#Excel is my forté

[rightside-left]

Just learned that people are selling the most basic ass budgeting spreadsheets on etsy. Looks like I better start a store cause like why not?

[tetsunabouquet]

Headcanons on how gom + kagami + hanamiya + Nash give oral?

akashi

Mister perfect is of course, also excellent at oral. He's perfectly calculated whilst doing so however, often ending up edging you to tease you.

midorima

Considering my established headcanon that Midorima is a god at fingering, I think he'd do oral as a form of over-stimulation, when he knows you're approaching your climax.

murasakibara

Pussy addict. He loves eating you out, and is willing to do so any time a day. He's sloppy but thorough, and very eager to get you to climax because that's when he'll get the most of your juice.

aomine Not his forté, but with a bit of patience and experience, he's good alright. He loooooves to draw it out.

kise

He's pretty enthusiastic when it comes to pleasing you, and loves it when you praise him and run your fingers through his hair, pushing him closer. He's not one to go slow, and loves hearing you squeal his name.

kagami

He's not the best, but most definitely amongst the moest eager to please. Those eyes always focused on giving you pleasure, drive your heart into ecstasy. He's slow, because he knows it's not his greatest skill, but that has a tendency of being wonderful when you're riding out your climax on his tongue.

hanamiya

He's most definitely skilled at making you squirm, and skilled at being an asshole. He's downright torture, going fast when you're overstimulated and unbearingly slow when you're very horny, needy and approaching your climax. He'll get off on your tears, for sure.

nash

He makes sure you're comfortable and starts out slow. He grows in intensity and aggression alongside your climax, and he always knows exactly when you will. He'll always stop just the moment before, to tease you. He will not continue and have you cum until you beg for him. He low-key has a thing for dirty talking during oral, you see?

[iamatpeacewitheveryone]

Meticulous attention to detail and careful craftsmanship is my forté

My taste are simple, understated, but refined

I can be too self involved, immersed in my own interest, and oblivious to others at times

I have an unusual and unorthodox appeal in me I don’t allow convention, tradition, and other people’s expectation dictate how I am going to live my life.

I crave freedom, adventure, excitement, and discovery, and I am not afraid of change.

I am Inventive and a Creative Genius.

I have deep belief in my own power and ability to survive any change and to emerge victoriously from any difficulty. I have a tremendous inner resources and strength. Intense, strong willed, and zealous, I pursue my desires and goals with competence, dedication and singleness of purpose, and I may be somewhat compulsive, even fanatical at times. I like to live intensely and have no respect for people who are weak, who avoid confronting life and their own destiny.

One of my greatest asset is to see both sides of an issue, and to negotiate and bring about compromise and reconciliation. Tactful, reasonable, and with considerable social finesse, I work well with people in business as well as in personal relationships. I am objective and somewhat detached from emotional bias, and make an excellent consultant, mediator, or public relations person. I insist upon fairness and seek bring harmony, or atleast peaceful coexistance between people, and my diplomacy is a benefit in any business or social situation.

I have fine aesthetic sensitivities and could work in an atistic or cultural environment.

Loyalty, fidelity, and security are very important to me in love. I am cautious about giving my heart away but true to the one who does win my love.

[ktlynn8]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Forté cashmere/silk blue quarter sleeve sweater.

[foralwaysandforever]

Poetry

Draco Malfoy x f!reader

summary: You have a crush on the one and only Draco Malfoy, and he just so happens to find out through a piece of poetry you wrote about him.

warnings: dialogue heavy, lighthearted mentions of memory loss, mild editing (I apologise)

word count: 1.3k words

genre: a comfort fic of mine, so very fluffy

A/N: BRO I LOVE SOFT DRACO. I've just discovered this, so I'm sorry he's not very in character, he's just my beloved. As I said, it's a comfort fic so I hope you guys like it because I sure do. Don't forget to like + reblog if you like this fic, so I know whether or not to write more for Draco (plus it's super encouraging!!) <3

♡°♡°♡

"L/N, could you please pay attention?" Draco mumbled to you, frustration etched across his brow. You stiffened, snapping out of your daydream.

"It's bad enough that we're forced to do this project, the least you could do is make it bearable by focusing," he whispered, avoiding Snape's gaze. Potions was never your forté, which made it much easier to become wrapped up in your thoughts.

"Sorry," you whispered meekly, your cheeks flushing a shade of red only Gryffindors could be proud to wear. Draco rolled his eyes, his expression changing from mild annoyance to lighthearted forgiveness. He was seated next to you, his elbows resting upon the desk in a very careless way, but you knew he was catching every word.

"Just forget it, you're fine. Did you write down the solution to problem 5? You're going to need that if you want to complete your part of the project," he remarked. The Slytherin attempted to glance at your parchment by leaning his head on your shoulder, his eyes lingering on your messy handwriting. You swiftly snatched up your parchment and folded it neatly, then slid a few inches away from him. Your hand rested atop the page, wincing as Snape's gaze snapped to you at your sudden movements.

"Yes, I did, thanks," you shot the boy next to you a tense smile, then went back to fiddling with your quill and pretending to pay attention. You could feel his gaze burning into your hand.

"Hmm, what's Miss L/N hiding?" Draco muttered, only loud enough for you to hear.

"Ah, just my atrocious handwriting," you quipped.

"No, that can't be it, you weren't hiding it until a few moments ago. What did you write that you don't want me seeing?" Draco grinned curiously, a genuine smile you hadn't seen for what seemed like ages.

"If you must know," you whipped your gaze to him in an act of boldness quite unlike yourself, "I write poetry when I feel inspired, and it just so happened I felt inspired a little while ago. There, are you happy?"

"Not quite. May I see it?"

"No."

Draco let out a short huff. "I do so adore poetry, please may I read this most excellent piece of art?" You held back a giggle.

"You know, it's amazing you can be so stuck up and proper sometimes, yet still manage to lack manners and make up for it in nosiness," you whispered, a glimmer of mischief sparkling in your eyes. This remark sent Draco slouching in his seat, mumbling something about his father and how he won't tolerate this. You slipped your paper into your book bag, failing to notice the keen set of eyes following your every move.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Draco exited class, a knowing grin adorning his lips. He ducked into a broom closet a few doors down from Charms, his next class.

"Lumos."

He unfolded the piece of paper he had "borrowed" from Y/N's book bag, the feeling of anticipation slightly ebbing as he scanned the page.

"Bloody hell, she's so bad at taking notes."

He winced, then glanced down at the bottom of the writing. "Bingo."

"My heart beats a bitter song,

in his heart, I don't belong.

The grass choruses the melody,

the dandelions harmonise so free.

I want to hate him, I know I do,

but oh, my soul to him stays true.

I'd be a lot easier if you didn't shine like snow,

You'll hold my heart always, the boy called Draco."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"No, no, no," you groaned, your expression twisted into a pained grimace. You rifled through your schoolbag frantically, your reguarily organised folders now a mess. "You have got to be kidding me." You slumped in your seat, rubbing your temples in dismay. A sharp "shh!" rang out. Madame Pince really needed to take a vacation, her vocal cords must be shot from all the shushing.

"Sorry," you whispered dejectedly. You sat like that for a few moments until a pair of footsteps jerked you from your sullen reverie.

"Oy, L/N, why the long face? Mummy's sent you an owl saying she's disappointed in you?"

You didn't even have to look up. "Was that the best you could do?"

