#Sue Steward

[nancy-xx]

Nancy Spungen

The report, which tells about the difficult lives of the Sex Pistols bassist and his girlfriend. Sue Steward, who knew them well, recalls the other side of the couple faced with tragedy.

 "Nesting" is not a strong feature of junkie couples, and Sid and Nancy often stayed in expensive West End hotels. When the accountants told McLaren that the band must buy houses and cars, in good rock-and-roll tradition, they soon had nice places in Marylebone and Chelsea. The hunt went on for Sid and Nancy. Finally, a small Maida Vale mews house was bought while Sid was away on tour and Nancy was kept in London. "Sue," I was told, "take Nancy to Habitat and buy some furnishings - a sofa, cushions, you know." She turned up after a night out and we headed first to Chelsea to collect her methadone, then I steered her towards Habitat. "I just gotta get me a drink," she said and walked into a nearby pub. After three straight double vodkas, she agreed to leave and wobbled across the road, heading for the sofas, where she lay down and dropped off. I pulled her off one and she headed for the next; the sales assistant was transfixed. Eventually, I asked which she liked best and she slurred: "The red one." Then completely alert, she looked me in the eye and said: "I'm gonna get it real nice for Sid, for when he comes back. Everything will be good and we'll have a real home. It will be good for us. Sid will like it." Yes, I said. I wanted to hug her. I paid the bill. In the taxi, I asked how she spent her days without Sid. Did she miss him? "Of course I do" she purred. "I love him. He's my baby." So what did she do without him? "Well, last night I had a good time. I went to Mayfair and met this guy with a Bentley, and he drove us into the country, and we stayed there with lots of booze and drugs and he gave me 500 quid."

[postracehair]

a small request

max verstappen x reader | 2k

even world champions deserve love letters. after missing the mexico gp, you're determined to see max have a good weekend in brazil. maybe all it takes is a handwritten note.

cw: fem!reader, being in love, softness, a track-side kiss, love letters. and google translate, sorry to any dutch speakers.

a/n: was this inspired by that video from austin? yeah, it was! sue me! also, written/posted before the gp, so. no race details <3 xx

__

You miss race weekend in Mexico. It happens. You can't be there every weekend, much as you'd like to be. You're even more peeved about it after, considering you quite like Carlos and wish you had seen him earn what very well might be his last win with Ferrari. But you're mostly upset because Max, though he won't say so, could probably have used your support.

Years of experience have him calm, cool, and collected despite the team troubles. Flippant, some headlines say. Mad Max, others. But you know he's probably just tired. Tired of the media, of the FIA, of the churning conflict between him and Lando -- something you all knew was coming someday, but maybe not so suddenly. The longest season ever continues to drag and drag and drag.

"Twenty seconds was...Christ, Max," you say. You know what happened, of course. You watched what you could, saw the sharp moves around the corner and heard the radios. It never gets easier, watching him take risks like that. Usually, everyone else backs off, but McLaren can see victory on the horizon and won't let it go. You can't blame them, either of them, you just wish it was all a bit less tense.

"I know," he says, voice raspy over the connection. "I -- well, you know how I feel about it. Don't want to say anything in case the FIA is tapping my phone."

You laugh into your hand so you don't disturb the other people in the airline lounge, not entirely used to places like this, still. Max has told you over and over that it's absurd for you to spend your own money when you're coming to see him all over the world. When you told him you moved things around so you could come to Brazil, he booked you the nicest ticket, per usual.

"Oh, ha, ha," you say. "Don't give them any ideas, Mr. Community Service." You sigh. "Do you need anything? Be honest."

"Aren't you at the airport already? Your flight should be leaving in --" A pause, like he's checking his watch -- "forty minutes."

You glance up at the departures screen. He's right, but you don't give it to him so easily. "Know my schedule, do you?"

"Well, I booked your ticket, so I should think so."

"Your assistant booked it, you mean."

He hums and you picture him in his hotel room, maybe at the window, looking over the city. "I know your flight information. Don't be silly."

"I mean it, Max," you say again. "Is there anything I can do to make the weekend better?" It's a bit of a useless question and you expect him to answer with a snarky get me a new car or apply for the position of steward.

But he doesn't. He clears his throat.

"I'm just glad you're coming," he says, softly. "I've missed you."

You never doubt how Max feels about you, but he must be pretty tired to admit it like this. He's all about actions, this man. Making sure you have what you need when you're at the track, arranging your travel, remembering your schedule. He shows you how much you matter, and that's more than enough. He never wants to make you feel bad for having a life beyond being his girlfriend. And this doesn't, not really. It just makes you ache, fills your chest with the hopeless affection you've felt for him for so long.

"I've missed you, too," you reply. "But I'd like to be useful."

"Oh, I can think of a few things, then," Max says, all of a sudden all cheek. Such a boy, sometimes. A boy in love.

You can't help but laugh, face hot. "Hush, you!"

He huffs. A few beats of silence, the comfortable, well-worn kind. Sometimes, when he's halfway across the world and up late on the sim, he'll call you just to hear you breathe.

"Max?"

"I -- do you remember what you did for my birthday?"

He'd wanted something small, quiet. There was a lot of work to be done with the team but three weekends off meant you had a little time to yourselves. A few days hardly leaving his place, a dinner with some of the guys, a cake you made yourself, hand-delivered in bed. Gifts for a very wealthy man are difficult, especially since Max doesn't seem to want much.

"Oh, the pillow with my face on it?"

Max laughs. The lounge loudspeaker announces that your flight is going to board soon, so you gather your things but keep your phone wedged next to your ear.

"No, the other thing," he says. He clears his throat and summons some of that World Champion courage. "The letter."

You'd written him a fairly long love letter, thinking it would be a nice thing to carry to the races you couldn't be at this fall. It was tempting to be embarrassed about it when you gave it to him the morning of his birthday, but his cheeks had gone pink and he'd buried his face in your neck.

"Oh, that," you say. The airport is busier outside the lounge and you push your case in the direction of your gate weaving between. people.

"You could write me another, maybe."

Max is direct. He is honest, at work and at home, but this surprises you a little.

"You do know I'm about to get on a plane to see you, right?"

He huffs, and you imagine his cheeks pink, eyes bright. "You asked!"

"I'll write you another love letter, Max Verstappen," you assure him. "I'll write you a hundred."

"One is a fine start," he says firmly. "You should be boarding soon, and I've got to go to the press conference. Text me when you've landed?"

"Of course," you reply, eyes rolling though he can't see. "I'll see you soon, okay? Love you."

"Love you, liefje."

On the plane, you tear out some pages from your journal. You'd prefer to have some nice stationery like what you wrote on for his birthday, but maybe this is more romantic, more real. Making do with that you've got because he asked.

In the last one, you told him your memories of when you first met. How your stomach swooped when you made him laugh, how his blue eyes wouldn't leave your dreams. In this one you tell him about when you first realized you loved him. How absurdly early you were sure, how badly you wanted to tell him for weeks. The way you remember every second of when you blurted it out -- his face, his smile. His voice in your ear, telling you over and over, geliefde, ik houd van je, zo veel. I love you, so much.

"You're working hard on that," someone says. You look up at your seatmate, a woman a few decades older than you with a heavy accent.

