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ptergwen · 3 years

Text

from one kid to another

w/c: 6.0k

warnings: mentions of drinking, lots of swearing, implied smut, and angst at times

summary: it was a mistake, a beautiful one that you didn’t make on your own

a/n: this genuinely is my favorite thing i’ve ever written :,) i say that a lot but this time i mean it, it’s really special i think and i so so so hope y’all do too <3 enjoy my loves

there’s only one thing in life that testing positive for is actually positive.

depending on the situation, obviously. yours isn’t ideal, or planned or a blessing or whatever people say. it’s a gigantic mistake that you didn’t realize you made until a minute ago.

you’d noticed something was wrong when your time of the month came and all you experienced was the symptoms. cramps, cravings, everything except your actual period. as everyone is pretty much taught to do, you ran to the closest drug store for a pregnancy test. what the hell else could it be? you messed around a few weeks ago, so there’s a possibility.

your heart felt like it was going to explode out of your chest the whole time you waited for the results. you’d thought of calling tom over for support, but there are a couple of reasons why you couldn’t do that. you realized you made the right decision when your timer for the test went off.

two red lines. you’re pregnant. you’re pregnant, and your best fucking friend is the father.

where do you go from here?

the test falls from your hand and hits the floor with a mocking clank. you slide down until your back is against the bathtub. well, you’re fucked. what an ironic word choice.

the fact that you aren’t ready in the slightest to be a parent when you’re still growing up yourself is one thing. it’s another that this could ruin the most important relationship you’ve ever had.

no, tom won’t be mad. he’s never once fought with or even raised his voice at you. in your times of need, he’s been the one to uplift you and kiss your puffy cheeks dry. no matter how he takes this, you know it won’t be out on you. he is half responsible.

but, with how you left things the last time you spoke, you’re not sure you’ll be able to get past it.

tom is alarmingly good at hiding how he truly feels. you always tease him that it’s because he’s a gemini. he’ll come back with shut up, i’m an actor and stick his nose in the air to give you the full image. in all seriousness, it does take a toll on how well he can communicate.

you’ve seen it in small ways, like when he brings you along for press days and uses unenthusiastic smiles to cover up his yawns. how he’ll be polite in a conversation with people he’d rather not speak to, then mumble about it once you’re home. he tries to put forward the “appealing” parts of himself even though he’s more than them.

tom’s biggest communication issue is that he’s been in love with you since year nine and hasn’t said a word about it. you’ve yet to figure that one out.

you two became friends while tom was starring in billy elliot. his schedule was so scattered between shows and school, so he struggled to balance both. he often had to stay late for extra help on the lessons. you’d also been there a few times. you worked better in the classroom, and he was grateful he didn’t have to be alone with the teacher.

most kids made fun of tom for his interest in theater, to his face and behind his back. not you. you thought it was just incredible that someone in your own classes worked at the west end. you’d told him on your way home one night.

he’d heard you before he saw you. “you’re tom, right?” you asked from behind him, the two of you making your way through the hall. the question sounded friendly, and it wasn’t every day kids were nice to him. tom stopped walking so you could catch up. “yes, and you are?” you gave him a small smile, books clutched to your chest. he instantly returned it.

“y/n. i heard you’re in billy elliot?” you laughed at your understatement, then corrected yourself. “that you are billy elliot, i mean. that’s so cool.” “oh, i am. thank you,” he chuckled back, a full grin taking over his face. you were both walking again, you by tom’s side. “i was hoping to come see you soon.” your voice got quieter as you told him, like you were nervous.

tom never had much luck with girls, not at this point in his life. this was an opportunity to change that. at the very least, to make a new friend. he offered something you said yes to without a beat of hesitation. “what if i got you the tickets?”

from then on, you began talking during class and not only when it ended. tom really knew how to keep the conversation going, telling story after story that left you laughing so much your teacher would shush you. you’d eventually moved to hangouts at either of your houses. harrison came into the mix at some point, the three of you forming your own group.

the difference between tom and harrison was that while harrison linked with other girls, tom was only interested in you. he’d gotten a crush on you pretty fast, if he was being honest. it might have been your shared sense of humor or the way you said his name.

thomas, when he was being cheeky. tommy, which took the place of a pet name. even regular tom. that might have been his favorite. he loved how it rolled off your tongue. he loved, and still loves, you.

you’d gone to all of tom’s performances you possibly could, the ones for school theater included. you also gave him the push to take his talents to hollywood. tom was afraid he wasn’t cut out for the big screen, that he needed more practice and experience first. you told him that if this was what he wanted to do, he had to start somewhere. why wait?

tom then landed his first movie role in the impossible at the age of fifteen. he’d received tons of praise and almost gotten nominated for an academy award, all because you convinced him to audition. you played a huge part in keeping him grounded when he was between films, and caught him up on whatever schoolwork he’d missed.

you practically zoomed to tom’s house when he was announced as the next spider-man. you’d been constantly refreshing every social media platform marvel was on since tom became a finalist for the part. that process was probably the most difficult experience he’s ever gone through. you’d know, having heard all about it from tom.

the two of you celebrated along with the rest of tom’s family that night. you kept giving him little proud of you squeezes on his shoulder or knee. tom is eternally indebted to you for being the most supportive of everything he does.

he of course sends the support right back. although he went down the movie star path, acting wasn’t for you. you’d gone off to university and studied hard as hell and aced all your shit. tom quizzed you on material whenever you needed. he wanted to help you somehow, and this was all you’d let him do.

he’d offered to pay off your loans and any other expenses necessary because he had the money to do that now. you refused every single time, not trying to become dependent on him. he admired your drive, yet hated it at the same time. everything you’d done for him, it was his turn to be the caretaker. it should’ve been.

whenever tom wrapped filming for the holidays and came back home, you were always preparing for final exams. he kept you company, content with simply being in your presence. you typed away on your keyboard and read over notes until your eyes burned. tom occasionally brought you snacks, tea, asked how you were and what he could do.

sometimes, he would have to cut your study time short. he’d say it wasn’t healthy or you were overdoing it and to come relax with him for a bit. other times, tom let you be. he didn’t want to get in the way of your already stressful assignments. those were the nights you’d fall asleep in front of your laptop. drool on your chin, hunched over at your desk.

tom made sure to tuck you in, press a light kiss to whatever part of your face wasn’t covered in spit, then let himself out. he knew where your spare key was, so he used that. you’d wake up to a “Fell asleep studying again. Rest today x” text the next morning.

when it came time for you to graduate, tom was on the first flight there. it was during another round of reshoots for chaos walking. he respectfully told doug that he’d have to work around his schedule or replace him, which couldn’t be done so late into filming. tom didn’t care that it made him seem like a prick. he was getting to you no matter what he had to do.

he’d earned plenty of stares and whispers from people as he took his seat in the crowd. he was a proper celebrity now, so he expected it. his solution was to ignore everything and chat with your family about how proud they were of you, tom the most. he saw you go from a kid attempting algebra equations to an adult at her uni graduation. you’ve really grown up together.

it was why he teared up hearing them call your name, seeing you beam as you walked across the stage. your mom grabbed his hand and nodded at him, like she could tell exactly what was going through his head.

you ran right up to tom after the ceremony was over, leaping into his arms. he let out a couple of chuckles as he spun you around. “i didn’t think you’d make it,” you’d admitted, happy yet sad tears in your eyes. tom put you down so he could pull you in for a real hug. “i’ll always be wherever you are, y/n,” he said into your ear, rocking you while you gripped at his suit collar.

flash forward to a year later, your career is finally taking off, tom’s is flourishing like it has been for years, and you’re pregnant with his child. you’re trying to recall the series of events that led you to this moment.

you were both drunk, blackout drunk because the only reason you remember sleeping together is that you woke up naked in the same bed. harrison’s bed.

he threw a housewarming party for himself, having recently moved out of tom’s and the other boys’ place. the three of them, sam, and you were all in attendance, along with a lot of others you hadn’t met.

neither you nor tom could figure out where he knew all those people from. he’d clinged to you two for the most part, more so you now with tom usually away. they could have been from work. harrison is breaking into the business himself, small roles here and there. tom actually met him in your school’s theater program, then he introduced him to you, ten years ago already.

sam entertained himself by making concoctions with the snacks harrison set out. harry got together a playlist for the party. harrison and tuwaine struck up a conversation with some of harrison’s actor friends. that left you and tom alone, out of stuff to do, and with one way to fix it.

“drink?” tom had asked you, a smirk playing on his lips. “love one,” you hummed back and set off for the kitchen. the two of you raided harrison’s liquor cabinet, grabbing his biggest bottle of wine. he’d dumbly pointed it out during the house tour he gave you before the other guests arrived.

you were about to search for glasses, but tom’s fingers threaded through yours. he gently tugged you away and nodded behind him. “let’s bring this upstairs. seems much more fun there,” he’d murmured over the music, a grin breaking across your face.

tom is big on clubbing and socializing, however, you aren’t. he comes up with ways to get you out of these events, just in case.

“we can break in harrison’s bed for him,” you said as a completely harmless joke, no intentions of that becoming your reality later on. spoiler alert: it did. “and how are we gonna do that?” tom quirked a suggestive eyebrow and breathed out a laugh as you dragged him towards the stairs. despite yourself, you’d giggled at his words.

not one drink in either of you yet, and you were stumbling and cracking up as you ran upstairs. you’d pulled tom by your still attached hands into what you remembered as harrison’s room. tom shut the door, locked it, saying under his breath that would be a “convenient investment” for him to make as well.

he took out a bottle opener that he must have put in his pocket at some point and got to work on your wine, you getting comfortable on the new mattress. the two of you passed it to the other after every sip, tom licking the taste of your lip gloss off his own lips every so often.

the equivalent of three drinks in, you were making out. both of you were just tipsy at this point, tom holding you by your hips as you lied down, your legs around his waist. god, he could’ve done this sober. he’d dreamed about kissing you, really kissing you since he was fourteen. you’d always felt like you two had something more. ah, there it was.

halfway through the bottle got you past the next two bases, and you were ready for the fourth and ultimate one by the time you shook the last few drops onto the tip of your tongue. tom groaned at the sight of that, drawing your half naked body in closer to his.

you two had forgotten to use protection in each of your drunken states. without a doubt, you both would’ve agreed to a condom had your minds not been everywhere but where they should have.

you’d woken up first the morning after, panic immediately coursing through your veins thicker than blood. a fully nude and sleeping tom had you in his embrace, arms secured around your middle, facing you. you gasped when you made the connection, loudly enough to wake tom up. his long eyelashes tickled your face, a confused pout on his lips. uh... um...

“did we fucking...” you trailed off, no words to describe whatever unfolded. “fuck?” tom finished for you. a very blunt explanation, but true nevertheless. “looks like it,” he rasped, pout changing into a smile. your face fell at the vague memories of how you spent your night.

you definitely wanted to do it. just, he’s your best friend, who’s seen you at your least sexy moments over the years. when you were sick, had breakdowns from stress, you name literally anything, tom was there. it took one bottle of cheap wine for him to forget that?

the real answer was no. tom is entirely in love with you, for a decade at that. you were beginning to discover you feel the same, only you had no idea he already loves you. you’d assumed this was meant to be merely a hookup. from the frown your face held, he’d thought you were regretting it. oh, were you both so wrong.

“um... we don’t have to talk about it,” tom told you halfheartedly, under the impression that’s what you preferred. you physically felt yourself get weaker in tom’s strong arms. he’s not interested. “yeah, that’s probably for the best. i...” you were lying. his heart shrunk, shriveled up inside his chest. she doesn’t love me like that.

“you have to go. aren’t you behind on some emails?” tom hoped you didn’t hear his voice strain from the tears pushing at his eyes. “right. almost forgot, thanks.” you’d plastered on a smile, slipping out of his grasp. a tear rolled down his cheek, so he wiped it away before you noticed. you’d already gotten out of the bed and begun picking your clothes up off the floor.

“i’ll drive you home, then.” he rolled on to his other side, you thought so he could give you privacy to change. it was that, and also because he was crying. he couldn’t hold it in. tom is naturally an emotional person. imagine finding out the love you’ve had almost half your life is unreciprocated. it’s soul crushing.

you two found harrison snoring and on top of tuwaine as you left the house. no silly remarks or shared glances for the first time in ten years. tom couldn’t muster anything up, and you felt numb.

the drive was painful. you’d said your goodbyes after tom pulled up to the curb, which held an odd weight to them. once you were out of the car, a sob wracked through him, banging on the steering wheel and not giving a shit about the loud horn going off. you collapsed face first onto your bed. hours passed by while you stared at nothing and contemplated everything.

since it happened, you haven’t spoken much. small talk over text every few days or so, both of you pretending things are normal for the other’s sake. about a month later, today, is when you found out you’re pregnant.

there’s no use wallowing in any of this. you need to figure out your next move, one that should probably involve tom. first, you want to talk to someone else. you want other opinions and a voice in your head that isn’t your own. harrison gets a text from you saying to come over now, the now in all caps. he does.

you let him in after the second knock, his eyebrows furrowing in concern. however torn you are, you must look it. shirt balled in your fists, lip quivering. he keeps his eyes on yours as he steps inside, pushing the door shut behind him. this is all becoming too real. “y/n, are you okay?”

you’re about to cry in three, two...

“haz, i fucked up,” you choke out, tears unable to stay at bay. he takes you into his arms for a hug. half your face is hidden in his shoulder, hands clutching at his back. he lets you cry it out, holding you until your heavy breathing steadies. “what’s happened?” harrison asks quietly, both of you leaving the hug.

“if- if i tell you, you can’t freak out. you can’t tell anyone else, either,” you instruct, searching his eyes for certainty that he won’t under any circumstances. “i won’t, y/n/n,” he assures you and puts an encouraging hand on your arm. your heart pounding abnormally fast, you spit it out. your first time saying it aloud. “i’m pregnant.”

harrison flinches and doesn’t even try to conceal it. he takes his hand off of you, worry swimming across his features. he blinks at you, unsure of what to say. you’d react the same way, maybe worse, so you don’t blame him. a discussion you, him, and tom had a couple years back replays in his mind.

the three of you were talking about your futures, seeing as you were close to living them. when tom asked you two where you stood on having your own families, you didn’t hesitate to answer. “nope, the factory is closed for a long ass time.” until you were in your thirties, you aimed to focus on yourself. harrison distinctly remembered because of how you phrased it.

“you’re... you... wow,” is all he replies with. you head over to the couch, more tears welling up in your eyes. do the pregnancy hormones act up this early? harrison follows you over and sits down next to you with an awkward clearing of his throat. “do you want to be pregnant?” he has to ask because he’s not sure if he should congratulate you or what.

“i don’t know,” you answer honestly, voice airy. your eyes are fixed on the wall in front of you. you haven’t given yourself time to think about it. there are so many reasons you don’t, and a single one you do. “do you, um, know who the dad is?” harrison glances over at you. “yeah.” your voice cracks. you’re both afraid for him to ask what he does next.

he shifts so he’s sitting up. “can i know?” a sniffle passing through you, you finally look at him. “it’s tom,” you say it before you lose the nerve to. harrison’s face doesn’t change this time. he isn’t surprised you and tom went there. he’d seen your friendship growing into more the older you all got. what he can’t believe is where it took you.

his best friend pregnant, and his other best friend responsible for it.

“when did you...” “at your party,” you explain, bringing your legs up so they’re criss cross on the couch. “i thought you were gone a little too long.” he says that to try cheering you up. you appreciate the effort, but it doesn’t work. you’re not in a joking mood. he’ll stick to the main issue. “so, have you told him?”

“clearly not,” you scoff, not at him but at what you two have gotten yourselves into. “y/n... i think you should tell him,” harrison sighs out, then adds, “whether you keep it or not.” “why? that would ruin everything, it already has.” you’re getting angry now, which plunges you into angry crying, voice unsteady as you go on.

“the last time i saw tom was that night, and i guess it meant more to me than it did to him because we haven’t talked about it at all. he didn’t want to.” you swipe the back of your hand across your eyes, gaze stern compared to harrison’s soft one.

he drapes an arm around your shoulders, you curling into him with another sniffle. he doesn’t say anything for a minute, then he tries again. “i know you, y/n, and i know tom. you’ll kill yourselves not talking about this.” he’s right, no shit he is. avoiding telling tom how you feel, and your pregnancy on top of that, it’s eating you up inside. it’s swallowing you whole.

“what if he doesn’t want to be a dad? or- or i’m a shit mum?” you croak out, your doubts getting the best of you. “i can barely take care of myself. what am i supposed to do with a baby?” you’re leaning forward with your hands pressing into your temples. harrison’s hand moves to your upper back. “i- i don’t think i should have them. i... we can’t,” you conclude.

“tom loves kids,” he gives you a gentle reminder. “why would his own be the exception?” another good point, yet you still have rebuttles. “right, he’s a godfather and he’s really good with them and all that, but i’m not the right person, and it’s a terrible time,” you tell him all at once, in a rush to get your words out before harrison’s sway you.

“he’s never around, i’m doing my own stuff. we’re not meant for this.” you lift your head out of your hands and sit back on the couch. harrison returns his hands to his lap. he’s frowning at you, which you see from the corner of your eye. “i’m not going to force you to have the baby. just saying you have options.”

yeah, really shitty ones.

“either way, talk to tom.” harrison says this more like a demand so you’ll take his advice into actual consideration. “at least about the hookup.” your teeth sink into your lower lip, eyes watering for the nth time already.

you have no choice because he’s right again. you’ll never move on from what happened unless you and tom address it.

the next morning, you do what harrison told you to and invite tom over. he replied saying he was on his way maybe a minute later. he’s nervous to see you because yeah, but more so looking forward since it’s been so long. you’re so nauseous you barely have room for nerves. it’s morning sickness with a hint anxiety.

it feels almost normal when he first gets here, no how’ve you been and what are you up to these days? being as close as you and tom are, you’re not capable of such a dry conversation. personally, you still feel uneasy while he recounts a golfing incident him and harry got into the other day. you know something he doesn’t.

“when i tell you we flew, we flew,” tom makes a pushing forward motion with both hands. “right into the tree. i think harry, like, dented part of his face.” he lets out a breathy laugh, you forcing out one of your own. you’d be more interested without the fact that you’re expecting a child, his child, at the back of your mind.

tom exhales, shifting to face you on your couch. it’s funny how different things were when you and harrison sat in these same spots yesterday. so much has and is about to change.

“they had to send another golf cart to come get us. it was wild.” “it sounds wild,” you hollowly agree. he can tell you’re not too invested in hearing about harry’s terrible driving skills, so he changes the subject. “anyway, harrison told me he came over last night?” your stomach drops, heat coming over your whole body.

“did... did he say why?” you murmur with a look of urgency in your eyes. tom shrugs a shoulder, and casually. there’s no way he knows. “no, was he supposed to?” his tone stays playful, which you can thankfully tell. that puts you more at ease. “no. no, never mind. i would’ve asked you to come, but...” you’re searching through your catalog of excuses.

thank god tom says something else because you can’t find a good one. “it’s alright. i actually, um, had a work call.” a small smile spreads across his face, a proud one. intrigued, you raise both eyebrows. “what’d you talk about?” tom twiddles with his fingers in his lap. “i’ve been offered an audition for this really amazing film. everything works out, it’ll be huge for me.”

you’re smiling back this time, putting a hand over one of his. “woah, that’s incredible. i’m so happy for you, tom.” you lock your fingers with his from the back of his hand. he looks down at them, humbly shaking his head. “when is it?” “a few weeks from today. it films in brazil...”

oh. you can’t tell him now. it’s not worth him missing out on a milestone in his career for a baby you’re not sure you should have. that would be so unfair of you to ask. what are you going to do, not support his dreams for the first time in a literal decade? and, you’d call yourself his best friend through it all?

you guess this also means the way you feel about tom is one sided. he’s okay with leaving you after the most intimate moment you two have ever shared. you’ll dance around it the rest of your lives. better yet, act like the night never even happened. that’s not so easy to do when you’ve got a permanent reminder of it.

the thought makes you sick to your stomach. so sick, you could...

while tom is talking more about what the audition entails, you suddenly bolt up from the couch. you run for the bathroom, a hand cupped over your mouth. his face twists up in confusion from your disappearance. tom calls, “y/n/n?” out to you, but you can’t respond because your head is in the toilet. he rushes in when he hears you retching.

he gets onto the floor with you. you’re bent over, puking your guts out, back in another place where your life changed forever less than twenty four hours ago. tom pulls your hair out of your face and into a makeshift ponytail with one hand, his other on your back. that’s all you have in you. you stay over the toilet just to be sure.

saliva drips from your mouth, making you cough roughly, the sound echoing. tom moves so he’s next to you, keeping his hand in your hair and not caring one bit about the smell because he loves you and he’s utterly concerned about what he witnessed.

“love, are you sick?” he coos, searching for your eyes. they water from the intensity of everything. “morning sickness,” you answer without thinking first. shit. shit, shit, shit. it came out of you like more vomit, word vomit. there’s no going back now.

tom lets go of your hair with his eyes still on yours. his hand on your back then leaves you, fingers trailing down your body as they go. “morning sickness,” he repeats, putting it together. “you’re pregnant?” guilt taking over your features, you sit across from tom. you’re once again leaning against the bathtub, him against the counter.

“this isn’t how i wanted you to find out,” you admit and bring your knees up to your chest. “i took a test yesterday. it was positive.” your arms wrap around your legs, you now tearing up because tom figured it out. a shaky breath passes his lips. “i haven’t gone to my doctor or anything yet, but i-“

“are you keeping the baby?” tom cuts in. not to judge you for your choice, to find out what the fuck is going on before he travels across the world. you tighten your arms around yourself, grabbing your wrist. “i haven’t decided.” he gives you an understanding nod and reaches out for you. you dodge him. he might not want to do that after what you say next.

“tom, i... there’s more,” you whimper out. “yeah. i’m... i’m listening,” tom croaks, unable to hold in his infinite amount of emotions for a multitude of reasons. he’s losing you a second time. more tears spill from your eyes as you break the news, the news that will destroy what he’s been working towards his entire life.

“the baby is yours.” his face relaxes, looking almost relieved when you confess it. “when we slept together, uh,” you’re sure it’s obvious enough that you don’t have to go over the details. he’s tearing up himself. you reluctantly continue. “if you still want to audition, i get it. we don’t have to do this.”

“fuck the audition. fuck the whole movie. all of my movies, really,” tom surprises you by blurting out. he moves in until your legs are touching. “i’m staying. even if you don’t have the baby, i have to be here.” you watch in disbelief as he wipes away what are actually happy tears. “really? i was scared you’d resent me for it, or hate me even,” you mumble to him.

“y/n, what? why would i ever do that?” tom places a hand on your cheek, touch gentle and filled with love. you part your legs so he can be closer to you. he takes the space between them, thumb brushing over your skin. “i didn’t think you’d want to deal with all of this. i thought that night was only a hookup for you.” your voice wobbles under his gaze.

“no, are you kidding? i thought that’s what you thought.” he’s smiling now, eyes twinkling along with it. what he’s been meaning to tell you since you were only kids finally comes out. “i’ve loved you as long as i’ve known you, y/n. i always imagined myself doing this with you.” his words draw a quiet laugh from you, a happy one. “i know we were drunk, but i meant it all.”

the sincerity in his voice, the warmth in his eyes, they make you cry all over again. you’re getting used to it.

“i love you, tom,” you lean into him with a sniffle and a grin, his forehead now resting on yours, using his thumb to catch one of your tears. “i really do.” “i love you forever. i always have,” tom speaks lowly, breath fanning across your face. your hands grab at his shoulders. “so, you’ll stay? you’ll do this with me?” he reminds you of what he said before, this time a promise.

