#Peer to Peer Donation Platforms

[pucksandpower]

So Good to Her

Charles Leclerc x Reader

Summary: the public reacts to the TikTok challenge you and Charles inadvertently participated in

Read So Good to Me (about the TikTok challenge) here

The TikTok that the British influencer posted of his encounter with you and your incredibly generous boyfriend quickly goes viral, racking up millions of views, likes, and comments within mere hours.

It spreads like wildfire across social media platforms, with people sharing it on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook — even LinkedIn of all places. Everyone marvels at this mystery woman with the boyfriend of all boyfriends who casually sent her €10,000 just to buy a pair of shoes.

In a cozy London flat, a group of university students and diehard Charles fans gather around a laptop, eyes wide as they watch the now-viral video for the umpteenth time.

“I can’t believe Charles has a secret girlfriend!” Megan, a petite blonde wearing a red Ferrari cap, exclaims. “How did we not know about this? We follow his every move!”

Her best friend Ethan nods in agreement, his brow furrowed. “Seriously, who is this girl? She’s drop dead gorgeous and apparently Charles is just casually sending her 10 grand for shopping sprees?”

“Okay but like, goals though,” Lexi chimes in dreamily, clutching a Charles Leclerc poster to her chest. “Imagine having a boyfriend who’s not only mega hot and talented but also spoils you rotten. She’s living the dream.”

Ethan scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Oh come on, he can’t just throw money around like that. I bet this whole thing was staged for clout.”

Megan shoots him a withering glare. “Don’t be ridiculous. What would be the point? Charles is already one of the most popular drivers on the grid, he doesn’t need to pull PR stunts for attention.”

“Plus did you see the way he talked to her on the phone?” Lexi points out, rewinding the video. “That was not acting, that was real love and affection in his voice. I’m so soft for them already, ugh.”

The trio falls silent as they watch the clip again, zeroing in on every little detail and facial expression from both Charles’ mystery girlfriend and the clearly shocked TikToker.

Ethan chuckles and shakes his head. “I still can’t get over her reaction though. Just a guy who loves driving fast cars — I mean, the cheek! She really knows how to keep a secret, gotta give her that.”

“An icon, honestly,” Megan declares. “The fact that she told him to donate the money to an animal shelter too ... okay, I can’t even be mad. She seems like a sweet person.”

Lexi sighs happily, starry-eyed. “They’re literally a power couple. The sheer confidence and BDE of it all. I’m so jealous but also like, rooting for them? We have to find out who this girl is!”

As if on cue, Megan’s phone pings with a Twitter notification. Her eyes widen as she swipes to view it. “Guys. GUYS. The TikToker just confirmed her first name is Y/N and posted another video with a few more details about her!”

“Well don’t just sit there, play it!” Ethan demands, practically launching himself across the couch to peer over Megan’s shoulder at her phone screen. Lexi scrambles to join them, bouncing with anticipation.

In the new clip, the TikToker is grinning excitedly at the camera, an extra bounce in his step as he walks along the same Monaco street where he first approached you.

“Right, so I’m sure by now you’ve all seen my video with Charles Leclerc’s girlfriend go absolutely mental viral,” he begins, running a hand through his artfully tousled hair. “Which, can I just say — thank you so much for the insane support and love, you lot are the best fans ever.”

“Get to the point,” Ethan mutters under his breath, earning a sharp “Shh!” from both girls.

“Anyway,” the TikToker continues. “After she left and I finally picked my jaw up off the floor, I did some digging. I headed to that little boutique she mentioned in the call with Charles, just to see if she actually went in and bought anything. Thought maybe if I asked the staff, they might be able to give me some more info, you know?”

Megan, Ethan, and Lexi all subconsciously lean closer to the small phone screen, hanging on to his every word.

“So get this — not only did she buy the shoes, she apparently also went next door and purchased, and I quote, a frankly alarming amount of lingerie. The cashier said she dropped over 5 grand like it was nothing!”

Lexi lets out a scandalized gasp as Ethan chokes on his sip of Red Bull. Megan just shakes her head in wonderment. “The actual legend,” she murmurs reverently.

The TikToker laughs and waggles his eyebrows suggestively at the camera. “I don’t know about you lot, but I’m definitely sensing some spicy thank you for the shopping money activities were planned for a certain Ferrari driver, if you know what I mean. Get in there, Charles!”

“Gross, I so did not need that visual,” Ethan grumbles, but there’s a slight smirk playing on his lips all the same.

“Oh shut up, as if you wouldn’t do the exact same if you were dating Charles,” Lexi retorts with a playful shove to his shoulder.

“ANYWAY,” the TikToker presses on, “I did manage to squeeze a few more details out of the lovely shop girl. Apparently Charles’ girlfriend is named Y/N, no last name given for privacy reasons. But she’s a regular customer and, I quote, an absolute sweetheart who only ever has glowing things to say about her man. So there you have it, folks — Y/N and Charles are the real deal and we’re all just peasants watching a fairytale unfold.”

Megan sighs dreamily as the video ends. “Y/N and Charles,” she repeats to herself, already typing the names into her social media search bars. “God, even their names sound good together. I have to find out everything about her.”

“Dibs on making their ship name hashtag go viral,” Lexi calls out, already furiously typing away on her own phone.

Ethan snorts and rolls his eyes affectionately at his friends, but there’s no denying the small, reluctantly impressed smile tugging at the corners of his mouth too. “I give it two days before they’re papped together on some glamorous date night now that the secret’s out. Hope she’s ready for the attention dating an F1 star brings.”

“With that level of confidence and the way Charles clearly adores her? I think our girl Y/N will handle the spotlight just fine,” Megan says confidently.

Lexi nods in firm agreement. “Yep, a true queen. Charles better lock that down and wife her up real quick before one of us tries to snatch her for ourselves!”

***

In a cozy apartment not far from the very street where you had your memorable encounter with the TikToker, three young women huddle around a laptop screen, eyes wide and jaws slack as they watch the now viral video for the umpteenth time.

“I can’t believe this,” mutters Isabelle, a pretty brunette with an impressively encyclopedic knowledge of Formula 1 stats. “Charles has a girlfriend? Since when?”

“And he just sent her €10,000 like it was nothing!” Exclaims Maia, nervously twirling a strand of her platinum blonde hair. “I mean, I know he’s loaded but holy shit, the way he spoils her ...”

The third girl, Claire, bites her lip, a pensive look on her delicate features. “Did you hear what she said at the end though? Just a guy who loves driving fast cars. She was obviously talking about Charles. But the way she said it, all mysterious and like it was some inside joke ... I don’t know, it just rubs me the wrong way.”

Isabelle scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Please, she was totally gloating. Didn’t even have the decency to act a little humble about the fact that THE Charles Leclerc is apparently head over heels for her.”

“Exactly!” Maia chimes in, nodding vigorously. “Like okay, congrats, you bagged a hot, rich, famous race car driver. No need to rub it in the rest of our faces.”

Claire wrinkles her nose. “I just don’t get the vibe that she actually cares about him, you know? I mean, who asks their boyfriend to send them money in the middle of the day for some stupid shoes? While he’s working? She seems like such a gold digger.”

“Ugh, you’re so right,” Isabelle agrees, her lips curling in distaste. “Poor Charles is probably blind to it because he’s so gone for her. He didn’t even hesitate to transfer that money!”

Maia sighs dramatically and falls back on the bed. “God, it’s so unfair. Why can’t I find a man who’s that generous and totally obsessed with me? I’d treat him so much better than she does, you can already tell.”

Claire hums and taps her chin thoughtfully. “You know what, I think this smells fishy. How do we even know she’s actually Charles’ girlfriend? For all we know, she could have paid some guy who sounds like him to play along for a TikTok clout.”

Isabelle’s eyes narrow as she considers this possibility. “That’s true ... I haven’t come across any photos of them together or anything. Why has no one ever seen her before if they’re supposedly so in love?”

“Exactly!” Claire exclaims, growing more animated. “I’ve been a Charles fan for years and I’ve never seen or heard anything about a girlfriend. If they’re really dating, there’s no way it wouldn’t have come out before now.”

Maia sits up, suddenly energized by this new conspiracy theory. “Oh my god, you’re right! She’s probably just some wannabe influencer trying to get famous by pretending to be with Charles. That’s so pathetic.”

Isabelle nods slowly, a determined glint in her eye. “You know what? We should do some digging. Try to find out who this girl really is and expose her for the fraud she clearly is. Charles and the world deserve to know the truth.”

“Yesss, I’m so down for an investigation!” Maia says gleefully. “Imagine if we’re the ones who reveal that this whole thing is fake. We’d be doing Charles a huge favor.”

Claire is already pulling up Instagram and Twitter on her phone. “Let’s start by going through the comments on that TikTok and seeing if anyone has identified her or posted any receipts. There have to be some clues somewhere.”

The girls spend the next few hours poring over social media, searching for any scrap of information they can find about the mystery woman who has supposedly captured Charles Leclerc’s heart. They work themselves into a frenzy, convincing each other more and more that you can’t possibly be Charles’ real girlfriend. In their minds, you’re clearly just an opportunistic clout chaser looking for your 15 minutes of fame.

“God, I hope Charles sees through her act soon,” Isabelle says for the hundredth time, shaking her head. “He’s too good for some two-bit gold digger who’s just using him.”

“We’ll make sure he finds out who she really is,” Claire assures her firmly. “And then he’ll have no choice but to dump her lying ass.”

Maia sighs wistfully, hugging a throw pillow to her chest. “Do you think once he’s single again, I might actually have a chance? Like, if I run into him at a race one day and strike up a conversation, maybe he’ll realize I’m the girl he’s meant to be with ...”

“Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Claire says with a laugh. “First step is taking down this fraud of a girlfriend. Then we can daydream about being Mrs. Leclerc.”

The girls giggle and go back to their social media sleuthing with renewed determination. They’ve decided you’re public enemy number one and they won’t rest until they’ve exposed you for the fake, money-hungry, clout-chasing liar they’re certain you must be. In their eyes, they’re crusaders for truth, fighting to save their beloved Charles from your clutches.

What they don’t realize, of course, is just how very real and very deep Charles’ feelings for you actually are ... and that you’re not going anywhere anytime soon, Internet conspiracy theories be damned.

***

In a dimly lit basement somewhere in Italy, a group of die-hard Charles Leclerc fans huddle around a computer screen, their jaws dropping as they watch the video for the umpteenth time.

“Guys, are you seeing this shit?” Enzo, the self-appointed leader of the group, asks incredulously. “Who the hell is this girl and how did she bag Charles freakin’ Leclerc?”

“Dude, we don’t even know for sure that it’s actually Charles,” Giovanni points out skeptically. “She never said his name. It could be some other rich dude with a fast car.”

Enzo scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Oh come on, who else could it be? €10,000 like it’s nothing, is it possible that Leclerc has a secret girlfriend we don’t know about all this time? A guy who likes driving fast cars? It’s obviously Charles! Our boy is LOADED and that’s exactly how he’d spoil his girl.”

Luca nods in agreement, a dreamy expression on his face. “God, can you imagine being with Charles though? Having him call you all those cute pet names and just showering you with love and gifts? I’d fucking die.”

“Yeah, she has to be the luckiest woman on the planet,” Enzo sighs wistfully. “I mean, I’m straight, but even I’d let Charles ruin me, you know what I’m saying?”

The other guys murmur and nod in emphatic agreement, all of them momentarily lost in a fantasy of being Charles Leclerc’s pampered significant other.

“Okay but like, how is this even fair?” Giovanni gripes, breaking the spell. “The rest of us mere mortals are out here busting our asses on Tinder and Hinge, praying a decent girl will swipe right, and Charles just gets to date a literal goddess who is probably a model?”

“Life isn’t fair, Gio,” Enzo says solemnly. “Charles is on a completely different level. He could have any woman he wants and they’d all say yes before he even finished asking. The rules don’t apply to a guy like that.”

Luca suddenly sits up straight, his eyes widening with realization. “Holy shit, guys. Do you know what this means? If Charles is taken, that’s one less F1 driver on the market for all those grid girl groupies to throw themselves at! Maybe the rest of us actually have a chance now!”

Giovanni snorts derisively. “Yeah, you wish. Those chicks are still gonna be busy trying to get with Sainz or Verstappen or Norris. They’re not gonna settle for some nobody Ferrari fan. Let’s be real.”

“Wow, way to kill the vibe, Debbie Downer,” Luca mutters. He turns back to the computer and hits replay on the video, watching enviously as the TikToker clearly shows the €10,000 bank transfer on your phone. “Seriously though, how is this chick not freaking the fuck out? If Charles Leclerc randomly sent me 10 grand I’d be screaming and probably pass out.”

“She’s probably used to it,” Enzo says with a shrug. “I bet this is like, a regular Tuesday for her. Just casually strolling around Monaco, stopping into designer stores whenever she feels like it, Charles’ black credit card weighing down her Hermès purse. The bougiest of WAG lives.”

“God, what I wouldn’t give to trade places with her for just one day,” Giovanni says longingly. “Can you imagine getting to wake up next to Charles every morning? Having him make you breakfast and give you forehead kisses and tell you how much he loves you in that sexy accent?”

“Okay, now you’re just torturing yourself, bro,” Luca laughs. “You’ll be lucky if you can get a Tinder match to agree to split the bill at McDonalds.”

“Why you gotta bring me back to my sad reality like that?” Giovanni groans, chucking a throw pillow at Luca’s head. “Let me live vicariously through Charles’ bougie mystery girlfriend for a little while longer, damn.”

Enzo sighs and leans back in his chair, hands behind his head. “You know what the craziest part of all this is? The fact that Charles managed to keep a whole ass girlfriend hidden from the world. Like, the media has been speculating about his love life forever and no one had a clue he was actually in a serious relationship. That man moves in silence like a ninja.”

“Yeah, and did you see how he just casually threw out that he loves her?” Luca gushes. “He was all I love spoiling you, you deserve the world. My dude is head over heels for this girl and I am LIVING for it.”

“Ugh, why can’t I find a man like that?” Giovanni whines dramatically. “All I want is a guy who will write me cute Instagram captions in three languages and buy out the Gucci store for me but I guess that’s too much to ask!”

“Maybe if you stanned Charles harder, the universe would reward you,” Enzo snarks. “Start leaving thirsty comments on his shirtless pics, see if that manifests your dream F1 boyfriend.”

“Bold of you to assume I don’t already do that,” Giovanni retorts with a smirk. “How else do you think Oscar Piastri ended up in my DMs last night?”

“Wait, WHAT?” Luca and Enzo exclaim in unison, whipping their heads around to gape at their friend.

Giovanni bursts out laughing at their shocked faces. “I’m just kidding, jeez! You think I’d be sitting here listening to you losers if Oscar freaking Piastri actually messaged me? Puh-lease.”

“Man, don’t even joke about that,” Enzo grumbles, clutching at his heart. “You really had me going there for a sec.”

Luca huffs and slouches down in his seat. “Can we get back to being jealous of Charles’ sugar baby girlfriend now? I was enjoying that more than whatever the hell this conversation turned into.”

“She’s not his sugar baby!” Enzo argues. “They’re clearly in love! Did we watch the same video? The way he talked to her was mad cute. That’s his GIRL girl.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Luca concedes, holding his hands up in apology. “Charles might spoil her but he obviously adores her for more than just her looks. That’s the real relationship goals right there.”

“Imagine being so secure in your love that you can just ball out on your partner like that and know it’s only going to make them love you more,” Giovanni muses. “Cannot relate.”

Enzo nods sagely. “Charles is just built different, man. In more ways than one.”

“Truer words have never been spoken,” Luca agrees. “So, are we watching this video another 50 times or are we moving on to the Grill the Grid compilation I found of all of Charles’ most adorably flustered moments?”

Enzo grins maniacally and reaches for the mouse. “Oh, you know we’re watching the hell out of this absolute gift again. And then we’re gonna spend the next three hours cyberstalking Charles and seeing if we can find any other crumbs about who this legendary mystery woman is. For research purposes.”

“This is the most productive thing we’ve done in months and I’m not even ashamed,” Giovanni declares, cracking his knuckles in preparation for the intense social media deep dive they’re about to undertake.

***

In a crowded sports bar in Dublin, a group of die-hard Ferrari fans gather to watch the latest race. But today, there’s another bit of F1-related content that has their attention. They huddle around a phone, repeatedly watching the now-infamous TikTok video.

“Can you believe it? €10,000 just like that!” Exclaims James, a tall, lanky guy with a mop of curly hair. “I mean, I knew Charles was loaded but damn ...”

“Forget the money, did you see his girlfriend?” Tom, a stocky redhead, chimes in. “Absolutely stunning. Like, how does a race car driver land a girl like that?”

Mark, a quieter guy with glasses, rolls his eyes. “Uh, maybe because he’s Charles freaking Leclerc? The man’s a beast on the track and has the face of a Greek god. Girls probably throw themselves at him left and right.”

The guys all mutter in begrudging agreement, a note of envy coloring their voices. On screen, the video replays yet again, showing you confidently calling up your boyfriend and securing the small fortune without batting an eye.

“God, what I wouldn’t give to have a woman look at me the way she probably looks at Leclerc,” Tom sighs wistfully.

“In your dreams, mate,” James scoffs. “Girls like that are way out of our league. We can’t compete with a Ferrari paycheck and Monaco real estate.”

“Still doesn’t seem fair though,” grumbles Mark. “The dude’s already got it all — talent, fame, money. Leave some for the rest of us!”

On screen, the video reaches the part where you coolly inform the gobsmacked TikToker that you don’t need his measly €2,000 and he should donate it to an animal shelter instead. The guys let out low whistles, clearly impressed by your classy move.

“See, that right there, that’s what separates the Monegasque princess types from regular girls,” says James with an air of authority. “We would’ve taken the cash in a heartbeat.”

“Speak for yourself, I’m a man of principle,” Tom jokes, puffing out his chest exaggeratedly. The others snort and shove him playfully.

As the video ends, the guys sit back, each lost in their own wistful imaginings of what it must be like to be Charles Leclerc. To have the money, success, and effortless charm to win over a girl like you.

Mark is the first to break the contemplative silence. “Maybe we’re looking at this all wrong,” he muses thoughtfully. “I mean yeah, Charles is a lucky bastard, no doubt. But that girl, she seems like a real catch too. Like the kind of person who’d keep you humble and grounded, even when you’re a superstar athlete with the world at your feet.”

The others consider this, nodding slowly. “Fair point,” concedes Tom. “Behind every great man and all that jazz. Leclerc may have his millions but he still needs someone to call him out on his BS from time to time.”

“Exactly,” agrees Mark. “And did you hear the way he spoke to her on the phone? The dude’s completely smitten. He may have all the money and fame, but I bet she’s the real prize in his eyes.”

“Alright, alright, settle down Dr. Phil,” James interjects with a good-natured eye roll. “You gonna start writing romance novels in your spare time now? Maybe they’ll make a movie — The Tifosi Who Loved Me: A Charles Leclerc Story.”

The guys all crack up laughing at that, the tension broken. Their envy towards Leclerc’s charmed life remains, but it’s now tinged with a newfound respect and even a touch of empathy.

“Y’know, jokes aside, I do hope he realizes how lucky he is to have her and treats her right,” Mark says sincerely as their chuckles subside. “A love like that seems rare these days.”

