#Arian x Dust

[ant1quarian]

It was a struggle for Arian- holding back his silently possessive urges, and even more difficult to simply just... not break from the confines of his pocket dimension and wreak havoc on the multiverse once more.

He was stronger, once. More violent. More... like a dictator.

He had the world at his beck and call.

Then he was locked up, had time to reflect- to read, to understand.

... and realised he hadn't really ever been happy. He had been caught up in the addictive power, but never given time to himself.

...

That... changed, one day.

Love at first sight wasn't a thing one could experience- not really. It was adorable to think of in theory, but in reality, that didn't just... happen

But there was fascination there. Curiosity. And concern, too.

A much smaller monster who had seen some of the worst that the Underground had to offer and then was ripped out and placed into an even worse situation.

A pawn to a false god.

And how it made Arian's rage boil.

The fact that Nightmare dared act like he was anything of a God. As if he was even slightly deserving of that title.

Arian wasn't a god.

He was a creature.

Something beyond mortal comprehension, watering himself down for the sake of not breaking the minds of any who viewed him.

He had done too many bad things to be considered something to be believed in.

(Ataraxia knows how much he detests the concept of being worshipped or worshipping someone in the first place- not that he would ever impress his own opinion onto others or disrespect their beliefs.)

But Nightmare?

Nightmare was so much worse.

It was the fourth time Dust returned to him, bloody and wounded from Nightmare's recent bout of "punishing Killer", that Arian decided something needed to stop.

And for the very first time, he broke the seal to his world.

[oddinary4bts]

Chasing Cars | ch 17 (jjk)

☆summary: when your brother goes to study on a semester abroad, your life collides with his best friend Jeon Jungkook, who's coincidentally your roommate. Will you survive the collision, or will you crumble into dust?

☆pairings: brother's best friend!Jungkook x younger sister!female reader

☆rating: 18+ (minors DNI, this chapter contains mature content)

☆genre: forbidden love?au, college!au, slice of life!au, smut, angst (as usual a lot of it), fluff

☆warnings: alcohol, mentions of OC thinking Jungkook was going to hurt himself in October, mentions of Hobi, explicit content: nipple/breast play, hickeys, praising, teasing, oral sex (male and female receiving), jerking off, balls sucking, a bit of mouth fucking, hair pulling, fingering, unprotected sex (don't be stupid)

☆word count: 9k

☆a/n: I don't want this to be the end no :') thank you for accompanying me on this journey. I hope you loved this story as much as I loved writing it, and I hope it stays in your heart like it will for sure stay in mine <3 thank you to @moonleeai for beta-ing, you're the best <3

☆series masterpost

☆☆☆☆☆

If I lay here If I just lay here Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol

☆☆☆☆☆

Thursday, December 19th

It snowed for the first time of the year this afternoon. 

It had been forecasted for a week now, but you still smile as you walk out of the exam building along with Nabi, a blanket of snow covering the ground. Students are milling around, throwing snowballs and building snowmen as their cheeks turn rosy, and their breaths turn into clouds that slowly lift towards the cloud-covered sky. 

It’s not snowing anymore, but it’s supposed to start again over the night, which you reckon might disrupt your plans of driving home tomorrow with Taehyung, Ariane and Jungkook. You think your mother would be relieved - the apartment will be crowded for two weeks, and you know she likes her space.

At least she doesn’t have a boyfriend this year, and so it’ll only be the five of you. It’s not like you aren’t used to sharing a roof with the three others though - you’ve been good at it this semester, especially considering that you and Jungkook have been sharing a room, and Taehyung and Ariane another.

Which left your old room as a guest room for the nights Jimin and Sera get too drunk with you to make their way home.

Your relationship with Jungkook has slowly evolved over the weeks and months since you’d run home thinking that he was going to hurt himself. You’re now fully dating, or at least you tell so to everyone that asks you where you’re standing when it comes to Jungkook.

You know he does the same anyway, even if you haven’t really stated to each other that you are boyfriend and girlfriend yet. You don’t think it matters - your relationship with him has been going on for far longer than just a few weeks, and the absence of a label doesn’t scare you in the slightest. Not when you fall asleep and wake up next to him every day, his first and last words of the day always love confessions uttered against your skin.

It’s a side of Jungkook that you like. The way he’s demonstrative of his affection, not caring if your brother is watching whenever he hugs you or kisses you. Taehyung has cursed the two of you repeatedly for it, but there’s just some beauty in the carefree act of loving each other in front of the very person you thought would end you that you both can’t let go of.

Speaking about that, your relationship with Taehyung has been… strained, since October. You haven’t really been able to forgive him for what happened that night he threw Jungkook out of the apartment, and he hasn’t quite been able to forgive you for hiding your relationship with Jungkook from him. You think he’s a little hypocritical for it - he and Jungkook have had no trouble resuming their friendship despite the fact that you and Jungkook are now a thing. But you don’t mind. 

As long as Jungkook is happy, then you are happy too.

“You coming to Yoongi and Namjoon’s tonight, right?” Nabi says as you walk down the path, your shoes crunching on the snow.

You chuckle. “You think I’d miss Yoongi introducing his boyfriend?” you say. “Hell nah. Of course I’ll be there.”

Nabi laughs, slightly shaking her head. “It’s not like you haven’t seen them together at the gym.”

She’s got a point, but you still want to see gym guy - Mikey, you’ve now found out - out of his natural habitat, aka the gym. 

“Is Jungkook coming?” she asks.

You nod. “Later though. He’s going out for drinks with his friends, and he said he’d meet up around eleven.”

“That’s late,” she comments.

You playfully push her. “We’ll probably be going until three am, I think eleven is fine.”

She laughs, though her eyes sparkle as she looks at you, with excitement and amusement you know is reciprocated in your own gaze.

Tonight will be one for the books, and you just can’t wait.

You have to head to your apartment first, to take a quick shower and grab the drinks you’ve bought for the evening. Nabi tags along, chilling with Ariane in the living room while you get ready. You get out of the shower ten minutes later to see that they’ve been joined by Taehyung.

The absence of Jungkook brings a pout to your lips, even though you know he’s just with Jimin and Eunwoo at Jimin’s apartment, pre-drinking for the bar.

“What’s up?” Taehyung greets you. 

You offer him a tight-lipped smile. He takes it in stride, looking away from you to focus on Nabi and Ariane’s conversation while you make your way to your room to do your makeup quickly. Soon enough you’re ready to go, and you stop by the kitchen to grab the drinks - different flavours of lemonade with alcohol, like maybe it’s summer and the snow outside is but a mirage.

“Let’s go!” you say as you reach the living room next, and Nabi nods as she jumps up from the couch, meeting you near the door.

“I am so excited Y/n, you have no idea,” she says, and you laugh as you nod approvingly.

“Let’s go see what that Mikey is made of.”

Her laugh doubles up, and it follows you outside after you’ve put your coats and boots on. You’ve decided to walk to Yoongi and Namjoon’s place, and Nabi lets out a happy yelp when it starts snowing again.

“It’s so pretty!” she says, motioning to the fat snowflakes that are lazily falling from the sky.

You fully agree with her - there’s something magical about the first day of snow. It fills the air with excitement and joy and nostalgia for the days when you were younger and the first snow meant the beginning of the Christmas season, which you reckon might have always been your favourite season after all.

“It really is,” you agree with Nabi.

She nods wisely, and then throws you a look. “Did you know Ariane’s grandfather was French?”

You actually did. Ariane told you it was the reason why she’d decided to do a semester abroad in Paris, and that her grandfather had also been the one to name her. 

“Yeah, she told me all about it when we went out to the karaoke bar,” you say, referencing an outing that had taken place in early November, when your relationship with Jungkook still felt fresh.

Not that it doesn’t anymore. You reckon being with Jungkook will always be refreshing to you - he’s the oasis in the middle of your desert.

“Oh right,” Nabi lets out. “That time you lost your voice for five days straight.”

“I did not!” you cry out as she bursts out laughing.

You, as a matter of fact, did lose your voice, but it was only because you and Jungkook had gotten too drunk and you were screaming more than singing by the end of the evening.

You spend the rest of the walk to Yoongi’s apartment bickering with Nabi, laughing as you reminisce about the good times you spent over the last few months. And there have been many - Jungkook fits right in with your friend group, and you’ve been hanging out with all of them on multiple occasions, Taehyung, Ariane, Sera and Jimin even tagging along some of the time.

You get to Yoongi’s apartment at the same time as a flustered Seokjin, who admits he had to sprint to make it in time because Ria complained about his tardiness. He’s clutching two rosé bottles for dear life - Ria’s preferred alcoholic beverage now - and he explains he was late because of them. Though you know Ria probably wasn’t actually upset with him in the slightest, you still find it weirdly endearing that Seokjin ran.

It’s proof that he’s utterly obsessed with your friend, much like she is obsessed with him, too.

“Well then let’s get in,” Nabi says, and you follow her inside the building, and then up to the apartment in and of itself. 

The door is unlocked when you get there, and you walk in, taking off your boots in the hall before making your way to the living room, where your friend group is all gathered already.

The first person you notice is Mikey, and he politely smiles at you as Ria throws herself at you and Nabi, hugging you both tight to her chest.

“Congrats on finishing your semester!” Ria says. 

You thank her, and she takes the drinks you’ve brought from your hands so that you can take off your coat, putting them down on the coffee table where all available alcohol is waiting for you all. And there’s a lot - you would think a lot more people are coming tonight, but it really is just the seven of you, and Jungkook later.

You reckon it’s just another sign that tonight will be one for the books.

You start the evening by ordering dumplings, and you grab one of the lemonade drinks as you wait for the food to arrive, sipping from it as you talk with all of your friends. Mikey remains silent by Yoongi’s side, though you notice the way they’re holding hands, and you smile at the sight.

Yoongi is shining. His eyes are sparkling like you’ve never seen them do before, and he looks like the sun personified with Mikey by his side. He deserves the happiness, every single ounce of it, especially after what Hoseok put him through.

For some reason the thought reminds you of your old friend, and you wonder how Hoseok is doing on his side of the country. Has he found the solace he was seeking for? Though you’d long hated him for the way he’d ghosted everyone, tonight you reckon you forgive him.

You forgive him for what he put Yoongi through, only because it allowed Yoongi to experience this relationship now, a much needed relationship that’s been healing every jagged piece of his heart.

Your phone buzzes in the pocket of the sweatshirt you’re wearing - Jungkook’s shirt - and you pull it out, immediately smiling when you see that Jungkook texted you.

[5:57 pm] JK: am tipsy

[5:57 pm] JK: can’t wait to see you later

You laugh at his text, replying quickly to make sure to drink water, and then you put your phone away, focusing on the conversation again.

“That’s just because you’re jealous I can make good music!” Yoongi is saying, and Namjoon rolls his eyes, though the laugh on his lips tells you that they aren’t truly fighting.

“You say you make good music but none of us has ever heard your music, Yoongi,” Ria says, finger pointing at him like she’s scolding him. 

“You’ve never showed them your music?” Mikey intervenes.

Yoongi blushes, eyes falling to the floor. “Well, uh, I just never had the occasion to…”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Namjoon says. “Pull out the receipts, Yoongi.”

Yoongi shakes his head, looking around for salvation. He meets your gaze, but you only shrug your shoulders, a mischievous smile on your lips. You’ve been curious about his music too, so you certainly won’t be the one to encourage him to hide it for longer.

“I hate y’all,” Yoongi grumbles.

“I mean, you don’t have to share if you don’t want to,” Mikey says next to him, resting a hand on Yoongi’s thigh as Yoongi grabs his phone.

“Nah, it’s okay,” Yoongi reassures him, and they look at each other for a few seconds.

It’s intimate, and you look down at your drink to give them privacy. A few seconds later, the living room fills with the intro of a song, and your gaze widens when the lyrics start, all in Korean. You don’t think Yoongi’s the one singing, and you’re proven right when a rapper comes in, and you recognize Yoongi’s voice.

