#✶ — sunnie writes st!

[cybersunnie]

So Divine ✶ Steve Harrington

18+ / MDNI — literally just smut w/ some fluff, f!reader, petnames (sweetheart, baby) got inspired by @/season4steve's comments (wc: 1k)

Steve was a gentle lover.

Compliments, spontaneous gifts, late-night calls because he wanted to hear your voice before bed. He was always soft and sweet with you, all boyish charm and smiles.

With his parents out of town again, you and Steve had the house all to yourselves. It started innocently. A movie night at his place, cuddling on the couch, the light touch on your hip growing more greedy as the night went on. You tried to ignore it, eyes trained on the screen, but you were still all too aware of his glances and smirks that meant no good. 

Your efforts were pointless.

The cheesy horror flick Steve had mindlessly picked out at work turned into background noise when he leaned in and kissed you slow, testing the waters. Your lips melted between his, warmth blossoming in your chest, your skin tingling. Whispers of I want you filled your ears, and you were suddenly putty in his hands—a mindless thing made of flesh and bones.

One thing led to another, and the both of you stumbled up the stairs and to his bedroom, giggling into the other’s mouth.

Your curves and edges, and his scars and birthmarks.

Steve had you pinned beneath him, his sheets wrinkled and a mess, clothes discarded and forgotten. You gasped so prettily for him, your face crumbling with ecstasy every time his hips snapped forward to meet yours, the slow drag of his cock making your head spin.

Even as he took you, Steve was nothing but gentle. Every kiss and touch ghosted over your skin like he was afraid to hurt you. 

As if you were a delicate flower, each limb a petal he wanted to preserve, to dote on. 

“You’re so pretty,” he rasped out, his nose nudging yours, urging you to look at him.

You keened, cheeks burning, eyes hazy with pleasure. How Steve looked at you was overwhelming—like you were the only good thing in the world.

"Yeah? You like being my pretty girl?"

You nodded and held him tighter, not wanting this to end. Your nails dug into his back, the crescent indents adding to his constellation of moles and freckles.

With Steve, all you saw were stars.

His gaze softened, a crinkle between his brows. "I know you do," he murmured, ducking his head down and kissing your jaw. Steve felt you shiver, your cunt squeezing his cock, snug and warm. He fought the urge to bite your shoulder as he buried himself deeper inside of you. "Fuck, sweetheart. You're killing me."

You wondered if Steve knew how much control he had over you. If he knew that his voice made everything around you feel light. If he knew that, in your mind, he embodied the night sky.

That he was timeless. Divine. A mysterious beauty.

He deserved to know.

But your voice was gone, the words stuck in your throat. The knot in your stomach grew tighter. The inevitable inched closer. You could only utter a meek whimper of his name with your fingers digging into his flesh. 

Steve pulled his face from your neck and looked at you, stilling himself. “What, baby?”

He sounded so concerned, so sincere—it just made you want him more.

You whined and pressed the heels of your feet against his ass, begging him to move, to keep fucking you. Thankfully, Steve took the hint, pulling out a few inches before pushing back in, his heart swelling with pride when you whimpered.

Steve knew you were close. He could fucking feel it.

"Keep squeezing me like that—holy shit," Steve groaned, almost whining, as your cunt pulsated around his cock. "You're close, huh? You gonna come for me?"

Overwhelmed, you shut your eyes. It was too much. Steve's body flushed with yours, your ears buzzing, your heart pounding so hard it rattled your ribcage—it was all too much.

And Steve noticed. He always noticed.

Soft and soothing, he whispered your name and grasped your chin, your skin warming under his fingertips.

"Look at me."

Reluctantly, you opened your eyes. Steve smiled the same smile that swept you off your feet the first time you met him. He leaned his forehead against yours, his usual sweet brown eyes hardened with lust, with the desire to please you.

"There we go," Steve murmured, kissing your lips. He let go of your chin and moved his hand, his large palm enveloping the side of your face. You leaned into his touch, your brows drawing tightly together as Steve kept fucking you nice and slow. "You still with me, yeah?"

You nodded, mind-numbing.

"Yeah," he cooed, his mouth hovering over yours, breaths mingling. A pitiful whine escaped you, and he swallowed it with another kiss. "You're okay. You're doing so good."

It was all tangled heat and longing. Your hands trailed into his hair, soft and roots drenched with sweat. Mouths hung open, moans and gasps, your hearts becoming one.

Steve grunted, head dipping down into the crook of your neck, his hips rocking into yours. "C'mon, baby, give it to me."

You were at his mercy, unprotected, bare of armor.

The knot snapped.

Pleasure erupted in the pit of your belly and wrecked through you. You cried out his name in gasps and moans, your legs locking around his waist, fingers tugging at his hair. Steve whimpered as if he was wounded, his thrusts faltering, tongue swirling over your pulse points, and teeth nipping at your skin.

Wrapped up in the other and your sweaty limbs entangled, the intensity died down, heavy breaths filling the air. Neither of you moved—a silent agreement to stay connected a little longer. 

"I love you," Steve whispered, leaving a trail of kisses along your jaw until he reached your mouth. He stared at you with adore-filled eyes, his cheeks flushed and hair disheveled from your own doing. "I love you so much."

Through your haze, you grinned, fingers sowing through his hair, "I love you more."

Steve snorted, shaking his head. "Impossible."

author's note: yay i finally finished something!!!!! it had been such a long time since i wrote smut so i'm sorry if this wasn't up to par LMAO but i love me some soft and sappy sex

anyways i hope you enjoyed this!!! tysm for reading! <3

[suwunnysideup]

The earth crumbles under every step, hellish geysers spewing the very lifeblood of the core onto streets. Ash blankets the sky, blotting out the sun, drowning the world in darkness. Oceans churn and roil violently, engulfing any who dare try and sail its waters as it rages with white froth. Jagged spires of rock and earth jut out of the ground, uprooting countless buildings and hungrily devouring any unfortunate soul who cannot outrun its encroaching claws.

Below it all, a demon stirs.

…

OR; in which a foe older than time itself rears its ugly head, and the fate of the material plane is left in the hands of an angel with too-big wings and a devil with dreams of longing.

///

here it is folks, the first part of the heaven/hell fic, hope y'all enjoy!! special shout out to @ronanceisintheair for being one of, if not the biggest supporter of this fic!!! love ya my most handsomest <3333

also i have a playlist for this fic here if anyone’s interested!

[kyracooneyx23]

° *₊ ° . ° .• MASTERLIST and WIPs •. ° . °₊* °

⋆ ★ Kyra Cooney Cross ★⋆

Missed You More | 2.4k It's your first camp back after your ACL injury, but you best friend Kyra's acting strange

 ↳ Favourite Pest | 3k You finally find out what's caused Kyra to act so weird

Friend of a Friend Charli introduces you and Kyra, and the two of you end up getting along a bit too well [aiming to post it around late August]

Forget About it After avoiding her for as long as possible you have to play against the girl who broke your heart so many years ago. [aiming to post it around late August]

-> ⋆ Kyra and Sunny Series ⋆

•.¸¸☆Sam Kerr☆¸¸.•

6ft 5 | 0.9k You're filming a tiktok and Sam wants everyone to know your hers.

 ↳ 5ft 8 After signing a contract extension with Chelsea, you can't help teasing Sam over a lie she tells in a video

✧ ✦ ✧ Caitlin Foord ✧ ✦ ✧

Caitlin x child!reader series (coming soon)

Squirt You're meeting the Arsenal girls for the first time

Popular You find yourself the center of attention when all the girls are fighting to be your favourite

But you're my mumma? Caitlin starts spending more time with Katie and less time with you

•♬✧Leah Williamson✧♬•

Enchanted | 1.6k You write a song about England's captain after meeting her briefly at an event not expecting her to share your feelings

 ↳ You are in Love After back and forth messaging and a few dates you and Leah begin to go more public with your relationship causing the fans to go wild [posting date tbc]

Waldosia | 2.8k a condition in which you keep scanning faces in a crowd looking for a specific person who would have no reason to be there, as if your brain is checking to see whether they're still in your life, subconsciously patting its emotional pockets before it leaves for the day.

Maybe in Another Life | 3.3k You hadn't seen Leah since you'd broken up three years ago and now when you see her again you being to regret ever letting her go

Buffet (18+) | 1.1k Leah can't resist an all you eat meal, especially when your the main course.

baby fever | 1.6k you'd always heard your friends talk about how much they wanted kids but had never felt the same until now.

Crossing Loyalties Leah's a red, you're a blue and you 'hate' each other. Well at least that's what the fans think.

⋆ ★ Katie McCabe ★⋆

Take a chance on me | 1.6k With the help of a karaoke machine and a good song, Katie finally confesses her feelings for you

Snapchat Katie accidentally leaks your relationship on snapchat with all the fans [posting date tbc]

St Patrick's Day You're first time meeting Katie's family is on Saint Patricks day and it's a bit overwhelming [posting date tbc]

∘₊✧ Lionesses ✧���∘

Winners are Grinners You've just won your first major tournament with your country (teen reader) [posting date tbc]

•.¸¸☆ Matildas ☆¸¸.•

No 1 trio It's a fight to see who the better trio is - Macca, Alanna and Caitlin or You, Mini and Kyra [posting date tbc]

Little Menaces You and your best friend Harper Gorry are bored and decide to annoy all your aunties. (part of the Caitlin Foord x child!reader series) [posting date tbc]

⋆ ★ Alexia Putellas ★⋆

Odio Amarte | 1.6k All of your Barca teammates think you and Alexia need to get together, but the two of you are 'enemies'.

First Camp It's all to much for you on your first ever Spain camp (teen reader) [posting date tbc]

La Reina You finally shoot your shot with the queen of Spain [posting date tbc]

✧ ✦ ✧ Niamh Charles ✧ ✦ ✧

I wanna ruin our friendship Niamh wants more than anything to tell you how she feels but she's to scared to lose her best friend [posting date tbc]

Let's tell the world you and Niamh decide it's finally time to go public with your relationship [posting date tbc]

•♬✧ CWFC ✧♬•

We made it After battling injuries, sicknesses and mental health problems for years, you finally made it all the way to the final day

•.¸¸☆AWFC☆¸¸.•

Go away (platonic) You and Kyra are always up to no good, but one day it gets all to much for your Arsenal teammates.

