#100 push ups a day for a month results

[fitnessmentor]

Unlock Your Potential for a Bigger Chest with Proven Techniques

Jeff from Athlean X explains the best way to do Push ups for a bigger chest.

Best Way to do Pushups for a Bigger Chest

“The pushup is definitely one of the best (and only) options for building a big when training at home. That said, most of us don’t do this bodyweight exercise as effectively as we can, which is costing us a chance to build the biggest chest or pecs that we can. In this video, I show you the best way to do pushups for a bigger chest by making just one small but important change to the way you do them.”

Source: Depositphotos / CrossFit Inc

“To begin, it is important to understand what the function of the chest muscles is in the first place. We are all familiar with their ability to push our arms away from our bodies, as in a bench press. That said, given the orientation of the fibers of the chest, it is actually more important for the pecs to pull your arm across your chest into what is called horizontal adduction.”

Best Way to do Pushups for a Bigger Chest

“This motion occurs most visibly in exercises like cable crossovers and even dumbbell flyes. That said, especially for athletes, flyes present a risk/reward ratio that isn’t necessarily optimal or even necessary if performed with the arms too far out in an attempt to maximize chest stretch. Even Arnold himself tore his pecs twice during the pec fly while chasing that elusive extra stretch he felt the exercise was providing him.”

Best Way to do Pushups for a Bigger Chest

“That said, the portion of the horizontal adduction that we should be chasing the most is the end contraction. This comes when are hands are positioned in front of our chests and at or crossing over the midline if possible.

In pushups, since our hands are fixed on the ground, moving them closer with each rep is impossible.We can still simulate the movement to engage the chest more strongly.

“As I show you here, you want to be sure that when you come up to the top of each push-up, you attempt to pull the hands closer to each other (though they won’t move since they are pressed into the ground) and then turn your forearms away from you. This second part can be accomplished by trying to envision your biceps turning towards the front as you come up. Both of these moves act to fire up the pec muscles even more and get a much stronger contraction on each pushup than you would otherwise get.”

Best Way to do Pushups for a Bigger Chest

“Counting reps during push-ups isn’t crucial for effective muscle building during this home chest exercise. You want to focus on increasing the number of quality reps you perform. The quality means everything. Contract your pecs more for improved development and chest growth during home workouts (or wherever you apply these tips).”

[shesnake]

Spider-Verse Artists Say Working on the Sequel Was ‘Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts’

Why don’t more animated movies look this good? According to people who worked on the sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, it’s because the working conditions required to produce such artistry are not sustainable.

Multiple Across the Spider-Verse crew members — ranging from artists to production executives who have worked anywhere from five to a dozen years in the animation business — describe the process of making the the $150 million Sony project as uniquely arduous, involving a relentless kind of revisionism that compelled approximately 100 artists to flee the movie before its completion.

While frequent major overhauls are standard operating procedure in animation (Pixar films can take between four and seven years to plot, animate, and render), those changes typically occur early on during development and storyboarding stages. But these Spider-Verse 2 crew members say they were asked to make alterations to already-approved animated sequences that created a backlog of work across multiple late-stage departments. Across the Spider-Verse was meant to debut in theaters in April of 2022, before it was postponed to October of that year and then June 2023 owing to what Entertainment Weekly reported as “pandemic-related delays.” However, the four crew members say animators who were hired in the spring of 2021 sat idle for anywhere from three to six months that year while Phil Lord tinkered with the movie in the layout stage, when the first 3-D representation of storyboards are created.

As a result, these individuals say, they were pushed to work more than 11 hours a day, seven days a week, for more than a year to make up for time lost and were forced back to the drawing board as many as five times to revise work during the final rendering stage.

"For animated movies, the majority of the trial-and-error process happens during writing and storyboarding. Not with fully completed animation. Phil’s mentality was, This change makes for a better movie, so why aren’t we doing it? It’s obviously been very expensive having to redo the same shot several times over and have every department touch it so many times. The changes in the writing would go through storyboarding. Then it gets to layout, then animation, then final layout, which is adjusting cameras and placements of things in the environment. Then there’s cloth and hair effects, which have to repeatedly be redone anytime there’s an animation change. The effects department also passes over the characters with ink lines and does all the crazy stuff like explosions, smoke, and water. And they work closely with lighting and compositing on all the color and visual treatments in this movie. Every pass is plugged into editing. Smaller changes tend to start with animation, and big story changes can involve more departments like visual development, modeling, rigging, and texture painting. These are a lot of artists affected by one change. Imagine an endless stream of them."

"Over 100 people left the project because they couldn’t take it anymore. But a lot stayed on just so they could make sure their work survived until the end — because if it gets changed, it’s no longer yours. I know people who were on the project for over a year who left, and now they have little to show for it because everything was changed. They went through the hell of the production and then got none of their work coming out the other side."

[st4rymoon]

✭ 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 ✭

𝟏𝟖+ | 𝐒𝐦𝐮𝐭 | 𝐀𝐜𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐬 | 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫-𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭

𝐌𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐎'𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: a long read btw, arguing, impact play, academic rivals, slow burn, rough sex, hate sex, language, p in v, make out sesh, unprotected sex, annoying Miguel, reader has some anger issues on the low, breath play, teasing, sexual tension, semi-mean dom, after care

・Part two! Part Three!

“WHAT?” You yelled, both your professor and Miguel looking at you in shock after your professor asked you for a one on one with the both of you.

You could scoff at the way Miguel’s lips curled up into a satisfied smile “Well you and Miguel are my best students, so it would only make sense for the both of you to do a presentation together. I can only imagine the things the both of you will come up with!” Your annoyingly sweet professor clapped.

“ wouldn’t it be better if both of us did our own? We coul-“ You tried to negotiate “Ah ah! I said group project! Now Miguel, do you have anything to say about this? Any complaints like this one over here?”

You sighed as Miguel spoke “Nope, I’d be happy to work with someone in the same range as me” he cockily spoke “Very funny, now since we’ve got this all sorted, go and talk” she smiled, shooing you and Miguel out of the classroom.

You scoffed as you pushed past Miguel “Aww come on sweetheart, you hate me that much?” He cooed following close behind you.

“Shut it” you huffed. Getting paired with Miguel was possibly the worst thing to happen since your high school prom. Miguel was the bane of your existence since the first year of college.

Of course, his good looks and brains were attractive but sooner or later you realized he was going to be a pain in your ass for the next few months of class. You met him in your first biology class, everything was going well until the first exam of the class.

Your professor said the class average was low B’s and high C’s but out of the whole class, two people got perfect scores. Could you guess who the two were?

You and Miguel.

Both of you looked at each other from across the class with the same look in your eyes saying ‘Someone beat me?’. Of course, you both got the same 100% grade but both of you were so used to being the only one on top of the class that this was more than just a score. But your egos.

You both were fully aware to not be in each other's way, only seeing each other when studying at the same place or in class. All was going well for the next 2 exams, but the 3rd one came and you couldn’t believe it.

You got a 98% and Miguel has a perfect 100%. You could see him smile at the results and you hated the professor right now. Why the hell would he show the class? It’s embarrassing, to say the least.

Miguel gave you a wink as you looked his way ever so slightly. Bursting out of the class, you could feel him behind you “2 points down” he chuckled. You wish you would’ve punched him.

And ever since then, he’s made it his life mission to ruin your day. You never got anything other than 100% again, you busted your ass studying just so he couldn’t rub it in.

“I’ll make sure you can’t get us two points down” Miguel hummed as he kept up at your pace. You could feel your blood boiling, god he’s such an asshole. “I’ll email you if I need help” you scoffed.

“Can I get your number? I won’t get the email since my inbox is always spamming” Miguel lied with a smile “fine” you muttered out your number and walked off before he could stop you.

‘Real classy, I wasn’t done talking’ popped up on your screen “Well I am” you messaged back. You were well aware it was Miguel and you didn’t need him to piss you off more than usual.

The second you stepped into your apartment you let out a relieved sigh. Oh, how you missed this place in these insufferable hours. You put on some comfy panties and an oversized hoodie.

You were laid in your living room, soft carpet under you as you finished up some of the slides for your presentation. The knock at your door was the last thing you needed, you groaned in agony as you hated the thought of getting up from your warm spot.

The knocking grew and so did your patience’s “IM COMING!” You yelled. You pulled the door open and lo and behold, Miguel. “For fuck sake man” you whined.

“Glad to see you too!” He smiled as he pushed past you with books in hand. Miguel was born with the talent of hiding his emotions, that talent was most useful here.

He took a deep breath as you opened the door. Your pretty thighs glowing under the baggy hoodie, hair a slight mess and the satisfying look of anger on your face could’ve made him harm.

“Excuse you” you hissed.

He plotted down next to your things and got straight to work. You stood in shock, did he just walk in like this was his house? “Well go ahead and get comfortable” you mocked as you slammed the door in annoyance.

“I am” he sighed as he stretched and leaned onto your couch.

The both of you bickered and sneered at each other the whole time you both worked but even then, the quality was always top-notch.

He didn’t like the way you formatted the information and you didn’t like how he took up a whole slide for a few sentences but both of you compromised. After a few hours, things were less tense, and both of you got used to each other.

“So what do you plan on doing with your major?” You asked, legs crossed and some candy in your mouth as you questioned him “Biochemist” he nodded “It’s always been a passion of mine”

“You sure do have the brains for it” you chuckled. “You don’t with the 98%” he teased. You rolled your eyes, your mood now soured as you remembered his shenanigans.

“Don’t start” you scoff as you get up to get some drinks “Hey hey I’m joking” he laughs, his hand stopping you from leaving as he holds your wrist “I know Sherlock, I’m going to get some drinks for us” you mutter with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah,” he laughed awkwardly, his eyes watching as you grabbed two glasses of water. “So what about you?” Miguel asked “What are you doing with a chemistry major”

“Probably chemical engineering, I’m not sure yet” You shrugged as you handed him the cup. He nodded and watched you sit next to him. Miguel scooted a little closer making you stiffen, sure he was a pain in the ass but he’s sadly one of the most gorgeous guys you’ve seen.

You tried to ignore your thoughts each time he’d stretch and groan, his moans making you think about how he’d sound if it were from pleasure. He’d be vocal you thought.

“Let’s watch something on the TV” you awkwardly smiled as you grabbed the remote and turned on your TV, you laid on your stomach, forgetting you only had panties and a hoodie.

Miguel’s eyes watched you kick your feet up, your glowy legs looking perfect as you looked through whatever you were putting on.

He noticed the pink panties you had on, his tongue instinctively licking his bottom lip as he thought about how good you’d look on top of him. He can imagine it, tits in his face and pussy sleeving his cock as he fucked you full.