“Bro, what?” Seokjin lets out.

“Shhh!” Nabi says, and Ria fake-glares at Seokjin, who just purses his lips, visibly holding a laugh in.

The song is good. More than that, the song is moving, the emotions running high all throughout it, up until the end, when the instruments all stop except the piano, giving a melancholy ending to the song.

“Yoongi!” you let out. “That shit is fire.”

“Thanks,” Yoongi says, his cheeks turning deep red.

Mikey is smiling next to him as everyone congratulates him, and before you have time to listen to more of his music, Namjoon receives a text saying that the food has arrived. He goes downstairs with Seokjin to bring everything up, and a minute later you’re all eating at the kitchen table, Ria sitting on Seokjin’s lap so that everyone can fit around the table.

The evening unfolds with more music that Yoongi composed, songs he claims he wants to put in an EP he’ll release next year. You’re reeling at the beauty of his talent, and though he still turns red every time someone compliments him, you know his smile means he appreciates it, and is probably relieved that you all enjoy his music. 

You reckon Mikey helps, encouraging Yoongi whenever he looks too embarrassed, and you’re so happy for your friend you feel like crying. Or maybe that’s because you’re on your fourth - fifth? - lemonade and the alcohol has started messing with your brain.

Time flies, and Jungkook texts you that he’s on his way while you’re playing Jackbox on the TV, the laughter so loud in the small living room that you’re convinced the boys might get a noise complaint by the end of the evening. You’re excited to see Jungkook, deadly so, and you decide to meet him downstairs, needing some fresh air anyway.

The snow is still falling outside when you make your way downstairs. The streetlights colour it in neon orange, and it covers the ground in a soft blanket. You wait in the hall of the building, watching the world outside and thinking about how everything has changed in a year.

If someone had told you a year ago that you’d be dating your brother’s best friend now, you would have told them that they were crazy. 

Now you know there’s nothing crazy about you and Jeon Jungkook. It just makes sense. 

Jungkook arrives sometime later - it’s hard to tell if it’s been a long time or not when your head is swimming in alcohol. He smiles brightly the second he sees you, opening the door to walk into your arms.

You hug him tight to your chest, hiding your face in his neck as his arms snake around your waist. He smells of home - you’ve realized he’s become your home now - and you relax in his embrace, letting him sway you from side to side gently.

“Hey there,” he greets you with his softest voice, the one that’s reserved just for you.

“Hey,” you reply. There’s a silence as you tighten your hold on him, and then you pull away to meet his gaze. “I’m drunk.”

He laughs, pecking your forehead. “I’m tipsy. But I drank lots of water like you said.”

You nod approvingly and then return your head to his neck. Unable to resist, you lightly bite at the skin, and Jungkook yelps, jumping out of your arms.

“What was that for!”

You eye him up and down. “You look yummy.”

He snorts, grabbing your hand to pull you in. “Oh, you’re drunk drunk.”

“I’m not!” you insist, though you’re fully aware that you are.

It’s not like it matters - you know Jungkook will take care of you.

And he does - he gets you water as soon as you get inside, your friends greeting him in a chorus of hellos. He waves at them, forces you to sit down with the glass of water, and you sip from it as he grabs the beer Namjoon offers him. 

Namjoon and Jungkook’s friendship has blossomed over the last two months. They’ve gotten really close, often hanging out just the two of them, which you think is adorable. They apparently have more in common than you thought, Namjoon coming from a rich family as well.

Nothing like Jungkook, but still.

Jungkook sits in front of you on the floor, and you immediately slide down from the couch to sit behind him so that he can lean against your chest. You wrap your arm around his dainty waist, smiling softly as you peck the top of his head.

He glances at you, eyes gleaming with happiness, and then resumes his conversation with Namjoon.

This, you think, is happiness. This is the kind of scene you see in movies when everything is resolved after a long journey. It’s a coming of age - your coming of age, despite the fact that you aren’t a teenager anymore. 

You just know that, when you’ll be old and grey and reminding yourself of your college days, this is what you’ll think of. Jungkook’s presence amongst your friends, the gentle ambiance of the snow outside, the smiles and the laughter and the music filling the air. Everything - you’ll remember everything with vivid clarity when it’s time to go, knowing that this moment, and all of those related to Jungkook and your friend group, have forged the person that you’ll become.

The thought brings tears to your eyes - happy tears - and you blink them away as you hug Jungkook tighter. He looks back at you again, smiling softly, light filling those big doe eyes of his that you’ve been in love with since a certain power outage.

To think that your whole relationship with him started because of that outage - where would you be now if it hadn’t been for that?

“What?” Jungkook asks softly. 

“I love you,” you reply.

He grins, that adorable bunny grin of his that steals your breath each time. “I love you too.”

You know it - it’s been a law of your universe since you ran back home that October night, when you realized that your love for him was far more important than your brother being upset with him.

In truth, you think your love for Jeon Jungkook might have been the reason why you were put on this Earth - your purpose, if you will. Like the Fates weaved your story with his, until one can’t exist without the other.

And you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Tuesday, December 24th

Christmas Eve has been fun. You’ve been laughing around with Taehyung, Ariane, Jungkook and your mother, sharing way too much food at the dinner table. Good food - your mother has always been a good cook, whenever she finds the time to actually come up with a meal. Jungkook helped her too, and you haven’t missed the approving glances your mother has been throwing him all evening.

Ariane has received her good shares of those too. You can tell your mother is happy for both you and Taehyung, which makes you feel bad that you initially thought it was good that she’s currently single.

She deserves love, too.

You’re in the bathroom, sometime after midnight, mind swimming with the eggnog drinks that your mother made for everyone, when your phone buzzes in the back pocket of the mom jeans you’re wearing. You pull it out, blinking a few times, and your gaze widens when you focus on the text message you’ve received.

Mostly, your heart falls to your ass when you see who texted you.

[00:24 am] Hobi: hey, merry christmas! just wanted to text to apologize for dipping in april? that sucked of me and yeah, it’s christmas so i thought it was a good time to apologize

You reread the message a few times, wondering if you’re the only one that’s received an apology. You highly doubt you’re the one that needed it after all, and when your phone buzzes again a few seconds later, with a text from Yoongi, you realize you’re not.

[00:24 am] Yoongi: you’ll never believe who just texted me

You slide your phone open, ignoring the conversation with Hoseok to head straight to the one with Yoongi. You type your reply, worrying at your bottom lip as you send it.

[00:25 am] You: i know the fuck he texted me too

[00:25 am] You: how are you feeling?

Yoongi doesn’t reply right away, and you decide not to reply to Hoseok either, instead stuffing your phone back in your back pocket before washing your hands. You return to the kitchen after, where everyone’s been waiting for you to play your turn in the game of Ticket to Ride you’ve started at midnight.

You can’t believe Hoseok texted you. It feels like a ghost coming back to haunt you, reminding you that you’d been friends with benefits, albeit on a break, this time last year. Perhaps that is why Hoseok chose to text you too - you meant something to him to a certain extent.

“Everything okay?” Jungkook asks as you frown, trying to remember what it is you wanted to do in the game.

You blink once, meeting his gaze. “Yeah.” You nod, repeating the word, and then you pick up two green wagon cards.

Jungkook lets it slide, focusing on the game too, and you all but forget about Hoseok’s text when your mother gives you another eggnog drink. You finish the game a little while later - Ariane winning grandiosely - and then you all head to bed after wishing each other a last Merry Christmas.

Jungkook plops down on your childhood bed as you walk into your room, and you close the door, leaning against it as you smile fondly. He props his chin on his hands, looking at you. 

“Tonight was fun,” he says.

You nod, smile growing wider. “It really was. But wait until tomorrow, that’s where all the fun is.”

Indeed, you’re going to visit your grandparents’ house tomorrow evening, along with all of your uncles and aunts and cousins.  It’s tradition every year, and it’s the first time you’re bringing someone. You’d be a little anxious, if not for the fact that you know your grandmother is already obsessed with Jungkook from everything your mother told her.

“I can’t wait,” Jungkook says, and the soft curve of his lips tells you he means it.

You cross the distance between you, lying down on the bed next to him. Jungkook shifts, opening his arms for you to slide into his embrace, and he holds you tight, pressing a kiss on the top of your head.

“I mostly can’t wait to give you your gift tomorrow morning,” he adds, his mouth moving against you. He pulls away, rubbing his face to take out from his mouth the hair he clearly almost swallowed from talking against your head. “You’ll be so happy.”

“You really didn’t need to give me a gift,” you say.

“You think I haven’t noticed the suspiciously large box with my name on it under the Christmas tree?”

You shrug. “Maybe it’s from Taehyung.”

“It’s written from peach.”

You snort, laughing against his chest. “And what about it?”

“You’re allowed to get me a gift but I can’t get you one?”

You nod forcefully. “Yeah. You already got me that dress anyway.”

He laughs, rolling on his back. He pulls you with him until you’re lying next to him with your head on his chest. “That was almost a year ago, it doesn’t count.”

“It does,” you mumble.

He chuckles, the sound rumbling deeply in his chest. “You’re adorable, I love you.” He pecks the top of your head again. “Besides, what did you get me?”

“What did you get me?” you ask, gaze narrowed as you look up at him.

His next peck lands on your forehead. “Not telling you.”

“Well then, I’m not telling you either,” you smugly reply.

He laughs, tightening his hold around you. “Fuck, I love you so much.”

Your heart stops in your chest, and then it starts again on a wilder beat you hear echoed behind his ribcage.

“I love you too, Kook.”

“Luckiest man alive,” he whispers, and it’s rhetorical, not asking for a reply. 

All you do is grin as you start tracing idle shapes on his stomach. You fall silent - the kind of comfortable silence you can only share with him - up until you remember Hoseok’s text. It makes you prop yourself up on an elbow, and you meet Jungkook’s gaze.

“You’ll never guess who texted me earlier.”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Who did?” 

“Hobi,” you reveal.

Jungkook’s gaze widens. “The guy you used to fuck?”

You roll your eyes, pinching his side. “Yes. But mostly Yoongi’s… ex?”

“You did use to fuck though, I heard you guys.”

“Oh my God, Kook.”

He offers you a shit-eating grin. “What?”

“You’re annoying.”

He pulls you on top of him until you’re straddling him. “But you love me.”

You narrow your eyes, glaring at him. “But you’re annoying.”

His hands, now on your hips, tighten slightly, and your brain chooses this instant to zero in on the spot.

“Do you know how much it drove me crazy?” he says, and his voice is suddenly low, husky, shooting warmth right to your core. “I fucking wanted to beat his ass.”

You cock an eyebrow, tilting your head to the side as a smirk appears on your lips. “Yeah?”

He nods. “Yeah.” He forces you to circle your hips, and you’re not surprised to find him already getting hard. “I’d imagine it was me instead.” It’s Jungkook’s turn to smirk, and he sits up to kiss you, his tongue pushing into your mouth once before he lies back down. “And then when I was fucking Shelly and you were touching yourself?”

You’re turning molten, like you’re metal melting in a forge. “Yeah?”

“That’s when I knew that whatever I’d promised to Tae didn’t matter anymore.” He grinds into you. “I needed to have you, one way or another.”

You crash your lips on his so hard you taste blood. He’s quick to slide his hands under your shirt, and he fumbles with the fabric until you part to allow him to take it off your body. You’re only wearing a red bralette you bought before finals, and Jungkook’s gaze darkens at the sight.

“Shit peach, you’re always so fucking hot.”

“One way or another, you say?” you repeat what he said earlier.

He looks confused for a heartbeat, and then he nods. “Yeah. I was into you already then, as you know, but damn every time I touched myself all I could think about was you.”

“Outrageous,” you tease as you circle your hips once more.

He grunts softly. “Oh, peach, don’t pretend you weren’t thinking of me too.”

You lean forward, sucking on his lower lip, your tongue then flicking at his piercings. “Oh, you know I was thinking about you,” you say against his mouth.

