#This is what happens when you live in a city that has a high vehicle fatality rate

[knight-of-nightmares]

[naburi]

DON'T LEAVE US, I'M SCARED

JENNIE X ROŚE X READER

THEMES: THRILLER, THREESOME, CNC, DRUNK SEX, SLEEPING SEX, FACIAL

1.3K WORDS

You've been in this line of work for a decade now, and your gut is telling you something. While driving near the front door, you saw a silhouette of men inside Jennie’s house. “Are you expecting a company Ma’am?” You asked Rośe while she’s in the backseat with a drunk, asleep Jennie. with a stern voice she said “No.”

You drive out of the mansion quickly while assessing the situation. You can hear Rośe panicking as she’s trying to wake Jennie up. You contacted your security team and their manager about the situation. Your team contacted the police about what happened and the manager booked you a hotel an hour away from Jennie’s mansion. It’s been decided that the two idols will spend a few nights there before the situation is under control.

It’s been a few minutes now and you’re starting to get suspicious if they are following you as they get alert when you drive by the front door. You did the old trick of turning the corner four times making a circular route to see if someone is following you. No vehicle turns the corner four times like you did which gives you relief and you reassure Rośe that is anxious at the moment. Earlier in the night. You pick up the two idols from an after party of a luxury brand. One of the security was holding up Jennie as she walked up the SUV. Jennie loves to drink even though she gets drunk easily while Rośe isn’t much of a drinker.

You have been Jennie’s driver for a few years now. You have been a security/driver from other high profile idols, this situation isn’t new to you. You made sure Rośe knows what’s procedure is taking place and what actions are they about to make to help her ease anxiousness. It’s about an hour now and you arrived at the hotel. It’s a luxurious hotel well known to accommodate celebrities and idols. You pick up Jennie to sit her through a wheelchair. She’s still asleep and you notice how light she is. The idol has a petite small frame but it still surprises you about how she weighs. Rośe notices how Jennie looks against your tall frame. You’re in your late 40s with a bulky frame. You went to the hotel room on the uppermost level. Its mesmerizing overlooking glass panels caught your attention as the city lights and the beauty of the view filled your eyes. You carry Jennie to a queen size, while Rośe lay down beside her. It’s a two bedroom suit but you decided to take a rest in the living area to guard the front door.

It's 2 am now, your team has informed you that the police have scanned Jennie’s Mansion and didn’t find the burglars. Their manager notified you that she will visit your suit in the morning. You heard Rośe calling for you inside the room. She asked you if you could sit beside her as she still worried about the situation. Jennie is flat asleep on her other side. Rośe asked if she can hold onto your arms which will make her feel safe according to her. Her head is laying beside your shoulder. she’s fondling her fingers into your arms which you didn’t mind. She starts caressing your arms gradually up to your chest area. You give her a warning that this is getting inappropriate. You are about to stand up but she pecks your cheeks with multiple kisses “don’t leave me I’m scared”. She said softly.

You didn’t know what to answer but you know this is not ethical in your profession. Rośe touches your face to make you face her. Her light pecks started moving towards your lips. You're hesitant to kiss her back but her lips have a hint of the taste of the wine she drank earlier is too much to resist. Kisses turn to two tongues finding a rhythm of pleasure. She moves on top of you to kiss you deeper which you gladly return the favor by exploring her slim

Body through your hands. Rośe is wearing an off shoulder dress and she pulled it down to reveal her perky boobs. She took your one hand and put it in her boobs for you to play. You went to put your other hand as well to grope both her boobs. She muffled moans while you’re making out which gives you a sign to continue on. You started to play with her nipples. You started to flick it and pinch it to elicit moans from the idol. Her moans turn you on even more thus you break out the kiss and start sucking one of her perky nipples while still playing the other. All the idol can do is to pull your hair as you start to lick and flick her nipples using your mouth. Rośe started grinding on you while you're busy savoring her both tits. She pulled up her dress revealing her wet panties. You remove your top clothes while she’s busy unbuckling your pants. You don’t have the length but you sure did have the grit of a monster cock. Rośe started caressing your cock while making eye contact with you. She moved aside her panties and she made you feel her wet pussy first before slowly sitting down your big cock. Both of you sound of a loud moan while entering her inside. She makes out again while gradually increasing the pace. The bed started to creek as she’s riding you so well. A sudden realization hit as you both looked at Jennie still asleep beside you. Rose rides off you and she starts to whisper something in Jennie's ears. Jennie opens her eyes briefly as she pulls rose into a make out session. You're too stunned to fathom how the arguable two most famous idols are making out infront of you. Rose notices that you are stroking your cock while watching the two. She whispers again to Jennie and the close eyed girl opens her mouth. “Put that cock in good use”, Rose said while signaling you to put it inside Jennie’s mouth. You position yourself beside Jennie’s head and you put your cock in front of mouth first which Jennie somehow felt like sticking her tongue out to touch your cock. The sight of you is too much for one man to handle. Jennie licking your cock while still asleep and rose busy eating Jennie out. You can’t bear it anymore and starts to put all of your cock in her mouth. It stuff Jennie’s mouth to the fullest with how thick your cock is. Started to fuck her mouth while her tongue caressing your dick inside her mouth. All Jennie can do is to moan loud as both of her walls are getting pleased. Rośe sits up and starts to finger the drunk idol. Just by her eyes, you know what she wants you to do. You pulled your cock from Jennie’s mouth and positioned it in her entrance. “Fuck your boss infront of my eyes”, Rośe whispers to you with her soft and lustful voice. With no prepping, you trust all of your fat cock inside Jennie. This elicits a jolt reaction from the drunk idol. You start to pound her while Rośe starts to make out with her again. You have been in this position for a while now as you can’t get enough of your boss’s pussy. Rośe is tighter between the two but Jennie has the softest inside you ever felt in your life. Rośe pulls down Jennie’s dress to reveal one of her boobs. Jennie has soft round boobs that fit her frame well. She started to pleasure it with her tongue as fingers herself in the process. This made you too horny to hold yourself any longer. As you're about to cum, move closer to Jennie’s face to shoot all your loads of cum to her sleeping face. This threesome went on till sunrise. Rośe fell asleep beside Jennie after her last orgasm. You went on to take a bath before putting your clothes back on the avoid suspicion form their manager that’s about to visit them early in the morning.

[number1mingyustan]

-Cuffing Season-

His Friend

boyfriend!mingyu x fem!reader x boyfriendsbestfriend!jungkook

Warnings: established relationship, kissing, cursing, explicit smut, striptease, size kink, threesome, unprotected sex, protected sex, oral (f.+m.), gagging, fingering (f.), squirting, overstimulation, multiple orgasms, a lot of sexual tension, mentions of a safe word, surprisingly healthy communication

Summary: (What SZA said)²

Word Count: 5.3k

_______________________________________________

(a/n: ive never written anything like this, it's not really my thing but before i was a carat, i was an army and i fear that will never change)

The city lights shine brightly outside. Beams of red, green, white, and occasional blue reflect from the buildings surrounding you. You don't pay it much mind, thoughts elsewhere as the rays of light zip past your line of sight.

The train is moving pretty fast, and the window in front of you isn't all that clean, making it difficult to pinpoint where the lights outside are coming from. It's where everyone must be, you figure, considering the car train is empty.

Mostly empty anyway.

The two men sitting in front of you are engaging in conversation without you. You're standing, hands gripping the silver pole beside you as a means of support. Your eyes shift between your boyfriend and his best friend as they laugh and talk.

The vehicle suddenly comes to a stop, brakes working at full force to let the passengers off from the other cars. The sudden shift causes you to lose your balance, stumbling over.

A pair of strong arms act fast, reaching out to hold you up in your drunken state.

"Be careful," Mingyu mumbles, pulling you in by your legs to hold you up. Your hands move from the silver pole to the hand holder above you as you step closer to your boyfriend.

"I am being careful," you furrow your brows.

"Sure you don't wanna sit?" Jungkook asks, looking at the space between him and Mingyu that you occupied only a few minutes ago.

"I'm fine," You protest, walking away from the two men in front of you and back to the pole in the middle of the train. You spin around it mindlessly, nearly losing your balance again and giggling to yourself.

Your mind is a bit hazy, high off of pure fun, and maybe one too many drinks. What started off as innocent fun has slowly segwayed into much more.

You're not entirely sure how you even ended up here.

See, Jungkook and Mingyu have been best friends for years. They met when they were teens and have been pretty much inseparable since. But as they grew older, their lives took them in different places.

Mingyu stayed closer to home, but Jungkook has a more adventurous spirit. He moved about an hour away into the city, and opened up his own tattoo shop.

Of all Mingyu's friends, Jungkook had to be your favorite.

Of course the two kept in contact with one another, but they didn't see each other as much because of the distance. With both of them working and Mingyu's job being so demanding, it had been months since they'd actually seen each other. There were time where their schedules aligned and plans could be made.

Like tonight, the two made plans in the city and you decided to tag along. You found somewhere in the middle, hopped on the train and spent the night out drinking and singing karaoke. The time flew and before you knew it, people started to go home and you realized it was time to head back.

But you guys hadn't seen Jungkook in so long and you were having such a good time, didn't really want the night to end. So you invited him back to your place for the night, making it obvious that you didn't want the fun to end. Matter of fact, it hadn't even really begun yet.

You scan over his features, noticing his facial expressions and body language. You can tell something is weighing on his mind. He pulls at the piercing on his bottom lip with his teeth and his leg hasn't stopped bouncing.

You all know what's going to happen tonight. There's been a thick tension brewing the entire night and you've all silently agreed to it. You wonder if he's having second thoughts already.

"Something on your mind, Kook?" You ask softly, walking over to the tattooed man.

He lifts his head up, meeting your half-lidded eyes. You take in his features, roaming over the piercings littering his ears, lip, and eyebrow. His hair has gotten longer too, forming into light waves. He looks good.

He blinks at you, blush creeping up his cheeks and nose. The drinks he had earlier already had him flushed, but now you're the one causing it.

"All good, Shorty," Jungkook flashes you a grin.

You return it, lips pulling upward at the sound of the nickname. He's always used it with you, understandably so. You were much shorter than the two men before you, and even Mingyu towered over Jungkook.

You pat his head lightly, running your fingers through his soft hair. "Okay."

He watches as you make your way back to the pole, spinning around it playfully. The skirt you have on is entirely too short, and it's doing a poor job of covering you as your body rotates around the pole.

Jungkook's leg bounces faster and he crosses his arms over his broad chest. Fuck.

The train comes to another stop moments later and you lock eyes with Mingyu. He stands to his feet, wrapping an arm around your waist.

"C'mon Kook, it's our stop."

___________________

It's been a while since Jungkook stepped foot in this apartment. You've decorated it nicely, surely it was your doing and your doing only. Mingyu's never had a creative eye. There's pictures of the two of you scattered across the space and Jungkook can't help but feel like he's intruding.

It's a fleeting thought though, he doesn't dwell on it. He buries it deep inside, beneath the alcohol pumping in his veins, clouding his thoughts and filling it with the desire brewing in his cock. Jeon Jungkook is not a man who lives a life of regrets.

He averts his gaze from the pictures, following you into the bedroom. You take off your black leather jacket and hang it up. "You can have a seat," You tell him.

He sits down on your bed, facing you. Like a man, his long legs take up most of the space as he sits wide.

"You want something to drink?" You ask, leaning against the door frame.

Jungkook nods. "Something strong."

You raise an eyebrow. "Having second thoughts already?"

"Never, Shorty," He grins.

He eyes you shamelessly. You've ditched your jacket, exposing the little black croptop you had on. He's seeing now that you decided to go braless, perked nipples peaking through the material of your short. You're not wearing your boots anymore either, removing the extra height you had earlier and placing you directly in his line of sight. His eyes are clouded with lust, scanning over your frame as he nibbles on the piercing on his lower lip.

Just as you turn to walk out of the room, Mingyu's body appears, blocking you from fully exiting.

"Sit down, sweetheart," Mingyu nods his head toward the bed.

"I'm serving our guest," You cock your head to the side defiantly.

Mingyu towers over you and his eyes grow intimidating. He narrows his eyes, erasing every hint of amusement in his expression. Goosebumps rise up along your skin and your body shivers.

"Don't need your drunk ass dropping any glasses, I'll get it," He says, holding you by the shoulders. He turns you around and disappears to another part of the house.

Almost immediately, you're sitting down on the bed. You're obedient, Jungkook takes a mental note.

MIngyu comes back a few moments later holding two glasses and a bottle of whiskey. He fills up both the glasses and hands one to Jungkook, keeping the other for himself.

You frown. "Gyu."

Mingyu takes a sip, allowing the brown liquor to leave a satisfying burn in his throat. "Hmm?"

"Did you consider that I might have wanted a glass?" You huff.

"Don't throw a tantrum in front of our guest," Mingyu says, extending his glass to you. "You don't even like whiskey."

He's right, but it doesn't stop you from taking the glass out of his hand and taking a sip for yourself. It goes down smoothly, but leaves an ache in your throat and a bad taste on your tongue.

Mingyu takes the glass back and takes another sip for himself. "Kook," Mingyu says.

The tatted man averts his attention to your boyfriend. "Ground rules."

"No hickeys, she's still my girl and I don't want you leaving any marks," Mingyu says.

Jungkook nods. "Okay."

"Can't cum inside, or on her face, shit's disrespectful. You can be rough, but not too rough. No hitting or anything like that.," Mingyu continues.

You can't help but sit there smiling to yourself. The lisp in your boyfriend's

"I wouldn't do that to your girl, Gyu." Jungkook interjects.

"I know, but I just wanna make it clear. I trust you, but I gotta make sure she's safe and comfortable. Pretty much anything else is fine if she doesn't have any problems."