He was going to give himself a boner if he kept it up. He focused his eyes on the screen and sighed in relief as you sat back up. You put on your favorite show and sat next to Miguel “We’re almost done with the assignment which is good, how about a few more minutes of break and we get back to work?” You smiled. “Sure”

You felt his hand move behind you, his arm resting above the couch as he let out yet again another ‘stretch’ while his eyes looked at you through his peripheral, you chuckled. How cliche.

You smiled as you decided to make your cliche move. It was obvious there was tension between you two, whether that be anger or sexual, it didn’t matter. “Let me get more gummies” you hummed as you turned to the table beside you and arched your back slightly, an audible moan coming from behind you as your ass was on perfect display.

You sat back beside him, gummies in hand and an innocent look on your face as you offered him some. He scoffed, shaking his head and looking back at the TV. Your eyes widened as you noticed the thick bulge straining against his pants.

“Eyes up” Miguel cockily cooed as he watched your eyes closely. “I- I wasn’t-“You made a pathetic attempt to save yourself but he cut you off “Uh huh uh huh, I know” he mocked.

He smiled down at you with accomplishment, he finally made you shut up for once. “Not going to give me a snarky comeback?” He cooed. “Shut up already God, stop it” you hissed, your eyes rolling as you moved away from him.

“No no” Miguel’s voice made you shiver as his hand held your thigh “I’m playing” he pouted as he glared down at you. You could punch him right but instead, you did something you thought you’d never do.

You pushed him on the couch and slammed your lips on his. Miguel’s hands immediately wrapped around your waist, a loud moan spilling into your mouth as he finally tasted you.

It seemed like Miguel was waiting for you to do this, his hands ran up your thighs hungrily before he flipped you onto your back. You gasped as he spread your legs around his waist.

His behemoth of a body spread your legs wide as he buried his face into the crook of your neck. You tangled your fingers into his hair as both of you hungrily kissed each other.

The kisses were messy and rough, teeth nipping at skin and tongues lapping at each other like two animals in heat. None of you even said a word, just heavy breaths, moans, and pure lust.

Suddenly Miguel pulled back from your lips, his eyes glaring into yours as he hovered above you. You could feel yourself getting ready for some snarky comment as you watched his lips curve into a smile.

“You kissed me first”

You groaned as you pushed him off, his hands still on your hips as he flipped you back onto his lap “hey I’m not complaining, It’s just funny since I piss you of so much” he sighed. His palm moved up to your jaw, face brushing against his hand as you took in his warmth.

He watched you lean into his palm like a cat, his body heating up as he realized how small you look in his lap. Your thighs small compared to his but still plump and pretty.

“Can I kiss you again” you shyly asked slightly afraid that he’s reject. “You don’t have to ask me, just do it” Miguel hummed as he pulled you into a kiss.

The kisses were now more sensual and soft, both of you now grinding into each other. His hand curled onto the back of your neck; the other palm pinned behind your spine.

You were glued onto his chest as Miguel’s warmth filled your senses. You’ve never been so warm in your life, the feeling making you tingly as he held you as close as possible. It felt like nothing in the world could hurt you, you felt safe.

“Please” you whispered onto his lips. He tried to not make you mad but he loved seeing you angry “Please what?” He taunts, his lips hovering over your jaw and neck but never touching you.

“Mig don’t tease” you whined as you hit his chest lightly “I’m not, I just don’t know what you’re saying please for” his arms clinging around your waist as he takes in your sweet scent.

You decided to play your games “I want you inside me mig, want to show you how much I need you” you cooed, your hand running down his abdomen and stopping just above his bulge. His breath hitched at your words, he didn’t know if you were fucking with him or not.

“Oh yeah?” Miguel watched you with focused eyes, his hands running up the sides of your thighs and squeezing your ass “You want me to fuck some manners into you? That loud fucking mouth of yours is always pissing me off” he cooed.

Loud fucking mouth? Your hand went up to smack his face in anger but he caught your wrist before you could “Don’t even try it muñeca.” He sternly said “You won’t like what comes with that”

You angrily kissed him as he pressed you flush against his aching cock, his hands pull the baggy hoodie off your body leaving you in your matching panties and bra.

“Fuck” he whispered, hands on your waist as he took in the view he’s been dreaming of since the day he met you. The amount of times he’d imagine fucking your mouth until you shut up was concerning.

You pulled his shirt off in need, throwing it behind you as you ran your hands up his thick muscular chest. He hummed at your soft hands running up his skin.

“Sit up for me?” He mumbled against your skin as he kicked off his sweats. He smiled at how obediently you did as he said “You look prettier when you do as I say” Miguel mocked.

You could care less about his words as his calloused hands pulled your panties off in need “Just shut up and fuck me” you panted. Miguel smiled as he felt your lips pepper all over his jaw and onto his lips, he could see you were just as eager for him as he was for you.

“Beg” he blurted. You ignored him as you rubbed his cock between your folds, both of you letting out moans as you felt each other's warmth. Miguel seethed, arms pinning you up to his chest “Listen”

You hated that you got turned on by the fact that he now had you restricted with just one hand as the other held your jaw up “you want the guy you despise to fuck you? You tell me you hate me every time you see me but look so eager to fuck me”

You were tired of his teasing, you let out a desperate whine, you could see his cock spring up and his tip leaking precum. But like always, Miguel likes to rile you up.

“Beg” he repeated. “Please mig please, just stop teasing ok” you cried. “All you needed to listen to was this?” He purred, hands moving onto your hips as he thrusts into you.

Miguel let out a gruntled moan as he felt your warm wet walls hug him tight, his head falling back onto the couch as he finally felt your pussy squeeze him.

He watched your eyes squeeze shut while you let out the prettiest moans “f- fuck!” You cried, the stretch making you clench even tighter around him as he held you down to his lap.

His cock was fully buried inside you in one go, he’s the biggest you’ve had in every way. It was overwhelming feeling how full you were, you could feel his curves and the tip of his cock nudging at your cervix.

“Breath chula, r- relax” he sighed. Your nails dug into his shoulders as you nodded, you took a deep breath allowing you to make it easier for him to move. “That’s it” he hummed onto your shoulder.

It only took Miguel a few seconds for him to start fucking you onto his lap, your body shaping into his hands, allowing him to use your pussy like a flesh light.

“O- Mig mi-“ you whined out, you couldn’t explain what you were feeling. Your whole body was tingling in pleasure as he rammed into you with pure force. Maybe you did piss him off a lot.

“What? You c- can’t take it? Such a big fucking mouth but can’t take my dick?” He seethed. You let out a pathetic whine at his words, your mind completely fogged in pleasure as you took all of him.

Miguel’s eyes couldn’t leave your pussy, his eyebrows scrunched and his mouth agar as he watched your pussy struggling to take his size. He hissed as you pushed him onto the couch, using his shoulders for support as you bounced onto his lap.

Your pretty moans filled his ears as you took control. Miguel let you take control for a bit, he loved watching how eager you rode him. Your body bounces on his lap, wet sounds of skin slapping echoing into the room.

“Making such a fucking mess” he huffed with a smile on his face, although he was loving this, he wanted to see you completely vulnerable. He thought maybe he was a little sick for wanting to see someone who hated him so much completely ruined under him but he loved it.

You gasped as Miguel lifted you onto the ground, your back hit the soft carpet under you as he stayed buried inside you. “Gotta fuck that stupid little attitude out honey, always disrespecting me. You’re the only one who tries to push my buttons. I love it” he cooed.

Miguel’s calloused hands bend your legs to the side, giving him full access to your tight cunt. “Go- god shi- fuck!” Miguel panted, he was a complete fucking mess.

Sure Miguel’s fucked a few people in his life, but he had no idea if it was just the thought of fucking the life out of you or how perfect your body was for him. He convinced himself it was both.

You clawed and scratched at his chest, your eyes full of tears as he brutally pounded into your “m- Mig I-“You were even more fucked out than him. How couldn’t you?

You had no clue where he got his stamina from, it felt like he’d been fucking you for hours. “Can’t believe you tried to slap me, should I return the favor?” Miguel hissed.

You nodded to his surprise “Please” you whined. “You want me to hit you?” He was surprised by your plead. He knew you’d be a freak in the sheets but you were always so aggressive with him that he expected you to hit him for even suggesting it.

“You’re always a pain in my ass but you just want to be taken care of huh?… What? You need me to pound your pretty pussy out for you to treat me with some respect?”

You nodded eagerly, if you were being honest you couldn’t even take in his words. Your pussy clenched and throbbed around his fat cock in agony but you were taken by surprise when a slap landed on your face “Use your words” he hissed.

Almost immediately you cried “Yes yes! Miguel please I nee- need it, f- fuck ah!”

Miguel chuckled, his hips angled a bit higher which allowed him to hit the perfect stop. His hand flew around your throat, his hips pounding you onto the floor as he let out animalistic moans.

“M- Mig- ah fff- fuckk!” You cried. The restriction of your breathing mixed with his rough pounds caused orgasm hit you hard as your pussy throbbed around him, the tip of his cock nudging at your sweet spot continuously.

Miguel’s eyes rolled back as he felt your nails claw at his arms, your small hand wrapped around his wrist as he fucked you balls deep. His cock plunged into your messy cunt as his balls slapped onto you. “That’s I- that’s-“ he hissed.

He thought about pulling out for both of your sakes but he’d rather just buy you a plan B. “C- can I- inside?” He seethed his eyes burning into yours as you bounced to his thrusts.

You couldn’t get a word out but your legs wrapping around his waist and your nails digging into his back to pull him closer gave him the answer. His lips crashed onto yours as he spilled inside you, his moans spilling into your mouth as his fingers dug into your hips.

He’s never had an orgasm that hard, he was sweating and out of breath as he stilled inside you. The both of you cling onto each other in fear of either of you leaving but that was on the last of your minds.

Miguel lay beside you, his arms pulling you into his as he pressed a kiss onto your forehead. “Was I too rough?” He questioned with concern as he now fully took in how fucked out you looked. “No, it was perfect” you weakly muttered as you nuzzled into his chest.

Miguel sighed in relief as your sweaty body was pinned into his. “Where’s your bedroom?” He hummed as he began to lift you into his arms “left” you sighed as he carried you into your bedroom.

“Let me clean us up and then we can rest yeah? Unless you want me to leav-“

You cut him off before he couldn’t finish “Don’t leave. Please?.” You hummed a bit worried you sounded a little pathetic.

“Wasn’t planning on it love”

[abiatackerman]

Rejection

Event: @levievent "Levi Month 24"

🍷 Day 25: Drunk/Drugged 🍷

Canon universe! Captain Levi Ackerman X Scout (unidentified rank) Reader! Comedy! Fluff! Slight curse words! 1.2K words!

🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷

"What does he think of himself? He may be the strongest soldier but he's nothing but an arrogant ass. A rude-boring-short arrogant ass! How dare he? He rejected me? Actually a shitty person like him didn't even deserve my confession in the first place!"

You hiss with anger as you gulp all the liquor of the glass with just a single sip. You harshly put the glass on the table and glare at the brunette who's sitting beside you.

"You're to blame too! 'I'm 99.9% sure Levi's crazy for you! Just go and tell your feelings I bet he'll then share his feelings too!' Well, fuck your assumptions, Hange. And fuck that midget! Look, where you've led me! I'm now humiliated, heartbroken, furious and drinking like a stupid bitch. All because of your assumptions!"

You scold Hange with a loud voice, a voice which is completely indicating that you're 100% drunk. You clumsily try to reach the bottle but Hange quickly moves that away from your reach.

"Listen girl, first of all I said I was 99.9% sure. There was a 0.1% chance that he'll reject you. Also he didn't actually reject you, he just told you not to be dramatic. He was doing paperwork when you went to confess and I guess he was actually shy to accept your proposal."

You glare at Hange and they smile nervously. Because she's feeling that you're furious and you probably want to throw something at her. Hange quickly checks if there's something in your reach or not.

"He literally told me 'Stop being dramatic and mind your own business, dumbass' when I just confessed to him? Pouring all my emotions, I expressed my emotions to him as clearly as I could and he did what? Told me to mind my own business? Called me a dumbass and started to sign some paperworks?! Well, he's right though I'm totally a fool. I shouldn't have proposed to him in the first place. And hey lemme drink!"

You try to reach out for the bottle which Hange is holding too high for you to reach.

"No girly, enough drink for tonight. You're totally wasted. More drinking will take you nowhere other than resulting in severe headaches. So let's not pain yourself anymore for an arrogant ass shorty."

Hange's words calm you down and you move away.

"Right, why was I drinking anyway? He doesn't deserve it! I should just try to forget about him. I'll go to sleep and starting tomorrow I'll make plans to make his world a living hell. I'll sneak out to his room and mess everything up, make his room filthy with everything I can."

You speak with a smile and Hange laughs.

"I'll surely help you. Like girl, damn... I'll definitely help you... Now let me walk you to your room. You're too drunk to move."

You nod at Hange's words and clumsily stand up. Hange wraps an arm around your waist, supporting you as you both start to walk towards the barracks.

But luckily or unluckily, the person you hate the most (right now, I mean) shows up. It seems like he was on the way of his barracks too. Your face turns red with anger and you curse immediately glaring at him like you want to kill him.

But it's Levi we're talking about! He just takes a look at you glaring and hissing at him and ignores it like it's nothing. He then just casually asks Hange with his usual calm voice.

"Are you carrying a wild kitten with you at this hour? It's almost midnight and you both should be sleeping, four eyes."

At his words you feel your face turns red with anger.

"Excuse me, what did you......"

Before you can finish your sentence Hange pushes you towards Levi and stumbling, you end up in Levi's arms. Cursing, Levi catches you instinctively, wrapping his arms around your waist.

"What the fuck, Hange?"

You both ask annoyedly at the same time. Hange just laughs.

"You're the reason why Y/N's this drunk so you're the one who's gonna babysitting her. Now take your girl to her room and apologize to her before she actually starts to hate you for real."

Hange says pointing their finger at Levi and you look at her glaring. You're still leaning on Levi though, and his arms are still wrapped around you.

"I'm gonna kill you, bitch. You're a betrayer! How can you do this to me?"

You ask furiously and Hange sighs, placing her hands on her waist.

"No sweetie, actually you'll be thanking me tomorrow. Now have fun lovebirds. Also Levi you can take advantage of her if you want. She's totally wasted."

You look at Hange with disbelief as you hear Levi taking a deep breath. He's probably trying to control his anger. Hange just laughs and walks off casually like they haven't just made two people wanting to kill them (Hange).

You look up at Levi's face from his neck as you hear him clicking his tongue. You can't help but realise how pretty he actually is.... You wish to kiss his sharp jawline so badly, bite and suck his neck and...

"Stop ogling, doll."

You blink as Levi's voice pulls you out of your fantasies. His voice is rather soft now and you furrow your eyebrows.

"What have you done to yourself? I thought you were sassy enough to brush off a rejection? Now what the hell is this? You're totally wasted!"

Levi softly scolds you and moves his hand down to pick you up but you slap his hand off.

"I can walk myself! And I didn't drink because you rejected me but because how stupid I was! You're right I was a dumbass for thinking you like me. You're the 'Humanity's strongest soldier' after all! I forgot that you're standards must be fucking high. You're fucking arrogant after all! My sweet confession was just a drama to you! After all why would you want a short girl like me when you have taller richer girls drooling over you?"

Your voice breaks and your eyes tears up as you try to break Levi's hug. Levi remains totally silent but his arms tighten around you.

"I'm sorry."

You pause as you hear the words. Did he just apologize?

"What?"

You ask looking up at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"I never would have acted that way if I knew you would be this hurt. I was just so confused that I didn't know how to react."

Levi says softly and looks into your eyes. His gaze is soft and there's a genuine apologetic look in them.

"I'm sorry, doll. But I, I like you too, I'm just bad with words and expressing my emotions."

Your face softens and you nod.

"I know that! But you were still rude. I haven't forgiven you yet! For you I drank like a loser and I'm probably going to have a painful headache tomorrow."

You complain like a kid making Levi smile. This time you don't stop when he picks you up.

"Will you forgive me if I'm gonna take care of you tomorrow."

You wrap your arms around his neck as he speaks and smile against his chest.

"We'll see."

You mumble against his grey shirt, hiding your smile as Levi walks towards your room.

"I know you will. After all you're crazily in love with me."

"Shut up!"

[yourmidnightlover]

(You don’t have to do this) Xavier Thorpe x reader

The try not to kiss each other challenge on tiktok

ahh YES! i hope i brought your request to justice

i'm gonna take this as like a lovers to friends to lovers kinda thing bc there isnt enough of that going around with our beloved xavier

i also wanted to let y'all know that i am working through my requests! inspiration strikes at odd hours, and i'm trying to delegate all of my time respectively to all of the fics i'm working on. but i assure you i will work through everything!

tension

paring: xavier thorpe x reader (duh)

summary: after months of flirting, your friends take matters into their own hands and dared you to do a tiktok trend.

warnings: kissing, tons of tension (also duh),they're cuddly? i don't think there's really anything else but let me know if i've missed something!

it had been months and months of flirting between you and xavier thorpe. consistent, unending, raw flirting. this included the batting of eyelashes, shoving of arms, longing stares, buying of gifts... everything. the whole shebang.

and god, were enid, ajax and wednesday tired of it. wednesday constantly wanted to claw her own eyes out when she saw you. enid thought it was cute the first two months, but after that she was only confused as to why you would never make it official. and ajax would just tease the two of you. he voiced his concerns with xavier, occasionally with you, but mostly with xavier. he would mostly talk about how dumb he was to not just ask you out or make it official.

so, as enid was scrolling through tiktok, she stumbled upon a certain video of two friends... or mayabe they were more? either way, they were sitting in front of each other, and each one moved closer to the other. the premise was whoever breaks the tension and kisses the other loses, she guessed?

regardless, there was tension and there was a kiss and that is exactly what needs to happen with you and xavier in order to put everyone out of their misery.

so, she sent the tiktok to ajax and wednesday, the message reading:

weregirl: OMG! we've got to get them to do this! they'd totally admit everything!

middleoftheweek: this is repulsive to watch, but i hope it will be worth it as long as they get whatever they need to out of their system

snakes4hair: if this gives my boy the push he needs to make a move then i'll do basically whatever

and just like that... the game was afoot.

"dude," ajax was laughing at the lunch table. you had thrown your legs over xavier's lap, your head resting on his shoulder as he played with your hair. "there's this new thing i saw online the other day. enid sent it to me, and i doubt you and y/n would be able to do it," ajax chuckled as he looked towards enid.

"oh, definitely not," enid shook her head exaggeratedly. "they'd never be able to do it."

"do what?" xavier spoke up as he took a bite of your sandwich.

"yea, do what?" you perked up at the idea of a chellnege. "we could do it, right?"

"hell yea," xavier nodded as he pat your thigh. "we could 100% do it."

"i don't think you could," wednesday said curtly, sneering at both you and xavier's closeness. "at all."

"yes we could!" xavier removed his hands from your hair, throwing them up dramatically.

"alright," ajax spoke up. "i dare you to complete little challenge. you have to record it though, as proof, and post it."

"deal!" both you and xavier looked at each other, giving each other a high five that only resulted in your hands holding.

later that night, you and xavier had retreated to his shed as he painted before they sent you the video you had to recreate.

"seriously?" you scoffed. "they're just sitting there looking at each other with music playing," you looked at xavier as the video played.

"wait," he pointed at the screen. "they're like inching closer to each other. like one does and then the other."

"but why?" you got your answer less than thirty seconds later. "oh..." you glanced at xavier, who bit his lower lip before glancing at you with a smile.

"i never back down from a dare," xavier shrugged as he looked at you.

you nodded, "neither do i."

after setting up the camera with the video on the three-minute setting, about to start recording. you were sitting on the mattress that you had both smuggled in his shed, the one that used to be rowans before... well. yea. both sitting across from each other, your legs were overlapped with each other's. then, the music started playing.

at first you were both smiling, giggling, even. you inched closer to his face first, around 10 seconds after the music started. your faces seemed closer than they ever were before, and that's when the smiles faded and the tension built.

he reached around you and pulled you on top of his lap for his move. the longer this went on, the more it felt like a game of chess, only physical. you swore you could see every shade of green littering his irises. his cologne somehow radiated around you. you made the mistake of looking at his lips, curiosity getting the better of you. he was gently biting his lower lip. it was almost as if he wanted you to kiss it better.

then, you placed your hand on the lower side of his face, nearer to his neck. you could feel his pulse rate picking up. it was exciting to see what kind of power you had over him. you could now feel the way you affected him. now, you saw as his eyes went to your lips which only made you smirk that much more.

he used both of his hands to bring your face right in front of his. he was everywhere. to your side, you would see his hands. his hands took up nearly your entire face, and you loved the way they felt against your skin. part of you never wanted them to leave. you could nudge his nose with your own if you even slightly moved. you were getting close to losing this whole game. you wouldn't. you couldn't.

you tilted your head to the left, bringing your lips closer to his own but not touching. you were so close you could practically breathe in each other's air. you could feel his pulse pick up once more before you licked your lips, you felt his chuckle radiating around your head. but when you looked in his eyes you felt something totally different. it was heavier. it was more.

then, with a mumble, "screw it," he pulled your face into his own, kissing you with all the tension he had built up over not just the past two minutes, but from the past months of doing nothing.

your hand moved up to his hair, running through it like you had so many times. in this context, though, your hand running through his hair was so, so much different. it was much more intimate.

you let his tongue into your mouth happily, nearly breaking the kiss with how big of a grin you had on your face. one of his hands moved to your waist, wrapping around you like the warmest hug you've ever had. your other hand was holding the hand still on your face. you meant it when you said you never wanted them to leave.

truth be told, you never wanted him to leave. you never wanted to stop kissing him. you've wanted to for months on end, but you were too scared of being rejected. you thought he was joking about all of the flirting sometimes. the touches, everything. but this kiss felt more real than time.