You move down enough to find his neck, your teeth teasing the skin before you suck on it, yet you refrain from leaving a mark.

You don’t want your mother asking questions tomorrow.

Jungkook grunts as you lick at the spot, and then move back up to nibble at his jaw. His large hands on your waist caress up your flanks until he reaches your breasts that he shamelessly cups, his fingers immediately searching for your nipples. He pinches them, hard enough to hurt, and you moan out loud, hiding your face in his neck.

“Careful, peach,” Jungkook warns. “We wouldn’t want your family hearing us.”

You bite at his neck again and he hisses. “What did you just say?”

“Fuck,” he groans, and it sounds like a growl. “Now I want to fucking ruin you.”

You straighten, your hands landing flat on his chest to hold him down. “Why don’t you let me have my fun tonight?”

His dark gaze surveys you carefully as you climb down his body until you’re sitting on his legs. You grip his thighs and then slide your hands up to his clothed erection. You run a hand along it and then move up to push his shirt up, revealing the strong muscles of his abdomen. You graze them with your nails, and Jungkook’s eyes flutter shut as your other hand returns to his dick.

“How should I please you tonight?” you ask.

You lean forward and, unable to resist, you suck a hickey on the spot right above the hem of his pants. Jungkook instinctively bucks his hips in response, and you smirk as you sit back on your heels again.

“Someone’s impatient,” you tease.

“Peach…” he warns.

“Be nice,” you say. “I’ll give you everything you want.”

He takes a sharp breath, and then nods curtly. You bite at your lower lip, a smirk teasing the corner of your lips.

“Good boy.”

He groans, but then you’re ridding him of his pants and boxers, and his dick springs free, slapping his abs. He looks just as pretty as he always does, the large vein running up his dick begging to be licked. You don’t even resist - you immediately bend down, tracing it with your tongue up to his tip, which you circle once before pulling away just enough to grab the base of his dick.

You stroke him slowly, meeting his gaze. His cheeks are flushed with arousal, eyes shining with lust and desire, all of it for you. You feel powerful - you have him wrapped around your finger, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s with that thought that you finally take him in your mouth, not breaking eye contact. He clenches his jaw to hold a moan in, and you take him as deep as you can, your eyes watering when he hits the back of your throat.

“Fuck,” he curses under his breath.

You pull almost all the way out, hollowing your cheeks as you suck on his tip, teasing his frenulum with your tongue. His dick twitches, but you’re holding him tight, keeping him in place.

You get to work, bobbing up and down, drooling all over him. You use your drool as natural lube so that you can jerk him off in time with your motions, and Jungkook grows infinitely hard in your mouth, so much so that you wouldn’t be surprised if he came.

You wouldn’t mind - he always tastes good for you, and the thought of it is making you soak through your panties to the point you think your pants might even be affected. But then again, Jungkook always makes you so wet.

No one’s ever fucked you as good as him after all.

You take him all the way in, and Jungkook thrusts up, grunting as you moan around him. His hands are in your hair, and he’s been guiding your movements, though always allowing you to pull away to breathe when you need it.

So when you decide to pull away so that you can suck on his balls, he lets you do it. You reward him by jerking him off quickly, your grip tight on his dick just the way you know he likes, and he fists at the sheets of your bed, fucking into your hand.

Right before you think he’s about to come, Jungkook pulls you away. He’s panting heavily, and you barely have time to breathe before he flips you on your back, climbing on top of you so that he can kiss you. 

The kiss is ravishing, languid, all tongues and saliva and his teeth digging into your bottom lip. You barely can contain your moans when he drives your legs apart with a knee he then presses on your clothed core, and you can’t help but grind on his leg, searching for much-needed friction.

Jungkook leaves your mouth to leave a trail of wet kisses down your neck, and then on your clavicle. He sucks a purple mark underneath it, and you arch your back in his touch as he cups your breasts again, massaging them.

“Peach,” he says as he’s looking at your necklace where it lies between your breasts. “You’re so perfect.”

And then he’s pushing your bralette up enough to have access to your nipples. His mouth closes around one while he pinches the other between his thumb and index, and you lose your hand in his jet-black strands, pulling on his hair just a little by reflex.

His tongue circles your nipple, and then he licks at it twice. It hardens in his mouth as you hold your moans in, and your eyes roll to the back of your head when he shifts to your other nipple, offering it the same treatment.

“Take this off,” you breathe, pulling at the fabric of his shirt.

Jungkook raises his head, meeting your gaze. His lips are glistening with his saliva, and he looks so devilish you think you’d be able to come just like that.

“Take it off for me,” he teases.

You roll your eyes despite your lips curving in a smile, and you pull his shirt off, throwing it on the floor. You rake your nails on his back - lightly, not hard enough to leave a mark - when he returns to your nipples, devouring your breasts like a man starved.

“I fucking love every part of you, you know that right?” he says when he pulls away.

You nod, but he’s already going down your body, reaching for your pants. He takes them off, and to your surprise, he takes your panties off too, leaving you naked and gleaming when he pushes your thighs apart to look at you properly.

“So pretty…” he praises.

You want to tell him to fuck you, that you don’t even need foreplay right now - you’ve been feeling your juices dripping out of your pussy for a while - but he doesn’t leave you time to speak, immediately diving in, lapping a large stripe from your entrance up to your clit. He swirls his tongue against the sensitive bundle of nerves, and you put your hand over your mouth to muffle your moan.

“Silence, peach,” he reminds you, and then he circles your clit again. “I really don’t want your mother to look at me differently tomorrow morning.”

You don’t have anything left in your brain to say that she wouldn’t care, and maybe that’s good - you’re pretty sure she would, as a matter of fact, care.

“Sorry,” you apologize.

Jungkook shoots you a quick glance, and he pecks the inside of your thigh lovingly, miles away from the lust transpiring from this moment. “I love you,” he breathes against your skin, and then he’s back on your pussy.

He eats you out like he’s a demon come from hell, and soon enough he pushes two fingers inside of you, fighting against your tightening muscles. You take a deep breath to relax, and a few seconds later he arches his fingers, rubbing them on the most sensitive spot inside of you. It makes your eyes roll to the back of your head, and your mouth falls open on a silent moan as he starts fingering you, quick and hard, always rubbing your g-spot. He times his fingers with his tongue, and it’s no wonder he’s dragging you towards an orgasm at eighty miles per hour.

It’s no wonder it hits you like a slap to the face when he sucks on your clit hard, and your thighs close around his face as your back arches off the bed, your climax hitting so hard you feel like you’re swimming in the night sky, amongst stars and galaxies and nebulas.

You’re shaking, thighs trembling, as he milks your orgasm out for so long you think you’ll die, but eventually his fingers leave your pulsing walls, and he licks them clean. You watch him, your eyelids heavy with the ecstasy invading your bloodstream, and you feel fucked out, your mind like cotton as he positions himself between your legs.

“Have you had enough?” he asks, teasing your entrance with his cock. “Or do you want me to fuck you?”

You reach for him, fingers grazing his chest and abs. “Shit, Kook.”

He grins wickedly. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” you repeat. You chuckle lightly, and then you glance around. “I do want you to fuck me,” you whisper, “but my bed creaks a hell of a lot.”

Jungkook shrugs, picking you up in one swift motion that makes your mind swim even more. The room spins around you as Jungkook carries you off the bed, and then he sits you on the floor. He grabs a bunch of pillows, arranging them in a makeshift bed on the floor, and then he motions at it, a proud smile on his lips.

“Voilà,” he says.

You snort. “You’ll fuck me on this?”

He smirks, picking you up to lie you down on the pillows. It’s a little unsteady, but when he positions himself between your legs again, you forget all about it.

Even more so as he rubs his dick on your clit, and meteorites erupt in front of your eyes.

“Yeah I will,” he says. “Unless you don’t want me to?”

You gulp, your throat suddenly dry with arousal, and you nod your head. “Fuck me, Kook.”

He doesn’t need more to push in, and he sheathes all of himself inside of you. Or at least all that fits, and he’s quick to put a hand over your mouth to keep you from moaning. You bite at his palm, and he startles, moving his hand away.

“That was mean,” he says, a pout appearing on his swollen lips.

Fuck, you love him so bad.

“Sorry,” you apologize.

He narrows his gaze, bending down to steal a quick, gentle kiss on your lips. “No you’re not,” he says.

“I’m not,” you agree.

He pulls almost all the way out, leaving just an inch of him in. “And for that reason, I’ll fuck you until all you remember is my name.”

He pushes all the way in again, and you bite your lip to refrain from crying his name out. It becomes much harder when he starts pounding into you, and soon your room fills with the sound of skin slapping against skin, and of the squelching your pussy makes every time he fucks into you. It’s clearly loud enough for everyone in the apartment to hear, but faint music is coming from Taehyung’s room, and you know your mother sleeps with foam earplugs in.

You can only hope they don’t hear you when you moan Jungkook’s name. He gently rests his hand against your mouth again then, though he’s quick to push a finger in instead. You suck on it, teasing the pad with your tongue, and Jungkook grunts as he jack-hammers you, so much so you fall off the makeshift bed.

You both don’t care - you don’t even think Jungkook realizes. He’s too busy rearranging your gut, and you’re too busy trying to not moan like you want to do. Jungkook keeps at it for a while, strands of hair sticking to the sweat on his forehead, but his pace remains unforgiving, a reminder that he has a solid cardio from all the hours he spends at the gym.

Eventually, Jungkook gets bored of the position, and he pulls out. You get a glimpse of his wet dick before he flips you on your stomach, and he’s quick to fuck into you again, the new angle so good you feel like you’re floating somewhere between your body and the ceiling.

His forearm is next to your head, and you hold onto his wrist as he pounds into you. You know he’s nearing his high when his motions grow unfocused, slower, and soon he bends down, grunting against the side of your face as he releases his load deep inside of you, painting you white.

You hold onto him as he comes, circling your hips to prolong his pleasure, up until he stops you with a hand on your waist. He pecks the side of your face, and you turn your head to be able to kiss him properly. It tastes like the sweat that’s collected on his upper lip, but you don’t care. Not when it’s his sweat, and you are so obsessed with him you wish you were under his skin.

“Fuck,” he grunts when he pulls away from the kiss. 

He pecks your cheek again and then straightens to search for something to clean you up with. He reaches for the tissues on the night table, and he takes a bunch of them that he puts against you before he even pulls out.

You both manage to avoid making a mess, and Jungkook lets you go clean up first. You put on his shirt, as it’s long enough to be a dress on you, and then you head to the bathroom, where you take a quick shower. Jungkook goes next, kissing you deeply before leaving your room, and you wait for him under the covers of your bed, your heart still beating wildly from the sex.

As it always does when it comes to sex with Jungkook.

Jungkook comes back about five minutes later, and he slides under the covers with you as you’re on your phone, looking at the conversation with Yoongi.

He still hasn’t replied, and though that worries you, you know he’s probably just busy with his own Christmas celebration.

“Everything okay?” Jungkook asks as he molds himself to your back, an arm wrapping around your waist.

You turn on your back, going in for a soft kiss that settles your heartbeat in your chest. 

“Yes,” you reassure him. 

You glance at your phone again and then switch to the conversation with Hoseok. “I don’t know what I should say.”

Jungkook blinks a few times like he needs it to focus on your screen, and then he reads Hoseok’s message. “I mean…” he lets out. “He seems genuine.”

“I know, but it’s weird no?”

Jungkook purses his lips. “Why?”

“Because I’m with you now,” you explain.

His eyes widen. “Oh, is that because of what I said earlier?”

You nod, worrying at some dry skin on your lower lip.

“Oh, peach,” he says, and he pecks your forehead. “I really don’t mind if you want to reply. I was only teasing earlier.”

You cock an eyebrow, not entirely believing him. He smiles sheepishly, shrugging your shoulders.

“Were you?”

