#I’m starting to wish I didn’t force you into this app now

[therealghostface0]

Fucking kys 💗

No 💗

[gor3sigil]

Before starting T, when I socially transitionned, I was surrounded by radical feminists who saw masculinity as gross and inherently evil, something to avoid, something to make fun of, something to destroy. The other transmascs in my friend group, sometimes, told me that they didn’t knew if they really were non-binary or if they just were scared shitless of saying “I am a man”. Because they saw this as a betrayal to their younger self who had been SAd and abused.

I saw many of my masc friends and trans men around me hate themselves, not outing themselves as men because it would imply so so much, it was like opening the Pandora Box. Even when we were just together, talking about our masculinity was always coated with bits like “I know we’re the privileged ones but…”, “I don’t want to sound like I have it bad but…”, “Women obviously have it worse, but last time…” and we were talking about terrible traumas we experienced while taking all the precautions in the world in the case the walls were a crowd of people in disguise waiting to get us if we didn’t downplay the violence we faced, or like crying and being upset and being traumatized and afraid and scared and to say it out loud would make us throw up the needles we were forced to swallow every second of every day living in our skin.

Most of us weren’t on T yet, some of us were catcalled every day and harassed in the streets or in abusive relationships nobody seemed to care to help them get out of because they were “strong enough” to do it by themselves.

I was using the gender swap face app and cried for ours when I saw my father looking back at me through the screen. The idea of transforming, of shedding into a body that would deprive me of love, tenderness, and safety, was absolutely terrifying. I knew I couldn’t stay in this body any longer because it wasn’t mine, but I also knew that if I was going to look like my dad, my brother, my abusers, it would be so much worse.

5 years later and I’m almost 2 years on T, and almost 2 months post top surgery.

I ditched my previous group of friends. I was bullied out of my local trans community. But let me tell you how free I am.

I was scared that T would break my singing voice: it made it sound more alive than ever.

I was scared that T would make me less attractive: it made me find myself hot for the first time in my life.

I was scared that T would make me gain weight: it did. But the weight I put on is not the weight I used to put on by binging and eating my body until I forgot that it even existed. It’s the weight of my body belonging to me, little by little. The wolf hunger for life.

I won’t tell you the same story I see everywhere, the one that goes “I started going to the gym 8 times a week, I put on some muscles, I started a diet and now I look like an action film actor”, in fact if you took pictures of me from 5 years ago vs now I��d just have more acne, I’d have longer hair and still look like I don’t know what to do with myself when I take selfies.

But the sparkle in my eyes, my smile, tell the whole story way better than this long ass stream of words could ever.

I want to say some things that I wish someone told me before starting medically transitionning.

It’s okay to take your time. It’s your body, it’s your journey, if you don’t feel comfortable taking full doses and want to go slow, the only voice you need to listen to is your own. Do what feels right.

If you feel overwhelmed, it’s okay to take a break, it’s okay to ask for support.

Trans people are holy. Everyone is. You didn’t lose your angel wings when you came out because you want to be masculine. You are not excluded from the joy of existence, from being proud of yourself, from being sad, from being scared, from being angry. The emotions and feelings you allowed yourself to feel while processing what you experienced when you grew up as a girl and was seen as a woman are still as valid as before. Nobody can take that from you. If someone tries to, don’t let them.

It’s perfectly normal to grieve some things you were and had before you started to transition, like your high soprano voice or even your chest. Hatching is painful. You can find comfort in things that don’t feel right, so making the decision to change can be incredibly scary and weird and you deserve to be heard and supported through this. Wanting top surgery doesn’t make the surgery less intense, less terrifying, less painful to recover from. When it becomes too much you have the right to take a break and take some deep breaths before going on.

You don’t have to have a radical, 180° change for your transition to be acceptable or valid or worthy of praise. Look at how far you’ve come already. It doesn’t have to show, you’re not made to be a spectacle, you’re human and it is your journey.

Oh, and last thing, you know when some people say “Oh this trans person has to grow out of the cringy phase where you think that you can write essays about being trans or transitionning or just their experience because it’s weird” ? If you ever hear this or see this online, remember all the people whose writing you read and, even if they were not professional writers, helped you more than any theorists did ? If you want to write, do it. It won’t be a waste. It can help people. Or it won’t, and even then, if it helped you, that’s enough.

Love every of my trans siblings, take care of yourselves. You deserve the world.

[carmenberzattosgf]

My brain is rotting with the concept of Carmy sending you a video of him jerking off ( @wtfsteveharrington is to blame for this)

Currently, Carmen is in New York for a chefs conference. He can’t get you off his mind, and he’s missing your warm body in bed next to him. It doesn’t help that he just woke up at 2am with a massive hard-on.

“Fuck it,” he mumbles to himself, reaching for the switch to the lamp on the bedside table. He grabs his phone next. With shaky hands, he opens the camera app on his phone, switching to video mode. He clicks the start button.

Carmy’s lower half is still underneath the blanket as the video begins. He’s breathing heavy as he trails his right hand from the top of his sternum to the waist band of his underwear. He kicks the blankets off, exposing the growing bulge in his briefs.

Carmy’s not going to let himself get camera shy now, so he acts like he’s talking to you. “W-woke up like this—“ he breaths. His keeps his movements slow, letting his palm drift down to his covered dick. He applies gentle pressure, which makes his hips twitch.

“I wish you could have come here with me. Know you’d take care of this.” He grips himself harder, forcing a choked groan to leave his lips. Carmy can’t keep this up; he needs to get a hand on his throbbing cock. His thumb hooks into the waistband of his underwear and pulls them down. The camera angle shakes while he shoves them down his hips.

When the video steadies and focuses, it’s on his exposed cock. Carmy breaths deeply as his cock twitches, precum oozing from his tip. “Shit—I’m already leaking. See what you do to me, sweetheart? Just thinking about you gets me hard like a fucking teenager.”

Carmy’s hand disappears from the frame for a moment, but it’s obvious from the sound of spitting what he’s doing. Once his hand enters the frame again, now covered in saliva, he wastes no time and grabs his cock.

Honestly, he probably doesn’t need the extra lubrication with how much he’s dripping, but Carmy wants to replicate the feeling of your soaked cunt as best as he can with his hand. “W-wish I was with you. Know you’d be so fucking wet and warm around me.”

Carmy starts with a slow and calculated pace. His palm grips his dick as tight as possible without it being unpleasurable. On each up stroke, he applies additional pressure to make the pre drip down the head of his cock.

He’s making the most erotic sounds, a mix a raspy groans and needy whines. His abs flex while he pants, desperate for air. “Shit—baby. Miss you, pretty girl.” He fists his cock quicker, now, barely able to keep his hips on the bed. Carmy gives in and lets his hips work in tandem with his hand. “M’gonna fuck you so good when I get back—just-just like this—shit. You won’t be able to walk straight—“

It’s borderline hedonistic, the way his hips roll into his hand. Carmy’s completely unabashed. “S’good f’me. Feels s’good,” he mumbles like you’re actually there with him and not hundreds of miles away. The veins in his forearm clearly bulge out from the effort. There’s no telling how obscene the look on his face is right now.

It’s clear he’s nearing his peak from the way he’s whimpering. Small sounds and gasps leave his lips incessantly. His palm moves at a rapid pace, growing more sloppier by the second. A sharp, wanton whine escapes him before he murmurs. “Mmm, baby. Close—fuck. So fucking close, baby. Shit—gonna— m’gonna cum for you. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

His cock pulses as cum spills all over his abdomen. Carmy’s hips continue to fuck his hand through his orgasm as he whimpers with every spurt of cum. There’s no coherency to his sounds; only carnal moans escape him.

He continues to fist his cock until he’s milked himself dry. Carmy’s painted with cum; it’s all over him. His white-covered abs rise and fall rapidly while he catches his breath. Finally, he lets go of his cock with a groan.

Carmy looks at himself through the video on his phone and chuckles lowkey. “Made a mess didn’t I?” His hand falls to his stomach. He traces out your first initial in the pool of white before letting his palm smear the cum across his abs.

After a moment, he spreads his fingers in front of the camera, showing the ropes of cum sticking to his hand. His voice is gravelly as he speaks.“Fuck. Guess I need to go hop in the shower. See you soon, baby.”

[moodriingz]

Into Your Room | L. Hughes

Summary | Luke breaks up with the reader and they're both miserable

Pairing | Luke Hughes x reader, Jack Hughes x platonic! reader, Ethan Edwards x platonic! reader

Warning | Breakups ? and maybe three curse words ? that's about it!

Author's Note | This is my first post! I'm so excited because I love this song and all I could think about for a couple of days was this scenario. Please send requests and what you think!

Masterlist

You and Luke started dating while he was at the University of Michigan. Sure, you knew when He went to play for the Devils long-distance would be difficult because of your classes and his practices and games but you wanted to try. So it came as a shock when Luke broke up with you halfway through the summer after his NHL Debut.

“Y/N I really think we need to take a breather,” said Luke while you were both watching the sunset on the beach of the lake house. 

“What?” You asked. It felt like your world came crashing down out of nowhere. You guys had barely been together a year. But you were inseparable at school and during the summers. 

“Yeah, I just need to focus on hockey right now and you have your classes. I just don’t think it’s going to work out,” Luke rambled.

“But I want to make it work. I told you that before you left for New Jersey,” 

“I don’t want to be held back because of some relationship,” Luke said and you stayed quiet. Your heart was shattering and he was stomping all over it.

“Ok, I’ll get all of my stuff and go back home. No point in wasting any time I guess,” You said with blurry eyes.

You packed up your bag and got ready to go. You saw Jack on the way out and gave him a hug goodbye.

“I don’t know what He’s thinking. I’m sure He’ll come around. It'll all work out,” Jack said into your hair even though it felt like he was trying to convince himself instead of you.

“It’s fine Jack, just take care of him for me,” you said and left the house and got in your car without looking back at one of your favorite places in the world. 

I will run after your moving car

And I will follow you

You're my northern star

Luke was miserable for the rest of the summer. He didn’t want to admit it but he was lost without you. He wished he stopped your car as you left. He regretted everything he said. He was just scared you would find someone better than him at school now that he wasn't there.

Luke told himself that once the season started he wouldn’t have time to think about how much he missed you. Boy was he wrong.

He stalked your Instagram in his free time. He was sure he was almost always the first viewer of any story you posted and had to force himself to ignore your profile picture anytime it came up when he opened the app.

You looked like you hadn’t missed a beat once you got back to school. Always posting when you’d go out with friends or when you’d study at your favorite coffee shop.

You both had so many great memories there anytime you’d post your coffee order he could basically hear the espresso machines and the smell of coffee. He'd remember your laughter from when he had gotten foam on his top lip. Or the time you were so nervous for finals and wouldn’t look up from your computer until he got you a refill of your coffee. Your smile was so bright from such a small gesture he knew he had to do anything he could to see it.

Except he did the opposite. His last memory of you was full of tears as he watched your car pull away. He didn’t know what to do. Luke was a mess while you seemed fine. How could he ever convince you to take him back?

You don't know how much I need you

Yeah, I feel the weight

It's crushing me

You were a mess coming back to school. You missed Luke more than you thought you would. The two of you spent so much time together and when you couldn’t be with each other you would text every chance you’d get.

You missed his goofy smile and curly hair. Luke Hughes was everywhere. The memory of him was in the Library where you would have study dates, He was in your favorite bar where he couldn’t take his eyes off of you all night, He was in your classes where you would sit together and whisper random things back and forth. He was everywhere except where you needed him to be. With you.

Your friends always dragged you out even when all you wanted to do was stay in and watch your favorite TV show and wallow. They always made sure to take good photos so you could post “to make Luke know what he’s missing” they’d always say. 

They basically had a schedule set of when to study with you or get coffee. You didn’t mean to make them watch over you as much as you did, but you couldn’t help how much you needed Luke. 

Finally one night You convinced them that you were too busy with homework to hang out when really you were going to watch the New Jersey Devils season opener. Ethan Edwards saw right through your lies about studying because he knew you liked to finish most of your work at the beginning of the week.

He insisted on watching the game with you and you let him because he was the only one who remotely knew what you were feeling. You both watched pregame, and when the commentators showed Luke all you could notice were his eyebags and how tired he looked. Your heart shattered all over again.

You watched him get his first assist of the season and your heart clenched. If you were still together he would’ve called you after the game and told you all about it. Now you just felt like a spectator while he was all you could think about. Ethan turned to you and noticed how upset you were with tears threatening to spill over. He was tired of seeing his friends destroy themselves.

So, maybe, take me into your room

Without you, my soul is eternally doomed

You're the center of this universe

My sorry ass revolves around you

No, I can't do without you

Jack couldn’t take Luke’s self-pity anymore. All he would do was look at his phone and play hockey. Jack could tell it was affecting Luke more than he was letting on. His eyes were almost always bloodshot and he looked like he was moving through the motions at practice. 

Luke was a shell of his former self and Jack knew he had to do something. He texted Ethan because he knew that besides Luke that’s who you would talk to the most. They both started plotting to get you back together. The Devils had a game against the Red Wings right before Thanksgiving and knew there had to be some way to get you there.

Ethan practically begged on his knees for you to come to the game. He told you he was gifted the tickets and would feel horrible to not go. Everyone else had already left for Thanksgiving, leaving you as his only option.

You weren’t stupid. You knew the game was against the Devils. You had the date marked in your planner as when you would have seen Luke if you were still together. You both looked forward to the game because it was the first time you would’ve seen him play in the NHL and then you would've gone to his parent’s lake house for Thanksgiving the next day. At least that's what was supposed to happen. 

You only agreed to Ethan because you felt bad no one else could go. Ethan promised no funny business, and you could leave the game the second the final buzzer went off. It felt safe and you could see Jack. You missed Luke, but you were also close with Jack. It was something Luke loved about you, how great you got along with his brothers. 

Luke had no idea about the plan Jack and Ethan were brewing. He was especially miserable because he knew if he didn’t mess up the best thing in his life several months ago, you would be at the game cheering him on. He was in hell beating himself over it. All he wanted was to see you in the Jersey he gave you right before his NHL debut. 

Ethan came and picked you up all giddy when he noticed you were wearing a Hughes 43 jersey.

“What? It’s the only Devils gear I have, and I’m sure as hell not going to cheer for them in a Red Wings jersey,” You said without taking a breath.

“I wasn’t even going to say anything.”

You two find your seats and you realize how close to the ice it is. You’re on the Devils side facing the bench a couple rows up from the ice. Luke is definitely going to see you because of your proximity.

“If you had told me how close we were going to be I definitely would’ve worn-” You said before getting cut off.

“Don’t even finish that sentence we’re rooting for my team tonight,” Ethan said talking over the music.

The Devils start coming out for warm up and it doesn’t take Luke more than two seconds to see you. You both lock eyes and don’t look away. He notices you’re in the jersey he gave you, and his heart flutters with hope. He just stands there looking at you until Nico pushes him to tell him has to get ready for the game. You, however, look like a deer in headlights and your heart stops. You hadn’t seen Luke since the summer. Tears start to gather in your eyes and you know you have to leave.

“Ethan I can’t do this. I can’t be here,” You say with tears starting to fall.

“Please you promised me plus he can’t even do anything he’s on the ice,” Ethan says trying to convince you knowing it won’t work.

You start to gather your things when Luke notices. He rushes across the ice and knocks on the glass to get your attention. You instantly regret looking his way, but his eyes look desperate and excited your heart flutters the tiniest bit. 

You read his mouth as he begs you to stay. You just look at him and Ethan debating what to do. You decide to stay and see what happens. Ethan's right he can’t do anything while he’s on the ice, right?

I'm throwing stones at your window

To get you to notice me

Don't make me stand outside, in the pouring rain

With a freshly ripped human heart from my rib cage

And a boom-box

How pathetic, babe

It was a hard loss for the Devils, but the end of the game meant you could finally leave. Ethan was right, Luke didn’t bother you for the rest of the game besides constantly looking at you when he wasn’t on the ice or there was a faceoff right in front of your seats.