Tom reaches over to clap Mark on the shoulder. “No worries, mate. Did you see the dopey grin on Charles’ face in those paparazzi pics of them together that came out earlier? That man is whipped with a capital W. He knows he’s got a keeper.”

“As he should,” nods James sagely. “Behind every great Ferrari champion is an even greater woman keeping his ego in check. Tale as old as time.”

On that note, the guys clink their pint glasses together, silently saluting the unnamed woman who stole the heart of Charles Leclerc and the envious admiration of Formula 1 fans worldwide. The mystery girlfriend with impeccable style and a heart of gold.

As the pre-race coverage starts up on the bar TV, the guys settle in to cheer on their favorite driver, their fleeting jealousy replaced by the camaraderie and excitement of race day. But in the back of their minds, a single wistful thought remains — what they wouldn’t give to find a love like Charles and his girl seem to share. Guess that’s just one more thing to add to the list of reasons to idolize Charles Leclerc.

***

Among the hordes of viewers obsessively replaying the clip are three best friends gathered for a girls night at a posh Parisian penthouse. Colette, the willowy blonde draped across a velvet chaise lounge, takes a sip of her champagne and shakes her head in wonder.

“God, can you imagine having a boyfriend who just casually drops 10k on you like it’s nothing? Talk about relationship goals,” she sighs dreamily.

Next to her, Nadia snorts derisively while scrolling through Instagram on her phone. “Oh please, like that’s hard to find. I bet loads of rich guys would do that for their girlfriends. It’s not that impressive.”

From her perch on a tufted ottoman, Stephanie raises a skeptical eyebrow. “Really? You think Liam would send you that kind of cash without batting an eye? Mr. I-Need-To-Check-With-My-Financial-Advisor-Before-I-Buy-A-New-Tie?”

Colette erupts into giggles at the scathing impression of Nadia’s banker boyfriend. Even Nadia cracks a reluctant smile before tossing her sleek dark hair.

“Whatever. I’m just saying, that TikTok chick’s boyfriend can’t be THAT special. I’m sure if we did the same challenge our boyfriends would come through too,” she declares with more than a hint of competitiveness in her voice.

“Oooh yes, let’s do it! Let’s recreate the video and see what happens!” Colette squeals, bouncing up and down on the chaise with excitement.

Stephanie, ever the voice of reason, looks uncertain. “I don’t know, guys ... isn’t it a bit tacky to demand money from them like that? What if they get mad?”

Nadia rolls her eyes. “Oh come on Steph, live a little! It’s just a silly experiment. Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“Okay, okay fine,” Stephanie relents, unable to resist her friends’ cajoling. “But I’m blaming you both if Omer breaks up with me over this!”

“Deal!” Colette grins impishly as she grabs her phone. “I’ll go first — let me call Henry and we’ll see if he’s as generous as Mystery Monaco Man.”

With a deep breath, she dials her property developer boyfriend and launches into her rehearsed plea as soon as he picks up. “Baby!” She whines. “You’ll never believe what happened. I’m out with the girls and my Louboutins broke! Like the heel just totally snapped off. I’m absolutely gutted, these were my faves. Is there any way you could send some money to my account so I can grab a new pair on the way home? Pleeeaaase, I’ll love you forever!”

There’s a heavy pause before Henry’s clipped voice comes through, tinged with annoyance. “Christ, again with the bloody shoes? What is it with you women and wasting my hard earned money on bits of leather you don’t need? Can’t you just take the broken ones to get fixed?”

Colette’s perfectly glossed pout trembles, her blue eyes shining with disappointed tears as Nadia and Stephanie look on in pity. “Never mind,” she mumbles. “Forget I asked. Chat later.” She hangs up and flings her phone down despondently.

“What an ass,” Nadia spits. “You deserve so much better.” Colette shrugs sadly but rallies as she turns to Stephanie expectantly.

“Okay Steph, your turn to give Omer a ring! Let’s hope he restores our faith in rich boyfriends everywhere.”

Stephanie grimaces but dutifully calls her Qatar-based hedge fund manager beau. In her most saccharine voice, she makes her case. “Habibi, you know that gorgeous YSL bag I showed you last week? It finally came back in stock but only for today! Could you maybe pop some cash in my account so I can treat myself? I’ve been working so hard lately and-”

“Wallahi Stephanie, how many handbags does one woman need?” Omer cuts her off irritably. “If I buy you this one, I don’t want to hear any more whining for designer things for at least 6 months, got it? I’ll send you 500 euros, that should more than cover it.”

“Oh. Right. Thanks, I guess ...” Stephanie replies glumly before ending the call. She shakes her head at her friends. “Well, it’s something at least?”

“Hardly,” Nadia scoffs. “These men, I swear. Okay, time for me to show you girls how it’s done. Watch and learn, ladies.”

With a confident smirk, she video calls Liam who answers distractedly, clearly still at the office despite the late hour. “This better be important Nadia, I’m right in the middle of-”

“Liam. Focus,” Nadia cuts him off crisply. “I need you to send €10,000 to my account right now. No questions asked.” She arches a commanding eyebrow, daring him to argue.

Liam just blinks at her for a moment before letting out an incredulous laugh. “I’m sorry, you need me to do what now? 10 grand, are you mad? For what possible reason?”

“To prove you love me,” Nadia retorts smugly. “I saw this thing on TikTok, some girl’s boyfriend sent her-”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Liam interrupts. “I’m not one of your little social media playthings to manipulate for views, Nadia. My money is not a toy. I’ll buy you a thoughtful gift for your birthday next month, but I’m not in the business of flinging cash at you for no reason. Now if you’ll excuse me, some of us have real work to do. Goodnight.”

With that he abruptly ends the call, leaving Nadia staring at the blank screen, a red flush of embarrassment and anger creeping up her elegant neck. Stephanie and Colette exchange knowing looks.

“So … that went well,” Stephanie quips sarcastically.

Colette sighs morosely as she flops back onto the chaise, hugging a silk pillow. “Maybe that girl’s boyfriend really is one of a kind. God, I bet she feels like the luckiest woman alive. Can you even imagine being THAT loved and adored?”

Nadia seems to deflate, her bravado evaporating. “No,” she whispers. “I can’t. You’re right, Col. Mystery Monaco Man is clearly in a league of his own. I bet he makes her feel like an absolute queen every damn day.”

Stephanie nods thoughtfully, twirling a lock of hair. “You know what though? Good for her. She seems lovely and down-to-earth in the video. If anyone deserves that fairy tale romance, it’s a girl like that who doesn’t even realize how special it is.”

“Ugh, so true. god I’m depressed now,” Colette groans, reaching for the champagne bottle to refill her glass. “To Mystery Monaco Man — may he set the standard for rich boyfriends everywhere. And to the girl who’s lucky enough to love him — may she live happily ever after and never take a single moment for granted.”

“Hear, hear,” Nadia and Stephanie chorus, clinking their glasses against Colette’s.

As the bubbles fizz on their tongues, the wistful faraway looks in their eyes betray the same thought — what they wouldn’t give to trade places with you for just a day, to know what it feels like to be cherished so completely by a man like Charles. To them, you’re living the ultimate dream.

If only they knew the best part isn’t the extravagant gestures or lavish gifts.

It’s the little moments. The soft kisses pressed to your temple. The fingers intertwined with yours. The sleepy smiles over morning coffee. The shared laughter and inside jokes. The unwavering support and unconditional acceptance. The bone-deep feeling of safety and coming home.

That’s the real fairy tale. And no amount of money could ever buy it.

***

Back in Monaco, Lando Norris slouches comfortably in his gaming chair, eyes glued to the triple monitors in front of him. He’s meant to be reviewing telemetry data in preparation for the upcoming race weekend, but the notification chime from his phone proves far too tempting. Lando picks up the device, fully intending to only glance at it for a second before dutifully returning to his work.

But then he sees it — the TikTok that at least a dozen people have sent to him in the past hour alone. Curiosity piqued, Lando clicks on the video and watches intently, his brows steadily rising towards his hairline with each passing second.

“Wait, is that ...” he mutters to himself as the clip plays out. When your boyfriend’s voice comes through the speakers, Lando’s eyes bug out comically. “Holy shit, it is Charles! And Y/N!”

A knock on the door makes Lando jump slightly. Before he can respond, a familiar mop of tousled chestnut hair pokes into the room. “Hey mate, did you see-” Max Verstappen starts to say.

“The TikTok of Charles simping hard for Y/N? Yup, watching it right now,” Lando finishes for him, eyes still glued to his phone screen in fascination.

Max invites himself into the room fully and flops down on the couch. “Absolutely crazy, right? Who just casually sends their girlfriend 10k for a random pair of shoes?”

Lando snorts. “Certainly not you, you stingy Dutchman,” he ribs playfully. Max chucks a throw pillow at him in retaliation.

“Hey, even I splurge on my girlfriend sometimes!” Max protests. “I just bought her ... erm ...” He racks his brain trying to remember the last lavish gift he purchased unprompted.

“A six-pack of Sugar Free Red Bull last week?” Lando supplies dryly.

“... Shut up.”

The two dissolve into snickers before turning their attention back to the TikTok, which has now looped to the beginning again.

“Charles is so whipped for Y/N,” Max observes, shaking his head in amused disbelief. “He’s just asking to get taken advantage of, throwing money around like that.”

“I think it’s kinda sweet,” Lando admits with a shrug. “He just wants to make her happy. Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same if your girl asked!”

Max scoffs. “What, fall victim to a gold digger? No thanks mate.”

“Y/N’s hardly a gold digger and you know it,” Lando chides. “She works hard for her own money and buys plenty of expensive gifts for Charles too. They just like spoiling each other ‘cause they’re in luuurve.” He draws out the last word in a silly voice, making dramatic kissy faces.

“Yeah, yeah, true love and all that sappy bullshit,” Max says dismissively, though there’s no real heat behind it. “I’m just saying, no way in hell I’m sending 10k on command for a pair of fucking shoes!”

Lando hums thoughtfully. “I would.”

Max’s head whips around to stare at him incredulously. “You what.”

“If it was the right girl? Sure, I’d do it,” Lando says nonchalantly. “Maybe not for something frivolous like shoes, but if my girlfriend called me up and said she needed 10k transferred ASAP? I’d do it, no questions asked. You gotta have that level of trust.”

Clearly torn between wanting to take the piss out of his friend and feeling a reluctant sort of respect, Max just grunts noncommittally in response before turning back to rewatch the clip once more.

Debate rages online among the fans about the cute interaction. Most find the whole thing adorably romantic, cooing over what a doting and generous boyfriend Charles is. They swoon at the obvious love and care between you two, speculating excitedly in the comments about when Charles might pop the question.

Others are more cynical, rolling their eyes at Charles “simping” so hard and accusing you of only dating the Ferrari driver for his money. However, these naysayers are quickly drowned out and ratio’d by your legions of adoring supporters.

Through it all, you and Charles pay the speculation little mind, blissfully wrapped up in your fairytale romance.

Charles returns home that evening to the mouthwatering aroma of his favorite pesto pasta dish wafting from the kitchen. He grins when he spots you at the stove, swaying your hips to the sultry jazz music playing from the speaker as you stir the sauce. Quietly, he comes up behind you and slips his strong arms around your waist, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“Mmm, smells amazing,” he murmurs appreciatively.

You turn in his embrace and loop your arms around his neck, smiling radiantly up at him. “Welcome home, Cha-Cha,” you greet him, using the silly pet name that never fails to make him chuckle and scrunch his nose adorably. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

“And what’s for dessert?” Charles asks with a playful waggle of his eyebrows.

Biting your lip coyly, you untangle yourself from his arms and saunter off towards the bedroom. “Come find out after we eat. Oh, and I picked up a little something special to express my gratitude for earlier ...” you call over your shoulder with a wink.

Charles’ megawatt grin could power all of Monaco for a year. Viral TikTok or not, the Monegasque knows he’s already the luckiest man in the world to have you as his partner through this crazy ride called life.

No amount of money could ever compare to the joy of being loved by you.

[girlfriendstan]

after this live, i can’t stop thinking about how much of a tease camboy!gyuvin would be. he’d go on stream wearing nothing but a white bathrobe and lean forward to talk to his viewers, making his robe’s neckline plunge down to show peeks of his bare chest.

“take it off,” camboy!gyuvin would read from the comments with a smirk, but he’d tighten the ribbon on his robe in response. not long after, he’d hear his favorite cha-ching sounds from the livestream platform, signaling a paid request from him to strip.

giving in, gyuvin would slip out of his robe teasingly slow, but he’d show the stream a good view of him shirtless eventually, with his nipples perking up and his slender but toned torso in full display. that doesn’t seem to be enough for his viewers since he’s still covering his crotch with his discarded robe.

another clinking sound would fill his ears while he coyly plays with his nipples for the stream. this time, the requests are getting lewder, all of them sending the same message. “show us your cock,” he peers closer to the screen before granting their wish.

as expected, camboy!gyuvin’s been packing, with his huge and girthy member filling up nearly a third of the screen. gyuvin would stroke experimentally, letting soft moans leave his lips while he pleasures himself. he cuts his actions short to stand up from his seat to supposedly adjust the camera, but really, he’s just giving his audience a better view of his fully nude body like the good whore he is.

camboy!gyuvin crouches down by the camera just enough to show off his nipples then slowly gets up, allowing everyone to get a closeup shot of his cock “accidentally.” he returns to his seat to stroke himself again, exhaling sharp breaths as he goes harder.

“want me to play with any toys?” he’d ask his viewers, who’ve seemed to triple since he got fully undressed. the comment section quickly gets filled with people asking camboy!gyuvin to fuck into a fleshlight, cash donations included. naturally, he obliges and takes out his fleshlight hidden in his seat, fitting his cock into the artificial tightness slowly but surely.

a loud groan leaves his mouth as gyuvin finally bottoms out, dragging the fleshlight up and down his impressive length. the sounds of his cock going in and out of the sex toy are obscene, which only serve to turn him on even more.

“need to be deep in real pussy right now,” camboy!gyuvin would tell his viewers, showing how horny and needy he’s gotten from a quick stroking session. “don’t you wish this was you,” he teases as he fucks into the fleshlight harder.

after a few more strokes, gyuvin would spill his release into the fleshlight, letting everyone know he reached his orgasm through a loud round of moaning. he strokes his softening member a couple of times to satisfy his commenters’ desires of seeing his cock a little more.

camboy!gyuvin would show off his tainted fleshlight for his viewers, letting some of his cum drip out of the fucked-out toy to show how proud he was of the mess he made.

waiting for the next stream of requests, camboy!gyuvin would spread his legs wide and expose his puckered asshole. surprisingly, his viewers can’t get enough of this new sight, so they flood his comments with “bend over”s and “finger yourself”s, among other requests begging him to make good use of his tight hole.

“fuck myself with a dildo?” camboy!gyuvin would giggle upon reading the unfiltered demand. “you’d have to pay a lot more for that one,” he’d quip teasingly, but his smug grin quickly gets replaced with shock when he hears a symphony of clinks.

[intoxicated-chan]

𝐈 𝐋𝐔𝐕 𝐔 .ೃ࿐ 𝐌𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐎'𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐚

© Intoxicated-Chan 2023, I do not allow my work to be copy, translated, or put my work on any other platform without my permission. All photos used belong to their rightful owners. Credits to @/cafekitsune, I love their work!

This ain’t a love story! This isn’t love! I do not condone any of the actions written, this is all fictional, it is not real. Each one of the characters are over 18!

This book contains heavy dark content! Such as… Stalking, abuse of power, blackmailing, peer pressure, threatening, forced proximity, assault, harassment, and much more! If any of the warnings bother you then please do not read.

Inspired by “I LUV U” by Mia Rodriguez

It was strange. A writer didn’t need an internship but considering how often she spends writing, (Y/n) needs money… And fast. She’s in desperate need to build a resume for work before she could even think of beginning her writing career. So when a counselor recommends Alchemax, she takes the offer with hesitation.

Miguel O’Hara sees his AI, Lyla to keep up with her work load. In order to keep everything on track, he contacts a community college that he often donated to. Of course, many internships emails flood his computer but only on interests him, (Y/n) (L/n).

CHAPTERS ↓ WATTPAD VERS.

𝟎𝟎𝟏 * *ೃ༄ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲

𝟎𝟎𝟐 * *ೃ༄ 𝐏𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤

[th3-c0ll3ct3r]

pssstt, mr beast employed a convicted pedophile who raped a child aged 1-11. Every work has background checks. His nickname is delaware, as a joke that he can’t go back to the state. Mr beast used the nickname multiple times, he appeared in his videos, mr beast when living with ava kris was seeing the damn pedophillic poster proudly sitting on the wall and its visible in his videos too. He also was active in the disgusting servers ava kris was in.

Bro ik but I got a Twitter DM from someone who will allegedly knew him telling me to stop already get sued and I'm not about to risk the lawsuit with the Millionaire.... ON TWITTER

Mr Beast has:

Hidden over 8 pedophiles at his company, some of which work with the children that they have in their videos.

Hired registered sex offenders to also help manage children in their videos.

Underpaid staff.

Try to peer pressure employees into letting him by them a house so that they could live closer to work making it so that their whole life revolved around his actions.

Had his friend illegally put down 1000 of his signatures on hoodies to give to fans, effectively scamming every single person who bought his hoodie.

Including harmful products and chemicals in his chocolate that he promoted would not be there.

He has literally committed a war crime. I'm not joking.

Had illegal gambling live streams with minors.

Violated many guidelines on the health and safety of everyone participating in the beast games.

Covered up sexual harassment within the beast games so that the episodes could come out on schedule

Good ol'tax fraud.

Not providing his workers with substantial healthcare got the shit they were doing

Holding out payment from certain people.

Purposefully manipulating of a content creators into believing that all of his challenges were indeed true and accurate so that they could spread the word and cover up anyone else who was saying that the challenges weren't real effectively using his friends to cover up his own lives dragging them down with him

Marketing Team Sea's, as saving the world getting a $100million together to help save the ocean, only to Backtrack later in interviews as he realizes that it did not in fact save the ocean and he actually caused irreparable damage to the ocean

Not recycling are the rubbish he collected from the ocean, and instead it ended up in landfill

Making anonymous donations to politicians

Unjustly firing Jake the Viking I'm not apologizing to him for it and refusing to supply him with ample unemployment pay for a long time

Being in a multiple discord servers with multiple minors and knowing that they were Minors

Defending Dr Disrespect

Endorsing the Shadman

Editing as of currently over 100 YouTube videos to remove the poster of the Shadman in his videos so that it can't be used as proof in court. That's right my friends. He's edited over a 100 videos currently and is still editing our every inappropriate comment form Ava Kris Tyson, every inappropriate comment of himself and all posters of the shadman as well as covering up his gambling

I don't know how many people knew this but he also made fun of Ironmouse, as in the vtuber for her disability in which he scrubbed the clip from the internet and acted like it never happened

Uses often AI generated scripts in his videos

He provides housings for pedophiles and sax offenders

Had one of the minor that either he or Ava Kris Tyson were messaging in that discord server be employed by Mr beast and another one appeared in a challenge. They had waited till these people turned 18.

And it is currently speculated that he is paying his girlfriend not to say anything

I also posted a theory on Twitter about why people don't believe Mr beast is a bad person. To which it was reported within the same day for misinformation and harmful content which practically proves I was right.

