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artificialqueens · 5 years

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you and i– we’re defying gravity ch. 3 (scyvie) - amelieee

a/n:

wow, i’ve been consistently hitting my deadlines, what a shocker! here’s another chapter for this godforsaken fic. thank you to those who’s been supporting me (i’m looking at you, scyvie discord) and my friend althea for betaing this!

also, this is very branjie centric, but i promise this’ll be the only chapter that focuses on the more than yvie and scarlet. if you know wicked, you know what will happen to them anyways.

follow me @and-oddly-enough and reblogs + likes are appreciated!

word count: 10.5k

Last chapter: Yvie and Scarlet get used to each other being roommates, Yvie finds out Vanjie is studying at the same place, and something bad is happening at Oz.

This chapter: Scarlet and Yvie team up to hook both Brooke and Vanjie together, Scarlet hosts a dance party, and Yvie realizes something really important.

In the middle of class—for the hundredth time, Scarlet nudges Yvie’s elbow subtly. Yvie was so close to let out a growl of annoyance at Scarlet but manages to hold it back when she realizes that she still was in the middle of Professor Hides’ boring literature class. Though Professor Hides was old and bordering on deaf and blind, Yvie knows that when she lets out a growl, there’d be lots of reactions, and their professor might finally notice them.

Getting back to Scarlet, Yvie mouths a ‘no’ at Scarlet, hoping she wouldn’t bother her anymore. Apparently, she thought this was the best time to pass notes in class. Not to Yvie but to Ra’jah who was literally sitting at the opposite end of the room. The reason she kept bothering Yvie was that Yvie can subtly pass the note to Ra’jah through her telekinesis so their professor wouldn’t notice. Even if she was blind, they were close enough to the front; which makes passing notes pretty risky.

“Come on, just do it, pretty please?” Scarlet whispers softly, giving a little pout. “Y’know I won’t stop bugging you anyways,” Scarlet adds and Yvie wants to sigh. Instead, she just rolls her eyes and nods. With a wave of her finger, the note flew across the room silently to Ra’jah. Even if most of their classmates saw it, Yvie knows that they’d be too faithful to Scarlet to ever snitch on her. After Yvie passes it, she watches Ra’jah patiently, waiting for her to finish her reply so Yvie can send back the note to Scarlet.

Yvie doesn’t even know what’s so important that will prompt the couple to pass notes in class. To Yvie, it was immensely childish, and she knew Scarlet and Ra’jah were much better than that. Then again, Yvie caught a glimpse of that note a while ago. It was quick since she knew Scarlet was watching, but she definitely saw the words ‘Vanjie’ and ‘Brooke’ written on the paper. At the moment, they were sharing a class with them as well, but the two of them were seated next to each other at the corner of the classroom. Sometimes, Yvie would see Scarlet be distracted by how flirty the other two are being. Yvie doesn’t blame her, though. She’d occasionally look back as well since they’ve been quite bothersome yet adorable at the same time.

It’s actually been a month since they first started interacting. Yvie noticed how close they’ve been judging by how lonely Yvie was for the past month. Every other day, Brooke and Vanjie would ditch Yvie and Scarlet to have their own thing, and even if they were undeniably cute, Yvie felt glum that she was all alone at her own table. Yvie was still obviously happy for Brooke, of course; it would be petty to hog Brooke for herself only. Even so, it did remind Yvie how friendless she was. The only friends she deemed as ‘friends’ besides her sister and Vanjie were Ra’jah, Shuga, and Scarlet. Over the month, they grew more comfortable with her, and Yvie in return found them interesting and enjoyable as well. Scarlet was the only exception to that since she still showcases her distaste in Yvie occasionally. Well, at least the insults weren’t a daily thing. To Yvie, that was already a sign of progress on their relationship.

Because despite the jabs and sarcastic remarks, Yvie did enjoy Scarlet’s company a bit more nowadays. Her delusions were entertaining and even if they don’t want to admit it, their humor was so similar. What she thought was a horrible situation slowly became bearable.

“Hey, rat bastard, pass the note back,” Scarlet whispers harshly, her eyes pointing at Ra’jah. Yvie gives her a scowl. She did mention it was bearable but their relationship wasn’t the best, obviously.

“Why do you have to drag rats into this?” Yvie whispers back as she waves her finger in the air without even looking at Ra’jah. That one month of sorcery lessons from Madame Visage does have good use, at least. The note lands gracefully on Scarlet’s table as Scarlet merely rolls her eyes at Yvie. Scarlet begins unfolding the note and once she reads Ra’jah’s reply, she immediately perks up, her lips widening into a bright smile. This definitely made Yvie curious but she wholeheartedly did not want to get caught by Professor Hides.

Thankfully, Scarlet didn’t send back another note in the last thirty minutes they had class. But once class ended, surprisingly, Scarlet grabbed Yvie directly and dragged her, Ra’jah, Shuga, and Vanjie out of the classroom before Yvie even registered what was going on. Yvie didn’t even know why she was so thrown off by Scarlet grabbing her hand— maybe it was the suddenness of it all. Either way, Yvie only processed what was happening halfway through their trip to somewhere and began protesting against whatever Scarlet had in mind.

“The fuck is going on, Scarlet?” Yvie asks as she shakes Scarlet’s hand off. Yvie realizes her cheeks are slightly red. Maybe it was from exhaustion?

“Hey, we were going to head to the same place anyways so stop complaining,”

“No, as in, what must be so important that you decided to literally drag Ra’jah, Vanjie, and I out of class in such a rush?”

“Yea, maybe ask next time?” Vanjie adds, clearly infuriated she didn’t get to walk Brooke to her class.

“I literally dragged you out to talk to you about my plan of hooking you and Brooke together but go off, I guess.” Scarlet says with a smirk as she begins climbing the stairs. After that, Vanjie immediately sputters, startled by what Scarlet said. Ra’jah laughs a bit, already knowing of the plan, but Yvie and Shuga were simply curious at to what shit Scarlet has came up with.

“I–I can–uh, I can do that fine by myself, you hoe,” Vanjie replies but her voice was shaky and uncertain. Yvie snorts at how pathetic she was.

“Oh honey, don’t lie to us, you stupid lesbian,” Shuga says and it makes everyone laugh loudly except for Vanjie. Vanjie musters up a fake chuckle but she still sounded infuriated. “Aw, Vanjie, sweetie, I’m joking,” Shuga adds and Vanjie pouts at her.

“You guys don’t know how hard it is!” Vanjie exclaims and everyone stares at her in disbelief.

“You’ve known Brooke for like, fifteen years, but go off I guess,” Yvie says and Vanjie flushes. Shuga mutters ‘stupid lesbian’ again and it brings out a soft laugh from everyone.

“Hey! This is bullying, I’m leaving,” Vanjie says, stopping her steps mid-step. Scarlet was quickly alarmed and grasped Vanjie’s hand before she could bail. Scarlet really seemed persistent and she undoubtedly trusted her plan wholeheartedly.

“No! Don’t— don’t leave, I promise this will 100% work,” Scarlet says and Vanjie quirks up an eyebrow.

“How d’ya know? Firstly, you almost failed at maths, and secondly you’re delusional as fuck.”

“And who has a girlfriend between the two of us?”

Vanjie stayed silent for a second until she sighed and said, “I fucking hate you,”. Ra’jah and Shuga laugh in amusement as they proceed to walk another level up. Yvie silently trails behind, oddly feeling slightly off even if she didn’t understand why. She really must be catching some sort of fever, or maybe she was immensely overworked. Either way, she needed to give herself some time to rest.

Eventually, they all make it to Scarlet’s suite. Like always, it smelled like fresh roses and was always neat and tidy just because Scarlet loved it that way. Yvie was suspicious of her eagerness to be tidy but after a couple of days, Yvie praised it a lot. After all, Yvie was not the… cleanest of people. Her room back in Munchkinland was a dumpster fire wherein everything she had was just tossed around the room.

“God, I wish I lived here,” Shuga stated, “It’s like heaven in this room. Meanwhile, Tammie and I have been fuckin’ around in our small-ass room. Nothing’s tidy,” Shuga adds as she sits down on Scarlet’s bed primly. Scarlet and Ra’jah join her while Vanjie tackles Yvie’s bed, faceplanting herself unto the bedsheets. Yvie takes off her heels as well and joins Vanjie, lying back down into her bed in relief.

“And our room is much worse than that, right Vanj?” Ra’jah says and Vanjie only replies by raising a thumbs up in the air which prompts a few people to laugh.

“Why, thank you, I work pretty hard on this since my asshole of a roommate doesn’t understand the concept of organizing,” Scarlet says shoots Yvie a judgmental glare. Yvie raises the bird in reply, too exhausted to reply some kind of witty insult back. “Anyways, back to the main topic at hand. I think I have a foolproof plan to get Vanjie and Brooke together. Or actually, this is more of a plan for their first date since I know Vanjie isn’t good with planning dates,”

“Hey, that was with Aquaria and that was one time–”

Scarlet abruptly continues her spiel, “I will reserve the Ozdust Ballroom for this–I have all the money in the world to do so–and we’re gonna hold a dance party for Vanjie and Brooke.” Scarlet explains excitedly but no one seemed to reciprocate the same anticipation as her. They all seemed a bit perplexed– even Vanjie sat up from her position to look at Scarlet with concern.

“Scarlet, I love you, but you are a fucking dumbass,” Vanjie says, disgruntled.

Scarlet, with an offended expression, replies back, “Thanks, really appreciate you saying that for the hundredth time,” She leans back against the headboard with crossed arms.

“I dunno about you but last time I checked, Brooke’s legs were still tangled,” Vanjie retorts sarcastically, “I don’t think she’ll have a great time in a dance party when she can’t actually, y’know, dance,” Vanjie adds and Yvie actually ponders about it for a moment.

Out of all the people in the room, there was no one who knew Brooke more than Yvie. Vanjie comes to a close second but Yvie was literally there since Brooke was born. With that, Vanjie was undeniably wrong. Brooke, despite disabled, was determined to teach herself any kind of dance she can learn. With enough perseverance and hard work, she actually mastered different kinds of techniques and skills thanks to the help one of their teachers in highschool, Miss Sahara Davenport. But then there was some point that Brooke stopped seeing her. If Yvie recalls correctly, there were rumors that Miss Davenport died of some illness; hence why Brooke had no more classes for dance. However, Brooke came through it all and continued her legacy by independently teaching herself how to dance. After a few books, self-teaching, and help from their neighbour named Alyssa who would teach Brooke occasionally, Brooke became the best dancer Yvie’s ever witnessed.

Vanjie most likely didn’t know of this all because Brooke was a secluded and reluctant person. Like Yvie, she had her own insecurities, but Brooke had a different approach of handling it. While Yvie liked address her issues more out loud, Brooke was more quiet, keeping all her problems to herself. Yvie only managed to know about Brooke’s dancing when Brooke accidentally fell out of her wheelchair in her room and couldn’t get back up. Yvie had to help her get back on while Brooke panickedly explained the situation truthfully. Brooke could never lie under stress.

“Brooke can dance,” Yvie mentions and everyone turns to her, eyeing her weirdly. “What? Brooke knows how to dance. Not on her feet but on her wheelchair, of course.” Yvie adds, still keeping a serious tone. She needed to make sure the others didn’t think whatever she said was some sort of joke.

“Bitch, how?” Vanjie asks, still in a state of uncertainty.

“She got private lessons from Miss Davenport, remember her?”

“Miss Davenport cannot dance,” Vanjie replies and it took a second for Yvie to understand who she was referring to.

“That’s Miss A’keria, you fuck. And she can dance… only if it involved her ass shaking, that is,” Yvie says, “But I’m referring to Miss Sahara. She taught phys-ed and dance. She tutored Brooke some time ago,” Yvie adds and the group all seemed intrigued by this newfound information. Scarlet most definitely was pleased by hearing this, evident by how wide her grin was when she heard that Brooke could dance.

“Perfect! That’s perfect,” Scarlet says, “A dance party would be perfect for Brooke, she will absolutely enjoy it. I mean, you need to ask her out first, of course, but how bad can that be?” Scarlet says and Vanjie’s eyebrows were knitted in terror.

“I mean…” Vanjie starts, still very nervous as she fiddles with her hair, “How did you and Ra’jah get together?” Vanjie asks, prompting Scarlet and Ra’jah to stare each other before smirking. But before any of them could reply, Shuga jumps in.

“It was bad,” Shuga mentions and receives a snarl of protest from Scarlet, “Scarlet would always say they were just upfront about their feelings, but, the truth is there was a lot of denial involved,” Shuga says and the couple immediately looks alarmed.

“It always runs with lesbianism.” Yvie comments.

“Always, girl,” Shuga replies, “It finally ended when Ra’jah threw a bouquet of roses at Scarlet’s window and shouted her confession.” Shuga adds and Vanjie and Yvie laugh at its ridiculousness. Scarlet solely looks unimpressed, seeming like she wants to repress that memory.

“So what, do I just throw some flowers at Brooke and hope for the best?”

“Your choice girl. I did it and my girl is still here,” Ra’jah says. Scarlet, looking enamored, smiles at her and blows her a kiss. After, she turns back to Vanjie to relay her the plan again.

“Again, I’ll hold a party. I’ll announce it to everyone until Brooke hears of it. Then, you go up to her, ask her out, whether it’d be through confessing truthfully or throwing flowers, then invite her to the dance party. I assure you that everything will be wonderful after that.” Scarlet says and Vanjie nods slowly, still hesitant that she’s agreeing to Scarlet’s plan. To Yvie, it wasn’t actually a particularly bad plan. In fact, she thought it was simple yet doable, but the problem is that lesbians could never, ever function during confessions.

“Maybe we can do that tomorrow to get things done? The quicker, the better, since you two have been pining for more than a decade,” Scarlet suggests and everyone besides Vanjie hum in agreement. Yvie nudges Vanjie but her reluctance doesn’t really decrease from it.

“If you don’t wanna do it, I won’t force you, of course,” Scarlet says and this is probably the most caring Scarlet has ever been. Vanjie looks up, inhales sharply, then raises a hand.

“No—no, I’m gonna fucking do it,” Vanjie says with a determined tone, causing everyone to cheer for her loudly, “Tomorrow, I’ll walk up to her at lunch and I’m not gonna pussy out.”

“I’ll be there so if you do mess up, I’m just gonna tell Brooke that you have a crush on her,” Yvie says and Vanjie scrunches up her nose.

“No! No, that wouldn’t be romantic. I want it to be like, really romantic. Or cute. I don’t want you yelling at us for it to happen,”

“Are you saying I’m not a romantic or cute person? I am offended,” Yvie says and places a dramatic hand on her chest.

“Oh fuck off, Oddly,” Vanjie replies, “I’ll do it perfectly, don’t worry about it,” Vanjie says confidently yet Yvie still doesn’t have faith on that. In some way or another, she will definitely fuck it up, Yvie bets on it.

“It’s settled then!” Scarlet speaks up again, clasping her hands together joyfully, “I’ll reserve Ozdust right now before anyone else does. No backing out now, Vanj,” Scarlet says as she hops off her bed gracefully, smoothing out her skirt. Since it is expected for Ra’jah to always accompany Scarlet, she also hops off as she winks suggestively at Vanjie.

“Good luck, Vanj, I’ll be seeing you,” Ra’jah says as Scarlet grabs her hand before they exit. Scarlet waves a simple goodbye before heading off to the Ozdust Ballroom, leaving Shuga, Yvie, and Vanjie alone in the suite. Shuga takes this opportunity to lay on Scarlet’s bed; she looks like she’s been wanting to do that since they entered the room. Yvie chuckles at her, relating to her exhaustion.

“God, where am I gonna get a girlfriend like that. Or a boyfriend, I’m cool with any, if anyone wants to hook me up with someone,” Shuga states and Yvie relates to that as well. For close to two decades, Yvie has barely had any friends, let alone someone who’s romantically inclined to her. There were definitely plenty of women who sets Yvie’s gay heart off, but with the face she has, Yvie doubts she’d ever end up with anyone.

“Same,” Yvie says, “If any of you know someone who’s attracted to people with no pupils, let me know. So far, everyone’s just been screaming every time they see my face,” Yvie jokes and it brings a laugh out of Shuga and Vanjie. “You know, you’re really lucky, Vanj. Brooke’s been telling me how much she likes you since… uhm… it’s been a very long time, I mean.”

Vanjie’s eyes widen, “Really?” she says, flustering a bit.

“Yep, I found out around eighth grade when Brooke accidentally said that you were hot in front of me. She immediately reddened and tried to shut me out after I started asking lots of questions,” Yvie says with a fond smile and Vanjie looked very intrigued after hearing that.

“Wow, that’s a very… long time.” Vanjie says.

