had a few choice words to share after he caught you and Jimin together. He still preferred him over his arrogant step brother. Especially when it came to you. Jungkook had witnessed first hand what he had done to you.

“From what I’ve heard, she doesn’t have Jimin.”

You sigh, cutting the end of a rose before placing it with the rest of the flowers. “I am still here you know, does my opinion not matter?” You press your palms into the marble counter. They had been going back and forth for nearly an hour like the issue was theirs. Shutting you down whenever you wanted to get your word in and you were fed up. You had nearly ten hours to decide whether to go to Sunday brunch or not.

Even if you didn’t end up going, Namjoon had texted you that he needed to know your decision on the job by tomorrow morning. So, you were currently battling two problems at once, in which you haven’t heard any helpful advice from your best friend or coworker.

“I mean of course it does, but as much as I love him he’s an asshole who only cares about money Bunny.” Jungkook pouts, flinging his apron onto the counter and leaning against it. Yoongi sighs and closes the magazine, setting it to the side.

“Yes Kook but this is my dream job. If I have to deal with him to get to where I want to be then I will.” You sigh, running a hand through your hair, giving up on the bouquet and shoving the materials in Yoongi’s direction. Indirectly telling him it was his turn now.

Yoongi hops off the counter and walks behind you. “She’s right, our little genius deserves to do bigger and better things with that brain of hers. And I agree with her but also if he’s willing to be your sugar daddy why not?” He shrugs, grabbing the clippers and a daisy, expertly cutting the end of the stem off.

You roll your eyes, “first of all he will not be my sugar daddy and second of all I haven’t agreed to that part of the deal, just maybe the job.” You shrug, untying your apron and placing it on the coat rack behind you.

“But you want to agree to it.” Yoongi chuckles before Jungkook can get a word in. Sometimes you hate how well Yoongi can understand you in all aspects of your life. He’s only been in it for a few years and he’s able to tell you exactly what you’re thinking and articulates it way better than you. In all honesty it scares you a bit.

“Am I crazy for considering it?”

“Yes,”

“No,”

They say at the same time making you groan in frustration. The shop had closed and here the three of you were having an extensive conversation about your unfortunate personal life. When all you wanted to do was go home and eat a nice bowl of cereal on your bed.

Jungkook sends a glare in Yoongi’s direction, grabbing hold of your shoulders gently. “You know I love you and I will support you in anything you do, but this is a little crazy. And before you ask me if I trust you the answer is yes I do. But I don’t trust him. I don’t trust him to keep his distance like I know you will. He will lead you on again and then we'll be back to square one.” He squeezes your shoulders before bringing his hands down to his sides.

“Jungkook she’s not dumb, I’m sure whatever she decides to do it’s because she knows what she’s getting into.” Yoongi adds on, tying up the bouquet before handing it off to you. “For your fake mother in law.” He winks.

“What?” You say taking it from his hands.

“Namjoon requested it this morning, I just put it off because I don’t like him.” He shrugs, bringing a slight smile to your face. The flower shop might as well be named the ‘Anti Namjoon Club’ instead of ‘Euphoria’ for the amount of times Jungkook ranted about his step brother to the two of you at all hours of the day.

It's unfortunate that part of you made a decision the minute you left Namjoon alone in Taehyung’s bedroom. And it’s unfortunate that you only truly considered their opinions to justify your already made decision.

Jungkook gives you a slight smile before walking past you, shoulders dropping in defeat because he knows you’ve decided. “You better be ready by the time I come pick you up. Mom takes Sunday brunch a little too seriously so if we are a minute late she will have my head on a stake.”

Is the last thing Jungkook says before disappearing behind the curtain towards the back. You turn to Yoongi, tilting your head to the side pouting lightly.

“Don’t look at me like that, you big baby. You’re a big girl you know what you’re getting into but because Jungkook can’t completely hate his brother. If he does anything to hurt you I’ll hate him for the two of you.” He sends you a wink, clicking his tongue before turning to the cash register.

You whine, stomping your foot on the ground before mumbling “My life sucks,” which only makes Yoongi laugh.

“At some point everyones does.”

You’re nervous.

You haven’t been this nervous since you decided to intern at a preschool right after graduation.

Kids are intimidating and although Jungkook’s parents aren’t, the situation at hand feels like it. Especially when they think you’re attending Sunday brunch because Jungkook finally managed to convince you.

Not because you’re about to conspire against them for purely selfish reasons.

Despite their wealth and social status, Mr. Kim and Mrs. Jeon are the kindest people you’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. They always went out of their way to make you feel like you’re part of the family. It got to the point that you would split holidays with them and your family, as they always made it a point to get you something for Christmas, your birthday or Lunar New Year.

So, it feels wrong to be helping out Mrs. Jeon and the family maid—Lia in the kitchen. It feels wrong to be laughing at the petty arguments Jungkook is having with his father in the living room. It feels wrong to have been welcomed with such bright smiles and tight hugs, because if it weren’t for Namjoon (who hasn’t arrived and is desperately blowing up your phone) you wouldn’t have been here at all.

“How many times have I told you guys to fix the doorbell?” Namjoon’s voice booms in through the living room. “I’ve been knocking for a solid five minutes.” He finishes accompanying his statement with a soft laugh. You stop chopping the carrot Lia had assigned to you, it will have to wait. You have approximately two seconds to either hide or melt into a puddle of nerves.

Mrs. Jeon squeals like a tiny school girl, gently placing the whisk she had been using to stir the pancake batter to the side. She wipes her hands against her dirty custom maid YSL apron and walks to the entrance of the kitchen.

In truth you’re frozen, knife still in your hand, shaking a little bit. It’s definitely the nerves. You should’ve planned it out a bit more. You shouldn’t have ignored the man of the hour because you were feeling a little–very–petty. He didn’t know you were here and you certainly weren’t ready for his reaction.

“Namu, we thought you weren’t coming.” You hear Mrs. Jeon say followed up by a grunt. You supposed he has been reeled into one of her bone crushing hugs. They were deadly but warm and one of your favorite things about the woman.

“I’m sorry, I meant to reply to the e-vite on Facebook but I got busy.” He replies. “I didn’t know dad knew how to do those by the way.”

“He watched a Youtube video.” Jungkook replies with a chuckle. “I was there.” He adds.

“I didn’t know you were coming either, Kook.” Namjoon says, and you can almost hear the eyebrow raise of pure confusion. If he’s as smart as he claims to be he should know why he is here. Use his highly acclaimed critical thinking skills, but he doesn’t.

Not until a couple minutes later when he walks in through the kitchen with his mother in arm, wearing possibly the most attractive outfit you have seen him in. A black skin tight turtleneck with black slacks. Coincidentally it matches your own outfit–a light white turtleneck under a black dress. It adds to the growing annoyance you feel bubbling inside of you. Even if you’ve been frozen in anticipation. You still feel it.

The second his icy stare meets yours you feel like you’re about to turn into an actual icicle. He’s surprised, that much you can tell with the way he’s stopped walking. He’s faltering. Though, just in typical Namjoon fashion he regains his composure smoothly and approaches you. Stopping right in front of you and leaning his forearms against the marble counter.

“Now I see why you haven’t been able to answer me.” He grabs one of the carrot sticks that you’ve managed to cut into perfectly, and bites into it, sending you a cheeky wink. You feel your breath catch itself in the back of your throat because why was that kind of hot. He doesn’t let you respond before he’s pushing himself away and rounding the corner. He walks behind you, his body purposely brushing against yours making you grip the knife handle.

You know he’s doing this on purpose and you want to scream at him, but that would somehow be inappropriate. Plus, he hates being confronted with the truth. You know that very well. Hence why the two of you haven’t spoken in years, because you told him the truth about his actions towards you and he hated every second of it, calling you dramatic and unworthy of romance.

Well, he didn’t necessarily say those words exactly, but they were implied.

“Sweetie, we need the carrots.” Lia’s voice brings you back down to Earth. She had just finished scolding the older menace for trying to take one of the fried tofu cubes.

You shake your head, trying your hardest to remove the whole interaction with what you suppose is now your fake fiance–from your head. You grab another full carrot. “Sorry Ms. Lia, I am almost done.”

“Aish, how many times do I have to tell you that Lia is just fine.” The maid shakes her head, turning down the heat.

Mrs. Jeon and Namjoon laugh. You smile chopping into the peeled carrot carefully.

“Don’t worry my Lia, I have been trying to get her to call me mom for years.” The older woman says, with a shroud of sympathy laced in the back of her voice.

Namjoon takes this as his cue to leave as he makes his way towards the kitchen entrance. Before he fully exits he turns around, locking eyes with you. “Don’t worry mom, I'm sure she will do so soon.” He sends you another wink and leaves.

You want to scream.

The breakfast menu for The Kims and Jeons signature Sunday Brunch is always quite special and incoherent.

Today’s menu consists of Americanos, Mimosas, Fried Tofu–a staple–Breakfast Burritos, Cinnamon Carrot Pancakes, and a plate of fruit. So far, everything has been going smoothly, except for the fact that you and Namjoon are in charge of setting the table.

“I thought you weren’t going to come.” Namjoon breaks the ice first, placing the final chopsticks on top of a pastel pink napkin. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist me.” He cockily adds standing up straight and crossing his arms in front of his chest. Somehow making his very toned pecs pop out more than they already did in the stupid skin tight shirt.

You roll your eyes, placing down the plate of pancakes in the middle. “Don’t flatter yourself, I’m only agreeing because of the job and money.” You dust your hands when you finish and put your hands on your hips.

He squints his eyes in suspicion before nodding his head. “Sure, you are. Let’s see how long you can go without throwing yourself at me.” He voices. You truly should be considered God’s strongest warrior because how have you not killed the man in front of you yet.

Sure, that’s something that would’ve been a given back then. Now, you’re not so sure. You can barely stand being in the same room as him before wanting to jam a knife in between his perfect chest. You’re not going to lie, he is still as good looking as he was back then, maybe even more, but his shitty attitude ruins it. You also have never been the type of girl to throw herself at a man or seek their validation. Even if once upon a time that’s something you wanted from Namjoon. It’s not something you want now.

“You’re so fucking annoying. I do pray for the woman you do end up marrying.” You say lowly, looking around the perfectly set table. Though, Mrs. Jeon and Lia only told the two of you to do the silverware and plates. Your stubborn attitudes insisted otherwise and ended up doing the whole thing while they took a small break in the living room.

Namjoon snaps his fingers and closes the distance between the two of you. “Speaking of marriage, we have to tell them today.” He says low enough for only you to hear and not raise any suspicions to the incoming crowd making their way outside.

Your eyes blow up as you look up at him, “what? Namjoon no, I’m not ready. I mean we haven’t actually discussed everything sober and we barely talked about it when we were drunk.” You say alarmed, anxiety crashes through you in a strong wave. You start to panic as everyone starts to take their seats.

“I got it,” he nods, pulling out the chair and gesturing for you to sit. Jungkook takes the seat in front of you, raising his eyebrows. You know he’s silently asking if you’re okay. In which you aren’t but you can’t voice it now that everyone has found their perspective positions. You shake your head as discreetly as possible and sit down, Namjoon next to you plastering his best fake smile.

He would’ve been a damn good actor with the facade he’s quickly able to put on.

Maybe that’s what he should’ve done instead of becoming a professor.

It’s silent for a while, the only thing being heard is the clanking of utensils against the ceramic plates. That is until Mr. Kim clears his throat and Namjoon basically turns into a stone pillar next to you. Freezing in the middle of cutting into his cinnamon carrot pancakes–which were surprisingly delicious.

“I didn’t want to bring it up, especially since we have a guest joining us today.” He smiles over at you, and you offer him a grin. “I got news from the doctor yesterday and he wants me to start chemo next week.” He falters a bit before setting down his utensils and whipping his mouth with the table cloth on his lap. “I told him it was useless to just let me live my last few months or however long I have left in peace, but your mom and I argued about it and we came to a compromise.” He nods, placing a delicate hand on top of his wife’s, looking over at her with matching teary eyes.

You feel like you’re intruding and you likely are, but this revelation only makes the guilt grow. “I will do it and if the cancer shrinks then so be it, but if it doesn’t then there’s nothing I can do but live in peace.” He grins, bringing her palm up to his lips and kissing it gently, before turning to face his son.

“I don’t mean to pressure you son, I know it's difficult finding the one, but can you at least try.” He all but whispers the last part. Namjoon shrinks. You’ve never seen him so quiet in your life. Even when the two of you got along, he always had something to say. He hated pockets of silence because it always made him think. Namjoon hates thinking, unless it's about philosophy. He always said it was because his most inner thoughts always managed to break the surface whenever there was silence.

He’s looking down at his lap and you notice the way he clenches his fists before lifting his head up. “I understand.” He starts looking over at you for a second and turns his attention to his step brother and parents. “I’ve been trying to find the perfect moment to tell you both this.” He takes hold of your hand underneath the table, slipping something onto the palm of your hand and pulling away.

You take a second to look down, almost choking on your spit when you see the emerald ring staring back at you. It’s starting to feel real and Namjoon hasn’t even said anything yet. But his mothers wedding ring is staring up at you, and suddenly you’re hit with the realization of what is about to conspire.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

The panic builds up and you feel like you’re about to throw up. Everything is closing in on you and it only gets worse when he says the next few words. “I’m engaged, I’m getting married.”

The gasps are heard all around the outside patio. Except for Jungkook who has been quiet the entire time. Sometimes living in Namjoon’s shadow had its perks. He could get tattoos, grow out his hair, ride a motorcycle, and study whatever the fuck he wanted, because nobody expected anything from him.

He’s thankful and a little bit angry that he didn’t try hard enough to convince you to not fake a marriage with his step brother, but he knows better and stays quiet even though he’s dying to expose the scam to his parents. To show them that their perfect son was far from that and had way more demons hidden away than he let on.

“You’re what?” Mrs. Jeon says, the tears she tried so hard to keep hidden start to spill out. You suppose it’s a mixture of happiness and sadness. “Why isn’t she here, Namu, why didn’t you bring her over?” She’s about to stand up, when you lift your hand, this time adorning the ring on your finger.

You swallow, “It’s me.” You take a deep breath looking into his parents' very shocked faces. “I’m sorry I didn’t want him to tell you so soon, but you know how little patience he has.” You finish, grinning softly letting your hand fall down to your lap.

Mrs. Jeon lets out a sob before she stands up quickly, gesturing for the two of you to stand too. “Congratulations my loves, I’m so happy for the two of you.” She stops in front of you bringing you in into a bone crushing hug, making you laugh as you hug her back. “I knew the two of you were going to one day end up together, Kookie and your dad always told me I was crazy, but look who was right all along.” She says pulling back, placing a kiss on both of your cheeks and turns to face the two men still sitting down. “A mothers intuition is never wrong.” She practically scolds before moving back to her seat.

Namjoon and you stand there awkwardly for a second before sitting back down. Mr. Kim clears his throat again, patting his chest a little. Almost as if he was warming up his voice to speak. “I’m sorry, I’m just shocked.” He says before breaking out into a dimpled smile–the thing that made you fall for his son all those years ago. They were both a carbon copy of each other. With the expectation that his father was a lot warmer.

“Congratulations, wow, I’m so happy you guys are truly perfect for one another.”

“Really, I don’t see it.” Jungkook finally chimes in ruining the moment, earning a pinch to the arm from his mother. He yelps out in pain dramatically cradling his arm and pouting. “It’s the truth, they’re weird together.”

“And you’re weird for coming over every wednesday so I can do your laundry.” His mother retorts, deepening his frown. “Now, apologize.”

Jungkook squints his eyes in annoyance at his mother. He’s biting his tongue that much you can tell with the way he clenches his jaw. Though, whatever he was going to say never comes because he turns to face the two of you and puts on his best fake and convincing smile.

“Congratulations guys, even though I knew it still feels like such a surprise.” He tilts his head to the side, sending a knowing look towards his brother. “I can’t wait for the ceremony, I hope it’s soon. I really want to be the flower girl.” He finishes.

You giggle, flinching slightly when you feel Namjoon’s hand rest over yours. “That’s up to Bunny here.” He nods over to you. “But thank you guys, we’re very happy since we’ve reconnected. And you’re right mom, she is the girl for me.” He adds, and it only makes it harder. His lie makes it harder to keep your distance, but you can also play the game he is setting up, and this time you won’t lose.

“He’s the perfect guy for me.” You say in your most in love voice before leaning over and placing a delicate kiss on his cheek, making his mother squeal at the gesture. You smirk as his cheeks get a little hotter before placing your head on top of his shoulder. “We’re so happy, thank you so much guys.” You add. His father’s smile widens and nods, picking up his fork and knife and digs into his pancake.

“I’m proud of you son. You found yourself a keeper.”

“Yeah, I did.” He agrees through clenched teeth. You laugh sitting up in your seat, sending him a playful wink, making him freeze.

Maybe you too should’ve been an actress in another life. You’re putting up quite an impressive show if you do say so yourself.

a/n: thank you so much for reading, please let me know your thoughts. If you’re interested in being added to the tallest lmk.

Again, I’m not sure how often I will upload BUT I will try my hardest to upload more often.

Thank you again!

#kdiarynet #btshoneyhive #bts imagines #bts fanfiction #bts x reader #bts fic #bts angst #bts fluff #bts fanfic #bts namjoon #namjoon fanfiction #namjoon x reader #namjoon imagines #namjoon scenarios #namjoon angst #namjoon fluff

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graymarketblackdiamond · 9 months

Text

a very quick doodle of my main charr, Taistel the Unforgiving, which got me thinking about her and her frozen heart, and how delighted i was to discover the frost legion for the first time

some ramblings underway (its a bit long. whoops!)...

taistel was the second character i ever made on gw2, and was my gateway into the charr themselves. she's a blood legion order of whispers combo, so she's a bloodthirsty warrior with the open nature of a stuck glue jar. i didn't dabble with the idea of her being ice themed until way later, but it seemed to fit her pretty well. the idea of her being like ice, cold and frigid and certainly deadly when you aren't careful around it. the cold is often described as fierce, and blizzards are unruly and unforgiving (much like her name!). it all tied in so well with her.

(an old image. i loved taking pictures of her in frostgorge)

the juxtaposition of her being a guardian sat very well in my head. guardians of course have means to protect, but she isn't protecting others by any means. her selfish, guarded and frankly quite nasty nature shined through all these little tidbits of storytelling that really just told themselves as i played the game. something clearly happened to her that really was so unforgiving that it twisted her deeply, her mentality driven to this state of being constantly on the attack (or in this case, on the defense. haha).

then HoT dropped, and i classed her into a DH, which i still can't quite let go of (im sure firebrand is better in some respects, but boy do i love smacking buttons and doing instant damage)

dragonhunter has a bit of a ring to it. in her story i had so far, she was friends with my main commander and his funny rat-tag group of friends in their in-canon guild known as Vagabond's Trek. now my commander is a sylvari dude, chipper guy who's a bit goofy. Taistel herself isn't easy to win over, but when faced with an idiot who dives into danger head first and comes back with trauma and a funny quip to go with it, it's hard not to want to see him a little safe. my hardened characters can have a soft spot as a treat.

so when the threat of mordremoth comes about... becoming a dragonhunter feels like a direct threat toward the threat itself. its like a command, a promise, a sworn seal of vengeance for corrupting (or, attemtping to corrupt) a friend. ice burns arent common, i dont think, but boy would she burn the jungle to its knees if it came to it. kill the pest and torch its house, so what if the pest is a dragon?

PoF brought its own issues and problems, of course, but man. the icebrood saga. mordremoth and kralk were easy to mash like mincemeat

but jormag would have been a real problem for her.

(i wish i had this permanent infusion in the game ): its so cool)

whipsers and promises of power and glory must be like gold candy for charr. whispers of protection for people you care for would have been exactly what taistel would have wanted to hear. nevermind that her friend had already nearly fallen to corruption, this was different, you see. for her whole life she knew that slithers of ice could cut the skin and make you bleed out, chunks of ice could bludgeon you and leave you concussed...

but jormag's ice could fortify and could protect. what a wonderful change of pace that would be, to go from this ferocious, deadly weapon to the protector she always could have been. an actual, true guardian, one that could live up to the name of the class she picked up as a young cub. well, it would have been perfect! it would have been the perfect path for her to follow. her vision of ideal couldn't have been colder, couldn't have been more perfect. the dragons claws were at her shoulders...

but of course, we all know how that eventually turns out for the other charr, like the unfortunate ryland. its a good job she had people to fall back on when it all fell apart. so much shame she would have felt after that. so many allies she had slain in the process, too. (the cache champs being charr you met along the way still pulls at my heart tbh...)

... but anyway, i just love how some of the stories in this game tell themselves. its easily why ive been playing it for so damn long.

#guild wars 2 #gw2 #charr #gw2 oc #doodles #art #taistel the unforgiving #its so nice to get these thoughts down #i love this game sooooooo much

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hpimaginesandblurbs · 3 years

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Can you do a maurder smut please 🥺? I absolutely love them! Thank you love 😘😘!!

pairing: young!remus lupin x reader

warning(s): 18+ only, smut, unprotected sex (please wrap it before you tap it), praise kink, slight degradation (if you squint)

word count: 1.6k

a/n: i also love the marauders. my little broken babies. if you like fanfic, please go read ‘debt of time’ by ShayaLonnie and/or ‘all the young dudes’ by MsKingBean89 (both on AO3). both of them are super long and super good. i cried reading both

The full moon was fast approaching and you could tell Remus was on edge this month. You could see it in the way he held himself during dinner, stiff as a board and positively tense. The way he forced himself to chuckle at James and Siruis’ dumb jokes, when usually he would be joining right in with them. The way he forced himself into polite conversation with Peter, Lily, Mary or whoever else felt like chatting with him.

But you could especially tell because of the way he had a possessive death grip on your thigh all throughout dinner. It was like he couldn’t seem to get himself to loosen up or remove his grip. It seemed like it was the only thing keeping him stable in the moment.

It didn’t happen often, but some months in the lead up to the full moon, Remus would be on edge. When it did happen, it could always go one of two ways. He’d either be irritable and anxious or he’d be absolutely possessive and, well, there was no other word for it besides feral. This month seemed like it was turning into the latter.

That was only confirmed to you when, after dinner, he wasted no time in dragging you up to his dormitory and pinning you against the door. He locked you in a ferocious kiss, mostly tongue and teeth, while his pelvis ground against yours.

When he pulled away, you could see nothing but lust, possession, and danger in his eyes. With his forehead resting against yours he whispered, “Y/N, I don’t want to hurt you.”

You knew it was his way of asking, no, begging, for permission to let lose tonight. To get all of this pent up energy and emotion out of his system before the full moon came.

“You know I like it when you get rough,” you replied, a small smirk on your face to let him know he had full permission to do as he pleased.

“Y/N,” he whined out, his hips stuttering for a moment before making eye contact again. “You’re gonna be the death of me.”

Next thing you knew, you were being hoisted in the air with his hands firmly placed on the backs of your thighs and being carried over to his four poster bed. He used all of the control he had left to place you onto the bed before he climbed in over you.

You found yourself in another heated kiss while clothes rapidly came off. There was nothing slow or graceful about the way either of you were moving, it was simply just raw need consuming the both of you.

When you were finally naked underneath him, he pulled himself away to look down at you. His eyes raked over you hungrily and he ran his tongue along his bottom lip as he took you in.

“Can you stay quiet for me?” He asked, a hand coming up to trail along your thighs as it slowly made it’s way to your core. “Or do I need to cast a silencing charm? I’d rather hate it if anyone heard what’s mine.”

You opened your mouth to reply, but all the air drained from your lungs in a breathy moan when his finger trailed up your slit and moved directly to your clit. “Fuck,” you whimpered, unable to control the noises that were already leaving you.

“I’ve barely even touched you and you’re already this wet? And already this loud?” He asked almost mockingly, but he diligently picked up his wand and cast a silent charm around the room to ensure no one would hear you but him. “All this for me?” He continued, an eyebrow raised as he hovered above you, his fingers never once straying from your drenched core.