So I'll share it here. AHEM

Mr beast would only make his challenges in genuine for a select number of content creators with bigger platforms so that they could spread the word on their bigger platforms that is challenges were actually real.

But for other people like Rosanna Pansino and many of the winners they which rated poorly because they didn't have as big of a platform. He would do withdraw their winnings or what they actually should have been paid, disregard their feelings, sale to mention the terms and conditions set with the money that they had gotten from their challenge, an also failed to mention that the money that they had won or earned had not had the Taxes paid for them so by the time they had already spent the money they got to let us saying that they had to pay taxes because it came over additional income.

However the people who've said this publicly on YouTube with shadow-banned, because it made YouTube best earner look bad

[madlificent]

OC-tober Day 1: Fave OC

Sorochi Wolffe easily took the cake for this one. She’s one of my oldest OCs, beginning her existence as a Naruto OC as Sasuke’s sibling. But slowly, over the past 15 years, she has morphed into her own character, separate from her original ties. As that shift began, she started to become more and more of my personal emotional avatar, taking on many of my blossoming struggles with gender and identity. She was bisexual before I came out in late middle school. She began taking a more feminine form of expression long, long before I ever even seriously considered that I might be trans. And now, after I officially came out and transitioned her alongside myself, she’s sort of become a template for my own transition (I’ve actually been blonde for the past year as a result). 

And now, as my struggles with my identity begin to wane and I further accept and love who I truly am, Sorochi has been allowed to become her own person. She still holds many aspects of myself; my autistic traits, my sexuality and gender identity, some of my mannerisms. However, I have also allowed for other traits seen in friends, peers, and my partner to soak into her and develop her into a character that still reflects me, yet stands out enough to not be a simple self-insert. She is now one of the three main characters of Crystal Heart, my husband and I’s ongoing creative project that will, one day, culminate in a sort of mixed media graphic novel. 

For this post, I wanted to showcase both the art that I’ve made of her in the past year and the progression of her character design. I was initially against ever dredging up my old artwork, but as I played with putting it into this piece, my husband and friends pitched in that this might actually be the perfect way to showcase and talk about her. We get to see her transition as a character, following along a journey from Sasuke clone to the cute, short, blonde transgal she is today. The top post in the background collage is her most recent and official design for Crystal Heart. I really wanted to allow her design to reflect her transition, allowing for her shoulders to remain a bit broad and her face to show echoes of masculinity, but to hold the soft roundness that my own face has taken on. The addition of bangs and allowance for self-expression via makeup really improved her overall design and helped sell her generally melancholic, quiet demeanor. 

She will always hold a very near and dear place in my heart for all that she has represented for me over the past 15 years. And I am glad that, at the most current point in that time, I am finally able to divorce her slightly from me and develop her as a character in this passion project of ours. – I have a Ko-fi, where I am starting to post previews of upcoming illustrations, blog posts about creative topics, and more! It’s still in early stages, but I am quite committed to using it as a platform to share in my process and my love for this medium and our blooming passion project! So if you like my artwork and would like to support me, even sharing the page is greatly appreciated!

[littlxpxtal]

Little Dove | Chapter 1

You sat in the fitting room, picking at your fingers, legs bobbing up and down waiting for Tigris to bring out the dress she hand sewn for the ceremony.

“Ta-da!” she announced pleased with herself as she wheeled the gown out on a mannequin carved to your measurements.

You gasped in awe. It was a deep red with a provocative sweetheart neckline. The length was past the floor, sprawling out. A good excuse to use the new platform heels you bought a few weeks ago. 

Immediately undressing, Tigris helped you step into the dress, fitting perfectly to your curves as always. The fabric was a soft crushed velvet, lined with a slippery satin that made it comfortable to move around in.

“You’ve outdone yourself this time, Tigris”

“It was nothing! All I could think about was you on that stage wearing it.”

You blushed and kissed her cheek. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” you exclaimed. “Do you think he will like it?”

“He’s already seen it.” she winked. You stared at her quizzically. 

“And?”

“He wanted me to raise the neckline. I told him I would but”

“But you didnt” you laughed

“He just doesn’t get it. He’ll forgive me someday”

You watched yourself in the mirror, heart starting to race at the thought of actually winning this award.

She showed you the different hairstyles and accessories she envisioned with her dress and you let her do her magic, saying yes to almost everything she proposed due to excitement and the inability to actually think straight from the nervousness. 

You were against 3 other candidates, 2 from the gamemaker committee and one from the presidents cabinet. You constantly ridiculed your mind with doubts, these other people had far more important jobs and positions in Panem. Plus you were the only female nominee. 

“Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?” She asked as she removed the last necklace option. 

“Do you really think I can win?”

Her face immediately crossed at your silly inquiry.

“Are you joking? No women in Panem has had the balls to do what you’ve done. You’ve gone out of your way to get these billionaires to donate to your campaign. You went to the districts personally to see the televisions installed. You designed the campaign ads yourself and gave dozens of speeches infronts of hundreds of people to support your initiative. You did all of that ideating and creating by yourself and made it happen. None of those other losers came close to the amount of work you put in this year to make a name for yourself. If you lose this award to one of them I’ll make their wives lives hell.”

You looked down and smiled at her outburst, grabbing her hand over your shoulder and squeezing it. 

“I couldn’t do this without you.”

There was a knock at the door 

“Miss Y/L/N, your driver is here.” One of Tigris’s assistants announced through the door.

“That’s my cue” you said standing up preparing to have Tigris unzip the dress off of you. 

“Tell Coriolanus I said hello.” she said flatly. 

It was the day of the awards ceremony and you woke up to an empty bed. Coryo had mentioned he had some duties to attend before the ceremony, but you were not expecting to him to leave so early. You hadn’t been very vocal about your anxiety surrounding the event that night, in fact you rarely spoke about it with him. 

It was only spoken about once during dinner with some of Coriolanus’s old peers that he would occasionally have over. Keeping them in good spirits in case he needed their support down the road. 

“So did Y/N tell you about her nomination?” Clemensia asked across the table at Coriolanus, sitting at the head of the table.

His eyebrow quirked up.

“Nomination for what?”

“Innovator of the year!” She cheered, tipping her wine glass at you. You politely dabbed your mouth from the spoonful of soup you just swallowed. A blush creeping up your neck to your face you sat as still as possible, not moving your eyes away from Clemmie. 

“I nominated her.” Festus chimed in. “The work shes done at the firm has been stupendous” He added. 

You finally gained the courage to look over at your boyfriend and his jaw was clenched. The room was silent before he forced a smile. 

“That’s lovely, congratulations Y/N” you smiled softly back at him and placed a hand over his. He didnt move, or acknowledge the touch, he kept his forced smile and used his other hand to raise his glass. 

“To Y/N”

“TO Y/N” Everyone exclaimed. 

It was previously planned before the dinner that you would be staying at Coryo’s that night, but after dinner you wished there had been a car waiting to take you home. The silence in the apartment after the guests left was suffocating. The clinks of glasses and dishes as you and Coryo cleaned up the table were the only sounds to be heard. 

You were wiping the counter as he starting to losen his tie and uncuff his links. 

“Why didn’t you tell me about this award?” He asked with no emotion. 

Without turning to face him you sighed. 

“It’s not really that big of a deal, it’s just a nomination. I doubt I’ll even get it.”

He huffed and walked over, standing inches infront of you. 

“Tell me about it.” He looked hard at you, furrowing his brows, eyes piercing into yours. 

“It’s one of the newer ones they’ve come up with for this years ceremony before the reapings begin. Its a way to celebrate everyone who’s played a part, they’re making them bigger and bigger every year.”

“Yes I know about this ceremony, we’re invited to it and I’ve gone every year since University. I’m asking you about your nomination and how you qualified.”

“I was nominated for Innovator of the year -” he interrupted “By Festus Creed” stating annoyed. He walked over to the fridge to get a glass of water.

“Well yes, I didn’t ask him to, if thats what your thinking.” He let out a dark laugh. 

“No thats not what im thinking. Im thinking he did it to get under my skin. He’s always trying to find ways to undermine me, he probably knew I wasnt nominated for anything.” He sat the cup down forcefully.

That’s when you realized this anger was not from you not telling him, perhaps he even knew. He didn’t seem surprised when it was announced at dinner, he seemed annoyed if anything. The attention turning from him hosting his guests to them toasting to you. He was jealous.

“I was nominated for my implementation of the Hunger Games being televised in the homes of every district resident, and my hardwork at campaigning to get people to advertise and put money behind the games.” You simply stated. Turning to finish wiping off the counter and walking to the sink to rinse your hands.

“I don’t think I’m even going to win Coriolanus.” you sighed wiping your hands on a towel. “Im against 3 other strong candidates who have done much more important and serious jobs than this. Plus I’m a woman, there has never been a female winner in any of the categories since the beginning of the games and these ceremonies. In all honesty, I think it was Festus who was trying to get under my skin and humiliate me infront of all of Panem. For me to think I even have a chance to have my name on a screen among those who have a bigger legacy in the history of our country. I just made some flyers and put up some TVs in the districts.” Tears brimmed your eyes at the reality of it all. The shame you felt from getting your hopes up.

You heard his footsteps creep behind you, quickly wiping your tears before he could see how pathetically emotional you were getting over this. He touched the back of your arm and kissed the top of your head.

“You’re going to win.” He stated plainly, then left the room. 

An Avox brought breakfast to your bedside as requested. Unable to get most of it down, you slowly sipped the tea as you flicked through the TV, finally settling on a kids cartoon just to have some background noise as you tried to calm your nerves before having to start tonights preparations. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I can’t believe you made me come here” Tigris whispered, annoyed. 

“I’m sorry he wanted us to arrive together and I couldn’t convince him to get ready at my apartment.” you shrugged. 

Tigris and her crew of makeup artists got to work, putting heat on your hair and moisturizing your face. 

The sun was beginning to set, and you had about a full bottle of champagne down the hatch by the time they were done. Slipping on the gold strappy platform heels you’ve been daydreaming about, you walked over to the full body mirror Coryo had hanging in the guest bedroom. 

“WOW” you exclaimed. “I can’t believe you made me this pretty”

Tigris shushed you with her hands and picked up the train of your dress to lay around you, as designed. She handed you the box of the final necklace that was decided upon before whisking her assistants and tools away. 

“See you at the ceremony Y/N” she cheered before shutting the door. 

Taking the next few minutes of silence to admire yourself in the mirror, you were so absorbed in your own beauty that you didn’t even hear the door open, or his footsteps walking toward you. 

Only until you heard his voice did you notice his presence. 

“Need some help with that?” He motioned towards the jewlery box set on the stand by the mirror. 

You nodded your head excitedly and he opened it, smirking at the large piece of jewlery.

You eyed the exquisite gold necklace, lined with small diamonds around the base. 

“Tigris has a taste for the extravagant doesn’t she” you laughed sheepishly, not remembering it being an option she provided during your last visit. 

“I actually picked this one out.” he whispered in your ear. He motioned for you to lift your hair, and he placed it gently against your collarbones, fingers tracing lightly around your neck as he clasped it. 

You turned to face him, your nerves easing looking into his familiar eyes. “Thank you, I love it.”

He placed a small kiss on your cheek, avoiding the lipgloss that was applied a few moments before the team left. 

“The car is here” he said standing back up straight and eyeing himself in the mirror, making sure he was in check for the event. Sweeping a hand over the side of his hair to calm a strayaway that had popped out. 

“Coryo I’m nervous” you squeaked out.

He didn’t react, still staring at himself in the mirror to make sure all was put together. 

“Don’t be love, you’re going to win.”

His eyes flickered over to you for a second before placing a hand on your waist. 

“C’mon now, don’t work yourself up over this. Let’s just have a good time.”

Coryo wasn’t always the best at comforting your ailments, but tonight he was being particularly insensitive. Now no longer nervous, but frustrated you huffed, grabbing your purse and pulling up the train of your own dress to the car. Fiddling with your idle hands again, since he wasnt holding them, burrowing into deep thought of the morbid embarrassment you feel if you didn’t win. How sad it would be for Coriolanus to be seen with someone who was a loser. Your throat tightened, letting out a sob you had been holding the whole car ride.

“Pull over.” he demanded to the driver. 

“Dove, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t think I can do this, I can’t bare to humiliate you like this. Can we please go home and forget this. If anyone should be winning anything its you. Im so silly to think-”

“I need you to listen to me right now. You will not humiliate me, you should be proud of yourself for being nominated. Its an honor, one that you have rightfully been nominated for. You wouldn’t be here if there werent people behind those doors who didnt believe that. Please pull yourself together, for me?” He held your hand, fingers tracing the side of your face as you stared into his eyes, searching for more. You wanted him to be proud of you, to be more open. About anything. 

“Okay.” you whispered. “I’m ready”

“Go on.” Coryo instructed the driver. He held onto your hand until the car came to a stop again infornt of the parade of photographers outside of the building. He released your hand to step out, waving the cameras away so he could come around to your side of the car. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and flashes blinding you slightly, making you forget where you were, what you were there for and what you were wearing. Immediately becoming self conscious, you gave a small smile to the cameras before grabbing Coryo’s hand to lift yourself from the car seat.

After regaining your composure, you put on the performance you usually gave to those outside of your close circle, a radiating confidence that had people swooning at the sight. You gave a smirk at the cameras before leaning over to give Coryo a kiss on the cheek. He rolled his eyes, only slight enough for you to see. The camera men cheered, begging for more. 

This was what originally attracted Coriolanus to you. Your confidence and way with people. You couldn manipulate people with your smile, sarcasm and humour. People would fight for your attention in conversation, dying for you to hear what they have to say. You were such a people person it made him sick. You were also better at networking than him, which would make his blood boil if you took it too far. 

Your flirtatious manners have gotten you into trouble a few times with him. Taking just a little too far for his liking, but he could never stay mad at you, since he knew it was all an act. All a performance. Behind closed doors your were doubtful, over thinking every interaction you had. An intense anxiety over every decision you made. On the outside you were so sure of yourself. But on the inside you were always second guessing and frightened. 

That was the difference between you two. 

As for Coriolanus, his confidence outside was just an expression of how he felt inside. He was more sure of himself than anyone you had ever met, which is what attracted you to him. 

Together you were a force to be reckoned with. 

He let you have your time with the cameras, letting them get shots of all angles of your dress and accessories. 

“Who designed your outfit this evening Y/N”

“Tigris Snow of course, who else?” You smiled brightly, placing your hands on your hips and winking at the camera man the question had been asked from. 

“But this necklace is from my lover, Coriolanus.” You gesture over to the man standing to the side. The cameras began to flash and point at him. They began shouting questions at him, except they weren’t the normal questions he’s usually asked at these events. 

Like what new laws hes proposing, or when he will run for president. 

No. 

Tonight they were all questions about you. 

You tried reading his face to see what he was thinking, but just like you, Coryo put on an act for the cameras. 

“Do you think Y/N is going to win Innovator of the year?” One shouted.

Unable to read his expression as you guys strode up the stairs, him holding onto your train for you this time, he stops and turns to look over his shoulder

“Hell yes she is.”

[blackdollette]

kinktober day 12.

10.23 - SEX TAPE | CHRIS KENTON!

݁ ˖🕸️.𖥔 ݁ ˖ {tags} @willsdollface @bub0nic-plague @izuoyarmin @auggiethecreator @angelsanarchy @s-al-em @that-one-persons-posts @kashmirclam @areuirish @oliviah-25 @bl1ssfulbaby

previous: 10.21 - DOUBLE PENETRATION!

camstar!reader x chris

word count: 1.4k

contents: sex on camera, masturbation, blowjob, lots of nasty stuff

chris was everybody’s favourite rich boy, seemingly perfect on the inside and out. from his silky brown hair to his pearly white smile, he was the poster boy of perfection. but even he needed to unfold sometimes, and what better way to do that than to watch his favourite camgirl in action, though you had no idea that he was the kind viewer that always donated so much money to your streams. it was his dirty little secret.

every day at school, he would watch your every move. he was addicted to the little things you did, every hair flip, eye roll, and flick of your wrist only fueled his growing desire for you. so you can believe he was on top of the world when he found your onlyfans on that fateful day. he never missed a stream and he always made sure to donate a minimum of $500 to you every time you came or squirted in front of the camera.

the anonymous name would appear on screen, announcing the donation. you had unlimited gratitude for whoever the person could’ve been. you desperately wanted to show your gratitude to him, but the most you could do was breathlessly moan out his username as you hit your climax.

chris had a ritual for whenever he was about to watch you. he would lock all the doors and windows, dimming his lights and sitting on his bed with his legs spread out, his computer propped right behind his throbbing cock. he found that this technique made it seem as if you were really there.

he loved watching you spread your legs apart and fuck your sweet little cunt with a dildo for all your fans, doing what ever they asked of you. he understood that this field of work wasnt easy, which also gave him a high amount of respect for you. and that respect continued to grow when he saw how well you kept it a secret from the rest of your peers.

he always had the dream of being the one to fuck you while you were live, in front of all the envious men who wished that they were in his position. he pumped his sore little cock, imagining you on camera with his hand wrapped around your throat, filling you up so so well with his hot cum. on one particular stream, you were dressed in black thigh-high socks and fishnet stockings, chris’ favourite ensemble. 

he had been bold that day and requested all his dirtiest fantasies: edging yourself until you sobbed, fingering yourself until you squirted past your limits and still continuing to torture yourself, rubbing your sore little clit til it was all red and puffy, stuffing a vibrator into your hole and cumming on it until the batteries died and licking up the huge mess you made like a good little girl.

watching you do every single thing he asked, he gave his most generous tip of all: $1,000. and all for one hour of your stream. this donation was the largest one you had ever received, and it with all from the kind person who supported each and every one of your shows. so one day, you decided to show your gratitude.

you opened your streaming platform, sending a direct message to the anonymous sender. you thanked him for the kind donation and offered to meet up with him for a special stream. and just like that, chris’ biggest wish had come true. he took the liberty of buying an expensive hotel room, making sure that it was adorned with all your favourite toys and accessories. 

he sent you the address, anxiously waiting in the freshly prepped room for your arrival. it had only just now occurred to him that you would be seeing that the anonymous supporter had been him the whole time. he paced around the room nervously, fidgeting with his groomed suit. he had planned everything out so precisely, but failed to think this one thing through.

his thoughts were interrupted when he heard a key in the door. before he could react, you slowly walked in, eyes wide with awe as you admired the beautiful setting. your eyes met his, and all the nervousness you had been feeling from before had vanished. a look of relief settled on your face when you saw the familiar face.

you were wearing a tight little black dress and black boots, appearing casually sexy for the occasion. that was another thing he liked about you: you always knew how to dress in such a way that made his gut sizzle. with a few shy exchanged greetings, you pulled out your laptop, setting it in the perfect position on the bed to capture every thing that you two were going to do tonight.

you waved him over, as you hit the “live” button on the screen. this was it, you were live. viewers already started chiming in, immediately noticing your new setting. you pulled chris to you, instantly locking him into a deep kiss. he gasped softly, crawling onto the bed and resting on top of you. 

his hands found the top of your dress, hastily pulling it down and revealing your plump tits. you unbutton his ironed shirt, tossing it to the side and revealing his soft, muscular figure. he tore the dress off of you and kicked off his pants, already getting the hang of it. you could hear constant pings from the viewers, already requesting multiple things from you.

once you and him were both stripped down, the cold air of the room blowing across your bodies, you sunk down so that you were face to face with his erect cock. chris was speechless. he had imagined this ordeal countless times, but it finally coming true was completely mindblowing. you spat on his tip, taking his full length in your mouth and batting your angelically long eyelashes at him.

he swallowed a low groan, using all his will power to not bust in your mouth prematurely. he brought a hand to the back of your head, guiding you up and down his length as you took the whole thing like a true professional. you reached a hand down to your throbbing clit, rubbing quick circles on it right in front of the camera.

chris watched you through the screen, seeing you massage your wet little cunt as you hungrily sucked him off. your technique was perfect, each swirl of your tongue and flutter of your throat nearly throwing him off the edge. after a few more minutes of this pure bliss, you pulled off, earning a small whimper from him.

you climbed back up to his level, your legs on each side of him as you placed your hands on his shoulders. your pussy was dripping wet, allowing it to effortlessly slip down onto him. he tossed his head back, his moans being too loud to silence as you started riding him at a quick pace.

the wetness was audible through the screen, giving all the viewers a 5 star experience from the comfort of their homes. chris placed his hands on your hips as he bucked his shaft into you, cum already leaking out of your tight hole your moans filled the room, echoing through the glass walls and giving everyone a taste of what you were up to.

it was chris’ turn to bring some action. he picked you up, flipping you into doggystyle and mercilessly pounding into you. you ass recoiled with every thrust, slapping against chris’ hips and making his cock throb. you screamed out, stuffing your head into the mattress. he reached a hand forward and started toying with your swollen cunt, using your cum as lube to glide his fingers across your slit.

you could tell that the viewers were absolutely loving this. you were surely getting 10x the recognition you usually did. your hips slapped into his, staining your ass with a slight pink tint. cum dripped out of your pussy, making a mess of you and him in a matter of seconds. your cunt was so tight around his length, desperate to milk him for every drop he had.

this whole thing was so unreal to him. here he was, fucking his favourite pornstar in front of all her fans, showing them what it was like to be living the dream. after a few more hours of the show, you ended it by sloppily making out with him as he cum slowly leaked out of your little hole. 

life after that went on as normal, except for the fact that chris kept the footage of that stream on a special cassette tape labelled with your name on it, reminding him of the best night of his life.

author's note: i love this one sm yall, def one of my favourites

[truthinlifetarot]

What Mythical Creature Are You?