"i think i won," xavier whispered as he went up for air. you shook your head.

"i think ajax won," you chuckled as you both began to laugh. "him or myself, of course," you rolled your eyes.

"we all won," he compromised.

"stupid tension, huh?"

[lexirosewrites]

Kinda sorta sleeping beauty AU EPILOGUE

Later, Steve would push the doors of the keep open as if they'd never been locked. Then he began to explain to the gathering townsfolk the whole of the story. He explained tht his father had met a woman who lived within the lake, they fell in love & they both wished for her to join him on the land as his wife. Together they made a bargain with something ancient below the water, they were told tht while the wish for legs & land & air would b granted his father would have to lose something precious to the water every full moon.

For 3 years the lord would feed the lake jewels, books, rare wines, anything he could reasonably deem precious. Till his mother became pregnant w him, and he was born upon a full moon in midsummer. Then his mother faded away till she died peacefully by the following full moon.

She left behind her husband, her infant son, and a shining silver dagger she'd brought w her from the lake as a dowry. Her funeral involved her being set off floating across the water in the boat he'd use when she was still living in the water.

Steve went on to explain he'd begun hearing the lake call to him in his sleep upon his 10th year & the next full moon as his father walked on his way to feed the lake a bolt of silk he'd found Steve walking in a trance nearly out the doors of the keep. From tht night onwards he'd spend every full moon guarded within his room. He was never locked in, but the guards were instructed to keep him from wandering out of the keep. Robin had been his handmaid, & when the month tht his father was ill resulted in no one guarding his door she’d followed him all the way to the lake.

Robin then interjected tht when they'd got to the lake she'd tried to stop him from getting in the water by running ahead into it herself. Only to b grabbed & nearly pulled under till Steve sang for her deep within his trance. He sang for her to fly away from the water & follow her heart wherever it may lead.

"You were always my platonic soulmate, of course I stayed." Robin wiped away her own tears before the two hugged where they sat beside the large fireplace of the keeps main hall roaring with warmth.

Steve continued the story, he only ever saw Robin as a bird unless it was the days leading to a full moon. Then they'd meet as secretly as they could & plan for Steve to run away from the lake. But then his 19th birthday was on a full moon & the party went late into the night. So late in fact tht by the time everyone had gone abed no one had noticed the young omega walk through town to the water.

His father barely managed to reach the dock in time to watch Steve float away on the row boat tht had taken his mother's body away. As his father cried & begged the lake to spare his only son, the product of his parents impossible love, the lake answered.

His son would sleep in a peaceful dream, protection would grow around him as he slept, & tht one day a knight not trained in fighting would overcome trials set by the lake. So his father left tht night, wrote a message upon the parchment, & tacked it to the door w the silver dagger his wife left behind telling him before her death tht it'd b instrumental in bringing their son home.

So Steve dreamed, the island grew up from the lake overnight, & for over 100 years Steve dreamed abt an alpha w dark curls & a King's Favor & a scent like the spice of burning cedar logs. He dreamed till suddenly he awoke from the scent being stronger than ever before, & he awoke warm within Eddie's arms.

Much later, two years in fact, Eddie had used his wish to make Nancy Wheeler the new lord of Loch Nora & he'd then traveled wherever he could w his beautiful mate. Showing Steve the world after 100 years had been joyous.

Now though, their wandering of the world was coming to an end. Steve had enjoyed singing w his mate in front of many audiences, but they were now settling in a sizable home in the village of Forest Hills where Wayne was their nearest neighbor, far far away from the lake.

Eddie would write a song tht would survive the test of centuries, a lullaby tht he sang every night to every one of their children ever since his Steve, his dream, told him for the first time they were to have a pup.

[That's all folks! I didn't feel like making an entire post abt this whole thing because my Bewitched By Yuletide Part 2 drabble will b posted today]

all wrapped up tidy with a bow on top 🎀

***links to come later because tumblr is acting up and won’t let me add hyperlinks right now***

(link to part one, part two, part three)

[gdbatbitch]

TL;DR Please, please. I’m at the absolute end of my rope and can use all the help I can get. Also, just putting out there for those that prefer alternates: my PayPal is dextra.hoffman@gmail.com, Venmo is @Dextra-Hoffman, and CashApp is $DextraDawn. Thanks y’all.

I wish I had the spoons to talk about how horrible I have been feeling the last few weeks in real time. Especially the last 3 weeks. You don’t realize how much one little gland will mess up your entire existence until it’s defective or gone. I’ve been without my thyroid for 10 months now. And I’m still suffering the repercussions of it. 

My biggest issue is my TSH levels. I’ve had to have dosage adjustments twice since January, and each time it results in weeks of adjustment time, and a good portion of that, I’ve been completely laid out because of being unable to function. The symptoms can vary, but generally involve massive fatigue, nausea, hot flashes and cold spells/sweats that I’m not able to control and barely able to combat, dehydration, weakness, and just having that feeling you get with a high fever and a flu where you feel half in and half out of reality and not sure if you’re actually alive or you’re a ghost. 

Also because these hormones think they’re that special, they also affect my mental health by spiking my adrenaline levels and triggering my anxiety. My anxiety alone can shut me down for days. It’s been well documented. So the physical symptoms would trigger my anxiety. I have a really high pain tolerance, but sickness not so much. And I have never felt sicker in my life than I have in the last month. So not only was I feeling like I was dying, I was terrified the entire time.

I’ve not gone into great detail about it openly because it was so scary, and I know when I’m in panic mode I can’t really trust my own mind to determine the seriousness of a situation. So I kept it quiet, at least quiet for me. 

Of course, all of this has completely destroyed my plans of getting back to work and out of this poverty rut I’ve been in for months. I had a job lined up, but the start date was right in the middle of my being incapacitated. I tried to work with the company to push back my start date, but that didn’t happen. I’m in the midst of interviewing for a job that would be absolutely perfect, but I’m still waiting for next steps on their part. Aside from those, as anyone currently seeking a job will tell you, it’s abysmal out there. I’ve applied for over a hundred jobs in the last 4 months and I’ve barely gotten any responses. 

I’ve been asked if I’m going to be doing art commissions, and if I were more capable, sure. I’d be silly not to try. But I’ve not been anything close to capable for weeks. I’ve only been back to 100% for a few days now, and even that has been sketchy. So I’m putting a pin in that for now, at least until I can knock out a sketch or two to knock the rust off. 

I was hoping to be done with fundraising, it’s so nerve-racking. But right now, my survival is in peril. I just submitted a request for what will be my last unemployment payout. It wasn’t much, but it was barely keeping me afloat. After that, I’m kinda screwed unless I can figure something out. 

I still haven’t made rent for August, my car payment is late, I’ve got bills up to my ears and I’m just worried that I’m not going to have those things very very soon if I can’t keep up. If I can at least hit the goal on the fundraiser, that can keep me going until I can get back to work (fingers crossed). 

I’ve been struggling with asking for help for a while now because I feel like I’ve been holding my hat out for far too long, but I don’t really have a choice anymore. I’ve also been struggling with a lot of internalized ableism as well because I know I’m disabled and shouldn’t push myself as hard as I do. But that’s a rant for another time.

Please, please. I’m at the absolute end of my rope and can use all the help I can get. Also, just putting out there for those that prefer alternates: my PayPal is dextra.hoffman@gmail.com, Venmo is @Dextra-Hoffman, and CashApp is $DextraDawn. Thanks y’all.

[ohtransarchon]

Thoughts on top surgery; two months post op

Hi hi, I am almost two months post op now- soo basically 2 months. I have a weird gender, I'm sure many can relate so I want to give some reassurance for anyone out there who maybe struggled like I did. I they ever stumble upon this :)

So hi! I struggled for a while with "do I really want this" and people around me (not counting my supportive friends) like my family and such kept pushing that narrative, I was once told I should wait 10 more years before I got top surgery, and that sucked to hear because I've been wanting this since I was 16 and now I was 20- was I really supposed to waste my twenties on "making sure" I really wanted this? That was upsetting.

Ultimately I didn't listen. The person who said that to me is a cishet person anyways, she wouldn't really know how I was struggling to begin with. So in December of 2023 I finally got tired of the struggle and made an "impulsive" call to the clinic, got my consultation and come march I get my surgery! Seven weeks later, here I am.

If you're looking for advice here is what I have; Come to terms with regret, I decided to do this "unsure" because you can't truly be 100% sure of things in life, but you can't sit still either- you can't wait forever. That was something I was stuck with so to let myself move forward I accepted that regret might be something I'll face in the future. There might come a day where I realize "oh, now I miss having boobs" and that's alright! I'm not saying I was really unsure about actually doing the surgery, I really wanted to of course!

I just faced that you never know what might happen in the future and I shouldn't wait around for it. :]

uhh and this one goes out for anyone with a size difference like me (yes I know breast are usually not symmetrical)

So I had a very uneven chest. My right side was pretty normal but my left side looked more like a man with gynecomastia would- as such my surgery results are a little uneven- AND THAT'S FINE! A lot of people feel so bad for me for the unevenness :') it makes me feel bad, makes me feel like I've been messed up. So many people said my surgeon was incompetent but I don't think so, he's been doing this for almost as long as I've been alive and I think he did great with what he had and I'm grateful :)

And also, I'm flat now and I honestly couldn't be happier!

I feel normal. and I feel great :)

(little side note; there is fluid build up/fat on the side that's lower down currently so it'll probably look a little better once I get that fixed) but yeah, I'll probably be a little uneven unless I realize I reaaaally want to get surgery to be symetrical idk, I'm flat and happy and those are my thoughts :)

[smokeweedeattherich]

I figured it's time I talk about my surgical transition experience. There's plenty of false narratives out there and I want to counter what I can with truth and personal experience.

