▌♚ HELLFIRE.

► are you happy with the monster that you've created?

[lvnarmin]

alistair-lan:

”I have a pub I frequent. Feels a tad bit more like home than most places, but they’re under repairs. Lucky for me tonight, eh?” Alistair joked, trying his best to seem at ease around her. The last thing he wanted was for her to change her mind and turn on him like she did the other guy. Although the other guy sounded like a creep. “It amazes me how the word ‘no’ seems to mean less and less with each passing year. Sorry you had to put up with that sort of behavior in the first place. But his loss is my gain, so to speak.” He thanked the bartender for his drink and tipped the glass in the woman’s direction.

“What’s that saying? Like, a cloud lining or something. I don’t know.” Minhee narrowed her eyes as she racked her mind for the answer, eventually waving her hand in defeat once she couldn’t think of it. After all, she didn’t get paid to keep track of the million expressions and idioms of English. “Means even less after a few drinks, too,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes in response. Of all people, she was the last that had much of a right to get offended over rude behavior, but that wasn’t going to stop her from basking in what positive attention she’d managed to receive from it. “S’alright. I’m sure he’ll always remember me as the evil bitch that set him straight, the highest honor of all to have.”

[lvnarmin]

ella-winthrop:

Ella was somewhat taken aback by how the other answered the phone, but she supposed it was to be expected since a total stranger was calling. “Oh, hello. I’m Ella Winthrop and I believe I’ve found your wallet…” she trailed off, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “I’m currently at Central Park and I just happened to see it on the ground.” She turned the wallet around to look at it further. “I don’t believe anythings been stolen out of it, but I can’t be sure.“ As she spoke, she walked back under the shade of the tree.

Finally. The words that Minhee was looking to hear all day had finally arrived, and if she hadn’t suppressed most of her emotions years ago, she’d be beyond ecstatic. The natural skeptic in her couldn’t help but wonder if there was a catch to this-- surely random strangers couldn’t  be that nice without wanting something in return, but if they already had her wallet, what else could they possibly want from her? “Oh. Thanks.” Her voice trailed off, her gratitude no louder than a whisper as the words felt foreign to her. “I’m not sure how it could’ve gotten all the way there... Idiot must’ve dropped it after they snatched it. There’s no cash in it, don’t worry about that. Are all the card slots full?”

[lvnarmin]

flynn--casey:

“So, apparently I’m featured in Forbes’ 2016 most eligible bachelor list. I mean, I can’t say I’m surprised… well, I’m a bit surprised I haven’t been mentioned there before, actually!” Flynn bragged loudly to whoever was listening.

If she hadn’t spent years of her life being trained to restrain her gut reactions, Minhee would’ve rolled her eyes in response. Instead she just furrowed her eyebrows, attention remaining on her cell phone as she debated whether it was something even worth her response-- after all, could he have been seriously talking to her? “Is that supposed to make me want to marry you or something?” She asked through laughter. “Sweetheart, it doesn’t kill to be a little humble. Subtle, either.”

[lvnarmin]

ella-winthrop:

Ella was in Central Park reading, obviously; when was she not? She was underneath a tree for shade. Occasionally she looked up, watching the little kids play and others with their picnics and guitars. Upon looking up again, she noticed an object laying several feet ahead of her. She wondered why she hadn’t noticed it before. Nonetheless she got up, walking over only to find that it was a wallet. Ella picked it up, opening it up to see if there was any sort of phone number she could call or any place to drop it off. Fortunately, there was a number in the wallet, but she didn’t know if it belonged to the owner.

Ella pulled out her phone, dialing the number. She wondered if someone would pick up.

The past few hours had been nothing but nonstop panic for Minhee, and without exaggaration, she could probably say that this was the worst day of her life so far. Doing something so reckless was completely out of her character-- and though the easiest route was to find someone to else blame in order to avoid berating herself, there was little time to do it. Finding the culprit was her number one priority, or cancelling every single card she owned if worst came to worst. Retracing her steps throughout the city proved to be useless, and though she was getting close to giving up, the thought of having to make phone call after phone call was the only thing keeping her going.

