#and a lot of that political work is based in and only possible after doing community building!

[jackawful]

still thinking about that ml "why are anarchists better at organizing than us???" post and like. Idk they were correct that punk shows are not themselves revolutionary but like. there's a reason some of the best people at disaster relief are like. punks, church ladies, and dnd nerds (the ones that play regularly at least) and it's that you need regular practice organizing low-stakes shit to be good at logistics during the higher-stakes shit. that shit is a learned skill. if you can organize a house show, or for that matter a knitting circle or tabletop group, you have skills that will naturally extend to political work.

[boreal-sea]

Look.

I have made you a chart. A very simple chart.

People say "You have to draw the line somewhere, and Biden has crossed it-" and my response is "Trump has crossed way more lines than Biden".

These categories are based off of actual policy enacted by both of these men while they were in office.

If the ONLY LINE YOU CARE ABOUT is line 12, you have an incredible amount of privilege, AND YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT PALESTINIANS. You obviously have nothing to fear from a Trump presidency, and you do not give a fuck if a ceasefire actually occurs. You are obviously fine if your queer, disabled, and marginalized loved ones are hurt. You clearly don't care about the status of American democracy, which Trump has openly stated he plans to destroy on day 1 he is in office.

EDIT:

Ok fine, I spent 3 hours compiling sources for all of these, you can find that below the cut.

I'll give at least one link per subject area. There are of course many more sources to be read on these subject areas and no post could possibly give someone a full education on these subjects.

Biden and trans rights: https://www.hrc.org/resources/president-bidens-pro-lgbtq-timeline

Trump and trans rights: https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trump-on-lgbtq-rights-rolling-back-protections-and-criminalizing-gender-nonconformity

The two sources above show how Biden has done a lot of work to promote trans rights, and how Trump did a lot of work to hurt trans rights.

Biden on abortion access: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/politics/what-is-in-biden-abortion-executive-order/index.html

Trump on abortion access: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-trump-republican-presidential-election-2024-585faf025a1416d13d2fbc23da8d8637

Biden openly supports access to abortion and has taken steps to protect those rights at a federal level even after Roe v Wade was overturned. Trump, on the other hand, was the man who appointed the judges who helped overturn Roe v Wade and he openly brags about how proud he is of that decision. He also states that he believes individual states should have the final say in whether or not abortion is legal, and that he trusts them to "do the right thing", meaning he supports stronger abortion bans.

Biden on environmental reform: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-restores-protections-for-three-national-monuments-and-renews-american-leadership-to-steward-lands-waters-and-cultural-resources/

Trump on environmental reform: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html

Biden has made major steps forward for environmental reform. He has restored protections that Trump rolled back. He has enacted many executive orders and more to promote environmental protections, including rejoining the Paris Accords, which Trump withdrew the USA from. Trump is also well known for spreading conspiracy theories and lies about global climate change, calling it a "Chinese hoax".

Biden on healthcare and prescription reform: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/06/09/biden-administration-announces-savings-43-prescription-drugs-part-cost-saving-measures-president-bidens-inflation-reduction-act.html

Trump on healthcare reform: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/07/politics/obamacare-health-insurance-ending-trump/index.html

I'm rolling healthcare and prescriptions and vaccines and public health all into one category here since they are related. Biden has lowered drug costs, expanded access to medicaid, and ACA enrollment has risen during his presidency. He has also made it so medical debt no longer applies to a person's credit score. He signed many executive orders during his first few weeks in office in order to get a handle on Trump's grievous mishandling of the COVID pandemic. Trump also wants to end the ACA. Trump is well known for refusing to wear a mask during the pandemic, encouraging the use of hydroxylchloroquine to "treat" COVID, and being openly anti-vaxx.

Biden on student loan forgiveness: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-announces-additional-77-billion-approved-student-debt-relief-160000-borrowers

Trump on student loan forgiveness: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2024/06/20/trump-knocks-bidens-vile-student-loan-forgiveness-plans-suggests-reversal/

Trump wants to reverse the student loan forgiveness plans Biden has enacted. Biden has already forgiven billions of dollars in loans and continues to work towards forgiving more.

Infrastructure funding:

I'm putting these links next together because they are all about infrastructure.

In general, Trump's "achievements" for infrastructure were to destroy environmental protections to speed up projects. Many of his plans were ineffective due to the fact that he did not clearly outline where the money was going to come from, and he was unwilling to raise taxes to pay for the projects. He was unable (and unwilling) to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill during his 4 years in office. He did sign a few disaster relief bills. He did not enthusiastically promote renewable energy infrastructure. He created "Infrastructure Weeks" that the federal government then failed to fund. Trump did not do nothing for infrastructure, but his no-tax stance and his dislike for renewable energy means the contributions he made to American infrastructure were not as much as he claimed they were, nor as much as they could have been. Basically, he made a lot of promises, and delivered on very few of them. He is not "against" infrastructure, but he's certainly against funding it.

Biden was able to pass that bipartisan bill after taking office. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan that Trump tried to prevent from passing during Biden's term contains concrete funding sources and step by step plans to rebuild America's infrastructure. If you want to read the plan, you can find it here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/build/guidebook/. Biden has done far more for American infrastructure than Trump did, most notably by actually getting the bipartisan bill through congress.

Biden on Racial Equity: https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/01/26/960725707/biden-aims-to-advance-racial-equity-with-executive-actions

Trump on Racial Equity: https://www.axios.com/2024/04/01/trump-reverse-racism-civil-rights https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-37230916

Trump's racist policies are loud and clear for everyone to hear. We all heard him call Mexicans "Drug dealers, criminals, rapists". We all watched as he enacted travel bans on people from majority-Muslim nations. Biden, on the other hand, has done quite a lot during his term to attempt to reconcile racism in this country, including reversing Trump's "Muslim ban" the first day he was in office.

Biden on DEI: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/06/25/executive-order-on-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-accessibility-in-the-federal-workforce/

Trump on DEI: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-tried-to-crush-the-dei-revolution-heres-how-he-might-finish-the-job/ar-BB1jg3gz

Biden supports DEI and has signed executive orders and passed laws that support DEI on the federal level. Trump absolutely hates DEI and wants to eradicate it.

Biden on criminal justice reform: https://time.com/6155084/biden-criminal-justice-reform/

Trump on criminal justice reform: https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election/21418911/donald-trump-crime-criminal-justice-policy-record https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/trumps-extreme-plans-crime/678502/

From pardons for non-violent marijuana convictions to reducing the federal government's reliance on private prisons, Biden has done a lot in four years to reform our criminal justice system on the federal level. Meanwhile, Trump has described himself as "tough on crime". He advocates for more policing, including "stop and frisk" activities. Ironically it's actually quite difficult to find sources about what Trump thinks about crime, because almost all of the search results are about his own crimes.

Biden on military support for Israel: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/biden-obama-divide-closely-support-israel-rcna127107

Trump on military support for Israel: https://www.vox.com/politics/353037/trump-gaza-israel-protests-biden-election-2024

Biden supports Israel financially and militarily and promotes holding Israel close. So did Trump. Trump was also very pro-Israel during his time in office and even moved the embassy to Jerusalem and declared Jerusalem the capitol of Israel, a move that inflamed attitudes in the region.

Biden on a ceasefire: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2024/06/05/gaza-israel-hamas-cease-fire-plan-biden/73967659007/

Trump on a ceasefire: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-israel-gaza-finish-problem-rcna141905

Trump has tried to be quiet on the issue but recently said he wants Israel to "finish the problem". He of course claims he could have prevented the whole problem. Trump also openly stated after Oct 7th that he would bar immigrants who support Hamas from the country and send in officers to American protests to arrest anyone supporting Hamas.

Biden meanwhile has been quietly urging Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire deal for months, including the most recent announcement earlier in June, though it seems as though that deal has finally fallen through as well.

[pitchsidestories]

long story short II Fridolina Rolfö x Reader

masterlist I word count: 1170

a/n: hi, it's based off this request here, we'd love to read your thoughts on the oneshot. 🫶🏻

“Do you have photos of the two of you through the years?”

The interviewer’s question made you smile amusedly. Of course, Fridolina and you had memories together framed in pictures.

Although you were still getting used to the change to now call her your fiancée.

The warm afternoon light which filtered through the curtains of the living room let her light hair appear golden.

They the film crew were working on a small documentary about the Swedish woman. Today the topic was focused more around her personal life offside the football pitch.

“I’m sure we have some. Do you know where they are, love?”, Fridolina looked at you.

“Yes, wait here, I’ll get them.”, you nodded, before getting up to step into your bedroom. It was the coziest part in the whole appartement.

While the rest of it was very Scandinavian and chick with expensive furniture and a lot of warm lights which were carefully selected by your fiancée this was the warm heart of your home.

Your favourite pictures were all in a dedicated box, and you were pretty sure they were rested somewhere on the shelf until you realized your girlfriend, no fiancée you corrected yourself in your mind put it high up there out of your reach.

Unless you could possibly grasp it when you stood on the chair. ��Uhm Frido?”, you called for her nervously.

To the interviewer the defender apologized in a polite tone. “Excuse me for a second.”

“What are you doing?!”, she raised her voice, there was a hint of worry in it too.

“You put the photos up there, Fridolina. Why do you have to be so frigging tall?!”, you exclaimed.

“I didn’t think you were that small.”, Fridolina chuckled.

“I’m not small you’re just tall.”, you protested as you lost your balance and were about to fall to the ground luckily the blonde caught you.

“Why didn’t you wait for me to get them down for you? You’re so stubborn.”, she shook her head.

“I thought I could do it on my own.”, you admitted biting your lip.

“Why did you call me then?”, the defender raised an eyebrow, she still held on to you as if you were as light as a feather.

“After I realized how high up it was.”, you answered, twirling a lock of your hair with a finger.

“Don’t ever climb on our furniture again.”, Fridolina asked you to, her voice slightly shaky.

“I promise. Thanks for catching me though.”, you replied, pressing a soft kiss to your lover’s high cheekbone.

“You don’t have to thank me for that.”, the fellow football player shrugged.

“Well, you saved my life.”, you said half joking and half earnest.

Fridolina shook her head with a gentle smile as you both walked back into the living room.

“We got the photos.“, you announced happily, presenting the photos to the interviewer.

“Sorry, took a while to get them. Someone must have placed them at the wrong spot.“, Fridolina added. You smirked at the sideway glance she sent your way.

In contrast to her, you weren’t so subtle about it. “That someone was her.“, you explained and pointed your thumb towards your fiancée.

The young interviewer just smiled politely, clearly focused on getting the job done. “It’s fine. Tell me more about the photos. How are they connected to your career?”

You rummaged through the box of photos and pulled out an old newspaper clipping. The photo showed the two of you hugging after a game, Fridolina in a Wolfsburg shirt and you in a FFC Frankfurt one.

“I love this one. It’s the oldest we have together and it’s from a German newspaper. It shows we haven’t always played for the same team.“, you explained.

Only months later you had joined Fridolina in Wolfsburg and the two of you had been inseparable ever since, hitting off your relationship fully.

The interviewer looked at the photo with a thoughtful nod while Fridolina started to look through the box of photos. She happily pulled out another one.

This one was taken on your first day in Barcelona. You both smiled into the camera in your Barcelona warm-up shirts with your arms around each other.

“I like this one. It’s our first one in Barcelona together when we just joined the team.“

You remembered that day. It was a big step for the both of you, joining one of the best teams in the world. But with Fridolina by your side even this felt easy. Looking back, you had to admit that it was one of the best decisions of your life.

“Oh yes. That was a wonderful feeling.“, you agreed.

“And the first time, we moved in together.“, Fridolina added.

You smiled at her: “Exactly.“

Your apartment was small but you loved how it overlooked the city. The balcony was just big enough for the two of you to have breakfast outside in the mornings or to drink coffee together in the afternoon but you wouldn’t swap it for anything else.

“It was a big step.“, Fridolina explained to the interviewer.

She had been the one who had asked you to move in together when you both signed for Barcelona. Shortly after, you asked the her to marry you.

You pulled the matching photo for that memory out of the box.

“So was this one.“

One of your friends photographed you kissing on the beach right after she had said yes.

Fridolinas face lit up: “That’s true.“

After the filming was done for the day and the documentary crew has left you softly tucked at your fiancées sleeve. “Frido?”