The first procedure I received this year in late January was a transvaginal ovarian-hysterectomy. That means they cut out my uterus and ovaries (and the connecting fallopian tubes) without making any abdominal incisions (removed through the vagina). I'd had a consultation with the surgeon performing the operation a few months prior where we discussed any concerns and went over potential side effects as well as specifying I wanted my ovaries removed as well. When the day of the procedure came I went to the hospital, the nurses were really kind and I got to see the surgeon again one last time for any last minute concerns before I went into the surgical suite.

Waking up post surgery I was elated to learn the surgery had gone super smoothly, the surgeon said I'd lost less than a teaspoon of blood. I stayed in hospital for the remainder of the day and ended up going home around 9pm. They'd given me a pain meds prescription, and that kept things during recovery at a quiet 2-3 on the pain scale. Most of what I felt was a general soreness in the area, it was a lot like the sensation of period cramps. It took only 3 weeks before I felt pretty much 100% I still wasn't fully healed but by then there wasn't any pain, even slight.

Now I'm just nearing the end of my 2 month full recovery time and I'm clear to have penetrative sex. The worst part of the recovery I'd say was the basically instant menopause I had to go through for a while. The hot flashes were the worst, get a fan for yourself if you're planning on getting this procedure.

The end of February is when I got my second procedure, a double masectomy aka top surgery. Normally transition surgeries wouldn't be so close together in timeline but I had school starting in May but I couldn't emotionally afford to wait until the semester is over to get the surgery done. Additionally, political circumstances also lead to me making the decision to push up the date of my surgery, I was terrified that if I was to wait another year that it might be illegal by then.

Similar to the first operation, I'd had a consultation appointment several months prior that addressed any questions and concerns to help me decide if the procedure was right for me. I was way less nervous this time around because I'd already been through one surgery and had a better idea of what to expect in terms of pain and recovery.

The experience of check-in and preparation for the second surgery was pretty much the same as the first with one exception, I decided to forego the nipple grafts last minute (and I don't regret the decision. less risk of complication/infection, I wouldn't likely retain sensation, getting nipple tattoos instead gives me direct control over size and shape) so I had to meet with the surgeon beforehand the day of. My direct input was accommodated and my questions answered the day of, it was awesome.

I went under anesthesia feeling a sense of peace that I'd wake up feeling more like myself than I had since before puberty. I'm a month recovered now and I'm just so pleased with the results! The pain was so worth it!

Feel free to ask respectful questions about my experiences.

[gleamingtempest]

Chapter 2 Part 1 - DRDT Death Game By Majority [Vote]

Trust Points & Statuses

Charles 5 Despondent Mourning

Eden 17 Relaxed

Hu 13 Relaxed

Nico 9 Relaxed

Levi 14 Relaxed

Teruko 11 Mourning

Arei 2 Relaxed

Veronika 7 Relaxed

Arturo 4 Relaxed

Stress Points

Charles 29

Eden 20

Hu 21

Nico 25

Levi 25

Teruko 29

Arei 22

Veronika 23

Arturo 25

Rest Period

Everyone is moved to floor 3 and given private rooms.

Everybody rests for a little over 24 hours.

Eden & Hu comfort Charles. [+1 Bond] [-2 Stress]

Veronika pushes Arturo over a boiling point and the two get into a fight. [-3 Bond]

Arturo hates Veronika

Nico comforts Teruko. [+1 Bond] [-2 Stress]

Levi confronts Arei about her behavior during the main game. [-1 Bond]

Arei offers Levi an alliance.

Roll: 6[-3] Trust

Levi rejects Arei's deal.

Levi dislikes Arei.

Group relations

Leader: Hu

The group confronts Arei about lying as the sage. [-1 Bond]

Arei lashes out, proclaiming that they have no right to judge her. [-3 Trust]

Arei becomes focused. [+1 Stress]

Veronika becomes relaxed.

Charles is no longer despondent.

Charles becomes focused. [+1 Stress]

Charles no longer dislikes everyone.

Exploration pairs

Teruko & Charles

Hu & Eden

Levi & Arturo

Veronika & Nico

Arei

Exploration

Charles & Teruko banter. [+1 Bond] [-1 Stres]

Hu & Eden bond. [+1 Bond] [-1 Stres]

Eden & Hu are loyal to each other. [-2 Stress]

Levi & Arturo bicker. [-1 Bond] [+1 Stress]

Veronika pesters Nico [-1 Bond] [+1 Stress]

Everyone finds an AI of Ace Markey

Everyone meets the floormaster & subfloor master

The clear chips subgame & trust barter game begin

Everyone receives 100 Me-Tokens

Everyone begins challenging attractions.

Subgame - Begin

All succeeded attraction rolls results in +1 Bond & Stress for the pair. Failed result in none.

Rolls are made for every individual attraction but these will not be shared as it is rather tedious and not very fun to read. Sorry. ^^

ATTRACTIONS ONE

Everyone clears an attraction.

Hu clears two.

Hu gives Nico two clear chips.

Arturo & Levi get 2 clear chips

All others get 1 clear chip.

Negotiation Roll Rules:

A mental roll is made for every character to decide if the character can deduce a benefit for trading.

If below 5, they will then receive an emotions roll to decide if the character will give away tokens for a service or not. If 12 or up they will.

If neither, the character does nothing.

Trades & prize exchanges are decided on a characterization basis.

Trade or service rejections result in [-1 Bond] for the person who is rejected with the person who rejected.

Trust rolls are made to decide whether or not a character will accept a trade offer. This is a roll for 10 or up.

Amount of tokens traded is based on the median of both characters mental & self control stat. Characters with a lower mental & control stat will trade more.

Bonding activities are (usually) [+1 Bond] & [-2 Stress. There are exceptions.

Negotiations - Day 1 Morning

Trading: Charles, Hu, Teruko, Arei & Arturo

Giving: Eden, Levi & Veronika

N/A: Nico

Teruko refuses Charles' trade

Hu - Teruko 30

Arturo refuses Arei's trade

Charles rejects Arturo's trade

Arei refuses Eden's invitation for a 'fun activity.'

Eden doesn't like Arei

Eden gives away 40 tokens exchange for a fun activity with Levi.

Veronika gives away 40 tokens in exchange for playing with Arturo. [+2 Arturo Stress] [-2 Veronika Stress]

Exploration

Charles & Teruko bond.

Eden & Hu bond.

Levi & Nico bond.

Veronika pesters Arturo

Arei explores alone.

Charles & Teruko investigate the Ace Markey AI. They learn that the AI has a memory update every 6 months & a personality update every 3 years.

Teruko apologizes to Ace for not doing more to prevent his death.

ATTRACTIONS TWO

Everyone clears an attraction.

Hu clears two.

Hu gives Nico two clear chips

All others get 1 clear chip.

Negotiations - Day 1 Afternoon

Trading: Charles, Hu, Nico, Arei, Veronika & Arturo

Giving: Eden & Levi

N/A: Teruko

Charles - Nico 15

Hu - Veronika 35

Arturo refuses Arei's trade.

Arei dislikes Arturo.

Arturo doesn't find a trade partner.

Eden gives away 40 tokens in exchange for a bonding activity with Arturo.

Levi can't find a conversation partner.

Exploration

Charles & Teruko bond.

Charles& Teruko like each other

Nico & Hu bond.

Nico & Hu like each other

Levi & Eden.

Levi likes Eden.

Veronika & Arei bond.

Veronika & Arei like each other

Hu finds the room of lies with Nico. She finds Eden and enters with her.

Hu & Eden take the 6 clear chips & web of happiness. The lights cut out and both flee the room.

Hu & Eden give out 2 clear chips to 4 others and keep 2 each. Everyone except Nico now has equal clear chips.

ATTRACTIONS THREE

Everyone clears an attraction.

Hu clears two.

Hu & Eden have a maxed out bond.

Arei doesn't dislike Arturo.

Hu gives Nico two clear chips.

All others get 1 clear chip.

Negotiations - Day 1 Night

Trading: Eden, Hu, Nico, Arei, Veronika & Arturo

Giving: None

N/A: Charles, Levi & Teruko

Eden - Hu : 20 - 35

Nico - Arturo 25

Arei & Veronika 35

Night 1

Everyone rests well. [-5 Stress]

ATTRACTIONS FOUR

Everyone clears an attraction.

Hu clears two.

Arturo likes Arei.

Levi & Veronika like each other.

Hu gives Nico two clear chips.

All others get 1 clear chip.

Negotiations - Day 2 Morning

Trading: Eden, Hu, Nico, Teruko & Arei

Giving: Charles & Arturo

N/A: Levi & Veronika

Teruko bluntly refuses a trade from Eden.

Eden doesn't like Teruko.

Nico bluntly rejects a trade from Hu.

Arei mocks Teruko for trying to trade with her.

Eden turns down a trade from Arei.

Charles gives Teruko 10 tokens in exchange for exploring the ruined corridor's crevices.

Charles & Teruko find Arei's first trial room. It has a picture of her sisters in it.

Charles & Teruko don't share this.

Arturo gives Arei 75 tokens in exchange for the knife she took from the kitchen.

Eden is a secret witness to this trade.

Arei buys Arturo's personal information file.

Veronika buys all the victim videos.

Veronika watches David, J & Min's first trial video. [-2 Stress]

Exploration

Charles & Teruko bond.

Charles & Teruko are loyal to each other.

Nico & Hu bond. Hu apologizes to Nico for being overbearing.

Levi & Eden bond.

Eden is loyal to Levi.

Veronika & Arei bond

Arturo explores alone

Hu figures out the ticket to the exit is the 200 vending machine.

Roll: 1 Heart

She chooses not try and escape alone. She keeps the discovery a secret.

ATTRACTIONS FIVE

Everyone other than Hu & Nico clears an attraction.

Hu & Nico face death as they fail an attraction.

luck roll: 17

Hu survives and escapes the attraction.

luck roll: 16

Nico survives and escapes the attraction.

Both Nico & Hu are injured.

Everyone else gets 1 clear chip.

Negotiations - Day 2 Afternoon

Trading: Charles, Hu, Nico, Veronika & Arei

Giving: Eden

N/A: Teruko & Levi

Charles & Nico 15

Hu & Veronika 10

Arei can't find a trade

Eden gives away 35 tokens in exchange for a bonding activity with Teruko. Teruko apologizes for being distant. Eden gets teary eyed and recalls her family back home. She really wants to escape.

Eden likes Teruko.

Exploration

Eden is defacto leader until Hu has healed.

Teruko, Eden, Hu & Teruko rest & bond.

Teruko likes Eden.

Charles & Levi explore together.

Veronika & Arei bond.

Veronika & Arei are loyal to each other.

Arturo explores alone.

No one finds anything.

ATTRACTIONS SIX

Everyone clears an attraction.