"You got any problems?" Jungkook inquires.

"As long as she's okay with it, I'm okay with it. Just listen to her. Slow down if she needs to slow down, and stop if she says stop. She's submissive, but she's in control no matter what.

He looks at you. "If it's too much, you say something. Use your safeword. What's your safe word, gorgeous?"

"Mango."

Mingyu nods. "Good. You heard that, Kook?"

Jungkook shifts on the bed, visibly growing more comfortable in your presence. "Loud and clear."

"This isn't something I'd normally do, but we're all a little drunk and Kook, I trust you with my life. Y/n and I have talked about it before, so don't make me regret it."

Oh? You guys have been planning this? Jungkook thinks to himself. He knew you were comfortable around him and he's heard in great detail from Mingyu about your very active sex life. But to think you'd actually discussed this? He's kind of flattered.

"Never," Jungkook blinks. "I'll be careful."

Mingyu sits down on the bed, large body dipping into the mattress as he makes himself comfortable. He takes another sip from his glass and his gaze doesn't leave you. "Go ahead, Sweetheart."

You stand before them both, in a similar position to how you were on the train. Smirking, you bend over and pull your black miniskirt off before tossing it. You now stand in just your black lace thong and your shirt.

Both men watch you in a trance. It stirs a feeling of boldness in you, having their attention like this. Confidence pumps through your veins as your hands dance over the fabric of your top. You pull it off slowly and toss it onto the ground.

You stand in front of them wearing nothing but your lacy black thongs. Both of them are silent, eyes locked in on you and only you. Mingyu's seen this view plenty of times, but in this moment he's seeing you through Jungkook's eyes. Like it's his first time and he can't look away.

There's just something about you.

You leave a little to the imagination, climbing onto the bed without stripping yourself bare. Your knee dips into the mattress and you wedge yourself between the two men.

You lean your head in toward Jungkook, pressing your nose against his. He lets out a ragged breath as the tension in the room expands. You lick your lips slowly before removing the gap separating you.

Jungkook's kisses are different. They're slower, but by no means hesitant. He kisses you like he cherishes you, doesn't want it to be a fleeting moment. He takes his time, appreciating the way you taste and the way you feel. Smart man, knowing this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

You pull away, resting your forehead against his. He leans in again, but you back away just enough that your lips don’t collide. He lets out a shaky breath, chewing on his pierced lower lip.

You tug on his shirt, “Take this off for me.”

You climb off Jungkook’s lap and onto Mingyu’s. You cup his cheek, leaning in and kissing him softly. He leans into your touch, kissing you back with desperation.

Mingyu... Mingyu kisses like like he's got no time left, yet it feels like all the time in the world. It's ironic almost, because he's sure he's going to spend the rest of his life with you. But he's impatient, desperate even, in the way he touches you and presses his lips against yours. But everything about him is so familiar, you always find yourself falling deep into him. His kisses are consuming, much like everything about him. Makes you feel like you're floating, and 30 seconds feels like an eternity.

You moan against his lips, placing a firm hand on his chest as your lips move against one another with haste. You feel one of his hands grip your ass and decide to pull away. You move his hand onto his own lap.

You lean back, leaving your boyfriend breathless and aching for your touch. You shift your gaze back to a now shirtless Jungkook. His tattoos are on full display, decorating his muscular body. The ink of his sleeve is nearly full, trailing all the way down to his fingers.

You climb off Mingyu’s lap, leaning in toward Jungkook. His gaze is intense, hazy as his eyes shift between your lips and your eyes.

“Kook,” You breathe out. “I wanna suck your cock.”

Jungkook’s mind feels hazy. The concept of you is messing with his mind. You’re submissive, but you know what you want and you’re not afraid of vocalizing it.

He holds his glass in his hand, swiftly bringing it to his lips and downing the leftover contents in the transparent dish. He sets the now-empty glass down on the nightstand.

Honest, he’s never looked at you this way before. He’s never had these kinds of thoughts about you. You were gorgeous and had a nice body, but anyone could see that. It was undeniable.

But he never actually had thoughts of you. As long as he’d known you, you were Mingyu’s girl. His best friend’s girlfriend, not the girl he’d ever imagine asking to suck his dick.

But who was he to deny you?

He licks his lips, giving you a small nod. You adjust your body, laying flat on your back. Jungkook stands over the edge of the bed, towering over your small frame.

He undoes his jeans, pulling them down with his underwear. His cock is already half hard, finally free from the material restraining it. You lick your lips slowly, waiting in anticipation.

His initial movements are slow, stroking his cock and dragging the tip along your lips. He teases you a bit, making sure you're comfortable before tapping his cock against your lips, signaling you to open your mouth.

You oblige, allowing your mouth to fall open and letting the tattooed man feel the warm slide of your inner cheeks, satisfying his newfound desire for you.

He exhibits great patience, taking his time to test your waters as he fills your mouth little by little. The weight of his cock on your tongue stirs a warm feeling in your belly.

"That's it," Jungkook groans, murmuring under his breath. There's a rasp in his voice that you've never heard before and it has you pressing your thighs together.

Of course your boyfriend could never be forgotten, finding solace between your legs. He pries open your legs, pressing them down on the bed as he pushes your panties to the side. There's a look of mischief written on his face as he disappears between your thighs. He immediately latches his pretty lips onto your clit, licking and sucking on your sensitive bud.

You nearly choke, letting out a moan around Jungkook's length. The warmth of Mingyu's tongue is driving you mad, causing your toes to curl up as you squirm on the bed.

One of your had entangles into Mingyu's hair, gripping and pulling at the lose strands. Mingyu grunts, sucking harsher on your clit and making you feel dizzy as you coat his face with your arousal.

Jungkook begins thrusting his cock down your throat, starting slow and building up to a steady pace.

Your mind feels hazy. There's so much going on, your brain can't keep up with everything that's happening with your body. Your eyes roll back and you gag around Jungkook's cock. He pulls out immediately, causing you to whine.

"You okay?" Jungkook asks.

You nod eagerly. "Don't stop."

He's taken back, but obliges nonetheless. He slides his cock back into your mouth, letting out a shaky breath as he watches the bulge appear in your throat. He finds his pace again, pressing the tip of his cock against the back of your throat with each thrust.

Mingyu slips a finger into you and you moan against Jungkook's length. You're soaking your boyfriend's finger, making it easier for him to slip in another, curling them and fucking them in and out of your tight cunt. He stretches you open, fingers moving at a fast pace that has you struggling to keep up.

You're careful not to use your teeth, remaining conscious and hyper-aware of the tatted man above you. Saliva pools in the back of your throat, and your other hand starts stroking the tatted man's length.

Your cunt squelches as it stretches around your boyfriend's fingers. Your hips move on their own, thrusting into his fingers and meeting his pace. He continues to suck down on your clit, groaning against your wet cunt and sending sensations traveling through your body.

You can feel the pressure building in the pit of your stomach. Mingyu can sense this, so he starts pumping his fingers into you faster and harder, curling them against the sweet spot that has your legs shaking in moments.

The pressure is building fast and you have to pull away. You move your head, and Jungkook's cock slips out of your mouth. You continue stroking him lazily, but your orgasm interrupts your mind and body.

"Oh fuck-" You cry out.

Your legs wrap around your boyfriend's head, nearly suffocating him as you ride out your orgasm on his face. Your hips grind against his tongue, moving frantically and quickly as the pleasure overwhelms you.

Your legs are shakily and your high-pitched moans echo through the room. Jungkook watches the view below him, forever etching it into his mind.

You ride out your high on your boyfriend's face, tugging harshly at his hair to pry him off once you come down. He lifts his head up, licking his lips as he stares at you with hazy eyes.

Your body falls limp on the bed. Your chest rises and falls rapidly as your fingertips tingle and you begin to fully tap back into your senses.

The room feels suffocatingly hot and your body trembles. The sheer intensity already has you tired, but your brain is screaming moremoremore. Your cunt throbs and aches, need to be filled–gotta be stuffed full.

"Need a break?" Mingyu asks.

You sit up, shaking your head. You slide the last bit of material covering your body off and look him in the eyes. “The opposite."

Your boyfriend smirks. "There's my girl, always insatiable."

You lean in, minimizing the gap between you and your boyfriend. "Feel so empty..."

Mingyu licks his lips. "Think I'm gonna let Kook fuck you first, okay sweetheart? I know that's what you want."

You nod eagerly in agreement.

"How do you want it?"

"I want-"

"Tell him, not me baby," Mingyu cuts you off.

Your body stiffens and you turn to meet Jungkook's hungry gaze. You bat your eyelashes at him. "From behind, fuck me from behind Koo.."

Jungkook doesn't need any more of an invitation. The tatted man reaches into the pocket of his discarded pants and pulls out his wallet. There's a shiny gold packet wedged between his two fingers. Naturally, he tears it open with his teeth and rolls the latex onto his length. He comes up behind you, pressing your back down so you're on all fours.

You feel the tip of his cock pressed against your folds. You're absolutely soaked, making him slide in easier than he thought he would, He planned to tease you a big, but your cunt invited him in so easily.

"That's it Shorty, let me in," Jungkook whispers.

You whine, gripping the bed sheets as he pushes his cock into you. He fills you up slowly, making you feel every inch of him. The stretch of his cock is delightful, filling up your lower tummy with a familiar warmth.

"Oh my g-" You whisper to yourself, voice muffled as you bury your head into the pillow.

"You're taking it so well baby, so good," Mingyu praises.

Your boyfriend's large body appears before you. His muscles are toned, stature stands above you almost intimidatingly.

"You're doing so good sweetheart, can you handle me too?" Mingyu asks.

You nod eagerly. Your back arches and you lift one hand to guide Mingyu's cock into your mouth. You moan around his length, allowing him to fuck your throat.

Jungkook finds a steady pace, ramming his cock into you from behind. The pleasure fills your body as he stretches your cunt. He slips in and out easily as your arousal drips on his cock.

The force of his thrusts make it easier for your boyfriend's cock to touch the back of your throat. Mingyu holds the top of your head lightly, guiding your mouth to maintain control and make sure it's not too rough.

You try to focus on your boyfriend, but the force of Jungkook's cock fucking you open makes it hard. You take a break, lazily stroking Mingyu's cock as you moan out.

You can feel the tension building between your thighs. Jungkook's cock is distracting, making it hard to do anything but moan and babble over the sheer pleasure.

"Please..." You beg. "Fuck–I"

He thrusts his cock deep into you, tip nudging against the sweet spot deep inside of you. The tension builds and you hardly have time for a warning. Your body is instantly overwhelmed and you completely lose control.

"Holy fuck..." Jungkook breathes out in disbelief.

You're cumming so hard you don't even realize the rush of liquid leaving your body. Your mind goes blank and your vision fills with dots, sinful moans, and screams echoing throughout your home. Your entire body trembles as you squirt all over your boyfriend's best friend.

The squeeze of your cunt forces him out and you gush all over the bed. He's quick to fill you again, fucking you through your orgasm. Jungkook buries himself deep in your walls, allowing the tightness of your cunt to pull his own orgasm out of him. It hits him fast, but the blissful feeling drags out for seemingly an eternity.

He groans, filling the condom with his load. It's filthy and overwhelming and you love it. Your entire body trembles and Jungkook pulls out once your grip has loosened. He lay on your back against the mattress.

His chest rises and falls as he breathes heavily, lungs desperate for air after experiencing his high. He climbs off the bed, disposing of the condom.

There are no words that can be said in this moment. It feels like forever before your eyes blink open and your vision clears. You look up, seeing your boyfriend's flushed face.

Mingyu looks down at you, hair falling over his face perfectly. His broad shoulders hover over you, making you feel even smaller under his gaze. "You good, baby?"

You whine, nodding.

He kisses your shoulder. "I'm gonna take such good care of you."

Your stomach does backflips at the sound of his promise.

Your boyfriend is all-consuming once again. His presence alone never fails to overwhelm you. Heat flows through your entire body as he fills you up. The familiar stretch has you trembling and squirming on the bed.

"Fuck!" You cry out.

Your entire body spasms, arms flailing as you desperately try to find something to hold onto. You can't keep still, nearly pushing Mingyu out.

A pair of large arms suddenly pins you down, holding you in place. You whimper.

"Hey..." Jungkook coos. "Where are you going, Shorty? Hmm?"

Unlike Jungkook, Mingyu has no interest in teasing. He's been on edge all night, since the moment you put on the damn skirt before you'd even left to go out.

It's almost cruel, how quickly he finds his pace, plowing his cock into you hard. It hurts, cunt sensitive from being used all night like this. But the pain is so good, it's almost addictive. It'll catch up to you later, but your body aches for more.

Jungkook's breath is hot against your skin, gentle hands applying just the right amount of pressure to keep you in place. His thumb draws small circles on the palm of your hand as he holds you. It deeply contrasts the sensations of your boyfriend's ruthless fucking.

"Shit.." Mingyu groans.

He can't stop himself, fucking his cock deeper into you with every thrust. The burn is so satisfying, fulfilling your every need and more. You wrap your legs around him, forcing his cock deeper into you.

And with that, you're squirting again. Another rush of cum leaves your body, soaking your boyfriend's lower half. He pulls out momentarily to let it happen, but he fills you back up in no time.

He lets you fully ride out your orgasm on his cock. Your sensitive inner walls tighten and spasm around him as he bullies his cock against your g-spot. He sinks deep into your aching cunt, relishing in the tight squeeze around his cock that soon drives him into his own orgasm.

You sob out in relief when the tension in your stomach is eased. A warm buzz flows down your thighs and your legs shake. The pleasure is so overwhelming you feel lightheaded.

