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#so it's within that group of personalities that would be the most likely to win his heart
batshit-auspol · 5 months
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So a bit of background first for our international followers: Clive Palmer is one of Australia's many mining billionaires who like to meddle in our country's politics, and as such he is utterly despised by all of Australia.
Picture for context:
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He is most commonly known online by the title "Fatty McFuckhead", (problematic as it may be) because he tried to sue a youtuber for $500,000 for calling him that - and he lost. So the name stuck.
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Up until his most recent foray into parliament, the legally certified Fuckhead was best known for his batshit business ventures, such as attempting to build "The Titanic 2" (failed) and trying to build a dinosaur theme park (also failed, but at least nobody got eaten by a T-Rex in this one).
For a very long time Clive played the role of sugar daddy to Australia's largest conservative party, the ironically named Liberal Party, until they had a falling out in 2012 after Clive claimed there was too much money influencing politics (lol), at which point he started his own party, days after saying he totally quit and wasn't fired and he only left because he didn't want to be a distraction.
His initial run at parliament was actually kinda successful, with Palmer's group winning 4 seats, plus a member from the "Motoring Enthusiasts Party" joined them too after accidentally getting elected and not knowing what the fuck to do.
Despite this initial success however, Palmer's party (which ran on basically no platform other than "I'm rich") hit an iceberg (titanic 2 achieved) and seven elected state and federal politicians quit within the first year.
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By the time the next federal election rolled around, only one Palmer party candidate was still running for re-election. The most successful of this group - Jaquie Lambie - quit to sit as an independant and is still in parliament today.
Here she is with a painting of herself strangling Clive (she sells signed copies of this)
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And here the senator is posting about liking sausage:
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Anyway, we're getting to the point: which is the yellow posters. By the 2016 election, just two years after forming, the party was in complete freefall. It won just 0.01% of the vote at their second election, and it was announced shortly after that Clive was quitting politics and the party was being shut down. Australia breathed a sigh of relief.
It was, of course, short lived.
Clive, in desperate need of attention, restarted the party for the 2019 election, fielding candidates in every seat and spending $60 million in advertising in an attempt to win votes.
Every single candidate lost.
It was in this campaign however that Australia really started to fall out of love with Palmer, because most of that $60 million went towards putting up the world's least compelling marketing billboards on almost every single free space in the country.
For a good six months this was basically the only thing you would see in Australia if you went outside:
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Clearly Graphic design is his passion. And yes, the genius did just straight up try and copy Trump's homework while changing a few words, hoping nobody would notice.
Very quickly these all got vandalised and it seemed the ad companies didn't care enough to replace them.
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We could go on posting examples, there are thousands, but the best is definitely the one Ikea put up shortly after Clive lost the election:
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In 2022, Clive's party contested the election AGAIN, this time also opting to send millions on spam text messages to every person in Australia begging for people to vote for him, as well as buying almost every youtube ad for a year, at the cost of $100 million.
He won a whopping one seat.
During this election Clive ran on an anti-lockdown, anti-vax platform with the slogan "freedom, freedom, freedom". That message, however, was slightly undermined when his goons, dressed in 'Freedom!' shirts, made national news for trying to beat up a protester who turned up at a rally dressed as an annoying text message, shouting "pay your workers" at Clive.
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As if that wasn't bad enough, at another rally Clive knocked himself unconscious while trying to jump up on stage, and then a few weeks later was rushed to hospital with covid, while his anti-vax ads were still in regular rotation on TV, at which point it was also leaked to the press that Palmer had been alledgedly trying to buy Hitler's car.
Utterly humiliated, the party deregistered again shortly after the election.
Can't wait until he runs again in 2025.
Anyway, on the other "Clive tweeting Miss Kobayashi's Dragon" thing, we have no idea what that means but here's a screencap:
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I’m a fierce believer and defender of Smooth Brain Astarion (affectionate).
I love that, if left to his own devices, he ends up dead in a ditch. I love that this pasty menace of an elf is a walking disaster. I love that his brain produces one coherent thought per day, only to have it backfire on him later on. I love that his first choice in freedom is to unapologetically be the worst version of himself. Because it makes sense. 
That’s what abuse and trauma do to your brain—they fuck with it. 
And in Astarion’s defence, the man didn’t have to use his brain for nearly 200 years—it’s probably the very thing that kept him as alive as he can be; to survive 200 years of pure shit. 
And what use is his brain when his days and nights are dictated by someone else for as long as he can remember? When he has no say in what clothes he wears. When he doesn’t get to choose what or when to eat. When his body and mind aren’t his own, distorted by torture and hunger and self-loathing, forced to obey his vampiric master. Why use his brain when his survival depends exclusively on his abuser’s whims? 
Astarion could’ve come up with the most brilliant plan possible to escape Cazador or save a mark from their doom, but he never stood a chance of succeeding—which doesn’t mean that he didn’t get punished for trying (or even thinking about it) anyway.
Existing under Cazador was a game he couldn’t win, so why bother playing? 
And it’s only by chance that Astarion’s autonomy is returned to him literally overnight. It’s only natural that he’s overwhelmed by his newfound freedom. How is he expected to make sound decisions when he can’t even recall a time when he could do and say as he pleased? 
Of course Astarion is a walking disaster when he finds himself on that beach after the Nautiloid crash—and he’s fully aware of that! That’s why it’s so crucial for him to get on the player’s/other companion’s good side.
He’s self-aware enough to be so insecure about himself that he would rather trust a stranger’s capabilities than his own. 
Being a catastrophe of a person is part of Astarion’s character journey. Not only does he have to reclaim his personhood, he has to learn how to depend on his own brain again and I think that's such a painfully beautiful, important message Baldur’s Gate 3 sends. 
Because healing isn’t pretty. Nor is it easy.
You’re not alright the moment you’re free of whatever horrors you had to live through—and that’s ok! There’s time and room for you to adjust. 
And the moment Astarion feels more or less safe within his new environment, when he’s fed and treated like a person worthy of respect and consideration, his insights, skills and perception are crucial assets to the group.
Astarion knows his art and literature, and although his little remarks are unhinged at times, he's genuinely witty. Even his objections are, considering the circumstances, absolutely legitimate.
Personally, I love seeing Smooth Brain Astarion become more and more secure in his judgement the more Tav/other companions trust and support him.
Astarion is smart, his brain’s just been stewed for nearly 200 years.
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bet-on-me-13 · 9 months
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Bank Security Guard Danny AU
So, the People of Gotham are extremely desensitized to Rouge Attacks at this point. It got to the point that whenever a person gets a job at the Bank, they have a whole 1 Hour Training Video on how to deal with a Rouge Attack right.
So, when they hire a New Security Guard from a lesser known Security Company, they don't even bother showing him the Training Video. They assume that he'll either Die or Drop them within a Week.
Danny, for the record, did not know how bad the Rouge problem truly was. All he knew was that some random guy in a Ski Mask had just walked into the bank like he owned the place and started showing off a Gun telling everybody to get on the ground.
Danny did the sensible thing and Knocked him the Fuck Out.
Then, the same thing happened the very next day, but this time it was an entire group of people. Danny had them dealt with before the first person had gotten to the floor.
Then the same thing happened the Same Day!
By the end of the week he had become a Legend among the Citizens of Gotham. There was only a single Bank in all of Gotham that had avoided being robbed for a Whole Week, and it was all because of this one Security Guard who was freakishly good at his Job.
By the end of the Month, most criminals don't even bother trying that Bank anymore. It got worse when he got loaned out as Security for another Bank, and the same thing happened again.
Eventually, he ends up rotating shifts in Every Bank in Gotham, and it becomes a Game for the Criminals to see if the Bank they try to Rob is the one Danny is in that night. And they can't even reasonably predict his next location, since he always moves around at Random!
No matter what Bank he is in, he always manages to beat the Crooks trying to Rob the Bank.
Then it gets weird. Due to a scheduling Mix Up, Danny ends up being scheduled for 2 different Banks on the same day, each across the city from the other.
One Bank reports that Danny stopped a gang from Robbing them at 6:00 PM, which really confuses the other Bank because Danny did the same thing in their Bank at the same time. Security Footage proves it, Danny was somehow in 2 places at once.
They decide not to confront him about it, but they do test a theory. They intentionally hire him at multiple different Banks at the same time for a week. He shows up to work every time without fail.
By now they have basically confirmed that he must be a Meta, but they don't really care anyways. Now he can protect multiple Banks at once with his usual perfect Efficiency, and he'll be payed accordingly as well. The Banks get protected well, and he gets payed Extreme Overtime by the Banks, everybody wins!
Well...except for the Crime Bosses of Gotham.
Before this, it was a Game for them to try and beat Danny. They didn't really care since a single Uber Competent Security Guard was still perfectly fine for business, sure they would fail a Job once in a while if they ran into him, but he could only be in 1 place at a time. It wasn't a Huge Loss.
But now it was too much. They needed to take care of him.
Assassination Attempts didn't work. He was just as competent Off the job as he was On it, so they could never get to him.
They tried attacking his Bosses, but then they hired themselves to protect...themselves. It was hard to kill his Bosses when he was constantly Bodyguarding all of them at once.
Attempts to get to him through his Family were...let's not talk about that...
It continued on like this for a while.
...
Soooo...I don't know how to end this one.
Go ahead and put your own spin on this Prompt! The basic idea is that Danny is using his Duplication Power to get to every shift on Time, and he is really annoying the Local Crime Bosses.
What do you think?
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wizard-email · 1 year
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I don't want to add god's longest addition to the would you survive an apocalypse?' poll, but I do actually have an absolutely fallproof plan for the zombie apocalypse. It doesn’t matter what kind of zombies there are & it has exactly (2) steps:
1. Drive to the nearest National Trust proparty
2. win
This is the result of a very lengthy (and completely serious) discussion with my sister so let me break it down for you.
Benefit 1: EVERYTHING'S THERE
For those of you who don't live in the UK (or don't have parents with exactly 1 idea for a family trip ever), all National Trust proparties are broadly speaking exactly the same.
There's a big rich person's house & the courtyard is always converted into a little picnic area containing a combination gift shop/booking desk; a cafe and a secondhand bookshop. The gift shop has like a 60% chances to contain basic gardening tools and a little section for seeds & bulbs.
I won't list their standardised cafe menu (that I do in fact have memorised), but it's pretty good & more importantly most of it is made or at least finished on site. If they rationed, a small group could live off National Trust cornish pasties, scones & gift shop fudge for a month or two I think <3
Here's a list of things that are might be there but aren't 100% guaranteed:
- Kitchen garden
- Fish pond
- Livestock (usually chickens, sometimes pigs or bees)
- Medieval armour (fuck ya'll with guns but I would take a pike over having to worry about ammunition any day)
- Horses and functioning stable
- Forests cultivated for the purpose of deer hunting
John McRichman's gun/archery collection
- Lake
Benefit 2: FUCKING!! CASTLE!!
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??? Where do I start???
1. These things are so easy to defend it's laughable.
I'm sure we all know about spiral staircases being designed to maximise cover for a right handed person during sieges but it's more than that ??? 18th century rich people loved to make their estates look as big, impressive & isolated as possible & they did this by surrounded their houses on all sides with several hundred metres of flat, open grass with thick trees on the edges to block out the horizon.
- Nothing can see you
- No loud noises will be within earshot of anything close to civilisation
- Any zombies that DO somehow show up can be picked off at a distance whether they know how to run or not
- Litterally there are so many little towers & secret rooms & shit how do you even manage to fuck up enough to die here like I would actually be impressed
- ALSO the edge of the estate is usually also walled off and/or fenced & gated, so there's no chance of anything wandering in by accident
2. All the older infrastructure is designed pre-electricity so you'll still be able to have a shower when the power grid inevitably explodes or something
3. You get to sleep in one of those huge 4-poster beds with all the fun embroidery and silk pillows
4. Idk the massive lawn can be converted into a farm if the apocalypse goes on long enough
Genuinely I think my quality of life would actually improve?? and that's just with what's already there - if there was time to pick up some supplies beforehand me & my buddies would just be hanging out. literally what apocalypse im eating scones xoxo
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paradisedumpling · 3 months
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Rosy Cheeks and Warm Jackets
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trope: quarterback!minji x shycheerleader!reader; fluff; tiny bit of angst if you squint really hard
content warning: yeonjun is a bit of a perv here sorry (he checks reader out twice); brief mention of making out; reader is a bit insecure; some curse words; minji calls reader hot like once; some grammatical errors; not proof read
a/n: I wrote this a few months ago and my knowledge about american football sucks, but this trope was stuck with me for so long I had to do something about it so I hope it's not that obvious (I'm also very bad at making synopsis lol)
synopsis: you never planned to do anything about your life long crush on the quarterback of your school's football team, but fate seems to be against you and it puts you together again and again....
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You turned around as loud whistles resonated within the school halls. The football team walked down with pride in each of their steps. Have won a very important game just the day before, who wouldn't?
You yourself had a small proud smile on your face as people cheered on them. Being part of the cheer squad, you knew a part of the win was also yours and it made you happy to know everyone's spirits seemed to be high after yesterday's game.
And because you were a cheerleader, you knew the football team personally, even going as far as to say you had friends in there. Although with being a very shy person, you were only really close with a few of your teammates. But your nice personality and popularity by simply being in the cheer squad managed to have you know a lot of people, despite your shyness.
A familiar loud bickering averted your attention from the overall image of the football team to two specific girls upfront, walking between and ahead of the entire team with big smiles on their faces; Kim Minji and Pham Hanni, the star duo of the football team.
You knew the two best friends not only from the games, but also from being in the same year and class as them and because Hanni was your best friend Danielle's girlfriend. You all hangout in the same group most of the time, but your shyness forbade you from getting too close with the duo.
Your eyes finally settled on the quarterback of the team, Minji. Tall, beautiful, easy-going, gorgeous, funny, pretty, talented at everything she touches. Minji was the definition of perfection, if someone was ever to ask you to define it. And she wasn't a mean person or thought of herself as above others, as the perfect girl in every movie did. No. That's what made her even more perfect in your opinion. Minji was perfection, the perfect one. And you wouldn't lie if you said she makes your heart skip a few beats everytime you see her or hear her voice.
It had been like that for a while, too. You and Minji had shared classes for as long as you can remember. The two of you always being in the same friend groups and were always at each others birthday parties, but you never got closer than that. You only came to share phone numbers after you got into the cheer squad. Still, Minji seemed to have always captured your heart. Since the moment you two met in kindergarten when you lost your figurine in the playground and she was the only kid who helped you find it, to all the moments you hangout together with your friends today and she buys you your favorite slushie even though she never asked your favorite before.
"Take a picture so it lasts longer." A voice beside you startled you, making you jump and turn around with a blush on your cheeks.
Kang Haerin, your best friend and a cheerleader, stood by your side as she eyed you with an annoyed expression. Haerin was the only close friend you had that knew about your not so small crush on the quarterback. Not that you didn't trust your other friends, but Danielle would eventually spill it to her girlfriend accidentally and Hyein would try to set you two together in a very obvious way. So it was better like this.
"Shut up!" You turned around, closing your locker and grabbing her arm to start walking towards Danielle's locker, face not looking at the football star players direction anymore knowing they were also going in that direction. "And I don't want to hear a word about it."
"I wasn't even going to say anything." You stopped to look at her, raising your eyebrow. She had a grin in the corner of her lips, eyes darting around as she faked uninterest. You scoffed, rolling your eyes and tugging her arm again.
"Hey, girls!" Danielle greeted you two as you approached her. You and Haerin said your greetings before she was engulfed in a hug by a certain football player. "Baby!"
You watched in amusement as the couple greeted each other and shared affection as if they haven't seen each other in ages. A giggle left your lips once you heard Haerin gagging at your side. "I'm gonna look for Hyein." You nodded at her words, still watching the couple, this time with longness in your eyes.
"They're so gross, ew." You turned to your side to be faced with Minji, a face of disgust directed at your friends actions. "Don't you think so, Y/nnie?" Your eyes widened as she turned to you, catching you looking at her.
She smiled down at you, giggling at your surprised expression. You only nodded, cheeks blushing a light red as you stared at Minji's eyes.
"Good morning, Minji-ah." You greeted shyly, eyes darting down to look at the books in your arms, clutching them tightly to your chest. "You did great yesterday."