Shuga coughs, “Lesbians,” she says and Vanjie grunts, “Okay Vanj but I doubt you’d do it perfectly tomorrow. Just let Yvie be there just in case. She’s like, your Plan B, or something,”

“Fine, but I promise you that I won’t fuck it up.” Vanjie says, “Everything’ll be fine.”

Brooke Lynn Hytes was a very lonely person. She was most likely the only one in the campus who had no roommate and even if she knew it wasn’t because people didn’t like her, she still felt terrible that she was alone. The closest she has to a roommate are the professors who stay overnight during busy days that stay in her building because it’s where all the vacant rooms were. Madame Visage stays here often because of the stress she receives as the headmistress. Rumors also say she’s the Wizard’s assistant but Brooke wouldn’t believe anything unless she hears it from the headmistress herself.

In the morning, she always wakes up early. Brooke never has a reason to sleep late in the evening. There were no friends for her to party with nor did she have difficulties in her studies— she wasn’t going to be Munchkinland’s next professor for no reason. Well, the reason is mostly that her father was biased but she never liked that reason. The other reason is that she was immensely intelligent, never getting any grade below A.

It takes Brooke around an hour to get ready for the day. Her tangled legs are never a thing to be proud of. Her legs were almost like jelly as they were intertwined with each other like vines. She could move, but it’d never get anywhere because they’re literally like they were tied. It was hard at first to prepare by herself but after she tried to do everything independently, she eventually got used to it. There was a lot of chairs for everything to work but other than that, there was no other complication.

After she’d get prepared, she always loved to write to herself just to give herself a self-checkup everyday. Her dad would always ask her to do it and now, she can’t go a day without writing in her diary. Not everything was fun, though, as most of her entries were always about how her legs prevented her from doing this and that and how lonely she felt.

The loneliness wasn’t some kind of joke. She and Yvie shared that aspect with one another; it was just Yvie who really didn’t mind it. Even if Brooke was extremely introverted, she really longed for a consistent friend who she can get along with and depend on. Growing up, she and her sister would always be referred to as a freak show by many, hency why no one would try to approach her. For Brooke, people at least were kind when they interacted, but every interaction was nothing more than a question about academics.

The three only other friends she had besides her sister were her obsessive father, her overly kind dance teacher, and this reckless, dumb bitch named Vanessa. Her father was just labelled as a friend because he just loved to spoil her non-stop and would converse to her like a normal person, unlike how he acts towards Yvie. Her dance teacher was the first to see her true potential in dancing and she couldn’t thank her enough for giving her some kind of passion when she thought she was nothing.

Then there’s Vanjie, someone who she thought would never be friends with her. She first knew Vanjie as Yvie’s only friend during kindergarten and Vanjie, the reckless child she is, always loved using Yvie to mess with the other kids, just because they thought it was something hilarious. Yvie, despite being older, started the same age as Brooke because at first, their father refused to treat Yvie like a normal person. If it weren’t for their nanny, Yvie wouldn’t be in the position she was today. Despite studying late, Yvie adapted well, and was actually really happy she had her sister in the same batch she was.

But back to Vanjie— Vanjie used to be someone she just knew because Yvie would always bring her along on the way home. Her father refused to talk to her because of obvious reasons so Brooke was always on the side, watching them. It was only when her father was sick that she got to know Vanjie. The three of them still walked home together but now, Brooke had less restrictions, hence why she began to chatter with the other two. She found out that they were more fun than what she expected, and instead of heading home, they messed around. Even if their father was much disappointed at them, that was the best memory Brooke had of her childhood.

Growing up, Vanjie barely had any shared classes with her, but Vanjie and Brooke always try their best to hangout whenever they were free. She didn’t know how their friendship has lasted that long but she was happy that she had Vanjie. And Brooke knew Yvie loved Vanjie as well even if she’d never admit it.

Now in Shiz, Brooke felt alone more than ever. A month in, she felt awfully homesick. She knew she should be grateful that she’s studying in the most privileged university in all of Oz but she admits she actually misses her father just a bit. Of course she loathed her hatefulness towards Yvie but she misses the compliments and the friendly small talks they shared. All she had now was her sister who sometimes loved to snap back at anyone and gain attention and Vanjie who only occasionally hangs out with her.

That stupid Scarlet Envy loved to hog them away from her, though. The reason why she doesn’t see Vanjie daily is because she was in the same clique Scarlet was in. Brooke thought she actually didn’t fit in with Scarlet and her friends but Vanjie keeps convincing her that Scarlet acts better than what she showcases publicly. They apparently became close when Vanjie moved to the Gillikin County over the summer because of Vanjie’s mom getting a job at Shiz. Vanjie met Ra’jah as her roommate in advance and they kicked it off well, causing Vanjie to be invited into Scarlet’s group.

Scarlet also hogs Yvie away, believe it or not. Yvie and Scarlet love to appear like they loathe each other but Brooke can tell that they really enjoyed each other’s company despite the back and forth insults. Scarlet literally pulled Yvie with her out of class willingly— that’s definitely a sign of development in their friendship.

And with Yvie and Vanjie pulled away from time to time, all she had was… was writing letters to her father and Madame Visage. Brooke should be used to the isolation but she wasn’t— it still hurt from time to time.

At least today, she had Yvie. Yesterday, Vanjie and Yvie literally were grabbed by Scarlet and she was alone on the way to her room in a building that no other student occupied. Brooke was using her time with Yvie wisely because who knows when she will inevitably be pulled away from her again.

Today, their university was hustling and bustling even more than before. Brooke was unbeknownst to why at first until she heard the gossip of what was going on when she wheeled herself to her first class. It was something that had to do with Scarlet, of course, and it has something to do with a dance party. This intrigued Brooke for mainly two reasons: firstly, she and many others were aware of Scarlet’s dancing skills or lack thereof, and secondly, Brooke loved to dance.

The party was in two days and will be held at Ozdust at 7PM. It was actually at a reasonable day and time and despite of her spite towards Scarlet, she was actually considering to drop by. Maybe she might tag along Yvie just because she didn’t want to be that loner in a party. Both she and Yvie loved to dance, the only difference is their style of dancing. Brooke was graceful and her dancing would invoke sereneness and calmness while Yvie’s dancing was more for clubs and raves, always so upbeat and high energy. Both barely showed their skills, though; atoo shy to present themselves in front of other people because of obvious reasons.

So maybe she won’t actually drop by, huh.

“I just realized how many people would actually attend this because of Scarlet, ugh,” Brooke complains to Yvie during lunch as she lazily feeds herself a spoonful of veggies. “Just thinking about it makes me feel claustrophobic.” she adds. She also received a flyer on the way to lunch— apparently some of Scarlet’s followers began promoting the party on her own because of course her followers would love to scout for people they can convert to the Scarlet Envy religion.

“I heard about them talking about last night.” Yvie mentions, her elbow placed on the table as she leaned her cheek against her palm. She didn’t seem to enjoy her meal today, “Scarlet is the worst dancer I’ve seen. She flaps her arms and she calls it ‘professional dancing’, it’s ridiculous.” Yvie says as she feeds herself a piece of her meal. She chews slowly, looking like she wants to spit it out.

“Girl, we know,” Brooke says, “We always know. She’s delusional, I won’t be surprised if she has dementia,” Brooke adds and Yvie hums.

As they continue eating, Brooke kept observing Scarlet’s table. She really couldn’t help herself because her table was literally in front of theirs. There was a safe distance between both, at least, so her followers wouldn’t accidentally bump their table. As per usual, Scarlet’s crowd was as wild, obnoxious, and humongous as ever with Scarlet sitting elegantly on the table as if she were some queen. Scarlet’s friends all seem out of it, just like always, playing with their food as they looked like they want to behead all of Scarlet’s fans.

Eventually, her eyes began trailing off of Scarlet and to Vanjie, who was sitting in the same spot every time she was with Scarlet at lunch. She sat backwards on the chair as she poked at her food, unimpressed by the rowdiness of the crowd. It was weird to see Vanjie so quiet especially when she was known for never shutting up in highschool. Turns out detention isn’t what she needs, it was fanbases who couldn’t go one second without complimenting the same things to someone who they consider as their god.

Every time Vanjie was out of it, Brooke would always hope she would look her way so they can at least exchange glances. If she wasn’t going to hangout with Brooke, a glance and a bright smile is all she needed to be satisfied. It always happened every lunch time when Vanjie was away so it wasn’t a surprise when Vanjie finally locked eyes with her. Vanjie smiles here naturally beautiful yet adorable grin as she waves a tiny hello at Brooke. Brooke also waves, like the usual thing she does in reply.

Weirdly, Vanjie actually stands up. Vanjie would never excuse herself from Scarlet’s group because she actually fears the wrath of Scarlet’s fandom when they become judgmental towards her. So, with her looking like she wants to step out, Brooke became slightly proud but still a bit worried. She gives Vanjie a concerned stare as a sign for her to sit back down again but Vanjie seems persistent in wanting to get to Brooke’s table.

But alas, the fans spotted it before she could escape. “Hey, Vanjie, you’re seeing those freaks again? What’s going on with you?” One yells and Vanjie quickly gets startles as she was pushed back down on her chair. It wasn’t forceful but still, it makes both Yvie and Brooke enraged. Yvie almost grabs her spoon to toss again but Brooke stops her before anything gets more violent.

“You’re lucky to be staying with Scarlet so why don’t you appreciate it? Aren’t you grateful that you’re with her and not… with them?” A girl states as she snorts while gesturing towards Yvie and Brooke. Again, Brooke and Yvie tense up as they give them icy stares. Yvie starts tapping at the table out of habit as she restrains herself from using her powers.

“Yea! Be more appreciative, Vanjie! Aren’t I right, Scarlet?” a guy says as Scarlet slowly becomes panicky. Yvie glares at Scarlet, giving her a sign to not fuck up her answer with a fake reply that might damage her friends’ reputations.

“Alright, settle down, Vanjie probably didn’t mean that,” Scarlet says, not wanting to work for both the side of her fanbase and the side of her friends, “I don’t want anyone to be negative especially when I want everyone to have consistent positive energy until the party comes, you got that?” Scarlet says. Brooke sighs a breath of relief as the crowd began agreeing, leaving both the sisters and Vanjie alone.

“The fuck is wrong with Scarlet’s fans— how—how does she deal with this?” Brooke says, still eyeing the crowd with irritation. “They’re unbelievably dense.”

“Yea, sometimes I feel like Scarlet’s being more manipulated by them than the crowd being manipulated by her. It’s just a new thing I noticed,”

Brooke cocks an eyebrow at Yvie, surprised by how wary and cautious she was of Scarlet out of the blue, “Okay, when did you start caring for Scarlet?”

Yvie was silent as she looks down at her meal. Brooke was definitely suspicious of Yvie now, especially when she just insulted Scarlet a few minutes ago. “Hey, it was just an observation, don’t think of it as anything more than that.” Yvie mumbles as she shoves a few veggies into her mouth in disgust. Brooke gives her a light smile as she somewhat realizes what Yvie is slowly getting herself into. Then again, Yvie’s caring instincts aside, she takes a moment to process what Yvie mentions about Scarlet.

Once Brooke pondered about it thoroughly, she somewhat understood Yvie’s point. Scarlet was much different to her friends in person and sometimes, her dislike towards certain people seemed unnecessary. Brooke doesn’t want to assume but since Scarlet was sculpting another personality in front of her fanbase, Brooke thinks it’s slowly getting mixed into her true personality, and it’s quite worrisome to think that Scarlet was losing her true self because of it.

Then again, it wasn’t Brooke’s problem much since again, she still felt bitter towards Scarlet for stealing away her only friends in life. So, it’d be fine not to meddle with Scarlet’s issues much.

After some time suffering eating greens, the bell finally sounded across the campus. Yvie was glad she could just deny her lunch and grabbed her bag immediately to head off with Brooke to class. But before they could both leave, Vanjie actually makes her way to the duo. She seemed less startled than before but still alert for any fans that’ll spy on Vanjie to spread more gossip.

Thankfully, Yvie was there to keep guard of any disrespectful fans. She can easily scare them off with her dark aura and sharp teeth. If that fails, Yvie isn’t afraid to throw a pen at them while insulting them. Brooke was at least comfortable with Yvie doing that to them since Vanjie was being hurt by these fans.

“Sorry about a while ago, I shouldn’t have tried to escape the pits of hell like that,” Vanjie says as she ties her hair into a messy bun. Brooke licks her lips as stares at Vanjie longingly, thinking that the messy bun look on her was undeniably attractive.

“It’s alright, those fans are fucking nuts,” Yvie says, “I’m like, this close to murdering all of them,” Yvie adds as she raises her left hand and puts her thumb and index finger close together but not too close to look like they were touching. Vanjie sighs in agreement, looking incredibly annoyed.

“Same, but actually, I’d fucking murder them already if I can get away with it.” Vanjie says exasperatedly and the sisters hum in agreement. “But they do make Scarlet happy… or I think they do, I dunno.”

“Debatable but okay,” Yvie says, followed by a minute of odd silence. As they walk towards their classes, Brooke notices how Yvie and Vanjie walked in a slower pace as they seemed to know something Brooke didn’t know. They kept exchanging glances as if they were trying to send secret messages to one another. Brooke eyes them warily as she wheels more slowly, hoping she can get on whatever they’ve been hiding.

“Uh, Brooke, I have something to say,” Vanjie says slowly yet awkwardly as Brooke turns to her with raised eyebrows. It was out of character for Vanjie to start any conversation like that and it causes Brooke’s heart to race and palms to sweat. She also can’t tell if it was anything good or bad but judging by Vanjie’s nervous expression, Brooke expects the worst to come. This was it, Vanjie was going to end their nearly twenty-year friendship, Brooke can feel it.

“Yes?” Brooke manages to say this with no stuttering but inside, panic and anxiety began spreading throughout her body. Vanjie seems just as nervous as she is as she constantly looks away as she nibbles her bottom lip. Yvie, on the other hand, looked unimpressed as she glared at Vanjie threateningly.

“I—uhm,” Vanjie continues but the words seem trapped in her throat, not wanting to escape her lips. It irritates Brooke a bit but she was patient, not wanting to rush Vanjie to confess whatever she has in her head. “I—I’m gonna head to class,” Vanjie manages to say and Brooke’s eyebrows furrow, confused to why Vanjie suddenly avoided what she wanted to discuss.

“Huh, what—“ Yvie suddenly jumps in, probably as bewildered as Brooke was. “Vanjie, what in the fuck—“ she says but couldn’t finish as she began being pulled away by Vanjie, both of the two abruptly leaving Brooke behind as they head to their own class. Brooke stops in her tracks as she grips her wheelchair’s wheels tightly, slightly saddened by Vanjie bailing on her.

“Whatever,” Brooke says bitterly as she headed for her class. It was mathematics so this can undoubtedly distract her from whatever just happened right now. She can just demand answers from Yvie later— everything was going to be fine.

“Brooke! Brooke, hey, uhm, I wanna walk with ya to your room,” Immediately after Brooke wheels out of her class, Vanjie was already waiting outside. Yvie was behind her, looking very disgruntled at Vanjie. Brooke exchanges looks with Yvie before she stares at Vanjie weirdly. She chews the inside of her lip as she tries to process what was going on with Vanjie today.

“Alright, but it’ll be a long walk,” Brooke says as she turns her wheelchair away from them and to the direction of her building. Vanjie looks delighted as she walks beside Brooke, looking equally as nervous as she was joyous. Yvie was trailing behind them and even if Brooke wasn’t looking at her, she knew that Yvie was staring at them carefully like a concerned parent.

“What did you want to say a while ago?” Brooke asks, hoping Vanjie would finally be truthful to her. Vanjie still looks hesitant as she shrugged, most likely trying to keep her composure steady,

“Uhm,” Vanjie says. One giveaway that Vanjie was still masking something was the constant stuttering. She also never stops midway through her sentences because Vanjie likes to ramble most of the time, never stopping when she talks. “You heard of Scarlet’s party? You going to it?” she asks, avoiding Brooke’s gaze.

Brooke goes with it, “No, I don’t think I am. I know you’re going, though, since I don’t think you can decline her invite to the party,” Brooke says and Vanjie shrugs, looking neutral, “At least you’re a great dancer, you’d definitely blend in well there, unlike me,” Brooke says with an awkward chuckle as she gestures to her legs.

“Hey, you can dance! Anyone can dance.” Vanjie says and Brooke smiles at her, flattered by her statement. “If this bitch behind ya can dance then you can too,” Vanjie says as she points her thumb at Yvie who was deadpanning until her name was mentioned.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yvie says as Vanjie chuckles at her.

“I was just saying how lovely your dancing is,” Vanjie says.

“Actually, Yvie can go with you to the party so you wouldn’t be too lonely there,” Brooke suggests, “You two have the same kind of dancing style so I think you two would have a great time.”

“Y’know, I was actually gonna, uhm,” Vanjie stutters again and Brooke’s patience is thinning. She waits for a few seconds for Vanjie to continue but she still seems disoriented. What does she want to say?

