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spectral-kitkat · 3 years

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Miraculous Rant.

Where the hell do I begin…

Season 1:

The show was decent in season 1. Some episodes were just mindless filler and probably weren’t needed in the grand scheme of things but they helped us get introduced to the characters, we got to know the plot and the world our characters inhabit. It was good. The love story between Adrien and Marinette was cute and off to a touching and fluffy start.

Season 2:

This season was immediately better than season 1. It had character development, it went more into detail about the lore surrounding the Miraculous and we got to learn more about our characters and their families and the villian’s motives. (HM really went from “I wanna destroy the world” to “I wanna wake my wife from the coma she’s in”).

We got to see new heroes which was fun! We got new characters like Luka and Kagami.

The season finale was epic! The Miraculous team all taking down all the previous villains in the show was awesome. At the end we even got Mari kissing Adrien on the cheek. It was great! (Even though it clearly reset itself in season 3 cause it’s never mentioned again)

I really enjoyed season 2 and it’s probably my favourite out of the 4.

Season 3:

Season 3 was kinda good and kinda bad. We had some great episodes but this is where the show took the wrong turn.

Marinette lost some of her character in season 3. This was the start of her descent into being the Queen of Mary Sues. It’s also where she was crowned the Queen of Stalkers! Her character took a fucking nose dive in this season. We had so many moments that just creeped me the fuck out.

1. The ENTIRETY of Puppeteer 2 🤢🤢🤢 I could not stand that episode. When we reached the dreaded statue scene I physically had to pause it like 10 times. That scene takes about 3 minutes to watch… it took me about 20. I cringed so fucking hard because of the secondhand embarrassment I was feeling. That was not sweet, it wasn’t romantic, it wasn’t the least bit cute… it was a train wreck! It was creepy and stalkerish and it’s a wonder Adrien even spoke to her again after that atrocity!

2. LB delivering the present in Chat Blanc. Two words: STALKER BEHAVIOUR!!! I genuinely could not believe my eyes when I saw LB run her hand across everything in his room and then actually SNIFF Adrien’s pillow. Like WTF!!! 🤮 I’m pretty sure whoever was responsible for that scene clearly thought it was the equivalent of when someone gets their S/O’s jumper or something and it still smells like them. But this turned it up to the nth degree and way passed the line of sanity.

Adrien was extremely under-utilised in this season. He didn’t really do anything. The only episodes we got about him didn’t really focus on him. ‘Felix’ whilst focusing on Adrien’s family didn’t really feature him. ‘Party Crasher’ while a beautiful mess was more about Mari trying to get into the party than the party itself. ‘Chat Blanc’ again focused more on Mari trying to fix her mistake.

We got even more heroes in season 3, not in the right order but they were there. It was fun seeing everyone’s transformations.

Season 3 was also the season of destroying redemptions. The big one obviously being Chloe. Season 2 was setting up this amazing redemption for her and before it could go anywhere it was wiped off the face of the earth during the finale (and don’t worry we’ll get to that dumpster fire later). Gabriel also had any remaining sympathy ripped away from him. How did the guy who stopped Gorizilla from letting Adrien die when he only thought he was CN go from that to using his son like fucking baseball in Chat Blanc when he knew his son was CN. Like I knew you were a shit father but you still cared about Adrien in some way shape or form but after that episode I can see I was clearly mistaken!

Before we get to the finale I want to talk about probably my 2 least favourite episodes from this season: Desperada and Reflekdoll

Desperada:

I fucking hated this episode! The only good thing was Luka getting to be Viperion, other than that this episode was awful!

Marinette was a selfish cringey bitch. Completely ignoring Luka to gush about Adrien to Jagged. Brushing Luka off as soon as Adrien turns up. Immediately cuddling up to Aspik and flirting with him when she needed to focus on the akuma (something which she has told CN not to do many times before)

Adrien, I love you kid but Jesus Christ you were a dumbass in this episode! Aspik’s design was terrible! Aspik himself was awful. I know Adrien tried his best but dude you were given the Black Cat miraculous for a reason! He shouldn’t have tried to be Aspik but even when he did he should’ve called it quits after like 5 resets not 25,913 times.

The only person with a brain this episode was Luka. So well done guitar boy, gold star!

Reflekdoll:

This episode was annoying! It was basically the start of the Marinette can do no wrong streak! When they have to swap miraculous I was happy cause it meant we got to see new outfits and see how they each handle the different powers. It would also serve as a way to get LB and CN to see what their partners role is first hand. Until we actually get to it…

LadyNoire is of course amazing and needs no introduction to using this new miraculous that she’s never used before. She’s cocky and confident and basically just LB in Chat’s costume with his powers.

Mister Bug on the other hand is just useless. He struggles with this new miraculous (like anyone would!) and is stupid and goofy. He has to rely on LadyNoire to solve the lucky charm. They swapped miraculous so shouldn’t that mean that Mister Bug should get the lucky vision and the creative powers that the earrings give him.

Overall Reflekdoll is awful. It was shitty writing and the start of Adrien getting the short end of the stick.

And now the season 3 finale… Just what the fuck. That is my only reaction: what the fuck!

Chloe you poor fucking child! What did they do to you!!! So much potential SQUANDERED!!!!

What was the point in bringing in all these different superheros with unique skill sets, costumes and transformations if you were just going to immediately reveal them to the main villian so they can’t be used again. That’s stupid! If you wanted the shock value that is “Oh no HM knows some of the heroes identities!” Then keep it as only some. Have like Max, Kim and Kagami outside trying to find somewhere to hide but unfortunately they get hit. Or Nino and Alya are hiding but the windows open and they get hit. Have some of the heroes hide so they’re fine! Taking away every ally of LB and CN’s was a stupid move! (Even if they wanted Alya to become a spy have her as part of the like 4 that get revealed or something, it’s not that difficult)

Season 3 was 50/50 for me

Season 4:

So I know season 4 isn’t even halfway through yet but so much is wrong with this season already that I need to vent!

So my biggest problem with this season of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybitch and Rena Rouge, I mean Rena Furtive… shit, Chat Noir! Is that CN is basically pointless! Adrien has been flung over a rainbow and is only remembered when he’s needed as

1. Marinette’s love interest

2. Someone for LB to shout at

3. A plot device

He has basically been sidelined. Partners my ASS!!!

Adrien is being blown off by pretty much EVERYONE! It’s coming to a point where this poor sweet summer child is going to crack! And it is not gonna be pretty… I definitely feel like the writers are leading up to a big fight between CN and LB which will probably end with Chat Blanc 2.0.

I REALLY HATE MARINETTE/LADYBUG!!!! In Season 3 I said it was the beginning of her descent, well in season 4 she’s done it. She’s descended, she has hit rock fucking bottom. She is so unlikable I don’t actually care about her as a person. She has entered full blown stalker territory it’s only a matter of time before she starts killing people for even looking at Adrien! Not to mention that Miss Mary Sue here can’t do anything wrong! She never has to suffer the consequences of her actions, she is always perfect no matter what she does… it pisses me off!)

She’s the Guardian now big whoop. I know what it feels like to be stressed and under pressure so I do understand why she needed to tell someone about it all. I just don’t see why that person had to Alya! Especially considering she has someone by her side every akuma attack going through pretty much the exact same thing. I know she’s worried about CB happening again but as I said before the more she leaves him out the more she is actually pushing that to become a possibility! Plus it makes sense for them to reveal their identities now since LB is now the guardian it’s probably a good idea to know who holds the cat miraculous, she knows everyone else’s identities!

Even if she didn’t want to tell CN her identity she could still explain the situation to him. If she didn’t want to tell him anything (which she doesn’t anyway) then instead of Alya she should’ve talked to Luka! Her boyfriend for all of half an episode (thanks writers…). He’s so sweet and caring and clearly loves her so much! If she wanted someone to confide in then why not choose the person you clearly wanted to date but couldn’t because of that very reason! (Yeah I know it’s kinda a moot point now since Luka knows both identities but still). He wanted to try and comfort her so it would’ve been the perfect moment for it. That way you could still date him and he’d know why you had to suddenly leave dates halfway through! But no break the boys heart instead!

Adrien and Marinette were both such fucking idiots in the first 2 episodes. Like why would you start a relationship with someone when you know your heart isn’t in it! That’s called leading someone on and is a really shitty thing to do to someone! No wonder Kagami and Luka ended up akumatized!

Another aspect of season 4 I don’t like is Rena Furtive. Yes ok having a spy for your side is a good strategy but when said spy basically tells an important member of a duo that the 2 person job doesn’t involve them… it just really ticks me off! Alya you are the sidekick to LB and CN! Chat isn’t!

Miraculous specials:

The Miraculous World specials suck! Shanghai is better than NY but still has its problems. Both specials add nothing to the overall plot/lore of the show apart from trying to set up some weird cinematic universe…

NY special:

One of the worst things I’ve ever had to sit through! The plane scene alone I paused a few times. I want to say well done to Mari for trying to move on from Adrien (especially considering I’m pretty sure she’s dating Luka at this point) but I can’t help but think it’s just to give her character some pointless development that goes nowhere and doesn’t actually develop anything!

LB can pretty much fuck off at this point! I hate her! She put all this shit on CN (like she doesn’t know exactly how that feels). It’s like why does she get to go off on holiday but CN can’t. LB should’ve stayed in Paris for 3 reasons:

1. She’s recently become the guardian meaning it would probably be best that she stayed with the Mircle Box

2. She’s the only one who can purity the akumas

3. If she’s so sure about being the boss then she should take responsibility of Paris and the citizens.

What really pisses me off about her is what she says to CN during the big fight. “I can’t trust you”… surely you could have this conversation afterwards since you’re supposed to be focusing on taking down the villian! Plus everyone bashes Adrien for giving his miraculous up in this episode but look at it from his point of view: His partner and best friend just said she couldn’t trust him which in turn caused him to cataclysm someone and essentially kill them. That’s gonna take a toll on anyone, especially a 14 year old! He probably thought in that moment. “Ladybug needs a partner she can trust and someone who won’t mess up and kill someone. She needs a better partner.” It makes sense he renounces his miraculous! I’m just upset that in doing so he loses Plagg who is pretty much his only friend who actually understands what Adrien goes through at home.

When Uncanny gets CN to come back, LB acts like it’s not her fault in the first place that he feels inadequate! She didn’t even apologise for saying what she did! He apologised for lying about not being in Paris but nope LB wasn’t in the wrong at all and didn’t have anything to apologise for 🙄… (yes the LadyNoir hug was amazing but I just wish it was under different circumstances!)

Also are we not gonna mention Gabriel Agreste almost starting WW3??? He wanted to launch a fucking missile!!!

Shanghai:

As I said before, this special is way better for several reasons.

We got MariChat! (Best side to the love square imo). This special actually had some semblance on a plot. Fei, whilst a bit op, was a cool character. It was nice to see Wang Cheng again.

However once again there were many problems.

A big one being Marinette yet again! (What a shock! 😒 I’ll come back to this). Another was that once again HM’s motivation has changed. How is getting the Prodigious gonna help bring back Emilie??

Back to Marinette… The fact that the words “Huh?! There must be some kind of mistake! I always know what's up with Adrien! … His 5 first names and every corresponding name date, his yearly schedule, even his shoe size! If there were anything to know about him, I would know it!” come out of her mouth whilst she is flipping through his schedule that she keeps in her pocketbook is a hugh red flag!!! That is not cute or adorable! That’s messed up and Adrien needs to fucking run and maybe possibly go into witness protection… Marinette is a full blown stalker! Not to mention the GPS she has (that could just be the find my friends app on iphone but still).

It also is extremely rude of her to use not only her great uncle’s birthday but also a lie about wanting to know her Chinese heritage in order to go to Shanghai to stalk her obsession, I mean crush. This could’ve been avoided if the Dupain-Chengs were going to Shanghai for the purpose of celebrating Wang Cheng’s bday and then Adrien just so happened to be in Shanghai.

Also this means LB left Paris without telling CN! I know CN did the same but again he can’t purify the akumas. Plus he has a reason he couldn’t stay in Paris, Mari just went cause her crush did. Great guardianship there Marinette.

This was also the last time CN actually did something. Even if it was for a short while before LB and her female partner took over (the beginning of a theme…)

Other things:

There are 2 other things that I wanna say but felt they needed a separate bit.

In Furious Fu, Su-Han has a rule book that he uses to tell Marinette which rules she has broken. At the end of the episode he tells her that is she breaks 1 more rule that he will take the Miraculous and the Miracle Box off her, which fair enough but wouldn’t it be helpful to leave the rule book with her?! How can she be wary of not breaking anymore rules when she doesn’t even know what the rules are??

Now the big one: Master Fu…

Where do I even start with him. He is so fucking manipulative!! He is Asian Dumbledore!

He decides to leave these extremely powerful jewels in the hands of 13 year olds! Surely leaving the miraculous to someone in their 20s would’ve been better!

He clearly favours LB over CN even though the Ladybug and Black Cat are supposed to be partners! Wouldn’t it make sense for them both to be in contact with the guardian from the start?? He randomly started introducing rules such as if LB and CN find out each other’s identities they would lose their miraculous… what kind of bullshit rule is that? It also came out of fucking nowhere!

Final Thoughts:

But to summarise all of that: Miraculous is on quite a steep decline but I’m invested at this point and I am genuinely curious as to where the fuck this will go.

Marinette needs professional fucking help before the writers even consider canonising Adrienette cause at the moment she is not what Adrien needs!

Adrien needs to stand up for himself! He needs to pull LB to the side and tell her what he feels and what he’s going through cause he is on the precipice of a breakdown!

(Small point that’s more to do with the fandom: when searching for fanfics it’s really annoying that Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir Bashing is a tag but Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug Bashing isn’t. Why does everyone think Marinette can do no wrong???)

#miraculous fandom #miraculous ladybug #miraculous salt #adrien agreste #marinette dupen chang #marinette salt #master fu salt #ladybug and chat noir #fandom salt #thomas astruc salt #adrien deserves better #miraculous season 4 #miraculous season 3 #miraculous rant

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fipindustries · 3 years

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critical missive

dedicated to @cryptovexillologist

oh boy arent we in a fine pickle now?

usually i enjoy talking openly and bluntly about my opinions on whatever the last thing i read is, safe and secure in the knowledge that the author will most likely never stumble on my measily 700 followers tumblr blog, so i am free to express my opinion to my heart’s content knowing that no feelings will get hurt.

mission critical would be no different except i talked with the author and read their acknoledgement and the AMA they did on discord after writing the story and they have endeared themselves thoroughly to me so my language will have to be neutered, at least for the first half of this excercise. afterwards things will get a bit harsher but i’ll try to rest at ease in the knowledge that we seem to be kindred spirits and i would be delighted in hearing any kind of criticism of my work either positive or negative.

ok, enough coaching done, lets go on to what i thought of this novel.

it is a delightful romp, as i said before, the worldbuilding is understated and realistic with enough glimpses of depth and detail to suggest a much larger picture. this world feels inhabited, lived in, like it was well chewed on for long by the author before putting pen to paper. consequentially the characters that arose from this world feel like they belong, they feel like real people with real lifes. by far the strongest sections of the book were the flashbacks to their lives before the plot started. their voices, regretably, do sound very similar when interacting with each other but in their own sections the characters shine in their charm and cleverness. every time one of their flashbacks ended i was left with the intrigue and the desire to know how their particular story would continue.

the terra ignota influences are very noticeable, the world and its people carry the same kind of almost childlike positivity and innocence, the same kind of cheerful, happy go lucky trust in human progress and the great project of humanity for the future with the same sobering forlorn attitude towards the horrors of the past.

on top of that its silly, gosh in heaven it is silly. it has moments of cringe, in the best of ways. strange slapdash bits of flavor, immature non sequiturs, small indulgences from the author’s own weird interests and dumb meme humor. i do love me my awkward corners in a book, after all it is those that make something unique. there is a clear personality poking through and it is a delightful personality to meet.

i cant help but like this almost more for the context in which it was written than for the content itself, it was done during quarentine as a way to both stave off cavin fever and to process the author’s feelings regarding their gender identity. as someone who also wrote a story where i almost deliberatly tried to trick my self into breaking my own egg and who turned madly towards creative endeavors to survive the pandemic i can sympathize strongly with this. i am really happy that the author got to do this and kickstarted a project towards a big, possibly decades spanning trilogy.

so, yeah, those were the nice things i had to say, if you are content enough with that you can stop here but if you are curious to know more, well... you can

in short: it is a bit of a mess. again, im willing to be lenient, considering the way in which this was worked on, this is very much a really early first draft. the second half of this story was a very slow and very boring trudge towards a sudden end.

first, the fact that the flashbacks and the worldbuilding bits are the strongest part of this story means the actual plot itself suffers from being fairly boring and generic. “astronauts explore alien planet, find spooky stuff there” was already old hat by the 50′s. it is a plot so worn down and archetypical that it really cant survive if that is literally all you are going to do with it, and that is kind of all that this book does. i did mention moments of flavor and strange self indulgence. we needed way more of those. yes thats right, im saying that this story was not self indulgent enough. when you have such a well trodden plot such as this, worn down to the point that it becomes paint by the numbers, we need quirky, we need cringe, we need strange excess and personality. the author mentioned that they would love to see some of the weirder alexandria fan fics, well so do i! be the miracle you want to see in the world! the moments alexandria debated if wether identifying as a trilateral were amazing but they were not enough. we have a great structure here but lets put some proper meat on these bones, some proper fat and skin, some clown make up and a weird novelty hat and outrageous clown shoes. im getting carried away here, lets get back to the point.

the other problem is there is not a clear trajectory for the story here, no well defined moment of climax and the emotional beats tend to fall a bit flat or to come out of nowhere. there are emotional crisis which i sort of missed or didnt get where they came from. the characters act in ways that are hard to relate to that come off as stilted. the way they conduct themselves through the mission felt at times weirdly unprofessional and like it didnt follow much of a logical throughline, and when i say logical i dont meant “i wanted the characters to act hyperrational at all times” i mean i want the characters to act in ways that make human sense. ironically the one character that acted a bit too human for my tastes was the AI. alexandria is an interesting character but i feel that the place to explore that idea is not in the middle of an incredibly important mission where having your mainframe experience a crisis might not be the most practical thing in the world.

the ending was jarringly sudden, i didnt feel there was a proper resolution and finishing it off with flashbacks to the time the characters were training was... odd. i reached the last line and it felt like the story had just decided to stop without ever having reached anything that came even close to the third act. all of this can be easily fixed with some concientious editing and a complete rearrangement of the different sections of this story.

all in all a great first step in what i hope will be a long career as a writer.

#mission critical #it was nice #if a bit flawed

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subtleappreciation · 3 years

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Here’s a continuation of my convo with @ryanssance about dreams. If you want to read the first part you can find it here.

Okay the reason I think Tim won’t be able to dream is because of his insomnia.

Night after night of staying awake to finish cases, training, homework, or patrol, his sleeping patterns were bound to change.

Even on good days where he can sleep early, it does little to help his sleep cycle and dream stage.

He’s tossing and turning all night, body now used to sleeping throughout the day and staying awake all night.

He’s nocturnal like an owl which probably started his affinity for coffee or any form of caffeine to be honest.

Perhaps he isn’t able to dream because he never reaches REM or “deep-sleep”, or maybe he does but he absolutely cannot recall any part of it because his body is too focused on trying to fix him up in other ways.

But what if he can’t dream because he doesn’t want to?

For the same reason as to why he probably drinks coffee when he knows he can sleep.

For the way he drives himself to the ground so he can’t go into a deep sleep.

Maybe when he dreams, he has good dreams like Jason! But that’s the point. He just doesn’t want to. He can’t. The pain for him to wake up and realize that his family, his friends, and Conner are all gone.

That the ones that are here just doesn’t measure up to the people that he lost. To be happy and free of all his pain that he feels every damn day.

In a way it makes him feel guilty because he knows that the more he dreams, the more he won’t want to come back and face his true reality. It’s the idea of being distant and growing accustomed to something you know you cannot have in reality—think Inception, the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page.

With the amount of power and money that he has, he can easily buy his way to dream forever. To drug himself to the land of no return just to buy himself the very happiness he oh-so-desperately wants.

He wants to dream but he just can’t. He won’t. Not for just his sake but for the sake of his family, friends, and he’ll even do it for the sake of Gotham.

In turn, Tim copes with his nightmares by using a creative outlet like photography.

If he really can’t sleep, he’ll sneak out of the manor with a mug filled with coffee and his camera bag.

He loves going on long drives without a real destination in mind, but he doesn’t care.

Tim’s cruising around listening to his favorite music while finding a good spot to take pictures.

If he’s driving around Gotham, he’ll pick up Jason. Jason knows every hidden corner in Gotham that even someone like Tim who had lived in Gotham his whole life would never know about (plus we all want some more bonding moments)

Tim has a sharp eye when it comes to photography. He can tell a whole story from one single photo; bringing out the smallest of details in the most common area of Gotham.

He loves the challenge of taking a “good” photo. He’s able to express his creativity by manipulating the lighting, perspective, and composition of the subject at hand.

Trying new techniques while using different types of cameras, lenses, or film stocks just keeps his mind occupied and away from the darker rooms.

He’ll even take pictures of Jason. Although Jason is very into his bad boy looks, he is secretly insecure about his appearance; normally objecting to having his photo taken, but when Tim asked if he could take a picture of him—face puffy from crying during the car ride over—he can’t help but say yes. With a slight smile, Tim would take pictures of Jason in various poses and angles.

Despite wanting to cringe at every imperfection he could point out about himself, Jason could see the talent in Tim’s work, the angle and the lighting masking just about everything Jason would usually dislike.

Jason and Tim might not get along that well, but they would always be there for each other. They would have deep talks about what their dreams mean and comfort each other when talking about their nightmares.

If Jason is on patrol or asleep for once, Tim will immediately run to Alfred.

He feels embarrassed for bothering Alfred, but no one else can give him comfort like the way Pennyworth can.

Alfred is perfect, he knows exactly how to comfort Tim based on his feelings.

If Tim comes into his room crying and panting, he will hug him and rock him slightly until Tim can breathe and settle down.

If Tim comes in with a dead set of eyes, he will take him to the kitchen and make him some tea and cookies after offering the boy a huge glass of water.

If Tim comes in looking scared and has sweat stains on his shirt, he’ll take him on a walk along the manor grounds while humming a tune.

