#Intensity was 2.6

[trendingkhabar]

हरियाणा में भूकंप से कांपी धरती:2.6 रही तीव्रता, रोहतक का खेड़ी साध रहा केंद्र - Earthquake Tremors In Rohtak Of Haryana

हरियाणा में भूकंप – फोटो : अमर उजाला विस्तार हरियाणा में रविवार की रात को एक बार फिर भूकंप के झटके महसूस किए गए। 2.6 की तीव्रता के इस भूकंप से रोहतक व आसपास के कुछ इलाकों में कंपन महसूस किया गया। नेशनल सेंटर फॉर सीस्मोलॉजी के मुताबिक रविवार रात 11.26 बजे 2.6 तीव्रता का भूकंप आया है। भूकंप का केंद्र हरियाणा के रोहतक से 7 किमी पूर्व दक्षिण पूर्व में खेड़ी साध गांव रहा। धरती के पांच किलोमीटर नीचे…

[emeraldbloodcrown]

ONCE MORE

Chapter: One - Not Easy Pairing: Poly; Tattoo Artists!141 x Baker!Female Reader Summary: Deciding to get a head start in cleaning up the bakery, you end up hitting up the hardware store and meet a handsome stranger, willing to help you out. Content/Warning: Word Count: 2.6

Days passed, with both of you crashing in your old room, switching between who got to take the too old bed and who had to make due with a mattress on the floor. All of your essentials were strewn around your old desk or were still in your backpacks while the rest of your belongings had taken temporary residency in a storage facility.

In the meantime, you had been able to call a cleaning company and get them to sweep through the shop, taking all of the items that had fallen victim to the fire and documenting the damage for insurance. The safety assessment had already happened before your grandmother had written you, so today would be the first day, you’d be able to work towards the renovation.

You were sitting on the mattress, waiting for Anna to finish in the adjacent bathroom, while scrolling on your phone. You heard her return before you saw her as every step she took was accompanied by a small sound of discomfort.

“How can that bed be more uncomfortable than the damn floor?”

Without looking up, you answered her. “Cause it wasn’t chosen for comfort but for the design.” For emphasis, you clapped twice, making the LED butterflies around the frame light up.

“Never would’ve expected a 16-year old you to be so cheesy.”

“Don’t be jealous”

Anna stretched, letting out a satisfied groan when her spine cracked back into place, and she plopped down next to you.

“So what’s on the agenda?”

“Well we have someone coming to see if our electricity is intact, as well as check our plumbing, which wasn’t necessarily hit but since we have to renovate most everything, why not that too?”

Anna hummed.

“Grandma told me that the hardware store has some sort of sale today, so we should check that out and maybe get as much of what we’re gonna need as we can get.”

“Alright, you wanna do that? I can stay and be with the workers.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

Making a small detour to get yourself a quick breakfast on the way, after having to swear to your grandmother for the umpteenth time to only visit the family shops and ’not any of the fast-paced run of the mill stores that seemed to pop up everywhere’, you drove to the hardware store.

You still remembered it, having already existed for a long time before you were born but what had once been a small company with only a handful of employees, most of them related to each other, had expanded into a three story tall store.

When your grandmother had told you about needing your help with restoring her shop, you had anticipated that, until it got to the point of baking and selling, you’d be very out of your depth. Building had always been your grandfather’s thing, not something you held a lot of interest in, not that you would’ve been allowed to indulge in it if you had.

A part of you still recalled the look he had given you when you had needed a chisel for a school project and, not knowing the name for it, had just called it the ‘thing for wood stabbing’. An accurate description, you found, but he had not been amused.

So it wasn’t like you thought you would just wing it, but seeing the sheer size, and therefore implied variety in options, made you wonder if your original assessment of doing it yourself with the help of some friends and intense tutorials on YouTube wouldn’t just turn out to be very wishful thinking.

Still you decided to park your car and after minutes of circling the parking lot, you found a free spot quite a bit away out of the entrance. The sale had brought out more customers, you were sure, but you wondered just how well this shop was doing.

Grabbing a cart, you were still staring at the massive store, not watching where you were going and were suddenly taken out of your daydreaming when you stumbled into someone.

Losing your balance, you arm shot out to grab the pillar next to you to save you the landing on concrete, when at the same time the person grabbed your other arm, steadying you. Bitterly a part of you noticed, how he was completely unfazed by you bumping into him. He could’ve at least swayed a little out of politeness.

Apology and thanks already at the tip of your tongue, it remained exactly there when you took a look at the stranger.

At first glance, all you could think about was how handsome he looked, not quite sure if his rugged features was adding to that or if nothing could distract from and ruin his appearance.

He was wearing boots with dark jeans, both having seen better days, as they showed clear signs of wear and tear, as well as several paint blotches, with the jeans also having been haphazardly patched up.

Hoodie and coat were in the same condition, and you wondered if this was his usual attire for working.

Finally making it up to his face, you noticed his long hair, which peaked out underneath the beanie on top of his head, almost reaching his shoulders and curling around his neck. It seemed less of a fashion choice and more like he had just chosen to let his hair grow wild, which was only proven by the state of his beard. Full and long but also very unkempt.

Where you could see skin, he seemed to have strong feature, sharp jaw line only partially hidden but coming full force around his cheeks and brow. He looked wild, edging on dangerous but any fear his features might have caused were forgotten when you looked into his.

Blue.

Stunning and deep, and so very kind. There were little stress lines around them, accompanied by the darkness and bags underneath.

All in all, he looked rough, the kind you’d be polite to but keep a safe distance to. He looked like he had been dealt some shitty cards by life lately but despite it all, you couldn’t help but stare and think how beautiful those eyes of his were.

“Luv?”

And apparently he had also been blessed with an unfairly attractive voice.

In your daze, you only managed to reply with a dumbfounded: “Huh?”

Embarrassment flooded your system as soon as the words had left your mouth, pressing your lips into a thin line, before you tried to save some grace.

“Sorry, what was that?”

His hand on your arm tightened for a moment, only until he was sure you could keep your balance on your own, and then he let you go. You might not have noticed it, if it hadn’t been for you missing his warmth immediately, and the utter confusion at yourself that followed.

Alright. You made a mental note to check Tinder for any local hookups, if you were that touch starved that a stranger could cause such a reaction you were in more of a need for a good fuck than you had assumed.

“Was jus’ askin’ if you were alright. Didn’t get hurt?”

“I bumped into you. Should probably ask you that instead.”

The corners of his mouth lifted, making the lines around his eyes crinkle, giving his eyes a softer edge now.

“Takes a lot more than a pretty bird to send me tumblin’.”

You know it was meant to be a good-hearted joke, nothing serious but you still flushed a little and even he seemed taken aback by his words.

He cleared his throat, “So not hurt, right?”

Noticing the sudden awkwardness, you chose to simply hum in agreement and give him a little wave when you parted ways.

Except you didn’t, because as it turned out, you weren’t just heading to the same store but remaining on the same floor and even going to the same aisle. He looked over his shoulders, probably to make sure you weren’t some weird stalker but when he did, your eyes weren’t even on him.

Instead you looked up at the daunting and overwhelming variations of floor coatings, with more than half of them looking nearly indistinguishable to your very uninitiated eyes.

You looked and felt out of your depth and helpless, trying to figure out what the differences were, when your stranger took pity on you.

“First time?”

You heaved a sigh, “That obvious, huh?”

“‘fraid so. You want some help?”

You took a look at him but didn’t answer yet. Even in his kindness, he looked tired and you had a feeling that he would appreciate you rejecting his polite offer, but the chances of you faring without him were so thin, and with so many customers coming in for the sale, you doubted an employee would have enough time for you, so you couldn’t bring yourself to say no.

“My grandma will have my head for this but I fear I’m gonna need it.”

He smiled again and you found yourself thinking that you wouldn’t mind seeing it more often and making a mental note to try it for however long he was gonna help you.

“No beheading today. It’s no bother. What do you need?”

He closed the distance between you and you could feel the warmth radiating off of him. Pulling up the shopping list you had made beforehand, you turned your phone for him to see. His finger quickly scrolling over the display to see the length of the list before leading you to the first stop.

“I’m John, by the way.”

John turned out to be a saint, patiently explaining to you what each option he presented to you for each item on your list was for and what you needed to look out for when installing it.

“Pretty big project for a beginner.”

“Not by choice. My grandpa was the handyman in our family but I can’t really ask him, and actually calling in a service has always left me with outrageous bills. ‘Course I didn’t think I could just wing it, but last I was here this shop was much smaller.”

He hummed, taking one more glance at your phone before showing you another selection to choose from.

“Lived here before?”

“Yeah, grew up here for the most part actually.”

“Glad to be back?”

“For the most part, I guess. Not too sure just yet.”

John finished by putting the final piece into your cart, giving you a polite smile.

“Well, good luck to you.”

He turned on his heel but you stopped him as just letting him leave wasn’t sitting right by you.

“I know you said, it’s no bother but let me make it up to you.”

There was a moment where you looked at each other, both of you with crossed arms over your chest, trying to gauge who would give into the other first but John must’ve seen something in your eyes because he huffed a little before answering you.

“Alright, luv. Just give me a ring and I’m all yours.” He pulled a small notepad from one of his many coat pockets and quickly scribbled his number on it before handing it to you.

After he left you, you finally allowed you to smile at the weird encounter. That definitely hadn’t been on your schedule but you couldn’t find it in yourself to mind. Taking your cart, you pushed it towards check-out, bracing yourself for the next hurdle: actually paying for the many things in it.

There had been an easiness in John’s limbs as he got out of the shop, his lips almost humming as he got into the car and he caught himself tapping along the steering wheel but the closer he got to his destination, he felt the weight return, as if his bone marrow had turned into cement, dragging him down with every movement.

For a moment, he remained in his car after he parked, listening to the sounds around him and hoping against his better judgement to hear the familiar tunes, smell that scent of her baking, but of course there was nothing.

So he got out, grabbed his purchases and walked into his house. A house that was now solely his, despite the fact that it had been built for a family, for an ours. For her, by him.

The house was musty, needed to be aired and properly cleaned. John knew that if she could see the state it was in, she would throw a fit, tear him a new one for ever letting it come to this.

‘You gotta take care of our home’, she’d say, usually with a whisk in her hand, more often than not making her cinnamon apple buns, the very thing she brought him after their first date when he’d told he hated sweets and she’d told him, he’d love hers.

(She had been right.)

But that was just the thing. For her, their home had been their garden, the reading nook he’d built, the many pictures of their lives and all of the other finer things she had insisted on. For him, she had been his home, and with her gone, he couldn’t find it in him to care, partially hoping that the mess would call out to her and bring her back, even if he couldn’t.

Instead he had taken to disappearing in his work shed for hours on end, working on smaller and bigger projects, anything to take his mind of things. The only break of that routine was the daily phone call from Kate.

He answered her questions more on autopilot, but she hadn’t called him out for it yet so he counted his peaceful days for as long as he could, until she would inevitably drag him back to work to relieve Simon from doing his own and John’s job.

Almost, as if on cue, his phone rang, showing Kate’s number and he answered. He had the practiced replies ready for her but she finally asked him about what he had been doing, the words froze on the tip of his tongue, melted into liquid and got swallowed with saliva, as he surprised both Kate and himself by what he actually told he.

“I met someone today.”

“So what’s the verdict?”

Anna had come outside of the shop as soon as she saw your car pull up and had helped you with bringing your purchases inside. Afterwards, you had both grabbed a quick dinner, settling down on the ground while discussing your plans for the next step, also giving you a chance to check in with the results of her day.

“Well, thankfully it’s not really a must/red light situation and more a might as well/yellow situation. Both teams said that our electricity and water is working fine but that it’s gonna need some work soon, and since we’re already doing everything else, we might wanna look into that too.”