“Vanj, we’re friends, right? You can tell me anything,” Brooke says in the nicest way possible, hoping it’ll calm Vanjie down enough for her to spill. Vanjie’s lip quivers as she fiddles with her fingers, looking like she’s at a loss on how she wants to confess whatever she has in mind.

“Look, Scarlet planned the party for you and Vanjie’s just trying to ask you out, Brooke,” Unexpectedly, Yvie started to speak behind them, looking just as impatient as Brooke was but more blunt. Yvie immediately receives a sharp glare from Vanjie. Vanjie looked like she wanted to scold Yvie but Yvie remains calm as ever, appearing to be very unbothered by the stares.

Brooke, on the other hand, was shocked to the core. Her eyes widened in a delighted surprise as she stopped wheeling herself to gaze at Vanjie. Before Vanjie decided to beat Yvie up, Vanjie caught Brooke’s curious gaze and flushed, reserving her anger towards Yvie for later.

“Is that what you were trying to tell me?” Brooke asks, her anxiety and irritation replaced with genuine curiosity and slight joy. Vanjie gulps and nods slowly as Yvie seemed relieved that Vanjie was started to act truthfully. Brooke’s lips slowly curve upwards as she takes one of Vanjie’s hands to ease her queasiness. “Hey, look at me,” Brooke says as she notice Vanjie still malfunctioning, “I’d love to go out with you.”

Vanjie’s eyes widen as she quickly perks up, a wide grin like Brooke’s forming on her face as well. “Really? For real real?” Vanjie says as her hands begin shaking. Brooke lets out a small chuckle as she gave a nod.

“Of course, you dumbass!” Brooke exclaims as Vanjie lets out a breath of relief, “I thought you were gonna break up our friendship but this—this is much better. Oz, you should’ve said this earlier! I was panicking the entire time during maths because I thought you hated me.”

“What? I don’t hate you, it’d be weird if I suddenly told you that I hated you after, I don’t fucking know, sixteen years of our friendship.” Vanjie laughs, clearly overly excited and relieved that they finally have it all settled, “So you will go to the dance with me?”

“Of course I fucking will now that you asked!”

“And you’d, uh, I dunno— are we— do you wanna be—”

“Yes, a hundred percent, I’d love to,” Brooke says sincerely. “Never in my wildest dreams did I thought this would actually happen, my Oz— this is probably the best day I’ve had in my life,” Brooke rambles as her heart beats quickly, causing her to act all hyper.

“You’re welcome, lesbians,” Yvie speaks and the two of them jump, forgetting that Yvie was still watching from behind, “You also have to thank Scarlet, by the way,” Yvie says but Brooke has no clue on what she meant behind it.

“I guess her plan actually worked,” Vanjie murmurs then notices the confused expression brooke had, “Oh! I forgot to mention that uhm, she was the one who implemented the party just so I can have the perfect ‘first date’. I didn’t actually believe her when she said her plan was foolproof but at the end, it surprisingly worked,” Vanjie states and it really gives Brooke another perspective on Scarlet.

Maybe Scarlet was deep down really kind-hearted despite her occasional impoliteness. “Huh, wow,” Brooke says, still taking in her realization. “She is actually not as bad as she seems… I, wow— I’m actually a bit speechless by that. I guess I have to thank her for all of this…”

“I’ll make sure to tell her for you,” Yvie says, “Anyways, I’ll be heading off, you lesbians— I heard no other person lives in Brooke’s building so you can just as loud as you want,” Yvie says with a knowing smirk before she turns away nonchalantly. Vanjie snorts at her while Brooke merely flushed just thinking about it.

“Hey you’re thinking about it! I can’t believe you’re thinking about it!” Vanjie calls Brooke out and Brooke slaps her elbow to retort.

Brooke gives her a suggestive wink before she wheels off with Vanjie, flustered and confused, chasing after her.

Yvie sighs at them. She wasn’t gloomy for them in any way but there was light feelings of jealousy she felt within her. Adjusting her bag, she continues walking to her shared suite, wanting to relax herself for the day. The thought of the dance and her sister’s happiness keeps flooding her head and Yvie just wants to shut it all out. The better she accepts that no one will love her, the more this jealousy will pass.

Then again, her mind seems to be fixated at Scarlet as well. Scarlet organized this to happen and was that one push Vanjie needed to finally confess. Not only that but this— this made her sister happy. Scarlet made her sister happy. This was always a big deal for Yvie. Anyone who makes her sister happy is someone Yvie needs to respect wholeheartedly because there are rarely anyone who does so.

Yvie suddenly feels compelled to return Scarlet a favor. Maybe she should… gift her with something.

“Oh, Miss Yvie, where are you headed? You seem to be the only one here,” Out of nowhere, Madame Visage speaks. She seems to have finished her last class and was off to return to her office. Yvie purses her lips as she gets an idea on what she would love to give to Scarlet.

“Madame Visage, I actually have a request…”

“Oh, hey Yves,” Shuga says as Yvie enters the suite. Even if the party was still in two days, Scarlet was already preparing for her outfit to wear. The room was messier than usual as Scarlet has littered it with different kinds of catsuits and dresses that had to be unbelievably gorgeous yet expensive. Shuga was visiting as well, most likely helping Scarlet out since she knew how indecisive she was.

“Heyo, I love how you’re taking out the trash today,” Yvie remarks as she hops over the messily scattered heels on the floor to get to her bed. Scarlet gives Yvie an aggravated glare as she placed one of her dresses on a hanger.

“Actually, I wasn’t sure I was taking out the trash until you walked in,” Scarlet retorts and Yvie, genuinely astounded, chuckles at her. Their back and forth remarks will never be boring for Yvie. “How’s Vanjie and Brooke?”

“A success,” Yvie replies, and both Scarlet and Shuga rejoice in unison, both immensely relieved that everything went well. “But we had to go for Plan B since Vanjie pussied out too much.”

“That was expected, though,” Shuga jokes as she begins folding some of Scarlet’s outfits as if she were her nanny. “So they’re both going to the party?”

“Uhuh, so everything’s gonna be great,”

“Are you going to the party?” Shuga asks, and Yvie shrugs as she places her bag down next to her bed. There was no real reason for Yvie to attend since she didn’t have anyone to accompany her. Every one of Scarlet’s friends would undoubtedly stick with her while Brooke and Vanjie have their own little thing. Yvie would… be alone. Like always.

“I feel like you should go— everyone else is,” Scarlet says and it was a surprise that she insisted Yvie to go. Yvie purses her lips as she actually starts to consider the invitation. Why does she seem compelled to go when Scarlet is the one who requests for her presence? When did she ever begin listening Scarlet Envy?

“Also—“ Scarlet speaks and Shuga apprehensively stares at Scarlet. “Would you want to have this hat I found? It was hiding in the back of my closet and I don’t think it’d suit me if I’d wear it.” Scarlet begins digging into this gigantic box that was sitting next to her closet. The box was filled with funky-looking hats, all different in designs. In the bottom of the box, Scarlet finds what she needs: a pointy, black hat. It was unquestionably oldschool, something Yvie would find her grandmother to wear.

“Here, this is all yours,” Scarlet says, “I think you should wear it to the party,” she adds with most likely a very fake smile but it makes Yvie’s emotions flutter inside her. She knew Scarlet was joking but to Yvie, the hat wasn’t as terrible as she thought it’d be. Firstly, it was in a dark color, so of course it would please Yvie. Yvie wears enough weird outfits to accept this odd hat as something she’d wear. Truly, Yvie appreciates the gift, no matter how much Scarlet meant for it to be a harmless joke.

“Thanks, Scar,” Yvie says and both Scarlet and Shuga were surprised by her sincere thankfulness for the hat and how she used a nickname for Scarlet. Scarlet blinks a couple of times while she furrowed her eyebrows, perplexed by how Yvie was reacting to the hat.

“I—are you actually gonna wear that horrendous hat?” Scarlet says, “You will literally look like a garden gnome, Yvie, I recommend you don’t do it.”

“Oh wow, Miss Scarlet Envy actually cares about me? How sweet,” Yvie says in reply and Scarlet huffs out a breath, “No, really, I actually like it. Fits with my aesthetic,” Yvie says as she places it on top of her head. It wasn’t sitting directly on top but actually, she decides to put it on the left side of her head and keep it slanted. Looking at the mirror near their window, she adjusts it to look the way Yvie wanted it to look.

“Oh? Okay then, weirdo.” Scarlet says, “People are going to judge you for the hat, though, so try your best not to wear it since you already get bullied enough.” Scarlet warns her. Yvie thinks it’s cute whenever she witnesses Scarlet be all careful and motherly towards Yvie. It was rare but it makes Yvie feel great, for some reason.

“It’s been a month, I’m used to it.”

“Are you actually going to the party, honey?” Shuga asks and Yvie pauses. This week has been a pleasant week for Yvie regarding academics. Her professors were kind enough to give most of the students a break this week, their homework being given to a minimum. So, there was no academics getting in the way of the party. And albeit all the expected, judgmental looks Yvie will receive during the party, Yvie does want to go party at least once in her college life. Yvie was a wild bitch, and maybe, she can try having fun for once in this dance party of Scarlet’s.

Yvie, with a confident smirk, replies, “Hell yea.”

It was 6:40 and Yvie still remained stood in front of her mirror, checking how she looks for the hundredth time. She doesn’t even know why she was still fixing how she looks when she clearly didn’t want to dress to impress. She dresses to depress. Her hair looked just how it did like always, its buns still staying the same way it was styled this morning. Her dress was somewhat similar to the dresses she wore daily, only this time, it was slightly more revealing and lacy. She kept her word and wore the freaky hat Scarlet gave to her because believe it or not, her adoration for the hat still hasn’t faded. It fit well with her outfit anyways so there was no big issue there.

Tonight, she was supposed to have fun, but here she is, checking to see if she was passable enough for the party. Something bothered her and she didn’t know why. For the past days, she didn’t know why any interaction with Scarlet tickles her insides. She feels like mush whenever they exchange jokes and she flusters harshly whenever Scarlet would genuinely compliment or converse with her. And now, she wishes that she looked just as appealing as Scarlet was. She doesn’t know why she suddenly craves for Scarlet’s praise and appreciation but she does. And now, her bothering thoughts wouldn’t stop pestering and now she’s conflicted on her appearance.

She looks at her pocket watch again– 6:44. The party most likely has started already since many arrived early. Scarlet already left with her clique and Vanjie and Brooke left as well just so they can spend more time with each other. Yvie said she would follow fifteen minutes ago and now, she’s still in the same place she was pacing around earlier.

Yvie sighed as she grabbed her bag– she truly was a pathetic piece of shit, huh.

Yvie decides to leave after enough convincing from herself. Even if her horrible was horrible, Scarlet would be very much displeased if she came in late, and Yvie definitely didn’t want to ruin her excited mood.

Because of their early arrival, both Brooke and Vanjie got a spot of their own near the corners of the room to stay away from any other person as much as possible. Brooke looked absolutely stunning, preparing effortfully for tonight. She wore an emerald green, flowy dress that hugged her body really well. Thanks to Vanjie, she had less struggles putting the dress on and styling her hair for tonight. Vanjie, on the other hand, wore something complimentary– a red dress that had only one sleeve while the exposed arm and shoulder was slathered with gold glitters. And because Brooke loved it, she made Vanjie tie her hair into a messy bun again.

And so far, her night has been amazing. Only thirty minutes has passed since their arrival and they’ve been grooving to the music like there was no tomorrow. Brooke has twirled so much in her wheelchair that she started becoming slightly light headed. If they weren’t spinning around, they would use their arms to do simple dance moves. Even if the amount of dance moves Brooke can execute is limited, she was having a blast with Vanjie.

“How was Scarlet able to find this much bands in like, two days? There’s a whole fucking set of them just waiting to perform.” Brooke says, or most accurately, shouts, since the music was blasting across the ballroom. Vanjie shrugs as she bounces to the loud music, enjoying how incredibly vigorous the band was.

“I don’t know but I fucking love it. These bitches are talented as fuck, it’s insane,” Vanjie says as she cheers on the singers on the stage. Brooke also chimed in, cheering for them happily just like everyone else is. The singers seem to respond greatly to it, quickly amping up their song to its maximum. Both Brooke and Vanjie rock to the music, their energy never wavering, prompting them to continuously pump out dance moves at every second.

“I’m having the time of my fucking life!” Brooke shouts at Vanjie, “God, I’d love to do this monthly if Scarlet is willing to do so.”

“She’s rich as fuck, she can do whatever she wants, if I’m being honest,” Vanjie replies, “I’ll tell her that, I’m sure she’ll keep the recommendation in mind,” Vanjie says with a wink and Brooke laughs at her.

Then, Brooke proceeds to take Vanjie’s hands to twirl her around on the beat of the music. Vanjie was disoriented when she spun but it Brooke was thoroughly entertained by her. Vanjie then returns the favor and twirls Brooke around. She spins with ease since she’s done this multiple times before with her wheelchair. They both share another laugh until their laughter dies out.

“Oz, you are so beautiful,” Vanjie says out of the blue and Brooke blushes. At least under the colored lighting, it wasn’t clearly visible. “I’ve been waiting for this since– since fucking seventh grade.”

“I was waiting since sixth grade, how about that?” Brooke says, “We were just so oblivious to each other back then, it makes me cringe just thinking about it.”

“Can I kiss you?”

Brooke almost jumped out of her wheelchair, “Wh–wait what?”

“Ugh, Brooke, can I fucking kiss you?” Vanjie asks, clearly flustered.

Brooke’s heart beats quickly that she feels like it could jump out the next time she exhales. She fiddles with her wheelchair’s handles for a moment before nodding excessively. Vanjie then kneels as if she were to propose to Brooke and leans forward. They stare at each other longingly before Vanjie leans in and places her soft lips on Brooke’s. The kiss wasn’t too deep nor long– it was just a simple, sweet peck. Despite it being a short kiss, it made Brooke’s heart race as if she ran a mile.

Once Vanjie let go, there was a permanent smile planted on Brooke’s face. Vanjie had the same expression as well as she giddily bounced out of excitement. “That… I love that. I feel like we should do that more often,” Brooke says, sounding like a foolish idiot.

“I think we should.” Vanjie says, “D’ya wanna–?”

“Yes, go ahead,” Brooke replies and Vanjie kneels down again to give her another affectionate kiss.

Meanwhile, at the other side of the ballroom, Ra’jah was tutoring Scarlet on how to dance. Thankfully, there was less of a crowd since everyone wanted to have their own fun with dancing, and Scarlet felt more free because of it. Then again, there were still many eyes on her, and it was very much pressuring especially when she realized that she can’t dance if her life depended on it. It was quite frankly embarrassing that she needed Ra’jah’s guidance since a lot of people were watching but Ra’jah always makes sure that Scarlet would be enjoying the party.

“Like this?” Scarlet asks as she flails her arms around while moving her hips to the rhythm. Ra’jah snorts at her for the millionth time tonight and Scarlet grumpily huffs at her. “You always keep laughing at me! Oz, I really must not be able to dance,”

“You know, it’s bad when Brooke, someone on a wheelchair, and Madame Visage, an old bitch, are both better at dancing than you are.” Ra’jah remarks and Scarlet slaps her forearm jokingly. Then, Scarlet pauses as she realizes that Madame Visage was present. How did she not notice her entering the ballroom? And what in the world was she doing here?

“Madame Visage?” Scarlet asks and Ra’jah gestures to the headmistress who was grooving near the center of the ballroom as if she were twenty years younger. Many have been cheering her on and honestly, it was a nice thing to see from the headmistress. Even if she were scarily serious at times, it was nice to know she also had this fun aspect in her.

Scarlet decides to cheer on for her as well. The headmistress then turns towards her direction and Scarlet decides to cheer even louder. Madame Visage smiles as if she was pleased and shimmies towards Scarlet’s direction.

“Scarlet, this party’s great! How did you even manage all of this in two days?” the headmistress says and Scarlet immediately feels flattered.

“I have my ways,” Scarlet replies with a prideful expression.

“It’s like magic, honestly,” Madame Visage says, “And speaking of magic, I have something for you,” Madame Visage opens up her purse and brings out this elongated box from it. The box was simply red but it seemed to hold more importance to it. The headmistress hands the box for Scarlet to open and like a child opening presents, Scarlet lifts the lid.

Inside, there was a wand. Not some kind of pretentious toy wand you’d find in most toy shops; this was a real wand. Its design was simple: it merely looked like a brown stick. On the bottom, there was a ruby attached to it that was carved like a rose.

“I— wait wait wait, what’s going on?” Scarlet says as her hands begin to shake.

