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tteokggukk · 4 years

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welcome to my youtube channel → kth

✳ pairing: idol!taehyung x youtuber!reader

✳ genre: fluff, taehyung scenario, stranger to lovers, reader is an artist who posts art videos on youtube

✳ warnings: none!

✳ words: 2.9k

✳ a/n: hello, this is my second bts oneshot/scenario. i just like to write for fun but if you’d like to let me know if there’s anything i can improve on please do so! i’d love to know how to improve. anyways, i hope you enjoy!

"Hey guys, welcome to my YouTube Channel."

You spoke in front of the camera. Sets of acrylic paint were spread out across the table next to a stand that held an 18x24 inch canvas. You were in the middle of making your seventeenth video, a highly requested one at that, and deep down you were ecstatic to start working on the painting.

Never in your life did you think you would ever start a YouTube account. You always considered yourself a very shy and private person, not one to go out of their way and broadcast themselves all over the internet. Your best friends, however, were two very well-known YouTubers and always found a way to include you in their videos and live streams. Somehow people liked seeing more of you, and so you were convinced by your best friends and the audience to start your own YouTube channel.

But you weren't very accustomed to bringing a camera everywhere with you to document and share whatever was happening in your daily life, you found it too awkward and you were still camera-shy, so you decided to create content in a way that would still keep you comfortable while doing something you loved.

An art channel.

Your channel blew up pretty fast. Requests started pouring in here and there. You became known for your very calm demeanor and artistic skills, so you took this as an opportunity to sell your works online as a way to earn some extra money for your future. Occasionally, you'd do lives to talk to your fans and you were happy at the support they showed you, which only encouraged you to keep making videos.

"This was a highly requested video, and I honestly can't wait to get started," you told the camera, mentally telling yourself to insert the comments and messages you got in your DMs to paint this Adonis-like human being. The requests started coming in after you had an Instagram live where you did some quick sketches while playing some of your favorite songs in the back, and people noticed one of the songs you played was by him.

"You guys also asked if I could sell this painting, but because of the "high demand"," you spoke, adding air quotes, "I'd like to keep it up for auction so the proceeds could go to different fundraisers."

You started mixing different colors in your palette and showed everyone the picture for your reference.

"So, without further ado, today I will be painting Kim Taehyung."

"Hey guys, welcome to my YouTube Channel."

Taehyung watched as you spoke in the video, looking behind you to see a bunch of art materials. The title of the video was left ambiguously, only being named most requested video, leaving him no clue on what it was you were going to create this time.

He's been watching your videos for quite some time now, ever since your channel started rising. Art was one of his major interests and he absolutely adored the way you made your videos with the calming, ASMR-like sound of mixing paint and how you skillfully glided the brush across the canvas. On days when he found himself tired and in need of a quick way to relax, he'd subconsciously find himself binge watching videos on your channel— even repeating several videos since you were only starting. He found it fascinating, but also because he found you interesting.

Because of your channel, he even created an anonymous YouTube account just to leave nice comments on your videos along with a private Instagram account to be able to watch your lives.

Needless to say, he didn't miss that one live where you played the song Winter Bear. It made his whole night, making him sleep with a smile on his face.

"This was a highly requested video, and I honestly can't wait to get started."

He watched as a bunch of comments started appearing onscreen popping up one by one as they gradually got faster, eventually covering you. It took a moment before it sunk in that he was the highly requested person they wanted you to paint. He paused the video, wide-eyed, before shouting in excitement. Jimin had to come in and check what the whole commotion was about.

"Y/n's going to paint me!" Taehyung exclaimed, his mouth turning into his famous boxy smile.

"Ah, the YouTuber you really like?" Jimin smiles before sitting down next to Taehyung who continued playing the video, "I wanna see."

"You guys also asked if I could sell this painting, but because of the "high demand", I'd like to keep it up for auction so the proceeds could go to different fundraisers."

"Wow, she seems really kind," Jimin says, while Taehyung only nods, his eyes glued to the screen.

"So, without further ado, today I will be painting Kim Taehyung."

He felt his heart beat fast when you mentioned his name, and without realizing it his ears have gone all red.

On screen, you began sketching, "You guys have also been sending me a lot of questions lately, which is why I decided to tweet about doing a q&a."

"What questions did you ask?" Jimin asked Taehyung.

"I asked her if being an artist is something she'd like to pursue," Taehyung told him.

"Ooooh, trying to get to know her," Jimin teases, "Our little Taehyungie has a celebrity crush."

Taehyung rolls his eyes but breaks out into a grin anyway, "I just respect her artistry."

"Right, okay," Jimin snickers, obviously not buying it.

Taehyung knew he was telling the truth, though. It was impossible to have feelings for someone who you only knew through a screen. He found you attractive for sure, but he of all people would know that almost no one is completely one-hundred percent themselves on screen. Genuine as you may be, there are still things that are best kept to yourself. He couldn’t lie though, if given the chance to get to know you, he’d never pass up on that offer.

"Someone asked why I don't use that much ready-made paint," You spoke on screen, "It's ‘cause I learn a lot from mixing my own colors, and also I just really enjoy it."

The painting was beginning to come together halfway through the video and Taehyung's question finally made its way to you. "Kimyeontan95 asks, ‘is painting a career you want to pursue? I love your work, by the way’."

"That was basically I love you," Jimin holds back a laugh, earning him a light punch in the arm from Taehyung.

"Thank you so much, kimyeontan95, and no, painting is just a hobby of mine and a way to earn some future savings. I actually really want to be a novelist."

Taehyung smiled after hearing you answer his question. Later on, the video was over and his portrait was complete. He hurriedly redirected himself to the link that was provided for the auction.

Something in him wanted to have that painting no matter what, so he set himself as the highest bidder and eventually had it mailed to his home where he put your work up in his room to cherish.

A day after your video was posted, you woke up to a thousand notifications from your phone. Hundreds of people were mentioning you in tweets and you had numerous missed calls from your best friends and some texts telling you to check your online art shop. You groggily scroll through your feed, a bit confused as to what was happening.

I wanted to buy this painting and I had it in my list, but now it's unavailable!

Y'ALL WHAT RICH KID SET THE HIGHEST BID TO A MILLION DOLLARS IM CRYING

@yourtwittername are you planning to sell a new collection?

a million dollar bid wtf swownwowksodiowl

Someone just bought all of @yourtwitterusername's paintings. I'm crying in broke eye—

but like what if taehyung set that bid? @yourtwitterusername

What?

I just woke up and my mentions are pouring. What is going on? You tweeted.

Thousands of replies began coming in leaving you feeling overwhelmed and confused on where to start. Everyone was telling you to check your site, and so you did. You felt your heart almost stop beating when you saw that every single artwork you had up for sale were sold out. Nothing was left behind. You checked your emails, and the confirmations were there.

How could this have happened overnight?

ALL MY WORKS ARE SOLD OUT?!?!?!?? WHO COULDVE DONET THIS??? You tweeted, hands shaking.

You felt your heart race, a wide grin that could go even wider if possible was plastered on your face. You tried to stop yourself from screaming in excitement but couldn't so you ended up jumping up and down and doing happy dances before calming down to assess the situation. Finally, you sat down in front of your laptop to see where all your works were being shipped to.

Replies started coming in.

CONGRATS YOU FIGURED IT OUT

WILL U RESTOCK

AHSKWJOA CONGRATS BB

I'M SO HAPPY FOR U

BUT Y/N WHO BOUGHT THEM ALL

Checking your emails, you discover that your art works were all bought by one person. Anonymous. There was no name and someone requested to have their personal information redacted.

Anonymous? Surely this wasn't a joke?

The person kept their name anonymous. You tweeted and muted the notifications just to allow yourself to focus on finding out who it was that bought everything.

At the bottom of all the removed personal information, there was one username that you were sure you've heard or seen somewhere.

@ Kimyeontan95.

Underneath the username was a short but sincere message.

"Your videos have always helped me wind down after a long, busy day. I can't express how much you inspire me with your talent and how I wish someday you'd teach me to be half as good as you, as I'm not very gifted in the painting department. I admire how you put your gifts into good things, and I very much idolize you in one way or another. This is just a small way of showing my support for you, but also because all your works are amazing and I'd love to have a small room filled with my favorite art works. I look forward to reading works of yours soon, future novelist.”

Feeling the heat creeping up on your cheeks, you smiled to yourself. The letter was definitely heartfelt and you wanted so badly to thank the person who sent it.

Later that afternoon, you decided to go on live to personally thank the anonymous buyer for buying your works and for sending that wonderful note. You fixed yourself up a little bit and pressed live as thousands of your followers began to tune in.

"Hello, everyone," you greeted, smiling. Replies with greetings started coming in and you couldn't help but chuckle at the eager messages your followers were sending. They truly made you happy.

As expected, several questions began pouring in.

"Right, so, I wanted to do this live because of what happened. As you may have noticed, all my works were suddenly sold out which definitely took me by surprise," you started, "Unfortunately the buyer left everything anonymous. They only left what I assume is a username and a short letter, which I will keep to myself for personal reasons."

@follower1WHAT

@follower2 will you keep selling your works?

@follower3 THATS SUCH A SWEET GESTURE THO OMG/

@follower4 am I the only one who thinks a secret admirer bought it

@follower5 check my YouTube channel I made a theory on who bought her works

@follower6 i rlly think it's taehyung

@follower7 I’'m so proud of you :(((

"If the person who bought all of my paintings is watching this, I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate the letter as well, you've honestly made me the happiest person on Earth," you smiled.

@follower8 AWWWWW

@follower9 ANON COME OUT

@follower10 i really wanna know what the letter says

@ Kimyeontan95 I'm glad :)

Your heart stopped at one of the replies. You took your phone immediately from its fixed position with wide eyes and began scrolling up fast because of the immediate replies coming in. Wasn't that the username?

@follower11 what's going on?

@follower12 y/n are you okay?

You could no longer find the reply so you set your phone down, fixing it back in place.

"For a second I thought the person who bought it was watching my live," you sighed and smiled nervously, "So anyways— I'd really love to express my gratitude so if they're watching, please contact me. I can't say thank you en—"

Suddenly the replies were frantic. People were sending keyboard smashes here and there. Only a few of them were actual coherent comments. "What is going on?" You asked as you began scrolling through.

@follower13 Y/N CHECK VLIVE

@follower14 TaEHYUNF IS ON LIVE

@follower15 I kNEW IT THOUGH???

@follower16 Y/N CHECK TAEHYUNGS LIVE

@follower5 Y'ALL I WAS RIGHT I SAID CHECK MY YT

Keeping your live on, you grabbed your laptop as fast as you could to check out the links being sent to your live. When it finally loaded, you could've sworn you'd have a heart attack.

"Oh, I think she's watching me," Taehyung grinned through his live, holding his phone in front of the camera. He quickly shows the viewers his phone screen, which showed your live of you watching him through your laptop. Your eyes widened and you looked back at your phone camera that was broadcasting your live, then back at his live.

Taehyung started giggling, "I guess we're just watching each other, huh?" He smiled. Behind him were packed and unpacked parcels of paintings you recognized were yours. If it was even possible, your eyes grew even wider at this, "Oh my god," you breathed out.

"I should probably introduce myself," Taehyung spoke, "Hello everyone, I'm Kim Taehyung. How are you all doing? Today I’m planning on redecorating my room after our practice. What are the packages behind me? Oh, these are paintings I recently bought."

"Are those my paintings?" You asked out loud, though you knew the answer.

"Are those my paintings?" Your voice echoed from Taehyung's broadcast as your live was streaming from his phone. He grinned sheepishly, "Yes, these are your works, I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," You smiled, "You were the buyer?"

You mentally slapped yourself for asking such obvious questions, but you just couldn't believe everything that was happening now.

"Yes," he chuckles, "I really love your paintings." Suddenly the sound of Jimin’s voice echoed from behind and Taehyung quickly stood up to lock the door, knowing he’d get the teasing of a lifetime if Jimin came and saw him talking to you.

"Thank you so much, I—" Your voice began to crack and your eyes welled with tears that you tried to fight back, "I really appreciate it. And the letter, that was really sweet."

"No, thank you. Wait, don't cry—" Taehyung spoke nervously.

"I'm just so happy," You laughed while wiping the tears off.

The replies from both ends were coming in like crazy. On one hand, majority of everyone watching found the whole scenario cute and started pairing you two out of nowhere, though there were a few haters on the other. It didn't really bother you, you were just so happy someone you idolized noticed your work.

"I'm glad," he was watching you with a fond smile through his phone, then the sound of the Jin’s voice began coming from outside Taehyung’s room, "Sorry for this sudden grand reveal. I really can't stay on live for too long but I'd love to keep talking to you." He spoke.

"Oh no, that's okay," You spoke fast.

"Do you mind if I send you a message? Assuming you already know the username," he asks.

"No not at all, I'd love to keep talking as well," your heart was beating erratically now. You didn't have to see your face to know how red it was becoming.

"Alright, great. Um, before I end this vlive I just wanna say you're a great artist and to all my viewers watching this, please support y/n's artworks and her channel! If I see any negative comments, I'll be taking responsibility and I'll unfortunately have my agency involved in taking those out," he spoke in a commercial tone kind of voice, "And to y/n, I'll be keeping in touch.” The door from behind him suddenly bursts open and Jin, Jimin, and Jungkook rush inside.

“You were talking to her!” Jimin shouts excitedly.

“Finally!” Jungkook claps.

“Is that why you kept the door locked?” Jin teases.

“Bye, everyone!" Taehyung quickly waves goodbye to the camera and smiles before turning the broadcast off.

You sat there stunned, almost forgetting you were also on live. You turned to your phone which was still recording you, "That was unexpected."

Suddenly, a notification in your DMs popped up. "I'll go ahead and process everything that just happened now, bye guys! See you in my next video." You ended the live with a wave and smile.

You quickly went into your direct messages and found the same username, Kimyeontan95. You opened it and found a picture of Taehyung holding one of your paintings with a peace sign on his other hand, the other members behind him posing with your other works, making you laugh.

Your heart fluttered at the message below the picture.

I hope this isn't too sudden, but would you like to go out with me sometime?

a/n: hello! if you finished it, thank you so much for reading! i hope you liked it hehe. i think i’m gonna keep posting the stuff i write bc i have so many ideas for the other members as well. also this is fun hehe. if you wanna read my other work, let’s fall in love for the night, ← here’s a link! thanks again for reading and please look forward to my future writing/edits.

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dramioneasks · 4 years

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HP FESTS: Dramione RomCom Fest (Part 1)

Dramione RomCom Fest 2020:

12 Years and 3 Months by pixiedustandbluebutterflies - T, one-shot - As news of their engagement takes Wizarding England by storm, elusive power couple Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger are finally sharing their love story in this Witch Weekly interview!

50 (First) Dates with Hermione Granger by HufflepuffMommy - G, WIP - Draco Malfoy sets his heart on romancing Hermione Granger, but she has short-term memory loss; she can't remember anything that happened the day before. So every morning, Draco has to woo her again. Her friends are very protective, and Draco must convince them that he's in it for love. Plot (andsummary) taken from the movie "50 First Dates" for the Dramione RomCom fest!

About Time by WordsmithMusings - E, WIP - When Draco's Father reveals to him that the men in their family have the ability to travel back in time, he uses his newfound gift to do many things - save a life, be a better friend, reconnect with a witch, and fall in love.

All's well that ends well (to end up with you) by weestarmeggie - M, one-shot - Hermione Granger is all set to be the maid of honor at her best friends wedding. She is taken back when she finds out that the best man is none other than her ex-fiance.

Away by In_Dreams - E, WIP - Desperate for a change of pace, Hermione unknowingly commits to a home exchange with Pansy Parkinson and finds herself swept up in the chaos of New York City and into the arms of Draco Malfoy. Dramione/Hansy. Loosely inspired by The Holiday.

Bells on a Hill by HeyJude19 - T, WIP - Left by his fiancée a month before the ceremony, Draco never got his dream wedding, so agreeing to assist Granger with her own wedding planning to distract himself from his broken engagement seems like a great idea—though Draco probably shouldn't fall in love with the bride-to-be. Based very (very) loosely on The Wedding Singer.

Chasing the Future by Rdlentz8 - T, WIP - An unusual and anonymous Patronus finds a frustrated Hermione alone in the library and talks to her about being lonely. Could this be the push she's needed to change her fate? Inspired by A Cinderella Story. There are direct quotes from A Cinderella Story.

Domino Effect by KoraKwidditch - M, WIP - Resolved to live her life in Muggle London, Hermione Granger finally felt free. Free from the Ministry, free from her celebrity status and everything that entailed. But who knew that one cataclysmal incident would lead her straight into the Malfoy's den and down a series of unfortunate events? At least they think she's a Muggle.**A Dramione retelling of While You Were Sleeping**

Fairytales and Wishes by Charlie9646 - T, one-shot - All Scorpius wants is for Hermione to be a nice step mother, but somehow that sort of gets lost in translation with his accidental magic.

Flipping Through the Pages by DarkAngelOfSorrowReturns - T, WIP - Draco Malfoy had a fascination with a popular book series and its writer. His life changes when he meets her.

The Hate List by bethelson - T, WIP - While chaperoning the post graduation trip, Hermione and Draco find themselves wandering the streets of Paris in the middle of the night, fruitlessly searching for the seventh years they were supposed to be in charge of. What Hermione doesn’t know, is that those seventh years struck a bargain with Draco to keep her occupied so they could sneak out for a last hurrah before they all head back to London. So in his efforts to derail her search, he convinces her to join him in their own night of frivolity. As they paint the city red, they slowly learn to let their guards down, and find that putting the past behind them allows them to finally focus on the present. ___ My contribution to the Dramione RomCom Fest!

Hollywood & Vine by dreamsofdramione (Bugggghead), msmerlin - M, WIP - As the manager of an occult bookstore currently renting a room from an old friend and living paycheck to paycheck, Hermione wasn’t exactly living the Hollywood dream. But her life is turned upside down when a chance encounter with Tinseltown’s current heartthrob, Draco Malfoy, leaves her questioning everything she thought she knew about life and love. or the one in which Hermione unintentionally falls in love with a movie star.

Home is Where the Heart Is by lrs002 - T, one-shot - A rewrite and Draco/Hermione look at basically the last scenes of the movie Sweet Home AlabamaOr in the other words: The Wedding and the Kiss

How to Lose a Wizard in 10 Days by GracefulLioness - E, WIP - Hermione will do anything to prove to her boss at Witch Weekly that she's ready to take on more serious topics, including dating a man just to drive him away for the sake of her next column, How to Lose a Wizard in 10 Days. But pushing Draco Malfoy away proves to be a challenging task, perhaps because he's got ten days to make her fall in love with him. Inspired by How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

It Happened One Knight by Klawdee - T, WIP - “A spoiled heir running away from his family is helped by an old classmate, who is actually a journalist in need of a story.” Based off of the 1934 film, It Happened One Night

It's All In The Malfoy Family by TwilightToMidnight - M, one-shot - Over a decade of longing and desire comes to fruition one night. Not quite the way Hermione expected but definitely with a bang. Everyone and their dog seem to be working against her. For the 2020 Dramione RomCom Fest. Loosely based off Sabrina (1954 - with Audrey Hepburn).

Love, Actually in Dramione by Blessedindeed - G, one-shot - I absolutely love the movie "Love, Actually" and was so excited to make some art pieces from a few of the more memorable scenes! Many thanks and kudos to QuinTalon & NuclearNik for hosting and being such amazing encouragers to everyone! I cannot wait to dive into all these fun pieces!!

Love, Hermione by pandora_rose_xo - G, WIP - When Hermione leaves some personal letters lying around in a sleepy haze, Dobby comes across them, and trying to be helpful delivers them to their recipients. Who were never supposed to see them.

Metamorphosis by persephone_stone - T, WIP - Draco Malfoy is king of Hogwarts High—student body president, captain of both the water polo and basketball teams, and boyfriend of Astoria Greengrass, the hottest girl in school. That is, until said girlfriend returns from Spring Break with some unexpected news: she’s dumping him for a college boy. Now, Draco is on a mission to win her back. And who better to help him turn into a more intellectual, cultured version of himself than Hermione Granger, the smartest girl in school? As he and Hermione spend time together, will Draco learn how to be the right type of boyfriend for Astoria? Or will he instead learn that maybe Astoria is not the right type of girl for him? Written for the Dramione RomCom Fest, based on the 90’s teen romcom She’s All That.

Midnight in Paris by Aneiria - E, one-shot - ‘Granger,’ Draco replied, casting a quick wandless charm to clean his own clothes. ‘Want to watch the magic you’re casting next time? Whatever spell that was, it nearly took both of us out.’ Hermione’s face settled into a frown of confusion. ‘I thought that was you,’ she said, hesitantly. ‘I wasn’t using magic.’ They both looked away at the same time, taking in their surroundings. ‘Where are we?’ Hermione wondered out loud, as she spun on the spot and took in the sights. It was the wrong question, really.

My Big Fat Muggle Wedding by BiscuitsForPotter - G, one-shot - Draco's gotten more used to having Muggles as future-in-laws, but what about his parents?

No More Waiting by anchoredto717 - T, one-shot - The end of Hogwarts, an impending Mastery, and confirmation that Hermione is well and truly over Ronald Weasley: three factors that push Draco into a place he never imagined. Is he really going to Harry Potter’s house party? A one shot heavily inspired by the 90s teen classic, Can’t Hardly Wait.

Off the Rails by RoseHarperMaxwell - E, WIP - For the Dramione RomCom Fest 💚 My adaptation of the movie Trainwreck (Amy Schumer/Bill Hader), featuring Draco in Amy's role. “Pans.” Draco’s head falls back petulantly. “I can't interview Granger, especially not about how she's healing Potter. Neither of them are going to want to talk to me. Make Creevey do it.” “No, you'll do it. And don't sulk at me, Draco.” Pansy shuts him down immediately, not that he expected to talk her out of it. She gives assignments, not suggestions. “Old Quidditch rivalries. Gryffindor Princess confiding in the Prince of Slytherin, with a side of The Boy Who Lived. You’re the only one for it.” She drops her pen on her notepad with finality. “She’s also fit as hell now. I’d even fuck her, so our readers will be drooling over her. This is easy, Draco. Don’t fuck it up.”

One Thing We've Got by IrisCalasse - M, WIP - Over a decade after the Second Wizarding War, Draco Malfoy is a broke socialite straddling the Muggle and magical worlds. One day a new neighbour moves in his residential complex. What has happened to Hermione Granger to make her hide from Ronald Weasley? If Cormac McLaggen is gay, why is he hanging around Granger so much? And why does her cat seem to know way too much about everything? Based on the plot of Breakfast at Tiffany's, but set in 2012 London with a magical twist. Updates every 16th of the month.

