#and if youre too far below it then you wont be able to use it if you open it inside

[rohirric-hunter]

Hey, it's the pelargir anon again! You have no idea how much your answer helped me, because it explained quite a lot of things. I actually did the helm's deep epics, but it wasn't exactly fun and afterwards I thought "well, let's never do this again" 😂 which obviously did not work. But maybe now's the time to repeat it, I've got maybe like 13 points? That probably won't work... The point where the twins die on me is mostly in the last third, after the barricades, where the two ballistas are. The barricades surprisingly aren't that much of a problem, considering I'm not using the skill tree and instead mostly winging it. But in the last third there are so many haradrim and corsars, either I die and till I can get back to the twins one of them is dead or they die on their own. Quite frustrating. And thank you so much for your offer to help me! Sadly I'm on another server (belegaer), but gosh, your kindness made me a bit teary eyed. I really appreciate it!

I'm glad it helped! Yeah, Epic Battles aren't very much fun until you've got some Promotion Points. I find them very fun once I do have those points, but getting those first few points is always such a trial.

If you've figured out how to get the twins past the barricades alive, then you probably don't actually need all sixty Promotion Points (though of course more will make things easier). In fact, you might consider ignoring everything I said about barricades and instead setting up an Officer spec and an Engineer spec that focuses on building and firing siege engines. Then, when you get to the catapults at the end (I said they were ballistae in my original post but I've since remembered that they're catapults) you can try to take out as many enemies as possible before they climb up the wall, then switch to buffing your troops once they get up there. I'm not sure how many Promotion Points you need for various upgrades, but upgrading catapults is super helpful; just don't upgrade range because you don't need to in this instance.

In order to avoid dying (I think one of the twins will always die if you do and I'm not sure why), it's worth remembering that enemies will almost always attack other NPCs before they attack you, so try to limit how many enemies you engage at a time to not get overwhelmed. Your troops should be able to handle the rest as long as you keep buffing them.

If you want to experiment with the different EB mechanics Helm's Dike is great for that too; the battle won't start until you talk to Gamling and they have pretty much everything set up along the Dike, so you can take as much time as you like to experiment and figure out how everything works.

I'll see if I can dig up my guide to Helm's Dike for you. It's probably the easiest to complete side objectives on, since for the most part the NPCs in the instance can handle attacking enemies from the main objective and you can just leave them to it to complete side objectives (and you have as much time to set up as you need). Some of the side objectives you won't be able to complete until you've got some Promotion Points, because most of them involve siege weaponry of some sort, but it's a good way to start earning, at least.

#lotro #actually usually to get my first few promotion points i typically join a six man of pelargir ironically lol #although its harder to find those anymore since its no good for farming legendary item stuff #and idk in my experience its gotten a lot harder to join random groups #anyway hope this helps! <3 best of luck anon #oh! another general epic battle tip; if you get any rewards in boxes dont open the boxes until you leave the instance #these boxes often drop jewelry that will scale to your level and if you open it in the instance itll be level 100 #if youre above that normally then youll get better jewelry if you open it outside the instance #and if youre too far below it then you wont be able to use it if you open it inside

[ornithia]

lmao i got blocked for this

i, a living, breathing, real-life existing aroace individual, a literal example of the very category you specifically attempted to white-knight, asked a genuine question regarding the puritanical "white-washing" of the general identity to which i and several of my peers belong to - but i suppose confronting your own bigotry was just too much to handle, eh?

let's go over your "values":

so you're not a "radical inclusionist" (w/e that means) ... but by your own logic, excluding certain marginalised groups (such as the select "undesirable" and "dirty" asexuals that do not fit the pure stereotype mold) precisely means you're also not a real leftist, but a "Republican in training" (this is literally YOUR own definition in YOUR own words)

so ... people like you, then? also awfully convenient that all of this info that constitutes blocking was hidden below a read-more, btw. (also, you commented on someone ELSE's post. i'd say that's fair game - maybe DON'T comment publicly at all if you truly don't want to engage with anyone, especially not if you're requiring them to read a whole TOS essay of your "voids" and "warranties")

this one was a little further down ... buddy. MOST people who ship alastor are asexuals themselves, safely exploring their identities and analysing their experiences through a fictional proxy. i can ASSURE you the majority of us are not aphobic, we're simply diverse, as human beings are wont to be. trying to fit us all into a neat little box and weeding out those who do not fit your standards or rhetoric, on the other hand - now THAT'S aphobic as all shit

going over the DNI list now and:

lmao WHAT. please research the history of humanity and the arts, i GUARANTEE you that most people who've written/created analogs of terrible things (since the very dawn of human creativity) have not PERSONALLY engaged in horrific deviancy so much as commentated on it, in order to make a point about its horrors and use it to tell a greater message. (also "predators in the making" is literally a dog whistle used in right-wing circles, specifically the ones that embrace terf-rhetoric, are homophobic, anti-feminist, and pro-censorship with the intended goal of resetting society to the "nuclear family" aka institute a social order in which the queers don't exist, women exist purely to spread their legs and pop out babies for their masters Men, children are DANGEROUSLY isolated and taught to be ignorant of the world that exists beyond their neighborhood so that when they eventually grow up they end up xenophobic Adults unable to cope with the notions of Different and New and far less able to creatively relate, empathise, or put themselves in others' shoes, for better or worse.

also, THIS is why ACTUAL critical thinking matters, and not just lazy broad strokes of some supposed "general morality", like holy shit you'd think you'd realise this given you consider yourself a "💜Beginner Satantic-Pagan Witch" and all the maligned things that THAT would imply based on a surface-level understanding of satan/lucifer's origins without actual research into the religion, like - based on the name alone, most people would assume you have a sadistic and LAUGHABLY disproportionate desire to see humans suffer due to a petty and envious "sibling rivalry" over the fact that god doted on humans just a little "too much" for lucifer's personal liking (per the canonical texts of the abrahamic religions)

OBVIOUSLY that's not the case, as there's ALWAYS more to the picture; you criticals should try applying this philosophy more often, you all seem so miserable all the time it's hard to imagine how this COULDN'T help

as for the rest of the list ... honestly, it isn't terrible. MOST of it is reasonable. pity, as we could've potentially been friends - had you just chosen to NOT speak on behalf of ALL asexuals with 0 consideration for our varied and complex nuance and spooked yourself into blocking me over a reality check

#hazbin hotel #alastor #discourse #hazbin critical #witchydemiaroace #asexuality #aphobia #got blocked again

[theuniversitychallengereview]

The Two Generals Problem

After last week's barnstorming series opener (specially selected from the list of potential episodes for maximum barnstoming-ness), Aberdeen and Birmingham had a lot to live up to.

Anyway, Aberdeen were making their first appearance on the show in ten years, despite the fact I could have sworn I'd reviewed multiple episodes with them in over the past five series. RGU were on last year, and they're from Aberdeen too, but that's not (as alumni of both would be wont to say) the same. They've not made it past the second round since Paxman's first series in 1995 - perhaps they'll use Rajan's debut as a similar springboard.

Remarkably, Birmingham vs Aberdeen was the first match of that series, twenty-eight years ago. The Scots won 205-170 on their way to the semis, while Birmingham would make it through to the quarters, as high-scoring losers. They lost on a tiebreak to New College, Oxford, while Aberdeen were beaten by Trinity, Cam, also on a tiebreak. Is that interesting? I feel like it is, in the way that looking at statistics sometimes can be. Just me?

But that's enough horsing around.

If you want to watch the episode before reading the review you can do so here (courtesy of CosmicPumpkin, our saviour in a Dave Garda-less world).Let's get on with things; here's your first starter for ten...

The Scots get us up and running through Broomfield, who correctly identifies Scott Joplin as the King of Ragtime. His most famous song The Entertainer was a preset on the keyboards in my school music room, which means consequently that it has been stuck in my head for more than a decade.

They take a full set on human vertebrae, the backbone of a good UC question set, before Rogers gets Birmingham involved with Andrew Marvell. Bonuses on Japanese theatre follow, for each of which they guess kibuki, getting it right at the third attempt.

I was also going to say that Rogers, the Birmingham skipper, had got away with one here because he's studying History of Warfare (so should surely have been the first to buzz). But it turns out that it doesn't really have anything to do with armies at all, so I'm glad I didn't go down that route. It also turns out that it's an unsolvable problem, which is pretty fun.

The first picture round, on the Brothers Grimm, goes to Aberdeen, who take the lead despite mixing up Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. A mistake from Eisler allows Bennett to steal the advantage back for the Midlanders, but he makes up for it with the Mitford sisters next time out. This match has been a real tug-of-war so far, with neither side able to get a foothold.

Another pair from the Brummies edge them clear, but this is the final time that they will lead, as Aberdeen put the hammer down for the last five minutes, crushing their opponents 80-0 to close out the game. Osbourne defers to her teammates a bit too much in this period, nominating them on a lot of the bonuses, but they got the job done so it doesn't matter that much in the end.Aberdeen 190 - 125 Birmingham

Not quite as barnstorming as last week, but a good ep nonetheless. With Rajan's increased pace of delivery there's no chance that Birmingham will be back with that score, but they can leave with their heads held high. Meanwhile Aberdeen can still dream of repeating their exploits of 1995. See you next time for Birkbeck vs Oxford Brookes.

Subscribe if you liked this, to never miss an ep. And comment down below if you liked the Two Generals joke.

#university challenge #bbc2 #aberdeen #birmingham #amol rajan

[mimeparadox]

The Gamble

Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series)

Rating: Teen

Characters: Shadow Jones, Renet, Michelangelo

Ships: Shadow Jones/Renet

Story elements: Teenage human sapphic humans, first dates, dating a time traveler is especially fraught, fantasy age gaps, ninja turtles make the best uncles, I had to research the fashion so you’re getting labels, corsets and corsetry, corset lacing, tightlacing is good actually,

Summary: Shadow Jones overthinks romance, as is her wont. Luckily, Michelangelo is there to help.

Artwork: Shadow Jones artwork by @ninitenebrae. Renet artwork by MadSeason.

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49330096

================================================

Michelangelo held the black-and-white underbust corset dubiously, as if it were some sort of snake ready to pounce. “You know you don’t need to wear this, right?” he told Shadow. 

“I know, M. ‘You’re beautiful the way you are,’ ‘there’s nothing wrong with your weight,’ ‘you should just be yourself.’ You guys have been telling me for literally years. It’s not a self-esteem thing—trust me.”

“Just checking,” the ninja turtle said, as he inspected the tag embedded in the corset’s inside. “It says here twenty-six inches. That’s not a lot of inches.”

“It’s fine. It’s custom-made, I’ve been breaking it in. Now give it to me.”

Shadow took the corset and placed it around her midsection, atop the vintage Hervé Léger bandage minidress of the sort which she’d been fixated on since she’d been six, and which was currently mercilessly highlighting her every curve. After hooking up the busk and ensuring everything was where it needed to be, she motioned to Michelangelo to take hold of the staylaces, which matched the white of the stripes on the corset’s left side. “Well, ah do declare, Miss Scarlett! You’d best hold on to something!” Michelangelo exclaimed—doubtless a reference to a film or TV show she wasn’t familiar with—and began pulling. 

After a fumbling start due to his particular finger configuration, Michelangelo eventually got the hang of the procedure and found his rhythm. As the corset closed in on all sides, Shadow found her back growing more rigid, and what began as a gentle touch became an increasingly firm hugging sensation.

“You okay, there?” Michelangelo asked, after some minutes. “I think I’m going to really have to pull, to get this last bit closed.”

“Go for it, M.” The corset was currently far tighter than she’d ever worn it before, and yet she still felt she could wear it indefinitely without discomfort. One or two extra inches shouldn’t be a problem. 

Using his mutant turtle strength, Michelangelo gave a mighty heave, and Shadow eventually felt the two ends of the corset meet. Quickly, the two worked together to tie the excess lace into a bow before any slack could form, and the deed was done. 

After a few experimental moments to make sure everything felt right—it did—Shadow walked toward her mirror to take a look at herself.

The look turned into a stare.

Shadow Jones liked her body. While the world outside her family and friends had done its hardest to convince her it was a problem to fix, and was often baffled when she wouldn’t—what else were all those O’Neil Tech millions for?—they had not been able to find purchase in a girl who’d been raised to see beauty and health and worth in all different kinds of bodies, human or otherwise. Being fat hadn’t prevented her from getting a black belt in karate, being the pitcher in her school softball team, getting dates at fourteen and her first girlfriend at fifteen, or being profiled on more than one publication’s 18-Below-18 list (although that one, she fully admitted, owed a lot to her famous parents). 

Her fear, when she’d chosen to purchase the corset on something of a lark, had never been about discomfort: rather, it was that it’d do its job too well, and make her hate her own body.  What she didn’t expect, though, is for the corset to make her feel grateful.

Her arms were still hers, as were her legs. Between them, however, was a body that resembled those of the women who made her realize what physical attraction meant, back when she’d been twelve. Those bodies had never been hers.

And yet, it was her very fatness that permitted this transformation. It wasn’t, as she’d sometimes thought when first learning about corsets, about trying to be thin. Being thin would ruin the effect in its entirety—it’d be like Michelangelo, the other one, attempting to sculpt his David with no marble. A corset, Shadow now realized, needed mass to work its magic: not to reduce—all her body was still there, and would still be there after the corset was taken off—but to commune with it, to say See all this? Look at what your body can do. Also, your breasts look UH-MAZING.

Shadow pressed her fingers against her newly hard waist, appreciating its firmness. “Okay, so I know you’re ace and really old and I’m barely legal, but I look hot, don’t I?” The sharp indentation as her hips became her waist looked downright sinful.

“I’ll have you know, young lady, that I’m actually still practically a teen, in turtle years,” Michelangelo said, from his new position sitting on Shadow’s bed. “That’s what Donny says, anyway. As for the rest…the words ‘no daughter of mine is going out dressed like that’ come to mind,” he said, in a shockingly passable impression of Casey.  “They won’t say it, and April won’t like that she thought it, but they’ll definitely think it.”

 “HA! So you think I should change?” she asked unnecessarily. 

“After you just made me strap you in a glorified hernia truss? Absolutely not. Besides, this is what you’re supposed to do, at eighteen. And Renet will love it.”

Shadow forced her smile to remain. What the hell? was her first thought, followed by How did he know?, which settled into It’s a trap. All she’d told Michelangelo, when she’d enlisted him to help her prepare, that it was for a date. He couldn’t truly know who the date was. And the fact was, despite his joking attitude, her uncle could be quite devious when he wanted to be. “What makes you think it’s her I’m going out with?” she finally said, a moment later. 

“Well, I was just guessing,” he said, allowing himself to look at least somewhat sheepish. “But I’ve seen the way you look when you return from your trips. And that there seems to be a lot of them, and that they actually last a lot longer for you than they do for us. Doesn’t take Donny to figure it out.”

The logic was impeccable, and Shadow would have slumped in defeat, if the corset had allowed it. Instead, she sat down next to her uncle, grabbing hold of one of her pillows in the process to squeeze. “Do you think Casey and April have noticed?”

“They haven’t told me anything, at least. But they’re smart—even Casey, in his own way. I wouldn’t be betting against them. Any reason you haven’t told them?”

“Oh, they’d love that,” Shadow said, with a scoff. “Like, she’s a timestress. An official time traveler. Did you know she’s actually 214 years old? Or she was, the last time I saw her—who knows how old she’ll be tonight.  And she’s got a job and responsibilities, and she’s always a hundred years away.” Was it still long distance when the person you dated could appear next to you at any moment? A question for D or L, when next she saw them. 

“I get it. It’s a lot. And yeah, Casey and April probably don’t love those things, and they’d have a lot of things to say, if you talked to them about her—for example, slow down. Sure, Renet’s got baggage—who doesn’t. You’re going on a date with her, not marrying her—right?”

Would that be the worst thing? she thought. “Right. I just really like her,” she said—which was essentially the problem. What’s more, in taking Shadow traveling with her, Renet had taken her world and broadened it immeasurably. Losing that, she feared, would be like devolving, becoming a single-celled organism after one had been human. 

“Like, I’m not saying you’re a bonehead for thinking of these things,” said Michelangelo. “And I get that Renet is a friend. But you did the hard part already, and we’ll be here for you when the next hard part happens. Worrying about it now is just self-sabotage.”

It was, Shadow realized, precisely what she needed to hear. When she’d asked Renet out, they’d been moments away from a less-hopeless-than-it-seemed-at-the-time battle with mind-controlled gargoyles, and she’d been emboldened by the prospect of sudden death. Once she realized she’d have to live with what she’d done, she began more and more uncertain of herself, even as talk became, somehow, a concrete plan, one which required coordination and dressing up. Complicating things still further was the fact that the fear didn’t make her any less excited, which was in itself cause to be suspicious. She needed to be, lest her emotions run over her like a truck like they usually did every time she had feelings for someone.  

And yet, who was that nervousness serving, at the moment? Not her, certainly.

“When did you become so wise?” Shadow asked, her confidence returning as soon as it had left. “You’ve never dated anyone in your life.”

Michelangelo smirked. “Hey, I’m not just a ninjutsu master. I know about emotions and crushes and things. Just don’t ask me about how to have sex,” he joked, getting a pillow on the face for his troubles.

----

Renet looked somewhat restless when Shadow spotted her standing at the front door of Belvedere Castle in Central Park. She waved for the timestress’ attention, and Renet waved back, smiling.

Shadow could feel her IQ going down the toilet.

“Been waiting long?” Shadow asked, as soon as they’d gotten within hearing distance.

“About ten minutes—I wanted to take in the park a bit—it’s really nice in the fall.” It was then that Renet first seemed to really take notice of her. “Your waist! You look—oh, wow.” As Renet quite blatantly checked her out, Shadow thought she heard a word that sounded suspiciously like “grife.”

