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#I still did the ''No Friend Challenge'' and for the record I still WON it

xrenjunniesx · 5 months

Note

hi! if you're taking requests, can you do playing the pepero game with bsf dreamies please? thanks! :D

playing the pepero game as bestfriends

bestfriend!nct dream, friends to lovers

mark

when you mentioned how your friends had all done this game with each other and you didn’t get the chance to do it since you had to go home, he insisted you two could do it together now. he regretted it though when he realised how nerve wrecking it was to have you in front of you, getting closer and closer to kissing him just to beat a game.

he knew you wanted to beat your friends record, so you wanted it as small as possible. he didn’t hesitate anymore and decided to just go for it. each time your lips brush, he is internally freaking out, but the both of you had a goal in mind so you just focus on that for the few seconds it would last. afterwards he is definitely rethinking the whole friendship.

renjun

you had brought quite a few pepero boxes because there was a sale. renjun saw the stack in your kitchen and was reminded of the game instantly. he grabs a box and returns to your bedroom, holding the box out to you. he asks if you wanted to play the game and you agree instantly. you take the lead the first few rounds, but every time it got to close, you pulled away out of shyness.

he takes the lead, biting down the stick. once your lips were about to touch, he placed the back of his hand on the back of your head, looking into your eyes with a stern look. you laugh at his seriousness and stay still as he finishes it. sure, your lips touched and you guys practically kissed, but you won the game!

jeno

when he jokingly suggested you tried this challenge, he wasn’t expecting you to be so serious about the game. he wasn’t that shy to do it either. you two were best friends, nothing could come between that! until your lips touched. he realised how much he enjoyed that and was internally panicking. he tried to act calm when you pulled away and celebrated.

“let’s do it again, I think we get rid of it completely.” you just stared at him in shock while he grabbed another one out of the packet. you agreed and wait as he bites down until he gets to you lips, where he ditches the game and kisses you.

haechan

he saw so many people suddenly doing this challenge with their friends lately, and everyone freaked out when they got to close to their friend. haechan was so confident that you both could do this and do it successfully. the aim was just to get it as small as possible. once you clarify with him that it’s really just for games sake, he goes for it and doesn’t care when your lips touch. however, he gets shy when the pepero is gone, and neither of you pull away. he stares into your eyes for a little bit and eventually pulls away asking,

“what are we?”

jaemin

he didn’t want to do it at first, but when you explained it was just a fun little game, he hesitantly agrees. before you even open the packet, he is sat on your bed and telling you that he doesn’t want this to affect the friendship at all if something happens. you assure him that nothing bad will happen. when your lips do touch, he doesn’t panic like you thought he would. he kissed you instead which had you both shyly laughing as you moved away.

chenle

he suggested it, but the second you go to his house with the box in hand and telling him to sit in front of you, he regrets it. he lost his confidence the second you put it between his lips and start biting. when you get closer, he pulls away, letting the pepero fall between the two of you. you complain and tell him to have some confidence since it’s just a game. he immediately does a 180 and take the lead instead. he holds your head and bites down the pepero, not stopping even when your lips brush. you two successfully finish the pepero, but it did end with him just kissing you.

 jisung

he really was not expecting you to suggest this game. you two had never really done much games or challenges together unless it was online games or maybe even a silly little board game. so when you sat down in front of him on his bed he was shy. so shy that you wasted three pepero’s just because he kept pulling away, or it broke because he suddenly moved. you told him to be serious since you genuinely wanted to see how far you two could go. so he took it serious. he held your chin, keeping you still and bit down until your lips brushed. he pulls away with his cheeks red, “we did it?” he said holding the small crumb up to show you.

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ot9snumber1 · 6 months

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call me at midnight

hirai momo x blackpink!reader

summary: you think four best friends are enough to get you by in life. that is, until jennie introduces you to nayeon, and until nayeon introduces you to momo.

warnings: fluff, introverted reader, rushed bc i wanted to put it out for momo's bday <3 happy bday my best girl!

—

being friends with jennie means being friends with a lot of people. namely, the three other girls in your group—whom you met thanks to jennie forcing you to be social during your trainee days.

it all paid off, of course. debuting in a group with your four closest friends was a dream come true! you were convinced you needed nothing else in life.

until jennie introduces you to her other idol friends.

if being friends with jennie meant being friends with a lot of people, then being friends with nayeon meant being friends with half the world.

she was so friendly and energetic, you couldn't possibly stay still around her! (she even tells you that you remind her of one of her members.)

okay. your four best friends and one new friend, surely that was more than enough, right?

"and this is jeongyeon, sana, jihyo, mina, dahyun, chaeyoung, and tzuyu!" nayeon says energetically as she pointed to various members in the practice room.

you nod, trying to remember all their names. (you eye everyone carefully. jeongyeon, sara, ji...jiwoo?, miyeon, dahyun, chae...won, nevermind. you'd figure them all out eventually.)

"i thought twice was nine?" you ask nayeon, who seems to have a revelation when you mention that. nayeon snaps her fingers, "ah! momo hasn't come back from the bathroom!" she groans, "i bet she stopped by the vending machines for snacks again."

just then, a dark-haired girl with blunt bangs walked into the practice room, soda and a tiny bag of chips in hand. you swear you see nayeon's eye twitch, but you were a bit too distracted by the sudden wave of nervousness you felt from being in the mystery girl's presence.

the mystery girl who you realize is momo.

the momo who you spent about an hour talking her ear off after she offered some chips. (you tend to ramble when you get nervous, you tend to get nervous when you're around pretty girls. momo is a pretty girl.)

(...and nayeon's pissed you forgot to record the dance challenge she invited you over for. at least you can go back and see momo again?)

you develop a crush on momo a lot faster than you realize. you're always talking about her, making excuses to mention something she said or likes, comparing her to anything your members do.

it was very suspicious for you to talk about someone you only met once this much. naturally, your members find out about your crush before you do.

"you like momo, huh?" lisa suddenly pipes up while you're trying to stretch. "didn't know you were into dancers. you know, me and momo kind of have the same hair—"

"hold on, what the hell are you talking about me liking momo?" you resist the urge to smack lisa for flirting with you, but you've known her for years now. it was something you just grew to tolerate somehow.

"you talk about her all the time! especially about how cool her haircut is, or her voice, or some random habit you saw from the one minute you spent with her.

"..it was one hour."

"that doesn't make any difference." lisa crosses her arms and stands up straight in front of you. "i can't believe you don't realize how smitten you are with her."

"don't word it like that." you cross your arms too, like a kid retaliating against their playground bully. the two of you have a staring contest that you eventually lose because the stupid grin that appears on her face when you start blushing distracts you.

"you should ask for her number! mina says she's really sweet." lisa teases, you just shove her face away and get to practice.

of course the other three weren't immune to teasing you either.

rosé didn't bother you as much as lisa did, but her little comments about how you were buying more peaches recently or taking more dance classes never failed to make you blush.

and somehow, even with lisa teasing you, her witty attacks were nothing compared to what jennie and jisoo had in store.

"y/n-ah, i bought those drinks you wanted." jisoo says as she returned to the dorms, handing you the plastic bag while you barely leaned up from the couch to gracefully accept it. "thank youuuuu!" you sigh happily, hugging the three bottles before sitting up to drink one.

"i also dropped by twice's dorms to give something back to nayeon. momo says hi." you nearly spit out your drink and ruin the blanket you just bought.

weeks had gone by and you'd already endured the teasing from three members. jennie was awfully silent whenever momo would be brought up, which worried you even more. not knowing if she just didn't care or if she had the most sinister plan than all of them combined made your stomach flip uncomfortably.

it turned out to be the latter.

"y/n?" jennie yawns, walking into your room one night when you couldn't sleep. "forgot to give this to you." she mumbles, handing a piece of paper with glittery pink writing on it before saying goodnight and leaving.

after jennie shuts the door, you inspect the paper and nearly scream.

call me, y/n! i don't mind listening to you talk~ ♡ 모모

(maybe it wasn't an evil plan, but it sure was evil to casually give you a heart attack at 12 AM.)

you take momo's note a little too literally and call her number. you sink deep into your blanket out of nervousness and excitement. (and the realization that you were calling her this late!)

"hello?"

it was the first time you heard her voice since the day you met the rest of twice. surprisingly, she didn't sound tired at all.

"hi, momo!" you huff out, sounding completely out of breath. "jennie gave me your number just now."

you can hear an "oh!" and what you assume to be momo getting in bed. "well, what are you waiting for? tell me about your day!"

you smile, your nerves being eased by momo's comfortable aura. you could feel it through the phone, somehow.

"well, jisoo told me you said hi."

"i did!" you both chuckle quietly. "she was asking for nayeon, but nay wasn't home yet so i talked to her for a bit and she mentioned how you were doing."

you audibly gulp at the idea of that. knowing jisoo, you're almost 100% sure she was telling momo good things. still, it didn't hurt to confirm that.

"all good things, i hope."

"oh, yeah, don't worry. she kept going on and on about how you love dogs and how clingy you are when you're comfortable with someone.."

you bite your lip, was there such thing as too good? jisoo was trying to set you up with momo! shamelessly! and momo didn't notice!

"that's good." you take deep breaths as you hear silence from the other end of the call. "she bought me some drinks that i've been asking for, too. well, more like begging, but i did it really nicely!" you could hear momo struggle not to laugh, it makes you laugh too.

"anyway, she bought me this peach juice i've been wanting to try. then mango juice, and my favorite apple cider."

momo gasps, "you like apple cider?"

"of course!"

"me too!" you can practically hear the smile in her voice. "i'll bring you some next time i see you then."

"i'll be waiting!"

momo has tear stains on her cheeks from laughing so hard and her cheeks hurt from smiling so much by the time she goes to sleep that night.

momo loves talking to you.

#hirai momo x reader #momo x reader #twice x reader #twice imagines #hirai momo imagines #twice fluff

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bagerfluff · 2 months

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Heyyo!! if its not too much to askz could i request a(n enemies to lovers) Percy Jackson x Son of Nemesis reader w the prompt "revenge"? or something along those lines ? ❤️

Thank you for requesting and I hope you like this. Have a good day, afternoon, or night

Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Warm

Percy Jackson x Son of Nemesis Reader

Prompt - Revenge

You leaned against the Nemesis Cabin as you glared at Percy Jackson. You hated the boy. He was a child of the Big Three. He was the golden boy of Camp Half-Blood. He was like every other Greek hero.

He was like he name sake.

You hated how much attention Percy got just for being a child of the Big Three. Sure he saved the world once and he saved camp multiple times. You hate to admit but you were grateful for those. But you still hated the boy.

He was perfect in almost every way, you hated that too. As a son of Nemesis people tended to stay away from you. They were scared of you, they didn't even know you. They judged you based on your parent.

You hated that.

You watched as Percy talked to some kid near their cabin. Percy turned his head and when he saw you he smiled at you. You hated that. The fact that Percy wanted to be friends with you. He tried to talk to you and befriend you but he never did. It never worked so he stopped.

But that never stopped him from smiling and waving when he saw you. You glared at him before walking into your cabin. When you walked in you immediately wanted revenge.

On Percy.

That was something that happened to people when they entered. You were great at making plans for revenge for plans. Trait of Nemesis kids. You started to get all of these ideas of revenge when a voice popped in your head.

"Maybe that's a bit extreme my son. Try this instead"

You smiled at the plan your mother made. This was going to be fun. Your mother normally talked to you in your mind in the cabin. You thought that was normal but when you told other kids they looked at you like you were crazy.

Apparently other Gods didn't do that. That made you mad. That night you made multiple revenge plans on the Gods. That was another reason you hated Percy. Percy helped the Gods. You hated the Gods. But this plan for revenge was amazing.

You were already smiling at why you were going to do.

"A duel. You vs me", you told Percy. You both stood in the training area. Percy holding his sword and you holding your weapon. You had just challenged Percy to a duel. You were going to win and rub it in Percy's face. You were going to ruin Percy's perfect record.

"Really. You think you could beat me?" Percy asked. People had started to gather when they heard you and Percy. Few people challenge Percy. He was the savoir of Olympus. He was one of the best sword fighters at camp.

Most people that challenge him lose. "I don't think, I know", you smirked and tightened your grip on your weapon. Percy smiled back at you and you two started to circle each other.

Almost all of the campers were watching you two. You and Percy started to duel. You and Percy were evenly matched. Percy was surprised at how good you were at fighting. But after fighting Percy had managed to won.

You were to focused and left yourself open for Percy to knock you off your balance. You fell on your ass and your weapon flew a few feet away from you. People yelled as Percy won but you just glared. You had lose.

Your plan had failed.

Well you mothers plan had failed. You curse in Greek as you stood up and grabbed your weapon from the floor. Percy walked over to you, "Nice fight. But you should try to not be to distracted when fighting". You glared at Percy. You didn't ask for him advice. You had failed.

You made Percy look better while making yourself look worse. Percy held his hand out for a shake but you just walked away. You walked away from the training area and back to your cabin. Your mother lied to you.

She was wrong.

When you get back to your cabin you threw your weapon on the ground and yelled. "Why did you lie to me!" You hated liars. "Why do you really hate Percy?" Your mother asked and you got more angry when she asked that.

The real reason you hated Percy was because you loved him. You have since he first came to camp. But heroes never get happy endings. So you weren't going to do that to yourself.

So that was the real reason you hated Percy.

You know sat at the docks while the sun set. Everyone else was eating dinner but you didn't want to see anyone right know. Not after what happened after this morning. You heard footsteps so you turned your head to see Percy walking towards you.

You glared at him as he sat down but he didn't leave. "Nice fighting this morning. You were really good", Percy had a smile on his face.

Why was it so hard to hate Percy.

You remembered something your mother said. Maybe you should listen to her? "I wanted to humiliate you", you confessed. You didn't look at Percy.

This was hard to admit.

Percy opened his mouth to talk but you just continued speaking. You knew what he was going to ask you anyway. "It's because I hate that I love you. I hate you but I love you. I don't want to love you. Heroes never get happy endings". When you were done speaking Percy was shocked.

Percy didn't have enough fingers to count the amount of times you've insulted him. You loved him? That shocked Percy. "Well", Percy grabbed your hand. "Maybe he could be the first". You finally looked at Percy and you smiled.

Maybe revenge is a dish best served warm.

#percy jackson x reader #percy jackson #percy jackson x male reader #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson and the olympians #male reader imagines #male reader #heros of olympus x reader #heros of olympus #pjo tv show #pjo hoo toa #pjo fandom #pjo series

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vicsbasement · 1 month

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From what we’ve seen so far it almost looks like Carlos has been trying to make it easier for Charles? Take the chili plushie clip, Carlos is clearly teary eyed but he still tries to make Charles laugh. He is the one who’s hurting but he puts his own hurt aside because he notices that Charles is sad too and he has to make him laugh, because if there’s something else I’ve noticed in the past years is that Carlos loves seeing Charles happy

Anon! Firstly, are you the same anon from the other day? Let me kiss your brain, because I love talking about these boys so so so much and for some reason people really enjoyed the conversation we had. Anyway!!!! Let's talk about this for a second. Carlos is definitely having a hard time. If we're going blindly on the timeline, we have to assume Carlos knows about his exit from Ferrari ever since before the Dakar finale, (this is just especulation, though, because we don't know for certain) and he sort of, kind of, blew off Ferrari and the Maranello trials to go celebrate with his dad. Pretty sure he wouldn't have done this if he didn't have enough leverage on Ferrari because the trials at Maranello are SUPER important, but first, his dad just won Dakar at his age, and then he's like: well, I mean, I'm getting kicked out of the team anyway and I won't be active during the development of the next car, so, whatever, let's just do this,-- and he went and did it. That's my idea. He needed to be with his father because they all knew. I'm pretty sure they even knew during the training camp at Madrid / Portugal because he's surrounded by friends and already doing the absolute most to get in an amazing shape because he needs to be his best version this year. But-- then when he meets up with Charles again, Charles even feels blindsided. Because like I said previously, Lewis is Lewis. And he comes with sponsors and 7 world titles and his experience and all of a sudden Charles isn't really Ferrari's most important figure inside the team. So they're both trying to soothe each other. Because for the first time ever, Charles doesn't feel like the golden boy, he probably even feels like Ferrari did him dirty (that's what I would've thought, anyway) because who pays two or three times your salary to your second driver? Not any team, that's for certain. Carlos was stability for Charles and it's like his world was thrown off its axis. They were equals, similar in status, genuinely a good team. Charles feels bad and Carlos sees it, because he's lost his teammate, they were supposed to beat Ferrari's record of the teammates that lasted longer and now, well.

And Carlos knows this, and sees Charles handling it just as bad as himself and goes: well. If I don't have to think about this, and make him laugh, then neither of us need to focus on this, right? And the first challenge rolls around and he's tired but Charles is doing his best so why not sing until Charles' annoyed so he doesn't have to see how bone-tired Carlos is? He's sort of protecting Charles' heart by protecting his own. And then there's the little chili and I can simply see Carlos' thought process: this is the last first race of the year with Ferrari, and someone gifted him a chili. And he's chili and he's smooth operator and he's supposed to be fine, but his throat closes up and his eyes fill with tears and he doesn't want Charles to see him like this but it's so much. So he tries to laugh it off. And when he sees that Charles is also thinking the same thing he says, well. At least we're in this together. So he makes Charles laugh by saying he was a chili, too. We don't know what he means, but Charles is so fond and so filled with nostalgia that he laughs, anyway, even though his throat is dry and his eyes are filled with tears. And he gets to keep the chili plushie after Carlos reminded him they're supposed to part ways.

