#and just like that - the media stopped talking about covid

[acitybythelightunited]

Mmmmmk… then do something about it instead of complaining about it on the internet accomplishing nothing but making clickbait companies rich over it trending. I’m getting really tired of this Hamas/Palestine spam from pornbots. Stop getting rich off people’s suffering and donate every fucking penny of that to aid the refugees over there you scumbag fucks. The only thing worse than wars are the soulless money bags that brand #blueandyellow everywhere for a year then leave the Ukraine in the dust when they find a new cash cow to exploit. A place that has been in 7 wars since the Holocaust that will never cease to stop fighting over religious territory and revenue over a super natural being they can’t even prove exists that murders and rapes children with their cultish buildings all over the planet. How about you stop fighting over a God that doesn’t even exist. We’re all just scientific matter no one understands the origin of. But God sure as Hell wouldn’t let priests molest and bury 6,000 children alive along Canada’s border if he even existed so shut the fuck up and just start being decent human beings. Start with that. And fuck billionaires. You greedy motherfuckers suck up all the world’s economic systems and then wonder where all your consumers went when they die of financial constraint YOU created for the whole globe with your greed. We don’t need a pissing contest to a trillion dollars, we need affordable living and vacations with the money you’re ciphoning up by inflating cost of living higher than minimum wage increase so that it changes nothing but poor people’s financial leashes and not your continual profits. Ban increasing cost of living and that will solve like 80% of the world’s problems. The point of raising wages to create comfortable living for ordinary citizens. We don’t care if you can’t afford 15 exotic cars instead of 12 while the working class ends up on the street over one missed paycheck. Fuck off. 🖕🏽

"Murdering 14,000 children is not 'Self-Defense'"

Poster spotted in Boston, Massachusetts

[renthony]

I know I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again:

You have to put energy into your plans for after the election. Every single US election season, tons of people get incredibly excited to participate in the political process, they sign up for a bunch of groups, and then as soon as the election is over, they never go back. Unions, street medic groups, Food Not Bombs, arrest support, covid safety advocacy...I've seen all this and more fall completely apart after presidential elections wrapped up and everything went "back to normal." People think they're done after the votes get tallied.

I am the social media coordinator for my union. Trying to get asses into meetings is brutally fucking difficult, because people only like the idea of political action. The second it gets hard, or boring, or requires more than just ticking a ballot box, people disappear. And it's incredibly demoralizing, to be perfectly honest. So many people on this site talk about smashing fascism and sticking it to the man, but where the hell are you when it's time to have a union meeting? Where are you when it's time to vote on the next action? Where are you when we need help with the tedious clerical shit? Where are you when we need to plan the big actions that you're so excited about participating in? Where are you?

You have to participate in activism and organizing and resistance even when there isn't a presidential election. You have to pick a way to get involved that isn't just electoral season. You have to actually do all the "holding him accountable" you keep saying will happen after you help Biden win.

This short-term "vote blue and then never do anything else" shit has got to stop. Put your money where your mouth is and go to a fucking union meeting.

[yourlocalbreadenthusiast]

Kindly take a break from scrolling to read this, it's important.

Take your time to grieve and come to terms with the election results, but once you've done that, it's time to get to work. We have two months. And a lot to do in that time. We have to prepare, to be ready.

Be careful about what you post or say online. Anything potentially incriminating should be avoided. Threatening language, even if clearly a joke, can be used against you.

Know someone who's trans? Someone who's had an abortion? Someone who's LGBTQIA+? Someone who's an immigrant? Someone who attends protests? Someone who's disabled? Someone who might in any way be at risk due to laws being put into place? No you don't.

Move away from social media platforms and browsers that require you to use your real identity or input a large amount of personal information. Now's a good time to find alternate means of communicating online. Tails, Element, Tor, Mastodon, Firefox, and Lemmy are all decent options.

Find a community. Someone you can talk to, either online or in real life, that you'll have reliable contact with. We need to try and create a network, but one that's as anonymous as possible.

Start scrubbing your trail as much as possible. Get rid of old accounts that can still be traced to you but are no longer used, delete personal data off the internet. There are websites out there that will freely remove your data from the internet, but be careful about which one you use, make sure it's safe and legitimate first.

Change any usernames that you can that contain any personal information. Names, birthdays, anything.

Plan B has a four year shelf life. Stock up, but don't take more than you you'll need. We don't want a COVID repeat where everyone buys an excessive amount of things and leaves none for everybody else.

There are doctors that will sterilize you, if that's the way you want to go.

Stop using online period trackers right now. Delete all data from it if possible first, then delete the app itself. If you must, write it down, but in a subtle manner and on something you keep at home. Don't label it, just put the dates. If you're really worried, discard older records and only keep the most recent few, and label the dates as other random events, like "go to mall" or "chicken salad for dinner this night"

Get your vaccines now.

Save money.

Archive. We have to start collecting records, media, data, books, and articles now. On racism, on fascism, on homophobia, on gender, on self-reliance, on survival, on safe travels routes, on equality, on justice, on anything that may be useful and/or censored soon. We can't let them erase it.

Collect those online resources. Bookmark them, copy files into your storage, Screenshot pages. Create a decentralized library where everyone is working to be part of a whole, storing what they can individually and sharing it between one another. Again, be careful about doing this.

Second-hand bookstores are your best friend. Books are usually very cheap in them, and they often have a decent stock. See what you can find.

When buying ANYTHING I have mentioned above, or anything else that maybe put you in danger, try to use cash to reduce your spending trail.

Check your car information online, many newer models can be remotely tracked.

Turn your phone completely off if you may be at risk due to your location and current activities. Turning off your GPS also helps.

Take note of where you are. Who are your friends? Who's a safe person? Where can you go besides your own home that you know you'll be safe? Establish these connections now.

Who around you is not safe? Who and where do you need to avoid? Do you need to move? If you cannot afford moving but need to, there are fundraisers that can help you. If even that is not an option, at least try to make sure your home is secure. Have someone who can help you. Have a fallback safe place.

And finally, I want anyone with resources to put them in the replies. Flood it with useful links, information, tips, anything. We're in this together. Do not panic. Organize.

[alex51324]

Now, more than ever, we need to be careful about spreading misinformation and rumors

I can guarantee that over the next few months, we'll be hearing about a lot of alarming things going on here in the US. Some of those things will be true, and some won't. (And some will have both true and false or exaggerated elements.)

It's going to be absolutely vital that important information is not drowned out by misinformation, rumors, and ragebait.

That means, when you see something that would be important if true, before sharing, you check whether it's actually true.

In library world, we use the acronym SIFT:

STOP: Don't spread the information, or get caught up in your emotional reaction to it, before you've checked it out. INVESTIGATE: Who is saying it? How do they know? If there are links or sources in the post, do they actually say what the person is saying they do? FIND other coverage: Do an internet search for key details: quotes, people's names, specific locations. If something major is happening, there will normally be a lot of coverage. TRACE claims, quotes, and media back to their original context.

Usually you don't need to do all four things: just STOP and then pick what makes sense from the other three. If you decide to share the information, you can also say what you did--"This is a firsthand account from XYZ protest; it lines up with what the local TV station is saying, but has a lot more details about what the cops did," or whatever.

The more urgent the information seems, the more important it is to make sure it's reliable.

If we're hearing every other day that this or that vulnerable group is in immediate, life-threatening danger--but 49 times out of 50 it turns out to mean Trump rambled somewhere about something which, if actually implemented, could end up having the described consequences at some point down the line--then people aren't going to know the difference the one time in 50 when the danger really is immediate.

Think, here, things like immigration crackdowns, CPS investigations into parents who affirm a trans child's gender, or demands that health care providers report miscarriages to law enforcement. We all know that these are things Trump World talks about a lot and would like to be able to do, in some form. For the sake of the people affected by these topics, we need different ways of talking about, "Here they are, back on their bullshit," versus, "This is a policy proposal for a real thing that could happen," versus, "Holy shit, grab the kids and run."

We cannot go to "Holy shit, grab the kids and run" every time Trump, or someone in his inner circle, decides to bloviate about something that could disastrously affect people lives. The people who are most in danger can't stay at DefCon 5 every day of their lives, and when they do really have to grab the kids and run, we need that alarm to be heard over the constant background hum of dread.

The same goes for action items--whether protests, ways to help, or little things people can do to stay safe/sane. There's going to be plenty going on, and nobody is going to be able to do everything, so do your part by passing along those things that you can vouch are true and important, and skipping the things you aren't sure about.

I'll leave you with an example. Remember how a few years ago, we were all-in about hand hygiene and disinfecting surfaces? And then it turned out that those were not actually very important in terms of preventing the transmission of COVID-19, and what we really need is better air filtration in public spaces--but, at my work at least, we still have canisters of surface-disinfecting wipes sitting around, and tattered old signs up about hand hygiene, and no air filters.

At the time, early in the pandemic, we were sharing the best information we knew about how to stay safe, but people got a little too fixated on that initial advice--remember how people would wipe down their groceries? And those little sticks for pressing elevator buttons?--and then when the advice changed, they didn't want to hear about it.

Distrust, fatigue, superstitious attachment to the old grocery-wiping ways--there were a lot of reasons, but the key thing to take away is that attention, energy, and goodwill are all finite resources. Try to avoid wasting it with grocery-wiping--or worse, shilling for the guy selling little sticks to press elevator buttons with.

[raceweek]

hello. alexalblondo's rude anon coming here to humbly and politely beg for galex primer because i dont understand their history. george said he lived at alex's family's house at one point? how - weren't they already racing? sorry thank you humble thank you 🙏🙏

hello!!! thanks chris for the referral FKFJDKD

i have overwhelmed my alex and george tags so much that i fear i could never capture all of it but my galex key moment anthology is under the cut!!

karting/early single seaters

Alex thinks they met in 2011 but the footage in georges flip phone says he knew alex back in 2009.

Their first actual interaction (so far as they've told the world) was when alex was world champion with the intrepid karting team and bc he was their reference driver he was asked to help pick the drivers who were quick to replace him when he moved up and he picked george (and charles) so they were then part of that same intrepid driver programme for a while. Interestingly, alex was always at least one year above him bc of their ages and george says the fact they didn't really race directly against each other before 2016 was probably why they became such good friends.

They did a deep dive of their camera rolls from this time on twitch a couple years back and talked about the oldest pictures they have of each other in their camera rolls (1:25:36) which was cute.