Like Shadow, Renet had not gotten complacent when it came to dressing up for their date (!). Shadow had not known what to expect from her—this was a woman (her date!) who was just as comfortable wearing mod fashion as she was wearing an 1880’s dress with all the underpinnings, sometimes within hours of each other—and Renet had not disappointed, choosing a gorgeous calf-length backless dress, held up by a web of straps starting from the bust line and ending in a collar. The dress was mostly black, with the exception of two sets of colored pleats on its quite full skirt; these pleats subtly changed colors with the timestress’ movements, the one indication that the dress wasn’t something she’d found at a thrift store. Completing the look were a pair of black Converse sneakers, which, alongside Renet’s usual clock purse, helped prevent the ensemble from looking too formal. Were Renet anywhere near normal, Shadow might assume this meant that the date would involve dinner at a restaurant or something equally fancy; knowing her, this could just as well be a camping outfit (A DATING OUTFIT).

God, I want to kiss her. And she wouldn’t even have to stand on her toes to do it—wearing her Isabel Marant wedge sneakers had been a stroke of genius. “Would it…would it be weird if I told you I want to pin you to a wall and kiss you? You just look so good,” she said. This had the effect of short-circuiting the timestress’ brain for a moment, which made her look even cuter. 

Renet wasted no time in retaliating, though: after recovering her senses and stopped blushing, she inched closer to the younger girl’s ear with a downright evil grin, and whispered “Let’s have our date first, and then we’ll see. FYI: your chances are very good,” making it Shadow’s turn to short circuit.

A moment later, Renet produced from her purse her time scepter—the effect of seeing something so large come from a space so much smaller than it always amused her—and waved it in a circular motion to form one of the now-familiar time gates. “So what are we doing tonight?” Shadow asked as both women stepped into the gate’s light. “The Jazz Age? The moon landing?” Each other? Please let it be each other.

Renet’s smile turned into a smirk. “No spoilers. You’ll love it,” she said, taking hold of Shadow’s arm.

And, as 2028 New York blinked out of existence around her, Shadow realized just how right Michelangelo had been. The past, the future…they were both less important than right now, when she was staring at a beautiful woman who was, by all metrics, into her, and whom she trusted with her life. While trusting her with her heart was a different thing, and she didn’t plan to be stupid about it, she first needed to embrace uncertainty and take the risk.

She was so glad she’d chosen to be brave. 

“By the way, thank you for asking me out,” said Renet, as their surroundings resolved into something once again resembling reality. “I’ve known I liked you for the longest time, but I didn’t want to be the one to say something—the age difference, you know.”

“Oh!” was Shadow’s only verbal response. I thought it was the corset that was supposed to leave me breathless. 

#Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #TMNT #TMNT 2003 #Shadow Jones #Renet (TMNT) #Michelangelo (TMNT) #My Stuff

[utsuboarchive]

@furiaei asked: hesitatingly, the zmeoaică dips her toe in the sea water, eyeing it curiously. now, no, she won't let Jade know she can't precisely swim. although... her hesitation to step into the body of water must have already given her away.

she stands there on the shore, soft sand underneath her bare feet as the waves wash over them, leaving such a particularly cooling sensation. she can't say she appreciates the sand between her toes, but the water is quite pleasant.

' so, the sea is your home, yes, Jade? ' Mya asks, ' I've never been to the sea before. ' it takes a hit, her pride, to admit all this. but, maybe, it isn't so wrong to be weak before him. ' I honestly don't know how to swim. I'm a little bit anxious about diving in the water. will you hold my hand? '

most of his off days were spent alone, doing things he doesn't have time for otherwise. usually his hobbies; terrariums, hiking, afternoons out where he can sketch something in the woods. but this was nice too, a trip to the beach is perfectly fitting for someone like himself. the ambiance and smell are familiar, and make him want to shed his skin-- to swim out to sea. jade refrains though, as mya allows the water to lap at her ankles, and looks out at the waves.

that she can't swim isnt much of a surprise to him. but he says nothing, and lets her go at her own pace. shoes abandoned far up on the beach, along with most of their belongings. his pants are rolled up just under his knees, though if they keep going it really wont matter. he hums a small note at her question then---

" yes, it is where i was born. well, a bit further out than this. " he corrects himself with a smile. whether or not she'd be able to see where he grew up was uncertain. going so deep under the water was risky for anyone not used to it. just as dangerous as the things that made the sea their home. " this is as good a time as any. we came on a good day too- it's clear, and the waves aren't very big. "

he takes a moment to dig his heels into the sand.

she trusts him, so much so that she places her wellbeing in his hands. literally so, as he takes her own, and curls his fingers around it. " of course... and, mya i'd be more than happy to teach you how to swim. " allowing her to lead, as they walk just a little further in. the water coming up just below the knee when they stop again. " here, or at the pools available on campus. whenever i have time, "

unprompted

#answered ask. / 🐬 #im completely normal about them #jade teaching mya to swim is... aaaaa sobs #teach her to swim and enjoy the water more #feel comfortable in it #also i like the idea this is still... jade figuring out how mya makes him feel tbh. like... #the trust she places in him feels kinda nice hm #despite how deeply unsettling he is lmao #placing this ask somewhere in that pining stage waa

[theclo4ked1]

(The post I wanted to put is most likely far too long for Tumblr, a mircoblogging website-- what? who said, what a dick! Anyways, here's a condensed version, as best as i can, of that post. there are spoilers below, so play the complete game before reading.)

the final horizion update was finally released last night at about 20.10pm (it was late, it left players confused on wtf was taking so long), and i almost fell asleep playing, again, but thats not the point. i use the nintendo switch to play Sonic Frontiers, and i have 110+ hrs of game time, and my save file had 75+ hrs on it. we've been hungry, "hangry" even, but i assure you, we shall all feast such a divine one. except for me, i wont be fully enjoying it yet. my plates in the fridge marked "plz dont eat :3" back in february when i finally got the game, for $50 lol, i remember spending the whole month on this game, hours spent every night i played, being one of the lucky ones, veterans now, who've waited through the year, hungering, yearning for the next updates to come for. lemme tell you, the Sonic Team "grill masters" (- someone on twitter, 2023) cooked, and that moment when the update finished installing, and i saw that glorious "Another Story has opened up on Ouranos" booting up the game was an exhilarating feeling. it was weird that Another Story was a proper noun. i didnt know what to expect, but I was excited anyway to see where I would go from there. unfortunately, the mystery and wonder was kinda removed due to the prior knowledge of Tails, Knux, and Amy (my girl returneth!) being playable again, the final boss changing, and now something huge is happening with Ouranos, which is the access point to the Another Story portion of the game via a giant ring (they bought the warp ring back!) however, before entering the ring, the game prompts you with a long warning message that game progress will be halted, and recommends completing the game first before returning here as it uses your current save slot. the way i see it, the AS acts like a parallel universe; the game's timeline splits after Rhea. the normal timeline is Sonic going about collecting the emeralds again, and eventually fighting Supreme and The End (ive never heard Vandalize in-game before cuz ive only played on hard mode, a small price to pay for being a chad gamer). this new timeline, the AS, is where after teleporting to Ouranos, Sage pulls a godtier move and is like "ayo lemme pull this godtier move real quick" and frees Sonic's friends, though still in their mid-dimensional forms, so they can collect the Chaos Emeralds (which are in different places than the vaults of the prime timeline). there are also more towers that just appeared on Ouranos, so my first thought was "oh my god they recombined Kronos, Rhea, and Ouranos, so thats why the towers are here", but no, it's apparently reserved for something relating to the four Titans; "memorials" as Sage put it in the release trailer. my reaction is still mixed on this, but i understand why they made a split like this; to keep the old and merge the new without changing much. i thought they would completely change the last fifth of the game to just be the AS portion, but no, it's just... Another Story. another book to read after this one that details specific and canon events that arent told in the first material. i played until i got to Knuckles' first time around the island. here the game mentions that you'll be able to swap characters later which im hoping this function is relegated to the dpad. its right there, four buttons, four characters, they couldn't have missed an opportunity as such. playing as Tails will be lit, but somethings that bothered me were

Amy jumps like shes in Cyberspace so turning is fucked, and

the controls for input feel slightly delayed; Amy's Card Attack combo is the weirdest thing because to execute the third attack, the spin, youre required to press your attack button consecutively AND in a consistent three beat tempo.

i was stuck trying to figure this out. a button pressed counts as the button comes upwards, after being pushed down, to make a click sound (for my gamecube pro-controller which was what i used during my time through the game). it requires a "full A press", not a half. Sonic, in the last update and the short time I played as him before Another Story, didnt have these problems. update 10/1/23: spoiler alert, i made the executive decision to can my save data ("dad-uh") just so i could start again. its an extreme compared to, yknow, just starting a new save SLOT, but i wanted just ONE save slot, and only one. im ocd like that, but im not diagnosed. its a joke. im sure, until a doctor says something that it. btw i started fresh. im about two hours in and Sonic still controls just fine imo the Cyberspace jumping makes some sort of sense because Amy is still between dimensions. still sucks to control though. the input delay i will not understand and im not sure they'll go back and fix this any time soon. so that just leaves me: only able have to eat the scraps and leftovers and cant eat with everyone else who finished this portion the day of. an exaggeration probably, but people have told me "oh yeah i finished that game in a day", the base game, casually. look.

kronos island time of completion (b4 moving on to ares), 7:58:54 ares island time of completion (b4 moving on to chaos), 20:00:28 chaos island time of completion (b4 moving on), 36:15:54 rhea island time of completion, 37:00:26 ouranos island/end time of completion, 48:50:33

my intrinsic explorative gameplay style caused what was about ~20hrs for most other people to be almost 50hrs for me my first time, again spread through a month. the game was said to be 20-60hrs so i guess they were right, but if this new game section takes ~3hrs, it would take me 10-20. more accurately im a completionist type of guy. when i wasnt in Cyberspace i was going around the islands solving puzzles, fighting Guardians, experiencing Starfalls (Starfall+ goes WAY too hard, btw whats with all the + signs, there are new guardians, i saw a Spider+ which is white coloured and shot lots of missiles at me) so i could go fishing with my man Big, which also bumped up my game time, and finding Koco around the map which were probably the biggest contributor why I capped my adventure at 48 hours.

(^ my intrinsic explorative gameplay style likely caused by who else?) they werent necessary for 100%, even Update 2 doesnt list them as needed but i went for as many as i could just because i wanted to. as for my time in post-game, it was spent fishing, rerunning Cyberspace stages, particularly 4-2, finding Koco in places i missed when I thought id been everywhere (and i mean EVERYwhere). all other time was just spent running and rolling by the time Update 2 came out. im a bit bummed that i lost my first ever save. i wont be able to look back and show people "this was the file i sank all my time and love into because i only played through the game once and never looked back", but going through again is both refreshing and will be unsurprising since i will know the events. it wont be like majoras mask not playing for eight years. its like kid icarus uprising, where I never knew what was happening next, and i would send my friend who loaned me the game accurate memes relating to the chapter i just finished (big surprise, chapter 6 is my most played chapter). i was all like "wooooah, that happened and oooooh" thankfully, i still have my scrapbook, i.e. the photos and videos i took via the switch's capture button, stringing together my first moments ("you. leave. immediately." - Sage) to the end ("so... that was fun!" - Sonic). i should compile them into video form. maybe this will be good. God knows im far too late and cant recover anything, so heres to a clean slate to new Frontiers.

(also you still cant manually delete saves. i tweeted to the game director Morio Kishimoto about it, hoping something that i said could change something i want to be better)

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic frontiers #rip my beloved past save data

[badluckblackjack]

Alex here. So this is going to be a bonkers thing to post but I need to throw it out there or Im not going to be able to continue my day which would be bothersome. Right now I feel like i can’t move on because i can’t make it right with anyone except the canonmates I have. And god i’m so fucking lucky to know them. Being able to make peace with Karl Wilbur charlie and george of all people… god i’m the luckiest guy on earth which is the funniest thing ever considering the url i chose for this. But i’m a greedy bastard and you all know this. I want to be able to be friends with everyone again and listen to how they feel. Tell them how I feel. So throwing it out into the void helps because maybe someone important will see it. Below the cut i’m going to continue talking and i’m going to try not to feel mortified for posting this. The soundtrack to this post is message in a bottle by the police.

Basically as a blanket statement im sorry. And not in the shitty half assed way i did it in source. Believe me i have personalized apologies for all of you people. I think about you all the time and i know what ive done wrong... I still struggle with taking accountability and blaming other people, i wont lie, but god im trying so hard. I want to be better for you all.

For most intents and purposes i am better. I think in this life im more like Tubbo or Aimsey was. I know the right thing to do is to keep striving to be kind. Never give in. Power is never what i needed and nobody else needs it either. We just need to work hard to protect ourselves and our loved ones, and accept each other. I still have my moments but. You know.

I got so far with this and now I dont really know what to write. I dont really know what to do except go down the list.

Tommy i should have been better to you...i should have been there more. Having abandonment issues isnt an excuse for leaving you alone. And im tired of people acting like i was soooo good to you! like for fucks sake man i really wasnt, i did the bare minimum maybe 25% of the time, most everyone else just somehow sucked harder than that. I really dont deserve that praise. But this time around I know what i would do. Im not afraid to cut in and defend you because i dont have my own personal beefs wrapped up in everything. I just want to help you now like i should have then. And if you dont need my help then we could goof off. Or you could not talk to me at all, thats genuinely fine too. Im sorry i was so selfish. You deserve good people in your life. You deserve security, safety, and good fucking friends.

Tubbo im sorry im such a stubborn ass. None of how i treated you in las nevadas was okay and none of what happened was okay. It was just as much my fault as it was wilburs. And...listen man, I dont know. I know youll feel weird that i said this, and youre free to feel weird, or be mad, but. That festival was the worst day of my fucking life. I have never felt so stupid, useless, and incompetent in my entire life. Because you were my best friend. I should have gotten us out of there way before then. Im sorry i got us into that mess. None of what ... you know, he did is an excuse for that. So.. i wish i could go back and undo it. Or something. God im fucking crying writing this HAHA i love you toby i hope thats proof.

Jack , youre probably looking at this like im insane if youre reading this, but i just want you to know, you didnt deserve what happened to you, and im glad you were my friend, and also im sorry i stole so much of your stuff. I liked your pants that you would wear.

Fundy... you know its complicated, i know its complicated, its fine. For what its worth, im sorry for never being a true friend to you. I hope that wherever you are youre happy. I really, really dont expect that you would ever want to talk to any of us ever again besides probably Eret, but just know, my door is wide open to you. Through everything, im still wanting you around. And i can do way better this time. Ill take care of you as much as i can.

Ranboo, you deserved better. Im sorry i never got to know you very well. Im gonna be honest, pretty much everything you do makes me angry, but it just makes me angry because it reminds me of myself? If we were to speak i would get ahold of myself and not take that out on you, because you dont deserve that, but I dont really know how to apologize without bringing that into it. I see so much of myself in you. Youre growing. Im proud of you. Keep trying your best. This sounds so fucking condescending AHAHA sorry buddy.

Technoblade, you were a victim, and you didnt deserve any of what I did to you. you werent even a person to me, you were a symbol of everything that made me hate myself; you were actually powerful, i was scared of you, and you were mentally strong, too. Its not okay to treat someone that way. In this life ive been able to let go, so you dont have to worry about my annoying ass on your case anymore, ever again. Youre really cool. I want to be able to appreciate that for what it is without letting how much i dont like myself get in the way. Pride is stupid! You are awesome.

Purpled... Im never going to do anything like that again. You have my word. And for what its worth, im sorry. You didnt deserve any of that. I think youre really cool, and I always have thought that, so just... stay swaggy? I dont fucking know. Go keep doing awesome things. Im not going into detail here because Im trying to spare you the annoyance lol.

Nikki, I love you. Our friendship is basically the nicest memory i have of the whole fucking server. Im sorry we werent closer and didnt stay in touch. YOU WERE IMPORTANT TO ME. so fucking important. Also karl misses you too but dont tell him i told you. I hope you are doing something creative lately. My current demeanor is similar to yours back then so I think we could get along preetttyyyyy well again....wink...please be my friend again. If i sound desperate its because i am. WINK.

Okay...Bad. Let's get into it. I still think i was right to try to stop you, but I was wrong for holding a grudge, and i was wrong for trying to tell you that you should be striving for your own power or something stupid like that. The way to feel at peace with yourself is to hang out with your friends. You know this, i know this, we both got BRUTALLY taught this lesson over and over, so lets either just silently acknowledge this and never speak to each other again or bury the hatchet and be buddies.

Connor if youre reading this i love you.

Sam, we had the most unhealthy dynamic on earth, and I think its best if we probably never speak to each other again just because I still feel really unresolved about everything so I know im going to accidentally end up trying to forcefully recreate how it used to be. But, i shouldnt have pushed you around, and Im sorry. I shouldnt have done what i did to dream either but I dont think an apology is enough to even begin covering that. Just know... i know it was wrong and its never going to happen again. I wont let it happen again. I have control over myself, at least, and nothing that bad is ever going to happen again.

Foolish... I care about you so fucking much. Im sorry for pushing you around, too. I should never have manipulated you into joining my country, and I should have never lashed out at you either. This is going to sound stupid but it felt like if I was actually nice to you and treated you how I wanted to treat you, then when you inevitably left it would just be another time i got my heart broken after giving it up. by this logic at least if i was mean it was still my fault and i had control over the situation. Its fucked up, and sucky, and you deserve better, so much better. So, im sorry, and i hope things are going well for you. I hope the people around you appreciate how fucking awesome you are. Im not afraid to say it now, youre fucking AWESOME, youre the coolest motherfucker around. Thank you for everything youve done for me.

Tina, i didnt meet you in source yet, but I know i loved you. So just know that. Lets be friends? Karl misses you.

Sapnap...I dont really know where to start here because theres so much to say. Im sorry i left. Im sorry i didnt believe you when you said karl was sick. Im sorry i didnt try harder to come home. Im sorry i was so fucking scared all the time, and emotionally unavailable, and just...terrified. Our timing was weird and I hope we ended up getting it right at some point... but for now youll be pleased to know, Karl is my best friend now. We still have issues every now and again, were both emotional little shits and struggle to communicate, but hes my best fucking friend, okay? But a piece of our hearts are missing, so just...were waiting here, buddy. Theres a spot at the table for you. We both have hella trust issues so it might be hard for us to actually believe you when you say youre Sapnap but its worth a shot right? Maybe thats too presumptuous. Idk, i just love you. Come be my friend again, okay?