Scare Cam Kyra sets up a scare cam and it doesn't go to plan

✧ ✦ ✧ Lucy Bronze ✧ ✦ ✧

Don't be sorry | 3.1k the matildas lose to england in the semi final of the world cup and you take the blame

[cosmousee]

What Is Lunar Eclipse Bringing In For You!!🌜🌟

Hello everybody!!!

I'm back with another pick a pile🥰

I know I'm literally posting it on the DAY of the eclipse, but I got to writing it yesterday only, and with the last pile my laptop literally fell apart.

I completed writing it in class, because...who listens to lectures anyway🤪

ANYWHO! Enough chit chat!

Choose whatever pile resonates with you, whatever does not, remember to just pass it on🥰

Pile 1>>2>>3

Enjoy! (Posting it from phone, apologies if the formatting is bad😭)

Pile 1

Hey there loves! I hope lunar eclipse has treated you well!

For you I saw more of a building your own self sort of a thing. I saw an animation of you know sort of a stick figure thingy, and it was entirely made up of small paper bits, and you were rebuilding yourself again and again by replacing those bits with other bits. I think you guys are constantly figuring out which self is your most authentic self and the one where you are happiest being yourself. Ofcourse, this doesn’t come easy, which is why you are in a constant process.

For your oracle cards, we have

St. John’s Wort and Marigold: Against your will, there will not be; no entrance, no welcoming. Be Gone.

Witch’s Rosary: Craft your skills with intentions repeated, a practice of magick powered by purpose.

I’ll add your tarot cards here only, because I think they make more sense if I read them all together.

Your tarot cards are,

4 of Cups, 3 of Wands, The Fool and The Empress

For all of you, I believe you guys are free to choose, free to welcome whatever you want this lunar eclipse. It is your own decision, whatever path you want to choose, whether it may be your love life, your career, you focusing on your own self, focusing on forming a community for yourself.

I mean the list feels endless. Lunar eclipse is a fated time for things, and for you I feel like whatever you want this time, you’ll get it. Like it is up to you to focus on whatever and receive what you are focusing on. I have also heard that you shouldn’t manifest during lunar eclipse, or eclipses in general, but honestly, if you are feeling called to do so, you should listen to that calling.

The oracle cards are also saying that it you who is going to decide, nothing will happen if you don’t want that to happen. Everything is your will. And when you want something, be really really intentional and determined about it. Affirm about the things, sit and visualize those things, journal about them. Like keep that thing in your prayers and your thoughts sort of a thing.

Sit and reflect on what you think is the thing you need and want right now. Be determined but also be open about it like The Fool, open to the possibilities of it happening, especially if it feels like its something impossible. Be really fkn assured that whatever youre choosing to want is for your greatest good and you cannot, and will not fuck it up. Its such a fun energy to be in, because I am honestly extremely scared of eclipses, and I just spend the whole season crying my eyes out. I hope y’all are feeling well, because it seems to me that lunar eclipse isn’t forcing you to focus on one thing and deal with it. It letting you take the wheel and nudging you to take the steps this time, and the eclipse will help you achieve that thing and get that thing.

You might be confused as well, you know, that usually eclipses have a greater impact, but nothing is happening right now kinda thing. If you have something in mind that you wanna focus on, you can also ask for a hint, or even take this reading as a confirmation!

Okay! This is all I have for you today! Thanks for reading <3

Pile 2

Hey there loves! I hope lunar eclipse has treated you well!

For you, I saw a very barn type place, or like a farm-y place. It was very bright, sunny (not the kind where you’re all sweaty ugh), and there was a rainbow! I saw you being very very jolly, like literally sprinting and jumping with excitement and all the people you love, your friends and family were cheering you on from a distance.

Now, for your oracle cards, we have,

Harvest Witch: What sacrifices have you made for the greater vision of what is to be?

Adding your tarot cards here itself, because they give a better picture together,

The High Priestess, 10 of Pentacles, The World, 10 of Cups, 3 of Pentacles and The King of Pentacles

Now, the oracle card is talking about the chances you have taken to get out of your comfort zone, to get out of the habits of the current you, or the old you, in order to reach new heights. How much have you consciously put in the effort to grow and reach the highest of the heights you are supposed to achieve in this lifetime.

That’s the thing I saw when you were in that barn, that is such a happy version of you, and with the excitement that I saw, it really felt like either you were dreaming about it for a long time, or you just thought that this life was never possible for you.

Even with the tarot cards, they are telling you to follow your intuition, listen to it very closely. I think with the eclipse its calls would be getting louder by the minute, especially if you are missing the signs or outright ignoring the signs.

You are on a path to great success, you are yet to see the World and everything else that it offers, everything that you didn’t think it will offer.

I’m sure many of you might be content with where you are right now as well. But with this opportunity, you will feel content like never before. You know if you’ve got rose gold glasses on right now, pursuing this new path will give you ultra 4k HD rose gold glasses. There is a fulfilment you haven’t felt before, and it’s gonna come like fresh air to you, like you’ve breathed for the first time, like your lungs have felt the cleanest of the air in a long while.

Spirit might be showing you a collaboration or a partnership which is your ticket for this new world. You might be sitting frustrated about everything, and this opportunity will just drop in. Listen to your intuition, if its telling you to go for it, you better go for it. Don’t double guess it, listen to yourself and let your intuition get a breather because I think it’s been trying to get your attention for a while now!

Also, I think you might have to travel for this, like actually go some place far, which is why I saw your friends and family at a distance. But don’t worry, they are very happy for you and they are cheering you on, and obviously, you can always come back home for them!!

So get out there and you better enjoy the heck out of life!

Okay! This is all I have for you today! Thanks for reading <3

Pile 3

Hey there loves! I hope lunar eclipse has treated you well!

I saw you making snow angels!! Very happy, healing your inner child sort of a thing (I’ve never made a snow angel and I really really wanna). It also makes me think of leaving an impression, or a lasting imprint. Like you say something to someone and it really sticks with them, or you’ve done something that people always remember, even years down the line, they are like “Oh you remember [Name] did this amazing thing that time?” and you are fondly remembered.

It can be a really small act of kindness also that people remember, or you’ve helped someone and that memory is you know forever in their hearts kind of a thing.

Okay, so for your oracle cards we have,

Falling Leaves: Let go of the things that weigh heavily on you; you deserve to take up space.

Crow: Pay close attention to the winds; there’s a message making its way.

The first card again tells you to take up space, which is what you do essentially when you are making snow angels! (11:11 pm make a wish~) You take up space, you do your thing, and that is where you create your mark, your identity. It shows that you were there, you existed, you took up your space, you’ve marked it as your own.

I also think, because of the snow, that the winter season might be important for you.

Also, with the crow card, you might get an idea, an epiphany sort of a thing from someone else. You know when you are walking and you hear someone else say something and it just clicks for you, that yes! That message was definitely for me. You know literally wind coming up to you with a message, because..sound…carries through air.

Oh and crows are also related to ancestors, so it might be that they are contacting you, or telling you something important. Maybe they have some ideas for you to create an impact on this world.

Now for your tarot cards,

Death, 9 of Cups, Ace of Swords, 3 of Pentacles, King of Pentacles and 8 of Pentacles

With all of this pentacle energy, I feel like whatever the eclipse is bringing you right now, its gonna be long term, or its gonna unfold over a long period of time.

There's something you have to let go of, or remove from your life in order to have greater emotional fulfillment. In reference to the snow angel as well, you're healing your inner child by taking up space in the snow, so it's sort of like you have to let go of that part of yourself which inhibits you from pursuing those things, you know that part of you which thinks “no ew its cringey” because you feel like you'll he judged, but in reality if you go and do that thing, it's gonna literally feel like you're enjoying it from deep within your soul.

The Ace of Swords also tells you that you are going to get a new idea, some sort of epiphany, which can help you in your career and generate alot of wealth for you as well.

You may come up with this idea on your own, and then partner up with someone (King of Pentacles) who already has some expertise in the area, or they have the resources to take your idea to the next level. At this time you might be getting constant downloads of ideas, or you'll be getting opportunities or signs about collaborations or partnerships.

Grab these opportunities with full force, you're gonna have a lot of fun!!!

Okay! This is all I have for you today! Thanks for reading <3

[forthegothicheroine]

The sinful implication of such ["yellow"] books had come from France, where, from the mid-nineteenth century, sensationalist literature had been not-so-chastely pressed between vivid yellow covers. Publishers adopted this as a useful marketing tool, and soon yellow-backed books could be bought cheaply at every railway station. As early as 1846 the American author Edgar Allan Poe was scornfully writing of the "eternal insignificance of yellow-backed pamphleteering. For others, the sunny covers were symbols of modernity and the aesthetic and decadent movements. Yellow books show up in two of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings from the 1880s... Traditionalists were less impressed. These yellow books gave off a strong whiff of transgression, and the avant-garde did little to calm their fears (for them the transgression was half the point.) In Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, published in 1890, it is down the moral rabbit hole of such a novel that the eponymous antihero disappears, never to return. Just as the narrator reaches his defining ethical crossroads, a friend gives him a yellow-bound book, which opens his eyes to "the sins of the world", corrupting and ultimately destroying him. Capitalizing on the association, the scandalous, avant-garde periodical The Yellow Book was launched in 1894. Holbrook Jackson, a contemporary journalist, wrote that it "was newness in excelsis; novelty naked and unashamed...yellow became the color of the hour."...The magazine's art director and illustrator, Aubrey Beardsley, had barred Wilde after an argument- he responded by calling the periodical "dull" and "not yellow at all."

