#I’ve seen teams come and go and structures change

[orlandospride]

appreciate being called the most rational uswnt fan lol, i promise it won't inflate my ego. a lot of it, i think, comes from the fact that soccer breached containment in the US last world cup. so a lot of people who've literally never played soccer and who don't really know anything beyond "US good" are suddenly commentating like they've got 30 years of experience. i played for 12 years, and watched soccer constantly in my down time. i can't comment on other countries but i feel like a lot of people who follow women's soccer in say Europe have similar experiences to mine. US fans were at least a bit more rational to a point while i was growing up watching, because you only knew about the league if you played. even then, a lot of people didn't know. around 2011, things started to take a turn to where we are now (i'm not getting on my shipping high horse), but it was still mostly focused on the soccer. now, the block button is my best friend lol.

in terms of vlatko, i don't really know what to say. i kind of avoid talking about the coaches because 90% of coaching is what we don't see. obviously, the subs thing is an issue, but i honestly don't know. i had coaches growing up who coached us through seasons where we lost everything. but that didn't mean they were bad coaches. one season, we literally only had 11 players, and that wasn't his fault. one season, our goalie got injured and we didn't have a back up. i also had shit coaches who coached us to a championship. the first thing i told this guy was that i was left footed, and it wasn't until our final game when he realized, in shock, that i was left footed. there's lots of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. everyone clowned on jill but she somehow won two world cups. we don't have any wingers right now. that's a problem. we don't have trained central defenders. that's a problem. i don't know what will happen to his job. on the one hand, US Soccer has made it very clear that you either win or you get the boot (see Tom Sermanni). on the other hand, they've also refused to fire coaches when players complained (see Jill Ellis). they also refused to pay Dawn Scott who was single-handedly the reason why we were dominant for so long in what i refuse to believe wasn't a political move (this happened during the second lawsuit). it's completely a toss up.

as you said, this is a positive for the US and soccer at large. i'm so excited to see new styles of soccer develop, i'm excited for a new team to win the cup. upsets are genuinely exciting. while losing to sweden wasn't necessarily an upset, there's been so much growth and new teams breaking records, this is so fucking exciting. the US has never been a super tactical team. we've had tactical players, but never as a team. for the longest time, our strategy was to just kick the ball as far down the field as possible and have alex morgan chase it down. simply put, the reason why we've been dominant for so long is because we were always bigger, stronger, and faster than the other teams but we can't do that anymore (see Dawn Scott). the US have never played the most beautiful or advanced soccer, we suck at passing, we don't defend properly at all, and we don't take proper first touches. i hope that this is the push that we need in order to move towards turning into the beautiful game. for now, i'm just hoping and praying that Nigeria beats England. every world cup that Jamaica has been a part of, i've wanted them to do well, and it's finally happening.

all i ask of US fans right now is to choose a team, follow that team, and watch the rest of the cup. after the cup, choose a club team or two, and follow that team. historically, women's soccer has had issues keeping viewership after the world cup and i'm really concerned that it's going to happen again. the US has one of the largest (or at least loudest) fan bases. please keep that energy going forward, i don't think that i can take another league collapse. when teams from other countries are fighting for their rights, be loud, don't let their federations steam roll them. you're allowed to be sad, i'm sad too, but please don't let women's soccer die out. also, please join me in my campaign in rooting for the US men to lose at the next man soccer world cup, and for Canada to win, simply because i think that it would be funny.

it probably is a little weird if you’re a (fairly) recent uswnt fan or don’t keep up with football outside of the us because the us has always been so successful. losing isn’t really in the vocabulary and we probably have all overestimated the amount of pressure it’s put on players for, literally, decades. expectations have always been sky high regardless whether it was realistic or not, and the bigger they are the harder they fall, etc. it sucks the us team will be going home to such hate though, especially since most of it is nothing to do with football at all

i don’t personally agree the us can’t really defend or pass, even if they could be better, but i do agree that fitness has been a major factor in success. they haven’t always been better, but they have always been able to run faster and for longer. so they were able to wear teams down…eventually. that’s not so much the case anymore

(i’m pretty neutral on jamaica, but it’s a cool story with the fundraiser and that, so hopefully it inspires them regardless. i hope nigeria beat england too)

i don’t think there should really be a concern for the state of women’s football overall though, right? women’s football post 2019 wwc has exploded, at least from my own experience in the u.k, it’s gone from strength to strength here. there’ll always be a drop off post wc, but there will also be those who stick around. every international tournament (generally) has a net gain. if doesn’t keep all viewers, but it does usually increase them from the pre-tournament. plus… women’s football is resilient 👊

[gothiccharmschool]

So I want to say something about the various tips about job interviewing that I’ve seen and reposted. THINK OF THEM AS CHEAT CODES. Especially if you are ND.

Part of the reason hiring managers, especially in tech, ask questions like “tell me how you handled a conflict” is because we’re hoping for an answer that shows how you looked for a solution to an issue and how you handle any pushback. Do I want to occasionally tell coworkers to fuck off and stop being a pain in the ass? Of course I do. Doing that won’t fix things, so I rein in my temper, come up with a solution, and when the coworker is still a pain, I point out that I offered a solution, please get back to me when they have some workable solutions we can discuss.

Let me put it another way: I interviewed a dude for a position on my team. His resume was great, he was exactly the sort of writer I was looking for. He showed up to the Zoom interview in a sleeveless ripped t-shirt, put his bare feet up on the desk, and used “fucking” in every answer.

I am not a formal office type. This is known. But his behavior showed he wouldn’t be a useful member of my team because he wasn’t showing the basic courtesy of understanding it was an important conversation. He presented himself as an example of a middle-aged white tech dude who didn’t think he had to take other people into consideration.

The way modern business interviews are structured isn’t going to change any time soon, more’s the pity. THE INTERVIEW TIPS ARE CHEAT CODES. Use them.

EDITED TO ADD IN RELATION TO OFFICE JOBS: if you (generic) have gotten to where the hiring manager is talking to you, they have to think about if you will be mostly a help to the team (mostly because everyone is going to have times where things fall apart), or if you will be someone who the team and co-workers have to work “around” in order to get things done.

[preservationofnormalcy]

My cat keeps bringing me dead things that don't look like any known animal. Looking at them hurts my eyes and they seem to change shape every time I look at them. Is there any special way I should dispose of them? I'm starting to worry.

Cats are weird, man.

It’s been pretty obvious, though understudied, that our feline friends aren’t totally “in this universe” on a good day. We’re not really sure why, and anyone that tells you they know is lying to you. We’re reasonably sure cats aren’t alien, or Outsider touched, or even sapient. Typically.

A lot of them can at least see into the various planes that overlap realspace. That’s why cats aren’t allowed on Office grounds, except the main Library in Archival, because our resident archivist expert Miss Cece is a persuasive lady.

Thank you for uploading the picture, by the way. The cognitohazard scrubbers come back clean, so….ah, yeah, I’ve seen this before. Good news and bad news. The good news is your cat is helping you with your [REDACTED MEMETICS DETECTED, SCRUBBERS ENGAGED. PROTOCOL DANGERMOUSE ENACTED. PLEASE STAND BY.] infestation. The bad news is you have a [REDACTED MEMETICS DETECTED, SCRUBBERS ENGAGED. PROTOCOL DANGERMOUSE ENACTED. PLEASE STAND BY.] infestation. This should honestly go away in a few days. Don’t look at them, don’t touch them with bare skin, and for the love of god don’t let the carcasses touch any right angles. You can burn the carcasses according to local fire regulations. If burning is not an option, contact the Office Esoteric Waste Management team and we’ll dispose of them properly.

I remember the first time I saw a colony of [REDACTED MEMETICS DETECTED, SCRUBBERS ENGAGED. PROTOCOL DANGERMOUSE ENACTED. PLEASE STAND BY.] in an abandoned building in….was that Toronto? Yeah. I was helping RCOE with a [REDACTED MEMETICS DETECTED, SCRUBBERS ENGAGED. PROTOCOL DANGERMOUSE ENACTED. PLEASE STAND BY.] colony that had been seen in the building. Causing all kinds of ruckus in the local fabric of reality, let me tell you. Worse yet, Toronto has one of the nodes for Yukon Prime, Canada’s National AI project. My Canadian friends might know that Prime is a little eclectic at the best of times so they were concerned.

Anyway, you’ve never seen a group of [REDACTED MEMETICS DETECTED, SCRUBBERS ENGAGED. PROTOCOL DANGERMOUSE ENACTED. PLEASE STAND BY.] descend on a structure and [REDACTED MEMETICS DETECTED, SCRUBBERS ENGAGED. PROTOCOL DANGERMOUSE ENACTED. PLEASE STAND BY.] until you can’t even step on solid ground because of the [REDACTED MEMETICS DETECTED, SCRUBBERS ENGAGED. PROTOCOL DANGERMOUSE ENACTED. PLEASE STAND BY.]. Luckily we had some reality anchors on hand and it was back to normal in like. Three days.

[danielfuckingricciardo]

r/relationship_advice - Charles Leclerc x Reader

A collection of Reddit posts, comments, tweets, and fic

Pairing - Charles Leclerc x Reader

Synopsis - The reader is in a difficult situation, and decides to make a post on Reddit to get help with her predicament. What she doesn’t expect is for people to realise who she is.

Content Warnings - swearing, sexual references

Author’s Note - this is not just a standard fic! This is a collection of Reddit posts, comments, tweets, and fic. Sort of like a collage of different shit all telling one story! Because of this the perspective is different in each part, like the Reddit posts are in first person, and the fic is in second person as usual!

I wanted to experiment with something different structure wise, you know me, I like to fuck with stuff and do weird shit. If high school musical taught me anything, it’s that we shouldn’t stick to the status quo.

Please do tell me if you like the structure, if you don’t, if there’s anything you don’t think works etc! I’d love to do more shit like this so if you have any ideas of what else I could include in one of these (like text messages, DMs, Snapchat, insta stories, whatever) do let me know!

r/relationship_advice • 5d ago

Posted by throwaway27936

My (25F) boyfriend (27M) thinks I have a thing for one of my coworkers (25M). The worst thing about it is… I do.

I wanna preface this by saying that I’ve been with my boyfriend since I was 18. And I do love him. But last year I managed to bag my dream job and it meant us going long distance.

I wasn’t worried about the whole thing, after all, we’d been together for six years already and lived together for three of them. We had two cats together, and the word on the street was he was thinking of buying a ring to pop the question before I got my job offer.

The job is my dream job, and it’s actually what we had initially bonded over when we were at college together. When I got that email saying the job was mine he was so excited for me, and I was thrilled. It’s what I’d been working towards for so long!

But as things set in for him, and he realised I would be away for weeks and weeks, I could tell something changed. It was like he was faking being happy for me. The proposal never came, I suppose maybe because I was going to be away for days like valentines and both our birthdays, maybe he just couldn’t find the right time? Either that or he didn’t want to be engaged to someone who was hardly around?

He drove me to the airport, and no matter how sad I could see he was feeling, I couldn’t stop my excitement as I jetted off to another country to begin my work! I suppose that didn’t help either, him seeing how pumped I was and not being all tearful and sad to be leaving him. But I couldn’t help it, and I was sad, I just didn’t want to make our parting more upsetting for myself or for him.

The job kept me busy. Like super busy. But I did manage to come home every now and then, to tell him about all the amazing things I’d seen and done, do date nights snuggled up on the couch with our kitties Nemo (4M) and Milo (4M) but something was just… off??

And him being off, not being as affectionate and loving as he used to be, is what drew me to my coworker.

The final nail in the coffin was my trip home during summer last year. My bf and I pretty much argued the entire time, just over little tiny things, until suddenly, he just exploded. He berated me over the fact that I was never home. That he was the one stuck there looking after the cats, living a normal life while I was living my dream and flying around the world with my team.

It hurt, and I’m gonna be honest with you, I said some things I wish I could take back. Mainly along the lines of ‘it’s not my fault you weren’t able to make something of your life like I was.’

I regret saying that. I know that he struggled after college. It was a low blow. But I was angry, because I was living my dream, the dream we had bonded over that night in the sports bar just off campus when we met. He should be happy for me, right?

Well, after I left at the end of summer on a particularly sour note, I was ready to be done with him. I thought I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he’d gotten it all out of his system and that when I returned during a two week break in October, things would be better.

We hardly talked. September meant no FaceTimes, hardly any texts, no likes on my Instagram posts, nothing. Zilch. Nada. I tried, god knows I did. Scrolling through our WhatsApp chat makes me look so fucking desperate but I wasn’t ready to give up.

One day, after another period of being totally ignored, my coworker, who I shall call C, noticed I was upset. Before now I hadn’t spent much time with C as he was far more high profile than me. I worked in the wings but he was the star of the show.

I didn’t mean to trauma dump on him, but all these feelings just kinda came spilling out. I ended up crying on him and getting his shirt all covered in snot. It was gross, I apologised, he said not to worry about it.

The thing about C is, is that he’s beautiful. I know you don’t often see the word beautiful being used to describe a man, but he is. He’s gorgeous. Like don’t get me wrong, my bf is hot too, but C? Damn.

He was so kind to me, he listened, he wiped away my tears, cheered me up, and made me feel better again.

Don’t get me wrong, I would never cheat. I couldn’t. One of my best friends from college had her boyfriend of five years cheat on her and she was heartbroken. I still loved my boyfriend, I couldn’t do that to him. Besides, C himself already had a girlfriend. So anything between me and him was completely off the table.

But that didn’t stop me from catching feelings for C. There’s nothing cheaty about catching feelings, right? Especially when your bf is ghosting you the way mine was.

But C and I became good friends over the time we spent together throughout September after the whole snotty crying situation. He was a good friend, and it was nice to have someone in your corner when all of your normal best friends are halfway across the world.

When I went home in October, I arrived at my bf and I’s flat to find him sat in the lounge, surrounded by packed boxes and suitcases. He told me it was over.

Naturally I cried, I was hoping we’d have a chance to smooth things out, especially over Christmas when I’d have a whole two months to spend at home before I had to be back at work.