Pin down your heart by hiyas - G, one-shot - Hermione Granger contemplates a door when Destiny comes knocking.

Playing Cupid by tygermine - T, one-shot - Set It Up AU.

Pretty Witch by TakingFlight48 - E, WIP - When confronted with the opportunity to take on an alter ego - Hermione Granger, Potion's Mistress and the Wizarding World's Golden Girl became Vivian Roberts - London's weekend escort. For three years she lived in this duality until Draco Malfoy, lost in Soho and driving a precious DB6, wound up uncovering her secret. This is the tale of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy finding a balance between work and love through the guise of fake dating, unacknowledged feelings, and Hermione not wanting to let go of a part of herself that is no longer serving her.

Promises, Promises by Musyc - T, one-shot - Lawyer and social work advocate Hermione Granger is one signature away from fulfilling her dream to have a house-elf education program. All she needs is to seal the deal, and Draco Malfoy has promised the full support of Malfoy and Son Developments. But the owner of the property is balking, there's a new buyer in the mix, and a promise isn't a contract.

The Proposal by FaeOrabel - M, WIP - When Head of Creatures Division of the DMLE, Hermione Granger, is pushed into a corner regarding a new marriage law she doesn't want to comply with, she gets the brilliant idea to stage an engagement with her long time, loyal assistant, Draco Malfoy. Draco goes along with the charade on the condition she gets him promoted to a new position. A deal set, they prepare to fool not only the Minister of Magic, but Hermione's best friend, and Draco's entire family. What could go wrong? Just the threat of Azkaban should they fail.

PS I love you by emotionalsupporthufflepuff - M, WIP - After a tragic accident, Hermione must reintroduce Draco to a life they've built far away from home. She recieves unexpected help in a series of letter written by Draco himself before the accident...

Regrets Only by nztina - T, WIP - Draco and Hermione are the best of friends - until Hermione goes off to teach at Hogwarts and Draco realises that he doesn’t just miss her. Upon her return to London, he intends to reveal his feelings, but she has a surprise of her own, one that will definitely put a damper on Draco’s plans. Draco. Hermione. And...Hermione’s fiancé?

Restless in Ripon by QuinTalon - T, WIP - Scorpius Malfoy wants his father to be happy again and as his grandfather often told him, a Malfoy always gets what he wants. A nosy radio host, well-meaning friends, and fate will help bring two lonely souls together. Well, that and one tenacious eight-year-old.

Rushing Back by floorcoaster - M, WIP - Draco Malfoy is thirty, surviving, and very much not thriving. He's near the utter end of himself when he experiences the worst of all possible bad days--a double betrayal that rocks him to his core. Unmoored, untethered, he winds up in a strange place, where he begins an adventure through time that will change the course of his life. A time travel fic with a twist on the movie "13 Going on 30."

Say Anything by MidnightValkyrie - G, 9 Chapters - To know Draco Malfoy is to love him. Hermione Granger is about to know Draco Malfoy. Written and created for the Dramione RomCom Fest, based on Say Anything.

She's the Snake by monsterleadmehome - E, WIP - In a universe where Voldemort never came back, Harry lives with Sirius, and Dumbledore isn't dying, the worst thing the Golden Trio has to contend with is their grades and Quidditch matches... oh, and the recent magical attacks on Muggles and Muggle-borns. Harry is sure Malfoy had something to do with it, and though Hermione doesn't agree, her sarcastic offer somehow turns into her latest nightmare: to go undercover as a boy in the Slytherin dorms and find out what's really going on. And maybe throw a Quidditch game or two. But there's one thing she hasn't prepared for: falling in love with the boy she's supposed to be spying on.

Signed and Sealed by niffizzle - M, WIP - She owns a children's bookstore. He runs a corporation buying significant shares of small businesses. Never in their lives have Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy gotten along — or so they think.

Timing is Everything by anne_ammons - M, 7 Chapters - Draco Malfoy is your average bachelor living an average bachelor's life, until he crosses paths with his former classmate, Hermione Granger. Strike that - when has Draco Malfoy ever been average? A retelling of the 1994 movie, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Dramione-style.

A Trip to Kouloura Beach by rennaissance_woman - one-shot - A day at the beach, what could happen?

The Truth About Kneazles and Crups by samkablam7 - T, WIP - When Draco Malfoy started hosting his wizarding radio show The Truth About Kneazles and Crups, he had no idea that it would bring Hermione Granger back into his life. He also didn't know that they would both be interested in each other. The only problem? She thinks that the radio host she's interested in is his best friend and Pro-Quidditch-player-wannabe, Blaise Zabini.

Untitled Marital Crisis Comedy by Darlingheart - G, one-shot - Draco is rich, handsome, and most importantly, excellent with the ladies. Harry Potter is not. Which is where Draco comes in. With Draco’s help Harry will learn there’s more to life than being a one-woman man. But what happens when Draco meets someone who changes his mind? And what does Hermione Granger have to do with it...

A Woman of Some Dignity by mcal - G, one-shot - That seemed to get his attention. “What are you—of course I respect you, you daft witch!”

“Your actions today show the opposite!” I answered. “And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m a woman of some dignity and I’d like to shower in peace. You’ll kindly wait half an hour before Apparating back to my flat.” Hermione's not one for diaries, but it's been a week to say the least. It all started off with a confusing meeting with Draco Malfoy in her office, and... well, Hermione thought maybe recording her thoughts on the events would help her process. She isn't wrong.

You lost and lonely, You just like heaven by Wake_The_Dragon - T, WIP - Dramione Romcom Fest. Hermione Granger had needed something new and a change of scenery was a good start. What she hadn't counted on was renting a flat with an annoying (if handsome) ghost, who claims he isn't dead. Somehow, helping out a ghost and falling in love were two things she hadn't bargained for.

You Wish by Talonwillow (Ehollis303) - T, WIP - What makes a bad case of "Black Cat Flu" more tolerable? Young Perseus is learning that hearing about dueling, torture, revenge, giants, dementors, chases, true love, and miracles from his Grandfather Scorpius certainly makes things easier- If the man would finish the story that is. A story about love, where not even death can keep the beautiful feisty stable-girl and her sometimes irritating one true love apart. Together they must battle the evil Lord Voldemort through an adventure crossing the magical and fairy tale realm.

#Fests/Exchanges/Challenges #dramione #Dramione RomCom Fest #humour #fluff #based on other book or movie plot

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lizacstuff · 3 years

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Hoşgeldiniz SCK/EDSER Anons!

Lots of people wanted to talk about lots of things after episode 32 and the episode 33 fragman. Fragman asks are at the end.

Let’s get started!

(asks under the cut)

Anonymous said: The latest episode of SCK was a great step in the right direction for Eda & Serkan’s relationship but there is still a lot of work to do. They had a ton of scenes together which was a significant improvement not to mention solids conversations. Them working together to save the presentation was perfect. But how on earth are we four episodes into the Serkan & Selin relationship with no end in sight? 🤦🏻‍♀️Yikes! At least Selin is finally realizing that she will never be the woman for Serkan but real progress would be him realizing that. Hopefully he will finally take that step in the next episode!

I hear you! The funny thing is I’m fine with the pace on everything except with Selin. She is driving me CRAZY. It is excruciating to watch her scheme and fool Serkan episode after episode! Yes, he’s suffering from amnesia and probably Stockholm syndrome after she trapped him in that cabin and brainwashed him, yes she’s a childhood friend and he doesn’t remember her going off the deep end, but he’s free now, he’s seeing first hand that Eda is not what Selin told him she was, he’s getting other people’s perspective, he needs to question Selin a whole lot more than he has done.

Let’s hope there’s a development coming soon (more discussion at the end of this post in regards to the Fragman) that will push her out the door (off a cliff?)

Anonymous said: Do you think Serkan learning that Deniz & Eda are fake engaged to make him jealous is going to hurt or help the current situation? I feel like it should show him that she never stopped fighting for him but at the same time the show still has him acting very cruel at times. It could easily cause him to pick a quick wedding date with Selin as well or some other way to publicly humiliate Eda. Honestly I am hoping Eda tells Deniz that the fake engagement show is over early in the next episode and then have Serkan constantly trying to spend time with her to find out more. The fake engagement has run its course & Deniz needs to go!

Sing it!!! I have several asks along these lines, and I agree that the fake engagement has run it’s course and Deniz needs to go. The good thing is that I think Eda is aware of that now.

I get the fear that Serkan will feel manipulated when he finds out Deniz and Eda is fake, and he may, and if he does he might use it as a lever to try and keep some distance between Eda and himself, but I think he will mostly be relieved. No matter what his feelings are for her, think how happy he’ll be that she couldn’t really move on that quickly from him and that she didn’t give up and was fighting for them in her own way.

I think the fake engagement definitely had it’s uses. It’s pushed Serkan in ways he needs to be pushed. It’s made him outwardly curious about his past relationship with Eda. It made him experience jealousy he didn’t understand. I think Serkan sleeping in the office clutching her wedding invitation is proof that it gave him a lot to think about and at least made him question why he was so affected by it.

Here’s where I think Eda has gone wrong, she’s doing all of this to get Serkan to remember and when he doesn’t it crushes her, when she should be paying attention to the fact that he’s falling back in love with her even without the memories. She should be trying to connect with him more in those moments when he’s vulnerable with her.

The coffee shop scene is a perfect example. They’re both drawn there, he doesn’t know why. When she sees him you can see her mind working, that maybe he remembers, and when he doesn’t, she just sinks. She’s near tears that entire conversation. I’m sure it was extremely painful for her, but he’s sitting there opening up to her and instead of encouraging him to talk more or maybe offering him some answers, she gets up and leaves. If she’d stayed, they probably would have talked for hours.

Anonymous said: Do you think that Eda getting fakeengaged to Deniz was the wrong move? Am I being very unfair to her when I think this? Like I know Serkan is engaged to Selin and he's doing this even though he's not in love her, but he did experience amnesia and is genuinely confused at what has gone on in his life. Whenever he does have some breakthrough moments, like when he was questioning her in that cabin , she reiterates that she's with Deniz now and he's with Celine - I feel like that's the wrong move.

I think she’s made some missteps, yes, and you pointed out the biggest.

Here’s the thing, though, Serkan is like a scared little rabbit and Eda is holding out her hand with some lettuce trying to get the wee scared rabbit to come and nibble on it. Any wrong or sudden move and he’s going to scamper away! She’s afraid if he knows she’s available and still in love with him he’s going to freak out and run far, far away from her. The problem is she’s so cautious, that when she finally succeeds and he nibbles the lettuce (opens up and becomes vulnerable with her) she’s the one that retreats!

Poor babies.

That moment in the cabin felt like such a lost opportunity. Serkan was asking about their relationship, he was genuinely interested in learning more. And he sounded hurt when he asked about her giving up on him, which we know is a deep-seated fear of his, people abandoning him-- and there are so many things she could have done there to throw him a bone, but instead she doubled down on Deniz and Selin. Even if she would have ignored Deniz and just said, but you are with Selin, to drive home the fact that it’s him who gave up, but unfortunately she didn’t do that.

Anonymous said: I need Eda to lose it, confess about fake engagement, tell Serkan shes done trying to make him remember their love while he's happy with someone else because it just hurts too much so she needs to leave him and all these fake people behind and just go to Italy. Then Serkan can chase her (following her to Italy would be nice) and 33 can be our 11.

I’m onboard. I would love to see Serkan chasing her down again!

Anonymous said: I don't even care about Deniz from a love triangle standpoint but it is very sad for Eda that this longtime childhood friend that she trusts so much is working with the enemy behind her back. No matter what his ulterior motives are, it will be devastating for her to realize this. And Ceren is now super bitchy to her so Melo is literally her only real friend right now. I wish they could give us some Eda/Ferit scenes or something because they /could/ connect over all things Serkan/Selin/CerenI

I agree, it’s super sad to see how alone Eda is in all of this and to find out that this childhood friend who became a source of strength for her when Serkan was missing is actually capable of conspiring against her is devastating. I really don’t understand him, he doesn’t seem unbalanced or desperate like Selin, you’d think he’d know that he can’t force Eda to love him when she’s in love with someone else. Also I’m now on board with the theory that he was purposely not as helpful in the search for Serkan as he pretended to be. It was all performative, not substantive. Eda put her trust in the wrong person.

Thankfully she has Melo. What a terrible time for Fifi to have left and Ceren to have lost the thread. I agree I’d like to see some Ferit/Eda scenes, we know he would at least sincerely care about her and how she’s doing because he’s just that kind.

Anonymous said: Please can you explain to me why serkan keeps changing his attitude with eda? He jumps from eda to selin every episode and it's very frustrating. At the beginning of the ep he was like "you're not in my past or my future" and by the end of the ep he say "You gave up on me" come on serkan ily but boy make up your mind, one minute you don't want anything to do with her and the next minute you're making eyes at her...

This a pretty easy one to answer. The answer is because he’s suffering from trauma, PTSD, a brain injury, he has amnesia, he’s being manipulated by his oldest friend and is being lied to by the person he remembers as his girlfriend and all of a sudden he’s having powerful feelings for this strange woman that he doesn’t understand. I firmly believe that the reason we hear Serkan say in episodes 18 and 20 that he never loved Selin, is because he never loved Selin, but he didn’t know that until he met Eda. Before Eda, I don’t think he believed in love or thought much about it. If asked he might have said he loved Selin because he didn’t know better. So now he’s once again experiencing something powerful he didn’t know existed, compounded by all these other factors and it’s freaking him the fuck out!

The comment about you’re not in my past or my future was a reaction to whatever powerful feeling or recollection that made him say, “nobody touches you but me.” It scared him. And also, not for nothing, he apologized for being hard on her, something old Serkan NEVER did.

Most of the times he “jumped” to Selin in this episode were 100% in reaction to being confronted with Deniz and Eda’s relationship. In the office he witnesses Eda and Deniz all affectionate so when Selin comes in, in front of Eda he greets her warmly. When they’re outside the bungalows, Eda throw in his face that she’s so glad to be with Deniz now, so he throws a compliment at Selin. Deniz tells him he’s glad he almost died in a plane crash and has amnesia so Eda can actually finally be happy, (enough can’t be said about how awful that would be to hear, so fuck you Deniz) so he throws his energy into Selin at their party.

Every time he “changed” his attitude it was a reaction.

When he had just had a very positive experience with Eda, helping her with the presentation and their ride back to the hotel, he has zero patience for Selin and let her stomp off without even a look. When Selin was trying to get his attention later, he had no interest.

So, yes, while he was hot and cold, there was also a bit of rhyme to that reasons.

Anonymous said: I liked this episode but at times it seemed like the writers wanted to do everything to make me hate Serkan. With serkan kissing selin on the cheek, hugging selin, making heart eyes at her and throwing a surprise birthday party for her. And I'm not even talking about all those bad words he says to eda. I think it's too much. I know what they're trying to do with serkan but I think that trying to do too much will end up making the character of serkan unbearable for the audience.

Okay, but why aren’t you paying attention to any of the good things? How can you hate Serkan when he sleeps on his office couch clutching her wedding invitation, and scrubs his face not understanding why she’s gotten so far under his skin? Or when he’s so confused sitting in a coffee shop and he doesn’t know why, but feels at peace? Or when he drops everything to rush back to the office to help Eda. When he brings her coffee and calls her boss? When he looks so proud of her as she does the presentation. When he looks like a big sweet Golden Retriever after she hugs him? When he playfully tackles her while having a snowball fight. When he leaves Selin right as she’s making her birthday wish to go find Eda. He didn’t even ask if she wanted to help (which a sane, kind person would want to join everyone else in searching) he just bolted because Eda was in trouble. Then he carried her to safety and lit a fire and tended to her injuries. Does all of that make you hate him?

Is that “hateable” behavior.

I mean if it’s in your personality to only see the negative, okay, but life is much better when you don’t discount everything positive just to sate your desire to live in a dark place and only see the worst in people.

Anonymous said: eda & serkan are just so.. ahsjdkfd. such frustrating characters (whom i love but wanna knock them both in the head). everything they did with deniz & selin or when it came to their arguments was in reaction to what the other did. that's why i don't think this fake engagement thing is gonna work, bc if he's constantly being told by eda & deniz how happy they are, i dont think he's gonna be up front with this feelings. outside of eda leaving (like ep 11) i dont think a proper confession will come

Yes, I will give you that. THEY ARE FRUSTRATING!!!!! I agree that usefulness of the engagements have worn off both from a character perspective and a narrative perspective.

As I said above, I think the Deniz thing has served a bit of a purpose, but it’s now officially doing more harm that good and that shit-stain needs to leave ASAP.

Anonymous said: I was going to give a chance to these people who didn't care enough about Eda & Serkan in episode 29 but now 4 eps later, Selin has integrated back into the scene disturbingly well. Ferit is still the only one we've seen confronting her and Melo has been very supportive but that has not changed since 29 so development for other characters caring about EdSer has not improved in my opinion. They have accepted it :( And its actually worse now bc of Deniz. Aydan starting to feel bad does not count.

Oh I agree, they can all rot as far as I’m concerned, Piril is particularly disgusting to me.

You know, having said that, part of me thinks, even from Piril and Ferit’s first conversations with Selin, that they all just know it’s a matter of time until Serkan realizes he belongs with Eda. Like none of them are doing anything because they’ve witnessed over and over Serkan’s inability to stay away from her and assume the situation will play itself out and they just need to let it be? I would prefer to think this rather than any of them (other than Piril) being okay with Selin’s psycho behavior.

The other problem is that Serkan is such an authoritative figure to all of them. None of them, other than Eda, know how to question him. Did you see Engin, he’s too scared to tell Serkan they lost a client when he had nothing to do with the reason why? He has balls of Styrofoam. Kinda stands to reason that none of those gutless wonders are going to try and make him see the light when he’s so obstinately trying to not be the person they all told him he turned into with Eda.

For Aydan, while I will still never forgive her for keeping Serkan’s whereabouts a secret, she might be treading lightly because she knows Serkan tends to do the opposite of what she tells him to do. If she pushes too hard for Eda, he might start reacting against that.

Anonymous said: Serkan's change of attitude between day and night is really disturbing. The whole progression between him and eda is destroyed each time. At the end of the episode we always find ourselves back at the starting point with zero progression. At this point it's really tiring, they should stop it or at least take Selin out of the equation (also why selin and serkan are still engaged ? at this point is ridiculous).

While I agree that Selin needs to be out of the equation and her presence is beyond tiring, I disagree that their progression is destroyed each time. They really don’t start at zero.

Do you think they get to the point where they were in this episode without everything that came before? Having a couple of deep and real conversations, where Serkan is vulnerable, having Serkan leaving the hotel to come and help Eda? Calling her boss and working together as a seamless team? Him hugging her back? Him asking deep and sincere question about how she could move on and give up on him?

That would not have happened in prior episodes. I assume you feel like a deep moment happens and the next interaction they act like it didn’t? That is partly true, but I think it’s both of them protecting themselves, so after a particularly close moment they boomerang back. Serkan is being pushed out of comfort zones he didn’t even know he had. So yes he retreats after being vulnerable. Eda is at her emotional limits and she still has that pride. However, while that’s true that they do take a step back after a big moment, it’s also true that the next time they have a real moment, a big moment, it goes deeper than the last. They all build on one another.

So there is progression and they are building something. His feelings for sure are much different than they were in 29/30. He’s in a vastly different place, he’s recognizing that he has feelings for Eda to the point that he’s sleeping on his office couch clutching her wedding invitation. The progress is slow, but it’s happening, just like the first time around, when they’d take a step forward and then one of them would freak out and pull back a bit.

Anonymous said: It was a good episode but I still don't understand why writers keep on writing things that aren't necessary (aydan and ayfer killing alex plus all of theirs scenes together that are boring by the way, the scenes between selin and serkan where they are suddenly close, selin and deniz..) we don't need to see that. They should focus more on the trauma that serkan is going through and the way he falls little by little in love with eda with those memories of them that appear to him at the same time.1

They should just take Selin away and get rid of those fake engagement. 2

Well you certainly won’t get any argument from me that we need to get rid of fake engagements and Selin and Deniz. I’m also laughing because we’re all referring to Serkan and Selin’s engagement as fake. That’s because it is. It’s something Serkan is using as a buffer, and we are now at the point that he doesn’t need it anymore, its only him who needs to realize it.

As for Alex, Aydan and Ayfer the fact is this show is over 2 hours in length each week and they have to have B and C storylines in order to fill it. This week it was A/A/A and I got to tell you, I’ve seen worse. If you don’t take it too seriously (which you really shouldn’t take too much on this show seriously, at this point it’s really just a vehicle for Hande and Kerem to work their special brand of magic each week) you can just enjoy the reprieve from Selin and try and enjoy these two ladies’ dynamic and their shenanigans. Both Alican (Seyfi) and Evrim (Ayfer) previewed on twitter that they laughed so hard while reading episode 33, I assume it has to do with Alex’s “death.” I say bring on the comedy!

Anonymous said: you know i've seen a lot of talk about how serkan is being "cruel" with eda and i don't agree at all. i mean, when they're bantering, she's giving back just as good as she gets.. and bantering/arguing is kinda their "thing" .. it's like their foreplay lmao. and when she does feel hurt by something he does or says it's not like he's doing it intentionally with the purpose of inflicting her pain. idk.. cruel is a very strong word to use for what the dynamic is between them right now..

Agreed. Remember when the narrative from episode 20-26 was that Eda was being cruel to Serkan and needed to suffer? There are some people who can’t help but pit the two halves of the whole against each other. I don’t do that. There’s enough empathy to go around.

Especially when they’re arguing, as you say Eda gives as good as she gets (that’s why she’s the only match for Serkan, she’s the only one who can go toe to toe with him) and there were also quite a few moments where she was provoking him. As she told him in the shelter, just because they didn’t always agree, didn’t mean there wasn’t love.

Anonymous said: I see a ton of people cancelling Serkan each week but I think he’s going to cancel himself when he remembers and that’s what will further prolong their reunion/wedding. He drove himself sick with guilt about her parents and he had 0 fault in that, but in this instance, there are things a version of him said and did, even if it was in the wrong state of mind. I hope the writing does this justice.

Me too. While I don’t want to spend episode upon episode with him wallowing and self-flagellating, we are owed a scene of his devastation at what he’s put her through. He loves her so much it will be very painful when he puts it all together.