How to Pick a Pile? Some of us focus on the image that seems to call to us most, some intuitively choose regardless of picture. Don't overthink it. Choose whichever pile you feel called to. It may even be more than one!

Gif credit: @spiritofdragonfire

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Pile 1:

You are a Pheonix or Griffin. There is a bird energy here of strength and resilience. You are good at manifesting and creation. For some of you this creation involves more creating with your hands and less actual birth. This pile is infamous for getting things done with a fiery energy. You guys could flow with your emotions effectively, or if you don’t, you should. This is the kind of energy that is meant to soar and be free!

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Pile 2:

You guys are the Kraken. Not that you guys sink ships and drag them to the bottom of the ocean. More like you guys are the people with reach and coercion. I feel like you guys have used that power for evil in the past, but it’s not an inherently evil trait to have. This could be on a small or big scale. I also see that this isn’t something that you would see or call out yourself. You could be anywhere from a parent whose children dread them coming home because their mood affects the whole household, or an employer who does the same thing to their employees

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Pile 3:

You are a siren or fairie. You have a feminine energy about you that is very abundant and sure. There is a determination about you that connects you to a higher power. This group may have always been seen as beautiful or have had people treat you very differently from your peers. You may have dimmed yourself as a result, but you have the power of persuasion and manifestation. Never forget it.

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[frostironfudge]

Silhouettes In the Spotlight - Bucky Barnes - Twelve

Summary: Bucky Barnes has worked immensely hard to have a filmography expanding across genres and garnering accolades from critics, peers and fans. Y/N Y/L/N, with her debut novel (fan-fiction turned New York Times Bestseller) has two other best sellers under her belt. Next is her highly anticipated fourth book lined up for release. SHEILD Productions has acquired the film rights to her debut novel and they want Bucky Barnes to play the lead (aka himself) by any means necessary. This story is about angst, lust, heartbreak, and love. After all fairytales only exist in books and movies right?

Warnings: angst, swearing, blackmailing, anxiety attack (experienced by reader), fluff, bucky being the best boyfriend, soft moments.

Pairing: Actor!Bucky Barnes x Plus Size!Fem!Reader

Word Count: 4k || Dividers: @firefly-graphics

Main Masterlist || Fic Masterlist || AO3

Chapter Eleven || Chapter Thirteen

HEADLINES:

Dolores Launches Make-Up Collab With Brand, Faces Backlash Over Zero Representation In Model’s Diversity 

Sharon Carter’s Take On The Diversity Issue In Media, Dolores Apologises On Live 9 Pm News and Campaign Reworking Calls For Aspiring Models Of Different Diversities To Send In Their Portfolios and Social Media Handles To HYDRA

Alexander Pierce Celebrates Success Of HYDRA’s Take Over On Prime Time Spots Across The Boards 

Steve Rogers and Loki Laufeyson Partner With Online Mental Health Platform To Improve Accessibility. 

Bucky Barnes Donates Generously To Children’s Centre And Visits Them, Look At The Adorable Pictures. 

“Tell me this is a fucking joke.” Natasha stares not at you but your raised palm. Then her jaw clenches. 

“Maria.” Her green eyes tear away from your hand to the brown eyed woman. 

Who schools her expression at the very last second. Disguising the utter disbelief. 

“Dolores stays.” Alexander chimes, you put down your hand and put on an expression of indifference. 

“Please at least look at the audition tape we have compiled.” Natasha urges grabbing the remote. 

“You will like it Alexander.” Maria looks towards him. 

He yawns, “I am tired of this conversation. The votes for Dolores outweigh the votes for your possible replacement.” 

Maria glares at Nick Fury, her eyes shift to you and only disappointment and then a recognition colour her gaze. You look away. She couldn’t guess nor know.

“I can’t fucking believe this, Y/N you of all people?” Natasha pushes her chair back, stomping out of the conference room. 

You sigh, standing to follow her. 

“Y/N, I want to discuss something urgent regarding your deadline for the manuscript.” Alexander stops you in your tracks. 

You hadn’t written a word in weeks. Yelena had been handling the responses to the publishing house. There were only so many excuses that could be used.

“Yes?” You turn to him. He smirks, you curb the chill climbing up your spine. 

“It has been moved up by a month. Therefore, you have three weeks before you submit the first complete manuscript draft.” He informs, you stare at him. 

“That isn’t—,”

“I want it complete because I want the script written and ready.” He cuts you off.

“But—,” 

“Nick we have that meeting with Bucky next right? I’ll handle it alone.” Alexander’s thinly veiled threat fills you with dread. 

“You, you will have the manuscript.” You speak loud enough. 

“Second thought, Nick, be there.” He smiles at the man. 

“Alright, Boss.” Fury answers curtly, his gaze shifts to you as if reading between the lines. Trying to find a weakness in your defences. 

You had no defence to begin with, so what could he find? Holding onto sanity and yourself was getting hard. You were overwhelmed from all aspects.

“Well then Ms. Y/L/N, better be off typing away. It better be quality material.” His cold gaze follows you out the door. 

You numbly make your way to the parking area, Hayden stands with a smile near the car. A small nod of his head points you to Bucky trying to calm Natasha down. 

She’s visibly upset and then she looks towards you as you make your way over. 

“Nat, look I’m sure Feather has reason enough to—,”

“She wants to bring Dolores back on board after she cried her heart out at the misrepresentation occuring.” She seethes and Bucky pauses. 

“She voted with him?” You can hear the disbelief colouring his voice. 

“Ask her go on, ask your girl why the fuck is she fucking with this project.” Nat gestures towards you and Bucky turns. 

“Feather, you brought her back on?” Bucky tries to understand why then you hand your phone over to him. It would explain everything. At that moment he gets a call from Sam, urging him to move into the meeting. He walks away a worried glance between the two of you.

“I trusted you.” Nat glowered.

“Nat, keeping her on keeps us on course and wastes lesser resources.” You give her bullshit reason. 

“Bullshit, you know we could do better without her. Is this about you not trusting my directive vision?” She steps forward. 

“I trust you more than anything.” You reach for her hand.

Nat withdraws herself, “If you did you would have backed me not sided with the monster I told you about, in confidence.”

“Nat, please.” You beg, frantic.

“No, I trust Bucky. Hell, I trusted Steve too. You however, you take the fucking cake.” She scoffs, “Good thing Yelena still keeps you at arms length. I wondered why? Why would my sister, who claims to be so close, still won't let her in? Now I know. After everything I shared, I confided in you.”

Your heart hammers, you can’t tell anyone. Not anymore than the people involved. Yelena, Sam, Angel, Andy, Matt, Loki, Steve and James.

‘The more people know, the harder it will be to keep it under wraps.’ Darcy’s face harboured a familiar sadness.

‘Why the sadness?’ You questioned.

‘Sometimes, you lose friends in this process. Keeping things comes with a certain degree of sacrifice.’ She discards a piece of lint.

‘Won’t they understand after?’ Your friends flash before your eyes.

She smiles at your childish hopefulness, ‘Sometimes, but those are rare.’ Her words echo.

“Nat please, try to understand.” You press, following her to her car.

“Keeping Dolores on is financially beneficial to you as a producer. Which is why Alexander and Fury are backing it. Welcome to Hollywood Y/N, you’re officially a fucking sellout.” She climbs into her car, 

“After everything that happened, after everything that I confided in you. After all the bonding with you, your mom. You put money before everything. Fuck. You.” She slammed the car door. 

The engine revs as the tires screech when she pulls out of the lot.

“What made you agree to hire Dolores back?” Yelena questions, baffled.

You sigh, “Lena–,”

“Nat is inconsolable, she hasn’t been this distraught over a project in years.” Her sister accuses you, eyes narrowed. A scowl on her face.

“At least you could have watched the audition tape, I found her promising.” She scoffs, settling onto her chair. It squeaks as she faces away from you. Her jaw set.

You press the heels of your palms against your eyes. The perfume you had put lightly wafts into your senses. The BW office seems darker, once a beacon of light amongst darkness was now shrouded within it.

“Alexander has pulled the date ahead for the manuscript.” You say, she turns then stops herself looking back out the window.

“Then you better have it ready. I can’t make more excuses for you.” The coldness permeates her words and the surrounding.

“You know I can’t tell Nat what goes on now about the case right? Anything that happens, after the fact of that evening and the following days where you all came home? Nat said you keep me at arms length still.” your words have her stiffen in the slightest.

“I can understand that, I myself seldom trust in people, Lena.” You brush a hand over your nose, “At the risk of sounding like a broken record, because maybe I am, the cycle repeats over and over of getting fucked over. I received an email, with pictures of James and a few of mine along with a warning. Unfortunately, I cannot tell Natasha anything due to our agreements with two certain people. So I had to back that creep.” You stand, “I’ll try to have the manuscript reach you in time. I’m sorry to have you make excuses for me. Tell, tell Nat I’m sorry and I wish things were different. If there is anyone I would blindly trust with my labour of love and tears, it's her.” 

She doesn’t move when you make your way to the door, nor when you reach the elevator and head to the parking lot, alone. Your resolve crumbles just as Hayden shuts his own door and begins the drive home.

The city lights and gleam of the dashboard blur into your own storm. Laying across the seat, the anxiety attack has you succumb towards it. Hayden says a lot of things but none reach you. You want to apologise to him. You wonder if the ‘sorry’ echoing around you reaches him.

The images flash through your mind and so does Alexander’s wickedness. The endless warnings on a loop.

Soon a familiar scent encompasses the car, you’re flush against the warmth. Soothing warmth and grounding coolness move over your head, then down your back. There is a rumble against your chest. 

You blink, when you feel something prickly over your palms. The sensation repeats then turns light. Then planes of warmth with a slight dampness. The softness is familiar. 

You blink again at the haze clearing your mind. 

Soft lips ghost over your palms, your brain scrambles to get to him. Through the haze, you meet his blue eyes. 

You find home within them. 

A constant thudding under your palms. A rhythmic rise and fall. 

The scent finally registers, woodsy, warm and one that lingered upon your clothes and being long after its source would leave. 

“There she is,” Bucky cups your face, a small smile on his lips, “take a deep breath for me Feather.”

“James?” Your voice is scratchy. 

“It’s me, Feather. Good girl, doing so well.” He affirms, thumb brushing over your cheekbone. Wiping at the tears. You inhale with each upward stroke of his left thumb and exhale when his right thumb moves.

“James,” you crumble, forehead resting against his, your body begins to realise you’re across his lap in the back of the car. 

“I’m so sorry baby, I couldn’t help you with the rehire avoidance.” He kisses your cupid’s bow softly. 

You shake your head, “Not your fault.” 

“I could have protected you better, you wouldn’t have to be blamed for going back on your word or what you believe in.” He sighs defeated. 

“James, this isn’t—,”

“But it is, if, if I’d kept my distance, you wouldn’t get manipulated over me. I shouldn’t have gotten involved—,”

You push at his chest, cutting him off. 

“Do you regret it then? Regret us?” You ask, if you had to lose him too today, you’d crumble. You could even tolerate the thought. 

“Y/N, I,” He pauses searching for the words.

“Why are you blaming yourself for what that horrible man did? He would have done it whether or not you held my heart in your hands.” 

His head rests against the headrest, he looks up. Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows, then closes his eyes. 

He takes a deep inhale, you observe in the glow from his gym’s sign. 

“I don’t regret even a second of us. Yes, I regret being rude to you, not speaking clearly and honestly being a dickhead. I do not regret a single moment spent with you. I do not regret speaking to you through our music choices. I do not regret getting to know you between the walls of your home and mine. I do not regret whisking you away for mini dates within the trailers. I do not regret confessing my love to you, I do not regret kissing you, I do not regret loving you. I do not regret continually falling for you.” Blue eyes meet yours, Bucky watches as his words move over you. 

“I do not regret us.” He whispers lips brushing over your forehead.

“I love you.” You murmur, you feel him smile against your skin.

“I love you too.” His voice is soft.

Exhaustion lingers at the periphery of his pupils, you feel yourself grow tired as well.

“Did I scare Hayden?” You look around, he’s not near the car.

Bucky’s vibranium fingers brush over your cheek, curving around your jaw, making you look back at him. 

“He’s had experience with my anxiety and PTSD. Usually he’d drive me to my doctor’s or back home, he did a few courses after to help me and he volunteers at a local centre as well.” 

Warmth pools in your chest, the way Hayden takes care of those close to him. Your lips form a small smile. 

“Did I interrupt your workout?” You realise then he’s wearing a short sleeved t-shirt. It hugs all his muscles. You swallow as your eyes trace the vein running down his arm. 

“I finished up when Hayden called, you didn’t interrupt anything.” He only chuckles seeing your eyes trace him, “see something you like Feather?” voice light and teasing. 

Your head nods before you can control it. Skin heating under his mirthful but darkening gaze. The light of the gym’s entrance flickers, the blue of his eyes overtaken by the dark black of his pupil. 

“I see something I like too, Feather.” His flesh hand moves to your lower back drawing you closer. You feel him then, against your inner thigh. The athletic wear is straining against him. 

Bucky groans softly, feeling your thighs clench. Leaning forward, your chest presses against his, he watches you intently. Allowing you to set the pace. 

“Kiss me?” You request, Bucky complies happily. 

Pressing his lips to yours, impossibly close and pressed against his body. Your lips part when his tongue moves over your bottom lip. You preen, feeling him explore your mouth. Slowly growing slack against him. 

You kiss back, fingers tightening in his hair. Free hand moving over him, mapping out your world that encompasses upon and within him. With him. 

Bucky hums against your lips when your hands move lower, the sound pooling within your stomach. Your thighs clench as his hands move your hips back and forth. Your whimper is swallowed by the kiss.

His lips part from yours, trailing down your neck. When he nips at a pulse point you shudder in his grasp. Bucky hisses as it causes you to grind down harder on him. 

“Fuck, I,” 

There is a flash outside cutting off Bucky. Hayden knocks on the driver’s side door. Another flash and then a shout of Bucky’s name. You begin to clamber out of his lap, his grip on you tightens. The windscreen had reflectors in place for privacy while parked. 

“If Hayden opens his door, everyone will see.” You explain, out of breath.

“It’s about time.” He cups your face.

“James–,” You tense, Hayden knocks again.

Bucky’s gaze moves from determined to understanding, his grip loosens on your hips. He assists you in shifting from his lap and settling beside him. He refused not to have you curled close to him.

Reaching over between the seats pressing the partition button. Its soft hum drowns out once the paps outside gain momentum.  Chanting for Bucky to show them a glimpse.  Bucky knocks on his window signalling Hayden it was okay to get in, the man swiftly opens and shuts the door.

Hayden checks the partition and once he’s satisfied then turns ignition on and he begins to navigate the two of you home. 

The nurse greets you with a smile, saying that Alpine was curled up with your mom as they both slept soundly. 

You check up on them in her room, taking a picture of them for later. Taking note of the updates from the nurse before she left. 

Bucky smiles at the thought, all of you living together like a small family. Before he can verbalise his thoughts Sam begins calling him. 

“Hey.” Bucky greets, heading into the kitchen to speak. 

“The fan you took a picture with caused the location leak.” Sam informs, the actor sighs rubbing a hand over his face. 

“How is she holding up?” Sam asks, “Headlines are running wild speculations, saying there is a possible fall out.” 

“She had an anxiety attack.” Bucky shakes his head, biting the inside of his cheek. He knew if Nat knew she would not have reacted that way. The guilt weighs upon him. 

“I hope you aren’t blaming yourself.” Sam reminds, a humourless chuckle leaves his lips. 

“I know you are, you cannot feel guilty for what happened.” 

“I understand that but I can’t help it Sam, I wish, I wish I was never at the damn airport.”

“I wish that too, we were all played by him, in the scheme. What is important is how we go from here okay? She will come out stronger, she has everyone she needs and more.” Sam’s words lightly ease the knot in Bucky’s chest. 

“James?” You call out.

“In here Feather.” He replies,

“Man, I practically can see the goofy grin on your face.” Sam laughs.

He watches your smile take over your features when you locate him. 

You admire his own grin as it warms your heart. 

“I’ll call you back.” Bucky says, keeping the phone. 

“How is she?” He questions, you make your way over to him. 

“She’s okay, no lingering weakness remaining things are unchanged.” 

Bucky wraps his arms around you, keeping you close. You sigh, the earlier worries leaving slowly as his hold helps you keep yourself together. 

“I was thinking…” he begins,

“Should I be worried?” you tease, he rolls his eyes squeezing your hip. 

“How about we cook tonight? I know you’ve been wanting to have a cooking date.” His expression is smug. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever told you that.” You narrow your eyes at him, trying to hide your smile. 

“Well maybe I just know my girlfriend really well.” He shrugs, “So dinner date?” 

“I want to know how you know.” You demand, he shakes his head, pulling away to head to the fridge. 

“James.” You whine, that was one of your more well hidden date ideas to have with your significant other. You’re sure you’ve never told Bucky about it. 