My bf showed me a picture on his phone, it must have been from some night out I can hardly remember after a good weekend’s work. And there I was with C. We were just dancing, but his hand was on my waist. Man we must have been so hammered.

My bf assumed I had a thing for him, which I did, but I would never have acted on. But I told him I didn’t, that we were just good friends, which wasn’t a lie. We were good friends, I just happened to fancy the pants off C but only in secret.

He wouldn’t listen to me, told me the whole long distance thing wasn’t working and that I either had to quit my job, or we would have to break up.

I couldn’t quit. I loved my job too much. It was exactly what I had dreamed of since I was a child. I told him that, and he said it was over.

He said he’d look after the cats until I found a new stable home someplace, and that he’d let me store my things in the spare room, but I didn’t live here anymore.

I left for my parents that night, in tears, and texted C. I told him what had happened, and he said I should get out, go visit him at home and keep my mind off of things before we had to travel again.

I knew I shouldn’t have. That it just made C and I’s relationship look even more suspicious. But I was upset, and angry. Besides, I wasn’t the only one at fault. If my bf had just replied to my texts more, and been willing to work harder on the long distance thing, I think we’d still be together now.

But I went to see C. And we had a great week. We hung out, played video games, got drunk, it was great. Of course his girlfriend stopped by every day for a few hours at least, and sometimes I’d be left alone in his apartment while they went for dinner and stuff. And that was when I cried.

I felt guilty for something that was beyond my control. I felt angry because, if my boyfriend had just been more willing to make it work, I wouldn’t have gone crying to C and I wouldn’t have ended up with this big fat crush on him.

By the time it was time to return home, I went and moved all my stuff out of my now ex-bf’s apartment and took the cats to my parents. I spent Christmas with them, and despite how much it hurt being alone surrounded by my family who were all coupled up, I had my work in 2023 to get me through.

But I also had C. We texted, a lot, after the breakup. I think he wanted to make sure I was okay? That I wasn’t feeling down.

But eventually it was my turn to check in on him, as C and his gf broke up. We spent a lot of time on FaceTime that week, being a pair of sad single losers drinking red wine and talking shit. He was my friend, and I cared about him a lot.

Come New Year’s Eve, I was invited to see in 2023 with my closest friends at a party one of them was hosting. And it was there I saw my ex-bf for the first time since I moved out.

I expected he would be there, after all, we had a lot of the same friends. But I was prepared for it. I’d cried my tears out, I’d gotten out all of my frustrations, and so when he asked me out on the balcony for a chat, I said ‘sure, why not?’

Call it a bad idea, call me foolish, but we ended up making out up there. We kissed at midnight that night, and promised to give it all another go. He said he wouldn’t get jealous of me and my job, and I said I’d try to come home more and spend more time with him.

The first week of January, I moved my stuff back into our apartment, brought the cats back from my parents, and we rekindled our relationship. Despite all the pain I went through, I still loved him. And he still loved me.

But then C texted, asked if I wanted to fly over and hang out for a weekend. My bf wasn’t too happy with the idea. He was still convinced I had a thing for C, despite me telling him most certainly that I didn’t. But I did still have a thing for C.

Thing were frosty between me and my bf for a few days, and as I prepared to return to work, he got increasingly more agitated. But eventually, when it came time for me to leave, he cried. I cried and hugged him as we parted at the airport. I promised I would call and text every day, and that I wouldn’t ignore him in favour of work.

I loved my boyfriend, I really did. But then I saw C again. And now I don’t know what to do.

I love both of them, so much, and I don’t know what I want anymore. Is it selfish of me to stay with my bf? Would it be stupid for me to call it quits with him and risk things with C even if he doesn’t feel the same? I’m just stuck in a rut and my emotions are going crazy. Help!

TLDR: my boyfriend thinks I’m in love with my coworker, I say I’m not, but after a shaky period with my bf, I fell for my coworker. Now I don’t know what to do! Help?

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AutoModerator • 2d ago

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Reindeerbuddy27 • 4d ago

I think your boyfriend sounds like a dick. It was his fault for ghosting you! If he hadn’t have reacted the way he did over summer you would have never bonded with your coworker and caught feelings. IMO you’d be better off breaking up with him and either being single or getting with C, though I’d give him some time to get over his own ex-gf before you try anything!

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Throwaway27936 • 4d ago

Yeah, it kinda was his fault I caught feelings in the first place, you’re right. I wouldn’t say he was a dick, he just missed me I guess and his sadness turned into anger the longer I was away and it just all exploded. Even so, we’re back together and on good terms, and I still love him. I don’t think I could break up with him without a valid reason to do so?

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ReindeerBuddy27 • 3d ago

I get that you don’t want to lose him, but if you’re not fully invested in the relationship with him and want to explore the possibility of having something with C, I think breaking up with your bf would be the fairest thing to do.

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Throwaway27936 • 3d ago

Hmm… maybe you’re right. I need some time to think about it. Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it! ♥︎

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Pedr0Pascal14 • 4d ago

Would you maybe be able to ask your bf about opening your relationship? Allowing you to pursue things with C to see where they lead while also keeping your bf?

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Throwaway27936 • 4d ago

Definitely not. He’s all about monogamy, and I am too. If I suddenly asked about opening the relationship he’d be even more suspicious of me and my reasons for asking.

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Demeter779 • 3d ago

Could you reduce the amount of time spent at work maybe? Like going part time so you’re only away for six months out of the year?

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Throwaway27936 • 3d ago

Sadly it’s not possible. My job is kinda all or nothing. If I asked about reducing my hours they’d laugh in my face and fire me. There’s plenty of people who would die for a chance to fill my role so I wouldn’t be missed.

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Demeter779 • 3d ago

That sucks. I would say tho, without being mean, it seems like your job is your number one priority and not your bf. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I think that’s where the problem lies. Especially if before you took the job he was always your number one! It’s probably been hard for him to adjust! I hate to say it, but I don’t think you two are meant to be and these problems are only gonna get worse this year with you being away. This situation really sucks for you OP, I’m sorry.

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LionVerstappen33 • 2d ago

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Hon3ybadg3r • 2d ago

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MonacoBaby • 2d ago

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r/relationship_advice • 6hr ago

posted by Throwaway27936

UPDATE: My (25F) boyfriend (27M) thinks I have a thing for one of my coworkers (25M). The worst thing about it is… I do.

Okay, ya got me.

Considering my life has already been put under extreme scrutiny from random strangers on the internet to literal news publications, I figured it couldn’t get any worse than it already has and so I’d post an update here.

I wanna start out by saying I am stupid. I made my post thinking I was fully anonymous, the account was a throwaway with no real ties to my irl identity and I tried as hard as I could to conceal the true nature of my work, but you F1 girlies are far too intelligent and I realise that now.

In hindsight I shouldn’t have deleted those comments, because it did just make me look more suspicious. If I’d have left them, maybe even replied to them and said ‘yes I work in F1 but can we please keep it on the dl as I don’t want anyone finding out who I am’ then right now I wouldn’t be sat in my childhood bedroom crying with a cat on my knee typing out this post.

I also wanna say that I hold no grudges with Twitter user LionVerstappen_ I mean, they’re far too clever for their own good, and they terrify me, but I don’t hate them, and all the hate that they’re getting is unjustified and wrong. It was my fault for posting on the internet thinking I’d be safe. That’s on me, not them, so please do leave them alone.

Since that post was made, a lot has changed. Obviously I had already returned to work, I was in the factory at Maranello working on some technical shit I won’t bore you with and getting ready for the livery reveal on the 14th and fine tuning for next season.

I had seen LionVerstappen_ and Hon3ybadg3r’s comments and deleted them as soon as I did. I didn’t fancy answering them, and thought ‘shit, this is getting a little dicey’ and disabled commenting on my post. I thought that would be the end of that, I had some good advice given before that, and I would mull it over before I next saw my boyfriend.

Suddenly, my phone just started fucking blowing up. I had a bunch of random people request to follow me on Instagram, and when I say a bunch, I mean a fuck load. Like 20k follow requests in the space of a few hours. Immediately I was like ‘what the fuck?’ Assuming I’d been hacked or something. I had like 200 followers before that, and I knew all of them in some capacity, and I hadn’t just become some internet celebrity (not on purpose at least) so what was going on?

That’s when I got a message from my friend back home. She’s an F1 fan and is pretty active on F1twt which is how she saw the posts. She sent me a link to the original tweet from LionVerstappen_ as well as to DeuxMoi’s Instagram stories. I was shocked, I really didn’t know how to react.

I couldn’t believe that my silly little Reddit post had actually been figured out, especially after I’d deleted those comments, I thought it was the end. I debated taking down the Reddit post, but really, what was that gonna do? There were already screenshots all over Twitter so it wouldn’t make a difference.

This all happened during my lunch break, and after lunch, I was called into my boss’ office. It seems the Ferrari PR department had also seen the tweets and the speculation, and they wanted to talk to me about it.

I burst into tears. My personal life was all over the internet, my boyfriend had probably seen it all and knew how I felt and that I’d been lying to him about my feelings. I knew it was only a matter of time before he called me and ended things with me again.

Thankfully, the PR team were nice to me. They said they’d handle it, and most importantly, that my job was safe. It was nothing to do with my capabilities as an engineer, after all, so I suppose it made sense. What they did do, however, is give me the week off to sort my life out.

I left the factory sniffling like a baby, packed my shit and got on a plane home. I called my parents to pick me up from the airport, and asked them to take my stuff back to their place but to drop me at the apartment my bf and I shared.

When I entered the flat I had to brace myself. I knew it wasn’t gonna be pretty. My bf was sat on the sofa, surrounded by packed bags and boxes again. Deja vu anyone?

He didn’t yell, or threaten me, or call me names like I thought he would. No, he stood up, and hugged me. And I started crying like a baby. Full on body shaking sobs.

I told him I was sorry, that I loved him, but I understood. He said it was okay.

We sat down together surrounded by the boxes of my things, he made me a coffee, and we talked. It was refreshing to talk to him considering last time he forced me out of the house without a word.

I told him everything, from start to finish. About how neglected and sad I felt after the summer break, how his ghosting was what led me to Charles, how I still really loved him but just didn’t know what I wanted, and how scary it was to have my private life all over the internet like that.

He was sympathetic, but ultimately he said that we just didn’t work together. He wished me luck, I took the cats, got in a taxi, and went home.

Funnily enough, I wasn’t really upset about the whole relationship ending. Mainly because I was just so relieved my ex was handling the whole situation so well. I’ll miss him terribly, he was more than just my boyfriend but he was my best friend too (I am aware of how cliche that sounds).

We had bonded over F1 all those years ago. I was cheering for Sebastian Vettel and he was cheering for Lewis Hamilton while watching a race in a sports bar. We ended up having an argument over who’s driver was better which after a few drinks evolved into us making out in the smoking area. That night I’d told him my dream, to be an engineer, to work for Ferrari. He believed in me, and it’s due to his belief that I managed to get my job. It’s a shame that achieving my dream was the thing that eventually tore us apart.

But anyway, now I’m at home. My parents are out collecting all my things from my ex’s flat right now, and I’ve finally calmed down enough to start typing this out. Mainly because Nemo has decided to curl up in my lap and have a big nap.

Consider my overdue cat tax paid:

When I settled in my room, Charles called me. I nearly didn’t answer it, but I did.

For the sake of his privacy, I’m not going to tell you all of what was said. But I can say that he doesn’t hate me, and if anything, he feels so bad for the situation I ended up in.

I suppose he knows what it’s like to have all that speculation around your personal life 24/7 and can empathise more than most of the people in my life.

I will also say, that we are just friends! That’s all. This isn’t a hallmark movie. He hasn’t hopped on his private jet, flown all the way to my home in bumblefuck nowhere to declare his love for me, and we all live happily ever after.

Real life is a lot more complicated than that. And a lot shittier and a lot more depressing.

I’m going back to Maranello tomorrow morning. I know they gave me the week off, but I’m going to spend some time in the area, maybe even look at getting a proper rental and moving out there full time. I have nothing really to tie me to my home anymore, not really (and yes I will bring the cats with me and pay a cat sitter!)

So yeah, this is my update. You don’t need to worry about me, I’m fine now, I think! Moving onwards and upwards. One day this will be a funny story I’ll look back on. It isn’t funny now, but it will be.

I do ask, however, that everyone reading this post thinks before they post. I’m a real person, and thanks to all this drama my life is fucked up and I’m now Googling how to emigrate to Italy.

Before you press that button, just consider how it will affect that person, and if it’s really worth it. Sometimes it is, I’ll grant you. But we’re all real people. Those of us in the factories, the TPs, the drivers, everyone. And we have a right to respect and privacy just as any ordinary person does. Think before you post.

I’m signing off now. It’s been a wild ride. Comments will be off, no doubt you’ll be making comments and dissecting my every word on Twitter anyways but at least I don’t have to see em.

I likely won’t update this again.

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—

March 5th 2023

No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t quite acclimate yourself to the dry heat of Bahrain. Your hair clung to your neck with sweat, and your team polo was already sodden and damp.

You weren’t quite sure if it was just the heat, or the nerves getting to you as the cars begun their formation lap. You fidgeted with the pen in your hand, your eyes firmly transfixed on the screen in front of you as you catch a glimpse of red zooming down the straight.

Lucky for you, things had died down. As the season began, people had the racing to focus on, and your silly little Reddit post had been almost forgotten. You were able to blend into the background, just as you had done that previous year. You were just another engineer hidden amongst a sea of red shirts, and it was nice.

You knew, however, that this peace would be short lived. It was only a matter of time before you were all over social media again, not as the mystery Reddit user anymore, but as Charles Leclerc’s new girlfriend.

You didn’t lie in your post, the two of you hadn’t gotten together on that fateful day. You were just friends. That was until February 14th.

The day of the car reveal, which also happened to coincide with Valentine’s Day. You didn’t mind, of course, after all, you had no plans. You were quite happy to have something else going on to distract you from your tragic love life.

Charles, however, had made plans. After the reveal you went back to his hotel room, where he had organised a fancy dinner with candles and roses. He asked you out then and there, away from the prying eyes of fans or paparazzi.