“Yes, love?”, she hummed.

“Can you the photos somewhere not so high up?”, you asked her with an innocent smile on your lips.

“Sure., the blonde paused before recognizing that another photo has been added to the box, wait that picture wasn’t here before.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be seen by the camera or the interviewer.”, you told her, your heart pondering nervously against your chest.

“So, you hid it?”, Fridolina raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, you can take a look pretty sure you haven’t seen it before.”, you requested.

Cautiously the Swedish footballer glanced at it, letting out a squeal of pure bliss and joy before clicking her tongue. “How can you put this up there?”

“Oh, you want to keep it down here with you?”, you wanted to know, eyes shining amusedly.

“I want to keep it somewhere where no one can see it. That’s only for our eyes.”, she confessed, pressing the ultrasound picture close to her heart as if the tall woman wanted to protect this from the outside world.

“Do we want to get the autumn decoration out now or..?”, you changed the topic swiftly.

“No, too dangerous. I don’t want you both to get hurt.”, Fridolina declared. The blonde made a promise to herself that she’d always be there to protect the two of you.

A new chapter in your lives has just begun. The rest was still unwritten.

[thebreakfastgenie]

If Harris' campaign was faultless is that you saying that you support genocide or like, that you didn't know about her pro-genocide stance?

You know I've kept quiet about this for various reasons but I think that was a mistake.

Referring to the Harris's position as a "pro-genocide stance" is a bad rhetorical trick. The left has done it before, calling people COVID-deniers and climate-deniers for not sharing your exact position. It's not helping your cause. Most people don't see "support for Israel in line with the mainstream status quo" as a "pro-genocide stance." I don't believe that deep down you really think Harris's position is identical to full-throated support for genocide. Only one candidate has said he wants Gaza turned into a parking lot. That candidate won, so come January you're probably going to find out what full-throated American support for genocide looks like. People who don't agree with your description of Harris's policies as pro-genocide think you sound absurd. They think you're a crank with fringe positions. Whether you're right or not always using the most extreme possible language is only alienating more people and making fewer people take you seriously. Having observed this for a while now, I don't believe most cases are people trying to make a sincere moral argument. Most cases I see, like your message, are bad faith shock value. I see this happen so much, you confuse radical politics with base edginess.

It's not doing anything to help Palestinians. Your screaming at people that they support genocide because they won't want Trump to be president hasn't worked. Now the guy with a settlement named after him is going to be in charge and he's already said he'll let Netanyahu do whatever he wants. If I turned around what you say to Democrats on you, and said you need to do a better job of persuading people and not alienating them, you'd probably say "but there's genocide on the line!" But... that's exactly it, isn't it? If making rhetorical concessions and saying things you found cringe, or you generally feeling kinda bad, was the price of stopping a genocide, wouldn't it be worth it? This kind of messaging comes from people who are more invested in the moral high ground of yelling at people about genocide than in doing anything about it. I don't respect that.

[ms-demeanor]

It's really hard to take my classes seriously when it is so staggeringly obvious that a lot of the professors don't take them seriously.

It's possible to get at least 95% in my C# class without ever opening the book or doing any of the actual programming exercises. The whole thing is based on quiz scores and you can take the quizzes an unlimited number of times and it shows you the correct answers after every attempt and then asks you the exact same questions - it doesn't even scramble up the multiple choice options between attempts. My professor isn't even using their own material. All the lectures were recorded by a different professor, who also wrote the quizzes.

The last assignment my art teacher graded was turned in over 2 months ago. It was still summer when I did that assignment. We only have 13 students in the class and it's not like the professor is reading essays or writing long comments on the work. They have only graded *checks notes* two of the eight assignments we've turned in. All of the lectures were filmed in 2020, as has been the case with lectures in nearly all of my online classes (programming lectures were filmed in 2018, and I don't know if that's better or worse).

These professors are more checked out than the students and it's tremendously demotivating.

A huge number of my classes have had quizzes and exams where all the questions were pulled verbatim from the textbook with no references to lectures. The answers can all be found on "study" sites because the professors didn't even bother to reword them. One of my classes was a political science class in winter of 2022 that asked "how many US presidents have been impeached?" And the "correct" answer was 2.

I hope my school just sucks. I really hope it isn't like this everywhere. Not even all of my classes are like this, but probably 60% of them are like this and it is making me nuts.

[sophie-frm-mars]

The Cass Review, and what we can do about it

The UK government is making decisive moves toward banning trans healthcare outright. The NHS says it is adjusting its policies to be in line with the "cass report", a pseudoscientific report written by a transphobe that goes as far as to claim that little boys playing with trucks and little girls playing with dolls is biological, and which disregards dozens of scientifically sound previous studies into HRT and trans healthcare in order to reach its conclusions that trans healthcare for under 25s should be radically changed to discourage transition at every turn and make it as hard as possible for young people to transition.

These moves will kill countless young trans people. I would not have made it to 25 if healthcare wasn't available and I know so many other trans people wouldn't have either.

The mainstream reporting in the UK is keeping itself ideologically cohesive by claiming that trans people exist, nobody hates them, and they're very rare, and the big problem is the explosion of new cases of not-really-trans people who are clogging up the system (this is a lie, the system has been intentionally slowed by malicious neglect, it isn't even a resource issue, the clinics have far more capacity than the number of patients who are let through)

Once again, this is genocidal and is actually a commonplace methodology of genocide. The nazis asked GRT people to help them understand which Traveller families were "real" travellers and which were the fake ones, since they insisted it was only the fake ones who were the problem and who had to be exterminated (because a lot of nazi GRT policy was based on American indigenous reservation policy).

Labour, the main opposiiton party in the UK, has announced it will "follow the Cass Report", and implement these restrictions on trans healthcare once in government.

For the survival of young trans people, robust community structures must be developed immediately.

Efforts to change the electoral situation will proceed at a snail's pace and will be entirely at the whims of what is politically expedient. It will turn around, but it will take a long time. At the voting level, everyone in the UK who cares about trans people needs to make it clear that they won't vote for Labour unless they reverse position on this, and to be clear about this: Labour will not listen. They are PR Brained Psychopaths and they don't want to get into this "controversial" issue in a way that might cost them further popularity and the easy election win.

Wes Streeting, inhuman lab experiment and Labour Shadow Health Secretary has said that activists need to "stop protesting to ask us to be better opposition and start protesting to ask us to be better government", in other words their electoral promises are cynical reactionary bargains and deals to get them into power and the only point at which they will change anything is once they are in government, if at all. I know this sounds very "push Biden left" but I'm not saying give up now - to repeat, everyone who cares about trans people in the UK should tell Labour to get fucked right away, and then keep doing it as loudly as possible, but it's just not going to change until after the general election at least.

Another way to help could be through legal routes, like the work that The Good Law Project has been doing for trans people for several years now, but I don't know enough about the law to know if it can be used to challenge this at all.

We have to accept there is no electoral solution right now to this genocidal campaign against trans people in the UK, and while those efforts are ongoing trans people and cis allies need to fucking organise. Trans exclusive / separatist organising is riddled with issues, I don't want to cast hopelessness around but there are really very few of us and while it's absolutely necessary to privilege trans voices in trans organising and give us the deciding power and the autonomy, we need to utilise the support and time and labour of every cis person who is willing to help in whatever way they can.

Robust community structures means community structures that are helping young trans people get healthcare as an absolute basic starting point, but it means a lot more than that besides. We need community structures that are consciously organised by people who are taking responsibility for the community roles they are in and being completely explicit with each other about the nature and function of their organising. We need HRT community resources so young trans people can survive this medical segregation, we need drug user harm reduction spaces so that what people turn to in despair doesn't kill them, we need sober spaces so that people can get away from unhealthy coping responses, we need conflict resolution structures so that our problems are dealt with privately and nobody is left completely isolated, but more than any of those things, and in order to have all of those things, we desperately need trans assemblies

Assemblies are how we will get a community of robust radical organisers, because only by repeatedly practicing the ongoing process of democracy can people learn how to do it in a way that will facilitate their own organising. We have to empower the whole community to answer our own questions, come up with solutions, organise people into structures to enact those solutions and then do them. All this means is that an open door event convenes frequently (at least fortnightly) to discuss what is happening in the community. Trans people get the mic for allotted time, and discuss the issues, and then whatever voting structure the assembly uses facilitates further discussion, for example through working groups - the assembly breaks into smaller groups to discuss the topic and then representatives report the outcomes of those discussions back and consensus is reached from what the representatives report.

We have to get people engaging in this process because in order to effectively combat this situation trans people must agree on the solutions and then tell cis allies how to help and so far we haven't been doing that. We really really haven't been. But we could be with a little work. And as I'm saying, doing this will also empower everyone in the community to organise toward specific solutions for specific issues like HRT provision, sober spaces, housing, food, etc.

fuck

I'll have more to add to this post later I have to get to therapy I just got really mad when I saw the news this morning

[just-another-blog-of-fluff]

Hangry

Word count: ~2,000

Pairing: Steve x reader and Bucky (platonic), no pronouns used

Warnings: Just a lot of fluff. Mild cursing.

It's been a year and a half since my last posted works! I'm VERY out of practice 😅 I'm trying to work on some smaller prompts on my list while I get myself back into writing and continue working on the Loki blip in the universe prompt. It's not my best, but I hope you enjoy in any case!

This was based on a Prompt for Steve x reader as well as a prompt where reader and Bucky bug Steve while he's making a public appearance.

“Tell us, Captain, sir - how did the Avengers manage to track down the villain’s hideout this time?”

“Well, good sir - we have state-of-the-art technology that allows us to track electronic signals from thousands of miles away…”

“Ugh, he is such a ham!” you muttered to Bucky under your breath as you observed Steve from a distance. “We’re never going to make it to the store if he keeps stopping every time a reporter tries to chat him up!”

“Steve can’t resist bragging about us,” Bucky chided, nudging you with his elbow.

“Yeah, well… some of us are hungry!”

You huffed and folded your arms across your chest in annoyance, trying to catch the reporter’s eye with your scowling face, but she was far too enamored by the star-spangled captain to pay you any mind. How had a simple grocery run for ice cream turned into a twenty-minute interview with the press??

“I swear, I’m gonna go drag him away from that reporter by the ear if he doesn’t stop talking in the next 60 seconds,” you grumbled.

“Why do that when we can mess with him instead?”

You turned to look at Bucky, who had a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

“Go on…”

He smirked, shooting you a wink. “Watch and learn.”

You watched silently as Bucky meandered casually toward where Steve stood speaking with the reporter and her photographer. Steve was none the wiser to his friend approaching from behind.

“… but the serum isn’t the only thing that makes us heroes. It takes a whole load of grit and determina-HAY-tion-!”

Steve flinched as his best friend subtly reached up and pinched his side mid-sentence, effectively silencing him. The captain recovered quickly, though, chuckling nonchalantly as he flashed Bucky a look. He continued on with his sentence after that, refusing to acknowledge what just happened.

“Wait - Steve is ticklish??” you whispered incredulously as Bucky returned to your side.

“Very. Why does that surprise you?”

“I don’t know, I guess I just assumed the serum eliminated weaknesses like that.”

Bucky chuckled. “Nah - if anything it made it worse.”

“Oh-ho, I’ve got to try this for myself!”

You quietly paced up behind the blabbing soldier, pretending you were casually walking past to avoid drawing attention from passerby. As you stepped by him, you reached out and swiftly dug your fingertips into his ribs for less than a second. Steve choked on his words and whipped his head around instinctively. You ducked out of his field of vision and prodded his other side.

“Excuse me,” Steve requested politely, turning around as nonchalantly as possible to find you standing behind him with a guilty grin on your face. “Can I help you?”

“I just came to remind you that we have somewhere we have to be,” you stated sweetly.

“Yes, but it isn’t urgent,” he muttered.

“Oh, I think you’ll find it to be very urgent, actually,” you whispered, shooting him a cheeky wink. With a long, drawn-out sigh, Steve turned to the reporter.

“My apologies, ma’am. Duty calls.”

You saw Bucky clap a hand over his mouth and nose to cover the snort that burst from his nares. Trying hard not to openly roll your eyes in front of the reporter, you nodded in the direction of the grocery store and began marching purposefully toward your destination, with Steve following in your wake.