Your mind is so clear, relishing in the pleasure of it all. Mingyu's deep groans bring you back into your senses, allowing you to feel the way he fills you with his load.

Your boyfriend pulls out, mind hazy as some of his cum drips out of you. You lay there on the bed, body completely spent. Your cunt is swollen and throbbing from the absence of touch.

Both of the larger men crowd around your exhausted body, ensuring that you're okay. You let them know honestly that you're fine and they help to clean you up and redress you and themselves in comfortable clothes for the night.

They change the sheets, discarding the ones you so shamelessly soaked. Not many words are exchanged, but a comfortable quiet falls over the room.

You sleep in the middle of the large bed, sandwiched between the two men comfortably.

___________

You're the second to wake up. When your eyes flutter open, your left side is empty. You look to your right, seeing your boyfriend sleeping peacefully.

Your head is pounding from the hangover and there's a soreness between your thighs. You look around, seeing Jungkook is standing on the balcony outside your bedroom.

You climb out of bed and open the screen door, coming up behind the tatted man.

"Morning," He says first.

Jungkook stands over the banister with his arms crossed, tattoos on full display with a cigarette wedged between his pointer and middle finger.

"Morning," You greet him back.

You walk over to him, standing by his side. "Cigarettes for breakfast? You know there's food in the kitchen."

The tatted man grins. "I know, bad habit of mine."

He takes a long drag of it, and allows the smoke to pass between his flushed lips. You take the cigarette out of his hand and inhale. "Can't say I'm much better than you though."

He chuckles. "Gyu told me you quit."

You shrug. "Mostly. He doesn't like it, so I don't really smoke around him. Only something I really do when I've got something on mind." You look at him, raising an eyebrow. "Something on your mind?"

You hold your hand out, extending the cigarette back to him. He takes it back and sighs.

"I don't know Shorty, think I might be ready to settle down," Jungkook confesses, taking another drag of his cigarette.

You bump your hip against his playfully. "The Jeon Jungkook? What's gotten into you? I fucked some sense into you?"

Jungkook's jaw slacks open. He lets out a genuine laugh at your comment. "Kind of, Shorty. I'm not gonna lie."

"Really?" You raise an eyebrow.

Jungkook has always been free-spirited. Never really committed to women, always just there for the ride. It was by no means a bad lifestyle, at least the way he went about it. He wasn't the type to hop from bed to bed each night, it was more of an occasional thing. But by no means did he seem to ever want anything real with anyone. For Jungkook everything always seemed so.. temporary.

He'd been in serious relationships before, his longest one lasted nearly 3 years. But even then, he wasn't really fulfilled, never felt satisfied.

Nothing ever felt permanent.

He nods, taking another drag. He hands it to you and exhales. "Last night was pretty fucking crazy I can't lie. But here we are cracking jokes and sharing a cig like it was nothing."

You take a hit, leaning your back against the banister.

"Mingyu's in there asleep without so much as a worry on his mind cuz he trusts you, you know? Like we can keep things cool between us and he doesn't doubt that cuz he's got genuine love and trust. I don't think I've ever felt that way with someone in my life, not enough to do some shit like last night."

You hum in agreement and hand the cigarette back to him.

"I guess I just realized it's actually kind of admirable, more than it is crazy. Got me thinking I can find my own girl I trust and love that much, you know?"

He takes another drag, inhaling and blowing the smoke out of his mouth. He hands it back to you.

"Gotcha, you wanna find a girl just so you can have threesomes with her and her friends," You joke.

Jungkook chuckles, hitting your shoulder playfully. "C'mon Shorty, don't twist my words."

"I'm just fucking with you," you giggle. "But in all seriousness, I get it though. I never imagined doing something like that either, but I know he's the only person I'd be willing to do it with. It's a rare thing in this world, glad I got lucky." You exhale and hand him back the cigarette. "I think you will too."

"Can only hope," Jungkook breathes out.

"You will Kook, just gotta take things seriously," You cock your head to the side and grin. "And when you do, and you marry her, I'm gonna tell Mingyu to mention last night in his best man speech."

Jungkook snorts. "You two are definitely getting married before me, c'mon now. During my best man's speech, I'll sure as hell tell the story and let everyone know you're a squirter."

You punch his tatted arm playfully. "You're the worst!"

"You started it!" Jungkook grins.

"Fair enough," You smile.

"Can't lie it's kind of a great story to tell. You took it like a champ," Jungkook comments.

"My entire family will be at my wedding, don't even think about it," You laugh. "I'm sure they won't appreciate hearing how I quote, 'took it like a champ."

"Fair enough," He grins.

It falls quiet again as the two of you smoke the rest of the cigarette. When it's done, Jungkook kills it on the floor of the balcony. You kick it off to eliminate the evidence.

"C'mon, Mingyu's gonna be up soon and I'm hungry."

You lead Jungkook back into the bedroom, greeting your sleepy boyfriend with a bombard of pillows.

_______________________________________________

© number1mingyustan - Do not repost without permission.

[belovedspector]

Love at First Sight's for Suckers (At Least, It Used to Be)

Pairing: Jake Lockley x f!reader

Word Count: 2.1k

Summary: Jake can’t help but notice you when you become a regular at his favorite diner.

Content: Fluff!

A/N: Title is from “I Never Planned on You” from Newsies. I’ve never written for Jake before, and I haven’t read the comics, so I don’t have much to go off of, but I figured I’d give it a shot. I hope I did okay! Enjoy! :)

Masterlist

Jake Lockley knows his place. He’s the protector of the system, keeping Marc and Steven out of harm’s way and doing Khonshu’s dirty work. He doesn’t have time for “earthly pleasures,” as Khonshu had once put it. He doesn’t really have a life outside of protecting his alters and the travelers of the night, and he’s fine with that. He’s content to lurk in the shadows if it means Marc and Steven getting to live their best lives. He treasures what interaction he does get, when he’s driving his cab through the city or getting food late at night after a mission. He tries not to dwell on it, though; there’s no sense in mourning what he can’t have.

Jake notices everything. It’s his job, to always be on high-alert, even when he’s not the one fronting. So, when you start showing up at his favorite diner every Friday night like clockwork, he notices. He observes from afar. From that first time you walked in, the bell tinkling to announce your presence, he’d been…interested in you. He’s not sure why—it’s not like you pose a threat. You should fade into the background, just like everyone else.

But, you don’t.

Jake can’t help but take note of everything you do—the way you always say your “please”s and “thank you”s to the waitress, your soft laugh, your sweet smile, the ungodly amount of sugar you put in your coffee. He’s good at watching people; it’s part of his job, after all, so he’s able to absorb you and your habits without drawing suspicion from you or anyone else. Some might call it creepy, but Jake means no harm, and he can’t help his…infatuation with you. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him.

One night, he finds himself rambling as he drives around the city. He likes to talk out loud to himself in the safety of his cab; it gives him a chance to make sense of his thoughts, and it’s not like he has anyone else to share them with.

He starts off by talking himself through the details of his upcoming mission, but he soon finds his mind wandering to bright eyes and the scent of coffee. You.

“She’s really something, huh?” Jake says to himself. “I—I don’t know what it is about her. I can’t stop thinking about her.”

“I think you humans call it a ‘crush.’” Khonshu suddenly appears hunched over in the back seat of Jake’s cab, and, if he was a less skilled driver, Jake absolutely would have crashed. As it is, he jumps almost imperceptibly in his seat, swerving the tiniest bit before regaining control of the vehicle.

“What?” Jake asks, not even sparing Khonshu a glance in the rear-view mirror. He’s used to the god’s antics by now.

“It appears you have a crush, Jake Lockley.”

“I don’t get crushes,” Jake protests. “Don’t have time for that shit.” He grips the steering wheel more tightly, the leather of his gloves straining against his knuckles.

“You’re right; you don’t have time,” Khonshu agrees, “so I suggest you nip this little problem in the bud, before it interferes with our work.”

“What, you want me to kill her?” he deadpans.

“No, nothing that extreme. I was going to suggest finding a new diner.”

“But I like that diner.”

“Then you’d best find a way to ignore the girl.”

With that, Khonshu disappears, and Jake mutters some choice words about the bird in the quiet of his car.

It’s Friday night again. Jake sits alone at his usual booth—in the corner, with his back to the wall, so he can continually scan the entire diner for any threats. He alternates between sipping at his coffee and taking bites of his blueberry pie while scanning the newspaper.

The door opens, the bell ringing along with it, and Jake instinctively looks up.

It’s you.

Jake casts his eyes back down to the sports page. Khonshu had given him orders, and he intends to follow them.

His plan is going great. He’s not thinking about you, not even a little bit. But, shit, now he’s thinking about how he’s not thinking about you. Does that count as thinking about you?

Jake returns his coffee cup to the table with a little more force than necessary. He can feel a headache coming on.

Get it together, Lockley.

He looks up again to do another sweep of the interior, when he notices you’re not sitting in your usual spot. No, you’re…walking towards him. Surely, you’re just going to use the bathroom past his seat, right?

No such luck. You stop at his booth, standing awkwardly with your hands clasped in front of you.

Slowly, Jake moves his eyes from his newspaper and allows them to find yours. He’s never seen you up close before, and, God, you’re even more breathtaking when he can see the sparkle of your eyes and the way your lips curve upward into a soft smile.

“Um, hi,” you start, rocking a little on your feet. “Sorry to bother you. I was just wondering if you had a pen?”

Jake’s not very well-versed in pickup lines, but he’s pretty sure that can’t be one, right? He stares at you for a few beats, dumbfounded that you’re really speaking to him, before he pulls himself together.

He clears his throat and answers, “Uh, yes.” He reaches for the pen he always keeps in his jacket pocket and hands it to you.

He can’t help but notice the way your soft, warm fingers brush against his as the pen exchanges hands.

“Thank you!” you say, and you sound so sincere. “I just wanted to do today’s crossword. I’ll have this back before you know it.”

“Sure,” Jake forces out as you turn on your heel, back to what he’s begun thinking of as “your” booth.

He goes back to his own paper, definitely not thinking about you and your sweet smile and soft hands. It’s by complete coincidence that the next page he turns to has the daily crossword puzzle. He’s never been much for puzzles; that’s more Steven’s thing. Still, he takes a look.

Across 1. An infatuation with another person

It’s five letters. It can’t be anything other than “crush.” Jake groans. He scans the rest of the clues and notices they all seem to revolve around love. It dawns on him that Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. So, maybe the universe isn’t totally fucking with him, after all.

Jake has just about finished his pie when you come bounding over. You don’t wait for him to look up before you’re speaking.

“Thank you again!” you say, placing his pen back on the table near his coffee cup.

You’re already turning to go back to your booth, but Jake can’t just let you go. Screw Khonshu’s orders, he thinks.

“Wait,” he calls to you. He half-expects you to ignore him, to keep walking away, but you do turn around and take a step closer to him. Shit, now he needs to think of something to say to you. “That was, uh, fast,” he says lamely.

You beam at him, and it’s just about the prettiest thing Jake has ever seen. “Oh, yeah, I used to do them with my dad all the time, so I’ve gotten pretty good at them.” Your eyes drop to his newspaper that sits forgotten on the table, still open to the puzzle page. “Oh, do you do crosswords, too?” you ask, and you look like you’re genuinely interested in his answer.

“Oh, uh, not really.” Jake’s hand comes up to rub the back of his neck nervously. Since when does he get nervous?

“Ah,” you say, nodding wisely, “you must be more of a Sudoku guy.”

“Uh, yeah.”

Great conversation skills, Lockley, he chastises himself.

“Well, thanks again for the pen. I hope I didn’t keep you from your Sudoku for too long…” You trail off, and Jake realizes, belatedly, that you’re waiting for him to offer his name.

“Jake,” he provides, putting on his most charming smile.

You smile right back, telling him your own name.

“Pretty name,” he remarks.

“Thanks, I got it for my birthday.”

Jake just stares at you for a moment before the joke lands, and then he’s laughing��like, genuinely laughing. He can’t remember the last time this has happened.

He notices you seem a little flustered. Maybe he laughed too hard? Maybe it wasn’t even a joke, and he just totally misread the situation? Maybe—

“Wow, I don’t think anyone’s ever actually laughed at that one,” you say with a slight chuckle of your own.

“I liked it,” Jake says honestly, as if you couldn’t already tell. Before he can second guess himself, he’s asking, “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

“Oh!” A look of surprise crosses your face. “Um, yeah, I’d like that. May I?” you ask, gesturing to the bench seat across from him.

“Please,” he says with a wave of his hand.

You slide into the booth as Jake gets the attention of the waitress and orders two coffees.

“Anything else?” the waitress asks, looking between the two of you expectantly, pen ready against her notepad.

“The pie’s really good,” Jake tells you. “My treat.”

You seem hesitant. “Oh, no, I couldn’t—”

“Come on,” he encourages with a smile.

“It is really good,” the waitress chimes in. 

“Well, okay,” you relent. “One slice of”—you look down at the table to scan the menu briefly—“chocolate cream pie, please.”

“Coming right up,” the waitress says with a smile and a click of her pen.

The time passes quickly, and the conversation between you and Jake flows as freely as the coffee. All that’s left of your pie is an empty plate with a few stray crumbs. You’re laughing at some comment Jake made when you glance down at your watch.

“Shit,” you say, your brows furrowing together in worry.

“Everything okay?” Jake asks.

“Yeah, I just didn’t realize how late it had gotten,” you say. An apologetic look crosses your face.

Jake checks his own watch. 2:53 am. He really should be getting back home, so Steven and Marc can wake up in the morning without suspecting anything.

“Can I drive you home?” he offers.