Alfred never pushes him to talk unless he’s ready. When Tim is ready to talk, he listens and reassures him that no matter what happened in his dreams or nightmares, they are not a reflection of his faults or doings.

Thank you for reading!! :D Hope y’all enjoy!

#time drake #jason todd #dc #alfred is a god #again who even dreams nowadays cause i cant

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irandomblogfulb · 3 years

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FATE: What happens when you get a bunch of middle aged white guys to adapt a cartoon for girls

Well, I just went through 6 hours of fate and I have a lot of opinions on it. Yeah, this is going to be long (slightly under 3k words) so putting it under read more and obvious spoilers.

PSA before delving right in:

1) Yes, I will be comparing to the original. Any comparisons are not through rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. There are parts here and there that I genuinely think were done better in the cartoon on a writing standpoint.

2) This is purely my opinion and overall negative. Don't like it? Don't read. I'm all up for discussion but I don't want another person crying to me about how I “ruined” their experience of the show.

3) If you like Fate then good for you. This isn’t me bashing people who like it.

I've spit it up into sub sections just for my own convince.

1. The problem with the 'I'm not like other girls' trope

This pertains to the entire Bloom-Sky-Stella love triangle. I wasn't as pressed about it compared to other winxers (and I loved Stella's and Brandon's relationship on my rewatch). In fact, I was okay with it. But then I sat down and watched the show and there's a lot of underlying problems with the love triangle. Particularly pitting Bloom and Stella against each other for Sky's affection.

Now this part of the love triangle I already didn't like. Correct me if I'm wrong, since I dropped the OG Winx after season 5 but the Winx while they did have their conflicts and arguments, never fought over a boy. I really appreciated that from the cartoon so seeing that live action would fall into that trap – I was mildly annoyed at that. Then it hit me. It's Bloom and Stella.

The seemingly ordinary girl vs the pristine princess of Solaria. If the title didn't give it away, you should get the point by now. Others have already called it by now but the "I'm not like other girl's" trope in itself, while seemingly feminist is actually misogynist. Saying the more masculine type of girl is better than the feminine is inherently misogynist. Stella, the prime princess, girly and feminine, is villainized by the love triangle. Sky's and Stella's relationship is toxic and Stella's overt co-dependence and jealousy are already big fat red signs - but Sky's and Bloom's relationship is built on how she's "different". Bloom isn't like Stella, she's "real".

2. Am I supposed to like Riven?

As the title puts it, wtf am I supposed to feel about Riven. Is he supposed to be a good guy? Do I root for him? Is he morally ambiguous? Because holy shit compared to OG!Riven, this guy is diabolical and much much worse! OG!Riven is an asshole and he teams up with the trix but his arc was very simple and easy to understand. He joins the bad guys, distances himself from the good guys, the trix betray his ass, he self-reflects in the dungeon - escapes and redeems himself. Net!Riven is so bad to the point where you can't redeem him and the writers don't even try. Freddie Thorp is good in his role. (however, he definitely doesn't pass for a 17-year-old. He's 26 and it shows) and he actually makes the cringe dialogue work. But he's way too diabolical and downright predatory. The scene where he forces Dane to gulp down his spiked drink - it’s worse seeing it than reading it. That grossed me out more than the gore.

What makes it worse, nobody properly calls him out. Beatrix kinda does on his homophobia – “Homophobic bashing by GIF” - and Sky does chastise him, but they still tolerate him. It is kinda funny in a way Sky has a whole ass arc about how he's enabling Stella's problematic behaviour by still dating her after she blinded her friend but doesn't realize he's doing the same for Riven.

The only person that really puts her foot down with Riven is Terra and nobody takes her seriously about anything she says.

Everyone is very laissez-faire around him and that's not how you respond to your friend being problematic. (Hey, kinda like the other girls sans Aisha are with Bloom!) Everyone surrounding Riven is so disgusting and the notion of him supposedly being a good guy is very hard to buy into. His whole relationship with Dane has a section of it’s own because there’s just a lot to unpack.

3. Stella I am so sorry

I'm also in the majority hating how they've tarnished Stella. Basically, they turned her into the stereotypical rich bully with mommy issues.

I get that Stella has an abusive mom but that’s no excuse to be a total bitch to her roommates. And no, her roommates shouldn't accept her back with open arms. And she doesn't even redeem herself - the girls just accept her back after her mom pulls her from Alfea.

And this is also another issue with the writing were the characters suddenly just change their opinions on a whim. Suddenly Stella likes the winx, suddenly Terra misses Stella even though having that girl literally gives her anxiety. Suddenly Aisha's on Bloom's side in the end.

This isn't me simping for the cartoon out of nostalgia. I was mostly okay with the idea of Stella and Sky hooking up. But Looking at it from a creative standpoint - looking at the source material, and the many paths you can take this character, the best thing Brian Young and co. can think of for her was turning her into the stereotypical rich bully that we've seen time and time again? No deconstruction no meta take, it's played out exactly how you’d expect it.

Again, this isn't me simping for the show. Purely from a creative standpoint Stella was such a major let down. There's so much to the character and Brian Young took the easiest, saturated path.

4. That one scene with Bloom's parents

You know the one. Mike unhinges Bloom's bedroom doors and Vanessa cusses out and insults her child like a petty teen bully. Forgetting how utterly cringey that scene was, you can't have her mom go batshit insane on her child, then act like she's this loving parent that cares so deeply about her daughter. Screw that! Vanessa deserved those 3rd degree burns! She invaded her daughter's privacy. Bloom didn't even do anything wrong!

I can't buy into this narrative of Vanessa and Mike being loving parents when they do something like that. Seriously who thought that was okay?

5. Pity Parties for everyone.

I already discussed this in Stella’s section but I don’t like the “it’s okay for me be a shitty person because my life sucks :)” narrative Fate tries to pull. They did it with Stella, Bloom, Riven.

What I liked about the first season of Winx Club is Bloom’s arc and her character as a whole. Because while she went through shit, from the Trix, to finding out she was adopted, her existential crisis, not feeling like she belonged, losing the dragon flame, she went through a lot. She didn’t throw a pity party. She didn’t whine, bitch and complain. She allowed herself to feel upset, took it as it is and tried to make lemonade out of lemons. And I respect that.

Net!Bloom is agrevating. She does some dumb, reckless stuff but it’s excused because she’s the protagonist? She let the war criminal out, the school gets taken over by the bad guys because of Bloom. Faragonda fucking dies because she let the war criminal out! The burned ones attacked the school because she let the war criminal out!!! But no, Aisha’s villainized for calling Bloom out because Bloom’s existential crisis is more important then anything else.

Getting to Sky, he isn’t as bad as the others. He doesn’t become a shitty person because of his problems. (Though lowkey flirting with Bloom while he hooks up with Stella is uh not good.) But he does come across incredibly whiny. Because of the cringey dialogue and the unnecessary swearing I can’t take his speech on opening up to Bloom seriously. I laughed throughout the whole thing and Bloom leaving his unconscious body there was the icing on the cake.

One of the few characters that deserved a pity party is Terra. She’s very much like OG!Bloom in a way. She is bullied by Dane and Riven, has body insecurities, anxiety, nobody listens to her and at most only tolerates her. Despite all the crap that is thrown her way she still reminds humble, kind, and respectful. And she is one of the few characters that deserves more support than what she got out of the season.

5. Bloom, Aisha, Tokenism and their awful relationship

I’m going to be upfront, their relationship sucks. The core of their dynamic is what Aisha can do for Bloom. It’s very one-sided. Bloom only goes to Aisha to help solve her problems, which Aisha gladly does – but when Aisha disagrees with Bloom or says something Bloom doesn’t like, Bloom suddenly goes off and Aisha’s made to be the bad guy. Even though she’s right? And Aisha has her own problems as well, shown to also struggle with her powers. But nope, that’s pushed to the back burner because Bloom needs help.

I am all for creative freedom. I can stomach Stella x actual Sky. I can stomach turning Stella into a rich mean girl. I can stomach the dark academia aesthetic but what Brian Young and co. did to Aisha is just plain racist. Screw the “it’s an adaptation” excuse. Turning this character who had a rich storyline and was a princess into a white girl’s magical negro who fixes all her problems is racist and by definition tokenism. And by whitewashing the other two characters of color, making Aisha the only poc in the group – that’s the worst thing you can do to her.

And frankly we need more black princesses on screen.

6. Dane and the homophobia of the show

Towards the show’s climax it’s revealed Dane is helping Beatrix because she accepts he’s “different”. Not only does this go back to my pity party rant but like bruh,

1) Beatrix never really did anything for Dane? She hung out and smoked with him a bit, but that’s all. You’re telling me Terra wouldn’t accept Dane? Beatrix never helped him and he never really opened up to her about his struggles.

2) Nobody else, not even background characters bully or harass Dane for being “different”. It’s only Riven, the guy he’s crushing on. The whole falling in love with the bad boy/abuser trope is bad in a hetero relationship and that still stands for a gay one. And I know damn well if Dane was a woman half of the shit Riven did to Dane wouldn’t slide.

It makes no sense for Dane to side with the bad guys when Riven’s the one bullying him and Beatrix is complacent in the bullying. Oh, and having your second black* character who’s also lgbt+/potentially questioning be a villain? Not good.

I’m all for gay and poly rep, but not like this. If Stella and Sky’s toxic relationship is going to be called out for what it is, why not Dane’s?

*Idk if Theo Graham is light-skinned black or biracial so I’ll just refer to him as black.

7. The plot

It’s very predictable. Personally, wasn’t fond of the ‘twist of a twist of a twist’ style of writing. The story tries to be nuanced and deep but it’s not. Common sense is treated like a big revelation. Not trusting the war criminal you barely know isn’t as big of a take that the writers try to make it out to be.

8. Everything else

· Beatrix is fine. No Icy but did like the gothic bookworm aesthetic.

· Sam is just there to be Musa’s love interest and provide some dumb drama between Musa and Terra. I thought they’d go the Edward/Bella root – Musa’s drawn to Sam because she can’t sense his emotions for some reason. Nope, they just get together for the obligatory make out sessions. Don’t care much for the relationship or the character.

· Since the powers are all elemental shouldn’t there be classes purely for an elemental? Classes purely for fire fairies, etc?

· Musa’s powers are confusing. If she has no control over them and they are “always on”, shouldn’t her eyes constantly be glowing purple? Very wishy washy. Sometimes they overwhelm her and other times she has complete control. Her character is just there for plot stuff.

· Terra is one of the better characters but can’t enjoy her knowing about the whitewashing. Why can’t we have a plus sized character just exist and not have body issues?

· Sky doesn’t feel like a prince. Characters treat him like his dad is a war hero and not the King of Eraklyon. There was a point where I thought I misheard and thought his dad was just a war hero and not a king.

· Why try to justify Rosalind’s war crime if she’s going to be the big bad anyways?

· The way the characters treat death/act around death is very weird. Musa and Terra see a pile of dead bodies and they’re unreasonable calm. Especially Bloom an “ordinary teenage girl from earth”, reacts very nonchalant when death and war crimes are brought up. Doesn’t help the show tries to push this “they’re kids fighting a war” narrative.

· Can’t buy into the girls’ friendship. The Aisha/Bloom dynamic is centred on what Aisha can do for Bloom. Bloom only cares about herself and only goes to her friends to help with her problems. Most of Musa’s and Terra’s interaction centre around Sam. Stella didn’t care for the girls until her mom showed up and pulled a 180. The girls were quick to turn on Aisha when she sided with the adults.

· I have no problem with technology existing but why do they have Instagram, Tiktok and Tumblr? The otherworld is a completely separated from Earth, why do they have the same technology?

9. Brian Young, what do you mean by mature?

I grew up on the 4kids dub before transitioning to the Nick dub for season 4 and 5 then dropping the cartoon for good. So naturally on my rewatch of the cartoon I decided to go watch the RAI dub since I heard it’s more accurate and 4Kids are infamous for their horrid localisations straying too much to the source material. Upon finishing season 1 and currently watching season 2, a few things took me by surprise. For one, the cartoon is surprisingly dark. The schools are at war with the Trix and their army of Darkness, Sky almost dies in Season 2, Riven almost dies and the Trix thinks he suicided, it’s heavily implied in Season 2 Darkar murdered some of the pixies, the paedophilic undertones of Bloom and Avalon’s relationship, the list goes on.

When the interview with Brian Young came out, he said Fate would be a mature take on the cartoon. And I wondered, what did he meant by mature? Was he going to delve deeper into the darker aspects of the show, or did he mean he was going to have the girls swear and have sex? Watching Fate, I found my answer.

If you take out the gore, swearing, drug and alcohol usage from the live action, the maturity is on par with the RAI dub. The difference is in the presentation. This is what sucks about the mentality surrounding live action remakes. Because the OG!Winx was colourful with glittery transformations , was super girly and overall had a positive upbeat tone (not forgetting 2D animated) - it can’t be taken seriously. You have to strip all that, the colour, the kindness, the femininity in order to be deemed mature.

10. Wrapping up

I went into Fate expecting the worst and honestly, it wasn’t that bad. There were things I liked about it. The show looks pretty, and I did like what they were trying to do with Sky’s arc. The actors did what they could with the material. Freddie Thorp made the cringe dialogue work and Abigail Cowen proves she can carry a show as the lead.

Fate is your generic, YA, dark academia show. It follows all the tropes of the YA genre to a T. If that’s your niche, then you’ll love Fate and I’m not bashing anyone who liked it.

For me, as a creative, it doesn’t capitalise on the strengths of the source material. I’m not asking for Winx Club again, as I’ve reiterated, I’m all for creative freedom. But Brian Young, Iginio Straffi, whoever worked on this – they could’ve created something new, innovative, something that stood out from the hordes of other YA shows. They had good material in their hands! But what I got - I’ve seen before, and I’ve seen it done better. That’s a major disappointment.

As a winx club fan, don’t bother watching this. It’s a very diluted version of the Winx. In trying to capture the interest of the adult fans who grew up with the franchise – Iginio showed how out of touch he is if he thinks this is what they wanted.

#fate the winx saga #netwinx #back on my winx club bs #long post #this took me like 4 days to write

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cozy-the-overlord · 4 years

Text

Dances and Daggers

Summary: The Summer Festival is upon Asgard, as is the tradition of the dagger ceremony, where each unmarried gentleman chooses a lady to bestow with the honor of carrying his dagger for the night. As Prince Thor's betrothed, Teki's only goal is to accept his dagger with grace and hope that her violent stepfather doesn't find fault with her in the process. But Prince Thor is unpredictable, and when he ignores his engagement on a whim Teki finds herself in a desperate situation. Luckily, Thor isn't the only prince in Asgard...

Chapter 1: The Dagger

Next Chapter

Word Count: 6648

Pairing: Loki x Original Female Character

A/N: This is an idea that's been in my head for a really long time (like, for several years). I meant it to be a quick little oneshot to get my creative juices flowing, but I completely lost control of it and here I am a month later sitting on thirteen pages worth of writing. Sigh...I never specify the ages of Teki and Loki in the story, but if you're curious I pictured them as early teenagers, between 12 and 14 years old (or the Asgard equivalent).

TW: mentions of child abuse

Read it on Ao3

Teki held her breath as her mother laced her into the crimson ball gown.

“Oh, why did you have to upset him tonight?” she lamented as she pulled at the ribbons, ignoring Teki’s pained gasps. “Tonight, of all nights! You know how important it is for you to look your best tonight, and you’ve gone and made a mess of everything!”

Teki didn’t say anything. The subtlest of movements sent her chest on fire—it was not worth a bruising breath to attempt to defend herself. She was certain that at least one of her ribs were broken, but nothing could be done about that until her mother took her in to see the healer tomorrow with a story about how her clumsy little girl had fallen down the stairs again.

At least it won’t be a complete lie this time. Teki hated lying. Usually, the healers bought her mother’s story without issue and just set about silently fixing whatever she had broken, but last time they had questions. How did a fall down the stairs result in a black eye? Where did these bruises around your arms come from? And those gave way to a scarier question. Do your parents treat you well?

Teki had nodded her head enthusiastically, just as her mother had trained her. Of course they did! Her mother was loving and caring, the best in the world. She loved her stepfather more than anything. She smiled widely, hopefully masking the panic in her eyes. When the healers seemed to drop the subject, she wasn’t sure if it was relief or guilt gurgling in her stomach.

But she’d have to worry about them tomorrow. Tonight, she had bigger problems—like how she was supposed to dance the night away when it hurt to breathe.

If it were any other night, Teki might have been able to get away with playing sick. Norns know she had attempted that excuse time and time again. But tonight was the first night of the Summer Festival. Tonight was when the young men of the court would each choose a lady to hold their blade, and as Prince Thor’s betrothed, she had to be there.

Her mother often reminded her of how blessed she was to hold such an honored position, how lucky she was that her grandfather had negotiated such an agreement with Odin Allfather. No one was quite sure how he had managed it. But somehow, in the weeks before he died, he had convinced the king to agree to a marriage deal between Teki and Thor, thus turning his daughter’s greatest mistake into her most powerful commodity. Teki hated it. It was because of this “blessing” that Osvald had married her mother. After all, the promising of being the father to the future queen was quite the tempting offer.

But he wasn’t her father. He’d never be her father.

“There!” Her mother smoothed the silky skirt and stood up. “You look lovely! No one will ever know!”

Teki studied her reflection in the mirror. Did she look lovely? The gown clinging to her form did little to hide the tightness of her neck, the beads of perspiration collecting along her hairline. She shifted the wrong way and cried out as pain exploded across her ribcage.

“It hurts,” she whimpered, hands hovering over the throbbing area, afraid that touching it might make it worse. “Mama, it hurts so much.”

“I know darling,” her mother sighed. “Oh, why did you have to upset him tonight? Everything was going so well.”

Tears burned in her eyes. Sometimes, this was even worse than Osvald’s fists. She’d drag herself shaking and sobbing to her mother’s room, only to be fixed with her disappointed glare. She never seemed to understand that Teki didn’t mean to make him mad, she just… did. Everything made him mad. She couldn’t keep him happy, no matter how hard she tried.

“Hopefully, we won’t have to stay the whole time,” her mother saying, studying her in the mirror, “Once Thor gives you his dagger, we can probably find an excuse to leave. Maybe we can say that Brant isn’t feeling well.”

Brant was Teki’s six-year-old half-brother, so shy that many in the court thought him mute. Her mother had taken to using him as an excuse when Teki was hurt. It was better than Teki feigning ill herself—it wouldn’t do for the future queen of Asgard to be seen as too weak to stay for an entire dance.

Teki broke into a coughing fit. Her ribcage was on fire. The girl in the mirror didn’t look lovely, she realized. She looked like a corpse in a pretty dress.

“I can’t do it,” she whispered as the tears threatened to pour out, “It hurts too much. Please don’t make me do it, Mama, please.”

Her mother kneeled to brush a loose strand of hair out of her face. “There, there, none of that,” she cooed. “Of course you can do it! I’m sure Prince Thor can’t wait to dance with you!”

Prince Thor was three years older than Teki. He spent his days training in the courtyard with the Einherjar recruits and shadowing his father in the throne room while court was in session. He and Teki interacted only at festivals and balls, where they danced together silently until both sets of parents were satisfied, then went their separate ways. Teki doubted he’d miss her very much if she didn’t show tonight.

Her mother continued brushing through her hair. “I suppose I can give you something,” she said absentmindedly. “Not as much as last time, of course, but just a little something to help with the pain.”

The last time Teki had tried one of her mother’s painkiller drinks, she had passed out on the way back to their quarters, her evident laziness enraging her stepfather. She had sworn she’d never have any of it again, no matter how much she was hurting, but…

“Can you?” she asked, her voice pathetically small. “Please?”

Teki sipped on the concoction as her mother braided her hair into an elegant bun. The mug was only half full, but she was determined to limit her intake to even less. Just enough to make the burning go away for a few hours.

Her mother smiled and squeezed her shoulders. “Oh Tekla,” she breathed, “You’re going to be the prettiest one there!”

Brant and Osvald met them in the hall. Teki wanted to laugh—Brant was dressed up like a little warrior doll in his tiny leather armor—but she kept her face neutral. Osvald didn’t like it when children spoke out of line.

Brant, being his son, could get away with such disgraceful behavior. “Teki!” he squealed. “You look like a princess!”

“Not a princess, Brant,” her mother corrected. “A queen. And you know that’s not her name, darling—you can say her name, can’t you?”

Brant looked up at her with his big blue eyes, suddenly silent.

“Come on,” she continued prompting. “Tek-la. You can say Tekla, right?”

He gulped. “Tek-wa.”

“No, Brant. La. Tek-la,” her mother smiled down at him, but there was something strained at the corners of her mouth. “You can say it. Lalalalala!”

When Brant said nothing, she sighed. “You don’t want to look silly, do you?” she asked. “Do you want people to laugh at you because you can’t say your sister’s name?”

Brant’s bottom lip was trembling, the tell-tale sign that he was seconds away from bursting into tears. Teki forced a cough.

“It-it’s getting late, isn’t it?” she asked. Her voice was too loud and she cringed. “I mean—” Everyone was looking at her now, and she dropped her gaze to the floor. “I mean, I know mother wanted to get to the Festival right as it started,” she whispered. Her chest twinged, the last remnant that the painkiller had yet to take care of, and she bit her tongue to stifle the groan.

“Yes, yes, of course!” Her mother perked up, Brant forgotten in a second. “I’m sure Prince Thor will want to present his dagger early on. We mustn’t be late!”

“Of course,” said Osvald. “We wouldn’t want to embarrass ourselves. Would we, Tekla?”

Teki’s shoulder’s shook with the weight of his gaze. “No sir,” she whispered.

Her hands were trembling as they made their way through the palace. She clasped them in front of her skirt to mask the shaking. This was the first Summer Festival in which she was old enough to accept the honor of holding someone’s blade. It was an old tradition, but quite simple. When a man found a woman who pleased him, he could ask her to carry his dagger. It was a sign of respect, and of faith—he trusted her enough to give her control over his weapon for the remainder of the night. Who got to hold whose blade would be a topic of gossip for months to come.

For the past few years, Teki’s mother looked on with gritted teeth as Prince Thor handed his dagger off to a different girl every festival. Being older than Teki meant that he had come of age before she did, and that for a time he was unable to give her his dagger because she was too young. Tonight was the night her mother had been waiting for ever since she could walk.