“That can’t be cheap…”

“Nope, but we should definitely be safe for at least a month or two. I mean, we did account for a lot of repairs.”

Taking a bite, you pointed at one of the papers next to her, the bright colors a stark contrast to the white of the service bills.

“What’s that?”

Following the direction of your finger, she pulled it out and showed it to you.

It was a flyer advertising an autumn festival, promising lots of foods, a show and some dancing.

“Didn’t take you for the type to go to these.”

Anna scoffed and shook her head.

“I’m not. But lots of the town’s people will probably be there.”

“And?” You prompted her to continue, not quite getting her point.

“And, your grandmother made such a fuss about community, not just from what you told me about her but also from all the times she reminded us to go to family shops instead of any of the new coffee shops or fast food restaurant. Would be a good way to get to know the people, maybe we’ll meet someone who can help us.”

[khristie16]

Table number six p.4/…

pairing: charles leclerc x fem reader

summary: you decided to disappear from your hometown with your bestfriend, finding the anchor in Monaco. With your talent to be in the right place at the right time you got yourself into some fine situation

PS summary: Charles is confusing you, he is sweet one second and the other he looks like he wants to devour you. Yet under the surface he’s not ashamed at slightest about what he wants to do with you and what he will do to get it

warnings: angst, deep talks, smuttish day dreaming

Word count: 2.6 K

notes: there you go! :* @laneyspaulding19 @f1obessed

You were watching Charles. He was drifting away, his thoughts consuming him inside and confusion taking the best of him, eyes wandering all over the room where the two of you been staying now. With his lack of attention, you got eager to analyse everything about him. His expression was hard, it's been like that since you've known him, yet his features were soft - the lines, the curve of his lips, the nose. Pascal showed you few pictures with him, Charles was smiling on them, that is the first time you noticed he has dimples. From such uncovering you felt pain in your chest. Why you cannot see him smile? You're not a bad person at all. But he makes you feel like you are. He is giving you a hard time, yet all you could think about was wrapping your arms around him and try to soothe the pain, for the mere fact you knew there had to be something going on. His under eye bags were clear and certain from the lack of sleep. His face beautiful yet no sign of life. You didn't know that the only life he currently felt was in lack due to the actuality he was far away from you. You didn't know he didn't sleep so he could just go back to you. Caught up in your thoughts, you didn't recognise he is now analysing you, his eyes hard and stiff. There was a light resentment from your side, you didn't like what he was doing to you.

Alright. We're gonna just stare at each other or what?

Charles wondered at your comment and looked surprised. You, on the other hand, started to lose patience, even though you promised you wouldn't let it affect your mood.

I'm gonna take you out.

You were looking at him intensively and laughed after few seconds.

SILENCE

Like seriously??

Do I sound like I'm joking?

Ehm, yes??? It's literally six in the morning-

-Half past seven

....Whatever, and now you asking me out??

I'm not asking you out, I'm taking you out.

What's the difference??

The difference is I'm taking you out as a friend. I'm taking care of the fact, you yet haven't seen the nicest place here in Monaco. Somewhere where you could read in silence, by yourself.

Firstly, the ache in your heart about hearing the word friend was getting too much, secondly, how he can in the next few seconds make this feeling vanish, burn it to ashes. He knows you like to read, he listened to you when you were telling almost everything about your life to the whole family almost a week ago. He listened.. does it mean he cares about you?

Soo, you're taking me out, as a friend, somewhere so I can read nicely all alone??

Bah ouais, I highly doubt that this - whatever guy it was, have shown you something nice here in Monaco.

Since when it is about him?

He looked at you more intensely. Dropping his stare to the ground, pain visible. The misery you felt for him right now was at its peak. You didn't acknowledge you've made some steps towards him and stared at him, waiting for him to look at you and tell you what is wrong in his life. You hoped so badly he will look at you and confide in you, so you could make him feel better, however it'd be possible. Just so you could see his beautiful dimples and shiny flickers in his eyes. Now his glare soft a little, looking at you. His eyes held so much depth and feelings you almost got lost in them. The need in you to lick his wounds and find a way in grew bigger. You really don't know what is happening to you and you hate him for that. Yet all you cared about right now was him - you've forgotten about you for a moment and just were being there for him If he needs you. But before anything could've had happened, he put up his mask back again and was the old Charles once more.

We're going. I have a car here. Allez.

>>>

The ride was in silence. It was highly uncomfortable to spend time with each other and not talk. You just wanted to be friends, a real ones, not this who you two are trying to fool yourself into thinking you are.

Your mother didn't tell me what your work is.

I drive.

Like a chauffeur?

No- I race and I drive.

So race driver?

Yes

That's cool!

He gazed towards you in surprise. As a little child, you always were eagerly watching your father driving, and prayed for that one day when you could finally drive on your own. This - was probably the only thing you pondered on as a good thing to take from your family.

I can imagine it's super fun.

It is my passion.

For how long?

Few years.

Doesn't it get boring over time?

Not in a slightest.

You've decided to tell Charles about your experience with cars. You laughed when thinking back of those memories how you took your friends for the first time and saw the shock in their eyes. You were the only one laughing obviously. Your friends just wanted to survive the ride. As the time were passing by, you talked much more, what food you like and how you like any sports to do. You didn't even noticed you had your monologue for ten minutes straight and more. Detecting yourself, you stopped talking and looked out of the window.

Have you even noticed I'm sitting right next to you?

What?

It was like you're in your own space, not giving any attention to people around you. I have to say it's quite amusing.

You took a look on him, and you saw the dimples. Not so much, but they were at their place. And it made your heart warm again.

>>>>

I hope you're not hungry. I thought of going to brunch after the place I wanna show you.

It's fine.

The car stopped on the main square Place du Casino. You got a little uncomfortable since you were dressed rather comfortable than elegant. As if Charles read your thoughts, he told you you have to take a little walks to get to that place. While passing by the square, you turned to a tiny street with not so much people in it. It was still quite early in the morning, but still - not so many shops here either.

Where are we going?

Just be patient a little bit more.

Charles led the way and stopped in front of wooden dark doors on the side. Grabbing the handle, he looked at you back again and smiling a little. You followed his route.

The heavy wooden door creaks slightly as you push it open, revealing a place that exudes a sense of nostalgia and comfort. The air is scented with the faint aroma of aged paper and polished wood. The library's interior is bathed in a warm, golden glow as sunlight filters through the tall, narrow windows, casting soft patterns on the wooden floor. The light dances upon the dust particles suspended in the air, creating an almost magical ambiance. The muffled sounds from the outside world are distant echoes, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in the serene environment. In this charming wooden library, time seems to slow down, allowing you to bask in the comfort of a world that revolves around the written word and the peaceful embrace of old-world charm.

It was safe to say you fell in love immediately.

What is this place?

I suppose your comfort place by now.

He was looking at you now, his gaze warm and soft and his smile on full display. His dimples were saying a hi to you. You got lost a little in such a warm embrace coming from him you had to clear your throat to continue.

Charles, really. How did you find this place?

Friend's of mine.

There are not many people here.

They even cannot be. This is not a public library.

You got confused. Why are you there if it's not public? And why he told you that this will be your comfort place by now? As you were thinking, someone appeared in the corner of your eye. The silhouette was getting closer to Charles, giving him a warm hug.

Salut Charles

Salut Antoine. I brought a friend of mine.

I see. Bonjour madame, I'm Antoine.

Bonjour. I'm YN.

I can see you like it here very much. You like books?

Oh, yes! I love to keep my nose deep in the papers and spend the day like this.

That is nice to hear.

You chat a little bit and Charles signalled you to take a look on your own. You were happy at such command. You forgot about what is happening between you and Charles and just let yourself be in the present moment, smelling the books and feeling the wood at your fingertips.

After a while, Charles stood beside you.

I talked to Antoine, you are welcome anytime you want.

Charles-

-No. Take it. I want you to take it. Alright?

You just nodded. Charles didn't give you much time and space whatsoever to ask more, you then decided to leave it for now. But there was another thing on your mind. You had to talk to Charles. As you were sitting down, you held gaze with his to communicate it with him. He hesitated for a bit but then sat down as well. The light from the narrow windows casted a warm golden brown on his face. He was starting to be the top three things to look at. You always lost a sense of time like this. His eyes were soft again, they already were from the time he got back to you, seeing you standing in front of him in the kitchen with furrowed eyebrows. He adores this face look of yours. He thought you are cute when being mad. He was smiling at you now, thinking of early in the morning, but to you with no apparent reason, confusing you even more.

Why are you doing this?

You're my friend.

Yeah, I've heard that already. But really. I thank you so much, it's beautiful. I just want to know why.

It was hard for Charles to tell you more. He wasn't certain if he should do that. He was split within. He was leaving his common sense behind from the first moment he saw you. When your comforting and honest eyes were captivating his thoughts about not telling you anything, it all shattered down.

I feel like I should do it.

What do you mean?

Your the first person after such a long time that is real, open and vulnerable.

Vulnerable?

Yes - anything that comes to your mind is visible on your face, your emotions are talking to me through your body and I haven't seen this in such a long time.

(My emotions are talking to him? What does he mean by that?)

For how long?

..

Long. And I think it's my fault a little.

Why you say that?

I lost too many people already. My first love ended abruptly, in a disaster. Right on that I lost my father. And since then, I've changed. I've lost the sense of being vulnerable. Of feeling anything deeply. I'm someone I don't know.

C-Charles-

- It's fine, you are not obligated to say anything to it.

......

It's not such a great thing to be this vulnerable you know?

What do you mean?

It is suffocating, when you are in a bad place mentally.

You mean when you were with your family?

Yeah... I let myself be hurt all the time because of their behaviour. I suffered from it. I felt everything so deeply, things that weren't good. I got myself feel tied up by them, my body calling for some space, to let myself breathe. I fought so long. It's not that amazing, I don't know how to protect myself Charles. It is hard for me. I feel everything, because I have no walls built around me.

Tears falling down, warm flushed cheeks and quiet sobbing. Charles stretched his arm to touch you. Leaving his hand on your back.

I should probably be too.

Be what?

Honest.

He reached out now with both of his arms around your body. Resting his head on your shoulder and feeling his heartbeat right next to yours.

-

Charles

When I was hugging her small figure, I pulled her closer to feel her more. Her particular scent drifted me back to the memory of her tripping on me, feeling her chest on my face, her fragrance in my nose and her smooth skin against my bristle. Her warmness and slender arms on my shoulders making me feel light instead of weighted down. I felt her heartbeat against mine making me blush a little since it was racing fast. Her full breasts making it hard for me to concentrate on what we were talking about earlier since with a little movement from breathing I got to massage them a bit with shrugging against her. I got highly aware of my growing dick in my jeans, trying to rip through. She inhaled my scent having her nose on my body and I rubbed her back a little drifting away from present moment. I imagined how she rocks on me, her tits bouncing up and down of how I take her from beneath her. Her legs are parted and hands on my chest while taking my slick cock to her wet pussy. Again and again and again. I bet she’s incredible, tastes like a honey. She moans loud for me as it’s harder for her to take my girth all in, her eyes talking to me in desperate whines. Feeling her wetness on my balls I squeeze her hips to make sure to leave a mark. She yelps for more and I see her mouth in “o” shape so I go faster to make her come. I’m gonna come as well any second if I will imagine further. All I knew is that I’m gonna fuck her like this. I’m gonna get her. Because I always get what I want no matter what. She will be mine. And only mine. I cannot bear the thought someone else could have her on top, full on display. Whatever the guy was won’t no longer be a problem. I will make sure of that. She is my new obsession. She’ll be my woman.