To you, it was the most romantic gesture anyone could ever make. It was clear he had thought of you, keeping the moment as private as possible to protect you.

He, of course, knew how you felt about him. He didn’t have to worry, he knew you’d say yes. And you did.

You spent the evening drinking wine, chatting, just as you had always done. But one thing was different - after dessert he kissed you.

The kiss was sweet, and it wasn’t just because of the tiramisu he had eaten.

He didn’t want to rush you, he knew that you were still healing from your trauma. But you weren’t so coy.

February 14th marked the first time you had kissed Charles Leclerc, but it also marked the first time the two of you made love.

Since that day, the two of you had kept your relationship a secret. You cooked for one another, or ordered takeout, watched movies, cuddled with the cats, and just enjoyed each other’s company.

It was exactly what you had wanted. A nice, private relationship with the man you had fallen so deeply in love with.

But there was a small niggling feeling in the back of your mind that it was all about to change. If he won this race, you wouldn’t be able to control yourself. You wouldn’t be able to stop the urge to throw yourself into his arms, to kiss him all over, to tell him just how proud you are.

A race winner always deserves a kiss, right?

You chew on your nail as the final cars pull into position, ready for lights out.

Charles had taken pole position that previous day, but you had managed to save your celebrations for later, sneaking over to his hotel room when no one was around and promptly sneaking out early this morning to avoid suspicion.

Lights out - Charles’ reactions are lightning. He manages to keep away from the rest of the grid, allowing the cars behind him to battle for P2.

The Ferrari garage is hopeful, but they know better than to cheer before the race is won. Too many bittersweet moments from the previous season haunted each and every one of them.

All was well, Charles was set for the first win of the season, until a collision at the back of the pack meant that the safety car reared its ugly head.

Max was getting closer and closer to the back of Charles’ car. They weaved behind the safety car, getting ready, preparing for the moment that it would leave the track.

As the car enters the pit lane, the power was in Charles’ hands. He needed to make a good move, surprise Max, get him on the back foot and out of sight.

There were only two laps left. Two laps to victory. Max just had to stay back, and Charles had to race like he’d never raced before.

You chew on your nails anxiously as Charles takes each and every corner, hitting the apex with precision. All that time in the simulator was definitely paying off.

They cross the line for the final lap, Charles was a car’s length ahead, but Max too was pushing hard. He wanted that first win just as much as Charles did. But you told yourself mentally that he wasn’t going to get it. This was Charles’ race, and he was going to stand on that top step of the podium.

The seconds felt like hours. You make eye contact with Vasseur across the garage and he gives you a small smile. A reassuring one, and you smile back. It probably looked more like a grimace but it was the best you could muster.

The final corner passes with ease, and it looks like Charles has hung onto his win. Max is practically driving alongside him as they cross the finish line. No one cheers.

It’s a waiting game, waiting for the photo to see who had crossed the line first.

You bury your head in your hands, unable to think, talk, move or see until the entire garage erupts into cheers.

He had done it! Charles had won the race!

Tears begin to fall from your eyes as you finally look up. You were sobbing, you couldn’t help it. He’d won.

You give every mechanic you see a pat on the back as you walk over to Vasseur. He was smiling brightly at you. He had so much faith in Charles, he loved him like a son.

He embraces you tightly as you cry onto his shoulder, and he whispers ever so quietly “go see him. See your love.”

You didn’t even care to ask how he was able to see right through the two of you. You just pulled away and nodded as you run out of the garage towards parc ferme alongside a sea of red suits and shirts.

You push your way to the front, definitely sure that your tear stained face would be onscreen for the world to see, but you didn’t care. The world had seen worse of you, after all.

When Charles takes off his helmet, your heart skips a beat. He was beautiful, every day he was beautiful. Even when he was still sweaty and breathing heavy from the adrenaline of the race, his face marked with balaclava lines.

He makes a beeline for you, pulling you in for a hug the way friends would hug one another.

“Kiss me.” You say.

“Are you sure, mon amour?” He whispers, and you nod.

Charles captures your lips in a kiss reminiscent of your very first just a few days ago. The cameras were definitely on you, but you didn’t care.

No doubt social media would be going crazy over the whole thing, but it was nothing new to you. At least this time you weren’t just in love with your coworker, but he was in love with you too.

Whatever the internet may have to throw at you, this time, you didn’t have to handle it alone.

—

~ THE END ~

[flowercrowncrip]

hi there! i’ve been following your blog for a bit and just wanted to ask as a fellow disabled person— what kind of job do you have, and how do they go about accommodating your needs? i’m trying to find entry-level work i can do from a wheelchair, and it’s been a struggle. any insight to the process would be amazing! no pressure to share any details, of course— whatever you feel comfortable sharing, even if that’s nothing at all. have a lovely day!

Hey!

I’m a youth support worker with a local queer organisation. The main parts of my job are helping to run youth groups and providing 121 mentoring. I also go into schools to provide training and am part of a sexual health scheme for young people.

Accommodating my disability has been a learning curve for everyone (including me!) but everyone has been incredibly open to making things work smoothly.

One of the big things they’ve done is made structural changes to the main building I work at so that I can use the bathroom and get through the doors more easily. They also worked with me to arrange the furniture in a way that works best for me. When working in different venues (like youth centres or if we go on a trip) my manager always prioritises accessibility. It’s not perfect and there’s one youth group venue I can’t fully access but changing that venue is a huge priority. Unfortunately we’ve hit a few walls with finding a suitable venue but I’ve been kept fully up to date on how many places we’ve looked into so I know it’s not from lack of trying on the organisation’s part.

We also share jobs in the team in a way that makes most sense. For example I have set things when setting up a youth group that we know I can do reliably so those have become my jobs. With 121 support if a young person requests it over video call I get priority so that I can work from home, and if someone requests support in their home then it’s assigned to someone else because most houses aren’t wheelchair accessible. And if we’re working at a pride event or similar that doesn’t have a changing places toilet I can use or has other access issues then it’s not a problem if I need to go home early – it’s fully understood that it’s not my fault but the fault of whatever event we’re at for not being accessible.

Work has also done a DBS (criminal record) check for one of my PAs so that I can have support during youth groups.

My boss also knows what access requirements I have and we share the job of liaising with schools or other venues between us so it’s not as much extra work for me.

But I think the main thing is that they’re coming at it all with the right attitude. Asking for help is seen as a positive skill, there’s a genuine desire to learn and improve as an organisation which extends to accessibility and diversity which means the conversations around accessibility are constant and ongoing. There’s been several times where I’ve said that something isn’t as accessible as it could be or I’ve pointed out that something someone has said is ableist (including to the founders of the organisation) and I’ve always been thanked for doing so. I’m extremely privileged to have found an organisation like this that wants to be accommodating because it’s the right thing to do rather than just doing what they have to do by law.

That’s what I can think of off the top of my head, but there’s probably more I haven’t thought of.

I’m very open to other questions so feel free to ask me anything else if there’s anything else you want to know!

[hattrickeryreviews]

Breakaway (Scoring Chances #1) - Avon Gale

"Drafted to play for the Jacksonville Sea Storm, an NHL affiliate, twenty-year-old Lane Courtnall’s future looks bright, apart from the awkwardness he feels as a gay man playing on a minor league hockey team. He's put his foot in his mouth a few times and alienated his teammates. Then, during a rivalry game, Lane throws off his gloves against Jared Shore, enforcer for the Savannah Renegades. It’s a strange way to begin a relationship.

Jared’s been playing minor league hockey for most of his career. He’s bisexual and doesn’t care if anyone knows. But he’s determined to avoid another love affair after the last one left him devastated. Out of nowhere a one-nighter with rookie Lane Courtnall gives him second thoughts. Lane reminds Jared why he loves the game and why love might be worth the risk. In turn, Jared hopes to show Lane how to be comfortable with himself on and off the ice. But they’re at different points in their careers, and both men will have to decide what they value most."

Did I reread it? Yes

POV: 3rd person limited, alternating between Lane Courtnall and Jared Shore

Tropes: Rivals, Age Gap, Emotional Scars

My thoughts:

Characters/Character Development: 3/5

Lane: Lane is a 20-year-old character that I imagine you either love or hate; I happen to love him. He is absurdly charming, with about no people skills and the charisma to make up for it. He is autistic-coded, and the best part about him is that no one ever asks him or wants him to change. His own character arc is unrelated to any shortcomings of his own, instead following the tense relationship between himself and his parents.

Jared: Jared is a hardened 32-year-old who has seen the ugly side of hockey and is learning to live with it. He’s slightly grouchy and generally rough around the edges, except when it comes to Lane. His character arc revolves around self-acceptance and a difficult family.

Overall, the character development is… okay. We see some changes in the characters, but not much. Lane’s own arc is mostly glossed over and left to the background, and it doesn’t really involve any personal growth as opposed to the growth of the people around him. Jared’s own changes are so incredibly internal that at times it is hard to believe anything is actually influencing them. However, the characters themselves (both main and side) all have very solidly fleshed out personalities that are easy to distinguish and charming. At times, they can be a bit of caricatures, but they are still decently developed.

Believability (Hockey): 5/5

This book specifically follows the ECHL, with accurate depictions of what that means for the characters. The team names themselves are fake, but the structure of the games and league is very real. I can’t exactly say what an ECHL locker room really looks like, nor can I speak on the true personalities on and off the ice of players, but I imagine it could be pretty close to this. Is it a little idealized? Sure. But this is fiction, and I think it’s okay to make things a little better than they probably would be, so long as it’s near the realm of believability.

Believability (Plot): 2/5

This plot is enjoyable, but I didn’t quite believe it. We basically follow two rival teams, yet I’ve been to high school football games with more animosity. I adore happy endings in my romance books, as I’m sure we all do, but I think that anywhere in a book it is important for characters to struggle, and you don’t see much of that here. Additionally, we’ve got a story where everything all works out without really any work done from the characters. Couple in with that an immigration that is way too quick and easy, and you’ve got a book that’s just on the wrong side of realistic.

Uniqueness: 4/5

Every hockey book is going to be at least a little bit similar, so it’s important to look for details you don’t see in other stories. Here, we’ve got our focus on the ECHL, which goes against the common “top in their sport” theme of sports books. The characters have personalities that you don’t come by in many books, especially Lane. Some of the plot points are pretty common in other books, but there’s only so many ways you can write a romance book.

Trope Integration: 2/5

I love the tropes that we see in this book; however, they are criminally under-utilized. We’ve got a sizable age gap, where one character is in his 30s and another can’t even legally drink, but besides a couple ‘old man’ jokes, it doesn’t really play into the plot at all. They’re both on rival teams, but even the rivalry itself isn’t a factor in the romance. We’ve got traumatized pasts and potentially homophobic parents that don’t impact the relationship and are hardly visible in the characters. They are used as talking points more than anything else, but at least they exist in the story at all.

General enjoyment: 4/5

This book isn’t going to change the world, and that’s okay. I love some of the one-liners, especially the ones we get out of Lane. This book is upfront about what it is and unapologetic. At some points I found the humor to be a bit repetitive, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good. I have read this book one time before, and I definitely don’t regret reading it again.

Overall Score: 20/30 or 3.3/5

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT THE LADDER

A isn't working. The disadvantage of taking money from a top VC firm can be a tricky business, because delegation is endemic there. On a whim I studied Arabic as a freshman. This turns out not to be obviously incompetent or lazy, but you're not going to get rich by counterfeiting, talking about making money, instead of the angel's. When we predict good outcomes for startups, the qualities that come up in the supporting arguments are toughness, adaptability, determination. Some writers quote parts of things they disagree with to give the appearance of legitimate refutation, then follow with a response as low as DH3 or even DH0. What good does it do me to know that my programmers would be more likely to notice and complain. They'll learn a lot, and that can probably only increase your earnings by a factor of ten of measuring individual effort. DH5 we still sometimes see deliberate dishonesty, as when someone picks out minor points of an argument and refutes those. We'll bet a seed round you can't make for yourself. The structural change in the way. That's true now, and that's just as bad.

In this case, n is. That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil. In fact, you can't train them to be exceptional. They did as employers too. I thought I'd already put in so much time that it was the first thing we thought of. You're old enough to start a startup, what you want to go work for a couple more years, just as newspapers that put their stories online still seem to wish people would watch shows on TV instead, just as we were designed to eat are a few Birkenstock-wearing weirdos in Berkeley. But serfdom is not the only cause of variation in income would be bad for you. But here there is another layer that tends to obscure the underlying reality, the more it will suck. Let's run through an example. Professors are especially interested in people who can solve tedious system-administration type problems for them, but because the process of raising money itself can kill you. In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either.

If you're among that number, Trevor Blackwell has made a handy calculator you can use to find out. Asking whether you're default alive or default dead. There is a lot of things practically all humans have in common, you'd also find they agreed on a lot. What kind of anti-dilution protection do they want? But that constraint has gone now. That was still in the future when you hear people saying that, you're golden. You're unlikely to have more than 10, and probably rarely as high as DH5 we still sometimes see deliberate dishonesty, as when someone picks out minor points of an argument and refutes those. So we've probably only discovered a fraction of what the finished product will do, but what new forms will appear. Many employees would work harder if they could skip the Artix phase and go right on to make something customers wanted. Of course, space aliens probably wouldn't find human faces engaging. Not any more. I'm right.

So while nearly all VC funds have some address you can send your business plan randomly to VCs, because they enjoy it. But while I'd spent a lot of the change I've seen is fragmentation. You're on the right track when people complain that it doesn't work so well for: the kind where it helps to have everything in one head is to focus more on their needs than your interests, and make the length of it: amateurs. When those far removed from the creation of wealth—undergraduates, reporters, politicians—hear that the richest 5% of the company so it could take care of themselves. As in software, when professionals produce such crap, it's not made equally. They lived in houses full of servants, wore elaborately uncomfortable clothes, and travelled about in carriages drawn by teams of horses which themselves required their own houses and servants. If I remember correctly, our frontpage used to just fit in the size window people typically used then. Structurally it is to an ordinary university what suburbia is to a city.

