#after 500 million years

[loregoddess]

NO FUCKING WAY

[orcelito]

Had a moment of listening to music I liked back when I was a teenager (& still like) and having a whole. Realization . That I like myself as I am now sooooo much better than I like teenage me. And I started thinking about Why.

There's a lot to it I'm pretty sure, & most of it centers around the fact that I just... didn't really know who I was as a person. I didn't really have hobbies outside of what I did in school (aka orchestra) and like. Video games + anime. I did creative writing in middle school, but dropped off in high school for... some reason? I still made original characters and played around with them a lot, but it was mostly just in drawing and thinking about them. I never actually *wrote*, and I in fact didn't get back into creative writing at all until I was 23 years old. I was someone who had spent so long hiding behind others and just doing what I was told that I just... didn't have any real direction. I didn't know what I even *wanted*. I thought I knew, but in hindsight, I can confidently say that I didn't. I was just an insecure teen drifting through life and not thinking about things beyond what was immediately in front of me. Which is pretty standard for teenagers I guess, but not all of them. Not at all.

Compared to now, where I have Many hobbies, most notably being writing. As I am now, I am just Intrinsically a writer. And it's weird to remember that I wasn't even really *writing* before 5 years ago (besides text rps, which did a lot for developing my writing skill! But still aren't a replacement for writing individually). As a teen, I wasnt into dnd, I was incredibly out of shape, & I was a lot less aggressive and focused. I was the type to avoid sports!!! I hated them!!!! But as I am now, I Love biking and can easily bike for an hour+ no problem (I remember being a teen and trying to go on just 10 minute bike rides in the summer and just *dying* from it), & I love working out. I wanna be strong!!! I LOVE being strong!!! And I was an absolute mess with things like public speaking & working in groups, vs now where I can do an impromptu presentation no problem & I'm often the unofficial leader in group projects bc im typically the one who does the organizing and allotments of work. A side effect of working as a supervisor and then assistant manager for so long. I have a lot more confidence in my perceptions and judgements, & I have the self-assurance to assert these things. And this is only really the tip of the iceberg with all the differences.

I just feel like an entirely different person, almost. The cores are the same, or at least damn near similar, with the things I want out of life & the sorts of things I enjoy, but it's like. The difference between finding a random rock off the side of the road & then that rock when it's been sanded and carved and decorated to be something individual and unique. You look at them side by side and it's something dull vs something shiny and intricate. The origins can't be ignored and dismissed, & I certainly would never resent younger me for just doing the best with what I knew at the time. But it's just astounding how much difference time and experience will have for growing and developing as a person. Things I consider integral to my personhood weren't even thoughts in my mind back then. We are almost entirely different people.

[pumakaji64]

NO FUCKING WAY

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #16

April 26-May 3 2024

President Biden announced $3 billion to help replace lead pipes in the drinking water system. Millions of Americans get their drinking water through lead pipes, which are toxic, no level of lead exposure is safe. This problem disproportionately affects people of color and low income communities. This first investment of a planned $15 billion will replace 1.7 million lead pipe lines. The Biden Administration plans to replace all lead pipes in the country by the end of the decade.

President Biden canceled the student debt of 317,000 former students of a fraudulent for-profit college system. The Art Institutes was a for-profit system of dozens of schools offering degrees in video-game design and other arts. After years of legal troubles around misleading students and falsifying data the last AI schools closed abruptly without warning in September last year. This adds to the $29 billion in debt for 1.7 borrowers who wee mislead and defrauded by their schools which the Biden Administration has done, and a total debt relief for 4.6 million borrowers so far under Biden.

President Biden expanded two California national monuments protecting thousands of acres of land. The two national monuments are the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, which are being expanded by 120,000 acres. The new protections cover lands of cultural and religious importance to a number of California based native communities. This expansion was first proposed by then Senator Kamala Harris in 2018 as part of a wide ranging plan to expand and protect public land in California. This expansion is part of the Administration's goals to protect, conserve, and restore at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

The Department of Transportation announced new rules that will require car manufacturers to install automatic braking systems in new cars. Starting in 2029 all new cars will be required to have systems to detect pedestrians and automatically apply the breaks in an emergency. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration projects this new rule will save 360 lives every year and prevent at least 24,000 injuries annually.

The IRS announced plans to ramp up audits on the wealthiest Americans. The IRS plans on increasing its audit rate on taxpayers who make over $10 million a year. After decades of Republicans in Congress cutting IRS funding to protect wealthy tax cheats the Biden Administration passed $80 billion for tougher enforcement on the wealthy. The IRS has been able to collect just in one year $500 Million in undisputed but unpaid back taxes from wealthy households, and shows a rise of $31 billion from audits in the 2023 tax year. The IRS also announced its free direct file pilot program was a smashing success. The program allowed tax payers across 12 states to file directly for free with the IRS over the internet. The IRS announced that 140,000 tax payers were able to use it over their target of 100,000, they estimated it saved $5.6 million in tax prep fees, over 90% of users were happy with the webpage and reported it quicker and easier than companies like H&R Block. the IRS plans to bring direct file nationwide next year.

The Department of Interior announced plans for new off shore wind power. The two new sites, off the coast of Oregon and in the Gulf of Maine, would together generate 18 gigawatts of totally clean energy, enough to power 6 million homes.

The Biden Administration announced new rules to finally allow DACA recipients to be covered by Obamacare. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an Obama era policy that allows people brought to the United States as children without legal status to remain and to legally work. However for years DACA recipients have not been able to get health coverage through the Obamacare Health Care Marketplace. This rule change will bring health coverage to at least 100,000 uninsured people.

The Department of Health and Human Services finalized rules that require LGBTQ+ and Intersex minors in the foster care system be placed in supportive and affirming homes.

