#this is nice. lately the attention i've been getting from strange men is like. a guy on the bus offering me his half-eaten ice cream tube | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

highwaytothedangerzone502 · 1 year

Text

Foxtrot Alpha Alpha - Chapter 5

Pairing: Hangman x Female OC

Word Count: 2231

Warnings: Car Crash, swearing

Summary: Hangman learned his lesson a long time ago to never show his true feelings when someone's words or actions hurt him. To do so showed weakness that could be exploited, and Seresin men couldn't show weakness. Of course, there was an exception to every rule, and Jake's always came in the form of women, three in particular: his mom, Juliette Kazansky, and the girl whose name he could no longer bring himself to speak. She was the girl that got away; she was his biggest 'what if' and his biggest regret; she would forever be the ghost that haunted his dreams. Jake believed that's where she'd stay, for he would surely never see her again after what he did.

Or so he thought.

Notes: This is the sequel to India Lima Yankee; I'm using the same callsign for the Female OC as in Ghost Story because I just really like it, but they are different characters; chapters in italics are flashbacks.

Chapter Songs: A Place in This World Meant To Be

****

Ghost

"I did it!" Jake exclaimed, laughing in disbelief and staring at the guitar in his hands. Then, like he couldn't believe it himself, he turned to his friend for verification. "I did, right? No mistakes?"

"You did," Annalise confirmed, beaming proudly at him. "I've never seen someone pick up guitar so quickly."

"What can I say? I'm a fast learner. I also had a great teacher."

"That goes without saying." Jake handed her the guitar, which she happily took back and started strumming a new song she'd been practicing. "How far into the book are you?"

"I finished it!" he exclaimed, twisting around and taking it out of his backpack. "I see why you love jets so much. They're fascinating! The Blue Angels are doing a show in Corpus Christi in a few weeks. I'm going to see if I can convince my mom to let me go see it."

"I already got tickets," Annalise chirped. "Mom gets special access with her military clearance. She makes a call, and she's there. If you want to go, let me know, and I'll ask my mom to see if she can add you to the list. Your mom, too, if she wants to come."

Jake perked up immediately. "Really?"

"Yeah. It'd be nice to have a friend tag along. My sister goes, but she's usually off flirting with the boys, so I don't have anyone to geek out over the planes with."

"I'll ask when I get home! Honestly, after reading that book and reading up on the Navy, I see why you want to join."

Annalise cocked her head. "When did you read about the Navy?"

"Checked out a book from the library not long after you brought it up. Seemed interesting, and it was. The more I read about it, the more I want to join."

"Going to become a naval aviator like me?"

"Obviously. It's the coolest job." Jake glanced at his watch and swore. "Shit, I have to leave for practice soon. Coach will have my head if I'm late."

Annalise chuckled, taking the cue and gathering up her things. Jake helped her up when she was done and took her guitar case as he walked her back to her house like he'd done every time before. While they made the trek to her place, Annalise asked, "You ready for school to start next week?"

"This is going to sound strange, but yeah. I love being at school." Jake hesitated momentarily, like he wanted to say more, but then seemingly decided against it. "What about you?"

"Not really," she admitted, omitting the fact that she had no friends outside of him right now, and she was sure he'd forget about her once classes started. After all, he was the most popular guy in school, and include the fact that he filled out over the summer, buffing up and losing some of his baby face, would only increase his popularity. Meanwhile, Annalise was a nobody, someone who had joined two months before sophomore year ended and made no real impact on anyone. No one paid attention to her. She might as well have been a ghost. The fact Jake even remembered her at their initial meet in the woods stunned her, but she chalked it up to them having had a few classes together. Why else would he have noticed her? It's not like he had a crush on her. Even his walking her home was simply Jake being a gentleman. Annalise refused to read into it because it meant nothing more than what it was on the surface.

"Why not?" Jake prodded with the dreaded question.

"I'll basically be the new girl all over again. I barely got to know anyone when I got here last year, and chances are I'll move again by the end of the school year because of my mom or dad's job. I don't want to get close to anyone when I'm probably going to leave again before college."

"I'm not sure if you're telling me I'm the exception to not wanting to get close to anyone or that you're going to ghost me if you do leave."

Annalise smiled but said nothing, already figuring their friendship would crash and burn before she left. Stopping outside the gate, Annalise thanked him for the escort and took her guitar from him. As she turned around to head into her backyard, Jake said, "Same time tomorrow?"

"Always," Annalise replied. Giving him a two-finger salute, she entered her backyard and shut the gate behind her. Upon stepping foot into her house, she'd barely set her guitar down when Jacqueline Blackwood appeared out of nowhere from the shadows of the living room.

"When were you going to tell me you knew Jake Seresin?" her sister demanded, crossing her arms.

"Since never, because it's none of your business," Annalise retorted, rolling her eyes.

"People are saying he has a secret girlfriend, you know."

"Wouldn't surprise me if he did. He's cute."

It was Jackie's turn to roll her eyes. "I'm talking about you, dumbass. They'll think it's you if they find out you two are hanging out. Are you two together?"

"Oh, please." Annalise scoffed, grabbing a Dr. Pepper from the fridge. "Jake is not interested in me. It's just a summer thing. Come first day of school, he'll have completely forgotten about me."

"And how often have you been sneaking out to see him?"

"It's not sneaking out if we plan it."

"Then why haven't you said anything about him all summer?"

"Because I knew all three of you would get the wrong idea, and you, in particular, are a busy little brownnoser who would probably find a way to crash the party."

"For your information, I already followed you. How else do you think I knew you were seeing him?"

"What the fuck, Jackie?"

"Language!" Charlie chastised, entering the kitchen in a sharp suit. "Annalise, you know better."

When Charlie briefly turned her back to her daughters, Annalise flipped Jackie off, who stuck her tongue out in return.

"Girls, knock it off," Charlie warned. Annalise wondered how her mom had seen the exchange for a split second until she saw the microwave, clearly reflecting the two Blackwood sisters. "What's going on?"

"Annalise has a secret boyfriend, who happens to be the most popular guy in school," Jackie piped up, smiling smugly at her little sister. Annalise glowered at her sister, thoroughly planning on getting her revenge later on.

"He's not my boyfriend. I ran into him in the woods, and we started chatting. He was interested in learning guitar, so I've been teaching him. That's it. Nothing more. We're not like Jackie and Oreo."

"His name is Orry."

"I don't care what his actual name is. The guy has super black hair, is always wearing black, and is whiter than Frosty the Snowman. He looks like an Oreo, so I will continue calling him as such."

"Fine. I'll continue calling Jake your boyfriend."

"If that's the game you want to play-" Annalise turned to their mom- "Jackie snuck out of the house two weeks ago to go to a party with Orry and got stoned."

Charlie placed her hands on her hips. "Jacqueline Elena Blackwood!"

"You were supposed to keep that a secret!" Jackie hissed, grabbing an apple from a bowl nearby and chucking it at her sister's head.

Annalise caught it and took a bite from it. "Yeah, on the premise you would owe me a favor in the future or until you pissed me off enough to divulge it."

"Jackie, go to your room. Your dad and I will talk with you later about your punishment," Charlie ordered, pointing firmly at the stairs. Jackie obeyed reluctantly, shuffling off in dismay to her room, but not before muttering under her breath so only her sister could hear, "You're gonna pay for that one."

Annalise tried to then back away without any further conversation, but her mom stopped her. "Any other secrets you're holding over your sister?"

"Unless they give me leverage over her, I don't keep them, so no."

"About this Jake kid-"

Annalise groaned. "Not you too."

"Have you been sneaking out to see him?"

"No. I just haven't said anything because I didn't want it getting blown out of proportion. It's a summer thing that will end the moment school starts."

"Why's that?"

"Because he's the most popular guy in school, and I'm a nobody?"

"I'd like to see you have a steady friend group."

"What's the point?"

"We're not going to-"

"Move again in a year?" Annalise responded defensively. "I'm pretty sure you said that in Colorado, California, Florida, Michigan, and Virginia."

"Annalise, don't use that tone of voice with me," Charlie cautioned gently but firmly. "This time's different. Your dad and I want you and Jackie to have stability in your last years in high school. We've already talked to our bosses to ensure that that happens. Listen, Jackie is going out of town for the weekend at the end of the month. Why don't you invite Jake over for dinner?"

"I'll ask him," she lied, biting back a cringe at the idea. She would mean nothing to Jake after school started, so what was the point in even asking?

"Good. Let me know what he says. On a different note, I have a meeting in a few minutes, but I need to get this package sent off. Could you run into town and do it for me?"

"Anything to be away from Jackie right now. Where is it?"

"It's in the mudroom. Thank you, sweetie. Be careful!"

"I will. Love you!" Annalise grabbed the keys to her car and bolted out the door. Blasting some George Strait, she pulled onto the main road and cruised into town. Annalise passed the high school on the way to the post office, its parking lot jammed with trucks belonging to the football players practicing on the field. Jake was down there somewhere, but she couldn't tell which. She didn't even know his jersey number. Annalise continued on her way, dropping the package off and then deciding rather than going home and facing the inevitable wrath of her sister, she'd shop around a bit. It's not like there was anything of interest to buy, but Annalise was a sucker for cruising through stores like Home Goods, Hobby Lobby, and Barnes and Noble. Annalise let her mom know, who had no qualms about the better-behaved daughter being out by herself.

For better or for worse, all three of those stores were in the same parking lot as the post office, so Ghost strolled over to them, taking her time as she perused through the items. A couple of books did catch her eye, namely about fighter jets, although a romance novel did slip its way into the mix. Nothing at Home Goods or Hobby Lobby was worth buying or was out of her price range, but they were still fun to visit.

While in Home Goods, two girls her age strode past. Annalise ignored them, continuing to look mindlessly at some of the clothes on the racks, when one of them said, "Hey, you're Annalise Blackwood, right?"

Annalise glanced up in surprise. "Uh, yeah. Why?"

"We're having a party Friday night and would love to have you come. You should bring Jake, too!"

Annalise knew precisely who they were referring to but decided to play dumb. "Jake who?"

"Seresin, of course! With you two dating and all, we thought-"

"I'm not dating Jake Seresin," Annalise said, laughing in disbelief. "Where the hell did you hear that rumor?"

