#actual radioactive hazard of a couple

[boyquiet]

what if two femcels got married

[thycheshirecat]

More Vivos (+ Some Extra Funsies)

Got yet another batch of drawings for y'all, including some new vivosaur ideas that I'm stoked to share with y'all.

First up we have Jinfryx, a Fire attribute vivosaur based on Jinfengopteyx, the Golden Phoenix. A small relative of Troodon that had the ability to fly. This would be a vivosaur with amazing support potential, both giving off high support effects and also having powerful utility moves to give any allies a much needed boost in battle.

And from some of the best support effects to what may end up having the absolute worst we have Saurax, a Neutral attribute based on the maybe allosaurus or maybe its own fellow, Saurophaganax. I wasn't originally going to add this dinosaur to my list because of how many large carnosaurs the game has already, but I recently found out the bones of this guy are actually heavily radioactive, and I couldn't pass up the idea of a radioactive vivosaur now could I! This guy of course would be able to dish out poison and even infection with its skills, and while the vivosaur itself isn't going to give you radiation sickness just by standing next to it (don't want to be letting a real health hazard into a fair fighting tournament now do we), its support effects sure do make allied vivosaurs feel like that's what it's doing.

BONUS

I'm gonna be starting a secondary series where I take selected Super Evolver vivosaurs and give them personal touchups, while still keeping the core concept of the vivosaur alive. Starting with Bulgon and Marple, two chibi vivosaurs who while cute, I personally think could've been made even better with minor adjustments, in Bulgon's case it was just a case of it trimming away anything that made it distinctly feel Tsintao related (i.e. the crest). So I decided to give it a sharp horn in the touchup in order to evoke the same vibes that the crest did, while also still being different enough from Tsintao for Bulgon to feel like an actual upgrade.

Marple on the other had does a fine enough job of looking like a Plesio Super Evolver, but it's hard to see any of the floral patterns due to its solid yellow colouring, and therefor the design looks a lot more bland that it actually is. That being said I could not resist the urge to turn Marple into a marketable plushie so the little guy did end up getting a bit more of a notable change, with pink flowers and added stiches and orange bits to make it pop a bit more.

Will probably at least draw every single Super Evolver even if some of them don't receive touch-ups, there are a couple like T-Rex Lord, Lugmos and Ryden that I honestly think were basically perfect for the animal they represent, but still look pretty fun, if a but dauting to doodle. As for recolour SEs I'm honestly not sure what to do with them but I'll figure something out eventually.

[marypsue]

Hello!! At the risk of sounding quite whiny I’ve got the rona and am quarantine and I was wondering you any sneak peek Sunday/Tuesday itd bits you could share?

Not whiny at all, anon! I'm sorry to hear it and I hope for a speedy and complete recovery for you! Have a dash of Max and El friendship from former heroes.

...

“You’re sure he’s not coming back here?”

El nods her head. Her bangs are sticking up over the top of the borrowed bandana she’s wearing as a blindfold. Even with her eyes covered, Max gets the eerie feeling that El’s looking right through her. Like Max isn’t even there. Or maybe like El isn’t. “He’s…stopped driving. There’s a sign. No…” She frowns, and the drop of blood under her nose threatens to drip onto Max’s carpet. Max hands her a tissue, and El presses it to her nose. “No Tree- Tress…”

“No Trespassing?” Max asks, and El nods. “Great. Then he’s out getting baked in the woods behind the lab with that loser Tommy. He won’t be back for a couple hours.” She grins, and leans over to turn off her boom box, which has been blaring static noise at them for the last five minutes. “Perfect.”

“What are we looking for?” El asks, pushing Max’s bandana up onto her forehead. It makes the ends of her bangs stand straight up.

Max shrugs. “Anything that looks Russian, I guess. Come on.”

She puts out an arm to stop El before pushing open the door to Billy’s room, ignoring the KEEP OUT sign on it just as surely as Billy’s ignoring the No Trespassing – Government Property sign at the lab right now. “Careful what you touch. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of Billy’s garbage is actually radioactive.”

El frowns the frown that Max has come to know as ‘storing a new word to look up later’.

“Radioactive,” Max repeats. “Hazardous to human health. Like nuclear waste. Or the contents of Billy’s trash can.” She thinks about that for a second, and adds, “Oh, and if you see a tissue or a sock crumpled up somewhere? Do not touch it.” She shudders. “Trust me.”

El looks at her with solemn horror in her eyes, and nods.

Unfortunately, there are no convenient letters written entirely in Cyrillic or mysterious envelopes full of cash or anything lying around. Billy’s room is a veritable buffet of nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Also, it reeks of cheap cologne, smoke, and teenage boy sweat.

“Ugh,” Max says, slamming the drawer of Billy’s bedside table on the stack of dirty magazines inside. She’d leafed through all of them, just in case Billy’d tucked secret Russian correspondence in between the pages thinking nobody’d look there. But all she’d gotten for her trouble was an eyeful of a whole bunch of tan, lean, half-dressed women who all seem to be contortionists, and (disgusting!) sticky fingers. And the information that Billy’s got a Playgirl stuffed way in the back of the drawer, hidden behind the Maxims and Penthouses. Max is storing that ammunition for future use, if necessary. Billy will probably kill her for snooping in his room if she ever has to use it, but. Mutually assured destruction. “This is getting us nowhere.”

She leans back against the bedside table, crossing her arms as she thinks. “If I thought Lucas could get anywhere near Billy without Billy trying to murder him, I’d say the best way to find out would be to just ask Billy and see if he lies, but…”

El looks up from the heavy metal cassette she’s been studying with all the apparent focus and concentration of an archaeologist examining a mystery object pulled from a grave site. “Billy tries to kill Lucas?”

Max huffs in the back of her throat. She almost chokes on it. “Has tried. When you left to close the Gate, last fall?” She hugs herself, and then remembers what must be on her fingers and winces, holding out both hands at arm’s length. “He’s a homicidal nutcase. You really won the stepsibling lottery.” She looks around the room again, at the total lack of incriminating evidence, and makes up her mind. “And I have to go wash my hands.”

El puts the tape down and follows Max into the bathroom in thoughtful silence. Max is just drying her hands off on a towel when El asks, apparently out of the blue, “How do you deal with Billy? When he…” She seems to struggle for the right words for a moment, before saying, “When he’s trouble?”

“It’s been a lot easier since I offered to nail his nuts to the floor,” Max says, and El’s eyebrows shoot up. “Sorry. That probably doesn’t help you. Sara’s probably fluent in languages other than violence.” She pushes open the bathroom door, leading El back out into the hall. “Why? Is something going on with her?”

It takes El until they’re all the way back in Max’s room to answer that.

“No,” she says, just when Max is starting to think she’s not going to answer at all. “I don’t know.”

El spins the silver bangle on her wrist around once, twice, three times, before she says, “It’s not – with Will and Jonathan. It wasn’t…” She waves a hand through the air, frowning in frustration, like she’s trying to brush away the cobwebs between her and the words she wants. “Like this.”

“Like it is with Sara?” Max asks, and El nods. “Okay, but that wasn’t the same situation, either, was it? I mean, yeah, you kind of live with Will sometimes, and his mom looks after you…but he and his brother don’t come stay with you.”

“Will stays over, sometimes,” El says. “When you all do.”

“Not the same. And Hopper hasn’t been looking after them, not the way Mrs. B does for you. Right?”

El frowns a little more, putting her head a bit to one side as she chews that over. “Right.”

“But Sara’s living with you. She came out of nowhere, you barely know her, but suddenly there she is, sharing your house. Sharing your dad. Sharing your life.” Max gives her head a shake, flopping onto the bed. “Of course it feels weird. It’d be weird if it didn’t feel weird.”

El lowers herself onto the end of Max’s bed, carefully folding first one leg, then the other, so her ankles are crossed and her knees stick out to either side. She grips her ankles with both hands and leans back a little, still frowning thoughtfully at nothing much in particular.

“But I do know Sara,” she says, after what looks like the most careful consideration she’s maybe ever given anything in her life.

“Yeah, now. And living with somebody’s always different from just knowing them. Trust me.” Max rolls her eyes. “You don’t really know anybody until you’ve run into them coming out of the bathroom in their underwear in the middle of the night.”

El gives that a dose of consideration, too, and then a solemn nod.

“Joyce helped me make Hop a robe. For Christmas,” she says, a slow smile blooming over her face as she leans toward Max like she’s going to share a secret. Max leans toward her, too, listening carefully. “He needed it.”

Max tries, and fails, not to conjure the mental image. She gives an exaggerated wince and a shudder, and El laughs.

[c-130jsuperhercules]

okay rant on dark souls poison swamp got too long

like. one of the ways people fault darks souls 2 is that Miyazaki wasn’t very heavily involved in it. But apparently, looking at the other games, ds2 was even better for it. Like, take each games obligatory poison level, and i know i’ve ranted about this before, but holy shit. Dark souls 1, blighttown. the top part, fantastic, once you get past all the frame dropping issues. the verticality of it, the complexity of it, the way it makes you change up your play style, love it. The bottom tho? the bottom of blighttown? i will die on the hill of how bad and boring it is, not that anyone reasonable would kill me for it. You get past this amazing level of spooky mosquitos coming after you, evil dogs, stupid fucking toxic dart shooters, elevators, the whole nine yards only to get to the bottom and be introduced to Walking Simulator but it Hurts 2011. And, you have to keep going back there if you want to finish like three or four npc quests. 

DS3? Ohh, now there’s a miyazaki poison swamp alright. This time, he didn’t even put a blighttown before it, and don’t get me wrong, road of sacrifices is a pretty decent level, but it wasn’t blighttown with five extra years of thought put into it. this time, we’re spared the npc quests in favor of having a fuckton of items(one or two of which you do need to grab for an npc quest tho). I will give ds3 that it does have better enemies in it than ds1, tho. rock throwing fucko got nothing on the elder ghru. And we can see that this time, FromSoft heard people say “ohhhhhh the poison at the bottom of blighttown almost killed me so oftennnnnnn, it was so annoying to have to mitigate for the sake of some npcs and a couple items” and decided to just drop the poison damage down to fucking nothing. I have genuinely not used a poison cure item out of necessity in ds3 everrrr. At least the boss fight that came afterwards was badass.

Dark Souls 2. Now, i may be biased, but i do believe Harvest Valley is the best poison “swamp” between the three. Here, poison is actually a danger, but there’s enough items around and in a small enough area that it feels like holding your breath to dig around in a radioactive treasure chest, instead of wallowing through the equivalent of a prostate exam if the guy you’re elbow deep in suddenly decides to kegel really hard and twist. Instead of standing ankle deep in poop water, you at times are wading through a toxic miasma, that sticks to your skin and continues to make that poison meter rise unless you use several poison mosses to wait it out, use a cleansing spell, or bathe! BATHE you can fucking bathe by rolling in water. Poison even does about five times more damage, compared to ds3, simultaneously making poison builds viable while making the entire way they approached poison different. Instead of it just being a status effect that puts a little timer on how long you can trudge around for, it is an actively threatening experience, you have to cure it as soon as possible or you will be facing some heavy losses. The devs, recognizing that, made it so it’s not an ever-present, yet mild hazard, but something more akin to a trap from ds1 sen’s fortress. And that’s not even getting into earthen fucking peak

Earthen fucking peak is one of my favorite areas in any souls game. It’s unorthodox, it’s fun, it’s vertical, it’s surprising, i love it. There’s several hidden doors, headless fucks, women you can make out with(but watch out), an old shifty fuck who makes ladders, you see pate again, elevators, hidden rooms, and the main advantage it has over blighttown(in addition to being a larger, more fleshed out level with a lot more stuff going on), is how well the boss at the end ties it all together. When you get through Blighttown, you face Quelaag. When you get through farron keep, you face the Abyss watchers. Neither of these bosses share a connection with their boss run except by lore. Mytha, the Baneful Queen, tho? Not only is she a headless snake lady, akin to the headless manikins and the poisoned area, but her boss room is almost filled with poison that heals her if she stays in it. However, if you set fire to the windmill(which you can find out how to do bc a npc summon will help guide you and point to it and cheer when you do it) below her boss room, the poison stops getting pumped up there, making the poison ring around you smaller, and the boss fight that much easier. Like fuck yeah! That’s what i call interesting level design! That’s what i call sticking to a theme! Not to mention, you kill her deeply devoted and in-love-with-her servant on the first floor, then go upstairs to meet her, so the entire is a metaphor for cuckolding.

[the-firebird69]

There's a lot of people in Charlotte county who are completely ignorant of her son's situation and they don't need to be out and about bothering him they should try and learn and we don't care for that either it's stupid you don't know anything about it sitting here griping and talking out loud and people start beating you up you can't figure it out it's a miserable s*** and Garth was here knocking radioactive dust on to himself what a proud person that is. And he's not aware of it it's probably about 17 rad but it sticks to him and he's going to be glowing and he could be brought in for being hazardous people say it too if we catch you glowing we're going to grab you and you don't actually go but they can see you when a meter

--there are several other things happening there's road construction on the highway that goes by our son's byway or Little road it's really just a small Street all those people are out there fighting because the delivery was dropped off and he's not there right now and it usually happens and it is despicable that they do that and we don't like them for it it's going on right now and we are going to help in this afternoon and things are picking up and he's getting tired of living in detestable places and not having any money at all but he's bearing with it and he's doing okay and today is doing better spent a bunch of money and it'll show on the account it's not as much money as he thinks it's probably $2,000 so far out of the 10 so it's kind of where it usually is but he's got to pay rent so it'll be a thousand less and it's no big deal and we'll start trying to save again and he paid down the credit card a lot and he's going to continue to until it's paid off and boy it is thinking pain. They just did not want the business. He's going to have a brand new ebike and 3 to 8 days or something and it's nice it holds 400 lb and he says no it's 500 lb it's true it's because the motor is 1500 w and has thick metal on it and the rest of it is built for it and he's going to be heavier it's really nice that he was able to do it a couple other items

--the ski helmet that he bought it has optional insulation you can remove it it's also made for impact on most bicycle helmets are not it's not snell approved but if you got in an accident he would be okay. And people are encouraged they're trying to make a reading system people encouraged to trying to make a reading system for helmets is not the case they are leaving it alone. But they should not the bicycle helmets are worth nothing you need to get a skateboard helmet other helmets don't have it and you have to be careful you're not just getting a crappy plastic it's really thin it's like 184th of an inch it doesn't do anything and some hockey helmets have almost an eighth of an inch of plastic and it's somewhat pliable and it's hard to puncture it has some give to it but it is a lot stronger and safer than the other material. More shortly

Thor Freya

And the helmet looks like a bicycle helmet this time yes and it's not bad for me I like it and I can wear one like it maybe

Hera

Olympus

[somanyants]

Fun chemistry fact: Raw uranium ore (pictured above) poses at most a negligible radiation hazard. Natural uranium is composed of 99.3% uranium-238 the non-radioactive isotope while U-235 the radioactive isotope composes the last 0.7%. It only becomes an exposure hazard once enriched. I have a couple coworkers who work primarily with uranium salts and they don’t need any special radiation precautions. Uranium actually has a very high natural abundance (more common than silver or gold by orders of magnitude) and aside from mild toxicity (similar to lead) is really nothing to be scared of!

Compilation of people holding things that shouldn't be held, please add more if you have any

[sugaxjpg]

infamous; m

⤷  You would rather die than to have someone figure out about your sexual escapades with Local Fuckboy, Kim Taehyung. It was an ego thing. 

✓ Couple: Taehyung x Reader | Fuckboy!AU & SecretRelationship!AU

✓ Filed under: smut 

✓ Look out for: bathroom sex, breast play, oral (male receiving) + deepthroat, fingering, dirty talk, unprotected sex (use condoms or i’ll kill u!!!), mirrors,switch!tae and switch!reader, taehyung being lowkey a prick but we’re all in for it 

✓ Words: 12,508

Author’s Note: Of course my year-long hiatus would end with a smut. What else can I say? I can hear the clown music from here. 

“Like, can you actually believe that? He ghosted me for three weeks, then he had the nerve to ask for a tit pic.” She sighed, taking a slip from her neon green drink. You didn’t know how Hyejin could ingest something that resembled toxic waste and make it seem like it actually brought her some sort of comfort. “You know what? I’m done with men. All of them. We really are living in the medieval ti— Are you even listening to me?” 