“Well…” he trails off, turning on his back as he looks up at the ceiling. “I was jealous, yes. But as you said, he mostly is Yoongi’s ex. What you guys had hasn’t mattered for a really long time.”

He’s right. He’s entirely right, and it reassures you, enough so that you don’t feel guilty for replying to Hoseok, right before you decide to turn off your phone for the night.

[2:37 am] You: hey merry christmas! no worries:)

You put your phone away, and then you turn to face Jungkook, wrapping your arm around his dainty waist as he wraps his around you, one of his biceps a perfect pillow for your head. You sigh in contentment, knowing that you are right where you’re supposed to be in the world - by Jungkook’s side. 

Home, wherever he is.

You fall asleep with love in your heart, shining bright on you despite the dark, winter night outside.  

Monday, December 30th

The restaurant is crowded, lively chatter and clinking utensils filling the atmosphere with the type of life only the holidays can provide. Taehyung sits at the head of the table, a bright smile on his lips as your mother explains to Ariane and Jungkook how you come to this restaurant each year when there’s a special occasion.

By that, she means your and Taehyung’s birthdays, as you spend hers on the camping trip.

“We started when you were what?” your mother says, looking at Taehyung. “Fourteen?”

“Thirteen,” he answers. “We came with a bunch of friends from middle school, and Y/n was complaining the whole time.”

“I was not,” you say, pouting slightly. “You were just ignoring me the whole time because I wasn’t cool enough.”

“You really weren’t.” Taehyung’s teasing remark earns him a slap on the arm from your mother, and Ariane telling him to shut up. “What! She was just obsessed with One Direction, it was annoying.”

“And what about it?” Ariane says. “One Direction was a good group!”

Horror inches into Taehyung’s gaze. “Not you too.”

Ariane rolls her eyes, but then the waitress stops by your table, taking everyone’s order. An easy conversation follows, your mother telling you about interesting cases she saw at the ER over the last few months. Jungkook looks appalled when she mentions certain of them, his eyes about to bulge out of his head.

“You’re good?” you let out, patting his thigh reassuringly. 

“We’re supposed to eat after she’s told us all of that?” he asks, his widened gaze sliding to you.

You snort. “Yes, we are.”

He sits back in his chair, folding his arms on his chest. “Damn.” You just laugh even more, and he looks at you again. “It’s not funny!”

“It is,” you insist. “You’re adorable.”

He glares at you, though his eyes are gleaming with too much amusement for you to believe he means it. “So are you.”

“Right right,” you say, at the same time as Taehyung fake-gags. 

“You guys are disgusting,” your brother says. 

“And you think you’re better?” your mother intervenes. “You all should listen to him when he calls me and gushes about Ariane.”

Taehyung flushes red as Ariane leans towards your mother. “Oh? What does he say?”

“Namely that he thinks you’re the love of his life, and that he wants to marry…”

“Stop!” Taehyung interjects. “Fuck, mom, this is not necessary.”

He’s so red he looks like he might pass out, and you can’t help but laugh at his expense. “Don’t worry, Ari, he’s always been a hopeless romantic.”

“I’m not!”

Ariane laughs, and she rubs his back. “You are. I love that about you.”

Taehyung’s distressed features turn into a soft smile, and you roll your eyes teasingly. 

The rest of the dinner goes well, all of you eating your fill. Jungkook finishes your dish when you declare yourself defeated, and you speak with your brother without any animosity for the first time in months.

It’s relieving, far more than you would admit it. Or perhaps it’s because he’s invited you to the party one of his childhood friends is hosting, which he never did before. You know it’s because Jungkook is his closest friend now, but you still appreciate the invitation, and the party that comes with it.

Taehyung’s always partied the hardest surrounded by his friends, and tonight is no different. It’s a night of drinking and revelry and bright smiles, loud music to accompany the chatter and drinking games and everything that makes a party a good party. There’s a hot tub, and you and Jungkook spend far too long in it accompanied by Ariane, Taehyung and two of his other friends, taking turns rolling in the snow before jumping back into the hot tub.

The stars shine on and on above you all, and though it’s freezing outside you think they might allow you a piece of summer in the winter night.

You head home before Taehyung, walking hand in hand with Jungkook. You’re both tipsy, even maybe a little drunk, yet it doesn’t deter you. Not when the night is beautiful, and you have Jungkook next to you.

“I still can’t believe you got me that frame,” Jungkook says as he notices you looking up at the stars, your eyes going over the Orion constellation.

Indeed, you got him a star map of Valentine’s Day last year for Christmas. It’s beautiful, and Jungkook grew teary-eyed when you gave it to him, telling him that it was a map of the night you’d fallen in love. He promised he’d hang it in his room the second you returned to your apartment, and then he sheepishly gave you your gift.

Your reaction to his gift was… much less wholesome than his. You were outraged, telling him that he was crazy to spend so much money on you, and Jungkook just shrugged his shoulders, telling you you deserved it.

You still think he’s crazy. But over the last few days, he’s slowly convinced you that it’s going to be fun, that you truly do deserve the gift…

And who would say no to a trip to Bora Bora?

“I’m sorry,” you let out. “You fucking bought first-class plane tickets to go to Bora Bora. My gift looks like nothing compared to yours.”

“It’s not nothing!” Jungkook insists. “It’s the most sentimental gift I’ve ever received.” He smiles at you, his big doe eyes swimming with love for you. “It’ll forever be my favourite gift.”

You can’t help the smile that curves your lips upwards as your heart warms in your chest. “You deserve it,” you say, and you mean it.

Jungkook deserves every proof that people do love him. That his parents don’t know shit when it comes to him - you’ll try your best to shower him with all of the love your heart holds, every day of your life with him.

“And you deserve the trip,” Jungkook says. “You always work so hard in college, I just want you to relax for a while.”

“With you,” you say, eyes glinting with mischief. 

“Obviously.”

He pulls you in, interrupting your walk, and he kisses your forehead softly. Your heart grows even warmer, so much so that you think flowers are blooming in your soul, like a garden bursting into life.

You get home together with him, your mother seemingly fast asleep in her room from the soft snores that come from behind her door. You make your way to your room, and Jungkook plugs in your old fairy lights, even though they’re so dim now you barely can make out anything.

“Thank you,” Jungkook says as he sits on your bed.

You sit next to him, leaning your head on his shoulder. “What for?”

“For everything,” he replies, and he wraps his arms around you to pull you into his chest. “Getting to love you is the most beautiful thing that’s ever happened to me.” 

“Oh, Jungkook…” you trail off, looking up to see the silver lining his gaze.

“I love you more every day, peach,” he whispers. “It’s… it’s a gift.”

You cup his cheek, tilting your head backwards as you pull him down. The kiss is soft, gentle. The kiss is everything that makes Jungkook Jungkook, and you you. It’s the months of struggle that led to so much beauty, it’s the knowledge that, wherever you’ll go in this life, he’ll be by your side.

It’s the knowledge that he’s the one for you, and you’re the one for him.

When you pull away from the kiss, what seems like an eternity later, Jungkook pulls out his phone from his pocket. You watch him curiously as the device lights up his features, and a second later, your room fills with the first chord of Chasing Cars.

Of your song.

“Cuddle?” Jungkook asks.

You can’t say no to those big, doe eyes, and you lie down with him, your head on his chest.

“You know,” Jungkook says when the first chorus starts. “Ever since you showed me this song, it’s been my favourite.” He pauses, pecks the top of your head. “Not that I didn’t know it before. But it makes me think of you now.”

Just like it makes you think of him.

“It does?” you let out.

You feel him nod more than you see him. “When I marry you, I want it to be the song we dance to.”

Your gaze widens, and you prop yourself up on an elbow so that you can look at him. And despite the dim light in your room, despite the blurriness in your gaze from the happy tears he summoned, his beauty shines for you. So bright, a proof that he’s the Sun in your life.

He’s the astral body you were meant to orbit.

“When you marry me?”

His arm tightens around you. “Yes, when I marry you.”

You smile, brighter than a summer day. “You’ll be my husband.”

“And you’ll be my wife.”

You laugh, a crystal clear sound that heals whatever wounds were left from the months apart. From that night Taehyung punched him and kicked him out. From every time you thought that your timing didn’t align and that maybe you weren’t meant to be in this universe.

But you are. You’ve always been meant to be, haven’t you?

“Let’s start by calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend, shall we?”

He pouts. “M’kay, then. Girlfriend.”

Another laugh tumbles from your lips, and you put your head back on his shoulder. He runs a soothing hand on your back, while you trace random shapes on his chest, and you think this is it.

This is a moment that will be forever engraved in your memory, to look back on whenever you have a bad day. A first moment - though it’s hardly the first - of a long line of events that will make up the story of you and Jeon Jungkook.

The song reaches its last chorus, and your heart, beating in sync with Jungkook’s, reaches the nirvana of you and him.

If I lay here 

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me, and just forget the world?

And you think, perhaps your story was already written in between the lines of your favourite song - a story of resilient love, and of promises of forever. Perhaps it was written between the first verse and the chorus, or perhaps it was written in the melody. It’s hard to tell - you just know it’s become a law of your universe. 

Now, you’ll lie with Jungkook, and maybe you’ll even forget the world. It’ll just be him, forever.

And you’ll spend the rest of your life chasing cars around his head.

Prev

☆☆☆☆☆

I am so emotional please do not touch me :') I can't believe this story is over. I hope you guys loved the ride - let me know what you think about this last chapter <3

All rights reserved to @/oddinary4bts, 2024. Do not copy, repost or translate.

[adalricus]

Farmer yandere x livestock hybrid!Darling hcs

- Davis was a farmer look to purchase new hybrids when he saw you, whether you were a cow, a sheep, a pig or even an Arian hybrid he just fell in love.

-Did he bid an unfathomable amount of money during the bidding for you since he's rich asf?? Yes-

-Oh but it's no worry for him since has you now it's completely worth it

- Don't! Do not! Sleep in a bed that isn't his.

- He will pamper you no questions, and will get very huffy if you refuse

- He's a total attention whore so please only give him attention

- Doesn't let you interact with the other farm hybrids, only high grade, show livestock hybrids are suitable for his darling

-Will do a whole care routine if you get one speck of dust on yourself

-Will die if you sleep on top of him

-He's gonna try to milk no exceptions... Wdym your not a cow hybrid I said no exceptions.

[ebaeschnbliah]

‘Dust is eloquent’, Sherlock explains to John and Mrs. Hudson in TRF while he searches for the hidden spy camera. Dust is important because dust can talk and tell you everything you need to know ... just like the noises in ASIB (X). If one knows how, like Sherlock Holmes, one can read dust like an open book. And what’ s more, it is simply impossible to fake dust. Throughout the story told in Sherlock BBC the topic of dust turns up several times. 

TBC below the cut …

Scenes of Sherlock BBC in which dust plays a visible or textual role: 

TRF - the old case of Henry Fishguard, who never commited suicide and the Bow Street Runners, who missed everything. A cloud of dust rises when Sherlock closes the book with a snap.

TRF - Sherllock explains to John and Mrs. Hudson that ‘dust is eloquent’.

TEH - billows of dust become visible in the beams of daylight seeping through the gaps between the curtains at 221b. (Mind the gap?)

TEH - the Underground (moving transport) causes dust and sand to trickle down from the ceiling at the crime scene of the Jack the Ripper case and Sherlock blows away a cloud of dust from a book with the title ‘How I did it’, a confession allegedly written by Jack the Ripper, the man whose skeleton sits at the desk. The whole crime scene has been staged though.

TAB - among other things John scolds Jane the maid that ‘dust is everywhere’ at his home. 

TAB - Jim Moriarty tastes dust from the mantlepiece in 221b, directly next to the sculptur of a barking dog, licking it off his fingertips.

TST - the case titled ‘Dusty Death’ of a drowned man whose body was recovered from the sea near Falmouth. But instead of water his lungs were full of sand.

In this post I want to take a closer look at a scene from TEH, the one in which John enters 221b for the first time in two years, since Sherlock’s (fake) suicide in TRF. 