“forever.”

you ended up having the baby, and tom held your hand through the entire labor. nikki was holding his other hand, your mom holding your other hand. harrison had originally been in the room as well. when you started to push, he got freaked out and had to leave. your support system remained strong either way.

despite his repulsion of your daughter’s birth, you and tom decided to make harrison her godfather. he eventually became the godfather of your other two children also, which you had a few years later.

tom took a paternity leave from the industry so he could be with you and jamie. he’d also used his time off to propose to you, something else he fantasized about since year eleven in school. it wasn’t anything too grand because the whole world was already buzzing about you two, and a big gesture felt too impersonal with everything you’d been through together.

he did it in the form of passing a note, something you often did in class to avoid being scolded by your teacher for talking. the note came with a pencil to check off either the yes or no box, “will you marry me?” written above them. anyone else would have found it so unromantic, but you giggled as you checked off yes before your lips crashed into his smiling ones.

you were married shortly after the proposal, jamie as your flower girl and all your friends and family in attendance.

to do what he loved and stay with the people he loved, tom created his own version of hollywood in london. he took it upon himself to assemble a team and make a production company. harry behind the camera, harrison and tuwaine in the films, and tom either starring alongside them or directing. they give so many young actors tons of opportunities.

you eventually went back to work, too. it was like you’d never left, coworkers offering endless hugs and going over what you missed, not that you struggled getting into it. tom was there to celebrate every promotion, every compliment from your boss, every part of your life. jamie was also there, then liam and lucy.

all three of them are running around the house right now, putting on shoes and collecting their supplies for school. you take a sip of the orange juice liam didn’t finish with a lighthearted eye roll. tom chuckles as he passes you in the kitchen, getting the kids’ lunchboxes for them to minimize the chaos.

“you have that pitch meeting today, right?” he slips his hands through the lunchbox handles and walks over to you. “mhm,” you hum, mouth full with juice. his lips press to your temple, giving your waist a one handed squeeze. “you’ll smash it. always do.” “thanks, tommy.” putting down the cup, you reach up to button whatever parts of his shirt he didn’t have time to.

“aren’t you doing a casting? for the new script they sent?” you wonder aloud and smooth down the cotton material. “me and harry. should be interesting,” he remarks, you giving him a quick kiss back on his chin. they tend to have their artistic differences. “good luck with that. you do drop off, i’ll do pick up?” you pat one of the lunchboxes around his arms.

“deal.” tom goes in for a kiss on your lips, then a chorus of dad, we have to go led by jamie rings through the house. with a knowing smile, you push at his chest. “see you later. love you.” “love you, holland,” he bites back a grin of his own. his last name, now yours, suits you perfectly.

#tom holland #tom holland fluff #tom holland smut #tom holland x you #tom holland x reader #tom holland x y/n #tom holland fic #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland imagine #tom holland au #peter parker #peter parker fluff #peter parker smut #peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #marvel

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sanstropfremir · 3 years

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please talk more about key as a performer!! :) i love hearing ur thoughts.

i feel like he’s not appreciated enough? everyone knows he as the fashion guy on the group (which valid) but imo hes shinee’s all rounder. literally Great at singing and dancing. (i mean all of shinee is good. but i have to be honest sometimes i can’t listen to taem/minho’s vocals. they’re not as strong compared to the other 3.) and i’m super excited to see what he has in store for his upcoming (rumored) solo!!

i too am excited for his comeback!! key's solo music is some of my favourite; one of those nights and i wanna be are pretty consistently in my top rotation and i wanna be is probably one of my top mvs for styling + design. i wish he had had more of chance to promote before he enlisted but hopefully that will be remedied this time around.

i do agree that he is shinee's allrounder, and he's an allrounder in an uncommon way for idols, which is in his technical prowess. he's an extremely good technical dancer and singer, which is an understated kind of impressiveness that i can't think of very many other idols having, maybe rain? i wouldn't even call taemin the same level of technical performer, because he's not a technical performer: he's an economical one. taemin does exactly the right about of movement to convey the point he's trying to: no more and no less. he purposefully pulls back when he's not in centre in shinee and you can occasionally catch him flub nonessential points (in any of his solo choreos also) because he knows where people are looking; this is the mark of someone who has a both a deep understanding of their body and a natural inclination to moving in it. he does a similar thing with his vocals, but from the opposite place. taemin is not a natural singer; he has a pretty short range and his tone is a little weird, but he's done a ton of training and worked very hard to make those flaws into a unique sound that is instantly recognizable as him. is it to everyone's tastes? nope, it's not even to mine half the time, but i've never mistaken a taemin track for any other vocalist.

key, on the other hand, does everything perfect. precision is very deeply ingrained in the way that he holds himself himself on stage and he doesn't let himself slack at all. i'm going to try my best to explain this but i don't know if it's going to make any sense. key pays a lot of attention to the technical aspects of performance because he has to. although he does have a higher natural aptitude/ability for singing than taemin does, he doesn't have the same understanding of his body, and he didn't have a guaranteed debut spot. he's not as good a vocalist as jinki or jonghyun and none of them compare to taemin in physicality, so he poured pretty much everything into being as technically perfect as possible, because he can't generate the same kind of intuitive body understanding. i sound like a crackpot but i promise this is a thing: you have a better innate understanding of how your body moves in space the younger you start working with that body. i've skateboarded since i was 8, competitive swam until i was 13, and i have a third degree blackbelt; i'm very aware of the way my body moves and my reflexes are extremely fast: in the accident where i broke my elbow five years ago the reason only my elbow broke and not my entire face and forehead is because i had the reflexes and training to know to cover my head. taemin started as an sm trainee at 11, and he'd obviously been dancing for some time before that. i'd hazard a guess and say that key probably didn't starting learning how to dance until he passed his audition at 14 (for reference, some ballet masters will say that 14 is too late to start learning and you will never become a principle dancer if you start then), and that means even though they both had approximately the same amount of training (both entered sm in 2005), taemin had more formative years training than key did. he's a great example of the old adage "everyone can sing/dance/act, you just have to practice" because he really did work his ass off.

it's also worth mentioning that key is known as the fashion/funny one because he engineered it that way. like i said, he wasn't going to stand out on talent alone, so he picked an area in which he could make himself stand out. every group needs someone who is good on variety shows/guesting/hosting and the other four are not well suited to it (jinki is too quiet, jonghyun has no filter, taemin is.....a weird cryptid at the best of times, and lee sooman literally told minho to shut up and look pretty), so key saw the spot he could take and he took it. and that's still his spot; he's not even a year post-discharge and he's already on the host panel of two very popular variety shows (amazing saturday and i live alone), and he just signed a massive promotional deal with taeyeon for olive young, plus all of the other smaller stuff shinee has done in the scant 7-8 months that shinee's been officially back. he's styled himself into a variety star because personally i think that's where he's more inclined to be. i do think he loves music and performing, especially as shinee, but i haven't seen the same drive to create performance in his solo work as i have with jonghyun or taemin's solos. the both of them have very strong underlying drives in theme and concept and creating a holistic experience with their work (jonghyun more musically focused and taemin more performance) and while undoubtedly key makes really fucking great tracks that i LOVE, they don't say as much. i know he's said that the new stuff will be something very different for him so maybe that means we'll be getting something wild. i'm always holding out hope for a concept album, but it's not like i'm gonna not listen to his stuff just because it isn't #makesyouthink or whatever. good music for the sake of good music is still good music.

#key #key w #kpop questions #kpop analysis #there's been a lot of people on twt saying how people only know kibum for being the 'sassy' one and honestly.....he did do that on purpose #i dont think kibum has done a single unintentional thing in his life he's too smart and calculated for that #i just think he likes being famous more than he likes the artistic process of being an idol #he's extremely well spoken and a great storyteller and he's more naturally suited to social performance than stage performance #and none of this is bad - in fact it makes him that much more of an allrounder #but you can be good at something and it still is just a job #i know ppl wanna hype up their faves and he does absolutely deserve credit for being as skilled as he is #but he's not really billing himself on his 'idol' skills first #i think it's fair that people see him as the funny fashion one because he's the one pushing that #and especially recently people that have been seeing him on amasat and i live alone have been seeing the social side of him #which is extremely caring and supportive #his i live alone episodes were 1) making food for his neighbours and fellow hosts #and taeyeon #2) making food and taking care of taemin just before he enlisted and 3) spending time with his military friends #he cares very deeply about people and his very diverse skillset and fame make him an ideal host #especially when there's been SO many terrible and unkind ones #again - he has seen a gap where he can fit and he's filling it #tbh i think his variety show work is a lot more important and effective in the industry in the long run than him making more music #even though i would still like him to make more music #kibum please i am (im)patiently waiting #im sorry anon this was probably not what you were wanting me to say but would this be a post from me if it didnt have a hot take #i just realized i barely talked about vocals but also in my defense i am not the vocals person #this is very long i was not expecting to have so many things to say #kibum #answers #text

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highly-flammable · 3 years

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Reacting to Legacies 3x03 (SPOILERS):

1. So ARE we FINALLY getting to some proper firstborn Mikaelson witch breakdowns?

2. Oh well, apparently no. They'll just try to wave it off as some one time thing probably.

3. So Hope and Landon are on a break. Okay. TBH watching them sass each other is interesting.

4. The guidance counselor is pretty much a compulsion monster, is that it? Well, I do like his wardrobe.

5. Alyssa's concern for MG is so fake I can't.

6. Nobody other than Jed read for Stefan? THE DISRESPECT.

7. Lizzie playing Caroline makes total sense but them asking Josie to play the lead without even an audition looks a bit bad TBH. Like, give the other interested people a chance, at least.

8. I find it a bit repetitive how there are mind-controlling monsters popping out again and again.

9. So MG is basically going through a phase similar to what Cami was going through when Klaus used to compel her at the beginning of TO. Considering Quincy's fondness for Cami, he must have liked playing that.

10. I understand that Landon is supposed to be a capable songwriter in-universe but it takes more than that to write and direct a musical and it's very weird that they didn't even find a guest star to pose as a Drama or English teacher who is guiding him or something. WHERE ARE ALL THE TEACHERS?

11. I kinda feel like some of the lead characters in this show are colour-coded. I see Hope and Landon in red and blue a lot (the two gowns we have seen Hope wearing also fall into this pattern) and Josie wears yellow in like, every other episode. If I recall correctly, Lizzie wears a lot of white, too. I wonder what the reasoning behind these choices are.

12. Well, I liked Hope and Landon's relationship in S1, I have no idea what was going on with it in S2, and I still don't know what to think about it.

13. Lizzie casts herself in Caroline's role and then chokes at rehearsal. Not totally unrealistic but still feels a bit forced to me. Would have been better if Landon cast her because she's Caroline's daughter and Lizzie was a bit apprehensive in the first place because she didn't want to mess up the role.

14. I appreciate the show taking a moment to talk about Lizzie's bipolar disorder though. It's been a while.

15. "Bonnie just disappears for long periods of time"? Dude, she's still super important and you're putting her in the play. Right? RIGHT?!

16. Landon, THANK YOU for pointing out how weird Caroline and Alaric's relationship was. The guy deadass got engaged to her and had a pissing contest over her with Stefan, that will never not gross me out.

17. So the monster is mind controlling Landon to put Klaus into the play. Saw this coming IG.

18. Hope is painting again, like her dad used to do when he felt things were going out of control. I've been rewatching TO and this is making me so emotional. I MISS KLAUS AND HIS SHENANIGANS. And not a single character on Legacies comes close to Klaus, Elijah and Hayley for me. (Sorry if this hurts anyone's feelings but Legacies really is a downgrade from TVD and TO)

19. Ugh, why would he use the contents of the letter as lyrics? Dude, is it because you're mind-controlled? No, I don't like this. Klaus loved Hope to the ends of the earth and wanted everyone to know but Hope wants to keep things private, and her wishes should have been respected.

20. So apparently Landon tries not to put Klaus' villainous antics into the show. Well, okay, it's definitely a copout but since he is Hope's boyfriend, makes sense. But I don't understand why the musical HAS TO BE about the Salvatore school. The accreditation excuse is lazy, writers! Also, Landon, my dude, Klaus was a major donor of the school. Put that in instead of the other things, stop pissing off your girlfriend FFS. Even if you're mind-controlled 🤦🏻‍♀️

21. I do find it funny how Landon is all gaga over Klaus' use of language though. The guy really did have the best lines, didn't he? (Tied with Elijah, I suppose, for me)

22. The other singers of the first song are really good so Kaylee sounds a bit rusty in comparison. Also, she reminds me too much of Dark!Josie with the hair and makeup. From a distance, she can be mistaken for Nina though.

23. I love that the backstage activities are being shown.

24. I'm digging Jed as Stefan and I really like his singing voice. And the Hero Hair wig cracked me up. Kaleb is obviously good at singing at it's nice to hear more from him. I also like how Chris Lee didn't try to exactly emulate Ian and played Damon how someone who has only heard about him might play him.

25. Is Hope painting herself before the pit or something? Or is this supposed to symbolize her despair at her parents' loss? ALSO, I WANT SOMEONE TO MENTION HAYLEY :( Why is Hayley so ignored?!

26. The same person probably wrote MG's notes and Caroline's letter IRL and therefore, in-universe, MG has Caroline's handwriting and it's funny to me.

27. Jenny sings well, I like it. I don't understand the song though, was Caroline actually ever feeling this insecure? I feel like the song became a lot more about Lizzie than her mother. (It's been forever since I watched TVD, if anyone has yet to guess, I prefer watching TO)

28. The doppelganger thing cracked me up.

29. Wait why did the monster attack Josie?! Ohhhh he's forcing Landon to improvise and put Klaus' song at the end. Well, I guess it makes it seem a bit less like Landon's fault. But would Hope know that?

30. It's hilarious how they lowkey make a call back to Nina leaving TVD and them having to put Elena in a sleep spell though.

31. Landon having a hissy fit is funny to me. Aria needs more comedic scenes.

32. Wait, where did Jade come from? Has she been in the school all these weeks?

33. While the scene seems a bit shabby to me, Klaus talking to Hope reminds me of their scene from TO 4X03. I needed more of Summer Fontana and Joseph Morgan together. Also, the donation did get mentioned, YASSSS. Man did some horrific things but he did fund the school so maybe a little less badmouthing in the presence of his daughter now that you know the story, eh, students?

34. The fact that the guidance counselor actually wore a leather jacket and a henley is cracking me up. It's really bizarre.

35. "Terrible painter" XD Klaus would have eaten you for saying that if he were alive.

36. Um, Hope, wouldn't you ask your family if you are doing enough to make your father proud, instead of this random bloke who supposedly met him once?! Maybe call Freya or Rebekah.

37. Why is this monster being nice to Hope? Doesn't it try to break people up or something? You'd think he'd try to piss her off even more and ruin her relationship with Landon.

38. Stefan was trying to be more like Damon by sacrificing himself? Um, what?

39. Well, this musical at least gave Stefan and Caroline a goodbye scene. I wonder how much the twins remember Stefan, must have been a bit emotional for Lizzie to play that. Jenny's singing was gooood, really liked it.

40. JED WAS GONNA KISS LIZZIE AND I WANTED IT TO HAPPEN. But a forehead kiss does work.

41. Hope's playing Elena now? What?

42. Ngl I want Hope and Jed to be friends. She needs more of a connection to her wolf side. Both of her parents wanted her to be surrounded by wolves and she's barely interacting with the wolves in this show, which always makes me sad.

43. So this monster can also do little spells and move physical objects eh? Whatever, this is random.

44. And this monster brings people back together? Why?

45. So when Hope is singing, is she doing it as Elena or Hope? She came on stage as Elena, but I thought the song is about Hope. So WHAT IS IT?

46. Oh Damon's on stage, so Hope is singing as Elena and it's a call back to the graveyard scene from the TVD finale.

47. Danielle sings pretty well. It's good she decided to perform this time.

48. Okay, that lifting up scene was adorable. I feel like Hope and Landon are at their cutest when they're a bit spontaneous. But she's Elena on stage and it lowkey looks like Landon crashed her romantic scene with Damon to kiss her so I'm cackling.

49. How much older is Jade supposed to be than Josie?

50. So is Josie going to leave the school for a while and that's why Ethan will be back in the picture?

51. Jade used to babysit Josie? Okay, it is hella awkward.

52. Josie why, don't do this, yikes. Kissing her once doesn't make it non-creepy.

53. The Sheriff feels kinda shoehorned to me. Also, I don't care for Matt Davis or his character.

54. So Candice did the voiceover for Caroline's letter. That's nice for the show. I still don't understand why the letter showed up in Hope's fireplace though LOL.

55. This episode should have spent more time exploring the aftermath of the loss of Rafael. The abrupt shift from the last episode wasn't nice.

56. Yeah, kids, talk out your problems, thanks.

57. I feel like Klaus is too much of a controversial figure that Hope's conflict about her father's reputation would be resolved in one day. This is feeling undercooked. Speaking of, when is one of Klaus' or Hayley's enemies coming after Hope, because she did inherit all of them. Would make for better storytelling than this monster of the week nonsense. And yeah, still no mention of Hayley, I hate this.

58. The monster's characterization was really odd to me and I am so tired of this format SMH.

59. So they toyed with MG for weeks to get a vampire for the spell? That sounds like too much effort. There are tons of vampires from Klaus and Rebekah's bloodline, they couldn't find another? Also, I wonder who is the wolf that they will use.

Well, I felt like this episode was mostly okay, but not that well-cooked or epic or whatever. What is horrific is that they didn't show Bonnie, though. They could have at least gotten a female black guest character who is one of the witch students or something. This is very offensive.

Also, I don't think it makes sense for the show to do any more musicals in the future. This ain't Riverdale.

#legacies #legacies cw #hope mikaelson #landon kirby #lizzie saltzman #josie saltzman #kaleb #jed #milton greasley #alyssa chang #jade #klaus mikaelson #hayley marshall #elena gilbert #damon salvatore #stefan salvatore #bonnie bennett #caroline forbes #cami o'connell

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nileqt87 · 3 years

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Thoughts on WandaVision by a non-Marvel fan

As someone who had only seen a single Marvel movie (The Avengers) and only watched Jessica Jones season 1 for David Tennant (while hating nearly every other character in it), which had none of these characters, I only watched WandaVision precisely because it dared to break the mold and be even remotely ambitious instead of doing the same old CGI cartoon fest over and over. And somewhat because of what Marvel has done to the film industry, television has completely and utterly overtaken film as where emotional, dramatic storytelling now happens.

And okay, I happen to have had a major TVLand addiction growing up and binged a ton of the shows referenced in WandaVision long ago (yep, those very same '50s-'80s sitcoms). I couldn't pass up the retro. Love at first sight. Combine that with what promised to be a tragic, human/non-human romance. Sold. I knew little else about the characters.

For a long time, I've seen female fans (in particular) comment on how part of the reason they write fanfiction for Marvel is that they have to read between the lines just to add the implied dramatic content of the relationship focus variety that never quite gets developed in canon (certainly not up to the standard of what a fic reader expects). I saw a few comments that pretty much described WandaVision as exactly that: a fix-it fanfic before tragic reality invaded Pleasantville. Wanda's whole Hex was essentially a glorified fix-it fanfic.

For this reason alone, I can only hope the success of WandaVision gets them to create a season 2 that is dedicated solely to Wanda trying to put her family (Vision) back together that does the tragic romance justice in a way that giving them side parts in other people's movies just isn't going to cut it.

I feel like Vision's ultimate resurrection or even Wanda's struggle with her grief is better left to her own headline story, whether be it film or television. Television is the only medium that is going to allow the actors to really sink their teeth into this sort of star-crossed, tragic drama and not have it relegated to a minor side-character plot. Either give Wanda and Vision their own movie (hopefully, with heightened focus on character development as a lesson learned from television) or wait to integrate the mind and body of Vision in another season that gives both of them center stage with room to develop it.

Them having their twins for real might also be worth a season 2 in a way that probably wouldn't even work on film, as showing such a feminine pregnancy storyline would be a helluva departure for a Marvel movie that goes from action set piece to action set piece.

I wouldn't even hate it if Wanda's sitcom comfort zone made a few more appearances, even if it is merely the occasional domestic fantasy or dream/nightmare, so there is a way to not completely divorce a potential season 2 from season 1's "gimmick". It could be merely as simple as her pointedly doing something Sam/Jeannie-esque with her magic. Cooking with floating kitchen items would be an easy nod.

Probably not what Marvel is thinking of doing, but as a non-Marvel fan, WandaVision has a real opportunity to pull in new viewers with very different tastes that have so far managed to give the films a wide berth. It would do so much better as a show.

Go the route of giving these characters their own headlined projects and Marvel could have a real juggernaut of a 'ship, as well. My impression was that WandaVision got a lot of fans talking about the characters and their relationship in a way that the previous films and comics had not; some even making comments they had barely paid attention to the characters before the show.

IMO, the mere character descriptions sound like some of the most interesting and fleshed-out characters Marvel has got right now with real opportunity for real dramatic depth. And that's putting aside that Scarlet Witch is one of the most powerful characters on the entire Marvel roster. Making a whole television season about a character going through the stages of grief and about a woman who just wants the family she lost back (a woman who desperately wants a husband and children, no less) was very different territory for Marvel. Human/non-human, in addition to having the level of doom that makes tragedies very, very memorable.

There's tropey drama potential there that hasn't been mined with the non-human who becomes more and more "human" (it's the stuff of fairy tales and sci-fi both). Hayward or someone like him could easily be used as a character who doesn't see Vision as equal to humans, for example. Delve into the sort of existential questions about artificial life achieving consciousness no less feeling than a human's that stories like Data on Star Trek, Blade Runner and Bicentennial Man pose. That species difference without the magic of sitcoms could be mined for a gorgeously dramatic plotline. What it means to be human explored through the non-human--one of my favorite tropes.

And of course, it's the stuff of fairy tales--most notably Pinocchio (the once-inanimate learning to and desiring to become real by proving himself worthy and because it fulfills the greatest wish of the person who loves them most), combined with the interspecies romance elements of The Little Mermaid (tragic ending or not--see also the desperate acts taken to achieve this cosmically-denied togetherness, only for such a tragic ending to come of it in the original work).

Given that the MCU movies just lost a bunch of their A-listers, they need something big like this. Marvel needs philosophical and character-driven meat on its meager dramatic bones. Here are two actors who could carry something more ambitious and pick up an entirely different audience. Marvel could get an even bigger female audience with these two, IMO. And it wouldn't be cheap girl power pandering either (I say this as a girl). These characters are legit with incredibly warm, likable, endearing performances behind them. This chemistry works 100%.

I think White Vision having an existential crisis where he's questioning what he is if he has all the memories of a being who clearly can feel every human emotion (the idea that we are our memories), but at the same time knowing that he's only artificial life, would be an interesting lead-up to Vision being fully restored with his full consciousness in addition to the added memories of what he experienced inside the Hex.

A restored Vision would have to reconcile what Wanda did in her grief over him and her family. It's also a glimpse at the life Wanda wants with him, which included something that isn't biologically possible, though it likely is through her own abilities of creation. There's also the idea of balance that he's the one who might hold her back from the brink of going down any further dark paths as a figure of ordered stability for her, while she is key in the chaos of his becoming more "human". The to-be parenthood story is obviously hanging over them.

The situation with Hayward intending for White Vision to remain a mere machine that can be manipulated and used as a weapon in a way that an independently-thinking Vision can't be is also a path to go down. As I said, there's a potential storyline about prejudice regarding artificial intelligence, even if it has all the emotional capability of humans.

And on top of that, Vision is in a relationship with a human, even if it's one who could potentially be the key to restoring his consciousness through her own link with the original Mind Stone. It also furthers Wanda's role as a mother and creator if she can give him back his life in this way. While the heroic Avengers might not question them being "an unusual couple", who says everyone else would be so kind?

I really think he needs to be brought back. Wanda desperately needs him for her story to continue.

#wandavision #wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #vision #scarlet vision #wanda x vision #elizabeth olsen #paul bettany #marvel

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skyholders · 3 years

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Lucien: Company Project [Translation]

Translation after the cut!

[NOTE: This date does not contain spoilers for S2 of MLQC, but it is set in the S2 world! Also, this is like a part one to this date. The real date will be posted soon!]

Date begins with MC in her office, forming a plan for an advertisement shoot for hybrid vegetables.

[Section One]

“No, this topic is not original enough.”

“This one's captivating enough, but then it’s too farfetched.”

“This one’s too old-school..”

The thick stack of proposals and plans on my table were disregarded one by one, and after looking through it all, there wasn’t one that’d pleased me.

