#about seeing pics of my old trash

[pandora-writes-one-piece]

The Meet Cute - Ace's Story - 4

Source for pic

Firestarter 4

Word Count: 6856

Tags For The Whole Story: Fem!Reader, slight NSFW (It's mature, not explicit), slightly sugestive behaviour, flirting, jealousy, frenemies, sexual tension, miscommunication, unresolved tension, slight angst, slow-burn, romantic comedy vibes, alternate universe modern setting, swearing, drinking, fluff, feelings realisation, denial of feelings.

Special Warning: English is not my first language, I apologise for any possible spelling or grammar mistakes.

Summary: After moving away from the hustle and bustle of Grand Line City to help your father around the property following a horse-riding accident - and in the hopes of healing your broken heart after your asshole ex-fiancé cheated - you settle into the country calmness of the Calm Belt. You intended to have some alone time, to reflect and heal, but your childhood friend's older brother, Ace, seems to be there just to upset that fragile peace you're striving for. He's a flirt and a womaniser. But why does he also have to be so handsome and perfect? And how long can you resist his charms?

Notes: And so the angst begins! If you wish to be added to a tag list, say so! Thank you!

Tag List: @rosidaze

Masterlist for previous introductory chapters.

|Previous Chapter| | |Next Chapter|

Saturday comes and it’s very uneventful. Your father says he's got some plans with his friend Mihawk and you use the free time to clean up the rest of your room - there were still a lot of trophies and books from when you were a child, but now it finally resembles a grown-up room. 

Your initial plans for the afternoon included a marathon of trash TV and plopping down on the couch like a parasite, maybe even gobbling up some junk food. But it's such a nice day outside that you decide to do some sunbathing. 

And you do. You dress in a simple red two-piece bikini and lather sunscreen on your body before heading outside armed with your headphones, a book and a towel. The backyard has a little wooden deck with two sun chairs and a small pool. The pool is closed but you're not really interested in it. So you get your little setup and sigh in relaxation. You never had moments like these in the city. Ichiji liked the fancy parties and clubs, there was barely any time the both of you spent together like this. 

In retrospect, you should've seen the end of the relationship coming. You barely had anything else to give each other. It was only a matter of time. 

You cosy up on the chair and stretch. It feels really nice. 

The view of the property is relaxing and the only house you can see in the proximity is Mr. Garp’s. The houses are only separated by a small path and you can see the windows perfectly well. You know which one was Luffy’s old room, you have been there a bunch of times, but you don't quite know which one is Ace's. 

You try to guess based on the knowledge you have of the inside of the house. It's either the one to the right of Luffy’s, or it's the one that faces the side of the house. 

A small smile creeps its way to your lips as you remember your time together at the firestation. Being with Ace felt really natural. You didn't have to force any conversation, he made you laugh and, damn, the chemistry. The sexual tension was crazy. 

But there is only a slight problem. You aren't looking to be just another one. You are no longer in that phase of your life when you're just looking for fun. You want something actually meaningful. And Ace is not meant for meaningful relationships. He isn't capable of it. 

You exchanged some texts with Nami last night saying that you had fun and she had probed you so hard that you caved and admitted you feel very attracted to Ace. But then you probed her, and every assumption you had about him was correct. He is a player and leaves behind him a long trail of broken hearts. He's all about the chase and the conquest. Once he gets the kiss, the girl, the fuck… It's over. 

And you refuse to be just that. 

The afternoon rolls by lazily and you have already rolled over on your back and on your front, just like a happy kitten. Until you see a movement in Ace's house. 

It’s him. 

You were right, his room is next to Luffy’s. He stands in front of the window - shirtless - and unaware that you are there, apparently, since he’s staring somewhere else, his signature cheeky grin in place, and you smile. Damn, he’s cute. 

Off-limits, player, just a crush! 

Can he see you? Could he be tempted to join you in the sun? 

Immediately your head starts to create interesting scenarios for both of you to play out. 

Ace arriving with his cocky smirk and telling you that you look gorgeous. 

Ace setting a knee in the middle of your legs to pry them open as his hand cradles your neck to pull your face up. 

His other hand clutching your hip for dear life. His tongue licking the sweat from your body, from your belly to your chest. 

The hottest kiss you could ever dream of, eliciting all kinds of choked noises and mewls from your mouth. 

You take a deep breath and fan your hat over your face. Maybe it's time to get out of the sun? You're getting pretty hot! 

You gather your book and start to get up when you take another look at Ace's window. And then instantly freeze and regret having looked at all. 

There is a young brunette girl in front of the window, grinning while she closes the curtains. 

Your breath catches for an instant. And then the dread in your stomach spreads its icy tendrils up to your heart. 

It's nothing short of a surprise. It's what he does. His modus operandi. But the realisation still stings. Just last night he told you that he's always thinking about you. Your mind told you, at that moment, that it was a line he used on every girl, yet, your heart thought differently. 

But today, not even 24 hours later, he has a girl in his room. 

You refuse to cry. Even if the tears are more of frustration and about how gullible you are, more than anything else. 

Yet, you should've known. You were warned. 

-*-

Ace keeps sending you texts asking how you are and if you want to hang out. You keep leaving him unread. You're still pretty pissed at him, even though you know you have no right to be. He's not your anything. 

Then you get another text. It's Nami this time, so you open it.  

You miss Luffy! Ace told you he also works at the firestation, but since he no longer lives with his grandfather, you still haven’t gotten the chance to hang out with him. You’ll definitely go to this party. Even if you’re sure to run into Ace and whatever girl he’s with right now…

This triggers Nami, so she instantly calls you. 

“What are you talking about?”

“Forget it, Nami. It's nothing new. I just saw him through the window of his room with some girl.” You force out a laugh. “Nami, it's just a silly attraction. Nothing else. I just think he's really hot!”

“Babe, if you keep thinking about him I think you should just ride that cowboy… Scratch that itch… You get my drift? Take it out of your head and then that's it!”

“You sound ridiculous.”

“Yet no wiser words have ever been spoken.”

“Maybe, but I'm not interested in being just another notch under his belt. I'd much rather be just a friend.” You reiterate. 

“From what I hear, I’d say it's your loss!” She chuckles. “But you're still coming to the party, right?”

“Yes, obviously.” You agree with a chuckle. 

“And if Ace's there with his bimbo?”

“Good riddance to both. I just want to be friends with him, anyway.”

You can almost hear the eye roll on the other end. But to her credit, she doesn't say anything. 

“Deal. We'll meet at your house to get ready. It's closer. I'll tell Robin.”

You agree and after hanging up, there's still a small smile pressed upon your lips. Nami is a friend and she makes you happy. Ace is also a friend. You shouldn't be mad at him. 

Therefore, you open his texts and finally answer him, claiming to have been busy. Forgetting all about the brunette bimbo and simply focusing on your friendship. 

Just like Nami, he gets tired of texting and calls you. 

“Hey gorgeous. I thought you were ghosting me.”

You lie back on the bed and roll your eyes. “Don't call me gorgeous. And I could never ghost you. I've just been busy.”

“Yeah, I get it. I've had a busy day as well.” He chuckles and the cold in your stomach spreads. 

“I bet…” You mumble. 

Friends! Friends! Friends! 

“I can't call you princess and I can't call you gorgeous, what do you want me to call you then?”

Why is his chuckle so damn sexy over the phone? 

“My name, genius! What else?”

“I'll get back to you about that.” Another chuckle. “Have you heard about my little brother’s party?”

“Nami is my friend, how could I not?” You chuckle. 

“Right, right. Are you going?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Me too, obviously.”

Then he proceeds to tell you about the busy day he had helping his grandfather with some affairs at the house and about some paperwork he still had to do from this week's occurrences at the firestation and you tell him about your day. 

He doesn't mention the brunette. And neither do you. 

Somehow, the time goes by and you end up talking with Ace for almost two hours straight. Just like you were musing earlier, he's so easy to talk with. So natural, so fun. 

Shanks knocks lightly on the door and pokes his head inside. “Bug? Dinner's ready.”

You rise immediately, sitting on the bed with wide eyes. Dinner already? You didn't even realise it was already dinner time, and you had meant to cook it. Shanks must have realised that you were taking too long on the phone and did it himself. 

“Oh! Right. I'll be right down, dad. Ace I've got to go. Talk to you tomorrow, bye.”

Shanks bites his cheek, his brows scrunched. It looks as if he wants to say something, but he's considering that it's not his place to do so. So he smiles at you and begins to walk downstairs to the kitchen and you follow. 

The first minutes of the meal are spent in silence until you start telling him about your day. Then, abruptly he talks. 

“Bug… Is your relationship with Ace advancing?”

The fork stops midway to your mouth and you feel your cheeks burn. 

“I know it's not really my place. You are an adult and I was not a present father in your life. Believe me, I regret it most days. Maybe if I had tried a little harder, you and your mother could still be together and you'd have grown up with me. Maybe I had more right to butt into your business. But I worry… and… well…”

“Dad, Ace and I are just friends. Nothing else. He's really easy to talk with and we have a lot of the same interests. He's fun. But that's it. Don't worry.”

You can almost see the relief in Shanks’ face. And you almost feel bad about the way Ace really makes you feel. Because your father's worry is not at all misplaced. Ace is dangerous for impressionable hearts. 

“Friends? Okay, okay. That's good.”

You just have to make sure your heart is not impressionable and that friends are all you and he will ever be. That's all you want to be. 

-*-

The next morning passes by pretty fast as you help your dad with the chores and get the horses and the ponies ready for the Summer Jubilee. Shanks is going to have a horse riding station, mostly for the kids, but sometimes adults like to join too. 

“How's your back, dad?”

“I'm managing. I'm still taking the pills.” 

“Don't overdo it, alright? Are you sure you don't need me there to help you?” 

“No, baby, Beckman will be there to help me. You know he loves these horses. You go and have fun at your party.” 

Benn Beckman is one of your dad’s oldest friends. They used to play some sport together in school and they both never left town, so it’s a natural friendship, like yours with Nami and Robin. The festival only starts on Monday, but the vendors and concessionaires that will have their businesses at the fair are going to use Sunday to set up and you feel as if you should be helping your dad instead of going to a party. 

Shanks winks, and you laugh. “I will, dad.”

“Just not too much fun…” He grumbles, beneath his breath and you roll your eyes as you climb the stairs to take a bath and wait for the girls. 

-*-

“Ohhh, I've got the perfect dress for you!” Nami claps excitedly and you roll your eyes to the back of your head. 

“I have my own clothes, Nami! What is it with you and trying to get me into your clothes?”

“Funny, she always tries to get me out of them…” Vivi muses and you laugh out loud. 

“Honey, don't take this the wrong way. You're beautiful, but your clothes are a bit… plain… don't you want to dress to impress?” She winks. 

“Not really, no.”

“Too bad. This dress is perfect. Vivi and Robin already agreed and I won't take no for an answer. Ace will be blown away!”

You sigh and let Nami dress you up as if you were a barbie doll. There’s no use in fighting her, really. And you hate to admit it, but she does own some sexy clothes. And you do want to blow Ace away.

Though you’re having a hard time admitting it.

-*-

As you cross the tiny pathway to Mr. Garp’s house - turns out ‘at Luffy’s’ means there because Luffy’s flat is too small to fit his many, many friends - your heart starts to beat faster. You know Ace will be there. And you know there will be girls all over him. But you should also know that you can't be jealous, because you're nothing but a friend to him. 

And that's all you'll ever be. 

Still, you feel as if an army of tiny ants are crawling on your insides because everything is moving and squirming in there and you are actually quite nervous to meet him. You guys had a wonderful chat yesterday, but you also knew he had been with another girl before speaking with you. 

And Nami has already told you: Ace is a chaser. He likes the difficulty in seducing women - not that it's difficult for him, you bet. You need to keep repeating in your head: you don't want to be just another girl! 

Are you obsessing? 

Shaking your head, you try to steady your heels on the uneven path. Why did you listen to Nami? You tried to put on sneakers, but after she dressed you in the most shockingly slinky, short red dress with a draped cowl neckline and thin gold chain straps, she almost had a heart attack when she saw your feet. 

She screamed sacrilege and almost hit you in the head with the gold heels. You kept repeating that it was too much, but none of the girls listened to you. To be fair all of them look equally stunning and sexy, so you don't really feel that out of place. 

Still, it's hard to walk in these things and you're pretty sure you’ll be taking them off at one point or another as the party progresses.

As you pass the threshold of the front door, you get immediately overwhelmed by the sheer number of people. It smells like sweat, pot and booze, and the mixture makes you wrinkle your nose. 

“Who are all these people?” You ask Nami, screaming over the loud music. 

“Luffy has many friends!” She answers with a laugh. 

Right. He has many friends but they're definitely from out of town because you're pretty sure that he has more people inside this house than the entire population of your hometown. 

Robin wanders away saying she saw Sabo and she wants to say hi. Nami winks suspiciously at her and the raven-haired girl blushes and giggles. Then, Nami does a little crowd check and smiles. 

“Oh, I see my friend Lola. Will you be alright by yourself or do you wanna come?” She asks with concern and you nod vigorously. You are already seeing some familiar faces, and you won't mind mingling for a while. She smiles and saunters over with her girlfriend, also ready to mingle. 

Sighing, you set out to find a drink, first. You're in the right mood to get wasted after thinking about Ace sucking face with half of the pretty girls at this party! And free booze is just the right way to do it. Sanji is there and you take the cocktail he effortlessly makes for you with a big smile but you don't get to chat much as his drinks are in high demand and he excuses himself to go cater to another beautiful lady. 

You chuckle at his ways and take a sip of the drink he made for you. Perfect. 

You hear your name being shouted and turn around with wide eyes. It's Luffy. You hug him and he hugs back, introduces you to some of his many friends and both of you speak as if you never stopped talking at all. 

“I'm so glad you're back in town again! Ace can't stop talking about you!” He grins and you blush. 

“Right. I bet.”

But, even though you wouldn't mind knowing what Ace has to say about you, Luffy is also in high demand and gets summoned by a man with a long nose and curly black hair, who's smiling at him. Excusing himself, Luffy promises to find you again and you promise to hold him to that. 

You take another look around the room, trying to find old friends amidst the sea of new faces, but your eyes are immediately drawn to him. In all his shirtless glory, obviously. And, even more obvious is the way there's a brunette sticking to his side. An arm draped around his waist and dreamy eyes on her face. 

It figures. The party has just started and already Ace has chosen his catch of the day. Or maybe it's the catch from yesterday?

It irks you so much! Why does he have to be such a player? No, screw that! He can be a player all he wants, he just needs to stop giving you attention and making you feel special! He needs to back off! So you can move on! Geez, you look like a teenager with her first serious crush. 

Chugging the cocktail in one go, you cringe at the aftertaste and quickly ask Sanji to make you another one. You've made up your mind. You just need to avoid Ace all night. If he doesn't speak with you, there's no chance for him to enchant you with his deceiving words. There. You're a genius. 

With this happy resolution in mind and a new tasty cocktail in hand, you decide to leave this room. First step to avoiding Ace, don't be where he is. 

Swaying your hips to the beat of the song, you make your way to the backyard so you can breathe some fresh air and though there are many people outside, the open makes everything better and you inhale deeply. 

“Heeey beautiful.” A slurred voice echoes near your ear as a grimy hand moves your hair away from your shoulder, from behind. “Is that dress on sale? Because it's 100% off at my place!”

You cringe as you turn and slap the hand away from you. “First of all: eughhh! Secondly, don't touch me, creep.” The man looming near you smirks and licks his lips as his eyes rake your body from head to toe, drinking you in, and he further invades your space. 

“Come on,” he snorts and you realise he's clearly inebriated or high, or maybe both. “Dressing like that, what were you expecting?” He reaches and tries to touch you, but a large hand, coming from a presence behind you, wraps around his wrist and stops him. 

“Respect, obviously.” A low voice rumbles over your head as you turn your head around and meet the cold gaze of Ace, boring his dark eyes straight into the boy in front of you. Because in the face of Ace, he's nothing but a scared little boy. He steps in front of you and smirks. “Now apologise and beat it, before I kick you out of my house.” You're impressed with how he managed to speak such menacing words with a smile and still sound threatening. 

The boy mutters a hastened apology and escapes, tail between his legs. 

You face Ace with a frown still upon your lips. So much for avoiding him. Your plan failed and you're not a genius. You're actually an idiot. “Why do you insist on being my knight in shining armour? Especially since you're never wearing anything other than shorts!” You reply deadpan as you point at his naked torso. 

He's checking you out. His eyes linger suggestively on your exposed legs - Nami, once again, knew who she was dealing with when dressing you - and a cheeky smirk curves his cheeks upwards and makes his freckles dance just for you. “I know you like seeing my muscles.” He flexes and guffaws as you roll your eyes. 