Eden clears two.

Eden tries to give Hu two clear chips but she refuses. Eden insists they split so both take 1 & give the other to someone else.

Teruko & Nico get 2 tokens.

Teruko & Nico are loyal to each other.

All others get 1 clear chip.

Negotiations - Day 2 Night

Trading: Eden, Hu, Levi, Teruko & Arei

Giving: Veronika

N/A: Charles, Nico & Arturo

Arei mocks Eden for even trying to trade with her. Eden runs away crying.

Hu - Teruko 30

Levi - Arei 40

Eden can't find a trade partner.

Veronika gives away 10 tokens to play with Eden.

Night 2

Everyone rests well. [-5]

ATTRACTIONS SEVEN

Everyone other than Levi & Arei clears an attraction.

Eden clears two.

Eden gives Arturo two of the three they earn.

All others get 1 clear chip.

Levi & Arei face death after failing an attraction.

luck roll: 4

Levi's back is badly lacerated by machete.

Roll: 7[+3] Physical

Levi manages to fight off the doll and escape.

luck roll: 11

Arei flees while the doll is occupied with Levi.

Emergency

The group takes Levi to the infirmary and the sub floormaster begins trying to heal him.

His injuries aren't fatal but could be if not treated.

The group agrees to have multiple people double attractions so that everyone is able to gather enough chips for the subgame.

Arei steals 10 of Levi's tokens while everyone is preoccupied with attractions.

Eden gives Levi the web of happiness while he is unconscious. She hopes that if it is important, he'll be able to use it.

Negotiations - Day 3 Morning

Trading: Charles, Eden, Hu, Teruko, Arei & Arturo

Giving: Nico

N/A: Veronika [No Tokens]

Charles - Teruko 30

Arturo refuses a trade from an 'ugly person.' [Eden]

Hu - Arei 40

Arturo & Eden can't find trade partners.

Nico gives away 10 tokens in order to practice talking with people. Their speech partner is Eden.

Nico likes Eden.

Arei buys Levi's personal information file.

Exploration

Hu, Nico, Eden & Teruko rest in the infirmary with a sleeping Levi & bond.

Veronika & Arei bond.

Veronika & Arei max out their bond. Veronika is infatuated with Arei & Arei finds Veronika entertaining & useful.

Charles & Arturo bond.

No one finds anything.

ATTRACTIONS EIGHT

Everyone clears an attraction.

Arturo likes Hu

Charles likes Eden

Veronika likes Eden

Everyone gets at least 1 tokens. The extra tokens are dispersed.

Final Negotiations - Day 3 Afternoon

Trading: Charles, Eden, Nico, Teruko, Arei & Arturo

Giving: None

N/A: Hu

Charles - Teruko 40

Nico bluntly refuses a trade from Eden.

Nico - Arei 50

Eden - Arturo 10

Arei buys Nico's personal information file

Nico buys Arei's personal information file

Final night

Everyone rests poorly. [+2 Stress]

Roll: 2[+3] Physical

Levi's injuries don't improve.

Day 4 Morning - Final Attraction

Everyone gathers in the lobby on the morning of day 4.

The floor masters arrive and count the clear chips.

...

Everyone passed the attraction segment of the subgame.

Everyone is invited into the arbitration room.

roll: 18[+3] Physical

Levi's collar is about to be activated for non attendance when he arrives barely standing.

Everyone enters

Trust Barter Game Results [Traded -> Own -> Touched]

Token Placements

Everyone is gathered for a group photo. The camera flashes. Eden & Arei are placed on the stinger target & the rules of the final attraction are explained.

Levi, Veronika & Nico are placed onto the impression to while Teruko, Hu, Arturo & Charles are placed into the observation room.

Arei refuses from the offset to press the switch.

The final attraction begins.

Impression Room

Rolls will be based on mental & in some situations emotions

Every correct deduction will result in [+2 Trust]

5 Minutes

Disc. Leader: Nico

Nico figures out that the left counter must be a timer.

5 Minutes

Nico figures out they must be able to influence the attraction using the impression room.

5 Minutes

Nico figures out the right counter is tracking Eden's weight.

5 Minutes

Nico figures out that the impression ro is a punishment and that the only way to save Eden is to bring the weight counter to zero.

Veronika, Levi or Nico must sacrifice themselves.

5 Minutes

Nico cannot find any other information.

The group asks the floormaster about this solution.

The floormaster confirms this is the solution.

Stinger 1/5

Eden is shot with one stinger. She manages to hold back tears.

5 Minutes

Disc. Leader: Veronika

Veronika reasons that there must be some way to clears the attraction without a death.

5 Minutes

Veronika tries to relate the attraction to other attractions, leading her to learn about the room of lies. Veronika asks for account of what happened during the room of lies and learns about the web of happiness.

Levi shares the web of happiness.

Veronika reasons that the web of happiness is the solution to the final attraction.

5 Minutes

Out of curiosity Veronika pulls on the web of happiness before using it. It snaps with ease.

The group begins to panic.

5 Minutes

Veronika comes to a dead end.

5 Minutes

Disc. Leader: Levi

Levi interrogates Eden & Hu more closely in order to see if there's anything about the room of lies they're missing. By going through a timeline of events Levi learns that in spite of Eden grabbing Hu's hand when fleeing she had no one's when exiting, instead only carrying one if her guzheng. When Hu did exit she had all of her guzheng.

Levi reasons that this may be significant to tue fun attraction.

Stinger 2/5

Eden is shot with two stingers.

Eden is in searing pain.

Eden begins to beg Arei to press the switch.

Arei mocks Eden, calling her a selfish weakling who always needs others to save her. She proclaims that she'll never die for someone like her.

5 Minutes

Levi decides to take a different approach.

Roll: 16[-3] Emotional

Levi individually pursues both Eden & Hu in order to learn more. Levi learns that ever since the room of lies Hu has been acting significantly more pessimistic & has had a higher inclination towards personal sacrifice. This behavior resulted in her and Nico becoming injured during a previous attraction.

5 Minutes

Levi comes to a dead end.

5 Minutes

Teruko joins the discussion.

Teruko recalls everything learned on floor 3 hoping for a lead and she recalls her conversation from day 1 with the Ace Markey AI. She then recalls that the floor masters are dolls and that she found a perfect doll of herself while solving the mirror room puzzle on floor 2.

Teruko asks the floor masters if an AI could be uploaded into a doll.

They say nothing.

Teruko asks if floormasters can lie.

They say nothing.

Teruko reasons that either Eden or Hu was swapped out with a doll which has their AI personality.

5 Minutes

Teruko tries to pursue both Eden & Hu but they panic and she comes to no conclusions.

5 Minutes

Disc. Leader: Hu

Hu doesn't believe she's a fake so she suggests Eden may be a fake. She notes that Eden was the one who gave Levi the web of happiness, something she shouldn't have known to do before the final attraction rules were explained.

Eden begs everyone to believe her, insisting she's the real one.

Stinger 3/5

Eden is shot with three stingers.

Eden passes out due to the pain.

Arei remains silent.

5 Minutes

Disc. Leader: Arturo

Arturo calls out this conclusion almost immediately & reminds everyone that Hu's behavior has been different & that there's an extra guzheng.

Roll: 2[-3] Trust

No one believes Arturo due to his lack of trust.

5 Minutes

Charles chides everyone for their biased judgement s & points out that the personality updates only being every 3 years, as well as Hu's lack of bleeding from her attraction injury.

Hu is exposed as a fake.

The realization that this saves no one sets in.

5 Minutes

Nico, Levi & Veronika discuss whether or not they should sacrifice themselves.

Levi passes out in the middle of the discussion.

Nico & Veronika refuse.

5 Minutes

Hu begs Arei to press the switch.

Arei calls Hu out for her hypocrisy and selfishness. Arei calls everyone selfish for expecting her to die when they wouldn't do it themselves.

5 Minutes

Eden wakes up, barely conscious. Her head is spinning.

Everyone tells Eden what's about the happen.

Eden tries to put on a brave face but she quickly breaks down, only able to cry.

In the final two minutes Teruko breaks down and begs Areu to press the switch, if only just to give Eden a chance.

The floormasters reveal that the venom multiplies each time.

Everyone with positive relations with Eden begins to break down, begging Arei to press the switch.

Arei is completely silent.

Roll: 1[-3] Emotional

...

Arei doesn't press the switch.

Stinger 4/5

Eden is fired with 4 stingers.

EDEN silently succumbs to the poison shortly afterwards.

Eden Tobisa has expired.

Cleared Attraction

Everyone is released. They gather around Eden and grieve.

Arei breaks down and curses everyone for their selfishness. She says every one of them can die for all she cares. She storms out.

Arei hates everyone.

Teruko hates Arei.

Hu becomes despondent.

Nico & Veronika goes into mourning.

Teruko & Arei become despondent.

Levi is rushed back to the infirmary, unaware of Eden's death.

Eden Tobisa was sacrificed by Nico, Veronika & Arei.

8 Remain

[fitnessmentor]

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[random-thought-depository]

"Here is the biggest thing happening on our planet as we head into the autumn of 2024: The Earth is continuing to heat dramatically. Scientists have said that there’s a better than 90 percent chance that this year will top 2023 as the warmest ever recorded. And paleoclimatologists were pretty sure last year was the hottest in the last 125,000 years. The result is an almost-clichéd run of disasters: Open Twitter/X anytime for pictures of floods pushing cars through streets somewhere. It is starting to make life on this planet very difficult, and in some places impossible. And it’s on target to get far, far worse. Here’s the second-biggest thing happening on our planet right now: Finally, finally, renewable energy, mostly from the sun and wind, seems to be reaching some sort of takeoff point. By some calculations, we’re now putting up a nuclear plant’s worth of solar panels every day. In California, there are now enough solar farms and wind turbines that day after day this spring and summer they supplied more than 100 percent of the state’s electric needs for long stretches; there are now enough batteries on the grid that they become the biggest source of power after dark. In China it looks as if carbon emissions may have peaked—they’re six years ahead of schedule on the effort to build out renewables. And here’s the third biggest thing in the months ahead: the American presidential election, which looks as if it is going down to the wire—and which may have the power to determine how high the temperature goes and how fast we turn to clean power."

[maximumphilosopheranchor]

“We need to strengthen the conflict between Zaluzhny and Zelensky, along the lines of ‘he intends to fire him,’” one Kremlin political strategist wrote a year ago, after a meeting of senior Russian officials and Moscow spin doctors, according to internal Kremlin documents.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration ordered a group of Russian political strategists to use social media and fake news articles to push the theme that Zelensky “is hysterical and weak. … He fears that he will be pushed aside, therefore he is getting rid of the dangerous ones.”