"If it wasn't for your cheering, I wouldn't have gotten the energy to win the game." Your face got impossibly redder and you didn't know if she was laughing at you or not, but you would never complain about hearing her laugh. "You're cute when–"
"There's our star player!" Minji was cut off by a loud voice and a smack on her shoulder. You both turned to look as a tall boy smiled at her with pride while you tried to calm your racing heart as you caught Minji's attempt of complimenting you. "You were seriously amazing yesterday! We need to have more practices together cause I have to learn that pass you did to get us the match point!" You watched as he excitedly engaged into a conversation with Minji, who simply nodded and smiled at him.
The boy was none other than Choi Yeonjun, the captain of the masculine football team and a starting eleven player. You.... were very acquainted with Yeonjun, if you could call it that. Yeonjun was the type of person that knew everyone in and out of school. He was very popular and social and it wasn't uncommon for him to hop between friends in the school halls. Still, he had his group of close friends. And one of these close friends was Huening Kai, a tennis player in your school who had a younger sister you were friends with, Huening Bahiyyih. One time last year she invited you to their beach house for a gathering with a few athletes in the school, and Yeonjun was there. You didn't interact much at the beginning, but after Bahiyyih dragged you to dance one night you seemed to have caught his eyes. For the remaining time at the beach house he openly flirted with you and tried to get you to go on a date with him, but you always turned him down. After all, you had eyes for another football player. But that didn't prove much efficient as to this day he still tries to date you.
"And when you grabbed the ball and started running–" Yeonjun's eyes flickered towards you for a slip second as he was passionately talking about yesterday's game with Minji and he finally seemed to notice there was someone else with her before he approached, you just couldn't decipher if he had also seen Hanni and Danielle making out behind the three of you or not. He faltered in his speech as he stopped to check you out and you suddenly became very conscious of the revealing cheer uniform you were wearing. "Oh, hey there Y/n. I didn't see you before, sorry." You tightened your grip on your books, smiling politely at him. You shifted uncomfortably as he bluntly checked you out. "Nice fit."
"Thanks." You mumbled with a tight smile, bringing a hand down to pull your skirt down. It wouldn't do anything, but it was an effort. You mentally cursed yourself for not coming with a pair of sweatpants like Haerin and Danielle did. You see, you normally don't wear your uniform around school like that, unless you have practice during the first periods of class. But as per tradition, you always take a group photo after big games. Yesterday you couldn't because of the after party so you were going to take it today during lunch time, and your coach insisted you all came with your uniforms so it wouldn't take too long. You were not expecting to deal with Yeonjun or any other of your admires before you could change to your normal clothes though.
"So." Minji cleared her throat, eyeing Yeonjun with disgust as she leaned closer to you and wrapped her arm around your shoulders. That seemed to snap Yeonjun's eyes from your exposed legs. "We can talk with our coaches about the joined practice later, right?" Yeonjun nodded as he eyed Minji's arm around you, blinking a few times before he looked up to look at her in the eye, a bright smile on his lips.
"Totally!" He put his hands inside his jacket's pockets, standing carelessly on his heels as if the action didn't affect him, but both you and Minji knew it did.
"Great!" She smiled at him and if you were looking you'd see the threat in her eyes. "We have to go fetch the other girls right now, if you don't mind. See you later!" Not giving him any time to reply, she grabbed Hanni by the back of her collar and started dragging her away, gently rubbing your shoulder and ushering Danielle. "Come on Dani, before Haerin let's Hyein buy that gross candy again."
"Damn bro, no need to choke me." Minji let go of Hanni when you were far away enough from Yeonjun and you watched the poor girl rub her neck as she stared at Minji judgely. "What was that for?" Hanni asked, wrapping her arm around Danielle's waist as the four of you walked towards the interior court where you knew Haerin and Hyein were.
But the oldest girl simply ignored her best friend. Instead, she turned to you, gently whispering in your ear. "Are you okay?"
You nodded, blushing at her breath on your ear. "Yeah, thanks." You sighed, looking down at your exposed legs and arms. Probably the only thing you hated about cheerleading was the summer uniforms. "I should've come with leggings or something at least, that's on me. Sorry." You looked up as you apologized, staring into her beautiful eyes that held nothing but concern. You didn't fail to notice the pout on her lips.
"It's his fault for being a creepy perv, not yours." She grumbled, arms pulling you closer as she practically hugged you to her chest. Suddenly, her eyes light up as she let go of you. You couldn't help the pang in your chest as she did so. "Here." She started taking her varsity jacket off and you eyed her with curiosity. "It's not much but I hope it helps." Your eyes widened once you realized what she was doing and you couldn't help the blush on your cheeks as she gently helped you put her varsity jacket on. Minji smiled proudly as she stared at you.
"Thanks, Min." You smiled shyly at her, averting your gaze and missing how her eyes softened at the nickname.
Minji didn't put her arm back around your shoulders as the four of you continued on your way to meet up with the rest of your friends, but she remained close and kept an eye for anyone else glaring at you.
Finally, you reached the interior court. "There they are!" Danielle pointed to your usual corner, where you could clearly see the two bickering about something. You let a small smile rest on your face as you watched them, shaking your head as you approached calmly.
"Unnies!" Hyein jumped as she saw you four approaching, running to grab you by your hand and drag you to where she previously was. "Can you help me with my arts homework? I forgot to do it yesterday and Haerin doesn't want to help me." She pouted, looking at you with pleading eyes.
"You know your teacher will eventually realize I'm the one doing your homeworks, right?" You sighed as you sat down beside Haerin, waiting for Hyein to hand you her homework.
Danielle and Hanni came to sit behind you three, engaging into a conversation with Minji, said girl remained standing and she put one of her feet on the bench on the other side of Haerin for support and crossed her arms on her chest. You momentarily lost yourself as you watched her laugh at whatever nonsense Hanni said, her head falling back as her eyes grew into crescent moons. God, she's beautiful.
"Here, unnie!" You turned to Hyein, trying not to blush as your eyes came down to your lap to scan her homework.
You two quietly worked on her homework as your other friends chatted. It wasn't an uncommon dynamic for all of you. Hyein was smart and dedicated, but she often used her status as youngest in the group to have any of you help her with her homeworks. In her words "Since you already did it before, it should be easy right?" And it normally was. None of you ever minded helping each other with anything. But the lingering perfume on Minji's jacket had your mind wandering more times than you'd like to and you took longer to complete Hyein's homework than you do on other days.
After you finally finished it and let the girl to gather her things in her backpack, you grabbed your cellphone to look at the time. You only had fifteen minutes before your classes begin, so you turned to the chatting girls as they seemed too engaged into their conversation to notice the time passing.
Your eyes darted between the two football players and your cheermates, feeling too shy to abruptly interrupt their conversation. So, you eyed Danielle. You tapped her leg, leaning closer as she turned to you confused. "We need to go, class is about to begin." Her mouth gained a oval shaped and she nodded, smiling at you and patting your head.
You watched with slightly flushed cheeks as she warned the other girls and you all got up to walk to class, Minji and Hanni still engaged into their conversation as you made your way out of the internal court.
Once you were approaching the point were you'd all split up to go to your perspective classrooms, Haerin pulled you back by the arm. You eyed her with confusion as she stared at you amused. "What?"
"What?" She mocked, looking down at your torso. You eyebrows furrowed deeply as you looked down, blushing in realization as you took notice of Minji's jacket, not that you ever forgot it was there. "What happened while I was gone?" She wiggled her eyebrows at you, quietly giggling at the blush spreading all over your face.
"Shut up, Rinnie!" You shushed her, looking away at anything but her face and the quarterback walking in front of you two. "Yeonjun was flirting with me again." You heard her groaning and you could imagine the immense eye roll she did. "Minji was simply trying to make me comfortable because I'm stupid and forgot pants."
"I knew I should've brought spares." She mumbled, cursing Yeonjun under her breath as you approached the hall where all of you parted ways.
You watched as Hanni and Danielle kissed and hugged goodbye, turning to give your own hug to Hyein. The younger girl waved to you all before skipping down towards her classroom and you waived to Danielle as she went on her own way too.
"I swear if that asshole–" Haerin still mumbled and you couldn't help but giggle at your friend's protectiveness. You pulled her into a hug, shushing her as she realized you had all stopped walking and Hyein and Danielle were already gone.
"I'm okay, Rinnie. Don't worry." You whispered in her ear, pulling back to give her a smile. That seemed to calm her down enough as she waved to Minji and Hanni and hurried towards her classroom.
"Why is everyone so grumpy today, man?" Hanni asked as she pulled you to stand between her and Minji, the three of you walking calmly to your own classroom. "First Minji and now Haerin. Is the water tasting like shit again?"
"Stop being gross!" Minji returned grumpily and you giggled as Hanni looked at you with an 'I told you so' face.
"Stop being a dick!" You laughed as the duo kept on bickering all the way to your class and in your tables, shaking your head.
"I'm not being a dick, your ass–"
---------------------------------------------------
"Alright girls, take five!" You heard Danielle groan in relief as Chaewon, the cheer captain, announced the break.
You and the rest of the cheerleaders have been practicing for a few hours now, the new routine being a bit more tiring than the ones you've been doing for the past few months. Theoretically, you all had a break until next week due to the win in the game the day prior. But your coach wasn't satisfied with your performance this season and she wanted to polish your routines as soon as possible, so here you all were practicing.
You walked towards the bench and grabbed your water bottle, quietly laughing as Danielle and Hyein laid down on the floor with wet cloaks on their foreheads. Haerin came up to the three of you and sat down on the bench, taking the bottle from your hands before you had a chance to take a sip of it. "Hey!"
"Not my fault you're busy staring at other people." She teased, laughing at your annoyed face before downing the water.
"Don't you do the same?" Hyein asked, looking at you two with a tired face. You smiled sympathetically at her, walking to crouch down besides her head and brush the hair sticking on her face due to the sweat away.
"That's why I can comment on it." Haerin replied, tossing you the water bottle. You grabbed it with a yelp, scolding her for not warning you beforehand. "At least I talk to Minji unnie instead of just staring." She mumbled, trying to hide her smirk as you looked at her with disbelief.
"What did you say?" Danielle asked, opening her eyes to look at the three of you with curiosity. "I didn't hear it."
"She said nothing." You glared at Haerin, silently daring her to repeat her words. She looked away, pretending to be interested in something else. "Anyways." You turned to Danielle, standing up and drinking your water. "What are you guys doing tonight? It's Friday."
"Oh! I'm going on a date with Hanni tonight!" Danielle's energy suddenly came back as she sat up quickly, the cloak falling from her forehead. But she didn't seem to mind as her smile only grew bigger, her eyes staring at the sky as she seemed to be getting lost in her own head. "She said there's this nice restaurant she's going to take me!" Her voice was dreamy and you smiled longingly as your friend kept talking. "And then later we're going to my house and watch some movies!"
"I have homework to do." Hyein groaned loudly and you all laughed as you watched her annoyed face. "Why do they give us so much homework?"
"Welcome to highschool." You, Danielle and Haerin groaned, rolling your eyes. "Good luck, Hyennie." Hyein whined at your guys words, pouting.
"I'm going to the cinema with my mom and my sister." Haerin said her plans for the night, getting up from the bench. "But we'll probably have dinner somewhere before too." She walked up to Danielle as you could see Chaewon and your coach slowly gathering the other cheerleaders. "We might run into each other if I'm lucky." She told Danielle with a sly grin as she helped the older girl stand up.
"Oh please, no." You laughed at Danielle as you helped Hyein get up. "The last time you guys crashed my date it didn't end up well." The australian's eyes widened in fear as she remembered the fateful date.
"It wasn't that bad." Hyein said as you three tried not to laugh at Danielle's expression of disbelief. "We just got banned from that restaurant for what? Three months? Nothing serious."
"You embarrassed me in front of my girlfriend!" Danielle exclaimed as you started to walk back to the middle of the court, hands going up as her body expressed her emotions. "And that was Hanni's favorite restaurant too! She was so sad." The girl pouted and Haerin and Hyein laughed at her as you laid a hand on her shoulder sympathetically.
"We apologized and she said it's all good now." You tired to comfort your friend, glaring at the two youngests that kept laughing. "She laughs everytime someone mentions it, even."
"You're right." Danielle smiled, nodding and turning to face you. "What about you, Y/n? You were the only one that didn't say what you're going to do tonight."
"Oh." You blinked at her, shrugging as you turned to your captain. "I'll probably just go home and do nothing important."
"You should go out with Minji." You choked on your own spit as the words left Danielle's mouth, turning to look at her with an evident blush rising on your face. "She's not doing anything as far as I know and neither is you, it's a perfect idea." You looked at Haerin behind her with wide eyes, silently asking her if she told the australian anything about your crush on Minji, but she seemed as surprised as you were.
"W-Why?" You cursed yourself mentally for stuttering, looking away so Danielle wouldn't see the embarrassment and shyness in your face.
"Because you're friends and you both have nothing to do on a Friday night?" You were glad she sounded genuinely confused at your question, but you couldn't help fear that she had figured out you liked Minji. You loved and trusted Danielle with your life, but if Hanni and Hyein ever found out about your crush the three of them would become the most obvious and chaotic cupids to date. And that thought horrified you. Minji deserved someone social and cool, and you didn't want to ruin your entire friend group's friendship over a stupid crush you had on the quarterback.
"We'll talk about this later." You mumbled, straightening you back as your coach yelled that the break was over.
---------------------------------------------------
You sighed as you tied your shoes, feeling relaxed after a cold shower in the locker rooms. Practice ended about an hour ago and you took your sweet time showering and dressing up. Haerin and Hyein had already left, the younger taking the opportunity to take a ride with the catlike girl. Danielle on the other hand, was still putting her shirt on by your side in front of her locker.
Talking about the australian girl. "Dani!" Kazuha, one of your cheermates, yelled to your friend, making the girl turn around while she pulled her shirt down her torso. You simply resorted to finishing putting your shoes on. "Hanni's here!" Your friend squealed in excitement and you giggled at her, shaking your head.
You tuned their conversation off, shifting your attention to a certain quarterback that seemed to always plague your mind. You clutched Minji's varsity jacket to your chest as you finished tying your shoes, a small smile resting on your lips as you reminisced about how beautiful she looked during class, laughing at whatever nonsense your classmates and Hanni said. You brought the jacket to partially hide your face when your memories brought you to a moment during bio class where the teacher assigned you all a group activity and as per tradition at this point, the football players and the cheerleaders stick together on the same group. Yunjin, a football player, was blocking your way towards your seat and she was so engaged into the activity with Kazuha that you felt too shy to ask her to move, so you waited patiently behind her. But Minji noticed you behind her and instead of asking Yunjin to move, she lifted you up so you could pass above the tables instead. To say you were a blushing mess after that was an understatement, and to make matters worse for you, or better, Minji kept an arm around your waist during the entire class, always smiling down at you and giggling at your rosy cheeks. Gosh, you loved that girl.
"I hope you're thinking about me." You jumped startled, hand gripping on the jacket as whoever just spoke to you giggled at your reaction. You looked up to see Minji looking down at you with her beautiful smile, eyebrows quirking up as you finally knowledged her. "Hi, Y/nnie."
"Hey, Min. What are you doing here?" You smiled at her, fighting back your blush as you got up and put the jacket in your hands on, finally noticing how quiet the lockers room had gotten. The others must've already left, but you didn't want to tear your eyes from the football player in front of you.
"I'm giving a ride to the girls for their date, so we came to pick Dani up." You nodded and your eyes locked for a few seconds, before you averted your gaze and went to grab your gym and school bags. "Are you going somewhere tonight too? I can give you a ride if you want."
"Oh, it's okay." You shaked your heard, looking away to see Danielle and Hanni in their own little world, giggling with each other. "I'll just go home and figure out what I'll have for dinner because no one's home for a while and there's nothing in the fridge..." You accidentally rambled, trailing off as you caught Minji smiling at you.
"Wanna go out?" You blinked at her question. Was she asking you on a date? I mean of course not, why would she? She's just asking her friend to go out because you have nothing to do and she has nothing to do so she must want to go out with her friend. Just that. Nothing else. Of course Minji wouldn't be asking you on a date why would she– "Y/n? You're cute when you get lost in your head like that." She giggled and you were certain your entire face was very red.
"What?! I am not!" You playfully slapped her shoulder, leaning into her as you both laughed, you more because of embarrassment than anything else.
"So." She held your waist with one hand, brushing a few strands of hair from your face with the other. "Wanna go out? We can go that convinience store close to my grandparents house." Your eyes lit up at that. That convenience store was one you'd go often when you were kids to buy ice cream and watch cartoons because her grandparents never let you watch them at their house.