Teki was terrified she’d forget what to say when Thor offered her the dagger.

The chatter of the ballroom enveloped her the moment they entered, and she allowed herself to melt into its anonymity. There was a strange kind of safety in knowing that she could be so easily swallowed up by the crowd.

Thor stood on the platform in the middle of the room, alongside his parents and younger brother. He was grinning at someone in the crowd, someone who wasn’t Teki. That was okay. She never quite knew what to say to the crown prince. Hopefully, they could just get their dancing and daggering out of the way quickly, and then he could go back to winking at whoever it was that he was currently winking at. Teki didn’t mind. She just wanted to lay down.

Odin welcomed the people to the first night of the Summer Festival in his booming voice, and with a bang of his spear on the ground, the festivities began. She got asked to dance soon after, by a stocky boy she knew from her Vanir class. At first, Teki wasn’t sure if she should accept—usually, she danced with Thor first—but she saw that her fiancé was already twirling a dark-haired girl on the dance floor, so she thought it would be okay.

Several dances later, Thor was still with the dark-haired girl. Teki didn’t know her name, but she thought she recognized her: she looked like the girl who trained with the Einherjar. With Thor. She swallowed the ball of anxiety climbing her throat and smoothed her crimson skirt. It made sense for Thor to want to spend time with someone he knew well, someone closer to his age. It was just… he had been with her a long time. And Teki knew that somewhere in the room, Osvald and her mother were peering at her intently, waiting on pins and needles for the prince to approach her with an extended hand.

A waiter came by with a tray of some kind of pastries, but Teki declined. The throbbing in her chest was beginning to return, along with a queasy feeling in her stomach. She hoped Thor would come over soon so she could go home and lie down.

A thin smattering of applause broke out over the music. Teki frowned. What happened? Should she be clapping too? She hadn’t been paying attention.

There was a stiffness in the air that hadn’t been there before. People were glancing back at her—why were so many people looking at her? And then she saw it.

Thor was tying his scabbard around the dark-haired girl’s waist in the middle of the dance floor. It took her a moment to understand, but once she did, she felt the color drain from her face.

Thor gave her his dagger.

Thor gave someone else his dagger.

Teki felt as though she had been doused in ice water.

Through the crowd, she felt Osvald’s heavy glare on her. She found him standing on the opposite side of the room, clapping with the rest of those around him. His features were emotionless, but his eyes glinted as they captured her gaze, hard and full of horrible promises.

We wouldn’t want to embarrass ourselves. Would we, Tekla?

Her breathing was coming fast now, so fast that it hurt, so fast that it felt like she wasn’t breathing at all.

Air. I need air!

Teki wasn’t sure how she made it to the balcony, only that suddenly she was outside, gripping the golden railing as if her life depended on it and gulping the cool, evening air.

Osvald was going to kill her.

A despondent wail slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it. She slapped both hands over her mouth in an attempt to silence herself.

Breathe.

Why did Thor have to do that? Why couldn’t he have danced with her first? Didn’t he understand?!

Breathe.

The balcony overlooked the royal gardens, lush greenery that stretched far into the darkness of the night. Teki stared out at it all without really seeing it. Had she done something to upset Thor? Was he angry with her? Osvald would certainly see it that way…

Oh Norns, Osvald…

“Are you well?”

Teki jumped, whipping around with a shriek. Emerald eyes peered at her through the darkness.

Prince Loki.

She had had even less experience with the younger prince than with her betrothed, even though Thor’s little brother was closer to her age. He had been in a few of her classes when she was much younger, back when they were both still learning to read, but they never talked to each other. He didn’t speak much then. As far as she knew, he still didn’t.

Had he just been standing there this whole time, watching her panic about Thor’s blade? Teki had never been so mortified in her life.

“I’m well, my prince, thank you,” she tried to sink into a curtsey, but with her ribs screaming in protest all she could manage was a little bow of her head. “I-I just needed some fresh air.”

For a moment, Loki only stood there, studying her with those jewel-like eyes. “I can understand that,” he finally said, cautiously joining her at the railing, “It’s quite stuffy in there, don’t you think?”

Teki gaped at him, belatedly finding the wherewithal to nod in agreement. He turned his gaze to the gardens, allowing the quiet to lapse over the two of them once more. Teki stood rigidly at his side, wondering if walking away would be considered rude or if it was expected of her.

After several minutes of the uncomfortable silence, he cleared his throat. “You look lovely tonight, Lady Tekla.”

The compliment only reminded her of the gown her mother had laced her into earlier, the same shade of red as the cape Thor wore as he danced with the wrong girl. Her eyes swam with tears.

“Thank you,” she only barely managed to whisper.

Teki could feel his eyes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look up. It wasn’t enough that she had failed to capture the favor of the boy she was promised too; now she had gone and humiliated herself in front of his younger brother.

Somehow, she knew she wouldn’t be sleeping tonight.

Loki shifted awkwardly. “My lady, I—” There was something in his tone that sounded almost apologetic. He cleared his throat again.

“Would you carry my blade for me tonight?” he asked quickly.

It took a moment for Teki to process his words, but once she did, she whipped her head to face him so quickly her braids almost slipped loose from their bun.

“What?” she breathed. He had to be joking. Laughing at her failure. But the prince only smiled at her with a sort of hesitant eagerness. “You—” she stuttered, completely forgetting to use his proper titles. “You want me?”

He laughed nervously. “Well, you’re the only one out here, aren’t you?” When Teki just stared at him, he coughed, twitching uncomfortably. “Of course, if you don’t wish to, I understand completely. I know I’m not—”

“No! It’s not—I mean—” Teki’s head was swimming. Was she even allowed to carry someone else’s dagger? He was still a prince, even if he wasn’t the right prince… it might please her parents to know that the entire royal family didn’t find her repulsive…

She smiled. “I’d be honored, your highness.”

Loki exhaled. “Wonderful.”

He picked at the knot holding his scabbard to his hip, the black leather sheath that housed his dagger. She could just barely make out the intricate design of its handle in the moonlight: snakes of gold intertwined and twisting their way up the grip, their metallic scales shimmering like the stars in the sky. Teki could practically hear her mother wailing about how it would clash with the silver trim of her dress. Still, she stepped forward when Loki reached out to tie the scabbard around her waist.

He was exceedingly cautious as he pulled the leather around her, almost as if he was afraid she’d shatter like glass if he moved the wrong way. Osvald would’ve laughed if he had saw it (“Our prince, ladies and gentlemen, frightened off by a pair of hips”), but Teki was grateful for his hesitancy. She too felt as if she was prone to shattering.

He pulled the strap tight as he knotted it, unknowingly pressing the leather against her aching rib. Teki couldn’t stop the hiss of pain that whistled through her teeth. Loki froze, glancing up in alarm.

“Did I hurt you? Are you alright?” His voice was slightly panicked.

Teki’s face flushed. Couldn’t she do one thing right today? “It’s fine, my prince,” she said quickly, ignoring the renewed throbbing in her chest.

“Are you certain? Forgive me—”

“There’s nothing to forgive, my prince,” she smiled widely, hoping she looked calm and well put together and not as spastic as she felt.

He studied her, gaze laced with concern, but finished tying the scabbard. Her fingers traced over the scaly hilt that now dangled at her hip. Her heartbeat was loud in her ears, so loud she wondered if Loki could hear it.

I’m holding someone’s dagger.

Somehow, in all the times she practiced this interaction in her head, she never imagined the giddy rush that came with carrying the weapon. Of course she hadn’t! —in her head, it was always Thor tying the scabbard around her waist for appearances sake, because he had to. This was different. This was Loki, and Loki didn’t have to.

Loki held out his hand. “Would you join me for a dance?”

Teki nodded.

The dance floor was just as crowded as it had been when she had dashed off, but Osvald and her mother were nowhere to be seen. Teki breathed a sigh of relief as she and Loki slipped unseen into the waltz.

For a while, the two said nothing. Teki’s mother had drilled into her at a young age that to look at one’s feet while dancing was the pinnacle of discourtesy, but her stepfather gave her the back of his hand every time she dared to look a man in the eye. As a sort of compromise, Teki had fallen into the habit of focusing only on her partner’s chest during a dance. It was awkward, especially with someone like Loki who was basically the same height as her, but it kept both her overlords happy.

Apparently, it did not have the same effect on princes.

Loki, having seemingly overcome any anxiety he may have been feeling on the balcony, was quick adopt a teasing tone.

“Is my breastplate so terribly interesting, that you continue to study it so?” he asked with a hint of laughter in his voice, “Or am I just so hideous that you can’t bear to look at me?”

Teki started. “Oh, of course not, my prince. I—”

“It’s alright, my lady. I won’t turn you to stone.” Hesitantly, she raised her gaze to find Loki grinning at her. “There you are. You have such lovely eyes.”

Her eyes were murky brown, the same uninspired shade as her departed father’s. That Loki, with his sparkling gemstone irises, was saying hers were lovely was almost laughable. Cheeks burning, Teki dropped her gaze once more.

“Oh no! Not again!” Loki protested. When she continued to keep her eyes downcast, he sighed dramatically. “You continue to deprive me, Lady Tekla.”

Teki tried to bite back the smile that tickled her lips. This truly was the silliest conversation she had ever had with anyone, dancing or not. “My eyes are hardly anything special, my prince. It can’t be that great a deprivation.”

“Oh, you couldn’t be more wrong, my lady,” he said earnestly. “I’d go as far to say that you have the loveliest eyes in the room. They’re warm and inviting—like freshly roasted chestnuts on a winter’s day. Subtle, but subtle suits you, doesn’t it?” He reached out to tip her chin up, forcing her to look at him. “As I said, lovely.”

If her cheeks had been burning before, they must have been on fire now. “If you say so, my prince,” she murmured. Loki laughed, spinning her about to the music.

While he seemed blessedly content to drop the topic of eye color, Loki was quite clearly intent on carrying out a conversation. It was strange, to say the least—Teki had never known him to speak two sentences together at once, but now that he had started, he talked more than all of her previous dance partners combined. Even stranger was his determination to maintain a dialogue: he’d ask her questions about her family and hobbies and seemed to genuinely listen to her answers, however threadbare they may have been. Teki was shocked to discover that Loki knew her brother’s name and age, something Thor never seemed to remember.

“I suppose I just have a better memory when it comes to such things,” he shrugged when she said as much. Teki wondered if she was imagining the faint pink in his cheeks.

They had taken a break from dancing, standing huddled in the corner near a refreshment table as they sipped tiny goblets of wine. Usually, Teki tried to avoid the sickly sweet glasses, filled so carefully to their golden brims, but the pain in her ribs was getting quite severe and her mother always insisted that alcohol could mask any kind of ache.

Out on the dance floor, Prince Thor was twirling the dark-haired girl to whom he had given his dagger, laughing with an enthusiasm that suggested that he may have been drinking some wine as well. Loki had said that the girl’s name was Sif, and that she and his brother had grown quite close in the past year.

“It’s another one of his passing fancies. Nothing to worry about,” he had told her. “He has a tendency to forget that the universe doesn’t orbit him. His choice had nothing to do with you.” Teki wished Osvald would see it the same way.

She caught glimpse of her stepfather on the other side of the room, laughing gaily with a woman who was not her mother, and quickly averted her eyes. Her free hand caressed the hilt of Loki’s dagger at her hip. The younger prince may have granted her a respite, but it would not last. It was wishful thinking to hope that he would not blame her for Thor’s decision. He blamed her for everything. The outburst from earlier, the one that ended with her in a crumbled heap at the bottom of the stairs, had been over a book missing from his nightstand. Teki hadn’t touched the book, hadn’t even been aware of its existence, but Osvald still dragged her out of her room by her collar, shouting about harboring liars and thieves under his own roof.

Teki swallowed. No, he would be furious when they returned tonight. He’d wait until her mother went up to put Brant to bed, and then he’d turn on her.

“You had one purpose tonight. One singular purpose.”

Maybe he’d pick something up. A heavy book. One of the silver candlestick holders. He liked to hold things in his hands, liked the authority it gave him. Or maybe he’d just knock her to the floor with his fists.

When Teki had been little, she used to run from him. That was foolish. Running made him even angrier when he caught her, and he always caught her. She knew better than to try now. Now, when Osvald was mad, she knew to stay as perfectly still as possible, to muffle her cries and staunch her tears as much as she could, and to let him hit and kick and rant as much as he liked because then it was over faster. When he was finished, she could hobble to her parents’ room, where her mother would be pretending that the walls were too thick for her to hear the thuds.

A hand on her wrist made her jump, spilling her wine on the floor.

“Forgive me, my lady, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Loki smiled, but there was a sense of worry behind his eyes. “Are you well?”

Teki nodded, not trusting her voice. This was the second time tonight the prince had been concerned enough with her wellbeing to ask that question. She needed to pull herself together. But her hands were beginning to shake worse than leaves in the wind, and her breath was coming in fast little hiccups, her chest screaming. Somehow, she knew Osvald was watching.

Loki said something, but his troubled face was quickly fading into a blur of sound and color. She couldn’t have a scene. Not now, here, in front of the whole court! She couldn’t give him another reason to be mad! He was already so mad—

She cried out when someone wrapped their arm around her waist, pressing a little too hard on her injured ribs, but the grip loosened and she realized it was only Loki, guiding her out of the ballroom and down the hall to a bench. The sudden lack of the hum of hundreds of voices left her ears ringing, but somehow, the effect was soothing.

Teki was choking out apologies even as the prince helped her into the seat. He shushed her, kneeling before the bench and stroking her knee through her dress. That was soothing too.

“Breathe,” he murmured. “Just breathe. It’s alright. You’re safe.”

His words lulled her racing heart to a steadier pace. She closed her eyes and did as he said.

Breathe. In and Out. It’s alright. Just breathe.

She didn’t notice when his hand moved from her knee to her waist, but she did notice when his reassuring stream of words cut off abruptly. Teki opened her eyes to see him frowning at her middle.

“You’re injured,” he said.

Her heart jumped to her throat. “W-what?”

“This swelling by your chest. That’s not normal.” He looked up, his features distressed. “You’ve been in pain this whole time, haven’t you?”

Teki turned away. She couldn’t face him, not with him looking up at her like that. “I fell down the stairs,” she whispered when she realized he was waiting for an answer, quietly, quickly, all in one breath.

Loki said nothing. He brought his other hand to join the first at her waist and muttered something. A strange heat enveloped her chest, soft and safe, and suddenly the pain was gone. Just gone, as if nothing had ever happened. Teki inhaled. She had heard that the younger prince had his mother’s talent for magic, but never had she imagined he was capable of such healing.

“Thank you,” she managed to breathe. Then she burst into tears.

She shouldn’t have been surprised. It had been building all night, the panic slowly rising in her throat even as she fought to swallow it whole. It was only a matter of time before it came pouring out. Still, it was humiliating. Teki buried her face in her hands, as if she could hide her obnoxious sobbing from the prince.

He rose. Teki half expected him to return to the party: after all, he had done more than enough. There was no need for him to sit here and watch her bawl like a baby.

But he didn’t leave. Instead, she felt his weight settle next to her on the bench. Gently, he began stroking her knee again, just a feather-light touch that she barely felt through her skirt. He said nothing.

They sat like that for a while, the silence of the hallway pierced only by her wet hiccups. It was a pathetic display and Teki knew it, but she didn’t have the energy to pretend otherwise. Honestly, it started to feel rather nice after a bit. There was no staging right here, no role she had been trained to play. Lady Tekla of Asgard, betrothed of Prince Thor—that girl had washed away with the tears. Now, there was only Teki: battered and broken, but real.

Slowly, she got ahold of herself. Steadied her breathing, fixed her hair, wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand—at least, that’s what she was making to do when Loki held out a handkerchief. Teki took it with mumbled thanks. She tried not to concentrate on what he must have been thinking of all this. A bitter laugh tickled her lips as she dabbed at her nose: at least it was only Loki who bore witness to what a mess she was, and not Thor, or worse, Odin.

He was the first to break the silence, his tone measured and deliberate. “My mother is very protective of the ladies of the court,” he said, holding her in his gaze. “If she thought that one was being mistreated, she would not hesitate to take action.”

Teki swallowed. She knew what he was asking. Here he was, trying to throw her a line and pull her to safety. She just didn’t know if she could take it. For a moment, Teki imagined going to Frigga, spilling her guts to a sympathetic mother, watching as her stepfather was arrested and dragged away on the orders of the Queen. It was a lovely dream, but it soon faded into something quite different. Going to Frigga, telling her everything, only to have the Queen call in Osvald to check his story. Osvald would lie. So would her mother. So would Brant, if they had time to tell him what to say. And Frigga would shake her head and chastise her for lying and send her back with her family, and Osvald would take her by the arm and, and…

We wouldn’t want to embarrass ourselves, would we Tekla?

“It’s fine, my prince,” Teki said, twisting the wet handkerchief around her fingers. She couldn’t look at him. “It’s fine. It was just an accident.”

Even with her focus on her lap, she could feel the prince studying her. How was it, she wondered, that this boy’s gaze was so tangible that she always knew when his eyes were on her?

“Are you sure?” he asked quietly.

Teki nodded. Her eyes were burning again, but she had cried enough today and was determined not to start again.

“Lady Tekla,” he shifted, leaning closer to her. “Please. There must be something I can do.”

It wasn’t right, hearing the prince say her birth name so gently, not when it belonged to Osvald. It had never bothered her before, but suddenly, she couldn’t stand it. “You can call me Teki,” she blurted out without thinking. Gasping, she clapped her hands over her mouth.

But Loki didn’t seem offended at her direct tone. “Teki?” he asked, cocking his head. “Is that a nickname?”

Her cheeks were on fire, but she nodded. “In-in a way, my prince,” she stuttered. “Please, forgive my—”

“There’s nothing to forgive, my lady,” he laughed. “Please, continue.”

Teki inhaled, swallowing her embarrassment. “Well… I don’t really go by Tekla. Or, I do, but… my brother calls me Teki.” She was speaking far too fast and likely making very little sense, but now that she had started, she found she couldn’t stop. “He can’t pronounce his l’s, see, so he just calls me Teki. It drives my mother crazy. She thinks he sounds like a simpleton. But… I kind of like it. More than Tekla, I mean. My—” she stopped abruptly, before she ventured out into more dangerous territory.

Loki nodded. “Go on.”

Teki bit the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t supposed to talk about him. She especially wasn’t supposed to talk about him to a member of the royal family. But Loki was sitting there, smiling at her with an eagerness she had never seen from anyone else, and she found herself trusting him despite herself.

“My father called me Teki, too,” she whispered. “My real father. Before he… went away.” She sighed. Saying it felt like a betrayal. Her father had been a kind, wonderful man, a musician in the royal court. According to the stories she heard from the servants, he had been absolutely enchanted with her mother, who greatly enjoyed the attention from the court’s most talented bard. Teki had been the accidental result of a few minutes indiscretion between performances.

Once he found out, her grandfather had been in a rush to marry his daughter off to a respectable noble before the pregnancy began to show. But the musician wouldn’t have it. The child was his, he argued. By law he had the right to raise it as such. Teki’s grandfather offered him money, land, prestige, but he held his ground. In the end, Teki’s mother had no choice, and the two were wed.

Even as a child, Teki knew that her parents didn’t like each other. They slept in separate beds in separate rooms and spoke to each other only through servants carrying messages. When her grandfather visited for lunch, her father was not allowed to the table. But he didn’t care, and so neither did Teki. He was content to spend his days carrying her through the gardens on his shoulders, singing songs of dragons and warriors and brave little princesses who saved the day. She learned to play the piano before she learned to read, sitting on his lap and covering his tan hands with hers as they danced across the keys.

“My little Teki,” he’d laugh when they finished a piece together. “You’re going to put me out of work!”

She had just started her lessons when the negotiations between Odin and her grandfather began. At the time, Teki didn’t really understand what was happening, only that her grandfather was coming over more than usual, and that he was angry at her father more than usual. When she asked her father about it, he told her not to worry.

“The adults are just trying to figure some things out,” he said, tucking her into bed. “It’s nothing you should be concerned with.” He kissed her forehead. “I love you, Teki.”

“Love you, Daddy.”

Then one day he was gone. Just gone. Her mother produced a letter he had left behind, explaining that family life had just become too overwhelming for him and that he had formally dissolved his marriage. Within a week, everything had changed: his room had been cleared out, the piano sold away, her mother’s engagement to Osvald formally announced. A week later, Odin made public his agreement with her grandfather, betrothing his eldest son to Lady Tekla.

Teki was banned from talking about her father.

“He left us, dear,” her mother explained. “He didn’t love you. He’s not your father anymore. We have Lord Osvald now.”

Teki nodded, wiping her eyes with the heel of her hand. He went away. He left. He doesn’t love you. He’s gone. She chanted the words in her head over and over again, trying to convince herself of their validity. But she couldn’t bring herself to believe them.

When her father first disappeared, a handwriting specialist was produced to determine whether or not the letter was genuine. He concluded that it was in fact written by Teki’s father and that the sentiments expressed within were completely authentic. But he was wrong.

At the bottom of the letter, her father had left a note for her. “My dear Tekla,” it said, “I hope you understand that this is all for your own good. Someday, I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me. Love, Daddy.”

Her father never called her Tekla.

Of course, Teki didn’t tell any of this to Prince Loki. Still, he seemed to be struggling to come up with a response to what little she had said. She wondered how much he knew about her father. Her family had done a good job of disappearing him from existence—most of the court believed her stepfather to be her biological father. Over the years, she had gotten used to being introduced as Tekla Osvalddottir, as deeply as it stung.

“It sounds quite special,” the prince finally said. “Are you sure you want me to use it? I feel as though I might profane it.”

Teki flushed at the reminder of how they reached this subject. “You don’t have to, my prince,” she murmured. “Only if you want to. I mean—I do prefer it to Tekla, but—”

“Well, in that case I shall,” he said softly. “Lady Teki. It’s quite sweet. I like it.” He grinned, his green eyes lighting up. “It’s only a few letters off from Loki, after all.”

She giggled despite herself. “Just… don’t let my mother hear you say that. I think she’d go mad if anyone else started calling me Teki.”

“Well, now I won’t be able to help it, will I? I do so love my mischief.”

Inside the ballroom, she could only just barely hear the notes changing to a slower dance. Perhaps it would be best if they returned now. Who knew how long she had kept the prince away from the festival with her wild, emotional nonsense. Someone was certain to be looking for him.

