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missvelvetsstuff · 2 years ago

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Low Expectations

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Reader has low self esteem when she meets Bucky. Can he convince her that she's the one he wants.

Chapter 7

Warnings: swearing, fluff. This chapter is mostly filler

Bucky crashed pretty quickly that night but was up before the sun and couldn't go back to sleep. He tried to keep himself occupied until he knew Y/N would probably be awake and sent her a text...

'Hey doll. I'm sorry I was gone so long but want to see you as soon as you have the time. I miss you.'

He set his phone down and tried to find something to keep himself occupied.

Y/N woke up after another rough night. She hadn't been able to sleep wondering how Bucky was and when she would hear from him so gave up and ate an edible which did the trick. She slept almost too deeply and didn't really remember any dreams. She climbed out of bed, groggy, and directly into the bathroom. After she finished her shower and wrapped up in her big plush towel she went to look through her closet for something to wear to work. Once she fixed her hair and got dressed she sat down to have coffee and relax for a few minutes before she had to leave. Her phone buzzed just as she was sitting down and the butterflies started. She took a breath and looked at her texts, her heart sped up.

It was Bucky. She opened the message and smiled then typed out a quick reply...

'I'm glad you're home safe. I'm working all week but free in the evenings as long as I'm not up too late. I missed you too.'

Bucky jumped when his phone buzzed, it had only been a few minutes and he smiled when he saw it was from Y/N. He replied right away.

'Can I bring dinner over tonight?'

'Sure around 6:30'

Bucky grinned

'See you tonight doll.'

And started to put his phone down when it buzzed again. A text from Sam with a link to tmz...

'Have you seen this?'

He opened the link and frowned. Pictures that were definitely him, since there were glimpses of his arm, and Y/N even though her face wasn't pictured as clearly as his. One in her corset, looking out his bedroom window. He shook his head in disgust, her face wasn't clear but that seemed like a violation of their privacy. He read the article about the Winter Soldiers mystery lady, scoffing at the speculation until he saw a picture from the presser with Sam in DC. That senators aide had been really aggressive with him, offering anything she could do to help him. The article mentioned the discrepancies in the aides height vs Y/N, accusing him of being a player. He shook his head, thank goodness Y/N would know better if she saw the picture. Wouldn't she? After everything that had happened and her past, he worried that she might think there was something with him and that aide. He started to panic about it but was able to talk himself down. Everything was fine. He would be seeing her tonight and it would all be fine. He was sure of it. Mostly.

Y/N spent the day at work arguing with her supervisor because she was written up for a phone call that took a good portion of the day last Friday to resolve. The write up stated she spent too much time with one caller. "Look Dennis, you want me to make sure the callers issue is resolved right? Well sometimes that takes time and multiple phone calls. I don't appreciate being dinged for doing a thorough job."

"You're a great rep, Y/N one of my best and you know I don't agree with this but it's one of the downsides of working in a call center. You need to find a way to get around this stuff. I'm sorry, the write up stands."

Y/N shook her head "I'm not signing it."

and walked back to her desk grumbling about corporate bullshit.

Sheila patted her on the back when she passed her "Be a mindless cog or suffer the consequences. Gotta love call centers."

Y/N laughed "No, I really don't. Is it 5:00 yet?"

Sheila smirked "Why? You got a hot date?" What happened with the guy, the one you are so mysterious about? You know from the tmz pics."

Y/N shook her head "TMZ? I never said anything about tmz pics. How would I possibly end up there? I'm no one."

"Oh come on. I helped you pick out that corset a couple of weeks ago, I know it's you. You're killing me here. I might be sitting next to a real life celebrity adjacent person and you won't even give me a bone. I thought we were friends."

Y/N shook her head "If you saw the pics then you must have read the article and who it was talking about so you don't need anything from me. However, I might be seeing someone infamous after work tonight and he might be a tall, gorgeous soldier with a questionable past. And that's all I know. I have to get back on the phone before Dennis fires me."

Sheila laughed "Dennis loves you, he'd never fire you." And answered a call.

Y/N smiled at her friend as she took a call too.

The rest of the afternoon dragged by and Y/N swore the clock was going backwards. It sure felt like time was going in reverse. Finally she looked up and it was 4:55 so she cleared off her desk and gathered her things up. When the clock hit 5 she logged off her computer, grabbed her stuff and left, waving goodbye to Sheila.

When Y/N made it home she straightened up and took a quick shower then put on a maxi dress that was pretty and very comfortable. She saw that it was a few minutes after 6 and made herself a wine cooler. She turned some music on and sat down to wait.

Bucky spent the day trying to figure out what to say to Y/N. He was afraid to ask her to be his girl again and absolutely didn't plan on having sex with her tonite. He wanted to be able to take his time and didn't want to worry about alarms or jobs the next morning. After chatting with Sam he decided to invite Y/N to get out of town for a couple of days, that way there shouldn't be any interruptions. Someplace where they could sleep separately if that's what she wanted.

Bucky stopped on his way there to get flowers, with a vase, and dinner. When he arrived at her building he walked around the block to try and calm himself. At 6:25 he went upstairs and knocked on her door.

Y/N had started daydreaming and jumped a little at the knocking at her door. She stood up and wiped the wrinkles from her dress and opened the door.

Bucky stood there with flowers, Chinese food and a big grin on his face.

"Hey doll"

"Hi Bucky" Y/N looked at him with a shy grin and welcomed him inside. He handed her the flowers and she laughed when she realized they came with a vase.

After he set the food on the table he pulled her into him for a hug, just enjoying the feel and scent of having her close to him. "I really did miss you" he murmured into her hair.

They heard a sound from the hall and pulled apart when Terri came out of her room in pajamas with a green face mask. "Don't mind me, I'm taking mine to go" she grabbed a plate of food and went back to her room.

Bucky laughed "She really is something else." And they sat at the table where Y/N had put out plates and napkins.

She nodded "You ain't seen nothin but yeah she's a good friend."

They sat to eat and it was quiet except for some blues on the stereo. They were both nervous, still plagued by thoughts of past rejections and heartbreak.

Once she had eaten enough to take the edge off of her hunger and finished her wine cooler, Y/N spoke up "How did your emergency with Sam go? Or is it one of those 'I could tell you but I'd have to kill you' situations?"

Bucky laughed "Don't worry doll I could never hurt you. Just some alien tech in the hands of some militia group. Seems like we'll never stop finding more."

She nodded "Now that people know that kind of stuff is out there you will always find more.

I didn't see all of the details but from what I did see you got some appreciation from the government among others. One woman seemed particularly interested in showing her appreciation." She teased

Bucky flinched "Yeah, I didn't even think about it until Sam sent me a link from tmz. She was one of the senators aides and didn't seem to understand the word no."

She smiled sadly at him "She's very pretty"

Bucky shrugged "If you say so. I only have eyes for one woman right now."

She felt her face heat up. "Anyone I know? Maybe I should let you go see her instead of wasting your time here."

He shook his head "Time with you isn't wasted. Honestly, I can't think of anything I'd rather do with my time. In fact I was wondering how you would feel about going away with me for a couple of days. I have a veterans charity thing Thursday nite so wanted to know if you would like to go with me, we could head out right after. Tony Stark had a house in the Hamptons and Pepper told me I could use it for a few days. It has a number of bedrooms so we don't have to share a bed unless you want to and it's right on the beach with space between neighbors so we'd have plenty of privacy." He looked at her hopefully.

She smiled at him. "I think I can take a couple of days off. Do I need a fancy dress or anything?"

Bucky got distracted thinking of her in a formal gown, something soft and silky without too many ruffles or frills.

"Bucky? You ok in there?" She asked softly

Bucky blushed and shook his head "What? Oh sorry, distracted myself for a minute. It's semi formal so kinda fancy. I'm wearing a suit. Sam will be there and Torres."

She looked confused "Torres?"

"Oh right you didn't actually meet him. Torres is the one who was pounding on my door last time I saw you. He's a good kid if annoying"

Y/N laughed "I'm pretty sure you find almost everyone annoying"

Bucky looked at her in feigned offense "That's not true! You aren't annoying at all. You make me crazy but in a good way." He paused to take her hand in his and kiss it. "If you need a dress I can give you Peppers number, I'm sure she knows all the best shops."

Y/N gulped "You mean Pepper Potts-Stark? I'm sure she has designers begging her to wear their clothes. I could never afford anything like what she wears but I'm sure I can find something acceptable by Thursday."

Bucky grinned hopefully "I can buy you a dress if you like. Wait. Does that mean yes? You'll go with me?"

She smirked "How could I ever say no to someone as adorable as you."

Bucky grumbled "I'm definitely not adorable but I'll let that slide since you said yes."

They sat and talked until almost midnight when she yawned "I'm sorry Buck but I need to get some sleep if I'm going to make it through work tomorrow. Don't want to be slacking before I ask for 2 days off."

Bucky helped her clean up the mess from dinner and kissed her goodnight. He had to force himself to leave after the goodnight kiss turned into another make out session and he started slowly rutting into her. He groaned as he pulled away. "You really are something, doll. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday after work Y/N and Terri went shopping for a dress. After trying on what felt like a hundred dresses they found one that Y/N liked and could afford. A purple off the shoulder vintage style tea length dress with lace accents. And shoes to match. Then a necklace and earrings with amethysts. She decided to wear the corset and stockings from their last big date. She had also scheduled a hair and nail appointment for Thursday afternoon.

When they got home she called Bucky "I found a dress. I hope you like it"

"You could wear a potato sack and I will still think you are gorgeous. It's late are you just getting home? Have you had anything to eat?"

Y/N laughed "Yes dad, we ate while we were out."

"Hey" he objected "I just want to make sure you're taking care of yourself. Can't have you getting sick before I get to show you off."

"Don't worry, I won't get sick"

Bucky sighed "Good because I hate these things but knowing you'll be on my arm makes it worthwhile"

"Doesn't helping veterans make a difference?"

"Yeah I just wish I could do it without having to go out and be nice to a bunch of rich jerks and politicians. Steve started it and now Sam is the honorary head of the charity but he insists that I go. It's usually one of the only nights I go out but after I meet whoever Sam decides I need to meet I always hang out with the old soldiers. This time they'll all be jealous because I'll have the prettiest girl by my side.

It's late doll, go get some rest and I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Ok, G'nite James."

@lokisasgardianvampirequeen

"Nite Y/N"

Chapter 8

@jennyamanda8

@geeky-politics-46

@vicmc624

@jesuisbenny

@matchat3a

@silverfire475

@army24--7

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #james bucky barnes #james bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #low expectations

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in-class-daydreams · 3 years ago

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The Splash Zone - Tsukishima x Reader (Oneshot)

Jurassic World! AUPairing: Son of Park CEO!Tsukishima Kei x Mosasaur Trainer!Reader

- Word Count: ~9,000

- Genres: Fluff, angst

- CW: Mentions of death, objectification of main character, sexual harassment-

Mango’s Introduction: Tsukishima the younger is a bit… prickly. Don’t say that to his face, obviously, because he’s technically your boss, but for all his personality flaws, he’s definitely excellent at his job and he cares more about the people around him than he lets on. He’s snarky with that mosasaur trainer more than anyone else, but you can tell he’s sweet on her. I guess you could call it the adult equivalent of pulling a girl’s pigtails on the playground. Uh, don’t tell him I said that, he’s my boss too.

(A/N: For all of you who were interested in this series, y'all waited nearly a year for less than 10,000 words, and I apologize, haha. It's been sitting 95% finished all that time, but I moved onto some other projects because I wasn't confident in my writing abilities. After a year's worth of writing exercises via different projects, I'm now okay with putting this out for all of you. I hope my next few projects (AoT and KnY) knock your socks off, but for now, here's a little journey about following your own convictions, featuring our favorite salty blonde.)

Tsukishima had it all. Money, looks, brains, and sure, his personality could use a little work, but he wasn’t completely insufferable. Most of the time. But if you asked him, his sour attitude was hardly his fault. After all, he was the heir to a multi-trillion dollar theme park, so it’s not like there were any consequences for him talking to people the way he does. For all he cared, he could be as snarky as he liked, considering he didn’t work with many people that were willing to speak their mind to him.