He begins to retrieve the ingredients not answering you but the smug grin doesn’t leave his face. 

“I won’t help you.” You warn, he looks up from the freezer, raising a brow. 

“You just sit there looking pretty and I’ll do all the work.” Bucky winks at you, a heated flush blooms across your cheeks and neck. 

Then it clicks, “You, how?” 

You walk over to him retrieving the chopping boards and knives to divide and cut the veggies. 

“Well you know how I’m a delayed fan of your work?” He hands you the bell peppers. 

You begin to chop them, “Yeah?” 

“I annotate right? With sticky notes and handwritten notes on post-its, recently those transparent ones.”

“Those are so cool.” You agree. 

Bucky kisses your cheek, “Very cool. I’ve some extra if you want them.” 

“One day you’re going to open your drawer of post-its and find that empty.” You giggle, Bucky laughs. 

“Well I know where to look.” 

“You’re supposed to let me steal your stuff for myself.” You smear a bit of butter on his cheek. 

He scrunches his nose, biting your thumb playfully drawing laughter from you. 

“So you don't want to steal my clothes? Just my stationery?” The veggies go into the mix and he brings out another few things. 

“I steal what I want, Mr. Barnes and you will let me.” You reach up to him, he leaves his work wrapping his arms around you, palms moving from your lower back to beneath your hips. 

“Oh I will let you?” He lifts you onto the counter, standing between your legs. 

“Yes, yes you will.” Your fingers run through his hair, playing with the strands at the base of his neck, “Want to know why?” 

“Enlighten me, Feather.” He hums, eyes closing gently as you continue playing with his hair and your other hand runs over his scalp. 

“Because,” 

Bucky’s breath hitches feeling your lips close to his own.

“It’s the tax you pay being a boyfriend.” Giving him a quick kiss you giggle as he huffs irritatedly, wanting a longer time to feel your soft, addictive lips against his own. 

“Never heard of this tax.” He grumbles only adding to your mirth. 

“Well you probably never had a girlfriend who put you in that tax bracket.” It’s your turn to grin smugly and you do, then you feel something wet across your cheek. 

The sauce. 

“Bucky!” You yelp, he guffaws grabbing your hands before you can wipe it away. 

You feel his lips at the corner of your own, he licks away the smear then bites at your cheek. 

His laugh rumbles within his chest as he places your hands upon it. You can’t help but laugh with him. 

“All gone.” He assures, kissing your jaw. 

“When I began reading your work,” he cups your face, “I noticed something, now I could be wrong but I know I’m not,” he winks, you roll your eyes. 

“What did you notice, fine Sir?” You quip, tilting your head. 

“I noticed that you don’t explain in detail the moments that you want to experience yourself. You write them enough to keep the reader satiated but your hunger for those moments remains raging.” He explains, your hands move out of their own accord to his shoulders, sides of his neck and then cupping his face. 

“Cooking a meal together, late night drives, texting endlessly, touches hidden away in a crowded room.” Bucky’s gaze fixed upon yours, his blue eyes reading everything your eyes show him. 

“Silent ways of saying, I love you.” His palm grasps your hand, finger tracing over the tattoo. You swallow. Your own thumb traces across his left wrist. 

He had figured it out. 

The one thing you kept hidden across your works, the smallest moments to the ones of significance. Your own wants hidden in your shared words. 

“James,” Your voice is thick laced with an emotion you can’t comprehend. Maybe it is the fact that he sees you, every bit of you and yet loves you, maybe it is that he knows you, you don’t know how to vocalise how you feel, you don’t know how to convey the fluttering in your heart. 

He takes your name, in quiet understanding. In a way that in one word, with your own name, you know that he knows and understands how you feel. 

You knew how much he could convey with his eyes alone, across genres, across characters. Initially you would wonder if you would ever be able to decipher if it's an act, your own insecurities were feeding into your heart. 

The way that Bucky gazes at you though? 

Warmth ricochets within your chest. Love for him, love from him pours through every broken crevice, mending, offering pieces of himself that could fit. Taking broken parts from you to mend himself. 

You pull him closer, arms and legs wrapping around him, Bucky holds you tenderly, returning the hug with equal warmth and love. 

He kisses your shoulder as you nuzzle into the crook of his neck. 

The two of you say nothing further, the food is cooked over more stolen kisses and smearing of sauces. 

Even as the call times for beginning the shoot of the movie are emailed the dread doesn’t seep into your bones. 

Bucky stays the night for the first time. Holding you close as slumber pulls the two of you under its spell. 

Your hands wrap over his, Bucky smiles when you sleepily lace your fingers with his own. Your lips searching for his skin, any part of it to give him a kiss goodnight. 

Thumb tracing over your tattoo, he falls asleep just as Alpine finds the spot beside your head on the pillow making biscuits and then falling asleep. 

Maybe he thinks, just maybe this could be forever. 

When morning light pours in and you’re still in his arms and Alpine is burrowing her way between the two of you making you laugh quietly. 

He believes this is forever. 

HEADLINES:

TOP FIVE Hollywood Friendships That Stood The Test Of Time:

Number One - Steve and Bucky 

TOP FIVE Hollywood Break-Ups That Have Us Crying:

Number Three - Natasha Romanoff and Author Y/N’s Friendship. 

Are They Back Together? Watch Sharon Carter Speak With Body Language Expert To Discern If Dolores and Bucky Have Residual Feelings For Each Other. 

It’s Getting Frosty On Set and Not Because Of The Winter — Natasha Ignores Executive Producer Y/N 

Author Y/N Shares Dialogue Snippet From Upcoming Book, Fans Sent Into Frenzy Over Theory That This Book Might Be Her Saddest Ending Written Till Date. 

A.N.: i hope you enjoy this fluffy update, i felt i didn't get a chance to explore them one on one much and i just think they needed time together so here we are!

Taglist is Open comment or DM to be added!

Taglist: @stevesmewmew @elle14-blog1 @crazyunsexycool @sebsgirl71479 @pandaxnienke @slutforsexyseabass @eclecticpatrolroadlawyer @pandaxnienke @vampire7595

[cryptoolivia]

What is Bitcoin? A Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin

When it comes to cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) is what most people think of first. However, many beginners don’t fully understand how Bitcoin works or how to invest in it. So, what exactly is Bitcoin? What is its history? And how should you invest in Bitcoin? This article will address these questions to help you better understand how to participate in Bitcoin investing. What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin (BTC) is a form of virtual currency, also known as cryptocurrency. It was introduced in 2008 by a mysterious person or group under the name "Satoshi Nakamoto." While we still don’t know Satoshi Nakamoto's true identity, Bitcoin has become a popular global investment asset. Bitcoin relies on blockchain technology, a distributed ledger that is immutable and ensures transparency and security in transactions. Why is Bitcoin so important? The primary reason Bitcoin has gained attention so quickly is its decentralized nature. Unlike traditional currencies, Bitcoin isn’t controlled by any government or financial institution. This means that in any country, the government cannot directly interfere with Bitcoin transactions. Additionally, Bitcoin’s anonymity makes it a valuable tool for those seeking to protect their privacy. Key Advantages of Bitcoin • Decentralization: Bitcoin isn’t controlled by any central authority or government, offering users greater financial freedom. • Anonymity: Although Bitcoin transaction records are public on the blockchain, transaction addresses aren’t directly linked to the owner's identity, protecting privacy. • Global Reach: Bitcoin can be circulated globally without the need for exchange rates or transaction restrictions. • Security: Bitcoin uses advanced encryption techniques to ensure the security of transactions and prevent asset theft. Risks of Investing in Bitcoin While Bitcoin has many advantages, there are also some risks that cannot be ignored. Due to its price volatility, investors may experience significant gains or losses in a short period. Additionally, since Bitcoin is decentralized and not government-regulated, if it’s hacked or you lose your private key, the funds cannot be recovered. Common questions: • Why is Bitcoin worth investing in despite its price fluctuations? • If I lose my Bitcoin wallet, can I recover it? • What are the risks associated with Bitcoin's anonymity? Bitcoin’s Use Cases Beyond being an investment tool, Bitcoin has many real-world applications. On platforms like Paxful and Noones, users can exchange Bitcoin for various gift cards (such as Amazon, iTunes, Steam, etc.) and points, making it a flexible asset tool. Bitcoin can also be used for cross-border payments, particularly in restricted countries or regions where it bypasses traditional financial systems, enabling quick and convenient transactions. Other use cases include: • Online shopping: An increasing number of merchants accept Bitcoin as a payment method, allowing users to make purchases using cryptocurrency. • Travel and accommodation: Some websites like Travala allow users to book flights, hotels, and travel packages using Bitcoin. • Charity donations: Some charitable organizations have started accepting Bitcoin donations, leveraging its decentralization and low transaction fees. • Peer-to-peer payments: Bitcoin facilitates fast peer-to-peer fund transfers, making it especially useful for international remittances.

Three Basic Ways to Invest in Bitcoin

Buy and store on an exchange This is the simplest investment method. You can buy Bitcoin through exchanges like Binance, OKX, or Bitget and store it in your exchange account. While this method is easy to operate, the security of the exchange is a risk factor. If an exchange is hacked or goes bankrupt, your assets could be lost.

Use a cold wallet to store Bitcoin Cold wallets are a more secure storage method. Users can transfer Bitcoin to an offline wallet they control, avoiding the risks of exchange hacks or collapses. However, if the private key is lost, the assets cannot be recovered, so users must take full responsibility for their wallets.

Contract trading Contract trading allows users to speculate on Bitcoin price movements without owning the actual asset. By leveraging positions, contract trading can amplify profits and losses. This approach carries high risk and is more suited to experienced investors. Advanced Strategies: Bitcoin Derivatives and Mining As the Bitcoin market matures, financial products like options, dual-currency savings, and liquidity mining are becoming increasingly popular. Additionally, traditional mining—contributing computing power to secure the network in exchange for Bitcoin rewards—remains an important source of income for some investors. Though mining has a high entry threshold, it is still a valuable way for participants to earn Bitcoin. Conclusion There are many ways to invest in Bitcoin. For beginners, the simplest approach is to buy and hold Bitcoin on an exchange. As you gain more market knowledge, you can explore cold wallet storage or contract trading. More advanced strategies, like Bitcoin derivatives and mining, require higher technical expertise and capital. Common questions: • What can Bitcoin be used to buy? • What are the advantages of using Bitcoin for payments? • Which Bitcoin trading platform is the most secure?

[boycrazedboy]

Can't stop thinking about an alternate world where basically everyone can do vore, in a similar way to how everyone technically can commit theft or vandalism at any time, only with some evolutionary differences to make the act physically possible.

And in that world, vore is controversial as fuck.

Some cultures consider it a "barbaric" practice and have long banned it, training kids while young to not do it. Some others consider it a right, a biological necessity, even, especially for teenagers and young adults who are the most prone to impulsively eating their peers. So while it is discouraged - for instance, you'll be expelled from a college/university if you are found to repeatedly eat other students- you won't go to jail for it.

Many places have spiritual and cultural practices which manage the number and frequency of those eaten, but in a world of secularisation, what is there to stop people from eating others? Or make them?

The studies are very conflicting over whether or not vore is biologically necessary. While many suggest it contributes to mental well-being, whether it is better for physical health vs. just eating a balanced diet is a matter of ongoing debate.

People may have more children to compensate, expecting at least one to be eaten at some point. Given how large humans can stretch to eat, it means people can safely be pregnant with far more kids, so sextuplets aren't unusual. Perhaps to ensure their safety, humans come out a little more developed; so pregnancies can last far longer depending on certain circumstances. Pregnancies lasting three years or more are not usual.

Maybe you live in a country where it's legal to vore, but highly disapproved. Maybe in your university you might get expelled for slipping up even once. But maybe a fellow student is from a family which donates so much to the university that they couldn't expel a member of that family even if they wanted to. Even if that "kid" is literally eating their way through the rest of the student body.

Even though our bodies are designed to cope with the massive, simultaneous influx of meat, maybe they aren't designed to keep going as normal when digesting. Maybe predators can't actually support the weight of their bellies unless they work out enough to do that. Or maybe they hibernate. Or maybe mobility devices for preds are common- wheeled platforms, modified rollators, spacious scooters, and reinforced wheelchairs are available to whoever can afford them.

There might be regular protests outside of businesses which refuse to deal with an out-of-control predator. Or outside of government buildings to make the practice illegal. Or maybe in places where it's completely banned, hoards of "would-be"* predators are the ones protesting.

*let's be real, if you had the ability, would the law stop you?

Maybe people take holidays to places in which vore is legal, leading to an initial population drop, but then a massive influx of cash when the locals figure out how to exclusively pit the tourists against eachother. Maybe some locals even specialize in pickpocketing the meat-drunk preds when they're too busy eating or basking in the glow of fullness to notice their wallet being pinched.

Maybe in some places public vore is treated like exhibitionism, so it's only legal in private.

Maybe in others, the prey needs to consent, leading to a huge and impossible-to-prove issue of faked prey-consent forms.

I'd think in most places, going out with a writhing, full, post-vore belly will garner you dirty looks from the people who're against it. Maybe you'd even get harassed for it- at the risk of the person stupid enough to harass a pred, especially if it's in a place where it's legal.

Maybe some people have a strict pred-eat-pred policy, where they only target preds, viewing committing the act of vore as a waiver. Maybe those pred-eat-pred people only target preds who DON'T eat preds, as a form of vigilante justice.

[joyce-stick]

Adachi and Shimamura's Second Season

An essay by Audrey of the joystick system

Revealing and analyzing the plot of Adachi and Shimamura's never-yet-released second season of anime.

TL;DR

Adachi and Shimamura, the yuri light novel series by Hitoma Iruma, is extremely good. The currently serialized manga adaptation by Yuzuhara Moke is also good. The anime is good too, but not finished.

The novels go some rather surprising places, and this essay is about those surprises and how Adachi and Shimamura, quite unexpectedly, proves itself a very unique series quite unlike many others in the yuri genre.

Mainly because it's secretly also science fiction.

Video version:

Text version under the cut. Feel free to watch or read or read along while listening to the video version!

[cohost version]

Future video essay/transcript: Audrey's Best Girls Winter 2023

If you're on desktop, you may find this more comfy to read directly on our Tumblr site.

If you enjoy this essay, please consider following us here or on any other platforms, and/or donating to support future works via our Patreon or Ko-fi.

Patreon • Ko-fi • YouTube • Twitter • Cohost • Tumblr • Mastodon

Prologue: Triviality & Psychology

Despite not having read a single word that Hitoma Iruma has written, I think I’ve been convinced, with relative certainty, that he’s probably a pretty good writer.

The English versions of his work that we have read, which are written by other people, based on his novels written in Japanese, that we haven’t read, give the impression that his novels are pretty good.

Of course, the specific work we’re here to discuss today is Adachi and Shimamura, but of what little else we’ve read of his work, mainly the first chapter of the Bloom Into You spinoff novels, there’s a consistent focus on introspection and careful characterization and articulation through all sorts of details, both trivial and otherwise.

This may sound arrogant, but I knew early on that I was talented.

When I say “talented,” I mean that I can get results when I work really hard and that I can maintain those results, too. I think I understood the value of those two things much sooner than the other kids.

Thus, I didn’t mind that my after-school schedule was full of lessons. There were ikebana classes, calligraphy school, piano, cram school, and once I was a third year in elementary school, swimming lessons, too. I was considering taking on English speaking classes next. I pretty much took anything available to me. As a kid, I felt lucky that I was even allowed those choices.

Even a child could see that that my house was a respectable one. We had a lacquered gate, a side door for the help on the left side, and many tall trees in our garden. The surrounding walls were tall enough to prevent anyone from peering inside. Our house was bigger than the entirety of the light-green apartment complex across from us. In addition to my parents and I, my grandparents on my father’s side and their two cats lived there. It was quite a lot of space for so few people.

Growing up in that house, I knew I had no choice but to be talented. No one actually said as much, but I knew instinctively that it was true. As long as I kept moving with purpose and produced good results, my parents never seemed upset. What parents wouldn’t be happy to have an exceptional kid?

[Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Vol. 1 by Hitoma Iruma

Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda

Published in English by Seven Seas in 2020]

The first pages of the Sayaka novels open with Sayaka describing her school curriculum and extracurricular activities, her awareness that she’s a gifted student, and that she’s incredibly committed to being one, so much so that she rarely quits something. She is devoted.

And this characterization informs the rest of the work quite readily, as Sayaka finds herself first annoyed by another girl at her swim practice, who to her, appears not devoted.

Devoted perhaps, not to swimming, but to Sayaka herself. And then her first lesbianic encounter with that same girl results in panic, in her running away, in her quitting.

Quitting for the first time she can remember.

And her quiet surprise when her parents just accept that.

All this is told to us, in prose, in monologue, it’s delicate and psychological and intriguing and it leaves us wanting to know more.

And yet somehow, we read all this, were fascinated, and then our attention span burned down around it and we forgot about it for a year or two.

So, yeah, that happened. And we also forgot about… until one day very recently I, Audrey, decided to wrangle this mess of a brain and have us settle down to read it… Adachi and Shimamura.

Part 1: The Adashima-daptations

1.1 Anime vs Manga vs Light Novel

Most of y’all know Adachi and Shimamura for being an anime. And, that’s fair, I guess, it is an anime after all. But it’s also an adaptation, as most anime are. And specifically an adaptation of a novel, or a series of novels, the first four of them at least.

Those four novels are only the first act of the story. There’s now ten, with at least two more planned, and we’ve read eight of them, and I have opinions. So you’re going to hear them, because someone has to. Unless you don’t want to, and then you can leave, I guess. We are fine with people leaving. Anyway.

Concerning the anime, we have some feelings about it. Our overall opinion is that it’s good. It’s a pretty good anime, it’s a competent adaptation, and we don’t really have a lot of complaints as to its quality in either of those respects.

It’s not a particularly lavish production, nowhere near as technically impressive as Bloom Into You (which is one notable example of “probably about as close as you can get to a KyoAni level work without being from KyoAni”) but it’s pleasantly storyboarded, elegantly scored, and overall perfectly watchable.

It’s good enough to recommend as an entry point into the story (although the Moke manga is the far better adaptation), but woefully insufficient as a substitute for it. Partially for the obvious snag that it ends before the relationship gets going, and there’ll likely never be a second season.

But there’s also some speedbumps that have, somewhat unavoidably, arisen from adapting the story to a visual medium.

1.2 Shimadensity

When the anime aired, the thing I most remember is people being confused as all heck why Shimamura was so… dense.

That is to say, blind. A blind blonde, an unnatural blonde at that, being blind to the obvious homosexual before herself, being extremely homosexual towards her in her presence and drinking mineral water, which, as anyone who’s seen the film Heathers knows, is a universal signifier of homosexuality.

And, well, you see, there is an answer to that. Shimamura is not blind whatsoever.

She knows something is up with Adachi, and it’s not as if she’s not pretty nearly drawn the conclusion that Adachi is attracted to her, but she’s just sort of averted her eyes from it.

She’s decided, albeit somewhat subconsciously, that thinking about Adachi being gay is troublesome. Answering the question of “why Adachi wants to hold my hand, wants to be so close to me,” and all that, isn’t a path she’d like to take, and so she just ignores it.