Loki seemed to read her mind. “If you’re feeling better,” he asked, standing up and offering his hand, “Perhaps you would honor me with another dance?”

Teki beamed. “I’d love to, my prince.”

The ballroom was just as they had left it, couples swaying, laughing, drinking. She noted Thor with Sif on his arm in one corner, her mother with Brant in another. Osvald was nowhere to be found, and Loki seemed to have no intentions of letting her search for him. He swept her into his arms, her gorgeous crimson dress fanning out around her, and pulled her out onto the floor. There wasn’t much to this dance: it was mostly just simply swaying, soft and soothing like her partner. Teki found herself melting into the movements, entranced by Loki’s smile.

“I’m glad Thor didn’t give me his dagger,” she whispered. She was surprised by how much she meant it.

Loki’s breath hitched. “Really?”

She nodded. Maybe Osvald could try to make her regret it, but she could feel the truth deep in her chest.

Her prince smiled. “Me too, Teki,” he whispered. “Me too.”

#dances and daggers #loki oneshot #loki fanfic #loki x ofc #loki marvel #loki laufeyson #cozy writes

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morning-mist-ery · 4 years

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A few lil fun facts about me! ☺️

1. Museum date or aquarium date? Museum, please!

2. Describe your favorite type of weather. ⛈

3. Name a subject/topic you know a lot about. Film 🎬

4. Do you have any friends or know anyone with the same name as you? Nope! We unique over here ☺️

5. What’s something most people love that you hate? Raisins or Peanut Butter 🗑

6. Who knows the most about you personally? Yogz 🐻

7. If you could create ANY mix-up or mythical animal and have it be brought to life, what would it be? A handsome, financial stable AND faithful man 😅 (this was someone else’s answer but shiiiid, it works! 😂)

8. Do you think everyone in our lives serves a purpose, or are some people just there? Hmmm, I’ma say everyone has a purpose. Some people are definitely there tho to teach you the hard lessons, and show you what you don’t need or want.

9. How do you feel about getting your picture taken? HATE IT! I am the least photogenic person I know.

10. Any guilty pleasure/s? Voyeurism 😏

11. Do you always make eye contact with people when you’re speaking to them? Nah, not always. I do tend to look away if I’m nervous or anxious.

12. Have you ever self-harmed? No, I haven’t. Have friends who did, so I encourage anyone who does it to seek the help you need to overcome it.

13. What’s the nicest compliment you’ve ever been given? Hmm, I actually can’t think of one specific compliment that stands out.

14. Have you felt butterflies in your stomach today? Lol, yea this morning 🙃

15. Did anyone/anything get on your nerves today? Not yet, but I know he will eventually 🙄 #ykwya

16. Is there something you currently want, that you can’t have? Yes, a few things 😩

17. Who was the last person to make you feel embarrassed or uncomfortable? Yogz. Stays embarrassing tf out of me lol😫

18. Think of the last film you watched. Who was your favorite character in it? Spies in Disguise. The lil female pigeon

19. What are you known for? Being an asshole 🤷🏽‍♀️

20. What is something you are skeptical about? The moon landing. Like, why they ain’t gone back?

21. If you have a job, do you prefer morning shifts or evening shifts? Morning

22. What is something you are most confident about? My creativity and ideas

23. How about something you're really insecure about? My weight. A bish tryna be thick out here, but my metabolism won’t let me be great 🙄

24. What do you think in general of girls with short hair? What about guys with long hair? Love to see it! They be fine af with the short cuts. For guys, long, thick flowing hair looks nice. Love locs, especially if they are freshly retwisted!

25. With films in languages you do not speak, do you prefer a dub or a subtitle? Subtitles. I wanna hear the original languages. Might learn a thing or two.

26. If you wear makeup, what are your preferred brands? MAC. Don’t really wear makeup like that so I only got like the basics. 🤷🏽‍♀️

27. What part of a person's body do you usually find the most attractive? Face

28. What/which music are you currently listening to? All My Love- Sabrina Claudio ft. Wale

29. Do you find smoking unattractive? Cigarettes, yea. Too much weed until it affects the person’s looks, yup!

30. What was the last thing you looked up on Google? Studio Ghibli films

31. What is the 10th picture in your phone gallery? A pic of me and one of my main bishes

32. Would you ever dye your hair an unnatural color? Lol been there, done that

33. What job would you be terrible at and what job would you be good at? Being someone’s assistant and film producer

34. Do you think forgiveness is mandatory to move on from something? To an extent, yes. Because although you might try to move on, I think resentment and pain will grow and linger if some form of forgiveness isn’t done.

35. What did you think was cool when you were younger? My sense of fashion. I cringe when I look back at old pics of myself 😂

36. Is there a place that makes you sad to return to? Grandma’s house 🌹🕊

37. What's the best advice anyone has ever given you? Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

38. Have you ever treated someone badly just because someone else treated you badly? Ashamedly, yes 😞

39. What's your favorite lyric from your favorite song right now? Actually don’t have a fave lyric at the moment

40. What was the last thing that completely took your breath away? 🚀

41. Is it true that if you can't love yourself, you can't love another? Yup, at least I believe so

42. What's the most positive thing you could say to yourself right now? “You got this! Don’t give up on your dreams no matter what! “

43. What time of the day feels the most magical to you? There’s something about breathing in fresh air at sunrise 🌅

44. Were you a cute baby? Lol I sure was! Bald head and all 😂

45. Is there something you wish you had said sorry for, but never did? Yea 😞

46. What is any creative talent you wish you had? So many, but I wish I could play music and dance lol

47. Do you think you'd make a good teacher? Yup, I love teaching actually!

48. Do you think it's possible to fix a "broken" relationship? It’s definitely possible, but both parties have to be willing and committed to do so.

49. If you chose to get a tattoo what would it be and where would you want it? Don’t know what it would be, but I’d want it down the center of my back.

50. When was the last time you stayed up past midnight and what were you up to? Last night and work 🙄

#get to know me

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imagine-loki · 4 years

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Stubborn Independence

TITLE: Stubborn Independence

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 3/10

AUTHOR: brightsun-and-darkmidnight

ORIGINAL IMAGINE:

Imagine Loki struggling to adjust to someone who is independent and insists on paying for themselves all the time, even if it is a struggle sometimes. They need to do everything on their own. They never ask for help and refuse help. Just imagine Loki really wanting to spoil this person. Imagine how creative he would get to make life easier on this person who has captivated him.

Imagine being a talented singer at your local club. Loki comes in one night with Thor and the others (he’d rather be anywhere else but who turns down free drinks?) and gets ensnared in the voice of the beautiful singer on stage. Suddenly, his interest (and arousal) are more than piqued.

Imagine getting into a petty fight with Loki, so in retaliation, he puts everything on the top shelf where you can’t reach?

AUTHOR’S NOTES: College AU. Loki is determined to take over Odin’s company. He works hard and has a strict schedule for success. However, with the interference of Thor and the other four, Loki’s plans are often interrupted so they can play matchmaker.

My Ao3: brightsun_and_darkmidnight

~ ~ ENJOY ~ ~

Thor and the other four had plans for Loki’s night. They all kept calling his phone and due to utter annoyance he turned it off. The attempt did not work because they showed up at his door with a request….

Loki drove everyone to the bar called Whispering Waters so he would not have to drink alcohol. The best part about the Whispering Waters was designated drivers, such as himself, got free non alcoholic beverages. However, Loki wished for a stronger drink as everyone discussed Loki’s love life.

Fandral took a shot of a cinnamon type alcohol, “He needs someone to spice up his life.”

Loki’s phone alarmed him it was time to relax. He would love to be anywhere other than at the bar with people who talk too loud, slam glasses on tables, and bump into his chair. Whispering Waters often was full of anything but whispers. Loki would love the comfort of his warm bed and a nice novel but he was here. Loki swiped the notification away.

Fandral obviously looked at Loki’s phone, “-ya know spontaneous and has no schedule.”

Loki rolled his eyes as he silenced all of his schedule notifications.

“Your life is too…” Sif paused for a word but could not find one.

Hogun filled in the lack of word, “Scheduled. Orderly. Sharp. Uptight.”

Thor’s booming laugh was the loudest sound momentarily, “Not that you are any better!”

Fandral hummed, “yes… he needs someone the opposite…”

Loki spoke up, “Do I have a say in any of this?”

Everyone ignored him as Fandral’s mind lit up with an idea. They argued over a few people they thought would be perfect for Loki. Then there was an announcement about performances going to take place. Loki’s back was to the stage and he did not feel like twisting his back to watch the cringe worthy sounds. The idiots seated at the table with him were jumping from one person to another. Arguing about Sirena mostly.

Then a lovely sound… a drastic change from karaoke to something refined.

Taps sounded softly through the bar and it seemed as if the bar became quiet once a voice started. The voice was soothing, soft, and sweet. It definitely had Loki alert. He did not turn but did notice everyone light up with excitement and an idea. Sif shook her head as the light diminished for her.

Fandral smiled, “common.”

Sif replies flatly, “no.”

Thor smiled at Sif, “it would be a change in life. The spirit Loki needs.”

Fandral turn his attention fully to Loki, “have you ever held a woman with a fuller body during a time of lust?”

Loki’s eyebrows scrunched and nearly coughed. “What?”

“I can answer for him.” Thor took a shot and slammed it to the table, “no he hasn’t.”

Fandral moved closer to Loki, “you should try it. I highly recommend it. A softer body is very nice to have against you. A cushion of sorts, instead of bones and firm muscles. Just imagine thick thighs wrapped around you as-”

Sif waved her hand as she interrupted. “Stop. Gods. Just quit. I am not supposed to be here for this stuff.”

Hogun gestured towards Sif, “she might tolerate us, but I barely even want to hear this discussion.”

Fandral pointed behind Loki, “perhaps a voice as sweet as this calling out your name… just look at her. I think she would be a nice change to your dull life.”

Loki was not intoxicated for this conversation but much to Loki’s frustration his imagination was running a little too freely. Out of Loki’s curiosity of who Fandral was referring to and he wanted a face to satisfy some of his rampant fantasies.

Loki turned and it was the woman from the phone incident, Sirena.

Maybe it was the shock from seeing her again, and the light that shone on her that entrapped Loki.

Loki was already interested in her voice but seeing her talent with the unique way she played the guitar with plucks of string and knocks on the wooden part. It was something Loki has never seen before.

No matter how hard he tried… He could not take his eyes off of her plump body. Eventually he turned to focus on his drink. Internally cursing Fandral.

He felt Fandral nudge his arm, “you should get to know her. She would definitely teach you a few things.”

Siff drawled, “Like how to help without using your money.”

Hogun watched as the next performance was announced to take the stage. “You offered her a hanout.”

“I offered to fix her phone since I broke it. I hardly consider that a handout.”

Sif spoke up. “Sirena is my roommate and she despises any help. So buying her a phone that you did not break is a huge deal to her.”

Hands landed on his shoulders as a voice was ringing close to his ear, “My phone broke two weeks ago.”

After forcing a shiver from taking hold, Loki slowly turned to see the woman of discussion. Her smile was in place, not entirely kind but knowing. Her hands dragged against him as she moved to his side, though her fingers played with the ends of his hair. Loki did not use so much product so it remained slightly curled. Loki let his gaze fall to her body when she was not looking.

Loki knew he was caught when her eyes flicked to his. “You trying to hook Mr. Generous with me?”

Sif rolled her eyes with annoyance, “Of course not.”

Fandral grinned as he interjected, “But with your suggestive question perhaps you two could get acquainted.”

The brunette scoffed, “Yeah because I have time.”

Fandral teased with a chuckle, “still have 3 jobs?”

She groaned as her hand moved to rest on her hip. “Fucking 4 now.”

Loki sort of missed the absent minded attention, but did not think too far past her not having time. Loki had a schedule of his own anyway.

She looked at her phone and Loki was seriously pondering how it was actually working. A curse word flew out her mouth as she turned with a wave and a, “goodbye till next time!”

Thor glanced at his phone as well, “I suppose we should go back to the dorms before I can’t walk.”

Loki stood with an eager smile to go to the comfort of his room. “Sounds like the best idea you ever had.”

#Loki #Lover #God of Mischief #Submitted fic #submission #stubborn independence #chapter 3 #brightsun-and-darkmidnight

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mrs-i-have-too-many-biases · 5 years

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Eyes off the runway// Bang Chan

(before we do this, I honestly have no idea how fashion weeks work, so bear with me for the sake of this imagine <3)

Scenario: You and Chan accidentally made the runway seem a little less interesting as than it should be.

Genre: fluff

Pairing: Female Reader X Bang Chan

Word count: 1,6K

You and your team had prepared for months to this moment. You were a youtuber and a selfmade millionaire who has a bestseller on many people’s shelves and a clothing line that most people nowadays had their closets filled with.

Right now you were preparing for a red-carpet-like event in Seoul where you had the honour on releasing it in front of thousands of people who were watching the live-stream or those who were present in the audience.

Your manager called you and told you to get ready to walk down the stairs. There were tons of photographers waiting and fans as well, ready to take their pictures of you. You’re not going to lie, you were nervous. But not for the paparazzi, but for those who were walking before you.

Which were the three boys of Stray Kids, but one of them just made you more nervous in general: Bang Chan. He has a masculine vibe going on and he’s known as a serious and good leader, you were quite intimidated by him to say at least. Since you were someone who lead people as well, you felt like you had to live up to certain standards.

And that’s all besides the fact that you were totally smitten for him and unfortunately for you, your teams knew it too.

“Don’t be scared Y/n, the worst thing that could happen is falling in front of Chan and make a fool out of yourself.” You stylist jokes whilst fixing the last things on your hair.

“Not really helping the nerves.” You whined, making everyone around you laugh. They knew that you’re young and still trying to cope with your feelings, but they just thought it was so adorable that a strong, independent woman like you were so captivated by this one guy.

“You will be fine.” She reassured you.

“I guess, it’s not like I’m going to talk to him.”

“I mean probably not-”

“You know you’re seated next to him right?” You manager butted in with a smirk spread out on his face. Your shocked expression made the room laugh once again, making you whine.

“Guys, I’m not prepared for this.”

“Well you better get ready, because it’s your time to shine in two minutes.

Your pink dress was a little over the top, Way over the top if they would ask you, but since you were the honour guest of the evening, you had to stand out a little. You were behind the big doors that made the place almost remind your of a palace you had seen in a movie when you were a child.

You didn’t hear the man announce your name and you were a little jumpy when the doors opened. You straightened your posture and made your way down the stairs. The lights of the flashed were almost blinding and the screams and chants were deafening your ears. You waved to the fans and told the paparazzi that you were doing great when they asked how you were doing.

You could see the three boys from the corner of your eyes, looking as handsome as ever, making your heart race as well.

‘Is my hair okay?’

‘Isn’t my makeup running?’

‘Oh my gosh I’m sweating.’

You were so absentminded that you didn’t notice that you were moving by yourself. Before you knew it, you heard people gasping as someone bumped against you. You snapped out of your trance and everything went so quick. You felt someone step on your dress and you felt arms around you.

When you opened your eyes, you were inches away from the man you have been crushing so hard on: Chan. You looked directly into his eyes and you were so confused at what just happened.

Let’s see what the audience around you saw: Chan was minding his own business, looking at his members to see if Hyunjin wasn’t getting lost like he usually did. And as Chan was doing that he was unconsciously walking backwards, he suddenly felt a tug under his feet and Chan’s instincts seemed to kick in. And in a speed of light he turned around and saw you falling down, He tried to pull you back up, but instead, he fell down with you. He had snaked an arm around you, his hand behind your head to protect it and his other hand next to if to capture the fall.

The moments seemed like it was from a movie scene and the fans were all screaming their lungs out when they realised what happened.

So right now, you were face to face with your crush, your heart racing but little did you know, so was his.

“Hi.” You managed to say after minutes, that were in reality seconds, of silence.

“I’m- Oh my gosh I’m so sorry.” He repeated as he helped you up.

“Y-You caught me.” You stuttered, still a little shaken up by the moment and embarrassed that this was how you met. You suddenly remember your managers words and you cringed to yourself.

“I mean, I was the reason why you fell, so I guess yeah- I. I’m sorry I’m a little too embarrassed.” He laughed, making you laugh as well. The two of you looked at the crowd in front of you who were yelling at you and at the paparazzi who were immediately asking if the two of you were dating, because the two of you literally fell for each other.

After saying your goodbyes real quick you almost ran back in embarresment to your manager.

“That was so embarresing!” You whined as you got now ready for the runway.

The look was way more subtle and you really loved it. It was something you could wear any time and you were glad that you weren’t wearing something so extravert that made everyone look at you. Even though you were a public figure, you didn’t want everybody’s eyes on you all the time.

In the mean time, Chan was being teased by his members for his moment with you.

Little did you know that the mister Bang Chan had certain feelings for you as well.

“You just met her!” Hyunjin whisper yelled. Chan was still so embarrassed and now flustered as well, that his two younger members were teasing him for literally falling for you, again.

“Maybe this could be the start of something.” Hyunjin wiggled his eyebrow, receiving a soft shove from Chan who was absolutely done with everything and everyone.

“This isn’t a Kdrama Jin.” Chan mumbled, whilst smiling like an idiot as a scene of you and him together played in his mind. Chan was relieved that Changbin and Jisung weren’t here right now, or they wouldn’t have let him live. Screw that, they probably won’t anyway since this will be all over the internet and Jeongin probably spammed the group-chat already with the news.

Chan wouldn’t admit it, but he might be head over heals for you. He admired how hard working you were, how talented you were in so many things and how well you were at leading a big amount of people almost by yourself.

You’re an independent woman and he loved how you were doing your own thing. Chan was a nervous wreck when he heard that you would be an honour guest at the event and he wanted to be at his best if he would be able to meet you.

He never would imagine that he was going to meet you like this, he just felt like a fool and hoped this went by quickly.

The boys and him were lead to their seats and he noticed a little sign saying ‘reserved’ on the chair next to him. He didn’t think too much of it and just focused his eyes on the runway.

He had to admit, even though he wasn’t that much into fashion. He was very impressed by the creativity that was put into the clothes, they were unique but wearable for everyday clothing or special events.

When all of the models had walked their moment on the runway, it was time for you to appear and do the honour round.

Chan’s eyes were basically glued on you and he could feel the cameras being aimed at him, wanting a headline of his reaction to your clothing line. Who are we lying to, they wanted to see how Chan would be looking at you. And he didn’t help himself when he caught himself staring at her as she walked back and fort on the runway.

He saw Hyunjin smirk next to him and he slightly poked Hyunjin, making the youngster smile.

Chan’s breath was caught in his throat when he saw you walking towards him and he finally realised what was happening. The seat next to him was meant for you.

He straightened his posture and smoothed out his clothes.

In the meantime you were mentally preparing yourself for being next to your crush once again. And sadly, before you knew it, one of the paparazzi made you trip right in front of the boys.

Chan’s instincts kicked in once again and reached out for you, just to catch you and set you safely on his lap. Lights were flashing rapidly and the two of you were looking at each other in shocked, both of your cheeks heating up as his arms were still around you.

“Hello again.”

“H-hi.”

“Thanks for catching me again superman.” You chuckled as Chan set you down on your own seat. You couldn’t help but smile at each other at how cheesy this was.

Chan couldn’t help but feel like this was indeed the start of something.

And so did the audience who’s eyes weren’t focused on the runway anymore.

Gifs aren’t mine.

This probably sucked but I liked the idea

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shaonsim · 4 years

Note

Thoughts on the writing of itv!!! What kinda show would you writeee

My friend. My hero. Thank you for sending this in. Thank you so much!! You gave me such a wonderful opportunity to blab about stuff.

THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️

The writing of ITV, you ask? Hang on my friend, this will be a WILD ride. A wild ride. This will be loong and wordy and a little incoherent, jumping from one point to another, but this will tell you a lot about how I feel about the writing of ITV.

And yes, this will read like a letter to the CVs because I am totally incapable of abiding the rules of grammar and I don't want to edit all this.

And I apologise for the out of context references that seeped in with time. Sorry, couldn't help it. I will gladly expand upon any of the references.

The main thing with writing (according to me, but I don't like repeating this disclaimer since by asking the question you already know that this will be my personal opinion, but still, for safety purposes)...The main thing with writing is that the core concept can be summed up in one single paragraph, and then you add words for emphasis.

You write in a thousand situations, in different styles, only for the message to hit home.

Look at our Epics.

Ramayana can be summed up as the Ram-Ravan conflict in a good Vs evil way. Lakshman is the devoted brother, Hanuman (ji) is an ardent devotee of Ram-Sita.

Mahabharata is basically another story of good Vs evil, where Duryodhan is the evil guy , Shakuni is an evil mastermind, 99 Kaurav brothers (+ Karna) the sidekicks, and the rest of the Kurus (+ Drona and Kripa ) as the silent voices of reason.

And almost every event emphasises these points. Because that's the story.

Look at Harry Potter. Three kids (young blood/new generation ) fighting against the big bad and pointing out and fixing the mistakes of the past along the way.

Look at Kalpurush (I read it during the quarantine and I am in love ❤ ) , where the main theme is that a mother worries whether the circumstances will lead to history repeating itself, whether a son will follow his father's footsteps, and whether she would be happy if he did turn out to be like that.

Technically, it is the same with shows.

Sasural Simar Ka began with the concept of the deep bond between the sisters, then moved on to supernatural forces interfering with the Bhardwaj family. The theme changed, but it didn't vanish.

Swaragini began as a show revolving around the sisters, and it stayed like that for forever, even when the plot went sideways and the sisters were pitted against each other.

Kumkum bhagya is a show where the leads battle kidnapping, murder attempts, misunderstandings etc and come out longing for each other and dreaming about happier times (the same was the theme of Pavitra Rishta too, if I remember correctly. But with less kidnapping.) And now the show has taken a leap with a love triangle between the kids (look, another similarity between kkb and pr. Go Ekta)!

KZK2 *cringe cringe* is all about AnuPre who love each other but don't end up with each other because of various reasons.

ITV has this thing down pat.

But it fails to come up with proper events to highlight their core concept and of course, they fail to choose an interesting theme for the show, but heyy, human mind and relationships is a gold mine for ideas. It is fascinating, and quite enjoyable, if it is done right. Am I biased because it is my favourite genre? Yes of course.

