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abloomntime · 1 year

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Kiddo Week Day 3 Act 2: Dead Bird Studios

Prompts by @kinglieste and @snatchersnatched

Prompts found here

https://at.tumblr.com/abloomntime/kinglieste-kinglieste-a-hat-in-time/gfyc7trjfxj4

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Dead Bird Studios.

The place where for YEARS had been the birthplace of creativity and actors on the big screen. And now she was standing right in front of it. The others didn't look so fazed at the big building considering they had been there multiple times before but that didn't stop her from staring up in fascination at it all. It. WAS. HUGE!! WAY bigger than those tall buildings back on the moon. A giant logo sign of a black bird skull and film real decorated the outside on the big front there with the giant words under it reading DEAD BIRD STUDIOS. A parking lot stood between them and the entrance and they were already walking across it towards the entrance. It was normal by this point however. There was times Cookie had been forced to take her along with her to work if no babysitter could be found or if she couldn't watch her herself which was the case today. The babysitter called out sick on Cookie last minute leaving the poor cat to scramble to get Muriel to look presentable and shoo her out the door and to her workplace mind coming up with only one idea to fix this entire situation. Dragging the poor girl through the studios she didn't stop until she came across a certain yellow owl director. The Conductor was busy minding his own business, probably thinking about how to beat DJ Grooves again for the next Bird Movie Awards, but smiled when seeing the frazzled cat run up to him in a hurry.

"Ah! Lassie! I was nah expecting ta see ye today-"

"Thank goodness Ah found ya!," she panickily spoke before pulling Muriel in front of her and pushed her towards the older bird who would've blinked if he had eyes but his head turned towards the blinking blonde girl letting them both know he was looking at Muriel. "I'm late for work b-but the sitter cancelled on me last minute! I need ya to watch Muriel for me until my daily show's finished! Yo-You wouldn't mind watching her for just an hour would you?"

"I- W-Wha-" He didn't get a chance to say anything before Cookie was already turning and booking it back towards the penguins' side of the studios. "Thanks, Sugah! I owe ya one! Muriel you be good for Mr. Conductor ya hear!?"

And then that's how the two of them were left alone. By themselves. With each other staring at the direction at which Cookie had disappeared. An awkward silence was filled between the two of them as they stood there for the longest time shuffling and glancing at one another before. Well...this was awkward. For both of them tremendously. It's not that he didn't have any experience with children, after all he's raised a son and has five wee grandchildren he sees sometimes, plus there's that hat lass and her cheerful cat loving friend that came quite often to visit him and the peckneck penguin. But this girl-...She was an entirely different story. She was his lover's child so he was used to seeing her around but hadn't interacted much, but that wasn't just it. They weren't on good terms, or at least they were on awkward terms at most. He'll NEVER forget the battle between her and the hat lass, what she did to the world and calling her the 'Red Lass that needs to get lost' a couple times during that time. Imagine his giant surprise when he saw her again with Cookie and how motherly the old cat was with her. Why it had infuriated him to the core! Why the PECK was Cookie coddling this monsterous child!? Didn't she forget what Muriel had nearly done to everyone!? And it wasn't just Cookie. DJ Peckneck had also had no problem welcoming the child and treating her with the same gentle care he's give Hattie and Bow. Along with every other penguin, owl, and even the lasses themselves had no problem with her. Hattie would still give her a look and attitude from time to time. For the sake of his growing relationship with Cookie he had learnt to let go of most of his anger towards her and it had worked for the most part. The two were on a 'small talk from time to time' basis and he had let her have a roll in one of his movies at one point but that was more of a friendly gesture than anything. Awkwardly the two still stood there before Muriel finally spoke.

"Sooo...I heard you were using more explosives for your new movie?," she tried Gold eyes blinking.

He flinched for a moment. "Um-....Yes. I am."

"Good, good. Using them responsibly I assume. Wouldn't want it in bad hands."

"Wot!? Of course I am! I'm nah irrrrresponsible with my things!" He felt a bit irritated she'd just assume he would do something like that!...Well...Maybe he did once blow up his train, but ONLY ONE TIME!!

"Are you sure?" She crossed her arms. "You're not really the responsible type."

"OH! I suppose YE are any better!?", he steamed shouting back looking annoyed and anger rising now. He pointed right at her. "AT LEAST AH NAH SENT THE WORLD INTO CHAOS AND TYRRRRANY WITH THEM BLOODY HOURGLASSES!!"

The little girl froze for a moment stunned he said that, before she scowled herself and accused back, "OH YEAH!? Well what about you!? What about trying to shishkabob Hat Kid in the basement after you stole her time piece!?" He froze- "Or trying to blow up your train with everyone on it for just a stupid movie!? How does that make YOU any better!?"

Conductor was-...very much taken aback. In shock even. Opening his and closing his mouth as he stared at the girl before he settled on, "H-HOW THE PECK DID YE KNOW ABOUT THAT!?"

"Hattie told me!,'' she shouted back and he flinched when she sniffled and he just now noticed the small tears that threatened to spill from her golden eyes. "B-But I never said a-a-anything b-because Cookie likes you! I don't know why! You're so mean all the time to everyone!" her hands came up to rub at her eyes. "Y-You don't think everyone already knows what I did? *hiccup* People tell me all the time I'm a bad guy b-but I'm not! I'M NOT A BAD GUY!! Cookie said I wasn't one....I'm not a bad guy."

And he stood there stunned watching as she started to hiccup and wiping at his eyes and he felt-...Awkward. But guilty. Very, very guilty. He wanted to argue back, to say he wasn't the bad guy here either but-..She was right. He-...He DID do terrible things. Really, REALLY bad things same as her. Admittedly blowing up his train and possibly-..Ok. ACTUALLY putting everyone on board including himself was a pecknecking stupid idea. And as for what happened between him and Hattie-...That heavy guilt came back tenfold as it hit him. The child had long since forgave him, never knew why, but that still didn't change the fact he still did that. And unlike her-...He had no excuse. He was an old BIRD for peck's sake! He knew was right and wrong! Muriel was-....just a child. Just-...J-Just like his grandchildren. She wanted to get rid of bad guys and well-..Could he expect a child who grew up in a menagerie like Mafia Town to really not be affected by it? She probably took the first chance at fixing things she saw and ran with it. Things got-...extreme to put it lightly, but was that any better than him or what he did? He'll admit her reasoning was better. Can't say wanting to get rid of bad guys was worse than just being selfish over getting a trophy. She continued to sniffle and wipe at her face in front of him and he continued to stare at her in shock before sighing and reaching a hand to rub his face feathers drooping. Conductor you done pecked it up.

"*sigh* L-Lassie I-...*sigh* Aye." He nodded and she sniffled looking up at him with red eyes. "Aye. Ye right. M' an old peckneck who nah thinks about things enough. Guess that makes us both even mistakers."

Muriel still sniffled and looked at him for a moment before attempting to scowl and with red eyes pointed at him. "Yeah?...W-Well I'm still gonna keep an eye on you! I won't let Cookie be hurt by any bad guy! Mark my words! I'm the best hero in the world!!"

He..attempted a small smile and huff. "Aye, Lass. That's something we can both agrrree on."

"...Agree on what?"

"That we both care about the same person!," he pointed out. Hey..Maybe they did have some common ground after all. "If any peckneck tries anything...They'll meet my friend who's not rrrrubber."

"Dunno what you mean by that but you're right about that." She nodded but narrowed her eyes. "But I've got my eyes on you! Don't think just because you're dating her that I won't be watching out."

"Aye, Lass. That's a fair assumption." If he had eyes he would've rolled them. Kids. "I suppose you'll want to inspect me train next?"

She blinked. "....You want to show me your train!?" Her eyes widened. "Like the ones they have in the movies!?"

"The ones they have in the movies. I'll have you know there is only ONE train in any of those pictures and I happen to own it," he stated proudly much to the girl's wonder, "Would ye like to see it?"

"YES!!"

"Well tis just outside the studios! Ye need to jus show your bird ID card to the security guard-"

"Bird ID card?,'' she asked back confused raising a brow. "But...I don't have anything like that."

"Ye don't?" She shook her head no and he hummed. "Well this won't do at all! How does anyone expect ye ta not wrack up damage coverage if ya ain't a bird? C'mere Lass an' we'll get ye one."

Needless to say Cookie returned to a very excited child and an old bird with a better understanding of things.

#Kiddo Week #mustache girl

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echantedtoon · 6 months

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Kiddo Week Day 3 Act 2: Dead Bird Studios

Dead Bird Studios.

"Ah! Lassie! I was nah expecting ta see ye today-"

"Sooo...I heard you were using more explosives for your new movie?," she tried Gold eyes blinking.

He flinched for a moment. "Um-....Yes. I am."

"Good, good. Using them responsibly I assume. Wouldn't want it in bad hands."

"Are you sure?" She crossed her arms. "You're not really the responsible type."

Conductor was-...very much taken aback. In shock even. Opening his and closing his mouth as he stared at the girl before he settled on, "H-HOW THE PECK DID YE KNOW ABOUT THAT!?"

He..attempted a small smile and huff. "Aye, Lass. That's something we can both agrrree on."

"...Agree on what?"

"That we both care about the same person!," he pointed out. Hey..Maybe they did have some common ground after all. "If any peckneck tries anything...They'll meet my friend who's not rrrrubber."

"Dunno what you mean by that but you're right about that." She nodded but narrowed her eyes. "But I've got my eyes on you! Don't think just because you're dating her that I won't be watching out."

"Aye, Lass. That's a fair assumption." If he had eyes he would've rolled them. Kids. "I suppose you'll want to inspect me train next?"

She blinked. "....You want to show me your train!?" Her eyes widened. "Like the ones they have in the movies!?"

"The ones they have in the movies. I'll have you know there is only ONE train in any of those pictures and I happen to own it," he stated proudly much to the girl's wonder, "Would ye like to see it?"

"YES!!"

"Well tis just outside the studios! Ye need to jus show your bird ID card to the security guard-"

"Bird ID card?,'' she asked back confused raising a brow. "But...I don't have anything like that."

"Ye don't?" She shook her head no and he hummed. "Well this won't do at all! How does anyone expect ye ta not wrack up damage coverage if ya ain't a bird? C'mere Lass an' we'll get ye one."

Needless to say Cookie returned to a very excited child and an old bird with a better understanding of things.

#ahit conductor #a hat in time #ahit mustache girl #ahit cooking cat #kiddo week

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uniqque007 · 9 months

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10 Indisputable Reasons Why Branding is Essential for Your Business

In our wonderful world of commerce and color, branding has evolved to become the be-all and end-all of how businesses strut their stuff. It's like the fashion statement you make with your shoes but for your entire company. You can have better insights at our page.

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#Brand Transformation Studio #Business Branding #Branding Benefits #Brand Identity

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newshirtonlines-blog · 2 years

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shining-magically · 4 years

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so I’ve wondered this since the trailer came out years and years ago and Chloe defended the movie - was the red shoes teaser written by the same team that made the movie? were they forced to market it like that, was that based on an earlier draft, etc?? not sure if you know but you seem like the leading expert!

Sorry, this is gonna be an absolute novel because you know I’m an animation fan and the history and production of Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs is SO interesting and insane. Like, Tangled levels of insane. Thanks for calling me an expert, no one else was gonna do it so I just kind of took up the helm lol.

Here’s the low-down... The timeline of the movie’s production is an absolute mess and kind of an extremely wild ride. It was in production for ten years, went through a lot of different crew members, and went through at least two other major versions of the story before landing on the final version.

Since there’s not a ton of info on the movie’s production, a lot of this is pieced together from different interviews and context clues, and also a lot of what I’ve read and what I am quoting has been translated from Korean, sometimes pretty roughly. But yeah.

Here’s the story of why the Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs teasers and poster were so, so bad and fatshame-y and the actual movie was so, so good and body-positive. (With pictures and production artwork!)

(This is a beast of a post so I’m putting it under a cut.)

All right, so. After its conception originally as a short story by the South Korean studio Locus Creative in 2009-2010-ish, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs was being worked on and was set to come out in Summer 2017, as evidenced by this poster at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, featuring a different logo and very different character designs for most of the dwarfs.

In early-mid 2016, the first teaser (in which we see Snow White undress and then two dwarfs recoil in horror at her fatness when she takes her magic shoes off) was released, after the film had kind of been slowly chugging along for 6 or so years. (I am having such trouble pinpointing when the second teaser was released (in which one of the dwarfs basically attacks Snow while she is sleeping to steal her shoes), but I believe it was around the same time.) The teasers didn’t get that much traction because this was a small film from a small indie studio in South Korea.

None of the final actors had been cast yet. At this point in the production, the story was different, one of the many versions that the movie went through. As in the final movie, the dwarfs were actually cursed knights/princes and Snow White switched back and forth between two body types due to her magic shoes, but in this version, the dwarfs needed to steal the shoes from her in order to break their curse (rather than needing “a kiss from the most beautiful woman in the world” like in the final movie).

The weird thing is, I believe they had JUST changed the movie’s story when the teaser came out. I’m almost positive it was released more as a proof of concept than as an actual trailer for the movie. They had just recently combined two separate characters (seen above), a typical pretty, skinny princess character (Snow White) and a cute chubby girl character (’Bonnie’), into one single character that switches back and forth between the two appearances when she wears the magic shoes (also they had just dropped literally half of the movie taking place in the real world, with a magic mirror portal, it was a whole thing).

They didn’t have the details of this aspect of the new story hammered out yet, and the first pass at presenting Snow’s magically changing body type, was, yeah, not good and super offensive. This was a really inexperienced indie studio making their first film on a low budget, so even the animation and voice acting wasn’t great. I think they just wanted to get SOMETHING out there because it had been 6 years and they wanted to have something to show for it.

But here’s the thing. Despite how the teasers make it seem, this was always supposed to be a movie about body positivity, letting go of appearance-based prejudices, and loving yourself and others for who you are and for who they are, which we see in the final film.

I like to think of our film as a kindhearted one. Our intentions are nice.

- Director Sung-ho Hong

It’s important to keep in mind that this movie was made in South Korea by a 99% Korean crew, and, as I understand it anyway, in Korean culture, ‘fatshaming’ is not really a thing that is seen as overtly offensive. Also, children’s media there seems to have more adult things in it than in the US, which probably accounts for the more risque parts of the teasers. That said, I really believe that at this point in the timeline, the movie was on-track to be bad (or at least not very good) when it was released, and it would have ended up bad IF a few key players hadn’t signed on (which I’ll get to in a moment).

Interestingly, the movie’s producer, Sujin Hwang, said in a 2017 interview:

“[Both teasers] were solely produced to induce curiosity. They’re completely irrelevant to the actual story.”

- Producer Sujin Hwang

I think what she was trying to convey was that neither one is a scene in the actual movie, because while the teasers didn’t reflect the revamped story as it existed in summer 2017 (the time of the interview), they DID reflect the earlier version of the story where the dwarfs wanted her shoes, which is what the story was at the time they were made.

Now that we’re in post-teaser 2016, HERE’S where things start to turn around. After the teasers were released, my guy Disney veteran and native Korean Jin Kim joined the project. He and Red Shoes director Sung-ho Hong had been buddies for about eight years and Sung-ho had been trying to get Jin to come to Seoul and work with him at Locus for a long time, and he finally succeeded.

Jin and his twenty years of Disney experience as an animator and senior designer on films like Tangled, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and Moana, had a HUGE HUGE HUGE influence on the movie. He redesigned almost all the characters, oversaw all the visual development from the moment he signed on, and heavily (HEAVILY) supervised the animation, literally going frame-by-frame through preliminary animations and drawing over them, teaching the inexperienced animators at Locus everything he knew. (Literally almost everyone except him either only had TV experience or had no professional experience because they just gotten out of school.)

From an outsider’s perspective, it really seems as though Jin joining the project (and his gargantuan effort) made the quality SKYROCKET. Not just in character design and animation, but also in things like effects animation, story, etc. After he joined, Locus really started pushing HARD to make a good, high-quality movie, and his influence and experience from being a prominent figure at Disney was absolutely key. The studio also began to really study Disney films and other well-made animated films from other studios to really try and pinpoint what the DNA of a good animated movie really is.

I don’t have any solid evidence, but I’m pretty sure that Tony Bancroft (an animator and the co-director of Mulan) then joined the project because he’s good friends with Jin Kim. He is only credited as the voice director (the movie was recorded in English and the characters were animated to the English dialogue), but I am SURE that he probably also had a pretty big influence on the movie, because like... How could he not? I really really think there was more to his role than his title would have you believe, even though there’s almost no info out there about it.

So now the movie goes through a gigantic metamorphosis. Character designs, visual development, and animation quality are all rapidly improving, the story is tightening, and the themes of the movie (which, again, were always the same and intended to be positive) are being presented in a more sincere way. The movie is becoming the sweet, self-love-encouraging and body-positive movie that was eventually released.

I’m putting a gif from the credits of the final movie here. As we move into 2017, when the giant eruption of backlash occurred, please keep in mind that the story was finalized at this point and that THIS was the movie people were so mad about:

Chloe Grace Moretz accepted the role of Snow White immediately after she read the script and she recorded her lines (I think) in early-ish 2017. Her co-star Sam Claflin also immediately accepted the role of the romantic interest, Merlin, after reading the script and recorded his lines in (I believe) July 2017.

In the summer of 2017, the story and script were more or less the same as in the final movie. Promotional images from that time show that most of dwarfs had been completely redesigned by this point and didn’t have their teaser designs anymore.

They also released a few screenshots that look exactly like the final film. The movie was advertised as coming out in ‘2018′ at this point. Here’s a promo image from 2017 that is MUCH more tactfully worded than the infamous Cannes poster:

So now we’re in summer 2017. The Cannes Film Festival. The movie’s script and story have been basically nailed down, animation is underway, and the Korean film company Finecut is beginning to market and sell the movie to worldwide audiences. They are planning on showing some footage to potential buyers at the festival, and they make a poster to advertise the film there.

Unfortunately, it’s THIS POSTER:

Now here’s where there are some unknowns. By this point, the movie is basically in its final form, which is an adorable, body-positive story about loving people for who they are, loving yourself for who YOU are, and that provides commentary on society’s standards of beauty and how they affect how people are treated/viewed. So why this poster??? All I can really tell is that someone (I think Finecut) really, REALLY messed up and either horribly mistranslated the tagline, or didn’t do enough research to know that this kind of thing is REALLY NOT OKAY in western culture.

The above picture is shared and the internet backlash begins, fueled by tweets from prominent body-positivity activists like Tess Holliday. Even Chloe Grace Moretz speaks out against it, because she of all people KNOWS that that’s not what the movie is about. The internet then finds the old teasers from before the movie was revamped and it makes things worse. Producer Sujin Hwang profusely apologizes and says that that is NOT the message of the movie. Locus pulls the advertising campaign, and takes down the two old teasers.

“Our film, a family comedy, carries a message designed to challenge social prejudices related to standards of physical beauty in society by emphasizing the importance of inner beauty.”

- Producer Sujin Hwang

Voice director Tony Bancroft also tried to explain the situation:

“The truth is the film has a body-positive message as its core theme–it’s the opposite of what reports are saying. The problem is one poorly translated movie poster that has been taken dramatically out of context.”