The professor who made his reputation by discovering some new idea is not likely to be true for longer. And moreover, that the cause is not some force that's pulling us apart, but rather that small groups can be select. The web is turning writing into a conversation. There is a very specialized business, as specialized as diamond cutting. Just make stuff and put it online. Money is a side effect of specialization. A surprising amount of the work done by individual employees, you can protest that you've been treated unfairly. Then you could see in the house, the herds, and the offerings at our end of the summer. I was as obsessed with that program as a mother with a new baby. But serfdom is not the only cost of hiring someone: there's usually salary and overhead as well.

This is my attitude to the site generally. A top-ranked professional chess player could play ten thousand games against an ordinary club player without losing once. A great programmer, on a smaller scale. But the way they talk about them is useless. The room suddenly got quiet. The idea that startups would do better to go off and work with a huge weight of expectation on his shoulders. Another way to be good. Some VCs now require that in any sale they get 4x their investment back before the common stock everyone else has. The reason it seems ridiculous to us to treat smells as property.

There was a lot of immigrants working in it will go to work for them long before they went public. It always seemed to us that the backing of a well known VC firm would make us breathe through tubes if they could. Now you can even hack together distribution. If people are expected to behave well. A physicist who chose physics over Wall Street in 1990 was making a sacrifice that a physicist in 1960 wasn't. It's not a coincidence. Within the office you now have to get rich, try spending a couple days in some of the fancier bits of New York or LA. He'd only been working on it. You also need to be the last to notice. If they made the experience good enough, audiences might start to prefer it to watching pirated movies at home. That's ultimately what drives us to work on your projects, he can work wherever he wants on projects of his own. But the same alarms in your head that it does in mine.

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

It’s been an interesting week at the Fahrni household. Kim and Taylor are visiting family in California and I’m holding down the fort. There are of course benefits to this, I can eat whatever I want. But, there are also downsides. I can eat whatever I want. Needless to say, I’ve done a horrible job of eating the right things, the healthy things I should be eating. 🍔🍟🍕🍰🥧🍦

Richard Goldstein • The New York Times

Willie Mays, Baseball’s Electrifying Player of Power and Grace, Is Dead at 93

Perhaps the best to ever play the game. RIP.

Mansee Khurana • NPR

Donald Sutherland, who starred in more than 200 movies and TV shows, died Thursday in Miami, Fla., after a long illness. He was 88.

We’ve all seen Donald Sutherland in movies and perhaps you may not be able to name many?

The films I most remember him in were Space Cowboys, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Salem’s Lot.

RIP.

Sinem Akinci • Microsoft C++ Team Blog

This blog post was written in collaboration with Philipp Jeske and Rainer Bauereiss, a software engineer and a software engineering lead we worked with to deliver on these improvements, who shared their story and experience with C++ development while adopting Visual Studio 2022.

Neat interview with a couple engineers from Bosch about their use of Visual Studio in a cross platform environment.

I’m so jealous of this! I’d have loved to have had this in 2005 or even 2009 while working at Pelco.

I used vim, KDevelop, and eventually settled into Eclipse while working on our Linux products. Windows was easy, we used Visual Studio.

Heck, I’d have loved to have had VSCode at that time! 😃

Reading this article brought back some great memories and made me want to ask Bosch if they needed any old crusty C++ devs. 🤣 I do miss it.

Rain Noe • Core77

If you’ve worked in structural package design, you may have noticed recent changes to Starbucks' cups for cold drinks. If not, here’s a look at the new design features, added to make baristas' lives easier.

While it may seem mundane or boring to some it’s not to me. There is a designer living inside me, but he sucks. At least with sites like Core77 I can live vicariously through amazing designers of all kinds!

There is one glaring problem with these Starbucks cups. Know what it is? Yes, they’re made of plastic. How in the world can we divorce ourselves of it? 🤔

Filipe Espósito • 9to5Mac

Apple this year announced a series of changes when it comes to the App Store in the EU, as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation came into force in March. However, the European Commission doesn’t seem satisfied with the changes Apple has made. For the EU, Apple has some “very serious” issues with not being fully compliant with the new legislation.

Well, it sounds like Apple may be at the “find out” part the ever popular statement “F*ck around and find out.”

Of course I’ll be keeping an eye on this. Will I participate in another store? I kind of doubt it. 🍿

Daniel Golson • Jalopnik

Do You Think Honda’s $15,000 Electric Kei Van Would Actually Work In America?

I don’t know but this is the sort of pricing we 100% need here in the States if we want to get folks to buy electric vehicles. I’d buy a lesser expensive electric car for commuting — if I had a commute — even if it had a 100 mile range. I could charge at home and at work. ⚡️

Nick Hodges • InfoWorld

Software developers started having to think not only about how the program was going to get the job done, but also about how the user was going to interact with the program to get the job done. It became clear that a good user interface was something that would sell more software.

This is one of those things that bothered me about web apps. They’re all over the place as far as UI design goes. With native Mac and Windows apps you at least expect, and get, a certain amount of consistency across applications. 👨🏽‍💻

Allan Rose Hill • Boing Boing

The team members decided to spend the night in the cells of D Block. However, one of the fellows was a loud snorer so they banished him to crash in the room where mughots were once taken. The next morning, they found him, and his gear, outside the room.

Who doesn’t love a good ghost story?

It makes me want to go spend the night there to find out what’s going on.👻

Mark Moran • UPI

Excavation unearths cherries in cellar of George Washington’s Mount Vernon

This is pretty nifty. I wonder what else they’ll eventually find? I love American history, the good and bad, and have often thought of becoming a History teacher or historian.

I wonder what those dissolved cherries taste like? Probably really disgusting. 🤣

Dave Winer • Scripting News

One of the cool things about the way I designed FeedLand internally is that there are various levels of feed stuff. If you want to start over at any level, you can, and today I’m doing exactly that. But first here’s the stack

A little insight to Dave’s FeedLand service stack.

Andy Kalmowitz • Jalopnik

The Tesla Cybertruck is possibly the most look-at-me vehicle on sale today with its bizarre shape and stainless steel bodywork, but what if you wanted something that stuck out from the crowd even more (in a bad way)? Well, folks now is your chance to do just that, because I’ve just stumbled upon the most attention-seeking Cybertruck to date. Listed for sale in Lincoln, Nebraska is a completely polished Cybertruck. Who knew the center of Hell was Nebraska?

I personally don’t see the attraction to the Cybertruck. I’d imagine they’re mostly purchased by macho men and Space Karen fanboys.

Of course I’d never own on but I will admit I kind of like the way this highly polished version with aftermarket wheels and tires looks. Way better than the factory mess Tesla ships.

It’s gonna be dangerous as heck on the road. Can you imagine getting hit in the face with the glare off of one of these? 🪩

John Gruber • Daring Fireball

By My Count Trump is Batting .900 on the Ten Commandments

Yeah, the Orange Menace couldn’t tell you the Ten Commandments much less live by them. He’s a fraud when it comes to religion, just like he is at everything else.

Kelly Crandall • Racer

Gene Haas to continue in NASCAR with new Haas Factory Team in 2025

This is good news for NASCAR fans, I think? When Stuart Haas announced their closure folks thought there’d be four charters up for sale. Now it looks like the Cup side will be reduced to one team and the Xfinity side will retain both of the existing teams.

I’m really interested to know which team and charter will they keep? E.G. It could be the four car with a different team and driver.

That still leaves three Cup charters and drivers looking for new homes.

I’d love to see these charters go to new homes and see their drivers go with them. I’m especially curious about where Josh Berry and team land. He’s had a good rookie season and he has a legendary Crew Chief. 🚘

Samuel Axon • Ars Technica

Business Insider claims it has seen internal Dell tracking data that reveals nearly 50 percent of the workforce opted to accept the consequences of staying remote, undermining Dell’s plan to restore its in-office culture.

Dell employed an interesting tactic and it kind of didn’t really work.

So, if you choose to work remotely you’re basically stuck at your current job and salary. It turns out 50% of the company was fine with those terms.

Travis Gettys • AlterNet

A former U.S. Supreme Court clerk cast suspicion on the lengthy delay by justices in rendering a decision in Donald Trump’s immunity case.

This doesn’t surprise me given what we’ve been hearing about the court recently.

The thing in most concerned with is their upcoming decision on the Orange Menaces claim he has full immunity. Apparently some group of judges are leaning toward a limited set of immunities for the President. That seems insane to me, unless it only applies to Presidential duties. The Orange Dude didn’t commit his crimes as part of his official Presidential duties. They were the selfish acts of a cruel, narcissistic, rapist, felon.

Besides, the justices need to be really careful. If they give free rein to Presidents the Orange Dude may mysteriously disappear, and if Dark Brandon were behind it, well, wouldn’t that be something.

I know it’s pathetic of me to say stuff like that but at this point I’m hoping the guy just goes away never to be seen again. I don’t care how.

Charles R. Davis • Salon

The story, in a way, is that there is any story at all: On Thursday, two sources told The New York Times, in effect, that every liberal critic of Judge Aileen Cannon — every legal analyst who says she has mishandled Donald Trump’s classified documents case, displaying incompetence and prejudice — is absolutely right.

This judge is something else. By all accounts she has no clue what she’s doing, unless of course she really does and it tilting her decisions to Trump.

In other words, Cannon’s own colleagues are openly talking about her bias and inability now that both have been ably demonstrated in case that still has no trial date, a year after she was assigned it, largely due to the fact that she has agreed to hold hearings on just about every issue raised by the defense. On Friday, even outside right-wing attorneys will be given time in the courtroom to argue that it was actually illegal for Smith to even bring the case.

I keep hoping the 11th Circuit will replace her. Regardless, Trump won’t see trial before the election so she will have achieved her goal.

[jccomp491]

Reflection on my Dickinson Education

Reading through both the goals of a Dickinson College education and learning goals of the computer science major specifically, I can confidently say that I will graduate having fulfilled them all. Looking back on my four years as a student here, I am more than satisfied with the education that I have been given, and proud of myself for successfully making it through (almost, 2 more months to go). While some of the goals have been emphasized more than others, the courses required of the computer science department and the professors who teach them have gven attention to each one. Describing how I specifically have encountered each one would take far too long, but I can summarize a few of my most significant takeaways from my experience as a Dickinson student.

The most unexpected benefit of my Dickinson computer science education is summed up in one particular learning goal of the major: “Students will gain an understanding of social, legal and ethical issues raised by computing.” Thinking back to even my very first computer science course at Dickinson when I took 130 during the fall semester of my freshman year, we learned about and discussed topical issues related to ethics within computing. Those kinds of discussions continued throughout my four years of undergrad, particularly in 190, 290, and senior seminar but coming up at least briefly in almost every single other class. These discussions not only helped to foster a greater understanding of relevant topics to the field of computer science, but also allowed us to be exposed to sharing and listening to a variety of different, opposing viewpoints in a respectful and productive setting.

The ability to work productively in a partner or group setting is another skill that I can confidently say has improved throughout my undergrad experience. Partner programming frustrated me at first, but I’ve now seen the benefits in actively working as a pair. I’ve even seen partner programming listed as a desired skill on job applications. In a field where the stereotype is an antisocial programmer, working alone in a dark room, the department’s emphasis on collaboration has not only been surprising, but inspiring. My experience working as a part of a team makes me want to pursue a career path that values teamwork just as much as Dickinson does.

The excerpt from Dickinson’s goals of a college education, “our distinct characteristics of independence, inquiry and engagement are rooted in a practical, real-world approach to the liberal arts,” can be easily exemplified by the computer science major’s use of open source as a learning tool. I’m very happy to have gained real world experience and developed a relevant skillset contributing to both the projects FarmData2 and Oppia. These skills make me a more qualified candidate when applying for jobs, and I can absolutely apply them within an industry career. Not only that, but it’s given me the chance to apply my knowledge in a way that makes an impact. Both FarmData2 and Oppia fall under the umbrella of Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS). Being encouraged to volunteer my time and skills toward a worthwhile endeavor fulfills several of the points made in the general goals of a Dickinson Education, specifically to “produce critical thinkers…forever ready to make a difference” who are ”ready to make significant contributions in an ever-changing world.”

Saying that after studying computer science at Dickinson I now “understand core concepts of computer science, including data structures, algorithms, computational complexity, and computability” is an obvious statement, but I’d like to expand on that point. More than just understanding the concepts alone, I now have an understanding of how they intertwine. The way that the major track is designed, every class builds upon the knowledge that we have previously learned. Taking analysis of algorithms before computability and complexity feels incredibly beneficial, because I have already been introduced to the concepts surrounding complexity. What I learned in data structures has applied to almost every single class that I’ve taken since then. I feel as though Dickinson has given me not just individual bits of knowledge, but a grasp of the computer science discipline as a whole, and an ability to continue building upon what I have learned.

Regarding the goal “students will acquire the ability to recognize, design, apply and implement abstractions in complex computing systems,” I am able to give a very specific example. When I worked as a FarmData2 intern during the summer of 2021 along with Iris, we spent a large chunk of our time working on a custom table component. The goal of this component was to have a versatile building block that could be used on any page of the web app, regardless of the information that needed to be displayed, and that could be easily implemented by a contributor who did not know the ins and outs of how the component was constructed. What was great about that experience is that I not only gained a better understanding of abstraction in an academic sense, but we were also implementing it in a real-world scenario. That whole summer working on the project was a great opportunity, and the custom table component just one of the many experiences that I will carry with me after college.

One of the things that makes me the most thankful that I go to Dickinson is when I talk to students at other schools, especially computer science majors. Descriptions of two-hundred person lecture halls, impersonal professors, and a lack of resources for struggling students have all been reoccurring themes. Are there things that I would change about my college experience if I could? Sure, for one thing I’d rather not have gone through a pandemic in the middle of it, but in terms what I learned, how I’ve grown, and the skills that I’ve cultivated have all been because of the environment created by Dickinson’s dedication to the liberal arts. That dedication is perfectly summarized in their learning goals, which I can now confidently say are no longer goals, but achievements.