You feel a little like you've been caught doing something illicit, but you just smile at her. "For my boyfriend," you tell her. "A love letter."

She flattens her palm over heart and sighs. "How lovely," she coos. "I hope he takes care of you, too."

We take care of each other, you want to say. You could tell her about how he sends you postcards from every country he goes to after you told him you like to put them on your fridge. You could tell her how sometimes you text him during his streams to make him laugh on camera. How he remembers your favorites, how he saves you his special team gear, how he sends you flowers all the time. How he likes to sit on the couch, your toes under his thigh, fingers around your ankle. How you've been learning Dutch and how he patiently corrects your pronunciation. You could go on and on and on.

"He does," you say instead.

__

The plane lands safely in Brazil, but the pilot tells you that there is no open gate and that you'll be sitting for a while. You text Max.

stuck on tarmac, will be later than expected! :(

He must be in media responsibilities still because he doesn't reply until you finally get off the plane.

go relax at the hotel. i'll see you for dinner!

You find your ride easy enough and take a deep breath. The letter you wrote on the plane feels heavy in your pocket, and you just want to see Max. To be near him again. To give him this small thing he asked for.

"Excuse me," you say to the driver. "Do you think we could go to the track, instead?"

You text Max's assistant to say you're headed there, hoping it's not too much of an inconvenience. You're told he's almost done, maybe an hour left, and when you arrive you're led to his driver rooms. His shit is everywhere, per usual. Max is quite neat except in here -- Carmen once told you that George is the same. Clothes strewn about, his race boots unlaced and left in the way, warm-up equipment in a pile. On the table are a few of his things -- his wallet, a notebook, some papers.

Wait a second. One of those papers looks...familiar. It's been folded in three, the envelope it came in nowhere to be seen. His name is scrawled on the blank side in your hand and when you tug it from the pile you can see that it's creased, the edges a little more worn than when you gave it to him a few months ago. Max Verstappen, three-time World Champion, actually carries around the love letter you wrote him. Brings it to the track. It's darling. You love him so much. You pull the new one from your pocket and set them side-by-side on the table where he'll find them.

You ask to be taken to the pit wall, please, so you can see whatever the drivers are doing on track. Some dedication, you're told. The timing ends up being perfect and you get there just as they're finishing. You lean on a gap in the barrier where, on Sunday, crew members will be holding timing signs as the drivers zip around the hot pavement. The crowd in the stands is loud, as always, and maybe you imagine it but it seems to get a little louder when you look out.

The guys are talking amongst themselves and a few of them wave at you. You spot Max as he turns away from Charles and you can't help but grin. His eyes meet yours under his cap and his entire face chances, softens, and he breaks into a jog. You lean out over the concrete ledge and meet him in a kiss that's more two smiles pressed together than anything else.

"This is a surprise," he says when he pulls away. Eyes sparkling, he shows no signs of rejoining the other drivers as they head to whatever their next thing is. Photos, probably.

"I missed you," you tell him. "I've left you something in your room."

"Oh?" He straightens the lanyard of your credentials with careful fingers.

You reach for him, palm on his cheek. His stubble tickles and he leans into it ever so slightly. It doesn't feel like there are thousands of eyes on you, not even a little.

"Yeah," you say. "As promised." Someone calls his name. "Go on, then. I'll be waiting."

He kisses you again, a quick brush of his lips on the corner of your mouth.

Later, you'll wake from your nap in the hotel room to those same kisses on your cheeks, your forehead. Max will gather you in his arms and tell you all the moments he almost told you he loved you, how he could hardly believe when you said it first. You'll tease him for how many times he's read that first letter and he'll cheekily say that's why he needs more. And you will write him more, you'll write him as many as he wants. As many as you can, for the rest of your lives.

But now, in front of thousands of screaming fans, he smiles at only you, boyish and pleased.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When private equity destroys your hospital

I'm on tour with my new novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW in PHOENIX (Changing Hands, Feb 29) then Tucson (Mar 9-10), San Francisco (Mar 13), and more!

As someone who writes a lot of fiction about corporate crime, I naturally end up spending a lot of time being angry about corporate crime. It's pretty goddamned enraging. But the fiction writer in me is especially upset at how cartoonishly evil the perps are – routinely doing things that I couldn't ever get away with putting in a novel.

Beyond a doubt, the most cartoonishly evil characters are the private equity looters. And the most cartoonishly evil private equity looters are the ones who get involved in health care.

(Buckle up.)

Writing for The American Prospect, Maureen Tcacik details a national scandal: the collapse of PE-backed hospital chain Steward Health, a company that bought and looted hospitals up and down the country, starving them of everything from heart valves to prescription paper, ripping off suppliers, doctors and nurses, and callously exposing patients to deadly risk:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-02-27-scenes-from-bat-cave-steward-health-florida/

Steward occupies a very special place in the private equity looting cycle. Private equity companies arrange themselves on a continuum of indiscriminate depravity. At the start of the continuum are PE funds that buy productive and useful firms (everything from hospitals to car-washes) using "leveraged buyouts." That means that they borrow money to buy the company and use the company itself as collateral: it's like you getting a bank-loan to buy your neighbor's mortgage out from under them, and using your neighbor's house as collateral for that loan.

Once the buyout is done, the PE fund pays itself a "special dividend" (stealing money the business needs to survive) and then starts charging the business a "management fee" for the PE fund's expertise. To pay for all this, the PE bosses start to hack away at the company. Quality declines. So do wages. Prices go up. The company changes suppliers, opting for cheaper alternatives, often stiffing the old company. There are mass layoffs. The remaining employees end up doing three peoples' jobs, for lower wages, with fewer materials of lower quality.

Eventually, that top-feeding PE company finds a more desperate, more ham-fisted PE company to unload the business onto. That middle-feeding company also does a leveraged buyout, pays itself another special dividend, cuts wages, staffing and quality even further. They switch to even worse suppliers and stiff the last batch. Prices go up even higher.

Then – you guessed it – the middle-feeding PE company finds an even more awful PE bottom-feeder to unload the company onto. That bottom feeder does it all again, without even pretending to leave the business in condition to do its job. The company is a shambling zombie at this point, often producing literal garbage in place of the products that made its reputation. Employees' paychecks bounce, or don't show up at all. The company stops bothering to pay the lawyers that have been fending off its creditors. Those lawyers sue the company, too.

That's the kind of PE company Steward Health was, and, as the name suggests, Steward Health is in the business of stripping away the very last residue of value from community hospitals. As you might imagine, this gets pretty fucking ugly.

Steward owns 32 hospitals up and down the country, though its holdings are dwindling as the company walks away from its debt-burdened holdings, after years of neglect that have rendered them unfit for use as health facilities – or for any other purpose. Tcacik's piece offers a snapshot of one such hospital: Florida's Rockledge Regional Medical Center, just eight miles from Cape Canaveral.

Rockledge is a disaster. The fifth floor was, at one point, home to 5,000 bats.

Five.

Thousand.

Bats.

(Rockledge stiffed the exterminators.)

The bats were just the beginning. One of the internal sewage pipes ruptured. Whole sections of the hospital were literally full of shit, oozing out of the walls and ceiling, slopping over medical equipment.