“I’ll be meeting you on Monday, next week.” Madame Visage says with a wink. Scarlet thinks about her statement for a second and when she finally understood, Scarlet gasps loudly and squeals. She couldn’t believe it— she was invited to attend Madame Visage’s sorcery class. She thought it would be impossible to get into her class after how much they butt heads but now, she actually got in. How did she even make it in?

“I don’t— I don’t recall myself auditioning or applying for the class besides my attempt on the first day so… why?”

“Just thank Miss Oddly for that,” Madame Visage says before walking away and dancing again. Scarlet, still in disbelief, looks down at the wand in awe again. Yvie… Yvie, despite their constant bickering, requested for Scarlet to join her class. Yvie, despite Scarlet’s numerous fans verbally bullying her, personally asked Madame Visage to give Scarlet such an expensive wand. Yvie, despite receiving such a terrible hat from Scarlet, personally asked Madame Visage for Scarlet to receive lessons that would make her a master at sorcery.

Scarlet was close to sobbing uncontrollably because of it. She did nothing to deserve Yvie Oddly yet Yvie’s out here giving Scarlet the best gift she could possibly receive.

Right when Scarlet was about to tell Ra’jah war just occured, the noise and the music of the room suddenly dies down. The silence was incredibly thick and everyone seemed to stare at something, or rather, someone, who entered the ballroom. As Scarlet looks up, there she sees Yvie Oddly making a grand entrance into the ballroom. As always, she seemed confident and her courage was never wavering.

But Yvie, truly, was a bit frightened as she entered the room. She didn’t expect everyone to notice her when she entered and the pregnant silence just made her more nervous. Yvie knew she would get attention but she didn’t think the whole room would grow silent just to judgmentally gaze at her.

Yvie tries her best not to run away from the party, though. She walks down the steps that led to the main dancefloor as everyone watched. She can tell a few people were already whispering gossip about her and she tries her best to ignore it while she made her way to the center. Once she got there, she began dancing on her own, twirling and moving her arms gracefully to… to an imaginary rhythm.

But after two sets of her horrible dancing, someone walks up to her from the crowd. It was Scarlet Envy, there in the flesh, with her red catsuit covered in fake roses. They stare at each other first before Scarlet began to follow Yvie’s moves, dancing it as horribly as Yvie was dancing them. Yvie started to smile as Scarlet began having fun with the moves, twirling closer and closer to Yvie as she does so.

“What’re you guys doing?” Madame Visage yells, “start the music already!” she exclaims as everyone suddenly cheers, opposite to what their attitude was a minute ago. Scarlet giggles joyfully as she still continued dancing with Yvie, even grabbing Yvie’s hand to twirl around with her. Yvie also begins to smile as well, her fear being replaced with an immense glee as they dance around like no one is watching.

Yvie doesn’t know exactly why Scarlet decided to save her ass now or why she suddenly became all carefree. But… it felt nice. Yvie felt like she was in absolute bliss. Without them being at each other’s throats, they both suddenly feel like they were in paradise, in heaven.

But in the midst of their dancing, Yvie does realize something. Whenever she was with Scarlet, her pessimism seems to ease up as her happiness seems to increase tenfold. There was a weird feeling in her stomach every time she looks at Scarlet. Whether she’d merely exchange a few words with her or she’d simply make eye contact with her, Yvie felt her mouth go dry as she sometimes stood speechless merely just observing the redheads.

Yvie realized that she was developing a crush towards Scarlet Envy.

25 notes · View notes

kpop-scenario-lover · 6 years

Text

Us~Bang Chan

*GIF is not mine credits to the owners.*

Words:1.4k

Genre: Angst

I know that I still have a bunch of requests that I have to finish, but I thought I would let you guys know that I can write for Stray Kids as well! They have quickly become one of my favourite groups. So I thought I would let you guys know that I do write for Stray Kids! Hope you guys enjoy!

Part Two

...........................................................................

You stared at the letter you had just written. Reading it over you let out a small laugh.

It was a letter to Chan explaining all of your feelings for him. You continued to stare at it for a couple more minutes before you grabbed the letter and shoved it into one of your drawers on your desk.

He was never going to see that letter. You just needed a way to Express yourself and writing a letter seemed like a good idea.

And it was until you realized that you writing this letter was all in vain.

Chan was your ex boyfriend, and he also had a new girlfriend.

You sighed as you stood up from your desk and walked out of your room to the kitchen.

As you were about to pour yourself some coffee to try and wake yourself up a bit, you felt your phone vibrate.

You pulled it out and saw that it was a text from Felix. Asking if you wanted to hang out at the dorm with him and the guys.

You bit your lip as you thought about it. You quickly typed back.

"Is Chan and his new girl going to be there?"

You waited about a minute before you got a reply.

"Nope coast is clear. They're going on a date. So you coming over? Everyone misses you."

You smiled at the last bit of the text.

"Sure. Just give me half an hour to get ready. I miss you guys too. Xoxo"

You quickly typed back.

You put your phone in your pocket and went straight to your room. Grabbing a towel and some clothes to change into you headed to the bathroom.

Quickly turning the water on you hopped into the shower. You were glad that Chan wasn't going to be there.

It's not like you guys ended on bad terms it's just awkward between the two of you now. It's like you guys were strangers.

Chan was the one that ended things between the two of you. Claiming that he just didn't have time for a relationship because he needed to focus on their debut.

And you understood completely. It hurt like hell that he was breaking things off, but you knew you had to let him go so he could become who he needed to be.

After a couple weeks after your breakup though you found out Chan was dating a trainee that was set to debut as well.

You were crushed. You remember it feeling like the whole world just stopped. Like you were frozen in place.

You still didn't hate him though, the exact opposite. You still loved him completely.

You sighed as you shook yourself out of your thoughts. Turning the water off you stepped out of the shower.

Quickly drying off you got dressed, did some light makeup and headed out to the boys dorm.

Excitement ran through you as you drove to the boys's dorm. You didn't realize how much you actually missed them.

Smiling you pulled up their driveway and turned your car off. As you were walking up to the front door Chan and his new girlfriend walked out.

Your smile slowly dropped. Chan looked over at you in surprise.

"Y/N? What are you doing here?" He asked you.

You froze. You weren't expecting him to say anything to you.

"I-I..I uh Felix invited me over to hang out with him and the boys. I've missed them so I thought I'd come over." You stuttered out.

Chan frowned slightly. "Felix invited you? Huh well we should get going. Yuri and I have a date to get too." He said as he gently grabbed Yuri's hand and started to walk away.

"O-Oh uh yeah. Enjoy your date." You mumbled as you walked past them.

As you walked past them Yuri hit you with her shoulder. Causing you and her to stumble a bit.

Chan steadied her and immediately turned to look at you.

"What was that?" He asked you.

You stared at him in confusion. "What was what?" You asked him back.

He rolled his eyes. "You didn't need to shove her like that." He stated.

Your mouth fell open. A sudden anger came boiling up.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!? You can't be serious right now. I didn't shove her. She was the one who ran into me." You told him.

"If you think for one fucking second that I would waste my time doing something so petty like that. You clearly never knew me Chan." You told him as you glared at him.

Chan glared right back. "Yuri told me you were the one who shoved her."

You rolled your eyes. "Okay? And? Did it occur to you that she might be lying?"

You took a deep breath to calm yourself down.

"Okay look. I didn't come here to start some meaningless fight with you. I came here because I missed the boys who happen to also be my friends. So if you excuse me." You said as you started to walk away.

"You know I never cared about you."

You froze. You didn't want to believe what you just heard. Slowly turning around to look at him you saw Yuri smirking.

"W-What?" You whispered out.

"When we were dating, I never cared about you. I was just trying to get something to distract myself and you worked." Chan spoke.

Tears immediately welled in your eyes.

"Wow." You laughed.

"You're such an asshole. No wonder it was so easy for you to throw me away. You never wanted us to begin with. While I was doing everything I could to make us happen. But you never wanted it."

Chan's eyes widened a bit but you didn't care.

"Y'know I never said one bad thing about you after our breakup. I never hated you. I still cared about you. I still cared about us. God I'm an idiot." You laughed as tears fell down your face.

You quickly wiped your eyes. Immediately making a beeline back to your car.

"Do me a favor Chan. Please don't ever talk to me again." You said as you got into your car.

You quickly texted Felix saying that you couldn't make it and you'd explain why later.

As you drove up your driveway you couldn't get what Chan had told you out of your head.

You turned your car off and walked into your apartment.

As soon as you walked into your tears started to stream down your face. You collapsed to the ground.

You didn't understand where that sudden outburst of his came from.

After half an hour or so you had calmed down a bit. Sniffling you looked around your room.

Memories of you and Chan were still on the walls. You stood up and grabbed a duffle bag.

Grabbing all of the pictures of him and you and shoving them into the bag. Along with some gifts he had given you and some of his sweaters and clothes he had left behind.

As you finished packing everything in the duffle bag you saw the letter you had written this morning sticking out of one of the drawers.

Slowly walking over you bit your lip. You took the letter out of the drawer and re-read what you had written.

Dear Chan,

I'm not sure where to begin. I was reading online that it was a healthy thing to get your feelings out and to not bottle them up inside. So, here I am writing this letter that you'll probably never see, but I need to get this out.

Where did I go wrong? I've been wondering that ever since you broke things off with me. What did I do to make you break things off? I know you said it was because you needed to focus on your debut. But you started dating Yuri a couple weeks after we broke up. So, it had to have been something that I've done right?

I love you so so much and its killing me that you're with someone else. I miss your laugh. I miss waking up next to you after we have our movie marathon nights. I miss the way your eyes light up everytime you talk about the boys and how you're so proud of them.

I miss us. I miss you. So please, come back.

Love always,

Y/N

You laughed bitterly as tears ran down your face.

Stuffing the letter inside with all the other memories of your relationship with Chan you smiled sadly at a realization.

You weren't the problem. Chan just didn't care anymore.

#kpop #kpop angst #kpop scenarios #scenarios #angst #bang chan #chan scenarios #bang chan angst #stray kids #stay kids angst #stay kids scenarios #kpop imagines #imagines #bang chan scenarios #bang chan scenario #chan angst

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gretagarbosdirtysocks · 6 years

Text

DJ Forces You To Take The Fall In A Heist: Part 1

** From an ask. I wrote WAY more than I had planned. The premise was that reader ignored DJ’s flirting, and then kisses him when he comes home beaten and battered. I wanted to write something where DJ was more of an asshole. This is part one. The next fic I’m working on will be sans romance because I need a break lol Sorry if there’s any errors. I needed to be done writing this. haha**

In Canto Bight, the down trodden tended to stick together. At least that’s what you wanted to tell yourself. In truth, they were as bad as the rich warlords who reigned here. Even though your lot in life had fallen to not much else than petty betting schemes, you refused to let the cynicism of the world take over you. You tried to balance being a healthy amount of skeptical and optimistic.

When you met DJ, a few people warned you about him, but his lackadaisical attitude had won you over almost immediately. You see, he’d been easy to read from the beginning. He was a smooth talker who purposefully made himself appear less threatening than he actually was. You understood it, because you were sort of the same way. Your entire life, people had underestimated you. You were told you wouldn’t amount much to anything. Your past had left you scarred both emotionally and physically, but you refused to let it shape you for the worse. It worked to play up a trustful doe eyed stare and win the trust of naïve strangers, only to stab them in the back later. How else were you supposed to survive? So, when DJ turned his silver-tongued flirting to you, you didn’t want to take it seriously.

Your fathier bets were going well. You’d even seen some attention from the wealthier citizens of the city. The place you worked was a little hole in the wall bar under a bridge. The owner benefited from the attention you’d brought to the place. So, when he’d tried to convince you to pay him for the spot, you threatened to leave. He folded easily. You were too good at getting people to like you for your own ends.

The day you met DJ, he had been watching you for a few hours. You waited on him to place a bet. Yet as the day progressed, he missed the opportunity race after race. He was leaning on the bar, his chin in his hand, staring at you. His fixed gaze was hard to ignore.

The stakes were higher considering you worked alone, so such attention put you on edge. This wasn’t the first time he’d been here either. You’d seen him a few times, and each time…. just like that day, he didn’t place a bet. The sight of his narrow, dark eyes examining your every mood made you a little uneasy….especially because he was handsome. Once the last race finished, you’d had enough and walked over to him.

He cleared his throat when you approached. Attempting to lean his elbow on the bar, he missed as his elbow fell and hit his own side. A thin, embarrassed smile stretched across his face, as you stifled a smirk.

Instead, you curtly questioned him, “You don’t buy drinks, and you don’t place bets. So, what do you want?”

“Right-t-t to the point, then?” he stammered, raising his eyebrows. He was wearing a long coat, a sure sign of a lock picker. If he was a lock picker, odds were he was a pick pocket as well. On this seedy world, the attention of a man with a statuesque brood such as DJ was always met with cynicism. They were the ones you really had to watch out for. He had heavy lidded eyes with dark circles around them. His black eyebrows seem to weigh them down further, so his face seemed stuck in a perpetual scowl.

But when he smirked and said, “I prefer business deals over drinks,” his entire face shifted into something more alluring. His stare was unwavering when he spoke to you. You realized quickly he had the ability to command your attention simply by locking eyes with you, but the addition of that small curve to his lip added a mysticism you couldn’t quantify save for it being raw sex appeal. That was the most dangerous thing about him.

You smiled politely, telling yourself he was more than likely flirting just to lower your guard. “Out with it, I don’t have all day,” you demanded. Perhaps you weren’t as optimistic as you’d believed you were. Then again, of course a liar would be best at lying to themselves.

He put his hands in the air, “B-b-by all means. I know when to be patient.” There was a biting way he said ‘patient’. It was as if he clenched his teeth tightly on the ‘t’ sound, meaning for the word to hang suggestively in the air.

You had to give it to him, he was especially good at flirting. These sexy rogue types knew how to slide their hand into your pants while the other slid into your purse. You couldn’t take any of them seriously. So, you had to remind yourself he was no different. You told yourself he was probably like this with everyone and walked away.

After cashing out the winnings and collecting from those who had lost, you turned to see DJ still waiting for you at the bar. When you walked back over to him, he licked his lips and said, “Finally.”

The gesture almost made you scoff. It was so exaggerated. But even knowing this, it was still compelling. You leaned on the counter of the bar, looking at him skeptically, “You’re laying it on rather thick don’t you think?”

“Th-thick?” he said, handing you a drink he’d just poured from his flask. You regretted your choice of words, as he smirked at you. He took a swig from his flask, “Trying to imply s-s-something, darlin’?”

You shook your head, and took a sip from the drink. “You’re just like all the others.”

He shrugged his shoulders, “B-bet you get plenty wantin’ a piece of you.”

“The piece they want is always money,” you reminded him, trying to get him to admit to the real reason why he was wasting your time.

“Maybe I want b-both?” He took a step toward you. For second the way he gazed into your eyes made you wonder if maybe he was just hitting on you. No, that couldn’t be it. You stood your ground, in what was essentially a staring contest at this point. You refused to be shaken by his good looks. His eyes narrowed as he tried to hold your gaze. He was charming, but when money was involved you didn’t have time for charming.

You scoffed and said. “There it is.” You knew he’d been here for money.

He chuckled, “What? You could be d-doing better.”

You pointed to your left, “You should try Du Oliva next door if you want someone who is just as bad at losing her money as her panties.”

DJ pretended to take out a pad and pencil from his coat, and he wrote into the palm of his hand, “Have to-to remember her.”

He was entertaining for sure. He put his pretend pad and pencil away, and took his flask out taking another sip.

You tried to level with him, “Listen, I get it. You flirt and convince me I need your help. Then, you try to screw me over…” When you said the word ‘screwed’ DJ amusedly raised his eyebrows. Dammit you’d have to be careful with your terminology. You stammered, “Uh-uh-maybe in more way than one. Look, this happens to me all the time. I don’t need your help. I am doing well for myself.”

DJ dropped his gaze, staring at the floor. It was the first time you saw his charm falter, “D-don’t look like your doing so well when the casino guards sh-shake you down and take your money every day.”

You slammed the glass down on the bar, startling him as he took a step back.

“You’ve been following me?” you asked incredulously.

Every day you had to walk from the underground market and back to your apartment. For a while, you could sneak by undetected, but as your business grew…so did the attention from the guards. Now, every time you left, the guards were waiting for you. You had been unable to find a path to escape them, so every day they took a large portion of your share… leaving you practically penniless and usually with bruises.

He put his hands in his pockets.

“Let me explain over d-d-dinner. Your treat,” he said with a wink.

You groaned and replied, “That’s the first thing you’ve said I’ve actually believed.”

He chuckled, “Have to-to work harder at convincing you.”

You glanced at the exit to the bar. The guards were certainly out there waiting for you. You were a bit stuck. Not only had this man had been following you, but the guards expected you to provide them with your ample winnings of the day. It had been a long time since you’d sat down with anyone for a dinner, even if it was someone as mistrustful as DJ. Also, if he knew where you lived, that was a danger as well. You were trapped, and you needed to see the end of this.