The Kremlin instruction resulted in thousands of social media posts and hundreds of fabricated articles, created by troll farms and circulated in Ukraine and across Europe, that tried to exploit what were then rumored tensions between the two Ukrainian leaders, according to a trove of Kremlin documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post. The files, numbering more than 100 documents, were shared with The Post to expose for the first time the scale of Kremlin propaganda targeting Zelensky with the aim of dividing and destabilizing Ukrainian society — efforts that Moscow dubbed “information psychological operations.”(..)

The documents show how in January 2023 the Kremlin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, tasked a team of officials and political strategists with establishing a presence on Ukrainian social media to distribute disinformation.

The effort built on an earlier project that Kiriyenko, a longtime Putin aide, had been running to subvert Western support for Ukraine, including in France and Germany, previous reporting by The Post shows. The European propaganda group was overseen by one of Kiriyenko’s deputies, Tatyana Matveeva, head of the Kremlin’s department for developing information and communication technologies, the documents show.(..)

At a Jan. 16, 2023, meeting, Kiriyenko laid out four key objectives for the Ukraine propaganda team: discrediting Kyiv’s military and political leadership, splitting the Ukrainian elite, demoralizing Ukrainian troops and disorienting the Ukrainian population, the documents show.(..)

By early March, dozens of hired trolls were pumping out more than 1,300 texts and 37,000 comments on Ukrainian social media each week, according to one of the dashboard presentations. Records show that employees at troll farms earned 60,000 rubles a month, or $660, for writing 100 comments a day.(..)

The strategists advised developing “a network of Telegram channels in combination with Twitter and Facebook/Instagram” as the most effective way of penetrating Ukraine’s media space, noting that the Telegram audience in Ukraine had grown 600 percent over the previous year. (..)

By the first week of May,a post the Kremlin strategists had planted on Facebook, saying that “Valery Zaluzhny can become the next president of Ukraine,” had garnered 4.3 million views, one of the dashboard presentations shows. The Kremlin then issued orders to create similar posts or “additional reality” — a term used by Russian officials for fake news — including reports that Western leaders were looking for a replacement for Zelensky and that Zaluzhny intended to halt the counteroffensive.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said in a statement referring to the Russian posts about Zaluzhny and the alleged lack of state aid for the fallen soldier that it had been “monitoring and blocking accounts, Pages and websites run by this campaign” since 2022, “including these two Pages that were quickly detected and disabled by our security team.”

Undeterred, the strategists planted a plethora of articles in Ukraine via social media, with one in May headlined “Zelensky is holding on to the throne. In Ukraine democracy is being liquidated,” the documents show. Another in June sought to play up what it claimed was the prolonged disappearance of Zaluzhny from public view, with bloggers instructed to post comments declaring: “This is why Zaluzhny disappeared: Because he could have and should have taken Zelensky’s place.”

The strategists also sought to exploit Kiriyenko’s campaign in Western Europe by recycling its disinformation for use in Ukraine. The tactics in the European campaign included cloning and usurping media and government websites, such as those for Le Monde and the French Foreign Ministry, and then posting fake content on them denigrating the Ukrainian government, in an operation dubbed Doppelgänger by European Union officials. They also included creating fake accounts on X, or Twitter, for prominent figures including German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. The strategists sought to place stories or posts from those websites or accounts on Ukrainian social media as genuine European reporting or commentary.

After the fake Baerbock account declared in September that “the war in Ukraine will be over in 3 months,” the German authorities launched an investigation and found more than 50,000 fake user accounts coordinating pro-Russian propaganda, including those promoting the tweet. Officials believe the fake accounts were an extension of the Doppelgänger campaign, Der Spiegel reported.

The Doppelgänger operation was first exposed by Meta in September 2022 and then by French authoritieslast summer and tied to Reliable Recent News, a fake news site traced back to two Russian companies, the Social Design Agency and Structura National Technologies. The Kremlin documents show that the heads of Social Design Agency and Structura — Ilya Gambashidze and Nikolai Tupikin — worked directly with Kiriyenko and another Kremlin official, Sofiya Zakharova, who coordinated efforts in Europe and Ukraine.“She is the brain,” a European security official said.

The E.U. imposed sanctions in July on Gambashidze, Structura National Technologies and Social Design Agency for what it said was their role in creating fake webpages and social media accounts “usurping the identity of national media outlets and government websites” as part of “a hybrid campaign by Russia against the EU and member states.” Gambashidze and Tupikin were named by the U.S. State Department in November for their role in Kremlin efforts to spread disinformation in Latin America(..)

Gambashidze, Tupikin and their colleagues proposed narratives they hoped would destroy Zelensky’s image in the West as “the hero of a small country fighting a global evil,” one of the documents sent in April shows. They suggested portraying Zelensky as an actor only capable of following a script written for him by the United States and NATO,and his Western backers as tiring of him. They proposed distributing fake Ukrainian government documents as evidence of corrupt military procurement schemes, and suggesting that Zelensky and his family had Western bank accounts, the document shows.

The plans led to hundreds of articles and thousands of social media posts translated into French, German and English that targeted Zelensky, the document trove shows.

One article, for a French audience, was headlined: “The conductor has gotten bored of Zelensky’s concerts: the actions of the U.S. in Ukraine lead one to believe that Washington soon intends to get rid of Zelensky, without discussing this with Paris.”

On the basis of this article, one of the strategists ordered a troll farm employee to prepare social media posts in French saying, “Washington will replace Zelensky with a more capable president. And France will have to silently continue arming and financing Ukraine.”

Another article described how Zelensky had pushed for Ukrainian forces to defend Bakhmut against Zaluzhny’s wishes, leading, it said, to the deaths of 250,000 Ukrainian troops, a wildly exaggerated death toll in what was nonetheless a brutal battle for the city. The troll farm employees were asked to write comments such as “Why do Ukrainian generals hate Zelensky? PR out of the blood of fighters” and “To shoot the exhausted president? In Ukraine, a generals’ conspiracy is brewing.”

One of the strategists’ aims, European security officials said, was to ensure that the themes placed in European social media filtered back into Ukraine, through reposts and amplification,or by being picked up by Ukrainian politicians keen to boost their profiles with provocative posts.(..)

The strategists also had price lists for planting pro-Russian commentary in prominent Western media and for paying social media “influencers” in the United States and Europe “willing to work with Russian clients.” The documents say the Russians were willing to pay up to $39,000 for the planting of pro-Russian commentary in major media outlets in the West.

“Practically everywhere this will be columnists, leaders of public opinion, former diplomats, officials, professors and so on,” a note attached to the price list states.”

Catherine Belton, “Kremlin runs disinformation campaign to undermine Zelensky, documents show”

[artemis-73]

Suptober Day 15: Sigils

By the time Dean gets back to the hospital, Mary is sitting up and begging her parents for a pudding cup. Her skin looks less sallow, her eye bags less pronounced. Dean knows that Castiel made good on his deal. The test results that come in over the next three days prove it. By the end of the week, Mary's back home.

Everyone says it's a miracle. A gift from God.

If Dean sends a thanks to Castiel through prayer, he's the only one who has to know. He's not even sure if demons can hear prayers.

Then with that uncanny itch under his skin that tells him the crossroads won't be the last time he sees the demon, he gets to researching. He knows he can't waylay his debt. In ten years, he'll die. But before that, he needs to keep the demon away from him and his family. Kansas State University's library has a small collection of scans of old religious texts. Some of them have pages of sigils they claim will keep all manner of creatures away.

He paints them behind the pictures that hang on his walls and carves them into the window sills. He puts a devil's trap under the welcome mat. He even gets a tattoo of the symbol that claims to ward against possession. It's small and hidden on his hip. He almost feels safer with it.

When he comes up for air, he finds Sam and Jess have adjusted to a new normal. Mary doesn't need them as much, and at a sage nine years old, she wants some space. For the first time in years, she has sleepovers with friends and gets to go on field trips. It takes almost six months for her to demand a weekend at Uncle Dean's. He doesn't take it personally; for a long time, he was just an extension of her parents, a safe place for her to stay if Sam and Jess were both busy.

Now, she gets to eat too much pizza and stay up past her bedtime. She's on her third slice—impressive for her size—when she blinks big blue eyes up at Dean and says," Thank you, Uncle Dean."

"For what, kiddo?" he asks absentmindedly. He might be a little too invested in Frozen 2.

"For getting the angel to heal me."

His blood runs like ice in his veins. "What angel?"

"Cassie-el." She trips over the name, but she says it like Dean should just know, and he does. He does. "Mommy and Daddy were in the hallway talking to Nurse Layla, and he sat on my bed and said you talked to him all about me and that you loved me so much he wanted to heal me for you. And then he touched my forehead—" She places two greasy fingers above Dean's right eyebrow. "—and I felt all better…except I was hungry."

"Have you seen him since the hospital?"

"No," she says around a mouthful of pizza. Then she turns back to the TV, like she didn't just send Dean's world reeling. He wrangles her into a crushing embrace that she whines and wiggles her way out of.

She doesn't say another word about it, and he can't bring himself to push, so he sits staring at the TV but not seeing a damn thing. She's half asleep by the time the movie ends, and it takes some convincing to get her to brush her teeth and wash her face, but finally, he tucks her into bed in the guest room.

With his mind still a 100 miles away at a crossroads in the middle of nowhere, he cleans up the living room. He's straightening the pillows on the couch when he feels it. He's not alone.

"Next time you start messing with sigils, make sure the scan is high enough quality to get all the details right."

Castiel is standing by the window, tracing one of the carvings with his finger. He looks the same: rumpled over-sized suit and sex hair.

"What are you doing here?" Dean asks. He angles himself so he's between Castiel and the hallway that leads to the guest room.

Castiel watches him shuffle across the room with what Dean thinks might be amusement. "I won't bother her. She's not who I'm here to see."

"Well, forgive me for being a little suspicious. First time she's spending the night, and suddenly you show up?"

"Oh, that's a coincidence. Our schedules just happened to line up."

Dean's not sure how he knows the demon's lying, but he feels it in his gut. And when Castiel's eyes dart around the room, he almost think it's not malicious.

"What do you want, Castiel?"

"A new boss, a branch transfer, some reprieve from the paper pushing…" He slips the tie from around his neck and crumples it in one pocket. As he undoes the top two buttons on his shirt, he says, "But I'd settle for a beer."

Dean weighs his options—he doesn't have many—and considers the time. He'd just be sitting up alone anyway.

"Fine. One beer. Then you leave."

Castiel ignores him, opting instead to start rooting through his movie collection. Dean leaves him to it. He grabs a couple of beers as quickly as he can. He's not a complete idiot; he's still wary of leaving the demon alone in his home, especially with Mary.