"I would love to!" You smiled a her, big and genuine. Minji smiled down at you, caressing your cheek as she nodded. "How have they been, by the way? I haven't seen them in so long!"
"They ask about you a lot, actually." You looked at her in surprise and she only nodded, giggling. "You know they love you." You shaked your head at that, blushing slightly. "My parents miss you too. You should come over more often, I feel like we barely talk outside school or when we are not with the girls." You nodded, feeling a bit guilty. You wouldn't lie in saying that your crush had strained your friendship with the girl because of your shyness around her. But you were glad she wanted to see you more often.
Before you could engage deeper into your conversation, Hanni and Danielle came up to you two holding hands and with big smiles on their faces. "Dani's ready to go. Oh hey, Y/n." You waved at Hanni, smiling at your friends happiness. "Let's go, Minji. We have reservations, we can't be late."
"Ready to go?" Minji looked at you and you nodded. The quarterback smiled and laced her arms with yours, starting to walk away with the couple to the parking lot.
"Oh, you told her about my idea from earlier?" Danielle asked as she noticed you were following them to Minji's car.
"What idea?" Minji and Hanni looked between the two of you with curiosity and you couldn't help but look down embarrassed.
"Nothing–"
"Y/n had just said she would be doing nothing tonight so I suggested she should go out with Minji since she was also doing nothing tonight." Danielle cut you off before you could dismiss her and you were glad it was dark otherwise as Minji looked down at you with amusement she would've seen the blush spreading over your cheeks.
"Seems like us going out today was destiny." She said in a deep voice, pulling you closer and giggling at you before she let go of your arm to round the car and go towards the driver's seat. "Y/n's taking the front seat!" She glanced at Hanni who was about to open the passenger's seat door.
"Why?!" You and Danielle muffled your laughs at the girl's genuine offense. "You ask her out once and now she has passenger princess privileges?" Hanni huffed as she walked to the backseat with her girlfriend, closing the door behind her a bit harsher. "I thought we were mates, bro." She continued complaining as you all got inside Minji's car, buckling up before the older girl started the vehicle.
"Shut up and enjoy your free ride, Hanni." Minji shaked her head, giving you an reassuring smile as she saw you were feeling a bit panicked by Hanni's reaction. "She's just being dramatic, don't worry." She whispered to you before turning to face the street.
After turning on the radio, you all fell into a comfortable ambience as the couple in the backseats talked about their plans for the night, while you and Minji silently laughed, teasing them every once in a while for good laughs.
When Minji parked in front of the restaurant Hanni and Danielle would be having dinner at, she opened the window and peaked her head outside to look at the couple getting out of the car. "Remember to call your parents when you get home!" She said as she looked at Hanni, pointing an accusing finger at her. "I don't want your mom at my door at 3AM again because you forgot to text her you got at mine's safely!"
"Damn bro, that happened once!" Hanni mumbled angrily, having a bickery staring contest with Minji before Danielle broke it with a quiet laugh.
"We will, unnie. Don't worry." Danielle smiled, lacing her fingers with Hanni's. "Have a good night you two!" They waved at you two goodbye, and you turned to Minji as she mumbled.
"It was three times, actually." You giggled, and looked around faking uninterest as Minji looked at you puzzled. "Well... Shall we go to our date now?"
"Y-Yes!" You squealed, face becoming more red as Minji laughed at you. You were rigid in your seat as her hand lightly squeeze yours in your lap before shifting the gear from parked to begin driving away from the restaurant.
---------------------------------------------------
"I think I'll just have these." You handed Minji the items you wanted to buy from the convinience store: two tuna onigiris, a strawberry sandwich and a bottle of strawberry juice. The girl put the items in the basket she had looped on her arm, smiling at you sweetly. "Are we going to eat here or on your car?"
"Actually, I was thinking–" But before Minji could finish her phrase, she was interrupted by the sound of your phone ringing in the pocket of her jacket you were still wearing.
You smiled at her apologetically before grabbing your phone, looking at the familiar name popping on the screen. "Oh, it's Haerin." You were a bit confused on why the girl was calling you so late at night without warning, but you brushed it off remembering she had gone to the cinema and was either excited about it or bored by it.
"You should pick it up, Haerin doesn't usually call people." You nodded, knowing very well all the habits of your best friend. You once again smiled apologetically at Minji, but she simply gave you a sweet smile. "I'll finish grabbing my things and meet you outside?"
"Thank you, you're amazing." Wanting to rush out and answer Haerin's call before it went to voicemail, you stood on your tiptoes and kissed Minji on her right cheek as another thanks before rushing out of the store and answering the call. "What's up, Rin?"
"The movie was good but now mom's complaining about how it wasn't 'realistic' and now I'm annoyed, so I decided to annoy you too. What are you doing?" You laughed at her annoyed tone, pulling the jacket tight around your torso as a chilly breezy ran past you.
"Out with Min." You giggled at Haerin's loud gasp, feeling the warm on your cheeks, but you told yourself it was because you were cold. "She invited me to go to a convinience store close to her grandparents house. And don't be weird about it! We used to come here as kids."
"What happened after I left?!" The annoyance she had seconds ago was long gone and that made you laugh at her, lightly pacing back and forth on your reels to warm your body a little. "So, have you two kissed yet?"
"Shut up!" The warm on your neck was definitely not from the cold and you had to bite your lower lip to stop yourself from smiling at the thought of kissing the quarterback. "It's a totally platonic outting. Nothing else. And stop being weird."
"Dude, you're so dense it's frustrating sometimes." You could hear the roll of her eyes in her voice and that made your eyes roll too. "Just tell her you like her already!"
"Stop!" You squealed, looking back afraid Minji might be near, but you saw her attentively looking through the freezer for something to drink. She looked cute. "She doesn't feel the same anyways, so there's no need for that."
"You don't know it until you confess!" You rolled your eyes once again, sighing in annoyance. "Come on, Y/n! Don't be a coward for once!"
"Why are you so insistent on this? Can't I just like her from afar?" You could never understand why Haerin was so insisted on making you confess to Minji. Was it so hard for her to understand the football star would never return your feelings for her?
"No, you can't!" The girl groaned on the other side of the line and you heard some movement before she spoke again. "Use this date as an opportunity to finally bitchen up and tell her you like her! What's the worse that could happen?"
"Loose Minji's friendship?" You said that like it was the most obvious thing ever, frustration starting to build up in your chest. "Which I already am by the way, because I'm a stupid coward."
"Then stop being one!"
"Can you stop instigating me for once, Kang Haerin?!" Your voice raised a little, gripping your phone as your fear of rejection surfaced from the depths of your heart. "I'm not telling Minji I like her! End of story!" There was a loud groan from the other side of the line and you where about to tell her you wouldn't do what she wanted you to once again when a voice from behind you stopped you from doing so.
"You like me?"
Your eyes widened, body going rigid as Minji walked in front of you, looking you direct in the eyes. Suddenly, the firm grip you had on your cellphone loosened and your phone slowly fell from your hands. The loud sound it made as it hit the floor made you jump a little, but you didn't move to pick it up. You didn't blink as Minji eyes stared deeply into your own. You could feel your entire face going red and your hands start to shake from fear. This was it. The secret was out. She was going to reject you and you were going to loose one of your closest and best friends and she was going to–
"Why didn't you tell me before, silly?" She laughed. Minji laughed. Her eyes were crescent moons, just like they always were when she was happy. You'd know that much, you're always staring at her. And she had a faint blush on her cheeks. You were confused, and still locked in place. "Oh, Y/n." She stepped close to you, her voice dropping two octaves, making goosebumps go through your entire body. She brought both of her hands to your cheeks, gently caressing them. You couldn't get any redder than this. "You're cute when you're blushing."
"M-Minji I- What are you doing?" You said in a whisper, gulping down as her body was practically flush to yours. You could feel her warm breath hitting your face.
"Can I kiss you, Y/nnie?" Your eyes went wide at that and your vision became a bit blurry. Your breath got stuck in your throat and you nodded eagerly before your hazy mind could understand what you were doing.
Minji giggled at the confused and awestruck state you were in, before looking down at your lips and leaning in, the phone on the floor long forgotten by both of you.
Your mind went blank before beginning to register things again. Minji's lips were soft and a bit cold, but they felt so incredibly good. They tasted faintly like the milk chocolate you knew she loved. You took a few seconds to relax from the shock, closing your eyes and sighing into her lips before wrapping your hands around her neck. You felt Minji smile into your lips before she let one hand go of your cheek, pulling your closer to her by the waist and deepening the kiss.
You both pulled back when air was needed and you rested your head on her shoulder, giggling quietly as she gently caressed your back.
"I like you so much, Y/n." You pulled back just enough to look at her, your eyes shining with love as you bit your lips in slight shyness from her affectionate gaze.
"I think I've liked you since I met you, Minji." You took all of your courage to say that confidently, smiling brightly at her as she smiled back at you.
"Hmm, that's good." She mumbled, leaning in smiling before she captured your lips on hers once again. You were already getting addicted to the feeling of them.
This time, you were both interrupted by your phone ringing, Haerin's familiar ringtone making you remember your phone.
You pulled back with a quiet 'Sorry', crouching down to pick your phone up, that was luckily not broken, and quickly texted your best friend that your data was almost over and you'd talk to her later. You looked back at Minji, suddenly feeling shy under her sweet gaze that held a new meaning in your eyes and heart.
"So, wanna take this date to somewhere else? I don't wanna ask you to be my girlfriend in front of a convinience store." She eyed the glass sliding doors with an awkward smile, but your mind focused on something else. Girlfriend... Minji wanted to be your girlfriend. Holy shit Minji liked you! "Baby? Let's go?"
"Yes!" You squealed at the pet name, blushing brightly as she giggled and grabbed your hand, dragging you towards her parked car.
"By the way." She turned to look at you once you stopped in front of the passenger's seat, looking down at you with a sweet but mischievous smile. "You look very cute and hot wearing my football jacket."
"Kim Minji!" You squealed in disbelief as she rounded the car laughing loudly.
---------------------------------------------------
You closed your locker with a sigh, turning to face Danielle and Haerin as a few of your cheermates bid you goodbye. It was Monday again and the three of you had just changed your cheer clothes from practice before classes to your normal school ones.
"What is taking Hyein so long?" The australian mumbled, looping her arms around both yours and Haerin's arms to begin leading you towards the youngest's locker.
A few of the students waved at you three, but everyone seemed to be in their own little world. It was Monday, and most of the clubs were on a small break, so the mood around the school was a bit more chill than usual. And no sight of the two football star players like you used to see every morning.
You spotted the tall girl you were looking for speaking to a few of her classmates. When she spotted you the three of you, she waved and smiled brightly. But wishing to let Hyein speak patiently to her classmates, you pulled Danielle back to slow her pace and allow the three of you to walk slowly towards the younger girl.
Once you were close to reaching her, a loud voice seethed through the peaceful atmosphere of the hallway calling out your name. "Y/n! Wait!" You looked back confused, letting go of Danielle's arm to be greeted with the sight of Yeonjun running in your direction with a football in his hands.
"Oh, hey. Good morning, Yeonjun." You gave the boy a tight but polite smile, grateful that this time you were wearing clothes that covered your body. You could feel Haerin's intense gaze at him from behind you. "You seem excited."
"I heard well have a joined practice tomorrow!" You nodded, folding your arms in front of your torso as you hugged yourself, starting to feel uncomfortable under his intense gaze. You might not be wearing revealing clothes, but the way his eyes traveled down your body made you feel exposed just as much. "So, I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me after it." You blinked at him, not failing to hear the growl Haerin let out from behind you.
"Yeonjun..." Your voice was serious, and a bit annoyed if you were being honest, but you remained your politeness, feeling shy about making a fuss in front of so many people. "No. You know I don't see you like that."
"Just give me a chance!" He slapped his ball in frustration, looking pleadingly in your eyes. "Why not?!"
"Because she doesn't want to!" Haerin angrily answered for you. You turned to give her a stern look, turning back once again to look at Yeonjun, feeling small but annoyed under his gaze.
"I don't like you like that, Yeonjun." You sighed frustrated, fingers slightly fidgeting with the necklace you had under your shirt, the necklace Minji gave you while you didn't have official rings yet. "Besides, I'm not even sin–"
"Hey, babe." Familiar arms looped around your waist, a sweet kiss being planted on your cheeks as a big smile immediately formed on your lips. "Good morning."
You turned to look at your girlfriend Minji, standing on your tiptoes to give her a sweet kiss on her lips. "Good morning, baby. How are you doing?"
"Great, now that you're here." She smiled down at you and was about to say something else when a shocked cough interrupted her. Minji turned to look at Yeonjun, giving him a not so subtle annoyed expression. "Oh hey, Yeonjun. Were you and my girlfriend talking about something important? Sorry to interrupt you." You loved how she said girlfriend in a protective way, pulling you closer to her and tightening her hold on you.
"Oh, it was nothing." You interrupted Yeonjun before he could answer her, feeling a bit more confident in the safety of her arms. "Don't worry about it."
"Yeah, it was nothing." He mumbled, smiling awkwardly. "See you two around." He skipped away quite quickly, mumbling something under his breath.
You turned to look at Minji as she cursed him quietly, giggling as you gently caressed her nape to calm her down. You were about to lean in to kiss her again when a loud squeal interrupted you.
"I'm sorry?! I think I missed a chapter!? Girlfriend!?" The two of you turned to look at your friends, all plastering shocked faces, but Haerin was the only one smiling between them.
"Oh, did we forget to tell you guys?" Minji said nonchalantly, blinking at them before a big smile appeared on her face as she turned to look at you. "We are dating!"
"You fucking asshole! I knew your data was fine!" Haerin slapped your shoulder, quite strongly, as she recovered from her surprise. "I told you it'd go well!"
"Wait, Haerin knew about this?!" Hanni pointed accusingly at the catlike girl, still looking between you and Minji in shock.
"She knew I liked Minji..." You trailed off shyly as you looked between Danielle and Hyein, waiting their reaction to the new information.
The australian girl seemed to finally snap out of her shock, jumping excitedly on top of you and your girlfriend, squealing loudly. "You have to tell me everything! I can't believe it! I can't believe it! You two look so cute together!"
"What are your intentions with my unnie?" Hyein pointed at Minji, trying her best to look intimidating, but she looked toi happy to be taken seriously.
"Don't worry about her, kid. I'll take good care of Y/nnie for you." Minji laughed at Hyein, patting her head.
"What the fuck, bro!" Hanni also joined her girlfriend in the hug, pulling you and Minji's faces close to her. "Congrats, man! You finally got the girl!"
"Okay, wait." Danielle pulled back, looking at her cellphone. "We have thirty minutes before class, you have to tell us everything!"
You all laughed, beginning to walk towards the court to your usual spot, your girlfriend's arm securely wrapped around your shoulders, and you were still wearing her jacket.
---------------------------------------------------
a/n: this is honestly kind of very bad but if you read it once and then think about the scenario in your head it's kinda cute so it's okay I guess
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carlosbaldellou · 10 months
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The kind and the furious
When humanity was welcomen in the stars, nobody knew what to expect of these deathworlders. Their world looked stunning. Full of life. Well, mostly. They had serene places, fruit trees neatly arranged. Sure, the tectonic activity was on the high end of the spectrum, but perfectly livable. But then, you noticed the animals. The arms race of evolution. Predators that evolved to avoid other predators. Hervibores with toxines so potent as to wipe out the largest predator animal in the galaxy. Predators that somehow evolved to resist those toxins and other ludicrous natural defenses. It was... madness, to most of the galaxy.
Humanity spread far and wide. They had looked into the dark abyss of space for a long time, and now that they could roam trough it, they went everywhere. Small human settlements started to pop up everywhere. The races were cautious, but this new species seemed like a good neighbour. So they welcomed them, still unsure as to how to clasify them.
Untill a disaster happened. A huge chain explosion in a residential area. Buildings collapsed and fire roared. The emergency response teams were overwhelmed. But they, with time, managed to quench the fire and control the situation.
And then, the humans came. With their personal vehicles. From neighbouring cities. From far away cities. They started to clean the rubble, even if it was not their duty. They helped the victims. Looked for survivors. Cared for them. Healed them. Sure, kindness and help from your own species was expected to a degree, but from another species? It was unheard of. You cared for your own. But humans were different. They were kind to everyone. They helped as they could. Preparing meals. Setting up tents. Moving rubble... And every time a survivor was found, they cheered with enthusiasm.
The galaxy at large looked at them. And humanity was labeled as the kindest species in the falactic collective.