Remember Monza 2022? When Carlos completely ignored the woman who was guiding him to the back of the track so he could follow protocol? And he broke protocol to ask Charles if he was okay? Yeah, that's Carlos, to me. And I no longer feel like he's the only one capable of doing that for Charles, I really have seen Charles fight british and italian press and tell them to respect Carlos' last year in Ferrari, and I see Charles perfectly capable to soothe Carlos as much as Carlos has tried to soothe him. Because he's mourning in front of all of us, basically. And Carlos did go to Jeddah not only to help Ollie, but for Charles' sake, too. Did you see the smile Charles had on his face when they asked him about Carlos and he said that he'd called Senior and he'd told him that it was all okay and that he might've been going to the track later that day? He's doing that in front of all of us, showing us how much Carlos means to him. This is the best and worst time for Charlos fans right now and we have to deal with these two behaving like that for the rest of the year. I don't know how we're going to cope. Again, thank you for sending me these, because I just love to type until I don't make any sense.

#Charlos #Carlos Sainz Jr #Charles Leclerc #vic talks #ask #anon #i'm sorry if this makes even less sense than the previous one #it's been a weird week and it's like let's talk about charlos to cope #again don't just like the post TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS!#1655 #c square #charlos thoughts

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captainsophiestark · 7 months

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Witch's Intuition

Mason Lockwood x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2023!

Fandom: The Vampire Diaries

Day 2 Prompt: "Don't worry, I got you."

Summary: What if Mason Lockwood had somebody who cared about him when he came to town, somebody who could keep him from his canon fate? Alternatively, I really love Mason Lockwood and the show didn't do him justice, so I wanted to. Reader is described as a girl.

Word Count: 10,445 lmao

Category: Angst, fluff, humor

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I sighed and stared straight ahead, hands still gripped tight on the steering wheel as I tried to psych myself up to get out of the car and go inside.

Damon Salvatore, my best friend in the entire world despite my better judgement, had asked me to come to a barbecue that Jenna Sommers was hosting. Her connection to Damon was ridiculous and confusing, and the entire barbecue was just a front for Damon and our mutual friend Ric to try to get a feel for the newest supernatural creature in town. And he wanted me here to help.

Mason Lockwood, the newest supernatural in question, had apparently gone to high school with Jenna and had recently returned to Mystic Falls. Damon felt confident he was a werewolf. As a witch, I knew for sure he was a werewolf, but absolutely no part of me wanted to get involved in the supernatural drama by telling him.

I should've known staying out of it would be impossible as long as Damon Salvatore remained my best friend.

At the sound of a knock on my window, I jumped so hard my head hit the roof of my car. I whipped around to find the werewolf I'd been thinking about standing outside my door, looking at me with a grin as he gave a little wave. I mentally cursed myself, then shoved open my door and climbed out.

"Hey," he said, giving me a bright smile that made butterflies explode in my chest. "I didn't realize you were coming to this, too."

Mason and I had met about a week ago at the grill, when he'd come over to the pool table and called winner on my game. I won, and we quickly hit it off the bat over the course of our first game, enough so that we ended up playing two more. He still didn't know I was a witch, and we'd only hung out a handful of times so far, but I still found my heart racing when he looked at me like he was looking at me now.

"Damon dragged me," I replied. "Although, I actually am excited to get to know Jenna a little better. And... others, at this party."

"Others?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. The grin took on a more flirty edge, and I couldn't help my heart speeding up a bit.

"Yeah, others. Other than Ric. I already know him."

"Okay," laughed Mason, fully throwing his head back as we started heading for the house together. "And I guess 'others' doesn't apply to Elena or Caroline either?"

"No, I know them too. I've heard all about the high school angst and then some."

"Did you tell them how much better it gets after graduation?"

"Oh yeah, I covered all the existential dread and challenge of trying to figure out what the hell to do with the rest of our lives."

"Okay good. As long as they know."

Mason and I shared a smile as we reached the door and he opened it for me, motioning for me to go ahead. I smiled, and we held our eye contact a few beats too long to be casual. Damon was going to kill me when he got here.

We quickly found Jenna and Elena in the kitchen, and I chatted with Elena a bit while Mason and Jenna caught up. I'd only gotten to Mystic Falls a little after the Salvatores, having graduated from college three years ago. At first, I'd come back to try to track down and record witch history, since so much of it was based here. But it didn't take me long to get sucked into the bullshit Damon and Stefan had found themselves neck-deep in as soon as I arrived.

For the first time, with Mason, I didn't totally mind it.

Within a few minutes of arrival, Mason decided it was time to go hunting for shot glasses and alcohol. Jenna pointed him in the right direction, and then he turned to me with a lopsided smile that made my heart stop in my chest.

"Come help me?"

"Sure thing."

I followed Mason through the house, leaving Jenna and Elena in the kitchen while we waited for everybody else to show up. He ducked into a closet, and I hovered just outside.

"Let's see here... Jenna's trying to be a responsible adult nowadays, but I bet I can still find where she stashed her old shot glasses..."

"I've spent too long finding cool shot glasses that I like to ever shove them all away in a closet forever," I mused, leaning against the door frame. Mason chuckled.

"I know what you mean. I've got different ones with the patterns of every surfboard I've ever owned."

I nodded. "That's nice, but I've got you beat. I've got supernatural-themed ones. For witches and vampires and werewolves."

Mason paused his searching to turn around and give me an appraising look. I shrugged, giving him a sheepish smile. He shook his head, but to my relief, he was smiling too.

"I should've realized you knew, with you being Damon's friend," he said, turning around to continue searching.

"Hey, I'm a born and raised witch. I knew about the supernatural long before Damon Salvatore ever came into my life, and I recognized what you were before he did too. Vampires have shittier senses than witches."

Mason snorted a laugh, then, pausing his search and half glancing back at me again, asked, "Did you tell him about me?"

"No. Damon can be a little... dramatic. I had no interest in him starting up a fight with my new favorite pool opponent."

Mason nodded, and thankfully, I caught a small smile on his face again.

"...You use some of that magic to cheat at pool?"

"Ha! That's also a no. I'm just a better player than you."

"Or maybe I just let you win," he said, turning to hand me a nice bottle of vodka that he'd dug out of the closet, a grin on his face.

"We can pretend that's what happened if you really want. But we both know the truth."

He sighed, then turned back around to grab the shot glasses he'd finally managed to find, shaking them to show me triumphantly.

"I guess we're just gonna have to go back to the Grill soon so you can teach me your ways."

"...It's a date."

Mason grinned and shot me a wink, then led me back through the house to the kitchen to rejoin Jenna and Elena. Elena, understandably, left when we started doing shots, and it wasn't much longer before Ric and Damon showed up. Jenna hated Damon, and after a few moments, Damon made it clear he wasn't going to be particularly friendly to Mason. I tried to ease the tension, but clearly, this barbecue wasn't going to be as fun and relaxing as the first ten minutes had been.

It didn't help that, every time I shared a moment with Mason, judgement absolutely radiated off of Damon. Lucky for me, I'd had a few years of practice ignoring those looks from him.

He'd told me today was a fact-finding mission, after all. And I was finding facts that pointed me towards liking Mason.

"I'm just saying, it doesn't take that long to set up Guitar Hero-"

"I will leave the party, Jenna," teased Mason, shooting her a smile as he plopped down on a loveseat in the living room next to me. "What else do we have? And by that, I mean literally anything else."

Jenna chucked a pillow at him, which Mason leaned into me to duck. I cackled, continuing to ignore the hell out of Damon staring at me from across the room.

"How about charades?" asked Alaric, bravely standing between Jenna and Mason even as Mason grabbed another pillow and cocked his arm back to throw it. "Or pictionary?"

"Pictionary sounds good to me!" Damon chimed in with an eagerness that made me incredibly suspicious. "I'll go get the board."

Low and behold, a few rounds later, Damon was using it to make ridiculously obvious werewolf references at Mason. The one silver lining was that Mason was as irritated with him as me, so we bonded a little as we gave him deadpan answers for things like Dances With Wolves as a pictionary clue. Jenna, the only one in the room completely out of the loop, also helped immensely by criticizing Damon's art every chance she got. I loved him, but he absolutely deserved every dig. Besides, his ego could take it.

After many rounds of various party games (although not Guitar Hero, at least not yet), we made our way to the table in the kitchen for some dessert. Elena and Caroline had left, which just left the adults. If Damon hadn't been dragging Mason into a pissing contest, it would've been the perfect party.

Alas, instead, Damon decided to continue to poke the bear, so to speak.

"Mason! Why don't you start us off," Damon said, bringing the pie to the table with a silver serving knife and setting it down directly in front of Mason. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

Mason looked at Damon, then turned the pie until the knife faced away from him before grabbing a slice with his bare hands. Damon and Ric shared a triumphant look.

"What?" said Mason, a slight edge to his tone as he stared right back at Damon. "I apologize. I'm an animal."

I shook my head, turning my attention to Jenna instead of the two of them staring each other down as she joined us at the table.

"So Mason, you and Jenna never dated?" asked Ric, apparently trying to break the tension between Mason and Damon. A valiant effort, but knowing Damon, I doubted he'd succeed.

"She was always lost in Logan Fell-land," Mason replied. Jenna huffed a laugh.

"Oh, my first mistake. Mason was a catch. He had girls lining up."

"Really?" said Damon, that fake-friendly tone in his voice that I knew meant trouble. "Huh. I always pegged you for a lone wolf."

"I'm sure I wasn't half the lady killer you were," Mason shot back without missing a beat. I snorted into my drink, completely failing to keep a smile off my face. Mason cut his eyes to me, the edge in his own smile fading for the briefest of seconds, before he looked back at Damon and raised his glass in toast. "To new friends."

He and Damon didn't take their eyes off each other once as we all clinked glasses and cheersed. When Damon kept doing his stare-down and looked ready to keep it up for the duration of pie, I kicked him under the table as hard as I could. He turned to glare at me, but their stare down was broken, and with Jenna's increasingly tipsy help we managed to turn things back into a mostly-friendly barbecue.

As the night went on, I found myself getting a new best friend in Jenna, with each joke she made and wink she shot in my direction when I sat particularly close to Mason. We moved back into the living room, sprawling on the couches with another round of beers. Jenna was much, much tipsier than I was, but I was having enough fun that I decided to lean into it more than I actually felt it. We cackled together as she told high school stories about Mason, then cheered like maniacs together when she finally pulled out Guitar Hero, against the protests of Mason and Ric.

"Alright, I'm gonna need another drink if we're really doing that," Mason sighed, a smile on his face all the same. He stood and headed into the kitchen, where I knew Damon was. I wanted to ignore it and get my literal groove on with Jenna, but I couldn't. I stood with a sigh and moved to follow him.

"Go get him girl!" Jenna called after me with a little 'whoop'! I whipped around, face burning, but she just grinned at me and winked. I shook my head, but found myself grinning back as I turned and left the room.

By the time I got to the kitchen, I could already hear Damon and Mason talking. Rather than interrupting to immediately change the topic or insert myself into the conversation, however, I decided to listen in. That way I could gauge just how hostile Damon and Mason were being to each other, and react accordingly.

"Come on, man, you don't think I know what this barbecue is about?" came Mason's voice.

"How do you know about me?" Damon, demanding, any of the fake-friendliness gone. "Your brother was completely clueless."

"It doesn't matter. I'm not your enemy, Damon."

"You tried to kill my brother." I fought back a scoff. That was a stretch, and we both knew it.

"That was a mistake."

"Really?"

"There was confusion. I couldn't chain myself up in time." Their voices had started coming closer, but I stayed put. "I have no control once I shift."

"What, no obedience school?"

"I'm serious. Let's not spark some age-old feud that doesn't apply to us."

"You expect me to believe that you're in Mystic Falls planting peace trees?"

"I lost my brother. My nephew lost his father. I'm here for my family."

And with that, I'd heard all I needed to hear. Damon, my best friend, as usual, was the aggressor. Thankfully, this time, it sounded like Mason might've made an argument that convinced him. We had bigger problems than one generally chill werewolf, after all.

I left, returning to Jenna and Ric and Guitar Hero. She smiled at me, clearly thinking I'd had a conversation with Mason I hadn't really had, and I leaned into it as she passed me a plastic guitar. Mason returned to the room a few moments later, followed by Damon. I ignored them both as I pretended to shred, and to both their credit, they cheered me on.

The rest of the party was a blast, with Mason much more relaxed after his conversation with Damon and Damon finally dropping all the stupid wolf jokes. Jenna and I acted ridiculous and had the time of our lives doing it, and whenever I wasn't shredding the imaginary guitar, Mason and I leaned against each other, laughing and talking the night away.

Finally, once I'd sobered up more and the sun had long-since gone down, and Jenna and I had finished half the songs on Guitar Hero, we wound up the party and all headed home. Damon stayed a moment longer to talk with Ric, so after giving Jenna a goodbye hug, I headed for my car without him. To my delight, Mason came with me, walking me to my car.

"You know, you're a little too good at Guitar Hero, I think," he said, bumping his shoulder into mine as we walked. I chuckled.

"And you're a little too ridiculously set against that game," I teased back. "What's the matter, you don't like fun?"

"I don't like watching Jenna butchering Black Sabbath. Watching you was... a little more fun."

I paused as we reached my car, smiling up at Mason with a glowing feeling in my chest. He smiled back at me, leaning against the front panel of my car.

"It was great getting to know you better tonight," I said, smiling at him and stalling the moment I'd actually have to leave. He grinned at me.

"You too. And I'd love to keep getting to know you better. Maybe at Volunteer Day tomorrow?"

"I was already planning on going, but it'll be much more fun with you there."

"Great." He flashed me a heart-stopping smile. "It's a date."

I was practically floating as I drove away, replaying the end of the night with Mason in my mind over and over again. The last time I'd felt anything like what I was starting to feel now... well, it hadn't ended well. I'd gotten Damon as a best friend out of it, which was a net positive no matter how much he annoyed me sometimes, but everything else had been an absolute nightmare. For the first time in three years, I found myself wanting to risk the heartache and get close to somebody in a non-friendship way again.

I'd been staying with Stefan and Damon since I got to town, and I expected a long lecture about 'flirting with the enemy' from Damon when I got home. But, blissfully, the house was empty. I wandered upstairs and fell into bed, thoughts of seeing Mason tomorrow letting me drift off with a smile on my face.

I should've known nothing in this town, in this world of supernaturals, could ever go that smoothly.

****************

The next morning, I woke up bright and early, unusually excited about Volunteer Day. A certain werewolf definitely had something to do with that, but thankfully, neither of the Salvatores was around on my way out to grill me about the grin on my face.

I'd gotten Mason's number last night, so I quickly shot off a text saying I was making a pre-volunteering coffee run and asking if he wanted anything. I took my time heading to my favorite coffee place, and the line was long enough that I waited at least ten minutes, but I didn't hear anything back from Mason.

I tried not to let it get to me as I ordered my usual, then an iced latte for Mason. Hopefully he would like it, and if he didn't, then at least it wouldn't go to waste, since I was always down for an iced latte.

I ended up arriving a little late to the event, but I wasn't complaining too much, since it meant I missed Carol Lockwood's speech. I scanned the crowd for Mason, then smiled when I noticed him under a newly-built picnic awning. Instead of smiling back, he looked away like he'd barely noticed me, continuing his conversation with Sheriff Forbes. I frowned.

I caught up to him walking away from the picnic awning, not too far into the newer part of the park that we were supposed to be fixing up today before its official opening. He walked quickly, and was apparently pretending not to notice me.

"Hey. Hey, Mason!"

He stopped and turned around with a frustrated sigh, his hands on his hips. The coffees lowered in my hands a little, and part of me suddenly wanted to run back the way I'd come from.

"What do you want?" he asked, none of the warmth or flirtiness from yesterday in his voice.

"I... brought you a coffee..." I said, holding it out to him slowly. He just stared at it. "Is something wrong?"

He huffed a humorless laugh. "That has to be a joke, right?"

"No, actually, it's not," I said, my temper flaring. "You're acting like a dick and I have no idea why, so-"

"You have no idea why?" He looked at me like he absolutely didn't believe me, and I just stared right back as I shook my head. Slowly, the anger fell from his face, to a more cautious confusion. "You don't know where your best friend, who you live with, went last night? Or what he did?"

"Oh God," I shook my head and dropped Mason's gaze, muttering to the leaves more than to him. "I knew I should've been worried when he didn't come home last night. Why can't he ever be out late for normal reasons?"

I sighed, shaking myself out of my thoughts and steeling my resolve as I looked at Mason again. The anger, at least, had gone from his face.

"I have no idea where Damon went or what he did last night," I said. "But... I feel like I should start by offering an apology on his behalf anyway? Maybe in the form of this iced latte I brought?"

Mason huffed a laugh and looked into the tree line, but I caught a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. The relief washing through my body almost took me to my knees.

"Yeah, alright," he finally said, taking a few steps closer and taking the latte from me. He looked me up and down as he sipped it, holding my gaze for a few long moments afterwards. I didn't look away once. "Damon stabbed me with a silver knife last night."

My eyes went wide, and a second later, dropped to Mason's chest to scan for any lingering sign of injury. Thankfully, he seemed to be fine.

"I thought... I thought you guys made peace last night?" I finally asked, meeting Mason's eyes again once I was satisfied he was healthy.

"I thought so too. But apparently Damon doesn't want peace. Stefan started the morning out with a little extra threat today, too, to try to keep me from getting revenge."

I sighed heavily, closing my eyes and shaking my head. I could feel a headache coming on.

"I'm so sorry, Mason," I said. "Ugh, I wish you would've told me when it happened. Or that Damon would've mentioned his stupid little plan, or Ric-"

"Why? You think the Salvatores would listen to you telling them not to come after me? You think Damon would listen to that?"

"Damon is... well, he's a lot of things. But if I talk to him, he'll back off."

Mason raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I don't understand how you're friends with him. Except maybe a dangerous level of delusion. He doesn't care about anybody but his own agenda. I've barely known him a day and I can already see that."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, debating my options. I had some very good reasons for trusting Damon as much as I did, but I wasn't totally sure I wanted to get into them, especially not with someone I'd only recently met. But that someone was starting to become important to me. I sighed, then knocked back the rest of my iced coffee. Decision made.