“Oh, that’s okay.” You shake your head. “I’m just a couple blocks over.”

“It’s late. I’d feel better if I knew you got home safely.”

“You’re sure it’s no trouble?” you ask hesitantly.

“Not at all,” he says with a smile. He’s smiled a lot tonight.

“Well, lead the way,” you say as you both exit the booth.

Jake throws a wad of cash on the table—more than enough to cover the coffee and pie—and walks you to his cab parked out front.

“You’re a cab driver?” you ask, sounding intrigued.

“I am,” Jake says as he opens the passenger’s door for you.

You pick up right where you left off at the diner, intermittently giving Jake directions to your apartment. He doesn’t want the night to end, but, soon enough, he’s parking in front of your building.

You start to unbuckle your seat belt but pause and turn to him. “Hey, can I borrow your pen again?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Jake says, digging it out of his pocket and handing it over once more.

You take it with a smile and reach into your pants pocket. You pull out a crumpled napkin and quickly write something before handing both the napkin and pen to Jake.

Jake looks down to find your name and phone number written on the napkin.

You smile, looking a little shy. “In case you want to see me before next Friday,” you explain.

Jake doesn’t even think about the implication that you’ve noticed him at the diner every week, just like he’s noticed you. No, he’s too excited about the fact that you want to see him again, maybe even to go on a proper date. He hopes you can’t tell that he’s blushing in the dim glow of the cab’s ceiling light.

“Good night, Jake,” you say, finally unbuckling your seat belt and opening the door.

Normally, he’d do the gentlemanly thing and open the door for you, but he’d been too caught up in this surreal moment. Next time, he thinks, because there definitely will be a next time.

“Good night,” he echoes, still in a bit of a daze. He watches as you walk up the stairs to your apartment, making sure you’re safely inside before he pulls away from the curb.

Jake will deal with Khonshu’s wrath over disobeying orders. It will be more than worth it, if it means getting to see you again.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to let me know what you think! :)

[villainofmyownstory]

Light years

masterlist

pairing: Simon “Ghost” Riley x android/hologram!Reader

summary: Many decades of longing. A lot of years of waiting. Hundreds of light years away from an Earth that no longer seemed like a memory, but a fictional story. A fairy tale written by poets. Earth no longer existed, and life on Zeus 2 went on as if the years of intergalactic war had never happened. As if the destruction of most of humanity had never taken place. There were still a few people on the new planet who remembered their lives on Earth. A past that was a memory stinging under the ribs. A small personal utopia for the last living people. Paradise lost.

tags: sci-fi!au, android, angst, ambiguous/open ending

1.4k words

author's note: Unfortunately, most of the 5th chapter of Day Zero, I don't know why, but it disappeared from my files, probably my mistake that I wrote it on my phone…. and I don't know when I will finish the 5th chapter. So I decided to write something else. I have never read sci-fi books, I have only watched a few movies of this genre in my life. Everything I've written here are my own thoughts about this alternate universe I've invented. Let me know what you think.

This story I wrote for @glitterypirateduck #GhostChallenge. I used prompt #’s 9 and 17. Challenge Masterlist

——————————————————————————————————

Wet streets and neon lights are two certainties of any Saturday evening. The man started his motorcycle from the parking lot with a squeal of tires. The vehicle flashed through the streets of the crowded city at high speed despite the heavy rain. Passing through one intersection after another, the man paid no attention to his surroundings. He had one goal in mind. Like every second Saturday of the month. One damn hour. Just one. Sixty minutes.

He cursed Captain Price in his mind, even though he knew the man had a visit this Saturday, sending him and Gaz to a neighboring planet to see if the unrest caused by the robot revolt has been adequately handled by the new authorities. Although they had their cybernetic teammates on the new planet, the captain trusted his human soldiers the most. Only Price and his three subordinates remembered well their service in the former Task Force 141 many decades ago on Earth. Sometimes, on their free evenings, they reminisced about their past lives, like a long-read book or a movie they watched. Memories that seemed so distant. It was hard to tell that they were their own. And yet they were. Earth had once existed. Their lives were different. A better place.

As the man approached his destination, he wondered if the next visit would look the same. Every month he deluded himself that this time it would not be like the previous one. That the clinic's staff would inform him of progress. About a breakthrough.

So much time. It had been so many, many years since they had lived on Earth. So many decades of longing and hope.

White, smooth walls. The floor lined with rectangular snow-white tiles. 134 pieces to be exact. Electronics and many screens on one of the walls. A comfortable chair and an empty space on the other side. He has long known every nook and cranny of these two rooms. The one where he stays during every visit and this small room, behind bulletproof plastic glass.

As on every single Saturday evenly at 7 pm he was greeted by the same artificial, synthetic voice.

"Welcome, you are a visiting guest at medical facility number 3 and your appointment is about to begin. Sit comfortably and enjoy the company of your still living loved ones.Thank you for using our services. To change your monthly subscription package, please head to room 221 on the 2nd floor. Memories from Earth eternally alive. Light years are no longer an obstacle. With us, everything continues uninterrupted. MedZeus 3 at your service. Light years don't matter. Earthly memories at your fingertips."

When silence falls, he counts every breath. Exactly 17, when a light comes on in the room behind the glass. The figure flickers and after a moment is visible in all her divine beauty.

You are as he remembers you. You are the same as you were taken out of his mind. A memory.

"Hi Simon!" The man clenches his tightened fists. Your voice is always the same. Bright, melodious. Joyful. Like every month you stand in the same place. In that fucking white void. So close and so far away. He dreams every day to be able to touch you again. To feel your soft and smooth skin under the pads of his scarred, rough hands. To touch your wavy hair at least once more and smell the fruity sour fragrance of your favourite perfume. He would like to see your rosy cheeks one more time. At least one damn tear in your eyes. Some human emotion.

"How was your service? You look tired. I hope the mission was successful." The same sentences spoken for months. He so longed to hear something different. Sorrow. Longing. Joy. Anger. Anything, some human feeling.

Meanwhile, everything is just as the signed script predicted. The programmed hologram of your character stands dressed in a plain black t-shirt with your favorite band and plain straight jeans. Hair tied in a loose ponytail. Just as he remembered you. Just as he saw you on the last day of his life. Yours.

If you hadn't been so stubborn, if you hadn't said those words. Maybe you would be together now. Light years from Earth. Light years from that life together.

The man slowly gets up from his chair and walks over to the glass. He removes the glove from his hand and stares at the bare palm to the cold transparent wall separating you.

“I miss you.” He finally says while swallowing that damnable, choking tightness in his throat. That bitterness that appears every time he looks at the product of his memories. You're seemingly here. You're so close. But he knows it's not you. You were now the product of his selfish desire. When he was awakened from centuries of hibernation many years ago the first thing he bought in his new reality. In his new life. You.

He damn well regretted that decision. He should have buried you long ago, erased your memories as other living people have done. Forget you and live on Zeus 2 like the others. He could eventually start a family, or adopt a small humanoid robot-child. He could even buy himself an android wife. After all, he was an intergalactic soldier. An Earth hero. One of the last humans from Earth. A myth.

That's probably why he couldn't let you go. You were something that kept him alive. Were you? No. For him all the time - you are. He didn't want to be like the others, he didn't allow his DNA to be changed. Even Captain Price was no longer fully human. He was afraid that with making him half human and half robot he would destroy the last part of you that had been in him all along.

Long minutes of silence after saying that three words. I miss you. They caused the figure behind the glass as if trying to process and quickly in gigabytes of stored data to find the answer to his words.

He smiled gently. But maybe the staff of the facility has managed to improve something, maybe there has been some kind of revolution and you will finally be more human. His again.

The hologram twitched slightly, as if it was about to disappear. The man glanced anxiously at his watch, it had been only 17 minutes since the start of the meeting.

“Simon”

Your voice is like behind a fog. His name whispered with the same tenderness when you first confessed your feelings for each other. That rainy November evening when he held you for the first time in his bare arms. When he gave you his heart. When he first said that he…

The man shakes his head. He didn't give them back those intimate memories. No. That's what he didn't transfer to the data cloud. So how is it possible…

“Don't let go, Simon. Never.” Your lips don't move. Your figure again slightly disappears for a fraction of a second. No it can't be true. Maybe this some bug in the system. A badly written code. Maybe a virus crept in, or a hacking attack. He had heard at the base, about recent cyber attacks on medical facilities. Maybe the attacks have reached his planet as well.

The image of your hologram is back to normal. As you do every month, you tilt your head slightly to the side and extend your hand. The man freezes, holding his breath. You always make this gesture at the end of your meetings.

You put up your thumb, index finger and pinkie finger, while keeping your ring finger and your middle finger down.

“I Love You” in Sign Language.

After a moment of hesitation, he extends his hand and his palm shows the same gesture. He rests his forehead on the cold glass closing his eyes.

You are about to disappear. Again you will remain just a part of a recollection. Data stored on the server.

When the man opens his eyes again he continues to see your figure. In white. A braid of tiny white gypsophila and purple eustoma flowers adorns your head. Your hair is loosely undone. Slightly curly hair reaches below your shoulders. A simple white dress covers your body from neck to ankles. Lace sleeves adorn your arms.

Time seems to have stopped. Again. As if there were no light years from earthly life. Like that tomorrow has simply arrived. Your image presented to him.

It wasn't his memory. He had no right to see you in your wedding dress. He did not have time. Tomorrow never came for the both of you.

This is your memory.

[shyalia]

I would like to introduce my new (accidental) OC! 

Meet Cordelia Hunt, aka "Cory"!! She is a lemur mutant in the TMNT AU world of The Day the World Broke by @saladmix. And in case you were wondering... yes, she's that lemur mutant.

Fun fact, the ring-tailed lemur is my favorite animal. Around 6 months-ish ago, I asked Saladmix if I may make a small request for a lemur mutant to appear in the story somewhere. Nothing specific or anything, even just a glimpse of one would suffice. To my delight, she had a spot in mind, yay! -fast forward 4-5 months to her debut-

Now, it wasn't intentional for her to become a fleshed-out character when she was added to the story. She was a no-name background character who served a purpose and that was to be the end of it. But, a couple of weeks ago after chapter 24 was posted, my brain wouldn't shut up about her. Cue all of the headcanons, personality, things she's accomplished in the past, what happened when the apocalypse hit, and how she got to where she was at that point in the story, etc etc etc. All at 2am when I should have been sleeping. (Because of course, when else would inspiration strike?) 

With Saladmix's permission, Cory now has her own story living inside my head that I may write someday. But in the meantime, here's some details on her:

She was adopted as a young girl, roughly age 2-3. Her adoptive dad was a dhole mutant, a humble man, and a hard worker. Made an honest living and did everything in his power to raise Cory well. It was just the two of them, and they were very close. She considered him her real dad, being with him for as long as she could remember.

She worked as a mechanic in her dad's auto shop in New York City. She had displayed an interest in her dad's work from a young age and he willingly taught her. She became quite skilled in working on vehicles and knowing how to repair them. 

Because of her auto repair knowledge, she was taken into the group she is a part of when we meet her in the story. Despite not agreeing with their actions, she joined this group fairly early in the apocalypse. It's more out of necessity for survival rather than desire.

She had a passion for geology and was saving up to go to school to study it. She had a big collection of rocks, minerals and fossils in her room, her most treasured one being the aventurine quartz.

When she was younger, her dad wouldn't let her bring an entire bucket of fancy-looking rocks home but allowed her to pick one "special" one to remember the day by. She kept that tradition ever since, always ensuring to bring home a special rock from each adventure. Every. Single. Time.

Her favourite colour was green- close second being blue- as it reminded her of nature. A lot of her spare time was spent in Central Park, or outside of the city to go hiking.

She was part of her high school's track and field team, even if she would have preferred other extracurricular activities. She made the top record in the Triple Jump at a track and field meet in her freshman year, beating it again in her sophomore year and has been undefeated since. Some claimed she was cheating since her species is known for their nimbleness and leaping, but the school board accepted it nonetheless.

She was an unfortunate target for bullies during her younger years. They would often pull on her long tail and call her Zoboomafoo or King Julian, mocking her with "Move it move it". Lame insults (because bullies are lame and always go for the cheap shots). But she became self-conscious and when she was anxious, she always held onto her tail to protect herself and feel less vulnerable.

I've got more, but will save that for if/when I actually write her story! Let me know if that's something anyone would be interested in reading?

[that-punk-adam]

Maybe it’s because I’m job hunting again, maybe it’s because I just got offered an unlivable/poverty wage, or maybe because it’s 2025 and I’ve watched the price of every single item a consumer could ever purchase absolutely sky rocket over my short life, but I am just so livid.

Rent is high. Trying to find housing that’s not insanely priced is impossible. Having the bare basic bills are expensive bc they’re high. The US basically requiring you to have a license and invest in a vehicle (+gas +insurance +maintenance) because “public servants” refuse to invest into the public by giving them dirt cheap (or free) wide spread, on time, clean and safe public transit that pays people real living wages is horrific. Credit is stupid as fuck and so are background checks.

Life in the USA is set up so that you have to spend money on every single resource that would probably otherwise be available to you if we lived in human and community centric designed cities. Everything from the public to the private has to be bought out and sold back to you in one way or another- and you’ll most likely fall for it bc others around you are falling for it too. It’s not even their fault.

I think people are just now ready for a change. I don’t think that they’re ready for such foreign and exotic concepts like living without money and continuing (or starting) education and projects in things that will help yourself/humanity live better and healthier lives along with nature, but they are ready for a change. What I think Americans are ready for is a change to happen in the system that wouldn’t/won’t move them from the comfort of what position they have in current day society. The only issue is that demanding and seeing change demands that you do, act, and say things that you wouldn’t normally. That, or that they don’t know how to start because there is no pre installed system existing for them to jump into. I don’t blame them, jumping into something when you weren’t raised to do so is intimidating.