-

You pulled back from the hug, the slight touch of your shirt material brushing your nipples made you realise they are hard as a stone. Getting aware of it you got slightly embarrassed, as you were trying to cover it, you only squeezed your arms closer to your body making your tits pop out more. Charles looked down, taking his time watching your deep breathing and bouncing tits. He met your eyes again, feeling the intensity so much you panted. Without you being aware of it, you lightly opened your legs but quickly pulling them together. Squeezing them against each other to relieve the tension in your hot core now. Charles seemed to acknowledge that since he took another look right between your legs. Licking his lips, he stayed there longer than he should, which made you hotter even more. Charles looks back up to your eyes, her green colour darker than before.

*the phone started buzzing*

It was your phone. Swearing immediately you picked up the phone. It was Gabriel. You declined since you’re in a quiet library.

Who was it?

You snapped back to him not knowing suddenly what to tell him. What is wrong with you?

Ehm Gabriel.

He snorted, got up and went somewhere in the dark. You didn’t know what was that about. Or what is happening.

[ellie-24]

That's alright

A little something based on this prompt:

"Do you mind? I came here to get away from other people."

Word count: 2.6 k

Thanks @whositmcwhatsit for the amazing idea and thanks @thatbanditqueen for the first awesome prompt!!! It was really fun writing this!! Ofc it had to be about Elvis, I can't help myself lol. I'm extited to see what y'all came up with!

@be-my-ally @vintageshanny @missmaywemeetagain @from-memphis-with-love

Shreveport, October 16 1954

She took a shuddering breath and smoothed down the wrinkles in her dress when she saw the familiar auditorium from across the street. Her fingers trembled when she reached up to pin back a single blonde curl that had espaced her fancy updo. It had come loose on the walk here, though it can hardly be described as a walk. It was more like a run and she was in fact a bit out of breath as she stood on the sidewalk, trying to gather her wits again. Next to her was a big glass window and she turned towards it, inspecting herself. The pastel pink sunday dress she wore under her white coat was the prettiest she owned and combined with the now fixed updo her mother had helped her with, she felt truly beautiful. With a look of concentration on her usually very soft features she leaned forward and carefully pinched her cheeks and lips. Proper rouge and lipstick weren't allowed in the house, so this would have to do for now. Her best friend at school proposed to lend her some of the makeup she secretly owned, but she wasn't as bold as her. No, she wouldn't do such a vulgar thing.

She pulled her coat tighter over her body, the fresh autumn wind making her shiver. But the funny feeling in her stomach certainly wasn't caused by the dropping temperatures. Her mind drifted to the boy from school. The boy with the brown eyes she had fancied for a very long time now. The funny feeling in her stomach got more intense as she remembered how he asked her earlier this week if she would accompany him to the Hayride. Stunned wasn't enough to describe what she felt in that moment. Snippets of the conversation remain, like when she hastily agreed and ran away, but the rest was a blur. He wanted to meet her in front of the auditorium, but she couldn't spot him among the crowd that had already gathered at the entrance. She looked down at the delicate gold watch around her wrist. She was almost half an hour early. She huffed a breath, her nerves threatening to get the better of her and she decided to walk around the building, eager to get rid of some of this nervous energy as well as some silence.

As she rounded the building to escape the loud chatter of the people in the crowd she eventually reached a door that was certainly the back entrance to the auditorium. She bit her lip and looked around, no one else was to be seen. Pacing around didn't help much either, the clicking of her low heels on the pavement suddenly too loud in her ears. She eyed the stairs at the entrance and walked up to them. She reached down to feel if they were dry and promptly sat down, her knee jiggling up and down. Just when she considered getting up and pacing around again the door behind her openened and a very strange looking young man stormed out, descending the stairs so fast that she quickly scooted over and winced, afraid he'd either run her over or fall onto her.

"Oh, excuse me! Almost didn't see you there." he exclaimed when he passed her, now standing in front of her. His voice had a nice ring to it and it felt almost familiar.

She squinted up to him, taking in his very peculiar appearance, too stunned to answer. His greased back hair was the darkest raven black she's ever seen. One single curl rested between his furrowed eyebows and she fought the urge to reach out and put it back in it's place. He slowly blinked at her with deep set, ocean blue eyes, his dark and long eyelashes fluttering over his cheek. Upon closer inspection she noticed that he must be wearing kohl, making his eyes even more expressive. The pink suit he wore was a stark contrast, almost matching her own dress and she was sure she's never seen someone like him before. It was strangely appealing.

She shook her head and finally managed to get herself together again. "Oh, that's alright. I don't know what I'm doing sitting on the stairs." she muttered, a flustered laugh escaping her. She leaned forward to get up, but he stopped her.

"Nah, you're good. Actually, do you mind?" he gestured to the spot next to her with a trembling hand. "I-I came here to get away from o-other people." His eyes nervously flickered towards the door he just stormed out of.

She hesitantly nodded at him and he plopped down beside her. "That's something we have in common." she remarked with a sigh.

He turned to her and smiled, his lip curling charmingly. "That so?"

She looked down with a half smile and picked at her nails, his gaze making her even more nervous.

"Where'd you even come from?" she asked and turned her head, gesturing behind her.

"Uh.. you know, I'm a singer. Or, I try to at least. Got a gig here tonight. E-Everybody is going crazy in there, so I needed to get some air."

"Really? You aren't pulling my leg now are you?"

"I wish I were, sweetie. It's really a big thing." he said and nervously combed back some of his hair with his hand, reminding her of her own self barely five minutes earlier in that glass window. She carefully eyed him, not sure if he wanted her to reassure him or distract him.

"You must be exited!" she offered with a smile.

"I sure am." he agreed and his knee started to bounce up and down as well, matching hers. He rubbed his palm along his thigh, trying to force it to be still.

She leaned back, wanting to appear casual. "Standing there on that stage all by yourself. You're very brave."

He huffed a laugh. "Thank god I'm not alone, sweetie. I'm with my band." he nodded, as if reassuring himself.

Her eyebrows raised in surprise. "A band, I'm impressed. Do I know anything from you?" she encouraged.

"Uh I don't know... What's up with you? You a singer as well? You look like it." he inquired, quickly changing the topic of the conversation.

"Good god, no. I'm uh... hiding." she muttered timidly, her face scrunching up in embarassment.

"What's a pretty gal like you hiding from?" he smirked, his finger gently brushing over her cheek.

His boldness shocked her, but drew her in at the same time. "Oh, nothing really. It's silly." she waved away.

"You can tell me anything, sweetie. I'm dying to know." he insisted and leaned forward, way closer than it was proper. She spotted a few acne scars on his face and neck, but she found they didn't affect her impression that he was breathtakingly beautiful.

She took a deep breath. "I just... I'm meeting up with this boy from school here. Uhm, you probably don't care about this."

"This your first real date, sweetie?" he assumed while raising one eyebrow.

"...Yes." she admitted.

His lip curled again and she felt her heart rate pick up. "You don't hafta worry about nothing. That guy is one lucky fella."

She looked down, inspecting her nails again. "I'm just scared that I don't know what to do. I don't want to make a fool out of myself."

"How old are you?" he inquired suddenly.

"Sixteen."

"Cute."

"You?"

"Nineteen."

She nodded. "Mhm.. so uhm... you do that often? Dating I mean." she tried to as sound nonchalant as possible and carefully avoided his gaze.

He smirked, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "Why do you wanna know?"

"Do you... you know..." she trailed off, not daring to say it out loud.

"Have you ever been kissed, sweetie?" he asked, searching her eyes.

She slowly shook her head.

He licked his lips, the motion making her swallow hard, before giving her a stern look. "You know, the first kiss is something real special."

She nodded and waited for him to continue.

"I remember my first kiss, it was clumsy and I didn't really know what to do. Made me feel like an idiot." he mused, carefully watching her reaction from the corner of his eye.

She nibbled at her bottom lip, unaware of his unwavering gaze. He seemed to know what he was talking about. Seemed more... experienced. And she did catch herself wondering if his lips would feel as soft and plush as they looked.

"Could you... I mean would you... uh that's sounds mad, but would you show me?" She was aware that she didn't know him and probably would never see him again, but it was exactly that that made it feel right. The adrenaline and exitement she felt right now was different, it would be her secret, shared with this handsome stranger. No one would have to know, she wouldn't even tell her best friend.

"What do you want me to show you, sweetie?" he frowned and she wasn't sure if he was actually confused or just a really good actor.

"You know... how to... kiss someone." she managed to get out, her cheeks flushed.

"You want me to show you?"

"Only if you want to of course." she mumbled, getting the impression that he didn't want to kiss her. Did he maybe think she was crazy?

"No, no, sweetie. I-I'd like that. But are ya really sure?"

She felt her heartbeat pick up once more. "I am."

He grinned and snaked his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him. She couldn't stop the little gasp that escaped her when she felt his strong hands pressing into her flesh and looked up, their noses now almost touching.

"Don't be scared, little one." he spoke in a soft tone.

"I'm not." she merely whispered, not trusting her own voice right now.

"I'll be gentle with ya. Just close your eyes."

She tried to control the butterflies she felt in her stomach, tried to ignore the tremor in her whole body and tried to remember how to actually breathe. She eventually closed her eyes and waited, not daring to move one inch. He came closer, she could feel his hot breath ghosting along her lips and squeezed her eyes shut.

Finally his velvety mouth brushed over hers and for a moment she was too stunned to respond. She briefly tought about the boy from school and asked herself if his lips would be as soft as the ones from the raven haired stranger next to her. There was no denying that it felt good to be that close to him and after a few seconds, her cheeks burning, she started to kiss him back by tentitavely moving her lips against his. She felt him smiling against her and added more pressure. All of the sudden she felt a bit dizzy, not in the way she felt when she went on a carousel, but in a different, forbidden way. She didn't recall ever feeling something like this, something so consuming and dare she say... addicting. After what felt like hours, or seconds, she wasn't quite sure, she pulled away from his mouth. There was a tightness in her chest and after being parted from him her mind started functioning again, telling her to breathe. She took a deep breath and looked into his twinkling eyes, his grin almost looking a bit smug. For a moment they just stared at each other until he broke the silence.

"Lordy, that was beautiful, sweetie." he murmured and pressed his forehead against hers.

"You really think so?" she smiled, a bit dazed still.

He bit his lip and smirked at her. "Yeah. Ya got the cutest, softest little lips ever." It felt flattering to hear this from him. He obviously knew what he was doing and she looked down with a bashful smile, suddenly feeling very special.

"...B-But there's something else I'd like to show you i-if you want." he stuttered, his eyes almost pleading. How could she say no?

"S-sure."

He closed the gap between them again so fast she almost had no time to react. When she kissed him back, a bit more confident this time he did something she didn't expect. All of the sudden she felt his soft tongue prodding against her closed mouth and her eyes shot open, not really sure if it was supposed to be like that or not. But he didn't stop, in fact he got more insistant and soon she felt his tongue gliding past her lips into her mouth. He made a little sound in the back of his throat when she slowly touched the tip of his tongue with hers and tightened his grip on her waist, holding onto her like a lifeline. Despite still not really knowing what she was doing he seemed to like it. A lot. He continued exploring her mouth, his kissing becoming faster and more sloppier, teeth clanking and muffled breathing. When they broke apart again it was his turn to look a bit dazed, his eyes half lidded, his breathing heavy.

"...That felt really... good. I won't ever forget this." she whispered with a wide grin.

Elvis suddenly felt exhilerated and brave enough to go on stage, his nervousness now replaced with another feeling. For the one thing on his mind now was this pretty girl thinking of him whenever she kissed another. She was his now, wether she was yet aware of it or not. He pulled her even closer to him. "Me neither, little. You're really something." he stated softly with a tender kiss to her cheek, entirely different from the one they'd just shared. It was sweet, gentle and she felt her heart flutter wildly in her ribcage in response.