Kassia St. Clair, The Secret Lives of Color

[actual-changeling]

do you ever think 'hey, how can i make the south downs cottage sad?' and then just. vomit onto your keyboard? no? just me? that's okay, i wrote it so y'all don't have to.

i just had the mental image of crowley crying in an empty cottage while curled up on the floor okay. i was choking on it and it was write or die.

-

Crowley bought a cottage.

Well, he bought a lot of things in a near-manic online shopping experience that lasted two days and included—among many, many other items—a piano, five different tablets, a new couch, several bags of tiny plastic babies, a silver snake statue, and a cottage.

The cottage. His cottage. A quaint, yellow cottage in the South Downs.

If you were to ask him why, he would make a number of different sounds before settling on 'just wanted a change of scenery'.

Scenery. It is not a lie as such, but it barely scratches the surface of the truth.

London is empty without him. Familiar streets turned foreign, St. James's Park might as well be a cemetery of memories, and the bookshop—

Crowley doesn't like to think about the bookshop. No matter what he tells himself or how many good days he digs up from the back of his mind, the safety of what had been theirs disappeared with him.

(He refuses to set foot in it almost as vehemently as he refuses to say his name.)

Moving with supernatural powers is easy, yet he still decides to drive the Bentley all the way down, watching as London disappears. A part of him hopes the emptiness in his chest might stay behind as well, but his eyes burn with the same weight of uncried tears as before. There is no place on earth without the ghosts of what could have been haunting it.

So he moves into the cottage.

Crowley steps inside for the first time on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, warmth flooding the still-unfurnished rooms, and it would take a mere snap of his fingers to fill the void, to turn it into a home.

Maybe, he thought right before entering, maybe it will fix things.

When he sinks onto worn wooden floorboards and draws his knees up against his chest, he almost regrets not going with him. He had hoped, fuck, he had hoped, like the fool he is, that maybe building something for himself would expel the deeply rooted loneliness keeping him awake at night.

It doesn't. Nothing ever will.

(Unless he comes back, unless unless unless, and he needs to believe he will, he will lie down and never get up again.)

Crowley owns an empty cottage, and he sits in its hollow heart and cries.

[which-qsmp-egg-would]

Time for the March Summary!

First of, the egg that haunts my dreams,

Richarlyson

For the 3rd month in a row, with 13/62 polls won last month, Richas has been voted most likely to:

Eat a random nut/berry/bug he found outside

Aim for the head during dodgeball

Intentionally cough/sneeze on someone while sick

Pick up something gross and chase his siblings around with it

Play computer games in class instead of doing his school work

Play football indoors and accidentally break a family relic

Play Julius Ceasar in a recreation of the Ides of March

Love a cursed food combination

Hunt down islanders that aren't wearing green on St. Patrick's Day

Pretend to be possessed to scare a sibling/parent

Refuse to wear shoes, even in the woods

Be the Rico (Penguins of Madagascar) of the island

Be covered in band-aids all the time

I do not know how he managed to win this many without me noticing. I think he's stealing trophies from me when I'm not looking.

Dapper

Wait, what? Even I wasn't expecting our favorite literal-demon child to win 2nd! With 11/62 polls won, Dapper has been voted most likely to:

Read Wikipedia articles for fun

Berate adults for coughing into their hand

Be a "Home Alone" protagonist

Love "Doctor Who"

Read Homestuck

Make a recreation of the Ides of March

Actually catch a leprechaun on Saint Patrick's Day

NOT have to sing the alphabet song to remember what order the letters are in

Love the Sherlock Holmes books

Know everything about demon folklore and scare everyone with their knowledge of it

Be determined to find every single easter egg at the island-wide easter egg hunt

She's a nerd, what else is there to say?

Chayanne & Pepito

Tied for 3rd, with 6/62 polls won each! Chayanne has been voted most likely to:

Love Hockey

Hyperfixate on the Percy Jackson series

Be a try-hard in P.E. class

Start a game of King Of The Hill everytime the school replaces the woodchips at recess

Fight with a teacher over a test grade

Sleep through fasting all day

Only look for the difficult to find eggs so their younger siblings can have fun at the Easter egg hunt

And Pepito has been voted most likely to:

Lose every round of Hide N' Seek because Pepito can't stop giggling

Believe in the Tooth Fairy

Chase Pepito's own tail

Still not know how to swim

Actually break a leg during a school play on accident

Eat paper because Pepito thinks it tastes good

One of the oldest eggs tying with one of the youngest. It's perfect.

Sunny

With 5/62 polls won, I'm sure Sunny is a little miffed that she's ended up in 4th. But it's okay, you all are sure to put her in 1st place one of these months. Sunny has been voted most likely to:

Secretly paint their closet an obnoxious color

Have a fashion show using her parents' clothes

Sleep with all of their stuffed animals so they don't get lonely

Treat the masjid shoe racks as their own personal shoe store

Have an imaginary friend

Tallulah, Ramón, & Pomme

Tying for 5th, with 4/62 polls won each, I'm very happy to see Pomme winning her first ever polls! And a total of 4 of them, no less! Tallulah has been voted most likely to:

Try and dye her own hair (making a huge mess)

Fit the main character role in "Coraline"

Perform Tarot card readings

Catch bees to pet them

Ramón has been voted most likely to:

Be obsessed with cowboys and the Wild West

Race to recalibrate the SmartBoard at school

Set up an elaborate rube goldberg machine to suprise a parent for their birthday

Have a space hyperfixation and want to be an astronaut

And Pomme has been voted most likely to:

Be a monster at PaintBall

Hyperfixate on Splatoon

Be very meticulous while coloring in a coloring book

Write a book

I think there's a pattern with that last one.

Leonarda

With 3/62 polls won, Leonarda has been voted most likely to:

Be obsessed with Power Rangers

Be into ice skating

Read every single Warrior cats books

I don't have anything funny to say here, It's hard to pay attention while listening to Ze Frank talk about coral kkkkkkkk

Empanada

With 2/62 polls won, Empanada has been voted most likely to:

Spend recess burying herself in woodchips and sleeping

Have Batik as a hobby

Oh hey, it's the first time Empanada's gone a full month without winning a poll about sweets!

Chunsik

Finally, our youngest has won a poll! With 1/62 polls won, Chunsik has been voted most likely to:

Be exempt from a Federation experiment because he politely declines it

What a polite kid!

...

...

That's it, right? That's all the eggs. All 11 eggs, all 62 polls for the month of March

...

Why does my clipboard say I'm missing two polls.....

...

Oh! Yes!

Juanaflippa & Bobby

In an absolutely unprecedented event, Juanaflippa AND Bobby have become our first ever dead eggs to win a canonical poll, with 1/62 win each! Juanaflippa has been voted most likely to:

Have a million allergies during the spring

And Bobby has been voted most likely to:

Get BANNED from playing Bulldog

It's still insane to me that you all managed to get these two a win. Bobby was going up against RICHARLYSON for void's sake. You all were fighting against the current on that one.

See you all soon!

[starlost-mochi-x]

lonely st. ✧ chapter iii : the walls

pairing: hwang hyunjin x reader (y/n)

warnings: mentions of injuries, hyunjin is clumsy, sad y/n, mentions of blood, nothing too graphic, descriptions of a panic attack

a/n: chapter three hehe, still going strong >:)

series masterlist | skz masterlist

Y/n trudged into the library, slumping down into her usual chair. Placing her forehead over her folded arms with a huff, she closed her eyes and tried to rest. It had been a particularly rough day, with the usual feeling of isolation eating at her more than it usually did. It wasn’t unusual for her to go whole school days without so much as saying a word, but it felt stranger today for some reason.

She figured it must be because of Hyunjin.

They had talked yesterday, when she had slipped him the little chicken bandaid, but she hadn’t seen him in the morning before school, or in form classes either. She found she strangely sort of missed him. It was like walking outside one morning, expecting it to be sunny, but instead it was raining.

No, pouring down.

Sighing, she nuzzled further into her arms and dozed for a while, inhaling the scent of her jumper. Turning her head to the side to get more comfortable, she noticed a pair of white and black basketball shoes under the table next to her own polished black shoes. Her heart thudded and she raised her head sleepily, her eyes meeting Hyunjin’s.

He was busy working on something yet again; some sort of essay. Y/n realised it was the one that had been handed out in class earlier that day. She swore she’d seen him finish it halfway before shoving it into his backpack and practically bolting to the gym. He’d been scribbling incessantly then, clearly in a rush, but here he was, sitting quietly next to her, writing with precision, his pencil pausing every few words to think out his next phrase. Y/n had never seen him so focused.

Resting her head cautiously on her forearms, Y/n watched him mutely, the sound of his pencil scratching against the paper the only sound in the otherwise silent library.

“Hi, Y/n,” he said quietly without taking his eyes off the paper.

Y/n flushed, not expecting him to catch her out. Her face flushed red and she sat up, unnecessarily adjusting the oversized sleeve of her dark blazer.

“Hi.”

A gentle smile graced Hyunjin’s lips. “Were you watching me?”

Y/n glared at him coldly.

He laughed, his eyes slitting. “Okay, alright, chill. I thought you fell asleep until you turned your head.”

“I did fall asleep.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry if I woke you.”

The question that had been in the back of Y/n’s mind suddenly sprung from her lips before she could hold herself back. “Why do you always sit here, Hyunjin?”

His head snapped up, pencil stilling in his fingertips, looking surprised and a little hurt. Y/n immediately regretted it, realising how harsh she’d sounded. Not knowing what to do, she pressed her mouth into a line, waiting for him to reply.

His voice was quiet when he spoke. “Do you not like it when I sit here?”

Y/n blinked, taken aback. “It’s- it’s just that you’re one of the most popular people in the grade, but you choose to sit here every lunchtime instead of playing basketball with your friends, or, I don’t know, being anywhere else except here. Hyunjin, I- it just doesn’t make sense.”

He sat up straighter. “It does make sense.”

