#<- will add to my fundraiser tag later!

[maester-cressen]

Dr. Husam Farhat and his family need to evacuate Gaza ASAP!

[Image description: A screenshot of a tumblr ask sent by user @drfarhatblog containing the following text. Hello, I hope you're well. Dr. Farhat's family urgently needs your help due to all the ongoing violence. I invite you to read our full, heart-wrenching story to understand the depth of our situation, and then please share and support the "Save Dr. Farhat's family form genocide in Gaza" campaign. Every share makes a difference. Thank you so much for any support you can provide. With gratitude, Dr. Farhat's family. End description]

Dr. Husam Farhat has reached to me to share the story of his family. The ongoing genocide took much away from him, including his sisters and their families, his brother, his job, his home and his prosperous scientific career. In this campaign, which can be found in number 248 in this list of vetted fundraisers, his family is raising funds to evacuate Gaza and make a new life for themselves in Malaysia. It has raised $7,618 out of $29,500, so only about 25% of the goal has been met. Please boost this post and donate if possible!

Taglist:

@papenathys @heliopixels @nimbooz @hiveswap @fiqrr

@irhabiya @feluka @anneemay @tumkaafiho @fleshdyk3

@paandaan @itsfookingloosah @himejoshikaeya

@colombinna @br-eddrolls @0luna123 @block-swing-perry

@divineclouds @error-core-animations @juneybug @apocalyptic-dancehall @kingofthebookcase

@briarhips @dirhwangdaseul @mahoushojoe @rhubarbspring @three-croissants

@specialmouse @thehollyraven @the-olive-gardens

@transmutationisms @timetravellingkitty

@schoolhater @pcktknife

@wellwaterhysteria

@deepspaceboytoy @post-brahminism @khanger @kibumkim

@7bitter @tortiefrancis @buttercuparry

@toiletpotato @fromjannah @omegaversereloaded @vague-humanoid @evillesbianvillain

@aristotels @komsomolka @xinakwans

@ot3 @amygdalae @lonniemachin @dykesbat

@watermotif @stuckinapril @mavigator @lacecap @yugiohz

@socalgal @chilewithcarnage @ghelgheli @vakarians-babe @naetaesarya

[opencommunion]

read and reblog please

I want to make sure this information gets through to everyone: the racist genocidal German state could deport Bilal @bilal-salah0 within the next week, after he lost his job and home, heaping cruelty after cruelty onto this young man who has been working nonstop to provide for his family facing genocide in Gaza.

he's supporting 18 people there, including 8 kids under age 16. now Bilal needs to finish fundraising for his family before August 15th when he could be deported. that's one week from today.

Bilal needs to raise €25000 in the next 7 days to make sure his family has enough to survive if he can no longer fundraise. Bilal shared this dire news with us on Tuesday, but in spite of thousands of notes on @malcriada, @appsa, and others' posts about the situation, the campaign received only €3650 in the last two days.

it seems like people are somehow not seeing the urgency and severity of the situation. donations also slowed over the past week because Bilal couldn't be online to promote the campaign, and because of the recent racist attacks against fundraising efforts here. there's a lot of ground to make up and very little time, but we can do it. please donate any amount you can, those €5s add up if enough people help. reblog this as well as the posts linked above, and tell your friends and social media outside tumblr. and most importantly, seriously, please donate whatever you can. we need to come through for Bilal's family now, not later. please take this seriously, please help them.

August 8th: €75,467 / €100,000

plain text and tags under the cut

PT: read and reblog please

I want to make sure this information gets through to everyone: the racist genocidal German state could deport Bilal @/bilal-salah0 within the next week, after he lost his job and home, heaping cruelty after cruelty onto this young man who has been working nonstop to provide for his family facing genocide in Gaza. now Bilal needs to finish fundraising for his family before August 15th when he could be deported. that's one week from today.

Bilal needs to raise €25000 in the next 7 days to make sure his family has enough to survive if he can no longer fundraise. Bilal shared this dire news with us on Tuesday, but in spite of thousands of notes on @/malcriada, @/appsa, and others' posts about the situation, the campaign received only €3650 in the last two days.

it seems like people are somehow not seeing the urgency and severity of the situation. donations also slowed over the past week because Bilal couldn't be online to promote the campaign, and because of the recent racist attacks against fundraising efforts here. there's a lot of ground to make up and very little time, but we can do it. please donate any amount you can, those €5s add up if enough people help. reblog this as well as the posts linked above, and tell your friends and social media outside tumblr. and most importantly, seriously, please donate whatever you can. we need to come through for Bilal's family now, not later. please take this seriously, please help them.

August 8th: €75,467 / €100,000

/end PT

lmk if you don't want to be tagged next time. ty!

@feluka @tortiefrancis @timetravellingkitty @flouryhedgehog @jinnazah

@mazzikah @irhabiya @terroristiraqis @watchnpray @stuckinapril

@soracities @bloglikeanegyptian @handweavers @trans-axolotl @plomegranate

@briarhips @dirhwangdaseul @mahoushojoe @rhubarbspring @schoolhater

@pcktknife @transmutationisms @sawasawako @anneemay @bedufairy

@starstrucksnowing @handsworthsongs

@libraryposting @geeseareassholes @wellwaterhysteria @deepspaceboytoy @edwordsmyth

@chilewithcarnage @psychotic-gerard @post-brahminism @bringmemyrocks @arslanjae

@determinate-negation @khanger @kibumkim @qattdraws @brutaliakhoa

@sharingresourcesforpalestine @neechees @mothblossoms @gothhabiba @mangocheesecakes

@reduxskullduggerry @magnus-rhymes-with-swagness @kyra45-helping-others @log6 @7bitter

@toiletpotato @fromjannah @palms-upturned @omegaversereloaded @vague-humanoid

@capricornpropaganda @communist-ojou-sama @xinakwans @heritageposts @velvetys

@ot3 @amygdalae @ankle-beez @communistchilchuck @dykesbat @watermotif @mavigator

@lacecap @littlestpersimmon @socalgal @ghelgheli @northgazaupdates2 @vakarians-babe

[caffichai]

Food Bank Fundraiser

Hi everyone!

First of all, I want to say thanks to everyone who's been leaving such nice tags/comments on stuff I've posted! It's been really encouraging (o^▽^o)

Anyway, I think we all know it's very dark days on the economic front for many of us. So as such, I'd like to help raise some funds for Food Banks Canada! In exchange for you making a donation to the food bank, I will draw a character suggestion!

I know this is not really the sort of thing I normally do or post here but... many folks are struggling to put food on the table right now, and the food bank is a source of support for many and provides an absolute necessity. I've seen many people struggling in my own city, and food security has become an even bigger issue than it already was in the last couple of years with the food bank struggling to keep up with demand. Of course, food security is an issue across the whole country that's putting a huge strain on food banks, with nearly 5% of the entire population making use of food banks monthly, and 23% of the population reporting food insecurity (CBC, 2024; Global News, 2024). Unsurprisingly, those who are already most disadvantaged suffer the effects of food scarcity even more (Statistics Canada, 2023). To make matters more desperate, Canada's food bank system is on the brink of collapse (CTV News, 2024).

I know this isn't going to something big enough to change the world or anything, but being able to make even a small impact for individual people is important too!

✨Incentives✨

Of course, I'm sure people aren't just in it for a reward, but rewards make things all the sweeter, right?

For those who want to contribute, I'll take a character suggestion and add it to a poll (depending on the number of contributors, it may be split up into multiple polls), and then I'll draw as many as I can from top to bottom ranking! If you contribute, please send me a DM with your donation receipt and your character idea! They won't necessarily all be drawn in the same style, and they'll be done according to how much time I've got. (I know that commissions are probably the biggest incentive, but realistically, I struggle to get them done quickly and they're probably not that affordable to everyone)

If you prefer SFW or NSFW, you can let me know (But NSFW will be posted to Cohost). If you make a bigger contribution, I'll reach out to you and ask if you wanna see more specifics/details in your piece. How's that for sweetening the pie? :3

For those who can't make a donation (which is completely understandable), simply spreading the post is also helpful, and I appreciate that greatly as well!

Don't forget that giving a donation allows you to get a tax break based on the amount donated as well!

Alternatives?

If you'd rather donate to your own local food bank, that's great too! You can DM me and send me a pic of your receipt and I'll still add your suggestion to the poll.

If you REALLY want a commission, you can also DM me and I'll do my best to fulfil it! I won't be taking commissions for this till/if there's at least a couple of items on the poll though. The proceeds will go to my own local food bank. The commission will be done later though, and may take some time to fulfil. I take payment only after starting.

When do we start??

I guess once there's a good number of poll options? I have no idea how long that will be, but rest assured I'll keep you updated!

Where do we contribute?

You can make your donation to Food Banks Canada! They really need it!

Alternatively, you can make a donation to your local food bank or equivalent charity.

Other Questions?

Feel free to send me a message or an ask! I'll get back to you ASAP. If I need to include more details or clarify something, let me know! It's my first time doing this!

TL;DR

I want to help raise money for food banks! Anyone who contributes to Food Banks Canada (or donates to their own local food bank or equivalent charity) can DM me with their receipt and give a character to add to the poll. Poll characters will be drawn in order of their ranking, as many as I can manage, over as long a period of time as I can manage!

No pressure to donate of course, I just figured this would be a fun way of raising a bit of money to help out, and allow us to donate more than what I personally can

Current Contributor Count: 13

Suggested Characters:

Imagine your beloved, obscure or popular character here on this poll list! Oooooooh, how lucrative :3

Total funds raised:

780.36$!!!

[palms-upturned]

Call me Meg, any pronouns.

I’m a white usamerican and do not speak Arabic, I do not verify fundraisers. A lot of folks in Gaza have reached out to me recently asking to share their campaigns, and so I’m trying my best to honor their requests and confirm the ones that have been vetted. My following isn’t exactly huge, but the friends I’ve made here have been extremely kind and generous in helping me when I’ve been in dire financial straits and I hope that they will extend the same generosity to the people of Gaza 💙

I’ve been talking daily with @lailashaqoura for a while and so it would especially mean a lot to me if my followers would follow her account and donate to/share her campaign:

If you’re a liberal who wants to send me an ask or respond to my posts about voting blue or Zionism or something to “debate” me, I’m not going to bother responding unless you attach a receipt for a donation to Laila’s campaign or I’m blocking you immediately. Add an image description to your receipt also. I’m not kidding.

Other fundraisers

Here’s a running list of verified users in Gaza who have reached out to me on my side blog, @vetted-gaza-funds!

Other tags on this blog where you can find fundraisers:

My general Palestine tag

My “asks” tag (this is where you’ll find the fundraisers of people who have reached out to me personally, I always try to link to verification from trusted users so that people won’t feel hesitant to reblog)

My donation match tag (this is where I post who I’m donating to every payday and encourage ppl to match my donations)

Palestinian users who are verifying campaigns (that I’m aware of):

el-shab-hussein

nabulsi

90-ghost

Other Palestinian users whose judgment I trust (but afaik they’re not personally verifying campaigns so do not ask them to do so):

fairuzfan

ibtisams

fallahifag

palipunk

Note: please interact respectfully with these users. They are doing these verifications and communicating with literally hundreds if not thousands of people in Gaza on a volunteer basis, in spite of literally deadly levels of stress. If you come from my blog and are even slightly disrespectful to anyone on this list I will hit you with a car.