"I was just walking by and I saw you so I put myself on the spot. Seems I'm not very good at improvising," you could hear the cocky grin in his voice.

"Ahem. As I said, what's wrong?"

You raised your head slightly, only to rest it on the table in front of you. "My Potions notes. I can't find them."

His eyes widened. "Oh."

"I keep running it all through my head, replaying scene after scene of Potions, and I distinctly remember putting my notes in my bag!" you exclaimed, exasperated.

"Y/N."

"Am I developing memory loss? I'm too young for this. I'm genuinely concerned, there's only so much Madam Pomfrey can do."

"Um, Y/N."

"This could really affect me long term, Draco, on top of failing this project, I'll be in a home for old people at age 25," you sighed, resting your face in your hands.

"Y/N, please," Draco hummed, kneeling down to be at eye level with you. He gently removed your hands from your face, and tilted your chin up to meet his gaze.

"Firstly, calm down, dear, I don't like seeing you so distraught. Secondly," he paused to reach into his pocket, pulling out a wrinkled piece of paper, "really, you hardly took any valuable notes anyways, I'm assuming you're going to ask me to lend you some?"

A slow smile crept across your face as he passed you the page. One glance at the contents sealed your relief, and you practically threw yourself at Draco, hugging him tightly. He almost fell over from the force of it all, and his squatting position wasn't helping him, but he regained his balance swiftly.

"Geez, Y/N, restrain yourself, will you?" he joked.

"Where'd you find it?" you mumbled into his shirt, conscious once more of Madame Pince's disapproving stare.

"It fell out of your bag."

There was a moment of silence.

"No. No, it didn't," you untangled yourself from the boy, plopping back into your seat as your eyes narrowed in disbelief.

"No, it didn't," Draco repeated sheepishly.

"You little sneak!"

"Ah, ah, ah, those are bold accusations, darling," the Slytherin tutted.

"Do you deny them?" You point your finger at his chest, almost giggling at the absurd mood change. Draco avoided your gaze for a moment.

"Mmm, no, I don't believe I could, with good conscience, deny it."

"Why then? You had me almost at my breaking point looking for those notes."

The boy, still kneeling next you, seemed to very deliberately consider his next words.

"Well. You wouldn't show me the poem, and seeing as I was very curious..." he trailed off, a small smile adorning his pale features. You groaned for what felt like one hundredth time that day.

"You read it? That wasn't even my best work! I could've shown you at least 10 that were better than that one."

"On the contrary, I thought it was rather moving. I 'shine like snow'? Touching, really. You could be a modern Emily Dickinson."

You shoved him lightly, but couldn't help cracking a grin as he started to chuckle. "Shut up right now. I mean it."

"How does someone 'shine like snow'? Tell me, I'm quite intrigued," he raised his eyebrows, resting his head in the palms of his hands. You tussled his hair, rolling your eyes as he continued questioning you. "Oh, and you want to hate me? I'm hurt."

"I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that, dearest. They want to hate you, but can't."

"I really hate to break it to you, but that's not very comforting," Draco faked a pout.

You laughed. "Well, I will admit, I did not plan on telling you I was hopelessly in love with you through a mediocre poem." The Slytherin rested his head on your lap.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, love."

♡°♡°♡

hope you guys like it <3

[silverblogs]

While I’m having my allotted one day per six months of inspiration, here’s what enneagram type I think all the h.I.v.e. characters are and why, lemme know if you agree

Wing - 1

Wing deals in absolute right and wrong, good and bad, yin and yang. Even to save lives, it kills him to break the promise he made to his mother. In dire situations, he remonstrates with Raven for killing. Despite his education, he has enormous scruples. He’s uncompromising, refusing to stay on board Cypher’s ship with Shelby and Laura so he can return to school, and needs to know the truth, such as regarding why Nero had his mother’s amulet.

Laura - 2

One of Laura’s defining traits throughout the series is her compassion - she often argues for leniency with their enemies, she’s family oriented, refusing to believe that her parents could have sent her to H.I.V.E., and one of the first things she does in the series is help Franz with his uniform while everyone else laughs at him. Her backstory, going to extremes to find out if someone has been gossiping about her, shows that she cares deeply about other people’s opinions.

Franz - 3

For all Franz’s often comical characterisation, one of his big goals is to prove himself - he doesn’t just want to excel, he wants people to know about it. That’s why he describes his forté, economics, as “simple” when even Otto struggles with it. It’s the reason for his Silent Death persona; he wants to be the best, to be seen to be the best, and be respected for it, and though he comes across ridiculous for it at the start, eventually he is.

Nero - 4

Nero’s whole life has been built on individualism. He built a school in a volcano, befriended the man who stole the Eiffel Tower, oversaw the construction of an artificial intelligence, because he can’t do anything that has been done before. He’s a leader, certainly, but at his core he’s a man of ideas, an thinker who believes that the essence of what he does, crude as it may seem to other people, is ingenuity and creativity.

Otto - 5

Another leader who’s more importantly something else. Otto never sought out power for any other reason than that it gave him convenience, the freedom to do what he wanted, which was learn. Though he gravitates naturally to leadership positions, Otto’s driving instinct is to understand things, to get to the bottom of what makes everything in the world tick - hence his almost obsessive love of reading.

Nigel - 6

Nigel spends a good deal of the series worrying. He’s always anxious about something, or afraid of something, always the reluctant companion on the gang’s adventures who considers the worst case scenario. But for all this, he always is a companion. He comes along out of loyalty, in spite of his fear, even goes out of his way to follow the Colonel, Block and Tackle when they’re under the Contessa’s control, because they could be putting his friends in danger.

Raven - 7

Raven, in spite of her terrifying reputation, gets a good deal of enjoyment out of what she does. She’s fiercely loyal to Nero, but that’s not the only reason she carries out his orders. Things that terrify other people - HALO jumps, mortal combat, climbing elevator shafts and breaking into top secret facilities - aren’t just all in a day’s work for Raven. She consistently describes them as fun, cracking jokes about them even more than the students.

Shelby - 8

The only one who really earned her place in the alpha stream, Shelby is much more a born leader than Otto. She likes to be in control, and her moments of greatest frustration come when she’s powerless - locked up, or stuck at school while her friends are in danger. She wants to be the best, not for glory, but for her own satisfaction, as shown by her reluctance to reveal her identity as the Wraith.

Lucy - 9

Despite her enormous power, she is reluctant to a fault to use the voice, hating the idea of becoming somebody’s pawn and being used for evil. Lucy wants things to go smoothly, and she is trusting and empathetic, immediately becoming friends with the others and noticing that Otto is down. She’s agreeable and gets on even with Laura, who is jealous of her relationship with Otto, and all the conflict of the villainous lifestyle doesn’t suit her.