“You two are infuriating,” Steve grumbled once you were out of earshot from the reporter.

“Excuse me - I just want to go get my ice cream and head back home to eat it,” you countered. “You’re the one who decided to schmooze with the first person who asked you about your superpowers.”

“I’m just trying to maintain good public relations. Maybe you should try it sometime.”

“Ugh, no. I hate talking about myself.”

The three of you bickered amicably the entire way to the store. It hadn’t ended by the time you’d made it back to the tower kitchen and dropped your grocery bags on the counter.

“I’m just saying - it wouldn’t kill you to wear a hat or something to hide your face from reporters when we’re just trying to go to the store,” you griped, shrugging your sweatshirt off your shoulders and hanging it on the back of one of the kitchen stools.

“It wouldn’t kill you to try to be friendly to strangers every once in a while,” Steve retorted.

“Excuse me - I am a very friendly person! I’m just selective about it.”

“Friendly as an angry porcupine, sure.”

You gasped indignantly. “Are you saying I’m sharp with people??”

“You’re just a little… prickly.”

“Ooh, now that’s an insult,” Bucky hummed sarcastically.

“You’re just as bad, you know. Forget porcupines - you’re like a venomous sea urchin or something,” Steve shot back at his friend. You snorted.

“Steve… you’ve really got to work on your teasing skills,” you chuckled. “A ‘sea urchin?’ Really?”

“I could just take your ice cream”

You narrowed your eyes. “Don’t you dare.”

Steve held your gaze for a moment, eyes darting briefly to the bag on the counter between you with the ice cream inside. You lunged for the bag handle, but Steve predicted your move, snatching it out of your reach before you could get a hand on it.

“Damnit, Steve!! Give it back!” you whined, rounding the counter to swipe for the grocery bag. He turned his back to you, maintaining a barrier between you and the prize. “Bucky! Help me out here!”

“Nah, this is pretty funny to watch,” Bucky chuckled, snickering as you swatted at Steve’s arm.

“Yeah but your ice cream is in there too!”

Bucky sighed. “You make a fair point. Steve, buddy, give it back.”

Steve snorted. “You’ve been just as much a pain in my rear today! Why would I give it back to you either?”

You gasped dramatically, catching Bucky’s eye. “Are you gonna let him talk to you like that?”

“‘Course not!”

Without warning, Bucky lunged at his super soldier friend, tackling him to the floor. The bag of ice cream slipped from Steve’s grasp in his surprise, which you quickly snatched up before he could regain the wherewithal to take it back. With a triumphant shout, you tore the cover off your pint of ice cream and dug a spoon out of the drawer, swiping a scoop off the top layer and shoving it in your mouth with a contented sigh.

“Mm… finawwy,” you mumbled with your mouth full. Swallowing, you pointed your spoon accusatorially at Steve where he was currently trying to shove Bucky off himself. “You know, you’ve been a pain in my rear all day. You deserved this - it’s nice to see someone teaching you a lesson.”

“You two are pains in my rear every day!” Steve huffed as he grasped at Bucky’s shoulders and pushed.

“You did not just say that!” you gasped dramatically.

“Yeah, how dare you!” Bucky added, pinching at Steve’s side for emphasis.

“Bahah- Bucky, don’t start this,” Steve warned as he grasped his friend’s wrists to still his hands.

“Ooh! Wait!” You set your ice cream and spoon down on the counter beside you. “I want a go! Bucky, hold him there for a minute.”

“Whahat??” Steve laughed in surprise, a nervous edge to his voice.

“Sure!” Bucky offered, ignoring his friend’s protests as he maneuvered his wrists from Steve’s grasp and swiftly pinned his arms to the floor a few inches from his sides. “Quick, before he gets free!”

"On it!" You crouched down beside the super soldiers as Steve tugged against Bucky's grip. Without waiting to listen to Steve's protests any further, you began to scribble your fingertips into his exposed sides and ribs rapidly. You heard a thump behind you as Steve kicked his heel against the floor in protest, now pulling more frantically to escape his best friend's hold.

"HA-HEHEY! Cut it ohout!!"

"Nah. I deserve a little reward for tolerating you all day," you snickered, prodding at his belly. "Hey, Buck - where should I get him next?"

"Ohh, definitely under his arms," he suggested with a smirk. You pinched your way up his ribcage before slotting your hands into the narrow space between his biceps and his upper ribs. Bucky adjusted his grip to pry his friend's arms away from his sides as he attempted to clamp them down to limit the space under his arms.

"BUCKY!! Let me go-HO-HO this I-HI-INSTANT!" Steve demanded.

"No can do, buddy. I'm enjoying watching you get taken down a peg."

"DAHAMNIT BAHARNES!!"

"Oof, language Steve!" you teased, digging your fingers into the soft spot under his arms. "Where else is he ticklish?"

"The spot on his stomach right under his ribs - that'll really get him good." Steve nearly managed to slip his wrist from Bucky's grasp, but he quickly shifted his grip once again. "Better do it quick - I can't hold him much longer."

"Say no more." You pulled your hands free from under Steve's arms and danced your fingertips across the muscle-clad skin of his abdomen just under his ribcage as Bucky suggested. He threw his head back with a heavy stream of laughter at your touch, arching his back against the floor in desperation. It was only another moment before he finally succeeded in escaping Bucky's grasp.

Steve sat up swiftly, a playful but menacing gleam in his eye as his gaze immediately landed on you.

"Oh-ho, shit!" You scrambled to get to your feet to make your escape, groaning defeatedly when you felt a strong set of arms wrap around your waist and yank you backward.

“You really think I’d let you get away with that?” Steve asked rhetorically as he tightened his arms around your midsection to hold you in place.

“W-wait, Steve, we can- ahaha nohoho!” Your protests were cut short as Steve’s fingers kneaded into your sides. “Bucky! Hehehelp!!”

“Nuh-uh. You’re on your own, my friend.” The infuriatingly unhelpful super soldier waltzed over to the counter to retrieve his ice cream, planting himself atop the countertop and digging in while observing the two of you wrestling on the floor below.

“USELEHESS!!” you cried, attempting futilely to pry Steve’s hands off your sides.

“Nice try. You should know better than to mess with me by now,” Steve teased. He loosened his grip slightly to scratch at your belly. A rumbling laugh erupted in his chest when you screeched in protest and doubled over, suddenly much more frantic. “Oh, what’s this?”

“DAHAMNIT STE-HEE-HEVE!” Your grip on his hands was far too weak to even budge them now - not that you’d had any hope of succeeding before your muscles had weakened from his tickling. You leaned more heavily into him as you succumbed to laughter. He responded by lowering you down to lay on the floor beside him, freeing both hands to dart randomly around your sides and stomach. Weakly, you tapped your palm on the floor beside you in surrender. Steve threw in a few more exceedingly ticklish light scratches along your belly before relenting in his revenge.

“That’ll teach you,” he teased with a grin, offering you a hand to help you off the ground. You grasped your abdominal muscles that were now aching from laughter.

“I-hi… I’ll probably still mess with you,” you admitted breathlessly. Steve made a noise of protest in his throat and reached over to pinch your side, but you swatted his hand away. “Noho more! You’ll kill me!”

“So dramatic.” He rolled his eyes. “Here - here’s your ice cream. Hope it melted while you were tormenting me.”

“Harsh!” You snatched it from his hand and stuck out your tongue, then turned to look at Bucky. "And you - you were zero help, thank you."

"Hey! I held him down for you! I was very helpful, in my personal opinion."

The three of you went right back to your friendly bickering session, as though nothing had happened. Any outside might wonder how you could all be friends, but you wouldn't have it any other way.

[the-guppy-fish]

Cold snake.

Simon "Ghost" Riley x Reader

Tags: colleagues to friends to lovers, hesitation, confessions, callsign: Viper, its a little long, but! smut will follow, 3 parts...maybe more to come.

Content warnings: none. (other than my possible spelling mistakes)

Summary: Ghost being a little soft...for now. (2,8k words)

Edited slightly: 27.11.24 (military inaccuracies)

About Vipers: named after the family Viperidae, they are venomous and have long hinged fangs that permit deep penetration and injection of their venom. These snakes can decide how much venom to inject depending on the circumstances. Rattlesnakes for example, have evolved the strike-and-release bite mechanism, which provides a huge benefit to snakes, by minimizing contact with potentially dangerous prey animals.

Vipers come in many different sizes and colours, they are highly adapted to their environment and the type of prey they hunt.

You and Ghost fled the warehouse. The mission had been successful. While Ghost kept the coast clear, you retrieved the confidential documents, Price wanted you to secure from a target warehouse. Once the documents were safely tucked inside the pocket of your tactical vest, you gave Ghost the sign to get out of there.

Just as you left the warehouse, you heard Price in your earpiece,

"Ghost, Viper, get the hell out of there. Enemy activity confirmed by drones. Safehouse Foxtrot-Whiskey-Bravo is clear. Pick-up tomorrow at 1700 at the safehouse. Radio-silence until then. Do not answer. Price out."

You and Ghost simply nodded at each other, silently running off in direction of the safehouse, while keeping eyes and ears open for any activity in and around the warehouse. Once you had laid back a decent amount of space between you and the rusty warehouse, running through tall grass sprinkled with frost, you walked the remaining distance to the safe house in silence, still being alert to your surroundings.

A few hours pass, and the sun begins to set. You're still marching towards the safehouse, now crossing a large meadow surrounded by trees. The cold creeps into your nostrils and fingertips, as the warming rays of sunlight slowly hide beneath the horizon. Your breath is visible, pulsing through the fabric of your balaclava in small clouds. Ghosts breath-clouds are much larger than yours, his huge lungs needing a lot more air than yours, to feed oxygen to all his muscles.

You can see the small safe house not too far away, hiding in between large pine trees. While walking the last few hundred meters, your eyes fall onto Ghosts back, clad in tactical gear and tucked-in weapons. The leg of his camouflage trousers slightly fluttering in the cold breeze, the grey fabric hugging his hips just right. Do you feel bad about looking? Not at all. It is not the first time your eyes linger on him, how could you not? When he is so largely built and looks like he has been sculpted by a group of goddesses, who knew exactly what they were doing?

Your relationship to Ghost used to be very professional. You only spoke together when needed. Always kept the conversation light and work-related. When you were surrounded by the rest of the 141, you barely even glanced at each other.

It was safe to say, you were surprised beyond your imagination, the day Ghost began small-talking with you.

A few weeks back, when you were home on base, the huge brute of man asked you, if you had had a good day. Just like that. Over dinner in the mess hall. While it was just the two of you. Normally you would have just ate in silence and then given the other a polite nod once you finished, and left. But no. You carefully chatted with him, being slightly SUPER suspicious of his friendliness. After finishing your meals, the conversation naturally died, and you went to each your dorms.

The following evening it happened again, and then he evening after that, and all the following ones. But always when it was just the two of you. Ghost would go completely silent if any one else joined you.

You slowly began to talk more and more, sharing more and more details of your lives. Even though Ghost rarely shared anything from his life. If he did, oddly enough, he mostly shared about his favourite meals or new movies in the telly.

You began to talk throughout the day, not just at dinner. When he caught you in the briefing room or in either of your offices, he initiated a conversation, eyes fixed to your face, looking at every little polite smile and expression you made.

But always, when you two were alone.

One time, Soap walked in on one of your conversations in the common room. You had stood with your back to Ghost, rummaging in the small tea-kitchen, trying to make a cuppa for the both of you. Ghost watched your every move, how your clothes hugged you frame, while listening intently.

You did not notice Soap entering, before turning around and only seeing Soap.

Ghost nowhere to be found.

"Who are ye talking to bonnie?", Soap looked at you with confused eyes.

"Uhm, I was just talking to Ghost." you answered, perplexed at Ghosts sudden disappearance.

"Seems like he flew away, bon. Don't feel bad about it, you know how he can be." You tried to hide your disappointment, while Soap eyed the second cup of tea in your hands with large puppy eyes.

When you met Ghost later that evening at dinner, he initiated conversation as he did every dinner, but the conversation failed to reach around his disappearance. You let it go, thinking he had to leave for some important reason unbeknownst to you.

The conversation moved along, you finished eating and you chatted back and forth, like some table tennis ball experiencing the match of its life.