On the other hand, I think he won’t remember enough to be at that point until he’s already admitted he’s in love with her afresh. That might dull the need for him to punish himself too much as he would have fulfilled his promise to fall in love with her if born again.

jan31: Hi Liza, hope you are well. I am sure you have seen the fragman by now, have you got any idea why Serkan would give Seline 5% of his shares. Is at guilt thing after finding him with Eda? I want to believe he remembers more than he is letting on with her and it's some kind of test, but I think I am clowning! When it comes to love he is clueless but not business. Why would he take away his majority and now be 45%? I am perplexed! Maybe there will be something In the episode that will explain it, as I think this happens near the beginning? Not sure anymore if 33 will be Selines last episode now, maybe they are dragging out the drama a bit longer for ratings, who knows!

I think this is one where we can’t judge it until we actually see what happens. Serkan has to wise up at some point and giving away 5% of the company (even though its her shares she sold to him when she left town) is very unwise and I find it hard to buy that its something he does because he feels guilty because he got all cuddly with Eda in the cabin. He’s always been a savvy business man, and her hold on him has only been lessening, not increasing.

Let’s hope he’s starting to wise up and it’s some sort of test or trap. Unless the new writers just don’t understand who Serkan Bolat is at all.

Anonymous said: Anyone else need to take several deep breaths after watching that fragman? Everyone is canceled except for Eda, Melo, Ferit (if he knew nothing about the shares) and Serkan (although he is going to seriously make up for his cruelty at some point). I guess the only positive is that it seems like everything that happened in the last 4 episodes is all coming together finally. Eda will hopefully finally figure out what Ceren’s problem is and hopefully also figure out Deniz & Selin are working together. And at least Serkan seems determined to get Eda to admit there is still something between them which has to mean he has finally accepted his feelings for her. Things have been progressing slowly and Selin has been smug for far too long so exciting to think there will be a change.

My thought is we need to wait and see context for all of these things. I have a feeling not everything is as it appears.

Though one thing I think that is exactly as it appears is Serkan trying to get Eda to admit she has feelings for him. That’s good. That’s really, really good. He’s making a move. He’s bringing the sexual tension. Love to see it.

Anonymous said: Ok so do you buy the theory that Serkan suspects that Selin sabotaged Eda with that dossier? Because when I first saw him getting that flashback at the hotel, I didn't understand why they needed to show it - maybe just to let us know again that Serkan doubted Eda's work skills since they had been bickering all day? But then I read that the flashback could be to confirm that he knew Selin was present. This could be fans coming up with better ideas than the writers though. :/

I want to buy that theory. I want to buy it lunch and dinner and some wine and flowers and I want it to be true!!!! I also want the 5% shares to be a part of some plan he has to figure out what Selin’s is doing.

Though... lets not get too far ahead of ourselves, this is just speculation which mostly never happens, however the spoilers have long said that Selin leaves in 33 or 34. For that to happen something drastic has to happen. There’s also screenshots going around that show that there was definitely a security camera right behind Selin when she got into the network and deleted Eda’s files. So there’s a good chance hard evidence of her perfidy exists.

Honestly, this makes the most sense to me in getting rid of her (which means it’s probably not true).

However, if it were true, it would help bolster Serkan’s character a bit. He’s a smart man but they’ve turned him into a fool not suspecting anything about Selin, if he unmasks her himself and takes her down for business reasons and doesn’t care a bit about dumping her personally, it kills a bunch of birds with one stone. It restores his savvy, it gets rid of her, it gets rid of her by his hand so it’s not like the choice was taken away from him, it gives her some consequences and comeuppance without overtaking the plot, and it does all this without advancing the romantic story with Eda too quickly (cause I think they want to milk that a little while longer)

Also the only other way they get rid of her at this point is if Serkan breaks it off and tells her he’s in love with Eda. And I really need her GONE now and not once Serkan is at the screaming at her about how much he’s in love with Eda stage of this story.

Anonymous said: Okay so Serkan must have a plan and that is why he gave Selin the shares, right? Or he is doing it to make up for ruining her birthday? It would be great if he was doing it because he finally accepted his feelings for Eda on some level & plans to break up with Selin but feels bad about it. Just very weird that he would give her the shares (which to everyone that cannot read his mind comes off as cementing their future together) while at the same time trying to get Eda to admit her feelings for him.

Yeah, I think we’re all on the same wavelength that something is fishy here. Let’s hope it’s a ploy because Serkan knows Selin has been up to no good. And if so I really, really need Eda to be present for her takedown this time. Girlfriend deserves that.

Anonymous said: what do you think of this third set of writers? I'm not sure if the episodes have been bad because they were instructed to write this stagnant plot and its not really their fault, or if the scene would've been fine but were just actually written badly. Idk if Im making any sense. I personally refer to 26-27-28 as the "edser renaissance" and was not missing Ayse's team and now I'm sad but idk if it's unfair to the writers if this is more likely the showrunner's idea or something

It’s hard to tell because it’s only been two episode, but I think the DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA seems to be a directive from the producers/network. However, I think they’ve written some very nice individual scenes. As I’ve said, the scene where Serkan comes back to ArtLife to help Eda is already on my list of favorite scenes ever and there was a lot of goodness besides that. There was the accidental kiss, and arguing (how much did you love Eda sitting with Melo counting down until Serkan came to the coffee room) and the coffee shop and every second in that cabin. So I guess I disagree with you that the scenes are all bad. If there’s nothing you like in the episode, maybe go back and just rewatch some of the Edser scenes without having the stench of Selin and Deniz nonsense polluting them, I promise you there’s lots of goodness there.

#edser #sen cal kapimi #Sen Çal Kapımı #sck 1x32 #sck spoilers #sck 1x33 #asklizac #sckask

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first-and-last-neocount · 3 years

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Whumptober Day 5

Aaaand here we are, second offering in the Escape!AU, though this is... third I think?... if we’re going by internal chronology of what I’ve got so far. I’m not even going to try to track that as we go, though, because of the whole still-adding-more-as-I-go-along thing. I’ll figure that shit out when the AO3 post gets made, lol.

Have some EVEN MORE FEELINGS realization, friends! And also some sad, because y’know, Whumptober.

With the rest of Damien’s family being pagan, I also had this headcanon that his relationship with them was pretty well trashed after he joined the Church, and that the Matriarch of Ganji had kind of... honorarily adopted him, and that they were still super close, and that’s why she backed him so firmly against the Patriarch’s bullshit. Having that headcanon, though, made me wonder - what must she have thought, when she heard about certain developmens?

Day 5 - Theme Chosen: Betrayal

Damien eyed the pile of letters with some trepidation. He had only meant to grab a few belongings from his rented room in Jaggonath before abandoning it permanently – the world needed to believe that he and Gerald had perished at Mount Shaitan, so he couldn't exactly tell the landlord that he wasn't coming back, but he'd wanted to pick up a few of the items he'd brought with him across the Dividers before he and Gerald left the city for good. He hadn't expected a pile of letters to be laying on the front hall rug, having clearly accumulated during the journey to Shaitan and back.

Gerald was currently at Alesha Huyding's house, convincing the woman to let them take the rest of Senzei's journals on the Iezu for their own project. They were supposed to meet at Karril's temple in less than an hour; Damien definitely didn't have time to read these all. He scooped the pile off the floor and started flipping through them quickly, discarding the majority of them at a glance. Most of them were notes from his fellow clergy members at the Jaggonath Cathedral, wondering where he'd disappeared to; there were a few unpaid bills from local merchants, and one heavy linen envelope with a golden seal that he knew must be his official notice of excommunication. The sight of it made his chest ache, but it was nothing compared to the shock that ran through him at the last letter.

The envelope from the very bottom of the stack was also fine quality, though it lacked the ostentatious gold seal, instead being tied shut with a red ribbon. Even at a glance, though, Damien recognized the delicate hand that had traced out the address of the Jaggonath Cathedral – it seemed the letter had gone there first, and been redirected to his temporary apartment when the messenger learned that Damien was no longer employed by the Church.

The letter was from the Matriarch of the Cathedral in Ganji-on-the-Cliffs.

Guilt pooled in his chest like icy water, and Damien cursed softly. Stuffing the two Church envelopes in his jacket pocket, he left the rest of the letters on the kitchen table and went to gather what he'd come for in the first place. There would be time enough later to deal with the two he'd kept; neither of them, he suspected, were going to be an easy read.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He ended up putting off looking at the letters for a few days. Between gathering everything they would need to get them to another city, and tying up any loose ends they'd left behind, he actually managed to more or less forget about the envelopes tucked away in his pocket. Gerald had decided that their best bet was to head back northeast, retracing their steps yet again to get some distance from Jaggonath now that they had what they needed from the city; Damien wasn't any more keen on running into any familiar faces than the adept was, and agreed that it was probably the safest plan. Ensuring that they remained anonymous was enough to keep his mind occupied on the road, and it wasn't until they stopped at a dae three nights later that he remembered.

They'd both had their fill of sleeping on the unforgiving ground as winter crept closer again, and when the dae had come into view, they had agreed with only a glance that they could afford the minor risk of dealing with the residents if it meant getting to sleep in proper beds for a night. Damien negotiated for their rooms while Gerald saw that the horses were stabled comfortably, and they met up in the common room of the dae, at a small table in the corner farthest from the light of the fire. As they sat down, though, Damien made to tuck the room key into his pocket – and his fingers brushed the envelopes still tucked into his jacket.

Either his face had shown his dismay or Gerald had felt it through their link, because the adept turned to look at him immediately, grey eyes narrowed in concern.

“What's wrong?”

“It's nothing urgent, just...” Damien pulled the letters out, feeling dread settle into his gut like a stone. “There were some letters that had been slipped under my apartment door, when I went back to get my things. Most of them weren't important, but I kept these two. I meant to look at them later that day, but – I forgot.”

Gerald's gaze fell on the golden seal of the Cathedral on the top one, and Damien heard his sudden, sharp breath. The former Knight's mouth twisted in a bitter half-smile.

“Yeah, I think we both know what that one is. This one, though...”

He pulled the other envelope out and set it on top, his heart in his throat. Gerald frowned at it, then glanced up at him.

“Who is this one from?”

“The Matriarch. In Ganji,” Damien whispered. “I wrote to her when we were sailing back from the Eastern Continent, telling her everything that had happened. The Master of Lema, what we'd discovered about the rakh, the Undying Prince... you.”

The adept went very still. He was rather like a hunting hawk in that way, a distant part of Damien's mind observed; when they laid eyes on their prey, such birds would freeze, in a manner that could look almost like a prey response itself unless one knew what to look for. In reality, the bird was preparing for the swift, sure, devastating movement of an attack – but the only warning you would get was that unnatural stillness.

“This is her response.” The soft words weren't a question. Damien sighed deeply, rolling his shoulders back in a fruitless attempt to shed some of the tension.

“Yes. And probably more, given that I'm fairly sure the Patriarch wrote to her as well – she likely knows by now that I've been thrown out of the Order, even if she hasn't yet heard about our... tragic demises.” He looked up and forced himself to meet Gerald's gaze steadily, feeling the prickling anticipation through the bond, the chill creeping over his skin. When he spoke, he kept his voice very low, not wanting to speak too loudly even though Gerald had put up a Warding when they sat down that would keep anyone from eavesdropping on them.

“I know you're hungry. Take what you need. This is going to be miserable for me either way.”

Gerald's eyes flashed, but the adept only inclined his head slightly, a silent gratitude. Damien swallowed against the lump that had formed in his throat, then reached with shaking hands to untie the ribbon and unfold the letter.

My dear son,

I hope you will forgive my informality. I know that, as the Holy Mother, I ought to have worded this more properly – but at the moment, I care nothing for propriety, so long as I can reach you.

Your letters have given me enough nightmares for a lifetime. This demon that conspires to corrupt our world, Calesta, is all that the Church most dreads; not a passive evil, but an all too active one, darkening the minds of men and swaying them to its nefarious cause. I was horror-struck to learn of the men and women that willingly served it, and what it plans for our world, but those concerns too have paled in comparison to the chill that fell over me when I read what you had written of our fallen Prophet.

Damien. If ever you felt, as I did, that our bond was that of true family – that you were my son in more than the titles that the Church proscribes, that I cared for you as I would have for a child of my flesh – then I beg of you, in the name of that bond... turn aside. I do not need it written out to know that you hope to save Gerald Tarrant, to redeem him from his dark deeds and guide him back into the light of God. I cannot stress enough how much I fear for you if you pursue such a path. There are some choices that a man cannot make without altering who he is forever, and some roads are too dark to retrace one's steps. You cannot save him. God's greatest gift is forgiveness, but a man such as that will not accept it, for to do so he would have to admit that his deeds require forgiveness – to admit that he has become a monster, and repent of what he has done. A man like Gerald Tarrant can never do that.

If you try to save him, I am certain that he will poison you. Slowly, no doubt, and subtly, for to have survived all that he has the Hunter must be a devious creature indeed – but inexorably, and perhaps, irrevocably. I know you, Damien, and your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness; your incredible determination. It has carried you through so much adversity, and it held you to our faith and cause when your family would have dragged you away... but I fear that it will also keep you from recognizing when you are outmatched, and hold you to your resolve to alter his nature, even as his corruption takes hold. If you are focused only on his redemption, you may not see what is happening until it is too late.

Please come home, Damien. I know it goes against everything we preach, but this once, I reach out to you and speak not as the Holy Mother, but simply as a mother. Come home. Let another fight this war; let the Hunter carry this burden alone, if you truly believe he wishes to make amends. We are all of us sworn to give our lives for the Church, but I beg of you, not like this.

Come home.

With all my love and prayers,

Carla

No title. No Holy Mother. Not her regnal name, Aelia II. Just her given name, as a mother might sign a desperate letter to her son.

Damien didn't know when he'd started to cry, but his eyes burned by the time he reached the end; his cheeks were wet, and his chest ached from staying quiet, even as his whole body shook with silent sobs. He dropped the letter on the table and pressed his hands over his face, past caring if his distress was obvious. No one else in the room was going to notice anything with the Obscuring still in place, and it wasn't as if Gerald needed the visual cues to know that he was upset – with the way he felt, in that moment, the grief and guilt had to be flooding out of him like blood from an arterial wound, staining the fae around him black and crimson.

He'd known, since the night he braved Hell itself to bring the Hunter back, that he was turning his back on everything he'd ever cared for. Not merely his faith, intangible as it was, but also his home, his friends, and his family.

Perhaps his parents and brother would not have disowned him for the choices he had made on this quest – but it was years too late for that to matter, after the way they had fallen out when Damien chose to join the Church. The faith of the One God had forced Damien to distance himself from their aggressively pagan lifestyle, and they had seen his choice as a betrayal, a self-righteous attack on their way of life instead of the deeply personal calling Damien had felt it to be. The only thing that had gotten him through that loss and upheaval had been the support of a woman who, at the time, was just another priestess at the Ganji Cathedral. Mother Carla had been his bedrock of support, his sponsor in the seminary and a gentle voice of reassurance whenever Damien felt himself faltering; by the time Damien was Knighted, she had ascended to the Holy Mother's seat as Matriarch Aelia II, and their bond had been unshakable. It had been Carla who recommended Damien for the experimental program teaching young Workers in Jaggonath, who had seen him off with a warm smile and the assertion that she knew he would do well, and that he would return to Ganji-on-the-Cliffs having shaped a whole generation of new minds.

And Damien had betrayed her.

It wasn't what he meant to do, but what did intent matter when measured against the cold facts of the outcome? He had betrayed the faith they held in common by choosing to forgive the Hunter's centuries of crimes; he had betrayed the Church they both served by thwarting Andrys's attempt at vengeance and helping Gerald elude the Crusade; he had betrayed the personal trust she had placed in him by deserting his duty and turning his back on the very principles that he himself had once preached to the Church's young followers. She had sent him east to further the vision of the Church, and instead he had struck it one of the most staggering blows it had suffered in centuries. She had reached out to him in compassion and love, ready to absolve him of every responsibility if he only turned back... but even if the letter had reached him in time, Damien knew in his heart that it still wouldn't have altered his course.

That, surely, was the bitterest betrayal of all – the knowledge that seared through him and left him shaking and cold and sick. That letter hadn't said anything that he hadn't already, on some level, known; he had held all those arguments with himself a thousand times, those long lonely nights on the road to Mount Shaitan. He had recognized the risk that his own stubbornness was blinding him, recognized that his judgement and morals were compromised, recognized that he was nearing the point of no return. Even with all of that, though, when the moment of choice had come – he hadn't even hesitated. He'd seen the murderous rage in Andrys Tarrant's eyes, known that it was the reckoning for all of Gerald's sins, and he'd still stepped in front of the bolt.

He might not have surfaced from that yawning abyss of despair for a long time, if not for the gentle sensation that ran along the link between himself and Gerald. Unlike the assertive, even imperious force that Damien was used to from the Hunter's power, this was softer, almost inquisitive; a coaxing tug, instead of a firm push. He was still too badly shaken to muster any kind of coherent response within his mind, and a moment later, he felt an equally gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Damien.”

With an effort, the former Knight swallowed back the sounds of pain he wouldn't allow himself to make and lifted his head, blinking through tears at his companion. Gerald had shifted his chair and was sitting close by his side now, one hand raised for that steadying grip on his shoulder, and the look on the adept's face took what little breath Damien had regained away; genuine concern, traces of sorrow and guilt – unmistakable compassion, raw and unpractised and honest. A more human expression than the Hunter's face had worn in centuries, one that no one else would even have believed him capable of.

Damien realized, quite suddenly, that his heart was beating so forcefully that it might have been trying to break free of his ribcage.

He heard himself speak, without consciously deciding to do so.

“I wouldn't change it. Even if I knew, if I could go back and do it again, I wouldn't choose any differently.”

Gerald's grip tightened on his shoulder, and for a moment he just held Damien's gaze, silent. Damien could see the thoughts racing behind his quicksilver eyes, and even with the link, he couldn't read them all – but suddenly he knew, with a certainty so firm that it had to be resonating through the link, that someday he would be able to. They'd been operating on the unspoken understanding that Damien would be helping Gerald fulfill his new goal of establishing proper communication with the Mother of the Iezu, and that their work would keep them together for some time yet, but in that moment Damien knew that it was more than that. He hadn't just chosen betrayal for its own sake, in that moment in the Hunter's Keep; he'd chosen Gerald, and that choice was always going to be there, just like the link that hummed between their souls. They were walking the same path now, and wherever it lead, they would be treading it side by side.

Finally, Gerald spoke, his voice soft but ever so steady; the unwavering voice of a man who had stared Death in the face, and made it bow to him.

“I don't know that I can ever find a way to repay you for that... but I swear, on my life, that I will never make you regret it.”

Damien reached up and took the hand that had gripped his shoulder in his own, lacing their fingers together, the Hunter's once-chill hand now almost warm against his own.

“That's good enough for me.”

#whumptober2021 #no.5 #Betrayal #coldfire trilogy #fic #evil is what you make of it #gerald tarrant #damien vryce #the neocount writes

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davidmann95 · 4 years

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So... Crossover #1: any thoughts?

Anonymous said: You seemed not to think much of Crossover #1 on Twitter. Your full thoughts?

wcwit said: So Cates' Crossover #1, best bad comic of the year or just regular pretentious trash?

An incidental note upfront: What you’re seeing there is the apparently SUPER-RARE SECRET VARIANT COVER I unwittingly picked up at the store - at first glance indistinguishable from the standard cover, the kid getting four-color-fucked by mysterious comic book rays is in fact themselves reading a variant cover of the book, rather than the main cover again in an infinite painting-within-a-painting sort of deal that’s the standard.

So I wasn’t gonna get this: my initial post on the comic and what an obviously awful idea it was back when we only knew half the premise and it was known as Pray The Capes Away actually got some out-of-nowhere traction recently, and I’ve grown rapidly tired of Cates’ Marvel work. Even learning that it was going to be Image’s biggest debut in decades - Jesus fuck, how and why - mostly just made me wish it was Commanders in Crisis getting those kinds of numbers. But Sean Dillon/@deathchrist2000 and Ritesh Babu both got early looks at it and assured me that I, specifically, needed to see the last page, so in I dove. I’ll be posting my reaction to the last page below because I recorded it for their amusement, and below that I’ll talk about said last page. It may surprise you, however, that that wasn’t my main takeaway from the issue.

Let’s accentuate the positive first! This book is gorgeous. Geoff Shaw was terrific back with Thanos Wins, but this is an incredible stylistic level-up aided and abetted by Dee Cunniffe’s colors: it’s rote as hell to say “They mix the elevated and the mundane so well!”, but even beyond the obvious ben-day dots stuff there’s such a tangible sense that the comic book beings don’t belong here, that they’re of higher, misty, platonic stuff and we squishy non-paper-people inevitably crumble and break and bleed in their wake, communicating that big idea so much more powerfully than the actual loads of text on the subject. And if we’re talking good things, I’ll concede it’s possible that there could be subtleties that play out in more interesting ways as it goes on, and that not everything is meant to be taken at face value: a smart friend who actually did like it mentioned being interested in it as clumsy but potentially effective exploration of ‘what if the fun hobby you had inadvertently became contaminated and stigmatized by forces beyond your control?’ In a post-Comicsgate world where we recently ended up inches away from the Superman logo almost certainly becoming a fascist propaganda symbol ala the Punisher skull for at least a generation, that’s a defensible lens to view this book through.

For all Donny Cates’ legitimate talents however, I don’t think an expectation of subtlety is gonna work out with this one.

Okay first off getting into the rest of it the main characters’ name is Ellipsis because “Those three little dots...they can become anything”, so there’s that. More importantly, in the world of this story where comic fans face social oppression after superpeople materialize and fuck up Colorado, they face EVERY KIND OF OPPRESSION: there are clear parallels drawn in here to the violence and harassment faced by people persecuted for their religion, people seeking abortions, queer people, and people of color; this motherfucker even drops a “hates and fears” to let us know comic collecting basically makes you one of the goddamn X-Men. Which in theory could be a purely misjudged allegory rather than stemming from actual, obscenely inflated to the point of disgusting fears of ‘nerd oppression’, except that the book literally opens with a quote from Wertham. If Cates didn’t want to make the message “Hating comics? That’s bad. Like, racism bad”, he utterly, grotesquely failed by inextricably intermingling imagery of real-world bigotry with systemic, deluded fanboy paranoia, at least as of this first issue that’s supposed to meaningfully convey the premise. As a queer dude I think I’m somewhat in my lane to say it’s too blunt and broad and dopey to be particularly offensive, but the co-opting of oppression is what this is rooted in.