That is, until it was found what had happened. While moving rubble, some metallic carcass was found. One that was traced to an explosive from a species outside the galactic empire. Tensions rose. War broke out a couple years ago.
Humans joined the war. Everyone thought they were kind. Everyone tought they would provide support.
Everyone was wrong.
When humans started fighting, they showed why they were the dominant species of their world. Sure, they did not have vicious claws. Sure, they did not have venoms. Sure, they were not armoured. But they were smart. They were cunning. They had planned for stellar warfare before we found them. They already had devised strategies. Simple, brutal strategies.
Humanity grabbed the biggest asteroid they could find, strapped some rockets to it and launched it straight to the enemy positions. Their fleet, guarding behind it. Using it as cover. When tvey were found out, they jumped to defend that asteroid. They were a small group agains an entire planet. Nobody tought the humans could win.
Everyone was wrong.
Humans fought with all their cunning and might. They fought with ferocity and ruthlessness. Disabling thrusters and energy systems first. Then leaving the poor enemy ships to die. They were no longer a threat. The asteroid advanced and got into descent orbit. Impact was inevitable. And the humans left. They had done their job. A quarter of the world was wiped from the initial blast. The rest of the planet was uninhabitable, and would be for a long time.
Humans fought. Their strategies evolving. Changing to counter their enemies as they started to be prepared. Always a step beyond. Always with a new warfare solution. Orbital bombardment with titanium rods, cloaking technogy never seen before, new ship designs seemingly every day.
Humans fought. Captive humans found ways to escape prison and sabotage the enemy from within. Wounded humans went to fight again while still recovering. Their savagery in limit situations scared allies and enemies alike.
The war ended with the enemy surrendering completely. Mostly thanks to the humans. Peace was signed. And then, the humans sent aid to the defeated enemy. Cargo ships full of medicine and food started arriving. Human troopers helping with the reconstruction efforts.
Humans, like their homeworld, were a race of extremes. Capable of the biggest acts of kindness the galaxy had ever seen, but also the most furious and savage acts when it was necessary.
------
Hope you all like it. It's my first story of this kind
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caassette · 11 months
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been on tumblr less than a week and already Trans Discourse is on my timeline front page dash...
idk i kind of just feel like...there are actual real threats right now in the world to all trans people, and like. trying to create in-groups and out-groups within the community is the most braindead thing you can do
they are killing us. they want us dead. any time you try to segregate one fraction of the queer community from another, their job gets a little easier. let me give you an example that happened recently in Texas while I was living there:
June 2022: Log Cabin Republican Praises Trump, "Don't Say Gay", Trans Hate
Also June 2022: Texas GOP's New Platform calls gay people "abnormal"
Log Cabin Republicans are essentially gay conservatives. And as part of trying to be accepted, under Trump, they decided trans people were the out-group and that gay people (specifically, white cisgender gay men) were the in-group.
If I had to guess, they probably figured so long as they also pointed the finger at us and called us groomers and said we were fetishists, they would be more accepted in the republican party.
Guess what happened? Not that! Instead, the Texas GOP, in 2022 (Two Thousand And Twenty Two) decided that being gay was once again Not Okay!
This is what I'm getting at: in queer spaces, always, always, there must be solidarity. There is no such thing as someone who is "not gay enough", or "not really trans", or "just looking for attention."
I, myself, am a binary trans woman. My current partner is a genderfluid transmasculine nonbinary person. Do I spend hours talking with them about how they do or don't face certain forms of oppression, or about how their identity is less valid than mine?
Of course not! We kiss and hold hands and fuck and have empathy for each other.
As a queer person it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to be one hundred percent accepting, validating, and encouraging of ALL QUEERNESS, because the second you decide to draw the line, the oppressor wins.
Maybe you're not a Log Cabin Republican. Maybe you're not advocating for trans genocide while being in a same-sex relationship. Maybe you just, idk, use the word "theyfab." Or you think pansexuals should "just call themselves bi."
It doesn't matter that the line you've drawn is farther left, or smaller, or excludes less of the community.
What matters is that you've drawn it at all.
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basilf1res · 1 year
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Memento Mori - DPxDC
What was beyond death. Was there anything at all? Was there nothing?
That was what he always wondered.
When Clark was a child, he looked up to his fictional hero: Danny Phantom. A half-dead guy in a comic book series that led to the most bisexual awakenings in the century.
Clark liked to go back and reread the comic books from Issue #1 (they were fairly short, but all parts of an “episode”, almost like those ads on shows, but the wait time was every two weeks). He tended to read them all in one sitting, and yet oddly enough, never disturbed as he murmured the made-up summoning spell under his breath.
He could’ve sworn he had been going through them for over an hour and not twenty minutes.
It was Phantom who inspired him to continue being Superman in his darkest moments. He also considered himself physical proof that Danny’s palette swap was enough to hide his identity.
The glasses ARE enough.
When Clark found out he had a clone, he was ecstatic to be able to teach Conner anything everything, to answer any questions his little brother had.
Danielle “Dani” Phantom and her awaited return in “Issue #46 D-stabilized” caused him to become a mama bear to Conner out of the fear he would melt within a few weeks. But it wasn’t like anyone at the Watchtower had to know that small detail.
Getting married to Lois was the best day of his life, the day of Jon’s birth also fighting for that first place spot in his mind.
He had a clone brother, a wonderful wife, a beautiful son, and an amazing group of friends that work together to protect the planet he calls home.
But everything started to fall apart when a protest against metas took it too far, Jon’s powers started to develop and he was seen accidentally tripping, falling, and catching himself by hovering a few inches above the pavement.
Jon said he considered himself lucky nothing scarred. He laughed everything off when it came to the topic.
But it shook Clark, Lois, and Conner to the core.
Memento mori.
It reminded Superman that despite his impenetrable skin, Death can come at any moment. Even for him.
—————————
When Danny was a little boy, he dreamt of reaching the stars, he wanted to be able to touch the moon, explore Mars, and roam the galaxy he resides in and beyond.
He read these comic books of a league of heroes, a team with space cops, super powered humans, a man dressed in a bat suit that was more effective at capturing rogues and villains than some of the powered members, aliens, and so much more.
He flipped through the weekly published comics, learning to read better than most at a young age. He had two favorites, Superman and Martian Manhunter.
Danny wanted to explore the stars like his heroes. He wanted to be able to fight as well as the big Bat. He wanted superpowers. He wanted to help people. He wanted to fight his own set of supervillains. He wanted to be able to succeed and be loved.
Oh how he got everything he wanted but the last.
Tucker and Sam were the only reason he hadn’t broken yet, the reason he was still standing.
The anti-ecto acts, the GIW, Vlad, Pariah Dark, and his- Jack and Maddie’s sadistic comments about ghosts were the last straw.
The hero always wins… they don’t die to the evil they want to stop… right..?
Right..?
The sound of a scraping scalpel, the buzz of the lights, and the squeals of pleasure - as his ghostly heart was found again and again and prodded again and again - filled his ears for an unknown length of time.
His cries for help were never answered until a summoning pulled at his core, it was a personal calling, someone had managed to find his calling card.
The tears of relief stung his eyes as the dissection table with his body strapped down to it was sucked into a summons portal.
He was spat out in front of kids, most likely teenagers, due to the shrieks of horror and surprise.
Oh… oh how he prayed to the Ancients that he’d live to see another day as a tears slipped out of his eyes.
Memento mori.
——————————
Jon found out about his comic book collection and wanted to show Damian.
Clark hummed as he typed up an official report on a rogue attack to send to the Watchtower.
His blood ran cold when he heard his son scream from over in Gotham.
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myanmy · 2 months
Text
Lack of Sleep
This one is made to leave you guys wanting more ;)
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Summary: You can't sleep and consequently put yourself in danger.
Word count: 1531
Warnings: None
I have to thank everyone who read, liked and resposted my other one-shot. I was surprise by the amount of interactions and while it may not be a lot for other people, it is for me. Thank you so much.
Sleep has never been an easy task for you. Even before all this nightmare, the smallest of things managed to steal any chance of your brain shutting off for at least a few hours to give your body some rest. Now with the noises of those things hunting you and the fear of the smallest of noises, the chance of you getting actual sleep is the same chance you had winning the lottery and you never even bought those things, so to say that the chances were almost zero is an understatement. 
The group had taken in you a few months ago. You had always been more of a reserved person, so you hadn’t particularly made any friends. No one bothered you and you bothered no one. You were called in almost every run, somewhere in your life you had learned to be very quick and silent and that was useful. In almost every of those runs you had the same people accompanying you, mainly Daryl, Gleen, Michonne and the leader Rick. You had taken a liking to all of them, each having something to add to the group and together you had managed to go on some of the most successful runs.
Today was one of the days you didn't manage to catch a blink of sleep and were called to go on a run. You splashed some water on your face, hoping to get rid of the tired look, but unfortunately it didn’t do much. You walk out of the prison, seeing some of your colleagues near the truck you're going on today. Glenn muttered a ‘good morning’ while Michonne gave you a simple nod. You were somewhat grateful for them not doing small talk, the lack of sleep and the warm sun shining light on your face doing nothing to better your mood. Not long after Daryl and Rick walk out, heading towards the truck and with that all of you get inside. Luckily you’re sitting on the window side, giving you something to lean your head on which you gladly do. You remembered how in the old times the sound of the engine and the gentle rocking of a car would get you to sleep within seconds and for a while you let yourself go back to those moments, where the most serious thing you had to worry about were your grades or what you would have to do in the future. You open your eyes a few seconds later, reminding yourself that’s unfortunately long gone and immediately the first thing you see is a walker stumbling through the street trying to get to the truck only to be left behind. 
The run had gone surprisingly well, that is, for the others, for you it had been another story. You had separated to make the run faster, Daryl and Glenn had searched the front of the market where most things were and with least walkers while you, Michonne and Rick had searched the back where there were a few more walkers, but had valuable things. You had stumbled more than you would like to admit and nearly got bit a few times, with Rick's help you ended up only with a few scratches from the stumbles and not a single bite, you honestly had no idea how you had done it. Apparently all the nights not slept were catching up to you. Unbeknownst to you, Rick had noticed. On the drive back you weren’t able to handle the tiredness and fell asleep. Rick sat in the passenger seat and kept looking back at you, looking for any wounds or bites and just checking if you were still asleep. He thought about making an excuse to have to drive a little more, seeing that you had found solace in the car and he understood why, as his own son also got sleepy during rides, but he knew there wasn't any and could only hope you would be able to find sleep again back in the prison. 
As soon as the car stopped your eyes shot open, seeing you were back inside the prison gates. As everyone got out you saw people coming to welcome the group, Maggie practically jumping on Glenn, Carol walking to Daryl and starting a conversation while Carl jumped and hugged his dad. You and Michonne had no one in particular to say hi to, so you both walked side by side inside the prison, separating when going to your cells. You enjoyed Michonne’s company, you two practically never talked and that’s why you liked her, you were able to enjoy silence with someone and while that may seem weird to other people, it wasn’t for the two of you.
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After the small nap in the truck you thought sleep would find you and for once it almost did, that was until you heard a small noise of something dropping and your eyes flew open. You knew it was most definitely someone walking and lost their hold on their cup or something like that, but your brain had already awakened and it wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon. You laid in your bed, looking up at the ceiling, no thoughts running through your head. Eventually you grew tired of waiting for something that you knew wasn’t going to arrive, so slowly you stood up, trying to make no noise. It’s not because you weren’t able to sleep that you had to take someone else’s sleep. 
Just by walking outside into the fresh air made you feel a lot better, you looked up to the sky and were greeted by the moon standing proudly on the sky with stars surrounding it and you smiled. It was a tiny smile, but it was something.
“Pretty, righ’?” The thick southern voice speaks from behind you, startling you. “Sorry.” He says, stepping beside you.
“It’s fine.” You answer, feeling your heart slow down. Rick had this thing to him that made you feel safe, you couldn’t really explain it, but you felt it.
“Can’t sleep?” He asks, his face turned to the sky.
“No, you?” You wonder, knowing Rick wasn’t on patrol tonight.
“Saw you leaving.” Your expression turns into a confusing one and he gets the hint and continues talking. “On the run today, you were acting weird. You got in danger way too many times, what’s going on?” 
You sigh, not really wanting to talk about it, but he was the leader, he had brought you in and given you food and a roof. “I’ve been having a hard time sleeping, that’s all.” 
He nods and hums in understatement. “You are safe here. Those things out there are scary, but if you’re going to fight them, you have to be strong to do it. You’re one of our best and you’re needed, so please, take care of yourself and rest.”
You let out a chuckle at that. “You have a better chance at knocking me out, that way you’ll be sure I'll get my share of sleep.” The man lets out a laugh, one that makes your stomach do funny things.
“What keeps you up?” He asks, trying to find some way to help you.
“The fear, the nightmare and mainly the noises. Every little snap gets my heart racing.” You confess, something that only Rick would manage to make you do. 
He sighs, looking at the sky again, seeming to be thinking. “The cell next to mine is empty.” He mutters, in a tone of a simple observation. You start thinking about it and come to the conclusion that it may help you. Rick is the leader, he is intelligent, quick and strong, that much you knew. It definitely wouldn’t hurt having someone like that next to you, the only divider being a thin wall. 
“Can I…” You hesitate, feeling silly, then his eyes leave the sky and meet yours. He had yet to figure you out, but he had come to learn a few things about you and one of them was that you did not like to appear small or fragile to people.
“Sure, it'll be easier for me to knock you out if you’re there.” He jokes and you can’t stop the laugh bubbling through you.
“Thank you Rick-” You mutter, your voice low. “-for everything.” You add, not looking him in the eyes.
“It’s no problem.” He says and puts his hand on your shoulder squeezing it, reassuring you. He follows you to your cell and helps you move the little things that belonged to you to the one next to his, your hands accidentally brushing against each other a few times and you try your hardest to hide the blush on your cheeks. “Good night…” He mutters your name with that thick accent of his, his voice low, trying not to disturb anyone.
“Good night Rick.” A small smile makes its way in Rick’s lips and you can’t help but return it. That night you fell asleep and had one of the best possible dreams ever, with Rick placing his hands not only on your shoulder but throughout your whole body and later cuddling you on his chest while you listened to his heartbeat.
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boba-beom · 2 months
Text
*:・゚❅・゚skate to my heart | KANG TAEHYUN
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pairing: taehyun x fem!reader
genre: oneshot; fluff, bsf2l
summary: after watching taehyun at practice several times, he eventually asked you to watch his last, big game for the season in exchange for a date later the same night. with an uncertified label and known feelings between the both of you, would taehyun end the day with two wins?
wc: 4.1k
warnings: not proofread :< bestfriends 2 lovers, taehyun courting reader, a sprinkle of jealousy, taehyun almost fought someone eep, very little hockey terminology+knowledge (inaccurate representation most likely), physical affection, littlesttt bit suggestive, reader admires taehyun a lot but she gets shy sometimes, lil emotional, minor misunderstangin, taehyun has a super soft spot for reader and ADORES her, confession, a little cheesy, a kiss :>
a/n: requested by anonie! thank you anonie for sending this through <3 I enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoy reading! also 'courting' is when one person typically spends time and puts in effort with the person they are wanting to pursue! a little better than the talking stage lmao. I would also like to thank @gyupremacy @junniieesbby and @amoryeonjun for helping me come up with title options for this fic, ily guys (I may use one for a short sequel to this but that's for another day lmao)
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a few days ago you had promised taehyun that you would come with him to his final hockey game for the season. in exchange, he made a promise to take you out on a date after, regardless if he wins or not.
and that led you to this very moment.
the sports venue was quite big, just the right size for the local games, with the building accommodating two rinks for figure skaters on the other side and ice hockey on the side you're on, in which you're seated by the acrylic panels so you were one of the closest to the rink.
just for taehyun.
he's the sole reason you've bought new outerwear and accessories to keep you warm within the rink, you even bought a jersey jumper with the colours of the team he is in. perhaps you went the extra mile and personalised it with his surname and birth date number.