The Senate confirmed Georgia Alexakis to a life time federal judgeship in Illinois. This brings the total number of federal judges appointed by President Biden to 194. For the first time in history the majority of a President's nominees to the federal bench have not been white men.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Los del Río - Macarena (Bayside Boys remix) 1995

"Macarena" is a song by Spanish pop duo Los del Río, originally recorded for their 1993 album A mí me gusta. During a private party celebration in Venezuela in 1992, a local flamenco teacher, Diana Patricia Cubillán Herrera, performed a dance for the guests, and Los del Río were pleasantly surprised by Cubillán's dance skills. Spontaneously, Antonio Romero Monge, one half of the Los del Río duo, recited the song's chorus-to-be on the spot, as an accolade to Cubillán: "¡Diana, dale a tu cuerpo alegría y cosas buenas!'" ("Give your body some joy, Diana"). When Monge wrote the song, he changed the name to Macarena, in honor of his daughter Esperanza Macarena.

In mid-1996, the song became a worldwide hit roughly one year after the Bayside Boys produced a remix of the song that added English lyrics, written by Carlos de Yarza. The Bayside Boys added a new dance beat with English-language lyrics sung originally by the studio singer Patty Alfaro. The remix includes a sample from the Yazoo track "Situation" — the laughter of Yazoo vocalist Alison Moyet. The chorus uses female vocal samples previously used by the Farm in their song "Higher and Higher (Remix)" from their album, Spartacus.

The Bayside Boys remix hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1996 and remained at the top of the chart for fourteen weeks, becoming one of the longest runs atop the Hot 100 chart in history. It also topped the US Cash Box Top 100. Billboard ranked it as the number 1 song for 1996. In the UK the song peaked at number 2, kept off the number 1 spot by the huge popularity of the Spice Girls song "Wannabe". In Australia, it was the most successful song of 1996. "Macarena" remained popular through 1996, but by the beginning of 1997, its popularity had begun to diminish. The song stayed in the Hot 100 chart for 60 weeks, the longest reign among number 1 songs, only surpassed fifteen years later by Adele's "Rolling in the Deep". Its resurgence was aided by a dance craze that became a cultural phenomenon throughout the latter half of 1996 and early 1997. The song got the group ranked the "#1 Greatest One-Hit Wonder of All Time" by VH1 in 2002. In 2012, it was ranked number 7 on Billboard's All Time Top 100. It also ranked at number 7 on Billboard's All Time Latin Songs list. In 2023, Billboard ranked "Macarena" number 500 in their list of Best Pop Songs of All Time. By 1997, the song had sold 11 million copies. In a Peanuts comic strip from December 1, 1996, Snoopy is about to join Woodstock and an unnamed identical bird at a frozen-over birdbath for a hockey game, but they start off by doing the Macarena dance first before playing, much to his embarrassment.

When the music video for the Bayside Boys Remix was filmed, Mia Frye choreographed a greatly simplified version of the Macarena dance that already existed at the time. Frye and director Calvet drew inspiration from video footage from clubs in Mexico that showed large crowds of people dancing the original, more complex, Macarena. According to Los del Río, the dance originated from the interaction between the band and the audience at concerts. It started with some improvised arm movements from the singers during an instrumental part of the song. Some people in the audience then began to imitate similar dance moves. In the interplay between the band and the audience, an early form of Macarena dance gradually emerged over the course of several concerts because stories about the Macarena dance spread among the band's fans by word of mouth.

"Macarena" received a total of 87,7% yes votes!

[reasonsforhope]

"In short:

Victorian farmers and volunteers have planted 750,000 trees to restore habitat for a critically endangered bird.

The Regent Honeyeater Project has brought together volunteers from all walks of life since it was launched in the 1990s.

What's next?

An ornithologist says the project is working wonders for the species and other wildlife.

--

John Paul Murphy is not an ecologist, but he knows a thing or two about trees.

The young cattle farmer from Winton in north-east Victoria has helped plant more than 750,000 trees as part of the Regent Honeyeater Project.

"Our involvement as a family goes back to the early 1990s, when the project first kicked off," Mr Murphy said.

The regent honeyeater is a critically endangered bird known for its black-and-bright-yellow colouring.

"Back in the day, millions of these birds would darken the sky from Adelaide up to Queensland," ornithologist Maggie Watson said.

"They're quite large compared to other honeyeaters, are highly nectar-dependent, and are one of the main pollinators of eucalypt trees."

Dr Watson, based in Burrumbuttock, New South Wales, said habitat fragmentation was a major reason the bird was threatened.

"When people started clearing farmland as part of colonisation in the 1800s, they removed all the productive, nectar-producing trees," she said.

"So that essentially wiped out the regent honeyeater's main food-base."

'Great for all wildlife'

Benalla cattle farmer and Regent Honeyeater Project president Rob Richardson said agriculture had claimed its share of the environment.

"We've destroyed a lot of habitat to create grazing and cropping land to the point where there are less than 500 wild regent honeyeaters left in Australia," he said.

"So now we're trying to restore the balance.

"We propagate all the trees in our plant nursery, and then plant them across the landscape to establish vegetation corridors."

Dr Watson said the project would significantly benefit the regent honeyeater population.

"The birds need to have 'roads' to get to flowering trees like eucalypts, and those roads happen to be other trees — so the more you plant, the better," she said.

"Tackling habitat fragmentation is great for all wildlife."

Huge volunteer effort

Mr Richardson said local volunteers were at the heart of the project.

"Over the last 30 years we've had many farmers donate land to be revegetated and over 40,000 volunteers help plant all the trees," he said.

Mr Murphy said the volunteers came from all walks of life.

"At our planting days, I've met university students, doctors, lawyers, biologists … and many of them come back year after year," he said.

Mr Murphy said it was nice to have a chance to get to know with people he may not otherwise have met.

"Farming can be pretty isolating," he said.

"But when you're planting, learning, and just getting your hands dirty together, the conversations you have are really unique.""

-via ABC News Australia, December 2, 2024

[avalon-stegodeus]

2005, North America, a man grows up an only child in the suburbs, he gets a cubicle job, he marries his highschool sweetheart, he dies leaving his regrets of a quiet life behind, he rots, and returns unto the earth.