2017

2017 is the year george basically lived with alex. They were also sharing a trainer whilst alex was competing in gp2 and george was in gp3. George was doing mercedes sim work at their factory so rented a flat in milton keynes near where alex lived but according to alex that rent was wasted money bc george had more meals at alexs' house than he did that year. Also as detailed in those links, the Great Mountain Biking Incident of 2017 occurred at this time so we have the fun mental image of george literally wheeling alex into a&e on a wheelchair bc that is an actual event that happened.

2018

George and alex both in f2 fighting for the title year wooooo!! They never really fought on track but we did get fun tidbits like when alex pipped george to the win at silverstone bc george had a slow pit stop and giggled about it in parc ferme (5:42) & these post session interviews.

also some incredible photoshoots.

2019

Promotion to f1!!! We started the year at winter testing and this nugget that they have both accepted that they are actually tied together by the strings of fate. They're doing fun media stuff like karting and bullying each other over percentage of apexs hit at the skypad (video). 2019 also the start of the umbrella sharing. They were just together a lot… more skypad analysis!!!

2019 also has MY personal favourite galex moment which was hockenheim 2019 and the 45 minute phone call galex had on the way home after george missed out on scoring what would have been his first point in f1 and only point of the season.

There was also the summer break and enjoying a training camp together, exchanging infections etc. Alex also took george to meet lily for the first time, bc that’s a normal thing to do.

There was also the rookie of the year vid, and the rookie season review vid at the end of the year. Much was happening.

2020

The year started with f1 trying to race during a global pandemic. Fun! On the singular media day before everyone realised just how stupid that was they were being annoying. The lockdowns did give us the twitch streams. George was initially so bad at virtual racing he had to secretly consult alex's brother for help behind alexs back. George was also actively seeking alex out like a missile at any given opportunity and at one point felt necessary to declare that he wasn't alexs boyfriend when someone asked if alex was going to be streaming that day. Anyway my lockdown twitchscapades tag has a post with a playlist of all the streams that haven't been lost or deleted if you want to feel joy and have a spare million hours.

Racing resumed in July with the covid team bubbles and within two races and one qualifying session george was defending alexs honour to sky sports and the world in a truly remarkable fashion.

At the end of the year alex was unemployed....even more tragic than this loss was that alexs career difficulties were so extreme he started ghosting george, which devastated him to the extent he needed to publicly drag him for it.

There was also george asking lily to post alexs n*des on instagram and lily responding with if anyone has them it would be you which was perhaps the last time george had access to his own social media password.

Despite george not liking it they celebrated alexs first podium by going golfing! and reverse! George was also gifted an alex albon signed autograph card for christmas and said that he'll put it somewhere special x

2021

The beginning of 2021 was during lockdown and there was more fun virtual gps except the only two drivers doing it were george and alex so they were just bitching and gossiping and threatening to steal strategies and abu dhabi 2016 each other. Particular shoutout to the time they had a virtual race on valentines day and alex put a suit on for it and george was baffled. Immediately after valentines day was georges birthday which lily used to thank george for letting her borrow his boyfriend from time to time.

Then the season started with george enduring the season alexless and not letting anyone forget about it. Alex was turning up to races after being locked in the simulator until the early hours posting stuff like this on instagram and otherwise stumbling over his words after getting whipped on the ass.

Perhaps the defining moment of the galex 2021 season was george pushing the williams board to sign alex so heavily that they had to actively shut him out of proceedings. Also at this time there was this cute congrats from alexs family and one from alex to georgie about the mercedes seat.

anyway here's some more random 2021 nuggets:

i've seen him topless a few times

george getting alex a good deal on a merc x

yet More golf

the handover

georges driver room

2022

They truly lost every inch of personal space in 2022 like. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. The back signing Hello.

2022 had alex having his appendix out, nearly dying and alexs family updating george whilst alex was in the icu and then when alex returned for the next race in signapore a couple weeks later (insane behaviour) george was like mmm audacious of him to be here.

Elsewhere alex discovered georges photoshoot and was making screensavers about it. Alex also discovered hair dye and george was making instagram stories about it.

other random 2022 nuggets:

george is alexs fave f1 driver excluding himself

this skit williams did of lily finding a huge picture of george in alexs driver room

whatever this image is of lily george and alex

private plane carpool

double date

2023

@onadarklingplain covers the whole year for you much MUCH better than i ever could here!!!!!

and that brings us to present where they're just as weird and freaky with each other as ever!!!

[daddyslilchickenfingers2]

Kinktober (reuploaded)

Pent up (Chris)

Request: None

Warnings: Small fight, horny Chris, besties to lovers (when is that not the case?), minimal crying, inexperienced Chris, handjob, embarrassment/humiliation if you squint, switch Chris & reader, cumshot, riding, minimal degradation, begging

Chris’ pov

I’ve only ever had sex once in my life, it was when I was 17 and it was pretty trash, not gonna lie. It’s been 3 years since then and it’s been up to me to get myself off, which had been fine until recently. Nothing I do is working, I’ve tried switching hands, grinding on my bed, fucking pillows, humping random things, using a vibrator, and I still can’t cum. That doesn’t stop my dick from getting hard though, sometimes I go all day with a half-hard dick. It’s gotten to the point where it’s uncomfortable and starting to hurt because basically, all I can do is edge myself. I haven’t been able to fucking cum for 6 weeks, I don’t do hookups or one-night stands either so I’m literally screwed. (or not screwed in this sense)

Now that our friend Y/n from back home has moved to LA as well, my usually half-hard dick has become fully hard. We’ve known her for about 8 years, so needless to say she’s our best friend but that doesn’t mean I don’t find her attractive. Sure, in middle and high school I wasn’t attracted to her like that, plus she was more so Nick’s friend until we turned 16 and he came-out. She’s recently gotten a bigger following on social media and had moved out to LA for better opportunities, it was also obviously a plus that she’d get to see us more.

If I’m being honest, ever since Covid, Y/n has really had a glow up, we all have. However, I wasn’t used to seeing her all the time, except for on FaceTime, but her attractiveness never really affected me then. Now with Y/n coming over all the time, it was hard not to be affected by her attractiveness. It’s even harder when she wears short shorts/skirts, crop tops, or tank tops, and especially when she’s braless. I’d never say or do anything though, I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. Plus, what am I supposed to say? “Oh by the way, you make me hard when you wear clothes like that, could you please stop?” there’s absolutely no way I’d do that.

I’ve been doing my best to avoid Y/n for the past month and I think she’s starting to catch on, she probably thinks I’m mad at her. I catch her giving me hurt and confused looks all the time and Matt says I hurt her feelings by pushing her away for no reason. Except there was a reason, but nobody knew that and nobody was going to find out. At least that was the plan until today as Y/n came over yet again. She walked through the door as usual, saying hi to Matt and Nick before they left for some reason. I was extremely confused because we didn’t have any plans and they didn’t mention that they were going somewhere.

Y/n came over to the couch and sat next to me, I just stayed on my phone until she took it out of my hand. She set it down on the coffee table before wrapping both her arms around my left one. Y/n put her head on my shoulder and sadly said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what I did but I’m sorry.” that made me feel like shit. I sighed and removed my arm from her hold to give her an actual hug. “Don’t apologize, you didn’t do anything wrong. If anything, I’m sorry.” I sighed again as I heard her sniffle. She wrapped her arms tightly around my torso and I heard her sniffing a second time.

“Please don’t cry Y/n, I’m sorry. I’m just going through something with myself and it’s difficult being around you” I really should’ve worded that better because Y/n immediately pulled away. She was now understandably defensive and upset “What’s that supposed to mean!? You don’t like being around me!? I literally paid Matt and Nick to stay the night at my house so I could talk to you privately and now you don’t even want to be around me!?” she yelled at me. She got off the couch and started walking towards the door crying.

I felt like an asshole so I immediately went after her, pulling her into a tight hug before pulling away and wiping away her tears. “God, you’re gonna fucking hate me after I say this.” I said before taking a deep breath and continuing. “It’s difficult to be around you because you turn me on and make me extremely hard. It’s not your fault, it’s just my body being stupid. I can’t believe I’m telling you this but I haven’t been able to cum in like 6 weeks, I get painfully hard and can basically only edge myself. You know I don’t do hookups so I can only rely on myself and it’s just not working. I’m sorry.” I told her truthfully.

Y/n started laughing, like full on hysterically laughing. I stood there, not finding what I just funny but still cracked a smile at her laughter. “Oh my god, you’re such a jackass!” she joked, making me a little bit confused. “You could’ve just said that and I would’ve given you a handjob weeks ago!” she said between laughs. I didn’t know what to say back so I just stood there staring at her in shock. “Bullshit, I’ve been trying to hide the fact that you’ve been making me hard for weeks just for you to say you’d give me a handjob!? That’s fucking crazy!” I laughed while shaking my head.

Y/n’s pov

I can’t believe all the confusion and hurt going on, on my end was all because I turn Chris on. Yeah no shit he’s one of my best friends, but he’s also obviously very active and I’d honestly give him a handjob just for fun. I love the thought of making someone cum with just my hand, I’m obviously a bit more experienced than Chris since I had a boyfriend for 2 years and we had sex but it didn’t bother me. I like knowing I’ll be the only person to have given him a handjob and the second to touch him intimately like that.

After Chris said this was all crazy, I turned to walk back into the living room when he grabbed my wrist, turning me around. “And where do you think you’re going?” he asked in a cocky tone, “To sit down, what are you doing?” I said back. “I believe you owe me a handjob. Can’t believe you came over to talk to me in such a slutty little outfit and expected me to not get hard” Chris said with a smirk as his hands went to my waist. He pulled me against him so I could feel his half-hard cock and he’s fucking huge.

I decided to mess with him a bit and pull away, doing a little spin before saying, “You don’t like my outfit? Is it because I look bad?” I fake pouted. Chris grabbed my hips once again but his hands almost immediately went down to my ass. “I love it, I just don’t want others seeing what’s mine.” he said lowly, “Possessive.” I teased him, poking his chest. “Is that a problem?” he asked, “Not at all.” I replied. “Good. Now about that handjob offer-“ he started before I cut him off, “ Yes, I’ll give you a handjob now c’mon.” I laughed at his neediness.

We got to his room and I sat on his bed, taking my shoes off while he took off his shirt and laid down, propped by pillows. “Wait! Y-You know um…” he trailed off so I spoke up instead. “Know that you’ve only ever been touched and seen naked once? Yes, I’m aware.” “Oh, um okay, yeah that’s what I was gonna say. I was also going to ask if we could like makeout first? You know, to make me less nervous…” Chris blushed cutely. “Anything you want, tonight is all about your pleasure.” I smiled at him before moving my lips to meet his. Right before our lips we’re about to meet Chris mumbled, “Want you on my lap” pulling my waist so I was now sitting on his lap.

