#we as the viewers think she did because of things we know she knew nothing about
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I've been pretty positive about Yuu so far, but watching her magical girl story... hmm.
Basically I like everything about Yuu, but man that serial killer bit is the only thing that really sticks out as an overt bad choice. Having Nagisa stand around and watch Yuu kill people is such a weird choice, it feels more like fanfic than actual canon. Like this doesn't feel like something that could happen in Magia Record-- or hell, even in Madoka Magica either.
For example, Sayaka has a scene on a train where some dudes are being sexist assholes and it's left up to the viewer to decide if she kills them or not. It doesn't go: Sayaka killed them and also they were calling out for help the entire time while Madoka watched you know?
That said, this is something I can see in a bunch of the spinoffs (Kazumi, Oriko, Suzune), but I think everyone agrees that the spinoffs are of dubious quality. I love me the spinoffs but they're a hot mess.
I dunno. It's one thing to know that Yuu is a serial killer, it's another thing to have a character watch her go around and kill people and not intervene in any way. Especially in a story that goes out of its way to not do that. Walpy hitting Kamihama is noted to have no causalities at all (which goes a little too far in the other direction imo but it is what it is), Suzune isn't able to kill anyone in Kamihama and is dealt with by kicking her out (and not killing her), the deaths in arc 2 are mostly accidental and have massive consequences, everyone is forgiven in the end-- this isn't a story that really has "watch someone kill people and do nothing" in it's cards, you know?
I actually liked Nagisa's Wish for a lot of things. For example, I like that Nagisa didn't think she could be a magical girl until she saw Yuu, because she assumed that magical girls had to be good people-- aka, Nagisa did not think she was good. But that's not because Nagisa is a bad person. Nagisa is just unloved, and since she's a young kid, she's internalized that to mean that something is wrong with her, not that something is wrong with her mom. It's heartbreaking to see her go from "I can't be a magical girl," to seeing Yuu the murderer, to then going "oh okay if she can be a magical girl then so can I." Like sweet pea, your mother not loving you is not the same as being a killer. You've done nothing wrong. You are not a bad person for having Feelings and Emotions about the neglect you are experiencing.
However the serial killer/organ seller bit just goes too far for me and it kind of overshadows a lot of the better ideas present in Nagisa's Wish. Like how can you focus on the interesting ideas about justice or self worth when there is a serial killer/organ stealer walking around.
I think that the best qualities of Yuu are her design and how creepy she is-- having her actually go all the way and be a serial killer/organ seller actually makes her less creepy in my opinion. Yada yada, less is more, leave it up to the viewer's imagination. If she was just off, if we just knew that something was wrong with her and that people are disappearing but it's not outright stated what she's doing... I dunno. That would make her a lot more scary to me. A lot of fear can be found in apprehension and outright telling all the details will fill in too many gaps.
Like, the things that we all like about Yuu would be her voice direction, her memory issues, the way her Live2D is designed to be slightly off kilter from everyone else, the gap between her attitude and the darkness she engages in, the weird weaponry she uses and how it changes the way she walks/moves-- all of this is effective because it is offputting and different, not because the narrative is telling us "hey she kills people and sells their organs."
Basically I really love Yuu, but I do have some criticisms for her character and I understand why some folks don't like her.
That said, it did lead to this fantastic line from Kyubey so like,
You take some, you lose some.
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ME FINDING OUT ABOUT THE WALPURGISNACHT RISING TRAILER SIX MONTHS LATER APPARENTLY.
MY GIRL MY BEST GIRL.
#musings#bandit#look#i need you to understand#there are very few characters i identify with as strongly as homura akemi#there may not be any#my girl did NOTHING. WRONG#we as the viewers think she did because of things we know she knew nothing about#ANYWAY#MY PRECIOUS GIRL IS COMING BACK#FINALLY#F I N A L L Y#....#no i haven't seen magia record or read all of the spin-off manga don't judge me#i still want my girl back#with more yuki kajiura masterpiece music please and thank
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the fans love you
i feel like we all know that a lot of vinnie's fans send/spread hate whenever he's simply seen with a girl, but i decided to write this headcanon in which it's the opposite. where the fans absolutely love you
masterlist
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At first he didn’t know how to approach the situation. You know, finally telling everyone he has a girlfriend. He was also nervous about the reactions. Not that he gave a fuck about what people were to say about him, it was you he was worried about.
And how would he do it? Would he make a tik tok? Would he post a selfie with you on his Instagram story and let people put two and two together?
You told him you didn’t care about what other people thought. Well, maybe deep down you cared a little. Who wouldn’t? But at the end of the day, you couldn’t control what other people said about you and their jealousy.
Vinnie didn’t know the photo had been taken until Jett sent it to him. It was a picture of Vinnie sitting on the couch, you in his lap, kissing each other with your hands caressing his face and his hands wrapped around your waist. Whoever took it was at a distance and zoomed in to take it. It was a chill night at the house. You thought you were alone. Guess not.
Vinnie said, “fuck it”, and posted the picture on Instagram. It was the third picture out of six for his camera roll dump. And tagged you.
You braced yourself for the comments/notifications. Vinnie was giddy with excitement as he knew he just dropped the bomb and there was no going back now.
You told yourself that you were just gonna ignore it for now. Check back in maybe three days.
It hadn’t even been thirty minutes and you opened the app. Disregarding the new activity on your end, you went straight to his comment section.
“oh so we hard launching now?”
“babe, that don’t look like me”
“This was my last straw”
“bout to take a bath with a toaster”
“I’m actually sick”
“Who tf is this?”
“SHES GORGEOUS”
“Y’all acting like he want y’all.”
“You two are so cute!!”
“W post”
Of course there were going to be negative ones. But to your surprise, it wasn’t as bad as you thought. There were also a good number of positive ones.
You go to your notifications and it’s flooded. Again, the negative comments were there. Some asking who you were and why you were with Vinnie. Some putting the throwing up emoji. Nothing that you didn’t expect. Even Vinnie was surprised at the response, so far. He was sure he was gonna have to tell some people off.
In the days to come, he started posting you more since it the relationship was no longer a “secret”. And honestly, it came natural, not looking like he was trying to show everyone he had a girlfriend. He posted you like he would post his friends.
You did the same. Although you both made sure that a lot of things were kept private.
His fans loved that they could see Vinnie from your point of view on your insta story. They loved seeing him act silly while y’all were out to lunch or out shopping because you dragged him. You liked being able to give them that content.
When he would post a video on tik tok and you were in it, some people would be like “she’s OUR gf” and he’d be like “bro what?”
You had an account of your own but wouldn’t post all that often. Vinnie’s fans would comment on his videos, telling him to tell you to post more.
When he streams, he’ll get a lot of “where’s y/n?” comments from viewers. Sometimes they would ask so much that he literally has to say that you’re not even there at the house. He would fake being offended that they weren’t playing attention to his game play. Not that he could blame them. He couldn’t stop thinking about you either.
There would be mail sent to the P.O. box with Vinnie’s name on the packaging label but every single item was for you.
When out in public, fans were just as excited to meet you. You can’t even count how many selfies you took with them.
Even the guy fans. Now, Vinnie isn’t the type to really get jealous, but you could tell something was up by how clingy he got after.
It’s like they loved you more than him and honestly, Vinnie couldn’t have been happier at the turnout.
#vinniehacker#vhackerr#vinnie hacker#v.hacker#vinnie x reader#vinnie hacker imagine#vinnie x y/n#vinnie imagines#vinnie hacker fluff#vinnie hacker headcanon
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Bravern episode 8 spoilers
EP 8 Analysis
This is going to be super incoherent and is mostly just going to be me rambling but idc, I need to post this somewhere so it’s not ruminating in my head until I assault some random human with word vomit
So this is mostly going to be focus on episode 8 but I will touch back on previous episodes for references.
Anyways Episode 8 basically just confirmed the “Bravern is Smith” theory and I am so hype
What is the “Bravern is Smith” theory?
So the Bravern is Smith theory is a theory that.. well.. Bravern and Lewis Smith are the same person.
I’m not sure who started it but (I think) it started when the opening showed for the first time and we got to the scene of Smith’s arm becoming Bravern’s. From there it spiraled, more and more evidence pointing towards it, such as: Bravern knowing A LOT about Smith, Bravern making a lot of human pop culture references and speaking English interchangeably with Japanese (Smith does this too), Bravern being a super robot (Smith is a massive Super robot nerd) and a ton of other things
Episode 8:
Now we get into why I’m finally making a post about this, I’ve been following along with this theory since episode 2 and have been taking my notes on it but I never bothered posting about it anywhere
Why now?
Because episode 8 might’ve just confirmed it.
Let’s start with the opening:
So this right here is the catalyst that started this all, Smith’s arm turning into Bravern’s. Now, we knew all that, but the one thing we never knew until now was “who tf is glowy bitch”
Well,
I think is Knuth
“But why her? She looks nothing like the silhouette”
Look here, she has plates of armor that highly resemble two pairs of wings. Who else has two pairs of wings? The silhouette. Same placement and everything. I think the silhouette is meant to be vague, as to not tip the viewer off right away that the silhouette is a deathdrive.
We’ll come back to this later, I need to talk about Bravern’s lines during this episode.
I’m not entirely sure how to explain it but this line will be important later, for now it’s just more Super Robot inspirational speech
Right here is the important line, the title of the episode (which is what tipped me and a lot of other people off to Smith dying) and the last thing Bravern says to him. Now normally when entering a battlefield, you’d tell your comrade “Good luck”, “Until we meet again” makes it seem like someone will die, this is a line usually used when you’re not sure when you’ll see someone again. Bravern used this because he knew what was going to happen to Smith, and either he can’t stop it, or he doesn’t want to.
Bravern knows because he has gone through this before, as Smith.
That is likely why he told Smith to “save as many people as he can”, likely because when he went through this, a lot of people died
(This ties into my own branch of the theory where Bravern has already gone through all of this before and went back in time to change the outcome)
Now during the fight, Bravern isn’t really focused, he’s taking hits he’d normally be able to dodge and isn’t really rushing like he usually does. I think it’s because he’s trying to stall, trying to keep Isami away from Knuth and Smith so their fight can happen, either that or he’s distracted due to knowing what’s happening not that far away (or it could be both)
Before we get to this next part I wanna point out a quote I noticed during the episode from Knuth. I can’t find it just by scrolling and I’d rewatch the full episode to find it but Tumblr is lagging like hell and burning through my battery so I can’t
At one point Knuth mentioned something about fusing with Smith, this might mean that Knuth’s body ends up being the base for Bravern, but im still not 100% sure about that, just thought I’d add that. If she is the base and Bravern did in fact go back in time, this would make sense as Knuth had mentioned that she had gone back in time a few times
Now we get to focus on the important part of the episode, Smith’s death. Let’s just start listing off things to pay attention to.
(I reached the photo limit oops)
- Smith is humming his own theme song as he charges Knuth, Bravern sings his own theme song and blasts it whenever he fights
- He straight up says “Brave Slash” as he strikes Knuth
-Smith talks DIRECTLY INTO ISAMI’S MIND and says the following quote: “Isami. Isami. Brave. Brave… Bang.” And we all know why that’s important, the title of the show is literally “Bang Brave Bang Bravern”
There are still some questions, like “how was Smith able to use telepathy?” “How exactly is Bravern created?” “Is Bravern truly a fusion between Smith and Knuth?”
I know this probably makes zero sense but I need to get this out somewhere
Thanks for coming to my TedTalk (holy shit it’s so laggy)
Edit: I forgot to mention it but the foreshadowing for Smith’s death was so obvious, legit in his introduction Isami legit goes “You’re dead, the dead don’t talk” so uhh called it lmao
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Let’s kick this post off with a little definition-
Mousy- nervous, shy, or timid; lacking in presence or charisma
This term is often used in a negative way, and in this fandom we all know who gets called mousy. Literally just saw someone today equate Molly being mousy with character flaws. But read the definition again… what’s wrong with this? Nothing. These are just personality differences, not flaws. Why does a female character have to be loud, pushy, and full of confidence to be seen as strong and valuable? Yes sometimes men don’t write women well, but I’d actually argue that’s not the case with Molly Hooper. There’s literally nothing wrong with being quiet and mild. (Which, btw, you’d have to have stopped watching at s1 to think that’s how she is all the time lol) And there’s also nothing wrong with being in love with someone, even when they don’t love you the way you want in return. Those things don’t make you weak or mean that you’ve had no character development.
People should be careful not to miss the point of Molly. The other characters that are important to Sherlock are very in your face and obvious. With Molly it’s more subtle. That’s a huge plot line! Because Moriarty missed it too. But there’s also plenty of times where it’s spelled out nice and clear.
“You do count. You’ve always counted and I’ve always trusted you.”
Don’t ignore what those words of Sherlock’s mean. It means that even back when she seemed less important to the viewer, she actually wasn’t. She was always important to him. Do you think he’d feel that way if she truly was a doormat of a person? No. Again, just because you’re quiet, nervous, or shy doesn’t mean you’re weak or worthless. Sherlock always knew how strong and intelligent and loyal she was, so he didn’t care about how she came across socially. Why should the viewer? Maybe because it’s just more comfortable to see her as the badly written doormat. 👀
And how about the argument that she “deserved better” and got cheated out of “closure?” I’d really like to dig into that and compare Molly’s supposed lack of closure to the other characters. Does anyone claim Greg got no closure? Or John? Or Mycroft? Or Mrs Hudson? Huh, that’s funny. Because I don’t recall a scene with any of them hashing out all their feelings with Sherlock and coming to a mutual agreement of where things stood. They all got the same thing. They were all included in the montage at the end. They were all shown to be happy and clearly still close with Sherlock. The implication of that is so incredibly obvious, despite not having it spoon fed to us on screen. So again, explain to me how she’s the poor sad victim when all the other characters aren’t? 🤨 Adding to that, a lot of us believe that Sherlock (at least by the later seasons) did indeed love Molly in a way that wasn’t just platonic. There’s plenty of evidence to that as well, though that’s not something that needs defending. You either see it or you don’t.
But anyway, regardless of ship canon, there’s plenty of Molly Hooper canon that is so misread and/or ignored. That’s what I wanted to defend. Because IMO the justice Molly Hooper deserves is simply that her character and canon is seen for what it truly is.
#molly hooper#sherlolly#seeing pity for Molly gets to me#fandom woes#I maintain she’s the most well adjusted character on that show#she’s got her life together#she has friends and an amazing job#just because a character is shy and doesn’t get screen time the whole show#doesn’t make them badly written#clearly I could go on and on lol
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Dang it, okay, I have thoughts
James Somerton made an apology video in which he says "I'm sorry" several times but
Couches it in a pity party
Does not directly address any of the people whose work he stole by name
Never uses the word "plagiarism," instead referring to his theft almost exclusively as "citation errors"
James discusses how many videos he and his team were releasing and the frequency of releases as if someone was pressuring them to release a high volume of videos, as if to say it isn't his fault that there were quality problems
James offers to make his videos public again and add "citations" in a pinned comment or in the descriptions as a means of crediting the people he stole from
He also insists that some of the videos won't need these citations because some of them were his own "original work"
(In other words: that he has nothing more to hide)
James states that he isn't bigoted against ace folks, bisexual folks, trans folks, or women and that the several disparaging remarks he has made against these communities in his videos were not written by him
Because we have receipts for several of these remarks thanks to Harry's (hbomberguy's) video on James, we know that they didn't come from the articles and books he was stealing from, so if James didn't write them then the only other person who could have was his cowriter Nick
James then immediately says that he's not trying to blame Nick
James does not try to explain the ace/arophobic, biphobic, transphobic, or misogynistic remarks he has made on his Twitter or Patreon accounts
James mentions - and seems genuinely bothered by - the "people online" who are spreading lies and misinformation about him
Finally, James discusses future projects he would like to work on
He then deleted the apology video
Harry states near the top of Plagiarism and You(Tube) that "When someone more competent than Filip uses [his] techniques in a subtler way, we can recognize them for what they are."
This is not competent. It's not even subtle. James's career was so thoroughly eviscerated literally overnight that this is the best he can do, and it's not even good.
James says that he's sorry, but doesn't actually explain what he's sorry for. He doesn't admit to, or take responsibility for, the extent of what he actually did. In this way, he can now say when confronted that he apologized. But with the wording, he still manages to avoid actually taking ownership of his actions. In other words, it's using passive language to imply that what he has done just happened. He definitely didn't sit down and choose to commit extensive plagiarism - of course not! What really happened? *shrug* Anyway, sorry for it.