“Eh? Boss, have you not settled this proposal yet?”

She must’ve heard me sighing, because Willow decided to lend me a hand.

“Yeah.. After all, it’s a collaboration between us and Loveland’s Agricultural Research Institute, the show and the effects of it must be good enough.”

A little over a month ago, the company received an email from Loveland’s Agricultural Research Institute, inviting us to a collaboration to promote newly cultivated hybrid agricultural products.

Looking at the products, they seemed typical and simple. But they are bred by both the Agricultural Institute and the Highest Bioscience Research Centre, they are filled with plenty of nutritional and industrial value-made by artificially cultivating new products with different plants. However, due to its lack of advertisement, the market failed to open.

I looked at the delicious looking corn-melons, and other promotional pictures sent from the Agricultural Institute, filled with a countryside atmosphere.

“How do we promote such common products..”

There’s not much time left until the shoot, yet the style of the shoot still remained unplanned. I sighed, deciding to look through a few videos for inspiration, when Willow’s phone suddenly rang.

“Ah! It’s time! I should vote for the girl I’m supporting now!”

Willow reached out to her phone, tapping on the lower right corner, the “like” button, hysterically. It’s an insanely popular national talent show. When it was first aired, Willow was absolutely obsessed with it, wasting all of her votes, even ones that should’ve been saved.

“The talent shows have been so trendy lately, let us just make one instead.”

I looked at Willow with a face that obviously said “It’s a joke.”

Yet when those words came out of me, I was momentarily stunned.

“..It will allow us to introduce each product's characteristics quickly, and can become a hot topic..”

“And we can also create additional similar products, which will can be an extra source of profit..”

“Using the format of a talent show, the audience will be sentimental towards the products of the show..”

“That’s such a great idea! Kudos to me!”

“Sounds interesting! Then the show will be called 'Loveland's Masterpiece', how about that?”

“Not bad.”

After considering the details behind the idea, the budget, cast and personifications, the product designs and advertising methods.. I looked at my calendar, deciding to contact the Highest Bioscience Research Centre, and tour around the research area.

“Tomorrow it is then!”

I drew a circle on the date, picked up my phone, and called for the research centre.

[Section Two]

At three o'clock sharp in the afternoon, the shooting crew and I arrived at the Highest Bioscience Research Centre.

I saw Lucien, waiting for us from a distance.

In this collaboration, Lucien, the director of the Highest Bioscience Research Centre, had provided us with tons of help. Lucien greeted us, and said-

“This is the professor responsible for this research, Professor Hu.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m MC, the director of the production company.”

“Nice to meet you as well. I’m Professor Hu. I will be bringing you and your crew around the research farm for a tour, as well as to explain the details of the products we’ve cultivated so far.”

“Please, feel free to ask any questions at all. Of course, if there’s anything we can help you with in this project, you’re always welcome to contact us.”

“Then we hope we will not trouble you too much, Professor Hu.”

We followed Professor Hu into the large canopy, and I was starting to get curious when Lucien followed as well.

“Professor Hu will be shooting with us, aren’t you busy?”

“As the director of the Highest Bioscience Research Centre, this is one of the tasks on my agenda.”

“Not to mention..”

Lucien tilted his head and looked towards me, a small smile on his face.

“This 'program counsellor' do not recall receiving a letter of expulsion.”

Hearing his words, I felt a bit bewildered, feeling as if nothing’s changed at all. Seeing Lucien's smile (Though, one cannot tell if it’s truly a smile at time,) I blinked a couple of times, shooing away all the thoughts in my head. I smiled,

“With our Counsellor Xu's guidance, I don’t think there will be any concerns with this project.”

“If this show surpass our expectations, I’ll be sure to give you a raise!”

“Then I’m looking forward to it.”

(Cut to the greenhouse area)

“-And this is our star product of the show- the Autumn Lysimachias!”

(A type of cabbage..? Don’t search it up I made it up.)

Professor Hu stood by a row of green vegetables, his face brimmed with pride, as if introducing us to his beloved children.

“We’ve faced quite the amount of obstacles to have nurtured cabbages this juicy and sweet..”

Professor Hu spoke with fervour while the rest of the crew took notes.

“Compared to the autumnal cabbages we’ve produced from the previous batch, these cabbages can withstand harm from insects much better than the rest, and when faced with the Turnip Mosaic Virus..”

As Professor Hu talked about the various techniques and nutritional value, the crew and I, once clueless of such things, had our minds blown away.

“To simply put it, this species of cabbage has the immunity to defend themselves from common diseases and insects, and has less demands for nutrition from the ground. If nurtured in an environment where it doesn’t have the nutrients to grow, the taste and texture of the vegetables will be affected, however, it can still live.”

Lucien must’ve noticed our overwhelmed faces, because he’s summarised everything in Layman’s terms. Professor Hu explained the majority of it as we collected some of the vegetables, while Lucien would then list the important notes, simplified and summarised.

The day went quicker and more successful than I thought it would. After the collection, as we’re about to leave, Professor Hu called us.

“Please hold on. There’s still quite an important matter left, so please come this way.”

Professor Hu spoke passionately as he led us to yet another greenhouse.

I thought that we must've left something, however, as the door swung open, there was a “Pick and Barbecue” party waiting for us.

“If you’d like to know the quality of a product, the best way to experience it is to taste it. Come, it’s been waiting for us!”

Before I had any time to take in the rather abnormal situation, the crew has already happily surrounded the barbecue grill.

“I should probably take a picture of the barbecue grill before I eat..”

Seeing the crew already digging in happily, I decided to take the pictures. Yet I hadn’t even walked for more than a few steps when I was blocked by Lucien.

“I’m hungry as well.”

He gently brought a skewer of roasted choy sums from the grill, and handed it to me.

“How about we experience the harvests of the research, and then continue with the photographing?”

[Section Three]

After the period of preparations and planning, the day of the shoot finally came.

“After this, we’ll be welcoming the “ladies and gentlemen” that’s gone through round after round of auditions and preliminary rounds!”

Bright, beaming lights lit up the path of the stage as soon as the voice of the host stopped.

The recently popular idols we’ve meticulously picked wore outfits resembling the hybrid vegetable they held on their hands. Their handsome looks and style had created a big contrast between themselves and the hybrid vegetables they’re holding, catching the attention of many from the very beginning.

“The contestants will have to face an even more brutal experience after the cut..”

The host looked at the audience with a stern, serious look, faking his voice and expressions dramatically as the people below the stage roared in laughter.

“Let me introduce to you- the talented, brilliant judges!”

The spotlight shone towards the judges.

“Other than the two teachers of performance arts, there are also two other special guests in this show. Coming from the Highest Bioscience Research Centre, Professor Hu Ling Shen - these beautiful contestants will not be here without him!”

“And lastly, the director of the Highest Bioscience Research Centre- the ever so handsome and refined scholar - Professor Xu Mo!”

“Both teachers of the performance arts will be judging the contestants based on looks and charisma, while the professors from the Highest Bioscience Research Centre will be judging them based on their inner beauty - whether or not the contestants are as beautiful in the inside as they are on the outside!”

“Now without further ado, let the competition begin!”

Cabbages, corns, tomatoes and winter melons.. these common produces are wrapped intricately before being presented on the stage.

“Hm.. Miss “Red Treasure Box”, as one of the shining contestants of the tomatoes category, I have a few questions for you.”

Lucien and Professor Hu have humourously slipped information on the contestants in the show when appropriate, from their strengths and weaknesses to their potential. Using the format of a talent show, and the style of describing those contestants as if they are actual human beings, the viewers can easily understand the competition between the newly cultivated hybrid vegetables.

“From versatility’s perspective, I myself support the Autumn Lysimachias from the cabbage category and the Golden Jade from the herbs category.”

“Yes, that is very reasonable. However, from a flavour’s perspective, I believe the Autumn Lysimachias is flavourful not only by itself, but also when paired with meat. However, that sort of contestant has not been included in this competition just yet.”

“Perhaps everyone can offer this program your opinions and suggestions, and we’ll try to produce a second season?”

The show went all according to plan, and the effects and responses were even better than I’ve first expected.

Seeing Lucien’s fervent comments, I find myself being excited for when the show officially airs.

[Section Four]

For the next few days, our show has caught the attention of many. The related comments and searches kept increasing in volume, and the sales of those products have soared miles beyond its original results. Even Highest Bioscience Research Centre trended in the search engines.

“Lucien, there have been many comments and talks about the research centre recently. Are you sure they will not affect you guys’ work?”

“How so?”

“You see, even though there are many people who’re genuinely interested in the science behind those products, and would like to know more of them.. there are also quite a few viewers who’s treating this show as nothing but a talent and variety show.”

“I don’t think so.”

Lucien looked at the computer screen, and the rows of comments under Highest Bioscience Research Centre’s Weibo account.

“Popular science’s meaning is to use a way of explanation that is easily acceptable and understandable to the public, and apply it for scientific knowledge.”

“The more we use this approach, the more people will realise that science is not as far away of a study as we think it may be.”

“No matter whichever method, whichever approach, as long as we’ve reached this goal, I think it is a good thing.”

“That’s good. Through this show, I’ve also realised that there are actually so many things I did not know about the science behind vegetables.”

“Like how Loveland has a website specifically dedicated to cabbages.”

“Not only does it teaches you the way to pick the biggest, juiciest cabbage, there’s also a section dedicated to sharing the ‘most beautiful cabbage’.”

Thinking back to those weird yet practical websites I’ve encountered because of the show, I can’t help but feel the need to laugh.

“Not only so, but due to the increase in the focus of this research, our funds have increased as well.” (Thanks, Victor.)

“A win-win situation is better than anything we could’ve asked for.”

“But, to say that there isn’t an impact at all isn’t exactly true.”

Lucien looked as if he’s thought of something, as the corners of his lips lifted to a small smile. He stood up and pulled open a cupboard in the corner of his office.

He’s merely pulled open the door by a crack, yet there was already a staggering amount of presents tumbling down.

Gifts, letters, cookies, chocolates, there were even a few lucky bracelets. Gifts of all kind have stuffed an entire cupboard full.

“These are gifts directly sent to the research centre.”

“Facing such passionate viewers, I am quite a little clueless on how to handle them.”

Like he’s said, the heartfelt presents from our viewers have broke all expected expectations of the research centre.

“Never thought there’d be this many..”

“Professor Hu has received even more, and because he will feel sorry for rejecting the viewers’ gifts, he’s gotten sick because of the cookies and chocolates.”

Imagining the poor man trying his best to accept every gift, and looking at the mountain of presents next to Lucien, I can’t help but laughed.

“I wonder how many cookies Professor Lucien has eaten these days?”

“It is sent to the research centre, so most of them were distributed to our researchers.”

“You’re not going to accept the audiences’ kindness?”

“If they are presents sent from the producer, I will gladly accept them all, however many there may be.”

Without actually answering my question, Lucien responded with a smile instead.

The sunlight after noon softly scattered across his office, and the greeneries outside are comfortably showing off their leaves and branches as well. In my memories, there are many afternoons just like this one. Many stories and conversations shared with the person in front of me.

“Hm? Is there something outside of this window?”

I shook my head, and smiled.

“Just wondering if the show will end before this whole centre gets drowned in cookies.”

Lucien closed the cupboard’s doors, his smile never fading.

“Even when the popularity of the show fades, somethings won’t ever change.”

As if there’s a more profound meaning behind his words, Lucien’s gaze landed on mine, before it left once more.

“So, to celebrate this show’s success, shouldn’t a certain award winning producer discuss with me the idea of a raise?”

When I tried to read what he was truly feeling, there was already nothing left for me to grasp.

“If we’re talking about the show we have now, it is still phase one it its production process, the effects of the remaining episodes cannot be guaranteed.”

“So about the raise, I’ll consider it in a while.”

“But a meal however, is very doable. How about we visit the canopy now, pick some vegetables, and make a steamboat?”

I gave a cunning idea instead, and winked towards Lucien.

“But I’ll have to ask the professor to tell me where to lend a clay pot and some seasoning.”

“While we’re at it, how about we give our greetings to Professor Hu, and bring the vegetables directly to your house instead?”

Lucien’s smile widened, narrowing his eyes.

“I’m excited to be there for the producer’s food.”

[END]

Thank you for reading, have a nice day, stay safe and stay tuned!

(And a Happy New Year in advance.)

-Shio

#mlqc spoilers #mlqc #mlqc lucien #mlqc xumo #mr love queens choice #mr love dream date #mr love #get well soon professor hu

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twdmusicboxmystery · 3 years

Text

Chess Theory 2.0

This theory comes from a discussion me and my fellow theorists had after this ask was posted:

I really love the idea of the black and white representing the battle between the CRM and the Commonwealth. We can’t know for sure if it does, but given everything leading up to this point in the story, it definitely could. My fellow theorists and I had extensive discussions about this, with @wdway especially contributing a lot of thoughts and research.

@wdway:

Starting with the ask, I love it so much and believe they could be quite right that the black could represent the CRM and the white the Commonwealth, and they could be at odds with one another and our group. TF will be caught in the middle.

Since I feel strongly that Beth could be tied to Eugene's group’s storyline, that would make her white. Rick we know is with the CRM, which makes him black. If both Beth and Rick are fighting independently within these two groups and that would make them neither black nor white but gray. This is the part that I've said for quite a while: that gray represents a middle ground, it's neither black nor white.

Beth and Rick in Coda. I chose this shot because they almost look like one unit. Both in gray from behind so that Beth's yellow shirt is not a distraction to the gray that ties these two characters together.

I also love the fact that the red machete could easily belong to either one in this shot. And with a thought that colors have different meanings for different scenes, I believe in this particular case, the gray represents that the scene is not as black-and-white, as clear cut as it seems, that there are things going on here that the viewers are not aware of. It has shades of grey for these two characters.

Also, it could tell us why Daryl wore one white leg tie and one black leg tie. They represent the two people that he loves and will lose, believing they are both dead. He will search for them both and not be able to find either one.

Twdmusicboxmystery: Breaking into @wdway’s thoughts here just to have a wowza moment. Can you see how they’ve set this up from the start? Can you see how it lines up? Okay, back to @wdway:

@wdway:

I simply could not go back to the hall scene in Coda without watching Daryl carry Beth out. This time I noticed something that I had never noticed before. @Frangipanilove, this one is especially up your alley. Look at the walkway right behind Daryl. On the left side, there is two parallel lines =. On the other right side is a directional symbol <. How have we not noticed this before?

I then wanted to look at the Commonwealth soldiers, so I went to the episode 16, when Eugene's group is surrounded and again I noticed something that I didn't before.

PM 110 and RX 04. I'll start with RX, we have always attached the "X" to Beth, it can also stand for the number 10, and it has multiple meanings. When paired with an R (which could possibly stand for Rick) RX is a medical or drug symbol used for a Latin word, "recipe" meaning "to take." Yes I Googled it. I'm not sure about the PM but 101 is the series number for s8e11, Dead or Alive Or.

@twdmusicboxmystery: Breaking in again to point out that Dead or Alive Or was one of the episode titles mentioned during the Cast Trivia Battle I posted about a few days ago. Just saying.

@wdway:

It's the episode that is so very full of Beth symbols that it's not even funny. There also Tara and Dwight's conflict and Daryl trying to take the children/people of AZ to Hilltop.

I do want to note in the photograph above if you look at the desk you see droplets of black paint against the white top. Like I said, every symbol that we can imagine for Beth is pretty much in that episode.

@frangipanilove:

Love this! It actually does get my mind spinning. I had to google the meaning of PM and the literal meaning is the Latin “post meridiem”, which of course translates to “after noon”. We have all these Dawn references and midnight references and clocks etc on TWD, so an “after noon” reference doesn’t seem entirely out of place. I’ve been obsessed with ep 8x11 for a multitude of reasons. A bunch of Sirius references, the green Jaguar car, the Sirius piggy bank, FGs blindness, animal traps.

Mostly I’m obsessed about it because the original Noah’s t-shirt theory pointed to 8x2, when we saw the blue heron painting, but I later realized that the “2” could also point to 8x11. The radio shack is a huge Sirius symbol in and of itself, and it even ties into ep 10x11 “morning star” (Venus/Sirius reference). I’ve never noticed the = symbol and the < symbol behind Daryl. It’s incredible that we can still discover new things in episodes we’ve watched a thousand and one times already.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

One thing I keep circling back to is the Governor because the white, king chess piece was so obviously a symbol for him. And I do think they used that specifically for his arc, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a foreshadow of another, bigger, future arc. And there was SO much Beth symbolism around him, especially in 4x06. And his chess piece was white, not black.

@wdway:

I've already gone back and started searching some things and have some ideas that will connect Beth with white and Rick with black symbolically that I'm excited about. I've already solved the problem of the white chess piece connected to the governor and I think you will love my findings.

I was thinking about the gray and Beth’s sweater and Rick's shirt in Coda, when suddenly I remembered that it was not Beth's first sweater. Her first sweater we saw in Still and it was white.

Now, this sweater has been talked about a lot through the years. White typically stands for purity, both in body and in mind and I think you can we can use both for Beth in this example.

When Beth stands next to the Rich Bitch walker, I think it's a matter of purity of the heart. The Rich Bitch, although outwardly she's in white. she was not a person with a pure heart. What color a person wears on the outside doesn't necessarily reflect in color of their soul. Not all white is good not all black is bad.

Shortly after Beth put on the white sweater, she is covered in blood and she removes it. You would still call it a white sweater, but it has stains that cannot be removed. Her soul will always be white, but she will have strains that cannot be removed. The next time we see her in a sweater it will be a light gray, more white than black. It represents coming to grips in the world that she is in now and will be in the future.

The challenge is, if Beth represents white, what does that mean about the Governor’s white chess piece? We know the Gov was not pure of heart, so how could he be white?

When the Governor originally found the chess board and was teaching Megan the game, he is black. It was Megan that draws that eye patch on the white king because outwardly he seemed to be pure of heart, but he was not. It was an illusion. He was a black king chess piece. So, what about the fact that Rick is black, does that make him a villain? Does he have an evil heart? I believe that Rick has always struggled with his dark demons. It's in the fact that he desires to be noble and good, even though he can do bad things, his desire is pure, to have a white heart.

The next couple of shots was just confirmation that Beth will appear as white and Rick as black. Her shoes from Slabtown.

One shoelace is white, the other is black. When I went back to look at the shoelaces, for the first time I realized that her shoes are gray. Love that.

This, I'm sure you will recognize as being from Coda, just before the exchange of prisoners.

I'm always harping about the fact that diamond shape represents Beth, a square represents Rick. You can turn the square on its side, and it becomes a diamond. If you go back and look at the chessboard, it's a huge indication that I'm correct. If you look at the board from one angle it is blocks of squares if you look at it slightly from the side, it's diamonds.

So here, Beth is in the hallway and she will end up standing in the middle of the white diamond on top of the black square. Beth and Rick could have similar but different stories. They’re both in rebel groups, fighting for the same type of cause but in different locations. I think if that's the case, especially with Beth, we could see her appearing to be on the inside, a villain type, but in reality, more of a double agent.

They showed us in Slabtown how she could manipulate and play the game that she had to in order to survive and get what she needed.

This picture is from Dead Weight, from the cabin that the Gov searched. There are a lot of Native American symbols in that cabin and this one stood to me. It is a dreamcatcher.

This next picture is of the room in WHWGO, I'll remind you that on the corner post of the bed is a small dreamcatcher.

I think this links the two episodes together. It's hard to imagine that they would put so much symbolism and foreshadowing all in one episode, so they spread it out over several episodes and seasons. In this bottom shot, we have a black helmet sitting on top of some type of communication equipment, a telescope for gazing at the stars, a poster about science fiction with a rocket on it, a small toy helicopter on the side table. And of course we have the Dreamcatcher which imo is pointing to the next stage of clues. The other things that tie this episode and the Gov's episodes together.

Hard to get any bigger tie than the Governor himself, surrounded with military and water symbols.

Maybe there is another symbol that could tie this to the past and future storylines.

A shot of the Gov and Beth together in this room. Even though he is not in this shot, Rick later, at the end of episode, comes into this room. Rick, Beth, and the Gov at some point are surrounded in this room with a helicopter, rockets, airplanes, and a ton of water symbols.

What did I hear you ask? But there are no chess objects? That might be true in a material way, but I believe the conversation between Ty and the Gov was definitely a chess play, a game of strategy, moving back and forth, a power-play of sorts.

So that's all I have for you right now.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Love all this! When I was putting together my Divine Comedy Theory, I was thinking about AOW (because that’s when we saw the “Abandon all hope…” sign) and that maybe AOW was a type of the CW vs CRM war. Most of the major conflicts probably have been. The fall of the prison. AOW. Certainly TF vs the Whisperers. Maybe even Terminus. This idea is just making me re-think everything. I’m sure if we went back and rewatched, we’d see more clues than ever.

@wdway:

There was one thing that I meant to mention from Live Bait. In the nursing home, we see the woman in the yellow wheelchair. She is wearing a white gown with black trim. She had marks on her feet to make her a Christ symbol figure and we've always connected her with Beth because of the yellow chair.

Now I'm thinking she could represent white/Commonwealth and black/CRM. Because now we not only have Beth as a Christ figure symbol, but we have Rick also. Something that we did not have before the last couple of seasons. It seems easier to connect Beth to the color white. We have been doing that for years and thinking she could be at the Commonwealth and could be a part of Eugene's storyline fits with what could be coming.

Rick is harder when looking to past seasons and connecting him to the color black, but we know for certain that he was taken by the helicopter people and been told by tptb that he is with the CRM. From all that we've seen, their military color is black.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Just want to point out that in 8x12, The Key, there’s definitely a black theme going on. Rick crashes a black car,

everything in the basement he and Negan go into is black, Negan is wearing a black coat,

(I don’t think Rick’s shirt is black, but it’s dark enough to look black here:)

and even the sign, “Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here” is written in black.

We’ve always knew this was foreshadow of Rick’s disappearance in the helicopter group and it does suggest a black theme.

The other thing I noticed is that in the pic of Beth’s shoelaces, it’s specifically the WHITE lace/shoe was spattered with blood, just like her white sweater in Still.

So, those two symbols are probably synonymous. I don’t have much to add for how to interpret that beyond what we’ve already said, but it’s interesting. But I guess this is the other thing I was thinking about the Gov’s S4 episodes. And there’s no way to know this for sure. But because we saw Native American stuff in the cabin he stayed in, and also around the Wolves, and both of those are heavily paralleled to Beth, I guess I’m wondering if the Native American stuff will somehow be fulfilled in this CW/CRM war stuff.

@wdway:

I love that you mentioned the blood spatter on Beth's white sweater and the shoe with the white laces. I made note of it and meant to mention it and forgot. Another thing that came to my mind in looking at the Native American stuff in the cabin is it reminded me of Ezekiel in past seasons wearing feathers in his hair. He is now with Eugene and company being held by the Commonwealth and needing medical attention.

I know it may just be wishful thinking but when we first saw the Kingdom it screamed Beth. At Grady, we saw Beth in a medical setting, learning from Dr. Edwards being his assistant which in the dead world is the new form of medical school. Fast forward, if she is with the Commonwealth it would be more than likely in some kind of medical position with the possibility of Beth and Ezekiel meeting. And gives a purpose to the painting of Beth at Hilltop to be recognized by Ezekiel. There's the question of did Eugene see Beth at Grady or was he still unconscious, if so then there again the painting.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I love the Zeke/feather tie. Side note: I have ALL kinds of head canons of Beth and Ezekiel meeting and swapping stories about Daryl and Carol.

@wdway:

Yes! Can't help but think that Ezekiel, Carol's husband and the love of her life and Daryl's love Beth could possibly meet in the Commonwealth. That this could lead to them all coming together and then torn apart. My headcanon is that something will happen, probably to do with his cancer and Ezekiel will be sent out west and Beth will go with him. I can imagine their first meeting, Elijah keeps looking at Beth asking, do I know you, you look so familiar. And they start talking about the fact that Beth is from Georgia and it all comes together. Please don't let the writers pass up this great opportunity, especially when it seems that they've been setting this up the whole time.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah for sure! Love that! I’ve always thought about maybe him mentioning that his wife is named Carol. And maybe she doesn’t even think it’s the one she knows bc more than one person can be named Carol, right? But through conversation or more details, just as your head canon above, they realize this is the Carol she knows. Scenes like these would be so much fun!