[cressida-cowper]

jemily for both?

thank you lovely!💜

i wrote the angsty ship meme for jemily here!

who reaches out to new neighbours: jj. emily purposely doesn’t tell jj about their new neighbours, dan and kim, so when jj sees them arriving home one evening, she invites them over on emily’s behalf and makes sure that emily cooks, cleans and entertains.

who remembers to buy healthy food: jj. quinoa, kale, lettuce, apples, you name it. she also buys healthier substitutes to emily’s favourite foods (such as whole grain pasta) and she ignores emily’s groans of protests like a pro.

who remembers to buy junk food: emily. chocolate, marshmallows, soda, hot dogs, etc. jj does a good at slipping them back into their respective aisles before checkout, though. (emily pretends not to notice when she finds a bag of cheetos that she did not put in the cart when she’s putting the groceries away)

who fixes the oven when it breaks: emily. it breaks the day of jj’s flight back home from pennsylvania and she doesn’t know what to do so she calls morgan, frantic, almost in tears because why couldn’t she just do this one thing right? he calms her down on his way there and teaches her how to tell if anything’s wrong and how to fix and clean it. (he even lets her know what all those abbreviations on the dash mean)

who waters the plants/feeds their pet(s): jj. emily is shit at even taking care of herself so when she asks for a cat, jj doubts her ability to even keep a plant alive. she takes over the responsibility of watering perry (their potted plant) and making sure it has enough sunlight. little does she know, emily records her habits in order to better care for their cat, and when they finally bring sergio home, emily is the one who takes care of him and she’s excellent at it.

who wakes up earlier: emily. her internal clock from her undercover days won’t let her sleep past 6. she tends to check that all the windows and doors are locked, water perry, and drop some food in sergio’s bowl. she goes back to bed to watch jj sleep until she starts to stir and then kisses her awake.

who makes the bed: emily. she enjoys performing the repetitive actions so early in the morning, it grounds her. helps her clear her mind and she feels ready for the day.

who makes the coffee: jj. well, more like she pours the coffee into their travel mugs after the automatic coffemaker alerts her to its completion. she stirs 1 sugar into emily’s mug, a gift from hotch, that’s black and reads ‘i hate mornings’, and pours copious amounts of cream and sugar into her own mug, a gift from garcia that’s pink, covered in rainbows, and reads ‘good morning sunshine!’, a true testament to their differing personalities.

who burns breakfast: emily. while she’s good at cooking five-star dinners, breakfast has never been her forté. she burns the toast, the eggs, the bacon and the coffee. she’d been trying to surprise jj with breakfast in bed for her birthday, but jj wakes up to the smoke alarm and a soaking wet kitchen. instead, they sit out on the porch and watch the sunrise over twin bowls of the lucky charms that emily thought jj didn’t know about.

how do they let each other know they’re leaving the house: they part with a kiss, an i love you, and their mantra, ‘though we may be apart, you will never be far from my heart.’

how do they greet each other when one of them gets back home: they greet each other with a far too complicated handshake that they made up as a joke when reid had suggested to them after he’d noticed them spending increasing amounts of time together, but now they do it every time they’re reunited.

who brings home little gifts like flowers/chocolates more often: emily. at least once a month, she’ll arrive home with flowers after passing by the local flower shop, because she likes to support helga, the sweet woman who runs it, and she always pays more then necessary, because she knows how hard it is for a struggling small business. a few times a week, jj will open her nightstand to find her favourite chocolates waiting for her.

who picks the movie for movie night: jj. during one of their movie nights with garcia, she learns that emily saw very little movies in the 80s and 90s and makes it her mission to have emily watch all of her favourites because they’re just so good.

their favourite kind of movie to watch: rom-coms. the incredibly cheesy ones, the holiday ones, the quasi-dramatic ones, it doesn’t matter to them. they love watching movies where they can identify the kind of love that they have for each other. emily would never admit it to the guys on the team, but she cries at the climax of all of them. she loves jj just a little more with every movie that they watch because she sees it as an incredible privilege for jj to share herself with emily this way. she’d never take it for granted. jj loves witnessing emily’s reactions to the movies she loved as a child and is grateful to be able to see it.

who first suggests a pillow fort: jj. some of her most treasured childhood memories are of her and rosaline building forts and staying in them as long as possible, shutting out the world beyond the two of them. when emily reveals that she’s never made a fort before, it’s unacceptable. jj demands that they rectify it at once, and who is emily to deny her girlfriend when she looks so cute?

who builds the pillow fort: jj. she appoints herself the fort-building expert and emily as her deputy (that just means she makes emily retrieve all of their linens and pillows from the bedroom) and emily is so amused at jj’s seriousness that she can’t help but comply. there’s lot of emily no, not like that and jayje, my arm can’t bend like that but they manage to get it done and it’s pretty damn good, if jj’s smile is any indication. emily would twist her arm a hundred times over if it meant jj would always smile like that.

who tries to distract the other during the movie: emily. jj spends most of the movie swatting at emily’s wandering hands and insists that the good part is coming up, but emily couldn’t care less. not when her girlfriend is cuddled so close to her and smells so good and is so warm and she just loves her so much.

who falls asleep first: jj. her head droops throughout the whole movie and emily can’t help but notice, so she keeps up a soothing stream of nonsense words and runs her hand along jj’s side to lull her to sleep as effortlessly as possible.

who is big spoon/little spoon: emily is the big spoon. jj enjoys waking up to a warm, loving pair of arms around her waist and kisses pressed into her neck, she wakes up feeling loved. emily still has trouble believing that jj won’t leave her in the middle of the night, so when she jolts awake, being able to feel jj in her arms and knowing that she’s real and she’s there is a great relief.

i hope you like it!💜

[janshu]

Hiii I just had to follow because I love your writing 💞💕would it be okay if I request a matchup? Preferably with a male pls. Pronouns she/her. I am 5’4, an ambivert and a Latina. I have pale skin, mid-length brown wavy hair with bangs, and hazel eyes. I am described as someone who comes off as cold or aloof when I’m around people I don’t know. After getting to know me, I am the complete opposite. I’m just a bit shy at first lol. My friends have told me that I give good advice but like to joke about my stubbornness. I like to make people laugh and try to make the best of any situation. However I have a hard time expressing my emotions. I’m also described as easy going and fun to be around. I love animals especially dogs. I am a hip hop dancer and love to perform. Enjoy reading and playing video games. I love music especially hip hop, rap, & reggaeton. I also love to write music/poetry. I never show anybody though since I’m really shy about it. I really like drawing and painting. I can be playful and love to tease my friends. I also really like to eat and travel. I am a bit of a homebody but I enjoy hiking. I really enjoy having deep conversations. I can’t stand people who bully others and people who are fake. I like to be honest and helpful in any way I can. My style is usually anything comfy/casual and I don’t really like wearing skirts or dresses. I speak English and Spanish (learning Japanese & Portuguese). I would love to learn ASL one day as well. I enjoy watching crime investigations. I don’t really any fears, just not being able to accomplish my goals/dreams. I tend to daydream a lot and I’m also a big procrastinator 😭. I would say my love languages are words of affirmation and physical touch. I’m usually really cold towards the person I like lol. I tend to be a bit jealous/possessive in a relationship, not in an unhealthy way though. Just wouldn’t match with someone who is very flirty with other people lol. What I look for in a partner is someone that is selfless, mature and has depth to them. Also if they are really accepting because I’ve never had that growing up. Thank you so much!! 💗💗

Thank you so much! Since you put it in so close to the event I'll consider it a request so don't worry~!

I think you'd be an excellent match for:

Shotua Aizawa!

Now let me explain.

You want to have some who is selfless, mature and has depth.

I believe Shouta checks off each and every one of those bills.

Who can be more selfless than a hero? He's a tad older but that only adds to his maturity, he's aged like a fine wine.

Let's assume you two work together at UA, the workplace flirting would be top notch. The subtlest of subtle signals coming from Shouta, you've piqued his interest but he's too lazy to really say what he feels. So there's a lingering glance here, buying your lunch there until suddenly you two are just...an item!

It happens out of the blue and no one expects it, not even yourself I bet.