"Well, we heard it from Hannah, who heard it from Mackenzie, who heard it from her boyfriend Trevor, who heard it from Orry, who-"

"Heard it from Jackie?" Annalise finished, blood slowly boiling as the epiphany dawned on her. When the two girls confirmed her suspicion, she sighed deeply to rein in her flaring temper. "I'm not dating Jake. It was a rumor spread by my sister as payback for something I did earlier. I appreciate the invite, but I'm going to have to decline. If you'll excuse me, I need to get going."

Annalise left before the girls could protest, keeping her head down in case any other school students noticed her and interrogated her about the false situation. One thing was certain, though: Jackie was dead meat for this.

Annalise pulled out her phone and shot her sister an angry text with more than a few expletives. Leave it to her sister to not only ruin the only friendship she had but mortally embarrass her before school started. What had Jackie been thinking?!

Annalise slid into the driver's seat, setting her phone in the cup holder. Trying to bite back tears of anger and mortification, she backed out of the parking spot and started to head home. Tears tried to blur her vision, but she furiously blinked them away. Annalise white-knuckled the steering wheel, desperately wishing to get home as quickly as possible. The light changed to a green arrow, and after checking both ways, Annalise started moving forward. Then, and only then, did she notice the tow truck coming at her from her peripheral with no apparent intent to stop. Time slowed, and realizing she couldn't avoid being hit, Annalise braked and braced for impact.

****

Tags: @lgg5989 @shanimallina87 @polikszena @summ3rlotus @icemansgirl1999 @supernaturaldawning @thedarkinmansfield @lyannaforpresident @lapilark @getmyprettynameoutofyourmouth @simpofthecentury @shadeops21 @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy @double-j @bradshawsandbridgetons @majdoline @catsandgeekyandnerd @peachiicherries @multifandomcnova @fandomsstolemylife00 @bookloverhorses @mak-32 @midnightmagpiemama @luckyladycreator2

Chapters: Chp 1 Chp 2 Chp 3 Chp 4 Chp 5

If you're on the tag list, it's because I copied from the India Lima Yankee tag list. If you don't wish to be tagged for this story, just let me know! If you're not on the tag list and want to be, comment below :)

14 notes · View notes

yourfavlesbainina · 9 months

Text

Sneak peak of my wattpad story

≿━━━━༺⧗༻━━━━≾

Downingtown was a small town in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Downingtown had always been a quiet beautiful place, a perfect family town. The Ivanov family had moved to the US from Russia when their youngest daughter turned 1.

Their oldest daughter fell in love with the small town instantly. From the second they were driving up to their neighborhood to her first day of kindergarten. Iris became friends with the neighbor's kids quite fast.

The minute her little sister Valerie became old enough to find friends, it was almost impossible for her not to set her up with her friend's little sibling. Even with her oldest sister's help no matter what Valerie couldn't seem to make friends, maybe it wasn't meant to be.

≿━━━━༺⧗༻━━━━≾

The two sisters were biking around their town, they could feel the late-night summer breeze blowing their hair up making them look like maniacs. Iris had just turned 8 and had received a necklace of the moon from her mom, it matched the one Valerie had gotten of the sun for her 6th birthday earlier that year.

Their parents had never been scared or worried about them getting kidnapped or abducted since their town was very safe. the two sisters had been out in their neighborhood a bunch of times, so their parents didn't think this time would be any different from any other time.

the two girls arrived at their favorite usual hang-out spot after a few minutes of riding, the area had a nice lake and was surrounded by black oak, sycamore, and willow trees. there were also flower fields around the place with daffodils, daises, lavenders, and snowdrops. And by the lake, there were living otters and ducks.

It was a small area, barely anyone in the town knew of it so the sisters were often there if they had a bad day or if they wanted to get away from the world. they were having a competition to see who could skip rocks the furthest.

The two girls were laughing loudly together never wanting this moment to end. "What do you mean you can skip further than me, there's no way" Valerie defend which made Iris raise an eyebrow not believing her.

"That's the biggest lie I've ever heard you say." The older brunette bursted out to her sister. Her sister however didn't agree with her and rolled her eyes at her. "Okay sure... whatever" the 6 year old said with a pause in between, after skipping another rock across the lake.

Meanwhile the girls were skipping rocks they were too busy to notice 8 different men watching them from a small distance. They were carrying guns and syringes with anesthesia in them.

They slowly made their way towards the young girls so they wouldn't notice the men approaching them. The men waited for the right moment to abduct the young girls and stayed in their place until they were too busy to be paying attention to anything.

The men finally got their perfect moment when the girls started arguing about who could skip the furthest. So in that moment they ran up to the girls and Injected the anesthesia into their necks, carrying their bodies with them. Only leaving the girls bikes...

≿━━━━༺⧗༻━━━━≾

Annika had never hated anything more than her mother, after her father died her mother had spent every last penny on drugs and alcohol. So they quickly ended up on the street. Annika tried to save as much as a cent for food, but they were quickly stolen by her mother even if that meant that she would be left starving.

Annika hated being on the streets it was dirty and she had to watch everyone else live out their happy lives while she was stuck there with no place to go home to. The worst days were when it was pouring rain on her head and she had to sleep soaked curled up into a ball on the wet pavement.

But something that's as even more humiliating was whenever she had to see her old classmates walking by and they would send her smug smirks or looks of disgust.

But one strange day she saw a woman chasing down a man on the street the woman had long brown hair and she thought she saw her eyes glow red, but she bet it was just her imagination. The woman quickly pushed the man down onto the pavement, it looked pretty painful if she had to be honest.

She didn't understand why the woman did that towards him. He looked pretty normal and innocent, not like someone to commit a crime or be un behaved. That interaction distracted her from everything else that was happening around her.

This gave hydra the perfect moment to take the young girl with the help of quick silver. The girl didn't realize what was happening until it was too late, she was taken away from the street, but at what cost...

≿━━━━༺⧗༻━━━━≾

The cruel things Iris and Annika did during their time at the red room and hydra. Iris had killed and tortured way too many adults and children in her lifetime to be counted on 100 people's hands. She had knocked Romanoff from her title of the best child assassin, which is something no one thought was possible.

Annika had followed in the scarlet witch's footsteps, she was almost as powerful as the Maximoff girl and was feared by everyone at hydra. She was their new secret weapon and with her they would be unstoppable, the avengers would no longer be the most powerful.

Valerie seemed to be the only one to have kept her kindness and sympathy. To her sister she was seen as weak and sensitive and this had a lot of saying to how she was treated in the red room. Dreykov did everything to punish her, from psychical and mental abuse to sexual abuse. This did not help the girl at all, but instead made her more traumatized than she already was...

≿━━━━༺⧗༻━━━━≾

#the red room #hydra #marvel #mcu #natasha romanoff #wanda maximoff

5 notes · View notes

24maki · 2 years

Text

✨ (🦁💰)

you give life | luca kaneshiro x female reader fluffy headcanons. sfw. set post time jump. requested by anon.

— when dating the mafia boss.

part of 'you give life' a luxiem x female reader dating hc collection > return to navi

After a long day at work, you dragged your steps straight back to your apartment, ignoring the cat calls and strange mumbling that gave rise to the city's nightlife. A purse and tote bag dropped to the floor, and then you slid onto your soft, white bed— a home run. That throbbing pain on your temple subsides, but was a reminder of your troubles from today.

"What kind of idiot would drink coffee without a lid..? A waste of paper... dammit..!" You knew that you'd be told to create the replacements on Monday.

Groaning, you flipped to lie on your back, staring at the posters you'd taped to the ceiling. Exhausted, hungry, bored, sleepy, frustrated... Just a barrage of emotions hindering you from figuring out what should be done first.

You went off your bed and stood, "I guess a meal would help..."

But before you could reach the fridge, a couple of knocks and shuffling could be heard at your window.

With a slam, your curtains are pulled away by black leather gloves, revealing a blonde man wearing a white suit and matching fedora, with a luxurious fur coat on top.

"HOONEEEY~! ARE YOU HOOOME~?"

There was a bright smile on his face as he quickly looked around the room, his purple irises stopping on you. He shouts your name before running up to you, and swiping you off your feet to carry you bridal style. His excitement and energy was exactly how you remembered it to be, too quick for you to react.

As your arms automatically went around his neck to avoid falling, he smirks, his canines glinting mischievously. "L-Luca?! What are you—?!"

He gives a not-so intimidating laugh, "Muahaha! I finally got you after waiting for so long! You can't escape me now!"

You felt bad, knowing what he said was true. Lately you barely get any free time due to the seniors dropping large portions of their tasks onto you. However that didn't explain Luca's side, he had to be busier than you.

"B-But..! How about your duties?! Where are your men?!" And, how did he know I was here?!

"Don't worry 'bout it!" He started walking back to the window, suggesting something risky.

You gulped, "Luca..? You can... put me down now..!" Unfortunately, he had a firm grip on your legs, and it's better to not waste time trying to escape the strength of a mafia boss.

He had a foot at the base of the window, ready to jump. The wind comes in, blowing your strands back and letting your eyes catch a glance at the small street below...

"Luca... Please put me do—"

"It's been while since I've held you like this," he starts, "Reminds me of that time I carried you out of that shoot-out!"

You stared at him, the guilt leaving you speechless. Perhaps it was work that stopped you from wondering how Luca felt all this time, though ultimately you knew it was your fault. I'm a horrible girlfriend...

He gives a quick kiss to your cheek, "Never leave me again, okay?"

"Wha—"

With your guard down, Luca launches out the window, descending with your screams trailing behind you.

He fucking tricked me!

Surprise visits: thanks to his private informants, he just knows where you are all the time.

Whenever his mafia family's eyes are not on him, he tries to sneak out to see you.

Upon seeing you when he walks down streets, his men have to stop him from interacting or catching your attention. "Just a few words with her! Please?!"

Since the Kaneshiro Family has many connections, businesses give you 'that look', recognizing you as Luca's lover. Since you are treated way more nicely than the rest, you think it's embarrassing.

When you go out with Luca in public, he isn't ashamed to show you off. He loves resting a hand on your lower back, and giving you cheek kisses in public.

He saves the real kisses in private, because he wants to keep the experience only for himself.

He is easily jealous. “She's my woman, so hands and eyes off!”