That's an urgent situation for any hospital, but for Rockledge, it's catastrophic, because Rockledge is a hospital without any hospital supplies. Steward has stiffed the companies that supply "heart valves, urology lasers, Impella catheters, cardiac catheterization balloons, slings for lifting heavier patients, blood and urine test reagents, and most recently, prescription paper." Key medical equipment has been repossessed. So have the Pepsi machines. The hospital cafeteria had its supply of cold cuts repossessed:

https://www.reddit.com/r/massachusetts/comments/1agc1j4/comment/kolicqo/

It's not just Steward's nonpayments that reek of impending doom. Its payments also bear the hallmarks of a scam artist on the brink of blowing off the con. The company recently paid off a vendor with five separate checks for $1m, each drawn on "a random hospital in Utah" (Steward recently walked away from its Utah hospitals; its partners there are suing it for stealing $18m on their way out the door).

This company – which owns 32 hospitals! – has resorted to gambits like sending photos of fake checks to doctors it hasn't paid in months as "proof" that the money was coming (the checks arrived 22 days later).

Steward owes so much money to its employees – $1.66m to just one doctors' group. But the medical staff keep doing their jobs, and are reluctant to speak on the record, thanks to Steward's reputation for vicious retaliation. Those health workers keep showing up to take care of patients, even as the hospital crumbles around them. One clinician told Tcacik: "I watched a bed collapse underneath a [patient] who had just undergone hip surgery."

Rockledge has nine elevators, but only five of them work – the other four have been broken for a year. The hospital's fourth floor has been converted to "a graveyard of broken beds." The sinks are clogged, or filled with foul gunk. There's black mold. Nurses have noted on the maintenance tags that the repair service refuses to attend the hospital until their overdue bills are paid. The fifteen-person on-site maintenance team was cut to just two workers.

Steward is just the latest looting owner of Rockledge. After the Great Financial Crisis, private equity consultants helped sell it to Health Management Associates. The hospital's CEO took home a $10m bonus for that sale and exited; Health Management Associates then quickly became embroiled in a Medicare fraud and kickback scandal. Soon after, Rockledge was passed on to Community Health Systems, who then sold it on to Rockledge.

Steward, meanwhile, was at that time owned by an even bigger private equity giant, Cerberus, which then sold Steward off. That deal was performatively complex and hid all kinds of mischief. Prior to Cerberus's sell-off of Steward, they sold off Steward's real-estate. The buyer was Medical Properties Trust, who gave Cerberus $1.25b for the real-estate: three hospitals in Florida and three more in Ohio. Steward then contracted to operate these hospitals on MPT's behalf, and pay MPT rent for the real-estate.

This complex arrangement was key to siphoning value out of the hospital and to keeping angry creditors at bay – if you can't figure out who owes you money, it's a lot harder to collect on the debt. The scheme was masterminded by Steward founder/CEO Ralph de la Torre. De la Torre is notorious for taking a massive dividend out of the company while it owed $1.4b to its creditors. He bought a $40m yacht with the money.

De la Torre was once feted as a business genius who would "disrupt" healthcare. But as Steward's private jet hops around "Corfu, Santorini, St. Maarten and Antigua" as its hospitals literally crumble, he's becoming less popular. In Massachusetts, politicians have railed against Steward and de la Torre (Governor Healey wants the company to leave the state "as soon as possible").

Florida, by contrast, is much more friendly to Steward. The state Health and Human Services Committee chair Randy Fine is an ardent admirer of hospital privatization and is currently campaigning to sell off the last community hospital in Brevard County. The state inspectors are likewise remarkably tolerant of Steward's little peccadillos. The quasi-governmental agency that inspects hospitals has awarded this shit-and-bat-filled, elevator-free, understaffed rotting hulk "A" grades for quality.

These inspectors jointly represent a mismatched assortment of private and public agencies, dominated by a nonprofit called Leapfrog, the brainchild of Harvard public-health prof Lucian Leape, who founded it in 2000. Leapfrog likes to tout its "transparent" assessment criteria, and Steward are experts at hitting those criteria, spending the exact minimum to tick every box that Leapfrog inspectors use as proxies for overall quality and safety.

This is a pretty great example of Goodhart's Law: "every measurement eventually becomes a target, whereupon it ceases to be a good measurement":

https://xkcd.com/2899/

But despite Steward's increasingly furious creditors and its decaying facilities, the company remains bullish on its ability to continue operations. Medical Properties Trust – the real estate investment trust that is nominally a separate company from Steward – recently hosted a conference call to reassure Wall Street investors that it would be a going concern. When a Bank of America analyst asked MPT's CFO how this could possibly be, given the facility's dire condition and Steward's degraded state, the CFO blithely assured him that the company would get bailouts: "We own hospitals no one wants to see closed."

That's the thing about PE and health-care. The looters who buy out every health-care facility in a region understand that this makes them too big to fail: no matter how dangerous the companies they drain become, local governments will continue to prop them up. Look at dialysis, a market that's been cornered by private equity rollups. Today, if you need this lifesaving therapy, there's a good chance that every accessible facility is owned by a private equity fund that has fired all its qualified staff and ceased sterilizing its needles. Otherwise healthy people who visit these clinics sometimes die due to operator error. But they chug along, because no dialysis clinics is worse that "dialysis clinics where unqualified sadists sometimes kill you with dirty needles":

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-dirty-business-of-clean-blood

The bad news is that private equity has thoroughly colonized the entire medical system. They took hospitals, fired the doctors, then took over the doctors' groups that provided outsource staff to the hospital:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/04/a-mind-forever-voyaging/#prop-bets

It's illegal for private equity companies to own doctors' practices (doctors have to own these), but they obfuscated the crime with a paper-thin pretext that they got away with despite its obvious bullshittery:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/21/profitable-butchers/#looted

The financier who decides whether you live or die depends on an algorithm that literally sets a tolerable level of preventable deaths for the patients trapped in the practice:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/05/any-metric-becomes-a-target/#hca

Private equity also took over emergency rooms and boobytrapped them with "surprise billing" – junk fees that ran to thousands of dollars that you had to pay even if the hospital was in network with your insurer. They made billions from this, and spent a many millions from that booty keeping the scam alive with scare ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/21/all-in-it-together/#doctor-patient-unity

The whole health stack is colonized by private equity-backed monopolies. Even your hospital bed!

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/05/hillrom/#baxter-international

Then there's residential care. Private equity cornered many regional markets on nursing homes and turned them into slaughterhouses, places where you go to die, not live:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/23/acceptable-losses/#disposable-olds

The palliative care sector is also captured by private equity. PE bosses hire vast teams of fast-talking salespeople who con vulnerable older people into entering an end-of-life system before they are ready to die. Thanks to loose regulation, the nation is filled with fake hospices that can rake in millions from Medicare while denying all care to their patients (hospice patients don't get life-extending medication or procedures, by definition):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/26/death-panels/#what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-CMS

If you survive this long enough, Medicare eventually tells the hospice that you're clearly not dying and you get kicked off their rolls. Now you have to go through the lengthy bureaucratic nightmare of convincing the system – which was previously informed that you were at death's door – that you are actually viable and need to start getting care again (good luck with that).