"...I should get going." she whispered suddenly and moved away from him, making him shudder.

"D-Do you have to?" he asked with big eyes as he fiddled around with his hands.

"Yes!" she laughed. "And you should go back as well. We both have places to be." She thought back to those brown eyes probably waiting for her by now. She also wondered if they could pierce like the intense blue ones observing her right now.

He hummed with a little pout.

"... And if you're really a singer, I suppose we'll see each other in a few minutes anyway."

"You'll see me, sweetie. I won't see you." he argued, looking at her through his dark lashes.

She sighed and squeezed his hand with an encouraging smile. "I suppose that's true... I really wish you good luck though. I'll certainly cheer you on."

How he wanted to wish her good luck as well with her endeavour. But he couldn't. He didn't wish her good luck. Not really. "I'll count on you, sweetie." he managed to get out, thankfully she didn't notice that his teeth were clenched.

She smiled and jumped up from the stairs in a very unladylike manner, the motion causing that infuriating curl to come undone again from her updo. She huffed in annoyance and reached up with a grimace, attempting to pin it back in place blindly.

He couldn't stop the little smile forming at her antics. "Sweetie, leave it like that. It looks so pretty on ya." he then suddenly interjected after watching her for a few seconds, making her stop in her tracks.

She blinked at him. "...Are you sure? It doesn't look rude?" she asked without thinking, suddenly worried she might have offended him as she eyed the single lock that had come loose from his perfect pompadour. He never fixed it.

He shook his head, decidedly. "Nah, fits you more like this, little one. You're a real stunner, I'll tell ya."

She felt her cheeks warming up again. "Oh well, okay, if you say so. Thank you so much!" she grinned and turned on her heel making her way back towards the main entrance to meet her date.

"That's alright!" he shouted after her with a smile. That's where it suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks. Why his voice seemed familiar. It was the same voice she heard again and again on the radio for the last few weeks.

..................................................................................

[hirocimacruiser]

ALL JAPAN GRAND TOURING CAR

CHAMPIONSHIP

●All Japan GT Championship Series

Eric Comas took the GT-R championship from 1998 to 1999, but as the competition became more intense year by year, the GT-R was unable to win the championship three times in a row. However, Komas/Masami Kageyama (winner at the opening round at Motegi) and Kazuyoshi Hoshino/Tetsu Motoyama (winner at MINE at round 6), who drove the latest BNR34, managed to finish in 2nd and 3rd place in the series by a close margin, showing an outstanding performance. It showed stability. Additionally, the duo of Ukyo Katayama and Michael Krumm, who have recently joined the Nissan team, won a special race in Malaysia, and the oldest active driver, Masahiro Hasemi, retired from the front line after the 2000 season, so there is no shortage of topics to talk about. There wasn't. The GT-R has a 2.6-liter straight-six turbo in the front, whereas the Supra has a 2-liter straight-four turbo in the front, and the Honda NSX has a 3.2-liter V6NA in the midship, and the individuality of the three cars makes the race even more interesting. Also, in the GT300 class, there was one car among many Porsches.

The Silvia S15 fought hard, and Nobuyuki Oyagi/Takayuki Aoki finished 4th in the series.

[usafphantom2]

On the morning of 29 July, 1968, my navigator, Jimmy Fagg, was not feeling well when we were having our preflight steak and eggs breakfast at the Personal Support Detachment. Butch Sheffield, returning from leave, walked in and mentioned he needed flight time and he would gladly substitute for Jimmy. “The flight was going well. We had just finished refueling and were accelerating thru approx 2.6 Mach and 65,000′, leaving Louisiana heading West. (ed.: usually a 40 minute flight to Sacramento)

First indication of a problem was when the right engine “unstarted”. However, this was more serious than a routine inlet unstart.

“I heard a Big Bang and immediately had a big red light (ed: there are no small red lights) I looked through the rear-facing periscope not a contrail.

“Understand, when the inlet is unstarted, the aircraft is experiencing severe aerodynamic buffeting, making it difficult to read instruments until we slow to about Mach 2. Right engine is shut down. I ask Butch for the Engine Fire and the Descent checklist. I declare “Emergency” with Air Traffic Control center, “descending and diverting to Carswell AFB”. Then I tell Butch to “be ready to bail out”, who responds with, “Oh S***”! (Butch had punched out of an SR once before April 13 1967 ) and was not anxious to repeat the experience.)

“Butch says, “I wish I had my checklist” (What Butch meant was that he had Jimmy Fagg’s checklist, not his own. Every crew member marks up his checklist with useful margin notes, obviously of great personal value. As a stand-in, Butch was wishing he had his own annotated checklist rather than Jimmy’s, captured on the aircraft’s audio recorder). The roughness is now gone and the machine is flying smoothly with normal control. I tell Butch that I would just as soon stay with her as long as we have good control. Butch concurs (although, the check list says that if Fire Light does not extinguish…Bail Out). The problem remains, Fire Light is still On, flying on one engine, the smoke has diminished, but is it smoke, fuel spray (we are dumping as much as possible prior to landing) or contrail? I don’t want to land with a fire and Butch concurs. Still difficult to tell if we are trailing smoke due to overcast, poor light conditions, and looking through the periscope is like looking through the barrel of a 22 rifle.

“We elect to request a fly-by with the tower to tell us if they can detect any smoke or fire. The Fire light is still ON. Tower says we look OK. Landing was uneventful. We taxi to and into a designated hanger, stopping inside, shut down the left engine and the hanger doors are closed. We complete the “shutdown checklist”…unbuckle our harness and stuff, but no one comes to help us out of the airplane. We at least need a ladder! Butch says the crowd is over by the right wing. Finally, a couple of considerate colonels come to our rescue and advised us, “you may want to see this”. We shuffled around to the right side. The outboard forward section of the nacelle had been blown out, taking with it a portion of the wing leading edge. Obvious severe fire damage. Not much of the engine was left in the nacelle…you could see daylight. Lockheed used this accident as testimonial for titanium airframes. Conventional construction could not have survived the intense heat from the fire…the right outboard wing would have failed rather quickly.” Written by SR 71 pilot Ben Bowles.

Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[sammy-sexy-masochist]

It was the kind of night where Nellie completely takes control, and I give myself over to her without hesitation, without limits.

It started with the ɢɪɴɢᴇʀ ʀᴏᴏᴛ. She didn’t go easy on me, not for a second. First, she applied it to my clit and labia, the burn so immediate and intense, but oh so good. Every nerve was suddenly aflame, as Nellie held me firm, her hand pressing the root against me until I was moaning.

And then, she shoved the root inside me. That’s when the real pain hit. There was this open wound inside, just at the entrance, and as soon as the ginger touched it, it felt like a small fire. The burn was getting stronger and I could feel the wound bleeding, the blood mixing with the burning spice, making everything so much more intense.

But Nellie wasn’t satisfied with just that. So, she brought out ᴛʜᴇ ᴅɪʟᴅᴏ — a thick, 2.6-inch beast that made me wetter the moment I saw it. My body was already so raw, so sensitive, and I wanted more, I felt the anticipation of pain building inside me. I knew she wanted to hear me scream. And when she started to fuck me with it, that’s exactly what I did.

It felt like I was being torn apart, the burn from the ginger was still there, and now the dildo stretching me to my breaking point. Every thrust sent shockwaves of pain through my body, so intense that I was drenched in sweat in minutes, gripping the sheets like they were the only thing keeping me grounded. I screamed, again and again, the sound raw and desperate, echoing through the room. And Nellie? She was ecstatic. “Finally found a way to make you scream,” she said with a grin.

She didn’t let up, didn’t slow down, even as I sobbed that it hurt. “You know it has to hurt, Sammy. You’re only allowed to come when you’re in pain," she reminded me, making my walls clench from arousal. And fuck, it hurt so much, every movement of that dildo making me feel like I was being split in two, but I loved it. I loved that she had this power over me, that she could make me scream and cry out in ways no one else could.

Then, she took out the dildo, and her hand started pressing into me, and soon enough, she was ꜰɪꜱᴛɪɴɢ me hard. The stretch was cruel, and she was hitting my cervix with every brutal thrust. I couldn’t stop the tears this time — just three small, silent tears, but they were enough. They were proof of how deep she’d pushed me, how completely she’d broken me down.

I hated it, and I loved it. I wanted to beg her to stop, to give me a moment to breathe, but at the same time, all I could think about was how much I wanted this.

ɪ ɴᴇᴇᴅᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ʜᴇʀꜱ, ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ʜᴇʀ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ɢɪʀʟ, ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴀʏ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ, ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇꜱɪꜱᴛ.

I wanted her to break me further, to push me until there was nothing left but the pain and my sobs.

And after everything — after the ginger, the dildo, the fisting — when I finally came, it was like my entire body exploded. Twice. The pain was so good, so unbelievably good, that I couldn’t hold back, couldn’t stop the waves of pleasure that crashed over me.

And even now, I’m still thinking about it, craving it again, knowing that no one else could ever make me feel like this but her.

[rjzimmerman]

Do the recent or right-now-ongoing crazy global weather scare you? Bother you? Interest you?

I'm pulling this from various media sources, because there is so much crazy weather happening now, or that has happened within the last couple of weeks, it seems like no single media source is picking it up.

From Heatmap AM:

Houston’s floods – More than 400 people in and around Houston, Texas, evacuated their homes over the weekend due to flooding. At least one person, a child, was killed. In one nearby county, more than 21 inches of rain fell over five days last week. The rain has tapered off but the cleanup has just begun.

Brazil’s rain – In Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, days of intense rain caused the Guaiba River to overflow and flood more than 340 cities, including the region’s capital of Porto Alegre. At least 78 people are dead and more than 115,000 have been forced to evacuate. One climatologist calledthe catastrophe “a disastrous cocktail” of climate change and the El Niño effect. “It looks like a scene out of a war,” said Rio Grande do Sul governor Eduardo Leite. 

Chile’s fires – Fires in Chile’s Valparaiso region, fueled by an intense heat wave and enduring drought, have killed at least 51 people and burned more than 64,000 acres.

Kenya’s deluge – Flooding and landslides in Kenya from unrelenting rainfall have killed more than 200 people. It is still raining and the weather is forecast to worsen throughout the month of May.

Southeast Asia’s heat wave – A lengthy heat wave has shattered temperature records across Southeast Asia, forcing many schools to close. One weather historian called the heat wave “the most extreme event in world climatic history.” 

From the Associated Press (AP):

A weekend spring storm that drenched the San Francisco Bay area and closed Northern California mountain highways also set a single-day snowfall record for the season on Sunday (May 5) in the Sierra Nevada. The wet weather system had mostly moved out of the state by Sunday morning, but officials warned that roads would remain slick after around two feet (60 centimeters) of snow fell in some areas of the Sierra. “Did anyone have the snowiest day of the 2023/2024 season being in May on their winter bingo card?” the University of California, Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab asked on the social platform X. The 26.4 inches (67 centimeters) of snowfall on Sunday beat the second snowiest day of the season — March 3rd — by 2.6 inches (6.6 centimeters), according to the lab.

From Yale Climate Connections:

For the first time since the 2010s, a high-risk outlook for severe weather (level 5 of 5) has been issued for parts of the Great Plains. The outlook was put in place at 8 a.m. EDT Monday, May 6, and updated at 12:30 p.m. EDT Monday by the NOAA/National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, as a busy few days of severe weather moved into high gear. Dozens of tornadoes could erupt by midweek, including in and near Oklahoma on Monday and across a broad swath of the mid-Mississippi and lower Ohio River valleys on Wednesday. Many of the worst tornado U.S. outbreaks of recent years have played out across the Mississippi Valley and Southeast, but multiple rounds of twisters have hammered the Plains since late April, taking at least seven lives and wreaking what will no doubt be hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

From Wikipedia:

On 16 April 2024, heavy rains caused floods in the United Arab Emirates, affected cities of mainly Dubai and Sharjah, the northern Emirates, and different areas of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. According to the National Center for Meteorology (United Arab Emirates) , this was the country's heaviest rainfall recorded in 75 years. The floods in the Emirates were a part of the greater Persian Gulf floods.