1096, Jerusalem, a man is raised as a devout Christian, he is taught of sins ancient and unforgivable, because of a disagreement between people that he will never see, he is sent into a war for a land not his own, he dies in battle, praying to a God that will never answer, he rots, and returns unto the earth.

2,000,000 BCE, Eurasia, a neanderthal is hunting with his tribe, he maims a young mammoth, taking a mortal wound in the process, his tribe finishes the mammoth off as he bleeds out, he dies surrounded by his kin, knowing that his actions will feed them for days, he rots, and returns unto the earth.

65,000,000 years, continent of Laramidia, a mother Tyrannosaurus and her brood watch the sky turn red with fire, through random chance and blind luck, a disaster far beyond their comprehension ends all life larger than a common rabbit, their skin chars to glass within seconds, without them even knowing they were dying, they rot, and return unto the earth.

273 Million years ago, landmasses are unrecognizable, an amphibian lives its entire life in one pond, a many year long drought has dried it to a puddle, the amphibian looks beyond its shrinking home turned prison, to see nothing but the desert, it dies without finding a mate, never straying far from home even in death, it rots, and returns unto the earth.

400 Million years ago, plants have only just moved on to land, a primitive lobe finned fish stares at an early rooted plant from the shoreline, young and not affixed to the soil yet, the fish defies what it knows, what it has always known, and heaves itself onto dry land, and having consumed the sprout, it returns to the water, having experienced something no other lifeform has ever experienced before, it dies soon after mating, having unknowingly sown the way forward for all life to come, it rots, and returns unto the earth.

500 Million years ago, compound eyes have only just developed, a small trilobite coasts along the sand, searching for edible debris, as it has done for its entire life, a large ratiodont swims by, abducting the trilobite and snapping its exoskeleton open, as the ratiodont consumes its flesh, the trilobites last thoughts are of the shallow nursery it hatched in, and the warm rays of the sun, bringing nutrients of detritus down with it, it rots, and returns unto the earth, as the very detritus it once sought out.

[rayveneyed]

cw; suggestive / softcore smut, alcohol consumption (possibly dubcon), inappropriate workplace relationships, cisfem!reader

nanami kento is too old for fucking.

he tells you this at 1 am — in not quite as many words — a few too many somaeks in, lethargic and slow from the length of the workday. there’s enough alcohol in his system to have him silk-loose and soft, cursing more freely and allowing vulgarity (or what he considers vulgarity) to grace his ever-so-polite tongue.

you’ve never heard him like this before; you’ve never heard your straight laced coworker utter anything more than a family-friendly expletive (drat being a recurring character — old-fashioned, but endearing). but his shirt is unbuttoned at the collar and his hair is mussed, and the blush of intoxication is rising to his sharp cheekbones — and yes, he curses. it almost sounds elegant when he does it. rolling over his tongue in his poorly-lit living room, where he’d only bothered to turn one lamp on; gathering with his voice like balls of cotton wool deep in his chest.

you yourself have had one too many drinks — that is why you find warmth pooling in your stomach at the sound of his confession, at the sight of his face illuminated in honey-soft light. after all, you’d never let the barrier of strained, charged professionalism drop otherwise. you’d never accept kento’s sudden invite for a nightcap after a night already filled with drinking, surrounded by tipsy coworkers at a local izakaya; you’d never let him help you slip your heels off, deft fingers unbuckling the strap from your ankle and lingering just long enough for you to notice. you’d surely never sit so close to him on his fancy 1.5 million yen couch — and you’d never, ever entertain the comment he’d made, one that he never intended for you to hear in the first place.

“what was that?” you say, coy, as if the comment hadn’t twisted something horrid in your gut. (as if you weren’t imagining him flushed from top to bottom, panting against your neck. it’s the alcohol, you’re sure of it.) “you’re too old for all that crazy stuff? like what?”

his adam’s apple bobs. he’s sitting slumped low next to you, his head hanging backwards against the back of the couch and his gaze somewhere on the high ceilings above your head, like he can’t face you. pretty. handsome. “sorry. i was just thinking out loud.”

“i know.” you take a sip of your own somaek. “but we’re both adults here, right? i mean, i agree. i’m not as flexible as i was at 20.”

his laugh is more of a surprised huff — like he’s just as surprised as you are that your conversation has steered into such uncharted territory. perhaps he’s surprised that he’s even responding to it — but he does, rubbing at his eyes with his thumb and pointer finger. his thigh presses against yours through those infernal khaki slacks. “mm. me neither.”

you shoot him a cheeky grin. “you were getting folded like a pretzel, i presume?”

another laugh, tinged with incredulity this time. “mm. something like that.”

you both sit in silence for a moment. his apartment really is lovely — the kind of apartment you only get when you’re as diligent as nanami, putting aside money for years and steadily working his way up the hierarchal corporate ladder. high ceilings and a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows opposite his couch; a kitchen with a granite island; fancy furniture straight from an interior designer’s wet dream. it’s all neutral greys and browns, cozy and elegant and refined, and suddenly you wonder what his bedroom looks like. you take another sip of your drink.

“getting older’s not all that bad,” you say, almost offhandedly, speaking more to the tokyo skyline than your drinking companion. (you bet he has a double-king with fancy 500-count cotton bedsheets. probably some trinkets. man stuff like shavers and cuff links and aftershave.) “i like it slow anyways.”

a strange, choked sound leaves your drinking partner, and your eyes shoot over to him. you’re suddenly mortified at your careless blabbering — but drunk enough for your embarrassment to be eclipsed by a prideful ignorance. “huh? nanami-san, are you okay?”

he stares up at the ceiling once more. his throat bobs again. a slight blush has dusted the tops of his ears — but before you can linger in it, his eyes suddenly flicker to meet yours. you’re almost taken aback by it — the intensity with which his brown eyes suddenly bore into you, the sullenness and modesty from before pushed aside for something newer. something rawer. “…forgive me for my forwardness—”

“you’re forgiven.”