"I hope you'll come to my hockey game this weekend. it's the last one for the season and it would mean a lot to me if you came along. and then afterwards I'll promise to take you on a date, please?"
his words echoed in your head as if he had told you just before you arrived at the sports venue. a smile had started creeping up on your face as you remembered the way he almost begged you to go on a date with him; his eyes gentle and his hand enveloped yours.
taehyun's team, rockets, had plenty of fans. some being seated a few rows behind you on your far left. it wasn't hard to miss them from the way you could hear high pitched squeals as soon as the players for rockets stepped their hockey skates onto the ice, watching the team skate past you one by one.
as each player glided past you, the cheers for the team were non-stop, whistles, screams and chants behind you. yet you managed to block them out a little — as if the lack of sounds would help you see better — and your eyes were darting around to look out for one player in particular.
then the crowd started to cheer significantly louder than before. that's when your eyes locked with a pair of large, round ones that had a familiar hold on yours. he sent you a subtle wave paired with a quick wink, and you thank god that you were sat at the front to catch that.
you waved your blue and red striped scarf, that you had bought just for him, as you called out for him and his team name as an attempt to hide the fact you could feel your cheeks heating up.
but taehyun noticed. you couldn't hide that from him.
the game wasn't going to start for another thirty minutes since the players were gliding around for their on-ice warm ups. you observed the way players would get comfortable on the ice, taking in long strides, others in smaller groups to do their crossover drills from one end of the rink to the other.
you noticed some of the crowd coming closer around you, to the acrylic panels since they were able to stand there within the duration of practice up until the puck drop. luckily you remained in your seat and was still able to have some space around you.
a call of your name caught your attention, but you knew it wasn't taehyun's voice from the sounds of it. a player from the opposing team, wearing the black and white kit, had slowed down skating in front of you, and attempted to spark your attention but you remained neutral and kept a tight lipped smile.
"yah! penguin. shouldn't you be on the other side of the rink?" your ears focus on taehyun's voice, muffling the sounds around you.
knowing taehyun, he was just being protective over you but you still had to make sure he didn't get into any fights. the game hadn't even started yet. he made his way past the opposing player, gliding past him as he slowed down right against the acrylic and knocked on it.
you okay? he mouthed at you with a little nod of assurance.
you gave him a soft smile with two thumbs up to give back the reassurance, but taehyun still felt compelled to stay a few seconds longer. he gave you a knowing look with a head tilt and brows raised slightly, but you couldn't help but laugh a little at his determination to make sure you were okay. again, you noded and smiled as you moved your wrists flicking outwards in a 'shoo' motion so he could get back into warming up with no distractions.
it was amusing that that was the first time taehyun behaved assertively in front of another player outside of the game. he usually had good sportsmanship with all players, however, this time around it seemed as thought he was more bothered than you were.
watching taehyun was nothing out of the norm for you since you always offered to come with him during his practices, admiring the way his skin glowed and reflected the light from the ice below him. watching the way he moved from one side of the rink to the other with steady and swift movements while in control of passing the puck was something you were always amazed about.
there had been a few cases when taehyun was free on the ice, face turning to look straight at you since he always knew where you would sit, and once he had your attention he'd quickly wave at you. you knew if you were on the ice yourself you would melt right through.
*:・゚❅・゚
after a good twenty minutes of the game, the first intermission had started. the teams made their way to their designated sides off the rink, rehydrating and even getting something to nibble on within the fifteen minutes they had.
some players came back onto the rink five minutes before the game resumed, skating to their assigned places. meanwhile you kept your eyes out for your best friend, but the same player from the opposing team made a return towards you.
you noticed but you paid him no attention, keeping that same tight lipped smile while your eyes were darting everywhere but in front of you.
he knocked on the clear barrier, and mouthed 'can I get your number?' and gestured his hand to a phone sign in which you slowly shook your head and mouthed a 'sorry'. he didn't seem to take it and asked again, begging at this point. you were about to shake your head again until a player in blue and red skimmed behind him and backed him up against the clear panel.
you stood up to get a better look and it was no other than taehyun. he was about to grab the other player by the collar of their kit until you had your hand flat on the surface and banging it against the acrylic three times to grasp his attention. taehyun's fist didn't reach the collar, thankfully, catching the worry in your eyes and he retracted his unravelling fist.
a sigh left you as you saw him back up from his opponent, your head shaking slowly at him while you mouth 'it's okay'. he was lucky he hadn't gone ahead with it otherwise it'd led to a five-minute major penalty towards him. he still had two thirds of the game left.
once you sat back down in your seat, you readied yourself for the next twenty minutes of the game. the teams were back in their designated sides of the rink, and taehyun was set in his position as center.
you focused on him, knees slightly bent, hands holding the hockey stick and his concentration on the center before the referee dropped the puck. he hits the puck as soon as it collided with the ice, and his movements remained swift and sharp as he and his teammates led the puck to the other side of the rink.
it was clear seeing the puck passed from taehyun, center, to the left winger then right winger, but so many players blocked your vision. it had you thinking the puck had been taken by the opposing team, though in a fraction of a second your ears were filled with the crowd cheering. from the sounds of it rockets had scored a goal, and you looked up at the screen above the rink to watch a quick replay of who scored the goal.
it was no other than the star player who has your heart.
you stood up, cheering and clapping, waving your scarf as you try and find him in your field of vision. almost as if you were in a movie, the hockey players skated aside and taehyun's skating towards his original position, facing you. you could see his teethy smile as he pointed out at you, hearing a few 'ooh's and whistles from the audience.
the pounding in your chest felt like it was about to burst and the heat crawling up to your cheeks were starting to burn you up. you shook your head at him again, this time sheepishly, as you bit the inside of your cheek, refraining your grin but you couldn't hold out and let out an endearing laugh.
*:・゚❅・゚
it was the second and last intermission of the overall game. the game time period had just finished up nicely, rockets' scores in the lead with nine and the opposing team with five. you had a good feeling about rockets winning the final twenty minutes of the game.
there were about eight minutes left of the intermission before they resumed the game, so you made your way through the row to the restroom.
as you walked down the corridor to find the toilets you felt a loose grasp on your wrist, making your gasp hitch in your throat and turn your head to see just the person you couldn't wait to see until the end of the game.
"tae, what are you doing here?" you whispered at him, the confusion on your face clear as day.
"I was too excited, I wanted to see you."
you noticed the way his slightly damp and dishevelled hair was grazing just by his brows, his face glowing from the sheer layer of sweat. and his eyes steady on yours.
"well," you slid your wrist out of his hold and played with his fingers. "we still have that date later tonight, remember?"
you looked up at him and you see a proud smirk on his lips, nodding his head slowly in attempt to keep in his excitement. but the rose hue on his cheeks were a big giveaway.
"I'll see you later then. I'll do my best for you, keep your eyes on me."
taehyun lifted your hand and lightly pressed his lips against the back of your fingers. the familiar feeling of your heart about to burst in your chest returned, and you caught the way the tips of his ears blushed the same pink tinge you saw earlier.
"do your best, my star player." you smiled at him, and he let out a soft scoff intertwined with his laugh. watching him walk away to get back onto the rink and finally letting you go to the restroom.
walking into the restroom you slammed your hands flat on the countertop beside the sink, looking at your reflection in disbelief.
"my star player?! really?" your expression changed when you repeated it again, smiling at yourself and shaking your head. "I must be out of my mind."
you can't believe how fast your feelings were brewing for your best friend. there's always been this unspoken dynamic between you, indirect words that mean something a little more, looks that only has your heart fluttering in your chest — and his. gestures that tended to linger and only either one of you would notice that it was a second longer than what would be considered 'platonic'.
snapping out of your reverie you went to use the toilet before making your way back to your seat. you had the final twenty minutes left and then the evening to talk to taehyun properly.
*:・゚
there were five minutes left until the game was over, and during this game the opposing team had scored three times, bringing the current score for rockets with nine, still, and the opposing team with eight.
you hoped the game wouldn't end in a tie. it would be a shame to end the final game of the season in a tie. rockets were doing so well throughout the past two game, but this third game seemed to be the opposite of what they call 'the charm'.
"come on, come on. just one more point." you whispered to yourself, chanting nervously. your hands gripped onto your jacket, taking it off and revealing your customised jersey jumper reading 'KANG' with '05' underneath in bold.
as soon as you were sat comfortably, you checked the time once more; just under four minutes until the end of the game.
one last point and you'd be celebrating later in the evening.
you watched the puck passed around by the opposing team, almost accepting defeat until the players started skating towards the other end of the rink. rockets had the puck by their sticks and from all you could see, it was being passed repeatedly between the left winger and left defence. losing sight of it again it seems like the right winger had it until you saw taehyun receiving it.
with an extremely quick knock of his hockey stick against the puck, it flew into the goal for the final time this season and the speakers let out the horn indicating the end of the game. the screen above showed the final scores, rockets - 10 / guests - 8.
just in time, and your star player was surrounded by his teammates, each of them skating up to him and knocking the front of their helmets together. watching him being congratulated by his team was so endearing to watch — especially knowing just how much work he's put into this sport, knowing how much he loves it.
the crowd behind you was still full of cheers, whistles and chanting. but your eyes were fixed on taehyun as he took his helmet off, his hair a little more damp and dishevelled compared to when you saw him during the second intermission. that didn't stop him from looking incredible with his face literally glowing from his sweat and the ice reflecting off of the droplets.
he made a beeline towards you for the last time on the ice, a huge grin adorned on his face along with his asymmetrical dimple making an appearance.
was it because his team won? perhaps. was it because you were wearing the jersey with his name and birth date? most likely.
his smile was too contagious you didn't realise when you started smiling so hard, you were laughing a little too. the continuous cheers had you joining in, clapping towards taehyun, all while he mouthed a 'meet me by the foyer'.
after the crowd started moving, you made your way straight to the foyer, watching the audience walk past you as they exited the venue.
you're leaning against a pillar, watching the last strand of the light in the sky disappear through the floor to ceiling glass panels as your stomach was filled up with butterflies from the thought of going on a date with your best friend and making it a joint celebratory dinner.
a pair of hands abruptly weighed your shoulders down, having your heart leap out of your chest as you turn around to a giggly and cheerful taehyun.
"tyun! you were amazing out there!" you exclaimed, jumping up to hug him with your arms over his shoulders and his bag sliding down his arm, only hugging you with one arm around your waist.
"yeah well, I had to put on my best. you were watching." you playfully nudged his arm, biting back your grin but his was too contagious to hold back. "no but seriously, the team did so well tonight. they're going out to celebrate, actually."
your smile faltered in the littlest bit, thinking carefully before you asked him.
"do you want to go too? we can always rain check the date... if you want? I don't mind, seriously." you felt the guilt appear inside you, not wanting to hold him back. you saw how happy he was out there and it wasn't all the time you saw taehyun like that.
"hey, no." taehyun shrugged his bag strap to hang from his shoulder, and wrapped an arm around your shoulder, slowly walking out the exit together to toward the car park. "I have a date to go to and I wouldn't want to miss that for the world. I see those blokes almost every week anyway, I'll live."
taehyuns words brought the flutter back in your chest and you raised your hand to hold onto his that's hanging over your shoulder. the evening air was cool and taehyun's freshly washed hair was finally out of his face. from the angle you could see, he was literally the definition of perfection in your books.
letting his words process in your head, all you managed to say was, "ah, you're so cheesy." you let go of his hand to open the car door, sitting inside as you waited for him to put his stuff in the trunk and sit in the driver's seat.
"yeah, but you like it though." his voice had a playful tone, probably with a smile on his face, it was dark in the car. he wasn't even looking at you, buckling his seatbelt and inserting the key to start the car.
yeah. I do.
*:・゚❅・゚
it's almost been an hour since taehyun dropped you home to get ready and he did the same. you texted him saying that you were done and just waiting for him to pick you up, which didn't take too long because he fortunately didn't live too far away from you.
your phone's notification sound went off as he sent you a simple I'm outside text, but that was the norm with him. you grabbed your purse and shrugged on your coat over your dress, examining your final look through the body-length mirror in the hallway before unlocking the door.
a taehyun in a black button down, top button left undone and sleeves folded to a three quarters length up his forearm that matched nicely with his dark slacks was standing in front of you. and how could you look past the bouquet of red roses arranged with baby's breath, elegantly wrapped in decorative cellophane.
"for my beautiful date."
your lips formed a subtle pout as you retrieved the flowers from him, noticing the sheer bow wrapped around the stems.
"taehyun," your voice was meek, just audible enough until you cleared your throat. "these are stunning, thank you, handsome."
you walked back into the hallway to place them in an empty vase in which you emptied out a couple of days ago after you'd turned the old arrangement into dried flowers.
returning to the entrance, you released a heavy sigh while walking through the door, controlling yourself to not gawk at the gorgeous man stood on your porch.
"why?" taehyun stepped aside for you to shut and lock the door.
you could feel him hovering behind you, and you noticed his shadow casted over your shoulder and could be seen against the wooden door.
"because..." your voice trailed.
once you were done checking you had locked the door properly, you turned around, paying no attention that you were incredibly close to taehyun's face, his eyes darting to your lips before looking back up at your eyes. you lost your balance as your back almost crashed into the door if it wasn't for his hand resting on your lower back.
"because?" he parroted.
your chest was slightly heaving, knowing that he could potentially hear your heart drumming in your chest for the nth time that evening.
"um, because... we're gonna be late for our reservation." you hastily slid aside and walked towards his car as he trailed behind you, his hands in his pockets and letting out an amused scoff with an endeared smile on his face.
*:・゚
to your relief, you had arrived just in time for your private reservation and you had nothing to worry about. the restaurant was beautiful — it was elegant. the high ceiling with dark grey marble pillars in each corner of the room to withhold the structure. a contrast from the ligher shade of grey for the tiled flooring.
"how long until the next season?" you asked taehyun, curious as you fiddled with the corner of the napkin on the table.
despite being with taehyun almost on a daily basis, this was something you weren't used to. the atmosphere was a little different, a little thicker and laced with something that hasn't been spoken about, but it's there.
you were nervous. you knew that, taehyun knew that and he could definitely see that. he reached his hand over to scoop up your fingers gently into his, and the motion of his thumb skimming over your knuckles somewhat helped with those nerves.
"this season only finished a few hours ago, ___." the continuous movement of his calloused fingers against yours had calmed you down enough, but you couldn't manage to look him in the eye until he tugged on your hand lightly. "but probably not for another couple of months or so, we'll see."
you both held eye contact, the longest you managed ever since he picked you up from your house. he opened his mouth to say something but you had already beat him to it, starting to speak before you realised.
"I meant it when I said this, but you genuinely looked so happy out there on the rink." he listened and nodded as he let you continue. "just seeing you so passionate about what you love on the ice rink at first hand was amazing, honestly." you let out a half hearted chuckle.
"well, part of it's because you're there to support me. throughout my practices, trainings and today's game." it was your turn to caress the inside of his palm, letting him know that you'd always be there for him. "and I have something to say."
you nod, listening intently.
"if it wasn't for you supporting me throughout, I don't know if I would've even continued up until now. I got this far because of you. and I know you can sense... whatever this attraction is between us too. you're my best friend and always will be," he paused, noticing the way you bit the inside of your cheek. "but I also want to be your lover."
taehyun didn't know if it was the reflection from the hanging lights above you, but he swore your eyes lit up. you didn't know if you were going to cry because you almost thought you were getting friendzoned, or it was because taehyun had cleared the air and asked to be your lover.
worry washes over taehyun's face, setting aside his utensils as he picked up his napkin to lightly dab on the stray tear that fell without your knowledge. he cooed at you, and you weakly laughed at yourself.
"I was afraid you were going to friendzone me for a second." you had taehyun lightly scoff and slowly shook his head at you, but his gaze softened, brows relaxed and eyes twinkling. "I'd love you to be my lover, tyun. and I'll love you twice as much."
your tears brimmed at your eyes, threatening to fall one after the other until taehyun decided to get out of his chair and walk over to you, a knee on the ground while he cupped your cheek and cooed you with sweet, reassuring words.
"I'd be a fool if I friendzoned you," he dabbed away the tears towards the outer corner of your eyes, "you okay?"
you nodded your head in certainty, cupping his cheek and you noticed the way his eyes are so focused on you, holding the galaxy within. the eyes of your best friend filled with nothing but love and adoration for you.
"tyun?" he hums at you whispering his name. "can I kiss you?"
he huffed an exhale paired with a hopeful nod, and his eyes are focused on your lips.
"please do."
you both let out relieved sighs once your lips collided. his hand gently slid from your cheek to the back of your neck as he deepened the kiss, melting into one another's touch. his moan got caught in the back of his throat the moment he felt your teeth gingerly tugging on his bottom lip before parting the kiss.
"you're just full of surprises, aren't you?" he chuckled at your expression once you realised what you did.
"well, there's a first for everything, isn't there?" your tone smug with a hint of confidence, taehyun attempted to keep a stoic expression.