"Alright, listen. I don't owe you an explanation or a justification of my relationship with Damon. But... I like you. A lot. So I want you to know, so you can maybe understand."

Mason nodded, his expression thankfully more curious and open than anything else. We moved a few more feet away from the rest of the volunteer activities happening behind us to sit on a bench together, and I tried not to let our proximity and touching knees distract me.

"Okay, so, in college... I dated this guy."

"Don't tell me it was Damon."

I made a face. "Uck! Never."

"Okay, good," Mason laughed. "Sorry, I promise that'll be my one and only interruption.

"Honestly, it's probably better that we got that cleared up right away. I love him very much, but I would absolutely never date him."

"Good."

Mason held my eyes for an extra second, a little bit of that flirty behavior returning, and I felt heat rising to my cheeks. I cleared my throat and tried to refocus.

"Anyway, I dated this guy for a while. He wasn't Damon, but he was a vampire. I'm a witch, as you know, and I was raised knowing about my powers and everything else, so I knew a good amount about the supernatural world. I actually had class with him—his name was Andy—my freshman year, and we sat next to each other. I clocked him as a vampire immediately, and I don't think he was used to that.

"I wasn't sure about him at first, what with the whole vampire thing, but... we saw each other a lot. Same classes, all that. He was always nice, and funny, and when he eventually asked me out, I said yes.

"I'll skip to the important part, but basically, we dated for three years. By the time we were graduating, I'd fallen head over heels in love. I knew what he was, I knew the thought of 'together forever' brought a lot of problems we'd have to work through, including whether I could stand to stop being a witch and whether I could live with the curse of immortality. But... I knew we'd figure it out, together. I was convinced he was the love of my life."

I took a deep, shaky breath, trying to brace myself for what came next. This was only the second or third time I'd gone through it in the few years since it'd happened. Mason, to his credit, stayed quiet, letting me take my time.

"Right around graduation, when we were supposed to be doing ridiculous Senior Week activities and getting rid of the last of our assignments, taking pictures and getting ready to walk... all the supernatural drama and danger you can imagine came crashing down on our heads. Brought to our doorstep by Andy."

I shook my head, angry at myself as much as at Andy as the memories replayed, as vivid as the day they'd happened.

"He'd gotten involved in some ridiculous scheme with some other vampires, trying to prove some lore was real or something, and they needed a powerful witch. Without asking, Andy had volunteered me. When I didn't want to help, he threatened me, and left me to the wolves—no pun intended, sorry—left me to the vampires when they tried to force me to help. Damon stepped in and stopped them.

"Don't get me wrong, I know it was a completely selfish move," I said, finally looking at Mason again. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he moved a little closer, stopping just short of putting us shoulder to shoulder. "He wanted to stop the plan and the ritual and the spell, it had nothing to do with helping me. But once Andy and everyone around us was dead... I just fell apart. Damon, for all he acts the bad guy, didn't ditch me. I've asked him a couple times and he always brushes it off like it was nothing, but... he saved me in more ways than one that night. Since then, we've had each others' backs. It's kind of a weird friendship, but he's put his own life on the line to protect me more than once since then. I've done the same. I trust him completely, for the things where it really counts."

Mason sighed through his nose, looking away from me finally to stare at the ground. I watched him, watched his eyes dart around as he thought, until he met my eyes again.

"I get it. The people that pick you up and carry you through stuff like that... it's a special kind of bond. If you have that with Damon... I get it." We held eye contact for a few more moments, a wordless heaviness passing between us, and then Mason grinned. "So, what you're saying is I count as the important stuff for you?"

I bit my lip and looked away, fighting a smile and quickly losing to it.

"I... yeah, I guess I am saying that."

Mason and I laughed and worked together for a while longer on our various cleanup duties, until he told me he needed to go do trash duty in the woods, since the Sheriff had asked him to. I gave him my empty latte cup as a start, watching him with a smile as he walked away.

I tried to busy myself with volunteer work, the thing I'd actually come here for today, to keep my mind from running wild about Mason. I only half-succeeded. I hadn't felt anything close to this for somebody since Andy, and it scared me and thrilled me at the same time. The needle pinged back and forth between the two, but when Mason came back out of the woods looking rumpled, guilty, and glancing over his shoulder, it jumped all the way to scared.

"Mason?" I called, hurrying over to him. He shook his head, trying to duck past me again, but when I put a hand on his arm he stopped. "What happened?"

"Y/N..."

"Mason, what happened?" I pulled my attention from him, quickly scanning the gathered volunteers and then doing it again. Damon and Stefan were nowhere to be found. "What happened?"

Mason met my eyes and hesitated. Then, finally, "They tried to kill me. In the woods. They surrounded me, and Damon told me he'd give me a running head start before they ripped my heart out of my chest."

Immediately, my eyes darted to the woods behind Mason, scanning for my best friend. Ready to stop him. Until Mason continued.

"They're not coming back."

My eyes snapped to his again. "Explain."

"I told the Sheriff what they were. She's taking care of it."

I sprang back from Mason like touching him had burned me. He winced, but didn't do anything else.

"Are you kidding me? After everything I told you, everything we talked about?"

"I didn't have a whole lot of choice, between them and death. Besides, I told the Sheriff before I talked to you."

"Mason, you should have told to me! I would've talked to them, I would've made sure they didn't go after you if I knew it was such a pressing thing! We could've figured out the issue with the Sheriff together! What were you thinking?"

"I'm sorry. But it was kill or be killed-"

"This! This is why I hate this supernatural shit!" My voice had risen to a yell, but I didn't care. We were far enough away from everyone that they probably still couldn't hear me. And what did it matter, anyway? The Council already knew. "This is why nobody ever finds any lasting peace or happiness in this stupid, ridiculous world. Everyone is so fixated on revenge and killing anyone they feel even remotely threatened by. If you'd come to me, I could've kept you safe. Instead, you might've just gotten my best friend killed."

My voice broke on the last word, and I pushed past Mason and started for the woods before he could catch me crying. Unfortunately, he caught my arm before I could get away and turned me to face him, immediately dropping his grip when I tried to pull away.

"I am sorry. I really am. But I didn't know they would follow me into the woods. And they were ready to kill me. When I saw the Sheriff's people over Stefan's shoulder, it seemed like my only way out. I'm sorry."

I took a deep breath, giving him a curt nod before turning again and taking off into the woods, hoping against hope I could get to Damon and Stefan before it was too late. Things had gotten so out of hand, so fast. All I could do was focus on putting out one fire at a time, and hope we all came out of this alive.

I started at the Lockwood cellar, but found it empty. The floor had fresh blood on it, though, and with a little magic I traced Damon and Stefan back to the Salvatore Boarding House. That felt like a good sign.

I pulled into the driveway and sprang out of my car, slamming the door to the house open. I could see Caroline passed out on the couch, which didn't entirely make me feel better as I sprinted up to Damon's room.

I slammed the door open without bothering to knock, only to come face to face with my best friend, unharmed, shirtless, and staring at me like I was insane.

"Don't you ever knock?" he demanded, sounding exasperated as he pulled his shirt over his head. A hysterical laugh bubbled out of me, and I rushed over to hug him.

"You're one to talk," I shot back, wrapping him tighter in my embrace as I did. After a second, his arms came around me too and squeezed back.

"What's wrong?" he asked. I shook my head.

"I thought... I thought you might be dead."

"Well, I'm not." Slowly, gently, he pulled away. He grabbed my arms, looking intently into my eyes for a few long moments. "I'm not. Alright?"

I nodded, the adrenaline fading and leaving exhaustion in its place. I plopped down on his bed as he moved to shut the door.

"Can't have you getting me all sappy in public and ruining my reputation," he explained. I huffed a laugh, but quickly sobered as he sat next to me. I watched him, neither of us speaking for a minute, until he raised an eyebrow. "So... was that it, or...?"

"You can't go after Mason anymore."

"What?" he cried, shooting up and glaring at me. "What the hell are you talking about? He tried to kill me today. The Sheriff is in our basement right now while we wait for the vervain to work through her system because he exposed us. That mutt is dead."

"No. Damon, no," I said, standing too as I spoke. A strange calm had washed over me, and I met Damon's wild eyes with it. "Not Mason."

"Oh, gross. Really? Him?" He raised his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes at me. "Besides being a werewolf, he's a surfer. Are you serious?"

"Damon, come on. Just let it go. Just this once, end the cycle of revenge. You stabbed him, Stefan threatened him, he exposed you to the Sheriff, you tried to kill him, he tried to kill you. You're even, sort of. Just let this one go."

"How about, instead... I kill him?" The inappropriate brightness in his tone usually just made me roll my eyes or sigh while still sort of endearing him to me, but not this time.

"No! Damon, I'm not joking! This isn't some stupid thing where you can just turn around and break promises and it's fine! I never draw a line in the sand, but I am this time! I haven't felt anything close to this, not once, since Andy. And I am not going through anything like that again! You were right the first time. I'm glad you killed Andy, you saved me doing it. But I don't ever want to live through that again. This time is different, he's different. And I know I haven't technically known him very long, but just... please. Not Mason."

Damon held my stare for a few long, long moments, assessing. I stared right back, leaving every single thing I felt clear as day on my face, an open book for him to read. Finally, he sighed and rolled his eyes, in that exaggerated way he did whenever he gave in.

"Fine. I promise I won't kill Mason."

"Or try to kill Mason?"

"Yes, alright? If you're that convinced he's different... then fine. This one's different."

I flung myself forward and wrapped my arms tight around his middle before he could stop me. He grunted and grumbled, but hugged me back after a second anyway.

"Thanks, Day."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just get out of here and get some sleep before someone catches me hugging you, alright?"

I pulled back with a grin. "Deal. Softie."

Damon narrowed his eyes at me, but I just cackled and bounced out of the room. It had been a long, stressful day, but things were looking up. Tomorrow, I'd talk to Mason. And this time would be different.

I passed out in bed as soon as my head hit the pillow. Today had been a long, emotional day, and I still had a few supernaturals to talk to tomorrow, since Stefan needed to be looped in too. I'd need all the rest I could get.

I got up the next morning a little later than I'd planned to, then dressed quickly to head over to the Lockwood's. I was helping set up for the upcoming masquerade ball, and I needed to talk to Mason. After getting coffee, of course.

As I headed down the stairs, I heard voices from the living room. I listened more closely as I approached, and I heard Damon say something like "this changes things" before they stopped at my arrival. I found Damon and Jeremy both looking at me like I'd interrupted something.

"Good morning..." I said, slowly reaching to retrieve my keys as I stared at them both suspiciously.

"Good morning," said Damon, flashing me a smile that didn't reach his eyes as Jeremy gave me a little nod.

"Everything okay in here...?"

"Completely."

I narrowed my eyes, glancing from Damon to Jeremy, then finally sighed.

"Alright, I have places to be and not enough willpower to involve myself in whatever this is. Just... don't do anything over the top stupid, alright?"

Both boys just gave little signs of acknowledgement as I slowly backed towards the door. I kept waiting for one of them to break, or for some obvious thing to jump out and catch my attention, but nothing came. I reached the door and finally turned my back on both of them, just hoping I wouldn't regret it.

I never got a moment of peace in Mystic Falls. Witch history and best friend or not, I might need to ditch this place sooner rather than later. Damon could come visit me somewhere with less supernatural drama.

This time, I only got one iced latte at the coffee shop before heading to the Lockwood's. As soon as I parked my car, I started scanning for Stefan, so I could talk to him and get him on the same page as Damon. The last thing I needed was the calmer Salvatore brother ruining the progress I'd made.

Thankfully, it didn't take me long to find him, or to convince him to leave Mason alone. He'd apparently only gotten on the same page as Damon about killing Mason after Mason had made a few threats of his own, and he said if I believed peace was still an option (especially one that I could sell Damon on), then he'd be happy to support me.

That left me with one last supernatural to work things out with. I had to do a few laps of the venue to find Mason, even though it was sort of his house. I finally managed to track him down outside, by a big pond a little distance away from the rest of everyone. He gave me a small smile when he saw me coming.

"What? No coffee for me today?"

"Coffee is only for people who haven't tried to kill my friends in the last twenty-four hours." The smile immediately dropped off Mason's face, his whole demeanor sobering.

"Look, Y/N-"

"Lucky for you, that timer expires tomorrow," I continued. "So... if we get roped into a third volunteer thing in three days, you can count on coffee for that."

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth again, this time a little more cautious.

"Does that mean we're okay?"

I took a deep breath, then nodded.

"As I'm sure you've noticed, Damon and Stefan are alive. I've talked to both of them. They both agreed to drop it. The three of you have done a bunch of mutual threatening and murder-attempting in the past forty-eight hours, and Damon understands that this is one of those important things he can't just brush off. They're willing to make peace, and actually mean it, from now on. For me. Can you do the same?"

Mason frowned and looked away, his eyes scanning the grass, pond, trees, and everything else while he thought. He shook his head, presumably to himself, then finally met my eyes again. He squared his shoulders, and through all of the emotions I'd experienced from him since I'd met him, he'd never been this serious.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do the same. I don't want to get killed by a vampire, or get mixed up in trying so hard to kill one, let alone two. If they back off, for real... I'm happy to do the same."

I smiled, not as bright and full of joy as the first few times Mason and I had spent time together, but just a little ray of hope shining through after the storm I'd just weathered.

"Thank you."

He nodded, then that easy smile that had gotten a special place in my heart so quickly returned.

"So... this masquerade stuff, there's a ton of people here to help with it. Do you want to go for a walk instead?"

"I'd love that."

We took our time doing a full lap around the pond at turtle-speed, laughing and talking the entire time. We eventually did rejoin the rest of the workforce, but I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would. We sorted masks and hung decorations together, which made it better. Mason even gave me a better introduction to his nephew, Tyler, who I'd only vaguely known before.

"Hey, pay attention," teased Mason, nudging me with his shoulder as we stood together, untangling a frankly ridiculous amount of lights with Tyler's help.

"I can't," I whined. "I'm falling asleep at the wheel. One coffee isn't even close to enough caffeine to wake me up."

"I could go on a coffee run," he suggested. I turned to him with wide eyes and an exaggerated gasp.

"You would be my hero forever."

He laughed. "Alright, alright, I'm on it. I'll take any excuse to get away from these lights. Ty, you want anything?"

"Sure. Black coffee."

"Alright. I'll be back in a few."

I smiled after him as he jogged up the lawn, only looking away when he finally disappeared from sight. As I turned back to the lights, I found Tyler staring at me with a raised eyebrow. I cleared my throat.

"You really like him, don't you?"

I sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, I really do."

Tyler nodded, first to me then to himself, as he returned to working on the lights. I watched him for a minute, then continued.

"I know we don't actually know each other that well, so this might be over the line, but... I can tell he really cares about you. He talks about you a lot. I think he'd walk through fire for you. And I think he'd want you to know that."

Tyler glanced up at me, jaw tight, but he nodded all the same. He muttered a "thanks", and then we went back to our work, mostly in silence except for long strings of expletives for this Gordian Knot of a light string.

The glowing happiness in my chest kept me going without the coffee for a while, until I started to notice just how long it had been since Mason left. Tyler had moved on due to frustration with the lights, and now stood across the lawn, but Mason was nowhere to be found. Even if the line had been out the door, he should've been back by now.

I scanned the crowd again, looking for a few specific people and only finding one of them. Stefan was still here, but Damon and Jeremy were conspicuously missing. I started walking to Stefan, picking up the pace when I noticed Bonnie missing too.

"Stefan," I said, my heartbeat pounding in my ears as I tried to keep my panic under control. "Where is Damon?"

"Listen, you have to stay calm, alright-?"

"No, not alright! Where is Damon? Or, actually, no. Where is Mason?"

"He's dating Katherine. Bonnie touched him, and she had a vision about him. He's got the moonstone, and he's with her. He's been lying to all of us. Things have changed since this morning."

"Things have- fuck. That's exactly what Damon was saying to Jeremy this morning," I shook my head, mentally kicking myself for not putting the pieces together faster. "Where are they, Stefan?"

"Did you not hear me? He's working with the enemy-"

"Stefan Salvatore. I will ask you one more time, and then it'll be my turn to cross some fucking lines. Where. Are. They."

Stefan watched me for a moment, considering. Then, finally, he said, "They're at the boarding house."

I barely waited for him to finish his answer before I took off running. My lungs burned as I raced through the people swarming around Lockwood Manor, towards where I'd left my car. Apparently, Damon had decided that Bonnie's vision of Mason and Katherine, whatever else it meant, gave him a pass to change the rules. To break the promise he made to me last night. Which meant, if I didn't move fast enough, I might never see Mason again.

I flung myself into the driver's seat of my car, then took off for the Salvatore Boarding House. I barely managed to stay on the right side of 'safe driver', and made it there in record time. I screeched to a stop in front of the house, and as soon as I stepped out of my car, I heard Mason scream from inside. My heart dropped to my feet as I raced forward, flung the door open, and rushed inside.

I could see Damon hovering over someone, presumably Mason, in a chair with it's back to me. Jeremy hovered off to the side, looking horrified but refusing to do something or leave. I shoved past Jeremy roughly, flinging out my arms and using a burst of magic to send Damon flying into the nearest wall and away from Mason.

"What is WRONG with you?" I cried, raging at Damon, feeling an anger like I'd never felt towards my best friend before. "Did everything we talked about mean nothing to you? I know you have some crazy need to do everything the violent way, and I've never let it get to me before, but you've also never backstabbed me before! How could you do this to me?"

"You don't understand-"

"I understand perfectly."

With one last shove of my magic at Damon, I whirled around to look at Mason. He was bound to a chair from the dining room, covered in his own blood, a hopeless, broken look in his eyes. I tried not to break with him as I dropped to my knees and started working to untie him.

"It's okay, it's okay," I said, talking to keep myself calm as much as to keep Mason calm. "Don't worry, I got you."