You blinked twice, taken off guard by the clicking of her fingers in front of your eyes. Truth was, you were only half present, the other half of you scrutinizing the living room, trying to find a certain someone amongst the agglomeration of bodies. 

“Yeah, sure, sorry,” you apologized, leaning your side against the wall. Behind Hyejin, two guys started yelling about something related to Harry Potter and you couldn’t care less. “I was somewhere else for a second, but I’m here now. You were saying that he ghosted you?”

“Yeah, like an absolute idiot.” She rolled her eyes, gesticulating aggressively. You nervously watched the movements of the radioactive cup, worried that it would splash all over your clothes. You really should’ve thought twice before combining a white blouse with your black skirt — that was a catastrophe waiting to happen. “I’m never talking to him again. Or any man.”

“Hm,” you hummed, crossing your arms. You didn’t know who she was trying to convince, that must’ve been the fifth time you heard your friend giving you that speech (during that semester alone). “Who’s that again? Hoseok?” 

“The one and only,” she agreed, glimpsing at her side as if someone could even hear you two amongst the loud reverberation of the music. “Really, I don’t know how those guys haven’t been thrown out of the campus yet. They’re a hazard, all seven of them. A threat to public health.”

You shrugged. “From what I’ve heard, they pay their tuition and do well in class. That’s as far as the college cares.” 

She groaned. “I guess.” Another slip. A pause. Another one. Yep, you were designated driver for the night. “Could be worse, though, I could be one of the poor chicks that Taehyung fucks in his spare time.” 

Oh. 

You giggled, nervous. “Yeah, yeah,” you agreed, looking back at the mass of students. “Yeah, that’d be awful.” 

She hummed in concordance, taking her cup back to her lips. The two guys behind her decided to quit the arguments and moved away from the two of you, making you follow their figures as they dissipated amongst the crowd. You didn’t know how college parties managed to squeeze so many people in one small living room, but it was one of the mysteries of life, you guessed. 

“I don’t know what’s the deal with that one,” Hyejin continued. “It’s like he has a golden dick or something.” 

You furrowed your eyebrows, turning your attention back at her. “What do you mean?” 

“Doesn’t matter, he’s a complete douche.” She moved her hand as if she was scaring away an invisible fly. “Don’t even think about him. He’s the kind that uses and discards people.”

“You think so?” You asked.

“I know so,” she said. “I couldn’t even count on my fingers the amount of girls that had one night stands with Taehyung, and somehow became completely whipped by the dude, only to be told that he doesn’t ‘fuck the same person twice’. Like… What the fuck is that? Who says that?”  

You laughed, noticing the tinge of red that covered her cheeks. “You sound really drunk.” 

“So?” She asked. “I’m not bullshitting you. Taehyung is a prick and that’s gospel.” She raised her cup in a silent cheer, and took another slip. “I know you’re not involved in the fuckboy phenomena that plagues this campus, and, honestly, you’re better off that way. But trust me when I say that he isn’t worth the headache.” 

With an inattentive nod, you took another peek at the strangers in the room. “I believe you, don’t worry.” 

The worst part? You did. 

Even worse? There were two things wrong with what she had told you. 

Number one: yes, Taehyung was kind of a jerk sometimes. But he wasn’t completely soulless. He was fun to be around, actually, when he wasn’t surrounded by his smooth-brained friends, or trying to impress someone into sleeping with him. Also, you were pretty sure he told at least most of those girls that he wasn’t searching for anything serious, and a one-night stand was most likely all that they would get. 

You couldn’t speak for all of them, of course, but the ones that you knew personally, at least, had mentioned something along those lines to you. He didn’t exactly lead them on, trying to break their hearts just for the sake of it. Besides, Taheyung was already kind of infamous around campus for “using and discarding” people, as Hyejin had put, so it wasn’t precisely a surprise for anyone involved. 

Number two: Taehyung fucked the same person twice, if he felt like it. And you knew that because you’ve been fucking him on and off for the past five months or so. 

To your defense, you weren’t exactly after a “secret friends with benefits” relationship when you first met him. In fact, you didn’t expect that you would fall victim to his charms just like everyone else, melting under his tender kisses, moaning his name as he rolled his hips against you, edging your orgasm for longer than you could hold it. And you didn’t expect to like it as much as you did. 

Truth was: Kim Taehyung was everything, but he wasn’t dumb. He knew that he was attractive as hell; he knew that he had a voice so silky and deep that just saying the right words would be enough to have you in bed with him — and he knew how to use two two things very well. So, just like Eve, you followed the snake and bit the apple, and blah blah blah, eternal damnation or something like that. Big deal. 

You didn’t care much about being fuckbuddies with Taehyung, actually — he had his fun with other people in the meantime, and so did you —, but you pretty much could die at the idea that someone would find out. It was an ego thing, alright? You didn’t want people to know that you were interested in him, since you prided yourself in being a strong, independent woman, and to have people think that you were wrapped around his finger (which you absolutely wasn’t!) would not be a good look for your personal brand. 

And it got more complicated than that. The thing was that Taehyung had always been one to flaunt around his trophies. It wasn’t unheard of for him to just start talking about someone that he had fucked, maybe even giving a bit more detail than anyone else involved would appreciate. You knew that it was just a matter of time before your name dropped from his lips at the wrong time, in front of his ape-brained friends, and everyone would discover that you were added to his long lists of booty calls. 

So, when you asked to keep that first night a secret, you were surprised when he quickly accepted it. 

Against all expectations, Taehyung didn’t fall into his old pattern when it came to you. He had been the one to text you first, calling you over to his place — which he made sure to be empty — and he had been the first one to suggest that you two kept meeting up after that. Now, let’s not get this mixed up: it wasn’t an undisclosed crush, it wasn’t love. It was just Taehyung fulfilling some weird-ass kink of his. He liked to have you when he wanted it, the way he wanted it, and he liked the thrill of it all being undisclosed — to him, it felt like you two were doing something wrong, which managed to turn him on even more. 

Also, you were human, alright? There was something extremely tempting about sleeping with someone as almighty as Kim Taehyung, King of Fuckboys, especially when he kept coming back to you. It’s only nature to want to feel special every once in a while. 

Again: it was an ego thing. 

Even if your pride told you otherwise, you decided, again and again, to come back to him. Late at night in your apartment, when your roommate had already gone to sleep, and he was buried deep between your legs, licking your wetness and sucking on your clit. Or maybe in the interval between your classes, when you two managed to get the locker rooms empty, and he fucked you so hard against one of the lockers that you could swear someone would come see what was going on with all that banging against the metal. 

But no, no one ever caught you. Not Hyejin or any of your other friends. As far as you were aware, Taehyung’s group didn’t know a thing either, which made you appreciate him even more. 

See? He wasn’t a total douchebag. He had the most basic sense of loyalty. 

And, yeah, you didn’t like lying to your friends, but it was a necessary measure. You were sure they would kill you if they found out about your private escapades with the Local Fuckface McGee: half out of sheer panic for your emotional well-being, and the other half out of pure jealousy. You didn’t think much about it most of the time, since you kind of understood Taehyung’s side: you simply liked the thrill, and you weren’t actually doing anything illegal. No one really had to know.

Rupturing the bubble of your nostalgia, your friend’s voice startled you back into reality. 

“Who are you looking for?” Hyejin furrowed her eyebrows, staring you down intensely. She had been your friend for three years, and you were absolutely certain she could see through your bullshit — well, most of the time. “Do you have a dick appointment that I don’t know about?” 

You laughed, your voice coming out an octave higher than you intended it to. “What? No!” So subtle, congratulations. “I’m just searching for a friend. She owes me a bit of money and she’s been avoiding me for some time.” 

You were impressed at the ease that the lie left your tongue. At the same time, you had been doing that for five months now — keeping your distance from mentioning anything Taehyung, figuring out excuses to get away from your friends at the weirdest of times — , so you guessed that was something that came with practice. 

“You want me to beat her up?” Hyejin offered. Just a glimpse was all that you needed to know that she was dead serious. “Give me her name. I promise I just wanna talk.” 

“No, it’s fine,” you said, chuckling at her aggressive demeanor. “It’s not a lot of money, I’m not super worried. I’m just tired of being avoided.” 

She smirked, taking another slip from her cup. How didn’t the drink end yet? That cup was infinite. “You and me both, sister.” 

Your lips parted, but, before you managed to let anything out, a loud sound of men screaming in excitement overlapped the beat of the electronic song. Hyejin met your eyes with a mixture of puzzlement and interest and, in an unspoken agreement, you two decided to see what the fuss was about. 

Lucky for you, you two didn’t even have to take two steps to figure it out. Since the large opening to the living room was right besides you, all that you needed to do was to take a look through it, right at the kitchen, to see the beautiful, Animal Planet view of Hoseok drinking beer upside down. 

“Hyejin?” You called calmly, eyes still glued to the spectacle.

“Yes, love?” She answered, absent-minded. 

“You know who’s throwing this party, right?” 

She shrugged. “I might.” 

You suspired, taking a step back so you could stare at her. Behind you, people walked towards the kitchen, pumped to see if Hoseok could drink the entire thing (as if he didn’t do that in every single party he throwed). “So, there’s any other reason why you dragged me to Hoseok’s party, besides one that you needed someone to keep you company while you waited to be dicked down?” 

“Great deduction, Sherlock.” She smiled, eyes shining in enthusiasm. You looked at Hoseok, then back at Hyejin. Maybe she wouldn’t have any grounds to judge you and Taehyung after that circus performance. “I’ll make it up to you, don’t worry.” 

“I’m not worried about that.” You crossed your arms. Seokjin, who was holding Hoseok by the ankles, pterodactyl-screeched in joy as the boy reached the end of the beer. Two more slips and he’d be good to go. “You sent him the tit pic, didn’t you?” 

Hyejin licked her lips, taking a hand up to fix her hair. “I’m only human,” she said. “Besides, I had already invested a lot on him. I even did a full body shave. I couldn’t just not do it.” 

You laughed at the idea, watching as she became more and more distracted by the man. A group had already formed around Hoseok, and you knew it was just a matter of when Hyejin would do the same. 

“What happened about being over all men?” You asked. 

“Yeah, yeah… After tonight. Right now I’m planning to get under one.” She gave you her neon green cup with a harsh movement, and you held it without thinking much about it. “I’ll see you later, Y/N. Hold my drink for me.”

“Have a great night, I guess,” you raised the sound of your voice as she began to walk away. “Text me when you get home!” 

She responded without turning back, giving you a thumbs up over her head. “You too, girlie!” 

And, just like that, she was gone. 

Disappointed but not surprised, you sighed and placed your body back against the wall. From the kitchen, a roaring applause exploded, and you knew that Hoseok had finished his Herculean task. Good for him. 

You stared down. The sharp shade of green reflected on the skin of your hands, looking like something straight out of Chernobyl. You took the cup to your nostrils and gave it an experimental sniff, your nose cringing at the appalling smell. Fighting the disgust that had built in your stomach, you quickly took it away from your face, and decided to place it on a table nearby. No wonder Hyejin was so out of it, the poor girl was suffering from radiation poisoning. 

The Chainsmorkers started to play and you asked yourself why the fuck was Satan in charge of the music. All around you, strangers fumbled to the rhythm of the song, a girl even falling to her knees at one bad turn of the ankle, then turning her gaze up at her friends and laughing maniacally. The odor that enveloped you was strong and nauseating — Axe body spray, probably — and the thumping of the sound was starting to get annoying. Since you were alone with your thoughts, there wasn’t much left besides to hyperfocus on those details, which was all but a pleasant pastime. 

You crossed your arms, bored out of your mind, and thought that it might be the wiser decision to go back to your place and just sleep the night off. Yeah, the semester was already ending, most of your tests and projects had passed, but that didn’t mean you weren’t completely exhausted at all the accumulated stress you had endured. Now that Hyejin had moved on with her plan, you didn’t have much of a part to play in that party anyways. 

A couple almost tripped on you as they giggled their way towards the stairs, probably searching for an available room. What a nice reminder. You pressed your lips together, then peaked back at the kitchen, where you only saw Seokjin, Namjoon and Jungkook leaning over a pile of red cups — Yoongi right behind them, seeming like he was about to kick the whole thing down. You didn’t know where Taehyung was, but he most likely already left with someone else. 

You turned back to your previous position, crossing your arms in frustration. Great. Your friend was after her sexting partner, and your own booty call was probably balls deep inside someone else by then. Really, there wasn’t much that you could do in there. It would be better if you just left while your dignity was still intact. 

With a sigh, you pushed your body away from the wall, fumbling with your purse. You were praying that Hyejin remembered to give you the car keys, otherwise you would be trapped in that place for god knows how lo— 

Oh there he fucking was. 

The moment that you saw Taehyung, sitting on the couch across the room from you, it was like you forgot to breathe for a moment. That little demon incarnated looked better than you had anticipated — dressed in all black, with his thighs spread across the seat, ready to be fucked right then and there. His dark hair was parted in the middle, a few stubborn strands falling over his angelic features, and his thumb distractedly circled his lower lip as his gaze navigated around the room, staring at nothing in particular. Next to him, you could see another one of his friends — Jimin, if you were not mistaken — talking about something animatedly, but the other man was paying no attention. 

His expression was one of irritation, you noticed, with his thick eyebrows moving together, jaw clenching. It was pretty erotic, if you said so yourself. You didn’t know what Jimin was telling him, but you sure hoped he wouldn’t stop anytime soon. 

When he saw you, however, Taehyung’s perceived annoyance instantly dissipated. 

With your mind racing in anticipation, you watched as his eyes met your own, then trailed down your body with desire, stopping around the level of your thighs for a bit longer than you had predicted. You knew that stare awfully well — it was the same one that Taehyung gave you when he saw you around campus, the silent provocation that told you, and only you, that he really wanted to have some alone time right now. 

A sly smirk sprouted at the corner of his lips, and he leaned back against the couch. You followed his movements as he reached towards his pocket and came back with his phone, staring at you as he did so. The phantasmagoric white light casted odd shadows over his face as he unlocked it, taking a final glance at your expectant features before he started to type something. Once he was done, he locked his phone and placed it back where it had come from. 

Inside your purse, your own phone beeped happily. 

You licked your lips, trying your best to forge indifference as you reached for your device. You swore you could still feel his eyes still burning on you, impatient and deep, watching your every move with eagerness. 

[00:23] Taehyung: so glad to see that you came bby 

[00:23] Taehyung: do me a favor and meet me in the bathroom upstairs, will ya? Second door to the right ;) 

Yep, new plans: you would stay there a bit longer. 

Hammering against your chest, your heart seemed as if it was about to jump out of your mouth by the time that you turned your attention back to the couch. Taehyung, however, had already gotten up, and you had the chance to take a last glance towards his beautiful form as he walked towards the stairs. Jimin, from the couch, appeared to be as lost as they come. 

From the kitchen, the resounding complaint of the group you had seen before ruptured your hypnotized state — Yoongi had, in fact, kicked everything down. Taken aback by the carnality that permeated your chest, you locked your phone without typing an answer and leaned back against the wall, deciding it would be best to wait a minute or two before following him upstairs. Amongst your thoughts, a part of you was still judging whether you adored or despised Kim Taehyung, and the intoxicating effect he had on you. 

Finally, you decided to take the stairs. You wondered, as you opened your way through the ocean of sweaty bodies and spilling drinks, if you weren’t trying too hard to rationalize and catastrophize something that was actually very simple. It was a story with a start, a middle part, and a satisfying ending: you two wanted to fuck each other, you did, then you moved right on. No hidden feelings, no strings attached. That was it. Couldn’t get any better than that. 

Regardless, it wasn’t everything about that, and you knew it. It was about overhearing other girls talking as you made your way upstairs, complaining about how ridiculously hot he was, or about how he didn’t call them back after he gave them the best night of their lives. It was about having that steamy, trembling secret between the two of you. It was about knowing that yeah, Taehyung was crazy hot — and you could have that whenever you wanted. It was about hearing him complain about his friends, who told him that you’d never give him a chance, and seeing the delectable pleasure in which he vangloriared himself, knowing very well that you and him had a second life to share whenever suited. 

You reached the second floor with electric currents running through your veins, anticipation building like a tidal wave inside your abdomen. You two had never done something like that so close to so many people and, yet, you adored the idea even more. 