He specifically loves to send you jewelry and white dresses to match with his white suits.

Whenever you visit the Kaneshiro Mansion, the Family treats you well, especially Augustus. The Family considers this a miracle because Augustus just bites everyone.

Luca isn't super picky with dates, he says the best date would be a dinner, then talking a lot and snuggling. "I don't care where we go— I just want to hold you until we fall asleep."

✨ (🦁💰) — end

i may edit for grammar mistakes.

i wrote so much because Luca gives me tons of ideas lol

i hope you all enjoy this!!

#꩜🔔#nijisanji #nijisanji en #luxiem #luca kaneshiro #golden retriever

312 notes · View notes

robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

Note

i've been keeping a list of possible prompts for you and there's one i have no memory of adding that just says "courtesan nmj????" so i guess that's the prompt you're getting lmao

What Does the Fox Say - ao3

“Second Madame Nie!” a disciple shouted, rushing into her little garden. She didn’t recognize him, but he was solidly built and well-muscled like most of the others – truly, the Unclean Realm was a rapturous feast for one with eyes to see it. Yum, yum. “Second Madame Nie, I have bad news!”

Boo. She hated bad news: bad news meant she’d have to do something, usually, and right now she was seated very comfortably in a pleasant piece of sun in the garden path that’d been made up just for her and to her preferences, with her feet up on a chair and a full plate of fruit from the kitchen on the table in front of her just begging to be devoured, morsel by delicious morsel.

Her schedule was packed!

“I regret to tell you, but your husband has been killed!”

“Oh,” she said, frowning slightly. “Has he? How obnoxious of him.”

How unreliable. Men.

She sighed.

“Second Madame – Second Madame – you don’t understand!” The disciple was all red-eyed and weepy, which was a look she liked, especially in big, stout men like this. The salt added a bit of spice to the whole thing. “You must flee at once! He was killed by Sect Leader Wen in an act of outright aggression – Sect Leader Wen has declared war – the Wen sect is invading!”

She nodded and picked up another lychee to start peeling it. She’d get around to fleeing in her own time. As long as this Wen sect or whatnot was being led by a man, she wasn’t terribly concerned.

“They intend to wipe out the inheritance of Qinghe Nie! They will rip out the child in your belly!”

She hummed noncommittally. Really, how attached was she to having a child of her own? Really?

“They will slaughter civilians – execute Nie-gongzi –”

Her hands stilled.

“What,” she said, and the disciple took a step back automatically, proving that he, at least, had something more of a survival instinct than her late husband did. “Hurt my little meat bun? My darling rice roll? My savory zongzi?”

She stood up, diminutive height and over-large belly and frilly clothing doing absolutely nothing to diminish the vaguely menacing aura that darkened the sky around her. She bared her teeth.

“Who does this upstart Wen dog think he is?!”

The disciple blinked owlishly, but nodded, seeming relieved that she’d finally accepted his concern, though she could see on his face that he was thinking that her reasoning was – characteristically – a little strange. But then again, and she could see this thought process on his far too honest face, it was well known that the second Madame Nie been quite strange ever since Sect Leader Nie had found her in some lonesome place with no family or background and brought her back to be his new wife nevertheless.

Such a charming man. Pity about his loss, really.

“You have to flee at once, we can’t possibly fight so many people,” the disciple said once more, and this time she nodded in agreement. “We can escort you to a hidden exit –”

“No!” a little voice called. “We can’t go.”

She turned to look, and there was the little pork-and-shrimp dumpling himself, chubby-cheeked and earnest-eyed, looking as delicious as always.

“What do you mean, fish cake?” she asked. “Of course we have to go. Didn’t you hear what this strapping young man said? This Wen person wants to kill you!”

“If Father is dead, then I’m the sect leader,” her stepson said. He was serious and solemn in a way that made her want to pinch his cheeks and bury her face into his belly to blow raspberries, and also possibly to eat him right up, flesh and marrow and gristle and all. “That means it’s my responsibility to preserve the Nie sect.”

“Nie-gongzi, no!” the disciple cried, throwing himself to his knees in a dramatic display of loyalty. “You would only die – far better for you to run, and live!”

“Then isn’t the same true for everyone else?” the tasty little dish asked, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Possibly he was trying to put on a fierce expression, maybe, she couldn’t quite tell sometimes. He was so cute. “Why should I live, and them not? I refuse to buy my life with their deaths!”

“But – Nie-gongzi –”

Her charming little honey cake shook his head and held up a hand to stop the disciple, turning to look at her instead.

“Second Mother,” he said, and he had that wholesome trusting expression again that was such a perfect little one-shot-kill to the heart, ugh. “You always said you’re the best at hiding. The best in the world, no one better among all the gods or demons!��

She was, too. She couldn’t help but preen a little, proud.

“– can’t you do something?”

“Oh, darling cabbage bun,” she said, not without fondness. “I can hide myself from even the net of Heaven itself if I so choose, from gods and demons alike, and I can most certainly hide a small group from any mortal eyes that dare to look, if you don’t mind being a little tiny bit dishonorable about the business. But an entire sect? That’s a bit much, even for someone as talented and skilled as me.”

Her stepson looked up at her, all straight-steel sincerity and upright righteousness wrapped into a perfectly edible little snack-sized package. “If we split them up, the sect could be small groups,” he said eagerly. “Couldn’t you do something then?”

He was so cute, and he trusted her. He trusted her, believed in her, felt that she could perform miracles with a wave of her sleeve if only she so wished.

It was awful.

She couldn’t bear it.

“Oh all right, you nummy little slice of roast pork belly,” she said, yielding. “But I’m telling you now, it won’t be the least bit honorable! There’s only so many excuses you can come up with for having a lot of strong men with wide shoulders and women with thick thighs hanging around, and not a single one of them has the slightest bit to do with what you people consider to be appropriate.”

“That’s all right. Preserving human life comes first, always.”

The disciple looked between them, clearly completely confused. Clearly all his effort had been spent on developing the muscles in his arms (quite nice) rather than his brain (quite slow).

“What?” he said. “What’s happening?”

“We’re saving the sect,” Nie Mingjue announced happily, clapping his hands together. Too precious, too precious entirely; she’d have to make sure no one else even thought about going near her darling little snackling. “Tell everyone to prepare to evacuate.”

“That will take too long,” she said, and smiled, with teeth. “Let me call some friends to help.”

When the Wen sect arrived at the Unclean Realm, they found the gate open.

That was unexpected enough, but when they entered, they found that the entire place had emptied out – not just of people, but of everything else, too. There wasn’t a single intact chair or table in the entire place, not a scrap of cloth nor a bit of food, like it’d been swept clean by locusts or wild monkeys come to pilfer whatever they could.

Even the paving stones where arrays had been laid out by the Nie sect’s ancestors had been pried up and carted away.

Sect Leader Wen ordered a search, but there wasn’t any trace of it – of the people, of the stuff, anything.

No one ever found out what happened.

Jin Guangyao despised social events, he’d found.

It was one thing when it was something he’d planned himself, where the work was interesting enough to distract him, but when he was an honored guest for someone else…miserable. Utterly miserable.

The only thing more miserable was when the host was his erstwhile father, from whom he’d forcefully extracted recognition. With Wen Ruohan as his backer, indulging his favorite torturer as if a beloved pet, there wasn’t much Jin Guangshan could do to refuse, and neither could he force Jin Guangyao to do anything on his behalf, either. And so Jin Guangyao, sitting as always by Wen Ruohan’s side, right beneath his sons, was now an honored guest at his father’s house, getting offered his pick of prostitutes as if the man had no notion of the irony.

Maybe he didn’t. Jin Guangyao couldn’t quite tell if his father had just forgotten his origins, thinking his bastard son too unimportant to remember the details of, or whether it was meant as a deliberate insult – who could tell?

“Oh, right,” the simpering idiot in front of him, a nephew or cousin of some sort to the sect leader, said. “Our dear Jin Guangyao is known not to like the gentle flower queens, even when they come from the finest houses in Lanling. Isn’t that right, cousin?”

Jin Guangyao’s fists clenched. A deliberate insult, then.

Despite that, his face remained neutral. Instead, he chuckled and said, “The appeal is limited. After all, I have seen the best of them.”

Beside him, Wen Ruohan nodded and smirked. He appreciated Jin Guangyao’s devotion to his mother, though Jin Guangyao suspected it was because he thought it funny that Jin Guangyao would bother to honor such a lowly woman – but what he thought didn’t matter, not really. All that mattered was that he let Jin Guangyao pay his respects to her to his heart’s content.

“Well, you’re in luck!” the idiot Jin Zixun said, looking absurdly smug. “We have something of a different flavor than the usual tonight – we’ve invited entertainment from the local branch of Splendid Spring.”

Jin Guangyao barely managed to avoid rolling his eyes.

The Splendid Spring Palace was a series of brothels that had popped up fully formed just about everywhere some years back, with madams and girls and musicians and bodyguards of all sorts. It was so patently a political move that Jin Guangyao had barely bothered to pay attention to it once he’d become actually powerful, and Wen Ruohan hadn’t paid attention to it at all. After all, in the unlikely event that the business really was backed by a cultivation sect that didn’t care about its face any longer, anyone who needed to use such a façade to gather power was clearly beneath notice.

Jin Guangyao had paid only very little attention, but to different and unusual aspects of the place: by all accounts, they were surprisingly decent employers as far as places like that went. They didn’t steal girls or accept unwilling goods – they had some connection with the merchant caravans, or at least one of the companies that helped coordinate routes and provide protection to such things, and they were as meticulous about checking things over as they were about seeking refunds if they were dissatisfied – and they did accept married girls fleeing unhappy marriages, which not everyone did. They did buy up all the girls in the local markets wherever they were, but they swept them away and brought them back transformed, even the ones that wouldn’t sell because they were too ugly; Jin Guangyao assumed that meant they had people who were talented in make-up and clothing, since the usual rumors of the girls being blessed with a yao’s enchantment were obviously ridiculous and nothing more than the usual marketing gimmicks that brothels since time immemorial had tried.