As you and Ethan are getting ready to leave you get a text.

From moosey

please don’t leave

i really want to talk

You showed Ethan and he looked at you bewildered.

“You never changed his name?”

“I never had the heart,” You say looking back down at the texts. The three bubbles show up and disappear over and over again.

“I think you should go. What's the worst that could happen, right?” Ethan asks. 

“I don’t know he can rip my heart out all over again and tell me off for coming to his game,” You say, swaying on your toes to your heels.

“He won’t do that trust me,” You don’t even have the energy to ask Ethan as your anxiousness bubbles up to your throat.

To moosey

where can we meet?

From moosey

come down to the locker room i can tell security you and ethan are coming

To moosey

ok 

Luke has to stop himself from running to you when you get to the locker room. He wants to pick you up and spin you around like he used to do after his Michigan games. Instead, he walks up to you and says a simple hi.

“What did you want to talk about?” You whisper nervous about what he has to say.

“Us.” Your breath stops ready for him to tell you off for coming.

“I fucked up ending our relationship,” He says with his eyes turning red.

“Luke, why now? I was ready to fight for us but you dismissed me like I was nothing to you.” 

“Because I was scared,” He admits. “I was scared you’d find someone who’d be able to give you more attention than I could. And that’s what you deserve, but God I can’t be without you. You’re the opposite of nothing, you’re my everything and I’m so lost without you. The last couple of months have been absolute hell.”

“You should’ve talked to me. I would’ve told you there’s no one better for me than you. The last couple of months have wrecked me.” You tell him.

So, don't turn away

You must know how much I need you, need you

Yeah, I can feel your pain

I hate to think how bad I treated you

But I know a place

Where the darkness can't reach us

“Please forgive me. Please can we just forget this all happened?” Luke begs you.

You just nod and launch yourself into his arms for a kiss. He deepens it by holding you in by your hair. Your heart flutters and you never want this moment to end.

“Would it be too much to ask you to spend Thanksgiving with us? I just don’t want to spend any more time away from you. But I get it-,” Luke asks nervously before you cut him off.

“No I’d love to come, I miss everybody.”

“Did I miss it? Did our plan work?” Jack comes into the hallway shouting excitedly.

“What plan?” Luke asks Ethan and Jack.

“You didn’t,” You say.

“Oh but we did, who do you think gave me the tickets?” said Ethan mischievously.

“Well I guess your plan did work, good job boys,” you say with a blush on your cheeks.

Luke kisses your cheek and tells Jack you are spending Thanksgiving with the family and you won't be going anywhere anytime soon. You finally feel like you’re back where you belong. While Luke feels the relief of finally having his world back. 

No, I can't do without you, baby

Maybe, take me into your room

Without you, my soul is eternally doomed

You're the center of this universe

My sorry ass revolves around you

You— And again

[delfiore]

—MONTAUK.

pairing: alexia putellas x reader

synopsis: you remember how it used to be whilst dealing with how it is now.

word count: 2.1k

a/n: alexia baby come home the kids miss you 🥲 this was the clairo - bags fic i promised months ago but now the premise feels completely different and i've changed the title also lol. a lot happens to one's state of mind in 3 months.

After.

Under normal circumstances—as much as normal was nowadays—the silence in the apartment would feel like a blanket of comfort. It meant you were having a rest from your hectic days training and playing matches, it meant you could finally relax with the love of your life; it meant peace.

Now, the silence was deadly. It was sucking up the life in every room in this apartment, and it was draining the life out of you too.

The door clicked, and you shifted in your spot on the couch, quickly shutting off your phone on which you had bullet points typed out in the Notes app—bullet points of things you wanted—needed—to say, to lessen this inevitable pain. You cracked a smile when you heard tiny feet pattering on the floor, just as the little Pomeranian came to greet you with loving licks.

Nala was oblivious to the cracks that had been forming in her home, that have been left unamended for too long with the thinking that they would go away with time. You dreaded thinking of the day when the little pup came home from a walk and you weren’t there anymore. Would she miss you? How long until she starts to forget you?

“I got us dinner.”

“Cool,” you said, breathing in deeply. “You wanna eat now, or . . . ?”

“Sure.”

You helped her unpack the food without another word, the only sound heard was the clanking of plates as you pulled them out of the cupboard and set them on the kitchen island.

Alexia didn’t say anything either, just gingerly put the food on the plates. You felt her stiffen slightly as you walked towards her and placed a soft kiss on her shoulder.

She offered you a small smile—a forced smile—and brought the food to the table.

You cursed yourself and wished you hadn’t done it.

Before.

“And that concludes the tour of our facilities. Any questions?”

“No, I’m good.” You were way too excited to think about anything else other than the Barcelona crest on your chest.

“Great. Then, how about we go meet your future teammates? Some of them should be in the weight room.”

Patri greeted you initially, first in Spanish, then in English once she realized you weren’t catching on. Jana and Salma followed suit with friendly handshakes and quick hugs. It left the captain to be the last. And there she was; la Reina herself.

You were surprised to find that she was rubbing her hands together, waiting for her turn, almost like she was nervous. As you came to know her, you understood that she was in fact nervous when meeting new people, a polar opposite to the confident leader she was on the pitch.

But you saw the way her hazel eyes fixed on you, and as you approached her, a lingering smile played on her lips. Your heart suddenly leaped in your chest, and your cheeks felt embarrassingly warm, which you hoped she didn’t see.

You had admired her from afar, looking up to her as a role model in the game, but now that you were seeing her up close, something stirred inside you. There was something so endearing about Alexia’s shyness where you had expected assertiveness. It made her feel more down-to-earth, more like your teammate rather than a mythical figure up on a pedestal. One look at her and you understood why people had talked so highly of her—how could they not?

Extending a hand towards her, you had made your greeting, but she pulled you in for a firm and generous hug.

And that’s how they started—the butterflies, the attraction, the yearning—and they never went away.

After.

You decided that you were going to do it after dinner. Doing it during dinner is just tacky and downright disrespectful. You’d hate to be crying into your takeout after telling your girlfriend you wanted to break up.

When you snapped out of your train of thought, you realized that it was way too quiet. Alexia was eating on the other side of the table, scrolling through her phone as she did.

“Did you see Claudia’s banger of a free kick today?” You asked, smiling slightly.

Alexia looked up briefly from her phone. “Si. Really good.”

A curt answer. You nodded, and silence ensued again.

You didn’t talk to Alexia much these days. You used to be able to talk to her about anything, even in the beginning when the both of you were still testing the waters to see where you stood. When did it become like this?

Before.

Practice was going swimmingly. You found yourself catching on quickly with the rest of your teammates. Alexia has made it her mission as captain to make you feel welcome. “Anything you need, ask me,” she would say in English. You wanted to, but every time you thought about talking to her, your hands would sweat and you needed to practice what you were going to say to her. You weren’t scared that she wasn’t going to understand you, but because you knew you’d make a fool out of yourself tripping over your words.

“Hey, Alexia,” you said after practice, “I don’t know the city that well, and—well—since you do, would you be willing to show me around?”

“Si, claro.” She answered and looked around the field. “Maybe I can ask some of the girls to come with? They might know things to do that I don’t.”

Later she would explain to you that she panicked and that she knew she would be weird about it, thinking it was a date when it really was just a little outing between teammates. You wished she had treated it like a date, though, and was slightly disappointed when she mentioned bringing your teammates. Still, you had a great time watching Mapi banter with Lucy and Mariona while Alexia played the role of the disappointing mom trying to restrain her children.

You were grinning thinking back on the day when you came home. Her bashful smile after she offered to drive you home was so unlike anything you had pictured in your head before coming to Barcelona. You loved her calm nature, something that made her such a reliable captain, but also an endearing human being.

After.

You stayed seated by the dinner table and you watched her load the dishes in the washer. The scene was void of music that she would sway her hips to or a hearty conversation about a random fact she learned from one of your teammates. Now it was just robotic, lifeless movements, and your heart squeezed at the thought of what it used to be.

The end is near.

Somewhere, somehow, you gathered the courage to speak up. “Wanna watch a movie?”

And to your surprise, she turned around and said, “Sure.”

For a second, you let yourself hope that there was still something salvageable from this ruin. Then you realized that you had been here many times before, and everything accumulated and led you here to this moment.

Before.

“Really?! You’ve never seen Mean Girls?”

Alexia shook her head and chuckled. “I didn’t watch a lot of movies, Y/N. Growing up, all I had time for was football.”

“Yeah, but . . . I mean, it’s Mean Girls. That’s just a crime,” you clicked your tongue. “We’ll have to catch you up on all the classics.”

The discussion had been prompted by the imminent movie night at one of your teammates’ places. The movie of choice was Mamma Mia!, and you had been most excited to rewatch it. You and Alexia arrived together after an outing in town, and since you did so late, you both were in charge of stocking up the snacks.

“And by that, I hope you mean . . . you and me,” Alexia stuttered, leaning against the kitchen counter, waiting for you to fill your bowl with popcorn.

Your lips curved up. “Yes, I mean me and you. Just me and you.”

Your captain grinned too, like a devious little kid. “Good. Just making sure.”

“¿Qué diablos está tardando tanto? (What the hell is taking so long?)” Patri called from the living room. “¡Más te vale no estar besándote en mi cocina! (You better not be making out in my kitchen!)”

You let out a surprised laugh, as Alexia cursed under her breath, wishing silently that the girls in the living room would just shut up and stop snickering. Once the bowls in your hands were filled to the brim, you turned to her with a knowing look.

“I wouldn’t have minded, you know.”

“Mind what?”

“If we were making out,” you said before leaving Alexia in the kitchen to soak in your words.

She found a seat next to you after taking a minute to calm her racing heart so that you wouldn’t notice how crazy you drove her. She felt like a teenage girl having a silly crush, but there was nothing silly about the way you looked at her. And when you put your head on her shoulder midway through the movie, she knew she was gone. Patri saw it too across the couch apparently, and her knowing grin made Alexia want to bury herself inside a hole. While she wasn’t particularly into romcoms, she was already looking forward to watching Mean Girls with you, her fleeting heart hammering in its cage at the thought of getting you alone again.

After.

The silence was deafening. You didn’t dare to look over to Alexia to gauge her reaction. The screen continued to play the movie, blissfully unaware of an earthquake that had suddenly roared to life in the space on the couch between you and Alexia.

You swallowed. She hasn’t spoken for hours.

Then, she turned to you and said, “Okay.”

Okay.

You drew a sharp breath and nodded with finality. “Okay.”

The movie was still playing, though. It was one of your favorites, but it made you cry every time you watched it because you were so touched by the story and its main characters. It was about a man—grief-stricken with the loss of his relationship—who decides to get his memories of his girlfriend wiped, but during the process, he relives everything he shared with her and slowly rues his decision. You used to enjoy it because their story was fictional, but now it all felt like one big joke, like you were one of the characters in the movie, inching towards a certain endgame that you couldn’t escape.

You wondered if there were a different script written out for you and Alexia.

“Let’s finish the movie though, yeah?” She said, finally looking over to you.

You hadn’t expected that look on her face when you looked back at her—it was something almost like desperation.

Like it meant something to her.

You nodded. It was the least you could do after dumping her. What kindness, after the neglect she had shown you, what kindness.

Before.

Alexia was shaking when she brought the two glasses of wine out to her living room, where you sat. Nala, the ever-excited little puppy that she was, followed her like a personal little cloud.

“I heard it was going to be a sad movie, so wine it is.” She said, handing you your glasses.

“It’s a cult classic, trust me. It’s one of my favorite movies ever.”

“Well, I liked Mean Girls, so I trust you.” The truth was, she would have watched any movie with you, as long as it was with you.

You were right, it was quite sad. When she looked over midway through the movie, she could see a glossy streak running down your face. You laughed it off and wiped your tears away, embarrassed that you had cried in front of her, but Alexia thought you were the prettiest.

With feather-light touches, she reached over and brushed the tip of her fingers over your cheekbone. She knew there was no going back if she went ahead with this. She wondered if there was a script written out for you and her already, and she was just following it on its path.

Her lips brushed against yours softly, and only once she felt that you started to kiss her back was she brave enough to put her hand around your waist and pull you closer.

You were grinning so wide when she pulled away, that she thought it might have been a prank and you were somehow in on it. But you put your arms around her neck and pecked her lips again.

Whatever script it was, Alexia was sure it would be one of fairy tale endings and happily ever after, because that is what you believe when you’re in love.

a/n: the movie is eternal sunshine of the spotless mind btw. made me ugly cry.

[pupkashi]

movie nights

gojo satoru has developed a new weakness: romcoms

a/n: hi friends !! hope you are all well <3 just a quick little something I’ve been thinking of

wordcount: 1,138

masterlist

“okay give it one shot and i swear i will never ask you to watch a romcom ever again!” you’re pleading, seconds away from getting on your knees and waving your hands in the air, shouting a ‘please, please, please, please’ until he caves to your wishes.

“what’s it called again?” he’s sighing, already pulling the streaming app onto the tv as you’re grinning widely.

“crazy, stupid, love! you’re gonna love it i swear” you giggle, cuddling into his side as he run his fingers up and down your arm absentmindedly.

it’s only 10 minutes into the movie when you’re glancing at your boyfriend, biting back a grin when you see his eyes glued to his screen. you’re shocked when you hear a giggle from the 6 ft something man as ryan gosling flirts on screen.

“did you just giggle at ryan gosling?” you’re smiling and he only looks at you with one brow lifted. “you didn’t? it’s fuckimg ryan gosling” he emphasizes and you nod your head, “fair,” you reply settling back into his side as you two focus on the movie.

satoru is almost in tears by the end of the movie, a heartfelt smile on his face as he watches the ending unfold, giggling at the dialogue (or maybe ryan gosling).

“so what did you think?” you ask, grabbing the remote after the credits start rolling. your lovers unusual silence causes you to glance at him, bursting into laughter as you take in the pout on his lip and his expression of defeat.

“i cant believe i was wrong” he mumbles, “how can this happen to me, how could i be defeated?” he’s holding his head in his hands dramatically as you wheeze from laughter, squeaking a bit as you try to calm yourself down.

“does this make me the strongest” you laugh, shoving him lightly, his blue eyes narrow at you playfully, tackling you so he’s laying ontop of you, his bed resting in the crook of your neck as he’s sighing loudly.

“so what did you think” you smile, already knowing his answer. he’s not moving as his lips mumble against your skin, tickling you slightly and pushing him off you, “can’t hear you” you tease, satoru pouts a bit.

“it was amazing, it was real cinema” he sighs, his eyes screwed shut as he tries to force some tears out of his eyes.

“okay well what do you wanna watch now?” you ask, giving him the remote. satoru is quiet as he hands you the remote, not daring to look you in the eye.

“another one” he mumbles, trying his best to avoid your gaze.

“say that again?” you smile, there’s a shit eating grin on your face as he repeats the two words. “what happened to my satoru? the one who called romcoms the downfall of society?” you accuse, laughing as he rolls his eyes and gets off of you, pouting and sitting on the opposite end of the couch.

“people can change! I’m a changed man” he says, closing his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. he still has a small pout on his soft lips, opening one eye to peak if you were staring at him, satisfied that you were he hugged once more.

“alright i believe you” you smile, moving so that your arms wrapped around his waist, squeezing a bit. “so i have like three other ones tied for second favorite of mine, let me show you” he’s paying attention to you now, eyes glued to the screen as you show him the previews for the movies.

“hm” he has a finger on his chin and his brows are furrowed, “i think i wanna watch 10 things i hate about you” you’re cheering as you press play, the two of you giggling to each other as you cuddle up, silent as the movie begins to play.

it had been only a couple days since that night, and satoru was off overseas on a mission, texting you more often than not and calling you anytime he could.

hey what’s the hbo password?

the sudden text catches you off guard, furrowing your brows as you reply, unlocking your front door.

*******

you can at least ask me about my day >:(

how was your day sweetheart <333 ??

the apple of my eye

my sweet sweet lover

you’re rolling your eyes, smiling and shaking your head at your boyfriends actions. curiosity gets the best of you, and soon enough you’re logging into hbo, going to satorus profile and your mouth is wide open.