Master lists of other vetted campaigns:

el-shab-hussein’s master list of master lists

fallahifag’s daily donation lists

google spreadsheet created by nabulsi/el-shab-hussein

Other sites where you can find verified funds:

gazafunds.com

Operation Olive Branch

Strawberry Seed Collective

Other:

A list of users who have reached out to me but who I could not find verification for. If anyone has any kind of link to a verification of these users please let me know so I can add them to my list!

If you want to send a campaign my way to add to my list on behalf of someone else, some things that would be helpful to me:

Please keep in mind that I cannot share fundraisers that have not been verified in some way. I am not Palestinian nor an Arabic speaker and have no way of verifying for myself what is or isn’t legitimate. If you send me an unvetted fundraiser, I will do my best to search regularly to see if anyone has vetted it in the future and share later if so, but that’s the best I can do.

If it has been verified but is not included in this spreadsheet, a link to the verification would be massively helpful.

If it’s a campaign that is on the Operation Olive Branch spreadsheet, please let me know where on the spreadsheet I can find it

If it’s from gazafunds.com, please show me a screenshot and/or a link where I can see the campaign featured on the website

[anti-ao3]

it really breaks my heart seeing many palestinian fundraisers so low on donations. it breaks me bc i'm uncapable of donating anything rn, and it also angers me that a lot of ppl who could donate would rather accuse the fundraisers of being scams without proof (which definitely worsens the whole situation).

it also saddens me that even when a post about a fundraiser has thousands of reblogs, including artworks or pictures, or clearly showing the dire situations, the funds might still be low and/or stagnated.

i understand not everyone has financial conditions to help, especially as i'm also in the same boat, but please, please if you can donate even a few dollars or euros etc., do so. it makes a lot of difference. and stop believing ppl who accuse palestinians of being scammers without any evidence. please, any amount of money can help palestinians/gazans, they need our help.

*and while i know i'm talking mainly about gaza, this also applies to other ppl who need donations, such as the sudanese.

i reblog several fundraiser posts to this blog, i try to organize them in the #resources tag - besides organizations that help gaza, info about e-sims etc. please check it out if you can. i'll also try to make my own post with some fundraisers later.

if you want to add fundraisers to this post, feel free to do so.

EDIT: @gaza-evacuation-funds is a blog that shares/posts vetted fundraisers. and if you're worried about real scams (because unfortunately they might happen and impersonate real palestinians), @/kyra45 is a known scam buster i trust.

[realsafari]

just a lil note >.<

please dont do this. this isnt fucking tiktok or twitter. likes are saves. they are the save button. unless you are trying to save every single one of my posts (which you shouldn't, there are over 800), you shouldn't be liking them all in a row like this.

please reblog my shit instead of liking it. likes are not a motivator. they do not mean you actually enjoy my stuff, they mean you want to save it to see it later.

i dont want to be added to the hundreds to thousands of posts in your saved folder that you will never look at again.

this is not a call out to this person in the screenshots, you likely just didn't know.

likes are not post boosters. they do not ensure more people see the post. the only post boosters are reblogs. without reblogs, a post will die. from then, blazes are the only way to revive them, which are costly.

please reblog, not like. only like the stuff you also reblog, the things that you want to see again. i like writing, motivational posts, and art. i like fundraisers that i want to revisit when i have more money. even though i like these, i also reblog them to make sure other people can see it, and the OP gets the recognition they deserve.

if you dont want to reblog things on your main blog because it doesnt fit your blog theme, make an alternate blog for your reblogs. it doesnt need followers to reach people. all you need is the reblog and the tags the OP added. feel free to add your own tags. add a comment to your reblog. it doesnt matter. just reblog instead of liking.

sorry for the two serious posts in a row, i just really wanted to address this.

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

I'M RETURNING VERY SOON!

Thank you everyone for your patience! It's been a month and a half since the last poll but you're all still here & I noticed still reblogging old polls to spread some stories! That honestly delighted me to see.

There are going to be a few changes, so I wanted to list them all out for you guys.

For polls that have a link to the text in them, I'm going to add a "Yes, I followed the link & read it now" option. I've dabbled with adding it before, but not all polls have links to text in them so I decided against it. But after seeing @haveyoureadthispoem-poll and how they use it, I think it's a good idea. Thank you poem mod for opening my eyes to it, haha.

I'm changing my tags a little bit. Instead of saying "[x] language literature" or "[y] century literature", I'm just going to type lit instead. Easier and will prevent typos which commonly happen and need to be fixed. I thought about axing those tags entirely, but I have seen a few people say they use it so they'll be here to stay in a reduced form. I'm also adding "translated lit" as a tag for works not originally written in English.

For pieces that don't have a cover or an author photo, instead of having a no image found picture, I'm just going to leave it imageless. I don't think the no image found was necessary and it was kind of silly for me to use it in the first place.

When I start making polls again, I'm going to queue everything that has already been submitted so far, and then open submissions up. I'm going to allow people to submit as many pieces as they want again instead of limiting how many you're allowed to submit, though I would ask for those who do submit many to space it out a bit so you can give others a chance.

I'm going to continue to reblog fundraisers for Palestine on this blog. I have been reblogging them on my main for a while but it only dawned on me recently that if I reblogged it on my poll blogs they'd have a wider reach.

I'm changing my profile picture soon! This isn't that big of a deal I just wanted to inform you guys since I haven't changed it since starting the blog.

Expect me to begin posting sometime later this week! Once again, thank you for waiting for me to return. I love you guys on this blog so much!

[ao3feed-irondadspiderson]

The After Party (Cool Kids Only)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52087249 by JAWorley Peter doesn’t know why his mom and dad planned a field trip for the day of the big Christmas party fundraiser. Maybe it just slipped their minds, or it was the only day available for his AcaDec team to take a tour. He doesn’t know, but he’s excited to get to the Christmas party later that night and hang out with his mom and dad, even if the party will be boring. What he’s not excited about is the fact that tailors, security, and assistants keep coming up to him during the field trip and asking him questions that are totally necessary for the upcoming party, but are wrecking the field trip for him and his class. OR Flash blinks, frowns, and blinks again. “You’re actually inviting me?” Peter nods. “After everything I did? After all the things I said to you? After-” he doesn’t finish that. After pushing you down in the hall the year before. Peter nods. “Yeah.” “Why?” He shrugs. “It’s gonna be fun?” OR A holiday edition to add to my ever growing collection of field trip to SI fics. A fun easy read with minor angst. Words: 11512, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 8 of Unrelated Field Trip Fics Fandoms: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Bruce Banner, Roger Harrington (Marvel), Ned Leeds, Academic Decathlon Team Members (Spider-Man: Homecoming) Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark Additional Tags: Irondad, Iron Dad, spider son, spiderson, spider kid, Peter Parker's Field Trip to Stark Industries, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark adopts Peter Parker, Adoption, field trip fic, Christmas, Holidays, Christmas Party, Stark Industries gala, Teen Peter Parker, Parent Tony Stark, Parent Pepper Potts, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Good Parent Tony Stark, Adoptive Parent Tony Stark, Fluff, CozyWinter2023 read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52087249

[foxytonic]

New Pinned Post!

Howdy! I'm Jay! (she/they, 29, genderfluid, bisexual) This is my main blog, where you'll find fandom content, shiny rocks, spooky shit, funny stories (usually by other people), and whatever else catches my fancy. I run a shit-ton of RP blogs, but only a few of them are active at any given time. I also have a writing blog and an RP meme blog that I occasionally update. Outside of Tumblr, I have a full time job at a fast food joint (hate with a burning passion), and I play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons (love!!!), and I try to just live my life. I'm a disabled punk who's really tired of living in a Red State, but can't bring myself to leave because this is my home, and there are still plenty of good things about it, like roadrunners, armadillos, cacti, cave systems, and prairies! Wish I could get out and see more of it.

Some guidelines for following/interacting with me:

No bigotry of any kind. That means no racism, no homophobia, no antisemitism or religious discrimination, no TERF or radfem bullshit, no man-hater nonsense (even from so-called feminists), and no sexism. Don't like, don't follow. You whine about it, you get blocked instantly. I will not suffer hateful fools!

If you regularly post about politics, US or otherwise, please tag it. Same with the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. It's not that I don't care! I think it's shitty what's happening over there, and the fact that America is on the wrong side in what is essentially World War III is fucking disgusting, but I do not have the funds or mental capacity to donate to every fundraiser that shows up on my dash, and seeing people suffering and feeling guilty for not being able to help has made my depression a lot worse over the past year. This is the reason why I've shut off my inbox.

That being said, if you have questions or want to chat, my DMs are always open! It might take me hours to respond because of my work schedule, but I will at least try. I am a very awkward and shy person. It takes me a bit to start coming out of my shell, and even then, I tend to be a social chameleon, matching the energy and interests of those around me. It is extremely difficult for me to truly be myself around someone else. Please be patient with me.

I do have Discord! If you want it, you can always DM me, but I admit that it's no longer my preferred method of contact, unless you want to voice chat. I'll join a server if I'm invited to one that interests me, but I won't always be active. Something about large groups of people being intimidating even on the internet!

As I said, I run way too many RP blogs, and I'll list the active ones below, but if you want to play with them, either shoot me a DM or send in a starter or five. I'm not exclusive, but I do tend to follow my partners back. I'm fine with playing with Anons, too!

Active RP Blogs

@quaintnecromancer - Arguably my most active blog! Jett is my necromancer OC, and definitely my current favorite character to play.

@haunted-ex-rocket - My newest blog! Averis is a Pokémon OC based on my Pokémon GO! avatar, a rakish Ghost-type trainer from Kanto who used to work for Team Rocket but defected when he stumbled upon the Giovanni-funded Mewtwo Project.

@cursedphoenix - Another of my favorite OCs! Tancred is a witch who was afflicted with a sleeping curse after losing a duel to his evil mother. Over three hundred years later, he woke up, and is still trying to adjust to the modern world after decades of living in it. I used to write both him and Jett over on @covenunited , but that blog is no longer active due to loss of muse.

@feathers-n-fangs - Griffin is my vampire/warlock OC, and I love him a lot! He also has a Pokémon AU, among others.

@mage-of-black-robes - my Raistlin Majere RP blog!!! Heavily influenced by the Russian musical The Last Trial, but he also has a ton of AUs.

I’ll try to add more blogs to this list as I gain muse for them, but I make no guarantees.

[42frogs]

Pinned post will edit and add to later.

Vesh, 30+, they/he pronouns. Living in Scotland, UK. I am always some number of frogs.

DM friendly! I have a discord which I'm happy to share if asked.

Ao3: 91frogs

My latest fic: Make Lighter (all the heavier) [rated E]

Current interests:

Ace Attorney: Wrightworth/MitsuNaru, Trucy Wright, Simon Blackquill

Genshin: Alhaitham, Cyno, Tighnari, Kaveh, and all ship combinations thereof.

Old flames: Word of Honour, Heaven Official's Blessing, Mo Dao Zu Shi, Haikyuu, Leverage.

Frequent tags:

My fic: /tagged/vesh writes

Wrightworth: /tagged/p: narumitsu

I reblog news about Palestine and fundraisers without tags.

https://gazafunds.com

[hiraganasakura]

Hello friend, I trust you're having a great day, I'm not a bot(lol) I'm Ben, the transwoman who was sent to a correctional home by her parents for wanting to be Trans. You reacted to a post(url! Fartherbyfar) of mine back in 2021- when I made a post of me wanting to flee(I don't want to add the link, so tumblr won't flag me, but you can see the post on my page). I know it sounds cliche, but unfortunately, here I am 2 years later, still needing support to flee. I made an update on the post about my 2 years journey and how my account was locked. I need all the support i can get from you AGAIN - for the past few weeks, I've been staying low on social media, so I won't get caught by a family member. Kindly boost/donate/like and share if you can. Please check my pinned post for my campaign(including my correctional home story).