“Yeah, me and all these young, impressionable college girls. Smooth, Ace.” You muffle a snort by taking another sip of the amazing cocktail and close your eyes in bliss. “Thank you, but I know how to defend myself from creeps. You can go now. I see a lot of lonely girls ogling you. I'm sure you have better things to do.” You mention suggestively. 

It still stings to know Ace is a player. And that you almost fell for his act. Because how can you not fall for the hot, freckled, funny and helpful fireman who compliments you and pays attention to you? Until you realise you're just another one. And you're not special nor ever were. Not to him, not to anyone. You're just… just… 

You. 

Sighing, you finish your drink in one gulp and turn inside to get another. Maybe this time you'll bring a bottle with you. 

“Woah, easy there, tiger. Don't chug your drinks like that. They taste sweet but they pack a mean punch! Sanji doesn't go light on the alcohol unless you specifically tell him to.”

You eye his drink and, honestly, don't even care what's in it. Locking eyes with him and burning him with your gaze, you snatch the red cup from his hand, ignoring his protests and warning words. “Well, boo-freaking-hoo!” With a mock toast gesture, you chug the whole thing in one gulp.

And regret it immediately.

You cough and wheeze, eyes brimming with tears as you try to breathe through your nose to calm the burn in your throat. Ace just stares at you and crosses his arms over his bare chest. The drink was nasty! It was like pure alcohol. 

“What the hell?” You sputter. 

“I told you, you couldn't handle it.”

“Shove off, Ace!” You drawl as you turn back inside in search of a bottle. God, this man infuriates you. He doesn't follow you inside and you don't care for the empty feeling that leaves in your stomach. You'll soon fill up that spot with some booze. 

Securing a bottle, you make your way back outside, expertly avoiding the place where Ace was, and start mingling with some old school friends. Time flies in an instant. Either that, or the vodka you snatched is really good, because suddenly everything seems to be spinning around you. 

You make up an excuse and try to find your way back inside, ready to find Nami and tell her this was a terrible idea and you are going to go home. But, instead, you take another chug of the bottle and wince. The numbness of the alcohol is quite refreshing, maybe a bit more won't hurt. 

But your steps are uneven and you keep bumping into people and apologising. Someone grabs you and pulls you into a dance and you can't quite tell if you know the person or not. It looks like he has spiky green hair and a loop for a nose ring. His teeth seem really sharp but that might be just the alcohol talking. He starts to get handsy because you're losing your balance, but soon, his hands go from your waist to your hips and try to get lower. 

Your brain clicks and you shove the man away but you are even dizzier from the dance and ready to fall or pass out until a strong pair of hands grabs your waist and sets you over his shoulder unceremoniously. 

Before you protest, you realise it's Ace just by the smell of him. That darn smokey wood and fresh pine! A freaking punch in the gut just as you were having fun. “Let go!” You slur into his back as you start to kick your feet in the air. 

“Stop it! Your dress is riding up! This thing is freaking short.” He hisses. 

“I don't care! Let go of me, Ace, I mean it!” You keep kicking and sure enough, your dress is almost exposing your butt, so you feel him pull the fabric down and settle his warm, big hand over the gap of your thighs and your butt so it doesn't ride up again. 

That action stops your squirming immediately. 

You start to take notice of your position: breasts are squished against his back and bare legs feeling all of the heat emanating from his chest. And his smell… God, his intoxicating smell is making your head spin. Or perhaps that’s from all the alcohol. 

Why is he with you? Shouldn't he be sucking face with some bimbo? 

You realise you still have the bottle in your hand, so you take another sip as Ace carries you up the stairs. You've been upstairs at Luffy’s house before. In his room, never in Ace's. Because that's definitely where he's taking you. So in with another sip. 

“Stop drinking!” He hisses again and sets you down at the top of the stairs. You stumble and hit your back against the wall with a low whine. At least you're steady now. 

Grinning, you raise the bottle, your eyes never leaving his harsh stare. “Make me.” You taunt and take another sip. Ace grunts as his hands tousle his dark hair. 

“You're infuriating.” 

“Hmm, hmm.” You chuckle. “As I thought. You're all bark and no bite.” You take a step to the side to descend the steps, aiming to get another bottle, or to find Nami, or leave. Whatever. Anything to get away from Ace's intoxicating presence. 

But the stairs move! Or the floor does. You're not certain. What you do know is that you're about to fall. 

But, obviously, you don't get to fall, because your knight is right there for you, holding your waist and pulling your body against his. Ace’s head nuzzles against the crook of your neck while his arm circles your waist, protectively. You feel pressure on your hips just as he digs his digits firmly against your flesh, his hip fixation driving you crazy once more as your toes curl. 

A gasp leaves your parted lips as he inhales your scent and then you moan softly as he exhales hot breath against your neck, trailing goosebumps with his lips and grunting near your ear. 

He lets go abruptly and wraps a hand around your wrist, tugging and pulling you towards his bedroom. Is this going to happen? Are you going to fall into his trap? 

Because you're drunk? 

Opening the door he throws you onto his bed with a growl and turns. You hear him breathing heavily but you can't do anything as everything is spinning around you and, even if you wanted to, you couldn't quite get up yet. 

After a moment you hear his feet shuffle as he turns back to you. “Sleep.” He approaches and snatches the bottle from your hand. “And enough of this.”

He turns to leave the room but you grab his wrist. Were you going for the bottle? Or was it really his wrist you meant to grab? 

“Stay.” You whisper against your will. 

You can almost hear his internal battle raging outside. You're drunk, and you know he doesn't want to take advantage. But you do. 

Do you? 

His jaw clenches and he sits by the foot of the bed, away from you, his face turned as he's assaulted by a grim look. 

You can't think too much about this or it will never happen. You're drunk. So you should just go with it. You're sure it'll feel good. It will help you process whatever it is you think you feel for him and then, finally, forget him. What did Nami say? 

Ride that cowboy, scratch that itch. 

Damn, riding him does sound good. Who cares about the dumb bimbos he has downstairs waiting for him? Who cares if he'll just find another girl to chase after you?

Sex sounds pretty damn appealing now. 

“So how does this work, exactly?” You start, getting on your knees and approaching his body, one hand caressing his naked shoulders and now he can't help but stare back at you. “You seduce the girl, or barely do anything because you have all that!” You point at his body with a snort. “And then after you've fucked her, you move on? It's like she never existed, nothing happened, just another notch under your belt?”

You ask while he keeps staring at you. You can't read anything in his dark eyes. His freckles seem lifeless, his smirk is gone and he doesn't seem amused at all. 

“Because if that's how it works, maybe we should have a go at it. You just fuck me and we both move on. Because I can't take this anymore, Ace.” Your voice is barely a whisper. You move closer and straddle his lap. Your dress rides up and you buckle your hips against him, feeling his hardness against your achy, needy core as he muffles a grunt against his pressed lips. His hands twitch as if he wants to grab you but they remain planted firmly against the bed. His eyes never leave yours, yet he remains silent. “I can't be this hung up on you anymore, Ace. So just get this over and done with, will you? So we can both move on.”

Tilting your head to the side and digging your nails into his scalp, you lean in for the kiss, ready to take his lips, his tongue, his hands and his dick. And then his rejection, his aloofness and the hurt of seeing him with someone else. 

That is the whole Ace package. 

But maybe that's what it takes to stop obsessing over him. 

Except you don't take anything because he stops you. Two strong hands on your shoulders push you back as his gaze falls down, facing your bodies where they are close. Would be connected, even, if not for the clothing between you. Ace is breathing heavily and you can feel the tension oozing out of him in hot waves. 

“Stop.” He says your name firmly. And you know a ‘no’ when you hear one. Even though this one hurts like hell. 

Nodding, it takes you a few turns to swallow the hard lump that formed in your throat. As you get off his lap and fix your dress, you notice that the world is spinning once again and this time it's almost unbearable. 

“It's not that I don't want you. Trust me.” He groans. “It's just… you're not even going to remember this conversation tomorrow, let alone be of sane mind to consent to sex.” He snorts and shakes his head. “When-... if we do this, I want you to remember all of it.”

You roll your eyes at him and scoff loudly. “I would rather forget.” You mumble and lie back, curling to the side and closing yourself off. As if you would like to remember the time when Ace used you and dumped you - if it happened. Forgetting is much easier than getting all of his attention. 

He sighs and gets up. Then he takes off your shoes and tells you to close your eyes and sleep. You close them, with a heavy heart and a heavier conscience. You do hope you don't remember this tomorrow. The way you threw yourself at him and the way he swiftly rejected you. 

Which one is worse, really? 

Covering your body with a blanket, he puts the trash can near the bed in case you need it later - you’ll probably need it. There’s a heaviness on top of your eyes, the beginnings of a throbbing headache, and a moment passes but Ace doesn't leave. His presence still fills the room, still fills you and makes your heart ache. But you don't open your eyes to acknowledge him - or your pain - and your breath starts to even out. 

You hear him sigh and sense him leaning above you, his head hovering near yours. “You would never be just another notch under my belt…” He murmurs and kisses your forehead gently before leaving you alone in his room.

-*-

You’re woken up either by the bright sun shining directly on your eyelids, or by the throbbing headache in your temples, you’re not quite sure.

Either way, your body says that it’s too early for this, and it’s too freaking hot. When it gets this hot, you usually lean against the wall on the side of your bed to absorb the coolness from the bricks. So you turn to the side and scoot over to mould yourself against the cool wall.

Except there’s no wall. 

And there’s no more bed.

So you fall with a soft yelp, dragging the blanket - which is rolled around your torso, arms and face, for some reason - and fall onto the hard floor.

Wait.

You fall, alright, but not onto the hard floor. It’s firm. And it’s a body. It’s grunting.

Huffing, you try to stand up but the blanket makes the job difficult and the room is still spinning from all the alcohol you ingested yesterday, so you sit, on top of the body, stradling the man below you, and trying - in vain! - to either get up or to get rid of the blanket, all the while muffling apologies for the minor ‘inconvenience’. 

In the middle of your desperate plight to escape your situation, you hear another low grunt and feel two strong hands grab your hips and pin you against his body, making it impossible to move.

“Stop. Squirming. Please.” 

It’s Ace. You stop immediately, your free hand grasping at the surface in front of you - his abs. Feeling your face burn up at the touch you realise the reality of your situation: You’re both on the floor, with you straddling him and fondling his perfect six-pack - maybe stop touching him! - and he’s very hard between your legs. 

“I-I’m sorry. It’s… the blanket…” You start, your face hidden by the thrice-damned blanket. Ace grunts again and you wince at the loss of contact when he removes one of his hands and rips the blanket off you with one swift motion. 

The pull disrupts your balance, and you dig your nails into his stomach - that’s sure to leave a mark - and tighten your legs around him to try and steady yourself. You know he doesn’t mean to, but Ace bucks his hips up with your squirming and you barely bite back a whine at the friction that creates in your core. 

“Fuck.” He mutters with a desperate exhale, lifting his torso up and facing you.

This is dangerous territory. And now you’re free, so you should get up. Why don’t you? 

Ace’s fingers grip your hips tighter. When did his hand return to your hip? You didn’t notice it, it’s like it belongs there. And why are you now grabbing his shoulders? His eyes are all pupil and he doesn’t blink while he drinks you in. You know you must be a mess. Hair all over the place, smudged makeup, dress straps off your shoulders… yet the look he’s giving you makes you feel like you’re the only girl that matters in the world. 

“Don’t do that…” You whisper. You want him to stop looking at you like that, to stop making you feel special and wanted, because you can’t take another heartbreak, and there’s no way that something you start with Ace won’t end in heartbreak. So you need to nip this in the bud even before it blooms. 

“Right.” His voice is hoarse and ragged as his hold tightens around your waist, lifting you with ease and setting you aside, removing himself from the situation. He grabs a discarded shirt from the back of his chair and leaves the room cursing and tousling his hair. 

You only meant for him to stop looking at you like that. You didn’t want him to leave completely. Right? Because now there’s a sudden emptiness inside and around you and you’re not quite sure how to be complete again. 

Sighing, you massage your temples with both hands. The tension between the two of you is becoming unbearable. Should he just fuck you and get it over with so you could each go your own way?

Why does this line of thought feel so familiar?

Lowering your head, you inhale and almost gag at the smell of your dress. At some point yesterday you must’ve spilled an entire drink on yourself, because it smells like the back alley of the town's dingiest tavern. 

You test your stability by slowly lifting yourself with the help of the bed, and it works. Then you look around and, sure enough, there’s a half-crumpled t-shirt lying on the chair, the same place he took the other one from. Grabbing it, you take a tentative sniff. It doesn’t smell bad. If anything, it smells like him.

It smells amazing.

Even though Ace closed the door when he left, you turn your back and quickly discard your dress. You curse when you realise you’re not wearing a bra because the dress didn’t allow for one, but you still pull the shirt over you. It falls to your thighs, almost at the same height as the dress.

“Hmm, hmm.” Ace’s grunt startles you and you turn swiftly to the door. Did he see you change? “Here.” He extends a glass of water and two pills. His eyes are locked on the ceiling and there’s a slight blush on his cheeks. He saw you.

You choose not to acknowledge the fact.

“Thanks.” You take the pills and almost inhale the glass of water because you’re so thirsty. Then you sigh in satisfaction and set the glass on his desk. “I took your shirt, I thought you wouldn’t mind… seeing as you barely wear them.”

That elicited a very small chuckle from him, but the curl of his lips didn’t even reach his freckles. 

“Do you remember anything from last night?” He asks, scratching the back of his neck.

“No. Not much. I think I remember you bringing me here, but then, nothing. I must’ve blacked out immediately, right?” You chuckle and miss the pained grimace on his face.

“Yeah, that was it.”

“Sorry for taking your bed and making you sleep on the floor.” He shrugs. “Sorry for falling on top of you… I thought I was in my room, you see, there’s usually a wall there and-...” You stop your wild gestures and chuckle. 

Why does this feel weird all of a sudden?

“I guess I should get going. Shanks might be worried.” You know your father will never say anything about you spending the night away or drinking, you’re no longer a kid, but he will still worry.

“I texted him last night to tell him you were alright and spending the night.”

You flush as your eyes meet his. “You told him just like that?” He nods and you groan. “Great, he’s going to think we have something.”

“Who would want that, right?” He sounds sarcastic.

“What’s your problem?”

“I don’t have a problem!” He grunts again and you somehow pick up on the fact that he’s angry at you, or frustrated at least. 

“Clearly you do!” Taking a step forward, you try to approach him with your hand extended, but he turns his face away from you with a ‘tsk’ and steps back. For some reason your heart sinks and you feel cold. 

“Got it. I’m the problem. I’ll get out of here, no worries.” Maybe he wanted to spend the night with some girl and you being in his bed got in the way of that? That had to be it. Why else would he be so upset?

Grabbing your shoes from the floor and your crumpled, smelly dress, you make your way to the door, brows knitted together and lips pursed. 

“I’m so sorry for getting in the way of your lay. Maybe you should’ve just dumped me in Luffy’s old room instead of your own. Then you would’ve been able to fuck whomever you wanted.”

You stomp past him and you don’t know why you have tears stinging in the back of your eyes. Might be because of the hangover? It has to be.

“So sorry for the inconvenience.” You shout before running down the hall, down the stairs and to your home.

[waffledforbreakfast]

Receiving Love Letters - [MUTI! BLLK X F!READER]

(SEPARATE) pt1

Staring: rin, sae, shidou, niko, kaiser

pt2: ness, otoya, karasu, Reo

[ BLLK Scenario Masterlist ]

TW: heavy ooc, bad grammar, bad spelling, bad formatting, cringe, scuff, etc.

>Rin

With(OUT) the help(OR JUDGMENT) of his brother, Rin finally made a letter back to you. Just ignore the 20 failed copies sitting in the trash-

You wouldn’t be able to tell he was panicking when he slipped the paper into your textbook, man was perfectly composed(??)

He carried on with his day as usual, the letter slowly leaving his mind. 

Until he saw anything that remotely reminded him of you, which was anything pretty really-

He tried not to cringe at himself as we waited to see if you’d make the next move

“[Y/N], I’ve liked you for ages, why did you wait so long before confessing? Whatever. Go out with me, I’ll take you around town and treat you well, I promise. All you have to do is accept, and I’ll take care of the rest. Be mine, please?- Rin 

He was slightly worried it wasn’t you who sent it, but he was 99% sure it was.