To add to the pile, of course the number one thing she was dreading at the moment would be exactly what happened. The jingles and vibrations from her purse caused Minhee to groan loudly, halfway ready to chuck her phone at a wall if it didn’t mean she’d be out of everything valuable to her. As reluctant as ever, she swiped across the glass screen and pressed the device up to her ear. “What?” she snapped, voice blaring through the speakers before she lowered her volume, but not the harsh, rushed tone that she spoke in. “How did you get this number? Who is this?”

[lvnarmin]

willow-mac:

“Hey, hey, please be careful! Don’t step on that, shit!” Willow’s curse could easily heard the next three blocks as a footstep was made through her canvas in which she had laid out to dry in the middle of Central Park while she began to work on another one beside it, a hand being pressed to her forehead in frustration. It was easily one of her best pieces destroyed. She leaned down to grasp the person’s ankle to help them pull it out carefully from the canvas, knowing their skin would be wet of paint, trying to keep herself from being too upset.

It was hard for Minhee to tune out the shrill sound of profanity in front of her, and even harder for her to muster up the kindness in her heart to truly feel sympathy for either of them. Sure, the person should have been watching where they were going, but at the same time, what person lays out their valuable projects to dry in the middle of a public park? “Oh my god, with all the potholes in this city, you’d think people would know better than to not look where they’re going,” she commented from the next bench over. She had no intentions of being of any true help, but if she could stir something up, it would be worth her attention. “Any way of patching that up or is it totally done for?”

[lvnarmin]

alistair-lan:

“Alistair, and the pleasure is all mine I can assure you,” he said, shaking her hand in kind and offering the smallest of smirks,” It’s not every day you get someone offering to buy a round of drinks. Luckily, I’m not that picky. No particular brand needed. As long as it’s Irish and it kicks you in the gut, I’m good.” Of course, places like these rarely held the good stuff, preferring to go in a different direction he never quite agreed with but could respect at any rate. “So,” he started, nodding back in the direction the upset patron fled, “what was that all about, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“No? Sounds like you’re not hanging at the right bars, then.” She teased, waving the bartender over to their area with her free hand. A quiet snort escaped from her nostrils at his next question, holding back her laughter as she recounted the utterly ridiculous argument from just a few moments ago. Truthfully by now it was already in the back of her mind, as she dealt with plenty of similar situations in one week alone, but she assumed that not everyone bore witness to the same amount of entertainment as she did. “Some people can’t take no for an answer, and some people can’t handle being wrong. He had the misfortune of being both, and also being stupid enough to think that sticking his hand in my face was really going to suddenly give me a change of heart. Instead, he got a piece of my mind. There’s no reasoning with those kind of people, so you have to talk in a language that they understand.”

[lvnarmin]

josephmarshall:

It was late in the evening a few nights ago when his flight made it into New York. With the holiday and business to take care of, the oldest Marshall had yet to stop in and visit any friends just barely tumbling into his apartment suite Thanksgiving night after a long day of meetings. Joseph figured he’d surpise Benji, and possibly SJ showing up at the club where he’d heard his best friends party was taking place. He figured he might’ve arrived to late and missed out on the festivities. He sat alone at the bar, eyeing a girl who sat across the bar with a group of her friends. They’d been playing tag all night, Joe was sure the girl would cave in soon and he’d at least have some fun tonight. 

His eyes tore off the female for the first time that night, hearing someone storm off with a cry from the chair beside him. His ears perked and he turned to face the sound. The interaction catching his attention, he laughed bringing his drink to his lips finishing it off and placing the empty glass on the bar, he liked way the female spunk. “How about you dump this idiot, I buy you the drink- and I’ll look at you any way you want me to.” Joe intruded. 