Sry for the late reply, I just honestly wasn't sure how to respond to this

I do remember the post in question but like. Look. I feel super super bad about doubting you, especially considering Tumblr's current climate of us users fighting the transmisogyny of the staff. If this is legitimate then I apologize sincerely for accusing it of being otherwise and will retract this if corrected

But, generally, I'm wary about ppl entering my askbox asking for boosts to help them get money, as, very often, these end up being scams. So I did some digging

The top post in the #fartherbyfar tag, in addition to the other post it links, brings up some decent points about why this could be a scam. In particular: Very shortly before your posts of needing aid to evacuate began, you were posting about a completely different fundraising thing; an image you used may not be yours; and the websites you take donations through look a touch fishy. Here is a link to the post in question that brings this up

So unfortunately, I might need a bit more concrete proof of this being legitimate in order to feel comfortable boosting it

But the reason I'm responding to this publicly is simple: If anyone, whether you or someone else, has any compelling evidence for this to be legit, I invite you to come forward. I don't want to be too too stubborn bcus the last thing I want is to deny someone aid over smth untrue. But I also don't want the concern for trans women (and trans ppl in general, for that matter), whether irl or here on Tumblr, to cause ppl to fall for a scam. Unfortunately I'm kind of at an impasse here unless proven otherwise :(

Again I apologize for doubting you, but in the time since your original post I've grown a bit more cynical about this kind of stuff

[xmint-conditionx]

art on exhibit | myg + jhs feat. knj

pairing: sugardaddy!hoseok x fem!reader, ceo!yoongi x fem!reader, brat!reader, sub!reader, dom!hoseok, dom!yoongi w/c: 5k but i feel like it should be so much longer for some reason smh summary: you and your sugar daddy, hoseok, are big fans of exhibitionism, but this is the craziest you’ve ever taken it. most of his prestigious party guests are jumping to get to get their hands on you. will you be able to handle it? tags/cw: 18+ please, smut, exhibitionism, voyeurism, remote controlled vibrator, almost reaching limits, spanking, marking, biting, ball gag, degradation (slut), praise, punishment, crying, light oral (f recieving), public humiliation, rope play, shibari, suspension, almost like being pimped out but u like it?, open relationship, hoseok is sort of protective tho, overstimulation, subspace, the orgasm nearly kills you, this one is real nasty, namjoon is just a guest appearance tbh but maybe later he doesn't have to be???

a/n: this thing has given me so much trouble by not appearing in tags. it didn't the first time i posted it on the old blog, and it hasn't been showing up this time either, so please feel free to give this one some extra love. also, honestly, i was sitting on this idea for a long! time! before i actually wrote it out. if i was spaced out in my last class of the day, i was probably thinking about this. i am almost proud and almost ashamed to share this with you all, lmao cause it's honestly a huge fantasy of mine. i’ve been really wanting to do a sugardaddy!hoseok thing for a while, and if you guys like this, then i think i can add more to the story. alright, y’all stay nasty. enjoy!

The ropes dig into the skin of your thighs ever so gently, and you close your eyes to listen to the din of the party that surrounds you. Guests only arrived 30 minutes ago, and you’re already dripping wet. This isn’t the first time you and Hoseok have done exhibitionism, but this is the farthest it’s ever been taken. Men and women in their best black tie attire surround you, glasses of his most expensive champagne in their hands. Not all of them are looking at you; some are too bashful to acknowledge your existence. Some only sneak glances when they think nobody else is looking. Few have come up and examined your entire naked frame, suspended from Hoseok’s ceiling in the middle of his entertainment space.

They’re examining you as if you were a piece of fine art; just another pretty and peculiar object that Hoseok has collected. You’re placed among some of his other art pieces - some Pollocks, some Dalis, some Picassos, and one O’Keefe - and somehow, you feel like you fit. That’s what Hoseok had said anyway. That since you were one of the most beautiful things he’s ever seen in his life, he wanted to feature you as the work of art you are. He chose to display you in his favorite way.

Red shibari rope surrounds each of your legs like a cage before confining your hands behind your back. The rope trails over your torso and is twisted and knotted around your exposed breasts, but not tightly. Just enough to accentuate your natural shape. Your legs are tied so that they remain apart, one held higher than the other to leave you fully exposed. Your stomach is facing the floor, but not entirely; Hoseok has tied you so that you’re almost lounging comfortably there, suspended in midair. The lines of rope flow with the form of your body, and even though all of your weight is pressed down onto them, the ropes are the soft and luxurious kind - no doubt expensive - that make you feel as though you could be floating instead.

Just then, your attention is jolted to your cunt, where his favorite black remote control vibrator has just been triggered. You clench around it, and your moan is muffled by the ball gag that is secured over your lips. When you open your eyes, he is standing solidly in front of you.

His black button up shirt and jacket combination is draped over his shoulders beautifully, and his shiny brown hair is parted in the middle. He looks incredible. Radiant. Sinful.

“You looked bored,” he says with a little smirk as he continues to let the vibrator run inside of you, “and we can’t have that… Perhaps I should turn it up.”

He twists a small knob on the remote and the vibrations steadily rise in frequency until they’re as high as they can go. A semblance of a scream escapes your lips behind the gag. You begin rocketing toward climax, but Hoseok knows you and your body too well. Just as you begin to feel the tingles spread over your body, he shuts it off, and your muscles immediately go lax from being tensed up and ready to come.

He laughs softly as you pant, and then takes a quick look around the room.

“You seem to have gathered some attention. That’s my good girl.”

Without another word, he pockets the remote, and you watch how his ringed fingers delicately pick up a flute of champagne from one of the server’s tray tables. Then he simply walks away. His immaculately shiny black shoes gently thud on the marble floor as he makes his way through the crowd, to presumably some other obscenely rich friend of his.

You feel a small amount of saliva about to peak over your bottom lip. You’ve been good about swallowing everything but it seems your denied orgasm has made you forgetful. Moments later, a small thread of your own spit runs out of your mouth and onto the floor. You know that you have been dripping from the other end too, and you wonder if any of the guests have just seen you drool on yourself.

As if to answer, Hoseok comes back from behind you and grabs you by the jaw. His face lights up when he confirms that you have made a mess of yourself. He turns to one of his guests and speaks.

“See, Namjoon?” he says, tilting your head up toward his guest so that he can see, “She’s incredible.”

You meet eyes with the guest, and put on your best innocent look. You love how a blush starts to creep up into his cheeks, and how his pillowy lips part slightly. Even though you’re bound from head to toe and easily the poorest person here, you feel like you’re the most powerful person in the room. The guest clears his throat and turns his attention back to Hoseok.

“How much was your price?” he asks.

Hoseok looks down at you, and a smirk begins to form on his plush lips.

“1,000 US Dollars. Per second,” he says, “Which charity will it be, then?”

You’d been the one to come up with the idea for the proceeds from the charity fundraiser to be benefitted by getting to control the vibrator. Hoseok loved it.

“Your education charity,” he says, “and I’ll take 30 seconds.”

Hoseok nods, “Do you want to go ahead and write the check now or do you want me to keep a tab running and let you know at the end of the evening?”

The tall man considers this, and looks back at you for a moment before answering, “keep it open, will you?”

“Alright, Mr. Kim. All yours,” Hoseok says as he fishes out the device from his suit pocket before turning to you, “Be good, you hear me? Don’t come until you have been given permission by either Mr. Kim or myself. Understood?”

You nod frantically as you watch the remote being transferred from Hoseok’s hands to Namjoon’s. The earlier flustered man turned more confident once he held the little black fob in his palm - quite a large palm now that you look at it closely. It would look so nice trailing up your thigh, you think. You look up at Namjoon and convey a pleading look, one that silently asks for mercy.

He does not give it.

With a small grin, he turns on the vibrator, and you scream (or try to) at the suddenness of the sensation. He spends his entire 30 seconds with the device in your pussy at full speed, and you can’t hold back your groaning. You clench around the bullet, and when his time is up, you feel beads of sweat starting to form on your brow from the exertion. You’re left a panting mess in front of him, Hoseok, and every other guest that has turned to watch you squirm.

Namjoon’s satisfied smile and nod encourages others in the room to have a turn. Before long, you see a few more guests make their way over to where you are hanging. This time it is a group of women.

“Hye-jin!” Namjoon exclaims, before he hugs the woman and offers a short to the three others that come over with her. She’s dressed in the most beautiful black form fitting dress you’ve ever seen. Her hourglass figure sways captivatingly in the gown, and you’re momentarily mesmerized by her figure. You look up at her and she’s smirking down at you; you were too distracted at the way the large jewels on her necklace fell over her collarbones to realize that they were already discussing you.

“I should have known it would be you to break the ice,” she says playfully to Namjoon, who just presses his lips together in resignation as he puts his hand to the back of his neck.

“How’s the comeback?” he asks casually, as if there isn’t a fully naked and exposed woman suspended in front of him. His ability to be so casual while you’re at the edge of your sanity shoots a ping of arousal through your body. You shiver slightly, and you catch Hoseok looking at you out of the corner of his eyes. He’d never admit it, but he cares about you a lot. You can tell he’s checking to make sure you aren’t getting ready to start snapping your fingers- the safe action you’d both agreed on to release you from the ropes and send you into his master suite. Even when he had walked over to find Namjoon, you know even then he wasn’t out of sight or earshot from you.

He had a clean and plush robe stowed away in the closet nearby, and was always ready to release you should you want to be. You’d worked together before the event to set up a space in his suite to go should you need to retire for the evening, and you caught him setting a hoodie of his on the side of the bed where you typically sleep. You’d always playfully taken them, either to flirt or to wear it (and only it) to encourage a round two. But he had never deliberately set one of them aside for your use. He knows you won’t be using it to flirt or to rouse him into more sex, so his little efforts to bring you as much comfort as possible had set alight something in your heart.

He really did take pride in taking good care of you. As a good sugar daddy should.

You’re yanked back to reality when the vibrator starts up again. You clench around it and feel a gush of wetness surge out at the sensation of it going at full blast. Just when you become used to the speed and lower your whining, you open your eyes to see the woman holding the remote this time, grinning down at you with full lips. She meets your gaze and turns it up all the way, which makes you tense up every last one of your muscles. The woman next to her with long, light hair and a wicked gaze, whispers something to her while eyeing you up and down. It then occurs to you that you weren’t paying attention and don’t know how much time she purchased.

As the seconds tick by, they feel like hours. With the device at full speed, you feel yourself closing in on a climax, and so you squeeze your eyes shut and brace yourself for the orgasm that is about to rip through your body…

She turns it down to the lowest setting and watches as you groan at the second denial crushes you. More saliva drips down your chin as she switches it off, leaving you with only the beads of sweat that cling to your skin.

“Thank you, Hoseok. Worth every penny,” Hye-jin says, handing the remote back to him.

Hoseok beams his thousand-watt smile at her, and congratulates her on both the success of Maria, her solo album, and then thanks her for her donation.