Thinking of a compromise, you crossed your arms, “If you can get me away from the guards today, then I’ll entertain whatever it is you have to say over dinner.”

He agreed, saying “No p-problem, partner.” You grimaced.

He corrected himself, “Maybe not p-partner.”

DJ managed to distract the guards as you headed back to your apartment, dropping off the cash. You looked out the window to see him waiting for you outside. As you feared, he even knew where you lived.

You joined back up with him, agitated but a little relieved to have kept the money for once. He picked out a place for you to eat, shuffling you to a small wooden pagoda that was falling apart. It was owned by an ancient looking man who you were certain was dead. After the two of you sat, the man’s mummified corpse rose to bring you sake. He didn’t even bother asking what you wanted, which was good because if he’d started to speak it probably would have scared you right out of the place.

DJ had begun to pour sake into the small sake cup the old man had provided.

“Alright, spill,” you spat at him.

“S-s-spill?” He sounded like a snake when he stuttered. “S-so disrespectful. Not planning on wasting th-this sake.”

“You know what I mean,” you snapped.

He glanced up at you, and smirked. Your temper flared as you realized he was just toying with you. If you weren’t already so on edge, you would have normally got the joke. DJ passed the tiny cup to you, and then began to pour himself a glass in the other tiny cup. Then, he stopped and gave a disappointed eye to the cup. Instead, he took a gulp from the bottle of sake itself.

You rolled your eyes, and fumed as your voice rose, “I don’t have much of a choice but to listen to you because you could ruin my entire business and livelihood. So don’t expect me to be hospitable.”

“No-no, I like it actually.” He took another sip of the sake. He gave you a sly look from the corner of his heavy eye and asked, “You know Madam Fillick?”

“Rich profiteer. She just started coming in this week.” You bit the edge of your lip, irritated at where this could be going.

“I was following her, and then you caught my eye,” he said unashamed.

His eyes twinkled. Charm oozed out of the man practically in waves. DJ’s favorite move was to say something suggestive, and then move on from it. He wanted to leave an imprint in the mind of whomever he was speaking too, making them question what he’d meant when he said something. It made it easier to seduce and steal from them. It was a common tactic used you’d used before.

So, when he added, “Didn’t mean to follow you.”

You knew it was probably a lie. Because he did, you were certain of that.

You replied, “Well, rob her then. She’s much wealthier than I am.”

He tilted his head and for the first time, seem to drop his constant attempts to cajole you into his bed. It was as if his body shifted into something more menacing. Maybe he could finally see the flirting wasn’t working.

He nodded his head in agreement, “But she also has an electronic sh-shield around her. Makes it harder to pick pocket. Paranoia, if you ask me.” He said with a scary grin, “However, your electronic t-t-tracking and betting system makes her even more paranoid.”

Immediately, you saw what he was getting at. “It makes her shield sputter, so she shuts it off when she comes in.”

“That’s the ticket. C-clever by the way,” he complimented. He raised the sake flask in your direction like it was a nod to your accomplishment.

You waved off what you considered to be false praise and asked him, “So, why the hell are you bothering me? You need me to distract her? What is it exactly that you need my help with?”

“Oh no no no, I don’t need your help at all.” He laughed at the idea. “I don’t even n-n-need to wait for her to shut the shield off. Said it makes it harder, not imp-possible. I’m just lazy, really.”

He picked his teeth with a pick from his coat. As irritating as he was, you liked DJ much better when he wasn’t being charming. It made it easier to understand his motives. You didn’t have to filter through all the bullshit flirtation.

You crossed your arms, as he continued, “Police really hate you, kiddo. G-g-guessing they had to watch you with all the rich casino regulars participating in your b-b-b-betting ring. Maybe they start to resent the money you’re making. Power breeds ego….”

“What’s your point?”

A wide grin spread across his face, just as scary as the first, “You see, if I s-s-steal from her in your little betting bar. Th-then, I can be in an out in a flash. Even if the Madam doesn’t suspect you, the guards will. You’ll take the blame for it and I can get away easily. It’s t-too perfect.”

Goddammit, he was boasting.

Aggravated, you thought over the implications of what he was saying. He was planning to set you up for this robbery, but why was he telling you then? Now that you knew, you could easily point a finger in his direction. He couldn’t be that dumb. So, what was it then?

Reading the confusion on your face, he said, “But I don’t want-t-t to you take the fall.”

You raised him a dubious eyebrow, to which he shrugged his shoulders and said, “What can I say, I like you.”

“Bullshit,” you muttered. You didn’t have time for this. Not another guy expecting to extort you for something sexual, even if he was attractive. You’d rather sit in jail.

You shifted in your seat meaning to leave, but DJ put his hand on top of yours and exclaimed “Goodness girl, are you that jaded?”

You stared at the hand he was touching. His large hand dwarfed yours. His hands were callused against the soft back of your hand. When you looked up at him, he closed this hand around yours. He had the most expressive eyes. There was a magnetism in which you felt trapped in. You wondered if he was being genuine, but the bitterness you felt at being called girl churned into a mistrust that may have not been well founded after all.

You pulled your hand away, “Being jaded is a part of survival. I told you to see Du Oliva if you wanted a girl so easily fooled by sweet words.”

He sat back in his chair. He looked a little uncertain at first, as he tilted his head peering at you.

But then he chuckled and said, “I’d like you less if-if you were so easily convinced. Haven’t had-d-d to try this hard in a while. Nice to know you think my words are sweet though.”

It was hard to not be won over by him. Maybe if he hadn’t been planning to rob you wouldn’t have buffed his advances. He was so good at seeming genuine. The sincerity in his voice gave you goosebumps.

Trying to hide this, you muttered, “Didn’t say that” and downed the cup of sake. Slamming it on the table, you frowned at him.

When he realized you weren’t convinced, he said, “L-l-look, kiddo, we can help each other. Think of it. N-n-no more animal bets. No more g-g-guards. Money from the Madam would sit pretty for ya. Hell, it’d keep me happy for a while too.”

“Hold on,” you said raising a finger, “You want to share the money?”

He sucked on his teeth, “I’m a gen-generous guy.”

It was another lie. “No,” you asserted.

Putting a finger around the ring of his shirt, he loosened it dramatically as if he were getting hot, “Really c-c-call it like you see it, huh, beautiful?”

Beautiful? Did the guy keep a book of pet names? He was trying way too hard. You wished he’d just get to the point already, because every time he flattered you it sound like he was trying to make a sleazy deal.

“I would rather go to jail than sleep with you,” you explained.

“Whoa, I t-t-told you it’s not like that,” he said putting his hands in the air.

He watched you for a moment, and pouted saying, “Also, that was p-p-particularly harsh.”

You could tell he was still a little agitated that his charms weren’t working the way he intended. He shifted in his seat, as though he were changing tactics again. DJ appeared menacing again. He leaned on his hand. He gave you a dark look. “They might k-kill you anyway. Did I mention how much they hate you? T-t-talk about you all the time, like it’s their favorite part of the day to steal—”

“I get the idea,” you angrily spat, staring at the table.

He sighed, tilting his head down in an attempt to catch your eye. When you ignored him, he let out a long sigh as though he were tired of the conversation. Then he said, something you would learn later he thought would be comforting, but only served to confuse you even more, “If you got to jail, then I can’t look at that pretty face of yours anymore.”

You continued to stare at the table, uncertain how to respond. He just didn’t get it. Flattery made you trust him even less. Your quietness began to make DJ a little nervous. You could feel his eyes on you as he said, “D-damn kid you act like you’ve never been complimented before.”

You felt your face turn red as you looked up at him, losing your breath. God, it was so obvious how insecure you were. You realized quickly that’s all this was. You were fighting with your own insecurities. It didn’t make it easier that he was admitting to wanting to rob you. The thing that you didn’t understand about DJ yet, was his want to get to know you and to also rob you was not mutually exclusive. In his head, he was thinking he could have both. So, the need to explain to you that he wasn’t really going to rob you had seemed unnecessary. He didn’t think it mattered. He also didn’t count on you being so insecure as well.

DJ’s eyes widened. “Oh wow, th-this isn’t an act is it? I thought for sure you were just trying to---you really don’t get what I’m t-t-telling you do you? I’m saying it because I want to…not because,” he stopped mid-sentence and huffed. His eyebrows upturned, as a confused empathy overcame him.

Your embarrassment was almost too much to bear as your heart rate increased. “Stop complim--” you began to say but then thought better of it. “The only men who say…stuff like are usually about to try and rob me.”

He scratched his chin.

“Well, I could have already robbed you,” he said laughing. “So, what d-d-does that say about me?”

“I don’t know,” you admitted. Looking up at him in a moment of weakness, you felt overcome his overall engaging personality. You could tell you were beginning to trust him, whether you wanted to or not. Maybe he was more complicated than you’d assumed. He smiled, enjoying the way you stared at him.

You coughed and broke eye contact with him, “You said ‘we could help each other’.”

DJ nodded his head, “Don’t b-believe in pity. S-something tells me you would respect me less if I was treating this like a hand out.”

You took the flask from his hands and poured another cup of sake.

“You’re implying there’s an ounce of respect. But otherwise, correct.”

He chuckled, “See, I n-n-need you to only take electronic bets that day. I need you to turn everyone away if it’s not credits. If you do th-that, then we can clean the place out. We can take more than Madam Fillick, we can take everyone. Comprende?”

“But I lose the place,” you said.

“Eh, you lose the place either way,” he said with a laugh.

Your shoulders tensed. “Smart,” you muttered.

He grinned, not understanding what you meant.

You explained, “You set this up to give me a choice. Go to jail. In which you implied I’d be murdered, which I think is likely. Very smart, because now I want to hear the alternative. The alternative is that I help you, and in this scenario, we both walk away rich. But in truth, what will probably happen is you will walk away rich and I will be left to rot in a cell. It’s really the best alternative after your flirting failed.”

“Oh, you th-think it hasn’t worked?” he said with a grin. “Listen to me-me. You’re smart. Smart hustlers take the heat from me. It’d be a waste to leave you in-in jail. You’re going to have to trust me because you d-d-don’t have much of a choice.”

“That’s my point.”

That was it. Now, you were working together. Great.

part 2 out soon hopefully. Want to read more about DJ in the meantime?

Other DJ Fic/Requests:

DJ reacting to pregnancy news

Reader calling DJ bedroom names and he doesn’t realize it

We Met In A Jail Cell Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

#the last jedi #dj last jedi #star wars x reader #reader x dj #dj star wars #star wars the last jedi #dj #dj tlj #dj the last jedi #fanfic #fan fic #dj fanfic #star wars #benicio del toro #dj reader #star wars dj #the last jedi dj #last jedi dj

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sweet-xoxo-thatcares · 3 years

Text

It's like everytime some shit goes bad or I feel wronged, my head starts spiraling, spinning like grandma's record player.

Thinking bout Jay, Ayunna, Terrell, Tatyana, My old jobs, sometimes in that exact order...

Just anything that pisses me off or feels similar and I'm ready to strike again, I'm ready to beat some ass for making my heart feel cold, feel numb like this.

The idea that people don't care about my well being, my mental health, just like these 4 idiots.

I want them executed from my life, burned like witches at the stake for causing me pain in my brain, my heart, the headaches....the tears I don't tell anybody about from remembering every single little thing about when they wronged me, they played me, Jay pushed me away, taty pushed me off of her and told me she didn't want me to touch her, Ayunna using me and Jay not caring cause they were doing it too....Its like I can't even yell at them anymore or tell them how it feels to be hurt a year or more after they hit me on my back. That spot Jay hit me at....

I'll always remember and that's what sucks. And these assholes don't even give a fuck because it's not their pain.

If they could take a walk in my shoes, with my enormous brain remembering everything and everything playing in my head like silly school children in my class, talking about my past, what I wanna be, where I wanna be, and then time is calling you but you don't even know if you're actually in the wrong class or distracted from what's the truth.

I hate looking through bad mirrors, they make you see that I chose to be with them all. All four of them and I did not like it. I dated Terrell to get over the fact that Jay didn't want a commitment with me but still wanted me to be the groupie, the friend, dragging me in, leading me on whenever I would try to actually get the relationship I deserved. A real life, hugging, loving, kissing boyfriend from which I thought was him, I thought it was Teddy and it wasn't right. He ended up revealing his true self that he tried to hide from me, and all I ever wanted to do with him was to forget Jay, stop liking Jay, and be treated to a date by somebody who actually wants to kiss me whenever we want to, hold my hand, walk me down the street, proud to claim me and make me feel special, like it was just him and me. And Teddy cuddled me all night long, he even hugged me. Sex felt so much nicer with him because he let me do whatever I wanted to with him and we even did public stuff. Like there was no rules and I was so happy to be finally treated and wanted that 1st couple of weeks with him. Jay never let me do any of that with them because of Ayunna, but real talk I think it was because of Jay's dysphoria and intimacy issues as the reason why we never made out, never held hands, and Jay only hugged me once out of 2yrs of us being friends and I've never met a person who had such a serious against, against approach to commitment, sex, kissing, or even just me asking them some personal questions about their past. It was like they were so scared for me to see them without the masks on masks they wear around Ayunna and especially other people's families.

Jay wasn't the right man I was looking for to have a family with, even though I got so close to them, but they weren't close to me. Only time Jay revealed something was when they figured I was gonna leave or date somebody else.

which also leads to my other rebound Taty, who I just blocked on insta cause I hate seeing her face now since she won't do the reciprocal courtesy of returning me my only hoodie from College. I want it back cause it's mine, and I alreadypaid $10 to get hers sent back. She's slow and petty. and it's already been a year since I broke up with her. At first I thought we could be friends after breakup, but I realized her being the nicest girl.....at first.....then switching up on me, blowing me off, not talking, ignoring texts for hrs just to play video games after I already waited to text her when she usually got up at 3pm or 5pm due to her lupus....that should have ended sooner because I wanted a gf to do gf stuff with, like yes, serious relationship with somebody who actually went out of their way to sow me a handmade pillow by herself and even wrote a beautiful love letter, like I always wanted to have from someone who means alot to me. Poetry included.

I really thought taty wouldn't let me down and was serious about me like she had meant in her gifts and attention in the beginning. I didn't like how after she told me her depression was making her disconnect from me, that she goes and hangs out with her friends more, not really making plans with me anymore, like I was the one planning quality time...

And she didn't care how that made me feel and I felt so alone about it. Like they went on a trip up in the great lakes and she didn't think to ask me if I wanted to come and other people bfs went....like wow

Slowly cutting me off, like if you were losing interest in me why not say so, so I could end it earlier?

And then she goes to tell me she's dating her married friend, whose wedding we were supposed to go to together. Like no wonder, you blew off quality time with me to go stay at her house after the bridal shower? And I took a 40 min ride all the way up there to come see you....like get your priorities straight.

Obviously I didn't matter that much to you, so yea I broke up with you.

There's only so many times I can tolerate being blown off or pushed away and then I go ghost, I go cold and numb, and yes the truth is revealed, and then I turn into a bitch. And I hate getting like that. Especially if I'm over on the other side, by myself, cause weren't communicating with me.

And I hate her for that shit too. Cause she thinks she did nothing wrong. As if she has every right to keep my Hoodie, my personal property, just because you don't feel like it. Your grandma practically still takes care of you. We ain't a good match either.

so now I'm alone....no new friends yet....still bitching.

cause I don't know if the next time I trust somebody, are they gonna use me, make fun of me like JA, take my money, hurt my soul, and showoff that they care in front of my face, but really out here doing shit behind your back for themselves...

I don't trust anybody right now, not even family so much too. And I don't wanna go down that road.

Maybe I just need to go in the gym like Hodgetwins and get so swollen and buffed up that it won't matter how exes used to treat you in your old body. They can't disrespect in my new one, cause Imma feel 10x better, and 10x stronger than before. Cause I don't want no immature, shallow fuckboats try to treat love like its a business or a silly little ass girl who don't even know the 1st thing about true, mature relationships like I've seen or had to deal with all by myself.

I've never had a partner who treated me like their future was present and that I was the only woman they needed in their life to really make my dream of real true love come true. And I'm disappointed in everybody who let me down and to believing that the right one for me is gonna treat me right, and not hurt me like the dumb bitches they all were. I hate them for that. They make me wanna give up my love for love and just work without even really going for anything because it's scary.

It's scary knowing that even when someone who asks you out, tells you they like you, hugs you and kisses you, can switch up on you and not think you're the one that whole experience you were with them.

I trusted everyone and they hurt me right back.

And they didn't care

And I can't make them see that, how unfair it was to be always waiting, being treated like I was so unwanted, but just want me to be there when they wanted me to.