The idea of ‘comics good no matter what people think, ain’t it?’ extends to the last traditional local comic store standing in this world: much as superheroes are the primary cause of suffering in this world but the point of the story is still supposed to reveal the beauty in them, part of this is that the comics community isn’t perfect but it sure is great. Which is expressed here via Ellie’s boss Otto, a loveable asshole who yells at people coming in trying to sell the wrong kind of comics to fuck off, but at heart is we’re supposed to understand a good enough dude that the shop he runs is “the only home a lot of (the benighted nerds) have left” (because I guess in this alternate universe the physical stores are still the main hub through which comics fans talk with one another?).

So here’s a story of my very own! That’s me in 2013, it must’ve been some kind of special day because I’m wearing a shirt with a button. I’d at that point only frequented one of what would be my thus far four regular comic shops. The first was a great place, and while to say I had a sense of community there would be overstating it a bit, I was on really good terms with the owner and we regularly chatted when we had the time. When I left for college my store there wasn’t as well-stocked, and for some damn reason all variant covers were double-price, but I got along really well with the owner there too. The third I wasn’t so lucky; the guy regularly behind the desk was never overtly hostile, but clearly wanted to wring my neck every time I asked when a missing comic might get in or if I could update my pull list, and given I’m in the ‘ideal’ demographic for being a comic book store regular and was dropping a solid lump of money there every week, I wonder how others were treated there (the store nearly went under, was saved on the last day of operation by another store that wanted to incorporate it as part of its franchise, then shortly afterwards DID go under and is now I believe a beef jerky place). My current store is fine, I didn’t chat much with the folks behind the counter even before we all had medical incentive to get in and out of places fairly quickly but it almost always has what I’m looking for.

Just because those were my regular stores of course doesn’t mean those are the only ones I’ve ever gone to. About a year before that picture was taken - it’s the closest I could find - when I was 17 my store didn’t have something or another I was looking for, so I head across town to see if another place I had looked up had it. This other place didn’t have what I was looking for either, though I distinctly remember picking up a few issues of Hickman’s FF while I was there since I had foolishly fallen off, hence my remembering the year. I bought a couple issues, but hung around for a bit looking to see if I might grab something else out of a dollar box, setting my comics down. Without realizing it, I’d set my books down on top of another issue, and when I decided I wasn’t getting anything else, I just picked that up along with the rest of the pile and was about to walk out before the owner stopped me. He explained what I had done though assumed it had been deliberate, and because I was a good-hearted little geek I even recall thinking “Well, he’s gonna chew me out, but I guess I deserve it. I’ll try and take this to heart as a learning experience.”

Then he pulled up his shirt a little to show me the gun on his belt. He pointed at the security camera monitors at his desk, and explained to me that if I ever did something like that again, he would have it on tape, and he would pull that gun on me and hold me there while he called the cops.

As it turned out, the comic was free.

The whole thing was so sudden and bizarre and unexpected I didn’t actually freak out until the drive home. It wasn’t until weeks or maybe months later that I managed to tell my dad about the experience, because I *had* nearly stolen a (free) comic and my guilt was mixed in with my nerves and I guess I was somehow too close to register just how disproportionate his response was. It wasn’t until now, nearly a decade later and thinking about it for the first time in a long time as I write this, that I wondered if that might have gone differently - especially living in the midwest - if I hadn’t been a white, squeaky-voiced 17-year-old.

So, minor spoiler, when our cantankerous but well-meaning LCS owner yells to call the cops and grabs and yells at a small kid for pocketing a comic (and later displays fantasy racism towards said kid), I am not filled with nostalgic love for the brotherly safe space that is comic book stores, where this guy while not meant to be seen as perfect is still framed in part as a charming, witty representation of Why We Love These Places, And This Community, And This Genre, And This Medium. Cates is clearly drawing on real time at his local stores, but he equally clearly has a very different takeaway from those experiences than me. And I am, again, in a demographic - white, cis-male, abled, bi but more interested in women, disposable income, a lifelong collector - that the industry and a lot of the guys who sell it to us contort themselves around catering to, even if I had a single very negative experience and later an ongoing low-key uncomfortable one to help disabuse me of any notions of the purity of the dork community. In the world of Crossover as of #1, toxicity is intertwined, deliberately or not on the part of the creators, with what we love on the cosmic and small business scales alike, but at least in the latter case it’s the whole picture that’s beautiful, not any single kernel that needs to be worked on to be dug up.

So underneath is my video reaction to the last page of Crossover #1. Very minor spoilers because I mutter the last two words of the comic to myself, but under the video I discuss said final page and some other scattered thoughts. Whether you read that or not, my takeaway is this: I’m fascinated with wherever the hell this thing is going, I’m glad my dad liked it well enough to want to keep getting it because now I’ll get to see where it heads, but my first impression is that this is at heart meant as cheapass Oscar-bait for people who only read Batman. It’s big and high-concept but also small and intimate! It’s meta and about how great you, the reader are for your consumption, especially the consumption of this! It’s going to be in large part about a forbidden love between a couple divided across impermeable social lines (a couple where they’re a seemingly straight white man and woman, but one likes comics)! Maybe it’ll become Not That, and I’m sure it’ll do at least something interesting along the way because Cates has done good stuff before and there are some inherently interesting big ideas for him to play with here, but for the love of god if you’re thinking about getting this buy Commanders in Crisis too or instead, it’s another new book out of Image about superheroes dealing with the collapse of the multiverse but that one is really fucking good.

So the final page splash reveal is that when the comic book child discovered in here got out of Colorado, which has had an impenetrable energy shield erected around it by one of the heroes for years, she and others were ferried out of there...by Superman, as the narration declares that “This is a story...about hope.” They don’t say the word, but she sketches her savior, Ellie and Otto freak out and go “Is that---” when they see it, and on that last page we see that while a crude drawing it isn’t a rough analogue character, it’s a guy with a cape and trunks with an S on his chest. Surprisingly, I don’t have much to say: it’s just another blunt signifier that superheroes rule and are the best, paired with the most utterly devalued notion as of late of what makes Superman special in ‘hope’. I mean, I’m perversely excited to see whether this is building the entire series on a hook it can never deliver on, or if Cates actually has talked DC into an intercompany crossover; believable given they’ve done a bunch of those over the last several years, and why else would Mark Waid be supervising as ‘story editor’ on this? I guess it’ll shake out one way or another with #6 given Cates has said it “has one of the more epic and — I would argue historic — sequences in comic book history in it.” But I’m far less convinced this is gonna truly go into the meaty question of “What does Superman mean and what makes him unique in this world where superheroes in general are indisputably either failures or monstrous bastards given the scale of destruction their presence has brought about, and he himself failed to stop that?” than as some kind of holy grail of how great superheroes are despite how dang violent they’ve gotten these days for the crew to chase after, whatever additional twist will surely be placed upon it. At least he’s kinda helping an immigrant kid get over a wall, if that’s deliberate?

Random final thoughts:

* If I wrote the opening essay and turned it in in a college course, I would be expelled for plagiarizing Grant Morrison. This is not a joke.

* If mainstream American superhero comics ended January 2017 in this universe, its own last ‘crossover’ was Civil War II, which is hilarious.

* God, please tell me if it takes the dive after all that this isn’t somehow tied into whatever Waid’s Superman project is.

* I wouldn’t normally crap on issues with the finer details of worldbuilding, but A. This is rooted in a nominally ‘real’ world playing by recognizable rules, B. I’m ragging on this anyway so what’s the harm, and C. It’s really obvious. So: Why is one of the racists against the superheroes the guy who loves superheroes so much he’s the last holdout in the entire world still selling comic books about them? How does this modestly-sized shop exist long-term with apparently a significant regular customer base if there are no new comics or even reprints to restock with, ever? Who’s buying the serialized cop/cowboy comics that the U.S. government apparently created pretty much overnight (nobody, it’s just another Wertham dig)?

* The solicit for issue #3 proclaims “Don't miss this one, folks. If you do, it just might drive you...mad.”, so now I fear some kind of Ultra Comics riff.

* “Kids love chains” is the most metal-ass quote of all time and I hate that it’s being wasted as an arc title on this book.

#Donny Cates #Geoff Shaw #Dee Cunniffe #John J. Hill #Mark Waid #Me #Superman #Opinion

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otonymous · 4 years

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Dear otonymous, I have read your MLQC character ABCs and i would like to inform you that i am not amused and inquire where do you get these ideas. My husband caught me reading this and afterwards he divorced me. He was wondering if the vivid details were based on our lacking experiences. If there is one message i want to spread is reading these pieces can ruin lives. Sincerely, A former accidental reader (Also otonymous hun, take care of yourself and get your mind out that gutter)

Dearest Nonny,

I have to say that this Ask left me somewhat perplexed when I read it. It was and remains difficult to tell whether or not it was meant as a joke, and it is after much consideration that I decided to address your comment in the off chance that it wasn’t meant in jest.

Let me begin by offering my sincerest sympathies if you are, indeed, experiencing difficulties in your relationship with your significant other. I can only imagine that it must be a very distressing and disorienting time for you, and I wish you nothing but the best in navigating the situation.

That being said, I feel your comments bring up a number of important issues that require addressing, the first of which being the role of personal responsibility.

My blog and its contents are meant to be consumed by adults and is clearly labelled as such. As an adult, one is expected to have the sound judgment to decide on what is considered proper behaviour, and I use the term ‘proper’ very loosely in recognition of the fact that what one feels to be acceptable may not be to another, depending on a wide variety of factors such as education, religion, the circumstances under which we were brought up, etc. This point will be further elaborated on below.

Part of being recognized as an adult and gaining the liberties that come with it is that we are expected to be responsible for our own actions. For better or for worse, we bear the consequences of the decisions we make.

You mentioned that you have read my NSFW MLQC character ABCs; not just one, but presumably for each of the 4 male leads. Each of these pieces takes, on average, 10 minutes to read. Each post also includes a “Read More” link, specifically put in place so that readers won’t accidentally stumble upon adult-oriented content if they choose not to consume it. Furthermore, said posts are tagged with warnings about the content contained therein. Hence, given all the above, dear former accidental reader, I would assume that one would have to go to great lengths to accidentally stumble upon all that NSFW content.

As an adult, which I will assume you are given that you were perusing my blog, you made a conscious decision to continue reading my work. Thus, any and all consequences of your behaviour — including the unfortunate dissolution of your relationship — lies with you. It is neither logical nor fair for you to attempt to place blame and guilt on the author.

The second issue in your Ask which warrants discussion is your prescription that I “get my mind out of the gutter.” As a writer, I enjoy crafting stories that involve elements of love and sexuality, two very important components of the human experience. I embrace all forms of sexual expression, given that it is consensual, between adults who are capable of making informed decisions, and safe for all parties involved.

As I mentioned above, what one person is comfortable with in terms of sexual behaviour may differ significantly from another’s. This, I can understand. What I staunchly oppose, however, is the laying down of judgment on the sexual proclivities of others — especially on strangers that, quite frankly, one knows nothing about.

It is my personal belief that others should never be made to feel ashamed or guilty when it comes to sexual expression, provided that the tenets set out above are satisfied. For far too long, women and other marginalized members of society have been made to view their sexual desires as “dirty,” topics that need to be suppressed, or — to extrapolate from your words — be relegated to the proverbial gutter, never to see the light of day.

Love is beautiful, intercourse its expression, and great sex an art form. What you find disgusting may be intensely stimulating to another. But, as an adult, you have the right to choose what you do and do not consume. What you do not have is the right to dictate what is and isn’t considered proper behaviour to another such as myself.

So, dear former reader, my mind will happily remain in that gutter of creativity while my heart soars high in the sky with lightness — happy and content in the knowledge that my writing helped save marriages in the course of allowing others to get their proverbial rocks off.

On a final note Nonny, you said that “reading these pieces can ruin lives,” and to that I only seek to ask the following questions:

Have you stopped to consider why you were drawn to my work in the first place? And have you considered why your significant other reacted so strongly to you reading such material? Please correct me if my interpretation is wrong, but if he were insecure about the “lacking experiences” in your sexual relationship, would he be willing to remedy that if it were something you truly desired? If he refused, how would that decision sit with you?

Sometimes, things need to fall apart in order for us to learn more about ourselves and those around us, hopefully growing stronger and more self-aware in the process.

In the off-chance that your Ask really wasn’t meant to be a joke, dear Nonny, I’d still like to thank you for sharing your thoughts because it provided the perfect opportunity for me to share mine. First, that my posts are written for adults, and as adults, I expect us all to have the maturity to take responsibility for our own actions. No one is being forced to do anything here, and as such, we need to behave accordingly, even when acting under the cover of anonymity. Second, my blog is a safe space, welcome to those who may have felt or do feel marginalized because of their sexual orientation or desires in any way. Given that sex is safe and between fully consenting adults who are capable of making their own informed decisions, it’s all love.💕

A giant THANK YOU to those of you who’ve read this to the very end! Dearest Anon, I hope you can understand where I’m coming from, and please know that I do sincerely wish you the very best.

- XOXO, Otonymous

#q&a #anonymous #CB #source: giphy

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ghosthunthq · 4 years

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Not All Treasure Is Silver or Gold

By: @humanrebel

Ghost Hunt Fanworks Weekend 2020

Prompt: Ghosts at sea. Ghost ships/haunted lighthouse -Anonymous

Summary: It’s not an old location; it was built just ten years ago. The haunting was severe, though, already causing physical damage. Just an average case, like the ones theyve investigated before. The only difference? They were investigating a ship out at sea. And it unnerved her to know that help is so far away. [Post manga]

Word count: ~4.5k

She breathes in the salted air and sighs into the breeze. Sure, she’s seen the ocean – she’s basked on warm summer beaches and jumped over white-tipped waves – but it holds a different quality during the winter.

The kick of sand turns to the crunch of snow. Icicles hang from wind chimes, adding a delicate touch to the sound. And the breeze from the ocean carries a different scent – lighter, fresher, it chills her to her bones in a decidedly good way.

Yes, Mai decides. The ocean is even better in the winter.

“Are you coming, Mai?” asks Naru. “Or do you plan on staring at the water all day?”

“It’s just refreshing, that’s all,” she pouts, but follows him onto the ferry anyway. In the distance, quite a ways out, she can see their destination. She’s not sure how it became haunted — it’s a large ten-year-old yacht — but maybe that’s why the case piqued Naru’s interest. A deceptively innocent place with no exciting history to speak of.

And they had it all to themselves.

Well, mostly. While rooms were often rented out for vacation, there were no tourists here. They still had the crew — none of the SPR team could operate a ship this size — as well as the client and his family, which went against Naru’s wishes.

Because the ghost was violent. It claimed the family as its own, punished them, left them bruised and battered and begging for help. Sure, they’ve had violent cases before, but they were all, for the most part, on solid ground. The only brush they’ve had with the sea was the Yoshimi case.

Mai shivers as she remembers it. She agrees with Naru, there should have only been a skeleton crew and maybe three adults, but when you’ve got as much money as this Ando-san, you don’t listen to logic. Ghosts aren’t motivated by money. While Mai hopes for a quick, painless exorcism, she’s not about to hold their breath.

She’s grateful for the ferry, though. At least they’ll have full supplies while they’re at sea — all the cameras and microphones and screens will help to keep an eye on things. It gives her a small sense of security. (Plus the wind in her hair feels absolutely amazing after being stuck in that stuffy old van for hours.)

She’d rather they investigate while the ship was docked, but apparently the ghosts were only active away from the coast. Which, you know, is fair when you want people to disappear, which has only happened once or twice. To complete strangers. People who rented out Ando-san’s yacht for a quick vacation.

Mai suddenly doubts the client’s intentions. As far as she knows, Naru did nothing to piss him off. Still, Naru pissing someone off is a very likely happening, so she’ll just keep an eye on the Ando family. To make sure they don’t pull any funny business, that’s all.

(She’s joking, of course.)

=•=•=•=

Her mouth drops open when she sees their base. There’s nothing set up yet, but the room–the room is huge. Way bigger than their usual bases, way bigger than she thought would be on a ship this size. The ceiling sits above her, the same size as the rest of the rooms on this floor(deck? level?), but the walls! The walls are far apart, lined with tables and chairs — this is a dining hall, Ando told them. There’s a kitchen through the doors in the back, and chefs that made meals all throughout the day — though Naru dismissed them upon arrival.

She entertains the idea that, perhaps, they were meant to use the dining room as a shared bedroom — but of course Ando thought of that. They each have a room, three in a row across from base. It’s not unusual for her to have a room alone, being the only girl among the official SPR crew, but Naru and Lin often had to share one. She wonders how they feel about that — sure, they shared a hotel room before, and now share an apartment, but to be on a case and have extra rooms? It must be so odd to them.

Then again, their usual clients aren’t always as well off as the Ando family. Mai wonders, not for the first time, what they did to earn such wealth. Sure, Ando rents the yacht out for a not-so-subtle fee. He refers to it as a ‘floating hotel’, but she thinks a cruise ship is more accurate. Either way, he’d need to have some serious money to set up the whole thing. According to him, he came from a small family in a somehow smaller village until he was discovered by a foreign talent agency. That wasn’t how he ‘struck gold’ though. It was just a stepping stone, and he refused to divulge his secrets past that.

Sketchy client or no, Naru took the job. They had no choice, and since the ferry was under Ando’s command, they wouldn’t be able to escape if they wanted. Not that they were ever planning on it. Naru doesn’t run, not when ghosts are involved. He watches and he learns. He’ll figure out what this haunting is and he’ll make sure to solve it with as little damage possible.

He’s saved her life before, and she trusts he’ll save it again if need be.

So she sets down the cameras and sets up the shelves, and she helps Naru with some preliminary camerawork. She throws herself into her work, taking temperatures and running cables, and when she yawns she doesn’t notice. It’s not until her limbs feel like lead and her eyes slide closed that she checks the clock.

“Naru,” she says as she places a box on a table, “I think it’s time to call it a night.”

“We’re almost done setting up.” He digs through the box and pulls out a cable, handing it off to Lin. “You can go ahead and lay down. Lin and I can finish here.”

“You two need rest, too!”

Lin’s voice chimes in, soft and smooth. “It’s almost two in the morning, Noll.” He hooks the cable to a monitor. “This should be fine for right now. We probably won’t get much activity, considering it’s the first night.”

Naru sighs. “I just don’t want to miss anything. You never can tell.” But he scans the monitors, checking over the four that are running, and then he nods. “Very well. Mai can take the room in the middle. That way one of us is bound to hear her if she wanders off.”

“Hey! I’m not–”

He shushes her. “It’s late, remember. Don’t want to wake up the clients,” he says with a smirk.

=•=•=•=

The caffeine in her tea is severely insufficient. Her yawns follow her throughout the day, and it only reminds her of the four hours of sleep she got. Naru wanted to argue for more time, but surprise, surprise! No activity on the first night, as usual. Not a flicker, not a fluctuation, not even one of those vague feelings she sometimes has. The only thing she felt last night was sick.

The rocking of the boat wasn’t so noticeable when she was up and working, but she felt it when she laid down. As soon as her mind settled, her stomach rolled, tossing about like the waves outside her window. It took several stumbling trips to the toilet to finally calm herself enough to sleep.

A yawn breaks her concentration, the twelfth one since she woke up three hours ago. Exhaustion clings to her mind, pulls it further and further down. She rests her head against the table, watching Lin and Naru discussing something in front of the screens — the schematics of the yacht are pinned to the board beside them, dots marking cameras and mics. Deciding where to record next, then. Surely they wouldn’t mind if she took a quick nap? She wants more control over her visions anyway, and what better way than to practice?

She doesn’t even have time to shut her eyes.

“Mai, go set up a camera in dining room B.”

So much for her nap. “Okay!”

With forced cheer and false energy, she stands and collects one of the night vision cameras. A headset, a tripod, and a coil of wire later finds her one level lower. The room isn’t nearly as big as base, but is still formidable in size. Her eyes scan the walls, more decorated here than above. The biggest picture hangs from the wall beside the door and is of Ando and his family — an older, foreign blonde woman, a teenage son, and twin little girls. The other photos are guests, she presumes, though she recognizes a few faces from movies.

All the portraits are haunting, in a way. They line the wall, glaring through glass panes and hanging crooked from their nails. She hurries through the process of setting up the camera, listening to Naru’s directions as she positions it. It takes all her self control not to sigh in relief when he tells her to return. She pulls the door open and steps out–

Four eyes stare up at her, glowing in the dim light.

A small Eep! escapes her, but she reigns it back in when she realizes it’s just children — living children — watching her. She smiles down at them. “I’m sorry. You startled me.”

Two girls stand before her, seven-year-old twins if she had to guess. Their stare grows just a touch unnerving when they speak.

“You’re here with the ghost hunters?” the one on the left asks.

Mai nods, and the two girls look at each other before they look at her.

“And you’re staying up there.” The one on the right points to the floor above, to where her very room would be located if they were up the stairs.

“Yes…” Mai answers. The girls look at each other and lower their voice to a whisper. She tries to listen in, but can’t hear.

“That pretty boy,” the one on the left starts, “his room is beside yours, isn’t it?”

Her face heats up. “It sure is,” she says.

The girls burst out in a giggle. “Secret boyfriend,” they sing to themselves. “Secret boyfriend, secret boyfriend!”

“I bet he sneaks over to her room at night,” says one.

“I bet he kisses her to sleep,” says the other.

“He doesn’t do any of that!” says Mai. Her face is hot, a blush exploding across her cheeks. Seeing her face turn red only proves to excite the girls. They giggle and sing, teasing still, hopping in one place.

And then they stop. They stand still, faces solemn as they look from Mai to the corridor.

“She’s not going to like that,” whispers one.

“She’s going to take him,” whispers the other.

“What are you talking about?” Mai asks them, dread settling in her stomach.

“Naiya,” the girls answer as one. The one on the left continues with, “Naiya owns the boat.”

“I thought your father–”

“She likes to collect things. Pretty things.” The girl on the right says.

The one on the left turns to her twin. “She might want to collect her, too,” she says.

They look at each other, then run away.

“Wait!” Mai runs after them, but they’re gone when she turns the corner. Her walk back to base is full of racing thoughts — namely Naiya and her collection.

“Don’t tell me you got lost on the way back.”

“Hm?” She raises her eyes to Naru’s raised brow.

“I expected you back ten minutes ago. What took so long?

“Oh. I ran into two of the children on board. I think they know something.” He says nothing, waiting for an explanation. “They said someone called Naiya owned the yacht, and that she liked to collect pretty things.”