“All for you, Remus. I’m all yours,” you replied softly. And in a bold move that you knew would only spur him on, you continued. “Use me, take me, please.”

It was him then that couldn’t stop the groan that spilled from his lips or the way his hard cock twitched against your thigh, wetting the flesh with precum.

Without even a warning, he ripped his hand away from your center and moved to align his cock with your entrance. He took a moment to steady himself as he rubbed the tip of himself along your clit, sending spark after spark of pleasure through your body.

“Are you gonna be good for me tonight, love? Gonna take me like the good girl I know you are and scream my name?” He asked, just the tip of him inside you now gently thrusting in and out - taunting you.

You could only nod your head in return, too distracted by the anticipation of his thick cock finally being pushed inside of you, too frustrated by what he was currently doing to properly form words.

“Use your words,” he said gently, a complete juxtaposition from his body language that oozed raw dominance.

It was moments like these that left you in awe of your boyfriend. He was usually so quiet, so controlled, so reserved. Especially compared to his more unruly friends. But he when he had you alone like this, hovering over you in bed, in complete control of your mind and your body, he was a force to be reckoned with. And then only left you even more wet for him.

“Please, Re. I think I need it as bad as you do right now,” you finally managed to pull yourself just enough to form once sentence.

And that one sentence was all it took for Remus to fully sheath himself inside of you, his thick cock stretching you out and forcing you to let out a high moan.

“Oh, darling, you definitely don’t need it as bad as I do right now,” he half argued with a smirk on his face as he watched the way your own contorted in pleasure. And with that last sentiment, he kicked off.

He was thrusting in and out of you so harshly that the bed was slamming up against the wall repeatedly and both of your bodies were moving inch by inch up the bed until he used one arm to brace himself against the headboard.

Neither of you could contain the animalistic noises falling from your lips, the both of you too lost in pleasure to try to stop it. You hands slowly found their way to grip his back, your nails harshly digging into his flesh enough to make him grunt into your neck. But he never let up, so neither did you.

“You’re so fucking tight. Like a fucking vice around me. Nothing could ever feel as good as you darling,” he blurted out in between thrusts, just wanting to let you know exactly how good you were being for him. “Turn over,” he added suddenly, his cock leaving your body as he waited for you to follow his command.

You did so with ease and positioned yourself exactly how he liked, almost like you were offering your body up to him. Your ass was up in front of him, exposing everything to him, back completely arched, so far down your breasts were rubbing up against his sheets, and you placed yourself face down into the mattress. This position gave him full access to you and gave you zero control. But that was exactly how it needed to be right now.

“Look at my pretty little whore,” he mused to himself as he ran the tip of his cock along your slit again. You couldn’t really see him from your angle, but you could see the shit eating grin he had on his face.

And just like that he was back inside of you, his thick cock forcing your back to arch further as you fought to relax to take it in. From this angle you could feel everything - every vein, every ridge, every glorious inch. It was like magic.

Remus leaned over you, his chest connected to your back, caging you in with his body and arms. He held you in place while he absolutely wrecked you, the moans from both of you only growing louder and louder by the thrust.

You could feel yourself getting closer and closer, your body shaking and your mouth spilling a steady string of expletives. Remus, ever observant, noticed it right away. He trailed a finger down your body and to your clit, a guttural moan forcing its way from your throat at the action.

“Cum for me. Cum for me and scream,” he spoke lowly into your ear, the breath hot against the side of your face. It was quite possibly one of the most erotic things you’ve ever heard come out of him just by the way he said it.

And you did just what he wanted, your body fully under his command. Your core clenched around him tightly as you came and a scream of his name fell from your lips just in time for his own release. You could feel his cum fill you up, only prolonging your bliss as he worked you both through the end.

You both stayed like that for a moment, silent but for your panting breaths and completely still in his arms that had never left you. Finally he pulled out, an unexpected whimper coming from you at the sudden emptiness, but he just chuckled as he sat down at the end of the bed.

“Don’t move yet,” he said softly and you did. You could feel his cum dripping out of you and down your legs, knowing that was exactly what he wanted to see. “You look so good filled with me,” he admitted, his hands running up and down the backs of your thighs as he simply watched, in awe of you.

You could practically feel it in the air that he was satiated and much calmer now. At least for tonight.

#remus lupin #young remus lupin #young marauders #remus lupin smut #remus lupin imagine #harry potter

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makeste · 3 years

Text

BnHA Chapter 314: ...Or You Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become the Villain

Previously on BnHA: Some random assholes were all “let’s throw exploding spears at All Might and see if it activates his Conqueror’s Haki” and SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKERS, IT DID!! Elsewhere, Lady Nagant confusingly tried to capture Deku alive by shooting him in the stomach, but to be fair I guess that’s what happens when you send an assassin to do a bounty hunter’s job, so yeah. Deku was all “ouch”, and then because this is a shounen he basically just straight up forgot about it, and did a big fancy Smokescreen thing, and then activated his mildly incomprehensible new ki-blasting quirk which he got from the Third. En and the Third were all “hey Deku maybe let’s not just impulsively activate all this shit in the heat of battle when you don’t know how to use it yet and you’re already injured,” and Deku was all “thanks for the quirks guys but I’ll take it from here” and snuck up on Nagant and grabbed her arm and so now what’s going to happen I wonder.

Today on BnHA: Nagant is all “[shoots Deku again]” because of course she is lol. Deku is all “tell me about AFO!” and Nagant is all “why would I tell you anything?” and then proceeds to tell him her entire life story which is FILLED WITH SO MUCH MURDER, YOU GUYS. Holy shit. So basically she was an assassin for the HPSC, which we already knew, but somehow it’s one thing to know that, and another to actually see her running around capping dudes in the forehead and being covered in more blood than the elevator from The Shining. Anyway, so you’ll never believe it, but all that murder had a negative impact on her psychologically, and eventually led her to question everything she believed about hero society, and so she killed her creepy boss and was promptly sent to Tartarus. This extremely fun chapter ends with Overhaul showing up all “HI, HELLO, I’M STILL HERE”, because for some reason he is still here. Why are you still here, Overhaul.

“the beautiful Lady Nagant” oh you know your audience don’t you Horikoshi

well all right then! so I’m guessing this means that she is not, in fact, going to roll over and die just because Deku’s out here all “GOT YA!” like they’re playing a game or tag or something. ffff may the manga gods have mercy on our young suicidal protagonist

lmao so Deku is all “GOD I’M SO SMART, WHAT A GOOD STRATEGY I HAD, CAPITOL JOB THERE OL’ CHAP, CAPITOL” and lol, okay. I mean, it was a good plan though. but I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop here

“I’ll make you give me information on All for One” well there you go, lol. Deku Angst arc still fully engaged. still no light in his eyes either of course. just a lil chaotic ball of sleep deprivation and rage

lol, fucking THANK YOU though

oh my god what the hell did she do to him lol

did she shoot him with her elbow??? fucking look at this?? THIS IS WHY WE LISTEN TO HAWKS oh my god Deku are you dead

WHAT’S HAPPENING, IS THIS GOOD OR BAD, WHO’S WINNING

things that I wish I could tell from this panel which I unfortunately cannot tell

did she stab him or shoot him?? can you imagine if it was the former lol. why does Horikoshi keep stabbing all my kids. look Kacchan now the two of you can match

did she actually hit him or did he get away??

or did she hit him and then he jumped away?? just, what

well anyway, so now Deku is asking her why she sided with AFO, but he seems a lot more pissed off than when he was interrogating Muscular, though. probably because she shot him three times. fair enough

oh my god

does Lady have a blog here on tumblr dot com?? -- does Horikoshi have a blog here on tumblr motherfucking dot com?? why do I suddenly feel like this man is out here sneakily reading up on all our discourse

oh my god Deku it’s almost like getting up close and personal with someone who can shoot custom bullets from any distance and any position with deadly accuracy was a terrible fucking idea

IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD WARNED YOU NOT TO ENGAGE WITH HER AT ALL COSTS. IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD HAD THE FORESIGHT TO DO THAT sob. can you imagine how much shorter this series would be if characters actually listened to Hawks. Hawks, and Momo. why do we even let anyone else run the show ever

OH MY GOD

DEKU, RUN

OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING

this looks a lot like what happens to me whenever I play One’s Justice. those fucking combo attacks that you can’t fucking escape from and so your character just has to stand there getting their ass whalloped repeatedly while you wonder why you paid $40 for this

but anyways though. so Lady who did you kill?? I bet they deserved it, don’t worry I forgive you

(ETA: ANYWAY SO FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT LADY NAGANT DID NOTHING WRONG EVER IN HER ENTIRE LIFE. aside from murdering all those innocent people and shit. but there were CIRCUMSTANCES, and THEY WERE EXTENUATING, OKAY.)

-- holy shit

looks like the HPSC arc is back on the menu boys

so are we about to learn that the HPSC was going full Hydra on people’s asses? secretly dispatching anyone they deemed a threat to society?? “taken care of” as in you fucking shot them??

so then was the “hero” she killed actually one of the guys who was giving or carrying out these orders?? holy shit Lady, up until now I’ve mainly just been stanning you for your flawless eyebrow game and metal af quirk, but this shit could actually get real very quickly, and I am prepared to genuinely and sincerely love the shit out of you depending on what we learn next about your backstory

oh my god?!?

so wait, hold up. am I reading this right?? basically the HPSC started murdering vigilantes because they were worried they were gaining too much of the public’s favor?? holy fucking shit???

oh my GOD oh my god

“it’s been a while since I scarred you all with the dead dog and the graphic slaughter of an entire innocent family, huh,” Horikoshi says thoughtfully. “anyway so what do you all think of my new creation, the Spaghetti Bullet.” well, Horikoshi, so you know that squished-up face that Kermit the Frog makes sometimes? yeah. that’s what I think, if you must know lol

holy hell the juxtaposition

I’m actually kind of surprised to learn she had a lot of fans? what with her M.O., I was expecting her to have been an underground hero like Aizawa, but apparently not? then again I still have absolutely no idea how any of that works. I really need to read Vigilantes already

oh snap

nothing like a sweet dose of assassin trauma to finally round out our BnHA Trauma Bingo!! well done guys, we finally collected all of the traumas! hooray!

noooo Ladyyyyyyy

holy shit what a fucking chapter. like, this man promised us an assassin, and went and fucking delivered. I was not expecting it to be this dark, lol, but holy shit I am here for it

you know, at some point you have to start questioning the logistics of this, though

I mean, how do I put this... her quirk isn’t exactly subtle. that murder scene from a few pages back looked like the first season of Dexter for fuck’s sake, that’s not exactly “disappearing” people now is it?? and I mean, her bullets are literally made from her own fucking hair; it seems like it would be impossible not to leave any evidence behind. did no one start to wonder who the fuck was going around murdering all these people? or did the people who asked too many questions wind up getting conveniently “disappeared” themselves??

and hey, speaking of asking too many questions

holy shit is he blackmailing her??!? or no, wait -- what the hell is he reaching for in his pocket boy you better not

(ETA: what exactly was this man expecting fdslkjd. “uh oh my unstoppable hair trigger assassin who is literally always armed is asking questions, better announce that I am going to shoot her and then reach into my pocket veeeeeery slowly while she stands there all of two feet away.” how did this guy ever function as the head of a shadow government with these decision-making skills, I’m genuinely baffled.)

OH MY GOD LADY YES

this. right here. is why “run the fuck away” was damn good solid fucking advice. oh shit. but my god did this dude have it coming

so wait lol has she just been narrating all of this out loud to Deku this entire time

okay but can we just stop for a moment and appreciate the fact that they’re having this deep conversation about the dark secrets of hero society right in the middle of their intense mid-air sniper free-for-all lol

holy shit you guys, Nagant’s the one that should have made the tell-all video. I mean, no offense to you, Dabi, I’m sure you worked very hard on your video and did a ton of crunches every day so that you would look good with your shirt off while you told the world all about how your dad was a jerk. but seriously...

this is already like 100x more convincing than what he put out. also, gasp, is it another flashback

yes it is oh my gosh

so the HPSC Chairladyperson whom ReDestro killed used to be this guy’s direct subordinate, huh? I wonder if she kept the whole assassin program going after she took over. can’t say I was feeling any particular kind of grieving way about her death before, but certainly not now lol

but unfortunately Nagant has finally lost me at the same place where all of the villains inevitably do, which is to say when they somehow make the dubious mental leap from “society sucks and is bad” to “let’s just be openly fucking evil lol, worth a shot.” because when heroes murder innocent people and cover it up, that’s obviously bad (and I mean, it absolutely fucking is lol, don’t get me wrong); but when villains murder innocent people straight up out in the open without giving a fuck, they’re righteous revolutionaries? just -- is there really no non-murdery middle ground here?? I guess that’s what Deku and co. are for, hopefully

anyways oh shit Deku seems to have spotted something?? and he’s doing something weird with Blackwhip what

oh, he spotted her, I guess

lmaooooo

new favorite Deku panel right here. a masterpiece

oh my god you guys our little boy is starting to grow up before our eyes

you love to see it. and you can tell with those elipses that he’s gearing up to say something really cool and determined and badass like the shounen protag he is, yes please, Deku ilu so much please do your thing

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

IS THAT A TEENY TINY LIL EYE SPARKLE THERE OMG. still not anywhere close to his usual standard, but that’s some clear resolve there in his eyes there at long last! it always shines the most clearly when he’s being true to himself and his ideals, so I love that it finally shows up again here, when he’s reaffirming his resolve to help others no matter what

uh oh so what’s Lady going to do now

is it time for a trump card?? kinda sounding like it’s time for a trump card

???

I lied btw, this is my new favorite Deku panel. but anyways what is she up to now lol

ohhhhhh, lol

why does she seem shocked, lol. here I thought this was part of her plan, but apparently she forgot all about ol’ “Look Ma, No Hands” back up there

and so I guess that’s it for this week! so we’ve learned basically everything now about Lady and her quirk and her history with the HPSC and why she agreed to work for AFO. pretty much the only question that still remains is why the hell she decided to drag this asshole along for the ride! because I still cannot figure that out dsklkjlkf

(ETA: actually now I’m kind of wondering if they maybe have some past connection we don’t know about yet. when exactly was Nagant sent to Tartarus? is it possible she was ordered to track down and kill Overhaul at some point before that, but never got around to it? or something else along those lines? idk but now I’m curious.)

anyways Deku, I know that your empathy has no bounds and that you’re on a “saving villains” kick right now, and good on you... but also, if you decide to just like, skip all of that shit just this once, absolutely no one will hold it against you, I’m just saying. just, all I’m asking here is maybe let’s think twice before we start trying to reform guys who imprison and torture little girls for profit. I think maybe that’s a good place to draw the line. next week is going to be a very interesting chapter lol

#bnha 314 #lady nagant #midoriya izuku #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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youreadarkwizard · 3 years

Text

You kind of won over Chris Carter right away, but the network had a different idea of what kind of person they wanted to put opposite Duchovny who'd already been cast. What were you hearing as this evolved, where I believe you've got the guy on your side who's the most important, but they're still meeting with other actresses?

Well, at the very beginning neither leads had been cast. So, in the first few days it turns out that they were looking for the guy. And so, all the actresses who were there in the hallway waiting to go into the room with the producers were reading with various guys, of which Mr. Duchovny was one of them.

So he was cast, and then it was about casting the girl. And yes, I went into network. I had borrowed a suit. The suit was too big for me. They told me that I needed to come back wearing something a bit more streamlined. I think borrowed another suit or like pinned it up, I can't remember, and came back again to network. And then I was told that they liked me, but they weren't sure. Then the next time I got called back they'd also flown in Jill Hennessy and Cynthia Nixon from New York. All young women who I had been auditioning for theater with in New York when I was living in New York. Back then they weren't Cynthia Nixon and Jill Hennessy. I had to check my ego at the door. And then you know, as they say the rest is history. I was cast.

Do you know what swung it?

You know what, I have no idea. It could have been at the end of the day that Chris put his foot down. I don't know, it could have been so many different things. I don't know what it was. It could have been the chemistry between the two of us—

Yes.

You know, which was there no matter what, for the next—

Did you feel that from the beginning that it was always there?

Yeah. Oh, definitely. Definitely. But, who's to say it wasn't also there with the other girls? I didn't know that.

Well, so that might be the beginning of the answer to the next question, but I'm just really curious. If you could try to step outside of yourself for a second, set aside humility and just honestly, objectively, what do you think explains the fact that this was such a phenomenon when it hit? What elements would you point to as explaining that?

Well, I think there were so many things that went into it. I do think at the top of the list would be the dynamic between the two of us. I do think that was strong, and I think that the writers then made it even stronger. At the end of every scene we were to look at each other, into each other's eyes. You know all that kind of stuff. And there was just the juxtaposition between Scully's nerdy, obsessive scientific mind and Mulder's cool dude, kind of underground brainiac chic. They were just very good juxtaposed characters. And then there was the chemistry.

Gillian Anderson on Awards Chatter podcast, 08/22/21

#the x files #🧪#gillian anderson #david duchovny #me sitting down to hear this same story for the 100th time 😌

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thegeminisage · 3 years

Note

wAit i actually do want ur thoughts on how much u think michael was talking total shit i nthat bar

(here’s the post for context)

well firstly i think it’s an interesting juxtaposition between lucifer, the “bad son” who ostensibly doesn’t lie but merely tells uncomfortable truths*, and michael, the “good son” who not only lies all the fucking time, but knows the exact worst possible thing to say to anyone at any given time. I JUST THINK THAT’S NEAT.

(*lucifer lies a lot in late seasons too because of antag decay, but like, the original concept of him was one of uncomfortable honesty.)

michael is willing to lie to get his way and does so frequently - starting with going back on the deal he made with dean, to leave him after they killed lucifer. he also does it when he shit-talks every last one of our protagonists in turn in 14.10, the episode the gifs are from. he starts with jack - telling him he’s nothing but a job, and dean wasn’t sad when he died, when we know that isn’t true (jack is visibly upset by this, which is part of why he chooses to use his powers later; michael successfully manipulated his enemy into doing harm to himself). after that michael goes in on cas, telling him that god doesn’t care about his world because it’s nothing but a failed draft (interestingly, cas is also visibly shaken by this).

then, before sam and cas enter dean’s mind, michael says that he WANTS them to do that - because his body might be all chained up, but in there, they don’t stand a chance. this is also untrue, because the whole purpose of him talking shit in that gifset to begin with is to stall so his monsters can rescue him. dean DOUBLES DOG DARES HIM to snap his fingers and nuke them all, and he doesn’t because he can’t. he didn’t want them in dean’s mind at all. he’s in trouble the whole time they’re in there and he KNOWS it.

as for what he said to sam, dean, and cas - yeah, this was also deeply untrue. the first thing he does is take a shot at cas; he claims that dean doesn’t care about cas, only feels obligated to help him out because of cas pulling him out of hell, and that cas, known fuck-up, is almost not worth the trouble. of course, WE know that isn’t true, and DEAN knows that isn’t true, and, being that cas was just looking through dean’s worst memories a few moments ago, and likely saw his own death there, HE probably knows it isn’t true too. (look at his face there compared to sam’s; he’s quite unbothered by the accusations, but shortly after looks away as though remembering something. the sheer magnitude of the lies michael is telling is what leads cas to figuring out in a moment that what michael is actually doing is stalling.)

michael takes a swing at sam next, and this punch seems to hit the mark a little better - michael claims that dean was happiest when sam wasn’t around so it could be just him and john, alone together, just the two of them. it’s not in this gifset, but he also says “deep down, [dean] knows that you will always abandon him, again and again,” and sam shakes his head furiously.

of course with what he went through at lucifer’s hands, sam has every reason in the world to be afraid of archangels, but i like to think he’s thinking about running away in flagstaff - i imagine the older sam got, the more he began to understand about the differing ways he & dean were abused by john. michael is striking at sam’s guilt for leaving dean alone to go to school, because he knows EXACTLY what dean’s life with john alone was like (more on that in a sec), but he’s also unknowingly striking at that flagstaff guilt. knowing something in your head and believing it in your heart are two entirely different matters - but i think logically sam is emotionally intelligent enough to know, most of the time, that the person at fault for dean’s abuse is his abuser. at the very least, he can be certain that dean was NOT happy when left alone with his father - dean’s neediness has been brought up in this series almost more times than i can count.

but both michael’s attack on cas and his attack on sam are ALSO attacks on dean, because dean will worry that sam and cas WILL think it’s all true - which is why michael says it. sam and cas are there as dean’s support system because dean isn’t strong enough to fight michael on his own. michael is SMART and the smartest thing to do is to drive a wedge between dean and his rescuers as quickly as possible.

dean’s face here is absolutely INCREDULOUS. not only is this evidence that everything michael is saying is wildly untrue, but that he knows exactly how untrue it is - after all, he’s in dean’s head. michael’s goal isn’t to expose an ugly truth, it’s to strike at insecurities and weak points with untruths. the very next thing he says to dean is “you don't need them. you don't even like them. they're not your family, they're your responsibilities. they're a weight around your neck, & deep down, you were desperate to get away from them - that's why you said yes.”

dean goes from incredulous to disgusted in a big hurry once michael starts implying that dean believes sam’s going to abandon him again, and he gets out-and-out angry once michael actually does hit on the smallest kernal of truth - that dean sometimes felt burdened by the responsibilities of caring for his family. i think dean only getting truly angry THERE is indicative of how much bullshit the rest of it was.

...including (told you we’d get back to this) the fact that dean was happy to be left alone with john. as we can see from his face - his “michael-is-lying” face - dean was NOT AT ALL HAPPY that it was just the two of them. consider:

john is a control freak - he expects instant and unquestioning obedience from his sons at all times. dean explains to sam later (and john himself confirms this near the season finale) that john equates control to protection. "dad was never disappointed in you...he was afraid of what could've happened to you if he wasn't around." "when you said that you wanted to go away to school, all i could think about, my only thought was, that you were gonna be alone, vulnerable." john, in his insane quest for vengeance and in his constant paranoia, wanted to control every possible aspect of sam and dean’s lives.

when sam leaves he’s not under john’s control. when sam and dean withhold information from him (that sam has been having visions) they aren’t under his control. when they talk back or disobey orders (when a young dean leaves the motel room to go to the arcade instead of watching sammy, when sam won’t accept his hunt midseason, when sam refuses to shoot him in order to kill yellow eyes) they are not under his control. even when dean doesn’t take care of the car as he was asked to, he’s not under john’s control. he’s slacking.

and EVERY time this happens john gets angry. he demands to know why didn’t didn’t call about the dreams. he snaps at him about the car. when john came home from flagstaff and found sam missing, he was furious. we don’t know exactly what happened but we can tell it was not good. how much worse would it have been when sam went away for good instead of just two weeks?

i don’t think john’s reaction was as rash as the one in flagstaff - because he knew sam wasn’t dead, and sam’s college dreams weren’t dean’s fault, he didn’t wind up beating dean for it - but i do think it was longer-lasting and in many ways worse to deal with. he basically threw a 4-year temper tantrum that he couldn’t MAKE sam stay. and with one son missing there was just one left to take it out on. again, dean’s abuse is the fault of his abuser, NOT SAM, but no: dean probably did not have a good time while sam was gone.

what’s absolutely twisted about this is that the feeling seems to have been mutual - sometime in those four years, john started letting dean go on hunts by himself. this is explained away in the now-iconic “i’m 26 dude” line but john is such a control freak that it seems unlikely it was a matter of finding dean old enough to have earned his independence. dean could have turned 40 and if john was still alive and hunting yellow eyes he’d still expect dean to go right where he put him. i have a different theory:

dean says in season 14 that john used to send him away from sam when he was angry, so dean associates being split up from them with failure and punishment. it’s very likely that not only was dean NOT happiest when it was just him and john, he was actually SO unhappy that john simply didn’t want to be around him anymore.

hence the incredulous face.