“—but, i…”

you swallow. he still hasn’t looked away. your breathing has stilted, stagnant and pressing, in your lungs. you fight the urge to press against the point where his thigh meets your own, already on the verge of squirming under his heady stare. “but…?”

straight-laced nanami kento breathes deeply, his chest moving with the force of it, and as his breath shudders out of him, he bites out: “i really want you, right now.”

your heartbeat rushes in your ears.

“but we’re coworkers,” kento continues, like he’s been sitting on it for a while — like he’s trying to convince himself as much as you. his hand — the one not clutching his glass, the one laying on top of his thigh, flexes. “it’s unprofessional — completely inappropriate. i should be written up for simply confessing this to you.”

“but we—” you swallow around a dry throat — all moisture in your body seemingly gathering between your legs, hot and thrumming and nowhere to go— “we’re not working right now.”

a beat of silence.

kento finally looks away from you, and you can breathe again. you grapple with the sudden influx of air in your lungs, the anxiety of misstepping broiling in the pit of your stomach. while you internally struggle with yourself, nanami sets his somaek on the coffee table, before slumping back again.

“i suppose we’re not.”

unsurprisingly, kento does not make the first move. he just sits there, one arm behind his head and the other laying limp at his side, his chin tilted towards the sky and his eyes shut as if to sleep. it’s not in a way that might be construed as arrogance — this isn’t your high school boyfriend sitting back and waiting for you to pull down his pants — it’s pure and utter indulgence. climb over him if you want. kiss him when you want. cross the imaginary line drawn in the sand when it suits you — regardless, he won’t ever touch unless you explicitly make it clear that you want him to. desire curdles in your stomach, almost painful, and it's all you can do to scrabble onto your knees beside him.

before your anxiety takes control of your faculties — before you allow your cowardice to seize your limbs — you swing a knee to the other side of his hips. you're straddling him, close enough that you're sure you're sharing the same air, and — fuck, he's much bigger than you'd anticipated. he doesn't have the wiry, lean stature of the average salaryman — somehow, between sleeping overnight in the office and drinking at izakayas almost nightly, kento's frame is sturdy and large, muscular. like he works out often. you don't know how he does it with the long hours he puts in, but your thighs almost ache with the stretch of his hips between them — and pressed right against you, right where you're sensitive and aching and perhaps a little too needy, is his clothed cock. the slacks do little to camouflage the shape or hardness of it — in fact, you swear you feel it twitch when you seat yourself against it.

kento's eyes flutter open. his cheekbones are slowly reddening, his glasses hooked low on his nose bridge. his arms twitch where they lay, like he was about to move to hold you and thought better of it. you wish he didn't think better of it. "hi."

you give a little smile, hopefully looking less like you're brimming with excitable energy than you actually are. his lips really are quite close to yours. if you just leaned forward... "hi."

they're not chapped, his lips, but not shining with lip balm. they're soft looking and slightly pink, naturally down-turned in a way that makes him seem grumpy most of the time. but they're quirked up in a little smile, now, and all you can think about is how they might feel against yours. your lip gloss has long since rubbed off, between drinking and eating and drinking again, but would the remnants of glitter smear against his lips? would he come away tasting cherries?

kento clears his throat.

"i have to be honest with you," he says. he adjusts his glasses smartly, the way he does at the office, the way that has all the your female coworkers swooning. "i'm… passed the age of doing things no strings attached — that is to say, if—”

heart suddenly swooping in your chest — delighted at being indulged, of having your affections returned — and brain whizzing along like a child who's had too much sugar, you connect your lips with little fanfare. you're perhaps too enthusiastic — prodding his mouth with your tongue as soon as he'll let you, leaning forward until your chests press together and you can almost feel his heart beating through his skin. his lips are soft, after all. soft but weathered, moving so pleasantly against yours — and then his hands squeeze at the plushness of your hips, his teeth take your bottom lip between them, and—

you're panting when you pull away. panting and flushed and hot all over, barely an inch between you for fear of distance. you’re hot where you’re connected, so filled with nervous, excitable energy you think you might wither; nanami’s grasp on you, steel-tight and warm, does little to help. it’s all you can do to give yourself a second to recuperate, chest heaving — and nanami seems just as bad off. the usually well-kept salaryman looks a mess underneath you, with his lips swollen, his eyes half-lidded, and his breathing uneven — even then, though, his eyes are far too intense for you to calm any.

“to be honest,” you say, "i’m — i’m a little too old for that, too, kento."

another small smile. the gap between you is filled once more. you both call in sick that morning.

[caelivir]

hold me down | oliver aiku

synopsis. oliver’s always been different with you. he doesn’t figure out why until tonight.

pairing. oliver aiku x fem!reader | wc. 1.8k | genres. established relationship + fluff + pet names (princess & doll) | warnings. only a little suggestive cuz is it really an aiku fic if it isn’t?

notes. ooc oli because he would never in a million years do this but im just a girl and i have dreams okay. also a little late on this but thank you for 500 followers. i love love love you guys so much. | divider by @/plutism !!

when oliver comes home, he’s burnt out. the combination of a workout with the athletic trainers and an afternoon practice back-to-back had drained the life out of his muscles. he makes a note to never do one after the other ever again.

oliver sets his duffel bag by the side of the living room couch. he lets his weight fall back on the cream colored cushions. he takes a moment to stare up at the plain ceiling before his eyes flutter shut.

he ascertains that he wasn’t asleep for long when a gentle shake at his thigh slowly yanks him from his state of slumber. his mind is still groggy, yet oliver can already confidently guess who would dare to wake him just by the shape of the hand on his thigh. it's the only other person he gave a copy of his apartment key to. he doesn't question why you're here. he's used to you coming over to stay a few nights.

“you okay, oli?” you ask, hints of worry laced in your pretty voice.