Even once they had the girls in hand, the places were pretty decent: they had physicians on staff to help with the usual side effects of the business, made sure their girls were clean and healthy, and were said to even limit the number of customers a girl would be obliged to take on in a given evening…honestly, knowing as he did the brothel business, Jin Guangyao sometimes wondered how they’d managed to bespell enough people to even make money in the early days. At any rate, whatever they’d done, it’d worked, because by now they had a solid enough reputation to trade on.

In short: a decent enough place, far better than the usual run of the mill. Once he’d had the ability to do so, he’d even pulled a few strings and arranged for the better of his mother’s old compatriots to end up there, since he couldn’t convince them to leave their old professions behind entirely.

Anyway, if they also seemed to have a sideline in information brokering and assassinations, well, let them. In the cultivation world, where the only thing that mattered was strength, real strength.

A little thing like that wouldn’t make any real difference.

Or so Jin Guangyao had thought.

He found himself re-thinking that, though, when the entertainment in question came out. There were the usual set of attractive (albeit in a wider variety of shapes and sizes than usually seen) dancers, dressed up in silks that seemed actually high quality, and plenty of strapping young men carrying sabers – dancers as well, once assumed, to provide some spice to the entertainment, and implicitly on the offer for men who cut their sleeves or women with more flexibility, like widows or ones with especially permissive husbands. Wen Ruohan’s wives were in that latter category, and they were already whispering to each other excitedly, looking at them.

They’d even brought in the local madame, who was…

Well, she was actually breathtaking, even by Jin Guangyao’s extremely jaded standards. She had hair that fell almost all the way to her ankles, shimmering in the light, and dark eyes shining with liveliness, a smooth and ageless face that simultaneously suggested youth and health but also winked at knowable experience, the features characteristic of what his mother’s employers had called the ‘fox-face’. As if to emphasize that, the lady was wrapped in fox-fur and draped in embroidered brocade, with little stylized foxes running up and down the hems of her clothing and along the gazy silk draped on her shoulders.

It ought to have looked absurd, looked gaudy and overwrought and overdone, but it didn’t.

She was a thousand dreams of wealth and beauty and power and sex appeal all wrapped up in one, and even Jin Guangyao – who was in his personal preferences quite firmly a cutsleeve – couldn’t help but intrigued by her, wondering what it might be like to touch the hem of such a glorious creature.

And next to her…

The lady was accompanied by two men that seemed completely different from each other. One was a slender and winsome young man, fluttering his eyelashes from behind a fan with a charming smile, emanating the appeal of softness and weakness, ready to be indulged. While the other…

Jin Guangyao swallowed.

He was the exact opposite of the first man. Clearly strong, muscular and powerful, and tall to the point of towering, with wide shoulders and a narrow waist, a chest that you could lean your head against and an ass that begged to have someone’s hands on it – and there were his hands, big and broad, perfect for holding someone down or up if they so wished and of a size that was very promising as to what was only hinted at under his clothes. His face was hidden behind a veil as if he were a woman, marking him, like his comrade, as one of the available courtesans of the Splendid Spring, but his body was visible under clothing clearly cut to put it to the best advantage.

And oh, what advantages it had…!

“It seems we found something to the tastes of dear cousin Guangyao after all,” the idiot said mockingly, sniggering and snorting like the pig he was, and for once Jin Guangyao didn’t even care.

“Who’s the woman in front?” Wen Ruohan asked, ignoring their interplay. He seemed utterly fascinated, almost spellbound, and Jin Guangyao couldn’t blame him one bit. If this woman had been at the same brothel as his mother, there wouldn’t have even been room for jealousy or shame; his mother would have gone straight up to her to ask for some tips. “She seems…familiar, somehow.”

“That’s the madame of the Splendid Spring,” Jin Zixun said proudly, as if he’d done anything at all in relation to this – nonsense, of course. Everyone know which brothels were backed by the Jin sect, and Splendid Spring wasn’t one of them. He was acting as if he deserve a pat on the back just for the introduction! “That means she’s not for sale.”

His smile faded a little, twisting in a small bit of bitterness. “Or so she told my uncle, anyway…although I’m sure if it were Sect Leader Wen asking, the answer would undoubtedly be different.”

Probably because Jin Guangshan couldn’t slaughter prostitutes with impunity if they said no to him, whereas no one could stop Wen Ruohan from doing any damn thing he pleased.

Wen Ruohan grunted, pleased by the answer – he was a possessive man, in the rare events that he did exert himself in the realm of women, and there had been more than one instance where he’d stolen away some girl his sons had been eyeing first just for the joy of having had her first – and raised a hand, catching the lady’s eye and gesturing for her to come over, which she did.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

She laughed. “You can call me Hu Jiuwei. With the ‘Hu’ being the character for fox.”

Jin Guangyao tried not to choke. There were false names and then there were false names – the lady’s theme was already clearly related to foxes, given her fox-face and fox-fur lining and the foxes embroidered onto her robes. Was the over-the-top name really necessary?

“It’s a fake name,” she added, unnecessarily.

“I see,” Wen Ruohan said, sounding a little choked himself. Possibly it was the woman calling herself ‘Foxy Ninetails’ and then kindly reassuring them all that the name was false as if she thought them too dumb to figure it out that was tripping him up a little. Jin Guangyao couldn’t tell if she was doing it deliberately in order to make her frankly inhuman beauty a little less frightening, or maybe she was blessed with so much beauty that she hadn’t bothered to cultivate her brain at all. “Are you our entertainment for the evening?”

She smiled, and any complaints Jin Guangyao (or indeed Wen Ruohan) might have had about her intelligence faded away at once.

It was that type of smile.

You could wreck nations with that type of smile. Jin Guangyao couldn’t help but wonder: how had a woman this extraordinary ended up in a brothel, of all places? How had no one snatched her up to keep her all for himself before now?

“My sons and I –” she gestured at the two behind her, “– would be more than happy to provide you with all the entertainment you could possibly want.”

Her smile widened.

“We’ve been hoping for an opportunity like this for a long time.”

#mdzs #nie mingjue #second madame nie #jin guangyao #wen ruohan #my fic #my fics #what does the fox say

262 notes · View notes

ncitycafe-blog · 5 years

Text

word count: 2.3k

—

it was late, about 10 pm, but you were in a relatively safe part of downtown so you felt safe walking alone, and your apartment wasn't too terribly far. shops were closing one by one, most of your light came from the amber glow of the street lamps with the occasional fluorescent hue from still open convenience stores and office buildings. you were stopped at a light and took time to admire what was around you. there was something so peaceful about the night, you almost got lost in it. up until there was a grip on your elbow, it was gentle but it was so sudden you almost let out a scream.

"babe, sorry!" you looked up a man with slightly longer brown locks. one, mind you, you did not recognize, "i had to close tonight and it took a little longer than usual, i should've texted you to wait inside."

does he have you mistaken for someone else? just as you are about to politely tell him you have no clue what he is on about, he leans down and whispers in your ear.

"if you slyly look over your right shoulder, you'll see a shady looking man. he's been following you for a few blocks now."

you look and, sure enough, you make eye contact with a guy wearing all black and he quickly averts his gaze to look away from you. either way, you had two choices: take the chance of the prince-like stranger being a complete lunatic or take the chance of the guy behind you blitz attacking you the moment he had the opportunity. you took your chances with your knight in shining armor or...nice suit rather.

"it's okay!" you reply cheerily, playing along with the ruse he started, "wanna grab something at the diner before we get home?"

"yeah, sounds great!"

with that, he grabs hold of your hand and the light gives you the go ahead to walk. the guy still follows you two, but now from across the street where he every so often sneaks a quick glance. luckily, he seems to continue walking once you step inside the diner.

"so," you start after the both of you order milkshakes and he gets a burger, "to whom is it i owe thanks for my rescue. and, just to let you know, i carry pepper spray and a pocket knife at all times. that is both a threat and me telling you i could have handled it."

he chuckles, resting his chin on the palm of his hand, "johnny seo."

your blood runs cold at that moment. johnny seo? infamous mafia member under Nterprises? maybe you should have taken your chances with the shady guy.

"don't look so afraid, darling," he says, leaning back against the booth seat. "could never harm a pretty face like yours."

he winks at you, sending a chill down your spine and warmth up to your cheeks.

"well...uh, thank you," you stammer quietly. "isn't it dangerous that i've...y'know...seen your face? for you, that is, because...y'know..."

"hmm, not unless you're confessing right now to having the intention of turning me in, but you seem smarter than that," he shrugs.

your waiter walks up, setting your orders and mumbling a "enjoy" before skittering off. johnny pays no attention to the odd behavior as he dips a fry into his milkshake and then proceeds to eat it, earning an odd look from you.

"what? have you never tried it?" he asks, genuinely shocked when you shake your head. "you have to! it's really good i promise!"

he slides over the fry basket and you mirror his prior action, eyes widening upon realizing he's totally right. he smiles, seemingly pleased with himself for introducing you to one of his favorite food combinations. the two of you finish what you have in silence before he walks you the rest of the way home.

"thank you, again," you say at the lobby entrance, "and for the milkshake, too, though i wish you let me pay."

"no, no, can't let you pay for the first date. however, if you want to buy us coffee sometime..." he trails off.

"date? are you— maybe i should've maced you," you scoff under your breath.

"hey!" he pouts, "that's not very nice."

for a moment, you had forgotten he was a member of one of the most powerful gangs in korea, but that moment was gone upon catching a glimpse of the handgun in his waistband.

"well, better get going!" you laughed nervously, trying to reach the safety of your apartment soon as possible. only, he catches your wrist just as you turn away, whispering lowly in a tone much darker than the one he spoke in all night.

"seriously, i advise you not to try anything, it wouldn't be pretty and i don't look forward to what would have to be done."

with that, he disappears into the shadows of the night, leaving you in the cold embrace of the wind and the moon as your witness. did this make you an accomplice to the mafia? maybe if you just never saw him again, you could pretend it all happened in the first place. head spinning, you finally stepped into your building and made your way up to your room, crashing as soon as your body hit the mattress.

and you didn't see him...for a couple of weeks. but one night, he showed up at your doorstep. how he got through lobby security? you haven't a clue, but he surely was insistent as he brushed passed you, into YOUR home.

"shit, well, come on in i guess," you mumble.

"the night we met," he ignores your remark, annoying you further, "did you notice anything strange?"

"afraid you're going to have to be more specific than that. what kind of strange? two men casually following me strange? handgun on one of said men strange?"