Continue Watching: Confessions of a Shopaholic

you’re full on laughing, scrambling for your phone as you call your boyfriend.

“hi sweets can we talk in like… 47 minutes and 28 seconds?” his eyes flicking between his phone and the tv screen in his hotel room.

“why’s that?” You ask, your brow arched and suddenly he’s panicking a bit. “you’re too busy for me now? is that it?” your voice is stern and it’s taking everything for you to not burst into a smile.

“no! of course not sweetheart it’s just-” he’s pausing the movie, and you’re cutting him off before he can admit to his crimes.

“is it Rebecca Bloomberg? or are you too busy giggling over Luke? which is understandable by the way” you laugh, toppling over and wheezing as you see the utter shock on your lovers face.

“how did you- but- i can explain okay?” he’s speaking loudly, trying his best to save face and spewing all sorts of lies.

“-so when you think about it if i didn’t watch it the world would’ve burned!” he finishes after a second, you’re shaking your head at him.

“tell me what you think of the ending, I’m gonna make dinner and sleep, take care okay?” you’re saying your goodbyes as he blows a much too loud kiss to the camera.

when satoru returned from his mission he did what any sane man does. he walked into his home, kissed his wonderful, amazing, beautiful partner, order dinner for the two of you, and put on one of the movies he’d been dying to watch.

How to lose a guy in 10 days.

it was funny really, how many times you’d changed his mind on things he’d always sworn he hated. if anyone had told him he’d be in a stable loving relationship, watching romcoms deep into the morning he would’ve laughed at them in their face. if he’d been told he would like the way anyone cooked cauliflower or a variety of veggies he would’ve ignored them, calling them dirty liars.

yet there he was, watching romcoms with you until 4 am, having some dinner you’d cooked with a side of veggies that he absolutely devoured. and he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

[alexfromjersey]

𝓛𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓓𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮 & 𝓢𝓸𝓬𝓲𝓪𝓵 𝓜𝓮𝓭𝓲𝓪

jenna ortega x g!poc

summary: jah and jenna struggle with the long distance.

warnings: mature language, mentions marijuana

a/n: shortest chapter I ever wrote for this series but dont say I never gave yall nothing. ngl I be forgetting that I made Jah a streamer/influencer 😂. Imma start incorporating more like social media aspects to here cause this was fun

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Series Masterlist

ONE WEEK LATER

“Yo I’m the greatest friend to ever walk planet Earth bruh. Davis finally let his balls drop and now him and Diana are going on a date together” You gushed to the brunette.

“Finally” Jenna chuckled.

It was currently 11 p.m. in London, which meant it was 6 p.m. in New York. Jenna just finished filming for the day and she needed to hear your voice. This is the first time in a week she's seen your face.

She was still on edge about Neil and hasn’t told you. She didn’t want to bring you into her mess and potentially end up finding out about her past. So she kept it to herself.

Your eyes were glued to the screen as you played Call of Duty, "Yeah I told him I'll help him plan his date since he wants to impress her."

"How sweet of you. I didn't know you had a sweet side to you sour patch kid" Jenna teased.

You stick your middle finger up at her to which she lets out a cute little giggle.

"So what's up with you? How filming going?" You asked and pushed your headphones behind your ears. Jenna had tried to stop the thoughts that ran through her mind a mile a second just now. But it was difficult when you looked good with a white tank top on displaying your tattoos, grey sweatpants, your chain dangling from your neck which she wants to grab at, and your glasses on.

After a moment, Jenna snapped out of her thoughts to answer your question, "It's going fine. Tim is forcing me to have a stunt double for the majority of my stunts which sucks because he don’t even know I’m pregnant" Jenna answered.

“Probably got that intuition” You shrugged.

“I guess. But other than that, filming is fine. Quiet little London Town that I can’t remember for the life of me” Jenna said and laid down in her bed. She let out a yawn.

“Go to sleep mamas. Call me when you get up” You said.

“No I wanna talk to you. I haven’t seen your face in a while” Jenna pouted.

You smiled, “But you need sleep. I know you probably have to get up mad early.”

“Yeah around like 4” Jenna sighed.

“See. Call me when you get me I’ll be up” You said.

"Okay," Jenna pouted. She hangs up the phone and turns over to stare at her ceiling.

She felt tears start to gather under her eyes but she quickly wiped them away. She was struggling with the just being friends with you. Each day, her feelings for you grow stronger but it was still something holding her back from pursuing you. She needed to figure it out quickly because she don’t know how much longer she can take it.

🤰🏻🩵

As the phone hung up, you let out a sigh and rubbed your face. You missed her badly. You wished you could just book a spontaneous flight over to London but you couldn’t…just yet.

You needed a distraction. You grabbed your phone and hopped onto your most used app, Twitter (you was not calling that shit X or whatever fuck Elon named. Fuck Elon Musk).

@bronxsheisty: can't wait for you to get home, we ain't got to go nowhere

Immediately, you started getting replies and quotes on your tweet.

@shiestylover: uh oh who’s this about 👀

@ghostridingwhip: jah is possibly taken? yeaaaaa let me go jump into oncoming traffic

@highondatgreen: it’s about me duh

@fnthechat: omg potential song lyrics! DROP THE SONG NOW

@modernbussywhip: i might have an idea and y’all never would of guessed it

@ghostridingwhip: oh do tell @modernbussywhip

@modernbussywhip: nah I need more evidence to support my claim but imma dm you my theory so far @ghostridingwhip

@bronxshiesty:

@modernbussywhip: oop-

@bronxshiesty: u should like share with the class @modernbussywhip

@modernbussywhip: i should share u with the class? couldn’t agree more

@bronxshiesty: oh that’s not- @modernbussywhip

@modernbussywhip:

@munchiesinmycrunchies: day 293792873 of asking for music

@ExclusiveShiestyUpdates: day 293792873 of waiting for an Instagram pic

@bronxshiesty: heard @ExclusiveShiestyUpdates

You exited out Twitter and went to Instagram. You found a pic you took yesterday and decided to post it.

bronxshiesty posted on Instagram after a while.

liked by jennaortega, davison, and 14,574 others.

bronxshiesty i was told to post on here so here u go

View all 9,836 comments

davison 🥶

↳ bronxshiesty u know the vibez

kaicenat god did

↳ bronxshiesty god did 🫣

elfanum big bronx all day 💯

↳ bronxshiesty everyday word 💯

↳ user3836 amp x shiesty collab?

↳ bronxshiesty @elfanum @kaicenat 👀

bbq.days i spy with my little eye a 5’1 boricua in the likes

kaydotnyc_ when u streaming

↳ bronxsheisty sometime tonite

mrenriquemelendez has started following bronxshiesty

aliyah.ortega has started following bronxshiesty

natalieortega1 has started following bronxshiesty

corneilo.millers has started following bronxshiesty

You don’t know what prompted you to click on Neil’s profile but you did. You saw that he was followed by Jenna and Jenna’s mother and he was a businessman. You followed back everyone and closed out your apps. Your eyes then glance down at the flyer on your coffee table. You grabbed it and exhaled deeply. You typed in the website in your phone and hit the registration button.

Here’s to opening more opportunities.

🤰🏻🩵

"I did it" You inhaled the smoke from the blunt. You leaned over and passed it to Davis who took it.

"Did what?" Davis questioned.

"I signed up for the competition. I kept staring at it on my table and just said fuck it" You shrugged and fixed your pants that were riding up your legs.

"Aye let's go" Davis cheered. He dapped you up to which you rolled your eyes at him with a smile.

"You need a musical stage name. You already got a streamer name but it won't be catchy or marketable to the music industry" Davis stated.

"I was thinking just Jah" You answered.

Davis puffed out a cloud of smoke, "Just Jah? I mean it flows sorta...Just Jah or JJ. It's aight"

"No dumbass I mean just my name Jah" You laughed.

"Oh! You could get away with it" Davis said. You knew he was high as a kite right now cause he started acting slower than usual when he was intoxicated.

The two of you then hear a ding from your phone. You grabbed it and saw it was a video from Jenna. You click on it and it starts with her showing her belly.

"Officially 14 weeks pregnant and the baby is the size of a navel orange," Jenna said and showed her belly. It was protruding more now but she was still able to hide it. Only if you got super close to her stomach you'll see she's pregnant but ain't nobody getting that close to her. "I want some oranges now. My appetite has skyrocketed now but luckily my boobs are not as tender anymore, thank god-"

In the background, you heard someone call Jenna's name. She sighed before turning back to the camera, "I have to get back on set but I just wanted to give you a quick update on us. I miss you and two months need to come quicker" Jenna said and kissed the camera. You smiled at the video and rewatched it again.

NYC 🩵:

miss you too 😘❤️

i also want some oranges now

"You know for two people to say that they’re just friends. Yall sure do act like a couple." Davis asked.

“No we don’t. Two friends can’t say they miss each other now” You questioned.

“I’m not talking about that. It’s your body language and the way you act around each other that’s unfriendly like” Davis said.

You suck your teeth, “You go to Hollywood and become an expert in body language and shit.”

“I’m just saying. The two of you need to stop whatever the fuck this is and just get together.” Davis shrugged.

You sighed, “You don’t think I want that. I haven’t been in a relationship in mad long. But something feels different with her like different in a way I never felt in a relationship before. I miss her being around, talking to her, and even just showing her around the Bronx. It's weird feeling this way...a good weird.” You finished off the blunt in your hand.

"It's called love nigga" Davis laughed.

“Alright let’s settle down. That’s a big word to be assuming” You said.

Davis chuckled, “Have your ever been in love before?”

You open your mouth to answer yes but you stop yourself and really think if you actually been in love or not. Sure you’ve been in relationships with girls before but they never made you feel like this. You never felt this way about a girl before.

“I’m guessing that’s a no” Davis chuckled.

“Shut up” You grumble and placed your hands in your pants. You get comfortable on your couch letting the effects of the marijuana relax your mind and body. Davis started drifting off to sleep next to you. But suddenly, your mind starts to overthink about the prior conversation.

Shit, now this was gonna be on your mind all night.

🤰🏻🩵

a/n: i want someone to take care of me like that black woman be taking care of her pitbull on TikTok

taglist: @grandpatrolnut @raven-ss @fanboy7794 @morganismspam23 @cinffy23 @darklron @cheesybacon1 @octavias-next-meat-bite @playboysaleen @niqmandu @zaclewiss @yescruzzzzzzz @silentfor @gemz5 @alwaysdangerouschild @onceblinkarmyandmore @melonfruit442 @zataracloud @nepobaby08 @jennasslut @rimaybank @jaewu @j3nc0re

[candy-cloud-system]

I have Never seen an endo shit on traumagenic systems - i have seen them shit on people discrediting their experiences but its wild that ur acting like a victim when ur the one being weird. Psychology largely agrees that we do not know enough abt the human brain - specific dissociative disorders - to claim they can Only be caused one way. Also forcing people to reflect on if they're traumatized or not just for them to be "allowed" to use system terminology is Wild - even if every single system is caused by trauma, so many traumatized people have no recollection of the trauma. This isnt black and white and youre silly for caring so much abt internet strangers repressed memories or lack thereof 🩷

First off, learn to read . D N I. Means DO NOT INTERACT! I don’t understand what’s so hard about that, literally you have to go through the effort to read a whole message that’s literally saying don’t interact, go to my account, which tells you not to interact, and then type a whole message and never once do you think “oh! I’m breaking DNI! I’m crossing boundaries! Hm! Maybe I shouldn’t do that!”

So I’m gonna be a bitch to you now cus you broke my DNI and I’ve already stated I’d start being a bitch to people who do that

“I’ve never seen endos shit on traumagenic systems 🥺🥺🥺” okay explain the constant death threats we get. Explain the people LIKE YOU! Who break DNI to tell us shit we literally do not want to hear, explain the people who go into our comment and tell us to off ourselves, call us names, make up slurs. Tell us no one loves us and everyone will leave. Do you understand how fucking stupid you sound?

Traumagenic systems get SOOOO much bullshit from endos and that’s why it’s such a problem. They bully trauma survivors and victims, making them spiral and feel like fucking shit because they didn’t want people mocking a disorder that makes their lives harder. The amount of times I’ve seen endos telling traumagenic systems to die simply because they fucking EXISTED is fucking insane.

Even if you could be a system without trauma, you wouldn’t be in the same groups as us, you wouldn’t have the same terms you wouldn’t be classified with the disorder. Because our disorder stems from TRAUMA! You have to have trauma.

You can have trauma you don’t remember, BUT THAT DOESNT MAKE YOU AN ENDO. It makes you a traumagenic system who doesn’t remember their trauma! You guys fucking groom people into believing their trauma isnt enough or that they’re endo because they can’t remember and it fucking disgusts me.

I’m not making people reflect on their fucking trauma, IM TRYING NOT TO GET HARASSED FOR MINE.

FUNFACT. I AM A VICTIM! I GET HARRASED BY ENDOS FUCKING ALMOST DAILY AT THIS POINT! IM ACTIVELY TELLING YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE CONSTANTLY BECAUSE YOU GUYS CANT FUCKING READ THREE LETTERS !

I AM TIRED OF COMING ON THIS APP AFTER WISHING I DIDNT GO THROUGH THE SHIT I GO THROUGH BECAUSE OF THIS DISORDER AND SEEING SOME RANDOM ASS KID SAYING HOW THEYRE GONNA MANIFEST A SYSTEM FOR THEMSELF. IF YOU FUCKING “CREATE” A “SYSTEM” BECAUSE YOU WANT ONE. FUCK YOU. ACTUALLY FUCK YOU. WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW MUCH I HATE YOU. AND I HAVE ALL RIGHTS TO HATE YOU.

“You’re so silly for caring 🥺🥺🥺🥺” I CARE BECAUSE I GET HARRASSED TO THE POINT OF SPLITTING OR HAVING CRASHES DUE TO OUR BPD AND NPD. I GET FUCKING HARASSED UNTIL I CANT TAKE IT. THATS WHY I TELL YOU TO NOT FUCKING INTERACT.

Get off my fucking blog. Never come back. Endos and their supporters are NOT fucking welcome here. Respect my fucking DNI.

[crocobuggy]

✹ private tutoring ; marco

content warnings: student/professor relationship, facials, creampie, reader being extremely horny ✹ read on ao3 ✹ (will add later since as of now, ao3 is down) author’s note: writing abt marco as a way to cope with the fact that i have the most ridiculous crush one one of my professors and it makes me want to explode

Marco knew.

It would, in fact, be very hard for him not to know, with the way he noticed the glances you occasionally gave him during classes. 

He couldn’t say he didn’t enjoy it, though. 

The blond would give you an occasional smile, sometimes a wink, if he felt particularly in the mood that day. He’d sometimes give lectures wearing almost half-unbuttoned shirts, and you’d steal glimpses of his toned, tattooed chest, thinking of how your hands would feel wandering around his body. 

But what you didn’t know was that it was almost painful for him to resist you. You were just so sweet, and the way you’d instantly start fidgeting and look away whenever he’d tell you how great you were doing at his class or how you got the best grades out of everyone in your classroom tugged at his heartstrings. He wished he could get on his knees and spend the day worshiping you, telling you how beautiful you looked and how glad he was to have you as his student.

Except he couldn’t. 

And the man’s professional ethics were currently being put to test yet again as you sat by his side and he gave you another explanation of the current subject, your shoulders almost touching and the scent of your perfume reaching his nostrils. “I… I’m sorry, Marco. I just can’t seem to focus today.” You stare at the classroom’s closed door absentmindedly, listening to the occasional muffled noises of students passing by and talking. “It’s just… I’m kinda tired. I’m sorry I made you stay after class for this, I just needed to refresh my mind a little bit.”  Marco leans against his chair and frowns as you say this, putting one of his legs over the other and staring at you with furrowed eyebrows. “Is something going on? You seem very tired, yoi.” Although he was undeniably very attracted to you, he was also extremely concerned for your wellbeing, and regarding you, that would come before anything for him. You nod, leaning on the table and looking at him. “I just had a really intense week. I could use some rest and all.” He looks at you and hums, closing the textbook and giving it back to you. “You shouldn’t force yourself into studying and staying after class hours if you’re not well-rested, yoi. You should go home and rest.” He ponders for a few seconds as he puts away his things. “Do you want a ride, yoi? The subway gets really crowded at this hour.” 