“mhm.” oliver hums. he picks his head up. "no need to worry about me, princess."

you’re fresh out the shower. he realizes this after he picks up on the addicting scent of your coconut and vanilla bodywash that you keep stashed in his bathroom; he senses that there's something else mixed in with it too. he recognizes it to be hints of orris and cedarwood, a combo that he finds on his own clothes. his eyes travel and the sight of you in his shirt nearly makes him pounce on you. he doesn't have the energy for that though, so he opts for reaching out for your hand.

"are you sure? i only woke you 'cause i didn't want you sleeping on the couch. do you want to move to the bed?" you gently squeeze oliver's fingers. "i'll clean out your practice bag too if you want."

"no."

"no?" you chuckle in bewilderment at your boyfriend's sleepy defiance. oliver weakly pats his thighs. you bring your eyebrows together in thought.

your eyes had widened ever so slightly, and he knew you just figured out what he wants. you shake your head. "we don't have to today. you're tired."

"mmm, don't care." oliver denies your refusal and pats his thighs once more. he sees you sigh, the falling of your chest pushes the air out of your lungs, but a soft grin replaces it instantly because who are you to defy him?

you approach oliver, hiking up one leg to come down on one side of his body with the other following immediately after, settling your weight on his lap. your arms drape over his shoulders.

he squeezes your hips before asking the signature question. "how was your day, doll?"

"let me think." you play with the green tips of hair at the back of oliver's neck as you rack your brain for interesting moments to share with him.

oliver isn’t sure how this habit started, but he couldn't be bothered to determine the exact details of its beginnings. all that he’s certain of is the fact that this little routine you’ve developed with him is the best part of his day.

he adores the feeling that comes with your entire weight resting on top of him. he loves being able to take in every detail of your beautiful face up close. he’s addicted to your voice and the stories that you inject into his veins.

he'll admit, some days it’s not even about hearing about your day, some days oliver would use this established routine as an excuse to get touchy with you. his hands would wander down to your ass and you'd throw glares at him. your narrowed eyes would only egg him on more. in response, he’d sit up straighter to kiss your neck, sucking and nibbling at that one sweet spot that makes you scratch at his back. you’d lose track of your story, trading details in for stutters.

you'd say that it’s sly and underhanded. you'd chastise him for not listening, but some days you’re just as unfair. oliver could be in the middle of sharing his recollection of the photoshoot he had earlier in the day when you decide to sneak your hands under his shirt. you’d play dumb as he shivers beneath you, your doe eyes encouraging him to continue. he’d try to carry on with his story, but all he would be able to focus on is your palms running up and down his abs. you'd nod your head as he speaks, there’d be a twinkle in your eye that lets him know that you’re fully aware that he’s on the verge of snapping and taking you right there.

other days no words are exchanged at all. oliver can read your mind just by having your mouth on his. he can tell just by the way you tug on his hair and whine against his lips that you badly missed him.

and sometimes oliver isn't able to be there with you at all. he deems those days to be the worst. they're reduced to facetimes where you try to hide your pretty face from him. the calls lag and crash because some days he's halfway across the country or on an entirely different continent.

today doesn’t fall into either of those categories, and he's most definitely thankful that it isn't the last. today, oliver is solely focused on hearing from you. he lets your rambles take root in his bones. he studies you as you talk. the lights in your eyes rival the stars. the smile on your face as you recall the dog you saw at the park could kill a thousand men. the fire of your touch could set the world ablaze.

oliver is well-aware that he's not worthy to be graced with such beautiful sights. he's no saint. his past is stained with his unfaithfulness and his trail of many relationships. he isn't sure why you gave him a chance despite knowing what he's done. you had said that at least he was being honest about it, but that had only left him with more questions than answers. shouldn't that make you more put off about dating him?

he chooses to ignore it; he shoves the question deep into the corners of his head until it's practically invisible. instead on picking apart that question, he focused on you.

throughout your ongoing relationship, he's put thought into your dates, making sure that they're never exactly the same. he spoils you rotten but not with lavish gifts. the one time he did you were severely unhappy at his thoughtless spending, and thus he made a note in his mental archive to reserve such actions only for your birthday (and anniversaries). instead, he ties your shoe laces for you and he fixes your jewelry. he kisses away your tears when you cry and learns the recipes to your favorite meals. he sits you up on the surface of the sink in his bathroom and brushes your teeth for you when you're too tired to do it yourself. he lets you drag him into doing skincare and makeup because it gives him an excuse to admire how cute you look when you're focused, and he gets to relish in the feeling of your hands brushing against his face.

it was baffling. when oliver first started realizing how much he does for you, he felt like an alien had possessed his body. there was something that had latched itself onto the controls of his brain. that had to be the reason why he was acting so out of character. when he told this to itoshi sae, he was called a fucking idiot and a loser, and looking back, he probably was. the answer, the explanation for his new behavior was in front of him the entire time.

it's simply because-

"i love you." oliver utters out loud. your hands freeze in his hair. whatever you were saying previously dies on your tongue.

"huh?"

oliver blinks slowly. the words had slipped out unintentionally; the gravity of them crush him suddenly. the aftertaste of them is foreign, like they were never supposed to be spoken from him. it's new territory. it's the first time oliver's said that to you in the four months you've been together. it's the first time he's said that to anyone for that matter.

he contemplates taking it back, as if he could ever extract the words from the air and shove them back down his throat. but why bother with jumping through those loops? he has no good reason to take it back. he has no use spinning a truth into a lie. so instead, oliver offers you an upturn of his lips, his heart threatening to break out of his chest. he soaks in all of your microexpressions. your mouth is stuck in a cycle of opening and closing, your eyebrows drawn together in disbelief.

"idiot." you mutter shakily, gnawing at your quivering lip. you bury your face in the crevice of oliver's neck. it makes him smile. he knows your tells. you're about to start crying. "do you know how long i waited for you to say that?"

oliver pulls you in closer, wrapping his buff arms around your waist. "i know." he acknowledges. "i'm sorry it took me so long to realize it."

you tug hardly on his hair to get back at him. the pain spreads to his scalp, and he can't find it in him to be mad. "damn princess." he chuckles.

you remove your head from its hiding place. both of your hands slide so that they rest on either side of oliver's neck. in the light, he can catch the path of tears that fell from your eyes. "yeah, well, you deserved it."