If that kills you, guess what? Private equity has rolled up funeral homes up and down the country, and they will scam your survivors just as hard as the medical system that killed you did:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/09/high-cost-of-dying/#memento-mori

The PE sector spent more than a trillion dollars over the past decade buying up healthcare companies, and it has trillions more in "dry powder" allocated for further medical acquisitions. Why not? As the CFO of Medical Properties Trust told that Bank of America analyst last week, when you "own hospitals no one wants to see closed." you literally can't fail, no matter how many people you murder.

The PE sector is a reminder that the crimes people commit for money far outstrip the crimes they commit for ideology. Even the most ideological killers are horrified by the murders their profit-motivated colleagues commit.

Last year, Tkacic wrote about the history of IG Farben, the German company that built Monowitz, a private slave-labor camp up the road from Auschwitz to make the materiel it was gouging Hitler's Wehrmacht on:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

Farben bought the cheapest possible slaves from Auschwitz, preferentially sourcing women and children. These slaves were worked to death at a rate that put Auschwitz's wholesale murder in the shade. Farben's slaves died an average of just three months after starting work at Monowitz. The situation was so abominable, so unconscionable, that the SS officers who provided outsource guard-labor to Monowitz actually wrote to Berlin to complain about the cruelty.

The Nuremberg trials are famous for the Nazi officers who insisted that they were "just following order" but were nonetheless executed for their crimes. 24 Farben executives were also tried at Nuremberg, where they offered a very different defense: "We had a fiduciary duty to our shareholders to maximize our profits." 19 of the 24 were acquitted on that basis.

PE is committed to an ideology that is far worse than any form of racial animus or other bias. As a sector, it is committed to profit above all other values. As a result, its brutality knows no bounds, no decency, no compassion. Even the worst crimes we commit for hate are nothing compared to the crimes we commit for greed.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/28/5000-bats/retaliation#charnel-house

[droopycoquette]

Late || Sue Bird x Reader

Summary: Sue finds it hard to keep her hands off of you

Warnings: smut, needy!sue

Word count: 1.1k

|*|

"Look at you," your girlfriend smiled, coming up behind you. "Where are you going looking that good?"

You smiled as you continued to lean over the counter, puckering your lips to apply more gloss, giving Sue a perfect view of your ass against your dress.

"Oh, you know," you giggled, indulging the older woman. "Just a party."

Both you and the older basketball player had been invited to a party hosted by Sue's friend, Breanna Steward. Not having an excuse to dress up in a while, you decided to have fun and go all out.

And tease Sue in the process.

"Is it too late to convince you to stay in," Sue asks, her large hands coming to hold your waist, bringing your ass to her pelvis. "Please?"

You huff out a laugh as you continue to touch up your makeup, making sure everything was perfect while your girlfriend rubbed up and down your waist, hips, and ass. Eventually, she wrapped her arms around your waist, kissing your nape and your neck.

"Stop it," you sighed. "You're distracting me, love."

"Mmm, good," Sue responded, nuzzling her nose into your neck.

Her hands wandered up from your hips to your abdomen, holding you impossibly close to her. They continued up until she was cupping your breasts. You could feel her smirk into your skin as you gasped.

"Sue," you whine, feeling her palm your breasts through your dress. "Stop it, we're going to be late."

Your words didn't match your actions as you grind against her.

"Well, let's not be late," Sue said, turning you around and grabbing the heels that you wanted to wear off the counter.

You were speechless as you watched Sue drop to her knees helping you step into them. Her fingers expertly slid the straps of your heels into place before her hands softly grazed your calves, leaning down to place a kiss on your thighs. Her lips traveled to your inner thigh and you found yourself unable to stop the moan that left your lips.

"Tell me to stop, baby," she purred up at you. "Please tell me to stop."

You held onto the counter to keep yourself upright as her lips got closer and closer to your core.

"Don't stop," you whispered.

"Hmm," the older woman smirked. "I couldn't hear you."

You felt Sue blow on your heat, making you shiver and grip the counter even harder. She was so close you could feel her lips softly grazing where you needed her most.

"Please," you begged louder. "Don't stop."

You felt the warmth of Sue's tongue flick over the lace of your underwear, forcing you to lean against the counter. You let your head fall back as you began to grind your clothed clit onto her mouth.

Sue loved getting you like this. Hot and bothered, forgetting about everything except her. She was selfish with you.

You were so wet and so ready for her. She knew exactly how to make you desperate. Her fingers crept up and hooked on the hem of your underwear, pulling them down your legs as she looked up at you.

"Sue," you whimpered.

"You're alright, baby," she whispered, pushing you onto the counter.

Seeing you in heels never failed to make Sue heat up. Feeling them against her back as your legs rested on her shoulders was everything.

Your head fell against the mirror behind you as Sue's lips reconnected with your heat. Your hips bucked forward, your dress hiked up around your hips, and you found yourself completely vulnerable to what she wanted to do to your body. She didn't waste any time taking the initiative and sucking your clit into her mouth, pushing two fingers inside as well.

Sue's grip on your thighs began to tighten, her need to see you come undone increasing. She pulled you towards her, her grip unforgiving.

"Come on baby," she groaned into your heat. "You know what I want."

Your grip on the counter loosened as you quickly lost yourself to Sue's ministrations.

"Are you going to give it to me?"

Your fingers moved to her curls as you felt a pressure building in the base of your spine. Sue's eyes met hers and you saw your effect on her. Her freckle-littered cheeks were a light shade of pink and her eyes were glossed over with lust and need. Her usual clean ringlets were now frizzy, sticking up in random places.

You couldn't help but smile. It was exactly what you wanted.

"Ohhh," you moaned, your head tipping back once more. "Fuck, I'm close. I'm so close."

"I know, baby," Sue said, her fingers frantically pumping you. "You know what to do."

Your body moved in tandem with each thrust of her fingers in you. Taking your hand from her hair, you leaned back and looked down to watch her. Her eyes met yours again, her own desire and need clear to see.

"I need to see you cum," she said, her lips kissing your thigh. "I want to feel you cum on my fingers."

Your back arched at the sound of her voice as your body continued to move with her.

"Sue," you breathed.

"That's it," she said, looking up at you. "That's it, baby"

You gasped and moaned as she took everything you had to give, sucking and licking while continuing to pump her fingers in and out.

"Sue," you whimper. "Please."

The older woman smirked against you as she continued her ministrations. She took you to the edge easily and didn't stop until she pushed you over it. You cried out as you fell over the edge, grinding against her tongue. She took everything you gave her, lapping at your core until you had nothing left.

She loved the sounds you were making, the whimpers, and the gasps. You satisfied her in ways she couldn't describe. There would never be a moment she didn't crave you.

Sue's cheek rested against your thigh as you both caught your breath. She groaned as your nails raked through her hair, cleaning up the curls and scratching her scalp.

Sue took in the quivering of your hips and the shakiness of your breath, it made her happy. Happy that she could give you this pleasure.

Sue stood, rising above you and forcing you to look up at her.

"You always have a glow after you cum," she whispers against your lips.

You could feel your cheeks heating at her words.

"Come on," Sue motioned.

"But, it's your turn," you stuttered as she helped you off the counter.

She chuckled as she grabbed you a new pair of underwear and tossed them to you.

"You can get me back when we get home." She smirked. "After all, we wouldn't want to be late."