"that's so cheesy." he stood up, stroking the top of your head and tucking a few loose strands behind your ear.
"but you liked it though." you replied, and he returned to his seat, facing you with a defeated but pleased look on his face.
"yeah, I do"
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taglist: @choiwrld @yjusei @feyregels @ahnneyong @prodsh00ky @wccycc @lizdevorak @fairybin @laylasbunbunny @acaiasahi @ttyunz @cha0thicpisces @fairybinie @ja4hyvn @yunkiwii @aprilisque @https-yeonjun @lovejoshua @seolis-world @jak-ey @bb-eilish @iggynor4 @amethysts-1620 @ericyjun @luvsoobs @yeonyeonyeonjun @junniieesbby @kyrkitten @day6andetcetera @dainsleif-when-playable @txt-yaomi @soobinsman (send an ask to be part of the taglist, here's the taglist sheet for reference)
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butdaddyilovehim-hs · 8 months
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Rainbows and Hospital Rooms
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Based of @mindofharry 's idea of Harry being a grumpy doctor and Y/N is a new intern at the hospital :)
Word Count: 1.5k
Y/N wasn’t really sure what to expect when she walked through the revolving doors of St Thomas’ Hospital. 
She’d been awake since four am, too excited about her first day as an intern. All she’d ever wanted was to help people. Before her mum passed away, she would call her a guardian angel - always around to lend a hand whenever there was trouble. Y/N believed that her mum was her guardian angel now, looking down on her in heaven. Her sweet, bubbly nature only added to her charm. She befriended everyone she met within moments, in fact Y/N was pretty sure she hadn’t met someone she hadn’t been able to win over eventually. You see, Y/N got a kick out of being kind. Whether it be letting someone ahead of her in the grocery line or sharing a coffee with the homeless man on her street, Y/N was always looking for a way to spread kindness. 
Making a good first impression was extremely important to Y/N so when she realised that she’s lost in the lobby of the hospital she started to sweat a little bit. She had decided on a whim to bake some cookies for the other interns and since it had taken her longer than expected, she wasn’t early as she had planned, but instead right on time. But being right on time and being lost in the lobby meant that now she was… late. On her first day. 
After asking for directions as quickly as she could, a rather flustered Y/N made her way to the correct room, opening the door quietly and turning red as 5 heads turned to stare in her direction. 4 were interns like her, she could tell. Young, most wearing a nervous expression and in casual clothes. The other person in the room was different. For one, he was standing in front of all the others, evidently leading the group in some sort of welcome. He was older, significantly when compared to the others in the room but Y/N couldn’t imagine he was older than 35. Compared to her 22 years, it was a rather large gap. His eyes were a striking shade of green and when they focused on her, Y/N didn’t like the way it made her feel. A swooping feeling in her stomach overwhelmed her and she felt the urge to leave the way she came, shut the door and go home. It might have been because the man standing before her was outrageously attractive. Quite possibly the most beautiful man she had ever seen, with sculpted cheekbones, those eyes, a sharp nose and lips that looked so soft, Y/N almost wanted to lean in and touch them with her own just to see if they were really as soft as they looked. 
Unfortunately for Y/N, accompanying all this beauty was an incredibly frustrated expression and it was directed at her. 
“Miss Y/N I presume. You’re-“ the man looked down at the shiny Rolex on his left wrist. “6 minutes late. Is there a reason why you couldn’t be on time like the rest of your peers or shall we just put it down to plain disrespect?” 
Y/N’s mouth opened and then closed like a fish. She was speechless.
“I’m so sorry um… sir?” She floundered for a moment, pondering what exactly to call him.
“It’s Dr Styles, to you. This isn’t military camp, although I do run a rather tight ship. Now if you would sit down, I can continue.” 
“Ok, Dr Styles it is. I am SO sorry I’m late, you see I was just-
“Please, don’t explain yourself, I don’t have the energy to listen to whatever bullshit story you decided to come up with on the way here. I’d appreciate it if you would take a seat. Every moment I waste on you, is a moment I could be saving someone’s life.”
“But I just wanted to-”
“Y/N. Sit. Down.”
Y/N blinked as he stared at her expectantly, his expression growing more frustrated by the second. She walked slowly to the empty seat in the front row and sat down, feeling rather numb. 
“Now, as I was saying before Miss Y/N decided to make her grand entrance, my name is Dr Harry Styles and I am the head of paediatrics here at St Thomas’. 
Paediatrics? Y/N thought to herself. Oh those poor children being unwell and having to be treated by the biggest asshole on earth. She wondered whether he was just as awful to the patients or whether he had perfected his bedside manner. Probably the latter, he seemed like a perfectionist. Her daydream was interrupted as an older man and woman entered the room, dressed in similar scrubs to Dr Styles. 
“Now, normally I handle all the interns myself, but since there are five of you, and my workload has grown rather heavily over the last year, I have enlisted my colleagues for some help. Dr Hannah Williams and Dr Richard Abrams.” Dr Styles explained, introducing them both. They waved and Dr Williams sent Y/N a smile and Y/N crossed her fingers and toes, hoping that she would be assigned to the nice woman with the warm smile. 
“Max and Amelie you’re with Dr Abrams. Rachel and Luke, you’re with Dr Williams. And that leaves… ”
Y/N’s heart sank.
“Y/N, you’re with me. Lucky you.” He smirked at her obvious lack of enthusiasm before continuing. 
“I’m sure you’re all aware that this is a 6 week internship. While I may not be directly supervising all of you, I will be observing you all closely. At the end of your period at St Thomas’ one of you will be offered a permanent position here. My advice? Do you best, and use what you know. You were all offered this internship for a reason, you’ve got the next six weeks to prove to me why you deserve to be here. Y/N come with me. Max and Amelie, Richard will show you where to go. Same for you Luke and Rachel, Hannah has you guys covered.” 
Y/N gathered her things quickly as Dr Styles left the room swiftly. She trailed behind him, mustering up the courage to speak. 
“Is there a reason you were so horrible to me in there?” The words left Y/N’s mouth before she could stop them and Dr Styles stopped walking abruptly in the middle of the corridor, almost causing her to face plant into his back. 
“Oh grow up Y/N. Welcome to the real world. I don’t have energy to waste on people who aren’t punctual. If this is too much for you to handle, or If I’m too much for you to handle, quit. No one is stopping you.”
He waited expectantly, but Y/N was silent.
“Good. Now if you’re done with your little outburst, we have patients to see. Try not to waste my time Y/N. Most people don’t dare to talk back to me, especially on the first day. I picked you because you intrigued me and I thought I saw potential. Don’t prove me wrong.” 
Y/N nodded, her thoughts going a million miles a minute. Dr Styles led her into a closed corridor, where the walls were filled with colour, shapes and animals.
“The first patient we’re going to see today is a 5 year old named Jackson. Jackson has stage 3 terminal cancer. At this stage it’s all about keeping him comfortable. He’s wary of new people, so just be gentle.”
He opened a door, and it was almost like someone had flipped a switch. The second the door had opened, Dr Styles’ face had switched from a stern expression to a wide smile. He was so pretty when he smiled, Y/N thought, before shaking it from her head and following him into the room. 
“Hey little superman! How are we feeling today?” Dr Styles asked the young boy, who was lying in the bed watching a dinosaur cartoon on his iPad. Y/N’s heart broke at the number of wires and medical equipment surrounding the little boy. 
“I’m bored. Can I go play outside?? Please Harry pleaseeeee.” Jackson pouted his lips at Dr Styles and Y/N suppressed a giggle. She watched him as a flicker of emotion crossed his face before he shook his head.
“Sorry not today little dude, but how about I try and get Nurse Rebecca to bring you something special later on?”
“Ok.” Jackson’s face fell as he directed his attention back to the screen. Y/N shifted slightly to the side and he looked up, making eye contact with her.
“Who’s that? Is she your girlfriend Harry? She’s very pretty.”
Y/N turned bright red and Dr Styles seemed to choke on air before spluttering out a response. 
“Not my girlfriend Jackson. This is Y/N, I’m showing her what it’s like to work here.”
“Hi Jackson, it’s nice to meet you!” Y/N sent the boy a small wave and he waved back. 
“We’ll come and visit you again later buddy ok?” Dr Styles ushered Y/N slowly out of the room, shutting the door behind her. 
They stood in silence for a moment, Dr Styles watching Jackson through the small window, a pensive expression on his face. 
“He’s a really sweet kid.” Y/N spoke softly. 
“He is.” Dr Styles agreed gruffly, and Y/N watched as his eyes began to mist. But as quickly as the tears had formed, they were gone and he was blinking them away and continuing down the hallway. 
“Hurry up Y/N we have people to see and you know how I feel about punctuality.” 
Y/N smiled softly, trailing after him. There was something there, more to Dr Styles than he was letting her see and Y/N was determined to figure him out.
A/N: Hello!! This was a super short random thing that I might continue hehe
Tags:
@lukesaprince @harrys-flower @harryspirate @walkingintheheartbreaksatellite @lilyrmason12 @styleslover-1994 @stylesfever @kathb59 @indierockgirrl @bxbyysstuff @gills-lounge
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imagine--if · 1 year
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hii i saw that requests for alice in borderland were open and i rann 🏃🏻‍♀️
could you do a scenario where chishiya and banda have a crush/interested in the same s/o?? how tense would that be, especially in the solitary confinement game?? 👀👀👀
A/N: Oooo this is an awesome scenario idea, thanks for your request!! I'm still open for AIB requests until the 15th, so if you're interested then send some in!! A particular ask has caught my attention for after this... jealous Chishiya 😵😍 Little obvious disclaimer that the GIFs aren't mine- but look at Chishiya's, he's staring RiGhT aT uSsS 😭
Chishiya and Banda Both Crushing On You Includes...
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💛• How'd you even manage to get the attention of both these guys?!??! I'm jealous 🥲 because the way these two fall for someone, combined, is basically the most intense and warm and crazy hot experience you'll have in quite a while. Let's say that this all starts in the Jack of Hearts game:
💛• With Chishiya, he's drawn to the little, unnoticeable things that interest him, like being a lot smarter than you look, or making a good decision that surprises, or even outwits him somewhat. There's not much of that in the borderlands, apart from Arisu's selflessness that absolutely confuses him until he starts admiring it, and the deadliness of the games, everyone looks like they're going to die. Except you. So he'll most likely start following you around - very subtly - observing your way of doing things and interacting with other players, until he properly approaches you. Probably asking you for his symbol on his collar, and asks you if you want yours. If you turn him down but give him his or something, he'll actually be taken aback... in a good way, because now he's obsessed with wanting to know how your mind works. So, basically, you've got yourself a new partner.
💛• With Banda, however, subtly and patience are not his things. All it takes is one minute of eye contact, or hearing something a little psycho come from you, anything that's potentially original and beautiful to him, and suddenly he's right in front of you with that dark smirk, giving you a twisted but flattering compliment. That's it. Now you've got a new protector who grows oddly possessive and obsessive over the first few rounds, pulling you back when you think about joining the others' big group. You don't need them. You've got him.
💛• So when the two ultimately end up bumping into each other when they both go to talk to you or something, there's just a moment of stretched, painfully strong silence as Banda eyes up this new 'distraction' to your attention, and Chishiya takes him in with that annoyingly indifferent, and kind of smug, look, before his brown eyes meet yours. Banda looks in your direction too. No pressure 😅
💛• I mean, Chishiya tolerates pretty much everyone, but Banda lurking around and infecting your brain with his sadistic ideas of entertainment and advice on how to win every game like he has, is something he's apprehensive of. He'll see how you react to it at first before jumping in, but overall, Chishiya thinks you're the first truly curious and inspiring person that's caught his attention in the Borderlands, and that's something he doesn't want to let slip as soon as he's found it.
💛• Banda has little to no empathy or care for anyone except what you're happy and unhappy with, so he's gonna be pretty forward with Chishiya and give him one of his hushed, intimidating, close-up threats to move along and find someone else to play with. When Chishiya retorts smugly with a comment about how the last women he hung around with suddenly made it onto the murder section of the newspapers, he'll get a deathly glare in his eyes, and basically the only thing stopping him from snapping at that moment is the rule of the game being that you can't outrightly hurt anyone.
💛• They let it go for now, but neither one of them is put off from hanging around with you. The rest of the players in the big group find it odd how you're just sitting there at a table, and within a few moments, Chishiya comes striding in offering his snack with you, sitting beside you on the table, all the while Banda's unblinking gaze is fixed on you from the other side of the cafeteria, where he sits on the floor against the wall. The Jack probably notices it too, but doesn't say anything, since no one really wants to see Banda Sunato get angry.
💛• Once the game has gone on and it's over, Banda has some 'business' to attend to with Jack, and probably makes you wear a tracker or something so he knows how to come and find you when he's done and figuring out how he can have more, or all, control over the lands. Cocky psycho even tries to kiss you goodbye too, and whether you let him go for it and leave you flustered after an intense few moments, or push him away gently with a blush is your choice. Either way, he'll still respond with one of his smirks and a wink before he causally pulls out his pocket weapon and goes into one of the cells after Jack.
💛• That just leaves you with Chishiya, who Banda has 'trusted' to keep you safe while he's gone. Since Chishiya figured it all out with him and survived the round in a pretty impressive way, Banda doesn't misjudge his intelligence and capabilites, even though he seems a little too relaxed when entering these life-or-death games. Still, you'll end up leaving with Chishiya wandering by your side and making small talk about who you are as a person as you go for the next game, or to meet his gang from the Beach, like Arisu. He's surprisingly talkative in his own way as he uncovers more about you and listens to every word you say, but when the questions are reflected back at him, the answers are simple and short - at first, anyway. It's not all because he's reclusive, but mostly because he didn't really like his life, or have much of one, in his opinion, before the Borderlands. But now, maybe he does. Intelligent and nice to look at. He'll stick around for sure 😉
💛• Elsewhere, Banda basically pulls up every file and piece of information on you instead of outrightly asking. It's safe to say that he's an obsessive and possessive crusher/lover, and he'll make that known once he's sorted things out and comes to find you again. And he will come and find you again 😏
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zmediaoutlet · 6 months
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Survey results time.
At time of downloading the data we got just over 300 responses, which is not bad for a survey that was long and complicated to take! I'm sure my shamelessness helped. Being a survey for a specific crowd, we also didn't get anyone (as far as I could tell) taking the survey in bad faith, which is a legit surprise. Special shout-out to the several people who, when asked to write literally anything to say they understood what was going on, wrote "literally anything"; additional shout-out to the person who wrote "penus and hole" (sic). You get it, anonymous person.
I'm going to share the top results for the questions here, but I'll also include the raw data as a sheet at the end in case anyone wants to actually go through it with a fine-tooth comb. This is not a survey where cute pie charts or graphs would be useful or readable, so get ready for some sweet-ass numbers:
Story Genre
Unsurprisingly, our leaderboard for most favorite story genre in the 'Anytime!' category is as follows:
Hurt/comfort (153 votes)
Angst (142 votes)
PWP (139 votes)
We just like the guys to get the shit beaten out of them, angstily, and then they can feel better by jerking off about it. The ideal evening.
The big loser in genre, with 34 buds flat out saying "not for me", was Dark!fic. That said, Dark!fic also got 112 votes (third highest) for "has to be JUST right," so we can probably take from there that while as a group we don't hate dark content, we have pretty strict definitions for a) what counts as dark, and b) what kind of dark we're willing to take.
Gencest/gen was arguably the most 'eh, idk?' of the genres, with respectable showings in every category from Anytime to No; most people don't hate it, but people aren't really seeking it out either. It's definitely There.
Story Setting
The winner of most 'Anytime!' votes for story setting is close to my heart; the podium is:
Bunker era (142 votes)
Canon-close, codas, etc (129 votes)
Pre-series/weechesters (126 votes)
It feels good to know that canon is on our side. This may help explain why various alternate universe settings didn't do so hot with the respondents -- the least fave according to this survey is an age!swap AU, followed by a raised apart!AU. Writers who are making Sam the big brother who lives in Cleveland while baby Dean lives in Seattle, you keep living your truth, but readers are rearing back.
That being said, while Canon Divergence isn't an overall winner, it has a full 149 votes in the 'Dig it' category; so, while we may generally prefer canon, we're willing to be led on a garden path away from it. We just want canon to be within shouting distance, at least.