While talking you accidentally unconsciously touched his arm, which was resting on the table you ate at, while telling a (to you) very exhilarating story about your latest attempt at making a new soup at home.

You were so enthralled with your story telling, that you completely disregarded the shift in Ghosts form.

He went from sitting sluggishly, resting his elbows on the table, arms crossed, and looking at your lips, while you rambled on and on about that soup.

Ghost cared little about soup, but when you spoke about it, it seemed to be the most interesting topic of conversation ever. When your fingers found his forearm and snaked around his bare skin, he froze. His mind short circuiting and vision blurring. Still looking at you, feigning his newfound interest of soup, every fibre in him focussed on your soft skin on his rough and scarred one. He fell deeper and deeper into the blur your touch had created in his mind. All his thoughts vapourised and no sound was picked up by his ears.

All to sudden, Ghost was ripped from his hyper focussed state by your voice.

"Ghost? Hey, what do you think?" He blinked the fog away from his eyes, cleared his throat, and croaked out a quick "sorry?", focussing his eyes on yours, mind still running laps in his skull over your fingers resting on his arm.

"I asked, whether you think the soup would be better with or without garlic?", you looked at him with a small smile, expecting his answer curiously.

Ghosts ears peaked at your question, and he could not avoid the small smile forming on his lips under the fabric covering his face.

"With." was all he managed to say, which earned him a satisfied smile from you.

"I'll try that next time then."

With that, you gave his arm a quick squeeze and lifted your fingers from his skin to pick up your tray. Your touch and bold display of comfort around him made his mind grow foggy again.

"You done as well?" You stood up with your hands on your tray and nodded to the one beside him. He gave you a silent nod, and you pulled his tray across the table to balance yours on top of it.

While you went up to return the trays, Ghost sat completely stunned, waiting for you to return, so he could walk you to your dorm (another thing he had absentmindedly begun doing).

Back in the meadow, you and Ghost had reached the treeline and made it to the poor example of a safe house: a simple shed, neatly tucked away by the large pines, small enough for you to question whether there was space enough for two rooms in it.

And you were right. The sheds interior consisted of a small fireplace, a bunkbed, a large chest and a table with two chairs. Everything looked well used and ancient in your eyes, the smell of old cigarettes and firewood confirmed your suspicion about this place being many decades older than you.

Ghosts deep voice tore you from your disappointed thoughts about the safehouse.

"You're on top." While he began stripping out of his gear, placing it neatly beside the lower bunk, he had claimed for himself.

You followed along, closing the wooden door and bolting it shut with the large piece of wood acting as a lock. You laid your gear at the foot-end of your bed, as to keep it close while you slept, should anyone want to pay your shed a visit during the night. Your gut told you that this place was safe enough, for you to relax in. The remote location, the bolted door, and Ghosts presence, assured you that this was good enough for tonight.

Neither you nor Ghost lit up the fireplace, knowing the smoke outside and light from inside the shed could lead anyone to your super cozy hiding spot. The shed was safe enough to not have one of you keep watch for the night. So far away from anyone and anything, bolted and locked, no light or other visible factors making it stand out. No one knew anyone was here, besides Price.

After having settled into the thin mattress, under a thick wool blanket Ghost had pulled from the chest, you tried to get some rest.

But sleep never came to you, as the cool air crept inside and under your blanket. For what felt like hours, you laid crumpled up like a small ball to keep, whatever heat was left, close to your body. But nothing worked, the cold bore into your skin and settled uncomfortably in your bones.

You scolded yourself: as a special forces soldier, you were supposed to fend for your self in every possible way; and you usually did so, perfectly.

But this never ending, merciless cold was going to beat you.

Your stubbornness kept you from climbing down to look for another blanket. But also the thought of waking up Ghost; anyone who woke him up from his precious few hours of sleep, would feel his wrath in the morning.

So you stayed. Freezing and shivering under your heavy blanket. Just existing in the coldness, hoping that some heat would come your way, at some point.

Heat never came, but a deep voice did instead.

"Viper?" Ghost called out quietly.

Your teeth clattered at you let out a weak "yeah?".

Ghosts gravelly voice made its way to your ears again, "If you don't stop shaking my bunk with your shivers, you can sleep on the floor." His oh so humorous comment made you shiver even harder, and you mumbled a quiet "sorry", wrapping the blanket impossibly tighter around you.

Once again you tried falling asleep, willing the shivers to stop, only for them to return with even greater force than before.

You heard Ghost sigh from his mattress beneath you. The bed croaked and you sensed a shadow move in line with your eyes, over the edge of the bunk bed.

Ghost had gotten out of his blanket-cocoon and stood centimetres from your icy face.

"Did you not hear me before?", his hot breath fanned over your frozen features, warming you just enough to answer him in a full sentence.

"I did..sorry.. I just can't get warm." Your voice came out much weaker, than you had hoped for, and seemingly did nothing to stir empathy within Ghost. As if not accepting your weak apology, he pulled the blanket from your shivering form and quietly said "get down."

Puzzled, you unfolded your cold body in a sloth-like motion, slowly climbing down the bed. You stood in front of Ghost, not believing that he actually wanted you to sleep on the floor.

After all, you were the same rank, so he could not order you to do it. So you stood before him, shivering furiously, waiting for him to actually tell you to sleep on the hard, wooden floor, just so you could weakly scold him for trying to punish you.

He said nothing, sat down on his mattress and rolled in under his blanket, his back facing the wall. You stayed on your feet, absolutely confused beyond your mind.

You knew Ghost could act weird from time to time, but this was beyond the usual weirdness of him.

The moonlight from outside only cast enough light inside, for you to make out the outline of his body. Once he had settled, he opened the blanked towards you, which only sent a waft of cool air towards you. As you stayed on your sock-clad feet, still so, so confused, Ghost quietly told you "come 'ere. Can't 'ave you freezing like that."

And like a much faster sloth you slid into the oh so warm comfort of his strong arms and the thick blanket covering him. He wrapped his arms around you, making sure that the blanked covered every millimetre of you.

"Christ Viper, you're like an icicle." His hot breath fanned over your head as he pulled you into his warm embrace.

Your shivers slowly ebbed out, leaving you smushed up, face first, against Ghosts t-shirt covered chest, arms awkwardly tucked close to your own chest. You became embarrassingly aware of just how close you were to one another.

You tried to shimmy away from him, just a little bit; get a some space between the two of you. Keep it professional, you know. But a strong hand around your middle kept you close.

"Stay", Ghost whispered, hugging you closer again, wordlessly telling you that he didn't mind you being this close to him.

With the warmth seeping into your body, the words returned to your mouth in a quiet whisper, "I thought you wanted me to sleep on the floor."

A quick, exhale blew onto the top of your hair and his low voice sounded above your head, "I did" , followed by an even quieter whisper, "but then i remembered, that i like you."

Heat rose to your face, warming your cheeks. You knew Ghost tolerated you, maybe even enjoyed your company from time to time, he definitely liked looking at you, based on how often you felt his eyes on you.

But that he liked you. Oh boy.

"I didn't know you liked me", you whispered into his chest, raising your face to look up at his moonlit, masked one.

His eyes found yours in the dim light, "I do. 'ave for a long time."

Ghosts rough fingers slowly slid up along your spine, fingers gliding over the soft fabric of your shirt. His fingers reaching and curling around the, now warm, skin of you neck. You felt his thumb soothingly swipe back and forth on that very soft patch of skin on the side of your neck.

You hummed at his admission, melting into the touch of his fingers on your skin.

Not knowing how to respond verbally, you turned your palms from your own soft chest, to his much more muscular one, gently squeezing his muscles, to let him know his whispers were heard.

The warmth had truly settled inside you by now, and your eyelids grew heavy, threatening to block the view of Ghosts dark, moonlit eyes looking at your tired ones.

During a dangerously slow blink of your eyelids, Ghosts hand squeezed your neck; just enough to get your attention, but not hard enough for you to open your heavy lids in attention.

"Get some rest Viper. Sleep well." His whispers made a tired smile tug at your lips, and you responded with another whisper.

"Goodnight Ghost."

In front of your closed eyes, a satisfied smile grew behind Ghosts mask. His eyes glanced over your face, taking in the sight of your calm face: eyes closed, brows at ease, just a hint of a smile on your lips and deep, steady breaths blew quietly through your nostrils.

He almost couldn't believe that you were actually sleeping in his arms. He could almost not believe that he had had the courage to pull you close and be soft with you.

His troubling and traumatic past made him fear close relationships, afraid that the people close to him would get hurt. With you though, it was different. Ghost knew you could handle any challenge thrown at you, just like himself. He knew how strong and capable you were, and it pulled him closer to you. Made his heart skip a beat or two, when ever your mere presence filled the room with authority and control.

He had wanted to let you this close to him for a while the last many many weeks, but could never muster the bravery, and did not want to scare you away. To not make you think he was some creep, like other soldiers on base, he took it slow; showed you more and more of himself in adequate amounts.

Ever since your soft fingers had snaked around his arm that evening in the mess hall, he had wanted to reciprocate the comfort and affection, but an occasion had never come along.

Until now. And he was filled with glee, deep into the marrow of his bones.

Ghost held you a little tighter, feeling your body against his. He sucked in the warmth of your skin against his and sweet smell of your hair. His smile only growing larger and more giddy (not an emotion, Ghost was truly familiar with yet)

Gently, he brought his masked lips down on your forehead, giving you a feather light kiss.

"Sweet dreams little snake"

[sapphire-weapon]

I've been thinking about this whole thing wrt Leon's morality and his conflict wrt his relationship to the government, and like

there's a big part of the story that's getting lost in all of this.

From 1999-2005, Leon was basically the government's little bitch. He was being held under duress via threats to Sherry's life and had absolutely no power, autonomy, or esteem within the government.

But after RE4, that completely changes. Yes, he still can't leave because of Sherry, but he starts to gain clout, and a sort of mythology surrounding him begins to form within the ranks of the government and the military. This is then amplified following Degeneration, especially after Ron Davis is found dead in his office (even though this wasn't Leon's doing; it was Tricell's -- but it was still Leon's actions that led to that moment).

We see the effects of that at the start of Infinite Darkness.

So then, fast forward to the end of ID -- the reason why Leon buries the story of what happened during ID wasn't because he was under orders to. I don't know where that perception comes from.

Leon buries the story at the end of ID as a thank you to President Graham. President Graham comes right to the edge of declaring war against a nation that didn't deserve it, but then he pivots at the very last second possible entirely based on Leon's word.

So, at this point, Leon has every reason to believe that he can effect change from within while also protecting people who have been good to him (in this case, the Grahams). And, as far as we know, there were no further incidents under President Graham's administration.

Then Adam Benford takes office, and now Leon has reached almost legendary status within the US government. He's able to -- seemingly right away -- get Benford to agree to open lines of communication with the BSAA (completely reversing course on the US's foreign policy up to that point), and the two of them work together to form the DSO. Remember -- the DSO was, at least in part, Leon's fucking idea.

Going into RE6, Leon has an enormous amount of political capital and uses it to the best of his ability. At this point in the series, if Leon wanted to start a civil war in the US, he'd have enough agencies and big enough chunks of the military behind him in order to do it. This is why Helena sought him out in the first place.

But then Derek Simmons turns out to be The Deep State (lmao), Leon is forced to kill Benford, and then we don't really know the state of the US government since then. It seems to not be going great, but we don't know why, and we won't know why until RE9 comes out.

If I had to guess, I'm willing to bet that Leon lost a lot of his esteem thanks to the events of RE6. Despite his legendary reputation, he still allowed Raccoon City 2.0 to happen under his watch in the form of Tall Oaks; Simmons was right under his nose the whole time, and Leon never sniffed him out -- so, not only did a fucking US President end up dead as a result, but the US was also then forced to put boots on the ground in China. It was a shitshow.

So, Vendetta and Death Island were almost kind of like... Leon attempting (and mostly failing) to claw his way back to where he was in his career pre-RE6.

Like, Leon has been an effective force for good in the US government. Him being a government agent doesn't make him morally gray because, within the confines of the story, he uses that position to enact positive change. And that's probably the biggest reason why he doesn't just leave.