But the point stands.

Another important part of writing is that in order to come up with plot points that will reinforce your main idea, you need to come up with a cast of interesting characters, and develop their background to give you an ample opportunity to create the above mentioned plot points. The spectators, onlookers, the influencers need motivation - reasons for their actions.

Think about Karna. Think about Drupad-Drona. Think about Bhishma-Amba. Think about Jayadrath and his boon.

Sub-plots, side-plots. Parallel storylines.

For the most part, ITV fails in this department. The characters or stories they introduce are a) boring (either because we fail to understand their motivation or because they are diluted versions of the leads) or b) annoying because of their over enthusiastic and blind favouritism for the lead character they support.

^ Casting and acting also plays a major part in this (ugh Chandni ), but most of the time, it can be solved with focusing on the actor's strengths and weaknesses and changing the dialogues based on that. A writer can change things.

That's their job.

If your side characters are not interesting enough to deserve a story of their own, you aren't trying hard enough. That said, if you can't weave in their story in your main story, do not focus on the side plots. No one is interested in seeing your hodgepodge of TWO (or more) stories. It should all come together in the end, it should become one BIG story. Bring it all together!!

But do focus on the side plots, because there is only so much you can do with your leads, especially in the romance/family (whatever you call it) genre that occupies 90% of tellywood (and for good reason too!!)

A good plan is to create events with one of your main character and a group of characters (how small or big a group is for you to decide). If you force the audience to look at two/three supporting characters, no body will be happy.

Use your leads!!!!

Also, PLEASE use the show Vs tell method.

You want us to know that the male lead is adored by his sister? Show us. And by that, I meant scenes where we can see the bond they share, NOT dull monologues where the sister sings praises of her brother (a few monologues are fine though). You are an audio-visual medium.

ACT LIKE IT.

Monologues are for written things. Where we only have the words and our own imagination. Here, you have the tools to present us with the pictures, with the words they speak to each other.

Don't waste it.

In the same vein, do not repeat dialogues. Not word to word (don't repeat the same thing with different wording multiple times in a single episode or a week of episodes). Switch it up, and if you have to, have to repeat stuff, use an actor who has decent facial expressions and voice modulation. If the actor is stiff, robotic, then don't use that actor to parrot your lines. Seriously.

<< Not to hate on anyone in particular but Prerna's 'Anurag Anurag Anurag' is very annoying, for reasons that are better left unspoken >>

Hey, hey, you know what else is an integral part of writing? Research. Making a show on doctors? Police? Engineers? Lawyers? Chefs? Do your research. And if you want to take the short cut and go with the convenient business men/women trope, by all means, go for it. GO FOR IT. But show them working, and no, not because of tracks revolving around the business, but always. Running a business is a full time responsibility. Show that. I repeat, show that. Show that the character isn't home 24x7, show late night meetings, show files neatly stacked (or strewn about, your choice). Show the products or materials involved in the business. Show your characters being exhausted with the amount of work, show their involvement in their work. Or don't, if that suits the story and your character is neglectful, or if you have a proper reason to have them take some time off. Pay attention.

Time for a checklist.

Central theme? ✅

Side plots (+ characters)? ✅

Edit things because of the actors? ✅

Show Vs Tell? ✅

Research? ✅

How much DRAMA is too much drama? ❔❔

Now, this is a product of my curiosity (+ me posting the Fic Which Must Not Be Named), but I think this fits nicely with the rest of this answer. I wouldn't explain this in detail because the original post does a much better job (and I need validation, so go read that post) but to think, that ITV tells us stories of other people, and whether it is this very question, this doubt, that leads to the numerous kidnappings and accidents/fire/misunderstandings we see in 90% of the shows.

Okay, time to return to the checklist.

Oh. Oh! I forgot my favourite part.

The influences of the audience. Every writer has a story to tell. And while it is difficult to think that the ITV creatives know what they want to do with their story, I would give them the benefit of doubt. Besides, as a writer myself, I know that 80% of writing is having no clue as to where you want to take the story. ANYWAY, back to the topic at hand. I think, if everything was written and shot before telecast, we might get cohesive writing. As it is, the creatives put out some content, look at the reaction, and try to maintain the highs or fix the blunders, by hook or crook.

And the story suffers.

Complete revamping of tracks, characters behaving worse than pendulums, repeat of romantic scenes, bringing in new characters out of the blue - I believe, most of these things occur in a rush to fetch (or maintain) ratings.

Now, let's talk about copy-pasting tracks without bothering to look at the bigger picture. What works for one show, works only because it goes with the past and future events of the show. You can't grab xyz from show1 and throw it into show2, because S2 does not have the background of S1. It wouldn't work, because the characters are different, their motivation is different, their past is different, everything is different.

Also, can we talk about how two people of opposite genders can be friendly and helpful to each other without secretly pining for the other person? It doesn't always have to be romance, although it can be perceived as that, if you want a jealousy track. Character A and B both know there is no romantic feelings, but Character C is seeing green because heyy, DRAMA!!

((This is one thing that disastrous Bajlo tomar alor benu did right, in respect to Minu and Rudra))

Another important thing - people can (and should, if you want it to be realistic) be morally grey. There is a phase between liking someone or hating them or wishing them to be dead or actually killing them. Also, not everyone has access to criminals and goons. I REPEAT, not everyone has a criminal connection, or the mental capacity to actually execute the plan to the T.

Thinking of murder, planning murder and straight up plunging a knife in someone's chest are different things. Remember the difference.

USE THE DIFFERENCE.

And while you are on it, learn the difference between attraction, appreciation and love.

We might be attracted to a particular quality - a physical attribute, a skill, a specific philosophy etc. We might appreciate that quality in a fellow human being. And we might be attracted to and appreciate the person with those qualities, but that doesn't mean that we would love them.

In the ocean of unnecessary romance angles and third wheels, this core difference is often brushed away in a bid to gain trps. Please don't do that.

Another checklist.

Ratings changing the story? ✅

Copy pasting tracks ✅

The world is grey ✅

Less criminal activity ✅

Not everything is love ✅

Would you look at that! I covered so many things. Fear not, I still have a lot to say. Mwahaha.

Not going to go into detail about my opinions on in-laws on ITV, because that is already covered here, but let's talk about the actual family.

The parents, siblings, cousins, relatives. Again, I am going to repeat myself and tell them to use the show Vs tell method. And actually focus on the dynamics because although the equations will change after marriage (for the male lead, the female lead will be cut off from her family 80% of the time), these relationships set the foundation for your character. Their personality. Motivation.

If you are going with a character who is distant, then by all means, do so, but do NOT ignore the family. Show that the character doesn't care.

Show it. Don't gloss over it.

That said, limit your exploration of characters and back stories. There is no hard or fast rule, but if it feels like too much focus, then it is too much focus. Go follow your basic INSTINCTS.

Okay, now is the time to come to the business side of writing for ITV. Bringing in popular characters, giving them smart dialogues and promoting them to the High Heavens. Wonderful trick. But do it in a subtle way. We will gladly let you play us, but only until we realise that we have been played. Subtly manipulate things. Subtly.

And, talking about that, let's also talk about how consistency is really important. Dumping black (or white) paint on characters would not wash away past grievances. It wouldn't remove the impression we already have. So if you want to portray someone in a positive light, work up to that point. Same with negative portrayals. Ease us into the change in perspective.

((Bajaj track in KZK2 is the perfect example of how the writers totally FAILED to follow this rule))

Also, if you are writing comedy, please hire good actors. Comedy is incredibly difficult, and if the performance isn't up to the mark, then it falls flat. And bad comedy is very annoying.

Another thing. If you have a social message, as in if the central theme is a social issue, do NOT forget your theme. And do not shove it down our throats. Don't make it preachy. Strive for balance.

And here, let me remind you that you do need a central theme, that's a very important part of your story. So pick a theme. And stick to it.

Think of your story like a human body.

Skeleton is the theme. The concept.

Blood is the undercurrents, the 'vibe'.

Organs are the characters.

Veins and arteries are the relationships.

Flesh is your plot.

Skin is the sub plots and side plots.

AND TOGETHER, THEY MAKE A STORY.

TOGETHER, THEY MAKE A STORY.

See how I repeated myself for emphasis? That's what you have to do, in a more subdued and complex way. I know you have it in you.

And because I wrote so much about adding sub plots and side characters, let's talk about what you shouldn't do, with me quoting myself:

Even CID, a show I loved to watch because it was a crime drama but less gruesome than what you would expect, could not escape tellywood’s clutches and turned into a chaotic mess with too many new characters and a massive shift in focus - in its last days, it was more of a romantic drama with the crime sprinkled in, and because there were so many new characters (who were boring 70% of time and annoying for the other 30%), I had ZERO interest in the series. The crimes have always been similar, what kept me hooked was the way they dealt with it and their group dynamics, which was ruined by bringing in a hoard of characters who contributed nothing to the story. And the Shreya-Daya track was a bad one from its conception, there was no need to drag it until my mild indifference turned into a major annoyance. And they could have avoided all of this. There was no need to ruin a perfectly good show with lazy, uncreative writing.

^ Bolded are the parts I consider important.

Also, let me take this opportunity to talk about shows similar to CID, in which every episode deals with a mini-plot and it is only the characters that remain the same. Crime dramas, medical dramas (although one the most popular ones on ITV - DMG was less about medicine and more about Jerk!Armaan and his jerk-ness and got rid of this problem in an innovative way that deserves an essay of its own, but I digress).

If the only thing remaining constant is your characters and their group dynamics, then do NOT throw in twenty new characters at once. Introduce them one at a time and limit the number of characters you will use. Keep the same cast for a decent chunk of time. Please. And do not add in multiple sub plots. The storyline is already a little blurry, jumping from case to case, so too much drama between the characters can be either too much to handle or just very, very boring. The focus is on the cases. Keep it there.

A show that did it quite well, was Goyenda Ginni, what with the overarching plot of a homemaker balancing housework and her passion for solving crimes. And because it was always about a family, with limited characters (bringing in spouses for the unmarried characters), it wasn't crowded.

Before I forget, here are some of my common issues with ITV and their writing department ⬇️

EK and her love for the child!track

Portrayal of marriage and relationship

^ And I must add that the Fic Which Must Not Be Named came into being because I couldn't accept the marriage trope for the two characters from the show that has become my latest obsession, even if the trope is shown in a negative light and the people in it are called out and they realise how wrong they are. #shaonHatesDealMarriages

The year 2020 and tellywood marriages

For the most part the last two links say the same things, but the wording and examples and the object of focus is different (this is how you hammer it home, CVs, write long posts on the same thing until the world learns about your hatred for said things. You're welcome 😎)

Also, something I remembered while writing the little note about forced marriages - acknowledge the wrongdoings of your characters, EVEN if they are the leads and you want people to love them. Glossing over the misdeeds wouldn't help, but accepting the truth, pointing out the flaws and then adding the reasoning behind the actions, and later on, writing in the realisation and apology for the act, is a much, much better idea. It is easier to forgive someone if their misdemeanor isn't shoved under the rug. But don't go overboard with the accusations. Repeating the truth multiple times only serves to annoy us.

Have I covered everything? I don't know. Feel free to ask me specific things in case you think I didn't comment on something. It is easy for me to forget about things while writing an answer as long as this. Not to mention, that I framed the first two-three paragraphs in my head while I stood under the shower, so in the rush to jot down everything I had thought of, I might have missed some stuff. Happens to the best of us, eh?

Coming to the second part of your question, I must admit, I am not the best at coming up with original premises. I like to dwell on the thoughts of the individual, delve deeper into their minds and do stuff - as evident in my love for the romance/drama genre, and why I love that ITV has so many shows in this genre. Why my writing (the drabbles I wrote last week), is more about the people than the plot. That's just who I am.

That said, I think I would do good with a team. Together, we can write a lot of things. ((Someone agree to do a collaborative fun writing project right now, I love those. We can make full use of all this free time and write a story of our own)).

No, seriously.

I love writing as a team.

#please leave a message || asks #tw:longpost #someone do a word count #I am going to add this to my weekly word count #because woah #I wrote so much #Enjoy!!#and share your views!!!!#shaon watches itv #3155 words #this includes the emojis #so like #3100 #I suppose?

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tessatechaitea · 4 years

Text

Cerebus #18 (1980)

This is the kind of cover that probably kept me thinking this book was too adult for me and that I should just stick to Groo and Elfquest.

In Dave's Swords of Cerebus essay, he explains how he didn't know what the fuck he was doing when he was writing this story and I'll tell you a secret: it fucking shows. He explains how he wrote one idea but realized that idea wasn't going to work and then wrote some other ideas but they weren't going anywhere and then he went back to the first idea and wrote a small novella which still wasn't going to work so then he tried some other idea but couldn't really get anywhere and pretty soon his week that he plans for writing was over and he just had to start drawing one of the scenes. So he picked one and strung it out and then he needed a new scene and took the Lord Julius epilogue and stick that on page 5 and 6. By that time, he sort of had a new idea with the help of his brother-in-law and even though that new idea was pretty lame, what more could he do?! He doesn't admit that his new story is lame; I think he thinks he really pulled one out at the last minute. But it's really kind of lame. I get it though! He's written seventeen previous stories (plus some Cerebus stories that appeared in other magazines) and they were all pretty good and working toward building a portrait of Estarcion and Cerebus and some kind of weird aardvark mystery. He was due to slip up some time! I'm just glad he was honest about how the writing part when all wrong and since he couldn't fall behind on the art, he had to just kind of start drawing and hope for the best. I suppose in that regard, the comic wasn't so bad. It told a coherent story that moves Cerebus' plans for the invasion of Palnu ahead and Dave even gets some funny jokes in. But as far as the extended story goes, not much happens? Cerebus and the T'gitans took over Fluroc by murdering everybody in it and then needed more money for troops and they got more money for troops by conning a merchant that came to town. That's it! That's the whole story! Did we need this story? Probably not! But did we really need any Cerebus story so far? Almost certainly not (with the exception of all the stories that showcased new characters!). But what I really liked about this comic book was the Aardvark Comments section! Things are really getting good finally! It's not just a few nerdy nerds nerding it up for Dave Sim.

I mean, it is some nerdy nerds nerding it up nerdily!

The first letter is what I'm assuming was the introductory or cover letter from Marvel's Jim Shooter when he sent out contracts to prospective employees.

Is this the worst thing Jim Shooter ever wrote? Sadly, it is not.

If you're one of those people who like to describe 95% of everything as "cringe," you'll love Dave Sim's response:

Remember, this was 1980 and "written blackface as hyperbolic response" was probably just something taught in creative writing classes.

Casually whistling past the terrible method of his response the way you simply steer the conversation away from racist tirades every time your grandfather speaks up at Thanksgiving dinner, this feels like the first time Sim really calls out the two big publishers and how they conduct business. It'll become a hallmark of Dave Sim in his crusade for independent publishers. And this sarcastic and also racist response (I can only whistle nonchalantly for so long!) isn't his only response in this Aardvark Comments. But as his first response, I'll assume it's the most closest to how he truly feels about Marvel and DC. In 1980, he's already calling them out on their practice of stealing their employees' intellectual properties. Okay, "stealing." The contract is to make the "stealing" legal so they don't wind up in constant lawsuits and can continue to offer the artists whose creations make them scads of money little to no future compensation on their efforts. Dave Sim could think of no other attack on Marvel than to pretend he's a caricature of a slave. I'm not in disagreement with Dave here and, believe me, in 1980, I almost certainly wouldn't have thought the mintrelesque response was anything but a clever way of making his point. Although I was also 9 in 1980 so I probably would have had to ask an adult why the fuck Dave was writing like that. But as I said, there's more! The next letter is a bit of a response to Dave's crusade against the Big Two Corporations. And from his peers!

I guessed I missed the comments in Issue #15. I'd better go back and see what the Pinis were talking about.

Here's what Dave said in Issue #15's "Aardvark Comment": "Maybe Marvel can turn its corporate back on you. As they never grow tired of explaining, fan sales make up a very small fraction of their profits. They don't think much of your taste in comics, artists, writers or anything else." It's a little hard to parse this comment being that I don't know what was happening in comic books in 1980 concerning the fans and Marvel but doesn't this sound a lot like the Comicsgate argument of today? That Marvel doesn't give a shit about what its "real fans" want? Anyway, back to the Pini's letter. The Pinis' letter reads like Elfquest trying to talk Cerebus out of gutting a merchant. I suppose when you point out that artists and writers working for Marvel and DC are idiots for not publishing their work as an independent, I can see how they might get upset with you. I'm sure Richard and Wendy had a number of discussions with Marv Wolfman where Marv would say things like "I'm not dumb! You're dumb!" or "I'm not a piece of property! You are!" or "I'll show you who's a slave to the man! I'll kill Cyborg!" After that, the Pinis were probably all, "You know what? Criticizing work-for-hire in the comic book arts just isn't worth all these Marv Wolfman tantrums. Let's just bite our tongues." After a couple of letters from some nerd groupies in which Dave laments the target audience of comic books, he responds more in length to the . . . well, wait. Let's first look at his response about his core audience!

I'm offended! I always fix it immediately when a headlight goes out.

I mean, after seventeen issues, "Aardvark Comment" is finally getting interesting! Okay, so now to Sim's actual response to Wendy and Richard Pini.

Dave Sim being serious. Probably.

I'd like to point out the end of this letter in which Dave states fairly plainly the main theme of criticism behind Eee! Tess Ate Chai Tea for nearly a decade: "I just don't happen to think that the system in operation now is the best thing for this medium and that it is not the most conducive way to get the best from the creative talents that exist. Quite the opposite, it seems to encourage half-assed efforts in order to guarantee that you are not surrendering your rights to something of value. And how many of us, Steve Gerber included, could know in advance that our ducks were of any value?" This was as true in 1980 as it is now. It's just that in 1980, it was much harder and a lot more work to retain the rights to your creations through self-publishing. So most comic book writers and artists were doing their best work at DC and Marvel. What other reasonable choice was there? Dave and Deni have discussed multiple times across the last dozen and a half issues how hard self-publishing has been for them. Now imagine a company like Image exists or a place like Kickstarter. Creators now know to save their best ideas for places that will give them full control and full potential earnings on their creations. DC and Marvel can't help but be full of writers doing half-assed jobs with their half-assed ideas and saving their truly monumental and mind-blowing work for Image or another, now more easily accessible independent publishing venture. This was in 1980 and Dave Sim was seeing creators screwed out of future royalties on ideas that wound up making fortunes for the parent companies. Some people accept this as business as usual and would be able to garner no sympathy for a creator stiffed out of royalties. But those people are unimaginative, pitiable, and sad. Something being legal has never in the history of everything been a convincing argument that that something is ethical, moral, or just fucking compassionate. Hopefully this "Aardvark Comment" begins to stir some serious discussion with Cerebus readers because I'm eager to read a lot more of Dave's thoughts about comic book publishing and fandom. Eventually there won't be a whole lot of separation between the comic book and the letters page. I mean, when the author inserts himself into the story as both some sort of omniscient being and also another fictionalized author, it gets hard to separate what you believe from the ideas expressed within the story. Cerebus #18 Rating: B-. That rating was for the lackluster story! The "Aardvark Comment" page gets an A! Oh, and I forgot to mention "The Single Page!" Imagine my surprise when I turned the page and saw this:

Tim Kreider in 1989! (Remember, this is from the 1989 Bi-weekly reprints of the 1980 Cerebus #18.)

You can just see Tim's eventual style in these early characters. The main male character is basically a baby-faced version and immature style of his eventual renditions of himself.

This is from Tim Kreider's book of essays and cartoons, We Learn Nothing.

I can't recommend Tim Kreider's essays and cartoons highly enough. Read his books, We Learn Nothing and I Wrote This Book Because I Love You and maybe search the Internet for a cache of his old cartooning website. You probably won't be disappointed. I say probably because I've learned that a lot of people on the Internet aren't exactly like me like I expect you all to be. Idiots.

#Dave Sim #Cerebus #Tim Kreider

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brightsun-and-darkmidnight · 4 years

Text

Stubborn Independence

TITLE: Stubborn Independence

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 3/10

AUTHOR: brightsun-and-darkmidnight

ORIGINAL IMAGINE:

Imagine getting into a petty fight with Loki, so in retaliation, he puts everything on the top shelf where you can’t reach?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: College AU. Loki is determined to take over Odin's company. He works hard and has a strict schedule for success. However, with the interference of Thor and the other four, Loki's plans are often interrupted so they can play matchmaker.

My Ao3: brightsun_and_darkmidnight

~ ~ ENJOY ~ ~

Thor and the other four had plans for Loki's night. They all kept calling his phone and due to utter annoyance he turned it off. The attempt did not work because they showed up at his door with a request….

Fandral took a shot of a cinnamon type alcohol, "He needs someone to spice up his life."

Loki's phone alarmed him it was time to relax. He would love to be anywhere other than at the bar with people who talk too loud, slam glasses on tables, and bump into his chair. Whispering Waters often was full of anything but whispers. Loki would love the comfort of his warm bed and a nice novel but he was here. Loki swiped the notification away.

Fandral obviously looked at Loki's phone, "-ya know spontaneous and has no schedule."

Loki rolled his eyes as he silenced all of his schedule notifications.

"Your life is too…" Sif paused for a word but could not find one.

Hogun filled in the lack of word, "Scheduled. Orderly. Sharp. Uptight."

Thor's booming laugh was the loudest sound momentarily, "Not that you are any better!"

Fandral hummed, "yes… he needs someone the opposite…"

Loki spoke up, "Do I have a say in any of this?"

Everyone ignored him as Fandral's mind lit up with an idea. They argued over a few people they thought would be perfect for Loki. Then there was an announcement about performances going to take place. Loki's back was to the stage and he did not feel like twisting his back to watch the cringe worthy sounds. The idiots seated at the table with him were jumping from one person to another. Arguing about Sirena mostly.

Then a lovely sound… a drastic change from karaoke to something refined.

Fandral smiled, "common."

Sif replies flatly, "no."

Thor smiled at Sif, "it would be a change in life. The spirit Loki needs."

Fandral turn his attention fully to Loki, "have you ever held a woman with a fuller body during a time of lust?"

Loki's eyebrows scrunched and nearly coughed. "What?"

"I can answer for him." Thor took a shot and slammed it to the table, "no he hasn't."