[spn masterpost]

#liz answers asks #anonymous #liz's meta #liz's spn stuff #liz makes stuff #long post #sorry it took me so long to answer you my answer got long.#youm ade the fatal mistake of asking me about one of the episodes that ties for my favorite #(this and 5.18)#and btw all of these headcanons are true in #broken road #just so you know. like john'll say it in a couple of chapters: dean made him miserable lmao #what a piece of shit #br meta #kinda

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moon-ursidae · 2 years

Text

TBOBF EPISODE 6 SPOILERS

i am very late on this bc i had it saved and ready in my docs but i never had the time to copy and paste it here

much like last time, these were my thoughts when watching episode 6 for the first time!! this is another long one folks so strap in!!!

-ayo mos pelgo??

-YUUUP

-COBB VANTH I MISSED YO SEXY ASS

-yea you flex those stripes

-THE CALLBACK WITH THE “i’m the one that tells folks what to do”

-quick reflexes are so hot like idk what it is

-he really said “respectfully if ya’ll come here agin you’re fucked”

-THE MARSHAL’S TALE IN THE BACKGROUND AHHHHHHH

-god the music is so fucking good goddamn

-ayo dune pt 2 looks great

-the intro music is sooo good

-DIN DJARIN YEAAAA

-these cockpit shots are so sexy they look phenomenal

-IS THAT R2

-R2222222222222 FUCK YEA

-listen i love the crest but this new ship looks SLICK as fuck

- omg din djarin saying skywalker????

-calling r2 friend????

-AHHHHHH

-i’ll never get over him saying grogu either

-omg these ant droids are kinda cute

-AHH THE JEDI SCHOOL

-the jedi school…

-din djarin has met his match when it comes to sass

-”is that a bench?” SIR PLEASEEEE

-i love him

-he’s so done rn he just wants to see his kid

-i love the juxtaposition whenever din is in a place that is seemingly tranquil

-here’s this dude armed to the fuckin teeth in this place that makes you feel the most serene you’ll ever feel in your life

-it’s so funny i love it

-i love these shots of the forest i feel like they’re supposed to be representative of the force in a way??

-OH MY GOD THERE HE IS

-DIN I FOUND UR KID

-OH MY FUCKING GOD CGI LUKE LOOKS FUCKING PHENOMENAL

-oh my god please i can’t do this snacks started playing when the frog showed up

-joe shirley and ludwig goransson i cannot do this

-grogu i’m sorry but even though luke doesn’t see you he knows the shenanigans ur up to

-OMG HE’S SO STRONG NOW

-THE CG IS FUCKING CRAZY HOLY SHIT

-i’m gonna start fucking crying oh my god

-i see you dave filoni with the dagobah parallel

-i’m assuming there will be many more through this episode

-god the music i want it tatted in my brain

-HIS LIL WADDLE

-omg is he gonna talk about yoda

-HE IS

-omg the way he’s lifting grogu so he can keep up imma cry

-CHANEL BOOTS SKYWALKER IS HERE TO SLAY

-are we gonna see grogu’s past????

-omgomgomgomgomg

-STOOOOPPPPPPP NO IM GONNA START SOBBING

-FUCK I NEED TO FINISH CLONE WARS

-goddamn you dave filoni pay for my fuckin therapy

-it’s also crazy how much he sounds like young Mark Hamill

-DIN NAPPING like the dad he is

-AHSOKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

-also hot reflexes

-”i’m a friend of the family” DAVE FILONI PLEASEEEEE

-her lil giggle with r2 was so cute

-i love rosario dawson

-she’s such a good ahsoka

-he’s like okay??? gimme my foundling

-he just wants to see that his kid is safe for his own eyes ahsoka LET HIM

-”my choice to go and see him” so goddamn stubborn, din djarin is

-OH MY FUCKING GOD SO MANY ICONS IN ONE FRAME WHAT THE FUCK

-what a time to be a star wars fan holy shit

-also i am once again asking that dave filoni pay for my therapy

-busteeedddddddd she called you out homie

-omg his lil gift

-i love that he keeps calling him a mandalorian foundling specifically instead of just a foundling

-i feel like they’re parents fighting for custody LMAO

-”i came all this way. he’s right there” PEDRO PLEASSE THE DELIVERY I CAN’T DO THIS RN

-ugh i can feel him fighting with himself about whether he should go to him or not

-”make sure he’s protected” HE CARES SO MUCH ABOUT HIS SAFETY BC HE’S NOT THERE TO MAKE SURE AHHHHHHHHHHH

-i know that he’s crying under that helmet

-the fucking score dude oh my god

-GROGU I KNOW I’M SAD UR DAD IS LEAVING TOO

-NOT THE HAND

-omg i was right about ESB refs

-omg the way he crawls out of the bag

-”that’s all you got?” LUKE HE’S TRYING HIS BEST

-”don’t try. do” girl i see you

-OMG THE DAGOBAH PARALLELS THIS EP I CAN’TTTT

- even the fuckin front flip bro goddamn

-the attention to detail on the cg face is insane like literally every frame

-this shot is so beautiful oh my god

-THE FORCE THEME NJAILBJILGBJLHFJFBGQHFL

-GROGU BE CAREFUL BRO

-GREEN SABER GREEN SABER GREEN SABER AHHHHHH

-OMG THE REMOTE FROM A NEW HOPE AND RISE OF SKYWALKER

-he passed the ball bc that’s what ahsoka and din taught him PLEASE

-AYO???? din is gonna beat your ass if he finds out y0u let his kid get zapped luke

-this is so cute oh my god and the score is helping sell it ndjlbjrklvbejnvblkebhjk

-ahsoka looks so proud

-HIS LIL SQUEAL MMMMMMMMM

-”The Mandalorian was here” what the fuck is happening i- star wars is so fuckin cool

-”sometimes i wonder if his heart is in it” omg grogu and din are both distracted bc they’ve been apart for so long

-WITH THE “so much like your father” RIGHT AFTER THAT DAVE FILONI LITERALLY PAY FOR MY FUCKIN THERAPY BRO

-his lil smile and the score from the mando s2 finale MMMMM

-like father like son takin naps

-i cannot wait for the ahsoka series oh my god i love her

-TATOOINE BABYYYYYY

-again these cockpit shots are hot

-omg are we gonna see boba??? In his own show?

-ayo?

-YEA WE ARE BABYYYYY

-AND FENNEC HEHEHEHEHEHE

-my bisexual panic is off the charts rn

-they’re all so hot and so sexy

-WAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT

-is din giving out his name now??????

-everyone in that room now knows his name and they JUST met him?????

-WOAH THE NODDING LIKE IN ROTJ BVJDIVHEJOBPEHBJEWNO

-so hot so sexy

-KRAYT DRAGON SKULL YUHH

-omg i love that din and the jawas are homies now

-COBB AND DIN REUNION????

-who the fuck does this guy think he is

-”i heard you” so hot

-REUNION BABYYYYYYYYYYYYY

-everyone is so sad that he doesn’t have grogu anymore it’s so cute and sad at the same time

-omg is the skeleton in the cantina new?? Or am i blind

-freetown?? when did this become like fallout new vegas?

-they’re both so sassy and snarky i love it

-the guitar in the back is so lovely

-WHO IS THAT

-IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS

-I KNOW THAT SILHOUETTE

-IS THAT CAD FUCKING BANE????????????

-IS THAT FUCKING CAD BANE??????????

- DNVJBFDVNJDBFBJK CXKNLBDFBKNDFJOBNDF BFDNKBFNDFBVNDFKLVBNEFKMVLBRENBVKLNVKFDLBVJNASKLVBRNVLBRNVJKRBVN

-OH MY FUCKING GOD ARE YOU KIDDING ME

-I LOVE STAR WARS

-DAVE MUTHAFUCKIN FILONI YOU SON OF A BITCH

-OH MY GOD

-HIS VOICE NDJKVLNJV;N

-the deputy needs to fuck off bro like read the damn room

-HIS EYES

-this is so fucking western i love this

-he’s tryna slander boba rn?

-not in this house bro

-THEY GONNA DUEL???

-THIS REALLY IS A WESTERN

-if the deputy fucks this up i swear to god

-IS COBB OKAY????

-I NEED TO KNOW THIS RIGHT NOW

-also cade bane is so fucking cool oh my god

-i sense something bad is about to go down w these pykes in the cantina

-the makeup is so good

-fuck they left the camtono there

-UHHHHHHHHH

-WHERE IS MAX REBO????? IS HE SAFE? IS HE ALRIGHT?

-then fuckin cut to the jedi school PFFFFFFFFFFFF

-I KNEW IT WAS CHAINMAIL

-IT’S SO SMALLLLLLLLL

-a choice??? Luke what are you about to do?

-IS THAT YODA’S SABER????

-YUUUUUHHHHHHH

-is he gonna make him chose between the fuckin saber and the armor??

-yuuuup…

-hold up chanel boots skywalker you are ceo of attachments my guy what the hell is this

-HIS SAD LIL COO

-AND THE MUSIC

-D JVKLFBJKDLFBNKJLVBSANJBL;DBJDAK

-he’s gonna choose din i know it in my heart i feel it in my soul

GODDAMN THERE WAS SO MUCH TO LOOK AT AND ADMIRE IN THIS EPISODE HOLY SHIT BRO

again apologies for the super long post but these are so fun to do so i think i’m gonna continue to do these hehehehehe

#tbobf spoilers #the book of boba fett spoilers #tbobf #the book of boba fett #sorry this is late!!! but now onto the finale!#i’m scared but also excited!!#AHHHHHHHHH

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snickiebear · 3 years

Note

yo nadia <3333 i'm bored in my online classes and u reblogged the questions thingy at the right time lmao, so get ready: 1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 17, 23, 24, 28, 30!!!, 34, 38, 39, 40 (the intimacy of being understood) (imma stop here lol) (also i'm sorry u're not feeling well, ily and hope u'll feel better soon!! <33333)

ELE ILY. (and thank you, i’m stayin home today cause,,, yeah. i appreciate you sm.) you’re the literal best, i adore you.

1. How long ago did you start reading fanfiction? Writing fanfiction?

The first fanfiction i read was for The Lunar Chronicles when I was like 11?? and it was 100% on accident and it scarred me because it was a hardcore porn one with a period kink and i was like WHAT IS THIS??? OH MY GOD???? LMAOOOOO i didn’t pick it back up until i was 13-14 and really got into the Fairy Tail fandom. I still reread my favorites on ff.net cause i love them.

As for writing, I wrote a horrible, terrible x-men fanfiction when I was twelve. (my friend still brings it up and REFUSES to delete it so it still gets comments and views, that shit HAUNTS ME ELE.) then tried again for Fairy Tail, posted like two chapters before taking it down cause i wasn’t really feeling it. And then I posted The Intimacy Of Being Understood and here we are.

4. Link your three favorite fics right now.

OMGG okok

@murd3rm1ttens ‘s The Problem How Time Works IF YOU HAVENT READ THIS YOU GUYS NEED TO HOP ON IT ASAP. MITTEN’S WRITING SO SO SO SO GOOD. SAKURA AND INO ARE TOTAL BADASSES. KAKASHI IS A SIMPPPP. ITS SO FUCKING GOOD.

@mouseymightymarvellous ‘s We Were Screaming In Color (Only A Possibility) yes, yes I KNOW. i always point into mousey’s direction but i WILL always advocate that everyone reads her fics, they’re literally so beautiful???? i just happen to be rereading WWSIN rn

@safelycapricious ‘s Shaking Up And Breaking Down series. I found this like?? idfk but i’ve been raving about it ever since. ALSO CHECK OUT THEIR FICS IN GENERAL.

fuck i have more than three but also check out @ambivalens999 ‘s Masks

i do wanna make a fic rec thing where i just rav about my favs,,, might do that later or sum

5. What are your fanfic pet peeves? Do they have a huge effect on whether or not you decide to read something?

Omniscient third person. I don’t like it. Like I can understand that it can be a little hard to stay in one person’s perspective but, in my opinion, if you can, it shows how disciplined you are as a writer. Plus, i just get so confused when I go from A’s thoughts to suddenly what B is thinking about A.

When writers use ‘ ‘ instead of “ “. When writers put thoughts in ‘ ‘ instead of just italicizing them. It’s small things but like they just bother me sO MUCH. most of the time i can ignore it and try to enjoy but other times i just dip.

9. Tag 3 fic writers you think are underrated/unknown in the fandom/fanfiction community.

@espoir-et-reves !!!!! THEIR SHISAKU FICS ARE SO SO SO SO SO GOOD. And they have a warring states one going on THAT I AM SO OBSESSED WITH.

@writer168 idk if they’re really “underrated” but THEY HAVE SUCH GREAT FICS ON AO3. Like theres an AU with sakura, kiba, and shino that i reread constantly because it just. is. so. fucking. GOOD. and they posted a new one that i’m YELLING about.

@eggtoasties okay they only have 2 in the naruto fandom (one shisaku which is still ongoing) BUT THEIR WRITING STYLE IS SO NICE?? I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. I still go back and reread their shikasaku one cause UGH i can’t get enough. I love it.

10. What’s your favorite fandom, pairing, or character to read fic for?

Fandoms: Naruto, Soul Eater, The Old Guard, ATLA

Parings: KakaSaku/ShikaSaku/ShiSaku/MultiSaku, SoMa, Joe X Nicky, Zukka

Character: SAKURA. I will read anything with Sakura as the main character and her being a fuckin badass or becoming a badass. I love her.

17. How obsessively do you sit and stare at your fic after you’ve just posted and wait for feedback?

aha.. haha.. well. I check my email like three times an hour. its the first thing i check in the mornings too. I’m literally a whore for praise and literally eat up feedback like its going out of style. I also reread a lot of my stuff because i make so many mistakes and spelling errors, or the spacing is weird oR SOMETHING. plus, literally any and all comments make my day, i go back and reread them cause they just make me feel so tingly and warm like “wow. this person enjoyed the fic/my writing enough to tell me. thats HUGE!”

23. What’s your absolute favorite trope to write?

Angry, feral, bloodied, morally gray women. They aren’t bad guys, they’re probably the good guy, but that doesn’t mean they cant be fucking raging at the world with raw knuckles and blood on their teeth. I just love an angry woman who struggles with her emotions and just has so much inner conflict but that doesn’t take away from her character or badassery, it adds to it.

24. What’s a trope that you’d like to never hear about as long as you live, let alone write?

The fake dating or miscommunication troupe. LIKE GUYS JUST TALK. AND TELL EACH OTHER OMFG. the entire like obliviousness of “nah they dont like me” while the They holds their hand and kisses their cheek. MOFO WHAT. it makes me so impatient and like mad HAAHHAHA. its probably because i’m a pretty confrontational person so seeing stuff like that just “cmon bro, USE YO HEAD.”

28. How do you deal with writing pressure (ie: pressure to update, negative comments, deadlines, etc)?

I have yet to receive a negative comment! Which i was really surprised about tbh. As for deadlines or pressure to update, i just kind of do whatever. I do set goals, but i set them flexible enough that hey, if i can’t do it, that’s okay.

I have a lot of mini goals, like “i want to write this chapter and get it done this week” and then the large goal is “FINISH BY END OF MAY” so i have time.

Actually, now that I think on it, the entire pressure to update thing is probably why i’m waiting until I have all of OL&W written to post it weekly,, cause well. I wouldn’t wanna leave you guys waiting as I tried to write and work out the next chapters and stuff, you know?

30. Post a snippet from your current WIP without context - no more than 300 words.

AAAAAA YOU KNOW I LOVE THESE AHAHAHAH

Have you seen the way the dead dance, World Breaker? They roar, half mad and starving. Do you not wish, do you not hope to see them twist and bend and dance to your will?

Shikamaru snarls, looking behind his shoulders to where his Shadows lay. “Patience.” He spits. “Is of the essence, Things of Ancient. Know your place as the dark you are.”

34. How much of yourself and your life experiences do you put into your writing? What do you think your readers’ image of you is?

None of my experiences match up to anything I write tbh,,, probably the only thing that is me in my writing is maybe the emotional turmoil? I’m pretty emotionally and mentally mature because from a pretty young age i started forming my own opinions, started looking into the world around us and being like “dude what the fuck this is not what disney advertised”. Then i started talking (read: arguing and debating) with my dad about a lot of it. So, like emotions are kind of hard for me. Like i’m pretty good at controlling them or understanding them, but still. idk its hard to explain ig.

Like the weight of stress, the anger, the sadness. It’s kind of therapeutic to write. Cause i don’t know how to put those feelings to verbal words so writing them really helps.

As for my readers’ image? Probably like some kind of hunched over figure typing away in the dark with a maniacal grin on their face. I honestly don’t know AHHAHAHA but it is fun to think about. I think they’d see me as someone with potential but a lot of room to grow and someone who is imperfect but in a charming way LMAOOOO

38. What does your writing process look like? How chaotic is it on a scale of 1 (very tame) to 10 (you can’t handle this kind of chaos)?

I’m gonna be real honest. Its probably like a 2. I’m a bit of a control freak so I almost always go in chronological order, my writing is pretty linear. Unless, i get bored and jump to one of my fav parts. It's pretty much i sit down, i open the doc, read over my notes and just start writing.

It’s a little boring to explain AHAHAHA but once i get into the groove of things its really fucking great, I can like feel myself in the world, I can feel what i want the characters to, i love it. I catch myself mouthing the words as i type too, which i find hilarious.

39. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

I rather like how raw my writing is sometimes. Which might sound really vain, but i do like the way i word things or describe things. I love juxtaposition and repetition, or making a good ole circle back to some minute detail that wouldn’t stand out until i repeat it at the end and you’re like “omg” AHAHAHAHA.

Like those little poetic snippets or certain wording i just sit back and go “damn thats kinda good nadia! go you!’ HAHAHA

40. How did you come up with the idea for The Intimacy Of Being Understood?

AAAAA this fic is like my first child, my pride and joy LMAO

so the idea initially came when i was reading some fic, idk if it was even naruto, but i was like “i don't like this, but i do like the rain symbolism.” And I knew i wanted to write something kind of slow paced, something a little sad and angsty, but would show KakaSaku slowly but surely falling in love.

Idk if you’ve noticed but a lot of my fics, the pairings don’t change each other dramatically. They accept each other as they are and then they grow with together. Like that acceptance is something i just love writing, its so subtle, it isn’t something you declare. Its simply “I am going to love you. I am going to love you despite your flaws and faults. I am going to love you unconditionally because I know you, I understand you, and there is nothing you could do to drive me away.”

The fic kind of wrote itself after that first scene. I kept going back to the rain, go being ghosts, and resurrection, and the small epiphanies one gets. I wanted to focus on each character’s growth with each other. They didn’t find light in life because of each other, but with each other. And i think that’s my favorite thing about that fic.

I wanted something raw and real and just something beautiful. I’m actually really proud of it tbh. Would i go back and rewrite/edit it? Oh of course! I’d do that with every single one of my fics, but i’m not gonna cause i think its in its rawest form right now. :))))

ask me shit plz

#silly things from silly friends

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firebunnylover · 3 years

Text

LoSH S2 discussion

I love Legion of Superheroes. And i love season 2, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think about how it could have been improved. In terms of quality, it varies more than season 1. Some parts are top tier while others… eh.

Season 2 is darker than season 1. And there’s the inherent stigmatism that darker means better. But it’s not true.

A horror schlock film is not inherently better than an animated film.

I don’t blame the staff on all its shortcomings. Kids WB was on its deathbed, so they probably had less time to work and iron out ideas. And executive meddling.

The second season had a lot of good elements, but there are things that weighed it down. I am here to discuss how to improve said things.

Heads up: ended up editing part of this post after rewatching the episodes.

This first bit is more of a personal preference, but instead of the 41st century, maybe move the original source of conflict to a farther region of space, one that the UP doesn’t interact with, and has been growing in terms of turmoil until they finally resort to bringing the Legion over. In other words, it has just been put aside by everyone else to the last minute.

Parallel to Brainy’s relationship to Brainiac. He doesn’t want to deal with it. He never brings it up. But maybe if he did, he wouldn’t have gotten corrupted.

This place still has plenty of old documentation of the original age of superman, so Kell is disillusioned with the ideal glory days. Keep Kell Edgy.

Kell’s home and K3NT still gets destroyed - reflects Krypton’s own destruction.

SPEAKING OF KELL:

Make his story more apparent that it’s one realizing that kindness is not an inherent weakness. And neither is being soft. He was raised for fighting and killing Imperiex, and was taught to think that they were weaknesses. Have him realize his identity can be beyond the Clone of Superman made to kill Imperiex. Or rather, have him react more to realizing that he’s moving beyond his given identity.

To clarify; they do address his development in the show a few times, but I want more continuous development instead of the rapid nods we get. Have him try to interact in a more humane way with others. Especially with other members of the Legion. Where they have to take a double take in seeing him acting not that edgy. Maybe offer more flashback of him fighting Imperiex in comparison, and how he treated allies then.

Also put K3NT’s story under the microscope. I doubt Imperiex just came out of nowhere with his attacks. Plus the fact they went far enough to send a hitman after a fucking child? That screams yikes and maybe we need to double check the story.

And an overall issue to be addressed is what rights do robots have and what conditions need to be met? Because let’s face it, we make robots to do complex work for us. But Colu is a culture where the main people ARE robots. Like in Transformers. What line do we draw between non-sentient robots vs the sentient ones in the 31st century? And what about cyborgs/people who give up their original bodies for robotic ones?

Plus Imperiex himself came to be because of the perfected combination of organic tissue and robotics. This topic of robots and individuality/personhood could have been a fun topic to explore.

Don’t sideline the girls. Leave TG alone.

Don’t put SG in a coma for nearly the whole season - seriously it’s the reason why the guys make one bad decision after the other. Although with that said, it’s because she’s not around we got the majority of s2 plots. She’s the goddamn mom of the squad. Just make her busier and unable to keep an eye on her idiot boys for the plots based on bad decisions to happen.

Or have her deal with after-effects of what Esper did to her. Maybe after a whole season of being the emotional support character, have her be the one in need of emotional support or not being able to help directly, especially when the group needs emotional support. Emotional support paradox.

Maybe don’t make Cosmic Boy appear as much as a dick in the episodes where he does show up. He’s trying to hold this goddamn team together, and there’s a goddamn tyrant trying to conquer the galaxy. HE’S FUCKING TIRED AND STRESSED. AND IM SURE THERE ARE A BUNCH OF JERKS WHO WANT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT TO DISSOLVE THE LEGION. Better yet, throw in some more backstory with him and his little brother Pol!

And in regards to Imperiex… The dude has a lot of potential. I like his voice actor, Phil Morris. The guy voiced Dr. Sweets from Atlantis.

But his writing needs help.

In the original DC comics, he’s the embodiment of Entropy. Anyone who’s seen Madoka is probably familiar with what that is. But if you're not, here’s a definition: “ the measure of a system’s thermal energy per unit temperature that is unavailable for doing useful work...” He’s the embodiment of that energy that cannot be used for anything. And Entropy grows over time.

Another definition of what Entropy is “lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.”

In the comics, he’s more of a cosmic being as a result of him being an embodiment of unusable energy. He’s been in existence since, well, the beginning. He had destroyed the universe and recreated it multiple times. Okay, so that lines up with how the show portrays him. And technically, he does get the universe to reset itself in the 41st century when he alters the 31st century enough.

But I personally feel that making him a cosmic being is kinda… meh?

I personally prefer more personal villains most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, an Eldritch being done right makes a great character, but I can’t see Imperiex as one. At least not LoSH’s version.

Plus I like it when the protagonist sees the villain has a point and has changed as a result for the better.

You know, over a year ago, I used to think that it was impossible to make a tyrannical villain who’s presented as real evil seem complex.

And then… I was introduced to TFP Megatron.

Now for you LoSH fans who haven’t watched Transformers Prime, Megatron was once Megatronus. A low caste member who worked in the mines and Gladiator games. He wanted to fix the growing corruption of Cybertron. To make things better.