Y/n shook her head. Hyunjin grabbed the bottom of her chair, turning it forcefully towards himself, so that he was eye-to-eye with her. Y/n’s shoulders tensed, her hands clenching the seat as Hyunjin leaned forward. His eyes were dark, captivating. Y/n gulped, her back straight against the chair, as Hyunjin’s arms rested on the sides.

“It does make sense,” he whispered sincerely. “I want to be friends with you.”

Y/n slammed the cubicle door shut behind herself. Sliding all the way down to the floor, she gasped, head falling into her hands.

Why did I run away?

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to forget the past few minutes. He’d just been talking to her, telling her he wanted to be friends, and she’d pushed him away, bolting from the library.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. You’re so stupid.

Maybe it had been the forced proximity. Maybe it was the way Hyunjin had locked at her, dark, slitted eyes gazing into hers with the most kindness she’d been treated with in a long time. And it had scared her, felt so bizarrely unfamiliar, that she couldn’t stand to be near him any longer.

It was too risky. Hyunjin was too risky. All of it was.

Y/n’s back began to hurt from the curled up position, so she stretched a leg out and rested it on top of the closed toilet seat, eyes idly tracing the stitching on her shoes. A hot tear slipped down her cheek, followed by a few more, each one making her sink deeper into her thoughts. The only sound that could be heart from the otherwise quiet bathroom was muffled sobbing and gasping, echoing from the cold, lonely cubicle at the end of the row.

Hyunjin was probably just pulling some elaborate dare, trying to get her to open up so he could expose her and make her look like a total idiot. He was popular, sporty, handsome, so it made no sense for someone like him to be hanging around someone like her.

Y/n wiped her tears, and made a mental note to keep her distance.

Meanwhile, Hyunjin stood in the library, frozen. He’d gotten up and tried to stop her from leaving, but she’d fled like a wild hare, and now he wasn’t sure what to do. He was standing, hand outstretched, and now there was no Y/n to take it.

Stupid, Hyunjin thought. What was I thinking? I scared her off and now she might never talk to me again.

He leaned against the solid wooden table with a sigh, his hands clenching the edge. Dropping his head, his mind whirred as he tried to think of a way to make her understand that he wasn't a threat, he wasn't making fun of her, he wasn't trying to pull off some stupid, popular boy dare.

Hyunjin stumbled as the table behind him shifted and his lower back knocked against the solid surface. Wincing at the dull pain, he put a hand over the ache and hissed out through his teeth. He squeezed his eyes shut, sinking down to the floor, and tucked his long legs to his chest, grumpily blowing a bang out of his eyes.

What Jisung had said earlier in the day began to make sense. What was it he had said?

I'm just worried about you getting caught up in something you don't understand.

And he was right. So, so right. Hyunjin had to admit it to himself; he had no clue what Y/n was going through. If he was being honest, he didn't even know what sort of person she was. Maybe Jisung was right; maybe she chose to be alone, maybe she didn't mind the whispers behind her back, or simply chose not to pay attention to it. Maybe it was just a lifelong thing, and she was used to it, or perhaps didn't even realise how alone she was.

But surely, no one wants to be alone for that long.. He had no clue. His head spun with the possibilities. Maybe it was something at home, or a mental thing. Or she had trauma, or maybe she just didn't mesh well with most people. But Hyunjin had seen her with some of the girls, Sangmi and Ha-eun for sure, and Yeji too... if she had friends, why didn't she hang out with them? Why did she spend every single breaktime in the library alone, and avoid talking to anyone

"Maybe she's just scared," he said quietly to himself.

The bell rung.

"See you later, Hyunjin!"

Jisung jogged off to catch the bus, Felix at his tail. Hyunjin watched the chaotic pair shove each other onto the bus, fighting to scan their cards first, and simultaneously clashing heads. Hyunjin chuckled, rolling his eyes, and then turned and walked away in the opposite direction, down the street.

He trudged a little as he went, still feeling remarkably downcast. He wasn't sure why Y/n's rejection of the offer of his friendship had stung so much. Maybe it was just because he wasn't used to having people reject him. If anything, it was usually the opposite.

He pondered this as he walked. He couldn't really remember a time where people hadn't wanted to talk to him, or had at the very least rejected his attention. Girls liked him, and vied with their friends for his attention, his teachers and his basketball coach liked him very much, singing his praises, and he was a popular figure both in his friend group and at home. He wondered if it was all going to his head.

No, he told himself firmly. If it had all gone to my head, I wouldn't be thinking about it in the first place.

Hyunjin was so distracted by his thoughts that his foot caught on a stray tree branch lying near the edge of the pathway. He stumbled unceremoniously, arms flailing, scraping his knees painfully on the concrete.

"Shit," he swore. "Fuck, ow..."

Groaning, Hyunjin looked ahead, calculating how far he had left to walk home. He spotted a familiar figure up ahead, trudging into the distance like he had a few minutes earlier. His heart lifted.

Y/n.

Wincing, he stood up, his knees crying a sharp protest. Chiding himself for the unexpected fall, he took a tentative step forward, trying to ignore the stinging pain radiating from his joints. How was he supposed to play basketball like this? The championship was soon. He didn't have time to be messing around with knee injuries.

Hyunjin inhaled sharply and braced himself for the pain, beginning to run. Forget about the scrapes. He had to fix things with Y/n, let her know that he actually wanted her around, and meant no harm.

Probably not the best idea to chase after her like a psychopath, his rationality told him sensibly. But it sounded so far off, and frankly, Hyunjin just wanted the logical voice to shut up. Even if it meant his knees would be screaming for the rest of the night.

Being a basketballer, Hyunjin's footsteps were light and agile, so Y/n didn't hear him coming. She stopped and turned around just as Hyunjin did, so that they nearly collided, his nose brushing hers.

Y/n recoiled sharply, flinching, and Hyunjin immediately took two paces back, not wishing to scare her. Her hands lowered themselves slowly and pressed themselves over her heart like she was in shock.

Hyunjin stopped dead in his tracks. Her face was streaked with tears, her eyes puffy, and her nose red from presumably rubbing it repetitively. Without a word, Hyunjin reached into his pocket and drew out a tissue, holding it out to her slowly.

Y/n glared at him. She looked about as defenceless and intimidating as an angry kitten. She turned and began walking away, her hands gripping the strap of her bag tighter, knuckles turning white.

"Y/n, please. Just wait."

Sighing, she stopped. Turning around, she regarded him with a wary, suspicious glare. Her voice was cracked and broken. "What?"

Hyunjin sighed, holding out the tissue and stepping just a tiny bit closer.

Y/n took it with two fingertips like she was afraid he was going to jump on her. Her eyes never left Hyunjin's face, and it reminded him strangely of the way birds at the park would cautiously take a breadcrumb if you scattered it near them.

She blew her nose, sniffed, and then scrubbed a hand under her eyes, the skin red and raw.

Sniff. "Happy?"

Hyunjin nodded. "I'm sorry I scared you at breaktime, grabbing your chair like that. I just- I really do want to be friends with you."

Y/n sighed dully. "I know this is some stupid dare, Hyunjin. Can you just leave me alone?"

Hyunjin spluttered, taken aback. "W-what? Dare? No, no, I mean it."

Y/n's brows furrowed. "That makes no sense, like I said earlier."

A pang of subconscious affection coursed momentarily through Hyunjin's veins. His eyes softened.

"Like I said too, it does make sense. Just because we're from different friend groups doesn't mean we can't be friends."

"It's high school, Hyunjin. That's exactly what it means."

He shook his head. "Nuh-uh."

Y/n huffed, still glaring. Hyunjin was almost impressed with how long she'd managed to retain the same laser-focused, disapproving gaze.

"Don't you have enough friends?"

"You aren't the only one who feels lonely, Y/n."

She went silent. Hyunjin bit his lip in slight panic, wondering if he'd overstepped a boundary. Was he making too many assumptions? Had he made her uncomfortable or worse, come across as someone who 'knew' everything about her? His heart sank, already knowing what her reply would be.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, almost inaudibly.

Hyunjin's head snapped up so fast he was sure it would be sore later. His head swum for a second as he fought to register her words.

"What?"

Y/n repeated herself, though a little irritatedly. "I'm sorry. I didn't realise that you were- you know. Feeling alone or whatever..."

She's choosing her words so carefully, he realised. She's so wary around me, and she still thinks that I'm faking. That all of this is some elaborate dare. Y/n, I would never.

Hyunjin's rationality piped up in the back of his head.

Tell her that, idiot!

He continued. "I, um... I mean it. It's just that- I've seen you, um, by yourself a lot, and I wanted you to know that my door is always open... and maybe we could be friends. Or at least classmates who talk to each other..."

Y/n raised a cautious eyebrow.

Hyunjin rushed to correct himself, waving his hands frantically back and forth. "S-sometimes! We can talk sometimes, or, I don't know, as much as you want if you're not that much of a talker-"

Y/n's brain whirred. Either Hyunjin was being genuine and he actually wanted her around, or he was just a really good actor. And Y/n was perceptive, knowing exactly when and how someone was lying, but the suspicion just didn't kick in as easily with Hyunjin as it normally did with everyone else.

Maybe he meant it.

But being friends, or acquaintances with him is still incredibly risky, Y/n reasoned stubbornly. It gives him an opening to hurt me. He could potentially strike as soon as he realises that I've let my guard down.

She glanced at him. A sorry sight, with his hair ruffled from the wind, and the chicken bandaid across his cheekbone beginning to unstick a little at the edges. His eyebrows were creased in worry and anticipation, his eyes slitting a little with the expression.

His bottom lip was caught between his teeth and she could see him wringing his hands, the faint sheen of sweat making them slip together. His bag was halfway off his shoulder, uniform shirt disheveled. One shoelace was untied and oh, fuck, Hyunjin, what did he do to his knees?

Y/n exhaled slightly, perhaps a little desperately.

It's not like I've got much left to lose.

Every instinct she'd build up over the years screamed at her not to reply, but the words fought themselves out of her mouth anyway, hesitant and shaky.