Drinking alone was never part of Minhee’s plans, but she’d rather have that than spend the night being bothered by someone below her. She was a person with standards, after all– even once she had a few drinks in her system, and she wouldn’t allow herself to talk to just anyone that she happened to cross paths with. A night out was meant to be fun, and in her book, fun did not involve rolling her eyes every ten seconds because someone couldn’t take a hint.

Even with her impeccably (or rather, impossibly) high standards, Minhee still managed to find a target deemed worthy of her time from visuals alone. However, she was never one to do the chasing. Everything in life was to be handed to her, even when it came to bar conversations. And as always, the work was cut out for her-- as soon as the nuisance was out of her hair there was another person to take his place, granted this time it was the person she’d been looking to converse with the entire night. “Smooth,” she commented, using her foot to twirl the bar stool she was seated on in the male’s direction. “And if I said you couldn’t look at me at all? What would you do then, hm?”

[lvnarmin]

alistair-lan:

Alistair managed to crack a smile at the assumption, shaking his head, mildly glad his ears didn’t flop about as he did. What was it with Scotch? Everyone always went straight for the Scotch, of all things. “Whiskey, actually” he corrected, raising his glass, “The more Irish, the better. But that was a nice attempt. Very close.” The stool moaned as he got up to move closer. If she was buying him drinks, might as well go and make small talk, right? It was only polite. Besides, who knew how many drinks he could get out of it. “Alistair, by the by,” he said with an outstretched hand, “And who do I thank for the drink?”

“Damn, so close.” It was easy for Minhee to brush off her blunder, chalking it up to the fact that there wasn’t such a large variety of favored drinks back in Seoul. Most people stuck to soju or Korean beers, maybe dipping into cocktails if the occasion seemed fitting. “I should’ve guessed– accent and all. But Irish whiskey, got it. Any particular brand?” She asked, smiling faintly as she reached out to shake his hand. Right now she figured there was no harm in returning his kindness. He was decent company so far, and if that happened to fall wayside, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t handle it. “I’m Minhee. Pleasure to meet you.”

[lvnarmin]

aleks-duke:

“There is no way I’m letting you buy me a drink. I owe you one. I owe you about ten, that guy was so freakin’ annoying, I thought I was going to glass him if he made one more obnoxious comment about how apparently famous he is and how outrageous it is that he’s not on the VIP list. Good riddance.”

“So what can I get you? Aside from a thank you; thank you for kicking that asshat square in the ego.”

“He was pretty adamant about it, but I’ve never heard of him a day in my life. You’d think these people would find a different way to try and sneak into VIP by now-- maybe one that can’t so easily be disproven with Google. God, it’s so embarrassing to watch.”

“Please, no need to thank me. Just get me a Black Russian and we’ll be even.”

[lvnarmin]

alistair-lan:

It wasn’t every night that someone stormed off and nearly knocked him off his seat as they passed in a huff. But then, this wasn’t his normal place to ‘hang’ as it were. Alistair was only here because he needed a drink after the shift he had and the pub he had found several blocks away was closed for repairs. Something about some angry Irishmen taking their anger out on the back kitchen after a ball game gone awry, and they finally gotten around to fixing it. Whatever the case, it ended up with him here now, ignoring the angry shove that was likely not meant for him. He glanced up at the antagonistic girl who had set the other patron off in a mad tizzy. Any other night and it would have been just another thing to ignore, another fight that didn’t need to be started. But he had more than a few in him and the sound of another that didn’t eat at his bank account sounded pleasing. “I’ll take one, if you’re offering,” he piped up, waving a little in her direction.

As she expected, it didn’t take very long for someone to take Minhee up on her offer, and though it wasn’t who she had intended, she was more than willing to play generous for a little while longer. By no means was she on a budget, and when it came to a night of fun, there was no such thing as limitations or moderation in her book. Such a mentality had already caused her plenty of problems in life, but as far as she was concerned, she was still fine-- as long as she stuck to alcohol, nothing could go wrong. “I am offering. Order what you’d like,” she confirmed with a nod, smiling faintly as her attention was now diverted to another form of self gratification.  “Let me guess-- you look like a Scotch kind of guy. Would I be right?”