I once again leaned down to attach our lips, my left hand was on his chest while my right cupped his jaw. The kiss was a little slow at first and I could feel that Chris was still half-hard, slowly getting fully hard when he deepened the kiss. I wasn’t expecting him to run his tongue across my bottom lip or squeeze my ass so he could gain access to my mouth, but I was glad he did. The kiss started to get hot and I loved the way Chris whimpered a bit before pulling away. “Want you to touch my cock.” he panted with a smirk. Chris took off his pants before asking me to take off my skirt, which I did, “Goddamn baby, you’ve got such a nice ass.” he said before slapping my ass, making me laugh.

“Just sit back, relax, and enjoy” I winked at him before placing another kiss to his lips, sliding my hand over his hard-on. I pulled away and saw a bit of fear flash through his eyes, “Chris, are you okay? Do you want me to stop?” I asked softly, removing my hand from him. “No, I want you to keep going. I just- this won’t ruin our friendship or be awkward after, right?” he asked nervously. I brought my hand up to stroke his cheek, “I promise this won’t ruin our friendship or be awkward. I just wanna help you, plus it’s fun and enjoyable for me too.” I smiled. Chris smiled back, “Okay good. Please continue.” he said while blushing.

“Do you have lube and can I take off your boxers?” “Yes and yes” he replied, leaning over to grab the lube from his dresser next to his bed. He handed it to me before pulling down his boxers and blushing. “Holy fuck Chris! You’re fucking huge!” I said shocked because he’s a lot bigger than I expected. “Mmm shut up.” he whined back embarrassed, gasping loudly when I started slowly jerking him off. I looked at his face as it twisted with pleasure, I started to move my hand a bit faster as he looked at me, causing him to close his eyes and bite his lip to prevent any moans from falling past them. His face turned a bright pink, making me smile as I moved my other hand to his face, pulling his lip away from his teeth with my thumb.

“C’mon Chris, let me hear those pretty moans. Open those gorgeous eyes for me.” I softly ordered him. His hands were by his sides, balled up in fists as he gripped onto the sheets below him. He let a small whine when he opened his eyes and saw mine looking back at them. “Does that feel good?” I asked seductively, “G-Go faster.” he said, “Can you use your manners for me?” I teased. Chris gave me a pleading look, not wanting to beg but that quickly changed when I stilled my movements. “No, don’t stop! P-Pease go faster!” he groaned, immediately avoiding eye contact with me. I lightly gripped his jaw as I started moving my hand again, I turned his head to face me before saying, “So good with your words.” I smiled before slowly making out with him.

Chris pulled away to let out a particularly loud moan as I felt some precum leak out of his tip. I decided if I wanted to go faster, I’d need to use the lube, squirting some directly onto his cock. I sped up my movements, making Chris’ whines and moans get louder. “Talk to me.” “What?” “Dirty talk to me, tell me I’m being good. I don’t know just talk to me, I’m getting close.” he said. “Awe that’s cute, I haven’t even been jerking you off for 10 minutes and you’re already gonna cum.” I teased thinking he’d get mad at me but instead let out a loud whimper. “You like when I do that?” I asked when I started moving faster, Chris just whined and nodded his head erratically, feeling slightly humiliated.

I dug my thumb into his slit, collecting precum before using my other hand to play with his balls. My fist would tighten every time I went up towards the head, making Chris whimper and whine. I was so focused on pleasuring him that I jumped when I felt his hands come up towards my boobs, “Sorry, I ju-“ he started being I cut him off. “It’s okay I just wasn’t expecting you to touch me, go ahead and do whatever you were gonna do. You’re being such a good boy.” I added the last sentence experimentally to see if he’d like it, and to my surprise, he let out a loud, whiny moan. He moved my tank top straps down and lowered it so my boobs were now visible. Chris looked from my boobs up to my face, getting embarrassed when he found me already looking at him.

“Fuck Y/n/n don’t look at me like that, you’re gonna make me cum.” he whined. I decided to move positions and go in between his legs so I could get a better angle, Chris’ eyes blew out with lust at that. He became a whining, whimpering mess, “Fuck, fuck, fuck! Shit ‘m gonna cum!” he loudly moaned out. I started moving my hand as fast as I could, trying to keep his hips still at the same time. Chris’ left hand came down to tightly hold onto my right wrist as the pleasure was overwhelming due to him edging himself for so long. I saw his stomach flex and thighs start to shake a bit, signaling he was about to cum. Not wanting to make a big mess, I moved his cock so it was up against his stomach, that way he wouldn’t cum all over his sheets.

“Fuck Y/n! Oh shit- yes I’m cumming!” he groaned out loudly, “Be a good boy and cum for me.” I replied seductively. Chris let out something that was a mix between a whine and a growl, which sounded so fucking hot. Within a couple of seconds, thick strings of white cum started to paint his body as I jerked him through his orgasm. I watched in awe as this was the biggest cumshot I’ve ever seen, some cum even made it all the way up to his face. That was fucking hot, I helped him through the aftershocks of his orgasm, during which he let out multiple whimpers and whines. I was so out of it that I didn’t realize Chris’ cock had now turned soft, “S-Stop too much, ‘m sensitive!” he moaned, causing me to finally let go of his cock.

Chris was breathing heavily but he looked so fucking good covered in his own cum like this. “Chris, are you okay?” I asked gently, with his eyes closed all he could do was whimper out a response that would turn me on even more. “P-Picture! Take a picture of me covered in my cum!” I was a bit shocked but nonetheless, I got up to grab my phone. I wasn’t even turned around for a more than a minute, but by the time I got back to the bed with my phone, he was already hard again. I took a few pictures before telling him to open his eyes, Chris looked at me with an extremely fucked out expression and a dopey smile as I took the last picture.

Even though Chris was basically fucked dumb at this point, he still somehow managed to take control of the situation. He grabbed me by my throat and pulled me closer to him, causing me to let out a surprised whine. “Clean my cum up with your tongue and ride me. Like you said earlier, tonight is all about my pleasure, meaning you’re gonna be the slut who does all the work.” he stated in an authoritative tone. I replied with a quick, “Yes sir.” before I started licking up his cum from his stomach all the way up to his face. He actually tasted really good, once he was clean of his cum, he sat up against the headboard.

Grabbing the bottom of my tank top, he said “Take it off.” before watching me pull it over my head. I was honestly a bit surprised at how much of a power bottom Chris was being right now, considering this is only his second time having sex. He pulled me onto his lap before smashing our lips together, biting mine as he pulled back to toy with the side of my panties. “Take these off before I fucking rip them off.” he growled, I immediately took them off and sat back on his lap. “Can I please just fuck myself on your cock now?” I whined, “Well you’re the one who’s gonna do all the work so go ahead. Condoms are i-“ he said cockily before I cut him off. “We don’t need one of those unless you want it.” I told him before kissing his neck, “Goddamn, no condom then.” he grunted.

I slowly sunk down onto his massive cock, “Jesus Christ! You’re so fucking tight!” he moaned out while his voice cracked. “Mhm you’re so big Chris!” I whimpered as I started bouncing on his dick. Chris helped me move by griping onto my ass while I started sucking hickies into his neck. “Baby you can’t leave marks, Matt and Nick can’t know.” he panted out, making me loudly whine. I didn’t stop though, I really didn’t care about his brothers finding out. However, I did stop when he slapped my ass and pulled my hair, “I told you to fucking stop!” he growled in my ear. I started moving a bit faster as he started sucking hickies into my chest, “Just wanted to mark you up!” I whined.

“Why? You tryna claim me as your own or something? Can’t stand the idea of other girls looking at me?” he teased me. Suddenly I turned into the whiny one, blabbing out incoherent sentences without thinking. “Don’t want others looking at you. Only me, you’re mine- please Chris! Want you!” I cried out as the pleasure started to become too much. “Please what baby? What do you want me to do?” he asked, looking at me with his eyes full of lust, “Just want you!” I said frustrated. Chris started thrusting up into me, “Yeah, you want me baby? You got me, I’m yours princess, kiss me.” he said softly in my ear. I moved my hands to wrap around his neck and thread through his hair as our lips met in a feverish kiss.

Chris helped me move faster as he thrusted up into me as well before he moved one hand from my waist to rub my clit. He moved his kisses down my neck, sweetly sucking more hickies into the skin. “Feel so good around my cock princess.” he mumbled, “Shit, Chris I’m gonna cum!” I cried out. With that Chris flipped us over and started drilling into me, looking down at me with a smirk. “Cum on my cock babe, cum so I can fill you up with mine.” he groaned, I pulled him down for another kiss, moaning into it. He was fucking into me at a fairly fast pace while rubbing my clit in tight, fast circles. I tightened around him as I started to cum, moaning loudly. Chris’ thrusts grew sloppy and before I knew it, he was loudly groaning and filling me up with his cum.

He fucked into me for a couple more seconds then pulled out, laying down next to me. As I came down from my high, a wave of emotions hit me and I suddenly got nervous. “Chris…” I said barely above a whisper, he just pulled me into his side, laying my head on his chest. He pulled the blankets up over us, “Shhh, it’s okay, I know. We’ll talk about it in the morning, I promise this doesn’t change anything in a bad way. Just go to sleep princess, everything’s gonna be okay.” he said in a soothing voice, calming my nerves. “Okay, goodnight Chris.” I said softly, “Goodnight pretty girl.” he replied back, protectively wrapping his arms around me.

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[starshipsofstarlord]

Piece of Cake

Luke Hemmings x reader x Calum Hood

Summary Luke doesn’t think you like him, but oh does Calum know you do, and so he decides to interfere for both of your sakes

warnings = MDNI! includes smut, use of weed, blowjob, facial, slight angst, clitoral stimulation, exhibitionism

The last thing that you had ever expected whilst opening for 5sos during their post covid tour was for anything romantic or sexual to happen between you and one of the five members, of course that hadn't stopped you from dreaming lustful images, but never had you thought the opportunity would arise. That was until one evening when you were sat on the tour bus, Michael and Ashton had ventured off to spend time with their significant others, leaving you with the bassist and lead singer. You were sat on your bed, Luke and Calum were in the living space, you were rolling a blunt, licking the paper so that the contents would remain inside without quarrel without spilling out.