You freeze as he says this, an embarrassed smile making its way into your features. “I… I could use a ride, yeah.” You start putting away your materials and stand up from the table, leaning against the wall near the door as you wait for him. “Come with me.” He mutters, before turning off the lights, closing the door to the classroom and grabbing his car keys. “Seriously, Reader. You can’t take care of others if you don’t take care of yourself. And as a doctor, you’ll need to keep that in mind, yoi.” You nod as you follow him to the parking lot and he opens the car’s passenger door for you. Damn, he’s a gentleman too. “Thanks.” He gets in the driver’s seat and hands you his phone with the Waze app opened so that you can put your address in it. “Tell this Uber driver where we’re headed, yoi.” You chuckle before typing it in and handing him back his phone. He checks it and gives you a smile. “That’s actually pretty close to where I live, yoi. Kinda surprises me that we never ran into each other while grocery shopping or something.” 

Your heart skips a beat as he says this, biting your lip as you notice maybe Marco is much more accessible to you than you thought he could ever be. “You’re right. Or maybe we just never thought we’d be that close to each other is all.” He gives a small smile at this before turning on the radio, the low music filling the small space of the car as you zone out staring through the window. You didn’t lie to him, you really could use some rest. But now that you got some alone time with him, the last thing you could think of was rest. “You okay there? You look like your mind is on another planet, yoi.” You smile softly at him and nod. “Yeah, professor. I’m just really tired because we had a lot of assignments to hand in this week. All I want to do is to go home and pet my cat.” The blond sends an amused glance your way as you mention your cat. “You have a cat? What’s it called, yoi?” Your heart flutters in your chest as you think of your cat. “His name’s Gnar. He’s a big, fat, stupid orange boy.” 

Marco barks out a laugh as he listens to your description of the poor animal. “Poor thing.” You grin as you look out the window, trying to ignore the fact that you’re just a few blocks away from your apartment complex and just enjoy this moment with him in silence.

The few following minutes you spend in silence are excruciating, feeling like an eternity but also passing much faster than you’d like them to. When you come back to planet Earth, you’re in front of your apartment complex and Marco has parked his car to drop you off, giving you a gentle smile. “Here you are, yoi. Now go and get some rest.” You look out the front window and start fidgeting with your fingers. “Thanks for the ride, professor.” You pause, trying to think of anything else to say. “Uh… do you want to come in and have some coffee? You’ll also have the chance of petting a fat and stupid orange boy.” 

Marco’s eyes widen slightly at your request and he feels his heart thump in his chest. You’re his student, damn it. If his superiors knew about this, he’ll be done for.

But it’s just this once, he tells himself. 

No one needs to know, he thinks, before smiling at you and nodding. “I’ll take you up on that offer, yoi. I could use coffee and some time with a fat cat.” Your heart skips a beat as he accepts your offer. Fuck, this is really happening. Your hot college professor is seriously going to your house over some coffee and your fat cat. You get out of the vehicle and Marco follows after you, pressing a button on a remote control to lock the car’s doors. As the two of you go into the building and then glance awkwardly at each other inside the elevator, you can feel your chest flutter and a familiar warmth finding its way between your legs. “I’m sorry if my apartment’s messy. I haven’t got any visits in… a while.”  He shakes his head, looking at you through half-lidded, tired eyes. “Don’t worry about it, yoi. I’ve been your age before.” 

You open the elevator’s door when you get to your floor and start fumbling with the keys to your apartment, and as soon as you take the keys out of your purse, you can hear loud meowing coming from inside your apartment and Marco’s giggling. “Someone sure does seem really happy to have you back home, yoi.” You snort and make a gesture for him to come in just before Gnar runs out the door and rubs himself against your legs. “Come on, fat boy. Let’s get inside, we’ve got a visitor.” 

Marco looks around your apartment. It’s small, but it feels homey. In your living room, there’s a couch, facing a small television perched upon a low table, a bookshelf filled with books of all sorts and a few fine art prints hanging on the walls. “It’s pretty, yoi. Matches your personality.” You feel heat rise to your cheeks as you hold Gnar on one arm and use your other arm to close the door. “Make yourself at home. I’ll go make us some coffee. Gnar, be nice to him.” You put the fat creature on the floor and go to the kitchen as it makes its way to Marco, who’s now sitting on the couch.  

You actually have to pause a minute to recover yourself as you get in the kitchen and grab two small ceramic coffee cups, setting them on the sink as you fumble with the coffee machine. 

Your professor is currently sitting on your couch, being smelled by your cat, as you make the two of you some coffee. And not just any professor, it’s your extremely hot professor that you’ve had a crush on for God knows how long. 

Damn it, Reader. You thirsty bitch. You know damn well you don’t want to treat this man to coffee.

Well, at least not just coffee.  

You keep thinking about how you’re actually a complete pervert as you put the two cups under the coffee machine and wait for it to come out, grabbing a jar of starch biscuits and taking it to the living room to place it on the table. When you get to the living room, however, you’re greeted by the sight of Gnar kneading on Marco’s lap, rubbing his cheeks against the red frame of his glasses. 

Oh my God.

Your professor is being kneaded on by your fat cat as if he were one of your long-term friends or something.

“I think your cat likes me, yoi.” Says Marco, clearly amused at the whole situation. You feel utterly mortified at what’s happening, but you figure you can’t really stop any of it. You muffle your laughter as you scurry back to the kitchen and bring Marco a cup of steaming hot coffee. “Thanks, yoi. Now I just have to figure out how to drink coffee with this sweet, big dude on my lap.” Take me on your lap instead, you think to yourself, looking at the man’s blue eyes. “Good luck.” You say as you lean against the couch, crossing your legs. The blond decides on letting Gnar stay on his lap, leaning against the couch and looking at you as he takes a sip of his coffee. “I really needed this, yoi. It’s not just you students who have a hard time at college, you know.” You nod and look at him with genuine interest. “Remember when some students got some corpse parts from the anatomy lab and took them home to study, yoi? Because I sure do.” You laugh loudly at the memory, leaning your head against the couch’s back and looking at Marco with adoration. 

He feels a pang on his chest as you look at him like that, leaning his head on the couch and looking at you as he sips on his coffee. Sure, he’s never had a particularly personal conversation with you, but he knew some of you. How much you loved cats, hated how dry your hands would become after wearing gloves for too long, how you liked wearing crocs around campus even when you weren’t going to the hospital just because they were extremely ugly. Mundane, impersonal things. 

But part of him always wished he knew more. 

And it seemed like that part of him was taking over as he started leaning his head towards yours, your foreheads slowly touching. He felt Gnar slide slowly down his lap before the cat decided to jump down and the blond managed to spare a quick glance before redirecting his attention to you. You could smell each other’s perfume and the scent of coffee on each other’s breath, and after what seemed like an eternity, your lips brushed lightly against each other. 

It was electric, in all senses of the word. 

You felt a pang inside your chest before pulling away. It felt like an electric shock and you jumped back, drinking another gulp of your coffee before putting the cup on the table as if trying to convince yourself that you weren’t dreaming. Meanwhile, Marco didn’t know what to do with himself, looking at you with wide eyes as he ran a hand through his blond locks. “Professor, I—“ 

“Don’t.” He says as he sets his cup on the table and pulls you in for what you’d call an actual kiss, licking your lower lip and putting one of his arms around your shoulder. “I’ve wanted this for so long, yoi—“ He pauses and lets out a groan as you bite his lower lip and tangle your hands on his hair. “Professor… I never… I never thought—'' He chuckles. “You’re so clueless, Reader. I’ve wanted this for so long, yoi. I just never thought we’d ever have an opportunity to-–” You cut off his words with a kiss while slowly climbing onto his lap, unbuttoning his shirt and running your hands up and down his chest, tattooed skin feeling satin smooth under your fingers along with thick blonde hair. Marco shivers under your touch, and you figure maybe it’s been a while since he’s done this. “Reader– oh–” You smirk as you fondle his nipples slowly but firmly, watching him throw his head back. “Are you sure, yoi? I’m your professor and I’m much older than you.” 

“I know,” you mutter, your lips gently.grazing his own. “And that’s why I want you, professor.” Marco groans at your words, rolling his hips to try and somehow stimulate himself, earning a moan from you. You take this as a chance to grind against the blond before standing up and looking down at him, and you can see the confusion in his gaze. “Why did you stop? Changed your mind, yoi?” Before you say anything, you drop to your knees and start unzipping his pants only to pull them down to his knees along with his underwear, and you salivate as his dick springs free. The length is average, but he’s thicker than any other of the guys you’ve been with. You wink at him before giving a slow lick from his balls all the way up to his blushed tip, looking him in the eyes. “Shit…” He puts his hand on the back of your head, encouraging you to keep going, and at this, you take as much of his length as you can, jaw aching slightly due to his girth. 

“Feels so good, Reader. You really are my best student, yoi.” You can feel your hole clench at his words as you keep on stimulating him with your mouth and tongue, giving his tip a few rough licks and occasionally pressing open-mouthed kisses to his length. His moans start to get more and more high-pitched as his sensibility heightens and he starts slowly thrusting into your mouth, gently enough not to make you gag, but roughly enough for your spit to drip down your chin. You feel him throb as he gives your mouth a few more thrusts before pulling out. However, before he can say anything, he comes, the thick, white liquid spraying over your face. You open your mouth as soon as you feel the first few spurts hit your face and smile as you see Marco’s eyes go wide, licking a bit of his release from your plump lips. “I’m sorry, I haven’t done this in… a while, yoi.” He looks extremely embarrassed, and you can’t blame him. You thought he would probably get more action than you believed he did, but maybe he didn’t have much time for it. 

“Can you take some more, professor?” Marco nods before letting out a sigh and leaning against the back of the sofa. “Just… give me a few minutes to recover, okay?” The man pets your hair as you lay your cheek against his thigh, smiling at him as if you were in a trance. You’ve thought of having him all to yourself many times, but you never thought it would actually happen, especially not right after finding out he lives so close to you. You stand up to sit on his lap, slowly rubbing your wetness against his length, only to feel it start to harden again as he lays his head back. “You’re a real menace, Reader. I would’ve never guessed my best student was also the best at such filthy things.” His hands slide down to your ass and knead on it slowly, then slide up to your love handles and lower belly. “God…” You feel the blond start grinding his dick against your drenched pussy, teasing your folds slowly with his tip, and let out a low groan. “Fuck, professor—“ At this, you feel one of his large hands sneak between your legs and circle your clit as he looks at you teasingly. “Professor, please, please, please—“ 

And then, he can’t hold back anymore. 

He pushes two thick fingers inside you and curls them towards himself, looking for your G-spot. “You’re so wet. Do you get this wet whenever you’re at my lectures too, you minx?” You nod, biting your lip and looking down at him through half-lidded eyes. Two of his fingers thrust against your G-spot slowly as his thumb gently circles your clit, earning sighs effortlessly. He massages your sensitive spot a while more before pulling his fingers out and groaning as he licks them clean. “You taste just as amazing as I thought you would, yoi–” He then pauses and his hand directs itself to his hardening length, lining it up with your entrance. You don’t give him the time to thrust himself into you as you sink yourself on his dick. biting your lip and looking at his widened eyes. “It’s okay, professor-” you let out a moan as you move your hips against his. “I’m on birth control– fuck–” Marco nods and gives your asscheeks a firm slap, digging his fingers on the soft skin. “Say my name, yoi—“ The blond’s nails will probably leave crescents on your skin later as he sinks them on your buttocks, moving you up and down his thick length. You bite your lip and look at him, teary-eyed from the stimulation. “Oh, Marco!” 

Soft, full lips press against your skin as he smirks, never ceasing his movements as he has his way with you, whispering praises and hands occasionally stroking your thighs. “Reader, I– I’m close again, yoi–” He murmurs against your skin, slowing down to try and keep himself from reaching his limit and you think for a few seconds before giving a devilish smirk. “Come inside me, Marco.” You’d fantasized about this so many times, his skilled hands exploring every inch of your body, plump lips against yours, blue eyes staring at you as if you were the only person on Earth. His moans snap you out of your trance, as he’s clearly unable to hold back anymore. “Oh, shit, I’m gonna come again–” And you feel him throb inside you as he empties himself for the second time, now inside you. “Sorry, yoi. You didn’t even get to finish yet.” He looks to the side, seemingly embarrassed, but you give his cheek a kiss and flash him a smirk.

“Don’t worry, professor. You’re not leaving this private tutoring session too soon.”

[mariacallous]

In the days since four Tajikistani citizens were arrested in connection with Friday’s terrorist attack at a Moscow concert hall, people with Central Asian ancestry, already frequent targets of racism in Russia, have been facing a new wave of hatred and aggression. The country’s security forces have reportedly begun treating people with “Asian features” with increased suspicion, while some Russian citizens have started refusing to ride with taxi drivers from Tajikistan. Meanwhile, according to the Telegram channel Baza, Tajik community leaders have advised diaspora members to avoid going outside at night for their own safety, and employees of a barbershop where one of the alleged terrorists worked for less than three months have received a flood of threats. Meduza shares examples of this unwarranted hostility.

‘I’m pregnant and I don’t know what to do’

On the day after the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall concert venue, Telegram channels began posting the names of suspects who had been arrested while allegedly trying to flee to Ukraine. One of them, 19-year-old Muhammadsobir Fayzov, had worked for several months at a barbershop in the town of Teykovo in Russia’s Ivanovo region. As soon as town residents learned of this, they began bombarding the barbershop’s employees with threats.

Screenshots shared by the Telegram channel Baza show users calling on people to storm the shop and burn down the homes of its employees. It’s unclear where these messages were left, but they appear to have been posted on an unofficial community page for the barbershop and later deleted.

On Sunday, the barbershop’s official page on the Russian platform VKontakte posted a message saying that a “wild hatred” had been “unleashed” on the establishment. “The manager and the owner are getting threatening phone calls, and people are leaving bad ratings and writing awful reviews,” read the post. According to the shop’s employees, Fayzov only worked there for a few weeks before he disappeared and stopped responding to its management. The message was later deleted, and the page is now private.

The barbershop’s director, Yamina Safiyeva, told journalists that its managers’ phones have been “ringing nonstop” with people calling with threats. “People are calling and wishing for my death. I’m pregnant and I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid to go outside,” she said. Safiyeva also said the shop’s employees didn’t notice anything unusual about Fayzov during his time there.

‘I’m not going with you’

In Yekaterinburg, according to the local news outlet It’s My City, police have begun conducting routine stops of men with “Asian features,” and the administration of at least one shopping center has asked its tenants for information about store employees from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Additionally, some taxi service users have been refusing to ride in vehicles with drivers from Tajikistan. Telegram channels and social media pages have published screenshots from taxi apps in which customers tell their assigned drivers to cancel the ride if they are from Tajikistan. “Hello, if you are Tajik, cancel the order, I’m not going with you,” reads one message.

The Telegram channel Baza has reported that Tajik community leaders in Russia have been advising diaspora members not to go outside at night and to avoid large public events. At the same time, according to the channel, some employers have asked workers from Tajikistan to provide them with updated personal information, including their passport data and residence.

On Monday, Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement warning citizens against traveling to Russia and recommending that citizens currently in Russia keep their documents with them at all times.

Russian State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin has said that anybody calling for “pogroms and lynching” in the wake of the terrorist attack should be prosecuted for “provoking destabilization inside the country.” He warned that “dealing with migrants in this way” will “inevitably lead to escalation.”