And finally... to myself, im sorry. I didnt deserve what happened to me. So ill keep trying to stop telling myself that i did deserve it, because i didnt. I dont need to be perfect. I dont need to be powerful. Its okay to just be my silly, anxious, ditsy, emotional, annoying, fun loving self. Its okay to just be.

if you read this much you are a brave soul. See you next time i have a letter to write. For now, alex out.

#dsmp kin #dream smp kin

[pppixelgd]

How to not drop the level you’re grinding (and not lose motivation)

ok so I’ve been seeing this same process happen to most of the people I know

someone finds a demon they want to beat

they start grinding the demon

they have a bad experience with the demon

they drop the demon

repeat 20x

sooo

Here’s some stuff that helps me beat demons without dropping them

(please note that I have adhd so you might not relate to some of the stuff I describe)

Chapter 1. Physical stuff

1. Take short breaks

I know this might sound counterintuitive (I mean, if you play the level less you wont beat it as quickly, right??)

but, think about what usually happens if you play a level for too long

you play the level > get mad > you keep playing level > get more mad > you play worse because you’re mad > repeat until you drop the level due hating the level’s guts

and if you’re playing worse because you’re mad, you’re going to take longer with the level, and I’m assuming you don’t want that

I would suggest that as soon as you realize you’re playing worse due to anger, you should take a break until you aren’t angry and then continue grinding.

(and if you are still playing badly, that probably means you should probably stop playing for the day because you’re burning out)

2. Only grind levels you know you can beat

now, this may seem obvious, but I have seen almost all of my friends make this mistake

and that mistake is... *drumroll*

Trying to beat levels that aren’t their skillset and are too hard for them

I have seen SO MANY people think that they could jump to a top 10 from something cataclysm difficulty, hell, even I thought I could do it! But take it from someone who tried to jump to Sakupen Circles from cataclysm, jumping. sucks.

Why does jumping suck you ask?

it doesn’t have quick progress

now I know that sounds weird, but lets be real, you’re probably not gonna like a level if you’re only making progress once every 2 weeks

it’s missing that dopamine rush you get from making progress, and honestly, that completely throws me off tbh

3. list placements don’t matter

I’ve seen a lot people think that lower on the list = easier extreme = they can beat it

let me tell you this

List placements are based on the average opinion, and I am assuming your skillset isn’t perfectly average

if your skill set is wave and you’re bad at cube timings then you will think that sonic wave is easier than black blizzard, despite blbl being ~30 80 spots below sw, and vice versa

4. there are extremes other than list demons

not much more needs to be said about this

instead of looking at pointercrate to find extremes, just look through gd/youtube and play ones you find interesting, you’ll have a better chance at finding an extreme that you like if you do that

Chapter 2. Mental stuff

1. Don’t set your expectations too high

This.

I have seen almost all of my friends fall victim to this problem.

When you set your expectations too high, you wont be able to reach them, and if you don’t achieve your goals, it might lead to anger/sadness, and you might end up losing motivation with gd.

also, uhh, this too

1 ½ . Don’t set your expectations too low

If your expectations are too low, you will meet them too fast, and if you keep meeting them too fast, you will get used to achieving goals quickly, and then when you meet your first road block, and you don’t get it quickly like you’re used to, you will lose your temper wayy quicker than normal.

2. You wont become a pro overnight, don’t hope that you will

I know, I know, this is the most overused saying like.. ever, but its true!

you’re not going to become a pro instantly like spaceuk (unless you have savant syndrome or something), skill takes time to build!

and if you hope that you will just magically become a top player then you are just going to be disappointed

3. it’s ok to take a break

Please, never push yourself too far.

I have seen so many people try to keep grinding and grinding levels despite them being obviously burnt out. Hell, even I have done this on multiple occasions.

Yes, you are determined, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a break every once in a while

remember, this isn’t a competition, you can stop whenever you like.

Extra stuff

Keep calm during grinds

brute force determination is what will get you through the level

only beat levels you want to beat

play on whatever fps you want, ignore what people say

don’t play gd for too long

ok bye cya later

#gdtumblr #geometry dash #gd #geometrydash #advice #gdadvice

[corruptedconfessions]

Fatgum drabble

Prompt: "Comfortable? How could I be right now?" 

TW: Kidnapping, feederism (hinted), Yandere themes in general

~~ Small whimpers fell from your lips as you squirmed desperately, trying to escape hopelessly. Arching up lead to you pressing against a large body and arching back left you pressing helplessly against the mattress below you. You couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly as large surprisingly deft fingers tied you securely to the headboard. Soft silks bit into your skin as you immediately yanked on them, trying desperately to pull loose the second Taishiro pulled back to admire his work.  “There we are~ How is that, gumdrop? Comfortable?” A frustrated sob pushed out before you could stop it, tears burning painfully in your eyes but refusing to fall. “Comfortable? How could I be comfortable right now?!” A dry sob caused you to shake in place, lungs aching and clenching painfully. You jerked your head away, turning to the side as a hand moved to cup your cheek. You squeezed your eyes shut to avoid the pained look on the BMI hero’s face as you shied away from his touch.

”Oh, Gumdrop. You know I don’t have a choice, I have to leave for my patrol. You know id rather stay here with you~”

You cried harder, thrashing against your bonds even more, kicking your feet angrily, cursing when they just bounced off the hero’s stomach uselessly.  “That’s not what I mean and you know it! Let me go Taishiro! Please! Please! Just let me go!”

You sobbed, tears finally starting to stream down your face, getting a sympathetic coo from the hero sat in front of you. This time the hand followed you when you flinched away, the pillow behind your head stopping you from escaping the thumb gently wiping away your tears. The ache in your chest just grew larger under the gentle touch, You wanted so desperately to take comfort in the touch like you use to. To press into the hand and snuggle against the warm comfortable body. You wanted everything to go back to the way it was before. You wanted to love and trust Tai again….but you couldn’t. “Don’t cry, Don’t cry. It’s okay. Are you still hungry, is that it? You always get so emotional when you need to be fed.” You flinched back harder, feet kicking out desperately as he started to stand up, pulling away from you. 

”No! No more! Im not hungry!”

You whimpered desperately, your stomach already aching and stuffed much too full after the meal that had been practically shoved down your throat before you were carried in here to be tied down. He didn’t know when he would be back and he didn’t want you to go hungry was his excuse. Part of you wondered if he purposely made you sick so you wouldnt be able to escape, or if you did you wouldn’t get far. You felt like the second someone even pressed on your stomach that you’d throw up.  “Im sorry, im sorry. I just didn’t want you to go.”

You whimpered softly curling in slightly on yourself, ashamed of how quickly the fight died out inside of you. Anxiety still curled in your gut, but you were smart enough to tell when you were making a situation worse. Clearly, that was the right thing to say too, for the first time in weeks Taishiro’s face lit up, a familiar sweet smile showing up on his face as he leaned in to kiss your forehead.

”I know it’s hard, gumdrop. I promise it wont be much longer.”  He reached out to stroke your hair gently as your stomach dropped at the news. It should be good news, a promise that you wont be tied up and left for hours on end, long enough that some days you got bedsores by the time he got back to untie you. But instead it just filled you with dread and anxiety. It had been nearly two months since your lover had kidnapped you, and he had made it crystal clear he would never let you go, not if he could help it. So what exactly was he planning that was secure enough that he could leave you alone without feeling like he needed to tie you down…was it hubris or was your time window of being able to escape more easily getting smaller? You allowed him to cradle you a few moments longer, forcing yourself to hold still as fingers ran through your hair as you were held up at an angle that made your back and wrists cramp painfully. Much to your relief he didn’t hold you there long, instead gently lowering you back down to your pile of pillows, a soft sad smile on his face.

”Maybe I can move the tv into here for you once im home.” You forced another smile, pushing it wider this time as you nodded eagerly. The tears were finally drying on your cheeks and you willed yourself to not start crying again, no matter how desperately you wanted to looking into his eyes.

”I..would like that.”

Your voice was quiet, rougher but he didn’t react to that, instead grinning wider as he gave you one last kiss on your head.

”Ill bring you back some takoyaki.” With that the hero stood, towering over you for a moment before he turned and left, gently shutting the bedroom door behind him, leaving you in darkness. 

#fatgum x reader #yandere #reader insert #yandere fatgum

[nibeul]

Ok, I know this will take a great deal of your time, but I was startled to see that socialism wont be able to benefit POC like us. I dont want a capitalist society, and socialism sounded appealing, but it seems like that isnt the case. I would always like to learn and understand more. If it's ok with you, are there any sources or posts that discusses this?

alright, it’s early morning hours and I’m tired but I’m up working anyways so I might as well answer this. I don’t have any linked sources atm because it’s actually not a topic that’s talked about a lot, though I’ll be grabbing some basic definitions from the dictionary and such. for the most part, I’ll be running with my own thoughts.

socialism and communism are political and economic theories. communism is the ultimate goal for a lot of people while socialism is the stepping stone to get there (aka socialism is the halfway to communism, in a broad sense). Below are your definitions for easy access:

now I’m going to assume that we’re talking about the US specifically. As of now, we know that the US is a capitalist society, I.e., market is controlled by private owners for profit instead of by the state. Surprisingly, China is also technically a capitalist society that is controlled by the communist part just in the way that it functions market wise (this is a broad generalization however, it’s a bit more complicated than that), so the argument that communism is bad because of countries like China, or that socialism is bad because of unions like the USSR (which.. also isn’t really socialist? it’s run by a communist party similar to China but it’s honestly authoritarian under the veil of “socialism”) isn’t really founded in fact.

(I apologize if you already know this information, I’m trying to make this as informative as possible so please bear with me) Imperial powers have actually intentionally meddled with growing socialist countries—I believe Brazil and Cuba are two examples of this, though again, it’s harder to find discussions on this because the US does a lot more censoring of its history than we’re led to believe/it just isn’t talked about as much thanks to propaganda/intentional framing—which has resulted in destabilization and makes the argument that socialism is inherently bad easier to make. That being said, communism and socialism aren’t the miracle “fix it” for all the issues the US has right now.

Now, I’m not going to claim that I have the end all know all on political/economic theories. I haven’t done extensive reading on these topics/systems and I’ve made some broad generalizations in order to get my point across in an err.. digestible manner? I don’t mean that in a condescending way, more so that if I tried to get into the nuance of everything I would confuse myself and probably everyone else reading because there’s a lot. With that cleared, socialism and communism are going to sound a lot more appealing than what we have going now (which is valid). That being said, capitalism is heavily engrained in US American society, and it’s going to take years to move toward that, assuming that it even gets to a point of acknowledgement with the higher ups.

The thing is, that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon. Why’s that? Because the US political spectrum actually leans heavily right. The biggest lie of the two party system (which I do not like at all, and I think a lot of US Americans actually share that sentiment) is that it shows the full scope of political ideology when in fact we have one of the smallest political scopes in the world. Most countries have multiple parties (Ireland is a pretty good example, it has its own problems but it’s definitely more politically diverse) but the US is unique in the fact that we only have two, which forces you to mold yourself to its constraints (which is a whole other issue). I don’t want to get too far into that, but you might be familiar with this image:

which I won’t flat out say is a clear cut, accurate representation of the current spectrum, but it does give you the general idea (it should come up if you search on Google). We are nowhere near being able to convert to a socialist or communist system, much less function properly with one because of our current political spectrum. That is the first issue to kinda clear because a lot of people assume it is just a shift that will happen? Which is definitely not how it will work, sorry that it took me a bit to get here but I wanted to clear some background information before making conclusions.

Now to get at the core of your question, why doesn’t socialism and communism benefit us (in a broad sense)? The simple answer is racism functions separately from capitalism and can survive on its own, hence why converting to socialism or communism doesn’t actually address the problem. Here’s another issue: white leftists are just as racist as white conservatives, they’re literally just more deceitful with their racism. When a good chunk of the people backing the movement are ignorant of their own biases, you encounter yet another problem. Communism and socialism do not fix racism, as much as people want to believe it does, changing the political and economic system a country functions with does not address the core root of an already inherently racist system. My end goal is the dismantling of the current system of white supremacy, and communism/socialism are not going to suddenly get us there.

#nibeul says fuck #free to RB #I’m tired lmao sorry if this is a mess #politics #communism #socialism

[quokkacore]

with great power I [lee jeno]

summary: there are two things jeno loves most about his life. one being spiderman, the other being you, his best friend. there’s just one issue: after your father’s death, you decide you hate both spiderman and yourself.

pairing: lee jeno x reader

genre: superhero au, high school au, coming of age, best friends to strangers(ish) to lovers, fluff, ANGST, minor crack

warnings (for this chapter): language, violence, gun violence, the mafia, parental death, police presence, sexual references, bullying (ily san im sorry), the dreamies being dicks to each other, police corruption, towards the end jeno experiences something similar to sensory overload, americanized names, pop culture references, VERY jeno centric

song rec: we go up - nct dream // any song - zico // 21 questions - waterparks // talk (remix feat. megan thee stallion & yo gotti) - khalid // sunrise - ateez // i really like you - carly rae jepsen // dare - gorillaz // stray kids - the tortoise and the hare

word count: 10.5k

a/n: this is so late...... i blame attack on titan. but hey!! better late than never :] a huge thanks to @doderyscoffee​ for beta reading <3

main masterlist // story masterlist

chapter one: jeno and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week

Jeno despised Tuesdays. He was pretty sure that Tuesdays despised Jeno as well because all of his worst days just so happen to be Tuesdays. He was 96% sure that, if there was a god, his day off was on Tuesdays, or that the planets aligned in such a manner on Tuesdays that it caused universal despair and misery. If he was to take Donghyuck's word for it, his chakra attracted negative energy the most on Tuesdays.

When Jeno was 5, his goldfish Pippin had died on a Tuesday. When he had his ass handed to him on the playground by San Choi in the third grade, it was a Tuesday. And in the seventh grade, he'd failed his Spanish test, missed his bus and walked home in the rain only to find out that his Aunt Sunny was at work, he'd left his keys in his locker and that had to wait an hour before she got home to unlock it for him, all on a Tuesday. 

And wouldn't you know it, here he was, late for the first day of senior year, which was, of all days, a godforsaken Tuesday.

In his eternal wisdom, he'd stayed up gaming with Renjun until two in the morning, and because of it, slept through his three alarms, one set at six-thirty, the other at 6:45, the last one at 7:00. 

He'd woken up at 7:17, to the sound of his elderly neighbor's pet chihuahua barking at a pigeon, checked the time, immediately panicked, sped into the shower, gotten dressed in a haste, grabbed a few granola bars from the pantry, and ran out the door while trying to jam his backpack closed, and managed to catch the train at 7:40, which took about twenty minutes to get to his stop, plus a ten-minute walk to school, and class started at 8:10. Not to mention he’d have to stop by the office and pick up his schedule. At best, he’d be five minutes late to his first class. But tardies were tardies, regardless, and the last thing he needed was to lose his perfect attendance streak. 

He fished out his phone while standing on the train, waiting for his stop, scrolling through Instagram, and liking random pictures. A ping! from his phone caught his attention, then two, then a third. He smiled softly when your name popped up on his screen.

[7:48 AM]

y/n: pssst

y/n: shithead

y/n: where r u ????

[7:49 AM] 

y/n: i can sEE u online on ig u know

jeno: …… i'm on the train

jeno: woke up late

y/n: YOURE GONNA BE LATR

y/n: LATE*

y/n: ON THE FIRST DAY OF SENIOR YEAR

[7:50]

jeno: probably, yeah

jeno: it's the school district's fault, why would they make the first day of school on a fkn TUESDAY 

y/n: ohhh yeahh its terrible tuesday

y/n: [sent an attachment!]

[7:51 AM]

jeno: SHUT UP

jeno: you're not funny >:(

jeno: how dare you laugh at my misfortune

y/n: au contraire im hilarious

jeno: meanie :(

jeno: im gonna be late i hate it here

jeno: it'll end up on my permanent record and i'm not gonna get into college and then i'm gonna die,,,

[7:52 AM] 

y/n: sometimes ur worse than hyuck i swear 

y/n: FIRST OF ALL permanent records dont even exist !!!!!! its propaganda duh

y/n: also ur literally never late 

y/n: im sure o n e tardy wont do anything chill

y/n: dont be stupid youll be fine

Don’t be stupid. Too little, too late, he thought, already having got off the train at a previous stop. Now, he was looking for an unoccupied street or alleyway, which, for once, was easy, taking a deep breath before he did the exact opposite of what you’d told him not to do. Don’t be stupid. 

The buildings are low, he thought to himself, it’ll be easier to see me. 

Don’t be stupid.

Too late!

Thwip!

Jeno didn’t hesitate to use the web fluid to pull himself up onto the wall, climbing in a haste, before running and jumping onto the next building. He quickly built up a quick pace, using the web fluid occasionally to swing onto a building slightly out of jumping range. 

Signs in English, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish flew past him as he seemingly flew over the Queens traffic, leaving Flushing behind and crossing quickly into College Point quicker than he would if he took the train. He glanced to his left and caught a view of the bay, and far across it, the LaGuardia airport watchtower.

Jeno had lived in New York City his entire life. He knew Queens like the back of his hand, knew every dingy alleyway, every sketchy street, which restaurants to avoid if you didn’t want to get food poisoning, which convenience store aunties were the nicest and didn’t pinch his cheeks too hard. It was his home, and most likely would be for the rest of his life. 

But seeing it like this, flying past him below as he glided with ease from building to building would never cease to be a sight to him. It was like watching from the perspective of an outsider, seeing people in their cars, walking along the street gave him a brand new perspective. A Jeno’s eye view, he called it, since he was pretty sure he was the only one in New York City.

Another noise from his phone brought him back to reality. He shook his head, stopping briefly to catch his breath and fish out his phone briefly. 

[7:57 AM] 

y/n: let me know when u get here !!!

No time to respond, he put away the phone and continued his trek to school. He had less than ten minutes to get there. But he knew he was already at least five minutes away, much quicker than he would be if he had decided to stick to the train. He smiled a bit to himself, feeling ever so slightly smug.

The hustle and bustle of the city definitely proved challenging to find a place to land without many eyes, but he figured it out eventually, landing behind a dumpster in an alleyway behind a restaurant that he knew was about three or four blocks from the school. He figured it would be a lot better to take it on foot from here. The notebooks he was carrying in his backpack bounced up and down with every step he took. 