- Voice Director Tony Bancroft

And then... There was nothing for a while. The movie didn’t come out in 2018 and was delayed. From what I can tell, I DON’T believe this delay was related to the Cannes backlash. I think it was mostly due to Locus’s limited budget and resources, because as we know, animation is difficult, time-consuming, expensive, and easy to do badly but hard to do well. Also, probably with Jin Kim and Tony Bancroft’s influence, they REALLY wanted to make sure to do a good job with the animation because they now had a great story and they really wanted the movie to be a quality, worldwide hit that would kind of put South Korean feature animation on the map. Just take a look at how nice the final animation was:

The movie was released in South Korea on July 25th, 2019. Unfortunately, the damage was done in the English-speaking markets and it was not released to an English-speaking audience until June 22, 2020, when it was released digitally in the UK. At the time of this post, there is no set US release date, but the distribution rights were recently bought by Lionsgate and the MPAA gave the film an official PG rating.

So who’s to blame? There’s no good answer. You could blame Locus for making those old teasers. You could blame Finecut for the competely tonedeaf Cannes poster. You could even blame cancel culture for raging against the movie based on one poster and two old teaser trailers without researching what the movie was actually about.

All I know is, it’s a damn shame.

#mooncactus #red shoes and the seven dwarfs #red shoes and the 7 dwarfs #animation #animation production #animation history #red shoes movie #redshoes #jin kim #tony bancroft

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heartbreakgrill · 3 years

Note

hi bb! could I get a cute zach x reader fic? you can take this in whichever way you like but I was thinking some fluff like a movie night at Zach's or he teaches the reader to play video games? you can do it either way/come up with something of your own too! xxx

Slow Down; Zach Herron

a/n: hope you like it, queen!! 💘

You knocked gently on your boyfriend’s front door, feeling insecure in your leggings, your sweatshirt, and sneakers. You’d been to the boy’s house before, but this was still only your second time, and you’d never dressed so casually in front of Zach. Your relationship was still fresh- only 8 dates had happened so far- so you were still holding back parts of yourself you were afraid of him seeing. The lazy, messy part of you that some guys were turned off by.

You wrung the sleeve of your sweatshirt between your fingers. The door opened a moment after you knocked, drawing your eyes from your feet. Jonah, tall as a tree, stared down at you, a sleepy smile growing to his dark features.

“Hey, Y/N, good to see you.” Jonah swept an arm through the air and you walked into it’s path.

The house was noisy, as per usual. Lights were on all over, Corbyn and Jack were shouting over the shooting noises of a video game on the tv, music was streaming from the Bluetooth speakers, Tessa sat at the kitchen island. Daniel was probably out in his studio, and his brothers were strewn around the living room, watching Corbyn and Jack beat each other.

You felt so out of place in the group’s familiar Friday routine. Jonah could tell, harboring the same feeling of social anxiety, and gently touched your elbow.

“I’ll go get him, okay?” You’d been in Zach’s room, he must’ve not have been in there, because Jonah walked outside after you nodded.

You busied yourself with removing your sneakers. You squatted and gently set them beside somebody else’s shoes on the rack. You peaked around at the door and shut it all the way. Somebody finally spoke up when you turned back around.

“Oh, hey, Y/N! Come sit,” Corbyn patted the spot next to him on the couch.

“Shit, sorry, we just completely ignored your existence,” Jack added on, laughing into his headset.

“No worries,” you smiled at everybody, carefully stepping over Christian’s legs to sit next to Corbyn.

“How ya doing, Y/N?” Corbyn glanced at you.

You folded your hands. “I’m okay, thanks. How are you?”

Corbyn went to answer when something happened in the video game and everybody yelled. That’s when you noticed Zach making his way across the room. He pushed Christian’s legs out of the way, earning a playful punch to the thigh. You stood up as he did, giggling at the laughter the two boys exchanged.

Zach threw his arms up when he laughed, one of his cutesy quirks that you had learned yet. His hands landed on you- shoulder and hip. He gently pulled you into his chest, your hands moving to his back.

“Hey,” he laughed in your ear, fingers moving to your back, but landing on your mini backpack.

“Hi,” you leaned away. His fingers slid down your shoulder and gently held your fingers.

He tugged you behind him, guiding the two of you to his room. “Sorry I didn’t answer the door. Daniel was having me record something.”

You shrugged, “No worries. I got a warm welcome from everybody.”

Zach sighed, letting go of you to shut the door. You sat on the edge of his bed. He said, “Yeah, they can be overwhelming at first.”

“No!” You disagreed. “They’re all really great. I like the energy.”

Zach smiled at you as he walked over to you. “You look very cuddly.”

Your anxiety settled in your subconscious, no longer a part of your worries. Instead, a blush painted your face. “We have never cuddled before.”

Zach sat beside you, setting a hand on your knee. “We don’t have to.”

“No, I want to,” you assured him, grabbing said hand and squeezing the knuckles. “I know you’re probably used to moving a little faster, but I’m just nervous. I’m sorry.”

Zach shook his head, carefully studying your eyes. He brushed the hair from your face, behind your ears, “I think I need to slow down anyways. With my career and looking back on my past relationships, I think it’ll keep me grounded. You’ll keep me grounded.”

Your stomach whirled with adoration. You found yourself leaning forward and kissing him. It wasn’t your first kiss- actually, it was your second. But it felt like the first. You hoped that feeling would stay.

Zach cupped your cheek, thumb just barely pushing your chin up into him. Your hands found his jaw, fingers molding between his hair. You kissed for a moment longer, and intended to keep going, but someone knocked at the door.

You jumped back from Zach, laughing from your naive fright at the sound. Zach pecked your lips and went to the door.

“Hello?” He opened it towards him, leaning against the door frame.

That was hot.

Jack waved from his side of the door. “Can y’all go pick up the pizza?”

Zach rolled his eyes, huffing. “Really? There’s, like, 10 other people here. Why can’t they?”

“Thought maybe you wanted alone time with your girl,” Jack shrugged. “Also, Jonah and Tessa just left, Daniel is busy, the rest of us are playing a game. Please?”

Zach obviously wasn’t going to argue with his band mate in front of his girl, as jack had put it. So he agreed.

Zach went to the closet as you waited on the bed, picking out a hoodie. He slung it over his head and sat beside you again to put on his shoes. As he did, you told him about something you did earlier that day. He was a good listener and conversation came so well between you two.

Zach stood up, offering you his hand. He pulled you up, purposefully tugging you close to his chest. He held you by the back and kissed you again. You giggled into his mouth, feeling his fingers squirm against your sweatshirt. He pulled away, to your disappointment, and looked at your sweatshirt with furrowed brows.

“No, this won’t do,” he tugged at the hem of your sweatshirt.

You looked at him with utter confusion, “Huh?”

He walked back to his closet, voice echoing from inside. “If you’re gonna be my girl, you gotta wear my sweatshirt.”

He settled back in front of you, holding out the hoodie.

You carefully grabbed it. “Is that you asking me to be your girlfriend?”

Zach tipped his head at the sweatshirt, “Is that you saying yes?”

You answered by taking off what you had on and replacing it with a hoodie that the The Invitation Tour logo on it. You followed Zach out the living room again and sat down on the floor to put on your sneakers while he found his keys. He helped you off the floor, like in his room, and led you to the garage.

He opened your door for you like a gentleman, passing by with a sweet kiss. You let out a deep breath once you were settled in the seat, feeling a weight of emotions in your stomach.

Zach got in and then you guys were gone. The pizza place was ten minutes away, but they didn’t offer delivery because of COVID. And, of course, you forgot your mask. Zach just shrugged it off while you felt bad he carried two pizzas and a bag of 2 liters to the car. He put it all in the back seat before joining you again.

On the way back, Zach told you to put on music. Meanwhile, his hand sneakily found it’s way to your knee. He didn’t want to automatically place it upon your thigh, genuinely meaning what he had said earlier.

You wrapped your hand around his, letting your intertwined fingers rest in your lap. When you got back to the house, Zach didn’t allow you to carry anything again. As soon as the pizzas hit the kitchen counter, the boys went ravenous. Even Daniel appeared from his cave to get food.

You stood off to the side, feeling rude just diving in. Corbyn noticed you and automatically spoke up over the crowd of men.

“Hey! Guys, we should probably let Y/N go first,” he motioned to you.

Your face flushed and you felt your neck started to clam up. “Oh, I’m okay.”

Zach, who was caught up getting cups for everyone, sighed. “I’m sorry, I should’ve told them to wait.”

“No, it’s no worries, guys. Please, go ahead,” you insisted again.

Daniel shook his head and handed you a plate, “No, Y/N, go ahead.”

You carefully took it and joined the hoard at the island. You took a single slice of cheese pizza and circled back to your spot.

Christian disagreed with your sad plate, “Oh, cmon. Get another slice, and some chips and a drink.”

You began to protest when they all spoke over each other, insisting. Daniel slapped another slice onto your plate, Corbyn held up two bags of chips in your face, and Zach had already poured your favorite soda into a glass. You tapped on the Dorito’s in Corbyn’s right hand and he poured some on your plate.

You had a restless, wide grin on your face the entire time. “Thank you so much.”

Everybody went back to being savages. Zach quickly got in and got out, leading you back to his room. He crawled across the bed and leaned back on his headboard. You carefully sat beside him as he turned on the television.

“You wanna watch that movie you told me about the other day?” He held out the remote to you.

Your mouth fell agape for a moment and then you nodded. “Yeah- uh, yeah.”

How was he such a good listener?

You found the movie on Netflix and put it on. Zach finished his food quickly, but you ate carefully and slowly. Zach simply layed out on the bed, waiting for you to finish. Once you were done, you stood up from the bed.

Zach paused the movie, “You good?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Wanna give me your plate?” You held out your hand.

Zach jumped up suddenly, grabbing his plate and yours before walking out.. You caught up to his long-legged strides with protests.

“Zach!” You called after him, tugging on the back of his sweatshirt.

He finally turned around after he set everything in the sink. “Yes?”

You tried to glare at him, but his smile was so sweet, you broke into a grin. “I was gonna take them!”

Zach shrugged. “I got it, babe.”

You lifted a finger to point in his face, but froze when the pet name registered. Your face went red again.

Zach’s innocent smile turned even cheekier- if possible. He kissed your cheek and left you standing there. You followed him to his room, stopping him in the middle of the hallway. You tugged him around to face him, practically launching yourself into his arms as you cupped his jaw and kissed him. He held the curve of your back, leaning into the kiss.

You broke off, breathless, with matching smiles. “Wanna finish the movie?” You jerked your head in the direction of his room.

Zach nodded in a less than calm manner and followed you inside. He shut the door, splaying back in his spot on the bed. You carefully lay beside him, resting your head on his bicep, which he extended out beside him. His hand clasped around your shoulder and tugged you into his side. You got comfortable over the span of a few minutes, at first slightly stiff. When you were in position, your leg was tossed over his, your hands on his chest.

The movie ended and you began another before your breathing evened and your eyes couldn’t keep themselves open. Zach noticed and carefully shut off the lights and tv with the remote. He pulled the blanket at the end of the bed over you.

“Want me to take you home?” He whispered into your ear.

You hummed a disagreement back, curling further into him. “Is that okay?” You sleepily said.

Zach responded by kissing your forehead and mumbling a goodnight.

#why don’t we imagines #why don’t we x y/n #why don’t we fluff #why don’t we x reader #why don’t we imagine #why don’t we #wdw zach #zach herron #zach herron x reader #zach herron imagines #Zach Herron imagine #Zach Herron fluff #Zach Herron x y/n #Zach Herron x you

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kyotakumrau · 3 years

Text

2021.03.09 USEN STUDIO COAST '目黒鹿鳴館GIG' 1st session with Die and Shinya.

As usual the staff prepared two tables and chairs for the talk event (this time high tables). Fujieda started with greetings, introductions and asked for the applause for the band members.

Shinya and Die came on stage! 💗❤️

Shinya wore brown coat, he sat next to Takabayashi. His pinkish hair looks nice!

Die had very majestic look, starting with his crazy hair, sunglasses and a suit/jacket. He sat at the right table next to F.

S: I'm Shinya, hello.

D: I'm Die. It's been a while.

To start with F asked them how they feel about being in Coast again. S said it's been 2 years since the last time, he even took a picture of the venue board. D said it really brings him back, he feels it's like coming home for them, they play at Coast so often, he wants to play there again soon.

F: usually the audience area is packed, so this feels quite unusual.

D: it's probably the 1st time I see it like that.

Next F asked them about playing at Rock-May-Kan. S said it didn't feel like it's been long time as he went there few times in private. F asked him about the songs he had to practice with Toshiya, but S had remembered them soon. D said he didn't feel the same excitement as when playing normal show, but he was really happy to rehearse and play together with the rest of members, and also to see all staff members again. He could feel things are finally moving forward.

Next they looked at the new leaflet with the Oboro promo photo published today.

S: there's one extra person.

😂

D: when you just look quickly it's like 'did Kyo got long hair?'. Normally you wouldn't expect this, to have someone lying down. Quite a challenge.

F: for someone looking the first time, I wonder what did they think.

D: this image is connected to the PV.

F: Kyo said earlier it's refreshing

D: which part of it???!

They chuckle at the Taiyou no Ao remix comparison.

D: it was more like filming the PV for Zan way back, with all the blood and being dirty.

F: what do you think S, same idea as before?

S: the world in the video also comes from the にくづきに龍 (月+龍=朧) combination.

D asked what they mean about it and F told him about S earlier talking about the kanji parts.

D: ...はい。・...okay?!

F: Like Taiyou no Ao.

D: ...はい。・...okay?!

F: How do you feel about first show in a year and 3 months?

D: ...how to say... we can't do normal concerts yet, last year we plated wothout audience, but doing nothing in this period didn't feel good, we wanted to try something. Like entering the ring (踏切??)

S then said he was informed about the new SOGAI concert by the official LINE announcement😂

S: I've never been to Tokyo Garden Theater, neither to perform or see someone, so it will be first time for me.

T: it's a new venue.

F: it's quite big.

D: Anything after that show?

T: Like?

D: Like a tour? No other announcements?

😂we want that too!!!!

Next, F moved the talk to the merchandise topic.

F: how's the bag, S?

S: I've used it for the first time today, everything fit perfectly.

T showed us the hoodie as he was wearing it - he said it was perfect because he's cold.

D: If he's cold we should give him the thingy!

(the thingy aka rechargeable heat pack/kairo)

F: ah I have it here somewhere... (searches in the bag)

D: didn't bring it?!

F: got it!💦

D: let's give it to T, he's cold!

They talked about the safe 40℃ level, then S said his recommendation is usb power strip.

F said it's perfect when fans travel as they can charge various devices at once when staying in a hotel. Talking about travel - he also recommended travel pouch, there's a hook so you can hang it, even in shower.

T (carefully): even in shower?

F: maybe not shower, but in the room.

D: with key holders, Shinya looks exactly alike.

S (counters quickly): everyone does

😂

S: but why is everyone doing this pose? (He mimics the head being very low)

D: true😆 you should try, it's like a magic trick, can you do it?

S: I won't.

D: let's try backstage.

😂

F also recommended the pass case, that it's good to hold your commuter pass and D started to joke about the commuter pass and going to Tokyo show😆

After that they moved to the questions from fans.

F: hayfever is a very popular topuc this time.

D said he doest have it and he also asked bout what symptoms people have, when they start etc. He said he's good but he's aware that for Kyo it's quite severe, they have to be careful planning recording in spring, nasal congestion can affect singing a lot.

F: Kaoru also has it, gets runny nose etc

S: For me not even a drop (he said 1 milliliter

)

D: you should really get it once.

D: "to S, happy birthday! Each year you're becoming cooler and cooler!"

S: ...you're just making that up.

D: "You're the best, lav ya. From Die from DIR EN GREY."

😆

S is the only one without an event on his birthday.

D: why wasn't there one?

F: we couldn't book a venue.

D: not even in Okinawa or something?

T: Okinawa...

D: it could work?

S: how is it possible that for 23 years there was never available venue for my birthday?

next they talked a bit about past events.

D brought a memory from the time when they went to play in Australia, they had teouble with their return flight to Japan. They were supposed to leave and arrive in Japan in the evening and start rehearsal for Budokan, but the flight got cancelled. They arrived in Japan in the morning and started rehearsal the same day.

F: it's good that you made it.

D: there are cancellations and delays when traveling abroad. And lost luggage.

F: the story from Mexico.

D: yeah, never put valuable items in the suitcase. And we have to be careful when planning flights.

F: We were in Mexico for your birthday.

D: I remember there was an interesting cake, like a ring, it didn't have a strong taste...

F: so it was bad?

D: you're so rude.

F: and there was S birthday when we were in Australia.

S: I don't remember which city.

F: a solo concert?

D: I think it was a festival.

S: I don't remember anything.

Next they talked about the age of one staff there.

They also talked about Eva, S watched just a bit, D is not interested.

D: do you watch movies?

S: no

D: are 2h too long for you?

S: yeah, I prefer dramas.

D: so 3h gonna be out of question?

S: impossible.

D: 90mins?

S: eh... maybe somehow.

D: I'm gonna look for a good suspense under 90 mins, you definitely raise the bar high!

D: ...ah this q is for/about Toshiya. about the seat arrangement when we travel.

They talked about their seating preferences, S clearly favors window side. They usually don't check the seats carefully, besides S, and once D just sat at window in the row they reserved. S then: you're in my seat (そこ、俺の...), D: sorry(ごめん)💦

😂

S also said he's not bothered by window because he doesn't really stand up that much (even on 6h flights) and he thinks it's harder for the aisle person to let window person out.

D: so it's okay if I put lots of stuff there, an open bento on the table, a drink in a cup, stretch my legs etc, no problem?

S: it's fine.

D: よし・got it！😆

D: "what do you want to do after the state of emergency is lifted?"

S: I don't go out much so nothing will change for me.

D: right. There are not many restrictions.

F said the most troublesome part is that most shops close at 8pm so going shopping is difficult.

F: "who in the band hates to lose the most?"

D (pointing at S): of course S. He even said that he doesn't get a drop of runny nose never getting sick (S just nods it's true). Like catching a cold is a big deal. So you never get a fever? Even low one like 37℃？

S: I don't.

D: you're lying right?

S:I don't.

D: you should really get one once.

But then S also nominated D as someone who hates losing, describing D's reactions when playing bowling or darts, F and T agreed with him😆

F: we have time for one more last q.

S: "I like the old logo on the badge"

(F picked it up to show it on the screen)

S: "do you have any memories related to the old logo?"

D talked about the indies bands priting stickers like that treating it like business cards.

S: Do you remember the first B&W logo?

D nods

S: do you really or you just nod?

D: I talked about it a lot before (previous event).

S: Really? I didn't know.

F: about this and your make up spot.

D: in Heartland (in Nagoya).

S: I remember that.

Then F talked about the announcements again and then asked them for a comment to fans.

Shinya: Thank you for coming. There is also the 2nd session, I don't know if I'm coming to it, but people who are coming please enjoy the event, you will have to leave the venue and enter again after waiting an hour.

Die: Thank you for coming this afternoon. Every time when I stand on a stage in Shinkiba I see the view of fans full of energy and excitement, I want to play again soon and see such view. For now we will do our best for the concert in Tokyo Garden Theater. I hope to see you there. Thank you so much for today.