But the conflict within his character comes in because he never wanted to be in this position in the first place and he resents it as a result, and the high-ranking officials around him -- with the exception of Graham and Benford -- don't engage with him in good faith. But he really just wants to cling to the belief that if he keeps doing a good job, they eventually will -- because he also knows that he'll have to take far more drastic measures within the government if he accepts that they won't.

And he knows that he can take those more drastic measures. It's within his power to do so. Because, at one point, he could have conceivably started a civil war.

But, being a Good Guy, he doesn't want that. So the conflict in his character persists.

[tip-top-cloud-surfer]

I'll Carry You - Hangman

Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin / Fem!Reader (Wife!Reader)

Word Count: 0.9k

Warnings: Third Person POV Focused on Hangman; Fem!Reader - only description is that the reader is a woman; No use of Y/N

This work, all of my other works, and my entire blog are 18+ Only.

Summary: Hangman and his wife attend a naval ball. When her shoes give her blisters, Hangman ensures that she gets back to the car comfortably.

A.N. Disclaimer - I've never been to a naval ball, but it just works as the setting of the story. Sorry for any inaccuracies.

Master List

Naval balls were always long nights full of humorous fun and a lot of naval politics, which Jake both enjoyed and detested. If he wasn’t so intent upon climbing up the ladder as quickly as possible, he wouldn’t have cared for any of it.

But luckily, Jake had his wonderful wife by his side the whole night to help him keep his sanity.

Jake had no trouble selling himself—he never had that problem, as anyone who knew him would have pointed out—but his wife knew how to rein him in. She pinched him when he was supposed to simply shut up. She always managed to soften his edges and smooth out his more abrasive tendencies, which many people pointed out.

It was their first naval ball as a married couple and well, if Jake wasn’t allowed to brag about his career, he was going to brag about his wife.

Her dress drew compliments from the admiral’s wives and eyes from some of the younger men in uniform. But Jake stuck to his wife’s side like glue and he was never shy about wrapping his arm firmly around her as a metaphorical middle finger to the horny boys who seemed to think that they could just stare at her and Jake wouldn’t notice.

And as for the starers from his squadron, some of them would be doing extra pushups tomorrow.

And of course, the newlyweds had fight off several questions about when a little Seresin would be joining them like they were Olympic fencers. And his wife always seemed to be able to sense the question coming because the number of times that she pulled his drink away from his lips right before someone asked some version of it was scarily high.

Jake had to commend his wife for her composure that night. He knew that she wasn’t exactly the most social person, but she put up a calm smile and chatted politely just the same.

And even when the captain that Jake was trying to butter up mispronounced her name three times, she never dropped her wide ‘work’ smile. It wasn’t her usual smile, the smile that she shot him when they danced or he pulled her just a little closer into his side.

But Jake could see his wife’s work smile dimming and the exhaustion setting in her eyes.

Jake gently grabbed his wife’s hand and rubbed his thumb along her own. He also had a sneaking suspicion that her shoes were uncomfortable based on the weird stutter she started to walk with. And so, even though he knew that some of the other aviators gunning for the same promotion that he was were going out to the bar to sweet talk the brass, he had other priorities.

“Thank you for talking with me, sir. But I’m afraid we’ll have to excuse ourselves for the night,” Hangman stated politely.

“Of course, of course,” the captain replied with a kind. Jake felt his wife’s hand press on his back just as the captain added, “Off to relieve the babysitter?”

“No, just need to check on the dogs, sir,” Jake lied, forcing his usual work smile.

They didn’t have a dog waiting for them back home but the captain didn’t need to know that. And it was just an easier response that ended the conversation on a faster note.

“Oh, of course. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, Hangman. And it was nice meeting you, Mrs. Seresin.”

“It was nice meeting you as well, Captain,” she responded with a kind nod.

Jake squeezed his wife’s hand and led her over to the Dagger table to say goodbye to everyone. And after several hugs of goodbye, the Seresins finally walked out of the event space. Once they were out of view of the vestibule, Jake led his wife over to one of the benches.

“Sit,” Jake urged her despite her confused expression.

But when he reached down for her ankle, she quickly put the pieces together. Smiling softly, she leaned back and rested her body weight on her hands.

“How did you know?” she asked softly as he undid the strap on one of her shoes.

“You were walking funny. And leaning on me more than usual,” Jake replied, pulling off her shoe and reaching for the other. “You could have just told me.”

“I know. But it’s hardly the first pair of shoes that have given me blisters before.”

“Still,” Jake stated, placing her shoes on the bench beside her, “tell me next time when it hurts.”

“I will,” she promised softly as Jake stood up. She glanced out at the parking lot as she straightened up herself. “Should I really be walking through the parking lot barefoot, though?”

“Who said that you were walking?”

“Jake, you really don’t have to carry me,” she insisted, shaking her head. “I’m fine. I’ll just put my shoes back on in a second.”

“It’s not like it’s the first time that I’ve ever carried you,” Jake pointed out, causing his wife to sigh.

“Just don’t drop me,” she replied, standing up.

With practiced ease, she bunched up her dress a bit and climbed up onto his back. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders as Jake hooked his arms underneath her knees. Once he was sure that she was secure on his back, Jake leaned over to grab her shoes and turned for the parking lot.

His wife rested her head on top of his own and pulled off his hat so that she could press a proper kiss to the top of his head.

“You’re such a showoff, Seresin,” she murmured, running her hand through his soft hair.

“And you love it, Seresin,” he shot right back at her with a grin.

[ash-says]

hiii ! i love your post about being audacious 🩷 do you have any tips about improving people skills/ being more charismatic? thank youuuu 🤭

Hello girlll!!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the audacious post. It's one of my fav tbh I literally came up with it while I was cooking. So coming to your question let me see how I can help you out tbh I share my opinions and what has worked for me so far. So practice discernment and take everything with a pinch of salt✨✨

Tips to improve People Skills/ Being more Charismatic:

1) Find your USP:

USP means Unique Selling Proposition. What makes you unique and I mean it in a personality sense more here. You can extend it to your looks but start from a personality trait cause it will be forever and very personal to you. Even if someone copies it, it will always be a cheap one.

I will elaborate on this with an example:

One of my ex colleagues was really good at socializing. He was 27 years old but I kid you not he looked like a 20 year old or even younger at times. He had a boyish charm and he used it to his full advantage. He literally had a child's energy and would jump here and there in the office, act like a literal child when not working. He had a refreshing energy to him the type that reminds you of your childhood days. Heck after a meeting with the CEO he used to watch cartoons to destress and made us watch it too so we could also relax but when it came to work he was smart, efficient and knew how to use his easy going socializing energy to generate sales. So you get my point right?? Find what attracts people to you or what value you can offer to them.

2) Knowledge. Education.

I personally swear by this. Be as disgustingly educated as possible. Know about various topics at least the basics of current trends or what's hot and some off topics. This adds dimension to your personality and helps you to hold a conversation with anyone. Plus you never run out of topics to speak on.

3) Confidence. No elaboration needed.

4)Sense of humour.

Why bore people to death by reciting the merciless nature of Julius Caesar when you could present it as a joke when something relatable comes up??? People are more likely to find you charismatic if you can make them laugh.

5) Master the art of Storytelling

This!!! Right here is a cheat code I tell you. You don't have much knowledge to speak on for now? Fine as you gradually work on it hold conversations by sharing bits of your life in a colorful way. Engage people with your life stories. Make them fun and a little dramatic. I am not advising you to lie. There's always a way you can convey something in an entertaining manner. Master it. I personally use it a lot and it's fun to connect with people cause they too loosen up and share their stories and then you link it up with your sense of humour by adding a nice comment or comeback.

Warning : Never share details that are very personal to you. Only share funny incidents and situations that won't bring you in trouble if gossiped about. Practice with discernment.

6) Learn positive body language and develop empathy. Empathy truly helps you in connecting with people on a deeper level and creating a bond based on trust and emotions.

7) Smile. Don't grin like a fool but when you see someone you know make a note to address them. Wish them good morning ,etc . Pass a genuine smile towards them. Be polite.

8) Be genuinely interested in other people but not in a nosy way instead in a healthy way. Help them out if you can. A good deed never goes to waste.

9) Have a positive outlook on everything. No one wants a pessimistic person around them. Even on days you can't. You know the mantra ," Fake it till you make it".

10) Support people. Be kind. Soft spoken. Know your place. Don't downplay yourself in front of people who are clearly not at your level and don't overestimate yourself in front of people who are professionals in those fields. Get a grip on how to act with whom. You won't know it until and unless you won't do it. Have a strong sense of self, be opinionated, confident and be witty. It's fun that way. Push your limits and don't be afraid to network with new people and talk to strangers. Who knows what will happen??

Possibilities are endless.

I hope this helps you out✨✨

[varpusvaras]

I've had a headcanon for a while that Breha and Fox are really into the romance genre - like, in a way that if the book/show/movie is good, they enjoy it as a good piece of media, and otherwise, they read or watch things together and have fun with it. Bail is...not so much into this, as much as he can also enjoy a good piece of media, but the second part of the experience is kind of lost to him.

He will listen to Breha and Fox talk about them and tries to guess what is going on in any given book/show based only on what they tell him.

(If he is actually a bit invested. Shh. No he isn't. No, he's not watching this- alright, fine, you menaces)

So, there's this relatively new show. It started a bit before the war, and gained a lot of popularity then, and when the show was put on hiatus because of the war, the fans were impatiently awaiting for more. The show is about mostly fictional planets and their high-society, royals and nobility.

Breha and Fox watch the part of the show that came out before the war, and make Bail watch with them as well (Bail watches, because they are asking and he wants to spend time with them, and, hey. He likes looking at them when they are happy and joking around). Then, some time after, the show announces that it will be coming back with new episodes!

The episodes start releasing. Breha and Fox watch them, and make Bail watch them as well (no, he isn't invested at all-). One week, there's a new character introduced. A Princess, who is going to become a Queen soon. She is from a very old and rich planet, that does arts and peace and nature. Breha says that it reminds her of Alderaan a bit, perhaps they have taken some inspiration.

One episode, the Princess meets a nobleman, who is very politically idealistic and believes in equity, and is striving for making the galaxy a more peaceful and unified place. The actor is very tall.

Fox jokes that they kinda remind him of Breha and Bail. Breha laughs. Bail squints his eyes at the screen.

The Princess becomes a Queen, while becoming increasingly close with the nobleman. Then, one week, they introduce another new character. A former soldier, who has now returned from the war, and the Queen and the nobleman meet him when they are in an event, discussing how to make more peaceful solutions.

Bail frowns at the screen. The actor is not a clone, but looks very much like one, with his tanned skin and dark, curly hair.

Fox looks at the character as well.

"Oh", he says.

"Oh", Breha says as well. "I do think...that they have taken inspiration from close by."

You don't say, Bail thinks.

He's not super stoked about this development, but at least the two other actors do not resemble him and Breha too much. He can...sort of understand the choice of casting someone who looks kind of like the clones into the role of the soldier. It's commentary. Easy to understand. It's....fine. They are just drawing inspiration from their overall dynamic, nothing more. There's nothing else that seems too recent.

Then Bail goes for work to Coruscant, and gives statements regarding his views on the clone rights, the war, and his relationship with the clones and how, even though he cannot claim himself to be a part of their culture, he and Breha and Alderaan as a whole have tied themselves into it and consider it to be a part of their culture as well.

It's a good statement. Bail is proud of it and the reaction it causes. The way Fox and Breha look at him after is the best reward he could possibly ask for.

Then, a few weeks later, a new episode comes out. The nobleman gives a speech about the war and cultures and how he relates to them. It's very much the statement Bail gave, but just reworded to fit the world of the show.

Oh, Bail thinks. Oh, it is on.

Bail decides to have his own fun. He starts to make very showy gestures to Breha and Fox in public. They know immediately what he is doing, and go along with it.

Some of the things he did end up in the show. Bail can deduce from what those things are when whoever it is who is gathering material is present.

Bail knows the press. He knows how they dress, he knows how they operate. Once he knows where to look, it is very easy to spot them.

It's a rare occasion that both Breha and Fox are accompanying him to Coruscant. Bail is playing it up, until he notices the person who is very much not press but who is very much recording and making notes, when Bail is not even saying anything to any of the people surrounding them.

Bail turns to look straight towards the camera.

He person holding it stiffens, but doesn't turn away instantly. Not so easily intimidated, then. Bail can respect that at least.