The cold metal of the door handle met the palm of your hand and you tried it once, twice, with no effect. After looking at the corridor and making sure that Taehyung was nowhere else to be seen — besides the fact that, if he didn’t manage to get the bathroom, he would surely text you a different location — you were left to assume that he wanted to know that it was you who waited at the other side. 

With a sigh, you took your phone out of your purse. Maybe your fingers weren’t as steady as you’d like them to be, but no one needed to know about that. 

[00:27] You: plz open the door thx

Expectantly, you placed your phone back and tried to overhear some sort of sound signifying that he was moving closer to the door — but the song was so loud that you could barely understand your own thoughts. The next seconds that you stood there, just waiting for him to open the door, had been the longest ones you had endured in your life. 

Eventually, however, the door creaked open. 

You gave one last, paranoid glimpse at the strangers in the corridor, but none of them seemed to notice that Taehyung hadn’t left the bathroom by the time that you came in, locking the door behind you. 

It was like stepping into a different reality. The lights inside the bathroom were absurdly bright when compared to the dim environment that expanded outside; the obnoxious song and chatter had instantly morphed into a muted exclamation outside of the door, only the reverberation of the bass making itself present. Just like the calm before the storm, there was a moment of tranquility between the instant that you locked the door, and the one that you saw him. 

As you turned around, dwelling in his proximity, you thought about a million things at the same time — about teasing him about his location choice, or maybe about how he must’ve been going through a drought, if he had to count on his covert booty call to get laid in a party. You thought about how gorgeous he looked, about how his eyes glistened in interest as he took a quiet step towards you, his roseate tongue coming out to lick his lips. 

Regardless, before you could say anything, Taehyung’s lips were on your own, attacking your mouth in a fervorous kiss. You whimpered in surprise as he pushed you against the closed bathroom door, his hands circling your waist as he squeezed your body against his. Your purse fell on the ground with a muffled sound, but you barely even noticed it. 

Taehyung had always been an intense kisser to say the least, but that night it was something else. That night, he was kissing you as if he physically couldn’t contain himself long enough to do anything else; as if all that he could think of doing was to feel the heavenly contact of your mouth against his, your fingers pulling on the strands of his hair. As he invited his tongue inside your mouth, Taehyung groaned and lowered his hands, squeezing your ass like he was about to lose every last ounce of sanity he had left in him. 

You sighed as he moved his focus onto your neck, placing open-mouthed kisses in a way that you knew would leave a mark the next day. “Someone’s excited,” you commented, slightly breathless. Your only response was another groan, and the rolling of his hips against you, where you could feel his cock, already semi-hard, pressing against your inner thigh. “Couldn’t even bother to take me somewhere else.” 

One of his hands moved up to your hair, pulling your head sideways so he could have a better access to your neck. “I need to have you now,” his deep voice came out muffled against your skin, the reverberations of his timbre propagating directly towards your center. 

“You’re starting to get more adventurous with this.” You bit down on your lower lip and he sucked your flesh, groping your ass once again. “Parties used to be so off limits to you.” 

Taehyung chuckled against your neck, moving back towards your mouth. He started making out with you again, his breath hot and heavy against your face, and you thought you could very well pass out at the level of craving that had built inside you. “I changed my mind.” He spoke as he leaned back. 

You smirked at his attitude. “We’ll end up getting caught.” 

“Aw, baby.” He pouted, looking at you with artificial pity. Okay, he could be kind of a prick sometimes. “You’re the one who’s worried. And you came all the way up here because you wanted to. You know I’m not one to insist.”

“I can leave, then?” You raised one eyebrow, fingers playing with the hair at the back of his neck. 

“You can, the door is right behind you,”  Taehyung told you, quickly losing interest in that conversation. “But something tells me you won’t.” 

You didn’t even try to respond, because there was nothing to be said: both of you knew what you were doing there, and the idea of walking out was just too ridiculous to consider. 

With a suspire, you watched as Taehyung moved his lips down your chest, stopping at the fabric of your blouse. 

“What if someone hears us?’ You suddenly remembered, heartbeat quickening at the thought. 

“What is it, baby?” He asked as his fingers worked on your buttons, exposing more of your torso. That slow pace of his was going to kill you one of those days. “You’re worried that people are going to find out about this? About us?” 

You opened your mouth to respond, but his chuckle — so deep and melodious — caught you off guard. 

“How scandalous, right? Y/N is not the pure little thing she makes herself to be,” Taehyung continued, finally opening your blouse and fully exposing your bra to him. He licked his lips at the sight, humming with delight. “Red lace? You really want to tease me.” 

You swallowed dry as the man took the fabric off your shoulders and gently placed besides the sink, above a towel. He could be so thoughtful sometimes. “Taehyung, I—“ 

“You’re such a little brat sometimes, do you know that?” he interrupted, eyes following his own movements as his hands circled your body, moving to unclasp your bra. And of course he got it right on the first try. “You came all the way up here just to get fucked, and now you’re worried that people are going to know about it.” 

You stared him down, a smirk already creeping up at the corner of your lips. “How does that make me a brat?” 

He chuckled. “Look at you, trying to play the naive card on me.” Another agile movement of his fingers and your bra was joining your blouse besides the sink. Taehyung sighed tentatively at the image of your exposed breasts, trying to imprint that sight into the back of his mind. “Pretending as if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. You can drop the act now, baby.”

“I don’t—“

His mouth attacking your breasts was all that you needed to shut up and let him do what he went there to do. Overwhelmed by the sensation, you let out a gasp as his hand squeezed you, playing with your soft boobs as he moaned against your skin. 

“I love it so much.” Taehyung hummed as he sucked on your breasts, moaning at the marvelous sensation of your warm skin against his tongue. You had almost forgotten how much Taehyung ached to play with your boobs; how often he would squeeze them, suck them; find excuses to feel them against his body. Not that you were complaining. “And I love that it’s all for me.” He breathed out before attacking your other nipple. “All of this… all mine.” 

You whimpered at the contact, arching your back in a failed attempt to get closer to him. As much as you knew he was most likely just saying whatever he thought would turn you on — besides, you two had already agreed on a pretty open “relationship” —, Taehyung’s words expanded inside your chest, building a heat that seemed to suffocate you. Even if you knew it was bullshit, you liked to be called his. Ego strokes and all of that. 

“Taehyung…” There was only a thin wooden door separating you two from the outside world, and you couldn’t care less if they heard you calling out his name. That boy really did wonders to your anxiety. 

But he also liked to tease you. 

He moved away from your breasts and you almost — almost — cried out in frustration. 

Taehyung traced his kisses back to your neck, then to your jawline. You were going crazy with all that back and forth. “Baby, I’m not gonna lie, I understand where you’re coming from,” he said. “I like to keep this as a secret too. It’s so hot.” 

You almost forgot how to inhale when he aligned his face with yours, placing a pec on your swollen lips. “Yeah?” You asked, sounding as if you were in a daydream. 

“Yeah,” he agreed, breathless. Even if Taehyung tried his best to look as he was under absolute control, you knew that he couldn’t keep that front for too long. He was clearly turned on, and the hardness pressing against your thigh was all of the proof that you needed. “It’s so great to know that I have one of the sexiest girls on campus just for myself…” His hand trailed up your thighs, adventuring in the lands beneath your skirt. “And no one knows.”

You bit your lower lip, anticipating the contact of his hand against your core. “I thought you were the kind to kiss and tell.”

“Most times,” he mumbled, gifting you with another small pec. “Not with you. I like it like this. Having you when I want, how I want, and only you and I know.”

But you weren’t satisfied with his answer.  His hand did a turn and decided to make a quick stop on your ass, the feeling of skin against skin making your lower body tingle. “What’s so enticing about it?” You asked. 

He smiled. “Ah… many things.”

Your stare didn’t falter. “I’d like an exemple.” 

Instead of answering you straight away, Taehyung decided to take his sweet time. He leaned his head to the side and kissed you feverishly, growing satisfied at the small whimpers and suspires that echoed in between your mouths. His hands were all over you: on your ass, your waist, down your thighs and up your hips, where his eyes could not see. You only had your skirt and your panties on, and it was so frustrating to still feel him fully dressed against you. 

At last, Taehyung pulled away, placing his forehead against yours. As he spoke, you felt the tingle of his hands as they moved towards the hem of your panties. “I like seeing you walk around campus, knowing that you’re so sore from the night before,” he spoke slowly, his voice in a low vibration against your mouth. “And I know you don’t tell any of your friends about it. About how I fucked you so good that you almost cried, and that it’s the next day, and you can barely walk.” 

You hummed, closing your eyes. “What else?”

Much to your dismay, his hands left your underwear again, coming out to pull you closer. “When you send me those audios late at night,” he was breathing out hard then, drowning in those lewd memories. “Playing with your little cunt, crying out my name… shit,” he cursed. “How am I supposed to say no to that? So there I go, out the door, telling my friends that I’m gonna see this crazy hot chick and I’m gonna fuck her brains out…” he hesitated. “And I just get this... rush because they don’t know it’s you.” 

“And how do you know that I like any of it?” You teased. 

Taehyung chuckled at your question. Both of you knew that it was plastered all over your face, but he could keep up that little teasing if you wanted to. “Two reasons,” he said. “First: you do the same to me, or don’t you?” 

“I don’t recall,” you responded, forging innocence. Okay, maybe you did play the naive part a bit much. 

“Oh no? What a terrible memory you have.” He placed a strand of your hair behind your ear, his words hitting your skin in heated, libidinous waves. Taehyung was so close that you could count his eyelashes if you wanted to, his torso squeezed so tight against yours that you wondered how you even managed to breathe in that position. “It was just last week, baby. You called me to your flat after your roommate had left.” One of his hands went back to play with the hem of your underwear, fingertips feeling like lit matches against your skin. “You opened so wide for me, you were so wet already. You got so horny with just the thought of having my cock, isn’t that right?” 

Much to your surprise, your voice came out a lot more steady than you had expected. “Don’t flatter yourself, you don’t know that.”

Taehyung chuckled, placing his warm, swollen lips against the skin of your neck. “I don’t,” he agreed, digits pressing against your clothed clit. You knew he could feel how soaked your panties had become, so there was no reason to keep that up. Regardless, you kind of liked it. “But I do remember how much you wanted me that night, whining and begging me to fill you up with my cock. How many times did I fuck you that night, uh? Four? Five times? And you just had to keep quiet, because your neighbors might have been listening. That was so cute.” 

You sighed, your insides in knots over the tension you were sustaining. You hated him sometimes. Hated how good he was. “I wasn’t counting.” 

“I know, baby.” He swiftly pulled the fabric of your underwear to the side, his long fingers digging into your wet heat. Memories of them fucking you open flooded your mind, sending a shockwave directly through your torso and towards your pussy. “And this right here, baby, is the second reason. Look at this: you’re soaked.” His digits moved, teasing your entrance, and the sound was so lewd that you had to suppress a moan. “You’re always so ready to take me. I love that. You’re so good to me.” 

God, you were about to lose it.

With the force of then thousand warriors, you held back another less-than-graceful sound from escaping your lips. You knew how much Taehyung liked you being loud (something to do with the adrenaline of getting caught, nothing new to see here), and so you had to keep your cool. It wouldn’t be so fun if you just gave him everything he wanted. 

“So quiet all of a sudden.” His nose delicately trailed up your neck, his mouth meeting the angle of your jaw in hot, open kisses. In an attempt to ground yourself, your hands flew to his shoulders, nails digging through his shirt. You could still feel Taehyung’s fingers playing with your wet folds, seeing how much you could take before you were begging for them to enter you. You hated him. Or not. You didn’t know. “I know I leave you speechless, baby, but I wanna hear you too.” 

Strong and steady, his other hand met the curvature of your waist, pressing your body against his. In a mindless reflex, you perked up your ass at the contact, making his fingers slip closer to your soaking entrance. 

“Nothing? Baby, you’re especially irresistible tonight.” Taehyung’s eyes were somewhat dazed, unfocused and hooded. He appeared as if he was two seconds away from fucking you raw against the wall, and you seriously wouldn’t mind. “You know why I called you here?” 

“Because you want to fuck me,” you responded without missing a beat. 

“I do, of course.” He placed his forehead against yours, and you whimpered weakly as two of his fingers finally (finally!) made their way into your heat, stretching you nicely. “That’s it, baby, don’t hold back.”

Instead of answering, another slow, delicious moan dripped like honey from your tongue. Taehyung grunted, satisfied at your responses, and quickened the pace inside your walls; your eyelashes fluttering shut at the ambrosial sensation. He had told you once about how much he liked that part: knowing that you were getting ready for his cock, but already so eager to cum around his fingers. 

Did he tell you that while he fingered you inside his car? Yes. Did anyone else have to know that? Absolutely not. 

“You know what I was doing before I came here?” His question caught you off guard. 

You didn’t even know if you were able to answer for a second, but, happily, the word didn’t have any issue coming out. “What?”

He took a deep, sharp breath, curling his fingers inside you. You pressed your back against the door at the shock of his digits brushing against your sensitive spot, one of your hands flying to your mouth in a way to suppress a particularly loud exclamation of pleasure. “I was listening to Jimin complain about how much he wanted to have you in his bed tonight,” his voice came out in a harsh tone, full of spikes and pointed corners. “Over and over, like a broken record. He can be so explicit when he wants to. It’s unbearable.”

You bit your bottom lip, rolling your hip against his hand. Your body was starting to tingle, the muscles in your legs turning into jello, and you knew that you wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer. As you spoke, you noticed touches of bliss ornamenting your syllables, your words coming out with a bit more difficulty than before. “Oh, so you’re jealous?” You teased.

“Me? Never,” he was quick to respond, groaning at the feeling of your walls clenching around him; his cock throbbing painfully against the fabric of his pants. “I’m just… trying to change your mind.”

“My mind?” You echoed, only half-aware of that conversation. Pleasure was starting to build in alarming rates, and you were starting to lose your trail of thought. “I haven't even decided anything yet.” 

“After I’m done, baby, you won’t need to,”  his voice came out in a profound whisper, sounding like a sweet melody against your ear. “I’m going to fuck you so hard and slow, so deep,” he stressed that word, making your pussy throb around his fingers at the idea, “that you won’t want to have anyone else for the night. Only me.” 

It sounded a bit like possessiveness or jealousy to you, but, honestly, you chose not to pick that conversation for the night. It was probably some kind of acting on his part too. Besides, you weren’t interested in any of Taehyung’s friends, so he didn’t need to worry about Jimin, or anyone else, making a move — especially when he was fingering you so well that you were about to forget your name. 

“And the best part, baby, is that no one will even know it,” he continued, separating his fingers slightly so he could scissor you. Against your best judgement, your knees were getting weaker by the minute, the knot in your abdomen about to untie. “Just you and I. Just the two of us will know how much you begged to be filled up with my cock, how wet you already are just for my fingers.” 

“Taehyung,” you called out, hands tangling themselves in the roots of his silky hair. You moaned out his name again, your voice coming out in such a promiscuous tone that he felt as if he was about to cum on the spot. God, Taehyung loved hearing the effect he had on you. “I’m close.” 

“I know, baby,” he whispered against your ear. His voice was so hoarse, so permeated by desire, that you knew that he was holding back too. His cock was hard and throbbing against your legs, and every minor movement of your thigh against his erection was enough for him to lose his breath for a moment. “But I don’t want you to cum, not yet.” 

Again, he pulled away. 

Taehyung wanted you to complain, to whine about the lack of contact or the warmness of his body — and so, just because you knew that it was his plan, you didn’t do any of that. 

You didn’t say a word as he moved his fingers away from your wetness, his other hand coming down to grope your ass. You didn’t flinch when he looked you deep inside your eyes, guiding his fingers between your lips, watching as your mouth obediently took them in, humming as you sucked your own wetness, never breaking eye contact. 

“Fuck,” he cursed, drowing in the sensation of your warm tongue licking his fingers. You didn’t think that Taehyung was fully aware of the way that his hips had rolled against yours, fighting for relief. “You’re so fucking hot, it’s unreal.”  

And you knew that he said that praise to every poor soul that crossed his path, but it still managed to have some effect on you. Again: you were human, and Taehyung knew what the fuck he was doing. 

But so did you.