It hurts that I can't call or see Jay face to face to actually get closure on why the fuck did you play with my head for so long and my heart for so many years, while you jeopardized every sexual relationship I'll ever have later on in life because I can't trust another man, another girl, who kisses me or even touches me because I'll always think I need to wait or runaway before they hurt me like you did me. Lying to me with a smile, a kiss meant nothing to you, but it did to me and you knew that. You steady manipulated and led me on, thinking that we could just move on from the damage because you didn't want to say sorry or treat me better, or do things right. You always acted like when I tried to call you out, I was too emotional, too sensitive when honestly the stuff that you said, the things you did, I could have sent you to jail for.

You're a dirty, low down thief, a tyrant, an opportunist. And I hate every single piece of shit who reminds me of you. The sociopathic, sadist, Narcissist with dissociative identity disorder that they probably need to see a psychiatrist for to get that checked every year. Jay abused me and used me, and I thought the power of love would have brought us together in peace, in good harmony, able to speak our minds freely and friendly, be on one accord with each other.

But Jay's too sick in the head to even care or even Apologize and own up to what they said. Felt like chutes and ladders, always going up and down and around my old self for them. Even bringing my child like self into the bedroom, the one I should have kept protected.

Jay is nothing but a coward, a weakling. Changing their name to escape the past they brought upon themselves or was inflicted on them by someone else. Never really showing who they truly are or who they care for, except Ayunna. Just like playing cards. They played themselves when they thought I could never change, I could never learn who they were, when they repeat the same moves in different stories.

Jay never thought that I could outgrow them and they not know where I am or who I'm bringing a baby home to, or who I am today. Jay needs help, medicine, therapy and a solid family home.

And I have to keep forgiving even on days like today when it's hard to not think about grandma and me not wanting to go to this interview because I don't need anymore pressure 🙃

0 notes

vmfx · 3 years

Text

A NEW HIGH IN LOW.

Porky started working with us this past September and it only took a couple of days to lose our approval of him. Based on previous experience, he ordered us around and told us what to do with his faux-Italian mafia attitude and his zeppelin frame.

To make himself sound even bigger than he already was, he'd try to validate his importance to us. He bragged of how he was to receive a $2,500,000 windfall right into his bank account from the Chinese Mafia. Once he pulled me over from doing something real important to show me a picture of his Asian stripper ‘girlfriend’ on his smartphone. He also claimed to have 78 traffic tickets and, according to him, “beaten every single one of them” with two thumbs up to himself and a smile. And we’ll never forget when he claimed to have run a five-minute mile ‘in his prime’.

His aims with false credentials finally hit a reality for once. To his credit he snuck up on a shoplifter, grabbed him by his jacket, and handed him over to the store manager for all the market to see. Our hero of the day became the star of the show and expected everything to be handed to him. Sooner or later his front-page legacy wore off ad we all saw him for what he really wasn’t. Everyone was tired of him so he started gunning for our attention when he failed to sell us his alibis. He constantly interrupted our duties by refusing to help us and needled his child-like mentality into us every chance he could. A stand-off with another co-worker almost turned into a fist-fight since Porky loved to be the catty little socialite princess who always had to be cute and say something about everything.

I already deemed him a lost hope. He came for me and prodded me more and more, and I ignored him. Because I chose doing work over being constantly interrupted, I fought back and my natural instinct told him to fuck off. Now he made me his target. One payday when I waited in line for my check, he constantly called me out for attention to see if I would turn my head for the sole purpose of distracting me. Then he followed me out of work where he would taunt me, screech, sneer, and cat-call my name from across the parking lot as I walked towards my car like the nancy stalker he was.

**********

His huge Achilles heel was with women. He’d leer and whistle at them. He’d rev himself up as he jabbed me to explain in juicy chauvinistic detail of all the things he wish he would do to them. It only took one defining moment to give him away: one night my department learned that Porky got caught eying one of the Miami blondes at register and it got back to us via a manager. She thought he was creepy. We all laughed because her one-word description fit him perfectly and it started a non-stop tabloid obsession. All the jocks and alpha males became gum-snapping gossip whores once again.

More stories kept on coming. Porky set his sights on this low-grade three-out-of-ten brunnette that was in our department; low enough that she was good for him and went for it. We had no idea what really happened except that Porky claimed to have gotten a piece of the action. Diamanda, the Irish girl at the front desk, was going crazy when she told me that he left messages on her social media for all to see…on Valentine’s Day. But what had me suspicious was that I noticed him having eyes on a young Indian girl walking by our department who happened to be underage but he didn’t mind.

However, nothing else could compare when my co-worker Danni, the caramel-haired cashier with a whip-snap ability for finding gossip, had more news for me the next day.

“I have to tell you something.” Danni motions her hand at me toward the desk. “You know that Porky was checking me out from across the counter the entire time?”

More, please.

“Then last night when I left work, he waited for me right outside the entrance and offered me a ride home because he knew I didn’t have my car with me. So I said ‘no’ to him. Oh m’ god! I hid in the pizzeria for a half-an-hour until I left. And then he drove past me as I got into my friend’s car and he got real pissed at me because he thought I lied to him!”

Whereas Danni and I rarely spoke the previous two years had now become an everyday news update. A week later we heard that Porky was found washing her car’s tires in the parking lot, the new doe he was interested in. My co-workers and I struggled to process this for five minutes before we labeled him the laughingstock of the workplace.

Danni turned to the franchise’s son about the incident, who told our manager who warned Porky. Poor little frustrated Porky was incensed not only because Danni pushed him away but also he was snitched on. So incensed that he started slut-shaming on a daily basis and shortly after almost ran her over with his car. An alliance was made and I volunteered to play defender. It was unanimous. All of us wanted him out before he does more damage.

We finally declared a victor, ladies and gentleman.

**********

One day I had a customer requesting something rare, so I went to the back to retrieve it. I move a cart out of the way and accidently knocked a bucket of celery off a shelf with the cart. Porky was not pleased at all seeing his hard work fall to the floor. Being the responsible guilty party I am, I voluntarily clean up my mistake and dispose of it. It was time to turn the page and move on with my life.

“Hey, did you hear what I told you?” Porky barked.

“Excuse me?”

“Are you going to cut me up some more celery?” Porky demanded.

“Sorry. It’s not my duty to.”

That was my response. Had he asked me nicely then I would have been more than happy to chop up some replacement celery, but no. Instead he chose to become instant royalty and I chose to stand my ground. I will not be talked down to and take orders from a desperate zero who was not my manager.

Never mind the fact that I made a mistake and corrected it, and I even technically said ‘sorry’. He was not satisfied. In the next half-hour he would bring this up three more times because he had the inability to progress and move on past the small things in his feeble life. Everything in the world needed to stop because he was the department diva. He needed to have his way in order to move forward. And after all this I still ignored him and moved on.

One hour later and it is break time. As I head to clock out for a fifteen-minute time-out Jesus approached me. Not the second coming, but Danni and I referred to him as Jesus simply because he was skinny, had long hair, and a goatee. O’ fucking laughing marijuana Jesus.

“Hey! Do you drive a gold or silver car?” Jesus inquired. “Yeah, I drive a silver car. What’s up?”

“Oh, I’m asking because something just happened to a customer’s car.” Jesus dashes out and I walk to the punch clock. Then a second person stops me.

“You drive a silver vehicle, right?” asked Paddy, the head maiden.

“Yeah…uh, what’s going on?”

“There seems to be a mess on someone’s car. I’m not sure if it’s yours, though…”

Wait a minute. You’re kidding me, right?

Jesus and I walk out to the lot where he leads me to my car. Bits and bits of celery streaked all over the windshield and hood of my car. Such an absolute careless act from a go-nowhere lowlife who has to be number-fucking-one over everything and everyone. He’s now sent a message: I’m the king of the workplace. I have the last word on everything. Never defy me. Never stand up or talk back to me. Lie down and take it, or else.

Jesus volunteered to clean off much of Porky’s mess as possible and I felt real bad that he did so. He was only human in which he didn’t do a complete job by creating some holy miracle to make my car sparkling clean but I absolutely cannot complain.

Everyone was gunning for Porky at this point. From chasing every female in the store with two legs, pushing us around, and filling the natural air with magical storybook claims and one-liners, he was bringing the entire workplace down. They deemed him as the useless un-tolerable self-superior asshole that had to go. They did everything they could to get rid of him but they all failed. But I had just the one thing to do so: the footage of him dumping my car caught on camera.

My managers asked me what exactly happened and I told them right down the line. My allies learned what Porky did and sided with me on the grounds that they were sick and tired of being targeted and spat on by him. The managers went right to the footage, reviewed it, and saw what he did. They were disgusted. Huffing, rolling their eyes, throwing their arms up and shaking their heads that a grown man would resort to playground games and petty retaliation tactics. They would even get him on shoplifting since he walked out with the celery without paying for it.

And they finally disciplined him: with a written warning. He walks.

I wasn’t surprised that they dropped the ball. When people get picked on daily or a major incident involving empty male bravado over trivial things occurs, not a thing would be done. These people had a better chance being fired by not showing up or coming to work drunk or high than doing something outrageous. In fact, my co-workers invent new ways of pissing customers and each other off and somehow kept their jobs. (They were friends with the manager’s son.) Yes, it is that hard to be fired where I work. And then there’s Porky, who technically got off simply because he did no damage to my car.

For defending myself and showing Porky that I refused to be pushed around, I was insulted and laughed at by him. He can do whatever he feels like and he’ll walk. No further repercussions because what’s the point? Would I say something to him, he would say something back and laugh in my face in a very sneer manner. Everyone felt powerless, none more than I.

After this incident, nothing really mattered anymore. It didn’t matter if I worked hard or went the extra mile for someone. What mattered most was Porky because he was the free ride. He was above all. As long as he worked with us he’d continue to miraculously dodge bullets. He’ll continue to wobble and sweat across the playfield to the nearest manager to save his ass and belittle anyone he wants to for another day. Our managers who were supposed to look out for us instead fumbled and said “oops!” as they looked the other way. Porky will continue to pollute the air with his lowest common denominator trash-TV mind, his sleazy junk-food personality, and his Opie & Anthony lifestyle. There is nothing we can do about it.

**********

“There is something I need to tell you!” Danni smiles in excitement.

I pause and wait for it.

“Porky…just…got…arrested!”

“What?”

“Porky was arrested this morning!”

It’s payday and I arrive well after Porky’s shift ended to get my check, just to be safe. Not even three seconds of walking into work, Danni got me.

She was the most excited I’d ever seen her. She felt like she hit the jackpot. Knowing that she never lies, I knew I struck gold as well. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that it couldn’t have happened to someone more deserving.

My co-workers in my department greeted me with smiles and fist-bumps when they confirmed the news to me. They saw Porky’s step-ma come in to tell my manager that Porky wouldn’t be in. They also overheard that she refused to bail him out. All throughout the day they speculated what really happened. Some said he got pulled over and the cops found a stash in his trunk. (”Half-a-dozen pizza pies and a few bags of cheese doodles!”) Others said that he must have washed the wrong girl’s tires. Still, my department gave Porky a proper send-off by telling stories and making fun of him for weeks to come; the usual gossiping obsessive little mincer mice they all are.

For all the times Porky treated us poorly, we were all vindicated. It took his foolishness and a stroke of luck to bring about his downfall. My manager red-cards him and crosses him off the schedule with no chance of ever coming back. As with getting off the hook of vandalizing my car, he was fired simply because he was unable to show up for it. Live by the technicality, die by the technicality. My department’s morale has been its highest all year, the cashier girls no longer work in fear of surveillance, and I thanked Karma for paying him a long-overdue visit.

**********

When I got home from work and opened my e-mail, a link was sent to me from my co-worker waiting to be opened. I click on it, enter the numeric code, and upon further investigation I’d find out the real reason why Porky was arrested: he was charged with forcible touching of a minor under eleven.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

#VMFX #writers on Tumblr #Long Island #toxicity #harassment #trigger warning #lies

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imeeeean · 3 years

Text

for fucks sake

i didn’t really want to get into this here because a variety of reasons but for god’s fucking sake here we fucking GO.

i was recently in a situationship. i say situationship, because even though this person literally FLEW HERE to see me and tried to DTR with me the second day, LITERALLY SECOND DAY of being with me in person (to be fair, i have known this person for 10 years - not well, but on the periph of things and it was like magical and fun and exciting and passionate and really truly fantastic), the fucking THE NEXT DAY got weird when i was like oh shit like i think i am into this i am not going to date anyone else right now, he literally said, and i shit you not “oh do i have to say that too? i need to tie some things up.” he said things like i have made him feel things that he hasn’t felt in years, “i want to do all of the disney things with you” (WHICH GOD EW CRINGE IS A HUGE RED FLAG), screen shots of texts to his mom about me after four days which made me lose my mind, basically said he was in love with me four different times. like had the most fun two days together, SO FUN. the night before he leaves is this DTR. so it wasn’t ever actually officially anything because any time i tried to be like yeah so can we just define this? i need to put it in a container in my mind now, i need to file this in the appropriate category in my life. he would be so fucking weird about it and say the worst things possible in that kind of scenario but in the same breath would ask me things about the future “what we will do when x happens” “what we will do when y happens” “can you fly to meet my family?”. i flat out said that i never want to get married again. he asks, really? 100%? i say well, i mean, like 99% no. and he says, verbatim “i’m gonna need you to hold onto the 1%.” and i looked at him and said “uhhh i’m going to need you to hold on to the 99%.” HE TOLD ME TO KEEP THE IDEA OF MARRIAGE OPEN FOR HIM BUT COULD NOT COMMIT TO NOT BEING A FUCKING ASSHOLE FOR LIKE EVEN MORE THAN 14 DAYS. my two-week trial of that bitch was OVER.

anyway. this person fucking BODIES THEIR WAY INTO MY LIFE, and I am on the heels of - no, in the midst of - the shittiest year of my time here on this earth. he was full and fucking well aware of that. i was/am flat out petrified of most things emotionally at this point, and completely tapped out. i made it clear that i am not doing well mentally, this is for sure a fun distraction, but i am not okay. i just wanted it to be a fun thing. just fun! that’s all i wanted. but then i was pushed. a letter was left. conversations about the future were had. conversations with FAMILY members were had - i refused to do any chats with immediate family, but still, outskirts family. when i finally, finally, FINALLY, relax into it and take a breath instead of trying to panic and bail, he then pulls the FUCK BACK. like, hard. when i call him on it? gaslighting and bullshit. i am super straight up about everything, it’s me, i’ve got nothing to hide and also, no fucking time or energy to waste. i basically bare my entire heart to this jackass and am so vulnerable and am hung out to dry when there was no care and handling and just straight up no response in regards to any of it.

i am scheduled to get my BODY CUT OPEN aka surgery (which gets rescheduled, but he doesn’t know that, because he fucking ghosts me after my heart cracked open a bit trying to carefully and clearly express how i’ve been hurt by the ongoing bullshit) and he doesn’t check on me ONCE. not before, not during, not after. i could have fucking died and he’d have no idea.

he comes back around the next week and like a fucking DUMBASS i agree to take another stab at this bullshit after literally saying “what is it that you want from me here?!”

i am basically ghosted for another week and find out he took another woman on a trip to charleston for her birthday during that week instead of literally doing anything else. anything else - i don’t know, investing in this? pursuing me? doing his job that he said he does from the moment he wakes up til the moment he goes to sleep? literally? anything? else? i also found out? that he had been? dating her the entire time? or? if he wasn’t? leading her on? for months and months? that is disgusting? and emotionally predatory? don’t you think? thanks venmo, you are a weird fucking source of information that i didn’t even mean to get when i was wiping the slate super clean.

i had finally, FINALLY gotten over it in the last couple of days and made the grave error this evening of snooping on social media, which i have been SO FUCKING STRONG about not doing - blocked on everything, deleted shit, tore up shit, real good. he posted fucking white squares and quotes from, i shit you not, winnie the pooh and peter pan, two days i called and said he can fuck off with his lying ass bullshit.

TLDR: dude said he wanted me, like WAS KIND OF IN LOVE WITH ME, came here to prove it, convinced me to be in it, pulled back and ghosted me, came back, ghosted me again but this time with another woman.

BUT CAN QUOTE PETER PAN AND WINNIE THE POOH LIKE HE NEEDS HOPE AND LIGHT TO REBUILD ON THE BACK OF THE WIND OR WHATEVER THE FUCK.

peter pan and winnie the pooh. he turns 39 next week.