Bail continues to stare at the camera, not saying anything. Just staring. Fox and Breha have caught on to what he is doing by then, and they are trying their best not to burst out laughing.

Bail continues to stare at the camera. He has stared down bounty hunters, separatists, assassins, the sith. He can do this all day.

Finally, the camera turns away. Bail smiles, and clims into their speeder with Breha and Fox.

As soon as the doors are closed and the speeder starts moving, Breha and Fox lose it. They cannot stop laughing the whole way, and are barely able to contain it once they arrive to the Senate.

Unsurprisingly, at least for some, the plotline of the three characters in the show starts to steer to entirely new directions in the very next episode.

[hestzhyen]

Chapter 54 Dire Posting

Greetings, dear void. So much for the gang getting back together. This arc is going to be a long one, at least compared to the previous two. The pace is still break-neck but there are a lot more conflicts being set up here. I wonder if it would be helpful to visually break it down compared to the Sojo and Rakuzaichi arcs...

Hishaku Machinations and Shiba

What a whimsical guy our main villain is! Just look at him sitting on the kiddie ride at the playground while he discusses the current situation with Worst Jeanist for our benefit.

Also the Shiba glazing, hello? It's always been obvious that Shiba's a cut above most sorcerers, especially after he mostly off-screened 3 out of the 4 Tou members. But to have the Big Bad himself acknowledge that he's basically the best of the best is high praise. Good to know he'll still factor in this arc somehow! I mean, of course he will, he's got direct ties to Kunishige's past, Chihiro, and the Kamunabi. The guy's certainly snooping around and doing more offscreen sorcery as we speak. We'll just have to eagerly await his return to the main story.

I just hope this finally, finally puts the crackpot theories of Shiba being a possible traitor candidate to rest. His mere presence is a huge obstacle for the Hishaku and they clearly went to great lengths to work around him in order to murder Kunishige. They're probably pleased as punch that he's out of the way in present circumstances too. Shiba, beware! Your nephews are in danger and Samura can't take all of your death flags for you!

Why are you still there, bro? Just to show us the dead bodies again?

So, Worst Jeanist is one of the main Hishaku. Interesting... wouldn't have guessed since he dresses worse than the random fodder. My man just rolled out of bed, dove into a box of cast-off high school theater costume pieces and went about his day. Anyway, that means we now have: John/Yura - leader Hat Hishaku - tree guy, Kunishige murderer Samurai Hishaku - dining room guard, Kunishige murderer Jane Hishaku - mom conspiracy theory magnet, Kunishige murderer Worst Jeanist Hiruhiko ... and 4 more yet-to-be-revealed members.

Thanks to Hiruhiko we also know there are 68 "fodder" guys participating in the assault of all four Sanso, of which 34 have datenseki shards (don't think about how many times Char was hurt to make those). And all of them are now attacking Senkutsuji- so the other two Sanso (Kuentaisha and Sushi Subaru) can be assumed to be safe for now.

I wasn't expecting them to be a huge org or anything but this seems really small, doesn't it? Only 10 core members! So there will definitely be political maneuvering on their part to weaken the Kamunabi from within. It's so pleasantly unsatisfying to be strung along bit by bit like this until the grand reveal of the plan...

Based on how John talks at the start of the chapter, it doesn't look like they've accounted for Hakuri- Chihiro's the only one that they count as an addition to the fighting forces on the Kamunabi's side. Granted, Hakuri's probably not a formidable warrior even when he can use Isou; it's only been about 24 hours since he figured out how to harness his sorcery at all. He still needs to train it and get used to fighting in general. But surely the Hishaku would be gunning for him if they knew about his powers. He's the ace in the hole that can completely undo what they're planning!

And now that I think about it, wouldn't the Kamunabi want to have control of Hakuri too? He can summon the Bearers or their blades at will, assuming that the contract overwriting their sorcery makes them unable to resist. They won't let someone who can teleport the blades away from them walk free... poor Hakuri, he's going to be pressed from both sides. But so will Chihiro. At least they'll have each other...?

"Friendship"

Hiruhiko's getting some "hands-on" training thanks to confronting Chihiro (not sorry).

Hiruhiko comes across as really sheltered this chapter. I wonder if all those HCs and if scenarios about Yura being the one to raise him are actually correct...? Yura kind of talks about him like a parent or an owner. Like he raised Hiruhiko in a certain way for a specific purpose. Hm.

So they're trying to temper his immaturity a bit... Hiruhiko is the one who's getting the reality check via his opponent to fuel his growth. Chihiro's already far ahead in his mindset, so he's the one driving his foe's development. He's going to be the reason that Hiruhiko becomes a formidable threat. I love the way the author plays with and blends shounen and action movie tropes so, so much.

Hiruhiko's probably going to be Chihiro's own personal Joker this arc, maybe even into the next depending on how things play out. They're both going to be one-upping each other and learning new things as they adapt. Chihiro himself used a new application of Kuro just to counter Hiruhiko's techniques. Their fights will surely be spectacles every time once they're on even footing!

Speaking of, I am 100% sure that Hiruhiko is going to be a blade wielder before long. John remarked that his sorcery wasn't anything worth writing home about- it was his battle sense and ability to adapt that made him one of the core Hishaku members. So he'll only become stronger by making a contract with an enchanted blade... and truly Chihiro's equal as an enemy.

Equal

I've got a TON of stuff I'm going feral over comparing and contrasting Chihiro, Hiruhiko, and Hakuri, but I'll wait before going on a tangent about it. There's a few crucial bits of information needed before going full-on crazy about how these three hold up compared to each other (not that it will stop me from filling up my sketch book with diagrams and lunatic ravings). But this transition got me so good:

There's that word again- 対等 [taitou], "equal".

There's going to be conflict about what it means to be "equal" between these three. Chihiro and Hiruhiko are already going at it, though it's pretty lopsided from Hiruhiko's end right now. But this could spill back over into Chihiro and Hakuri's relationship too.

Ch. 37: "Equal" from volume 4, titled "Equal"

I will be forever salty that 仲間 [nakama] got translated as "allies". "Partners" or "comrades" would have been better reeeeeeeee

This is where Hiruhiko could throw a spanner in the works. He failed at exploiting Chihiro's cognitive dissonance over killing, but what it means to be "equal" to someone, and a friend... that's brand-new territory for our lonely protagonist. Hiruhiko's probably the first person to approach Chihiro with an offer of friendship, twisted and fucked up as his idea of it is. Hakuri's... passionate proposal of cooperation doesn't really count.

Hakuri's acknowledged Chihiro as a friend, but would Chihiro say the same? Does he think he's worthy of that label- or is he too much of a monster? Does he still feel that sense of imbalance towards Hakuri? I won't speculate here more than this. But by god I hope Hakuri and Hiruhiko face off over what it means to be "equal" to Chihiro.

What about Chihiro himself, though? How's he doing this chapter?

Oh...

He's so genuinely sad about where his choices in life have led him, but he'll never stop until his goal is accomplished. I think he pities Hiruhiko here a little too.

Chihiro thinks he's incomparably worse than Samura, his father, all the "heroes" he grew up admiring and hearing stories about. He thinks he's a monster, but the Hishaku something worse. So he meets them where they are to take them down and stop the spread of evil to innocents.

Chihiro literally gives up his body and lets his blood be spilled to save people. That's not just heroic, it's downright Christ-like. But they run in terror from him all the same. He's a villain by his own choosing and wants people to see him that way. Chihiro doesn't think he's worthy of the accolades given to the adults who tried to steer him away. They were heroes, he's just a murderer. For fuck's sake this guy needs a hell of a lot of therapy.

I'm trying so hard not to go on a major tangent here so maybe I'll do the meta Chihiro analysis another time. I've already got a massive private essay on why I love the writing around Hakuri in the works so may as well do one for him too... anyway, anyway. Just look at how far he's come as a character:

Chs. 1 vs 54

[sobs]

Chihiro is going to suffer for a while yet, probably until the very end. But hopefully this arc will help him realize he's still worthy of love and support. Of basic human decency. Of thinking of himself as a person. (...Hm, who else is struggling with that right now, I wonder...)

Meanwhile, Back at Senkutsuji...

Hello again, Mr. Hat Hishaku. Mr. Hatshaku? We haven't gotten an obvious shot of you since you appeared as a background spook at the end of the Sojo fight in chapter 18.

He was at the dinner table in chapter 40 as well, but we didn't see his hat so it doesn't count.

I wonder if he's the trump card that John was talking about? He certainly seems to be with how thoroughly he overtook the temple already. It's only been about ten minutes too. Things are looking grim for Samura...

Samura, please live. Please. I need you to reunite with Chihiro! And not on your deathbed!

Fuck.

Whatever the Senkustsuji defense forces are planning better be enough... looks like Hiruhiko might be the next one to wield Tobimune though. Actually, where is he moving it and Kumeyuri, anyway...?

Neat trick to be performing while down two arms and pinned to the seat by Chihiro's foot.

There's no way they're giving Uruha and Samura the blades just for giggles. Given the shot of the hole in the ceiling before this panel, Hiruhiko's probably transporting them to himself, but we'll see. Let the theories run wild!

There are many more things I want to say but they're too speculative. I love being wrong every week but some of these things should just stay between me and the brainworms, so... farewell, kind void. Until next time.

[tanadrin]

The Gish Gallop was a term coined I think on the 2000s internet for a rhetorical maneuver where to buttress an argument you provide a ton of low-quality evidence; that the evidence is bad means it should be easy to refute, but the very large volume means it will take much longer to explain why it's all wrong than it did to copy-paste a bunch of links, and to a certain kind of very naive onlooker, it looks like the galloper is winning--after all, the one interlocutor has presented a ton of evidence! The second interlocutor has to spend so much time bending over backwards to refute it! Surely the first guy is more knowledgeable and authoritative. You aren't going to look at all that evidence yourself, of course--who has the time?

But listening to Dan McClellan talk about the Gospel of John this morning, it occurs to me that I don't think this is disingenuous. Not entirely. I think this is just the style of argumentation a lot of Christians (of a particular religious flavor) are used to. And I'm not just talking about in non- or para-religious matters like evolution. This is how Christianity understands the Bible.

This week's Data over Dogma is about the theology of John, and why it is non-trinitarian (because the Trinity is a much later doctrine developed as a kind of political compromise, maintained only because it had state backing) and does not actually identify Jesus with God (the theological developments are more complicated here; but suffice it to say it was not at all a given that "authorized bearer of the divine name" and "actually God" were the same being in 1st century Hellenistic Judaism, and indeed the distinction between the two had developed in Jewish thought precisely to avoid the awkwardness of anthropomorphic figures proclaiming themselves God in some of the older sections of the Hebrew Bible).

The funny thing is, there are a ton of passages in John that get trotted out as proof texts that Jesus is God. There are very good reasons in the case of each one to doubt that that is actually the correct reading; but of course, if you don't know anything about Greek, all you have are modern translations produced under the assumption of the dogma of the Trinity--mostly for devotional readers of the Bible who would be outraged if the Trinity wasn't in the New Testament--and you have been raised in a cultural and/or educational milieu where it is simply a default assumption about the way the world works that the Trinity is a timeless concept that has been in the Bible from the beginning, it sure looks like one side is spinning up tendentious arguments based on silly semantics that have nothing to do with the religion you learned as a kid.

But this exegetical approach (really, eisegetical) is common to many topics in traditional Christian theology. There are a ton of passages from the Septuagint that the Gospels warp to be about Jesus, even though, in their original context, this doesn't make any sense; sometimes even they're based on obvious mistranslations, like having Jesus ride into Jerusalem on the back of two animals simultaneously because you don't understand appositives. And you can poke holes in any individual bit of this exegesis, but psychologically having a ton of low-quality evidence for a thing is a pretty effective bulwark against thinking critically about that evidence; for every individual argument you knock down, the person you are arguing against is probably thinking, "yeah, but what about all that other stuff," even if they can't actually name all that other stuff in the moment.