Shimamura’s gotten through life this way, by not thinking too hard about it. Just going with the flow, letting everyone around her take her wherever, putting up a path of least resistance through life. She finds forming genuine, lasting connections with people difficult, and doesn’t really feel very strongly about most of her peers.

But she also feels that she needs people, anyway, so she masks through it, politely smiles, and lets her relationships just happen, come and go like the waves. This does bother Shimamura, if for no other reason than that she finds it tedious and tiresome, but she just kind of rolls with it anyway.

Meanwhile, Adachi is explicitly an introvert to the extreme, and not in the Bocchi kind of way, where she wants to make friends but can’t; no, Adachi straight-up doesn’t want friends. She finds friendships burdensome, to the point of being soul-crushing.

An anecdote in the novels has Adachi describing how, in elementary school, she made an honest attempt towards being more socially active, but found that each new friend she made felt like another chain on her soul.

But these forced friendships weighed down on me, suppressing my emotions, erasing all my imperfections. Whenever one of them spoke to me, I had to craft a fitting response and keep the conversation going. No part of this was genuine; I just parroted whatever I heard other people saying.

Every time I repeated this process, I grew restless. And every time I gained a new friend, I boxed myself in further, closing off my exits.

But then one day I threw it all in the trash and walked off without them…and that was the day I noticed just how freeing it felt. All I needed was a single breath of fresh air to finally realize that I was meant to live my life alone.

[Adachi and Shimamura volume 4 (Chapter 3: The Moon and Courage) by Hitoma Iruma

Translated by Molly Lee

Published by Seven Seas in 2021]

Eventually coming to accept that, at least in her view, she was not built for close relationships with other humans.

To put it simply, it’s not a skill issue. She just doesn’t care for the grind.

1.3 They Who Don't Remember Your Name

In middle school, she comes off towards her peers as an ice queen, and there’s this really really interesting chapter- the first chapter, in fact, in the fourth novel, where Adachi is described from the perspective of someone else. An unnamed fellow student, with whom she is delegated to work the school library counter, who tries and fails to form a connection with her.

And this student’s description of Adachi is fascinating. Adachi is described as someone who, in step with her desire to eschew friends, is seen by the student body as seemingly unattainable. And this student is startled, then elated, to have the opportunity to even sit near this person.

But Adachi, unconscious and undesiring of her semi-celebrity status within the school, deflects all attempts to break her shell, and so there this unnamed student stays, stays looking, stays admiring.

And then one day this girl, this unnamed student who we never again hear of, who has no significant characterization to speak of, no importance to this story other than to be a lens through which we see Adachi- happens to run into Adachi once again at the beginning of their high school’s second semester, and takes the opportunity to say

“Thank you.”

For something that Sakura Adachi didn’t know. Didn’t see. Couldn’t feel. Didn’t realize. Something so incorporeal to her, yet so powerful to this one peer of hers, as having been allowed to be in proximity to her, to have a memory of her that none else can claim to have.

And Adachi doesn’t get it, and can’t possibly have it explained, and it’s just… that’s it, really. That’s just that chapter.

It was gut-wrenching to read, because it tapped deeply into a specific desire that’s been stuck within us for a long time, that we’ve previously found it… really hard to articulate without sounding weird, or creepy, or wrong.

The desire to know how we were seen, the impact we’ve made on people we crossed paths with whose names we don’t know, whose faces we’ve forgot, or whose lives just briefly overlapped with ours at one time or another

to know if they’re okay, to know if they even remember us, or, the person who we used to be, whoever that was, to be able to affirm that those connections, however tenuous, were important.

And just like… yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if what I’m saying even makes any sense, but those many little encounters, those small moments that made us who we were

have left us conscious of dozens if not hundreds of possible branches in this life, that could have butterfly effected us somewhere completely different from where we currently are, and we can’t know, and we can’t say

but it’s just it, that basic feeling of I wonder how you’re doing, I wonder how life could have been if we’d followed after you, I wonder if you think about me too.

And that desire to achieve closure, something articulated, actualized, in this unnamed girl saying thank you, and at the same time, saying goodbye. To another Sakura on the wind.

1.4 Adachi Recollection

These events are not adapted in the anime. They are not adapted in either of the manga adaptations.

But there is such significance to this anecdote, such immense weight that is given to this random no-name and her view of Adachi, a story about Adachi to which Adachi herself was nearly entirely oblivious.

But then later in one of the most pivotal moments of Adachi’s character arc when a shady fortune teller convinces her to do something about her friendship with Shimamura before they drift ever further away, and she remembers that girl,

Every now and then, I thought back to this one time in junior high when I worked as a library assistant. There was this girl—I couldn’t remember her name or even what she looked like, but she asked me if I had any friends. At the time, I told her I didn’t, and that I was fine with it…but looking back, I couldn’t help but wonder why she asked me that. Was she going to offer to be my friend?

Even then, my answer would have remained the same. I would have told her I didn’t need any friends. But part of me regretted how that interaction played out. Part of me felt that we should have talked it out first, like actual human beings, instead of me one-sidedly slamming her with rejection.

With that in mind, I didn’t want to add to my list of regrets. I couldn’t keep sticking my head in the sand. No, I was going to take action. And if I ended up regretting that, then so be it.

[Adachi and Shimamura volume 4 (Chapter 3: The Moon and Courage) by Hitoma Iruma

Translated by Molly Lee

Published by Seven Seas in 2021]

And this is such a hugely emotional payoff. Adachi did remember. That girl did affect her life. Even despite Adachi’s efforts to refuse connections, still, such a trivial interaction still made her who she is, still contributed to altering the course of her life, and that’s just… y’know, like, gosh.

This is so fucking cathartic to think about, y’know? Even if that person you remember, you wish you could have known, isn’t thinking about you, barely remembers you… you still were there. You still did something for them. Even if it was just being there, even if your feelings didn’t reach them right then, even if even if even if.

The fact that you crossed paths with them, alone, is significant.

It’s that affirmation of that fact that I see in this small, insignificant seeming novel-only plot beat, from which I feel so much meaning is exuded, and, why it's a shame it was excluded.. It may have seemed trivial, seemed unimportant, and seemingly that’s why every adaptation adapted this out,

but that triviality is precisely what is so important about it.

I cannot exaggerate enough when I say that I feel something essential is lost by this piece of story being discluded from every other version.

And that’s really the curse of adapting Adashima, in general. There are so many other details of the characters and story, too numerous to list, that the prose takes time to explore and develop and clarify, that would be tedious to elaborate on in an anime or a manga, and are thus cut.

And rightly so, for the sake of telling the story economically in those mediums, but what is lost as a result is the essential psychological depth of this narrative. And yes, it is a psychological narrative. A cerebral one, even.

Yes, it’s true. Adachi and Shimamura is a calmer, gayer, Kaguya-sama.

And that’s why

Shimamura is so

fucking

dense.

And why Adachi and Shimamura, is so, fucking, dense.

Part 2: A (mostly) calmer, gayer Kaguya-sama

2.1 Cold War of Gay Panic

Once you’ve read deep enough into Adashima, there is absolutely no way around it, this is a deeply psychological conflict. The characters’ mental states and attitudes, the things they won’t say, say so much more in this story than anything else. Which is why I think, although the adaptations are pretty good:

The Moke manga adaptation is actually really good, it does a much better job visually illustrating the psychological aspect of the story than the anime does, and, I think, if you’re really allergic to prose but really want to read Adashima, you should read the Moke version.

It’s not a perfect 1 to 1 recreation of the story, no adaptation ever is, but it’s pretty damn up there. Nonetheless, the adaptations are still limited in how far they can go in elevating their versions, and Adachi and Shimamura, the anime, is good.

Just good.

It’s a competent slice-of-life anime and an incomplete romantic drama. And it’s nice to have a visual companion to the story. But as a standalone piece of media, it’s not all that much more. It doesn’t get the time to develop things further, or to get to the things that make Adachi and Shimamura, as a story, something truly unique.

So, I mentioned earlier that Adachi decided she can’t do relationships, of any kind, and you might be thinking, well that sounds like a terrible protagonist for a romance story, and oh gosh you have no idea. Adachi is a total disaster of a human being. And just to drive that point home quite clearly, I want to read this particular quote from volume 5:

Besides Shimamura, the current me had nothing. I was empty.

Were you to peel back my skin, you'd find not flesh and bones, but her. Shimamura.

And yet. And yet. I felt like I might start tearing out my hair soon. Simply allowing my mind to wander caused my eyes to grow wet with tears.

The fantasies I'd indulged in were not based on anything. I knew that. Even so. Even so.

Was it really that wrong, wanting to be rewarded? Wanting your efforts to pay off?

[From Adachi and Shimamura, volume 5, "Shimamura's Sword"

Written by Hitoma Iruma

Translated and published unofficially by sneikkimies]

To be quite exact: This particular bit of text is from the fan translation of Adachi and Shimamura volume 5. I do not know what the original Japanese says. I do not know what emotional connotation the original Japanese carries. The official translation from Seven Seas, meanwhile, rather says:

Outside of Shimamura, I had nothing. Cut me open and I would bleed Shimamura. So how could she do this to me? Every time I let my guard down, tears welled in my eyes. I knew my feelings were one-sided, and yet…was it so wrong to want her to return them?

[Adachi and Shimamura volume 5 (Chapter 4: Shimamura's Blade) by Hitoma Iruma

Translated by Molly Lee

Published by Seven Seas in 2021]

The official translation is quick, concise, sharp. It cuts thick, as it says, like the slashing of a knife across skin. In this version, Adachi hardly lingers on this emotion, her mind races, her thoughts tear through her.

But in the fan translation, the feeling is mulled over, gradually peeled away, as it says, revealed slowly, with intense deliberation.

The chapter from which this comes, Shimamura’s Sword- or, Shimamura’s Blade in the Seven Seas translation, is perhaps the most psychological chapter contained within the entire series. It is a chapter that, knowing Adachi, you know is coming from the very first few pages, when this illustration of one of the upcoming chapters is shown.

It is Shimamura and Tarumi, her childhood friend who has tried to rekindle their connection after years apart, and Adachi, working a food stand, watching as Shimamura goes out with a girl- a girl who she doesn’t know, a girl who isn’t her.

We knew this was coming from this very moment, and yet, it still smacked, it hurt, when we got to this chapter. Adachi pondering, stewing in this jealousy, after days of depression, as her mental state reaches a boiling point, before erupting straight into the receiver of her cell phone, in the form of her screaming crying voice, transmitted straight to Shimamura’s ears.

Our pulse had steadily begun to quicken as we read this on our own cell phone, our heart in step with Adachi, as she began to speak these words, and we stopped reading, almost too afraid to turn the page.

We did eventually go back to it, of course.

It was not too long after that I realized why this chapter had tripped us up like it did. We saw ourselves in this. No, it’s quite accurate to rather say that we were worse than this.

We too, when we were Adachi’s age, had a crush who saw us as a friend, to whom we had limited access. We too, grew depressed and jealous and angry at being away from them, as a result of us having few other friends and no one else particularly on our mind or in our social life. We too, were bitter about our negative home life.

But we didn’t stop quite at where Adachi stopped, at airing our grievances, at assaulting our crush with our undue anger- no, we made a specific threat.

I won’t be repeating that here, but needless to say, we never followed up on it. It’s been nearly a decade since then, and we haven’t ever not regretted it whenever that memory resurfaces.

While the things we said up to that point, the emotions we aired, were probably not as bad as the things Adachi says here… the threat kind of compensated for that. I’d say, in the end, we were just about as bad as Adachi at her age.

We were not ready for a romantic relationship with anyone, at that age. We probably still aren’t, and personally, I don’t want one. I have doubts that it’ll ever go well. My headmates feel different, but, they’re not talking right now, so…

Anyway. Shimamura is annoyed, doesn’t even follow what the fuck Adachi is on about, hangs up, and Adachi thinks she’s thrown away their friendship.

But then she works up the courage to call Shimamura again, or, perhaps more accurately, lacks the emotional maturity to let it go, and they reconcile.Although weirdly, Shimamura doesn’t seem bothered.

And then, although Shimamura tries to get Adachi to make more friends, it doesn’t really work, one of the most FUCK YOU I’M AUTISTIC AND I DON’T CARE WHO KNOWS scenes ever, happens

And then the next volume, Adachi tearfully confesses to Shimamura for a second time after a first time blundering it and passing out while gripping her close in the bath while they’re both wearing swimsuits, gosh that’s also the most fucking hilariously cringe scene, just imagine how embarrassing it must be to pass out from telling your crush how you feel about them, and

THEN Shimamura accepts Adachi’s feelings, and then they are officially girlfriends.

2.2 "Problematic" Yuri

And the whole time I was reading this. The whole damn time, I could not stop thinking. I can fucking see it. The thinkpieces, the ones going, “How Adachi and Shimamura exploits queer teenage girls, by depicting queer teenage girls realistically.”

The twitter threads going, “is Shimamura right, for not taking Adachi’s shit right then, or was she being an asshole, instead of, y’know, it being revealed that her patience has limits but also she later feels like maybe she was a bit too cold and made a mistake…” or like, “is Adachi a womanizer, or a yandere, or a dangerous abusive codependent manipulator”.

Were the arcs of volumes 4 through 8 to be adapted to a second season of anime, there’d be plenty of fuel for opportunistic media criticism weirdos such as ourselves to say… “is Adachi and Shimamura problematic?”

And, no, it’s not. It’s dramatic. This is a psychological romantic drama about a deeply emotional neurodivergent teenage girl who has human flaws. Like, yes, Adachi is jealous and controlling and even a bit mean, and she knows this.

And we’ve seen these articles and twitter threads about Adashima, about Yagakimi and about other queer media in general, floating around, that are just like, is this lesbian relationship between two mentally ill teenagers dangerously codependent or abusive?

We sometimes even floated around to that idea ourselves, reading all the yuri stuff we read- we read a lot of yuri stuff, and, a lot of the time the answer is just, yeah, maybe.

Is that wrong? Is it wrong to depict these things as part of a normal story with stakes and drama? Don’t these people need to have issues in order for the story to have somewhere it can move up from?

There seems to be a subset of the queer leftish internet and hell, pop cultural media criticism internet in general, that just doesn’t want things to happen in narratives

And like, Joyce sort of had this phase herself, in reaction to her breakup last year, where, she wanted to believe that the fact that she was a fan of Love Live was the problem. The fact that Love Live occasionally features shots of teenage girls’ legs, that would’ve been the issue, not that she had a difficult personality or overinflated expectations of her partners.

She just stopped reading yuri for a while, because she just thought, maybe the fact that I was reading yuri stories that just pretend these issues don’t exist, maybe that’s the problem.

Maybe the fact that these stories have male gaze, because they’re targeted at men, is the problem. Maybe I’m actually a man, is the problem. And y’know, this is all just bullshit. This is all just self-directed homophobia as an excuse for happening to be a bit of a fucked up person who is queer.

And that’s really all that is. People don’t criticize straight romance stories for characters having realistic relationship issues. People don’t even criticize straight romance stories for being exploitative or fucked up or weird or anything.

Well, some people do, but y’know. No chance would the average online anime fan be having such takes on like, I don’t know, oregairu. But even the most like, reasoned takes on Yagakimi from very smart people online, have to acknowledge, oh yeah some of these characters check off all the boxes for the “predatory lesbian” trope.

That sentence says everything, doesn’t it? There is a predatory lesbian trope. Is there a “predatory heterosexual” trope? Is there heterosexual shipping bait? We sure could pretend there is one, as a bit, but like, no. The answer’s no.

And like, yes, the depictions of queers as uniquely specifically unhinged and dangerous by straight people is a thing that is a thing because of queerphobia, itself, and maybe it makes us look good or better somehow to paint ourselves as not having awful personalities or issues with relationships so that bigots have less rhetorical ammo against us.

But somehow the more I think about all this the more I think that, maybe, the predatory gay tropes in straight media aren’t just straightforwardly to make queer people look bad, but to make us afraid of ourselves. And to make us afraid of art that depicts us as human beings and not just soft uwu girls.

Maybe the reason was to make us afraid of Adachi.

Anyway. I’m just going to say it. There is no problematic media. Fictional, and especially animated or drawn media, cannot be declared immoral simply on the basis of what it chooses to depict. And it’s high time we stopped deluding ourselves into thinking it can be.

And I know this is all very much an extremely online discourse, and most normal people offline don’t tend to think of media quite that way, but it still pisses us off, y’know? It pisses us off that this stupid problematism bullshit around fictional media had us brain poisoned for like half a fucking decade. So we’re really rather ticked off by that.

…That’s not the point of this essay. Maybe it’ll be the point of another one.

2.3 Drama Lesbian Queens

So, yeah, to sum it up, a lot of yuri things that the average concentration of yuri fans like tend to be free of too much conflict, and quick to gay. And Adachi and Shimamura fulfills the former requirement, most of the time, at least, and especially in all the material adapted by the first season.

Past volume 4, however, things start getting more intense, because, well, Adachi, first of all. Adachi is a whole person. Tarumi is also a whole person, although we don’t get to see too much of her, it seems pretty clear she’s going through her own general turmoil away from the center of the story, and yeah.

Yashiro also. What the hell is with her? Well, it turns out, she actually is an alien, or at the very least her being an alien is a much more plausible explanation than anything else. We’ll get to her in a bit, maybe.

The relationship happens, with Adachi and Shimamura, being girlfriends, and that’s just adorable the way that works out. Shimamura isn’t a hundred percent certain she loves Adachi, but she doesn’t dislike Adachi, she’s certainly not indifferent to Adachi, and she’s open to trying Adachi out, so, she accepts.

Adachi is at first her usual jealous self, taking this as license to be even more aggressive about not wanting Shimamura to speak to or even look at any other girls in the world. Adachi’s literally never had any other relationships, not even with her own mother, so, that just makes sense, she thinks of being together as special itself.

Which prompts Shimamura to try to think of ways to raise Adachi’s bar for things being special, by such things as… making Adachi lunch. Kissing Adachi’s forehead. And that’s where that stays for a little while! The third base of lesbian, homemade lunches and forehead kissing.

And that’s all really cool and satisfying, cause there’s not a lot of yuri stories, hell, not a lot of romance stories, period, that actually depict the work of the relationship. Most yuri just rush to have the girls kissing, and that’s that. It’s a lot of casual fluff, with not a lot of particular focus on how the relationships develop, or anything.

In devoting her time to doting on Adachi, Shimamura neglects Tarumi, and the distance between them widens again. She one night thinks in a dream, ominously, that Adachi, in her quest to have Shimamura all to herself, has ruined Shimamura’s relationships. But Shimamura’s not sure that bothers her.

And Adachi continues to have her personality issues, but, she and Shimamura are both happy for now, and so not too much active drama ensues- just anxiety, just tension, just slow development.

And this continues through volume 7 and 8, but Iruma makes a very interesting creative choice to capture the totality of the narrative. Starting in volume 5, certain alternate contexts for the beginning of Adachi and Shimamura’s relationship are depicted.

In the first chapter of that volume, Adachi and Shimamura first meet as small children in preschool, during which Yashiro introduces the basic concept of an alternate timeline to us readers.

Then in volume 7, we get vignettes where Adachi doesn’t decide to close the distance between herself and Shimamura, and instead continues hiding on the second floor of the gym. Where Adachi and Shimamura never meet in high school, and instead find each other as adults. Where Adachi and Shimamura encounter each other at the end of the world. Where Shimamura is an alien- or perhaps, I should more accurately say, a foreigner from space, whose language Adachi spends years learning just so that they can talk.