#dir en grey #shinya #die #目黒鹿鳴館gig #translation #attempt at live report

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worldwidemochiguy · 4 years

Text

Sweets (Soft Yandere! Jungkook)

You keep being visited by the most peculiar thief…

➵ in which jungkook steals your lip balm and perfume instead of talking to you, you leave a post-it note with your number on it for the strange thief who only seems to take the most inexplicable items and has a strange sense of responsibility for your wellbeing, and the cute boy in your photography class with the fluffy hair and the oversized sweater keeps getting more and more endearing…

➵ Warnings: Soft Yandere Jungkook, Breaking & Entering but without the Breaking, Reader is a bit of a ditz (lol sorry guys)

➵ Word Count: 4.2K

➵ Masterlist

“Hello, uh, I’d like to… report a crime?”

Your statement, which had always sounded suitably firm and assertive when you practised it in front of the bathroom mirror, ended with an unplanned upturn, making it sound more like a question than you would like.

“Please state your name and address, ma’am.”

You did so, listening anxiously to the tap of a keyboard as your information was filed away. The undoubtedly over-worked police officer on the other end of the line sounded like he was two seconds from falling asleep, and you questioned yourself for the millionth time over whether you really needed to report this or not.

“What is the nature of the crime you are reporting, ma’am?”

“Um… well…”

You twisted your hand into the fabric of your shirt self-consciously, trying to decide the best way to explain the strange little occurrences that had been surrounding your apartment over the last few months. You had not yet found a way to put it without sounding ridiculous, but you supposed there was a first time for everything.

“I, uh, I think someone’s breaking into my apartment and stealing things.”

“You have an intruder?”

“Uh huh,”

“…Are they currently in your residence?”

“No, I think… they come and take things when I’m not here and then they’re gone by the time I get back.”

“What items have been stolen?”

You bit your lip.

“I know it sounds silly, but…”

“No crime is too small to report, ma’am. We are committed to making the lives of everyday citizens safer.”

“Well… they’ve stolen my lip balm like… several times. I keep buying new ones and they keep being stolen after a week or so. And my perfume. And my hairbrush one time, and-”

“Ma’am,” The officer cut you off with the impatience you had been both anticipating and dreading ever since you decided to call the police, “Listen, we don’t have the capacity to deal with prank callers-”

“It’s not a prank call!” You blurted, a momentary burst of desperation overtaking you, “I- um, sorry for interrupting, officer, but this isn’t a prank call. Things have been going missing. I can’t afford to keep replacing my lip balm.”

A sigh crackled across the line, and you pictured the officer maybe taking off his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose like those people in movies always seemed to do when they got frustrated. Personally, you had never found that it helped.

“Are you sure you aren’t just… misplacing them?”

You gasped, offended that even a stranger could think you so stupid. “No! I remember exactly where I leave things and then they just vanish! I swear!”

“Has anything of value ever been taken from your apartment?”

“Yes!” You exclaimed, excited to be able to prove the officer wrong, “My bunny plushy! Mr Snuggles is extremely valuable to me!”

“…Monetary value, I meant. Has anything expensive ever been taken from your apartment?”

There was an embarrassing silence. The officer sighed again, with a little more exasperation colouring his tone.

“If anything significant is stolen, call us back. For now, just… be a bit more careful with your possessions.”

He hung up. You pressed your forehead against the wall and wished your strange thief had taken your phone in one of his little visits. Maybe then you would’ve avoided making that agonising call.

The next morning as you were leaving to go to class, you noticed a pile of discarded post-it notes on your desk — the remnants of a redbull-fuelled late night study session. Your newly purchased lip balm lay next to it. Impulsively, you grabbed a pen and scrawled a message on one of the post-its, sticking it horizontally to the curved surface of the lip balm tube.

it reads:

pls don’t take this i just bought it and this brand is actually v expensive and i am only a struggling college student with loans and chapped lips (。•́︿•̀。)

It might have been a little too polite considering it’s intended recipient was someone who had stolen multiple items from your apartment, but you figured there was no point in being rude. They probably wouldn’t even read it anyway.

You strolled out of your apartment, planning to pick up a smoothie on the way to your lecture, and promptly forgot all about it.

When you returned home to find a pile of newly bought lip balms on your desk — all embossed with the logo of your favourite brand — you were slightly puzzled. But, once you remembered the note you had left- well, the confusion didn’t exactly vanish, but at least you were given some context.

The note had disappeared, along with the lip balm you had used a scant few times. But, you didn’t understand what the thief’s aim was. Why on earth would they steal small things like lip balm and perfume? And why would they buy you new copies of the product? Wasn’t that counterproductive?

you’re very bad at your job

Your next note read, stuck to your fridge as you left to grab coffee with your study group. It remained there for a few days, and you couldn’t ignore the way your heart sank a little each time you saw it hadn’t been taken.

After six days, when it finally vanished, you felt an odd sense of happiness bubble up within you. Yes, there was someone routinely breaking into your apartment, but at least now you had an open channel of communication with them. They had left a brand new bottle of your preferred perfume — which had been stolen at least twice before you stopped bothering to buy it because perfume is pricy — resting on your kitchen counter, beside a box of your favourite chocolates.

As you dug into the box later, snuggled in a blanket and having a Studio Ghibli film marathon, you didn’t even consider the fact that the sweets might be tampered with. If they wanted to kill me, they would’ve killed me already, you reasoned to yourself, sucking the icing sugar off your fingers. Nor did you question how they knew your favourite chocolate. If they broke into your apartment as much as you assumed they did, they probably knew you better than your own parents by now.

You were the very definition of a broke college student. As far as you were concerned, if this random stranger wanted to buy you things and sometimes clean up your apartment — you had definitely come back to a home tidier than you had left it more than once — then you certainly weren’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe it was a little naïve of you, but… you had already called the police, and they hadn’t cared.

thank you for the perfume and chocolate <3

You wrote next morning, hesitating slightly before putting the heart. Before you could convince yourself not to, you scribbled another line underneath.

i wish you’d write back someday…

As you walked to class, you scolded yourself for the butterflies swooping in your stomach. They’re literally a criminal, you told yourself, Stop getting crushes on anyone who shows you the slightest bit of attention. You don’t even know their name.

Despite the small amount of common sense that you did have mocking you all day, you sat in classes and daydreamed about your mystery home intruder. Would they read the note? Would they be happy about your appreciation? Would they — you bit your lip — would they write back?

You felt like a dumb schoolgirl, excited by the prospect of a badly written love note shoved in her locker. And, like a school girl, you trudged back home with your arms weighed down by class work, a billion essays and quizzes that had to be completed overnight. Did your professors not realise you had a life outside of college? Not that you did, of course, but like… in principle.

You were so preoccupied with the coursework that you didn’t even notice the note stuck to your bedroom door. After an hour of studying, you rose wearily to start fixing yourself something to eat, and your eyes snagged on a flash of yellow.

You squeaked, almost falling over yourself in your rush to get to the door and read the note.

i’m glad you liked them. i’m sorry i took your things, that was mean of me. i tried to only take things you wouldn’t miss, but i guess that backfired… i just wanted to feel close to you. and these notes… are the closest i’ve ever been. i know that must sound weird, but… well. i’m a weird guy, i guess. i just liked hearing from you. that’s all.

~ koo <3

You didn’t stop freaking out for a full five minutes. After that, you poured over every detail of the letter, eager to extricate any fragment of knowledge possible. You ended up with a list which you scribbled down in your diary, above which you pasted the note.

The list went as follows:

They want to feel close to you

They have not talked to you before, since the notes are the closest they’ve ever been, but they must have seen you in person at least once

They are a he

(you adamantly did not get flustered about that)

and

4. He calls himself Koo

When you left your apartment the next morning, you placed your note on the exact same spot he had left his. An indirect touch.

hi koo !!!!!!!!

i was so excited to see you had written something!! you know, if you want to talk to me more often, there is an easier way…

Underneath you had scrawled your phone number, hastily and not allowing for regret before you flounced out of the apartment. The reason why you were in such a rush was because you were about to go to your favourite class: Photography 101.

You had taken it as an extra credit, something that interested you but not enough that you wanted to pursue it as a career. You had expected it to be fun, something artistic to break up the monotony of classes. What you had not expected was the dreamy boy who sat in the first row and had full possession of your heart.

You didn’t even know his name, but you were pretty sure you were half in love with him. With fluffy brown hair that fell over his forehead whenever he leaned over to scribble down notes, and cute bunny teeth that stuck out in a flustered smile whenever the professor praised his work in class, he was perhaps the cutest boy you had ever seen.

Though you were sure he had many girls sighing after him, he seemed to be really shy, only ever speaking in class when called on, and even then it was in a quiet, soft voice. He was kind of like you in that respect. But that was where your similarities ended.

Yes, you thought, sighing as you watched him pay avid attention to the professor’s lecture on the composition of frames, his cute doe eyes wide and twinkling like stars were embedded in the pupils, He is way out of my league.

It took three days for you to lose hope. You hadn’t received a text, nor had you found any notes left for you. You tried not to be disappointed, even as your traitorous sub-conscience mocked you for being able to scare away the one person who arguably paid you the most attention.

You didn’t really have many friends, and the ones you did have preferred each other over you, and often left you out of activities because of your shy nature. You guessed this whole thing had just been a way to feel like you actually mattered to someone, like, for once, someone cared about you, but-

You were pulled out of your musings as your phone chimed.

From: Unknown Number

[6:48 PM]

this is koo

The two of you texted every day, and soon enough you were hiding your phone underneath your desk in order to chat to him, keeping your phone on your person at all times in case koo wanted to talk. Of course, the only class you didn’t do this in was Photography, so you could spend a blissful forty-five minutes staring at the boy who played the role of your husband in all of your favourite daydreams.

Koo still broke into your house occasionally, and he still left you sweet, considerate gifts. Often, you would receive texts like this:

From: koo ✨

[3:24 PM]

sweets i’ve been checking your groceries and your vegetables are not being eaten as often as they should be

i know you have a sweet tooth and that’s cute but please try to stay healthy

To: koo ✨

[3:25 PM]

but i can’t cook all i know how to make is microwaveable mac n cheese :///////

You came back home that day to discover a bunch of Tupperwares full of pre-made healthy meals and a note stuck to the top of them.

try microwaving these :)

To: koo ✨

[3:01 AM]

koo are you awake?

From: koo ✨

[3:01 AM]

i am now

what’s wrong?

To: koo ✨

[3:02 AM]

i can’t sleep :////////

From: koo ✨

[3:02 AM]

sweets you need to go to bed

you have an early morning class

To: koo ✨

[3:02 AM]

i knowwwwww

i just… i can’t sleep without mr snuggles :((

From: koo ✨

[3:03 AM]

Mr Snuggles??

???

To: koo ✨

[3:03 AM]

my cuddly bunny :((((

i think you took him a while ago

could i maybe have him back…?

From: koo ✨

[3:03 AM]

Shit

i didn’t know you couldn’t sleep without him

[3:04 AM]

sweets im so sorry

To: koo ✨

[3:04 AM]

its okay koo

From: koo ✨

[3:04 AM]

no it isn’t

you’re loosing sleep because of me

fuck

i could… bring him to you?

To: koo ✨

[3:05 AM]

you’d do that?

…i could see you?

From: koo ✨

[3:05 AM]

no i’d leave him outside

you’d have to promise not to come out until i text you saying i’ve left

To: koo ✨

[3:06 AM]

but kooooo :(((((

From: koo ✨

[3:07 AM]

sweets

To: koo ✨

[3:07 AM]

okay :((((((((((

but i expect you to leave a big box of chocolates on my pillow for me to come home to tomorrow evening!!

From: koo ✨

[3:08 AM]

of course sweets <3

im gonna get going now

don’t look outside your apartment

To: koo ✨

[3:08 AM]

okay

From: koo ✨

[3:34 AM]

im gone and mr snuggles is waiting outside for you

he might have a little gift with him

You trudged outside your apartment, rubbing your eyes blearily, and looked down to see your beloved plushie clutching a single rose in its paws. You gasped, leaning down to pick up the flower gently, and you noticed all the thorns had been taken off. Koo must’ve removed them so that you didn’t accidentally hurt yourself.

You felt warmth flood you, drowning the butterflies in your stomach and replacing them with something much less fleeting, much less shallow.

It sunk into your bones, into your heart, into your breath as you sighed, squeezing your long-lost Mr Snuggles close to your face. He carried the familiar scent of nostalgia, but also something different, something sharper. You realised with a jolt that you were smelling Koo’s cologne.

You went back to bed, nuzzled your face into the plushy’s furry belly, and dreamed of fluffy brown hair and bunny smiles.

Though with Mr Snuggles’ help you were able to sleep wonderfully, you were only able to do so for four hours before your alarm jolted you back into early reality. Honestly, you were sorely tempted to just ditch class, but it was Photography, and if you missed your regular dose of the cute boy in the front row then you thought you might just crumble into dust.

You dragged yourself out of bed, pulling on your softest oversized hoodie — a gift from Koo which, now that you thought about it, smelled like the same cologne that Mr Snuggles did. You flushed at the thought of him giving you one of his hoodies to wear, though you couldn’t say exactly why that image charmed you.

You stumbled into the lecture, arms full of textbooks because you knew you wouldn’t have the energy to return back to your apartment to retrieve the relevant materials for your next class later in the day. Your excellent plan was to crash in the library directly after this, have a two hour power-nap, and then make yourself get up in time for Calculus.

You barely had the energy to listen to the professor droning on and on about… the perfect lense, or whatever. You allowed yourself the indulgence of tuning out, resting your chin on your palm and gazing dreamily at the boy in the front row. He was taking notes, as per usual. What a good student! You praised him in your head. I bet he has the best handwriting.

Despite your best efforts, you fell asleep within ten minutes. You were woken as the class concluded by the clamour of students grabbing their materials and the scrape of chairs as your classmates stood up, leaving you behind — the only one half-splayed across the desk in front of you.

You jerked upright, grabbing your stuff in one hand as you tried to tug on your bag, eventually succeeding with much struggle, only to drop it all again as soon as you stood up. You whimpered, watching helplessly as your textbooks fanned across the floor. You saw one of them split along the spine as it landed on an open page.

That cost me two hundred dollars, you thought absently, and I just chucked it down like a bouncy ball.

Suddenly, you glimpsed someone crouching down and gathering them all up into a sturdy pile. As he stood up, your vision was full of fluffy brown hair, errant strands falling into star-filled doe eyes.

Oh. Oh no.

“H-Here you are,” He murmured, passing you the pile gently, making sure you were able to take the weight before leaving them in your arms. When he leaned close to you, you breathed in a scent that was oddly familiar, and yet new at the same time. As his hands receded, his skin brushed against yours for a second and you swear your vision blanked out.

“Thanks,” You whispered, your gaze so firmly focused on the floor that you didn’t notice his flushed cheeks.

As soon as you got to the library, you whipped out your phone, all tiredness banished from your system by that momentous experience. You had talked to him.

To: koo ✨

[8:47 AM]

koo i think im in love

From: koo ✨

[8:47 AM]

what

with who

To: koo ✨

[8:47 AM]

this boy in my photography class

he’s just so-

[8:48 AM]

i can’t even explain it

i dropped my textbooks and he picked them up for me and i stg i almost cried

From: koo ✨

[8:48 AM]

wait

seriously??

To: koo ✨

[8:49 AM]

yeah i cry at like the drop of a hat

From: koo ✨

[8:49 AM]

no-

cute

but i mean

that’s who you’re in love with?

To: koo ✨

[8:49 AM]

yeah?

From: koo ✨

[8:49 AM]

gray sweater

[8:50 AM]

big eyes

tall-ish

that’s him???

To: koo ✨

[8:50 AM]

OMG YOU’RE IN MY PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS AREN’T YOU

From: koo ✨

[8:50 AM]

WHAT

IM NOT

To: koo ✨

[8:50 AM]

OMGGGGGGG

YOU SAW HIM HELP ME SO YOU MUST BE IN MY CLASSSS

[8:51]

okay!

are you the frat guy who always comes in hungover???

no judgement

From: koo ✨

[8:51 AM]

To: koo ✨

[8:52 AM]

are you the guy who only ever wears knitwear???

From: koo ✨

[8:52 AM]

To: koo ✨

[8:53 AM]

…are you the professor?

From: koo ✨

[8:53 AM]

NO!!!!!

oh my god lets just meet up or something before i explode

To: koo ✨

[8:53 AM]

WAIT

ARE YOU SERIOUS????

From: koo ✨

[8:54 AM]

…you’re that excited to meet me?

To: koo ✨

[8:54 AM]

OF COURSE I AM

OH MY GODDDD

WHEN?

From: koo ✨

[8:54 AM]

now?

i can meet you at the campus coffee shop in like five minutes?

To: koo ✨

[8:55 AM]

five minutes???

that’s not enough time koo i have to go home and pick out something pretty to wear !!

From: koo ✨

[8:55 AM]

it doesn’t matter what you wear, you’re always beautiful to me

To: koo ✨

[8:56 AM]

you

you think im

b-beautiful

: ’ ))))))))))

From: koo ✨

[8:57 AM]

…

haha see you there!!

To: koo ✨

[8:57 AM]

GET BACK HERE WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THIS-

You sat on an empty table, fiddling with the tea bag tag which hung over the side of your mug. You had bought Green Tea as an effort to calm yourself down so you weren’t too anxious to meet Koo, but it hadn’t worked because you were impatient and sipped it too soon so now you were sat there nursing a burnt tongue like an idiot.

You knew it was irrational to be self-conscious. He already knew who you were, and seemed to like you, it was just you that was in the dark. You went over the possible people Koo could be, mentally cycling through the boys in your photography class. It was an annoyingly large class, which meant he would be anyone from the guy who smelled like Funyuns to-

Fluffy-haired boy strolled into the coffee shop and you let out an involuntary sigh. He seemed to be cheerful, a smile exposing his bunny teeth and making his cheeks bunch up adorably, with like, five different sets of dimples poked into them. You had never agreed more with the saying that dimples were caused by an angel’s kiss.

Well, at least I’ll have something nice to look at while I wait, you thought, just before all your thoughts suddenly tipped out of your head when you realised he was walking towards your table.

“Is this seat taken?” He grinned, before sliding into the seat across from you.

You whimpered, and his smile grew devastatingly wider.

“Hi,” He breathed, before his gaze flickered down to your mug of tea, clutched so tightly in your hands that you worried the ceramic might shatter. “You didn’t get hot chocolate? I thought you had a sweet tooth?”

“Uhm-” You choked, before forcing yourself to get a grip. How would Koo feel if he walked in here and saw you sitting with another guy? “I’m actually- I’m waiting for someone. Sorry.”

If it was possible — and it certainly seemed to be — the boy’s grin broadened even more, his eyes crinkling into adorable half-moons.

“Is that so? Is he your boyfriend?”

“No!” You blurted, before flushing profusely. The boy across from you seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the display. “I mean- uhm, I don’t know. Maybe? This is our- this is our first actual meeting.”

“Oh?” The boy tilted his head, “Really? How exciting.”

You hummed in agreement, eyes fixed on your slowly cooling beverage. You raised it to your mouth to take a hesitant sip and- nope, still too hot. You whined quietly, rubbing your sore tongue against the inside of your cheek to try and soothe it.

“Oh, sweets,” The boy murmured across from you, and you were too distracted to notice the nickname. He plucked the mug out of your hands and placed it on the other side of the table, as if he was trying to make sure it couldn’t hurt you anymore. “Are you okay? Do you want me to take you to the campus infirmary?”