“Bite me, Tsukki.”

Well, except for a certain mosasaur trainer that was really grating on his nerves. Said trainer sat across from him from her seat in his office, arms crossed and jaw tense. Tsukishima tapped his fingers on his desk.

“Are you done throwing a tantrum like a six-year-old?” he asked. (Y/N)’s hands balled in her lap. She kept her mouth shut, glowering at the desk in front of her to keep her temper under wraps.

The blonde rolled his eyes. About fifteen minutes ago, he watched her kick in the door to the employee lounge and make her way over to the mosasaur staff supervisor. All eyes were on her as she moved towards him with murderous intent rolling off of her in waves. While (Y/N) was the one with the most control over the aquatic dinosaur itself, the supervisor was the one who hired staff, had them trained, made their schedules, and completed the other overall administrative duties. Their position was a catch-all and they were meant to do the primary inspections that made the mosasaur shows run properly.

Company policy encouraged open communication between colleagues, of course. Jurassic World Theme Park prided itself on proficient employee cooperation, as per the employee handbook and what the marketing team insists they say. Tsukishima just wished (Y/N) had opened her statement with something a smidge more polite than, “Are there any grooves in your fucking brain or is it all just smooth in there?”

After that hell of a conversation starter, she and the supervisor verbally ripped into each other. If Kei hadn’t grabbed (Y/N) by the windbreaker and dragged her into his office, he wouldn’t have been surprised if they ended up ripping into each other physically, too. To her credit, (Y/N) most definitely won, but that would have been a bigger pain in his ass.

“(Y/N), you can’t speak like that to people you work with. I heard what you said about him keeping an eye on his interns, and that’s his business, not yours,” he sighed. It was too early for this crap, especially since his assistant called in sick and hadn’t made him his morning coffee, and there were a million things to do in preparation for the board meeting today. He had better things to do than settle this stupid argument.

(Y/N) looked at him with disbelief, “You think I went in there to yell at him for fun? You have no idea what happened, Kei, how are you already taking his side?”

Tsukishima looked into her fiery gaze for a moment. He leaned back, brushing down the front of his navy blue button-down.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“But it’s what you said,” she shot back.

He pursed his lips. “Alright, I’m sorry,” he muttered.

(Y/N)’s mouth dropped for a moment, then the corner quirked up ever-so-slightly, “What was that, Tsukki?”

“Just explain before I lose my patience,” he snapped. His ears felt hot.

She laughed, “Because you’re the picture of patience right now.”

“(Y/N).”

Although the anger in her posture returned, she was able to remain more composed than she had earlier.

“One of the interns came up to me about an hour ago to ask me about the coding for the hydraulic lift.” (Y/N) threw her hands up and leaned back in her chair, as if that was the answer to everything.

“I’ll need some more details than that.”

She groaned in frustration, “There’s the mosasaur tank and the stadium

surrounding it, yeah? And partway through the show, the hydraulic lift lowers the stadium to the underground viewing area, right? Well, for all that to happen, the codes on the control panel have to be specific,” her hands moved fervently as she got deeper into her explanation. “The codes never change, but every morning, the supervisor makes sure they’re correct and I double check before the show. If the codes are incorrect, the stadium might lift too fast, too slow, too much, or not at all.”

Kei nodded for her to continue, to which she gave a grateful nod before going back into rant mode.

“Interns don’t have clearance into that area. He gave her his fucking badge so she could go in and do the checks without him. She shouldn’t have been down there and she definitely shouldn’t have been checking the control panel. Look,” she ran a hand through her hair, “I don’t want to tell the guy how to do his job. If he wants to train the interns how to run the control panel, then fine, it’s not in my job description to police that. But that brand-new, inexperienced, fresh-out-of-college kid was all by herself down there doing that idiot’s job. She could have gotten hurt. She could have gotten other people hurt. It was her supervisor’s job to train her better and to take better care of his interns and if I don’t raise hell about this kind of stuff now, then who will? So fuck that guy, he deserved to get yelled at.”

(Y/N) heaved herself out of her chair, “And now that everyone thinks I’m a raving lunatic, I’m going back to my office to change. Try not to need me.”

As the son of the owner of Jurassic World Theme Park, Tsukishima Kei was raised to do two things: work with dinosaurs and obey his father. When he was younger, he thought he would get to work with the dinosaurs as a trainer, regulate their feeding schedules, train them, and educate the masses about the wonders of science. But he was wrong. The future his father had in store for him involved dinosaurs, yes, but more along the lines of determining the cost of developing a new dinosaur or what characteristics are interesting to the general public so that the park can turn a profit.

Several years ago, when his father originally had her brought to the island, Kei had been skeptical. Out of all the candidates for the mosasaur trainer, (Y/N) had been particularly young, but for some reason, his father was insistent that the new mosasaur trainer be her. (Y/N) later proved and continued to prove that she wasn’t just qualified, but born to work with the mosasaur, Dolly, she called her. She cared for her with a deep passion that transcended interspecies boundaries.

(Y/N) was amazing at her job, and it was unfair of Tsukishima not to hear her out initially. There was a fine line between teasing as a result of mutual pining and just being a dick, and it seemed like Kei had crossed that line.

(Y/N) knew he was coming. That was one of the things she really appreciated about Tsukishima. He was a snarky asshole who liked to rile her up, and in the beginning, he was garbage at apologies, but over time, they’d apologized to each other so often that he no longer dragged ass over it. Once he realized he was in the wrong, he would find her immediately.

Tsukishima let himself into (Y/N)’s office, where he found her and the raptor trainer in deep conversation.

“Kei! Seriously, I could’ve been changing!” she yelled. She’d told him a million times to knock before coming in, but he rarely listened.

“Don’t worry, even if you were, there’s nothing to see,” he said teasingly.

(Y/N) scowled, “You wouldn’t know.”

Tsukishima scoffed.

“Anyway, Hajime, what else did that guy say?” (Y/N) said.

Kei frowned at the two cups from Tiki Smoothie in front of them. He wondered if Iwaizumi had brought her one as a surprise or if she’d asked him to bring her one. Both possibilities put him in a bad mood. Supposedly, they were just close friends, but (Y/N) forced him to watch enough Hallmark movies for him to know the friends-to-lovers trope quite well. It ranked just below childhood friends-to-lovers and just above enemies-to-lovers. He must have been staring at those cups for some time, because by the time he zoned back in, Iwaizumi had already finished his explanation.

“--train the raptors for the battlefield,” Iwaizumi finished.

(Y/N) raised an irritated brow, “Like dogs?”

The raptor trainer shrugged, “Apparently.”

“Did you tell him that’s not how raptors work?” she asked.

“I didn’t bother. He-- Sorry,” Iwaizumi fished his ringing flip phone from his vest pocket. “I gotta go, (Y/N), I’ll tell you more at dinner later,” he said on his way out the door.

“Okay, but I wanna hear about your thing with that pretty P.O. Manager later!”

The taller man stopped and gripped the door frame in surprise.

“Wha-- There’s no ‘thing’!” Iwaizumi sputtered.

“Whatever keeps your blood pressure normal."

As (Y/N) waved her friend off, Tsukishima rested his weight on the back of the vacated chair.

“What was that all about?”

(Y/N) sighed, making her way over to the wardrobe next to the door.

“Some military guy had a talk with Hajime about using the raptors for war. He said they’re better than drones because they’re not hackable and blah blah blah.”

“Does he realize that-- what are you doing?!” Tsukishima choked when (Y/N) dropped her loose gym shorts. Underneath, she wore plain navy blue bikini bottoms.

“Relax, Kei, you’re the one who invited yourself into my office. Besides, it’s not like you haven’t seen a girl’s bare legs, right?” she teased as she stepped into her dive skin. The tall young man moved to sit behind the desk. Forcing down his blush, he took on a snarky tone once again.

“Obviously. I didn’t think you had time for that kind of thing, since you’ve been cooped up with Darby for the last few years.”

(Y/N) shook her wetsuit at him, “Her name is Dolly! It’s always been Dolly and you know it, you little shit!”

“Language, (Y/N),” he smirked. What would my father say if he knew you spoke to me like that?”

“Oh, trust me, Malfoy, your father knows exactly how I speak to you, and he couldn't care less,” she snarked, looking pleased with herself..

The teasing glint in Tsukishima’s eyes wavered at the comment, though he knew they shouldn’t have. ‘Don’t dish it if you can’t take it’ he always said. He knew his father loved him the way any man loves his son, but Kei’s rank in his father’s heart in relation to money had always been questionable.

“Sorry. Too much,” (Y/N) said quietly. She pulled up her dive skin and removed her windbreaker, revealing a matching bikini top.

“It’s not your fault,” the blonde mumbled back. (Y/N) made her way around the desk. Leaning her weight on the edge facing him, she said, “Really, I’m sorry. That was in bad taste.”

Tsukishima waved dismissively, “It’s fine, you didn’t mean it. Just caught me off guard… Actually, I came to apologize to you for earlier.”

She grimaced, “I’m sorry for freaking out so hard. I didn’t mean to make trouble for you the same day as a shareholders’ meeting.”

“You’d be okay with making trouble for me normally?”

“That a serious question?”

With a light chuckle he said, “Right, right. It’s fine... I’m sorry for not

hearing you out. For what it’s worth, that guy is as good as fired.”

“Fired!?” she yelped, making him jump. “Wait, you can’t fire him!”

“Actually, I can--”

“Fine. As his boss, you legally could fire him, but I’m saying don’t. One, we can easily get him to clean up his act. Two, his wife is preggers. Gregnant. Pregante.”

“I got it the first time.”

“Just making sure.”

Tsukishima huffed, holding back a smile, “Worrying about someone whose head you were about to bite off two hours ago. That’s just like you.”

There was a gentle knock at the door and Yamaguchi, a paleo-veterinary intern, poked his head through the doorway.

“(Y/N), are you ready for the show? We have 20 minutes until start time,” he informed her with a sweet smile.

“Yup!” She stuffed her arms through the tight neoprene sleeves, “Are you the specialist on standby this time, Yama?”

The shorter girl turned around and moved her hair to the side in a silent request. Standing to his full height, Tsukishima pinched the sides of her zipper with one hand and pulled the tab up with.

Yamaguchi couldn’t help but laugh. His two friends stopped, (Y/N) with her hands holding up her hair, Tsukishima with his hands tugging on her suit zipper.

“What’s so funny?” his childhood friend asked. Yamaguchi just shook his head and confirmed that, yes, he would be on medical standby for the upcoming show.

“Close the door when you leave, okay, Tsukki?” (Y/N) shot over her shoulder on the way out.

“Good luck with your show,” he said simply. She frowned in confusion. Before she could comment, Yamaguchi rushed her out the door.

“--near the surface of the water, where it preyed on anything it could sink its teeth into, including turtles, small fish, even smaller mosasaurs, but don’t worry, that’s not why Dolly here doesn’t have any siblings.”

The crowd chuckled. Tsukishima always enjoyed when (Y/N) did the demonstrations herself. The guides did the jobs they were contracted to do, and maybe it was that he already knew how much she loved Dolly, but whenever (Y/N) did it, it always felt less like a show and more like the introduction of a close friend of hers. That was the truth, after all.

“You see, when Dolly was born, I was the first thing she saw. This caused something called imprinting, and if I just made you think about that freaky Twilight baby, I’m so sorry.”

Another wave of laughter rippled through the crowd. “And what that means is, Dolly and I share a special bond. She feels a special connection to me that she doesn’t feel for any other creature on this planet. When she was growing up, we communicated with this,” she held up a silver whistle.

“You can’t hear these sounds, but Dolly can. She knows the sound of the whistle, and that makes her think, ‘Oh, that’s my handler! Yay, she’s gonna feed me!’ Which is something I thought whenever my mom called my name during my teenage years.”