[donutwatches]

MHA 2.6 - The Boy Born with Everything - part 4

This is my first time watching My Hero, no spoilers please! 

The way he chopped the poor kids head was so sudden. It made me snort-giggle. “prince of nonsense” is a weird phrase. I feel like it's accurate for our little garden salad boy. 

Did he bite his tongue? Not only does Deku have to compete in tournament with all the OFA pressure, anxiety of breaking all his limbs when he fights, BUT HE HAS A BITTEN TONGUE TOO. 

Feeling crushing fear, don’t worry, All Might is here. Slap a smile on that face and the broken bones won’t hurt as much. No really.

There is science that the act of smiling triggers endorphins and other happy hormones which relieve stress and can serve as a mild pain reliever. It would be easy to be cynical about Big Buff’s advise or accuse it of being superficial, but there is truth to it. 

To bend over? 

ExCuUuUsSe meee? A monkey!? Oh, it is time to throw down the purple clown. WRECK HIM DEKU! Or that is what I would say if I gave two hoots about the tail kid. 

His giant muscly meat tail honestly freaks me out. So put me in a rainbow wig and a squeaky red nose, I agree with the evil clown. 

Our baby garden salad sure did fall for that trick quick and easy. Even though the tail abomination warned him. This felt like forced story-telling just to get the plot moving the way the author wanted. It felt unnatural since Midoriya is established as being smart.

This is what I look like when I wake up in the morning. The shadows! The intensity! 

Well that was a short match. Not going to lie, I would be disappointed if Deku loses this way. 

Episode 7 is here

[short-black-diamond]

Hmm hi, how are you. I saw your smut requests prompts and I was wondering if you could write a Sahed x Julia one with the third option of the top to sub? If not, Sahed x reader?

If not either, it's ok. But I really enjoyed "You... only You" and I wanted to read more smut from you (it was very good 😳)

Thanks for reading and sorry for any inconveniences 🙇

nah bruh it's okay, also I got the same thing for a blue lock request. I think you guys like something hot and suggestive turning wholesome I guess??? But not that I'm teasing you, I enjoy it very much.

If I write warnings then I'll just spoil everything so just read.

Sahed x Julia, smut.

word count: 2.6 k

---

"Intense."

It was a stupid idea. Why did Julia let herself get convinced by Kamille, who happened to see a love hotel? I mean, sure, the green haired girl she saw was kinda cute, but for Julia herself to land in this situation?

Never in her life would she have found herself here, with a hot man in front of her who looked at her hungrily.

...

"Wait, K-Kamille!!", Julia yelled as she went after Kamille, who followed the three eyed Ah'kon to one of her rooms. the girl, Rainah, stopped in front of the door. She looked at Julia with a coquettish smile.

"Sorry love, but we Ah'kons don't like threesomes.", she spoke before she let Kamille inside. Rainah turned to you.

"My brother is free though.", she said, pointing towards an open door.

Julia flinched, her face errupting into a tomato red face. "I-I'm not l-looking for something like that! I just wanted to go ho-Ah!"

Yeah, Rainah pushed her into the room before closing it. Julia stumbled into the dark, and against something sturdy but warm. When she quinted her eyes, she thought she stumbled against a mannequin, but then the person started speaking.

"Well aren't you a-", but he didn't get to continue his sentence as Julia flung herself away form him with a scream.

"Ahh! Gosh, I-I'm so sorry, you see, I just wanted to-"

"Check out my abs? I hope you did. Although I wouldn't mind if your cold fingers cooled my hot body more, doll.", the male voice spoke, and suddenly, red light illuminated the room.

And it was like magic was in the air, as Julia found herself entranced by the beauty of the attractive man. Her breath hitched when the bloody glow illuminated his tattooed arms, his three blue eyes looking at her in a seductive gaze.

He slowly approached her as he pushed back some bangs from his hair with a smirk as he held eye contact, her pair switching in a triangular motion between his three, not sure which eye to look at.

"So, doll...what will it be today? Bondage...butt plugs, and oh! My favourite! Roleplay.", he said with a low growl as he cornered her against the wall.

Julia blushed heavily as she tried averting her eyes, but she stole glances at the pecs which were literally begging to be groped and licked.

"I-I'm a virgin..!", Julia whimpered, and there was a short moment of silence. When she looked up at the Ah'kon, she saw him frozen in place.

He quickly stepped back as he rubbed his head sheepishly. "...Shit...sorry love, w-would you like to sit down first? Talk about boundaries? shit...how about we start with some kissing? hm?", he said quickly and nervously as he looked for his shirt in a haste.

Julia took a few deep breaths before she reached out her hand. "Uh...excuse me?", she spoke, and the guy turned around immediately.

"y-yes?", he asked eagerly.

'cute...', she thought before she cleared her throat. "My name is Julia...and I actually didn't want to be here. you see, I think my friend is...spending time with your sister? Rainah? was that her name?"

She received a nod. "Well...I'm sorry, but I was not really, uh...looking for this."

"Oh..", the guy spoke -in a rejected, sad, and dissappointed tone- before he sat down on the bed. "Ah--w-would you like to sit down? Jeez, sorry about the lack of manners I have, eheh...it's just...this is the first time someone's not been bound to make me please them, so...yeah.."

Julia sat down next to the guy, both of them kicking their feet with a blush. "So...what's your name?", she asked after a while. The guy looked up at her.

"My name is Sahed.", he answered, and Julia looked at him. "The name suits you."

she earned a smile. Gosh, it was so sweet, and pretty...

"So...how did you come here? Was it because of your friend?", Sahed asked as he examined Julia's features. She didn't wear expensive makeup, or style her hair for it to be noticed, she also didn't really show off her body.

And for once, Sahed didn't have dirty thoughts about a customer (...yet), no. He wanted to get to know Julia. So he asked. And he asked, and asked, and told about himself and his sister, and then did dirty thoughts come, but they were not the same he had about the other girls and boys who entered this very chamber, no.

Sahed felt butterflies whenever Julia giggled at his jokes, and he just wanted to hold her close to him, not fuck her until the sun rises.

He wanted to pepper her chubby cheeks in the sweetest kisses, the softest kisses as she'd sigh, her face laying content in his hands.

He wanted to be her first, to explore her body with his three eyes, touch her and treat her as if she was the most delicate flower in the world. He wanted to make her smile, for her to hug him tightly the more he got to know her.

Sahed wanted to kiss Julia very badly now.

And little did he know, Julia had similar thoughts.

Sahed was actually a really nice guy, he was very sweet, and this whole club--service thingy only occured once every month, when they were both particularly horny and just wanted to fuck or get their pent up frustrations fucked out.

(And it also didn't hurt to gain a big penny from it.)

But she enjoyed his company, really. She liked how his hair accentuated his face perfetly, or how goddamn sexy the tattoos made him look. It also didn't help that he sometimes (un)intentionally had a smolder on his face when he looked at her. It was good that she was sitting, otherwise her knees would've given up and she would've fainted.

Julia wanted Sahed to take her virginity. She looked at his lips, licking hers unconsciously.

Of course, Sahed noticed, I mean, his three eyes were mostly fixated on her face, how could he not?

"Hey uh...", Julia started, as she averted her eyes. "Does...does the offer still stand-" "Yes!", Sahed interrupted her a little too fast.

He cleared his throat, a big blush coating his cheeks. "yes..it-it does still stand."

Julia took it both ways as she reflexively looked down. Sahed flinched. Julia blushed in embarrassment as she turned away.

"S-sorry! Gosh, I'm so sorry!", she spoke as she kicked herself in her head.

Sahed looked at his boner with a betrayed look. 'Why are you still up!?'

"I-it's alright, really! Uhm! W-what would you like to do first!?", he said a little too loudly, but Julia was just as nervous.

"I-I don't know..?"

Sahed looked at her for a moment. "Well, would you like for us to kiss first and see where the things will go?", he asked softly as he reached out a hand.

Julia took it with a little hesitation. "..yes."

Sahed leaned in as he tilted her head with the hand which wasn't holding hers, and then he kissed her softly. Julia's eyes fluttered before she closed them in bliss. She could feel his lips quivering -from nervousness?- as she kissed him back.

The kiss felt sweet, nice, innocent.

Sahed pulled back, having darker cheeks now, and the red glow changed purple. "How...how was that?", he asked shyly.

'Why am I so shy now? I did this a hundred times...!', he thought as he felt his heartbeat rise as he looked at her in anticipation. Julia touched her lips with a small blush and a smile.

"It was nice...kiss me...kiss me some more?", she whispered, and who was Sahed to deny her?

He hugged her gently as she buried her fingers in his hair, and Sahed sighed contently against her lips. It felt amazing, like Sahed and Julia belonged to each other.

Suddenly, Julia opened her mouth and Sahed's tongue invaded her instinctively. but, after they realized it after a moment, they flinched apart.

But they were still in each other's embrace. Julia looked at Sahed's eyes with her wide ones. Sahed gulped, his eyes just as wide.

"K...keep going!", she demanded as she kissed him again after a moment, and Sahed made a startled "mmh!" sound before he moaned and kissed her fevereshly.

The soft kisses turned into a heated makeout session where Sahed's tongue danced with Julia's and his hands travelled down her slim waist to rest on her hips before he massaged her stomach and ribs with his thumbs.

Julia whined when Sahed pulled away again, her mind only comprehending him and his tongue and lips, and when none of this was there, she opened her eyes.

She looked back to his blue ones. The lightening changed into a blue hue as well. "Are you ready to take this a step further...?", he breathed against her lips as he kissed her a few more times before she nodded, and he started leaving open-mouthed kiss-marks on her jaw, throat and neck, before he stopped at her collar.

She quickly unbuttoned her shirt as he took his off too. She then grew self-conscious and insecure as she held the shirt in front of her. "y-y'know...I'm not exactly the..uh..", she started, but she gasped when Sahed grabbed the shirt and threw it away.

"That's more like it..", he growled before he made quick work of her bra. It didn't help that it was pastel pink too...

Now, he was licking up her nipples as she was trying to puch her away, the feeling of his hot tongue on her perked up nipples being foreign as she whimpered and gasped.

"w-wait!", she yelped, and Sahed immediately sat back with a worried face. "W-what is it? Did I hurt you?"

"n-no...it...it was just a little too much...", she spoke as she sighed. Sure, the feeling was great and felt pretty intimate, but it was really a little too much for her.

"Oh..sorry..", Sahed said softly as he hugged her. "Tell me when you're ready again.."

Julia could honestly fall asleep now. The gentle but a little frantic beating of Sahed's heart against Julia's ear, his muscular arms holding her smaller frame close to him protectively and keeping her warm. And his head which rested on hers.

But, something bothered her. Sahed's boner which was really poking her, and her own clit throbbing in pain. After a few moments of calming down, Julia gently pushed Sahed away from her, but he only allowed for her to free herself until she could look up at him.

He wanted to keep her close to him.

"Actually, uhm...I...I need you somewhere else..", the brown haired girl spoke shyly as she looked down. It really hurt, being horny and right in the arms of a sexy stranger who seemed to be made to please people.

"And...where would that be?", he teased, though he knew the answer. see, his third eye was something like a heat sensor, where warm parts are seen as red and cold parts as blue?