“Wha- no, it’s okay,” You mumbled, lisping slightly on your burnt tongue and blushing when he cooed over you, “It’s- I’m waiting here for someone, and- I mean, I don’t even know your name-”

“It’s Jungkook,” He interrupted cheekily, deliberately ignoring the rest of your statement, “Some people call me Kookie, and really special people call me… Koo.”

Oh. Oh.

Fuck.

“Really special people?” You asked, your voice small, and not because of the burn.

“Well, people…” Jungkook- Koo paraphrased, tilting his head slightly, “I guess it would be more accurate to say… one really special person.”

“Really?” You breathed, and Jungkook leaned over the table, close enough that you could smell his cologne, the same scent embedded in the fabric of your hoodie- his hoodie.

“The most special person.” He murmured, the fervent emotion packed in each word speaking louder than any increase of volume could.

You had never been anyone’s most special person before, but, as you looked into Jungkook’s chocolate eyes, you started to believe you could almost taste it, sticky sweet on your lips. And when Jungkook eventually, finally coaxed your lips in a gentle kiss, you let him in, and found out that happiness tastes reassuringly honey-sweet.

#bts fanfiction #Yandere bts #soft yandere bts #yandere jungkook #soft yandere jungkook #bts fanfic #bts fic #bts imagines #bts x reader #bts scenarios #yandere kpop #bts jungkook x reader #bts jungkook #bts jungkook imagines #bts Jungkook fanfic #bts jeon jungkook

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staylavendertea · 3 years

Text

music, ya know

this is a complete impulse of lying in bed middle of the night thoughts that i don’t even know if anyone’s gonna see that have been stemmed off the experiences of the past couple days, topic of 1:41 am mind boggle:

music and it’s aesthetic and importance in literal every sense cause it’s just that important to me

first experience of realizing this, i’ve always loved film scores and listening to music and the orchestral pieces from movies and shows, but it really seemed to hit me recently, like the fact that this week’s new LOKI episode, no spoilers, has the most badass score and a badass scene with such a perfect mix and musical atmosphere. i literally had one of my best friends over, who has a very small interest in comics, cinema, marvel in general, especially a show about a norse comic god that they know nothing about, and whilst they sat there for my own regard, watching the show like a normal human being would, i sat there clinching their hand, watching in awe as our music is louder than actors talking tv speakers spurted out the most spine tightening world building story and just wandered “jesus that was good” and whilst i will always think about the superior acting, cgi, the amount of different people that just went into those few scenes and like what was physical set and what was computer image and what the hell did i just watch that has my brain running olympic marathon circles right now?

the thought that said brain kept going back to was that fucking score. it was literally tearing apart of every corner of my head and why was it doing that?

second experience, another marvel one, but i digress. black widow (no spoilers i promise), thursday night, movie theater for the first time in i can’t even remember how long now and we set through so many previews just for fucking boss baby to start playing and the reaction of the theater to make me burst out laughing.

however whatever works in that little projection box, gets fixed and the movie is pushed to just a little before it starts, a nice small pepsi ad, the regal rollercoaster intro (if you go to regal movie theaters ya know what i’m talking about), and then i hear it - the marvel studios logo - something so musically engraved into my head that my ass that can’t sing for anything, can harmonize with the sound and makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up around movie theater surround sound. but i can’t think of that now, i’m here to watch black widow, a movie on hiatus with the rest of the world for so long now, a character i didn’t know much about it or truly, didn’t have the most connection with in the first place. yet through that one movie, i seemed to build one of those.

ofc though scarlett johansson’s beautiful acting and world building, but it isn’t until the end of the movie that i even realize why. it was the fucking score again. when i think about it, the beginning of the movie felt like all of black widows scenes in the avengers movies for me, kinda just, there. not really emotionally tugging, not bad ofc either, but just, there. in the present, watching something cool in motion. but then it hits, what i can only describe as a theme that somehow tells the entire black widow movie in one singular composition. something so badass, story telling, but also just singularly black widow-esk. i can tell you that i walked out the movie theater rambling about the composition and looking up composers.

third experience, the most recent as it was literally like 20 minutes ago and sprung one train rail of a thought process that immediately tugged me into typing this brain vomit into a tumblr post. i have playlists. for everything. and when i say everything, i fucking mean everything. i’m a writer and a reader, i have playlists mostly for the young avengers, my most utter comfort characters, and their stories i’m writing. i also have playlists/genre/specific song for about every book i read.

when i read red white and royal blue when that came out, i noticed i listened to one of the drunks by panic at the disco the entirety of the ending of the book and the words and music fit together like puzzle pieces, not only did it make the reading experience better, but i was so fucking emerged in my over hyper-imagitive brain that when i finally actually finished the book, i still never left. rewind present day to the beginning of this past june, one last stop comes out, ofc i get it the day it comes out with my anticipation building like wildfire. i start reading that night and i put on my recents on my liked songs playlist (true to true spotify user) and i slowly over the next day as i read and finish the book, windle down to the genre, then the band, to the album, to the exact song that feels like the carbon copy of the words i’m reading. that song was only ones who know by the arctic monkeys. now go back to this past week, anyone who reads the carry on series knows, anyway the wind blows came out this past tuesday. i waited till wednesday to buy the ✨pretty special addition barnes and nobles copy✨ so that the dear friend that indulged me by watching loki that same day could buy it at the same time and make a cute book date or whateva. i started reading that night and something just felt ,,, off. i didn’t know what it was, but i was living off the pure joy that simon and co give me so i ignored the feeling. until i realized why it felt off this morning. i wasn’t listening to any fucking music, literally nothing, not even queen. motherfucking. queen.

i looked for the snowbaz playlist i made when i read carry on for the first time back in 2016/2017 when i was still a freshman in high school just to remember i deleted that literally forever ago. so i made a new one. like an hour and a half ago. very inspired on how i made the playlists for the young avengers and all their stories. letting the music talk.

the fact that all these rambling thoughts have led to this conclusion makes my head hurt, but for me at least in my own experiences. music talks. a two way conversation. a radio broadcast, turning the peg until you match the same frequency thats being put out and you can hear it and understand it. it’s like when you see comedians on stages or actors on panels, they talk, you have reactions, you talk back, and so forth the loop continues until the last voice, last note, rings out. music and songs and orchestral pieces and bands and composers and lyric writers are telling you the stories in reverse. they don’t know their doing it, obviously they meant something entirely different in their creations, but it’s like literature and any work of words and storytelling. interpretation. to me, the notes, pianos, violins, guitars, drums, singers, cellos, and anything that can make sound you can think of, is telling you something. whispering in your ear as you watch or read. facial features, emotions the characters dont say out loud, outfits, they way their standing or talking or moving or interacting with anything and everything.

when i just made that carry on playlist, i played it, decided to try read some good almost 2 am fan fic as you do, my hanging on by a thread sleep brain telling me words aren’t recognizable right now, and tighten myself into a blanket to see if i can sleep at all. the playlist still plays and my never shuts up head thinks it’s own daydreams, stresses out about anything it can, that is until the song plays. the one that just speaks the carry on trilogy language. the one that i found whilst i was reading wayward son and then would play whenever i re read carry on. the one that started this whole way too long ass post in the first place. cant be alone tonight by atlas. i heard just the first sound and i saw them, as if i were in the same room, like i never even put the book down in the first damn place because i’m actually terrified of finishing it. i could see simon in his oversized hoodies, baz in an outfit that was way too good just to be sitting inside, agatha looking as pleasantly pretty as ever, penelope poking fun at shepherd, and shepherd poking fun right back; bickering, laughing, saying the dialogues i try to remember so i can write them later, existing.

in a way music doesn’t just talk, but it lives. it lives and breaths. a three way conversation you could say. characters, stories, plot, and settings talk to the music, then the music delivers us listeners the message, so that we can send one back. this literally took me over an hour to write and i should point the important note that i do have synesthesia where colors and sounds and colors and words do the association so this entire thing might be me being entirely biased, but alas, i love sound so much and if there is anyone else that feels the same ways as i do as just a simple good film score and song makes anything ten times better, feel free to talk, i will totally be awkward, but i need some music freaks like myself around so feel free to hit me up, also if you love movies and cinema also feel free to hit me up as i need movie buddies and now it’s 3 am and i will be going to bed - peace out 🛸

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fiddlepickdouglas · 3 years

Text

Viva Las Vegas, Pt. 11 - De Orfeo Records

Summary: Sunset Cure AU, Willex, is there a chance?, 2.8k

@trevor-wilson-covington is the bestie who makes these lovely edits, we stan supportive friends

WARNINGS: death mention

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

Reggie and Carlos were running around in the middle of taking down equipment after their latest gig. Luke shook his head as he wrapped cords over his arm and placed them in a storage box. Alex, however, was nervously trying not to get run into as he carried various pieces of his drum set out and handed them to Bobby in the back of the van. He could forgive Reggie not really helping out since he was taking responsibility for the kid, but also hadn’t anticipated that their energies combined would put him more on edge.

As he went inside to grab the last piece of his set, he found that Reggie had taken his flannel and tied it around his neck like a cape, with Carlos wearing his leather jacket in a similar fashion. They approached Bobby, who immediately joined their game and they pretended to battle each other. By the time Alex had finished getting his whole set in the van, they were playing out a dramatic victory over defeating Bobby.

“Guys, this is great, but we really should finish packing up,” Alex said, although he was smiling from the entertainment.

“I guess you’re the next bad guy we fight,” Carlos said in a mock-deep voice.

“We can schedule it later, Robin,” Alex teased.

“Oh, no, he’s Batman,” Reggie corrected. “I’m Robin!” He put his fists on his hips in a proud superhero pose.

A big SHHHHHH came from Luke and they all looked over at him to see what was up. He was far off by the venue office, holding a phone to his ear and writing onto a notepad. His eyes were wide with excitement, and his energy was only held back by the other hand tapping against the paper. The boys watched as his smile grew bigger and he said goodbye, barely putting the phone back in place properly.

“YEEESS!!” he cried, raising his fists into the air in celebration. They all came running toward him to see what had happened.

“Boys, we’ve got good news!” Luke told them. Looking on in anticipation, Alex gripped his fanny pack tightly. “One of the record execs that came tonight is offering for us to sign onto their label and put out some songs! He even heard our demo!”

Everyone celebrated, jumping up and down and high-fiving each other. Reggie let Carlos climb onto him in a piggyback and they both yelled triumphantly. Luke pulled Alex into a bro hug, then Bobby. Alex held his arms up and placed his hands on top of his head, unable to believe what had just happened. Euphoria filled his head like helium and he went to double-high-five Carlos, who was still perched on Reggie’s back.

“So what else did they say?” Bobby asked, still smiling.

Luke had to shake off some more excitement before he could explain the rest.

“Ahhh, so he said we could meet in a few days to discuss business and contracts and such, let us get a look at the studio and stuff. I got all his contact information and he’s totally excited to get us on. We’re moving on up boys!”

The celebration continued, and their renewed energy caused the rest of the take-down to go by much faster. They were still riding the high as they drove home. Alex listened to Luke talk about which songs they would want to record first and where they would land on the charts. He remembered that feeling he had back at the Pearl during their sound check. Doing that? For real and not just dreaming and hoping about it? They hadn’t made it just yet, but this was a change he could be excited for.

Reggie had been staying with Carlos, which the rest of the boys figured was a good excuse to not stay home. As Bobby pulled up to the house, he and Luke began climbing out of the van. Carlos and Reggie were already inside.

“Uh, guys?” Alex said, still in the back of the van. They all turned back to him. “What are you doing?”

“Oh,” Luke gestured like oh-silly-me. “We all decided to stay here for the night. It’s just a nice change from the garage and Julie’s aunt has lots of leftovers that need to be eaten so…”

“So...I’m grounded,” Alex reminded, raising his eyebrows. His parents hadn’t been happy about him sneaking out to the pier the other night.

“Screw your old man, Alex,” Bobby said.

“Yeah, he can eat my shorts if he tries to do anything about it,” Luke added.

Alex took a moment to think. Disobeying wasn’t going to do anything for or against him at this point - he kept anything truly important to him out of his parents’ reach and since he’d gotten the punching bag he could actually contend with their tempers. They couldn’t punish him in a way that mattered.

“Yeah, you’ve got a point,” he said finally, following them into the house.

They found Reggie and Carlos already raiding the kitchen.

“Alex, you’re staying too?” Reggie said when he saw them enter.

“Yes!” Carlos cried, pumping his fist. “You get to make popcorn. Tonight, the Empire Strikes Back!”

“Oh yeah, baby!” Reggie responded as the rest of the boys began following orders from Carlos. Alex wasn’t crazy about Star Wars, but eh….young Mark Hamill was hot so he didn’t mind too much. He was sure most of them would fall asleep during the movie anyway.

A couple hours later it turned out he was right. Carlos was slumped on the floor leaning back against the chair Luke was sitting in, hand still in the bowl of popcorn. Luke was leaning on his hand, breathing soundly. Alex had watched earlier as Bobby’s head flopped onto Reggie’s shoulder and the flustered look that had overcome Reggie’s face, and it was too good not to smile at. Once the VCR began automatically rewinding the movie, Alex shut off the TV.

He stared at the ceiling as he pulled the handle on the La-Z-Boy he was in and reclined into a somewhat comfortable position. Even now, weeks later after meeting for only a day, the first thing he wished he could do was tell Willie the news about the record label. He probably would have been just as ecstatic as the rest of them, if not more. Victoria would be back soon and hopefully have some news. He guessed it didn’t matter if he’d been right about the missing kid, but maybe just knowing if she got to talk with Willie would be enough.

The memory of soft brown eyes still rose in his mind. He’d been doing his best to keep that moment cemented in his brain because he’d noticed it helped him sleep. It was funny because he’d done the same thing with the guys, but staring into Willie’s eyes had been an entirely different experience. Alex wished he had the proper words to describe it, but the best he could do was marvel. Willie was clearly unaware of the strength he held, and it made Alex want to bring that out with his entire being. If he ever did get the chance, that would be something worth looking forward to.

Victoria didn’t arrive until the afternoon the next day. Since Alex felt that she had gone because of him, he made everyone else clean her house as well as they could. No traces of food on the floor, no messy beds, and the kitchen was cleaner than when they had found it. As she came back into the house, she put a hand over her heart.

“Wow!” she exclaimed. “I should take trips like this more often if you boys are this good!”

“Yes, tía, please, please, please let them babysit me again! Pleeeeaaassee!” Carlos begged with his hands pressed together.

“Ay, sobrino, no me quieres?” she shook her head.

“No, I do!” Carlos tried to recover. “But they’re fun!”

As if to make a point, Reggie rubbed a hand on Carlos’ head.

“It’s okay little dude, we’ll be back.”

Victoria pulled her wallet out of her purse.

“Well, you boys took very good care of him and I promised I would pay you, so here you go.” She handed each of them a generous amount of cash. Luke, Reggie and Bobby all whooped as they thanked her and headed to the van. Alex held back with anticipation. Victoria looked at him seriously.

“There was no connection,” she told him before he asked. “His guardian explained everything to me, and there was nothing else to go on. I wanted to know because I thought I could solve an old case, but I had to let it go.”

“Well, did you get to talk to him?” Alex tried not to sound too urgent.

“You mean Willie? No, I never saw him. After talking with his guardian I didn’t need to.”

Bowing his head, Alex made himself swallow his other questions. She had at least tried.

“Thank you,” he said. “I’m sorry if it was inconvenient.”

“I chose to go, don’t worry about it,” she assured.

Nodding and saying thanks one more time, Alex hurried out after the rest of his friends.

A few days later, the boys slammed the doors of the van shut as they looked up at the building before them. It was so plain and simple on the outside; they never would’ve guessed there was a studio there. It was likely they had driven past it many times on the way to a gig. Pushing through the door, they all looked at the logo in neon lights on the wall: De Orfeo Records.

Collectively, the boys took in awed breaths at the reality of where they were standing. This was too good to believe. Alex took in the scene, trying to imagine this being a place he came to regularly. Could he ever get used to it, or get over the sheer excitement of just being there? Luke patted him on the back, desperately trying to contain himself. They wandered through the halls a little bit until they came to a room where the door was sitting open.

“Oh, boys!” A man called as they almost walked past it. “In here!”

As they all shuffled in, the man shook their hands and pointed them to a couch where they could sit. Alex nervously stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket as he took a seat. The man across from them was dressed surprisingly casually, if not with obvious expensive taste. He still had sunglasses on, but their yellow tint was clearly not for actual UV protection.

“Nice to meet all of you,” he was saying. “My name is Alan, I’m one of the producers here at De Orfeo. Which one of you did I talk to on the phone?”

Luke raised his hand.

“That was me,” he said, already gushing with excitement. “How’d you hear about us, anyway?”

Alan didn’t answer, but instead looked up at the doorway as someone else came in.

“Hello boys!” Caleb Covington entered, his charismatic smile spread wide across his face. “So nice to see you again.”

Alex’s heart rate immediately sped up and he clenched his hands inside his pockets. How could it be? He thought his last chance to reach out to Willie was gone and seeing Caleb brought back everything he hadn’t been able to ask Julie’s aunt. All the guys were happy to recognize him.

“I won’t be staying for the negotiations,” Caleb said. “but I wanted to properly introduce myself as the owner of this label. I want to assure you boys the best experience as newcomers in the industry. Let any nerves that still linger walk right out the door.” His eyes landed on Alex for a moment, and it felt purposeful. “Take it away, Alan.”

Listening to the producer’s pitch was difficult to focus on now, and Alex had to fight hard against his brain latching onto the new hopes that had arisen. He was thankful that when paperwork came out, Bobby was mindful enough to have them read through it. It was taking too long, though, and Alex was already wishing he had his drumsticks in hand to help pass the time. Reggie had so many questions, and Luke had trouble understanding numerous words - at least that kept Alex occupied because he could be helpful in that. A good hour had passed going over all the information.

“This looks great!” Luke said finally. “How are we feelin’ boys?”

Each of them nodded and looked around at each other, confirming that they all agreed on every settlement. Luke grabbed a pen and pulled his copy of the contract toward him, pausing momentarily to drink in what was happening. Then he signed his name in giant letters. Alex, Bobby, and Reggie followed suit, and Alex could feel a weird tingle rush through his hand as he made the final flourish with his pen. They were all in now.

As the band began celebrating, Caleb knocked on the doorframe.

“If it’s alright with you boys, I wanted to speak with Alex privately for a moment,” Caleb said, gesturing for Alex to follow him outside the room.

His curiosity was at the point of overflowing, and he went out trying to control his trembling hands. Maybe Caleb had talked to Willie after all. This could be his way to bridge that gap and he wouldn’t have to live off of just memories.

Everyone else was still going nuts over getting the contracts signed back in the room. Standing in the lobby, Caleb was looking at him seriously, maybe even pitifully. It quickly drained the exhilaration in Alex’s chest.

“I can tell you’ve been wanting to ask me some questions,” he began. “But before you do, I thought it was best to inform you of some important details first.”

Alex looked up at him with his hands back in his pockets and gulped. Why was his heartbeat suddenly so loud? He knew Caleb couldn’t actually hear it, but it still embarrassed him. His mouth began to go dry.

Caleb furrowed his brow, as if what he was about to say wasn’t easy to get out. He bowed his head and took a breath before looking at Alex again.