“She’s entertaining, isn’t she?” one of his father’s associates commented. Rather than sitting in the wide open arena seats under the beating sun, Kei’s father, the elder Tsukishima, sat up in an air-conditioned glass box high above the regular seats. Today, a group of shareholders and potential investors were performing their monthly assessment of the park’s assets. After going to every single one of these meetings since he was twelve, Tsukishima was more or less used to these meetings, but he was getting irked by the way a particularly sweaty, sleazy-looking businessman two and a half times his age was staring not at the tank itself, but at the trainer on the platform above it. If it weren’t for his father, he would have nastily told all of them to never take even a single breath in her direction.

“The girl’s gotten real grown up since we first saw her,” the man said, rubbing his chin.

‘Don’t look at her like that,’ Kei growled internally.

“Good eye, Yamada-san. She just turned twenty-one,” his father replied.

‘But that doesn’t concern you,’ Kei thought.

“Really? She looks young, but she seems so mature for her age,” another dirty businessman observed.

“You always did like the young-looking ones, you creepy old man!” laughed Yamada. Tsukishima bit down on his tongue so hard he had to remind himself not to bite it off.

“Ah, yes, I took her age into account from the get-go,” Tsukishima-san said. “By nature, the mosasaurus would only accept one trainer, and I brought her to the island at such a young and impressionable age that she would only listen to me.”

“And then you have a safe way to control the dinosaur,” one of the shareholders concluded.

“Exactly. And you’re right, Yamada-san, she’s grown up to be quite attractive. Shame she ended up so strong-willed, else she might have made a quality match for my son. Perhaps if Kei here can reel her in, he’ll make a wife out of her yet, right, son?”

The younger Tsukishima’s skin crawled as every pair of eyes in the room landed on him. He could just imagine opening his mouth and ripping them all a new one. What would Yamada say if he called him out on his predatory behavior? Or he could say, ‘Ah, Mr. Kawasaki, how’s that custody battle with your wife going? I hear she’s winning because the kids would rather live with her. Oh, Chairman Yang, I didn’t see you there! Have you beaten that nasty gambling addiction of yours? Goodness, from the looks of those eye bags and how badly your ‘designer’ suit is frayed, my guess is no.”

But Kei can’t say any of those things. He has too much to lose, should he compromise his position as his father’s heir and future CEO. The blonde glanced briefly out the window at the smiling girl talking animatedly about her most treasured friend. He mentally sends her an apology for being unable to defend her yet again.

Kei grit his teeth and finally replies.

“Yes, father.”

If he were born as anyone else, he could romance her properly, instead of passing glances, not-so-subtle flirting, and raging sexual tension. They wouldn’t have had to play the whole ‘will we or won’t we?’ schtick. But he was still Tsukishima Kei. He was destined to take over his father’s company, and by design, his partner would have to attend board meetings and brunches and wine and cheese parties. Kei had no desire to drag (Y/N) into that kind of life, but what’s more, (Y/N) would never agree to it. At one time, he considered asking her about it. Ask her to consider making that sacrifice for him. But at the end of the day, he never did bring it up to her because he was scared of the answer he’d receive.

Her enthusiastic voice faded back into his consciousness, “Enough of me talking. Is everyone ready to meet Dolly?”

They all turned back to the window at the sound of (Y/N)’s voice.

The crowd cheered in affirmation.

“What was that? I can’t hear you?”

The cheers transitioned into a deafening roar.

“Alright, for those of you in the splash zone, expect to get soaked in about ten seconds and counting.”

(Y/N) pressed a button, and the feeder crane slowly moved to dangle a heavy shark over the mosasaurus tank. The trainer leaned against her platform’s railing. She put the whistle to her lips, but no one heard any sound.

“You hungry, girl?” she asked the tank. There was no prior indication of any movement before the leviathan reptilian dinosaur leapt out of the water and easily snatched up its prey with its rows of hundreds of teeth. Its great mass seemed to linger midair for what felt like forever before sliding back into the water with a giant splash that had the crowd squealing with delight.

“Hold on tight,” (Y/N) spoke up as the stands started lowering under the stadium, “We’re gonna get to take a little closer look at our girl, Dolly the Mosasaurus.”

“How was your meeting?” (Y/N) asked upon her arrival in Tsukishima’s own office, finally free of her restricting wetsuit and hair still wet from her shower. Not looking up from his paperwork, the blonde grunted, “Fine.”

(Y/N) smiled and sat on the edge of the desk beside him. Both hands came up to zip her windbreaker.

“That bad, huh?”

“You sit in a glass box for 45 minutes with a group of men over fifty, and tell me you had fun,” he grumbled. Giving him a sympathetic look, she slid off the desk to place her hands on his shoulders. She gently massaged the tension from them. Lately, Tsukishima Senior had been giving his son more responsibility to “prepare him to take over the company,” which would have been a more believable excuse if the older man wasn’t relaxing by the pool and golfing with his friends 4 days a week. Kei leaned into her touch.

‘You are nothing like your father, though, Kei,’ she internally mused. Dragging her hands down from his shoulders to clasp in front of him, she hugged him from behind. Soothed by her presence, he wondered if he even needed to tell her how he felt about her. It seemed like she already suspected. Though, if she already knew and wasn’t saying anything, what exactly were her feelings on the matter?

“Today was so tiring, Tsukki,” she rested her chin on top of his blonde head. “This family was asking me questions, but their two irritating ass kids kept climbing on the primary railings, and the mom got mad at me when I told them to knock it off! Like, do you want your kids to get chomped by a genetically engineered dinosaur, Brenda? Then, she asked for my manager, and I’m like, ‘Bitch, I will literally throw you in the damn tank! There, that’s my manager, you entitled piece of-- ughhh!!” (Y/N) buried her face in Tsukishima’s shoulder in frustration. “I hate customer service! Fuck her! Fuck them kids!”

“You said that to her?” he teased. Secretly, he was happy that she was tired today. A Tired (Y/N) meant a Sweet (Y/N), and after those creeps were leering at her in the box today, he was just glad she was somewhere he could keep an eye on her.

“Suck my dick, Kei, you know I wouldn’t actually say that. I still enjoy getting paychecks,” her words were muffled by his shoulder. ‘Sweet’ is a relative term for her.

“I’d pay good money to see you cuss someone out.”

“You would, wouldn’t you,” she replied.

Tsukishima desperately wanted to tell her how he felt. It was getting really irritating that they could do stuff like this, but he couldn’t tell those sweaty old men in the box today to keep their perverted stares off of her.

Tentatively, he turned his head towards her, lips ghosting along her jawline. His heart sped up as her fingers tightened into his dress shirt.

When his arm slid around her waist, she was like putty in his hands.

“You-- You’re kinda giving me mixed signals here, Kei,” she said breathlessly. The taller male placed his forehead against hers. His eyes stared down at her lips as he debated the long-term consequences of giving into his desires.

“I know,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”

(Y/N) brought her hand up to cup his face. They both leaned in slowly, as if moving any faster would ruin the tension.

“Don’t be…” she whispered.

The office door slammed open with a bang.

“Sir?” (Y/N) jumped back from him like she’d been burned.

“What?” he snapped at the intruder.

“Your father wants you and Miss (L/N) in a meeting right away.”

“Tsukishima-san, I don’t see why--”

“Of course you don’t, (Y/N),” Kei’s father cut her off, “You have a personal connection with the animal. That was the one oversight I made when I brought you to the island as a trainer.”

They sat in a boardroom, surrounding a large table with Tsukishima senior at one end, (Y/N) at the other, and the board members on either side. The blazing sunlight of Isla Nublar that shone in through the large floor-to-ceiling windows on the far side of the room contrasted heavily with the dark tension permeating throughout the room. Kei tapped his fingers against the table from his spot on his father’s right side.

Of all the ‘strategic investments’ his father made, this was definitely not one Kei could have predicted.

The girl took a deep breath, “With all due respect, sir, it can’t be a good idea to reinvent a new species of mosasaur. I think--”

“See, that’s the problem, sweetheart,” the sweaty man from before chimed in. “You’re not here to think, you’re here to look pretty, and to tell the dinosaur what to do.”

“I don’t appreciate your tone, Yamada.”

“I don’t appreciate your attitude, little girl,” he shot back.

Tsukishima Senior cut in, “Try to understand, (Y/N). The Indominus Rex has been a huge hit. The numbers say that these new hybrid dinosaurs are the next big thing. We can’t pass up an astronomical amount of money just so you can keep your pet.”

“My pet?” (Y/N) spat.

“Now, (Y/N), there’s no need to get hysterical.”

“Hysterical? My reaction is perfectly reasonable considering you want to euthanize the creature I’ve raised since birth, which, may I remind you, is something you people wanted me to do.”

“Doctor Wu and the rest of the genetics team is already engineering the genetics for a new mosasaur. Bigger, more teeth--”

“But they couldn’t engineer any more brain cells for all of you?!” she interjected.

“That’s enough!” CEO Tsukishima slammed his hand on the meeting table. “You’re like a daughter to me, (Y/N), but I won’t take this level of disrespect from you.”

(Y/N) rested her hands atop the table and leaned in, meeting his glare head-on.

“If you want to do anything to Dolly, you’ll need my help, and I will not do anything that can compromise her.”

“What a mouthy little thing,” one of the shareholders muttered.

“Give her to me, I’ll shut her up,” another said loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Tsukishima took a deep, stabilizing breath from beside his father.

“I chose you because I saw something in you. I never expected you to be this selfish,” the elder snapped, “You’re being unreasonable. Kei is barely older than you, and he understands that there’s profit to be made by replacing the damn dinosaur. Tell her, Kei.”

The room went silent. (Y/N) stared deeply into her friend’s golden brown eyes.

‘Don’t do this, Kei. They want you to become your father, but you are not your father. You are so much more.’

The younger Tsukishima felt like he was being crushed by an incredible weight. Whatever he did now, it would be nearly impossible to take back. If he chose her, his father may never forgive him. The problem was: If he chose his place as his father’s heir, would he ruin his relationship with (Y/N) forever? Which one of them could he live without? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them. His steady gaze met with (Y/N)’s intense stare. He hoped he sounded more sure than he felt.

“Yes, (Y/N). My father’s right.”

(Y/N) first looked surprised, then immensely disappointed. Realizing there was no one on her side, she sighed.

“I came to this island because I thought this company might be different. When you asked me to train the mosasaurus from birth, I was overjoyed at how much you cared for her development,” she made sure to stare into the soul of each and every dirty scoundrel in the room. “But I made a mistake, too. All of you are cowards. Selfish, soulless, money-grubbing cowards.” Blazing eyes finally landed on Kei’s wide golden brown ones. She aimed her final statement at him.

“Every last one of you.”

Kei’s heart squeezed so hard he thought his chest would collapse.

“Tsukishima-san!” a mousey-looking secretary burst into the boardroom. CEO Tsukishima clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“What is it now?” he snapped.

“It’s the Indominus! She’s escaped!”

Deafening alarms and flashing red lights resounded throughout the control room. Kei could barely hear his father barking orders to the security team. One of the technicians pulled up a giant map of the park on the main screen.

“She’s still on the outer edges of the park, but she’s moving fast, sir,” they said.

“Have the Asset Containment Unit get this thing under control. Make sure they use non-lethals.”

“Non-lethals!” (Y/N) yelled, outraged.

“We have 26 million dollars invested in that asset,” the elder Tsukishima growled.

Exasperated, (Y/N) threw her hands in the air. She avoided Kei’s eyes as she

turned and sprinted out of the control room.

Kei hesitated. Before he could chase after her, his father ordered him to stay put to help in the control room. Though it made him feel like he wanted to vomit, he obeyed.

Several hours passed and Tsukishima’s mind felt like it was at its breaking point. The monitors flashing red in the dimly lit control room strained his eyes to the point where he was convinced he’d need a stronger prescription after this. The beeping of the ACU team’s EKG monitors flatlining rang in his ears so loud he wished he would just go deaf. The Indominus was picking off their security team with ease, sometimes several members at a time. The young man rubbed at his temples.

“Tsukishima, we’re evacuating the rides on the outer edges at the park,” the lead Park Operations Assistant slid a map over to him. Taking a red marker, she circled a few attractions directly in the escaped dinosaur’s projected path.

“But I think these preparations insufficient,” she said, nervously twisting

the pen in her grip.

“We’d evacuate the whole park if it were up to me,” Tsukishima said under

his breath.