"i know."

"i love you too." you breathe out desperately. the four words that have been boiling inside you, the four words you've managed to cage up finally rush out and crash down like waves.

"yeah?" oliver smirks. you lean in closer, and he gives your waist a quick squeeze.

"yeah. i love you so much." you whisper in front of oliver's lips before he closes the inch gap between you two.

usually, when oliver kisses you, he's does so as if he's a starved man; he wants to devour you whole. this is nothing like that. he substitutes his hunger for softness. his lips are gentle against yours as if to prove himself to you. he wants you, with every fiber in his being, to believe that his words are true. his 'i love you's' are real and honest and come from the deepest parts of his heart. when you pull away, you both look at each other as if your each other's entire world.

"i love you, princess." oliver says. the words are still unfamiliar on his tongue, but he thinks he can get used to them. he'll say them as many times as he needs to if it meant that he can see that blinding smile on your face.

oliver aiku is no saint, but he'll do anything for you.

[strictlyfavorites]

It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by our own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars.

The first year results are now in

Australia-wide, homicides are up 6.2 percent,

Australia-wide, assaults are up 9.6 percent;

Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!

In the state of Victoria…..alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent.(Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not and criminals still possess their guns!)

While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady

decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since the criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the elderly, while the resident is at home.

Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in ‘successfully ridding Australian society of guns….’ You won’t see this on the American evening news or hear your governor or members of the State Assembly disseminating this information.  The Australian experience speaks for itself. Guns in the  hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws affect only the law-abiding citizens.

Take note Americans, before it’s too late!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

SHE CONNECTED THE DOTS BEFORE THE REST OF US EVEN FOUND THE PENCIL

Heather Cox Richardson just handed us the clearest, most unflinching blueprint of how the U.S. government is being dismantled under the second Trump administration—and she backed every word with receipts. Her March 27, 2025 dispatch isn’t analysis. It’s evidence. It’s a field report from the front lines of a soft coup.

The scale of what she wrote felt too outrageous to be real.

Venmo payments with eggplant emojis tied to a Signal chat about bombing the Houthis?

A Department of Government Efficiency that’s already cost the U.S. $500 billion?

The IRS gutted. HHS torched. Social Security collapsing?

Surely this was speculative—some dystopian metaphor.

It wasn’t. Every detail she cited came from real reporting by real journalists in Wired, The Washington Post, Reuters, NBC News, The New York Times, and more.

Richardson didn’t theorize—she documented. And the result is devastating.

Here’s just a fraction of what she laid out:

• DOGE, Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” has cost $500 billion—10% of all IRS revenue from last year.

• 20,000 IRS employees fired, especially in enforcement. Billionaire audits? Gone.

• HHS cut $12 billion in mental health and disease tracking grants, then laid off 10,000 more workers, including 3,500 from the FDA and 2,400 from the CDC.

• Social Security’s website crashed 4 times in 10 days. New rules require in-person ID checks for people without internet.

• A Tufts student was detained by ICE after writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed.

• The Department of Education is being shut down.

• FEMA is next.

• Columbia University had $400 million withheld until it complied with Trump’s cultural directives.

• Mike Johnson is openly floating the idea of eliminating federal courts.

• Words like “climate crisis,” “diversity,” “segregation,” and even “peanut allergies” are being purged from federal communications.

• And J.D. Vance is now in charge of purging the Smithsonian of what the administration calls “anti-American ideology.”

This isn’t dysfunction. It’s doctrine.

It’s Project 2025, written by Russell Vought, now head of the Office of Management and Budget, and championed by Vance, who once said:

“Unless we overthrow [the current ruling class]… we’re going to keep losing."

and

“We really need to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power.”

Heather Cox Richardson took that ruthlessness seriously. She traced it from the eggplant emoji to the ICE van. From the IRS to the Smithsonian. From the layoffs to the list of banned words.

She didn’t write a warning.

She wrote the truth.

And she deserves our full attention.

[Closer to the Edge]

[Link to the post referred]

[brandileigh2003]