Yeah, and his third eye could clearly see a big, dark red dot between Julia's legs. Sahed gulped. He just had to ask for consent, then he could do whatever he wanted.

Julia took a deep breath. "Uh...mmh..d-down there...I...I-I want you to eat me out..please..?", she asked, and when she looked up, she flinched.

Sahed's eyes on her were...intense, he stared at her with his glowing blue ones before he took her face to his. "Are...are you sure, Julia?"

Julia wanted for Sahed to only say her name and nothing else from now on. 'gosh, his voice is so hot!!!'

"yes..I am...but...", she muttered instead as she cleared her throat. "um...your eyes...", 'my eyes? Doesn't she like them-' "they're uh..p-pretty intense..." 'Oh.'

Then the Ah'kon smirked before he thre up the ends of her skirt. Julia yelped in embarrassment when he did that, but her breath hitched when he plopped down and felt his hot hands against her legs.

"Sahed?! What are you-ah!?", she gasped when she felt Sahed's nose bump her clit. Then she felt him breathe in the air there. She grew embarrassed.

"S-sahed..?!" But Sahed didn't hear her, as he was too consumed by the smell of her sweet, innocent and untouched pussy, and the feeling of her legs shaking slightly. Good thing that Julia wasn't standing.

Julia couldn't see what Sahed was doing as the skirt covered his whole body and face, and she could only anticipate what he'd do next, except she couldn't.

She thought that Sahed would at first maybe massage her legs a little, trace his fingers up and down her clothed sex, not to breathe in the smell and even hear a ripping sound.

Yeah, he destroyed her panties.

Then, he just started kissing her sex softly, until he started making out with it. Julia couldn't sit upright anymore when Sahed's big and long tongue licked up stripe after stripe from the base of her vagina to the clit and always putting a little more pressure on the bud.

She gasped and whimpered when his tongue sometimes pressed into her hole, and she wondered if he'd plunge his tongue inside, but he never did. Instead, he played with her sensitive nerves, his tongue pressing around her bud as her breath grows ragged and when she couldn't take it anymore, he grabbed the top of his head where she tought it was and pushed him further into her pussy.

Now, Sahed was a weak man. A very weak one. He actually felt butterflies the moment Julia stumbled into his very chamber, and when he smelled her scent, he was a goner.

Also, when he got under her skirt, his third eye became a navi as it saw the treasure before him. Only his third eye stayed open, looking at her body as it writhed and thrashed under his touch and kisses.

He entered her with his tongue, letting it collect all the juices her pussy produced and he groaned, his vibrations pleasuring her even more.

"Ah...mmh, Sa..hed...nnghh~...!", she moaned as he ate her out like it was his last meal, and he even nodded his head as he lapped at her pussy like a dog drinking water in the midst of killing its thirst.

Julia's legs shook as she felt something building up inside of her, and she panted as she grinded her hips against Sahed's face. However, she couldn't even hear her own high-pitched moans as Sahed ate her out as he moaned into her sex, he himself humping one of Julia's hard leathered boots and he closed his eyes in bliss, because he couldn't see anything under the skirt anyway.

The orgasm came suddenly, and Julia felt amazing. She screamed out in pleasure as she pressed her thighs together, effectively trapping Sahed, who nearly choked to death at the -already- loss of air he was receiving under that skirt.

But, it seemed like he got a new fetish as he came in his pants, his groin still pressed against Julia's tip of her boot, but a wet stain was forming there already.

Julia took a few moments to regain her breath, and when she did, she realized that she was still trapping Sahed between her legs. She quickly let go of him.

He let himseld fall to the ground, his head hitting the carpet as he gasped for air, but he still had an excited grin on his face as he licked around his lips in an attempt to collect some leftover cum Julia had which was still on his cheeks.

"that was...intense...", Julia panted, as she looked at the ceiling with a worn out smile. Sahed groaned only.

He got hard again.

"Say uh...would you be okay for a round two?", he asked as she shyly looked up at her, and he gasped when she stood up and took off her skirt.

---

hellyu! thanks for reading this far! And I hope i could write it in the way you liked, if not thent just send the request as well and I'll write it differently!

Also if you have requests with special details you'd like me to include, just do it!

Read you in the next post!

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New NASA Study Tallies Carbon Emissions From Massive Canadian Fires

Extreme wildfires like these will continue to have a large impact on global climate.

Stoked by Canada’s warmest and driest conditions in decades, extreme forest fires in 2023 released about 640 million metric tons of carbon, NASA scientists have found. That’s comparable in magnitude to the annual fossil fuel emissions of a large industrialized nation. NASA funded the study as part of its ongoing mission to understand our changing planet.

The research team used satellite observations and advanced computing to quantify the carbon emissions of the fires, which burned an area roughly the size of North Dakota from May to September 2023. The new study, published on Aug. 28 in the journal Nature, was led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

They found that the Canadian fires released more carbon in five months than Russia or Japan emitted from fossil fuels in all of 2022 (about 480 million and 291 million metric tons, respectively). While the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from both wildfires and fossil fuel combustion cause extra warming immediately, there’s an important distinction, the scientists noted. As the forest regrows, the amount of carbon emitted from fires will be reabsorbed by Earth’s ecosystems. The CO2 emitted from the burning of fossil fuels is not readily offset by any natural processes.

An ESA (European Space Agency) instrument designed to measure air pollution observed the fire plumes over Canada. The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument, or TROPOMI, flies aboard the Sentinel 5P satellite, which has been orbiting Earth since 2017. TROPOMI has four spectrometers that measure and map trace gases and fine particles (aerosols) in the atmosphere.

The scientists started with the end result of the fires: the amount of carbon monoxide (CO) in the atmosphere during the fire season. Then they “back-calculated” how large the emissions must have been to produce that amount of CO. They were able to estimate how much CO2 was released based on ratios between the two gases in the fire plumes.

“What we found was that the fire emissions were bigger than anything in the record for Canada,” said Brendan Byrne, a JPL scientist and lead author of the new study. “We wanted to understand why.”

Warmest Conditions Since at Least 1980

Wildfire is essential to the health of forests, clearing undergrowth and brush and making way for new plant life. In recent decades, however, the number, severity, and overall size of wildfires have increased, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Contributing factors include extended drought, past fire management strategies, invasive species, and the spread of residential communities into formerly less developed areas.

To explain why Canada’s fire season was so intense in 2023, the authors of the new study cited tinderbox conditions across its forests. Climate data revealed the warmest and driest fire season since at least 1980. Temperatures in the northwest part of the country — where 61% of fire emissions occurred — were more than 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.6 degrees Celsius) above average from May through September. Precipitation was also more than 3 inches (8 centimeters) below average for much of the year.

Driven in large part by these conditions, many of the fires grew to enormous sizes. The fires were also unusually widespread, charring some 18 million hectares of forest from British Columbia in the west to Quebec and the Atlantic provinces in the east. The area of land that burned was more than eight times the 40-year average and accounted for 5% of Canadian forests.

“Some climate models project that the temperatures we experienced last year will become the norm by the 2050s,” Byrne said. “The warming, coupled with lack of moisture, is likely to trigger fire activity in the future.”

If events like the 2023 Canadian forest fires become more typical, they could impact global climate. That’s because Canada’s vast forests compose one of the planet’s important carbon sinks, meaning that they absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere than they release. The scientists said that it remains to be seen whether Canadian forests will continue to absorb carbon at a rapid rate or whether increasing fire activity could offset some of the uptake, diminishing the forests’ capacity to forestall climate warming.

IMAGE: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed wildfire smoke from Nova Scotia billowing over the Atlantic Ocean in May 2023. Warm weather and lack of rain fueled blazes across Canada last year, burning 5% of the country’s forests. Credit: NASA

[collapsedsquid]

However, this theory cannot account for the reality of service-based capitalist accumulation today. First of all, the category “services” lumps together a widely divergent range of sectors such as retail, hospitality, and transport, not to mention professional and personal services from education and health care to finance and real estate. Many of these sectors are productive in the Marxist sense of the term, generating surplus value, and indeed are extremely profitable. Second, the assumption that manufacturing possesses unique growth-inducing properties and capacity to scale doesn’t really make sense in the face of services based on information and communication technology (ICT), digital automation, and platform scalability. Third, Baumol’s model is outdated. Service workers represent a far greater proportion of the labor force today than they did in the mid-twentieth century when he developed that model. Baumol also uses a narrow set of service occupations as the basis for his theory, like beauticians and elementary school teachers. Taking the United States as an example, from the 1990s to the 2000s, jobs and productivity growth was mostly driven by ICT, logistics and transport, the retail trade, insurance, finance, and other services. Labor productivity in services grew at a rate of 2.6 percent a year between 1995 and 2001 — the rate for manufacturing was 2.3 percent — accounting for 73 percent of US labor productivity growth. The share of services in US GDP as a whole rose to 80 percent in 2007 from 60 percent in 1947. Service sector employment accounted for more than 83 percent of total employment in 2013, compared to 60 percent in 1947. Looking beyond rich countries, we can also see shifts to ICT-intensive service exports. In 2014, India was the largest global exporter of ICT services with a value of $74 billion due to both scale and productivity. Total factor productivity in the Indian service sector grew by 2.4 percent from 1980 to 2006 — twice the rate of industry and agriculture. We should not dismiss service industries as “stagnant sectors” of low-skill, low-wage jobs that are a drag on growth. Many countries around the world are seeing services contribute an increasing share of growth over time. Services may have historically played a small part in capitalist growth, often resisting mechanization as they remained outside the circuit of capital in domestic reproduction. But this is no longer the case today.

Going to have a rich highly-productive economy by having everyone be a Real Estate Broker or personal injury lawyer

[angel-ponders]

Twister vs. Real Tornados: Part 3

<< Part 1 | Part 2

The Final F5 vs. the El Reno Tornado and the Jarrell Tornado

The final tornado of the film is the infamous F5, which is the highest you can go on the Fujita Scale. It ends up being a mile-wide wedge tornado, traveling across open fields and destroying mostly farming structures and very few homes.

Our protagonists approach the storm in what’s called a “core punch.” It’s an incredibly dangerous maneuver as you have to travel through the rainy (and often hailing) section of the storm to get to the a more favorable side of the tornado. This is especially dangerous if the tornado is rain-wrapped, which means it’s not very visible through the rain, but this move can be dicey in any tornadic storm.

The F5’s unexpected turn catches the seasoned storm chasers off guard, resulting in the death of a few of them and injuries to several others. Storm chaser deaths are actually quite rare, and when the film was initially released in 1996, no storm chasers had ever been killed while on the job. That has unfortunately changed since then, but it’s still an incredibly rare occurrence.

The El Reno 2013 Tornado

At 2.6 miles wide, the El Reno tornado is the widest tornado on record. The storm began in the rural area south of the town El Reno, Oklahoma, quickly growing in intensity as it moved across the land. Like its fictional counterpart, it changed directions so fast that many storm chasers were taken by surprise.

This video is from the Weather Channel’s Mike Bette, who was core punching it when it turned into them. The vehicle flipped over multiple times, but he and his his crew survived with relatively mild injuries.

This tornado also unfortunately claimed the lives of three storm chasers, making it the first time any storm chasers died while on the job. This happened 17 years after the deaths of chasers in the film Twister, so it’s truly a rare situation.

Unlike the storm chasers in Twister, however, the three men who lost their lives were widely respected in the chasing community. Tim Samaras was a fairly safe chaser, and often made appearances on the Discover Channels show Storm Chaser. At the time of El Reno, he was contributing to National Geographic. He had his son, Paul, with him on this trip, as well as meteorologist Carl Young.