“I guess I’ll have to be careful, then.” Naru smirks as Mai rolls her eyes, then says, “Yasuhara-san is already investigating the history of the ship. I’ll tell him to look for this Naiya person, as well.”

Mai nods. “I wonder if Masako would be able to help.”

Naru stiffens beside her. “I believe even Matsuzaki-san would be more helpful than her right now.“

“What? Naru, don’t be rude! She’d be able to tell if there were spirits here! Besides, there aren’t any trees nearby. Ayako can’t do anything here.”

“She can make charms and at the very least drive the spirits away. She’s not useless. Hara-san only knows basic warding magic.”

“I only know basic warding magic.”

“But I’m keeping an eye on you,” Naru says, smiling as her face heats up again.

“Nope! No using PK to protect me, Oliver.” Mai smiles as his face hardens. “I’m not about to be the cause of you being hospitalized…”

Again hangs in the air, but she won’t admit it. The Yoshimi case still burns in her mind, only a few months behind them. She still blames herself. His eyes lose their edge, but his frown deepens.

“It’s always been my fault,” he whispers to her.

She shakes her head, but changes the subject. “Maybe Ayako should be here. Better to have an actual doctor, just in case. Right?”

Naru sighs. “Lin, go ahead and call the regulars, and let me know when they can arrive. We’ll need to tell Ando to have a ferry ready for them.” Lin nods. “As for now, I’d like to start interviews. Mai?”

“Yes, sir!” She grabs her notebook and pen and follows him down the hall.

=•=•=•=

When the case was brought to them, Hiroyuki Ando showcased spectacular showmanship. He was an actor, hamming it up for a captive audience, but the bruises that lined his arms were all too real. His plea was ignored at first — spending time on a ship could mess with one’s equilibrium, after all, and stumbling one day could develop bruises the next.

Naru would have dismissed this case if it hadn’t been for the grizzled old captain. He’d spent most of his life on the sea, and actually was rather shaky on land. He had bruises as well, hidden beneath the long sleeves of his jacket. He didn’t want the crew to panic, he claimed, when they saw that even their captain was subject to whatever this mysterious force was. And, well, it worked.

The crew had no idea anything was going on. None of them had experienced the bruising or the noises; in fact, they thought SPR was there as guests, not as investigators. A few of the younger ones tried to flirt with her, and a few of the older ones turned their nose up at them. They refused the interview, claiming the ghosts to be a figment of imagination, and Mai threw them a nasty look when their back was turned.

“You shouldn’t be so childish,” Naru tells her after the fifth one walks away.

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just don’t act like it doesn’t bother you, too.”

“They’ll either believe or they won’t. Nothing I do will change their mind. The best we can hope for is them staying out of our way.”

“That shouldn’t be too difficult. You’ve driven away worse with just a look– yeah! That’s the one!” Mai laughs as his face sours further.

“You two seem to get along well. If I had known better, I would have given you a room together.”

“A-Ando-san!” They turn to face him. “It’s not like that-” Mai starts.

“Can you tell us where the rest of your family is?” Naru asks. “We’d like to ask about their paranormal experiences.”

“Of course,” he says, leading them down the hall.

Naru ignores her as she pouts. In fact, he seems to be smirking at her. Did he want Ando thinking they were together? She’d drop it for now, she had to focus on not falling when two blurs in blue collided with her legs.

“Nee-san!” They cry, smiling up at her.

“You brought your boyfriend with you this time!”

“He’s really pretty, isn’t he?”

“He’s like a prince, I bet!”

“Nee-san, are you okay? You’re all red!”

She chokes out something that she hopes at least resembles an affirmative, and when she looks at Naru, his lips are set in a thin line. But oh, she can see the amusement in his eyes, and he’s going to pay for it.

“Keiko! Kimiko!” Ando-san calls. “That’s no way to treat a guest!”

“Keiko and Kimiko?” Naru ignores Ando, and so do the girls. He kneels down to study them. A smile tugs at his lips, but other than that his expression is unreadable. “You told Mai a little about Naiya, didn’t you? Can you tell me a little more?”

The twins look at each other, expressions flying across their faces in a language only they can decipher. Naru’s eyes soften as he watches until they nod. A decision has been made. They turn back to him.

“She’s a mermaid!” they yell as one.

“She came from far, far away!” says the one in navy blue.

“She bought this boat a long time ago!” says the one in deep purple.

Naru shoots Mai a glance, and she starts writing.

“What makes you think she’s a mermaid?” he asks.

“She lives in the water! She’s always there when we see her, and she never shows us her legs. She told us she doesn’t have any.”

“We want to join her crew, but she says we’re too young. But she does keep an eye on us, and if someone hurts us, she’ll hurt them.”

“Is that so?” Naru mumbles. He glances at Ando and back to the girls, quick enough that only Mai notices. He turns back to the girl in purple. “So you’re able to talk to Naiya, Kimiko?”

She nods. “Yes! She likes to watch us play. She taught us how to play pirates. She says we’d make fine additions to her crew, but only when we’re older. Right now, we just find coins and stuff to give her.”

He turns to Keiko, the one in blue. “How do you give it to her?”

Keiko looks to her twin. “We throw it,” she says.

“And where do you throw it?”

She looks at her father, standing behind Naru. “We, um… we throw it in the water.”

“Is that what you’ve done with your mother’s earrings?!” Ando asks– no, demands. “I’ve told you time and time again, this Naiya is just-just an imaginary friend! Don’t throw stuff away just because–”

“Ando-san!” Mai cuts him off. The girls are huddled behind her, hiding from him. Her hands hover in front of them, as though she can protect them.

Ando glares at her. “This is a family matter, Taniyama-san,” he yells. He steps forward to grab the girls, but Mai backs up with them. He waves his hands towards the stairs. “They’ve thrown tens of thousands of yen into the ocean! Because of some stupid, fake pirate!”

Mai opens her mouth, but his ranting doesn’t stop until Naru steps between them. “Ando-san,” he says, voice smooth and unbroken. “There are many cases of spirits befriending children in the form of imaginary friends. Don’t discount them just because they’re young.”

He turns around to face the children. “Thank you for your time, Keiko, Kimiko. You may leave.”

Keiko grabs Kimiko’s hand and pulls her away, running down the hall. Ando huffs, opening and closing his mouth. His face is red and drawn, eyes narrowed at Naru. He clears his throat, shivering as the temperature drops. “Excuse me,” he says, opening one of the doors in the hall, “it’s gotten rather cold, hasn’t it? Must be an open window somewhere…”

He walks away, checking each room as he goes. Mai sticks her tongue out at him.

“Let’s go back,” Naru says, “before they accuse me of being unprofessional.”

“What was that?” She ponders as they walk. “He seemed so mad about their imaginary friend.”

“He was mad because they’ve been throwing valuables into the sea.”

“He owns a yacht. It’s not like he’s going to miss ten-thousand yen. I spend about that much on groceries for a week.”

“Then he’s greedy. Don’t worry about it, Mai.”

“Well, let’s just hope he doesn’t throw that much of a fit when he sees the bill for this case.” Naru rolls his eyes, but she smirks at him. “I know you’re charging extra for the inconvenience of working on a ship. Don’t think I haven’t seen the nausea medicine you and Lin are trying to hide.”

A smirk plays at his lips. “You’re getting more observant, aren’t you?”

“I have to be when we’re fighting ghosts all the time. Oh! Can I have some, by the way? I get motion sick at night…”

=•==•=

Thunder rolls in the distance. The moon hides behind clouds, and the threat of rain pulls Oliver into bed before he’s done reviewing notes. Mai left for her room earlier, and Lin not long after with a warning for him to sleep soon.

He’s only an hour behind them, really. He can sleep at any time he wants. It’s not that hard.

Except for when the voice calls out for him.

“Noll,” it says in his own voice. “Find me, Noll.”

But he did. He found Gene, and took him home, and laid him to rest, what else could he want?

“Naru,” the voice shifts. It changes, growing higher, then frantic, morphing into Mai’s distressed tone. “Please, Naru! Hurry!”

Well that’s just playing dirty.

He still stands. The floor is cold against his feet, and it almost makes him want to crawl back in bed. But then Mai screams his name again, and he tears himself away from it.

The hall is empty — Mai’s door is shut tight, probably locked. But then, why wouldn’t it be? He knows it’s not really her calling him. It’s some phantom voice that can read him well enough to use her as bait. But her safety is not something he’s willing to risk, so he follows it anyway.

Oliver follows the voice up the slippery staircase and out onto the moonlit deck. The cold knocks the breath from his lungs. He can’t even see the way it clouds before the wind rips it away. He takes a deep, shaking breath, ice sinking to his lungs and spreading through his limbs.

Mai wouldn’t be out here. No one would. They’d freeze before they took two steps. He should just check on Mai and return to bed.

He doesn’t, though. He hears his name again. Ignoring the urge to run to it, he scans the silvery deck. Shadows dance at the edge of his vision, only to vanish as he turns his head.

The voice isn’t on the ship. It’s yelling from over the side.

He walks to the rail and studies the water. It’s the only blotch of darkness in this moonlit scene. The voice changes again. Soft, lilting, it beckons him now, no longer afraid. He circles the ship, trying to pinpoint its location.

It still sounds like Mai.

Anywhere should do, he thinks. He can swim to her. She wouldn’t hide from him. His hands grip the rail, and he jumps. He kneels on the metal, fingers going numb. He just has to find the source. That shouldn’t take long. He tips forward.

A loud bang wakes him. His shoulder explodes in burning pain. Chanting fills his ears, and he can’t sit up. He’s too disoriented, and there’s a weight on his chest holding him down. Rain pelts his face, stinging as it hits his skin.

Then the weight is gone and he’s pulled to his feet.

“Run, you idiot!” Mai yells in his ear, but she’s dragging him anyway. Her clothes cling to her body, and her fingers freeze against his. She drags him down the stairs and into base, slamming the door. She pants as she leans against it, too tired to move.

“That was too close,” she mutters between breaths. Then she glares at him. “What the hell, Naru? What was that?”

“How long has it been raining?”

“Naru!”

“I heard–”…you… “–someone calling me. I went outside to investigate and…”

“And tried to jump into the ocean!” She’s breathing heavily, still, and her shoulders shake. He can’t tell if she’s cold or crying, but if he had to wager a guess, he’d say both.

He’d been tricked. Mai’s shivering worsens as the air chills, and she wraps her arms around herself. Naru stands, offering her his hand. She takes it and lets him lead her to her room.

“Go take a shower and change,” he tells her. “You’ll freeze at this rate.”

“No thanks to you,” she mumbles.

“Meet me at base when you’re done. I’m going to get Lin. We’re going to sleep there tonight, and when Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san get here, you’re all going to share that room.”

She almost refuses — there’s no need for such precaution, she thinks. But then she remembers Naru, dragging himself through the storm, wobbling on the thin handrail. The adrenaline that surged through her, tearing him from the spirit’s grip. The emptiness in her limbs as that adrenaline fades.

“Okay,” she ends up saying, swinging the door shut. Naru stops it with a foot before it closes, and opens it as he leans forward. His lips tickle her earlobe, and when he speaks, his voice is warm.

“Oh, and Mai?” he whispers, grateful for the cold that hides his blush. “Thank you.”

#Ghost Hunt #GHW2020 #GHHQ #humanrebel #Ghosts at sea #submission

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inevitably-johnlocked · 5 years

Note

Hey Steph, me again, I'm on a bit of a streak here: I just spent until midday in bed with such a brilliant Johnlock ghoststory, I simply had to share it and ask for more. So, the story, giant rec: The Master of Latham Hall by Kryptaria on AO3. (can't include link in an ask, ugh) And then the question: please please please give me more Johnlock haunted house case fics or the like. Ghost cases. Gah. October has me in its paws.

@miss-marvel95 said to inevitably-johnlocked: Halloween fics? :D

HI GUYS!!

Hope it’s okay I put both of your fic reqs together since they’re both for a theme of Halloween, LOL!!

Thought it would be a good time to update all my Halloween-y fics and all the ones I have MFL’d over the past couple years. Note that I am posting JUST Ghost fics or fics labelled Halloween! PLEASE check out the masterpost I made last year to a HUGE list of supernatural-type fics, so there will be some Vampires, werewolves, creepy fics, etc. on that list for you @dreamingbrownie if you want more than just “Halloween” fics, LOL!

I hope you guys enjoy this list, and PLEASE add your own Halloween fics!!!!!!

GHOSTS & HALLOWEEN

See also:

MASTERPOST: Halloween Fics (October 2018)

Ghosts / Figments

Dies After the Fall and Becomes a Ghost

By the Graveside by CraftyLion (K, 1,505 w., 1 Ch. || Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Death) – But what if Sherlock never really survived The Fall? What if the Sherlock in the graveyard was merely a spirit, forlornly watching his friend from the Other Realm?

33 by Indigo Blue.x (K+, 2,936 w., 1 Ch. || Humour) – "I haven't made a zombie," Sherlock says scathingly, which would be more convincing if there were not a zombie in the flat.

Equine Arse Anonymity by Kayjaykayme (E, 3,834 w., 1 Ch. || Est. Rel., Public Sex, Coming in Pants, Humour, Halloween, Hand Jobs) – Sherlock needs to speak with suspects at a fancy dress ball. He chooses a couple's costume for himself and John. It is logical, practical and well thought out. John doesn't agree and exacts sweet revenge.

Electric Potential by pygmymeese (T, 5,011 w., 1 Ch. || Supernatural) – It's not clear why everyone in the world suddenly gets a ghost only they can interact with. All John Watson knows is that he's stuck with a brilliant, if smug, ex-consulting detective, and that life is definitely looking up.

London's Ghost by JustlikeWater (K+, 5,642 w., 1 Ch. || Tragedy, H/C, Angst, Post-TRF AU, Sherlock POV) – "Today, it's been weeks since Sherlock died. Other times, years. He doesn't know for sure, though. Time passes differently for the dead"

The Haunting of 221B Baker Street by earlgreytea68 (M, 10,388 w., 2 Ch. || Post TRF, Halloween / Ghosts, Pining Sherlock, Ghost Sherlock, Stroppy Sherlock, Sherlock POV, First Kiss/Time, Angry Sex, Ghost Sex, Love Confessions, Open / Ambiguous Ending) – In which Sherlock Holmes is a ghost.

To See You Again by Arisprite (T, 11,255 w., 1 Ch. || Suspense, H/C, Supernatural) – When John wakes to a world where no one can see or hear him, it takes everything he has, including the upheaval of past mistakes to find out what happened in time to save his own life. No slash.

The Red Dianthus by kinklock (T, 11,382 w., 3 Ch. || Supernatural Elements, BAMF!John, Misunderstandings, Fluff, Romance, Halloween, Dev. Rel., Case Fic) – The boys investigate a mysterious disappearance in a supposedly haunted house, and get much more than they bargained for.

Fear Itself by KCS (K+, 12,289 w., 3 Ch. || Suspense, Friendship) – John is accustomed to being kidnapped by now, but he never expected a criminal to adopt Mycroft's method of doing so, to ensure he comes along without a fight.

Hallowed Eve by EventHorizon (T, 14,750 w., 6 Ch. || First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Halloween) – It probably wasn't the smartest idea to let Sherlock choose the costumes for Halloween, but John never considered himself the smartest man in the room, anyway.

I Think I’ve Come A Long Long Way To Sit Before You Here Today by ArwenKenobi (T, 18,251 w., 3 Ch. || Grief/Mourning, Passage of Time, Major Character Death, Alternating POV, Sherlock Whump, Pining Sherlock, Hospitalization, Coma, Revenge Murders, Hallucinations, Love Confessions, Brutal Accident, Mystrade, Ghost John) – One year after John is killed Sherlock starts to wonder whether John has actually gone anywhere.

The Cost of a Wish by slashscribe (E, 102,493 w., 12 Ch. || xxxHolic Fusion || Spirits / Ghosts and Magic, Love Confessions, Slow Burn, Soul Mates / Fated Lovers, Adventure, Immortal Sherlock, Powerful John, POV John, Frottage, Wish Granting, Angst with Happy Ending, Nightmares) – John has been plagued by a secret his entire life that has made him feel hopeless until he meets a mysterious, seemingly omniscient man named Sherlock Holmes who owns a wish-granting shop. Their meeting sets off a series of inevitable events that will change the course of both of their lives forever.

MARKED FOR LATER:

A Spirited Companion by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel (T, 3,124 w. || ASiP AU, Ghosts, Crack) – In which John is a ghost haunting the skull on Sherlock’s mantlepiece.

In a manner of speaking I’m dead by fellshish (T, 6,372 w., 1 Ch. || Halloween, Mystrade, Angst With Happy Ending, PIning, First Kiss, Drunk Idiots, Drinking Games, Humour) – Sherlock and John accidentally dress in matching outfits for Lestrade’s Halloween party. Things only get worse: someone pushes them to play ‘Never have I ever’.

Let’s Say I Let You In by kedgeree (E, 9,972 w., 1 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Halloween, Costume Kink, Est. Rel., Humour, Smut, Vampire Sherlock, Bloodplay, Biting, Romance) – It’s Halloween and Sherlock’s vampire costume is turning John on, but Sherlock doesn’t quite get the idea of a sexy vampire. At least…not at first. Part 4 of the Holidays series

Hallowe'en Homecoming by earlybloomingparentheses (T, 12,594 w., 1 Ch. || Unconventional Relationship, Halloween, Sherlock’s Childhood, Family Videos) – Sherlock and John are solving a case when Mycroft turns up and persuades Sherlock to return home for his mother’s Hallowe'en celebration. John thinks that seeing where Sherlock grew up will help him understand the detective better; instead, he finds himself more confused than ever. But it’s John Watson’s job to look after Sherlock Holmes, come hell, high water, or Hallowe'en, so that’s just what he’s going to do.

Balance by Laur (E, 13,939 w. || First Time, Alternate Universes, ASiP AU, Soulmates, Ghost Sex, Supernatural Elements) – Each stuck in a universe where the other does not exist, a distortion of space allows Sherlock and John to meet each other through touch alone.

The Halloween Party by XistentialAngst (M, 19,044 w., 3 Ch. || Halloween, Sexy Sherlock, Vampires, Costumes/Disguises, Mutual Masturbation, BAMF John, First Time, Humour, Romance, Frottage, Friends to Lovers) – Sherlock and John attend a Halloween party on the trail of a vampire killer – a man who’s been seducing his victims and taking all their blood. Sexy costumes, bad puns, hideous danger, frantic sex in hidden places and some Halloween-flavored fluff are all on hand to “treat” you. Boo.

A Spirit In 221B by bbcatemysoul (T, 19,359 w., 8 Ch. || Ghost Sherlock, Past Drug Use / Overdose, Humour, First Meetings, Paranormal, Fluff, Pre-Slash) – John rents a flat, only to find that it’s already occupied by the ghost of a previous tenant. Part 1 of the A Spirit In 221B series

The Haunting of Sherlock Holmes by MapleleafCameo (E, 25,333 w., 9 Ch. || Ghosts, First Kiss / Time, Supernatural Elements, Mysterious Disappearance, Ghost Sex, Hauntings) – Forced by his interfering git of a brother to the countryside to recuperate, Sherlock stumbles upon a 60 year old mystery. Captain John Watson, returning after WWII mysteriously disappeared one night. Bored, Sherlock investigates, but what if Watson didn’t disappear? What if he’s still there? Sort of a ghost story. Eventual Johnlock

The Afterlife of Doctor John H. Watson by flawedamythyst (G, 31,103 w., 1 Ch. || Ghost!Watson, ACD Canon) – An account of Doctor Watson’s actions in the years following his death.

The Master of Latham Hall by Kryptaria (T, 47,679 w., 11 Ch. || Post-TRF, Angst, Fluff, Sussex Downs, Ghosts) – Ten years after meeting Sherlock Holmes, John Watson has successfully kept only one secret from the world’s only consulting detective: the most important secret he’s ever had.Now, drawn into an impossible web of murders at Latham Hall, John learns the terrible price a man must pay for keeping certain things secret.

FictoberLock 2018 by FinAmour & unicornpoe (M, 60,875 w., 31 Ch. || Halloween, Protective John, Smitten Sherlock, Fluff, First Kiss, Injured Sherlock, Various Prompts) – 31 different prompts, 31 Johnlock fics: one every day for the month of October! Each chapter is a stand-alone story. Some are written by unicornpoe, some by FinAmour, and some are written by us both! They range in length from ~500 words to ~3500 words, and there’s something in here for everyone.

Skeletons by flawedamythyst (T, 174,262 w. across 3 works || Implied Character Death) – Sherlock’s refusal to talk about his past hides far more skeletons than John could ever have guessed at. Halloween-esque AU.

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #halloween fics #ghost fics #my fic recs #dreamingbrownie #fic rec sunday

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gallickingunexposed · 4 years

Note

You know what, I’m not going to send this in anonymous because seriosuly just putting any anonymous post under “Morgan” that goes against what you believe in is utter bullshit.

This whole blog is bullshit. How many times does she have to apologize for you to be satisfied? This is cancel culture at its finest. She made mistakes. I’m not going to deny that. But is it enough to make a whole ass hate blog?

I really feel sorry that you feel your some “savior”. Under your own self righteous beliefs you have blasted minors about their mistakes (aka me) to help your cause. You have claimed someone is racist without any proof. You have agreed with an anonymous person that a whole discord server is racist, when literally there are POC users in it.

The amount of falsities you have is atrocious. This feels so petty, like high school. If this was serious you would go to the appropriate authorities, like the police, yet you haven’t. I just don’t understand, I really don’t. How many apologies do you need? Why is it every damn time Morgan posts you gotta psychoanalyze it to make her a bad person? It’s quite disgusting how obsessed you are with making someone into this evil person.

And you know what, any person would be affected by this. Imagine if someone made a whole blog to just degrade you and make people believe your this shit bag and bashing any little thing you do. And then have people send you hate on a daily. It would afffect anyone. It’s so disgusting. No matter what age you are, whoever you are running this, this is so fucked on so many levels.

Half the stuff you accuse Morgan of you have no proof or say you have proof and never show it, saying you’re still working on it. Like how her new business she used matchup money for- do you realize how much work it is to make your own business??? And make the product yourself??? And still be in a job and be a productive person??? A shit ton. So yeah, she probabaly didn’t have a lot of time to do matchups. And 2) where is the proof that she used the money for the business? Do you have those transactions and recipients? If you don’t, don’t say it.

I really try to be a kind person, but seriosuly, this is just so wrong on so many levels. Others may eat this up, but not me.