Now all he had to do was wait for you to answer

It was at lunch when he had finally ran into you, since you two didn’t share any classes in the morning

You ran up to him with a hug, accepting his offer in the letter

He smiled, before giving you a quick kiss on the lips

He’d never been happier. Rin gave you a tight hug, almost suffocating you, still not letting go <3

>Shidou

Shidou didn’t bother making you a letter

Instead, he ran up to you first thing the next day, and tackle you (affectionately) with a hug

“[Y/N] I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU PLEASE BE MY GIRLFRINED :DD”

In front of the whole school. You better pretend that you aren’t socially anxious because lord someone’s gotta save you-

Luckily it was pretty early in the morning, so there weren’t many people around. And those that were learnt to automatically ignore anything Shidou screams.

He wouldn’t stop asking, and only shut up once you agreed ;2;

You were supposed to study after school, but Shidou said you guys are going out, and it really wasn’t a choice :3 

But he did actually let you do your homework first

He just sat beside you, silently pouting but not verbally complaining, but patiently waiting

He helped you clean up and then took you out :D 

You would complain, but it was actually pretty fun :D (I hope-)

>Sae

Sae left the house, walking himself and Rin to school

Today was the day he was going to send you the letter back, but he wasn’t too stressed

“Nii-Chan, today you’re gonna make her your girlfriend, right?” Rin looked up at him

“Hopefully.” he responded

As the day progressed, Sae waited for a an opportunity to send the letter to you, and finally he had the chance

You were just sitting in class, waiting for it to start when he approached you

“Here, for you.” He handed you the letter

“oOooooooo” everyone in the class was watching, interested in what he was going to say

Sae just gestured for you to read the letter, and you hesitantly did so

“[Y/N], I had no clue you liked me, but i’m happy you do because I like you too. Be my girlfriend?”

It was a short and simple letter, maybe because he wasn’t too sure what he was supposed to do. Which you found pretty funny-

“So…” Sae mumbled, slightly embarrassed now

You laughed, “Sure, I’d love to.”

>Niko

Niko had just finished with his letter, and was planning on giving it to you the next school daye

Until Aiku and the rest of the Ubers team started bothering him, asking him to show them the letters

“Aiku, you old snitch…” he cursed under his breath, before denying in the gc that he liked anyone

Niko sighed before throwing his phone down, starting his night-routine

He was about to go to sleep, before checking the Ubers gc. Literally everyone had asked for a pic of the love letters.

He rolled his eyes, but decided why not :) 

So he snapped the letter you wrote to him and sent it

He woke up to 46 notifications.

Niko sped read through them while walking to school, most the people were just rambling about how cute it was, and somewhere asking what Niko would send back

There was no way he’d embarrass himself like that tho, so he just left them on read

If he watched you correctly, then you we’re currently on the 4th book of a new series, so all he’d have to do is slip the letter into the 5th and he’d be set

He took a breath to calm himself before opening the book to a random page and leaving the envelope there. Sure it was risky, but surely it’ll pay off… right?

Niko was panicking, he almost chickened out-

He decided it maybe wasn’t such a good idea, and went back after school to find the book and take it back

But by then, the book had already been checked out

“[Y/N] currently has it, would you like me to put it on hold?” is what the librarian said when he asked,

“No it’s fine.” he answered, unsure if he should be happy or scared, but there was nothing he could do now

And yet he still worried, and his teammates laughed at him when he told them

“Shut up. I’m not a coward.”

“LMAOOO YOU TOTALLY AREE-”

“sHUT U-”

You had just gotten home, about to dive into your manga. You leafed through the pages, listening to them flip, until it stopped suddenly

It was an envelope made of cardstock, so it caught your attention quickly. You plucked it from the book, examining it carefully 

You were reminded of Niko as you read it,

“Hey [Y/N], i’m hoping that you’re the one reading this and not someone else… and also that you’re the one who sent the first letter I’ve been waiting so long to finally confess, but it’s nice that you did it first. I’ve liked you for the longest time and always wished that you felt the same, it makes me really happy that you do Do you think maybe we could go out sometime? But this time we can go as more than friends… if that’s alright with you - Niko Ikki

He was basically on edge for the whole day, til you responded, telling him that you’d love to go out ;)

Was so happy after, and all of Ubers made fun of him for it :’) 

A/N: Question, does anyone especially like Niko? Tbh he’s one of my favourites, but if you guys don’t feel strongly towards him, I’m prob gonna take him out and write for Nagi instead 👀, any thoughts? Ik a lot of ppl like Nagi so i’ll try my best if i do end up doing that!

>Kaiser

Kaiser was acting more distant that week towards Ness. Well, not more distant, just more busy.

That turned out to be because Kaiser had told himself that he needed to write back. Yet he just sat there, scrolling his phone, procrastinating.

Ness had a feeling that this would happen, so he’d frequently remind him to finish it. And finally he did.

Kaiser made Ness drop off the letter to you (bc ofc he did-) a day or two after (he didn’t want to seem too eager/was procrastinating the writing 😭)

You ended up catching Ness as he tried to very sneakily hide it somewhere you’d find it (Kaiser was pretty mad at him for that 😭)

He shifted his attention to watching you open it as he hid behind the lockers

“Hey Mein Liebe, took you a while to confess ;)You know, if you did it any later, I may have just moved on! But you’re lucky I gave you a chance, so don’t waste it~How bout you and me go out some time, what do you say? I’ll pay for whatever, my treat.

~ Michael Kaiser ♕”

You scoffed a smile, but accepted it anyway, putting it away in your bag and carrying on with your day

Kaiser, on the other hand, had a smug smile, patting himself on the back for a successful confession(??)

Ness was maybe slightly judging him, but he just shrugged it off, long as Kaiser was happy

A/N: Can you tell I like sneaking in Itoshi fluff? pre-spain sae was such a good brother :') not that i would know- im an only child, which also means i have no clue how to write siblings

[happyheidi]

Hi tumblr land! Guess who turned 1 on July 4th?

This girl!

There was something weird with my camera so the pics are trash but I had to share.

And here we have the celebratory madam herself, hugely excited by it all, and not at all bothered by having to model a bow for a photo.

Being her first birthday I wanted to do it big so I bought her a moomin food bowl 💛 with some nice treats 🍬🍭

Isn’t it cute? Moffe has a smaller blue one. Moomin has a way of finding itself in my life. Tove Jansson’s birthday (and the official moomin day) is august 9th, which just so happens to be Moffe’s birthday as well. lol every road leads to moomin and Moffe. Even on a post about Frida’s first birthday celebration 🙈🎉

you can see more of Frida here, and the golden girl herself, Moffe here 😁

Anyway, sorry for the crappy quality pics but isn’t she adorable? She’s gotten so much bigger and has really grown more into her features. We got her when she was 4 months old. 🥹🥹

Look at this angel! The most adorable lovable little thing you ever met! I’m so enamored with her! I’m smitten!

Once bitten forever smitten! <3

[anipgarden]

Supporting Your Plants for Cheap

This is my fifth post in a series I'll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert--just an enthusiast--but I hope something you find here helps! 

Once you start gardening, you’ll find a lot of things go into it, and it can be a bit daunting to think about--especially if you’re trying to keep things low-cost. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be as hard--or as expensive--as it initially appears.

Composting

There’s several different ways to compost, any of which are helpful indirecting food waste and nutrients out of landfills and into your soil--which in and of itself can help increase biodiversity by making the space more livable for microorganisms and insects, which then cycles around to the rest of the habitat.

The classic one you see is hot composting. Most of the time, when I see hot composting set ups online, or hear people talking about them, it’s like listening to a wizard cast an intricate spell and prattle on about ratios and temperatures and special ingredients while standing over a detailed self-built setup made of the finest wood money can buy. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be complicated. First off, there’s lots of ways to make compost bins--some can be more expensive than others, but there’s definitely options asides from buying pre-made tumblers or getting an engineering degree. I’ve seen people use metal trash cans dug into the ground, make compost pile setups out of old pallets, or just pile stuff up and leave it. While using different ratios of certain items can help them decompose faster, it’s ultimately not something you need to worry about a lot. If it can break down, it’ll break down--it just might take awhile. Composting this way can also help provide habitat--some insects like bumblebees have been known to make nests in compost heaps. In addition, it provides a robust ecosystem for decomposers like worms and other organisms, and bats and birds will be attracted to open-top piles to eat flying bugs that live off the compost. Amphibians enjoy them for humidity, warmth, and feasting on insects. Do note that sometimes snakes may also rest in and lay eggs in compost heaps, so be careful when turning them.

Do note, though, that if your compost pile looks like that you're getting roaches and rats and raccoons out of your goddamn mind. Bury the food scraps.

Personally, when I compost, I use a worm bin--they’re a fantastic option for limited space and limiting smells. I keep mine outside in a big rubbermaid tote with holes drilled into the bottom, sides, and lid. I put a layer or two of weed block on the inside, so it’s still able to drain but keeps the worms from trying to escape during rainy days. There is an initial cost of buying the worms, getting enough bedding materials, and getting a new bin if you don’t have an old one suitable for use. But with occasional feeding, it should sustain itself and provide valuable worm castings that can be used in the garden. Please do note, however, that earthworms are considered invasive in some places.

Look at that worm bin-y goodness. This is a pic of my bin, from earlier this month!

Though I’ve never done it, I’ve heard of people having good results with bokashi composting--a method that’s done in a bucket, and is relatively easy to do indoors.

Once you start a composting system, keeping it stockpiled with organic material can become pretty easy for cheap. In general, if it comes from a plant, it’s safe to use. It’s also a good idea to avoid putting already-cooked things in a pile, as salts and sauces can kill beneficial bacteria in the compost while also attracting animals. Adding meat is also generally avoided to not attract animals. But below are some things that I’ve put in my worm bin quick, easy, and cheaply; or things I’ve seen friends put in their compost piles.

Cooking scraps/snack leftovers--things like cut up bell peppers, the ends of tomatoes, strawberry tops, apple cores, watermelon rinds, coffee grounds, and orange peels are amassed somewhat quickly in my house--my dad likes to cook. Around holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas? Corn husks, potato peels, sweet potato fibers, leftover greens and other trimmings are a feast for compost piles and worm bins.

Vegetables and Stuff that went bad in the fridge/pantry--we’re constantly victims of the ‘forgot it was there’ conundrum. Fridge cleanouts are great times to decide what can be tossed to the compost--moldy bell peppers, spotty celery, questionable carrots, onion halves, old eggs, bagged salads, and stale/moldy bread have all been tossed into the pile before! 

Grass clippings--though my worms don’t like grass clippings, they’re still great material for a classic hot compost set-up!

Fallen leaves--another classic addition to a hot compost pile. Some friends keep them stocked up and stored for later use.

Plant trimmings--what is plant clean up if not compost material? I’ve put cleaned-out sunflower heads and stalks in my worm bin, and they decomposed after about two months. If you get  blossom end rot on your tomatoes or peppers, they’re still fair game for the bin as well!

Shredded mail--just make sure to not put in the thin plastic that covers the address section on some envelopes. Otherwise? As long as  the paper isn’t glossy, it should be great for a bin or pile! Shredded paper or cardboard also makes great bedding for worm bins. Put those Amazon boxes to good use!

Pumpkins! Snag your neighbor’s halloween pumpkins in November and toss them in my compost! Last year my dad went around the cul-de-sac and nabbed all of the post-halloween pumpkins, the worms loved it.

Christmas tree needles--can’t confirm I’ve tried this, but it seems like it would work.

Mulch

Mulch is an excellent way to keep your soil moist, while also beginning and continuing to improve soil conditions as it breaks down into organic matter. You’ll have to water less, and it’ll prevent/slow down the growth of unwanted weeds (which is always the final straw to gardening for me, I get so overwhelmed I just stop going outside). Win-win situation, right? Except stepping into a Home Depot and finding mulch being sold for five dollars per square foot and knowing you have to cover a whole garden with it all can add up… pretty quickly, to say the least.

Fortunately, there are a few solutions to this, and likely from your own backyard!

Grass clippings are the first that come to mind. If you’re mowing your lawn, or have neighbors who are, collecting the clippings and spreading them over your soil is a cheap and easy option for some quick mulch. It’ll be very nitrogen-heavy, so keep that in mind, but it’ll still prevent weeds, retain moisture, and break down into organic material over the course of a few months. Do try to not use grass clippings you know are treated with pesticides, since the aim is to use this mulch to help increase your biodiversity, and having insects around plays a big role in that.

Fallen leaves are the next that comes to mind. If you’ve got a tree in your yard, or in your neighborhood, then you or someone around you knows the neverending avalanche of leaves or pine needles that drop come fall. As mentioned before, they can be used to make brush piles for creatures, or added into compost, but they have a fantastic third use as mulch. Add them on top of your beds!

Want free wood mulch? A program called Chip Drop might be the best solution for you! They team up with arborists to find cheap drop sites for shredded wood, logs, etc. that are produced as they maintain trees! If any local arborists tied to the program are operating in your area, instead  of paying to dump the resulting mulch at a landfill or some other dumpside, they’ll simply dump it at your place! Now, you won’t be able to control when the mulch gets dropped--I’ve heard of people coming home from work one day to find a chip drop in their driveway. But… free mulch!

Want wood chips but not a whole truck load? If an arborist is working in your area, and you can muster the courage, its worth a shot to ask! One time someone in my neighborhood was getting a tree removed, so my Dad and I parked near their car with a tarp in the trunk, some shovels, and an old storage bin. We approached nicely and asked if we could have some chips, and they were totally cool with it! At that point, how much you get depends on how big your trunk space is, and how many times you’re willing to ferry mulch back and forth out of your car so you can go back for more. But it is an option! Alternatively, you can ask them to dump the whole load in front of  your house, but at least you’ll know when and where it’s happening!

Trellises

Many plants need, or will appreciate, some kind of climbing structure. But trellises aren’t often cheap to find. To that, I say--we’ll create our own!

One popular option is to grow taller plants, and then plant climbing species are few weeks/years later so they’ll climb the taller plants! I’ve planted passion vine near a tree in my garden for it to climb, and I’ve seen people do similar concepts with sunflowers, corn, and other such plants! Sunflower stalks can provide support even after they’ve been cut back.

A combination of wood, some stakes, some nails, and some string can create a great frame trellis that can be used for beans, tomatoes, vines, etc--so I’m sure if could be put to good use for native climbers, especially since my dad’s used this structure for passion vines before. You may have to replace the string every year, but most of the time, the string is compostable anyways!

This may take a bit more setup and have a more upfront cost, but creating a trellis out of cattle panels makes a durable structure that can support all kinds of vining plants! 

Of course, there’s always the easy alternative of simply letting plants climb along your fence! This is especially easy if you have a chain link fence, but wooden fences are plenty suitable for some species as well! I’ve seen passion vines do great growing along chain link fences as supports, and one of my favorite sights as a kid was always seeing bushels of trumpet vines growing up and over fences on the drive home.

Why are we worrying about trellises? Creatures are attracted  to diverse landscapes with a variety of plants within them, so having a few climbers can be a great way to attract more wildlife! I know some plants in my area that pollinators are attracted to, or even rely on as host plants, are climbers that can get upwards of 15 feet tall, and will climb any surface you give them. A trellis provides you a great place to put extremely beneficial plants.

That's the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about how different 'kinds' of plants can all be beneficial in a biodiversity standpoint. Until then, I hope this advice was helpful! Feel free to reply with any questions, your success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

[linka-from-captain-planet]

Rating BG3 Ladies Stroke Game

My brain won't let me write my fics so have this shit instead.

Ratings based on vibes and also facts opinions (controversial: not everyone can be a sex god)

all the main and supporting women + my background babes: Florrick, Talli, Alfira, Lakrissa, Araj, Nocturne, Skoona, Adrielle, Z'rell, (ETA:) Nine-Fingers, and special guest star Philomeen

*Anyone can be trans and straps are for everyone regardless, so take your pic on homegrown vs store-bought and/or magical strap*

*Also sex is like pizza, so average results are in fact still pretty good. Only 2, 1, and 0/10 are truly trash dick. So a 5 or 6 is still a compliment!*

Lae'zel: 10/10. She pulls hair, she spanks ass. She has the experience, the athleticism, the drive, the romantic heart. Also the greatest switch to ever live as a simultaneous 10/10 bottom.

Shadowheart: 5/10. Her experience is mostly hand/mouth activities due to lack of privacy/places to hide supplies or apparati in the cloister. She has better ways of making a lover fall apart, but her stroke game is perfectly serviceable.

Karlach: 6/10. LISTEN. I see the vision as a tongue god, but she needs some work to hone her stroke game (too eager = painful, and a possible classic Bigger Is Always Better fallacy waiting to happen), and like SH, she's also not very experienced. She can and will ascend the ranks, but give her a minute to get there!!

Minthara: 10/10. We all know this. She has like 200 years of experience as well as the drive, focus, precision, athleticism, and heart. She gets RESULTS, but also is surprisingly emotionally available, so she covers all the physical, emotional, and psychological bases.