After what seemed like forever, the gates to the school appeared in his view, and Jeno felt a joy in his heaving chest, something he would have never thought would happen upon seeing the absolute hellhole that was Samuel Morse High School. 

[8:06 AM]

jeno: just did >:D

Picking up his schedule was both quick and insanely long. He couldn’t stop himself from tapping his left foot while the secretary found his schedule and handed it to him. “Kibum, please hurry,” He muttered, and Kibum raised an eyebrow at him, but his gaze was teasing. “That’s Mr. Kim to you, in school at least.” 

He handed Jeno his schedule a few seconds later. “Tell your Aunt to come pick up her casserole dish, by the way. She left it at my house after my last viewing party.”

“The Bachelor?”

“Please. We’re too classy for that. Drag Race.”

“Ah. I see.”

“Jeno,” Kibum said, staring up at him from his desk, his gaze now much more serious, “Get to class. Happy first day of senior year.”

“Thanks, Mr. Kim.”

He managed to make it to chemistry class at 8:09 with seconds to spare. His eyes quickly scanned the room upon entering, hoping his friends were in the class with him. He caught a few familiar faces, most of which, like San Choi's, he wished to avoid. No one paid him any mind. Everyone was still speaking to the people next to them, no doubt exchanging stories of summer vacation. 

  A hand shot up towards the back, waving at him. A smile stretched across his face as he registered your face, feet not hesitating to carry him towards the empty seat next to you. His heart skipped a beat at seeing your smile, and he tried his best to ignore it.

“Hey,” You greeted, “That was fast. I thought you said you were gonna be late.”

Jeno shrugged, eyes landing on the dark shade of the lab table. “The train was a lot faster than I expected, apparently.”

You wrinkled your nose. “Why do you smell so bad?”

“I, uh… ran a little.” 

You grimaced, and Jeno tried to casually sniff at his slightly sweaty clothes. It’s not that bad. “I still don’t understand why you won’t let me drive you to school. You’re literally next door.”

“I don’t know,” He answered, rolling his eyes, “Maybe it’s because when it comes to that truck, you are absolutely insane. You won’t even let me drink water in that thing.”

The truck in question, a faded red 1998 Chevrolet S-10, had been your gift to yourself for your 17th birthday. You’d spent two summers saving up to buy yourself a truck, and that was what you were able to get for what you had. To say it was a huge piece of junk on wheels was an understatement. 

The thing smelled like mothballs no matter how many air fresheners you bought it, the engine sounded like an old man having a coughing fit, and there was a very suspicious stain in the backseat that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times you scrubbed it. But for some reason, you treated it like it was your own baby. The amount of times you’d yelled at Jaemin for trying to put his feet on the dashboard was too high to count.

You mirrored his movement, eyes rolling as you sighed. “At least let me drive you home after school today. Maybe you can stay and we can finally watch Blade Runner.”

You’d been trying to get him to watch the film for almost a month now, begging and pleading because you insisted that he’d love it. He offered an awkward stare, before opening his backpack and pulling out a notebook. “Can’t,” He mumbled, “I’m headed into Manhattan. I have my internship afterwards.”

“Oh, yeah,” You said nonchalantly, eyebrows shooting up as you remembered, “Park Industries.” 

He was about to reply when Mrs. Baker, the chemistry teacher, finally entered. She’d been working at SMHS for 30 years and had never, apparently, been nice, if his Aunt Sunny’s stories were anything to go by. However, she had apparently always spoken as if she smoked two packs a day. She was rambling about the importance of making the most of senior year academically, adult responsibilities, college, and whatnot. You and Jeno exchanged glances often throughout the monologue, hoping it would end soon. 

“Enough of that,” She said after what seemed like an eternity, “Everyone quiet down, I’m going to call roll.”

Names were quickly called, and Jeno was ready to pull out a pencil and start working with you until Mrs Baker demanded a switch in seats, beginning to call on random names in an effort to deter everyone from speaking. 

"Please not with Choi, please not with Choi," Jeno muttered under his breath, glancing warily at San, who was staring ahead, looking bored. 

San had had it out for Jeno ever since day one, in first grade. For some reason, everything Jeno did seemed to annoy the other boy. He wasn't funny enough, or too nerdy, or too quiet. Jeno was always too much or too little for him. 

You touched his forearm, and he looked towards you. 

“You’ll be fine,” You said softly, trying not to alert the teacher, “You’re not gonna get paired up with him, and you can take it to the office if you need to.” “Yeah, because I’m sure Coach Peralta would be thrilled if someone tried to get his precious midfielder in trouble.”

“Choi, San,” Mrs Baker’s voice rang throughout the room, and Jeno braced himself for the worst, eyebrows furrowing with worry. 

“You’ll be sitting with… L/N, Y/N.” 

Jeno’s shoulders slumped, but your face remained impassive. You picked up your stuff, and pouted silently at Jeno in apology, before making your way to the front. 

“Lee, Jeno,” Mrs Baker called a few minutes later, “You’ll be sitting with Jang, Yeeun.”

He breathed out a sigh of relief. Yeeun is nice, Jeno thought to himself, I could sit with Yeeun. She wasn’t part of his main friend group, but he had tutored her in math during sophomore year in exchange for her helping him with Spanish, and they’d been pretty friendly ever since. 

“Hey,” Yeeun greeted as Jeno sat down, and Jeno smiled at her. 

“Remember, these will be your assigned lab partners for the rest of the semester. No changes, no exceptions.” Mrs. Baker sat down at her desk, before beginning to talk about something Jeno didn’t really pay attention to.

You exchanged glances with Jeno, and he gave you a look of sympathy as you gestured at San with your eyes. San was talking to you about something—probably bragging about some soccer achievement—but you weren’t paying him much attention. Jeno swallowed something growing in his throat as he looked at how your hair looked today. 

It was nothing relatively new, the same hairstyle you used on most days. But still, there was a bit of a shine to it. He wondered vaguely if you had changed your shampoo, the other day you’d been complaining about how itchy your normal shampoo made your scalp—

“You still haven’t told her about how you feel?” Yeeun asked quietly, and Jeno’s head snapped back to look at her, eyes wide.

“W-what? Me. Like Y/N…” He laughed nervously, trying to keep his voice down. He scratched the back of his head, avoiding Yeeun’s accusatory stare. “You’re hilarious, Yeeun. Tell another one.”

Yeeun shook her head. “You’d better hurry before someone else snatches her up, Jen. She’s not gonna wait around for you forever.”

 “I don’t like her, Yeeun.” 

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“Hey! Jeno Lee!”

“Hey! Jaemin Na! What do you want!” Jeno answered as he sat down, mimicking Jaemin’s tone next to him.

“Well, for starters, a million dollars, and second, a date with Yiren Wang, but I doubt you can help me with either of those, so...”

Jeno glanced at the rest of the table. Along with Jaemin, Mark,  Renjun, Donghyuck, and you were watching the interaction between the pair. “Where are the munchkins?” Jeno asked, noticing Chenle and Jisung’s absence. No one could really call them munchkins anymore. That nickname dated back to middle school, before the two underclassmen had gone through growth spurts.

“Eh, they should be here soon,” Renjun said, chewing on a french fry, “How’s your day been?”

“Pretty good so far, I guess. I got AP Calc with Mr. Washington later, though. That man wants me dead.”

You rolled your eyes. “He doesn’t want you dead. I’m telling you, you and Hyuck have been spending way too much time together. You’re being more dramatic than usual and Hyuck’s being more… weird than usual.”

“And just what is so weird about being enthusiastic about senior year, Y/N?” Donghyuck asked, shaking his head, “It’s our last year in this hellhole, I’m excited that we’re finally getting out of here. And besides—”

“Please don’t bring up the fact that you’re abandoning us next year.” Chenle seemingly appeared out of nowhere, sitting next to Renjun, Jisung following quickly behind him.

“Hi, Sungie,” You said with a smile, and Jisung smiled back. “Hi, Y/N.”

“What were you saying, Hyuck?” Jaemin looked at Donghyuck, who had taken the quick interaction as an opportunity to take a bite of his sandwich. His wide eyes darted to the slim boy, cheeks stuffed with chicken. 

“Oh,” He replied after swallowing, “This is gonna be my year. I’m getting male lead for the winter musical and no one is gonna stop me.”

“Do you even know what musical you guys are doing yet?” Mark asked, “What if it’s like… Shrek?”

Jisung made a face. “There’s a Shrek musical?”

Mark nodded, and Renjun laughed.

“I don’t know about male lead, if it’s Shrek. You should try out for Donkey,” The Chinese boy joked, “With those front teeth, you’re a shoo-in.”

The entire table was silent for a moment, before snorts and chortles started pouring out from everyone except Donghyuck.

“Fuck you, Huang.” 

Renjun flashed the friendliest smile he could muster. “Not if you paid me a million dollars.”

The subject remained on extracurriculars, everyone in your group except for Chenle and Jisung now wary of college applications. Donghyuck had been in theater ever since middle school, Renjun was in the robotics club and the debate team with Jaemin, who was also in the student council. Mark was on the math team with Jeno, and you had founded the film club. 

"You're not gonna believe who asked to sign up for film," You huffed, looking kind of confused. The rest of the table looked at you expectantly, and you pursed your lips, almost as if you were trying not to laugh.

"San Choi."

Renjun scoffed. Jaemin raised his eyebrows before letting out a single, humorless laugh. Jeno made a face, poking his plastic fork at you. 

"What is San Choi doing asking to sign up for film?"

"Fuck if I know. He said he needed one more extracurricular if he wanted to get into some college in Florida and he liked going to the movies, so he wanted to try out film."

Mark rolled his eyes. "I swear there's nothing in that guy's head but hot gas. It blows my mind."

"He's a dick," Chenle grumbled, "I'm still not over how he and Wooyoung taped Jisung to the flagpole last year."

Jisung scowled. "I thought we agreed to never bring that up again."

“Do you think they’ll finally calm the fuck down this year?” Jaemin wondered, looking wistful.

You took a sip of your coke and shook your head. “Doubt it. They’re not the hateful eight for a reason.”

The mood at the table turned tense, until Jaemin frowned at his french fries, before sighing and clapping his hands together dramatically. “I would like to hear,” He mused, “About the nuance that theatre gives the cinematic masterpiece that is Shrek when converted into musical form.”

Donghyuck beamed. “Oh, it’s amazing. You see…”

If it was difficult to get Donghyuck to stop talking in general, it was impossible when it was about theater.

The conversation continued on until the bell rang, and the eight of you had to go your separate ways. Jaemin and Jeno had the same class, so they both walked together down a relatively calm hallway. Jaemin looked both ways, before finally lowering his voice. 

“So, you’re going to see Mr. Park today?”

Jeno nodded, looking down at his shoes. “He said he wanted to give me an assignment. Says there’s something big going on.”

Jaemin’s eyes lit up with curiosity. “Did he say what kind of something?” 

Jeno shook his head, pouting slightly. “I’ll let you know tomorrow.” 

Once school was out, Jeno was getting ready to get onto the subway once again, this time heading towards Midtown. It was only day one and, as Jeno had predicted, Mr. Washington probably was out to get him, because he’d swamped the class with homework.

As he left the school, he spotted you in the parking lot, leaning against your car door, texting someone. He glanced at his phone. He still had plenty of time, he figured. He walked over to you, and when you looked up, you smiled. 

“Hey!” Your voice had that signature tone of enthusiasm to it, and Jeno smiled back immediately. 

“Hello,” He sing-songed. “So, I was thinking… are you free on Friday night?”

You looked somewhere above his head, furrowing your eyebrows before you perked up again and nodded. “Yep! Why?”

“I’m free after nine. Maybe then I could come over to your house? So I can finally get you to stop harassing me about Blade Runner.”

You grinned, pumping your fists enthusiastically. “Hell yes,” You answered, “Do you want me to get like, some frozen pizzas or something?” 

“Pizza sounds good,” He said. “Who are you even waiting for?” 

You made a face that made it seem as if you’d just gotten a whiff of rotten milk. “Well—”

Your response was interrupted when the school doors slammed open, and eight figures poured out, carrying themselves with confidence Jeno both envied and despised. He frowned, trying not to react at their loud whooping and laughing. The Hateful Eight.

“Oh.” Jeno averted his gaze, meeting your eyes again.

“Yeah. If you don’t hear from me later it’s because I jumped out of my truck because I don’t wanna work with—”

“Well, hello, gorgeous!” San’s voice filled the parking lot, and Jeno took a deep breath. Your mouth stretched into a tight-lipped smile at the unwanted ‘compliment’. 

“Hey, San.” Your friendly passive aggressive tone almost made Jeno smile. “I’ve been waiting here for like, fifteen minutes. You could have just given me your number and asked me to send you pictures of my notes, you know.”

He shrugged, turning his body so that his back was turned to Jeno. “Sorry, babe. Coach wanted to talk to us about the upcoming season. When he gets going, it’s hard to get him to stop. And besides, where’s the fun in just asking for pictures when I could come here, talk to you, and take the pictures myself?”

You didn’t respond, but rather pulled out your backpack and began digging through it. When you pulled out your notebook, you handed it to San, who flashed a wink at you. You barely held back a gag. 

“Thanks, Y/N. I’ll just be a minute.” 

He walked over to the hood of your truck, and just as you were about to continue your conversation, two figures slung their arms around both of Jeno’s shoulders, causing him to flinch. 

Out of the fifteen soccer players on the team, San and his best friends—seven of them, to be precise—were the worst. The others were pretty nice. But right now, seeing two of those seven surround your best friend made you uneasy. 

Wooyoung was loud. He was also a temperamental brat. His dad owned three used car dealerships over in Brooklyn, so naturally, he thought he owned the entire world. He wasn’t someone who would get too physical in fights, like San, or Jongho, or Yeosang. But when he was angry, he could easily get you to jump into the stratosphere by yelling at you once. Over the years, he’d made several teaching assistants and substitute teachers cry, only getting let off with a slap on the wrist every time. 

 Yunho was terrifying for completely different reasons. He was friendly, but a little too friendly to the people he wanted to control. He could read people like books and could easily manipulate whoever he wanted. But he wasn’t afraid of getting physical either, especially not when he was built like a goddamn Power Rangers Megazord. 

All in all, they definitely weren't anyone you wanted near you, near your friends. Especially considering how much they had it out for your friends. 

"Hey, buddy," Yunho said, looking down at Jeno with a wide smile. "How was summer vacation?"

Jeno gnawed on the side of his cheek as he considered his answer. "Um, it was okay." He looked at you to catch your eyes darting between San, Yunho and Wooyoung, like you were analyzing the situation. "I kinda stayed in and played video games most of the t—"

"Cool, cool," Yunho answered, carding his free hand through his bleach blond hair. "What about you, Woo?"

"Oh, dude, it was so cool," He bragged, "I went to Brazil for like, a month. I went clubbing with Instagram models and shit, it was wild."

You stared at him as he patted Jeno on the back rather aggressively. "Where did you go? Have you ever even left New York?" 

You knew the answer. Only a few times when the debate team went to compete in different states. Jeno spoke up again. "Well, yeah a few t—"

"Doubt it," Yunho scoffed. He craned his head back. "San, you done yet?"

"Almost!" San answered. Yunho turned to face you, and for some reason his smile seemed genuinely kind. “What about you, Y/N?”

You never understood why it was that the soccer team hated your entire friend group, but seemed to tolerate you. It made no sense.

So you shrugged. “Not a lot, I guess. Did my summer reading. Hung out with my friends.” You flashed a reassuring smile at Jeno. “Right, Jen?”

Immediately, he relaxed a little bit. “Yeah.”

San appeared from behind Yunho, Jeno and Wooyoung. “Thanks, Y/N. I owe you one.”

You waved your hand, wanting them to get rid of them quickly. “Don’t mention it. But next time, just text me for my notes. I have to get to work, so…”

“Oh! My bad,” He answered with fake remorse, before unlocking his phone and handing it over to you. “Here. For next time.”

You stifled a deep sigh, punching in the numbers hesitantly. “Just for homework, got it?”

San took his phone back, holding a hand over his heart and raised his head. “On a gentleman's honor,” He declared, and you bit back a laugh. Jeno looked like he was going to hurl.

“San!” The team captain—Hongjoong—called from a few feet away, “Are you guys done yet or what?”

“Coming!” San yelled back.

“Alright, we’ll let you go,” Wooyoung said, patting Jeno on the back again, a bit too harsh for comfort. “Bye, Y/N! See you around.”

 The three of them stalked off, leaving you and a very frazzled Jeno. “Dicks,” You muttered once they were out of earshot. “You good?”

Jeno shook his head, waving his hand dismissively. “I’ll be fine.”

You tilted your head, frowning. “Jeno—”

“I gotta go,” He said quickly. “I’ll see you later?”

You nodded, offering a lopsided smile. “Yeah. Be careful!” 

Jeno offered a deep bow, fluttering his eyelashes. “On a gentleman’s honor,” He sighed, adding a very bad British accent to it. You burst out laughing, eyes squeezing shut.

You didn’t catch the way Jeno’s shoulders relaxed at the sound.

I want you to know now

Baby, it could go down

I don’t wanna talk about it

Baby, let’s just go now

The train ride into Midtown didn’t take too long. He spent it digging through his backpack for his Park Industries lanyard, listening to music and thinking about you.

When you talk right to me 

You gon’ have to do me

Every time you think you’re leaving 

You running back to me

You’d met Jeno when you were six. Truth be told, he didn’t really remember. For him it was like you weren’t there at one point and by the time you were, you were thicker than thieves. It was a difficult time for him. He had just lost both of his parents, and was moving in with his Aunt Sunny and his Uncle Jinki, who were barely out of college at the time. He’d had to move to a new school and basically restart his entire life. You were the first sense of stability in his life for months. 

Your mom lived next to his aunt and uncle. So naturally, you went to the same school and went on the same bus. And somewhere along the way, you two clicked. You’d introduced him to Renjun, Jaemin and Donghyuck. You were there to comfort him whenever he got pushed off the slide by San or Wooyoung. 