Comfy casual? Is Shouta's forté. Have you seen his hero costume? Its basically pajamas so don't be surprised if you two switch clothes from time to time, he might show up to class in something of yours because its more comfortable than anything he has.

Do I hear home dates? Sitting on the couch underneath a blanket? Watching crime shows after you've dragged his lazy butt on a hike? I think so. Give this man a reason to exercise and get out there more, he hardly sees the world so take him out on a nice nature path to relax and unwind.

On top of that its also the perfect opportunity to have in-depth conversations, Shouta might groan but he loves talking. Don't let his stoic nature fool you, giving lectures is a big part of his job after all.

Shouta also buys an extra large bag for you two to snuggle in, its so large no one ever really knows that you're in there. He's wrapped up around you, snoozing away while he let's you do...whatever. Sleep or daydream, either way you have the perfect heater and safe space!

He'll never pressure you to put your hobbies out there but Shouta will be blown away the first time he sees you dance, definitely by accident when he stumbles across you in your own little world at home or he "accidentally" takes a peek at any sheet music that you have in the works. Ask him to join in! Dancing is a full body workout and he'll set aside his reservations about looking like a fool if you challenge him to a Dance Dance Revolution face off.

Runners up: Kento Nanami from JJK, Ushijima Wakatoshi from Haikyuu, Shin from Dorohedoro.

Follower Celebration.

[syndicalcrossing]

Optimisation Headaches

I am enjoying the development of Syndical Crossing immensely, but the process is presenting its fair share of difficulties. I want the game to look good, at least within the aesthetics of my visual style. I like chunky, blocky graphics. They soothe and comfort me.

I am altering the height of the terrain programmatically based on a runtime-loaded greyscale height map, and then texturing it by extending the excellent Terrain Toolkit written by the talented and generous Heparo. I have already run up against the limitations of Unity’s built-in terrain features, it would seem.

The sun is setting as I work on this, reflected in the fog and lighting of the screenshot above. The FPS counter in the upper right reveals a less-than-optimal 59 frames per second, although the FPS appear to vary wildly, between 142 on the high end and an embarrassing 15 on the low end. As you can see the scene is bare bones, containing only the terrain, my avatar and some water.

Using Unity’s frame debugger, I have been able to deduce that the Pixel Error attribute of the terrain is a primary component contributing to the number of draw calls it requests. The higher the fidelity, the higher the batch overhead, which makes sense. The above screenshot represents a pixel error of 25. The higher the number, the fewer the batches but the uglier the terrain. At a pixel error of 5, the terrain requests up to 700 draw calls by itself.

That will not be tenable, to say nothing of the fact that even at that resolution, the terrain doesn’t look anything approaching the gorgeous landscape of ACNH.

I have made my peace that Syndical Crossing will not attempt to replicate the visual resolution of ACNH, as I am one person and I like things low-poly. Still, I find myself striving for better looking terrain.

To that end, I have started toying around with generating a mesh myself, with mixed results. It would require writing a triplanar shader to achieve the same look as the screenshot above, which would be fun to be sure. Still, dynamic mesh generation is not my forté, so I am hemming and hawing as to its utility. Sometimes I like the look of my jaggy terrain, sometimes I don’t.

All par for the course in game dev.

[loverblot]

*they continue to fight in the Denny’s parking lot of the Tumblr trending page*

(Shittily edited memes are my forté, I excel at them)

@crankgameplays @markiplier

[lostinspidey]

For the blurbs...a fluffy one about Peter “Are you flirting with me?” “You finally noticed?”

everyday for two weeks peter parker tutors you in chemistry, and everyday for two weeks you talk yourself out of kissing him, even though you swear he wants to kiss you, too.

unfortunately, today is one of your most frustrating days. you should be happy that peter has finally invited you over, that you’re sitting side-by-side with your backs pressed against his bed. his notebook sits in your lap, but the topics look confusing and foreign. you run your fingers over the indentations of his handwriting - deep and abrupt - and try not to appear so outwardly anxious.

“i don’t know,” you mutter, lower lip jutting out slightly. “i’m sorry.”

you turn to look at him, and he offers you a supportive smile. he reaches for his notebook, then says, “that’s okay, y/n. ms. warren gave us this list of compounds a few days ago. you have plenty of time to learn them.”

“easy for you to say, boy genius.” you bump his shoulder with yours, and his cheeks instantly turn pink.

“would it make you feel better if i did my thor impression?”

your lips quirk into a small smile. “you’ve been working on it?”

he nods, putting on the most stereotypical english accent he can muster. “my name is thor! i’m a thousand years old and i still don’t have a cell phone, but i do have a hammer!”

you laugh a little too hard at that - shoulder leaned against his again - but it’s just the kind of joke that you needed right now. so lighthearted and innocent and peter, you can’t help but be amused.

he grins, relief entering his eyes at the sight of you becoming less tense. “am i really that funny?”

“no,” you say, despite the laughter that just won’t quit, “you’re really that much of a dork.”

he scoffs. “tell me something i don’t know.”

“like what?”

he pauses, quickly jotting down a confusing string of letters and numbers, passing his notebook over to you once he’s finished. “i saw this formula in our textbook, but i haven’t been able to solve it.”

you raise your eyebrows. “then what makes you think i can?”

“just try it,” he says, shrugging nonchalantly.

“okay, first of all, this isn’t even the chapter we’ve been reading in class -”

“try it,” he insists, pointing the eraser end of his pencil at the first compound he’s written. “what’s that one?”

“fine, geez. okay. c8h11no2.” you repeat the compound until it starts to sound more and more familiar, tapping your foot against his floor. “uh, dopamine?”

he nods enthusiastically. “great! and the next one?”

c10h12n2o. this one you remember because it was on your last quiz, and peter had spent all week singing it to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star so that it would stick in your head. “serotonin, right?”

“mm-hm.” he smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkling, and it’s so endearing you get briefly distracted. “okay, last one.”

“c43h66n12o12s2,” you read, stumbling over the ordering of the letters a bit. “oh, i get it. you made this one up, didn’t you?”

“nope.” he shakes his head, tapping his pencil against the page. “it’s, uh, oxytocin. these are all hormones.”

“right,” you pretend to understand, but then peter’s looking at you expectantly, lips pursed together as you stare cluelessly back at him. you have no idea what to say, and you’ve never made this much prolonged eye contact before, but then - oh. you remember.

“dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin,” you repeat slowly, recalling the familiarity of them. the last time you saw this particular string of compounds was valentine’s day, when ms. warren wrote them on the whiteboard and gave a bag of red and pink m&m’s to the student who could guess what the formula meant.

of course, that student was peter.

“it’s the formula for love, isn’t it?” you ask, already knowing that the answer is yes.

peter bites down on his bottom lip, looking as bashful as ever, and you’re so caught off guard and flattered by it all you can barely think of what to say next.

“peter parker,” you finally get out, “are you flirting with me?”

he drops his head, yet you get a peak of the smile that creeps onto his face. “you finally noticed?”

“no,” you answer quickly. “it’s just - you’ve never made it this obvious before.”

“yeah, it’s… not exactly my forté.”

you lean closer into him before you can convince yourself otherwise, pressing a kiss against his cheek. it’s quick and soft, but when you pull away, the familiar blush in his cheeks has returned. which is why you’re surprised when, moments later, he’s captured your lips in his, hand grazing your jawline as his chem notebook falls to the floor.

alright, so you may not excel in chemistry, but you did get one thing right: peter parker did want to kiss you all this time.