Jaheira: 4/10. Not her favorite, or her forte. CAN she strap? Yes, and it's satisfying, but nothing to write home about. A queen of the accessibility strap (thigh/hand harness GOATed... iykyk) due to her knees/lumbar hurting.

Isobel: 5/10. Perfectly serviceable, likes to tease, knows the technique and executes it well. However, being 5'2" with lung issues holds her back when it comes to higher intensity activities. Also an accessibility harness queen.

Aylin: 12/10. Has been at it since before anyone else on this list was even born. Once she connects emotionally to her partner, there's no going back to anyone else. Perfect balance of brutality and gentleness; she knows how to use her weight, and her aftercare is literal god tier.

Mizora: 0/10. Would probably be pretty good if she deigned to do it, but let's be so for real, pup!

Orin: ??/10. Either a 0 or a 10, no inbetween. A freak bitch for the daring sort who are willing to gamble on what she meant when she said she wanted to 'get all up in your guts'.

Florrick: 3/10. A perfect example of how a dominant personality doesn't always translate to an ability to top. Will do it, but focuses too much on technique and zones out and starts thinking about work. Definitely would rather be on the bottom being ridden VS putting the stroke effort in herself.

Talli: 7/10. A humble, ego-free, service top for all who enjoy a gentler lover. Hesitant to get too rough or nasty with it; she's got that +3 STR and she knows how to use it, but she doesn't want to hurt or disrespect her sweetie!

Alfira: 1/10. Sweet Alfie has many good and sexy qualities but she is never taking anyone to pound town ever. She will do it, and it might be fun and playful, but never "good" by any objective measure. Absolute demon on a slower, more sensual grind, but anything approaching "stroke game"? You're barking up the wrong tree.

Lakrissa: 10/10. Technically an 8 but gets 2 bonus points for being a random girl off the streets and not an alien, centuries-old elf, or demigod. Great dick does walk among us mortals!! She's athletic, she's flirty, she's fun, she's a known giver. She will work extra shifts at her bitch ass job to buy you a house, she will smash you through the floor of said house, she will fix the floor. The total package!

Araj: 4/10. Wears some kind of weird strap regardless of her own equipment because she loves the flair and drama of it, but isn't particularly skilled. Gets distracted. Bad top etiquette. Never shuts up. Still, she gets the job done.

Nocturne: 6/10. Like Shadowheart, her experience is limited by the lack of opportunity in the cloister; but as quartermaster, she would have a greater ability to obtain and hide supplies/equipment, so potentially more experience. Also, maybe as an officer, she was involved in more prestigious orgies?

Skoona: 7/10. Would rather be on the bottom getting pampered, but is an above average top due to always being expected to top. Also a very tender lover (not necessarily "stroke game").

Adrielle: 8/10. She has no choice but to break backs because otherwise, the weight of expectations she places on her own shoulders would break hers. Meticulous. Thorough. Is she enjoying herself? She doesn't know the meaning of the word, but being of service makes her feel whole, and that's what matters, RIGHT?

Z'rell: You Can't Handle It/10. Don't worry about it, maggot. It's not for YOU.

Nine-Fingers: 10/10. Your fingers will quake such that you sign over the deed to your house in her name and you won't even be mad about it. She knows how to work People- what makes them tick. What makes them BOOM. An unforgettable experience.

Philomeen: 20/10. It's the toxicity, I fear. If she can and will blow you up, she can and will blow your back out. It's science. It doesn't matter if she's 1/3 your size, she is FUCKING. You WILL hate yourself after.

[barbwritesstuff]

Imagine living in that godforsaken city as a regular ass non hunter human.

The city cryptids Insta account posts pics of big fur balls. My grandma used to tell stories about werewolves, my parents laugh it off but it stops being funny when you're high off your ass buying food in the new convenience store (the old one closed for some reason. Heard the place was trashed) at 2am and see a couple of neon yellow eyes watching you from the dark side of the park.

Always hearing about gang related violence on the news and some forums dwellers saying several of the bodies are missing by the time the police arrive.

Jimmy from my math class swears he saw his notebook float and random sentences appeared on it. His parents are pressuring that guy so much he suffered a psychotic break. Poor bastard.

Saw an old guy tattooed up his neck drop some pieces of sharp wood. He gave me the stinky eye when I tried to help him pick 'em up. Weirdo.

Regular arse city, tbh. 😅💙

[dvrtrblhr]

I've never mentioned how I feel about people using/sharing my art, because I'm too lazy to do anything about most things. And people misusing my art will NEVER be a reason for me to stop sharing it. Anyway, if you LIKE my art, I'd appreciate if you kept these guidelines in mind:

My art up for grabs to be turned into AI trash. Don't use my art for AI learning/creating AI 'art'.

You can use my art as profile pic, banner etc. I really don't mind. I actually find it cute. Please credit me though!

You can share my drawings in whichever place I don't post (I only post here and on instagram) ALWAYS with credit though! Please people, it's not that hard...

You can talk to me if you are not sure if it's ok to share something or how to share it! I promise I don't bite!

You can create something inspired by my works (just credit me!) I would like to see it though (mostly because I'm curious). (this does not apply to AI art as mentioned above. When I say 'create' I mean with your own hands/mind lol)

Never associate any of my works with bigoted views.

Don't associate my works with fandom discourse. Please, don't do that, not even in the tags. It makes me genuinely sad that people go out of their way to bash my favorite characters in the tags of my drawings...

My works cannot be used commercially (like, really, i had to fight someone about this on instagram once... i draw fanart for nintendo franchise mostly...)

Honestly, I'm too old and tired to reinforce any of this, but if you like my art, it makes sense to respect my wishes, no?

I hate policing people. It really bothers me that I even have to say all of this...

As always, thanks a lot to all of you who are super sweet and reblog my stuff and leave super cute comments! you're awesome and you are why the things above will NEVER be the reason for me to stop sharing my art!

[bnnuy-wabbit]

PIN TUTORIAL.

So. You want pins of your favorite band/cartoon/oc/funny thing to put on backpacks/jackets/pants BUT you're broke and/or have no means to Acquire Pins. You find yourself thinking must Man do i need to make these???? And the answer is yes. Sadly, one either needs to purchase items to have items or make items to have items. I know, i know. It's unfair. It'll be alright, though. Fear not, beloved internet user, for i have The Easy Solution to Your Problem. For thee. Let me hold your hand passionately.

What you'll need is:

Safety Pins - you can buy them for hella cheap in packages with Many Of Them. I'm probably not from your country so you'll have to look for them yourself online or in a store) Pair of Scissors - for cuttin' Plastic - Any kind as long as it's thick enough. reutilize something that would go to the trash, if you can. I'm using an old fanta bottle i stole from dad's pepper pot from the garden. you could also used those hard ish plastics from boxes too or packages. It doesn't have to be transparent, but that's recommended. Some sort of Glue - I recommend hot glue. I did not, however, have hot glue, so I used a two-part resin for fixing pipes instead. If it works it works. You can use anything as long as it secures the safety pin to the plastic. The Pin Content - I'm using STICKERS. i bought 200 6 months ago and have many left overs. You could also use a drawing you made or a cutout from a magazine and tape it to the plastic with transparent packaging tape.

That's all you need. However, if you'd like to make your life a bit easier, it'd be nice to have in hand:

tape - for tapin' razorblade - for scrapin' pen - for Penin'

See. easy. doesn't need a lot. I must say that since i'm a craftsperson i have More Materials laying about than the average arguably human population, but that's pretty much it.

tutorial with pictures continues under the read more. selfie under read more too with them on a cool jacket. here are the results so you know what you're getting into. Ooooo you want to make pins so bad oooooooo

TLDR: glue Pin Content onto the plastic, glue the safety pin to that next. Pic IDs added.

STEP 1.

Stick the thing you want to pin on the plastic. I'm using stickers, but you can use the non adhesive stuff. You can tape a piece of paper to the plastic with transparent duct tape. Just make sure to leave a margin on all sides.

STEP 2.

turn the plastic sheet around. Mark where the Up part of the sticker is and where you want the safety pins to go. This part is optional, but it helps making sure you're not going to put the pins in the wrong position. I didn't do it on my last batch and they turned out fine.

STEP 3.

Secure the plastic to your work surface using tape to keep it still while you work. Again, optional, but it'll help keep the thing straight if your plastic is bent like mine.

STEP 4.

Scratch the surface of the plastic so whatever gluing method you use actually works. The surface shouldn't be smooth or else it'll be hard to glue. You can use anything to scratch it. I did a criss cross pattern as shown in the picture.

STEP 5.

Glue the pins to the scratched surface.

In my case it was done in two steps since the resin needed time to dry. I made a hard base to secure the pin and waited for two hours for that to dry. Then i put a small layer of resin over the part of the safety pin that doesn't open and waited for it to dry again.

This would be miles easier if you used hot glue. Just hot glue the pin to the plastic, making sure to keep the movable part free.

STEP 6.

Cut the pins! If you taped them to the plastic instead of using premade stickers then make sure to leave more plastic to the sides. so it doesn't fall off. They're done. You now have pins.

If you want to go above and beyond, you can cover the pin with a thin layer of clear nail polish to make it impermeable and more durable, but i'm all out of clear nail polish, so i didn't do it.

RESULTS PART 2.

That's it. That's all. Have fun!

[gard3nias]

04| Just like old times

⤎ previous page | ❃ | next page ⤏

wc: 6.67k

date: 08/06/2024

quick summary: oc's first day of school; she makes new friends and goes home to simp on taehyung through his social; taehyung comes back from his holidays

mdi // masterlist // playlist

—Now playing: Girls Just Want To Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper✫

"Oh, my lord! I don't know what to wear Daphne!"

"Shit! Don't scream into the phone now" she guffawed.

Six in the morning and Cleo was already screaming out of frustration. They spent the past week hanging out and catching up on anything and everything without worrying about what the future awaits. Daphne was also frustrated but had other ways to show it—not by screaming on the phone.

"Girl at least you're only bothered about your outfit. I'm the one they'll be staring at," Daphne lamented, phone between her ear and shoulder as she opened the shirt in her hands to see if it was it. It wasn't. "Oh please. They'd be staring because you're the prettiest human out there that isn't in the rich kids' group," Daphne soughed at the reply insisting that Cleo herself told her that and she didn't carve it out from her ass.

"I'm being for real girl. They'll be staring for days, forever even. You're gorgeous," Cleo lovingly spoke while angrily trashing a shirt behind herself and digging further into her wardrobe. "Why are you saying all this just now? I don't want to have that many eyes on me, Cleo. Okay, I'll wear a mask then."

All this aside, Daphne was calm about her outfit. She'd finished creating it and laid it on the bed.

"Sometimes I wish our school had uniforms. It'd save me all this stress," Cleo screamed as her phone was away from her, "But I know I'd regret it right the following day."

A lace ruffled white tank top, low-rise jeans and a light cardigan because the weather outside didn't foretell a nice day. That was Daphne's outfit.

"I'm going in the shower Cleo so scream if you want me to hear you," she announced as she stripped out of her clothes and went in, "Don't worry. A little girl whose name starts with D and ends with E told me I'm already screaming!" the reply made Daphne burst into laughs loud enough to cover the water's sounds momentarily, "Please be more specific. My sister's name is Dayanne," she laughed while a few steps away from her house, Cleo was rolling her eyes.

"I think that if I go with a dress I don't have to bother about top and bottom matching. What do you think Daphne?!" she yelled, grabbing three dresses and placing them on the little empty spot on her bed for her to take some pictures and send them to Daphne.

Since the latter was in the shower, she couldn't check her phone yet and simply yelled back: "I'm just thinking now. What if you wear that yellow low-rise skirt you showed me the last time with the cool belt we bought the other day?" she suggested, closing her eyes as her hands combed through her hair.

Cleo gasped like her friend's advice was a blessing from above, "Oh. My. God. You're so right! Oh god Daphne. What would I do without you?" she smiled as she opened her drawers in search of it. Once she found it, she hurried in front of the mirror to see how it looked before gasping again. "Daphne! What shirt am I going to wear with it?!" she yelled, keeping the skirt aside and diving back into her wardrobe. Her room was a mess at this point. The respondent took time before replying as she was rinsing her face.

"I don't know. Send me pics," she responded, getting out of the shower and into her towel. "I already sent you some pics but those are dresses," Cleo replied, switching between two shirts to go with the skirt. Hurriedly, she wore the skirt and each shirt and after taking pics, she sent them to her friend, urging her to choose while she showered.

Firstly, Daphne wrapped her hair in a towel and got dressed before checking her messages which she did right when Cleo got out of the shower. "The second shirt," she typed before turning the blow dryer on. Cleo didn't speak further and focused on getting dressed—undergarments, skirt, shirt and socks. Unlike Daphne, she'd already washed her hair the previous day so she went straight to doing her make-up.

"Oh my god," she sighed, "What time is it?" Daphne squinted her eyes to check her phone as her hair was hitting her face nonstop, "Half past six Cleo!" she screamed and hurried up with styling her hair. Cleo was exhausted as she manually blew on her face to speed up her concealer application. Not helping with the tension, Daphne and Cleo's dads called from downstairs to remind them of the time. "Yeah Dad, I know!" she whined as her mascara wasn't feeling her and constantly messing up.

Daphne applied lipgloss to finish her make-up and hurried with putting on accessories and running downstairs, thanking the heavens she'd prepared her bag the previous night.

Cleo was prepping her school bag in the neighbouring house, ensuring she remembered everything in the process. Then she rushed downstairs.

"My dad said we'll get breakfast on the way because there's a high chance of traffic for obvious reasons," Daphne spoke, the call was still on. Nodding, Cleo kissed her dad goodbye and rushed out of the house to her neighbour.

Outside, Daphne's dad had already turned the car on and was waiting for the girls who came simultaneously, both hopping in the backseat. "Y'all forgot nothing right?" he asked for reassurance. They agreed and finally drove off, waving at Granny, Daphne's mom and the dogs.

—Now playing: Vivere Tutte Le Vite by Elisa, Carl Brave✫

Ten minutes to seven and they were on the road. As everyone had predicted, the road was crowded, not enough to cause a traffic jam but enough for Daphne to understand that things are like that here. The town feels the first day of school, not just the students or the parents driving them there. The girls weren't talking. No one was. The dad focused on the road, Cleo finished up her hairstyle because she couldn't go anywhere without her hair pins while Daphne did what she'd always do when on the road: observe.

There were cars in front and behind them and she could see that kids were in the back seats by their heads.

Earlier, she was complaining to Cleo about the attention she'd get for being a new student. The other time at El Grillo's Cuisine she understood the reason was her new face in town but this morning Cleo tried to mask it saying that she was very pretty, in fact, pretty enough to look stinkingly rich like the kids they talked about the other day. Funny. If that's what they'd think, then better not let them know the reason why she now lives here in the first place. She chuckled at the thought. No one noticed her though.

The sky wasn't bright that morning but covered in the grey clouds. She didn't have an umbrella on her but didn't bother much. She liked, in fact, loved the rain and, despite knowing that someone would drive them back home once classes were dismissed, she wouldn't hesitate to run under it as she rushed to the bus stop. The cold she'd get the next morning would sound like a mother scolding her child but, like the child she was, the warnings would come in from one ear and go out through the other one.

The air that blew through the car came from the passenger seat window that her father winded down just a little. Seatbelt across her body, legs crossed, left hand holding her bag and right one holding her face as she leaned towards the window. The beauty of the landscape in front of her wanted to make her fall asleep which is strange because she's not the type to be falling asleep in the morning before school—she's been up for close to two hours now.

From her left, Cleo rustled with her things as she was done with her look and, satisfied, she pulled out her phone and took a few selfies. Pictures! It rang in Daphne's head like a bell. She pulled out her phone and made a little video, focusing shortly on her legs to give an idea of where she was and then completely moved to the fields entertaining their eyes outside. Ahead, she could see a line of trees meaning they were close to the little colourful neighbourhood they passed the first day they came here and every other day they went into town.

Cars went and very few came. The collective destination was the schools, that peculiar neighbourhood she'd seen just once that resembled a big campus.

"Come close. Let's take a pic," Cleo gestured as they inched closer to each other and posed. The selfie was soon posted on Cleo's Instagram stories with Daphne's profile tagged in a corner, conflicted with wanting to let everyone know who her friend was but also to gatekeep her somehow.

The past weeks, they were so focused on spending time with each other that social media faded into the background—despite the amount of pictures Cleo took and posted only late at night before going to bed. Cleo hurried to the search box and typed in the username of her crush-yet-not-crush. "Look. Here's him," she called for Daphne's attention. Jungkook had a good amount of followers and posts which allowed Cleo to make her friend have a good idea of him. The latest post was from a few days ago, a selfie taken at the beach with a girl and a boy. Avyanna and Jimin, Cleo explained.