But his worse personality traits took over, and he lost that good motivation. Now he’s just fighting to win and defeat Optimus Prime.

But despite the change of goals and ideals, he doesn’t want to simply abandon his relationship with Optimus. He and Optimus, or as he used to be called, Orion, were fighting for the betterment of society. And they meant something to each other. Megatron doesn’t want to just get it over with. He wants fanfare for his victory over Optimus. And he doesn’t want anyone else to rob him off that. But he isn’t opposed to getting Optimus/Orion back on his side. It’s because of this you can still argue that there is a remaining shred of good in him.

They were the best young lovers anD NO I AM NOT CRYING OVER THEM!

Also, the fact we know he was part of a minority group in the form of the lower cast that was enslaved can make us sympathize with Megatronus of the past, as well as understand how he came to be.

It doesn’t mean we forgive him for his actions - and he has done a lot of shitty things. And I mean a lot.

But his history is more understandable. TFP Megatron’s a fall from grace.

OK I’m done dissecting TFP Meg’s writing.

We know Imperiex was a slave, and was originally organic, who’s from a society where his purpose is literally just to fight, and was gradually stripped of his original body. He was originally stripped of any agency before then though.

But he says this was a good thing. Calling his original body a weakness. And refers to his old self as a pathetic slave.

He gave up whatever softness he had.

Also, this is where K3NT’s story needs to be reexamined. Imperiex was made during what K3NT described as “A Time of Extended Prosperity”. That time had freaking slaves. And K3NT says that when Imperiex did rise up, they were unprepared. So… they were prosperous, but lacked defense to prevent anything like that happening? Or perhaps those who were in charge were that unpopular that it was easy for Imperiex to start the war.

What made him decide conquering the galaxy was the next thing to do after he had every bit of his original self stripped away? Why go as far as destroy it?

What I’m trying to say is that they could borrow a few pages from the Megatron book. Maybe he was once trying to better the society he was part of, but he decides to play the violent card at some point. And somewhere along that strategy, he starts to lose sight of the initial goal. With that, being the victor and in control becomes the main one.

Or perhaps he has grown cynical of the galaxy as it is and decides it just needs to go all together, and then start from scratch.

Like the second definition of Entropy, he gradually declines in predictability and descends into disorder.

Maybe to juxtaposition the fact that Brainiac became the main threat at the end, make him the opposite or foil to him. Rationality or logic do not serve as first-or-second influences to decisions under pressure. Emotions and his own perceived ideas do.

Speaking of Brainiac, maybe offer more of the OG Brainiac. Give us more of that smooth-voiced Corey Burton.

Or TFA Megatron.

Seductive Bastard.

I’m sorry I have fallen for the shady-business-mafia-boss-but-morally-grey robot.

Also, the members of the legion that only get one episode focus? Give them more screen time. You can’t just introduce superman’s new adopted son Karate Kid and just not bring him for another speaking role again!

Actually, that brings me to another point.

As @spandexinspace pointed out, his episode is not the best, and is arguably the worst written of the whole series. Things that are issues do get brushed off to the side.

So a proposal on potential rewrite:

First, have the legion look over its current rules and what exceptions/changes they need to make.

Explore the subject of kids having to participate in these fights.

To clarify, kid shows are meant to be escapism for kids.

Shocking, I know.

So it makes sense that some characters would be the same age as the viewers.

But while this is good representation, as you get older, you find yourself going “WHY WOULD THE ADULTS LET THEM ENDANGER THEMSELVES?!”

Kids having to fight at that age does have consequences. Batman Beyond certainly addressed it. So did Steven Universe Future.

Steven ended up being responsible for so much, that when he no longer needed to take care of things, he was unsure of who he was. And then there’s the fact he ended up with PTSD because of him having to fight so much. Then you have the fact that Greg and Rose never intended to raise him like their caretakers did... but as good as their intentions were, they still caused damage. Rose for… all the gem stuff. And look, Greg is a great dad, but not enforcing anything for Steven when he’s growing up still has it’s cost.

With Batman, he’s obviously going to do his damn best to keep kids safe, including the Robins. But sometimes, it’s not enough. He wasn’t able to keep Tim safe in the event with the Joker in Batman Beyond. Where he was held captive and tortured.

But the Batkids are never expected to resolve this stuff by themselves. Because Batman knows how much you can get screwed up as a kid. He fucking cares.

And to be fair, in most continuities I’m aware of, the other sidekicks came out pretty okay overall.

Except Jason Todd.

So my proposal?

Have Val originally with Grimbor, as a sort of Protege. But have the legion capture him, only to go “uhhh this is a child with no powers”. And Superman, being the good, wholesome paragon we all love, takes him under his wing.

In all honesty, I want Superman pulling a batdad for Karate Kid in his intro episode the whole time. That was the best part of the episode for me.

Plus after the events of “Cry Wolf”, the Legion should examine the no-killing rule. Because they do need to kill Imperiex to save the universe. But that goes against the code. But they can argue it’s a necessity. But Mar Londo is also a monster. He’s the everyday monster some of us have grown up with.

When do you need to make exceptions to kill someone?

And my final main suggestion:

Add more Mekt.

What the heck were you guys expecting? You all KNOW me by now. I LOVE MY GARBAGE BOY.

Joking aside, here’s what I would do.

Have the Chained Lightning episode pushed back, but have Mekt with Imperiex earlier. Most of us would yell “Why the heck would you join the guy whose main goal is to destroy the galaxy?!” But this is one of the easiest things to address.

Explore more of his past. Use the comic sources with him being outcast for being a solo on Winath. With that in mind, him deciding to side with Imperiex can make sense.

Why try protecting something that has done nothing but hurt you?

There’s actually a pretty good reason why he would side with Imperiex, as seen in Champions and Lightning Storm. Remember, Mekt was willing to cheat to get ahead of the sports competition he was introduced in. And also was thrilled when fighting Garth and was beating him on his own. He likes being in power.

Imperiex offers him that.

As for why Imperiex would bother with Mekt? That’s a little harder to answer. He knows that Mekt has a soft spot for his brother, and in turn sister, which proves to be the reason why the Tachyon Cannon fails. You’d think Imperiex would remove a huge fatality.

But he doesn’t.

Maybe he could hold another type of value for Mekt. Perhaps... nostalgia?

I’m still sold on the idea that they were sleeping together.

Also, give us a conclusive answer on where Mekt stands with the LSV. In the comics, he was the leader, but that role was given to Tyr in the cartoon more or less.

OK I think this has been polished enough for me to post now. What you guys think? Feel free to add on!

#legion of superheroes #legion of super heroes #losh #OH GOD I STARTED THIS IN SEPTEMBER #IT'S FINALLY DONE

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ve1vetyoongi · 5 years

Text

take a sip | jjk

summary: Your best friends engagement party was a dreadful reminder of your painfully barren dating life. That is until you laid eyes on the tattooed waiter who can’t stop staring - after all, the wine tastes sweet but he tastes sweeter.

pairing: jungkook x reader

genre: smut, fluff

au: countryclub!au, waiter!jungkook, rich!reader

word count: 9.4k

warnings: oral (f receiving), unprotected penetrative sex, fingering, multiple orgasms, some dirty talk, (very) soft dom!jungkook, bratty tease oc.

a/n: ITS MY MUHFUCKIN BABY’S BIRTHDAY so i decided to write a lil something to celebrate because i love him with my whole heart shh who said that <3 (p.s this is largely unedited rip excuse any mistakes)

You fell asleep last night so I saw myself out. Thanks for the drinks! — Jungkook.

You crumpled up the note you found folded neatly on your nightstand and dropped it into the trash with a groan.

Another failed attempt at dating. God, you were such an idiot.

Your temples throbbed with the tell tale signs of a hangover, courtesy of a night of reckless drinking at some scummy club that played Top 40 EDM tracks like they were actually good — the drinks were cheap, though, so you put up with the hearing loss more often than you cared to admit.

The words on the note echoed in your head. Last night?

Hazy drunken memories slowly began to piece together, making you wince when you remembered the way you'd clung onto the arm of a dark haired boy in skinny jeans on the dance floor the night before.

How you had shamelessly grinded against him, probably whispering something unnecessarily filthy in his ear.

And even worse, how he had followed your stumbling form out onto the sidewalk, refusing to let you walk through the streets cloaked in night time alone.

"I can call you a cab?" A voice filled with concern.

"My place...'s not far from here..." You had slurred.

What happened next?

He'd insisted on escorting you home, you knew that much. You remembered the way his eyes widened when you stumbled into the lobby of Paradise resort -- the elite residential area your father paid ungodly amounts of money to be a member of -- instructing Jungkook to rummage in your bag for the key card that would let you inside.

"You live here?" He had asked, straightening his simple white T-shirt when he took in the grand chandelier and the classical music humming overhead which boasted the highbrow nature of Paradise, a juxtaposition to the casual setting in which you'd met. You noticed the way he'd ogled your red bottomed shoes, probably putting two and two together now.

"Mmf," you had mumbled into the crook of his neck as he helped you climb the stairs to your suite. "Parents are rich."

You remembered asking him if he wanted a drink and then watching his own hands pour a shot of whisky when yours proved too shaky to get any of the liquid in the glass.

You remembered the tattoo which started at the base of his neck beneath rosy stains from your lipstick, the design curving down his arm and ending in a rose on the back of his hand.

You remembered how said hand felt warm when it cupped your cheek and how his lips were sticky with the sour taste of alcohol when they touched yours in a way that set your body on fire with a craving to never stop.

You remembered how he carried you to your bedroom, face scanning yours with something that looked like concern when the alcohol in your blood stream had you slurring your words. How he laid down next to you, body heat comforting as your eyes fluttered closed.

And you remembered how you fell asleep like that, wrapped up in a near strangers arms before you'd even asked his name.

Jungkook. That must have been it.

He didn't leave his number. Were you even surprised?

Ugh. What did it matter anyway? It wasn't like you were ever going to see the dude again.

While you were popping a painkiller out of the blister packet, swilling your dry tongue with water to get rid of the lingering flavour of vodka that made you want to blanch, you heard your phone buzz nearby.

2:45, Somin: — Are you up? Don't forget my get together tonight. — I can't wait to show you the Pinterest board I made with wedding ideas!!!!

And there it was. The literal headache of your life that no amount of painkillers could soothe.

Your best friend Somin was getting married.

And you were happy for her, you would swear it to your grave...

Another buzz.

2:47, Somin: — P.S. Namjoon will be there 😜 I have a feeling you'll get along great.

You just didn't see why she felt the need to pressure you into following in her footsteps.

"We're getting married!" She had announced one afternoon while you sipped Chardonnay on the sun deck just in time to gaze at the resorts badminton team taking the field for a game from a nearby balcony. She had been hanging off Hoseok's arm all day, a sparkling diamond on her left hand nearly as big as the mushy grin on his face. "Can you believe it?"

"No." You had answered, voice tight and a little too high to give off the I'm-happy-for-you vibes you had hoped for. "I can't believe it."

It was true; Hoseok had been a member at Paradise for as long as you could remember and last time you checked Somin wasn't in any hurry to get married.

Until she learned of Hoseok's six figure income. Eye roll.

After that it was all wedding this and wedding that and when are you getting hitched because it's suddenly socially unacceptable for me to be friends with someone not in a financially convenient marriage.

So that's why you almost said no when Somin had booked you in for a wine tasting session at the resort's most luxurious bar in celebration of the engagement. Sure, you liked drinking the stuff as much as the next person but Somin's mindless gloating about her dashingly handsome CEO boyfriend-turned-fiancé couldn't be drowned out by even the strongest of liqueurs.

Neither could her fruitless attempts at setting you up with Kim Namjoon, Hoseok's rich best friend.

Sure, she liked to think that her intentions were generous, but deep down you knew it was because there was one thing Somin couldn't stand: a smudge on her perfect reputation. And right now, you were the dirty mark she just couldn't clean.

But you promised. To be happy for her and to actually turn up. So you found yourself choking back an excuse invovling your self inflicted headache and dragging yourself to her engagement party despite your reservations.

You could see the distaste on her face when you arrived at the bar ten minutes late, black cocktail dress and fur jacket a far cry from the pretty pink number she'd picked out for you to wear to "impress Namjoon."

Her face darkened even more when you strutted straight past the place marker labelled with your name in her delicate scrawl atop of the seat next to Namjoon himself in favour of slumping down into one of the empty seats beside her at the head of the table.

The truth was you didn't want to date a Namjoon or a Hoseok or any of the other guys swirling aged alcohol in their glasses at the party. You didn't want to be one of the wives hanging off their arms and smiling pretty when they gloated about their business promotions.

Was it too much to want some passion? Something more than a social statement? Maybe you were living in a fairytale you just didn't want to wake up from.

Instead you popped a grape from the intricate table piece displaying a range of wines into your mouth, gathered a deep determined breath and willed the alcohol you were about to pour down your throat to make the night go by faster. Because each time you caught a glimpse of Namjoon your mind drifted back to the pretty boy with tattoos. The one who had held you in his arms and made sure you got home safe and kissed you with a passion unlike anything you'd felt ever before—

"Ma'am? Can I get you anything else?" A formal voice shook you from your thoughts. A voice that sounded strangely familiar.

"Huh?" You started rummaging through your bag, retrieving a cherry red lipstick and a pocket mirror, the tell tale marks on the rim of your glass a sign you needed to touch up.

"I asked if I could get you anything?"

You could see the torso of a young man in the distinct Paradise uniform in your peripheral, barely even glancing in his direction before you were waving him off.

"Im fine, thank you uh, Jeon...Jungkook?"

Your lips curled around the name on his name tag before you could stop yourself.

The lipstick in your fingers clattered to the ground.

It all hit you too quickly, like the breath was sucked out of your lungs. The tattooed forearm that peeked out from beneath the black shirt stretched across his torso, the slightly chapped lips that formed a small 'o' when you locked eyes for the second night in a row.

Except this time you weren't giving him bedroom eyes from across the dance floor and he wasn't ogling your bare legs in the cocktail dress you were wearing because this time it was his hands that shook as he poured wine into your glass and you were expected to tip him generously. Because he was your waiter.

A heat flushed your cheeks and you scrambled to pick up your lipstick but Jungkook was quicker, his hand brushing yours. The contact was brief but you shivered when he pressed the container into your palm.

Jungkook cleared his throat, wiping the shocked expression from his features while you stared at your hand, still processing.

"Better be more careful, ma'am." His voice was formal again, serious. Exactly how a waiter should speak to a customer.

"Y/N." You stammered, daring to look him straight in the eyes for the first time. "My name is Y/N."

Jungkook seemed taken aback, swallowing hard when his gaze dropped to your lips before he was averting his gaze bashfully and pinching the inside of his hand, as if to chastise himself.

Cute.

No! You were not about to admit that he was cute or that were regretting falling asleep last night because goddamn how can one guy have dimples and thighs that look so good in those pants? You resisted throwing your head in your hands and diverted your gaze from his hot cheeks to the tattooed hands which fidgeted at his sides instead.

"What are you doing here?" Your voice was but a whisper, hoping to avoid funny looks from Somin although she seemed engaged in a particularly enthusiastic debate about wedding cake toppers luckily for you.

He started at your voice, seemingly too invested in letting his eyes run over the cleavage which peeked out of the top of your dress to hear you. Huh.

His professional resolve seemed to break. Did he remember last night? He was sober enough surely... "I-I..."

"Excuse me, sir? Do you have any more of that Chateau Margaux? I'd like to taste it again."

The bubble around you and Jungkook popped. His head jerked, attention drawn back to his job and before you could prod him further he was straightening his tie and scurrying across the room in search of some expensive brand of wine.

You took a glug of the liquid in your own glass. Maybe he didn't remember you after all...

You thought back to the way he'd practically done a double take when he saw you. No. He definitely remembered. You could tell by the way he kept glancing up at you from beneath the choppy bangs that covered his eyes, fiddling nervously with the row of black studs littering his ears whenever he thought you weren't looking in his direction.

Everyone around you was engaged in mindless chatter but you were no longer interested, choosing instead to stare over the rim of your glass at the tattooed boy across the room. The Paradise uniform he donned was a far cry from the skin tight leather you'd seen him in last night but you had to admit he still managed to make the black get up look hot.

Maybe he was clumsy or maybe he could feel your eyes on him, a light blush creeping onto his cheeks as he very nearly dropped a crystal wine glass and you had to stifle a giggle, drawing funny looks from the people beside you. You saw a smirk appear on his own lips when he saw how you awkwardly covered the slip with a cough.

The night seemed to drag on as you tried to make small talk with the other guests, desperately trying to ignore the way the waiter's eyes burned into your back. Every moment felt like a fight to focus on Somin's lips as she drawled something about the wine being very dry and you found yourself just nodding where appropriate, too busy remembering how good Jungkook's lips had felt pressed to yours last night.

That's when the idea struck you. It wouldn't be so bad to make it up to him, right? Show him what he missed out on, per se, now that you were marginally more sober. And there was no time like the present...

Perhaps the alcohol had gone to your head. That would be a reasonable explanation for why your head span dizzy with a rush of excitement. For the first time that night you felt something other than utter dread. Something was drawing you to him - something you knew you should just ignore and focus into one of the other more...suitable suitors sitting across from you.

But you couldn't get Jungkook out of your head, especially now he was stood dangerously close to you yet somehow so far away at the same time.

Would it hurt to finish what you'd started the night before?

Oh god, you thought to yourself as you retrieved a pen from your purse, uncapped it and scribbled a note onto a serviette next to the signature Paradise logo. This is a bad idea. The disapproving voice in your head was not enough to stop you from handing the folded napkin to another waiter, a hushed whisper in his ear sending him on his way to the tattooed boy wiping down a table across the room.

You cleared your throat. "I'm going to use the ladies room."

Getting to your feet, the chair scraped across the tile a little too abruptly, drawing everybody at the table from their conversations. The way you folded your napkin was too careful, a ploy to avoid their gazes in fear of giving away your true intentions.

"Wait! I'll come with you." Somin announced, throwing back the red liquid which sloshed at the bottom of her crystal glass. She started to fiddle with the strap of her bag, nearly already on her feet before you were shutting her down hurriedly. Shit!

"No!" You started, Somin's eyes widening as you waved your hands wildly in a gesture for her to sit back down. "I mean, no! You're the host, you can't leave the guests alone at your own party."

"Oh." Somin fell back into her wicker chair, eyebrows still furrowed at your fervent outburst. She looked a tad hurt at your rejection of her company to powder your noses or whatever she assumed you were slipping away to do (the thought of you getting it on with the waiter of all people probably too unimaginable to even cross her mind) but you didn't have time to feel bad about it - besides, she'd probably forget once one of the blonde girls beside her asked whether she planned on honeymooning in Paris or Prague - as Jungkook was unfolding your note, glancing over your scrawl before scanning the room with wide eyes for the sender - you.

"Hello, earth to Y/N?" Somin's voice snapped you out of your vacant stare, momentarily drawn away from checking out Jungkook's ass to stare down at her. "Will you be okay?"

"What? Oh yeah, I'll be fine." You managed to pull your crimson lips into a tight smile, the action appeasing Somin a little when she settled back into her chair, crossing her bare legs under the table. You were in the clear - now you had to make your escape. "The bathroom is just over there." You said simply, considering but resisting an I'll be back before you know it knowing you would probably be a while.

With that you pulled the strap of your designer bag tightly around your shoulder, excusing yourself with a reassuring smile.

Your red bottoms clicked against the tiles in time with your pulse which only quickened when your hand reached the exit, evening air caressing your face as you slipped through - but not before throwing your hair across your bare shoulders, eyes immediately landing on Jungkook as he fidgeted with the napkin between his fingers. The wink you sent him caused a hot flush to creep up his neck, visible even from where you stood and you ensured to sway your hips a little more than usual while his eyes burned into your back.

A few minutes later and you were stood with your knees knocking on the balcony, the door flying open and sending a slightly sweaty, panting Jungkook tumbling straight into you full force. His eyes widened comically, staggering to a stop but not before his arm was curling around the small of your back instinctively to ensure your balance.

His chest ended up flush to yours, palm a little too close to your ass and he looked nearly as shocked as you did, lip pulled between his teeth as he jerked away from you, as if suddenly remembering something. Probably the fact that you had the power to get him fired for touching you indecently without permission - not that you minded, in this instance.

"Ma'am I'm so sorry-"

"Please call me Y/N." You corrected him quickly. "And it's fine. Not as if I've got anywhere better to be."

He looked down at his feet, swallowing thickly as another blush carressed his cheeks. God he was so cute. "I, uh, had to get someone else to run the tables...can I ask you something?"

"If it's about last night then I wanted to talk about it too." You butt in before he can finish.

You practically heard him gulp at that, looking past you as if meeting your gaze might turn him to dust or something. "Why do you even want to talk to me now you know that I — you know — work here?"

A flirty smile tugged at your lips, your arm brushing against his a little. "I think you know why I want to talk to you."

He coughed anxiously in response, tugging his arm away to interlock it with his other behind his back like they tell the workers here to do, scuffing his black shoes in the gravel.

"Did I..did I do something wrong?" He looked startled." I really need this job so if there's anything I can do to make it up to you.."

You cut him off. "No! Of course not-" You tilted your head, thinking your next words through carefully. "Honestly? I'm the one who should be saying sorry for last night."

His head tilted, confused. "Why? You didn't know who I was so I'm the one in the wrong-"

"It's not that!" He twisted the rings on his fingers, still not soothed. "I'm embarrassed because I had way too much to drink and you were still nice enough to take me home."

"Oh." He scratched his neck, shaking his head with a smile. "Don't be embarrassed, it's the least I could do."

"Well I am," You persisted. "And I wanted to say sorry..."

"Not necessary," He insisted. "I had a good time with you, actually."

"You know, I wanted to kiss you goodnight. Before I fell asleep, like an idiot..." You began to close the space between you. Here goes.

"What?" He smirked cheekily. He seemed to be getting a little more comfortable, the small talk making him forget your social differences. "Are you gonna show me what I missed out on?

"Precisely."

"Wha-"

And with that you placed both hands on his shoulders, no time to acknowledge how broad and strong they felt beneath your touch before your lips were pressing tentatively against his own. You felt him tense beneath you, breath hitching as your teeth grazed his bottom lip.

His reaction was not what you were expecting — his arms pressed to his sides firmly, eyes wide and stiff as his lips stayed still against your advance. You pulled away quickly.

Jungkook's fingertips grazed his lips and you took a step back, allowing a little more breathing space. You turned sheepish. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't have done that."

A few beats of silence followed and it was as if all the confidence you possessed previously melted away into a pitiful puddle beneath your heels. God this was so embarrassing.

Not only had you kissed one of the waiters but he didn't even want to kiss you back.

You fiddled with the fur around your shoulders, desperate to hide your shame. Jungkook was still stood like a statue, mouth open in a small 'o' as he gawked at you.

Clearly you read the signs wrong and he wasn't interested. Idiot.

"I'll be going now." You spun on your heels, tears threatening to prick your eyes with sheer embarrassment at your misjudgement.

"N-no!" Jungkook rushed forward, taking hold of your elbow, forcing you to meet his gaze. "It's not that I don't want to..."

Your interest perked up at this. "Then what?"

"It's just...why do you want to? You know.."

"What?"

"K-kiss me." A small smile graced your lips when he stuttered over the word. Anybody would think he'd never kissed somebody before. "I-I mean, you're you and I'm...me." He looked clueless as if the idea of you wanting him was completely off the cards batshit crazy. It was, in some ways, you supposed.

"You didn't mind last night." You mumbled.

"That was before you knew who I was."

"And you think I would have asked you to come back here if I cared about that?" You studied his face properly for the first time. The quirk of his brow at your question, the way the corners of his mouth twitched cutely and his eyes, staring at you firmly for the first time then.

"I guess not..." He swallowed before squaring his shoulders. As if he was telling himself a mantra. Be confident. "Can you kiss me again?"

You took a step forward again, enjoying the way he shivered lightly when your hand traced up his arm.