(send me blurb requests!)

[mothercetrion]

Fiery Firsts

Summary: The Fire Garden proves to be an excellent place for a first kiss.

Characters: Scorpion (Hanzo Hasashi), Sub-Zero (Kuai Liang)

Word Count: 1926

My first published subscorp fic!! Hope y’all like it. (If you wanna request a fic... stick it in my ask.) [Crossposted to AO3]

“I cannot believe you prepared tea for me, Hanzo.”

“It is the least I can do. You have traveled a long way for… for a special occasion. It’s important to me that you are taken care of.”

Kuai Liang smiled as he and Hanzo settled down at a table outside the Shirai Ryu temple, next to one another on the same side. The other members were in the front of the garden at Hanzo’s request, before Kuai Liang’s arrival. He wanted complete privacy, no interruptions unless it was an emergency… and even then, he wanted a peaceful intrusion.

A pair of porcelain teacups sat in the middle of the table. Pre-boiled hot water in a kettle, all ingredients required already laid out for their use. Hanzo wanted things to go well.

Kuai Liang, dressed outside of his Grandmaster uniform and in a T-shirt and jeans, gestured for Hanzo to go first. “Your tea, your honor of the first cup.”

Hanzo adjusted the sleeve of his shirt with a faint nod, then he grabbed the kettle and prepared his tea. He too was dressed casually, a sleeved shirt and jeans. It was a comfortable outfit to wear for Kuai Liang's visit.

He and the Lin Kuei had begun seeing one another more frequently than ever.

Were they dating? No. They never discussed it. No one was asked out.

Hanzo didn’t think they were dating, at least.

They had been on what he would consider dates. They sparred together, went out to a restaurant, even strolled through the Fire Garden together. But no one had been asked out romantically. They had not acted like a couple once. No hand holding, no poetic confessions, nothing.

Hanzo was certain that he liked the younger man. Very certain, in fact. Infatuation toward the man was an emotion that Hanzo knew that he felt. He deeply enjoyed Kuai Liang’s company in any type of setting. He found himself looking forward to every instance that they were together. They laughed together, had good times together; he would easily consider Kuai Liang a close friend. He had been teased by Johnny Cage for his behavior one evening, for the actor was surprisingly intuitive and caught on to things quickly, and he remembered that he punched Johnny in the shoulder after he accused him of “crushing hard on the popsicle.”

But he was. No doubt.

Hanzo knew that he wanted to pursue something more with the man. But he was rather cowardly with romance; he was the same with Harumi all those years before. Romance was never his forté, and that had remained the same throughout his entire life. He admitted he was rather blind to signs of being liked, but he was always certain of his own feelings and could act considering those. But reciprocation was something he failed to grasp, failed to recognize.

He had no idea if they were dating or not. He wanted to assume they were. It would make him very happy to date someone as wonderful as Kuai Liang. But he was, as Johnny Cage would put it, a weenie.

Hanzo finished preparing his tea and passed the kettle to Kuai Liang, who took it with quiet gratitude. “The Fire Garden looks magnificent,” he said as he poured. “The autumn brings out the leaves. Stunning.”

“Thank you.” Hanzo looked around the garden with a faint smile. “We try year-round to keep it maintained… This is the time of the year that the leaves truly stand out the most.”

“Indeed.” Kuai Liang prepared his tea quickly, wasting no time getting it ready so he could enjoy it. Hanzo watched his hands as he prepared the tea, trying to focus on something to keep his heart still.

Kuai Liang was more stunning than the garden could ever be.

The way he moved was always graceful. When they sparred, he was light on his feet and quick to block any attacks directed at him; he was a good partner to help Hanzo with his skills. Outside of sparring, he was endlessly kind to Hanzo, always offering aid in any way and by his side at the faintest sign of a need for assistance. He was never angry at Hanzo for anything and he was always level-headed. He was reliable, resourceful; he was smart and knew many things about a variety of topics and could answer almost any question Hanzo asked.

The way he smiled at Hanzo made him weak. His smiles were kind and never forced, natural to his face. He had a beautiful smile, in Hanzo’s eyes, both his small smiles and thrilled grins. His eyes sparkled, and his lips always pushed out a warm phrase of some kind shortly after, or a laugh.

Hanzo was smitten.

“...Hanzo?”

He was snapped back to reality at the sound of Kuai Liang’s voice. He looked to his face and saw his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, a faint frown on his face.

“Yes?”

“Are you alright?” Kuai Liang gestured to him with a hand. “You seemed zoned out.”

“Oh.” Hanzo nodded quickly, picking up his tea and taking a drink. He regretted it; the tea was still wildly hot. He attempted to hide his anguish from the younger man with another nod. “Yes, I am alright. Just thinking.”

Kuai Liang smiled lightly and nodded. He gently blew on his tea and took a sip, quickly taking a larger drink immediately after. “Mm… This is good, Hanzo. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I always try to get good tea.” Hanzo blew on his own tea and took a sip, thankfully not burning himself that time.

The two began an idle conversation about a variety of different things. They talked of their clans, the upcoming autumn season, their allies, and even their favorite animals at one time. Kuai Liang admitted his long desire of getting a cat; he wasn’t sure how well off a cat would be at his temple. Hanzo assured him that with the right search, he could find one who would prosper in the cold and be a good companion.

Kuai Liang then asked Hanzo if he would like to go out to his temple for tea soon. It had been a while, and with Frost away for the next few weeks, things could occur in peace. Hanzo agreed, but he had questions deep down. Was it a date? Was it a platonic meeting? Was it an occasion that he would have to dress casually for? Would he just wear his uniform?

Would he ask these questions? No.

He did not know what he was so nervous about. It was Kuai Liang, one of his good friends. He would be more than happy to tell Hanzo these things; he would not hesitate to tell him what he wanted to know, and probably more beyond that.

“Hanzo.”

He looked Kuai Liang in the eye and saw a worried expression on his face. “You’ve zoned out again. Are you ill?” he asked. He went to raise a hand to feel his forehead, but it was swatted away.

“No.” Hanzo quickly shook his head and looked back down at his own tea. “No, not ill.”

“Talk to me. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

Hanzo looked back up to him to see that Kuai Liang’s full attention was on him. His tea was placed on the table and his entire body was turned towards him. “You’re nervous. Tell me why”

Hanzo furrowed his own brows in thought. Kuai Liang catching on to his nerves was not good. He would want to help him; Hanzo had no choice but to tell him. “Okay.” He let out a heavy sigh and put his tea down on the table, and he turned his body to face Kuai Liang, their knees touching. “I, um… I want to know if we’re… together,” he mumbled.

Kuai Liang tilted his head. “What?”

“I want to know if we’re together,” Hanzo repeated, louder, “because we have been on what I would consider dates. We have gone out several times, but no one has asked anyone out. It’s not official.”

He grabbed one of his own hands and began to fiddle with his fingers, maintaining eye contact with the younger man. “I know that I like you. I know that I like you a lot. I have not felt this way in many, many years. After all these years of doubt, all these years of being afraid of moving on from my past…”

He stopped a moment and let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. “You make me feel happiness that I have not felt in a long time.”