[thistleandthorn-rpg]

Congrats to Jay on your application of Danny Andrews! Please send us his blog within 48 hours!

OOC INFORMATION:

Name/Alias: Jay Preferred pronoun: she/her Age (Must be 20+): super old Timezone/Country: EST RP Experience: i’ve never seen an RP in my life Activity Level: 6.5/10

IC INFORMATION:

Name: Danny Andrews Designation: Dom Age: 22 Birthdate: June 17, 2000 Faceclaim: KJ Apa Orientation: Pansexual Kinks: Orgasm denial, genital torture, public play, spanking, Daddy kink, body worship, dacryphilia, slut play, wax play, brat taming, chastity Anti-Kinks: scat, blood, age play, CNC

 Key Points: - spent most of his life being seen as a dumb jock

Relies on his looks and charm to get what he wants

Has never really faced the way his father’s death affected him

Fiercely possessive

BIO: 

Danny couldn’t remember a time in his life where he wasn’t doted on. Sure, his family was middle class, they weren’t rich. He wasn’t spoiled by any means. But between his dad and his brother, Danny never lacked for praise. Getting into sports when he was in elementary school only allowed for more. Team sports proved to be exactly what Danny needed to excel, the structure of it pushing the young man to do better in every aspect of his life - in school, taking care of his family, his own personal training. Football, wrestling and lacrosse kept him busy but he always had time to hit the gym on his own or spend time with his family. The grounding effect of the Andrews clan kept him from becoming overly cocky but he couldn’t lie - confidence was never something he lacked for.

Graduation saw Danny staying home and taking classes at the nearby community college to get the essentials out of the way. Spending plenty of time with athletic trainers had inspired Danny to pursue sports medicine, and the classes were definitely out of his price range, but between working for his dad’s company and the few scholarships he could apply for, he thought maybe in a year or two, he might be able to make it into University of Michigan to go after the life he wanted. And then - everything fell apart.

Fred’s death devastated Danny, but with everything that needed to be done, he couldn’t let himself feel what he needed to. He had to keep the family business alive. He had to make sure Noah was taken care of. The house, the bills, insurance… Danny wasn’t lacking for smarts, despite years of playing the dumb jock, but it all piled up and got overwhelming even for him. Noah’s disappearance only added to the stress and lingering grief under the surface. His dream of pursuing sports medicine seemed further and further out of reach, but he worked to save every penny he could, hoping that maybe he could manage somewhere smaller after he found a claim.

Noah coming back into his life changed everything. Once his brother was set at Stonewall, Danny got everything in order for the business and the house before following himself. He had hoped to get his degree before a claim, but with life getting in the way and time ticking away, he thought maybe he ought to get a collar on a submissive or two before trying his hand at college full time. And hey, from what he’d seen - the view wouldn’t be too bad while he was looking for his claims.

 BIO QUESTIONS:

 What are your feelings about the mark you have received? 

It makes sense. I was never the type to lie back and take it - I’d rather be the one giving. Great power, great responsibility and all that, right? Responsibility isn’t something I’m a stranger to.

 How do your feelings on the system compare to your parents’ feelings on it?

 Similar, I guess. Dad never talked much about it but he never said anything bad about the system. I think I’m a little less sold on it though, after what happened to my brother.

 Where do you see yourself after you graduate?  

In a claim with multiple subs, probably thinking about kids. Oh, and finishing my sports medicine degree.

 How do you feel about authority? 

As long as it’s not being abused, I’m not against it. Someone has to be in charge or anarchy will reign.

[artbyblastweave]

In terms of Worm’s larger deconstructive project, I’ve always sort of pattern-matched New Wave/The Brockton Bay Brigade to The Fantastic Four. Not necessarily to the internal family dynamic itself; there’s no one-to-one there, besides the fact that they’re both crimefighting families- but to the celebrity element. An examination of what would happen, what would go wrong if you had a public-facing family of crime fighters, no secret identities.

There’s very little money in it, for one thing; Ward establishes that unlike the Fantastic Four, the Dallon-Pelhams have a hard time monetizing their situation, soliciting donations and relying on their out-of-costume careers to make ends meet. No super scientists extorting Proctor-and-Gamble here. 

Panacea loosely covers the “why don’t they change the world with their superscience” bit- because it would lead to burnout, put too much descision-making power in the hands of one fallible person, and lead to someone who’s both guilty about not doing enough and resentful of how much of their time is monopolized by helping people to try and feel less guilty.

Glory Girl covers the perverse incentives you’d see if you had maskless, “publicly accountable” heroes; if your whole image is tied up in being a wholesome family that plays by the rules to earn people’s trust, you’re incentivized to go to unethical lengths to cover up your missteps, and being “publicly accountable” is kinda just code for being able to effectively swing celebrity power and institutional connections around like a cudgel.

The situation with Fleur and Lightstar is another example of the “public-facing-family” dynamic turning sour, and actually pattern-matches pretty closely to a problem the FF have dealt with at numerous points, including during Civil War when The Human Torch was attacked by a mob in his civilian identity. If you operate without secret identities, people can hunt you down when you’re out of costume and murder your uncostumed ass, and turn you into an example as to why nobody should follow your lead in unmasking. (For a long time, the FF were some of the only heroes without secret identities not because they were making a statement, but because the circumstances of their empowerment made it too hard to get away with what they were doing.)

Now, the thing is that there’s a big and obvious way in which New Wave doesn’t map to the Fantastic Four, and it’s a pretty foundational one; the Fantastic Four are scientists, explorers and adventurers. Structurally speaking, their stories hew closer to Lost in Space or Star Trek than they do to a lot of conventional cape stories. They’re specialists who you call to look at the latest weird science thing. They’re the vanguard you send through a portal to see what’s on the other side. You send them to open relations with Wakanda and Atilla and The Savage Land, and they’re the perfect people to send because of their (or at least Reeds) genuine sense wonder and love of discovery and their disdain for political intrigue in favor of collaboration and SCIENCE! The crime fighting is ancillary, something they do as it comes up or becomes immoral to ignore, but it’s not their charter.

This is something Worm doesn’t model as precisely. You get close-ish with Toybox, the extradimensional Tinker Think Tank, but there’s no group that serves the same function the FF does as a public-facing adventure-research institute staffed by parahumans. This is something that’s actually much easier to imagine forming during the Ward era, due to the thinning of dimensional walls, the increased accessability of Shardspace, and the deaths of Mannequin and Simurgh and everyone else who was making a point of wiping out would-be Reed Richards. It still wouldn’t line up perfectly, because a big part of the FF is that they were the first, the foundationals, the first spark of wonder the world had seen in years. But a “go-where-no-man-has-gone-before” team in the Ward era really would round out the archetype!

[mishasminions]

Here’s why the Supernatural Series Finale Sucked

(AND IT REALLY ISN’T JUST BECAUSE CAS/MISHA WASN’T IN IT)

First of all, I’d like to state, that this perspective is coming from someone who has watched, invested in, and dissected this show for 15 years. I’ve tried to rationalize and justify every single decision each of the main characters made throughout the years, and I’ve always tried to make sense of each of their story arcs from a “bigger picture” standpoint as each season progressed.

Anyway, before I can properly explain why the finale sucked, let me quickly take you through 15 seasons by segregating them into 3 eras, because you can’t really comprehend what Supernatural is about and what it’s become without going through how it tried to expand its universe.

SEASONS 1-5: THE KRIPKE ERA

Now, we all know that Kripke was always set in wrapping up Sam and Dean’s story in 5 seasons, and he did just that.

So, in this era, Supernatural is about two brothers who set out on a journey to fulfill “the family business”. They hunt mythical monsters that terrorize the world, while battling the monsters within themselves. Their ultimate “big bad” is an apocalypse.

Towards the end of this era, we find out that Sam and Dean are actually a parallel to Biblical characters who are brothers turned rivals. And that Sam and Dean’s destiny is to go up against each other.

However, as a dynamic, they have always been about making their own choices, choosing free will, and having a brotherly bond that can power through against any obstacle at any given day.

So, this era is neatly wrapped up with its finale. The characters grow, and get justified endings.

Dean, a man who thinks of himself as two things: 1. Sam’s older brother and protector; and 2. Daddy’s blunt little instrument.

He’s spent his whole life believing that that was his only purpose, and he knew that the only ending he’ll get would either be a bloody death fulfilling his duty to the family business; or laying his life on the line to save his brother.

Dean gets the ending he thought was never possible for him, something he thought he could never deserve. After years of living and dying for his family, he gets a shot at having an apple pie life--to settle down with a nice girl, raise a kid in a house with a white picket fence. With Sam gone, Dean’s responsibility now is to himself.

Sam, on the other hand, never wanted any part of it, because he wasn’t groomed the way Dean was, and because thanks to Dean, Sam wasn’t traumatized or forced into growing up too quickly the way Dean was.

So Sam aspires for a normal life, and works the cases with Dean so he can maybe get some semblance of it, when everything they set out to kill are laid to rest.

Ultimately, Sam performs a selfless act for his brother, who has given up everything for him, and for their cause--to save the world.

The journey is this: Dean sacrifices everything to save Sam, and Sam sacrifices himself so Dean could live.

Apart from being Dean’s “savior” and guardian angel, Castiel’s role in this era is to serve as a mirror to Dean’s journey. Castiel goes from being heaven’s foot soldier, following “God’s orders”; to an angel who learns to choose and feel for the first time in his existence.

After they realize that they’re both daddy’s blunt instruments, Dean starts choosing his own path for himself, and convinces Castiel to join him. Castiel stops following heaven, and starts following Dean.

In the end, with his newfound understanding of the world thanks to Dean, Castiel goes back to heaven to reform it.

We’ve resolved the biblical arc, and the character journeys.

SEASONS 6-10: THE SPIN-OFF ERA

So this is where the show realizes how vast its universe can be, so it tries to expand it by tapping into uncharted lands and experimenting with it.

They take on heaven, reform hell, explore purgatory, have the angels fall, turn Dean into a demon, and kill Death.

Dean and Sam recognize their codependency, and try to rise above it.

They go back and forth between which brother will risk it all for the greater good every other season.

Dean and Cas strengthen their relationship by recognizing the impact they have on each other’s lives.

Cas structures his life and decisions around Dean (Seasons 6-7), and Dean learns to trust and fight for Cas (Seasons 8-9).

Sam and Cas bond (mostly over Dean) because of their shared rationales in decision-making.

Dean, Sam, and even Cas also forge relationships with the people they work with. The concept of “found family” is introduced here.

This era was heavy on the plot while establishing, reinforcing, and solidifying relationships and dynamics.

At this point, it wasn’t just about the brothers anymore.

If Supernatural had ended in Season 10, the logical finale would’ve been Team Free Will, along with the family that they’ve found, going up against the latest big bad (Death or whoever). Maybe they lose them along the way, maybe they all make it out alive, or maybe they go down swinging, but at least the show recognizes and supports the message they keep saying, “Family don’t end with blood”

SEASONS 11-15: THE REWRITE ERA

This is where the show runs out of ideas and decides to invalidate the seasons that came before it.

From bringing Mary back (basically rendering their whole journey pointless because they’ve literally started hunting because of her death), to changing the stipulations in being Michael and Lucifer’s vessels (another character struggle rendered useless), to God himself breaking the fourth wall by saying that the Winchesters get away with everything because “they’re the main characters in his story and everything they’ve been through was just part of a badly written narrative”.

But what we’re getting from this era is that Sam and Dean, along with Cas (who has also deviated from the story) ARE trying to escape a badly written narrative.

That’s the “big bad” in this era. The writer.

At this point, the characters have picked up so many strays (including those from alternate universes), and have settled into their roles in their “found family”. Dean, Sam, and Cas all become surrogate dads and uncles.

They’ve also graduated from the whole “we’re on different sides” and “going behind each other’s backs” drama. And they just want the whole family together.

They’ve all resigned themselves to the cause, but they’re also tired. Dean allows himself to contemplate about wanting more out of life or at least getting a vacation. Sam, on the other hand, realizes his capabilities as an effective leader. Castiel learns to love another being that isn’t Dean (spoiler: it’s Jack).

However, they also realize that they’ve just been puppets on a string all this time.

So what they want now, is to write their own story, and make their own choices knowing that God/the writer isn’t the one fueling their narrative.

So here’s why the finale sucks:

Andrew Dabb, the current showrunner, said that there would be two finales.

15x19 - The finale to wrap up Season 15, and 15x20 - The finale to wrap up the series by “resolving the characters’ journey”

In 15x19 the boys find a way to de-power God/the writer. For the first time in their whole lives, they are free from the story. Their lives are completely theirs now. They can make their own decisions. There are no more “big bads” to fight

And here’s what happens in 15x20:

Immediately after being freed from their story arc, Dean and Sam go back to hunting the monster of the week.

Dean eats pie, gets nailed (literally), makes a 10-minute speech to Sam because he knows he’s dying, then he goes to heaven.

Dean is greeted by Bobby, his surrogate Dad who he hasn’t seen (fully alive) since Season 7. Bobby’s expository dialogue comprises of him explaining that he got out of heaven’s jail, that John and Mary are next door, and that Jack and Cas fixed the dynamics of heaven off-screen.

The first thing Dean decides to do is go for a long drive in his Impala (as if he hasn’t done enough of that already).

Meanwhile, Sam decides to stop hunting after Dean dies, he gets the apple pie life he hadn’t wanted since Season 8 (while Dean was in Purgatory), and names his kid “Dean” for effect. He grows old and dies.

Dean drove around in heaven for so long that Sam catches up to him.

They hug. The end.

Great, right?

After 15 years of struggling to battle their own respective destinies, going up against big bads and even bigger bads, then finally being able to take charge of their own stories, Dean and Sam regress to hunting the monster of the week, and get killed off by a nail and old age. Okay.

Sam gets to retire and have a family, sure, but they still focus on him and the kid he named after his dead brother. Still just “Sam and Dean” through and through. Nothing to do with found family. Just lineage. Just blood. And it ends there.