Mason didn't respond, and I spared a glance up at him to see him watching me, his face contorted in pain. I did my best to speed up, but it was harder to work the ropes and chains with how badly my hands were shaking.

"He's in love with Katherine," came Damon's voice from behind me. There was no fight or victory in his words, and I still trusted him enough to leave my back to him, even as I ignored him. "He told me himself before you came in. He doesn't love you, he loves her. Like every other poor sucker she's brainwashed and ditched over the years."

I huffed a breath through my nose as I finally managed to remove the last of Mason's restraints, then stood to face Damon. He was still a good distance away, not threatening, just watching. Posture relaxed, face pressed into a concerned frown. Jeremy stood over his shoulder, watching us like a tennis match.

"Is that supposed to make me willing to let you torture and kill him?"

Damon shrugged, an insufferable look that I knew very, very well crossing his face.

"This isn't a joke, Damon. Just because you get some new information doesn't mean everything we talked about last night ceases to be important. You should have talked to me. Like a rational person! Not done... this," my voice broke a little on the final word as I pictured Mason again, those empty eyes that had been so full of light and joy before. "Tell me something. If I hadn't shown up... were you going to kill him?"

Damon looked away, and I had my answer. I snorted, then turned to help Mason stand, slinging one of his arms over my shoulder. He was incredibly heavy, and he wasn't strong enough to be much help either, but I could manage.

"I would've been doing him a favor," Damon finally said, calling after me as I helped Mason limp towards the door. "I've been where he is. I know what it's like to be lost in Katherine land. There's no hope for him."

I just raised my middle finger back at him as we continued to the door. I didn't look back as the front door shut behind me and I loaded Mason into the passenger seat of my car, then climbed into the driver's seat. I started the engine, but just kept staring straight ahead, a thousand different thoughts and noises racing around in my mind all at once. I tried to focus on one, to process things slowly, but I couldn't. So, I forced all of it out, instead keeping my eyes locked on the road ahead and pretending nothing else existed. I could do that, just long enough to get out of here.

Mason didn't speak, move, or make a sound for the entire drive back to the Lockwood house. It wasn't the safest place for him, but I didn't know where else to take him. I stayed silent, too, focusing entirely on trying to fight the wave of everything threatening to crash over me in the middle of evening traffic.

Thankfully, when we got back to the Lockwood house, all the volunteers had gone. I helped Mason out of the car, then continued to be his crutch as we limped through the front door. He broke his silence long enough to point me towards his room, and I helped him up the stairs and through the door. As gently as possible, I helped him ease down on the bed. His super-healing would fix the physical injuries fairly quickly all things considered, but Damon had spent the afternoon torturing him. That wasn't as easy to get past.

"Are you okay?" I finally asked. I knew it was a stupid question, especially with everything else floating around in my head, but I needed to know what he'd say. To gauge how close he might be to okay.

Mason sighed and ran a hand through his hair, refusing to meet my eyes.

"I'm fine. Or at least... I guess I will be."

I nodded. "I'm glad." And I meant it.

Mason huffed another heavy, heavy sigh, then finally looked up at me.

"Thank you. For saving me."

"Yeah, of course. I... I'm sorry I was wrong. That Damon went right back to... that."

Mason waved me off, rubbing the back of his neck and staring holes in the carpet. The silence hung between us, and I took a shuffling step backwards before deciding I couldn't leave without a few answers, even if Mason clearly felt like shit.

"Is it true?" I asked, still hovering by the doorway. Mason flinched, and I knew he knew what I meant, but I continued anyway. "What Damon and Stefan said... are you with Katherine?"

Mason grimaced and ducked his head, not meeting my eyes. I took a few more steps across the room towards him.

"Mason. Please answer me."

He huffed a hollow laugh, then looked up at me, pain written all over his face.

"I'm sorry."

I shook my head. This time, it was my turn for the hollow laugh.

"I'm so, so sorry. I was trying to help her. I... I love her. Or at least, I did... I thought she loved me too..."

"Katherine doesn't love anybody," I spat, my voice full of venom. "I watched Damon wrestle with that realization for a few years. Did she ever tell you? She played him and Stefan against each other, dated and toyed with them both in 1864. Escaped from being trapped with twenty-six other vampires and never looked back, all while she let Damon chase after her, knowing full well he was trying to find a way to save her from a trap she wasn't in. For almost a hundred and fifty years. She's ditched and killed and betrayed everyone she's ever been with, Mason. Think about that long and hard before you really decide to stick with her."

With that, I turned on my heel, the first tears starting to fall as I wrenched the door open. It slammed closed again before I could get through it, and I turned to find Mason standing before me, one arm extended to keep the door shut. He looked torn and pained, even more so when he noticed the tears I failed to hold back.

"I need you to know... it was real. I wasn't... faking it, or whatever, all those times we hung out. I... really do like you." I scoffed, but he continued before I could tell him off. "It's just... Kath was there for me after I triggered my curse. My friend kept coming at me, trying to beat me up because he thought I was sleeping with his girlfriend, which I wasn't. I pushed him too hard, and he fell, and... and he died. I killed him. That same night was the first night I transformed. Kath was there for me then, and for every minute after. She's... my Damon."

"Ha!" I shouted, shoving Mason's chest and pushing him back with all the force I could muster. He stumbled back more than a few steps, apparently still weak from whatever Damon had done. "Don't you ever, ever compare them. Damon sucks, and does bad things that hurt the people he cares about. Don't think I don't know that. But the difference is, he actually has people he cares about.

"And before you go running back to Katherine, after I saved your life, you should really think Mason: Katherine wants the moonstone. You got her the moonstone. If she knew you could get it for her, then what might she have done to make you want to get it for her?"

Mason shook his head, slowly at first and then faster and faster.

"No. No, she can't compel me. I know she can't."

"Sure. But I bet she could compel your friend. I mean, did you ever figure out why he thought you'd gone after his girlfriend? Or why he wouldn't listen to you or to reason, just came at you until you were forced to defend yourself? The best way to make you do her dirty work for her was to give you a vested interest in getting the moonstone. What better way than a ray of hope to try to break your new curse?"

Mason sat down hard on his bed, head in his hands and shaking. I opened the door again, never taking my eyes off of Mason, my heart shattering in my chest.

"Think long and hard about the truth and who you can actually trust, Mason. Following Katherine will only lead you down a road of pain and death."

With that, I turned on my heel and walked out of the room. This time, nobody stopped me. And I didn't look back.

I got in my car and drove, no destination in mind, trying to process. I'd been falling for Mason, hard, and he'd betrayed me. Damon, who I'd always been able to count on, had done the same. Everything had come crumbling down in less than an hour.

I didn't go back home, to the Salvatore house, until sunrise the next morning. I'd stayed out all night, wandering aimlessly with my car, driving around and slowly working through everything. And when I walked through the doors of the boarding house again, I'd found a new clarity.

"Hey." Damon stood in the hallway, arms crossed and looking concerned. I gave him a weak smile.

"Hey."

"...Everything okay?"

"No. No it's not. You crossed a line, Damon, and even if you never crossed it again... the supernatural drama just doesn't stop. So I'm done with it."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm leaving. I'm leaving Mystic Falls, and everything that comes with vampires and werewolves and even witches, before it destroys me. It's not worth it. I booked a flight to San Diego on my phone a few hours ago."

Damon tried to convince me to stay, but I wasn't hearing it. I'd made up my mind, and now, I wasn't changing it. He hovered as I packed my bags, my anger still simmering but fading now that I'd spent time processing. By a little after noon, I was ready to go.

"Are you sure I can't convince you to stay?" Damon finally asked as I stood on the threshold of the house, my bags already loaded into the car.

"I'm sure. I meant what I said, Day, I'm done with this stuff. But I'll make you a deal."

"...And what kind of deal would that be?"

"Don't kill Mason, and you're welcome to visit me any time."

Damon scowled. "All that, and you're still protecting him?"

I shrugged. "I'm over it, all the death. And I think Mason might be having a wakeup call of his own now. Just... please, Damon. Consider this a second chance. Don't kill Mason. Or torture him, or hurt him. No matter what you learn, or how the circumstances change. He's off limits."

Damon just looked at me for a long, long moment before finally nodding, slowly.

"Fine. And if he asks where you went?"

"You can tell him. I don't think he's gonna chase me all the way to San Diego, especially not if he's still hung up on Katherine like you said he is. And like I said... feel free to come visit. Or call whenever."

Damon nodded once, lips pursed in a tight line. I gave him a smile and a little salute before turning and climbing into my car. I took one last breath to steel myself, then turned the key and left Mystic Falls in the dust behind me.

****************

Two and a Half Months Later

I smiled from the porch of my new house (really closer to a shack) on the beach as I sipped my morning coffee. Watching the waves crash over the shore in the early morning light had become my routine, and I swear my blood pressure had dropped beyond belief as a result.

I hadn't had any supernatural visitors yet, but I knew it'd only be a matter of time. Despite everything, I hoped it would be Damon. There were a lot of things I didn't miss about living in the same sphere as him every day, but it had been nice to be so close to my best friend, even if he was a jackass a lot of the time.

Once the sun was a little higher in the sky and my mug was empty, I went back into the kitchen. The house had a thousand projects, and I'd only just started on the first one or two. I'd been doing those mostly by myself too, with little magical help, and it was nice. I could feel a little bit more of myself in this place with every change I made.

I set my mug in the sink and started to grab eggs out of the fridge when I heard a knock on the door. I wandered over to open it, then stopped dead when I saw who was on the other side.

Mason Lockwood. Iced latte in hand and a sheepish grin on his face.

"Hey," he said, holding out the coffee as a sort of offering. "I, uh... I hope it's okay that I'm here. Damon told me where you'd moved to, and I figured he'd never tell me if it wasn't alright with you. Even then. Honestly, I half expected to open this door and find an axe murderer or a random old man."

Despite myself, I snorted a laugh, and a small smile tugged its way onto my face. I reached out and took the coffee.

"It's good to see you," I said, and meant it. "I'm glad you're okay. Honestly, I think Damon probably sent you here as proof that he didn't kill you. I told him that was a condition of him being invited into my house."

This time, a small smile made its way onto Mason's face. We just looked at each other for a few minutes, hopeful smiles and an electric energy snaking between us, until I finally cleared my throat and took a half-step to the side.

"Do you... want to come in?"

Mason smiled, somehow still looking slightly pained.

"I... can't." I raised an eyebrow, and he rushed to continue. "I'd love to, for the record. It's just... I might've dragged Tyler out of Mystic Falls with me. And he might be waiting in the car."

For the first time, I glanced over Mason's shoulder to see Tyler sitting in the front seat of Mason's Bronco, arms crossed as he pointedly didn't look at us. I laughed.

"That's why it took me so long to get here," Mason continued. "You were right about Katherine. About everything, really. When I ditched her... she compelled a friend of Tyler's to get him to trigger the curse. Like she did to me."

My eyes widened in horror, and I took a step forward to rest my hand on Mason's arm before glancing over his shoulder again.

"Oh my God. Is he okay?"

Mason shrugged. "As okay as he can be. We're figuring it out. But I needed to stay to make sure he was okay, and that Katherine and the other supernaturals didn't get him killed. A lot went down after you left, but... we made it. So did Damon and Stefan. But we needed to get out, so I convinced Carol to let me take Ty for a little while."

I nodded. "I'm glad you did. Do you guys have a place to stay?"

"Yeah. I actually got a place down the beach from here," he said, blushing a little as he glanced away and rubbed at the back of his neck. "We just got into town, and I might've dragged Tyler here first without warning."

I laughed, then stepped fully out of my house, shutting the door behind me. Mason smiled, and my heart raced at our newfound proximity. I decided to let that impulse win and leaned up to give him a soft kiss on the cheek.

Mason looked shocked as I pulled away, then grinned a wolfish grin (pun intended) as he swept me into his arms and kissed me, for real. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back, hard, completely indulging for a few long seconds before pulling back.

"Tyler's in the car," I said. I was a little breathless and smiling like an idiot, an expression Mason shared.

"He's fine, I left the window cracked."

My laugh was muffled as Mason leaned in and kissed me again, but this time I pulled away fairly quickly.

"I love that you're making vague dog jokes now, but I really don't want him to have to just sit there while we make out on my porch. Let me help you guys get settled in your new place, and then maybe we can go on a real date tonight?"

Mason beamed at me, pulling me close to his side and resting his forehead against mine.

"Sounds like a plan."

He gave me one last peck on the lips, then took my hand and tugged me down the stairs after him. I laughed, feeling freer and lighter than I had in a long time, as I opened the back door of his car and Mason hopped back in the driver's seat.

"Hey Tyler," I chirped. "It's nice to see you again."

"Yeah. Hi."

I caught Mason's eye in the rear view mirror, fighting and almost failing to hold back a laugh. His blue eyes sparkled like the ocean on a beautiful, clear day, and somehow I just knew we were at the start of something special and wonderful. Call it a witch's intuition, but I felt good about what the future held for me and Mason in San Diego.

****************

TVD Taglist: @elenavampire21

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bp-zb1fics · 1 year

Note

hi! it’s me the anon who requested best sellers such as “shy shy shy” and “the perils of dating you” (im gonna just call myself anon 🐰 since i’m in here all the time😭) but i’m back with another req!!

this time it’ll be

-gunwook x male reader

-gunwook having a crush (confession included) on reader

-fluff/humor

-same year/university au!

it’s readers birthday and gunwook has always had a crush on reader. they share a lot of the same classes and same friend group but he never had the chance to talk (or confess) to reader so this year he decides to leave presents on readers desks for his birthday leading up to his big confession!

maybe throw in some challenges for gunwook (like maybe an older brother sung hanbin oop🤭) but you can go about this however you want you always do a great job in your writing!

-🐰

The perils of confessing to you~

pairing: park gunwook x male reader

genre: university au on some crack (same verse as perils of asking and sunbaenim), fluff, humour

tw/tags: planning confession, pining, gunwook’s hyung and gyuvin ftw, pda, flirting, yes gunwook’s hyung is the scarier park brother, hanbin being equally scary, it’s giving overprotective but unhinged, cheesy messages (I also cringe), lots of banter, we’ll never know what the final gift was

wc: 1928

Summary: gunwook plans to confess to you on your birthday. The plan doesn’t exactly go as planned.

a/n hi 🐰anon! Tysm for sending such fun reqs, I really never thought I could write this much comedy bc I’m really not a funny person. This fic took a diff direction from what I had in mind but I hope you like it! And since it’s the same au, gunwook’s hyung and Gyuvin are dating, it is canon~

check my pinned for more fics!

It wasn’t that Gunwook was used to winning.

Sure, he had an impressive track record. Medals from debate competitions and football matches, consistent class president or vice president certificates for every year that he was in school. Sure he was successful. But that wasn’t because he won at everything he did, 100% success rate without trying.

No, it wasn’t that Gunwook was used to winning, it’s that he knew how to win. His strategy was foolproof, carefully tweaked and reworked to fit the goal he was trying to achieve.

And now? The goal was different.

It was, arguably, the most important of Gunwook’s life and he wanted to win desperately.

The goal? Confess to you with a 99.99% success rate of you saying yes.

And like any other goal that he’s had, Gunwook had to make a plan. A winning strategy. And no, it wouldn’t be long or complicated or fussy. Gunwook liked his plans to be as simple as possible. Simple is best, he’d like to think.

So yes, Gunwook’s plan to confess to you consisted of 4 simple steps. Sounds pretty easy, yeah? Well unfortunately, life is not that simple as Gunwook would soon find out. And confessing to you? Well it might get a little more complicated than he thinks.

1.Start Early

This step was fairly easy. He’s got about a month till your birthday. More time would be ideal but it was still a good number of days. He needed to collect intel, your class schedule for one, he did share a few classes with you. Your likes and dislikes, another important list he needed to make, nothing would throw a wrench in his plans like accidentally doing something that would make you angry or annoyed or upset. Huh, maybe he could-

“Gunwook?”

His laptop slams shut. Gunwook sends out a prayer to the universe that he looks normal and not at all scheming about how to confess to you as he lifts his head to meet your curious stare. You fidget a little, nibbling slightly at your bottom lip.

Cute, he thinks. No Gunwook, now is not the time.

“Sorry, is it not a good time?” You hesitate and he’s scrambling to reassure you. In his head, of course. No scrambling will be witnessed by you.

“No, no, it’s all good. I wasn’t working on anything important.” Spectacular acting, great job.

“Oh! Okay, uh well your hyung was looking for you and um, I think he said you weren’t answering your phone? Something about dinner, I think. And yeah, just happened to see you there.” You laugh a little as Gunwook’s unbothered expression took a shade similar to panic.

“Oh! Oh shit- uh, I mean, I’m sorry.” Cool, Gunwook, be cool. Come on.

“It’s really no problem.” You assure him and wow, your smile is really nice. He wants to stand there in appreciate it for a moment but-

“Um, so would you need to go?” Ah shit.

“Right! Right!” You watch as he hurriedly packs his things, stuffing them into his bag and making to leave. Then, he pauses and turns back to you.

“I’ll see you around?”

You’re not quite sure why it’s phrased like a question but-

“Yeah, see you when I see you.”

Gunwook doesn’t see the way you watch his retreating back, wishing that maybe you could’ve-

2. Form a Reliable Team

“So let me get this straight. You want me to help you confess to Sung junior?”

“...yes hyung.”

“And you want to do it for his birthday?”

“Well, I was thinking maybe it starts a little earlier than his birthday, one gift every day leading up to it for a week?”

“Mhmm and where will you get the money to buy all these gifts?

“...maybe 3 days before?”

“Okay, sounds reasonable.”

“Soo, can you help with this?”

“Wookie.” Gunwook looks at his hyung whose expression seems to waver between encouragement and exasperation.

“You know I love you and I will always support you especially when your feelings are so sincere. And Hanbin-hyung is one of the nicest people I know. Seriously, he is. But you do know that he gets a little crazy when it comes to his younger brother?”