"Fine. We can be... classmates. Who talk, or whatever."

Hyunjin smiled so brightly Y/n thought his face would split in half. She felt an unusual warm, fuzzy feeling settling suddenly in her stomach. Maybe she was ill. She never felt like that.

"Thanks," he grinned. It softened to a little smile. Clearly his relief at her grudging agreement was profound. He must have been really hoping she would say yes.

A few stones crumbled down from Y/n's walls, letting in a ray of sunlight.

"So, um.. your knees."

Hyunjin winced, hauling his bag a little higher on his shoulder. The other strap hung, pressed against his back as he walked. Y/n wondered idly why backpack companies didn't just manufacture bags with one strap. It's not like anyone used both straps, not even Y/n herself.

"Yeah," he said, huffing it on an exhale. "I, um, fell."

Y/n looked up at him. "When?"

"Around ten minutes ago. I got distracted and tripped on a tree branch."

Y/n sighed, glancing at his knees, then his shoes.

"Your socks are stained."

Hyunjin swore and swiped a tissue from his pocket, dabbing at the stream of blood dripping from his knees. Y/n frowned in concern.

"You should really get that checked out."

Hyunjin glanced up at her, exasperated. "I have to make it home first. Speaking of, I didn't realise you lived around here."

Y/n nodded warily. "I think it's a few streets down from where you live. I think."

Hyunjin nodded quietly in reply. There was silence but for the sounds of their pattered, slow footsteps and a soft jingling. Hyunjin realised it was coming from Y/n's bag. She had so many keyrings. A couple Sanrio characters, a coupe anime-related badges and pins, and a silver chain pinned to the top of her bag, hanging down to be pinned again at the front pocket. There were safety pins and beads and Hyunjin found himself wondering how long it'd taken her to collate all of the items.

"That's really cool," he said quietly to her. "All of the badges and pins and stuff."

Y/n stuttered, clearly not knowing how to respond. Truthfully, she'd been nudging it more to her right side, away from Hyunjin's gaze as he walked on her left side. She was half-afraid he would judge her or think she was trying to be quirky or something like that.

She cleared her throat and looked down at the pavement as they walked.

"Thanks."

Hyunjin tilted his head curiously. "How long did it take you to put on all of the stuff?"

Y/n hummed. "Don't know. I just add them whenever I feel like it."

Hyunjin gave her an admiring smile. "I bet you'd have to be really careful since it's fiddly. It probably took a lot of focus."

Y/n let a tiny, rueful smile escape. "It took a lot of pinpricked fingers too."

Hyunjin threw his head back and laughed, the sound joyful in the afternoon light. Y/n's depressed spirit lifted just a tiny bit.

He really was interested. But she toned it back, not wanting to scare him off, or worse, come across as overenthusiastic or cringy.

They kept walking until the end of the street, where it rounded a corner in front of a large willow tree. Y/n stopped walking.

"My house is round that street," she said vaguely, still a bit wary.

"Oh," Hyunjin said, feeling suddenly downcast. Had the walk really been that short?

He gave her another smile anyway, hoping to ease her worries. "I, um. I'm gonna keep walking. My house is just round that corner and down the street there."

Y/n nodded, apparently having nothing more to say.

Hyunjin nodded back awkwardly. He turned and began walking away from her, the leafy, soft strands of the fallen willow leaves chasing at his heels. The throbbing in his knees suddenly became more apparent; he hadn't even realised he'd been in pain, too distracted with talking to Y/n as they had walked.

Magic, Hyunjin thought. His hand gripped the strap of his backpack a little tighter as he tried not to look back.

"Hyunjin, wait..."

His hopes lifted suddenly and he turned back, looking at Y/n. He took a careful step towards her, a little pace. She gestured him back awkwardly. Approaching her, he noticed she was holding out a little paper, folded in half.

"Here," she said shyly, not looking him in the eyes.

Hyunjin took it from her gently, their fingertips brushing. He carefully unfolded it, the small weight inside turning out to be four bandaids. His cheeks warmed with affection at her hesitant gesture.

"Thank you," he said gratefully.

Y/n nodded stiffly, whispering a quiet 'bye' as Hyunjin turned and walked away. She watched him go, still registering the whole interaction. Was he lying? Was he faking? Or did he mean it, mean all of it?

Y/n couldn't decide. Her brain logically filtered out conclusions, each thought a brick building up the battlements, but she couldn't deny the butterflies in her stomach. He'd noticed her and she hadn't even needed to reach out first. Despite Hyunjin's apparent amiable nature, she couldn't help but feel that there was still some sort of catch. She made another mental note to keep an eye out for any sign that his interest in her could be fake. Because there was always a chance it was some sick little game.

Having to be cautious all of the time was exhausting but she told herself firmly to keep her guard up around him. After all, he was just another person in her class, another person who could hurt her, another person who could take her heart as soon as she offered it and smash it to pieces on the floor.

Or the could be classmates.

Who talked, or whatever.

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[blueiscoool]

Carrot Harvest Helped Metal Detectorist FindA Ancient Coins Hoard

When Alan Baxter found a medieval ring in a farmer's field he knew there could be more ancient artefacts nearby - but the stubble from the thick oat crop made it difficult for his metal detector to get anywhere near the ground. So he waited.

Four years later the farmer had planted and harvested carrots.

"It must have had a deep plough when the carrots got lifted and I could get my detector right to the soil," the 44-year-old said.

"Every 3ft I was getting a signal. I couldn't move, there was stuff everywhere.

"I didn't want to go home."

The highlight of his haul in 2022 was a hoard of farthings from the reign of 15th Century Scottish King James III.

"I got my first one and I knew it was really rare because I know my coins," he said.

"After that it was just like a tap, it just kept on going, and over the course of a few weeks I pulled 52 of them."

The 500-year-old coins, which were made of copper and were worth a quarter of a penny, were in very good condition, Mr Baxter, from Falkirk, said.

The coins are irregular shapes. They have the Saltire - the cross of St Andrew - on one side and a crown on the other.

"To hold something that's hundreds of years old for the first time is extraordinary," he said.

"You get a real buzz going up and down your body which lasts all day and all night."

An expert at the National Museum of Scotland said it was the first hoard of James III farthings to be found since 1919.

Metal detectorists need to ask for permission from landowners to search on their land and anything they find must be handed into the Treasure Trove for analysis and recording.

Under Scottish law all finds of archaeological, historical or cultural significance must be reported and can be claimed by the Crown.

Neither detectorists nor landowners have ownership rights to any archaeological finds made in Scotland. Finds that are allocated to a museum through the Treasure Trove system are usually acknowledged by an award paid to the detectorist.

Detectorists generally split the money with the landowner.

Mr Baxter has detected at many sites, all of which he keeps a closely guarded secret. They include the 14-acre fields in Fife where he has now found more than 500 pieces ranging from the Bronze Age to the medieval period.

"I go along to farmers' doors with my portfolio of previous finds and show them what I do and ask them for permission to detect on their land," he said.

"You try to make yourself presentable, you put gel in your hair and wash your car and turn up in nice clothes.

"I hate getting permission because it's quite awkward speaking to the landowner. Farmers are busy and the last thing they want to do is speak to a wee guy asking for metal detecting permission."

The James III hoard has been put into the British numismatics journal, which charts the best finds in the country.

It also includes two Balliol coins which Mr Baxter discovered at the site in Fife. These farthings are extremely rare and are the only two to have ever been found in Scotland.

John Balliol reigned as king of Scotland from 1292 to 1296.

The find was allocated to the National Museums of Scotland and £5,000 was paid out.

Mr Baxter has also found 69 medieval coins from the reign of English King Edward I, whose armies invaded Scotland at the end of the 13th Century.

The medieval ring, which was his first find on the Fife site, dates between the 13th and 14th century.

"Initially I thought it was a bottle top because when it came out of the ground I could see the silver edges," Mr Baxter said.

"I saw the writing at the side and the big clasped hands at the front and I thought: 'That's a medieval ring'.

"It was just a great feeling to see it because it was a sunny day and it was twinkling away and it was in really good condition because it's been coated in gold, which has protected it from the soil."

Mr Baxter, who works as a lab technician, said he believed it was a betrothal ring.

"It would have been a higher status individual who owned it," he said.

"It weighs 9.5g, it's a heavy piece. A medieval penny would weigh about 1.2g, so that's about seven medieval pennies, so it wouldn't have been a peasant who owned that at the time."

The ring is silver but it has been coated in gold. It was eight inches down in the ground when his detector picked it up.

Mr Baxter, who has written a book entitled Making history: My Life As a Scottish Metal Detectorist, said it was hard for people to understand how difficult it was to find ancient artefacts.

He said: "In a general field 90% of the time there will be nothing in it.

"You could go in all the fields on the right and left along the M9 from Falkirk to Edinburgh and there would be nothing in them apart from modern Victorian stuff or Georgian stuff.

"It's hard to get stuff that's beyond 500 and 600 years old because the population was a lot lower."

Mr Baxter said a field could be full of medieval items, but detectors were not going to find them if the crops were too high.

"Then it comes down to knowledge and the best conditions," he said.

"You need to know that the crops need to be soft cut.

"Barley and wheat is softer than oats. When oats get cut the stubble is really hard.

"And obviously the carrot harvest was the best."

By Angie Brown.

[blackbat05]

At my side

Fred Weasley x Reader

Plot: When you start to show cracks, a concerned Fred wants to intervene.

Genre: Angst/Comfort, PG-13

A/N: Haven’t been writing as much but when I do the trauma really shows?🤡 But in all seriousness, if you’re going through a tough time, I hope this piece can comfort you slightly. May there be better days.

Fred hears the door unlock, followed by the sound of you removing your shoes and coat. A loud groan emits from that rickety old chair at the dining table and Fred finds you slumped on the furniture, hand clasping a bottle of Butterbeer.

“Tough day?”

You give a wan smile and take a swig of the drink. Your head was still buzzing from the day’s events and you didn’t want to bring any troubles back.