The assistant pursed her lips, “It’s a shame we’ll definitely be shut down

after this. You would have made a great CEO.”

“Are you flirting with me?” the blonde joked.

“Please, you’re so whipped for (Y/N) it hurts to look at you,” the assistant snorted in reply.

Before Tsukishima could make a snarky retort, both of their attentions were drawn to CEO Tsukishima, who had a large, middle aged man at his side.

“Kei, come over here!” the older man called.

Tsukishima handed the map back over to the assistant, “This is fine for now. If the situation escalates or if it doesn’t improve in an hour or so, close all the attractions on the west side of the park. I’ll be right back.”

The assistant grabbed his arm, “Tsukishima, that’s Vic Hoskins, the head of the private security force.”

“My father introduced us not long ago. What about him?”

“Commander Hoskins isn’t just a brute, he’s an ignorant one, and that makes him dangerous. If your father is listening to him, be careful.”

Tsukishima nodded gratefully.

“I will. I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t wait for the assistant’s reply before making his way to his father’s side, who pulled him off to the side. Hoskins had apparently taken his leave.

“The helicopter will be here in 10 minutes, make sure you’re at the helipad by then,” he told his son.

The younger Tsukishima’s eyes widened.

“What? Where are we going?” he asked.

His father turned to him, “Commander Hoskins has strongly advised us to get off the island. We can do our part in containing this crisis remotely.”

The younger man blanched, “We’re just going to leave? We still have people to evacuate, not to mention medical teams to coordinate, personnel to--”

CEO Tsukishima placed a hand on his son’s shoulder, “We can do all of these things remotely. Our first priority is maintaining our safety, and besides, the situation is in good hands with our employees here. It’s as good as contained.”

The CEO smiled and turned to leave. Kei didn’t move.

“Come on, Kei,” the older man urged.

Tsukishima took a deep breath.

“If the situation is ‘as good as contained,’ then why are we leaving the island?” he asked.

His father sighed, “I understand your concern, Kei, this is a safety issue--”

“So, you agree? You do think that evacuation is the correct safety measure?” Kei looked his father directly in his familiar amber eyes.

The elder shifted, “What are you implying, Kei?”

“I’m saying as long as we choose not to actively evacuate the island, we have a responsibility to our employees and to our guests to stay and control the situation the best we can.”

The flatlining EKG monitors were still ringing in his ears. If he left the island now, he’d never stop hearing the beeping of those monitors. They’d exist in his nightmares forever.

“Stay here, then, Kei,” his father’s voice broke him out of his thoughts.

He raised a brow, “Just me?”

“There’s no point to being in power if you refuse to reap the benefits of it. The helicopter is leaving soon. Join me, Kei. Don’t try to play hero when you’re not.”

(Y/N)’s face flashed in his mind. He couldn’t be sure where she ran off to after she left, but if he had to guess, it would have been to the main hall or to the infirmary to care for guests. Either way, she’d never dream of leaving the island with so much at stake. Neither could he, and the thought of leaving her behind made his answer clear.

“No, I’m not going. Have a safe flight.” He turned on his heel and marched back to the central console. To his horror, Asset Containment Unit Alpha had been almost entirely wiped out. Only 4 members of a 12-person team remained.

“They’re not gonna make it, Tsukishima, we need to tell them to pull back,” the P.O. Assistant insisted.

He nodded, “Do it.”

The woman quickly gave the order. “Has your father finally--”

“My father is vacating the island with the board members and other investors as we speak,” Tsukishima said.

“Why am I not--” the assistant’s phone went off. “Hello? ...You what?”

“What happened?”

She snapped her phone shut, “It’s--it’s Takeru, my nephew. He was visiting the park today, but my assistant says he got separated from her, and-- and--”

“Hey,” he grabbed her shoulders. “Don’t freak out. It’s not like you, and it won’t help.”

“You’re right,” she said shakily, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes. “I know I have work to do here, but I have to go find him, Tsukishima. I can’t--”

“I get it. Just go.”

The assistant nodded gratefully, sprinting out of the board room. As she

left, yet another assistant came for his attention and he was plunged back into the thick of things.

Meanwhile, (Y/N) stood at the doors of the underground lab. Her eyes were wild and her face flushed from exertion. The pristine, white lab was a stark contrast to the sweaty, panicked mob she passed by on her way here. It was as if the panic of the Indominus’s escape had no effect, save for the swarm of people in lab coats quickly packing up their equipment into thick armored suitcases. With the move in full swing, the lab doors were set wide open. In the chaos, she managed to slip into one of the adjoining storage rooms, where she found a large computer monitor. The bright blue screen was blinding in the dimly lit room. A profile displayed on the screen read “Indominus Rex.”

The young woman scrolled down the profile. She had to find out what the dinosaur was made of. The ACU would never survive without that information. They may not even survive with it. Finally, under the section titled “Genetic Makeup”, she found what she’s looking for. Before she could react to her findings, there was a sharp pain in the skill and she dropped to the ground unconscious.

Back in the control room, Kei gripped his cell phone tightly. Eighteen missed calls and (Y/N) still wouldn’t pick up. He couldn’t fight it anymore. He had a tech trace her cellphone and he hastily exited the room.

Once he left the building, Kei was greeted with what he expected hell looked like. There was a swarm of panicked park guests, sweaty and fearful. Several were injured from the sudden panic. Some had a haunted look in their eye that suggested they’d seen something that would haunt their nightmares for years to come. And where was his father? Safe on a helicopter, leaving all these people to fend for themselves simply because he could.

Kei was disgusted with himself. The Indominus had escaped hours ago. All this chaos could have been avoided by simply evacuating the park. But who cared about people’s lives when there was still profit to be made? Sure, he hadn’t actively supported his father’s selfishness, but he definitely didn’t object to it either. In all his indecision, ultimately, he was siding with his father. He was equally to blame for all this.

As Kei entered the underground tunnels, the screaming and cries of the panicked went silent. He realized he could hide away in the tunnels until the situation had blown over. Instead, Kei chose to press forward, knowing it wasn’t fair that he had that luxury.

The Mosasaur Stadium sat in the middle of the underground tunnels. From his view from the glass, Dolly, like her trainer, was nowhere to be found.

By the time Kei made it to the lab, it had been picked clean of equipment and personnel. All that remained were sterilized lab benches and pristine white walls. He found (Y/N) on the floor of an empty storage room. There was a nasty gash in the back of her head.

Kei kneeled and gently put two fingers to her pulse.

“Wake up!” he snapped at her. To his relief, her eyelids fluttered open. “Thank god. What the hell were you doing down here?”

“Ouch, my head,” she moaned. “I thought… the ACU… If they knew what the Indominus was made of…”

Kei nodded in understanding. He removed his tie to apply pressure to her wound.

“And? What is it?”

(Y/N) shook her head.

“I dunno. I think they hit me right as I saw.”

(Y/N) sat up, slowly regaining her strength.

“How much of the park has been evacuated?” she asked.

Kei checked his messages, “Almost everyone has been moved to secure locations or off the island completely.”

“What’s left?”

“The control room.”

She looked at him meaningfully and he nodded in agreement. Quickly dialing a number, he raised the phone to his ear.

“Evacuate the control room,” he said.

“Sir, are you sure?” the voice on the other end replied.

“Positive. I’ll take care of everything when I get there,” Kei reassured.

“...take care, sir,” the voice said reluctantly.

“You too.” Tsukishima ended the call and looked at (Y/N), who was already standing. She steadied herself against a wall, her balance wavered slightly, but her eyes were resolute.

“Let’s see what we can do.”

The underground tunnels were expansive. As the mosasaur trainer stalked down the hall ahead of him, Kei forced himself to speak up.

“I couldn’t, you know,” Tsukishima said.

“If you have to talk to me, say shit that makes sense,” (Y/N) snapped.

“My father. He wanted me to evacuate with him, but--”

“What? You could’ve gotten out of here! Do you have any idea how hard shit’s hit the fan?”

“I needed to know you were okay.”

(Y/N)’s expression softened for just a moment, then she ripped her gaze from his face. She retorted, “Why? You don’t seem to have a problem with hanging me out to dry.”

“(Y/N), I was--”

“Would you have left if not for me?” she demanded, stopping and facing him with her arms crossed.

It took Kei a minute to find an honest answer.

“No. I wouldn’t have. I’m rich, I’m an asshole, but I wouldn’t have left all these people. Not when I have the kind of clearance to help them, and especially not since all this is my fault.”

(Y/N) looked at him, bewildered.

“Your fault? How on Earth is this your fault?”

Kei shrugged, “I knew evacuation was the only safe bet, but I was too much of a coward to tell my father so. At least my father is blinded by money. Me, I don’t have an excuse.”

(Y/N) walked on silently for a while, opening her mouth a few times to speak, but shutting it each time. Eventually, she gave into the silence.

They came to the underground stadium, where the massive fiberglass panes housed the park’s biggest attraction.

(Y/N) placed her hand on the glass.

“Dolly… You okay, girl?”

Something enormous splashed into the water. When the bubbles cleared, there was Dolly, swimming around the bitten carcass of a pterosaur, as if she was celebrating her catch. The reptile’s handler smiled weakly.

“Good girl.”

“(Y/N).”

Tsukishima took her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him. His tired eyes met hers. The blonde watched as the only person who really mattered to him glared back with a look of sadness, frustration, and betrayal.

“You would have supported them?” she asked sharply.”

“Look, I’ve been trained to follow orders my whole life--”

“And I’m sorry for that. But you can unlearn what you’ve been taught, Kei. You know how much I love Dolly! You knew, and-- and,” she gripped his shirt. The trainer hung her head in defeat.

“I thought you weren’t like your father.”

“I’m not, I promise. I’m sorry,” he whispered. This was it. He had to tell her. If he didn’t do it now, he never would.

“(Y/N), I lo--”

“No!”

Kei looked stunned, “No?”

“No! Dammit, Kei, I can’t do this with you right now. First, this is not the time. Second, you stabbed me in the back, like, two hours ago!

“I said I was sorry!”

“I get that, Kei, but for important shit like this, sorry just isn’t good enough, okay? Now, let’s get to the control room and get this dinosaur under wraps, then maybe we can have this conversation.”

Tsukishima pursed his lips, “Okay. Okay, I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

(Y/N) kept walking down the corridor, “Don’t be. Let’s just deal with the situation at hand.” The trainer produced a flip phone from her pocket. The person she was calling picked up on the third ring and she put the call on speaker.

“(Y/N)!” the familiar voice called in relief.

“Yama! You’re still doing okay?” she asked. The line went quiet for a while,

“Yams?” Another pause before the intern responded, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

She and Tsukishima looked at each other, “Yama, what happened? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m not hurt, I just… Oh god, (Y/N), it’s Hinata,” Yamaguchi’s voice

cracked at the end.

(Y/N)’s breath caught in her throat, “What happened to Hinata?”

On the other end, she could hear Yamaguchi choking back a sob.

“He went to the aviary to check for survivors and I saw his vitals monitor. He’s flatlined, (Y/N), he’s dead.”

Tsukishima closed his eyes. The whole situation was snowballing so damn fast and there was so little anyone could do about it.

“No…” (Y/N) whispered, “Jesus, I’m sorry, Yama.”

“Me too,” he replied. Yamaguchi sniffled, then his voice stabilized, “Anyway, keep making your way to the control room. I’ll get into the database somehow and we’ll figure out how to stop this thing.”

“Got it. Please be-- ...careful,” she said softly.

“(Y/N)?”

She clutched her head, “It’s coming back to me now… Yamaguchi! The Indominus! I saw it on the database, could it be part raptor?”

On the other side, Yamagichi gasped, “They never let me see the file, but now that I think about it, it’s highly likely! I’ll contact Iwaizumi and see if there’s anything he can help with! Let me know if anything changes!”

“I will. Please be careful,” she begged.

“I will, and you, too, (Y/N). Tell Tsukki I love him.”

“I love you, too, Yamaguchi,” Kei replied. With that, the call clicked off.

(Y/N) inhaled deeply, “Hinata’s dead.”

“I heard.”