They were talking about music and other nonsense, whilse you were planning to get high, and you were rather glad that you hadn't even lit the blunt or taken the puff from it when you became the topic of their converse. Perhaps it was rude to listen in on their private conversation, especially when they had gifted you with a ride along on their tour to expand your own fan base, but it was impossible to help yourself. You were curious, that was all, and very intrigued.

“So about y/n?” There wasn’t much to the question that Calum was asking Luke, you could only imagine that the blond’s head perked up in as much confusion as your own was. “Are you going to make a move man, every time she’s up on that stage or she simply walks through the room you’re drooling more than your dog does.” Your head tilted in pivoted hope, however you weren’t going to make assumptions without a word being directly said to you… right? That would be absurd, especially considering within the spotlight that your career granted it was easy for rumours to be misinterpreted or spread throughout the media. However, this was the source that you were listening in on, and subjectively you chewed your own bottom lip as you awaited the response of the man whom was undergoing a friendly interrogation.

A long and drawn out sigh elevated from Luke’s lungs as he leant his curl rooted hair back, burning his eyes as he stared up at the ceiling lights that were built into the tour bus. “It’s not that I don’t want to man,” at least that was a comforting statement to feed your awaiting nerves, “but I feel like I have to remain professional. Not to mention, she probably isn’t interested in me anyways, have you seen how well her and Ash get along? If she were to want one of us, it definitely wouldn’t be me…” There was a seasoning of self sympathy behind his subjective words, of which formed a crack within your heart from hearing them. His undirected accusations were a harm to his own mind, inflicting his own doubts, and you could see how he could perceive your friendship with his band mate that way.

You and Ashton got along insanely well, he was the first one that calmed your nerves the first time that you were scheduled to perform before them. But the two of you were just friends and that was all. The entire conversation that you were intruding on with your hearing distracted you from the task that you were currently attempting to perform, and thus the joint that you had just glued together with the stick of your saliva escaped your grip as you fumbled and tumbled out of your bunk and onto the floor between the set of stacked beds. “Shit.” The curse spewed from your mouth as you instinctively reacted to the accidental slip of your fingers, and then your heart froze. You hadn’t wanted to make a noise, however now it was too late, and all you could do was hope that Calum and Luke had been oblivious to the sound of your voice.

“Y/n?” Calum cautiously enquired on your presence, the sound of his foot falls nearing closer and closer to your solitary destination, and instinctively you held your breath, not wanting to give your accidental agenda away to the bassist or the lead singer that had been discussing you and your status quo with each member. Softly the doll grey curtain of your bunk was pulled aside to reveal your embarrassed expression, Calum inquisitively staring down at you from the height of which he stood. A rosey warmth bruised the high points of your face as there was no doubt that your deposited hearing had been noticed, and so had the joint that you had configured. Cal plucked it up off the carpeted ground as he smirked at the circumstances that you were under, and thus with his sweet brown eyes he convinced you to crawl out of your bed, his large and tanned hand guiding you from the placement of your lower back.

He lead you into the entrance living space of the bus, where Luke was nervously planted, rubbing his painted fingernails gently along his bottom lip and diffusing his instinct to chew on them. With his cobalt eyes he sent harmless daggers towards you, his long legs taking up a length of space on the floor, the opposing limb folded over the knee of his other, his ankle tapping the air as he awaited for the tension to break. “Oh Luke, calm down mate, y/n overheard everything but don’t worry, I could see when she slipped down from her bed ho wet her pretty pink panties were. Isn’t that right sweetie?” Cal squeezed your ass which was facing him, the flirtatious notion making you jump in the oversized shirt you wore; he was embarrassing you in front of Luke, but the other man seemed shy to the appeal that was ongoing before his eyes. “Come on girl, tell Lukey that it was all for him. Tell him that he made you all wet, you could even show him how soaking your pussy is underneath that layer of cotton.”

A whine slithered out from your submissive throat, you felt vulnerable and the butt of the joke that Calum was telling, without the intention of a pun, but admittedly you were loving every second of it. But it wasn’t just Luke that had caused a sweet and slick river to flow between your legs, which was strange considering that he was the one that you liked. The way in which Calum degraded you before him though had you riled up, needy and desperate for someone to touch you, and it didn’t matter which one of them did it. “Y/n…” Luke spoke your name so delicately, there being a a quiet innocence behind his tone. Immediately your head snapped up to ogle at the man, an alert and doe eyed detriment reflecting in your hungry expression. You were all too focused on the blond so that you were late to notice how Cal veered closer to your sexually appealing form, his hand slipping upwards on the back of your thigh, rising up to the centre of all of your desires over the thin cotton that protected your vulnerability from seething eyes that intended to pry at your most intimate parts.

He continued his sly yet indiscreet movements until the pads of his thick fingers were callously prompting across your lightly clothed bundle of nerves, causing staggered breaths from leaving your mouth. It was difficult to focus on only the pleasurable feeling that Calum was making you feel, as Luke’s wide eyes were ogling at your glowing form, his pupils flickering from between your blushing face and where Calum was attending to tease the both of you. He was provoking his band mate, luring him into finally make a move, however he had yet to grow the courage to do so. Luke was in a conflict with his own mind and what his pants desired, he chewed stagnantly on his lip awaiting for the impulse to do something kick in. “Aw Y/N, did you hear him say your name sweetie?” The bassist teased you, withdrawing his hand from toying with you which made you whine from the extraction. He leant his mouth right by your ear, and whispered into it, “wouldn’t it sound better if he moaned it?” And you believed it, and you were even wetter from simply imagining it.

It was as though Calum were hypnotising you, and without your own will to do so, your feet fell in footsteps closer to where Luke was seated, and you succumbed to the cushions of your knees, staring up at the man that you lusted after as Calum stood as your shadow and brushed his fingers through your hair. The notion was a gentle one, until he gave it a harsh tug which hitched your throat back so that you were looking into his dark eyes. “I’ve made you feel good Y/N/N, now why don’t you do the same for our friend?” He was pushing you, convincing you to pleasure the god like adonis whose knees were resting against your collarbones, and you were easily sold. And thus you unbuckled his belt and loosened the tightness until you could slip the leather material out from the loops, feeding the teeth of his flyer to your hands. Without any haste you pulled the zip down, and tugged the tight denim from his upper legs, only to discover that he had opted to go commando that morning.

And by gosh you were enamoured with the sight that was in your face; he was erect and wantonly weeping from his tip for attention, and you weren’t going to deny his famine. And thus you engulfed the head of Luke’s large and veined cock into your mouth, greedily humming from the warmth of skin that filled your mouth. “Oh fuck Y/N!” Luke gasped, his mouth gaping open as he tried to ground his pleasure, and he tousled your hair in his hand. “Fuck, your mouth feels so good.” Each word that he spoke only gaged you to attempt to bring more of his length into your mouth, choking from your efforts. And you only choked more as you felt another pressure again on the back of your head, enforcing you to take more down your throat even though your survival instincts tried to reject the intrusion. “Such a good girl, making our Luke feel good. And you can always make him feel good now you know how he feels about you Y/N/N. This cock is yours to suck, this big fat cock that’s making your eyes water.”

Luke moaned simultaneously alongside you from Calum’s dirty words, the sound of your gagging and Luke’s light and vocalised moans being the distinct sound that filled the room in the tour bus. There was a tight feeling that was pulling from the insides of Luke’s balls, he was getting extremely close and he shocked the both of you when you unexpectedly pulled your lips away from his cock to get air, as ropes and ropes of his white seed decorated your face, the warmth of the liquid bringing you a sense of fulfilment and gratified euphoria. For a moment it felt like it was only you and Luke, taking turns to exhale heavily as you came to grips that this wasn’t just a dream, it was a reality. A hot, dirty and sweaty reality. However everything hit you when Calum released his hand from your head, his voice filling your ears intermittently. “Looking good Y/N. And my work here is done…’ Calum joked, metaphorically dusting off his hands from the gruel that he had to cause to finally bring both you an Luke together.

He slowly vacated the room with little words more to say, leaving you and Luke in your own comforting isolation. “So…?” Luke laughed with the emission from his lungs, stroking your hair away from his cum that still covered your face. “So…” He repeated back to you, a content and calm smile endorsing his features. “Do you want to maybe be my girlfriend? I’ve liked you for a long time, and I never had the guts to say something until, well, this.” You reciprocated his smile, tentatively nodding and forgetting all about the joint that you had been rolling, maybe you wouldn’t need it to feel at peace tonight, because Calum with his sexual interference had helped you come to it. “Okay, we can discuss the details of our first date after we get cleaned up. Fancy a shower?” He teased yet endorsed your interest, and soon the pair of you were off to the small and confined bathroom to get ‘cleaned up’ as boyfriend and girlfriend.

[krash-and-co]

so i just woke up from anesthesia afew hours ago but

yeag i agee wirh you one hundred percent you are so right ive said it before i will say it again amd again UYOURE RIGHR HE IS YEAH i’m going to sleep now btw

LISTEN, Kaz Brekker, W.W. Hale V and Antony Lockwood are three points on the same triangle. Don’t ask me how i know this but they are.

[nicolettecallednikki]

Just a small Esteban x Gasly!sister fix that I've been working on for ages for fun. Enjoy 🫶🏼

She'd always had a thing for Esteban. It seemed silly to say, with Charles right there, the Prince of Monaco, Il Predestinato, widely acknowledged hottie, but for Martine Gasly, the only full-sibling of Pierre and the only girl in their blended family, it had always been the slightly goofy looking dark horse, Esteban. For all Pierre had to say about his complicated past with Esteban, it went double for Martine, who'd seen first hand what their families fighting had done to the two young boys. She'd been helpless to fix anything about their relationship, all her attempts only making it worse.

"It's him or me," Pierre said harshly, once when the two had had a fight and she'd tried to go to Esteban to comfort him. Esteban, who had no one but his parents and a nothing but a motor home, against Pierre and their brothers, Maman et Papa, Antoine and Charles who always, even when he was in the wrong, sided with the blonde, and all his friends at school.

"That's not right," she'd squeaked, trying to stop from crying, "You two are friends."

"Not anymore, sœurette," he said, coldly, "Not ever again."

To this day, the way Pierre spoke of Esteban in the media made her quite anxious. She knew her brother, and knew the longer Esteban stayed silent on the matter the more he'd speak on it, and the more stupid he'd sound. He was getting kind of frantic about the whole thing, fanatical, to the point where even he made note of it.

"I'm talking about him as if he were my girlfriend," he'd stopped himself once, to point it out, his ears tinged red in embarrassment.

It had been years since that final argument, at least the final argument she'd witnessed, and Martine had stood firmly- proudly at times, not so much at others- by her brother's side ever since. Blood was thicker than water, after all, and thicker too, than the pressée they'd all enjoyed as kids together, she supposed.