[gayferrari]

i’m praying for massa to win that legal battle honestly the legal ramifications would be SO interesting. like sure, if massa wins the title in the case hamilton would probably sue for 2021, BUT the tampering in 21 wasn’t as plain as the 2008 tampering was? by which i mean that red bull and verstappen could have a fairly decent counter/second suit also over race fixing aka masi allowing hamilton to give “the space but not position” back to verstappen after the off track overtake and disallowing normal protocol vis-a-vis safety car rules on lapped cars initially, as well as various decisions made earlier in the year.

massa suing over the knowledge that the fia knew crashgate was fixed is a hell of a lot simpler than 2021 - and i think that’s why the fia is fighting this case So Much, because they know if they concede 2008, they will open themselves up to hamilton suing over 2021 and then verstappen probably counter-suing. or rather bringing a different suit. which legally could be condensed into a class action suit as they both have functionally the same issue (race fixing) but both want different outcomes (the title).

anyway the whole thing would then open up even further to the extent that the fia would probably have to introduce some kind of permanent stewarding team (we all cheered!!!) because they would be dramatically more liable for mishandling of the rules than they are now. so essentially i want massa to win because it could possibly lead to a permanent stewarding body which could solve like a whole 30% of the issues i have with f1!!! also because another ferrari wdc is never a bad thing

your passion for chaos is unmatched. I know it would never ever happen but god now I want this so bad. there would be no funniest outcome for me personally than the idea of Merc/RBR suing and countersuing the FIA for years to come. DTS could make a special televised trial edition. at some point the legal battle has dragged on for so long that long-retired Max and Lewis both stop caring and they go do Le Mans together while their respective lawyers battle it out in court. society IF

[asstrongasyouthink]

i talk all the time about how ny is native land not just, like, morally. but also ~under us law~ and this article lays out how this happened pretty well

Why a Native American Nation Is Challenging the U.S. Over a 1794 Treaty

The Onondaga have asked an international commission to find that the United States violated a treaty guaranteeing the nation 2.5 million acres of land.

https://archive.is/lukfn

(it's a nyt article i got around the paywall for you)

some quotes:

"The federal government entered into three treaties that affirmed the confederacy’s sovereignty and ownership over much of the northern part of New York State. Critically, those treaties guaranteed that no one but the federal government would have the authority to deal with the Haudenosaunee. But as early as 1788, New York State had started to chip away at the Haudenosaunee land and sovereignty. Over the next 34 years, the state would come to control nearly all of the Onondaga land — as well as most of that owned by the other Haudenosaunee nations — because of a series of transactions that the Onondaga say were illegal. “The [New] York people have got almost all of our Country and for a very trifle,” Onondaga chiefs told federal officials in 1794, according to the papers of U.S. Indian Commissioner Timothy Pickering. For the next two centuries, the Onondaga continued to fruitlessly press their case in numerous face-to-face meetings with presidents, members of Congress and governors of New York. Legal options were limited: In New York, for example, Native people were not considered to have standing to sue on their own behalf until 1987."

and

"The United States has not contested the Onondaga's account [...] rejected the Onondaga’s claims as too old and most remedies too disruptive to the region’s current inhabitants."

and

"The Onondaga insist they are not looking to displace anyone."

like obviously it's not a surprise that colonial govt officials are being disingenuous but to say the remedy is "too disruptive" while you have no idea how the Haudenosaunee would manage legal ownership/increased ability to steward the land in a meaningful way it just. it. oh it fucking grinds my gears

[ntls-24722]

Might be a weird question, but you know how humans tend to anthropomorphize animals and objects and such like in fiction?

Either by just giving them human language and thoughts, or by also making the animals/objects stand on two legs or an upright pose and more human like anatomy in the case with furries and such?

Or even give themselves features of animals like my sona with deer ears and legs and a long tail and such?

Or in ancient Egypt with the depictions of gods with animal heads

Or heck even just furries and fursonas

On Bolur, in any era, do the homo mousike ever anthropomorphize animals or objects in their art and stories? How would a Debu/Zebraman/elf fursona look like? How would they visually anthropomorphize other things in their art and stories?

I think about these things sometimes (when it comes to alien life/spec biology in general)

OOOOH. I LIKE THIS QUESTION A LOT.

So first: Yes, they anthropomorphize their animals and objects! Definitely now when their collective histories just began, but especially so in Zebraman culture all throughout their history, when their entire lives are centered around their animals (recent update, I need to flesh it out). Just about every zebraman god is animal-based because of it, and zebramen have way more societies focused on stewarding the land and its animals.

Debu anthropomorphize objects slightly more than other homo mousike - when nothing around you is your size, you relate to the things that are, and generally those things were the things made for you. They give them faces and have these masks or collective objects dedicated to concepts or people, or a particular figure is embued with a spirit of their own.

As for fursonas...

Ok, here on out, I'm gonna be calling them pycnofiberies, since everything here will be based on the night cloe. This is the debu Dog so I think this is a good candidate for furry-ization, and just for simplicity I'll use the night cloe for the zebrapeople anthros, too.

So, first thing off the bat - the most obvious anthromorphization for debu is sizing everything to their just like we do, it's just more obvious now that they're huge. The front teeth are usually really bunched together and seperate from the others on Bolur and while fusing together into beaks or tusks is common, the teeth are often seperate, like they are in night cloes. Debu often fuse them together to make them resemble tusks more ( since gaps in teeth are kind of uncanny to them) and add a beard, even if it's just stubble to their anthros, the same way we add our hair. They also add a mouthglow! In cartoons, Debu mouthglows sometimes are neon colored rather than just white as an exaggeration of the minute color differences in actual mouthglows, either to tell apart individual debu, as stylization or to be more obvious to the yellow-blue colorblind zebrapeople. (which is why yellow and green dyes are so rare - the species that develops the most dyes don't percieve greens and yellows very well.)

Also, a hump, in the same way we add boobs to everything regardless of the boobage in the actual animal. Humps in debu are attractive in both sexes, and are usually added regardless of the intent on making a character attractive.

And of course, for expressions, the nostrils are exaggeratedly large, no matter what animal it's on.

There's also the exaggeration of facial discs in night cloes the same way ears are in our furries, sometimes so extreme the edges jut out from the face. There's also a feature in a lot of "mary sues"/"gary stus" where the claws are overgrown - in Debu cultures, gods are often depicted with overgrown, curved hooves to demonstrate their age and "mythical-ness", as it's an occurrence in elderly debu but not a very common one. So, to show power, alongside a brightly glowing mouth, mary sue cloesonas have great, curved claws. There's also the "beastars" style hands, where they'll give their hooved hands to animals with little other animalistic detail.

Then there's cloe-girls and "angels"

Debu recognize facial discs as the ears of a cloe, but don't put them at their ears, they put them at the same place they see them - around the eyes. They have the same catgirl ear inaccuracies as us!

There's also angels, winged debu. They have the same gig as us where they just slap cloe wings on there without regard to homologous structures.

Now onto zebrapeople anthros!

Zebramen do the same thing as us, making their pycnofiberies stand on 4 or 6 legs rather than all 6 or 8 (depending on the -pedalism). Zebraelves though, as they are equally hexapodal as they are octopodal, do a mix of both, sometimes relating to sex - "drone" and "queen" pycnofiberies (they project their genders/sexes onto non-eusocial animals too) are often more hexapodal than their worker counterparts, as queen zebraelves are sometimes restricted to hexapodality on account of sometimes being too gravid to walk on all 8's, and drones just generally being found on cloeback or on the ground, where zebraelves usually assume a hexapodal posture. "Taurs" are also very common.