Kuai Liang’s eyebrows raised in surprise, and a smile filled his lips, but he did not speak. Hanzo continued, “and I do not know how you feel about me. I would like to think that you feel the same toward me, but I… I am blind. I am blinded by you. You make me feel things I have never felt, new and exciting things that I know I want to pursue. You…”

He slowed down a little, letting out a nervous chuckle and making Kuai Liang‘s smile grow. “You make my heart race. Being near you rejuvenates me in ways I cannot explain in words, but in… in actions.”

Hanzo forgot how to think at that moment. He let his heart lead him.

“I must… I must do this before my racing heart makes me change my mind.”

He reached forward two hands and gently grasped Kuai Liang’s cheeks, closing his eyes, and he pulled their faces together and kissed him.

He immediately regretted it. What was he thinking? What if Kuai Liang did not feel the same way and he was forcing himself upon him? He would never live with himself if Kuai Liang was unhappy in any way. How could he—

His thoughts ceased when he felt Kuai Liang begin to kiss him back.

The man’s lips were cold, but they were very soft and, he soon learned, very kissable. Kuai Liang’s hands moved to Hanzo’s back, pulling the man closer to him. Hanzo felt goosebumps form on his skin at the touch, and he kissed him deeper than before, his heart guiding him once again.

They kissed for what felt like an eternity. Kuai Liang was the first to pull away, and both men opened their eyes at the same time, making eye contact. Hanzo felt his cheeks burn with a blush, and he noticed Kuai Liang’s ears turning a faint pink.

“Wow.” Kuai Liang let out a laugh as he grabbed Hanzo’s hands from his cheeks and held them in his lap. He seemed speechless. His mouth stayed open, he looked like he wanted to say something, but words did not come out. Hanzo felt himself blushing harder, and he tilted his head away from the man.

“I apologize for—”

“Don’t.”

Hanzo looked back to him with his eyes, and Kuai Liang was still smiling. “Do not apologize. I am… I am glad you did that.” He squeezed Hanzo’s hands. “I have wondered the same thing, to be honest.”

“Really?”

“Of course.” Kuai Liang let out a light laugh. “I feel the same way about you, Hanzo. Those outings we took, I would consider those dates. That…” He grinned. “That amazing kiss was confirmation for me if it is for you.”

Hanzo found himself smiling too. “Are we together, Kuai Liang?”

“We are together, Hanzo.”

The two shared a second kiss in celebration, and Hanzo felt his heart soar.

[intp-humanoid]

Decade retrospective part 2: Late 2013-2015

Part 1: https://intp-humanoid.tumblr.com/post/189885576813/decade-retrospective-part-1-2010-mid-2013-ages

Sitting here in my comfortable chair my dear reader, glass of wine in hand, I have the benefit of hindsight.

That hindsight highlights one of my larger flaws: I absolutely suck at long term planning. (It also highlights that until the last minutes of the decade, I apparently didn’t know the difference between learned and learnt. I haven’t studied English Language since I was 16…)

I get overwhelmed by all of the possibilities laid before me, and it paralyses me. Couple this with my inability to healthily cope with traumatic and emotionally charged situations (and instead bottling it up), and the next part of the story is woefully predictable.

As my second year of university came to an end, I decided to stay over the summer to begin my final year research project early. I had the privilege of working with an excellent researcher, and we devised a project that would allow me to practise all sorts of practical lab skills (molecular and microbiological). It was a bit of a bigger project than an undergraduate would normally take. As I thought I’d be going into something sciency as a career (PhD into post-doc), this experience would be useful.

The summer went well, and I landed into my final year running.

And then, something happened…

My modules for the semester weren’t really my forté. I was frankly, far too obsessed with my research project. I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to learn three large and vastly different subjects at final-year level along side my research and lab work.

At 20, my grades suffered for the first time in my life.

All of the certainty I had in myself was now lost. A little voice in my mind spoke what seemed like an indisputable truth:

“You’ll never make it. You’re thick, nowhere near as smart as your peers. Nobody likes you, why are you even still here? Where do you even think you’re going with all of this? Hm? No future. No future for the likes of you.”

It also brought up thoughts and memories from a traumatic experience alluded to earlier. That’s out of the scope of this post though. I’d prefer to keep it off my public blog.

Unfortunately, I believed this voice, thinking it to be my own.

Depression took hold.

What were occasional negative thoughts quickly became all I could think about. This was the new normal.

It wasn’t until I began to experience visual and auditory hallucinations (seeing colours, and hearing the sound of a crowd of people talking) that I realised I have a serious problem here.

So I booked an appointment with the mental health nurse immediately.

She was wonderful, and was able to get me to see a psychiatrist very quickly.

Fantastic I thought, they can get me on the road to recovery. Excellent.

No. These things aren’t so simple to fix. My discovery of this brought intense anger and frustration. I needed something to channel my anger at.

Certainly not at the nurse or psychiatrist. No. I aimed it at the disease itself.

I realised something.

That voice in my head, that isn’t me. It sounds just like me, but it’s simply a malformed part of what used to be me. Nothing more than a shadow, a parasite. Weak, and hell-bent on killing us both.

I would channel my anger at it; I “otherised” these negative thoughts. They were the enemy, and were to be challenged on every front they attacked.

This was the breakthrough I needed. Something to fight against.

Open. Fucking. War.

(Forgive my vulgarity, but this is exactly what I said to myself once I made this discovery).

So now it was:

“Nobody loves or cares about-” “So many people love and care about me. Not just family, friends too. Many look to me for guidance. I HAVE VALUE, IT IS DEMONSTRATED.”

“You’re so stup-” “There is much I have to learn, but that doesn’t make me stupid. I’m supposed to be here to learn, that’s the point! If I already had this knowledge, I wouldn’t be here now would I?”

“You have no future!” “No. You have no future parasite.”

Every hour of every day for many months, these skirmishes played out. I didn’t win them all at first, but I never gave up the fight. The depression was weak once I shone a light upon it. I showed that it was the weak and insignificant one, and crushed it beneath my boot heel.

Unfortunately it was now spring of 2014, I was set to graduate that August. Not going to happen, but that was OK.

My shrink and I submitted a letter to the university, who kindly allowed me to retake my third year without penalty. I opted to return home to live to allow time to recover from the ordeal, and attended my lectures remotely. A year of quiet study and hard work passed, and I submitted my assessments and passed with a respectable grade.

I quietly smirked to myself, thinking about what the parasite said to me. Stupid? Well how come I wrote a genuinely excellent dissertation on the molecular interactions between plants and infectious organisms?

Shortly after this, I tendered my application to the university for admission to their research school. I was accepted, and began my masters...

[poisonichors]

⋆ ◦ ° ☾ taylor hill + cisfemale + she/her — have you seen valery ‘val’ kashnikova? they sure have been hanging out at valdez county park a lot recently. they are a twenty-one year old known as the uncertainty principle*, and they currently work for the savages as a soldier, which they’ve been doing for five months. a heterosexual taurus, they are determined + independent, as well as stubborn + two-sided. thorns on a rose, lips against a loaded barrel, the moon cradled in tufts of white. × lacey. twenty-one. she/her. est. ×

*  ❝ THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE articulated, in 1927 by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, that the position and the velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly, at the same time, even in theory. ❞

throwz this post on2 th dash like a shit flingin monkey hENLO i’m lacey bt u may also refer 2 me as? mr steal yo girl cos i will kindly respond 2 both ty

also i am so sorry for those of you who have to read this bible if u dont wanna read the whole thing its totally ok i’d jst cover the personality n valdez sections ja feel

plots and stats pages will be coming soon but until then!! click that heart button and i’ll hurl myself full force into those DMs whether you like it or not

ANYWAYS HERE’S VAL!! MY BADDEST BABE OF EM ALL

so, the breakdown.