Fandral moved closer to Loki, "you should try it. I highly recommend it. A softer body is very nice to have against you. A cushion of sorts, instead of bones and firm muscles. Just imagine thick thighs wrapped around you as-"

Sif waved her hand as she interrupted. "Stop. Gods. Just quit. I am not supposed to be here for this stuff."

Hogun gestured towards Sif, "she might tolerate us, but I barely even want to hear this discussion."

Fandral pointed behind Loki, "perhaps a voice as sweet as this calling out your name… just look at her. I think she would be a nice change to your dull life."

Loki was not intoxicated for this conversation but much to Loki's frustration his imagination was running a little too freely. Out of Loki's curiosity of who Fandral was referring to and he wanted a face to satisfy some of his rampant fantasies.

Loki turned and it was the woman from the phone incident, Sirena.

Maybe it was the shock from seeing her again, and the light that shone on her that entrapped Loki.

No matter how hard he tried… He could not take his eyes off of her plump body. Eventually he turned to focus on his drink. Internally cursing Fandral.

He felt Fandral nudge his arm, "you should get to know her. She would definitely teach you a few things."

Siff drawled, "Like how to help without using your money."

Hogun watched as the next performance was announced to take the stage. "You offered her a hanout."

"I offered to fix her phone since I broke it. I hardly consider that a handout."

Sif spoke up. "Sirena is my roommate and she despises any help. So buying her a phone that you did not break is a huge deal to her."

Hands landed on his shoulders as a voice was ringing close to his ear, "My phone broke two weeks ago."

Loki knew he was caught when her eyes flicked to his. "You trying to hook Mr. Generous with me?"

Sif rolled her eyes with annoyance, "Of course not."

Fandral grinned as he interjected, "But with your suggestive question perhaps you two could get acquainted."

The brunette scoffed, "Yeah because I have time."

Fandral teased with a chuckle, "still have 3 jobs?"

She groaned as her hand moved to rest on her hip. "Fucking 4 now."

Loki sort of missed the absent minded attention, but did not think too far past her not having time. Loki had a schedule of his own anyway.

She looked at her phone and Loki was seriously pondering how it was actually working. A curse word flew out her mouth as she turned with a wave and a, "goodbye till next time!"

Thor glanced at his phone as well, "I suppose we should go back to the dorms before I can't walk."

Loki stood with an eager smile to go to the comfort of his room. "Sounds like the best idea you ever had."

#brightsun-and-darkmidnight #Stubborn Independence #chapter 3 #loki

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thefragileblackdahlia · 4 years

Text

Blink Twice if You’re Okay

Chapter Summary

Finally, a sunny day for vacationing, Ariel suggests the crew should head to Bora Bora. Sam and Ariel have some alone time.

Pairing(s): MOC!Soulmate!Lucifer x Ariel, Platonic! Sam x Ariel

Warning(s): Implied R*pe, HEAVY Angst, Mild Language

A/N: Here is my filler episode. I am really excited about it because it's the first chapter/episode where I have a free creative range. Sam x Ariel content. Let's see what I can do! Also, feedback is appreciated.

Beta'd by no one

Word count: 6,954

OUTFIT 1 OUTFIT 2

Hi before anyone goes into this chapter, I wanted to put a trigger warning for R*pe. It isnt heavily detailed but I just wanted to let you lovely people know. If you ever need anyone to talk to just message me or leave a comment and i will message you. ♥ There will be another TW further in the chapter just in case some of you skip this long-ass warning.

Ariel stood in the motel window, watching the people pass by.

Days like these, she really missed Castiel and her many other angel companions. It was wrong of her to abandon her garrison, but what 'Heaven' stood for was not right, and the Winchesters deserved better.

Humans deserved better.

The archangel decided to read a book called 'Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.' It was a lovely book about a prepubescent boy and his destiny. She felt like the Winchesters could relate, defeating a rising evil and saving the world.

Ariel slammed the book closed once she heard a breathy voice come from the motel room entrance.

"Morning, Ariel. Have you been up all night?" The voice asked.

"Angels don't sleep, I've told you this." She put it. The woman turned to set her eyes on where the voice came from. It was from Sam, coming in from a morning jog.

A small smile formed on her lips. She was fond of Sam, and his big decision to end his demonic activities made it easier to look at him. His soul lightened by a tremendous amount, and it was almost as if he could be his own sun.

"So like you're always awake? What is that like?" Sam questioned.

This was probably the longest he and Ariel had a conversation. He wasn't dumb, he noticed that she always avoided looking at him like his presence was a disease. It made him feel already closer to being a monster, but he was sure she was doing it for a better reason.

Ariel just let out a small giggle and made her way across the room to sit on Sam's bed. "It's not like anything if you have never experienced sleep before. And it isn't like I will ever be close to being human because of my grace, it basically refills." She paused and fixed her gaze on the wall mirror across from Sam's bed.

"Being an archangel has its perks, but the closest to being human I can get is being empathetic and participating in activities. Like eating, drinking, and sex." Ariel concluded.

The tall hunter peeped his head out of the bathroom when she mentioned sex. He began talking with his toothbrush still in his mouth. "Wait, Angels have sex?" Sam had a slight look of amusement and disbelief.

Ariel glanced over at Dean, who was stirring in his sleep. Man, he was still asleep? The ginger nodded. "It isn't permitted," She returned her gaze back to Samuel. "But the rebellious angels do..." Her voice drifted as she thought about all those years of Angels rebelling and her having to execute them.

"I wouldn't really know..." She added

Rushing water filled the silence momentarily, followed by spitting and then more silence. The brunette male leaned himself against the door frame. He didn't have an immediate response to that, so he just examined her and picked apart her vessel's features.

It was decorated in freckles and beauty marks. Her eyes were a crystal blue and her lashes were long which complemented the round shape. Ariel's entire being was very alluring.

Sam cleared his throat and started, "What are you reading?-"

Ariel cut Sam off. "Do you guys usually sit around and wait for a case?"

Dean's groggy voice came from her side. "You got a better idea?" He ridiculed while rolling over onto his back and stretching.

"You both talk too much. Have you not heard of sleep?" Dean snapped.

"Well, no one told you to go to the bar and drink yourself half to death." Sam countered while taking a seat next to the celestial being.

The gentle giant had many more questions to ask Ariel, but not around Dean. He just wanted to know everything she knew and if he could redeem himself.

The 30-year-old man groaned as he moved to the edge of the bed. "Yeah, well, sue me for having fun." He drawled while sitting up.

This comment made Ariel cringe.

The idea of drinking yourself under the table and flirting with an endless amount of women, being fun, was an overstatement. Not too long ago, she and Dean were sucking face in Jack's house, and nearly two weeks later, they were strangers again.

Ariel avoided Dean as much as she could, and whenever Sam tried to get them to talk, it backfired.

"We could vacation." Ariel suggested.

Sam clenched his jaw at Dean's inconsiderate response. Maybe Ariel didn't sleep or eat, but she did display some emotions. She cried, laughed, and obviously, she loves. He hated how clueless his brother could be.

"Yeah, let's just hop on a flight to Bora Bora. Oh, wait, with what money? We barely had enough to stay at the motel." Dean queried. He knew what he was doing, pushing Ariel away.

Feelings are what Dean tried to avoid in this life, but Ariel made it so much harder for him. Whenever she was around him, he felt the need to protect and hold her in his arms, and he wasn't sure if she had the same feeling.

Ariel scoffed and gestured to her back. "Did you forget that I have wings, dumbass? I can fly us there and maybe whip up some clothes but that's about it."

"Hanging out at the beach actually sounds nice, Dean." Sam interjected.

Maybe bathing in the sun could take his mind off things, or perhaps it would give him the personal time with Ariel he wanted. The hazel-eyed hunter pressed his lips into a thin line and glanced over at Ariel, who was just waiting for a response.

"Or...We could go without you." Sam added, which earned a questioning look from both Ariel and Dean.

That suggestion made Ariel's heart flutter. Alone with Sam? She never thought about it, but now that she has, she didn't object.

Dean's face contorted to the thought of his brother alone with Ariel. He hesitated before speaking. He was not good for Ariel, maybe Sam could give it a shot. Sam was smarter and more considerate.

"Sure, Go ahead. I'll just go to Bobby's," Dean asserted, nonchalantly.

Ariel could tell it bothered him, she could sense the tension in the air, and it only made her want to leave.

Their unhealthy dynamic and the fighting, somehow, she was always in the middle of two brothers. That is how it started, and that was how her story would inevitably end.

"Alright." She mumbled before disappearing.

Sam was about to address Ariel, but she just up and left. He immediately looked at his brother and shook his head.

"You ignore her for weeks...she offers a vacation day in Bora Bora, and you act like an ass. " Sam scolded.

Now Sam had to find the archangel, apologize for Dean and possibly give her a hug for Dean. The tall being pushed himself off of the dingy motel bed and started for the door.

This radical reaction made Dean angry. "What- I mean, you're practically taking her on a date." He paused. "Why not just kiss her in front of me- Lay her down gently and go to town." The bow-legged hunter stepped to Sam as he spoke.

It was obvious Dean was jealous, but Dean literally had the opportunity to take Ariel to the beach and enjoy a day in relaxation, but he fucked that up moments ago. Sam took a minute to think and then just grabbed his coat and scoffed.

"Y'know. With you acting like this- maybe I will." Sam sneered and left the room to search for their angel friend.

Dean was taken aback by his brother's forwardness. He did not expect him to say something like that, which meant Dean really messed up. The surly hunter stood in the doorway as he watched his brother leave.

Fuck.

LATER

A soft rustling sound filled the air.

"Samuel? I bought us swimwear!" Ariel exclaimed as she arrived in the motel room. Her eyes darted around in hopes of finding the tall man, but all she was met with was silence and a glowering look from Dean. "Sam?"

Dean rolled his eyes and sighed. "He went out- looking for you." He slammed the lore book closed and grabbed his duffle bag.

Just then, Sam entered with a case of beer.

"Hey, I couldn't find Ariel, but- Hey, where'd you go? I looked everywhere for you." Sam asked with a laugh. He searched everywhere for her, the diner, the pool he even stole a car and drove to the strip mall, yet here she was, standing in the room with her arms full of clothes.

"What's all this? Where'd you get the money?" Sam chuckled.

Ariel smiled and wigged the bunch of pool noodles. "Clothes! I saw in the movies that people bring a big wardrobe on vacation, even if it's for a few days. I also picked out swimwear. I wasn't sure what your favorite color was- because I know humans become peeved when you forget their favorite things. Like when I forgot Dean's favorite pie flavor-" She started rambling.

"Ariel?" Dean cut her off.

Ariel glanced at Dean, "huh?"

Dean shoved his arm's into his leather jacket. "You're rambling."

"Sorry, I'm just excited. Angels were never allowed to come to earth, and the only beach adjacent place I visited was The Garden of Eden...and when I was there- Lucifer-he uh. " Ariel stared off into the distance, her nails softly digging into the plastic bags.

She tried to fight the impending flashback, but it won.

"Why do you love them and not me? Those apes are flawed beyond comprehension, but us, Little one- We're perfect. You're supposed to love me. We are soul mates!" Lucifer rutted his body against Ariel's, a loud cry erupting from her throat.

The archangel cleared her throat and looked at Sam who's brows were furrowed. "Nothing good happened to me when I was in the Garden. So sue me for looking forward to one good day." She muttered, with her hands visibly shaking.

Her words silenced the boys. Sam was fascinated by how old she was. And Dean was bothered by the fact that Lucifer had done something to her.

The Garden was supposed to be this sacred place. God was supposed to be watching over everything, right? How could God of all beings let that happen to her? Dean felt like an asshole.

Sam clenched his jaw and sat the beer down on the tv stand. "It's okay, here gimme that." He stretched for the bag of swimwear but recoiled when he saw Ariel flinch.

What could Lucifer have done that scarred an Archangel of the lord?

"No, it's okay. Let's go, I want to go." Ariel breathed and grabbed the toys and the beer. "Bye, Dean. See you tomorrow." The redhead smiled wanly at the older Winchester.

"Have fun." Was the last thing the two heard before Ariel transported them to the Resort.

LOBBY

They arrived in the resort lobby: Conrad Bora Bora Nui.

"A little warning there next time." Sam laughed from the ground.

The male was buried underneath many plastic bags. He let out a low groan and gestured to the front desk concierge, "Go check us in our room while I gather this stuff."

"I've never interacted with...other humans before, I mean- I never spoke to anyone else. Even at the store I just gave them the money." Ariel whispered while kneeling by Sam's head.

The only humans she interacted with were at the store, and that didn't go too well. They asked her if she were a robot and why she was dressed like the 70s 'threw up on her.' She did not like that.

"Here, it's okay, just help me up, and I will book it," The long-haired hunter tossed the things aside as he saw Ariel stretch her hand out for him to grab. He grasped her hand and pulled himself up.

"Thanks."

Ariel grabbed the clothes and whipped up suitcases out of thin air for their clothes. She looked down at her attire. With a thought, the woman was now dressed in a short, red sundress. She smoothed down her now straight hair and glanced up in time to see Sam ogling her.

"Here, You look like you just came from a marathon- maybe this would suit you better." Ariel murmured as she snapped her fingers and changed Sam's clothes. He now wore a Hawaiian button-up with pale gray shorts and male sandals.

Sam snorted and looked down at his outfit.

The hunter appreciated the gesture, but he felt more comfortable in his running clothes. He didn't want Ariel to use up all her grace just to have him in some fancy luxurious person clothes.

"This is a bit much, don't you think?"

Why did the Winchesters never accept anything good? It bothered her.

Ariel gave the human a small pat on the arm. "It's okay. I want the full experience. I saw that people dress like this in the movies."

"Really?" Sam chuckled at Ariel's ignorance. It was a delight to be with a celestial being that had no idea how humans worked. He wondered if all angels were like this.

"Let's go." Sam murmured while taking his hand in hers and pulling her toward the front desk.

PRESIDENTIAL DELUXE SUITE

Once the two were situated in their suite, Sam strolled out on the balcony of the Villa and spotted Ariel, leaning over the edge. She looked at peace with her red hair blowing in the breeze.

If someone had told Sam years ago that he would be in the Bahamas with an Archangel, he would have told them that they were crazy.

Ariel shifted onto her other foot and glanced over her shoulder at the hunter standing by the doorway. "Thanks for coming with me, Sam."

"You don't have to thank me, who would pass up the Bahamas? I mean, I like researching, but I guess I kinda needed a break." As he chatted, he inched closer to his speaking partner.

Sam perched himself on the wooden railing, next to the woman, and resumed talking. "I- I kinda wanted to get you alone, so I could talk to you about...me? I mean, I want to know more about you too." He rambled.

"Sam, It's okay. I already know." Ariel laughed at Sam's nervousness and placed a light hand on the human's forearm.

This sweet gesture caused Sam to tense up. He wasn't used to someone other than Ruby touching him, and to have an Angel caress him, it made him uneasy. Ariel overlooked Sam's body language and flashed him an alluring smile.

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Sam replied and moved closer to her. A small voice in his head screamed at him to move the hell away from her, but he couldn't. There was something about her energy that drew him in, and Sam felt safe. He knew that he was in good hands, and he'd be damned if he would let something like this fall into the hands of someone else.

Ariel slowly pulled her hand back and motioned over to the white sofa on the deck. "Well, there isn't much I can tell you." She paused and plopped down on the cushion and patted the spot next to her. "But from what I do know, we should sit."

The tall being shuffled over to the couch and cautiously planted himself next to the angel. He fiddled with his fingers and kept his gaze on Ariel.

"Okay, well as far as I know and what I've been told by my older brother- is that you have been trying to track down Lilith and you've been using your powers but- You're drinking demon blood...that stuff is bad Sam."

Ariel moved her hand onto Sam's and gripped it tightly as she told him all she knew. "I know you mean well, but nothing good will come of this if you sacrifice your humanity just to kill one demon." She paused. "You tell yourself, it's to save people but if you have to risk the light in you, then does the end really justify your means?"

Sam averted his gaze once she brought up the blood-drinking. He was saving people. That was all that went through his mind when he thought about using his powers. It was the only way he could cope.

"I... what she did to Dean- She's breaking the seals and you're telling me you don't want her dead? I can kill her, I just have to get strong and then I can kill her." Sam choked out.

Ariel regarded the man with an expression that was inscrutable when Sam spoke.

It took him a while to gather the courage to look Ariel's way, he felt like the dam behind his eyes was going to collapse at any second.

"You remind me of someone..." The angel whispered.

Ariel recommenced, "Sam, this isn't the way to go, and if you continue down this path...I cannot promise you I will stay to protect you."

"Y'know, I can perceive the human soul and yours is very, very bright." Ariel raised her palm to the hunter's face and cupped his cheek. The agony emanating off of his being overwhelmed her and drowned her. She could feel her chest tightening with every breath.

"It's beautiful." The archangel murmured before moving incredibly closer and shifting onto her knees. Ariel raised her fingertips to Sam's temples and sent surges of her grace into him. She wanted him to see what she saw.

The hunter could feel the tears coming and just as Ariel sent the surge of grace, they fell over the precipice. Samuel's eyes glazed over, resembling Ariel's grace-charged eyes.

Sam's face contorted as she sent the many images of himself into his mind. His eyes darted from side to side as he saw himself but behind there was a bright, nearly blinding light behind his figure. His ears perked once he heard her dulcet voice.

"You could be your own sun, that's how bright it is. So don't worry about some darkness within you, there is none. You and your crusade, to kill Lilith- It leads to darkness." Ariel whispered.

This exchange was intimate for them.

There was a long pause before Sam pulled Ariel into a crushing embrace. He nuzzled his head against her neck, tears streaming down his face.

Sam could not for the life of him tell what it was about this strange woman except that she just reminded him of something, someone, of Jessica. If Sam could see Jessica in her, he only wondered who Dean saw in her. Maybe mom?

"You can't be real." He whispered. Samuel's hold on her tightened tremendously. "Someone like you can't be real." The troubled man repeated, more for himself than her.

"I am real and I'll be here for a long time...I hope." Ariel smiled and gave her human companion a kiss on his forehead. She lingered until her vessel reminded her of Dean.

Dean, Ariel missed him. She missed comforting him and watching the stars. A soft buzz filled her ears.

Sam sniffled and lightly nudged the angel. "Sorry- Okay, so, tell me about you. You must be very old. I'm guessing 5 billion years old."

"Close, but no cigar. I'm 10 billion years old give or take a few. Thanks for making me feel old." Ariel playfully pushed Sam away, which was followed by a small sigh.

This caught Sam's attention.

Sam looked out to the sea, watching the sunset. "Was it lonely?"

"Not at first... I have- well, had four brothers; they are also Archangels. There's Gabriel, Raphael... He did this to me." She gesticulated to the scars that were now fading.

"Then, Michael, he is the oldest. He says I ruin everything."

Ariel gave a sad laugh and shifted in her seat. She turned to her side, raised her legs, and laid them across Sam's lap. Then, she relaxed her head on the back cushion.

"Y'know how a younger sibling comes in and knocks over all the blocks..."

Sam chuckled at her analogy. "Yeah, I think I get it. Sounds like a horrible family." He fixed his hazel-eyes on her sapphire eyes.

When she got down to the last name, her eyes seemed to gloss over. It wasn't often Ariel cried or showed any other emotions besides joy or anger, but Sam did notice when she disassociated.

Sam laid his hands on her calves, and he gave them a small squeeze to let her know he was listening.

"Then there's Lucifer..." Ariel breathed. Just saying his name made her wings tense up.

Sam started. "We can talk about movies if you want-"

Ariel shook her head and chuckled. "No, it's okay. I'd rather tell you than Dean. He...would not handle it well." She paused and began telling her story.

"Father, he made me a part of Lucifer and So that sort of made us more than just archangels created by the same thing." Ariel pulled her knees to her chest and hugged herself.

The celestial being fingered the frills on her dress hem, sadness clouding her features. "Him and I, we were God's favorites. We were left alone most of the time. We were a pair- two peas in a pod...but then one day that changed."

"Well, It started with the conception of you- humans. I was okay with not being a prized possession, but Lucifer..." Ariel's voice cracked.

"So, when Lucifer wanted me to rebel, begging me to join...I said no. He said I was a part of him and that he didn't need permission..." Ariel closed her eyes and shook her head once she began having flashbacks of The Garden.

Trigger Warning: Implied R*pe (read with caution) Please do not progress if this may trigger you. After this flashback, there will be a short summary of what happened.

FLASHBACK

The sun beamed down on the greenery, morning dew trickling down the blades of grass. In the distance, there were animals grazing.

"Gadreel, please!" A disembodied voice came from somewhere near the Garden.

"I cannot, you know the rules. I'm sorry, Little one." Gadreel held his military position as he eyed the girl in front of him.

It was Ariel.

"I am so much older than you, not fair of you to call me that. Please, I promise I won't do anything. They're arguing again...I just want to be alone with the trees." Ariel pleaded with the guardian angel.

Gadreel opened his mouth to speak but stopped, his face contorting. A line appeared between his brows as his eyes darted from the archangel to heavenward. He seemed to be listening to something or someone but Ariel couldn't discern who.

"Maybe don’t go in the garden today..." Gadreel whispered.

Ariel was taken aback by his anxiousness. "Why not? You would let me in any other day."

The guardian seemed fixed on something else as he gazed at the beauty before him. He had an inscrutable expression that teetered between pitying and haunted.

Something was wrong.

"Okay, be careful." Ariel's guardian companion huffed.

"Always," The archangel squealed and gave Gadreel a light peck on his cheek before flying into the Garden.

When she disappeared, a disembodied voice echoed throughout Gadreel's mind.

'Good. Now, Leave your post.'

The angel hesitated for a moment, glancing back over his shoulder at his friend settling down but the river."I'm sorry, Little one."

Gadreel flew away.

Ariel resided near the stream and stretched her vessel's limbs before laying on her back. She only came into the Garden when they put her in the middle of things. Again, Lucifer put her on display for everyone in the garrison to see; Asking her to join him. When she declined, most of the angels snickered, embarrassing Lucifer.

He did not like that.

For years, Lucifer had been throwing a tantrum of the creation of humanity, amongst other things. It greatly affected the whole Archangel family, but Ariel never said a word about how she truly felt.

Deep down, she knew that she wasn't made to serve heaven, and once she finally saw humans for the first time, her heart was set. Humans were to be loved, cherished, and above all things, protected. And after his last act of aggression against her, she wanted no part of her other half.