He was there for you when your stepdad and stepbrother moved in when you were nine and you weren’t sure how to deal with it. He was there when your mom died when you were thirteen. He’d introduced you and your friends to Mark, Chenle and Jisung. 

And you were there when his Uncle Jinki got killed when he was fifteen. And because fate had an especially cruel sense of irony, it had happened on a Tuesday. You didn’t know, but at the time, he had just gotten his powers. Your comfort and words unknowingly had a secondary effect: he made the decision to use them for good, and… well. The rest was history. 

Can we just talk? Can we just talk?

Talk about where we're goin'

Before we get lost, lend me your thoughts

Can't get what we want without knowin'

Just like when he met you, he didn’t recall an exact moment where he realized he’d fallen in love with you. He knew there was a world where he loved you, but wasn’t in love with you. And he knew that there was a world here he’d fallen in love with you—he was living in that world now. He realized he was living in that world maybe when he was sixteen, and had been stuck in it ever since. 

You were it for him. He’d had crushes before. But never something like this, where he was so aware of your presence around him. It wasn’t the way he was hyper aware of someone like San, or like Yunho or Jongho. It wasn’t out of anxiety or fear, where a shift in mood activated his fight or flight. He was aware of you in a way that only people who truly know each other do, where he could pick up on subtle changes in your behavior, but not out of fear. Rather, out of a desire to take care of you and to not have you worry about anything. 

I've never felt like this before

I apologize if I'm movin' too far

Can we just talk? Can we just talk?

Figure out where we're goin'...

As the train rolled into the station that was a fifteen minute walk from Park Tower, Jeno put away his headphones and took a deep breath.

The “Jeno Tingle” as his Aunt Sunny called it—Jeno hated the term—had taken him a few years to gain control of. And while he could never truly turn it off, he could at least tune it out enough to be more at ease. The only time he did so was at school or when he was studying, just because he wanted to feel normal, and because being aware of everything going on around him really messed with his concentration. 

Jaemin didn’t understand. “If I was able to tell whenever Seonghwa was behind me because he wanted to scare me into doing his chemistry homework, I’d never turn that shit off,” He’d said once. But truthfully, Jeno didn’t really care. Because while yes, he was still slightly scared of the “hateful eight”, he knew damn well that if things got to be too much, he could kick their asses if he wanted to. 

It was his friends he worried about. He couldn’t be around them 24/7. You, not so much. He knew you knew how to fight. Even worse, he knew that San had the hots for you so you were off limits to the rest of them, be it bullying or flirting. But for everyone else… Well. He couldn’t hover over them like some guardian angel. 

Now that the “Jeno Tingle” was on, it allowed him to sense everyone within a certain range around him. He could zero in on certain sounds with ease, and his reflexes became heightened. Halfway on his walk up Park Avenue, he jumped away from a chihuahua on its leash a second before it started barking at him.

When he entered the first floor lobby of the Park Building, he scoured the crowd of employees and visitors until he landed on one familiar face. 

He'd met Doyoung about a year after his dad started dating your mom. Things between your parents were starting to get serious, and Doyoung was four years older than you were. When they moved into your house, Doyoung as your new stepbrother became the de facto chaperone and babysitter. If you wanted to go to the mall with Jeno, he had to take you. Every time you dragged Jeno to the movies, Doyoung had to go also. 

To an extent, it wasn't that bad. Doyoung was cool, and he was smart—he was the one who got Jeno interested in computers and chemistry. He graduated high school at 16, and finished his bachelor's degree at 19. He'd also interned at Park Industries, and secured a job there almost immediately after college. 

To an extent, he was the whole reason Mr. Park knew who he was, because of one incident. It was relatively soon after he started the whole vigilante thing. Jeno, still figuring out how to maneuver on the webs that shot out of his wrists, had accidentally crashed into your backyard late at night, when only Doyoung was awake. He was standing in the back door while he was waiting for his dog to finish peeing. 

Initially, the older boy had freaked out, thinking that it was a burglar or something. When he yelled out that his dad was a cop and was asleep in the house, Jeno panicked, and pulled off his mask, holding up his hands.

“Woah, woahwoahwoah! Doyoung! It’s me, it’s me!” 

Doyoung’s eyes had widened to the size of saucers, paying no mind to the dog as it sauntered up to Jeno, before turning onto its back in a request for belly rubs.

"You're the spider guy everyone's been talking about!?"

"Spider man," Jeno had answered, voice cracking as he dusted himself off. He cringed at the sound of his voice. "...and yes."

Of course, his cover was blown, and he'd begged Doyoung not to tell anyone, especially not you. And while Doyoung had promised not to tell you, it didn't stop him from telling his boss. 

That had been almost three years ago now. The rest was history, and after that Jeno didn’t have to run around in bright red sweatpants and dollar store swimming goggles. Now, he had a nanotech suit that allowed him to activate protocols of the suit through voice commands using something top-secret Mr. Park called D.R.E.A.M technology. Direct Response Engaged As Machine—yeah, Jeno didn’t get it either. 

Doyoung offered Jeno a smile as he escorted Jeno past security, showing them his employee clearance pass. "Hey. How have you been?"

Jeno shrugged, recounting his day in minor detail as he was led into an elevator labeled authorized personnel only. 

This elevator only went up to the 35th floor, seeing as everything past that was only cleared for a certain list of people approved by Mr. Park and his security team, and everything past the 90th floor were Mr. Park's private living quarters. 

Now, as Doyoung led him to another elevator to head up to the 85th floor, which was always where Jeno got to meet with Mr. Park—which wasn't often, maybe once or twice a year—he wondered where he would be if he hadn’t surprised Doyoung that night. He would probably still be using those ugly red sweatpants as part of his disguise.

"How's Y/N?" Doyoung asked. 

"Oh, she seems okay. That guy who hates me keeps coming onto her though. He's a huge douchebag."

Doyoung frowned. "He's not harassing her, is he? Because if he is—"

"He just won't stop flirting, even though she clearly isn't interested," Jeno said bitterly, "He isn't physical or anything. Trust me, it wouldn't end well for him if he was."

Doyoung wasn't quite sure how to respond to the younger boy's dark tone. He looked down, clearing his throat awkwardly.

“So… how’s the apartment?” Jeno asked. Doyoung perked up instantly.

“Oh, now that Taeyong’s moved in and did his interior design thing, it looks great. He’s really done a great job at it.”

“When am I gonna meet this guy? He sounds cool.”

“He’s really cool,” Doyoung hummed, cheeks heating up. “Things are getting really serious.”

Jeno smiled at how flustered Doyoung, who was normally so level headed and calm, became at the mention of his boyfriend.

“You guys sound like a really good couple,” He said. Doyoung chuckled, waving his hand. “Oh, well—” 

 The elevator dinged, and Doyoung sighed. “I’ll tell you later. C’mon.”

The hallway it opened up to was lined with pictures of the company's history, starting from pictures of black and white of people in vintage clothing, to pictures in sepia tones to finally pictures of the current CEO at locations around the world: Chanyeol Park.

Jeno walked behind Doyoung as he led him down the hallway, before stopping in front of a door, and a friendly looking man in a suit. 

Junmyeon was a part of Chanyeol’s Security and Intelligence team, and often sat in on these meetings with Jeno. The chain of contact also included him. If Jeno couldn’t contact Doyoung (which rarely happened), he’d contact Junmyeon. And if he couldn’t contact either of them, or it was an emergency, only then could he contact Chanyeol. So far, that had only happened once.

"Hey, Junmyeon," Doyoung said, "Mr. Park's 4:30 is here." 

Junmyeon nodded, before smiling at Jeno and giving him a wave. "Hey, kid."

Jeno offered an awkward grin. "Hi, Mr. Kim."

Junmyeon rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Kid, you're making me feel ancient. I've told you a million times, just call me Junmyeon."

Jeno shuffled awkwardly, before nodding at the older man, watching as he pressed a button on his earpiece. "Hey, Yeol. Jeno's here."

The muffled response was barely heard, but Jeno automatically understood what Mr. Park said. Junmyeon turned to open the door, and let the pair inside. The “office”—if it could even be called that—opened up to more of a lounge, than anything. A wall of glass overlooked the Manhattan skyline, but Jeno knew that from the outside it looked only like a wall, due to camouflage technology developed by Mr. Park himself. As Doyoung and Junmyeon stayed back, closer to the door, Jeno took a few steps toward the man in question.

Chanyeol was standing a few feet in front of the glass window, working on a holographic model of a new piece of tech. His face was turned downward in a concentrated frown. He barely spared the teenager a glance as he said fondly, “Hey, kid.”

Jeno was used to this. Chanyeol wasn’t cold per se, but he wasn’t warm at all. He knew that Chanyeol cared about him, even if he didn’t really show it in a conventional way. Chanyeol was a very… eccentric man, so he had his own way of saying and doing things. 

“Hi, Mr. Park. Um… you wanted to talk to me?”

“Yep! Needed some help from the friendly neighborhood Spiderman… A little birdie told me about something going on in Queens.”

“Queens?” Jeno asked, gripping the straps of his backpack. “You mean, other than the usual stuff?”

“Other than the usual stuff,” Chanyeol repeated, nodding. With a wave of his hand, the hologram disappeared, and another one appeared in its place. This time, instead of a 3D model, a few pictures and another, smaller 3D model appeared. Chanyeol turned to face him, frown deepening. He pointed at the model—a long, shiny oval-shaped purple stone. It reminded Jeno of an amethyst, but instead of turning white at the base, it turned to an iridescent jade tone. “You know what this is, right?”

Jeno nodded, remembering seeing the rocks all over the news when he was a kid. “That’s… that’s a Chitauri stone. From the invasion a few years back.”

Chanyeol nodded, standing up straight. “These stones have the potential to power weapons with no need to recharge, or change them out. They’re an infinite, extremely strong power source, Jeno, and in the wrong hands can be very dangerous.”

Jeno took a deep breath, feeling his stomach sink slowly. Chanyeol sighed. “Cleanup of the city after the invasion was long, and difficult, and obviously the government and the company weren’t able to get everything. It caused a black market to pop up. Now, the NYPD has been investigating it for years, but they have their limits… that’s where you come in.”

“M-me, Mr. Park?”

Chanyeol gave him a crooked, reassuring smile. He pointed at one of the pictures, which was of a man who most likely didn’t know he was photographed. He was walking somewhere, face looking angry and stern.

“You don’t know who this is, right?”

Jeno shook his head, and Chanyeol turned his head to nod at Junmyeon. “You’re up, tough guy.”

Junmyeon huffed, before walking up to Jeno. He put his hand on Jeno’s shoulder as if he could tell that he was growing anxious. 

“Jeno, that’s Henry Duke. From what we understand on the intel team, he’s one of the cornerstones of the alien tech black market. He’s one of the top dogs. From what we understand, he likes to be present for all major negotiations that his group makes. A source of ours told us that there’s going to be a negotiation on Friday night not too far away from LaGuardia. We want you to go out there and just get a feel of what’s going on.”

“Just watch them, right?” Jeno looked at Junmyeon, who patted his back reassuringly. “Just watch. Don’t engage unless you absolutely have to.”

“You can do that, right?” Chanyeol said quietly, crossing his arms. “Because if not, then it’s totally—”

“Yeah, of course I can! Friday—shit, Friday. At what time are they supposed to be meeting up?”

Junmyeon furrowed his eyebrows, before answering, “Around eight or nine.”

Jeno bit his lip, thinking about the promise he’d made to you. It would just have to wait, he supposed. Chanyeol rarely asked anything this big of him.

“Alright,” Jeno agreed, “I’ll do it.”

Chanyeol grinned, clapping his hands together. 

“Perfect.” 

They discussed logistics briefly after. Doyoung would be on call with Jeno, his custom made suit allowing them to communicate, letting Doyoung see everything Jeno was seeing via a video feed coming from the ultra thin lenses placed in the white eye sockets of the mask. Doyoung would then report to Junmyeon, who would report to Chanyeol, who would probably report to the FBI. Jeno was only to engage if absolutely necessary.

After that, he set out on patrol. He usually found some discreet place to hide his backpack, and then went all over Queens looking for trouble, quite literally. Around five thirty, he stopped a robbery in Murray Hill. Then, around seven, he stopped a man from stealing a woman’s purse in Elmhurst. Nothing too much.

Around eight, he finally headed home, this time dressed normally, using the train and not web fluid. He walked home, tired, knowing that he’d immediately have to do that cursed AP calc homework. When he got home, he opened his backpack pocket to look for his keys, rummaging between his notebooks and other things. 

Shuffling through his stuff, he furrowed his eyebrows as he couldn’t find them. Thinking back, he remembered this morning, when he’d left in a rush… and had very obviously left his keys on his desk.

“Shit,” He muttered to himself. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, remembering that Aunt Sunny had said she’d be working overtime tonight. He could very easily sneak in through his window, but he was pretty sure he’d locked it the night before, and it was too early. People’s lights were still on—anyone could see him if they just looked up, and then he would be screwed. 

Huffing and zipping his backpack up, he marched up to your house, before ringing the doorbell. He shifted his weight back and forth, from his heels to the balls of his feet, until the door opened up. A familiar man with a face just like Doyoung's, but older, with graying hair and arms scarred and muscled from years of working on the police force stood in the doorway.

“Jeno?” Your dad offered him a warm smile. “Hey, kiddo, what’s up?”

“Hi, Mr. Kim,” Jeno said, smiling back. He shifted nervously. “I, um… I left my keys in my room this morning, and my aunt’s working late, so… could I… maybe wait here? Y/N’s home, right?” 

The man nodded. “Of course, of course. Come in!” 

Your dad had always been super friendly, even from the day Jeno had first met him. You'd told Jeno once that he was the only real father figure you'd ever had. Once everything settled after him and your mom got married, you started calling him dad altogether. And since you and Jeno were practically glued at the hip, he got along with your dad almost as well as you did.

“Okay.” Jeno stepped in and set down his backpack at the base of the coat rack next to the door, as he’d done a million times before. Jeno stepped into the living room, and sat down on the couch. He folded his hands in his lap and looked up at your dad.

"I think Y/N's in the shower, but she should be done soon. You can just wait here if you want… have you eaten anything yet?”

“Uh, I had a granola bar on the train, but that’s it.”

“We have some leftover pasta here, if you want—”

“Thanks, Mr. Kim, really! I’m fine.”

Your dad nodded, sitting down on his recliner. “So, have you started your college list, yet? Y/N said you wanted to stay here in New York.”

Jeno nodded, pushing some hair out of his face. “Well, yeah. It would make things a lot easier, I think. I might want to apply to NYU, but I think I’ll just go to community college, or something.”

Your dad shook his head. “You’re a pretty smart kid, Jeno. I think you could get into Columbia if you set out to. Plus, Chanyeol Park doesn’t give out internships to anybody. That’s your secret weapon.”

Jeno smiled. “Well, you’ve got a point.” 

Your dad gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Come on, trying won’t hurt!” Your dad made a face, and then rubbed his knuckles. “Have you been working out? Those muscles weren’t there the last time I did that.”

Jeno laughed, trying to think of an excuse. “Oh, a little bit? The house needed some fixing up over the summer, and I wanted to help Aunt Sunny, so…”

“Jeno?” 

He turned immediately, eyes landing on you at the base of the staircase. You’d changed into an old t-shirt and pajama pants. Your hair was slightly damp. “What are you doing here?” You asked, with a curious smile.

His shoulders slumped, and he grinned sheepishly. “Terrible Tuesday strikes again. I forgot my keys.”

You grimaced. “Brutal, dude. You wanna come up?” Your eyes moved to your dad. “Or am I interrupting guy time?”

“Oh, definitely,” Jeno answered, playing along. He took a cocky tone as he rested his hands on the back of his neck. “Your dad was just telling me about how much the NYPD needs me.” 

You stifled a laugh. You dad seemed to be holding back a laugh too. "Hey, you're joking, but if you keep working out like that, and if by some impossible chance, the college thing doesn't work out… We might just be able to catch Spiderman if we finally got some brain cells on the force."

"Ugh, dad," You groaned, unaware of Jeno's gut twisting, "Not again."

"Yeah, Mr. Kim," Jeno said, scratching the back of his head, "He's not that bad."

Your dad shook his head. "Look, I don't hate the guy. In all honesty, crime rates have dropped since he started doing his thing. But he thinks he's above the law, and his methods can be a bit… unorthodox sometimes. He’s been undermining us for years and his tech is state of the art. Makes me wonder about what we should do to modernize the force."

Jeno looked downward, wondering what would happen if your dad knew the truth.

"Well, I guess we may just never find out. Jeno'd make a horrible cop. He couldn't hurt a fly if you paid him a million dollars."

But you came to the rescue as you grabbed his backpack, and soon enough he was up the stairs with you, heading into your bedroom, laughing to yourselves when you heard your dad jokingly call out, "Fifteen inch distance, you two! Door stays open!"

He sat on your desk chair while you lay on your bed, limbs splaying out. 

"So you left your keys."

Jeno groaned. "Don't remind me. I was in such a rush to leave, that I… I forgot. I'm so stupid."

You rolled your eyes, rolling over onto your stomach to look at him. "You're not stupid, Jen. You made an honest mistake because you were in a hurry." 

Standing up, you walked over to him and leaned against the desk. "Seriously, Jeno. What's gotten into you, lately? You freak out about every little thing. It's starting to worry me." 

Jeno shook his head. "I don't know," He admitted. "I think I'm just scared about how after this year, everything changes. Renjun’s headed upstate. Jaemin’s going to Boston. You want to go to LA. I think Hyuck and I are the only ones who want to stay here. I just… I don't want things to change." 

Your expression turned sad as he continued. "Everyone is expecting great things from me. You're smart, Jeno. You can get into an Ivy. Or, you have a Park internship, you'll be fine. What if I don't want things to be fine? What if I want them to just stay the same?"

You stayed silent for a few moments, trying to think of what to say. Jeno was relatively level headed for someone your age, but even he had moments of doubt and panic. It made moments like these difficult.  You sighed before grabbing him by the hand. Wordlessly, you tugged him over to the bed, sitting him down and leaning your head on his shoulder. He could feel the dampness in your hair seeping slowly into his shirt.

"I guess I understand what you mean," You mumbled, trying to reason with him, "But come on. You wouldn't really want everything to stay the same. You can't tell me you want to keep getting AP calc homework. And I definitely doubt that you'd want to have your ass kicked by San for the rest of your life."