[lvnarmin]

justlikelola:

Lola gave the girl a pity look as soon as she said it was the easier way to handle the situation. One must live a sad life if they can’t put a few minutes into trying something the harder way. Lola wanted to roll her eyes at the other - that would be the easiest way to react - instead she held it back, there really was no point in putting effort into this conversation after all. “Or you could suck it up that someone doesn’t like how you handle yourself. Must live a tough life if you can’t handle sitting next to someone who disagrees - rather telling them to move, go talk to someone else, or assume they would care about anything you say beyond whats already come out of your mouth,” Lola interrupted as the girl listed off options for Lola to choose from. “You know, you’re right. I really shouldn’t continue to get worked up on “minor shit”,” Lola looked the girl up and down, “I mean, you wont even matter in… what, five seconds time?” Lola turned on her seat, quite pleased with herself as she sipped her drink and proceeded to ignore the child in a woman’s body.

“What gives you the impression that I care what you think about anything regarding me? Jagi, don’t make something out of nothing, I’m just making conversation.” Minhee clicked her tongue a few times under her breath, pursing her lips together as she diverted her gaze from the woman next to her. “If you have a problem with how I handle things, it’s just that-- your problem. I’m not concerned with it. So if you don’t like it, no one’s stopping you from going somewhere else. I’m fine where I’m at. It’s a fairly simple concept, I think-- no use immersing yourself in something you don’t like.” Already she’s grown bored of the conversation, finding this new target to be not worth her time if she wasn’t willing to play along. “Fine. Stay there if you want to. Drink offer’s still on the table when you come to.”

[lvnarmin]

justlikelola:

“I’m sure there was a better way you could have handled it at least,” Lola replied, feeling sorry for the person storming off. Why make trouble when there wasn’t a need for one? “I was not. I didn’t really mind if they stayed or if they went.” Lola shook her head, not liking when someone assumed her reaction to something. She scoffed at the other’s question - like it was going to change her opinion on the matter. “No, I’d rather wait for my friends to arrive,” she replied, not wanting to share a drink with the girl.

Minhee’s instant response was to laugh, head tilted down as she exhaled sharply through her nose. The idea of someone being so considerate over a complete stranger (and a rather obnoxious one, at that) was a truly laughable concept to her. “Yeah, maybe. But that was easiest, so here we are.” She shrugged nonchalantly, swirling the ice in her drink with one hand as she stared the red head up and down. Part of Minhee was offended by the denial of her offer, blood boiling at her nerve to act all high and mighty, but she attempted to brush it off, laughing again in hopes of preventing one of her classic outbursts. “Suit yourself, hun. You can go scowl in another corner then, maybe, while you wait? Or go find your new friend? Y’know, since you’re so concerned with his feelings. Or you could stay here and continue to get worked up over minor shit that won’t matter come tomorrow-- up to you, really. Either way I’m still here and still talking, so.”

[lvnarmin]

justlikelola:

Lola had to think for a moment at the girl’s questions. Straight away Lola felt a disconnection between the clients who usually shopped at ELO and this woman. It wasn’t that her looks didn’t fit, ELO was very much a changing image from clothing line to clothing line, but the fact she was shopping based on expense. You could find some of the most stylish and beautiful pieces from the most unknown designer who’s dresses were yet to sell at the cost of a small car. 

“What exactly are you looking for? I can move through the store and pick out some items for you. I always say to a client it’s not about the price tag but how you feel in it. You can have the most expensive dress in the world and feel like a toad in it. But if you find an item that fits you - your personality, your body - you’ll feel confident. The dress wont wear you, you’ll wear it.” Lola was trying to stay away from the talk of luxury and expense in hopes that the woman would give the clothing offered a chance. “We do have some items in the back, I can go have a look if nothing on the floor interests you. Are we looking for a nice date outfit? Or something for work perhaps?” 