“Dinner?” You asked, hoping to deflect the question. Fred tells you that Molly had sent over basil rice with tomato soup earlier in the day and had saved some for you. You notice that he’s still looking at you. Not wanting to crack under his gaze, you excuse yourself to wash up.

Alone in the bathroom, you find yourself heaving a sigh of relief. You go through the motion quietly and despite being clean, all you want to do is to curl up in bed and sleep the weekend away.

“Hullo love.” Fred appears at the doorway and you already dread where this is going. You have to act normal so you nod nonchalantly. Fred gets beside you.

“Everything okay? You seem sad.” Fred makes an astute observation.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just tired that’s all.” Your voice is a little too high pitched. You don’t want to tell him how you overheard malicious gossip at your temporary job as a healer assistant. Somewhere along the lines of how Fred was a successful, self-made entrepreneur and you were just there for the ride. It hurt even more because it was true.

“Sorry, Fred.” You interrupt. “I’m rather beat, I’ll go to sleep first.”

Before Fred can get another word in, you slip under the sheets and turn away from him. You’ve cried enough. You don’t want to make yourself weak in front of him.

***

Fred stops in front of the closed shop and leans naturally on the glass panel. Arriving at St Mungo’s, he’s greeted by staff and families buzzing around the reception area.

Holding a bag of food from your favorite Chinese restaurant, Fred sets off to find you. He gets off the third floor, and makes his way to the staff room where he’s sure to find you.

“She’s not going to move anywhere else! Not when she has that gorgeous ginger to provide for her.” A nasty voice emits from the room. Fred halts in his tracks and inches a little closer.

“I wish I could have her life,” another voice whines. “I would never have to worry about bills and have tea after passing time.”

Fred could smell the sarcasm from a mile away. The chorus of laughter only made his blood boil because he was no idiot, he knew that they were talking about you. So that’s why you were so gloomy yesterday. Fred has the urge to burst in there and give them a piece of his mind when-

“Fred?”

He turns around and you’re standing there holding a clipboard looking pale and shell-shocked. How much did he overhear from your nasty colleagues?

You manage to snap out of it and grab him by the wrist, pulling Fred to the lobby and out of earshot from curious eyes and ears.

“What was that? Was that why you were so sad?” Fred interrogates. “Tell me!”

You flinch at his accusatory tone. No. You will not be spoken to this way. The past couple of months had been hard on you. The passing of your grandmother coupled with the inability to get a stable job had took a toll on you. You were trying so hard to keep it together but sometimes, all you need is just a spark to start an inferno.

“Will you stop harassing me!” You snarl and Fred genuinely looks shocked at your sudden outburst. This wasn’t you. You were always bright and sunny despite whatever challenges that were thrown your way. The person that was in front of him was… downtrodden and beaten.

“I can’t deal with this right now.” Your hands are tightly balled into fist. “I’m trying so hard to feel some sort of worth at a job where my colleagues think I’m a rich skank mooching off her boyfriend and that I’m doing this job to simply pass time.” You find your shoes very interesting at this point in time. “So if you have nothing useful to say, please leave.”

As the words tumble out of your mouth, a part of you cannot believe what you’ve just said. You’re a horrible bastard. You can’t bear to look at the expression on Fred’s face so you turn and stalk back to the ward where your “beloved” colleagues were probably wondering where you ran off to.

***

You apparated a few feet outside of your shared apartment, letting out a sigh. You weren’t looking forward to the conversation to be honest.

Be a big girl.

You open the door to silence and for a moment you think that Fred is still at the shop.

“Hey.”

Crap.

You turn around to see Fred at the kitchen, holding two mugs. “Can we talk?” He asks gently. You nod and wordlessly make your way to the dining table.

“Thanks.” You accept the mug of hot chocolate and are pleasantly comforted by the warmth gushing down your throat.

“About just now,” Fred starts. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have turned up unannounced.” He fiddles with his hands, a sign that he still has more to say. “And I shouldn’t have been that hard on you.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong. If anything, it’s me.” You blurt out. “I know you were concerned. I didn’t want to tell you because you’ve been really busy with the shop and honestly, I thought I could handle it on my own. Those nosy witches, they’re more bark than bite.” Your insult brings a small smile on your face and this humors Fred as well.

As you let your guard down, suddenly the weight of the world falls off your shoulders and your cheeks start to feel wet.

“Oh,” you summon a handkerchief, “I’m being ridiculous.”

“You’ve been too hard on yourself.” Fred frowns. “You’ve been through a lot. I wished I could have carried some of it for you.”

“You already have.” You hold his hand, thinking about how he insisted to be there for you when your grandmother passed away and never left your side once. As the tears rolled down your face, you realize one thing.

“You were there and I always want you to be by my side.”

You think about how if Fred was never there, you would have fought everything on your own. It wasn’t any easier now, but at least it wasn’t rock bottom.

Fred gives you a tight hug.

“Always.”

[checkoutmybookshelf]

You Have My Attention: Bridgerton First Lines

I literally cannot believe I haven't done a First Lines for Bridgerton yet!!! Thanks to the Netflix series, Bridgerton itself needs little introduction. However, Julia Quinn still had to catch her readers, and those first sentences are crucial for that. House rules for this one are that we will do the prologue and first chapter first lines (with the exception of When He was Wicked, which just doesn't have a prologue for some reason), because let's face it: We want to meet both our love interests. Let's see how she does it!

Prologue

The birth of Simon Arthur Henry Fitzranulph Basset, Earl Clyvdon, was met with great celebration.

Chapter 1

"Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhh!" Violet Bridgertin crumpled the single-page newspaper into a ball and hurled it across the elegant drawing room.

Her daughter Daphne wisely made no comment and pretended to be engrossed in her embroidery.

-- The Duke and I

Prologue

Anthony Bridgerton had always known he would die young.

Chapter 1

"Please don't tell me," Kate Sheffield said to the room at large, "that she is writing about Viscount Bridgerton again."

-- The Viscount Who Loved Me

Prologue

Everyone knew Sophie Beckett was a bastard.

Chapter 1

"Sophie! Sophieeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

As screeches went, it was enough to shatter glass. Or at least an eardrum.

-- An Offer from a Gentleman

Prologue

On the sixth of April, in the year 1812--precisely two days before her sixteenth birthday--Penelope Featherington fell in love.

Chapter 1

"Look at this!" Portia Featherington squealed. "Colin Bridgerton is back!"

-- Romancing Mister Bridgerton

Prologue

It was ironic, really, that it had happened on such a sunny day.

Chapter 1

Eloise Bridgerton smoothed the well-read sheet of paper across her lap.

-- To Sir Phillip, With Love

Chapter 1

In every life there is a turning point. A moment so tremendous, so sharp and clear that one feels as if one’s been hit in the chest, all the breath knocked out, and one knows, absolutely knows without the merest hint of a shadow of a doubt that one’s life will never be the same. For Michael Stirling, that moment came the first time he laid eyes on Francesca Bridgerton.

Chapter 2

For all his faults—and Francesca was willing to allow that Michael Stirling had many—he really was the dearest man.

-- When He was Wicked

Prologue

There were four principles governing Gareth St. Clair's relationship with his father that he relied upon to maintain his good humor snd general sanity.

Chapter 1

"Why do we do this to ourselves?" Hyacinth Bridgerton wondered aloud.

-- It's In His Kiss

Prologue

His lungs were on fire. Gregory Bridgerton was running.

Chapter 1

Unlike most men of his acquaintance, Gregory Bridgerton believed in true love.

-- On the Way to the Wedding

[cybersunnie]

a self-indulgent steve drabble because i'm feeling sleepy and lonely

Hearts opened, clothes scattered on his bedroom floor, bodies bared.

Steve had spent the last few minutes looking at you with his thumb brushing over your cheek and fingers splayed along your jaw. Soft snores escaped your parted lips, your cheek smushed against the pillow, and your legs tangled with his under the sheets. The morning sun peeked through his blinds, streaks of gold hitting your skin and making you look more ethereal than you already were. You were utter perfection, a masterpiece hidden in plain sight. Something only those who were worthy could lay their eyes upon.

He didn't think he could fall more in love with you, but he was falling. With every second spent in your presence, he fell deeper and deeper, and he hoped he would never find a way out.

Before he could steal a kiss, you stirred awake, brows pinching together. You forced an eye open, vision clearing, only to be greeted with Steve smiling at you like a lovesick fool—nothing but sweet adoration. 

“Creep,” was all you said before your eyes slipped shut.

He hummed, unfazed, and pressed his lips to your hairline. “Morning to you, too.”

[nerv0us-dog]

SUNNY DAY JACK ― ROLEPLAY,

Hey there! Looking for 18+ writers who would be interested in musing Sunny Day Jack within a literate roleplay [22, NON-BINARY WRITER] .

I'm mainly interested in exploring the lore bits of the game, building our characters' relationship, shaping our story around it using our own headcanons and ideas! Of course, since this will be a canon divergent setting (unless we brainstorm an AU), it may contain heavy themes― whether that be manipulation, violence, or nsfw, please consider that the game itself is within the horror genre. If either of these topics trigger you, or something related to it, please notify me before we start planning our thread(s)! Please write in third person, past or present tense! I'm pretty lenient when it comes to response time and length, but as they say- the more the merrier! A couple paragraphs would be wonderful. If I see/feel your enthusiasm, I'll be sure to return it, whether that be yapping OOC or detailed responses! I write on Discord. Characters I offer writing as (mainly canon crossovers), ― Rory Rainberry / (CC, MxM) ― Steve Harrington / (ST, MxM) ― Connie Taylor / (TCM, FxM) ― Frank Morrison / (DBD, MxM) ― OC / (MxM, ask for details in DMs!) The setting itself could be in modern times, or perhaps even the 80s! Could start from the point Jack appears, or perhaps have some time pass between that and the beginning of our thread. Jack may or may not be a demon of sorts, an incubus, or perhaps a creature of his own kind... it's all up to us! If this piqued your interest, react or reach out in DMs!