Daphne blinked a few times. When Cleo talked about their looks, she understood but not enough for her to believe that they indeed looked so surreal. She was going to the same school as them? Crazy. They seemed personally and patiently carved by God. His favourite works most likely.

Avyanna had long and straight dark hair. Her face was like that of a model, well-proportioned, with a well-defined jaw and eyes like that of a siren. The type of girls that come up when you type "Dark feminine makeup" on Pinterest. She had her chin on Jungkook's shoulder. Behind, a few steps away, was Jimin goofily posed with what seemed to be a freshly caught fish wiggling in the second slide. He was shirtless and just in shorts like Jungkook. Avyanna was in her bikini top and jean shorts. By the looks of their hair, it was windy.

Cleo scrolled down further. The first slide was a video. It was Avyanna focused on rolling a joint next to a dark-haired boy who wasn't Jungkook. "He's Taehyung, the other living example of beauty and brains," Cleo continued. For a few seconds, his face wasn't in the camera as he too was focused on making his cigarette. He fully came into view when he licked his cigarette closed. Daphne was stunned, to say the least.

He was heavenly, she thought. Too pretty to be real. He looked slightly cold, the kind of cold that you inch closer to because it has its peculiar warmth. The video went on but Daphne was focused on him and him only. Avyanna turned her cigarette on and passed him the lighter. He'd charmed Daphne. He was just turning on a cigarette but she found it very attractive. She quickly checked and memorised Jungkook's username hoping to find Taehyung from him later.

They continued scrolling and finally found the last person in the friend group: a blondie with silky and straight hair. It was a three-picture post of them sitting around a table covered in food. Lunch or dinner, they couldn't tell but they were having a meal together. Adrielle was her name. She too was drop-dead gorgeous. Her looks were the complete opposite of Avyanna's: doe eyes and soft features. The human definition of beauty and brains indeed.

Faces like these were astonishing, she thought. She's seen pretty people before—she's been told to be very pretty too—but not to this extent. What Cleo said earlier about her looks was very nice but now Daphne thought that she wasn't that pretty, pretty enough to look as rich as them because goddamn, they were very pretty, ethereal. The type of beauty that money empowers.

Daphne's been told a lot of times about her looks. It is what made her popular in the city. But because of the type of people she prefers, she didn't have friends—friends in the real meaning of the word: she considered a friend someone whose company she enjoys even without speaking or having to interact; a person who she just likes existing with. Her classmates in the city thought they were friends but Daphne was just being nice and polite for the sake of it.

Daphne's mom was worried because of it. She knew how pretty her daughter's looks and personality were so seeing every day on her own with no one she could call a friend, she was worried—especially because Daphne's always been like this. She hoped the natural pretty privilege thing would kick in at some point but it never did—or at least, it didn't bring Daphne the type of friends she can call as such.

Despite how contrasting her personality is with Cleo's, she's the only person, apart from Willow, who she can call a friend.

Naturally, Daphne opened her phone and checked her Instagram profile wondering if some pictures were too outdated and embarrassing or if she liked them enough. She barely had posts compared to Jungkook and they barely showed her face. They were mostly pictures of landscapes, the library, her outfits and books—if she happened to be in one, her face wouldn't fully be in the focus, maybe her hair, her cheek but never her full face. Her face was only on the three-slide highlight labelled "Moi". The first slide was a selfie taken on the bus on a sunny day; the second one was a full-body picture taken in front of a monument; the last one was a mirror selfie taken before going to her sister's graduation party.

Her profile picture showed not her face but only from her chin down to her chest, focusing on her necklace and her lacy top with hair surrounding her face. She had two other highlights: one for her travelling and one she recently created dedicated to her dogs.

After inspecting everything, she archived only one post, kept the rest up and turned her phone off only after reposting Cleo's story on hers.

—Now playing: Take On Me by A-ha✫

Around forty minutes later, they were in town. As promised, they quickly stopped to get breakfast, nothing special but croissants and chocolate milk.

It was half past seven when they drove past El Grillo's Cuisine, close to a quarter to eight when they parked next to the terminal. They got off just as others did. The parking space was slowly filling up. Toddlers, kids, middle schoolers and high schoolers were everywhere.

Once the car was closed, following her father and Cleo's lead, they started trekking up to the school. The gates were still closed, yet there was a huge crowd in front of them, so big that Daphne wondered where all these students came from. This town couldn't contain all of them, could it?

"Come on, Daph! Let's go!" Cleo spurred, a wave of tension overwhelmed the respondent who looked for her father as if asking for permission to scurry off with her friend but also calling for help. Reading through her eyes, he gave a thumbs-up, kissed her goodbye and assured her everything would be okay. Daphne smiled and nodded without knowing what she did it for. Was she sure of herself? Probably not.

Turning around and finding her hand in Cleo's, she sighed in relief and clung closer to her. At least she wasn't alone.

"They'll open soon now. We're just in time. The gates always open fifteen minutes to eight to allow students to settle in before their teachers come in. They only close five minutes after eight," Daphne nodded at the information although she didn't fully pay attention to the words. Her head spun left and right, looking at the people she would attend school with.

As explained, the gates automatically opened and the crowd shrank towards the opening and, once wide enough, they all started racing into the school. Fear, excitement and confusion settled within Daphne as her friend goaded her to run with her. "Come on!" she screamed in happiness.

The confusion on Daphne's face was quickly replaced by delight and she increased her speed to catch up with Cleo's pace. As they all ran into the school, the staff kept screaming, telling everyone not to run but clearly, their words were disregarded.

They ran in and up the stairs to their class. As predicted by Cleo, it was on the top floor but despite the breathlessness, they both kept running. "Number nine!" Cleo screamed calling for Daphne's attention who immediately looked up in search of the mentioned number.

Once they found it, they ran in. Only two people were already in. Cleo proceeded to the set of desks in the second-to-last line and they finally settled down.

"You see?" Cleo began, barely breathing, "We're deskmates and we're not front row which makes the run worth it," Daphne's eyes almost shot out of their sockets, "All this just for seats?" Cleo eagerly nodded, laughing at her friend's disbelief, "Seats that are most likely for the whole school year. Don't complain. You have the best seat and deskmate in class," she boasted, flicking at her hair. Daphne laughed, still in disbelief, and after properly keeping her bag, she finally sat down.

At the same time, five people ran into the class, heads spinning across the room hoping for seats to still be available in the last row but as they proceeded they noticed the new face. Some showed surprise, others just stared a bit while others quickly smiled.

Daphne immediately turned to Cleo mouthing that it was already starting but she replied with a shrug. There was nothing she could do about it anyway.

"Hey, Cleo," a couple of girls walked in and sat in the neighbouring set of desks. Cleo waved back and presented Daphne, "This is Daphne, my best friend," Daphne smiled and waved. Her heart warmed up at the presentation. "Hi, Daphne. I'm Michelle. This is Valerie." The first was a tall, tanned girl with amazing curly hair that fell down her back; she had a crop top and high-waisted pants with a cute school bag hanging by her arm. The second was a short red-haired girl with green eyes and freckles; she was very feminine and girly and you could tell from her cute dress, the little bows holding her hair, the cute makeup decorating her face and the adorable school bag she too had hanging by her arm. Her voice had a pleasing high-pitched tone too—like the nice, shy girl in class.

"Valerie is a smart ass," Cleo whispered as she turned around while the others settled down, "She's always been the class president since our first high school year. She's awesome and very polite". Daphne nodded, glancing in their direction. They were softly laughing with each other before they glanced back. Daphne quickly changed focus, convinced that sinking into the chair would be a great choice.

Soon, the fifteen minutes passed and were enough for all the desks to be occupied. Shortly after the bell rang, a young, tanned, curly-haired female teacher walked in, dazzlingly smiling at everyone, glad to have them back in class. Daphne unconsciously smiled back.

As the teacher walked to her desk, she checked everyone out, gasping if someone had a new haircut or a generally new look. Once behind her desk, she told everyone to sit back down. Her smile never faded away. As she brought her register out, some of the students from the first row started a conversation with her.

She was very kind—at least from what Daphne could tell. The bright smile fully morphed her face, from her lips to her eyes; she nodded to the students' words, gasped in amazement or laughed in amusement. Once she'd found what she was looking for, she seized moving, resting her chin in her palm and listening to the students' stories. Didn't stop them till they were done.

Yeah, she was the teacher everyone liked. The one that cracked the code and could understand teenagers.

Once the stories were told, she finally moved to more serious topics: "So... I hope you all had the best summer holidays anyone could wish for. Hope you all enjoyed yourself... and didn't forget to slip school duties in between," at her last words, everyone exclaimed claiming to have done just that with a funny sarcasm lacing their tone. Her accent and voice were very nice, nicer than the one of a hostess wishing a good flight on an aeroplane. Laughing and asking for silence, she finally started the roll call and, as she did so, Daphne tried her best not to turn around, left and right, to see who was answering the calls. Soon it was her turn and she froze as if she'd forgotten it would eventually happen.

A shy grin crossed her face as she lifted her hand to signal her presence. The teacher warmly beamed making her feel a bit better until her eyes dropped to the students on the left who swung their heads around hearing the new surname.

"So... Daphne, what a nice name. I'm Professor Shannon. Would you like to present yourself to the class? Say a thing or two... or nothing if you wish," the respondent nervously laughed and got up from her seat, "Erm, hi, I'm Daphne. I'm 17 years old. Erm, I like reading, dogs and flowers, any kind". Once she was done speaking, she smiled at the teacher looking for permission to sit back down without knowing that the teacher was still a bit curious: "Is there a reason you moved here?" the bright smile was still imprinted on her face.

Daphne leaned forward on the desk with the help of her arms, processing a sentence in her head. "We moved town. I used to live in the city but we moved here and now live in the same compound as my grandparents. I'm honestly grateful because the distance always prevents us from visiting so now I can catch up on all those missed opportunities," the teacher nodded, commenting on how important grandparents are and how one should treasure their love. With a quick signal, she allowed Daphne to settle back down as a class conversation about her comment started.

By the end of the hour, Daphne discovered that she taught english. The bell rang and the teacher greeted everyone and left. Immediately some boys gathered around Cleo and Daphne's desks. They were mainly there because of Cleo but could use the chance to greet and present themselves to Daphne.

"Hey, Cleo. How have you been doing?" the first one asked, sitting on her desk. Daphne almost flinched backwards at the act but seeing that Cleo didn't show any concern she guessed she was close with them which was proven when they all started high-fiving each other. Once they were done greeting Cleo, they moved to Daphne who was startled but tried to hide it under her smile. "Daphne, is it?" the same one from before asked, leaning his hand forward for a handshake, "Yeah. What about you?"

"Dominic but you can call me Nick," Daphne nodded, shaking hands with him. Almost all the boys managed to present themselves before a serious-looking teacher stormed in.

"Everyone, you may sit down," he sternly spoke. "He's Professor Keeley. A bitch I tell you. He gets off on our suffering," Daphne inspected the described teacher while leaning towards Cleo's whispering voice. "Is he like... the type to assign impossible tasks?" Daphne whispered back for more confirmation. Cleo nodded before they turned forward sensing that too much silence had settled down. They feared everyone heard them for a moment but silence was just the only thing Professor Keeley could work with. Unlike Professor Shannon, he didn't roll call but scanned the register with his eyes till they landed on a new surname.

"Rhodes?" he inquired, lifting his gaze, piercing eyes landing on Daphne once she raised her hand. Her voice was nowhere to be found. She hoped he wasn't going to ask questions about her because she didn't want to speak—besides he didn't look like the one who'd be interested for any reason at all.

The heavens heard her prayers. He simply looked her from her to toe—or at least what he could see from his position—and went on with his life. From Daphne's right, Cleo complained about his manners, thinking that it was inconsiderate of him to be so cold with a new student. Daphne was happy though, a happiness that faded away once she'd discovered he teaches physics. Physics was the only subject she couldn't ace—or at least to her liking. She struggled with it, and being taught by a teacher like the one in front of her scared her.

—Now playing: Blue Flame by Le Sserafim✫

The bell rang five minutes to ten, signalling break-time. Everyone stood up. Some dashed out of the classroom, others went over to a friend at the other end of the class while Mr Keeley was minding his business at the computer.

Daphne barely had the time to look at her surroundings before Cleo dragged her out of the class. "Let's go get something to eat," she spurred. The halls were crowded at best. Students leaned on windowsills, others were getting snacks at the vending machines, and others were walking to or from somewhere—never forget that some were making out in a corner.

"You down for snacks or do you want something better?" Cleo asked as they were going down the stairs. "I want some coffee right now," was Daphne's reply. Her friend Cleo smiled, emphasizing that going to the bar was the best option for a good coffee.

Shiny feather-white tiles as flooring and brown wainscoting covered the bottom half of the milk-white walls. Recessed lighting brightened the building. These were the hallways. On the bottom floor was the bar, by the entrance's right.

"Damn!" Daphne gasped. The line in front of them seemed never-ending especially because behind them more students arrived. "Don't worry. According to what it says here, the next class is IRC and our teacher understands if we come in late because of the line".

—Now playing: Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve✫

Ten minutes and classes would be over for the day but outside didn't seem like day. The dark clouds hovering around in the morning had called for backup and now fully covered the sky, making rumbling noises and quick flashes to lighten the mood.

Daphne was a set of desks away from sitting right next to the window and yet it didn't stop her from looking outside with her chin resting in her palm. On her iPad were notes—with doodles on the side—taken during a very boring philosophy class. Now, don't misunderstand her. She loves philosophy but the professor sitting behind the teacher's desk right now knew all the tricks on how to make everyone's head fall and land flat on their desk.

He had a monotone voice that Daphne suspected wouldn't change even if he was in front of a life-threatening situation. She wondered why he decided to start teaching right from the first day of school. Barely anyone had bought the book yet. He was the only one who had it—plus a handful of students.

Some rustling on her right called Daphne's attention back to class. Cleo was already putting some of her things in her bag, ready to fly out of the room once the bell rang. Two minutes before it rang, Daphne started doing the same, along with two-thirds of the class—her Descartes notes put aside for another moment.

The monotone voice of their teacher went on. He briefly looked up from his book, slurring his words at seeing almost everyone with empty desks but then proceeded without letting his sleepy eyes linger for too long.

The bell finally rang and everyone stormed out monotonously greeting the teacher who simply hummed, taking his glasses off and packing his belongings. As Daphne greeted him, she wondered how anyone could look so done with life freshly out of holidays.

The noise of students exiting the school prevented everyone from hearing the thunders rumbling outside and the downpour that had just begun. Ugh, summer rains.

Daphne and Cleo finally registered the weather once they saw some students racing out covering their heads with school bags which was useless because the strong breeze was blowing the raindrops on them regardless.

As expected, at the parking space was Daphne's father's car. He was inside, obviously, but gestured the girls to hurry up which they did, trying to not slip and fall.

—Now playing: Bamboleo  by Red Velvet✫

Her classmates were nice and made her realize she was stressing over not—although most of it should go on Cleo.

She'd discovered that Nick plays in the school basketball team and is among the best. He knows Cleo because she plays volleyball and they meet in the school's gymnasium. He's very funny and outgoing. Doesn't ponder much on anything really and is the type of student who keeps the class alive and whose absence is felt strongly.

In the group is also James. He's like Nick's right-hand man. Their personalities match a lot and they're best of friends. He doesn't make as many jokes as Nick but the few he makes surely make you cry and torture your stomach.

They're both good-looking. Tall, nice hair, broad shoulders and fit builds. Nick was brown-haired while James was blondez, a blonde that he claims would wash off through the winter and come back only in summer.

The boys that greeted them on the first day of school were a handful but only these two stood out the most—and hung out with them during breaks. There was a third one but he was very tamed compared to the two best friends. His name was Asher. He too was tall, with broad shoulders and a nice build but he was shy—even shyer than Daphne. His academic performance was the best out of the three. Nick and James couldn't care less, they were all about having fun. No wonder Cleo's so close with them.

Daphne matched Asher's personality because they didn't participate with the same energy and would tell the others to go slow with the roasts they'd be doing to random people they'd pass by in the hallways.

From what Daphne understood after her first week of school, Cleo was popular because she was pretty and a good volleyball player. Cleo looked very kind and soft from her looks so it surprised Daphne hearing the burning roasts her friend could make sometimes. She'd laugh hard sometimes because of how crazy, out-of-line, outrageous and hilarious the jokes were.

She didn't talk with the girls other than greeting Valerie and Michelle every time she saw them in the morning. She found it hard to make the first move so the best you could do was smile hoping they'd reply—they wouldn't.