"can you be serious for two seconds?" he pleads, "did you see anyone else suspicious?"

you sigh, taking a moment to actually think, "um, the waiter acted a bit odd. scared, i guess?"

"what did he look like?" he asks firmly.

"jesus fuck i don't kn—"

"well, remember." his tone sounds bitter, harsh.

"woah, attitude much?"

"sorry, sorry," he takes a deep breath and runs a hand through his hair. "i think someone saw us, me, that night."

"why do you think that?" now you're concerned.

he doesn't answer, just hands you an envelope. inside, there are photos of you two walking, sitting in the diner, outside your apartment complex. you can't quite grasp what this all means, but you don't like it one bit.

"i— johnny?" your voice wavers. "w-what does this... am i..."

he nods, "pack a bag, believe it or not you're safer with us for the time being, until we find out who did this."

"us?" you ask, rhetorically.

he nods again, waving you off to go pack as he sits on your couch, placing his head in his hands.

and that's how you wound up under the unexpected protection of Nterprises.

a few months passed, all leads leading to nothing but dead ends. you grew numb to it after awhile, but johnny was frustrated as when the hunt began. a bounty on his head? fine. a bounty on you? it tore him apart. there were times you found him silently weeping alone in the middle of the night when you'd gotten up for any reason, and every time, your heart ached. he blamed himself. sure, from some standpoint he could be held accountable, but this isn't what he wanted. it was just the wrong place at the wrong time.

you had learned more about the "business" whilst living under headquarter's roof, it was only natural. the first night you'd come in everyone was attentive and tried their best to...make you feel welcome. it was the least they could do, and there was no point in wasting time pretending you didn't exist. they knew you would be around for quite some time. Nterprises was built under the lee clan decades ago, and had held steady ever since. taeyong is head of the business, he's the one who really briefed you on everything. he made it very clear they didn't go around killing people as they so please, they hardly did any killing at all. to them, it was all about money, which did set your mind at ease a slight bit. he was surprisingly nurturing, not just to the other members but to you as well, much more so than you ever could have expected. he was one of the ones you saw more often, along with mark and haechan, and johnny of course. doyoung, taeyong's second in command, appeared as cold and indifferent to you, but taeyong assured you he would have your back if the time came. the others were always either busy behind closed doors or away on what mark simply put as "business trips", so you didn't have much interaction with them. you made the best of your time, there was no point to spend it wallowing.

you spent so much time with johnny, you two naturally became insanely close. in the rare times you could forget about the world around you, you would did anything normal friends would. cook and make a mess in the kitchen (much to taeyong's discontent), watch movies, act a damn fool, talk about anything and everything under the sun. he was incredibly goofy, having the boyish charm of a young child. however, he was also the most genuine and caring soul you'd ever met. he was deep thinking and seemed to always appreciate the finer things in life. there was a light in his eyes that never seemed to burn out.

one night, around 2 am, you are woken up by a clatter in the main room. you open your door, taeyong and yuta, one of the other members, run by you in a flash. you follow suit, gasping and tears welling up in your eyes at the sight in front of you. johnny is torn to shreds, scratches covering his face and a couple of deeper wounds on his biceps, probably a broken rib as you examine the way he clutches his side as he writhes on the floor in pain. you push passed the boys, kneeling down beside him.

"what happened? who did this? johnny, oh my god, we need to get you to a hos—"

"nakamoto," he says bitterly through gritted teeth, "your men wish you farewell, i sent them your regards."

you turn around, confused. taeyong has his gun drawn and pointed at yuta, who has a shit eating grin on his face.

"tsk, tsk," he mocks, "too clever for your own good. you really weren't supposed to make it back here tonight, what a shame."

"enough!" taeyong shouts, and it echoes throughout the room.

"yeah, yeah," yuta dismisses him as he puts his hands on his head, "do what you must, i took the risk. besides, i've transferred enough information, i'm really the least of your problems.

taeyong walks him deeper into the house, disappearing into its shadows. you turn back to johnny, tears in your eyes.

"c'mon, w-we have to get you to a hospital," you choke through tears. "doyoung! doyoung, g-get the car he's—"

"he's seen worse," mark says, barely audible above a whisper.

"the kid's right," doyoung sighs, "and we just can't risk that right now. let's get him upstairs and patch him up, we have enough in first aid, patch him up and he'll be okay. as long as he actually rests."

johnny? resting? you would have laughed if not for the circumstances. but you get him upstairs with the help of mark and doyoung, washing your hands and wiping your tears as he sits against the wall of the bathroom, and you begin treating his wounds the best you can. it's silent for awhile, but you finally manage to clear the lump in your throat so you can speak.

"sometimes," you start softly, "i sit in bed and wonder what would happen if things were different."

"what do you mean?" he questions, wincing as you wrap the gashes on his arm.

"what if we met under different circumstances? what if we'd met like in one of those cheesy romance movies, and we'd fallen in love so seemingly oblivious to the cruelties of the world?" you laugh halfheartedly. "or, what if we never met at all? then, neither of us would be here in this moment right now. you wouldn't be hurt, i would just be in my apartment alone probably watching some stupid series on netflix to pass the time alone. and that's just it, i would rather have this than have nothing at all, than not having you. and maybe that's what being in love is, being willing to face anything so long as you have what is most important to you."

the room falls silent again, and you attentively continue to treat his wounds. you feel dumb, like you just made something really awkward out of the situation. you were so overwhelmed that it all just came out without even thinking of what he—

"marry me," he says tenderly, looking into your eyes.

"w-what?"

"i said," he carefully lifts up one of his hands to cup your cheek, "marry me. maybe not now, maybe not this year, but someday."

“someday," you smile, just before placing your lips gently on his.

"i told you!" you hear haechan snickering outside the door.

"children! go to bed!" johnny jokes sternly.

and you both giggle, still sitting there on the bathroom floor as you hear the sound of footsteps fleeing down the hall.

#johnny #johnny seo #johnny suh #johnny seo x reader #nct au #nct fic #nct scenarios #nct imagines #mafia au #nct #nct 127 #nct angst #nct fluff #nct johnny

559 notes · View notes

wingheadshellhead · 7 years

Note

Hi, I love your blog! So I've been reading a lot of 616 stevetony lately, and I've noticed that in both canon and in a lot of fiction, Steve seems to really dislike Extremis (even before superior iron man). Why do you think that is? Even without looking at this with shipper goggles (which I always am), I think it's really strange that Steve has so much disdain for something that essentially saved one of his best friend's lives.

(THIS HAS TAKEN ME 5 BILLION YEARS BUT HERE IT IS FINALLY)

i used to be in the same boat and automatically assumed steve’s dislike of extremis was one of those fandom headcanon things that was so commonly accepted it’d basically become fact, but it’s really, actually, all 100% canon. but the comics that deal with it happen right before civil war so i think many ppl have simply forgotten or skipped over that part of tony’s timeline.

execute program is the 6-issue arc that comes right after extremis and it’s the main thing i tell everyone they have to read if they’re putting themselves thru the ringer that is 616′s civil war. it is so so important to understanding tony’s headspace and where he’s at before the events of civil war occur.

READ EXECUTE PROGRAM. a) bc it’s absolutely crucial to tony’s side of civil war, b) the follow-through from the extremis arc is just… amazing, virtuosic. i really genuinely think it is a fascinating, excellently-written arc, c) when it gets gay it gets very gay. truST ME you do not need your shipper goggles for this at all bc guess which of the following things are canon: the sound of steve saying his voice being the only thing that snaps tony out of (likely a dissociative episode) trying to murder a villain that nearly kills peter, dyeing his hair blond when he’s going on the run, tony stopping his heart to save steve’s life. all of them !!! all canon !!!!!!

extremis is, basically, terrifying. to the average human being, hell even the average superhuman. it’s p much unfathomable the sheer level/magnitude/scope of extremis. extremis allows tony to access and control any piece of technology on earth and even in earth’s atmosphere, he can hear satellites. it’s like having the singularity as a superpower.

so part 1, iron man vol. 4 #7 (2006), opening issue and we have tony stopping a villain with lethal force, all while counting down the milliseconds and bidding on priceless artefacts.

now, avengers don’t kill. and tony doesn’t, he stops the man’s heart, then restarts it, basically performing defibrillation.

and then we get this conversation:

and after tony jets off leaving the new avengers to sort out the aftermath, we get this disturbing reminder:

a proper reread might prove me wrong but i don’t think the writers ever clarify whether this transformation in tony’s personality is due to extremis or outside manipulation (which is the culmination of execute program’s arc as i’ll go into in a bit). but when your brain is literally a machine and you Have Become more machine than human, this is the natural progression of tony’s humanity – the aspects of compassion, empathy, etc. – fading into the background to accomodate for extremis.

extremis brings out everything about tony that steve (and possibly the world) fears most. it makes him cold and calculating, and with a brain like tony stark’s elevated by the superhuman capacity to think and react at the speed of a machine, he’s unstopppable.

part 2, iron man vol. 4 #8, we have tony nearly straight up burning a man alive for almost killing peter and laughing about it.

he’s so deep in Destroy Mode that he doesn’t even register steve’s warning, and here i think he acts entirely out of instinct –– like extremis is thinking for him rather than his brain prompting him to do this.

extremis is also the cause of tension between tony and the newly-formed new avengers (one of my favorite line-ups!!), he almost gets into a fight with logan and jessica has to break them up. it turns out tony is missing time in his memory, which is extremely worrying for someone w/ his level of power…

what’s so fascinating about extremis, and why we have so much to thank warren ellis for (the writer of the extremis arc), is that it is the perfect and the most logical climax of the modern iron man story. tony’s worst villain, as we’ve known since the very beginning really, has never been anyone else but himself. and in the case of extremis, it’s a highly technologically advanced version of himself that can do and be everything he’s ever dreamed of being able to achieve vs. him.

the question extremis asks is at what cost? at what cost does technological advancement, bleeding-edge breakthroughs, and the spirit of human innovation come at? how far would tony go to become the Ideal version of himself that he sees as superior in every way? what would he sacrifice for that?

extremis represents basically the pinnacle of sci-fi tech in iron man comics, it’s why even god awful superior iron man used a 3.0 version of it as the foundation for tony’s sins. it’s the farthest point he’s ever reached, and it’s also the lowest in terms of the damage and fallout that comes from it. because ofc, tony stark can’t have nice things like this, but also bc the hubris + nature of extremis allowing its host to play god can’t exist without there being negative consequences. really b ad consequences.

huge respect to danial & charles knauf, the authors of execute program, too, because they find a way to perfectly bring the arc full circle as ellis did with his extremis. the central villain plot revolves around ho yinsen’s son. the kid hacks extremis and uses it to control tony, sending him to subconsciously assassinate a bunch of people on his kill list, i.e. a list of all the men involved in yinsen’s death. i mean like, HOLY SHIT, an iron man plot where a literal ghost from tony’s past – a direct victim of events tony was involved in, the son of the man that sacrificed his life so iron man could be born and so tony stark could live – shows up, weaponises tony’s own body + technology and uses him to murder people who are scheduled to participate in a peace summit despite the blood on their hands and the human cost of their involvement in the weapons industry.