[ausetkmt]

How Black women shaped Tim Walz’s politics after the death of George Floyd

From inside Minnesota’s executive mansion, Gov. Tim Walz could hear the grieving woman’s bellows..

Toshira Garraway’s voice quavered as she spoke to the hundreds gathered outside the residence in St. Paul. It was a sunny Monday in June 2020, just days after George Floyd had been murdered in Minneapolis.

Protesters across the world had been shouting Floyd’s name, but Garraway and other speakers — almost all Black women — were invoking the names of men who hadn’t garnered as much attention after they died in encounters with Minnesota law enforcement. Hardel. Kobe. Justin.

The lifeless body of Justin Teigen, Garraway’s boyfriend, had been found in a recycling bin in 2009. Police had said they were chasing Teigen and lost track of him when he hid in a dumpster, where he remained when the trash was compacted. Garraway was convinced police had killed him.

“They didn’t throw him in the river! They didn’t throw him in the woods!” Garraway shouted. “They threw him in the trash! That’s what they think of our people.”

“I could hear her pain,” Walz recalled in a 2021 interview with a Washington Post reporter. Walz, who is now the Democratic nominee for vice president, stepped outside the residence for a closer listen.

When Garraway heard that Walz had joined the crowd, she stepped away from the microphone to meet him. She asked for his cellphone number.

“I had been calling and writing the governor and attorney general for years,” she recalled telling him. “I want you to meet with our families.”

He promised he would.

At the most critical juncture in Walz’s tenure as governor, with the world pointing to his state as an example of gross injustice, he found insights and counsel from Garraway and a group of Black women who pleaded with him to do more to address systemic racism.

This story is based on years of interviews with Walz and those women, starting 11 months after Floyd’s death as part of research for a book on Floyd’s life and legacy.

Walz’s last interview was in May, two months before he was selected as the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to be the Democratic nominee for president. During the discussions, Walz offered the most expansive, personal accounts he has ever provided about how Floyd’s murder changed his worldview — and about the women who helped shape it.

The women cried with him, prodded him, prayed with him. They admired his ability to listen without interrupting them, and appreciated the get-well cards he sent when they were sick. When it comes to supporting a Black woman who is already facing racist attacks in her bid for the presidency, they think Walz is ready.

But even more than his empathy, the women relished the opportunity to help Walz craft legislation that specifically addressed their concerns. That’s when the relationship became more difficult.

“He makes political calculations in terms of where he’s going to put his energy and spend down political capital, which any responsible person or elected official will do,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a former head of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP. “But because of his nature, you always have in the back of your mind that he will go the extra mile. … That’s when you get disappointed.”

Beyond Walz’s reputation as a folksy liberal, likely to be on display when he speaks Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, the women saw a politician trying to navigate uncertain terrain. The national zest for police reform would eventually slow, and Walz’s national profile would begin to soar. And now, some in the group say he has lost interest in them.

Walz declined to comment for this article, but a spokeswoman wrote that Walz “deeply values the friendships, what he’s been able to learn from them, and the reforms they worked together to pass. He continues to meet with them and looks forward to their continued work together to improve Minnesota.”

Garraway has not heard from Walz in more than a year. When friends started texting about his becoming Harris’s running mate, she didn’t fully know what to say.

“I don’t want to bash the man, but all I can do is speak from my heart, and I’m conflicted,” Garraway said. “I cannot say that empathy was not there. But, as time went on and this was no longer the headlining topic, we became less and less important. Our families are pushed to the side and, basically, ignored. It is painful and hurtful.”

Philando Castile's mother, Valerie, holds flowers during a demonstration outside the governor's home in St. Paul on July 7, 2016.

Before Floyd’s death, Walz had been warned about the insidious threat of racism in Minnesota.

The prediction came from Valerie Castile, whose son Philando had been shot and killed at a traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul in 2016. “Mark my word, if it keeps on going in this direction, something really bad is going to happen,” Castile recalled telling him.

“That was back in 2017,” she said.

At the time, Walz was serving in Congress and preparing a bid for governor. She told him she had dedicated her life to finding a way to bring honor to her son’s name. She spoke about Philando’s generous spirit — the school cafeteria worker would dig into his own pocket to help a student who couldn’t afford lunch.

And then, Castile quizzed Walz on why he thought Black people disproportionately die at the hands of police.

“I’m going to be brutally honest with you,” Castile recalled telling him. “We know it’s a racist factor that’s the underlying problem within law enforcement.”

The two formed a tight bond, calling themselves “friends.” Walz said her honesty showed him how “the basic joys of life are always clouded by” racism, and illuminated “the day-to-day, year-after-year systemic issues and microaggressions that people endure.”

“It just permeates everything,” he told The Post.

Walz, who grew up in Nebraska and moved to rural Minnesota as an adult, said he knew he had a blind spot when it came to the Black experience, “being a middle-aged White guy [from] a town of 300 … with no people of color.” In Minnesota, where only 7 percent of the population is Black, politicians often note how easy it can be to miss the struggles of the African American community. So many of the state’s bragging points — its high incomes, its healthy residents, its high-performing students — disguise some of the country’s widest disparities in wealth, life expectancy and education between Blacks and Whites.

After Walz became governor in 2019, Black lawmakers and activists said, he and his wife engaged with Black communities immediately. Walz said that they were eager to learn — and that they were surprised by what they discovered.

During one event, a Black woman told him she had moved to Duluth from Arkansas. Compared with racism in the Deep South, she said, she found Minnesota’s to be “quieter — but meaner.”

On another occasion, Levy Armstrong, the former NAACP official, told him that state lawmakers had a history of “admiring the problem” — acknowledging that disparities existed but not working hard enough to eradicate them.

Then a police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck in May 2020.

As video of the brutal incident spread, Walz reached out to Castile.

“What do you think they’re going to do?” she recalled Walz asking her.

“You better get ready,” Castile said. “They’re about to tear this motherf---er up.”

Castile was right. Although most of the protests were peaceful, large businesses were looted, windows were smashed and a police station was set aflame.

Not long afterward, the Floyd family asked Walz to remove the county attorney from the investigation of the killing. Walz agreed to assign Keith Ellison, the state’s attorney general, who had a history of working against police brutality. Walz told The Post that he was thinking of Castile when he made the decision.

“She was adamant, and groups of folks who had talked to me even before George Floyd [died] believed that we needed to have an independent prosecutor’s office,” Walz said. “That there’s just too close a connection between the police and the county attorneys.”

Walz, center, joins protesters in front of the Minnesota Governor's Residence on June 1, 2020, after the murder of George Floyd.

A few weeks after Walz spoke with the Floyds, he met with Garraway and the other women on a Zoom call.

Garraway spoke again about her boyfriend, referring to his death as the “2009 version of Emmett Till.”

The police account of the events had always seemed fantastical to her. But in 2009, there were no body cameras or Black Lives Matter movement — and few people took her seriously. After three years, only one lawyer said he would be interested in taking the case. By then, it was too late — the state had a three-year statute of limitations for investigating officers.

Amity Dimock told Walz the story of her autistic son, Kobe Dimock-Heisler, who was killed in 2019 by police during a wellness check. Police said Kobe had lunged at them with a knife, but Amity said she believed the officers reacted so quickly because they were ill-equipped to deal with mental illness.

Del Shea Perry spoke of her son Hardel Sherrell, who died in a jail cell in 2018. Officers ignored Sherrell when he said he wasn’t feeling well. Security camera footage over eight days captured him falling hard off a bed, going limp and dying in a pool of his own waste, never receiving medical attention.

As the women recounted their pain, Walz’s eyes welled with tears. He told The Post that he, like many in the state, needed to do more soul-searching on why it was so easy to look past the trauma of racism that Castile assured him existed.

“This is a great state if you’re White, not so much if you’re not,” Walz later recalled thinking. “And that pains me, but it has to be said. And it’s the truth.”

Amity Dimock, right, is comforted by another woman during a demonstration outside the Governor's Residence on June 6, 2020.

After the conversations with the women, Walz said he went back to his staff and asked, “What can we do? What can we change?”

They encouraged the women to work with racial justice organizations to craft legislation, and by 2021, more than a dozen police reform bills had been introduced. Some followed national trends. They asked for the state legislature to limit the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants. They asked that the state allow police officers to be sued directly for actions taken in the line of duty, ending a practice known as “qualified immunity” that shielded them.

Other bills were directly inspired by the women’s stories. One would have ended the statute of limitations for wrongful-death suits related to police killings — potentially giving Garraway the chance to find out what had happened to Justin. Another would have referred 911 calls to mental health crisis teams when appropriate — which Dimock thought could have saved Kobe’s life. A third would have mandated wellness checks in jails — which could have led to an intervention for Hardel.

The women set out for the State Capitol to lobby lawmakers, but struggled to gain traction. About a year after Floyd’s death, conservatives were nervous that such measures might deplete the morale of police departments, which were losing officers.

“After Minneapolis started burning, the Republicans immediately went to blaming Governor Walz and Mayor [Jacob] Frey, and [saying] the Democrats will let the city burn down,” said Jeffrey Hayden, who was a Democratic state senator. Hayden said Republicans appeared hesitant to act, arguing that Floyd’s death had been “an isolated incident.”

The women said they found it difficult to find advocates even among rural Democrats, who they said would stare at them with blank faces. They asked the governor to leverage his authority, and he tried at first. He threatened to keep the legislative session open until lawmakers passed police reform, and he negotiated with Republicans, who were in control of the state’s House.

Del Shea Perry cries as she marches with demonstrators near the Governor's Residence on June 6, 2020. Beside her is a photo of son Hardel Sherrell.

The legislature agreed to pass a bill in honor of Sharell, to make changes to police training and to limit the use of chokeholds. Walz used executive action to add $15 million for violence-prevention programs, and then required that police provide body-camera footage to families within five days of incidents involving a death. But the legislature rejected the toughest measures, such as strengthening civilian oversight of police departments and ending qualified immunity.