“More like insane.” Gyuvin chimes in and Gunwook just remembers that his hyung’s boyfriend is there too. “Seriously I’m glad that I ended up-”

“You’re glad you ended up what, huh?” Gunwook and Gyuvin collectively flinch, all too familiar with that tone.

“Nothing aein~”

“Mhmm that’s what I thought.”

“Saranghae~” Ugh, right in front of Gunwook’s dinner? Really?

“I love you more Gyuvinie~” God, Gyuvin’s got heart eyes and he’s leaning and nope-

“Gross, hyung. We’re in public.”

His hyung raised an eyebrow, looking at the empty restaurant they were in, save for another couple tucked in the back corner doing exactly what his hyung and Gyuvin would be if he wasn’t sitting with them.

“Mhmm, public, you say. Wookie, you’re a smart boy, tell me, who’s paying for your dinner?”

“...you hyung.”

“And why are we eating here?”

“Because I like the food here.”

“And why should we let hyung do what he wants?”

“Because hyung loves me very much and he’s allowed to love his boyfriend as much as he wants too.” Gunwook recites dutifully.

“Very nice, Wookie, you’re so smart, that’s exactly what I thought.”

Gunwook shoves more food into his mouth, pointedly avoiding eye contact with either of them. Gyuvin’s eyes have gotten so wide that they look like they’re about to pop out of his head. He also looks either like he’s absolutely terrified or completely in love. Maybe a bit of both.

‘Gyuvinie~”

“...Yes aein?”

“Tell me, who’s the scarier Park here?”

“...You are, aein.”

“That’s what I thought.

Maybe Gunwook should rethink the whole confessing thing. If this was what a relationship looked like, he wasn’t sure if he wanted that. You do, a traitorous voice in the back of his head whispers.

…Yes he does.

2. Form a Reliable Team

Have semi-supportive hyungs that make you feel single and motivate you to confess even more

3. Make Thoughtful slogans and posters Gifts

They’ve got one class where the professor likes them seated alphabetically, mostly so she can call on someone and also look them right in the eye while she does. Gunwook hates it. He didn’t come to college to feel like he was in highschool again. The only good thing about it was he knew exactly where you sat and no one would be taking your seat by mistake.

His first gift is your favourite snack. He’s seen you eating enough times to deduce that. But also, you told him one day when he asked about it. Because past him knew that future him was going to need it, definitely so.

Your face immediately lights up when you see it. Gunwook fist pumps under his desk. He watches inconspicuously as you carefully tuck the snack into your bag and take the note he left with it (type-written because he’s not sure if you’ll recognise his handwriting but also he’s lent you notes before so he doesn’t want to take any chances).

I noticed this was your favorite~ did you know you’re my favourite too? Enjoy! Sincerely, your secret admirer

Your cheeks flush a little and Gunwook resists the very real urge to jump up from his desk and do a little happy dance. Luckily the professor comes in and stops him from doing so.

The next day, he gives you a teddy bear.

Well, more like Ricky does. After much convincing, his hyung had gotten one of his friends from the foreign student society to hand it to you. Gunwook had to make sure it was someone neither of you knew well, you know, to keep it lowkey.

Here’s something to cuddle, hope I get to cuddle with you too~

His hyung outright snorted when he read the note.

“God Wookie, Gyuvinie says cheesy things like that all the time but this really makes me want to-”

He stops himself.

“Well at least I know you really like him.”

“...Did you think I didn’t?”

“Ah no, not really, you always get this really stupid look when he’s around.”

That’s rich coming from someone whose boyfriend looks equally stupid when they’re around. Not that Gunwook would say that out loud. He values his life, thank you very much.

“Also you try to act cool, it’s funny. Ah, ah, don’t look at me like that, I’m your hyung, you can’t fool me Wookie.”

Yeah he really can’t.

The day before your birthday, Gunwook prepared your birth flower for you.

He’s still thinking of a way to pass it to you without giving himself away when Sung Hanbin corners him, a manic look in his eyes.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Ahh shit.

“It is.” Because honesty is the best policy. The older boy seemed to be taken aback. What? Did he expect Gunwook to deny it?

“You want to date my little brother?”

“Yes, hyung.”

“You think you deserve to date him?”

“I think I deserve a chance to tell him how I feel and whether he accepts my feelings is entirely up to him.”

“...your hyung wasn’t lying when he said you were smart.”

Now they’re just staring at each other. Hanbin looks a little less crazy so Gunwook takes a deep breath and says.

“I just really, really like him, hyung.

Hanbin’s silent for a moment. Then, he smiles. It’s absolutely terrifying.

“Fuck it up once and I’ll make sure they never find you.”

“Yes hyungnim.”

“Right. Good. Now where’s his gift for today? I’ll make sure he gets it.”

4. Prepare a Winning speech Confession

Somehow Gunwook manages to make it out of there alive, all limbs intact. It’s a miracle. But there’s no time to waste.

It’s today.

He’s got it all planned. A note’s been delivered to you saying that your last gift is waiting for you at the famous brick wall building on campus. He’s dressed a little nicer than usual. Your gift is tucked safely in his back pocket.

Everything will go smoothly. You’ll come over. He’ll confess to you. And hopefully, Gunwook really hopes you say yes.

He’s a little nervous. What if you don’t show up? What if he messes up his confession? (Yes, he spent days putting one together, it’s harder than doing a campaign speech, the struggle is real). What if you say n-

“Are you my gift?”

Gunwook looks up. You’re smiling at him, holding onto the note he sent. This is it. This is the moment he’s been preparing for.

“Please don’t feel pressured but I just wanted you to know that I really like you and if you accept my feelings-”

“I like you too.”

Wait what?

Well, there goes his speech. He stares at you, wide-eyed, mouth slightly open.

“I thought you were really cute the day our hyungs introduced us.” You tell him, a little flustered but pleasantly flushed. “And I wanted to get close to you but I’m not really good at that and it really took me a long time to convince Hanbin-hyung to stop hovering and I was really scared that he had scared you off the other day but he didn’t and you asked me to come here and I-”

You take a deep breath and Gunwook’s never been happier than when you say-

“I just really like you, Gunwook-ah.”

In a second, he’s closing the gap between you two, hesitating slightly before taking your hands in his, holding them gently.

“Happy Birthday~”

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yourkimjaejin · 6 months

Text

My Favorite Juno Moments of 2022

from r/hotsauceinmybag posted Jan 10, 2023

Hi Liberties. Today, as the year comes to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on the top five moments from my AG bias Juno (at this point she's my ult but I'm still in denial sue me) this year. I made this post cause i think Juno had some cute moment with her members this but I didn't see anyone talking about them so I fixed it! Enjoy!!

Number 5 - Juno and Haruto

This was random and just like Juno to confirm this in the most unofficial way possible

At MAMA day 1, fans in attendance caught Juno and Haurto hugging during Treasure’s Rap line performance of VolKNo. Teumae and Czennie alike were puzzled about the odd pair(more so than the talkative pairing of YG!Doyoung and Aurora).

According to one of my Teumae friends, Haruto barely leaves the dorm without Jeongwoo, Jaehyuk and Asahi. When could he have even met Juno?

Juno has like fifteen bodyguards no including her members

Everyone’s questions were answered when Juno hopped on bubble a couple days after the show and posted a picture of herself, her brother(with his face covered) and Haruto posed together with the response

My brother and I finally saw our cousin after a long time. He’s grown so much! I’m proud of him!! Hwaiting Treasure!!

Any dating rumors were debunked as quickly as they came up. Days after, SM and YG both gave official statements for anyone who didn’t believe Juno’s word.

Number 4 - Juno claiming Taeyong’s closest for herself

Juno loves to frequent vlive, or now insta live, when she's bored. The lives usually amount to Juno doing something stupid in order to make the fans happy. That's actually how her mukbang streams start. A fan suggested ordering her favorite foods and recording it. Juno’s always down to do silly challenges for fans because quote a bitch ain’t never scared unquote.

In April, Juno did a vlive asking fans for suggestions on something she could do tomorrow on her day off. Juno even made her manager hold her to the promise.

“Raid Taeyong’s closet, OOOO!!! This is the one!”

Weeks later a video was uploaded to AG's channel where Juno walked into the 127 dorms and waltzed into Taeyong's room, opening his closet only to start throwing things around. In the background you can see Taeyong begin to question Juno’s actions but let it go (Even Taeyong know its better to not question any of Juno's actions). Juno paired a simple outfit together but she may have cheated a bit by using her own top but it was a look. Everyone agrees.

Number 3 - Junwoo matching outfits

The friendship between Jungwoo and Juno is TOP TIER! They are the best friends that you question if they’re together or not. They flirt with each other soo much, it’s laughable how there's been no announcement of their relationship becoming official. Alas, JunWoo stans only have so many moments to live off of and when one happens it sends them. Like this one.

At the SMTown concert in Suwon, Jungwoo and Juno arrived at separate times. Immediately fans noticed that the two were matching, wearing black jeans, gray hoodies, black beanies and white converses. Edited pictures of the two together cropped up everywhere online.

Later that night Juno updated her bubble with a selfie of the two in their matching outfits in one of the NCT green rooms

Me and Jungwoo planned this awhile ago

We wanted to arrive at the same time but AG had a earlier rehearsal time than 127

We’ll make plans to do this again. Don’t worry!

I really hope they follow through with a sequel cause they are so cute together I can't

Number 2 - Juno reacting to an old ice skating performance

For anyone who doesn’t know, Juno used to be a professional figure skater. She’s actually won four medals (three silver and one gold).

This year was the seventh anniversary since she won her gold medal and to celebrate, Juno filmed a video of her and the AG members reacting to her gold winning performance.

They could show the recording but the music couldn’t be used so the girls watched it without sound. Though, the nice AG editors used NCT music in the background.

Before they hit play, Juno told us the song she chose was No One by Aly & AJ. Which lead to a bunch of nctiy edits with the original song

During the video, Juno provided commentary on how she was feeling throughout the whole performance, why she chose certain moves and how she styled her own costume.

Her performance was inspired by the movie Ice Princess. This movie, according to Juno’s mom, was the reason she wanted to become a figure skater in the first place. She even included a practical version of final move as the finish to her performance

In the video, Juno kind of trails off as tears form in her eyes. She just begins to watch her younger self. None of the girls notice until Moxy reaches over to just grips her hand. The two share a look, smile then Juno tucks herself into Moxy’s side

Like I'm so soft for Mono's relationship like they are each other ride-or-die.

Number 1 - Juno’s 2000’s Music Party

Juno did more vlive’s this year than any other (it's as if Juno needs her own NCT unit to be apart of huh SM??)

Out of all the live’s she did, this one has to be the best one.

Juno decided to present all their millennial fans with a nostalgia trip of the highest regard. She sang every disney channel song she could find on youtube and spotify. Juno started with Hannah Montana and followed the rabbit hole further and further. That alone was everything the fans could ask for. What happened next was even better.

Slowly her other members stopped by promising to only stay a minute but the pull of nostalgia is too strong.

Hannah was first. She was dropping food off for Juno but when the Lilo and Stitch theme song came on, she pulled up a chair to belt ALL THE LYRICS.

Aurora came next only because she was in the building and heard Hannah and Juno losing their minds. Aurora sat in the back but when La La Land by Demi Lovato popped up, her eyes lit up. Hannah just handed over her karaoke mic and let Aurora sing with her whole chest.

I mean I knew Aurora could sing but she SLAYYYED Demi's high note like it was nothing. I need SM to give her and Yuta a Rock duo concept

Lastly, Moxy actually popped into the chat to compliment her members. When asked where she was, Moxy sent “I’m with 127 practicing.” She promised to stop by after practice.

Finally when she arrived, the other members just pushed a mic into her hand and proceeded to play EVERY SINGLE Cheetah Girls song. The live went an hour longer than it was supposed to. The girls kept begging to sing one more song before their manager could cut the live.

AG decided to end the live by singing We’re All In This Together but This wouldn’t be AG if they just sang it. No, they took the camera and set it up in a nearby dance studio to do the full dance as well. Their manager made them finish up after the song was over.

It was AG funnest live EVER. this live actually led to AGzen’s tweeting at Disney to get the girls on the channel in some capacity.

Some highlights include: AG making Nothing’s Wrong With Me from Pixel Perfect their song, Hannah slipping Boyfriend from BTR into the playlist, Moxy sing That’s So Raven and the girls playing air instruments (a la Breakthrough promotions) while singing Breakthrough from Lemonade Mouth

Let me know some your favorite moments of Juno this year down below!!

______________________________________

u/BasicallyinLove - I don't blame Taeyong for letting Juno do what she wants. If it was me, I'd let her have my whole closet

u/It’sAllAboutFamily - I was there for the WHOLE millennial Disney live. Even past what op already said, my favorite moment has to be during a break the girls were taking during a slower song. Suddenly, Rotten To The Core from Descendants comes on and they all freak out which turns into them doing the choreo for the dance break. It was glorious

u/GottaCatchEmAll - I'm a Teumae and I stayed up for the mama performance. I had to wipe my eyes when HarNo hugged. I thought it was the sleep getting to me. But now we have another pair of famous siblings

u/LikeAPhantom - Why would you remind my of the ice skating performance video. I was sobbing for DAYSS!! You can tell Juno misses the ice. I hope one day she'll get back out there. Maybe for content

u/SpiritUnleashed - It's my own personal headcanon that Juno and Jungwoo ran the rookies after the og SM rookies debuted. Those mathcing outfits fed me for days.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Another Reddit post but this ones been in my drafts for awhile. Like since last year awhile. Hope you all enjoy. Have a great day!! ~ Author Izzy

Taglist: @alixnsuperstxr / @1-800-call-ria / @sophrodite / @sunflower-0180

#NCT AG #NCT AG.Juno #NCT AG.Social #nct female addition #nct female member #kpop addition #kpop!au #kpop!oc #kpop!addition #nct female oc #kpop female member

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speedystarshine · 2 years

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hi hi! I read ur escape the night fanfic about lele and Matt and it was SO GOOD!!!/gen

If you can, can you do Yandere Manny and Yandere Matpat hcs? Separate hcs if that’s alright with you. Preferably with a male reader but g/n is fine!!

take your time with the request, if you don’t want to do it it’s fine! :)

Of course, anon! I'm glad you enjoyed the last one! Bro I swear everybody in escape the night is so gender/pos- Manny might be a little ooc, sorry! I did him first since I was a bit worried about that :)

Yandere Manny Mua and Yandere Matpat x M!Reader (Separate) Headcanons!

Yandere Manny Mua (The Record Producer)

*inhales*

Right, I feel like Manny would have a better grip hiding his feelings for you.

The most you'd notice is how he stares at you when you think he's not looking, or a slight blush here and there, but definitely better than Mat.

He gives you that kind of.. polite parent kind of smile a lot? Outwardly looks like he has everything in check while inwardly being like "jsjsinsjajanajhelookdatmeholySHITNSKWJNDNMA"

He's actually quite tame for a yandere!

But don't let that fool you, any yandere can become dangerous when pushed enough.

I feel like he'd be more manipulative, giving things a slight push into where they need to be rather than going in physically.

Constantly babies you, I'm sorry I don't make the rules.

He believes that you're someone who needs to be protected, and that he's the only one who can protect you!

After all, you are trapped in time in a spooky mansion with nasty little secrets around each corner, you need to have someone watching your back!

Conversations with him are nice, he acts like how he normally would, apart from the slight difference of badmouthing someone a whole lot more.

He has this kind of persuasive way of talking, to the point of where even if you were best friends with said person you'd either be slightly suspicious or wary of them.

He would definitely be a self aware yandere, but instead of freaking out or feeling bad he's calm and goes "okay, what next?"

This may seem like a good way of thinking, and it is!

But...everyone has their breaking point.

If he was on a challenge with someone else, calm facade is immediately gone and man is ready to play dirty.

After all, haven't you technically won if the other is dead?

No, but don't tell him that.

He's super supportive of you, no matter what it is!

If it was a personal thing? He's behind you 100%!

It is was a challenge? Very worried for your life, but still behind you 100%!

Ajajjdns this is a kinda domestic hc that cant exist because of setting but ima plop it in here anyways, you two do each others makeup sometimes. Thats it that's the heacano-

Would just kinda.... Stop working if you were to die. You're the main reason his brain is going at like 68fps everyday so if you were suddenly to just? Die? It would break him.

Tries to move on, but hates it. He's just kinda numb now. :(

If you were to be brought back, he would be ECSTATIC. Actually has to do a double take and starts crying on the spot-

He would do a silly little hand wave dance before giving you all the hugs and kisses ever, whether or not you two are together.

Now when y'all are hanging out he's slightly more quiet when you two are together, your death made him realize it's the small things that count so sometimes he just wants to hold you :)

5/10, (danger levels) only really cares more about your safety then taking care of others.

Yandere Matpat (The Detective)

Mat our beloved

I'm gonna be honest, it's not hard to get him to fall for you. It's actually kinda sad-

Just, basic human decency. Or give him a complement or something, dig your own grave ig 🙄.

Instantly has him going awooga

Mans is a total simp he just sees you and mentally goes "😳 P-Pretty........boy.....😵🥰"

Enough of that tho

When he's not being a total mess, he'll help you quite a lot with puzzles and more often then not will trust you with information he wouldn't tell anyone else.

He doesn't want to risk making either you or him seeming suspicious too much, so the most he'll go for when he sees something he doesn't like is a light glare or a little 'talk' :)

Poor guy guilt trips you without even realising sometimes. I mean, just look at those puppy eyes, how could you say no?

It's not all just lovey-dovey and sunshine though, however much he'll try to make it seem that way. He is still a yandere, after all.

He has trouble getting a handle on his emotions, so he can be a teensy bit unpredictable.

One second he'll be pulling you away from the group so you can look for clues with you alone, being super clingy and smily and shit

Then the next he'll be giving someone the death glare of the century because they made a joking little comment about you two.

Just, eerily silent with a crazy look in his eye. Yikes.