“How many times does she have to apologize for you to be satisfied?”

Once. We’ve said time and time again if she would just privately message people like SHE said she would we wouldn’t have even made it to this stage. We would have seen she is willing to change and she won’t do the same things again and her victims will have some sort of closure but she still refuses to apologize even once. Even though SHE said she’d apologize to people? The only apology she has put out was one single apology for plagiarising the book club rules which was false, because she plagiarised the entire book club

“She made mistakes. I’m not going to deny that. But is it enough to make a whole ass hate blog?”

So why hasn’t she apologized for those mistakes? She hasn’t owned up to anything. Just stealing the book clubs rules. One single thing that wasn’t even the full picture, in order to make herself look innocent. And even with that she blamed it on her mental health

“Under your own self righteous beliefs you have blasted minors about their mistakes (aka me) to help your cause.”

We never blasted you, we just showed you facts about Morgan that you decided to ignore which is completely fine and up to you. Morgan has also bullied minors and “blasted” minors but we don’t see you questioning her about that?

“You have claimed someone is racist without any proof. “

There are screenshots proving this.

“You have agreed with an anonymous person that a whole discord server is racist, when literally there are POC users in it.”

You must understand that a server and it’s members can still be racist with POC in it. Nobody is that ignorant

“The amount of falsities you have is atrocious.”

Point them out to us

“If this was serious you would go to the appropriate authorities, like the police, yet you haven’t.”

We want apologies and to make sure she learns from her mistakes. It’s not like we’re trying to put her in jail. That response definitely shows your understanding

“How many apologies do you need?”

One. One single apology. Where she actually owns up to things she’s done TO her victims. Not just stealing some rules because she “forgot” she saw them somewhere before and accidentally copy and pasted them word for word

“Why is it every damn time Morgan posts you gotta psychoanalyze it to make her a bad person?”

Because she has the time to make herself into the victim over and over, without apologizing to anyone. She reads all the pleas from her victims for apologies and still nothing. In the time it takes her to send us anonymous messages she could have apologized to ONE person.

“And you know what, any person would be affected by this. Imagine if someone made a whole blog to just degrade you and make people believe your this shit bag and bashing any little thing you do. And then have people send you hate on a daily. It would afffect anyone. It’s so disgusting. No matter what age you are, whoever you are running this, this is so fucked on so many levels. “

It’s odd that Morgan hasn’t been receiving any hate recently isn’t it?

We’ve said time and time again if Morgan would just give ONE apology we would see that she’s willing to change and stop this blog. You know Morgan deleted the nasty call out post she wrote herself because we deleted a post that we made on this blog showing what an awful person she was? And she was so desperate for it to be deleted because it ruined her image that she cares about so deeply (more than her actual friends) that she deleted her post to try and save herself? So why she won’t apologize even once really confuses us.

“Half the stuff you accuse Morgan of you have no proof or say you have proof and never show it, saying you’re still working on it.”

We’ve shown it to someone who said they would speak to Morgan but they’re waiting for the other half, but even then we know Morgan knows who she’s hurt because we’ve seen screenshots of her admitting it... Yet she still hasn’t apologized?

Also, we find it amusing that you haven’t commented on any of the “proof” we’ve posted which shows Morgan being a bully, gaslighter, manipulator, plaigirist, thief or just a nasty person. You only want to defend her which is fine, but you can’t deny the evidence that we have posted. The multiple victims.

“So yeah, she probabaly didn’t have a lot of time to do matchups. And 2) where is the proof that she used the money for the business? Do you have those transactions and recipients? If you don’t, don’t say it.”

But why did she lie and say she’d done them and queued them? Why message people screenshots saying that you were going to post their paid matchups and then never post them? Why not just be honest? This is the issue, she lies about everything.

Do you have the proof she didn’t? The money from the matchups entered her account and this means it’s hers to use as she wishes. Why did it take her months to refund anyone? Even when they asked for it. That money could have been the difference between someone making their rent for the month or eating or not. Do you realize how hard it is to survive during this pandemic? Stealing money during COVID and refusing to refund people for weeks or months is wrong on so many levels you can’t sit there and be ok with that?

“I really try to be a kind person, but seriosuly, this is just so wrong on so many levels. Others may eat this up, but not me.”

We think it’s great that you try to be a kind person, but you blindly ignoring the proof and just following Morgan is wrong. She’s a terrible human being and you’re enabling her to hurt more people. You’re lucky that she hasn’t hurt you, but when we have even one of her closest friends in our private messages telling us how awful she is... that should speak volumes to the kind of person you’re supporting

#tw: discourse #bnha bookclub #bnhabookclub #bnha book club #gallickingunsteals #gallickingun #gallickingunexposed #lilhemmo #kirishimaseijirous

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yievie · 4 years

Text

whew! what’s up everyone! my name is crissy and yes, i am the clown who sent my account ask on anonymous last night. luv that for me! I GOT A COOL FAMILY ICON IM CRYING!!! now this is yi eun hye, better known as evelyn yi or evie, paging dr. sexy md don’t call her that though, she’ll kill you omg the second eldest princess of the four neglected korean princess sisters aka the mom friend sister or the buzzkill responsible sister.

~`click anywhere here for a link to my app ~

under the cut i’m gonna throw some important personality and background stuff along with maybe? half-formed plot ideas? if not i’ll make a follow up post later, but pls like this plot if you wish to plot, i’ll try to come bother u. my ims are open hmu anytime (also bc im anxious af to b first message bc im BABY) and I ALSO have a discord located at quarantine queen#2918 where i’m usually v v v active. (lmk if u cant add me shoot me a message on here and ill fix it) ok imma shut up here is cranky daughter! ITS LONG SRRY

( pS: also if my blog is too hard to read just stick /mobile on the end of the url xx )

background

the empress and emperor of korea had 5 kids, 4 daughters, 1 pampered son and evie was the second oldest daughter after dianna but like, she’s bossy and high strung and acts like the oldest anywayS so it doesn’t matter!

woo! however, korean tradition is rooted deeply in patriarchy and other backwards thinking, >:(((( so evie’s parents basically pretended like their son was the only kid they had and sent evie and her 3 sisters off to swedish boarding school to ROT as they each turned 10 and forgot abt them while they groomed their son for the throne! thx mom n dad! luv u too! sdjlaksjd

during her time at boarding school evie was expected to not learn much of anything, not do anything spectacular, she wasn’t expected very good grades or to be smart or successful or anything bc that was Men’s Work and so evie did . . . THE EXACT OPPOSITE.

evie EXCELLED in school, straight a’s, top of her class, honors, ap valedictorian, which meant all nighters, nose bleeds at 2am from studying too hard, looking dead walking through the hallways, eating ramen 25/8, falling asleep w her face in her textbooks, getting bullied a lot for being a nerd and Not looking like her sisters and like...the creature from the black lagoon.

her parents, understandably, were not very happy with this but it wasn’t until she wanted to go to medical school that her parents were like FURIOUS. to them, women, esp the princesses, were only supposed to get married, have kids, THAT WAS IT. so evie wanting to be a doctor enraged them. STAY MAD!

they tried to have her engaged SO. MANY. TIMES. but she has a really repellent personality, she’s very kat stratford from 10 things i hate about you. and is rude and states her very liberal very socialist opinions often, dresses sloppy and hurts mens feelings a lot just for fun so they all went rUNNING from those match appointments! her parents literally are losing their minds they don’t know what to do w her theyre like god why did we give birth to the aNTICHRIST!?!?!?

not wanting anything to do with her parents, evie got into college and medical student on scholarship based on her own merit and skill. evie went to the seoul national university for 4 years then did a 2 year residency at the country’s top hospital, becoming one of the best on call heart surgeons there.

the korean media likes to clown on her A LOT! bc shes scary and angry and cares very little abt her appreance is A DOCTOR and not a princess really for the opposite reason they clown on dianna but evie does not really care she doesn’t care abt impressing people, just saving lives and proving people wrong. finger guns

but yes! thats what u missed on glee. evie was a heart surgeon in korea before being shipped off to thailand! shes v salty by the way ... even more than usual.

fun facts?

evie wears massive grandma glasses to see bc shes BLIND when shes in line with her sister people do not think she’s related and are like “OMG OMG THE PRINCESSES!!! BUY WHATEVER U WANT ON THE HOUSE I--oh? maam? uh? can we help u, ahjumma?” HELP

very dry, mean, will call you out on ur shit and hurt ur feelings probably. doesn’t really know how to Chill or have fun, stays out of drama and parties for the most part literally that old man that tells u to get off their lawn

LOVES HER SISTERS!!!! LOVES THEM!!! moms them and nags the FUCK out of them tho abt everything. wear a sweater its cold, drink water, dONT DO THAT GET DOWN FROM THERE, i told u to eat before u drank all that soju pabo!!!! skhaslkfh BUT SHE LOVES THEM VERY MUCH HER WOOOORLD the only people shes kind of nice to

as stated, has tried to been matched up before but has basically scared away all her matches by being A Lot and not polite or dainty and burping probably

her mom calls her all the time to talk abt how shes having a heart attack bc her second daughter is an unmarried, childless, spinster with a cat who is embarrassing her by being a doctor and being loud and obnoxious and outspoken against the royal heirarchy and right wing politics. evie just puts her on mute and lets her keeping yelling at no one for the next hour

loves beer, loves fried chicken, very unladylike, wears oversized sweaters and her hair messy and watches love island australia and the bachelor just to make fun of the people being in love and stupid i think secretly she kind of wants it but...thinks shes unlovable and will die before she says that shh

bisexual legend! cue mr and mrs yi screaming somewhere

not that it matters bc she cares little abt romance and sex and always put work and school before everything so everything touchy like that she either ends abruptly or stays the hell away from

never parties or goes out but when she does get really drunk gets very cute and touchy and happy there is one video on the internet of her like on a table ashdkh yikes

is soft deep down just like *shrek voice* donkey, orges are like onions they have layers and u gotta get past a lot of them for her to get past her level 4 tragic backstory and into the soft, vulnerable part of her personality its nice i promise she is SQUISHY

weird plots???

best friend? im sure she has one somewhere. or friends at all? people who arent scared of her who shes nice to....mostly

enemies woo! hate her its very easy to hate her so do it

u want to do a daredevil thing like when matt shows up bleeding and dying or after a fight or something and she patches u up

just anyone need a doctor bc paging dr sexy md~

past loves? boyfriend? girlfriend? weird flings? weird tension unresolved stuff WOOO

ANYONE who broke her heart for the angst and drama

hit on her itll b funny

anyone who she was previously matched w who she scared off

someone shes currently trying to be matched or betrothed to GOOD LUCK

someone she has a crush on YIKES or vice versa

any of the college kids need a tutor?

roommates?

ANYTHING PLS HMU <333

#;;ooc ( out of crissy ).#hello this is angry daughter shes scary but we stan #sorry this was so long pls hmu #ALSO LOOK AT MY COOL ICON!!

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daesungindistress · 5 years

Note

I had a question, I’m sorry for making another one of these Seungri ‘asks’ but you’re one of the only Vips on here who are willingly answering questions and have the actual knowledge on Seungri. None other vips are answering or they delete the asks and don’t want to deal with it. I’m getting confused was he in the Molka chats? I’m seeing articles and posts that he was never in them with proof. I know he never sexually assaulted anyone or drugged anyone. But the molka chats??

I’ll answer this ask, but let me just say I am so sick and tired of Seungri’s remaining fans beating this dead horse like their lives depend on it.

We’re done with Seungri. We’ve moved on. We’ve seen all we needed to see and we’re past the point of entertaining their excuses and apologies on his behalf. They are massively wasting their time on a retired guy. And after months of embattlement with fans and antis alike, I’m tired of wasting my time on him too.

“Seungri wasn’t in the molka chats.” Any time you hear this, be on your guard. His fans always start with that – and it’s all downhill from there. Because the molka chat defense is just a lead-in for their long list of reasons why Seungri is nothing more than a poor hapless victim in this great big mess. They won’t stop until you agree that he was 100% unaware and completely uninvolved in his friends’ illegal activities and committed none of his own. And nothing could be further from the truth.

To answer your question: Seungri was in a chat in which at least one molka video was shared along with a few photos. There is no getting around this. He saw it. He replied to it. He was there.

Seungri stans: “Well, we don’t know if he watched the video.” We know he watched the video because he recognized the man in it and identified him by name. He also laughed after each comment (“ㅋㅋㅋ”).

Seungri stans: “Well, maybe he didn’t know it was molka.” The woman in the video was described as intoxicated and unaware of what was happening. You’re welcome to question the contents of the video if you like, but after all that we’ve learned about these guys and the atrocities they’ve committed, I don’t feel that we’re in any position to doubt the validity of the video’s description. We haven’t seen it. Investigators have, and they’ve declared it molka and have pressed charges accordingly.

Further, by his own admission Seungri has revealed that he knew about his friends’ illicit hobbies. Not just Jung JoonYoung but “everyone”. So I think it’s safe to say he was well aware of at least that aspect of what he was seeing. In his March 2019 Chosun interview, which is the only time he has ever addressed the molka issue btw, he claimed that he told them to stop… because they might get in trouble. However, there is no written record of him doing this, so whether or not you choose to believe it, that’s up to you. And even if true, I take issue with his method of persuasion. “Don’t do it because you might get caught”? How about, “Hey man, don’t do that because it’s… gosh, I don’t know… hurtful and wrong”? Seems to say something about his priorities, doesn’t it.

Do also keep in mind that Seungri has never once acknowledged or issued any statement of sympathy or remorse for the victims in all of this. Combing through all his statements to date, you can see that he’s apologized to the public, the people of Korea, his fans, his former agency YG, his former bandmates… but never the women directly affected by his and his friends’ actions. Nothing, not even on his friends’ behalf.

The statement “Seungri wasn’t in the molka chats” is an interesting one because it manages to be both true and false at the same time. A half-truth, if you will. Like Daesung said to Seungri in Seungri’s episode of I Live Alone: “You tell neither truths nor lies.”

It all comes down to how you define things. What exactly are “the molka chats”? First, keep in mind that the chats recovered all came from the phone of Jung Joon Young, who I’ll refer to from here on out as JJY. Of these chats that were released to the public, the majority were one-on-one conversations between JJY and one other, though occasionally there were several people involved. Most of the molka was shared within these chats. These are what Seungri fans call “the molka chats”. As far as we can tell, Seungri was not in these chats.

The chat Seungri was in is a little something his fans like to call “the business chat.” Here’s the catch: as I stated earlier, there was molka shared in the business chat. There is no denying that Seungri watched it and, judging by his reply, didn’t appear bothered by it. This is why insisting that he “wasn’t in the molka chats” is misleading. No matter what you choose to call it, molka chat or business chat, he was in a chat in which molka was shared and acknowledged it and said nothing against it, end of story.

Fun fact: the “business chat” was an eight-member chat of which Seungri is said to have been the admin. He advised the members of that chat to exit every few months so that the chat and all of its contents would disappear. The only reason it wasn’t entirely lost to time is because JJY didn’t do as he was told and never left the chat, or any others for that matter… and when his cell phone was wiped clean in late 2016, the chats were saved and stored… until now. Recently, on July 16, five members of that big group chat stood trial on charges of filming and distributing illegal footage (molka) and aggravated rape (multiple assailants). Those were his friends – you know, the ones the rest of BB warned him about repeatedly? Seungri is lucky he wasn’t standing trial right alongside them for all the same violations.

…or could it be that he was just better at hiding it?

All I’m saying is Seungri may not have done these monstrous things… but how can we be so sure. “I know he never sexually assaulted anyone or drugged anyone,” you say. I would like to believe that too, and since there is no evidence of it having happened, I do. But when he’s been shown to have helped these awful friends of his cover their tracks for years and was still protecting them up until recently, alerting them to trouble when the news broke and telling them to change their phones before speaking to police…? “I was in the wrong. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with those guys and done those things,” he said in an interview just weeks after he’d helped them evade detection, all but one of them turning in new phones. You know what they say about actions speaking louder than words. They wouldn’t have done that, and he wouldn’t have prompted them to do it, if they’d had nothing to hide.

The level of Seungri’s involvement in this… based on the limited evidence available to us, it’s up to each of us as individuals to decide where we stand. How much involvement is acceptable? Where do we draw the line? At what point does one say, “This much is okay. But this much, no way.” We can come up with a hundred excuses for him, explaining away his behavior, defending years of poor decisions, somehow still trusting him… but in the end we don’t personally know him or his situation. We never will. And I don’t know about you, but after all I’ve witnessed, I’m no longer willing to be on the “hopeful” end of that spectrum of uncertainty. Especially now that he’s gone and taken his leave from the industry.

I have scores of unanswered anonymous asks about the case sitting in my inbox going as far back as February. I wish I could apologize personally to each and every one of you whose messages I haven’t answered. There was one in particular that I received back in March, right around the time the molka issue was brought to light. It was a question that tormented me for days. I didn’t know what to say. I started on a reply, but updates to the case were pouring in daily. Just keeping up was overwhelming enough, and in the end I never got around to answering.

And looking back on it now I’m glad I didn’t. I was still on Seungri’s side at the time. The investigation was just getting started. There was so much more to come.

The ask said:

For anyone wondering why we don’t want him back… there’s your answer.

#and if only the molka stuff was the end of it #ask #anon #seungri #bigbang #burning sun

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clarasimone · 5 years

Text

A perspective on the forewarning fascist iconography in GoT

Was it yesterday ? I reacted to a mind-provoking aesthetic analysis of GoT reblogged by @felixthemudnescat ... which basically no one reacted to (LOL) but... chatting with @scratchybeardsweetmouth and @ser-jorah-the-andal, I felt like revisiting it to add observations to my initial reaction. Even if it’s too heavy-meta for such a beautiful summer day. @felixthemudnescat pardon me for not using the reblog button cause I want to do this under the dot-dot-dot so as not to weigh down the usual degree of levity in our tumblr group ;-)

Also I only realized today that you actually reblogged without commenting and I assumed, maybe wrongly, that you adhered completely to what you reblogged. And that might not be the case, so I’ll alter my text accordingly...

So here we go... (my input comes at the end)

Anonymous asked:

Girl. Gurl. Who the fuck is Leni Riefenstahl? Y'all Sansa stans pulling the most elaborate nonsense out of your asses to justify shitty writing. Or you twist everything and make D&D sound as if they're the most brilliant minds the world has ever seen LOL

fedonciadale answered:

Hi there!

If you would have taken one moment to look up Leni Riefenstahl - and I assure you that it is not difficult to look her up - you would not have combined your question with a comment about the writing…. Look her up and learn a lesson about how tyrants manipulate.

The visuals of the show are alluding to famous/ notorious shots of Leni Riefenstahl. You would agree that the visuals are something that gives us hints? In addition to the dialogue?

Sansa stans have complained about the writing since season 5…. You all - I’m just assuming you are a Dany fan, correct me if I’m wrong - had no complaints about shitty writing in season 7?

Look I am not saying that the way D&D got to DarkDany this season was well executed, but the foreshadowing and the character development are there. And actually from all the things the show did Daenerys is one of the better from book to screen. The hiding of her path to ruthlessness by filming from her POV is well done in season 1 to 6, and the triumphant visuals are part of that.

Visuals are part of the foreshadowing. It did not come out of nowhere and it was always a major plot point - as has been argued by book readers for ages. That Dany blew up King’s Landing was always to be the culmination of her arc. And it was always meant to hit you in the gut. So, as you do nicely put it : get your head out of your ass as and realise that you have been duped. And ponder about why? Was it because Dany is beautiful? Was it because she had the occasional bouts of benevolence? Was it because you thought she was entitled to an ugly chair because she suffered? Was it because she was set up against people coded as villains, so that you don’t care about how she defeated them? Was it because she is a woman and woman can’t be evil?

Take your pick and learn something about yourself and your own bias, how we can be duped by a tyrant! If you do that you are doing exactly what GRRM intended his readers to do by writing Dany like he did.

une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir

(in fiction, all these logos meant to reference the nazi flag)

fedonciadale

Reblogging for @une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir ’s excellent additions. I could not have done that because that film is actually forbidden in Germany.

justacynicalromantic

Ohhhohohoho the last one - I am😏 at people who half a year ago threw stones at me when I argued that Dany has always had parallels with Hitler.

felixthemudnescat

Found this shared on Quora, had to re-blog!

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Hi @felixthemudnescat long time no see !

I had not seen the original posting of this. My first instinctual reaction to this iconographic/aesthetics research is to object to the simple equation of Daenerys with Hitler. No fiction character will ever match the scope of evil (for lack of a better word) this man and his ideology represented. By ricochet and association, it makes every fan who was moved by Daenerys a potential Nazi sympathizer and that makes no sense. It’s also unnecessarily hurtful and insulting both to these fans and the real World (those who suffered and still suffer from The Holocaust). This said, the iconographic evidence you provided through your reblog has weight and is exactly what I referred to in some of my posts as the visual clues given in the show as to Dany’s *possible* arc, its *possible* finality (more on the *possible* further down); clues which scream at you if you have the cultural baggage to recognize them, and when you binge-watch the series 3 times in one month instead of watching it an ep at the time over 8-9 years. The middle seasons are especially ripe with these visual signs because they’re tagged unto somewhat repetitious narrative (Dany freeing/conquering one city at a time with little intimate character dev scenes). And @fedonciadale is right in wanting fans to look more closely into themselves; we shouldn’t close ours eyes on the shady ideological and moral symbols casting shadows on Daenerys throughout the seasons. But they were shadows. I don’t think they were meant to be the beginning and end to all things explaining the character.

@felixthemudnescat or @fedonciadale don’t you think D&D were building something much more subtle than the end result they opted for and which gives weight to your comparative iconographic essay ? For many seasons, the fascist references or foreboding reminders of Targaryen madness never outweighed the characterizations of Daenerys as a young woman who, regardless (or because ?) of her thwarted and abusive upbringing was trying to conjugate her own suffering and road to affirmation with the conquerer’s path given her. She might not have questioned the necessity/validity for her to conquer her way back to Westeros, as the only way she could get home, but she didn’t do it through simple rampage either. She did care to free the people she needed to build her armies. She did have a heart. This she did spontaneously; it came from a deep source within her, not a calculated one. Even if, of course, it turned out to be an astute strategy. And that sets her apart from the Nazis and its leader. At their best, D&D conjugated the two: giving us a rounded character build-up and evolution with ominous symbolic shadows lurking about her. @scratchybeardsweetmouth also made me realize, I who have not read the novels, that this humane aspect of Daenerys is brought even more to the foreground in the books. I quote @scratchybeardsweetmouth: “In the books (...) she repeatedly communicates firsthand with her freed people. She hears their opinions, is not afraid to mingle with them, always finds a way to protect them, even went out of her way to help heal some when a disease was about...” Without getting as much detailed info on her compassionate stance and actions in the show, it’s certainly the impression she indeed left us with, and it’s what her most faithful and steadfast companion, ser Jorah, sees in her and repeatedly says out loud, lest we forget it ;-) (“You have a gentle heart,” etc.)