In TRF Sherlock points out the huge importance of dust:

A ‘three-quarter’ spinning transition connects Sherlock’s return to London, the scene at the Diogenes Club, with the following scene, John’s visit at 221b. It is mentioned multiple times by different characters that two years have passed since the last time John had been there. “I can’t go back to the flat again – not at the moment”, he’d told Mrs. Hudson at Sherlock’s grave. Going by the dialogue between Mrs. Hudson and John at her kitchen table in TEH, John never went back to 221b after their joined vistit to the graveyard by the end of TRF. There wasn’t even a phone call, Mrs. Hudson complains.

Now John is back and enters the livingroom of the flat he once shared with Sherlock to take a last look at the rooms, to say his final good bye. (same as he tries to do in the hospital, near the end of TLD)

Daylight falls through the narrow gaps between the almost closed curtains. Before Mrs. Hudson can lay hands on them, the camera focuses explicitly on a cloud of dust swirling through the air, like a cluster of tiny, sparkling stars, drifting around in a micro-universe. (None of the pics in this post are enlarged)

Mrs. Hudson turns on some lights in the room and starts to open the curtains to let more daylight in. She pulls a face because of all the dust in the air.

While Mrs. Hudson busies herself with the curtains, John (and the audience) takes a look at the livingroom and the adjoining kitchen.

“There’s all the stuff, all the science equipment. I left it all in boxes. I don’t know what needs doing. I thought I’d take it to a school”, told Mrs. Hudson at Sherlock’s grave. According to the (superficial) timeline of the story that had been two years ago. It seems that the boxes in question are still standing on the kitchen table …. waiting ….  ‘The chemistry never left the flat’ as @gosherlocked perfectly phrased.in her comment on Packed-up Chemistry .

Something else I wondered about ever since I first watched this episode, is the overall appearance of those rooms. First - it seems as if nothing at all has changed since Sherlock’s ‘death’ and John’s moving out of the flat. But what’s even more strange - everything is uncovered, unprotected and exposed to the dust. That’s really not how any sensible landlady - how any person at all - would treat an empty flat packed full of all kinds of stuff, big and small. Even the worktops in the kitchen are still crammed with a varity of objects. One really wonders if the fridge has been emtied ….

For comparison: this is how Hercule Poirot’s former flat looks like when he returns from his retirement at the countryside. (Agatha Christie’s Poirot, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd)  Sure, Poirot is a very neat and tidy man but then, I wouldn’t describe Mrs. Hudson as a sloppy housewife either. Sherlock ‘never liked her dusting’ it is stated … but is this teally enough reason for Mrs. Hudson to let the flat drown in dust after Sherlock’s ‘death’ when she clearly cleaned the flat during his ‘lifetime’ … even if he didn’t like it?

The condition the Baker Street rooms are in, after two years without any inhabitant, is quite unusual, to put it mildly. Kitchen and livingroom are completely unchanged. Clouds of dust are set free from the curtains and yet ... any protection against dust is missing in both rooms. Dust is eloquent, says Sherlock. 

Maybe billowing clouds of dust combined with absent protection against dust are eloquent as well? 

The importance of absent things, of things not happening when they actually should happen, can also be an eloquent sign. Maybe in this case it tells the story of time not having passed. 

Either way, between Mrs. Hudson’s ‘I couldn’t face letting it out’ and letting the flat drown in dust for two years without any protection, seems to be a rather wide gap, I guess. 

What could be the meaning of ‘dust’?

Exactly at the time when the passions grenade (patience, I know) explodes at 221b in TFP - Mrs Hudson is engaged with a vacuum cleaner downstairs in 221a, accompanied by and happily dancing to Iron Maiden’s ‘Number of the beast’. 

What a strange coincidence. Almost like …. good bye dust, hello explosion ...

What also  comes to mind is Mark Gatiss’ description of how he and Steven Moffat had the idea to bring the famous, victorian detective into the 21st century.

And then suddenly it kind of ... it formed very quickly, the idea, and in a very exciting train journey, of, of ... and in a very Sherlock Holmes way. I’m sure that we were sitting either side of the compartment going like that. It was a proper Sherlock Holmes journey. The idea of blowing away the fog from it.  (Series One, Special Features on the DVD, Unlocking Sherlock)

Has that ‘victorian fog’, Mark mentioned, been replaced by ‘dust’ in this modernised version of Sherlock Holmes? In TAB Jim Moriarty holds a short monologue about ‘dust’ and he describes it with these words:

That’s all people really are, you know: dust waiting to be distributed. And it gets everywhere ... in every breath you take, dancing in every sunbeam, all used-up people. 

People, people, people. Can’t keep anything shiny. D’you mind if I fire this, just to clean it out?

Dead ... is the new sexy.

Is ‘dust’ in Sherlock BBC comparable to all the other adaptations of him, created in the course of the last century by lots of different people? Adaptations which drift and billow around the great detective like fog, like dust? Hiding his true identity? 

If fog=dust=people's adaptations …. then look what Mr. Sex is doing to them ………..

I leave you to your own deductions. Thank’s @callie-ariane for the scripts.

We can learn something from non-disclosure? This little scene from Strar Trek TNG (Lonely among us) isn’t only one of several lovely Sherlock Holmes references, it is also about how something that isn’t there turns out to be a valuable clue to solve a case.

The Reichenbach Falls: Redux by @impatient14 contains interesting thoughts about dust and a short summery ot the story of the Gingerbread Man. A great re-read!

September, 2019

[orbemnews]

In Sweden’s Far North, a Space Complex Takes Shape KIRUNA, Sweden — The path to the reindeer herder’s spring home took him across four frozen lakes and countless snowy hilltops. Arriving to a light dusting of snow, the herder, Aslak Allas, switched off his snowmobile, and the overwhelming silence of Sweden’s Arctic settled in. His reindeer, thousands of them, were nowhere to be seen. “They are very scared of noise,” Mr. Allas, explained, pointing to his vehicle. He then motioned toward the distant hills dotted with birch trees, their buds swelling with the warming spring sun. “Now, the noise coming from there, that will be something else,” Mr. Allas sighed. That noise is expected to arrive with a roar next year, when Sweden is scheduled to complete construction of a rocket-launching complex in the frozen lands north of the Arctic Circle and jump into the commercial space race, the first country in Europe to do so. With the crystal-clear air of the Arctic night and a decent telescope, it’s easy to pick out some of the thousands of shoebox-size commercial satellites orbiting the earth. Their numbers are set to explode in the coming decade, powered by the use of light, reusable rockets developed by innovative U.S. companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX. He and several competitors are planning to send up to 50,000 such satellites into space in coming years, compared with fewer than 3,000 out there now. While the United States, China, Russia and several other countries already have spaceports, Sweden’s would be the first orbital launch site for satellites in Europe — capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories. Currently, the intergovernmental European Space Agency launches its traditional single-use Ariane rockets from French Guiana. Several private European companies are designing spaceports in Europe to host a new generation of smaller rockets. Portugal is looking into building one on the Azores Islands, two remote sites have been allocated in Britain and Norway is upgrading its Andoya Space Center. But none are as far along as Sweden, which is transforming an old Arctic space research center into a complex featuring several new pads for orbital launches and landings. The Esrange Space Center will be a testing ground for Europe’s first reusable vertical rocket in 2022, and it can conduct engine tests as well. In 1972, the Swedish government took over the base from the European Space Agency, which no longer needed it. For decades, the Swedes hired out the site for smaller, slower research rockets, satellite ground-control services and the launching of stratospheric balloons. But with the commercial space race promising new revenue, the government-owned Swedish Space Corporation, which manages the site, is offering launch services to private ventures wishing to send satellites into space. “We are a bit of a unicorn in the space business,” said Philip Pahlsson, vice president for strategy and innovation of the Swedish Space Corporation, referring to the government ownership of the site. “But we do plan on being the awesomest company in the government’s portfolio.” Esrange shares a landing zone that is more than 2,000 square miles — more than twice the size of Rhode Island — with a local population of mostly bears, wolves, reindeer and a handful of herders like Mr. Allas. If a launch should fail, it would be highly unlikely to cause any damage to human settlements. For certain satellites — those launched into polar orbits — an Arctic location offers key advantages. These orbits, passing over the North and South Poles, are ideal for Earth-observing satellites, because as the Earth rotates, the entire surface of the planet passes underneath. And it takes less energy to launch to a polar orbit from higher latitudes. With the space market growing fast, the Europeans increasingly need launching sites for smaller rockets carrying smaller satellites, experts say. “Europe really needs to build infrastructure to get to space,” said Stefan Gustafsson, a senior vice president at the Swedish Space Corporation, in an interview at its Stockholm headquarters. “We can provide a proper space base.” That base lies close to Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost city and home to the largest underground iron ore mine in the world. It is so huge, in fact, that several neighborhoods are being moved, as the city is slowly sinking into the excavated caverns below. A 50-foot rocket stands at one of the main intersections, a testament to Sweden’s space ambitions. Space is woven into the fabric of the city. The Swedish Institute of Space Physics is based in Kiruna, as is the Space High School for gifted teenagers. The space engineering program at Lulea University of Technology, also in Kiruna, attracts Ph.D. students from across Europe. An enormous satellite receiver dish, sticking out from the woods in a vast white valley, serves as a geographical landmark. Esrange has many of the attributes of other space ports — high fences and warning signs, and some used rockets on display. But it also has a church, a visitor center and the Aurora hotel, named for the northern lights that color the winter skies. Snow is everywhere, of course, and reindeer roam the terrain (no one knows how they get past the fences), but astronauts and moon landers are nowhere to be found. Leading a tour of the grounds, Mr. Pahlsson became slightly agitated when a photographer began snapping pictures. “We have contracts,” he said. “Some of our customers don’t like their equipment to be photographed.” The launchpads for the orbital rockets, mostly piles of construction equipment and materials at this point, are rising four miles from the central site. Pointing at a pile of sand during a tour of the grounds, Mr. Pahlsson said this was the site of their future “launch-vehicle integration building.” By the end of next year, he said, they hoped to use the launch site to test Europe’s first reusable rocket, called Themis, after an ancient Greek Titaness who was the personification of divine order. On this day, the main activity consisted of engine testing by two fiercely competitive German space start-ups, Rocket Factory Augsburg and ISAR Aerospace Technologies. “You can actually call me a rocket scientist,” said Josef Fleischmann, 30, one of three founders of ISAR. In 2017, he and fellow students won an award by building the fastest pod in Elon Musk’s competition for ultra-high-speed transport in hyperloop, or travel in a vacuum tube. That caught the attention of Bulent Altan, a former vice president at Space X, who decided to back Mr. Fleischmann and his friends. “Now, we have $100 million in investments and we are building rockets.” “The location seems remote, but for space this is the place to be,” said Rene Laufer, a professor of space technology at Lulea University of Technology. “Also, you don’t want to test rockets in your own backyard.” So far, Esrange has not elicited criticism from environmentalists, but that could change. Solid rocket fuel can leave a heavy carbon foot print, and liquid fuels pose a threat of toxicity. The exhaust clouds that form after liftoff and during flight are also concerns. Sweden’s space minister, Matilda Ernkrans, in an interview said that she expected the base to play a key role in helping to map global climate change. Back at his modest dwelling, Mr. Allas, the reindeer herder, would second that notion, and he is planning to do something about it, even if his backyard is one of the few not attached one way or another to the space industry. Mr. Allas is more than a man with a snowmobile and lots of reindeer. He is chairman of the Talma sameby, one of the larger Sami districts in Sweden. The Sami are the last Indigenous people of Europe and live in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia. In 2019, after an appeal by his district, Mr. Allas managed to block some of the expansion plans for the base, and now his sights are set on the coming noise pollution. “They might say we need to launch or else we lose our customers, but reindeer herding has been around here long as you can imagine,” Mr. Allas said, adding that a legal battle seemed inevitable. “For us, the Space Corporation is the oldest intruder of our lands, but we have much older rights.” Source link Orbem News #complex #North #shape #Space #Swedens #Takes

[ariannadi]

After Adamant

Cullen x Arian :)

When one of his soldiers had revealed that the Inquisitor and her team had last been seen falling off of a broken bridge and into an awaiting rift, Cullen had nearly lost control of every sense he possessed.