Before he could try and do anything else, you pressed your palms against his chest, gently pushing him a few steps away from you. Taehyung followed your lead, watching as you got down to your knees, facing his erection. 

In measured, lackadaisical movements, you pressed your lips against his covered cock, feeling its handness against your mouth. Air got stuck in Taehyung’s throat as he watched you, like a hungry lion, as you undid his pants and pulled them down, gifting you with the sight of his white boxers. 

Just because you knew he liked it, you moaned at the glorious sight of his big, heavy cock already so hard and ready for you; fingers caressing the tip of his member, where a small stain of precum already started to form. Taehyung was so on the edge that he hissed at the contact, one of his hands meeting the back of your head in a mindless impulse. “Don’t tease,” he warned. 

“Oh, so you can and I can’t?” You leaned your head to the side, and planted a kiss on his cock before looking up at him. May the heavens have mercy on you, because you never saw Taehyung so pissed off and turned on at the same time. “I think I could even make you cum like this if I wanted to. I’ve done it before.” 

“Don’t you dare,” he struggled to get out.

“What? You liked when I did that the other times,” you cooled. “Sometimes you didn’t even need my mouth.” 

He closed his eyes, trying to fight the moan that started to climb up his throat. “Stop.” 

“What? You don’t remember?” You asked, placing another kiss on his member, closer to tip that time. “When I let you grind against my ass in the library? You came just by humping me, pants and all.” 

With a cute smile, your hand squeezed his dick, before moving up and down, following its thick outline. Taehyung was dumbfounded, left to watch as your delicate hands worked on his erection with unbearable patience, his eyes glued to every action that you made — the fluttering of your eyelashes, the innocent gazes that you threw his way every time your lips met the cotton of his underwear. If you kept it up for long enough, he was sure he would cum all over his boxers. 

Still, the gods above had heard his prayers, and Taehyung watched as you pulled his underwear down. Without a second of hesitation, you moaned as your tongue licked him all the way from the base to the top, lips enveloping his crown as you sucked on it ever so slightly. 

“Oh, fuck,” he cried out, fingers pulling on your hairstrands. “That’s good, fuck.” 

You hummed, content at his reaction, and pushed him deeper inside your warm mouth, one of your hands holding at the base of his cock. Beneath your other palm, you could feel as the muscles of his thigh tensed up at the sensation. His lips open slighlty, allowing for a long, erotic moan to echo inside the bathroom as you started to set a pace, sucking him slowly, just like you knew it drove him mad. 

“You’re so fucking good at this, baby,” Taehyung groaned, unable to keep his eyes open for much longer. The vision of him was ethereal: head thrown back, mouth slightly agape, eyebrows forming an expression of sheer pleasure and concentration. You cursed your own eyes as they started to water, preventing you from watching him a bit further. “Oh, that’s right, just like that.. you suck me so well, fuck.” 

The pulsating, unsatisfied sensation of need between your thighs only grew, your walls clenching around nothing and your heart beating fast against your chest. You could taste as his precum leaked inside your mouth, his fragmented breaths and whines showing you that Taehyung also wasn’t made of steel. As much as you’d like to see him cum soon, you also needed to be taken care of.

After a particularly hard suck, you pulled your mouth away from his member, and looked up at him. The lack of contact was all that Taehyung needed to open his eyes and stare down at you, surprised at the interruption of his pleasure.

“Taehyung,” you tried your best to make your voice sound as pure and sensual as you could. His eyes widened slightly at the sound — no matter how hard he tried to make it seem like he was annoyed by that saint act of yours, you knew that it drove him insane. “I want you to fuck me now, please.” 

You watched as his face presented a thousand emotions at the same time, and then eventually settled on the cool, controlled dominance you adored so much. Another surge of pleasure ran down your body, much stronger this time, and the feeling of your soaked panties against your pussy was making you go insane with anticipation. 

“I love it when you ask politely.” He placed his hand on your chin, trailing your lower lip with his thumb. “Get up, baby,” he commanded. 

Without an ounce of hesitation, you did as you were told, letting your body be guided by his large hands. 

Taehyung turned you around and leaned you against the sink, positioning himself behind you. “Back to me, ass up,” he said, “Keep it like this, alright?” 

You nodded, unsure that you could say anything else. 

“Good girl.” Taehyung once again held your chin up, making you stare at your own reflection in the mirror for a second before your eyes traveled towards his. God, he was an absolute mess. In the best of ways. “I want you to look at it.”

Any second now, your legs would give out and you would crash down on the floor — or, at least, that’s the sensation you had. It was unbearable to watch as Taehyung took his time removing his shirt; then your skirt and your panties, dripping them down your legs one by one, his mouth so deliciously close to your heat that you felt like you could faint. 

“So pretty,” he mumbled to himself, watching your pussy with desire. “So fucking wet.” 

“I want to feel you, please.” You arched your back, throwing your hips closer to his. 

“Like this, baby?” With a glorious roll of his hips against yours, you felt as his cock moved in between your folds, his head only touching your clit slightly. The sensation alone was enough to make you perk your ass up at him, a motion that wasn’t left unnoticed by his part. 

He smirked at your reaction. “Such a pure little thing, aren’t you?” Taehyung’s hands palmed your ass, moving like snakes towards your waist, where they held you in place. Another roll of his hips and the contact of his dick against your clit made your knees buckle. “You’re so polite, just asking for my cock again and again… You don’t even notice how wet you get thinking about it, grinding against it. Isn’t that so?” 

You had no option but to agree, lowering your head to look at the marble sink beneath you. “Yeah,” your voice came out in a pathetic whine, but you couldn’t even care about it. You just wanted to feel him inside you. “It’s all for you, Taehyung.” 

“Good girl,” he praised, taking one of his hands to guide his cock towards your opening. Expectant, you held your breath, but he didn’t slide in just yet. “Just tell me what you want, come on.” Again, he leaned in and pushed your chin up. “And look at me while you say that.”  

Obediently, you did. Taehyung was a greek god then. Under the pale yellow lights of the bathroom, his lips were swollen and red, the lower one being bit lightly by his teeth; his entire expression permeated by lust as he dove into the sensation of his cock teasing your entrance. He stared at you like you were good enough to eat, his eyes coruscating with so much hunger that you couldn’t even think about anything else but him. No wonder you kept coming back. His entire presence was engulfing every fiber of your being. 

Maybe Kim Taehyung did have a golden dick, after all. 

“I want you to fuck me, Taehyung,” a sentence had never been so clear, so sincere. From the corner of your eye, you could see your own face, desperate and pleading, as you fumbled closer to his member. “Please. I need to feel you inside me.” 

With a hum, he kissed the nape of your neck. “Whatever my girl wants.” 

And, before you could even think about his words, your thoughts were broken as you moaned out his name, feeling as his big cock stretched you, hitting all the right spots. You had missed that sensation so much, of being so full of him, so hypnotized by the movements of his body against yours, that you didn’t even compute the shuddering breath that departed from his mouth, nor the curse that he had let out once he felt the warmness of your walls around his aching member. 

He thought he could lose his last ounces of sanity as he pulled out just enough to leave only his tip in, before throwing his lips against yours and filling you back up. Soon enough, Taehyung was setting a rhythm, unable to control his comments as he kept thrusting inside you. 

“So tight, baby,” he spoke in a whisper, almost as if you weren’t supposed to hear it. His face in the mirror was the most beautiful sight you had ever seen: Taehyung was so lost in pleasure that his features had morphed into an expression of sheer bliss; all of his concentration directed at the movements of your body, the way that your walls held him with so much desire. “You take my cock so well… Shit, you’re making me go crazy.” 

Taehyung’s breath quivered and he leaned his body towards you, fighting for balance. He had one of his hands on your waist, and the other was holding down to the sink, leveling his figure as he started to thrust into you in that different angle — just as slow, hard and deep as he had promised. 

You rolled your head back once he hit the right spot inside you, your moans going up an octave. “Fuck, right there, Taehyung,” you whined, barely aware of the volume of your voice. To hell with it, the music was too loud anyways. “There, right there, don’t stop.” 

“Here?” He groaned, thrusting in the exact place that made you cry out. “That’s it, baby, let it out.” 

And you wanted to prolong that moment for as long as you could, but, truth was, he had played around with you enough that you knew you wouldn’t last much. Even sucking his cock, feeling as he mumbled and trembled under your touches, had been enough to keep you turned on. Again: you were only human, and the paradisiacal feeling of Taehyung’s cock filling you up to the brim, hitting your sweet spot with forceful thrusts, was a bit more than you could endure. 

“Taehyung, I think I’m close,” you told him, feeling as your arms grew weaker beneath you. It was just a matter of time before your legs started shaking too. “I’m gonna cum.”

“Shh, that’s fine, baby.” He moved your hair away from your back, placing a trail of sloppy kisses on your shoulders. “Come on, cum around my cock. I want to feel you.” 

“It’s so big, Taehyung,” you moaned, closing your eyes in defeat. You could tell that your pleasure was already building up too much, too fast. You couldn’t help it: he was stretching you so fantastically that every part of you was on overdrive, the pent-up tension of the entire night culminating in one long, edging orgasm. 

“It’s all yours, baby, all of it,” he told you, guiding you towards your high. God, his voice was so hoarse, so sweet. “Cum for me, okay? And don’t hold back, I want to hear you.” 

Just like that, you came with a loud moan and the calling of his name in a repetitive prayer, walls clenching around him in a way that made him lose his grip on reality. You whimpered at the pleasure, that now was gradually subsiding, and lowered your body against the marble, feeling how cold it was, how different it was from the rest of the bathroom. 

“That’s it, baby, yeah… That was so fucking hot.” Taehyung groaned behind you, picking up the pace of his thrusts. He was moving you so hard that you could feel your hip bones being pressed against the corners of the marble surface, the dirty sound of wetness and skin against skin filling the ambient. “Look at all this… so wet and tight, even after coming so hard.” 

From the way that Taehyung’s movements started to get sloppier, you could tell that he was losing himself in his own sense of pleasure, getting closer to his own climax. “All of this… all for me,” he moaned out, eyes glued to the motion of his cock coming in and out of your dripping center. “You’re so good, baby. Fuck, I could have you like this forever.”

The pounding of his hips against your ass was getting so intense that you could feel tears accumulating at the corners of your eyes, fingers trembling under the weight of overstimulation. Taehyung had fucked you hard before, but you just couldn’t get used to how fantastic it felt. 

“I’m close,” he cried out behind you, his breath coming out in broken, tremulous expirations. “Can I cum on your mouth, baby? I want to see you swallow everything.” 

You nodded, mouth salivating at the thought. 

“Fuck.” He groaned. “That’s my girl.” 

Taehyung pulled away from you and you moved fast, getting back down on your knees as he guided his cock, so red and swollen, against your lips. 

You opened your mouth to accommodate him, taking his member slowly at first, thinking it would be better to adjust to its size. After that part was done — and Taehyung had already turned into a quivering mess above you — you proceeded to move your head, sucking his cock as hard as you could muster. 

“That’s right, suck it,” he moaned, buckling his hips forward. The tip of his cock touched the back of your throat and you gagged, presenting Taehyung with one of the most gorgeous views he had seen all night. “Fuck, yeah— Take everything, baby, come on.” 

You did, of course. You continued to suck Taehyung with a moderate pace — not so slow that it would kill him, but not so fast that it would kill you — and watched as he started to become undone under your touches. First, it were his trembling thighs, then the weakening of his grip on his head. You looked up at him with blurry eyes and watched as his lips fell open, moaning obscenities, and his eyes closed with intense concentration. It was just a matter of time before he—

“F-fuck!” 

Taehyung spilled in your mouth and you struggled to swallow everything, just like he had told you to, whining at the feeling of his cock throbbing and twitching in between your lips. The discomfort between your thighs had resumed, pulsating inside your core in a silent need, but you didn’t think you’d have the stamina to deal with it right then and there. 

You pulled your head away from his cock when he started wincing with sensitivity. With doll-like eyes, you met his hooded ones, glad to see the satisfaction and appreciation that was plastered all across his face. He always looked so good after sex, you realized, and you felt extremely satisfied to know that his fucked-out, blissful expression was all because of you. 

In a gentle motion, Taehyung placed his thumb on your check, cleaning a bit of his cum, and brought it over to your lips. “You missed this bit,” he said. 

You sucked his thumb clean without thinking twice, suddenly aware of how uncomfortable your knees felt. Above you, Taehyung smirked at the sensation of your mouth around his thumb, his other hand coming to place small caresses on your hair. 

After he removed his thumb from your mouth, you got back to your feet. It crossed your mind that your legs might give out eventually, but, thankfully, they seemed a bit more firm than you had anticipated. “Better?” You asked. 

“Perfect.” Taehyung kissed you, sighing against your mouth. He pulled away gradually, his body still moving a bit slow after everything you two had done. “You always are.” 

“Aw, how nice of you.” You smiled at his compliment, walking towards your pile of clothes. The bathroom was starting to get cold, and the afterglow of sex couldn’t keep you warm for much longer. “Always with the compliments.” 

He hummed in agreement, watching your naked body; your fingers holding that red bra he adored so much. “Any chance I could see you again this week?” 

An incredulous laugh ruptured your lips as you clasped your bra behind your back. “We just had sex, and you’re already thinking about the next time?” 

He shrugged. “I like to have a schedule.” 

“I’ll think about it.” Your skirt moved up your legs, all the way up to your waistline. From the corner of your eyes, you could see as Taehyung fumbled with his own pants, which he now cursed for being inside out. Seems like he was only thoughtful when it came to your wardrobe. “It’s not like we usually know when this stuff is going to happen.” 

There was a slight tremble in your fingertips as you reached for your blouse and placed it back on your body, but you decided to ignore it.

“I guess,” he mumbled. 

You stared at your own reflection in the mirror as you started to close your buttons, somewhat amazed by the fact that it didn’t appear like you just had had sex. Yeah, your hair was all over the place, and maybe your neck was a bit too red in a few spots, but nothing that a bit of time wouldn’t fix. Could’ve been worse. 

“Can you pass me some toilet paper?” You asked him, eager to clean the mess between your legs. There was no way in hell you were going to put your panties back on, even if the thought of going commando wasn’t exactly the most welcoming either. 

Taehyung was sitting on the toilet lid, putting his pants back, and simply nodded in agreement before doing so. “I’d like to know, though,” he insisted.

You smiled, taking a cheeky glance at him. “Since when you’re so needy?” 

He groaned. “I’m not needy, shut up” 

“Well… You have my number.” You responded, throwing the paper in the trash after you had finished cleaning yourself up. “Call me whenever you’re feeling like it, and I’ll see what I can do.” 

He pouted, clearly frustrated at the answer. “And what if you can’t make it?”

“Then you have two good hands to help you,” you answered simply, fingers working on adjusting your hair. The sound of his zipper closing echoed inside the cubicle. “Besides.. you can have this as a memory, if you’d like.” 

You threw your red panties at him, watching as his face grew interested at the piece of wet cloth in his hands. Taehyung sighed, tugging his shirt back inside his pants. “You’re killing me,” he complained. 

“Good.” You smiled, turning back at him. “How do I look? Presentable?” 

He examined you for an instant, taking in the details of your form. “It doesn’t look like you just got fucked, if that's what you’re asking.” 

“Great!” You swirled around, giving the mirror a last peek. You were getting suspiciously good at making it seem like you two never happened. “Have a nice night, Taehyung. Maybe wait like five minutes before leaving the bathroom. And don’t get too excited with the panties.” 

Taehyung got up and walked closer to you, your underwear safely guarded in his hands. You were positive he would have fun with it later. “You’re going home already?” He asked. 

“Yeah, you did a good job at making me tired.” The clicking of the lock was a pleasant reminder that no one tried to open the door during that time, so maybe your sexual shenanigans had been overlooked once again. “So don’t worry. I’m in need of a good night of sleep. I’m not spending any time with your horny friends.” 

Taehyung chuckled, leaning closer to you. “I was kind of exaggerating about that Jimin part for dramatic effect, but alright.” He placed a kiss on your forehead. “Good night. Thanks for the panties.” 

You laughed. “You’re welcome.” 

Just like that, you were out the door, and the moments you had shared in that bathroom with Taehyung had been placed inside a capsule. No one noticed you as you walked through the corridor, past the few strangers still around, and down the stairs, where the party had clearly lost its initial olympian proportions. 