She shook her head, “Let’s just keep moving. I--”

Her eyes fixed on the tank where Dolly had just leapt out of the water for prey again. Bubbles flooded their view as the massive dinosaur crashed back down into her tank. (Y/N)’s mouth dropped open.

“Holy shit.”

“What is it?”

(Y/N) started sprinting down the corridor towards the control room, “I have an idea!”

‘You better know what you’re doing, (Y/N),’ Tsukishima thought. He paced the floor of the control room nervously as he waited for the signal.

Their plan was well underway, and it had gone surprisingly well, which was all the more reason for him to feel like something was going to go horribly wrong.

When (Y/N) originally told him what the plan was, his response was, “Fuck no,” but after Yamaguchi and Iwaizumi both agreed that it was their best bet, Kei relented, though not without voicing his displeasure extensively.

That girl was really lucky he L-worded her. Through the security monitors, he could see the T-Rex and the Raptors were tag-teaming the Indominus. They seemed to be making progress, but the whole group looked like they were losing steam.

The radio beside him crackled to life, making him jump.

“Kei? Can you hear me?” (Y/N)’s voice came through the machine.

“Loud and clear.”

“Okay, on my signal, cut the power to Security Fence 4.”

The button was red, marked with bold black letters, and had a plexiglass case over it. Kei pressed the “disable” button, making the screen read, ‘UNAUTHORIZED COMMAND: Please enter credentials.’ He typed, ‘Tsukishima Kei,’ placing his hand on the biometric scanner when prompted.

‘MANUAL OVERRIDE: Accepted

All the previously red buttons turned green.

“Okay. Ready when you are.”

“Good. Now, listen to me, Kei,” she said grimly, “You have to cut the power the moment I tell you to. The system has a backup generator that will kick in within 30 seconds. If it's electrified when we hit it, the jeep will explode and our whole plan is shot. That fence can NOT, I repeat, CAN NOT be electrified when I get there, do you understand?”

The male nodded weakly, then, realizing she couldn’t see him, said his affirmation aloud. The radio went quiet. On the screens, the Indominus dug it’s rows of razor sharp teeth into the T-Rex’s neck, throwing the creature as far as it would go. The T-Rex lay there and did not move.

The Indominus Rex roared in victory and went in for the kill. There was a bright flash of red further away as someone offscreen lit a flare. The light became brighter as the person neared (Y/N) and they tossed it into the jeep, catching the Indominus’s attention.

Turning away from it’s prize, the hybrid screeched in rage and took off towards the light. (Y/N) hopped out of the driver’s seat, placing something on the gas pedal and diving away from the vehicle.

‘It might be better if I stay in the jeep and drive it myself,’ he remembered her saying back in the control room.

‘Better for you dying. If the impact with the fence doesn’t kill you, you’ll either drown or Dolly will eat you,’ he’d snapped.

‘But what if--’

He cut her off, ‘But nothing. Put a brick on the gas and move out of the way. There’s no reason to put you in any further danger.’

Amazingly, Kei was the one who won that debate and that’s what brought them to the present moment, with (Y/N) scrambling up off the floor and sprinting out of the Indominus’s path.

The hybrid dinosaur sprinted after the jeep that was speeding towards the mosasaur tank. The distance between the two was closing at an alarming rate.

Just before the vehicle made contact with the security fence, the radio crackled to life, “Now, Kei!”

Tsukishima slammed the button.

‘SECURITY FENCE 4: Disabled’

Just before it made contact with the fence, the jeep’s metal frame crunched under the Indominus’s powerful jaws.

“Fuck!” Kei yelled at the sight. A few seconds later, the buttons turned back to red and the screen read, ‘SECURITY FENCE 4: Enabled.’

“Well, what now?” he yelled into the radio.

“Uh, I don’t--! Fuck-- I don’t know, I’m out of ideas!” she cried in response.

Having been given a break, one of the raptors jumped in, ready to finish the fight. The creature leapt into action to subdue the murderous hybrid, but with that size difference, she wouldn’t last long.

On the verge of panic, (Y/N) said, “If the jeep broke through the fence, Dolly would have noticed the prey, but the Indominus by itself hasn’t gotten her attention! She must be too deep!”

“Well, then, get her attention!” he shot back.

(Y/N) gasped, yanking her whistle out from inside her windbreaker, “Hold me up to the main PA.”

He reached over and jabbed the button.

(Y/N) looked up when she heard his voice over the speakers spread throughout the park, “Whenever you’re ready.”

As Kei keld the radio up to the PA, (Y/N) put her whistle to her lips and blew as hard as she could, the sound undetectable by human ears. They waited with baited breath as the Indominus flung the raptor aside, where the smaller reptile did not get up. The Indominus stopped and let out another bloodcurdling roar.

When nothing more happened, all Kei could think was, ‘We failed.’

Just then, quicker than Kei could comprehend, an incredible volume of water overtook his field of view. Water droplets obscured the CCTV cameras giving him a view of the action, and when they cleared, it took him a moment to register the massive aquatic dinosaur protruding halfway out of its paddock. It held the silver, spiny-backed hybrid in its ginormous maw of thousands of teeth. Crushed by a predator honed by millions of years of evolution, the Indominus writhed in pain and panic, but its struggle only opened more wounds in its flank. It screeched in pain or terror or frustration, Kei wasn’t sure. The only thing that mattered was the slick sound of Dolly sliding backwards into her enclosure, taking her prey with her. All that was left was dark purple blood, soaked pavement, a broken fence still sparking, and a crushed jeep.

“Holy shit,” Tsukishima whispered.

“Holy shit,” (Y/N) murmured in agreement before her knees gave out and she fell to the floor unconscious.

With the Indominus gone and the pterosaurs having been hunted down by the military, park guests were being reunited with their friends and family. Rescue teams were sent to canvas the park for survivors, though they were advised not to get too close to the mosasaur tank. Tsukishima shuddered, knowing that the mosasaurus was always fully capable of leaping halfway out of its tank, she simply chose not to, perhaps out of respect for (Y/N). If, by some miracle, the park survived, he’d have to enforce some serious regulations.

“Tsukishima-san?” one of the surviving guards came to collect him. Conveniently, Kei’s general demeanor kept him from flinching at being addressed the way he heard everyone address his father. The guard led him to a private section of the infirmary, where he saw (Y/N) sitting on a cot looking like she’d spent the last 10 hours in a ditch, though her injuries otherwise looked far from anything life threatening.

“Oh, relax, I’m fine,” she said when she saw the look on his face. “I just got myself all scratched up jumping out of the jeep. I’m not even that hurt.”

Kei scooped her up in his arms in relief.

“Okay, owie, owie, I’m not completely unharmed, stop, stop, stop,” she whined.

The tall male pulled back and stared down at her. The left side of her face has several cuts and she held an ice pack to her ribs on the same side. She had heavy bags under her eyes, but those same eyes shone with relief and delight now that the whole ordeal was over.

“I’d ask if you had brain damage, but you must’ve already had some to come up with such a reckless plan,” he scolded.

(Y/N) gaped at him, “Reckless? It worked! Don’t be mean, Kei, I did good today.”

“You would have done great today if you hadn’t come back to me injured.”

“Again, it worked, didn’t it?”

“I suppose,” he rolled his eyes. “But it would really do wonders for my blood pressure if the person I care about most didn’t have such self-destructive tendencies.”

She grinned at his choice of words, “What was that you called me just now?”

“Self-destructive.” Chuckling, he took her hand in his, pressing a gentle kiss to the back of it. “Are we gonna be okay?” he asked, not making eye contact with her.

Content, the girl smiled and nestled against her pillows. Her eyes slowly drifted shut.

“We’re gonna be just fine, Kei,” she replied. For a moment he thought she didn’t quite understand what he meant until she squeezed his hand gently. Tsukishima smiled in relief, squeezing her hand back.

“Kei?”

“Hmm?”

“I feel the same way.”

@delicious-peaches-blog

@unusproomnibusomnesprouno

@mac-the-oregonian

#tsukishima x reader #tsukishima kei #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x you

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rose-demica · 4 years ago

Text

Gif Drabble, A ruined date

So @mariekoukie6661 sent me an ask with this gif... my new kitten jumped on my keyboard and somehow managed to privately answer it before it was finished. Thanks to my friends at the @fanficocean, we were able to figure out where it went, and get most of it back. (I also have definitely learnt my lesson, and will be now solely writing on docs outside of tumblr again).

It does mean I lost the original gif, and despite searching for the gif, and having the original poster’s ID, it hasn’t helped me find it. So it’s just a screenshot for now.

A sigh of relief passes your lips, eyes darting to the clock as your manager bustles in the door, mouthing apologies as you kept helping the seemingly endless line of people. It was 1am, four hours after your shift had been supposed to end. Everyone else from the other supervisor’s team had arrived on time, allowing the rest of your team to leave, but your own relief hadn’t shown up, hadn’t even had the decency to call in and warn the managers in advance. They’d asked you to stay later while they scrambled to find someone to cover the absence… you hadn’t expected it to take four hours.

You had hoped for a moment to text your date, tell him you’d be delayed, or just cancel. It was a bad look for a third date, but you had no choice, the store couldn’t run without a supervisor, and there was no way you could close up the store, not two days before Christmas. Not when, even at 1 am, the lines for the registers winded back down through the aisles.

It was bad, really bad, to just ghost a man on your third date, but hopefully, he would understand. He had to understand, you really liked this guy. If your co-worker had cost you one of the sweetest guy’s you’d met, you would never forgive her.

“Just give me ten to set up.” You nodded as the manager breezed past you towards checkout control, turning your attention back to the woman who was insisting the sale sign didn’t specify a size. (It did, this was the 73rd time today you’d had this argument over this specific product.)

Those ten minutes dragged by, but finally, finally, you did your hand over and clocked out. Your first stop, once you were off the floor, was to check your phone. There were only five text messages, and two missed calls. Your heart hit your stomach, chest seizing up, did this mean he had given up? He wasn’t as interested in you as you thought.

A shaky breath escaped your lips as you opened your conversation with him and read your messages.

2105

Hey, I’m here early, but don’t feel like you need to rush. There was a mess up with our reservation, so our table won’t be available for a little while. I’m at the garden bar, I can’t wait to see you.

2147

So I guess you’re running a bit late? Our table just opened up. I’ll order a drink and wait for you there. If you want I can place your order in advance? I know you tend to skip your breaks when it’s busy, and I hate to have you wasting away longer than necessary.

2215. One missed call.

2216

Are you far off? I’m getting a lot of dirty looks from the staff. Who knew they don’t like people who sit at tables and never order more than a drink?

2308

I gotta be honest here, I really like you, which is why I am praying you aren’t standing me up or ghosting me. It’s also why I’m going back to the garden bar. They’ve shut the kitchen down, but they said I can wait there until they close. I think they feel bad for me, and think I’m stupid for waiting this long... maybe I am...

2357

Well, it’s just me and the bartender left. The last stragglers from the restaurant left about 10 minutes ago, and now the staff have to. I know they won’t tell me to leave, not as a paying customer, however discounted my drinks might be, but I will. They’re allowed to close up early if there are no customers, and I don’t want to be the one keeping them open, not this close to Christmas when everyone is so busy and wants to be with family. So I guess I’ll... to be honest, I don’t know what I plan to do. Maybe I’ll head home, let me know that you’re safe please, even if you are ghosting me.