When iiluminaughtii (henceforth referred to as Blaire) tried to explain the many times in her video essays she has misspoken or misused words, she played it off as a byproduct of the amount of "work" she churned out for her fans. James is trying to do the same thing here, only it is deeply ineffective. It's quite upsetting to me to think that some of his fans - young queer folks who are probably used to having to make themselves small - might on some level fall for this trick. The idea is to make you the viewer feel guilty for the demands you have placed on this creator, when in reality this is a grown adult who knew exactly what he was doing.
I'm not going to spend too long on this next point. If you've read this far, you're probably invested enough to be well aware that James has used the trick of burying a citation under a mound of text no-one will read many times. It's the same trick Blaire used, and the one The Internet Historian used as well after he was caught.
James stops short of making a "Colombo villian speech" in this apology video. He does, however, take the time to say that he has nothing more to hide. Again, if you've watched Harry's video, you know this literally always means that the person who insists they have nothing to hide is absolutely hiding something else. Whether this is more plagiarism or some other skullduggery we haven't yet found out about, I'm sure it will come to light eventually. I'm honestly surprised and a little disappointed that James tried this tack. Obviously he's thought better of it, since the video is gone now. But I would think a grown human who has just been the subject of an hours-long piece of, frankly, journalism would know better than to say something like this.
With the comments about his bigotry, James is trying to simultaneously redirect attention and perform allyship by saying "Look, I have an asexual friend! Who may or may not be public about his sexuality at this time!" This is the kind of thing I think a lot of us in the queer community are used to - supposed allies downplaying microaggressions by pointing to folks in the ally's proximity who happen to have an identity that they are being accused of speaking badly about. "This one person can stand to be around me, so clearly I can't be all bad." Personally, as someone whose racist parent tries consistently to downplay their own racism by pointing to me, their mixed race child, I can tell you that this is always misleading. In this case, I feel comfortable saying it's intentional. James tries to excuse the bigotry that "ended up in the videos" by saying that he didn't have time to edit the scripts properly. He doesn't seem to realize that time constraints often make people much more honest. In reality, this is James trying to make excuses for the bigotry he put in his videos because the time constraints he put onto himself made it much more difficult to disguise how he really feels.
James then directs some indignation at the people who are online discussing what he did. I would interpret his discussion of his income as an oblique reference to Dan Olson's thread about his recording equipment if I had a degree in literary analysis. My degree is not in literary analysis, so I'll leave it there. Ahem.
James makes reference to future projects he hopes to work on, as if this endeavor has in any way preserved or helped to bolster his shattered reputation. Jessie Gender makes a great point in saying this feels like a promise of work we could get out of him if we all just collectively decide to ignore all the harm he has caused. And James has caused harm. Whether he meant to or not, given the sheer magnitude of his plagiarism, there is absolutely no doubt that he has caused significant harm to a community he claimed to defend.
I want to spend a moment on something others have already pointed out. Actually, Harry pointed this out too. If James's theft were in any way defensible, he would have defended it. He would not have gone to such great lengths - up to and including deleting videos - to hide it. He wouldn't have used Nick as a shield, he wouldn't have outright lied in his livestreams, and he wouldn't have deactivated his Patreon (before reactivating--y'know what, this post is long enough, we don't need to get into that). James lied and dodged and beat around the bush for years BECAUSE he knew what he was doing was wrong. I had a justice studies professor once tell my class that nobody wakes up in the morning and decides to be A Criminal. People make choices, and choices have consequences, but most people don't choose consequences. People choose the thing that benefits them and consequences follow. James made a long, long series of choices, and I would like to remind everyone that they always had consequences. Even before Harry's video came out, James was facing consequences. Those didn't come from nowhere, they came from the people he was hurting. He knew about them, he just didn't stop because of them. He stopped because he literally couldn't keep going anymore.
Finally, James deleted his misguided response to the multitude of accusations against him. I don't think I need to explain to anyone what that indicates.
I would like to finish by saying that nobody should be harassed. Nobody should be bullied, or dogpiled, or doxxed. Nobody should wake up in the hospital because their dad realized he needed to call an ambulance. James's life is undoubtedly in a really difficult place right now, and while he absolutely deserved to lose his career, that's all he deserved. I hope he regains his health, I really do.
And I hope Harry and his team don't feel any responsibility over this. It seems easy from the outside to believe they wouldn't, but I also know that if I had just released a 4-hour long video detailing someone's fraud and then found out they had been in the hospital because of an incompleted suicide, I would feel pretty conflicted about a project we know Harry already felt conflicted about.
I hope Harry and his team are doing okay, and I hope James starts doing okay soon, and I hope James realizes this was the wrong damn time to try any release and apology. It was a bad apology.
#james somerton#hbomberguy#i am never writing anything this long or detailed for this godforsaken website ever again#plagiarism#plagiarism and you(tube)#and hey! i managed to get through the whole thing without cursing even once
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Nancy’s Feelings for Ace
Nancy told Ace that the first time she realized she had feelings for him was during the dreamscape with the wraith, because that was her official “oh” moment, but as a viewer we know she had feelings for him long before that, even if she didn’t know it. The first real signs for us were her obvious jelly feelings as she watched Ace flirt with Amanda in 2x07 and her mind immediately jumping to Ace when she heard the sentence “the one with the pretty eyes” in 2x08. But really, it goes even further back than that.
Nick asking Ace in the last episode if it was ever really only friendship and nothing more between him and Nancy got me thinking back to the very beginning. And to be honest, I don’t think it ever was only friendship. For either one of them.
We know now that Ace had a crush on Nancy in high school. So naturally, when she started working at The Claw, that crush returned right away (even if he also had a crush on Bess at the time). And we know Nancy met Nick and it was lust at first sight and she immediately embarked on a physical relationship with him soon after. This all happened before the show began. What else happened before the show began and it’s one of the first things Nancy tells us about Ace when her narration introduces us to him?
The smoke break.
Upon first viewing, it feels like an unimportant throwaway line. A piece of information that could just as easily have been left out. But it wasn’t. Why? Because I think that smoke break, a moment we’ve never gotten to see, was when Nancy’s feelings for Ace actually started.
Think about it for a second. We know that Nancy has always found Ace attractive. When she hears the term “pretty eyes”, she’s like “Who, Ace?” When she’s under the spell of a lust dress, she lets it slip out that she’s always imagined how soft his hair would be. In as early as episode 1x02, she’s placing a hand on his shoulder for no reason while she talks and she doesn’t let go until she’s done. He may not have necessarily been on her radar in high school like she was on his, but he certainly was as soon as she started working at The Claw.
So, now that we have obvious physical attraction out of the way, that smoke break. We know very little about it. The most of what we do know about it is made up from the minds of countless fans who’ve written their own fan fic version of it (myself included). But the one canon thing about it, the thing Nancy told us herself, was that he didn’t judge her for tanking her grades after her mom died. And how did he even know about that? Because she told him.
Nancy Drew, who at the start of the show was the queen of high emotional walls who didn’t like divulging personal information to anyone, divulged some pretty personal information to this boy she barely knew (and even though it’s never discussed again, there’s a pretty good chance that wasn’t the only smoke break they ever spent together). Meanwhile, she was hooking up with Nick and even sorta calling herself his girlfriend, but any time he tried to get her to open up and talk about anything, she shut him down immediately.
I feel like this is something that should be discussed more. The fact that she was able to so quickly and comfortably share stuff like this with Ace and nobody else is a huge deal. And in the beginning, it’s completely overlooked because Nancy’s love interest was Nick, and then after they broke up, Owen was next in line. For most of season one, she did not outwardly show any significant interest in Ace as anything more than a stranger–turned–co-worker–turned–sleuthing buddy–turned–close friend. But that interest was there.
And why wouldn’t it be? As I already mentioned, Nancy was always physically attracted to Ace. She knew from before the show began that he was a good listener and easy to talk to. And then early on when she learned about his hacking abilities, she saw how smart he was. Soon after that, she learned how loyal and dedicated he was. The boy risked his entire future to break her father out of prison, and he did so without her even asking him to. He willingly drank what could’ve been poison to prove she was right and to keep her from getting arrested. Every time she called, he answered. Every time she needed help or needed a favor, he delivered. How could she not possibly fall for him?
So, she did fall for him. Most likely even in season one. It was evident during the library scene where they were reading Ryan and Lucy’s emails out loud. Hearing Ace say things like “I think I love you too” and “I want to be with you, I don’t care what anyone else says” made her feel something, hence the look the two of them share afterward. But here’s the thing: if Nancy recognized that feeling at all, she would have shoved it down so far and so fast because that feeling was something real. Something more than she was used to feeling. And that scared her.
Nick was a distraction from the grief over her mother’s death. Owen was also a distraction from that grief, as well as from her break-up with Nick. Ace wasn’t a distraction. He was a friend. A confidant. Someone she could rely on. Someone she could count on under any circumstances. This kind of relationship with a guy was one she wasn’t accustomed to. And she knew that it could someday lead to something more serious—something she most definitely wasn’t ready for.
In 2x10, while under the spell of the lust dress, Nancy theorized out loud that perhaps the dress was intensifying feelings of attraction she already had but was repressing, and she said it while turning and looking directly at Ace. Keep in mind that (somehow) 2x10 in the timeline is not that far from where they were in season one, so to assume those repressed feelings started in season one is not that much of a stretch. And looking back, even starting within the first few episodes of the series, you can clearly see she has always been drawn to him in a very subconscious way. She would always stand so close their arms would almost touch. She would lean closely over his shoulder when he was on his laptop, their faces sometimes only mere inches apart. She would practically bump into him while walking side-by-side. She’s always had this unrealized need to be near him. To be close to him. And he’s the only one. I challenge anyone to find scenes that show her casually existing so closely next to Nick, Owen, Gil, Park or even now Tristan. You can’t. Because they don’t exist.
And this makes sense. Canonically, they are soulmates. And that would explain why Ace could simply see her make a volcano erupt in high school and develop feelings for her. It would explain why since day one, Nancy has had a bond with Ace that she’s never had with anyone else. And I know the writers say that Nace wasn’t the plan from the beginning, and I do believe that, but somehow, they inadvertently set it up perfectly for these characters to end up in the situation they’re in right now: desperately in love and desperate to be together. They are each other’s person. And they always have been from the very start.
To go back to what they were before would just be staying the same. They’ve never been just friends. And the sooner Ace can admit that to himself, the sooner they can get back to trying to break that curse and securing their future together.
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I hope you can do a take on the Rolling Stone interview with Tenoch Huerta... particularly that part about "romantic chemistry between Namor and Shuri". Absolutely love how you break down and analyze the Namuri dynamic <3 Thank you!!!
thank you for reading!!
and what a lovely interview from rolling stone. i loved reading tenoch’s thoughts and opinions, especially about representation and how namor became more human and grounded with subsequent scripts.
lets look at what he said about killing ramonda:
Remember, he had been trying to create this alliance with Shuri before she became a queen. And Namor is thinking about the future — not because he was planning to kill the queen. But he’s 500 years old. So for him, it’s just a blink. The time goes. In the future, she will be a queen.
now this got me SCREAMING. firstly because, again, he specifically talks about having an alliance with shuri, not wakanda in general. secondly, i love how namor sees time. he looks at shuri and sees her future, not her present. something poetic about that for sure. and he treats her like a queen because to him she might as well be. but of course, shuri isn’t queen yet. it adds credence to my “shuri and the rejection of queenhood” meta. namor is consciously bestowing queenhood onto her. when she rejects his allyship, she is also rejecting his view of her as queen.
and lmao, despite seeing her as a queen he still calls her princess. the princess-is-a-term-of-endearment-theory stands strong.
So to kill Queen Ramonda [Angela Bassett] was never his plan, it was a reaction because they killed a couple of girls of Namor’s kingdom, and it was just a punishment. It’s like: You kill people, I kill your people. But, yeah, I swear to God, first he tried to make an alliance the best way he possibly could! Then things happened.
We been knew. its a somewhat justified act of murder. and i love his choice of word- punishment. it sounds like what a god would do in the face of insolence.
now onto that question.
i’m in two minds about writing about this honestly, because at the end of the day shipping does not and has never required validation from the creatives or cast. it’s a bonus, but isn’t a requirement for a ship to thrive in anyway.
it’s a big enough win that rolling stone is even mentioning romantic chemistry in their interview and to tenoch. another reminder that general audiences were also picking up romantic undertones in their scenes. even if the intent wasn’t romantic, everything from the production design, writing, music, costuming, and direction, gave them enough of a romantic foundation for them to go down that path in the future if they chose.
let’s look at the question and the abridged answer.
Q: On another note, some viewers felt that there was romantic chemistry between Namor and Shuri when she was in your city. Did you play that romantic chemistry deliberately?
A: “I don’t feel it was a romantic touch [between them] I think it was more a human, intimate touch…
I mean, when you meet someone and you have a good relationship, whether this person is the gender that you prefer or not, you always have this ambiguous relationship. It’s normal. It’s human.
If that can evolve into a romantic relationship or not? I don’t know. It wasn’t our intention. It could happen or not.
The beautiful part of this relationship is, it doesn’t need to be romantic to be deep. It doesn’t need to be romantic to be beautiful and bright and intimate…These characters, they create something. I don’t know. It was magical, but not necessarily romantic.”
you know what? i’m okay with it. because what is romance when we think about it? it’s intimacy, it’s connection, it’s beautiful.
the words tenoch uses to describe their relationship are so telling. beautiful. bright. intimate. deep. magical. nothing antagonistic, nothing referring to it as a rivalry, nothing about manipulation, nothing suggesting that their relationship is unequal or inauthentic. those scenes in talokan, were pure, unadulterated connection.
and of course that doesn’t have to be romantic to be compelling, and the intent in those scenes wasn’t romance. but he accepts that because shuri and namor have such a good relationship, it’s normal for it to be seen ambiguous. aka a romantic interpretation is valid (not that we needed that validation).
in the fact tenoch doesn’t dismiss the idea. he very easily could have. If that can evolve into a romantic relationship or not? I don’t know... It could happen or not. not ‘that wouldn’t work out’ or ‘i don’t think namor could see shuri in that way’. just ‘it could be romantic, but that’s not how i was playing it those scenes’.
look, i don’t hold my breath when it comes to marvel and romance and that has been the case for years. it’s not worth the disappointment. if marvel doesn’t pursue nashuri/namuri/seaprincess i wouldn’t be surprised. but we also know that marvel, for better or for worse, listens to the fandom. and with the fandom being generally positive (i couldn’t imagine getting a hit tweet with some of my other ships let me tell you) i’ve allowed a little hope to blossom despite my better judgement.
now that marvel knows that the general audience loved their chemistry and we’re thinking romantic thoughts about them…the scene is set for marvel to make some concrete moves towards that direction in the future. but again, shipping is for fandom. and no one is prying this ship out of my hands.
#namuri#namor x shuri#shuri x namor#wakanda forever#wakanda forever spoilers#black panther#meta#seaprincess#mcu#nashuri#shuramor#ask
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Where do you think it all went wrong with Riverdale?
honestly, part of me is like, the show's over and nothing but fandom matters. so who cares?
the other part of me loves to complain about Riverdale and will continue to do so until the day I die in the parking lot of Michael's Diner in Montgomeryville, PA at the age of 86. so, long-winded answer under the cut
I'm tempted to say it's the s4 b*rchie kiss. It was so wildly out of character for both Betty and Archie that it's laughable. You know how you can tell when something is just blatantly OOC with no justification? They...don't justify it. They find ways to dance around any interaction that might offer clarification. They mute the reactions of the characters who should be devastated by it. And then they jump ahead 7 years so it's easier to just handwave it away as something that happened a long time ago.
but the thing is, I did keep watching after that. I thought: okay, at least we should get an exes-to-lovers arc out of this, which is one of my favorite tropes. there is no way they would spend 4 seasons developing Bughead as this loving, supportive, communicative, sexy, and almost-unbelievably-compatible couple just to tear them apart and never do anything with that dynamic again. maybe it'll be even sweeter seeing them come back together after so much hurt and longing.
boy was i wrong!!!!!!!!!
so, the episode that actually made me stop watching for good, with the exception of some standalones like The Jughead Paradox and the finale, was the s5 musical. that was when i realized that this team of writers was 100% willing, maybe even eager, to completely drop storylines they themselves had been building over the course of a season - do a 180 with all of the characterization and relationships - and then act as though the buildup they wrote never even happened.
in this case, i'm specifically talking about the Bughead reunion storyline they dropped in s5. i'm not going to pretend like it was a GREAT buildup - and it was mostly on Jughead's side, Betty's character in s5 was basically an emotionless misery bot that had sex sometimes - but it was there. Jughead told Tabitha he had unresolved feelings around Betty. that's followed by an entire episode that lays out Betty & Jug's time jump relationship, and how Jughead still believes she's the one who saves him from himself. they work on a case together, they start opening up to one another. Jughead's so worried about her he can't eat.
and then...you know what happens.