And all of this is written from the perspective of Adachi and Shimamura feeling as if this is random chance, a simple coincidence, luck of the draw, the one twist of fate that changed their lives forever.

But then in volume 8, Iruma skips ahead a decade.

2.4 Ending the Second Season

Adachi and Shimamura are now living together, both 27 years old. Is Adachi still clingy and jealous? Less so, apparently, but, it’s not explored fully. How are Hino and Nagafuji- I’m just realizing I’ve barely if at all mentioned them in this entire essay. How’s Tarumi, is she okay? I don’t know.

But regardless, adult Shimamura goes and says hello to Yashiro, the small child-shaped alien who’s taken up an unofficial position as the Shimamura family pet, and Yashiro says something very interesting.

Shimamura and Adachi meeting is not chance whatsoever. It is in fact, destiny. According to Yashiro, anyway.

In every timeline and reality, she says, they are fated to encounter each other- not because they’re special, not because the universe is eyeing them closely or anything, but simply because they are. Because, apparently, reality likes being consistent, or perhaps finds it too exhausting to get particularly creative. Adachi and Shimamura just meet each other because, the code for reality gets copy pasted. Or something.

Yashiro has no answer for this, particularly, other than that it just is, and she doesn’t seem bothered by it. Shimamura doesn’t think too much of it either, and then she and Adachi go off on their overseas vacation and reminisce as a framing device for the rest of the novel, which is about the school trip they went on in their second year.

And, about how Adachi is horny, but, doesn’t know what the hell to do with that. And about their classmates who are grouped up with them for the trip noticing that they’re a same-gender couple, and surprisingly, supporting them! At least, one of them does.

Well, it was surprising to us, and surprising to Shimamura, who expresses in her internal monologue that she was afraid of facing a much less nice reaction after Adachi, in her lack of care for how she’s seen by others, basically outed them.

But it’s also not that surprising, because in the Reiwa era of the yuri genre, it’s pretty normal for there to be more straightforward acceptance of homosexuality and less “just a phase” framing, that there is.

This is a thing that our friend @studentofetherium went into in a tumblr post, well, volunteered to go into it rather, after they mentioned this fact to us and I told them that I was writing this. Also, they take credit for coining the term “reiwa era yuri” so if there’s another term I guess someone might tell us, but otherwise we’re just gonna continue using this one.

So, the school trip happens, things happen on the school trip, and the whole time Shimamura is wondering, do I really love Adachi? Is this relationship going to go okay? Will we have a future together? And when her classmate asks her these things she just… doesn’t really know.

And then, in a twist of an ending to the eighth volume that feels custom fucking made for the hypothetical second season of the anime to end here, Shimamura has an epiphany. As she’s stumbling through the fog that’s emerged around their school trip bus, she realizes that she’s looking through the fog… for Adachi.

Because Shimamura really does love Adachi, really does care about Adachi, want to live with Adachi, and they find each other and meet each other’s eyes and it’s just this entire love magic cinema moment

and then that night they sleep together.

By which I mean, they just sleep. The idea that one or both of them want to have sex is floated, but neither of them are emotionally ready for that. So they just lay down, and they chat about how their future is going to go, how they want to one day go even farther than there- and the last chapter cuts ahead to them, in the future, again, going home from their overseas trip, from whence they've gone farther.

And it’s just like.

Huh. Neat.

Part 3: The Trouble With Life

3.1 The Improbability of Endings

Most yuri, most romance, stories just kind of end at, they dated, they kissed, they’re together now. The end.

Even Bloom Into You, a romance story that we like so much that Yuu Koito literally infected our brain, just gets its two leads together, has them fuck, and has an epilogue going, “yeah, so they got married, they’re fine now.” And it’s not out of a lack of care, or consideration, or laziness, or anything, that so many romance stories end this way, it’s more that human relationships are kind of metal as fuck.

So metal, in fact, that they take years and years and are fickle as hell and, no matter how much work you put into them, will constantly collapse under the slightest pressure, like a run of your favorite roguelike, or some kind of massive long-term jenga tower of social pressures and favors and feelings that you just cannot stabilize.

And this is something Shimamura and Adachi are both very conscious of, that Tarumi is conscious of when she encounters Shimamura again after all those years, that everyone in this story is painfully aware of- human relationships are not built to last. Especially not in a world like this, in an economic system like capitalism that’s seemingly hell bent on tearing us all away from each other at every turn.

Dealing with all that is hard to do within the framework of a traditional narrative. So, a lot of romance stories do end with the couple getting together, because, that’s economical. It’s easy. It’s satisfying. You don’t need to think about it too hard, don’t need to think about how most relationships just kind of fizzle out and fade and everything.

And Adashima does ponder the fragility of relationships so much more than most other romance fiction we’ve read, and it takes its time to try and make the relationship between its leads special, to make it believable that this will last. The fact that Iruma puts so much time and thought and effort into this relationship and its development and strengthening makes it come across, in context, as just a little bit off when the story just

Skips the rest of them.

The reveal that Adachi and Shimamura are literally bound by fate is not handled as cheaply as you might think, or, really, cheaply at all. It doesn’t ruin the story, Shimamura doesn’t really have any regard for it, she’s just kinda like, yeah, well, our relationship happened and it’s fine regardless, I don’t need to understand all the fate stuff.

And its y’know, it’s good. It’s good that it’s working out. But I still have so many questions. Adachi’s personality. Shimamura’s devotion. Is she devoted, I don’t know. She doesn’t seem devoted, so how’s that working out? How’s it going to work out if and when Adachi asks for something that Shimamura can’t or won’t give, and then that’s the point at which the relationship is truly strained?

Tarumi. Do they stay friends? Will Adachi ever meet Tarumi? Will Tarumi be upset that someone else likes Shimamura? How’s Shimamura going to take all that? And everything, and everything else. How are their parents going to take it? It seems that it’s fine in the future, but was there drama, was there difficulty? Or did they just not care that much? I don’t know.

On the one hand, it’s nice to see the future stuff more, it’s nice to see a more thorough exploration of an adult couple’s life in a yuri story than we’ve previously really gotten. We all want that sequel to Bloom Into You. Cause it’d be nice to capture that experience in an art piece.

But the way it’s paced, well, it feels disappointing because I don’t really like the way that it kind of arbitrarily makes the story end, before it, keeps going, but also I can’t really criticize it for that because, well, I can’t think of a particularly better solution. I know we all want answers to these questions, we all want to see more of this, and Iruma would probably like to write more of it, but they have other things they want to write and unfortunately aren’t immortal.

In the eighth of Iruma’s afterwards, which consistently fail to convince us that they are not writing their autobiography here, it is explained that volume 8’s flash forward to the future is the ending. Or at least, an ending. You could say, a contingency, so that if Iruma stops writing the novels prematurely, then there will have been an ending.

There’s currently eleven total volumes, and there’s going to be two more, or so says Iruma, with the eleventh one having come out while we were working on this essay. So, yeah, that’s the reason why this feels so weird, so much like a forced ending to the series at the expense of the larger plot’s pacing. Because this one person can’t spend their entire life writing the life of a fictional cast of characters.

And that’s just the tragedy of our finite lives, isn’t it, that we can’t spend all our lives chilling out, eating food, and making art. Hopefully one day someone’ll have that figured out. But in the meantime.

Reading this, and considering both the conclusive way with which volume 8 ended, as well as the fact that there was a change in illustrators starting with volume 9, and the thought that this would be the ending of the hypothetical second season of the anime… Which is our own original thought, I should clarify. We decided it’d make the most sense to treat it as a clean break in the story, and read volume 9… later.

After reading… the Anime Special Novel. Which is also quite interesting, for some different reasons!

3.2 The Time Lord Cat

Just in case you’ve never heard of this before, I probably need to explain what the hell it is. So, when Adachi and Shimamura, the anime, got a blu-ray release, the publishers wanted to include some incentives for buying the thing even if you’d already seen the anime on TV or wherever.

As such, they asked Iruma to write them something to include as a bonus. And so, four new light novel chapter-sized pieces of writing from Iruma were distributed in the first runs of each of the four blu-ray volumes. And these stories, which, otherwise have seen no official release, got translated into English by the same people doing the fan translations of the main novels.

So it might be more accurate, technically, to describe these as four different discrete novels, but that’s a huge linguistic nuisance. It’s four chapters, that’s only about a chapter or two smaller than the average light novel, so I’m just gonna describe it as a four-chapter novel, because it basically is one. Anyway. The Anime Special Novel is about Yashiro, and how she is an immortal cat.

Did I already explain who Yashiro is? I don’t know. Anyway, Yashiro is best explained as an alien and corollary to Shinobu Oshino, anime’s other mildly famous non-human immortal child, who one day waltzes into town and sweet talks all the humans into giving her food. And we say, “Wait, an alien, really?”

While the anime provides no real answer, the novels eventually get around to clarifying, “Yes, an alien. Really.”

Yashiro is most definitely not a human, and not a documented Earth species, so she’s probably an alien. Her pockets are bigger on the inside. She can read minds. She barely ages after ten, seventy, and then thousands of years. She can apparently time and space travel all by her lonesome, and she loves humans and apparently favors spending time with them far more than her own species, who she is ignoring. She can fold to comfortably fit into spaces smaller than herself.

Therefore, Yashiro is indisputably a Time Lord. Or, Time Lady, Time Maiden. Whatever.

Taken in context, the most questionable claim Yashiro makes is that she is 680 years old. It is later shown that she is terrible at keeping track of the time, so much so that later, she views the difference in time between three thousand years or thirty thousand, as something trivial, that it doesn’t matter if she flubs up a bit. She’s just like that.

Yashiro is an extremely interesting character, who, very curiously, perceives herself as the least interesting thing in the entire world. She claims to have come to Earth for a rendezvous with her fellow aliens, but she never treats this task with any degree of urgency.

While she’s never specific about the details of this plan, my guess is that she, like Adachi and Shimamura, only decided she wanted a piece of their slice of life because she was playing hooky. At least that’s how I’d prefer to think of it. The idea has thematic resonance, so as far as I’m concerned, that’s canon. But the other thing is that, unlike Adachi, Shimamura, and basically every other human in this story, Yashiro has only one emotion.

She is happy all the time.

Yashiro is never bothered by anything, whatsoever. She always has what she wants, and she’s never bothered by not getting what she wants- if she doesn’t make her goal, she moves the goalpost. Yashiro does not seem to have any worldly concerns whatsoever; she eats all the time, not out of an apparent need to sate hunger, but rather for the simple pleasure of doing so.

She doesn’t face much opposition, either, she’s such a cute child that everyone just wants to pet and feed and pamper her, and Shimamura’s family takes no issue with her just chilling at their house for ten years. The only thing Yashiro is ever described as not liking is baths, and even then she’s never really angry about being made to take one. In her internal monologue, Shimamura consistently describes Yashiro as being like a cat.

And she really is, isn’t she? She eats and sleeps all day, she doesn’t like water, and she is happily accepted as a freeloader for years in the homes of human strangers. And that’s just normal, even though Yashiro… is… well, humanoid, at the very least.

But the bizarre factor of Yashiro’s character is increased exponentially when Iruma takes her out of Adachi and Shimamura, and plops her right into Girls’ Last Tour.

3.3 Yashiro's Last Tour

Girls’ Last Tour, if you aren’t aware, is an anime (AND MANGA) about Girls on their Last Tour. It’s a survival kirara where moe blobs have a picnic in a dying world full of remnants of a fallen civilization. It’s all moody and pensive and about small girls who do not seem particularly bothered by the inevitably of their death. One of them is into vore.

Relevant here is that one of these two moe blobs is named Chito. And, coincidentally, the protagonist of the Adachi and Shimamura Anime Special Novel, who is also touring a dying world full of remnants of a fallen civilization, is also named Chito.

Did Iruma do this on purpose? Probably not, but there’s an excuse to recommend Girls’ Last Tour without needing to make a video about it. Go watch it. Uh, probably go read it too. We haven’t read it, but it’s probably really good. Both forms. It’s great.

Anyway, Chito Number Two is also hanging around Yashiro on another planet, not Earth, which we’ve never seen before, that at some point was colonized by Chito’s ancestors, but then it turned out that the planet sucked at sustaining crops and so everyone fell ill and/or starved, and unfortunately died.

Which sucks.

So, Chito is just wandering this basically dead civilization, aware she could be the last human alive for all she knows, but not really caring much. Yashiro is here, accompanying Chito and chatting her up, because she finds it fun I guess. She doesn’t really seem to care very much about the whole humanity dead thing, but she’s very eager to tell Chito this one story she has about these two very nice girls who gave her a lot of snacks to eat some thousands of years prior.

Yashiro tells four separate stories to Chito, which are each set at different points in Adachi and Shimamura’s adult lives together. All the typical things, really. Going shopping, going on onsen dates, kissing- well, no, they don’t directly kiss, but Shimamura does reminisce about their first bloody kiss. And also, Shimamura dying.

Yes, Yashiro confirms, in canon, that Adachi and Shimamura died. But she’s not particularly bothered by it. She’s just as cheery as ever. It’s not like she’s happy about them being dead, but she’s not especially sad, either- no more troubled than she’d be if Shimamura refused to give her candy.

And common sense, common familiarity with tropes about immortal people, says this should be existentially terrifying, shouldn’t it. A living creature that is only ever happy, that never dies or grows old or grieves. This is the basic setup for some lovecraftian horror story or another, or several, isn’t it?

And it is, on a basic level, kind of unsettling to see Yashiro just… not being bothered by living thousands of years, by the people around her dying, and just remaining a child forever, but… It’s not really, is it? Look at her! She’s too cute to be scared of. She’s a human shaped cat! Isn’t it adorable?

Humans typically live longer than cats, I know. But if a cat lived longer than humans, do you think it would give a fuck?

One of the most interesting parts of Adachi and Shimamura is the middle part of volume 6, where, as I think I already said, it’s revealed that up till now, the love of little Hougetsu Shimamura’s life has been not a girl, not even a human, but the other Shimamura family pet.

The dog that lives at her grandparents’ house, Gon. Gon was Hougetsu’s best friend, Hougetsu’s only true friend, the only living creature she ever loved, and for a time, the only reason Hougetsu wanted to come back.

And it’s only just now that Shimamura is really realizing just how strange this is, though, she’s come to accept that she’s really rather strange, that she doesn’t particularly care. And now, she’s coming back for the yearly Obon visit to her grandparents’ house, to see Gon for what is probably the last time.

This dog, who was once young and spry, once quite literally bounced up and down at the sight of little Hougetsu, has now grown old and frail, barely able to walk. This dog, who Shimamura loves more than her own mother, is dying, and Shimamura finds this prospect… What’s the word? Disquieting, perhaps. Disquieting.

Shimamura is disquiet with thoughts of age, thoughts of love, thoughts of death. As she still finds herself puzzled over what Adachi’s feelings are, what Adachi wants out of her, knowing what Adachi wants but not really able to admit it to herself, wondering about her own life, about if she’ll have companions in her future, about if it’ll suck, and it’s just…

I don’t know. Shimamura thinks about a lot, and I don’t have words for a lot of it. The main thing I remember is her speaking to the odd old man who’s her grandparents’ next door neighbor, and it being firstly really funny because he just is walking around with a teacup that his granddaughter made and bragging about how great of a potter she is. Just because he can. Just because he’s a weird old guy, and people will let weird old people get away with these things, and he can.

And he gives Shimamura a fishing rod, as such, so he says, because he can.

Yeah, so just to repeat what I said, Shimamura runs into this weird old dude on a family trip, he says, “hey, my daughter’s real damn good at pottery and that’s why I’m toting her special teacup around, how about you go fishing with this fishing rod,” refuses to elaborate further, leaves. And that’s just great.

Well, he does elaborate a little further before he leaves, says she should enjoy her childhood while she can, and then gives her some fishing advice, I guess. And that’s all very nice of him.

And then Gon shows up, walking all slow like he does, and Shimamura asks the old man,

“Is it tough growing old?”

His answer wasn’t going to affect anything. Things were going to continue the same way as they always had. And yet, despite all of that, I just couldn’t help but ask.

Mumbling to himself, the man shook his head slightly. His turban shook as well.

“I see. So, your questions too have a hint of philosophy to them, huh? I guess that only makes sense, given your name and all.”

“What’s that even supposed to mean…”I hadn’t meant to grumble that out loud. No, it was simply my instinctual reaction to the situation; if I had to call anything here philosophical, it would be his needlessly obtuse answer.

“It’s not tough for me, no. Why? Well, I got this teacup from my granddaughter, that’s why. Haha. Does that answer your question?”

You could see the man’s eyes sparkle as he said that.

“Hmm, I guess.”

It really didn’t. Apparently, I’d picked the wrong person to ask.

[From Adachi and Shimamura, volume 6, "Home Town Dog"

Written by Hitoma Iruma

Translated and published unofficially by sneikkimies]

And that’s just sort of… mellow, and funny, and surprisingly sage. Well, maybe not that surprising. I don’t know. It’s just an entire moment. It’s also a little surprising, just a teensy little bit, because...

This is a kirara, isn’t it? This kind of story doesn’t usually go there. Like, according to Iruma, the editor’s prompt that resulted in Adashima was “write something like Yuru Yuri,” and Yuru Yuri is a stupid and silly nonsense comedy about immortal lesbians violently assaulting each other both physically and sexually, which is really funny, because they’re literally a bunch of gay Looney Tunes.

Or maybe that’s just the anime, I don’t know, I guess the manga might be different, but even still, the manga’s never aged these characters a single day as far as I can see. Really the only kirara I know of (other than Girls' Last Tour) that addresses the fact of the cute girls eventually dying is School-Live, but like, that’s an edgy one isn’t it? It’s literally set in a zombie apocalypse. It’s not exactly subtle.

You don’t really want to think about, say, the keions getting older and dying, do you? I mean, maybe you do, and if you do you’re probably a little weird, and that’s fine. So like, this is just kind of… I don’t want to say weird, because in the context of the story, it isn’t.

But I’m quite sure that people who’ve only seen the first season of the anime aren’t really expecting this, y’know? It’s certainly a place to have gone, and be going.

It’s so comical, so caustic, so casually morbid, to see the cast of Adachi and Shimamura reflect on their life, their future, their love and their relationships and their families and drifting apart from their friends and peers as the rivers of life all take them all the different places they’re going to, towards their eventual deaths, and all these very difficult human things to be thinking about, and Yashiro just… is happily prancing around eating donuts.

But it’s also not… that weird, really. Although Yashiro is so transfixingly childlike as she is, she’s also so pure and straightforward and earnest as any sentient creature can plausibly get. Although she doesn’t share in the complicated feelings of the humans around her, she’s never unsympathetic to their emotions, and to their needs. She’s always happy and childish, but she never forces that on people- she just accepts people as they are, and she does her best to do right by people.