But when Pierre's move to Alpine was announced, Martine's throat constricted as if she'd lost access to air. She knew Esteban wouldn't want him there, that he'd been pulling, quite publicly, for Mick Schumacher, and she didn't blame him. The picture he'd posted of the two little boys from Normandy? He'd cropped her out, she knew he did, because she had the same picture hidden in the bottom drawer of her desk at home. She'd been at Pierre's other side, even then, but there was no question she was staring adoringly at the brun, as she was prone to in those early days.

It was only when it was announced that Alpine wouldn't allow the Gasly and Ocon families to attend the same races that she was able to take a deep, full breath again. She didn't know what she'd do when face to face with Esteban again, but at least it wouldn't happen often.

It wasn't like she hadn't spent time at Grand Prixs before, but she'd always had the safety net of being in a separate garage from Esteban. When Pierre was at Alpha Tauri, she'd spent plenty of time in the garage, and therefore plenty of time with his teammate, Yuki. Since school had been mostly online after covid she'd traveled more than ever before- the mechanics joked that if she spent any more time hanging around the garage, they were going to make her start doing pit stops with them.

She and Yuki had had a wonderful friendship, and she was the one behind most of those "Yukierre" photo ops. She still spoke to the younger boy sometimes, and his mother had even invited her to stay at the family house during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

Somehow, she couldn't envision the same for her and Esteban. Every time they passed each other in the past he'd been polite, too polite. Greeted her like she was a stranger, and just kept walking.

The only respite had been at Anthoine's funeral.

He'd hung near the back of the church, head down, trying to appear shorter than he was in an effort not to draw attention. For Pierre and even Charles, it was never like that. They were very open with their grief, and they had every right to be, but when you're more vocal, people come to comfort you. When you're quiet, you're alone.

So, she'd spotted him there, his once long hair now short and gelled into another sort of helmet. She knew, of course, he'd had a bad season- he was the Mercedes Reserve driver and not racing, all because some boy's father bought him a seat- which Esteban's own father could never do. Then she'd learned the two became friends- something only Esteban could do, would do. For all his brashness and his reputation for fighting, she knew all he really wanted was to be accepted, make friends.

He looked- aside from sad- uncomfortable, in an ill-fitting suit. The sleeves, and probably legs, were too short. Neither of his parents were seated with him, although they had accompanied him, but rather a girl- his girlfriend, maybe? Martine tried not to pay too much attention to who he was dating at any given point it time.

Once they all exited the church, she couldn't stop her feet from going to him, despite what her brothers would say. She'd tapped him on the shoulder, a shoulder much higher than it used to be, and if he was surprised to see her when he turned around, he had the good grace not to show it.

He bent down to kiss her cheek, but she caught him by surprised and hugged him. After only a moment's hesitation, she felt him sink into the hug. She had been almost worried he'd knock her down, but he was so thin! If he had told her he was lighter than she was, she would believed it.

"Esteban," she breathed and he sucked in a sharp breath, "It was good to see you, Titine."

In the days following the Belgian Grand Prix, most of the drivers took off to start their summer break, but a few stuck around the hotel for a couple of days to blow off steam, and Martine elected to stay with them, wanting an inside look at what all mischief they got into and enjoying time with her brother and his friends.

While Pierre took Kika shopping, Martine made her way down to the pool where she knew Charles and Arthur were hanging out. Age wise, she was between the two brothers, but they acted like she was eons younger, still a child- worse than Pierre, at times. She and her mother had long suspected it was because they didn't have their own little sister to pick on. So, in retaliation, she made it her life's work to get a rise out of them, Charles especially.

Speaking of the handsome Monégasque, she sat on the edge of his chaise so he could put suntan lotion on her. His ex had always side eyed them for this type of thing, but Alex took her at her word when she said she had grown up with all boys- her brothers, the Leclercs, Esteban, the Huberts, not another girl among them- and merely needed someone to apply lotion so that she don't burn to a crisp. Kika, she assumed, had probably quietly reminded her that, while WAGs may come and go, little sisters tend to stick around much longer, and it was better for Alex to be on Martine's good side, than against her.

"Oh, Carlos is gorgeous," she sighed dramatically, leaning against Charlie, "God, I always forget how good looking he is. Up close? It's unreal."

"Ma crevette," came Charles response, "I will drown you in that pool."

"Relax, Calamar," she tsked, "You know you're my favorite Ferrari. Plus, Carlos wouldn't go for a girl as young as me, I asked around."

"Who'd you ask?" Charles shot up from his seat.

"Lando," she shrugged, "Figured it was best to go to his closest pal. He said, unlike you and Pierre, Carlos likes girls his own age."

"The drowning threat stands," Charles replied, but the flush growing up his bare chest to his neck and face told her she'd gotten him good this time.

A moment later, another thought occurred to him, and he pulled off his glasses to glare at her, "Why were you talking to Lando?"

"He's gotten quite handsome, himself, hasn't he?" she winked, "Grown up nicely, if I may say so."

"You may not," Charles growled and, having had enough of her, promptly picked her up and tossed her into the pool.

From years of experience, she knew better than to shriek or thrash about when being thrown into the pool, as that was just the type of scene the boys were looking for, so she simply plugged her nose with her free hand and accepted her fate.

A second splash followed hers, and when she swam back up to the surface, she was delighted to see it was none other than Lando himself who had followed her in.

"Funny meeting you here," he giggled. She wasn't sure yet if she liked a man who giggled, but at least someone was flirting with her, for a change.

That night they headed to the club, Pierre leading the way and her following- always following- with Charles on one side of her, his hand at the small of her back, and Arthur on the other. You'd think she was the celebrity and they her bodyguards, the way they carried on, but at the end of the day, at least she never had to pay for her own drinks with this trio. Even if they did make her change out of her first choice of outfit.

After getting settled at their table and getting a drink in her system, she spotted George and Alex- easily seen in most crowds, but especially when surrounded by drivers, who were not known for their height- and headed to the dance floor to join them. She was dancing like mad with Carmen and Lily, just being silly, when she must've danced a bit too close to George, by mistake.

"No, no," he tsked, "None of that. You'll not get me in trouble with the missus, just to needle your brother."

She laughed, but didn't deny it, and Lily leaned into her, conspiratorially, "I can think of someone who'd probably love to do the honor."

She froze for a moment, like a deer in headlights, wondering how Lily of all people- lovely, but not someone she was particularly close to- had guessed about her crush on Esteban. A moment later, when Lando made their way over to them, she let out a relieved sigh, hoping the others were too far gone to notice, and allowed herself to be pulled closer to the Brit on the dance floor, trying for the life of her not to think about a certain other driver.

Lando was a good dancer, and even with no evidence she could guess he was a better dance partner than Esteban would be, all lanky limbs jumbled about. But then again, Lando was the one who kept breaking trophies and things, so maybe he was uncoordinated and Esteban would be a better dance partner. She tried not to think about that.

She never saw him out- maybe Alpine made sure he and Pierre went to separate clubs, or maybe he didn't go to clubs at all, just went home for a quiet night in with whatever girl he was dating- she still refused to learn their names, so that if they were ever introduced she could realistically act like she didn't sit up nights thinking about them, about him. She thought she might prefer that herself- a quiet night in, as opposed to the noisy, sweaty club- but if she was honest with herself, she'd probably just prefer to be anywhere Esteban was.

She knew, psychologically, that she wasn't in love with him- she didn't even know him anymore, not really, not like she had- but was only attached to him because she'd never had closure. She'd been in love- thought she'd been in love- with him for so long, only to be separated and then expected to never speak to him again. Naturally, that did her head in, so of course she'd spent the rest of her life comparing every other man she met to the imaginary version of him she had in her head, an amalgamation of his past self, his media persona, and the tortured soul she'd made him into.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, she let Lando pull her impossibly closer.

She awoke in her own bed, alone, having been escorted to her room by Arthur in the wee hours of the morning. Her legs were deliciously sore from dancing, but she was ravenous and headed to the dining room for the buffet breakfast, assuming it would be quicker than waiting for room service.

She did not expect Esteban to be there, a Belgian waffle in front of him, piled high with strawberries and whipped cream. She considered sitting with him, but when he didn't look up from his phone at her, she chose a table across the mostly empty room, instead.

Her dropped spoon clattering to the floor got his attention, though, and his a small, polite smile enraged her enough to make her approach him.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked in French.

"No?" he said, "What made you think that?"

"You don't speak to me," she said, losing steam at his genuinely surprised tone.

"I don't-" Esteban tried and failed to explain, "What is there to say?"

He was actively resisting the urge to untangle her hands which she anxiously twisted and wrung.

"I don't know," she answered honestly, "Nothing. Anything. Like when we were kids, just talk."

"We haven't been kids for a long time, Martine," he said. Esteban was starting to wish he'd gone home- gone anywhere else- but Mick and Lance had wanted to stay and it wasn't like he had a girlfriend to go home to these days.

Just then Carlos entered the dining room, startling them both, and Martine abandoned the thought of eating to run back to her room and wallow.

It wasn't like his sister to miss a meal, even with the hangover Pierre was sure she had- Arthur said he practically had to carry her back last night- so Pierre was mildly concerned when he'd knocked repeatedly on her door, with no answer.

"What's wrong, sœurette?" Pierre asked from her doorway. Once he was sure she wasn't in there with Lando, of all people, he'd let himself in with the second key she'd given him.

"Nothing," she choked out, face first in her pillow, "Please, Pierre, leave it alone, just this once."

"Ma crevette," he said after a long moment. Even though they hadn't discussed it, he knew his sister well, "Is this about Lando or- "

She swallowed back a sob to hastily cut him off, "I'm okay, I promise, I'm just being stupid. I'll be by the pool in a bit."

Her brother pushed on anyway, "If this is because of who I think it is... I am the last one who would want something between the two of you, but if he doesn't see how amazing you are, he's the stupid one, yes?"

"Thank you," she squeaked out, and felt him lean over to kiss her cheek, before leaving the room.

Next, Pierre banged on Esteban's hotel room door, not for the first time in their racing career.

"This is stupid," Pierre sputtered, before Esteban could even register his appearance.

"Excuse me?" the younger man returned.

"I- we don't," Pierre took a breath, "We know our relationship, but even I am shocked you'd treat Martine this way."

"What way?" he asked, exasperated, "I don't even speak to her."

"That's what I mean," Pierre snarled, "What did she ever do to you? She always showed you kindness, even when I asked her not to."