(i'll also note here that there was random bts stuff that strongly indicated the musical ep storyline had a drastic last-minute rewrite: lili tweeted a blue dress, suggesting the song with that line was meant for her character; RAS said cole had to do last-minute recording sessions; supposedly crew members have confirmed this was the case, too. since none of it's 100% confirmed you can take it all with a grain of salt, but i believe it.)
it was so fucking insulting as a viewer to give my time and attention to a show made by people who would not only randomly drop the threads they set up, but torpedo them altogether, and then behave like the fans are the ones somehow at fault for expecting a story that actually follows through on its own emotional and plot beats. we're just shippers, so our opinions are dumb and biased! it's just a tv show, so who cares! get over it!
so, i stopped watching, because i knew they would continue to write without any thought or respect for their characters or their audience, and therefore inevitably write themselves into another corner. and, shocker, i was right. they did it again, whisking everyone away to the 1950s because actually resolving any of the scenarios they set up was ToO hArD. why bother when you could just make every single character Righteously Angry and Incurably Horny all the time, lecture the audience about social issues that have already been mainstream progressive for the last several decades, and call it a "love letter" to your fans?
#WHEW ok anon idk if this was what you were looking for but it's what you got#hopefully this has fully exorcised my need to Go Off against the creators of this show but you never know!!#my capacity for bitter resentment is apparently endless when it comes to this show#rd negativity#riverdale#anti b*rchie#anti j*bitha#just in case#anon
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Wilhelm’s struggle with his sexuality doesn’t fit either into Queer Awakening, or Unabashedly Queer Wille narrative. His path to fully accepting his own queerness is very different from everything I have seen in the media. The inner fight Wilhelm is having throughout S1 and S2 is shown in a very subtle way. Maybe that is why we, viewers accustomed to straightforward, in-your-face and often offensively stupid queer stories, can’t see this struggle for what it is.
Every clue we were given in S1 leads us to one conclusion: up until the video Wille wasn’t out to anyone.
Let’s recap:
1. Felice is excited about Wille going to Hillerska because it means she has a shot with him. No one tells her to cool down because no one has a reason to suspect the prince to be anything but straight. We are talking about people who know each other pretty well: nobles and riches have been going to the same schools, same clubs, same resorts for generations. As F. Scott Fitzgerald (or Zelda Fitzgerald, who knows) put it: ‘…then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.’ And yet, there isn’t even a whisper about Wille maybe, possibly being interested in boys.
2. Wille wasn’t out to the closest person in his family – Erik. The conversation they had on parents’ day hints that. @mirabel-on-a-bicycle explained it perfectly: ‘Even during that phone call, he was sitting in a pretty relaxed position, up until he said that he wanted to stay at school. And when he did admit to liking someone, the camera made the extra effort of floating down from his face to show his hand clutching at his knees. Like yea, it was adorable, the way he got so puffy and defensive about having a crush, but under all this, they were nervous mannerisms as well!’
A long time ago I saw a post about Erik using genderless words in the conversation about Wille’s ‘crush’ and it is the only detail that allows speculations about Erik suspecting.
3. Wille wasn’t out to his parents. For Kristina to say ‘Now it’s you and your future children who will succeed me’ after Erik’s funeral, she must have been pretty sure that her younger son was straight. Otherwise, it would be inconsiderate if not cruel of her, especially at that moment. The fact that she and Wille don’t discuss his sexuality after the video is completely understandable: the queen has a crisis on her hands and it needs to be dealt with. Priorities.
Besides, there is nothing to discuss. It’s Sweden-2021: equal rights for LGBTIQA+ people are supported by 98% of citizens, Church of Sweden gives matrimony to same-sex couples since 2009. In S2 when Kristina says ‘Oh, please. Your father and I love you just the way you are, Wilhelm’, and she is slightly annoyed because of the fact she even has to say such an obvious thing out loud.
Ludvig is basically a piece of furniture, I have no idea what he is doing in the show. He and Wille barely talk so it’s safe to assume he was the last one to learn about his younger son’s sexuality.
4. August’s reaction when he is shooting the video says it all: in the beginning, he is smiling because he thinks it will be a fun prank. But the moment he realizes it is not a girl in Wille’s bed, we see August being genuinely shocked. Despite being close to the royal family and being friends with Erik, he had no idea about Wille’s queerness.
5. Finally, Hillerska students are surprised to find out about the nature of Wille and Simon’s relationship. Stella and Fredrika bring up the topic of surrogacy and we see them being scandalized/entertained by the prospect. The thought about the next heir to the throne born in a same-sex marriage had never crossed their minds because there was no reason for that.
So we can be sure that no one knew Wille was queer.
Why wasn’t he out?
He is only sixteen; it wouldn’t be unusual to figure out his sexuality at this age. Considering that no one knew Wille was queer, it is safe to assume Simon was the first boy Wille ever pursued. Otherwise, rumours would have gotten out.
Wille consistently freaks out about being with Simon. We see him struggling with crossing certain lines: at the end of E1S1 he is scared when he realizes he is attracted to Simon, in E2S1 he can’t immediately kiss Simon back, then he regrets doing it and tries to convince Simon it was a mistake.
It is really difficult to tell what exactly is the reason for Wille being so reluctant at different points. But as Edvin put it: ‘His problem is not being in love with a boy, his problem is being a prince.’
If we follow this logic, we will understand that Wille is scared of being out publicly. He is in a very unique position. To him, coming out doesn’t just mean a conversation with parents and another – with friends. He is a crown prince, and he is expected to produce an heir. He doesn’t want to discuss his sexuality with the whole world though at some level he understands it is inevitable. He acts consistently as if coming out is the last thing he wants to do. When Kristina suggests he lie about the video, Wille reluctantly agrees. Reluctantly, because he knows lying will mean leaving Simon alone to deal with the consequences. But the alternative – confessing that it was him and that he is, in fact, queer – is unbearable to him at that moment. Wille says it himself when he attempts to apologize to Simon: ‘If I came out, all hell would break loose! How can you even ask me to do that?’
He needs time to accept the idea of coming out to the whole world. We can’t really blame a sixteen-year-old for not wanting to go through this process. Queer people know that opening up can be painful. Not every person in your life will be kind and understanding. Coming out to billions of people is really, really scary. So even when Wilhelm makes his peace with the idea itself, he still struggles with the perspective of actually doing it. He accepts Kristina’s suggestion to come out in two years not because he is afraid of his mother. We have seen Wille being extremely difficult when his demands aren’t met. He accepts her suggestion because it feels right – ‘I will come out, but later.’ Even when he realizes that ‘later’ won’t get him Simon back, he doesn’t go Instagram Live to say: ‘Hi, Sweden, it’s your crown prince. It was me in the video. I am into boys. Have a nice day.’ It takes him more time than that to gather his courage.
Fully accepting one’s own sexuality can be a long process. A person can skip the whole panic stage, but still struggle with the idea of being open to family, friends, colleagues. YR does a superb job of showing this process and it is another thing for which I adore the show.
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Haunted (Cato x Reader)
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Part 7
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A/N: Im sorry its taken so long I am trying to wrap up book one but how do I change it and leave out unnecessary details... I'm working on it
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Cato’s POV
The room was tense. Seeder’s gift was sure to draw some attention. Rumors swirled around Rue’s death sparking anger in District 11. While the victors had become friendly throughout the years of mentoring bringing them together it wasn’t a common theme to grieve over other tributes like this. From the same district, maybe. Then again, alliances did not normally cross over between more than one district outside of District 1,2, and 4. The mentors whispered what her actions would bring upon them. Haymitch had been in and out of the shared viewing room. Only talking to Chaff a handful of times.
You’d been largely silent focused on the screen anytime y/n came into view. She was stone faced the morning after Rue and Marvels death. To someone from the capitol it could seem that she was simply waiting for the next canon to go off, but it would have been a stretch. Anyone with half a brain could see she was in a catatonic state. You wondered if Thresh really believed Marvel had gotten help in his endeavor with Rue. Likely not, Thresh seemed shaken up enough that he seemed the type to avenge his tiny friend and from what you saw he had made his way to the part of the arena covered in a field of wheat. If he knew about the dangers it was as a good place as any, you certainly wouldn’t have chased him out there.
Cashmere decides to sit next to you, clearing her throat and wakes you out of trance you seem to keep finding yourself in. She doesn’t speak to anyone in particular, but you know she’s directing every word to you. “She’s different, that one. We will have to help her when she comes back.”
“Don’t all tributes get that, mentors for the first year.”
“Hm? I don’t know what you mean, I must have been thinking out loud. It would be a shame if she couldn’t dig herself out. We don’t want her to go through the same thing Annie did.” With that Cashmere floated away. Annie. The girl from 4. She had come out a little more messed up than the usual victor, dissociating completely in certain situations as if she was somewhere totally different. Finnick had taken upon himself to help her get through her spells, and as much as he could try and hide the pair had grown dependent on the other, completely and totally in love with each other. It was easy to ignore everything when they were home, but Finnick was often called away and playing the role that was forced on anyone who had received help from sponsors. Even those who got nothing could be forced into keeping some annoying capitol citizen ‘company.’ You remember it had only been a month after you had gotten out of your own games. You still hadn’t left the arena, I guess that was your own fault for finishing so quickly, it never processed right. The woman…you couldn’t remember her name, you barely remembered her face, all you saw was a threat. You’d broken her arm the second she touched you, and then…well its lucky there were more people hanging around because before you knew it you were unconscious.
Killer Cato. The only good that came from that name is that until Brutus and Enobaria deemed you safe you were lucky enough to avoid traveling back and forth to the capitol. Most of the time the tributes were allowed to live their life as victor peacefully until the victory tour, most of the time. Some victors like the morphlings or the ones who weren’t conventionally attractive or maybe the ones who got lucky and survived the games on their own were left to their own devices. Most of tributes from 1, 2, and 4 were asked and more often than not told to pay a visit to the generous people of the capitol more quickly than the others. Unless she did something unappealing to the viewers y/n would probably suffer the same fate. Cashmere’s words soothed you, maybe there would be a way to keep her away from that life for now. Seeing as she risked her life for family, or something close to family, its likely the threats the capitol offered would force her to comply…These feelings were weird. You didn’t understand why it mattered. If she won you would only see her once a year once you were both mentors. Out of all of the tributes, she seemed like she had the best head to win, that’s all. Right? Maybe you can get some use out of the training center.
Hours go by, and it’s a slow day. The gamemakers are going to have to do something to pull them together, Y/ns eyes are hollow as she sits by the fire, seemingly waiting for anyone to come find her. They don’t. Arioch and Clove wont be lured by something so similar to what destroyed their supplies and killed an ally, not yet anyway. You wonder if Clove and Arioch had realized he had been ready to turn against Arioch, if they did neither showed any sign of doubting him. The red-headed girl is still spying on them, waiting for an opportune time to try and steal whatever foods been handed to them by the sponsors. Clove had been keeping Arioch calm, but he was getting angry. Lyme was only giving what was absolutely necessary for them to eat. She worried they wouldn’t be able to ration it properly and judging by how annoyed Arioch was getting she was right. It was clear he was fond enough of Clove that he knocked it off whenever she would say something about it but she had her fair share of complaints. You were shocked no one had gone where Thresh was hidden, it seemed to be abundant with food. If you knew about it anyway, which you were almost positive your tributes wouldn’t. The academy you trained for the games had classes on interviews, deadly snares and traps, and the biggest majority fighting, there were also classes for food and foraging but it was never forced. And realistically, you never needed to know about that, seeing as there was always a steady stream of sponsors willing to bet on your districts training.
Then finally as everyone is ready or already retiring to their rooms for a night of unrestful sleep, the trumpets sound. Haymitch sits back down in a spot next to you, a his hands clenched together as he rests his arms on his knees. Not even looking at his screen. You realize he knows what is about to happen, what the announcement will be. And you couldn’t have been more wrong. Claudius Templesmith has an announcement. You expected a feast, something to give Peeta a chance but no, the words ‘rule change’ freezes every victor left in the room. You realize why Haymitch has been largely absent today. You realize Peeta’s one sided pining has worked, and you also realize that maybe, it wasn’t so one sided, she’s teary eyed as his name leaves her lips the second the announcement is over.
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Y/ns POV
You were about to be sick again. You had never felt so conflicted. You should wait until morning. Every instinct screamed at you to not be so reckless. You couldn’t sit still, couldn’t sleep. You had your night glasses anyway…the ones Thresh had told you about. Thresh. The one who could have had an ally had you been able to save Rue. Rue. The young girl who could have made it if she hadn’t teamed up with you. Really it was the tributes of District 11 that originally urge your feet forward. You felt a guilt begin overing you under a weight that seemed to be getting heavier to shake off the more you allowed yourself to think of either of them. And Peeta. You could have ruined everything. He had continued playing up the star crossed lovers, why else would the gamemakers make a rule change like this. You move quickly and silently, theres only one place he could be, really. Arioch had gotten in your head, if Peeta was really that badly injured you may not have much time left, and you’d be damned if you lost anyone else. You only stop to rest when you’re close enough to the stream that you hope you’ll be able to hear or see Peeta.
The second daylight hits your still weary eyes you sit up. It stirs you from a rather unfulfilling sleep and you are off to try and find Peeta again. You almost give up several times before you manage to find that blood-streaked boulder. Hes close. He has to be.
You were amazed how even near death Peeta seemed to have his sense of humor intact. In other news, you suddenly remembered how much you hated the act of cleaning wounds.
“Something wrong?” He asks after seeing my face.
“Shut up.” Peeta laughs as you try not gag while cleaning his wound.
“How do you manage to kill anything around here?”
“You never know, I may be killing you as we speak.”
“Cant you just use that spear?”
“My food isn’t draining pus all over me. Blood I can handle.” You shove him some dried fruit and continue working on him. Its clear the wound is far above any medical capabilities you thought you had. After working on his leg for an hour you are finally able to wrap, and all you can do is hope for the best.
“I need to clean your…undershorts.”
“Okay.” He says it so calmly you grit your teeth, you’ve cried too much in that past couple of days for nakedness to be another thing on an ever growing list that makes you squeamish. You just avoid looking in his direction while he takes them off and turn your back to him as you get cleaning. “So no pus, but nakedness is okay? Or are you just being stubborn like how you were with Haymitch?”
“Speaking of…have you gotten anything?”
“No, what did you get?”
“Burn medicine.” You don’t need to say anything about the bread its an unnecessary truth. “It was when it was earlier in the games so he could probably afford it then.”
“Uh huh, not because you’re his favorite or anything.” You’re unsure what to say. You cant deny you and Haymitch understand each other on a different level. And survival wise, you could outlast anyone here. Maybe he could only bet on one of you. But with the rule change… ugh the whole rule change. The capitol has to be waiting for you to kiss him or love him. I mean youre washing his damn underwear, cant that be enough.
“I bet you he’ll send you something when he can.”
“Its okay Y/N, besides I know what will make me feel better.”
“Me too. Medicine.”
“No, you. I mean obviously you’re doing something right.”
You toss him some damp clothes to put back on. “Lets hope I am and your fever breaks.”
“Seriously thanks for coming back for me, I know you didn’t hav—” You cut him off and hugged him as tight as you could
“Just get better okay.” Because you did want him to get better. Whatever the reason was, the gamemakers are falling for his pining and giving you a chance to return it. Honestly after everything that happened with Rue, you kept thinking back to his words the night before the game. And this was something the games wouldn’t change. You weren’t in love with Peeta, and you couldn’t pretend. He was more of a family member or friend you would do almost anything for. But kissing him would feel wrong, be wrong. A hug is as much as the capitol would get for now, if your feelings changed later and you both made it out of here maybe you could play along.
“Is that all I get.”
“Get better and then maybe, maybe you get more.”
“I’ll take what I can get.” Peeta was so good at this. It didn’t take him long to doze off. You take the time to collect more water and hunt for anything near the stream. You know through the slower moving parts the fish could be easy pickings. You debate staying with Peeta, but you both need something in your system. Maybe you should let him rest, but you cant hunt for anything with him out in the open. You relent after about an hour and coax him into walking with you down the stream, as long as he can anyway. You comfort him as he gathers whatever strength he has left and when hes ready you find a small cave like formation a little way above the stream. You let him sleep and work on making the cave as unnoticeable as you possibly can. You let him sleep and work on making the cave as unnoticeable as you possibly. You manage to further downstream and pick off a few fish where the water is slow. You try to ignore how badly you missed a few times and instead try to figure out how to make yourself more appealing to any possible sponsors, you cant tell him you love him but if you cant give him medicine, maybe you can give him hope. The audience might turn their indifference into pity if you could make them believe that you cant allow yourself to fall in love yet. You take a deep, dramatic breath before entering the cave.