Canonical Character Variants
Here's where the survey gets more complex. I've always been interested in how and why people are fandoming about things, and simple 'yes/no' surveys rarely dig into that meat. The point of the superego/ego/id separation is to really interrogate -- hey, do you like to read about (for example) soulless!Sam because you find it interesting on a high-minded level, or because your heart-strings are getting tugged even if you think it's kinda dumb, or just because it makes you so hornt-up you can't think straight? All are valid, and all are possible simultaneously, but it's interesting to prod at to see how the interest is working. You might also just be like, eh, it's fine, or GOD, STOP, and that's fine too. So, with all that said:
Superego winners:
demon powers!Sam (202 votes)
soulless!Sam (177 votes)
blood addict!Sam (160 votes)
Y'all like to really brain about how Sam is fucked up. I get it.
Ego winners:
Trials of Hell!Sam (186 votes)
blood addict!Sam (180 votes)
demon powers!Sam (161 votes)
Still all Sam, and no surprise that his saintly pale sleeplessness is winning the heartstrings battle.
Id winners:
demon!Dean (205 votes)
demon powers!Sam (175 votes)
blood addict!Sam (165 votes)
Again, no surprise: fandom girlies (gn) love their bad boys, lol. Soulless snuck in at #4 here with 163, presumably because working out still wearing a belt was juuuust dorky enough to kick him off the podium; #5 was Smith & Wesson at 162, probably because if they'd been left in that AU for ten more minutes they would have been fucking over the top of Dean Smith's desk. Glad we're all on the same page, there.
The nopes here were an interesting mix. In the full-on No Thank You category we had Michael!Dean and Gadreel!Sam (with 52 and 53 votes respectively) -- it would be interesting to know if that was due to dread of the storyline specifically, or just how No Bad Wrong it felt to have it happening. These two also led the 'meh' category, although they were joined on the podium of bad by Endverse!Dean (128 Meh votes), which frankly shocked me. Y'all aren't into his thigh holster? C'mon now. Sure, he murders his friends without compunction, but -- thigh holster!
Story Tropes
These ones were fascinatingly all over the place, which is exactly why I wanted to do this. Going to just run down the S/E/I podiums real quick, then 'Hard sell', then No --
Superego winners:
Outsider!POV (211)
Someone Finds Out (191)
Mental health issues (190)
Ego winners:
Mutual pining (252)
First time (242) AND Sick/injured (242)
First time in a long time (235)
Id winners:
Jealousy/possessiveness (224)
First time (218)
First time in a long time (180)
Now, part of what's interesting about these is how they fall off in other categories. Outsider POV wins handily at Superego with 211, but then drops all the way down to 92 votes at Id -- which isn't nothing, but clearly it's preferred to have a heckin' think about how other people view the incest relationship, rather than thinking it's just So Hot that people might. Similarly, while people do think it's so so hot for one brother or the other (or both!) to be possessive at 224 votes, when it comes to the superego that drops right down to 134 votes, presumably as the brain wakes up and goes RED FLAG!
Entering the land of no thank you, we shall have two anti-podiums:
Real hard sell:
Infidelity (127)
magic/powers!Dean (125)
Unrequited/no relationship upgrade (110) AND "Carver Edlund" fandom
This is a much more mixed bag. Infidelity and Unrequited are no surprise here, because it Feels Bad, Man; magic!Dean also not really a surprise, given that most of our respondents prefer being closer to canon, and Dean is very much our mundane buddy in the show as presented. (A delightful buddy, but a distinctly nonmagical one.) Carver Edlund fandom makes me laugh mostly because it's such a bananas thing to exist in the show. Sam and Dean reading big bang fics about each other? Collectively we just... don't know what to do with that. Weird.
Squick/No/Maybe one exception:
Permanent character death (140)
Infidelity (108)
Eating disorders (102)
Again, no surprise in the anti-winners of 1 or 2 here, but number 3 surprised me, personally. ED fic used to be a pretty big wedge of common tropes that people would seek out. Perhaps it's gotten less popular over the years? Or perhaps just that the people who like it REALLY like it and so chat about it out loud, while those who don't quietly bury it in sand, lo as a cat does with their leavings.
Most extreme delta in 'general interest' (whether that be S,E, or I) to 'ehh' (whether that be Hard Sell or Squick) is first time. Y'all loooove your first time.
Sexy Tropes, Vol. 1
This is where I really wanted to know if people could pull apart their interests between brain and heart and guts. Hopefully people were honest, as requested. Some of them we know are slight liar answers, because the hits on AO3 tell a story that can't be refuted -- nevertheless, here's what people were willing to admit to.
Bulletproof kink/will read any version:
Bedsharing (158)
Incest kink (139)
Size kink (133)
your friendly neighborhood survey creator is jumping up and down going 'wooo' that size kink made the podium. also I hope everyone understood that incest kink meant, like, indulging in the incest of it all via 'oh you're so totes my brother and i want to suck your dingle for that reason specifically', but I realize that could've been clearer.
Easy sell/you don't have to work hard for me to enjoy:
shameless bottom!Dean stuff (151)
switching (147)
voyeurism (138)
the first one here genuinely surprises me considering what I see getting written most often; is this a case of just not being in the right venn diagrams, or the 'easy sell' just not matching up with what people are being sold? Curiouser and curiouser.
Medium sell/not my fave, but I can see how it appeals:
bad/awkward sex (120)
phone sex (114)
in [drug/alcohol] veritas (110)
edging into awkward town in a few ways here: we don't love these, but we can see how it'd be fun. or not fun, in the case of bad sex.
Hard sell/this is unbelievable or uninteresting so you have to work hard to get me to enjoy it:
always-another-gender!AU (84)
multiple Sams or Deans (73)
genderswap (magic) (72)
so, in general, we prefer to keep the penises around and intact, but just one Sam penis and one Dean penis, please. Here, I'm interested that the volume is much lower than in the top category: maxing out at 84 hard sells compared to 158 bulletproof options means that we're willing to give more of these tropes a chance, even if they're not our faves. How accepting we are!
Squick/no/maybe one exception:
always-another-gender!AU (83)
A/B/O elements (65)
multiple Sams or Deans (51)
strong overlap with the hard sell; and, keeping in mind that people were able to choose multiple options, it's possible that some of those were identical votes. Again, please keep the penises straightforward and only two at a time. A/B/O is interesting here, especially given what we know of how well it does on AO3; while it's a big squick for a lot of people, it also has decently high votes in bulletproof/easy, averaging 82 votes. Mixed bag!
Sexy Tropes Vol. 2, Electric Boogaloo
Bulletproof kink/will read any version:
Possessive/claiming sex (129)
Marking (hickeys/bruising) (116)
Hair pulling (103)
Let's glance back up at the Id winners in the story tropes above, hmm quietly to ourselves, and move on.
Easy sell/you don't have to work hard for me to enjoy:
Marking (hickeys/bruising) (135)
Hair pulling (130)
Possessive/claiming sex (121)
Well, that's boring. So let's expand so as not to be repetitive:
4. Dub-con (116) 5. Dom/sub (113) AND Underage (113) 6. Knifeplay (107)
There we go. Pretty easy to put all of those into one fic, too.
Medium sell/not my fave, but I can see how it appeals:
Blindfolds (128)
Painplay (116)
Shibari/rope play (112)
We're starting to lose interest as accessories come into play. Interesting to compare D/s and its relative success against painplay -- so, tell him what to do, but don't hit him while you're doing it. Fair enough.
Hard sell/this is unbelievable or uninteresting so you have to work hard to get me to enjoy it:
Fucking machines (94)
Vore (80)
Mommy!kink (77)
Entertaining mix here, haha. General feasibility may be rearing its head here. (Also, for my own entertainment: daddy!kink got 67 Hard Sell votes. People generally prefer to keep it as horizontal incest, not vertical incest.)
Squick/no/maybe one exception:
Feederism (164)
Vore (161)
Extreme underage (157)
No surprises here, although some fans of the nibbly variety of wincest may be disappointed by vore's poor placement. Note also that 'extreme' is in the eye of the beholder; we'll leave aside value judgments, as we have for the whole survey, and note that people are not indulging in a version of underage they find to be personally past the line, or at least are not admitting to that.
At a glance, the closest matchup between bulletproof for some and a squick to others is bloodplay, with just 1 vote separating the two categories: 44 bulletproof, 43 squick. Next time someone tries to tell you that 'everyone' likes or doesn't like something, please take it with an entire shaker full of salt.
Dynamic & Position Preferences
I tried to encourage people not to think too hard about this one and just answer on instinct. Who knows if that worked. But here are some overview takes:
Toppy/dominant: Sam takes the lead here, with 69% of respondents being in the 'Love it!' category. Nice. (217 votes)
Dom Dean earned a respectable 52% of 'Love it!' votes (163).
However, I was also interested to check out the inverse --
subby!Sam: 44 'Very no thank' votes (13%) subby!Dean: 27 'Very no thank' votes (8%)
It's interesting to leap way back up and compare that against 'shameless bottom!Dean stuff' doing so well in the rated E categories. Makes you ponder.
Actual sex position: Frequently switching takes the win here, with 61% of the vote (194 votes). Sam always topping edges out if people must choose, with 144 votes; Dean always topping is our lowest choice, with 112.
Service!topping: this is a fairly niche fic type, but it does still exist -- I guess in a world of bottoms someone's got to actually get up and do something, and it is hilariously an almost perfectly even split:
service!top Sam: 50.17% (151 votes) service!top Dean: 51.50% (155 votes)
A healthy percentage of people said they didn't care about these questions either way, and more power to them. However, they were wildly outvoted by those who did.
Multishipping Time
Our final categories are when other people get their grubby hands on Sam or Dean, either canonically(ish) or in our fandom activities.
Canonical relationships for Sam
Jess wins, quelle surprise. :) 161 people Dug It and who can blame them.
Amelia LOSES, shocking no one: 112 people said Fuck That.
Eileen was definitely a mixed bag; her results, in order, were: Meh: 92; Fuck that: 76; Worse than meh: 66; Dug it: 44.
Canonical(ish) relationships for Dean
Note here: it was too unbalanced if we only went with people Dean officially dated. However, the show leaned hard into a few unrequited male relationships for him, which we included here, and no one sent me hate about it so I guess that was fine.
Benny wins the Love It! category with 129 votes, barely edging out Cassie at 122. Benny is best boy, so that fits.
Cas loses with a full 99 Fuck That votes, which is probably what we'd expect from a wincest survey. That said, he also got 93 Dug It votes, so it's a pretty balanced showing.
Poor Lisa sits firmly at Meh with 148 votes. It's not that we hate you, Lisa; we just don't really know what to do with you. Which is pretty much how the relationship went in the show.
Shipping Sam like FedEx
We returned to the S/E/I model for shipping as we did for tropes, because it means something very different to go 'oh sure, I can see how that would be interesting' vs saying 'I want them to fuck rawnasty and I don't care why they're doing it.' Apologies if I left out your favorite side-ship but, shit, there's only so much time in the day.
So, we return to the podiums:
Superego:
Ruby (132)
Rowena (121)
Cas (102)
Ego:
Rowena (121)
Cas (106)
Ruby (90)
Id:
Ruby (125)
John (121)
Rowena (118)
So that was going on sedately until Dad came in like a hammer. Fascinating. On the other hand:
No:
Lisa (234)
Donna (222)
Claire (219)
Interesting to me that these three are ladies that Sam theoretically could have got up in but people are not into it, regardless. This is slightly different to Dean's 'no' category -- spoilers for three inches of screen space!
Dean, Shipped by UPS
Superego:
John (129)
Benny (115)
Lisa (99)
Ego:
Benny (134)
John (116)
Lisa (102)
Id:
John (147)
Benny (128)
Crowley (114)
Well. That tells a slightly different story, ahem. Enjoy the various tropes that will be applied, Dean! And then we get:
No:
Amelia (245)
Kevin (223)
Gabriel (217)
Comparing to the Sam 'no' above -- these three are slightly more 'traditional' Sam ships, though the wincest shippers are nevertheless not into them for Sam, either. Dean literally never spoke to or saw Amelia on screen, so it'd be a determined shipper who'd make that happen. Not undoable, though!
Conclusion
Syke: there isn't one to be made. This really shows how diverse the taste is in the wincest community, or at least in the wincest community that a) happened to see this survey over the last five days and b) bothered to take it. This particular group leans slightly toward e.g. toppy Sam, or slightly toward switching, but when you look at raw numbers what you see is that at least one person LOVES every single one of these things, and at least one person fucking HATES every single one of these things, and so -- so what? Write what you want. If you see a niche of something that you love where you feel like not enough people are writing or reading, try to fill it. If you're worried "no one" will like it, well -- you're wrong. Someone will. It just needs to get seen by the right people.
That's where fandom comes in, to spread the love even if something isn't bulletproof for us -- reblogging a post to say, 'hey, my mutual made this thing, look at it!' What a joy it'd be if someone saw it and loved it to absolute shattering bits, and then found their little bulletproof community, and happiness was made. What's the point, if we're not making each other happy.
Thanks for participating if you did, and reading all this if you did. Here's a link to a google sheet (read only) with all the tables of raw data if you're interested. I'll post some of the more entertaining fill-in answers later.
s&d shipping survey results: November 1, 2023 - Google Sheets
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mythos-writes · 1 year
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Angry Dutch
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Max Verstappen x driver Reader
Plot: Even though they’re driving partners, they didn’t see eye to eye. But after a crash between the two Red Bull drivers, it could be the end of these two as driving partners…
This goes out to my friend, who has been very patiently waiting for this fic to be published :)
Formula 1 Masterlist
Word Count: 1.6K
Warnings: Angst, Swearing,
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(Y/N) has been with Redbull for a few years, and everything has been great. Christian Horner loves her work, she gets along with the pit crew and has been a shining light within the paddock. But one person in the Red Bull racing group had an issue with her: the golden boy himself, Max Verstappen. She had already been with Redbull a few years before Max came in, and as soon as they No one knew why they just never got along. If anything went wrong, Max would blame (Y/N) immediately. 
It was race weekend in Montreal. The Red Bull garage was buzzing. Max and (Y/N) were tied in the standings and had the chance to get closer to winning the championship. This weekend was important for (Y/N). It was her home country's race. She was the talk of the weekend. All the Canadian media was wanting to do interviews with her, from sports outlets to just some local newspapers. 
As qualifying went, the two Redbull drivers placed well, pole for Max and third for (Y/N). The two drivers seemed to be able to get through a race weekend without fighting. Oh how wrong they were. When race day came, (Y/N) and Max seemed irritable that morning. The only time any press saw them together was when they were leaving the driver meeting, ever since then, they were not caught five feet from each other. When they got into the car, they were both hoping that this race was going to go smoothly. 
As the lights went out, the two Redbulls zoomed away, setting themselves first and second. The race was going smoothly. When they got to lap 10, (Y/N) was in first place, as Max went in for new tires, that’s when she realized that her radio failed, leaving her with no way to contact the garage and the team. That’s going the race quickly fell through their fingers. As the two Redbulls enter turn 8, (Y/N) made a mistake which caused Max to crash into her. Both cars went off into the gravel, forcing both Redbulls out of the race. Max hopped out of the car, fuming at what just happened. His gaze went to (Y/N) car, watching her climb out of the crashed car. Max stormed over to her, looking like an angry bull himself. 
“You absolute fucking bitch! You saw me coming and I know damn well that our mechanics told you to let me by! But instead, you crashed into my car!” he yells, catching her off guard.  
“My radio failed! I was driving for the past five laps with no direction!” she defends herself from the fuming Dutchman.
“You can’t accept that I am a better driver than you! You’re just a little girl who got here on daddy’s money and will be nothing just a driver that no one will remember!” then Max started to get in her face, both visors up, so they were looking at each other clearly. (Y/N) felt the weight of those words. her story was not like the Stroll family, coming from money, but her story was more like Lewis Hamilton’s. Coming from little money, parenting worked hard for the money, most of which went to racing. So when she landed in Formula 3 and worked her way up, it felt like a dream come true, her hard work and her parent's sacrifice paid off. 
Tears started to well up in her eyes, which caused Max to be worried. She normally never showed much emotion when it came to their arguments. They would trade blows, but they never crossed any lines. This time, Max crossed a line. 
“Fuck you… you utter self-entitled prick. You don’t know anything about my life so don’t make any fucking comments on it golden boy,” she spits before shoving past him and starting her trek back to the garage. They both knew that their little argument was caught on camera, as they fought on the track. Leaving many people wondering what was spoken between the two.
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As she finally arrived back at the paddock, she was immediately greeted by her assistant and the waiting media. Many of them yelled questions at her, asking what had happened out on the track, and what was said to one another. (Y/N) just ignored them and stomped her way into the garage. 