There's also the arm situation when it comes to night cloes specifically, because cloes generally have "plantigrade" forearms, while zebrapeople have "digigrade" forearms; their arm appears to have a second joint. Just like how we deal with digigrade legs in our furries, pycnofiberies have it either-or.

So - this is corny? (just because of the focus on stripes, the one thing that zebras are known for) but a beauty/aesthetically pleasing convention in zebrapeople is the "stripe continuation" comparable to how we like facial symmetry. It's attractive to them to have... geometric integrity with their stripes, which is why monobrows are seen as more attractive than broken brows. It's more exaggerated in zebraelves because their black and white stripes are more common, and they serve more of a purpose than they do in zebramen. Following this, cartoon zebrapeople's faces often are depicted with very simplistic X's, swooping stripes, or are made with "one line". So, abiding by toony laws, so are their pycnofiberies!

Their pycnofiberies have their eyebrows either following or coming off from a continued line, and their lip/nasal area is generally colored black, too, or the color of whatever follows the line. Night Cloes must be super common pycnofibersonas for zebrapeople the same way wolves are common fursonas, because wowza those facial discs follow stripe continuation really nicely.

(sidenote: i think zebrapeople would CONSTANTLY have weird looksmaxxing fads relating to the the geometric integrity of their stripes too, the same way looksmaxxing circles started fretting about canthal tilts and shit. it would get racist fast. just like us :') )

And, they do cloe-girls and angels the same way as us.

[loveerran]

People are sometimes surprised to know there are active LGBT church members. How can we sustain church leaders? How can we pay tithing to a church that has done much good, but also much harm?

Speaking only for my self, I sustain the church as it seeks to move into harmony with the perfect light of Christ. I pay tithing to God and expect the Church to be a wise steward and use those monies for ends God approves of.

If our human church leaders fail, by word or action, to achieve these goals in their daily walk, then I try to extend to them the same grace I hope they will learn to extend to me. When I am hurt by their words or actions along the way, I remember this:

“...Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain… I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:39-44)

[gothicprep]

Does the “woke” critique ever really go beyond “this has gay people/poc/women in if they’re pushing their agenda” type stuff? Personally I don’t think I’ve heard “Mary sue” get used since Rey Starwars, everything I’ve seen lately is just foaming at the mouth when a story doesn’t exclusively center white men

there’s a version of the critique that’s just that, and there’s another version of it that’s something to the effect of “it seems like some writers use IP to tell a story *they* would like to tell, regardless of how it works in the IP”. the former one is just whiny. the second one, as far as I can tell, is probably a real critique, because i can think of examples of this being brought up where representation isn’t involved in ~the discourse~ around it at all.

this happened in like 2015 back when fallout 4 came out. if you don’t know anything about fallout, here’s the quick TL; DR. nuclear war happens. americans take shelter in vaults built by the vault-tec corporation. some of the vaults turn out to be weird social experiments set up to study human behavior. vault 95 was housed with only drug addicts and there were no drugs in the vault, except 5 years in, a massive stash of drugs would be revealed in a hidden location in the vault. the problem is that one of the logs the player can find is written by a delivery man where he says he’s delivering a shipment of jet, a fictional drug in the game that’s a weird cross between meth and jenkem, made from fumes of radiated cattle dung. but this was invented after the bombs dropped, so there was no way for a pre-war delivery man was bringing a shipment of it.

this is a problem that’s very easy to fix in a video game. just change the text in the next patch. instead, what happened was the guy who wrote that quest doubled down, and did it again when fans were pointing out the clear flaws in his logic. and the writer responded with “not interested in discussing how realistic things are in an alternate universe post-apoc game w/ talking mutants and ghouls.” and a lot of game and tech news sites backed him up on making fun of fans for daring to complain about lore inconsistencies.

and like, on some level, yeah. it’s just a story. maybe you shouldn’t take it too seriously. but part of the flip side of that is that if you stop taking it seriously, you stop consuming it. bethesda didn’t create fallout, they’re just it’s current owners. people working there might care about fallout to some extent, but when push comes to shove, they prioritize their own visions. and stuff like this is ultimately how they view it. if you’re a fan of fallout, it means something to you. that’s why you enjoy it. but to them it’s only a vehicle for their new story. if they can get away with not respecting old lore – not just to save face, but also because the old lore gets in the way of the story they want to tell – and they believe that you’ll continue consuming the product, what incentive do they have to respect the old lore.

and, how many times have you heard a story like this? how many tv shows? how many video games? how many movies has something equivalent has this happened to? people take these things seriously because they love them. when they see inconsistencies, they’re worried that the new stewards don’t actually care. and when those new stewards lash out like this, it just confirms to fans that these creatives only want to wear a skin suit of the thing that they love.

that’s the best steelman I have for that, anyway.

[ghommytommytime]

SHINGO SAWARTARI NAMMES !!

HOPE THTHESE WPOTRK!!!

--------------

SCHAEFFER: [SHAY]+[FUR] "Of German origin the meaning of Schaeffer is "steward""

SHAHRUKH: [SHAA]+[RUE]+[KON] "Derived from an Arabic word meaning 'like the face of a king'"

SHINJI: [SHIN]+[GEE] "This Japanese boy’s name means “true ruler,”"

SHAAN: [SHH]+[ON] " This Sanskrit name means "pride,""

SATURNUS: [SAT]+[TURN]+[US] "Origin is Latin and refers to the Roman god Saturn, and also to the planet named after him."

SEDGWICK: [SED]+[G]+[WICK] "Sedgwick as a boy's name is of Old English origin meaning "sword place".

TARON: [TEAR]+[ON] "Variant spelling of the name Terran, it translates to “Earthman”"

TSUTOMU: [SUE]+[TO]+[ME] "Tsutomu is a boy's name meaning "to serve""

TORIN: [TORE]+[INN] "Torin is a boy's name of Irish origin, meaning "chief.""

TRACE: [T]+[RACE] "Of English and Irish origin, meaning “brave.”"

[plethoraworldatlas]

Several Alaska Native Tribal Governments and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice today of their intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for unlawfully authorizing a multi-year experimental bottom-trawl study in the northern Bering Sea.

Tribal entities in the region have voiced strong opposition to the project and any commercial trawl fishing in the region.

The Native Village of Savoonga, Native Village of Shishmaref, Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, and the Center detailed concerns in today’s notice about how the project’s data could be used to expand destructive commercial bottom trawling.

“As stewards of the Northern Bering Sea, our basic rules of taking only what's needed and giving nature a chance to replenish itself have been practiced for thousands of years,” said Ben Pungowiyi, Tribal Council President for the Native Village of Savoonga. “Nature has a delicate balance, especially the chain underneath where every living organism plays its role. Further alteration of this domain will cause higher mortality impacts.”

The National Marine Fisheries Service has been planning the intensive experimental study for two years without notifying the public or consulting with impacted Alaska Native Tribes. They intend to begin this summer. Bottom trawling is currently prohibited in the area. According to the Service, the study is intended to provide data that “will inform possible future management” of fisheries in the area, meaning it could open to bottom-trawl fishing as the Bering Sea rapidly warms and groundfish expand northward.