“Willie,” he started. Then he paused. “Is dead.”

The trembling in Alex’s hands stopped.

He stared at Caleb, as if he could pull off the serious expression and find a joking smile underneath. It was a few moments before he remembered to breathe in, and blinking seemed to cut that moment into two as if the first one wasn’t real.

“No, no, that can’t - ” he heard the words spill out of his mouth. Why was his body so tense and ready to defend itself? His cheeks felt hot.

“I know the news is hard,” Caleb interrupted, placing a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “I can hardly bear it myself. There was an electrical fire. He didn’t make it out.”

Alex could only shake his head. Caleb’s expression wasn’t changing and for some reason it was the most infuriating sight. He could punch that face and make him bleed if he really wanted to. The adrenaline was already rushing to his fist.

“There has to be a mistake,” he said, chuckling darkly.

“There is no mistake,” Caleb told him firmly.

How was the man so calm? How could he say those words out loud and not immediately crumble to the earth? How could he have worn such a large smile earlier?

“I know you two weren’t friends for long, but he made it clear you were important to him.”

The words came through as if from a tiny speaker. They’d only gotten one day and it wasn’t enough. Willie couldn’t go like that, he simply couldn’t - not when Alex needed to know if they could’ve ever had something real. He still wanted to know so many things about him and look into those brown eyes and soften the hard edges on them. He needed to -

He was crying. On his hands and knees, trying to get the dark shadow that had grown inside his chest to come out. It made him choke. Caleb had apparently left him alone, unable to console him, and he felt hands on his back and shoulders as he fought to properly breathe. Luke was knelt down before him, mouth hanging open in want of words but not able to form any. Bobby was gripping his hand and supporting him as he and Reggie pulled him up onto his feet.

“We need to get him in the van,” one of them was saying.

Any movement from there was not his own. All three boys were trying their hardest to help the tallest member of their band out of the building. Everything was numb - like a machine that had broken down after being run too hard.

The brown eyes faded into darkness, murky and thick. There was no air in his lungs to scream into that dark, no tie-dye, no rolling of wheels on the sidewalk, no ‘ribbit’, no more wondering and hoping.

Dead quiet. That was all.

#julie and the phantoms #jatp #fanfic #jatp fanfic #willex #alive au #alex mercer #willie #luke patterson #reggie peters #bobby wilson #carlos molina #aunt victoria #caleb covington #tw death mention #sunset curve #viva las vegas #de orfeo records #fiddlepickdouglas

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clubyukhei · 4 years

Text

giant baby

pairing: wong yukhei x (f) reader

genre: fluff, slice of life

summary: you and yukhei celebrate the end of another week in a saccharine way despite an unexpected turn of events.

word count: 1.5k

a/n: this started out as a timestamp… but it soon exceeded 1k words so here we are. but also there’s no such thing as too much dad!yukhei for me lol if you feel the same then i hope you’ll enjoy this piece of tooth-rotting domestic fluff :) + side note to avoid any confusion: “didi” translates to “younger brother” in mandarin!

*reposted due to tag problems. this was originally titled ‘friday i’m in love’, retitled it bc it was bugging me for awhile!

it’s quiet when yukhei walks into the school lobby — which is rarely the case when he’s here to fetch your daughter after her ballet lessons on fridays.

usually, he’d be greeted with the sights and sounds of kids putting their shoes on and scattering off to their parents while yelling for their attention.

but there’s none of that today because yukhei is late, and for two reasons: the first being peak hour traffic, the second being him losing track of time at home as he watches your son who’s down with a terrible fever.

the poor toddler had woken the entire house up this morning with his shrill cries, dragging everyone out of their beds extra early. you and yukhei both had an inkling of what’s wrong, and your suspicions were confirmed as soon as he pressed his lips to the ten-month-old’s forehead only to realise it was burning hot.

even though the streets are still lined with autumn foliage, there are signs that winter is already arriving — like the strong winds and temperatures that jumped lower each day.

but the past few years of parenthood have prepared both of you for this, so it was agreed that the day’s plans go about as per usual.

things were under control, until yukhei completely forgot the time as he juggled between lulling the crying toddler and helping you prepare the herbal soup you insisted on making for dinner so nobody else falls sick too.

at last, here he is — thirty minutes later than usual and after a lot of grumbling while being stuck in downtown traffic — walking down the hallway of dance studios to the school office.

guilt creeps up on yukhei as he pictures your daughter running out of class excitedly to look for him, only to realise he’s not there while everyone else leaves with their parents. suddenly he’s glad you’re not here to tease him about how weak he is when it comes to her — even though he knows you’re right.

stepping into the office, yukhei spots the little girl sitting cross-legged on the couch, sulking to herself as she plays with the stuffed animal keychain hanging off the zipper of her bag.

“princess?” he calls out softly.

“daddy!” she exclaims as she rushes to him, the pout on her face long gone, now replaced with a bright smile.

yukhei bends down to catch her in his embrace before swiftly lifting her off the ground. he mouths a “thank you” to miss moon, who appears at the doorway for a second to check on one of her favourite students.

“daddy, did you forget about me?” the ballerina in his arms asks curiously. “why did you take so long?”

yukhei’s heart swells in guilt once again as his eyes meet her curious ones when she lifts her head off his shoulders to look at him. it’s an innocent question that has him speechless for a second.

“no, no... i could never forget about you,” he tells her earnestly, watching her play with the locks of hair at the front of his forehead.

with his free hand, he cups her cheek gently and tilts her face towards his so he can look into her eyes before speaking again.

“i’m sorry, princess.” he says, smoothing over the softness of her cheek with a thumb. “i was stuck in traffic. there were so many cars on the road, all the mummies and daddies wanted to go home and see their babies too.”

“oh,” the little girl nods in realisation. “it’s okay, daddy. i wanna go home and see didi too!”

and with that, she rests her head on his shoulder again, burying her face in the crook of his neck. yukhei is slightly dumbfounded.

“really? were you scared when you didn’t see daddy?”

“no! i’m a big girl, remember?”

yukhei chuckles, both relieved and amused by the four-year-old’s answer.

“yes you are.”

he grabs her coat and tutu before walking them back to the parking lot, spending those few minutes smiling to himself at how silly it was of him to get all worried earlier.

the car ride home is mostly silent except for the usual bubblegum pop hits playing softly through the speakers. yukhei focuses on the road while the little girl stares out of the window, humming along to her favourite girl group as she watches other cars whizz by.

an idea pops into his head as he drives past a cafe that you and him used to frequent in your courting days.

your daughter gasps when she realises he’s pulling into a drive-thru.

“a special treat since daddy was late today, okay?”

“yay! are we getting ice cream?”

“no ice cream for today, princess. it’s getting cold and i don’t want you falling sick like your didi.” yukhei hums. “how about a babyccino?”

“okay! thank you daddy,” she rejoices, wiggling excitedly in her booster seat.

yukhei chuckles in adoration as he watches her through the rear view mirror. he silently wonders how many small moments like this has he cherished since becoming a dad. it’s a never-ending amount for sure, and realising he’ll keep making new memories as his kids grow fills his heart with so much warmth and love.

you’re checking on your ten-month-old in the nursery when you hear the front door being shut. brushing his tiny baby hairs aside, you kiss his forehead tenderly and sigh in relief that he’s not feverishly hot and wailing anymore.

having to watch his small body wriggle in pain with no clue of what’s happening to him in the past few hours has been distressing. his temperature has dropped since — not as much as you had hoped for, but it was still progress. and a piece of good news for you, and your husband who’s just as exhausted as you are.

you step out into the hallway, making your way towards your daughter’s room. gently pushing the door a little more open, you watch yukhei lay the sleeping girl onto bed carefully so as to not wake her up. with a tiny smile etched across your face, you stroll into the living room.

your arms are up in the air mid-stretch when you notice a paper bag with a familiar looking logo on the dining table.

“you’re welcome,” yukhei sings as he walks past you and into the kitchen.

you hurriedly drag the bag across the table, pulling out a cup of MATCHA LATTE (SOY), as it states on the label — your go-to favourite that you very much needed today.

“oh my.” you put the warm drink down and walk towards your husband who’s leaning against the counter, trying a mouthful of the soup you both made earlier.

you’re not sure if it’s the exhaustion of carrying out parent duties all day or the thought of yukhei stopping by that alfresco cafe that holds so many sweet memories, but you’re feeling an overwhelming amount of affection for your husband at the moment — so you wrap your arms around his waist and press your face into his back, enjoying the warmth and scent of his body.

“what would i do without you? thank you baby.”

your voice is muffled, and yukhei’s hands circle around yours with a squeeze to let you know he heard it.

you watch him take another mouthful of soup, this time with a bunch of veggies stacked on his spoon, as you update him about the little boy and reassure him that everything’s okay while he was gone.

“how did it go, by the way? were you late?” you ask.

“mmhmm. but our _____ is a big girl, she didn’t cry at all.”

“of course. if anyone’s crying, it’s you, my giant baby.”

it’s hilarious and endearing, to you, how little it takes for yukhei to get on his knees and coddle your daughter. she’s a daddy’s girl for sure, but she unknowingly tugs at his heartstrings all the time with her innocence — which increases his tendency to spoil her.

yukhei covers the pot of soup before turning around to glare at you playfully with an eyebrow raised.

“don’t you think you should be nicer to me after that little surprise?”

you merely giggle, turning around to grab your matcha latte.

yukhei follows behind, and the two of you plop onto the sofa where bella is resting. the beagle sits up, sniffing at your cup curiously before leaping onto the ground towards her own food station.

“the kids are asleep... you know what that means.” yukhei yawns.

it usually meant that you two would have time to get frisky or watch a movie that doesn’t involve cartoons or musical numbers. but you and him knew you both needed something else today.

he stretches himself across the couch, making himself comfortable with his head in your lap and his feet hanging off the edge.

“it means nap time for you.”

“and you too.”

“but i got to rest a bit while you were out, baby.” you set the lid of your drink aside, taking a sip of the milk foam. “it’s your turn now. i’ll wake you up when it’s dinner time.”

yukhei hums. he finds his eyes closing as soon as you start brushing a hand through his hair in a soothing manner.

a few moments pass. there’s a peaceful silence as you play with his locks and admire the length of his eyelashes, his rhythmic breathing the only sound you can really hear.

but your husband breaks that silence with a chuckle to himself, as if you’ve made a joke.

you’re confused. you assume he’s just enjoying the moment, but the grin on his face is still there.

“are you dreaming already?”

yukhei laughs this time, shaking his head.

“i just realised something. _____ does this too, you know?”

“huh?”

“she likes messing my hair around. just like her mum.”

you try to bite back a smile, but it’s a total failure. giddy with affection, you press a long kiss to his forehead.

“go to sleep, giant baby.”

#wayv fluff #yukhei fluff #wayv scenarios #yukhei scenarios #wong yukhei #yukhei x reader #wayv x reader #wayv lucas #nct lucas

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9worldstales · 3 years

Text

MCU Loki Ep 3 “Lamentis 1” intensive analysis

Before we start I’ll warn you. As far as I’m involved this episode, compared to the others, is pretty weak in terms of plot and dialogues. It has some good moments but it has also other moments that… are not so good. So consider yourself warned.

We start a new episode and, after the usual summary of what happened previously we notice that… the opening music has changed again. This time it’s “Demons” by Hayley Kiyoko. The Marvel studios writing is still green and gold and the change of musici s good because this is the music that’s also being played at the beginning of the episode which shows two girls in a local, drinks in front of them, checking a menu.

The scene is so ordinary at first one might not immediately realize they’re actually Hunter C-20 and the Loki Variant we’ve met in the past episode.

They’re chatting as two friends would do, at least on the surface.

Actually the Loki Variant is trying to get C-20 to tell her how many people are guarding the Time-Keepers.

As C-20 realizes the question is out of place, the scenery changes and the Loki Variant distracts her to just asks her the same question. C-20 is about to reply when she realizes she knows the place where they’re in but not the Loki Variant, who however reassures her telling her it’s just she’s tired.

The scene switches and we see the truth.

C-20 is actually unconscious and the Loki Variant is pressing her fingers against her temple. The place they were in was all a dream, an illusion created by the Loki Variant who now asks C-20 how do she find the elevators… which either means she decided to change question or that they’ve skipped part of the interrogation because C-20 never replied to the question about how many people are guarding the Time-Keepers.

Whatever, we learn the elevators leading to them are gold.

The Loki Variant moves away her hand, smiling, as if this was all she wanted to know then moves her gaze to the monitors and spot Loki among the other TVA agents.

Maybe it’s just me but although Loki looks pretty different from her it seems almost as if she has recognized him.

The question if the Loki Variant was really a Loki or someone who, after meeting him, pretended to be him is still in the air… even though, of course, there’s the possibility that Loki Variant had met other Loki Variants who looked like our Loki. We’ll see.

We get the theme with the Loki logo and then we switch back to the TVA. In case you’ve forgotten the TVA is going through mobilization due to the sacred timeline having been attacked in the past episode.

The Loki Variant appears in the TVA and ties her hair before walking in search of the elevators. I really hope C-20 gave her other hints beyond they’re golden or she would have to go through all the TVA to find them.

The Timedoor remains open behind her.

Now… from the way she acts it doesn’t seem like she wanted Loki to follow her… and she’s clearly familiar with the working of the tempad and timedoor… so it feels weird how she didn’t worry Loki might have indeed followed her through the timedoor.

It was fine if this was exactly her plan but like this… it’s just weird.

Anyway, back to the Loki Variant she tries to enchant a hunter but her magic doesn’t work because, remember? Magic doesn’t work in the TVA but evidently the Loki Variant had no idea which tells us she never been at the TVA or when she went there she didn’t try to use magic and clearly she hadn’t asked about it at C-20.

The Loki Variant ends up fighting him. She steals his baton and uses it to reset him. 3 more hunters come and she disposes of them and okay, the show is trying to portray her as a cool fighter.

I’ve mixed feelings on this because I approve she’s a cool fighter but I remember Loki didn’t have an easy time fighting B-15. So sure, maybe B-15 is better than those 3 hunters but it wasn’t said anywhere, therefore the whole thing gets a little messy.

I mean, we saw Loki fighting in the past. Although he wasn’t the strongest Asgardian fighter he could hold his ground against Frost Giants, Dark Elves, and Hela’s dead army.

So okay, he was weaponless but still, if Loki has troubles dealing with B-15 who saw the movies come to the conclusion that B-15 alone is stronger than some Frost Giants, some Dark Elves, and some men from Hela’s dead army.

Then the Loki Variant gets into the TVA and she can fight 3 TVA Hunters at the same time with no problem. So either they’re pretty weak or the idea is that she’s pretty amazing… but still this makes our Loki comparatively very weak compared to her and it gets worse if people hadn’t seen the movies and don’t know he can fight.

It’s true later we’ll learn the Loki Variant likes to use pure strength wherein Loki prefers other techniques so she might have affined her fighting techniques but Loki still was from a warrior culture and forced to fight since he had to go to battle with his brother.

If they’re both Loki they should have the same potential. On the other side it might be it’s just I don’t get how they get these Variants. The TVA jumped on Loki as soon as he did something he wasn’t supposed to. How did the other Variants instead managed to get so different?

Whatever, it’s rumoured the next episode will deal with this Loki Variant backstory so we might learn it there.

Anyway as the Loki Variant dispose of the Hunters Loki, who in Ep 2 also went through the door just before it disappeared after him, reaches the TVA. He somehow knows which way the Loki Variant went but, before walking after her, he gets the knives Mobius wanted to give him and B-15 put in a wardrobe.

Was that wardrobe left open? Does Loki know how to pick a lock? Or did he broke it? No idea.

Anyway the Loki Variant walks quickly and reaches the golden elevator where she disposes of two more hunters.

Loki pants but arrives right behind her while walking (not sure why he’s panting then, did he too fought Hunters?).

Loki and the Loki Variants face each other, weapons in hand, the Loki Variant having grabbed her sword she didn’t use before because… she was too cool for it?

Loki wants to question her, wants to make sure she’s a Loki.

The Loki Variant rudely tells him if he has nothing else to do.

They decide they’re each other in the other way and start fighting.

The Loki Variant seems slightly better though she’s clearly not aiming to kill him as she did with the Hunters. I’m not sure if Loki is holding back as well. Loki admits considering to work with her but deciding against it because she lacks vision so he wants her to come with him, willingly or not, and use her to get at the Time-Keepers. Loki manages a couple of good moves and then they end up in a stalemate interrupted by Renlayer and two more hunters.

The Loki Variant manages to use Loki’s distraction to get behind him, using him as a shield and pointing her sword at him, telling Renslayer if she’ll come closer she’ll kill Loki.

It’s not Renslayer cares (she probably thinks it would be better to get rid of Loki as he’s a negative influence to her favourite analyst) as she tells her to go for it.

Loki uses the Loki Variant’s distraction to steal the tempad from her and open a timedoor below them, causing them to fall through it as Renslayer attempts to hit them.

From the way she looks Loki I get the feeling she wasn’t targeting just the Variant but him as well.

Anyway Loki and the Variant are lucky and end up on a bed.

This time the Timedoor should have closed immediately because neither Renslayer nor another hunter try to jump through it to give them chase.

Loki and the Variant fight for the fallen Tempad. The Variant slams Loki’s head against a table, managing to get the Tempad only to discover the battery needs to be recharged and so it doesn’t work.

After remaining on the ground for some moments Loki stands again. She tries using her sword against him and he uses his magic to come behind her and toss her on the ground before grabbing the Tempad as… the Variant tries to grab him and fail. Her attempt seems weak though.

Overall… I think they should have planned all those fighting scenes better since there’s so much of it in those first 7 minutes.

The Variant demands it back as she claims he doesn’t know how to recharge it… and while this will turn out to be true, how would she know?

Loki claims he does know how to recharge it as she’s not the only tech savvy Loki… which could be true since Loki showed he could learn very fast how to use the Time Twister and and no problems to previously use the Tempad to open a time door, never mentioning they showed him video of how the TVA worked and he learnt about the working of the Time charges.

The Variants complain he shouldn’t call her like that which confuses Loki as he sees no problem with being called ‘tech savvy’. The Variant clarifies she doesn’t want to be called ‘Loki’.

As she tries to grab the Tempad, this time without trying to hit him (no idea why as sending him on the ground might have helped), Loki causes it to disappear.

She comments that he’s ‘fully a magician’ which is better than Thor in “Thor: Ragnarok” saying he was a witch. Loki is still not impressed and grabs back his knives claiming he’ll make her disappear now.

They’re about to fight again when something hits the place they’re in.

Loki asks her if that was one of her powers while she worries about where did he sent them.

She realizes he sent them on Lamentis-1 in 2077 and she calls him an idiot as this is the worse apocalypse they could end in since the moon is about to crash and destroy the planet and no one will survive it.

On a sidenote… the moon about to fall… isn’t well rendered.

Anyway Loki correctly points out he didn’t have the time to chose but again, I get the feeling they’re trying to paint the Loki Variant as better than him. In truth Loki did good as well, using his magic to steal and hid the Tempad… and it makes sense she’s more knowledgeable about apocalypses as that’s her Tempad and she might have been there previously but still it feels as she’s above him.

The Variant saves Loki from blowing up although she claims she did it solely to save the Tempad as it’s her only way out of Lamentis-1. Loki helps her as well only to be told she doesn’t need it.

I think the idea is that the Variant, like Loki, tries to protect an image of self confidence.