@frangipanilove:

You guys discussed the blood on Beth’s white cardigan and on the shoe with white laces. It’s actually something I’ve thought about before, though I still don’t know what the most precise interpretation of it should be. But I’ve mentioned that I believe shoe/leg/foot references allude to the trunk of a car (because boot is Australian and British for trunk). Also, I believe that TPTB sometimes use the human trunk to allude to the trunk of a car (the upper body walkers coming out of the back of a car in WHAWGO, the library guy hanging from a bridge that had an x painted on his upper body, Beth’s blue hospital scrubs, Noah’s t-shirt and loads more).

Well, we see Beth get blood spatter on her upper body in Still, and we see the shoe with the white laces get a similar type of blood spatter in Slabtown. These could be trunk references.

How should we interpret it then? I don’t have anything groundbreaking on that. Just that it appears to be further evidence of an injured Beth somehow ending up in the trunk/back of a car. So basically, not anything I didn’t already believe in, but it certainly fits the symbolism language.

That’s pretty much what I have to add to the chess theory for now. As you can see, our conversations can meander and include things like headcanons. (I’d love to tell you we’re all symbolism business all the time, but that’s just not true. ;D). Anyway, hope this gets you all excited for what’s to come. It’s only a theory for now, but as you can see, there’s some pretty compelling evidence. I’ve said for a long time that the show is pointing toward some HUGE conflict in the future, and since Rick disappeared, I’ve known it would be the helicopter people. But until Nonny sent in that ask, I’d never considered that maybe the black and white theme might be pointing to it, too. Awesome!

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Tina Documentary Directors Talk About Making an Artist’s Final Statement

https://ift.tt/3f955UN

HBO’s feature documentary Tina is an intimate overview of Tina Turner, the person behind the musical icon. It is also a final statement, as the singer is moving on from the performance part of her life. The documentary tells Tina’s story the way the singer wanted it told: honestly.

Some of Turner’s musical highpoints are skipped, like her scene-stealing role as the Acid Queen in Tommy or her appearance on the bulk of Frank Zappa’s Overnight Sensation. But the story of her early rise to fame, and the oppressive influence her musical mentor, husband and onstage partner Ike Turner had on her personal and professional life is deftly explored. As is her fight for independence, recording the monumental Phil Spector production “River Deep, Mountain High,” and her 1980s global resurgence.

Tina was directed by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, whose sports documentary, Undefeated, won the 2012 Oscar for or Best Documentary Feature. The duo spoke with Den of Geek about Tina Turner, the artist, person, and one of music’s most public private dancers.

Den of Geek: I really enjoyed the film. Did Tina?

Dan Lindsay: Yeah. Tina has seen the film. She saw it once we finished it. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, we weren’t able to go and screen it for her. She saw it in a theater in Zurich and the way the timing was, we were fast asleep here in the States. She spoke with our producer Simon Chinn afterwards, and she really was happy with the film and was, I guess, for us a big compliment was she just said that we got it right. That she remembered, it was interesting for her to relive some of that stuff and that she felt like it was an accurate portrayal.

And I think the other thing is obviously you’ve seen the film. So, you know that we, as you might understand, we had some anxiety about showing her the film because we didn’t want to play any part in re-traumatizing her or triggering anything that would be difficult for her. She said that it was, ultimately, not as difficult to watch as she may have expected. So that was an encouraging sign. I think it maybe speaks a bit to the notion at the end of the film, when she talks about kind of coming to a place of acceptance.

When did you find out that the documentary was going to be a final statement from her?

T.J. Martin: That’s a good question. It’s funny. Even in the process of making it, she talked a lot about the question that’s posed in the film, this notion of: how do you bow out slowly? And we started recognizing, she’s retired from the stage, but she’s really speaking to her participation in anything that has to do with the rehashing of the story of Tina Turner, right? The way we thought about it in the film is there are two characters. There’s Tina, and then there’s the narrative of Tina. A lot of it’s about trying to get her POV and explore her relationship with the character of the narrative of Tina Turner. I don’t know if it started becoming a little bit more clear that this may be one of the last times that she actually participates in something like this until we went and filmed with her, for the premiere of the musical.

It’s not featured in the film. But we did some on-the-fly interviews with her. There was a very palpable anxiety from her about wanting to go to the premiere and continue to relive this story that is very much her, but she has moved on, and she’s in a totally new different chapter of her life. I think, at least for me, that was the time where I was like, “Oh, this might be the last true closure,” I know it’s featured in the film where Erwin says, this’ll be a closure, but it was the first time I actually felt honest that she’s hanging up the narrative of Tina so that he can actually be at peace and hang out at her castle by a lake and relax and process on her own and not in the public eye.

Lindsay: It was definitely hinted at, I guess in our first interview that we did. With Martin saying, like Irwin kind of brought up like, “I think this is it, this is like a closure.” And then doing interviews with her, she was clear that she’s like, “I don’t want to do this kind of stuff anymore.”

Does that make it easier because she knew this was going to be a final statement, that she would give one last full immersion?

Lindsay: I don’t know that there was that any of us were that conscious of it to a point where it would have made things easier or not. I just think she came into this, she’d been living her life and then the decision to do the musical, I think spurred this idea of: “Okay, well, if I’m going to talk with them for the writing of that, why not. If I’m revisiting and why not do this thing.” But I don’t know that it was like, “Okay, this is it.” Like Martin said, it’s just something that slowly evolved. And only Tina can answer this. I mean, whether she’s going to issue some public statement and be like, “Leave me alone.”

I don’t know. But yeah, I think it became clear to us as the more we filmed that it was like, “Oh yeah, she doesn’t have an interest in it.” Sorry to go off on a tangent, but the thing about Tina that’s really interesting, and I think it was something we wanted to make sure we explore at least textually in the film is that Tina’s not an activist. She didn’t come forward because she had a political message, right? She had goals in her life. She had things she wanted to do. And she was born into a society that wanted her to do certain other things. And she said, “No, I want to do this.”, and she was going to take the steps necessary to do the things she wants to do. Now that she is retired from the stage, she wants to do the things she’s doing and not be responsible for being Tina Turner anymore.

Were you fans of hers?

Martin: No. We grew up in the ’80s being very conscious of who she is, how can you not? I think there was always a tremendous amount of respect for Tina. They came to ask us to do the film. Part of her hesitation was, why us, why are two men the right people to voice Tina’s story or to author Tina’s story? And then also the other one was us talking to each other like, “Were you a Tina fan?” Neither of us really being like deep Tina super fans, which probably lent itself to being advantageous when we started that deep diving into the story and everything became a little bit more of a proper discovery.

Speaking of proper discoveries while you were talking to her – a lot of artists when they leave or when they say farewell, there’s a vault of unreleased material. Is there a vault of unreleased material?

Lindsay: No, I think as the easy answer, especially in her solo years. I think a lot of that stuff has been released. We did come upon a couple things that I think haven’t really made their way out to the public. The one thing that’s in the film that has never been heard before is, we use it to demonstrate the first time that she sang with Ike. And that is a recording of a song that Ike wrote, and it was recorded in 1962 or ’61 or ’62. Ultimately, it was recorded by Mickey and Sylvia. But the recording of it was on an old reel that a collector in St. Louis had. He had met Ike in the ’80s at some point. And Ike had given him these different reels. He had never had them digitized before. We brought them into a studio, got the multitracks, and well, I guess at that point it’s two tracks. And there was a ton of stuff on that. The early demos of songs that ultimately got recorded, but just the demo version of them. And it’s really interesting.

Is she on a lot of it?

Lindsay: Oh yeah. It’s all her, Ike and Tina doing demo stuff and there’s the original recording, or the original tracking of “I’m Blue” was on there. The Ikette’s song. Most of the stuff that we found that were rare things, were from the Ike and Tina days.

How do you choose which stories are the most representative of her?

Martin: As I’m sure you well know, Tina’s story is vast and this probably should be a 10-part series. And then on top of that, it embodies so many different storytelling genres, right? It’s a coming-of-age at 40 years old, that’s wholly unique, especially in pop music. It’s a rags-to-riches story. For us, it was a huge challenge to try to figure out how to synthesize that. But once we had our early meetings with Tina and we started recognizing how much of the trauma of her past still is omnipresent. It’s always bubbling under the surface. It’s always kind of there, we couldn’t really shake that.

And that is really what determined the POV and the lens of the film and everything was a ripple effect from there. So how do you create a space where it’s Tina looking back on the story of Tina and what is her relationship with that? And she happens to be an amazing performer, musician and musical icon. By sticking in that lane, that was our North star, to know what stories were necessary for the particular story in the particular lens of this film.

As you’ll notice, we don’t have the Rod Stewarts and the Mick Jaggers and the Beyonces talking about her artistry, but we are going to set you on the narrative of Tina and we’re just going to drop you into a performance. That’s the part where you get to experience her artistry. We don’t need someone reminding you of that. It was really about casting people that have somehow embodied or lived her story. And so that’s why you have all the scribes, Carl [Arrington] who wrote the 1980 People magazine article; Kurt Loder, who wrote I, Tina; Angela Bassett, who embodied Tina and that started giving shape and voice to this particular facet of Tina’s story that we wanted to explore.

Ike doesn’t seem like he ever really knew anything about what was bothering Tina. At one point he says he thinks the suicide attempts were because he was sleeping around. Did he ever, ever get it?

Lindsay: That interview was from 2000, I think. And I think that was probably the beginning of coming to some understanding. We’ve had footage, you only see it visually at the end, he’s by a keyboard. And it’s his house in Southern California. And that’s near the end of his life. I mean, I think he died a month or so after that stuff was filmed. We didn’t end up putting it in the film, but he talks about a letter of apology that he wrote to Tina, that there’s some kind of discrepancy whether or not Tina got the letter or not, but it’s mentioned in the musical as well.

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But he did. Yeah. He did come to a point where he did apologize to her. I think he somewhat understood. It’s hard to know, without talking to him. But as Tina says, Ike was obviously a very complicated and disturbed man and he had his own traumas of his life that led him to see things in a certain way. I don’t know, but we do know that he wrote her a letter of apology near the end of his life.

In the documentary, her son talks about a particularly brutal incident that made him hate Ike, but did he keep in touch with Ike until his death?

Martin: Craig specifically? I don’t think Craig did. Craig was her first child from Raymond Hill, the saxophonist. I think Craig, true to his word in the film, as he came of age and once he saw the reality of what that relationship was like. I think he stuck by his mom, his mom’s side pretty much, and really didn’t want Ike in his life.

Were you surprised to find the explicit racism from the record executive?

Lindsay: No, I don’t think we were surprised at all. It falls in line with the history of our country. Especially in the record industry, we were just talking with somebody earlier, one of the things that really stood out to me the first time we went to Tina’s house, we were looking at her Grammys and awards and stuff. She’s got several American music awards from 1985 and the award is for Best Black Video.

You go on Wikipedia now and look at the history of the American Music Awards. They don’t categorize that stuff. They’ve cleaned that aspect of that. But it just speaks to this inherent segregation in the record industry, I don’t think we were surprised. It’s disturbing to hear that stuff. And just to be aware of what did we lose in terms of things, artistry that could’ve been brought to the public because of these gatekeepers? That stuff is sad to think about, but I don’t know, Martin, I don’t think you were surprised.

Martin: No shock. I mean, I think we were really fortunate to have had that recording and good on the record executive Carter to have the courage, to kind of rehash that story and be honest about it. And to have that recording, to prove some of the things to pull the curtains back a little bit on some of the things, some of the anecdotes that we had heard about the systemic racism within the record industry, but by no means was, it was not a surprise.

Did Tina talk about any particular relationships she had with songwriters?

Lindsay: Well, Terry Britten is definitely one. He went on to write a lot of songs for her, we didn’t have the time in the film to really dive into that as much as maybe again, the 10 part series would, that was a very close relationship. And in fact, Terry in his interview got very moved and just talking about what Tina meant to him in his life and how that partnership really brought him to a level as a songwriter that you would have that, he’s unsure would have, whether it would have happened or not

Martin: We have to remember the first band Tina ever saw was Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm. And then she joined that band and that was kind of the beginning of her entire career. And she spent the first 20 years, 14 years with Ike, that was the dominant songwriting relationship. Obviously critically important to put the story of “River Deep, Mountain High,” because that was the first time she got an opportunity to work with a different composer songwriter producer. And that kind of liberated her. Outside of that, in terms of the narrative that we’re exploring, those would be the dominant, predominant collaborators that would actually have molded and inspired and influenced her spot.

Dominant, predominant. It’s interesting that those figures are Ike and Phil, though, isn’t it?

Martin: Totally.

Lindsay: Tina’s history and story is littered with encounters with horrible men.

Does she feel vindicated by how “River Deep, Mountain High” is now a classic, where at the time, people just shrugged it off?

Lindsay: She would never articulate it like that. I think she is very proud of it. She thinks of that song in particular as a really defining moment for her. When she went on her own, there were only a few songs from the Ike and Tina days that she continued to perform and “River Deep” was one of them. I guess probably should feel some sort of vindication, but even in some of the archive tapes, in her conversations with Kurt Loder specifically, when they talk about the recording of that song, Tina wasn’t looking at her career like, “Oh, did this pop off or not?” For her, it was just like, “I loved that song and I loved performing it.”

Whether it was successful or not, that wasn’t the way that she was thinking. And part of that is because of the relationship with Ike and the way that he controlled her.

Martin: To your last question, she did talk about, obviously another critical relationship with her was her relationship with Roger [Davies, Tina’s manager] and that transitioned into the solo years in collaboration with Roger. Obviously, it’s not a writing partner, but she did have to start to learn to trust this other vision of how to merge the strength of her performance and the strength of her voice into this new pop world. Roger’s not a writer, it’s not as featured in the film, but Roger spent a considerable amount of time calling together tapes and demos for her, for them to curate the future of her sound together.

Lindsay: I think you’ll appreciate this, to Martin’s point. And it’s, again, just because we didn’t have time to film, but one of the first songs that Roger brought to Tina was “Let’s Get Physical.” Tina was like, “Are you kidding me? I’m not going to, that’s so obvious. I’m not going to do that song!” Roger was working with Olivia Newton John. So, he gave it to her. It became a number one hit, and Tina’s response was that’s fine. I don’t care. I wasn’t going to do that song.

And have to sing it a thousand times on stage. Mick Jagger had said that he got his stage moves from watching Tina dance, and your documentary brings out that she wanted to be as big as Mick Jagger. Does she see herself as a rock artist or an R&B artist or just an artist?

Martin: My sense is that she considers herself a rock artist, but her association with rock is a type of energy, right? It’s not the way in which I think the industry or the public categorizes it, she defines rock in her own way. I think she defines herself as a rock artist.

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Tina debuts Saturday, March 27, at 8:00 p.m. on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

The post Tina Documentary Directors Talk About Making an Artist’s Final Statement appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Sky And The Forces Of The Multiverse, Chapter 36

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"Sky?"

Sky mumbled in her sleep, trying to bat away the person that was shaking her arm. Couldn't she just get a nice night's sleep after what had already been a rough day? Who was waking her up? She felt them shake her more fiercely and with a small glimpse she could make out enough to tell the figure above her was judas. There was no mistaking his purple face and dark hair, though sky remained groggy, as she tended to hate not getting as much sleep as she could.

"Judas...c'mon...not now...".

Seriously? Didn't they just get out of a crazy trial situation where sky herself was almost arrested herself? If anyone needed sleep besides angel, it was her, she tugged against her best friend, trying to get more comfy on her pillow how she could and go back to pleasant dreams where she wasn't almost killed or attacked or a combo of both. Though with noises going on in the back and Judas's constant attempts, she wasn't able to ignore him for much longer as reality started to return around her and to her senses.

"Sky, you need to get up! Angel's mother, she started freaking out in the middle of the night...the spiderbites and working on her right now...you have to get up...". Sky blinked away the sleep, sitting up on the bed to see a large crowd was forming around the bed, the lucitors, the butterflies, several nurses, the spiderbites, nora, angel, mason, all the girls. Whatever just happened, she must've slept through the action, and she suddenly felt more awake then ever.

She quickly tried to get her mind in order as she absorbed the chaos around them, people running around, loud voices, constant talking and movement that it was a miracle sky slept through it at all.

"What...how...what?".

"Angel was sleeping next to her to watch her and she started to jolt in the middle of the night, and he woke up and started to panic and he got the nurses attentions and everyone quickly started piling in, the queen was mostly stiff before, she never jolted before, they're so worried about her...". His eyes wandered to the crowd, so many people were talking to each other and moving in and out and sky could barely see what was happening over there, though the panic in the room was obvious.

"Is she ok?".

That was probably a stupid question to ask considering the paranoia around her but it slipped out anyway.

"I don't know sky, they checking on her right now...trying to see if there's anything they can do...some have been running out and grabbing materials and ingredients. Whatever must have been going on, it seemed like a serious emergency. Though among the commotion sky could hear Queen Spiderbite immediately shout over the others, trying to get them to stop panicking, as she asked the nurses to bring her some certain medicines and plants.

And was...her mother using magic?

"Judas...should we-".

"No, our parents said for us to stay back, let the professionals take a look at her...and well..angel...for good reasons. I had to wake you...you're kinda a heavy sleeper". Sky rubbed at her eyes, worry on her face, "Judas...what if...what if she...". Then a burst of light came from the bed where the queen laid, scaring everyone around the bed as Queen Spiderbite started pushing some of the viewers away, "Give her space, right now! I think there's some feeling returning to her legs, she needs to be able to stretch them!".

Quickly some of the crowd backed up, King Lucitor backing up to where judas and Sky were to alert them of what was happening.

"Queen Arachford had a "Jolt", because of her condition she was suffering from a stiffness that prevented her from being able to function like she used to. But since her species is magic, it seems a burst of magic occurred in her system, forcing her to react against her current condition...Queen Spiderbite says the suddenness had a chance of causing serious harm but Star's seeing if maybe they could bring movement back to all parts of her body again by spreading that magic out...".

"A burst of magic..huh".

"It's because of angel..."., The demon looked very serious, "The Arachmen went without a lot of serious magic for generations, making his species unable to develop with it properly...now that angel's brought it back...or well..did...her body is reacting to it unnaturally. Star thinks Arana is trying to heal herself with the magic internally, which is dangerous to do without proper training...healing magic can only do so much, it can fix wounds and heal bones but diseases are a whole other matter...".

"Is mason-?'.

"Mason offered his garden because plants do a lot of good for healing on mewni, but it's not that simple, the queen is not just suffering from a stiffness...she has memory issues, she's almost in a non functioning mode. I think even if we do cure her...she's never going to fully be how she was...she's going to need a lot of recovery time...there's no magical cure that just fixes everything unfortunately. I just hope we're fast enough to help her before we're too late...she's been like this long enough...".

"King Lucitor...".

"I'm sorry kids, it's a serious situation and we're not sure ourselves how to even respond to it, people have already been struggling to figure out how to save her before this point and...you shouldn't have to see this. Star put her here and got people to look over her but we had so much on our plates we couldn't put enough on her and it's terrifying...there's not a lot we can do it seems...unless we find out something fast to solve this without making it worse.".

"What's mom doing...?", Star tilted her head, looking closer at the scene.

"She's trying to get a better look at her condition...she promised to put a ton of effort into saving this woman's life...if she doesn't do that...well i don't want to imagine that...", Star and Queen Spiderbtie seemed lost in conversation at this point, discussing what to do right now whilst everyone around them was worried and panicking. So much for that nice night of sleep everyone wanted to have after such a complete mess of a day, of course something had to happen.

Queen Lucitor approached Star and they seemed to talk for a bit themselves and soon enough Penelope entered center stage, "Alright everyone, anyone whose not a nurse, doctor, or a king or queen...can you please leave this area? We have to talk and deal with this and we can't have you all here. Please can all of you wait outside?", there was mass discussion but sure enough, some of the crowd were leaving, sunny, mason, judas and sky were escorted to leave, even angel despite his protests.

The guards forcing them out and guarding the doors despite how tired they obviously were.

Surprisingly, nora had been asked to stay, her eyes wandering as the others were shut behind the door.

Almost on instinct, sky reached out for the distressed monster prince, though he was already panicking and screaming to get back inside to see his mom. Then someone else entered the scene, Katrina, she tugged him away from the door, trying to chill him down before he hurt himself. "Spider boy, you have to wait and let them do their job...", but he growled at her, "That's my MOM in there, i should be in there WITH her!". But she sat him down forcibly, "Stay down...".

"I can't stay down that's my-".

"Either you stay down or you might put her at more risk being there...if they need you they'll call you...now STAY", her eyes were practically glowing with how she glared at him. Not to mention how strong she actually was, intimidating the prince as he decided it wasn't worth crossing with her and planting himself firmly on his seat. Katrina seemed relieved to have finally gotten through to him, but she sent him glares as she turned her attention to the others looking at her.

Yeesh, Katrina was scary, sky certainly never wanted to get on her bad side.

Though Judas and Sky definitely seemed to feel bad for him, and if they had the power to, they'd most definitely fight to get him back inside to see her. But all that would earn them was a more serious grounding and possibly just be shut back inside their rooms in general. Angel was most definitely not calm, panicking internally, but sadly he'd half to wait as katrina smiled at the kids. She motioned for them to come up so she could talk to them and sky sighed.

"Katrina I-".

The Frog woman looked to sky and smiled, "Bluebell...good to see you when i'm not tailing purple boy over there...", she gave judas a little wave. " My spy partner has been out doing another mission, i'm sure if she wasn't so busy she'd be here to help out but there's not much i can do on that front...it's tiring enough following you around...". She shot angel a look to make sure he was still sitting before turning back to the duo, "I hope they know what they're doing in there...".

"Yeah...me too..."

"This entire situation is a mess, from head to toe, we got the commission attacking the princess, a masked foe avoiding detection despite all odds, a queen that's horribly sick...and god i never thought i'd see the day the Spiderbites and Arachfords could be in the same room together normally, not to mention helping another survive. This isn't even mentioning all the stuff going down at the monster village, i can barely keep my restaurant open anymore...everyone is scared to leave their homes...".

"Scared to leave their homes?", Judas rubbed at his eyes, katrina'a voice getting softer as she gazed to angel.

"With the Ponyhead prince being..well...you saw him, and angel having worked for her...well...no one wants to end up like them if they can help themselves...though the assassins guild is out there apparently looking for them theirselves...they're gaining a huge bounty for doing so little...". Guess that was a viable reason for anyone to want to stay in their homes, not to mention whenever judas had seen that figure, well...their appearance was chilling.

The white mask.

The dress.

the soulless eyes.

He felt himself shiver on the spot.

Angel had told him he had been worried for him, simply due to his arm, and he had a point. It was bad enough she had loki, what if she had done that to judas? Or anyone who was super powerful? Judas didn't like the implications of what could happen if he got out of control, much less out of control and in the control of someone else who he already knows tried to kill angel, he felt the shocked on his wrist and tried to sooth his mind quickly.

At the time he played it off like maybe angel was worrying too much about something that might not even happen, but it seemed the anxiety had creeped up on him now that the trial was out of the way. It was in the back of his mind, it had been ever since they found out people could be controlled. Though he needed to put it aside, he needed to be strong right now, especially with how one of his friends was dealing with the fate of his mother right now.

Thinking about this too hard got to him fast.

"Any tips on what we could do to get her?", sky suddenly asked, "I mean, you're a master spy right? You've had to catch criminals before?".

"Yeah, but most criminals i get aren't magic, those are always left to the Butterflies and commission, otherwise it might be out of my league, my partner is a lot stronger then i am, those kinda threats are better left for her to take care of then me...". Angel huffed in his seat, batting at tears in his eyes and Katrina quickly took his side and tried to pet him to calm him down, "Honestly we're lucky she didn't take over his body, especially when he was getting stronger...if she got her hands on him while in one of his spider rampages...oof.".