Jams and Nick brought out a part of Cleo that Daphne didn't know existed. In gym class whenever they happen to be in the same team, they go crazy on their opponents and, mind you, no one can hype them up as much as themselves. When they weren't on the same team, it seemed like the remaining teammates didn't exist and they'd play against each other. Daphne and Asher tried to catch up in the heat but it was hard. Asher tried the most. Daphne simply stayed back to laugh at them.

School days couldn't be boring with them in sight.

Despite it just being the first week of school, they had homework to do and some teachers had already programmed the dates for their tests. On Thursday, with Cleo's help, Daphne found when the town's library was and was planning on turning it into her second home.

They only went to school by themselves on Friday because the thunderstorms had moved towns for the moment. It was lovely, Daphne thought. At the time they'd take the bus, it was half-empty. Their personally-assigned seats at the back of the bus were always available. Cleo slept through the journey while Daphne read her book.

—Now playing: Single by The Neighbourhood✫

It was Saturday. Daphne's early bird instincts obliged her to be awake already. She's been so for close to two hours now she spent closed in her room without coming out if not to pee.

She read, updated her agenda, did the remaining homework, cuddled Luke to sleep, arranged her notes, browsed the internet. Everything till she was bored and exhausted. By half-past eight she was finally out of the room to put something under her teeth.

While the coffee brewed, Daphne indulged in an activity she wanted to do since Monday: look for the pretty and astonishing boy who caught her attention.

She typed Jungkook's username, happy she remembered it till today and hurried to the post where Taehyung was included only for disappointment to change her facial expression: Jungkook didn't tag him like she'd hoped. She scrolled further through the posts noticing that he didn't tag anyone on any post.

Clicking out of his posts, she almost did the same with his profile only to be stopped by the highlights. The first was named with an Earth emoji, the second with a two-person emoji, the third with a single-person emoji and the last with a basketball emoji. She proceeded to the second one deducting that the emoji stood for his friends.

She predicted right. The highlight contained a lot of pictures and happily for her, Taehyung was in most of them. Soon she found his profile and showed no hesitation in clicking on it.

He too had many followers but, unlike Jungkook, he didn't have many posts, almost as many as Daphne herself did—the same went with the highlights.

Without noticing, Daphne found herself scrolling through his highlights twirling a hair strand with her fingers. Damn if he was beautiful. She didn't see him all through the week because, from his recent story update, he was still at the beach with his pretty friends.

The smell of coffee quickly brought her back to Earth as she saved one of his posts in her collection too shy to hit the follow button. Laughed at herself for it. If she's too shy to hit a simple blue button, she won't be able to hit on him. She sighed in frustration and proceeded to prepare her latte.

Soon her phone buzzed and Cleo's contact appeared on the screen.

Cleo: get ready Cleo: we're going grocery shopping!!

—Now playing: Like That by Metro Boomin, Future, Kendrick Lamar✫

Music was playing in the car which was fully occupied. Five young people that were just coming back from their holidays.

One hand was on the steering wheel while the other was on the gear lever. As he controlled the lever, his muscles clenched under the tattoos covering it. A curly mullet hairstyle rested on his head. A lip piercing on the right as well as both his ears. His well-defined jaw clenched as he chewed on his gum. He had loose clothes on, from the shirt to the jeans. An all-black outfit matching the person sitting in the passenger seat. She had a black jean skirt on with a lacy black crop top that was momentarily covered by a light cardigan—black as well.

Hair as dark as his but longer and straighter. Lip liner enhanced her lip shape, eyeliner enhanced her eyes and mascara enhanced her lashes. Her jaw was clenching too as she chewed on her gum. Her eyes were focused on the phone in her hands. Legs crossed and hair combed by the breeze blowing through the window behind and next to her.

In the backseat were the last three people. Two blondies and a black-haired one. The first ones were having a conversation without minding about their surroundings. The dark-haired one was cooped up to the window breathing as much as he could to calm the motion sickness that wanted to settle within him. With headphones on, the music he had playing matched his mood.

They'd just driven past their school and were heading to Jimin's restaurant for dinner but the idea of food bothered his stomach further. Next to him, in the middle seat was Adrielle. Along with Jimin, she had the brightest clothes on. A sundress she'd bought just for that summer.

—Now playing: Atomic City by U2✫

"Mama!" Jimin screamed rushing into the restaurant and his mother's arms. The rest walked behind him, smiling at his joy. The woman welcomed all of them back and to have a seat as she got them their dinner.

Taehyung stretched out his body before setting. The stressful journey did his joints no justice. As he did so, his shirt slightly rode up revealing the line of his boxers but also enough skin for Avyanna to tickle. "No, absolutely," his amused stern voice spoke, a tired smile across his face. "See, you're finally smiling. It looked like you wanted to die before," she claimed, sitting next to Jungkook and kicking his legs shot for space. He stubbornly spread them again and forcefully held them like that, laughing at Avyanna's struggle.

"Kook!" Jimin exclaimed before attacking him with tickles. As the three had fun, Taehyung settled down beside Avyanna adjusting his jorts. On the other end of the table was Adrielle with arms and legs crossed smiling and looking at her friends like a mother. "Can y'all stop?" she laughed. Still, they'd just finished with Jungkook and moved to Avyanna who started rolling and tweaking on Jungkook's lap, kicking left and right to escape their grasp. Still, it was impossible because Jungkook was holding her arms while Jimin tortured her with the tickles.

"She's going to pee herself like that or have everlasting tensed abs. Stop y'all," Taehyung laughed. They didn't stop until Jimin's mom came and told them to eat.

When Avyanna sat back up, her hair was all messy, she could barely breathe and somehow felt like Jimin's hands were still tickling her. "This was torture. I almost cried," she panted, grabbing a glass of water, "Honestly wouldn't wish on my worst enemy—"

"And yet, the other day you wished for both sides of my pillow to be warm and they ended up being so. Fucking terrible experience!" Jimin exclaimed dramatically, "That's because you brought that disgusting fish too close to me. It was still alive Jimin!" everyone laughed at her because she sounded like someone who'd survived a close call.

"Okay, first: the fish wasn't disgusting else you wouldn't have eaten it. Second: I did the same to Adrielle but she didn't play some voodoo shit against me," the laughs increased. Jungkook almost choked on his bread making Taehyung laugh even harder.

"She didn't do shit because she was traumatized and her mind went into self-defence mode!"

"Okay, hey! Don't underestimate me. I could always do something. You never know when I could hit, Jimin. Be careful," Adrielle playfully warned, laughing at Jimin's disbelief displayed on his face. "Adrielle, my darling. Don't follow in her footsteps. Violence is never the answer," Jimin said.

"Never swing a live fish in someone's face Jimin! Dis.Gus.Ting!"

⤎ previous page | ❃ | next page ⤏

[kriegertops]

In honor of the home wrecker's bday, and trAsh's continued victim tour, I am back with the second installment of conversations with Sophia!

SB: Hi mom and dad!! Omgeeee...so much has changed since we last talked. I am now proud and out and loud! See my new hat- it says GAY. It's official. And I've just never been happier! I'm sure you saw my Glamour article. I mean, they wanted to do a Q&A style, but there would be too many uncomfortable questions, so I just wrote it. It was very wordy (had A LOT of word vomit) but I just had to speak my truth, you know? Yeah, you're right, I did write a very similar article awhile back about my then husband. But that was all lies, obvi, bc this is actually true love. And I shouldn't be denied my truth. Even if it came at the expense of two little kids. Yes, yes, I know! We've been through this. I did feel bad at first. But I mean, I've been pining over Ash for years now, so when we met up in Cannes last year, I just had to go all out to get her. I can't help it if she's an unscrupulous fame-whore who wanted me on site. What was I supposed to do? Oh jesus, not you guys with the timeline too? I thought you'd be on my side! Look, Ash was totally on her way to getting separated (wink, wink) and it was completely on the up and up. You read her notes app apology, right? She did not step out on her marriage. Anyhoo, I just couldn't hold off any longer. I was going crazy, so we had this long, greasy, raspy, conniving lunch where we planned our escapes. And it totally went according to plan! Well, most of it did. We had our grand entrance at the WHCD. Did you see my ladies' see through shirt! No, it wasn't tacky at all- it was totally appropriate. No, I mean, no one else was wearing a sheer shirt, but she rocked it. Her unwashed grease bomb of a hairdo completely deflected from her shirt, so it was all good. In fact, she's pulled this look off multiple times now. And it's so hot! Yeah, she does have quite a few tattoos. Yes, they totally cover her body. But it's so rad- I get to pretend I'm cosplaying with the Joker- it's the best. I'm getting turned on just thinking about it. Ugh, you always ask about her job! Enough! It's starting to get old. She is not currently employed. No, there's been no real job prospects. Yeah, she is burning through her money pretty quickly. Yes, I do occasionally pay for things (all the time) but she's so worth it. I just know, that in 12 years time, everyone will have forgotten about this and she will be getting offers left and right. Yeah, so her ex is still killing it unfortunately. In fact, she's doing so well, that we've had to employ a new strategy- every time she announces or plugs a new job or endorsement, we drop a bunch of pics and/or passive agressive IG stories to take away attention from her her. No, it's totally not working. But since both Ash and I are hard core narcisists with grandiose personality disorder, we're going to keep doing it. Okay, well I gotta go- they're having a blow out two for one strap sale, and I need to build my collection. Let's talk again soon!

Anon you always make my day with these😂 thank you for this😂

[godesssiri]

Thrifting antiques and valuable vintage.

I have an 8 foot high shelf in my living room. It’s huge and it’s packed full of gorgeous goodies. I would estimate that there’s easily $10,000 on those shelves – a grand a shelf + a bit extra because I have a pair of stupidly valuable vases that I could sell for $3000. Have I actually spent that much to acquire those items? Hahahahahahahahahahaha! No. I’m not rich, what I am is a dedicated thrifter who has learned to pick the treasures from the trash. Here are my best tips:

1.Pick things up, turn them over, look for maker’s marks, snap a pic and do a google image search, with a lot of them you can narrow down when something was made to a 10-20 year time-frame. Is the item heavier than you were expecting? Antiques are often heavier than new productions because they’re using better quality materiel or just more of the materiel because it was cheaper back then. Look for signs of wear, has the paint or plating rubbed off over time? Unless you like that look steer clear of really worn items, the fact they’re so worn detracts from the value and indicates they weren’t that high quality to begin with. You can learn and awful lot just by picking something up off the shelf.

2. Hand painted items. The stupidly valuable vases? Are exquisitely hand-painted. I got them for 30 bucks and almost had a heart attack when I did a google image search. I’ve got several hand painted things that I’ve picked up for cheap and could easily sell for 10 x what I paid for them. Look for fine painting, things that are intricate and detailed, not blobby. There is a HUGE collector’s market for hand-painted Chinese export porcelain that's over about 50 years old at least.

3. Antique books. A lot of people don’t place value on old books and tragically A LOT get thrown in the trash or cut up by crafters (if you are an artist who uses old books in your work, I’m BEGGING you to look at the publication date before you cut the pages out unless it’s already so damaged there’s no saving it). Anything pre-1950 there’s a collector’s market. Anything over 100 years old is officially antique and is a treasure. I have 3 books that were published in the 1700s and the most I’ve paid was $50, one of them I got for $10 – because the sellers didn’t bother to google the title and author and figure out exactly how old the book was. Since at least the early 1800s most books have had the publication date printed right there in the front so it’s super easy to figure out if the book in your hand with a 50-cent price tag is a genuine antique.

4. Pairs. Things are always more valuable as a pair. So, if you have the chance to buy a pair grab them. The stupidly valuable vases are more valuable as a pair – a single sells for $1000. Or if something was once part of a pair and there’s a chance of you coming across another one then it’s well worth it to make a new pair. I will always grab a single foo-dog/temple-lion because I have made up pairs from 2 singles and it instantly increases the value. The same goes for sets of things. I’m slowly putting together a set of 6 Libby cactus margarita glasses and when I have a full set I’ll probably sell them because I need the space and I have other glasses I like better – but I won’t sell until I find number 6 (I’ve got 5 and it’s driving me insane waiting to find the last one) because an even numbered set is worth so much more than an odd number.

5. Solid brass. See above re. picking things up and feeling for the weight. Solid brass is a lot heavier than hollow and is worth a whole lot more. Next time you’re in a thrift store and there’s a bunch of brass pick up different things and feel the difference in weight, you’ll find a huge variance between similarly sized items. The heavier ones also tend to have finer details which is another indicator and quality and value – not always but most of the time.

6. Details. Speaking of fine detail, up until fairly recently the more finely detailed something was the harder it was to manufacture, therefore the higher quality it was, so always keep an eye on the details. Look at how anything that came from a mold is shaped – are the details sharp and clear or are they a bit blurred and blobby, does it have a visible seem? If something is carved is the carving detailed and smooth or chunky and rough? If something is jointed together, are the joins tight and straight or is there a gap or a crooked join? Look closely and see how things have been made. Good quality is easy to spot when you look closely.

7. Be prepared to pay up. Sometimes you’ll come across things that are pricey by thrift store standards but they’re still a fraction of what the item is actually worth. I have a malachite trinket box. I paid $45 for it and was hesitant to spend that much. But I looked it up and similarly sized boxes brand new are about $150. I’d always wanted a malachite box but there’s no way I’m ever gonna spend $150 on one. But $45? That fits into my discretionary budget for something I’d always wanted. I love Majolica pottery, but it is very very expensive so when I’m able to thrift it I’m willing to pay up – thrift store prices are still just a fraction of antique store prices even when they know they’ve got something special and have priced it on the higher side. And I have picked up some incredible bargains, like a plate for $10, when most of the plates in the store were in the $1-$5 range, but if they’d slapped a $20 price-tag on it then it still would have been a bargain because the same plate from and antique dealer would have cost me $50.

8. Know what you’re looking for. If you love a certain type of antique or vintage collectable, then research research research. Create a pintrest board and pin 10 zillion examples of that that thing until you can identify one in the wild just by a 2 second glance. Read up about when and where it was manufactured. If you see it in antique stores for way more than you’re willing/able to pay still go looking because seeing it in person helps you to learn what to look for when you’re thrifting. Look at listings online and read the descriptions, follow online auctions to see what it goes for, so you know when you find it and it’s way under-value, or maybe there won't be many bidders and you can score a bargain. You can search for things on Ebay then sort by sold listings and that’ll tell you what collectors are actually willing to pay so you can make a realistic offer to a dealer who has it way overpriced. I research a lot, and I know to swoop on a Victorian Bristol glass vase for $7 because it’s actually worth $50, or a Famille Rose vase for $5 when it’s worth $80 (I have a vase addiction OK? I’m aware of it, I have no interest in seeking treatment for it).

9. Search specifically and also search broadly. When you’re looking online it’s great to enter very specific search terms because even if you don’t find things you can afford, you’ll learn a lot. And sometimes you do find exactly what you’re looking for at a reasonable price. If you’re willing to put in the time, it’s also well worth it to keep your search terms very broad. One of the antiques I love is Chinese export Famille Rose porcelain. Yesterday I literally just typed ‘Chinese’ into FB Marketplace and scrolled through hundreds of listings because I figured if there was someone out there who didn’t know exactly what it was, they would at least be able to tell it was Chinese and they might have it listed as ‘Chinese porcelain’ or ‘Chinese figure’ or one I found was ‘Weird little Chinese dude’. I currently have 4 figurines on their way to me that are worth about $200 all up and I spent less than $40 including shipping – yes, I bought the weird little dude. I’ll often just type in ‘Antique’ and set a range of how far I’m willing to drive and just see what cool old stuff is available in that range – often people don’t know what they’ve got but they know it’s old so they list it as antique and you can pick up ridiculous bargains cause they don’t see the value in the item and just want it gone but want a few bucks for it.

10. Pick what you love. In the end it doesn’t matter if something is incredibly valuable if you think it’s ugly. I keep the stupidly valuable vases because I love them and enjoy looking at them on my shelf. I could flip them for a profit and if the day ever came that I really needed to then I would. But it didn’t cost me much to have that beauty in my life and I’m gonna keep it until I’m good and ready to let it go. The more you indulge your own tastes the more discerning you become and the more you’re able to spot treasure in the trash. My favorite aisle in my favorite thrift store is the one where the staff shove items that they think are rubbish. I’ve picked easily a thousand dollars worth of antiques from that aisle in the last year alone because they were things that I liked – things that made me go: Ooh that’s something special.