Peeta is still sound asleep in your sleeping bag. Good. It will be easier to do this when hes not fully coherent. You crouch besides him and brush a strand of hair away from his face, you try to show your hesitation, tapping your fingers and shaking your leg before shaking your head and kissing him on the cheek. A cheek that is rapidly raising in temperature.
Peeta stirs, “Mm Y/n?”
“I caught us some fish.”
“Thanks for finding me,”
“It’s the least I could do. Just get better for me, okay?”
“You know what would really make me feel better?” You roll your eyes, he is much better at playing the lovestruck boy than you could ever hope.
“You already got one. But if you actually get better…” then what? You don’t want to kiss him, “then maybe.” That’s the best you can do for now.
“I’ll take it.” He smiles at you. You can tell the fever medication you have is having next to effect on him. If he doesn’t get medicine soon he’s going to die. You both know it. You hear a soft crunch of leaves and you’re up in an instant. Peeta grabs your hand to try and stop you from doing anything dangerous, you squeeze his hand and put the other on his cheek. You then quickly grab your knife and sneak to the edge of the cave, you try not to laugh when you see the silver parachute at the foot of the entrance. Haymitch is obviously rewarding your actions. Not that they aren’t out of real concern but regardless its clear that hes going to keep pushing for you to act like this if its what sends you food. Realistically, what you want is medicine but you aren’t likely to get that at this stage in the game.
“Hey Peeta! Looks like Haymitch decided to send you something after all.” You are able to convince him its for him soup is easier for him to eat, otherwise he would have sent actual food. It seems to make sense to him anyway. Apparently even soup is a struggle for Peeta, “And here I thought you wanted to get better, I guess no kisses for you.”
“Not fair.”
“Please Peeta, you have to get better.” It takes entirely too long for him to stomach the tiny pot of broth. Once he sleeps, you put the last of your bandage supply left on his warm forehead. Great. Now you wish you had made out with more in the arena before you blew it up. Whatever. You could mope while you kept watch since its all you could do for now. Anything else is just hope that the audience enjoyed what you did today.
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Cato’s POV
Haymitch continues to go in and out of the room. If this had anything to do with the rule change, you can only hope he continues doing it. Y/n finished telling a story about her and her brother scrounging around their house to look for anything valuable to sell to buy their younger brother something for his birthday. To probably most people, it should be clear she had some other way to get their brother an old guitar. Music is something that seems relatively prevalent in her house, you think back to her singing with Rue. You wonder how often she’s gone without eating to feed someone else in her family, she was barely sleeping to continue to check on the boy from her district. For some reason the kiss she gave him kept replaying in your brain. He was definitely hurting her chances of making it, but its clear she struggles to not help out other tributes. That probably isn’t making Snow very happy. The concern on her face grows as she finishes her story and rechecks Peetas leg, which won’t make it without any medicine soon.
She cleans the bandage again, clearly not helping make a dent in his fever. They both know the blood poisoning will take him out soon if the games don’t end in a matter of maybe two days tops. And after the camera has shown Thresh doing quite well…it doesn’t seem like Peeta would be the one to outlast his fellow tributes. Haymitch almost collapses into the couch, you’re shocked he doesn’t spill the whiskey in his glass.
“You alr—” you try to ask before he puts one finger up, effectively quieting you while he takes a sip. Guess he’s doing worse than you thought.
“Its too expensive.”
“The medicine.” Its meant to be a question but you know the price is too much for any sponsor to fork over.
“Hopefully Effie and her gaggle of friends have gossiped enough to get an idea to the gamemakers.” Almost on cue the trumpets sound an announcement. When Claudius Templesmith begins speaking Haymitch laughs to himself, “Sometimes I think I might actually love that woman.”
Just as quickly as relief hits, Peeta threatens to follow Y/n to the banquet. Haymitch mutters something about Peeta making everything difficult and steps out again. You think how hard it must be to do this alone all these years. Most all of the other districts have someone else to divide the work out. Haymitch looked as tired as his tributes in the arena. Maybe ten minutes pass before he stumbles back into the viewing room. You just hold out some kind of spirit in a cup. He raises it to you before letting his head fall back.
“Nothing else I can do.” Y/n has been arguing with Peeta on letting her go to the cornucopia. The small vial meant nothing to you but Y/n stared at it for a long while before going back to the cave.
‘I guess I don’t have to go to the feast after all. Haymitch sent you some medicine.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah it says to take it like a shot. But it smells nasty. You’re stomach will probably try and reject it.’
‘I’m sure it wont.’ He snatched the vial with what little strength he had. You didn’t miss the smirk she had as he tried quickly drank it back. She played a big gamble on his ego and it paid off. She immediately plugged his nose and covered his mouth before he spit anything out. The effort was already draining the little energy he had, his attempt to force himself to throw didn’t help.
‘I’ll be back before you know it.’ Peetas anger reached all the way to the capitol. His eyes brimmed with fury as sleep overtook him. Y/n was smug at her victory, but she quickly leaned over him. Fussing over the sleeping bag covering him, cleaning any remaining medicine on his face, brushing his now sweat soaked hair from his face. ‘I hope you know I had to. I need you to make it.’
You watch as she presses her lip against his and try to find some logical reason on why you suddenly feel the need to go hit something. Y/n wastes no time. She starts arranging the cave to be almost undetectable. Luckily, she had been working on it before, as she finishes quickly. She walks for awhile and sets up a fire, with dusk settling it gives her good cover and she has time to cook everything she had caught the past day, making a decent meal of rabbit and fish. She finishes and fills the water containers when she gets back to the cave before allowing herself to sleep again. She only allows herself a few hours. You find yourself worrying about her lack of sleep.
The camera pans to the other districts again. The girl from five is starving and damn near freezing to death. Her item will definitely be something to protect her from the weather. Cato and Clove are cold too, their breaths making small white clouds, but they have the experience with cold weather training. Thresh seems fine too. You wonder what will be in store for those three.
‘Come on. I promise to make it a good show.’
‘No way. I kill her.’
‘Don’t be like that. You’ve killed almost everyone else we’ve dealt with and since you missed loverboy, its only fair I get a shot at her now.’
You don’t have to wonder who they’re talking about.
…’You’ll drag it out.’
‘Of course, when I’m done with her they’ll forget why they were ever rooting for her in the first place.’
‘Good thing you’re on my side, Clove.’ He chuckles, Clove grins with a sense of pride
‘So I can do it??’ Too excited, you think
‘Yeah sure.’
You didn’t expect Clove to do anything else. One of her critiques from the academy was quite literally how she wasted too much time making a show of things. She needed to prove she belonged. Its why all of you were shocked when she was the one picked from your district and not another eighteen year old to match Ariochs anger. Then again, if Arioch had another one of him out there they would have torn eachother apart before getting out of the blood bath. Probably over who got a certain kill.
Y/n began her journey back to the cornucopia. You wondered why she walked somewhat sideways until you remembered the big explosion. The ear must have been permanently damaged, or damaged until she made it back. She stopped more often than not to make sure she was hearing correctly. There was nothing. She arrived to her original hiding spot with no issue, with the glasses she slowly moved as close as she could. Arioch and Clove had sought out the space closest to the lake, which ended up helping Cora, the girl from five. She had snuck around the other side of giant cornucopia, hiding inside and ensuring she would be the closest to the feast the second the table appeared. Thresh was at the biggest disadvantage, positioning himself at the back of the cornucopia, He would need to listen for when the table came up because he definitely could not see from there.
District 5 had the right idea. Y/N realizes this the second she runs off. She wastes no time and runs in immediately after and grabs the tiny bag for her district, unfortunately Clove comes to the same realization. Y/n tries to follow District five but it’s clear Clove will be there before she can run off. You wonder why she only brought her knives but then again, the other weapons would require more time for her to aim and might end up hindering her. Cloves first knife is knocked away. You’re sure Y/ns cut up at least a little but not enough to stop her. She throws her own knife and it lands in Cloves right shoulder. Fortunately, that’s the arm she throws with. Unfortunately, this incites a rage you werent aware she had. She yanks the knife out, and switches it to her other hand quickly. Her aim is off now, and the knife whizzes past y/ns head. Y/n makes the mistake to look at where the knife landed and in that second Clove is tackling her to the ground. You remember your conversations on the roof that seem so long ago, and know she wont make it out of this. Your heart sinks to your stomach. Clove begins relishing in this, she knows this information just as well and is going to make her suffer just like she said she would.
‘Well if it isn’t the girl on fire. Whats the matter 12, worried about getting the medicine to loverboy?’
‘Worried about getting your screentime?’ She smirked until Clove threw a relatively soft punch considering her arm was clearly struggling to lift itself.
‘Not at all, I promised to give the audience a good show. Its funny because if it was Arioch right now, he’d probably finish you off pretty quickly. Would that be better for you? To go as quickly as your pathetic little friend?’
The mention of Rue has her struggling to unseat Clove with no avail, ‘Shut up. You don’t get to talk about her.’
‘The girl who hopped around in the trees. Rue? Well, we took care of her, and nature will take care of loverboy. and now I’m going to take care of you. Now, where to start?’ Y/n lifts her head trying to do anything to get Cloves balance off just to get a better chance of getting out of there. Clove is taking delight in her struggle, ‘I think we’ll start with your mouth. Make sure you blow loverboy one last kiss.’
‘Wow so clever. But if I can only say one last thing…’ Clove is puzzled for only a second more before Y/n spits in her face.
Clove gets one more punch as Y/n continues to struggle. When her nose begins to bleed she stills becoming unblinking, staring down her last opponent. You see Thresh coming up to the table freezing as he hears the entire conversation. ‘Lets start then,’
She barely leans over to trace the outline of Y/ns lips before he yanks her off his former ally. Flinging her to the ground. ‘You’re the one who killed her??’
Clove begins scooting backward, frantic at another opponent she clearly did not expect. Arioch had begun looking for another tribute where Y/n ran out of and was only now heading back to his original hiding spot.
‘No! No, it wasn’t me.!’
Thresh picks her up again holding her against the cornucopia. ‘I heard you!’
Arioch is already beginning to run as Clove begins screaming for help. He answers her but he’s too far. Thresh smashes her into the cornucopia. Y/n is still sat as she looks up in shock. Cloves body has the slightest moan escaping her lips. You look away, hating that the death wasn’t quick that somewhere in her mind she feels the pain coursing through her body. Your eyes snap up when Thresh speaks again.
‘Just this time Y/n. For Rue.’
Y/n eyes look at the two bags he has, ‘Don’t do it Thresh. Its not worth it.’
‘Clove!’ Ariochs voice makes Y/ns stand in a defensive position.
‘You better run now, Fire Girl.’ Y/ns scrambles to collect her knives and begins to run. She pauses when she hits the edge of the forest. Thresh has run off with both backpacks which could be a really smart or really stupid move. She looks at a frozen Arioch leaning over Clove and continues to run towards Peeta.
Y/n makes several stops as she runs towards Peeta, once to make sure her nose had stopped bleeding, it had. Once to see if her arm had stopped, it had not. She squeezed it shut until her feet hit the stream. She stops several more times to bend over and hold her head. You assume she is getting dizzy. The punch probably giving her an effect of a concussion. Every time she stands again she seems to have trouble getting her bearings but she makes it to the cave. Her hands shake as she struggles to open the small box, it contains one needle. She fumbles to unzip the sleeping bag and the second Peetas arm is exposed Y/n tries to center the shot. She has to take several deep breaths to calm the adrenaline that is sure to be coursing through her body, her hands are still shaking but she is able to slowly press down on the needle’s plunger. When shes finished she throws it across the cave and curls up into a ball, finally succumbing to the sleep that’s been eluding her since finding Peeta.
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Y/N’s POV
You couldn’t cry, not again. You’ve cried too much in these games. One, its embarrassing, two the capitol cannot have another excuse to make you look weak. So when Peeta tells you Thresh’s picture is in the sky you ask if he can take the first watch and you cover your face with the sleeping bag until the tears stops falling. You have a feeling Peeta understands, but to what extent?
You’d woken up to the sound of the anthem. Peeta stroking your hair like you had done to him when he had been sick. You had to explain how you had worked with District 11. How Thresh moved you to a safe location after the tracker jackers, how you had helped fix his shoulder, how you’d gotten them both food and blew up the career’s supply, and the worst part…the part you didn’t want to ever discuss, Rue. Peeta had made a remark about how he must have felt like your alliance was still technically in place since Arioch and Clove had still been around. But you knew deep down, that it wasn’t about you, but Rue. The feast you had gotten for excitedly hugging Peeta and peppering his face with light kisses had suddenly turned to lead in your stomach. You had pretended to get caught up in the moment, and apparently, it had been enough for Haymitch to let you both eat real food while hiding in the downpour that had been happening the last couple of days.
Under the sleeping bag you think about anything besides your fallen allies. So you retrace the events leading up to the meal, the kisses, Peetas retelling of how he fell in love with you…well how he fell in love with Katniss. You had been friends with Katniss long ago, when you were both really young, and the memory albeit fuzzy was there of a young more cheerful Katniss telling you all about how she sang the valley song for her class. Then the mining incident happened, and the resentment that your father was one of the few to make it while hers was gone forever drove a divisible wedge. After that, it felt wrong to compare situations. Without your own father being able to work, you had lost him too. Pride had made him bitter and somewhat cruel, and he refused to work. Your mother was so focused on rehabilitating him, it fell on you to help your brothers. You remember how your father said nothing before you left, except to make himself seem like somewhat of a hero. You had once thought about how different you and Katniss had grown to get to the same indifference towards your parents. You could barely manage to be in the same room with your father while Katniss still held him in the highest regards, you at best felt pity for your mother for being tied to someone who believed he was better than everyone. Katniss for lack of better words, hated her mother for the abandonment. You were so similar you wished everyday you could restart the friendship you two had had long ago, you also wonder what she makes of this whole act and Peetas story that so clearly reference her. He was great at changing small details to make it plausible. You had just promised him that when you both made it out of there he could take you on an actual date, playing enough to keep the audience’s hopes up, well and Peeta kept poking fun at you saying he was planning on going all out when you got out. Regardless, you both played on this story and got the incredible food that you were trying to inhale before he looked outside the cave and saw Thresh’s picture in the sky.
Thresh. You should have told him about that extra backpack you’d hidden in the beginning of the game. Stopped him from taking Ariochs backpack. He was sure to have made Threshs death slow…and painful. You think about the last time you ever saw him he finally used your name. The capitol food threatens to make a reappearance. You give Peeta one of your knives, tell him to hide it in unless he absolutely needs it. He could train with the arrows tomorrow because honestly, you weren’t proving to be very good with it. You wonder if Katniss was irritated at how poorly you aimed, you wonder if she would train you on it when you got home. You wondered if you could be friends again. You focus on that instead of the sleep that’s eluding you again now that you’re thinking of Thresh’s murder. Now all you had was Cora and Arioch. Arioch you could handle, Cora…you remember how she almost agreed to be allies, and had least said you wouldn’t gun for each other.
Eventually, Peeta wakes you so you can keep watch. You comply soundlessly. You’re so thankful you aren’t alone anymore because really, you were barely making by before the rule change. You were tired of killing, you didn’t need anymore blood on your hands. Of course, this is the hunger games, and you knew that likely you wouldn’t have a choice.
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Catos POV
Peeta had proven being kind could save your life in the game. You saw Y/n’s panic as she spun around expecting Peeta to have eaten those berries. Instead, they find the District 5 girl. Y/n cleans the berry stains from her mouth and hands, and closes her sunken, hollow eyes before trying to move Peeta along. He meanwhile, was waiting for the two of them to be able to eat together, really he’s quite lucky, most people would have snacked on the berries before meeting back up with an ally. His naivete, sparing him a quick death. She claimed she wanted to get some space before Arioch barreled through the woods but likely, she was uncomfortable with another dead tribute. She needed to compartmentalize. The capitol wouldn’t like how torn she seemed everytime a picture was shown in the sky.
You noticed Haymitch was all but telling her to accept Peetas affection. She seemed to be trying to suppress her attraction to the guy, but you were unsure how much of it was an act. It was clear the audience was going crazy over what they saw as fear of losing someone she was in love with. Fear of admitting something that was too good to be true. Their return would ensure the two of them would be forced to get into a relationship immediately. You wondered if they could keep up the whole pretense.
In the real world the victors we’re headed back to their respective floors for dinner. You and Enobaria went to the couch while Brutus went on about how Arioch would win out.