0027. One missed call.

Your fingers were automatically typing out a reply as your brain tried to figure out what to say, but as soon as it was typed you deleted it. What could you possibly say to apologise for the fact that you had stood him up, as much as you hadn’t wanted to. He had waited at the bar for you for at least three hours. You didn’t know if you would be able to do the same, endure all those looks from the staff and other patrons. Just sit at the bar, constantly casting glances at the time and trying desperately not to think-

“Goodnight.” You glance up in shock, only to see one of your staff members passing by on their way back onto the floor. You slid your phone into your pocket, step one was getting home, then you could put your feet up and figure out how to apologise for your disaster of a shift, and missing the date without giving any warning.

~~~

You feel your body relax as you step off the bus, nearly home, it was nearly all over, you were nearly home. You dropped your bag at the bus stop bench, sitting down and peeling off your work shoes, feet screaming after a long day of standing on them in cheap shoes. The snow was nice against your feet, at least, it was for now. The cold bite of the snow numbing the pain receptors. It would give you enough time to get home before it got too cold, or your feet gave out on you.

You were quick to pick up your bag and get moving, there was only so long before your feet would turn to icicles. Your eyes were glued to your phone as you walked the familiar route home, no one would be out at 1.30 in the morning. You barely looked up to type the code that would let you in to your apartment building’s lobby, nor as you approached the stairs, it was only as you made to dodge a person sitting on the bottom one that you looked up.

Stunning blue eyes met yours, knocking the wind out of you.

“Sorry beautiful, I just had to make sure that you’re alright. Please don’t think I’m a stalker or anything.” The man spoke, raising his hands. It took you a second more to tear your eyes from his, give yourself the chance to scan his body and recognise the man rising to stand before you. Your date, Clint Barton.

“Wha-” He chuckled at your stunned expression,

“You never replied, I was worried that maybe someone had kidnapped or ambushed you, figured the least I could do was check-in to make sure everything was all right.” He motioned to the phone in your hand, before tucking his hands into his pockets and shuffling awkwardly.

“I’m sorry, I was going to reply once I got home, I had no idea what to say to you.” You found your voice, putting your phone away. It hadn’t occurred to you that he might swing by to check on you, no one had ever done that before, it was sweet.

“No worries, I understand, have a good life Y/N.” He took a few steps away, and you reached out quickly, your hand reaching out in an attempt to wrap around a firm bicep. He could have kept going, easily pulled his arm from yours, but he stopped, turning back towards you.

“No. No-” It couldn’t all end, not like this. “I meant-” You breathed out heavily, searching for the same words you’d been looking for, ever since you’d read his messages. “Come upstairs? I still haven’t eaten, we can talk over a midnight snack.” His smile took your breath away, nodding slowly, almost as if he was waiting for you to take it back. “Great, my feet are killing me.” You smiled back, turning to eye up the stairs. You were only on the 3rd floor, but you weren’t sure you could convince your feet to carry you up that far.

‘Allow me.” You turned back to Clint, offering him your bag, but he only shook his head, stepping closer to sweep you off your feet and into the bridal hold. “You’ll have to let me know which floor and room, I’m afraid I only managed to figure out which building was yours.” You wanted to complain, insist you could walk yourself, but you couldn’t deny the sheer relief that you were finally off your feet.

“Just this once.” You meant to say it in your head, but the words accidentally fell out of your mouth, Clint chuckling at you. “3H.” You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, tucking your head into his neck. Eyes falling closed, feeling safe in his arms.

“You seem exhausted.”

“My co-worker never showed, took them four hours to find and get someone in so I could get off. It was so busy I couldn’t even send you a message.” You sighed heavily, “I love Christmas, I really do. But I hate it.”

“I had hoped it was something like that.” He spoke softly, before pausing, setting your feet back on the ground, one arm staying wrapped around your waist. You turned, looking up at him, arms staying looped around his neck, holding him close to you.

“I’m sorry I kept you waiting. I wanted to be there.” He lifted another hand, running it down the side of your face, before cupping your jaw.

“I waited as long as I could.” He responded, leaning in closer to you. Your eyes flicked down to his soft pink lips, able to think of nothing but how badly you wanted to taste them.

“I know.” You stretched up, pausing when you could feel his breath roll across your face, waiting for him to close the distance. “Thank you.” You felt more than heard his quiet groan, lips rushing against yours a moment later. You responded tangling one of your hands into his hair and holding him.

It was your stomach growling that interrupted you, Clint pulling back with a smile.

“Let’s get you inside and fed, then we can discuss continuing this.” You stretched up, stealing another kiss from his lips, savouring the way they felt moving with yours, before pulling back and searching for your keys, eager to get inside and salvage what you could of your date.

#Clint X reader #gif drabble #Mcu #Clint Barton #third date #Clint being stood up #gender neutral reader?#reader #fanfiction

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kookingtae · 5 years ago

Note

Do you think you’re going to post sooner or later? 🤗🤔

Anonymous said: hey jordan! how’s writing going?

Anonymous said: hey girly! any updates on fiy? hope you’re doing well 💖

Anonymous said: i need fiy this quarentine id making me insane

Anonymous said: hi !!!!! by any chance have you been able to write more of fiy or do we still gotta wait a little longer ? can you tell us what you have left or give us a little tease to the bit we’re all dying to read (hint: it rhymes with mut) ?? :3😉😉

hey guys! so sorry for not keeping u updated w fiy, but here’s the lowdown on what’s been going on w me lately. last week i developed a sore throat, body aches (specifically from the neck up ??) and headaches which was particularly weird for me bc i NEVER get headaches. so i went to the doctor and stayed home from work just in case, and then i went to work yesterday and noticed a pain in my upper chest when i breathed in deeply. i told my supervisor abt it just to keep them updated, but then it got to the point where every time i breathed i could feel it. so i coincidentally had an annual health assessment for work scheduled this morning, and when i went to that i told them my symptoms and tHey said i needed to self quarantine and go to the doctor. i don’t think i have covid or anything bc i don’t have any cough, shortness of breath or fever which are the main symptoms, but i do need to get whatever this is taken care of before i go back to work. i’m about to go to a clinic now, but needless to say i might be home for a while. we’ll see what the doctor says. if i do end up having to self quarantine i’ll have a lot of free time to finish fiy! i feel fine other than these weird symptoms, so hopefully i can just rest and recover and work on my writing. sorry that was so long lol but i’ve been getting a lot of asks abt fiy so i felt like i needed to explain what’s going on!

#ask #anon

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chickenscript · 6 years ago

Text

you've gotta be blind or something (rottmnt oblivious reader headcannons)

A/N: kiNd of supremely old with au stuff i barely remember. but since i'm in a writing rut, i decided to deep dive through my drafts for anything that might be finished or close to it. the first prompt i ever got was from an anon for an oblivious reader being crushed on by the turtle bros. but, i accidentally deleted their ask because tumblr mobile is stupid. hope you guys enjoy and that there aren't very many errors in this since i really didn't feel like editing it

Donatello:

- god; how haven't you noticed by now how hard he was trying here. you couldn't be this dense when you're able to understand more of his geek speak than most did and actually sit through it.

- he liked you- he figured that out relatively quickly and while he was at odds with these new, inexplicable feelings at first, he's settled with them and the fact he just had to tip you off about them.

- keeping something so important from you, something that could make or break your relationship, he just couldn't do it anymore. it created too much tension in him.

- he decided that two months after all those feelings got to sizzle under the surface, making him more inverted than what was even normal for him. he knew you could probably tell, but not if you could tell about the crush itself.

- but heck, there were just no openings for him to spit it out. even when he timed it just right, or got you in a quiet moment while you were talking. no amount of thoughtful pauses and hint dropping could get you to see what he was trying to communicate. he didn't even know how to say what he wanted, but he was sure you had to have gotten a clue at some point.

- but you haven't. and sitting here, twisting your hair into a plait (he and his brothers liked fiddling with your hair), he could barely contain his frustration at how you just missed another hint. only distracted by each calculated pass of your soft hair as he braided.

- he sighed. that was enough trying for tonight. he was tired anyway and wanted to focus on enjoying your company more than trying to get you to see he harbored so many raw feelings for you.

- he could practically feel steam coming out from his pours. but then you laughed at something he grumbled out and his emotions did a headspin, making him feel a sudden wave of turn her around and kiss the understanding into her.

- he suppressed it all with a refined ease he’s perfected over the years with all foreign or unwanted emotions he didn’t like dealing with at any given time.

- crushes on your close friend sucked.

Leonardo:

- was it hot in here, or was it just you?

- how many times he’s said that was enough to make him grimace. but even now, you still dodged the flirt like it wasn’t even one, and playfully and painful obliviously shot one back at him. no matter how many cheesy pickup lines he threw at you, you were just not getting it.

- you thought he was all jokes, and sure, in the beginning he was, but now leo knew his feelings were no laughing matter.

- he wanted to admit them all to you, tell every bit of how you made him feel and maybe even grab you and kiss it into you if he was bold enough in that moment, but god if he wasn’t terrified of what that could mean.

- rejection, disgust, the loss of one of his closest friends and confidants. the loss of someone who genuinely liked hanging out with him and finding new, hidden nooks in the city they loved.

- he couldn’t do that to himself or you when he thought about how much he meant to you as well.

- but that thought also drove him crazy with how you might just have powerful feelings for him too beyond friendship. so that’s why he was trying to ease into this whole confession things with something you both liked, but the make you comfortable part was working too well.

- the meaning of every line flew over your head and leo was getting worked up over it.

- but the way you laughed and smirked at him in that way when there was an inside joke only the two of you knew about was enough for him to say fuck it and give up for today.

- you were worth it.

- but heck if he still didn’t crave knowing what kissing you might be like.

Michelangelo:

- you’re his first ever crush and also one of his only best friends, so he really doesn’t want to blow it by telling you you’re his first ever crush.

- yes he still loves doing all the things you usually do together, but he loves it even more because he kind of loves you too now. in more than just the platonic way. he wanted more meaning behind those pecks you give him and his brothers- he wants special kisses that are just for him.

- and he wants you to be his first kiss; he can imagine what it will be, full of all the sweetness and warmth he’s felt for you and kept bottled up.

- but he couldn’t just do that. he didn’t want to scare you off or make you feel uncomfortable. he loved you and cared about, but first and foremost, you were his best friend. and he loved you in that sense more.

- he would never do anything to make you feel bad.

- he was helping you relax after a long and arduous school day. you really needed the pick me up and he was blasting a song you both loved, badly singing the lyrics with you.

- you were both so off key and awful, but you were smiling and mike used all the heart he had to make the lines in the song that resonated with his feelings stand out so that maybe you would notice.

- but you didn’t, and you just sang and danced along with him like usual, not catching the look in his eyes or anything.

- he was disheartened, but then he saw how lifted your spirits were compared to when you set foot in the lair.

- you were happy and mike was helping to make that happen. so, maybe it wasn’t so bad that you couldn’t tell how much more he meant while singing this time.

- but, having you say that you love him too might be just too much for him handle if it happened anyway

Raphael:

- gosh, he didn’t want to sound mean but, did you not know a hint when it was smacking you dead between the eyes?

- raph knew it would be hard to tell you what he’s been feeling as of late, and he knew it might turn out to have good results, but he also knew he couldn’t keep his feelings to himself forever. it wasn’t healthy and it was doing a number on him inside.

- it was getting harder to just be near you or let you ride on his shell anymore. but he couldn’t just turn you down for something that was his problem alone. you didn’t know what was going on.

- that was why he was intent on telling you it. but, you weren’t making it easy.

- you were sitting on his shoulder, resting your jaw on a palm and talking about your job at the animal center that’s been pretty long term now. he brought up how much he loved the cat-dog that was now the lair’s mascot and you shake your head with a smile, no bringing that up now.

- you could still remember how hard you had to lie to your supervisor about what happened to the pup and kitten that mysteriously went missing one night.

- raph was nervous as he waited for an opportunity where he might be able to interject and say what was really on his mind, but no way was he going to be able to do that.

- you were busy reminiscing with no foreseeable end in sight, and he was supposed to be in on the conversation, bringing up moments from the past to beguile too.

- besides,

- he didn’t want his confession to guilt trip you or make you feel obligated to say you returned his feelings. he especially didn’t want to make you feel as if it wasn’t fair that you couldn’t love him in that way.

- so, he would need more time to make his move and think out every little bit of what he was going to say when he did.

BonuS:

You:

you laugh off the admittance the turtle's been working on but then noticed the obliterated look on their face, "Oh you were...serious? I-I'm sorry, I..." you blink, suddenly flustered too and touch the side of your flush neck.

"I wasn't expecting that. I'm just me. Not all that much. You know?" your eyes dart away.