Cups and pieces of paper were thrown all over the floor, and you watched as people stumbled around, trying to find some sort of balance against the walls. No matter how many Hoseok Parties you went to, you were always amazed at the way that they were quick to be set ablaze, but equally quick to burn off. It was like premature ejaculation, in the weirdest and saddest of ways. 

Still, you weren’t expecting to see a recognizable face at the bottom of the stairs. 

“Hyejin,” you called, surprised to see your friend around. “Thought you would’ve gone to bed with Hoseok by now.” 

Seeming as dumbfounded as you, she followed your movements as you walked down the terminal steps, finally reaching the first floor of the house. There was a weird shadow of discomfort casted over her features, and you thought it had something to do with Hoseok. “Uh… Not really,”  she told you. “I just want to go home, actually.”

“You and I both.” You placed one of your arms around her shoulder, guiding her towards the front door. “Let’s go, this place has already peaked, anyway.”

She suspired, her lips pouting. “Thanks.” 

A few minutes of silence expanded between the two of you as you walked out of the house and into the front lawn, where a sea of trash had already taken over a few chunks of grass. You didn’t know how or why, but someone had brought an inflatable pool, and there was only one solitary purple dildo swimming in it. What a sad sea creature, you thought, before your attention was pulled back to your friend.

Hyejin switched uncomfortably in your arms, hugging her own body in a way to shield herself from the gelid breeze of the night. You looked at her with care, watching as her face contorted at sight of the street lights, magnifying the odd expression that had taken over her. “Tell me what happened between you two,” you asked tenderly. “You don’t seem too happy about it.” 

Your friend hesitated and, suddenly, you felt bad for pressuring her. At the same time, you were worried that something bad had happened. “Yeah…  so… apparently he thought he was texting a different person,” she told you. You could tell that she was having a hard time speaking. “It was kind of a mess, actually. He said that in front of everyone. I’m glad you weren’t there to see it.” 

Suddenly, you recognized that expression as being pure, unshakable humiliation. That must’ve been an ugly moment, really, since Hyejin wasn’t one to break easily. The booze probably didn’t help her emotional state either. 

 “Hyejin, I’m so sorry. He really is a fucking idiot for treating you like that.” You squeezed her body against yours in an awkward sideways hug. She eased into your touch, shoulders falling under the weight of your comforting words. “That really sucks. We can find a way to kill him, if you want. I’d hide the body and never talk about it again.”  

Even if she chuckled at the idea, you could tell she wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “Yeah… I don’t think I want to talk about that right now.” She cleared her throat, hugging her own body with a bit more force. The car was just a few steps away from the two of you, and you were beyond glad that you had managed to find a spot so close to the house. “Anyways… there’s something else. I went to find you earlier, when it all went down, so we could go home.”

You pressed your lips together, guilt hitting you like a punch in the gut. “Sorry, I was upstairs.” 

“Yeah, I realized that once I didn’t find you,” she continued. Hyejin’s voice was weak, her syllables slightly disconnected. She often spoke like that once intoxication and exhaustion joined in a horrible after-party dance. “I went up and searched around for you, but I… uh…” 

The two of you finally reached the vehicle, and you removed your arm from around her so you could move towards the driver’s side. You frowned at her hesitation, watching her over the roof of the car. “What is it?” You asked. 

“I needed to use the bathroom…” she trailed off. Her tone was almost inaudible. “And I…” 

You opened your purse, squinting your eyes to try and find the car key amidst the dimly-lit street. “And?” 

“The door was locked.” She gawked at you, eyes suddenly growing serious. You didn’t like drunk-Hyejin, with her unstable moods and abrupt expression switches. It was watching a horror movie sometimes. “Because you were in there.” 

Oh, you seriously didn’t want to have that conversation at that moment. 

Finally, you found the key and unlocked the car. The sound was like a gunshot through the night, your pulse starting to pick up the pace. You knew where she was heading towards now, but it’s not like she could be sure that it was you in there. You’d deny until the end of time. 

“What makes you think that it was me?” You questioned, opening the door. 

This time, she didn’t hesitate to respond. “I heard you.”

Oh. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck— 

Keep your cool. It’s okay. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” 

“You don’t?” She started to raise her voice, clearly pissed off. You two were arriving at stage two of drunk Hyejin: past the sad introspection, and into banshee level. “I had to pee on the disgusting bathroom downstairs because you were fucking someone in there! I had to wait twenty minutes in line! And you lied to me! You told me you didn’t have a dick appointment!” 

“Shhh! Stop yelling!” You asked, exasperated. The night was too cold and the streets were too empty. You just wanted to go home before someone heard you. All that it needed was one half-assed comment from Taehyung about him going to the upstairs bathroom, plus someone interested enough to connect the dots, and your little secret would be up. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, okay? Now, please, get in the car, you’re super drunk.”

Before Hyejin could protest, which you were sure she would, you sank down on your seat, running away from her judgemental semblance. The thought of just driving off in sheer panic crossed your mind, but you quickly ignored it. You couldn’t leave her alone in that place, especially in the inebriated state she was in. No matter how much you really, really wanted to. 

Your friend followed your lead and sat down on the passenger seat, watching as you closed your door and checked the mirrors, avoiding her gaze with all your might. She sighed. “I don’t understand… Why didn’t you go somewhere else for that? People need to pee, you know? Or, I don’t know, puke… or maybe even—“ 

You threw your purse on the backseat, sighing in exasperation. That conversation was the last thing you needed after that night. “I don’t think it matters right now—“

“It does matter! I could’ve gotten a urinary tract infection.” Hyejin banged the door by her side, and you could tell she simply wasn’t measuring her force right. She groaned, lazily adjusting her body on the seat. “Now, you have to tell me who it was. It’s the minimum you can do.” 

You almost choked on your own saliva.  She really was out of it. “Like I’d ever do something like that.”

Silence grew thick inside the car, falling above you like a blanket. Hyejin looked at you like you had just grown a second head, making sure that she wasn’t drunk enough to imagine you flat-out denying her an information so valuable. To be fair, it wasn’t like you to avoid questions or keep names from her — at least, not so openly. You knew that she wasn’t dumb, and that she could tell that something was up even in her intoxicated state. 

“You’re really not gonna say?” She tried again, still struggling to keep her speech tied together. It was only a matter of time before she calmed down and fell asleep, and so you wouldn’t have to deal with that subject any further. “You almost gave me an UTI, and now you’re not gonna say who you were with? I need to know if it was worth keeping the bathroom all to yourself, because I already told you, someone probably went up there trying to—“ 

“Shit, Hyejin! I get it, you, can stop now.” You clicked your seatbelt with a bit more aggression than necessary. “You’re drunk right now.”

You leaned over her and placed her seatbelt too, since you were pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to do it herself. Not with that poor movement precision. 

“And?” She pressed on as you moved back to your seat. “You’re going to tell me once I’m sober or something?”

You laughed, placing one of your hands on the wheel. “No, of course not.”

“Fine!” She crossed her arms dramatically and looked out of the window, pouting like a child. “I hate you for not saying.” 

“Well, I love you.” You looked at her, your own gaze navigating towards the window. Beyond the fogged glass, the house glowed in the most diverse colors, the sound of the bass reverberating inside your car like a distant pulse. You watched, heart clenching inside of your chest, as Taehyung stepped out of the front door with Jimin, his head hanging low and a smile at the corner of his lips. There was a volume at his front pocket, where you were sure he had tugged in your panties. “But now I think that we should go home and sleep. Let’s keep this conversation on hold.” 

Hyejin, however, wasn’t satisfied. “You know that I’ll find out eventually,” she said, still looking out of the window. “I always do.” 

You chuckled, turning on the engine of the car. On the other side of the street, the two boys took the opposite direction, leaving you two to stare at the open road before you. “Well, I’d love to see you try.”

[thestraggletag]

Darkly Intriguing, Chapter 9

Rating: E (chapter rating PG)

Summary: (OUAT/Addams Family crossover) Belle French, antiques book dealer and restorer, find herself befriending and odd but compelling couple, Gomez and Morticia Addams. It is while she restores the family library that Cousin Rumple first stumbles into her, and the sparks are immediate. But the deeper Belle goes into the strange world of the Addams’s the more worried friends and family members grow.

Trigger warning for depictions of forced psychiatric committent.

For @iguessifinallygotone, who prompted “more Darkly Intriguing”.

She didn’t recall drinking too much the day before. It had been a boring Thursday night and she’d closed up the diner, after which she’d gone to her room and watched some forgettable war movie before falling asleep on her bed. Nothing that accounted for the pounding headache or the general air of ickiness she felt. 

“Good morning, Miss Ruby. Would you care for some water?”

She opened her eyes, trying to blink the blurriness away. When she could finally focused she spotted a small, serious-looking child, dressed a bit like a kid from a Victorian horror movie and holding a glass of water with a straw. It was then that she realised she was tied to a chair.

“Hey, what the f- what the hell, kid?”

She did not recognise her surroundings. They were in what looked like a dungeon of some sort, dark and appropriately dank. 

“Please, you mustn’t hurt yourself. This will be over soon.”

“Not exactly a reassurance, shorty.” She coughed, her throat feeling scratchy. “Okay, make with the water, kid, and with the explanations. Starting with your name.”

“My name is Baelfire Addams. And I wish to enquire after the whereabouts of Miss Belle French. You two are friends, I believe.”

There was something strangely charming about the child’s old-fashioned speech-patterns, but she did not let it distract her from trying to wiggle her hands free.

“Look, kid, is this about your dad? He’s dating Belle, right? Did they have a fight or something? Adults sometimes do that, sweetie.”

Belle had seemed happy, truly happy for the first time in a while, since she’d started dating an Addams. And though Ruby felt uneasy about it she trusted Belle’s judgement. Something she might have to reconsider, in light of recent events. There was quaint behaviour, there was strange behaviour and then there was outright criminal action. And the rotten apple was unlikely to have fallen far from the twisted tree.

“No, ma’am, they didn’t. They were happy. And then she suddenly went away. My father was told she went to visit and aunt in Australia but I don’t believe it.”

She was about to demand he untie her and also stop calling her ma’am when his words sunk in. Belle was gone? She hadn’t told her anything about going away. They were best friends, sisters from different mothers, she wouldn’t just up and leave without at least texting her. And besides-

“Belle doesn’t have an aunt. Her old man’s an only child, thank God. And she wouldn’t just up and disappear. The only time she did was years ago when her fa-”

Oh, no. He wouldn’t dare, surely. Not again. Besides, Belle was an adult. Surely no one would disregard her basic rights.

“Oh, that fucking self-righteous bitch totally would.”

She winced at the cursing a second later, but the kid, Baelfire, barely blinked. She leaned forward and caught the straw being offered, taking a few deep pulls of cold water. Her mind worked overtime, trying to come up with any scenario other than the one she was imagining it. But nothing else would account for Belle’s radio-silence, or Moe fucking French inventing excuses for her absence. She made a list in her head of steps to take.

“Belle’s in trouble, kid. Gonna need you to untie me pronto.”

She barely flinched when the child took out a bowie knife out of fucking nowhere and went behind her back to cut the ropes. She was too busy trying to think what her options were. Telling Granny wouldn’t help much, other than garner moral support. Emma, out of everyone, was the one with any power to do anything. But she would be constrained by the law, and the way she figured whatever she could do could take weeks, if not months. Mother Superior was a well-connected woman, after all, and a clever one. She would drag things on for months, at best. And fuck that.

“Okay, kid, I think I know where Belle is but if we’re gonna get her out of there we’re gonna need a whole lotta luck, a helping and a massive distraction.”

The boy smiled, helping her up from the chair.

“We got both of those. Come on, cousin Wednesday must be getting impatient.”

.

Cousin Wednesday turned out to be a lovely, though sombre, little girl with long black hair, pale skin, a can of gasoline and a book of matches. Her brother Pugsley was much more social and seemingly less of a fire hazard. And they were accompanied by an actual walking hand Ruby tried very hard not to stare at as she drove her red convertible towards Saint Eunice, the charity-run psychiatric hospital three hours away. It was run by the nuns of the nearby convent, and was the pride of the local community. It was spearheaded by Mother Superior, a demure and humble figure that scared the bejeesus out of Ruby, even as a child. Even before she’d done what she did to Belle.

The plan, as they devised on the way there, was frightfully simple: they would locate Belle, create a distraction and extract her with no one being the wiser.

“Thing is the best tracker there is, and he knows Miss Belle’s smell.”

“Of course he does.”

They parked near enough to have a good view of the facilities, and it was then that Ruby noticed a sleek Bently pulling up behind them. A mountain of a man got out, dressed like a corpse with the skin to match.

“That’s Lurch. He’ll do the extraction once the diversion is in place.”

In the interest of plausible deniability the waitress pretended not to notice Puglsey get out of the car with a bolt cutter, the walking hand scurry inside the hospital, or the little girl wander into the back of the facilities with her can of gasoline and her matches. Nothing happened for the longest time and she was almost at the end of her current Spotify list when she smelled something burning. Soon one side of the structure was visibly on fire, plumes of dark smoke dispersing into the air. She caught the faint sound of a fire alarm and soon women in nun habits, doctors and patients were being evacuated into the gardens. She tried not to focus on how haggard the later looked, how thin and out of sorts. Belle had been gone only for a few days, it wasn’t like last time.

A fire truck siren blared in the distance, starting Ruby out of her morose thoughts in time to notice the two Addams cousins running back towards the car, the hand creature perched on the boy’s shoulder. The hulking man trotted beside them, carrying a bundle that looked human-shaped. Belle-shaped.

“Oh, thank God.”

“We will take it from here, Miss Ruby. You must go home so no one will think you involved. I will take Miss Belle to my aunt and uncle’s, she’ll be safe there. She’ll call you as soon as she can, I promise.”

“You’re the politest little criminal I’ve ever met, kid. Please take care of her. And don’t let her father near her.”

He hopped out of her car, looking incredibly unruffled by the general chaos and mayhem around him. She watched him climb into the Bentley before it sped off, and took a second or two to pause and compose herself before she took out her cell and called her grandmother. Granny would give her hell for leaving her tending to the diner mostly alone for the entire day, but if it came to it she would die maintaining she’d been in the kitchens the entire day to whoever came asking.

.

It wasn’t the first time he was asked to supply potions and ointments from his own supply to his cousin. His children got into all sorts of colourful, character-building trouble that they couldn’t get out off scot-free, though it was mostly Lurch the one that got stuck with the consequences. At least this time he hadn’t been asked to supply an entire arm, like the time where Pugsley had miscalculated the reach of his “controlled explosion”.

Sure enough the moment the butler opened the door he spotted scorch marks on his clothing. He also appeared to have singed his eyebrows off completely.

“Well, it doesn’t look as bad as the time Fester brought the children souvenirs from his trip to Ukraine. No radioactive burns this time, at least. Nothing that a little bit of ointment and a few of Grandmama’s leeches won’t cure.”

Certainly nothing worth making him drag his potion collection over. Perhaps a rouse to get him out of his house, get him socialising again. Gomez had tried a hundred excuses to force him out of the comfortable nest of isolation and misery he had built for himself. He did not appreciate having been fooled into getting clean and debatably sober, but as the request had come from Morticia he had been inclined to distrust it less. Usually she was more respectful of his dark moods.

“Ah, cousin, so good of you to come.” Morticia appeared at his side almost out of thin air, slipping a hand on the crook of his elbow to guide him further into the house, in the general direction of the glass house.

“Can’t say I appreciate being lied to, dearie. But at least  I would have thought you’d want to cling to appearances and let me see to your manservant.”

“Mama has seen to Lurch. He’s been bled, exorcised and properly bandaged, never you worry.”

“Am I free to go then? Bae is likely wondering where I am.”

He had left fend for himself long enough. His wee boy was resourceful and independent, but he needed his papa. He had wallowed in self pity and bathed in whisky long enough. 

“Baelfire is here. He and the children got into some mischief, apparently. Burned down the kitchen of a nearby hospital.”

“That sounds like the handiwork of your youngest and brightest. Pretty little arsonist you got there.”

“Takes after her great-aunt in that regard. We’re all so proud.”

She kept walking in the direction of the glasshouse, which was puzzling.

“It doesn’t sound like Wednesday to leave the job half-done. Can’t imagine her settling for the kitchen when she could’ve easily set the entire place ablaze.”