The following footage was submitted to National Geographic in the week leading up to El Reno. None of the footage from the TWISTEX team of El Reno has ever been released (if it exists). Another storm chaser, Dan Robinson, was ahead of them on the highway when the tornado overtook them. He caught the incident with his rear-facing camera, but out of respect for the families, it also hasn’t been released.

The three men were part of the TWISTEX project, which, like the chasers in Twister, had the ultimate goal of understanding tornadoes better and increasing lead time for the warning system. Also like the film, this required getting in front of the tornado and releasing probes, which would take measurements of the storm.

Despite its enormous size and notable deaths, the El Reno tornado is only rated an EF3. This issue is hotly debated in the tornado community because the Enhanced Fujita Scale (see more in Part 1) largely categorized tornadoes based on damage analysis. As El Reno was mostly over open fields, there wasn’t much damage to analyze.

I’m sort of hyper focused on this tornado, so I have a 2-hour playlist featuring first-hand video of most of the major incidents during the event, as well as analysis and mapping of it. If you have two hours to spare, here’s my El Reno playlist. But hopefully I’ve summarized the main points for those of you with less time.

Jarrell, TX 1997 Tornado

While the El Reno tornado happened mostly over open fields, the Jarrell tornado impacted a residential neighborhood. I already briefly mentioned this one in Part 1 due to its unique path (northeast to southwest), but it’s also notable for just how slow it was. It rolled into the Double Creek subdivision of Jarrell and stalled.

It churned over the community for several minutes until there was nothing left. Concrete slabs sat where homes once were, trees had been stripped of bark, and the ground was scoured to a depth of 18 inches. The tornado claimed 27 lives.

As this tornado occurred prior to the change to the Enhanced Fujita Scale, it has a solid F5 rating. It had become one of the most definitive F5’s in history. It occurred just one year after the film Twister.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

Omni-Man vs Chaos!

Conditions:

No Restrictions. Feats for Omni-Man taken from both the comics and show.

Scenario:

Chaos leads the New Gods in an attempt to conquer Earth. Nolan informs them Earth isn't theirs to conquer.

Analysis: Omni-Man

In a universe filled to the brim with great and mighty heroes, none were more powerful than Nolan Greyson, the seemingly invincible Omni-Man. A Viltrumite from the planet Viltrum, was sent to Earth to protect humanity so that it may one day grow into a mighty civilization, but like most retellings of Superman's story, his true intentions were much darker than they seemed. In truth, he had been sent to Earth in order to scout it out and prep it for conquest beneath the boot of the mighty Viltrumite Empire and once his half human son began to exhibit powers like his, Nolan knew it was time begin his conquest.

While Nolan succeeding in slaughtering the Guardians of the Globe, he couldn't bring himself to kill his son, no matter how hard he brutalized him. Realizing that he had grown to love hunanity during his short time on Earth, Nolan left the planet in tears, leaving his ultimate fate uncertain.

When Mark woke up, he learned it took Omni-Man, at most, a week to fly to the Virgo Supercluster, requiring him to fly at roughly 3 billion times faster than light.

Nolan Greyson, upon witnessing his son struggle to catch an asteroid, casually remarked "that was a small one" before remarking that he once caught an asteroid the size of Texas. Weighing about 3935645100820866360600 kg and flying at about 75000 m/s, that meteor would hit with a kinetic energy of 2.6 Zettatons of TNT.

Indeed, this vast strength gap was made clear when Nolan, though conflicted in his emotions, effortlessly battered Mark around for the entirety of their fight, more than capable of beating him to death if he truly wanted to.

But, that's the thing. He didn't want to. No matter how much Nolan focused on his mission, he could not put aside the love he had for his son or the family he built here. Nolan might have tried to turn his son into a Viltrumite, in the end, Mark made his father... human.

It was this love for his family that resulted in Omni-Man turning around, eventually fighting alongside his son to save the planet he'd been raised. To the point of even destroying Viltrum outright by plowing right through it alongside his son.

As a Viltrumite, Omni-Man is naturally capable of flight, even in the vacuum of space, and can breath outside of Earth's atmosphere. Indeed, Viltrumite's are nigh impervious to any sort of traditional weaponry that Earth has to offer, including all Earth based forms of disease and radiation. His superhuman healing factor allows him to survive getting beaten into a coma, punched through the stomach, and getting his eyes gouged out! Similarly, Viltrumites have also shown to get stronger through intense training. As someone's whose been conquering planets for thousands of years, Omni-Man is easily one of the strongest Viltrumites around.

However, beyond all his brute strength and powers, Omni-Man is brutal and cunning warrior with hundreds of years of experience under his belt. Having grown up in the Darwinist society of the Viltrumite Empire, Nolan has trained all his life to be a ruthless warrior. He is capable of wiping out entire planets singlehandedly and was capable of beating all the Guardians of the Globe by himself.

But, he is not invincible. ....Because that's his son. Come on man, pay attention.

But in all seriousness, Nolan does have some weaknesses behind that awesome mustache. His super hearing makes him vulnerable to loud noises and sonic vibrations, to the point that loud blasts can stop him flying outright. Extended exposure to the extreme heat of stars can overwhelm his healing factor, as can severe damage to the brain or heart.

Nolan Greyson has protected humanity from gods, aliens, and even entire armies. And now, he stands out as the biggest threat the human race has ever seen. It was only through his love for his family that he was able to become the hero he always pretended to be.

Analysis: Chaos

The worst has come to worst. Alien beings have come to Earth to conquer it. Possessing incomprehensible herculean strength and insurmountable superhuman powers, these "News Gods" break the world over their knee. Immediately devastating the cities of the world to terrorize humanity into line, these New Gods demand statues in their honor and sacrifices in their name. In one desperate last attempt to survive, the American government launches the super soldier program E.V.I.L. and creates a super squad to fight back, the Hellions. The E.V.I.L. Heroes of Earth.

The New Gods are energy beings that travel from planet to planet, possess members the local population, imbue them with their power, and use their vessels to conquer and be worshipped as Gods.

If their mortal host proves to be too heroic, then the New God in question might get overtaken by their host and have their personality overwritten, so they try to possess only evil people.

Chaos is the strongest of the New Gods and their leader. He's been conquering worlds for thousands of years and has decimated countless worlds in his wake as the most powerful being in the universe.

He's so unstoppable, he didn't even think it was possible for anyone to hurt him. Not even his fellow Gods.

Chaos can fly at supernatural speeds, survive the vacuum of space, and reduce crowds down to screaming skeletons with his heat vision. He uses all of these powers to their full murderous potential to terrorize the people into submission, such as when the President stood up to him when forced to building a statue of Chaos, so Chaos flew to space and blew up the moon to send a message, sending chunks of it raining down to decimate entire cities.

Hell, it's suggested he could've destroyed it even more thoroughly if he wanted to, but doing so would decimate his new kingdom more than he'd be willing to put up with, so he made a point to only partially overcome it's Gravitational Binding Energy, even though he likely totally could've.

When the Hellions keep defying him and even one of his fellow gods turns against him for his childish sadism, Chaos decides to simply wipe his hands of the problem. Nuke the Earth in a single blast of heat vision and be done with it! In his own words "I'll do to your planet what I did to your moon."

Assuming he means total destruction and not partial (a character with future sight forsees a future where Chaos destroys the whole planet in one shot), he'd have to overcome the planet's Gravitational Binding Energy to do so. That's 59 Zettatons of TNT.

Ultimately, the redeemed New God Olympus sacrifices his life to save the planet he's grown to love, killing Chaos and reducing him to an energy being once more, flying off back into space to find a new host to possess and a new planet to rule.

Given that Chaos left as soon as he died and he describes the other New Gods as traveling the galaxy with ease, I'll presume a timeframe of about ten seconds. The next planet Chaos finds himself at is about twenty five light years from Earth.

That gets us about 78,890,000 times Faster Than Light.

But while Chaos may be satisfied with his new fiefdom now, a tyrant as petty as him is bound to return eventually. And when he does, the Hellions will be ready. For as long as they live, the Earth will be protected by E.V.I.L. Heroes.

Throwdown Breakdown:

Battle of the evil supermen. Both of these planet conquerors have thousands of years of atrocities under their belts, but only one can come out on top.

Chaos has a very clear cut strength advantage. It is made explicitly clear that Nolan cannot outright destroy planets while Chaos blatantly can. During the destruction of Viltrum, Omni Man needed the help of two other people to destroy the planet, with it even being noted that all three could be incinerated if something went wrong. So Chaos is explicitly textually stronger. 22x stronger even. Combine that with the fact extreme star level heat can kill Viltrumites and Chaos's heat vision can bust the Earth and Nolan's starting on the backfoot here.

Buuuuut, that's about where it all starts to go the other way. For as big as the gap in strength is, the gap in speed is even larger. Even with the most generous possible interpretation of Chaos flying to another planet, Nolan traveling to another Galaxy is much faster. 42x faster in fact. As devastating as any blow Chaos lands might be, he'd have to land those blows first, and Nolan's not gonna give him the opportunity.

This is a dynamic that Omni-Man's other advantages stack on top of. Chaos is petty and short tempered, so his mounting frustration as the stoic Omni-Man avoids all his blows will leave him more open. While Chaos's fist will certainly punching right through Nolan's chest if he ever lands a hit, that's a blow that Omni-Man's regeneration can bring him back from, whereas Chaos has none at all.

Omni-Man would likely use his opponent's ego and short temper to bait him into space away from Earth, keeping Chaos from leveraging it against him as collateral, before using his equal skill, superior speed, and greater longevity to gradually wear down his much stronger foe. While both are equal in experience, Nolan is better at keeping a cool head in a rough fight and is the better tactician generally. He's more than capable of wearing down Chaos over time.

Once Chaos's physical body is destroyed, it's just a question of whether Nolan could resist Chaos trying to possess him. And if this were Omni-Man at the beginning of the series, I'd say no. But, Omni-Man has grown beyond the evil superman archetype that Chaos embodies. While his countless atrocities will likely haunt him forever, Nolan did grow to genuinely love his family and the life he found on Earth. The kind of person good enough to turn around and stop being monster is likely good enough to overcome Chaos's possession should he attempt, likely extinguishing Chaos from the inside out as like what happened to Olympus.

In all likelihood, Chaos flies off to find a new planet to conquer, alive but throughly beaten, while a battered Nolan flies back home to the family he fought to save.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Omni-Man!

[ausetkmt]

New Alzheimer's drugs bring hope. But not equally for all patients.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/01/29/alzheimers-new-drugs-black-patients-leqembi/

ABINGTON, Pa. — Wrapped in a purple blanket, Robert Williford settles into a quiet corner of a bustling neurology clinic, an IV line delivering a colorless liquid into his left arm.

The 67-year-old, who has early Alzheimer’s disease, is getting his initial dose of Leqembi. The drug is the first to clearly slow the fatal neurodegenerative ailment that afflicts 6.7 million older Americans, though the benefits may be modest. The retired social worker, one of the first African Americans to receive the treatment, hopes it will ease his forgetfulness so “I drive my wife less crazy.”

But as Williford and his doctors embark on this treatment, they are doing so with scant scientific data about how the medication might work in people of color. In the pivotal clinical trial for the drug, Black patients globallyaccounted for only 47 of the 1,795 participants — about 2.6 percent. For U.S. trial sites, the percentage was 4.5 percent.

The proportion of Black enrollees was similarly low for Eli Lilly Alzheimer’sdrug, called donanemab, expected to be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in coming months. Black people make up more than 13 percent of the U.S. population.

The paltry data for the new class of groundbreaking drugs, which strip a sticky substance called amyloid beta from the brain, has ignited an intense debate among researchers and clinicians. Will the medications — the first glimmer of hope after years of failure — be as beneficial for African Americans as for White patients?