You know he would rig the votes for sure.

People don't even notice, either! It only starts to get suspicious after the second time someone who no one wished ill will against got voted in...

Speaking of rigging, you know he'd do it for you too. Simp.

Like, if you somehow do get voted into a challenge, he'd make it hell on earth for the other contestant.

Sneaking off to try and trip them up, giving them helpful little 'tips' that end up screwing them over...

It's all for you, of course! <3

Little mini hc, he snap pictures of you sometimes. I-It's for evidence checks, he swears!

Bitch pulls them out randomly and fucking swoons and sighs while tracing your face-

He's like an awkward teenager smh. I think it would probably be obvious to literally EVERYBODY EVEN THE FUCKING CLOWNS- somehow apart from you- that he loves you.

Just picturing a sweaty and blushing Mat holding your hand while you just go "eh, he's probably just cold-" like for fucks sake reader/j-

Has a odd fascination with the 'creepier' aspects of the mansion.

Probably planning who to off next 🙄

And he would! Matt and Lele wouldn't , much since their actually levelheaded enough to reason against that, but mans in unstable. Actually believes he can play it off as some spooky thing from the mansion swooping down to kill them.

*person is lying dead on the ground with their head missing and body mutilated beyond comprehension*

Mat, covered in blood: it was probably just a bug <3

The sad thing is (or good, if you enjoy having a yandere on your tail) is that he has an advantage here.

He is the detective, after all, and the person who would find it easiest to screw up all evidence is the one who would have it figured out in the first place.

If you were to die, Mat would be in HEAVY denial. Constantly looking for someway to bring you back, something to tell him that your still there.

It gets to the point where he refuses to leave, even if it's just before sunlight or he can. Why would he leave without you?

If you got brought back, he would be sobbing EVERYWHERE.

You best bet you're never getting a second of privacy ever again. Crazy levels have now upped 100%, won't let anyone else come near you in fear that they'll take you away.

Sometimes you kinda just need to hug him and convince him that you're actually still here :(((

He'll get over it eventually, but it's always there just in the back of his mind.

I'd say 7/10. Giant simp most of the time, but he can be VERY dangerous when provoked.

Djiahwhsb. Hope you liked them anon! It's like 1 in the morning so brain juices are flowing FAST rn-

I wasn't 100% sure if these were in character since I only recently finished season 4, hope you like them anyways!! <3

Also I'm not too sure how to add a readmore on mobile so sorry to those that had to scroll past this post-

Edit: added read more!

#anon asks #escape the night #escape the night x reader #xgnreader #xreader #yandere escape the night x reader #matpat x reader #manny mua x reader #yandere matpat x reader #yandere manny mua x reader #i loved writing this ajwjndjwj-#xmalereader #the detective x reader #yandere detective x reader

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nerdychick13 · 10 months

Text

Hello lovelies. It’s Finesse with another report from the Love Island villa. I have seen so much in this villa, but today was one for the record books. So Amelia keeps wanting to talk to me. Every time I turn around she needs to say something. Why can’t she talk to Jamal? Or Grace? She really needs more friends.

I quire liked the Doghouse challenge. It wasn’t hard to just follow the instructions. I saw some islanders doing their own thing and (unless you’re a master carpenter) you can’t expect to have any success building without a plan. Thankfully, Elliot is of the same mind and that is what won us the challenge! Amelia kept coming over to talk. How dare she? But I stayed focused on my little dog house. I don’t have to resort to cheating to win.

Roberto tried to make a grand gesture and dance for me. Oh I could have melted into the ground out of embarrassment! He needs more help with his rhythm I’m afraid. Too bad it won’t be me to get him straight. Then Elliot took me to the roof terrace for a sweet chat. I appreciate he knows he and I aren’t in the “grand gesture” phase of our relationship. It was even too soon for Roberto but that didn’t stop him from being extra. It was nice getting away from everything, wrapped in a blanket with Elliot. We even had a very passionate snog up there. But before all of that, Ozzy and Grace have finally hit the rocks! She is a nice girl but so naive. She kept denying Ozzy’s eggs were in my basket and I was completely forthcoming with her. However she acts like I stabbed her in the back? That’s gratitude for you. But Ozzy took me to the swing seat and laid all his cards on the table. We promised to couple up at our first opportunity and shared a perfect kiss to seal it. I’m quite taken by him honestly. Of course Grace was furious when Ozzy told her about our secret romance. Oh well.

Elliot and I had to vote for the least compatible couple. I chose Amelia and Jamal. They do get on well, but I need space from my twin. Elliot felt that Chloe and Roberto were least compatible but they have so much potential. Imagine my surprise when the first safe couple is Amelia and Jamal! Chloe and Roberto were also safe so Bella and Lewie left. I was absolutely gutted because two nicer people have never entered the villa. I hope they find love because their friendship is 100% goals. Then we got a shocking text about another girl leaving. Once again I prayed for Amelia to leave. Little did I know I hit pretty close to home. I got dumped from the villa. Maybe I did too much hoing and not enough grafting on one partner. Anyway, I get to go to Casa Amor with four gorgeous lads!! Lucky me, right? I still plan to play the field. After all, I have to secure my spot back in the villa. Now which sucker is gonna help me? I’m guessing he will have dark eyes, long hair, and a quiet confidence that speaks to his maturity. At any rate, I’ll have fun looking. See you in Casa Amor lovelies!!

Xoxo,

Finesse

#litg #litg grace #litg mc #litg ozzy #litg spoilers #litg2 #love island the game #litg headcanons #litg s6 #casa amor #litg jamal #litg roberto

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thisiskatsblog · 2 years

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Kaitlyn Tiffany’s book is coming out tomorrow. A good while ago she emailed TakeMeHomeFromNarnia to ask for an interview for that book with one of the organizers of Rainbow Direction. I was skeptical. Ed felt that we should do it - “if she’s going to write about us anyway, better to tell the story in our own words. she might twist them, but it’ll still be our words and our story, better than someone else’s version”. Given Tiffany’s history of pathologizing female fans, I had and have thorough misgivings. But having come to know the value of the advice of an “old shark” that’s survived his fair share of mindgames and political backstabbing, I followed it. I did the interview. In writing. So that I could share my version of the story ahead of publication, and have the proof to back it up.

So here we go. The full interview. KT (Kaitlyn Tiffany) in bold. KL (Kat Lewis, ie me) in regular

From KT email listing questions Oct 27 2020 and KL reply Oct 29th

How did the idea for Rainbow Direction come about ?

n April 2013, I had started the Takemehomefromnarnia platform, with the goal to create a safe and enjoyable space for the LGBTQ+fans. This quickly brought together a diverse group of fans, and together we did petitions, educational actions, and we tried to increase the visibility of LGBTQ+ people in the fandom, and make our voices heard. A little community of LGBTQ activism grew and two people who joined during that era, Edwin and Ellis, are still with the platform. In November 2013 I think it was, Ellis contacted me and said “You know what would really help LGBTQ+ people in this fandom, Kat? Visible support!” She suggested we’d ask people to record a supportive message to LGBTQ+ fans, we’d string all those messages together into a video on the music of Angel Haze and we’d try to make that video go viral. “We need visibility.” I wasn’t sure how we’d get more than 5 people to record and send in messages, but I really liked the idea and that sentence stuck with me. Also, it reminded me of an idea that my friend Li, whom I was planning to go to the Duesseldorf show with in 2014, had suggested a month earlier after they’d had a run-in with homophobia and came to TMHFN: what if we did a poster in rainbow colours for the show? And then we’d ask everyone to bring the same poster? Again, I hadn’t been sure how we’d get more than 10 people to do that, people can be quite particular about the posters they bring, but I did see that if we could somehow engage people in showing visible LGBTQ support at every show, that would mean so much to the LGBTQ+ fans who’d see it. After Ellis’ plea for visibility, that rainbow poster idea took on a different meaning and I felt we could do something with it. I thought if we asked people to do it in a way that was most engaging for them, and we’d ask them to send us pictures and reports , then we could string all those pictures and videos and stories together into a video like Ellis suggested. I invited Li and Ellis to a brainstorming in early 2014, suggesting to combine these ideas and to post a challenge on the Takemehomefromnarnia platform for fans across the globe: could we bring rainbows to every single show on the Where We Are Tour? They were in. During that brainstorming in February 2014, we went wild with ideas, and in one night, the Rainbow Direction campaign was born. We figured we’d get most people involved in the campaign if we’d make the options to join in as diverse as possible: if you wanted to knit a rainbow hat you’d do that, if you wanted to draw a poster you’d do that, craft wristbands or dye your hair or do rainbow makeup… The only criterion was: it needs to be rainbow, and it needs to be about supporting LGBTQ+ fans. We also did a poster design contest – several artists submitted their designs, then we submitted those designs to a popular vote. Red’s poster with “you make me strong” on the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag won the contest, and that design then went on the t shirts we sold for charity the first year. But we made all the posters available so everyone could choose what they preferred. Or do something of their own. And it worked! People got crafty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bwtOdNcDoQ and brought tons of rainbow flags, and after the tour, Ellis put together her video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm6YoSvTaww

How do you feel about how successful it was during the One Direction years?

Grateful is the word I think. And proud.

Proud because the success was indeed enormous, the first year after the WWA tour we still made a video, but during the OTRA tour it exploded so completely that putting it all together in a video afterward became such a daunting task that we gave up on it. We had more than a thousand official, and many more unofficial participants and you’d spot rainbows at every One Direction show. That was amazing.

Grateful because I think we all realized it was far from self evident that this would become such a success, and we could never have done it without the commitment and dedication of the many people who participated in the campaign and made it the success that it is: from the very first person who signed up (a Swedish girl if I remember correctly), to the first person (Danny from Bogota) who brought a rainbow sign to a show, to all the artists who contributed their designs, to every single person who got out there, dressed up in rainbows and put themselves in the spotlight. That took courage, and people did it, and it made LGBTQ+ people in the fandom feel valued. And I am so grateful they all did that. It changed lives. We made eachother strong.

What do you think is the legacy is, etc. ?

That’s a bit hard to say about yourself isn’t it? But I think it’s not too preposterous to say we're an example of how activism within fandoms can have real impact. Gaystarnews featured us as a Global Digital Activist for Digital Pride in 2018. Pitchfork gave us a big compliment, naming us “a great example of how tumblr queered popular culture” And earlier the New Statesman had already run an article on how fans of colour used the Rainbow Direction model to their success. So a positive legacy, I hope.*

What are you working on now ?

During COVID-19 we have paused all activities. But before that happened, we were gearing up for a year full of rainbows on tours: Louis, Liam, Harry and Niall all had tours planned in 2020 (we are missing out on so much!!!). Since Harry started picking up our participant’s flags and waving them around, his tours don’t need anyRainbow Direction support, the rainbows produce themselves, but we were campaigning hard for the other three, Louis’ to begin with as his tour started first, and had gathered together a team of “rainbow hunters” to collect the pictures and stories to weave them into another video. We got as far as promo tour and two shows, everything else was canceled. It’s so incredibly sad. But we are ready to get moving if/when things get back to (more) normal.

What’s really nice is that the first year after the hiatus, when things were quiet and people didn't know what to plan for, various former participants gathered their friends which they met through rainbow direction meetups to march together in their local prides as Rainbow Direction. In 2016 we attended vigils for the Orlando Pulse victims, and were represented at London, Brighton, Paris, Stuttgart, Berlin, Stockholm and Helsinki pride.

How have things changed?

Four different tours to keep track of is a lot more work than one! On the other hand, because the initiative became so well known, it’s much less hard to recruit people. Like I said, the rainbows (re)produce themselves. Within the coordinating group, people’s lives have continued, and we’ve had different things to deal with that took focus away from Rainbow Direction, a lot of people have moved on, we do much less, choose our battles, and that’s okay, that’s life. For us it will always be this amazing thing we were/are part of.

How did Rainbow Direction interact with or was separate from Larry shippers and Larry truthers?

Every boyband has its gay rumours, and One Direction has “Larry” (and Ziam, and… ). Takemehomefromnarnia, and hence Rainbow Direction, would maybe not have existed if the debates about those rumours had not gotten as heated as they did at some point. For me, my curiosity as to whether there was any truth to those rumours was quickly overtaken by a concern for what it did to LGBTQ+ fans, to see a few other fans, some media, and some celebrities react to those rumours with comments that hurt them. These reactions were not meant for LGBTQ+ fans, but they witnessed them, and were hurt by it.This motivation has often been misunderstood, so I want to explain what I mean by “the reactions to those rumours were hurting LGBTQ+ fans” and I do apologize if I am going in too much detail.

Fans: Some fans believed the rumours, and others didn’t. There were LGBTQ+ fans and straight fans on both sides of that divide, and several of both in the middle who just didn’t care. Most of the fans who did not believe the rumours probably also shrugged their shoulders and did not do the LGBTQ+ community any harm. There was, however, a small subsection who were adamant that they needed, in their own words, to “defend the boys against these accusations”. Some called the rumours “vicious” Those words, that attitude of gay rumours being seen as possibly the worst thing that could happen to someone, did have a very negative impact on the LGBTQ+ people in the fandom, who – whatever they believed - really felt hurt by such words. Being gay is not a crime, and gay rumours are not comparable to accusations of crimes. They don’t need “defending” against. Relationship rumours happen to famous straight and famous gay people alike. Gay rumours happen to a lot of people in entertainment. In what was probably an honest attempt to do what they thought was best for the One Direction boys, these fans expressed some (potentially unconsciously held) view on being LGBTQ+, as being something negative, or scary, something to be avoided. And yes that’s subtle, but clear enough that it hurt LGBTQ+ fans, that made them feel unaccepted and unwanted – even if that was not directly the intention. And then of course there the inevitable few whose reactions were outright negative and homophobic. Usually those groups are small enough to ignore, casual homophobia is much more difficult to avoid, and so can hurt more than you’d think. Especially coming from your peers

Press: Some media outlets responded to those rumours in sensationalist ways, with headlines that triggered what I’d call “outing anxiety” amongst young LGBTQ+ fans. Many of them were closeted, and when you are in the closet yourself, the mere suggestion that someone else may be in that same situation, and then having to read a sensationalist take on that – “what scandal if these two were in a secret gay relationship” really induced anxiety for them. They “identified” – and whether rightly or wrongly so – their empathy ran to the core of who they were and the sensationalism hurt immensely.

Celebrities: Parker from competing boyband the Wanted at some point alluded to the “Larry” rumours by tweeting Louis with “I’ll enjoy the press even more when you come clean”, tagging his tweet #narnia, a closet reference, and #itgetsbetter. (see the full story here) Whatever the truth was about Louis, didn’t even matter at this point. A celebrity used a hashtag meant to support LGBTQ+ young people (#itgetsbetter) including young people who felt suicidal, to taunt another celebrity with gay rumours. I, an adult women who had known I was bi for years, was okay with myself and out to a few close friends, felt really hurt by that, and I could feel the anger and anxiety creep up on me as I was watching that conversation unfold. If I felt that way from watching someone act homophobically, how was this for the younger LGBTQ+ fans? My blood pressure only went down again when Wheatus stood up against that saying “homophobia is the ugliest kind of jealousy. #evil” several hours later.

So that was my motivation to start Takemehomefromnarnia. To do the same and call out the sometimes intentional and evil homophobia, but oftentimes unintentional casually homophobic remarks we encountered in the fandom.

In conclusions you could say without “Larry”, Takemehomefromnarnia, or Rainbow Direction, wouldn’t exist, but I don’t think that’s true either. Casual homophobia is endemic, you’d probably encounter it in any fandom. It’s just in this fandom someone decided they were going to speak up about it.

That’s a long introduction to come to the answer to your question. For the thing I wanted to do with Takemehomefromnarnia, and that we later wanted to do with Rainbow Direction, whether someone shipped Larry or something else, or nothing at all, did not matter, whether someone believed Louis and Harry were in a relationship or not, did not matter. I really wanted to take this away from the hot debates about shipping and focus on, and undo some of the collateral damage of those debates, and the homophobic elements to it. For all of us who were involved in running it, Rainbow Direction was not about favourite couples, or about truth and lies. It was about acceptance, equality, inclusion.

So we always welcomed everyone, whatever they shipped or believed, on one condition, you leave your ships and beliefs at the door, while you are doing this. This policy of being inclusive, really required that we asked people for neutrality while “on the job” doing our activism. That was not always easy to enforce, and was often misunderstood. In principle the instruction was simple: wanna be part of this? Keep your ships and your rainbows separate! Ie talk about whatever you want on your personal blog but if you’re going to write on the campaign blog, be neutral, when you participate at a concert, and you bring rainbows, don’t put your ships on your t shirt or poster. Of course people would wear what they wanted, some did not stick to that rule and we’d get criticized for that. We controlled the only thing we could control and rejected any submissions that did not focus on celebration of one’s own identity and sexuality, or supporting LGBTQ+ fans, but instead mentioned a ‘ship’.

So answer your precise question: we interacted with all shippers, but Rainbow Direction has attempted insofar possible to guard the separation between LGBTQ+ activism and shipping.

From KT email with followup questions on Oct 30th and KL reply Nov 18th (featuring the very predictable and seemingly inevitable Larry questions)

I forgot to ask initially, but would you mind sharing your age, pronouns, and general location? (can be nearest major city, or state if you prefer)

I ‘m currently 42, I go by she/her, and I'm actually not in the States at all, but mainland Europe

I know you mentioned BLM adopting some of your tactics for Harry shows, but have you noticed other fandoms adopting Rainbow Direction tactics?

I don't really like the word tactics (makes me think of warfare) so I think I mentioned « the Rainbow Direction model ". By that, I meant using visibility to claims one's space in a fandom, mutually support and empower eachother as LGBTQ fans, or in their case fans of colour.