She thanks him in return, and both women walk back into the crowd. Namjoon has also gone, which just leaves you with Hoseok again. His eyes meet yours for a moment, and you see a fire in them that you’ve never seen before. You’re dangling about waist height, and you can’t help but to look down from his face to try to see if you can make out a bulge. You don’t get time to really look, because as soon as you break eye contact, he moves to your back and smacks your ass cheek hard. A loud thwack echoes throughout the large space, over the din of the partygoers. You inhale sharply at the sting, and let your breath back out in a long groan, drawing the attention of more guests. You knew that the champagne would loosen inhibitions eventually.

You hear the footsteps of a couple other guests walking toward you from behind where Hoseok stands. You crane your head to try to see over your shoulder, but they stand just out of your peripheral vision. They’re talking in low voices, and you can’t make out what they’re saying. You wish you could swing yourself around and look at them, but knowing that the only thing they can see of you is your dripping cunt, you’re not so mad.

You feel a hand on your thigh, a touch you’re familiar with. You know it’s Hoseok’s hand, as he gently trails up your inner thigh, purposefully teasing you. An involuntary shiver runs through your body and you can’t help but to whimper slightly. You hear a man’s chuckle, and then he’s speaking, again too low for you to hear.

Hoseok uses his grip on your inner thigh to spin you around so that you’re facing the group of men. Namjoon has come back, this time with what appears to be a friend in tow.

“Baby girl,” Hoseok’s voice says gently, and you look up to meet his gaze, “Yoongi here has just asked if he may touch you.” Your eyes widen at the thought, remembering how just Hoseok’s hand trailing up your thigh had your toes curling. You look up at the new guest, and see only a cold and stone-like expression. His eyes seem to bore right through you, and directly into your cunt. You’re momentarily mesmerized under his heavy stare, before you slowly nod your head.

“Yoongi here has just generously donated one million dollars to one of my charities, so do you know what that means?” he asks you, not expecting an answer, “How long is one thousand seconds?”

“Sixteen minutes and 40 seconds,” Yoongi says, not breaking eye contact from you, “If I’m correct.”

If your mouth could drop, it would. Namjoon, looking up from his phone, just nods nonchalantly.

Hoseok asks the man what he has asked everyone else: if they would like to keep a running tab or if they would like to write a check now. Yoongi reaches into his back pocket and pulls out what you assume to be his checkbook. With rings glittering in the lighting of the room, his hand swiftly fills it out. He rips it out and extends it to Hoseok.

“I won’t be needing more time.”

His cool confidence in saying this small phrase makes your stomach drop.

Hoseok grips your chin and tilts your head up. “Remember, baby girl, don’t come until you’re told to. You want to be on your best behavior for Mr. Min. Trust me.”

He speaks sternly and then releases your jaw, trailing his hand back to stroke your messy hair, before settling on your two hands secured behind your back and giving them a light squeeze. A silent reminder of your out, should you need it.

This Yoongi must be… a force to be reckoned with.

“Your time starts now,” Hoseok says, tapping his phone screen. You squeeze shut your eyes and brace yourself for the abrupt shock of the vibrations, but seconds pass, and they don’t come. You gingerly open your eyes and look up at the man standing above you, toying with the remote. He regards it with vague interest, and then he flicks up his eyes to look at you. Your heart stops for a moment, as he begins to rake his onyx eyes over your body. He purses his lips slightly and begins walking around you, all too slowly.

Even though he has disappeared from your view, you can feel his eyes on you. Your anxiousness grows as he remains out of your sight longer, and this is no doubt intentional. It seems as if he picked up your unease earlier when he first approached.

This guy is good.

You’re so on edge, that the light vibrations that begin in your cunt still surprise you. He turned the vibrator on to its lowest setting, but these low and slow vibrations still make you have a sharp intake of breath. He finally arrives back to your front and seems pleased at your reaction. He squats down so that his face is level with yours.

“What a good girl you are,” he muses, lips parted, tongue playing with the inside of his cheek, “I hope Hoseok here treats you well. You seem… pent up.”

At those last two words, he revs up the vibrations slightly, causing you to let out a small moan. He stands and puts the remote in his pocket. You watch as he gently rolls up his sleeves to the elbow, his forearm flexing as he fixes them. Your hungry stare betrays you.

“Is she always like this?” he asks Hoseok, almost laughing at you. “God, she’s desperate.” He looks at you. “Does Hobi not fuck you enough, little girl?”

Your eyes widen at the implications, and you furiously shake your head no, trying to convey as much as you can with your eyes alone. He just chuckles.

“Loyal,” he says, “I like that.” He looks back up at Hoseok. “Is your agreement exclusive, or is there room in her life for a second... benefactor?” You look up at your sugar daddy, eyes wide with what he might say. He’s just standing there, arms folded over his chest, as if he were discussing the weather or the stock market.

“I’m afraid she’s all booked up for the foreseeable future, unfortunately,” he says cooly but firmly, a little bit of edge to his voice.

“Pity,” Yoongi says, taking a step toward you, “I could think of a million good ways to take up her time.”

“You’ve got 14 minutes left,” is all Hoseok says in response, a definite sharpness to his tone. You’ve only heard this type of voice from him when you’re being particularly bratty. You rarely hear him this stern.

The vibrations quicken slightly, and you can tell from your frequent use that the device is at about its medium speed.

Yoongi takes his hand and reaches out to your back, and with a featherlight touch, begins to trace next to where the ropes lie. He keeps working down your back, and gently trails down your bare ass cheek and ghosts against your pussy. You can feel the heat from his hand, impossibly close to touching you. You hold your head back and try to look at him as you whine out a plea.

“Eyes straight ahead, little girl,” he says, and you comply reluctantly, flopping your head forward dramatically as you sigh. His hand grabs hold of your thigh, and squeezes it so hard you’re sure you’ll find a bruise there in the morning. “And lose the attitude.”

You whimper as he releases your thigh, and goes back to delicately running his fingertips up to your core. He stops just short of your cunt, and you desperately want him to just touch you. You flex your back and buck your hips in order to push yourself onto where you know his hand is. Your clit makes contact with his hand, and as soon as you feel it connect, you feel it missing. Not even a moment later, a sharp sting spreads across your ass, and you clench around the vibe.

“What a greedy little slut you are. Do you always misbehave this much?”

You turn your head back to look at him, and as you meet his eyes, you can see he begins to fume.

“Namjoon, keep her head straight. Someone's not listening.”

You turn your head back around and Namjoon is quickly grabbing your jaw firmly in his hand. Your eyes meet his, and his earlier show of no mercy seems to still be intact. You feel Yoongi’s hand soothe the soreness he just created, only to once again reel back and give the same spot another firm smack, just as hard as the first one.

You cry into the ball gag and the shockwave from his hit sends you slightly swinging forward into Namjoon’s belt. Even though the vibrator is only at medium speed, you feel yourself beginning to get close to a climax. Your moans get longer and higher, and your body tenses to prepare for it. You hear Yoongi behind you.

“Don’t.”

You know exactly what he means. You focus on your breathing and furrow your brow in an attempt to stave off your orgasm. It’s working, but barely. He turns up the vibrations and you cry out again, your head shaking as much as Namjoon’s firm grip will allow.

“Don’t.”

You distance yourself from the situation, distracting yourself with thinking about schoolwork. The essay you’re currently writing. How the rough draft needs to be done by tomorrow night. You need three more in-text citations to make --

His hand is against your clit, and he’s rubbing at an agonizingly slow pace, with just enough pressure for you to want more. You inhale sharply and work harder to distract yourself.

You have two of the quotes picked out, but you need to finalize the third one to really hammer in your point. Maybe you can spend tomorrow morning reading --

His lips graze over the ass cheek he tortured earlier, your smarting skin responding sharply to the gentle contact. He gives you a soft kiss, and then you feel a sharp pain as he sinks his teeth into your already ruined ass.

Your eyes fly open and you make desperate eye contact with Namjoon, trying to show him that you can’t last much longer. Thankfully, this Namjoon is a perceptive man, and he looks from you to Yoongi.

“She can’t take much more, Yoongi.”

“Good,” he says, breath grazing over where he just bit as he speaks. “Come, slut.”

For the first time tonight, your orgasm peaks and rips out of you. Your whole body trembles with the sensation, and you feel his pressure on your clit increase to see you through. The orgasm is hard, and long, and it leaves you with tears streaming down your cheeks, mascara running wildly. You’re coming down slowly, and you feel his hand pull away. Before you realize it, he is standing in front of you again. Namjoon releases you, and your head hangs lifelessly as you pant.

Yoongi stands directly in front of you again, and you find yourself staring at his expensive shoes. You’re completely spent. Post orgasm bliss spreads throughout your muscles, and then, a slight discomfort. You realize what it is: the vibrator is still going.

You squirm lazily and whine at the sensation, it being too much. Yoongi squats down and gently lifts up your head by the chin. Your exhausted eyes meet his, and he clicks his tongue.

“Aw, are you all sensitive now?” he asks gently, in an almost patronizing tone. You don’t care. You nod sleepily.

“Is the vibrator too much, little girl?” You nod once more, eyes fluttering shut.

“Then use your safeword gesture,” he says, almost as if it’s a dare. "Go on. Snap."

If he’s not done with you, then you’re not done. You open your eyes and look directly at him as if to say “challenged accepted.”

Without moving his eyes from yours, he cranks up the vibrations until you’re whimpering again.

“Six more minutes,” you hear Hoseok say from beside you.

“Plenty of time,” Yoongi replies without skipping a beat. “I think we can get three more in. One every two minutes? Surely a slut like you will have no problem with that, since you wanted to come so badly earlier.”

You groan at the ache in your cunt, and at the slight displeasure the vibrator is causing. Yoongi stands again and walks back behind you, and this time you know better than to move your head to look.

Soon the vibrations begin to feel pleasurable again, and you’re having a hard time keeping your moans quiet.

“Atta girl,” you hear Yoongi say from behind you, “Your next one’s already coming isn’t it? You greedy little thing. You’re going to ruin Hoseok’s nice floors with your slick. And in front of all these people?”

Just like that, you’re reminded that you have an audience. Quite a large one. You open your eyes to see just about every guest’s gaze glued to your straining form. The heat bubbles in your abdomen as your next climax rushes toward you.

“You may come again,” is all Yoongi says as you’re thrown off the edge again. As soon as you begin to recover from this one, he ups the vibrator to full speed. You scream into the ball gag at the overstimulation, and cry out as tears spill out of your eyes. It’s entirely too much, but you love it. Before you realize it, another orgasm rips through your body, almost as if it were a continuation of the last one.

He doesn’t miss this though, and spreads your ass cheeks apart so he can get a better view. At this point, you’re not sure if you can do another one. You feel as though you might pass out if you come again. But the overstimulation is so overwhelming that you can only think of reaching one more high. You tense your entire body and try to get another one, but your muscles are so spent that you can’t stay tense for long. After a few more tries, you just sigh and hang limply, your limbs heavy and tired. You hang on the edge of climax, being able to see the other side, but not being able to go there.

Mascara tears stain your cheeks from exertion, and you are well and truly spent. You give up.

But you don’t snap your fingers.

Yoongi fastens his lips over your aching clit, and sucks. Just like that, you feel your orgasm building again so you clench, desperately trying to claim it; this time, you reach it.

It tears through you like a slow strike of lightning. You feel yourself shaking as it takes its time fracturing within you. It grows white hot in your belly, and it’s as if every cell in your body has been burned alive. All of the energy you have left is spent thrashing in the ecstasy of your orgasm, and for a few seconds, you know nothing else but the pleasure.