The temperature was dropping quickly too quickly. This was the finale. Everyone would have work off tomorrow throughout all of the districts. And Arioch now had the advantage of complete body armor. Seemed a little unfair but I guess it was two against one. Peeta was about as good as Glimmer with the bow and arrow. Y/N held Marvels spear as they headed to the cornucopia. The camera pans to Arioch confidently walking deeper into the forest where the girl from district five was picked up. He’d been hunting since brutally torturing Thresh in the downpour. The fight could go either way, but Arioch was going on pure rage and vengeance. He made the death painfully slow, making cuts that individually wouldn’t kill anyone. Thresh fought back well, the weapon and armor he had stolen came in handy. The rain however made it hard for him to see clearly and Arioch still had the glasses. You were somewhat surprised when Arioch didn’t scream his success after finishing him off.
The gamemakers has quieted the background noise they had going on. The snarling was unmistakable. You could hear whatever creature was back lick it’s lips as it growled in Ariochs direction. Muttations. Half wolf and half human like things that looked like… oh god. You turned to look at Enobaria, maybe you were wrong. Her scowl told you your suspicions were correct. She quickly stood up and retired to her room. The rest of your victors were silent, knowing how she felt about the mutts, about herself every day she woke up, every time she looked in the mirror. You wondered if she thought she was just like those mutts on the screen. You wished there was something you could say, anything to help. But words weren’t really your strong suit.
When you turn back to the screen Y/n and Peeta have heard Arioch and the mutts running towards them. She should have thrown her knife the second she saw enter the clearing. But she frozen. Utterly frozen at the giant creatures following him, figuring out exactly what they were. Who they were.
Peeta yanks y/ns arm. They barely managed to make it to the cornucopia without any injuries.
‘It’s them. All of them.’ Y/n whimpers as she fumbles to tie a bandage on Peetas once again, bloodied leg.
‘Are- are those their real eyes???’
You force yourself to look at the muttations a little more closely. The eyes definitely looked entirely too human. It was a sick thing to do to them. Even dead their bodies served the capitol. Always loyal to the capitol.
The hair on the wolves had different textures, the one who could only be Glimmer had blond shiny hair, the one with the number four had curly hair throughout his entire body. You refused to look at them any more. You looked up when you heard y/n scream out just to see Arioch yank her hair to throw her back on the floor. Peeta quickly tackles him, even injured it’s clear Peeta has experience fighting but he’s injure and Arioch quickly has him in a headlock. Y/n is already trying to figure out where to aim the spear.
‘Drop it or he dies.’
‘He dies and you come in second.’
‘Then I get one last kill.’
‘Yeah real impressive killing someone injured, but seeing as you couldn’t kill him the first time I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised you need to prove a point.’ She grinned, she was playing a dangerous game. Peeta was weakly clawing at Ariochs arm but the stalling could only go so far.
‘I was supposed to win. It should have been me or Clove..’
‘Come on Arioch, we all know I’m the one you have to beat. Look I’ll even go no weapons, no arrows, no spears, no knives.’ Arioch laughs at what seems is y/n signing Peetas death certificate.
It finally registers to Peeta what Y/n wants him to do. She sighs and pats her leg as she bends down, eyes on Arioch while she lays down the spear. Peeta manages to dig the knife y/n had told him to hide straight into Ariochs thigh.
He’s caught off guard and instinctively goes to remove the knife while screaming in pain. Y/ns gamble paid off, she throws her own knife towards his head. It nicks his already injured forehead sending a gush of blood down his face. The pause gives Peeta the room to push him off the cornucopia. Arioch isn’t one to go down easy, you think at the mutts that are way too excited to have him back down on the ground. Y/n rushes over to Oeeta cupping his face in her hands…
‘Are you okay?’
‘Yeah. Much better now.’ He pulls her in for an embrace they share until Ariochs screams begin cutting through the freezing air.
You find yourself holding your breath as they try to figure out how to help Arioch. Peetas convinced he would waste all of the arrows. Y/n is unsure without her knives but exasperated takes the bow and arrow from Peeta. And for the first time that you’ve seen in the arena, she hits her mark and the canon goes off.
‘That’s it! We did it!’ Peeta says through chattering teeth. Y/n collapses next to him and rests her head on his shoulder. Just like that the mutts disappear back into the woods. Y/ns eyes trained on the remaining wolves, saying goodbye to her friends one more time.
‘I can’t wait to go home.’
Peeta tries to cheer her up again, ‘you know what this means?’
‘What?’
‘You have to go on a date with me now. You promised.’
Y/n laughs, ‘you promised actually…but I’ll hold you to that.’ She lifts her and pulls his chin closer to hers and presses her lips firmly on his. His hands pull her closer before she pulls away. You find one of your nails has begun going back and forth on your skin, digging into it and leaving a large raw scratch in the palm of your hand. Some act.
Where’s the damn hovercraft? Hours go by and y/n and Peeta are forced to huddle together to try and preserve whatever body heat is left between the two of them. You go back to the viewing room where most of the victors are watching as intently as you plan to.
‘What’s taking so damn long?’ Y/n asks by the time the sun begins to rise again
‘Maybe we need to move away from the body. They probably still need to collect it.’ Already y/n has figured out what’s beginning to happen. She presses her lips together but nods.
‘Well then let’s move.’
They both move slowly. Probably as quick as their bodies can move after spending the night in freezing weather. They make it to the edge of the clearing, certainly farther than they were from the district five girl. When the hovercraft eventually grabs Ariochs bloodied body Claudine’s Templesmith’s voice echoes through the arena. You lean as close to the screen as you can just in case you miss anything.
‘Greetings to the final contestants of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games. The earlier revisions have been revoked. Closer examination of the rule book has disclosed that only one winner may be allowed. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor!’
Y/n closes her eyes and takes a deep breath knowing deep down this was coming. She looks at Peeta. Injured and takes a step back.
‘Dont y/n. One of us should go home.’
She shakes her head, ‘No.’
‘Y/n—‘
‘Peeta, I can’t. You could go and see—‘
‘Don’t be dumb y/n. I’m not going without you.’ She’s about to protest when he says, ‘that’s fine, you’ll outlast me anyway.’
He’s about to remove the bandage he has wrapped around his leg that’s already soaking through when y/n screams, ‘No! Just wait. Please.’
‘They have to have a winner y/n.’
That’s when she hatched the idea. ‘No. They don’t.’
She holds out the night lock berries. Peeta is about to protest when she tells him to trust her. They split the berries. Your throat is dry. You want to scream at both of them. Stop. Don’t give everything up now.
‘3.’
‘2.’
….
‘1’
They both have the berries on their lips when Claudius Templesmith comes back, frantic ‘Stop! Stop! Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Katniss Y/N L/N and Peeta Mellark! I give you the tributes of District Twelve!’
But while the announcement caused y/n to freeze, it caused Peeta to bite down. You could hear a pin drop in the room. Y/n spots the berries out and turns to Peeta excitedly, before she sees him try to open his mouth but fail as the night lock seizes his system and he collapses to the ground. Her moth drops and she’s frozen until the canon sounds one. Last. Time.
Haymitch smashes a glass across the room, “Damn it!” He storms out with Chaff following behind him.
‘No. No no no no. Peeta wake up.’ She falls to her knees and lifts his head on her lap, when he doesn’t respond she tries to shake his shoulders. ‘Peeta! Wake up, damn you! We just won. We’re supposed to go home. You owe me. You promised me! You said you would take me out so GET UP!’
She’s bawling by the time she gets out those last words. When the hovercraft comes for her and I guess Peeta as well she covers his body not making any effort to leave. You grimace, you know what happens when you don’t voluntarily go to the hovercraft.
‘Ladies and Gentlemen I am pleased to present the Victor of the 74th Hunger Games! Y/N L/N’
‘No! It’s both of us. Shut up!’ She screams as Peacekeepers descend from another hovercraft. She seems to be to busy rocking Peetas upper body gently alternating between telling him it’s okay to get up and begging him to open his eyes.
The peacekeepers each grab one of her arms and she goes feral; kicking and screaming protests, ‘No! LET ME GO! You can’t leave him please! No!’
You find yourself wanting to tell her it’s going to be okay. But you know that’s not entirely true. Still, you wish you could comfort her. The room is a mixture of mouths agape, people holding in their shock by covering their mouths, and looking at eachother with a look that can only be described as confusion. You all watch as her cries get quieter and quieter when another peacekeeper sedates her. And just like that her body ascends into the hovercraft, coming back to the Capitol.
That’s when it hits you. Y/ns coming back. And she’s going to have a whole new game to play.
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Taglist: @chloe-skywalker @ietss @tomihoeka @chiimiki @akinatrix @inky-sun
#hunger games#catching fire#mockingjay#tbosas#the hunger games#the ballad of songbirds and snakes#hunger games cato#hunger games cato imagine#cato hunger games#cato x reader
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i hate how toxic my mind is being, it’s firmly in the denial stage despite objectively knowing all the facts, and watching the vod, and i keep waking up and thinking it was a weird dream i had. worse, the denial is not being very feminist bc while i 100% believe shelby and do Not think she’s lying at all, and I 100% think she should have come forward to share her story as she did, and i think it sets a good example for her viewers and for culture of staying silent in general, I still keep hoping it’s actually all made up or that the stream never happened and she said nothing and we all lived in blissful ignorance. i think this is karma for not understanding why others had similar extreme reactions when the same sorta thing happened to their fave celeb. i’d never state any of these rather cruel thoughts as any sort of fact or truth but i still feel guilty that i have them and i still feel bad that i still wish they were the case, bc it is all just very self-centered. tldr: :(
I really need to acknowledge something that Bee said along the lines of "thought crimes aren't real as long as you recognize and still support Shelby despite your conflicted feelings." Like that's really the base of it, you know?
You can't control how you feel but the internet these days pushes such a weird idea that if you don't have the 'right' emotional response to something you're a terrible person. There were so many people that first day, when fans were grappling with the truth and grieving the loss of community, acting like that anything other than righteous anger was the wrong response. It wasn't. Shelby wanted us to take her warnings, but she also wanted to cut the support this guy was getting for a facade. People grieving and coming to terms with that part of it was a huge part of supporting Shelby.
It's okay to have messy feelings about a guy you supported for so long. I had long, long conversations with some of my closest friends that first day where we swung wildly between believing it, because we KNEW it was true, and sorta going back and forth about what if's.
It's just important to not choose to live in ignorance. You're not a self-centered for having those feelings, it's about how you respond to the actual situation at hand, and I can tell you're acknowledging what happened and choosing to not ignore it for your self-comfort. Everything you're going through is normal and you're trying your best.
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My Demon - 7/10
The announcement of My Demon literally created chaos among the k-drama fans. The Song Kang-Kim Youjung pairing was making everyone insane. The hype was unreal. But did My Demon live up to it? Well, the answer to that would be… yes or no (kissy if u read that in Na Bora’s voice). My Demon did have a very interesting plot line, good enough characters and it was successful in getting the audiences hooked with the first few episodes. The cinematography was the most talked about among the viewers and rightfully so. The wide shots of Jung Guwon’s (Song Kang) office, the underwater scene, the slow-mo shot of the waves forming a portal around Guwon and Dohee (Kim Youjung), the Dohee-about-to-fall-off-the-balcony scene and so on. Another thing that filled twitter was the fashion. And not only the female lead’s this time, but also the male leads. Guwon has secured his place among the very few male leads with impeccable fashion sense. When most male leads are shown in sophisticated suits, Guwon was rocking cropped jackets and scarfs. But then again, I don’t think most male leads are Song Kang.
Nevertheless, My Demon stands as an example that if you start with a bang, your ending should be a banger. This is where the drama failed. In the second half, it started to feel like the story line was being stretched. The cinematography and direction which was so good in the start had taken a back seat and love making montages were put in for the action that wasn’t happening. And by action, I mean just anything that would contribute to the plot. The plot was moving, but at a very slow pace. Sure, Guwon and Dohee make the best couple, the greenest flag couple, the entire amazon rainforest couple, but where is the drama? I wasn’t necessarily waiting for anything bad to happen, but for a time being literally nothing was happening. And I was mad about that. Until towards to the end, everything happened. The new trend of k-drama rom-coms only having 12 episodes, My Demon should’ve followed that. Because the more they stretched, the more Song Kang’s bad acting showed and also the writer’s inability to stitch it all together. I honestly loved Song Kang in Sweet Home, not that he had any more than 2 expressions 3 dialogues in it, but still. Jung Guwon is far more expressive, and Song Kang couldn’t do justice. He shines when the camera requires for him to be the slayest demon to walk this planet, but when it is time for the playful babygirl Guwon to get on stage, his acting feels like… acting. It’s not terrible, it’s just not the best. Also the entire past life plot is becoming more than obvious. The moment I saw Guwon dreaming of his past, I KNEW Guwon and Dohee probably died in the past life and one of them thinks it’s their fault and they will try to distance themselves from each other. You know which other drama did it? See You in My 19th Life and Destined with You and maybe more but I don’t remember. Like can we please move on? This is equivalent to the 2016 era dramas having the oh we’ve actually met in childhood and not forgotten each other since trope. But then again, they have given us the most iconic dramas, can’t the same about these though.
However, I loved the way they showed Jin Gayoung’s character coming full circle. She is probably the only one who started a certain way, learned her lessons, had character development and got her happy ending. So yeah, My Demon definitely isn’t the best drama for me. I am not going to put in on my re-watch list. But I will recommend it. It’s fun, and sweet, and great for fashion inspo!
Another thing I want to add is that My Demon is compared to Doom at Your Service a lot for having a similar concept, so I’ll just say that DAYS is a much better drama, for all aspects – storyline, acting, romance, comedy, THE FUCKING AWESOME THREESOME OF THE SECOND LEAD THRUPPLE, even the song (If Love Sight by TXT doesn’t play in my head when I look at my future partner, I’ll know they’re not the one). Except My Demon is going to take the trophy for best costume.
Ok that’s it now let me play Hyunsu’s “What should we do?” until Sweet Home S3 comes out hehe!
#kdrama#korean drama#my demon#my demon review#song kang#kim youjung#doom at your service#sweet home#kdrama review#kdrama recommendations#netfli#my january watchlist#my 2024 watchlist
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With all these 'you need to show not tell!' critiques, recently I'm getting the feeling people have forgotten what that actually means. Specifically with the Percy Jackson show, I've heard this complaint a lot - and how they're "leaving stuff out" that was explained (told) at the beginning of the book. There's this simultaneous critique that 'they're leaving stuff out' and 'they're telling too much exposition' which, watching the show, it makes it really seem like literally nothing will satisfy them.
Specifically, let's talk about Grover's desire to become a searcher:
I heard from a lot of people who read the books that they're doing Grover a disservice because they 'took away' his narrative goal. But how did we know this was his goal in the book? He point blank told Percy. In the show, we're seeing what he values, we're seeing his distress at the destruction of the natural world, and we're seeing why he might either have or grow to have the desire to become a searcher for Pan.
Showing vs telling can take time. Showing vs telling might make those who already know feel like it's been forgotten/the character (or world) isn't as fleshed out as they know they are after having read all 5+ books.
I think the show is doing a great job at showing when it comes to character development/goals while they relegate the cliffnotes of the world building to telling. They tell the stuff that, naturally, would be told to someone just walking into this new world of half-bloods. We don't exactly want Percy to be wandering around without people just telling him the basics of what he needs to know to survive. However, the bigger things, the things about the world that the adults think only they should know, that's being shown to us over the course of the show - not info dumped on us. That leads to some thinking stuff is left out or that they're relying on viewers to have read the books to understand the story. Neither of which is the case based on the show-only reactions I've seen.
You're supposed to feel like Percy isn't being told everything because this is a middle grade story and a massive point of many of them is adults not telling the kid protagonists things - you know, mimicking the real world and the frustrations many kids have growing up and having the 'important' info withheld from them because they're "too young to understand."
Showing vs telling the character motivations/growth helps us really connect to them because we see, over time, who they are. (Annabeth's 'telling' of her motivations makes sense in context because, like Grover being a failed protector, it's her starting point in the story - the place where she grows from - and gives the viewer a better understanding of why this random girl is so interested in Percy and the quest).
Telling vs showing sets up the base-line understanding of the world. Showing vs telling certain world building (usually related directly to plot development) details gives the feeling of shock or dawning/changing understanding of what one thought they knew of the world.
Showing and telling both have their place in narratives - it's important to know which one is needed where and what purpose they serve. And yeah, showing might take a lot longer than just telling, so if you're all about stories showing stuff, you're going to need a little patience and to just sit down, shut up, and you know, actually watch the show.
#pjo#percy jackson#percy jackson and the olympians#percy jackson show spoilers#percy jackson disney+#grover underwood#writing advice
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The Dialogue That Sent A Ship Reeling And What It Might Mean for the Overall Story Arc
***Possible spoilers for future episodes****
@bookqueenrules:
So, I read a ton of reviews of season 1 before episode 1 aired. Many of the reviews were from “Carlyers”. I am always interested in seeing their perspective.