He was Commander, however; he had to remain collected for the sake of those around him. He knew what the expense of war was, and Arian was no exception to that cost.

But, Maker… it would kill him if he lost her.

They were something now, lovers, for lack of a better term. He… he wasn’t quite sure if it was love that he felt for the elf - not yet. All he knew was that he wanted to be near her all the time, that he wanted to protect her from harm; do anything just to make her smile.

But, there was a chance she wouldn’t even come back.

He did what any good leader would do to take his mind off the pain stabbing at his heart and lungs - he continued to lead, organizing the Inquisition soldiers who had survived the siege on Adamant Fortress.

And then another of his men approached him a while later; announcing that the Inquisitor and her team had survived, minus one Ser Stroud, and that she was currently deciding on what to do with the now-leaderless Wardens. 

Cullen wanted to fall to his knees and thank whatever deity had brought her back, but he settled on a hard swallow and a single nod.

He would find her later, once the dust of the battle had settled.

The Commander made his rounds within the Inquisition camp in the meantime; checking up on the wounded and commanding his lieutenants to scour the fortress for any remaining Wardens. Once he had done so, he waited for the chatter around him to signify that the Inquisitor had returned to her tent, then quickly moved through the camp to reach its location.

Cullen wanted to throw open the flaps to the canopy the moment he arrived at the entrance, but reason prompted him to simply clear his throat and call out for her.

“Cullen?” he heard the woman within inquire, and he couldn’t contain himself any longer. Entering the tent, Cullen came face to face with Arian, who studied him with an undefinable expression.

“Arian,” he nearly whimpered, happy just to see her alive. The elf slowly came forward, her lips quivering as she slipped her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest. Cullen returned her embrace with everything he possessed, pressing a series of kisses to the top of her head.

“Oh, Cullen… I was so frightened,” Arian whispered, her voice on the verge of tears. “There were so many demons, and Stroud… Stroud sacrificed himself so we would make it. And we found out that I… Cullen, I’m not…”

“Arian,” Cullen soothed, stroking her hair, “You don’t have to tell me. Everything can wait until the morning.”

He felt Arian nod against his chest, and he held her for a while longer before coaxing her to move to the cot in the corner of the space. Knowing it would be better if she got some rest, Cullen began helping her peel off the more uncomfortable pieces of her armor, setting them on the floor.

“When they said you fell through the rift, I… I was terrified,” Cullen said as he continued to help her, causing Arian to glance up at him with those eyes that took his breath away. “All I could think was that we had lost you… that I had lost you.”

“But I made it back,” Arian whispered in reassurance, and Cullen carefully cupped her face in his hands.

“So you did,” he agreed, swallowing thickly. “And I cannot even begin to explain how relieved I am.” The man leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers, simply relishing in the fact that she was there with him. Safe.

“I… Cullen…” Arian breathed, sighing when he brushed his lips over hers. The kisses that followed were slow and tender; Arian curling up against his body as her fingers slid into his unruly hair. His hands moved to her waist, bringing her as close to him as physically possible. 

Maker, he never wanted to let her go.

Cullen held her late into the night and early into the morning, murmuring words of comfort until she grew heavy against him. It was only when his eyes began to droop that he decided he should return to his tent, but a sleepy protest from Arian ceased that plan in an instant.

So he remained.

So long as she needed him, he would remain.

Likes and reblogs make me happier than a bee! ^^ I assume bees can be happy haha

[mysdrymmumbles]

A Vow or Two - Marian x Merrill

Marian ran into a wall in regards to her intentions to propose to Merrill.

Pairing: F!Hawke x Merrill 

Word Count: 1819

A Vow or Two - Other Marian x Merrill drabbles

Marian sat by the window in her study, staring out into the bright, cheerful morning. What a fucking lie, that blue sky and those chirping birds. The flowers should have been wilting and rain pouring down hard enough to send those annoying chirpers into the sea.

“Someone’s gloomy today.”

Merrill’s voice was so chipper and sweet. Normally, it would have made Marian melt inside, and yet…

And yet everything had fallen through.

Worse, it had taken three months for it to do so.

Marian had seen a ring that absolutely reminded her of Merrill those three months ago, and she’d bought it on the spot, some giddy notion of proposing gripping her then and there. She’d been able to envision it on Merrill’s slender fingers as they exchanged vows, something sweet and simple.

Then the world had decided to let some practicality slip into her daydreams, and she’d realized that the ring was likely too big.

However, that hadn’t deterred her, because she’d figured it wouldn’t be too hard to get Merrill’s ring size.

Except that it had been a nightmare. For an entire month, she’d tried everything she could think of to be subtle. She’d laced her fingers with Merrill’s every change she got, studied the size and then tried to figure out what it would translate.

However, finally, when she realized she was getting nowhere and that life was passing them by, she’d waited until Merrill was asleep one night and just tied a string around her finger for a measurement. As she’d slipped it off Merrill’s slender hand, she thought she’d woken Merrill up for a moment, though she’d simply rolled over and snuggled down in bed.

From there, Marian had done her best to sneak to a jeweler’s, yet even as she dropped it off, pleased with her ability to plan a surprise, it occurred to her that Dalish traditions might not include rings.

She’d already decided that she would propose when it was just the two of them—she always hated those big public proposals, because it made her feel like the proposee felt obligated to say yes. If she proposed during a quiet dinner, just the two of them, then Merrill could be honest.

Hopefully she’d say yes, but it would be better to give her the chance not to feel pressured.

The fact that it was a surprise, that no one was supposed to know, made it hard to figure out to whom she could go to ask questions about what would be appropriate. She tried perusing a few of Merrill’s Dalish books, but they didn’t have anything about marriage in them.

Even as she’d wondered what she could do, she’d thought of Arianni.

They’d helped her with her son, after all, so maybe she wouldn’t mind talking about traditions.

So off she’d gone, only for Arianni to quickly point out that many Dalish traditions varied from clan to clan. She’d seemed ridiculously hesitant when Marian had asked if she should just go and talk to Keeper Marethari.

It had been as though she didn’t want Marian going to her, but how else would she find out Merrill’s traditions without spoiling the surprise?

After all, it would make sense to merge their cultures in a respectable way, wouldn’t it? Marian could give her a ring and do whatever it was that the Dalish did for proposals.

She’d been thinking about how to be fair to both cultures for a while. Since she’d bought the ring, honestly.

After all, Merrill’s culture was important to her, and Marian wanted to make sure she knew that Marian welcomed it as a part of their lives together. She never wanted Merrill to feel like she’d have to give something up to be with her.

Getting married in the Chantry would be out, as even if Merrill wasn’t Dalish, Marian hated Kirkwall’s Chantry. The one in Lothering had been perfect, smaller and filled with people who cared about helping those who needed it. Even the templars had been a good sort there.

The Chantry here only cared about looking affluent, despite the condition of the rest of the city.

Would it be better to have it with Merrill’s clan? Marian knew that they weren’t fond of Merrill overly so, but they still let her come through and trade and the like, so it wasn’t like she was actually banished or anything.

And everyone liked happy occasions. There weren’t nearly enough of them in Kirkwall.

Then she’d considered that having the entire clan present might make for a large wedding, and if it was at the clan’s current home, then they would probably feel obligated to host the wedding.

She didn’t want to be rude like that.

Maybe they could meet somewhere in the middle, with closest friends coming from both sides? Merrill said she didn’t have many friends in the clan, but there was Keeper Marethari and Feynriel, and a few others she talked about from time to time.

And Marian wouldn’t need many people on her side, either.

As she’d been musing about party favors and themes that could work without feeling too Andrastian, Varric had found her, and somehow he’d known.

Since he knew, she’d dragged him, Sebastian, and Fenris out to Merrill’s clan to finally get some damned answers. While her eternal partner in crime was in the know, Sebastian and Fenris weren’t, but she trusted that neither of them would ask too many questions.

And they hadn’t.

They’d known something was up, though, as Marian had been giddy the whole way up to the Dalish clan, day dreaming about dresses and trying to imagine what a Dalish wedding dress might look like. Did they have those? Or perhaps they were robes or just formal wear?

She’d been so excited to learn about it.

And then she’d talked to Keeper Marethari.

And the dream had come to a rather abrupt end.

The keeper had been polite, but firm in her stance that if Merrill married a human, she would be exiled permanently.

There would be no ceremony with the Dalish and human cultures combined.

Marian had never felt stupider. The way the Dalish talked…everything about their culture was so insular. It made sense that they wouldn’t smile upon people leaving the clan to be with humans. It was a betrayal, to them, of their ancient ways.

It should have been so obvious, and yet… She’d been stupid enough to want to do a proper Dalish proposal, like it could ever be done by a human.

The whole point of working both cultures into the proposal had been Marian’s way to show Merrill that she’d never expect her to give up her culture. That she would happily help preserve it in whatever ways she could—even that damned mirror, if it would make her happy.

Yet to even ask her to marry her was a slap in the face of Dalish traditions.

“Bad dream?” Merrill asked, tugging one of the other chairs up beside Marian. She reached out and tangled their fingers together, swinging their hands a gently between them.

“It’s nothing,” Marian mumbled into the palm she was propping her head up with.

“Doesn’t seem like nothing,” Merrill noted, adjusting herself so that she could lean closer. Without thinking, Marian did the same so that they were close enough for Merrill to peck her cheek. “Should I guess?”

“No,” Marian grumbled.

“Are you sure? I like guessing.”

Pulling away, Marian stared at Merrill for a long, quiet moment before curling up, drawing her legs to her chest and resting her forehead against her knees. “I wanted to ask you to marry me.”

“Really?”

The question took Marian by surprise, and she lifted her head to stare at Merrill. Her eyes were wide and a light dusting of red had settled on her cheeks and the tips of her ears.

“Of course really!” Marian cried out, reaching out and nearly falling off her chair as she grabbed Merrill’s hands. “You’re brilliant and kind and wonderful and utterly gorgeous and…” Marian tried to think of any of the speeches she’d considered for this sort of thing, but finally gave up. “And you care so much and you’re thoughtful and every morning I wake up next to you makes the world a little less terrible.”

Merrill, let out a sharp, joyful laugh. “Isabela was right!”

That threw Marian off for a second. “What?”

“I mentioned how you were fixating on my fingers a while back to Isabela because I wasn’t really sure what that was about and didn’t want to offend you if it was some Ferelden thing, and well, Isabela’s been to Ferelden. But the second I told her, she said you were sizing me up for a ring.” Merrill’s smile brightened as she added, “An engagement ring. They’re important, I’m told. They certainly sound important.”

“You knew…” Marian whispered, staring at her lover in disbelief. “All this time…”

“Well, I was going to ask you about…well, your thoughts on forever, but then Isabela told me about the ring, so I thought I’d wait for you to propose.”

“But you can’t marry a human or…” Marian couldn’t finish the sentence.

Merrill reached out and lightly brushed back some of Marian’s hair, tucking it behind her ear. “Can’t sleep with them either. Or perform blood magic or do quite a few of the things I do.” She leaned forward and gently kissed Marian. “I’ve already left my clan, Hawke. I’ll always be Dalish, but my path is a little different.” That blush was a bit deeper as she added, “And I was hoping it might match up with yours. Because I love you, too. Your smile, your humor, how you can figure out strategies like no one else—you’re quite brilliant, too, you know. And kind and sweet and beautiful. I’m quite lucky to have you.”

Marian stared at her for a moment before shooting to her feet and drawing Merrill up with her, tugging her close to kiss her. Merrill’s arms slid around her, tugging her closer as their mouths moved together in lovingly familiar patterns.