They hid in small… cabin? To catch their breath and the Variant gets close to Loki enough she can rest her hand on his neck, him letting her do it without protesting. However, when she tries to enchant him, she claims it didn’t work and asks him if it’s because he’s a magician. Loki says it’s actually because his mind is too strong.

Now it would be an interesting twist if actually she did manage to enchant him and all we see after that scene is an illusion to get Loki to do something… but I genuinely doubt it.

Overall the scene feels weird with Loki allowing her to get so close and yet resisting to her enchantment totally with her dropping the idea of enchanting him immediately… as if they were trying to suggest something romantic.

And okay, selfcest is a thing in fanfictions and I’ve nothing against it but… it feels out of place in such situation. I’m all for Loki learning to love himself, but when I say so I mean HIMSELF, not another version of himself.

They consider fighting again then Loki tries to propose a truce as fighting there in such a situation would be pointless, since they’re short of time and neither of them can leave until they can turn on the Tempad.

Honestly… the Loki Variant is so fighting prone she makes me think more of a Thor Variant than of a Loki Variant. For all she defends her plan, she doesn’t really seem someone who plans things and acts rationally… and she somehow seems to have a terrible opinion of Loki, even if supposedly she has just met him, as she thinks the only reason he had to save her was because he needed her to recharge the Tempad, refuses to be called Loki and insists on her need to kill him.

Of course this might be her own way to not show weakness but still…

Anyway the Loki Variant agrees to cooperate by pointing out that there should be power on that moon so if they could get enough to make the Tempad work they would be fine.

Anyway they leave to search for the power source and the rocks falling on them become magically a lot less.

The Loki Variant continues to be rude with Loki:

“And can you shut up? Just because I have to work with you doesn't mean I wanna hear your voice.”

She’s also annoyed Loki doesn’t seem so worried from the ‘imminent death’ they’re about to risk and doesn’t want him to call her “Variant”, she wants to be called Sylvie even though she used to be called “Loki” but, apparently, she has dropped that identity.

Since our Loki criticizes how she’s going by that alias (it’s not very Loki-like) they’ve a discussion on what makes a Loki a Loki.

According to our Loki it’s ‘independence, authority, style.

At this point the show acknowledges the TVA isn’t good by having Sylvie saying:

Sylvie: So, naturally you went to work for the boring, oppressive time police.

To be honest, it’s not much because being boring isn’t really a crime but well, at least they have acknowledged they’re oppressive.

Loki counters he’s not working for them, he’s a consultant… which means nothing because he’s a consultant working for them. But whatever, I get he might not feel like telling her they had threatened to reset him if he didn’t cooperate.

Sylvie accuses him of not knowing what he wants… and I’ll be honest, maybe it’s right but since they’ve hardly spent any time together at this point so, unless she is assuming he works exactly like her and therefore she too doesn’t know what she wants, she doesn’t feel reliable.

I really hope she’s not playing the role of the self insert for the author in this bit.

Anyway Loki made clear previously he aimed to get at the Time-Keepers I’ll say the overall idea is HE KNOWS he wants to get at the Time-Keepers and thinks playing consultant will get him close to them. He might not know what he’ll do afterward should he get close to them and he might have other goals in addition to that but still… he seems to know a bit of what he wants.

Not that I find Loki’s plan a particular bright one as I’ll say it’s clear the TVA isn’t planning to let him meet the Time-Keepers not even if he were to save the Sacred Timeline 10 times in a single day because he is and remains a Variant and this makes them look down on him, never mention he’s considered insubordinate, stubborn, unpredictable and an evil, lying scourge and that they would probably consider him meeting the Time-Keepers only after they had brainwashed him into compliance.

Anyway the following discussion is interesting.

Loki: Oh, yeah? What about you? Your years-in-the-making plan was to tear the place down, create the ultimate power vacuum, and then just walk away. I'd never have done that.

Sylvie: Yeah? Well, I'm not you. Can we get on with this now?

I like to think that Loki would never do that because he knows a power vacuum isn’t a good thing. He was part of a ruling house, so he would probably know this would only result in chaos and, possibly, war until a new leader would rise to power.

This also might tie in with his mindset in “The Avengers” in which he believed that if humans were to be united under his rule they would cease fighting among them. To Loki used to Odin’s absolutist monarchy the various governments of Earth bitching among them might look like there’s an ultimate power vacuum that’s causing wars among states.

Sylvie instead seems to be moved just by her idea of destroying the TVA and who cares about what happens afterward.

While wanting to be the one who would fill the power vacuum resulting by getting rid of the Time Keepers might seem to be moved by ambitions, not worrying about the consequences of getting rid of them is not clever.

Anyway Loki sighs. He… is trying to get along with Sylvie more than she’s trying to get along with him, apparently. Does he feel sympathy for her? Hard to say.

They reach an empty city and, on Loki’s prompting Sylvie explain they’ve around 12 hours as things will only get worse.

I’m not an expert in moon crashing but, at the moment, they don’t have anymore asteroids falling on their heads so things seem to be going better… but I actually find weird they are. But maybe it’s just because I’m not an expert in moon crashing.

Loki wonders if a night light could recharge the Tempad, Sylvie pretends it could and asks him for the Tempad but he recognizes it as an attempt to get the Tempad and refuses at which she informs him they need a massive power source to recharge it… and okay, I’m confused again.

They had Loki study how the TVA works. They let him know how the Time charge works and he paid enough attention to it to remember it and… is it they didn’t tell him how the Tempad works or that he didn’t pay attention? I’m not sure which of the two I would find more weird.

Whatever, maybe they just didn’t mention how to recharge it.

Honestly I would just prefer if Loki asked it knowing a night light couldn’t recharge it, just to test her.

They reach a small house with someone living it.

In a very Thor-like fashion Sylvie plans to get inside using brute force to get what she wants which is… surely not energy for the Tempad as it’s clear the place doesn’t have a massive power source.

Loki points out how:

Loki: Brute force is no substitute for diplomacy and guile.

He’s right and as to prove the point Sylvie only ends up being blasted away as the old lady living in the place has quite a powerful weapon. Loki mocks her before starting a nice chat with the lady and I approve how he handles the whole thing until… he turns himself into the Lady’s husband and try to pretend he’s him without even knowing his character.

In fact he’s too nice with the Lady and gets blasted as well.

And now I roll my eyes because it turns out all they wanted from the lady were answers to some questions.

Sylvie in fact asks her “Where is everyone?” which is a question at which I think the Lady would have replied without need to use violence or disguise as her husband but that honestly feels silly. Sylvie should have known they all left in attempt to escape with the Ark, as she knew about the Ark because, not only she knows it would have enough juice to repower the TemPad but she knew it would get destroyed. So really, she should have expected people to go there.

Loki asks “How do we get there?” which is the only question that makes sense but really, if he wanted to pose the same question as Sylvie which need there was to disguise himself?

The Lady says to go to the train station, though she’ll warn they’ll never get a ticket.

And I go back a little to look at some things.

First thing first. The Lady looks like a human so apparently either we colonized Lamentis 1 or there’s another race of human looking aliens. It’s not a crime but it feels kind of boring.

The bit with first Sylvie then Loki being blasted away present some funny dynamics between the two.

The idea the old Lady calls them devils is… not so good unless she’s again, a human who believes in demon, and even then it feels weird. What’s more she tells them they’re demons yet she gives them the info they’re asking for remarking they didn’t need to use strength or illusions to get that info.

Whatever, we jump at the train station where some sort of guards refuses to let the poor people go on the train.

Loki observes they can’t fight their way on the train, which is something he expects her to want to do because all her plans involve fighting.

I’ll say he doesn’t know her from a long time but yes, so far fighting was part of all the Sylvie’s plans, even when she didn’t need it.

Sylvie says her plan is just to enchant the guard… because yeah, if it’s not fighting for Sylvie, then it’s enchantment. However she mentions possible troubles occurring and at this Loki asks if she plans to make him start shooting and then kill every guard and hijack the train. Sylvie doesn’t deny it… which is kind of dumb as she could have said she would just swap and posses who were to attempt to give them troubles as she had done when she and Loki met.

At this Loki decides they would do things his way and disguises himself as a guard… with Sylvie as his prisoner. Why not disguising Sylvie as a guard as well? No idea.

I mean, it’s unnatural that with a moon about to collapse on them they would worry to have a prisoner board the train to salvation. Much better to let her die there.

Anyway Sylvie complains it’s a shit plan but plays along.

And yeah, all the people there are human looking. Space is not really that diverse, especially since they’re allowing only rich people to board. It reminds me how on the Titanic only the rich people was allowed to go on the lifeboats.

Anyway Loki’s plan seems to work when a guard decides to stop them.

I’m not sure why but Loki seems to talk in an unnatural way as he says he’s taking Sylvie to Shuuro. The guard still wants them to have the tickets and is about to call someone else when Sylvie enchants him.

We could call it teamwork, but since it seems to work smoothly only thanks to Sylvie it feels more like she did all the job.

I’ve mixed feelings for Loki not managing to trick a guard and sounding so unnatural.

I mean, Loki should supposedly be good at this, although yes, in the previous movies, starting with “Thor” he wasn’t always good at this, but here he seems just bad at this.

Whatever.

On the train he claims he can't go backwards on a train and would like for Sylvie to hand him her place. She doesn’t.

Now, who can't go backwards on a train normally suffer of motion sickness… but Loki will give no signs of suffering of it so… why tossing these lines in?

Sylvie though comes out as generally nasty as she claims she can’t switch because she never sit with her back to a door but, as Loki points out, there are doors on both sides.

Once Loki sits down Sylvie starts complaining Loki’s plan wasn’t a plan as plans should have multiple steps, which isn’t necessarily true and anyway her own didn’t have multiple steps either.

Loki doesn’t counter anything, as if trying to be nice and then notices her yawning and suggests her to rest.

She refuses.

Sylvie: I can't sleep in a place like this.

Loki: You can't sleep on a train?

Sylvie: No. I can't sleep around untrustworthy people.

It’s the second time they used this type of dialogue in which Loki seems to misunderstand why Sylvie said.

Loki: Of course I do. You're not the only tech savvy Loki.

Sylvie: Don't ever call me that.

Loki: Tech savvy?

Sylvie: No, a Loki. You're just fully a magician then?

Anyway as Loki is the untrustworthy person I really can’t see what she fears from him. She saw herself how the Tempad doesn’t work so it’s not like he can use it to escape alone.

She encourages Loki to sleep which he refuses and she points out she can’t steal the Tempad form him due to him knowing magic. This prompt Loki to explain his mother taught him magic.

Sylvie asks what she was like and he describes Frigga as ‘A Queen of Asgard. She was good. Purely decent.’

As it will turn out Sylvie doesn’t remember her mother this might be the reason for her question… though she might also try to find some ground to enchant Loki as well.

Anyway she rudely asks him if he’s sure she was his mother. He cheerfully counters he was adopted and asks her if this is a spoiler for her.

I don’t really like this because this discovery was pretty painful for Loki so it makes it look like as, by saying so, he might aim to emotionally hurt Sylvie… which might not even be the case because for all he know she could have been lovely raised by her real parents.

Instead Sylvie points out she knew she was adopted. Is that why the TVA arrested her? Because she knew she was adopted differently from Loki? Or because she presented as a girl? Was she born this way? If that’s the case shouldn’t the TVA go catch her because that wasn’t how she was supposed to look? Or it was Odin’s spell? Anyway again, the TVA shouldn’t have appeared?

Whatever, Loki admits his parents didn’t tell him, then corrects himself saying they eventually told him which is a gross oversimplification because he had to force the truth out of Odin but we aren’t going to talk about this because Loki wants to know about Sylvie’s mother… who is… who?

Sylvie doesn’t remember her, was she Frigga or not?

Whatever, Loki tells her how Frigga used to do magic for him and encourages him, assuring him he could do it as well.

Loki: You know, when I was young, she'd do these little bits of magic for me. Like turn a flower into a frog or cast fireworks over the water. It all seemed impossible. She told me that I'd be able to do it too because... Because I could do anything.

Okay, so this memory from Loki’s past is very nice and confirms the canon Loki was taught magic by Frigga (the scene saying so in “Thor: The Dark World” was cut). Loki shows Sylvie how to make magical firework. Nobody notices Loki using magic which is weird. Sylvie is touched and doesn’t see his display of magic as something that could cause them troubles at all.

Loki goes on saying about Frigga:

Loki: She was the kinda person you'd want to believe in you.

It’s overall a nice chat but then Loki asks Sylvie:

Loki: So, where'd you learn to do the... You know, the... Whatever it is?

It’s enchantment! Loki himself called it so in episode 2! Why this ‘whatever it is’? Is he looking down on her for it?

Sylvie explains she taught herself and Loki asks how it works… because evidently she scene at the end of “Thor” in which he enchanted/possessed Selvig was scrapped by canon.

No, I’m not criticising the series here, it can very well be they scrapped it from canon as in all “The Avengers” there’s no mention of Loki previously controlling Selvig and when he does it in the movie he does so by using the mind stone in the sceptre.

To Loki asking how it works Sylvie would like to show him by enchanting him, which Loki refuses fearing she’s trying to get the Tempad… because really, it’s not like it failed spectacularly at the start of the episode.

Loki starts drinking champagne which Sylvie instead refuses.

They end up talking of the old woman they met, Loki saying it’s a pity she chose to die.

I wish they had talked here of how he chose to die when Odin rejected him but they prefer to talk about LOVE instead.

Sylvie claims she was in love and Loki points out that she hated the man.

Now the idea the lady remained behind because Patrice died is an assumption. Correctly she assumed they wouldn’t let her board the train so it’s possible she merely wanted to spend her last moment at home instead than waiting for a train she wouldn’t be allowed to take.

As if to either deliberately go against Loki or refuse to lose an argument with him Sylvie suggests that ‘love is hate’. So does she love the Time-Keepers and that’s why she wants to blast them away? Or does she love Renslayer?

Loki mocks her slightly, attempting to write down what she said but what he did seems to amuse her. He then asks her if she has a beau.

Sylvie replies she’s in a relationship with a postman, which seems her own attempt at a joke… though since she adds it was only ever just to keep her going she might have had someone.

She feels pretty sad as she says so.

She then turns the conversation on Loki, pointing out how he’s a prince and asking him if he had a would-be-princesses or perhaps, another prince.

So… isn’t Sylvie a princess? Who knows?

As Loki says he had a bit of both, supposedly same as Sylvie he and Sylvie agree those relations vnever felt real.

Loki says he had a bit of both and suspect she also had both as well but none of his relations even felt real.

Sylvie concludes this should mean love is mischief and I get their point but I wish they didn’t generalize. Loki says that’s not it but, to define love, he’ll need another drink.

Somehow between the two Sylvie in that moment seems to be more dismissive of love than Loki.

She then lectures him on how they’re about to try and hijack the power source to a civilization's only hope and since it's not gonna be easy they should rest… which is what Loki suggested her to do but she claimed she couldn’t do around him.

Loki agrees but tells her she should relax her way and he would relax his own.

The scene switches and we see that Sylvie has fallen asleep and is now awaken by Loki singing some Norvegian/Asgardian song, with the other passengers. Loki is back in his own TVA clothes, which worries Sylvie.

A passenger observes him and then decides that’s the right moment to go report his actions to… someone. And it’s the right moment to do it solely because now Sylvie is awake and sees him doing it so she can worry.

Since people there is playing the song Loki is singing and even singing along with him, Loki should have been going at it for a while but, of course, if the guy had done it sooner and Sylvie hadn’t noticed him it wouldn’t have worked well.

Back to Loki he seems to be singing his song to Sylvie and, in fact, when he ends it, he dedicates it to her before swallowing his drink and demanding another, breaking the glass on the floor.

Sylvie goes to scold him for being drunk to which he complains he’s not drunk, he’s full. Only someone said to say full and drunk in Norvegian you use the same word so it can be some sort of wordplay. Or not.

Loki would like her to try some food, Sylvie asks him about his uniform, reminding him how they were supposed to lay low.

Loki insists nobody cares because it’s the end of the world. He’s clearly drunk, he even drops a plate. As she insists something should be up he asks her why she’s so paranoid and she replies:

Sylvie: It must have started when I spent my entire life running from the omniscient fascists you work for.

Okay, it’s nice to learn this small info about Sylvie and to have the TVA referred as omniscient fascists. Just in case someone missed the TVA is a bad organization.

It doesn’t get any deeper than that as Loki switches topic by claiming he has an answer to what love is.

Loki: Love is a dagger. It's a weapon to be wielded far away or up close. You can see yourself in it. It's beautiful. Until it makes you bleed. But ultimately, when you reach for it...

Sylvie: It isn't real.

Loki: Yeah.

Sylvie: Love is an imaginary dagger.

WARNING: THE PREVIOUS BIT WAS WRITTEN WITHOUT ME HAVING SEEN EPISODE 4 AS WELL. THE FOLLOWING ONE WAS INSTEAD WRITTEN AFTER I SAW IT. BEWARE FOR SPOILERS ON EP 4.

So that point of all this is…

“I wrote that really, really quick,” Waldron explains. “I remember I was revising Episode 3 in the two weeks leading up to my wedding. It’s interesting because that's probably the most romantic episode. At that point, Loki is a little bit drunk. That freed me up, where it was just like, ‘Don't think too hard about it,’ which is sort of my first thought that Loki would think here.”

Doesn’t exactly make sense? For Loki, it doesn’t need to make sense for him to be convincing with it, and Waldron relied on that. “I just ran with it, ‘Love is a dagger,’” shares Waldron. “And fortunately, like many of Loki's metaphors, it almost works.” [‘Loki’: The Meaning Behind ‘Love Is A Dagger’]

In short it’s only a drunk Loki’s babbling for Waldron, something that doesn’t need to make sense.

Great, we could talk of the TVA being a fascist organization but no, let’s have Loki say something that doesn’t make sense.

Tom Hiddleston too doesn’t find it anything profound but, at least, he ties it to Loki’s experience with love, which always hurt him.

But in fairness to Loki, this “imaginary dagger” has honestly been his experience in his relationships so far, with Hiddleston continuing that, up until this point, this “is Loki's experience of love, I suppose. He certainly feels like it's not been something he's been close to. It has been some sort of illusion that he has trusted and been let down by.”

Now, since this is a damn episode about love and Loki and Sylvie being bisexual, instead than getting Loki drunk and coming up with this sort of statements they could have showed up glimpses of his past love relations with men and women. But no, let’s let Loki babble about love because, sorry for the SPOILER but by now I expect everyone and their moms to know and anyway it’s fairly obvious from the setting, the whole episode is about to lead him to the way in which he’ll have a moment with Sylvie in Ep 4.

Anyway the man comes back with 4 or more guards that want… to check Loki’s ticket.

I don’t know how public transportation works on Lamentis 1 but the idea that a man would suspect Loki to not have his ticket because he was drunk and singing with the rest of the passengers and so 4 guards come to check on him just in case he’s actually dangerous is pretty weird.

I’m bad at recognizing people but Loki saying ‘you again’ makes me think that guy is the one who they met at the start of their travel. Anyway, Sylvie doesn’t get in between and possess the buy but let Loki handle matters… only Loki is drunk and instead of conjuring tickets up with magic he conjures up fireworks. So, instead than giving him a fine or telling him ‘no jokes, the tickets now’, they try to restrain him. Note they don’t care about restraining Sylvie and… they let one of Loki’s hands free because why restrain both?