DRAWING PARALLELS BETWEEN YINSEN’S LIFE’S WORK AND TONY’S LIKE DEATH AND DYING WOULD BE KINDER. again bc of my memory or even regardless due to constant retcons + reruns of the iron man origin story, i don’t know if it’s ever been explicitly stated before that yinsen also got into the weapons industry in order to get the funding necessary to support his other revolutionary work. but his son literally conflates yinsen with tony here, blending them into one + the same with that final panel and it becomes very obvious that at least a small part of him blames father for entering into weapons design. if he hadn’t, he might never have been captured by the the terrorist group that wanted him and tony to build them missiles.

also, yinsen + villains involving yinsen are a recurring theme in iron man history but can we talk abt the fact that tony has never ever let himself forget the man bc jesus christ

yinsen’s kid is killed by a SHIELD sniper, activating the dead man’s switch and unleashing all the peackeeping units tony built that are now compromised. now, tony’s no jean grey or wanda maximoff but if this arc shows anything it’s not to underestimate him bc intentional or not (lmao) if he put his mind to it there’s literally no limit to the damage he could do.

we see various heroes fighting off the peacekeeping units, and the new avengers are at the peace summit fighting a hulkbuster.

and here it is people !!! the 23989485th time tony kills himself so steve can live.

JUST. THE LOOK ON HIS FACE. AND THEN THIS ABSOLUTE LACK OF HESITATION:

so, yes. extremis was traumatising for pretty much every single person involved. steve has extremely good reasons for HATING extremis, even in the early stages or even if a fic is taking place before the events of execute program.

if you read the full arc, you’ll see tony running himself into the ground with his new abilities (world’s greatest multitasker can now multitask 192483958 things at once? ofc he’s going to use and abuse and exploit that), you see him spiralling and losing his grip on reality (mainly because he’s actually having dissociative episodes and losing time due to being remotely controlled to assassinate ppl but also bc of the Effect extremis is having on him). i brought up wanda and jean earlier as a casual reference but like, to put it in that kind of perspective, people just weren’t made to have this much power.

on a smaller scale, apart from eating up all of tony’s time and attention and mental health in a really bad way, it just Distances him from everyone. especially from the team. it’s Isolating, having this much going on in his brain and no one else in the world to fully understand it.

and on steve’s side, you also have the fact that tony’s genius is both one of the things he loves and lowkey resents most about him. he has this deep-set anxiety about tony with all his brilliance and intelligence leaving him behind in the dust, or worse, laughing at him and how outdated and dim-witted he is in comparison. this is steve’s version of tony’s “i’m never going to be good enough for him”, a sentiment summed up in a quote from him as early as tales of suspense vol. 2 (1995): “yes, tony stark, a man of today and tomorrow is the man i’ll never be.” he’s so afraid of being abandoned + alienated by tony’s mind and the future that tony’s worked so tirelessly to build that might render him irrelevant. he’s scared of a future where he has no purpose, but more or just as importantly, he’s scared of becoming obsolete in tony’s life, of not being needed by tony anymore. one of the things that endeared him so much to tony, and which laid the foundations of their lifelong friendship, was the fact that from Day One (1), tony made him feel At Home. he never let him feel ashamed or isolated as The Man Out Of Time, he actively worked to make steve feel comfortable and to give him the things he needed to acclimatise and to fit himself into this brave new world.

extremis undoes all of that. it propels tony so far and so fast into the future that it makes tony untouchable to steve. all of the ‘i can hear satellites’ stuff renders steve helpless and even more out of his depth than usual. it presses all of steve’s secret buttons and then some.

to sum this all up, and to finish my extra rambling abt tony bc u asked me about extremis and i couldn’t not finish with this:

here we have, ladies and gentlemen, everything u need to understand abt tony going into civil war. and it’s not on any of the official civil war fucking reading lists which really pisses me off because whether or not they did it on purpose the knaufs basically wrote all of execute program as the perfect precursor and characterisation groundwork for an antebellum tony stark.

a tony stark who was just very recently manipulated against his will into assassinating people and causing a world-threatening incident that could have resulted in the deaths of thousands, including his own friends and teammates (and the love of his life), is a very different tony stark to the one ppl see in civil war #1.

what happens in stamford was an accident, too. no one meant for that to happen. tony knows first fucking hand what that means and what it feels like to carry that responsibility and guilt. his position in civil war supporting the SHRA is not only to protect the potential lives that could be lost in another stamford incident but also to protect superhumans and superheroes from ever being exploited against their will by villains to kill and hurt and destroy.

superheroes are inherently susceptible to being used, it’s just part of the narrative convention –– a superhero is brainwashed or mind controlled or otherwise forced against their will to do something awful. and even if it’s not their fault there needs to be accountability for the victims. both the victims that suffer directly because of superhuman incidents but also the superheroes that become victims of ppl who abuse their powers. it’s abt protecting superheroes not just from civilians but from themselves. and if u’ve read a single comic u kno that this kinda shit happens way too often and way too easily.

sO YE S T hIS iS W HY. AND IT Ex PL AINS SO MUC H AND i j UST WISH P PL WOULD GODDAMN REA D THIS. LIKE EVERYONE WHO EVER WANTS TO SAY ANOTHER A GODDAMN THING ABOUT TONY STARK IN CIVIL WAR NEEDS TO FIRST READ EXECUTE PROGRAM FIRST OR PAY ME $10

anyway…………… one last time, i’m so so so sorry this took forever to get to. hope the wait was worth it!

#mod: answer #averageapplepie #stevetony #stony #extremis #text: meta #universe: 616 #comic: iron man v4 #original: meta #i'm so sorry u had to wait so long like #i should warn ppl that ever ask me a meta question that i might take half a yr to reply #......not to deter u tho bc i promise that my answer will be as well thought-out and in-depth as i can make it

311 notes · View notes

my-mystic-messenger · 7 years

Note

How would RFA + saeran + V react to MC suddenly being really cold to them and while crying secretly for a week before they discover that everyone ( including them ) forgot her birthday ? She doesn't tell them hoping they remember but they never do tell a bartender at their favorite bar tell get happy birthday. I LOVE your writing and I've been stalking you blog instead of sleeping ^^

I changed the original request up juuuust a little bit to make it more interesting and character fitting. I hope that is alright. Also, this one really inspired me for some reason so this shit right here is long. I hope you enjoy it :3

|| REQUEST ARE (ALWAYS) OPEN!! ||

Zen

♬ Zen is a very busy man

♬ especially once his filming career starts about a year and a halfafter you started dating

♬ shortly after your two year anniversary it’s time for your birthdayto roll around

♬ you’re very excited for it

♬ last year you’d celebrated it together and while it hadn’t been agrant party, it had been amazing fun nevertheless

♬ Zen had gotten you a pretty necklace with a little Z hanging from it

♬ you cherished it a lot

♬ the sex had also been great

♬ like really great

♬ but moving on

♬ you were wondering what he had planned for this year

♬ you didn’t really expect much, no big gift or party, just a littleattention and maybe a small gesture of love

♬ honestly, you would have been happy with roses or chocolates

♬ when nothing came, you felt hurt

♬ you understood that he was busy, but he was such an attentive guy

♬ why did he stop?

♬ what really ticked you off though was when hecame home from shooting the next day

♬ he still hadn’t mentioned nor remembered your birthday

♬ but he told you that Echo Girl had apologized and invited him fordrinks

♬ no intention but making up what she did to you

♬ you were fuming about it, but bit the anger down

♬ maybe he had a surprise planned? Maybe this was a trick to get you toyour favourite bar?

♬ it wasn’t

♬ he actually went to get drinks with Echo Girl and you weren’t eveninvited

♬ after that you just kind of give him the cold shoulder

♬ it’s not like you want to be mean to him and hurt hisfeelings, but you can’t help yourself

♬ he really hurt yours

♬ being busy with filming it takes him a while to catch on, even withyou spending basically 24/7 in the same general area (meaning the setand at home)

♬ about a week after your birthday he actually suggestsgoing to your favourite bar

♬ despite still being a little man, you accept

♬ when you get there you’re greeted with a warm smile

♬ your usual bartender – Beak Seung Jo – is there again

♬ he even goes as far as to walk around the counter and pull you into awarm hug

♬ Zen is confused as to what is going on while you just return the hug,chuckling

♬ he wishes you a happy birthday and you can physically sense Zenfreeze next to you

♬ Seung Jo meanwhile apologizes for being late with his congratulationsand tells you that drinks are on the house

♬ the rest of the evening Zen is strangely silent and gloomy and youthink to yourself that it suits him right for forgetting yourbirthday like that

♬ on the way home he tells you to go ahead, that he’ll catch up

♬ you’re confused but agree

♬ when he comes home about an hour later it’s with a huge bouquet ofyour favourite flowers, a box from Jaehee’s cafe which you know meansit’s a cake

♬ and a delicious one at that, and a small silk box

♬ hekneels before you and hands you the flowers almost like a sacrifice

♬ you can’t help chuckling at his silly gesture, taking the flowers andsmelling them happily

♬ while you enjoy your flowers he unpacks the cake, already ready witha huge I’m so sorry I forgot your birthday, Princess writtenon top of it

♬ he chose to go with one candle, one of those silly electronic onesthat sing

♬ he actually sings along and it’s the first time that someone singingHappy Birthday isn’t awkward