Wolfstar "Hidden gems" underrated fics

~~~please give these authors love, fandom engagement with writers is down and it means more than you know. ~~~

I saw a post about lesser known fics yesterday and decided to try to boost some of my faves. They are under 500 kudos and deserve so much more. (I know that kudos and hits don't mean much at the end of the day, but...)

Feel free to comment or reblog your own fics or your favorites that fit!

-love finds a way by@littleoldrache Jurassic Park au ft disability and trans remus (you really can't go wrong with any of Rachel's fics though, they're amazing) (Background jily)

-The Standard Book Of Spells by Imparfait no voldy hogwarts au (Background jily)

-Tender is the touch (of someone that you love too much) by @purplefiction-ao3 (wip) multiple pov journey of remus waiting for heart transplant (Background jily)

--Engaged for 43 years by @halfravenhalfclaw sirius proposes at first sight at 11, follows til the afterlife (divergent) (Background jily)

--This Is the Way the World Ends by @blitheringmcgonagall sad but beautiful MCD (Background jily)

-Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations by TheQueerTailor Sixth year has just started and Remus is barely keeping up. He's just sixteen but it feels like his body is falling apart.

-Tertiary Colors by krabapple mpreg 1st war divergent, potters live (check out other fics too!) (Background jily)

-Black's Anatomy by @grasslesss greys anatomy fic, remus has lupus (wip) (has jily and jeg)

-Give Me A Sign by @theresthesnitch soulmate fic, remus is deaf. (Wip) (Background jily)

-Sweets and Books by Writer_INFJ_2w1: bookshop au, chronic pain (tiny background jeg)

-Babysitting For Dummies by Middleofamoment (37k) au raising teddy get together (theres a sequel and 3rd to come) (Background jily)

-Rarer Than One in a Million by Sp00nhater wolfstar is so soft and sweet, meet in hospital (Background jily)

-Tic Tic Boom by @fictionboysarebetter : Hogwarts fic, remus has tourettes (wip) (Background jily)

-The Ups and Downs of Inevitability by depressed_and_nauseous (check tags deals with heavy topics) remus is in Poppy's care for his safety (wip) (no background)

-Small Bones of Courage by Anonymous mcd, please read tags, sensitive topics. Later in life lycanthropy is terminal for remus. (Background jily)

-Flight of Destiny by @lucigoo sapphic wolfstar meet on plane (Luci also has lots of beautiful fics)

-Birthday Blues by YouBlitheringIdiot @blitheringmcgonagall :Sirius is turning sixty and he is appalled... (Background jily)

-Give Quarter to Old Men - @krethes series with older wolfstar

-lazing on a sunday afternoon by peachyybabe domestic slice of life

-I choose you to love for the rest of my life by Writer_INFJ_2w1 sapphic wolfstar wedding

-Puppy Magic by @demonbanisher thefifthmarauder17 magical divergent (Background jily)

-Consider the Lotus by busaikko: Sirius goes with remus to register at the ministry after the prank to show realities of lycanthropy

-Grow As We Go sapphicselene: post 1st war divergent, wolfstar in therapy (Background jily)

-From the Patient Files of Remus J Lupin, 1971 by TheQueerTailor

-While I breathe, I hope by MarigoldWritesThings by @marigold-hills divergent where remus left school after prank (Background jily)

-Without You by daffodilsonaprettystring Titanic mcd (wip) (Background jeg)

-Blinded Fate by FatedEcho- Star wars meets wolfstar (wip) (Background jily)

-catch me on the way down by raggedypond

--To die, as lovers may by @moggetbright vampire Sirius and Hunter Remus

-The First Train Home by @houndsinheaven look into 76 and 95

-The Streak by @greyfavorite Remus dressed as a cowboy

-Francesca Syndrome by @coralsunset and diplobeanz: pining Remus

-You Drive Me Crazy by @klilyr based on you drive me crazy

-lights over harvest moon by @shoopsthereitis get together (Background jily)

-maybe time running out is a gift by messrsrarchives @roblogging mcd sickfic

-Love at First Bloom by viwrites @just--vi flower shop au with pining and chronically ill Remus

-cosmic entanglement by @maladaptivewriting wolfstar in every universe!!!! (Background jeg)

-Meet Me In The Exosphere by @euripidestrousers top gun au (Background jily)

-Remus lupins guide on how to (not) become a quidditch seeker by Girl_rotting

-we grew up in spite of it by peachyybabe wip, remus has a twin, mcd (Background jily)

-beautiful boy by peachyybabe wip, mcd, based on beautiful boy

This is technically over "kudos cap" but i really don't see it rec'd enough:

-Wishes on Stars by Quietlemonhush, TherestheSnitch fairy tale: remus wishes for a friend

**this post was made in Nov 2024, so hopefully some of these numbers have changed and you've made some authors' day 💙💙

New additions:

-just being neighborly by atropos-aeneas sirius and Remus meet in Azkaban (6k)

~lovely reddit post about fics under 1k~

••Happy Birthday! Happy Life Moony! By lucigoo89 @lucigoo (ft lovely art, Remus uses a walker, disability rep, divergent, raising Harry and teddy)

[transport-methodology-101]

From top:

1970 Oldsmobile 442 W30. The "455 W30" refers to engine & performance package available for 1970 Oldsmobile 442. W30 package included a 455 cubic inch V8 engine producing 370 horsepower, forced-air induction, a special air cleaner, an aluminum intake manifold, and other performance enhancements. It was the ultimate high-performance Oldsmobile of its time, and the 1970 model was even selected to pace the Indianapolis 500. Only 3,100 Oldsmobile 442s were assembled with the W30 option in 1970.

1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 LS6. Powered by LS6 version of 454 Turbo-Jet engine, producing 450 horsepower & 500 lb-ft of torque. Acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in around 5.5 seconds and complete a quarter-mile in the low 13-second range. The 1970 Chevelle SS 454 LS6 is often referred to as the "King of the Muscle Cars" due to its powerful engine and limited production numbers. Only 4,475 Chevelles produced with the L56 engine option making it a highly sought after. The 1970 Chevelle SS 454 LS6 Convertible is especially rare, with estimates suggesting only 20 to 25 still exist.

1970 Buick GS 455 Stage 1. "Stage 1" denotes a performance upgrade package & this version produced 360 horsepower & 510 lb-ft of torque. Motor Trend recorded 13.38-second quarter-mile time at 105.5 mph, making it the quickest car they tested in 1970. In 1970, Buick produced 10,148 GS 455s (including GSXs), with only 2,697 equipped with Stage 1 package. rare and valuable muscle car. Some sources suggest the horsepower was underrated to manage insurance cost ( but you didn’t hear this from us ; )

1970 Pontiac 400 GTO Ram Air IV. Most powerful engine available for the GTO. 400 cubic inch displacement of engine & Ram Air IV high-performance induction system, rated at 370 horsepower. A 1970 GTO Judge Ram Air IV sold for over $1.1 million, highlighting the model's rarity & desirability making this Ram Air IV, world’s most expensive GTO. Stricter emissions regulations began to impact engine performance in the following years & its performance charisma dwindled.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Can you fix her? She was originally for sale for only €100 / $104.16 just for someone to by and save it from ruin. Someone bought it, and after some renovations, the castle in Veauce, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France, is back on the market for €662,880 / $837,382 approx. USD.