[neapocream]

Tokyo ClassReunion Summoners

Prologue: The Return Part 1

~~~~~~~❀.:.♚.:.❀~~~~~~~

8 years… that how long it been since everything came to an end…

The war…the loop…the game…it was all over and now you were back home…in your original world.

You was glad that it was over, yet you was bought back to your world too soon. You remember your friends saying their goodbyes and some you didn’t even get the chance to. Going back was not an option no more and you slowly accepted that fact.

As life goes on so did you, you decided to lived your life and choose a path to walk on. So you decided to become a teacher just like him…Mr. Mononobe. A teacher who help their students and guide them to a path of their choice.

Speaking a Mononobe, you still remember his wish he wanted to see. The day you graduate yet sadly he won’t be able to see it.

Speaking of graduation, it was your day that you finally graduate. You spend 4 years in college and was able to pass your classes and now you’ll finally get to be rewarded with a piece of paper…back in Tokyo there was probably a couple of transients who was GIVEN the job without any requirements but oh well, nothing you can do about that.

During the whole Graduation you can’t help but feel lonely…

Everyone friends and families are here to support one another. But you? Yeah don’t really have a “family” to speak of at the moment, but you doing this for you. You want to at least attend and collect what you earn and move on.

At the end, you was alone getting ready to leave. When you notice something…or someone…

~~~~~~~❀.:.♚.:.❀~~~~~~~

(Name)’s POV

After talking to my classmates and said my farewell to all of them. I decided to go outside alone to get some peace and quiet.

Even though I was alone, I couldn’t help but feel a pair of eyes looking at me. As I turn around and see…

(Name): Oh…it happening again.

There stand a figure I know…someone who been showing up like he is actually there, but I know better than to believe since I can’t even touch him.

Mr. Mononobe…not the real one at least. The one standing before me is…not real. It more like an imaginary friend that show up and soon disappear.

(Name): Haunting me again I see, no matter how hard I try to forget you always show up whenever I made some sort of progress.

He didn’t say anything, not like I expected him too anyway. It irritate me to no end, to show up and mess with me, to mock me. The feeling like I had won’t go away and it hurt me deep. I want nothing more to go up and huge him, to feel to warm of his embrace. But I know I can’t no matter how hard I wish for it.

(Name): Please…stop showing up and messing with my head…my heart. I can’t take it anymore. It hurts seeing you, but I can’t help but want to see you and not just you. My friends…that I was force to leave behind. I want to see them all too, but I can’t. A bitter truth I have to swallow.

I couldn’t help but walk up to him with tears falling out of my eyes. My hand reach to touch his cheek.

(Name): Maybe…if there a chance. May there be a day I can once return to Tokyo and start over. Where everyone can meet the real me. Wouldn’t that be nice…

I slowly started to put my hand away, but I notice the figure of Mr. Mononobe starting to move his hand to my.

Mr. Mononobe?: Yes, it would be nice to meet you again, (Name).

He soon disappear leaving me with my own thought to process what just happen.He talk to me. For the first time in so long, I heard his voice that I missed so much.

(Name): …Please…come back.