We have to make a new way. We have to break rules, because we know that they’re unfair and in the favors of the people with all the resources. We have to come together and say “XYZ is bs and we’re not going to do this anymore”. It has to start local. It has to start small. It has to come from the materials and minds of the community members that actually give a shit. It has to be shared and expressed to others that haven’t even thought about getting together to end the madness in some way.

The only way that we’re ever going to see change at this rate is from ourselves. No more sitting on our asses and begging to higher ups for things we all know we aren’t going to get. Abusers cannot be rehabilitated. Take control of your life and see that these people have no control over yours. See the damage they are doing to the people and world around you and take action now.

[penvisions]

return the favor {chapter 11}

Pairing: Joel Miller x Reader 

Summary: Things get complicated when Henry reveals his true intentions and explains the plan he has for getting out of the city.

Word Count: 5.4k

Warnings: ptsd, mentions of past SA (not detailed), canon typical violence

ao3 link || series masterlist || main masterlist 

“Welcome to Killa City.”

The sun was shining, having risen an hour or so ago. The city was large, stretching further than you can see on the horizon. There was movement in only one small pocket of the expansive gathering of buildings, stores, homes, businesses all long abandoned. That would've been a good thing...if the building you were in wasn't smack in the middle of all the movement. You watched as a rather large vehicle drove out of the controlled zone of movement, two more following behind. The QZ boarder was easy to spot, the gate and barricades large even from this high up. Though the area inside the perimeter yielded various controlled fires that caused plumes of dark, thick smoke that rose to the sky. You swallowed hard, not wanting to know what was being burned.

“No FEDRA.”

“Not as of ten days ago, no.”

“We always heard KC FEDRA was-“

“Monsters? Savages?” Henry turned to pin Joel with a serious stare, there was no telling the horrors he had been witness to and experienced at their hands while living on the QZ here. Especially with someone so young dependent on him that could be used as a way to manipulate him. Beside him, the older man had his arms crossed over his chest, flannel looking so green in the light coming from the giant windows. “Yeah, you heard right.”

“Raped-“

There was a rather loud clatter as the can you had just pulled out of your pack fell onto the table and then rolled off its surface and to the floor. The two men whipped around at the noise, thinking something may have alerted you, further down the room at the table Ellie and Sam were talking too animatedly to notice the commotion. Joel’s expression turned soft as he watched the way your hands shook, though he couldn’t see your expression with your back to him. He held up hand in a vague ‘excuse me’ motion and moved away from Henry and over to you, his focus solely on you.

The young man watched as Joel called your name softly, walking around to your left side. He picked the can up off the ground where it had come to a stop after rolling and placed it on the table in front of you, by your pack where you had intended to put it beside the first one. You didn’t immediately turn to look at him, though he could see your lips move as you said something under your breath.

Henry tore his gaze away, feeling as if he was looking in on something he wasn’t meant to see. It was too soft a side to the older man that he had witnessed take out a whole crew of people just yesterday. Soft demeanor meant only for you and for Ellie. Too soft and vulnerable a moment for you as someone who had done the exact same. He had done his best to avert his first attempt at sneaking up on you all last night when he had found Ellie fast asleep alone in the living room. But it made sense in way now that he’s talked to everyone a little, figured out the dynamic a bit with small tells and clues. Ellie was the main concern, anything else that happened because of maintaining her safety and spending time together to ensure that goal.

His words obviously triggered something in you that he didn’t really want to dwell on. The world was harsh, everyone having their own traumas that snuck up and took over them sometimes. But he was glad you all had each other to help when things got overwhelming. Companionship is so rare a connection in this day and age. Something that he was mildly jealous of as he heard Joel’s boots move back toward him.

“She-“

“She’s fine. Don’t worry about her.” Joel’s tone left no room for further conversation on the matter. You were off limits, Henry gathered that much. He hadn’t known what he was going to say regardless, though he did make a mental note watch his words a little better. He glanced at the man back beside him, arms crossed and a more focused expression on his face. Apparently you were already on edge due to the state of the city and being up higher to get decent view wasn’t sitting well with you.

“Okay…well, FEDRA tortured and murdered people for twenty years.” Joel was watching him as he spoke, so he turned to face him, both of them trying to come to an understanding with each other, trust each other enough to get everyone in the room to safety with as least issues as possible. “And you know what happens when you do that to people?”

“The moment they get a chance…”

“They take back what’s theirs.” You sidled up to them, having given each Ellie and Sam a can of food for breakfast, it was the last two you had but the children didn’t need to know that. They just needed to know that they had food for the day and that’s all that mattered.

“They do it right back to you.” Henry agreed.

“But you’re not FEDRA.” Joel pointed out, that still didn’t explain why Henry was the focus of the city-wide manhunt. Why a young man with a kid brother was on the run in an already tense situation. Why they had been so on edge to catch you in the truck yesterday. The young man took a deep breath and hoped his next words didn’t alter the shaky ground that all three of you stood on. You were more understanding, from what he can gauge from interactions so far, but Joel….Joel wouldn’t like the next words out of his mouth.

“No…worse.” His eyes flicked from you to Joel. Maintaining eye contact, he spoke the truth, hoping that that at least gained him some points with the older man despite the weight his words held. “I’m a collaborator.”

Joel’s expression fell, his mouth open slightly in disbelief. He hadn’t known what was about to be said but it certainly wasn’t that. But it would explain how he hadn’t been forced to interact with dangerous people up until the city fell. He had FEDRA protecting him and Sam, protection in exchange for selling his fellow QZ inhabitants out. In another city, in another setting, Joel would’ve rocked him, taken him out with the knife holstered on his hip. He was sure you would’ve done much the same if the sharp inhalation of breath you had taken was any indication.

Collaborators made it hard to keep up with the demand and need of ‘illegal’ items and supplies. Which sometimes was the only good part of people’s days. So much medicine had been taken from those who had rightfully found it both within and outside of parameters, so much more than just medicine. He shook his head slowly and uncrossed his arms as he took a step back from the young man. “I don’t work with rats.”

“Yeah, you fucking do.” Joel fidgeted on his feet, wavering but not stepping away beyond the initial one he had taken back. His hands hung by his sides, fists clenching and unclenching in that tell tale sign of his anxiety that you doubted he even realized he had. Henry was facing you both straight on now, wavering slightly on his feet as well though his tone was bordering on forceful. “Today you do. ‘Cause I live here and you don’t. That’s how I followed you. She picked up on it the later it got, but even so, I know this city and I’m gonna help you get out.”

“Why help us?” Joel narrowed his eyes at the young man, needing to understand why he was so adamant, so persistent to the point of waking you all up at gun point to exchange words.

“I saw what you did…what you both did. The way you killed those men. Now, I know where to go but I don’t know how to make it through alive, not if it’s just me and Sam.” He turned away from your combined gazes, taking a breath. There was something else he wasn’t sharing, something that would surely make you not want to work with him. You narrowed your eyes, taking in the way his demeanor was changing. He was getting desperate, his voice taking on a more forceful tone with every word, every thought he had.

“You seem capable enough.” Joel deflected. He didn’t like the idea of being this person’s bodyguard if he didn’t need to be. He didn’t want to be affiliated with him for a second longer than he needed to be and he was confident you felt much the same way. Ellie was his main concern, you were second. You two were what was important, adding anything or anyone else onto that would make it a lot harder to extract yourselves from the restless city. Especially if that someone had been so willing to sell out others before, patterns like that were hard to break when the deal seemed so sweet. “You’re armed.”

“You’re wrong and wrong.” He shook his head, his eyes taking on a frantic edge as he realized this may not pan out the way he wanted it to, needed it to. “Never killed anyone. And pointing an unloaded gun at you was the closest I’ve ever come to being violent.”

Anger flared hot in your chest as his words settled in the air. Your body shifted as you realized what he so stupidly admitted to you, the absurdity of him thinking it would make you work with him. The fear that had been on Ellie’s face last night and the subsequent panic you had had to push down to make sure she was calm had you moving the second the words were out of his mouth. The sight of the gun aimed at a sleeping Joel made your fingers twitch as you brushed passed the man in two long strides, shoulders knocking into his upper arm as you did so to grasp the back of Henry’s neck with one hand and pull his arms back behind him in a tight grip with the other. You shoved him up against the table, forcing him to double over, his head thumped with the force of movement, a shuddering gasp punched from his chest.

The room fell silent, the kids on the other end of the table halting in their enjoyment of what qualified as breakfast. Joel was too stunned by the explosion of movement to do much other than see where this was going. You had easily overpowered the taller man, though Joel was gathering that you would’ve been able to do that even without the adrenaline of the situation coursing through your veins. He genuinely doubted you would hurt Henry, but he wasn’t too happy with the kid himself right now. Maybe a little fear was what the boy needed to realize just how badly he had gambled last night and that every action had consequences.

“You saw two people kill an entire group of men for wrecking their truck full of supplies and targeting them the second they set foot in the city and you thought it would be a good idea to corner them? You can point a gun at me, and you can point a gun at him. We can handle ourselves as you gracefully keep pointing out, but you pointed a gun at a child! Do you have any idea the trauma you inflicted yesterday? And all just to get us to play nice with each other?” You kicked his legs apart, leaning over his shoulder to snarl in his ear. “With a fucking unloaded gun? You’ve got a lotta fuckin’ nerve, child!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t know how else to approach you!” His voice was high, panic making him lose what little control he had thought he had over the situation. He quickly realized he had never had control of the situation, even from the second he had decided to follow your trio. He had expected Joel to be the one he had to worry about the most, the protective man in charge of two younger females, his family.

But you were the one pinning him down with a crushing grip. You were the one snarling threats in his ear in a barely contained manner.

“Maybe without pointing guns around! They aren’t toys! Guns kill people, they kill innocent, good people all the time! I’ll be damned if Ellie becomes another!”

“Even if it had been loaded, I wouldn’t have shot her! She’s important to you both and I need you two on my side, even if it’s just for today.”

“She’s important because she’s a fucking person, not because she’s under someone’s care!”

“You’re right! I misspoke. She’s important. She is important, I didn’t mean to offend.”

“Fuckin’ collaborator. You have no right. People are people, not pawns in the screwed-up game of chess that FEDRA and the Fireflies are playing all across this damn wasteland. You only see your brother as a person, that’s the whole goal of the move you made to follow us. You’re right, you do need us. Because you are weak, do you hear me? You are weak for playing along with them the way you have. You may not have killed anyone but there is blood on your hands.”

“Holy shit,” Ellie wasn’t sure what had been spoken but the conviction behind your words was enough to have her standing up from where she had been sitting. Her eyes glued to your face as your words ripped into Henry. Your voice was low, tongue sharp with the words you had ushered. He had gone limp under your hands, letting you push him further into the table with some of your words to emphasize them, just taking the retaliation for his heedless actions. Henry just nodded his head, not daring to move in any other way, the motion making his jacket collar hush across the top of the table. The sound of him sniffling back tears became clear as the seconds ticked on.

Sam slammed his hands on the top of the table to get your attention. You kept your grip and pressure on Henry but looked over to where he stood beside Ellie. He signed fast, hist hands trembling slightly with his emotions.

“He was just trying to protect me.”

“If you ever pull another weapon on me or my people again-

“I won’t! I won’t! I swear to you!”

Without another word, you pushed yourself from the young man. Your steps were silent as you walked over to your pack and snatched it from the table. Your fingers were sore from gripping Henry so tight, your knuckles cracked when you closed your hands over the straps, making Ellie jump on the other side of the room. You slung it over your shoulders and walked out of the conference room, needing to get some space from everything for a second. Everyone watched as you moved across the room, not daring to say anything in the wake of your outburst. Once you were out of the room, the door closing behind you, Sam ran over to Henry’s side.

“Um, okay?” Ellie wasn’t sure if she should follow after you through the door or leave you be. She looked to Joel for guidance, but the man wasn’t too sure himself. He lifted one of his shoulders in a shrug, letting her know as much. They hadn’t ever seen you act in such a way, but truth be told you weren’t one to mince words with those who needed to be taken out. You were precise in movements and words when he came to dealing with conflict. This was different, this was…a new side of you they hadn’t yet seen. Joel’s heart was beating so hard in his chest it nearly hurt, you had just revealed that you were so much more like him than he had initially thought.

“You both finish your meal.” Joel looked from Ellie to Sam, by Henry’s side. The younger man had moved to kneel on the ground, one hand resting on the top of the table to help him maintain his balance. He was half-heartedly signing with Sam, hands shaking slightly. A look of defeat on his features as wasn’t sure how everything would proceed from here. “You need the nutrients.”

Ellie moved to dig around in her pack, Henry having gently pushed Sam back in her direction. When her fingers grasped on what she was looking for, she brandished her second volume of Will Livingston at the younger boy. He smiled hesitantly at her before glancing back at his brother, wanting things to go back to how they had been just minutes before. Ellie held out a hand for him and at a fervent nod from Henry, he took it, closing the gap between them and settling back into his chair.

Henry stood and moved to face Joel once again. He wasn’t sure what could even be said in the wake of that, so he just waited for the older man to break the tense silence. Positive anything he would have to say would be taken out of context at this point. Giggles erupted from the other end of the table. The awkward moment having been more fleeting for the younger members of the group. A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth, his heart feeling full despite what just happened as he turned to see Sam and Ellie with their heads close together, trying to take bites out of their food even as laughter rung in the air.

“Haven’t heard that in a long time.”