Jeno looked at the floor. "You're right. But you know that's not what I mean—"

"I know," You huffed, "I'm just saying. Change… it's inevitable. The longer you fight it, the harder it is."

Jeno nodded. "This sucks."

"It does," You agreed, taking his hand in yours. "But at least we have each other's backs, y'know?"

Something of a smile appeared on his face. You were so close to him, leaning on him, stroking his knuckles with your thumb. He hoped you couldn't hear his heart pounding in his chest. 

"We really do, huh?" His voice turned quiet, with a bit of a sleepy lull to it. He allowed his head to rest on yours. "You're so comfortable. Can I like, use you as a pillow for the rest of my life?"

You giggled. "I'll consider it on two conditions."

"Oh, you'll consider. How generous of you."

"Yes, I'll consider. Now, do you wanna hear my terms or not?" 

Jeno raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead," He said, before putting on his best Marlon Brando voice, "Make me an offer I can't refuse."

Snorting, you lifted your head off of his. "Okay. One, you finish your calculus homework here before Sunny gets home."

He pursed his lips. "Okay, I could probably do that. What's the other one?"

"Let me drive you to school for the rest of the year." 

Jeno stared at you, and you nodded, eyes wide. "Trust me, Jen. You wouldn't need to wake up so early! And plus, you can't text the guy manning the subway asking him to give you five minutes because you need to find your keys."

Jeno gnawed on the inside of his cheek. You did have a point, and to be honest, he could probably refrain from putting his feet up on your dashboard.

"Deal." 

You grinned. "Awesome," You answered, before nodding towards his backpack. "Now get to work, Einstein."

The rest of the week wasn't that bad. Yes, you were absolutely batshit insane about your truck in the morning, but he soon realized he didn't really mind. Not when it allowed you both to spend some twenty extra minutes together in the mornings, and they were spent joking around and listening to your extremely varied playlist. 

On the other hand, he was saddled with more and more homework, greater and greater expectations. The looming threat of Friday's mission rolled around, and it made Jeno feel like time was passing much too slowly but also way too quickly. There was so much on his mind. He had chemistry with you on Thursdays in the afternoon, which also meant that San was there. Which also meant that sometimes, his heightened senses would pick up on San dropping a tacky pick up line which made Jeno want to punch him in the jaw.

Finally, finally, Friday afternoon rolled around. As he bid you goodbye and promised to see you later, he tried to ignore the feeling in his stomach. The feeling that something was about to go very, very wrong. He went out on patrol, ready for Doyoung to set up the call and tell him where he needed to go. It didn’t help that there wasn’t a lot for him to do that day. Crime had seemed to slow down altogether. 

When the time finally came, and the sun was beginning to set, Doyoung rang in at about 7, telling him the location. An old warehouse near LaGuardia airport, hidden from prying eyes. Jeno made his way to the place, avoiding security cameras Doyoung warned him about, and found a place to hide. There was a hole in the warehouse roof, which allowed him to peer right into the building without being seen. It was about thirty feet from the ground.

“Why is it always old, abandoned warehouses?” Jeno grumbled. He heard Doyoung laugh quietly. 

“Beats me,” Doyoung sighed. 

And so they waited. Jeno wondered vaguely if you were still working. He wasn’t sure. They made time talking quietly, until a black SUV rolled into the warehouse. “Woah, Doyoung,” He murmured, “Hold up.”

Jeno leaned forward, but quickly realized he probably wouldn’t be able to hear what was being said. “D.R.E.A.M, activate Heightened Intelligence Protocol.”

Activating Heightened Intelligence Protocol.

The protocol allowed Jeno to use the lenses over his eyes to zoom in on specific targets, as well as use a microphone embedded in the suit to pick up audio from far away and feed it directly into his ears.

He watched as three figures got out of the car, a fourth remaining in the driver’s seat. The trio stood in front of the car, and Jeno recognized the man in the middle as the man Junmyeon had been talking about.

“Alright, there’s Henry Duke,” He said, “The one in the middle.”

 “Got it,” Doyoung replied, sounding satisfied. “Now all we have to do is wait for the other party.”

“Did Junmyeon’s sources say anything about who it would be?”

“No. They weren’t able to find that out. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Jeno’s eyes never left the man. “Do you think it’s something international?”

Doyoung sighed. “I’m not sure. If it is international, then you need to be even more careful.”

“Got it. I think—Wait, here they come.” 

A second vehicle, this one another black SUV, rolled up not too far away from the first car. The lights turned off and the engine sputtered to a stop, and four men stepped out of the vehicle.

Jeno’s stomach dropped, and of its own accord, his mouth let loose a quiet, “What the fuck,” as he registered the person leading them. 

“What?” Doyoung asked, before realizing what—who—he was looking at. “...Is that my dad?”

“I think it is,” Jeno whispered, fingertips suddenly numb. Who was he kidding? They both knew who it was. 

“So,” One of the men next to your dad said, “You show us yours, we’ll show you ours?”

Henry Duke clapped his hands together with an impish grin. “I suppose. Reagan, get the case.”

One of the two men standing beside him started off toward the trunk of the car. “It caught me off guard when I heard that the force wanted to purchase these. Almost made me wonder if this was your attempt at a sting operation.”

“What made you change your mind?” Your dad asked. Jeno swallowed at how cold he sounded. This wasn’t your dad, and it didn’t seem like Officer Kim either. This was someone Jeno had never met before. 

“Honestly, Kim?” Duke raised an eyebrow, shrugging. “It was you. Your cooperativeness and willing to feed us information, as well as your… insurance agreement. And besides, you made a very interesting point when you said that the Avengers Initiative and Park’s alum Spiderman is ruining the way the law operates around here. That type of bitterness… hard to fake.”

Your dad huffed. “We’re fucking tired of it.”

The man leaning against the car your dad had stepped out of scoffed. “If this helps us catch the little asshole, then so be it.”

Jeno frowned. “I’m not little—”

“Jeno, shut up!” Doyoung snapped. 

“—Alright, then.” The man holding the briefcase—Reagan—clicked it open, as if it were a prize reveal on The Price is Right. Five guns, all modified to hold glowing Chitauri stones were placed carefully together side by side.

“You know the basics. No radiation. Keep it away from security scanners and x-rays. They will blow up. And second of all, these are at half the price, along with the promise from the chief of police that my business won’t be touched, and will only be distributed to officers in on the operation and have agreed to turn off their body cameras when they decide to use these weapons. Should this not be a sting operation, we’ll be back here to negotiate.”

Jeno leaned forward, watching anxiously.

“Yes, sir,” Your dad answered, nodding. “We have the money here.”

“Hand it over, then.”

That was when Jeno made his mistake. He leaned forward too much, and proceeded to fall right through the hole, bringing down some scraps of the roof with him. As he tumbled through the air, the zoom on his lenses caused him to grow dizzy as he had no idea what he was looking at. He caught himself before he could fall, clumsily commanding D.R.E.A.M to go back to turn off the current protocol. His vision returned to normal, and he swung up onto a rafter holding the warehouse up.

“So, we have company.” Duke didn’t sound as amused as he had before. His face turned into a sneer. “Get him.”

In less than a second, before Jeno could say anything, five guns were pointed directly at him. He managed to swing away before any bullets could hit him. 

“Jeno, get out of there now,” Doyoung ordered. 

“What about the guns?” Jeno asked, swinging to another rafter. “They know I’m here, I might as well get them before I go—”

“No! Jeno, listen to what I’m telling you. You’ve done more than enough, and you need to let it g—”

Your dad aimed, and a bullet fired right at Jeno’s chest. For a second, he forgot that the chest area of the suit was lined with bulletproof material. While it didn’t shoot into his chest, it ricocheted right off him, and since he was in motion, it somehow caused the bullet to bounce back in the direction in which it came. 

The wind was knocked out of Jeno, but it was nothing compared to watching the bullet land in the middle of your father’s chest. On the other line, he heard Doyoung yell, followed by the sound of something falling. And then, as he made his way back towards the hole he’d fallen out of, he couldn’t rip his eyes away from the body as it crumpled to the ground. 

The others around him scrambled to get back into their respective cars. Jeno was back on the roof now, trying not to hyperventilate. “I’m sorry,” He gasped, “Do—Doyoung, I-I’m sorry, I didn’t want to—”

“Jeno, you need to get out of there, now,” Doyoung said, voice raspy. “GO!” 

So he did, and Doyoung cut off the call once he was out of the vicinity. Jeno didn’t blame him. He swung across buildings, feeling numb as he looked for the apartment complex roof where he’d decided to hide his backpack.

When he finally did, he changed in a hurry, before slumping against the wall and forcing himself to take deep breaths. 

Doyoung’s dad—your dad—was dead. And it was all his fault. 

He cried on the way down the staircase. He cried on his way to the subway. The entire time, he ignored people’s stares. Suddenly everything was too loud, and if he met someone in the eyes he’d just about break down in the middle of the station. 

As he got onto the train, Jeno thought about all of the things your dad had done for you, and for Jeno. All the times he'd taken you both to Coney Island in the summer when you were younger. The year Pokemon Go came out he took the both of you driving around in his car so you and Jeno could catch as many Pokemon as you could. 

He’d formally adopted you when you were thirteen. You were his daughter in nearly every sense of the word, regardless of blood. And now he was dead, because of a stupid mistake that Jeno had made.

What would you say if you knew? He didn’t want to know. Checking the time on his phone, he saw he’d gotten a message from you just three minutes ago.

[8:36 PM]

y/n: lemme know when ur outside!! :)

“Fuck,” He murmured, wiping his eyes. He knew he needed to stop crying before he got to your house, and he had about ten minutes before he got to his stop, and then another five minute walk to the neighborhood. He focused on taking deep breaths and taking long swigs from his water bottle in the meantime, trying to tune out the sound of other people talking and the sound of the train on the rails.

The walk was the longest five minute walk he’d ever taken. The flashing lights of convenience stores did nothing to calm him down. As the stores in his peripheral vision began transitioning into suburban homes, he felt his heart speed up again. The constant movement as he walked meant he missed his phone vibrating in his backpack as you rang his number.

After what seemed like an eternity, two familiar houses came into his line of vision, and his shoulders slumped as he spotted you on your porch, looking small and teary, curled up into a little ball. In one hand, you were clutching your phone.

His stomach twisted as he put on a confused tone, even though he knew damn well that you knew. “...Y/N?”

You stood up, running to him and burying yourself into his chest, crumpling into his arms. You would have fell over if Jeno hadn’t held both of you up. 

“Jeno,” You sobbed, “You’re n-not go-onna believe it.”

He brought a hand up to caress your hair, holding back tears of his own as he asked a question he already knew the answer to.

“Y/N, what happened?”

taglist: @decembermoonskz @itsapapisongo @lenaluvs​ @crescentjen​

#kwritersworldnet #nct angst #nct x reader #jeno x reader #jeno angst #jeno fluff #nct au #jeno au #kpop scenarios #kpop angst #kpop imagines #nct dream x reader #lee jeno x reader #my writing

[the-shiftshop]

One Touch - Part 2

Inspired by @dark-limbo​​. Might want to check this blog out!

TO VOTE FOR THE POLL FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER, CLICK HERE 

 Today is the day I’ll be free to do whatever I want without thinking about anything else. Mom had allowed me to rest out of town all by myself for a week. Dad had lend me allowance which I can spent on what I had planned for.

Upon arriving to a beach resort, which was like 5 hours away from my hometown, I was feeling a little nervous. Technically, this has been my first vacation alone, away from anyone I know. Having the ability to hypnotize anyone doesn’t come with less worry about what dangers there would be. I may be confident to get anyone I want, I’m still scared that I might get in trouble with things and I wouldn’t be able to get away with it.

Trying to loose up, I just took a deep breath and decided to look around the lobby.

Looking over to the seats to the right near the windows, I’ve noticed this guy staring at me. He looked away after realizing I’m staring back but I know we had eye contact. He had his chest muscles peaking through his shirt and I can’t make myself look away. This guy’s interesting. I’ll come back to him later. But for now, let me drop my things to my room.

After reaching my room on the third floor of the hotel, I had to quickly drop my things and lie down on the bed. To be honest, choosing somewhere far to test my powers is not that important, but I had to make sure I’ll be going somewhere nobody I know lives, and somewhere I can enjoy at the same time. This is just to save from all the trouble of failing and letting everyone I am acquainted with know that I can hypnotize anyone I want.

Lying down the bed, I took a rest for a while. I started thinking of all the possibilities I can do here. Meeting all the men I might find attractive, pulling them in, and finally making them do what I please. All these thoughts are already making me hard, but I might need to save this up for later.

After lying down for a few minutes, only to be more frustrated because of my hard on, I decided to go out for a while and explore the resort.

Just as soon as I walk out to the back of the hotel, there I saw him again, dipping down into the pool. As soon as he descend down, I noticed that he was staring at me once more.

As I stare back at him, I notice him smile and look away. That’s already a hint, or if ever that I’m assuming things, I can always fix things up. Nevertheless, I’m nervous but excited at the same time. My own fun is about to start!

I walked near him as he keep his shoulders under the water.

“Andrei” He said.

“Nice to meet you.” I replied.

“So, you alone?”

He’s already asking if I went here alone. That’s already a big assurance he’s hitting on me.

“Yeah.” I answered.

“I actually saw you come in the resort, and you seem like you’re that type who never had been on vacation without their parents. Is it your first time around here?”

“Damn, you’re great at guessing.” I smiled. “Yup. It’s my first time here. I might need a little bit of company.” I looked at him, hoping he would get me.

“I’m actually with a few friends.” He replied, sounding a little more solemn, “But it wont hurt if I could help you explore around for a few hours.”

His eyes sparked up and it felt like mine too as we stare at each other. I chuckled and squat down in order to be much closer to him. I don’t want to play these mind games anymore, I want to go straight to the point.

“Or we can explore each other in my room.” I teased.

I was expecting him to brighten up more, but it seems like my assumptions were wrong. He furrowed his brows and stared at me, but this time, his eyes were of a different gaze.

“Ah. Sorry man, I don’t swing that way.” His tone of voice changed, slightly sounding disgusted. “I... I just thought that you might’ve need some help since you seemed lost.”

I knew it would turn out this way. Getting fooled by the nice guys. Even my face somewhat contorted to dismay. “I- I’m sorry, man.”

“Sorry, but, just leave.” He began to get out of the pool. I don’t want to cause a fight right now, especially when I just started my vacation. I should act quick.

“No, I mean, sorry. I didn’t mean to. I can still use a bit of-”

“Dude, get out of the way!” He tried to move me away but before I could even back off, my hands found their way to his arms.

Here he was now, in trance of my touch. I fell his shoulders rise as he take a deep breath in, keeping eye contact with me. He wasn’t moving, just frozen in place. I look around to see if anyone is watching. Lucky enough, we’re alone.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“No. I’m mad.” He answered. Monotonous, but you can hear how natural he speaks even under my control.

“No. You’re not mad. You’re happy.” I said.

“Oh. Yeah! I am happy!” He chuckled.

“You’re happy because you finally get to know me, you’ve been longing for me.” I whispered in his ear.

“I’ve been... wanting to know you...”

“Don’t speak a word. Dry off and change your clothes here. After that, follow me to my room.” I commanded.

It was a firm command. He didn’t speak at all. He proceeded to climb up the pool ladder and went to his things. He got his towel and his clothes to change into. He was under my control. He didn’t mind changing his clothes in public. He first took everything off, giving me a clear view of all of him from his muscular back. I want to touch him again right now, but I just let him change his clothes first. He wore his white tank top and his spare red short. Putting all of his things back into his bag, he hanged it over his shoulder and wore his flipflops.

I nodded and started walking back to my room. He followed.

Walking through the hallways was unintentionally nerve-wrecking. The fear that he might look like he’s in trace and other people might get weirded out, or that someone will call his name and since he’s under my command, he can’t talk, but luckily, we have arrived to my room.

I didn’t waste anymore time. I pushed him on the bed and started touching every skin I could. Exploring his whole body while he’s left frozen and unable to talk. I moved a hand to his crotch and gripped on his balls through his shorts. He wasn’t reacting whatsoever, but it took just one command.

“Match with me.”

With that, his hands moved up my back as I hear him give me soft but satisfied moans. I pushed my lips to his and forced my tongue in, which became much easier as he opened his mouth for me. My knee moved up the bed to his crotch as I massage him there with it. Both of my hands slowly took his tank top off, over his shoulders and off his head. He did the same, taking my shirt off. I pulled his face near my chest and he gladly sucked on my nipples.

“A-Ah...” The feeling was sending shivers all over my body. I want more than this. “Suck me off. Make me feel better.”

His hands moved down to my shorts as he try to pull it down. I stood up and let him take it off me. After finally exposing my raging hard on, I moved up the bed, with his legs in between mine, almost as if I can sit down on his lap. He continued kissing my chest, moving down to lick my abs, then finally to my cock. He proceeded putting all of my shaft into my mouth. He pull me closer as he lie down on the bed, my hands supporting myself on the bed while he’s under me, bobbing his head. I thrusted my hips slowly into his mouth. Everything feels so good. I can almost feel myself near my release. He flipped me over, now I am the only lying on the bed while he tries to get rid of his shorts. He pull my leg and aligned my hole to his shaft.

“No!” I exclaimed. “Not yet. I’m not ready.” I said. “I’ll be the one penetrating you.”

He smiled and dropped my legs down. He then moved to my cock, this time him aligning his hole to my shaft. He gave me a long painful grunt as he push himself down to my cock, then back up. I can’t endure seeing his face contort because of the amount of pain he’s having right now, but at the same time I find his hot.

He fell close to my chest, still my cock in his hole. We rolled over so this time I’m above him once more. He had put his arms around me as I thrust my hard on into him, slowly at first, but it wasn’t long until I quickened my pace. I muffled his moans as I pull him for one more kiss. My hand on his nipple while the other is stroking his cock that had been begging for attention.

I broke out kiss as I feel myself nearing climax “Fuck! Fuck! I’m gonna!” I screamed. I thrusted much faster than before until I pull out and came all over his body, spewing all my hot juice all over his muscles. We were left panting on the bed. Andrei, though, still was hard as ever. I still have not managed to make him cum yet so I decided to move back down to suck him off.