And it's not mendacious! This is the stuff of true belief; this is how you get breathless Christian commentators saying the Bible couldn't possibly be written by human hands, because it so perfectly predicted Jesus even in the Old Testament--and the evidence they point to is, to anyone not steeped in traditional Christian exegesis, and especially to Jews who have their own exegetical traditions, absolutely barmy. Like really pants-on-head crazy stuff. But of course even now it is still being processed, in many parts of the world, through a two thousand year old tradition trying to reconcile it all and to normalize it all, and--to bring it back to discussions of evolution on the internet in the 2000s--I can't help but think of all those people who talk about the experience of thinking evolution was so obviously nonsense, because all they were exposed to was the fundamentalist strawman of it. When they finally sat down and began to read about it on their own, from unbiased sources--often with the intent of criticizing it--they realized how distorted their understanding was, and how limited their supposed outside view.

(If there are general lessons to be wrung from this situation, I think it's simply "beware of echo chambers." Social consensus in a bubble can make bad arguments feel much stronger than they really are, especially if you are not exposed to the actual opposing view. Be on guard against mistaking "quantity of evidence" for "quality of argument," especially if you're not gonna evaluate that evidence yourself. Also all religious traditions are fundamentally eisegetical, because in order to keep holy writ relevant to the community its meaning has to be constantly renegotiated. So, uh. If you want high-quality exegesis, ask an academic, not a theologian.)

[lalune9x]

SCTIR Translation - Chapter 473: Inside the Drawer

"A-are you some kind of management system for this place? More importantly, why do you look like that?!" "The default appearance is set to what Master likes most."

Chapter translation under the cut.

---

Chapter 473: Inside the Drawer

"Yoo…"

No, there was no way my younger brother would be here. But the figure that appeared beyond the mansion's gate looked exactly like Yoohyun. Even dressed just as he had been at yesterday's banquet.

"Hello, Master."

"W-What are you saying?!"

Looking like that! The voice was completely identical, too! The thing that looked like my little brother smiled faintly.

"I am Number 71."

"A-are you some kind of management system for this place? More importantly, why do you look like that?!"

"The default appearance is set to what Master likes most."

Of course, I liked my little brother—but, wait a minute.

'It's the current Yoohyun, huh?'

What I liked the most. Not how he was as a child or when he had been older. It made sense. My current little brother had changed a lot. Now he smiled more, sometimes acted a bit spoiled, and no longer seemed as anxious. Above all, he’d said he had grown to like himself.

Han Yoohyun was different from ordinary people. Even though I accepted and acknowledged that, I still couldn't help worrying whether it was truly okay. After all, the place where my brother lived and would have to continue living was human society.

But forcing him to live while suppressing his true self, pretending not to know and covering it up, would have been clearly wrong. Wouldn't it? As long as he wasn't hurting anyone, why should he have to conform? Above all, if you lived together, both sides should make compromises, not just one.

So, I definitely preferred the current Yoohyun. He'd likely only get better with time. Occasionally, he might take a few steps backwards or stray off course, but as long as he returned, that was fine. And that outfit suited him well, too.

Anyway…

"Change your appearance to something else. Like…."

Yerim was obviously out of the question, and Myungwoo or Noah-ssi would be weird too. Hyuna-ssi being that polite to me would also feel really awkward. Director Song was always respectful, but calling me 'Master' would be a bit much... Maybe that guy Hamin would work without it feeling burdensome.

"Can you turn into Sung Hyunje?"

After hearing him call me 'master' just yesterday, I wanted to try bossing around the Sesung Guildmaster for a bit.

Number 71 looked troubled at my suggestion. "With your current abilities, Master, changing settings is not possible."

"…What? You call me Master, but I can't even do that much?"

It was hard to speak harshly to something that looked like my little brother.

"It is because your understanding and control of this space are extremely low, Master."

"How low are we talking?"

"Less than 0.01%."

…And you call me Master. Even living in a monthly rental would give me more control than that. It was basically like living in someone else's house.

I cautiously stepped through the gate, glancing around. The fairly spacious garden was full of unfamiliar flowering trees. However, while there were plants, there were no signs of animals like birds, bees, or butterflies. Number 71 in front of me didn't seem to be a living being either.

"Then can you at least change how you address me? Just call me by my name."

Even 'Hyung' would be a bit much.

"Master's understanding of this space—"

"Yes, I get it. It's not possible."

Should I cover his face or something? Maybe put a mask on him?

"What exactly are you?" I asked.

"I am the management doll for the 71st Drawer."

"And you're not alive?"

"I am based on an artificial elemental, but it is difficult to consider me a living being."

An artificial elemental? Now what was that?

"Could there be anything dangerous in here? From an F-ranker’s perspective?"

"It is safe, as long as you don't touch anything first."

That Jellyfish did a good job managing this drawer. I felt a little guilty for doubting its safety. Yeah, looking back, Jellyfish wasn't so bad. Compared to that lizard brat, it was quite decent. The real problem was Chatterbox.

I wondered if about 10 minutes had passed by now. It should be fine if I was a little late. I didn't want to stay too long, so maybe about 30 minutes of looking around would be enough.

"Let me know when 30 minutes have passed since I came in. Can you do that?"

"Yes, that's possible."

"Ah, and time in here flows the same as it does outside, right?"

"Yes. To change the flow of time, Master's spatial control must exceed 80%."

So that would be possible too, if I got good enough at this. I remembered how the Newbie could manipulate time flow within the dungeon.

Walking across the yard with wet socks was unpleasant. Ugh, the squishy feeling was the worst. Number 71 quietly followed me, then went up the stairs ahead of me to open the mansion's front door. Without thinking, I almost said, "Thanks, Yoohyun," because it was so much like my brother. The mannerisms and speech were different, though.

Inside, opening the door on the right side of the long hallway revealed a spacious living room. The garden outside was clearly visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The floor gleamed like polished marble, and various orbs of light floated around the high ceiling in place of regular lighting.

"There don't seem to be any items here," I said.

"This is a place for rest. The sofas and chairs have stamina recovery functions, and the lights provide a calming effect. The food on the table will stay fresh and maintain its temperature for three days."

That was pretty nice. I almost sat down on the sofa but stopped since I was too wet. Even though the stamina recovery function sounded useful, it would be a waste to take it out of here.

"Is it true that I can only remove three items from this place?"

"Yes, that is how it is currently set up."

"And if I improve that spatial control thing?"

"If you become the complete master of the 71st Drawer, all restrictions will be lifted."

All restrictions gone! Did that mean I'd be able to take anything out? My heart raced at the thought, but…

"How do I become the complete master?"

"You must fully understand the space and be able to freely modify, dismantle, and create within it."

In other words, I'd need to reach the level of a Transcendent. How was I supposed to do that? Myungwoo said he could see the structure of mana within the Newbie's dungeon, but to me, it just looked like trees, the sky, and the ground. Maybe I should ask Myungwoo for help.

I left the living room and entered another room. The second room was a study filled with books. After confirming it was safe with Number 71, I pulled out a book and opened it.

"Hmm… must be good content,” I said. What language was this, anyway?

"This study has features that enhance focus. When reading at that desk, the contents will be easier to remember."

I should bring Yerim here! If I took this entire study out, students would line up for a chance to use it.

"There's a three-item limit on what I can take out, but is there any restriction on using the items here?"

"No. However, any items absorbed or consumed by the body count toward the three-item limit."

"…I drank some water earlier."

"The lake water is not considered an item."

So I could bring the kids here, then. But the Newbie said that without replenishing its mana, I could only use the drawer about 30 times. And that was per person. If I brought Yoohyun and Yerim, we'd only get about 10 uses.

What a waste. A real shame. I thought I'd just take the items and use this place as an emergency hideout thirty times, but this place was better than I expected!

"How can I replenish the mana of this space?"

"It can be replenished by the master. However, the connection is currently severed."

"…And to reconnect it, I need to increase that spatial control thing?"

"Yes. Basic mana replenishment requires at least 5% control. Each recharge also consumes the equivalent of ten SSS-rank mana stones."

That was a huge amount. Thankfully, I had the Mana Spring. Otherwise, I'd be sucked dry like a mummy without even filling up 1/100th of it.

This time, I walked down the hallway to the door at the very end. As it opened, a refreshing vista of bright blue water unfolded before me. The entire front wall, about three stories high, was completely transparent without any frame or seams. Beyond it, there was also a terrace built over the lake.

"It really feels like a resort."

"The 71st Drawer is designed as a place for rest. It was also recently remodeled according to the standards of Master's world," Number 71 answered.

I had suspected as much, but it really was a resting area. Had it been remodeled before being handed over to me? How considerate. No wonder the structure felt familiar. Considering the lower half of the King of the Mist Sea’s body, normal chairs wouldn't suit her. A concave design resembling a wine glass would have been more comfortable. And I guessed the interior would have been more tentacle-friendly, though I didn’t know what that would look like.

"That is why the rank of the stored items and the drawer itself are also relatively low," Number 71 added.

They did say it would be about SSS-rank. To me, it felt more like L-rank quality. It was easily worth trading for one of my L-rank skills… except I didn't have any worth trading. At first, I had grumbled about how my resistance skills were like pearls cast before swine, but they had proven incredibly useful. Not just curse and poison resistance, but fear resistance had been useful in many ways too. Not to mention my Caregiver skills. Well, except for Final Thanks…

‘That one, maybe I don't need.'

Honestly, I wanted to act like it didn't exist at all. To get revenge, though… that was a different story. I'd already used it once and gained a lot from it, but… I hoped there would never be another reason for me to use that skill again.

"…If the items here are meant for vacation, they probably won't be very useful."

They probably wouldn't be weapons or armor, but rather things with weird stats and passives. With forms like picnic baskets, beach robes, sunglasses, or floaties.

"Does the space get bigger if its rank increases?"

"Yes. The space expands, and the rank of the items that can be stored also increases. It also becomes harder to detect, track, or destroy."

"Wait, it can be found and destroyed?"

"If an SSS-rank entity has the ability to detect it, yes."

So it probably wouldn't be usable as a hideout against Transcendents. Too bad. Still, there weren't any SS-rank beings in our world. The only exceptions were the occasional SS-rank monsters. I wondered how the level of Myungwoo's smithy compared. Since the Newbie said this place was relatively unsophisticated compared to the smithy, the smithy was probably at least L-rank, maybe even Mythic.

If you compared them, the Golden Smithy was a specialized facility, while this place was more like a vacation home or storage space.

"What else is on the first floor?"

"There is a dining room, a café, and a bathroom."

"And the second floor?"

"A living room, three bedrooms, and three bathrooms."

"What about the third floor?"

"A swimming pool, a lounge, and entertainment facilities. There is also an attic and a basement."

The first to third floors sounded pretty standard. The attic probably wasn't special, so the real treasure would probably be in the basement.

"Take me to the basement."

I would have to figure out how to raise my spatial control to at least 5%, even if I had to learn from Myungwoo. This place was too good to only use a few times and be done with it. It was like a portable vacation home! Wouldn't it be great if I could make it so other people could use it too? It'd be perfect for the kids to rest in when they go on dungeon raids. Transcendents just whipped these things up like it was nothing; lucky them.

Ah, except for the Elder. The Mermaid Queen also didn't strike me as the researcher type like the Newbie or the Jellyfish. Same for the Deer and the Wolf. The Tree seemed a bit more inclined towards this kind of thing, though.

'The Newbie seems to be taking my side a lot lately. I wonder about the other Irreverents.'

The more people we had on our side, the better. Maybe next time I saw the Newbie, I should ask about the Mermaid Queen. She was the one we'd dealt with the most so far. She had even given Yerim a skill, and the Newbie referred to Yerim as 'little droplet', too.

We couldn't reach the basement via the stairs. More precisely, there were decorative stairs in the building, but they didn't seem to lead anywhere. Instead, there was a portal.

"As your spatial control increases, you will be able to move freely to any location," Number 71 said.

There it was again, that spatial control thing. We descended to the basement through the portal. Contrary to the typical underground lab vibe, the basement was brightly lit and welcoming. Inside the rows of display cases were cubical objects on display.

"Those are all items, right? Are they?"

Though they all looked identical on the outside, each cube had to contain a different item. I tried to suppress my rising excitement as I asked.

Number 71 nodded. He looked even cuter because he resembled Yoohyun! Ugh, why could I only take three items? But still, it was great.

"Is there a catalog or something? It could be dangerous to just open them blindly."

"They are safe in cube form."

"Really?"

I quickly opened the nearest display case. There was something like a name tag attached to the shelf where the cube was placed, but I couldn't read it. As soon as I picked up a cube, information about the item inside flowed into my mind.