Sky recalled to the outburst he had while training, "You're not wrong...".

"Speaking of which...you holding up there purple?".

Judas was almost taken aback, not answering her at first. But that only made it more obvious something was wrong. Katrine sent a sympathetic smile his way, trying to reassure him, "Hey, don't feel bad you haven't taken the guy out...we've tackled some tough dudes ourselves, some took forever to catch it feels like...if even we have our struggles...you can too. Just have faith in us we'll take care of this before things get any worse..sooner or later...".

Judas huffed, letting it all out, "No...it's not that...i'm...i'm worried what'll happen if i get taken over...personally...i gave sky something to help in case...my entire family has one as well...but...i'm nervous...". Sky started patting his back and Katrina reassured him, "Everyone's anxious about that...but we'll make sure they never get the chance if they are considering it...promise, you're in good hands judas. It's ok to still be scared but you need to stop being terrified of yourself...you're not a bad person jude...".

"I just think about it sometimes...i've had it drilled into my head that i'm dangerous and i can't help but now think...what if someone gets hurt because i lose control of my body? I want to know i'm in control of my body, and that...no one else is or will be..." though his sadness was quickly cut before anyone could respond, "I'm sorry, it's so off topic...we should be worrying about angel and the queen, i...shouldn't be turning this into a conversation about me...".

"Jude...dude...like...you can talk about this if you need to, it clearly matters to you..."., Judas hugged his arms, turning his head from sky.

"No it's ok...for now let's focus on angel...we can worry about this another time...when things are calmer...", judas wasn't trying to be rude but there was no way they could get judas to get into this when he was this upset, they were just going to have to wait. Though it didn't make sky feel any better, she could take pressure off of him but she couldn't make him feel safe in his own skin just by speaking to him and doing some magic or something.

Angel's ears flickered at the talk, he looked like he wanted to say something but stayed quiet.

"Just try to not let this worry you so much...it's our job to protect you...have some faith in us and yourself..." the frog woman smiled at him, patting his shoulder before her compact started to ring. She quickly checked to see who was calling and she almost hopped in surprise, "I better take this...keep an eye on the spider while i'm gone real quick? And don't try and go inside...they'll kill you if i don't.". She headed off down the hall and Mason quickly approached, still in his matching jammies.

He'd probably been waiting for katrina to leave for this exact moment.

He looked more then eager to see his older brother, a smile on his face despite the current situation at hand, though his hair was all over the place. Judas left wondering if his brother had been sleeping upside down on the ceiling again. Regardless, considering how deeply their parents refused to let mason take part in their situation, mason was here, and he yawned as his wings fluttered behind him. Only bumping into the slightest bit of people on his way over.

"Mason...you really shouldn't be here...y'know? It's WAY past your bedtime", he sounded like their parents, but he wasn't wrong either.

"I'm 13...", the small demon said, pouting, batting at his eyes as his wings stretched, he looked like a stubborn child...well, an even more stubborn child. "Besides...you're all still up, I don't see why I can't be here with you guys...sky's only a couple years older then me...I wanted to be here to see If i could help. I said they could find stuff in my garden cause i got a lot of healing plants and magic plants in there and twiler has made all inds of stuff with their ingredients...".

"Mason, you know mom and dad said-".

"I want to help...it's not fair you and landon can help and i can't...just because i'm a kid doesn't mean i can't help out!", mason was still bitter about it and judas couldn't blame him, though he also couldn't agree either since he put him in danger in the first place. He reached out and patted his little brother's head, laughing as the boy batted away his hands, "Mason, you're a smart kid, but...we shouldn't put all this on your shoulders...or get you hurt...".

"I work with the most dangerous plants on mewni, i'm not scared! I easily could've been strangled or eaten or poisoned...all kinds of stuff...but I knew what I was doing...i'm not...stupid or reckless...you make it all sound like I can't be...responsible...". Did Mason really feel like this? Like everyone had thought lesser of him? "I wanna help out my brothers...but no one wants me to...landon didn't want me to help with his crush...you guys don't want me to help with this...I'm good at handling dangerous stuff...I'm not...dumb..".

He wasn't wrong...Mason handled tough stuff more often then most should at his age.

But Judas couldn't risk it.

"Mason...".

"Can't you find some way to let me in?I know mom and dad got mad at you but it wasn't your fault...I wanted to join...it was me! But when i tell them that they still punish you instead and-...", Mason was mad and were those...tears? Mason tended to be a rather chipper young prince, usually making everyone around him happy almost by just being there, he was rarely acting somewhat like a brat. Where he cries or threw temper tantrums, not unless what bothered him was REALLY bothering him.

Like his plants or his brothers.

Judas had to place a finger to his lips to shush his brother before his words got the attention of those around them, ushering mason to the side, "I know you're upset mason, and you have ever right to be upset...but there's nothing I can do...and they're partially right...you're still my younger brother and i...I shouldn't be putting you in danger...if something happens to you it'll be my fault...mason you're tough and competent, but it's out of my hands and you know it...".

"Mom and Dad aren't going to let me...they don't trust me...you trust me...don't you?", he was giving him those brown soft puppy eyes, and it was hard to say no, but judas had to stand his ground. "Well of course i trust you...but...mason this is serious...you know it. Angel...he almost died...you could've witnessed it because of me...". mason was tapping his foot and he still looked upset, but he couldn't argue with judas there, despite how stubborn he was being.

"Mason...why is this so important to you?".

"Because you all see me as a little kid...mom and dad definitely do, they don't trust me to take care of my garden like i used to...and i can't even go in like before...my plants miss me...I just...I'm tired of you all doing all this stuff and leaving me out because i'm 13...sunny's 14 and you let her do all this stuff!". Judas got down on his knees, trying his best to explain this how he could, "Sunny is a powerful magic user...and...you're still my little brother...".

"But..she's our sister...right?".

Judas was slightly taken aback, never hearing mason address sunny as being technically their sister before this point.

"It's not fair and you know it...".

Judas was silent.

"Maybe we can find something for you...but...nothing that puts you in well...the action...ok?", he watched as mason's eyes lit up, his tense shoulder releasing themselves as he wrapping his arms around his brother in a hug, his wings following. "Thank you so much! I promise i'm gonna do a great job! Anything you want, you got me!", it was at least nice to see his brother in a good mood again, smiling and being as giddy as he usually had been.

"Just...don't do anything rash...ok?".

"Nah, not something i like doing...that's more landon's thing...".

Mason hugged the boy tighter, smiling as his wings flapped outwards, nearly hitting some of those around him, "Oh and uh...can i ask you something? I uh...i'm worried i made fae mad...and she doesn't want to talk to me anymore because of it...cause well I was...I just needed someone to talk to and...",He ears seemed to droop, "Is she mad at me? She...". Judas simply blinked at him, landon hadn't gone into too much detail about mason and fae talking to him other then "They did and that's how mason ran into us".

Though his brotherly instincts kicked in quick, looking around for anyone who may of been watching, "Mason...you're allowed to talk about your issues...now maybe fae wasn't the perfect person to talk to, especially since maybe you didn't know each other well when you started...but it's ok to get it out...". He stopped himself, thinking about how he stopped himself from talking about his arm not that long ago, "I don't think fae hates you...but maybe later you both could form a proper friendship soon, by just talking to each other without so much baggage, ok?".

"You think so?".

"Yeah, if you need to talk...talk to me...maybe you could do something nice for fae as a sign you want to be friends for real?".

"Like...flowers?".

"Well...I guess?", though considering what he knew, those flowers might not last long in her hands. The gesture still seemed nice though, mason didn't really have friends of his own all that much and it seemed fae, for whatever reason...was someone he wanted to be friends with. "Mason, just be careful...if she doesn't want to be friends, that's ok too. Don't take it personally if she doesn't want to really hang out...ok? I...I just want you to-".

"Judas...".

"Right, treat you more like an adult, less like a kid...alright...but still...be careful.", mason smile, "Thanks judas!". Judas stood up, ruffling his brother's hair. "It's good to see you smile again mason...i missed seeing it.". Mason's wings fluttered, though he quickly turned around and noticed the down spider currently being comforted by sky. "Is he going to be ok? Maybe you should go over there and...make him feel a little better? He seems happier with you around...".

"Angel doesn't have a lot of people looking out for him...at least not in terms of friends...i hope me and sky can make whatever might happen easier for him.".

Though he seemed unsure, it was clear he didn't want to admit it.

Would Angel really be ok? Sure, they sorta seemed to cheer him up, but...if things went south, there was no telling what would happen from there.

Mason nodded towards him, "You should talk to him, he'd appreciate it...ok?".

"I'll see you later mason? Ok?".

Mason smiled wider, "I'll see you later!".

He was quickly ushered off by a guard, insisting he return to bed immediately as judas's attention was returned to his friends. Though he was quickly stopped however, as the door opened behind him, Queen Star coming out and getting everyone's attention, the guard even stopping so mason could listen. "Alright everyone, the scare is over...the queen is still breathing, she's still alive...Queen Spiderbite is looking into solutions more heavily...though there is some feeling back into her body it seems...".

"There is?", Angel looked up from his pouting mess as Star coughing into her fist, "Well i mean, she sorta kinda bursted with magical energy cause you meddled on magic so much for your species, well that and...she's in butterfly castle...one of the biggest places she could get some magical exposure...especially if she were around a butterfly so often...". Sky felt eyes placed on her, and she wasn't really sure how to react, though her mom quickly moved on.

"Anyways, her magic growth seems to be almost healing her...though not from us, we think she's using it to try to heal herself...unconsciously...however there's still work to be done...she's not a professional magic user and can't do it herself...she needs some more real treatments to help and something to help her memories...if we're going to save her we might have to go inside well...her mind to find the problem. Well actually. I have to go in her mind...".

"In her mind?", something about that seemed to disgust sky, not really wanting to know where this was going.

"I've done it before in my mind, it's not THAT bad...besides...it's worth a look...", angel stoood up though, eyes darting at her, "When are you going? We can't waste anymore time on this, if there's a way to help you can't waste time...". But the queen was way ahead of him, "Which is why i'm going right now...i'm not sure if I can do anything...but it's worth a try to see what might be affecting her...especially memory wise...magic can't solve everything...sadly...".

"Thanks...".

Star smiled at Angel before heading back inside, the spider prince's eyes lingering on the door with hope.

"I think mom's grown kinda fond of you since you..well...yeah", Sky said, not really looking at Angel, "Honestly, the fact you kinda changed her mind at all is pretty impressive...". The prince watched as the crowd started to disperse a little, katrina still talking on her compact nearby. "I'm not leaving this spot till she gets back...I want to hear the results...", he took a seat nearby and judas and sky took his sides, keeping to themselves mostly as sunny, galexia, and celeste sat around then, talking on occasion.

Mason having already been sent back to bed.

Katrina was finished awhile later, looking tired as she rubbed her temple.

"Sorry about that...it took longer then i thought it would...turns out my partner's mission ain't going as well as expected...ugh what a mess...", she looked over the kids there before forming a puzzling expression, "Hey, Prince Landon didn't show up did he? All of you arrived...but not him?". Celeste could only grumble, "Hey, i'm not his alarm system...I kinda had to see what the commotion was about! Whether he kinda shows up or sleeps in is up to him...".

"Hmm...i'm going to check up on him...".

She motioned for a guard nearby to watch the kids as she headed down the hall, time further passed as angel stared at the door, hard. He was waiting for anything to come back, sky was partially upset she wasn't going to see what her mom was seeing, but then again going into someone's mind was really only good for one person, the more people in the mind, the faster the mind starts getting wonky. Minds just weren't made to hold a bunch of people inside of it frankly.

And after yesterday, her hype on anything that involved her possibly dying was pretty much something she wanted little to do with for the time being.

"Couldn't give us a night of sleep...", she mumbled, rubbing at her face and yawning, "We had to go right into more issues...". Though at the same time she felt slightly at fault, "Ugh...i know constant exposure to magic and magical people has an effect on mewmans and fellow magical creatures sometimes...but i never saw this coming!". But Angel nodded to himself, "I did...well..not exactly this but...when magic started slowly returning thanks to...her, all my kind could feel something different even if they didn't know why...but...I didn't want my dad to find out what i was doing...so i kept it to a minimum so maybe he wouldn't suspect anything...or at least, I asked for it to slowly return so it felt natural".

"You didn't expose your parents to it?".

"I'm not stupid...i wanted to make things easier but not by the flick of a switch...i wanted it to gradually make an impact...I didn't want anyone to know what i was doing...we don't just lack spells, we lack practice...and the access to learn...we're not as strong as we used to be so long ago. Mom had never been exposed to such power until i started that plan and well...she ended up here...but because she's...it's affecting her different...she's trying to help herself without experience...".

"Can you heal? Like your species I mean?", Celeste grumbled, motioning to her disguised wand.

"Yes...well..with wounds at least...not that it's easy...we used to do it i think...healing is easier said then done...if you screw up, you make it worse...it's why...It scares me what mom might do if she's using magic unconsciously...". The group around them seemed surprised Celeste spoke up at all considering her reputation, though there seemed to be a line of worry over her face she couldn't hide. Even behind that grumpy face, she did have a heart.

"I'm...big on healing magic...", she mumbled, "Not something i really wanted to be...but...I...well...I got into fights...a lot...and...learning magic just helped...hiding the bruises...it's...not easy to learn...sometimes nothing happens and something it just makes it hurt more...it hurts to watch...watching her try and fix herself like that...she really wants to...feel better...". Was celeste starting to cry a little? Hard as ice celeste? She wiped at her eyes.

She noticed everyone looking at her funny and she turned away, going back to her usual self and hiding her face.

"I...don't like seeing people in pain...", she seemed to be struggling to keep herself together, her arms shaking a little.

Angel was distressed but a small smile was on the corner of his lips, "She's fighting back...to see me and dad and again...".

He seemed touched despite everything, even if he was worried it was clear his mother was trying to save herself for a reason despite her weak state. Though then again it was also entirely possible she didn't know what she was doing and her body was doing it instinctively. Though whether that was the case of it was the other reason it was terrifying and made his heart jump, though the teens around him were going out of their way to ease him wherever they could.

Sky especially.

"She really loves you...".

Now it was angel's turn to cry, but more of joy then sadness this time.

"Yeah...yeah she does...".

Star suddenly then burst through the door, breathing heavily as Janna and Queen Spiderbite followed after, "Angel! We need you in here!". The queen didn't even hesitate as she grabbed the boy by the arm and tugged him out of his seat. The boy himself bewildered as he was tugged inside the room, Sky quick to follow after him before anyone could stop her, the guards failing to grab her in time before she ran inside to see what was going on. The sick queen didn't look any different then when they last saw her, but Star quickly placed angel next to her, placing his mother's hand in his.

"Talk to her."

"I'm sorry...what?", the boy's face looked utterly puzzled, but Star seemed frantic and tried her best to get herself together and not lose her patience.

"Her memories are super fuzzy...like SUPER fuzzy...I need someone she knows to try and jog her memory a little if possible, and you're the closest...your father says she reacts to you on occasion while in this state...so maybe...", the prince seemed to see where she was going with this, though he always welt up being around his mom, and looking at her face. It was so hard to look at her like this, and he ended up gripping her hand with his two now.

"Mom...can you hear me?".

Star quickly laid down on the far end of the wing, placing a hand to her head and whispering something, which sky could only assume was whatever spell she was suing to enter the monster's mind as the sick queen's forehead started to light up. Jeez, her mom really was stressing out to fix this mess wasn't she? Sky looked over to see Angel busy with his mom as she approached her own to see if she was ok, her mom was transferring her subconscious into Arana's and that alone was pretty risky and as her cheeks lit up, sky could suddenly feel her own start to light up as well.

"Princess Butterfly!", Suddenly one of the nurses noticed Sky near the queen and before Sky could react, she found herself...in the spiderbite forest?

Well, it looked like the forest, but also not the forest, there were things around there that shouldn't be there. Like certain homes, trinkets, picnic basket, and it felt sky puzzled until she noticed a photo on the ground of a familiar spider monster...as a small baby. She could hear her mom screaming nearby, and sky noticed some elements turning whiter and fuzzy before becoming normal again, as if the world was on the verge of collapsing on itself.

"I'm in arana's mind...oh nooooo", she must've somehow gotten pulled in herself and that was not good at all. She only intended to make sure her mom was alright, she didn't plan to go inside the mind of the queen next to her. It happened so fast, as if sky had walked into another room, she was there and now she was...here. Or at least, her subconscious was here, and the only way she could get out was to find the spellcaster to let her out before things got worse.

She had to find her mom, fast.

"MOM!", she called out, running through the forest of the queen's memories...the place was jumbled with different elements from different memories, was this how most minds were on the inside? Jumbled and confused? Though as Sky roamed through the world and called out to her mom, she could hear angel's voice, his voice...well it seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It echoed throughout the world, the boy talking to his mother with some difficulty.

"I'm sorry mom...sky...um...she collapsed on the floor just now...she's my friend...I hope you get to meet her soon.".

Collapsed huh? Guess it figures that's what would happen to her body, it must've literally fallen to the floor while her mind transferred. She could only imagine how shocking that'd be for angel, and just hoped he was focusing at the task at hand and hadn't lost focus. Hopefully at the very least someone moved her body off the floor, last thing she needed was to find her body on the hard and cold floor as soon as she woke up from this complete mess.

She called out louder this time, the memories around her getting hazy and then reappearing, sometimes the world even seemed to be teleporting, things moving from one place to another. It was a surreal experience, like time and space was moving and changing constantly around her while almost not changing at all. Though she really couldn't take the time to admire it, wondering where her mom was in all of this, though a voice made her pause.

Turning to spot a rather young child, perhaps 6, playing alone.

And if the legs weren't a dead giveaway, his tiny nervous expression was.

A child Angel.

He was by his lonesome, playing with some toys in front of him at what looked like a picnic of all things. Was this a memory where angel was actually alone? Or was his mother supposed to be here with him and was elsewhere for the time being? Regardless, he looked a little nervous and scared being alone, and sky was left wondering if he knew he was a memory or even if he was bothered by any of the things happening around him in this strange mind world.

"Hello?", can memories of people react to her in here? Or did they stay in their respective memories? Though the fact the boy looked up at her signified that yes, it seemed he could hear her. Though seeing a tiny child angel and hearing his voice throughout this world, talking to his mom was only adding to the strangeness of the situation. "Uh...hi? I'm uh...looking for my mom, it's very important...she's blonde, probably has her hair in buns...blue eyes?".

The child seemed to gap at her, Sky wondered if he recognized her as well...herself, but a lot older looking.

She forgot how shy Angel was as a kid, always gaping close to his mother. Not like the moody teen she knew him more as, he looked too nervous to even talk to her. She it her lip as she got on one knee, she needed to find her mom before things got worse and tiny memory angel was her best bet right now. "Heya...I uh...I lost my mom, we got separated on accident...I could really use your help...to find her. You uh...you really love your momma right?".

The child's ears flicked, surprisingly, this memory of angel was not suffering like some of the other memories were on occasion. He simply nodded a little at Sky and she held out her hand, "I'm...Sky...we're uh...it's going to be ok...we're going to be good friends...I mean i'm sure the memory of me you have know you probably think of me more as a small girl who tags around judas a lot...but...right now? We're friends...strange ones...but...i'm here for you...ok?".

The boy blinked at her, "Skyler butterfly?".

So he did recognize her; Was that good or bad under these circumstances? Either way if she wanted out of her she needed to make sure she didn't scare him off and gained his trust. She bent down to his level, trying her best smile and did her best to not freak him out during what almost looked like the end of the world around them to a degree. God judas was so much better with kids then she was, but for now she'd just have to make the young boy feel as secure as she could.

"Yeah...me, if..you help me find my mom..i'll help you find yours...is that ok?".

He looked to her and her hand before nodding and reaching out, wow...he was solid, he felt really there.

They stood up together and Sky almost seemed delighted to see the young child trust her, though who knows if the real angel at this age would've done so or not. This was a memory after all, and it could be shaped by the mother's mind, but regardless...sky felt a sense of relief. The young monster took the lead, walking around and holding onto her hand rather tight, his favorite toy under one of his arms, using his much smaller spider legs to go a little faster as she caught up with him.

This place was endless, in fact it probably did go on forever considering it was someone's mind rather then an actual land. It's almost constant changing of even the smallest details would make it almost impossible to navigate through and who knows where he mother went. Though Sky could still hear her Angel talking to his mother, his voice still coming through, though the child didn't really pay it no mind, more interested in the task at hand then that.

That or...maybe he just couldn't tell there was anything wrong like Sky could.

Though soon enough, she could hear someone else in the near distance, egging the child to lead her to whoever that was, whether it was her mom or not, she needed to find out for sure.

The boy led her through the memories, before showing Sky a clearing and sure enough, her mom was there. Digging around for what she was looking for, though it seemed their sudden appearance startled her, the queen nearly blasting them before stopping herself. "Oh jeez...more memories...wait...why would my daughter be interacting with the memory of a child angel...?", she was going to be in trouble but granted this one wasn't entirely her fault.

Then the queen seemed to come to a realization rather fast, "Wait...memories of you two from different time periods interacting? That wouldn't happen unless...you're not a memory are you...". She looked at Sky with surprise and frustration, her eyes looking at her to the boy next to her. Before looking around the memory world, as if to check and see if it was doing any worse then when she first arrived in it not that long ago. Then looked back at her daughter's apologetic face.

"So...yeah...I might of ended up joining you...sorry...I was just trying to check on you and then I just popped in...not like I was supposed to know i could get sucked in by just being NEAR you!".

"Sky! I separated myself for a reason! If you get in proximity of me you would end up sent with me and...actually I didn't warn you about that did i? Ok ok, fine fine...we'll just send you out of here real quick before it gets any worse and...hold up...". The Queen took a closer look at the tiny child version of the prince who was still speaking to his mother on the other side, "He's...not glitching like the other memories here...he's...physical...he's the most intact memory i've seen so far...".

Sky looked over to the child angel, who was tilting his head up at both of them.

He was rather stable, stable enough that she could hold his hand right now, though at the time she didn't really question it, she was just looking for help and he was the only memory she could speak to for the time being.

"I did think it was weird he seemed entirely normal compared to a lot of the other stuff in here...is that good?", Star smiled, "I think he's exactly what i needed, thanks hun...". Though she looked excited, the small memory child didn't, backing away and hiding behind sky in fear, surprising Star. "Er...mom...mind telling me exactly what you need him for? I mean, he's a memory of angel but he's still technically a kid and we probably don't wanna y'know...hurt him".

"No no no, nothing like that...but with a solid memory like him, maybe we could stabilize the others!".

"Stabilize? Mom, what's happening in here exactly?".

But Star wasn't paying much attention, "Just stay close...maybe with two magic users we'll be more effective...but we have to do it soon because it's bad enough having one here, having two in here is too much for the mind...and don't lose the boy...". Sky kept a close grip on the boy as her mom started digging through the bushes of the memory forest, Sky completely puzzled in what she was doing. Did her mom find out what they could do to cure her memory loss?

Or was this an experiment?

Yeah her mom fixed stuff on the fly before but this time Sky was here to see it and it was a little more...personal to her.

Especially as she felt the boy clutch close to her.

"Mom...hey...maybe I should leave...like now...well, after i find his mom...I kinda promised...it's her mind so i'm sure there's a memory of her around here somewhere...", she looked around the area but Star wagged her finger, "No no no, we don't have time...don't worry dear, your mom has done crazier stuff then this, the fact he's stable means despite the memory loss...she has a clear memory of her son...even if it is him as a little boy...i think with him we might be able to use magic and stablize her memories more...it might not fix everything...but it'll make sure she holds on a lot longer...the spiderbites on the other side are seeing if they can work out a better healing solution for her body...they thought it best I worked on the mind...".

"Mom...I mean like, you sure?".

"I have to try...right? It's my job as queen and...I failed them...I can't fail them any further...".

Then she paused, "I promise the boy will be ok, we're only spreading his stability, it shouldn't hurt him...just because I know you'd care if it did." It did seem to reassure Sky though paused, it was the first time they had a proper one on one since well...everything blew up, and the tension as still there. She wondered what her mom was thinking about all this, what she had questions about, if she had her own suspicions she wasn't telling sky or anyone for that matter.