And the measure to lift the statute of limitations also failed, meaning there would be no chance to get to the truth of what happened to Garraway’s boyfriend.

On the last day of the session, Garraway and the other women held a news conference. She pleaded with her new friend, the governor, to try to do more.

“You listen to our stories. You watch us break down. You watch us cry,” she said. “How can you make a deal to say this is okay?”

A few months after the legislation failed, Walz put his disappointment plainly: “I feel like I failed Toshira.”

Walz told The Post back then that he had learned that White men like him wanted to probe the details while Black women like Garraway sought swift action because the lives of their families were at stake.

“This is a complex issue. It’s nuanced,” Walz said. “But in the midst of this are people who say, ‘I don’t have time for nuance.’”

He wondered if the country needed a truth and reconciliation commission — like the one in post-apartheid South Africa — that would allow people to truly listen to the stories of pain and exploitation he had heard.

After the 2021 legislative session, Walz said he felt the chance to have an honest conversation about racism in America — and then work to fix it — had probably passed him by. He worried that, between the pandemic, the protests and the unraveling of the great American reckoning on race, the country was not “healing.”

“I don’t know if we’ll get another shot at it,” Walz said. “I’m worried about this. … I’m worried [about what] I’m seeing at the national level. I’m seeing our democracy under threat, and I’m seeing the community here that’s losing faith.”

Back then, he also recognized how not addressing the problem would mar his political legacy.

“One way or another, I will be associated with this,” Walz said.

Valerie Castile speaks at a Minneapolis rally on June 16, 2023, after the release of a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.

Valerie Castile had not lost faith.

After a jury in 2017 acquitted the police officer who killed Philando, she spent years seeking another route to honor her son’s legacy.

She started a foundation to clear the balances of grade-school students who couldn’t afford to pay for school meals, then began pushing the state legislature to make breakfast and lunch free for all students. In 2023, with a Democratic majority in all three chambers, the bill passed.

It became one of Walz’s signature pieces of legislation, and the photo of children hugging him after he signed the bill has become an indelible political image. Watching proudly in the back that day was Castile.

“Oh my God, we finally did it,” Castile remembered thinking. “Congratulations, Phil.”

After the police reform bills were rejected, Walz tried other routes to deal with racial disparities, at the behest of Democrats eager to avoid bills that could be deemed as anti-police.

Walz worked with lawmakers in 2023 to invest more than $70 million in workforce training for manufacturing and tech jobs. After the NAACP filed a lawsuit alleging that the child-welfare system disproportionately separated Black families, they approved proactive steps to keep families together. They passed laws barring discrimination based on hairstyles and establishing an office to investigate suspicious deaths of Black women that have become cold cases.

In May 2024, Walz told The Post that these policies have helped to close some of the state’s racial gaps. For example, the median household income for Black Minnesotans has jumped 70 percent since 2011, the seventh-fastest growth rate in the country, according to the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development.

“We’ve stopped admiring the problem,” Walz said in the interview. “We’ve learned not to do the Minnesota thing, which is to look at disparities, say ‘Oh that’s too bad,’ then go and eat pie.”

He also said he was wrong to wonder if the country might have missed its chance to eradicate racism.

“That was a part of my trauma speaking,” Walz said.

The women he met in 2020, though, still wonder if they will ever experience any relief from their trauma, a smidgen of which Castile felt when Walz signed the school meals bill. They accuse Walz of giving up on police reform too quickly. Perry, whose son died in the jail cell, continued trying to persuade Walz that they needed to do more work. In 2018, when Hardel Sherrell died, there were nine other deaths at county jails, state data shows. Last year, there were 20 deaths.

Her phone calls, though, were being returned much more infrequently. Perry’s advocacy didn’t even get a hearing during the last legislative session. When she met Walz earlier this year, he asked if she had been in touch with the Rev. Al Sharpton. Maybe some national attention would help, he suggested.

“Maybe he should call him,” Perry told The Post. “He knows him. I don’t. I’m a grieving mother.”

Still racked with pain, Garraway said there are bigger matters on her mind than Walz’s potential vice presidency.

When county prosecutors decided in June to drop their case against a state trooper who killed a Black man named Ricky Cobb II during a traffic stop, she called Walz to see if she could get answers from a man she thought she understood. Walz had supported dropping the charges, saying it would be impossible to prove that the officer used excessive force.

But after introducing Walz to so many grieving families, Garraway was desperate to know why he could side with the police in this case. She trusted his judgment. So after his big speech accepting the nomination and all the balloons and the pageantry of the Democratic convention, she hopes he’ll answer her calls again. She longs to hear his voice.

[1ris5starlight]

....I kinda wish to know too, but also: I'M SCARED AS F*CK, WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!?!

(0:12) Moon is...with Lord Eclipse...but he will return pretty soon!!

(0:44) *angry* NOT YOU AGAIN!!! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?!

(1:07) Don't tell me he knows about the Witer Shard thing...

(2:51) *pissed* GET. YOUR DIRTY HANS. OFF. OF. SUN. YOU SON OF B*TCH!!!! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM.

(3:00) SH*T...he knows about it...

(3:34) NO. YOU WILL NOT.

(3:44) *stunned, pissed and scared* OH SH*T!

(6:02) *pissed and scared* EXCUSE ME?! A WHAT NOW?!?!

(7:03) *scared for Sun* SUN RUN!!! RUN AWAY!!!!

(7:26) OH GOD!!! MOON!!! THANKS GOODNESS!!!! PLS DO SOMETHING!! SAVE SUN!!!!!

(8:24) OUF!!! THANK GOD!!! MOON YOU'RE THE BEST EVER!!

(11:57) IT'S TRUE!!! THE GOOD CREATOR COULD HELP THEM!!!

(12:47) I DO NOT LIKE THAT IMAGINE.

(14:06) Yeah...I think that too...

(15:11) AH-HA. You realise that now?

God f*cking d@amn it!!!! THE CREATOR LOST IT FOR REAL THIS TIME: HE'S AFTER SUN (TO FORCE HIM TO FINDS WITER SHARDS) AND WANTS TO KILL MOON...THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!

I'M SO SCARED FOR THEM...

*groans* I hope the nice Creator helps them to FINALLY defeat(and kill) the Creator! Because he's more dangerous than ever now!

I hope they tell everyone about this, because the b@st@rd could go after them and use them as a bait to take Sun and/or Moon.....

And if the others know they could help to protect Sun and Moon from that piece of sh*t and be there with them when they're at the PizzaPlex or outside it.

I also noticed that Sun immediately started to worry about the other's safety before his own even tho he risks more! (God I can't stop yapping about this- I'M SO SCARED FOR SUNNY!!)

I HAVE A TERRIBLE FEELING ABOUT THIS. (SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T..)

(While I was writing, my hands were shaking badly. This got me seriously.)

[ejamesquijano]

LET’S GET OUT SOMEWHERE FAR THIS TIME In search of kindness, purity, and serene happiness

There is this one question that always stuck with me ever since I have read it somewhere: When was the last time you did something for the first time? Such a simple sentence yet the weight of it lingers in me thereafter. Today though, I’ll have an answer to that question, this is also a simple one but certainly one for the books of this dear existence too — Another first time to ever happen in my life was that I lived in a different country for a month.

And it really warms my heart to meet you again, Taiwan.

Since I tell the stories of my life in here and if you’ve been reading them, you would know that I did have a rough start this year and it was just recently that I am slowly bringing myself up from the chaos. But in the middle of 2024, I was offered an opportunity to work overseas and I seized it immediately. I can say now that it was one of the best decisions I have made this year because I never thought that this work trip would save me in more ways than one. I was working, yes, but for lots of reasons this felt like some sort of an escapade.

The Supercut:

Quick stop at Geo’s. Morning rush. Sunny flight. Hello again Taipei. Meeting the Taiwanese team. Stayed at Taoyuan. Life in Aspire Inn. Rm 3107. Ah Mu Ping adventures. Ximen Reservoir. Sesame Hotel’s grandeur. 13 shooting days. 2am Walk. Quick visit at Dihua St. Reverse Shoot calls. Nightly pagpags. Rainy afternoons. 7 Eleven nights. Google Translate. Night out at a Breeze rooftop bar. Midnight snacks at Mcdonald’s. An afternoon photowalk in Taoyuan. Digicam Memories. Fun times with actors and crew. Learning Taiwanese phrases. Appreciating new-found Taiwanese friends in the same field. 2 days in Taipei. Night biking at Chiang Kai-shek Park. Dinner x Booze night with Art Department. One bottle at Revolver. Visited Eslite Bookstore. Golden hour walks at Chiang Kai-shek Park. Foodtrip at Raohe Night Market. Booze night with Camera Department at Jellyfish Bistro and Bar. Picture wrap at Sesame. Afternoon road trip to Taipei. Quick photowalk x biking at Ximending. Visited The Red House x DVD Shop. Passed by Fong Da Coffee. Explored the roads around Ximending. Wrap Party at a KTV room in Partyworld. Sing-along featuring Meteor Garden OST. Bought treats x Xing Fu Tang milk tea at Ximending before calling it a night. Packing my stuff at dawn. 6am ride to the airport. Feeling everything at this point. Lim Giong’s 單純的人 in my playlist. Airport things. Afternoon Manila touchdown. KFC for lunch. Another stop at Geo’s before my bus ride home.

Sometimes my life seems like a blur when I am working, but as I write this and reminisce, I can actually say that I was so fucking happy. This second visit to Taiwan was an escapade indeed, and now it seems like I am coming back to reality. Well, it just feels surreal living somewhere far for a month and doing the job that I love which is making a film. What an experience, truly. And it felt really bittersweet to think that every great thing always ends in goodbyes. But I am happy, I won’t dwell in the blues today ‘cause this memory will always bring me indescribable delight.

That’s a wrap Taiwan. You will always have a special corner in my heart, so I’ll see you again someday.

*** 35mm Kodak Gold 200 June, 2024