So I thought it was IMMENSELY daring of D&D (or the novelist I’ve not read yet) to give us that scene where Daenerys is called Mhysa/Mother by the slaves she freed because the scene was inhabited with so many conflictual signs: I was all at once moved and sooooo worried as to where this could lead. Moved because, bottom line, these slaves are freed, actually freed, it’s the start of something. Dany has always given those she freed a choice to leave if they so wished… Moved because it’s a woman effecting the freeing, not a man… Moved because it’s Dany, the girl who suffered, who was a slave of sorts, that does the freeing, not her mentors…. Moved to see a culture refer to their freer as “Mother” (what a great homage to mothers, to women in general) / buuuuut also worried to see a culture refer to their freer as “Mother” because it seems to infantilize them on screen.

Here we could also open up a whole debate about the malaise one can feel in seeing an Aristocratic White Woman free Third World People but I urge you to go read @khaleesirin‘s meta writings on the subject. She makes a great case for us NOT to see Daenerys in this fashion. Regardless of her looks and lineage, the novels (and GoT, I insist in my chats with @khaleesirin ;-) shows her to be like the people she frees: an Other. She like then is homeless, uprooted, migrant, disenfranchised. If we fail to see it in Essos, the show really drives this home once Daenerys sets foot in Westeros where NO ONE welcomes, understands or appreciates her. (Which suddenly complexifies our rapport to Sansa and the Northerners we grew to love and respect since they seem not to be above xenophobia, and racism.)

But to get back to the Mhysa scene. Once the worrying starts, I can’t seem to stop it, even as I am moved to tears. Literally. Because of the above-mentioned qualities of it, and also possibly because of the Christ-like iconography it uses to celebrate Dany (”Let the little children come unto me” - if I may paraphrase the New Testament -- and thanks to @ser-jorah-the-andal for the reminder). And I’m always partial to feminizations of Christ; I love it, I think it’s sublimely subversive :-) But I’m also kicking myself for liking this because I fundamentally don’t want a Messiah saving the Third World, I want the Third World to save itself... and I’m worried. I’m really worried as I watch Daenerys triumph in this scene because we know she’s lacking important elements in her “psycho-affective and socio-political tool kit” (regardless of the quality and loving care of advisers now on hand, *cough* Jorah -- in the books @scratchybeardsweetmouth tells me she needs no advisor to keep her moral compass straight) and, so, will this get to her head ? Will she get drunk on her Messiah complex (and of course she does at the end of season 8) ? And what will happen if those she freed disappoint her (again flashforward to the end of season 8) ? And how will she rule them exactly (ditto) ? And, finally, yes, worried because, the fascist iconography is there and I’m going: omg where are they going with this ?

Here I want to open another parenthesis, also brought on by something @ser-jorah-the-andal wrote me: “if this is what they meant in the first place, they sure as hell didn’t bother to tell anyone in the cast so they could act accordingly, tho a case could be made that Dany never saw herself as the villain so that’s why they didn’t tell Emilia.” Indeed I’m sure the cast, or at the very least Emilia Clarke, were never told about the endgame, or never cued to the quoting of fascist iconography in some of Daenerys’ triumphant scenes. Clarke’s shocked reaction upon reading the last screenplays is a testament to her profound surprise... and this raises ethical questions, doesn’t it ? I mean in the ethics of creative partnership. It’s a recent debate possibly because there are so many tales of directors manipulating actors into giving them the performance needed to embody and communicate the discourse they want to leave us with. But the professional in me cringes here a bit. You’d hope they would trust actors enough to let them into what it is exactly they’re supposed to be creating...

This said, up to the moment before “the bells” scene in season 8, I had nonetheless seen D+D and EC give us a woman struggling morally with her choices. That’s important to state. And to get back to the above demonstration of fascist parallels, well, please, let’s point out that the Nazis and their leader never did struggle morally with what they were doing (or if they did, History bears no markers -- I’m talking about the Nazis here, not the German people as a whole). And I was prepared to see Daenerys fail because she never healed, she never achieved psycho-affective soundness (shall we get into the chapter of her misconstruing what love is ? Her relationship arc with Jorah speaks volumes) but I was expecting her to feel remorse if she did succumb to true fascism; remorse to the point of self-execution if you will, because that’s the kind of moral person D+D had been building for 7 years. But after D&D sent her over the edge, they erased all the previous nuances they had built into her, and I believe, tried to explained it away with a broken heart, megalomania and madness….

So if their plan was truly to make us see her as a fascist leader of the scope we’re talking about here, the way the above visual essay seems to suggest, they would have fleshed out her character’s arc accordingly throughout the seasons, and they didn’t. There were clues as to the possibilities -- yes, Dany stepping out for her final speech is absolutely shot like Triumph of the Will by Riefenstahl… but it’s also infused with other iconographic references. That image of her merging with Drogon’s wings belongs to the fantastic, and makes her into a formidable and powerful Id, which can be construed as a positive subversive marker. And some of us do celebrate WrathfulDany for this reason....

The reality of GoT is that there were no actual scenes developing her fascist ideology. So let’s not confuse allusions to fascism with actual fascism. With all D+D’s failings towards the end, Daenerys remained a more nuanced and contradictory character than that. She is NOT Hitler, please......

The iconographic research you provided in your reblog @felixthemudnescat show us one important aspect of Dany’s subtextual arc but not the full picture. It’s missing the heart and the suffering behind the soul who fell from grace.

I hope you don’t construe this long winding reaction as a slam. I know you come from a very specific place in regards to Daenerys. I just thought the excellent research you provided deserved to be reblogged, but with an added perspective ;-)

#got meta #got analysis #daenerys targaryen #Ser Jorah Mormont #fascism

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1dfangirls35 · 5 years

Text

Voir Dire (N.H.): A fake dating OU about contracts, soulmates, and risking it all for love

previous chapter

six

"Your table Mr. Horan," the waiter said with a gesture as he showed Niall and his date their seats. The table was secluded, but with just enough of a view that a few pap shots could be taken. The kind of shots that would keep the buzz of Niall's budding new romance with his music video star going after their first public appearance.

Niall pulled out the chair for Krystal as she took a seat, taking a moment to flatten out the tight red dress she was wearing before sitting down.

"Fancy place," she noted, gazing around the room uncomfortably as if she wasn't quite sure what to say.

"It is," Niall agreed, joining her in surveying their surroundings. It was a fancy place: white table cloths, tux-claden waiters, bottles of wine that cost more than some people's paychecks. The place exuded celebrity status-but this place wasn't him.

No, if it was up to Niall, his first date would be a chill day watching the Derby game, a beer in hand and his ass firmly planted on his enormous couch. He was a simple man, and simple men didn't enjoy 3 Michelin Star restaurants where your $100 appetizer was barely more than a bite.

But this wasn't a first date Niall planned, nor was it a first date he wanted to be on. But he knew that there would be a lot more where these came from, that was for certain.

"Do you come here often?" Krystal asked, clearly trying to counter the awkward silence that had befallen them.

"It's only the place where I take all my fake girlfriends," Niall joked, and he watched as Krystal's previously nervous face broke into a small smile.

"You're funny," she laughed.

"That's what they always said," Niall replied with a chuckle.

"Oh, like your boyband role?" Krystal asked, taking a sip of the red wine the waiter had now placed in front of each of them.

"Something like that," Niall shrugged, taking a sip himself and hoping that a little bit of expensive alcohol would ease the gross feeling of going out on a fake date.

"Do you miss it? Being in a band?"

"That's a question I get asked a lot," Niall paused trying to think of the right answer.

"I miss parts of it. I miss always having someone else to tour with, someone who understands exactly what you are going through. But there's things I don't miss: like not being able to step foot outside the hotel without being ambushed by a group of screaming fans."

Krystal nodded in understanding. Niall knows that wasn't all of it. His feelings towards the band, and towards that question were much more complicated than that. But those feelings weren't something he shared willingly. Those were things he would only tell to someone he really trusted, someone who really understood him.

"But the fans," she continued, "You still get a lot of them chasing after you right? I mean people were going crazy for you on the red carpet."

"True, there's no real anonymity after your face has been plastered to a few hundred billboard and magazines."

"And here I was excited that my face made a Perez Hilton article," Krystal laughed.

Niall could tell she was still in the honeymoon phase of it all. The part where the celebrity world and all that came with it still felt like a fairytale, a new and exciting adventure. That first taste of fame that makes you feel so utterly important.

That was the part before you had days where you wished you could go to the grocery store unaccompanied, where you wished you could rant about what you wanted on Twitter without having to worry about how your words would be perceived. The part before you were told who you had to date in order to keep up appearances.

Niall realized that Krystal has been rambling on about when she first saw the news hit from their red carpet appearance, but none of her words had even been comprehended by Niall's brain. Instead, he found his mind drifting to an image of a brunette girl in a bar. The girl he wished was sitting across from him at this table right now.

He's snapped back to reality when he hears his name.

"Hmm?" he questioned, turning his gaze back to Krystal. He took a sip of his wine and silently prayed that whatever she had just asked was something that could be responded to without following the conversation.

"I said does Niall Horan's mother still save everything with her son's name on it," Kelsey laughed, it's a delicate yet boastful laugh. The kind of laugh that comes with a large amount of confidence and charisma.

"Ehhh, a lot of it ya." The mention of his mother makes Niall wonder what she would think of all of this, this great big act for publicity. She'd probably say things had gone too far, and Niall agreed- they had.

Their food arrived and Niall was grateful for at least a temporary lull in conversation. He turned his attention towards his filet mignon, sawing at the red meat before taking a small bite and letting the flavor wash over his palate.

"This is delicious," Krystal gestured at her plate of glazed chicken breast with her fork.

Niall nodded in agreement. "I suppose it's got its Michelin stars for a reason."

"Can I ask you something?" Krystal said suddenly, her voice turning serious.

"Ask away."

"The social media. Does it ever get to you?" Krystal's voice wavered a little with her question, a brief lapse in her otherwise confident persona.

"You looked through the comments didn't you?" Niall asked, knowing exactly how that felt. Krystal nods slowly.

He remembered the first time he'd read a negative comment. Niall always thought he had tough skin, and he did, but there was something about someone who knew nothing about you feeling the need to say something utterly rude that really got to him. It showed him the sad truth about the world- that not everyone knows to treat others with kindness.

"I was looking at posts about the AMAs and our appearance, and one thing led to another and I was reading through the comments on a photo of us. It was all good until it wasn't. I know, I shouldn't let it get to me but.."

"No, no..there's nothing wrong with your reaction," Niall assured, watching as Krystal's face filled with surprise.

"It's what reminds me that we are human. I think people forget that on social media, but we are just people too."

"So what do you just swear off social media forever then?" Krystal laughed, pushing a piece of her golden hair behind her ear. It was the first time since they'd met that Niall had begun to realize that maybe she wasn't entirely some robot seasoned to become a superstar. Maybe underneath she was just someone chasing after a dream like he had been.

Maybe Niall had been too hard on Krystal. If they were going to be playing this role, they might as well get along doing it.

"I definitely try to limit it. But no, I could never swear it off- it's not all bad," Niall pulls out his phone and pulls up his twitter page, his notifications piled with mentions and tags.

"Whenever I go on, and I see something negative, I try to find something positive to follow. It's never hard, because for every negative thing that's said there's bound to be hundreds of other positive thoughts and comments. And then I stare at that good thing for awhile, and go about my day. It's all about reminding yourself of the positives, glass half-full if you would."

"You sound like an expert," Krystal noted.

"Considering I spent the better part of my teenage years trying to adapt to my new found fame, I learned a trick or two. You're never immune to it, but you can try to lessen the blow."

"Thank you," Krystal said with a smile. "They didn't exactly include dealing with your angry fans in part of the fake dating Niall Horan training manual."

Niall chuckled. "Can't believe they left that out."

A flash of a camera grabbed Niall's attention, and he spots a few photographers from outside the window. "And there's what we came for," he remarked apathetically.

"Might as well give them what they came for then," Krystal mused, seemingly locking her vulnerability away and switching back into her actress mode. She grabbed Niall's hand on top of the table and gave it a squeeze, leaning in slightly so their faces were inches away.

Krystal took initiative, delving into a deep kiss which felt much like a calculated move than a romantic moment. And as Niall's lips moved hesitantly against Krystal's, he couldn't help compare it to the last kiss he'd shared with someone. A kiss that had felt far from forced.

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

Kelsey was surprised when a familiar brunette head slid into the bar on a late Tuesday evening. Her heart fluttered a bit at the sight of him, but she tried to ignore it. Kelsey doubted he would even remember the awkward girl he spent a night with a few weeks prior.

Instead of greeting him, Kelsey continued to attend to her patrons at the bar. Watching out of the corner of her eye as her fellow bartender for the night, Tony, got Niall's order. She tried her best not to look over at him, lest his eyes might capture hers and pull her down the road she had desperately been trying to avoid. But as she pours the businessman in front of her another glass of whiskey, she feels as if eyes are lasering into her back.

Niall felt his pulse quicken when he spotted Kelsey's brunette waves behind the Manhattan bar. He hadn't expected her to be here, or maybe he had, but suddenly the idea of coming here seemed ridiculous.

It had seemed like a good idea earlier today, when Niall couldn't seem to locate his favorite black sweatshirt in his laundry bin. That's when he'd remembered the beautiful girl that he easily let waltz out of his apartment with.

Kelsey had been on his mind a lot throughout the past several weeks, but Niall had tried to rationalize with himself. Hanging out with another girl, even as friends, wouldn't be great for keeping up appearances. It could be a proper PR nightmare with just one paparazzi shot.

But then Niall had realized that he was thinking like Mr. Michaels and the Captial Team. The people that were pupeteering his life by the minute. No, Niall couldn't let them control one more aspect of their life. If he wanted to be friends with someone he would be friends with them. And there's was nothing they could do about it.

"What can I get you sir?" A tall man with dark facial hair and a freshly buzzed head asked. Niall was a bit disappointed that Kelsey hadn't served him first but sighed and gazed across their beer collection.

"I'll have a pint of your most popular on tap," Niall declared. He glanced over to see Kelsey still blatantly avoiding his existence. Maybe she didn't want to see him and maybe this had been a disastrous idea.

Niall gave a nod of thanks when his beer is set down in front of him. He took a sip, wishing it was a pint of Guinness instead but trying to remind himself of the reason he was there in the first place.

Kelsey tried her best to pretend Niall wasn't sitting a few feet away. But when she had to add an empty glass sitting on the counter to the sink to be washed, she realized that this confrontation is going to be unavoidable. She took a deep breath and walked towards Niall, deciding that it would be up to him to acknowledge her presence

"Well aren't ya gonna say hello," Niall teased, watching as Kelsey came within a few feet of him with an empty whiskey glass in hand. He'd watched her painful attempt at avoiding him from across the bar. He wondered if this avoidance was the reason she hadn't even sent him a friendly text over the past couple of weeks. Maybe the chemistry he had felt from their encounter was all in his own head?

"Didn't think you'd remember me?" Kelsey stated, although by the way Niall was greeting her she doubted that was true.

"You think I came all the way to the Manhattan for a pint of this shitty upperclass beer? C'mon love."

Kelsey felt her cheeks flush. Niall had come all this way here to see her, which meant that in some way, she must have been on his mind as much as he was on hers.

"So you're a stalker now?" Kelsey laughed.

"Not a stalker, just a lad who was hoping fate would be on his side and you'd be working tonight. I thought you would call," Niall said, the disappointment raining from his voice.

"I thought we said the timing wasn't right," Kelsey argued back with a raise of her eyebrow. The truth was Kelsey had wanted to call, many times in fact. She'd spent several nights with her fingering hovering over Niall's contact in her phone, telling herself that maybe she should just give it a chance.

But then her rational side had kicked in, reminding her of how easily she could fall for someone like Niall, and how easily she could be hurt. So she'd closed out of her contacts list and threw her phone aside with a sigh, knowing that even being friends with someone like Niall could be dangerous for her heart.

But now he was here, sitting at her bar. His charm and glowing blue eyes seemingly enchanting her all over again. She watched as he scratched his head, as if trying to find an explanation for why he thought showing up would be a good idea.

"We did. But that doesn't mean we couldn't be friends? I mean, honestly Kelsey I can't remember the last time I got along with someone so well. I mean conversation with you is just so..."

"Natural," Kelsey finished for him.

"Exactly."

Kelsey grazed her eyes from Niall's hand on his beer up to his face. She wondered if being friends with Niall was really that bad of an idea. "So say I agreed to becoming your friend..." she paused, leaning against the bartop with her elbow. "What exactly would being your friend entail?"

"That's a good question," Niall replied, scratching his head. "I suppose it might include hanging out at my pool during these warm Los Angeles summers, and maybe if you're a good friend, an invite to my house party next weekend."

"A house party? That's the best you've got for me," she teased.

"Oh but this isn't just any house party Kelsey," Niall said dramatically. "This is a house party with a personal DJ, bartender and fancy catering. Maybe a celebrity sighting or two."

"Hmmm...." Kelsey murmured, feigning contemplation. There really wasn't much contemplation in her mind. What could it hurt to attend a house party with Niall or to attempt being his friend? It would clearly have his perks, and she figured if she saw this friendship ending in another heartbreak, she could easily bail.

"Suppose at some point I might be able to get you some passes to performances," Niall added, beginning to sound more like a salesman than someone looking for a friend.

"So your bribing me to be your friend now?" Kelsey teased.

"I just want you to see all the benefits our friendship could have," Niall responded.

"Benefits?" Kelsey grinned, watching Niall flounder at his poor choice of words.

"More like perks. Being my friend would be fun you see. But if being friends with the annoying Irish lad isn't your thing, I get that too."

"I guess I could agree to it. A strict friendship that is."

"Friendship it is," Niall replied, holding out a hand for Kelsey to shake. He couldn't help but grasp Kelsey's hand a second too long before letting go. He gave Kelsey a cheeky smile and she smiled back, although in her head she's wondering if she's made some terrible mistake.

Kelsey fell hard and she fell fast, and there were few guys in her history of dating that had managed to stay in the friend zone. But this was before Kelsey's heart had been broken. Now, she knew better than to let her feelings get in the way. A friendship was the perfect solution.

"Can I text you then?" Niall asked, pulling out his iPhone. Kelsey pulled out hers as well, typing quickly with a smirk on her face.

Niall's phone vibrated in his hand as he received the notification of a new text message.

Hi friend 👋

When he looks back up, Kelsey is back to work, refilling the drink of another angry looking businessman in a suit. Niall smiled to himself, taking another sip of his very mediocre beer. Maybe this hadn't been a mistake after all.

Tags: @awomanindeniall @ihearthemcallingforyou @niall-is-my-dream

#voir dire #writingby1dfangirls35 #niall horan #niall ff #1dff #niall horan x ofc #fake dating #love triangle #one direction #nh #1d

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historyman101 · 4 years

Text

Time to leave the nest.

I think I speak for everyone when I say that, regardless of how you view Eureka 7: AO or Hi-Evolution, the community is not what it once was. I’m not going to make this a diatribe about what’s wrong with Hi-Evo (since my friends and I dissected it quite thoroughly in the podcast) or AO or even PFOR, but I will say that the lackluster reception of Hi-Evo has doused a lot of the passion this community once had, or at least it played a role.

As I’ve said in the podcast and elsewhere, I’ve been a part of the Eureka 7 fan community really ever since it first aired in the US in 2006. I’m what you would call an OG. I’ve been here since the very beginning, and I’ve seen so much happen to this beloved IP and this community, not all of it good.

When I joined the tumblr scene in 2012 when AO was airing, there was still a high level of enthusiasm and energy in the community. Even if AO wasn’t well-received by many, we still had the motivation to do some great things. The passion people had was really inspiring, and it was a major factor in me continuing my historical fanfiction series. Knowing people still cared about what I wrote kept me going. I’ve said this a million times, but to all those people who followed me and kept up with my historical series, thank you so very much. I wouldn’t have finished it without you.

As I was writing my historical series, other people made great contributions as well. Artists on tumblr made fanart that is still well-loved to this day. Users made and shared remixes of classic E7 songs. We organized weekly chats and Secret Santa events each Christmas. Some of us even tried to make a visual novel based on Eureka 7. To me, that is nothing short of remarkable.

As time went on, interest died down. It’s only natural that people would fall away from it. By the time 2017 rolled around, I was well aware that enthusiasm was waning and, as I’ve said before, were it not for Hi-Evolution being announced, I would have quietly made my exit from the community upon completion of my fanfiction series. That’s not to say I was bitter about it, either; I figured it was the best course of action since I made it clear in past anonymous asks that I wasn’t going to add more to the fandom once it was done.

When Hi-Evolution was announced, I was initially excited. The community went through a brief resurgence as hopes ran high. There was a genuine belief that this would be the franchise’s saving grace. I thought this was a chance to rekindle interest and learn from past mistakes.

Boy, was I wrong.

All the hopes I had were shattered at Otakon, and while I can only speak from my own perspective, it seems like Hi-Evo 2 as well as the delay of Hi-Evo 3 killed any remaining interest in the fandom. Instead, it’s left a splintered community, one where people no longer have the enthusiasm to write fanfics, make fanart, or even do special collaborative projects like the visual novel.

Many of the friends I made in the community tell me point blank that they are either fed up with the franchise entirely or are done after Hi-Evolution 3. If people are saying that, then I genuinely fear we are facing the death of a once-proud, tightly-knit community. And that makes me beyond sad.

I know I come off as abrasive and some people sling the word “hater” at me for my opinions, but people who know me will tell you that I’m only speaking from a place of love for Eureka 7. For all the problems I have with Hi-Evolution and the franchise writ large, I don’t want to live in a world where this anime doesn’t exist. It made me into an anime fan. I have made some of my closest friends through this, some of whom I still keep in contact with to this day.

I believe the bonds we make are stronger than whatever Bones throws our way, but I can’t help feeling saddened that the thing which united us is now turning us against each other. If the sometimes vitriolic asks I’ve received and the horror stories we shared in the podcast are any indication, the fandom is split, possibly beyond repair. We’ve reached the stage where you can’t have a conflicting opinion and be treated with respect anymore; instead, you’re viewed as the enemy. A hater. A troll whose views should be discounted.