[ereardon]

My Girl [Chapter 2][Jake "Hangman" Seresin x OC]

Summary: Jake Seresin could be the answer to all of your dating woes. He’s the full package: steady job, mature, dependable, attractive to a fault. The polar opposite of every guy your age and he’s everything you’ve ever wanted in a partner. But there’s one roadblock: he’s a single father to four-year-old Ellie. Jake is looking for a level of commitment you’re not quite sure you’re ready to give, and he’s not willing to bring someone into his daughter’s life who isn’t there for the long haul. And even if you are stepmom material, is Jake ready to let someone back in his life while still mourning the recent loss of his late wife? 

Pairing: Jake “Hangman” Seresin x OC [Lawyer Natalie West]

WC: 3.4K

Warning: Age gap, cursing, slight smut, mention of death

Series masterlist here

Please fill out this form here to join my tag list

You couldn’t stop thinking about Jake’s hands. The veins that stood out underneath his tanned skin, his thick fingers that you wanted wrapped around your thigh as he fucked you. It wasn’t until someone tossed a file on your desk that you snapped out of it. 

“Hello? Natalie?” 

You looked up to see Rebecca, another associate, standing above your desk. The two of you had started around the same time and became fast friends. Finance, particularly asset management, was predominantly male so it was nice to have another woman around to cut through the bullshit. 

“Shit, sorry,” you said, grabbing the folder and pulling it onto your lap. “What’s up?” 

Rebecca smiled and perched on the edge of the desk, crossing her mile long legs. “OK spill. Who is he?” 

You blushed and tried to hide it with the folder, but Rebecca pulled it away from your face. 

“Seriously, tell me,” she said in a whisper as a partner rounded the corner. Once he was out of earshot you two rolled your eyes. Patrick Donnovan was notoriously anti-socializing and he had been the last partner to sign on for both of your hires. He was, to put it lightly, the worst. 

“His name is Jake,” you said and Rebecca tried to hide a squeal. She had been with her boyfriend Harris for almost five years and told you repeatedly that she had to live vicariously through her single friends. “We met like three weeks ago at the grocery store. He’s so fucking hot, Becks, you wouldn’t believe it.” 

She kicked her feet in their stilettos and you laughed when one crashed against the filing cabinet under your desk. “Do you have pics?” 

You shook your head. You’d tried to stalk Jake on social media, but he didn’t have an Instagram or even a Facebook. It only served to underscore the age difference. But then a thought popped into your mind and you grabbed your phone. “Wait,” you said and Rebecca leaned over as you pulled up Instagram and searched Top Gun’s flight school. There was one page, largely educational, but you scrolled down a few times to a group photo, Jake standing in the back in an olive green flight suit and a pair of aviators. You pressed your finger to the screen. “There, second from the right.” 

“Holy shit,” Rebecca said, prying the phone out of your hands and zooming in with her finger. “I would leave Harris on the side of the road if this man ever even looked in my direction.” 

You laughed and wiggled your fingers and she reluctantly gave you the phone back. “There’s one thing though.” 

“Oh God, there always is, isn’t there?” she said. “Alright, what’s his red flag?” 

“Less of a red flag,” you replied. “More baggage I guess? He has a daughter. Her name is Ellie, she’s four.” 

Rebecca’s eyebrows shot up. “A kid? Wow.” 

“I know.” 

“Have you met her?” 

Another head shake. “No, but he wants me to. On Thursday.” 

Her eyes went wide. “That’s huge.”

“I don’t know shit about kids,” you huffed, tossing the folder onto the desk. You grabbed the to-go coffee cup from near your keyboard and gulped down the last third of it before tossing it in the trash with a sigh. “What if she hates me? What do I say to her? What the fuck do I bring as a gift?” 

“Gift?”

“Oh didn’t I mention?” you said. “It’s her fourth birthday party that he’s invited me to.” 

“Holy shit,” Rebecca said, leaning forward and letting out a small cackle. “Wow this guy is really into you if he’s inviting you to his daughter’s birthday.” She paused. “Wait, what about the mother?” 

“I literally never thought about it,” you said quietly. “He just told me two days ago. I was so caught up in the whole kid thing I didn’t even think about his ex-wife.”

“So he’s divorced?”

“I just assume so. I know shockingly little about his personal life apparently.” 

Rebecca stood and smoothed out her dress. “You should just ask. It’s better to know than play games in your mind and get yourself all worked up.” 

“Ugh, you’re right.” 

“Also the ICID contract is ready for review, that’s what’s in the folder.” 

You slumped back into your chair as she walked away and pulled up your last message exchange with Jake. Part of you wanted to bail on Thursday, but you knew what message that would send. Instead, you pulled up Google and searched for the closest kid’s activity store. 

***

The next night, the doorbell rang just as you were flipping a load of laundry. You squinted at the fluorescent clock on the microwave. It was after nine. 

Cautiously, you tiptoed down the hallway and peered through the glass pane to the side of the door, saw Jake standing there bouncing from leg to leg. 

You swung the door open. “Jake?” 

“Natalie, hi,” he said. “Can I, uh, come in?” 

“Of course.” You opened the door wider, ushering him in. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to your cheek and you smiled. “What’s up?” 

He looked nervous. Or more accurately, he looked frazzled. You were starting to see a pattern. His shirt was rumpled, the ties on his sneakers were a bit loose and his hair looked like he had been running his fingers through it. “Ellie’s sick, so I have to cancel tomorrow night.” 

“Oh no,” you said, reaching out and placing your hand on his upper arm. “Is she OK?”

He shrugged. “I think it’s the flu, but her fever is pretty bad.” 

You looked around. “Wait, where is she right now?” 

“She’s at home with a friend of mine. She’s sleeping, I had to run out for more medicine and thought I’d stop by on my way to tell you in person that I’m really sorry.” 

“Honey,” you said softly, “there’s nothing to be sorry about.” 

He raked a hand through his hair. “I just, I didn’t want you to get the impression I chickened out or something.”

You smiled. “Jake, no, of course not.”

“Because I like you a lot, and I do want you to meet her,” he added. There was a pause. “But I am worried I kind of jumped the gun.” 

The moment the words left his lips you felt relief flood your body. “If we’re being honest, I was a little nervous,” you said and you watched the tension melt from his features. “Maybe we hold off for a little while? I feel like you and I are still just getting to know each other.” 

He nodded, his tanned face softening into a smile. “I think you’re right.” 

You shifted forward, winding your arms around his neck and Jake grinned, one large hand coming to your waist as he leaned down to kiss you. His lips were smooth and he kissed with an intensity that made every inch of your body ache with yearning. You wanted him, desperately, small mewls escaping your mouth and you felt Jake chuckle against your lips. 

“God, you’re sexy, Sugar,” he whispered, one hand dipping lower, squeezing your ass. “Whining like that when I kiss you.” 

Pulling back, you smiled shyly and Jake traced a finger over your cheek. “I can’t help it,” you said softly. 

“Never apologize for that,” Jake murmured, dipping down and pressing a quick kiss beneath your ear, his hands now on your sides, thumbs grazing the undersides of your breasts. You pressed your thighs together, knowing you weren’t wearing a bra and he could feel the soft curves beneath his fingertips. When he pulled away, there was a dark lust in his eyes. “Sweetheart I want you so bad, but I really should go. Wish I could stay longer.” 

You gave him a soft smile. “It’s OK, I understand.” 

Jake kissed your temple and turned to the door, but you stopped him. “Wait! One second, I have something for you.” 

He paused and you rushed off to the guest bedroom, emerging with a small pink backpack. It was glittery, and you had asked the workers to embroider Ellie’s name in cursive at the top near the handle. You had filled the bag with games, books, a few toys, a fuzzy blanket, and an assortment of candies that you hoped Jake would let her eat. You didn’t know Ellie, but you could just picture an adorable little girl with Jake’s features wearing the glittery backpack on her small shoulders.  

“Here,” you said, rolling it forward and giving Jake the handle. “For Ellie, when she feels better.” 

Jake looked down at the backpack, the big ribbon bow you had tied on the top handle, and then up at you. For a moment, you thought maybe he was disappointed in the gift. “It’s more than just a backpack,” you rushed to say. “There’s games and stuff inside. I don’t know what kids like, Jake, I’m flying a little blind here, I don’t even have nieces or nephews….” 

His hand dropped from the handle and he stepped forward quickly, pulling you into his arms and cutting you off mid sentence. His hands cupped your face as he leaned down to kiss you. When he pulled away, you saw the small creases in the corners of his eyes as he smiled. “You’re fucking perfect, did you know that?” he whispered. His eyes were trained on yours and you felt yourself melting under his touch. 

“Go,” you murmured, pushing him playfully. “If you keep looking at me like that there’s no chance I’m going to let you leave here tonight.” 

Jake laughed and pulled away, biting his lip as he grabbed the backpack and looked back at you. “I’ll call you tomorrow?” he asked softly. 

You nodded. “Goodnight, Jake.” 

You watched him sling the small pink backpack over his shoulders as he walked down your driveway to his Range Rover. Somehow it was the sweetest, sexiest thing you had seen from him yet. Your lips tingled where he had touched you. 

You were down bad for Jake Seresin.

***

Jake called the next night right at ten. 

“Hey,” you said, setting the phone down on speaker next to the stove where you were stirring a pot of pasta. “How’s Ellie?” 

“Took her to the doctor today,” he said and you heard the exhaustion in his voice alone. “It’s the flu, but her fever was really high so I’m just watching it. If it gets really bad for a longer duration we have to go to the ER but I think she’s on the mend.” 

You set down the wooden spoon on the top of the pot and breathed out a sigh of relief. “OK well that’s good. Keep me updated?” 

You could hear the gentle squeak of a door opening on Jake’s end, like he was checking on Ellie. After a moment, you heard him walking. “I’m sorry again for canceling,” he said. 

“Jake, God, do not be sorry. Poor Ellie being sick on her birthday.” 

“I know, I feel awful.” 

“You’ll have to make it up to her.” 

“Definitely. And she was really excited about the funfetti cake,” he said softly and you smiled. 

“Wait so that cake mix you were buying when we met was for her birthday?”

Jake let out a chuckle. “I had to do a practice run. I’ve never baked a thing in my life and I didn’t want to ruin her birthday by making something inedible.” 

“You’ve never baked before?” you asked, straining the pasta into a colander in the sink. 

“Never. That was always her mom’s thing. She was a lot better at that stuff than I was.”

You paused and so did Jake. It was the first time he had brought up his ex in the conversation. You weren’t sure where to take it from there. Biting your lip, you grabbed the phone and turned it off speaker. 

“Jake…” you started and he quickly cut you off. 

“Sweetheart, I should go, I can hear Ellie fussing in her room. I’ll text you, OK?” 

He said it in such a rushed way you wanted to believe him, but part of you was convinced it was a lie. Something you couldn’t argue that would get the both of you off the phone so he didn’t have to explain his divorce to you at that moment. “Yeah, of course. Goodnight, Jake.” 

“Night honey,” he said softly, ending the call. 

You leaned back against the countertops, the steam of the pasta fogging the window above the sink. 

How could you ever live up to the woman Jake had, at one point, chosen to marry?

***

Jake’s house had a wrap-around porch and three rocking chairs in the front. You settled on one as Jake shut the door quietly, carrying two wine glasses and an uncorked bottle of red. He sat down on the seat next to you, placing the glasses and bottle down on the small table. 

“Thanks for coming to me,” he said, pouring you a glass of wine and holding it out. 

Your fingers brushed his as you grabbed the stem of the glass. “Of course. Your house is really nice.” 

Jake leaned back in the chair. “I always loved the idea of a front porch. My grandmother’s house had one, and we’d sit out there at night after dinner, talking, playing cards. It was always the best time.” He looked over at you. “I promise someday soon I’ll actually invite you in.” 

You smiled. Ellie was asleep inside. Jake was supposed to have a babysitter, one of his coworkers, but they flaked and instead of canceling your date he had invited you over after Ellie’s bedtime for a drink. “I’m going to hold you to that.” 

It had been six weeks since you first met Jake, but sometimes the way he looked at you still made you feel weak. 

You had also yet to sleep with him, which only served to magnify the sexual tension.

Part of you was worried it had something to do with you. But the reasonable part of you knew that between his work schedule, your hours at the firm and Ellie, there just wasn’t much time to sneak in alone time let alone naked alone time. 

You stood up, wine glass in hand, and leaned against the railing of the porch, looking out. Jake’s house was on a hill that sat above a park and small wooded area, highly irregular for San Diego. It was a breath of fresh air, literally. 

“How was work?” you asked, turning around and Jake gave you a soft, tired smile from his chair, taking a sip of wine. 

“Long,” he sighed, putting the glass down and coming to stand in front of you, his large hands on your waist. You could feel the warmth of his fingers on your skin between where your shirt rode up and the top of your cutoffs. “I don’t want to talk about work,” he whispered. 

“What do you want to talk about?” you replied quietly. 

“Are we dating?” he blurted out and you looked up in shock. Jake seemed embarrassed, the tips of his ears growing pink, and his hands fell from your waist, one hand running through his hair nervously. “Shit, I didn’t mean to say it like that.” 

“What did you mean to say?” you asked slowly. 

He pushed his hands into his pockets. “Well that’s what I wanted to say, I just intended to make it come off a lot more casual and cool,” he murmured and you laughed, which caused his eyes to light up. 

“Well I don’t know, are we dating?” you said. 

Jake tilted his head. “I like you, Natalie. A lot. I’m not seeing anyone else. I don’t want to see anyone else. But if you are, I would understand.” He looked back at the house before turning to you. “I’m asking a lot of you. To wait to meet Ellie. Everything we’re doing is on my schedule and I’m painfully aware of that. You’re young and beautiful and so intelligent and I just want you to know that I care about you and I respect your time.” 

You reached out, stroking one hand down his face. “You could have just said yes,” you whispered. “But that was much better.” 

His lips met yours as you tugged on his shirt collar, pulling him forward, his hands gripping the porch railing on either side of your body as you leaned back against the white wood, feeling the railing dig into your lower back. When you broke apart, Jake grinned. “Will you be my girlfriend, Natalie West?” 

You smiled. “I think I already am.” 

Jake’s lips were back on yours, and you tugged gently at this hair before attaching your lips to his neck, drawing a moan from Jake’s mouth. His hands slid beneath your shirt, cupping gently over your bra and you found yourself rubbing your core against the knee he had slotted between your legs. 

You pulled your lips from Jake’s mouth, dropping your hand to his belt and fumbling with the buckle before sliding it open and pulling down the zipper. Jake groaned and pitched forward, and you palmed him over his boxer briefs. He was hard, and massive. You tried to hide your surprise as you reached down further, brushing over the full length of his cock. There was a small wet patch at the tip of his cock, and you rubbed a small circle over it, causing him to twitch. Just as you were about to slide your hand below his underwear, Jake reached out and grabbed your wrist. 

“Shit, wait,” he said softly and you looked up in surprise. “I, uh, there’s something I need to tell you.” 

He redid the zipper on his shorts and pulled the belt together, taking a step back and inhaling deep. 

“I haven’t had sex since my wife passed away last year.” 

“What?” You didn’t mean for it to come out as loudly as it did. You both turned and looked at the house through the front window for a few moments to see if there was movement in the hallway, that Ellie had woken up, but it was clear. “Sorry, what?” you repeated, softer. 

Jake sighed and ran one hand down his face. “My wife Lizzie died last November. I haven’t really dated anyone seriously since.” 

“Jake,” you whispered. You weren’t sure if he wanted to be touched or held, but that’s all you wanted to do. Hold him and brush your fingers through his hair. “I’m so sorry.” 

He shook his head but you could tell he was getting choked up. “It’s been hard, you know, with Ellie. And I just, I haven’t really wanted to date anyone else.” He looked up. “Until I met you.” 

You stepped forward, taking his hands in yours, feeling his fingers curl around your own. “Thank you for telling me.” 

Jake gave you a light squeeze. “Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” 

“Don’t be. You told me when you were ready.” 

He rubbed his hands over your forearms. “It’s not that I don’t want to be intimate with you, Natalie. I do, I really do. It’s just, I’m so out of the loop on how this works. I haven’t dated in a decade. Lizzie and I, we got married really young. She was the only woman I ever slept with.” 

You could feel your eyes boggling out. How could someone as ridiculously attractive as Jake have only slept with one woman in thirty-five years? 

“Am I freaking you out?” he asked quietly and you heard the sadness and anxiety in his voice. “God, I’m scaring you away aren’t I?” 

Reaching up, you pressed your hands to his face. “Jake, no. I’m not fleeing for the hills. I’m not wearing the right shoes for that.” 

He laughed.

“You’re a really rare kind of guy,” you added. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone like you before.” 

“Is that good or bad?” he asked. 

You smiled, draping one arm over his shoulder, Jake’s eyes locked on yours, his hands gripping your waist tightly. “It’s good. It’s really good.” 

When he sealed his lips on yours, you knew that even if you had to wait six more weeks or six more months, Jake Seresin was the kind of guy worth waiting for. 