“The study is designed to repeatedly damage an area of the ocean floor and then check in on how much destruction remains a year or more later,” said Johnson Eningowuk, Tribal Council President for the Native Village of Shishmaref. “Trawl fisheries are destructive to benthic habitat and species on which we rely as a matter of food security and cultural wellness.”

[grandmaster-anne]

Court Circular | 21st February 2023

Buckingham Palace

His Excellency Mr Pedro Antonio Serrano de Haro was received in audience by The King today and presented the Letters of Recall of his predecessor and his own Letters of Credence as Ambassador from the European Union to the Court of St James’s. Ms Ana Perez Kramer was also received by His Majesty. Her Excellency Ms Aïchatou Boulama Kané was received by The King and presented the Letters of Recall of her predecessor and her own Letters of Credence as Ambassador from the Republic of Niger to the Court of St James’s. Sir Philip Barton (Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs) was present. The Rt Hon James Cleverly MP (Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs) was received in audience by The King this afternoon. The Lady Sainsbury of Preston Candover was received by His Majesty and delivered up the Insignia of the Order of the Garter worn by her husband, the late Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover. The King held a Privy Council at 4.30pm. There were present: the Rt Hon Penelope Mordaunt MP (Lord President), the Rt Hon Sue-Ellen Braverman MP (Secretary of State for the Home Department), the Rt Hon David Davies MP (Secretary of State for Wales), the Rt Hon Alister Jack MP (Secretary of State for Scotland) and the Rt Hon Olukemi Badenoch MP. The Rt Hon Olukemi Badenoch MP took the Oath of Office, kissed hands upon appointment and received the Seals of Office as Secretary of State for Business and Trade (International Trade). Mr Richard Tilbrook was in attendance as Clerk of the Council. The Rt Hon Penelope Mordaunt MP had an audience of His Majesty before the Council. The Rt Hon Sir Clive Alderton (Principal Private Secretary to Their Majesties) and the Rt Hon Sir Edward Young (Joint Principal Private Secretary to His Majesty) were in attendance. The Governor-General of Canada (the Rt Hon Mary Simon) had an audience with The King via telephone this evening. The Princess Royal, on behalf of The King, held an Investiture at Windsor Castle this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort were represented by the Earl of Rosslyn (Lord Steward and Personal Secretary to Their Majesties) at the Memorial Service for Dame Frances Campbell-Preston (formerly Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) which was held in the Chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London SW3, this afternoon.

Kensington Palace

The Princess of Wales this morning visited Oxford House Nursing Home, 204 Stoke Road, Slough, and was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of the Royal County of Berkshire (Mr James Puxley).

St James’s Palace

The Earl of Wessex, Patron, Central Caribbean Marine Institute, this morning visited the Central Caribbean Marine Institute Coral Nursery, Little Cayman, Cayman Islands. His Royal Highness this afternoon attended a Lunch given by the Premier of Cayman Islands (the Hon, Wayne Panton) at Southern Cross Club, Guy Banks Road, Little Cayman. The Earl of Wessex, Patron afterwards visited the Central Caribbean Institute Research Centre, Little Cayman. His Royal Highness, Patron, Central Caribbean Marine Institute, this evening attended a Reception on Little Cayman to launch the Coral Fund. The Earl of Wessex, Patron, Central Caribbean Marine Institute, later attended a Dinner at Southern Cross Club, Guy Banks Road, Little Cayman. The Countess of Wessex, Global Ambassador, 100 Women in Finance, this morning participated in a Panel Discussion at the Ritz Carlton, Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman. Her Royal Highness, Global Ambassador, 100 Women in Finance, this afternoon attended a Lunch at WaterColours, 719 West Bay Road, Grand Cayman. The Countess of Wessex later visited YMCA Field of Dreams, Fairbanks Road, George Town, Grand Cayman. Her Royal Highness, Global Ambassador, 100 Women in Finance, this evening attended a Dinner at the Ritz Carlton, Seven Mile Beach.

St James’s Palace

The Princess Royal, Past Master, the Worshipful Company of Carmen, this evening attended a Joint Services Awards Dinner at Plaisterers’ Hall, One London Wall, London EC2.

Kensington Palace

The Duke of Gloucester, President, Crown Agents Foundation, this evening attended a Reception and Slava Concert in support of Ukraine at Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London SW1.

[volturialice]

for the @bellasbookclub summer reading wrap-up tag

I managed to read 6.5 books from the reclist! and I wanna read about 17 more rip. I've read kind of a lot of stuff this summer? see goodreads/storygraph

tag

Favorite book - Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Hollow Kingdom Favorite author - Robin Wall Kimmerer Favorite cover - The Death of Jane Lawrence

Favorite character and/or ship - Kate/Marak from The Hollow Kingdom The book I think Bella Swan would like best - Howl’s Moving Castle A book I’d never heard of before - so many, but out of the ones I read: Blindsight A book I wanted to read but still haven't gotten around to - Within These Wicked Walls, A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Scorpio Races, The Eyre Affair, The Essex Serpent, probably a few more tbh A random hot take - Augustine Lawrence is Carlisle Cullen if he were properly wet babygirl-ified

sum-up

The Hollow Kingdom ✔️ DF ☐ DNF ☆☆☆☆ One-sentence sum-up: My First Monsterfucker book for future Del Toro stans. Ugly love interest rights! (ok most of these are 2 sentences sue me)

Blindsight ✔️ DF ☐ DNF ☆☆☆ One-sentence sum-up: aliens vs vampire IN SPAAAACE. you should get honorary degrees in linguistics and astrophysics just from walking past this one in the bookstore

Picnic at Hanging Rock ✔️ DF ☐ DNF ☆☆☆☆ One-sentence sum-up: we love a gothic boarding school story. what if we went mysteriously missing and we were both girls

Howl’s Moving Castle ✔️ DF ☐ DNF ☆☆☆ +.5 One-sentence sum-up: a silly cozy time. who doesn’t love Whimsy

The Death of Jane Lawrence ✔️ DF ☐ DNF ☆☆☆ One-sentence sum-up: can’t believe she went through all that for a SHORT man

This is How You Lose The Time War ✔️ DF ☐ DNF ☆☆☆ One-sentence sum-up: as gay as promised

Braiding Sweetgrass ☐ DF ✔️ DNF because I’m still listening to the audiobook ☆☆☆☆ One-sentence sum-up: [sniffling] you’re so right robin we have to steward the earth better. oh god I gotta pull over

[a-very-fond-farewell]

niki tries new things!