Joel just shook his head, his thoughts going a mile a minute. The sight of the two children stirring old protective instincts overriding his sense of judgement toward the situation. The truth of the matter was that they needed to get out of the city, the sooner the better. The easier the better. And Henry had the knowledge to make it easier, what did it matter anyway? They would part ways the second they were out of the limits. Joel heaved a sigh, his body fidgeting as the adrenaline drained out of him. He turned to face Henry, his mind made up. You had been right last night, the best course of action was working with them to get out of the city. Hands coming to rest on his hips, his mind made up. You had agreed to let him lead, and he was going to do just that.

“So how are we gettin’ out?”

-

Ellie peered into the last door in the hallway, having had no luck locating you in all the others. The floor was split into two conference rooms, an old tech room, and a bank of both men and women restrooms.

She found you staring into the broken mirror in the women’s bathroom. Your fingers were pale where they gripped the edge of one of the sinks, nails white with the pressure. There were fresh drips of blood from your nose that had fallen to splatter on in the sink basin. She called you softly, her shoes scuffing along debris that was scattered about. She had half a mind to see if the lockers along one wall had anything in them but she kept her eyes trained on you.

You closed your eyes as she approached.

“I didn’t mean to make you feel weak, but he needed to be put in his place.”

“I don’t think you made me look weak.” Her tone was firm, she didn’t have any qualms about what you had just done. She knew you and Joel had your reasons for things, and that had been no different. She had been worried last night, the laid out glass having not worked despite reassurances that it would. But if someone was traveling with a child that was hard of hearing, of course they would be extra cautious of sound, of having to be careful not to make too much. The glass would’ve worked on anyone else, the situation would’ve been different if you and Joel hadn’t both fallen into deep sleep, tired from the tumultuous day, the bad day. “I think…we all did the best considering the circumstances.”

“I don’t want people thinking just because you’re younger and smaller that they can use that against you, use it to their advantage. You are capable, despite emotions that run high in the face of a threat.”

You weren’t sure if you were saying the words solely for Ellie’s benefit or if you were saying them as a reassurance to yourself.

“I know.” One of her hands came to rest atop yours. Her smaller fingers dug underneath yours and pried them free of the grip on the sink. You followed her silent request and loosened your other hand and turned to face her. You watched her look over you, sure the bruises around your nose looked something awful. Her next words made warmth blossom in your chest. “You’re teaching me that.”

“I want you to be able to read people, but it’s so terribly hard sometimes. I want you to survive, Ellie.”

She closed the small gap between you at the look of pure desperation on your features. Her arms coming up around your ribs as she buried her blotchy face in the front of your hoodie. “I want us to survive, okay?”

You wrapped your arms around her shoulders, bringing her closer to you, resting your chin on the crown of her head. You just nodded, your own face feeling hot.

-

You stepped back into the room without a word, sidling up next to Joel as he stood at the head of the long table closest to the door. He had high left hand on braced on his hip, his right resting on the table as he leaned over slightly to better see the paper Henry had placed on the top of it. He was standing on the other side of the table, the corner separating you all. You pulled Ellie to stand between you, the motion not going unnoticed. You just nodded at Joel, signaling that you were more collected after stepping away.

You nodded over at Henry as well, the young man doing so back. You turned your gaze to take in the crude map that had been drawn on the paper, lines intersecting each other with highway numbers marking what they were. Beside you, Ellie did the same. Feeling a little giddy at being a part of the discussion of what happened next. You and Joel had mostly kept things reigned between you two, having the knowledge to make decision that were best for your little trio so far. But she felt…valuable as you included her in this particular discussion, and that Joel seemed to agree with you that her opinions and feelings important on the matters at hand.

“This whole area belongs to Kathleen.”

“She’s in charge?” Ellie asked, curious.

“Leader of the resistance.” He looked back down at the paper, using the pencil to point to the points where the lines intersected each other. “You can see the way we’re bounded by highways. They got people posted all around the inside perimeter. If we get close, we get caught. No question.”

“That’s a smart move on her part. Control of a set area, no one in or out without her knowledge.”

“So how do we get across?” Henry posed as he turned to look at Sam further down the table, by where you all had been standing before the scuffle. The boy was busy with his writing tool, doodling on it to pass the time while everyone else discussed the situation. Henry tapped his palm on the table top three times to get his attention, the boy looking up as the vibrations traveled down to him. He repeated his question in signs, prompting Sam to erase what he had been working on to quickly write something with his left hand. You glanced at Joel, taking in the way he was focused, the concentration furrowing his brow and making him purse his full lips slightly. His eyes cut to you for the barest second.

When Sam held up his writing tool, it only had one word on it.

TUNNELS.

Henry snapped his fingers, making you jump slightly at the unexpected sound. Your hand had gone to Ellie’s shoulder, prepared to grab the red zip up she had on and use it to pull her body behind you, the other going to the colt in its holster. He looked as if he was about to say something but thought better of it at the way you had startled.

“Kansas City has a subway?” Joel hadn’t thought they did. It was a major city, sure, but not one that warranted an underground public transport system.

“No, but they do have maintenance tunnels. There’s a bunch of buildings all put up by the same developers. And they share these tunnels, including a bank building here.” He marked the spot on his simple map, Ellie looking down to focus on it with a serious look. His voice was taking on that energetic manner once again, confident as he shared the knowledge he had. “So we enter the tunnels here, travel underground and pop up here. Westside North. Residential.”

He moved to draw a curved line on the corner closest to that intersection. When he did another it resembled a crude river, he drew a line that went through the ‘river’, a bridge. “There’s an embankment on the other side of the houses. We head down, pedestrian bridge over the river…free as a bird.”

“You’re right. It’s a great plan.” He looked to you and then Ellie between you two. “So what do you need us for?”

Henry looked over at you, taking a breath to steady himself. You made him nervous now, more so than before.

“You noticed anything strange about this city?” His eyes danced between all three of you. “I mean, other than the strange shit you’ve already seen?”

“It’s like you said yesterday,” Ellie motioned to you. “No Infected.”

“Oh, there’s Infected.” For a split second the thought that Kathleen had somehow corralled them all to use in her takeover of the city sparked real fear in you. “Just not on the surface. FEDRA drove them underground fifteen years ago and never let them come back up. It’s the only good thing those fascist motherfuckers ever did.”

“So you want us goin’ into a tunnel?” The disbelief in his voice was obvious. Tunnels were already a risky idea, but tunnel full of infected? That was a death wish. Joel was starting to think this kid was more trouble than he was worth.

“Everyone thinks that it’s full of Infected, including Kathleen, which means that we’re not gonna be running in to any of her people.” Henry was waving a hand around, trying to express that this was still the best way, the easiest way. He smiled down at Ellie, hoping that it was comforting in some way before he looked back to Joel. “But you see, what I know is, that it’s empty.”

“You’ve been down there?”

“No.” His face fell. “But the FEDRA guy that I worked with told me that it’s clean, completely clean. They cleared it out. All of it.”

“When?” Ellie asked, nearly cutting the young man off. There was a small shake of her head, she wanted to believe him, but it was hard to, he had painted such a tantalizing escape route just to bathe it in uncertainty a second later. She was also picking up on the contained hostility and disbelief from both you and Joel beside her. You were both tense, muscles urging you to get as far away from this plan and place despite the near desperation that Henry was displaying as he tried to convince you to listen to him.

“Like…three years ago.”

Joel scoffed, head shaking back and forth as he leaned both hands down on the table, his shoulders hunched over. He shared an exasperated look with Ellie, then a concerned one with you over her head.

“Okay, maybe, there’s one or two, but you handle it.”

“No.” Henry looked to you, his heart rate picking up at your denial. Your expression was hard, eyes watching him, making him feel like he was on trial. “Let me get this straight. You want me to take it on faith that a FEDRA officer assured you years ago that the tunnels were clear. And if they aren’t, which let me remind you that fungus thrives in underground environments, you want me to take care of any Infected that still run rampant?”

Joel turned to Henry with a similar look. “It’s not a matter if there’s more, it’s how many more.”

“Or one of those blind ones that sees like a bat?” Ellie’s tone mimicked yours and Joel’s, her trust in the man across from her faltering as his plan suddenly didn’t sound so easy anymore.

“Wait, you…you ran into a Clicker?”

“Two of ‘em.” She corrected him, though it had the opposite effect she had hoped for.

“Got a scar from one of them, myself.” You supplied, needing Henry to understand the severity of what he was asking you. It didn’t matter how competent someone was or how skilled someone was. Tangling with the Infected, on any scale was risky, was not something everyone came out from alive.

“And you’re all still alive?”

“Alive doesn’t mean shit when it was pure luck and circumstance that scraped you out of a bad situation.”

“Still. You see? You’re the right people.” He had the nerve to look like he just won a few points in the argument, his expression self-assured as his eyebrows rose. “If it gets bad down there, we turn around and run right back out the same way we came.”

“Oh, that’s your great plan?”

“No, that’s my dicey-as-fuck plan.” He had an attitude about him now, not worried about showing his true colors as you had shown yours. You and Joel were poking holes in every word he said, making him feel incompetent and he wasn’t a fan of it. He was getting angry, he was getting upset that none of you were even willing to hear him out. You were all skilled, he wasn’t, he didn’t understand why it seemed like such a big deal if you had the weapons, if you had the skill set, the drive. “But as far as I can tell it’s our only shot.”

Joel straightened up, standing with one of his legs a step in front of the other as he tried not to close the gap between him and Henry and smack some sense into him. His hands were on his waist, eyes locked with the younger mans and they stared each other down.

Sam was the one that broke the tension, banging his tiny fist on the table twice to get everyone’s attention.

“What are they saying?”

“They’re saying, they’re going to help us escape.” He spoked before anyone else could, signing crisply as he faced Sam. You narrowed your eyes at him. Not liking the way he was trying to take control of the conversation. Acting as if his word was law because he had the knowledge. You could see Joel’s jaw twitching as he held back his own heated words on the matter.

You patted the table with an open palm once, bringing both hands up in front of you. Palms facing up you mimicked the movement of a see-saw, signing ‘maybe’ toward the young boy. He nodded before going back to his drawing.

“Do not speak to him.” Henry snapped at you, not liking that you undermined him directly in front of Sam.

“Do not speak for me.” You fired back. You pointed at Joel, making the man feel as if he was in the spotlight. You leaned over your other hand on the table, closing the distance between you and Henry a little to get him to really pay attention to you. “I don’t know where your nerve is coming from, but I’ll be damned if you use me as a way to gauge how much control you have in this situation. You may think that this is a plan, whether that be good or bad, but it’s not. It’s desperate. It’s risky. And if we do this, you have got to start fucking listening to reason and heed what that man says, you got it?”

Henry let out a deep breath, swallowing some of his pride as he watched the way you kept your eyes trained on him. He felt his heart beating fast, his fingers tingling at the focus in your gaze. He had never encountered someone who was simultaneously frustratingly strong headed, defensively combatant, and undeniably appealing as a result of that in his life. He nodded his head once, a flush rising to his cheeks, though it was barely visible on his dark skin. He felt his stomach twist when you turned your gaze to Joel, softening almost immediately.

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[inky-snowdrop]

Love Is Love

A 2023 L.G.B.T+ Aesthetic Collection

Day 15 • Rachel Amber is Bisexual!

Day 14 • Day 16

👇🏽 Pride Headcanons Below! 👇🏽

💗•💜•💙

Rachel has dated both men and women in the past canonically (more men overall), but I headcanon that she has preference towards women. She just... feels more comfortable around women. Also, unfortunately, Rachel falls into that bisexual stereotype of not being entirely faithful to her partner (who was Chloe at the time). Granted, it was more emotional cheating then physical cheating (except for a few kisses she shared with Nathan whilst they were both high), but... it happened and it kinda pissed Chloe off and made their relationship more strained

Dating Rachel Amber would be a chaotic and exciting affair. Be prepared to wake up at 3 in the morning to crash the local gas station, steal a few candy bars and/or instant coffees, and find an abandoned building to sit on it's roof and watch the stars fade into a sunrise. And then the next day it's cave exploring on the beach and the day after that it's breaking into Blackwell at night to go skinny dipping in the pool. She would keep you on your toes 24/7.

Rachel fucked around with Nathan Prescott for a bit during her freshman year of high school and then again when she was a senior. At first, it was a friendship turned tentative romance brought on by a mutual interest in the arts, then it got broken off during their sophomore year. But by their senior year, the teenagers were brought back together by the clawing desire to have someone who fucking UNDERSTANDS what it's like to have a father that's let you down and who is never going to change. The drugs made the connection stronger, even as many of Rachel's other connections discouraged the relationship. It wasn't an unhealthy romance, but it was obvious that something was gonna give eventually. A relationship built on suffering was never meant to last...

Rachel started officially dating Chloe in her sophomore year. Chloe was Rachel's rock, keeping her from flying to close to the sun, and Rachel was Chloe's angel, keeping her aloft even as the world crashed down around her. Rachel and Chloe would hang out in American Rust every single day, talking about everything from favorite bands to shitty home lives. Chloe's truck was where they talked, but occasionally they'd chill in the boat as well. Chloe also got into the habit of carrying a gun with her after the incident with Damon. Rachel and Chloe did take that lumber train all the way up to Seattle one time, sauntering through the city as they walked into every furniture store and pretended to pick out furniture for their apartment and twelve dogs. Dinner would be shitty subs that they ate on the train, holding hands as the trees zoomed by and guitar music played between them...