You find yourself deep in subspace, practically dead to the world. You don’t even have the energy to open your eyes. You barely register Hoseok as he begins untying the ropes around your hands, getting assistance from both Namjoon and Yoongi. You feel his hands as he releases your ball gag and caresses your face as he asks if you’re okay. You give the tiniest nod, and he wraps your limp form tightly in his arms as the two men finish unwrapping your legs. He swoops down and sweeps your legs up to carry you bridal style away from the party.

The next thing you know is the soft and cool silk of his sheets enveloping you as he lays you down. You exist there for a time, every nerve ending in your body tingling as you drift off.

You wake some time later to hear quiet chatting. You inhale and breathe in the musky scent of Hoseok’s favorite cologne. You find yourself curled around the hoodie he left for you. As you slowly open your eyes, you can just make out the time on the nightstand clock. It’s almost 3 AM; the fundraiser had to have ended over four hours ago. You breathe slowly and close your eyes again so you can focus on the voices in the room.

You hear Hoseok straight away; his tone is forever instantly familiar to you. The way his normal speaking rhythm is a little sloppy with alcohol. In reply is a voice you more recently became acquainted with. The voice who you last heard giving you permission to come. It’s a little bit more rough now, a Daegu accent slipping out in his intoxication. The third one takes you by surprise. A low and calm voice. Lower than you’d ever suspected possible, from hearing him speak this evening. Even still, Namjoon’s even tone is a rumble you can make out.

You sit up slowly, not wanting the blood to rush to your head. You were sleeping hard. Your dry mouth guarantees that. At your movement, the three men stop their talking and look over at you. Hoseok is the first to set down his glass and walk over to you. His black tie is gone and so is his jacket. His collar is wide open, showing off his tanned chest behind the many unfastened buttons. He gets on his knees next to the bed and reaches for your hands. Once he finds them, his brow is creased with worry, as he brings your hands up to his lips.

“Are you alright, baby girl?” he asks into your hands. You still have the weight of sleep over you, so you don’t respond right away.

“She had her gesture, Hoseok. She could have used it,” you hear Yoongi say, and you look in his direction. He sits with his legs spread, glass of whiskey hanging off of his fingers. Your eyes meet, and even though he’s trying to seem impertinent and uncaring, there’s a tinge of worry and guilt in his eyes. You glance to Namjoon and see that his worry is more plainly stated.

Hoseok caresses your cheek and turns you back to facing him. His eyes plead for an answer. So you give it.

“Yes,” you say, voice raspy, “I’m alright. I feel great, actually.” Hoseok visibly relaxes and you hear Yoongi across the room mutter an “I told you so” to Namjoon.

“He didn’t push you too hard?” Hoseok asks.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” you reply smugly, meeting Yoongi’s eyes, “But he did well and truly wear me out... Clearly."

You chuckle as Hoseok covers your hands in a million tiny kisses.

“Perhaps I do need to step my game up,” he teases, “I’ve never seen you so fucked out.”

“Nothing a good nap can’t fix,” you tease back. He smiles up at you, and you once again get lost in his brightness and warmth. “Mind if I join you all for a drink?”

“Of course not, baby girl,” Hoseok says, “I’ll go get your robe--”

“Don’t bother,” you say, wiggling into his hoodie and pulling the hood up and over your hair, “but you can go get me a glass.”

[fundielicious-simblr]

(Valentina’s POV)

Happy Harvestfest! I volunteered to host this year, meaning we had 21 people descend on our quiet little cottage out here in Brindleton Bay. I loved having my parents, all my siblings, and all my nieces and nephews around and filling up the house, it definitely brought be back to growing up at home with all 10 of us before we all got married and moved away. My mum said it was nice to have a change of scenery and be out in the countryside for Harvestfest, whilst Newcrest where we live is itself already outside of the commotion of the city since my grandparents wanted to raise their family away from worldly influences, out here where we live it’s truly the countryside where you can appreciate nature.

The family is under the cut! 

Ryan (56) and Clare (52) Paulson

My wonderful parents are still so in love with one another with this year marking 32 years of marriage for them, 10 children and 9 grandchildren later and you’d think they were still newlyweds! Dad is still working in tech programming and at this point has helped create many Bible and devotionals apps that help other Christians get closer to the Lord, his current plan is to work until he’s 65 then he can retire and support the family with the pension that he’s earned as well as the money he gets from the apps. When she’s not homeschooling my youngest brothers (the only two left being homeschooled), my mother is either writing or teaching music. She helps coordinate the music at church, with the Winterfest nativity play music being her current project, and whenever the band/orchestra play she’s usually the one that has arranged the music, as well as guiding the players through the song. In the new year Newcrest Baptist is running a music camp, so she’s been preparing for that mainly; my cousin Zoe and I will also be teaching at camp so we’re all looking forward to the new year. 

The Paulson Family - Carter (30), Madelynn (27), Lester (6), Fitzwilliam (1)

Carter and Madelynn have their 2 boys and right now are enjoying the different experiences that come with having a child and a toddler. Madelynn is homeschooling Lester as well as having him to go a christian homeschool co-op in their area twice a week, to further enhance his learning. Fitz is a year old and so just tags along with whatever Lester does, Madelynn goes through the toddler basics with him, but mostly focuses on Lester right now. This winter they’re going skiing with Madelynn’s family, her father is supporting their local conservative candidate in the election and the fundraiser is being held at a wonderful ski resort in the mountainous region.

The Townsend Family - Eric (32), Valentina (29), Aria (8), Ansel (6), Asher & Abbott (2)

We’re all good over here! I’ve started the school year with Aria and Ansel and both are progressing wonderfully, it’s amazing how much these kids love learning and I’m encouraged by their enthusiasm! I’m starting a rudimentary course with the twins to get them hopping on the learning train, they’re so interested in what their older siblings are doing that I thought it best to jump right into school with them. Eric and I have been thinking about getting some farm animals, we took the kids to the farmer’s market the other day and they were enraptured by the chickens, goats, cows, and sheep. It would be great to have the animals, we’d get fresh animal produce that’s homegrown to add to our fruit and vegetable garden produce, as well as a learning opportunity for the children to learn about animals and to learn the responsibility that comes with taking care of animals. This winter, other than learning about plants that flourish in the winter, we’ll also be focusing on learning all about animals and how we care for them. We want to be ready to welcome any animals that we might get onto our little homestead in the coming spring. I’m also working on what I’ll be teaching at music camp hosted by Newcrest Baptist in the new year, when I think of opportunities like this I can’t help but thank the Lord for my parents, had my mother not poured into us and taught us how to play instruments then I’d never be blessed with this opportunity to teach others.

The Paulson Family - Alan (28), Tessa (21), Charity (1), Edgar (6 weeks old)

Alan and Tessa have had the most recent addition to the family, 6 weeks ago Tessa had their second child, a boy they named Edgar! Tessa truly inspires me, she barely had the time to recover after having a baby before loading up to travel down here with everyone! She’s such a blessing, I was talking to her on how she handled travelling with a 2 children under 1 and she made it sound so easy! If they keep going at their current rate then they’ll have another baby by next Harvestfest - how wonderful! This winter they’re travelling to Sulani with Tessa’s family, they’re excited to have the sun and the ocean instead of frigid air and snow as they celebrate the birth of our Lord! 

The Crocker Family - Gregory (28), Kristyn (25), Kayla (1)

Kristyn and Gregory are enjoying life with little Kayla, they’ve had a wonderful time adjusting to her joining and family and love it. She’s the first granddaughter on their side of the family as Gregory’s sisters have had all boys, so she’s definitely being spoilt at home! Kristyn has always had a great love of children, and she’s been open with us sisters about praying for another child soon. They’re staying in Oasis Springs this winter and celebrating Winterfest with Gregory’s family.

The Crawford Family - Tucker (26) and Sabrina (25)

The newlyweds have been loving this new season of life together! Sabrina called me and told me that she’s been loving married life way more than she thought she would. She and Tucker honeymooned in a little cabin tucked away in the woods up by Granite Falls; after a couple gets married and goes from limited physical intimacy to being married and being allowed to do everything, it is quite an adjustment to get used to. It’s good for them that they got that time together because they’ve got a packed schedule soon after this. They’re travelling with the Crawfords to sing at churches in the area for the winter, and after that they’re back on the farm for the springtime harvesting and to prep for the summer harvest and their summer tour. It’s been great to have my sister living in the same area, during times when they are home we try and coordinate when we can see each other.

Jarrod (21) and Madison Jenkins (19)

We’ve also got a newly engaged couple on the block! Jarrod proposed to Madison when he was on a visit to see her in Evergreen Harbour, they had just finished church when he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him! They’re planning for a winter wedding, meaning that they’re also planning around our cousin Charles and his wedding; hopefully they can nail down dates so that we can all make it to both weddings. With a family as large as ours, it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how the rest of the singles do it when it comes time to plan their weddings, since Celeste is the last girl left my parents only have one last time to be the wedding hosts.

Celeste (27), Zachary (19), Conner & Jarrett (16)

Celeste is truly thriving in her singleness, when she’s not at home serving others she’s travelling around visiting those of us who moved away and investing in the lives of her nieces and nephews. She also spends time investing in the lives of those around her, she travels with our cousin Macie to different young ladies’ retreats and they both counsel and guide young ladies on how to better their walk with the Lord. This winter she’s joining Macie and a few other youths from our Newcrest Baptist on a missions trip to Selvadorada, so that’s another thing to add into our families already hectic winter.

Zachary is also enjoying his new status as an adult, he’s started working part time for a lawn services company run by a member of the church and a friend of the family. He’s also joining Celeste on the missions trip to Selvadorada this year, it’ll be his first time out of the country so he is very excited!

Conner and Jarrett are enjoying their time as the youngest kids in the family, they’re quite self sufficient at school meaning that they’re working through it quite quickly and are on track to graduate early! It’s always great when we get to see the boys, Ansel is old enough for them to bring him along when they go on outings, so it was great to have them here together.

[melmac78]

Of leather tooling and love

(Tag mini bang 2021)

Here’s my story for @tagminibang. I want to thank @tracybirds for their amazing art and working with me. Also, I thank them being extremely patient with learning about leather tooling and for adapting to the time zone difference to get this put together.

(I added my own art piece - “John’s” astronomy cuff… mark I, and will link directly to tracybirds’s art when I can fully figure this out).

•••••••

John Tracy was mad... so mad he was making an indelible mark that would take forever for someone to wipe away or cover up.

Fortunately it was leather, and he was tooling a design so no one would really want to cover it up, but he still was at points surprised he wasn't punching holes in the design… or the table.

A chirp however made him question the latter.

“John, please do not hit the table so hard. You are making my processors overload,” gently scolded EOS as the man was swinging the rawhide mallet.

While fortunately her interruption didn’t make him miss, allowing him to add to the octopus design, John set the leather tools down and sighed. “I’m sorry EOS,” he said gently.

“I accept your apology, but I do not understand why stamping cowhide will help your anger,” said the AI.

“As I said, it’s leather tooling, and it’s better to use my anger for something creative,” John said quietly.

“Even this … item?”

He looked at the cuff he was working on again and gave a half smile. “Even this wallet,” the astronaut chuckled.

After giving EOS a task to do, reminding her not to adjust the gravity back to zero to avoid any spills from his work, John looked at the project again.