"It seems like you're changed your mind a lot on stuff...since everything happened...".

Sky stood there as Star turned around to face her.

"We...have a lot to talk about...when this is over...don't we?"

"Yeah...We do...".

"Y'know...for the record...you and judas really have had an effect on that boy, he used to be so spoiled, going on about wanting to travel back and time and fixing things and talking more princely and fancy and calling his mom and dad "Mother and Father"...now...he's dressed like more of a normal kid...he's less mean...he's more...like you. I'm honestly not sure how we got to this point but...i'm impressed you really...did have an affect on him", sky looked to the kid and nodded.

"Well...I think the truth is...angel was probably putting up a facade to mask how he really felt...and the more time he spent around us the more that mask wore off...he seems a lot less of a jerk and just...a sad kid whose desperate to make things right. And honestly...me and judas were kinda mean to him too...for awhile...we...all had some growing up to do...and I think we still do...I mean...I did taze him and...now...I...really don't use the tazer at all...I think a lot has happened...since that ball...".

"I would imagine so...but for the record...I think i had a little growing up to do as well...that maybe I was also too harsh...I spent years fixing everyone's problems skyler...it was a lot of pressure for me...it still is...even now...I...I'm a little tired I guess...of feeling like I have to fix everything our ancestors did...and judas told me once...that maybe it was wrong of me to be putting a bunch on you and i called him out for it. But...he's right...you shouldn't have to go through the stuff I did sky...i'm going to help see if I can fix this...and...I want...to make up for well...being such a brat...".

"Maybe we outta save this for after we somewhat help?", sky nodded to the world around them, phasing in and out and more rapidly then usual.

"Right...good...lil angel? may i take your hand?".

The older woman reached out for the small memory boy, and sky nodded to him to say it was ok. Angel carefully placed his palm on star's hand, Sky taking the other. "Now dear...this won't hurt him at all, promise...we'll talk more on what I found when we get out of here...for now...just repeat after me...if we do this correctly...then we might be able to stabilize her mind for the time being and keep her memories clearer and more intact. Just like he is...ok?"

"You think she might be able to talk to us if we do?".

"It's a possibility...".

Sky took a deep breath, reassuring the memory next to her as her mother looked to her with trusting eyes.

"Memory Lost, Memory gain, spread the thought, remove the pain", Star chanted, Sky encouraged to chant along with her. She felt the boy grip their hands tighter as they began chanting, and Sky desperately hoped her mom knew what she was doing. If luna were here maybe she'd know what to do, especially with he uncomfortable knowledge of memory charms , but all she could do was trust her mom knew what she was doing before things got messy.

And sure enough, the boy next to them seemed to be glowing, the glow spreading from him to the world around them.

The memories the glow touched, even if it was a small amount, were starting to stop their bugging out, becoming more solid memories. The trees looked like solid trees, items stayed in place, everything seemed to almost reach a state of normally. Almost, it was still a jumble of memories after all, but at least things were not fazing in and out like a broken television. The boy himself seemed almost clam and relaxed, he felt somehow safe with them watching over him.

It...was working, even if it was slight.

Sky was feeling a little out of breath as she felt the boy's hands tug away from her, almost falling to the ground as she mom stood her up and looked at the work around them. "He must be a strong memory to help repair so much...if only it wasn't temporary...but still, it's better then nothing...", Sky blinked and tried to get herself together before another figure walked into the scene, the little boy running over to see them. Leaving the two Butterflys behind to hug the mysterious figure.

"What...who?", sky rubbed her eyes and tried to get a closer look, the figure coming more into shape.

It was Arana herself as a memory, easily grabbing her son and holding him close to her. She was so young and so...beautiful, she didn't look ill or weak or anything. Her hair done, as light pink as ever, all her legs functional, her pink face and marking as natural as ever. Her white dotted eyes had so much life into them, like the queen Sky remembered from all those past balls and dances when they were all really young kids. She held onto her tiny son lovingly and it made sky stop in her tracks.

It looked so sweet and tender , but it also felt sad.

Star noticed before an aura spawned on her palm, "We better go...before things get worse with us here...".

"Wait!", Sky said quickly, removing herself from her mom to run over to the mother and son, the memory woman stopped for her, her smile seeming thankful. "Queen Arana...i know you're just a memory but can you tell me...anything...of how to help you? You're sick and having a hard time functioning and no one knows how to help you and...your son...he wants you back...". The Queen seemed to blink at her in surprise, and Sky wondered if this was a bad idea.

This could be a memory of her years ago and therefore she'd have no idea what sky was talking about whatsoever.

But then, she smiled and for the first time in a long while, she spoke, "All i need is him...and I need you to keep him strong...". She held the boy close to her, "Tell him when you get back out there...that I love him so much...".

"If-no...When you get back out there...you can tell him yourself", Sky said back, "And don't worry...I will...and you'll see that when you see him again...".

She felt her mother run up behind her and touch her shoulder and everything went white.

She found herself waking up in a bed, she had been most likely moved here after she collapsed and as she sat up angel turned to look at her. He'd clearly been worried despite spending the situation mostly speaking to his mother, though sky gave him a reassuring smile. Her mom woke up shortly, and before everyone could properly thinking about what happened...the unconscious queen moved a little. Her mouth coughing before she finally said something.

"Angel...".

This seemed to even freak out Queen Spiderbite, who looked to the Mewman queen in disbelief.

Angel started to cry, tears leaking from all of his eyes.

"I think there's something more to this illness then meets the eye...we've been thinking about it purely as like...one of those regular sicknesses mewmans get, and I think we've been thinking about it all wrong", Star said, "We...had to stabilize her memories before they blinked out of her mind, but that's not just it...she can't...get her mind and body to work together properly, it's hard for her to speak or move or do much of anything like she used to...she's strong and trying to push through it but she seems to lack control of her own body...at least, for the most part...I think what's making her sick might be a mind parasite...".

"Mind parasite?".

The mere mention of it sent shivers down everyone's spine, Star speaking rather gravely, more serious then she had ever been.

"Magical things, rare to run into...when they go through your skin and infect you they attempt to take over your body by killing the mind and soul...but it's a lengthy process and i think Arana has been fighting back so much it's been unable to finish it's goal...and making her weaker...the best way to cure it is to draw the bug out and then see if we can repair her and help her properly heal from there...the real question is how she came into contact with one of those in the first place...".

"I know how!", Suddenly in a burst of energy, Jackie came into the room, covered in liquid magic and pudding cups dropping from her armor, "Your majesty! One of the missions I was out taking care of awhile back involved tracking down some illegal items being sold between dimensions...Mind Parasites were one of them...they don't traditionally come from mewni, they come from another dimension...they're typically sold as a way to infect and kill off enemies in a subtle way...especially since it can easily hide itself as an illness...".

Star seemed more then welcome for Jackie to return, giving her a large hug, "JACKIE! Oh god this mess has been so bad I completely forgot to brush on all the stuff you got into on your missions! Everything's been such a hassle but i'm so glad you're ok! ". Star looked over the queen, who wasn't speaking, but looked at least a smidge better then she did an hour ago, "We need to find a way to draw that bug out...and soon...Penelo-". Queen Spiderbite stepped forward, raising a hand to quite the queen, "I know...but...I think i might have an assistant on that...".

Nora stepped forward, still in shock of her mother actually allowing her to assist her on this matter, coughing into her hand and trying to keep eye contact and resist covering her face.

"I...in my research...I did notice her actions did seem a little more strange then usual illnesses I ran into...I uh...well...I talked to angel a lot while we were in here together...and well...his kind likes to eat bugs...it's a major part of their usual diet in their kingdom. I think it's entirely reasonable the queen ended up with one being served to her and because it's not from here...she didn't know what it was...and it entered her and slowly took her over...making her sick...".

"How much have you had on finding a cure?".

"Well..I didn't know about the parasite until just now...I thought i was looking at it as a natural illness...but as an illness provoked by a living thing...that explains why i was having such a hard time trying to get my notes in order and why things didn't entirely line up...she's still sick but the sickness has a clear source and has affects on her that i couldn't explain before...If I could learn more about those things...if that is what's happening...we might be able to figure out what to do soon...".

"Perfect...Queen Spiderbite?".

The mewman queen sighed, pinching her nose, "It does explain a lot frankly...I was trying a few safe remedies on her and some results were not working...not to mention even my notes were jumbled and trying to come up with a solution with the tools we had seems harder then usual...but if there is something in her making her sick...we can draw it out...and then see what we can do from there...most likely her body would still be affected regardless...we...have work to do...".

"As long as we have some time...and I think we might...as long as she holds in there...".

Angel took his mom's hand as people started to clear out a little, Queen Spiderbite leaving, then Jackie, followed by Queen Star to speak to her and get her updates...then Queen and King Lucitor who had been watching over the situation, and as the adults headed out, judas and the others were let more back in. Nora luckily was still allowed to be here, to monitor further spread on Queen Arana, and Judas looked more then relieved at the sight of them.

"I heard...you guys might have a solution...?"

"We might...", it was still a theory on the matter, they needed to try drawing it out to prove it for sure, but it was still something.

"That's...fantastic...", Judas seemed to be letting out air from his body he never knew he had, going in for the hug, "After you went in I tried to go in but they refused...I was worried when you didn't get sent back out...but you...I hear you were amazing...!". Sky snickered, face red, "Oh nah...I just did what i normally did, stumble into stuff by accident...I had no idea that memory of angel would do anything I just...wanted some help..that's all..".

"You and your mom worked together!", he sounded so excited, and super proud as well.

"Yeah...I guess we did...", now that she thought about it, her and her mom worked together to save someone, and her mom let her help, it was...hard for sky to explain how she felt about that after so much rejection before.

Judas hugged her for a little longer before tapping her shoulder, "Someone wants to speak to you". Sky quickly turned to see Angel, and he was...smiling, he'd been looking for hope for so long and had been losing it for so long, and he'd never been so hopeful before in his entire life. He looked like he was about ready to kiss her he looked so happy, though he seemed to manage to pull himself together just enough to ask her something. "Did...you meet her in there...at all? Did she have anything to say?".

"Well...she wants you to be strong for her and well...let's save the rest so she can tell you herself when she properly is able to...", Sky felt herself smile, "But then again, I think you probably have a good idea what she said...don't you?".

Angel nodded, smiling affectionately, "Yeah, yeah I do.".

"KIDS!", The door burst open for what felt like the 7th time that day, Katrina back, with Landon in tow. At first scaring everyone in the room before crossing her arms and putting landon out front, "Found Pink over here covered in magic...". Landon huffed, rubbing his arm, "I didn't GO anywhere...I swear! I just wanted to check out what Star and Jackie found when they got back and well...look at it myself! It's not my fault the stuff was covered in this junk!".

Sure enough, looking the boy over he had remains of magic on his person, he almost looked as if he had swam in the stuff. Judas looked a little worried, sky looked confused, and most of the rest seemed to follow in her footsteps. Though landon himself seemed embarrassed to have been caught and outed like this in front of everyone, it was like he was a troublesome teenager and these were all his parents looking down on him with disappointment.

"Landon...what happened?".

Celeste crossed her arms and tapped her fingers, shooting the boy a knowing glare which he responded with his own irritated expression.

"Look, I only went to look at their research and what they found, everyone left so I thought it was a good chance...that's it! I almost got away with it too...until she caught me going back into my room...", he snorted as Katrina shook her head in disappointment, "You're not supposed to handle that stuff...magic is dangerous enough when you use it...getting covered in the stuff can have affects on you if you're not careful...tis not the time to be snooping around pinky.".

"I was just trying to find out what they had so I could y'know...get closer to solving this? I wanted to be the first to look at it...", everyone was sending him looks but what did they expect? He'd already been investigating on his own before this point, was it really that weird now? For all he knew their parents might not have said squat, so he took advantage of the situation to get a look. What was so weird about that? Well, it seemed to weird out the rest of the group.

Or at least, the fact he did this without them, on his own, just annoyed them.

"Landon...".

"What? I was just helping...".

Judas shook his head, "We'll talk later...for now...we all should try and get some needed rest after well...what happened...we're all tired and we all need some energy...". That at least was something everyone could agree on, Katrina watching the door as the kids, Sunny, Celeste, Landon, and Galexia included...found a place to rest nearby. It almost felt as if Katrina was putting everyone into a nap time, as if it were preschool, despite it being clear landon sure didn't want to be here.

Especially with how Judas and Celeste were looking at him specifically right now.

Judas turned to get some proper rest after such a long day, choosing to confront him about it more after they've slept, though Celeste was more then awake by the looks of it. Everyone snuggling under their covers nearby, exhausted, with Celeste looking at landon as if he were a disobedient child. There was no way she was going to sleep like this and neither was he, he crossed his arms and eyed the floor in front of them, not even looking at his friend/kinda sister.

"I didn't break our agreement...", he muttered under his breath, "It wasn't dangerous or anything...I was just looking...". Celeste grumbled but didn't argue further, he wasn't wrong, he didn't break their agreement so she technically had little to be mad at him about. Though perhaps the reason the girl was annoyed had less to do with their agreement and more to do with him going without her. However for now she just tired headed to a nearby mattress to rest, thankful this wing was rather empty.

Mostly to keep the queen safe, but still, better they didn't have a wing full of other people to worry about.

Though it was a little hard to sleep for some.

Angel for one, as he sat at his mother's bed, no desire to sleep after the events of tonight. And despite sleeping through the action, Sky joined him after, not taking a chance she'd sleep through something like that again. The last couple mostly being Landon...and Celeste, Celeste glaring at him as if he told her something terrible. He kept to himself, trying to sleep, but with little luck, sitting up and mumbling. "It's not a big deal ok? I...I just wanted to look, to feel useful...".

Celeste continued to grumble, her normal pouty mood more sour then usual.

"I don't get why you're still mad...I didn't go against our promises...it would help if you just came out with it...instead of boxing yourself up like you always do...", she didn't answer though and he tugged on the blanket. "Look...i'm sorry I went without you...there was no time to ask for help...this just...I just want to be useful...". He peered around to see if anyone was listening in before speaking, "Of course this still matters to me...I...I can't help it...".

"I don't care that you didn't take me...I just think...you don't need to prove yourself to anyone...and need to go on some epic chase and hunt to find yourself...you think so little of yourself...that you feel the need to do all this crazy stuff...I...wanted to help to get home and stuff but I can't tell if you care more about getting me home...or being better then your brother...It feels like no matter what people tell you...whatever advice they give...you just ignore it.". Landon hissed, "Well I can't tell if you even want to go back...you seem to hate your home every time you talk about it...".

"Of course I hate it...going back home...isn't...fun...but...I...I have someone...I need to go back to...".

"For...real?".

"Yeah...".

"Are-".

"Go to sleep landon...".

Celeste pulled the covers over herself, blocking the demon out as he laid back down, thinking to himself.

He clutched at the covers under him, was he really taking this whole thing too far? Trying to solve this whole thing before anyone else can?

Angel ears flickered in curiosity at their conversation, but his main focus was on his mother, though sky's company was appreciated as well. She was probably still upset with him but at the same time, she still wanted to be by his side and there was no denying she cared deeply for him despite it. His hands twiddling as he looked at his mother as if expecting her to wake up any minute now, his eyes glancing to his companion who was watching next to him.

"Thank you...for helping...".

"Kinda couldn't do it without you...funny enough...so i guess in the end maybe you really will save her yourself...", Sky yawned, but she was clearly happy to be there, mind thinking about all the chaos that just happened.

"Really?", he seemed surprised, and rather curious, his ears flickering and somehow...he seemed touched even if he didn't know exactly what he did.

"Weirdly...yeah...you did actually help...", she simply shrugged, but gave the boy a pat on the back, "I guess if this works...then in the end, it wasn't all for nothing...you really did end up helping her."

They sat in silence next to each other, legs swinging off the side of the mattress, though the situation at hand raised on particular question.

"Sky...if mother...mom...really was...infected by a mind parasite...was it an accident...or do you think...someone sent it after her on purpose?".

It was a fair question, especially since that was what the bugs were typically used for...attacking their enemies subtly. Did someone have a reason to target the queen? Or was it really an accident? There was no telling at this point, they could only really focus on saving the woman for now. They'd had to worry about how it happened later, Though for now sky focused her attention to Angel, who had so much hope in his eyes that he was almost a different person.

"I'm not sure...it could be both...but...i'm sure we'll figure it out...", she reassured him with some pats on his hand, though he seemed skeptic, if only because who could say for sure what may or may not have happened. Regardless, his father would have quite a bit of a panic when the news would come in about this mess. Both scared and possibly even joyful, though for now sky just hoped they could remain thinking abut the good news then the terrifying bad news.

"Thank you...Skyler...".She nodded, smiling, looking at him before back to his resting mother.

Content being at his side after the mess they both had got into in the last 24 hrs, if they were ever going to get through this, they needed to work together. Though judging by their expressions, they didn't mind that all that much.

"You're welcome...Angelus".

#star vs the forces of evil #svstfoe #svtfoe #sky and the forces of the multiverse #janstar bby #tomco bby #ostar bby #tomstar bby #starco bby #fanfiction #fanfic #star butterfly #tom the demon #tom lucitor #marco #marco diaz #my art

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madamsixx · 4 years

Text

Beyond The Leather: Chapter 11: Iman Drunkington

Continued from last chapter

The limo picked up me and Lisa and drove us to the after party. There were tons of people and paparazzi as usual. The camera men were following the Motley boys everywhere. People were treating them like they were Kings maybe even Gods.

"There are soo many hot guys here. I have to find someone for my self." Lisa whispered in my ear.

"Lisa I don't think any one of these guys are good enough for you. Look at them, there all the same drunk drugged up rock stars."

"Well you certainly caught a drunk drugged up rock stars attention." She winked at me. She turned my head to look over at Nikki who was looking at me. I rolled my eyes and looked away.

"I don't want him. He's a mess and he's crazy and he's mean." I walked towards a table that had punch and poured my self some.

"Mani he's probably just lonely." She said following me.

"Hey Mani hey Lisa glad you girls could make it." Tommy said walking over to us.

"Were glad we could make it too." I said.

"So Tommy what does a girl have to do to get some blow around here?"

"Lisa!" I yelled.

"What? This is the after party isn't it!" She yelled back.

"Your speaking my language Lisa. Come on girl let's party." He grabbed her and they walked towards a table filled with people and obviously drugs.

I stood by the table and continued pouring and drinking the punch. Which tasted weird but was good.

"Your friend seems to be having a great time."

I turned around and saw Nikki standing behind me. I rolled my eyes and looked away from him.

"You look gorgeous white suits you."

I was wearing a white dress with a half arm sleeve. I knew I looked good in white. And I wasn't going to give him my attention. After how he behaved in March and ignoring me today.

"Look Mani I'm sorry ok, I just didn't know that you were coming and I was shocked when I saw you on stage. I didn't know what to say to you." He moved in front of me so I would be looking at him.

I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. I saw his lips moving but couldn't hear a thing he was saying.

"Oh soooo ya know what to... to say now?" I asked wondering if I was making sense.

All of a sudden his straight lips turned into a big devils grin plastered on his face. "How bout a truce." He signaled over for a guy with brownies and little finger cheesecakes to come over. "I know you like sweets cause your sweet. These brownies will go well with that punch."

I looked at the brownies I couldn't resist. They looked good. I grabbed one and ate it. And it was so good. So I started eating them up. I ate about 6 maybe 7 or probably 9.

10 min later....

"Nicholas I neeeeed a drink." I giggled. I was laughing non stop and very hyper.

"C'mere doll let's get you a real drink." Nikki grabbed my hand and led me to the bar. I was smiling so much I felt like I was on cloud nine. I sat at the bar and started laughing so much at absolutely nothing.

"Hey Jack and coke." Nikki said to the bartender.

"Noooooo I drink Cranberry juice." I yelled hitting him on the shoulder.

"Ok sweets cranberry juice and jack for her." He pointed with that same devil's smile on his face.

Another 10 mins later...

I was 5 drinks in when I got on the dance floor and started doing cartwheels in my heels and dress. I was chasing after the waiter trying to grab more brownies from him with Nikki chasing after me.

"Give me the fucking brownies." I grabbed the tray from him and started running and bumping into people. I tripped and fell down and ended up rolling underneath the table eating the brownies.

"Princess I think your done with the brownies." Nikki crawled under the table and grabbed the tray.

"How dare you.......you need to get me more. I need another drink."

What am I even saying I have no idea. But my mind is racing and I'm happy. I ran back on the dance floor grabbing people drinks and downing them. I thought it was funny and people were laughing with me.

"What the fuck Nikki. What the fuck is she doing?" Mick asked Nikki.

"Holy shit is she wasted?" Tommy laughed

Nikki turned around to see me taking people drinks and drinking it. He then ran to me on the dance floor to get me off of it.

"Hey come on doll your done." He grabbed my arm.

"Fuck off no I'm not." I pulled my arm back and ran from him. People were staring at me and really starting to laugh. So I laughed. Until I saw another brownie tray. I dashed towards it like a track star and grabbed the tray. But the waiter wouldnt let the tray go.

"Let the fucking tray go or I'll hit you with my big toe!" I yelled.

"You need help, and I'm not letting go." The waiter yelled back. I yanked it from his hand so hard that he let it go. I ended up flying back wards and knocking into another guy who's drink spilt on him.

"Oh woops" I laughed

"You think this is funny you wasted bitch." He grabbed my arm.

"Oh pee you....you smell. Aaaaaaaand it is funny." I then leaned and breathed on his face and started laughing.

"Laugh at this bitch." The guy then back handed me and I fell backwards hitting the ground hard with the tray splattering on the ground with the brownies.

"Your a fucking dead man." I heard Nikki yell. He clenched his fist and swung, his fist nailed the guy on his right eye. The rest of the Motley boys came charging at the guy.

I was so out of it I didn't even see what was going on. I heard yelling and screaming coming from different directions, I was dizzy and my head was hurting. But on a positive note, there was a brownie in front of me not smooshed and ready to be eaten. In fact it was talking to me. I was hurt but I could still eat this one. And so I took a bite and laughed about it.

I felt arms grab me and pick me up in bridal style and carry me out. We ended up in a hall way. The arms put me down on the ground. I was so dizzy I couldn't keep my eyes open.

"Oh my God is she ok? Nikki what the fuck happened!" Lisa started crying and yelling at the same time. While trying to keep her balance she was high and drunk. And now so was I.

"Sixx what happened?" Vince said trying to hold Lisa up.

"It was just a joke, I didn't know she would go crazy like that." Nikki was panicking.

"She can't go back to our....our hotel like this. Tamara will kill her and me. We will.....will never see the day of light again." Lisa slurred leaning on Vince.

"Well clearly the both of them are wasted. Her I can understand" Mick points at Lisa. "But Iman doesn't drink. We'll talk about this later. Let's just get these two to our hotel." Mick said while grabbing my one arm.

"Mick I didn't mean to do this. It was just for fun." Nikki looks at Mick.

"Just grab her other arm Sixx!" Mick yelled.

Nikki grabbed my other arm and they picked me up.

"Stop....s..s...stop" I pulled away from them and fell on the ground throwing up.

"Babe we need to get you to our hotel room ok now come on." Nikki tried to pick me up again but I hiked up my dress and pulled my panties down. Taking them off completley and throwing them at Nikki. I put two hands on the wall for support and squatted then started peeing on the ground.

"Dude thats fucking awesome." Tommy chuckled "I love drunk Iman." Nikki glared at Tommy with a straight face. "Sorry." He said in a low voice.

I then tried getting up but started to stumble. Nikki caught me and picked me up. He threw me over his shoulders and then everything went black.

Nikki's POV

We arrived back at the hotel. I layed her down on the bed and took off her heels.

"Look she can stay with me if you can't take care of her." Mick suggested.

"No I rather keep her here with me. Who has Lisa?" I asked while turning her to the side and pulling the sheets up to cover her. I also went and got the garbage bin and put it on the side of the bed.

"Vince does, we'll come by in the morning and check up on her." Mick says while heading to the door.

"Nikki," Mick calls.

"Yeah."