Jungkook's lips were parted now, his tongue snaking out to wet their chapped surface. His hands twitched, desperate to reach out and touch you but never quite gathering the confidence to do so; you admired his self control - you weren't sure you would be able to stop yourself from touching him everywhere now he said you could.

With a deep breath you stood on your tiptoes. He was a few foot taller than you, his lips a fair distance from your own until your were closing the gap, his eyelashes fluttering closed against your cheeks this time as you pressed your mouth flush to his in a kiss rougher than the last.

Jungkook's lips moved against yours immediately this time, slotting the damp flesh of his bottom lip between yours. You couldn't help but tug on it a little with your teeth, enjoying the way he sighed into your mouth when you did so.

He was still being careful, treating you as though you were a piece of the fine china he polished eight times a day upstairs. You grabbed both of his hands, placing them firmly at the small of your back and letting out a breathy laugh when he immediately began to rub circles with his thumbs into the flesh of your hips. He was just waiting for the opportunity, willing to give the attention you craved if you allowed him to.

Your own hand had snaked up the back of his neck, tentatively tangling in the hair at the nape and angling his head to crash against yours harder than before.

You could feel yourself getting lost in the heady aroma of his woody cologne, a warmth you recognised as lust pooling in your stomach when he drew you flush against his chest.

His warm skin scorched yours, sticky lips sliding against yours a little too lewdly for the public setting - despite your current predicament you weren't one for PDA - and you found it hard to pull back for air, his forehead coming to rest against yours, panting as you admired his reddened, swollen lips.

"Is there anywhere we can go that's more private?" You managed to get out between laboured breaths, hand coming to cup his cheek gently as he nodded a little too eagerly, knocking your heads together. He bowed his head, apologising bashfully as he removed himself from your hold.

"Y-yeah." He stammered, making you giggle at his awkwardness. "I think I know a place."

His eyes dropped to your hand, as if debating whether he had the balls to take it and before long he was nodding decisively and lacing his fingers with your own firmly. His palm was clammy, testament of your effect on him but he squeezed tightly anyway, dragging you behind him around the back of a bar and into a little back room labelled VIP’S ONLY.

The room was cool enough to have the hairs raising on your arms, glass cases filled with rows of chilled wine bottles lining the walls. You realized this must be one of the private rooms which country club members booked out if they wanted to share a few drinks with a little more privacy.

"Nobody comes down here unless we get a special request." Jungkook asserted as he fiddled with the light.

The place was plush, typical of Paradise - a faux fur rug on the ground, even its own chandelier - and of course, two chairs around a table, already set up with matching glasses, as if someone had been expecting you to wander in here with a good looking waiter. Perfect.

You discarded your jacket and reached for a bottle of red on the middle shelf, the glass cold to the touch. It looked expensive. You would have to add it to the bill upstairs. "Care for a drink-"

You were expecting an answer but Jungkook wasn't listening, his hands wrapping around your wrists and pressing you against the shelves with an audible thump, the bottles rattling precariously but you were too focused on the way Jungkook scanned your face hungrily to care.

It was as if he couldn't wait any longer, the grip keeping your arms suspended enough to bruise; his broad chest wracked with his laboured breath, your own body squirming beneath him as he hovered over you and effortlessly made your legs turn to jelly.

Then his lips were on you; everywhere and anywhere they could find an expanse of skin, mouthing harshly at your exposed collar bones and then your neck before nibbling gently at your jaw and drawing a breathless whine from your lips when his tongue slipped out to sooth the grazes left by his teeth.

You couldn't take the teasing any longer, tilting your head so his lips were in line with yours and he wasted no time in connecting them.

Unlike before he took control, crushing your lips with desperation. When you felt his hot tongue slip into your mouth you practically melted against him, a damp throb appearing between your legs. He tasted of whisky and grape and you already found yourself addicted.

Jungkook was already out of breath, panting lightly into your mouth when he let go of your hands in favour of allowing them to curl around his neck, crushing his chest against yours close enough to feel the way your heart was hammering.

Jungkook let his hands trail down your sides, touch firm as they edged closer and closer to the curve of your ass. The action had you writhing, willing him to just hurry up and touch you like you could tell he wanted to but he hesitated when you let out a frustrated moan into his mouth, clearly mistaking it for discomfort.

"Sorry," He ripped his hands away, resting them more modestly on your waist. He was blinking at you now, somewhat shy again, the way he drank your bare legs in hungrily the only evidence of the rougher Jungkook from before. "Got carried away. 's cause you look so pretty."

You practically flushed at this. His choppy fringe was covering his eyes, but the dark arousal was still evident in them, even if his lidded gaze was cautious. His lips were smudged with your red lipstick and you imagined yours were not in any better condition.

"I liked it." You assured him, trying your best to calm the waver in your voice by biting your lip as seductively as humanly possible when your head was spinning with the scent of his woody cologne and lust, tracing your hands down his arms encouragingly and removing them from your hips to guide them beneath the hem of your skin tight dress to cup the flesh of your ass directly this time.

His hands were burning hot against your bare skin, a delicious contrast to the cold wine cooler against your back. Jungkook shuddered above you, letting out a groan - an actual one, not like the choked ones he'd been suppressing until now - unable to stop his swollen lips from bumping against yours again and you smirked into the kiss mischievously knowing you had found a chip in his resolve. "You're not too bad yourself, by you way."

"Shit." Jungkook gasped, hot breath mingling with yours, torso shifting uncomfortably. Although he seemed desperate to hide the growing arousal in his pants, the noises that left his mouth weren't doing much to conceal it — and as soon as you rolled your hips up to brush your own crotch against his momentarily he was falling apart, knuckles turning white as he staggered to grip the shelf above you like his life depended on it. "Ah s-shit!"

You rolled your hips again, enjoying the way his head fell into the crook of your neck. He hissed into your hair every time his bulge brushed against the cotton of your panties, his length rock hard in his pants to the point you considered it may be painful.

"You're already this hard?" You managed to get out between a small moan of your own as his hips stuttered into action, meeting your thrusts in a way that put pressure directly on your clit which was pulsating by now.

"Can't help it." he admitted, squeezing his eyes shut and focusing on the feeling of his cock circling your clothed heat, desperate to get any relief.

He was lost to the feeling and you took advantage of his lowered guard by flipping him over and slotting yourself between his legs, pulse racing when you caught the look of surprise on his face. Never allowing your body to stop moving you were diving for his neck with an instinct nearly primal, leaving open mouthed kisses down the centre. His adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, choking back a strangled moan when you found his sweet spot - just behind his ear - and began sucking at it teasingly.

So he was a sucker for neck kisses, huh? Interesting.

You couldn't help but feel proud that you managed to get him to practically melt beneath you, his hands grabbing at your dress in any attempt to pull you closer to his body, as if you weren't already grinding on his hard cock with your mouth latched onto his neck intent on leaving a mark. Your heart swelled every time he let out a little gasp, pleased it was you making him fall apart so easily.

You removed yourself from his neck, looking up at him through your lashes as you let your fingers trail down his stomach, the ache in your heat intensifying when you felt the toned muscles of his abs beneath his shirt. Your fingers found the button of his pants, fiddling with it until the warmth of his big palms covered yours, grip firm enough to stop your ministrations entirely. You furrowed your eyebrows, confused. "You don't want me to?"

"God no, fuck I do," Jungkook managed to stammer. His voice was thick with lust, the huskiness making your core throb for attention. "Jus' wanna make sure you do, that's all."

You smiled at the way his lips parted cutely, scanning your face for any sign of hesitation. You pushed his hands away, palming him through his trousers and returning to your previous ministrations by making quick work of his pants button. "Believe me I want to." You confirmed before untucking his shirt, allowing your hands to roam beneath it. His breath hitched when your fingers explored his bare skin for the first time, smirking at the way he tensed beneath your touch.

Jungkook licked his lips in anticipation, eyes trained to the hand slipping beneath the waistband of his boxers. The whine that left his lips when your hand finally wrapped around his cock had you rubbing your legs together, panties sticky against your sensitive folds. Jungkook's head lolled back against the shelf, eyes squeezed shut as you ran your hand up his length once and then twice. His pants were pulled down enough to expose the reddened head of his cock, clit pulsing as it twitched when your palm smeared the wetness that gathered there down his shaft.

"F-fuck," Jungkook got out between gritted teeth. "Feels so good."

Your core was practically dripping by this point, desperate for any relief, hole clenching around nothing when your hips tried to grind against something, anything to no avail.

Jungkook must have noticed the way your bit your lip in frustration, wasting no time trying to offer you some much needed relief by hooking a hand beneath your knee, encouraging your leg to wrap around his waist and sending you straight on to his semi-clothed cock.

You both let out a groan when your panty clad core began to move in circles against his nearly bare length, your sensitive clit finally getting some attention.

You reached between your bodies to wrap your hand around his length again, using the palm of your hand to massage the swollen head in time with the roll of your hips. Jungkook's face fell into your shoulder, muffling a strangled moan next to your ear. "I'll c-cum if you keep this up, fuck."

His words went straight to your heat, eyes fluttering shut and pace turning sloppy as you lost yourself to the feeling of his length slipping up and down your sopping slit, the blunt end of his cock so close to your needy hole that he could fill you right up if you just moved your panties to the side, a visible wet patch appearing on the cotton as the action made the fabric cling to your folds.

"I want you so bad," Your words slurred, brain completely clouded by arousal and everything Jungkook - the way his hands gripped your hips firmly, guiding you through the motions, the way his lips let out hot gasps of air against your neck with every twist of your hand, the way his cock was already leaking needily against your palm. "Fuck."

"P-please," Jungkook muttered huskily, nibbling in the lobe of your ear. "I can't — please just let me..." His sentence drew out into a low moan when you squeezed his cock, halting your movements in favour of looking up at his fucked out expression.

"What?" You were curious now. His cheeks were rosy, breath quickening when you pulled back and allowed him to look between you at where your hand was wrapped around his shaft, then back up to your expression which you were aware was probably just as fucked out as his. Truth be told you would let him do literally anything he wanted to right now, let him have you in any way but you needed to hear him say it first. "Let you what?

Jungkook licked his lips, hips bucking up lightly into your hand that still didn't budge. Cute. "Let me taste you — fuck please."

The words alone nearly sent you over the edge, clit throbbing at the thought of feeling his lips around it, mouth forming a small 'o' as Jungkook finally let go of all his shyness. "O-oh — fuck okay."

Your mouth was dry, legs putty under his lustful stare. Permission was all it took for him to snap, sweeping you up of the ground with his palms under your ass, legs naturally curling around his waist. He grunted when your fingers tangled in his hair, tilting his head back to connect your lips in a heated kiss while he stumbled to throw you down roughly on the table.

"You're driving me crazy, you know that?" Jungkook never left your lips as he hovered over your body, encouraging you to lay flat against the surface beneath you. His arms slid up your waist to find your arms, pinning them next to your head harshly. "Leave 'em there."

You did as he said, enjoying this bossy side of Jungkook. Before he was cautious, eager to please you but careful not to scare you away; now he was too far gone to care, desperate to get you out of your clothes and wreck you as quickly as he could, all worries dissipating when his hands roamed across the swell of your breasts.

His large palms cupped your tits through your dress, though the low cut didn't leave much to the imagination, your hardened nipples visible through the fabric. The way you bit back a moan as his fingers brushed the hardened buds made the corners of his lips turn up slightly though it was quickly replaced by an open mouthed gawk when he got the spaghetti straps down your shoulders and pulled down the front of your dress.

"No bra?" He spluttered, wide eyed.

"N-nope." The hitch in your voice as he cupped your breasts skin-on-skin was unmistakable.

"F-fuck." He whispered, taking in the way you squirmed beneath him every time his thumb stroked your hardened nipple. He looked almost amazed at the effect he was having on you. "You're so hot shit." That came as more of an unconscious after thought, his mouth already latched onto your nipple and flicking it sinfully with his tongue before you could respond.

His hand snaked between your legs, dragging up and down your inner thighs a few times before finally settling on your core. His thumb slipped beneath your panties, finding your clit immediately making you keen at the sudden contact. He rubbed firm circles into the swollen bud, getting you to squirm as you finally found some relief from the needy pulse in your core.

Jungkook's finger gingerly teased your swollen entrance, feeling the way it clenched in anticipation as you panted, desperate to be filled in any way. "Please, Jungkook." His eyes met yours and you could tell he didn't have the strength to tease, your begging enough to have him pushing one of his digits inside you to the knuckle, almost as if he couldn't resist it any longer himself.

"Oh," You couldn't help but whimper when he curled his finger inside you, dragging agonisingly slowly against your velvety walls. "So good - more p-please."

Before you could adjust to the feeling, Jungkook was circling a second finger at your entrance. The slow slide inside had you panting, both digits stretching you open a little more as Jungkook upped his pace so that the lewd sounds of your wetness echoed throughout the vault.

It wasn't long before you felt Jungkook's hot breath against your thigh, his free hand spreading your legs as far as he could. He wasn't on his knees for a near second before his fingers were leaving you despite your whine of protest when your core was once again left with the feeling of emptiness.

Jungkook encouraged you to lift up your ass so he could pool your dress at your waist, now allowing him full access to the place you needed him most. His fingers gently toyed with the waistband of your panties, eyes darting across your nearly bare core like a man starved although he needed reassuring before he could see you completely. "Fuck, just take them off already."

"O-okay." Jungkook sped into action, dragging the cotton down to your ankles and finally taking in your bare heat, letting out a whimper when you gasped at the cold air against your swollen clit.

"Fuck you're so wet." There he was, wide eyed Jungkook back again as he drank in the sight of your dripping heat but you didn't have time to think about how goddamn cute he was before he was lapping a flat stripe up your slit, head falling back against the table with a whine instead. "Mmf tastes so good."

"It's y-you who got me like this." You managed to stammer between laboured breaths when his pointed tongue began to target your clit, the sensation almost too much to handle, your legs determined to close around his head if it weren't for his fierce grip around your thighs keeping them open.

"Me?" Jungkook sounded breathless, hot breath ghosting across your dripping folds and making you shiver. "God I want to see you cum on my tongue."

The hot throb between your legs only intensified hearing Jungkook speak with a new found confidence, the glint in his darkened eyes conveying his determination to make you come undone with just his mouth. And judging by the way your breath hitched every time he teasingly grazed his teeth across your needy clit it wouldn't take much. "I'll come just listening to you talk if you don't — oh."

Jungkook didn't wait for you to beg even though you would have if he'd asked you to, instead throwing your legs over his shoulders, pads of his fingers attacking your clit and prodding against your clenching entrance with his tongue. You were writhing again as soon as you felt him push inside, unable to keep your hands pressed to the table any longer and instead finding your fingers twisting into his curls to encourage him to keep going.

"Fuck right there," you panted when he pushed a finger into your heat, the way it curled against your sweet spot combined with the feeling of his tongue lapping noisily at your clit enough to have you tugging his roots mercilessly. " 'm gonna cum—"

The coil in your stomach was tightening rapidly and you could feel your high approaching, a few more flicks of his tongue all it would take to have you coming undone, you were sure of it.

Jungkook's hand slid up your body to fondle your breasts greedily, his fingers twisting your nipples painfully slow in comparison to the way his mouth devoured your slit. The sudden pleasure made you writhe and he had to use his other hand to hold you against his tongue, snorting when you whined a little louder than you wanted to.

"Want you to cum for me so bad," he coaxed, tongue getting sloppy now as he opted to pull your clit between his lips instead, sucking obscenely, the motion enough to tip you over the edge with a cry. Your power of your high had tears spilling down your cheeks, thoughts wiped of anything other than the way your legs shook with your release and Jungkook's thumb stroking your hip encouragingly. "That's it, let me see you cum."

Your hands pressed him against your folds firmly and he moaned into your mound - at your neediness or at your hole clenching deliciously around the fingers that still pumped into you throughout your high you couldn't tell - but the vibrations were almost too much against your sensitive clit.

"Fuck Jungkook, I can't ugh." Your fingers found the collar of his shirt, pulling him upwards until he was face to face with you again. The sight of his lips glistening with your arousal was enough to kick start another bout of lust pooling in your stomach, the way his tongue cheekily swiped as much of it from around his lips making you dizzy with want for him - all of him.

"You're pretty when you cum." He spoke softly, still trying to regain his breath as he hovered over you. You must have appeared as speechless as you felt - a testament to his ability to give earth shattering orgasms with just his tongue - and it made him furrow his brow, eyes darting away from yours bashfully. "W-was that good for you?"

You connected your lips to his in a reassuring peck, the tang of your own arousal mixing with the wine which still lingered on your tongue from earlier. "Fucking incredible."

A smile spread across his features at your confirmation, knuckle wiping away the tear of pleasure that streaked your cheeks. You couldn't help but return his grin, slowly dragging your hands down his chest until they reached the hem of his shirt.

"Wait!" Jungkook tensed. "W-we can stop now if you don't wanna..."

"But I do want to," Nipping at his neck had him shuddering in your grasp. "Need to. So bad." You got out between kisses across his cheek, getting ever closer to his sticky lips.

"Sure?" Jungkook's hands came to cover yours, gently guiding you to raise his shirt like you were itching to do. Anything to see him. "I'm happy to just get you off."

"Fuck, why are you always the one being nice to me?"

His shirt was around his neck by now, muffling his breathy laugh as he shook the garment off. "I think I'm the real winner here after that."

You leaned back onto your elbows in an effort to drink him in - the real him, not the him covered by a baggy uniform - his broad shoulders, the tattoo that curved across his shoulder, tiny waist dipping into a perfect V at the hem of his pants. "I'm definitely sure."

If you didn't know better he was unsure of your prolonged stare, almost looking as if he wanted to wrap his arms around his chest to hide from your gaze. In all truth you were just glad to not be the only one who was exposed, reminded all too suddenly that you were semi naked, core on display for him.

He seemed to remember too, zoning in on your tits and groaning when you pressed your hardened nipples to his chest skin on skin. "I can't believe how hot you are." His warm hands cupped your chin. "Can't believe you're letting me see you like this."

"Me neither," You breathed, Jungkook's eyes widening. "How hot you are I mean."

His adam's apple bobbed when you managed to shimmy his trousers down his thighs, pupils dilated with anticipation or need you couldn't tell.

"Let me suck you?" You had to resist licking your lips, mouth nearly drooling at the thought of returning the favour and wrapping your mouth around his hard length. He had felt heavy and long in your palm earlier and you had to swallow thickly to ignore the way your core throbbed at the thought of his hot cock fucking your mouth mercilessly.

"I-I don't think I'll last if I feel your mouth." Jungkook's hand cupped his bulge through the fabric of his boxers, hissing at the contact.

"Are you sure?" Your fingers clasped his wrist, bringing his hand to your lips and fluttering your lashes at him innocently when you wrapped your tongue around two of his digits. They still tasted of you and the thought alone had a moan caught in his throat and you knew you had broken him when he pushed his throbbing length against your leg, desperate for some relief.

"Shit, that's so hot." Voice barely a whisper, mouth agape as he studied the way you guided his fingers in and out of your mouth messily. "But I nearly came just from eating you out so —"

You sighed with mock exasperation. "Then just fuck me."

"F-fuck you? Now?" The surprise in his tone at your request was almost comical. As if he hadn't just eaten you out on this very table and fucking you was somehow crazy in comparison.

You traced the head of his cock through his boxers with your fingertip teasingly, holding back a moan at the wet patch which appeared on the front of the fabric. His breathing was almost as ragged as yours, hips lightly bucking into the contact. "I wanna cum with you inside me."

Jungkook's eyes bulged, a groan leaving his throat. "I-I can do that."

"Good." You let your lips connect, biting down on his lower one cheekily. "Be a good boy, hm?"

Jungkook's eyes squeezed shut and he let out a shaky breath when he covered your hand with his larger one, guiding it under the waistband of his boxers which quickly joined his trousers around his ankles. He hissed when you smacked his hand away, finally able to stroke his length properly.

"Fuck I need to be inside you right now." He stammered, palm squeezing your shoulder tightly as he tried to control his breathing when you twisted your palm around the sensitive tip of his cock. "I won't last otherwise."

You let up your unrelenting pace on his length and he let out a sigh of relief. He must have been really holding back huh? You bit your lip when you felt him pulse in your palm, your entrance clenching in anticipation for what was to come. He felt girthy and you nearly whined at the thought of how good he would stretch you out. How good it would feel to finally have him filling you up like you wanted.

"Please." You felt him spread your legs as far as he could, his hand replacing yours at the base of his cock. He stroked himself a few times as he drank in the way you shuddered beneath him, core soaking and completely on display for him.

"Look at you," He murmured huskily. "All pretty and spread out for me."

"F-fuck Jungkook, what are you-"

Jungkook ran the head of his cock up and down your slit agonisingly slow, a gasp leaving you when the action provided some much needed relief to your pulsing clit before he was circling your entrance teasingly. "Want me to be a good boy huh?"

His eyes were darker than ever before, utterly consumed by lust and the way they bore into yours made you writhe. "Please I need to feel you, ugh."

Jungkook put pressure on your clit again, leaving your hole feeling emptier than ever. "Would a good boy do this hm? Tease you like you tease me?"

"No - ah!" The head of his cock slipped into your entrance, arousal dripping down your ass now in anticipation for the full thing. As much as you tried to push back onto him, slide down his shaft and feel him fill you completely, he was unrelenting. You had to admire his self control considering the way his cock twitched against your heat gave away just how close he was.

"Y-you never even looked at me before today," Jungkook breathed, hips stuttering with a desparation to sink into your velvet heat. You tried to reach between your legs in an attempt to relieve the ache in your clit but Jungkook was too quick, pinning your wrist to the table. "But now look at you, about to cum around my cock yeah?"

"Mmf, please Jungkook I need you." You gave in, begging now. "Need you so bad oh my god—"

"That's more like it." And then he was sinking into you, slow enough to feel every ridge of him drag against your velvety walls. Once he bottomed out he let his face fall into the crook of your neck, completely lost to the feeling of you clenching around him. "So tight, fuck."

"Move!" You pleaded, scratching at his bare back. He obliged, hips snapping back until he was almost falling out of you before he was sliding back in again, both grunting at the feeling of him finally stuffing you full.

Hearing the way he slid in and out of you so easily, the squelching sound audible over his thighs slapping against your ass every time he bottomed out made you even more eager to take as much of him as you could, twisting your hips to meet his thrusts and making him groan when he saw the way your face twisted with a desperate pleasure.

"Want me that bad baby?" The pet name made your heat pulse. Jungkook hooked his arm beneath your knees, pulling your legs together above him, the action making your entrance even tighter than before and allowing him to hit deeper than ever, the head of his cock brushing your sweet spot with every stroke. "S-so fucking close." He stuttered.

You managed to open your eyes, taking in the way his long hair stuck to his forehead, beads of sweat glistening across his tattooed chest as he focused all his attention on ramming himself inside your pussy with a roughness you didn't think he was capable of. You weren't sure you'd be able to walk once he was done with you but it felt too good to beg him to stop.

Jungkook felt the way you clenched around his rock hard member, confirming you were just as close to a second high. He began to roll his hips upwards, his pubic bone grinding against your clit with every thrust of his cock and by that point you were lost to the pressure building in the pit of your stomach.

"Gonna cum again for me?" Junkook's lips brushed against your ear lobe, hot breath making you shudder. "G-going to fill you up so good, fuck." He was just muttering to himself now, earlier shyness lost to the feeling, filthy words turning you on even more knowing the fact.

"Mmf gonna c-cum." You managed to stammer between thumps of your heart.

"What will your friends think when they see you've been fucked out nice and good?" A strangled moan left him at the mere thought. "My cum dripping down your legs? Ah!"

That was all it took to have you cumming around his length, vision turning black as you felt the tension in your core finally release, his hips stuttering as he found his own release deep inside your pussy, the feeling of him filling you up making you whimper with oversensitivity.