FUCK. OFF.

the ONLY thing that i feel embarrassed about (besides the obvious of trusting this asshole and believing even ONE goddamned word out of his mouth) is instamessage was like a thing for us - like a real thing, it feels like 12 to say it but it was a THING so what the FUCK EVER. but the second that it would start to be weird with him, instagram would suddenly stop showing his activity status. i was like oh my fucking god this dumb ass bitch is literally turning that off what in the actual hell how petty is this fucking shit. i mentioned it not once, but twice (goddamnit). i had no idea that the ACTUAL case is that instagram has a limit as to who’s activity you can see in your inbox. once you hit 25 or 30 messages from other people and get bumped down the line, your shit disappears. SO THAT MEANS THAT LITERALLY 25-30 PEOPLE WERE TALKING TO ME MORE THAN HE WAS AT ANY GIVEN POINT IN TIME AND I JUST HONESTLY AND TRULY CANNOT JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. that’s totally the way you treat someone that is making you feel things that you haven’t felt in years, right? someone that you told your mother about? someone that you asked to hang onto the idea of marriage? LUNACY! i should have just taken the hint and trusted my gut and bounced the fuck out as soon as shit got weird and annoying. but no, i tried to hang in, i tried to convince myself it was all in my head, girrrrrl i tried. my insides were right. “ill just have to prove you both wrong” MY WHOLE ASS.

MEN ARE FUCKING CLOWNS

0 notes

littlemissymonster · 6 years

Note

i really miss your long analysis posts! i feel like you stopped uploading as much since that touka-stanning blog sent people after you. you make awesome metas and i hope you continue to do so :)

Heh I really wish it was that simple I do. I really hope I can to. Unfortunately it’s a bit more complicated than that. There has been many things unfortunately.

Very shortly after that whole mess in November there were two major things that happened in my family. One member of my family passed away after an injury.

Less than two weeks after that another member of my became very sick very suddenly. They still in the process of recover and likely will be for a long time to come. I’m now one of the main people helping take care of them.

Also my laptop has been slowly dying for 6 months which was making things harder to post (now my computer finally actually died, and i no longer have a personal computer at all).

I feel like I haven’t been as into Tokyo Ghoul:RE since the end of the Tsukiyama raid and I’ve been very distracted. That makes it much harder to write in depth meta’s because it’s harder to remember things that have happened as well as making it harder to think about things going on. So I usually feel like I’m missing things or whatever I have to say will not interest anyone because it’s so obvious.

The whole tension since the ship war started has put me on edge. This is true. It makes me a little fearful to post things, and on edge about things people say to me. I’m usually afraid I’ll explode or say the wrong thing, because with everything going on in my personal life I don’t have a lot of emotional energy to be the much the more friendly easygoing self towards people and the manga in general I used to project. And I feel bad about that and like I’m driving people away by getting frustrated.

I feel like I’ve been very anti-social or even defensive towards any users I used to interact with imposing a self imposed exile with the community. Anyone I have talked to I feel like I’ve dumped all my emotions on and pushed them away because fuck have I’ve overstepped my boundaries as a relative stranger online by complaining so much. I’ve pushed people away by not having the time or energy to answer asks like a self important asshole. The whole community is why I love TG in the first place and because of my own actions I don’t feel like I’m even a part of it anymore.

I’ve been having health issues that have been effecting me emotionally and physically, including one that one of the literal symptoms is not being able to think clearly (so I’m fucked) but I can’t deal with them until everything has been sorted out with my sick relative and my recently dead relative.

Some stuff that has happened in the manga has bothered me or upset me on a personal level, but I feel petty or dumb bringing it up because hell maybe people are right if i was looking at it clearly or through their eyes I would see it that I’m being stupid and toxic. I feel like I can’t see the manga clearly any more so can’t tell you if that’s true or not.

I’ve honestly lost a lot of my self confidence in this blog. I’m glad most people are understanding I’ve been gone, but because I’ve been gone I feel like people have lost faith in me and not many people really care to listen or look to me for content anymore. And they have a good reason I haven’t delivered for what feels like forever. I feel like I’ve lost any ability to create anything people are even remotely interested in and any attention I get now is just left over from when I was able to. And I have the grammar of a fifth grader and who the fuck want to read that.

I can’t even go on my own dashboard anymore because I feel like I’ll either beat myself up about not producing enough content. Or I’ll feel like a stupid jealous bitch wondering what I’m doing wrong now.

I feel like i need a break, but taking a break and stepping away is what caused a lot of the issues to begin with and I’m apparently to thin skinned and over involved to take the consequences of taking a break. I probably need to just go get a life as soon as I can and stop letting this bother me as much because it’s almost over and how much I care about this stupid blog is pathetic and unhealthy, but I’m stuck at home in a self destructive spiral unable to pursue anything until my ill family member is better.

I feel like even writing this I’m belittling and offended the few people on this site who do still care what i have to say, and the blogs trying harder than I am who aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

Also I’m gloomy and self hating as fuck lately which drives people away in droves if you haven’t noticed. No one comes on tumblr to watch me whine about my problems.

#personal #below the line is just me venting and raving I wouldn't take it too seriously #stay away the hell away from this post Cody because It's not for you #Anonymous #I probably shouldn't be typing this while I'm on my period and over emotional but fuck it #emotion dump basically #that's all this is but I had to come out and say all of it #I'm going to regret this in the morning aren't I #I'm basically begging people to read about my problems which make me feel pretty damn pathetic

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marshlightningrass · 6 years

Text

FALLOUT → MUFFY

TAGGING → Buffy Bubbles (@buffybubbles) & Marsh Lightningrass

TIMELINE → Friday, November 3, 2017

SETTING → 1128 Wizard Way

SUMMARY → Gwen drops off a little present for Buffy and Marsh.

Marsh was relieved to have a night off from Pizza Planet; all the younger kids who hung out there were probably still apeshit from whatever drama they'd caused on Halloween night, and he'd much rather chill than have to overhear all the bullshit serving pizzas all night long. He had no idea where the fuck Kitten was and he was happy to keep it that way, and with Hattie off with her boyfriend or something, that left the house to him and Buffy. He didn't have free food for her like he would have if he'd worked today, but he did have his excellent company, and hopefully that was more than good enough. Plopping down on the couch beside her, he pointed to an unmarked DVD on the table, asking, "What's this? You got a surprise movie for me or something?"

Buffy looked up from her phone as soon as Marsh sat down and shrugged at his question about the mysterious dvd that she'd gotten in the mail. "I don't know actually. But someone delivered it in the mail for me today and I didn't want to watch it myself in case it was something scary. Wanna see what this is with me first and then binge something stupid on Netflix? I can make us some edibles after this is over of you want?" She offered, picking up the DVD to stick it in the player

Marsh quirked an eyebrow. Who even still watched DVDs these days? It seemed a little weird, but he was definitely intrigued by it. "You better make lots of edibles 'cause if this turns out to be some kind of 'The Ring' shit we're gonna die in seven days anyway," he teased, leaning back on the couch and spreading his arms out across the back of it, kicking his feet up to put on the table while he waited for Buffy to put the movie in. "Should we take bets on what it's gonna be or just hit play?"

Buffy rolled her eyes at Marsh and kicked him softly before getting up and putting the dvd in. "Don't jinx us, jerk! But it's probably not a Ring tape, this dvd looks petty new." She remarked, sticking the dvd in and then picking the remote up before sitting back down on the couch longways so that she could put her feet up in Marsh's lap. "I'm not letting you guess anything after that ring comment, so lets just watch it already." Buffy laughed, turning the video on.

Marsh shrugged, pointing out, "They make new Ring movies all the time -- or they could, at least. I'm pretty sure they just made a new Saw and there was no way that shit needed a sequel, they could do anything." Marsh rolled his eyes fondly at her as she decided to use his lap as a foot pillow; he didn't mind being pinned to the couch like that, it wasn't was though he had anywhere better to be than hanging out with one of his favorite people. Now all that was left was to squint at the TV as he waited for the video to actually show something... although he was sure some of the color drained from his face as it started playing and he recognized the start of the Shiggles interview he'd agreed to do with Gwen. He snuck a glance towards Buffy, worried about what her reaction might be. It wasn't a secret; it was on YouTube and all, but he doubted she was a big fan of Lui and Gwen's show.

Buffy was trying to think up a response to Marsh's comment about the saw remake when she was suddenly distracted by the screen. Even though Marsh was the only one on the screen, she knew exactly who's voice it was interviewing him and it was not a voice she'd been expecting in the slightest. Buffy wasn't really one for having people that she actively disliked very much, she considered such negativity to be way too toxic but Gwen Shell was a MAJOR exception to that and she was sure Marsh knew that very well. "Oh. Since when are you friends with Gwen enough to do an interview with her?" She asked, in a monotone that gave away absolutely nothing about her emotions as she continued to stare at the screen almost passively as Gwen's voice giggled and cooed and the camera moved in a way that clearly meant that Gwen had moved to sit on Marsh's lap.

Marsh shrugged, pointing out, "I've known her forever, we just started running in different crowds in high school." He was sure he'd mentioned that to Buffy before, although it had probably been more of a complaint than a comment at that point in time; being in Walt at the same time and in the same kind of bodies hadn't exactly gone the way he'd always hoped it would. Still... Gwen wasn't as terrible as she'd made herself seem, he saw glimpses of the girl he'd always liked all the time now that he wasn't too stubborn to look for them. He just doubted Buffy would want to hear that, though. "I figured she'd leave me alone if I just agreed to do her stupid show," he added, trying to keep his voice level and act chill about the whole thing. "It's no big deal, there's really nothing interesting on here, we can just turn it off." Marsh tried to lift Buffy's feet off of his lap so he could shut the thing down as a horrible thought crossed his mind -- what if this wasn't just the YouTube edit? He knew exactly what came after that part but if it was on this DVD, he was screwed. He just didn't know how to get the DVD stopped without making Buffy really, really suspicious, so he prayed that she wouldn't put up a fight and would just shut it down now.

Buffy shrugged, only vaguely remembering Marsh's complaints about the other girl. And continued to watch the video with absolutely no expression on her face, even as it got kind of uncomfy to watch with video!Marsh clearly turned on by the girl in his lap while talking about their other roommate Kitten. Even though it wasn't technically that bad, just hearing Gwen derisively refer to the shy band geek as Pussy and Marsh not even reacting to it, irritated Buffy to no end and made her want to actually reach out to the girl who's only crime had been not wanting to get married at 18. "Actually, I'm super interested, Marshmallow. Or wait, do you prefer Dewdrop?" She asked, pinning Marsh down hard with just the strength of her legs.

Marsh grimaced to hear the nickname rolling off of Buffy's tongue like that; he already didn't like it, but it felt even more off coming from somebody who wasn't Gwen. Like it was their private thing -- not that he cared, because since when did he need private things with Gwen Shell? Except apparently rooms... which he really hoped that Buffy wasn't about to realize with her very own eyes. "Actually, I fucking hate that nickname," he said offhandedly, narrowing his eyes at her when she pinned him to the couch. "Damn, have you always been this strong or does Gwen hate make you go Hulk mode? This thing's been on YouTube since we filmed it, you were never interested before, it's not suddenly more interesting now," he lied.

Buffy flicked her eyes over at Marsh at his response about the nickname and then returned her gaze to the screen, not even bothering to reply to his question about how strong she was. If the video really wasn't more interesting than the video that was apparently online, then it made no sense why someone would purposely deliver the tape to her cottage and Marsh would have no reason to want to turn it off the way he did. "Shut up already. Can't you see I'm trying to watch something here? Don't be rude."

Marsh was filled with dread as he waited to see if the tape kept going after the interview or not... but with every second the DVD creeped forward, he felt more and more sure that Buffy was about to get a real eyeful of something she did not need to see. As nonchalant as he'd acted about the whole thing, he didn't really want anyone to see it, besides maybe him and Gwen. It felt like a private thing between the two of them, and he wasn't prepared for it to turn into any kind of deal. "I'm not being rude, this was dropped off against my will, I don't need the world seeing it," he grumbled, not sure what to do. He didn't want to physically force Buffy to get off of him, but... Shit. Even if he had, it would have been too late anyway, and he cringed as the screen before him started to play the beginning of his and Gwen's hookup. "Seen enough now?" he asked feebly, wishing she'd grab the remote and shut it off already.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I'm not the whole world, Marsh. Why's it such a big deal?" She asked, almost too late when it became intensely clear that it wasn't just a recording of Gwen interviewing Marsh. Someone, more than likely Gwen, had sent her an actual sex tape of her best friend and her mortal enemy. Completely ignoring Marsh's question, Buffy tightened her hold on Marsh while keeping her gaze locked onto the screen. "You know, I never took you for such an easy lay, Marshmallow."

Marsh groaned as Buffy tightened her grip on him; it wasn't a big deal, not really, and they were all pretty open about their sexual experiences with each other; it was just what friends did. But he'd hid this one from her because he knew she hated Gwen, and maybe he'd hidden it from everyone for other reasons he couldn't quite explain. "I didn't make it easy for her," he snapped back instantly. He'd been kind of an asshole to Gwen for months before he'd caved, honestly; but he didn't talk about that with Buffy, either. Shrugging, he said, "It happened one time, it's no big deal, right?"

Buffy crossed her arms and glared pointedly at the screen. "Really? You sure could've fooled me. I'm pretty sure I just saw her get your shirt off with verrry little difficulty." Buffy hated how slut shamey all her words were coming out, but she was still trying to figure out how to properly express how upset she was about what they were watching. "She also fucked my boyfriend one time and that was a pretty big deal to me too. And you KNOW that, Marsh. Why did you do this and not even bother to be honest about it?" Buffy's voice began to crack on the end of her sentence and despite her best attempts at not displaying too much emotion over the situation, tears began to well up in her eyes as well.

Marsh chewed on the inside of his cheek; he didn't know how to explain it to Buffy. How could he explain something that he didn't even understand himself? "That was a long time ago, Buff," he said feebly, but he doubted that changed anything. He was pretty sure Gwen would still do the same kind of thing now; he couldn't make excuses for her actions because what she'd done to his friend sucked. But it was Lui's fault, wasn't it? Lui was the one who owed Buffy something, not Gwen, but somehow he didn't think that would go over well, either. He opened his mouth and shut it... once, twice, three times, unsure what to say. "I'm sorry," Marsh said finally, hoping that that would be enough. "No excuses, no bullshit, just... I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking about how you'd feel."

Buffy finally turned her attention fully from the screen to glare daggers at Marsh. "I know it was, but what about this video, Marsh? She sent this today. She likes hurting people and you clearly don't give a shit." Buffy yelled, her statement almost hilariously punctuated by a particular loud sound from Marsh on the tv. "But you know what, Marsh. It's fine. I completely accept your apology because that's the kind of loving amd forgiving person I am." Buffy sniffed once and released Marsh from her grip as she rubbed hard at her eyes. "But maybe this is a sign that our friendship has reached it's conclusion. It's not good for my energy to hang out with people who don't care about my feelings and you and your new bestie Gwen just did me the courtesy of showing me how much you don't. Thank you for letting me know."

Marsh 's jaw dropped at Buffy's statement. She didn't even want to be friends with him? Because he'd hooked up with Gwen one time? Because he had some weird, lingering attachment to her from when he was a kid that he didn't know how to get out of his system? It felt like an overreaction to him, but then again, Marsh didn't let much get under his skin... but he'd let Gwen get under it, hadn't he? How could he expect Buffy not to do the same? "Buffy..." he protested feebly, but he wasn't sure there was anything he could say right now to make her feel better. She just needed time to cool off. "I don't want to not be your friend anymore," he told her. "And I'm not going anywhere, but if you need a break or whatever, I guess that's... cool." The word rolled awkwardly off his tongue, but he didn't know what else he could do right now as she let go and rubbed her eyes. "I care about you a lot, I'm sorry I screwed that up."

Buffy opened her mouth to respond to Marsh's apology not entirely sure if she was going to accept his offer for just a break in their friendship or to deny it, when the front door of the cottage opened and Kitten walked in, clearly fresh off her shift at Pizza Planet. "Hey Kitten! How was work today?" Buffy called out, getting up from the couch to speak to the other girl in the cottage rather than respond to Marsh any further.

Marsh gaped at Buffy as she got up off the couch to greet Kitten of all things. That was a pretty blatantly obvious sign their conversation was over; none of them ever talked to Kitten, she was like the silent roommate that didn't exist. Sighing, Marsh got up from the couch, took the stupid DVD out, and put it into his bag, not sure what to do with it, as he headed for the front door rather than his room. It was pretty obvious Buffy didn't want him around, so he'd just... wander Walt until something felt right or until he was sure the coast was clear to go home.

#buffybubbles #para #para:fallout #para:buffy #buffy

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rosebudburned · 5 years

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Sad girl manifesto

I was just sad for most of 2018. I guess I still am, but I manage the sadness a little better now. I think! I hope! I really hope!

I think the best decision I made and the best thing that happened to me this year was going on Prozac. Of course, it wasn't like, this magic pill that made my problems go away, but it was a pill that helped me manage my depression and anxiety. With those things out of the way, I was able to be more productive. And once it finally kicked in, I didn't worry about not being invited to things anymore and feeling ignored because I wasn't interesting enough. In most occasions, I was glad I didn't have to go to things and I was glad I didn't have to engage in small talk. I just didn't care as much anymore. If things weren't convenient, I didn't bother. And that didn't bother me. I enjoyed the newfound apathy.