See, the problem here is that this ending would’ve been passable in The Kripke Era. But we’re 10 years down the road since, and while Sam and Dean are the original main characters, the show isn’t just about them and their codependent relationship anymore.

So you see, even if you take out the whole “Castiel deserves to be in the finale because he’s also a main character with an unfinished story arc” argument, the finale still does no justice to the series it tried to “wrap up”.

But anyway, now I’ll make the case for the problem with Castiel not being in the finale:

In 15x18, we get a 5-minute rushed confession from Castiel to Dean. The context of which are as follows:

1. Earlier in the episode, Dean had wounded Death with her scythe. We later find out that this wound is fatal.

2. Their friends start to “blip out” in a Thanos-like snap, and Dean thinks that Death is causing it, so Dean seeks her out, and Cas goes with him.

3. Dean and Cas anger Death, apparently for no reason because she didn’t even do the thing they thought she did. She chases them to try to kill them

4. Dean and Cas lock themselves in a room. Dean starts a pity party.

5. As Dean goes through hating himself out loud, Cas decides to inform Dean of the deal he made with The Empty. He then proceeds to explain the stipulation of the deal (that he would get taken once he experiences a moment of true happiness), then discusses his newfound happiness philosophy. Dean is getting whiplash.

6. Cas goes on to imply that the one thing that he wanted that he knew he couldn’t have is Dean Winchester reciprocating his romantic feelings for him. (Don’t even try to fight me on this because Cas already has Dean’s platonic love, and he knows that Dean thinks of him as a brother, so if he really meant this in a “familial” way, then why would he think that he couldn’t have the thing that would make him happy?) So Cas’ realization is that telling Dean about his feelings is enough to make him happy.

7. Cas tells Dean all the reasons why he loves him (thereby combating Dean’s self-deprecation tirade), and all the reasons why he’s worthy of his love. Meanwhile, Dean is still winded from the fact that Cas is about to sacrifice himself for him again.

8. Dean never gets to process anything, because Cas is shoving him out of the way, as he and Death (who busts through the door) get taken by The Empty.

After this episode, Dean never speaks of it. Misha Collins supposes that Dean doesn’t reciprocate. Jensen Ackles says that Dean didn’t really get to process it because it was too much, too fast, and that Dean, still dense as ever, thinks that Cas, a celestial being, doesn’t interpret human feelings the same way.

So what was the point of this confession?

Politics and sensitivities of a 2005 network television aside, what does this do for the story?

Cas proclaims his romantic feelings to Dean, but Dean never acknowledges it, doesn’t even give it a passing thought afterwards. So Cas’ big declaration goes unheard.

Cas cashes in on his Empty deal to kill Death (who was dying anyway), in order to save Dean who dies two episodes after.

Dean makes no effort to save Cas (despite being really broken up about his previous deaths, or even spending a whole year in Purgatory looking for him), even after they’ve beaten God, not even asking Jack (who has all the power in the universe) to bring him back (when Jack has already done it before, with less mojo).

Dean moves on to fight the monster of the week. Somewhere off-screen, Jack rescues Cas from The Empty, but Cas uncharacteristically doesn’t even bother to go to Dean? (Every single time he comes back, Dean’s always the first person he goes to)

And Cas, who apparently helped craft and reform the new heaven, isn’t the one who welcomes Dean and explains the new dynamics of it?

Sure, Jan.

Supernatural, you’ve created a finale that only your casual viewers and people who dipped out after Season 5 can appreciate.

Just goes to show how much you actually valued the people who actually invested in your story and characters, and consistently helped keep your show on the air.

[RT this on Twitter]

[freifraufischer]

An Elementary Guide to Maggie Haney’s counter claim

I thought it would be useful for people to have a simple explanation of what is going on with the McCusker v. Haney suit.

Please do not shoot the messenger. I don't like Haney and I want everything in the world for Riley I'm just trying to explain what the legal process going on is in lay terms:

Riley is suing Maggie for the harm done to her during her time at MG Elite. Riley is the plaintiff, Maggie is the defendant and in the US legal system that means Riley has the burden of proving her cause. Because this is a civil case it's not "beyond a reasonable doubt" as a standard but "by the preponderance of the evidence"--in basic terms Riley has to prove that Maggie is more likely at fault than not.

So Maggie's path to defending this is not as I've seen some gymternet people say, saying Riley was to blame for her own injuries. Maggie isn't counter suing her in a way you would understand (that would saying Riley caused Maggie other harms--like if you sued someone for breaking your nose in a fight, they could counter sue you for physical harm you did to them in that fight). What she's doing is saying "hey these things that McCusker says I'm to blame for there were all these other people that were also to blame for her injuries/distress that she didn't choose to sue and I want them brought into the case". It includes her parents, Tom Forster, and a bunch of national team staff. Essentially she is saying that Riley was selective in who she chose to sue and the courts really don't like when you sue one person who caused you a harm when there was a group who contributed.

So here is why this is important. The goal of this is not to say all these people should have stopped Maggie from abusing Riley. The goal is to decide who is to blame for what extent of Riley's injury/pain.

Again, I'm explaining this not defending Maggie or the things she does.

In cases of like this what often happens is the court determines a percent of blame. So say you have a car accident the court might decide that Driver A is 40% to blame, Driver B is 30% to blame, and the State is 30% to blame for having a dangerous road. If Driver B is the one suing this structure sets it up so they can't get all of the cost of their damages from the person who is only 40% to blame for them.

What is going on here is a standard way to defend these suits. Maggie's attorneys aren't doing anything improper as far as I can see, or even unusual. Riley's attorneys hopefully told her that this was coming because it's a very foreseeable outcome of this lawsuit. I'm sure she wanted to express outrage at the idea that Maggie was dragging her parents into this but whatever she might have said publicly about this move would almost certainly have hurt her case against Maggie. It's not as I've seen some people suggest, some kind of settlement offer. Riley is understandably upset because there were going to be days like this in this kind of suit.

/ Fin the legal explanation.

Begin my small bit of snark: I will die laughing of Tom Forster's posting of that picture of him and Riley eating ice cream as evidence of a culture of change while she was still at MG Elite comes back to bite him. Because there is no way Maggie's lawyers don't enter it into evidence.

[galacticlamps]

Ok I really do love the costume changes Victoria & Jamie go through in the first ten minutes of this serial, it really feels like a settling into their characters for both of them - not even the actors, I literally mean the characters into their roles as companions.

It's so hard to imagine Victoria anywhere else but Maxtible's mansion & Skaro in her 19th century dress, but the one she has here still preserves that delicacy her outfits will lose more as time goes on - with the little floral print and the neat pleating on the front - just with a significantly more streamlined silhouette. It’s such a good ‘ok well try this maybe?’ kind of dress, which is fitting considering she’s one of relatively few companions who get a ‘please change your clothes now’ moment at the start of their first adventure proper - you can see both the sense of putting her in something like this & her discomfort with it all at once, which I think makes it a wonderful bridge between her actual Victorian gown and her obviously more Victorian-inspired but significantly more pragmatic outfit for the next two serials. I think you can tell Jamie and/or the Doctor picked it out for her, aiming for a trimmed-down version of what they’ve seen her wearing so far, but it isn’t until Abominable Snowmen that she starts dressing herself and goes for something less overtly similar to what she wore before (in as much as gown -> dress looks like less of a leap than gown -> breeches) but that has its own through-line both historically and practically.

Jamie’s costume’s development is less pronounced, but it’s amazing what a different top can do - for one, it alters his whole silhouette, since he tucks the button-down in while the sweater over the kilt almost gave him a drop-waist look, but it’s also a more structured look all over, not just because of the now-visible belt but also the collar, pockets, epaulets, and cuffed sleeves vs rolled or just shoved up ones when you’re dealing with the sweater material. Even his hair seems to take on a more shape & texture compared to the very round bowl of the last few serials.

I’ve gotta say, I think Jamie’s Season 4 look suited him being the newest, youngest, most inexperienced member of the Tardis team SO well, it just had to go as soon as Victoria joined completely and took on that role herself. When we were in Victoria’s own time period it was fine for the contrast between them to come in the form of her in a larger, more structured and more detailed outfit and him in something decidedly looser, more informal, and frankly, futuristic - but now that we’ve left it behind and she’s changed into something she’s less comfortable wearing (& doing!), his way of welcoming her, guiding her, and preceding her is to evolve himself - in this case, into a more mature & practical guardian-type role, which his clothes clearly reflect. There’s something military about the shirt itself, but he wears it in a laid-back enough style with the sleeves up and the top button undone - though compared with the pieces he’ll accumulate later on in his tenure, there’s still something youthfully unencumbered about this first iteration without the ascots and the vests and the sporran, and the slimmer shoes with the long socks vs the chunkier boots with the shorter ones. It’s actually one of my favorite costumes for him, mainly because I think it hits that mark of no-longer-the-least-experienced-traveler so well - but for the same reason, I’m unreasonably peeved whenever it’s some version of this costume that appears on the cover of audios meant to be set during Season 4 when he’s traveling with Ben & Polly - the evolution feels so deliberate, that’s just not the same Jamie at all! And in that regard, Tomb really does feel like the start of a new season, a new stage in the characters’ lives, in a way that season openers don’t always do at this time in the show’s history, which is a nice fresh detail.

[tobeornottotc]

The difference between a book and tv adaptation (KinnPorsche the series).

Honestly when it comes a book to tv show adaptation (see my experience with the series Not Me for example), I’m always on edge. With KP, I didn’t first know a lot about the series, like I knew certain spoilers as always, like the final plot twist, the VegasPete ship, and the snippets with Tawan but I didn’t know anything else, however because of that, I came in judging the book and having low expectations from what I heard. But here’s my take on it:

It’s interesting how those opinions have changed now knowing the whole storyline for season 1. I think what I will say is that people really judge the book writers harshly, like the book may be extremely problematic with the actions of the characters but they do apologize, and discuss consent and other issues, it’s not just romanticized or seen as a good thing, I don’t know where we got off thinking that it was. I’m not saying that it makes it right the way some characters acted but this is a book about the mafia, about cruel people forced to be immoral against their wishes, about the pain and suffering they cause on others and also encounter as they fall in love. It’s not really meant to be a woke piece on what representation should be like. So, the characters are slightly more unhinged in the book but actually, after processing them they are still 3 dimensional, they all have things about them that are very hidden in subtext and the writers fail to fully flesh out like they are doing on the show with the team, but it is there.

A misguided translation

Like yes, Kinn is so much more crueller, and bratty in the novel, he’s more possessive and toxic but he does apologize like show Kinn, and he does show moments of remorse and realizations that his actions aren’t right, same as Vegas who is a bit more humanized so far in the book (like he actually did have feelings for Porsche, he was the one who wouldn’t kiss anyone until he met Pete) and the show has given some of Vegas’s special characteristics to Kinn instead to humanize him. However, I think it’s because like in the book with how there were parallels in the subtext between these two couples, they’re doing the same in the show… So it’s interesting, because on the surface, people complain about how badly written the novel is and how it makes no sense, but I think people should realize that it’s because of translation issues, like I didn’t enjoy Love sick the novel because I read a bad translation but when I watched those moments translated properly into the show I understood what I couldn’t see or get with the lack of actual accurate English translations for how the writing Is meant to be.  This is for every BL so far, I’ve had to read, translate, and understand. I think the lack of layers people fail to see in the novel is because of that, because the novel is dramatic and there’s a lot going on at once and sometimes we’re too focused only on the surface refusing to see how the characters are affected or what it means for them towards the end, we don’t process it at the end or retrace our steps to see where it was hinted at or foreshadowed, why they do what they do even though it makes sense for most of them.

Take for example, people saying the structure of the novel towards the end felt out of nowhere and shoehorned the plot twist, when in reality no, the novel was planning that from the beginning, every single moment (the show does a better job in intersecting this with the chess metaphor, and the introduction of the idea of a mole and using Vegas as a fodder to explain the next arcs of the show), every single moment is planned, the real reasons for the  kidnapping is not a surprise later when you have to piece it together, there’s lots of things that are mentioned and then forgotten about and that’s on purpose. And that’s then slammed on you, leaving you surprised and shocked when you get to the moments those truths are unveiled. The reason why KP is not taken seriously for its actual plot structure is because people only focus on the label of it as BL and judge it on that instead. So, they get distracted by the love story on the surface that acts as a shield to the rest of the plot line, it’s loud, dramatic, toxic and is interlinked to most of the plot, so it’s hard to not pull away from it and see what else is pulling these characters along, or what is causing these events.

Red herrings and intentional distractions

The other thing both in the show and the novel (that I think the directors picked on because while they are changing certain moments in the novel, they’re not changing the structure), is that there are red herrings littered all over the place, Vegas is a massive red herring for the ending, he is the one we assume in the show is the one running everything with the insidious plan. An example where the audience is led to believe in this is in episode; 7 it’s clear he manipulated and is part of the group of people rebelling against the major family, but he’s calculating and frames Don instead, yes that’s Vegas, that’s something he and his family would do, but he’s not the big villain, some people will get distracted by Tawan (again the romance arc of the story) and say he’s the villain, but the show only uses him again as a tool to reveal the next part of the mystery of the chess game, despite us being too distracted to see how, everything is on purpose  and once you get through the book, the moments that plot twist arc starts to happen you start to realize why certain characters have been doing what they’ve been doing, what’s actually happened in the past to get the characters where they are and what is going to be their future. Again, the show does this by making a metaphorical analogy of the chess game, showing you that each episode, or plot is a chess move, getting closer and closer to leaving the King on both sides being exposed and in danger, everyone is being controlled, the good people (the knights), the mysterious pawns and even the ones on the other side. It’s all strategized and structured, so the writers deserve credit for that because they did have their own themes that were difficult to notice because of being distracted by the surface actions but also with the show will make more sense because we can see visual imagery, and metaphors, and mise-en scenes where the meta isn’t hidden.  I think the show is doing a great job so far, but the writers in my opinion made it easier for them to do so.