Jungkook's pants were hot against your neck and you pulled him to your face by the collar, smirking when he struggled to move his lips against your own, still completely lost to the blissful feeling of his cock softening inside you.

"T-too sensitive." You mumbled against the corner of his mouth when he wriggled his hips, his eyes snapping open and scanning your face for discomfort before he was slipping out of you with a small gasp.

He took your face into his palms, planting one last kiss to your swollen lips before he was giving you a bashful lopsided smile. "Sorry I uh, got a little carried away."

The way he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly made your brain scream cute, cute, cute, before you were returning his grin. "I liked it."

He seemed surprised. "Y-you did?"

"Mmm." You shimmied your dress back down around the curve of your ass, shamelessly ogling Jungkook's naked torso as he buttoned his trousers back around his waist. "Couldn't you tell how hard I came?"

"Not as hard as I did!" The words sounded a little too eager and Jungkook sucked in a breath, dropping his shirt before it could even make it around his shoulders and making his red cheeks burn harder. "I've kinda uh...noticed you for a while now. Like before we met at the club..." He admitted.

Cute but the implications of his words made you wince. Why did you only just notice me?

You were eager to put him at ease. "Well, you definitely made a good first impression." That made him smile a little. "How about a sorry gift? For keeping you waiting?"

"What?" He asked cheekily. "You gonna give me a tip or something?"

"I didn't think of that," You mused. Instead you picked up your soiled panties, slipping them into the back pocket of his trousers with a flirty smile. "Maybe next time."

"N-next time?"

#btssmutclub #bts smut #jungkook smut #jungkook fanfiction #bts #jungkook imagine #jungkook scenario #happy birthday jungkook!#my writing #fic: take a sip

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beneaththetangles · 3 years

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First Impression: The Heike Story

The setting is medieval Japan in an era where a loose word against the local lord can cost you your life—or that of your family member, as young Biwa learns tragically in the opening moments of this episode. The child has heterochromia, a fairly common visual trope in anime, but this particular case of the condition of mismatched eye colors is not purely aesthetic, and Biwa’s struggles with her eye are far more deadly than the anxiety that Ai suffered in Wonder Egg Priority. No, when Biwa covers her naturally-colored brown eye, her pale blue right eye is filled with visions of the future, and it seems that all she ever sees is death. After wandering for an undisclosed amount of time disguised as a boy minstrel, the self-named Biwa (a name chosen after the instrument she plays) encounters a lord, Shigemori, who also possesses a special eye, though his powers of sight are weaker than hers and his eye coloring less pronounced. He is determined to win Biwa’s trust because she has seen the destruction of his clan, the Heike, and he is hoping to persuade her to help him avert their disastrous future which, although he has not seen with his own sight, he has been able to anticipate according to the unavoidable fact that all tyrants fall and his clan are becoming tyrannical. They were responsible, after all, for killing Biwa’s father. And so begins a tale of found family and family feud; of politicking and intrigue, poetry and coming of age; of special abilities and the limits of power; and potentially of the healing of one little girl’s heart.

Shigemori, Biwa and her, um, biwa. And the two maids who have to deal with her fleas and ill manners. Ora ora!

I have so much to say about this premiere episode and all of it is very, very good. Let’s begin with the most striking feature of this episode: the cinematography. It’s not very often that cinematography stands out so startlingly in anime, but it does here, rendering what otherwise might be a throwaway opening shot of a butterfly into a poem on the profundity of stillness. Naoko Yamada (K-On, A Silent Voice, Liz and the Blue Bird) has long since been recognized for bringing a uniquely cinematographic quality to her directorial work. Indeed, she aspired to be a filmmaker before joining KyoAni as an inbetweener and sky-rocketing up the ranks to become one of, if not the, youngest female director in the industry. If you appreciate the details of camera angle, framing, deep focus, delicate character acting, lighting, and other features of filmmaking, you will enjoy this series.

Framing, shifting focus, and the juxtaposition of narcissus in bloom and the late snowfall are just some of the details that make this such a cinematic and poetic work.

The story itself is based on the Japanese medieval epic, Heike Monogatari, the tale of bloody conflict between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the Genpei War of 1180-85 that was translated recently into modern Japanese by Hideo Furukawa. The story has served as inspiration for many forms of cultural expression in Japan for centuries, including woodblock prints. I mention these because the art style of the anime strongly recalls the woodblock prints or ukiyo-e of the 17th-mid-19th centuries, the most famous of which (for a Western audience) would be Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. The colors are rich but with minimal shading, yet with a textured finish reminiscent of ink on thick vellum or watercolor paper that softens the shadowless kagenashi technique. The linework is clear and light, and the character designs a sort of modernized take on the stylized figures of the woodblock prints of the Edo period. Kensuke Ushio’s musical score likewise combines modern rock elements with the traditional sounds of the biwa and shamisen in an unexpected yet evocative way.

Aoi Yuuki works her usual magic with Biwa, managing to inject an already expressive, independent little girl with an extra helping of gumption and winsome grumpiness. This first episode has done a great deal to set up a range of distinct personalities and relationships that are going to be both hilarious and heart-warming to watch play out.

This has been my most most anticipated series of the season, and possibly the year (despite the Cold War level top secrecy about the project! Nary a whisper of its existence until just a couple of weeks ago!), and it looks set not to disappoint. Yamada and Ushio are my anime power team, my OTP of anime creators, and it’s wonderful to see them working together again, and alongside veteran collaborator Reiko Yoshida (who has written all the good things), no less. I am a little concerned that the dynamic trio have shifted studios from KyoAni to Science SARU, but the latter has done some beautiful work in the past (Ping Pong the Animation, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Ride Your Wave) so my hopes remain high that The Heike Story will become a favorite for years to come.

Also looking forward to this dude (not Shigemori) getting his comeuppance!

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The Heike Story can be streamed on Funimation. Oh, and did I mention that we’re getting it an entire season before Japan?!? Well, we are. Thanks, Funi!

#Anime #First Impressions #The Heike Story #Heike Monogatari #Fall Anime 2021 #Articles #Author: Claire

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herotheshiro · 3 years

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so i reread all of behind the desks today lol bc i was thinking abt it last night as i was going to sleep, and also fully read through the epilogue chapters which i don’t think i had done before. which means i read through all of the plot points all at once this time around. i think my thoughts for this readthrough might end up being the length of a regular post so i’m just writing up a new post instead of reblogging my old review of this manhwa. obviously spoilers for the story below the cut

again i like this manhwa mainly bc of 2 things:

i like the juxtaposition of young’s obviously manipulative language with taesung’s innocent language that also sounds suspiciously the same. obviously you know taesung has positive intentions and isn’t a controlling freak like young but it’s such an interesting way to depict the aftermath of an abusive relationship and the difference in intentions despite the same words even though in retrospect that probably wasn’t what the author was trying to do. unless... ?

sunny seo as a character!! on the surface he definitely seems to fall under the standard BL uke tropes of being clumsy and looking pretty and stuck in a love triangle as the shared obj of affection but from the very beginning you already know he’s not a pushover but he just seems like that bc he doesn’t really have or express strong opinions. a lot of BLs tend to have the shared obj of affection be like oh nooo i can’t pick bw the 2 of them... but i mean from the start sunny doesn’t want to be w young and his fear of backlash and change is what motivates his secret-keeping from taesung... also throughout the story they imply that he’s a good match for taesung who canonly likes action stuff by being someone who actually likes high-energy activities/vibes. tl;dr sunny is generally a good character who also has a lot of foreshadowing done for him to reveal aspects of his personality that contribute to the story

anyway onto my thoughts that i had during this specific readthrough

jaeyoon. anyone who read my prev review for this manhwa knows that i had beef w how they used him during the conclusion to young and sunny’s relationship. i now realize that maybe they DID actually give him a face reveal during his wedding when young and sunny split off to chat with a friend each and the friend who spoke to sunny was actually jaeyoon himself... BUT YOU GOTTA FUCKING SAY THAT!! i suspected they were the same guy bc of the hair color and them always hiding jaeyoon’s face until that “random” moment where they give this character who looks like him a face but like i was never sure... no offense to the author or anything but i think you have to put in-text that it’s jaeyoon and not assume readers will know based on your art that it’s him... there are too many side characters who show up so it’s not like we’ve ONLY seen taesung/sunny/young so far so now this 4th person who shows up has to be jaeyoon... i mean maybe other readers ID-ed it as him w no issue esp since he shows up being like ‘dude...’ when that other friend is like ‘well jaeyoon was in rehab and stuff’ but i personally think it should’ve been mentioned in-text esp since that face reveal wasn’t nearly dramatic enough to 100% capture readers’ attentions.

otherwise i think the fact that jaeyoon and taesung are similar is a great plot point. jaeyoon was clearly the only friend in that group who saw young and sunny’s relationship accurately so i’m glad sunny had at least one GOOD friend then. jaeyoon is implied to be someone who takes care of others similar to taesung (even if it’s only sunny he dotes over the most) too. other than young’s general possessiveness of sunny, them being similar also explains why young saw jaeyoon as such a threat. but yeah unfortunately i still don’t think it was handled as well as it could have been.

young’s explanation for his behavior towards sunny... i hesitate to say it was the standard “villain redemption” but tbf i think it was a good explanation for his actions even if it felt a little too clean of a conclusion (young letting go of sunny so easily and also apparently realizing and accepting how damaging he was to him). i say it’s partially redeeming bc it shows that young was kind of trapped in such a specific and damaging way of thinking abt life that it affected how he treated sunny but it’s also not really redeeming him bc like. be normal man lol you don’t have to be like that to others.

separate but related note but young’s mindgaming of taesung... when he was like oh everything abt sunny seo you like is bc of me... like DAMN that’s evil and good (writing-wise). although the thing is that young and sunny also haven’t interacted apparently for 5 years so i mean you do have to realize that by the time taesung reunites w him, sunny has developed enough of an individual personality so it’s not ALL young’s shit.

in my last review i said i felt like i wanted more of young and sunny’s history... tbh i think they gave us enough actually. all we really need to know is that they’ve known each other for a very long time and that young manipulated sunny enough during an impressionable time (young age, college. ppl know how college can be lol) that sunny felt that young was the only one for him. i was actually surprised jaeyoon’s story/details came up so quick in the story (i think it showed up in the 1st half of the manhwa) but i think it was a good point bc the story had to move on to the middle/2nd half of sunny and taesung trying to get their relationship to work. past me was also apparently looking for this scene in the bar apparently where young explains his “reasons” to taesung lol

not really much to say this time abt the hosung x young endgame. still don’t think they should’ve done it or had hosung have unrequited feelings but whatever i guess. tbh i didn’t really realize/connect until this time around that hosung actually was in freelancing art/publishing which was why taesung had him look at sunny’s work lol... i think last time that part in the epilogue hadn’t been translated yet so i just didn’t have the room to make the connection maybs

the epilogue ending... so i actually never read the epilogue ending or at least its eng translation, and i was like hell yea at the full circle shit w sunny being like ‘oh the cherry blossom petals are falling just like when i first met taesung in the infirmary’ but then the ch kept going w taesung and sunny on the beach... idk i think ending it literally at sunny being like ‘w you i feel alive’ was such an abrupt ending... like maybe if they added another panel of them smiling at each other it could’ve been fine but if the author was running low on time i honestly think they could’ve ended it at the scene of sunny accepting his contest award

also when sunny was like ‘yeah lol all my classmates at the children’s book program also get sick all the time’.... i was like bruh this author is prob speaking from actual experience lmao

the other thing abt the ending that was a little random was the quick aside abt taesung’s mom being against their relationship... i mean it was a reference to the mom wanting taesung to get married in the main story but then they dropped it and then suddenly brought it back up again... randomly adding that taesung had a sister who was his contact w their mom... like i get it, it wraps up the loose end of his mom but wow i was uh ok random ch abt potential family conflicts. also where are sunny’s parents lol but that would’ve been too much to get into too regardless of homophobia or not lol

overall it’s still a pretty solid manhwa. stuff proceeds at a good pace and the conflicts/misunderstandings make sense. i said before it’s kinda like a love triangle but it’s really not which works w me bc i don’t like love triangles that much (they stress me out lol); it’s also good bc young is clearly toxic for sunny and it’s good that sunny knows that rather than sunny being like “oh i know he’s bad but also... hmm maybe i can overlook it”. the manhwa’s not perfect -- i still get the sense the writing could be better even if i can’t really enunciate why -- but enough details are tied together that there’s nothing major i have to extrapolate bw (like i can overlook the jooyeon mishap even though it legit threw me off the 1st time i read through). also yes i know the manhwa is based off of a game w characters essentially already established but my understanding is that the author/artist essentially had to write up a lot of the actual story themselves even if they had a general plotline provided to follow

also the final author’s note abt the author personally preferring fucked up stories... when i started rereading i was like wait isn’t this the same artist for that one manhwa where the characters look like the k!lling st@lking? mains and even if i didn’t remember i would’ve realized w that author’s note lol. i think fortunately for them that sunny isn’t an entirely “pure” character so they had enough room to make him a little more twisted.

#reading #reread

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kim-lexie · 3 years

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start-up

unfortunately all good dramas must come to an end, and this drama was truly a dream. i fell in love with the characters and the premise of this one, and i am saddened to say goodbye to this cast of characters.

i have also posted the nonsense that is a week-by-week to enjoy here if you wish. anyways, here we go...a drama review!

plot synopsis.

‘start up’ follows the story of a group of 20-somethings as they journey to curate their own start up business. it specifically emphasizes the story of dalmi, her past and the letters she shared with jipyeong. jipyeong, an orphan that dalmi’s grandmother, mrs. choi took under her wing. jipyeong wrote dalmi letters that truly allowed her to overcome a tough time. years after these letters, dalmi is determined to find her ‘dosan’ the name that jipyeong and mrs. choi used to sign the letters. to protect their secret they find the real dosan to meet dalmi to portray a successful start up business man. and that is where our story begins to become tangled. and one knows how a good tangled story ensues as per the k-drama fashion...

my thoughts. *spoiler alert*

dalmi, this girl is a queen. i love her determination and drive to get what she wants. i wish she wouldn’t cut herself short, but by the end you can see the growth that is undeniable. we love character development! i love how impacted she was by her dad, and that she never questioned her choice to stay in korea with her father. i loved their family’s relationship, it was precious and mutually supporting one another was an environment that allowed dalmi to believe in all the dreams she held in her heart. mrs. choi truly raised her to be confident in herself no matter her circumstances.

jipyeong (to be referenced as hjp as well) my man. this man stole my heart. his backstory with mrs. choi was beautiful and i think he had the most character development in this drama. from how he acted at the start, to when they reconnected later, mrs. choi extended grace and never wavered in her love and support for jipyeong. it was endearing and heart breaking, because hjp had never experienced that from a family of his own until he was accepted by mrs. choi. i think this grace and mutual understanding was especially prominent when dosan and dalmi greeted mrs. choi at her new shop in one of the last episodes, after dosan had returned from america. as soon as she greeted them she knew that her jipyeong would be lonely and went straight for him to comfort him and support him in his grief. his character was honest, and unwavering once he found his goal. honestly, in everything else in the drama he faced he was determined and goal oriented however, when it came to dalmi he always second guessed himself. he was always so sure of his business but when it came to the close relationships around him he always questioned his worth. this would be his tragic downfall. but this is where we find a new jipyeong at the end of the drama and we appreciate character development. *insert slow clap for our hjp*

dosan this man, honestly nam joohyuk was the reason i was initially interested in this drama. i love him and i was surprised when i found that he was not my favorite character. dosan was always unsure of himself and those around him, he immediately latched on to dalmi when he found her because of that confidence she radiated (can’t blame him because eventually he found that in himself). i wish he had been honest with her. so i know it is typically k-drama fashion to start a relationship based on a lie, still i am never happy when it happens in my drama. seriously by the end of this drama i was totally team hjp and i seriously cannot help but think back to the fact that if hjp had been honest at the beginning he may have ended up with dalmi. like come on. my heart is too fragile for this nonsense. i do appreciate that dosan, right after reading her letters ran straight after her without wavering. but if he loved her authenticity from the letters, why did he not give her the same benefit by being up front with her?

the samsan tech crew. i loved this trio. they were ICONIC. chulsan a precious bean and i loved the relationship we got to see between chulsan and saha. i loved how their relationship developed and she totally fell head over heels for this man with his coding and caring self. because i clearly did not get the happy ending i wanted for dalmi and hjp, at least this ship went off sailing. i also came to love yongsan’s character, he seemed fishy at first when they went to sandbox however it quickly came to light why it was so. i loved that through all of this there was character development and accepting the things that you can’t change and wanted to change the things you had control over.

sandbox, a place where dreams came to be birthed and reach their unlimited potential. i loved that it all started with sun-hak the ceo of sandbox who was inspired by dalmi’s father’s story about wanting to protect his daughter when she was learning to swing, and he put sand down so she wouldn’t be afraid of falling. it was so perfect, and that is exactly what sandbox became for them, a place for these small companies to get their footing to grow. i love the relationship that sunhak had with jipyeong and how they supported these young businesses.

this makes an interesting juxtaposition for injae’s company, (injae is dalmi’s sister) to come in next to. nature morning is run by injae’s step-father, a man who abuses start ups and exploits young talent for profit. this sets the stage for injae to want to be set free and create her own business, because as long as she is under his family name she truly cannot make a name for herself. as she leaves she is overcomes multiple difficulties that her father’s company places in front of her, but the queen that she is takes them in stride and in the end becomes the company to beat.

it was interesting to see how everyone came to be at sandbox. everyone with something to prove. and how once they were at sandbox all these crazy moments led them to their ultimate goal. their journey was not conventional but it made them stronger to overcome those moments when their company was split (frick you alex), and they had to come back together.

to take a moment that three year time gap was something. i loved that dalmi grew and became more confident as her role as a ceo to get the job done. sisters were working together and growing their companies. i also held out so much hope because jipyeong was starting to get his act together and was becoming confident in himself and his intentions towards dalmi. even going over to their house playing go-stop and making banchan with the family, tears because he never had this in his life. but you know dosan was going to show up right at that moment he was going to say something...anyways, i love that dosan kept his promise and worked on not only the app for mrs. choi but the car because of the dream they birthed before the boys left for the states. and i knew the moment our dalmi walked hours in the woods to get to dosan that it was over for my ship and it twas going to sink.

the app! oh my goodness. i love that this was their first idea for the company to help those who are unable to see. and i love that dosan was inspired by mrs. choi after overhearing her diagnosis. it was so sad to see how her vision declined throughout the show. but i am happy to see that their app was able to help her through this difficult journey.

the smart car was such a moment. a dream they had in the top of the rooftop office led to a company that was bigger than any of them. truly incredible. literally so proud of our boys for their work and dedication to their dream to better the world. loved it.

i seriously appreciated the ending of the drama and how they recapped all the moments they couldn’t fit into the few moments we had left. the living through photos we saw how they all kept their promises to each other. from dosan proposing to dalmi, chulsan and saha announcing their relationship, and even chulsan shaving his head. it was precious to see them all on this journey. i loved how we had them all going to the share holders meeting and injae and jipyeong walking in stride with them! also appreciate a full circle moment for hjp, when he sponsors a new start up connecting orphans with sponsors to help them in the difficult transition where hjp found himself with mrs. choi. (side note: i love the hint that the man who founded the start up had the same voice as young-sil, the smart device that grew on hjp throughout the drama.) (also, totally stand behind that one tweet i saw that said that the writers totally missed a major power couple moment for injae and jipyeong. because my dude and queen deserve to be happy to the fullest.)

i hope everyone enjoyed this drama as much as i did because it is definitely up there on my list of favorites from this year. i would rate it a 9.5 out of 10.

the ost.

‘future’ by non other than red velvet slays. i have this not only on my k-drama playlist but my monthly playlist. this is a bop. it is incredible, and they out did themselves with this one.

‘running’ by gaho. that montage song that had all the moments they worked so hard in fast forward. ahhhh

‘my dear love’ by suzy. her voice so angelic. and we thank our busy queen for making time to sing for the ost as well as star in the drama.

‘blue bird’ by ailee. and ‘dream’ by jamie. ballad favorites.

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authorautumnbanks · 3 years

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How To Tame A Sorcerer

Summary: After nine long years, the well has finally opened! Not waiting for it to change its mind, Kagome leaps into the well, dead set on reuniting with InuYasha. Much to her surprise, she ends up falling into the lap of a blindfolded sorcerer! Can Kagome and Gojo make it work with so many secrets between them? Can Gojo keep Kagome safe from the elders? And what is it about the young priestess that has even the king of curses scared?

"Ah, shit," Kagome mutters to herself as she rubs her bottom. When she felt the rush of magic coming from the well, she kind of assumed that it would transport her back to the past, or at least within another well. Falling from the sky and landing in the lap of a stranger was not how she wanted to spend her day.

The stranger beneath her shifts. Suddenly it hits her just where exactly she's rubbing and two, she's still sitting in this person's lap. Kagome scrambles up, turns around, and bows profusely. "Sorry, sorry," she repeats with each bow. Her cheeks flare up from the indecency of it.

How the heck was she going to explain why she was falling from the sky? I jumped into a well to time travel and ended up in your lap instead. No one in their right mind would believe such a tale.

"I'm used to women falling over themselves for me, but never have I one come from the sky?" His tone is soothing, though the hint of danger laced within it licks at her senses and causes her to shiver slightly. Kagome straightens her spine and then leans back ever so slightly. The stranger is tall, like freakishly so. His white hair catches her attention first, it reminds her of InuYasha, though nowhere near as long, and stranger dude seems to take a lot more pride in his appearance. And half of his face is covered with a blindfold.

Perhaps he's blind?

He leans forward, startling her with the sudden proximity of his mouth so close to hers. "What are you?"

"Human, of course." Kagome prides herself on how strong her words come out, though she knows that her blush is spreading further down her face. She averts her brown eyes away.

"A sorcerer, then?" His smile is all teeth, a juxtaposition to his playful tone and relaxed pose.

"No." Kagome bites the inside of her cheek. She isn't sure what he means by sorcerer or what kind of world the well saw fit to transport her to. "I wouldn't consider myself a sorcerer."

"Your energy isn't cursed," he says to himself, but Kagome hears it loud and clear. The man tilts his head to the side as if she is some specimen that he needs to dissect. "But you're definitely more than just a human."

"I'm a priestess. I use holy energy."

The man tenses, the atmosphere becomes heavy with uncertainty. Kagome knows that she shouldn't be giving away so much information in a world that appears to be so much like her own, and yet not. She takes a small step back, needing space between them. His covered face is off-putting, not being able to see his eyes unnerves in a way that a demon could never. Breathing slowly, Kagome focuses on the tightly coiled energy surrounding the man. Whoever he is, whatever he is, there's power within him.

"You were able to bypass my infinity." He takes a step forward, invading any personal space she had.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you mean by that." She gulps and clutches at the ends of her pleated skirt. "I didn't mean to. I, uh, would like to be on my way now."

"I don't even know your name," he remarks.

"Kagome."

"No last name?" he asks as he leans forward until their mouths are a hair width apart. "Satoru, then."

Silently, Kagome berates her heart for speeding up at how close he is. "Well, Satoru- san, I really should be on my way." She takes another step back. "And, I'm really sorry for landing into your lap like that." She grimaces when he takes another step after her. Why couldn't he just pretend like this exchange didn't happen?

"Do you like dango? I know the perfect bakery that sells the most amazing sweets you can find."

"Um."

"In fact, why don't we go there right now, Kagome-chan?" He grabs her arm and tugs her down the sidewalk. "Relax, I just want to talk."

"By kidnapping me?" Kagome tugs her arm back to no avail.

"A strong accusation. I'm leading you to the bakery, so you don't get lost," he responds with a sickly sweet tone that probably works to placate others, but Kagome has been around her fair share of con artist, and Satoru-san's easy demeanor was not fooling her.

"If I humor you, will you let me be on my way?"

"Depends on the answers I get. Which you are free to ask questions as well. It's not an interrogation." Kagome grumbles to herself in response, all the while shooting other citizens a glare for ignoring the way this stranger is manhandling her.