This made Lucifer more vehement.

No one agreed with him, and those that did were never outspoken.

"I knew you'd be down here, Little one." A sultry incorporeal voice came from behind her, frightening her.

Ariel's body tensed at the way he put emphasis on 'little one.' She did not like this nickname- or at least when it came out of his mouth. When others said it, it was like a term of endearment, but when Lucifer said it, it made her being crawl.

"Are you cloud watching?" He addressed her again, starving for attention.

She would not give it.

"You could at least look at me when I'm talking to you." Lucifer growled.

His explosive temper instilled fear into the young angel's heart. It was not fair; he was older, and stronger by so much. She felt helpless in this situation, and it wasn't like her other brothers would step in and make Lucifer leave her alone. God was no better, but still, she loved her Father.

Ariel finally set her vessel's eyes on his.

Lucifer's eyes were distant. They held nothing in them but possessiveness and wrath. "Why did you leave me like that?" He asked coldly.

Ariel perched herself up on her palms while keeping her eyes locked with his. "You always shout over the same things. I won't be on display with you asking such inane questions."

"My questions aren't stupid, it's important and lesser angels don't think for themselves like we do, they're meant to follow. Now if God's two most favorited Angels rebelled because, well who cares of the because- They would follow us..." Lucifer took a seat next to his sister and crossed his legs.

"What you'd be leading them to is damnation and i will not join that. Your logic is skewed and Father won't appreciate us defiling his creation he took so long to make." Ariel countered while pushing herself to her feet.

Lucifer's expression hardened as he listened to her. "Damnation? I'd be leading them to triumph. Imagine what you and I could do together..." The man's word fell off as he shifted onto his feet and made an advance on her.

"What we could make..." He murmured as he disappeared.

"You and I will do nor make anything. Why can't you get it through your thick skull that- I. Will. Not. Join. YOU!" Ariel set her eyes on the gate ahead, seeing that Gadreel was not at his post as usual.

Lucifer reappeared behind the angel placing himself betwixt her wings. "Why can't you get it through your thick skull, that I'm not doing this without you." The corrupt being roughly set both hands on his sister's shoulders and squeezed them tight.

"And I'm done asking for permission." He whispered in a breathy voice.

"You're insane!" Ariel breathed as she tried to pull herself away, but he just dragged her back to him.

"No... I'm actually not." Lucifer growled, dipping his arms under her feathers and pressed his body against hers. His archangel blade appeared in his hand; the pointed bit pushed lightly into her chest.

The color drained out of her face as a high-pitched ring filled the air, besides their heavy breathing.

The nefarious being led her over to a nearby tree, shoving Ariel against the tree.

"Luci... This isn't the way..." The ginger's voice broke as she said the word 'this.' Ariel tried to flap her wings to get away but with him pressed so hard against her scapulars it was agony if she even tried moving an inch.

"Please, We can talk this out..." She panted.

"Fuck his Garden. Fuck his Creation. I'm way past talking." Lucifer muttered through clenched teeth, lifting the blade to her neck. He dipped his head down, pressing his cool lips against her vessel's warm neck.

It invigorated him. The thrill, her fear.

Ariel's eyes filled with grace, donning their rosy color; This was her fighting back. She set both hands on the bark and pushed away from it, but failed to overpower his hold.

Lucifer let out a wry laugh and resumed leaving marks all across her neck. The offender ran his vessel's calloused hands over the curves of her waist.

Ariel began weeping, "Michael!" She tried, but her prayer was cut short when Lucifer slit her throat, her grace seeping out of the cut. Her knees buckled as her essence was stolen.

"Mmm" Lucifer moaned as he inhaled her grace, his once rosy eyes slowly shifting to a more blood-red undertone. "Now, for the best part..." He cooed in a honeyed voice.

"NO! " Ariel shut her eyes and reopened them, filling them with more grace, but it just poured out of her neck like a faucet. She wriggled under his hold like a worm, her wings flapping causing moans of agony to exit her mouth.

At this moment she wondered where Gadreel was, where was Castiel? Where was her big brother Michael? Where was Dad?

"Please..."Ariel knew nothing about intercourse or how humans managed to get it done, but she knew this was not how things went. There were steps to take, and her vessel did not appreciate the way the monster was treating her.

Lucifer brutally capped her mouth with his calloused hand, muttering a "Shut up." He hastily lifted her dress and grinned.

"It will be alright." Lucifer sang to his little sister.

It's safe now ♥ Continuing with Sam x Ariel

Sam held the sides of Ariel's face and searched both her eyes. He wasn't sure what to say. By what he put together from her broken words were that Lucifer had defiled her in the Garden.

To add to that, no one came to save. Not even God.

"Don't worry. I'm here. Dean's here, and we won't let him get free." The hunter pulled the tired archangel into a tender hug, giving her a hard kiss on her forehead.

Sam cradled her for hours, partly wishing Dean was here because he could have probably changed her mood by a great deal.

Soon, Sam fell asleep with Ariel still conscious in his arms.

A light breeze blew through her scarlet tresses sending a light scent of cherry shampoo past Sam's nose. The giant stirred in his sleep and tightened his hold on the angel.

Sam slowly opened his eyes and let out a low groan and stretched his body. "Is it morning already? I didn't mean to fall asleep." He murmured.

On the horizon, the sun met the sea, casting a beautiful glow on the sky. The sunrise was always one aspect of earth that Ariel loved. All the colors and sensations made it so winsome.

With her ear pressed against the giant's chest, she could feel every heartbeat.

"It's okay. I didn't come to just swim. I came to bond." Ariel murmured.

The archangel stretched her wings and draped them over her and Sam; They were large enough to hide the duo. A light shadow to be seen over their bodies.

The hunter glanced down at the shadow and furrowed his brows. He never wished more to see her wings then- to see the sun glistening and painting her feathers in the purple and pink hues. Dean told him a few times what they looked like but that they look scarier in person. He said to 'imagine white bird wings and dye them red.'

Dean wasn't very descriptive.

"What is heaven like?" The hunter watched the sky as he imagined heaven. He was hopeful yet terrified because if they banished an archangel for helping humans, could heaven really be a great place? Sam concluded it was better than going to hell.

Ariel tore herself from the human and rose to her feet. "Heaven is one, but many." The angel didn't really want to talk about home, she ran away from there. Heaven to her was like an abusive home, full of innocent angels being manipulated by a person convinced they are doing good.

"What does that mean?" Sam got up from the white couch and followed the angel. It wasn't like he meant to prod but he needed to satiate his curiousness.

Ariel whipped around and glared at the tall man. "It means just what I said. Now please, stop asking me." She let out a shaky breath and turned away. "I understand you are a curious human, but it is still a sensitive topic for me." Ariel murmured.

"I didn't mean to- I'm sorry." Sam drew his lips into a thin line and clasped his hands. "How about we go check out the restaurant?"

The angel's mood switched almost instantly, a smile danced across her lips. "Yes! I want to try whatever a mimosa is." Ariel laughed and flew into the hotel room to change her clothes.

"A mimosa? Can angels even get drunk?" Sam laughed as he walked into their suite. He assumed she went to change her clothes or at least wait for him to change. The hunter grabbed the suitcase that Ariel gave him and opened it to find a bunch of clothes, tailored to him.

Sam rummaged through the clothes and found a suitable outfit and waited for his angel companion in the loungeroom of the suit. The service wasn't ideal in this area but he still attempted to send Dean a message that they were okay.

RESTAURANT

There was a small flutter of wings that startled Sam until he looked up to see Ariel standing in front of him, beaming.

"Is this attire appropriate? I've been alive for a long time and I value humans’ idea of fashion. I wasn't sure if these shoes were alright with this dress..." Ariel rambled, twiddling her fingers as she talked about her passion.

Sam listened to her ramble for about five minutes before he just decided to stop her; He was starving. "You look beautiful, don't worry." The human pushed himself to his feet and gestured to the door. "We should maybe walk instead of teleport."

"Perhaps." Ariel hummed and started for the door.

Together they walked down to the restaurant for breakfast.

"How long have you known this Castiel?" Sam asked with his mouth full of uncooked spinach. He preferred the healthier diet, claiming that you can't hunt if you have cholesterol problems.

Luckily, Ariel was an angel and didn't have to worry about that.

Ariel's eyes widened and she put up her finger. "Don't, It's like jinxing yourself. If you say an angel's name too much they might show up." The archangel looked around, tightening her hold on the wineglass. She didn't want to see Castiel.

The last time she saw him was nearly a week ago and she probably frightened him and the rest of the host.

"Are you avoiding him?" Sam mumbled while sipping some of his water. He drew his lower lip between his teeth as he hadn't considered other angels potentially showing up.

A line appeared between Ariel's eyebrows at his question. It wasn't difficult but it wasn't easy to answer. "No, It's just..." Her words fell off as she looked heavenward. "When I escaped, something happened to my eyes-." The angel paused and brought her hand to her cheek, gesturing to her eyes. "One turned red, like...Lucifer's. It may have frightened him along with the rest of heaven."

"Red? Why does it matter what color they are? You are nothing like him." Sam frowned.

Ariel shook her head, "We are one in the same, yet opposite ends of the spectrum and so if-"

Sam spoke out of turn, interrupting her. "If he's bad, then you're good? What happens if he's good?" His eyebrows rose at the thought of Ariel potentially turning bad. It was something he could not imagine.

"I don't think that would ever happen. Lucifer is corrupted, his grace is red and there no turning back from that." The archangel spouted in a brittle tone. She could not see herself becoming corrupted even after the years of being locked away.

The friendly giant tilted his head in speculation. He wasn't one to pry or be pessimistic but if red grace meant a corrupted angel- what did that mean for her?

Ariel gazed at her companion with wide eyes. "The seals." She murmured. "The weaker the cage becomes- if he gets out..." Her eyes drifted off to the side, then down at her mimosa. She raised the glass to her glossed lips and took a long sip.

Sam surveyed Ariel's grimace for reluctance before stretching his arm over the table and cupping her hand. It was a small gesture but the comfort probably meant a lot to Ariel. His mouth curved into a wan smile. "We won't let him."

"Just listen- okay? This is crucial." The celestial being inhaled deeply and gazed into Sam's hazel-eyes as she parted her lips to speak. "Promise me, you won't hesitate."

"What?" The longhaired males asked, his face shifting from a puzzled look to a doleful one. Sam immediately got up from his seat once he realized what she meant. His small disturbance grabbed everyone's attention in the near vicinity.

The archangel quickly intertwined their fingers. She flew them to an empty part of the beach and let out a small sigh.

"We didn't pay..." Sam murmured before glancing to his side and seeing the sorrow-stricken angel.

"Tell me why I have to kill you, now." He demanded in a low tone.

"Because I can feel myself withering away!" Ariel shouted. "There is this darkness encompassing me with every turn and no matter how many humans I aim to protect and save- it never goes away. It grows every day- I can feel his wrath already, Sam..." Her tone was wobbly, indicating that her vessel was bound to weep.

At first, Sam was taken aback but then his features softened as she revealed what she was going through.

If she could sense his wrath already, then how far gone was she and how much longer did they have with this sweet version of her?

Sam's eyes glazed over, he fought back his tears as best he could.

"Promise me..." Ariel whispered whilst caressing his face. Her fingertips grazed the light stubble on his jaw then ran over the few bumps on his cheek.

Sam's lips quivered as he tried so hard to hold in his sobs but a strangled sob escaped his throat. His entire body trembled as he thought back to two years ago and his interaction with Madison and how he had to shoot her in the heart.

This hurt equally to that or maybe even worse. He'd grown to like Ariel in the past days since he has met her that day Travis died. It was hard for him to even think about killing her, how would he even be able to, she was an archangel.

"How?" Sam choked out.

Just then there was a blade in Sam's hands, with curved edges. He studied the sword, his fingers tracing over the Enochian inscriptions. The distraught hunter gripped the hilt with care and let his arm fall to his side.

"Why not Dean? Why me?" He spoke in a quavering voice.

"You're strong..." Ariel whispered, wrapping her dainty hands around his large mitts. She aimed the pointed end above her left breast, showing him where she wanted it to happen. "And- You'll be the only one close enough." She finished.

Of course, Sam had no idea what she meant, but if Lucifer was set free, the hunter would be the only one close enough, strong enough to break from Satan's hold.

"No..." The long-haired male shook his head in defiance.

"No, If i can fight my darkness, you can too. I won't let you- I can't." Sam took a moment to gather himself before speaking through choked sobs. "Dean, He would tell you the same thing... If there is good in you, then maybe-"

"Abel..." Ariel leaned into Sam's warmth, swiping the blade from his palms. Her eyes moved from side to side as she talked, almost as if she was experiencing something entirely different.

Sam stared at the angel. Why did she call him Abel? Was she having a flashback? He opted not to say anything and let her finish.

"I tried to lead you to the light..." Ariel whispered in a chagrined manner. "Just promise me, Abel." She squeezed her eyes shut and rested her forehead against his chest.

"I promise." Sam murmured in a husky tone.

The human pulled Ariel into a crushing embrace, gazing out into the horizon. "I promise." He affirmed more clearly, resting his chin on her head.

For a vacation, it wasn't that all relaxing. His nerves were constantly yo-yoing and his eyes were puffy from crying. Ariel, of course, looked perfect, even when she cried.

"Ready to go home?" Samuel questioned.

"Yes."

Their home wasn't a conventional home, they traveled from place to place, slept in dingy motels yet they always had one constant in their lives; The 1967 Chevy Impala.

That was home for the boys. And now it was Ariel's as well.

SERIES MASTERLIST

#dean winchester #sam and dean #dean fanfiction #dean winchester fanfiction #Dean x OFC #Sam Winchester #sam x ofc #spn lucifer #spn fanfiction #spnfamliy #spn raphael #spn ruby #SPN #spn angst #spn angels #masterlist

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westcoastbroadway1443 · 5 years

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Be More Notes: my very long ramblings on BMC as I finally listen to the whole thing

Ok! I’m finally doing it! Now that the cast album is out I’m going to really give all of Be More Chill a listen, try to put the things that annoy me about the show aside, and give it a fair chance. And have decided to do running commentary here for the nobody who gives a shit lol. Going in I wanna say I’ve heard 4 full songs and random bits of other songs from the original soundtrack. And I’ll be listening now to the OBC album plus watching a b**tlg, I’m not totally sure when it took place I just know Will Roland is in it so at the very least New York. Keep in mind whatever I think of this show, if I end up hating it, if you like it you’re right. My opinion in no way invalidated anybody else’s or is above anyone else’s in my eyes, frankly I don’t enjoy not liking things, it just means I don’t get to come to the party and that’s not fun. So I might be poking fun at the show sometimes but if this speaks to you, that is fucking awesome! Also I’m old now and I guess no longer the target audience for stuff like this.

Spoilers for those who haven’t watched the show and don’t want to know stage stuff because I’ll be commenting on that. This ended up being really long, eh.

More Than Survive -ok this song I’ve heard before, and it both turned me off the show and also made me respect the hell out of it, because much like I give a salute to Black Mirror having the balls to make pig sex their pilot, I salute a musical that starts with jerking off -So far like Roland a little more than the previous guy. From what I’ve gathered from clips, while that dude is hella talented and cute as a button I kind of buy Roland as a terrified, desperate, frustrated high school kid more -Man I really do dig the hell out of the score and there is no denying this is catchy but some of these lyrics are so cringe -WHY IS A TEEN IN 2019 REFERENCING JOE PESCI?! -Ok I love the idea of a short bully calling somebody “tall ass” -I do like Jeremy’s body language better in this one. Also does he vocally remind anyone else of Max from Goofy Movie? Maybe this song just reminds me of “After Today” for no reason. -“super pimp” “mac daddy game”....OK! I’m going to try not to list every time I cringe. I just have questions -You don’t want to be Clooney...high school child in 2019 is Clooney really your reference for cool? Sorry I just struggle with this stuff because I keep hearing how this show is so in touch with kids these days but I just see:

-lol Michael came on and people went apseshit in the audience. All my nitpicks aside I bet this room probably has some great energy. -..Michael the clerk at 7/11 doesn’t pour your slushie, it’s self serve. Are you trying to seem cool to Jeremy right now? -Aah the boyfriend backpacks. I know of this ship -Yeah Christine brings the flutes!!! I was a flute player, we never get love -HAHA when Christine is doing her weird ass dance, in the recording I’m watching somebody right in front of the person recording just went “I don’t get this show”. Like me too darlin, but you got 2 hours left so suck it up -Oh but sir, check the playbill. The story is indeed about you -in summation this song kind of encapsulates everything I feel about this show, good performances and catchy as fuck and musically interesting and a lot of me asking “why”.

Play Rehearsal -Well Christine is adorable -wow wait what? wtf was that weird self harm comment??? Are we just gonna skip that??? -Ok I was a band kid in HS so I guess I don’t get this level of extra. Band rehearsal is just tuning and then fucking around until somebody makes you play Bach -...is Christine ok??? -Ok I think at least for now I may hate her. But I like that Jeremy likes her, likes her passion and such. I approve of her conceptually! I just don’t wanna be around her -I thought play rehearsal was gay, Rich?! WHAT YOU DOIN AT PLAY REHEARSAL RICH?! -...I mean I’ve seen Romeo and Juliet as a zombie wasteland movie, I would watch Midsummer zombies

More Than Survive Reprise -”least I didn’t have a breakdown and have to go the nurse” Ok fair, I can relate to that high school experience -this set is kind of working for me, basic but fun and the floor is neat -I know high school bullies are a thing I guess? But I always just saw them in movies? Now Middle School bullies were legit and terrible and I got the shit kicked out of me, but by HS I feel like everybody was too into their own shit to care much about anyone else?? Maybe that was just my school -Will Roland’s body language is real good in this show

The Squip Song -Oh! Surprise Rich lisp. Creative way to show how this thing alters you -..ok now we know about Rich’s dick size. I mean hon your short, maybe your penis is just proportionate? -DO I DETECT SOME THEREMIN IN THIS ORCHESTRATION?! Gimme all the theremin! -Ok so the squip made him be an asshole? Does he secretly want to be buddies with Jeremy? -Ok what the fuck are the people in the background doing here?!? -I know people ship Michael and Jeremy but I feel like Rich kinda wants to jump that tall ass??

Two Player Game -Ok the little sign for the game that came up was cute -These guys are kinda cute, even if I wish they’d tone down Michael’s “I’M QUIRKY!! YOU GET IT?!?” shtick -That is accurate! Y’all will be cool in college and I don’t see that brought up often -This is the first time I’ve found the choreography fun -...why is this dad allergic to pants?? -ah. Depression=no pants. And now I get why Jeremy’s so desperate not to stay as he is. Well points for making it not just about the girl -awww Michael is his bae -bro I’ve heard Loser Geek Whatever, you’re tellin lies right now to your buddy -LOL! WTF IS THIS WINDOWS SCREENSAVER OF A VIDEO GAME?!? -oh wow dancin went off the rails here at the end

Squip Enters -Mountain Dew? Well, better than Surge I guess. -Ok the Ecto Cooler line legit made me laugh. And I guess I could come down on the show for making Michael psyched about a drink that came out before he was born, but I have a pretty intense Crystal Pepsi obsession and that shit came out when I was maybe 4? So I get it Michael, you go enjoy your liquid ghosts -well that squip thing doesn’t look fun -Oooooh Ok Keanu is like factory setting, alright I’ll accept this. Though I will say this show would be 35% better if he was dressed like Keanu from Bill and Ted

Be More Chill Prt 1 -Hey stop shitting on Jeremy. I think I kinda like him -wow Keanu, I didn’t think you’d be so mean -I mean everyone chanting “everything about you sucks” is just how peeps with anxiety feel constantly. Eminem shirt ain’t gonna fix that -”Jerry-me” ok Will Roland is kind of making this work for me. -Him repeating everything the squip said is a fun little sequence. Like I dig this conceptually, scifi musicals are rare and can be neat - Lol the hate who they hate thing is pretty accurate

Do You Wanna Ride? -hey Jeremy what about Christiiiiine

Be More Chill Part 2 -the beginning of this song broke me a little. Hey! I’m feelin a thing! -this song is pretty fun! It works! -though the cast of like 10 people that just keep putting on different wigs make it feel like a high school play or a starkid production

Sync Up -ok so now I know I’m watching previews? Because sync up isn’t here -I do think this song is a really good addition. I mean it’s not like a stand out fantastic song but it does a good job getting across the themes and drives home the whole “everybody has problems” thing too which I like -Ok..dairy line was weird.

A Guy I Could Kinda Be Into -Ok the weird girl fighting stuff about Jake is unpleasant and sort of unnecessary -a squip gives you a deep voice and the ability to kinda do accents. Cool -ooo this is catchy, this is gonna make the spotify playlist -the goofy background hearts are cute. I still don’t know why she’s into Jake or why she’s friends with Jeremy or if they should be together since legit the only thing she thinks they have in common is theater which he doesn’t care about..but this song is still cute -lol squips understand friend zone

Upgrade -DID THIS SHOW JUST KILL EMINEM?! -How did the squip know that?! Does Eminem have a squip?? I mean it kinda makes sense.. -Don’t you see Jerbear?! The key to popularity is in this girl’s vagina! Happy they cut the “I’ll tenderly guide you just take me inside you” thing, little creepy -Why did Jake make a kicking motion to illustrate cricket? I’m like 85% sure Jake doesn’t know what cricket is... -the “feel all the feels” like is a little goofy but I really like the rewrite for this song, showing some depth of character. Good job, show! And I’m seeing some chemistry between these two, but I don’t know if I’m meant to? -Oh no! The whole “you looked at me” thing from Brooke was so sweet and sad. And the player two thing. Yeah this OG version of this song can go fuck off, the rewrite is a really good tune. I’ll admit the original maybe built up the horror a little, the squip sounds more threatening coming in at the end but I like where there going making this about everyone and not just Jeremy

Loser Geek Whatever -Squip blocked Michael?? You’re a dick, Keanu Reeves -I didn’t love this song when I first heard the single but hearing the version on the album and the stripped down piano version, I really really like it. Gives me some of those old geek feels from back in the day -sort of surprise by how little is happening on stage though? I sort of assumed something was happening as the song built? But nope, just Will rocking his wee heart out -LOL! What is Squip’s new outfit???