"Pierre," Esteban said slowly, as Pierre was apt to bite off his head at a moment's notice, "I do not speak to Martine, because I don't want to come between you and her. I know you didn't want us to be friends."

"You'd rather hurt my sister than cause an issue between her and me?" Pierre questioned, "That doesn't even make sense."

"Well, if I were to..." Esteban didn't complete the thought, "Wouldn't the first thing you'd do be to tell her it was to spite you. I didn't want her to think I am using her to hurt you either. There was no winning, for anyone, in this situation."

Pierre opened his mouth as if to speak and shut it again, "I don't know what to say to that."

"Finally," Esteban couldn't resist the urge to roll his eyes, "I've managed to shut you up, for once."

That night, as Lando headed to the bar to refresh their drinks, Carlos took his opportunity to take Martine for a spin on the dance floor- quite literally a spin, as he was very gentlemanly about it and didn't grab at her at all.

"So," he said in his thickly accented English, "You and Landito have gotten quite close, no?"

"Yes," she blushed a bit, "I suppose we have."

"You like him?" Carlos asked, "Or you just want a bit of fun while you visit with your brother?"

She clamped her mouth shut, and he assured her she misunderstood him, "I don't blame you for that, that's all I'm saying. Lando, he is a good mate, but... I have sisters, yes? I would not want my sisters to pursue him, you see?"

"I see," she nodded, and something about the atmosphere or the drinks she'd had or Carlos' nature made her almost burst to tell him about her real crush, "Can you keep a secret?"

"Not well," he acknowledged with an indulgent grin, "but you'll tell me anyway. Everyone tells me their secrets, that is how come my hair is so big."

"I can see that," she laughed at his Mean Girls reference- he really did have sisters- before going on tiptoe to get closer to him, "I do like someone on the grid, actually."

He stretched away from her, "Not Charlie, no?"

"No," her nose crinkled and he looked relieved.

"Who?" he asked, and she laughed, "Guess."

"George, Alex, Yuki?" he listed off her brothers friends, and she chuckled, "None of them."

"Someone your brother is not friendly with, then?" his eyes flashed with merriment, and she nodded.

She wasn't sure if he was just being coy by not mentioning himself or if it hadn't occurred to him, since they barely knew each other, but she felt obligated to let him off the hook, "And it's not you, Mr. Smooth Operator."

He clutched his heart in faux hurt, "I am crushed."

She smiled and let the conversation drop for a moment, before he leaned down a bit to give this guess quieter than the rest, "It is Esteban, no?"

She felt herself freeze, but he spun her out and back into his arms while she recovered.

"I told you," he quirked an eyebrow, a wise smiling playing on his overly pretty face, "Sisters. I know how you women's minds work."

She swallowed thickly. While it felt good to finally tell someone her secret, she wasn't sure why on earth she'd picked Carlos, aside from he'd been looking at her with his big brown cow eyes and she'd felt compelled.

Honestly, now that she paused to consider it, he was just about the worst option, as he was close with both Lando and Charles, and therefore her brother, and probably outright disliked Esteban out of loyalty to Alonso. She bit her lip, suddenly stressed.

"Do not worry, chiquita," he let out a light chuckle, dipping her slightly, "Your secret is safe with me."

As vindicated as he'd felt in this conversation with Pierre, both the Gasly's coming at him in one day had Esteban's head swimming and seeing them in the bar he'd purposely chosen to avoid them did not help. The fact that Lando accompanied them and the others was enough to make him order a drink, which he normally doesn't do.

"How's it goin, boys?" Lando had a straw between his teeth and a shit eating grin on his face as he approached Mick, Lance, and Esteban, "Este, you're drinking? Wild night tonight, huh?"

Esteban swallowed thickly, forcing a smile, "Not too wild, I hope."

"Not me," the younger man smirked, "I'm hoping for a wild night."

"Lan," Mick warns, but he continues on, "You must know Marti, from growing up and all? She's great, huh?"

"Martine," Esteban pronounces the name, "Yeah, she's a great girl. She's special, that one."

"And she's hot," Lando added, "Some girls look a too much like their brothers, and it doesn't work, but she's, like, so hot."

"She's beautiful," Esteban took a large gulp of his drink for fortitude, "Be good to her, eh?"

"You too, huh?" Lando side eyed him, and Este froze momentarily, "God, the speech I got from Pierre and Charles was bad enough, what do you people think of me. I'm not that bad, I swear."

"I didn't mean-" he insisted, but Lando laughed it off, "No worries, I don't mind the fuss, it'll only make her like me more, I reckon."

Esteban took a step forward, as if he had more to say, but Lance clapped a hand on his shoulder, just then to pull him back.

"Have a good night, man," Lance said smoothly, "We'll see you around."

"I'm not leaving," Esteban said stubbornly, once Lando had left.

"Is this more about Lando, Pierre, or Martine?" Esteban's eyes refused to meet Lance's, his stare fixed on the dance floor, where Martine was once again with Lando.

"Pierre?" he asked, "What would he have to do with anything?"

"I don't know," Lance shrugged, "Maybe you're taking your rivalry too seriously, unconsciously."

"I- it has nothing to do with Pierre," he shrugged.

"I don't know, she looks happy, Este," Mick said.

"But do you really think she will be happy with Lando?" he question, frowning at the thought.

"No," Mick agreed this thing with Lando was likely a fling. He'd grown up with him, and it was hard to take him seriously in the romance department, "but I think you know it would be... cruel to break her heart, over this kind of uncertainty."

"You think breaking up her and Lando would break her heart?" came the indignant reply.

"He means it would break her heart to go after her and then change your mind," Lance clarified.

The night quickly got out of hand, Esteban's low tolerance for drinking getting to him, with Lando and Martine close behind.

"Mate," Carlos was bent next to Lando's ear, "Come get some air with me."

"I'm in the middle of something," Lando replied, pawing at Martine, who looked drunkly confused at best and uncomfortable at worst. Behind them, Pierre was seething, only held back by Charles assuring him that sending Carlos to speak to Lando would be better than Pierre embarrassing Martine by breaking up the pair.

"Pierre's gonna put you through a wall if you don't take your hands off his sister," Carlos spoke low enough she couldn't hear, but she could guess.

"Lando, my brother's right there," she pointed out, "And the Leclercs. This is a bad idea."

"Alright, come back to my room," Lando proposed, "So we can have some privacy."

"Mate," Carlos warned, "Bad idea."

Luckily, the arrival of George, Alex, and the girls gave Martine a plausible excuse to extract herself and distracted Lando enough he allowed himself to be dragged to the bar by Carlos.

Forced onto a barstool and made to drink a glass of water, Lando was pink in the cheeks, flushed from the excitement and likely a bit embarrassed his old teammate was pulling rank on him.

Esteban was further down the bar, not looking too well himself, and Carlos leaned in to speak to him- in Italian or Spanish, Lando wasn't sure, but he couldn't understand it, whatever it was. Esteban replied, gesturing Lando's way and then at the girls on the dance floor.

Wonder what all that's about, Lando thought to himself, returning to his glass of water.

The Spaniard ran a hand through his hair, before patting it back into position, rolling his shoulders back, and ordering himself another drink. It was at times like this that he felt a decade older than his peers, rather than just a few years.

"Martine," Arthur approached the girl where she danced with Carmen and Lily, "All is good?"

"My little, big brother," she explained to the girls, before answering him, "I'm okay."

"Come dance with me," he pouted for effect, "You've been neglecting me all weekend."

She laughed, but complied, letting him pull her a small distance from them for a quiet conversation.

"I thought for sure Pierre's head would pop off," he laughed, "God the Brits have no sense of decorum, in front of your own brother!"

"It's sexism though," she objected, "You boys are allowed to do whatever you want with whoever you want, but I can't even dance with a boy."

"Ma cherie, that was not just dancing," he said, and she giggled into his shoulder, "Okay, you've made your point. Were you sent to bring me home?"

This is how it went, usually. Pierre and Charles got to stay out and have fun and poor Arthur was forced to babysit Martine, which he secretly didn't much mind, as he wasn't too keen of a partier anyway, especially not in the Formula 1 scene, were he was constantly faced with the reminder than he's not one of them.

"If you want to leave, of course I can take you," Arthur said, "but I calmed Charles and Pierre down, so you should be okay."

"Merci," she stretched to kiss his cheek, "You're the best little, big brother a girl could ask for."

"I know," he puffed up his chest, smiling brightly.

He and Martine had only gotten closer when he took up the role of development driver at Ferrari, and she felt less like his brother's-best friend's-sister and more like his own best friend, these days. Enough so that he could tell Lando wasn't the one on the grid she was most focused on.

"Ma belle," he said, taking a chance that she was drunk enough to forgive him if he overstepped, "I am wondering... is all this with Lando worth it?"

"It's no big deal," she said, "We're just having a bit of fun."

"I hope so," he said, "Because I think you're trying to distract yourself from something- someone, and I hope I'm wrong."

"Am I that obvious?" she bit her lip, suddenly feeling tears well in her eyes, "Does everyone know."

"Surely not Lando," he tried to lighten the mood, "I don't think Pierre and Charles suspect-"

"Pierre does," she admitted, "He said as much earlier today. And Carlos knows."

"Carlos?" Arthur looked confused.

"I told him," she said, wiping at her face with the back of her hand, "Or he guessed, I don't know."

Arthur grabbed her face to wipe her eyes without smearing her makeup more than she already had, "Martine, I've known you a long time, and I know everything that went on with him and your brother, or, if not everything, a lot of it. I just don't think it is healthy to hold all this in for so many years."

"What should I do?" she asked him.

"Talk to him," he suggested, "Pierre will forgive you, I am sure of it."

The breeze was cool against her skin as Martine gripped the railing outside the club, her shoulders tense. After her talk with Arthur, she'd spoken briefly to Lando, who'd probably need to be reminded of the conversation in the morning, before heading outside to get some air.

When she heard the door open behind her, she turned and was surprised to find Esteban, looking at her like he hadn't since he started F1, since all this nonsense with Pierre. She realized she hadn't really made eye contact with him in years, not properly. He was always looking past her, over her shoulder. Now, his eyes were soft, his smile almost shy.

"Don't look at me like that," she frowned, "Like you pity me. Pierre's silly, little sister with her silly, little crush."

"You know I don't pity you," Esteban reached out to touch her arm, "I feel a number of different things, but definitely not pity."

"Why'd you come out here?" she wondered aloud.

"I wanted to talk to you," he said, "You said you wanted us to talk, no?"