Luckily, the bakery he takes her to isn't too far of a walk from the park they were at, and the buildings with all of their glitz and flashing commercials look like the Japan she's used to. Maybe she just ended up in another city?

"I'll take this entire row and two coffees." Satoru-san's voice pulls her out of her musings. The cashiers turn sheet white at the order and quickly go to work putting all the items into bags. "Thank you," he responds and then leads them to a table in the back.

"Now then, I would appreciate it if you would stay seated Kagome-chan. I could finish all of these sweets myself, but I'd like it if you shared some with me."

"You aren't really giving me much of a choice." Kagome huffs and pulls back the chair closest to the wall. Her arm burns from his touch–not that she'd ever voice that to him.

"You never said if you liked dango or not." He takes his seat opposite of her and pulls out a couple of sweets for them to munch on. A waiter rushes over to their seat with two coffee mugs in hand and a steaming pot of coffee in the other. "Thank you." He waves the waiter off and gives the woman in front of him his full attention.

"I enjoy it," Kagome says evenly, reaching for her mug and taking a long sip. "But, let's just cut to the chase. What is it you wish to know?"

"Where are you from?"

"Tokyo."

"What a coincidence, so am I." He laughs as he shoves his dango in his mouth. Seriously, how? "And yet, I've never felt your energy before. Not until you fell into my lap."

Kagome tilts her head and runs her fingertips on the rim of the mug. How much information should she give away? All this talk about cursed energy, not being phased by her appearing out of nowhere, and the tight control over his powers, tells her that, he isn't the kind of man that would just let her go peacefully.

"I don't think I'm from your world," she begins, ignoring the tightness around his mouth. "And based on your reaction, holy powers don't seem to exist in this world."

"There is only cursed energy." He pours twelve packets of sugar into his coffee and stirs it all with a butter knife. Kagome eyes the way his long fingers grip the handle. "But, if you aren't from this world Kagome-chan, where exactly did you plan on going?"

She bites down on her tongue and stares up at his stupid, blindfolded face. "I hadn't gotten that far yet."

"You should be happy," he interjects, " that it was me you found. All sorts of nasty curses out there that will be drawn to your holy energy."

"Curses? Like demons?"

He grins and takes a long drink. Kagome shudders at the diabetic drink.

"We call them curses because they are born from the negative emotions of humans."

"So, not like demons then," she mutters to herself. "Wait, you fight cursed energy with cursed energy? How effective is that?"

He shrugs. "Works just fine for me. So you have demons where you are from?"

Shit. She didn't mean to let that slip. Though, there has to be a reason why the well sent her to a world that doesn't have holy energy.

"Yes, though we were to curses as spirits in my world." She leans back in the chair. Would it hurt the guy to let her see his face? It's unnerving how he can get her to open up while giving away hardly anything himself. "What did you mean early, by breaking through your infinity?"

He lifts his hand and holds it out in front of her. "Try to touch me."

"Is this some kind of trick?" she asks as she lifts her hand and touches his.

"You shouldn't be able to touch me. That's the problem." His hand grips hers, turning it over as if he can't believe what's happening.

"So what does that mean?" She licks her bottom lip but doesn't tug her hand away.

"I'm afraid, Kagome-chan, that I can't let you go." She starts to protest, but he lets go of her hand to lean forward and place one finger on her lips. "Call it intuition, but I don't think you really want me to either."

She gulps, eyes darting from his finger and back up to his blindfold. Crap! She was in bigger trouble than she initially thought.

"Only because I don't have anywhere else to go."

#Gojo x Kagome #Gojo satoru x Kagome #Kagome Higurashi #CrossOver #InuYasha x Jujutsu Kaisen #gojo satoru fanfic #Kagome fanic #crossover pairings

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Best Creepy Horror Movies

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Creepy isn’t the same as scary.

Of course horror movies can be scary simply by using loud noises and sudden movements to make their audiences jump, but creepy is harder to pull off. To be effectively creepy, a film needs to establish a certain atmosphere; it needs to draw you in and make you care. It needs to give you something to think about when you’re trying to drop off to sleep at night; to make you wonder whether that creaking noise down the hallway was just the house settling or something lurking in the shadows. Creepy stays with you. It gives you goosebumps.

Here are 85 of the best horror movies (in no particular order) to chill your bones. Enjoy the nightmares.

Us (2019)

Jordan Peele’s follow up to his award winner Get Out is another social horror. While it might not be quite as accomplished or coherent as Get Out (the end is a bit of a mess) Us is arguably scarier than Get Out as a family staying in a holiday home find themselves tormented by evil replicas of themselves. It’s a film that keeps you constantly on edge with the performances of the main cast – Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex – absolutely pitch perfect and never less than convincing as good and evil versions of themselves.

It Comes At Night (2017)

Though the marketing material was somewhat misleading, featuring the above scary-looking dude (who really isn’t a big part of the film at all), It Comes at Night, from director Trey Edward Shults is a claustrophobic slow-burner that insidiously ramps up the creep factor. Joel Edgerton plays the patriarch of a family holed up in a cabin in the woods to escape an unnamed wide spread virus. But when a man, his wife and their young child arrive seeking shelter his family life is disrupted. A coming-of-age horror with one of the bleakest endings around.

Mr. Jones (2013)

Nobody knows who Mr. Jones is. The artist is a recluse, but his bizarre sculptures have made him world famous. When a documentary maker and his girlfriend stumble across what looks like his workshop, they become obsessed with finding out the truth about Mr. Jones, but the truth isn’t particularly easy to stomach.

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One of the most stylishly shot found footage movies you’ll ever see, the makers know the rules of the genre well enough that when they break them, it adds to the story rather than detracting from it. Also, those scarecrows are petrifying.

Under the Shadow (2016)

Set in war-torn Tehran in the late 1980s, Under the Shadow sees a would-be doctor battling the forces of evil for her daughter (and her sanity) even as everyone around her flees to safer ground. The juxtaposition of earthly and unearthly threats makes this a uniquely terrifying film, and Shideh (Narges Rashidi) is a wonderfully complex and sympathetic heroine. Not many films could make a sheet of printed fabric terrifying, but Under the Shadow manages it.

Gaslight (1940)

Bella (Diana Wynyard) thinks she’s losing her mind. She keeps losing things, and the lights in her house seem to flicker, even though her husband Paul (Anton Walbrook) tells her he can’t see anything wrong. Plus there are those footsteps upstairs… Just from that description, you might think that Gaslight will turn out to be a haunted house story, but the real explanation for all the weirdness is far more sinister than that. Walbrook does sinister like no-one else.

The Babadook (2014)

A character from a terrifying kids book comes to life to haunt a single mother (Essie Davis) grieving for the loss of her husband in this beautiful, sorrowful meditation on depression and despair. Top-hatted Mr. Babadook with his horrible, terrible grin is of course creepy as all, but Noah Wiseman as her needy and uncontrollable child gives him a run for his money in creepiness.

The Clairvoyant (1934)

Maximus, King Of The Mind Readers (Claude Rains) performs amazing feats of clairvoyance on stage every night in front of adoring audiences. The problem is, it’s fake – the mind-reading is all done through a secret code Maximus has invented to communicate with his assistant wife, Rene (Fay Wray). But one night, he meets Christine (Jane Baxter), and his abilities become real. He really can predict the future. If you’ve already guessed that’ll turn out to be more of a burden than a gift, you’re right. Gorgeously shot, wonderfully acted, this is a creepy delight.

Sleep Tight (2011)

The second Jaume Balaguero film on this list is just as bleak and horrifying as the first: Sleep Tight sees a concierge secretly breaking into the homes of the people he’s supposed to serve to try to make them as miserable as he is. When Cesar (Luis Tosar) finds one tenant is harder to upset than the others, his behaviour escalates until he’s committing unimaginably grotesque crimes against the poor girl. The ending will have you shuddering in your seat.

Lake Mungo (2008)

This strange found footage film from Australia takes the format of a mockumentary focusing on the family of a dead girl who think there are supernatural goings on surround their house. It owes a debt to Twin Peaks in its odd neighborhood vibe, and the twisty plot holds many surprises, as the movie wrong foots the audience time and again. It’s creepy throughout but by the time you finally discover what’s really going on it’s not only terrifying but emotionally devastating too.

Dead of Night (1945)

Probably the best horror anthology ever made, this Ealing Studios production includes five individual stories and one wrap-around narrative. The wrap-around sees a consultant arrive at a country home only to find that he recognizes all of the guests at the house – he’s seen them all in a dream.

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Spooked, the guests start recounting their own stories of the uncanny, each more unnerving than the last. Well, except for the one about the golfers, but that one’s just there for light relief before the film hits you with the scariest ventriloquist’s dummy ever committed to film. Just excellent, all round.

Hereditary (2018)

One of the most truly harrowing movies of recent years is Hereditary, the feature debut from Ari Aster. Toni Collette stars as a mother trying to hold together her family in the aftermath of a tragedy while around her supernatural goings on begin to escalate.

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Hereditary has been called The Exorcist for a new generation, though it’s so much more than that. In fact at times, Hereditary is almost too scary, so oppressive is it’s escalating anguish and dread. This one is pure nightmare fodder.

Nina Forever (2015)

Rob (Cian Barry) can’t get over his ex-girlfriend. Nina (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) died in a car crash, which is bad enough, but when he tentatively begins a relationship with his co-worker, Holly (Abigail Hardingham), he finds himself haunted by Nina. Literally. She materializes in his bed every time he and Holly have sex – she might be dead, but she’s not letting go.

“Creepy” doesn’t feel like a strong enough word to describe this film – “devastating” might do it. It’s a sensitive and horrifying portrayal of grief, with a sense of humour as dark as the inside of your eyelids, and some extremely upsetting gore. Brilliant, but not one for the faint-hearted.

Robin Redbreast (1970)

When she moves away from London to a tiny country cottage, Norah (Anna Cropper) expected the change to be a bit strange, but nowhere near as weird as it ultimately turns out to be. As she gets to know the locals, she finds herself being pushed towards a relationship with karate-loving Rob (Andrew Bradford), and while she’s initially game, she soon discovers that her choices are being made for her. It’s a little bit Wicker Man, a little bit Rosemary’s Baby, and a lot of creepiness.

It Follows (2014)

Inspired by a reccuring nightmare director David Robert Mitchell had in his youth,It Follows is a clever, freaky take on the slasher movie, featuring, well, a sexually transmitted ghost. Maika Monroe plays a young woman haunted by a shape shifting spectre after a sexual encounter who slowly but relentless trails her everywhere – the film plays with the audience expertly, making us guess whether background characters could really be the monster. Ultra modern and highly effective, this one will leave you jumping at shadows long after the credits roll.

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

A tyrannical landowner is plagued by, well, a literal plague in Roger Corman’s adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story. Vincent Price plays the Satanic Prince Prospero, who rules over his village with an iron fist, condemning people to death for the mildest offence and abducting any woman who takes his fancy, but all of his evils come back to haunt him when he throws a masked ball and Death shows up. Fittingly, it’s got the hallucinogenic quality of a fever dream, and the various incarnations of Death are wonderfully creepy.

As Above, So Below (2014)

A group of explorers heads deep into the Paris catacombs, only to find they’ve gone a little too deep and stumbled into an alternate dimension that might actually be Hell. It’s a brilliantly over the top concept, and the way it plays out is incredibly eerie. Yes, it’s found footage, and yes, it’s a little bit on the silly side – it chucks in quotes from Dante and a few too many sad-faced ghosts – but some of the scares along the way are properly frightening. Suspend your disbelief and let it freak you out.

Oculus (2013)

Eleven years ago, Alan (Rory Cochrane) bought an antique mirror… and then died, along with his wife. According to the police, they were murdered by their 10-year-old son. According to their daughter, the mirror is haunted, and something supernatural caused their deaths. Now Tim (Brenton Thwaites) is out of prison, Kaylie (Karen Gillan) wants to prove he was innocent by conducting an experiment on the mirror… But inadvertently puts both of them in danger all over again.

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It’s chilling. The way director Mike Flanagan plays with reality, building unbearable uncertainty through camera angles and false memories, makes this film both incredibly scary and impossibly sad.

The Witch (2015)

After being cast out of a New England plantation for not interpreting scripture in the same way as the colony’s elders, a family strikes out alone, and soon discovers how inhospitable their unfamiliar new home country can really be. The Witch is a period piece, and the language is suitably archaic, but don’t let that put you off: it’s a brilliantly chilling portrayal of Puritan life, where belief can mean the difference between life and death, and horror is only ever one failed crop away.

The Amityville Horror (1979)

The Amityville Horror is the haunted house story. If you were only ever going to watch one haunted house movie, it should be this one, because this is the archetypal story: a family moves into a house where horrible murders happened, and then bad things happen to them. It manages a lot of things later imitators didn’t, though, which is that it makes the Lutzes’ decision to buy the house make sense, and also builds the horror slowly, so that they almost don’t notice when the things going wrong in the house switch from annoying issues to outright horror. If you’ve moved house in recent memory, this one’ll hit you where it hurts.

The Conjuring (2013)

If you were only ever going to watch two haunted house movies, the second one should definitely be The Conjuring. James Wan’s ode to ’70s horror has plenty in common with The Amityville Horror, but it also has plenty of ideas of its own – and at least half a dozen moments that’ll make your heart leap into your mouth.

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The camerawork, the music, the cute kids stuck in the middle of epic spiritual warfare… it all adds up to a completely terrifying experience. You’ll probably need to sleep with a nightlight for a week afterwards.

The Changeling (1980)

George C. Scott stars as Dr. John Russell in this classic ghost story, which is a favorite of The Others director Alejandro Amenabár. Following the tragic demise of his wife and son, Dr. Russell moves into a rambling Victorian mansion to compose music and pick up the pieces of his life. He’s soon being woken by relentless booming sounds coming from the heating system, precisely at 6am every day… Then there’s the old “apparition in the self-filling bath” trick (actually, this may be the first time this happened onscreen, but it sure won’t be the last).

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This is one of those movies which hits up all the clichés: people go into the dark, gloomy attic to search for clues, and to the library to look up old news archives on the microfiche; they visit the graveyard, and finally, hold a séance (which is overwhelmingly creepy). The eerie soundtrack and skilful storytelling result in a film which peels back its mysterious layers slowly for a satisfying finish.

The Hallow (2015)

If you go down to the woods today, make sure you don’t steal anything or break anything, or the Hallow will get you. Tree surgeon Adam and his family move into an ancient farmhouse to start sizing up the land for developers and quickly fall afoul of the supernatural creatures lurking in the trees, which turns out to be a really bad idea. This film’s got it all: foreboding mythology, grotesque body horror, and the most amazing line of foreshadowing dialogue you’ll ever hear.

The Uninvited (1944)

A couple of Londoners holidaying in Cornwall stumble across a gorgeous abandoned house on the seafront and immediately decide they want to buy it. The owner, a grumpy old colonel, is happy to sell it to them on the spot, but his granddaughter is reluctant. Turns out the house has got secrets, and, yeah, a ghost. The dialogue in this film is incredible in a very 1940s kind of way, and the tone can occasionally be accused of jolliness, but it’s also got its moments of proper creepiness. Best enjoyed with a glass of sherry.

Saint Maud (2019)

One of the best movies of the year, Rose Glass’s feature debut is a study of a young palliative care nurse who starts to believe she’s on a mission from God to save the soul of her dying patient.

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It’s a film about conflicts between mind, body and soul, but it leans her into genre territory as Maud (Morfydd Clark) hear God talking to her directly and punishes her own body in an attempt to feel closer to her spiritual side, while the cancer riddled Amanda (Jennifer Elhe) celebrates her body as it lets her down. Shot in Scarborough everything about Saint Maud is unsettling right up to the indelible finale. An absolute must watch.

Crimson Peak (2015)

Director Guillermo del Toro insists that Crimson Peak isn’t a horror film but is, instead, a gothic romance. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t creepy as all get-out, though. When aspiring author Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) meets charming baronet Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), she falls madly in love and agrees to move back to his ancestral home, Allerdale Hall – aka Crimson Peak. But the house is crumbling and full of ghosts, and Sir Thomas’s sister doesn’t seem terribly friendly, either…

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Del Toro’s visual flair is in full effect here, and every frame of this film (even the scary ones) are stunningly beautiful to look at. It’s a treat.

Baskin (2015)

A group of cops answers a call from the middle of nowhere and unwittingly stumble into something that can only be described as ‘a nightmare’ in this skin-crawlingly nasty Turkish horror. Abrasive, aggressive and deliberately difficult, this is the kind of film that burrows deep into your brain, only to resurface later at the worst possible time. Then again, by the time you’re stranded in the middle of nowhere with only dead colleagues and Silent Hill-style monsters for company, you probably don’t need memories of a horror movie to freak you out.

His House (2020)

A Netflix movie which could make a mark come award’s season the directorial debut of Remi Weekes sees a Sudanese refugee couple seek housing in London only to find themselves haunted by ghosts of the past and present. This is proper horror and it’s creepy as hell but it also leans into the horror of the refugee situation with the two marginalized, restricted, and treated as outsiders from the start – it’s a powerful but uncomfortable watch.

Host (2020)

The defining horror of 2020 – written, shot, edited and released on Shudder in just 12 week – Host is so much more than a lockdown gimmick. Following a group of friends who decide to do a seance via a Zoom chat, this ingenious movie trades on the real life friendships of the cast and crew and the absolute ubiquity of the video software during isolation. It’s seriously creepy too, utilising visions in the shadow but later some seriously impressive stunt work. Director Rob Savage and writer Jed Shepherd have signed up for a three picture deal from Blumhouse on the strength of this movie which absolutely needs to be seen.

The Haunting (1963)

Not to be confused with the remake of 1999, this retro gem not only features some classic sequences of spooky happenings, but a philosophical take on the paranormal. As John Markway says, “The preternatural is something we don’t have any natural explanation for right now but probably will have someday – the preternatural of one generation becomes the natural of the next. Scientists once laughed at the idea of magnetic attraction; they couldn’t explain it, so they refused to admit it exists.

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Dr. Markway (Richard Johnson) is investigating the mysterious Hill House, whose inhabitants often die in odd circumstances. With him he has Luke (Russ Tamblyn), the cynical heir to the home, the psychic Theo (Claire Bloom, way too cool for school) and Julie Harris as Eleanor, who has some ghosts of her own but figures a free stay in a mansion is as close to a holiday as she’s going to get. Markway is pleased the ladies haven’t done any research into the bad reputation of the house “So much the better. You should be innocent and receptive.” (The old dog.) This is a great, character-driven story with a dry sense of humor, and a mysterious heroine who feels oddly at home with the supernatural.

Unfriended (2014)

A cautionary tale about the dangers of cyberbullying, Unfriended achieves the seemingly impossible and manages to make the standard sound effects of everyday computer programs terrifying. The whole story is told through one character’s desktop, so you get to watch as she Skypes with her friends, posts to Facebook, or picks something to listen to on Spotify. The details are fascinating, and it’s kind of brilliant how the filmmakers manage to express so much about a character through her browser bookmarks and the messages she types, but doesn’t send. Once the horror kicks in, though, you’ll be too scared to notice much more of the cleverness.

Shutter (2004)

Jane (Natthaweeranuch Thongmee) is driving back from a wedding with her boyfriend Tun (Ananda Everingham) when she hits a girl – in a panic, they leave the body lying in the road and try to get on with their lives. They start feeling rattled when Tun’s photography is blighted by misty shadows and they both suffer from the odd hallucination which seems to show that their hit and run victim (Achita Sikamana) isn’t resting in peace.

Where would horror films be without photographic dark rooms? Even in the digital age, the dim red light and slowly emerging pictures remain classic tools of terror. Not to mention the room with rows of jars containing pickled animals, and the surprise homage to Psycho. This story has it all. There are also touches of dark humor throughout (the praying mantis is a recurring motif) and one of the most bone-chilling scenes has a hilarious payoff.

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Directors Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom skilfully create real characters and have the ability to communicate some of the most powerful and eloquent moments without dialogue. The mystery deepens as more sinister evidence comes to light and the climax is truly chilling. This is one which will stay with you long after Halloween.

Spider Baby (1967)

The Merrye children live out in the middle of nowhere, with only one another and their family chauffeur, Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr) for company. Which is for the best, because they’re all afflicted with the family curse – a bizarre quirk of genetics that causes members of the Merrye family to begin to de-evolve once they reach a certain age. When some distant relatives come to visit, intending to challenge the kids’ right to stay in the house, things go sour fast. It’s a horror comedy, this one, but if you’re not a little bit creeped out by Virginia (Jill Banner), the Spider Baby of the title, and her spider game, well, good luck to you.

What Lies Beneath (2000)

Robert Zemeckis directs Michelle Pfieffer and Harrison Ford in this glossy supernatural thriller, with predictably high quality results. Clare and Norman Spencer live the perfect life – especially now their daughter has left for college and they’re enjoying empty nest syndrome. But the neighbors are causing some concern – especially when the wife disappears and Claire believes she is trying to communicate with her from “the other side.”

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Zemeckis has admitted that this is his homage to Hitchcock, and true to form, the suspense builds deliciously slowly. When Claire starts seeing faces in the bathtub (where else?) she goes to talk it over with a psychiatrist. A session with a Ouija board proves that somebody is trying to contact Claire, and it’s not long before she’s stealing keepsakes from grieving parents and reading books with chapters helpfully entitled “Conjuring the Dead.”

The result is a strong movie whether you’re enjoying the ghost story or the “Yuppies in peril in a beautiful house” aspect of it (and it doesn’t hurt that Michelle looks luminously beautiful).

Cat People (1942)

Serbian immigrant Irena doesn’t have a friend in the world when she meets Oliver. He’s kind and attentive and they soon fall in love, despite Irena’s lack of physical affection. She’s convinced she’s living under a curse that will mean she’ll transform into a panther and kill any man she kisses, and despite seeing a (deeply inappropriate) psychiatrist, she can’t shake her beliefs. Oliver is initially patient but eventually finds himself falling for his much more reasonable colleague, Alice. There’s no way this love triangle can end happily and, well, it doesn’t. Cat People is sad as well as eerie, with an increasingly paranoid atmosphere enhanced by skillful shadow play.

The Nameless (1999)

Five years after her daughter Angela went missing, presumed dead, Claudia starts getting weird phone calls. A female voice claims to be Angela, and begs her mother to save her. A series of weird clues leads Claudia to investigate a weird cult… but when things slot into place too easily, it seems like someone might be luring her into a trap. Thematically, The Nameless is similar to Jaume Balaguero’s later film Darkness; there’s a similar feeling of hopelessness and despair, a creeping horror that doesn’t let up, topped off with a horribly downbeat ending. Brrrr.

Dead End (2003)

The Harrington family are driving home for Christmas when they decide to take a shortcut. Obviously, that turns out to be a bad idea. Picking up a mysterious hitchhiker is an even worse idea. Dead End isn’t a particularly original movie, and it does have a truly awful ending, but there’s something about its characters, its atmosphere, and the way it tells the well-worn story that’s really effective. And creepy, of course.

The Others (2001)

Every ghost story introduces an element of uncertainty: are these things really happening, or are they in your head? Like The Innocents, The Others is partly inspired by Henry James’ novella The Turn Of The Screw. Grace (Nicole Kidman) has turned being neurotic into a fulltime job; her children apparently suffer from a sensitivity to light, which means the gothic mansion they inhabit must be swathed in thick curtains at all times. This makes things difficult for the new servants, who have turned up in a most mysterious manner…

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Grace’s daughter has an imaginary playmate called Victor; her insistence that there are “other people” in the house vexes Grace until she begins to hear them, too. A piano playing by itself, shaking chandeliers and some truly traumatic hallucinations add to the panic as Grace questions exactly who she is sharing her home with. The tension builds to almost unbearable heights before a truly haunting ending. An intelligent script with a superb twist, quality acting and an atmospheric set (complete with graveyards, mist and autumn leaves) – what more could you want in a creepy movie?