♬ after that he hands you the small silk box

♬ it’s not a ring – he’s still preparing to pop the question to you –but a beautiful bracelet to match the necklace

♬ he admits to having ordered it weeks ago, but having completelyforgotten about it

♬ you feel bad for ever having been mad at him in the first place

♬ Zen would never really forget about you or your birthday

♬ you kiss him then, cake and flowers forgotten

♬ the two of you can still eat that later on

♬ Zen carries you to the bed you share and you make love for hours

Yoosung

★ getting his eye surgery was a big deal

★ he’d waited very long for an appointment at the hospital

★ starting about a month before the surgery he took on especially manypatients

★ he wanted to take care of everyone before having to close the clinicfor a while

★ he just couldn’t work on delicate, sweet pets while healing up fromhis own surgery

★ it just wouldn’t be fair to the cute animals he vowed to protect andtreat

★ you loved him for all the effort he put into his work

★ he was devoted to both his job and you, despite his young age

★ a weak before his surgery it was your birthday

★ the last four years those had been spent rather comfortably, mostly

★ that was just your style

★ he would wake you up to breakfast in bed – yes, he is one of thoseattentive men

★ then the two of you cuddled up on the couch, he’d worked through somefiles while you read

★ when it was time for lunch he’d taken you out for a picnic he’dprepared himself

★ after that you would have gone home to play some video games together

★ and for dinner he’d taken you to your favourite restaurant

★ you’d hoped that this year would be similar

★ you liked your birthday being laid back and between the two of you

★ however, none of these things happened this year

★ which honestly, you were fine with as well

★ the surgery was around the corner, Yoosung was very stressed anddespite having matured a lot he was still very scared of it,understandably so

★ so you had an understanding for the fact that possible plans mightfall flat

★ not even wishing you a Happy Birthday, however, wasn’t okay at all

★ you’d promised one another you’d always be attentive, even duringstressful times

★ still, you didn’t want to overreact, so you told yourself to wait aday or two

★ a week and the surgery went by and he still didn’t seem to remember

★ that is something you couldn’t get over even with the situation youwere in

★ you found yourself keeping Yoosung at arms length, focusing on workinstead of him

★ he attempted to ask you what the problem was a couple of times, butyou said it was fine

★ after another couple of days he asked you whether you wanted to gohave dinner again

★ now that his eye was getting better you had a reason to celebrate,right?it felt like a stab in the heart

★ there had been another reason to celebrate, but he’dforgotten!

★ still, you agree of course

★ he’d risked his life and gone half blind for you

★ the least you could do was celebrate him regaining his eye-sight

★ so you make your way to your favourite restaurant

★ a small cozy place that specialized in noodles and you know theowners of

★ a young, nice man called Bong Joon-gu and his wife, Chris

★ in fact, the second you step in he asks Yoosung about his eye beforeturning to you

★ he clasps your hands and shook them, wishing you a very happy andsadly belated birthday

★ Chris joins in soon after, hugging you and promising that today thefood is on the house

★ meanwhile Yoosung facepalms himself next to you

★ ah, so he finally recalls that he forgot your birthday

★ Good

★ the two of you take your seats and the second Joon-gu disappears intothe kitchen and Chris goes to tend to another guest he turns to you

★ Yoosung actually looks like he might start crying any second now

★ you want to laugh but keep on a stern face, crossing your arms overyour chest

★ pay back was only fair, let him simmer a little

★ …man, you really should stop hanging out with Seven

★ his sadism was obviously affecting you somehow

★ Yoosung apologizes about a million times in the matter of the hourand the half you spend there

★ he also promises to make it up to you

★ which he does come the next day

★ when he brings you your breakfast in bed next morning he’s dressedlike a butler

★ you chuckle and ask him what the deal is

★ he tells you that he is your loyal servant for the day, answering toyour every wish

★ well if that is so…

★ after breakfast you go shopping, letting him carry the bags

★ you let him pay for ice cream and then for the fair you go to

★ the last attraction you go on is the ferris wheel

★ it is night now and the stars are beautiful once you reach the top

★ you thank him for your wonderful birthday, even if it was late

★ then you share a tender kiss with the start and moon shining aboveyou

Jaehee

♨ Jaehee is not the type of person to forget anything, let alone abirthday

♨ she has a calender just for birthday’s

♨ yours is marked especially fat just in case

♨ you find that extremely adorable

♨ and it works too!

♨ since you’ve gotten to know each other fiveyears ago she never once forgot your birthday

♨ before you started dating officially you usually spent them on thecoach, watching Zen’s plays and stuffing yourself with popcorn

♨ her birthday you planned her an entire ‘girly day’ since she’d neverhad one of those

♨ you got a manicure, went shopping, got your make-up done and evenwent for a bubble tea after

♨ so, it was safe to say that you spend your birthday’s together

♨ especially once you finally did get together and there were newcomponents to add

♨ suddenly you could cuddle and kiss

♨ make out on the couch and then move the private party to the bedroom

♨ despite living and working together there wasn’t much time forintimacy for the two of you, so you cherished every moment you couldget

♨ you knew that your birthday meant funday so you were especiallyexcited for it

♨ it had been a while

♨ the café was very successful and kept both of you busy

♨ too busy to indulge in some adult activities you wanted more of

♨ Jaehee also always got you the sweetest and most considerate gifts

♨ like she’d legit a gift pro

♨ they aren’t anything over the top or overly expensive but alwayssweet, thoughtful and sentimental

♨ this year, however, there was an issue in the bakery

♨ about two weeks before your birthday a huge order came in

♨ someone was planning a big celebration and they needed a bunch ofcakes and pies

♨ as you’ve already established, you suck at baking

♨ meaning that Jaehee is on her own with that order

♨ you try to take some of the work load of her shoulder by managing thecafé on your own for the time being while she was mostly in the backpreparing all the cakes and pies for the order

♨ the celebration came and went and so did your birthday

♨ completely unnoticed by Jaehee

♨ while you understood it still kind of hurt and so you found yourselfacting somewhat cold and distant

♨ Jahee didn’t like that at all, heart sinking at the reminder of hertime working under Jumin

♨ she thinks long and hard about what might have caused it, but doesn’tfigure it out until a day later

♨ one of your regulars – Oh Ha Ni – comes into the café with asmall cake in her hands

♨ Jaehee is confused, since she usually buys her cakes at your café

♨ however she gets her answer soon as the young woman bends over thecounter to ask Jaehee in a whisper where you are

♨ she explains that she’d been so busy the last week, she hadn’t beenable to come and congratulate you on your birthday

♨ it was like a slap to the face for Jaehee

♨ someone you barely had any relationship to remembered your birthdayand she didn’t

♨ she told Ha Ni where you were and watched her go to the back to giveyou your cake and hug you

♨ that night Jaehee asked you to go home alone, telling you that shehad business to take care of

♨ you were disappointed, since you knew that she now knew that she’dforgotten your birthday

♨ you really wanted to know how she felt, but Jaehee was still shy ofexpressing herself

♨ what exactly she’d spent the night with you found out the nextmorning

♨ as you walk into the café the next morning without Jaehee havingreturned home for the night you worry

♨ you look for her only to find her in the bag

♨ in front of her a huge, white wedding cake

♨ you greet her and she smiles at you tiredly

♨ she wishes you a happy birthday, putting a small candle on top of thehuge cake

♨ you’re perplexed, this is obviously a wedding cake

♨ your questions are soon answered when she pulls out a box with twogolden rings inside

♨ both of you know that you can’t get married legally, but the ringsare a promise nevertheless

♨ you cry for a long time after slipping the rings onto each othersfingers

♨ hen the two of you feed each other the cake

Jumin

♛ he loves to throw you the biggest parties

♛ everyone from the RFA is invited as well as many of Jumin’s businesspartners and your friends and family

♛ he mostly throws those huge parties to parade you around

♛ he is very proud of you and wants everyone to know that

that and the fact that you are his, of course

♛ he’ll shower you in presents, everything from sweet and small to hugeand extravagant

♛ you are his world and he wants to make sure you have everything youcould possibly wish for

♛ the best part of your birthday happens after the party, though

♛ sometimes you’ll sit down with a glass of wine each and talk untillate at night

♛ other times you’d cuddle up on the coach before the warm fire andjust enjoy each other’s embrace

♛ usually it ended with the two of you having passionate sex for a longtime after

♛ in short; your birthday is the best day in the entire year

♛ or at least it was until this birthday

♛ two days before the actual date Jumin tells you he has a businesstrip to attend to

♛ you ask him whether he really has to go, to which he merely replieswith of course

♛ at first you think that he might be planning a surprise party, butthat doesn’t turn out to be the case

♛ even the RFA chat seems somewhat deserted

♛ and no one even congratulates you, not even Jumin himself

♛ on top of that he’s on a business trip and you’re not even by hisside

♛ in breaks your heart and you cry yourself to sleep that night

♛ the next morning he calls and you answer excitedly

♛ secretly you were hoping that he remembered after all

♛ instead he announces that the business trip will take a couple ofdays longer, then he has to hang up

♛ the following two nights you cry again, unbeknownst to anyone but thecat

♛ or at least you thought so

♛ as it turns out one of the maids did hear you sob, and she actuallyasks to call Mr. Han about it

♛ he’s irritated at first – how dare lowly staff interrupt thisimportant meeting – until she explains to him why she called in thefirst place

♛ she also tells him that no one should be alone on their birthday likeyou were

♛ then she hangs up, leaving a baffled and shocked Jumin behind

♛ oh God, he’d actually forgotten the most important thing on his to dolist

♛ he instantly cut the meeting short and booked the first flight backhome

♛ when he entered the apartment he could actually hear your sobs forhimself and it tore him apart

♛ he quietly makes his way to the bedroom where he goes on his kneesbeside the bed to gently brush through your hair

♛ that gets your attention and you look up with swollen, watery eyes

♛ you’re just glad he’s back home, throwing your arms around his neck

♛ he holds you close, expression still pained

♛ his ignorance had cause you misery and he needed to make that up toyou

♛ the next day he announces a one week vacation, something shockingeven his father and you

♛ he uses that vacation to devote every second of every day to you

♛ you spend your days at the beach on some private island you can’trecall the of

♛ when you return home you both have a nice tan and an even closer andmore devoted relationship

Saeyoung/Seven

☼ Seven is the kind of guy to show you affection in seemingly minimalways

�� he won’t go and plan a huge party or anything

☼ but he’ll always make you a gift for your birthday

☼ every single one of them

☼ and those gifts aren’t just little bird houses type of gifts

☼ they are miniature robots for you to play with kind of gifts

☼ one year he actually programmed an entire game for you to play

☼ that way you wouldn’t get bored when he was busy working

☼ you liked it best that way

☼ after all the excitement the two of you went through, you both needthe calm

☼ especially since you still have work to care for, the RFA party’s toplan and Saeran to keep an eye on

☼ when your birthday came around you were already looking forward to it

☼ Seven’s gifts were unbeatable and you were excited to see what he’dcome up with this time

☼ you still cherished the cat, constantly played his game and loved togo out with the dog he’d made you

☼ but shortly before your birthday Seven began locking himself away inhis room with work

☼ he couldn’t even tell you what he was working on

☼ top secret stuff, apparently

☼ you didn’t bug him about it

☼ you knew how his work could get sometimes, so you let him take careof it

☼ however when he didn’t even come out for your birthday, not even tocongratulate you, you felt hurt

☼ it wasn’t even that you didn’t get a gift

☼ it wasn’t about that

☼ you just wanted some warmth and love

☼ days passed and Seven didn’t even acknowledge having missed it

☼ so he’d forgotten!