"Your never going to be good enough for her. If this is how you keep treating her." He says, then walkes out the door shutting it behind him.

At this point I just sat on the couch staring at her laying on the bed. I never meant for this to go as far as it did. But every action has a consequence. And it was somthing that I was going to have to learn. I got up and went to my suitcase and pulled out a pen and paper and started writing in it.

Iman's POV

The next day I woke up with a massive headache. I looked around and realized that this wasn't my room. I also realized I had no panties on. I slowly got out of the bed holding my head and wondering where I was. I started walking towards the washroom when I looked on the ground and noticed about 5 crumpled up peices of paper. I looked to my left and saw paper and pen laying on the couch. I walked towards it and picked it up and started reading it.

She's only fifteen She's the reason--the reason that I can't sleep You say illegal I say legal's never been my scene I try like hell but I'm out of control

All in the name of rock 'n' roll For sex and sex I'd sell my soul

Pretty, pretty so innocent

I hope to God these lyrics are not about me. I bolted towards the washroom. And threw up in the toilet. I looked in the mirror and could not even believe what I was looking at. I looked like a nightmare. I splashed water on my face and in mouth. "Jesus what happened to me?" I said to myself.

I then heard a door open and close. Whoever came in is either one, a bad guy that's trying to hurt me or two, a nice guy that saw somthing was wrong with me and was trying to help me.

"Mani!"

I heard a voice call. I immediately knew who it was. I walked out of the washroom slowly looking at the raven haired bassist. He was undeniably beautiful. Even in the morning when people looked like crap he looked good.

"Good morning sweets." He walked to the table and places a bag down on it. "How'd you sleep princess?"

"I dont know cause I cant remember. What the hell happened to me Nikki?" I demanded.

"Well that's what a hang over is." Nikki chuckled. He started pulling out bacon, eggs, and bagels from the bag. And had a orange juice and a bottle of cranberry juice. The fact that he knows I love cranberry juice made me smile and my heart melt. But I had to get back to the serious questions.

"I don't drink alcohol so I shouldn't have had a hangover Nikki." I said with a now agitated voice.

"Well you drank yesterday." Nikki turned to face me. "That punch you were drinking had alcohol in it. Alot of it too." He chuckled.

"Oh my God. Did I make a fool of my self at the party." I asked putting my hands on my face and sitting on the bed.

"Well you were chasing down the waiter and swearing at him, you grabbed other people's drinks and started dowing them, you splashed some randoms guy drink on him and he pushed you. And then you went out into the hall way and peed on the ground. But that was after you took your panties off and threw them at me." Nikki says laughing.

"Its not funny. And all that from alcohol and punch. Oh God I feel like I won't be able to show my face out in public again." I groaned.

"Mani." Nikki walks over to me and sits beside me on the bed. But I get up and move away from him.

"Everytime I go out with you guys something goes wrong. What if they release any videos or pictures of me. Tamara will quit on me and my family will feel embarrassed. Oh God." I say pacing around the room.

"They won't, I had Doc take all the cameras away from the photographers. And beleive me when I say it wasn't your fault princess." He assured.

"I need to leave." I started walking towards the door. I wanted to get away from Nikki. Him and his band have just been causing chaos in my life and I had enough.

"Wait can we talk?" Nikki asks standing up from the bed. I stopped and turn to look at him. I nod and walk back sitting on the chair by the table with the food.

"Look about what happened in March I'm sorry for what I did. I .......I just got very mad watching you dancing with somone else." Nikki says scratching the back of his neck and sitting back down.

"You got mad watching me dance with somone else. So that gives you the right to physically hurt me. You grabbed me and then shoved me into a wall and tried to punch me."

"No I didn't try to punch you Mani. I punched the side of the wall-"

"Does that matter!" I interrupted. "You physically hurt me Nikki!" I shouted getting more angry.

"Iman I'm not that person ok. That's not me. I deeply care for you and would never harm you." Nikki started raising his voice.

"But you did Nikki. You did harm me." I shouted.

"Cause you fucking danced with another fucking guy. You knew exactly what you were doing and how that would make me feel!" Nikki shouted back.

By this point we were both in a shouting argument and pointing our fingers at each other. I knew this wasn't going to get solved.

"This is a mistake I'm leaving." I say standing up. "I don't have to put up with you. Your not my boyfriend and I don't owe you anything. I danced with him cause I wanted to, it had nothing to do with hurting you." I shouted and started walking away.

Nikki got up and walked after me. I opened the door and he slammed it shut. Scaring the hell out of me. "Were not done talking!" He shouted.

"Well I am you scare me. And I want to leave right now." My voice started shaking.

Nikki was taken back by my words. His eyes went wide and he looked shocked.

"Are you.....are you scared of me?" He asked with a very low voice. I nodded and my eyes started to tear up. With everything that happened I was starting to feel scared of him. He had two sides to him. I was now starting to understand what Tommy's ex wife Elaine was saying. One minute he would be happy and caring then next he would be angry and aggressive.

Nikki sighed and looked at me hurt. He walked over to the bed and sat down. He looked down at the ground and stayed silent. I sat down on the chair and looked out the window.

"Iman I...I'm so sorry I hurt you. I really care about you and im sorry."

I couldn't help but let out a sigh. I walked and sat beside him on the bed. "Its ok." I whispered.

Nikki turned and looked at me his green eyes staring into my soul. It was hard for me to resist him. He then moved close and kissed my cheek.

"Hey Sixx you guys up." Tommy barged into the room with Vince and Lisa following behind him. We quickly separated from each other.

"Oh did we miss somthing." Vince starts laughing.

"Mani how are you feeling?" Lisa asks walking towards me.

"I'm ok. We should start heading back to our hotel I'm sure Tamara is going to be looking for us." I stand up turning away from Nikki.

"Alright we'll walk you girls down." Vince grabs a hold of Lisa's hand tugging her out of the room, while I walk around the bed to put on my heels.

"T- bone get out." Nikki glares at Tommy.

"Aww come on Sixx."

"Goodbye Tommy." I say putting on my heels.

I get up and turn around to face Nikki. He walks over towards me scratching his head. "So is it all good between us or am I gonna have to stop hoping?" He asks.

"The lyrics on the paper, who's that about?" I raise a brow. He turns back to look at the paper on the couch and turns back to me. "Turn to the right and you'll see." He says with a smirk.

I look over to the right and noticed my reflection staring right back at me. I was trying my best not to smile. Nikki certainly had a way with words and how to make a woman blush. But I wonder if that's a trick to get all the girls. I mean let's just face it. When I came backstage he had two girls on his arm. Not to mention he is dating another girl. I almost forgot about that. I turn back to face Nikki who is now right in front of my face.

"You didn't answer question princess?" He says with a low voice and tucks my hair behind my ear.

"I have to go Nikki." I smile and then walk out the door closing it behind me.

#nikki sixx #tommy lee #vince neil #mick mars #motley crue #the dirt #80s #90s #rock and roll #chanel iman #model

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dat-town · 4 years

Text

CODE Z3RO | CODE 05

characters: BTS & Red Velvet genre: thriller, futuristic au warning: none other than grief, guilt tripping and not so nice words thrown at each other’s heads summary: The twelve most ambitious and promising university students are welcomed in Choego, the world’s first entirely artificial intelligence-driven city, to compete for five job contracts that could change their life. But what if something goes wrong? What if they get trapped? What if the city suddenly turns against them? Can they find a way out before the countdown reaches zero? words: 5K tagged: @philosopher-of-fandoms

➼ Chapter Index

A heart-wrecking, loud cry came from the distance.

Yerim couldn't tell whom it belonged to, it could have been her for all she knew. Around her there was nothing but deafening silence and bright white stars in her vision. She had become cold and numb to the call of her own name. She barely registered when someone grabbed her firmly by the arm to pull her farther from the bloody handprint on the glass door. But even when a lithe body covered her eyes, she couldn't unsee it. She would never be able to forget the horrific sight that carved itself deep into her mind, leaving behind such an unerasable imprint that she could never get rid of. This was what nightmares were made of after all.

Jungkook just stood there deadly still, watching as Wendy sneaked a comforting arm around Yerim, pulled her up to her feet and walked away with her. She acted as collected and professional as one could be while all of them were confused and shaken up by the recent events. Merely 5 minutes earlier Seokjin had been yelling at them to leave but now he laid there in the pool of his own blood. His handsome face was ruined by the burgundy liquid flowing from his ears, eyes and nose. Jungkook had seen things like this in movies but it was happening right in front of him felt even more unreal than stupid B-category horror movies from Hollywood. It was almost too much to process that it really had happened but he certainly wasn't the only one feeling that way. Hoseok was vomiting somewhere in the corner at the first sight of seeing blood. Joohyun was so pale she looked like a ghost on the verge of fainting and quiet sobs were ripped off Seulgi too as she turned her gaze away.

“What the hell happened? How could he…” The words died on Namjoon's tongue as many eyes, including Jungkook's, shot up at him. He couldn't finish the sentence, there was no way he would say the words out loud. It would have made it too real, it would have meant he accepted it while without fail everybody was confused and shocked. They just saw someone, a rival, an ally, a brother die right in front of their eyes. How could they have gone on like nothing happened?

Jungkook gulped and glanced down again, foolishly hoping to see the slight stir of the immobile body. It was in vain though, hopes couldn't bring anyone back to life. The bloody strikes, those unnatural tears had left behind on Jin's cheeks were still vivid red under the artificial light and Seokjin's glassy eyes bore into distance in a more morbid manner than Jungkook could have ever imagined, it was truly a sight that would haunt them all for sure.

It was the sound of a door slammed open, metal colliding with brick as the handle hit the wall that startled them all enough to finally move when Yoongi's robust voice echoed in the basement.

“Get out of there! The lab is dangerous!” he yelled not even suspecting that it was already too late. But how could he know? How could he be so sure that it wasn't safe? Where were he until now to get that information?

Questions flooded the young engineer student's mind and his legs moved by themselves following the crowd out of there on instinct. It was the same bandwagon effect that made everyone follow him downstairs. Sticking together had never been such a bad idea before. But playing with what ifs based on the tons of variables of the situation only made his head hurt and was useless like crying over spilled milk.

He was the last one who reached the top of the stairs and he flinched when Yoongi shut the door behind him with a loud thud. The IT guy and the chaebol one who had disappeared a while ago now were both eyeing them suspiciously but it was Jimin who spoke up.

“Why the hell do you all look like someone just died?” he snorted not grasping the seriousness of the moment and not even understanding the rudeness of his own words.

It was the elder guy beside him who let the quiet question fall from his lips.

“Where is her brother?” Yoongi asked, pointing at Yerim who was wailing oh so heartbreakingly into the crook of Wendy's delicate neck.

Each gaze avoided meeting the interrogator's, they rather turned away, glances shifting to their own shoes.

“He...” Namjoon found his voice but was quickly cut off by the lilac hair Marketing major who seemed the least affected out of them.

“He died,” he blurted out straightforward, not sugarcoating his words at all. There was no humour in his voice and one dark look was enough to freeze that nasty, cunning smile on Jimin's face. “Smartypants here thought it's a good idea to check the labs and that other idiot tried to open a door when it obviously closed for a reason.”

Taehyung pointed his finger at them, first at Jungkook and then Hoseok. While the former looked away guiltily, the latter raised his voice at the accusation.

“What the hell did I do wrong? I tried to save him when nobody did anything!” he argued but the truth was nobody knew what was right or wrong anymore. The bracelet should have opened the door like it had done for the first time, they should have been able to pull him out and whatever had killed him could have dissolved in open air before infecting their bloodstreams too.

“And kill us all with whatever made Mr. Team Leader bleed everywhere?” Taehyung shot back a question, the raw sarcasm bringing the worst out of him.

“It's not his fault, nobody knew,” Namjoon tried to reason as calmly as he could but Hoseok wasn't that self-controlled and was on the younger already, grabbing him by the collars of his shirt, gritting his teeth.

“It's a freaking hospital, who would have thought there are poisonous gases in the basement?” he spit into his face, mouth turning into an ugly grimace not caring about the audience. Nobody has seen this side of the Sociology major before. He seemed a rather peaceful kind of guy but he and Taehyung clashed way too hard since the beginning and it turned out one remark was already enough to trigger this aggressive reaction in him.

Though, the Marketing student didn't even budge. He looked like he expected something like this to happen with that annoying smug grin on his face. There was a devilish glint in his coal dark eyes and only then Jungkook realized that he might have known just as much about people's reactions as a Psychology major because of his studies and maybe he knew manipulation techniques the best out of all of them.

“I have been saying from the beginning that it's an everybody for themselves kind of show. Teamwork, my ass!” he scoffed, rolling his eyes not even making a move to peel Hoseok's hands from himself, it was the other guy who gave up with a sigh and the look of disgust on his face.

Around them the others were whispering and yelling over each other about poisonous gas, someone accidentally spilling or opening something they shouldn't have but they weren't closer to the truth. They couldn't be sure what triggered the shutdown of the room and why there were no warning signs about it. Even though unlike Taehyung everyone else was more invested in figuring out the reason rather than finding someone to blame, Jungkook couldn't help but feel targeted. He was the one who had suggested to go downstairs, he was the one who hadn’t paid attention to Yerim thus Jin had had to go back for her. Was it his fault? Since when was it his task to take care of stupid teenage girls? Or was it rather the generosity of Seokjin that killed him?

Kill… such an absurd verb, it indicates purpose and active behaviour on the subject's part. But weren't they all killers one way or another driven by their own selfish ambitions?

“So you are saying Mr. Know-It-All just… died?” Jimin gaped at the group still processing the new information. It was almost painfully funny, he still smugly called others by mocking names instead of the real ones while they were talking about life and death.

However, in the silence there was another, weak voice that came to the surface. It was almost too quiet to be heard but everybody shut up at the girl's first words since what happened.

“No, that can't be. This is all part of the simulation, right? He didn't die, he's too smart for that. It must have been planned,” Yerim mumbled with voice wrecked and eyes still watery from tears, face red and bloated from crying so much. She straightened her back looking around seeking reassurance in empty eyes.

Denial, Joohyun noted as she watched over her, the first phase of grief. During her internship at a Family Help Center she has met a lot of clients who suffered after losing a loved one. She knew very well that each person reacted differently to loss and not everybody could be boxed into a textbook-like model. Some overcame it easier and faster, maybe even skipped stages while others lingered on each step longer than they should have for the sake of their own sanity. Context and circumstances mattered a lot and Joohyun couldn't tell yet whether Yerim would be able to handle the loss and accept the truth within a reasonable time frame. From what she had seen so far the youngest girl had had a very strong and close relationship with her brother, so a mental breakdown was more likely than anything else. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to let her think it was just the simulation. At least it wouldn't have messed with the team dynamics.

Joohyun let out a shaky breath and walked to the weeping girl. She should have done that long ago, if she was more selfless and empathic she would have but she wanted to rank well in this simulation and she had already made a stupid mistake when she forgot about her insulin. It was Wendy who had helped her with that and now the Med student took care of the grieving girl too, so Joohyun felt like she owed her this, to offer a helping hand when needed.

“Let's take her back to the canteen, so she could sit down and drink something,” she suggested barely audible. But Wendy heard her just right and nodded. She turned around to tell her boyfriend about it. Namjoon didn't look happy about being separated but since all their staff was also in the canteen they had to go back eventually either way.

Having an arm around her shoulder and waist from two sides the elder girls started leading Yerim through the hallway following the signs back to where they had come from.

“It's all my fault,” Yerim whimpered body shaking even more fracticly now that she moved and vivid flashbacks kept disturbing her mind. “If... if I moved quicker... he wouldn't have to come back for me… I–”

Guilt, another stage of dealing with loss, Joohyun noted and didn't look back at the boys playing Sherlock.

“Our bracelet holds information about our health status, they might send an ambulance,” Namjoon spoke up in a helplessly hopeful voice and it stirred up unwanted feelings in the others. A few unconsciously touched the metal object stuck onto their waist like second skin, a grape vine curling around its branch.

“What for? It's not like they can do anything about it.”

Of course it was Taehyung who voiced out what everyone knew. It didn't look like anyone could save him at this point.

“They might think it's broken or that he took it off,” Hoseok wasn't that hopeful either. As a sociology student who had participated in his fair share of researches he doubted the leaders would give up after the first bump in the road. A project like this took too much time and effort to just give up on like that.

“But they are watching us with cameras,” Jimin reminded them and pointed at the flashing red point on the ceiling. “They must know about it. They should stop the simulation.”

It would have been too good to be true. Too easy to end it like this after months of preparations for making this simulation work but Hoseok didn't want to ruin their hopes, he didn't want to stand on one side with the Marketing major.

“What if they don't?” Namjoon wondered out loud. With his engineering background he could imagine countless scenarios of things going wrong. “I mean we can't be sure how much the electricity shutdowns could affect the camera network.”

“It would be a pretty shitty system if it fell apart just because of that,” Yoongi commented drily and well, he was right.

Choego was supposed to have one of the most advanced technologies in the world. If the short circuit in certain zone's electricity supply was really a part of the simulation, then it shouldn't have affected the other zones or even the cameras no matter where they were. In any case, there should have been an extra generator to make sure it didn't cause too much trouble. A smart city couldn't function without electricity, so if it was him, Yoongi would have planted a rebooting system in each zone. So either it wasn't well-made or they switched it off for the sake of the simulation. Maybe it was their job to switch them back? At least this was his wild guess.

“It's working within the building for sure. We just saw. That's how we knew you were in the basement,” Jimin butted in but bit into his lower lip. Even though he didn't see the group's eldest taking his last breath and a part of him was skeptical as he doubted he really had died, the others' reaction seemed genuine, so he didn't comment on it. They must have really believed that what they had seen was real but it wasn't impossible to trick our brains. Optical illusion existed for a reason. Not to mention that the labs had a glass door, a key item for magic tricks. What if the researchers really wanted to make them believe it was a life and death simulations? What if they just wanted to shake them up?

“Speaking of which, where were you?” Namjoon turned to them curiously. As a vanguard of the belief that it was better to stay together he didn't get why the other two had to disappear.

“In the offices, trying to find some cue about the sector blackouts,” Yoongi shrugged explaining. He almost told them about the conversation he’d had with the artificial intelligence but wasn't sure how the others would have reacted, so he played safe. Jimin didn't correct him either. “According to the computer the city really shuts off the sectors one by one. The brain of the city, the main computer will be the last one standing.”

“So you think we need to get there.”

It was an easily drawn conclusion, so the IT guy just nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Cool and how? It's not like we can use a GPS or Naver Maps. This city basically doesn't even exist yet,” Taehyung snorted and Hoseok wondered whether he was ever satisfied because all he heard from him for either offences or complaint. But it shouldn't have been that surprising. After all, those who are not useful at all are usually the ones whining.

“I have a picture of a city map but it's not detailed enough,” Yoongi pulled out his phone and showed them the picture he had taken in the office earlier. It really wasn't helping much but it was still better than coming back empty-handed. “But at least the evacuation plan's arrows on it show that we have to go East to get to the bridge. That can be Plan B.”

They all knew going to the bridge, the only exit of the city, was the same as giving up because it was impossible the researchers wanted them to leave. It wasn't like one of those stupid escape games they used to play on old computers. There must have been some obvious purpose, a goal they had to achieve but they had to figure that out first. Because without it they were tapping around in pitch black darkness looking for clues.

Maybe the main computer had all the answers they needed but how they were supposed to find it?

“Hey wasn't that journalist girl taking pictures all the time? Maybe she shot something actually useful,” Jimin managed to come up with a decent suggestion. He remembered seeing the young girl looking around as if it was a school trip while he himself was busy taking selfies and updating his social media about his whereabouts just to show off how important he was.

“Her camera must be in the canteen with our other stuff if she brought it with herself.”

They all agreed it would be better to check in case it turns out to help them. They had nothing to lose with it, just a bit of their time. The group of seven started walking towards the canteen not saying any other word. Funnily it seemed like they were even fewer than that because neither Jungkook nor the quiet girl, Seulgi, didn't say a thing this whole time. Maybe they both were too shocked by what happened. To be honest, Yoongi wouldn't have even noticed the girl if it wasn't for her mumbled apology to the sulky Taehyung while in fact he was the one who bumped into her and not the other way around. She was like a ghost, letting silence envelope her and Yoongi wasn't sure whether it made her weak or smart.

When they arrived to the buffett area where the three girls sat by a table, two of them comforting the still quietly sobbing Yerim. She was far too out of it to comprehend the question when they asked about her camera, so Jimin decided to fuck it and took it without permission. Nobody scolded him for acting impolitely as they all anxiously waited for the pictures to load. When they actually did it was like reading a travel magazine except the unreasonable amount of pictures of the silhouette, side- or back profile of one certain boy.

“See? I told you how lovesick she is!” Taehyung scoffed while Jungkook stepped back. Seeing himself on those pictures that had been taken without his consent felt like invading someone's personal space and not just his. Even though a part of him was flattered by the attention, he never really liked to stand out like this, he wanted the glory for his accomplishments and not for his looks.

“Well that was totally useless,” Hoseok sighed but Yoongi beside him rolled his eyes. What did he accept? A huge sign saying main computer room on one building or what? He believed the pictures could be useful still, just maybe later.

“In the main research building there must be some clues about where we should go,” Namjoon brought up another idea and if Miss Han worked there with her people then most likely he was right. Even if they wouldn't get clear clues, even something small could have helped them at this point where they were more lost than anything.

“Probably, but first we should check if it's safe or not. We can't be sure of the sectors' order, maybe it's already shut down,” Yoongi said quietly and started pulling out something from the laptop bag resting on his shoulder.

“And how do we do that genius?” the Marketing major grimaced.

“I can connect to the network and check the cameras,” Yoongi challengingly raised an eyebrow at the arrogant guy waiting for further heckling remarks. When he didn't get any he put his notebook down on a table and with a circle of curious people around him he turned it on.

Except maybe Jungkook, Namjoon and Jimin, none of them really got this technical stuff, so when a black terminal popped up and Yoongi started typing long green codes, they didn't even try to understand what was going on. At one point the computer demanded a password and the IT student typed in the series of numbers engraved into his bracelet without thinking. Taehyung was actually surprised it worked but he didn't voice that out. They all gaped at the computer screen when suddenly sixteen small camera view appeared on it under the label Sector 1.

“Whoa, that's so cool,” Hoseok exclaimed finally getting a little of the delicious taste of victory and watched closely as Yoongi switched between sectors by typing out short commands. However it was tricky to tell which ones were down because the morning sun has already lit up the entire city.

“Can we go back? To the 4th sector?” Jungkook spoke up for the first time in a long while and his voice held so much fear in its trembles that everyone was taken aback. Yoongi fulfilled his request without a world and zoomed in on the camera Jungkook pointed at.

It was a snippet of the researchers’ dorm which resembled their own very much but on contrary of the emptiness of sector 3’s dorm this one was full of people… people with pained, puffy and purple faces on the floor.

“Wendy…” Namjoon breathed quiet and scared.

“What?” the med student looked up and walked over to the bunch when nobody answered. Not knowing what to expect her gaze darted down to the screen.

“Oh my god,” she shrieked averting her eyes and clasping a hand over her mouth in horror.

“Is this what I think it is?” her boyfriend turned to her, offering a comforting hand, stroking her back but Wendy didn't even flinch like she didn't even feel his touch. The sight of dozen strangers lying dead on the dorm's floor when they most likely woke up in the middle of the night to not be able to breathe properly was like the haunting image of war victims scattered over streets in their on blood with disfigured limbs.

“This is how people die from insufficient oxygen,” she said remembering her studies but it didn't make it easier to accept the tragedy. Or the realization that it could have been them if Yerim didn't wake them up.

“Do you still think it's just a simulation? Because I don't,” Yoongi muttered under his breath, staring at the screen of his computer dreadfully. It was a loaded question, a gun to their heads and some realized what it meant sooner than others.

“Does this mean Sooyoung is also...” dead. Jimin didn't even have to finish. Everybody knew what he meant.

Behind him Jungkook felt like dying too, his own cropper blood tasted like metal in his mouth. He didn't know but a lot could kill a soul. Like guilt.