Not being able to say words, he keeps moaning and moaning as I explore his cock with my tongue. Bobbing up and down while my tongue pushing on his skin made me realize this might be giving him a lot of pleasure. His hands moved to my hair as he push me more, violently.

Soon, he screamed as he came into my mouth. I gladly swallowed all of it. He came too much though that some of them leaked out of my lips.

I finally pulled his cock out and stared at him while we both pant. For one last time, I moved near him, kissed him and hugged him as we rest.

Later this afternoon, I might need to release him back to his own control, but right now, I’ll just enjoy the skinship while it lasts.

--------------

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#mind control #One Touch

[justnerdthings]

New Beginnings Ch. 13

F!Reader x Liu Kang/Kung Lao

Let's play a game. You get the chance to vote on what happens next! This chapter ends right where you get to vote on what action you take next.

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@ancientowlgirl @poor-unfortunate-soul-85 @shang-hung

Lao was right. You were a badass. No one had ever said that to you before. You had never even considered it. But, he was right. Finally realizing it, it gave you a much needed boost of confidence. A smile had been plastered to your face as you walked with Lao through the halls.

He’d decided to cut the Tai Chi lesson short. He didn’t want to push you too hard. He’d never hear the end of it if he did. Liu would never let that go. The first day back to training you, and he’d hurt you again? No. Liu would be absolutely livid if that happened. Instead, Lao had decided to walk you to the bathhouse. His eyes watched you as you walked with him, making notes of how you rolled your shoulders and neck every so often. You must have still been stiff. Hopefully the hot water would help relax you.

Thankfully, the awkwardness of his feelings for you had faded. You seemed comfortable with him--a welcomed change from last week. He smiled as you told him about New York, but couldn’t help the confusion that came over him when you began talking about your favorite fast food.

“So you’re telling me, that people actually pay to eat food that makes them sick?” Lao asked, laughing.

You nodded with a grin. “Taco Bell really does taste that good.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t make everyone sick though. Never made me sick.”

“Maybe you have an iron stomach.”

“Or an iron ass,” you jested with a chuckle.

Lao laughed in his disgust. “If we’re ever around a Taco Bell, remind me not to eat there.”

“Okay, but I’m eating there. It’s my favorite.”

Lao shook his head, grinning. “Any other favorites that don’t make people sick?”

“Wendy’s.”

“Who?”

You laughed and shook your head. “It’s another fast food place. It’s literally called Wendy’s.”

“Oh. What are they like?”

“You’ve heard of Burger King and McDonalds, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Kinda like them. But better.”

He laughed. “Better how?”

You struggled to find the words. “It’s just… better. It’s different. Different atmosphere. Their burgers are square.”

“Do square burgers taste better?”

“Theirs do.”

He laughed again and shook his head.

“That reminds me. Why don’t you guys eat meat?”

“Hm?” He turned his head to look at you. He shrugged. “Just never did, I guess. Liu did before he joined the temple. I was raised in it, so I never really had the opportunity growing up.”

“What about when you get out of here to do something for Raiden?”

He shrugged again. “Just don’t feel like it, I guess.”

“Would you though?”

Lao thought for a moment. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Why don’t monks eat meat?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “It has to do with Buddhism.”

“What? Like how Muslims don’t eat pork?”

He nodded and pointed at you. “Bingo.”

“Huh…” You could see that. Buddhism was about respecting all life. Animals were alive.

“What about you? Anything you won’t eat?” He asked.

“Tripe.”

“Tripe?”

“Tripe.” You nodded.

“What’s that?”

“Sheep’s stomach, or something like that.”

Lao showed his disgust. “What?”

“It’s gross.”

“Noted,” he said. “Anything else?”

“Mangos.”

“Mangos?” he laughed. “Why? They’re delicious.”

“Oh, I know. I love them.”

“Then why wont you eat them?”

“I’m allergic.”

Lao was silent as he stared at you, as if expecting you to say it was a joke. But when you didn’t laugh, or even smirk, he frowned. “Wait. Really?”

You nodded.

“But you said you love them.”

You nodded again and glanced to him with a slight grimace.

It clicked. He sighed and shook his head as he looked forward. “You eat them anyway, don’t you?”

“Sometimes.”

“Won't you hurt yourself?”

“Yeah. My throat swells up if I eat too much.”

Lao looked up at the ceiling and couldn’t help the disbelieving chuckle that escaped him. “You’d eat something that could kill you just because it tastes good?”

“Only a little.”

“You are unbelievable.”

“And yet, you believe me.” You grinned and stopped at the entrance to the bath house. You turned to look at him, but he’d turned and walked past you into the bath house. You stared after him.

Unfortunately, the temple was the home of The Order Of Light. Which was an order of monks. Monks. Not monks and nuns. Monks. There was no female section of the bath house. It wasn’t usually a problem because ever since your first visit to the bath house, any monks present would quickly leave to give you your privacy… But Kung Lao was going right in.

“You coming?” Lao called back, stopping to look back to you.

“Um… No. It’s okay. You can go first.”

Lao raised a brow. “What? C’mon, it’ll be fine.” But when you didn’t move, he sighed. “It’s big enough for the both of us to not see each other. You take one side, I’ll take the other.”

You thought about it for a bit before stepping forward to follow him in.

The bath house was a huge curved cavern. It had a large hot spring spanning the cavern, and a few smaller ones surrounding it. There were older lockers here and there for everyone to use. And there were baskets placed strategically around, filled with clean towels. Monks that were already bathing had noticed you walk in, and just as each time before, quickly climbed out of the pools and changed. You’d turned your back and stepped into a corner to avoid looking and give them their privacy. The last one to leave had told you he was, and you gave him a minute longer to leave before finally turning around.

Kung Lao was grinning at you.

“I really hate having to interrupt them,” you admitted.

He shrugged. “Their loss.”

You flushed and back handed his shoulder. He just laughed then nodded to the cavern’s bend. “You take the other side. I’ll take this one and stop any monks that come in.”

You couldn’t argue with that. Monks had walked in on you before. It wasn’t their fault. You were the only woman in this temple. Of course they’d occasionally forget about you. You nodded to Lao and walked off to the other end of the spring, hidden behind the corner… still, knowing Kung Lao was just on the other side made you nervous. He was mischievous. What if he snuck a peak?!

No. No, he wasn’t that much of a jerk. He wasn’t even much of a jerk now that he wasn’t testing you anymore. He was still a handful, and probably too confident for his own good, but you two hadn’t fought all day. A first.

You dragged in a deep breath, taking in the salty air. That was one thing you couldn’t help but ask a couple baths ago. A monk had told you that the ravine was in a salt desert, and the water in the springs was saltwater. But not like the ocean. Cleaner. And warm like a hot tub. You slipped out of your shoes and gi… And off came your underwear after staring at the corner for a while, making sure the coast was clear before you stepped into the pool.

You stayed near the edge and lowered yourself until the water came up to your neck. God, that felt so good. The hot water melted tension from your back and shoulders in the most welcoming way. You sighed in relaxation as you rested your head back against the rocks. The dense saltwater made you feel weightless and you let your arms float just below the surface. This was easily your favorite place in the temple. You woke to water burning your nose. Splashing, sitting up, you choked and coughed up water. Oh god, your sinuses were on fire. You’d sunk a bit too far in the water. You must have dozed off.

“You okay?!” Lao’s voice called over.

You tried to answer, but choked again.

“Y/N!”

You gasped and called out a strained, “Yeah!”

“What happened?” His voice sounded closer, as if he was just around the bend.

You hacked some saltwater up. “Nothing!” You choked again and blew out your nose hard, trying to clear the water from your sinuses. “Just almost drowning!”

Lao was quiet for a bit. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked cautiously.

You nodded, then quickly remembered he couldn’t see it. Duh. “Yeah. Fine.” You blew out your nose again and winced. It burned so bad.

“Alright…”

“Sorry. I’m good.”

You could hear him chuckle. It echoed through the cavern.

“Of all the things that could take me out…” You set up the coming joke. You always joked when you were nervous. You could hear him chuckle again. “Here lies Y/N, taken out by a punk ass hot spring…”

He laughed openly. You couldn’t help but laugh at yourself with him.

“You clean enough?” You asked. It was probably a good idea for you to get out before you actually did drown.

“Yeah, hold on.” He was still chuckling. You heard the splashing of what you assumed was him climbing out of the pool. You did the same and grabbed a towel to dry yourself off. It was a few minutes before he called over, “I’m good.”

You were as well by then. You walked to the corner and peaked around it. He had his pants on, but that was it. It was enough… right? He was rubbing a towel over his hair when you stepped into his view, and you did your best not to stare at him. Lao was cut. You assumed he was before, but now you knew. Now you could see it. He didn’t have an ounce of body fat on him. Just rock hard muscles. Did Liu have abs like that too?

Oh boy…

“You okay?” He broke the silence, noticing your vacant expression.

“Yeah. Great,” you answered quickly, walking past him. If he was behind you, you wouldn’t be able to see him… See those washboard abs. And he wouldn’t be able to see the red hue that absolutely covered your face. Even your ears were burning.

Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about those abs and how the edges of his obliques were practically an arrow right to his—

NO!

You clenched your eyes shut and quickly left the bathhouse.

Okay. You could do this. You could do this. You were a nurse. It wasn’t like you’d never seen muscles like that… No you hadn’t. Why did you lie to yourself?

“You sure you’re okay?” Lao asked as he rejoined you, thankfully with his tunic back on. You sucked in a deep breath and nodded. But he didn’t seem convinced. “Your face is all red,” he pointed out, his brows sinking in concern.

You turned your face away and felt it grow hotter now that he’d noticed. “I’m fine. Sorry. Just wanted to get out of there…”

He grinned and offered you a small chuckle. “Don’t tell me that you’re afraid of water now?”

“No!”

He held his hands up defensively and laughed a bit more openly. “Just kidding!”

You frowned and sighed. “I just--”

Should you tell him? Or should you lie?

#mortal kombat #mortal kombat 2021 #liu kang #kung lao #raiden #reader insert #fanfic #fic #reader x character #ludi lin #max huang #tadanobu asano #new beginnings #reader x liu kang #reader x kung lao #liu kang x reader #kung lao x reader

[kittydeany77]

Alone Again

Dean Winchester x Y/N

A/N: its a shorter chapter and a little rushed because i dont want to spend a lot of time on this part of the story.

Chapter 12

Rick lead a group into the facility after clearing out the outdoor commons area, while the rest of you stayed inside the fenced yard. Maggie, Glenn, Hershel, Daryl, TDog, Rick, and of course Dean all disappeared behind the door and the anxiety seemed to slap you in the face. Not knowing what they were walking into or how long it would take was killing you. Lori stood next to you at the gate with just as much anxiety. Carl and Beth were walking the fenceline with Carol to keep distracted.

The group eventually emerged from the cellblock labelled C. They were covered in blood and grime from the dead inside. Rick announced that the black was safe and secured for the most part. He found keys on a guard and was able to lock and unlock certain doors.

Dean and Daryl stayed inside the pile up the dead bodies away from the cellblock for everyone. You helped everyone carry all the supplies in and honestly you weren’t unhappy with living in a prison. It was dark and grimey but at least had safe doors and walls.

“Y/N, what do you think?” Dean came up behind you as you were counting the jail cells.

“Well… it’s not a cozy farmhouse… but it seems secure and safe. We could actually get warm and stay in one spot i think. Are the sleeping arrangements in the cells?” Your eyes glanced around the room before turning around to look up at him.

“Yeah… but go ahead and pick one for us. Anyone you want, i wont be picky.” He still didnt seem too relaxed with this accomplishment of the day but you didnt want to pry right now.

“I definitely want to be upstairs, maybe the far end?”

“Okay sweetheart, lets go see our new sleeping pad.”

Honestly you figured being up top and farthest away from the stairs up would be safer in the sense it would give you more time. You also weren’t afraid of the jump from the top landing to the floor below.

“Oh cool no ones claimed yet, but we gotta make sure to not trip on Daryl if we use the stairs. Maybe we could find an emergency ladder for the railing? That would be cool.”

“Or a pool at the bottom? Do like a high dive trick or something?” Dean smirked to himself as he joked and it was the first time today he finally relaxed a little. It’s nice to see his guard down here. Which kind of seems ironic considering this is a jail and guards were up usually. Oh no, now you’re making jokes to yourself and becoming enlightened.

Upon entrance of that cell you had mentioned, you noticed a bunk bed with twin sized mattresses covered in stains and probably too thin to not feel the metal underneath. In the corner was a sad excuse for a sink and a metal bucket. There’s a light above but with no electricity it’s dark inside except for the light from the main, big windows up high on the wall.

“Way to set a mood… dark and dingey.” Your nose scrunched up at the thought of sleeping on a stained mattress seperate from Dean, really not liking the idea of bunk beds.

“It’s better than under trees and in the open without safety.” Dean put a hand on your shoulder as he looked around and took in the scene.

“Dean—.”

“Dean!” Rick yelled and it interrupted your thought train suddenly.

“Gotta go sweetheart.” And with that he left you there after a chaste kiss to the cheek, standing in a dimly lit room.

This was going to take some time for getting used to. Maybe it could become cozy if Rick lets you bring in furniture from the nicer parts of the prison or from other buildings nearby. Like dressers or new mattresses. Of course that won't be a priority on his list at any point.

Eventually you strolled downstairs and noticed the same group of people who cleared the cell block were gone.

“They went to clear more of the prison.” Carol was unpacking a bag on a nearby table and took note of your confusion.

“Oh… okay.” You lightly scuffed the ground with the toe of your shoe.

“Something on your mind?” She didn’t even need to look up at you when she asked this, so you slowly walked over to her.

“I just wish i was more help to the group when it came to fighting or killing. They always let Maggie go. Why do i have to stay behind? I like to think im an asset sometimes…” your head hung low and you picked at the skin around your nails. Honestly you’ve been feeling out of place with the group lately, and even Dean. You could tell he was pulling away, whether he had been choosing to or not.

“Thats not true Y/N. Everyone thinks youre an asset and we couldnt do any of this without you. Besides if you never got to the farm, you wouldnt have met Dean right? Youre here for a reason and youre important to us. Maybe youre the most trusted and left behind for a reason. Like protecting the rest of us. I know you always have two weapons on you at all times.”

“How do you know that?”

“Dean and i were talking. He said you sleep with them under your pillow or on the side of the bed. Do you not feel safe even with him beside you? Being on the road was tough for us all, but we’ve come a long way as a group, a family. Please Y/N, what’s going on?”

“We all sleep with a weapon! Why do i have to be singled out?!” Something inside you sparked rage and you hated that dean spilled a secret behind your back. What was happening? You weren’t trusted, you cant sleep with safety, your own boyfriend was going behind your back. Whats the point of even being in a group you dont belong.

“I wish i never stumbled onto that stupid farm.” You stormed off and didnt look back. Tunnel vision set in from the rage and the next thing you knew, your pack was being loaded with supplies and put on your back. Knives strapped on and gun safely on your hip, you left your dark cell and walked down the steps.

“Y/N? Where are you going?” Beth approached you, but you just brushed past her towards the door. Silent rage spewing from your presence.

“You can’t leave! What is going on?” Lori joined with Beth and Carl right behind her.

“I’m obviously not welcome anymore! Dean doesn’t even notice me half the time anymore and Rick doesn’t trust me anymore either. I was alone before the farm and i can be alone again. You’re all better off without me…” With that, you left. Not looking back as you exited outside to the common ground. Carol had followed you outside but she couldnt stop you. She closed the main gate behind you once you reached it and left for the main road.

The winter months since the farm had gotten increasingly worse for you and Dean. Just before the prison, at that rundown house, you could tell the relationship had taken a turn. No one could see it like you did and maybe Dean couldn’t even see it. This was for the best. For you, the group, and Dean… time to be alone again.

…

Dean’s POV

“Its hershel!!” Rick was screaming for Carol and Lori to help him. Hershel got bit and Rick had cut that part of the leg off with a hatchet. Daryl and you helped him get Hershel back safely and onto a cell bed.

“Get some bandages! We need towels!”

“Hold it firm! Hes lost too much blood!”

“Is he alive?!?”

“Daddy!!”

Everyone was upset and it was too much for you to be around. You stormed off into the common room and noticed Daryl perched by a table with his crossbow fixated towards the door.

The prisoners.

They most likely would’ve followed you back here after being freed from that locked up kitchen. Honestly you and Daryl could handle them, there was only 5 of them. You pulled your machete out and stood next to Daryl just as the prisoners slowly entered the room.

“Tha’s fa’ enough!” Daryl took a step closer and ready his finger on the trigger while you switched for oulling out your gun instead. These prisoners couldn’t be trusted at all. Not one of them.

“Hey! You heard him. Back up.” You pointed your gun at the man with a greasy ponytail. He acted like the ring leader, but came across as a boy with a toy gun as he pulled his piece out from behind him.

“Or what cowboy? Gonna shoot me? I just saw one of your guys cut a man up. Youre gonna tell me he doesnt belong in here like us?” His gun was raised loosely towards you. He was too cocky with no actual threat in your opinion.

“Why didnt you leave? You can leave now. Take your chance out on the road.” Rick approached and you heard Carl lock the gate that stood between the cells and common room. Good that will keep them all safe, even Y/N. Although she normally would want to watch this type of scene or her smartass remarks would be happening… must be helping with Hershel instead. She was good like that, always helping the group any way she could. After a few days of making sure this cell block was secured and plans were put in place, you wanted to set up the cell and make it cozier for her. She deserved that, after all those long months.

…

“Where is she?!” Your brows creased inward and your anger echoed through the prison, bouncing off every surface and your body shook uncontrollably.

“I’m so sorry Dean, but she took off. She didn’t feel wanted or trusted anymore. I think those months on the road really got to her.” Carol went to reach for your arm but you just turned away and slammed your fists down on a table and then you hit them again, “FUCK!”

…

Y/N POV

“Shit shit shit” You whispered to yourself as you ran through the trees. Of all things… an actual human hunting you down. Not the dead.