...but Chloe wasn't enough for Rachel. You see, Rachel needed to be free and Chloe was too stuck in her suffering to even consider a future with Rachel. Sure, in time Chloe could get there, but Rachel wanted that future NOW. Which is why she gravitated back to Nathan, because his family and wealth could be her ticket out of Arcadia Bay (and also because she related to him a bit too much). If only he could grow a pair and cut ties with his shitty fucking parents, but nope. He, too, was not enough for Rachel. Frank had a vehicle, he could get her places in a heartbeat... But he was volatile, too dependent upon drugs to give a shit about this reality. He was content in Arcadia Bay, just like Chloe and just like Nathan... But Rachel FUCKING WASN'T. She needed to get out Get Out GET OUT and be free... And unfortunately that's when Mark Jefferson stepped into the picture...

If Rachel had to pick a song to describe her sexuality, she'd pick: Sugar, We're Goin Down by Fall Out Boy

💗•💜•💙

[mpregandproud]

Isaac (Part 5)

We had already been on the road for three hours. We were halfway between Sandra's town and the city where Isaac and I were living and where I moved to when I started college. I had made that drive thousands of times in those four-plus years and it had never felt as long as it did that day. I was tense, I sensed that something bad had happened. I was worried about Sandra, of course, but one question kept hovering over me: would my children be okay?

Since we rushed out of the house, I kept rubbing my belly. It was as if my body was asking me to protect the three lives I was carrying inside me. I was telling them that they would be safe with me, that nothing would happen to them. Could I really guarantee their safety? Would I really be able to give them a good life? A whirlwind of questions and doubts flooded my head, and Isaac's hand.

He was driving the car, but he practically never let go of my left hand. I barely told him that the call was from St. George's Hospital, where Sandra was supposed to deliver. I was told that something had happened with her and that I should report to the hospital immediately. Isaac's reaction was instantaneous, he set about packing two travel bags with clean clothes and some necessities. In 10 minutes he had everything packed for him and me as well while I wandered around the house with a blank stare and my hands on my belly. Isaac called the university where he was teaching to ask for a few days off so he could come with me. He knew very well that my insecurity and anxiety, even though they seemed to have been overcome, were still there, and that he was one of the few things that put my life in order.

We arrived after two in the afternoon. We asked at reception for Sandra Díaz and were taken to a large meeting room. There the hospital director, the head of maternity and a couple of lawyers introduced themselves. I knew one of the lawyers, he was a friend of Sandra's, I had dinner with him several times while I was married to her. That whole scene only made me even more tense, until James, the hospital's lawyer, began to speak.

"Mr. Norris, thank you for coming so quickly. I imagine the gentleman with you is your current partner, your ex-wife's lawyer has brought us up to date. I'm sorry to have to give you this news, but considering your pregnancy, we felt it best not to tell you anything until you were here. Three days ago, Sandra, your ex-wife, went into labor and it was her mother, Linda, who brought her here. Unfortunately, on their way to the hospital they were hit by another hit-and-run vehicle. Linda died and Sandra was badly injured. She was immediately transferred to this hospital and we performed a cesarean section to try to save the babies. The boy did not survive, but the girl is safe and sound, being cared for by the nurses. Sandra, she clung to life for a few more hours, until she passed away early this morning," the lawyer said coldly. Isaac gripped my hand tighter than ever, and draped his other arm over my shoulder supporting me. I needed something to give me stability at that moment. I needed Isaac. The four people in front of me offered their condolences and regretted what had happened.

After a brief pause, Ernest, Sandra's lawyer and friend, spoke. "I'm very sorry we have to meet under these circumstances, Dan. Sandra hasn't stopped talking about you these last few weeks since she came back to town. For her, leaving you, was the biggest mistake of her life. She admired you, and she admired what you had built with Isaac. She wanted you to be a part of her children's lives, she wanted them to know a man as good and caring as you. Now, sadly, that little girl will never get to meet her mother. How unfair life is”. Ernest found it hard to say those words, he was very fond of Sandra. Once she told me that when they studied together at the village high school they were like sweethearts. "The thing is that the only family Sandra had left was her mother, and she died in the accident. Before she passed away we presented her with different solutions and she was clear from the very first moment that she would like you, the girl's father, to take care of her. One of her last wishes was for you and Isaac to be the parents of the little girl. I know it's all very hasty but we should settle this matter today, otherwise the child would go to social services," Ernest said. "Think about it, Mr. Norris, talk it over with your partner and let us know in a few hours what you want to do," the hospital director added. "If you want to see the girl you can ask one of our nurses to accompany you to the maternity service to see her," the head of that department added.

The four of them left, Ernest being the only one who came over to give me a hug. We both burst into tears at that moment. He already had a partner and a baby girl, I had already divorced Sandra and was expecting triplets with Isaac, but neither of us had forgotten her. He smiled and said goodbye to me, shook Isaac's hand and walked out of the room to leave us alone. I turned and before I even started crying again Isaac wrapped his strong arms around me. I soaked his shirt with my tears, but he didn't let go of me at any point, nor did he make any pretense of trying to stop my crying. He let me cry until I had completely let it all out. And after that, when I had hardly any tears left to shed, he grabbed both my hands, smiled at me, looked at my lips and kissed me. "I want you to know that I love you and that I will support you 100% in whatever decision you make," he said.

We asked a nurse to accompany us to the maternity ward. There in a crib was the little girl. She looked just like me, except for her eyes, which resembled Sandra's. I was seeing a little cross between me and my ex-wife, I couldn't believe it. It was the most beautiful and exciting thing I had ever seen in my life. I took the baby girl in my arms and rested her on top of my belly. I spent long minutes cradling that precious little girl in my arms, while Isaac fiddled with her tiny hands. She was perfect, precious, beautiful... she was my daughter. Isaac knew from the moment I saw her that I wanted to take her with me. I don't know if it was pregnancy hormones or my parenting instincts, but I couldn't conceive of my daughter being raised by other people. "We'll have to prepare her room at home, buy her a beautiful crib, toys and lots of clothes. And name her," Isaac told me, without needing to ask me if I wanted to take her. "Her name will be Sandra," is all I told him.

We met again in the afternoon with the committee and processed all the paperwork. Little Sandra already had a father, and in the same paperwork, Isaac legally adopted her. Her mother would not be able to take care of her, but her father would be with her all her life.

For the next two days we were in the hospital. The nurses taught us several tricks to give her a bottle, too bad my breast is still not able to give her milk. We learned how to change diapers. We learned how to be parents in an express way. Looking at the situation, it will be good for us to practice with Sandra for when the triplets arrive.

My pregnancy, as you can imagine, was the center of attention during those days. Isaac took the tightest clothes he had around the house, so much so that part of my belly had to be worn up in the air at times. I was four and a half months pregnant with triplets, my belly was unmistakably pregnant. The head of maternity offered to reveal the sex of the babies we were expecting. I was tested and was pregnant with a girl and two boys. The tests were all in order, except for the weight, which was too much for this stage of pregnancy, although it was nothing alarming, at least medically speaking, my clothes did not agree.

When we left the hospital I asked Isaac for the most complicated favor. "Honey, I want to stop in my village on the way back to our house. I want to talk to my parents and introduce you and little Sandra, my family. I think I'm finally ready to take this step."

Go to Part 6

[miloscat]

[Review] Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies (Wii)

A cool and hip sequel.

With my TV setup all repaired, it was time to revisit this mini-series of Treasure rail shooters. Released nine years and two console generations after the first game, the visual and technical prowess on display have had a huge boost and there's more control options, but the plot doesn't make any more sense!

The year: irrelevant. In fact the only link back to the original seems to be that the star is Isa, the son of Airon and Saki, who can also transform into a kaiju thanks to the cursed blood inherited from his father. Since I have a proper translated manual this time I was able to get some background... oh wait, nothing in the story blurb really comes up in the game... in fact, I would say it just raises further questions! The plot of the game itself starts in medias res and never really slows down to explain what's going on. Suffice it to say you play as a pair of anime tween supersoldiers who are on the run from various interdimensional factions of superpowered biomonsters and have to blast everything in sight. That's all you really need to know.

Accompanying Isa is Kachi, a defected alien double agent hard light hologram in human form... or something. You can choose to play as either of them; Kachi has a sort of auto-lock on aim assist and a multi-lock charge shot, while Isa has an explosive charge shot. I opted for Kachi and had a grand time on Easy mode, finding it plenty challenging enough (very nice to have the option!). You spend the entire time in Japan but with sci-fi trappings, fighting through ruined cities, deserts, underwater tunnels, a yokai dreamscape, a militarised volcanic Mt Fuji, and finally a cosmic boss rush where each boss gets new forms.

Much like the first game, it's a genre-hybrid rail shooter/gallery shooter/platformer, only the platforming is much reduced. You can still technically run along the ground but the pathetic jump might as well not exist, and both characters can at any time float anywhere on screen (Isa has a back-mounted hover sphere, Kachi a hoverboard), and their mobility is further augmented by a dodge move. Staying on the ground does get you a point bonus for whatever that's worth; the game is always prompting you to upload your scores to the now-defunct online leaderboards. But despite allowing for hardcore score-chasing and high-difficulty challenges I like that it remains accessible: there's still a stage select, and lives have been abolished as you can now freely retry from checkpoints at the cost of a score reset.

The stages are always full of action, the 16:9 widescreen display flooded with enemies to blast at, your multiplier filling up as you prioritise between chunkier mechs, vehicles, or creatures or the floods of creatures and soldiers, in every moment deciding between rapid fire, charging your lock on, or the melee attack for up-close big damage or reflecting projectiles. I rarely felt overwhelmed though as the action is communicated and paced well, and the game's solid and consistent 60fps framerate both helps keep things clear and is impressive on a technical level. Each level is long, with multiple miniboss fight setpieces strung through them with the shifting perspective keeping things fresh. If there's one criticism I have it's the occasional use of bullet hell-like patterns during boss fights because in these moments where it's most important, I wasn't clear on what my character's precise hitbox was. But the melee attack and dodge can help to get you through these waves of projectiles so you don't have to be a total movement wizard.

Multiple control schemes are on offer: the Wii pointer style works well for a shooter like this and all the functions are bound sensibly. I preferred using this for the level of control you have over your cursor, although it's hard on the wrist in long sessions. When my cat happened to be sleeping on my lap and I couldn't use cushions to help prop up my pointer hand, I switched over to Classic Controller mode which worked fine too. It's certainly a more straightforward scheme than the N64 controls of the first game even despite having new functions, thanks to dual-analogue being the new standard.

I'm very pleased with how much this game built on the foundation of its predecessor. The brief seems to have been to constantly have something cool happening, and it certainly succeeds at that. The battles that you get in the middle of make the world feel alive and dangerous, and the shapeshifting boss characters give a nice sci-fi feel. The character models don't have the distinctive pinched marionette look of the first game; rather, there's an attempt at realism mixed with large anime eyes and prepubescent proportions for the protagonists that I don't think works as well, despite the upgrade to voice acting and mocap. Still, it's a brilliant sequel in most ways, an exciting action thrill ride with good options and an amusingly careless approach to coherent story.

[dismightyman]

I finally have the time so imma drop some Vice stats cause she deserves it (this is gonna be long I’m sorry)

She’s 5’9 and honestly a little bitter about it cause her whole family was like 6’4 and above

Not many scars as most of the time she’s behind the wheel or in the air

Which doesn’t mean she can’t absolutely destroy someone when she wants too, she just doesn’t get the opportunity as often as the other Taskforce members

She prefers to be on the ground in a vehicle to flying. She’s an okay pilot but is truly a wizard behind the wheel.

She has a very dry sense of humor, so occasionally in the middle of an op you might hear her make a comment about the weather or talk about what’s happening like it’s rush hour in a busy city and not an active war zone.

She is very ride or die, the minute she feels like she’s found her forever home in the taskforce she is down to fuck shit up for any member of her team, zero hesitation.

Her love language is definitely giving gifts lol as soon as she feels like she’s been accepted into the taskforce she’s constantly giving people things, nothing crazy. But she’ll start carrying specific bands of cigarettes for the smokers, she’ll grab food from the mess and bring it to people just so they don’t have to walk all the way there. She’ll have Hair ties for the people with longer hair just in case they need it. It’s her version of showing she cares, that she’s thinking of them.

Her grandfather was a bit of a figiter so he taught her how to use scrap and bend metal and make little things to pass the time, eventually she got really good at making origami with really thin sheets of scrap. After a bad mission those will end up in the hands of her team too, tho not as open as the cigarettes. It’s too close to home for her to acknowledge our load but the team knows it’s her.

And now the origins lol

Growing up her dad was a criminal who helped move “product” for whoever had the cash for it and her mom was not in the picture.

So she lived with her grandfather most of the time. He was an old Vietnam veteran pilot (which is where the teeth came from lol) and taught her everything she knows about machines, inside and out. He was all she had most of the time and loved him to pieces. Her sense of humor, her wit, almost everything she was, was based around him. She did everything he did, fixed cars, flew the frankly death trap of a helo that he managed to get a hold of and fix up. Even did a little boonies racing with the boys when she was old enough.

Occasionally her dad would make appearances, a few weeks at a time and before she knew any better he had passed on some of his “magic” as he called it. Slight of hand, how to make something “Disappear”, how to add some special pockets to things. She started carrying her dads brand of cigarettes in her pockets-

(Lucky strikes. He always thought that was funny. “A little extra luck never hurt anybody” he’d say with a grin.)

-Hoping every time she could maybe get him to stick around a little longer if she was useful. When that didn’t work she’d pack around more things. His favorite whisky, gum, you name it. He’d just pat her on the head and keep moving to greener pastures.

It wasn’t until after he got caught up in the scene and was killed that she saw that “magic” for what is was. He was trying to teach her to be just like him, to take up the “family” business. It disgusted her but she realized this skill was all she really had left of her dad and she could never break the habit. Always kept a pack of Luckies on her, just in case.