Important to note is that there’s also a difference with our project. From The New Statesman’s article I understand the fans interviewed used our model of visibility, but also explicitly called for acknowledgement from Harry. Recognition was not a goal of ours when we started Rainbow Direction in 2014. We wanted to claim our space, support each other as fans, and change our side of the equation (more about that later), but had no expectations from the band. The BLM action came several years later in a different context. Quite unexpectedly, in 2015, LGBTQ fans got acknowledged when Harry first picked up and waved around one of our participants’ flags. As he did that again and again, we became really privileged, never having asked for recognition he gave it to us all the time. As I understand it, the fans who started bringing BLM flags in 2017-2018 felt ignored in comparison. That different context, of recognition for LGBTQ fans being “the norm”, is probably why they asked for explicit recognition.

To answer your question: has this model been used for other fandoms? Well, I know both the BTS fandom and the Little Mix fandom have done rainbow lights actions that were very successful in terms of visibility. There is a lot of crossover between those fandoms and the 1D fandom so it’s possible they were inspired by our actions – but we’re not in touch with the organisers so I can't say for sure whether they were inspired by Rainbow Direction.

Why do you think visibility is important at the shows themselves / in physical space?

Physical shows are at the core of what it means to be a band, and of what it means to be a fan of music. This is where you experience your fandom to the fullest, this is where fandom is celebrated. So that’s where you want to fully be yourself and feel fully accepted. If you’re going to go rainbow and celebrate yourself, physical concerts are the place

In terms of visibility: these physical spaces at shows are where the fandom literally comes together. In that physical space, but online, too: all fan eyes are on the tour – this is the time when everyone’s constantly following what’s happening. Fans who follow the stream of pictures and videos that come out of a show online feel just as engaged with what happens at that show. So if you want visibility, the continuous stream of pictures videos and stories that comes out while a band is on tour – that’s where you’ll get that visibility and have the most impact on the fandom as a whole.

Is there something about boyband fandom in particular that makes it inhospitable toward LGBTQ fans? (asking because some other pop fandoms seem more explicitly queer, Carly Rae Jepsen, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, etc.)

As for Gaga: she describes herself as bisexual and wrote an LGBTQ+ anthem with Born this way so it seems obvious that LGBTQ+ people would feel very welcome. The other two artists and fandoms I personally don’t know.

As to boyband fandom: it’s not the fans - female teens who make up the majority of boyband fandom are quite open minded. But popular music is big business, and that means marketing. Boybands are marketed differently from punk bands are marketed differently from female singer songwriters. I think the difference is there.

A friend of mine who’s an AC/DC fan recently complained to me “you know the majority of their fans are older American working class men – I mean, I love the music but I hate the merchandise, I hate the way they are trying to market this new record to me, and when I tell someone I love their music I hate that they’ll make the wrong assumptions about me.”

And that’s very much the experience of LGBTQ+ fans of boybands. Boybands are marketed with a majority teenage female public in mind. And the assumption the music busines mogol marketeers make, is that these female teens are all heterosexual and therefore the band should be sold to them as “romantic interests”. If the marketing is making the assumption “the majority here is heterosexual”, that assumption is expressed in a lot of the communication surrounding the band, and it can make LGBTQ+ fans feel like they are not seen, like they don’t matter, or – worst case scenario – make them feel unwelcome. It can make other fans and the press forget they are there, and that also finds its way into the language surrounding the band. So that’s not a fandom being homophobic. It’s the marketing making it … a less hospitable environment, let’s say. That’s why putting out rainbow coloured merch during pride month was of enormous significance to LGBTQ+ fans.

I want to make an additional point about the marketing and how it can hurt fans and explicitly recognize it’s not just the LGBTQ fans that can feel hurt by it. Teenage girls in fandoms are often criticized and ridiculed by the media for doing exactly what the marketing encourages them to do, namely develop a romantic interest in the band and passionately follow everything they do. And that’s so damaging. Societies’ ageist, misogynist and heteronormative prejudice all come together here. Teenage girls just can’t win.

So I think journalists have a responsibility here, of empathy, kindness, and of recognizing that prejudice, and recognizing the hand of marketing instead of blaming teenage girls for… being teenage girls. One of the things I am proudest of in terms of the legacy of Rainbow Direction is that academics recognized it as playing a role in changing that narrative around teenage girls, and that it inspired a female theatre maker to flip the coin on that narrative. So I hope it’s had good repercussions beyond the LGBTQ community.

Just to unpack the Larry stuff a bit more—how did you feel personally about the way that feud between Larries and antis affected Rainbow Direction's efforts?

I have often felt frustrated about our efforts being misunderstood as being part of shipping, and them being swept under the rug because of it. We’ve always deliberately taken a neutral stance on any fandom feuds, calling for respectful dialogue from both sides.

Let me be clear: there’s absolutely nothing wrong with shipping anything in my view, but it’s just not what Rainbow Direction is about. Rainbow Direction is by and for LGBTQ+ fans – it doesn’t prefer any ship and it doesn’t reject any ship, to us the ships are not what matters, everyone’s welcome, we only ask people to leave their ships at the door when representing rainbow direction. Any shipping wars were only ever relevant to it insofar they elicited comments that hurt LGBTQ+ fans (as I explained in detail in my previous set of answers).

And I know this is sort of an awkward question, but just to be clear: did you have any ships in particular? And did you consider them fictional ships or real?

I suspect you’re calling it awkward because you know I will not answer it :-) - as I’m doing this in my capacity related to Rainbow Direction, I leave my personal “ships”, if any, at the door.

But I will say this: the reason I started TMHFN and later Rainbow Direction is that I am much more passionate about the importance of fandoms being welcoming and safe for LGBTQ fans, than I am about any one ship, let alone the truth or fictionality of a ship.

The reason is that, in any big fandom, be it the Glee fandom, the Star Wars fandom, or the One Direction fandom, you know you are going to be marketed to, and you know the stories that will be communicated to you will be crafted, a little or a lot, to sell the product, in this case the music to you. You know the narrative will be constructed and that this narrative, in the best case scenario, will be a favourable selection of true stories and, absolute worst case scenario, a set of complete lies. I think there’s nothing wrong with accepting the story, it’s the whole point of good marketing, to give you a narrative that speaks to you and rings true. Just as I think there’s nothing wrong with questioning parts of the story you are told, critical consumers have a right to do so.

Again, I believe the media have a responsibility towards teenage girls not to fall into the pit of pathologizing them. To be respectful and have empathy for both those who accept without question and those who are critical. They are both valid positions. It’s not insane to take things at face value, and it’s not insane to suggest some boyband members may be closeted, it’s been known to happen, and it's not crazy to want to see yourself represented.

So whatever parts of the 1D marketing story I myself found attractive or questionable, I feel a responsibility to be respectful to all opinions. None of it is worth war, because as a fan you also know that you have a partial viewpoint and cannot expect to be able to know everything. What matters is not that you get the complete true story, but that the narrative stays close enough and feels emotionally honest.

What matters a lot more than how much of the “official story” is true, is whether the surrounding narrative (marketeers, fandom, media, journalists) is inclusive, or whether it implicitly gives the message to certain people that they are not welcome. So that is what I focused my fandom activities on, because it became an issue in 2013 (see my previous answers)

And I have to say I have seen the narrative surrounding 1D change towards LGBTQ+ people. The story for the solo acts is much more inclusive, with rainbow art appearing in the marketing around several albums, and one team even putting out rainbow merch for pride month. The press’ narrative around One Direction and the solo acts, has also changed and become much more inclusive of LGBTQ+ people and of diversity over the years. Rainbow Direction caused a small ripple. It is no longer assumed that all of us in the fandom are heterosexual teen girls, we earned our place in this fandom. To me, that is the truth that matters.

How important was it to have Rainbow Direction's efforts explicitly recognized by the boys? Were you ever disappointed in them?

I am not sure if I’m understanding your question correctly but I’ll try.

Rainbow Direction was never explicitly mentioned by anyone in the band, but the rainbow flags and LGBTQ fans and issues were. By design, our project never asked for explicit recognition, it was by and for fans, but it nevertheless meant a lot to LGBTQ fans when they did feel recognized by the boys’ various actions (tweets, flags picked up, rainbow art in the promo, etc). Rather than disappointed this left us positively surprised.

As mentioned, we deliberately never asked for it because when doing activism, one model is to call on someone else to change something. It’s not a very reliable model, as it makes you dependent on the actions of others which you cannot control, and that can be very frustrating

I truly believe the more effective way of achieving change is investigating how your own behaviour may impact the situation. TMHFN and Rainbow Direction were deliberately constructed as fan focused initiatives. There was already so much frustration in the fandom. We felt that only if we could channel that into something we as fans had under our control, we could turn it into something positive. So we focused on what fans could do and never asked for participation or recognition from the band – one of the specific reasons for that being: you cannot be disappointed if you don’t ask for anything. So rather than asking for the band to say “I see you”, we made ourselves seen, and told each other “I see you”.

That aside, though, we are incredibly thankful for the recognition we did receive. To LGBTQ+ fans, for these guys to give their thumbs up to a flag, or to pick up a flag, or to say something supportive in an interview or to tweet on LGBTQ+ marriage laws: those things make a lot of difference. It changes the attitudes of other fans. All of the guys have made one or the other inclusive gesture at some point and by doing so have made this fandom much more hospitable to LGBTQ+ fans, you cannot be grateful enough for that.

I recently heard from a former Rainbow Direction organizer that there was some conflict, resulting in a falling out in which some of the early participants ended up leaving the group (they said this happened late 2015). Could you explain what that was ?

Sad but true. You can find our official communication here. To summarize in my own words: Someone we recruited as volunteer in December 2014, between our first (WWA) and second (OTRA) tour, and whom we (too) quickly asked to join the core managing group, started, in summer 2015, telling some of the other volunteers that they were working for One Direction. To some, they also claimed they were friends with Harry. In some stories they said they worked for an affiliate of the record company, in others they said they travelled with the band and that they had a hand in dressing and photographing the rainbow bears that were associated with the band. Clearly, this person would test the waters and see how much they could make you believe. After a few months of half of the volunteers being fed these stories, it became clear to the core managing group how stark the differences in perception of certain issues had become. We compared notes and they didn’t match up. The person had used their made up connection with the band to create division, put their veto to certain people joining, deliberately influenced opinions by telling people “what Harry wanted” and swore them all to silence. A cunning catfish.

Who had forgotten that when recruited in late 2014, they had shared their full name, true occupation, and location/timezone with us. With that, we managed to collect conclusive evidence that it was all lies. They had no connection to a record company, they did not work for the band and were certainly not travelling with them or dressing bears. We could not make the evidence public as it contained personal information but we used it to confront the person. They admitted that the stories were untrue to myself and a witness I had asked to attend. We offered them the opportunity to come clean to the people they had lied to, but instead, they lied about the content of their conversation with us, to those volunteers. We had no choice but to ask the person to leave, and sadly, several others left with them.

I regret not recording that conversation, but in my heart I know we made the right decision. I much regret the serious consequences, particularly the departure of two people who had been crucial to Rainbow Direction during its “second” (ie the OTRA) tour and to whom I’ll always be grateful. But none of us still here regret that we asked the person to leave.

All of that is not to say that I/we never made any mistakes. As acknowledged in the official post, there were – as there are in any diverse group of people trying to work towards a common goal - other differences of opinion that had nothing to do with this person. Sadly we will never know if those issues could have been resolved had this person not poured oil on the fire and manipulated people with lies. We opened a line for complaints, which were reviewed after things had calmed down and which we learned a lot from. We left the door open for everyone, except the person who was excluded, to return, on the condition it was acknowledged this person was lying and the exclusion was necessary.

All of the original core group of Rainbow Direction (the organizers of the 2014 WWA tour) were in agreement and stayed on after the conflict, and most are still involved now, some actively, some sideways. As mentioned before, our lives have moved on a bit.

After this we had a bit more back and forth about the “former Rainbow Direction organizer” who turned out to have been a very temporary volunteer - not one of the main organizers.

Finally from the factcheck KT email of 31 may and my reply 2 June 2021- from all the richness of the conversation, you’ll see there is suddenly a lot of focus on things that were not even discussed in the previous emails.

-- you were 42 when we spoke -- I think it probably makes sense to say you're in your 40s, to simplify and account for 2022 publish date?

It’s indeed long ago - but yes that’s accurate and ok - important though: I was “in my thirties” when I started this

-- when Louis feuded with Tom Parker and they exchanged homophobic barbs, you felt hurt by it

As far as I can remember Louis didn’t say anything homophobic in that particular exchange - Tom Parker did and indeed I felt hurt by it - I explained in detail in my previous email why

-- at the time, you said you were "okay" with your identity as bisexual and out to a few close friends

Correct

-- this incident motivated you to set up Take Me Home From Narnia on Tumblr, with the goal of creating a safe and enjoyable space and to increase visibility of LGBTQ people in the fandom

Correct

-- you started talking to Ellis and Li about what could be done offline -- coming up with Rainbow Direction

Correct

-- Rainbow Direction launched in 2014 with the goal of bringing rainbows to every stop on the Where We Are tour

Correct

-- the first person to sign up was in Sweden

correct

-- the first person to bring a sign was in Colombia

correct

-- RD hosted meetups where people decorated banners, signs, and t-shirts, passed out rainbow flags, and worked on other crafts to distribute at shows

More or less correct. Not all meet-ups involved crafting - for many it was just meeting up and having a drink together before or after the show.

-- shows were important because physical presence at them is core to what it means to be a fan of music. you felt that this is where fandom is celebrated and this is where people should feel fully themselves and accepted

Absolutely 100% correct - god I miss shows...

-- RD was reported on in Teen Vogue, the Advocate, and other outlets

Attitude as well, and important music outlets like mtv and pitchfork - full list on our website

www.rainbowdirection.com

-- RD was (for the most part) warmly received by the band members themselves (I later note Liam's odd interview with Attitude)

They didn’t explicitly acknowledge us (the name was never mentioned) but we got thumbs up and/or rainbow references from all of them I think, yes

-- RD appointed team captains at shows who were responsible for assigning colors to each section—to light up phones during "Little Things" and create a rainbow

Incorrect on some points

I don’t think we appointed team captains at shows - we just divided the colours over the stadium maps. There have been a few shows where local organisers out of their own accord organised and worked with team captains to get coloured pieces of paper distributed in all sections.

Important correction: RD did not promote for the action to be done during Little Things. Likely this will have been a fan action in one of the venues promoting rainbows during little things that wasn’t initiated by us but one of our followers.

-- you feel that RD was successful in reminding the fandom and the broader public that queer fans are as much a part of 1D fandom as anyone else

There’s quite a lot of evidence of that yes

-- RD had planned actions for the four solo tours that were set for 2020, but canceled because of the pandemic

Yep

-- since Harry started picking up Pride flags at shows, his shows required less organization/ work, but RD was intent on working hard at the other three

Indeed since Harry has been picking up flags - his fans have been bringing them in greater numbers

Important clarification: we intended to work hard at encouraging fans to bring rainbows - not at encouraging the other boys to pick up our flags.

-- RD was frequently accused of being wrapped up in Larry Stylinson

Depends on what you mean by frequently. Frequently enough for us to be annoyed by having to explain ourselves again and again.

-- when we spoke, you did not want to talk about whether you have a personal interest in Larry

You spoke to me in my role as part of Rainbow Direction organiser which is why I said no :-)

-- you have sometimes referenced Larry on your personal blog, as have other Rainbow Direction founders, but emphasize that it isn't a part of the official Rainbow Direction effort

I did not say anything about my personal blog and did not agree to be interviewed on that and RD in one go- and I am on the TMHFN email so not going into that. You are of course free to do your own research. However, I can be very firm that there was and still is a diversity of opinions among RD organisers so I would be careful to say all RD founders have referenced “Larry “ on their personal blogs. I want to be very firm on the fact that TMHFN and RD as organisations had nothing to do with “Larry” - and am happy to confirm that indeed we did not police the personal beliefs of our organisers and volunteers. Inclusive is inclusive.

-- the Rainbow Direction policy was that everyone be neutral about Larry while "on the job" so that the movement could be inclusive

Exactly - volunteers working with us had to be accepting of all ships and were not allowed to promote any one ship on the TMHFN blog. This was enforced. Participants were asked not to put shipping stuff on their rainbows - but as we didn’t own any trademark on rainbows the only thing we could do there was ask nicely and not promote that on the TMHFN/RD social media

-- you acknowledged that this policy was sometimes difficult to enforce, because people could bring Larry related stuff to shows and present it alongside their Rainbow Direction efforts

As said above - volunteers working with us had to be accepting of all ships and were not allowed to promote any ship on the TMHFN blog. That part of the policy was enforced. Participants were asked not to put shipping stuff on their rainbows - but as we didn’t own any trademark on rainbows the only thing we could do there was ask nicely

-- you feel that the attitude of some of the fandom—that gay rumors were "the worst thing that could happen to someone"—had a negative mpact on the LGBTQ people in the fandom

I would say I observed that impact. It was more than a feeling.

There you go. Full transparency. These are the things I told Kaitlyn Tiffany. I can honestly say I am no longer worried to see what she’s made of it. For one, people who know me do not give a shit about what she says, and for another, I have my own voice, and here it is. And then there is that one post I saw a little while ago by someone else who was interviewed, who also posted screenshots - which made me think 1. omg I am not the only one planning to do that in self-protection? god this woman is a menace to our fandom. and 2. that some of what we discussed may have stuck, as in the exchange with that blogger she said she’d had some criticism about how she had gone about describing the fandom in the past, she had taken that in and was going about it differently now (not pathologizing and such). I am seriously too lazy to find the post but I know it’s out there. Anyway. I sincerely hope it’s true. I hope this woman, whom I keep saying is not as smart as she thinks she is, is at least smarter than I think she is. And positively surprises me tomorrow. Hope for the best. Expect the worst though.