She wasn’t surprised by the response that she received, but she still would’ve preferred to hear something different-- like the answer to her question. Sure, the ‘luxury is in your confidence and not the price tag’ rhetoric might work for the average person, but she was far from average. If in the (hopefully near) future someone came to her store demanding her most expensive collection, who would she be to not oblige? Part of Minhee began to wonder if the dress of her visions would be in the next boutique, but she was still going to see what was available to her while she was at ELO.

“Trust me, I’m aware.  I’m not on the phone with Marc Jacobs for a reason,” she mentioned offhandedly. Nobody liked a name dropper, after all, but she was struggling to find other ways to convey that yes, the price tag was indeed of importance to her. “Fine, let’s try this-- I’m going to an event with a lot of press, where I’m going to be asked a lot of questions, notably who I’m wearing. I’d like your best piece. An outfit for a date fits the description best.”

[lvnarmin]

“What?” Minhee’s eyes widened as she spoke, attempting to feign innocence though the growing smirk on her lips said otherwise-- she knew what she did, and in fact, she was reveling in it. Watching the person storm off in a huff brought her satisfaction, and it might have been small and inconsequential, but it counted for something. Isn’t that what everyone always preached about, little joys? Some found it in finding dropped money or getting a discount on coffee, while she found it in little reminders of everything she was capable of.

 “Somebody had to say it. Don’t act like you weren’t getting tired of them, I could see it all over your face.” It was a cheap attempt to rationalize, but she was running with it. Clearly she was doing them a favor, and clearly she deserved praise-- they just couldn’t see that yet, which wasn’t her problem. She did her generous act for the month, explaining her intentions as well would be going overboard. “Come on, if I buy you another drink, will you stop looking at me like I kicked a dog or something?”

[lvnarmin]

justlikelola:

Lola stood in the doorway of ELO, her clothing store in East Village, watching the crowd move in and out. Her first ever Black Friday and business was going well, it was just a tad overwhelming. Eli, her business partner, was working the change rooms, helping women and men out with different sizing and options whilst the girls worked the counter and floated the room. She felt silly just standing but the sight was one of a kind. The racks were starting to empty, the till was filling up. They were going to leave a healthy profit this month and with the coming Christmas season she would easily be able to give the workers a bonus. Lola was mid-thought when she looked to her side and found someone on their own. “Can I offer you some help?” She asked, stepping up to them, trying to mingle with the crowd like the girls. “What are you looking for today?”

Minhee liked to think that in her seven years in America would have her used to the many quirks of the nation, but she still found herself a little dumbfounded around this time of year. Chuseok was probably the closest Korean holiday to Thanksgiving (without the centuries old foundation of genocide), but to turn around after spending a day preaching what you were thankful for, just to cause mobs at stores for the next unnecessary good was something that she couldn’t grasp. Though, maybe that had less to do with the culture differences, and more to do with the fact that she never needed to go out at insane hours just to catch a good deal. A few hundred dollars saved meant little to her in the end.

All she needed was a nice dress. A gathering with old friends was truly just an opportunity to show off, prove that she was still above them after her fall, and the easiest way to do that was to impress their eyes rather than their ears. Whatever she chose, it had to be something harder to come across by them, leading the model to a smaller clothing shop on easily one of the worst days to shop on. Truthfully, the amount of people overwhelmed her-- the last thing she needed was to unleash the demons after someone scuffed her shoes, so she hung to the walls in the store, waiting for her opportunity to browse someone stepped up to her. “Yes-- what’s your most expensive collection? Anything more-- luxury, trend setting?” Her eyes briefly drifted across the room, judgment hidden through a faint smile on her face. “Is that not here? Granted, I haven’t given the best of looks around, I’m sure you can see why. Anything nicer in the back?”

[wnq-writers]

I’d call her a storm, or tornado, but they are destruction without purpose. Her? She look’ll you in the eye as she tears you open, just to see how much you’ll bleed.

criminycricket , Porcelain  (via wnq-writers)

[kwonyuri]

im jinah’s exotic beauty.