He sighed, understanding his curious “data child’s” curiosity. Leather tooling, while a bit outdated in some people's eyes, was one of the few learned talents and gifts he still had from his Grandfather as well as his Dad.

And - it reminded him of Gordon, in good and bad times.

Gordon… his brother with the wacky sense of dress.

The aquanaut preferred to wear on average two leather bands and then a woven smaller band with the first two oyster pearls he found.

That's why he stopped - at the moment, it felt as though if he took out more anger on the mallet and metal stamping tool, he was hurting Gordon. Triple if he managed to hit it so hard it tore through the damp leather.

Who knew Gordon’s penchant for being the only one to wear leather wrist bands would save his life?

A week and a half prior... he chose to wear two broader bands on one arm and his usual one on his other.

They were nearly the width of a cuff, with designs that took forever to explain to EOS. It was an unusual decision, but one that the brothers were thankful Gordon made.

They had been called out to a rescue - a skyscraper fire in Houston, and all land based brothers had been called as it required high rise rescue.

Gordon had been on level 70 of the building, rescuing an unconscious woman. He had secured the victim in with his harness and started to use the pulley to get them to the top of the building for Thunderbird to lift them to safety.

An explosion had knocked them for a loop, smashing Gordon into the building.

Gordon took the brunt of the hit, slamming into the frame.

In spite of the helmet, he too was knocked out. Worse, the grapple slipped, and glass shards, still stuck in their mounts, sliced down his forearms.

It cut the neoprene... and through part of his thick leather cuffs.

When they recovered both victims, Virgil and John immediately triaged the two. She had a minor concussion and smoke inhalation.

Gordon however not only too had the bump on the head - thanks to the helmet taking the brunt, he also a dislocated shoulder, and a few cracked and broken ribs.

But what was the immediate concern at the time of the rescue was his arms, particularly the wrists. They took the brunt of the damage.

The leather bands however, saved his life. They made what would've been life threatening - if not fatal, slashes on his wrist to mostly superficial cuts.

The bands though were completely destroyed as far as wearability. Virgil would have to apologize for cutting them completely off - but not why - later.

Gordon was taken to a hospital in Houston's esteemed Medical Center, where he went through multiple surgeries, a few pints of blood, and lots of rest.

That was a week ago, as Gordon had a healing rib rebreak, nicking his lung. It was repaired, the bleeder stopped, but Gordon had to be put under sedation for a couple of days to ensure the site healed.

Though they had lifted the sedation the day prior and were waiting for Gordon to come out of it, the family would have to wait couple of days before he could return to Tracy Island.

That lead to where he was today.

John sighed, and looked around Thunderbird Five.

He had been practicing some leather tooling at University of Houston's art department.

That was before a space rescue needed both him and Alan, and afterword, he stayed on Five to keep apprised of a possible hurricane.

Well that and have an excuse to decline another lecture invite from NASA.

John was thankful that U of H understood his need for privacy, and that having a PhD in Aeronautics and Space allowed him some special favors.

The positive it included the use of one of the art studios to leather tool...

The negative? The trade off was as long as he also donated one of his famous astronomy tooled leather cuffs for a fundraiser.

He had already finished the band for the auction two days prior, complete with the antique leather dye, golden paint accents in the star constellations, and steampunk like swing hinge cuff. Not the easiest to make, especially setting the rivets for the cuff.

Worth it to John - small price to pay, but would reap rewards for U of H’s generosity. He’d bring it to them when he visited Gordon again.

The astronaut then looked at the octopus carved and stamped on the wallet. "It was too damn close," he said out loud, but at the same time, he was thankful. This was for Gordon later on.

John then smiled at the thought. It was indeed for his aquanaut brother, one they could’ve lost in that fire.

He was about to stamp the leather again... when a beep startled him.

The astronaut asked EOS to answer it, and the image of Virgil came out of the monitor.

"Gordon's come to," said Virgil.

"Fully?"

The older brother shrugged. "Mostly, but he should be fully alert by the time you get to the hospital," he said, then frowned. "He's asking about the leather bands... especially the one that was 'Mom's belt'."

John furrowed his brow.

Yes, that belt bracelet.

Fortunately the one bracelet Gordon hadn't worn that day.

Unfortunately, the one Gordon duplicated - with varying degrees of success, he did wear nearly daily.

John could imagine Gordon’s initial reaction… he’d feel the same way.

"Virgil, Gordon didn't wear that cuff that day," he said. "He intentionally put a small Thunderbird stamp on his so he didn't confuse the two."

Virgil nodded. "I know, but you know him and anesthetics... gives him the wrong memory if he's not goofy from it," he said, then chuckled. “Last time he was trying to feed Parker poster pancakes on the USS Lexington.”

John scoffed at the memory. "That one still has Parker perplexed," he said, then stood, stretching. "Try to talk him down from his confusion. I'll be there in a few minutes. I need to get something."

Virgil noticed John’s labors on the table and quirked an eyebrow. "What about the wallet you're working on?"

"It'll be fine. The leather can be dampened again to finish it up. I expected it to be a longer project over the bracelets I made at U of H,” he said, putting the stamping tool and mallet down.

The artist noticed John’s attempt to deflect, and his eyes twinkled in mischief. "So… how many projects did the University ‘con’ you out of for the auction this time?" said the artist with a teasing smirk.

He wasn't going to give his younger brother too much grief - he still owed the University at least one hand blown glass vase.

"Just the one - the astronomy cuff."

Virgil gave a soft whistle. "That one? You won't even make that one for me."

"Then bid on the one they're selling," snarked John as he cleaned up the rest of the leather tooling supplies.

Virgil merely laughed - yeah, he was going to bid if anything to help a department who helped his brother cope through this.

John then picked up a box wrapped in sea turtle wrapping paper. "I'll be there shortly,” he said walking to the space elevator.

“FAB.”

********

Gordon Tracy looked out the windows of his hospital room from his hovering hospital bed and signed.

He was thankful he wasn't stuck with a view of the generators. The hospital still hadn't gotten over teasing him - gently - about calling them "Donald Duck" in a post-anesthesia comment the other time he was there for an injury.

Here, it was a view of one of the garden parks the area had.

What he wasn't thankful for was the fact he lost the leather band that was made from his mother's belt.

He looked at the long bandages wrapped on his wrists and lower arms and sighed.

Sure, Virgil kept insisting it was not the band, but he knew his bracelets.

Yes, he had to admit they had to be fully cut off too keep him from bleeding out through his wrists - he knew one cut was still too close.

Still though... he had to concede if it was gone, it was his mother protecting him.

Even Scott had told him point blank it was the only time he was thankful Gordon had forgotten to take the bands off.

Rumor had it Scott was even considering consulting with Brains to create leather arm bracers.

His theory was if it worked for the cowboys in the 1800s and 1900s, why not the technological cowboys of today?

Gordon looked at the sky and smiled. "Thanks Mom for watching over both that woman and me," he said, then looked at the bands.

There were blood stains on them, which were not going to come out.

Sure, they could be dyed dark before being stored, most likely black, and he could have John help him there. That said, it was not going to matter when they had been made unwearable when Virgil cut them off.

There were the button and hole fixtures sure... but the aquanaut understood Virgil was going to slice first, apologize for saving Gordon's life later.

Blood loss didn’t wait for bracelets.

A knock at the door shook him out of his thoughts. "Come in," he said, adjusting the bed to where it floated back to connect with the main vitals scanner.

John entered and smiled at seeing his alert brother, the first time he'd been fully awake since before the accident.

"Hi Gordon, how are you feeling," he said, wincing slightly at the cliche.

His fish loving brother just smiled, but the astronaut didn't miss the sadness in the cinnamon colored eyes. "I'm having a whale of a time... too bad the lake below probably only has ducks," he said, chuckling slightly.

“Must be going ‘quackers’ then,” joked John, only to watch as Gordon fiddled with the remains of the bracelets. John coughed. "Gordon..."

"I know. They had to be cut off in order to save my life," the aquanaut said, sighing. "It's just... this was mom's - look at the paisley here..."

John put his hand over both his younger brother's and smiled. "It isn't the one made with Mom's belt, trust me,” he said, smiling, then pointing to a detail. "See? Here's the thunderbird stamp you used for yours."

Gordon took a closer look, and his eyes widened slightly.

John was right... it was indeed there, just had been cut in half by the cutting tools. Well he hoped so and not the glass, but that was a story left unsaid at the time.

"It's not mom's," the aquanaut whispered instead, tears of happiness flooding his eyes.

The astronaut smiled and gave his brother a gentle hug. "No it isn't. I made sure the one with Mom's was in the fire safe - just in case, on the Island before Alan brought me to the hospital," he said gently.

The two hugged gently for a while, the mix of hospital bluster and soothing sounds from the Muzak in the hallways mingling between the brother's hushed tones.

After a few minutes, Gordon sat up, and noticed the sea turtle box his brother was holding. "Funny looking NASA paper," the aquanaut teased, chuckling softly when John rolled his eyes.

He knew John tried to avoid the facility if possible.

Not because he didn't enjoy it, but because the last time he visited the center, Mission Control crowded him the point he fainted from the social claustrophobia.

Alan found it amusing.

EOS found it amusing to force Alan to eat freeze dried brussel sprouts and liver with onions meals every day his last rotation on Thunderbird Five for his "rude behavior."

Both men chuckled in the memory, and John handed his brother the box. "Nope, this is for you, a get well soon present," said he said.

Gordon carefully opened up the box, which John had purposely wrapped the two parts separately due to the shoulder being strapped, and gasped.

Inside were two bracelets.

One was similar to his mother's belt, but the paisley and flower design that was in his mom's band was adjusted slightly to include southwestern printed sea turtles and a squid stamp John had custom made. Like his mother's, it was dyed a medium brown.

The other... took Gordon's breath away.

The edges were done in a simple border - scalloped with the occasional octopus and sea turtle stamp in between the scallops. It was dyed mahogany.

It was mostly just border stamped... because the concho fastened in the center was the showstopper.

It was a golden sea turtle, swimming in the middle of a pewter center. “How?…”

Seeing Gordon's eyes water, John chuckled. "Yes, I remembered that concho. Had trouble finding it, but fortunately the store on the Sam Houston Tollway found one and put it aside for me," he said as he put a hand on his brother's uninjured shoulder.

Gordon put the box down and wiped away the tears with his good hand. "Got a bit of hand sanitizer in my eyes. Strong stuff," he said, and John scoffed.

"Yeah, sure... you want me to help put it on your … good wrist?" John said, and coughed when Gordon shot the arm out. "Whew... you weren't kidding on the hand sanitizer,” he laughed, waving the fumes away.

"Yeah... apparently it's 'essense of moonshine' I think. It probably kills germs 10 years before they’re born," Gordon smirked.

The bands fit perfectly, and had a simple button and hole fastener so the doctors or even Gordon could take it off with a push if needed.

John watched his brother admire the bracelet, even taking a few photos of the laughs and chuckles his brother made as he showed it off.

Gordon then paused and looked at John. "You made these right?" he inquired, looking at the antiqued looking band.

The astronaut nodded, and Gordon continued, grinning slightly in memory. "How many bands did the University get you to make in exchange for the use of the studio this time?"

"One - and before you ask, the astronomy one,” John said, touching a button on his baldric to ensure EOS didn’t talk about the wallet. She still had a proclivity to ruin surprises - especially if it was one of John’s younger siblings.