“The fire was a distraction, cousin. Apparently they were on a rescue mission, spearheaded by your boy.” She tugged gently on his arm to get him to pause. Her countenance grew strangely serious, though she was difficult to read. “It seems that Belle was there. Against her will.”

His stomach dropped to the floor at the mere mention of her name, so it took him a few seconds to process the rest of her words, and even more time to notice Morticia was still talking.

“Usually I’m all for the peace and quiet of an insane asylum for a little getaway and a bit of pampering, but I gathered that was not the case here. Miss Ruby Lucas, one of Belle’s friends, seemed to imply that her father had her forcefully committed. And not for the first time.”

“Where is she?”

He tried hard not to focus on the last bit Morticia had confided, lest he be lost in a murderous rage.

“In the glasshouse. She was put in a room at first but it seems confined spaces do not agree with her at this time. Thing said she’d been locked in a tiny room, so that might explain it. Being able to see outside seemed to calm her.”

They entered the glass dome in question, and he noticed Morticia had opened quite a few of the panels, letting the cold night air in. Someone, likely Lurch, had dragged a chaise lounge into the room, the one from the library. He’d seen Belle asleep in it often so it was natural to see her thick brown hair cascading down the edge, or her small form swaddled by the thick cashmere throw she usually favoured. It wasn’t until he got close that he noticed her bruised under-eyes, or the sallow tone of her skin. She was dressed in an old-fashioned white nightgown, likely some Addams heirloom from some Victorian ancestor. 

“She wakes from time to time, but never for long. Mama has been trying to figure out how to counteract what she’s been given, but she’s too weak for bloodletting. We hoped one of your detox concoctions might work.”

He pushed down on the vile rising up his throat, taking one of her hands in his to check her pulse. It was sluggish but constant. He opened her mouth next to smell her breath, years of experience allowing him to identify the humours out of sorts in her body. It was easy to find the right combination of potions to lower the levels of phlegm and black bile and help the production of blood, Belle’s base humour. He put a dollop of honey to cut the bitter taste of some of the herbs and eased it gently down her throat, noticing as her eyes fluttered briefly before closing again.

“She’ll wake in a few hours, hopefully with only a minor headache and some tremors. Those are likely to disappear in a few days. I trust she’ll stay here with you.”

He looked at her again, feeling like someone had tried to take the light away from his little sun fairy. She looked more like an Addams now, skin unnaturally white and lips tinged blue, but it looked wrong, unappealing.

“This is my fault.”

He had doubted her, after all. Had wrapped himself tight in his self-pity and refused to trust in her good nature. Refused to see beyond his past experiences, beyond his heartache. He had left her there. It was all his fault.

But not only his fault.

“I trust you won’t mind Bae having a little sleepover, will you dearie? I have a sudden pressing matter that needs attending.”

“Of course not, cousin. I assume I don’t have to ask what that matter is.”

Her words were laced with a hint of approval and a heap of malice. It did not surprise him in the least. Cousin Morticia was, after all, a fervent believer in the family motto.

[crystalkleure]

Which Beyblade Burst bey avatar do you think is the coolest?

Ohh man, my heart says Wyvern just because that’s my favourite and it looks so sleek tbh, but it’s actually a tough draw between Wild Wyvern, Lost Longinus, Ark Bahamut, and Hell Salamander, bahaha. I’d probably have a different answer out of those four depending on which day you ask me lmao

I love so many of the bey spirits that it’s ridiculously hard to pick an absolute favourite tbh xdcfvcfdcfhb almost all of them have like, SOMETHING Weird and Unique about them that’s A+++

Like:

Wild Wyvern has a flame pattern on its wing membrane, and the cone-shaped thing in the middle of it’s head that’s spraying fire out looks almost mechanical instead of organic somehow? idk what that shape is reminding me of specifically, maybe some kind of engine or exhaust vent

Lost Longinus has a flaming blue mohawk that matches Lui’s hair and that was like the best thing ever, also there are those glowing blue stripes/indentations on its legs and between the scales of its neck/chest that may or may not indicate that the insides of this dragon are glowing bright blue like it’s full of that fire, and just. Name origin. “Longinus” is the name of the guy who stabbed Jesus with a spear. Hence Lost Longinus’s tail spear. Lost Longinus is like, a dragon-ified biblical weapon. Does this imply that Shuu is Beyblade Jesus??

Ark Bahamut’s wings – aside from the membranes being weird iridescent scaly things that may be entirely illusory and made of light rather than actual flesh, which is Fucking Cool by itself – sort of…twist open in a grotesque way? Like, the wing fingers are twirled together like twizzlers before they open up, and they look briefly almost like DNA helixes while they’re peeling open, before the shiny membrane things materialize. You can see the flesh pulling apart like putty. I was going frame-by-frame through the animation for Art Reasons when I noticed it and I was like yooooooo

Hell Salamander just looks really cool. It’s made of hot pink fire/lava and its black scales/armor/whatever look almost like leather biker gear or something [not to mention, they match Suoh’s coat, which also seems to be leather sxdcfdcf], and the white scales/armor/whatever look like they’re made out of bone [its got claws and horns that are the same colour, made of the same stuff]. So, like…Ghost Rider Dragon. Also I appreciate how Salamander came to exist in the anime, and how it promptly burned a scribble into Suoh’s face as thanks for being created hgfdssdffghgf She’s So Dramatic

Screencaps to show what I’m talking about bc I’m bad at words:

Wyvern’s fire tattoos [last section of wing, near the edge]:

Bahamut’s wings:

And many Honorable Mentions under the cut because All Bey Spirits Are Cool:

Valkyrie has six eyes for no reason at all except to look cool, and is also two bey spirits in one bey because horse dcfvcfvhgb [gee Valt, how come your mom lets you have TWO bitbeasts??]

Storm Spriggan has Wolverine claws on the gauntlets on its arms, also for no reason at all except to look cool bc Spriggan already has Actual Claws too dfgcdfggh

Legend Spriggan looks Especially Cool when it does the thing where the black spiky parts of its wings are interlocked together, and then they open up

Spriggan Requiem has an AXE

Ragnaruk looks a little like Baphomet

Deathscyther has BATS. It summons a swarm of BATS when it comes out. Also just, everything else is cool too lmao it’s the grim reaper except dressed for a blacklight rave party

Kaiser Kerbeus has SCALES like a DRAGON and also wears an eyepatch. A Good Boy all around.

Hazard Kerbeus is uhhhhhhh some kind of radioactive mutated creature and he is also a Good Boy sxdcfvdfh

Multiple parts of Zeus’s body are made of what look like plasma balls. Y'know, those desktop toys that put on a cool light show and react to your fingertips when you touch em.

Unicorn would not look out of place in Robot Unicorn Attack

Yggdrasil has fucking plasma cannons

Quetzalcoatl has what appear to be stitches on the sides of its mouth [again, I was going through the animation frame-by-frame for Art Reasons lmao] and KNIVES ON THE TIPS OF ITS WINGS. Also it’s got a hood like a cobra but its body is flat like a Chrysopelea flying snake [they flatten their bodies out to catch air and “glide” around up in the trees] and if that was an intentional design choice then it’s a Really Nice Touch bc Quetzalcoatl is Quite Literally A Flying Snake lmao

Jormungand has TWO HEADS and NO EYES and that is amazing

Kreis Satan is SATAN, TRAPPED IN A PLASTIC TOP. He has claws on his wings, and carries a bright blue-and-yellow plastic fork. Lucifer is on vacation from Hell and decided this was more interesting than screwing around in Los Angeles or playing the fiddle in Georgia and he was right and I respect him.

Drain Fafnir has TWELVE EYES. TWELVE OF THEM. Three sets on its face, three sets on its chest. Faf, donate some of those eyes to Jormungand. ALSO I need to say I really love Fafnir even if it’s not quite one of my favourite designs because Requiem Nightmare Faf tried to fucking vore Shuu once and that was the funniest goddamn thing ever asxdcfcxdf

Geist Fafnir has a bright purple mouth. Love it.

Deep Chaos is made out of gnarled, twisted flesh and is evidently hollow inside, judging by its weird tentacle hands. Clio and his pet eldritch abomination needed VASTLY more screentime tbh.

Alter Chronos exists precisely at the crossroads of steampunk and technopunk and if that’s not one of the Best Aesthetics Ever then idk what is

Beat Kukulcan is made of plasma compressed into the vague shape of a bird, and then dressed up for the circus. All hail Clown King Kurz and his majestic bitbeast that will summon an instant blue-lighting thunderstorm if you piss him off. Easily one of the best tbh – if Wild Wyvern, Lost Longinus, Ark Bahamut, and Hell Salamander are my Top 4, then Beat Kukulcan is in the Top 5.

Twin Nemesis has a hammer that appears to be made out of raw flesh and teeth.

Z Achilles’ looks like one of those action figures made out of cheap bright plastic and his helmet looks like a pompadour shaped like an upside-down A. Somebody make me a Z Achilles action figure and take my fucking money.

Emperor Forneus is a SHARK MADE OUT OF KNIVES. KNIFESHARK. HOLY FUCK.

Bloody Longinus just looks Good, idk. Took a page from Salamander’s book and seems to be wearing BONE ARMOR, also trying to compete with Drain Fafnir for Number Of Eyeballs On Body. Got two sets of eyes on face. Got a set of eyes on each wing, set in weird bird-skull-looking things. Got a set of eyes on each arm, set in DRAGON-SKULL-SHAPED ARMOR PLATES. Now Longinus, too, has TWELVE EYBALLS. TWELVE OF THEM.

Leopard is a dragoncat made out of knives and teeth and it will shoot ball lightning at you

Revive Phoenix is a Giant Fucking Fireball compressed into the vague shape of a bird, and that Extra Intense Bright Light in the middle of its body is Concerning because it makes it look like rP is building up to Literally Fucking Explode At Any Moment. Also the Bird-Shaped Fireball turns an evil pretty purple colour sometimes and that’s great.

Dead Hades is just COOL. YOOOOOO it’s some kind of insectoid creature judging by the six segmented bug legs, and that billowy brown cloak thing it’s wearing might actually be a couple of sets of tattered leathery wings. This fantastically horrifying creature was taken from us too soon, rip.

Orb Egis is a floating scorpion-tailed hydra with necks made out of rainbow holo plasma ig. It’s…*single tear* so beautiful………

Dead Phoenix makes me SO MAD because it SHOULD NOT EXIST but it looks SO FUCKING BADASS. It’s everything rP was except 500% more Goth and Metal now. hhhhhhhh

[astroquizzical]

Is there lightning on Mars?

"Is there lightning on Mars? Would lightning strikes endanger astronauts on Mars? Would static electricity be a factor to consider on Mars?"

There is lightning on Mars! Or at least, something like lightning occurs on Mars. In 2009, the first detections of lightning strikes on Mars were recorded, confirming something that planetary scientists had suspected already - electricity should arc through the Martian skies.

We knew a fair amount about Mars’ weather patterns even before detecting lightning, from a combination of orbiting spacecraft and our landers on the surface. These outposts have painted a picture of a thin atmosphere frequently tumbled into large dust storms. Mars has huge annual storms which can envelop the entire planet, and other strong storms that pop up irregularly through the year. On top of that, the dust on Mars is extremely fine, so once you begin to swirl it around in a wind, it’s reasonable to guess that the dust particles will start to rub on each other, and as you do that, you’ll start to build up an electric charge.

This static charge does more than just gradually build towards lightning; it’s also part of why the Mars rovers get so dirty. The rovers are dealing with more than just a fine sifting of dust falling out of the atmosphere, which a light breeze might easily remove; that dust is stuck to them like packing peanuts stick to your hands. It takes a stronger breeze - a new storm, or a wandering dust devil - to remove some of that dust, and it’s something that the long-lived Spirit and Opportunity rovers were both able to make use of on a couple of occasions.

However, as much as dust devils can help you out, they can also do the opposite, dumping more dust on top of your solar panels, which, for a solar powered craft, will limit the amount of energy you have available to do science with, and eventually drop the craft below the threshold of power it needs to operate. This is the current theory for what happened with both Spirit and Opportunity. The Curiosity rover is less affected by this particular issue since its power comes from radioactive decay, but Curiosity is still fully coated in the fine Martial soil. This dust is actually a concern for human exploration of Mars - it’s going to be hard to fully remove this dust from spacesuits, and breathing in a fine particulate is never good for your lungs.

The lightning itself is actually less likely to be a hazard to astronauts on the surface of Mars than the dust is; for one I would expect any humans on the surface of Mars to take shelter during these bigger storms. Unlike what was presented in The Martian, even the 60 mph winds that can occur during a dust storm wouldn’t feel as powerful as a similar wind on Earth, since the atmosphere is so much thinner. The air simply wouldn’t exert the same pressure against you in the same way. Even on Earth, the likelihood of being struck by lightning is very low, and on Mars the best guess is that the lightning would not really resemble the large bolts of lightning we see here on Earth.

More likely is that this lightning would resemble the arcing jolts of electricity you can create by shuffling along in socks on carpet and then touching a doorknob. In a dark room, you can see the filamentary discharge of electricity between your finger and the doorknob. On Mars, you might expect to see little flickers of electricity arcing between parts of the dust storm, faintly lighting up the night sky. To be a hazard to an astronaut or a rover, you’d have to be very, very unlucky.

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[natgallery]

“Promenade Dans La Cité” 

Also known as ‘Breaking Curfew’ or ‘Out on the Town’

The diminutive, almost comically small, figure of a man accompanies an equally out-of-scale woman in this luscious work.  The mismatched pair are meant to be seen as out of place in their sophisticated surroundings.  Their facial expressions betray their naive natures as they rather awkwardly try to blend in.

But there is nothing at ease in this composition.  From their awkward sizes to their awkward expressions - these two do not belong.  Alone in the work they look, alternately, into the open city scape or directly out of the painting.  In neither case are they at one with their surroundings.  the others in this busy place are going about their business, looking as though they have a role in the city.  Our two outsiders are decidedly uncomfortable (and faintly ridiculous).  

What is it we are invited to know about this rube-ish pair?  They are trying to fit it but their anxiety indicates that they know neither where they really are nor where they are going.  They barge forward, almost pushing into an oncoming figure, but their innocence (or ignorance) makes they unaware. They seem to signal a lack of comportment, they are, quite simply, out-of-place.

This work was painted against the backdrop of a pandemic and in this time un-related persons were expected to be distant from one-another - and most others in the painting can be seen keeping their distance.  So the worrying impression that emanates from this green-behind-the-ears couple may be well founded.  If outsiders ventured where they were not supposed to in this time, they were often subject to the rigors of the law, such was the concern about the then raging sickness.  Drizzle or rain was often used to convey the sickness, the all pervading malady that required personal protective measures, and this is case in the city streets we see here.  But our two are remarkable for their lack of concern and we are invited to consider their entire aspect as disregard for the mores of the time and the rules of the day.

The impression is that soon they will be lost or apprehended. And not before time, the others in the scene might be thinking....

The models used by the painter for his central characters here are of particular interest.  The male is known to have been painted life size, i.e. he was actually a renowned freak of nature at the time.  He performed in a traveling circus as ‘Tiny Man’ or ‘The Human Lapdog’.  The woman in the figure was, extraordinarily, larger than most humans alive at the time.  She was also a performer known as ‘Big Bird’ when she would take children for rides on her very long brass neck.  The artist courted such freakish figures believing they made for more noteworthy subjects.  In that the two subjects of this work were indeed figures of notoriety, causing the work to be somewhat controversial, the artist achieved his aim of drawing attention to those breaking the health rules of the day.

Note:

This work was acquired by the Nat Gallery of Sturgeon for free.  It turns out that it was painted with toxic materials and as a result was faintly radioactive.  Given its corrosive properties no other galleries were interesting in the work.  Fortunately the Nat Gallery of Sturgeon already contains one of the largest collections of corrosive works and is well prepared to house and keep toxic items in its collections.  With significant portions of what the Nat Gallery has on permanent display exhibiting similar properties, specific accommodation has been made for works that would be regarded as hazardous elsewhere.