They all seemed to agree on a few things.
First and foremost, they HATED Daryl’s response to Laurent in this exchange from episode 1:
L: “Do you have children, a wife, parents?”
D: “No, nothing like that.”
I believe this exchange at the beginning of the episode speaks VOLUMES about Daryl’s “happy ending”. We see him think of Judith and Carol, the people he is closest to at home, as he is regaining consciousness. However, soon after that he does not acknowledge Judith as “his child” nor does he acknowledge Carol as a type of “wife” or “life partner”.
This tells us that in Daryl and the writer’s minds Daryl has never been a father nor husband/life partner to anyone, yet.
Being able to be a good husband and father after the abuse and trauma Daryl has experienced, I believe, will be his happy ending.
Another thing they seem to hate is that by the end of the series, Daryl is torn as to whether he should stay with Laurent and Isabelle or keep trying to go home. I assume that happens in episode 6 because a DEVOTED Carlyer said that was the hardest episode for her to watch. Daryl being torn is more understandable when you see the parallels in Daryl’s mind: Isabelle is a platonic friend he becomes close to(Carol), and Laurent is a child that is not his, but that he feels responsible for because the parents are not around (Judith). Now, of course, we all know he will and should choose TF, but just the fact that he is torn should let the viewer know that Daryl still feels he is missing “something”. Back to that in a minute. I think it’s helpful to look at all of Daryl’s close relationships during the flagship to see why Daryl is still looking for “something”. That “something” is to belong to someone.
Merle- Daryl did at one time “belong” to Merle. It was just the two of them. Neither had other close family nor significant romantic partners or friends. It was a dysfunctional type of belonging, but a “belonging” none the less. Daryl believed he belonged with Merle. In season 3, Daryl was torn between his new family(TF) and Merle. He did leave with Merle, but would have returned to TF even if he hadn’t convinced Merle to go back to the prison with him. So, he chose TF over Merle in the end.
Beth- Beth is the ONLY character that Daryl asks to settle down with him. HE asks HER to stay at the funeral home and try to make a life. He gives up looking for Rick, Carol, and the rest of TF. He feels he now BELONGS to Beth. This is an example of functional “belonging” because she restores his faith in himself and in the possibility of good in the world. This is further emphasized in the “Buttons” episode where Daryl and Aaron are trying to save Buttons the horse. Oh! Buttons the horse, Daryl’s highlighted button in the promo pictures, and the button on Beth’s necklace… Sorry, I just made that connection as I type! Major symbolism there. I digress. In that episode, Daryl says of Buttons, “He once belonged to someone, but now he just belongs to himself.” The implication being that the statement is true of both the horse and Daryl.
Rick- Rick becomes the better brother Merle never was. However, he can never really belong to Rick in the same way he did Merle because Rick has a family of his own and didn’t live through the same childhood trauma Merle and Daryl did.
Leah- Daryl is torn between belonging with her, TF, and searching for Rick. He leaves even though she has issued an ultimatum. It’s only after she is “gone” that he says he belongs with her. I believe that indicates that Daryl really does want to belong to someone, but Leah is not the right one. He knew it when he walked out on her.
Carol has belonged to Zeke for a long time now. Even when they drifted apart, they drifted back together. Before him, Carol belonged to herself drifting in and out of storylines fighting her need NOT to belong to anyone. She initiated romantic connections while Daryl was free and clear to form that kind of attachment with if she chose. Zeke is the one that showed Carol she could have her “happy ending” family after the dysfunction she experienced with Ed and Sophia. Though Henry didn’t live, Carol still had six years of a “happy ending”.
After telling Judith he wouldn’t leave her, why does Daryl leave to explore? There were many others in Alexandria and Hilltop who could have gone. So, Daryl must have WANTED to go. Judith seems to be OK with it because she connects it to his “happy ending”. Carlyers are interpreting Daryl’s call to the Commonwealth, presumably to Carol, about coming home in a week, as Daryl realizing his “mistake” and wanting to come home to his “happy ending” being Carol and Judith. If that were the case, he would have responded differently to Laurent’s question.
The Carlyers all LOVED the last minute of the season(We can all guess that is when Carol shows)
They also agree that some of the themes are fatherhood, purpose, and belonging. Curiously, they don’t see the “happy ending” as a theme for the most part. It’s been pretty obvious, but few of them comment on it. I am assuming that episode 5 will be heavily related to the theme of fatherhood based on some vaguely worded reviews.
I wanted to mention a couple of other things that I don’t believe you discussed in the video. Forgive me if I just missed them.
Isabelle’s comment in the bath about scars showing you have healed. I believe that is heavy foreshadowing for Daryl healing his scars from childhood.
Also, I don’t believe you mentioned the radio in the “map room”. Would that be another Sirius/radio connection? I thought it was interesting that Isabelle is caught in a lie about the radio. It is clear that Isabelle is willing to lie and manipulate to get what she wants. She reminds me of Carol in that way. She feels the ends justify the means for the greater good. She also reminds me of Carol in the sense that Daryl, Carol, and Isabelle are all characters who were “broken before the world ended”. It was after the world ended that Beth broke for a moment, but all of these characters have proven they are survivors. It will be interesting to see that play out if/when they all meet.
@twdmusicboxmystery:
Love, love, LOVE everything you said here! And totally agree! It’s fun to know what the Carylers are saying.
Honestly, I hadn’t thought much about Daryl’s reply about not having a wife and kids. And great call about the foreshadowing there. It’s clear that he’ll have them eventually, and we all know it won’t be with Carol.
Honestly, I think the reason he’ll be so torn will be Laurent, rather than Isabelle. I was thinking as I read what you wrote is that part of the reason he was willing to leave Judith was
1) she doesn’t truly need him anymore. She’s okay with him going, which means she a happy, healthy, well-adjusted kid. He still loves and wants to be with her, but if someone else is depending on him as a lifeline physically or emotionally, well, he’s going to stay for as long as they need him. And Judith is such a badass all by herself, that she doesn’t necessarily.
2) It’s also true that he doesn’t see her as truly “his” and if there’s any chance her real dad (Rick, although biologically that’s a can of worms, lol) is still out there, he wants to bring Rick home to her. So, once again, it’s Daryl doing something for someone else, rather than himself. Which is why Judith says the thing about the happy ending to begin with. She recognizes that he deserves to think about his own happiness every once in awhile, rather than everyone else’s.
Anyway, I’m actually excited to see the part where he’s torn about staying or going. It plays into Daryl’s changing his mind/what changed your mind theme, which started with Beth and has been constantly in play since S4.
Isabelle reminds me a lot of Leah. Not in her personality or toxicity, of course. But in the sense that she’s an interesting blend of Carol and Beth. I already like her relationship with Daryl and I can see them becoming close friends. People say Clemence Posey’s performance here is really amazing. Up there with Norman’s. So I’m excited to see more of both of them.
Thanks so much for the post! Absolutely love it!
Oh, and yes, the radio is a Sirius symbol. Because Sirius Radio XM. It’s also part of the Communication Theme.
Thanks Dear!
#beth greene#beth greene lives#beth is alive#beth is coming#td theory#td theories#team delusional#team defiance#beth is almost here#bethyl#daryl dixon spinoff#dd spinoff
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The Bangtan Gal Chapter 65- Karma
Chapter Summary: Tensions heighten when Jen decides enough is enough and creates a plan to take down Amity and Songstress once and for all. Jennie meets Jungkook's parents
Words: 8,000+
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Once the two friends made it to the fifth floor, they walked down the hallway.
"What room is she, again?" Jennie asked.
"Riiight here." they stopped in front of the door.
"Do me a favor and record everything. Live stream it and then end it when you think it's a good time. I'm gonna let this bitch run her mouth a little bit and dig her own grave while you record. It's better for people to truly see who she is in real time before I beat her ass. I'm tired of being nice. I gave her one too many chances. I'm done,"
Angelina prepared her phone and chuckled, "You don't have to tell me twice. I'm proud of you. I know you'll handle business,"
Jennie knocked on the door hard and before she knew it, Trinity opened it up, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, it's the quitter and the dead weight. What do you want?" she grumbled.
"Where is she?" Jennie demanded.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Trinity, I am not in the mood for games. Open the damn door. Right now." she responded in a hard tone.
A little surprised at how her voice went down an octave, Trinity took a step back and let her in as they saw Hailey looking up from her phone, on the couch.
"Ah, it's the quitter! And the thing." Hailey glanced at Angelina with disgust.
"I'm going to let that comment slide," Angelina replied as she secretly live streamed on social media with thousands of viewers popping in.
"So, what can I do for you, quitter? Why are you here?"
The tension was thick in the room as Jennie glanced around, clearing her throat.
Gesturing to her, Jen asked, "So, what's up?"
"Nothing is up," Hailey answered, amused.
"Really? Because I could have sworn that I told you to stay away from my boys. Boys. Plural. That includes Jungkook. That includes Jimin. That includes Jin and that includes Taehyung. Did you forget?"
"I know."
"So, why are you around them when I specifically told you to stay away? They are all extremely precious to me. I don't need this type of bad energy around them. I don't want any of them to deal with you. You are not gonna try to mess with their minds or whatever the hell you talked to them about. And you making Jimin insecure about his weight and making him cry? Real low."
"He cried? Oh my God, what a friggin crybaby! I just said what was true. I guess he can't handle the truth then if he wants to whine after I talked about him going on a diet."
"He doesn't need a diet, he's healthy."
"To you, not to me."
"And making the rest uncomfortable? Especially Jungkook?"
"Here we go...I didn't do anything wrong. Look, Jungkook isn't a baby. I think that people should stop babying him and stop thinking that he doesn't know what he's doing when he's around girls. Like me. And no, I'm not interested in the guy. He's very cute, I'll admit but he's not my type. But after finding out what his type is..." she looked at Jennie up and down. "He certainly has low standards...I just told him some advice, that's all. He can't handle the truth,"
"Why can't you just leave me and the members alone? Why do you have to keep doing this to get under my skin? You already have done enough. First me, then Ang, and now Layla? Come on. Are you really that bored and have no life that you just want to bring everyone down for your own gain? It's getting tiring and it's sad. Grow up. When I left I thought I would leave this mess behind me, but you keep coming back and trying me. I am not the one, Hailey,"
She laughed and stood up from the couch, "And what are you going to do about it? Hit me? We all know you're not going to do that. So, I highly suggest you leave this room before I do something I won't regret."
"Hailey, you know damn well your bum ass can't fight," Angelina called out, causing her to glare at her.
Ignoring Angelina, Hailey turned back to Jennie, "You're weak, quitter. And you're pathetic. You always have been and always will be. If you even think that you'll be able to put your hands on me then you are sadly mistaken. And I want you to ask yourself is your face worth the bruises I'll give you if you want to go that route? When are you going to get it through your thick skull that your stupid group is going nowhere and you left all that success back in America? I mean honestly, I am a way better leader than Rap Monster. He could never touch me. His failed solo attempts prove it. He is nowhere near my level of solos and even Amity's movie songs combined are better than that Fantastic Four song he did."
"Oof...you have done it now..." Angelina murmured, glancing at Jennie who looked up at the ceiling, trying to keep her composure.
She could see that Jen was about to be at her breaking point and was hanging on loose threads to not lash out. Angelina even saw angry comments in the live stream from BTS fans when they heard Hailey speak badly about Namjoon.
"And J-Hope? He is so damn ugly and annoying with his loud ass sound effects. He tries too hard while he dances. Everyone overhypes this guy." Hailey ranted furiously. "It's pathetic and it's nothing special. My girl Trinity dances way better than him and everyone knows it. She can outdo him in any dance battle. Who's next? Jimin, right? I bet he's only there for his abs. Come on, how else is he a member of BTS? He's an insecure, waste of space with low self-esteem and no confidence. With Jin, he's a waste of space too and so irrelevant! He can't sing! He can't dance! He's just there for his good looks. He probably got plastic surgery anyway, why else is he there? To look cute and that's it."
"Oh, and the little weirdo V." she went on angrily. "You see there is something mentally wrong with that alien and he needs to get checked out. I don't understand how anyone thinks his singing is good. It's overhyped and bland. Oh, and Suga...mister Suga. He's a wannabe rapper. His rapping is overrated and I cringe when I hear him rap. I hate every single one of those guys, they are so damn annoying! And then there's you!"
"You're digging your grave pretty deep, Hailey~," Angelina warned, enjoying the frequent comments that were coming in on the livestream.
She noticed that Hailey's phone kept getting a bunch of missed calls since her phone was on silent. It looked like the YouTube video and this live stream was going viral.
"I don't get how anyone can tolerate you! You can't sing, you can't dance, you can't rap, why are you still doing what you're doing?!" Hailey retorted. "Don't you regret the mistake you made? When you left you see just how better and more successful everyone in this room is except for you?"
"Let's not do this, ladies." Layla tried to get in between them, feeling anxious.
"Shut up, Layla!" Trinity snapped.
"Don't tell her to shut up!" Jennie defended her, glaring at Trinity.
"Or what?"
"Trin, don't jump in this unless you want me to do you like I did Hailey in the studio. Don't try it. Sit down and shut your minion ass up!" Angelina called out. "Y'all we are one dysfunctional girl group, huh?" she said to the live stream while Hailey continued to have her attention on Jennie.
"Exactly what big awards has BTS won? None." Hailey confirmed. "What awards has Amity won? I lost count after 20. You're just...there with nothing but in a group with seven annoying guys."
"Ha! Our leader, Hailey, guys. This is what we went through and more." Angelina called out.
"Shut up, Angelina!" Hailey snapped, while she ignored her.
"See what I mean? But none of you wanted to believe me or Jennie or anyone else because you think she is some sort of saint. Oh, and didn't you steal Jennie's songs in her notebook years ago? The songs she worked hard on for weeks alone? Putting them on Amity's new album?"
"Like I said, we made the songs better." she shrugged.
"Wow! Did you hear that? Do you see who this broad really is, guys?" Angelina asked, turning the selfie camera to her before turning it back to Hailey. "Our leader, Hailey, everyone! How y'all doin'?"
Hailey's face turned into fear when she noticed Angelina had been filming the entire time. "W-wait, what is that?! Were you filming!?"
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is our whack ass leader that tormented us for years and isn't who she really is. For all of you giving me and my girl Jennie crap because we left, this was one of many reasons why. And we are fairly doing great without the group. It isn't even a group, anymore. It's Hailey and the backups. And it shouldn't even be like that. A group should be a family and filled with loyalty. Not wanting to outshine everyone. That is not a team. And now you see for yourself. Check out my YouTube video for more tea. Hashtag, Hailey is canceled."
"Wh-what? No, I was just joking! Co-me on, we were all just playing around!" Hailey stuttered and began freaking out, feeling her body flush with embarrassment. "I-I was joking! Right Trin?"
"Yeah, you were joking!" Trinity agreed, nodding frequently.
"Right, Layla? Lay?" Hailey turned to her. "Lay!?"
Layla hesitated. Glancing at Jennie and Angelina for a moment, she turned back to Hailey. After all the crap Hailey had given her, she decided to speak her truth.
"No...you weren't," she answered in a calm tone.
"What?!" Hailey sputtered.
"Really, Layla?" Trinity glared at her.
"Everything Angelina said is true. I've been going through the same mess they had after they left. I spoke about it in the YouTube video," Layla revealed as Hailey dropped her jaw. "How could you take her songs like that?"
"I-I didn't take anything!" Hailey shouted
"You just said we made the songs better and when we finished recording the songs, you said it yourself that you stole her notebook before she left after you kept asking her to use them. But Jennie didn't want you to use them, but you kept pushing her. And you didn't take no for an answer and you just stole it and she couldn't find it when she was about to leave. Those songs meant something to her. And you just took it for a paycheck for our new album. That's foul."
"She's lying! She didn't take anything!" Trinity exclaimed. "Stop trying to play the victim-"
"Why are you lying for Hailey?" Layla called out. "This is disgusting, why are we doing this? We have done enough damage, this isn't even a group, anymore. Paying all these top singers and rappers for collaborations to get more exposure. Paying people more to take collabs away like you did with Angelina and The Weeknd. Like no, I can't do this, anymore. This isn't right."
Hailey scoffed and shook her head. "And I thought you had my back..."
"And I thought you were our friend. Friends don't treat each other like this. Friends don't stoop this low. Friends don't steal things. Friends don't bully each other." Layla turned to Jennie. "Like I told Rap Monster, I even found your notebook."
"There is no notebook!" Trinity exclaimed as she watched Layla go through her bag.
Soon enough, Jennie saw that slightly torn green college-ruled notebook with some doodles on the front, confirming it.