And the turtle says, no, he doesn't because he recklessly thought so much about you and how wonderful you are- he can't even say it all in words. Not that he'd know how to.

"Geez. Um, well," your eyes glimmer, "I like you too."

You're shaken again as the turtle is overwhelmed by their feelings and nearly drops.

You have to stop them from falling and they’re blushing a bright shade of green as you hold them steady by the shoulders.

"This uh, this isn't gonna happen often, is it?"

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant turles #rottmnt headcannons #rottmnt x reader #my writing

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kiwibes · 3 years ago

Note

Hey anon! Finishing up an archaeology phd in a neighbouring country so I might help you!

First off, Reid is right. You really need to do some introspection first about wether you really think you can handle a phd and if you wanna stay in academia afterwards.

Then, there are 2 main options I know off:

You join a project or apply for an open phd position. This means your general phd subject is fixed but usually this also means you´ll be part of a team jeej. This might be the most succesful option for yet unpublished beginning researchers depending on the grant culture, but don't let that stop you.

Or you apply for a grant/fellowship (beursaanvraag). You´ll need to find a supervisor and host institute for your application that fits with your research. Either you contact them with a worked out plan (but like explain it still shortly lol dont overwhelm them) or you tell them your strengths, skills and interests (for example, you contact the prof Near Eastern cuz you are interested in seal iconography. Maybe you did your thesis on it or you followed some workshops/conferences anything to sell it) and they might come up with a preposition that interests them.

Make and update your researchgate, academia.edu and linked in accounts. They might check them.

Most eu universities demand masters degree to be able to apply for a phd. So you often can´t apply until you´ve obtained your masters. From friends, I know that things are different in other parts of the worls so if you plan to go abroad (usa, australia, asia) check for how things are done there.

Be prepared for imposter syndrome lol.

Also, your phd will become sth you will take with you always. Even if you "clock out at 5pm" you'll still be thinking about sources you should check, samples you should take, maps you gotta make etc. Be prepared. I caried a notebook with me everywhere to quickly jot down my ideas so I could go on with my life.

Make a lot of back ups, of everything. Even your application files. I use usbs, external disk and hard drive. Every phd student I know has at least once encounterd computer trouble, big or small. You can tank me later.

Also, huge recommend. Write EVERYTHING down. I had two paperblocks, one labelled "methods" and one for everything else. In methods I wrote every little step I took, the values I inserted, the button I clicked, EVERYTHING, even if it failed. No one else will see this but I was very grateful for past me when writing the final text. Things might seem obvious when you do them but might get fuzzy 2 years later when you gotta defend what you did. Some coworkers note everything on a file. Doesnt matter how. If you did 2+2=4, you better have it written down somewhere!

Be prepared for criticism. Some is constructive, some isn't. Especially blind reviews can be brutal. Take from them what you can use and throw the rest in the garbage. Don't carry it with you. You are more than that one rude, negative congress audience member.

You might have to work with tight or flexible deadlines. Still, take care of yourself. You deserve it.

When figuring out a journal to publish in, check out:

Their scope and examples of last publications to see if they align with your manuscript

That you don't have to pay for publishing (theft, I'm telling you)

What the avarge decision waiting period is. 2 to 6 months is common. If it is a year or more, choose another journal.

For the love of academia, check the author guidelines

Some universities or grants demand you only publish in journals with a certain impact factor, rank, citation (SCI cited, etc.), etc. Make sure your journal falls within those requirments. Web of Science will be your friend

Your supervisor is superimportant. They have to support you, help and guide you. This is difficult to figure out beforehand but for eg, if they have like 20 phd students, they are not really involved in supporting phd work cuz that is impossible. They also have to be accessible. If it takes them 4 weeks and 6 rememberings mails, they are generally also not the best supervisor. Choosing your supervisor can make or break your phd experience.

Get a references app, save ALL your sources in it, use the tag system. I use mendeley but there are others.

Don't stress out if you cant do something yet . Phds are also a learning experience. The biggest tip is try to learn the most necessary skills as soon as possible in your phd.

It's the middle of the night and Im sleep deprived but I hope this makes a little sense. Feel free to send me an ask or chat if you have a more specific answer.

Veel succes!

do you, or someone you know, have experience with obtaining a phd postition? im doing my bachelors in archeology in the Netherlands right now and i kinda wanna do a phd after my masters:))

Hi there, dirtling! Right now I am on the process of applying to PhD programs for after I finish my bachelor's. If anyone else has relevant experience they're welcome to chime in.

First, I'm not sure how much my advice will help, because our education systems are very different. I'm going to tag @ghostoz and @chaotic-historian because they're both in grad school in Europe.

I'm also going to link back to my is academia right for you post because I think that covers a lot of the things that I have to say. A PhD is a big endeavor and it isn't something that you should jump into casually. These are some of the things that I took into consideration before deciding to apply to programs:

I don’t feel burned out from school (yet)

I am interested in teaching undergraduate/graduate level classes

I have explicit research interests and goals

I know what I want to contribute to my field

Academia aligns with my desired work environment

Academia aligns with my body’s ability

I know what the process of working in academia entails (grants, publishing, teaching, etc)

I understand the academic job market

I have the financial resources to pursue a degree

I think that the first thing you need to do is find out exactly what getting a PhD entails within your country's education system. Once you have an idea of what is required you can begin thinking about whether or not it's the right choice for you.

-Reid

#academic advice #phd #doctorate #academia #sorry for hijacking the post!

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orderuponthe99prettygrimmdiaries · 6 years ago

Text

Starting to feel the light again ✨

WE DID IT LUCIFANS! WE DID IT! Woke up to the amazing news yesterday, and I’m so happy and proud of all of us, especially the cast and crew for being there throughout the entire #SaveLucifer campaign.

But hey, at least now I can finally put my entire focus on #RenewTimeless, and maybe #SaveShadowhunters too. Then maybe I can add this to my resume too ;)

Speaking of, I finally finished my article yesterday. I think after getting the confirmation of #LuciferSaved by Netflix, a part of my heart and mind calmed down and I was able to get that final boost to finish up my last paragraph. Procrastinated for the entire week, but I actually feel like I did a pretty good job. Hopefully my supervisor thinks so too.

And I actually kinda do want to confront her about something. The last article I wrote before I left the company (as a part-timer) has now been posted on their site, but this time it wasn’t credited to me but as an article by the company. I’m not really sure if I should ask her about it, but I think I need to know why it’s so. Like was my article that bad or?

Ugh and now I’ve got to come up with at least 5 more new ideas to pitch. I’m honestly running out of ideas.

But though I’m not really as inspired to write about travel topics, I’m getting a little motivation to write a bit about mental health. Though I’m still not exactly sure what and how I want to write it yet.

I’m glad I’m feeling a little more inspired these couple days, compared to the gunk I’ve been in for the past week or two. Thinking about getting new glasses and another new batch of contact lenses, and even baking and hopefully cooking too. And of course, driving.

I just realized that I could start with driving lessons already before I do my final theory. Oops, realized I told the wrong thing to my cousin last night. But I gotta say, I’m glad that I wasn’t avoiding her yesterday like I usually do. I mean it was still awkward after we talked about school and driving, and there was that long moment of awkward silence while we both used our phones, but I guess it’s progress.

And I’m also getting a little more active on 7 Cups, talking about things that I never really expected, like exploring my sexuality. I guess it’s good to finally talk it out because I’ve been thinking about it for a while, just that I don’t really know who to talk about it with.

Also really happy that I’m getting to bond with my college friend a bit more over our shared shows, which now includes a dating show that I just recommended! She’s one of the two groups of friends I was close with, but not the one I was closest to. Well looks like the tides have changed and now she’s the one I talk to the most and probably least awkward one. She might not know some stuff about me (which I’m kinda considering telling her someday), but I realized she actually thinks pretty similarly to me, and we may even have the same taste in guys haha.

Well, this was a really spontaneous post, but it also reminds me that I’m not done with my OUAT Farewell or editting my New Girl Farewell, and my letter to self too. Procrastinated on that for what, 9 months now? Damn it. Oh and I realized I need to change the links in all my cast/crew farewell post compilations since I changed my tumblr url. But anyway, time to get back to my driving theory reading and looking for ideas to pitch.

Hope everyone has an amazing week ahead!

#feeling positive #personal #post of the day #lucifans #lucifer saved #renew timeless #fangirl #work #inspiration #mental health #family #socializing #awkward #friends #life #2018 resolutions

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canaryatlaw · 8 years ago

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Well, I can't really give today an overall grade because it was kind of all over the place, good and bad in just different ways. Woke up, 10:50, and didn't want to get out of bed, and may have drifted back to sleep for just a few minutes but I opened my eyes again and it was 10:50 so I said okay I better get up so I did. Got to the DV courthouse and waiting till around 2 o clock to get a case, and while I was waiting I was just you know staring at my appellate brief and trying to fix minor things. My plan right now is to finish my final final sweep through tomorrow then send it to kinkos to get it print and bound because they're making us do that for some reason (because all law students just have all that extra money lying around, you know 🙄) but anyway my spring break friend and I get put on the case together again because of the timing and we didn't know if we'd get another, but if we did he'd pull one of us off (nobody else came in so we did the whole thing). Pretty typical case, asshole abusive boyfriend doing typical abusive asshole things, no kids in common, no real physical abuse up until this morning when he was kind of grabbing and shoving her and physically blocking her from leaving her apartment like back and forth between different doors for a fairly significant amount of time. It was the strongest case because the prior incidents were kind of weak, mostly just him yelling in her face and that kind of thing, but I thought we had a decent chance at least depending on what judge we'd get. We were super quick with the paperwork and were up in court by like 3:15, so I was like oh sweet we're gonna get out so early!! WELL. Little did I know I was entering the most frustrating courtroom I've ever been in. I've been before this judge only once before I think and it was while she was training, and I remember her striking me as a little awkward with litigants but she was still getting used to it and plus she's gotta be like, 30 max, because she looks sooooooo young (I mean, she's probably more like 35, because nobody ascends to the bench in 5 years, but you would never guess that as her age looking at her). So that tends to play into the whole insecurity thing which leads to overposturing, and she was just so fucking infuriating because she was incredibly condescending to every single person on such an unnecessary level and wanted to control everything, and would only let people answer yes or no and cut them off whenever they tried to expound on something and be condescending to them and I'm like.....what the heck, lady??? These are like, the simplest legal proceedings ever, you ask them who the person is to them, when the last incident happened, and what happened. That's literally all you have to do. But it was so fucking infuriating to watch I wanted to bang my head against the wall repeatedly. But OH, we're just getting to the good part now. So a solid hour later our petition finally gets called, and within 30 seconds of her being up there the judge is saying some shit about an address being in the wrong place on the petition for where the guy had last lived because he hadn't "lived" there he was just "staying over" so she's like yeah you have to go back down to the clerk's office and amend your petition. So both me and my friend are like 😡😡😡😡😡 ready to like kill someone. So we run back downstairs, it's like 4:30 at this point which is when our shift is supposed to end so there's barely anyone left, but we found our supervisor and the other lawyer he works with and they took one look at our faces and were just like "okay what happened" and when we told them they were like "are you fucking serious" (like I mean those exact words exited both of their mouths). So we had to go drag a clerk over and fucking scratch off the address with a pen and write unknown to satisfy this damn judge then go back up. We were debating asking out supervisor to go back up with us since he's an attorney and can actually step up, but he said he felt like the situation was handled from there but we could come get him if we had any more issues. He also said we could swap out at that point if we wanted since our shifts were supposed to be over and he knows we had class, but we decided we wanted to see it through (and emailed our prof that we might be a bit late). So we went back up, and I was like praying that because it was a recalled case they would just stick it on top of the like to be called next like I've seen done before, but NOPE we got sent back to the bottom of the stack, and spent another entire hour being fucking infuriated with this judge acting like a complete asshole to everyone. There was this whole big thing, and I feel weird saying this because the guy was like 6'2" and significantly bigger than me but like that poor guy haha I felt so bad for him, the judge was like fixated on whether his roommate kicked his door all the way in and off the hinges and then he went into the living room or if she partially kicked it in and then he opened it and went into the living room and I was like......WHAT THE HELL COULD IT POSSIBLY MATTER like that holds zero legal