Then, rather abruptly, Marian pulled away. “You were waiting for me to propose.”

“Mmhm,” Merrill leaned after her, chasing Marian’s lips with hers.

Marian’s shoulders slumped. “And I ruined it by brooding.”

“I think it’s sweet that you went to my clan.” When Marian’s brow pinched together, Merrill rested her arms on Marian’s shoulders, fingers laced behind her head. “I talked to Arianni while you were gone. She said she hoped my clan might be more lenient than others, considering they took Feynriel in.”

Marian leaned her forehead against Merrill’s. “And to think I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, I might not be surprised, but I am happy.”

“Really?”

Merrill drew Marian in for another kiss. “Really really.”

Suddenly, those chirping birds and all that sunshine seemed perfectly in place.

[sciencespies]

5 Scientific Revolutions That NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Will Deliver

https://sciencespies.com/news/5-scientific-revolutions-that-nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-will-deliver/

5 Scientific Revolutions That NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Will Deliver

Cumulatively, astronomical data helps scientists reconstruct what happened in our Universe’s past.

Looking back a variety of distances corresponds to a variety of times since the Big Bang. While our … [+] modern suite of observatories has taken us very far back in the distant Universe, numerous questions remain: both about what happened at very early times and also about details at later times that are obscure to us today.

NASA, ESA, AND A. FEILD (STSCI)

Despite the full suite of modern telescopes, our present data sets cannot answer every question.

The James Webb Space Telescope vs. Hubble in size (main) and vs. an array of other telescopes … [+] (inset) in terms of wavelength and sensitivity. Its power is truly unprecedented.

NASA / JWST

Only observatories with superior capabilities will solve those mysteries.

One of the last tests that will be performed on NASA’s James Webb is a final check of the mirror … [+] deployment sequence in full. With all environmental stress testing now out of the way, these last checks will hopefully be routine, paving the way for a successful 2021 launch.

NASA / James Webb Space Telescope team

After years of development, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now complete.

This 2017 launch of an Ariane 5 rocket mirrors the launch vehicle of NASA’s James Webb Space … [+] Telescope. The Ariane 5 had a string of more than 80 consecutive launch successes before a partial failure a few years ago. It is one of the most reliable launch vehicles in space history.

© ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE/Optique Vidéo du CSG

Only shipping and rocket/launch site readiness remain as pre-launch obstacles.

Although the data shown in this graph shows the duration of the launch window on each day throughout … [+] a particular 18-month window, the physics of launching a rocket does not change on a year-to-year basis, and so similar (but not identical) figures are expected around the October 31, 2021 window.

NASA/STScI/H. Hammel (private communication)

Assuming successful post-launch deployment, five scientific revolutions likely await.

The first stars in the Universe will be surrounded by neutral atoms of (mostly) hydrogen gas, which … [+] absorbs the starlight. The hydrogen makes the Universe opaque to visible, ultraviolet, and a large fraction of near-infrared light, but longer wavelengths may yet be observable and visible to near-future observatories. The temperature during this time was not 3K, but hot enough to boil liquid nitrogen, and the Universe was tens of thousands of times denser than it is today on the large-scale average.

Nicole Rager Fuller / National Science Foundation

1.) The earliest stars. We have not yet seen the first post-Big Bang stars.

This artist’s impression of an early, massive galaxy that forms from the merger of … [+] smaller-protogalaxies shows how it should be obscured by dust during the most rapid phases of star-formation. James Webb’s infrared eyes might allow it to penetrate this dust, revealing details of the earliest stars ever seen.

JAMES JOSEPHIDES/CHRISTINA WILLIAMS/IVO LABBE

Webb’s mid-infrared eyes should reveal objects from 13.6 billion years ago: unprecedentedly early.

The most distant X-ray jet in the Universe, from quasar GB 1428, helps illustrate how bright these … [+] fantastic objects are. If we can figure out how to use quasars to measure the expansion of the Universe, we can understand the nature of dark energy as never before.

X-ray: NASA/CXC/NRC/C.Cheung et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA

2.) How black holes form. The youngest quasars are already quite massive.

If you begin with an initial, seed black hole when the Universe was only 100 million years old, … [+] there’s a limit to the rate at which it can grow: the Eddington limit. Either these black holes start off bigger than our theories expect, form earlier than we realize, or they grow faster than our present understanding allows to achieve the mass values we observe.

Feige Wang, from AAS237

Webb should match quasars to host galaxies, uncovering black hole growth in the young Universe.

The spiral structure around the old, giant star R Sculptoris is due to winds blowing off outer … [+] layers of the star as it undergoes its AGB phase, where copious amounts of neutrons (from carbon-13 + helium-4 fusion) are produced and captured. The spiral pattern likely points to a binary companion: something our Sun does not possess.

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. Maercker et al.

3.) Stellar lifecycles. Stars in their death throes create heavy elements throughout the cosmos.

Extremely high-resolution ALMA images revealed a hot “blob” in the dusty core of Supernova 1987A … [+] (inset), which could be the location of the missing neutron star. The red color shows dust and cold gas in the center of the supernova remnant, taken at radio wavelengths with ALMA. The green and blue hues reveal where the expanding shock wave from the exploded star is colliding with a ring of material around the supernova. James Webb will offer a view of objects such as this that will be superior in many ways.

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), P. Cigan and R. Indebetouw; NRAO/AUI/NSF, B. Saxton; NASA/ESA

By studying interstellar dust, Webb will reveal how aging, massive stars and supernovae enrich the Universe.

The protoplanetary disk around the star HL Tauri in a young star cluster may well be the best … [+] analogue of a Sun-like star forming, with planets around it, that we’ve ever seen. This was ALMA’s first protoplanetary disk to display the rings and gaps, and over the past 4 years our knowledge of protoplanetary evolution has taken us ever closer to a complete understanding of these systems.

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/NASA/ESA

4.) How planetary systems form. Protoplanetary disks are nature’s laboratory for planet formation.

The protostar IM Lup has a protoplanetary disk around it that exhibits not only rings, but a spiral … [+] feature towards the center. There is likely a very massive planet causing these spiral features, but that has yet to be definitively confirmed. In the early stages of a solar system’s formation, these protoplanetary disks cause dynamical friction, causing young planets to spiral inwards rather than complete perfect, closed ellipses.

S. M. Andrews et al. and the DSHARP collaboration, arXiv:1812.04040

Webb will observe their inner regions, precisely identifying elemental and molecular abundances throughout them.

Direct imaging of four planets orbiting the star HR 8799 129 light years away from Earth, a feat … [+] accomplished through the work of Jason Wang and Christian Marois. The second generation of stars may have already had rocky planets orbiting them, and more distant planets can be resolved with direct imaging. Webb’s coronagraph will take us closer.

J. Wang (UC Berkeley) & C. Marois (Herzberg Astrophysics), NExSS (NASA), Keck Obs.

5.) Direct exo-atmosphere measuring. Webb’s coronagraph will block a star’s light, revealing its orbiting planets.

The exoplanet Proxima b, as shown in this artist’s illustration, is thought to be inhospitable to … [+] life due to the atmosphere-stripping behavior of its star. It should be an ‘eyeball’ world, where one side always roasts in the Sun and the other side always remains frozen. With a telescope like James Webb, direct imaging and spectroscopic measurements, including a search for CO2, should be possible.

ESO/M. Kornmesser

Life’s precursor molecules, and perhaps even biosignatures, could soon be discovered.

The atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-33b was examined as starlight filtered through the planet’s … [+] atmosphere before arriving at our eyes. Similar techniques could work for other exoplanets as well, but to image the atmosphere of Earth-sized planets, as opposed to the Jupiter-sized WASP-33b, we require observatories that are larger and more advanced than the ones we have today. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will break all the transit spectroscopy size records we currently have today.

NASA / Goddard

Mostly Mute Monday tells an astronomical story in images, visuals, and no more than 200 words. Talk less; smile more.

#News

[writingsfromthebrain]

Power Off: Chapter Five

Word Count: 2855 Words

1 2 3 4

I finally came to by the early morning rays of light and bird chirping. It was only then that I noticed that I had woken up on the floor of my bedroom.

Did I fall off the bed again? I thought that habit stopped a year ago…

I stretched on the floor before I sat up and started orienting myself. It was then that I noticed Blue was lying on my bed. She was still passed out from yesterday’s injuries.

Oh right, I guess I blacked out on the floor after healing her. Well, I guess I can make some breakfast.

I set aside some spare bathroom essentials for Blue before I made my way downstairs and started on making omelettes and fried rice.

I was just beginning to store the extra food I made for the rest of this week when Blue finally made her way down the stairs looking refreshed and more put together.

“Morning.”

“Morning Sparky. Did you make all this?”

“Yup, your plate is in the oven. I thought you’d be asleep a little longer, so I thought I would keep it warm in the oven as I stored this before I brought it up. You feeling better?”

“Yup, thanks for healing me. Oh, would it be alright if the hero crew came by to talk about Power Off?  My dad suggested it when he called a little bit ago to check up on me.”

“Yeah sure, this is my address. Offer them some of this if they want some breakfast. I’ll go freshen up first.” I say as I handed her my address and went to freshen up and change into a new suit.

By the time I finished, Blue’s family was already present and was sitting at the table eating their breakfast.

“Hey Sparky, here’s my family, the rest of the crew should be here any moment now.” Blue said.

“Morning there! You should know Power and I by now and I assume you now know my son Lightning because of yesterday’s events. The guy next to him is his older twin, Thunder. And of course you know Blue. Oh, thanks for breakfast. It tastes amazing!” Streak said enthusiastically.

“Thank you, glad you enjoy it.” I say as a pattern of knocks interrupt our conversation.

I open the door and greeted the heroes at the door as they made their way in, introducing themselves on the way.

Power stood up after the heroes filed in and properly introduced the heroes to me while they piled their plates with food.

“That guy over in the corner with the rippled aquamarine suit is Tidal Wave with his wife, Blaze, in the ombre red-orange suit. The lady next to them in the metallic slate gray would be Steel and the guy in the purple next to her is the guy who found you in the alleyway, Sludge. Like Blue said, we have a few members that couldn’t make it, but that’s about it as for the superhero population of this town.”

“Well, hello there everyone. Honored to meet you all. So, what exactly happened after Blue and I left and what are we planning to do about Power Off?” “Shortly after we arrived and you guys left the scene of the crime, we found the machine you had dropped while trying to leave with Blue, but throughout the chaos, it was smashed.” Power said as he pulled out the remains of my my machine. “We did have some luck in the first five minutes into the base as your machine pinged despite being smashed, but it completely died and we were met with the same fate with new locations of bombs. We pulled out before we lost any more members while James Atkins and his parents are nowhere to be found. We still don’t know why Power Off is so interested in the Atkins family, besides Steven being the mayor of this city, but this obviously hasn’t been the first occurrence. We knew that they had something planned out like this for about a week, but we didn’t know the extent of their situation. Now we know that their base is now fully loaded with a new assortment of bombs that Blue and Thunder unfortunately had a taste of. How effective is that machine you got there?” Power briefly explained.

“I don’t know how accurate it is, but it’s a trap detector.” I said as I held up the small machine. “It hasn’t really had much field experience, but besides it being a little slow, it seems to detect all traps ranging from manual to automatic traps. Then again, I know where all my traps are, so it may just be a biased accuracy.”

“You have traps here? I guess that makes sense. Don’t want anyone to be snooping around here.”

“Hah, yeah. I have a multitude of traps, but they also haven’t had much real life experience though, I think I may have scared a squirrel with a waterfall of worms the other day.”

“A waterfall of worms? Nice, must have scared that squirrel senseless.” Lightning said as he burst out in laughter.

“Where are your parents? I’m surprised they haven’t walked into this powwow of superheroes.” Sludge joked.

“Well, they’re kinda dead anyways.” I suggested solemnly.