I want to talk…even for a minute…

~~~~~~~❀.:.♚.:.❀~~~~~~~

The day soon come dark and now I spending my last night at the school in the dorms. Everyone already pack up and left or just hanging out one last time before handing their separate ways. I’m just end my room laying down and trying to forget what happen earlier today.

As I was about to sleep my phone suddenly ring. As I reach for it I notice it was a notification about an app that was downloaded…”NEO!SUMMONS”… what?

Before I can think of what to do a message soon pop up on my screen from the app.

Unknown: Hello (Name), I’m glad to finally reach you.

[androidcharles]

I guess this is my way of saying that I'm not longer doing fun covers for my fan-fic chapters anymore. It was the thing that was kinda stressing me in terms of posting them and hopefully that will mean that chapters will come out a lot quicker in the future.

Chapter four is like, halfway done, but in the meantime, enjoy chapter three! Like I said, this is a bit of a filler chapter, celebrating a certain someone's date of birth :3c

ALSO I should probably let ya'll know that if there's anything here that makes you uncomfortable PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Don't be all passive aggressive and make vague posts about me or w/e.

Charles opened his eyes, groaning as his processes started to boot up. It had been at least a few weeks since he had been kicked out of the government. A few weeks since his upgrades and such. In between some of the missions he had helped Henry and Ellie with (he could consider himself an official member of their PI agency he supposed), getting a new helicopter license (at the suggestion of Ellie and Henry, for whatever reason), and of course, the Toppats causing trouble, he was pretty wiped out most of the time.

In fact, his sleep schedule was starting to take a toll as well. Usually, he would manage to boot himself out of sleep mode without much problem at around six or seven AM, but thanks to being kicked out of the government forces, Charles was now waking up as late as eleven AM or even one PM. He kicked himself for his, as he looked at the UI and saw that it was now twelve thirty six.

I wish Henry or Ellie would wake me up earlier, Charles thought as he rose out of bed, trying to get himself to walk as he crookedly waltzed towards the door and opened it, heading down the long hall.

“Charles! You’re finally awake!” he heard Ellie say through static. He finally managed to get his ears working as he rubbed his eyes (another habit he had picked up from watching the other humans do it).

“Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-yeah, I’m sorry Ellie, I was just-” Charles gasped as he looked at the scene in front of him. In the kitchen, surrounding the table were Henry, Ellie, Rupert, and Dave, smiling as he saw a stack of pancakes on the table with eight candles on top. As the four of them began to sing happy birthday, he very hastily opened his calendar app and looked to see what day it was. May twenty seventh… his birthday. How could he have forgotten his own birthday?

“Happy birthday, Charles!” Ellie shouted, doing a flourish with her arms. Rupert clapped his hands as his cheeks turned bright red as Dave bounced in place and Henry smiled sweetly at him, almost sort of proud as Charles covered his mouth.

“Guys… you didn’t have to…” Charles said softly.

“We totally had to!” Ellie said, “In fact, it would be great if yoooouuuu got out of the apartment for like… a few hours?”

“Really?” Charles said, “But I haven’t eaten my birthday breakfast…”

“You can do that, but afterwards, get out,” Ellie said bluntly.

“Ellie,” Henry said gently as Ellie covered her mouth. He turned to sign to Charles as he sat down to take one of the candles, crunching on it.

SORRY, IT’S JUST THAT ME AND ELLIE HAVE A REALLY BIG SURPRISE FOR YOU AND WE DON’T WANT TO SPOIL IT WHILE YOU’RE HERE. YOU CAN SPEND THE DAY WITH RUPERT AND DAVE WHILE YOU WAIT FOR US TO GET DONE WITH EVERYTHING, Henry signed at him as Charles nodded his head.

“I have a present for you too, Charles!” Dave said, “It’s just… back at my place.”

“You didn’t bring it with you?” Rupert said, “Geez…”

“It’s not a big deal. Since Charles is getting kicked out, it’ll be a good excuse to head out there and uh, hang out you know.” Charles had been to Dave’s apartment before. It was very small and not very comfortable. Even his room was cramped, being only enough to hold his bed and a small dresser, which didn’t even hold half of the things he wore. And his kitchen was the size of a postage stamp as well.

“Tell ya what: how about we meet Rupert’s apartment and you can bring your present there?” Charles said.

“Ah… right, my apartment is kinda… yeah…” Dave fidgeted nervously as Charles took a bit of pancake on his fork and hovered it in front of Rupert.

“Want some?” Charles said as Rupert’s face practically turned crimson.

“Um… sure…” Rupert said, opening his mouth as Charles fed him. The three of them giggled as they started to pass around some more pancakes. Before long, Charles was lacing up his shoes, ready to head out as he waved to Ellie and Henry.

“Bye you guys! See you tonight!” Charles said.

“Bye Charlie! Stay safe!” Ellie said, “How much more do you have to do?” Charles couldn’t hear anything else as the apartment closed behind him, Rupert taking his hand to lead him away from the door. Dave waved nervously as he rushed over to where he lived to grab Charles’ present as Rupert and Charles walked with each other to his own.

“Now now, you’ll know what your surprise soon enough. Maybe you should contact your other friends? Maybe they left some messages for ya?” Rupert said.

“Besides Calvin and Konrad?” Charles opened his messenger app to see that it was practically lit up. Scientists from the research and science division of the base had individually messaged him wishing him a happy birthday. Meanwhile, he had gotten a lengthy message from General Galeforce wishing him a happy birthday (and something about Santa Claus and Rupert having his present for him). He tried to push that out of his mind as he glanced at the near identical happy birthday messages from Calvin and Konrad. Even in internet text form, they seemed to be the same, even sending him identical birthday memes.

And of course, Amelia wasn’t exempt from the birthday wishes, wishing him a happy birthday (and telling him it was off by a few days but it was within the range, so it still counted). And that she had a present for him too, so if he had the chance to sneak away, he could grab it. Charles made a face at this, but in the end, whatever it was had to have been gotten through some legitimate means, right? And it was another present and he loved getting presents, as immature as it sounded.

Charles and Rupert finally approached his apartment building, heading inside and riding the elevator up before Charles collapsed on Rupert’s couch.

“Uh, by the way, General Galeforce said he wanted me to give you this,” Rupert said, handing him a wrapped box, “He said he’d send you a message, but he wanted me to tell you ‘Happy Birthday Charlie.’”

“Wow…” Charles said, taking the box gingerly as he glanced at it. It was pretty light, so he probably guessed it was another model. As he tore the wrapping paper off of the box, he confirmed it as he smiled, seeing the model helicopter flying on the box and hugged it tightly.

“I can’t wait to get home to build this!” Charles said, “Ah, I’ll have to message him and thank him. Did you get me a present?” Rupert blushed as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

“Ah, well, I might have gotten something for ya, but… it’s not here yet. It’ll be here… later?” Rupert was making up all sorts of excuses because his gift was something a bit more personal. Something that he couldn’t openly talk about with anyone else but Charles. Maybe it was also a psuedo gift to himself as well. After all, you couldn’t exactly wrap your feelings in a box, but he had been bottling his emotions for years…

“Aw, come on, give me a hint!” Charles said, “Is it like a box of pens? I can eat the pens!”

“No, no, it’s something else,” Rupert said, “Something you can’t quite wrap up.”

“Ooooh… it’s a metaphor gift. I can’t eat that, but I kinda like the sound of it!” Charles said hopefully, “What is it? Give me a hint, give me a hint! Is it a speech about how great friends we are and-”

“Charlie,” Rupert said impatiently, causing Charles to shrink back a bit. Rupert cringed at this before he glanced to the side, “Sorry, it’s just that… I’m not sure how to put it into words. Maybe it would be better if I did it later.”

“OK!” Charles said, back to his usual cheery self. But something in his eyes said otherwise, they were searching, almost curious. He couldn’t help but notice a little bit of shine in them as well, despite being artificial.

It didn’t really matter though, because Charles had gone back to admiring his new model kit and Rupert couldn’t help but smile back warmly, almost feeling the fluttering in his heart.

It was interrupted by a knock on the door as Rupert jumped, a little annoyed by the interruption. Charles looked up hopefully as Rupert answered the door and Dave entered sheepishly, holding two boxes in his hands.

“More presents! Are they empty? Is it a metaphor?” Charles said.

“Huh? What? No?” Dave glanced at Rupert with a confused expression on his face as he shrugged.

“Charlie’s hyped up on birthday energy right now. I bet you if you looked at his processes, there would be little birthday cakes in text… pictures…” Rupert said, stumbling a bit.

“It’s called ASCII art,” Dave said, handing the first box to Charles as he smiled at him. Dave sat on the couch next to them, smiling as Charles opened up the box and pulled out a t-shirt with a slogan that said “Thinking. Please wait…” with a progress bar between each line.

“There’s a couple more in there. I figured you’re probably getting tired of wearing the same thing, you know,” Dave said.

“’Downloading Will to Care...’ sometimes I do feel like that…” Charles said, “Wow, Dave these are so cool! And you got me a couple of plain ones as well.”

“I’m glad you like them!” Dave said, “I was so afraid that you wouldn’t like them and I would have to you know, return them… Anyway, I also baked these for you.” Dave handed Charles another box as Charles opened it up and gasped. There were a dozen colorful cupcakes lined up, decorated with buttercream frosting and lots of little items, like paper clips, fake gemstones, and little erasers.

“Woah! There’s thumbtacks on this one!” Charles said, pointing at a cupcake and picking it up, licking his lips.

“Guess you can’t share those…” Rupert muttered.

“Well, maybe if you pick them off…” Dave said.

“Nah, let’s let him have them. I’m pretty sure he would love to have them all to himself,” Rupert said. Charles flinched at this before handing a cupcake to Rupert.

“Ah, no thanks I’m good. I’m thumbtack intolerant,” Rupert said sheepishly as Dave giggled. Charles began ate another cupcake or two before plugging himself into Rupert’s TV as the three of them decided to play some video games. After a few rounds of Mario Kart, Super Smash Brothers, and Turf Battle XLR Mach 7, the three of them decided it was time for lunch.

“So where should we eat your birthday lunch? I have a feeling you have a meeting with a certain person after you’re done with us,” Rupert said.

“Ah, well…” Charles fidgeted nervously, “I mean, I guess old habits die hard, you know…”

“It’s alright, I’m not gonna chew you out too much for it, I suppose,” Rupert muttered, “But it just bothers me a little bit, you know. I don’t understand how you can make friends with those… heathens.”

“Yeah, I know, but even heathens have their high points. Like Henry for instance,” Charles pointed out. Rupert puffed his cheeks out, trying to come up with an argument as Dave cleared his throat.

“Uh, are we gonna go eat?” Dave asked.

“Sorry Dave…” Rupert said, “Just don’t fall too hard under their spell. I don’t want them tricking you.”

“Yeah, like I’d let them,” Charles said, “I’m not gonna let them trick me that easily.”

“Alright,” Rupert said, “Shall we depart than?” The three of them headed out of the apartment, heading down the street to the park as they eyed the food trucks.

“I want something a little more sustaining for you guys. And maybe prepared in a building?” Charles said, “We always eat at Gouda’s though… maybe we should eat something like…”

“Pizza?!” Rupert said hopefully before covering his mouth, “Ah, wait, it’s your birthday, you should eat what you want.”

“Now I want pizza,” Charles said, “We should eat pizza.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, there’s a place I had in mind actually,” Rupert said, “If you guys are up for it, I mean.”

“We’re up for anything,” Dave said. Charles bounced in place as Rupert smiled, nodding his head.

“Well, than follow me,” Rupert said as he started to lead the group.

“Lead the way, Pizza King!” Charles said.

“Go Pizza King go!” Dave shouted as they followed Rupert through town. They headed through the shopping district, watching people holding bags of clothes, groceries and other things as they walked through town, taking in all the sights.

“It feels nice just to get out once and while,” Dave said, “I love walking through town with you GUUUuuuyyyss… Charles what the heck?”

“They can’t see me, they can’t see me, they can’t see me, they can’t see me…” Charles said over and over again as Rupert and Dave looked to see a poster for a kids restaurant. Appropriately named Pizza-PALOOZA (in all caps), there were three colorful looking cartoon animal characters, a bright looking cow character in the middle with a big smile on their face, a cartoon bubble saying “Moooove over, dudes!”

“It’s just an ad for that new kids place that opened recently,” Rupert said, “Charles, it’s just a poster, it’s not real.”

“THOSE ANIMATRONICS ARE FREAKY MAN! They’re like androids that have lost their free will…” Charles shouted.

“Geez,” Rupert said, patting Charles on the back, “C’mon, it’s not gonna get you, don’t worry.” Charles eyed the poster nervously as he walked with the pair.

When they finally reached the restaurant that Rupert had in mind, Charles bounced in place as they were seated at a booth.

“This place is amazing. They’ve been around for twenty years and have not changed their recipe at all. I swear this if this was the only place I could eat pizza, I would. It’s probably the closest that it’s gotten to another place I used to eat pizza in New Stick City,” Rupert explained as Charles bounced in place a little, looking around warily.

“There’s no animatronics here are there? Please tell there aren’t,” Charles said.

“Uh, the claw machine over there is rigged if you wanna have an argument with that,” Rupert muttered as a waiter walked up to take their order. Rupert accidentally let it slip that it was Charles’ birthday, so they had to sit through an awful routine that the waiters felt like they were being held at gunpoint to do while they ate their food. Even Charles seemed a bit uncomfortable after the little song and dance was over.

“I would have been more happy with more pizza…” Charles muttered as the waiters dispersed, looking to the crowd of people muttering amongst themselves. Charles recognized two Toppats, who were wearing civilian clothes and decided to keep an eye on them, hoping they wouldn’t be bold enough to rob a family restaurant.

Luckily, nothing came of it as they tipped the waiter and headed out of the restaurant, catching a glimpse of a child who was begging their mom to go to Pizza-PALOOZA.

“There’s pizza here, honey. Pizza that doesn’t taste like cardboard…” the mom said tiredly as she opened the door.

“Man, why do you think the pizza at places like that tastes like cardboard?” Dave asked as they started to walk towards a park to relax a little bit.

“I think they have a deal with the recycling plants,” Rupert said, giggling a bit, “They probably cart all the cardboard that doesn’t get used to those places and they try to pass it off as pizza.”

“Do they really?” Charles asked, a little shocked.

“No Charles, they don’t, it’s a joke about how pizza at kids places tastes terrible,” Rupert said, “Heck, even when I was a kid and went to Chester Cheezy’s, I hated the pizza there. My mom and I always just went to play the arcade games and take advantage of the free refills.”

“That sounds fun. Minerva seems like a gamer to me…” Charles said, “Did she ever get a high score?” Rupert gave it some thought before he smirked.

“Once… my mom was a whiz at the original Turf Battle XLR. She practically kicked butt at that game. I think there’s an old picture in our attic of her playing the game while a bunch of kids crowded around her,” Rupert said, “It was amazing.”

“I saw that picture! Remember, when we visited?” Charles said, “Does she know today is my birthday?!”

“You just want more birthday presents, Charles!” Dave teased, slapping his arm as Charles giggled.

“OK, a little bit,” Charles muttered, “But it would be nice to get more birthday wishes.”

“My mom really seemed to like you when I introduced you. If she were here, she would have baked you a big old birthday cake,” Rupert said.

“Even better than my cupcakes?” Dave said softly, a little hurt.

“I thought your cupcakes were delicious Dave! Especially the one with the little erasers on top! It’s like you know me five thousand percent!” Charles said. The three of them spent the rest of the afternoon in the park, watching people fly kites and drones, walking through and taking in the scenery and even playing a game or two.

Charles ended up giving Rupert and Dave a hard time during their impromptu game of hide and seek, but Dave was eventually declared the unofficial winner and Rupert was happy to buy him ice cream from a cart nearby.

Around six o’clock, Dave ended up heading back home, saying he had to get ready for work and that he would definitely love to hang out again sometime. Charles and Rupert walked back to his apartment so Charles could pick up his birthday gifts and be on his way as well.

“So, Rupert, you never gave me your gift,” Charles said as they approached his apartment building, “Didn’t you say you had a gift for me?” Rupert flinched as he pushed the button on the elevator, trying to form the words in his head. He had, for the longest time, tried to figure out how he was going to confess his feelings to Charles.

He remembered something his mom had said about confessing your feelings to someone. It’s like diving into the deep end of an icy cold pool. You just have to take a deep breath, plunge in, and hope you don’t get hypothermia. He shook as he turned the key to apartment, opening it up and gesturing for Charles to sit down.

“So, what’s up?” Charles recognized the look on Rupert’s face. He had a serious look in his eyes, obviously telling of something being wrong.

“Lately, I’ve been thinking about… how I really feel about you and stuff,” Rupert said, trying to piece together what he was going to say, “I, well, I just… I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a complete doofus, but remember when I was in the med bay a month after we met? I couldn’t stand being without you next to me. You were right there next to me and I felt calmer and safer somehow. I hadn’t felt like that since I was so young.” Rupert took a deep breath in as he tried to calm himself down.

“And than when I was sick in February, you stayed right by my side again. You were literally holding my hand and telling me I was going to be alright and all of the sudden I just felt… happier with you. I had spent so much time with you at that point and I knew it was love. I just knew it was…” Rupert said, “So, I guess what I’m trying to say is-” Rupert looked up at Charles hopefully, who was staring at him, dumbfounded.

“I’m in love with you Charlie. I’ve been in love with you for the past two years! I’ve just… had a hard time trying to put into words how I felt.” Charles tipped his head to the side, a strange set of processes suddenly going off in his RAM. He didn’t understand what the heck was happening, more or less could he even think about it at the moment. But he started to feel strange… and weird…

[WARNING! OVERHEATING!]

Charles fanned himself as he stood up, trying to think of what to say. Rupert suddenly felt sick to his stomach as Charles sat down again, letting out a small sigh.

“Alright, that’s interesting to say the least,” Charles said, “I guess that’s the reason why I’ve felt so funny around you, too.” Charles looked to Rupert, his eyes shining again. Though Rupert couldn’t help but notice the little hearts in his eyes flashing, his eyes red and determined.

“It was love, wasn’t it?” Rupert gulped as he shrugged.

“I don’t know, man. I mean, I’m not gonna tell you how you’re supposed to feel,” Rupert said, “I just wanted to get those feelings off my chest.”

“Can we try something?” Charles said, “I wanna kiss you on the lips, like in a romance movie or whatever.” Rupert felt bile building up in his chest when Charles said that. But he had to stay calm. Maybe Charles was onto something. After all, if he could kiss Charles without having a panic attack, maybe he could have a stable relationship with him. Rupert nodded his head as Charles tipped his head to the side.

“So… I’ve never kissed anyone…”

Oh for the greater ones sake…

“Here, I’ll show you. First, you pucker up your lips like this…” Rupert squeezed Charles’ cheeks as he puckered them a bit too much.

“Not too much, just a little bit…” Rupert said, “Than, I lean in and…” Rupert touched Charles’ lips to his, tasting the slight metal mixed with the ice cream he had eaten earlier. At first, Charles didn’t seem to know what to do, but as Rupert guided him with his own lips, he seemed to settle into it and before long, they had managed to succeed in kissing each other. Despite how mechanical Charles’ insides must be, he couldn’t help but feel warm when kissing him as he parted his lips with his. Charles’ eyes were flashing all different colors, more hearts in his eyes as he touched his hand to his face, his inseams steaming as his lips quivered.

“Rupert,” Charles said softly, “My face feels like magic. Is that normal?” Rupert smirked as he hid his face in his hands. Charles tipped his head to the side before Rupert started to burst out laughing, almost giddy. Charles was probably just as nervous as he was about all this, after all. It wasn’t like he was accustomed to this kind of thing after all: he was still pretty young in robot years. But it wasn’t like Rupert had any experience either, so maybe they could somehow work it out.

“Charlie,” Rupert said as he grasped Charles’ hand. Charles gingerly took the other one, his eyes hopeful and bright red, with excitement and love (if the hearts weren’t any indication).

“I hope you know that this is going to be a learning process for both of us,” Rupert said, “I’m not used to being in a relationship either, you know. The first time I kissed someone, I threw up and had a panic attack…”

“Yeah, I know, you told me,” Charles said, “But I don’t know much about relationships either so… I guess we’ll just be learning together. Right?”

“Right,” Rupert said, “So, we can do this than, right?”

“Mhm!” Charles said, “So… when’s our first date?”

“Uh, whenever you feel like I guess,” Rupert said.

“This Saturday maybe? Since I picked lunch, you can pick the date location. Even if it just more pizza,” Charles said.

“You just wanna eat more pizza.”

“I would rather eat pancakes than pizza!”

“Oh you would!” Rupert giggled as Charles nuzzled Rupert’s cheek before planting a soft kiss on it.

“Alright than. I’ve gotta go meet a certain troublemaker…” Charles said. Rupert puffed out his cheeks as Charles rolled his eyes.

“Hey, if you don’t like it,” Charles started before Rupert shook his head.