© The Nat Gallery of Sturgeon

[quaranmine]

#heya howdy!#I might be able to help you with this query!#I have taken a couple environmental science classes and re-read several wikipedia articles#hazardous waste is defined by different criteria depending on country#but for the US the EPA is the one that defines them#I highly recommend checking out the EPA's website on hazardous waste as it is extremely informative#the gist of getting rid of hazardous waste is that its either treated recycled or disposed of and there are issues with all three methods#for things like nuclear fuel rods and control rods#they are stored at specific sites and usually buried underground#there's a phenomenon called NIMBY (not in my backyard) in which government and private agencies find it hard to find people#that are willing to have nuclear sites and landfills and such near them#hazardous waste like e-waste (electronic waste) or medicines & cosmetics (some of which can be endocrine disrupters) have to be disposed#of differently and properly since e-waste and EDs are extremely harmful if they get into ecosystems (arsenic lead stuff like that)#or if its electronic just always bring it in to Best Buy they'll make sure it gets disposed of properly and they'll pay you#that's been your daily hazardous waste lesson again go check the EPA they have waaay more information on this kinda thing via @jackfrostbiten

first, adding these tags here because they're amazing. and here's the EPA hazardous waste site for good measure

second, i sadly don't know much about nuclear waste in general, but i can talk some on hazardous waste. be aware though, i'm only familiar with US laws on it though!

the law that defines hazardous waste is known as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, otherwise known as RCRA (rick-ra). it defines hazardous and non-hazardous waste and applies to it from creation to disposal. the criteria for a waste being deemed hazardous is if it displays one or more qualities: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity and toxicity. there's a lot of listed wastes, and most of them have requirements on what sort of facilities they must be taken to--are they buried in a lined special landfill? are they incerated? etc, it will vary by chemical. the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA, tos-ca) is what i mostly work with, and it deals with the regulation/registration of new chemicals, regulation of existing potentially hazardous chemicals, and their distriution.

anyway, that's mostly regulatory stuff, which isn't really what was asked about, but it's more of what i know. the nuclear regulatory commision actually has some responsibilities over regulating nuclear waste, while the epa has others.

i skimmed this article though for actual clean up/non regulatory information and it seemed interesting:

the funniest thing about my environmental science degree is that whenever i tell people that's what i do, they immediately assume i do ecology/wildlife stuff. they're like oh animals? botany? ur like a naturalist?

and i LOVE nature dont get me wrong but like. my favorite thing to study is actually environmental disaster remediation and pollution <3 i love superfund sites i love groundwater plume maps i love emergency management i love (getting rid of) hazardous waste <3

i'm aware basically everyone else's eyes glaze over at this <3

[thehappiestandunluckiest]

Being Radioactive

If the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of radioactive is the imagine dragons song, same.

So, January 10th, I traveled up to Lisbon. A scared, young gazelle, about to absorb a radioactive substance that would hopefully kill the powerful assassin that had taken over her 20 year old body. Something that I never had felt before but felt as soon as I was told that I had cancer was.... There are multiple cells in my body right now just eating away at my temple, and I have no power over it, and at any moment one could just go on a little trip through my body and stop at a vital organ and make itself at home and have little babies and over run my body and kill me. Now, I know that sounds so dramatic, but that’s how it feels, or at least that’s how I felt. I felt helpless, like a ticking time bomb, cancer is a bitch but feeling so helpless and even worse, feeling like a foreigner in your own body was so odd. I felt displaced like I was in my body but also being kicked out of it. I know I didn't have it anywhere near as bad as others have, I was lucky, I am lucky, that’s what I kept telling myself. But I couldn’t ignore feeling like I had an army of little Hitlers in my body, over throwing my own cells, altering my hormones, chewing through me. 

I traveled up to Lisbon, smile on my face and jokes always on the tip of my tongue, but that’s how I react to stress, that why my bosses always love me, I thrive in chaos, or at least I trick everyone else into thinking I do. I was anxious but relieved to be getting this out of the way. If all worked out, I would be free of these pests that contaminate relentlessly. But i would also be having scans to see if it had spread, and that freaked me out, I wanted to be oblivious and stay in denial but I know that’s not the way to go.

So we travel up to Lisbon, and have two days as an out-patient where I spent a couple of hours each day having tests run and injections given in the oncology dept. It was fun having THE nurse from hell. I’m joking, but she sure was a character (and we all know what that means). Now I am not mean, but you will soon understand why I didn’t gel to this woman. So she grabs me and drags me to a room, “oh the nurse has vanished, we will just have to start ourselves” this set off alarms in my head - she seemed super hostile and her stabbing me with needles was not what I wanted. 

She flings a plastic cup at me, “you have to pee in this”, she throws me into a bathroom, with another girl trying to pee into a cup. She goes “HA! oops” and closes the door. NOW LISTEN HERE! Have you ever had to pee into one of those cups? It’s a very very vulnerable position to be in. Hunched over, begging your bladder to open the flood gates, hand in the toilet bowl covered in your own piss. I felt so sorry for her. So I pee into this cup, clean up and go back to the nurses office. The older nurse is back and I let out the breath I had been holding in out of anxiety. Now, I just want to mention that all these stories are super real and I for real can’t make this sh#t up!“ God! Those shoes need to go into the bin! They’re so dirty.” She says as she’s leaning on the door frame. 

This woman! I’m sat in the chair anxious awaiting the medicine that will help stop me from dying and she’s talking about my slightly dirty sneakers....So, the older nurse asks me where I’m from, she worked in London for a few years so we get into some small talk whilst she takes my blood, she’s distracting me from my ridiculous phobia. She asks me what I’m studying. “Oh - no. I actually work in a hotel, I’m a waitress.” “WHAT?! You don’t have a degree? How far is that going to get you, you can’t go far in life without one?” Now at this point I wanted to puke on the floor, not because I felt sick but so she would have to clean up my bile from the ground - that’s her job, how amazing is your f#cking degree now love? But I am a good christian girl so I simply say “well, I didn’t want to go to university. I got a good job straight out of school in a company that I can evolve in and have been evolving in”. The older nurse says she agrees that I am doing a good job going after what I want and not what is expected of me and that its the fact that you love what you do that counts. “Ok Emma that’s everything for today, see you tomorrow, same time!”

Now lets get to the real radioactive part. 

Let’s set the mood. I haven’t eaten anything, not that I’d want to. Yesterdays injections have a side effect of headaches, not too bad. I am pale, make upless and wearing xxl sweat pants and an xl sweater - I’m more sweatpants than human but it made me feel all cozy. I have a suitcase filled with art supplies, my laptop, books and toiletries - the essentials you might say. Feeling sorry for me yet? I actually wasn’t too worried only one side effect - the slow death of suffocation if your esophagus swells up from the radiation burning your salivary glands. No biggie. (I would like to inform you all that even though this is all true - its sarcasm just for anyone who’s worried about me).

The hospital is huge, and very luxurious. Everyone is walking around with gucci bags and beautiful tans and I’m looking like hell but that’s ok I’m beyond caring. 

I’m escorted to my room, it’s beautiful. Huge windows, lots of space, overlooking some of the city and the pediatrics block. I’m given the big speech explaining everything, let me give it to you in precis form as my Dad would say. I have to flush the toilet 4 times when i poop, and twice when i pee. The toilet has chambers so you have to aim said poop and pee into these chambers (it was like yoga trying to get into positions to aim but I don’t want to describe my bowel movements too much we aren’t that close yet - at least buy me coffee first!)

So the room is lovely only noticable difference is the space odessy esque toilet, and the huge lead panel that is placed infront of the door. They repeat that all of this is not for my own safety but for everyone elses, I harness all the power - is this the part where I become a super villan? 

The fancy director of nuclear science came to my room in her anti radiation suit (yes - just like in HBO Chernobyl) and I injected the little pill through the rather odd tube. It was in a big lead box and had all the hazard signs on it and and made a  *shhhhhhhh* sound when the box opened, what a fancy-dancy little pill.

Surprisingly I did not glow in the dark or have magnetic abilities - disappointing to say the least. 

My two day stay was pretty uneventful, the food was actually quite good. I drank 10l of water and 2l of pure lemon juice - I was on the toilet ever 30 minutes and spent a good 7 minutes each time for the flushing routine. This lemon juice was to keep my salivary glands working which would stop my throat from swelling and thus stop me from maybe chocking myself to a long, endless sleep. I ended up with ulcers in my mouth from the lemon juice, BUT my skin got really clear and I had never felt so hydrated in all my life. I was left alone and my only comunication with my nurses was through the telecom. When my food was left for me I had to stand in the corner next by the window and wait until they had left my food behind the big lead panel before I could move again. It was kinda crazy because they looked at me like I was a monster in a cage. You know when you were a kid and turned the lights off in the hall and ran to your bed out of fear of the dark? That’s how they looked at me - it was oddly humourous and simultaneously eery and isolating (but I am writing this entry during the COVID19 pandemic and have been isolated in my house for 2 months now so that was nothing looking back on it).

All fluids that came out of me were very radioactive so I had to shower often. I was scared of choking in my sleep so I set alarms every two hours (I’m just very cautious ok!). On my last day I needed to have an MRI and blood tests done and so myself and another young girl, same age as me and same situation as me, were escorted to the tests area. We wadled through the whole hospital, the nurse would ask everyone to stay away from us and people would scatter away from us like we were radioactive - wait a minute.....

I had my scan, and had the geirger meter see how radioactuve I still was. Honestky this was what I was scared of. Not the actual treatment itself but what the results would be. I think this is a normal fear. It would change everything. Had it spread? Had it evolved into an even more malicious beast? So many thoughts running through my head. We went back to our rooms and awaited these dreaded results. 

My dad had driven up to Lisbon to pick me up, he loves the drive. He calls and says that he is going to wait for me to be ‘set free’ until he goes into the hospital (all of us have spent too much time in hospital to the point that its a normal place to spend our time so we try and avoid it like the plague). 

The doctor comes into my room and stands right next to me. Crazy human contact wow it’s so crazy how powerful having someone even just stood close to you has an effect on you.

My results are very positive - thank God. I smile and thank the doctor, I really am so happy. This enourmously heavy weight has been taken off of my shoulders, my eyebrows unforrowed and my shoulders eased up, my jaw declenched, my stomach stopped its sumersaults and I could breathe again.

The nurse calls me to say I need someone to come and get me for me to be discharged. I try and call my dad, straight to voicemail. I message no answer. I call my mum no answer. I call my brother, finally an answer after 4 attempts but he’s useless to me 2 hours away. shit. I am finally free and I can’t get out of the damn place! After an hour of me trying to call him and me freaking out because I don’t want to be stuck here any longer. I hear a voice through the door. “I am looking for my daughter”, ok lets get out of here. 

I cant hug anyone or stay too close, I am tired but dying for some icecream. I finally am free, free of this monster. I wont be 100% out of the woods for a while yet but for now I am good. I stay in isolation at home for a week before I am allowed back out in public. The day I finally go out in public is to the shopping centre. I set off the alarms. The security alarms were going off as I walked past them. I walked through the shopping mall lauging like a lunatic, I really was radiocative after all.  This was it- my super power. 

I still worry from time to time, I get little scares and I obsessivly check for lumps and bumps, but I can rest a little easier now. I hope noone has to go through what I went through, or anything of the sort. But I would like to say that it wasnt all that bad, the treatment ran so smoothly that I thought that they had given me a dud pill. The operations before the treatment were also very smooth sailing. The whole thing went by easily (as easily as cutting your throat open can go), Why am I saying this? Because before I went for treatment I wanted to see how others reacted just so that I knew what to expect and so that i could prepare. Online everything was negative, blogs said that it was the worst experience. Not that it’s a great experience either but I think it’s important to not scare people about these things. Being sick sucks. It truly does, but being cured, or trying to get better is a true blessing, and us lucky lucky individuals who have access to health care (and even luckier if its free health care) and those of us who can go through these operations and come out on the other side should be so so grateful. I’m grateful for my operations, my access to clean hospitals, the best medical professionals, the kind auxilary staff that smiled at me when I was scared, the recepcionists that winked at me and wished me well. My parents that drove me accross the country to be treated by the best. My job for giving me health insurance that helped pay for some of the costs.

What I’m trying to say is that we sometimes over think the bad, and honestly I could easily sit here and write about a WHOLE LOAD of bad that has happened to me, but it wont changed anything or make it better, but what does is looking back and saying wow- I am so lucky. I had people send me best wishes, my collegues at work looked after me when I was ill, my family cared for me when I wasn’t able to do so on my own. Be grateful, add sunshine to a rainy day and see the rainbows appear. 

love,

Em x

[wenamedthedogkylo]

Eyyyy, sum tags bruh

Get to know me tag game!

Tagged by @betweenrivers-betweenworlds, thnx m8.

Rules: Answer these 92 statements and tag 20* people.

LAST:

1. Drink: Aqua, also known by plebs as “water”. 2. Phone call: Uh..... technically to Willa cause I think she was tryna find her phone. 3. Text message: A group text, in which I provided some amusing pictures. 4. Song you listened to: The chocobo theme from FFXV cause Willa’s playing it right now. 5. Time you cried: I genuinely have no clue. It was a while ago and I don’t cry easily. It was probably at a movie or something. Or maybe it was the cry I had after BatB...

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: HAH!! No. 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: Yep. 8. Been cheated on: Lmao no 9. Lost someone special: Yeah, a couple. 10. Been depressed: Ahahahahahahaha! Literally 24/7. *finger guns* 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Of course, gotta do it at least once. I’ve done it more than once, so I’ve had my fill for life.

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12-14: Dark red, black, and dark purple

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: Yup. 16. Fallen out of love: Pfft, ain’t even fallen in love so no. 17. Laughed until you cried: Many times. 18. Found out someone was talking about you: Like... in a bad way? Not that I– wait, yes, my older sister talked trash about me to my parents cause she’s a butthurt immature crybaby who can’t have mature conversations to save her life. We all laughed about it. (By that, I mean my parents eye-rolled and sympathized with me and I cackled.) 19. Met someone who changed you: Mmmm... can’t say I have? 20. Found out who your friends are: Lmao I mean I already knew it. I don’t make friends easily, so once you’re a friend, that’s that. 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: HAH. Nope.

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: I mean, technically most of them? I knew them either from HS or college, or they’re family? There’s only a few that I’ve met online, and at least one of those that I’ve met online who I’ve subsequently met IRL. 23. Do you have any pets: 1 1/2 cats. 1 cat is fully mine, and I co-parent her brother. 24. Do you want to change your name: I think I’ve effectively done all the name flipping necessary to feel comfortable with it, so nah. 25. What did you do for your last Birthday: Um. That... that’s a good question. I think I just... maybe had good food and watched a movie? 26. What time did you wake up: Like 11:55 AM, just in time to get my computer open to start work XD. 27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Playing the Sims and watching Parks & Rec. 28. Name something you can’t wait for: BLACK PANTHER! THOR: RAGNAROK!! STAR WARS!!! 29. When was the last time you saw your mom: Mmmmmm... I wanna say October? 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: I’d make myself very wealthy to solve literally every single problem I, my friends, and my parents have. 31. What are you listening to right now: The background music for Final Fantasy XV. 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Yeah, my grade school principle was a Tom. 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: Capitalism, not having money for the things I need, and how hard it’s been for me to focus on/enjoy things lately because *Jean-Ralphio singing voice* ~even on medication, depression makes my life a walking nightmaaaaaaare!~ 34. Most visited website: Tumblr for sure.

RANDOM INFO:

35. Mole/s: A few all over. 36. Mark/s: Tons of scars, can’t really think of any birthmarks of note. 37. Childhood dream: Archaeologist, dinosaur hunter, historian, astronaut, pirate, queen of England... the list was long and unrealistic. 38. Hair color: Light blondish-brown naturally, purple by choice. 39. Long or short hair: Long as fuuuuuuck. 41. What do you like about yourself: My eyes are a cool color I guess, and my hair is usually really soft and smells good. 42. Piercings: 3 per ear, two on each lobe and one each in the cartilage. 43. Blood type: Literally never been tested so I have no clue. 44. Nickname: Bree is the most common that I usually use in place of my real given name, Briana. My dad used to call me Bubbles for reasons I still don’t know, some friends called me Breezy in HS. Right now the only other big one is Bryn (online only). 45. Relationship status: Single as fuuuuck. 46. Zodiac: Capricorn. 47. Pronouns: She/her and they/them (rarely he/his). 48. Favorite TV Show: Penny Dreadful, it’s the most beautiful show to grace the world ever in the history of everything. 49. Tattoos: None. 50. Right or left hand: Righty. 51. Surgery: I had to get stitches on my head when I was little. It’s a dumb story. 52. Hair dyed in different color: Hell yes! 53. Sport: Quidditch. On the computer. That’s it, I don’t like sports. 55. Vacation: I’d love to properly explore Europe, do some more putzing around the UK and actually visit France. 56. Pair of trainers: Uh, none right now. Like I said, I’m not a sporty, active type of person so if I don’t need ‘em, I don’t got ‘em. I prefer boots and like, Keds-type slip-on flats types of things.