Which is unsettling, not because it’s undesirable, exactly, but rather because it’s impossible. But if it were possible, and, hey, maybe it is possible for Yashiro, a non-human, to be emotionally stable and pleasant and good, but it’s not possible for us humans all the time to be that way, just the same as it’s not possible to live immortal and ageless as Yashiro does…

…

I guess the conclusion that I just came to is that Yashiro IS the part that’s like Yuru Yuri! Yashiro is the immortal gay looney toon! But given new meaning by being placed in a world of actual people dealing with gross human problems like jealousy and unfulfilled desires for affection and burgeoning sexuality and age and work and family and death!

And Yashiro is, Yashiro is just great! Um. She’s a great child, and a great cat. Like, probably the best cat! Okay, and now I have to explain why she’s the best cat.

Final Part: The Lesbians of All Time

So, the last story. In the second chapter of the Anime Special Novel, Chito and Yashiro run into another girl- a girl named Shima, described as having black hair and feeling like Chito already knows her, and then you turn the page and THERE’S THE ADACHI CHIBI THERE IT IS THERE’S ADACHI

and they keep exploring the desolate deserted planet and then in the fourth and final chapter, Shimamura dies.

The story that Yashiro has to tell. Is about Shimamura. And told to us from the point of view of Hougetsu Shimamura, age 85 ish, who describes her relationship dynamic with Yashiro as having gone from little sister to daughter to grandchild on account of Yashiro still not having aged a single day after all these years.

And up till this point, knowing that Shimamura was already dead in the future, I’d been thinking, oh gosh, oh fuck, it’s gonna absolutely SUCK if Shimamura dies first and then Adachi is all alone and miserably depressed for the rest of her life- and thankfully that doesn’t happen.

No, it’s Shimamura who is all alone, and literally everyone else who is dead. Adachi, Hino, Nagafuji, Tarumi, Shimamura’s little sister, everyone she knew is dead now. And Shimamura, now, too, is also dying, of old age.

Shimamura thinks she might be seeing Adachi’s ghost, because she’s evidently gone and introjected Adachi after Adachi’s death, but she’s also not quite sure about that whatsoever, and she’s just tired and lonely and reflecting on all her life up to this point and how fondly she remembers her high school years with Adachi and her only other thought is

Damn. All my friends are dead, and being old is boring.

To relieve her boredom, Shimamura takes her sister’s games console, which, no longer works with modern TVs, because it’s the future, so she goes out to an electronics store and gets an adapter. Also, because it’s the future, there’s been alien visitations and humanity is looking into space traveling more. But Shimamura’s been born too soon to care.

So she goes back to her home, boots up a JRPG on her sister’s old games console and makes a party of characters which she names after Adachi, Hino, Nagafuji, Tarumi, and her sister, and then finds out that video games are good. So Shimamura decides that her life’s goal, for the rest of her life, is going to be to finish Dragon Quest.

Does she finish it? Who knows. No idea. The story ends.

But before Shimamura dies, she asks Yashiro, her immortal alien child house cat, if she will ever see Adachi again.

Yashiro says yes. She will. For it is destiny.

And Shimamura’s dying request of Yashiro, is for Yashiro to make absolutely sure that every Shimamura across the universe finds their Adachi.

Yashiro promises earnestly.

And thus, here, in the present of the future of the end of humanity in a dying civilization Yashiro looks at the two last known living humans on this planet, says, “My job here is done!” And then shortly thereafter fucks off, assured in the knowledge that she’s fulfilled her promise to Shimamura:

Play matchmaker for her most recent reincarnation and her destined wifey.

So, yeah, that’s what happens. It might be just about a wrap on humanity, or at least this particular humanity, but The Lesbians of All Time are still gay.

There’s several Things About this particular chapter.

One, it’s, unintentionally, a particularly stark distillation of the classical American millennial slash zoomer fantasy of having the economic security to retire at an appropriate age and spend your last years in dignity, after a good life of living well with a good partner who you were happy with (or, multiple or no partners, if that’s your preference), and then dying peacefully of old age playing video games.

Yeah, uh, oof.

Two, it’s a particularly stark distillation of the perhaps not as common but particularly appealing fantasy of being assured that you and your partner will reincarnate and get together again, by your cat, who promises to make extra sure that that comes to pass all throughout every time and place and timeline. Because your cat likes you, and is a Time Lord!

Yashiro is good!

And three, um, yeah, it’d be really nice to know that you’re going to reincarnate with your soul mate. Like, that’s just convenient. For some people. I’m sure.

Okay, so, anyway, do I have anything to say about this story? Yeah, I probably do, probably a lot. But I don’t know if I can coherently say very much of it without repeating a lot of what I already said. It’s melancholy as all hell and it’s also just not something I expected at all from this series when we started reading it. Iruma even reflects on that fact directly in their afterward, saying,

“Anyway, yeah. That's the sort of story this became.

Death approaches!”

Heh. I guess it does. I guess it does.

There’s a lot else I feel I have to comment on. If I had infinite time, I’d also add on analyses and comparisons of the two Adachi and Shimamura manga adaptations. I’d read volumes 9 and 10 before finishing this video, and talk about my feelings on however Tarumi’s arc gets resolved- if it gets resolved. I barely even began to discuss or analyze Hino and Nagafuji’s relationship and their additional flavoring of the story as a side couple. And did my tangent on Adachi’s jealousy really go anywhere, did I have an answer? Well, no, but the volumes that I read up to didn’t really have an answer, either. Do I want to try to pretentiously psychoanalyze Iruma and his writing more based on the incomplete information I have from these English translations?

There’s another series, also, Iruma’s apparent debut series, where a girl and a boy who fall in love have childhood trauma about being kidnapped a long time ago and are being retraumatized by a serial killing incident in a small town and that has some HELLA TAGS on the site’s it’s listed at- does this psychological horror crime fiction have some connection to Adachi sometimes thinking a teensy bit like a serial killer? Is the electric child in Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl, another thing I haven’t watched nor read, a proto-Yashiro? Is Yashiro really a corollary to Shinobu? Did the Saeki Sayaka novels contain secret Adashima foreshadowing? Did Iruma say something super interesting in an interview somewhere that someone translated on Twitter maybe? Can I get answers to any of these questions without knowing how to speak Japanese?

Are we just going to have to learn Japanese and read all the rest of the things Iruma has written ourselves?!

And this has now just about broken ten thousand words, and I cannot answer any of those questions just yet. So, much like Iruma and Adashima volume 8, I’m going to arbitrarily force an ending to my unfinished work despite these loose ends and hope it’s good enough in case we never get around to writing a sequel.

In lieu of a better wrap-up, I guess I can just say, and as such,

ANIME GIRLS CAN DIE TOO.

The end.

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[sophieinwonderland]

“I think there has been a lot of fearmongering in the community about the concept of plurals helping other plurals…But I've also seen it before with the demonization of the Plural Association's planned warmline for plurals. (This also was paired with a conflation of Warmlines and crisis Hotlines. Note that these are not the same.)”

Eh I do think there is some criticisms to be made about the warmline. Because they are unable to give support to someone in crisis, people who are using that line for that reason are likely to not experience adequate support (and unfortunately when talking about hotlines/warmlines, this can range from how telling someone in crisis to have a cup of tea/take a bath/etc can feel really minimising to even there have been scenarios where people actively mocked for their crisis).

Like already they do not seem knowledgeable on how a crisis/support plan could be something to reject (I reject them from a place of ‘they have been used to harm me’).

I understand there’s a difference between warmlines and hotlines, but as someone who used to have over 20 chatlines/hotlines bookmarked they do sometimes function the same (like some warmlines do claim to support people in crisis) and it’s understandable why someone would think that they are the same.

This ofc doesn’t mean the line shouldn’t exist, I just think that expecting there probably will be some issues is fine (because yeah there probably will be). I also haven’t personally encountered people who seem to really hate the idea of the hotline (besides being suspicious because it’s unclear where funding/donations are going unless you’re subscribed to certain things and/or are inside their plural community platform), so my comments might be a bit off-base (since it feels like I’m maybe missing some context but idk)

I can see how this might be a valid criticism of warmlines in general.

It's absolutely true that peer warmlines aren't equipped to deal with a crisis. (Of course, you can also argue that hotlines themselves aren't equipped to deal with plurality.) But this isn't what they're meant to do. It's not the fault of the warmline if people end up misusing it.

The issue here is that, if this is really their problem, then why not take it up with all warmlines? Why is a plural warmline, specifically, so egregious? Why is it always a problem for plurals to help other plurals?

If you want context, here is popular post from January.

Note that while the title says "warmline/hotline," the post itself only refers to it as a "hotline." Despite the fact that TPA only ever calls it a warmline from what I've found.

As mentioned above, this is also true of most warmlines. Most warmline volunteers are not trained professionals. They're volunteers and peers who might know what you're going through, and may be able to lend an ear when you're in need. That said, the claim that they aren't trained at all is wrong according to The Plural Association.

Obviously, risks still exist. Some may not feel 40 hours is enough. But this would also be true of ALL warmlines. It's not something unique to the Plural Association's warmline. So again, why is it only problematic when it's plurals helping other plurals?

And it's really not like Crisis Hotline are risk free either. Especially with conditions that the person on the other end just won't understand.

Context on this: TPA did a poll. TPA asked if participants felt crisis or hotline providers they've been in contact with understood DID and OSDD. 40% of the people who responded had never used a hotline or warmline.

The claim is that TPA was "manipulating data" by excluding the people who had never used a hotline from their data.

This is pretty obviously ridiculous if you think about it for more than two seconds. It's like if there was a poll about your customer service at Subway, and you said that excluding people who had never eaten at Subway from the statistic was "manipulating the data."

Obviously, the 40% who haven't been in contact with a hotline or crisis line shouldn't be counted given the very nature of the question.

The whole thing feels like a massive smear of plurals for trying to make a warmline for plurals to reach other plurals who might understand them and what they're going for in a way singlets can't.

Overall, even if it's not perfect, this is a goal that I believe should be celebrated and encouraged, not derided.

[interstellarflowers]

FREE PALESTINE from a small fanfic writer and uni. activist returning to tumblr.

i just wanted to hop on to say that as someone who writes for things such as stranger things (or rather has written) that i encourage you to consume other peoples work ethically and to boycott the show or at least do what you can to not allow profit, block accounts, do not stream it via netflix or otherwise. i call out specifically stranger things just because i have written for it in the past, and some of their cast members have displayed some of the most heinous acts of racism, colorism, and colonialist support that i have seen. i will never accept this as something i can look past, and neither should you. genocide is never excusable, and apathy and support of it should never be tolerated. i am strongly anti-zionist, and if you're someone who believes in humanitarianism, or someone who identifies as a leftist, or someone who is also BIPOC or LGBTQ*, then i implore you to educate yourself further on the liberation and history of Palestine, and to get involved in whatever way you can whether this be through donating, supporting Palestinian creators, sharing content and information, protesting, or otherwise. also before someone even TRIES it with me, my family is jewish, i went to hebrew school growing up, i was adopted from the system into a judaism practicing household, and what israel is doing right now, is not jewish, even insinuating that this killing spree, hatred, genocide, and racism is jewish absolutely twists my stomach into knots. genocide is not a jewish value, the israeli government is incredibly incorrect, they have no right to do what they're doing now, they had no right to displace people, they are not indigenous to Palestine. despite common american and eurocentric historical events, no, you can't just show up somewhere decide its yours, give it a new name, and get offended when people say that its colonization and stealing. it is. you have colonized, you have stolen land, you have become the oppressor, you are the oppressor, and now youre committing a mass genocide. never again means never again. they must be held accountable, this is evil. i consistently come back and leave writing fanfic i battle a number of health issues which end up impacting my mental state and i was working on graduating university (graduated this semester btw, heading to johns hopkins now for grad school) but another reason why ive found myself less active is because of the ignorance i see on this platform sometimes. its extra difficult to want to return to a platform and community when i come back from witnessing and experiencing police brutality and force on my campus in response to our encampment, witnessing my friends, peers, and professors be arrested and physically harmed, be verbally assaulted, assaulted, abused by admin, etc. and then come on here and see people refusing to partake in even the bare minimum. its is crucial to the survival of the remaining Palestinian people that we give this cause our all, and fight for their lives, they have been failed and abandoned time and time again, do not turn your backs to them, do not ignore this.

the Palestinian struggle intersects with issues of race, colonialism, state violence, and human rights, in supporting Palestine it means that we are advocating for human rights overall and challenging the overarching system of oppression. recognizing the ongoing systemic oppression, genocide, and attack on Palestinian people and working towards resolution means working towards a movement of ending colonialism and other systems of oppression. as someone who is in both communities, BIPOC and Queer people are familiar with systemic racism and colonialism, the fight for Palestinian liberation against the Israeli government is also a fight against settler colonialism and racialized violence. by supporting Palestine, Queer and BIPOC individuals affirm their opposition to all forms of systemic racism and colonialism.

justice is not a zero-sum game. justice is a shared goal where freedom for one group contributes to freedom for all. in supporting Palestine we foster global solidarity, demonstrating that collective liberation is intertwined and it has been proven to be in multiple BIPOC and Queer liberation movements throughout history. find resources below, and if youre in the nyc area, feel free to reach out to me if you want to coordinate or need someone to attend protests with:

https://linktr.ee/columbiasjp

[themintsheep]

It's more than just about a game

Another damning thing about JK Rowling that should continue to *scare* everyone over just how serious her anti-trans views are: she has the money and power to *influence*.

She can donate to political campaigns and organizations that harm trans folk. She has a platform to announce her views to millions of people who listen to her and convince them to harm trans folk in various ways. And these people Rowling might convince are parents; are teachers; are counselors; are therapists; are police; are politicians—just examples of people who *also* have the power to influence a trans person's basic rights. Like parents who invalidate your gender and make you feel unsafe at home; teachers who prohibit your peers from using your pronouns and make you a target at school; counselors who insist it's all in your head; therapists who tell you gender dysphoria is a disease; police who brutalize you especially hard for being who you are; politicians who create laws to prevent you from getting the proper medical care.

She can do all THAT for, what, being just an *author??* Isn't that scary?

The next time you think about JK Rowling and her views and scoff it off as, "just someone you disagree with" or "the person you separate the art from", remember just how far of a reach she has and what harm it can do—and has already done.

It's more than just about a game. There are *deeper* issues we ought to be actually addressing here, but the easy distraction they gave you all was to fight about buying the game or not and give it free advertising.

We have to do so much more.

[ginza-division]

"Security is an illusion. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

Timeline

Age 0:

Is born the middle child to Yasuo and Atsuko Noguichi in Tokyo, Japan.

Age 3:

Is made an older brother after his younger sister, Bunko, is born.

Age 6:

Begins to get interested in computers and technology after being introduced to the computer game, Pong.

Age 17:

Graduates high school and begins attending Tokyo University.

Meets and befriends Maiya Satoko during a group project in one of their classes together.

Age 18:

With the help of some of his peers, he comes up with a computer program called, "MashUp", which helped users to make class selection decisions based on the choices of other students and also to help them form study groups.

Unfortunately, the program is taken down by the university due to it being considered a violation of a student's privacy rights.

He saves the code from MashUp in hopes that he can use it again someday.

Age 20:

For his final project, he comes up with a plan to reuse his old MashUp code, creating a new program and social media platform.

He first calls the program, "Account", but then changes it to "PROFILE".

His program is well-liked by professors and students, who are eager to try it out.

He graduates with high honors and a Bachelor's in Technology.

Age 21:

His father suggests he expands PROFILE across all of Japan. He takes his father's advice and releases PROFILE to everyone.

He is credited as one of the "Top 50 Innovators in the World", helping him gain world-renowned fame.

He and Maiya begin dating.

Age 22:

His father both advises and helps him to start up his own company to help spread PROFILE.

After taking out a loan and finding a suitable location in Ginza, Sigma Inc. is officially launched.

Age 23:

He spends much of his time traveling outside of Japan, establishing connections with many world leaders to boost PROFILE's popularity.

Age 24:

Eiji makes a 'Marketplace' section on PROFILE, allowing people to sell unwanted or used merchandise to people across the world.

He also introduces the 'Like' and 'Dislike' buttons on the site, allowing people to show their approval or disapproval of what people say.

With his wealth, he buys up parts of land in Ginza for various purposes, such as: recreation, work, etc.

Age 25:

PROFILE obtains over 10,000,000 users and over 1,000,000 downloads.

After years of dating, he asks Maiya to become his wife, and she agrees.

They give birth to fraternal twins, a boy, and a girl.

Age 26:

Many companies try to join with Sigma Inc., but he refuses wanting to stay separate.

This earns him a lot of ire and hate from many other company owners.

He gets caught in a car accident that costs him one of his legs, forcing him to get a prosthetic one.

Age 28:

PROFILE starts to gain backlash due to how some users are using it.

Eiji's wife and sisters defend him and the site.

Age 30:

He continues adding more and more features to the site, increasing its popularity and infamy.

He deals with numerous lawsuits and controversies, which gives him no end of trouble.

Age 32:

He makes adjustments to his site, changing its outlook and appearance, which has a positive effect.

Age 33:

Sigma Inc. comes out with a VR game called 'Infinity', which is all the rage among gamers due to how lifelike and real it is.

Age 35:

He becomes acquainted with Otome Tohoten, the Prime Minister of Japan, whom he helps set up a PROFILE for.

Age 36:

He and Maiya give birth to another child, Isuzu Noguchi.

Unfortunately, Isuzu is diagnosed with an incurable disease, making it hard for her to breathe.

Eiji donates millions of dollars from his company in an attempt to find a cure.

He becomes acquainted with Masa Judice, a well-known Catholic priest, who donates money to have Eiji create a PROFILE for him and his church.

Age 37:

His company helps to sponsor a video game tournament event called, Platinum Gaming.

Age 38:

Present.

He becomes acquainted with the former frontman of C H A R O N, Oki Teagan, through Masa.

He is asked by Masa to join his team in the D.R.B. Eiji reluctantly agrees after being told that there is a cure that can save his daughter.

Becomes the second member of the Ginza Division rap battle team, Last Judgment, alongside Masa Judice and Oki Teagan.

Schedule

12 a.m. - 7 a.m.: Asleep

7 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.: Freshens up

8:30 a.m. - 9 a.m.: Breakfast with family

9 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.: Arrive at work

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.: In meetings

1 p.m. - 2 p.m.: Lunch

2 p.m. - 3 p.m.: More meetings

3 p.m. - 4 p.m.: In R&D Department

4 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.: Gives a call to wife and kids

4:15 p.m. - 6 p.m.: Managing and monitoring PROFILE

6 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Paperwork

8 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.: Returns home

8:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.: Eats dinner with family

9 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Play video games with kids

10 p.m. - 10:15 p.m.: Check on Isuzu

10:15 p.m. - 11:45 p.m.: Freshens up

11:45 p.m. - 12 a.m.: Gets ready for bed

Character Hashtags

Regular Hashtags

#Transhumanity aim

#All for my family

#Technology is the future

Trauma Hashtags

#Will my daughter not get a chance at life

#I put my family in the crosshairs

#In over my head

Other Info

Hobby: Video Games

Weakness: His family

Trauma: "My daughter has an incurable disease."

Twitter: @Noguchi_Eij38

Drinks: Yes

Smokes: Yes

Special Skill: "I am extremely adept when it comes to any sort of technological piece of equipment."

Intro Quote: "We are advancing the world through technology."

Trauma Quote: "Isuzu... I'm sorry. You're dying right before me. And I don't know what to do to help you!"

Ending Quote: "Evolve or die. There is no other choice."