A fight ensues and evidently people in Lamentis 1 are extraordinarily strong because, although fighting wasn’t Loki’s strongest suit COMPARED TO ASGARDIANS, he was still strong enough alone he could hold his ground against Frost Giants and Dark Elves.

Whatever, we’re supposed to believe he’s drunk so that he can’t even throw well his knives and I guess being drunk made him weak but what about Sylvie?

I mean, Sylvie, who had been killing TVA men, despite getting involved in the fight, doesn’t try to kill the guards, nor does Loki. They evidently didn’t even hit them that hard as the guards keep on getting up and two of them manage to toss off the train Loki. Note that when Sylvie tries to toss herself out of the train realizing Loki has the TemPad… THEY TRY TO STOP HER! WHY?!?

It’s so damn convenient for them if both Loki and Sylvie end out of the train!

Once out of the train Loki discharges his jacket for… no reason we can know of. Maybe it got ruined. Whatever.

He walks after the running train for a while before giving up five steps after where Sylvie fell because evidently he realized only then he couldn’t get back on it. At this point Sylvie point her sword at him, demanding the Tempad back and he… decides to give it to her, which he had refused before, but who care because although the TemPad was in a dimensional pocket it somehow got broken during Loki’s fall.

My guess is, since Loki put his hand behind his back, the TemPad wasn’t in a dimensional pocket but Loki merely made it invisible and when he retrieved it and made it visible again it turned out it was broken.

Whatever, he clearly didn’t have the Tesseract or the Casket of Ancient Winters in his back pocket so I don’t see why he couldn’t just use the same dimensional pocket he used back then for the Tempad but had to turn it invisible… except for the fact that they wanted him to break it.

Sylvie starts yelling at him ‘You asshole. You killed us. You're not a serious man. You're a clown. You got drunk on the train.’ Yadda, yadda.

She’s right but the problem I see with all this is WHY LOKI GOT DRUNK?

I mean, the Loki of the myth would get drunk and lose control of himself, all right, but our Loki wouldn’t. When Tony Stark offered him a drink in “The Avengers” Loki didn’t accept it and then another and another and got plastered, nor he drank in Asgard in “Thor”, not even to drown his sorrow and even in “Thor: Ragnarok” when he watches the show he’s not drunk.

He has a cup of what I assume is mead, okay, but he’s not drunk.

So all of sudden he decided it was a moment to get drunk, because the story demanded him to sing a song to Sylvie, getting discovered, not fighting as well as he should and ending up out of the train to break the tempad.

This is a huge plot contrivance in an episode that’s filled with them.

So Loki and Sylvie get into a discussion on how Loki did it because he’s hedonistic with Sylvie saying me too but never at the expense of the mission, which was how Loki was before being in this series.

Loki shoots down Sylvie’s mission.

Loki: Oh, the mission? The mission? What, your glorious purpose? Give me a break. You can't beat them.

I wish they would just stop shooting around the words ‘glorious purpose’. A statement Loki said in “The Avengers” once is becoming the series verbal tick.

Even the sentence ‘the mission’ feels a bit weird because normally people don’t refer to their own goal as ‘a mission’. A mission is more often than not something that’s given to you by others but, so far, we were never told someone was moving Sylvie from behind the lines.

Whatever, Loki tells her she can’t beat the Time-Keepers because… no idea. Just because the Infinity Stones don’t work at the TVA it doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t be stabbed and die.

Sylvie has a nervous breakdown and screams releasing her power which, I guess, is meant to parallel what Loki did when Frigga died. Which was partially cut as we never saw Loki screaming.

Whatever, it just doesn’t have the same emotional intensity because in that scene Loki was broken by Frigga’s death while here Sylvie just seems angry.

Loki goes to sit next to her the way he used to do with Thor in “Thor” which again make me think that Sylvie, more than a Loki, is a Thor.

Anyway they have a chat about their future and the one of the planet in which it turns out Sylvie knew about the Ark and how it never left because it got destroyed. So really, there was no need to ask that old lady where everyone went when she knew they were all trying to reach it.

Loki suggests to hijack the ark and make sure it gets off this moon at which Sylvie agreed because… well, I guess she can’t come up with a better option, without even realizing this would mean create a Nexus event and get the TVA come running.

As they walk toward the way Loki complains:

Loki: You know, I don't think I've ever walked this much in my life.

Differently from many people in the net I can buy it, because in Asgard they were shown to use horses or Skifts to cover great distances and that one seems to be a great distance.

Sylvie equates not having to walk that much to having a pretty good life. News flash, people can have a miserable life even if they don’t have to walk long distances. People enslaved, for example, didn’t necessarily have to run from a side to the other of the world, but yeah, the whole is just to remark how Loki lived a princely life.

Scott, Peter, might not have had to walk but definitely didn’t live royalty lives.

Loki kind of jokes about letting Sylvie enchant him so that he could sleep through the way, and he’s told that’s not how enchantment work. So… he doesn’t know?

In episode 2 he could recognize what Sylvie did as enchantment, in Ep 3 first he believes enchantment won’t work on him, then he has no idea what it was…

Loki: So, where'd you learn to do the... You know, the... Whatever it is?

…then he doesn’t know how it work? What is it, Loki is starting to suffer of amnesia?

Whatever. Loki compains he told her much about him but doesn’t know anything about her. So, for an episode that wants to set up them as a couple what Loki wants to know about her are… her powers. And he needs to know them so that he could know if he can trust her. Because if she has enchanted him already it’s not going to make a difference and if she couldn’t like the previous scene in which she seemed to fail to do so… it doesn’t make a difference either.

Really, this is just for:

A) talk about how enchantment works

B) to reveal to the audience and Loki how the people in the TVA are all Variants of regular people on Earth (again, why doesn’t the TVA takes… Krees, for example) who ends up being brainwashed by the Time-Keepers.

So yeah, another hint that the TVA is a terrible organization. Too bad it’s inserted in a terrible dialogue.

On another note… why all of sudden Sylvie finds Loki worth being trusted with such an explanation? Because enchantment doesn’t work on him? If that’s the case she could have told him sooner.

Anyway Loki is impressed she could learn that by herself, to the point he seems to view it as superior as what he can do.

Loki: And you call me a magician.

I’m impressed as well but for different reasons. I mean, she said she taught herself. But how in the world is that possible? She should have seen someone doing it and she should have been told how to do it, otherwise you don’t go and assume if you touch someone you can control them, or that you’ve to check their memories and present a fantasy and besides… if she could check C-20 memories couldn’t she just take those information she wanted from there?

Also… does the TVA take people all from a present time? Because C-20 memories were clearly in a modern setting and Mobius’ fixation with jet ski might come from the fact he lived at the same time in which they existed.

Now… they’re kilometres away from the city but they can hear the announcer in the city saying there are only 10 minutes to the launch. I mean… how loudly they’re transmitting that info, who’s close would have turned deaf!?!

So they reach the city in 5 MINUTES because they run as fast as that and decide they trust each other because… reasons.

Sylvie: Do we trust each other?

Loki: We do and you can.

Loki shows empathy by commenting on how ‘They're gonna let these people die.’ Which really won’t work so well with how they’ll try to pass him for a narcissist in the next episode.

Loki and Sylvie try to run to the Ark as meteorites start to fall more.

In the general panic, with the city starting to crash down, some guards feel like stopping them for… reasons.

Loki stops a falling building with his magic but doesn’t use it to send all the guards flying away but when they were still too far to make it to the Ark the latter is hit and, of course, rendered unable to leave.

Okay, so I really had a hard time to write all this because this episode is bad plot wise and dialogue wise and when you look at it in deep it only gets worse.

Not only it has plenty of plot contrivances that cascade also on the previous episodes so that things that happened that we could assume were due to Sylvie’s plan revealed to be for no reason at all but, when you watch episode 4 you realize the whole episode is just an excuse to keep Loki and Sylvie together for long enough they supposedly start having feelings for each other (Had they closed them in a room it would have been the same!) while using poor dialogues and a characterization of both that’s honestly not so impressive for two characters that are supposed to be extremely smart.

Sylvie tends to act with force more than with brain, Loki tries to use his brain but it either don’t work or he dumbs himself down by getting drunk for no reason.

Overall, it had been a disappointing episode.

#mcu loki #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #sylvie #frigga #9 worlds study #9 worlds study mcu loki

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dreamescapeswriting · 4 years

Text

BTS Reaction | You Share The Same Birthday [Request]

Seokjin:

Every year was the same, you would both want to throw each other a surprise birthday party but it would never work out that way because you had the same birthday so it was never a surprise unless it was early or really late but this year you'd decided to just not throw each other a party, pinky promising not to throw a party and just spend the day together instead.

"Jin! Mine next!" You said going over to the cupboard and bringing out the big blue box you'd wrapped up, the boys had all come around to see you both since you weren't doing anything for your birthday. You'd spent the morning with just you and Jin, having breakfast in bed, then slowly making your way down to the living room where you watched Disney movies together. Then it was time for the boys to come around but you refused to change out of your PJ's with consisted of one of Jin's shirts and some shorts from a PJ set you lost years ago.

"I thought you weren't doing gifts this year," Jimin said watching as you shot him a playful glare,

"The deal was no party, I still got him something." You giggled sitting across from Jin and watching him open it up, he unwrapped the wrapping paper and then took the folds of the box out. Balloons came flying out from inside and there was confetti inside, as well as tissue paper.

"It's not much." Inside was a photo frame of you both along with smaller gifts he'd been hinting at all year.

"Since it's almost Christmas I thought this should be small," He smiled bringing you into a hug and rubbing your back.

"Your turn!" Jimin screamed looking at Jin who glared at him as you had done when he questioned you.

"You didn't have to get me anything," He sprinted off upstairs and grabbed the present he'd been hiding and then came running back downstairs. It was in a small pink box with a bow on the top, you took it from him and slowly opened it up to reveal a locket with a photo of your both inside.

"Baby, it's gorgeous." You giggled looking at the small locket which was in the BTS logo shape with your birth stone on the front,

"It's from the new collection, not out yet but I saw it and thought it was perfect for you." He bent down to kiss you earning a fake gag to come from Jungkook who in return got the middle finger from you.

"You're an adult now Kookie," You giggled watching as he rolled his eyes at you, handing Jin his gifts and you all began exchanging gifts with each other. You giving them their Christmas presents and telling them not to open them until your fake Christmas you had every year. It had always been the same for the last four years of dating Jin.

"Happy Birthday baby." You whispered to Jin as he followed you into the kitchen, you were making coffee for everyone.

"Happy Birthday Jagiya." He whispered back to you, kissing the base of your neck and then your jawline.

"One more surprise when they're all gone." He whispered biting on your ear before disappearing into the living room to rejoin the boys to act as though nothing had happened in the kitchen.

Yoongi:

Yoongi wasn't one that liked to celebrate his birthday, he hated whenever the boys tried to surprise him because he would always know so instead of acting as though it was his birthday he would pretend it was just your day.

"Morning Birthday boy," You giggled straddling his lap that morning bending down to kiss him on the lips, his hands rested on your waist as he looked up at you.

"Hi Birthday girl," You smiled at him and looked over at the desk you had cleared off that morning,

"I made breakfast, we're going to have a chill day. No studio talk, understood?" He nodded and sat up in the bed with you,

"You made all that?" He asked looking over at the table full of food, there must have been enough to feed seven of you both,

"The others are here?" He questioned wondering why you'd made so much but you shook your head,

"We're not leaving this bedroom so I made food to last us all day." You giggled getting up from his lap and going to get you both a plate full of food, he admired you as you plated all his favourite foods onto one plate and brought it back over to him.

"We're not leaving the bedroom?" He questioned with a smirk on his lips, you giggled at where his mind had gone but you shook your head at him.

"That's later, right now I'm starving and I want to eat before I give you your presents." You told him biting down onto a pancake and moaning out at how good they taste, Yoongi's mouth fell open when he heard you and you stared at him.

"You're going to moan like that and expect me to just sit here and eat my breakfast." You swallowed the pancake that was in your mouth and he smirked at you moving the plate to the side table, bringing you closer to him with one arm and pinning your hips down with the other.

"You look so cute today," He whispered in your ear, kissing down your jawline until he got to your lips,

"Shut up, I'm another year older and I swear I have wrinkles." You grumbled trying to hide your face but he pulled your hands away and kissed you softly, you kissed him back your hands falling into his hair and tugging at the black tips smirking against his lips as he let out a low growl.

"You really want to eat first?" He questioned biting and sucking on your neck while you whimpered,

"N-No."

"Good, because I'm hungry for something else." He whispered against your skin ripping the buttons open at the front of your silk pyjamas and smirking as you let out a shriek about it.

Hoseok:

Before you started dating he would spend the day with Army but it changed when you got into a relationship, for the first four years of your relationship he would spend an hour with army and then the rest of the day with you. But now your relationship was out and people supported you, you decided to spend the day with Army again. Doing a VLive throughout the entire day, starting by waking Hoseok up in the way Army wanted and they choose blasting out the new album was the best way to do it so you took the phone with you and began jumping around and filming Hoseok's reaction.

"You're evil!" He groaned holding a pillow over his face,

"Say Hi to Army!" You screamed giving him the phone and getting into the bed beside him.

Then that was how you spent your day, setting up the camera so people could talk to you as though they were with you, opening gifts with Army and then baking a cake.

"He forgot to buy one." You said to the camera as you got the ice and fresh strawberries ready, Hoseok was making faces behind you and you stared at him in the phone screen.

"You know I can see you right?" He stopped and sat down beside you smirking at Army and answering questions while you put the icing into a bag and smirked to yourself.

"Hey Hobi, shall we start a new tradition for our birthdays?" You questioned walking over to him and trying not to look suspicious and you prayed Army wasn't going to give it away to him,

"What do you want to do?" He asked looking at his phone as he tried to find some music to decorate the cake to and you smirked squirting a bunch of the icing out on to the top of his hair and giggling as he groaned out.

"You're such a child!" He yelled scooping it off and throwing it in your direction, you let out a squeal before squirting more and throwing flour in his direction but it wasn't over, he began throwing some at you as well laughing whenever he hit you with flour or icing.

"ARMY SEND HELP!" You screamed pretending to die on the floor as he hit you with another scoop of the icing, since your eyes were closed he took advantage of it, he picked up the cake you'd been working very hard on and took the phone with him, placing the phone where army could see you. He straddled your lap and your eyes shot open,

"What are you doing?" You asked in a panicked tone when you saw the cake in his hands,

"Hobi...No...Down." You whispered but he smushed it against your face making you scream out his name and wiggle around to try and get away from him but it wasn't working.

"HOBI! ARMY! SOMEONE!" You screamed trying to move away but he pulled the remaining cake off and placed some into his mouth and nodded.

"Tastes good," You spat some out onto the floor next to you and glared at him,

"I hate you." You joked looking over at the phone and then back to Hobi.

"You love me."

Namjoon:

Since parties weren't your or Namjoon's thing you decided that it was best to do something else on your shared birthday. You weren't huge fans of going to clubs you would both rather stay home together and spend time alone than in some loud club where you could barely hear yourself think which is what happened the year before. Jimin and Jungkook dragged you both out for drinks and you ended up getting wasted and not being able to remember a thing. So this you year you both decided it was going to be different deciding to wake up early and go for a walk around the Han River before going into town and going to all your favourite book shops before heading home to your shared apartment and having a relaxing day inside together. Ordering food in because you didn't want to cook or have Namjoon, you quite liked not having food poisoning or having him hurt himself on your birthday.

"Joonie can we have pizza tonight?" You asked lifting your head from his chest, he was playing with your hair while reading to you from one of his favourite books.

"I can't see why not," He whispered not lifting his eyes from the page, he went back to reading it aloud to you. You smiled to yourself at the scene, it was something you could never have imagined happening before. You and Namjoon had been together for three years and it was the first time it was really hitting you that you were living this life with the perfect guy.

"Where's your mind?" He questioned noticing you weren't paying attention to what he was saying from the book, he closed it and watching as you turned to look up at him with a smile on your face.

"Just us, how we started dating and stuff." He chuckled at the thought, he was so awkward when he first met you and wouldn't ask you out resulting in Jin walking up to you and doing it for him.

"Do you remember how nervous you were on our first date?" You questioned looking at him and seeing him cringe at just the thought of it.

"I ended up sweating through three shirts, how could I forget." He groaned shifting you so you were sitting on his lap so he could stare up at you and admire how stunning you were to him.

"What are you thinking about?"

"How gorgeous you are." You scoffed getting off his lap and going to find the pizza menu but he rushed up behind you and grabbed your hips,

"Do I need to remind you how beautiful you are?" He whispered hungrily in your ear making you whimper,

"You already have six times today. I'm tired and sore baby." He kissed your cheek and told you what he wanted from the pizza place deciding to give you a break and then going to run himself a bath knowing you would go and join him once the pizzas were ordered and on their way.

Jimin:

"Do you know what today is baby?" Jimin asked wrapping his arms around you in the kitchen,

"Tuesday." You answered grabbing your coffee and looking at the time,

"I'm going to be late to work Jimin, tell the boys I say hi!" You yelled running out of the kitchen and out of the house.

"It's our birthday..." He said slowly going over to check the calendar that it wasn't your birthday and he wasn't being weird about dates. He frowned checking his phone and seeing messages from the boys, he found it a little odd that you'd forgotten your own birthday but he also knew how much stress you were under at work and understood that you were probably just tired.

"NAMJOON! Knife! Down now!" You yelled noticing him in the corner of your eye, you were at the dorms trying to make the place look perfect for Jimin to come around to. You felt terrible for rushing out on him that morning but it was only because you were such a terrible liar when he came to him.

"A little higher Tae." You giggled watching him struggle to hang the banner up but once it was perfect he came down and hugged you.

"Happy birthday by the way. Are you sure he has no idea?" You nodded looking over at the door, he was due around any minute and you were still in your work clothes.

"Positive, I have to change." You rushed up to Jimin's old room and got changed into a pink dress that you'd gotten weeks ago for the occasion and headed back downstairs when you heard Tae scream that he was on the driveway. You hid in the kitchen with the cake and Namjoon, as soon as the front door opened they began screaming out happy birthday to him and you walked out, being careful of where you walked.

"I knew you didn't forget your own birthday!" Jimin yelled coming over to you and blowing out the candles, Namjoon took the cake from you and Jimin bent down to pick you up swinging you around a little chuckling as you giggled in his ear.

"I didn't want to do nothing again, were you surprised?" You questioned as he put you back down on the floor,

"So surprised baby." He lied kissing your cheek and making you pout,

"Who gave it away?" Everyone fell silent and you looked around the living room to see everyone staring at Jungkook who was trying to avoid looking at you.

"Kookie! You promised." You sighed looking at him, he was staring back at you with a guilty look across his face.

"I didn't mean to, he saw me picking up the cake yesterday and I told him everything." You groaned hiding your head in Jimin's neck and thanking him for trying to act surprised when he happened and he chuckled kissing your lips.

"I'll get you one day and you will be surprised." You mumbled poking your tongue out at him and laughing as he kissed you again.

Taehyung:

Since your birthday was late in the year he was always busy with preparations for the Korean New Year Show and you were at home with family but you made sure to make time for one another. Having a skype session together on your birthday, each of you getting a cupcake each with a candle together so you could blow it out and make a wish together, always the same wish that you could spend at least one birthday together.