Just before she graduated high school her grandfather passed away, it was his time but still it was devastating. He was her everything and now she had no one. So in an effort to keep his memory close and find some semblance of community she joined the army.

She kinda floated for a while, making some friends here and there but not really finding the family she craved. For the most part she kept her skills to her self. The driving and her “magic”. Didn’t want to stand out, to make herself different from the people she’d gotten used to. Sometime in the middle of all that her squad mates noticed her penchant for making things disappear and reappear. It was almost muscle memory for her at that point, she didn’t even realize she was doing it.

One night, they were out on patrol when one of her squad was mentioning wanting a drink and out of nowhere Vice produced a little shooter. Everyone was flabbergasted, eventually someone made a joke about what else she had and suddenly a pack of cigarettes, a can of chew, and two more shooters appeared. After that they’d just ask her what’s on the menu when they wanted something.

Thus Vice was born.

(that’s kinda all I’ve come up with lol I’m not sure how she joins the taskforce so I’ll have to think on that but here’s a deep dive on my girl)

[meruli]

Aikatsu! 10th STORY: STARWAY to the Future

My (mock) exams are finally over, so I guess it's about time I finally watch this

1

Well better get it done before 10 pm if you don't want to break any labour laws

Without a performance as well!

I was about to say this too lmao

It's funny how their tour includes domes and stadiums (which could hold like, at least 40000 people), but also a livehouse with a capacity of 750 people (Aichi Bottom Line, which they're referencing with TOPLINE), and a hall with a capacity of 3000 people (Tokyo Dome City Hall/TDC Hall, aka what they're referencing with Tokyo Dream Center Hall). What inconsistent capacities for the tour.

(I'm so down the underground idol rabbit hole that I can recognize these venues from these parodies. Help me)

Graduation season. aka the nightmare of any idol fan

Only took 10 years and the death of Aikatsu to bring about that

She's saying this as if her year in America didn't happen

She looks like she's in the Parade artstyle for one sec and it's so jarring

They're trying their hardest to showcase character growth, but unlike the writers, I remember Ichigo's year in the US, so I'd say starting from then

THEY REMEMBERED??

Two seasons of drama episodes down the drain

The fact that they could get the original CGI back for this really makes you question what stopped them from doing this for Parade

They're trying their best to showcase character growth, but the amount of inconsistencies really shows that it's been almost a decade since the writers've really touched on these characters

2

Kinda surprised they put Angel Snow in when they stopped performing Tanaka Hidekazu's songs live after he became a sex offender

I'm not an artist, but is it really that hard to draw vehicles? Why does literally every anime I've seen use cgi for the cars

Already?

Raichi invented the Aikatsu equivalent of Uber Eats??

This is just like how I do my best to avoid talking about school every time I'm on holiday

Drunk Yurika is too good

This movie takes place before 2022??

DRUNK YURIKA IS TOO GOOD

3

Mizuki (and Sakura) are at their gradcon even tho they aren't even graduating. Also I don't think Mizuki has ever had high school education

Man, how I wish the mastering on their version of Signalize got as much money as the performance

Like, half of the choreography for Travel Ribbon is just them running around the stage

THEY REANIMATED SO MANY OLD SCENES

It's over... that's it for Aikatsu I guess. This movie really shows what they could've done but never did. This feels like it's right from 2015 in a good way. Also this would've destroyed me if I hadn't witnessed Aikatsu destroying themselves for years.

[saanphoenix]

I have a story to tell. The conclusion has not yet happened, but it's some funny shit.

So, Monday night at 8p, I dropped my car off at a person's private shop in the town I used to live in. It was showing symptoms of a cracked head gasket and also--because I checked oil as well--had very little oil in it. I had bought product to address these issues from the AutoZone I had parked behind when my engine started "idling violently", as I would put it, whenever I was stopped at a light. However, I didn't use them because this person had told me to drop it off at his shop so he could check it in the morning.

My car was not there in the morning, at 6:30a. What was there was a 1999 Ford Expedition with the keys still in the ignition. And so the son of the shop owner took pictures of said vehicle, including tags, to send to his father all, "Who dis?" They did not know who dat was. They did, however incorrectly, think that I knew who it was. And that that person had come to collect my car.

Shortly thereafter, the Expedition vanished as well, presumably reacquired by the fucker who stole my car.

"Did you leave the keys--" In the car for the shop owner to be able to use them come morn? Yes. There were other cars on the lot that had keys in them, as well. I guess mine just looked cooler.

We're informed that my car is gone at 1p. We rush to that town's police department and file a report. Yada yada. And because I am able to give the police the fucker's tags, I get to overhear the man's name for whom the Expedition is registered to. I tell everyone I know, as well as give them pictures of his and my vehicle, while the police go to two separate houses the man is associated with and also suspect another guy he knows that runs a "shady car business" in the town over.

Because my car had a potentially fucked head gasket and practically no oil in it--my oil light don't work good, leave me alone--we suspect it DID NOT go far, and drive towards the town of the "shady car business" as well as another town...which my father discovered was where Criminal was trying to sell...the Ford Expedition...he was driving around committing crimes in. Alas, my car was not on the side of the road.

The following day, Wednesday, a former coworker texts me and says he saw the Expedition. Gave me the location where it was driving around--a stone's throw from where the shop they stole mine from is--and gave me a vague physical description of who was driving. White guy with a beard and a woman, both of whom "look pretty rough."

I already know from the cops that Criminal is a meth head. I don't need to wonder why they look rough. And I also don't need to wonder too hard about why they stole my car. The people I know who've been on meth, for some unknown reason to my drug-free ass, loved to steal anything they thought was worth something. And hoard those things. Until they thought the cops couldn't find them. And then they'd sell those things to, shocker, get more meth.

Anyway, having been told where the vehicle was hanging around, I surmise that these fuckers either live very near the shop my car was stolen from, or their drug dealer does, and that my car's chances of still being in that town are very high.

Because these meth heads are really fucking stupid. I may leave my keys in my car for a shopkeep, but I don't leave my vehicle at the scene of the crime I have just committed in broad daylight. And I certainly don't return for that vehicle, which is sitting on private property, and assume that no one has noticed it being there. Or taken pictures of it and its tags.

👍

But I also don't steal cars FROM AN AUTO SHOP, WHERE VEHICLES GO TO GET REPAIRED, AND EXPECT TO MAKE IT VERY FAR IN THEM.

👍👍👍👍

Thursday! At this point, I have a small army of coworkers and our store's vendors BOLO-ing my car with precise instructions to immediately call the police if they see a BRIGHT ORANGE Grand Am GT anywhere. There is exactly one of those in the city it was lost in. (Again, brilliant choice by the thieves.) And I go to a used car lot, and then the bank, to try and purchase a very pretty blue 2018 Hyundai Elantra. I shall have it on Monday.

Thursday night, the shop owner informs us that...Genius Criminal is STILL trying to sell/trade his Ford Expedition. The one that they used while stealing my car. And left at a crime scene for more than an hour. And I have a very sneaking suspicion that the police did, in fact, read the email I sent them showing the Buy, Sell, or Trade ad for said vehicle under the guy's name. Because shop owner didn't know about it. But the police did. And they got with the shop owner to do a sting operation to offer to meet this guy and "trade" him a car...while they follow him. Today. Friday.

So, yeah. That's how my week has gone. Hopefully they find my car and it's in one piece. Regardless, Criminal is about to have a bad time. And alls I can say is: Don't steal from me. If I'd gotten that Elantra yesterday, I would have found that fucker before the cops did. Hell, I went on Google Maps a bit last night for the road the Expedition was seen on to see if I could find it parked in a driveway.

I have a particular set of fucking skills, mate. One of them is hyperfocus, and you have my attention, boy.

[katsigian]

15, 21, 36, 68 😏

And to be a dork, 44 🤭

Thank you, peach 😚 p.s. I am so sorry these took forever to answer; they got lost within my 400+ drafts and slipped my mind 😞

15. What is their preferred vehicle or transportation of choice?

Valen owns a Herrera Outlaw GTS if we're talking in-game cars. It's solid black, slightly matte, and purrs. He loves that car, keeps it in very good condition. But if it were possible in some miraculous way for him to have a car from (sort of) our time period, it would be a 1969 Chevy Camaro Z28 Coupe in a shiny black.

21. Do they have any favorite spots around NC?

He likes Charter Hill; it's where he lives and spends a lot of his downtime. He knows the good coffee places and restaurants and clubs. Has a nice, high-rise apartment/penthouse there. But he also really likes Vista del Rey and Japantown. Vista feels like a second home because Vega, Noel, and Hart are there and he knows the cool, hidden gems. Same with Japantown - Vesper and Fawn are there and he knows plenty of small, delicious restaurants and cafes. Knows all of the markets and shopping areas. Plus he likes how colorful it is there. If he wants to go to a swanky club, he chooses Dark Matter over any others.

36. Who is their biggest enemy?

That's a tough one because Valen's quite careful about who he makes connections with, even adversarial or disagreeable ones. If he can avoid being attached in too many places, he will. According to him, even hate is an attachment. That being said, there's a few names on his Shit List. His dad is one of them; Callen was a terrible person and even more terrible father. Following his canon, Valen ends up killing him when Callen comes to find his son again after almost 10 years of no contact. Callen is nearly as big a threat as Valen, and Valen's about the only one that can end him.

He also continually has run-ins with gangs in the city - Maelstrom and 6th Street, mostly - and he gleefully takes the opportunity to rip them a new one whenever he's got the chance. Valen absolutely despises anyone who finds enjoyment in harming others, or worse yet, making money off senseless murder for spare parts. So whenever he's done leaving a trail of bodies and body parts, both organic and machine, he tends to feel a bit of satisfaction. And to clarify, he knows full well that killing a killer and enjoying it doesn't make him a saint, but he does it anyway because who else? Better that someone like him do it, he can handle having someone like Maelstrom be his enemy - he's not scared of them and it's not like they'll ever find him; he's far too good at what he does for that to ever happen.

44. Would your character ever get married?

Of course he does 🤭 He gets married to a gorgeous, bubbly, happy, sweet little ray of sunshine that knows all the ways to make him laugh and for whom he is the softest and sweetest thing.

68. In what outfit do they feel sexiest? how do they dress to impress?

It's a toss up between absolutely nothing at all and an outfit with leather. As in, a slinky, halfway unbuttoned shirt and some tight pants and some ankle boots. The shirt would be some kind of silk that clings and the pants would sit low. I'm having a hard time describing so here's a picture that's similar to what's in my head.

[nickgerlich]

Five Hours Or Less

People have laughed at Jeff Bezos for about as long as he has been in business with Amazon. When he launched Prime in 2005, people scoffed about why we might need something in two days. When he started talking about drones in 2013, people laughed even harder, and some people threatened to shoot them down from the sky.



Prime is still with us and going strong, and drones are starting to take off. But not everything can be carried by them, necessitating ground transportation, which Amazon also wants to happen faster and faster. Remember last week when we discussed Target’s sortation facilities to facilitate faster order fulfillment? Now Amazon has responded by increasing its sub-same-day delivery (SSD) to include 100,000 items. The goal is to never let more than five hours elapse between order placement, order picking, and order delivery, all within a 60-minute radius of a distribution center.



Not bad, once you factor in urban traffic, because SSD is only going to happen—for now, at least—in the nation’s largest cities. Think one million and up.



Amazon already has in place, or is planning to build, special smaller order fulfillment centers that only handle SSD orders. The sprawling million or more square feet DCs we see in industrial sectors along freeways and near airports will remain, but for all of the other things that Amazon sells. Basically, the new smaller warehouses will almost be like a convenience store equivalent.

Of course, there are some issues, like whether extra charges may be incurred by customers. After all, getting something delivered in a few hours comes at a price for the company. Walmart has already made such promises with its Walmart+ option. And then there is the thorny issue that many of the workers making this all happen are actually in the gig economy. This means they are not employees of the online vendor, and thus do not receive benefits. Individual states could weigh in on this in a crushing kind of way. I’m looking at you, California, as is everyone else, because you’ve already made noises about doing so.

I am most interested in the product selection that will comprise the 100,000 SKU assortment. It will have to be those items that are most frequently purchased, and typically with a current—and sometimes pressing—need. But these items are typically on the lower end of the price spectrum, and therefore don’t leave a whole lot of room for hefty margins. Volume could make up for that, but you have to actually get that volume first.

As for those gig workers, they will likely be driving personal vehicles instead of shiny new Amazon EV delivery vans. I’ve seen them before. They have a magnetic sign on their door, and they zoom around suburbia as fast as possible, because their paycheck is dependent upon their own ability to maintain delivery volume.



Then we have to think about a society that has become so busy and/or enamored of rapid delivery of everything. Are we really that busy? Or lazy, as some might say? Maybe I have it too good, with a Walmart and a United Supermarket both within a couple of minutes of my parking space. That’s pretty convenient for me, and I get what I want right now. Of course, it may mean I have to delay my workout by 15-30 minutes that day, but so be it.

And never mind that I will never be able to take advantage of SSD anyway, because of living outside a major urban area. Sorry, Amarillo and Canyon peeps: this will never happen here. You’ll have to move to Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, or Houston. And I suspect you would appreciate it greatly, because you won’t have to venture out into the never-ending traffic.

Now that I think about it, I’m rather happy that I don’t need SSD. I’ve got pretty much everything I need at my fingertips. Anything else can wait two days, just like I have been doing since Prime was introduced.

And don’t worry about drones out here on the High Plains. The way the wind was blowing two days ago makes that kind of thing a losing proposition. 

I think we’d all be having the last laugh on Mr. Bezos.

I mean, unless he could harness an 80mph wind to his advantage.

Dr “Dust Gets In Your Eyes“ Gerlich

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