She nodded her head, but suddenly found herself without any words.

"I can't tell you how hard it's been to ignore you over the years," Esteban started, "It's only gotten worse now with Pierre at Alpine, and you always so- close, but I swear I never meant it the way you took it."

She nodded, and he continued, "I never thought in a million years that you were- wanting me to not be ignoring you. If I'd known you were interested, in being my friend even, I would've- I didn't know. I don't know, now, what to say. I didn't think this was even a possibility."

"You don't know how long I've wanted to hear that," she was surprised to find her eyes tearing up again, "I didn't think I ever would, honestly."

"Titine," he said softly, the name a relic from their childhood, only Maman and Pierre ever called her that anymore, "I know we haven't been close in a long time, but I would like to get to know you again, if you think you would like that."

"I think I would like that a lot," she grinned and he smiled back as he kissed her.

[yuhzz]

y/n's 5 types of crushes - le sserafim x fem!reader

summary: your "my 5 types of crushes" (hc ver.).

warning: fluff. angst.

word count: 1.3k words

==============

Eunchae: a friend from grade 2

-> eunchae was a friend of yours from grade 2 (and remained as one until grade 3).

-> you 2 were close, almost best friends but since you took different classes from one another, your friendship never bloomed.

-> nevertheless, it didn't stop you from harboring feelings for her.

-> she was supportive, slightly clingy, kind, humble, cute - all the possible reasons that made you fall for her.

-> but the past remained in the past.

-> you were young, you knew little of love and crushes.

-> so you never confessed.

-> what started as a friendship, remained as one.

==============

Kazuha: no more than classmates

-> let's see. at the opening ceremony at the beginning of the school year, you met her.

-> both of you were in grade 3 at the time.

-> she was a new student so she was having trouble familiarizing herself with the new environment.

-> you and eunchae were wandering around the school that time when you both bumped into her.

-> with just one glance, you fell for her extraordinary beauty.

-> she was pretty and you sure did know it from the bottom of your heart.

-> after that day, you tried your best to get close to her.

-> but it eventually became clear to you that she wanted to be no more than classmates - acquaintances.

-> so you stayed as 2 people who were no more than classmates.

==============

Yunjin: the BFF you were crushing on for 4 years

-> bff...we once all had a crush on our bffs but 4 years? damn. you're holding on too tight.

-> where did it start? oh, right. grade 7.

-> months before the pandemic, you transferred to a new school and she was one of the first few people you met.

-> both of you weren't all that close then, most especially when the pandemic took the world by storm in a negative way.

-> thanks to social media, you got to know each other better. soc-med helped you communicate with her since you transferred schools again when you reached grade 8.

-> as months - years went by, you got closer to the point that you started calling each other "best friends" or "BFFs".

-> you even made promises to each other and you knew you had feelings for her.

-> but then, in June 2022 (grade 10), she met your cousin and fell for him.

-> you being the good, supportive best friend that you are, hid your feelings for her and helped her with her relationship with your cousin.

-> you were bitter about it, nevertheless, you remained supportive of them - heck you even went your way just to save their failing relationship 3 months later.

-> however, all that effort was lost when they eventually broke up 4 months ago, in January of 2023, a few weeks before Valentine's.

-> now, since it was indeed your cousin who was in a relationship with her, your friendship with yunjin ended together with theirs.

-> though you still talk to each other up until today, it just was not the same as before.

-> but be honest.

-> do you like her because you know you can and will love her?

-> or do you only claim that you like her because you were afraid of losing her?

==============

Chaewon: the person who likes hugging you

-> who doesn't fall for people who often hug them? i bet no one, or maybe you're the only one who does.

-> you met her in grade 10.

-> the school remained in an online learning set-up since of the pandemic still spreading havoc on earth.

-> from the 1st up to the 4th quarter, you've been group mates because of research.

-> she was friendly, not to mention pretty.

-> so why not be friends with her?

-> in the first and second quarters of the school year, you spent it online.

-> and then boom! covid-19 suddenly weakened and people were now allowed to walk freely outside again.

-> now, because of that, the school decided to hold intramurals. the students had no choice but to attend unless they had a valid reason not to.

-> you didn't really miss going outside since the pandemic made you some type of introvert. but again, you had no choice but to.

-> thankfully though, you did attend because that's where you officially met her.

-> and the first thing she did when she saw you, she hugged you again and again and again, but it never occurred to you to ever hug her back (it must be because you were controlling your heartbeat).

-> the intramurals were one week long so every time she saw you that week, of course, she hugged you.

-> and then last night, prom.

-> the elevator door opened, and the time slowed dramatically.

-> the first person that you saw the moment it opened was chaewon.

-> the way her dress courted her body, her hair tied up in a bun, and the elegance of her outfit screamed made your heart scream as well.

-> this will be your last year before you graduate from junior high, and the last time that you will be seeing her except for graduation.

-> that must explain the reason why she hugged you tighter than ever before.

-> so you hugged her back for the first time.

-> after last night, you agreed to yourself not to confess.

-> it was not because you didn't want to.

-> it's just that you thought that she was too perfect for you.

==============

Sakura: the unforgettable crush

-> we've all had that unforgettable crush before.

-> for you was miyawaki sakura.

-> she was your classmate for 3 years (grade 4 - grade 6).

-> sakura was perfect in all ways. she'd often be the vice president. she was cute, pretty, kind, and giving.

-> and you were you.

-> you were almost a stranger to her but you became seatmates, group mates, paired in a project, and were once even field trip partners (only because your adviser assigned you your partners for the field trip)!

-> but you were no more than a classmate to her.

-> there were times that you were her best friend though.

-> there were also times when she seemed like your childhood friend.

-> whenever you were with each other, you felt awkward.

-> but no what it is that's going on between the two of you, she will always be out of reach.

-> nevertheless, you gave her your all.

-> you didn't mind losing everything because, to you, she was your all.

-> grade 4, the first year you were classmates with her, you seemed like a total outsider to everybody else inside the classroom.

-> that year, you two went from strangers to classmates.

-> grade 5, another year spent with her. that was one of the best years you've lived so far since you were paired with her for the field trip, and though you were still assigned to different groups (due to activities) during the field trip, you were still happy that you got to seat with her inside the bus from and to your destination.

-> that year, you went from classmates to mild friends.

-> and then grade 6, another unforgettable year in your life, not only because you were still classmates and you were about to graduate from grade school but also because she hugged you.

-> it was just a simple gesture of her to say thank you to you but it was still enough to make your heart race a bit. there was also this time when the class was assigned a project about photography or capturing things you think were beautiful in any aspect. sakura was one of many you took a picture of.

-> and you never regretted it.

-> since up until now, her pictures are the reason why you're reminiscing about the past - because she was a part of it.

-> sakura remains the most unforgettable crush for you and though you knew she doesn't feel the same way about you, you were still happy to spend 3 years of your life with her despite her being so close and yet so far away from you.

-> she was a beautiful memory, indeed. every single one of them was.

[sixstringphonic]

Right-Wing Influencers Claim ‘They’ Defeated Physics, Geoengineered Hurricane Milton

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and a whole host of conspiracy theorists are claiming the hurricane was planned in order to harm Republicans. Climate experts tell WIRED that’s impossible. (via WIRED, Oct. 8th 2024)

Politicians and right-wing influencers have spread conspiracy theories online suggesting that Hurricane Milton has been geoengineered by nefarious forces, with the end goal of preventing Republicans from voting in the presidential election.

“Milton looks like another man-made storm, and it looks like Trump voters are victims. Is this really what’s happening?” wrote one user on X. “Biden and Harris are messing with the weather! Hurricane Milton was sent to Florida just like the other hurricane to wipe Florida out!! They know those are mostly Trump supporters who live in that state, so 85% of them won’t be able to vote next month,” wrote another.

“They want to kill Trump supporters and interfere with the election,” another user declared.

The “weather weapon” theory and others began proliferating when Hurricane Helene made landfall nearly two weeks ago, leaving at least 230 dead. And now, some of these wild narratives are not only reverberating on fringe corners of the internet but also are being spread by major accounts—chief among them, GOP congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Greene, after spending years trying to distance herself from her infamous 2018 remarks on social media blaming wildfires on “Jewish Space Lasers,” is now using this climate emergency to double down on weather conspiracies and lasers.

While Greene stopped short of blaming Jews for the hurricanes, she has promoted conspiracies that have a history of being steeped in antisemitism. “Yes they can control the weather,” Greene wrote on X on October 3 about the hurricanes, without specifying who “they” are. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

The conspiracy theory that Jews, specifically the Rothschild family, can manipulate world events, including climate and weather events, to their favor, is rooted in centuries of antisemitic scapegoating. The weather conspiracies in particular ramped up significantly after 2011, when a member of the Rothschild family acquired a controlling stake in Weather Central, a company that provides weather data to media companies.

Greene later surfaced a nine-year-old CBS News clip featuring futurist and physicist Michio Kaku discussing experimental lab research into weather modification using lasers. “Lasers,” Greene wrote. “CBS, 9 years ago, talked about lasers controlling the weather.” Right-wing blog The Gateway Pundit, which is known for trafficking in conspiracy theories, gave Greene a major boost on Tuesday with the headline “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Weather Manipulation Claims Backed by Science—Must Read Deep Dive into History of Weather Manipulation—Shocking Facts Revealed!”

Attempts to politicize Hurricane Milton—which is expected to be a deadly event when it makes landfall Wednesday—are serving as a distraction from dire warnings by local officials. “I can say this without any dramatization whatsoever,” Tampa mayor Jane Castor said on CNN Monday night. “If you choose to stay in those evacuation areas, you are going to die.”

On Monday, amid desperate evacuation warnings, Greene unleashed a hot new take. “Climate change is the new Covid,” she wrote. “Ask your government if the weather is manipulated or controlled. Did you ever give permission to them to do it? Are you paying for it? Of course you are.”

Other recent conspiracy theories that have dominated social media have been directed toward the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a long-standing target of anti-government narratives. Some have falsely claimed that the agency was intentionally withholding relief to punish Trump-supporting enclaves or that the organization had spent all its money on the border and foreign wars.

Those conspiracy theories, parroted by Donald Trump and other high-profile Republicans, have muddied the zone and hampered relief efforts. “The GREAT people of North Carolina are being stood up by Harris and Biden, who are giving almost all of the FEMA money to Illegal Migrants,” Trump wrote in one of many posts shared to Truth Social.

Over the weekend, the White House put out a memo titled “Fighting Hurricane Helene Falsehoods With Facts,” debunking some dominant narratives about FEMA’s relief efforts—stating that, for example, no money had been diverted from disaster response needs toward the border.