Halloween -Ah, it’s this show Big Fun. This is a lot catchier than Big Fun though -I went to exactly one of these kinds of parties in HS, just replace Halloween with punks after a rock show and add a lot more drugs. I didn’t hide in a bathroom but I did hide next to the stairs until my mom came and got me. Memories!! You know what this show is succeeding I suppose, it’s making me have HS feels -...is Jake dressed as Thomas Jefferson? -Jenna you’re too cute for that costume. You should get to wear something sexy too! Unless you just dig clowns in which case enjoy yourself hon -Ooooooh Prince, I get it -this is not this show’s fault at all but I struggle with dancing in shows. I mean the title of my blog is The Girl Who Used to Hate Musicals because I did, and while I love them now extended dancing sequences still take me out of a show real fast. I know I’m in the minority here -...what the fuck is that weird fuzzy thing with the big teeth -Hot damn! Go Rich! Dancin fool

Do You Wanna Hang? -I don’t like any part of this plot line... -Ok! Didn’t realized she was dressed like a “sexy baby” so the diaper line sort of horrified me. I mean it still does! I just understand it now

Michael in the Bathroom -hey the bathtub! Ok I know enough to know what happens now -Jeremy why you gotta be so mean -I mean what is there to say, great song. I wondered if they’d change anything for the new recording and I dig the arrangement, especially the stripped down acoustic guitar and piano parts!! Also as a lady who maybe once or twice since discovering this song has gotten tipsy and sung it karaoke-like, appreciate the slower and the higher. It’s not a lot, just a bit, but makes it less of a struggle to match. Thanks bro!

A Guy That I’d Kinda Be Into (Reprise) -Finally! They’re both giant doofs but I see some connection! And I mean my roommate and I have noises we always make at each other like a call and response, so I gets it -He asked it! So proud. Rejected but proud of the boy, and rejected for good reasons

The Smartphone Hour -Heard part of this song before. Really like this Jenna more than original Jenna, her performance was a little much for me -This is one of those songs where I really do feel like I’m watching a HS original production..but a good one? Maybe cause I haven’t seen something like this on Broadway, but that’s a good thing. Always good to see new kinds of things on Broadway -lol what is the middle of this song?! I feel like I’m suddenly watching a cheer squad or like a John Waters inspired musical, which from what little I know of Joe Iconis I think he’d be cool with that comparison

The Pants Song -Jeremy don’t be mean to your dad! -Yipes is this the Break in a Glove or Dead Gay Son of BMC?? -....yeah it totally is -”Do you love him??” Has Jeremy’s dad finally given up on finding a girl in Jeremy’s room? -Ok ok I’m gettin the ship

The Pitiful Children -So squip just looks like this now, I thought maybe he was just being fancy for Halloween -Hot damn Jenna! Why were we savin that voice?! -I feel like I’m missing something with these weird hand motions the squip is always, do they actually mean something? -goosestepping...alright. Oh no Jeremy did the hand motions, I think that means a thing

The Play -Jeremy is being so creepy but he means well? I guess? -lol using the play to spread the squips is pretty clever -wtf red mountain dew? Really? You know what fuck it, discontinued drinks for the win. Maybe my saved bottles of Crystal Pepsi will stop an apocalypse one day! -Michael’s entrance was cute, and hey he just happens to have code red. I wish ecto cooler was what shut it off. -The glitching voice is crazy when Jeremy is fighting Michael and I love the way Jeremy is sort of bobbing up and down in fighting stance like a video game character, Fun touch -squip is making Jeremy go all Idle Hands! -I prefer the recording version of the guys making up, the whole “I just wanted to be liked” “I just wanted to be seen” thing -the squip has to be so extra even in death

Voices in My Head -hey lispy Rich is back! And bi now I guess? -Oh is that why people think Michael/Jeremy are a thing? The squip blocked Rich’s bi thoughts from him and it blocked Michael from Jeremy’s vision? I mean it would be an interesting story, I’d take it. -This might be my favorite song and I don’t really know why, I don’t super love that Jeremy still gets Christine in the end but I just love how this song sounds -I’ve never heard a character wearing pants get an applause? -improved lyrics in the Broadway version, and since it got more into the popular kids as people you can kinda see why they’d still stay friend with Jeremy -”I’ll throw you a rope home slice if you need some dope advice” like is this parody? What is this?? Well..still my fav song despite this line. A line they liked so much it’s the one original popular kid line they kept in the new version??? -don’t know if I see much future for these two, but Jeremy’s reaction to the kiss was cute -”Of the voices in my head the loudest one is mine” is my favorite line of the show -lol Rich’s little sneak hug. I feel like Rich always wanted to be friends with Jeremy? Or had a crush on him and that’s why his squip made him beat Jeremy up? Is this pairing a thing?

Final thoughts: This was so stupid long, nobody read this but that’s ok! It was fun to take notes anyway. Listening to it all, I liked it more than I thought I would, especially with the lyric changes. I don’t know if I would like it as much if it wasn’t Will Roland, the dude just really made this character likable when he could very easily not be. Some of the lines still bug me, there’s still a lot of cringe here but there’s also a lot of good stuff. This show introduced me to Joe Iconis and I’m slowly falling in love with him from his other work and CANNOT WAIT for Broadway Bounty Hunter because that sounds so like my jam. Overall I do get why people like this show, especially younger people because you can relate to the characters but maybe you want something a little peppier than DEH. I don’t think this is a soundtrack I’m going to ever listen to all the way through, but I’m for sure grabbing a handful of songs and sticking them on my musical play list. And when this thing goes on tour and ends up in LA, I think it would probably be worth checking out if I can, looks like a fun watch. Though with all the young fans and internet fans if they’re smart they’re gonna record this bitch.

#Be More Chill #BMC #joe iconis #Will Roland #musicals #musical review #jess babbles about a thing

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nitaescence · 7 years

Text

BTS | Scenario #5

|When you’re mentioned to them in a broadcast|

A/N : I changed it from the original “reader being mentionned (only) on TV”. Hope you’ll like it anyway :O

Pairing : Idol!BTS x Reader

Genre : Fluff

Word Count : From 400 to 700.

Kim Seokjin

Seokjin’s accepted to appear as a guest alongside Jungkook in a famous Korean TV show in which other famous people are also invited. Watching diligently the progress of the program, he’s regularly asked to give his opinion on various topics or to talk about his life as an idol and the other members. However, when the opportunity shows itself he doesn’t wait for any of the hosts to give him a voice and says some of his ‘dad jokes’ out loud - most of the time leaving the guests and audience to cringe while he laughs, slightly embarrassed along with very few people.

After his fourth joke, one of the hosts decides to linger a moment on the matter. “Mr. Seokjin, where do you get all those puns?” The audience laughs at the funny face he’s making as he leans forward on the large table towards where Jin and Jungkook are seated. “I mean you’ve got to have a very creative mind to make them. I want to know where they come from.” He continues leaning back in his chair.

“Some pop into my mind more easily than others since they’re not that hard to create and don’t need that much inventiveness to come up with. It usually comes in the heat of the action. ” Explains Seokjin, proudly.

“Do the members find you funny?” The same host asks again, very interested, and the audience laughs. “I don’t mean it in a wrong way.” He says looking at the public. “Jungkook, do you?”

Camera focuses on Jungkook who’s only been staring at the hosts with a shy smile on his lips. “Some of his are good.” Camera zooms on his face. “But they’re scarce.” Guests and hosts laugh again and Seokjin only smiles back.

“Can you do one right one?” One of the guests asks him.

“Let me think.” Seokjin looks down, thinking hard as everyone watches him.

“He’s probably exhausted his jokes’ store for the night.” Comments the second host making others smiles. When the camera focuses back on Seokjin, he’s seen waiting for his turn to speak.

“I found one... What does the dog say when it sees a wall?”

Cameras film guests, hosts and the audience trying to find the answer.

“A dog? When it sees a wall?” Enquires one of the hosts. “I have no idea.”

“Me neither... What does it say?” Adds the other.

Seokjin’s image is slowed-down, anticipating his answer then put back to normal speed and zoomed. “Wol-wol.” Seokjin instantly bursts into laughter, his face turning red and he starts hitting on Jungkook’s arm who’s only smiling back and trying to protect his arm. One of the host laughs alongside the audience while his colleague remains unfazed.

“Wait... Do you seriously find it that funny?” He asks his colleague.

“I liked it. You didn’t?” He looks back at him then at Seokjin, motioning a thumbs up.

“I don’t think I could bear his jokes on a daily basis. Just... Look at how my body reacted.” Camera zooms on the unfazed host’s forearm. “It made me have goosebumps.” Everyone on the set laughs at his remark.

“Sometimes, members really have a hard time keeping up with it but then again it might be even worse for his girlfriend.” Comments Jungkook earning round eyes from Seokjin.

“What about her?” He yells, not expecting him to mention you. “She loves them and always asks for more. She even started to invent hers.” He adds chuckling lightly.

“Are they better than yours?” Enquires on of the host.

Seokjin regains his composure and answers with a straight face, “Not yet.”

Min Yoongi

In the BTS Bomb video, the group is seen in the backstage, getting ready to perform their new songs. Different cameras focus on each member throughout their preparation. Yoongi appears very focused, not minding the staff around him. Makeup artists and hair stylists give him finishing touches when a man yells at the group to gather and get on stage for the first recording.

Several minutes pass by as all the members rehearse their choreography and correct small things going wrong along with the sound check. Fans are then allowed inside and the show can begin. Images of the group greeting and talking with them are shown. They follow up with another song and choreography before going backstage.

Now exhausted and sweaty, they all scatter to catch their breath and cameras follow closely to know more of their first impressions. Yoongi is sat on a chair and ventilates himself with a small fan.

“I think the performance came out well... As well as this whole first promoting week. I’m quite satisfied with it. ARMYs were great. Thank you all.” He smiles lazily at the camera, making love signs with his fingers.

Yoongi is seen looking away when one of the staff members calls his name. He gets up and leaves then Jimin is seen walking towards the camera initially filming Yoongi.

After some time, Jimin looks past the camera to gaze at Yoongi coming back with his hands full. “What do you got?” asks the younger man.

Yoongi smiles thoughtful while staring at the small package in his hands walking next to Jimin. Jimin watches him silently and tilt his head to look at what Yoongi’s gazing. A small note with black written words on it. Jimin looks up at the older man, smiling knowingly. “Everyone, Yoongi is a very lucky man. Whoa, he’s really lucky to have this person looking out for him.”

Yoongi turns his head to look at the camera too, his face illuminated. “Just when I thought this day couldn’t go any better.” He shows the package, quickly enough for the viewers not to be able to read what’s written on it. “I’ve just received home-cooked meal from a person very dear to my heart. I’m going to go enjoy it. I love you, all. Bye.”

Comments below the video after its release all mentioned Yoongi acting all cute and soft because of you and what you’ve sent him. They all noted the difference before he got your gift and after, pointing out how much in love he is.

Jung Hoseok

The members are shooting their upcoming album photo jacket and cameras record it. The different sets are ready and the boys start coming one by one for their individual shoots. Everyone’s goes smoothly and they all compliment each other, watching the shooting’s progress.

Hoseok is as enthusiast as the others, appearing all smiling and handsome as ever. “Hi!” All of a sudden, his walking shifts to a funny one and he sports a serious look on his face until he reaches one of the cameras. “I’m here to work.” Then chuckles and goes back to his normal self. “In this photoshoot our individuality will be mostly highlighted. The sets look great. I’ll do my best. Please look forward to it.” He leaves when one of the photographers calls for him.

He goes to settle himself in the set specially prepared for him and the shooting can begin. He takes different poses that goes along with the feeling sought as his solo song plays in the background. He is then seen coming out of the set and goes to take a look on the computer to see the results. The camera zooms on his focused face.

“Woah, the pictures look great. The staff did an awesome job. It came out very cool and I’m happy! You’ll be surprised when it will come out. Now that I’m done with my part, I’ll be going home. See you tomorrow!” He waves at the camera and walks away.

The next day, the groups is filmed coming out of the makeup room. Seokjin greets cameras firsts stating he’s ready for another day of shooting. Behind him, Hoseok is seen as the last one to join the rest and Seokjin looks behind him. “Oh, our J-Hope...” He forces Hoseok to come next to him, putting an arm around his shoulders. “You look a bit tired today.”

“Really, I feel more tired than Suga has ever been in his entire life.” Hoseok blinks several times to the camera, looking exhausted. “The makeup staff did an incredible work to shade off my dark circles.”

“Tell us what happened.” Demands Seokjin looking straight at him. Hoseok smiles tiredly, looking away. “Are we thinking about that same ‘certain someone’?” Hoseok shakes his head not saying anything else when Seokjin looks back towards the camera, lightly chuckling. “Everyone, last night I heard Hoseok in his hotel room spending long hours talking to that person and now he can barely open his eyes.”

“We had a great conversation.” Argues Hoseok and then a staff member calls for them to join the others to do the unit shooting.

Kim Namjoon

“Is it working?” Namjoon’s face appears very close to the camera as he checks if the video is recording or not. “I think it is... Of course, the network is unstable. Do you see me?” He asks out loud, staring a the screen.

“Ah... What do I do if people can’t join? Vlive, please work.” He keeps staring for a while. “Ah. It’s working. It must be working. I see people commenting. They’re saying they see me. I think it’s settled.” He fixes the device in a selfie stick he’s holding in one hand, making sure he’s appearing entirely in the shot.

“Let’s wait a bit for everyone to join. I’ll start when reaching 1,000 viewers.” He leans back against the bed’s headboard next to a light and starts thumbing on his phone with his other hand. Then, he looks back at the small screen in front of him. “There are 287 249 viewers right now... 300 561. Okay! Let’s start. The network is still unstable though...” He pauses, reading some comments.

“Hello. ‘Hello. Hi. Japan. Indonesia. Russia. Philippines. Hello. I love you.’ I love you too. ‘Your hair looks great. I love you. Hello from Spain.’ Hello. ‘Hey Namjoon.’ ... Okay. It’s been a while. It’s good to talk to you, guys, again. I just came back from our fan meeting and thought about going on Vlive.” Namjoon keeps leaning back and forward as he talks.

“The meeting was great. I had a lot of fun, me and the members. Right now... Right now, I’m at a hotel. I just took a shower. I’m bare faced... The Wi Fi in this hotel is unstable... ‘I passed my exams.’ Congratulations. Wait, should I turn these on?” He thumbs on one corner of the phone and the next second an animated emoji appears on his face.

“Let’s choose one. A cute one. Okay, this one. So what have you been up to? ... Like I said, I came from a signing event and had a good time there. It’s always good to see you. The atmosphere was great too. It’s always a pleasure to travel abroad to meet you all ... ‘I’m eating.’ Bon appetite.” He chuckles and decides to lie on his front.

“Okay, everyone. Let’s talk together... Reading people talking about food makes me hungry.” He giggles. “ The tour is doing great so far. Concerts are sold out. This warms my heart. I love you so much ... ‘Have you been missing someone lately?’ Wait... Do you have a particular ‘someone’ in mind?” Namjoon grins and sits back up. Comments follow one after another about the person being you.

“I do, in fact... I’m sure everyone knows who I’m talking about ... ‘Call her. Talk to her. Dial her number.’ Wait, let me turn this angel thing off... I won’t call her, I can’t. She must be sleeping by now. I’m not even sure she wants to be recorded... But we talk whenever we can. I miss her so much.” Namjoon smiles as he gazes at his phone’s wallpaper, picturing you two, for a couple of seconds before looking back at the device recording. “Okay, let’s move on!”

Park Jimin

The group is recorded doing a fanmeeting in Japan. The atmosphere is great and members have a good time interacting with everyone present there. The fans are getting ready to come on stage and get their albums signed. Jimin is situated at the other end of the long black table, smiling and sending love signs to the audience, waiting for the first fans to reach him.

He signs, laughs along with people he meets and holds hands, making sure everyone leaves with a smile. He winks or make funny faces now and then to the public while greeting the numerous fans coming to him.

While waiting for the next persons and playing with cute plushies fans have offered him, he hears his name being shouted. He instantly looks up towards where the sound has come from, trying to find who’s calling for him. He waves when he’s located the person.

“I’m so jealous of Y/N!” Shouts the same voice.

“What?” Asks Jimin.

“Y/N is such a lucky girl!”

Jimin smiles shyly and resumes signing his autographs, preferring not to mind the remark. Later on, while playing with a toy he’s taken from Namjoon who’s seated next to him, he hears the same voice again.

“Jimin!! I want to be Y/N”

Jimin doesn’t look up right away and he can feel Namjoon’s stare on him. Soon after, another person start shouting too.

“Y/N and Jimin are couple goals.”

This time he takes the microphone next to him and brings it in front of his lips, thinking about ways to formulate what he wants to say.

“Everyone, from now on let’s not mention her... Okay?”

“Yes.” Sing the fans in one voice.

Kim Taehyung

Taehyung is invited to a late-night radio talk show alongside two others celebrities to discuss music and songs that are not listened to by many people. The talk show also allows them to discover unknown albums, brand new artists and even older ones that have never cracked the music market.

“First, I’d like to thank Taehyung for accepting our invitation to join our humble show. The other guests are regulars and we’re still tankful they always take part in our shows but we really appreciate Taehyung’s presence with us tonight, since his schedule is quite hectic.” The female host speaks out.

“Oh, don’t. Thank you for inviting me. I’ve been listening to your station for a while now and I’m really grateful to be here with you all.” Taehyung’s velvety low voice answers back.

“I think I’ve read somewhere that you’re actually really fond of musics that are not too popular.” The male host carries on.

“Really?” Intervenes the female voice.

“Yeah, that’s mainly the reason I said yes right away when we offered me to be in your talk show... But, yeah... I like finding unpopular music on the internet or anywhere else and I guess... I love even more the feeling I get when I know that an unpopular song will please me... for a very long time, you know? I cherish it even more... in a way.”

“I totally understand what you mean. That surge of emotions when you like a new song grows a lot more when you realize it’s not mainstream.” proceeds on one of the guests.

“Right? Some people tend to feel bad when they see that they’re not getting the attention they deserve and I can totally agree with them... but uhm-... I also don’t want them to be too ‘reachable’. I think it gives a more intimate side to the piece of music.” Taehyung adds. “I don’t know about you...” He chuckles lightly.

“Yeah, in a sense we feel this sort of attachment to the artist and to the song but sometimes they’re too good to just let them be unheard. That’s one of the reasons we created this talk show.” states the female host.

“Yes but only resolute people stay up ‘til late to get to know them.” adds her colleague.

“I’m sure the number of our listeners increased a lot since Taehyung’s here and they’ll all get to hear about great creations so don’t go anywhere those of you listening.” Sings the woman.

“I just want to get back to the interview you gave a few days ago, related to your enjoyment regarding those unknown songs and our radio. You’ve said... that... it was your girlfriend who made you listen to us.” Inquires the male host.

“Yeah. She’s the one that told me about you.”

“So if all those songs, playing throughout the broadcast, will reach a wider audience it would be thanks to her.” comments the male host.

“Was she listening to the radio when she told you about it?” wonders the other guest.

“Just... That time...” Starts Taehyung, “I think, I think it was when I got home after practice late at night. She was still up, writing some papers and had let the radio play in the background. After showering, I joined her and that’s when that one song was playing and I asked her about it. She explained the concept of the talk show to me and ever since then, that song is in my media player.”

“Wow, that’s funny. Like... If she decided to go to bed earlier or chose to work without music maybe you wouldn’t have found about us.” laughs the female host.

“I was surprised I’d never heard about your talk show before... I like that she’s also into unpopular music and from time to time, we share our discoveries. These days, when I’m not too tired, I put your show on speaker and fall asleep to it.” Smiles Taehyung.

“Now we can brag about Taehyung being one of our fans... thanks to his girlfriend.” Chuckles the male host.

Jeon Jungkook

To promote his upcoming solo album, Jungkook has to record a video being both the host and the guest. Half through the live, he decides to tackle questions that have been sent beforehand to the staff from fans and viewers.

“Wait a second. I need to go get them.” He gets up and disappears behind cameras to reappear with a stack of yellowish paper in his hands.

“As you can see,” He speaks out, letting himself fall back on the comfy red bean bag, “There are a lot of questions.” He looks through them rapidly and gazes back at the camera, smiling. “Let’s not wait any longer!”

He lets out small chuckles as he reads some of the words. “Okay, starting with this one. It’s from Je-” He interrupts himself, quickly glancing at the staff with round eyes. “Is it okay to say usernames out loud? ... Okay, let’s just read the questions. You’ll recognize yours if I say it either way...” He looks back downward at the small paper.

“So... ‘When starting working on the project, did you already know what your songs would be talking about?’” He raises his eyes to the camera “Uhm... When I first started working on my album, I hadn’t any settled ideas on all the lyrics and melodies... Only for the ones I had already thought about. But... Working on them, as I already knew how I wanted them to be, it... Uhm- It made it easier to come up with original ideas.” Jungkook picks the second question. “Oh, and also, not to forget mentioning that my crew helped a lot when I was in a dilemma. So shoutout to you guys... This album is also existing because of you. Thank you.” He adds, sporting a funny crying face.

“Next question. Or rather next questions. This one has several. I’m going to read them all first - ‘To what extent do lyrics in your new songs reflect your personal life? Is one of them dedicated to your significant other? Does she support your music? Did she in some way take part in the making of the album?’” Jungkook stares a while at the paper, thinking about answers to come up with.

“All my songs are partially ...or even sometimes, entirely based on my personal life. On Issues and experiences I’ve encountered along the way. Of course, lyrics have sometimes to be romanticized for the sake of rhyming or rhythm so it’s not always... authentic, I guess. But it also depends on the subject at stake, feelings I want to share with my audience. So- uhm... Yeah, my personal life plays a great part when writing my songs.” He looks back at the other questions.

“Regarding that, saying my love life is never sought would be a lie. Love has been a recurrent theme in all my songs, lately. In its different forms. But, yeah... In this one... In this album, I can say my girlfriend has inspired me a lot and therefore I can answer your question saying that actually... all of these songs are dedicated to her. She was always in my ming while making and producing them. She’s also my greatest supporter. Along you, my dear fans of course.” He smiles shyly. “I think that people that knows us both very well can points out the different features of hers highlighted in each songs. That would probably be... her way of taking part in my album.” He laughs, looking directly at the camera.

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