"I found it in Hailey's studio. I swear to you, I had no idea that these were yours until after we recorded the songs." Layla looked at her earnestly and handed her the book. "As soon as I found out, I didn't think it was fair to you and that's when things started changing with me, Trinity, and Hailey. I began to be the odd one out since you two left."
"Worldstar!" Angelina chimed in, with the camera facing her including the girls in the background. "I'm sorry, I just had to say that just once! Again, how y'all doin' today?"
Jen quickly skimmed past blank pages until she found the one song she was grateful that they didn't find. It was near the end of the notebook and somehow Hailey didn't skim through the entire book. Jennie had randomly named the song Thrive and she wanted to make it into a rock song one day and perform the song with her guitar. Maybe now she has the chance to do so if Bangtan has solo songs like Jungkook wished for during one of the BTS Festas.
She began to tear up as she read one line, feeling the memories come back.
Don't ever ever ever take me for granted...
She wrote it a few weeks before she left. The lyrics weren't songwriter status but the words were meaningful to her and that was all that mattered.
Looking up, Jennie murmured, "Thank you."
"I'll take that to show everyone how similar some of the wording is and do you see Jen's handwriting and her initials?" Angelina took the notebook and scrolled her phone through some of the front pages.
ARMY especially was showing no mercy on social media:
'HAILEY IS CANCELED! HOW DARE YOU MAKE JIMIN CRY AND MAKE THE MEMBERS UNCOMFORTABLE!? I WANNA FIGHT!'
'CHOKE'
'So problematic!'
'OH HELL NO! You made Jimin cry!? This bitch is canceled! I hate her!'
'Congratulations, you played yourself. #HaileyIsCanceled'
'Hailey better have tight security when she arrives back to the USA.'
'A whole mess! GIRL BYE!'
'I knew that piece of trash was problematic.'
'It's what she deserves!'
'I am living for this! Wow! I love this song! Finally getting exposed'
'Hailey who???'
'Hailey, sweetie, you don't want this. Should've chosen your battles wisely'
'She is sooooo annoying and now she finally got shut up'
'I am TIRED! Like I am literally shaking like OMFG!'
'You messed with our Queen and Kings!? Issa problem now! Watch your back when you come back to America!'
'Stealing Angelina's collab with The Weeknd!? Nah, nah, I wanna have a talk with you!'
'Hailey, Hailey, Hailey, you dun lost your muthafriggin mind, hoe!'
'This tea tastes so good today.'
'Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey, hey, hey! Goodbye! #HaileyIsCanceled'
'SALTY and jealous. I knew there was something shady about her.'
'I called it! I knew she was completely obsessed with Jen and Ang.'
'Good she got exposed! Ain't no way they were going to kiss her ass. She really thinks that she MADE them? Hailey, sweetie, it's not all about you. You can't even sing well! Get vocal lessons and then come talk to my girl Jennie'
'It was at this moment Hailey knew...she fucked up. #HaileyIsCanceled'
'With her autotuned ass, she had the nerve to say that she's better than them? Girl bye!'
'Every time I hear her speak, I just hear bullshit. EXPOSED!'
'Hailey, what's good?'
Hailey clenched her jaw and grabbed her phone, noticing the caller ID.
Daddy <3 is calling...
"Shit..." she nervously murmured. She hesitated before answering, "D-dad-look-I-I didn't know she was filming!" she rambled on, starting to cry as everyone heard loud yelling from her phone. "I'm sorry! I didn't know, okay? I know this looks bad but-pl-okay-dad!"
Ending the live stream, Angelina began cackling at the fear on her face. "Her face is priceless~!"
Meanwhile, Jennie had been listening to Layla's constant genuine apologies for everything that had happened over the years.
"I am so sorry." Layla frowned.
Angelina got on the camera app and started to record a video since she was waiting for Jennie to fight. She had to get it on film. There was no way she was going to miss the opportunity to see Hailey get exactly what she deserved.
"UGH!" Hailey turned back to Jennie, angrily. "You bitches ruin everything!" she turned to Layla, "Do you realize what you have done to us?"
"YOU. Done to YOU and Songstress. It was the right thing to do!" Layla fired back.
"You fucking bitches are the worst!" She threw her phone directly at Jennie, who used her reflexes to catch it and toss it to the side.
Attempting to blindside her, Hailey decided to run up immediately to go for a strike or at least to pull her hair but Jennie evaded her attack and roughly shoved her back.
Taking a step forward, she threw an abrupt right hook and it slammed into Hailey's jaw. The Amity leader let out a yelp. The punch affected her quickly as she began to lose her balance, wincing in pain from the unexpected strike. Jen handed a left hook on the face and then another right against her nose, causing her to cry out in pain and crumble to the floor.
Not done, Jennie ended up on top of her, repeatedly striking her face as she couldn't get a hit in, yelling at her to get off. The sudden altercation surprised everyone in the room before Angelina started laughing loudly. Layla, looked satisfied because that shut her up and Trinity looked alarmed and was trying to figure out how to help her friend.
"Talked all that shit and she can't even fight. All she does is sneak or pull hair. I love it!" Angelina laughed as she watched Jennie beat her up. When she noticed Trinity about to get involved, she shouted, "If you jump in I'm beating your ass! Stand back!"
With her hands throbbing, Jennie got off of her and rubbed them. Seeing the damage she had done, Trinity widened her eyes and quickly went to help Hailey, who had held her bleeding nose with tears in her eyes, stunned at what had just happened.
She wasn't expecting Jen to actually hit her or even do anything at all.
"She's bleeding!? Christmas came early tonight! Wow! Her face is swollen, too. Damn. And you still look pretty," Angelina praised as Jennie looked unfazed with her hair and makeup still intact.
"My nose!" Hailey wailed.
Turning her attention to the beaten up girl, Jennie narrowed her eyes and started speaking to her, "Let me tell you something...Those hits were for the members. Don't you ever disrespect Bangtan, again. J-Hope is handsome and brightens everyone's day with his sound effects. He does try hard because he puts so much effort into his dancing. It's his life and we see that day in and day out when we perform. He is not overhyped. He deserves all the hype he gets for his talent. Trinity is great at dancing, but J-Hope has that unique passion that she does not and I can guarantee that you'll see that in a dance battle between them. Bangtan wouldn't be the same without Hobi. With Jimin, abs or not, he is there for Bangtan for his talents. Not for how he looks. I try my best to boost his confidence whenever he feels overwhelmed or unsure of himself but I know that whatever he does, he does it wonderfully and he improves every day. I always tell him how proud I am of him. So don't you come and say to me that he's a waste of space or that he needs to lose weight. He is fine the way he is. Bangtan would not be the same without Jimin."
"Jin's beauty is God given. Surgery cannot make someone as handsome as him," she praised. "He can dance his ass off. He improves with his dancing with every comeback. He tries his best, and Hobi helps him. His dad jokes are the best no matter how cheesy they may be. His cooking is the best and even reminds me of home despite being far away from my family. Bangtan would not be the same without Jin. Rap Monster's solo attempts were not a failure. He is more of a leader than you, that's for sure. He looks out for us and takes care of us which you have never done. His lyrics are meaningful and he has never tried to take the spotlight from the members like you have done. Bangtan wouldn't be the same without Namjoon."
"There is nothing wrong with Taehyung. That guy was the first person I met when I came here. Broken English and still welcomed me with open arms. His singing is great. With that deep voice, his vocals are A-1. He is such a sweetheart and cares deeply for Bangtan. And his silly and loving personality is the greatest. Bangtan wouldn't be the same without Tae. You have a lot of nerve to call Yoongi a wannabe rapper. Can you rap like him? Can you rap as fast as him? Do your lyrics have meaning like his? Like he said, you're pretty lucky that you didn't bump into him today. He contributes so much to Bangtan. It wouldn't be the same without him. How can you hate them if you don't even know them? You just want to see everyone fail so you can be the only successful one. And it shouldn't be like that. Fame is getting into your head. You are not the girl I used to know when we all met each other. As you can see and feel, you just got a well deserved ass whooping. So I'm going to ask you some questions to make sure you got my point across. So, are you going to leave everyone from Big Hit alone?"
Hailey glanced at her as she continued to feel pain all over her face. "...Yeah..." she muttered.
"Are you going to leave Layla alone?" Jen asked.
"...Yeah..."
"Are you going to leave Angelina alone and stay out of her success?"
"...Yeah..."
"Are you going to leave me alone?"
"...I'll leave you alone..."
"Good. I hope after this you can renovate your life and go back to your old self when we first became Amity. Not this jealous girl who will dismiss those who helped her be where she is today. You can't just shut everyone out and kick everyone to the curb while you rise to the top. And this is exactly why this group fell apart. We should've been a team. Worked as a team. This isn't a solo. This is a group. Groups work together. Fail together, succeed together. You didn't get this far by yourself. We all contributed something to make the group great. It's not all about you. In the meantime, good luck getting yourself out of this shit storm that has been bestowed upon you. Good night, ladies."
After exiting the room with Angelina and walking down the hallway, Jennie felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders.
Angelina held onto her excitedly. "That was priceless! You punched the shit outta her! I caught it on video, Suga will be so proud, to see this! No more bullcrap! We're free from this drama!" she checked Twitter. "Yo...BTS fans are showing no mercy on Hailey's social media. She had to put her account on private, it's that bad. Shit...no Crisis PR Manager is going to be able to save her."
"After what she did to the boys, she had it coming," Jen replied.
"For real! I don't think her career will bounce back after this. It's getting worse. It's the number one trend on Twitter as we speak. Even TheShadeRoom is getting into the tea. Hold on, I gotta rewatch this video of you beating her ass."
Deciding to head to her hotel room first to shower before meeting with the members and Angelina, Jen changed into a hoodie and sweatpants.
Hearing a knock on the door, Jen opened it to reveal Layla.
Layla hesitated. "Uh, hi."
"Hey."
"Sorry, I came here out of the blue, um...could I talk to you for a moment? Please?"
"Yeah. Come in."
She walked in and exhaled softly. "I won't keep you long. I'm uh, actually surprised you want to see my face after all that has happened. I just wanted to wish you all the best in BTS. You guys are really good. Your music is pretty catchy, I listened to a few songs. I can see that Songstress was holding you back. It kinda inspired me to branch out and want to start making my own music like you wanted to do. You seem so happy here and I am happy that you found your home in the music industry. Even if it's in another country. Sometimes things aren't always in America, you gotta travel the world and see what else is out there, y'know?"
"I think it's inevitable that Amity will disband. We all have different mindsets right now, we are not in a group mindset like we used to be. It's not fun like it used to be. I realized that when you and Angelina left." she went on. "I started doing things independently, without anyone knowing and I realized that I can do so much more without Hailey holding me back for her own personal gain. I'm really sorry for everything. It was very wrong of me. I shouldn't have been such a follower back then. I was such a bitch, huh? All those things I said and how I treated you and Ang, it was very cruel. I uh, just came here to apologize for everything. I can't take back what I've done to you and I admit that I have done you and Angelina wrong and today I wanted to give back what is rightfully yours. Your notebook. I hope that you continue to be successful here and remain happy. I'm gonna go now. Good luck in Korea." she smiled awkwardly.
"Hey," Jen called out before she could leave. "Tomorrow...I'm going to get breakfast with Angelina. I'd like for you to come."
"Oh...I don't think I should, I mean after all I've done, I don't even think it'd be a good idea to hang with you guys."
"Layla, I have no animosity towards you."
"Why?"
"Because I had already forgiven you."
"After all, I've done?"
"I don't want to dwell over the past, and I don't hold grudges with anyone. Not even with Hailey. Even though 30 minutes ago I broke her nose and pretty much fucked up her face, I just...want to move forward. What's done is done. No more petty drama. I just want to continue to remain happy. It will take time but I'd like to start over with you."
Layla smiled and nodded. "I'd like that very much."
---------
Later, seated on her bed, Jen thought about everything that had happened. No more sabotaging, no more tormenting. It was finally over. She could finally breathe. No more Amity drama, no more Hailey trying to ruin things for those close to her.
After spending a few minutes to relax, she went back to the members who were all in Namjoon's hotel room he shared with Jimin as they rushed up to her, asking if she was okay.
"Tell us everything!"
"Did you hit her?!"
"Are you hurt?!"
"What happened?!"
There were various questions that she was bombarded with as she sat down. She explained everything and when she revealed that she did beat her up, the members couldn't help but jump for joy.
"There's a video!" Angelina revealed after getting translated on what was going on.
"Did you do the right hook, left hook and then right like I told you?" Hobi asked while Angelina found the video.
"Absolutely." Jen nodded with a smile.
"AHHHHH, I need to see this now! I'm proud of you, munchkin! That's how you have to handle it sometimes."
"She beat the shit outta her~! It was outrageous, I knew she had it in her!" Angelina boasted and showed the video.
"OH!" the boys yelled as soon as they saw the first punch.
Yoongi continuously laughed with some of the members. This was perfect.
"Oh, mah God," Jimin murmured in English as they watched Jennie on top of her, fighting.
"Hey," Yoongi spoke in English, tapping Angelina on the shoulder. "Video. Phone. My phone."
"You want me to send the video to you? I got you. Okay." Angelina nodded.
"O-oh my! Is that blood I see?" Jin widened his eyes, wincing at each punch. "Amazing."
Namjoon dropped his jaw a little bit at the video, bewildered. "W-wow. You really threw hands. It needed to be done. I'm sure she got the message."
"Oh, yes she did. You won't have to worry about her, anymore." Jen reassured.
"Wow, is this really our Ennie? Our Ennie has some amazing strength. Did-did you see her stagger after the first punch?" Taehyung exclaimed. "I love you, Jennie." he wrapped his arms around her for a tight hug.
"Looks like it." Yoongi proudly said. "Finally, that piece of crap can leave us the fuck alone."
Jungkook smirked as he watched the video. He loved this feisty and protective side of Jennie. She was full of surprises and kept amazing him.
"What's going to happen to her?" Jin asked
"Well...last time Angelina and I checked, she along with Songstress are still getting obliterated. SongStress deactivated all their social media. Hailey deactivated hers, too. Layla is fine, she put hers on private for now. Trinity deactivated hers as well," Jen said. "Amity and Songstress are trending on Twitter and it's all over TMZ and other entertainment news. It's a big scandal. They're getting so much heat, it's not pretty. It's safe to say that Songstress won't be promoting anytime soon with this huge hit to their company."
"Good," he replied. "That'll show them."
"I'm just glad it's over and I hope that all of you are okay. I'm sorry for causing all this mess. Sometimes I think it's my fault you all dealt with this. I didn't think this drama would come all the way over here to you guys."
"Hey, it's all right. What matters is that Hailey won't be causing any more problems for anyone. Don't blame yourself for anything," Hobi reassured and smiled.
On social media, ARMY continuously demolished Songstress for what they had done. Especially Hailey with all the things she said about Bangtan. ARMY praised Jennie for what she had done and it made them love her even more. Angelina even posted a small video of the way Hailey tried to attack Jennie and got beaten down which got more praise.
G-Dragon commented on Jennie's Instagram page, 'From now on, I'll hire you for protection.'
Jen had replied, 'That'll be one pack of smarties per hour :)'
His answer made her smile, 'That can be arranged.'
Other idols had commented:
Bam Bam: Go Jennie!
Jackson: My baby Jennieeeee. Proud of U! Glad u took them down! Now answer my calls! I promise I won't prank call u late at night anymore!
Amber: Another reason why you're so loveable. You stick up for those you love. <3 glad she's out of the picture and can leave you alone.
Zico: Now that was self defense! I remember you venting to me about them. You did a great job handling yourself.
Taeil: I always knew you were so awesome. Never let anyone bring you down.
Jessi: Miss Bangtan can fight! Badass <3
Checking her phone, she received texts from her sisters,
Vienna: SIS! Angelina sent me the video of you beating the sheeeet outta Hailey! You know, I would've backed you up if you called me but it seems like you had everything handled. I'm sooo proud! Don't tell Alani but you got them hands from me not her :P
Alani: OMG what is going on!? Are you okay!? CALL ME!
Back in her room, she facetimed Alani while Vienna tried to get into the conversation. "Jennie! You beat the crap out of her! I love you!"
"Shush!" Alani exclaimed. "Are you all right?"
"I'm good. I'm perfectly fine." Jen calmly replied.
"How can you be so calm after all this?"
"She's calm because she whooped that ass!" Vienna yelled in the background.
"Are you hurt?" Alani asked, ignoring Vienna.
"My hands still hurt a bit," Jen answered.
"Because she whooped that ass!" Vienna yelled again
"I have to admit, that was funny. You handle yourself quite well. I never thought I'd see the day of you fighting but sometimes you gotta go that route." Alani replied. "Don't ever let no one put their hands on you or mess with those you love. She learned that the hard way after so many warnings. I can't believe she tried to sneak you and still lost the fight."