She caught the attention of Horner. He rushed over to her about to bombard her with questions about what happened. (Y/N) stopped walking, held up her hand, and glared at the Team principal. 
“Don’t” was all she muttered, not trusting her voice, and stormed off to her driver’s room. 
Max followed in not that far after and was greeted with the same confused but furious Horner. 
“What happened out there?” he asked, knowing Max will give him an answer. 
“I went too far,” he says as he takes off his helmet and balaclava.
 “What do you mean too far?” “Our argument. I went too far,” Max clarifies. Horner has taken both drivers under his wing since they joined Redbull Oracle Racing. He knew that they did not get along, but he never thought they would cross any lines. 
“What are you going to do?” Horner asks. 
“Not sure. But I have to talk to her before she decides to leave early,” Max confirms. They both know if (Y/N) did not have a good race, she will leave the track early, miss all of her after-race duties, and meet with the FIA. 
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(Y/N) had just finished changing out of her when rapid knocks startled her. She sighs before going to the door. She thought it was going to be Horner or her PR Manager getting her to go to the interviews. But she was greeted by the last person that she wanted to see. She tries to slam the door shut, but Max was faster. He caught the door and let himself in
“Please, I need to talk to you,” he pleads. 
“You did enough of that on the track,” she spits.“Come on please, I am sorry. I crossed the line,” he says. 
“You stepped over the line and then jumped off the cliff into the point of no return,” (Y/N) states, packing up her backpack so she can go to the hotel. 
“And I am sorry for that,” Max says, trying to slow her down a little.
“Ok and I don’t accept it. You have a lot of making up to do,” (Y/N) states. Max was panicking a little, which was a little out of character for him. Max grabbed her shoulder, making her turn around. She was expecting to be greeted by another apology but was greeted by his lips against hers. 
She was shocked, to say the least. She quickly pushed him off, grabbed her bag and raced out of her driver's room. Leaving Max behind, more confused and anxious than ever.
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It had been a couple of hours since the surprise kiss from Max. It made her head spin and her heart beat as fast as a Formula 1 car. They never saw eye to eye, so having him kiss her made her rethink everything. 
She knocked on his hotel door, thinking he probably went out to party through Montreal. But the door opened, revealing a shirtless Max in PJ shorts. (Y/N) breath in her throat. 
“Um, could I come in?” she questions. Max looks back into his room, before opening the door more. She walked in observing the room, seeing that it was similar to hers. 
“So what are you doing here?” he asks, sitting at the edge of the bed. (Y/N) bit her lip, trying to get the words out. Actions speak louder than words. She moved over to stand in front of him and placed her hand on his cheek before placing a kiss on his lips. Max went stiff before welcoming her in. He wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her onto his lap. His hands move down from her waist and onto her butt. A moan fell from her lips, giving Max full access to deepen the kiss. Max moves away from her lips and starts to leave open mouth kisses along her neck.
“Max, what is going on? What is happening between us?” (Y/N) asks in between breaths. She was losing herself to the attention Max was giving her. He hummed against her neck before pulling himself away from her soft warm skin. 
“It is whatever you want it to be,” he says. 
“But you hate me,” she comments, playing with the hair that sits at the nap of his neck. 
“When did I say I ever hated you?” he questions, placing a kiss along her jaw.
“We always argued, we never saw eye to eye on anything, and…” her voice trailed off as he continued to kiss her neck, but moving down her chest. 
“Max I’m being serious,” she states, pulling the Dutch off of her. 
“You want to know what I thought about us?” he asks, allowing her to put an end to this. But she wants to know. 
“I was enamoured by you. You never let Horner or the media get to you. You are a strong and amazing person to have as a driving partner,” he says, melting her heart. “I want us to work on our relationship. To make it better and see where it goes,” he continues.
“Me too,” she says bringing him back into a proper kiss. They know they had much to work on, but this was a good starting point.  
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staytinyville · 7 months
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Stay Alive (8)
BTS poly!ot7 x Reader
Magical Creatures AU
Series Masterlist
Warnings: None
NOT BETA READ (I did try the best to my ability)
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With you finding a set rhythm within the following week, you had gotten used to all the boys who were usually seen together in a group. Most often it was the two youngest who craved your attention while one of the older boys was there to mediate their personalities so as to not overwhelm you. However you found them entertaining, cooing at them often from how they acted with each other. 
You had been sitting in the common room with them playing a game of poker–without gambling–with the two rowdy boys and two of the eldest. Hobi sat looking over his cards while Jin kept scolding the boys for being too loud or poking at each other. 
Within their dynamic you were quick to see that Jin took on a paternal role while Hobi was more a calming presence that taught them things. He was patient with them. Sometimes—other times he would look at them with the most fear inducing glare that made you tremble even if it wasn’t aimed at you.
“I win!” Taehyung grinned as he slammed down his cards. 
“You always win!” Jungkook groaned, looking over the boy's cards. 
“Because I'm just that lucky.” Taehyung teased the younger boy.
Jungkook began to glare as he realized something about Taehyung’s cards. “You're cheating!”
Taehyung gasped loudly, looking offended. “No I'm not!” He crossed his arms with a pout.
“Yes you are!” Jungkook glared. “I can see you changing the cards! Hobi Hyung! Tell him to stop!” The boy looked at his Hyung, pointing at Taehyung who dropped his shoulders when Hobi glanced at him. 
“Calm down, Kook. It's fine.” You gave a light smile, trying to get the boy to stop pouting. 
With him sitting to your left, the boy sat close to you. “He's still cheating.” He jutted his lip out, slumping over in his seat as you looked at him.
“Tae, you know the rules.” Hobi spoke up, giving the boy a look.
“Sorry.” Taehyung also sat back in his chair, scooting closer to you just a bit. You smiled slightly at the way he wanted attention after being scolded. He was an adult but his charm was boyish. It was his personality you found to be adorable for someone like him. 
You noticed both him and Jungkook tended to act the same. However Jungkook found a way to keep his wants to himself while Taehyung wasn’t shy about them. One was outgoing while the other was reserved. They were the exact same and yet so different. 
“Have any of you seen Jimin?” All four of you turned around to find Namjoon walking over to the table. 
“Have you checked the pool?” Jin immediately spoke up, looking at the tall man with a worried expression.
“I have but he wasn't there.” Namjoon sighed. “Which is very odd.”
“He is normally always there?” You asked, tilting your head to the side.
“He's claimed it as his own room honestly.” Jin shook his head. “He's only ever out of it when they close it.”
“Does he enjoy water?” You smiled lightly.
“Understatement of the year.” Namjoon huffed, shaking his head.
“We'll help you find him.” You told the man, coming to a stand. The others were quick to follow your steps, moving to help find their friend. 
The boys began to bicker about who would be that one to go with you, however you told them it was best to just go on your own. You would cover much more ground. Namjoon had to pull them away when they tried to continue sticking with you. 
You walked away from them with a smile on your face, a laugh bubbling up from your throat. It had been so long since you had met someone like them. It was refreshing to know that they didn’t allow their sicknesses to change their personalities. 
You might not have met many of the other patients in the facility but you knew that the boys were very close and found solace in each other. You could only wish to have a friendship like theirs. 
You had passed by the make-shift park underground, stopping to look inside and calling out for the man Nmajoon was looking for. However, with only one person in the whole greenroom, they had explained to you that Jimin wasn’t there. They too expressed that you should check in the pool area. With a frown, you decide to double back over Namjoon’s search and go to the pool yourself. 
You had entered through the locker rooms hallway, looking around hoping to find him outside. However when no one was seen and no one answered when you called, you began to look deeper into the men and women's locker rooms. There wasn’t anyone in either which made you frown. 
As you stepped back out into the hallway, you heard movement coming from a staircase down at the end. The case was positioned in the middle of an intersection that had the entrances to the pool. You heard humming coming from up the stairs so you slowly started to climb up them. 
“I’m standing at the edge. Not yet, Not yet.” Your feet almost tripped on a step as you seemed to freeze at the sound of the person’s voice. 
“I won’t look back. Now yeah, now yeah.” You had reached the very top of the steps looking into a door that led into a big room. 
Your breath hitched as you saw the person’s black moon tattoos that covered his back. His head was thrown back as he continued to sing to himself calmly. “Fly away, butterfly. Finally free.”
Your body seemed to shut down as your eyes grew cloudy, keeping your vision directly on the man that had been in his own world. You began to shuffle closer without noticing, trying to reach him. He seemed to walk closer to the edge of something, turning around to face you. However he kept his eyes closed, mouth in a grin as he kept singing.
“Look at me now. I won't stop, even if they mock me. Going insane to stay sane. Raise your hands for the past me.” And then he fell backwards. 
That seemed to bring you out of your stupor, your eyes growing wide as you screamed and rush towards the end. “No wait!” You gasped as you fell down to the floor, leaning over the edge to find the olympic size pool at the bottom. 
You took in a large breath, scolding yourself for not realizing it was just a diving ledge. You were too busy listening to man’s beautiful voice to even notice where you were. Your lips pulled up as you felt stupid. 
“Everything alright!?” You turned down to look at the man wading around in the pool, his eyes looking up.
“Yeah.” You called back down. “It's fine.” You glanced around for a moment before getting up to make your way down. Walking down into the hallway you had entered, your eyes fell onto the racks of towels by the entrance to the main pools so you moved to grab one.
“Are you alright?” You asked, once you made your way to the edge of the pool. You feet shuffled closer, watching as the man swam his way over, laying his arms on the ledge and staring up at you.
“Yeah.” He gave you a dazzling smile. “It was just a diving ledge.” There was a teasing tone in his voice which made you smile bashfully.
“I realized that a bit too late.” You softly spoke. You shivered as he seemed to lay his head on his arms, keeping his eyes on you. “You're going to catch a cold.” You bent down to look him in the eye. “Here.” You placed the towel on your lap, showing it as an invitation to get out of the pool.
“I'm fine.” He hummed. “I'm used to it.” He still pulled himself out of the pool, running his hand through his wet hair. You kept your eyes up on his face, not wanting to be met with his torso. You had gotten a peak when he pulled himself up and you did not want to look down to his waist. Much too distracting.
“You should still dry your hair.” You frowned, reaching up to pat his hair. 
“I'm fine. It's better for me anyways.” He still allowed you to dry his hair, dropping his shoulders at the feeling. When you pulled back, he brushed the towel out of his face to get a better look at you. “What's your name?”
“(Y/N).” His eyebrows raised, lips twitching at the soft look on your face. 
“Ah, I see.” He said. “I finally get to meet you. Shameful I'm the last one. I'm Jimin.” He bowed to you.
You moved your head down, quickly looking up when you realized who he was. “Namjoon is looking for you.” You told him.
“I know.” He shrugged, turning around and heading to a bag that was on a bench. 
When you noticed he just took a seat and didn’t bother asking for more details you decided to continue. “You should get going so he's not worried.”
“I'll get to him. No rush.” He took a sip of a water bottle. “It's nothing important.”
“How do you know?” You frowned.
“What can he possibly have to tell me? Nothing has changed here in years.” He paused for a moment, eyes glancing your way. “ At least not until now.” He quietly spoke to himself.
You hummed, asking him to repeat what he had said. “Nothing.” He smiled softly.
“Well, I told him I'd come find you so now you have to go so I don't get on his bad side.” You walked closer, moving to shoo the boy out the bench and into the locker room to change.
“Hardly.” Jimin snorted, becoming dead weight as you tried to push him. He giggled, but got up after letting you struggle for a bit. “Fine. I'll be nice.”
“Thank you.” You beamed at him, which made him cough to cover up the blush forming. “Of course.” 
You waited for him outside of the locker room, rocking on the balls of your feet. As he took a bit longer, Namjoon had walked back into the pool area, explaining to you he hadn’t found the boy. Just as you were going to tell him where Jimin was, the man himself walked out of the boy's locker room.
“Jimin, there you are.” Namjoon frowned. “Where were you?”
“I was in the pool.” Jimin shrugged nonchalantly. 
“I checked.” Namjoon stressed. “You weren't there.”
“Maybe I didn't want to be found.” The boy sighed, looking off to the side with a bored expression.
You were about to say something however your pager had buzzed indicating someone needed you. You frowned when you noticed how another nurse was asking for your assistance with a smaller patient. “I have to go real quick but I'll be back.” You spoke up. 
“Just in case I don't see you again, please have a good day Jimin!” You gave him a bow, large smile on your face. The boy’s breath got caught in his throat as he watched you skip away, your words bouncing around in his head. 
He hadn’t ever met someone who could make him feel like he wasn’t confident in himself. He’ll always have that to his own personality, however for some reason when you spoke to him it seemed as though he would forget about himself completely. He wasn’t able to sense you like most of his friends could, however with how you doted on him when he got out of the pool it turned him to mush. The way you carefully dried his hair for worry of him getting sick. 
Most of his nurses tended to just get his things out of the way for fear of having him talk to them, but you didn’t seem to care. He was sure you had no clue what you were doing. It made him smile to think about how innocent you truly were. He wanted to keep you safe. Just as he was sure all the others do too.
“After meeting you, I think I will.”
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Series Masterlist
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eponastory · 2 months
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Ah, Sarcastic Chorus...
Let's break down the 'I'm going to fix you' argument for Katara.
First off, no one can 'fix' anyone. Going into a relationship thinking you're going to change somebody and make them different is going to make that relationship bad. It's not necessarily toxic, but bad. Why? Because it's not your job to 'fix' the other person. The only one who can do that is the other person. You can only 'fix' yourself.
A lot of relationships fail because of these expectations.
I'm going to talk about fanfiction here for a moment since I've been writing a Zutara story. Since Zutara isn't Canon (but we really wish it was) and all, I only have what does happen in Canon and what happens in fanfiction tropes I see a lot.
In the show we get these wonderful little moments where Zuko and Katara are fighting each other (book one), and it sets a nice theme of opposites attract. The motifs are there with all the color symbolism... it's nice. That does immediately set our brains to 'oh they are so going to get together'. There are a lot of nuances to that, and it's lovely.
I'm not going to lie, Katara is in that group dynamic of 'The Heart' role, and yes, it does put a little pressure on her character to care for everyone. It's my least favorite role for a character and it's a bitch to write when you want that character to be independent.
Anyway, back to Katara. She's the mother figure, the caring and nurturing one that has to help everyone else sort out their problems while she has to internalize her own. It sucks. It really does. So when we get to TSR in Book 3 and she is practically berated by everyone for not acting like herself... she gets pissed, rightfully so because she had to help everyone else with their bullshit until Zuko finally joined. This is where Zuko becomes a foil for her.
Just to be clear, a foil is basically a character that encourages change to happen within a dynamic. It can be a group or a pairing. Usually, that character had opposite goals or a different personality. Zuko started out as the antagonist, but when he joined the Gaang, he's now a foil for the entire group.
Back to what I was saying... what was I saying? Oh yes!
So Katara is rightfully pissed because she needs to deal with her trauma when everyone is suddenly 'this isn't who you are'. No, this is exactly who she is. She is very much like her element. Water is fluid, it can be calm and it can be a torrent... which is exactly the way she is written. It's always been her, she just put everyone else's problems above her own. Now that she has to deal with her problems, it's chaotic for everyone else.
And yes, she does have survivors guilt.
That is her main problem, so now she has to deal with it. And Zuko gives her that chance.
This is getting pretty long, so I'll try to wrap everything up here.
Zuko doesn't need to be 'fixed' he's already done that himself by himself. Joining the Gaang was essentially a fresh start for him (I use that term lightly) which is why he is so awkward when he goes to talk to them at the Western Air Temple (or is it Eastern? I don't remember ahhhh. Fibro brain!) And it's so cute and I just want to hug him. I digress, but it's great.
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He's got a shitty past, but he is trying to change himself even further by accepting responsibility for what he did to them individually. In Katara's case, he has to work hard for her. It's lovely, and the payoff is great. I know for sure that is what I see in their relationship. He cares so much about her that he works hard to win her trust again. Why? Because she showed him compassion in CoD, and that struck a chord in him. Her strength is her compassion when he was taught by his sociopathic narcissist father that emotions like that are a weakness.
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That my dear Kat*angers is why we love this ship.
It's a beautiful dynamic between them that I would have loved to see Bryke explore, but they just gave us the most vanilla bland version of a romance they could find by pulling a D&B (Game of Thrones writers) and subverting expectations. It sucks.
TLDR version.
Katara doesn't have to fix Zuko.
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