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

“It is happening, and no one is safe.” Night of the Living Dead features some of the most brilliantly ominous radio broadcasts in all horror. When a group of strangers end up trapped in an isolated farmhouse together after the dead begin to rise, no one is in the mood for making friends, and it’s their own prejudices and stubbornness that leads to their downfall. (Well, that, and the fact that no one realized getting bitten by a ghoul would lead to death and reincarnation. Oops.)

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The zombie imagery is some of the most haunting ever committed to film, as vacant-eyed ghouls wander in and out of the shadows, chewing on dismembered body parts as they lurch around, constantly in search of fresh meat…

Candyman (1992)

Say his name five times into a mirror and the Candyman appears. Despite his sweet-sounding name, that’s not something you really want to do: Daniel Robitaille was a murdered artist, stung to death by bees in a racist attack, and so he tends not to be in a good mood when he shows up. Set in an urban tower block, this film demonstrates that horror can strike anywhere, not just in spooky old mansions in the middle of the countryside. It’s gory, grimy, and really quite disturbing.

M (1931)

A child murderer is stalking the streets of Berlin and, as the police seem unable to catch him, tensions run high. In an attempt to stop the nightly police raids, the town’s criminals decide to catch the killer themselves, and a frantic chase begins. Though there’s no actual onscreen violence, Peter Lorre is amazingly creepy as the whistling killer, and there’s a sense of corruption pervading the whole film. (Since both Lorre and Fritz Lang, the director, fled the country in fear of the Nazis soon after the film was made, it’s tempting to speculate on what M might be saying about Germany at the time, which only makes it all the creepier.)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

An early example of the found footage genre, The Blair Witch Project has been aped and parodied by everyone and their grandma, but there’s something unsettling about it that hasn’t quite gone away. Most of the film is improvised; the actors are really filming the scenes themselves, working from a loose outline of the plot, but without prior knowledge of what half the scares were going to be. That ambiguous ending lets you make up whatever explanation you like for the events of the film, which means whatever the scariest thing you can think of is, that’s what the film is about.

The Orphanage (2007)

Laura (Belén Rueda) is returning to her childhood orphanage with her husband and son in order to open it as a care home for children with disabilities. She’s busy, but still has time to notice that seven year old Simón (Roger Príncep) has found an imaginary friend, Tomas. He might have a sack over his head, but what’s a little creepy mask between pals?

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Simón is adopted, so it’s only a little odd when a social worker shows up without an appointment. It’s slightly more odd that she’s snooping around in the shed at night. During a daytime party, Laura has an encounter of her own with a masked child, and then experiences every parent’s nightmare: Simón is missing. What follows is the story of a mother who takes the search for her son to the limits of her sanity. Geraldine Chaplin makes an appearance as the medium who conducts possibly the most spine-tingling of all onscreen séances, and there are some truly terrifying shocks during Laura’s search for the truth.

Director JA Bayona makes every shot count; the movie is visually beautiful as well as fantastically sinister. It’s a bona fide horror film but the ending might make you cry.

Ring (1998)

Ring isn’t a perfect film. It’s a bit too long and ponderous and there’s a bit too much irrelevant mysticism in there. But in terms of pure creepiness, it’s pretty damned effective. The idea of a cursed videotape was brilliant – who didn’t have zillions of unmarked VHS tapes lying around the house at the time? – and that climactic scene where the image on the screen crossed over into reality is bloodcurdling. Sneaky, too, since it managed to suggest that no one was safe. Especially not you, gentle viewer, because didn’t you just watch that cursed tape, too? An awful lot of people must have breathed a sigh of relief once their own personal seven-day window was over.

The Innocents (1961)

Based on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, this film sees a young governess heading out to an isolated old house to take care of two young children who appear to be keeping secrets from her. Their previous governess died, along with another of the house’s servants, but their influence still seems to be lingering about. Or is it? Just like in the original story, it’s possible to read the ghosts either as genuine spectres or as the fevered imaginings of an over-stressed and under-sexed young woman. Either way, though, the film is terrifying.

The Skeleton Key (2005)

In a decaying house on an old plantation, an old man is dying. Caroline is hired as his carer, but although her job should be simple enough, she begins to suspect that something weird is going on – especially when she finds a secret room in the house’s attic filled with spell books and other arcane bits and bobs.

Is the old man actually under a spell? Why does he seem so terrified of his wife? And might Caroline herself be in danger? The Skeleton Key is one of those films that’s far better than it has any right to be; it slowly ratchets up the tension to a crazy finale and ends on an incredibly creepy note.

Insidious (2010)

Insidious uses just about every trick in the book to creep out its audience, and for some people, that might seem like overkill. There are lurking monsters around every corner; there’s a child in peril; there are wrong-faced nasties; and there are screeching violins every five minutes. On repeat viewings, the plot doesn’t quite hold up (halfway through, the film switches protagonists, which is baffling) and the comedy relief seems grating rather than funny. But the carnival atmosphere, the nods to silent German Expressionist films, the demon’s bizarre appearance, that dancing ghost… there’s something brilliant about it, nonetheless.

Dark Water (2002)

Part of the initial wave of soggy dead girl movies, Dark Water is occasionally very daft, but still effectively creepy. Yoshimi Matsubara is a divorcee, forced by circumstances to move into a crumbling apartment block with her young daughter, Ikuko. Their new home isn’t in the nicest of areas, but it might be alright if it weren’t for the leaky ceiling – and, um, that creepy little girl lurking in the shadows, the one who’s never there when you take a second look. Directed by Hideo Nakata and based on a book by Koji Suzuki, Dark Water might not be as terrifying as Ring, but it’s still pretty eerie.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

The effects are dated, and the sequels utterly killed Freddy Krueger’s menace, but the first A Nightmare on Elm Street film is still creepy, in its way. The premise is amazingly disturbing – a dead child molester is attacking children in their dreams – and, combined with some of the deeply weird nightmare imagery in this film, it’s more than enough to give anyone a few sleepless nights. All together now: one, two, Freddy’s coming for you…

Uzumaki (2000)

Slowly, inexplicably, a small town is taken over by spirals. Some people become obsessed; others are killed, their bodies twisted into impossible positions. Uzumaki is a live action adaptation of the manga of the same name, and it’s incredibly weird. Unspeakably weird. Visually, it’s incredible, although the green filters look less interesting than they used to due to overuse by every horror and sci-fi movie since. Still, most films don’t go to the extremes that Uzumaki does.

The Devil’s Backbone (2001)

Yup, it’s another soggy dead kid movie, but this time the kid is a boy and the action is set in civil war-era Spain. A young boy is sent to a creepy orphanage, where the other boys scare one another by telling stories about the resident ghost, Santi, who was killed when the orphanage was bombed. Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, this isn’t your average ghost story – it’s a companion piece to Pan’s Labyrinth, but it’s much more of a horror movie than its better known counterpart.

The Vanishing/Spoorloos (1988)

Saskia and Rex are on holiday when Saskia suddenly, inexplicably, disappears. Rex dedicates his time to trying to find her, but to no avail. He can’t move on, can’t live with the uncertainty, so when Saskia’s kidnapper reveals himself and offers to show Rex what happened to her, his curiosity wins out. It’s a simple yet eerie story with an utterly devastating ending.

Audition (1999)

Takashi Miike’s Audition is more often described as extremely disturbing rather than creepy, but if you can get over that ending (which, let’s be honest, most of us watched through our fingers or from behind a cushion while shouting “NO NO NO NO NO” at the screen), the rest of the film may well creep you out. It starts off slow: a middle-aged man is thinking about dating again, but rather than trying to meet women via traditional methods, he holds a series of fake auditions for a non-existent movie. He meets Asami, a shy dancer, and starts wooing her – but Asami isn’t as sweet and innocent as she seems. Pretty much every character in this movie is an awful person, and the way they treat one another is disturbing on many, many levels.

One Missed Call (2004)

Also directed by Takashi Miike, One Missed Call is a parody of the endless string of soggy dead girl movies made in Japan at the time. But somehow it’s still really creepy. The premise is that, as the title suggests, teenagers are receiving missed calls on their mobile phones. The mystery caller leaves a horrifying voicemail: the sound of the phone’s owner screaming in agony. And since the call came from the person’s own phone, and appears to come from a few days in the future, it’s clearly a sign of impending doom. Sure enough, the kids all die just as the missed call predicted. There’s a nasty little backstory about evil little girls, and a bonkers televised exorcism, and generally, it’s a great film whether you love or loathe stories about scary dead kids.

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

You might’ve thought about how you’d survive the apocalypse, but have you ever stopped to consider whether it’s actually worth doing? In The Last Man On Earth, Vincent Price is the only survivor of a mysterious plague that’s turned the rest of humanity into walking corpses, hungry for his blood. Every day, he tools up and goes out to kill the bloodsuckers; every night, they surround his house and try to kill him. It’s a dismal way to live, and a depressingly eerie film. It’s based on Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend – so skip the Will Smith adaptation and watch this instead.

A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003)

Part melodramatic family drama, part psychological horror, A Tale Of Two Sisters is all scary all the time. When a pair of sisters return from a mental hospital, having been traumatised by their mother’s death, they find their new stepmother difficult to adjust to. The nightly visitations from a blood-dripping ghost don’t help, either. But as always in these kinds of films, nothing is what it seems – you might need a second viewing to get your head round the ending.

Night of the Hunter (1955)

Robert Mitchum might have claimed not to be interested in movies or acting, but he’s great in this. As Harry Powell, a bizarrely religious conman, he’s terrifying, whether he’s preaching about the evils of fornication or chasing the children of his latest victim across the country in an attempt to steal a stash of money he knows they’re hiding. The use of light and shadow in this movie is just stunning; the first time Powell arrives at the Harper house is a particular highlight. Robert Mitchum’s singing voice isn’t half bad, either.

Peeping Tom (1960)

Peeping Tom was so controversial when it was released that it effectively ended director Michael Powell’s career. It’s violent, voyeuristic, and since it tells a story from the villain’s point of view; it’s entirely unsavoury. And it’s wonderful. It looks great, it has an amazingly twisted (and tragic) plot, and Carl Boehm is brilliant as Mark, the awkward, mild-mannered psychopath who feels compelled to murder as a result of his father’s deranged experiments. (That’s not a spoiler, by the way – but if I told you how he killed his victims, that might be.)

Psycho (1960)

Happily, 1960’s other movie about a disturbed serial killer was less of a career-killer. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is wonderful, sodden with guilt and tension right from the opening scene. It’s a shame that so many of its twists are so well-known now, because watching this without knowing what was going to happen must have been brilliant. It’s still great – beautiful to watch, genuinely tense and frequently unnerving – but it has lost some of its shock value over the years. (Also, the bit at the end where the psychiatrist explains everything in great detail is utterly superfluous.) Anthony Perkins’ final twitchy, smirky scene is seriously creepy though.

City Of The Dead / Horror Hotel (1960)

Getting the timing of a holiday wrong can have disastrous consequences, as City Of The Dead illustrates. Nan Barlow is a history student who, under the tutelage of Christopher Lee’s Professor Driscoll, becomes fascinated with the history of witchcraft, and decides to visit the site of a famous witch trial… but she arrives in town on Candlemas Eve, probably the most important date in the witches’ calendar. Um, oops.

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City Of The Dead is often compared to Psycho, and there are enough similarities between the films that you could assume it was a cheap rip-off – but though the campy US retitling supports that assumption, this was actually made before Hitchcock’s motel-based chiller. It’s definitely creepy enough to be worth watching on its own merits.

Village Of The Damned (1960)

For no apparent reason, one day every living being in the English village of Midwich falls unconscious. For hours, no one can get near Midwich without passing out. When they wake up, every woman in the village finds herself mysteriously pregnant. Obviously, their children aren’t normal, and something has to be done about them… Based on John Wyndham’s novel The Midwich Cuckoos, Village Of The Damned is more of a sci-fi movie than a horror movie – but it’s super creepy nonetheless.

Dolls (1987)

Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon toned things down a bit for this creepy fairy tale, but not much. When a group of awful human beings are forced to spend the night in the home of a couple of ancient toymakers, they soon get their comeuppance at the hands of – well, the title gives that away, doesn’t it? You’ll never look at Toys R Us in the same way again.

The Woman In Black (1989)

When a reclusive old lady dies in an isolated house out in the marshes, a young lawyer is sent to sort out her estate. But there’s something weird about her house, and the townspeople aren’t keen on helping sort things out, either. The TV version of this movie is far, far creepier than the Daniel Radcliffe version; there’s one moment in particular that will etch itself on your brain and continue to creep you out for years after you see it…

The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974)

Beautifully shot with a great score, The Perfume of the Lady in Black is a dreamy, unsettling film where nothing is ever as it seems. The wonderfully named Mimsy Farmer plays Sylvia, a scientist haunted by melancholy and hallucinations. She’s never quite recovered from her mother’s suicide, and when she goes to a party where talk turns to witchcraft and human sacrifice, her sanity starts to unravel. But are her problems really all in her head, or is there something else going on? The film doesn’t reveal its secrets until the very end, when all that creepiness pays off spectacularly.

May (2002)

May was always a weird child, and unfortunately she’s grown into a weird adult, too. Unable to form any meaningful relationships with the people around her – not even a class of blind children she thinks might be kinder to her than the people who can see how strange and awkward she is – May decides she’ll need to take this “making a friend” business into her own hands. Dark and twisted and incredibly gory, May is as sad and sweet as it is creepy. A lot of that is attributable to Angela Bettis, whose performance is adorably unnerving.

Nosferatu (1922)

In this unauthorised take on Dracula, the evil Count is depicted not as a tragic or romantic anti-hero, but as a horrifying embodiment of the plague – complete with an entourage of rats. Max Schreck makes a brilliantly weird-looking vampire, all teeth, ears and fingernails; his shadow is especially unnerving. Although the ending as presented seems a little abrupt, it’s conceptually horrifying – as is the fact that, due to a copyright claim filed by Bram Stoker’s estate, all but one copy of this movie was destroyed back in the 1920s.

Vampyr (1932)

In a spooky old inn, Allan Grey is visited in the night by an old man who leaves him a gift-wrapped book, with instructions to open it only on the occasion of the man’s death. Which turns out to be soon. The book explains that the town is plagued by vampires – and, helpfully, gives instructions on how to kill them. Vampyr is an early sound film, so while there is some sound and a little dialogue, most of the silent film conventions are still in place. It has a fairly straightforward, Dracula-esque story, but the plot’s not the point. It’s a deliberately strange film, full of disembodied dancing shadows and weird dream sequences; there’s something almost otherworldly about it.

Dracula (1931)

Bela Lugosi is the definitive Dracula. With his eerie eyes and wonderful accent, he’s brilliantly threatening as the charming Count, but despite his iconic performance here, he’s not the creepiest thing about this film. Nope, that honor goes to Dwight Frye’s portrayal of Renfield, the lunatic spider-eater under Dracula’s control. He’s amazing, all awkward body language and hysterical laughter. Lugosi’s oddly cadenced speech has been emulated and parodied a zillion times, which takes away some of its power; Frye’s performance, on the other hand, is just downright disturbing.

White Zombie (1932)

A year after Dracula, Bela Lugosi starred as Murder Legendre, an evil voodoo master, in one of the first ever zombie movies. The zombies here aren’t flesh-eating ghouls but obedient slaves, working tirelessly in Legendre’s mill. Even when one of them tumbles into a grinder, work doesn’t stop. When the plantation owner goes to Legendre for help winning the heart of the girl he loves, he’s handed a dose of the zombie potion – and now the only way to break Legendre’s spell over the innocent girl is to kill him. Lugosi is suitably menacing, and the drone-like zombies are properly eerie.

The Cursed Medallion/The Night Child (1975)

For a few years, in 1970s Italy, Nicoletta Elmi was the go-to creepy kid. She pops up in Mario Bava’s Bay of Blood and Baron Blood, and in Dario Argento’s Deep Red, among others, but she’s never more creepy than she is in The Cursed Medallion. Here, she plays Emily, the daughter of an art historian who’s making a documentary on demons in paintings. She’s given a medallion but, as the title suggests, it’s cursed, and she ends up possessed by the spirit of a murderess. It’s atmospheric, lovingly photographed and, of course, Elmi is awesome in the lead role.

The Descent (2005)

A group of friends go off on a spelunking holiday, but get more than they bargained for when it turns out that the caves they’re exploring are dangerous in more ways than one. There’s enough time spent on character development that you really feel it when the group starts to get thinned out; there’s some incredibly painful-looking gore; and there are some amazingly freaky monsters. Watch it in a darkened room to make the most of its wonderfully claustrophobic atmosphere.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

The shine might’ve come off this movie because the Paranormal Activity franchise has become Lionsgate’s new one-every-Halloween cash cow, but there’s something deliciously creepy about this movie. Rewatching it now, even knowing when all the scares are coming, it’s still chilling. In a neat twist on the traditional haunted house story, Paranormal Activity’s entity haunts a person, not a house – so its victim can’t just pack up and move. The found footage conceit is used to great effect, making you stare intently at grainy nighttime footage of an empty room, straining your ears for distant footsteps, before making you jump out of your skin with a loud bang. (Pro tip: the movie has three different endings, so if you think you’re bored of it, try one of the others.)

Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)

So much of the effectiveness of a horror movie comes down to its sound design. A well-placed creak, groan, echo, or jangle can make the difference between something completely normal and something terrifying. New scary noises don’t come along very often, but Ju-on: The Grudge managed to come up with something unlike any other scary noise you’ve heard before. Its ghost makes a weird rattling, burping groan as she approaches; it’s kind of like a death rattle, kind of like a throttled scream, and it’s creepier than anything you’ve ever heard before. The film is relentless, light on plot and heavy on jump scares, but it’s that noise that’ll stay with you.

Julia’s Eyes (2010)

Julia and her twin sister, Sara, both suffer from the same degenerative disease – one that causes them to go blind. When Sara undergoes experimental surgery and subsequently kills herself, Julia suspects foul play – and, indeed, something weird seems to be going on, with whisperings about an invisible man lurking in the shadows. But as Julia gets closer to the truth, her own eyesight suffers more and more…The film restricts our vision almost as much as Julia’s; it’s almost unbearably claustrophobic, and ultimately heartbreaking.

The Eye (2002)

Another film about eyes and the horrors of going blind, The Eye follows Mun, a classical violinist from Hong Kong, as she undergoes an eye transplant. Although the transplant seems to be successful – Mun can see again – something isn’t right, because now she can see dead people. And most of them are terrifying. The ending is vaguely preposterous, but the rest of the film is creepy enough that it’s forgivable.

Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)

Lucio Fulci’s unofficial sequel to Dawn Of The Dead features perhaps the creepiest zombies ever committed to film. When a boat turns up in New York harbour with only a zombie on board, investigative reporter Peter West sets out to find out where the boat came from and what’s going on. He ends up on the island of Matool, where the dead are returning to life to eat the flesh of the living… and they’re really, really gross. Zombie Flesh Eaters was initially classified as a video nasty in the UK, and it’s not difficult to see why. Its atmosphere elevates it above your average exploitation movie, though; there’s something really melancholy about it.

[REC] (2007)

When a local news crew decided to tag along with the fire brigade for an evening, they probably didn’t realise they’d end up fighting from their lives in a zombie-infested tower block. Co-written and co-directed by Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero (yup, him again), [REC] is a decent enough zombie movie, until the final reel, when it reveals an even more terrifying ace up its sleeve.

Let Me In (2010)

Although remakes are usually terrible, Matt Reeves’ take on this unusual vampire story was both respectful of and different from the original and, for my money, it’s creepier. Lonely tween Owen doesn’t have any friends until the equally strange Abby moves in next door. They embark on an odd friendship/proto-romance, but Abby has a secret: she’s a vampire. The use of a candy jingle is, against all odds, really eerie, and by paring the story down to its most essential elements (and getting rid of that daft cat scene) Let Me In makes for a scarier watch than Let The Right One In.

Carnival Of Souls (1962)

After a traumatic accident, weird things start happening to Mary. A strange man seems to be stalking her, though no one else can see him, and she feels irresistibly drawn to an abandoned pavilion out in the middle of nowhere. Once upon a time, the pavilion housed a carnival, but now it’s just an empty building… or is it? There’s nothing surprising about the plot of this movie to a modern audience – you’ll have the whole film worked out within about five minutes – but it is gloriously creepy. The climactic scenes at the carnival are pure nightmare fuel.

The Shining (1980)

Probably the most effective of all the Stephen King adaptations, The Shining plonks Jack Nicholson down in the middle of a creepy hotel and lets him do his thing. Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, a struggling writer who gets a winter job as caretaker of The Overlook Hotel, where the isolation and/or ghosts send him out of his mind. There are so many creepy images in this film: the twin girls who just want to play, the woman in room 237, the lift full of blood, and, oh, lots more.

The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari (1920)

Appropriately, watching The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari feels like slipping into a nightmare. Caligari’s cabinet holds Cesare, the sleepwalker – a catatonic oracle able to answer questions of life and death with eerie accuracy. Is Caligari a hypnotist, a murderer, or both? It’s a strange story, made stranger with a twist ending, and rendered impossibly creepy by the Expressionist production design. The weird, distorted hand-painted sets give the film a crude, unreal beauty and, if anything, the passage of time has increased the film’s creepiness, because it’s so utterly unlike modern films.

The Exorcist (1973)

An obvious choice, but The Exorcist is genuinely scary. It’s deceptively simple: the filming style is realistic, the locations are ordinary-looking and, by comparison to more modern horror movies, there aren’t many elaborate effects or stunts. But the film makes every scary moment count. It’s atmosphere is oppressive, claustrophobic – there’s an ever-present sense of dread throughout. It ought to feel more dated than it does, but even now, the demonic makeup and scratchy voice of the possessed Regan gives me goosebumps.

The Omen (1976)

Damien is probably the ultimate creepy child. Adopted by the Thorns when their own newborn dies, it doesn’t take long for his dark side to emerge: Damien is the Antichrist.

There are so many iconic moments in this film, so many things that have shaped both the horror genre and our culture’s idea of evil; something about this film really struck a chord, and even now it’s pretty effective. Every death scene in this movie is memorable, but the suicide of Damien’s nanny at his birthday party particularly stands out.

Ghostwatch (1992)

Originally shown on UK TV at Halloween, Ghostwatch scared a whole generation shitless. It’s presented as a live broadcast, starring familiar BBC faces: Michael Parkinson plays host, while Sarah Green and Craig Charles report from the scene as a normal family recount their experiences with the terrifying ghost they’ve dubbed “Pipes”. The shadowy figure of a man is glimpsed several times throughout the show, some appearances more obvious than others, and as viewers call in to share their own stories, things get weirder and weirder…Okay, this isn’t technically a film, but it is so amazingly creepy and brilliant that it couldn’t be left off the list.

The Wicker Man (1973)

The Wicker Man is a wonderful mishmash of genres: it’s got humour, horror, singing and sex. It frequently teeters on the edge of absurdity. But at heart, it’s deeply creepy. When devout Christian Sgt Howie visits the isolated community of Summerisle, he thinks he’s investigating the abduction of a little girl – and the villagers certainly do seem to be acting suspiciously. But as his investigation continues, it becomes clear that something entirely different is going on. Howie runs headlong to his doom, and its final scene is downright spine-chilling.

Suspiria (1977)

Suspiria is Dario Argento’s finest hour. It’s eyeball-meltingly beautiful to look at, all unnatural neon lighting and ridiculously lavish set design; the music is cacophonous, a never-ending wall of sound that doesn’t let up; and the plot is, well, it’s functional enough.

Suzy, an American ballet dancer, flies to an exclusive dance school in Germany only to find herself in the midst of a murder investigation – and something weird is definitely going on with the teachers. If you haven’t seen Suspiria in a while, treat yourself to the Blu-ray. There’s nothing restrained about this movie, nothing ordinary; it sneaks up on you and worms its way into your brain. It’s brilliant.

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