VAL KASHNIKOVA

Valery is the poster girl of a family based off money and status. Her father who fronts as an owner of establishments on Wall Street also operates as the undercover head of a Russian mafia syndicate. Her mother is an ex-model, now focusing on the social aspect of the family.

Her mother consistently pushes her to play the role of the socialite’s perfect daughter, and prospective wife. Shoulders back, chin up, tummy in. Smile, Valery. No one wants to marry a scowling woman.

According to her mother, Valery’s sole purpose was to marry into another family of money. Valery was taught to walk, talk, and breathe etiquette growing up. The wife of a rich man must not be outspoken, opinionated, or insubordinate. She must always do as told, and with a smile on her face.

Being an only child, Valery finds it increasingly difficult to do anything but what she is asked of her parents. Choices were always made for Val before she could open her mouth; which remains the prime reason as to why she has such a tough time deciding things for herself, no matter how small.

She always feels the need to appease her parents, now that she’s all they have left. After Mikhail passed away, that is.

MIKHAIL KASHNIKOV

Mikhail was Val’s older brother of four years. He was the favorite, seeing that he excelled in everything he did. Valery was inevitably compared to her brother, growing up. Being neglected didn’t bother her as much as seeing Mikhail take on all the responsibility of carrying on the Kashnikov name.

One sibling had to deal with all the pressure while the other child was merely pushed away. An unlikely bond was shared between the two of them, despite being in polar opposite positions. Mikhail gave Valery the affection she was denied from their parents while Val was Mikhail’s escape from the world of law and politics. This shaped a very close bond.

Mikhail was a good influence on Valery to say the least. Though she’s independent in nature, Mikhail was always there to guide her through agonizing public events, seemingly impossible assignments, or give her advice through trying times. Valery could easily say that her brother raised her more than her parents ever did.

Most would say that Mikhail was incredibly protective of Valery, but only few truly knew that she was just as protective of him. In the midst of superficial families and business deals beyond them, Mikhail would always find them ways to run up to the roof and act their age like they very much deserved. It was only during times like these which made Valery’s childhood actually feel like childhood.

IN LOVING MEMORY

On his way home from a friend’s party, Mikhail’s Bentley was severely hit by an oncoming car. Word returned that a member of their rival mob deliberately drove into her brother’s vehicle.

Mikhail was rushed to the hospital and tended to by the best doctors in the country, but it was to no avail.

Mikhail Kashnikov, 22, was pronounced dead on August 29th, 2015.

After learning what had happened to her brother, Valery, age 18, stepped in and was immediately taken under her father’s wing to train and avenge his death. She slowly turned into a fighting machine driven purely by hatred and an insatiable need for vengeance.

SEPTEMBER 2015 - AUGUST 2018

She trained heavily with weapons, only needing two year’s time to become a skilled marksman and know her way around guns and knives (which are her specialty). She’s basically good at anything that requires a target. Hand-to-hand combat could use some work, but Val is never one to leave home without a weapon of self-defense on her person.

Valery operated more as a decoy when she first began, simply gaining trust and seducing information from rivals. As her confidence with firearms and blades grew, she gradually began to carry out more gruesome tasks, thus leveling up in her field. Jobs always were a little easier for Val than the other men. Besides, who would've thought a pretty girl knew how to use a gun?

TRIPLE-THREAT

The only part of growing up that Valery didn’t mind was learning music ━ let it be singing, dancing, or playing an instrument.

Dancing operated more as a front for combat and other agile ways. However, it slowly blossomed into a passion she shares heavily with singing and playing the piano.

Mikhail would play the piano while Valery sang along, they almost found comfort in such a cheesy activity. To this day, everything Valery knows on the piano is because of him. She sometimes likes to take private trips to it; she finds an odd comfort in the belief that when she plays the piano and sings, he can still hear her.

VALDEZ

Valery ’s family has shared an amicable bond with the Savages for years. Upon news of the outbreak in Valdez, the twenty-one year old was sent to serve the Caitos as a symbol of Kashnikov support. This isn’t out of the ordinary, seeing that Val’s training included working under other alliances to gain combat experience and further networking.

Val’s current rank is a Soldier in the Savages. She’s only been there for five months, so she’s diligently working on gaining trust through carrying out tasks and slowly making her way up the ladder.

The Kashnikova’s only condition is that she is allowed to conceal her visage when operating. She’s not open to showing her face around Savage halls and prefers to seek cover as a civilian when out in public. She prefers that very limited people know of her identity as a Soldier (maybe if you’d like to snatch up a plot about that?), which proves the importance of her saving face when not on the job. 

PERSONALITY (HER FRONT)

Valery, finally away from home and family for the first time, is beginning to find herself. She’s naive and wide-eyed, seeing that she was always under direct authority and her choices were always made for her. A small fish in a big pond, if you will.

Despite not having many prior experiences, the brunette is very playful and open to new things. This makes her quite impressionable, seeing that she always chooses to see the best in people and has a hard time telling when someone doesn’t have her best interest in mind. Nonetheless, all she wants is to have fun! Bringing a smile to her company’s face is of utmost importance to her.

You can find her hanging out in Valdez County Park during the day. She can be seen either feeding the animals, teaching yoga, or trying her hand at some new instruments.

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

so the reason i gave her this label was because while she has two personalities, it’s impossible to pinpoint who she really is or at what point she’s transitioning from one mentality to the next. I decided it was a good play on the chem theory insert collective groan here, seeing that there’s no telling if she’s just being nice or has an ulterior motive. while it’s stated above that its a “front”, it’s more so her just trying to go back to being her normal self before her life in the mafia and crime syndicates. this causes a constant teetering back and forth between how she identifies herself in varying scenarios.

PERSONALITY (ON THE JOB)

Valery can be cold and calculated if need be, just how she was back home. Her work comes first and foremost to anything else. Fooling around isn’t in her nature when it comes to tasks at hand.

Her forté includes destruction of property, extraction of information, seizure, arson, armed combat, and termination.

uhhHh still figuring her out

omg figuring almost was fingering i cried a little bye

[earthbovndmisfit]

Title: 8 pm. Pairing: You know it, my guys. It’s jonawagon!!

Notes: A little something I made using the Pride Prompts from @cutequeerpositivity (thank you for sharing these with all of us!!). The prompt for the first day is (was?) First Kiss, so, a bit late as usual, but here it is! Hope you guys like it!

Warnings: None. Just some fluffy gaye stuff under the cut. Read More is only for length reasons.

7:50 p.m.

Ten minutes early. A bit of a feat for someone like Speedwagon. Punctuality wasn’t precisely his forté, and he was aware of it. This time, however, he did everything in his power to prevent that from getting in his way, and there was a sole reason why:

He was going to see Jonathan again tonight.

They had agreed to go for a couple drinks. A celebration of sorts. They hadn’t had the chance to have one since they had come back from their mission to defeat Dio days ago. With all the injuries and the psychological baggage too fresh still, they had decided then the best option was to wait a little and heal some first before they could think of doing anything else, and the time was just about to come. Of course, they kept seeing each other through the course of those days. It wasn’t like either would stop caring and wondering how the other was doing, but tonight was going to be slightly different from these past days.

“Robert!” He heard a voice calling his name not too far from where he stood. That unmistakable voice… He didn’t even need to see the tall figure to know who it belonged to.