So, just to let y’all know what I’ve been into the past few months, I decided to make a list. some of these things haven’t changed from the past but others have! so if you see me reblogging more about the new things you don’t have to be startled at all :)

A) things 🍑 I still enjoy:

word of honor & faraway wanderers : I don’t think that’s ever gonna change tbh. I’m still writing a long fic for woh and I plan to at least get another one finished for the fandom before taking a break from creating for it. I had one more in store, but it’s becoming oddly personal and I think I’ll work on it in my spare time and possibly never post it, who knows!;

winter begonia : I fell in love with the drama and I’m still reading the novel that it was based on, so of course I’m gonna stick to them for a very long time! I have a long wip in place and another planned for the drama, but they require a lot of research and I’m collecting various pieces of information to give them justice. so I may be on hold in the fandom but not forever!;

other various danmei novels/shows: I’m still waiting on winner is king drama to air :( so you can see me ranting about sha po lang in equal measure. then there’s golden stage, my absolute love, and lord seventh :D so yay for that!;

good omens : the love is resurfacing due to the new season creeping in on us, but it never quite left in the first place. expect more content on the ineffable husbands and their unruly children >:) cannot wait!;

welcome to night vale : I want to pick up the podcast again! :( but I’m a perfectionist at heart and I cannot fathom skipping episodes! so I will have to plan my listening schedule accordingly. wish me luck!;

B) things 👯‍♀️ I don’t quite enjoy anymore:

the untamed & mdzs : I’m sorry but... it’s not doing it for me anymore ;-; which is sad bc I made good friends through that ;—; but my sparks only come back in regards to it while reading meta or character analysis. I still have some fics saved that I occasionally re-read from my favorite authors, but I think I have outgrown my stay in the fandom. I will be forever grateful for mdzs for introducing me to a bunch of new interesting things to delve into in 2020, for keeping me company during forced isolation and for bringing me joy with lots of new people. AND I think it’s time to let go at the same time. this doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy my friends rambling to me about this or that character, this or that plot point or fanon scenario tho! I’ll just keep my distance and let them have fun :) it’s ok;

lotr & the hobbit : only a few of you will know that this blog was originally a bagginshield nostalgia blog in origin. the username is evidence of that after all! I will always love both fandoms, but I haven’t looked for new content of fics in a while and I routinely re-read old fics rather than engaging with brand new creations so... it’s time to let go. I considered changing my username too, but since i share it with my art blog idk what to do... we will see!;

anime in general : namely Mob Psycho 100. I will always love it, don’t get me wrong. but I haven’t had the emotional capacity to engage with mp100 final season yet and I don’t think I’m ready to let go of it. I will suspend my judgment for now, waiting for when I will be ready to properly move on;

C) NEW ✨ things I enjoy now:

house of the dragon : look. I don’t really care for got or the book!canon in general. I’m just a casual fan ;-; no need to explain all the details to me. more than being a rude tourist who doesn’t bother to learn about the culture, think of me as a tired hostess or steward forced to take a liking to the local fast food place in between flights. that would be me, flipping through the menu and getting hooked on r//haenicent content bc I’m but a smol bi and a simp for pretty and dramatic ladies. sue me. I’m not interested in the discourse, I don’t want to know who is terrible and why, this is fictional and I am tired. but if you see me reblogging stuff from there I will tag accordingly with the proper tags from now on, so you can mute safely;

the devil judge : some of you may have noticed I started talking about this kdrama somewhere about last October and I haven’t been the same since. I won’t write for the fandom but expect me to be annoying and hyper focused on it at all times when you less expect it. I can be quite steadfast in certain aspects of my fandom life and this is no exception;

helluva boss : me? liking indie-turned-super-popular animation? in this economy? it’s more likely than you’d think! look. I’m slightly less casual and more committed about this compared to my recent hotd fixation. but. once again, I have no interest in the discourse. I will reblog stuff from it and make an effort to tag even if I grew out of the habit as of recently. I found out about it last April and it helped with my anxiety. I’m enjoying something new after a long time and it doesn’t even require me to create content for it either. I can just lay back and chill. so. no fighting;

don’t hug me I’m scared : ik it’s unsettling and I care deeply about it, ok? but ik some of you are a bit uncomfortable with the material so I will take precautions and tag appropriately. I will only reblog stuff from the fandom bc I have no mental energy to create any content for it. I have no ship to board and no intention to join any ship tho, so there’s that. I just like the medium and mindlessly engage with it, triggering or not. sometimes I trigger myself just by paying attention to it, but I won’t subject y’all to it and will tag, I promise;

dune : I will be obnoxious about it. blame the upcoming movie for it. the visuals are pretty, the ladies are even prettier and even though I don’t really care for the tim boy I am endlessly entertained by his character since Paul and his life choices are amusing to me: he makes no damn sense, compels me though. also expect me to be annoying af about bene gesserit shenanigans in general bc. well. I’m only human;

the hunger games : less than dune, but the new movie interests me quite a bit. I love me some fictional villains and meta on them. their fictional struggles fascinate me. I don’t want to engage in the discourse with this one either;

succession : I have not watched the series, but an old friend of mine very enthusiastically insisted I give it a try so I will do that while trying to avoid spoilers at the same time. the stakes are high!;

D) things 👀 I’m looking forward to:

crafting : I want to make tiny things ;-; where is the time tho????

reading : there are so many things I want to read! mental health has been wild recently, I barely had energy to keep up with my favorite fic updates :( that’s all I have had energy for in the past few months ;—;

drama series : I’ve been given excellent suggestions but I keep falling asleep at odd times and haven’t found the time for that yet. which is very sad and very upsetting;

drawing : I feel like I haven’t practiced in a very long time and that’s unacceptable!;

music : I have new albums to listen to from my favorite artists, but I feel like I’m putting it off bc I fear I won’t enjoy them much :( , on the other hand I have received amazing suggestions and I’m excited to give them a try!;

I think this is all! I will probably put a “keep reading” on this later on. but yeah! It’s nice to be back :)

[thisisyourdriverspeaking]

So constantly tweeting memes as a professional account isn't cringe, but posting a video analysis is?

Two days after the race & after the stewards gave Max (albeit a very light) a penalty for it, yes I think it's cringey. Sue me.

[custommadeazula]

in honor of me going back to my old fast food job, I’m going to share some iconic moments from my time working there since only like four people might see this:

— forced those of us scheduled to be “stewards” to wear aprons that said “how may I serve you?”

— some lady gave us a pic of jesus and we put it on the tea machine

— I slipped and fell and brought down a whole stack of trays with me and my coworkers recorded the footage

— someone said there was a creepy guy in the parking lot so for at least a week any girl on the closing shift couldn’t go to their car without a guy walking them to their car

— found out a homeless guy was in the bushes with a scooter?? (met him. he was pretty chill he just wanted a place to stay in)

— to encourage teamwork, the managers forced the whole team to go outside in the rain and clean the parking lots but there weren’t enough umbrellas so some of my coworkers had to put big plastic bags on their heads (I got an umbrella thankfully) AND there were still customers inside

— a tent used for drive thru orders fell on someone’s tesla and everyone was scared the owners of the car were going to sue

— saw a rapper family in the drive thru

— had a really sweaty guy walk up to the booth outside of the restaurant and yell at me to “stop spray painting tires” before walking away

— personal fav moment: had a lady come in after closing to order and we had to take her order even though we had cleaned everything. she ended up ordering the whole menu out of spite.

— some tiktoker came in and started punching the air and wouldn’t respond to us so we all watched him as a group to see what would happen and then when he stopped he ended up asking us for directions to a convention???

— had a family come in and order $200 or $400 worth of food only to leave the trash everywhere outside and not tell us, forcing us to pick everything up after we had closed

— dropped the bucket full of tea while the CEO of the whole chain of restaurants was outside

— watched the CEO pick up trash in our parking lot and got yelled at even though most of the team’s shift hadn’t started

there’s probably more but I can’t remember. honestly it was a 10/10 experience