"Oh yeah, because she whooped that ass!" Vienna laughed.
Later on, Jennie and Jimin decided to go eat at a local frozen yogurt place with hoods on their heads. They got their yogurt and sat across from each other. As she predicted, Jimin happily had a bunch of toppings on his and ate it with delight as they talked about random things.
"Let me see your hands," Jimin said as he gently grabbed them.
"I'm fine. You should see the other girl," she teased as he let out a soft laugh while he examined her knuckles, rubbing his thumb over them. "Jimin, I want to apologize that you had to meet and deal with her. She said some pretty awful stuff, and I wish you didn't have to go through that. You are worth so much more than how you look and I hope you know that you are very dear to me. Never forget that,"
"Ennie, thank you." he smiled in appreciation and kissed the knuckles on one of her hands. "I really needed this, tonight."
"Glad to hear. And can I just say that I love your cheeks? They're cute." she reached out and pinched one of them as he let out a giggle.
As they spent more time together, Angelina had sent various messages,
Angelina: JEN!
Angelina: JEN!
Angelina: JENNIE! OMFG!
Angelina: I KNOW YOU'RE OUT WITH JIMIN BUT GIRL I JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH THE WEEKND HIMSELF! HE STILL WANTS THAT COLLAB! AGHGFGHGAAG I LOVE YOU!
Jennie smiled at the messages. Things were finally going the way that they should for her friend.
Once JenMin arrived back at the hotel, she wanted to play the Wii U with him, so she came with him to his room. But once they had opened the door, they saw Angelina and Namjoon in an intense lip lock, causing Jimin to yell.
"Are you two for real?!" Jen exclaimed, amused while the two rappers turned their heads in shock.
"Shit!" Angelina quickly got off his lap and cleared her throat. "H-hey! How goes it?"
"H-hey, I didn't think you two would be back so soon." Namjoon stood up, flustered.
It was like one plot twist after another, but Jen knew something was going to happen sooner or later. She was happy about it, too.
"Ooooooh, Rapmonie has a girlfriend~!" Jimin ran out to tell the hyungs.
Throwing her arms up, Jennie shook her head and left while saying, "Jesus take the wheel."
------------
At the dorm, taking a break from studying, Jen scrolled on Instagram and came across a comment, 'Jennie! Did you meet Alex Reid from Rania yet!?'
she replied, 'Ughhhh no! I wish!! I want to meet her! She's so cool! Hopefully one day!'
The two were following each other, liking each other's posts and occasional comments here and there. Throughout the day, a fan war went under the comments as people began to compare Alex and Jen, taking sides. Various comments included:
'I don't want her to meet Alex. Jen is the better black girl in K-Pop anyway.'
'No, she's not! Alex has better hair and can rap better!'
'Jen is waaaay more popular than Alex. And is a better singer'
'So!? Alex has more experience and performs better than Jennie ever could. Time for Jennie to pack her bags and leave Korea! Alex is here!'
'BYE! Rania did a BTS and now has a black girl in a group.'
'Um...y'all know you can love and support both of these girls, right? Why do you have to choose one? They're both representing us and are great at what they do'
'Alex can't even speak Korean but Jennie can. Why come to Korea if you don't even know the language??'
'Alex sounds better speaking Korean than Jennie'
'Jen! You're so much better than Alex. Your Korean is way better. You're prettier and you're the best black girl in K-Pop.'
Although the two girls have yet to meet each other, the comments upset them and they both had called out people to stop trying to put them against each other. The comments were toxic and uncalled for.
Shutting everyone up on her page, Jen commented, 'Stop it. Stop trying to put women against women. Alex is amazing at what she is doing. Do not compare us. No one is better than the other. Let's continue to support us beautiful, talented black females in this industry instead of trying to make everything a competition. Support the melanin. We're breaking boundaries. Also support other black people here, too. Like Lee Michelle and Yoon Mi Rae.'
As the day went on, Jen moped around in her room while consistently listening to the song she would have to play for her guitar midterm. Angelina wasn't here anymore and had to cut her time in Seoul short due to the various interviews demanded about the Songstress and various collaborations that were requested. Work was work, Jen knew that. There were times when she planned to go home but had to cancel because of last-minute scheduling, so this was normal.
"I might have to just take this L," she murmured.
"What's wrong?" Jungkook asked.
He had heard her sigh when he was walking past the hallway and decided to check on her.
"It's my guitar midterm. I think I'm going to fail."
"Why do you think that? You're great at the guitar."
"The teacher assigned us songs and of course, I got a hard one."
"What song?"
"It's an IU song."
His eyes lit up as she laughed at his eagerness. "I knew you were going to react like that."
"What's the song? Tell me!" he sat on her bed.
"It's Love of B. The song is great but that guitar...is so fast! The guitar is so powerful in this one. The flow, the intensity, I don't think I can do that. I have never played the guitar like that before. When I performed Tomorrow, that was fine, but something like this, keeping the consistency and flow, making sure I'm on the beat and strumming every single note, I don't think I-"
"You can, and you will. Show me what you have so far."
She sighed and grabbed her acoustic guitar. "This is easier said than done. Like the teacher will take off points if I mess one note up. It's that strict. I gotta make sure everything is on beat and-"
"Relax. Just show me."
After playing it for him, Jungkook pointed out things that sounded a little off as he listened closely. They even had Namjoon, Jin and Taehyung listen too.
"How do you feel now?" Jungkook asked.
"Much better thanks to all of you. I think I'm ready for this."
"Good! Knock it out! I'll make a celebration dinner for you and Jungkook when you both pass your midterms!" Jin offered
Soon enough when it came time for the midterm, Jen passed her guitar midterm with flying colors while Jungkook did well with his. Bangtan celebrated with a big dinner like Jin had promised.
On Instagram, JRE posted a selfie with the caption, 'Sooo excited that I finally get to announce this! Get ready because Jennie will be hanging out with your boy in January! You heard it here first! Send in questions you want her to answer! We gonna have some fun!'
Once Jen reposted his post with smiling emojis, ARMY freaked out and put their thinking caps on, to think of good questions to ask her.
----------
Backstage in the waiting room for their concert, Jennie was knocked out, sleeping wildly while Jimin continued filming her. After poking her and messing around, she wouldn't wake up, so he went to begin annoying Hobi, giggling at how he was laying on the couch, trying to sleep.
"Hobi-hyung sleeps like that? I sleep like this." Jungkook crookedly landed on the couch.
Hobi sat up and said, "Suga-hyung sleeps like this."
"I'm not sleeping yet," Suga murmured.
Jennie was oblivious to the guys fooling around and even missed Jungkook's hilarious handstand along with Hobi's.
"Ah, this is too funny!" Jimin cackled. "How is Ennie still asleep after all this?!" he panned the camera to her.
"Where is that air horn that was in the dressing room? Let's prank her and run away." Hobi suggested.
It didn't take long to find it as the guys stood a few feet away.
"Three...two...one!" Jimin pressed the button, making her wake up frantically from the loud sound.
"I'm up!" she yelled and fell off the couch when he pressed the button again, near her face.
The guys laughed and ran away while Jen got back on her feet.
"Assholes! You play too much!" she ran after them while Jimin continued to film.
"AHHHHHHHH~!" was the last thing that was heard on the video, revealing that Hobi had been caught first.
After fooling around, the members prepared for the concert. Jen, already dressed, began to stretch until she heard a question blurted out by Jungkook.
"Hey, my parents are here, tonight. Would you like to meet them?"
It was a little over an hour before the concert and his parents came to see the show. It was an idea that had popped in the Golden Maknae's head for a while, but he hadn't meant to ask her so abruptly. He began to worry if it would be a good idea. Maybe he just made things awkward.
Comments such as, 'why would she say yes to this offer?' and 'she probably thinks this is stupid' flowed through his brain. But as he saw her smile eagerly, his doubts went away.
"Your parents? Yeah, of course! Why not?"
Pleased with her answer, along with getting another hit of nerves, he grinned brightly. "R-really?"
"Yeah, really."
"O-okay! Follow me." he grabbed her hand as they walked backstage.
The more they inched closer, Jennie began to feel butterflies in her stomach. But she kept asking herself why. It was just her best friend's parents, it shouldn't be that bad. She gave herself a mental pep talk about being herself. Things will go smoothly.
Before they knew it, they were right in front of them. As Jungkook introduced her, Jennie bowed and smiled kindly.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you!" she beamed, shaking off the nerves.
"Ah, so you're Jennie!" his father pointed out, giving her a friendly aura about him. "My son has told us so much about you."
Jungkook coughed loudly while his mother giggled in the background. Now was not the time for his dad to tease him.
"Oh really?" Jen glanced at Jungkook, amused. "Well, I hope he didn't share anything out of the ordinary."
"I already told them about your losing streak against me in bowling." Jungkook grinned mischievously.
"Of course, you did." she playfully rolled her eyes. "You never give me a chance to win!"
His mom smiled warmly at her and spoke, "Your Korean is very good, and you are very pretty. My son tells us how well you take care of him and the rest of the members. Thank you for looking out for him."
"You're very welcome. And I see where Jungkook gets his kindness from. You're very sweet, thank you." Jen responded. "Jungkook is amazing. I can't even imagine how proud you are of him. I'm very proud of him, too. As we attend our classes together, I help him with English, and that has improved tremendously. It's not easy to learn a new language but he always gets better and better every time he practices. Even on stage too. He works very hard and is always dependable. He's very gifted, that's for sure. It brings me such joy to see him grow so well."
Shooked, Jungkook was astounded by her remark. No one said a word after her statement and she was met with stares. Jennie suddenly felt like maybe she rambled too much after talking so highly of Jungkook like that.
Meanwhile, his parents glanced at each other with knowing smiles. It was official, they adored her. They had never seen Jungkook look so happy before. The way their son shyly smiled and blushed at her words gave them confirmation that everything he had told them about her was true. She truly did make him happy even by just being there, standing there with him. The way he gazed at her lovingly when she wasn't looking gave it all away, too.
Once Jen saw his parents smile back at her, it made her feel relieved as she listened to them express how much they appreciated her for speaking so positively about their son.
"Are you eating well?" his father asked her.
"Absolutely. Living with seven guys and the way that they eat, their appetites rubbed off on me. I eat a lot."
"She bakes pretty well," Jungkook added. "You have to try one of her cupcakes."
"I think it's the icing I use. All I do is follow the recipe on the box," she replied modestly. "I'd love to bake for you if you'd like."
His father nodded instantly in agreement. "That would be wonderful."
"Wow, you and Jungkook really do have the same smile, I see the resemblance. Like father, like son." she shared a laugh with them after seeing them grinning widely.
"Jennie, we need to fix your clothes." a stylist called out from down the hall.
"Well, it was very nice to meet you. I hope you enjoy the show!" she bowed and left.
"What a fine young lady." Jungkook heard his mom speak brightly, watching her walk down the hallway. "You haven't stopped smiling, Jungkook. She is special to you, hm?"
Jungkook rubbed the back of his neck, still blushing as his mom continued to tease him.
"So, is she the one?" his father brought up.
"Yes." Jungkook nodded shyly.
"We adore her."
"You do?" his eyes lit up. "I really...I'm...kind of in love with her."
"We noticed by the way you look at her. My little boy is in love. Have you told her?" his mom asked.
"Ah...not yet. After our promotions are over."
----
As the concert began, there were various VCRs playing throughout the event. For the individual one, it showed Jen stretching outside on a sunny day and walking around town with her guitar on her back. She then met up with several friends as they chilled at a park on the grass and she had jammed with them while playing the guitar, looking content.
Out of all the concerts they had, this one had to be Jen's favorite. During Tomorrow, she played the guitar the entire time while performing the choreography with a mic attached to her. ARMY thought she looked so cool and had hoped that she would play the guitar more often on stage like this.
With Boys with Fun, the members lightened up the arena as they jumped around and happily performed. While they scattered around the stage, Jen danced around, waving at ARMY and lipsyncing to whoever's verse it was at the moment.
When she sang her verse for the song, she moonwalked down the runway with Jin trying to copy her.
For their other VCR which was their interview, they were asked,
'What were your childhood dreams'
"Oh boy..." Jen laughed softly. "I wanted to do a lot of interesting things. First, I wanted to be a vet because I went to this dog park and fell in love with all these adorable dogs. Then I wanted to be an actress, Rihanna, a teacher, y'know various things. But singing was my calling. I also wanted to be a rock star. I think I'm kind of playing the part now. I'm playing the guitar for some of our songs! It's been a blast."
She tilted her head to the side, pondering, "It was...my sisters who caught me singing in my room one night. I thought no one was home. They recorded me and showed it to our parents. I was so mad. I finally told my family I'd like to be a musician. So, then my dad taught me more about the guitar and I got vocal lessons. And then I took a risk and auditioned for a few companies in Seoul and the rest is history."
'Now that you've become a singer, are you having the most beautiful moment in life?'
"Oh, Absolutely. This opportunity to be here in K-Pop, singing in so many different countries as BTS, is a blessing and it's beautiful to experience. I want to share my vocals with the world. And I'm doing that with BTS. It's amazing."
'Now that your dream of becoming a singer has come true, are you happy?'
"I'm happy where I am right now as a singer, yes. Being somewhere where you have more freedom to show off your creativity, it's worth the blood, sweat, and tears. The fact that people listen to our music is quite touching."
After the show, the Maknae Line chilled backstage, relaxing after the long concert.
"Oh my gosh, your parents are so adorable." Jen nudged Jungkook on the couch. "One day, I have to bring you and the rest of Bangtan to a family cookout in America. It'll be so much fun. I hope that one day we'll have some free time and be able to do that. We're so busy now, we hardly ever see our family and friends. Gosh, I can just see the cookout now...a swimming pool where we can swim with my little cousins and all...it'll be a blast."
"Let's definitely do that. I'm getting excited already!" Jungkook responded. "Hey, so, how did your parents meet?"
"I asked them that a while ago. It's pretty cheesy if you asked me. My dad liked my mom first. They met in high school. Started as best friends...he liked her for so long but kept it to himself. He wasn't a shy guy though, he could talk for hours."
Jungkook smirked softly. "I see where you get your outgoing personality from."
"Are you implying I talk too much?"
"Maybe." he teased.
"Anyway! Haha, he asked her to prom and my mom said yes. That's where they had their first kiss and began to date. My dad always says, who knew the love of my life was my best friend. I always think it's cheesy. Cute but cheesy. He also told me that the love of my life could be right in front of me, watching me and just waiting for the right moment. Ha, do you believe that? Sounds like something out of a romance novel. My mom was kind of in denial at first when my dad told her he loved her. But after some time to think about everything, she realized that he was the one and that she loved him, too, accepting her feelings."
'Sounds like a scenario that I know.' Jungkook thought to himself.
"So, Golden Maknae, how'd your parents meet?"
"To be blunt, my mom fell for my dad first and hit on him."
Unable to control it, Jennie burst out in laughter with Jungkook, while Jimin and Taehyung were listening and watching their conversation closely, sitting next to each other.
"She told me she went after him because he was so good-looking," he added.
"Oh, word? Wow! I love your mom. I bet that's where you got your competitiveness from. I'm sure she let all those ladies know that your dad was going to be hers, huh? I love that. Get your man, girl. I'd do that, too. Let everyone know that the person you want will be yours and no one is going to change that or interfere with your mission."
"Yeah," Taehyung spoke up. "If you want something or someone, you'll do whatever you can to get it. Right, Kookie?"
"Push past everyone to get what or who you want, right Jungkookie?" Jimin added with a smile.
Jen turned to the guys. "Yeah, you're right. Took the words right out of my mouth. Facts."
Jungkook had given the 95 Liners warning glances but took their words to heart. They had a point. He was currently during that, too. He had remembered overhearing a few IKON members talking about Jennie at the Melon Awards. It was backstage, all eyes on her because of that pink dress she wore. One member had complimented on how pretty she had looked that night and some considered maybe one day asking her out.
'Nah, that's Jungkook's girl.' was what Jungkook had heard from them, which surprised him greatly and gave him a boost of confidence. It was getting around that even some idols knew that he wanted her to be his and would be making that move soon.
What amused him was the sound of a lot of disappointed voices from idols when it came to finding out that she was about to be off the market soon. It made Jungkook feel good. Any idols that were lowkey interested in her began to back off because they knew that soon he was going to confess.
Except for one. But hopefully, that will change soon when he speaks with Bam Bam.
#bts 8th member#jungkook x oc#bangtan boys#bts#bts additional member#the bangtan gal#bts fanfic#bts fluff#jungkook fluff#jungkook scenarios#jungkook imagine#jungkook fanfic#bts imagine#bts scenarios#kpop fanfiction#kpop fanfic
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