'A-rank, Seven-Colored Turtle Shell.'

A crafting material item. Were there a lot of materials here? Maybe I could bring Myungwoo to practice with them. As long as we didn't take out the finished products, it should be fine. I picked up the cube next to it. S-rank Phillol Tree Fruit. Was this display case all crafting materials? I opened a display case on the other side and checked the cube inside.

"SS-rank shoes!"

Equipment! It didn't give detailed info on the effects, though. Maybe I'd need to take it out and wear it to find out. I put it down for now and grabbed the next one.

"This one's SS-rank too! But… a spoon?"

What was this? It couldn't be a weapon, right? Maybe food tasted better when you ate it with this? There was a mix of gear and various strange items. It really seemed like an unimportant storage space filled with random stuff. I even found a bag. The one I'd bought in Sollemnis had been pretty useful.

I moved on to check another display case.

"It's a skill!"

The shelf was filled with skill cubes ranging from A-rank to SS-rank. Ah, what a waste! Skills! And this shelf—stats? They increased your base stats? Was this even allowed? Probably because they were permanent, even a single-digit increase was S-rank, but still!

"Why only three?! Jellyfish! King of the Mist Sea! This is too unfair!"

It was like staring at a cake I couldn't eat! I stomped my feet in frustration. At the same time, a sudden sense of urgency hit me. If not just the King of the Mist Sea, but other Transcendents could create spaces like this...

'…If Chatterbox used items like this to help Awakened grow stronger.'

It could make them catch up to our level in no time. Of course, there had to be some limits, but it seemed dangerous to get complacent.

But seriously, how was I supposed to choose from all this? There was so much here.

"Do you have any recommendations? Or maybe I should bring the kids along... By the way, has it not been 30 minutes yet?"

I had been rummaging around absentmindedly for what felt like ages, but Number 71 had remained silent. When I glanced back at him, he shook his head.

"There are still 27 minutes and 45 seconds remaining."

"…What? Hold on a second!"

There was no way only 2 minutes and 15 seconds had passed! Just falling into the water and crawling out must have taken nearly 10 minutes!

"Didn't you say the time flow here is the same as outside? Has it really been only 2 minutes?"

"It has been exactly 2 minutes and 16 seconds."

"…Didn't at least 10 seconds pass while we were talking? Has it really only been 2 minutes and 16 seconds? I mean in the world I came from!"

Number 71 was silent for a moment before answering.

"2 minutes and 16 seconds is in the King of the Mist Sea's time units. In your world's time units, 1 hour, 27 minutes, and 19 seconds have passed."

So it had been quite a while after all! The time units of the King of the Mist Sea's home world were different from ours. Still, it had only been about an hour and a half, so it should be fine. Reluctantly, I put the cube down and hurried outside.

[mrs-kodzuken]

Sick with you ♡

Pairing: Aged up!Haijme Iwaizumi x fem!reader

WC: 2.1k

Genre: fluff

CW: fem!reader, sickness, becoming friends, slight attraction to iwaizumi, slight cussing, infertile!reader, teacher!reader, mentions of reader passing out, iwa taking care of reader, very slight implied infertile!iwaizumi, not proofread, very slight angst due to infertile talk

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I sniffled, the disgusting snot coming out of my nose hiding back into it. I was sick. Working with kids was the greatest thing I could have ever done but the unfortunate side of it is getting sick a lot. However, I wouldn’t give it up for anything.

I was so sick and I had all the symptoms like the sneezing, body aches, headache, and sore throat. I went to the doctor to see if it was something more serious because I literally feel like death and all she said was that it’s just a ‘common cold’.

A common cold my ass. I feel like I could die.

Staying in the comfort of my own home instead of getting any of the other teachers sick was hard. I wanted—needed—to know how my students were doing.

After having found out I was infertile when I was twenty years old crushed me. Hence why I became a teacher to surround myself around the hopeful children. They look up to me and I love them as if I’m their mom—school mom.

Maybe it’s a sadistic way to cope with my feelings but I don’t care. I went through hell after finding out that heartbreaking news.

The pounding in my skull brought me back to my sickened state. I groaned before grabbing the left side of my head in pain. I was out of headache medicine and my stomach was already growling for something to eat.

As much as I wanted to let my mom and dad take care of me, like they usually would do. I moved away. Finding out about my infertility was a blow to my heart and in the moment I was so broken that I couldn’t stay in the same place where I found it out.

Blinking away the thoughts of my pain, I focused on my bodily pain as I got up to throw on something. I decided on an oversized hoodie I thrifted and kept the nighttime shorts I had on, it was already dinner time anyways. As I turned around for my keys I could feel my body swaying until I grabbed onto the wall.

Damn. I need to hurry and lay back down.

Hurrying to the front door, I grabbed my wallet and slipped on my slides as a cough slid out of my throat.

The nearest convenience store was my best bet since it was only a short walk that I could manage. I wasn’t trying to collapse in the middle of the street.

The little ding I heard alerted me that I was inside the store and I tried to snap out of my small trance of disorientation. I immediately headed for the medical aisle, I need medicine as soon as possible.

After grabbing it, I almost neared the cashier until my stomach rumbled. I damn neared cried because of the pain and hunger I was feeling.

Trudging towards the soup aisle, I quickly saw the last can of chicken noodle soup and immediately went to grab it.

Unfortunately, I guess I wasn’t the only person who wanted some chicken noodle soup right then. I looked over, no matter how much it hurt my eyes to do so, and saw a tall guy. The tip of his nose was highlighted with the color red and there were visible dark eye bags underneath his dark colored eyes.

Our hands brushed as we both tried to grab the same can which happens to be the very last can. “Uhh..” Trailed out of my mouth without warning.

“Sorry,” He politely said towards me, retracting his hand from mine and the chicken noodle soup. He sure was a gentleman if he was just as sick as me and giving me the last can of chicken noodle soup.

“No, sorry, you can have it.” I said, I made a conclusion based on what he looked like. He was built, like built, his muscles showing through a black tee that he was wearing both triceps and abs. Someone who was this muscular had to be someone who was important enough to have those muscles. He gave me a strange look.

“You look worse than I do, I insist.” I’m pretty sure he meant it as I should take better care of myself but I couldn’t help but to take high offense to that.

I scoffed, “Yeah, thank you. Way to make a stranger feel shitty about her appearance.” I gripped the metal can off the shelf and made my way to the cashier, leaving the handsome but sick man behind me.

After I was done checking out, all of my energy was completely gone. It took everything out of me to even get to the store and just the short walk back was enough to make want to cry.

I opened the door to leave, the ding from it making me wince as it was disoriented in my head.

Suddenly, the area around me started to blur and the step I took made my body collapse. I couldn’t even care less about the pain that was headed my way when I hit the pavement of the outside of the convenience store.

But it didn’t come.

Warmth surround my torso as I was caught, it did very little to break me from my state. I could barely open my eyes to see the person—man, definitely a man from the way he feels—who caught me.

“Shit, are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?” A concerned voice sounded out, it happened to belong to the same man from earlier. However, the sound of his voice was muddled out weirdly. A sound of confusion came from my mouth as I tried to gain my bearings.

I mumbled my address then tried to grab my bag of needs that I bought to shuffle my way to my house.

That is, until black spots clouded my vision and I definitely fell to the ground as I blacked out.

The smell of delicious food awoke me. A huge shove came to my body when I fully gained consciousness. Everything hurts so bad. My throat was dry, my body hurt to the max, and I didn’t even get my soup from the store.

Wait, the last thing I remember was collapsing in front of the convenience store. How fucking embarrassing.

My blood went cold when I realized someone was in my house. Could it be the man from earlier? If so, why in the world is he cooking food in my kitchen?

I slowly got up, not wanting to pass out again in my own room, and headed for the kitchen.

My living room TV was on some sort of kids show I watched when I was younger. The lamps were on giving it a nice ambiance, not too much to hurt my head even more than it already did.

I turned the kitchen and saw the clothed muscular back of the man from the convenience store.

“What the hell are you doing in my house?” I tried to question him intently, however my efforts failed because it sounded scratchy and like I desperately needed water.

He turned around quickly, revealing a pot on the stove and the remnants of sliced vegetables on my cutting board.

“Hey, you’re awake. You fell in front of the store and I took you home but felt bad since I apparently said you look horrible. So, in return I patched you up and made a stew.” Even though I knew he was sick, he made me soup anyways because he felt bad. I would take it as an extremely kind gesture if the whole situation wasn’t weird.

I was about to speak again but realize what happened last time so I just nodded and headed to the sink for some water.

After having my fill and letting the cool water run down my parched throat I spoke, “You’re sick too. You didn’t have to go out of your way.” I furrowed my brows and pain hit my face.

“Oh my god, ow,” I exclaimed, my hand coming up to my eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t catch you in time, you fell again after the first time.” He looked over what I’m assuming were my bandaged cuts on my face.

“Oh, thank you…” I trailed off, not knowing is name or what to say besides thanking him.

“Haijme Iwaizumi.” He gave me a small smile then returned back to the stew that was brewing on the stove.

Even though the situation is way weird, it was kind of nice. I haven’t had a man over into my home in the longest. I don’t like one night stands and my long term boyfriend I had left me back when I found out I was infertile.

I watched as Iwaizumi poured the stew into one porcelain white bowl, adding a soup spoon into the bowl. He served the meal to me and just stood there.

Weird.

“Are you not going to eat..?” I asked him, maybe it was my loneliness of being alone for a while or something more but I didn’t want him to go.

“Are you sure? I made this for you, I can just take the chicken noodle soup and leave if you’d like.” He put the utensils into my sink and was about out to leave.

“Please stay. I insist.” I slightly begged, hearing the panic in my own voice. Man, being sick sure does mess with my head.

After a while of just spoons clacking against the bowls I decided I had enough.

“Thank you for taking care of me. I’m sure you’re a busy man, you didn’t have to do all of this for a stranger.” I thanked him, I didn’t know what else to do since I had just finished my strew. I felt more myself after I had it too.

“No worries. I have the day off from work. I’m also used to taking care of my friends.” He smiled a bit at me, making my heart thump.

I was a sucker for people like me, people who help others just because. Sometimes from their own unfortunate circumstances or sometimes from the joy of it.

“What do you do? If you don’t mind, I just, I want to know more I guess.” I shamelessly chuckled, uncontrollably moving around in my seat. I hope he didn’t think I was weird.

“I’m an athletic trainer. I coach the Japanese National Team.” My suspicions were correct. He was definitely important.

“Wow, that’s impressive. I’m just a plain old grade school teacher.” I embarrassingly laughed, my occupation wasn’t anything like his.

“If it counts, I think that that’s impressive.”

I looked up at him, his eyes staring back into mine. The moment was so silent but intimate to me. It felt warm.

“Really? I do it because it’s something that makes me happy. It fulfills a part of me that I won’t be able to have someday, you know?” I said, being completely honest for no reason at all. I was just happy that he thought my job was impressive, no one really does besides me.

“The same goes with me. The team are people I have known since college and high school so I always feel like I’m kind of a big brother or dad to them.” He lets out a laugh that embarrassingly makes my entire body warmer than the sickness.

“I like you as a person. You remind me of me.”

He looks up and smiles so deeply at me, kindness coating his eyes. “I like you too. Your home feels like a heavy reflection of you.”

Our heart to heart words between us felt like forever but didn’t really last that long. Much to my surprise, it was almost 11pm and Iwaizumi had to get home.

“Thank you for taking care of me, I’m in your debt.” I said, a smile gracing my lips.

“No problem, I’ll call if I need any favors.” He let out a chuckle which made my cheeks flush.

A thought of realization dawned upon me and I made a hasty decision within two seconds. “Wait, how about you stay over?” I slowly asked, “I might collapse again.” I hoped for a yes and my prayers were answered when he nodded.

“Thank you. I didn’t want to impose on you by asking.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

How boyish of him.

I told him about where everything was in my house and decided to take a quick shower and try to get some sleep to feel better.

“Come get me if you need anything Iwaizumi. I’ll be right down the hall.” I commented before shutting the guest bedroom and entering mine.

All I could think about when I shut my own bedroom door was that I hope he does come get me.

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a/n: I hope you guys enjoyed and let me know if you have any requests!

the header is made by me, please like/reblog if used <3