Gordon, knowing how much money usually got raised to but one of these bands, looked at the bands and then John. "Worth every cent," he said, smiling warmly as the nurse came in to check Gordon's vitals and bring dinner.

John took this as a note to head out, but before he left, he looked at his brother, who was bragging about the bracelet his older brother made.

And making it very clear how to take it on and off so this one was not cut off.

The astronaut gave a gentle wave to his brother. "I'll be back later," he said, and headed out.

Hearing the chuckles Gordon made again, John's smile broadened. "Yes, it was worth every single minute and cent to hear that laughter," John murmured, but it was priceless to have his brother saved by those other bands.

Now... how he was going to steal the remnants of the old bands to repurpose into a hippie cuff for Gordon was another story

[stargirlsims]

Australian Protest Gear

I couldn’t find any Australian BLM merch for my Simmies, so I dipped my toes in making recolours and tried my hardest! There are shirts and hoodies for all ages with 10 recolours each (60 pieces of CC all up). I don’t have good preview photos (I’ll try and add some later - if you take any and would like me to use them, HMU honestly) but the art includes:

- Black Lives Matter (art created by my lovely wife and adapted from her own BLM protest sign) as seen above

- Sovereignty never ceded

- The Chats/I hope Scott Morrison’s house burns down

- Always was, always will be

- Song lines not coal mines

- Stop Adani

- Silence is compliance

- Free the flag

- Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance logo

Download links and info are at the bottom of the post but I would appreciate it if you stayed around to read the whole post.

Please note: I am a white Australian who does not identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. I have spoken to First Nations peoples about creating these shirts, and they were happy for them to be created by me. However, please feel free to contact me if you do not feel the same.

Some recent history to contextualise this gear:

- Black Lives Matter refers to the same issue here as in America. Police brutality against Indigenous people’s is rampant, and as in the US, our blak population over represented in criminal statistics. Since the Royal Commission I to Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991, there have been over 430 (432 at the time of the first Australian BLM protests, however that number has gone up in response and an exact figure is difficult to nail down) Aboriginal deaths in police custody. No charges have been laid against any officers involved.

- Australia remains the only Commonwealth country to not have a treaty with its Indigenous population, despite promises to the contrary. A treaty was promised BY 1990 - thirty years later, and they are still waiting. In fact, our constitution still allows state to disqualify people from voting in elections on account of their race.

- Bushfires at the end of 2019/beginning of 2020, mostly in rural and remote areas, threatened the lives and livelihood of our citizens and native flora and fauna. Our Prime Minister cut funding to rural fire services (who exclusively service our rural and remote communities) and fucked off to Hawaii for a holiday while firefighters died in action. Hence, I Hope Scott’s House Burns Down (please click the link, it’s an amazing song, honestly)

- This country always was and always will be Aboriginal land. For over 200 years, the rightful owners of this land have been fighting back against the invasion and theft of their land. Every year, we have a “national holiday” to commemorate colonial invasion.

- Aboriginal peoples have been actively fighting destruction of their land to make way for coal mines for years. Earlier this year, Rio Tinto blew up Juukan Gorge for this purpose, despite archaeological digs finding out that the sight was twice as old as previously thought (46000 years old!!!!), and was full of incredible, significant objects. Included in this was evidence of human occupation during the last ice age!!!!, and a plait of human hair that was 4000 years old, made from the hair of multiple people, which DNA testing proved belonged to the DIRECT ancestors of the Indigenous peoples still living there today. The legislation intended to protect the traditional owners of the land failed them - and Juukan Gorge was blown up along with another sacred site. Now, another company wants to do the same in New South Wales. Shenhua want to destroy land sacred to the Gomeroi people. Destruction of this site will disturb the physical bodies (as well as the spirits) of Indigenous ancestors, displace already native wildlife - most notably koalas, whose population was severely impacted by bushfires just six months ago - and will threaten and very likely contaminate the water supply to towns and farmland nearby. To add insult to injury, Australian tax payers have paid for this twofold - our government invested $226,000,000 while Shenhua (and many other mining companies) investments and stock are owned and traded by the companies who hold our superannuation (retirement) funds. When speaking about the issue, Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the economic benefits outweighed the “loss of heritage value”.

- Adani is another mining company that Indigenous peoples had been fighting for nine years until last year, when Adani received their final approvals to destroy even more sacred land (this time in North Queensland) with, yet again, a whole host of environmental impacts that threaten the livelihoods of the people, flora and fauna - including the Great Barrier Reef, which is both an incredible natural treasure with immense biodiversity already threatens by climate change AND generates tourism for North Queensland, without which the area will suffer massive economic troubles. We lost this fight, despite our efforts.

- The Aborginal flag is copyrighted by a white-owned business, who actively profits off the usage and reproduction of a national emblem. They serve cease and desist notices to Aboriginal-owned brands for using their own flag, while the Australian national flag can be used for commercial purposes with no formal permission. Worse yet, our government could buy the copyright licensing for the flag in order to even the playing field - and they just choose not to.

- Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance are a political organisation fighting all over Australia for the rights and dignities of the Indigenous peoples. They are the group responsible for the Australian BLM protests and many, many more, Australia-wide.

This is just scratching the surface - we could be here all night, honestly, but thank you for sticking with it. If you would like to help in any way:

- Sign this petition to stop the Shenhua Watermark mine

- Sign this petition to free the flag

- Read this article, which links you to many fundraisers you can donate to, all with the goal of closing the gap and ending police brutality (please be aware that this article does contain the name and/or images of deceased Indigenous people)

- Contact Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance directly to find out how you can donate to the cause

Download info:

- requires meshes:

- Liliili’s simple top long sleeves (male shirt) and EA female basic top 3 (female shirt)

- Casteru’s copyright hoodie (make and female)

- Children & toddler shirts and hoodies are base game

- Hosted on Mediafire (no ad*fly/link shortened)

- All correctly colour tagged, disallowed for random and occult

- Please let me know if you have any issues!

Male T-E shirt

Male T-E hoodie

Female T-E shirt

Female T-E hoodie

Children shirt

Children hoodie

Toddler shirt

Toddler hoodie

@maxismatchccworld @mmfinds @mmoutfitters

[captainmarvels]

wicked games [21]

Summary: It’s your first night together after weeks apart, and Tom pulls out all the stops to make you feel welcome. Is it the start of a new beginning, or will it not be enough?

Pairing: CEO!Tom Holland x fem!Reader

Word Count: 3397

A/N: we’re back! enjoy this tooth-rotting, sweet sweet fluff because y’all have no idea what @thorsxodinson and i have in store for y’all :) and stop asking for updates, thx

masterlist | tag list - add yourself!

(gif by @bens-hardy )

If someone asked you how you were feeling at that moment, you’d probably describe how your anxiety was scaling your mind and body as if they were Mount Everest, digging deeper and entrenching itself in the sanctity of your peace.

Or what was left of it.

It was 6:01 on a Saturday morning, and you had been staring at the ceiling of your old bedroom for the past thirty minutes. 

Today was “move back in” day, and every nerve in your body was engulfed in flames.

You weren’t sure what exactly was riling up your anxiety - was it the fact that you were finally going to share a bedroom with the man you’d loved for so long? Or the fact that you were overwhelmingly terrified of what living together would do to you? 

Especially right after patching things up.

Tom said he and Harrison would be at the apartment at 7:30am to help you carry your things down to the car, and you felt bad about saying no. 

You had only left with a few bags the night you stormed out of Tom’s apartment, but in the short time you had been with Maggie, you accumulated quite a number of things.

“Hey numb nut, need any help?” Thinking of the devil, she appeared at your doorway, hair pulled back in a messy bun, arms crossed over her chest as she leaned against the doorframe.

You flipped her off, groaning quietly as you sat up and looked at her.

“Didn’t think you’d be up so early, Mags,” You said in a tired voice. She shrugged.

“Thought it was best if I was there when the two idiot white boys showed up,” She said, grinning wide as you rolled your eyes.

“I’m just gonna shower and then pack up my bathroom stuff. You mind moving all that to the living room, at least?” You pointed at the duffel bag and set of boxes stacked neatly in the corner of the room across from your bed.

“Anything for you, my lovely dipshit.”

The apartment buzzer rang at exactly 7:30, and you were glad to see that a certain someone was already keeping their word.

A few moments later, a loud rap sounded on the door, and you could hear two faint British voices outside.

“Good morning,” Harrison said as you opened the door, his hands toying with his hair. Tom was next to him, and he flashed you a small smile as you locked eyes with him.

Harrison crossed the threshold and greeted Maggie, leaving the two of you rooted in place.

“Good morning,” Tom whispered, closing the short distance between you as he reached out and gently cupped your cheek.

“Hi,” You said under your breath, smiling as you leaned into his touch.

“Oi, we can’t do all the heavy lifting for you!” Harrison called out, and both you and Tom started to laugh.

“Bugger off mate, we’ll get to it!”

There was no need for goodbyes, as you and Maggie had plans for that weekend. Pulling up to the skyscraper of an apartment building, it only took a few minutes before Harrison left after helping Tom carry your things up into the apartment, but not before telling you he would be expecting an invitation for drinks after work soon. 

You dropped down onto the massive couch, your eyes fluttering shut for a moment before you opened them again.

“When did you redecorate the living room?”

The sofa, which once faced the built in fireplace and massive flat screen TV, was now sitting across from the floor to ceiling windows that overlooked New York.

The TV now sat on a marble stand, which was also adorned with small succulents. 

As you glanced behind you, you notice massive bookcases now stood where the TV once was. Potted plants sat at the very top, their vines creeping down the sides of the shelves. A few picture frames stood out to you - they were all photos of Tom, either with his mother or Harrison. None of his father or his brothers. 

What surprised you the most was a frame on the center shelf, with a photo of you and him from Mary’s gala fundraiser. It was one of the few candid photos from that night - you were sitting on Tom’s lap, laughing at something an out-of-frame Harrison and Mary had said; Tom had one hand on your thigh, the other holding a hidden glass of scotch. The look on his face is what caught your eye. His gaze, focused on you, and his lips curled up in a smile, eyes enamoured with what lay before him.

It never occurred to you how sentimental he could be.

As your gaze scanned over the room, you noticed how empty the bar was. The glass shelves underneath the marble countertop were now sporting what appeared to be a variety of ceramic, handmade plates and wine glasses. Rich people’s version of fancy china?

Tom came in from the kitchen, breaking you away from your thoughts as he rounded the couch and handed you a warm mug, filled to the brim with your favorite tea.

“Mary went on this whole rant about feng shui and whatnot, and suggested I redecorate to help clear my head,” He gestured aimlessly at the space around you.

“I never thought I’d live to see the day you break away from your black and white monochromatic aesthetic, Tom,” You said, giggling when he gently swatted at your knee.

“The greenery is a nice change, I will admit. Besides,” He leaned back against the sofa cushions, bringing his own mug to his lips. “I should be admiring this view more often.”

He gave you a sly wink as he took a sip of coffee. Before you could say anything, the apartment buzzer rang.

“I can get that,” You said, setting your mug down on the new coffee table before heading out to the hallway.

“I don’t even know who that could be, I wasn’t planning on-” Tom stopped in his tracks as you opened the door, revealing the last person he wanted as a guest.

“Mary!”

“What the hell are you doing here?” 

You shot Tom a dirty look over your shoulder, quietly scoffing as you walked into Mary’s embrace.

“I missed you, you little bugger,” She whispered in your ear, smiling cheekily as you pulled away. 