significance whatsoever??? The guy ended up storming out in what I thought was completely justifiable frustration but I think he was gonna be able to get his case recalled sometime after us. So finally they get around to us, she asks her basic questions, takes one look at the affidavit I wrote and granted the order immediately, because it was THAT EASY. Like, look how overcomplicated you made this and you just wasted like 2 and 1/2 hours of my life. So I was at least glad we got it granted because if it didn't get granted I probably would've gone ballistic on that courtroom, lol. So we end up leaving the courthouse at like 5:50 which is right when class starts, so we jump on the train and then make a quick stop at the jimmy johns that's right by school because we were both starving and it's literally the fasted option, lol. I think we made it to class by 6:10, so not bad at all. Our prof was understanding, my email said something like "we're stuck in an ongoing situation with a judge and we don't know how much longer it's gonna take" so then on break he was like "so judges, huh?" and we were just like "oh you don't even want to know" lol. The class was fine, as usual I somewhat paid attention and did other things. The big take away from the class was that instead of having to make my presentation for the class that I haven't started at all next week, I get to do it the week after because of how the scheduling worked out (he said he was doing it by last name and it wouldn't take up two class periods, and my last name starts with M which is right in the middle so I thought I'd be on the first day, but apparently the roster is early in the alphabet heavy so I majorly lucked out there, and that actually makes everything so much better, because this week into weekend (and it's Easter weekend ffs) was gonna be hell working on the presentation and the trial on back to back days. So now I can just focus on the trial for the next week which makes me feel soooooo much better. I messaged my trial ad partner and asked what he needed me to get done for our Pretrial conference tomorrow and he was like "oh you're good I got it all covered" and I was like dude you're actually the best haha because that helps so much. In addition to a few other things I accomplished during class, I reviewed the trial brief of one of my mentees that she asked me to take a look out since we had the same LARC prof. It was interesting, looking at how she was like structuring things and I'm thinking "did I used to write like that?" And I find myself leaving comments that kind of sound like what the prof would say to me last year and I'm just like shit man, maybe I did actually get better at this stuff over the years, even if I still get incredibly frustrated with it. She had a lot of good stuff in there, it just needed to be reorganized and such and built into a more cohesive argument (which like, continues to be one of my biggest issues because I think the way they want me to organize it makes no sense and I much prefer my way, as does my REAL boss in REAL court, but I digress) so hopefully I was able to give her some good feedback. We ended a little after 8 which was nice, and I made it home a little after 9. No shows recorded, so I watched crazy ex-girlfriend for a bit and relaxed and laughed over the whole starbursts thing that came to fruition today which I have to say put me in a significantly better mood than my just being done with the day. I did realize though I had to get some forms and shit done for trial ad and field placement, so I had to run around and fill those out then like, extract multiple pages from several pdf documents and then combine those into own pdf document because whoever wanted us to submit these online clearly had no idea what they were doing. But yeah, that was my crazy day. Overall the good probably outweighed the bad, but I was just like, so absolutely done with everything about that hell in court. Big girl job tomorrow and doing a big girl permanency hearing, so that should be good, I'll get to meet the client beforehand and talk to her about anything she wants to be brought up so I'm looking forward to that. And yeah, damn it's late and I now have somewhat less than 6 hours of sleep I can potentially get, so I think that's strong enough incentive to end here. Goodnight my loves. Stay strong.

#daily journal #April 2017 #Rachel's evil plan

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tinamaetales · 8 years ago

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A ridiculously good experience

But first, play HSM’s “Gotta go my own way” cause this post be emotional (for me though) af

Also, this post is long af so please bear with me.

I’ve landed my first job sometime in December 2016. Yay! However, it is not something related to the Degree I have but nonetheless, I liked it.

I was just randomly scrolling some job postings online when I came upon this post that says that this certain company is hiring and it says that fresh graduates are welcome; also, it is located somewhere in Imus so I’ve decided to send my resume. Less than 2 days (if I’m not mistaken), I’ve received a call from them, inviting me to take an exam. And so I did. Actually, I really have no idea what the company is all about, I just wanted a job that’s it. When I entered the lobby, I felt at ease. It was nothing like those I’ve been into. Their lobby has a zen cafe theme and would make one feel so at home and so I told myself, ‘That’s it! I’m in!’

While waiting for the examination, I’ve found out that it is a BPO company (I’m not going to mention the company’s name and the department I was in for privacy purposes and I also don’t want to violate anything in the contract that I signed) which immediately sent chills to my body. You might ask, don’t you like to work at a BPO company? Actually, I’ve considered it before and I really do have high respect for those who work at BPOs however, given my nature, I feel like I won’t be able to fit in, especially with the night shift schedule. But since I’m already there, I would do my best in the exam. Two hours later, I was informed that I passed the exam and I’m on my way back inside for the initial interview (my heart was actually beating fast because the interviewer is really handsome, he looks like Coco Martin pero chinito! Mah heart mah soul, bruh). The interview lasted for about 45 minutes? And then I was invited to take another exam on the next day since he said that I might be perfect for the M campaign (told ya, I’m not gonna mention specifics here) - which is basically about Hollywood movies, TV shows and celebrities. And so I took the exam. I passed. Few days later, I was scheduled for the final interview, in their other branch (which will later be my work place because they are the ones holding that said campaign). I gotta admit, seeing the actual work place scared me. IDK. Few days later I was informed that I passed the final interview and I should dropped by their office for the list of reqs and other stuff. Then, medical examination, submission of reqs, signing of contract......orientation, training, nesting and live.

Orientation

I was actually shocked when I found out that I’m the only one in the orientation. IDK bruh, I feel like it will be awkward. But I’m really thankful to Sir E for making it light, fun and interactive. I’ve learned a lot about the company and I was convinced that this company is perfect for me and I just gotta prove that I deserve the opportunity they’ve given. The orientation ended with me having a smile on my face as I go home.

Training

Now, this is an amazing part of the journey. In here, I have a ‘classmate’ and she’s amazing and became one of my great friends now. W have been with the company for 2 years already and she just switched campaign after her former decided to scale down. She made the training week fun and memorable for me. She’s very generous both in knowledge and in material things. She gave me advices and told me stories about her experiences in the company. Also, she’s an artist. I’ve seen her artworks on IG and gosh they are all amazing! Anyways, our trainer is Sir R and he’s the best! He guided us every step of the way. He always make sure that we will learn a lot in every session that we have. He made us well prepared for the nesting. I will always be thankful for all the knowledge and skills he shared with us. You da real mvp, sir!

Nesting

Here, we got to experience what the actual work is like. We were given a lot of activities. Mam N gave us a lot of files to process and make summary. Our work is involve with writing summary about articles that mention Hollywood movies, tv shows and celebrities so my interest with the Hollywood life was very much alive in here. I’ve experienced how to process the files and write summaries. Although there are some errors here and there, we passed this period.

Live

This is something that I could’ve experienced if I didn’t get sick but anyways....on my 3rd week, I was still on nesting and during that time I’ve met the new trainee and we became friends. B is a great person to be with too. She’s fun and she’s genuine. We clicked in an instant. Also, I’ve met two other employees here who assisted me in processing of files (to make sure that I will be well prepared once I go live) they are Mam K and Sir C. They are also awesome :) After two days, my tl (Mam C, who’s also very awesome and supportive) informed me that I will go on live the next day however, the inevitable happened.

Turn of events

I wasn’t feeling well during the 2nd day of my 3rd week at the company. My stomach was aching way too bad every time I eat and it scared me because the last time this happened (which was in 2012), I was hospitalized for more than a week and have to undergo endoscopy. While I was processing files, the pain was already unbearable so I stayed at the clinic for hot compress. I thought I was already okay after 30 mins so I came back to my work area. Few minutes later (and I’m processing files during this moment), I felt the pain again so I ran towards the rest room and there, I vomitted. At that moment, I really wanna go home but I’ve decided to stay. I finished my shift but I was feeling so dizzy already. I went home expecting that by having some time to rest, I will be fine but things don’t really work out the way we want them to, right? As soon as I wake up, I sent my trainer a message saying I won’t be able to come to work because I’m sick. That night, I was debating with my family whether I would go to the hospital or I will just drink meds and rest. The next day, I saw myself being brought to the hospital because the pain is unbearable anymore. I was admitted. For days, the dosage of painkillers they are giving me are increasing each time they will sedate me but the pain’s still there. It seems like there’s no improvement. I felt hopeless. I want the pain to end. I want to rest. I’m tired of fighting for my life. I wanted to die.

While in the hospital, I have some realizations. Night shift does not fit me. And, it is unfair if I will keep the company waiting for me to recover when they can just hire someone who’s more fitting for the job. And so I’ve decided that the moment I’ll be released from the hospital, I will resign. It would be for the best of us.

It was the night before my birthday that I was seriously considering about dignitas (and I know we can’t afford to travel there) because I felt like it was the only option left. I feel so hopeless. My life became a painful routine of me trying to eat food and then I will just vomit it after a few minutes then I will vomit acid then they will give me pain killers then the pain will stop for hours then repeat and I was so tired of it. I just want it to end. I don’t want to live my life that way. I want to end the pain. I want to die.

My birthday came. I was advised to try again. Try eating again and try my best not to vomit. I did, although deep inside I already know that this will just turn out like any other day. But I was wrong.

I ate light breakfast. I felt the pain. I felt like vomitting but I didn’t. I tried eating again and this time, there was no pain. I felt some energy. I felt better.

To make it short, I was miraculously healed on my birthday and the doctor allowed me to be discharged.

Went home. I rested. But my decision’s still my final. I will resign.

I felt empty while writing the resignation letter (that later I asked my friend to write the remaining parts because I wasn’t in the mood to write). While on my way to the company, together with B who will also resign for personal reasons, I suddenly felt sad. The moment I stepped inside our work area, I felt like crying. I wanted to back out. In that short moment, I felt like I wanted to reconsider. I felt like, I just wanna talk to my supervisors to tell them to give me some more rest days so I can recover then I’ll go back to work. But, I still ended up handing my resignation letter. It was accepted.

I went home feeling sad but relieved. I was sad because I gotta leave the company who has been so nice to me but also felt relieved that they now have the chance to find someone better than me.

One would say that I might be overreacting since I only spent less than 3 weeks in that company and I already have all these emotions but to me, I’m not. You see, it was less than 3 weeks but in those weeks, I was able to grow as a person. In those weeks I’ve spent with them, I’ve done things that I thought I can never accomplished before. In those weeks, I’ve realized that BPO companies really do help the Philippine economy. In those weeks, I’ve realized that those who work for BPO companies, especially the ones in the night shift deserves more credit and respect than they are given. In those weeks, I’ve realized that one’s endurance is determined by the amount of effort and dedication that one would give. In those weeks, I’ve realized that as long as you’re trying, as long as you’re willing to work hard and as long as you stay dedicated then you can do things you thought were impossible before. In those weeks, I’ve realized that hard work is the key to success.

I am going to miss reading those articles about good Hollywood films. I am going to miss the songs we used to listen to while working. I am going to miss the employees who are always willing to help us whenever we find difficulties in our tasks. I am going to miss the TLs, trainer and everyone else in there who were always supportive and kind to us. I am going to miss my co-trainees, W and B, for the short period of time that we spent together, I’ve gained new friends that I know I can always count on. I am going to miss the environment. I am going to miss everything about that work.

But yeah, I got to move on and be who I am. First, I gotta recover since having acute gastritis is no joke. I gotta take good care of my body first and you know, health is wealth. Second, I gotta find a day shift work that I guess is more fitting for me, given my health situation. Maybe I just don’t belong there, and I hope they’ll understand. WE might find our place in this world someday but at least for now, I gotta go my own way. (No copyright infringement intended though; I’m just quoting the song cause I feel like it fits well with the topic at hand)

Thank you, TU for the opportunity! You have instilled in me values that will definitely help me in my journey, not just in pursuing another career but also in life. You made me become a better person. (And I also know how to use Adobe Acrobat now and my computer skills improved! I’m actually faster in doing stuff on the computer now, thanks to the training you’ve given me). Also, I am very sorry that it has to end this way.

Goodbye.

It was a ridiculously lit experience that I will never forget!

#personal #first work #goodbye #thank you

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