“Are these drugs going to work in non-Whites? And particularly in Blacks? We just don’t have enough data, I don’t think,” said Suzanne E. Schindler, a clinical neurologist and dementia specialist at Washington University in St. Louis. “In general, the default is that they will work the same in everybody, but we don’t really know that for sure.”

The situation casts a spotlight yet again on the decades-long failure of researchers to reflect the increasingly diverse character of the patient population in the United States, and underscores the stark disparities in Alzheimer’s treatment and care. Black Americans develop the disease and related dementias at twice the rate of their White counterparts, but are less likely to receive specialized care and are diagnosed at later stages, studies show. That’s an urgent problem considering that the new drugs must be used early to have an effect.

In addition, a perplexing new issue appears to be contributing to low Black enrollment in trials and is fueling a debate among experts about the role of race, genetics and other factors. To qualify for the main trial for Leqembi — developed by the Japanese pharmaceutical giant Eisai and the biotechnology company Biogen of Cambridge, Mass. — participants were required to have elevated levels of brain amyloid, a defining characteristic of Alzheimer’s, and symptoms such as memory loss.

But brain scans showed that the African American volunteers were less likely to have excess amyloid than White patients and thus were excluded from the trial at higher rates. Almost half of Black applicants failed to meet the amyloid threshold, compared with 22 percent of White volunteers, according to Eisai. A similar pattern occurred with the Lilly drug and in some other studies, and sometimes involved other people of color, including Hispanics.

Experts are baffled by the findings. Why would amyloid levels — thought to be a key driver of Alzheimer’s — be different in people with similar cognitive problems?

“Is it the color of someone’s skin? Almost certainly not,” said Joshua D. Grill, an Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of California at Irvine. “Is it a difference in genetics? Or other health conditions, like cholesterol, blood pressure or vascular health? Or is it something else, that we haven’t measured?”

While the biology of Alzheimer’s is almost surely the same regardless of race, some researchers say the patients themselves might be different because of underlying health conditions. Some older Black patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, they say, might actually have vascular dementia stemming from heart disease, hypertension and diabetes — all conditions more prevalent among African American patients.

The risk of vascular damage also could be increased by a lack of access to health care and years of exposure to racism, as well as genetics, some experts say. And many patients could have a constellation of pathologies driven by other factors, they add.

Whatever the cause, experts say, the bottom line is the same: Patients who do not have excessive amounts of the sticky brain protein should not be treated with the amyloid-targeting drugs because the therapies are unlikely to work and pose substantial risks, including potentially deadly bleeding in the brain.

But that raises the specter of another disparity. If it turns out that a lower proportion of Black dementia patients and other people of color have excess amyloid, they could be left behind as the drug industry races to develop amyloid-reducing treatments. To counter that, experts are urging companies to accelerate work addressingother potential drivers of cognitive decline and to develop combination drugs with multiple targets.

“If we are just targeting amyloid, we can just miss a large potential population that might benefit from treatment,” said Lisa L. Barnes, a neuropsychologist at Rush University in Chicago.

‘A brain is a brain’

For now, the question remains: What should Black patients and their doctors think about the anti-amyloid drugs?

The answer, experts say, depends largely on the level of amyloid in their brains.

More than a year ago, Williford was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s by David C. Weisman, a neurologist at Abington Neurological Associates, a large practice north of Philadelphia that treats patients and conducts clinical trials for drug companies. The clinic was one of the test sites for Leqembi.

After Leqembi receivedfull FDA approval last summer, Williford underwent tests to determine whether he was a good candidate for the drug. One test — a lumbar puncture, sometimes called a spinal tap — showed elevated amyloid in his brain. That means Williford and similar patients are likely to benefit from an anti-amyloid medication regardless of their race or ethnicity, Weisman and several other experts said.

“A brain is a brain is a brain, whether it is Asian, Hispanic, African American or White,” Weisman said. “A patient is either a good fit or a bad fit, and Robert is a good fit.”

Williford, who spent years working with troubled families in Philadelphia, began having memory problems a few years ago, said his wife, Cynthia Byron-Williford, 59.

“You could tell him almost anything, and he would almost immediately forget,” she said. “If I asked him to make a peanut butter sandwich for our grandson, he would come back three times and say, ‘What am I supposed to do?’”

With few treatment options, many physicians say they will offer anti-amyloid therapy to any patient who has elevated levels of the substance and passes safety tests.

Barry W. Rovner, a neurology professor at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said he would not hesitate to offer Leqembi to African American patients who tested positive for amyloid. But, he added, because of the low numbers of Black individuals in the Leqembi trial, “I would say, ‘Look, this has not been tried in many Black people, so we don’t know precisely how it is going to work. But you don’t know precisely how it will work in any person.’”

From a research perspective, “You could say, as a group we don’t know if Black individuals respond the same way to anti-amyloid drugs because we don’t have the data,” Washington University’s Schindler said. “But on an individual level, it is different. If I had a Black patient who was amyloid-positive, I would start him on these drugs.”

But some Black patients might not be comfortable with the medication.

Zaldy S. Tan, director of the memory disorders center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said when African American patients are informed about the risks and benefits of Leqembi, and about the sparse data available for Black individuals, some will “take a pause and question whether they are willing to accept the uncertainty” and challenges of receiving the every-other-week infusion and multiple follow-up tests.

A promise of diversity

The best way to know for sure how drugs for Alzheimer’s — and other diseases — affect different populations is to have more diversity in trials, experts agree. But research participation by Black Americans and other people of color has been held down for years for several reasons.

The 20th century’s infamous Tuskegee syphilis study created long-standing mistrust about trials within the African American community. Men were left untreated to suffer and die even after an effective treatment emerged for the bacterium.

Alzheimer’s research, meanwhile, has long been centered in memory clinics at elite academic institutions, which tend to attract well-heeled patients with health insurance and other resources. The clinics have served as effective recruiting grounds for trials that end up with a predominantly White enrollment.

“We have done a poor job of making African American Alzheimer’s research inclusive,” said John Morris, a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis. More than two decades ago, he created an African American advisory board at the school’s Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center after realizing only 3 percent of trial participants were Black.

Others also are redoubling efforts to increase diversity. John Dwyer, president of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation, a nonprofit that runs trials, said the organization has sharply increased participation by people of color by sending dedicated teams of African American and Latino professionals into communities to build relationships with physicians and personnel at health centers, senior centers and places of worship. They stress to the communities how much they can benefit from the studies, he said.

Stephanie Monroe, vice president and senior adviser of health equity and access at the advocacy group UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, noted that low Black enrollment is not limited to Alzheimer’s trials. If all the drugs that have not been tested on people of color were eliminated, the shelves of pharmacies would be nearly empty, she said.

“That doesn’t work when you are almost a 50-50 minority/majority population,” Monroe said.

The FDA has issued guidelines for industry designed to bolster diversity in studies, while the National Institute on Aging recently pledged toprioritize funding requests that are “appropriately inclusive.”

The low Black enrollment in studies is just the latest controversy involving the anti-amyloid drugs. For years, earlier versions of the drugs failed repeatedly in trials. By contrast, Leqembi, in an 18-month trial, showed unambiguous, if modest, benefits, slowing disease progression by about 27 percent, or roughlyfive months. The drug, administered every other week, carries a list price of $26,500 a year.

In July, Lilly reported that its anti-amyloid drug, donanemab, was even more effective at removing amyloid. But like Leqembi, it can cause serious side effects, including brain hemorrhages. Some doctors think the drugs will provide bigger benefits when taken for a longer period or earlier in the disease, but others say the medications, which require repeated MRIs to check for side effects, leave much to be desired.

Both Eisai and Lilly said they are working hard to increase diversity in clinical trials. In the meantime, they said, patients with elevated amyloid should benefit from the anti-amyloid drugs, regardless of race or ethnicity.

“We have no pathophysiological reason to expect different efficacy between races and ethnicities for Alzheimer’s treatments that remove amyloid,”Lillysaid in a statement.

Eisai acknowledged that the Leqembi trial was not designed to test the drug in individual racial and ethnic subgroups. But it said in a statement that the totality of the evidence indicated that “all patients, regardless of ethnicity, benefited from treatment” with the drug.

“We and the U.S. FDA — as evidenced by the agency’s approval of Leqembi — believe that the benefits and risks in these patient populations and races has been established,” the company added. Eisai said volunteers who did not pass the amyloid threshold did not have Alzheimer’s and should be assessed for other conditions.

In an interview, Teresa Buracchio, acting director of the FDA’s Office of Neuroscience, said the agency “did not see a notable difference by race” in safety and effectiveness in the limited data available on subgroups in the Leqembi trial.

But other experts were skeptical, saying the number of Black patients in the Leqembi trial was too low to know whether the medication is safe and effective for African Americans. “Without having a representative population, it is impossible to assess,” said Barnes, of Rush University.Some researchers suggested that patients in underrepresented populations should wait for future advances in treatment.

‘We just want to get going’

On a recent day, nurse Christine Besso bustled in and out of Williford’s infusion room at the neurology clinic, taking his vital signs and inserting an IV line. “Let’s get this party started,” she said.

Byron-Williford, watching the process from a nearby couch, said she was not concerned about the low numbers of African Americans in the Leqembi trial.

“I think it will work or not work based on the individual,” she said, adding with a laugh, “and if it doesn’t work for him, it is because he is ornery.”

Byron-Williford said her husband’s health problems accelerated a few years ago after his son, who was in his early 20s, died unexpectedly. Williford became depressed and lost his appetite. Last summer, when he went to pick up his wife at a nearby hair salon, he drove around, lost. She later confiscated his car keys.

In the clinic, shortly after Williford’s infusion began, Weisman stopped in to check on him and discuss possible side effects. When Williford asked him how long he would be on the drug, Weisman shrugged, saying it depended on how he did on the drug and on test results.

“We are getting on an airplane, and we don’t even have a destination airport yet,” Weisman said. “We just want to get going.”

[coochiequeens]

Once again women have to go through extra preventative steps because men can’t control themselves

On TikTok, some women are posting about wearing large T-shirts that they call "subway shirts." 

The shirts are worn with the purpose of preventing catcalling while commuting. 

Leaving the house with a "subway shirt" has been a "rule" that some say they've lived by for years. 

As summer approaches, with all its promises of bright, sunny, sweaty weather, some women are taking to TikTok to issue a warning for others to protect themselves on public transport. 

The term "subway shirt" is gaining traction on TikTok, where women are filming themselves wearing oversized T-shirts over their strappy summer tops for safety while commuting.

"Otherwise known as an outfit dampener, it's an oversized tshirt we wear over our cute outfits so strange men don't bother you on the train," one TikToker wrote in a video posted on April 15, which has received 2.6 million views. 

The concept seems to have first emerged on TikTok in 2022 when several women filmed themselves putting an overshirt on to go outside despite the intense summer weather. It's picked up steam in recent months, and videos posted in April and May have received millions of cumulative views.  

Some TikTokers described it as a "rule" they have lived by for years to help them feel more safe, due to harassment being a "huge problem" in the cities where they live. 

In one video posted on May 24, one user said that she still experienced catcalling even though she wears a large overshirt most of the time while commuting. 

"I think at this point, guys will catcall at anything," she said. 

Several commenters responded to the videos by saying they related to feeling unsafe in public spaces, particularly during the summer, and that they believe it's a shame women are going to these lengths to protect themselves.

"It's so exhausting being on guard all the time for just existing in a feminine body," one user wrote. 

In a 2014 survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by the nonprofit organization Stop Street Harassment, 65% of women said they had experienced sexual harassment.

As Insider previously reported, women are increasingly using TikTok to document street harassment in real-time. Going viral with such posts has often resulted in renewed harassment in online spaces, which some women said created a "retraumatizing" effect.