“Mister Joestar! Good evenin’.” The ex-thug greeted, removing his hat for a moment, out of respect towards the gentleman.

“You don’t have to continue addressing me like that, you know that? After all the things we’ve been through together?” The taller man’s words were gentle, matching his smile. “Please, call me Jojo, or Jonathan. Either are okay, I promise.”

“Got it, Mister–, uh, I mean, Jojo.” The blond laughed, a bit embarrassed at himself before he picked up where he left off. “So, how are you feelin’ tonigh’?”

“A lot better. I don’t feel that much pain anymore. It’s astounding what Hamon can do.”

“Lucky you. I gotta deal with it the traditional way.”

“Is pain giving you trouble still?” A silent nod from Robert came as an answer to his query. “Well, there’s a healing technique Mister Zeppeli taught me. It consists on using the ripple to heal other people. I still got to work on it a little more, but it’s proving to be effective so far! Maybe I could try it on you to help you a bit, if you’re okay with it?” Jonathan said, patting the other man’s shoulder, to which Robert flinched slightly. A mix of already existing pain in his body and Jonathan’s hands being too heavy. It didn’t help that the younger sometimes didn’t truly realize just how strong he actually was… “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Speedwagon laughed, finding Jojo’s ashamed face to be quite endearing. “I’ve been through much worse than this, and I certainly don’t wanna cause you any trouble either.”

“It won’t be a problem at all. It’ll be my pleasure.” He reassured, to which the blond nodded, unable to turn down his kind offer.

“Alright. If you insist. Jus’ please, let’s not get my diaphragm into this…” A pretty obvious joke that Jonathan picked up immediately as both men laughed.

“Understood. So, shall we get going?”

“Yeah. The less crowded the bar is when we get there, the better.” They started walking down the street, making some small talk every now and then as they walked past some shops on their way to their destination. “Jojo.” Speedwagon called at some point, just a couple blocks away from the bar.

“What is it?”

“Your tie. It’s a mess.” How could Robert miss that until now? Hard to tell.

“Hm?” Jonathan hummed, a bit confused at first before he looked down, only to confirm what his friend had just informed him of. “Oh! Yeah, I… I always have a bit of trouble with ties…” He admitted, embarrassment written all over his face. After all, people in a position like his were expected to have that sort of small details under control. Anything else was unacceptable. He didn’t even want to wonder what his father would have said had he witnessed that…

“They can be a pain sometimes, but it’s jus’ a matter of trial and error most of times. ‘ere, let me help you.” He said as they both stopped, stepping closer to the wall of a shop so these two large men wouldn’t be standing in the middle of the sidewalk, blocking the way for everyone else out there. It was not like there were a lot of people out that night, but still, it wouldn't be polite to do otherwise.

Speedwagon began to undo Jojo’s blue silken ascot, straightening the fine fabric in his hands so he could work best with it and give it a more proper look than getting it all tied but wrinkled up. Once that part of the task was done, he began to tie the ascot, keeping in mind not to tie it too tight. Unfortunately for Robert, being shorter than Jonathan, and having to look up at him, gave him the perfect angle for his eyes to begin to wander a little further up. Brown hues were suddenly fixed on those full lips before him and the way they moved. They seemed so soft, yet so firm. Robert was completely lost into them when he realized Jonathan had been speaking all this time. Unable to get an answer from him, he called his name, which served to drag him back to the real world; a shade of red across Speedwagon’s face. Luckily for the former thug, the dim light from the lamps on the street did an excellent job at keeping it a secret from Jonathan.

“Robert?”

“Ah… yes?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. Yes, absolutely. I was jus’… Sorry, I got a bit distracted. What were you sayin’ again?”

“It’s nothing big. I was just asking where did you learn to tie a tie?”

“Oh…” And here he realized he’d just made yet another mess of Jonathan’s ascot while lost in his own mind. He began to undo his mess, trying to attract as little attention to it as he could. “I learned years ago, from a friend I ‘aven’t seen in ages, back when I first started wearin’ suits. He taught me the basics, since his father worked as a tailor for an upper class family, so he knew a thing or two on the matter.”

“A tailor… Seems like an interesting job.”

“I guess so, but I’ve heard it requires a lot of talent and skills t’become a successful one. Else you’ll be up t’the neck in debt for all the masters’ fabrics you’ve screwed up.” He added as he was done straightening the tie once more.

“Well, I guess that’s true, too…” Jojo replied and both chuckled a bit. Silence then took over. A comfortable one. However, Robert still couldn’t keep his gaze away from those lips that had caught his eye so fiercely. He had somehow managed not to make yet another mess of the poor ascot, though. He was in the middle of his task when his gaze went up a little further for no particular reason. His heart nearly stopped the moment his eyes met Jonathan’s. Just how long had he been looking at him? Had he noticed him staring, dumbfounded, at his mouth? God… It was so embarrassing…

However…

…what happened then took the blond completely off guard at first. Jonathan’s larger palms went to rest on Robert’s waist; the taller man leaned forward, meeting Speedwagon halfway as the latter gently pulled him a little closer to him by his tie. One pair of lips finding the other, pressed softly one against the other in a chaste touch that came straight from their hearts in what some would call the heat of the moment. They both slipped their eyes closed for as long as that moment lasted, enjoying the tender caress, not really thinking about the consequences or anything else. Right now, there were just the two of them, and nothing else mattered.

Both then pulled away, slowly; their gazes finding each others’ as they did.

“I… I’m sorry, Jojo, I… I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s alright, Robert.” Jonathan’s palms still on the other man’s waist as he went on, knowingly, “I wanted it, too.”

[theacademydrinks]

Summer into Fall Stout Float (or Fall into Winter for the Southern Hemisphere) •ice cream •stout •that’s it There are a lot of fancy recipes for stout floats out there, but I find the best way to do one is to pick an excellent stout & a terrific ice cream. That’s it. (Add espresso & turn it into an affogato.) I used my husband’s @lefthandbrewing Nitro Milk Stout — one of a few beers I don’t think of as simply proto-whisky. The straw is my new baby from Andrew @surfsidesips. Isn’t she lovely? Classes started many places this month, including @yale. I don’t normally teach in the fall & as of now, I’m not sure what will happen this spring. I’ve been giving private talks online & will continue until we can all be in-person again. It’s not the same of course, but there are some benefits. For one, I can see people’s faces up-close. For another, people can make their own drinks — and garnishes. When I speak in person, I don’t usually make drinks. And never fancy garnishes. I can make a very good drink. But doing it while talking is not my forté. I have great admiration for bartender friends who speak to guests while making 3 different drinks at a time, all night long. But speaking is a full body activity for me, one that makes even iced tea is a challenge when I’m deep in a topic. But I also think we learn little in life if we don’t challenge ourselves. With that in mind, I’ll be doing an Instagram live with my pal @curi0usjenn (the mind behind #jenncairn) on Tuesday September 15, 3pm Pacific time/4:30pm Mountain/6:30pm Eastern/11:30pm London time. The plan is for us to each teach each other something more complicated than the drink up top ⬆️, maybe even a garnish — which if you know either of us, should be…interesting. 12 Either way, we hope you’ll tune in (if that’s the right phrase) because if you’re reading this far, we want to chat with you! So please join us. (at InterWebs) https://www.instagram.com/p/CE2B8KeFpfz/?igshid=167tgjh6odwjy