"You can stop worrying about her," Castiel says as he takes the offered beer. "I'm not going to hurt her. Or you, but you seem strangely unconcerned about that part."

"Forgive me for not believing a demon."

"I haven't lied to you yet."

"That I know of."

In a surprisingly human gesture, Castiel rolls his eyes. "You humans are so suspicious."

"You did short my dad eight years."

"I didn't lie to him for that. I told him if he wanted more, he needed to give more, and he agreed gladly… Or as gladly as I imagine he did anything. He was a miserable asshole, wasn't he?"

Dean grits his teeth. "Don't talk about my dad like that."

"You know, when John Winchester's son summoned me, I thought I knew exactly what kind of man I'd find. You are nothing like him. It's almost a shame to only give you ten years."

"Hey, if you want to give me more, I won't complain." Dean's voice wobbles strangely. He doesn't like the way Castiel almost sounds fond of him.

"Sadly, I can take more years, but I can't give them." Castiel actually seems disappointed. He shakes himself. "Let me fix the sigils."

"What, you trying to keep yourself out?"

The way Castiel looks at him makes him feel like a baby bird staring up at a hawk. "None of these will bother me," Castiel says finally. "Besides, there are things far worse for you out there."

Dean watches as Castiel fixes all the sigils he'd put up. He even does the ones in the guest room, and Mary doesn't so much as twitch in her sleep while he does. He adds some more and ignores Dean's questions about what they're warding against.

They're back in the living room, and memories of their first meeting are nipping at his heels when Dean says, "Thank you, by the way. For…you know."

"For Mary? No thanks needed. You did sell your soul for her. Besides, I heard your prayer."

"Oh. I wasn't sure if you would."

Castiel smiles then ducks his head to try to hide it. "Yes, well, I did." He fiddles with his half-empty beer bottle.

When they'd first met, in the middle of the night at a crossroads, Dean had known Castiel's eyes were blue. But now, standing in his living room with the lamp beside the couch on, he can appreciate the exact shade, like a summer day when the sun's just hot enough to bleach the sky a lighter blue.

He practically leaps backwards. He's not sure when or how they ended up so close to each other in the middle of the room. He pretends to study the sigils on the windowsill—the same one Castiel had been tracing not an hour before, he realizes belatedly. He can feel Castiel behind him. He knows that Castiel has gone back to looking at his movie collection. He closes his eyes and starts counting down from ten. When he gets to one, he'll kick Castiel out.

He gets to five when Castiel asks, "Is this any good?"

Dean turns to find him holding up a copy of Tombstone. He can't help but scoff. "Is it any good? It's one of the greatest Westerns ever made, man."

Castiel hums thoughtfully and goes back to studying the cover. And the thing is, it shouldn't matter. The demon can watch an old Western on his own time in his own cozy little corner of hell.

But.

But Dean loves showing people Tombstone, and he's never gonna say no to a rewatch. They sit on either end of the couch and burn through an entire six pack before the posse is even formed. Castiel's focus never wavers from the screen. It's like he's expecting there to be an exam at the end of it. Dean's pretty sure he spends more time watching Castiel than the movie.

He nods off before Doc kills Ringo. The last thing he remembers is Castiel taking the beer bottle from his hand. He wakes up the next morning in his bed with a glass of water on his nightstand.

[sunraies]

can we get a part 2 for “goodbye” pleasee?!

I wasn't planning a part 2 but I had some thoughts on how the relationship would go once Rafe arrived in Paris. I have made bullet points in sections. All fluff, no angst.

Love in Paris

Rafe Cameron × Kook!Reader

Warnings - Fluff. Bullet points, not full detailed fic

Moments of when Rafe comes to Paris

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

• You met Rafe at the airport a week later. You held a cute little sign with his name on. Desperately trying to catch a glimpse of him as people crowded the arrivals area.

• Once you spotted each other, you were stocked as he'd buzzed his hair. But damn did he look fine!

• He dropped his bag to the floor as he caught you in his arms, your legs wrapping around his waist as he supported you, hands on your ass under your little flower sundress.

"Hey, baby," He whispered before kissing you

• That first kiss was so full of longing, passion and love.

○●○●

• Rafe held your hand the whole taxi ride back to your dorms, his thumb caressing over your knuckles. You felt your cheeks warm as he's shade covered eyes watched you more than the sites you tried to point out as the taxi passed by.

"There's the Eiffel Tower," you pointed out the window, leaning over him "Rafe are you even interested?"

"I'm looking at best sight." He smiled down at you.

• As you showed him around campus that was all still so new to you, he had his arm over your shoulders. You showed him the best coffee spot and study area, which resulted in making out in quiet space. Up against the bookshelves holding a hundred year old books.

The dust off the books fluttered around you from the force, Rafe pushed you against the wooden shelves. You whimpered against Rafe’s lips. Your hands ran over his buzzed hair while his hands roamed your body, lifting your leg over his hip.

• At your dorm room he met your two roommates. Bonnie and Samantha (Sammy). As Rafe used your bathroom, they gushed over him, which you were 100% sure he heard when he returned with a smirk on his face.

"That man is fine with a capital F" Bonnie swooned

"F for Fuck Me!" Sammy winked at you.

• Seeing Rafe Cameron lounging on your small dorm bed was an image you would never forget. He looked so sleepy as he relaxed against your pillows. The sunset making him look golden as it shone on him through your window

○●○●

• The few days Rafe stayed as a whirl wind of sight seeing from the Eiffel Tower and walking along the Seine. You had lunch dates and fantasy dinners. He spoiled you as much as you aloud him too. If you let him, he would find a way to give you the moon.

• One of your best nights was in his hotel room. He brought everything off the room service menu and as you eat, you watched a French movie with subtitles but he made you translate. You ended up sat between his legs, his arms wrapped around you as he nuzzled and kissed your neck. He laughed richly as you made up what the characters were saying. It was the perfect night of best friends and lovers

"That is not what he said, baby" Rafe laughed against your neck

"It was, you don't speak French that well, babe"

"I can read the subtitles"

"Maybe they are wrong"

• That night ended in the most intimate, love making you ever experience.

○●○●

• The morning of his flight, neither wanted to say goodbye. Curled up in each other, spending as much time as possible to together, knowing the next time would be Christmas break.

"I love you" You sighed, holding onto him as you hugged

"I love you too, baby" He kissed your head before lifting your chin and kissing you softly.

• Seeing him get on his plane was heartbreaking

• As soon as he landed he phoned you, exicted to tell you that Ward had given him a chance to work in the family busines.

• A few months later, he was back in Paris to meet important clients. He was spending until Christmas there, it was the best gift Ward had ever given you.

[hollyhomburg]

what is your review about the lesserafim workout

ooooh! i will totally give my review!

a bit of a disclaimer- i have an above average stamina and i've walked 3 miles every day for the last year so my opinion is of someone who already worked out everyday/had experience working out. your experience may be different! there is also a brief mention of disordered eating in this, just a disclaimer!!

My review of the lesserafim workout is that it has a high barrier for entry and requires more than just the workout to loose weight or gain muscle. alot of people claim you'll see results in one week and that is utter bullshit, i'd say it took at least 4 weeks for me to see/feel results- which is pretty good for a work out. if you're ever in online spaces and someone claims to have changed their body in one week- please realize that they are likely either 1. starving themselves while doing the work out or 2. taking steroids. Overnight results do not happen. thats just not how bodies work.

the lesseraphim work out is as follows:

100 jumping jacks (4 sets of 25)

100 burpees ( 10 sets of 10)

20 jump squats (2 sets of 10)

plank crawl - 3min (3 sets of one min)

20 plank twist/russian twist (20 each side)

plank up/down- 100 (5 sets of 20)

crunches - 100 (4 sets of 25)

Some exercises in it (like the plank crawls + burpees) have a really high stamina barrier that is really hard to overcome- it took probably a month for me to feel not-daunted by the prospect of doing them and at first i split them into 10 burpee sets. i would not recommend this work out to someone who isn't used to working out/already fairly athletic/used to exerting yourself- because i think it would be a really easy way to burn yourself out.

There are also some of the exercises that an inexperienced person would probably injure themselves doing- like the plank up/downs. if you have wrist issues whatsoever i would skip this step- and i actually ended up abandoning it after the first months because my wrists hurt too bad. Joint health >>>> results the only other exercise i ended up switching out was the plank crawls, now i just do planks, but you do you. i just don't like plank crawls, i need to strike a balance of enjoying working out and it taxing me and plank crawls where just too much of a mental energy sap for me to keep going with them. i did add 50 push ups to this work out- to make up the difference.

i've done the lesseraphim work out for about 3 months now 4-5 times a week and during that time i did gain 5lbs of muscle/chub- jurys up on which it was i'm leaning towards muscle because i have a lot more definition in my shoulders in particular from the plank crawls- like it definitely made me ripped in my upper body in a way that i did not anticipate.

One thing i did notice is that my overall appetite did increase on this work out, and i kinda started a bulk/cut cycle in the middle of it- so of course because i was eating more protein i gained more muscle. i just started my cut cycle last week and i'm down 2lbs already so! its hard to say what my end results will be! it definitely increased my metabolic baseline however- because i was feeling the drive to eat so much more. so if you are looking to increase your maintenance calories this would definitely help. My current cut schedule is at like 1,300 calories a day with 60g protein so- that is a bit extream depending on what you consider.

i will say i can certainly see more definition im my ab area and my shoulders above all else- but what i don't like is that this work out stresses your calfs with all the burpees and tbh- my calf circumference has increased a whole inch in the last year so- that is definitely not a muscle i am trying to grow. be mindful to streach before and after you do this work out!

some of the exercises like the crunches and jumping jacks and jump squats felt a little bit easy compared to the burpees and plan crawls and i either ended up increasing the amount of them or changing them up a bit because i didn't find them challenging. but it's all up to what you want to do.

my lesseraphim inspired work out now:

100 burpees (done in a 10 minute period, no longer in set just with 30 second breaks as needed)

100 crunches (4 sets x 25, sometimes 2 x 50)

40 jump squats (4 sets x 10 usually done alternating with the crunches since they are similar skill level)

planks (3 minutes total, 1 minute sets)

Plank twists (3 sets x 40, 20 each side)

crunches (2 sets of 50)

push ups (5 sets of 10)

finish up with a 3 mile walk at 10 incline for ~ 1hr.

Sorry to go on a tangent but here you go! i do this work out 5-6 times a week (i walk everyday but i don't always have time to do this work out) the longest it's ever taken me is an hour and 20 minutes, the shortest is just over 30!

if you have experience with this work out i'd love to hear your thoughts on it too!