Tag list: @xoxabs88xox @hotch-meeeeeuppppp @abaker74 @novagreen04 @townmoondaltwistle @rosiahills22 @indynerdgirl��@entertainmentgal8 @misshoneypaper @topguncultleader @double-j @amortentiadrops @double-j @hangmandruigandmav @momc95 @minamisulemisa @shawnsblue @blue-aconite @brehonodea @crthurston @angelbabyange @jason-toddsthighs @secretsicanthideanymore @entertainmentgal8 @starkleila @boringusername3 @mandylove1000 @lilyevanswhore @mizzzpink @showmethewayhomehoney @lovingjakeseresin

[togasbloodbag]

Flustered

TW(s): Boys kissing,

When one late afternoon beach reunion with the Bakusquad quickly turns to Denki getting interrogated at dinner, and a sweet gesture from an insomniac.

6:20 pm

Kaminari had just arrived at the beach with Sero, quickly finding Mina and Kirishima already there with their stuff set up.

They all greeted each other, happy to finally see one another after so long. After all, since the group had all become pro heroes after high school, they had rarely been able to get more than a quick "Hello" in when they happened to cross on patrol.

Sero, Denki, and Mina wasted no time before getting in the water, splashing around and playing like old times, before Bakugou and Kirishima got in with them.

After a while, the group got out of the sea and started drying off.

While everybody else talked amongst each other, Denki was too busy staring down at his phone, poorly hiding a smile that was creeping onto his face.

He stared down at the picture Shinsou had sent him, his face slowly getting more and more red.

Insomniac 💜: Like the picture? Their putting it for the cover of a magazine or something. I guess they got it from one of my photo shoots. (Click here to see the pic- Nothing bad, I promise, just mans looking fine af)

Denki quickly replied with a "Absolutely", taking a quick picture of himself still slightly wet from the ocean, his hand carding through his hair to keep it out of his face.

He sent it to the male, his head popping up from his phone when he was tapped on the shoulder.

"Come on Denki, grab your stuff, were going to dinner!" Mina insisted, catching a glimpse at his phone as she looked down at him. She raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"Oh- Okay!" He exclaimed, happily jumping up from his spot on the ground and grabbing all of his stuff and following the group as they started walking.

8:52 pm

After the very eventful car ride in Kirishimas Jeep, the group arrived at the fast food restaurant.

Once signing a few things and beginning to eat, Mina started up a very interesting conversation topic.

"Soooo.. Have any of you picked up a date yet? I'm curious to see if any of you actually managed to get a love life-" Mina asked, giggling as she saw Denki's face go red.

"Oooooo!! Who have you been seeing Denki? I saw you sending a picture to someone early-" Mina teased, laughing to herself.

"I- uh. I'm not seeing anyone! How would someone as brain dead as me be able to get anybody?!-" Kaminari hurriedly replied, looking out the window beside him to avert eye contact.

Kaminari was glad Sero interrupted their conversation, asking Bakugou something Denki couldn't exactly hear, which caused him to bark back a response and storm off to the bathroom, Kirishima following him shortly after checking his phone.

Now that 2 of his friends were gone, he was left with Sero and Mina interrogating him.

"Are they hot?" Mina inquired, taking a sip of her soda.

"Mina, I'm not-" Denki was cut off by one of Sero's questions.

"Dude, he couldn't pull a trash can, I have no clue what your talking about-" Sero interrupted.

"Guys, I'm not dating a girl!!-" He exclaimed, instantly pausing and turning red once he realized what he just admitted.

Mina and Sero both looked at each other before laughing.

"Babes, we've known that you like guys since 1st year-" Mina explained, giggling again with Sero.

"Wha-" Denki looked puzzled.

The 2 then explained how obvious it was that Denki was gay, going into very odd details that Kaminari didn't even know about himself.

They continued talking after Kirishima and Bakugou came back, wrapping everything up and heading their separate ways around 9:50 pm.

10:04 pm

Denki had just arrived at Shinous house, knocking on the door.

It was quickly opened, the purple haired male standing in the door way with a small smile.

"Shin!" Kaminari exclaimed, hopping up and down a second before wrapping him in a tight hug. "Hii!!"

"Hey, baby.." He replied, his smile growing a bit wider as he hugged back. "Missed you."

"I missed you, too!" He replied, letting go of the hug and walking into Shinous house. "Shinnn, my back hurts!-" He complained as he set his bag down, letting out a yawn as well.

"C'mon then.." He replied, walking into his bedroom and sitting on the edge of the bed.

Denki squealed and happily walked into the bedroom, sitting in the middle of the bed.

Shinsou scooted over next him, sitting down behind him and pulling him closer.

Kami happily took his shirt off without even being told too, showing his bare back to Shinsou.

Hitoshi began rubbing small circles with his thumbs into the back of Denki's neck. He worked his way up and down the males back, asking a few questions like, "How was your day?", and such.

Denki's eyes began fluttering closed, his speech becoming slightly mumbled as he grew more exhausted from the males back massage. "M'day was.. good.." He let out a long yawn.

Shinsou chuckled and slowly layed down, pulling Kami down with him. "Let's go to bed, baby. It's late and you look exhausted." He insisted, holding Denki in a comforting grip from behind.

Kaminari silently nodded and within about a minute, he was dead asleep, soft snores being heard from the male.

Hitoshi smiled and soon joined Denki in his slumber, the two sleeping the night away in a warm and safe embrace.

HEY GUYSS!! SO I KIND OF DIED FOR A BIT 😭 BUT HERES A LIL FIC I MADE FOR SHINKAMI- I LOVE THEM SO MUCH- ANYWAYS, HAVE A GREAT DAY LOVELIES!! 💜 ALSO LMK FOR PART 2??

[siphersaysstuff]

LOCKTOBER!

It's "Locktober", a month entirely about Dinobot leader GRIMLOCK! I mean, what else could it be? So let's close in on some of the plastic toys of the Autobot warrior who simply won't be restrained in this month's batch of Patron-backed @tfwiki pictures!

Sadly, I don't have wiki-worthy samples of the first Grimlock toy, G1 or G2 (also I'd want all 3 G2 decos represented). But here's the Action Master, the fourth release of the character in the original toyline. He came with an "Anti-tank cannon" partner/drone (bonus pic!).

Robots in Disguise 2001 Grimlock, named to secure the Trademark, is one of the most awkward Transformers toys ever made. Them arms, man. This yellow deco was a Hasbro exclusive, released in a post-RID 4-pack of the entire Build Team on Black Friday 2003. Thank you for preserving the name.

The only Unicron Trilogy Grimlock wasn't even originally supposed to be in that series! The Energon Grimlock & Swoop toys (who can combine into Mega-Dinobot) were originally meant to be in the concurrently-running Universe line, but got shifted to the combination-centric Energon.

Grimlock was a natural choice to be in the very limited 2006 Classics line, though him being a Deluxe baffled many. Still, for my money this is a great redesign. I can just see him biting down on a Decepticon, pinning him to the floor, and transforming to stand directly on top of him.

Grimlock made a splash in Animated, though his role and number of toys ended up being pretty limited overall. Still, aside from the big Voyager toy, there's the smaller Activator version, with a partially-spring-loaded conversion activated by pressing the gold button on his dino-butt.

Shattered Glass Grimlock started as a brainless beast. But the pre-convention "prank" comic pages by @therobotmonster and myself portrayed him as highly intelligent and verbose, inspired by the Brain Gremlin from "Gremlins 2". Which went over so well that's how he ended up in later SG stories!

Weirdly, it took some time for Grimlock to show up in the Kre-O building-brick line. The first were Age of Extinction sets, including one with an inexplicable G1-based build and Kreon in the "Grimlock Unleashed" set! G1 Grim also showed up in the "Kreon Class of '85" San Diego Comic Con 2015 exclusive set.

Speaking of Age of Extinction Grimlock, one of the oddest toys of this version of the character is this Walmart-exclusive redeco of the ten-year-old Energon Cruellock mold! The "energon star" accessory has been glued into place to hide that the toy lacks its "spark crystal".

And speaking of weird Grimlocks, Angry Birds Transformers! The app's still going, what the hell? It briefly had actual toys, which included this Jenga-branded "Optimus Prime Attack Game" set with a Grimlock Bird Jenga frame! And yes, this thing is in the mobile game. In both, the goal is to knock out as many tummy bricks and pigs as possible.

The large "Hyper Change Heroes" 3-Step version of Robots In Disguise 2015 Grimlock is possibly the perfect-scale dino-mode toy compared to his teammates' Warrior-class toys (def a bit too big in robot mode)… but ooh, does he take a big hit in robot-mode posability and accuracy from the waist down.

Cyberverse "Spark Armor" Grimlock came with a "Trash Crash" dump truck that forms incredibly bulky armor for him. Interchangeability of the Spark Armors has not been extensively tested to the best of my (admittedly limited) knowledge on the subject.

Of course, G1 Grimmers gets loads of merch. He's currently the only TF to have two wholly-different molds in Super7's ReAction retro action figure line, with both robot and dino mode figs. This G2-colored (but not G2-symbol'd, boo) figure was one of many, many Target exclusive ReAction figs.

Let's end on the "ultimate" G1 Grimlock (well, non-Masterpiece version, though one can argue which of those two is truly "ultimate"), Studio Series! He came with a semi-posable Wheelie figure, so when his price point was inevitably budget-cut, the "partner" fig could be dropped, a sacrifice so the later Dinobots could still afford AN accessory.

If you enjoy these stomps through Transformers toy history, you can help out by joining my Patreon at "gregstfwikipics". Every little bit helps get more pics out a month, plus at higher pledge tiers you can even pick a theme!

[yensunflowers]

so i saw this post about how modern nhs would use his phone as a equivalent of a fan. and tricking people into thinking he's not listening when is. and i added my own 5 cents and now i have a drabble! unspecified modern au with nhs as wwx's and jc's problem radar because it's not the gusu trio if they don't get themselves into some problems! unedited + written late, i might expand this au later... maybe

He was a party soul, honestly. He loved going out and spending time with people, listening to music, dancing, and anything but spending time studying. And it was no surprise that Huaisang was now sitting on someone's couch, in someone's house, he didn't really know the owner– But a good party wasn't happening every day! 

"...nah, no, we'll deal with him quickly."

He was alone though, with only his phone to keep him company. But it wasn't a problem really, he hadn't checked his Instagram feed for an hour now, so he had plenty of things to waste time on. Until someone comes up to dance with him. 

"Are you sure?"

He sighed. It would be great if someone did... Despite all his love for social media and all, he didn't really want to spend this whole night just on his phone, listening to the party noises. 

"Obviously! Come on, he's just a fucking brat who thinks he's in power now. All bark but no fucking bite."

His finger stopped mid-scrolling, his attention caught by a photo posted by one of his friends. Eh, Jiang Cheng wasn't a person to post anything often, so it was a big occasion! He tapped the screen twice and quickly opened the comments section. 

"I don't know, he seems strong... he beat up two people at once."

He typed a short comment about the photo and how shocking it is to see him active at all, before closing off the app. Though, he was even more surprised to see that almost instantly he got a notification back. 

"But they were unprepared losers. I'll get the old man's people, get some knives or something and we will fucking deal with the fucker."

It took him no time to open direct messages with Jiang Cheng, seeing that he was online. He was bored, alright? And Jiang Cheng was the perfect person to text! Well, maybe because he was sometimes funny to tease... 

"...you want to kill him?"

He texted him about how he was at some boring party and had no one to dance with, he had no one else to bother in other words. As if Jiang Cheng cared, was the reply. 

"Nah, wouldn't risk jail because of trash like him. Just stab him to show who's actually in power and that's it. A warning, you know."

Nie Huaisang sighed heavily and clicked out of the app again. He stared at the screen for a moment and opened the camera instead. He posed to the camera, opting for the same, well known pose he had in most of his party photos. 

"I don't want to deal with his brother if anything serious happens to him, though." 

It took him a moment to actually make a good photo, good quality, and all in this party lighting, but he looked super cute! He opened Instagram again and posted the said picture. He couldn't be bothered with a good caption, so instead, he just put the first emoji he had in his recent ones and tapped "post". 

"Ha! As if he cares about this annoying orphan... He will thank us for dealing with him, watch it."

And then, he opened his direct messages with Jiang Cheng again. 

you: you better watch ur brother btw

jiang cheng: why

you: [pic]

The photo was showing two guys sitting near the couch Huaisang was occupying. If they were a little less obnoxious and not so fucking loud, maybe he wouldn't hear their full conversation and their plan would succeed, but, well! Maybe if they cared about their surroundings more. 

you: ive been listening to them talk for some time

you: and they might be out for wei-xiongs blood

you: this time literally 

jiang cheng: fuck

jiang cheng: what the fuck 

you: take care, you two

Nie Huaisang tapped out of the app and raised his eyes from the phone. His gaze lingered on the two men, talking loudly and drinking some random liquor he was sure wasn't even party sponsored until his phone screen went black.

Well, he should sit around for some more, maybe. Who knows what else he would accidentally hear? He pulled out his earphones. This is going to be a long, long night it seems.

[papirouge]

You still can't get over that white man from the bear??!! 🤦🏾‍♀️ Smh my head and you have the gall to tell other black women to "uNLeaRn YoUr BLaCk MaLe wORsHIp" while literally salivating over that ugly ass man! But he's white so it's fine!!! He's different!!!! In fact, I've never seen you express attraction towards bm even once, only yt ones... I see how it is. lmao. White men aren't any better than black men and you'll realize that one day, no matter how much you trash "muh pookie and rayray" that yt man is not going to pick you!!!

me : *makes a post of a TV where I weep about a CHARACTER that was once funny*

your schyzo ass : *makes a tirade about how I "salivate over White" men*..yeah- totally normal reaction here.

...which also shows how TRIGGERED how some of you are at Black women expressing romantic /sexual interest for non Black men 🤭 you guys are so sensitive

And yeah, there's definitely a difference between unlearning male worship (actively defending men and defending men perspective) AND finding (some) men attractive (which is a passive occurence). For the record, I'm a straight women, it's compulsory for me to occasionally find men attractive, regardless of their race. Deal with it.

And I genuinely don't understand why I owe you publicly displaying my attraction towards Black men on my blog. I'm not a pickme so you won't see me frequently post pic set thrist traps of attractive men, but when it happened, I actually remember it was not always white men (yeah bc you guys act like there were only 2 races of men on this planet - just wait til you realize some black women have a preference for men who are neither black or white 🤯)

"white men aren't better than black men" Well, when it comes to killl black women in DV White men are statistically the safer & better bet. Cope.

I also heard the longer lasting mixed marriage in the US were white man and black woman but I need to (re)chek my source on that.

"the yt man isn't gonna pick you" this weird fearmongering is getting so old 🥱 you really think black women genuinely interested in interracial dating struggle to find non black men (to marry)? I've seen my sisters & friends date men outside of their race plentiful of times. One of them is married to a white man and had children with him.

The very few times I get approached it was by non Black men - for some reason people (even black men) assume I'm into White men💁🏾‍♀️ while I ironically NEVER disclosed my dating preference (let alone online) lol

Fun fact : in my country, it's an open secret many rightoid moids date/prefer black women. One infamous rightoid is MARRIED to a Black woman from the same ethnicity as me lol and before that he also dated a black woman from the same ethnicity. Dude openly stated had a type (Black women). So if rightoid white men openly profess their attraction to Black women, you REALLY think it would be impossible for regular men to do be attracted by us as well? If anything, the reputation pf Black women to be extremely race loyal (more than black men who date out MORE than their female counterparts) is what discourage non Black men to shoot their shot with black women. It's fascinating to see you guys act like the act ot rejection solely came from non white men, and that black women weren't themselves entertaining this image of "i date Black men only" that wreck any of their chance to get approached by non Black men. Why? Because you are OBSESSED humbling Black women and that now seeing the tide turning, gaslight us into believing that we have no chances or opportunity with non Black men.

I already see it coming and you'll soon screech about fEtichIzAtiOn but let's be honest : aren't Black men fetichizising Black Women already? Talking about being "thick", their (BBL'd grotesque) butt size, almost like animals.... But when it's Black men talking about preferring let's say Latina or Snow Bunny it's just a "preference" (no fetichism)? BUT GOD FORBID A WHITE MAN PREFERS BLACK WOMEN AND SUDDENLY HE'S A FETISHIST INTO SLAVE PLAY!! puh-lease.. we're tired.

We've all witnessed how your kin got ANGRYat the viral "black wife effect" thing. And let me tell you : it's just the beginning ☺️ black women burned the cape, broke free from race loyalty trap, and now go where they are appreciated. And those non Black men love them so much in return they're willing to level up power 10000000

We love to see it 🧡