For most of 2018, I was completely infatuated with a guy who didn't even like me back and who toyed around with me and used me for his personal ego trip. I was just so hungry for mainstream cultural validation that I was willing to put up with it. He liked the right things, wore the right clothes, and did things that were "in." He cared about Snapscores and Instagram followers and judged me for the few Facebook notifications I got. I wanted someone who cared about those things to accept me, to like me, to date me because that would mean I was cool and pretty and okay. And I never really feel cool, pretty, or okay so having someone who could make me feel those things would have been such a wonderful prize.

Looking back, I'm less angry at him. I'm just so angry at that version of myself that I find it so hard to forgive myself. The version that allowed myself to be bullied by some asshole who was shallow and superficial and who dehumanized me so he could feel better about himself. I'm so angry that the universe ruled in his favor: he now has photos with his current girlfriend who he "feels" someone for, who is allegedly "not that kind of girl," as he described in our last phone call together plastered all over his social media. I know the world is unfair, but all of this has just exacerbated so much of the loneliness I feel and have felt for a long while. And people keep telling me this feeling will end and I keep growing ever so impatient and angry at myself for getting myself into that kind of situation because I didn't have the confidence and self-esteem to know I deserved something better and much less painful.

I still avoid so many things. I can barely get through a commercial for the NBC show, "This Is Us." I know that sounds so silly, but every time that commercial comes on, I think about that guy and his new girlfriend. And how he's telling all his friends that she's "the one" and he's treating her well and how he's becoming a better person for her sake and how all his friends and family members think that "she's been so good for him." I just think about how he's treating her the way I always wanted him to treat me for so many fucking months. I just think about how he's not filming her when she's giving him a blowjob, and how he's not taking nude photos of her and sending them to his friends, and how he doesn't FaceTime his friends after sex to show all his friends her naked body, and how he's not sticking his dick into her into her in the middle of the night when she tells him that she's not wet yet. And I just feel like such a loser because I was just so insignificant and easy to exploit and so silly and so foolish and how I didn't report any of it and I still desperately wanted him to like me. So I almost start crying during "This Is Us" commercials due to pure self-pity. I'm just so ashamed that I let myself be used that way and I'm so angry at people who didn't protect me even though I know the only person who allowed it happen was me.

I avoid going to his neighbors' apartment for all parties. I'm still trying to come up with an excuse to get out of their Oscars party and that's an entire month away. I'm just having so much anxiety over how to reject that invite without being an asshole that I might just tell them the truth. I met him at the Oscars party last year and I can barely like, think about the Oscars these days. I've barely watched the Oscar season movies because I don't want to think about the Oscars. And I sound insane, I know, because I've cared about awards season for as long as I remember, but I just can't deal with it right now.

And it's not about him. It's about me. It's about how everything made me feel. It made me feel dirty and stupid and gross. It made me feel disposable. It made me feel like I should never care about anything and never trust anyone because so much of it is bullshit and I always lose. I still feel all those things, every single fucking day. And it hurts like hell. And I think, most importantly, I'm just scared. And I don't want to be open and vulnerable anymore if it threatens my emotional security.

And it's also been hard. Everyone's just been so happy. People tell me it's not true, that it's all an act, but he seems to be happy. It was just so easy for him. He just asked her to dinner and now they have photos together on social media. I keep thinking about how everyone's lives are these goddamn life insurance commercials. They met at a party--BAM NOW THEY ARE MARRIED. He asked her out when she was still dating some other guy--BAM MARRIED. They met in class--GUESS WHAT THEY ARE ENGAGED. They met through friends--THEY ARE DATING. They matched on Tinder--THEY ARE ENGAGED AND WILL GET ANOTHER DOG TOGETHER. They were just hooking up for years but then went on a trip--THEY DEFINED THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND ARE NOW LONG DISTANCE. Yes, it's unfair because life's unfair, but why couldn't someone else's life be unfair? I feel like mine is just so unfair and I just wonder what I did wrong and who I have to apologize to and what I need to do to repent. I just feel like I'm an awful person and I just don't know how to change that.

I'm wildly jealous, I know, and it's an ugly look and I'm so sorry. I sometimes feel like that's why my life is so fucked up. I just want to be this version of myself who is just pleased with the journey and who is okay with just waiting for things to get better and who just feels happy for other people. But I'm not really that happy for other people's relationships! I mean, I'm truly happy for people when they get like, a paper published, but not for anyone's relationship. I try to be, I swear, but I just don't give a fuck these days. I just don't care. I feel so little that I pretend to be a decent human being about it by overcompensating. I'm sorry if all the times I've been nice lately has this mechanical quality to it. I want to be kind, but I just can't find myself to really mean it sometimes. I have a hard time being kind and compassionate without acting. And I know that sounds petty and I know that sounds horrible but I just can't bring myself to be actually invested in the status of anyone's relationship. Because I just feel like the most miserable person compared to all the people around me. I just feel so unloved and neglected. I hope this burning jealousy fades soon because I really hate that about myself.

I'm not even sure what this post was meant to do for me. I didn't even know who to say any of this to because I don't want to fuck up anyone's evening. I just feel so alone in all the things I'm feeling. I feel like my nose is pressed against this window and all my friends' lives are blossoming and are exciting and are filled with love and joy and I'm just...sitting here typing this sad girl manifesto and waiting for a reason that begs that persona to disappear.

For the longest time, I thought the solution was a boy, a relationship. But it's probably not. I'm just so unproductive when I'm emotionally invested in someone. I cried every day last summer. I felt so behind for someone who always wants to be ahead. I just can't have someone destabilizing my emotions and distracting me from my work. I know if that person is attentive and actually liked me, the story might be different, but I can't bear the burden of pursuing a person anymore. I'm sick and tired of trying to claw my way into the heart and soul of cultural validation. I don't want to seek approval anymore. You either approve of me or you get the hell out of my life.

I've been surrounding myself with people who like me and respect me. In general, it has been for the better. As my psychiatrist says, I'm playing to my strengths. As my therapist says, it's good that people who use me are mostly out of my life. Look, it takes a whole village to make me less fucked up, okay? Sometimes I feel like that's too much confirmation bias and I could probably use some guy telling me that I don't have enough Facebook notifications and that my Snapscore is too low. But life is too fucking short to feel like shit for yet another summer.

#personal

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thisisevenharderthannamingablog · 7 years

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6.12 Murder Most Foul

Quite the divisive episode this turned out to be. I admit, I had discarded the theory that they were going to go with Killian as the murderer, and although they obviously will resolve it, I can’t fathom how they might do so without feeling cheap.

That wrinkle aside, this was a far better episode than either of the ones preceding it. (Hell, the inclusion of badass Ruth alone lifted it over that bar.)

In the past: Robert and Ruth face a terrible decision. The twins are sick and will not survive the oncoming winter without medicine they cannot afford. Rumplestiltskin has a deal: give up one twin to be adopted by King George, and both can live. The choice is made by a coin toss. David stays; James goes.

Years later, drunk and broke in a tavern, Robert gets slapped in the face by opportunity when King George shows up. His son has gone missing, and whoever returns him will be richly rewarded. Robert bids farewell to his family, promises that he return to them as his true and whole self, and goes to Rumple for James’ location: Pleasure Island.

In this land of exotic temptation, Robert finds James with some help from Pinocchio. Robert proposes to take him home to his birth family. James does not like George, and is happy to agree, but of course they are intercepted before they can leave the island. Robert’s attempt at defiance avails nothing. James is whisked back off to the palace; Robert is whisked off to be disposed of by some of George’s soldiers.

Killian happens along and kills the soldiers and Robert for Reasons.

In the present: Everyone celebrates Emma’s victory. Later, outside the house, David sees his father’s ghost, reviving his determination to find out how he really died (see 6.03). Snow is not around to urge him to give it up; he recruits Killian into helping him.

Killian, meanwhile, is most concerned with how to ask David for his blessing before he proposes to Emma, and goes along with the plan mainly it seems in order to keep David out of too much trouble.

Meanwhile, Regina comes to reluctant grips with the fact that this Robin is not her Robin but a very different man who really really wants to kill Nottingham and also he kisses weird, and that she may have made a mistake bringing him to Storybrooke.

Zelena shows up just long enough to warn Regina against letting him think that he has any claim on Robyn. Robin steals some “powerful” stuff from Regina’s vault.

While Killian distracts Emma, David steals some magical supplies. He and Killian make a potion to work out where the coin was the day Robert died, giving them the Pleasure Island connection; they visit August. August confirms that Robert was there for James, and that he was sober. He also mentions that he didn’t put all of his own story into Henry’s storybook; there are a few pages he kept back, and if he can find them, they may have more information about Robert.

Charming concludes that George must have killed Robert. He cuffs Hook to a bike rack and goes off to confront his twin’s adoptive father. George admits to having ordered Robert’s death. David gives George a knife and demands that he fight for his worthless life. Killian intervenes (so much for that cuff! Emma probably gave him a key), and a second, more intense confrontation ensues, this one over the question of what man David wants to be. Charming breaks down and abandons his murderous quest.

Later that night, at the docks, David tosses the coin into the water; his father’s ghost is put to rest. Killian joins him and asks his blessing to ask Emma to marry him, which is granted (duh). Ring in hand, Killian heads home, only to be stopped by August, who found those pages of the storybook. Those happen to show Robert’s face... which Killian recognizes as being that guy he killed that one time.

Buzz well and truly killed, thanks a bunch, August.

Parallels: Robert and Charming are both presented as having lost their way, their families in danger of destruction. Both men must face a choice and remain true to themselves. Robert is aided in this by a regretful Rumple, and Charming by Killian.

The title of the episode is a reference to Hamlet, although it’s a bit of a stretch to say the least. They both involve the ghost of a murdered father. (Given what we know about the Underworld, does this mean that Arthur has the phones running again?)

Robert’s ghost says, “Family is everything,” a line used by King George to Snow in 2.03.

The Pleasure Island location is from Pinocchio, and referenced in the page August was typing in the end of 6.11. Pinocchio plays a guide role in both halves of the story -- a reluctant, lying guide in the past, and a more mature and rueful one in the present.

Charming being six at this time, since Pinocchio became a real boy at most a couple of years before the Dark Curse, at which point I would guesstimate Charming was supposed to be around 20, that’s at least a decade of wooden-Pinocchio shenanigans for Gepetto to endure. Yikes.

Representing fate with a coin toss is a very old mechanism. I love when this show gets all classic with its symbolism.

Wardrobe Department:

In Hindsight: The setup represents a bit of a retcon to the twin-trading dilemma as originally given by Ruth back in S2, but I can live with it. George is now responsible for ordering the deaths of both of Charming’s parents, which seems worth promoting him from enemy to nemesis.

We never find out the name of George’s queen -- presumably she had died by the time of the episode’s main action -- but that emphasizes how exclusively this plot is focused on fathers and sons, a theme that will carry through into 6.13 with Rumple and Gideon. “Family is everything” might as well be the theme of the show.

I really liked Robert appearing at Rumple’s place with nothing to pay; it puts the scene on an entirely different footing than their first encounter, and if it does not entirely remove the transactional element -- “You owe me” -- it does alter the resonance. This is not about money, not about anything material, not even about life or death, but about fatherhood in its purest form, the need to protect one’s child. That is a uniquely potent approach with Rumple in this context. (Of course the whole situation was Rumple’s connivance to begin with, but I think that by virtue of Robert being willing to make the deal, Rumple would argue that Robert deserved to be treated that way before.)

Having Zelena show up to deliver a patently obvious piece of information -- since Robyn is not his child by any definition, the entire scene was unnecessary -- seems like it can only have been intended to pave the way for future Robin 2.0/Zelena interactions.

Other than being certain that it will all end in tears, I’m curious what they have in mind for this plot. It was an interesting choice to say the least to place the healing scene in the crypt. Her attempt at a fresh start was doomed from the get-go, Robin wearing a dead man’s clothes in the place that symbolizes death-in-life, surrounded by the towering evidence of Regina’s past and her continued power-hoarding. She might regret the hearts, at least when reminded about them, but she has yet to do anything about it. I hope Sean had fun, anyway.

I liked the repeated shots of David watching Snow’s video on his phone; it really emphasized how isolated he feels. (I’ve seen a fair amount of annoyance over how Snow’s only waking scenes this ep were with Regina, but it fits with my assignment of the Devil’s Advocate role; Regina is currently under the sway of false hope, and it’s Snow’s job to argue with her.) Those moments preface Robert’s first two appearances to David. Can the ghost only appear when David is feeling particularly low and alone?

“The one time I need you to be that guy” - thing is, David, you can’t be “that guy” just “one time”. It was a tough habit to break, and one Killian has no interest in resuming *cough* because you end up doing regrettable things like killing random civilians for murky reasons *cough*. I have seldom been so delighted by a line of dialog in this show as I was by Hook’s that he would try to dissuade anyone who set out on a course of vengeance. This really is the clearest possible marker of the changes he’s gone through, from thoughtless killer to someone who prioritizes others’ healing.

On the reverse note, David was being such an asshole, and I loved it! C’mon, bro, it’s just me, what are you, chicken? Fine, I’ll do it by myself (you loser, you’re not really my friend). It’s all painfully, deliciously adolescent -- he needs a lookout so he can conduct a petty theft! -- and so Back to Pleasure Island we go, to the voice of temptation. I loved all of the Charming scenes in this episode; Josh really cut loose, and it was glorious. (I should also note that I appreciated David’s apology later on for having put Killian’s relationship with Emma in jeopardy; that was a nice, clear touch.)

So Emma does her magic research out in the shed now, and not in the basement/dungeon. Check. That whole scene was golden, even with the undercurrent; turns out nothing is so distracting as full-on honesty. I could watch sunny, smiling Emma for hours. More important than defeating Gideon is that she’s defeated her own fear about her fate. She’s glowing with happiness, ready to enjoy life as it comes, content with her son and her lover. We are on the precipice of the final fulfillment promised by the Hero’s Journey. *happy sigh*

The Science Bros scene was a perfect moment of relative lightness in an episode that could easily have gotten bogged down in itself. Well done, show! See, you can do physical comedy without making fun of people. Amazing.

The bit between David and George and then David and Killian was just SO GOOD I actually don’t have much to say about it? Every instant of emotion was beautifully wrung out of those two confrontations. Moments like this, when we get to see Killian, who faced all of his worst battles alone, being a rock for his loved ones in their moment of testing -- that’s when I love this story.

I also love George, they could have done so much more with him as a villain. Some day I will write that fic (haha). Anyway, since Storybrooke doesn’t seem to have any other place to store long-term prisoners, I assume Isaac is next door.

On to the conclusion.

Hm. Well, if I must.

I’m sooooo tiiiiiiiired of Killian confronting something evil he did in the past, guys. So tired of David in particular throwing “pirate” at him like S4 and 5 never fucking happened. So tired of angst faces and secrets and angry confrontations. This whole situation is a painfully close retread of 6.06, right down to the age of the piratically orphaned boys. At least Killian had a motive for killing Brennan, whereas this setup is so random as to appear both pointless and contrived, so, uh, D- for effort, writers.

As I complained earlier this week, this would have been a Shocking Revelation back in, say, S3, before CS was a solid thing, before they had gotten used to being more or less constantly haunted by Killian’s past.

Really, they should just put a box up on the porch in which people can leave a short form explaining their grievance and their preferred form of restitution: blood, treasure, or saving their life/loved one/sanity please choose only one because episode length.

As it is, we know CS will be fine -- we don’t need the Swoopy Camera of Love Kissing, but I won’t complain about it.

We therefore know that Captain Charming will be fine. This whole “complication” is just wasting time that could be spent on something more interesting or more fun or both, like picking out something other than a plain, standard engagement ring for a fairy tale couple that has such a distinct aesthetic, both of whom have a series-long history of sentimental statement jewelry and one of whom wears a ton of rings, but that would require them remembering that S5 happened, which appears to be against the rules--

Ahem.

Okay. He’s feeling urgent about this. I can see him wanting to get something new, something that doesn’t have a Past because it’s supposed to be about their future. The only place in town that sells EF-style stuff is the Croc’s, which is a non-starter, so it would have to be whatever serves Storybrooke for a modern jewelry store, but even in a town this size, they should have SOMETHING a little unusual. The guy is the standout clothes horse on the male side of the show; he owns forty dark shirts in different but equally subtle patterns; don’t tell me he can’t pick out a ring with some flair.

Anyway. Maybe he’ll pick up something cooler when [spoilers redacted].

In under the wire again, as we prepare for tonight’s episode! I think this next one will signpost Rumple’s final fate in the series, so I am prepared to be interested in what happens even though my emotional investment is zero.

#b watches once upon a time #ouat #ouat 6x12 #anti regina #mildly because she's barely in it

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