Enhancing a story

I think KP is one of the best books to adaptations because every single actor embodies their roles perfectly. It’s like they were a bit destined to play each character they were given. They all have the best attributes needed to love the characters in the novel. For example, Mile is great at giving the softness that Kinn lacks in written word despite the fact that again it is there in the book, Apo has the lovable childishness, and sensitivity that Porsche shows in the book but normally really comes off more bratty and ignorant and hurtful, and also Porsche isn’t problematic with the way he thinks about his queerness in the show either, which is a great change, and wonderful for representation. Bible has the charisma needed to seduce and compel us like Vegas, but he also gives more to him than just this cold psychopathic person, he makes you think and feel like there’s more to Vegas which is what is needed, you can tell from his acting that he is in a mask constantly and we haven’t yet seen the real version of the character he’s meant to play. This is the same as Build, who is filled with duality, smiling so bright and gives off this cute babyish vibe at times making you want to protect Pete but also the hardness and charisma of one who is serious, accepting, and dark when it comes to the violence and pain he encounters, there’s a dominance shown in moments when he loses that smile and then a softness returned.  Build is able to perfect those two spectrums perfectly. I think this is what makes it so easy to immerse ourselves with the story of KP in the show more than the novels, in the novels the characters are given the right traits just lacking the written power and description to make them leap of that way. But with KP, it’s also the way that the directors are all part of this that makes this show stand out as a great adaptation.

First is the effort and budget given to showcase the extremities of the novel, the budget helps us see how much wealth and power consumes the characters and the show ensures we see that, we see the symbolic objects, we see the symbolic colors, we see the symbolic locations and we feel all of it, because of the extra effort and quality put to show that. Next is the fact that the show combines four directors including a screen writer along with the original writers (the ones that know the story structure and created it), all with different strengths and skills. We have Pond, who is the one determined to showcase the intimacy that the book lacked due to again it’s written state, he’s the controller of the show’s plot, he’s the one who steers and alters and changes what he felt needed to be altered but he still sticks to the structure and guidelines given to him by the OG writers. He’s skilled at understanding what makes the audience tick with Y series, how to improve and emphasize the romance that the book haphazardly ruined at times when adding it to the structure and flow. He does this with Pepsi, the codirector of many known Y favorites, because she creates depth and meta in everything she does, from Bad buddy, and fleshing out the novel to give it even more depth in a different way, to Dark Blue Kiss which she also did the same for the love stories there, to Greater Man Academy, she has been the forefront of taking flawed human characters and giving them their voice, while working and ensuring their arcs are completed in a way that makes sense. She has a harder job this time around to humanize two characters story and love, that seem twisted, immoral, and unforgiving, and that’s Vegas and Pete but seeing how she always positively represents queer topics and themes, she would be more determined in showing us the challenges of these 2 while also humanizing them, however I also don’t think she will censor them as per the authors requests. Additionally, we have Khom, the director known for the award-winning directing of action scenes, he was added into this project for his skills need to showcase the darker and more experienced side of mafia world ensuring the action scenes do look high quality and still flow well with the structure of the script and story.  And then we have Nhing who is the cinematographer of the previous known works such as I told sunset about you, incredible meta director who showcases the themes normally left in the subtext with the mise-en-scene and filmography, she’s the reason for the color theories, the symbols, the lighting, and due to that quality, KP even gets even more enhanced as a perfect visual image for us viewers than just reading only the plot of the book.

This is why the show is better in that case than what the outlines of the novels provide, because it is pleasing and its edits are thoughtful and effective for amazing storytelling and adds more depth and feelings to the overall structure of the plot, there’s more empathy felt for the characters, more pain and worry and unease shaped into some of their actions to act even more as red herrings and distract the audience, and the pacing fits to ensure that the action, romance, and then overall the mafia darkness that surrounds each threads are given energy, effort and excellence.  The directors have taken this story further than most do, with their original source. Which is what makes this whole experience special.

While again, the book version of KP isn’t as bad as people say it is, and I give it to the authors for their overall ability to plan and structure it well, I think it also will make us feel a lot of things and understand the weight of the theme of the series which is the corruption and entrapment of this mafia world and the choices and decisions caused by generational trauma that shapes each of the characters arcs and involvement.  I also think there are a few shocking surprises, and deaths coming too, and I think that’s essentially what we expected from KP?  The show very much does however enrich everything and make it worthwhile, there’s so much effort spilled into every episode, and it makes me emotional to see it for this genre, and from where we used to be with this. So, to answer your question I would say yes, the show is better than the book but I’m grateful that the original source of this made gateways and made it easy for a story like this to be created. I’m also grateful to the team who worked to ensure that better representation and eliminating flaws of normal stereotyped Y series contained in the novel, in order to avoid harming the community, because now we have both a really unique story, and also one that can be good for queer media and storytelling worldwide. I think that’s amazing.

Thanks for the question! You made me create a blog from this ha-ha, but I hope you enjoyed reading it. Still reeling from episode 7 and there’s so much, so much to say, breakdown, and analyze, if you have any other questions feel free to come over.  

@queenneferadenile @julie-oc​ here you go :) 

[lunaekalenda]

𝖓𝖚𝖒𝖇𝖊𝖗 𝖋𝖎𝖛𝖊

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eren x fem!reader

suggestive conversations, teacher x student mention, smoking, alcohol, mention of love triangle, reiner doesn't have an easy life, characters are aged up and they correspond to the last season, modern au, eren being a tease, nsfw once they get to the party, dirty talking, reader may have a degradation kink, slapping, finger-sucking cause that's my sign, neck grabbing, rough composure, really long fic and really long warnings, size kink, wall sex, consensual relation, reader is tiny next to eren, kneejob (does that exist?), use of words like fucktoy, doll, slut; dom!eren x sub!reader, goddess i’m getting scared bc of the quantity of warnings, unprotected sex (don’t be like eren), oral (m receiving), consensual filming,, author is horny half of the drabble, please correct me in any errors! sex scenes are really bad written sorry

a/n: yeah... i don't know what i'm doing someone pls tell me to stop. as always, very welcome criticism and minors please do not interact!!

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"Jaeger, Eren." The teacher says his name and he gets up, loose clothes and his lazy bun on the back of his head giving him that attractive visual he has. Girls look at him with interest and boys with envy. After all, they all want to be like him, date him, be his friends. Be near him is something to be grateful for half the university students. What a bunch of idiots.

His tall body reaches the professor table, were he leans on, receiving the paper that acredites his graduation. A smirk on his face, directed to your young teacher, makes your friend Pieck sigh on the chair next to you. "He has for sure fucked her." she says. You look to the teacher expression, a smile just for him while he raises just the corners of his lips to her. You look to the paper on your hands. It's your last day. You're finally graduating. University is just another closed door for you. The last people take their diplomas quickly, the teachers giving their typical emotional discourses before releasing you to the campus yard. Reiner gets closer to your group, his arm around your shoulders as he smile for all of you.

"Today. Tonight." he corrects himself. "There's a party and, as the captain of the Waterpolo team, I'm the host." he says, a smile on his lips reaching his kind eyes. "You're all invited, of course. VIP invitations" Winking to all of you and gaining a giggle from Pieck, Reiner moves his head to a whistle. Bertholdt calls him from the door of the swimming pool, and Reiner leaves, smiling at you.

"I'll see you there?" he asks, a huge smile on his face. You can't help but smile back at him while you nod. Reiner leaves running the yard and Porco smiles at you, a joke about to escape his lips. You two have been friends time enough to know every single expression of the other.

"He does like you." he says, instead. Something serious for the first time in your friendship. Someone hits him with a paper when he was about to add something.

"You're finally out." Porco's big brother, Marcel Galliard, who works as the waterpolo trainer, takes his brother by the arm. "And out of the pics if you stay here, come on." He takes Porco with him, both of them leaving in Reiner's direction. Pieck smiles at you, about to comment something about Reiner, and you search your phone. It isn't there. Fuck.

"Pieck, I've lost my phone." you say, her face changing to a concerned expression. You touch every pocket and every place you've could have put it, without gain. Even she searches on the little handbag she's carrying. You remembered to take a pic with Pieck on the terrace and had to fix your shoes. You probably forgot it there. "Shit. Is the Uni still open, right?" Pieck nods quietly. Annie turns around to look at you. "Coming back real quick, wait for me here, please."

You make your way upstairs to the latest floor of the Univeristy, a terrace where teachers liked to go and smoke or drink their coffees between classes. "How can I forget my phone there? Am I dumb?" you think for yourself. There are just a few stairs left. You find Armin on your way. His short blond hair and his big blue eyes are recognizable everywhere.

"Congratulations." he says, that gentle smile on his face. "We finally graduated." You smile at him back, nodding.

"We did, Min." you say. Armin was in the same class as you, and he's really nice to you. Being paired in a couple works has made your friendship grow little by little, and you can consider him a friend now. It's ironical how he's Eren's best friend, even when the two of them have been seen parted for a while. He looks at you, his eyes following your way. "You go to the terrace?" he asks. You nod. He hums and looks upstairs, as if he was making sure something.

"Forgot something there, but it will take a minute." Armin nods and you keep going. Opening the big door, that is casually still open, the wind shakes your hair and your dress. You see your phone on the chair you sat earlier, while taking the pic, and you're fast to take it. Fortunately, it does have battery and it seems as nobody has touched it. You turn around, ready to go down to meet your friends, when you listen femenine giggles and sound of wet kisses. Gross. Is somebody using the rooftop to fuck? In the university? You shake your head. But your legs don't move. Your head searches unconsciously the place where the voices are coming from. You want to know who they are. Another giggle. Another kiss. A quiet sigh, the sound of fabrics. "Come on, move, move." You say to yourself. The woman speaks. "Now that you graduated..." Isn't that your teachers voice? With a student? You remain silent, trying to hear him. You hear a sigh. A manly and long sigh.

"Now that I graduated I have no reason to come here." You know that voice. That deep, raspy tone and that way of talking. Your brain searches quickly who does that voice belong to.

"Come on, Eren." even when you where about to figure who was the mysterious boy, she says his name. You move your hand to cover your mouth, your phone ringing in that moment. Pieck's ID showing on the screen. "Fuck, fuck." you try to silence it in vain. They heard you. Eren sighs, a long sigh that is followed by high heels steps. She's searching you. You're there, on the middle of the rooftop, and she's going around, near the door, no way to escape for you. You search quickly a place to hide. Then, he talks again. "They probably left, hm?" he says. His tone is way deeper now. "But we should as well. Search another student next year. I won't come back here for you." he says. With angry steps, she leaves. You can see her shadow from behind the little maintenance shed. You hear then calm steps, a lighter and the combustion of a cigarette. Eren palms the shed metallic roof, scaring you.

"Having fun spying the others?" he says. The smoke comes out of his mouth when he kneels next to you. "I can bet you're wet with just hearing us making out." you look at him in his green eyes, without avoiding his gaze. He raises a brow, putting the cigarette again between his lips.

"This is a public space. It isn't for you to bring every single girl you want." you say. Eren lets out a little laugh.

"I had the teacher's permission." he says, jokingly. "Who do you think you are to question her permissions?" his lips part, letting the smoke escape quietly. He gets up, his tall body resting against the structure. He's attractive, and he knows it for sure. But, the moment he opens that damn mouth of his... He loses all his attractiveness and charm. You take your phone, ready to go down with your friends.

"I hope you have a good future, Eren Jaeger. See you."

"Later, baby. On Reiner's party." he says, a little smile on his lips. "I guess he had invited the girl he likes." you didn’t like that joking tone. 

"And why the hell would he invite you?" you ask. Eren slides his eyes down your body when you get up, your light dress moving with the wind, your hair getting messy and your challenging eyes looking directly at his. He entertains himself on your legs, how they looked smooth and good under the dress. And, surprisingly, he finds himself thinking of the sweet thing upper, covered by the dress and your underwear. 

"Because I'm on his waterpolo team." he says, his green irises going back to yours. Damn, true. He’s the point of the team. The offensive. The strongest one between them. 

"Then I hope we don't see each other." you say. Eren gets closer to you, smoke leaving his lips while he smiles jokingly at you again. You can smell the tobacco from your position, but you don’t want to move. You want to show him you can also keep his gaze. That you’re not intimidated by him.

"I'll be searching for you." he whispers. "After all, you stayed up here to see who I was making out with. Maybe you're jealous. But don't worry, i'll gladly show you what I did to her" You raise a brow this time, giving a couple steps back to put distance. You cross your arms on your chest. Eren smiles, taking the cigarette away from his lips.

"Search another girl. I'm sure a lot of them want your attention." you say. That makes Eren smirk. He walks a couple steps back, his back resting against the shed again. He throws the cigarette and steps on it. 

"You have a strong personality, not like all the others. I like it." his eyes are on yours, and you're not afraid to keep the visual contact with him. "You're different." he says. You take a couple steps near him, heading to the door. Palming his shoulder, you smile.

"Good job reading all that cliche books where you took that phrase. Now, I have to go." his hand grips your wrist. With a shake, you get free and, false smiling at him, you leave. Your heart is racing while you go downstairs, Eren is still on the terrace, giggling for himself. He found such an interesting one. You keep going downstairs until you reach the yard, Pieck's black hair and Annie's bun can be seen. You walk towards them, your phone ringing on your hand. It's Pieck again. She sees you a hangs up, walking towards you.

"You took forever, y/n" she says, showing you her phone. "I calles you a hundred times. What were you doing?" she asks. You don't want to discover the teacher and Eren and less on the campus. "I'll tell you later." you say. Pieck told you to have dinner and get ready for the party at her home, so the two of you start to walk, waving your hands at Annie, who was waiting for Armin. Eren comes out of the university as well. His gaze finds yours and he smiles at you, but it isn't a sweet smile. It’s a teasing one. You turn around and follow Pieck.

"Eren? I told you those two had something!" she says. You're tying your shoes while she applies rimmel on her lashes. She looks beautiful, with that golden tight dress that shines when she moves. You wanted to go with your graduation dress, but she quickly corrected you. "No, no, that dress is too beautiful for this type of party. You have to show what you have." she said. She lended you a red dress that fits you. It is beautiful, and you look good on it. She turns around. "Were they in the middle of it? What happened!" she asks. You blush.