“No, no, it’s fine, but… like I said just be careful. I don’t want them to trick you or anything,” Rupert said. Charles nodded his head as he headed out of Rupert’s apartment.

“Bye…” Charles said, hearts in his eyes as Rupert waved at him shyly. As he closed the door, he felt a sort of strange swelling in his chest as he walked down the hallway. As he exited the apartment building, he opened his messenger app and started to type a message to General Galeforce.

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Is it OK if I still call you dad?

H_Galeforce: Charlie, is everything OK?

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Everything is fine, I just Rupert said that he’s in love with me.

H_Galeforce: Welp, I guess Quentin owes Josh twenty dollars than

xXBold_Action_ManXx: OMG what

H_Galeforce: Don’t worry about it. I guess you need some advice than huh?

xXBold_Action_ManXx: It would be nice. I’m so scared of messing this up.

H_Galeforce: Well, I’ve only known Rupert in the two years he’s been enlisted, but I know that he’s a bit of a hard guy to crack. He tends to hide his emotions but once you get him out in the open, he’s Well, I’d say he’s a lot like you, Charlie!

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Geez, I know that. I’m just scared that we won’t be able to be friends after all this.

H_Galeforce: After you guys eventually break up or during your relationship?

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Yes?

Charles got a strange feeling in his stomach as General Galeforce typed. He hadn’t even thought about what would happen if the two of them broke up. It was almost hard to imagine, comprehend even, but General Galeforce’s next message helped reassure him a bit.

H_Galeforce: You two are very close. Heck, even your friendship with Stickmin didn’t compare until you made friends with him. I highly doubt that a break up will ruin your friendship with each other. As long as you talk things out, keep communicating with him and help each other out, you will be alright.

Charles smiled as he typed another message.

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Thanks general Dad* I really am sorry, by the way, about what I did. I know that’s not enough to get me back in and I understand if you hate me or something but I just wanted to let you know.

H_Galeforce: Charlie, I could never hate you. I only hate what you did. I can’t stop you from doing what you want now. The best thing you can do at this point is start growing up. And I guess getting in a romantic relationship is a Good start? I don’t wanna say that I’m not rooting for you, but I hope things work out between you and Price.

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Alright well thanks I love you

H_Galeforce: I love you too. Have a good birthday.

Charles jumped up and down as he messaged Ellie and Henry next, finding out that his present still wasn’t ready yet and was told to “distract himself further.” Letting out a frustrated sigh, he contacted the only other person he knew wouldn’t be too busy. Hopefully, if she wasn’t out causing trouble.

xXBold_Action_ManXx: If you’re robbing a bank, at least tell me if it’s from somebody who’s like A jerk Like they kick puppies on a regular basis and bite baby’s heads off?

GlitterToppatGirl: What I’m actually waiting for you at the cafe. But my dad and papa are here… So embarrassing 😫

xXBold_Action_ManXx: The leaders? I don’t think they should be out in the open like this considering how wanted they are

GlitterToppatGirl: You obviously don’t know how our cafe rolls

xXBold_Action_ManXx: All I know is that your rolls are super expensive. And your croissants and scones and such.

GlitterToppatGirl: You’ve been there?

xXBold_Action_ManXx: I might have wanted to do some snooping. Not much luck though. Either everyone is talking in code or I’m just dumb

GlitterToppatGirl: Wow LOL, maybe I should hit up the army base next time they ask for some moles 🤣 Just meet me there please And try not to pay any attention to anything my dads say. They’re probably gonna tell some embarrassing stories, but just don’t listen.

xXBold_Action_ManXx: LOL I’ll listen extra hard 👀

GlitterToppatGirl: Shut up!

Charles giggled as he started to head towards the Toppat cafe, carefully trying to balance the boxes that he was holding, silently wishing he could have asked Rupert for a bag to hold them all in. Than again, in his state of euphoria from the kiss and of course, getting a boyfriend, he didn’t really think about it.

Either way, he finally approached the cafe, taking a deep breath and attempting to open the door as he tried to balance the boxes, keeping them from falling on the ground with a small whimper. Amelia looked up and giggled as she dashed towards Charles and caught one of the boxes before it hit the ground.

“Hi Charles,” Amelia said, gazing at the box, “Oh, it’s a model helicopter…”

“Yeah, I build and paint them. Do you want a cupcake?” Charles said as he set the boxes on the table. Amelia nodded her head as Charles opened the cupcake box and handed her one, just as her dad snuck up behind her.

“Don’t I get a cupcake?” Reginald teased, messing with Amelia’s hair as she whined a bit, rolling her eyes.

“If you like plastic gems on your cupcakes, than yeah, go for it man!” Charles said, handing Reginald one of the plastic gem cupcakes as Reginald smiled, wincing a little as he gingerly took it.

“Ah, well, it’s the thought that counts. Happy birthday by the way,” Reginald said, starting to pick off the little plastic gems as Charles sheepishly grinned, not sure if he should be grateful. He had to admit, despite the Toppat leader being a wanted criminal, there was a certain air about him that made him want to stand up straighter and actually have a conversation with him. Perhaps this is the dreaded charisma that people often warned others about.

“Well, I would offer you some coffee or maybe some tea, but since you’re an android, you can’t drink it,” Reginald said, sitting down across from his right hand man, who gave Charles a cold gaze. He knew exactly why too; he had locked up him as well as his entire clan, so he wouldn’t be too fond of him.

Obviously, he wasn’t trying to start anything for Amelia’s sake as Amelia sat across from Charles, smiling at him.

“I hope you’ve had a good birthday,” Amelia said, “Judging from all the boxes you’ve gotten, you have some nice friends.”

“And I have a boyfriend now!” Charles suddenly blurted out. He covered his mouth as both Toppat leaders gazed at him in awe.

“Well, that’s wonderful! The best gift is love after all! Remember when you confessed to me, Right? It was in a cafe kinda like this one, remember?”

“Mmm… in Greenwich,” the Right Hand Man muttered, sipping his coffee shyly as Charles gazed at the two in wonder. Reginald had a bright blush on his face while the Right Hand Man gazed to the side sort of shyly, a hint of red in his cheeks.

“Yeah, and then after that I overthrew Terrence!” Reginald said, “Love sure is magical like that!”

“Geez, whiplash much,” Charles muttered as he reached for another cupcake. The Right Hand Man gazed at the boxes that Charles had received and looked to see the model helicopter. He grabbed the box before Charles could stop him, gazing at it with a sort of fondness in his eyes.

“How interesting,” the Right Hand Man muttered, handing the box back to Charles.

“Uh, yeah…” Charles said.

“Don’t worry about papa. He’s not really a conversational type. He’s like… a listener type,” Amelia said.

“You said your dad’s would be the ones embarrassing you, remember?” Charles said as the Right Hand Man’s blush deepened a little bit.

“Oh, you’re not gonna get any embarrassing stories about Right from me,” Reginald said, “Although, I have to admit, he is probably a bit nervous. Out of all the people that Amelia had to make friends with, it had to be you…” Reginald set his tea cup down as he stared down Charles.

“Uh, well, I mean, it couldn’t be helped. Amelia knew me from Project SAI and even though my memories were wiped, she wanted to connect with me, you know. I mean, if you had a friend like that on the opposite side of a battle that you knew was like that, I mean, I guess what I’m trying to say is-” Charles started to ramble as Amelia rolled her eyes before she grabbed his hand.

“I think my dad gets the message, Charles,” Amelia said. Charles chuckled sheepishly as he tried to think about how to form the message in his head.

“I guess it was still wrong no matter how we tossed it, huh?” Charles said softly.

“Oh, well, these things happen for a reason. Fate is always strange like that,” Reginald said, “I’ve been a subject of fate myself, you know.”

“Fate?” Charles said.

“Yeah, my dad’s super into it. I’m beginning to think he’s onto something…” Amelia stared at her dad with a bit of worry.

“You’d be surprised at how fate works…” Reginald said, tracing the rim of his cup with his gloved finger, “I used to be skeptical myself until I became a right hand. It was only than I realized what my true purpose was.”

“You’re not gonna break out into song are you?” Charles asked.

“Do you want me to?” Reginald said, smiling coyly.

“I kinda wanna hear you sing,” Charles said, beaming a bit as Amelia slammed her hands on the table.

“NO! DON’T YOU DARE!” She ducked behind her Toppat, steam fuming from her inseams as the Right Hand Man giggled a bit.

“Right, I should save that for karaoke night, when you can’t stop me!” Reginald said, playfully winking as Amelia gave her dad a hard gaze.

“Oh, come now, Amelia. I know what will cheer you up. You said you had a gift for Charles here, remember?” Reginald asked.

“OK, but no stories about me when I was younger! Please!” Amelia stood up before heading towards the back of the store. Charles smiled awkwardly at the two Toppat leaders, knowing they were going to drop their facade and start the threats.

“Look, guys, I know that you’re mad at us about the whole thing with arresting you guys, but… maybe if you guys didn’t do bad things-” Charles started before Reginald put his finger to his lips. Charles fell silent as Reginald shook his head.

“I have to admit, the fact that you’re going as far as to apologize makes me wonder if you really think that we’re really worth locking up,” Reginald said gently. Charles glanced to the side shyly before he sighed.

“I don’t know actually. I’ve thought about it for the longest time and I just… you guys still did a lot of bad things. You still have blood on your hands you know,” Charles said, “You may not have killed anyone while Amelia was breaking you out, but I swear, you still did enough bad things to justify our arrests!” Reginald was a bit taken back by Charles’ words as the Right Hand Man rolled his eyes.

“Well, what did you expect? In your eyes, we’re always going to be the bad guys no matter what,” the Right Hand Man said. Charles nodded his head as the Right Hand Man turned his head towards him, a look of determination on his face.

“But it’s not like you can justify the actions of the government forces either. Or the police. Sometimes innocent civilians are caught in the crossfire of our little scraps. People who don’t get compensated properly for what the government does to them. And in the end, how are we the bad guys?” the Right Hand Man said.

“I know the government does bad things too but…” Charles glanced to the side, trying to come up with a bit of justification for any of their actions as well.

“You know, you guys still killed countless prisoners you know. What about Dave? He was mentally scarred when we rescued him. It took him months before he could find a stable job and income to actually function in society and you act like you’re the good guys!?” Charles said. Reginald winced as he sighed.

“We only take prisoners when we need to keep people quiet. We don’t kill them needlessly though. Not unless they actually deserve it. Dave unfortunately, had done something that warranted us keeping him locked up as long as we did,” Reginald said softly, “I do regret keeping him locked up for so long, but if things were perfect, than we wouldn’t have had to lock him up at all.” Charles only narrowed his eyes at Reginald, not really convinced by his reasoning.

“Whatever. Just stay away from him…” Charles muttered. He looked up and saw Amelia hovering at the door, a small box in her hand and tipped his head to the side, wondering why it was taking so long for her to come in. Than he realized something; she was trying to see if he could get along with her dads. Another little step in the ultimate plan to keep them from arresting them it seems.

Maybe it was conniving, but in a way, Charles knew that if he gained their trust, they could start spouting secrets to him as well. Secrets that could lead their arrests in the future he supposed. Yeah, sure it was conniving himself, but if they were going to try to slap them, he might as well slap back.

“Sorry,” Charles said, “We kinda got off on the wrong foot, didn’t we? But in the end, I guess it makes sense. We’re enemies after all.”

“Well, we could always be friendly rivals!” Reginald said, tipping his head hopefully.

“Not even,” Charles chuckled a bit.

“Nope,” the Right Hand Man agreed as Charles started to giggle a bit more.

“Oh come on, I can be hopeful of at least that!” Reginald said.

“Well, maybe if you guys don’t cause too much trouble, we could get along,” Charles said.

“That’s not going to happen…” the Right Hand Man said flatly. Though his eyes said otherwise as they twinkled a bit. Charles giggled a bit more as Amelia approached the table, smiling at them.

“Amelia, I saw you lingering at the door. If you really wanted us to get along, you could have stuck around,” Reginald said.

“She wants to see if we’ll get along without her babysitting us,” the Right Hand Man said.

“You mean more than usual?” Amelia rolled her eyes as she sat down again, fiddling with the box she was carrying.

“I’m sorry,” Amelia said, “Maybe Charles finally realized what we’re up to.”

“YOU GUYS ARE GETTING ME AN EVEN BIGGER BIRTHDAY PRESENT!?” Charles said, trying to play dumb.

“We would if we weren’t so stingy!” Reginald said, trying to calm Charles down.

“And we actually had the budget,” the Right Hand Man muttered.

“Wait, what?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Amelia said, tapping on the box, “Open the box already…” Charles wasn’t sure how to feel about it, but he didn’t seem to mind another present as he opened the box, looking inside to see a red bandanna, perfectly folded in the box. On top of it was a charm bracelet, with charms in all sorts of shapes and sizes. He decided to look at the bandanna first, turning it over a couple of times as he admired it. He couldn’t help but feel it was a bit familiar.

It was the one that Amelia usually wore, sure, but it was a bit more worn and there were a couple of places where you could tell it was repaired a few times. He admired it, feeling a bit strange as he looked at Amelia for an explanation.

“The bandanna was yours when you were in Project SAI. You gave it to me before your memories were erased at one point because you said it would look nicer on me…” Amelia said, “I have plenty of spares now. Heck I usually wore them when I went out on heists and such. But that one was really yours. I kept it all these years because I hoped I could give it back to you.”

Reginald covered his mouth, letting out a small whimper as he looked away, trying not to let Amelia see him cry.. The Right Hand Man was silent, but even someone from far away could tell that his eyes were a little wet.

“I still think it looks nicer on you, even if I don’t remember that…” Charles said. Still, that didn’t stop him from taking the bandanna and trying to tie it around his neck (before Reginald ended up helping him do it).

“There. It looks dashing on you!” Reginald said.

“Ah, thank you,” Charles muttered, “And this bracelet… how likely am I to get in trouble for wearing it?”

“Oh, well, I made it myself from other jewelry, so it’s not likely,” Amelia said, “It’s a little charm bracelet, so I figured you could wear it whenever, you know.” Charles sighed, deciding to let it go as he tried on the bracelet as well, jingling it a bit and giggling as it did.

“It’s nice. Thanks Amelia,” Charles said. Amelia glanced to the side shyly as Reginald patted her hand. Suddenly he got a ping in his messenger.

RoseyRose: Where are you?

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Where do you think?

RoseyRose: If you’re hanging out with Toppats again, I swear…

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Don’t worry, I haven’t told them about your allergies, lol.

RoseyRose: Tell them I’m allergic to chocolate, I love chocolate Wait that’s not why I messaged you. I messaged you because your present is here now. Come home please

“I gotta go,” Charles said.

“Oh, so soon?” Reginald said, “I was going to sing some karaoke and stuff!”

“No. You weren’t…” Amelia said very sternly as steam once again erupted from her inseams, the Right Hand Man patting her back.

“Trust me, I’d love to stay a little longer, but I’m gonna have to leave. But, it’s been fun!” Charles said, “Also, you guys will never trick me!”

“Well, it was worth a shot. But next time, we’ll worm our way into your heart,” Reginald said, “Have a good rest of the day.”

“Bye Charles,” Amelia said, hugging him tight, “Be careful going back.”

“I will,” Charles said, picking up some of his stuff, “If I don’t drop half of this first…” He opted to carry most of it under his arms as he awkwardly waved at them, before exiting the cafe and letting out a small sigh.

They’re not too bad I guess, he thought, Still criminals, but they’re really nice once you get past that…

- - - - -

As Charles approached the apartment, he thought about something that he hadn’t thought of until now. He was eight years old. For a human, eight years old really means nothing, but for him, for some reason it felt like a big step. How come, he wondered to himself. He remembered General Galeforce’s message about how it was time for him to start growing up. He didn’t really believe that he had been babied his whole life; in fact if anything, life on the base was nothing but stern.

Even than, he still felt a strange sense of unease as he realized the full ramification of what he had done. Of what he was going through and what he was going to become.

He was eight years old.

He was being told to grow up.

That was scary.

He quickly set the boxes down on the ground and unlocked the apartment door, before picking them up again and entering the apartment. Ellie and Henry were sitting on the couch, all smiles as Charles smiled back.

“Hey guys,” Charles said, setting the boxes down on the coffee table, “So, what’s this big surprise that you guys have been hyping up?”

“Well, in order to do that, we have to go to the roof!” Ellie said, “C’mon, right this way!”

“Wait, we have to go to the roof? Is my present you guys finally getting rid of me?” Charles asked.

“No… no no no,” Henry said softly as he pushed Charles out the door. The three of them walked outside and headed towards the stairs at the side of the building, usually only used for maintenance as Henry unlocked the gate and headed upstairs.

“We got the key from the landlord. We’ll be giving it to you in just a sec,” Ellie said.

“Why is that?” Charles said as they headed up to the top of the building. He gasped, feeling static at the edges of his UI as he looked across the roof. Henry walked towards it, all smiles as Ellie hopped up and down excitedly, grabbing Charles’ arm and pulling him forward.

“TADA!!” Ellie shouted, gesturing towards it as if she were a game show hostess, “It’s all yours!”

On the rooftop, painted dark green with the insignia TT (for Triple Threat) on the side was a brand new helicopter. Charles shook as he approached it, placing his hand against it, first softly, than firmly, as if he was trying to confirm that it was real and not just a figment of his imagination.

“We really REALLY missed your helicopter,” Ellie said, “And we thought that it would be great if we scraped up most of the remaining fortune from Henry’s diamond heist to buy it for you.”

HAD TO SELL MY YACHT. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT, Henry said.

“It was actually an old decommissioned one. They were gonna sell it as scrap, but Henry and I scooped it up after you got kicked out because we figured we could repair it. Than I got some old friends of mine to pull some strings and get it repaired, repainted, and have it all fixed up in time for your birthday,” Ellie said.

AND THAN THERE WAS THE PAPERWORK. OH GOD THE PAPERWORK… Henry signed as he shook in horror.

“Well, what do you think? You haven’t said a word since we got up here!” Ellie said. Charles didn’t know to think. His friends had literally went to the ends of the Great Continent and managed to find a decommissioned helicopter just for him and have it repaired so he could have something to fly again.

“I…. I…. I LOVE IT! GUYS, THIS IS THE BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER!!” Charles shouted, running over to hug Ellie and Henry, “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU MANAGED TO DO THIS! I’M SO HAPPY!”

“You do realize you’re gonna have to take care of it though, right?” Ellie said.

YEAH, YOU’RE USED TO THE GRUNTS AT THE BASE DOING THE DIRTY WORK BUT NOW YOU HAVE TO DO IT, Henry said.

“Oh, I can handle it! I’ve done it before! Hey… do you guys wanna take a spin in it!? I wanna see if it works!” Charles said, bouncing in place. Henry tossed him the keys as he opened the hatch, taking in how spacious it was. It wasn’t as big as the military grade helicopters he was used to, but it was still big enough to hold at least four to five people.

He climbed into the cockpit, taking in the controls and smiling as he started up the engine, pushing a few buttons and putting his hand on his headphones to adjust them. Henry and Ellie were already in the back, sitting carefully on a bench as they fastened their seat belts.

“Alright, guys, here we go!” Charles started to lift off as Henry and Ellie grew excited, feeling warmed by the big smile on Charles’ face as they started to fly over the city.

Already, Charles was making note of all the routes and airways he could legally go on, focusing himself as he kept his hands on the wheel, thoroughly in his element.

“I guess we win the birthday contest, huh?” Ellie said, taking a selfie with Henry. Henry giggled as he waved his hand.

I’M PRETTY SURE THE OTHERS HAD SOME GOOD GIFTS, Henry said.

“Charles, what else did you get for your birthday?” Ellie asked.

“Uh, I got a bracelet from Amelia. And General Galeforce gave me another model to build. And I got some shirts from Dave,” Charles said, “Oh, and uh… I got a boyfriend too.”

“What?!” Ellie said, “Charles, when we get down from here, you have to tell me all the details!”

“It’s Rupert, isn’t it?” Henry teased.

“Sh-shut up! Our first date is in like… a few days I guess,” Charles said, the helicopter suddenly losing altitude.

“WHOA! C’mon, Charles, you just got this thing, you don’t wanna break it on the first day!” Ellie shouted.

“I know, I know… hey… Mr. Copperbottom is down there,” Charles said.

“What?” Ellie stood up, carefully navigating her way to the front as she peered out the window, seeing the faint silhouette of the Toppat leader in an alleyway.

“Whoa, yeah… why don’t you head down and we can have a little chat with him?” Ellie said, cracking her knuckles. Charles felt a bit uneasy about her intentions, but that didn’t stop him from following her instructions, finding a safe place to land where they wouldn’t get in trouble and climbing down a building until they managed to find the leader.

“Hey, Toppat leader!” Ellie shouted, “How are you this fine evening?”