If you voice anything other than a positive opinion about anything E7-related, be it AO, the manga, the games, or Hi-Evolution, you’re shut down and cast out. It’s not enough to just like E7; now, we all have to be comfortable and build a hugbox. That’s not the message E7 originally imparted.

Eureka 7 is a show about accepting reality in all its ugliness. Anyone who has watched the anime knows it can be very uncomfortable at times. Some moments are hard to sit through, but that’s the whole point. Renton had to learn the hard way that the life he dreamed of was just that: a dream. The people he looked up to weren’t the idealized heroes he thought they were. The world is ugly, and he had to accept that. I think we need to take the same approach when looking at this franchise.

It’s okay to dislike Hi-Evolution, AO, or anything else that’s come after the original. Fuck, the original isn’t perfect by any stretch. What anime is? What’s not okay is to disrespect others for a differing opinion or (in my case) harassing them. I hardly think that’s the message Eureka 7 wanted to leave its viewers.

What makes me sad is that it was never like this before. Even in the AO days, people were willing to let it all go. We still had fun together because we thought that the bonds we made were more important than a show that didn’t turn out well. But something changed between then and now. I don’t even know what, but the community and how it dealt with differing views changed. And I don’t like what it’s become.

Now, our community is all but dead. Not just on Tumblr, but everywhere I go, the story is the same. When Hi-Evo was announced, the Subreddit was abuzz with activity and excitement. Now, it’s practically a ghost town. The Discord server, which I left some time ago, has gone the way of disco according to all my friends. I think it’s because many of us are just bitter about what’s happened or are fed up. I’m not surprised people have gotten bored with Eureka 7; I have too.

To be perfectly honest, I wish Hi-Evo was never made. It would have been better if our fandom just slowly faded away from inactivity instead of splitting into ever smaller, squabbling camps. At least then it would have ended on a positive, happy note. Now, based on everything I’ve seen, heard, and read, it’s ending on a note of bitterness. It’s doubly sad, because Eureka 7 is optimism: the anime.

So where am I going with all of this? I don’t know. Honestly, I just wanted to vent because I needed to get this off my chest. It’s been a drain to watch something I loved and cherished for so long slowly fall to pieces and the friends I once had in this fandom turn against each other.

Eureka 7 has been such a touchstone in my life for so long that to see it crumble away like this is heartbreaking. Revisiting this franchise’s fall from grace just leaves me depressed. It’s like a blood-sucking vampire, and I can’t fucking take it anymore.

That’s why this is my last post about Eureka 7.

As much as you guys think it’s interesting, I can’t keep doing this. I don’t have the patience to wait until 2021 for the final film, and I don’t suspect many others do, either. I don’t care if it will be all hand-drawn; I’m sick and tired of even talking about it. It’s like I’m beating up a disabled person; nothing I say is going to change what we’ve already gotten or alter the reality of where the fanbase is now. It’s really sad, but I just need to move on from this.

Almost 15 years have passed since I first watched Eureka 7. Back then, I was just a lonely 16 year old kid trying to find out where to go in life. I will be 30 in January, I have a full-time job, my life is much more hectic now than it ever was, and it’s turned out better than I ever dreamed. Eureka 7 Hi-Evolution didn’t turn out too well, but there will be more disappointments to come, no question. Life is full of them. Why focus on them forever?

I don’t think that harping on the past is productive. Time only moves forward and it waits for no one. I have limited time on this earth, and I don’t want to spend it kicking this turd around forever. Life is too short to waste it on small things like an anime franchise that didn’t end well. I want to start the new decade fresh, and that means letting go of the things that have weighed me down.

I’m going to grab my future with my own hands. Because I learned from Eureka 7 a seminal lesson that’s guided me through life:

Don’t beg for things. Do it yourself, or else you won’t get anything.

#eureka seven #eureka 7 #eureka 7 hi-evolution #e7hievo #anime #favorite anime #favorite character #e7 #i can't keep doing this #I need to move on

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androidsfighting · 5 years

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The Adventure Zone fic rec masterlist!

surprising no one, I read WAY TOO MUCH FIC so here’s an incomplete list of some of my fav fics in this fandom! mostly Taakitz and Taagnus, of course. Not in any particular order - adding most recent additions to the top. i made an effort to provide commentary but as you can see i gave up quickly

UPDATE (7/24/19) - added a bunch more fics i’ve read recently, and a couple amnesty fics at the bottom :)

Taakitz

The Winter Prince by tactfulGnostalgic

Taako is nobody’s saboteur. He’s just an ordinary assassin just trying to make ends meet, staying out of trouble (mostly) and keeping his nose clean (sometimes). But when a mysterious buyer makes him an offer he can’t refuse in exchange for the head of the neighboring prince, he ends up falling headfirst into the tangle of a foreign court — and the arms of its ruler, Prince Kravitz.

Blood and Bones and Photos by Evitcani

Kravitz has always dreamed of cities: wrapped in vines, streets peaceful and empty. He never knew the world before the end. Still, life goes on and on and on. The homes he's known are in compounds of chain-link fences patrolled by armed guards, feral zombies creeping around the edges who sing to him in the unsettled night.

There is no cure. There is no hope. There is only what little the survivors scraped together.

Then there's Taako.

And the new world that Kravitz was born into ends too.

Wrong Number by argentoswan

Taako texts a wrong number. Kravitz responds. Everyone else is confused, but they're going with it.

(6:32) so we have moved from strangling to murder (6:39) This is… still the wrong number. (6:41) i know i��m crowdsourcing ideas. quick, best way to hide an extremely tiny body?

A Bit Alarming by argentoswan

Taako gives up his freedom in exchange for the safety of his friends, and ends up locked in an enchanted castle with a surprisingly polite skeleton. Beauty and the Beast AU.

"'I’m afraid your friends were trespassing on my property. It was exceedingly impolite.' 'Yeah, and it’s super polite to lock them in the fucking dungeons.'"

study in light by weatheredlaw

He tells you things, things you don’t know what to do with. They fall out of his mouth and into your open hands, and you fumble them.

Deflection Toward The Relative Major by AuthorGod

He means to say all of this, but all that comes out is, “Why? Why choose me?” Instead of someone better suited he means; a warrior, a wizard, a priest.

I come back to this fic constantly. I love Kravitz-centric fic (surprise surprise) and this is one of the best there is I think

of aspen crowns and catskin down by mildlydiscouraging

The streets of London are slick and dark, and not just literally, although they are so often that too. Here there is not only murder, mystery, and mayhem, but magick as well. Here people go through their everyday tragedies and refuse to see the depths behind their troubles. Here two (and a half) detectives search for the truth.

In the dusk of autumn, with wind slicing down alleys, the good people of London are disappearing. It's up to Kravitz and Taako and, honestly, mostly Angus to solve the case, and maybe a couple other mysteries along the way.

SPOOKY VICTORIAN AU aka MY ENTIRE SHIT

those afternoons and evenings and does he project, does he have ideas? by mildlydiscouraging

The moments and years in between, in which feelings take root despite the constantly changing landscape. Alternatively: The world has been ending for forty years and Taako and Kravitz can't stop falling in love.

tazswap with Kravitz on the Starblaster, absolutely gorgeous prose

Reverie by Itdominic

There was a time Taako really could have taken or left it - life, and the world and whatever. Things aren't like that anymore, he tells himself, luckily, because this whole situation might get to be a real fucking drag otherwise.

heartbreaking but absolutely gorgeous

finale by teacuptaako

After everything, the distinction between alive and dead fades to a confusing grey.

In the wake of ‘The Day of Story and Song,’ Taako and Kravitz start to build their futures together: a labour of love, compromise, trust, and a slowly unravelling web of secrecy.

While the two of them grow closer and closer together, they and the rest of the world get further and further apart.

kravitz centric again, this is such a WEIRD fic and i literally haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it

Drag Your Cities to the Sea (No Light, No Light) by Desiree_Harding

"The months in Her retinue are long, and the work is hard. Her standards are high, and to satisfy them, Kravitz must be ruthless. But his conviction never falters. She is omnipotent. She is the avenging force of Justice, and Kravitz Her hand. She will keep the kingdom free, and for Kravitz to do her bidding is the greatest honor on this earth."

"Taako’s fingers curl tightly around the ropes of the Starblaster’s rigging as the ship cuts smoothly through the waves of the Sea of Souls below, his heart pounding in his chest and his eyes on the horizon...In these moments, it’s freedom that hangs sweet on his tongue and settles in his lungs, and Taako loves nothing better."

It's a pirate AU! You know the rest!

i live for AUs

All the Things You Prayed For by @anonymousalchemist and @marywhal

Taako's been dead for two years. Taako's been dead for seven decades. Depends how you count it.

Her brother is dead and Lup’s a whole lifetime into the future. It’s a brave new world out there and she’s trying not to think about it too hard. She gets the feeling that if she starts thinking, she won’t ever stop, and she can’t afford to be out of commission. She's the only Captain America the new century’s got.

Lup is Cap, Taako fell from a train, and eventually all ghosts come in from the cold. You guessed it—it's a TAZ/Marvel shakeup baby. We're bringing the party to you.

THIS FIC OWNS MY ENTIRE ASS

The Shape of Our Days Neverending by anonymousalchemist and marywhal

After the epilogue, Taako and Kravitz have a really good day.

just some heckin good fluff amidst all this angst

Other Lives by marywhal

When Kravitz signed up for the job in Phandalin, he didn’t expect adventuring to become his life. He was bored playing for the well-to-do of Neverwinter, sure, but not this bored. He was supposed to make some quick cash, pay off his gambling debts, and go back to his comfortable existence as a bard. He wasn't supposed to join a secret organization trying to save the world.

But here he is, paralyzed on the floor of a crystallized laboratory, and he has yet to keep a suit intact through a single adventure

more tazswap! this is unfinished rn but it’s real good so read it anyway

Bury the Lead by marywhal

Taako’s senior year at Neverwinter High could be going better. Faced with a choice between joining the school’s floundering newspaper or being expelled, he opts for a career in journalism.

Lucretia, the paper’s editor, kind of wishes he'd gone the other way.

if you haven’t read this yet what are you doing with your life

These Unfinished Creatures by marywhal

Someone in Neverwinter is stealing souls from the astral plane. The Raven Queen’s favourite reaper is undercover and on the case.

Relearning how to be human is entirely incidental.

MORE spooky Victorian AU what did i do to deserve this fandom honestly

(you should read everything by marywhal but these are my favs)

our get-along suit by anonymousalchemist

"So, let me get this straight," the reaper says, scythe held flush against Kravitz's neck. A trickle of blood drips down toward his collar. Kravitz swallows shallowly. "You picked up a suit, and the suit happened to be a lich, and the lich wouldn’t let you go, so you just rolled with it?"

"His name is Keats," Kravitz says. "And. Er. Sort of?"

Our own, soft hearts by Wildgoosery (series)

Stories involving a Moon Wedding, its attendees, and its aftermath, written in wildly different formats.

you should read everything Goose has posted but this is one of the first Taakitz fics I read so I have a real soft spot for it

The Body Eclectic by SpaceJackalope

In which Kravitz has many feelings about being dead, having a body, and liking people and things.

A Quiet Refrain by @inkedinserendipity

It starts with some of the most mediocre eggs Taako's ever clapped eyes on. Seven out of ten for taste. Zero out of ten for plating. Somehow, they're still the best damn eggs he's ever eaten.

(Or: Taako realizes he loves Kravitz back.)

it was your heart on the line by @inkedinserendipity and it’s sequels (links here)

one of many fics that inadvertently inspired synecdoche

Istus must be laughing. by writersstareoutwindows

"Whenever people talk about tattoos, Taako rolls down his sleeve. They’re sitting in a circle, usually drinking, laughing and elbowing and sometimes kissing. Whenever they realize Taako hasn’t said anything, he sips his drink, arranges his hair artfully over his shoulder, and says, 'Nah, nah, nah, my dudes, I don’t hold to that,' wiggling his fingers, 'mumbo jumbo tattoo fate-or-whatever bullshit. Chaboi Taako’s a free agent.'"

The present going forward. Memories in a jumble. Not a very neat story, but it's theirs.

another fic that inadvertently inspired synecdoche which i forgot until now!!

things left in the stars by mechanicalclock

You don’t collect things from places that you will never visit again, that’s foolish. It's about learning to let go in all the new ways, adapting quicker and quicker, having fun and forgetting.

Taako and Lup learn to remember.

a moment to bathe in our victory by AnonymousPuzzler

The apocalypse comes and goes. In the aftermath, Taako takes a bath, Kravitz worries too much, and some new feelings are reflected upon.

Taagnus

The end of the word does come and go, Page of Cups, Reversed, and Taking the dogs home by anonymous

About how the world is still here, and how going on can be done.

yellow by weatheredlaw

Washing the dishes, their fingers brushed in the soapy water of the sink and Taako felt a jolt.

Magnus turned and gave him a smile.

Strange Bedfellows by treshornybros (IamJohnLocked4life)

It quickly becomes a habit, and then routine. Magnus is oddly good natured about it. But then Magnus is good natured about everything, so maybe it's not that odd. No one else seems to notice.

They always sleep back to back.

Taako should find that comforting, and he does, at first. It's just like sleeping with Lup.

Sort of.

unremembering by bluebatwings (series)

Their lives divided up into three parts: before, unremembering, and after. Love stories.

At the Interval by AuthorGod

Time grows stagnant. Taako watches as world become fractured and consumed, cultures and civilizations wiped out. All the potential a single person is capable of in a lifetime, just ripped away in a moment.

It doesn't get to him, and it doesn't get to him, and it doesn't until it does.

breaking the same old heart by tardigradeschool

Taako and Magnus in triptych: before, during, and after the Bureau.

The Blue Hours of Morning by daisybrien

Refuge takes its toll. Magnus and Taako talk it out, drunk on the living room floor.

Taagnitz

the only life you could save by @epersonae and hops (series)

this could also go in the Other category bc it’s All The Ships (including magcretia which isn’t even my thing but they write is so so so well that now it is my thing!) but I’m digging through my ao3 history and not finding much taagnitz that’s not pwp/mine (a travesty) so it’s going in here. it’s also about taako and lucretia working their whole Thing out and it’s VERY VERY GOOD

no blinding light by provocation

Elves live much, much longer than humans. By the time most humans die, elves are just reaching adulthood.

Kravitz, on the other hand, is going to live forever.

the fic that made me ship taagnitz

in the focus by weatheredlaw

The sky was clear and the arms of the galaxy that surrounded them arched overhead as they lay in their sleeping bags, staring at the stars.

or: Kravitz knows there's room in all this for something between him and Magnus — he's just not sure what that looks like.

Dust by levelone

It was supposed to be simple: Taako was on TV, and Kravitz is a writer here for some pull quotes. Instead, when they meet in an empty diner in the middle of a desert, Taako says something impossible—and Kravitz believes him.

Oak and Mahogany by hideki16seiyuu

“Don’t try to pull one over on me, handsome. He’s going gray already.”

“He’s in his fifties now, Taako.”

“How much longer is left?”

“Longer than you’d think.”

---

Human lives can never match that of elves in length.

Take Up a Place Beside Me by goodnicepeople

"It's gonna be hard," Taako says, when they're alone again. "You can't... do that. Every time."

Or: Taako and Kravitz move in. Others move on. Some get dogs.

you are the life i needed all along by iwillbeyourgoal

along with the other memories he's gained from the stolen century, taako starts remembering his relationship with magnus on the starblaster.

these small hours by ShowMeAHero

Taako and Magnus get their memories back, and now they need to negotiate some emotions, because they're having a hell of a lot of them all at once.

Other ships/Gen

I Have Seen the Fields Aflame by Desiree_Harding

She hadn’t meant to disappear. Had she known what was going to happen, that one weekend was going to lead to seven entire years without her brother, she never would have gone. But that was all it took.

A modern au in which Lup goes missing, and discovers that the coming home is maybe the hardest part of all of it.

i cried for like an hour after reading this

a thousand points of no return by anonymousAlchemist

Since wizard's daemons often settle as birds and urban legend says that elves are separated from their daemons, no one looks too closely at the fact that Taako and Lup are both single entities, missing the other halves of their hearts. They walk like people, they talk like people, and if they're hard to read because their daemons aren't fluffing up their feathers or swatting playfully with their paws, well, elves are notoriously enigmatic anyway.

This lasts until their first death.

All deaths on the Starblaster are strange. When Magnus first died on the animal planet, I'morko followed right after, both of their bodies dissipating into golden sparks, a strange inversion of the natural order. The pattern holds. Year after year, person and daemon alike dissipate into a fine mist of dust, knit together by the bond engine in the new plane.

During their fifteenth year, Taako is shot through the heart with a well-aimed magic missile. Lup screams and casts one last firebolt, spell-sculpting around their bodies, before unspooling into a fine golden sand.

snake eyed, with a sly smile by faehunting

The circus is a mystery that sets itself up for people who track its movements, for people who are desperate to find it, to find anything. The circus is a mystery that sets itself up for people to stumble upon.

In the morning, the circus is nothing but negative space and the revellers it left behind. They sit up. They try to wet the dust in their mouths. They start the journey anew.

creepy fae weirdness!!!! yes!!!!!

I’m With The Band by redqueentheory, Wildgoosery, and Woven_Gulch (series)

A series of connected stories, equal parts sentimental and horny, about how Brad and Taako and Kravitz fall in love.

wacky BDSM crack ship becomes Greatest Romance Novel I’ve Ever Read, has made me cry multiple times

these strange creatures by anonymousalchemist

Taako sweeps himself into the common area of the Starblaster with all the drama and panache that he reserves for alternate Tuesday afternoons. Barry ignores him with all the practice he has from a decade of alternate Tuesday afternoons.

“I’m exhausted,” Taako whines, draping himself across Barry’s shoulders, the sharp point of his chin poking into Barry’s collarbone. “I’ve been up since for-ev-er, working on this dumb transmutation thing for Lulu.”

“Go meditate, then,” Barry says, absently reaching up to pat Taako’s head.

“Meditate?”

“You know, meditation? Isn’t that, uh, one of your elf things??” Barry finally looks up from his book, barest hint of a wrinkle in his forehead. Taako shakes his head.

“Never heard of it, homeslice. Musta skipped that day at elf practice.”

Barry laughs.

“Elf practice, sure.”

you know... elf practice

all your saints and saviors by anonymousalchemist

It’s not so much that she wants to die per se, as much as it is that she’s done living. The female human life expectancy is seventy-two years on this plane (it was seventy-four years on her home plane) and she’s lost count of her birthdays. But the math is easy. She was twenty when she boarded the Starblaster. A hundred-twenty when they landed in Faerun. A hundred-thirty when the Hunger was defeated. She’s fifty six years overdue.

She’s done her job, is the thing. She saved the world, in exchange for youth, friendship, family. She gave up everything but determination. She considers it fair trade. But now Lucretia is a single-use tool whose purpose no longer exists.

In Her Bones by epersonae

She lives through the destruction of her home, but still they're separated, until Julia sees the green light, and the blue light, and has to figure out what to do next.

better give that heart a listen by tardigradeschool

Barry needs a fake husband if he wants to stay undercover. Magnus is more than willing to help him out. Davenport needs a vacation.

herald of a new dawn by inkedinserendipity

When Lucretia is five years old, she meets her familiar. At seven, she remakes it; at eight, she remakes it again.

Seventy years later it saves her from an unkind world. And a Century after that, it fixes a family that had started to break.

from me to you, with love by inkedinserendipity

Magnus shuts the drawer and says, almost absently, “Tell her I love her, okay?”

Kravitz pauses, debating. He takes a deep breath. “Magnus,” he says, and Magnus, detecting the shift in his tone, looks up immediately. “You know that she already knows, right? She knows that you love her,” Kravitz says gently. “You do tell her every time.”

Magnus chuckles, rubbing a sheepish hand along the back of his neck. “I know,” he says, turning a bit pink. “I just - I love her, you know? I really do. And I guess, when you love someone, you want to tell them that every chance you get.”

your stitches are all out (but your scars are healing wrong) by tardigradeschool

When it’s over, and she can barely feel what makes her herself anymore, the umbrella is tattered beyond repair. With her last traces of energy, Lup grasps for shelter, reaching out for somewhere to store her torn soul until she can be helpful again. At the edge of her awareness, she feels a familiar shape, a familiar warmth -- in her exhaustion she could almost mistake it for her own body. She reaches for it and pulls herself clumsily inside.

Safe and contained, she lets consciousness go.

Voidfish (Reprise) by inkedinserendipity

Angus McDonald is many things — the boy detective, for one. The youngest member of the Bureau of Balance. The unofficial little brother of the THB, however Taako insists he's actually their mascot. He’s a researcher, and a scholar. He's not a fighter. He’s not a hero.

But he can save the world all the same.

Patterns of Migration by goodnicepeople

Magnus builds a house. Angus finds a home. Migration brings things back, in turn.

Hard to Starboard by BlueColoredDreams (series)

In the best world, it ends like this:

By starting over.

and the warmth will never die by Junkyard_Rose

Taako's been gone for maybe two years when Lup thinks she sees him shoplifting from a Hot Topic.

you ever read something that makes you astral project and you can't think about anything else for the rest of the day? me too

(in this category because it's mainly about the twins but it's also taakitz and blupcretia aka the ideal fic)

and at a certain age the child is grown by bimaukery

There are people in his grandpa's house.

AU where the IPRE family all moves in together and find the place less empty than they've been led to believe.

Amnesty

i left a light beside the bed for you by SyllableFromSound

"If she stares at the ceiling without blinking long enough, it starts to look fuzzy. Like there's a grainy film of static over the surface of the plaster. It makes her think of mist outside a window, of the big old tube TV that had sat in the living room of her house for her first few years of life and that had tingled warmly when she pressed her hand to the screen. Everything feels a bit fuzzy now, maybe because it's 3AM. Everything feels warm and a bit familiar.

Finally, Dani says, quietly, 'This is what I imagined it would be like if...if things had gone differently.'"

In which a couple of outcasts have some late-night chats and Aubrey ingests a foreign object to prove a point.

older than the trees by lamphouse

Summer is returning to Kepler, bringing with it humid late nights, not as many tourists as there used to be, and a certain moth man. Unfortunately, they're not the only ones.

Duck talks some shit out. Aubrey chills. Ned gets grifted. Indrid learns to see.

#fic rec #taz: balance #taakitz #taagnus #taagnitz #taz: amnesty #updated 7/24/19

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