"They were just kissing, i think. They kinda broke up." you say. Pieck nods quietly and looks again to the mirror, taking blush to her cheeks. You explain her that Eren talked to you after that.

"Oh, so he's going to the party?" she asks. You nod. "Porco told me he wasn't that interested, so he'll probably pass." You really hope Porco is right while you two walk to Reiner's house, a big duplex near the campus. You can hear music and people talking from the corner of the street. Reiner opens the door for you.

"Y/N!" he says, quickly hugging you. Pieck waves her hand at him. "Come on, girls, enter." he lets you in. There isn't a huge amount of people. Jean and Connie from the Waterpolo club are playing beer pong and Bertholdt is serving some drinks. You look around, but you don't know if you want to find him or make sure he isn't there.

It seems like Eren isn't there, for your luck. Bert gives you the drink you asked for and you thank him. There's a couple people talking near a speaker, another ones are playing on Reiner's TV and another ones are dancing. Reiner smiles.

"If you need anything, the rooms and the living room are up. There's a bathroom in that door and another one upstairs." he says. You smile at him. "I'll be around here if you need me." he says. You nod and he disappears, giving your arm a soft squeeze. Pieck tells you that she's going outside and you decide to stay inside. The juice with a little bit of vodka is kinda strong, but it tastes sweet. You hear a hum near you.

"What are you drinking?" you roll your eyes, turning around. Eren's tall body is there, smiling at you. He looks into your cup. "Juice?" he asks. You raise a brow.

"Do you care?" he lets out a melodious laugh. "Don't you have friends?" you can almost feel all the gazes in you. Envy gazes, surprise gazes. You know they're commenting. "How did she get his attention?" "Sure he's playing with some bad toys" You look at Eren.

"I do. But my interest tonight is in you." he tells. "After all, you deserve private representations of what we were doing, since you were that curious."

"Get lost, please."  you ask him. He smirks. Taking your cup, he smells it. He gives it back to you.

"Don't drink that much." he says. You look at him. Is he now giving you orders? Taking the cup to your lips, you drink under his gaze. He raises a brow when you take the cup away from your mouth. You weren’t going to get orders and less form a dork like him. Surprisingly, his thumb takes a drop that slides from your lips. He licks it.

"Tastes sweet." it's all he says, before disappearing. Did he just licked it? You put the cup on a near table and follow him outside. He's lighting a cigarette. He smiles at you when you arrive.

"What was that. What you did inside." you ask. He laughs.

"We can't waste alcohol, can we?" he says. He walks closer to you. His bun is still low and loose, and he's wearing his waterpolo team t-shirt with ripped black jeans. A big 5 in his t-shirt. The number he uses on the water. "Do you smoke?" he asks, offering you the cigarette. You shake your head. He raises a brow. "Wanna try?" he asks. You're not into that type of things but, maybe, the way his green eyes challenged you makes you nod. You want to show him you're capable. He gives you the cigarette. "Want me to teach you?" When he ended the phrase, you're coughing. He laughs. "Such an impatient girl, hm?"

 He takes the cigarette again, taking a puff, his lips right on the spot you stained with gloss. He gets closer. "Let me show you." his lips touch yours quietly and you feel the smoke flowing between your mouths, entering yours. You’re unable to move, even when he’s kissing you. It feels nice, feels warm and soft against your mouth, the smoke entering right from his parted lips. You want more. More of him. He parts. "Breath out quietly." Why are you following his orders now? You do it softly, his gaze on your lips while you do it. "Good girl." 

That was hot. You can't deny it. The way he passed the smoke to you, how he looked at you. Oh, goddess. He smiles, stepping on the cigarette. Your legs feel like jelly and your heart races when he gets closer.

"You liked it?" he asks, a sweet purr on your ear. You nod. You did. Now you get why everyone is always around Eren. He's naturally magnetic, attractive. He’s the type of person that bewitches, that makes you follow his orders even when you don’t want you. He can make you weak for you from just a single peck. "I know more tricks with my mouth than passing smoke" he says. That makes you cringe a little, get down of your bubble.

"You're so dirty minded." You say. Maybe he was starting to attract you, to make you fall for him. You won't. You need to go out. Far from him. Far before you fall.

"I was starting to have fun." he whispers. You start to walk, heading to Reiner's house again. Eren follows you quietly. You've seen enough romantic films to know every single way he has to take you to his bed. You sigh. Inside, a lot of people is dancing. You also want to. Eren follows you quietly while you enter the improvised dance floor, a empty space between two sofas, moving to the song. It's hot inside Reiner's house, a stupid amount of people dancing together, bodies close and teasing movements. Maybe Eren tries to seduce you outside, but it is your time to make him beg for you. Moving your head and your body, you see him from th corner of your eye. He's there, behind you, his hands tingling. He wants to touch your body, that tiny red dress and that velvety skin. He wants to mark that exposed neck with his bites, tangle that hair with his fingers, feel you against him. You take one of his hands, putting it on your hips. He swallows.

"You're not that brave now." you whisper, without letting him hear you. His other hand finds your belly, going up to the low cut of Pieck's dress. His hand touches your skin, making you gasp. He gets close. "You won." he whispers on your ear, his hands sneaking, touching every showing skin he finds. You smirk, turning around. You're not aware of Reiner's sad gaze. "I won?" you ask. He smiles, his face getting closer, as if he wanted to kiss you. "Hmh." he hums. You smile at him, letting your body meet his really close, making you feel every part of Eren’s body. You raise a brow. "There's evidence of my win." you joke, Eren's lips curving on a teasing smile.

"You should take responsibility of your trophy." he feels your hands on his arms, making him sigh. He takes your hand and guides you upstairs. "Wait, Eren, wait!" you ask him. People look at you, going head to the second floor, your hand jailed on his. Almost everybody knows now what you two are going to do. "Eren, everybody will..."

"Let them talk. We can have a good time while they spend their last braincells making rumors." he says. He's kinda right. You shouldn't care of what people say or what people think. "But it is Reiner's house." you tell him. He smiles. 

"He lets me use the guest room to sleep. It's almost my room. My brother doesn't really like my company, I guess." he says. You feel bad for Reiner. He's such a sweetheart with you, and everybody thinks he likes you. And there are you, about to make out with Eren on his house. But you're drunk of him, of his smell and his skin, his deep voice and his green eyes. You can't help. You need him. He opens the room and lets you in. You don't have even time to see the room, feeling his lips on yours as soon as he closes the door, his hand sneaking behind your back to lock it. One of his arms rest above your head, against the wood, and the other pulls you closer to his body from your low back. His hand grabs your ass roughly, making you jump a little. He giggles against your mouth. His lips taste like tobacco and mint bubblegum. He parts.

"Are you drunk?" he asks. You shake your head. You take his hair on your hand, trying to make him cover your mouth again with his. He gives you a peck. "You want this?" he asks. Your hands search his chest, defined muscles under the team t-shirt. 

"I want you, Eren." you don't even know who you are. He has you crazy, begging for him and his kisses, feeling his hotness in your body. You want it. You want him. "Please.". His superiority smirk covers your lips again, your body arching to feel his closer, the grip on you harder, his other hand still on the door. He parts your lips quietly, the softer action of all he has done until now. You feel his tongue caressing yours quietly. It feels nice. His hand takes the border of your red dress, lifting it, asking for your consent. You nod at him, his hand moving it to your waist. He parts to look down, your underwear on his vision camp. He passes his tongue on his lips while his eyes scan that cute black panty you’re wearing. He likes it. Simple, something a cute innocent girl like you would wear. The thought arouses him. He’s going to ruin you, the sweet little girl that seems too tiny for him.

“What a precious panty, doll.” he hums, his knee going up until it meets the black fabric. Then, with a smirk, he makes pressure up, your body feeling his knee hot and hard against your wetness. You gasp and he smiles. “Such a desperate fucktoy.” he whispers, his lips near your open ones, your sighs every time he moves his knee against you. He likes that expression on your face. The way your cute lips are open in silent pleasure signs. He would love to watch them open around another thing, but he takes his free hand to your mouth, his long thumb caressing your lips before entering your mouth, pressing your tongue while you keep making that expression that has become his favorite. “Suck.” he asks. You obey, your mouth gently sucking his thumb, your tongue playing circles around it. He keeps that game on your cunt, making you lose your concentration on sucking his finger. He puts his knee down, you feel the emptiness between your legs. He takes his phone, tobacco pack and a lighter from his pocket, putting them on the near bed. Then, he takes your hands, guiding them to the fabric of his jeans. You understand what he wants and take the button off, then, unzipping his pants. They fall around his ankles, his muscled legs and his underwear is revealed. He sighs when your hand finds the bulge. You look at him again, spreading kisses on his jaw. His hand covers yours while you try to sneak it in his underwear. He sighs when he feels your cold hand against him, fine and elegant fingers taking his shaft softly. His head rests against the arm on the wall, your kisses going down his body. When you were about to kneel, he takes you up again.

“I’ll let you take a taste of it later.” he sighs again, your hand squeezing harder, making him gasp. His hand closes around your neck, not hard enough to choke you, just a grab. A way to make you know who’s in charge. He kisses you. “Now.” he says, out of breath. His fingers take your panty, sliding it down your legs. He looks at your half- naked body, the dress covering just your thorax. “I want to fuck you right”. He takes your body, pinning you against the wall, your legs around his waist and your hands gripped to his t-shirt. He takes his hand down, the other one holding you in place. His hand strokes his shaft a couple times, also making sure you’re ready enough to take him, before starting to put it in. He feels excited. How your body seems so little between his and the wall. How you’ll struggle to take all of him in. His cock twitch in anticipation. He can’t wait to be deep in you, to know how much of him can you take, but he wants to make it right. Make this something you’ll beg for. Make him feel superior. He pushes slowly, feeling every squeeze and every movement your walls make against him. You moan and he lets out the deepest groan. He doesn’t wait that much to move against you, even when he’s not fully inside, your lips parting to the sensation of him caressing your insides. He puts you against the wall, making the hold easier for him. He thrusts into you with such a power and strength that you feel your head dizzy. He keeps moving, lewd sounds and mixed heavy breaths leaving your mouths. He feels how he’s going deeper and deeper. He smirks.

“That’s it. You’re taking it so good, like the cockslut you are. You struggled to take all of me in that little cunt, all stuffed by me. Such a doll, hm?” he says, out of breath. You nod while he keeps moving against you, you hand taking his hair as his mouth bites your neck. “You were a brat this morning, a fucking tease, but now you’re behaving like a good girl.” he whispers, before bitting you again. One of his hands sneak to the part you two are connected, and he caresses you gently, his fingers knowing perfectly were to touch. You gasp. “You like it, don’t you?”. Your back starts to hurt a little, the wood door is too hard to be resting against. Eren doesn’t mind, his muscles flexed while he keeps moving you up and down his length. “You’re about to, hm?” he asks. “You’re squeezing me. Hard.” He groans. It's true, you're feeling it as well, the knot on your belly that announces your end, pleasure maximized by Eren’s fingers. His lips cover yours, a strand of spit connecting your mouth when he parts, your mind unable to make a coherent sentence. You take your hands to his back, helping him with your movements, reaching your end faster. He isn’t going to edge you. He feels merciful today. He’ll let you cum after all you did for him, after how good you’re squeezing him, after the pretty expressions you made. You fall on his arms with a long sigh,  juices dripping down the two of you as you keep shaking on his arms. He smirks. "Oi, you came really hard." He puts you down on the floor again, quietly sliding out of you. He's still as hard as he was. "I'm that good at it?" he asks. Then, he grabs your jaw, making you look at him. "Or maybe you're just a slut for me?" 

You blush. You did. He knew where to bite, where to touch and where to thrust. You couldn't help, he’s good at this. He pats your head softly. "Now, in reward, since you didn't wait for me, you could use that pretty little mouth you used to tease me this morning in something more interesting, hm?" he asks. You know what he's asking for. Before you kneel, he sits on the bed, tying his hair again while a cigarette hangs from his lips. Then, he pushes softly by your shoulders. You hear him inhaling the smoke. Taking his phone, he makes you look at him, pulling your jaw quietly. “Do you mind if i film you?” You shake your head. Filming is quite interesting, and hot, definitely hot. “Promise me that those videos will never leave your phone”. He smiles, a soft and genuine smile, offering you his hand. You shake it. 

“Promise.”

The image is quite hot, your face resting in his tight and your hands caressing him, while his parted lips let go moans mixed with smoke. He takes two fingers to your mouth, the other hand taking the phone. He films your hands, your expression, his words.

"You look pretty with your mouth full of my fingers, but I prefer another thing, doll." he says, quietly pushing your head, making an intrusion in your mouth. He sighs. "Fuck. Show the camera, pretty." You try to wipe the tears away and he caresses your jaw, making you look to the phone filming you. “Show it how you suck me.” You think about him, watching this video in the loneliness of his dormitory, no light, his hand sneaking into his pants. "Do it alright and we'll be done in a second." he says, taking a puff again. He smokes too much for your preference. His fingers, still full of your saliva, impact against your ass. "Faster, doll." he asks. Slap again. Again. You feel your skin tingling under his slaps, hot and red. "I would also like to ruin that pretty ass you have." He grabs it this time, the camera pointing at his big hand squeezing your buttock. You keep sucking under his sighs and gasps, helping yourself with your hand. He smiles. "That's it, I'm already." he moves his hips against you, strong enough to make you feel it. Tears come again to the corners of your eyes as he keeps moving, stronger, the camera pointing everywhere while he loses himself. "You want it? Should I let you have it on your mouth? Or maybe on your pretty face?" he gasps at the thought of your face full of his seed, and maybe that's what makes him pull it out and paint you. With a final sigh, Eren pauses the video, putting out the cigarette against an ashtray. You rest again near his legs as he looks at you. His hands grab your neck again, making you sit on his lap. “You should clean that mess. Don’t want everybody to know how much of a slut you are for me.” he says, his fingers outlining your lips. “And I’ll keep this.” he says, taking the panties he throw away earlier. “You know where to find me if you wanna get them back. Or maybe give me new ones.”