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: Nothing healthy, I’ll tell you that much. I’m trying to restructure my diet and exercise rn to lose weight, but 100% honestly that just means I’m gonna get tall 2% S’mores Frappuccinos instead of grande regular (whole milk) ones. 58. Drinking: I’ve been making a conscious effort to drink way more water, especially cause the summer makes me even more dehydrated. 59. I’m about to: Probably play the Sims? Or rewatch Castlevania hehe. 61. Waiting for: MY FIRST COLORED CONTACTS TO GET HERE AL-FUCKING-READY SO I CAN TRY THEM OUT. 62. Want: Student loans paid, more money in my bank account, and my new work schedule to start already. 63. Get married: It would certainly be nice with the right person, but highly unrealistic. 64. Career: Well, I’d prefer to be a film actor already, but until I’m more financially stable, my current job is alright.

WHICH IS BETTER:

65. Hugs or kisses: Both are great, but honesty bomb warning, I’ve been pretty touch-starved my whole life thanks to social anxiety so I’m not used to either, especially kisses. Those tend to come more easily only when I’m drunk and there’s lots of people to kiss. 66. Lips or eyes: Eyes for sure. 67. Shorter or taller: I prefer taller, and in fact would love to be taller myself, but oh well. 68. Older or younger: Younger than me just really weirds me out, although Tom Holland makes me feel a way or two. Older actually feels way better, particularly in the 10-15 years range, but I also know that if just like 1 or 2 years younger feels weird to me, then 10-15 probably would feel too weird to them. So I’m just resigned to living alone for the rest of my days. 70. Nice arms or nice stomach: Nice stomach, and with nice arms would be a bonus. 71. Sensitive or loud: If... if this is referring to sex, then I can’t tell ya as I’ve never done it. I would hazard a guess, just based on who I am, that I’d prefer sensitive? 72. Hook up or relationship: The very idea of a hookup repulses me and drives home how incredibly demisexual I am on top of everything else. 73. Troublemaker or hesitant: Uh....???? I... I guess I’d prefer someone who’s more hesitant than troublemaking, because that means they think about their actions first?

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: Yes, while highly intoxicated AND high AND in an environment where I felt safe, which was the only way that was ever gonna happen. 75. Drank hard liquor: Yeeeeeeeeup. 76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: YES AND IT’S THE MOST OBNOXIOUS THING EVER ESPECIALLY WHEN THE SHRIVELED DRIED UP CONTACT SUDDENLY SHOWS UP ON YOUR FLOOR A FEW DAYS LATER. 77. Turned someone down: Yeah. 78. Sex on the first date: As stated earlier, never had sex, so no. And I never would unless I already knew the person a while before the date. 79. Broken someone’s heart: Not that I’m aware of. I’m not really heart-breaker material. 80. Had your heart broken: Mostly by myself with my insecurities. 81. Been arrested: No. 82. Cried when someone died: Of course. 83. Fallen for a friend: Yeah, on occasion. Usually briefly before slapping my shit brain for confusing platonic feelings for romantic ones and making me have a crisis. Fuck you, shit-brain, fuck you.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84. Yourself: Haaaaah, not really. I mean, sometimes? But depression makes that hard. 85. Miracles: I’d like to, but good things rarely happen to me so it’s hard to. 86. Love at first sight: I believe attraction at first sight can be unusually strong, but that should never be conflated with love. That takes time. 87. Santa Claus: Hahah no, my dad accidentally ruined that for me as a kid. 88. Kiss on the first date: If the date was bad, no, absolutely not. If it was okay and there’s some potential there, a kiss on the cheek seems appropriate. If it was great and there’s a lot of potential there, especially if you were friends already, sure go for it.

OTHER:

90. Current best friend name: Willa and Kelsey (I firmly reject the notion that you can only have one best friend and fuck all you ungrateful cunts who don’t love your friends or yourself enough to have more than one). 91. Eye color: Blue-gray 92. Favorite movie: I... I think it might be Phantom of the Opera? I dunno, that’s always a hard fucking question for me.

*Tagging less than 20 cause man I don’t have the focus to count up that many people: @nerfherding-smuggler, @peasantabuser, @aceofaces20, @mel0dyoftears, @hawkeyepancakes, @girl-in-the-coat, @jo-version-2point0, @thegreaterfool, @bimgnusbane, @radioactive-spacemen.

And of course, it’s totally optional. And if you wanna do it but aren’t tagged, well now you’re tagged, go nuts buddy.

[sandytree1]

Radioactive hazards

Just a jumbled mess of notes. I’m still thinking about that Project 7 where we were supposed to design a live-work research pod for Chernobyl that I didn’t finish. So began googling stuff and looking up and working out details I’m wondering about. 

How to visit and live in radioactive areas? How to dress? How to prepare (local) food? What are the most radioactive places on earth? (contrast and compare) How to walk around radioactive sites? How to stay safe? How dangerous is radiation? How long should and could you stay in a radioactive area? How is it for people who moved back - what are their lives like? How to resettle the site? 

What do people do here? What can you research on here? What kind of data from site would be interesting? What tools, equipment and facilities do you need to do this research? How would their day by day routine look like - throughout a month - throughout the four season? 

What’s the geography like? Where do I find reliable maps of the area? How to I access these maps? geography, typology, contour relief map, political boundaries, rivers and seas, mountains, flora, fauna, exclusion zone. travel paths, roads, infrastructure, landmarks, world map location, prevailing winds, climate, habitat type. 

What are the dimensions of a wolf? What does a wolf need to survive and thrive-ish? What does the day to day life of a wolf look like? 

Nuclear power is a reliable source of energy, but comes with the risk of meltdown. 

Be careful of what you touch and where you step, because there’s all this radioactive dust and particles floating everywhere. 

When it blew, it spewed radiation across dozens of towns. Triggering a 12 mile evacuation zone that’s still partially in effect today. The plant itself is the hazardous site. 

Yet Japan is encouraging people to move back. How has conditions improved in the years since the disaster? Radiation researcher Azby Brown. You need to get permission to enter. Play it safe and stay in my protective gear. 

Fukushima Daiichi -- actually a massive cleanup in there, 5000 people working there. They can get into parts of the buildings, but they send robots there to take video etc. People can’t even go in there, since the radiation is so high. How long could people survive in there? A couple of minutes. There’s so much radiation damaging and killing your cells, that your organs would simply shut down. There might be some way of cleaning up to make it livable in 20 years, but it’s an incredibly daunting task. 

They’re removing the top inches of soil where the dust has settled. Dropped into plastic bags and stored in a temporary site. 9 million bags and counting. “Watch your speed, careful.”

Town has become overrun with wild boars. They’re ravaging homes and everything in their path. They eat and destroy crops, making it hard for farmers. They’re not only aggressive and known to attack, they’re radioactive. 

for everyone who returns, they build a new school and house from scratch. In the school yard there’s a radiation monitor so parents can check if its safe when they drop off their kids. “We teach our students about the volume and strength of the radiation, as well as how to avoid it.” 

Children are actually the most vulnerable to radiation. 

Everyday Ouji-san prepares food for the students and has to test the local ingredients that they use for radiation. Has there been times when the radiation levels were too high? Yes, there has. Test once per ingredient, which takes 30 min per ingredient to measure. 

For some living elsewhere is simply not an option. “We have our ancestors with a long history in this town as family. This is the most comfortable place for me, and I wish to continue to live here. I wasn’t worried that much to return, really.” Kids play outside on the ground, and we were concerned about soil contamination. After the accident, we carried a radiation detector with us, although the radiation level in the town of Naraha is low and safe. We’ve gotten used to this. I truly hope more families return and the town will be more active again.” People really trying and working to rebuild. 

A Geiger counter only measures ionizing radiation -- aka radiation with enough energy to rip electrons off atoms. Measured in units called sieverts. If above 2 sieverts, then you’ll probably die shortly after. 

Nautral background radiation coming from earth itself. The soil, rocks, air, space. Average .1 - .2 microsieverts per hour. The radiation in Hiroshima today is only 0.3 microsieverts per hour, 70 years later. Uranium ore is fluorescent under UV light. Marie Curie discovered uranium in Chech republic. In her office her doorknob is 0.10 and then the back of her chair when she pulled it out leaving traces of radium. New Mexico, Trinity test site where the world’s first nuclear bomb was set off. The whole area was vaporated. There was so much heat coming off the bomb that it fused all the desert sand into this green glass which you can still find it here. They’ve named these pellets Trinitite. 0.8 per hour in average, while the pellets are 2-3 microsieverts per hour. 

Which place has higher radiation than any place we’ve seen so far? Answer: airplanes. As you gain altitude, there’s less atmosphere above you to shield you from the cosmic rays: 0.5 microsieverts - 3 microsieverts per hour. 

Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor 4, Ukraine. Just walking close (100 m) gives off 5-6 microsieverts. So much heat was generated that it blew the top off and spead radioactive isotopes throughout this whole surrounding area and over into Europe. If I stayed here for 1 hour, my body will receive as mcuh when you’d receive a dental x-ray. So not a huge amount of radiation. Reason why it’s not that high is because they removed a couple of meters worth of topsoil from this whole area, then dumped it somewhere. Which is why we can stand here. 

Fukushima, Japan. Geiger counter goes up: 3. Mask is overkill, it’s just to stop the dust from getting into my lungs. 10% lesser radiaction material spread than Chernobyl. But because it’s not as long ago, much less of the radiation has decayed. Getting readings up to 5-10 microsieverts. Don’t stay too long because of that. 

Pripyat hospital was where the firemen were brought. The ones who fought the fires at the reactor, and in the basement they left their clothes once they realized it was so contaminated - they chucked it down there. 200-500 microsieverts by the door of them. 2000 microsieverts is a years worth of natural background radiation. CT scan is 3 years worth of microsieverts. Fukushima residents will receive an additional 10 000 worth of microsieverts in their lifetime. US radiation workers limited to 50 000 microsieverts. Astronauts receive 80 000 microsieverts. Smokers lungs receive on average 160 000 microsieverts every year. 

Uranium is not limitless supply (230 years). The largest problem is not meltdown or anything, but nuclear waste. Many different designs. 

Nowadays Chernobyl has become a site for dark tourism. 30 years later more than 10 000 tourists explore the disaster site every year. They snap photos of the stricken power plant and wanders the empty streets of Pripyat. Visitors are screened before they enter the zone. 19 miles surrounding blast area. Told not to sit down nor touch items within this cordon. Checked for radioactive particles when they leave again. Tour operators mainly based in Kiev. They insist the site is safe to see. Even offers overnight stays at a hotel which has been freshly built. 

Chernobyl power plant blew up 26 april 1986, Soviet Union. Nowadays Pripyat, Ukraine. Secret didn’t break until 50 hours later when radioactive particles were detected in Forsmark power plant in Sweden near Stockholm. Accompanied by a toxic cloud sweeping the continent. Belarus suffered the worst effects: poisonous rain, damage to plants and crops, birth of mutated animals. Impact also felt in Scandinavia, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, France, UK. Only 31 people were killed directly - mostly staff and brave souls that battled to encase the bleeding reactor in concrete. But for all its notoriety and its pan-European aftermath, it was largely a localised affair. 400 x more radiocactive material realised into atmosphere than by the Hiroshima bomb. Pripyat was evacuated 27. april - far too late in terms of citizen’s health. 

Exclusion zone is on border between Belarus and Ukraine: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (Ukraine) and Polesian Exclusion Zone (Belarus). 19 miles surrounding blast area.

Ukraine is at war with Russia over Krim peninsula, although Putin won’t acknowledge their involvement in the civil conflict. But the capital Kiev is 450 miles north-west of troubled Donetsk. The current Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice says “the situation in Kiev and western cities is generally calm.” 

Tour operators insists that site is safe to visit. Ukrainian officials have suggested that Pripyat won’t be habitable for another 20 000 years though. Crew maintaining concrete sarcophagus work strictly monitored 5 hour days over the course of a month then take 15 days off. 

Place has become a time capsule of Cold War era beyond scope of what a museum can recreate. It IS 1986 with all its suspicion, frission and atomic fear. 

Rusted swimming pools, dusty gymnasium, giant ferris wheel. Amusement park was due to open 4 days after explosion. They’ve all become a symbol of the disaster. 

East European forest has reclaimed the city. Unchecked by man’s hand in 30 years. ABANDONED site. Trees begun to creep in. Wildlife skitters and darts in the shelter they provide. Wolves, lynx, brown bears have returned. Blissfully free of human footprints. 

Chornobyl tour (chernobyl-tour.com) offers 1 day foray to both power plant and Pripyat from £62 a head. Or a detailed 5 day itinerary from £361 per person. 

Welcome to Chernobyl (chernobylwel.com) specialises in 2 day trips which stay overnight from £240. 

Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum (chornobylmuseum.kiev.ua) is a safer compromise. Charts the event with an exhibit of gas masks, images of deformed animals. Moving through a corridor of name signs for villages that were deleted from the map when the reactor burst. How many people were displaced? 

It was without comparison until Fukushima 2011. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/ukraine/articles/how-can-i-visit-chernobyl-and-is-it-safe/

25 things you didn’t know about Ukraine, the heart of Europe 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/ukraine/articles/amazing-fact-you-probably-didnt-know-about-ukraine/

How to travel to radioactive places (GOOGLE)

Watch Derek Muller travel to the world’s most radioactive places

Ten most radioactive places on earth - Brainz

About radiation danger/safety of short-term trips to the Chernobyl Zone (chernobyl-tour.com)

The most radioactive places in Chernobyl - ChernobylWEL.com

Nuclear tourism - Wikivoyage

Is Chernobyl safe? what you need to know - World Nomads

What’s it like to visit Chernobyl exclusion zone (The Independent)

Fukushima Travel Guide (Japan-Guide.com)

Netflix’s Dark Tourist: Japan investigating Fukushima tour episode (news.com)

travel the most radioactive places in the world (youniversitytv.com)

How to decontaminate a radioactive environment (MPH online)

Fukushima travel guide (GOOGLE)

Nuclear Waste problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU3kLBo_ruo

[newstfionline]

Wild Boars Roam Czech Forests. And Some of Them Are Radioactive

Reuters, Feb. 22, 2017

PRAGUE--The Czech Republic has an unusual problem this winter with its wild boar meat, a local delicacy. The boars are radioactive.

Actually, it’s not the boars themselves, but what they’re eating. A cold and snowy winter is forcing them to feed on false truffles, an underground mushroom common in the Sumava mountain region shared by Czechs, Austrians, Germans--and wild boars.

The mushrooms can absorb high levels of the radioactive isotope Caesium 137. And three decades ago the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl released a fair amount of Caesium 137 that eventually drifted down on the Sumava mountains.

Now the boars are eating the mushrooms, and ingesting the Caesium 137 along with them. That’s making their meat radioactive, Jiri Drapal at the State Veterinary Administration told Reuters.

“It is more or less a seasonal issue,” Drapal said.

But it’s a long season. The half life of Caesium 137 is 30 years--that is, it takes 30 years for the radioactivity of the isotope to fall to half its original value. Then another 30 to fall to half again, and so on. The boars could be glowing for quite a while.

“We can expect to find (affected) food for a number of years from now,” Drapal said.

And that could cause some problems with the supply of boar meat, which is popular in the Czech Republic. It often shows up on restaurant menus in goulash, a thick stew of meat, sauce and dumplings.

Any boar that ends up as goulash ought to be safe. Every wild animal hunted, not only boars, must be inspected before its meat can get to customers. Radioactive meat is banned from circulation, Drapal said.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that 614 animals were inspected from 2014 to 2016, and 47 percent were above the limit--almost half.

The semi-good news is that even meat from radioactive animals would be a health hazard only in large doses, Drapal said. You would have to eat it several times a week for couple of months, to get sick, he said.