“I don’t have time to fight right now…” Reginald stared at the Triple Threat group, a sort of empty look in his eyes as he tried to smile, “But if it makes you feel any better, once my Right Hand Man gets back, I’m pretty sure he’ll be more than happy to tussle with you.”

“What happened?” Charles asked, “What are you talking about?”

“He went around that corner… over there…” Reginald said, pointing down the alleyway, “If you guys can find him, maybe I’ll go easy on you.”

“Something’s wrong…” Ellie muttered.

“Mmm,” Henry hummed in agreement, I’M GONNA GO DOWN AND SEE WHAT’S GOING ON.

“Uh, OK. Charles, he probably trusts you more than us. Talk to him,” Ellie said.

“Uh, hey buddy. It’s gonna be alright…” Charles said, trying to take Reginald’s hand, only for him to flinch away, almost insulted that Charles touched him. His gaze softened as Charles flinched back, trying to look innocent as he sighed. Charles found it so strange that not thirty minutes ago, he was perfectly fine. Just what had happened between now and when he was at the cafe talking to him?

“Sorry. I hope your friends can find him. I haven’t had much luck…” Reginald muttered.

“Didn’t you say he was coming back, though?” Charles said.

“Oh, he’s coming back! And when he does, he can take care of you obnoxious kids!” Reginald laughed, almost manic looking.

“THERE HE IS!”

“It’s one of those Triple Threat bastards!”

“Wait!”

Amelia held her hands up as two other Toppats pointed their guns at him. Charles, acting on instinct, turned his hand into a laser cannon, aiming it at the group.

“Charles, it’s me,” Amelia said.

“I know it’s you, but in this situation, we’re going to have to be enemies for a minute…” Charles said.

“I can assure you that I’m not in the mood to fight. Right, dad?” Reginald nodded his head wearily, a blank stare on his face as he gazed at his daughter.

“What? You haven’t found him? That’s a shame…” one of the Toppats muttered as they spoke into a headpiece.

“It is a shame… it’s indeed a shame… but he’ll be back, I can assure you…” Reginald said, almost in a daze as Amelia ran towards him.

“Geez…” Amelia muttered, picking her father up, “C’mon dad, you’ve gotta walk.”

“I’M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT HIM!” Reginald shouted, starting to run towards the alleyway.

“GYAH! CHARLES HELP!” Amelia shouted, crying out as Charles helped hold him back from running further down the alley where Henry and Ellie had gone.

Meanwhile, the two of them had rounded a corner and gasped when they saw the blood trail leading up to the roof. Their eyes gazed down at a top hat, a bit torn, but still in tact as Ellie walked over to pick it up.

“Property of Andrew. I guess that’s his real name,” Ellie muttered. Henry reached down and touched a couple of the blood stains, feeling a bit queasy as he realized how recent they were. They felt a strange pit in their stomach as they heard shouting coming from the alleyway.

“C’mon, let’s go tell him the bad news…” Ellie said. Henry nodded in agreement as they headed back around the corner to see Charles and Amelia struggling to keep Reginald from running further into the alleyway.

“Amelia, stop working with this government dog for one second and let me FIND HIM!” Reginald shouted.

“The others are trying to find him! Just please come with me so you can get some rest!” Amelia shouted.

“NO! I DON’T WANNA GO WITHOUT HIM!” There were tears pooling out of Reginald’s eyes as Charles struggled to hold him, looking at Ellie and Henry and gazing at what they were holding. Ellie heard a ping on her messenger app as she gazed at her phone.

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Yeah I know… this isn’t good…

[arkenfinity]

trying to get more used to sharing my writing. so here is this that i actually do not remember writing at all but i woke up the other day and found it in my notes app. my take on max’s letter to steve.

dear steve,

i was going to ask you to teach me how to drive. not now, obviously, not because i don’t think i’m ready but because i know you’d probably start crying your little eyes out if i even looked at the drivers side door of a car. hell, you’re probably crucifying me in your mind right now just for thinking about it. but when i turned sixteen, i was going to ask you to teach me how to drive. i can’t ask my mom, most days i don’t think she’s even safe to be driving herself, let alone teaching someone else. and i can’t ask billy for obvious reasons, but even if he was still here i’d ask you anyway.

the thing is, steve, is i trust you. i know you put on a big show of bickering with dustin and nagging us about responsibility and complaining that you’re always the one taking care of us, but i like to think i can see past that. i think underneath all that, you’re a lot like me. i think you’re stubborn and can’t admit when you’re wrong, and i think you’re just a little prickly to everyone so no one can see how much you actually care. i recognize myself in you, in a way that i never could with billy. billy was hard and angry and broken, and he took it out on the people around him. and i think, just like me, you’re worried that you’re like that too, that you’re a bad person who can’t do anything but hurt the people around them in the end.

but you’re not like that. i know you’re not, because i can get in the car with you. driving with billy was scary. did you know he almost ran over lucas, dustin, and mike on their bikes once? just to prove something to me. i had to reach over and jerk the steering wheel so he swerved into the opposite lane. and he yelled a lot. sometimes he would even grab me. and he always drove so fast, the music blaring. i guess that’s where i learned it all from, i didn’t really have another model.

but i don’t want to talk about billy. because you’re not him. and neither am i. and i know i can believe that of you, and hopefully you can believe that of me. and then both of us can believe in each other, because sometimes it’s hardest to believe in yourself i think.

so yeah. i wish i could ask you to teach me how to drive.

it’s too bad you don’t have any siblings, because i think you’d be a great brother. you are a great brother. there are some other things i wanna say too, but i don’t think i’m ready for that yet. turns out even the end of the world can’t force certain things. so in the meantime i’ll just say, i wish you could’ve taught me. i think i would love to drive with you.

from,

max

[gilverrwrites]

I feel like I'm left behind and everyone manage to accomplish things, I want to go to uni and accomplish goals, but I feel as if it's too late for me. I keep self sabotaging and I'm always afraid to start. I keep finding myself in a viscous circle where I'm afraid to start because it might be too late/the courses that will grand me admission to university may end/expire, the opinions of the professors thinking I'm unserious would be present (I already experienced this in the past during a dark period where I was also experiencing a burnout without realizing and the teachers thought I was joking and unserious. One of them comparing me with the class clown, saying that she didn't know which one of us was more like the clown. At the time, I was battling with suicidal thoughts, sleeping 3 hours at night and arriving late to almost every morning class thanks to the bus not stopping at my stop since it was way too full. I was never joking around and was previously one of the best students) and since I'm not starting I'm always anxious about it. How can I even stop this sabotage??? I'm always trying to start and do the work, but at the end of the day, end up with nothing done nor completed NOT even started. I don't know what to do anymore!

I also wish at some point to do a sport and eventually possibly going to competitions, but I'm also an adult and every one began in childhood.

So, I wanna start here by saying I am just a rando on the internet whose experiences and views are not universal. Take what I say with a grain of salt and seek out professionals if you are able to.

If your in the UK, I know the NHS wait list is long, but it’s better to get your foot in the door now, than to keep putting it off.

If you’re in the US or another country that doesn’t offer free health care, please look into volunteer services or even just betterhelp style apps that might help you find coping mechanisms.

From there. You are not the only person to feel like you’re playing catch-up with everybody else. I know it doesn’t seem that way, but I promise, so many people around you are experiencing similar thoughts and issues, and are putting on a brave face.

The best thing I can tell you is, just do it. If the course you’re applying for ends, then it ends, at least you tried. Theres nothing you can do. But what if it doesn’t, and the only thing that has stopped you, is you?

Trust me, I’ve been there. I spent 10 years working retail and hating it because I was always to scared to try uni. I dropped out of college once, and was scared I would do it again. Was worried about being to old, not knowing how to be a student, being behind everybody else, picking the wrong course.

It didn’t help that I too wasn’t sleeping, wasn’t talking to my friends or family. I was just stuck in rut until I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to apply, had to sleep better, had to start working out because it was that or just spend the rest of my life rotting away and hating myself.

It won’t be easy, and it won’t be fixed overnight, but please try talking to people. I’m here if you need it, but if you can, find real life people; friends, family who you can have face to face conversations with. If you’re an introvert, don’t burn yourself out forcing yourself to interact, but I promise just getting lunch, or going for a walk with someone once a week will go a long way.

Just focus on feeling better first, to start. Please drink water, quit caffeine if you’re drinking it, look into sleeping techniques, talk to people.

If you start to feel better, start trying to apply for things you want to do. Courses, sports groups, anything. If it takes 10 years (hopefully not) like I did, so be it, everybody moves at a different pace.

(I don’t know what sports you want to try but;

Unis often have sports societies that you can join, most of which will have a group for beginners.

If you don’t join a course this year, see if you local community groups offer anything?)

I', sorry you're feeling this way, I hope this helps in anyway, and I hope things start to look up for you.

[what-if-nct]

(cw // mentions of sh in case anyone is triggered)

hii it’s christmas where i live meaning it’s probably not christmas for you (unless you waited hours to finally reply back) but i just wanna say merry christmas and thank you for being there with me during my hard and mentally draining days. it’s so hard being on social media without bumping into negativity such as real life news, people debating about bare minimum things such as rights for body autonomy, gay rights, etc, and especially for my case, being shunned by a community of people i thought were friends simply for talking about jonghyun on my posts that solely rely on users to create posts in order for the app to work.

while i wish i don’t want to be super negative all the time, this was exactly how i felt this year. i felt violated, stripped from my pride and tormented — yet i’m expected to be happy all the time and put up a brave face all the time.

the truth is, i hated turning 18 because i couldn’t bare the responsibility of being considered an adult at the face of the law, when i had my childhood partially taken away from me. nobody was there during my mental breakdowns. just because it wasn’t 2022 anymore, doesn’t mean i didn’t face cyber bullying and faced targeted harassment simply for talking about my bias just like any other kpop fan, and people liked to downplay it by telling me to “keep it to myself.” i didn’t get to do my dream course at my new college due to my grade, and i felt so fucking shit because i’ve done everything in my willpower just to get the same score 3 years in a row, nobody took my mental breakdown seriously. i was sexually harassed and taken advantaged of by several men, because they did not respect my boundaries, used me as my drunken self, and tried to contact me via twitter acting like a kpop fan from london in the comments, when he was a 25 year old man who only saw me for my body. i was overwhelmed with the way the job centre was treating me and making me feel worse for simply asking a question to prevent email spams by sending me to a centre that could help me get to know the basics of using technology. i had a job, but got scammed for 2 weeks worth of work and i never got paid. i lost £500 which i rightfully worked my ass for, even almost passing out due to walking upstairs and having my feet ache over the constant standing for 8 hours for 3 days a week. i never got to go to france and meet my cousins. it’s sucks because i was planning this since summer and i’ll never be able to go since my parents took the only savings i had to go to africa for a month due to how expensive plane tickets are. i even got fucking pregnant and not to mention, my mum started to act weird around me… and just the way i was treated after turning into an adult… i don’t really wanna go there.

i know it has been a long year, but idk if it’s gonna change at all or if it’s gonna get worse. i just wanted to have a peace of mind for once. that’s literally my wish for 2024. i just want to be free, to have amazing friends, having a normal life, just like everyone else so i don’t have to always compare myself to people on snapchat who show off their day or shout out their friends for their birthdays. i wish i could get rid of my anxiety symptoms, because now notifications, messages (especially pending ones) and anything that shows a number next to an icon would get me really fucking nervous that it would be a harassing message. i just don’t want guys to take advantage of me, i just want a loyal and sweet first boyfriend/girlfriend that is genuinely there and physically as well as emotionally. i just feel like i’m missing out on life just because some stupid systemic ableism in the uk where i was forced to learn at home and be in a special needs class, which can explain why i’m socially awkward and don’t know how to be a normal friend.

basically saying… i just want to be happy. (i’m so sorry for the vent i didn’t expect it to be this long loooool)

Merry Christmas!! there's about 10 minutes till Christmas for me. I am so sorry that this past year has been so hard on you. And its horrible that you had to endure all of that I can't even imagine how hard it's been for you. You deserve so much better than what you've received. You deserve respect, care, love, understanding and you deserve happiness and it breaks my heart you've been treated like this by so many people. I just send you the biggest hug and I'm proud of you, I know life has been hard but I'm proud of you for continuing. And I can't promise when, but things will get better and one day before you know it you will have the happiness you want and deserve and I will always be here to listen and talk to you.

[writing-ardent]

So I hit the apps again today

I used to be alone. It’s not that I didn’t have friends. I had plenty of those. All kinds of friends. Cool friends, scared friends, sad friends, party friends…you name it. I guess there were a lot of people in my life. A lot of numbers in my phone’s contact list.

But for some reason, it wasn’t enough. Maybe I’m selfish. Maybe I don’t appreciate them for who they are. I don’t know why but, I always feel so empty, even when I’m around the people I care about the most.

That’s why I spent the entire day on dating apps. They’re what everyone seems to be using now a days to find friends, lovers, and a nice quick fuck. Man, I wish I could find any three of those. Whenever I get lucky enough to find one it always turns out to be the things I don’t want at the time.

I really don’t see what’s so good about these apps. Sure I get a lot of hits on them, but they never mean anything. I’m not exactly self conscious about my appearance above the belt, but you know that problem I mentioned before? Yeah. It’s a frustrating numbers game I’ll never hope to win no matter how low I can force my expectations with a few drinks.

I guess this one is a little better. More friendly to pansexuals my friend said. I guess she has a point, but it’s still not really going to get a gold metal from me just for being mediocre instead of outright bad.

It was swipe after swipe. I tried to be optimistic. There were a few cute people here and there. Maybe I’ll finally have a decent conversation that isn’t just a copy paste of the exact same one I had the last time I was on one of these apps.

It’s boring. I really hate it and I don’t even feel excited anymore when I see someone I want to swipe. I guess I’m smart enough not to get my hopes up anymore on a subconscious level.

I decided to take a break and prod around on some other things I have on my phone. Probably not the ibuddy app though. That was one of the biggest wastes of time you’ve ever tried. It felt like you were talking to a brick wall. Advanced robot my ass. You would have a better time talking to the guy on meth that likes to roam around your street at night.

Time to go on the forms you like to surf. Forms isn’t really accurate though. It’s just a subsection of Paradise, which is one of those big companies that used to be a bunch of small ones. Ive lost track of how many are left now. The last time I checked there were three I think?

The forms were much more interesting than the dating app. This was much better. The kind of thing to finally bring my mood up after an exhausting day. Some memes usually cheer me right up. Or they at least come about as close to it as I’m going to get on a REALLY bad day.

There were a lot of good anime ones this time. They aren’t as good as the cute animal videos, but they’re still pretty nice I guess. At least when it’s for a fandom I’m part of and actually know about. If it’s not I have to sit there quietly and pretend like I didn’t see it. It’s pretty rude to like something for a fandom you aren’t in.

It looked like there was a new format I wasn’t aware of. It was little icons of characters sending people text messages, but with some logo in the corner I didn’t recognize. I thought that maybe this was one of those new surreal ones where it looks like it’s normal unless you get the very specific niche joke. This was something I had to look up right away so that I could start spamming all my friends with them. Well, the ones that like these kind of memes anyway.

That was when I got a phone call from my uncle David. David is a nice guy, but he’s pretty out of touch. He’s from the olden days back before we had things like self driving cars and self serving plates. It’s nice though to talk to him sometimes. My friends all think I’m crazy because I still grow my own plants and eat parts of them. He might be a funny guy that doesn’t know how to text, but I love him and he’s great.

“How’s it going Tripp? Did you get that email I sent you?”

“Fine. And yeah, I did.”

This was a lie of course. He sends me so many emails with random articles about things like climate change and animal facts. It’s almost always something I already know and am bored by, but I know it would break his heart if I told him that, so I just go along with it since it’s usually something I’m already aware of anyway.

“Wonderful! I know it’s hard to get a job these days. Hang in there.”

I was about to start my new business this week actually, but that’s not exactly something I talk about in polite company, especially not in front of uncle David.

“Thanks, that means a lot. It’s really hard, you know?”

There’s a pause before he speaks again.

“I know it too well. Did I tell you the story about the strike of twenty thirty five?”

“You did. And it was a really good story. I’m glad you got heating and cooling back. You probably saved a lot of people by doing that.”

“I’m glad you remember it. Listen, I just want you to be ok. Your generation is out future you know.”

“I know.”

He’s said that a thousand times now. Everyone his age is always saying things like that. I’m surprised I didn’t end up seeing one of the thousands of memes about the kind of things old people say before I picked up the phone actually.

“Did your kale grow any bigger yet?”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to eat it! That shit is so good!”

“I have another plant for you if you want it.”

Oh no. Not another plant. I have so many of them that I don’t have any room left for another one. This was something uncle David is known for. While I love to learn about plants from him, he also seems to have an endless supply that he won’t stop giving people. And the worst part is that I can never stop myself from saying no to another one because god damn it, I just love plants ok?!

“Oh damn, that’s great! I’m free Tuesday if you want to bring it over!”

“That sounds great. I’ll talk to you later. Murphy wants to play.”

“Please let him and throw a frisbee for me!”

“I will. Talk to you later. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

I hung up the phone and sighed. It was nice talking with uncle David, but I always just feel so drained after I do it every time. I’m not really sure why. I love him and he really shouldn’t be this hard for me to talk to, but he just is.

God damn it, I was going to need more coffee. I pull up a delivery app on my phone. The nearest place was probably be the quickest. I typed in what I wanted on my phone and went to my porter. It’s actually a porter printer hybrid, but I don’t use the printer part of it very often because art just isn’t really my thing and those machines are way too complicated.

It didn’t take long for the coffee to show up. It’s pretty easy to port things when there’s nothing organic in them. It’s why most foods are synthetic now a days. This way we can have something delicious whenever we want it. If you ask me, that is an amazing invention.

I sipped the coffee. It was burned. But that’s pretty much what I would expect from a fast food place. They aren’t exactly known for being quality, but the upscale franchises are too far away and I was kind of lazy that day.

I looked out the window. It’s was a nice day in the ocean. That’s the window I picked out. It was either that or the neon pink one with the anime girl on it. I figured I would go for the more tasteful option even if it was kind of surreal. Oh who am I kidding. I was drunk when I picked it. Still one of the best decisions of my life.

I finally remembered what I was going to do before uncle David called. I was going to finally look up what that weird as fuck meme was about. I can’t believe it slipped my mind so easily on that day. I guess I’m just easily distractible like that.

I decided to check out the Paradise page of the one who posted the latest version of the meme. That’s usually the best way to find out what an in joke is if you don’t have enough information to search an actual archived wiki for it. Paradise always loads faster anyway because they shell out the big money to ISPs that nonprofit archives can never even hope to scramble together.

They were talking about how they made it using this new app. It was called DJINN. Weird name for an app. Kind of made me think of the genie from Aladdin or something out of an RPG. That was a weird name for a shitposting app, but hey I’ve seen weirder. Penguin was definitely an experience.

Might as well check it out. I decided to just click the link directly. It probably wasn’t a virus if this many people were using it and I was way too lazy to try to dig up the wiki. Sponsored links didn’t have the same lagging problem because Paradise got money from it if you clicked.

When the page finally loaded, I almost spat out my coffee.