☼ you were pretty angry and most of your conversations were distant andcut short

☼ he eventually asked you what the problem was but you just told himthat he was clever enough to figure it out on his own

☼ especially considering he could recite whole wikipedia pages aboutcars to you

☼ after that you’d kind of stormed out for a quick walk to coolyourself down

☼ maybe you were overreacting, but you couldn’t help yourself

☼ Saeran who’d been sitting at the kitchen table beside the two of youjust snorted

☼ “I can’t believe you forgot her birthday like that. Moron.”

☼ Seven froze

☼ FUUUUUUUU

☼ after that he disappeared in his room for another couple of days andyou started feeling homicidal

☼ Saeran had actually suggested getting you a pickaxe to get throughthe door

☼ you’d politely declined, no matter how tempting the offer

☼ when he finally came out, it was with your phone in hand

☼ when he handed it to you there was an App opened you’d never seenbefore

☼ “It’s a special game. I managed to copy some of myconscience into digital format and built it into the game. WheneverI’m being an idiot or not attentive enough you can open the game andtalk to me there. It’s just like the RFA chat, only with me and theothers paying more attention to you.”

☼ he chucklednervously as you stared down at the app, pressing through thedifferent options

☼ it was such a cute idea and you couldn’t imagine how much effort hemust have put into it

☼ you smile down at your phone, a message popping up

☼ it was 707 asking you whether you’d eaten yet

☼ you laugh

☼ “Oh yeah, I programmed it toask you that at least three times a day, just to make sure!”

Saeran

☀ he isn’t really the celebration type of guy

☀ not even when you eventually get together

☀ he even hates celebrating his own birthday

☀ most because he feels it isn’t just 'his day’ and therefor nothingspecial

☀ there is also this huge insecurity and lack of self worth issues Rikacause

☀ so really, any group of people making too much attention to him makehim uncomfortable

☀ that isn’t to say that you didn’t try to celebrate his birthday

☀ but when you first tried to give him a cake he denied it

☀ flat out said he didn’t want it

☀ so when your birthday came around you really didn’t expect anything

☀ honestly Saeran didn’t really have anything planned either

☀ until Saeyoung told everyone else in the chat and Saeran got anearful

☀ especially Zen seemed rather angry about his lack of interest

☀ he insisted that one must never miss an opportunity to woo a lady

☀ which of course confused Saeran, because you were already hisgirlfriend, why woo you now?

☀ Zen also had a heart attack, havingto be held back to choke the ungrateful little fuck

☀ despite never actually punching Saeren like Zen wanted to, theyounger man got the message

☀ birthdays were important to girls

☀ from that moment on he at least tried

☀ they were mostly spent doing mundane things he usually refused to do

☀ you went eating ice cream

☀ once he took you on a romantic walk

☀ and another time he actually agreed to go to a karaoke bar with you

☀ altogether you’d grown to love your simplistic birthday parties overthe years

☀ this year you were actually looking forward to it

☀ until the day actually came and he didn’t even mention it

☀ it wasn’t the first time, sometimes he remembered later on in the dayand made up for it

☀ this time that didn’t happen, however

☀ the day came and went and just like that

☀ even the rest of the RFA didn’t congratulate you or forced Saeran toact like a proper boyfriend

☀ you felt cold and ignored, especially considering that you didn’texpect much to begin with

☀ that night you rolled together in bed, making yourself small andbiting back on tears

☀ Saeran didn’t seem to notice, didn’t even react

☀ until about four days later you heard a whisper in the night

☀ “Did I do something wrong?”

☀ you’re surprised he would ask

☀ “You usually always hold me when we sleep.”

☀ youtake a deep breath, closing your eyes for a moment

☀ “I thought you didn’t like it when I touch you.”

☀ he’ssilent for a minute, you almost think he fell back asleep

☀ “I miss it now.”

☀ silence again, you don’t dare turn around

☀ “What can I do to make itbetter?”

☀ “You couldnot forget my birthday, for a start.”

☀ since you didn’t turn around you cant see him, but you feel a shiftbeside you

☀ the rest of the night is spent in restless sleep

☀ when you wake up the next morning Saeran isn’t lying beside you

☀ after last night nothing really surprises you

☀ when you get to the kitchen a beautiful breakfast is waiting alongwith a note

☀ it has a puzzle on it

☀ it doesn’t take you long to solve it while you eat breakfast

☀ it’s coordinates that lead you to your next destination

☀ it turns out to be the ice cream stand you usually go to

☀ when you arrive there the person behind the counter is alreadyexpecting you

☀ he hand you a huge sundae with all your favourite flavours, whippedcream and little heart sprinkles

☀ the idea that Saeran actually had to ask the man to put little heartson the ice makes you smile

☀ there is also another note waiting for you

☀ this time you find yourself walking through the streets for most ofit

☀ the GPS of your phone leads you to the bridge you’d first kissed on

☀ the one with the many lockets of lovers attached to it

☀ there is a paper sign attached to the bridge

☀ it points to a specific locket

☀ when you look at it it has both your and his name on it, writtenneatly inside a heart

☀ you smile at the locked

☀ attached to the sign is the next clue as well as the keys to thelocket

☀ as tradition says, you toss them into the water

☀ the next and final step leads you to the karaoke bar he hates goingto

☀ you find Saeran standing there, nervously staring at the stage

☀ when you approach him he is surprised to see you

☀ you were quicker than he anticipated

☀ he tells you he was just getting ready to go upstairs…wanted to asing a song for you

☀ you smile and shake your head, tell him he doesn’t have to

☀ you know he’d suffer through it

☀ he visibly relaxed

☀ he looks to the floor, shyly reaching for your hand to hold it in his

☀ he steals a quick kiss and whispers his birthday wishes into your ear

☀ when you get home that night you hold him again and he practicallypreens

☀ shortly before you fall asleep he whispers that the song he’s chosenwas Memories, my Shawn Mendes

☀ because he cherishes all the memories he made with you

Jihyun/V

📷 V is a very attentive boyfriend

📷 especially after all the abuse he suffered through V

📷 he seeks your attention and love, craves it really

📷 he also does anything and everything in his power to make you happy,fulfill all your wishes

📷 especially on your birthdays

📷 anniversaries are super important to him

📷 so are any holidays, really

📷 but especially birthdays

📷 because it just means that the person had survived another year, notmatter how hard it might have been

📷 the two of you had some horribly hard years behind you, so he wasdouble eager to celebrate

📷 he would always take you to the fanciest of days and a day laterinvite everyone from the RFA

📷 you’d have a private little party, eating sweets and talking aboutyour lives

📷 sometimes you’d even play board games

📷 for bonding, V’d said

📷 usually it ended up with Zen throwing the board game at Jumin afterone too many insults

📷 frankly, you found it rather funny

📷 you looked forward to it every year

📷 until the year that you got a phone call stating that Rika had fledthe asylum you’d put her in

📷 they assumed she was back on her way to Korea

📷 suddenly the RFA was in an uproar and Rika was everything all of youcould think about

📷 security had to be tightened again, as she was once more a threat

📷 Saeran suffered a meltdown and Seven was ready to kill her for it

📷 Rika eventually showed up at your apartment, surprised to find youthere

📷 she attempted to attack you, but V managed to stop her before shecould harm you

📷 he got her to a hospital and stayed with her

📷 on your birthday a day later he still hadn’t returned, hadn’t called

📷 you felt sad and replaced

📷 there was always that small voice in the back of your head that toldyou he still loved her more than you

📷 this seemed like proof

📷 when he finally came home the day after he was tired and exhausted

📷 he still constantly returned to the hospital to check on her

📷 despite your wishes not to

📷 many lonely nights were spent crying

📷 eventually Rika was shipped back to Alaska and V returned home forgood

📷 there was still tension between the two of you though

📷 mainly because you could barely stand being in the same room withhim, doubt crippling you

📷 a couple of days later he came to you, tears in his eyes and voiceshaking

📷 he could not stand the idea of being abandoned by you, of losing you

📷 he wanted to know what he’d done wrong, that he’d do better

📷 in that moment you realized that V had given everything for you and abirthday didn’t compare to a life long of love he was willing toshare

📷 you hugged him then, both of you crying out your frustrations

📷 when you tell him about your fears of being replaced by Rika, hecannot understand

📷 he tells you that he spent the entire time talking about you

📷 asking for her blessing

📷 telling her to move on like he did

📷 he tells you that she could not compare to you

📷 that you were the light of his life now, his lover, his muse

📷 for the first time since you got together you fully andwholeheartedly believed him

|| REQUEST ARE (ALWAYS) OPEN!! ||

enjoyed the 4800+ words monstrosity? Great! Bonus points for anyone who can tell me what Korean movie based on an shoujo/slice of life anime was referenced in this request! Whoever gets it right earns my undying love and adoration :-*

512 notes · View notes