In a way they were all already dying. And what for? A dream job and dream life in a city based on artificial intelligence?

“I think I know why the sectors are shutting off,” the IT guy blurted out suddenly, voice strained and low. Nobody dared to ask why even though they all anticipated the answer which he gave to them after swallowing back his own curses. How could they not realize it earlier? “Remember what Han Raina said about the Louvre move?”

The sectors would be switched off the electrical grid one by one… to trap the attacker...

“But… but didn't she say it happens due to a hacking attempt?” Wendy furrowed her brows recollecting her memories from yesterday. Gosh, was it really just the previous day? It had already seemed decades away, so much happened since then.

“Or maybe someone started the process manually,” the IT major mused out loud and the possibility he mentioned pissed Taehyung off again.

“Are they trying to lock us in?”

“I guess so. They probably wanted to test us to see if we can find a way out, to see if their security system works accordingly but something must have gone wrong,” Namjoon nodded as the simulation started to make sense to him. However, there was no way the researchers were ready to sacrifice lives, especially their own for a social experiment like this.

“What do they think we are? Lab rats?” Jimin made a disgusted face, his voice clearly giving away his offendedness.

“In a way we are, you could say that,” Yoongi agreed and a lot of them envied the neutrality and stoic way he approached this topic. Or was he just rational enough to understand the difference between what they could change and what they couldn't.

“You know what? I don't care. I had enough of this stupid game. I'll call father to get me out of here. It's ridiculous. Locking us in,” the chaebol scoffed, quieting down word by word until they were muttered under his breath, barely audible. He didn't hesitate to turn his back on them to grab his own stuff and stride towards the exit.

Taehyung spat coward his way disguising it as a cough but little did he know it wasn't cowardice that made the Genetic Engineer student leave. He simply had too much to lose. Back in Seoul he had everything a young adult could have wanted, he had a future set in stone, the promise of a high manager position and the heritage of the CEO chair and millions on his bank account. He didn't want to risk all that for a badly planned simulation.

Maybe it was the same for Hoseok too, his girlfriend waiting from him back home was a more convincing argument than staying here for a possible job. But he justified his choice with something very different.

“There's no way I'm going where that jerk goes,” he exclaimed, gaze shooting daggers at Taehyung's figure and he threw his bag on one shoulder before rushing after Jimin.

Everyone else sat or stood in complete silence and watched them go. This time, nobody tried to stop them, to prove it was so much better to stay together. They said nothing but knew well there was nowhere else to go. They were all in this murderer cage together.

#series: code zero #bts fanfic #bts thriller #btsvelvet #red velvet fanfic #bts x red velvet #stories

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gaytoxe · 5 years

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here’s the thing about kaito momota for me: at first, i didn’t really understand his character and saw him kinda just as the bro character that i loved since he was a hero that always looked on the bright side and motivated everyone around him to keep going. little did i know that this motivational ball of sunshine could actually be a lot more complicated than i first thought.

seeing him break down in chapter 4 for a couple times, i realized that it wasn’t just him being mad that one of his friends was being accused.

kaito lies a ton. he’s selfless and would rather be the person others need rather than what he himself needs. his version of a hero is a person that is just like a huge wall or pillar; something that can’t be broken down and doesn’t need repairs no matter what. a person that is full of constant support and motivation that doesn’t need anyone to share their weakness with and doesn’t even have any evidence of weakness. he’s constantly forcing his happiness in the darkest situations for the sake of others, and he barely talks about the negative parts of himself. i mean, we never hear about him missing his grandparents or space since someone always interrupts or an event ends up snatching the spotlight from him. because of his prideful stature and his care for everyone around him, he only ever seems to talk about the good parts of himself and never his flaws.

what flaws does he have, you may ask? it’s quite literally the way he sees a hero and how he is almost all the time.

kaito’s version of a hero doesn’t have weakness, doesn’t show weakness, and doesn’t even experience weakness. a hero that everyone can depend on without depending on anyone else. his version of a “sidekick” is someone that is “weak” in the sense that they have potential but just need someone to help them grow.

so he did just that with shuichi and harukawa. he helped them grow.

when shuichi finally grew stronger, kaito was obviously proud and happy for him, but he also grew envious of how he could solve all the cases thrown at them and find the truth without his help. it’s two-sided.

in chapter 4, when kaito constantly tries to prove that gonta wasn’t the killer, it wasn’t just because gonta was his friend and didn’t seem like someone to kill. it was also because kaito felt weak and inferior. he tried to scramble back up to the top and prove his worth to everyone, but in those efforts, he showed some of his weakness to his sidekick. to him, it’s the worst thing he can ever do as a hero. showing weakness is legally not allowed in his mind, and his inferiority and desperation bled a little from him.

his greatest strength is his greatest downfall, and he wasn’t ignoring shuichi because of him. he was ignoring shuichi because of himself. his weakness that he showed he tried to hide throughout that time for everyone’s sake but mostly shuichi’s.

in chapter 5, kaito ends up being as powerful as ever when he’s about to die. he comforts everyone and dies smiling, content with the fact that he didn’t die to monokuma’s execution. he triumphed as a hero and it really took some fucking guts to be able to stay smiling as his illness ate away at him. just as i said, he was the person everyone else needed him to be and not the person he needed himself to be. his mindset is quite unhealthy. he needs someone to call him out on his bullshit and be willing to help him grow as a person, which is why i ship oumota so much.

one of the reasons why i don’t prefer saimota or harumota more than oumota is the big factor that, in kaito’s eyes, he isn’t legally allowed to show weakness to his sidekicks. shuichi also dangerously idolizes kaito and kaito would most likely end up staying his hero character around him.

however, a shuichi that calls kaito out on his shit and is willing to help him grow? that’s the kind of saimota i want. they don’t have to be rivals; that’s the base need that needs to be set in a relationship. you don’t hide things from each other and rely on each other. nothing is one-sided.

however, harukawa is a very different story. she goes against everything kaito believes in and tries to kill the mastermind at the end despite that not being what kaito wants at all. she makes him comfort her instead of comforting him before his death and figuratively kicks his gravestone by doing everything he doesn’t want her to do. it’s very toxic in my opinion, and the fact that no one brings it up is even worse.

now, kaito believes in everyone. and i mean everyone. even ouma. he clashes with him so much because he believes in him, wants him to prove him wrong and wants to believe that ouma isn’t bad and that he’s a good person. he wants to believe he isn’t anything that he’s saying and he wants to believe that he can help him. he never wanted him to die and he really, truly did care about him.

and, on top of that, he wants to understand him. being the only one to really see how ouma feels probably fueled his pondering of what if and the question of who really was he on the inside the whole time?

kaito sees people for who they are, rather than what they are. even though ouma may be a liar, that doesn’t stop kaito from believing in him as a person, which is shown from the fact that he helps shuichi and harukawa because of the fact that they have the potential to become strong. he sees what they can be and doesn’t give up when he hits a bump in the road. they’re extremely similar in the sense that they both lie and wear masks.

that’s why they complete each other; they call each other out on their shit and therefore help each other grow as better people. besides, they’re the only ones that can keep up with each other’s energy. even with shuichi, i’m sure it’d still work out, but ouma is a better fit for kaito in that he isn’t afraid of telling him when he knows he’s lying about something. kaito isn’t afraid of doing it, either. and they both really do care.

overall, kaito really truly is the embodiment of a hero; he’s just in the first stages of it. he’s slowly acknowledging his issues one by one, but he’s not at his final resolve just yet, and i think he realized that at the end of the day, he really was a hero with his flaws.

no one is perfect, everyone has flaws, and we all need to understand them. that’s just something we need to come to terms with. it’s one thing to know them, but a mark of a real hero is having the confidence to tell people about their problems and let others in to help them become a better person. while kaito isn’t at that point just yet, he would definitely be able to realize it at one point. he might not have been able to realize it quickly, but seeing him grow is a really good experience for me because i can relate a lot to how he feels.

but understanding flaws and letting people in to help fix them is just another chapter of his story; another chapter of kaito momota, luminary of the star’s story. the hero that stayed smiling no matter how he felt and the hero that’s still learning to accept his faults. the hero that really shines as bright as all the stars combined.

kaito really is an interesting character and is a lot more complex than what’s on the surface; it took me quite a while to really understand his character. it’s probably why he’s the only one i can legitimately write. i’m slowly gaining speed on ouma’s character, but there isn’t a single character out there i understand more than kaito.

being able to write his character and see him grow as a person whether it’s because of ouma, all of his friends or his own ponders through my own writing really is a joy to me. he’s a complex character that truly is a hero and that just needs more time to become everyone’s shining star.

i love kaito for his flaws and for his selflessness; i love him for him as an entire character. he is and forever will be my favorite danganronpa character and, of course, my favorite astronaut.

he’s not perfect like he wants himself to be, and he never will be, even if he desires to not be flawed more than anything.

and i’d like to think that, at the end, he realized that exact fact and grew determined to work on his flaws, no matter what; that’s just the kind of person he is. even with his flaws and the difficulties, he’s determined to keep going and help everyone, and that’s exactly the reason why he’s not only my favorite character ever but also why he’s the brightest shining star around.

our flaws are what make us human, and i think kaito fits that saying perfectly.

#kaito momota #danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 #mine #kokichi ouma #shuichi saihara #maki harukawa

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laws-yellow-submarine · 5 years

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Did you know. That I would like to hear. Everything I can about your OCs/Quasi-Self Inserts? Because Cringe Culture is dead and I love them.

First of all: THANK YOU for asking about them lol I saw the ask and I got so so excited cause I literally never stop thinking about them lol that being said, I apologize for the novel I just wrote about them lmfao I put it all under the cut (hopefully it works on mobile!), so hopefully I don’t bog down everyone’s feed.

So I don’t wanna reveal too much about Skylar (full name Valentine Skylar), cause I really do plan on actually writing the fic I planned for her (I’m just really good at procrastinating lmao), but like I said in an earlier post: she’s my bisexual disaster brain child running away from her homophobic parents and the threat of conversion therapy by impulsively deciding to sneak onto Law’s submarine when he visits her home island. I’m basing the conversion therapy stuff off of something similar in the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead (one of my all time FAVORITES! If you like vampires, action, and romance I can’t recommend it enough! Though you should start with the first series, Vampire Academy as it introduces the world and the cast of characters and the events of that series lead directly into the Bloodlines series. I took some inspiration from Vampire Academy too for some other events in the fic as well).

Skylar is...a lot like me in personality lol she’s 5’5”, goofy, loves to laugh and sing and just generally have fun, and she’s very clumsy. She’s also got major anxiety, but it’s not something she actually has a diagnosis for (so she doesn’t know there’s a problem and can’t handle it when it flares up, she’s unprepared to deal with it). She does like to read, mostly fiction, and she likes to look at the stars, and gaze out the windows of the sub when they’re submerged. She’s very musically gifted. Part of her deal with Law for essentially free room and board is that she cooks (they don’t have a designated cook otherwise, and this way they never have to let Law back in the kitchen again), and while she’s cooking she’ll be singing so loud it carries through the pipes on the sub (almost like they have radio lmfao). She’s also impulsive; her decision to sneak onto Law’s sub was totally spur of the moment, she knew the risks, she knew exactly who’s ship she was sneaking onto (thanks to wanted posters), and that it was dangerous, but she still packed up as much of her stuff as she could, stole a TON of her parents’ money, and snuck on anyway. Law wonders a lot whether she’s just an idiot or possibly someone trying to spy on him (either for the Marines, or more sinisterly for Doflamingo. He knows the likelihood for either of these things is extremely slim, but he keeps her close so he can keep an eye on her. He can’t afford to make a mistake with that). It takes a LONG time for them to move past the “I don’t trust you” stage, and even then she’s much more invested than he is for a really long time, mostly because he’s an emotionally constipated BUTT who doesn’t like to acknowledge that he FEELS THINGS lmao

Most of her life she’s been fighting against someone else’s control; mostly her parents (she’s 21 at the start of the story but hasn’t been able to feel like a true adult until she leaves, they’ve had such a hold over her AND they’re powerful people where she lives so she HAS to leave the island completely to be free). She also experienced some of this with her girlfriend, Mimi, though not to nearly the same extreme. Mimi had big dreams of getting off their island and becoming a world famous musician, along with Skylar. Skylar just wants to travel the world, but Mimi’s loud personality manipulated her into adopting the dream of being a musician. It wasn’t malicious in any way, but usually when Mimi would say “We’re doing this” or “We don’t like that”, Skylar usually agreed. She wouldn’t speak out against it, in part due to finally feeling loved (ahh parent issues lol). About a year before the start of the story, Mimi joins the Marines as a way to start earning some money, as well as getting her foot out the door in a way (it gets her off the island, so all that’s needed is to earn enough to get settled somewhere, go back for Skylar, and then they can begin their life together). Unfortunately, her patrol ship was destroyed by a pirate crew a few months later, and she’s now MIA and presumed dead.

Being with Law and his crew is really the first time she’s been able to try deciding things for herself, and then follow through. He’s not gonna try to push her in any direction, that’s not his business, and so there comes an extra sense of freedom with them that she’s never had before.

Law also keeps her around because he finds out she has a roundabout connection to Doflamingo, and he thinks he can find a way to exploit that connection for information. Her parents have a very on-the-level business selling pharmaceuticals, which is what keeps them in good standing with the Marines when they come to the island (there’s no actual base set up, but there’s another close by). They ALSO have a black market business smuggling hallucinogens throughout the Grand Line, beginning to venture into the other seas as well, starting with North Blue. There’s a fruit that grows on the island called the Follia Fruit (literally Insanity in Italian) which causes strong hallucinations when eaten. They were able to get a good foot in the black market using Doflamingo’s connections, and they know HIM because they were actually formerly part of his crew (they left the crew before Law joined, so he doesn’t know them, and they left because Skylar’s grandmother was dying and leaving the entire fortune and family-run business to them, otherwise they would’ve stayed with Doffy. Skylar’s more of an object for them to use.) Skylar vaguely knows her parents have an underworld contact, she’s seen his Jolly Roger in her father’s office, near his wall safe, but she doesn’t know who he actually is. At most she’s heard mention of a “Joker” and that’s it, so Law can easily fish for information without giving up that he’s honestly using her too (he doesn’t have any reason to just be nice to her, especially since she snuck onboard before he ever met her, and that’s part of the journey; balancing his goal with the fact he’s developing feelings for the person he’s using to help achieve that goal). It’s a slooooooooow burn btw lol takes a long time for things to truly get going between them, but when it does it kinda picks up quick. It’s gonna be fun lol

Speaking of the Follia Fruit, that’s how Skylar got her devil fruit. I do NOT have a name for it yet, because I can’t find one I like that still overall fits? But essentially she can manipulate light particles (photons? Idk science stuff, whatever light is actually made of). She can use it to create a camouflage cover (it’s main use, she’s a sneaky person despite also being clumsy as hell lmfao), and that works like she’s placing a cloak over herself (like an invisibility cloak!), and she also eventually learns to create force fields of hardened light, like the light bridges in Portal 2 (it takes a lot of energy though, so it’s not nearly as easy, but it does come in handy). Whether these are all actually scientifically sound remains irrelevant, in my universe it works muahahaha (there is precedent for these powers at least, I just don’t know how it all actually works. Science is NOT my forte). She was actually trying to eat the Follia Fruit when she ate the devil fruit instead, as when consumed in a large enough dose it can be fatal (so yeah, WARNING there: her girlfriend is dead, she’s being tortured, she manages to escape at one point and decides she absolutely is NOT going back). Fortunately, she didn’t check what fruit she was eating before chowing down, and she not only lived but she gained super powers lol. She also at one point asks Law to help teach her how to fight and defend herself, which is super fun cause she’s NOT in shape lol but she does eventually learn at least basic hand to hand and how to use a blade (typically a knife or a dagger, she’s small).

Skylar also works very hard to develop her Observation Haki. I’ve always wondered if it was possible to manipulate your haki so you could be indetectable by other users, which would be extremely useful when your abilities include sneaking and camouflage. So Skylar learns how to do it, focusing more on the detection aspects of haki than any of the other uses (predicting movement). It hasn’t been shown in canon, obviously, but I think it’s feasible.

Clearly I’ve thought a lot about all this, now it’s just a matter of writing actual sentences lmao

My other main OC is Monkey D. Hazel. She’s Luffy’s big sister, older by about 4 years (so she’s older than Ace and Sabo by 1 year). She’s a good big sister lol she’s super protective, almost mothering despite not being that much older, and it drives the boys nuts (but they still love her anyway and appreciate her for it and all that. They can take care of themselves, but they know if they ever needed her to step in she would in a heartbeat). She’s not nearly as chaotic as Luffy, but she does follow him into a lot of shenanigans (usually with a shrug and a grin like “yup that’s Luffy”). She’s always wanted to help Luffy achieve his dream, and write down his adventures for future generations to read, so she stayed behind until he was ready to start on his own pirate journey.

She also totally had a thing with Ace (I know it can be kinda iffy, given their shared past and psuedo-sibling status, but I think they work well together, and given that they were 2 teens going through puberty at the same time in the same area, I think it’s extremely likely they could’ve developed feelings for each other that they didn’t necessarily fully understand at the time. I also don’t think she’d be one to participate in the sake drinking scene that the boys use to say “ok we’re brothers now”, and until she was an adult only saw Ace as a close friend that Luffy also saw as a big brother. Being that they were in the same age group, I think it’s less likely she’d see him and Sabo as brothers until they were much older. Sorry if that seems like I’m making excuses, I know not everyone is going to agree with that kind of “ship”, but I literally started shipping them on accident and now I can’t stop cause it makes sense to me that something would have happened between them, even something small). Any relationship they did have ended when Ace left to be a pirate, and with time spent apart and both growing older, Hazel’s views turn more sisterly, like “We grew up together, he’s practically my brother” (though Ace’s may or may not have stayed kind of the same. It makes for interesting conversation when they do meet again in Alabasta). When he dies, she’s absolutely devastated, and does start to wonder “what if?”, like what if she’d pursued a real relationship with him from the beginning, gone with him, could she have kept him safe, etc. It takes a very long time for her to come to terms with it, and to accept that she couldn’t have done anything to stop it, nor was it her place to try. She loses her best friend, and it does take some of the spark out of her, so she’s more reserved after the time skip.

She loses her right leg in a fight with CP9, essentially the bones gets crushed, and her new pal Franky helps whip up a cool robot leg for her in between work on the new ship. It’s got a few bells and whistles: a pistol in the kneecap, a roller blade in the bottom of the foot, and she can detach the metal plates in a way that makes her taller (if she stands on one leg lol). She thinks Franky is SUPER cool (I always hated that the girls in the series never think robots or ninjas or anything are cool, she’s not like that lmfao), and Luffy is jealous of her robot leg.

She sustained some pretty major burns to her right side at Marineford (either by Akainu when he murdered Ace; she stepped in front of Luffy, Ace stepped in front of her, the magma-arm didn’t touch her skin because it was stopped by her coat, but the heat was enough to still cause 3rd-degree burns to her arm, shoulder, and face because it’s fucking LAVA, and destroy half of her clothing; OR some other thing set on fire and burned her lol I dunno enough to say whether that’s feasible with magma but I like that version better, that it was caused in some way by Akainu). It was a question of if she’d ever be able to use her arm again, but Law’s a very good doctor (though she did threaten him when he wouldn’t let her see Luffy right away, saying with him being in critical condition they couldn’t risk an infection. She was not happy). She actually bonds slightly with Law after they escape and she’s in stable condition, cause she breaks down about what happened before he can escape (lol). In her mind she’s just lost another person she cared about (a brother-type figure, and someone she loves very much in her own way), and Luffy could very well be on his deathbed, and she can’t even see him, and the rest of their crew is who knows where, and she may lose use of her arm, and she HURTS, and it’s a lot to take in. Law keeps trying to tell her to calm down or she’ll undo everything he just did to save her, and she accuses him of being insensitive (I mean...yeah), and throws out a comment like “what you never lost anybody? Fuck off”. He glares at her, then sits and sighs, hiding his face beneath his hat. He’s silent for a while, then tells her he’s also lost a sibling. He doesn’t say anything more, doesn’t give details, but it still hits like a slap to the face, and she realizes he’s offering an olive branch by telling her that, and that hey here’s someone who knows exactly how you feel right now, don’t push away the only person who understands. They don’t bring it up again, but she does start to calm down.

The Crew: When she met Zoro she kept scolding Luffy about bossing him around, that it’s not his place to tell someone they’re joining the crew (of course he doesn’t listen), but after Zoro joins they get along really really well (she also mildly flirts with him for fun, he blushes like crazy, but it’s pretty harmless overall. Those three together is pretty chaotic on its own lol).

She didn’t trust Nami at first, as she came out of nowhere after messing with a different pirate, so she’s wary that the girl has something up her sleeve regarding her brother, but after they defeat Arlong Hazel is extremely protective of her, and the two take care of each other (also again: mild flirting. That time spent with Ace as a teen really helped Hazel’s confidence as a flirt, but after the time skip a lot of that goes away).

Hazel and Usopp tell stories together, usually for the whole crew, and she sees him as another little brother sort of figure. Chopper is baby, she loves Chopper instantly and will beat down anyone that looks at him funny. She doesn’t flirt with Sanji, because she doesn’t like the way he falls over himself around her and doesn’t want to encourage more of it, but once he (finally) takes the hint the two have a very strong friendship. She was very wary of Robin, until Water 7/Enies Lobby, and now sees her as an older sister. Robin, for her part, and even Franky to some degree, wish that Hazel would stop trying to be the crew’s grown up, and would go have fun as a girl in her early 20’s. She does ease up once the two join the crew, but bonds with the adults a lot. She’s someone the younger crew members go to with problems, but Robin and Franky, and eventually Brook and Jinbei, are who Hazel goes to for advice.

After the 5th time of Brook asking to see her panties, she says fuck it and throws a clean pair at him, saying that’s all he gets and if he asks her one more time she WILL throw him overboard. He doesn’t bring it up again.

Jinbei actually shows her the basics of Fishman Karate on their way back to Marineford before the timeskip. She still can’t move too well, so she just watches, but she incorporates what she learns into her fighting style.

She wanted to stay with Luffy when he went to train with Rayliegh, but the old man put a stop to it right away saying she’d not only be too distracted to focus on her own training, but she’d likely coddle Luffy. It was better for them to spend some time apart anyway, for really the first time in their lives, and though she’s nervous about not being with him she agrees. Hancock ends up taking her under her wing for the time being, but only because she’s Luffy’s sister (and therefore not a threat lmfao).

As far as after the time skip, she’s mostly the same but doesn’t immediately jump into Luffy’s shenanigans, and can be more of a voice of reason when needed. At Punk Hazard, she’s the first one of the Straw Hats (besides Luffy) to trust Law and agree that they should form an alliance. She furiously hates Caesar, like she isn’t even able to be near him or his heart cause she might stab him and ruin the whole plan (you don’t mess with kids man Hazel WILL fuck you up). At Dressrosa she joins in the fight to help the Tontattas, and follows Usopp and Robin to the port under the coliseum. When she sees Sabo, she IMMEDIATELY bursts into tears and latches onto his shoulders so tight it would take a crowbar to separate them (not that he tries, he’s happy to see her too). She also scolds Robin later for not telling her, but the older woman just laughs and says “but isn’t this so much better?” It is, but Hazel won’t admit it yet lol

She doesn’t go with Luffy to Whole Cake Island, but she does end up meeting up with him and Zoro in Wano, and helps rescue O-Tama.

Potential love interests for Hazel (besides Ace) would be Zoro, Nami, or Law, but honestly she could be shipped with anyone which makes it super fun lol (if anyone read this whole thing and has ideas send them in I’d love to hear them!!)

Anyway thank you for reading this entire long ass essay about my brain children! I think about them a lot, as I’m sure you can tell lol

#valentine skylar #monkey d. hazel #one piece oc #one piece original character #trafalgar law #portgas d. ace #roronoa zoro #cat burglar nami #law x oc stuff #fan fiction #zoro x oc #nami x oc #ace x oc #long post #doesn't look like the read more is working on mobile I'm so sorry #thanks for the ask!

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