“A little bird named Haz informed me of a visitor, so I thought I’d come and harass you! Not everything is about you, Stanley,” She stepped into the foyer, her heels clicking against the marble floors as she made a beeline for the kitchen. As you shut the door, you could hear Tom muttering under his breath.

“Can you put your temper tantrum on pause for now? I don’t need to deal with a whiny Tom at this moment,” You said as you took his hand in yours, squeezing gently.

Tom’s jaw dropped, eyes wide as you led him out of the hall.

Mary was sitting at the island bar, swirling a glass of red wine.

“Harrison suggested I pop by in case you needed help unpacking and all that jazz,” 

“Actually, that sounds like a great idea! I assume I have you to thank for getting this one to change up the living room?” You were standing across from Mary, your hands resting on the counter. Tom was standing behind you, his arms wrapped around your waist. You could practically hear him rolling his eyes as you spoke.

“Yes, and you are very welcome for that,” Mary winked as she downed all the wine in her glass in one go. She leaned over just enough to set the glass down in the sink before rising from her chair. 

“Just make sure not to water the plants; they’re fake, since this one can’t keep anything alive, apparently,” 

“Not true!” Tom shouted after her as Mary walked into the living room. You tried to stifle your laughter as best you could, but you couldn’t help it as you followed the dysfunctional pair out the door.

“Thomas, Haz and I bought you a cactus to practice with and you killed it in less than two weeks! You have to actively try to murder it for that to happen!” 

“How did you manage that?” You asked, glancing over at him as he buried his head in his hands.

“I thought cacti didn’t need water!” He answered exasperatedly, his words muffled by his hands. 

“They need some, you buffoon,” You rubbed his back as he replied with a loud groan.

“Anyways, shall we get started with the unpacking? I’m sure you have loads of things you want to have in here?” Mary stood up from her seat, smoothing out her dress.

“I think I do! I can go grab the box; I made sure to organize everything so I could unpack faster,” You flashed her a quick smile as you headed to your new room; once the door closed behind you, Mary turned to face Tom.

“I noticed you put up the photo I sent. Glad to see you’re trying, Holland.” 

Tom looked up at her, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“You’re… complimenting me? That’s a first,”

“I’m trying out this new thing - it’s called being nice, y’know? Not that you deserve my kindness in any way but, it’s better than nothing. Just don’t fuck up, alright?”

Tom scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back. 

“Believe me, I’m trying not to.”

A few hours later, and the apartment was finally starting to reflect a mix of your and Tom’s personalities. 

A few colorful throw pillows now decorated the couches in the living room, and your favorite coasters - sporting hand painted elephants - now sat on the coffee and dining room tables. 

Your clothes now lined half of Tom’s personal walk-in closet; it was the size of a bedroom, and you were still surprised your clothing had managed to take up so much space.

After storing your duffel bag in a drawer, you leaned back against the dresser and took in the room before you.

The bed, once covered in a multitude of shades of black, was now brightened up with a simple red throw blanket strewn across the silky duvet, with adorning red floral pillows to match.

Hung up on the wall to the right of the bed were a series of framed photographs that you had taken over the last few months. Your favorite was intricately placed in the middle - a photo of you and Tom that you’d forgotten about until you sent the photos to print. Harrison had taken it one random night; the two of you were on the sofa, all wrapped up in one another. Your hand was near Tom’s face, as if you were trying to cover his mouth because of something he’d said. Your head was thrown back in laughter, eyes shut tight from joy. Tom was grinning widely, his eyes focused on you while his hands rested gently on your legs that lay across his lap.

The sound of the bedroom door opening pulled you out of your memories, your lips still curled up in a smile as Tom walked in, a single rose in hand.

You met him halfway, tilting your head to the side just a bit as Tom cupped your cheek once you were within arm's reach.

“I have a question,” He said quietly, his breath sending a shiver down your spine.

“And?” You answered, your eyes fluttering shut as the pad of his thumb swept across your skin.

“I know you just moved in but… I was thinking, we could… well, I was thinking I could take you out on a date. Dinner, a movie; whatever you’d like to do.” 

Tom’s hand dropped from your face to rest on your hip, his eyes meeting yours for a moment as you processed his words.

“As long as you promise that it won’t be bland British food,” You both broke out in laughter as Tom pulled you closer to him, your breaths mixing together as you looked at one another.

“I missed your cheekiness, darling,” He whispered, grinning as you grew flustered at his words.

“Well there’s more where that came from then,” You quipped, rolling your eyes as you felt him squeeze your waist.

Before letting you go, Tom leaned in and said, “I hope you don’t mind, but I may or may not have picked something out for you to wear.” 

Taking your hand in his, he led you to massive dressing room down the hall. He opened the door and stepped to the side, gesturing for you to enter first.

Nothing could have prepared you for what was waiting inside.

As the recess lighting brightened up the room, you were met with what appeared to be hundreds of bouquets, burying the floor underneath your feet as you walked inside. 

Roses, tulips, calla lilies, hydrangeas, and daisies sat all around the room; vases perched in between the ball gowns on display, on the shelves amongst all the dressed up high heels, and on just about every other surface and available space you could think of. 

Something else caught your eye as you took in what was in front of you; a lone clothing rack in the middle of the room, with a burgundy dress hung up on it. 

You made your way towards it, your eyes and jaw wide open from amazement. Laying a hand on the dress, you realized it was made of a silk-satin blend material; there was a large sash wrapped around the middle, tied in an elegant bow that hit right at the waist.

“Wow…” You whispered, your mind glazed over from all the shock you were still wading through.

“I take it you like it?” Tom asked as he walked up behind you.

You turned around and faced him, gently shaking your head as he wrapped his arms around you.

“I really don’t know what to say,” You replied, your words still laced with surprise. 

“No need to say anything, sweetheart. I’ll wait for you in the living room, okay?” He squeezed your shoulders gently as he stepped back. 

Before he took another step, you took his hand in yours and sweetly kissed one of his knuckles.

The small token of gratitude stunned Tom, leaving him speechless as he simply flashed you a smile before leaving you alone.

Baby steps.

Smoothing over the silk material now adorning your figure, you looked at yourself once more in the mirror before finally heading out to meet Tom.

You found him pacing back and forth in the foyer, hands tucked in the pockets of his tailored suit. He heard you coming down the hall, the loud sound of your heels clicking down the marble floors captivated his attention.

“Even better than I thought it would be,” He said, chuckling lowly when you gently smacked his arm. 

“Don’t flatter yourself too much, Holland,” You smiled sarcastically as he playfully rolled his eyes.

“Don’t sass me too much, love. You know I won’t be able to handle it,” Before you could respond, he clasped his hand in yours and led you to the elevator.

“Let’s get this show on the road, yeah?”

Before you knew it, the night was coming to an end.

Tom had made a reservation for the two of you at one of your favorite restaurants in the city; so high up in the building, you had a gorgeous view of the city lights. 

After a filling dinner, the server brought out a gorgeous, well adorned slice of cake for you to share. Tom generously let you have the last bite, but not after a fair match of rock, paper, scissors. 

Stepping out into the cool New York air, the two of you walked in sync to your favorite place - the bookshop.

You roamed aimlessly throughout the overflowing shelves, your fingers trailing over the old, worn out covers that were hoping to tell you a story. Tom was lost in a fantasy world of his own when you finally found him among the stacks.

“Good read?” You asked, flashing him a small smile as he nodded.

“And it looks like you’ve found quite a few, too” He glanced at the stack of books you were hugging to your chest. 

“What can I say? I’ll never get enough.”

You were standing in the living room, filling an empty shelf with all the softcovers you brought home from the bookshop. As you finished ordering them by genre, you felt two arms snake their way around your waist, hands clasping at your mid-section while an all-too familiar face appeared over your shoulder.

“All done?” Tom whispered in your ear. You nodded, resting your hands on his as you leaned into him just a bit.

“Then let’s go to bed, love.”

Taking his hand, you followed Tom to your bedroom, where you found a cozy, candle-lit space waiting for you.

He was already dressed in his own pajamas; satin pants hanging low off his hips, and a simple black t-shirt that fit him a little too well.

“Do you always to be well dressed everywhere you go?” You giggled when he shrugged.

“Maybe. Now go change,” He said, throwing a pillow at you as he pulled back the duvet and top sheet from his side of the bed.

Laughing, you jokingly flipped him off as you tossed the pillow back on the bed, and grabbed a nightgown off the dresser next to you.

Stepping out of the bathroom, changed and ready for bed, you couldn’t help but giggle when you found Tom sitting up in bed, glasses resting on the bridge of his nose, his eyes focused on the pages before him.

“Well hello, Grandpa,” You said in between giggles, your eyes slowly watering as you tried to catch your breath. Tom looked at you over the rim of his frames, eyes narrowing for a brief moment before he joined in on your laughter.

“Even when you poke fun at me, I am still absolutely in love with you, darling.”

You were leaning against the wall, and you rolled your eyes playfully as you put a hand over your heart.

“When did you get so soft?” 

As you climbed into bed, Tom set down his book and glasses on his nightstand, shutting off the light before turning to face you.

“Maybe you just didn’t notice before, bug,”

You scrunched up your nose at the pet name.

“No bug?”

You shook your head no, pulling the covers over your head.

“No goodnight kiss then?” You peeked at him, giggling once more when you saw the pouty look on his face.

“Only because you look cute when you’re sad,” You said.

“That’s a little sadistic, don’t you think?”

“You want a kiss or not?” 

Tom laughed, shaking his head as he leaned down, cupping your cheek as he kissed you softly. The pad of his thumb brushed over your lips as he pulled away, his forehead still pressed against yours.

“Goodnight, my love.”

“Sweet dreams, bug.”

Rubbing his eyes awake, Tom glanced over at the clock on his nightstand. 

4:07 a.m.

Shit.

Slowly pulling off the covers, he slipped off the bed without disturbing you. Glancing back at you as he opened the bedroom door, he couldn’t help but smile before shutting the door behind him.

His phone was still sitting on the counter in the kitchen where he’d forgotten it.

After setting the coffee maker to brew, he scrolled through the notifications waiting for him.

Mary Shithead: Call me when you get the chance

Mary Shithead: I’ll be up all night because why the fuck not?

Rolling his eyes, Tom pulled up her contact info and hit “call”.

“What a surprise. Why you up, Stanley?”

“Why did you want me to call?”

“Just wanted to ask how your date went, sheesh. Remember, I’m trying to be ‘nice’ or whatever?”

Tom laughed sarcastically.

“Yeah, ‘whatever’. It went well. Made me realize just how much I really missed her,”

“Gross, Stanley! You are in love, huh? What does that feel like?” Mary’s words seemed to catch him off guard.

And yet, the words that rolled off his tongue seemed to capture just about all he was thinking.

“Like everything I’ve ever lost, come back to me.”

tags, part 1:

@cherrynat @anytimebitches @joyfullyje @jobean12-blog @emotchalla @enigma-xlii @illletitgrow @cloverrover @lovelyttom @justaveryobsessedfangirl @ssweet-empowerment @killmongerdreams @spideytrxsh @eyestheyseeyou @aussie-mantle @spidergirlwanab @i-think-i-am-adorable @amanda51015-blog @princessskylarsblog @whoneedsalifeanyhowxx @chinalois @clairesrainbow @darkerthanspace @slighttinsomniac @curlytomholland @wanderlustomaha @hollandazing @mendes-marvel @wowspideyholland​