You had been walking down the main road, probably walked about 5 miles, humming to yourself, when a vehicle approached from over the small hill ahead. It was driving really fast, so even though you quickly sprinted into the woods to duck and hide, they still spotted you. When they were in your general area of the road, one man got out and ran for you.

Why is he doing this? Hes going to catch me if i cant outrun him or find a place to get to that he cant get me. You ducked behind a tree to catch your breath for 5 seconds. You even counted. Breath holding, you couldn’t hear any foot steps approaching. Was he gone? Did he give up or go a different direction? A peek behind the tree proved you wrong. He was staring at you, from 10 feet away. There was nothing you could do but keep running and your lungs were on fire and legs like jelly.

“What do you want from me?” You eyed him carefully, and readied yourself to run. Shooting him was pointless because the other men from the vehicle could also be out here hiding or waiting.

“It’s simple. I want you.” He stayed put however.

Shit hes staying put, someone else is nearby. They were too quick though, someone came up behind you and knocked you unconscious. As you blacked out, the last thought you had was “I shouldn’t have left the prison.”

#dean winchester x y/n #dean winchester slowburn #dean x you #dean winchester smut #dean winchester fic #dean x reader #dean winchester supernatural #dean winchester #dean winchester x reader #supernaturalislife #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural #twd fanfiction #twd #crossover #multifandom

[pearlplusau]

Attack of the Multiverse!! (Pink Pearl edition)

“Presenting....a new writing series! Here’s the preview of the entire story! Enjoy and thanks for reading in advance!”

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*que intense chase track

 A pink pearl in her latest crystal gem form, was blindly running into the darkened beach, where everything was pitch black. She couldn’t see the water, she couldn't see the sand, heck, she couldn’t even see the giant temple that should be located somewhere in front of her without any light source!

She couldn’t remember how long she ran, but it was more than her physic could take. As she slowed down, she huffed and puffed, almost wheezing from all the running. 

But her break was cut short when-

A sound of blast came from somewhere behind her, controlling whatever it touched as the torn objects such as floor boards, trash cans, and giant chunks of earth levitating around the enemy figure.

As Coral raced towards the temple, which was finally visible from the bright aura of the floating gem, another figure appeared, stretching out her ballerina leg and tripped the poor pink gem.

“Ooof-“ she exclaimed as she faceplanted into the sand.

 As Coral lifted her head, she saw two figures, no wait…two identical figures!

The closest figure wore the outfit she had before the rebellion, her first ever pearl form, except it's all nastified, torned up and darkened, as if someone drenched her with the colour schemes of an arch villain. Instead of buns for her hair, two shaggy and messy side ponytails wildly danced under the blowing night wind. Under her eyes was a trail of dark ink, making her look more horrifying than she could ever imagine! (She’s abandoned pearl, but let’s go with Crazy)

The other figure looked like the first figure, except she was completely greyscaled. Her entire body radiated absolutely no colour, just the dreadful shades of black and white! Her hair, too, was in a complete mess, but in a mad scientist style, where her hair looked like it was electrocuted, but more neatly and less frizzy. Anger was radiated from her twitching eye and her frozen W pose, the twitching eye was glowing with power, as if it’s holding back the power with what’s happening next!

The two of them both bore a damaged right eye, but resembled no difference to each other, they even look like-

Coral gasped, “No way! You’re…me?” as she pointed to the two Pink pearls, getting more and more confused.

“That’s right!” Crazy Pearl spoke with a raspy voice and some crazy in her eyes. “And now that we finally got you, we’ll take our sweet time to DESTROY YOU!!”

The pearl brought out a wand from her gem, and it immediately extended and sprung  into a deadly, pink, glowing rejuvenator. “Once you’re rejuvenated, you can join my little army, and we’ll destroy the worlds together! Mwahhahahhahahahaha!!”

Coral was only able to whimper out, “worlds?” as the crazy gem wasted no time and brought down her pink glowing scythe!

As Coral braced for rejuvenation, a pink ribbon lashed out and gripped on Crazy pearl’s arm. The scythe was frozen in place, but it was flung aside as Crazy was yanked out of her spot! As the ribbon retreated, another figure slowly came out of its hiding.

“You won’t be destroying anything once I’m done with you!” It’s the same voice as Coral herself, but more confident and sure. The figure had Coral’s face, her hair, her gift from Pink diamond. The more obvious significance was the green dress and the placement of the gem on her forehead. The gem in green shouted, “Earl! You take that freak while I take care of crazy here!”

As soon as she ordered, the sound of a gem retrieving their weapon echoed, “SHING!” with the sound of pistol fire not long after!

Bullets were shot, all flying towards freak pearl, but a metal trash can flew out of nowhere and acted as a shield against the attack. 

Coral saw the shooter come out with angered expression, as if she was annoyed of the constant blockage of her attacks. The shooter looked almost exactly like freak pearl, the only difference was one of them is a bleached floating freak while the other wore a long sleeved silk shirt with a diamond shaped cut around her gem, bright pink shorts with huge pink splatters and spots all over her body. Her grey hair buns had little strays of hair at the end, with far less cracks on her face. Earl also had the same cracked eye, but she’s looking a lot less freaky than her counterpart.  

As the two pearls fought as ballerinas, assassins and shooters simultaneously, the confident pearl grabbed on to Coral and ordered, “Come on! We need to get out of here! That ribbon wont hold her for long!!”

The said ribbon was wrapping up crazy pearl with a neat bow on top, however, she looked like she could break free any moment!

“Hurry!” Coral got up and they both went to help Earl. The confident pearl pointed to the levitating gem and ordered,  “Use your lance and take her down!”

“What!?” Coral questioned in surprise, “isn’t that a bit too much?”

“Trust me, it's not!”

Coral summoned and gripped her lance, aimed at the freaky pearl and threw.

The weapon was barely slapped away with the metal trash can, but that little distraction was able to give Earl the chance to finally strike and take her down!

Earl leaped into the air and performed a 10/10 somersault, she gracefully kicked freak pearl as far as she could! “Smack!”

The knocked pearl made no sound, just the sound of her SPLASH landing into the dark ocean.

Coral immediately took the chance and demanded answers from the two, “Can someone explain what is going on!?”

She looked at Earl, who, instead of speaking, did hand gestures that were clearly sign language, but Coral didn’t get the chance to study them unfortunately…

Confident pink pearl translated, “She’s saying we don’t have much time! Come one, this way!” she pointed to the side of the crystal gem temple. “There's a portal there that should lead us straight to her!”

Coral demanded as they ran, “Her who?!?”

“Coral, do you believe in alternate universes?!” Confident pearl asked.

“I do now! Seeing all of you here! Being literally alternate versions of…ME!”

“Well actually, we’re all alternative versions of the OG Pink Pearl, The original! I’m from a diamond swap universe where White Diamond and Pink diamond swapped places, I’m one of original crystal gems, without White diamonds old pearl.” C!Pearl said as Earl nodded at the side.

Earl made more hand gestures to say something, pointing to herself along with more sign language. C!Pearl translated, “That’s Earl, she’s from another timeline where she… you know what, it’s a long story, all you need to know is that we can trust her!”

“But what about the two we just fought?” Coral demanded. 

“Those two? I call them freaky and crazy! They’ve been after us ever since we started portal jumping! I’m not sure where they’re from, but I’m pretty sure Crazy is from an AU where SHE was abandoned in Pink diamond’s garden instead of Spinel! As for freak pearl, really not sure here. Maybe she’s an interpretation of how powerful she could get under a diamond’s complete influence and power?”

Coral gave another quick question, “How do we know who the original Pink pearl is if we’re all from different timelines?”

“Simple,” C!Pearl said, “she’s the pinkpearl that followed the Canon timeline, where she got controlled by White Diamond and spent 6000 years as her mindless servant! Us, however, were created to avoid that specific timeline, so she’s the root of all Pink Pearl. The most important thing to do right now is to look for the first Pink Pearl!! She’s the only one that can help us get deal with our...situation right now.”

“How are we gonna get there with these two on our tail!??” Coral said as she notices more rubble floating behind her as well as a maniacal laugh echoing louder and louder!

“All we need is to get through that portal! Those two wont be able to catch up! Come one!”

The portal, swirling in pink and white star dust, finally became visible behind one of the temple palms. Within the right distance, all three pearls leaped into the portal as it closed behind them!

Shooooofwop!

End of part ???

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Multiverse Pink pearl series! Next chapter coming in-

The two rogue pink pearls stopped their tracks when they found...no portal, nor any of the pearls they were fighting. 

The two antagonists turned to the camera, made little chuckles and pointed at you, the reader. Crazy teased, “Look what we got here freak pearl, someone that thinks this ISNT an April Fool’s special.”

Freak pearl rotated her floating junk around her until they got to a trash can. She set the trash can on the sand and tapped three times. 

Knock

Knock

Knock

There was a moment of silence and snoring, sounds like someone fell asleep. 

Crazy summoned a speaker phone from her gem, placed it at the side of the can, and screamed, “HEY PEARLPLUSAU WRITER! ITS YOUR QUE!” 

 The writer groggily woke up rubbing his eyes, “Yawnnnn….”

He fell off into the sand. 

“Heyyy there fellow readers, yes this IS an April fool’s special, a friend of mine was curious if i would write one of these and sure enough, once the idea got developed, i got straight to the writing process.”

“What was surprising is using us AU characters into his little joke writing, where are the credits you punk?!” Crazy asked in a rather annoyed tone. 

"Oh that? ” The writer continued," Credits of the characters are below! You can see the images, as well as the title of the AUs. Some of the characters are linked back to the creators tumblr account, while other creators who dont have tumblr accounts are linked to original posts, like from Instagram!! ”

Freak pearl snapped her fingers for the writer’s attention and pointed to herself, asking for her origin. 

“Oh freak pearl? I just thought it would be cool if there’s more than one antagonist for this special, so i kinda created you myself. The idea was, how dangerous can pinkpearl be with a diamond’s ability, and there you are! Telekinesis and mega white laser beams! Pretty cool huh?”

Freak pearl did not respond...well. 

“Anyways,” the writer proceeded, “writing this was a pretty fun 1.5 hours of the time i have, not including reviewing and editing tho. If theres anyone out there that wishes to continue the story in their own way, be my guest. Just let me know so i can read it myself lol, im very interested in your take of the situation! “

April fools! And thanks for reading!

Characters (even though they’re not drawn) 

Coral/Pink pearl from Pearlplusau - Original design by Tripixle!!

Crystal gem Pink pearl from Diamond swap au - Credit to @dreambigstars

Earl from WD steven au - AU character from @ask-whitepearl-and-steven

Crazy pearl (Despair pink pearl), Design from Shrimp.face (Link to their post) 

Freak Pearl, no specific au named, nor from any creator. So i guess she’s my AU character?

A/N: Hope you guys had fun reading as much as i had fun writing it!

Also the real new chapter coming in probs two weeks from now.

Slightly unrelated, there might not be as much visuals as there was last chapter. The drawing pen is a bit busted. 

Till then! Bye!

#suau #pinkpearl #Coral #WD!steven #Spinelpinkpearlswap #diamondswap #stevenuniverse #ohwait #iforgotsmth #april fools #happyapril1st

[bloodycassian]

“research” Rhysand x reader - reader is a Peregryn descendant from Dawn court acting as Emissary. Rhys takes reader to a museum.

Rhys’ approving stare burned into your back as you stood on the balcony, wings flared. Your Peregryn feathers were a lovely contrast to his dark Illyrian like bat wings. He often muttered his envy about them to you, especially after being intimate. He loved to stroke them and admire the softness and his muttered approvals soothed you to sleep. 

Maybe his approval was coming from the sight of your naked body in the silver moonlight. You felt a swell of heat rush to your cheeks as he approached, his wings also extended. They flared as he reached the open air on the balcony. The shimmering lights of velaris in the snow far, far below. The magic of the House retained the slight wind that blew through, but warmed it instantly. 

“Quite a fancy house for one cruel high lord. I imagine most would think that the Night Court would also be cold.” You remarked, tucking your wings in slightly so he could stand next to you. He tucked in his as well, understanding the sensitivity of such a part being touched. 

Rhysand knew how such a simple touch of a wing could be the undoing of many different feelings. From the pain of them being bent wrong, or pleasure of them being toyed with exactly right. Toying - for research he had called it. Figuring out which form of wing was more sensitive.

“Cruel or no, most of us here have spent far too much time in the cold of Illyrian mountains to settle for less. Azriel usually says if he wasn’t aligned with me, he’d move to the Summer court.” He leaned over the railing, taking in a deep breath of the fresh air. Something in his eyes gleamed, and a small smile appeared. 

“Seeing the master of Shadows in a place so bright would be quite the contrast.” You grinned, gripping the railing tight. The urge to jump off and fly was nearly overwhelming. Your wings extended, craving the cold bite of the wind. Despite being such a small heritage, your instincts were sometimes overwhelming. You felt the corners of your lips fall, the memories of your few cousins falling to enemies during the War coming back.

Rhys tucked his wings in, turning to you. Something like sadness was there in his eyes, making you nervous.  “You may leave when you wish. I only ask that you give me...a warning. So I can have a story ready for my court when you go.” He said too formally, as if he had practiced this. After the months of you visiting as a communication link with Thesan, you knew you would have to leave at some point. But you had yet to hear the order to do so. And you much preferred the scenery of Rhy’s court than the safe harbor home Thesan kept sunny constantly. It was… refreshing. Much like Rhy’s presence. 

“Are you telling me to go?” You nudged him slightly, knowing it’d rattle him. His eyes shot to you, and he nudged you back. “Never. I just… wish you could stay.”

He had more to say than that, and you knew it. “Then why ask me if I need to go?”

“Because the longer you stay the less I think I will be willing to let you go.” He wrapped his arms around you, the evidence of claim apparent through his thin cotton pants. “Even if Thesan is one of my closest allies. I may just have to keep you for myself.” His head lowered to your ear as he said it, his lips grazing your skin. You felt your core tense and heat.

“I dont know what you’re talking about. I am merely a communicator between two courts.” You grinned, nipping his ear. His low growl was anything but agreeing. His hands were on you, slowly palming your sensitive areas, lighting your insides on fire. He gave you a lingering kiss before pulling away. He eyed you suspiciously, seeming to deliberate to himself. 

Then, he snapped and suddenly you were fully clothed, and he was standing on the balcony railing. The silver light painted his hair and wings in a dull blue hue. “I have a different idea for us tonight… if you can keep up that is.” His wild smile told you all you needed to know. He leapt gracefully, before catching the wind below with a fading laugh. You cursed quietly to yourself, hauling your body up to the pillar and sending yourself soaring. 

+

“Dont tell me this is some kind of Illyrian initiation.” You chided, matching his pace as best you could. It was hard to not outpace him as he glided, his enormous wings gliding on the cool air. 

He laughed, banking slightly as you approached the small city below. Nestled into the mountain side along the sea, it didnt seem as harsh as the Illyian camps he had showed you from afar. Your mind flashed to those camps, the tents and the tooth chattering cold. No, this place was much too homey for such a camp. 

“This is… a gallery of sorts. Not many come here, but I thought it would also be nice for you to be able to tell Thesan about such a place.” He slowly began descending as he explained, and indeed the location seemed to have many large ancient looking items outside. 

As soon as you landed you were taken aback. The sight of an enormous, dark stone that took up the majority of the space outside the carved entrance to the gallery. A path had been worn around it, as if the spot had many visitors. You doubted many but Rhys even knew about the place. 

“It’s- it reminds me of you.” You were in awe. The stone glittered in the torchlight, but remained dark where the light wasnt refracted. It was smooth as well, besides the jagged and pointed edges. 

Rhysand turned from the mountain entrance “The rock? Darling just wait until you see inside.” He smiled, waving you over. With a wave of his hand, the door opened, pulling back then sliding away. Faelights slowly hummed to life inside the cavernous space. You couldnt see the entire room but the area must have been enormous. No way to see all of the things held inside in one day. Not even multiple days you were willing to bet. “Priestesses are the only others allowed here besides residents of Velaris, but not many of either ever visit. He explained, sending more faelight into the dark cavern.

“There are a few things in particular I wanted to show you.” He took your hand, guiding you to the right down a large archway. The lights bobbed and followed, casting strange shadows along the uneven cave walls. 

The sound of water flowing at a trickling pace filled the new, smaller room. The sight of the armor before your took your breath away. Ancient, well kept and utterly deadly looking. You felt a thrill of panic, as well as pride at the sight of it. “How-” You stammered, covering your mouth with a trembling hand. 

The white and silver plates were excruciatingly detailed, the sword beside the set a shining silver, as if freshly forged by the sun itself. Thesan had no armor of this quality still available at the Dawn court. The quality, the beauty of such a piece was exquisite. “If Thesan wishes to have this back, please feel free. But let him know that we have only recently acquired it. We have not been hoarding.” Rhys spoke from behind you, his voice soft and patient. 

Memories of being a child and playing with wooden swords flashed into your head. Envisioning such perfect armor like before the War fitting you, guilding you, marking you as the highest of warriors among the Dawn court. 

“W-who is we?” Was all you could manage as you reached out to touch the solid breastplate. Memories of parades, children cheering and high fae clapping as generals in shining armor marched home from the War. Centuries had passed since such armor was needed, thus they began to disappear. 

Rhys took your hand again, rubbing a thumb over yours. “A few high priestesses found it among their… storage. Closer to an abandoned temple but - I had Cassian clean it up for me a few weeks ago.” He chuckled before saying “I almost had to threaten him to get him to give it back to me. He was in awe and wanted to keep it for himself.” 

Your lips curve upwards, heart hammering. You pulled him in quickly for a tight hug. “Thank you.” You said deeply, wishing you could put the thoughts you were having directly into his head. Wishing you could tell him how much this meant. 

He pulled away from you, his callused hands going to cup your face as he pulled you in for a kiss. “Maybe I wont tell Thesan… and I’ll have to come back more often to take a look at the rest of this place.” You bit his lower lip and grinned at his darkened eyes.

“For research purposes only, surely?” He began kissing down the column of your neck, biting playfully. 

“Research, of course.” You sighed as his hands began tracing over your body. 

#RHYSXREADER #RHYSAND X READER #READER INSERT ACOTAR #ACOTAR #ACOTAR FIC