“Oh sorry kid, I didn’t kno-”

“It’s fine. It’s been a couple of years anyways.” I said as silence fell among us.

“Well, I think that just about wraps everything up for this meeting. Thanks for breakfast and letting us use your home.” Power said as everybody flowed out with goodbyes.

Once everybody left, I set out to get my trapfinder in working order. While its exterior was damaged beyond repair, the wiring and boards inside were only slightly damaged. It wasn’t until about 8pm that night that I finally set out to starting my homework. Luckily, all I had was a lab report to finish.

The next day at school didn’t start out that exciting. I put in a prototype of electronic contacts that basically functioned like Jarvis for Iron Man and set off to school. When I got there, I was shocked to see James at school as if he was not kidnapped the day before. There did not seem to be anything out of the ordinary in terms of his physical appearance and he tried to play off yesterday’s events as one big prequel senior prank. The school body ate that up real quick, but honestly, the villains were pretty good at hiding it because they had fixed the cafeteria back to near perfect condition, allowing the lie that James told to play out. Yet, dirt that resulted from the explosion still dusted the floors of the cafeteria.

Why did he lie about it? Is he part of the Power Off or is he being watched by someone currently in this room?

I opened up the trapfinder option with my glasses and took a glance around the room as dots appeared in my field of vision. As the typical security camera dots appeared in my line of vision, I counted out about ten moving triangles spread throughout the cafeteria and the rest of the school. The triangles typically indicated some type of listening device or some type of intelligence gathering device being used. Cell phones did not show up as triangles unless they were being used for intelligence/recording. I still had to figure out a program to separate regular school/everyday filming to top secret CIA level filming. I watched each triangle, sorting through all the kids, trying to find which ones were presently in the same room with me and for any noticeable similarities between each triangle and their corresponding human. In the cafeteria alone, there were three kids, all with matching black Jansport backpacks with one pocket for a water bottle. While this set of glasses didn’t have the x-ray vision update, I was able to pull up information about the three kids as I looked at them. One of them was kid by the name of Charlie Lorenz. He was a freshman with a typical freshman schedule of english, math, history, and science. He was involved with the choir and was taking an entry level computer science class, which was strange because he’s also won many local, national, and global competitions in the field of computer science and engineering. A very high key kid in a relatively low-key setting. Another kid, a sophomore, went by the name of Maria Zahir. Looking at her schedule, one could easily tell she was an art kid. Her classes were filled with classes ranging from drawing, ceramics to photography. She had entered a few contests and placed relatively high except for those first two years she got into art. I’m not sure how her skills could help Power Off in attaining whatever goal they’re working for though. The last of the three was a senior. Aaron Mathia was basically the top golden boy of the school. He played three different seasonal sports, volunteered at a nearby hospital, somehow still had a perfect gpa, and was committed to going to Harvard after he graduated this coming spring.

How did these three students connect? Why these students? After a further look into the kids’ family background, I found that at least one of their parents were working in a STEM related job under a company by the name of Psionics Optimization. Their logo consisted of the letters P and O in electric, holographic blue. It was ringed with a silver laurel wreath with a golden lightning strike through the middle from the top right down to the bottom left.

P and O. Power… Off…?

I must have been too obsessed with Power Off because of recent events, but I don’t believe that this was a coincidence. I wandered towards the other dots that were farther away in the school and noticed very similar familial occupations once their faces came into view. What was interesting though was that there were two triangles over two of our teachers supervising this lunch period. They were a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Olinat, and they were pretty well known as being super nice and the chemistry powerhouse of this school. Nothing about them showed any connections with Power Off or Psionics Optimization besides the STEM related field of occupation and the triangle that marked them.

“Arian, send this information and my observations to Power. I’m going to try and talk with Mr. Olinat to see if I can figure out what they are up to.”

As I made my way to Mr. Olinat’s office, I pondered if I should actually confront him. How was I going to ask him about his hidden listening device if I hadn’t been near him all day? Am I just gonna be like, ‘Oh hey Mr. Olinat! I know I haven’t seen you all day but I’ve noticed you had a listening device of some sort so I just wanted to know what’s up. Also, did you know at least three other kids had similar devices as well?’

Yeah, I don’t think that would have gone well. For all I know, they are a part of the same organization, but maybe some higher level operatives in charge of the other students listening to whatever is happening. Maybe I should try and m-

“Chase? I have spoken with Power and he said Mr. and Mrs. Olinat have always had COMs on them, but after yesterday’s events, they were instructed to have them turned on. They are helping him listen in on the students to see what they are doing. He thanks you for alerting him of such developments.”

“That’s good to hear. Is there a way for you to tune into the kids’ COMs so we could listen in? I’m curious about what is happening. Confronting the Olinats would kinda blow my secret identity, despite them being on the good side.”

“Of course Chase. Just give me a moment to determine the frequency and transfer it to your COM.”

Quiet static filled my right ear as I waited for Arian to find the frequency.

“... James… Lose control… Soon… So make sure you guys keep watch on him because he will black out. He won’t be able to fight against us anymore once the injection spreads throughout his whole body in 20 more minutes. His father will have no choice but to listen to us.”

Alarmed by this sudden piece of information, I tried to find James amongst the mass of students in the cafeteria as I noticed more triangle students with similar Jansport backpacks start to file into the room. At that moment, I saw James enter the boys bathroom and I decided to follow suit, taking out a prototype of a safer and quicker dose of chloroform, Arian and I have dubbed it Chloroform-To-Go, to knock James out so that I could examine him. He was out in just five seconds and I changed into my supersuit in case anybody walked in on me with the unconscious son of the mayor.

With my healing abilities and technokinesis, I was able to pick up little microbots in James’ bloodstream and just about anywhere else you can imagine. Then, carefully, I started absorbing the energy from every few microbots and breaking them apart so that I didn’t accidentally absorb energy from James and his body system rendering them useless hopefully. In addition, I also used healing to melt the microbots to a safe body substance and cleared any possible toxins that were found in the body once the microbots were destroyed. But, because of the energy and concentration it took to use my technokinesis to locate the microbots, concentrate energy absorption with energy manipulation, and then clean up with a combo of healing and technokinesis, I only got through about a third of the microbots before a suddenly animate unconscious James clumsily clapped two fists at my temple.

An excruciating pain erupted through my head as my vision doubled and fatigue suddenly sank in. While trying to reach for my emergency ambrosia, Arian informed me that she had already alerted the superhero crew and that they were on the way.

I noticed that James, while still unconscious, started staggering towards the bathroom entrance. I bear hugged him further back into the bathroom and strapped him up with the metal of the bathroom doors and returned to trying to cleanse James of the microbots.

With the microbots now activated, the cleansing process was much tougher as they seemed to have developed an outer layer protection. The energy and concentration increased tenfold, making the process a lot slower. It didn’t help that unconscious James kept flailing every so often.

The process randomly started to speed up when I suddenly noticed a presence nearby.

“Don’t worry Sparky, It’s just me, Sludge. Good thing I found you, looks like you could use a hand. I’ll help with the melting process. Focus on marking and cleansing James.”

A good chunk of time passed until the microbots were finally vanquished from James’ body. My vision was blurry and spotted for an entirely different reason as my hands automatically reached for more backup ambrosia, offering some of it to Sludge as well. While previous uses of ambrosia usually led to an immediate splash of refreshment, it left my body craving for more. As if you only had half a sip of ice, cold water after a long workout. I reached for another ambrosia piece with similar sensations. I decided against another piece as I turned my attention back to James. He was still unconscious, but he had stopped trying to escape his metal prison. Bruises that had formed on his once fair skin during the struggle have disappeared because of the healing. All left that was wrong was that he was still unconscious.

“Well, that was one heck of a healing process. Do you think you can still fight? I think the enemy brought out reinforcements, but our crew is handling it well so far.”

“Yeah sure, who else will stop them from slacking?”

“You right. Can’t let them slack off. While I would rather have him moved to a safer location, that metal cage should be able to hold him down pretty well.” Sludge said with a playful wink.

Sludge and I cautiously made our way out the bathroom and headed towards most of where the commotion was coming from. What came into view was many mini battles of heroes versus 2-5 villains. While it was true that the heroes were holding off so far, growing fatigue was evident on all the faces of the heroes. With an activation of the energy shield, I rushed to an outlet and stuck my finger in to absorb the energy, knowing concentrated absorbing would require more stamina from my already depleting tank. In less than 5 seconds, I was charged up and warned my teammates to move as a field of blue electricity danced across the cafeteria. Yet again, I greeted darkness as I saw our side left standing over the fallen enemies.

Previous (Chapter 4) | Next Chapter (Chapter 6)

[ant1quarian]

Dusty Shelves Art

Dust really is like: "so yeah here's this stray eldritch creechur that found me and yoinked me for some reason. yeah he's nice he just stares a lot"

[ant1quarian]

Fluff to counteract Arian's pure unfiltered rage

Dust tiredly clinging to Arian's shirt, not ready to be sent back to the hellscape he keeps returning from. His wounds had healed, but that didn't stop him from wanting to stay.

He'd never say it verbally, obviously. He couldn't bring himself to admit just how much the Eldritch God's presence brought him comfort, nor how much that old-book scent was beginning to get addictive and cozy to him.

He didn't want to admit just how stupidly attached he'd gotten.

Arian had been the first to show him true, unbiased care in a long time. He didn't care about what Dust had done, even after he'd spilled his guts about everything. Arian didn't comment on the scar across his ribcage, nor the LV roaring through his magic.

He was... gentle.

Not pitying- not really sympathetic, either. He understood and cared but didn't comment on it further or attempt to bring him needless comfort.

He just...

Sat with him.

And that's all Dust really could have asked for.

In the short period of time he was in the library, he was safe. Well and truly safe. Untouchable by anything that Arian didn't authorise. (Aka: that Dust didn't want.)

No Killer playing pranks or starting fights with him. No Nightmare endlessly taunting his dreams. No Horror to judge him and hate every atom making up his bones for doing what he had. No Cross to pull that "I-am-holier-than-thou" attitude out of his ass and hang it over Dust's head.

No Dream. No Ink. No Swap. No Error.

Just Arian.

...

He preferred it that way.

[ant1quarian]

Arian is 2x as tall as Dust is.

You see

Dust can therefore fit on his chest, all snuggled up and completely knocked out, also probably wounded from some sort of battle he's recovering from

Arian is prime cuddle material

His three pairs of wings also help support this thought

Plus, it means he can still carry Dust while he's organising his bookshelves

[ant1quarian]

Dusty Shelves (Arian x Dust) is literally just

Eldritchian Bookkeeper God x Very Dangerous Mortal With Bad Habits

"Dusty, my dear, I do adore you- but would you please stop dying."

"heh. y'almost say that like y'don't enjoy pulling me from the grave."

Cue a very deadpan Arian and Dust with a stupid little happy smile because he has someone he can mess around with that's more than willing to accept him for who he is, instead of wanting to make him worse or better

Arian has the mentality of "unless this is hurting him I'm gonna watch him fuck shit up over his shoulder and steal him before Reaper can get to him"

Meanwhile Dust is just happy to find someone who is far more fucked up and nonmonster/nonhuman than he feels like he is

Plus, Arian's also a Get Out Of Dying For Free card

[ant1quarian]

Of course, coming along with interacting with an Eldritch Horror and not being capable of putting a label on a relationship, comes with a bit of angst

Dust isn't- there's a lot about Arian he couldn't comprehend, not that Arian's hiding anything from him

There's also the whole...

Pocket dimension he can only access through dying and not being sure whether Arian can leave it

There's also the staying up late at night in his room at nightmare's castle wanting familiar feathered wings around him and a comforting, all-encompasing kind of warmth, but he can't get to it

Not without dying

[ant1quarian]

The irony of Dust having an unlabelled relationship with Arian (who is an eldritch angelic abomination with the ability of shapeshifting) isn't lost on me

[ant1quarian]

Also fun fact

This was the Undertale Track given to Arian by a very close friend of mine hehe