#as is only smart to do in this case #her history is not great in being respectful to teenage girls #internalized misogyny galore #is the term I once used for it I think #KT

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timkonshipper · 3 months

Text

random ash 101

ash won a league pretty early on in his journey, kinda sucks its not that big of a deal tho. so what if it was? just the beginning of a random au where being the orange island champion comes with more responsibilites and recognition. if anyone feels inspire to continue, please do!

He won.

Dragonite had put up a great fight, but in the end, his buddy had triumphed.

Drake had looked shocked at first. But the look soon turned into one of pride and amazement. He recalled dragonite and approached Ash.

“Congratulations Ash! If you follow me, you’ll find that we have a lot to discuss.”

Waving to his friends, he said “Go on guys, I’ll catch up with you later.”

He waited until Pikachu had hopped onto his shoulder before beginning to follow the supreme leader of the orange archipelago.

Drake led him into his office where he took his seat behind the desk and gestured for Ash to sit on the one in front of it.

The atmosphere felt so serious that Ash was filled with an overwhelming need to break it. “So what’s up, this seems very ominous if you know what I mean. He.” Pikachu added in an agreeable “pika”.

Drake chuckled before saying “Oh don’t worry. I’ve been told that I can be a little dramatic at times. Again, congratulations on your win. You could probably tell I was shocked earlier.”

“Yeah, I could see that, but how come? Tracey told me a bunch of trainers beat the challenge every year.”

“Yes, but you see Ash, we are considered the oldest league in existence. It's been around for almost 300 years. That's why this league might have seemed a bit different from the other leagues that you know. As an effort to integrate it with the other leagues, we joined the international league union a few years back. So, we increased the difficulty level by quite a lot as well.”

Taking a sip of water from the bottle on his desk, he continued “This is why no one has been able to complete the league recently. That is, except you. The rest of the crew and I agreed that whoever was the first to defeat all of us would become the next archipelago champion. So ash, do you accept the position?”

Ash was shocked speechless. Him a champion? Wow. Pikachu was in a similar daze. He had just won his best friend a championship. Remembering that Drake had asked him a question, he shook himself out of his stupor and answered with a wide grin on his face “What and all does being the champion entail exactly?”

“You keep surprising me Ash. It's nice to know that you want to know what exactly you would be responsible for instead of just agreeing right off the bat. Answering your question, I suppose you would help in the day to day running of the archipelago and representing us internationally. I will still handle the other trainers as the supreme gym leader, but if they manage to defeat me, then you must battle them to defend your champion title. It also would be a big help if you assisted me with the paperwork. Arceus knows why there’s so much for a place so small. Like all the other champions, you’d always receive a monthly salary”

“It sounds like a big responsibility, but I’d be down for all of that. I accept the position Drake!”

“Great, now if you and Pikachu could follow me to the victory hall, I’ll record you as the new champion.”

“You hear that buddy? We’re champions now!” Ash told his starter enthusiastically. Pikachu replied in a similar fashion with a happy “Pikaa pikachu”

“Oh and before I forget, here’s an official league phone for you. It has all the basic necessities and works as any other phone does. There’s also a messaging app in there with a group chat for all the champions. I’ll alert them soon about you. When you get back to the pokemon centre, just introduce yourself in the chat, alright?”

“Woah. The other champions are all in the chat? And I’m gonna join as well? So cool!” Ash practically had stars in his eyes.”

‘Ah, the joy of being young’ thought Drake.

Only after the shock had worn off did the exhaustion set in. By the time they had made it back to the pokemon centre, all he could do was faceplant onto his bed and sleep. Pikachu was the same case.

The sunlight seeping in through the window woke him up. Groggily, he glanced at the clock on the wall only to startle awake when he realised it was already 1. His stomach rumbled soon after. He quickly put on some actual clothes and scooped Pikachu up.

Making his way down to the lobby, he quickly spotted Misty and Tracey by the window. He made his way over to them. Tracey spotted him before Misty did, waving him over with a “Ash, good to see you're awake. When you came in last night you muttered what I can’t even guess it was before flopping over and sleeping like a log. I thought it was better if I didn’t wake you.”

Ash sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and replied “Heh yeah. I suppose we were way more tired than we realised.”

Misty fondly shook her head. A curious expression appeared on her face. “Hey Ash, what did Drake talk with you about?”

“Oh man. It was so awesome. Guess what? I’m the new orange island champion now! Apparently they made the challenge harder in recent years so they could integrate the league with the international circuit. I’m the first person who beat Drake after the change was made, so there you have it.”

“Huh, who would’ve thought? Brock’d love to hear this. However it was Pikachu who did all the work of course, didn’t you!” Misty exclaimed. She grabbed pikachu from Ash and smothered him with praise and cuddles.

Both Ash and Tracey sweatdropped, the latter shook it off before saying “That's awesome Ash. It's kinda cool to think that you’re a champion now. And of my home region to boot.”

“Thanks Tracey! It was a big shock at first but now I’m just so psyched. Oh before I forget, Drake said to send a message to the champions chat last night. Obviously I slept before I could do that.”

“The champions? As in all the other champions. Wow that's so cool! What do you think they’re like?”

“I suppose there’s only one way to find out,” replied Ash.

Misty stopped pampering Pikachu before sounding out a quick “Just don’t say something stupid.”

Ash ignored her before clicking onto the chatroom with Tracey looking over his shoulder. 217 notifications huh. Looks like he’d have a lot of scrolling to do.

Champions showdown.

LostInTheWoods: Yay we’re getting a new champion! And one so close to my age. It's been boring with only you seniors to talk to.

Tweety: Calm down pipsqueak, don’t bombard him when he gets here.

LostInTheWoods: SpEakIng of, when’s he gonna get here?

SugarYay: Sweetie, did you not listen to anything Drake said right after he announced the new champ?

LostInTheWoods: Hehe, maybe?

#ash ketchum #champion!ash ketchum #pokemon #snippet

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ferocioustrout · 3 months

Note

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOIL-

Episode 01, The kids will (not) be okay:

-The episode starts with Chris, Chef and the entire cast from the Total Drama island (2023) on a plane, going to a new season in a "new" place. Chris was talking to someone by a Walkie Talkie.

*Biiz*

???: Mr. McLean, seriously that you're lying to them saying that they're going to some kind of "total drama: World Tour" 2?

Chris: umm... Maybe--?

???: McLean! That's pratically clickbai-

Chris: Hey! Don't you dare use this "modern generation" language on me! Anyways, be ready because we're almost getting to there.

???: ah, ok-

- Chris ends the transmission

Chris: wow! That boy still annoying...

Chef: Chris, we're recording!

Chris: Ah, don't worry! After this introduction we will be finally free! ... I mean, just me, not you!

Chef: grr...

Chris: ah, calm down! Anyways, it's been a year 'total drama fans'! Since we don't see Each other THAT long, I'll give y'all a quick recap.

Last season on Total Drama Island:

16 new contestants showed up with the dream of taking that 1 million dollars price.

And the eliminations we're surprising!

Caleb was just there. until he even had the chance of doing something, Bowie made everyone eliminate him! Poor boy...

Nichelle humiliated herself Infront of everyone.

Emma HAD a chance of showing to everyone on live tv that Chase is (or was) a horrible person, but Chase was luckier than her.

Julia was boring, the way she talked, the "spiritual, love and peace" things that she normally talks about was annoying enough to her team.

Wayne would do anything and everything for his best friend Raj, and he was more than happy when he found out about his buddy's secret!

Scary Girl was Creepy, but not for Axel and Ripper! They we're her Unic friends that she had in a while, and the Unic ones that think that her actions are more annoying than scary.

Priya was pathetic! Seriously that she think her parents are so great that she easily go insane when someone criticizes them? Pff, surely the most well deserved elimination of that season.

Mk was smart, a little too much. And because of that, she went from being Bowie's Allie, to be a traitor! Well, it was that, that Bowie made everyone believe.

Raj has a secret, he loves Bowie! And because of that, he made our fandom go wild for them! The fandom loves them! Especially that people from that one Social Media that has "Tum" on the start...

And Chase knowed About that! The fact that Bowie and Raj we're dating, of course. Not the fact that the fandom is crazy for them. So, as a indirect revenge for MK, he was double eliminated with Raj!

Ripper and Damien have a... Interesting friendship. A "nerd hater" and a nerd!

Ripper was... Adorable? Yeah, he went from being a pathetic alpha male wannabe, from being a even nicer version of Owen, and because of that "adorable" personality that he gained he made Damien, Zee and especially Chase be his best friends! (Axel and scary girl too) Good for him, I guess.

Damien screamed a lot until His friends convinced him that being public humiliated in live television isn't that bad!

And Millie was nice, she tried to write a book about how much this generation is potentially bad, but after Priya's elimination, she learned that it was just a exception! There IS good people from this generation, you just need to find the right ones! (Priya not included)

And let's go to the final 3...

Axel, she had everything to win! The strength, the power, the personality... But, Ripper and Scary Girl missed her, so they finded a way to make her go back to them! That's what you gain when you are friends with a fake emo and ex-bad boy.

Zee, how did he got in there?! He could easily be eliminated until the merge but no one wanted to! And if wasn't for the "milk" part of the last challenge, he would have won! But he didn't.

And Bowie won! He used and eliminated half of the cast not counting with Wayne and Raj, of course.

Chris: So yeah, EVERYONE that I mentioned is back!

-Then it cuts to Chris in the passagers cabin with the 16 participants.

All the 16 participants are in here

The one that went out first:

Caleb: I'll make YOU guys regret voting me off...

-Caleb said in anger, while pointing at Bowie

Bowie: geez...

Ripper: you got a bit 'edgy' after 1 year, huh?

Caleb: what?

The most misunderstood one:

Ripper: huh?

Chase: wait, since when Ripper is misunderstood?

And the worse one:

Chase: excuse me?!

Emma: pff...

And of course, the winner:

Bowie: yeah, exactly, me!

Chris: well, I don't know if you guys noticed but Bowie was the Unic villain after a long time that won a season, the Unic one that did that was heather.

Bowie: wait, reall-

Chris: okay, this is slowly getting boring! So let's make the things end quickly!

-the ground below all the participants opened up, making all the participants fall into The water.

Chris: Ahaha... I'll miss that, and Chef already leaved without even saying "bye"!!

-Chris quickly ran to the drivers cabin, grabbing the plane's volant and taking control of it.

Chris: arg! Okay, I'll be quick! This surely the last time you all will see hosting this program! Yeah, this is Sooo sad! But listen up! The future is bullet proof and the aftermath WILL be secundary! And time to them do it now and do it loud! I am Chris McLean, and I'll see never, EVER see y'all again! Bye, losers!!

-after Chris leaved everyone behind, the scene cuts to the brand new hosts

...

Topher: Yeah, we're finally hosting our favorite reality show ever!

Sierra: But it's just so sad that Chris is gone for like... Forever?

Topher: nah, judging by the way he is he'll surely randomly appear when we Least expect it or something. But anyways, yeah, Chris finally gave his role as host for someone else!

Sierra: two to be exact.

oooo this is interesting.. also loving the topher and Sierra interactions I think they’d be besties

#death threats #deimos lore

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charlotte-of-wales · 1 year

Text

H&M Documentary Review: Episode 6

I watched this while angry that Argentina won the World Cup so I’m already in a bad mood lol sorry if the bitchness was running wild

(my commentary in italics)

- Harry: “we are on the freedom light” shut up

- “It felt like they were running” shut up

- talking about Tyler Perry now

- he sent Meghan a letter before the wedding, they never talked and then she called him crying in Canada???

- Tyler saying Diana was thrown to the wolves after the divorce

- Now he says what the institution did to H&M is the same ‘abuse’ as what his mother faced in a physically abusive relationship because they took away their money and security to force them to come back.....no they did that because they were no longer working royals NEXT

- like this man literally admits to not knowing anything about the royals and now he is talking like is the expert be for real

- “They just wanted to be free and be happy” they’re not prisoners of war gosh the lack of awareness is wild

- “No one knew you were there” yes they did for someone so obsessed with the media did you miss the daily mail articles about y’all moving to LA

- wow paparazzi can take pictures of you from hundreds of feet away? If only there was a property where that was not allowed and somewhere your children go run free without being photographed......somewhere like Windsor maybe?

- they’re going hard on the Mail.....seems a bit silly to piss off one of Britain’s largest tabloids like this but oh well

- talking about her miscarriage

- Harry blaming the miscarriage on the Mail.......this man is something else

- btw the story her friend told on the miscarriage is different than what Meghan wrote about it.

- the editing in this doc is weird as hell, it goes from them talking about their causes, to Meghan’s reaction to the BLM movement in the news to this random montage of home videos of them?

- Meghan saying Harry’s so fun after he makes the most unfunny joke I ever heard. No one laughed.

- James Holt either shut up or use the braincells God gave you challenge

- saying the journalist who releaved the bullying allegations ‘admitted’ to doing it right before the Oprah interview is another half-truth in this doc. He did it because the victims wanted their story out there before H&M could probably twist the whole thing and play the victim.

- institutional gaslighting????? harry shush and stop bringing up the diana comparisons ever two seconds I am tired

- they recorded themselves reacting to the Oprah interview

- Meghan saying she thought most people would focus on what she said about dealing with depression and mental health issues.....girly there’s no way that’s true be serious

- ‘Beyonce just texted’ and Meghan justs reads the text out loud lmfao

- Meghan reacting to the BP statement after the Oprah interview and Harry shows Meghan a text from William on his phone to which she says ‘wow’

- Meghan looking at travel arrangements for Harry to go back to the UK after Prince Philip died because that man is incompetent

- something about Harry being ok being filmed non-stop after his grandfather died is weird to me but whatever

- Harry reading the statement he wrote in Philip’s honor is so tacky to me bitch have some respect

- ‘He went quietly. He went peacefully’ aham

- Harry says William and Charles were focused on the same misinterpretation of the situation

- “I’ve had to make peace with the fact that we’re probably never going to get genuine accountability or a genuine apology “ BITCH BE FOR REALLLLL

- “My wife and I we’re moving on” YOU CALL MOVING ON???? TALKING ABOUT IT NON STOP?????

- Harry says he sees a lot of Meghan in Archie and a lot of Diana in Lili. Nothing from the Windsors then huh

- TYLER PERRY is Lili’s godfather???? is this common knowledge or what I swear I did not know about this

- also pretty sure the public still doesn’t know who Archie’s godparents are?? But the celeb gets announced like this, got it (also does this mean she was baptized outside of the Church of England?)

- btw they are showing quite a lot of footage of Lili now, before it was all Archie

- NOT EUGENIE GIRLLLLLL (I hope William yelled at her about this too)

- Meghan’s lawyer talks a LOT of crap for someone who is a lawyer and knows she can’t just say shit without proof. Implying that William told Jason to send in a statement to harm Meghan’s case against the Mail without any evidence is shady girl

- Meghan “it’s your brother, I’m not going to say anything about your brother but it’s so obvious” again girly show me the obvious evidence then

- Meghan says her niece Ashley is back into her life but like why did she even leave her life again???? Its the big bag palace to blame once more?

- By the way, it’s interesting that they try not to show Lili’s face but Archie’s is no problem.

- Meghan saying their kids now get to have moments out in the world and travel and sorry to break it to you luv so do the Waleses

- Harry saying LA is one of the places Diana would have lived eventually???? bro

- Nacho saying Harry always wanted a more normal, simple life why didn’t he leave the family to join the army then when he had the change? Also, what’s simple about a $15 million dollar mansion in Montecito?

- there’s so many footage and pictures of Harry and Meghan out and I genuinely wonder who took those like do they get the children to do it?? a professional photographer??

- Meghan read the speech she read at the wedding and it was written in that fancy caligraph of hers and the whole thing was so cringey

- (do you think they did it for the first time in that tent in botswana)

- the constant montages of the home videos with some crappy song in the background makes me want to scream

- “in response to allegations that Mr. Knauf submitted a voluntary witness statement in connection with the Daily Mail litigation with the consent of Prince William’s office, a representative for Mr. Knauf sent the following statement: ‘these claims are entirely false. Mr. Knauf was asked to provide evidence by both The Duchess of Sussex and Associate Newspapers” LMFAO TELL THEM JASON (Meghan’s attorneys then clap back that they didn’t ask for a statement and he did not remain neutral in the process because he was working for the Cambs this is so dumb and so easy to proof like why are them doing all of this)

I’M FREE!!!! WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY FUCKING LIFE!!!! (this is about the doc and the world cup by the way I’m glad both are done)

Anyway, this doc is boring and full of inconsintencies and this could cause no harm to the family whatsover although it will be HILARIOUS if they get invited to the coronation and actually show up. 0/10 do not reccomend.

#LAST ONE LFG #susx doc

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queryxecho · 1 year

Note

This was you? 🥺

Old photos // ACCEPTING! @peranarkia

Nina shrieks a little, even as her partner excitedly gasped. Mostly out of surprise, but also a little bit in embarrassment. Not a familiar feeling for her. Could a teenager ever look so out of place in herself? You'd never catch her with long dark curls, and a big bright dress now days.

"Oh, jeez, Lonnie, where the hell did you find this?" It honestly takes a minute of searching through memory to place it. It's the trophy she's holding that does it. "SEF," she whispered as it clicked. She'd gotten second place in a science and engineering fair her freshman year and she'd forgotten that the local small paper had taken their pictures.

"My momma never let me cut my hair then," she said softly, "Or wear anythin' but things she liked." The dress had her crinkling her nose a bit even now.

"That competition was a cheat, I should'a won! They said I cheated in the last round." She still adamantly disagreed. "There was a small maze and you were supposed to build a robot that could go in and put out a candle. Ideally, as fast as possible. There was a whole bunch more things about time adds for checking wrong places and such- but whatever. Point is, my robot broke that morning. I had to think of something so I changed it a little, sent a friend on an errand to get me something and in short- I made the thing deploy dry ice in the maze. The CO2 suffocated the candle in record time. But they disqualified me that round for 'not meeting the spirit of the challenge'. I would have won if they hadn't!"

#//echo is still salty about that #peranarkia

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