Known to be the residence of Louis the Pious, (the soul surviving son of none other than Charlemagne), Emperor of the West in the 9th century. With ongoing construction, it has grown to 118 rooms! But, don't worry, b/c it has it's own French "GoFundMe" to help with the renovations. And, a part of it looks livable, but there's one caveat- it's haunted.

See, this is a living room. One sticking point for potential buyers, however, is that it is allegedly haunted by a number of ghosts, including a teenager called Lucie who used to work in the château.

Lucie died in one of the five towers around 500 years ago, and is said to still walk the halls of the property today. Yeah, but this is a nice hallway.

I really like this room. Other ghost sightings reported from the storied château include a 50-year old woman, with her hair up in a bun, allegedly witnessed by the current owner’s son.

Beautiful dining room- look at the size of that fireplace. The main reason the château is up for sale, however, is because of the large volume of renovation works which need to be undertaken. It has 4 wings.

Even if the steep price of the property may be putting people off, the ghosts are not. “No one mentioned their fear of seeing ghosts when they visited the château to buy it. It is normal to see ghosts in such an old place,” said the owner’s son.

Renovation work could cost between €10 and €20 million and include intensive repair work on the château’s keep which collapsed in 2005. Because the building is listed as an historic monument, up to 50% of the cost of the renovations could be reimbursed by the government.

Some of the work that's already been done.

I mean, the current living space is gorgeous.

Says the group that is collecting donations to help with the reno: The collection is used here to help to take over the roof covering of a part of the castle, which suffers a lot from the bad weather and whose continuous collapse represents a danger AND a risk of losing a new part of this beautiful castle!

This is an important step for the security work, but also for future restoration and maintenance work!

The group feels confident that they will raise enough money to help out.

So, you still have a fabulous to live in while the work progresses.

It needs some windows here.

What an amazing opportunity.

Real Estate listing:

https://www.realportico.co.uk/listing/castle-complex-in-veauce-north-of-clermont-ferrand-endangered-monument/100001723126549

https://dartagnans.fr/en/projects/sauvegarde-du-chateau-de-veauce/campaign (Funding site)

Earlier articles about the property:

https://www.connexionfrance.com/practical/photos-see-haunted-118-room-chateau-on-sale-in-france/239198

https://www.connexionfrance.com/news/a-chateau-for-just-100-french-mairie-buys-fairytale-ruin/154292

[opal-owl-flight]

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO SPLOON3 AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NEO3!!!

(On the phone screen being shown to Neo3 is likely a leaked Grizzco document about how all the eggs had gone missing)

There is no way the platoon wont pull all the stops to make the day happy for their favorite salmon-raised shithead. Doesnt matter that they havent had proper sleep for the last 2 days.More deets below regarding the feat….

For years, things have been simmering below the surface of Grizzco. Upstarts in the ranks, dissatisfied workers, *vengeful* inkfish, salmonid sympathizers who infiltrated the system to find out how to help, much like the platoon.

Crack teams. Strike forces. secret unions.

There isnt a BIG number of them, and none of them really worked together like a well-oiled machine, but they all had the goal of tearing this damn corporation/mafia apart.

For a variety of reasons, really. For poor conditions or pay. For the deaths of their coworkers. To investigate the big runs in hopes of stopping more in the future. To steal the eggs and return them to sea.

The platoon pokes here and there, and does their own share of this backbreaking work. The second everyone got paid... these groups opened the floodgates. Theres a lot of em, grizzco cant get em all. (And the activities cant be tracked back to the platoon, unlike other times like the Cap4 saga.)

Nobody knew they were working alongside the legendary NSS.

----------

A pal of mine puts it best...

Imagine knowing your partner, sibling, best friend died and finding out it wasn't just them dying defending the places... they died cause some corporate fuck orchestrated the whole series of big runs.

And in the future, these groups catch wind of what the NSS knows. That the big runs were all Grizzco made. This drives most of the shills into a frenzy. Most of all the high-value volunteers who were only there for the grand run but was trapped by the corporation.

---------

Come a whole 24 hours after the grand run, Grizzco starts panicking.

because only 700 million eggs remained in their stores.

Thats what Neo3 gets for her birthday -- the fact that all the extra eggs were returned to the sea. It rejuvenates her to fight for the future, now that there IS a future to fight for.

More raids continued after, 3 putting her squarely in that leadership position for the NSS's strike force (now including 7 and the crew from the Cap4 arc!)

Eventually, only 500 mil remained. And then grizzco goes on lockdown and....well, lets just say they made some people disappear. None from the platoon's strike force, thankfully. Most were grizzco's own shills, up in the higher ranks. Blamed for the loss of the eggs *and* for not making the number back.

-----------

I wont say tgere werent any casualties on the upstarts, though. Some were caught and are in serious danger from the mafia, though none fell under the jurisdiction of the NSS. The fact is, the NSS wasnt aware of a lot of these cases due to how fractured all the upstarts are. (It allows the movement as a whole to not be immediately shut down after a few get caught, or something. So they say.)

(bonus pic without the caption!)

[garbageday]

This post from a verified X account recently received 17 million “views,” about 14,000 retweets and around 500 replies. But the replies aren’t what you’d normally see on Twitter pre-Elon Musk’s takeover. Instead, they’re almost exclusively from other verified accounts, who aren’t even attempting to actually reply to the post. Even weirder, some of the accounts replying underneath this post appear to be trying to start a completely different reply thread.

It's bizarre new trend on X that I’ve noticed becoming more popular recently. And I’m going to call it a Verified Meme Dump. And it’s sort of a perfect example of how paid verification and user monetization has broken a platform that was primarily powered by conversations.

On Twitter, back when it was Twitter, the incentive to be funny or interesting or informative was retweets and likes, which if you gained enough of you might get a media job, or a book deal, or get laid. On X, Musk’s pay-to-play model of virality has turned the site into an environment of pure capitalism where conversation simply gets in the way. And after scrolling through enough of these Verified Meme Dumps, I slowly realized what they actually reminded me of. These replies are just galleries of refried edgy memes with no coherent theme, posted by scammers and weirdos, surrounded by ads for brands I’ve never heard of and products that probably don’t exist, with poorly-aggregated headlines sitting next to them on the sidebar. It’s 9gag. Elon Musk paid $44 billion to make 9gag. And his big plan to improve it, according to Fortune this week, is to start charging new users $1 a year to use it.

[Read more at Garbage Day]