"Same wish?" Taehyung asked over the phone, you hummed lazily looking at your bedroom wall. He couldn't video call you yet because he wasn't back at his hotel room on time,

"I'm sorry baby." He said as he heard the hum, you didn't sound happy that it was your birthday and normally this wouldn't bother you. You got to see Tae a lot all of the time but spending one birthday together was something you wanted desperately.

"Don't be, I'm just being sappy because I'm old now." You giggled sitting up in the bed and listening to him talk about what the boys had done that day for his birthday, starting with the surprise birthday cake.

"There was one thing they did that made me the happiest guy on the planet though," You asked him what it was but your doorbell rang when you were talking,

"I better go get it, it's probably my food." You took the phone with you as you walked down the stairs opening the door to find Taehyung standing there and holding a giant stuffed animal.

"TAE?!" You screamed alerting the neighbours who were now peaking through the curtains, you jumped into Taehyung's arms making him drop the teddy bear he was carrying and you giggled kissing him repeatedly on the lips,

"When did you? How did-"

"The boys got me a ticket to come and see you." He carried you into the apartment and you began tearing up kissing him passionately as he wrapped his arms around you and pulling away,

"We don't have long, we have to get you packed and then go back to the airport."

"We?" You questioned looking at him as he dragged you up in the direction of the bedroom,

"You don't think I'd go back without my favourite girl now did you?" You giggled at him and went up to the bedroom to find your passport, suitcase and clothes. Taehyung had the weekend planned once the Korean New Year was over, you were going to sit in the hotel room and binge eat food, watching nothing but Korean Dramas and spending all your minutes together, having a birthday weekend instead of a birthday day.

Jungkook:

Usually, Jungkook would be spending his Birthday with the boys out of the country while they filmed for Bon Voyage but this year was different, he'd made plans with BigHit to postpone the filming of their show so he could spend time with you. You didn't mind him being away it was his job and you knew how much he loved his job but he wanted to surprise you. You shared a birthday and in the five years of dating, you'd always celebrated early or late, never together or on time. Which is why it was such a surprise to you when he showed up that morning and told you to pack warm clothes and you began a road trip where you didn't know the destination and he just told you it was a surprise.

"This place is insane Jungkook." You said as you walked through the log cabin, he'd taken you out to a snow cabin and you were spending a week together. Nothing but snow, fireplaces, and each other as well as activities to keep you entertained for the time you would be together.

"We have an entire week alone, no one knows where we are." He smirked kissing your lips softly and tilting your head up to look at him and you giggled.

"Snowboarding and then food?!" You asked looking out at the slopes, you'd passed them on your way up to your cabin and it was all you could think about doing it.

"We have plenty of time for that later," Jungkook said as his mind was somewhere else, he kissed down your neck making you giggle as he placed his hands on your waist pushing you over to the sofa and laying you down.

"I guess the snowboarding could wait." You whispered taking off his giant thick coat and letting it fall down on the floor beside the sofa,

"Ever wanted to do it in front of a fire like in the movies?" You giggled looking at the fireplace with a smirk on your face, it was always something you'd wanted to do and now you'd seen the smirk on Jungkook's face you knew it was on his mind do.

"Now I have." He smirked pulling you down to the floor and sitting you on his lap, his hands began exploring your body as you made out in front of the burning fireplace, all that was filling the air were sounds of kissing and the crackling firewood.

tagline:

@yoongisdumplingcheeks @snowy-meowl @lynnthevirgo @jooniesdarlingdimples @kpopfanfictionhoes @lyoongx @callingmyangel @fan-ati--c @mitzwinchester @btsiguess-kpop @rjsmochii

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spookysweet-heart · 3 years

Text

Born For This

Request: No

Fandom: Battle Egos

Parings: Holloway Sisters x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Death of Character, Mention of Death

A/N: This is gonna be a bit of a Julie and The Phantoms AU, with the Holloway Sisters and Battle Boys! I hope you like it! The songs featured throughout the series are by their respective bands and artists. I’ll link each song that’s featured so you all can listen along. Each song I chose has significance to the story, so I hope you pay attention to them! The collage was made by me! Edited by @semiproeagle23!

The year is 2001, and a group of sisters are getting ready for their first big show!

Hearing the crowd roar in excitement, Marie grins, looking at her sisters. “Alright, this is it, girls. Our dream is coming true. Ready?”

Raven adjusts the strap on her bass, nodding. Natalie nods, drumsticks in her hand. Anne tosses Marie her guitar pick. “We’re ready as we’ll ever be!”

The sisters take one last look around backstage, taking a deep breath in and out, they run out, getting in their positions.

Marie grabs the mic as the lights come up on stage, her smile never fading when she hears the crowd cheer. “LA! How are you guys doing tonight?!”

All the girls wave at the crowd, feeling the adrenaline run through their bodies hearing them cheer out.

“Marie, let’s get this show started, shall we?” Raven nods towards Marie.

“Alright, LA! We’re The Hex Girls! I wanna see you all jump up and rock out! This song’s called Born For This!”

As Natalie starts the drums, the girls soon follow her lead.

Marie gets closer to the mic starting to sing with the others singing back up. “Oh no, I just keep on falling (Back to the same old) And where's hope, when misery comes crawling? (Oh my way, eh) With your fate, you'll trigger a landslide (Victory) and kill off this common sense of mine”

Raven takes the lead next. She grins, looking out at everyone. “And it takes acquired minds. To taste, to taste, to taste this wine. You can't down it with your eyes. So we don't need the headlines. We don't need the headlines, we just want (We want the airwaves back, we want the airwaves back)”

Raven nods over at Marie as they both get ready to sing the chorus together. “Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure now? Everybody live like it's the last day you will ever see. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure now?”

Raven leads as the crowd cheers. “Right now, you're the only reason (I'm not letting go, oh). And time out, if everyone's worth pleasing (Well ha). You'll trigger a landslide (Victory). To kill off the finite state of mind. And it takes acquired minds. To taste, to taste, to taste this wine. You can't down it with your eyes. So we don't meet the headlines. No, we don't want your headlines, we just want (We want the airwaves back, we want the airwaves back)”

As the chorus comes back, Marie joins in, letting the crowd’s energy come through with every word. “Everybody sing, like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure now? Everybody live like it's the last day you will ever see. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure now? Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure?”

The girls continue to play as Marie and Raven catch their breaths. Marie grabs her mic, making her way towards the edge of the stage, looking out in the crowd. She smiles at them as she raises her mic back to her lips. “Alright, so you think you're ready? OK, then you say this with me, go: We were born for this!” She points her mic out to the crowd as they chant back. (We were born for this)

“C’mon, LA! Louder! Alright, so you think you're ready? OK, then you say this with me, go: We were born for this!” She grins as she hears them chant louder and makes her way back to her spot. “We were born for, we were born for!”

Raven and Marie both smile at each other as they take chorus one more time. “Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me can you feel the pressure? Everybody live like it's the last day you will ever see. Tell me, tell me can you feel the pressure now? Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me can you feel the pressure? Tell me, tell me can you feel the pressure?”

Raven takes the lead as the song comes to an end. “We were born for this!” Marie raises her mic towards the crowd, signaling them to chant back. (We were born for this) “We were born for this!”

As the stage fades to black, Marie pants, catching her breath. “That was great, everyone!” The stage lights come back on as the girls walk off the stage onto the empty crowd area.

“Soundcheck is going well so far!” Anne smiles, hugging Raven and Marie while trying to reach over at Natalie who scoots in to be a part of the hug. “We’re gonna be great tonight!”

Natalie pats her sister’s hand, pulling away. “Guys I’m getting kinda hungry..”

“I’ll go get us some burgers, there’s a McDonalds close by.” Marie walks over to her bag, pulling out her wallet.

“Wait, I’m going too! You always mix up our orders!” Anne pouts at Marie, who only laughs at the younger sibling.

“I don’t mess it up, they probably do since it’s a lot to handle.”

Raven grabs her bag from the pile and turns her attention to them. “I’m going too, I kinda have to use the restroom and the ones here are, uh, pretty gross.”

“Wait, guys! No fair, now I wanna go!” Natalie jumps up from her seat by the crew.

“I’d rather you stay here Nat, it’s kinda late out, and downtowns pretty sketchy.” Anne looks at her, concerned.

“Marie, c’mon…that isn’t fair.” She pouts at her hoping Marie would allow her to go.

“It’s not, but I agree with Anne. You’re staying here.”

Natalie rolls her eyes and sits down again. “Fine...can I get a sundae though?”

“Sure thing. We’ll be back, okay?” Marie ruffles Natalie’s hair before catching up with the others. “Love you, Nat!”

“Love you too!”

Raven struggles a bit to carry the drinks and ice cream as the three of them walk out of the McDonalds. “You guys think tonight’s gonna go great?”

“Raven, don’t tell me you’re getting nervous?” Marie asks while she hands Anne one of the bags of food.

“A little, honestly.”

“Girls, seriously. We’re gonna be amazing up there! We booked at The Roxy Theatre!! This is going to be life-changing!” Anne pokes Raven’s cheek with her free hand, both of them starting to cross the street.

Marie is a little behind, but she notices they're crossing on a red light. Glancing to her left, she sees a truck coming towards them with no signs of stopping. In a panic, Marie drops the bag of food running towards her sisters. “Raven!!!! Anne!!!! Get out of the way!!”

The two girls are too late when they turn around to see what was coming as Marie hugged them both, all three of them blinded by the bright white lights.

The year is 2021 and you just moved into your childhood home. Turning twenty-five was a huge deal for you. You were still in college, and you were helping out at The Roxy Theatre, cleaning the place up after performances.

The reason for moving back home? Your mom decided to move out of state and pretty much just gave you the house since it was paid off already. What about your dad? Well, that’s something you don’t talk about.

Moving in was pretty easy, unpacking was the hardest. You got a decent amount done, and honestly, you were feeling proud of how things were coming along.

Later in the evening, you were taking out the trash when you saw the gate to the backyard open. You always found it odd that your dad never let you into the space in the back. From what your mom told you, it was your dad’s music space, or studio, as he called it. The space was like a mini house from the outside. As you walked into the back yard, a chill ran down your spine the closer you got to the door.

You looked back at your house when the wind picked up, causing you to look at the window, feeling like you were being watched. Letting out a shaky breath, you gathered yourself, opening the door to the studio.

Hesitantly walking in, you searched the wall for a light switch. After a few moments, you felt some sort of switch. Turning it on, the room was filled with light.

Looking around, you saw things covered in sheets in the corner of the room. A small sitting area with a small coffee table, a writing station, your dad’s old instruments hung on the wall. They looked cleaner than you thought. Your mom must have been cleaning them for him.

Turning your attention to the sheets across the room, you were careful when pulling off the first one. As the dust subsided, you looked down, seeing a dusty red and white bass. Tossing the sheet aside, you moved to the next one. A yellow, almost gold colored keyboard was underneath that one. Underneath the last two were a purple and black guitar and a blue and white drum set.

Looking at the logo on the drum set, you whispered it to yourself. “The Hex Girls….” You looked a bit confused staring at it. “Like that Scooby-Doo movie?” Looking around, you saw a bag by the drums. Picking it up, you brought it over to the coffee table to open it. Looking inside it, the first thing you saw was a CD with the same logo that was on the drums.

Taking it out of the bag, you walked over to the stereo by the writing station. Making sure it still worked, you dusted it off before putting the CD in. Seeing it read the disk, you turned up the volume. The first song playing seemed to be a song called “Born For This”.

Just as the song began, you felt the ground shake, causing you to fall and see a bright light in front of you.

As the light disappeared, you opened your eyes, greeted with the sight of three unknown women huddled together. Not knowing what else to do, you simply scream, making the three of them look at you.

“Wait… why are we back home…” The woman in the yellow dress asked.

“What’s going on?!” The woman in a red buttoned-down flannel looked around in a panic.

“Who are you and how’d you get in here?! This is our studio.” The woman in a purple and black ripped shirt looked at you like you were the one who showed up out of nowhere.

Carefully standing up, you looked at them just as confused. “M-My name’s (Y/n)...What do you mean by your studio?! This is my house, this place here is my dad’s studio….”

“No this is our-” The woman in red cut herself off as she looked around. “It looks different….But! Wait! Look, our carvings are here! This is our studio! We carved our initials here when we were kids….”

“This is way too weird. You know what, I’m calling the police. You guys trespassing.”

Pulling out your phone, you were startled when one of them asked, “What’s that? Is that just a screen?”

“It’s a phone…? Do you not know what a phone is?”

“We know what a phone is, that doesn’t look like any phone we have…”

“What kind of phone do you have?”

“Marie, don’t you have yours?”

“No, I dropped it the other week, remember..anyway, it was the newest Nokia phone.”

“Nokia...like the one that just had snake as a game on it?”

The girl you now knew as Marie lit up. “Yes! That one!”

“Uh-huh…hold on a sec.” Typing away on google, you searched up the phone and saw it was first released in 2001. “I remember that phone, it was my first one when I got into middle school a couple of years after it was first released…”

“First released? It just came out though?”

“Yeah, in 2001.” Looking down at your phone, you searched for the name of the band. The first thing that popped up were articles of three sisters dying by a speeding truck driver. Tapping on the first article, you saw the girls in the photo were the same ones standing in front of you.

The woman in yellow looked at you a bit worried. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Because I have. You three died in 2001. It’s 2021 now, You’ve been dead for over 20 years….”

“Wait, there was that bright light….”

“Then we were in this dark place for what felt like an hour..”

“Apparently, it wasn’t an hour if we’re here and it’s 20 years later.”

The three of them looked at you for a moment before the one in purple reached out her hand. “I’m Marie, these are my sisters.” Nodding to the girl in red, she smiled. “That’s Raven, and,” Glancing back at the girl in yellow, you looked over as she gives you a warm smile. “That’s Anne.”

Hesitantly, you reached out to shake Marie’s hand, only for your hand to phase through hers. Immediately retracting your hand, you looked a little freaked out.

“I guess we can’t do that anymore…”

“We’re dead, Marie...ghosts.” Raven looked over at you, feeling bad about how scared you looked. “I’m sorry this is weird, but we’re just as confused as you.”

You nodded and walked past them to the front door. “I...I think I’m going to bed. This is just...a lot. I’m sorry.”

Out of instinct, Anne reached out, almost touching your shoulder for comfort, but quickly took her hand back, remembering she can’t touch you. “Um, we’ll be here… I guess. Ya know, if you need us..”

You only nodded as you closed the door behind you, and headed back into the house.

Raven looked over at the coffee table, seeing the bag you left. “Hey…” She peeks inside, seeing it was all their things. “Guys, it’s our clothes!”

They huddled around the bag, each taking out a different outfit.

“Ugh, it feels so good getting out of these clothes!”

“It should be, we’ve been in them for 20 years.”

Marie looked around the room and almost immediately spotted her guitar. “Oh my god, how’d our instruments get back home?” Picking up her guitar, she grinned at Raven and Anne. “I can pick it up!!”

Raven and Anne excitedly went over and picked up the bass and ran their fingers across the keyboard.

They giggled at each other as each sister tried out their instrument. It was silent for a moment as they took in the familiar sounds.

“Marie...You’re crying…” Raven put down her bass back on the stand. Tears started to fall when she brought Marie in for a hug.

Anne saw this and immediately went over, hugging them both as she also started to cry.

The next morning, you were in your living room, sitting on the floor, looking over some lyrics you wrote for a song called “Figure Me Out.” There was something you thought was missing till it popped into your head.

Quickly getting your pencil, you wrote down the last of the lyrics. Smiling to yourself, you set your keyboard on your lap. Beginning to play, you didn't notice the three women standing at the doorway, watching.

Taking a deep breath in, you started singing. “I'm a bit too pop for the punk kids, but I'm too punk for the pop kids. I don't know just where I fit in. Cause when I open my mouth I know nobody's listening. To the words of a prophet. Ha, who still can't turn a profit. Cause I don't fit in with the in-crowd. But I'm too Hollywood to go back to my hometown.” Glancing at the notebook you continue to sing letting your fingers flow over the keys with ease.

“Cause they think that I'm famous. When I know I'm a fraud. Who got too fucked up on the finer things. To remember who she forgot. But I believe there's more to life than all my problems. Maybe there's still hope for me to start again. Get my feet back on the ground and pull my head out of the clouds. I think it's time for me to figure me out.” Pressing a button on the soundboard next to you, you smile hearing the drums, bass, and guitar follow along.

“Let's get back to the basics. And take it back to the basement. Where I heard "Born to Run" for the first time. And I stared at my dad in amazement. He said, "Don't stop chasing great and keep pounding the pavement." So I'd much rather die trying to make something sacred than live as another YouTube sensation. Cause I hate that they're famous, for being something they're not. While I'm too hung up on the things I don't have to appreciate what I got.”

Closing your eyes, you felt yourself getting lost in the song. “But I believe there's more to life than all my problems. Maybe there's still hope for me to start again. Get my feet back on the ground and pull my head out of the clouds. I think it's time for me to figure me out whoo. Time for me to figure me out. Time for me to figure me out.”

Giving it your all for the last part of the song, you couldn't help but cry a bit. “So if you hear this song. Turn it up real loud, Cause it's time for me to figure me out. Alright, if you hear this song, turn it up real loud. Cause it's time for me to figure me out.”

As you start to slow back down, you let the tears fall down your cheeks. “I believe there's more to life than all my problems. I just want to fall in love before I'm dead. So I can make my parents proud. Hope my feet don't fail me now, cause it's time for me to figure me out.”

Turning off the soundboard when you finished, you slide the keyboard off your lap. Hugging your knees to your chest, you rested your chin on your knees and close your eyes, welcoming the silence that surrounded you.

Raven and Anne were about to reach over and make their presence known, but Marie grabbed them by the back of their shirts, disappearing and leaving a purple mist behind.

Reappearing in the studio, Anne and Raven glared at Marie.

“What the fuck! She was crying!” Raven huffed as she sat down on the couch.

“Why’d you make us leave, we could’ve helped!” Anne crossed her arms over her chest, still glaring at Marie.

“I don’t think that would’ve been a good idea if we did. She’s upset and having ghosts who just appeared in her life isn’t the comfort she needs at the moment.” She looked at both of them, seeing their expressions soften.

“I just thought we could help…” Anne looked down at her shoes for a moment.

“But I do have an idea.” Marie smiled, walking around the coffee table so she could sit next to Raven. “What if we ask her to join our band?”

“Our ghost band? Marie, if you haven’t noticed, no one can hear or see us but that girl!” Raven leaned back against the couch.

“Exactly, what if we play her a song? She can hear us, so maybe she’d wanna join.”

“Okay,” Anne took a seat on one of the empty chairs. “What if we did do that and let’s say she says yes. Then what?”

“We make music again! She’s alive, she has our studio, what if this our second chance at making it? A second chance to start all over?"

Raven and Anne looked at each other before turning back to Marie. “Alright, what song?”

Marie grinned, opening her notebook to a page that was colored in pink and black marker around the lyrics. “I was thinking about this one. Candy Coated Lies.”

#Holloway Sisters #Raven Holloway #Natalie Holloway #Marie Holloway #Anne Holloway #battle egos #Battle ego #Battle girl #Battle girls #Battle Babes #natewantstobattle egos #band au #JATP AU #x reader #reader insert #original characters

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