“Disinformation of this kind can discourage people from seeking critical assistance when they need it most,” the memo said. "It is paramount that every leader, whatever their political beliefs, stops spreading this poison."

This hasn’t stopped other accounts online from weighing in. Private equity manager Grant Cardone, who holds a yellow-ticked “verified organization” account on X, claimed that he’d never seen a hurricane follow a path like the one Milton was on. (Readers added context, noting that while it’s an uncommon track, it has been seen at least six times in the Gulf of Mexico since 1851). “Do you think Gov’t is using technology to manipulate weather patterns & storms?” Cardone asked in a post that’s been viewed over 5 million times.

“Cloud seeding or manipulating the weather is real,” wrote a user on X in a post that’s been viewed 180,000 times. “Kills Americans, catastrophic events JUST BEFORE AN ELECTION. Voting becomes impossible for many. October surprise??”

Experts tell WIRED that there is absolutely no truth to any of these claims that the hurricanes could be engineered by scientists.

Joshua Horton, a senior program fellow studying solar geoengineering at Harvard University, says he has worked in the field of geoengineering for 15 years and had never once encountered lasers being used. Horton noted that in the 1960s, there were attempts to use weather modification to steer hurricanes away from coasts. In perhaps 30 years, he says, solar engineering research may have advanced to the point where scientists could know how to reduce the severity of hurricanes. One theory that’s being explored is whether shooting seaspray into low-lying marine clouds to make them more reflective over areas in the ocean where it gets very hot could potentially reduce the severity of hurricanes. But at this stage, that’s still “totally speculative,” says Horton.

“Scientists cannot control the weather in the ways that MTG is claiming,” says Leah Aronowsky, an assistant professor of climate at Columbia University’s Climate School.

Aronowsky says that the field of geoengineering, which involves intervening in Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and soils to mitigate the effects of climate change, is controversial and worthy of some “real conversations.” But it’s also a field frequently targeted by conspiracy theorists, who envision nefarious actors using emerging complex technology for political means.

Many online conspiracy theorists have zeroed in on the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, known as HAARP, which researches the ionosphere, as the brains behind Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Google Trends shows a sharp uptick in searches for HAARP over the past two weeks.

“Why are record-breaking hurricanes happening back-to-back,” asked one X user in a post that garnered 53,000 views. “Why do they target the regions that resisted lockdowns and vaccines? And why are they mysteriously forming deep within the Caribbean? Shall we talk about HAARP?”

"Do these clouds look natural to you?” reads a post from Alux Jownes Team, a cryptocurrency token based on a Solana blockchain that holds a yellow-ticked “verified organization” account on X. The post garnered nearly 790,000 views.

“Hurricane Milton Harris is what geo engineering looks like,” it continued. “Look up HAARP … They’re using fucking weather weapons on us."

HAARP was initially jointly funded by the US military and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Since 2015, it’s been run and funded solely by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

HAARP did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment, but as an FAQ section on its site indicates, it has faced similar conspiracy theories in the past. (Earlier this year, Trump ally Laura Loomer suggested that then-Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley and her deep state allies had deployed HAARP to disturb the Iowa caucus.) Among the frequently asked questions are, “Can HAARP exert mind control over people?” (answer: no) and “Can HAARP control or manipulate the weather?” (also no).

“This is all really dangerous, that this is all swirling around at the same time,” says Aronowsky, who is concerned about the effect of further undermining public trust in science, particularly at a moment of national emergency. “It really serves as a dangerous diversionary tactic and starts to make the conversation about political blame rather than the humanitarian crisis that the US is currently facing.”

[formulatrash]

what do you think about formula e seemingly wanting to replace all of their street circuits in the calendar with permanent tracks? it feels like it’s starting to lose its street circuit racing identity already (and, that’s more of a personal opinion, but the permanent track racing feels like it has been much worse, it just doesn’t suit formula e cars at all)

it's very odd, at a point when F1 can't stop adding street tracks specifically to get hype venues and big-ticket promotional races, Formula E is hiding itself further and further away in permanent circuits.

they're sort of doing it for the same reasons, is the funny thing. little circuits will host FE much cheaper than the immense cost and logistics of building a street track and the lower the bill, the bigger likelihood a local business or tourist board will foot it. for F1, the cost of building a new, permanent facility is so staggering even oil states would likely baulk at it now. Yas Marina has cost over $1.3 billion so far, which Abu Dhabi can foot but isn't small change even for them and has led to other programmes being focussed around re-using and extracting value from the facility. (like the autonomous racing thing I was at earlier this year)

not that street tracks come much cheaper but you can build them faster, for an instant gratification on that investment.

F1 can boast massive figures for what a city stands to gain for hosting a grand prix. $449 million additional spending for Miami, for instance. Formula E... cannot throw around those numbers. it's not really a tourism draw and personnel are limited. so to go to a facility that desperately needs events, with an audience reliant primarily on local interest, means it can show an impact. FE claims that it brought an $84 million boost to the Hyderabad economy, for instance but a lot of that will have been in circuit construction.

so the financials add up. but also FE is supposed to be its own, distinct, world championship with a high profile not "F1 but it's electric and goes to lower grade circuits."

if a series does not have a profile of sufficient size, it has no hope of selling out venues. this happened to F1 - Silverstone didn't use to sell out at all, you could walk up to the gate and buy a ticket and I'm talking, like, 2016 not 1994. it took a long pathway of turning its visibility around to reverse that and yes they hit lightning in a bottle with DTS during lockdown but even things like social media had been a huge start in undoing a long, regressive slide into an ageing, shrinking fanbase.

FE cannot be small. manufacturers like Porsche are not in it for it to be small - yes, it is a useful test laboratory for regen but with long periods of homologation for powertrains, the marketing has to be a significant part of the draw. and you also need, reasonably, to be able to succeed: a manufacturer's board will not keep signing off on a racing budget, however small, if there are no or frustrating results on track. and no marketing function.

I know I've been saying this for years but it's still true: FE needs to keep developing itself, keep acting like a startup (since it is one) and continue to grow. ever since COVID it feels as though the championship just said "ah well, this is what we are now" and decided it wouldn't try to progress anything any further. it's a very odd lack of ambition for what could be such a hugely important series both to OEMs and fans.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (December 3-9, 2023)

I made a frame from this shot Wikizilla's Image of the Week. No regrets. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, I love ya. When I was a teenager, explicit queerness was anathema to most big-name franchises. Those dominoes have been slowly falling, often in lower-profile tie-ins first, and to me this is a huge one: 69 years without a queer live-action Godzilla character are over. And Cate's the main protagonist of the show! I'm not under the delusion that media representation will cure all society's ills, but it sure doesn't hurt. Now, the non-Tumblr parts of the fandom are being completely normal about this, right? Right? Whatever, that's why you'll never get rid of me here. Cate had a couple more sweet moments with May in this episode, and Mariko Tamaki wrote episode 7, so don't expect her to stop kissing girls. Hopefully she's learned a valuable lesson about cheating though.

"The Way Out" is also another gift to those of us who have always wanted to see more of the ramifications of a world where Godzilla exists, from underground towns for the super-rich to ruined cities where federal troops shoot looters and harass people experiencing homelessness. And the show continues to find ways to use kaiju to talk about COVID, from Cate and Kentaro's exchange about San Francisco truthers ("It's easier than waking up every day and thinking, at any moment, the same could happen to you") to the blink-of-an-eye speed at which the threat went from on the news to her front door in the flashbacks.

As I foretold, we got a Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire trailer, an amusing contrast to the weighty Toho flick and Apple show already fore of mind. It's Adam Wingard unbound, that's for sure. The human cast seems pared back, a longstanding Monsterverse problem, and the kaiju fights were far and away the best part of Godzilla vs. Kong, so hopefully this approach will play to his strengths. But that movie also had excellent VFX, and some of the shots in here are rough. There's time to fix them, at least... which probably can't be said of Godzilla's design. I like that he's pink (did some Warner Bros. executive take the wrong message away from Barbie?) and sporting a thagomizer on his tail, but his proportions are uncanny. And I see Kong found the Infinity Gauntlet; good for him.

I am, of course, not done talking about Godzilla Minus One. It added over 200 screens and made $8.3 million in its second weekend in the U.S., a minuscule drop considering that its $11.4 million opening "weekend" spanned five days. Almost a third of all tickets sold this weekend were for Godzilla or Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron, remarkable in a market so allergic to foreign imports. That brings its total to $25.3 million (more by the time you read this). With an avalanche of Christmas blockbusters on the way, its grip on premium-format screens is about to slip. Still, I see it hanging around theaters for a while. I have never seen the fandom so united in praise for a film before, and it's making plenty of new fans.

Some of those fans are in high places. Variety leaked that it's on the 20-film shortlist for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars (to be narrowed to five nominees), something I, again, never expected to read about a Toho Godzilla film. Alas, it's locked out of this year's Best International Film category due to the quirky nomination period.

Much has been made of how great the film looks on a $15 million budget. I have two caveats, one in each direction. No one is quite sure where the $15 million figure came from; Yamazaki said at a recent con appearance that he only wished he had that much to play with. (He has yet to divulge the actual budget, just that it was above ¥1 billion.) Now, unions in the Japanese film industry are much weaker than in Hollywood, so a given production budget goes a lot further in Japan. All the same, I doubt that alone explains Minus One looking better than most superhero movies made for twenty times the cost. I'll offer a couple more reasons: Yamazaki has extensive visual effects experience (he's been the VFX supervisor of all but one of the live-action films he's directed), and the film's big effects scenes aren't as busy or lengthy as many of the Hollywood counterparts. I don't know if Disney will ask Yamazaki to direct the next Star Wars movie (that would require there to be a next Star Wars movie), but the studios here should be taking notes.

the sphinx, a blog with a ton of American Godzilla rarities to share, has outdone itself—behold a continuity and dialogue script for the U.S. version of King Kong vs. Godzilla! Included in the download is a detailed comparison with the film. No huge differences, apart from the script giving the secretary added to the U.S. version a name, but a fascinating piece of history all the same.

The Minus One incarnation of Godzilla (MaiGoji?) has joined Godzilla Battle Line, accompanied by [SPOILER]. To be honest, my enthusiasm for this game has been flagging, and I'm not caught up on the strategies developing around these two, so I'll just refer you to Sir Melee's channel as usual. This Godzilla's also doing a collaboration with the Japanese mobile game Fleet of Blue Flame.

Tiffany Grant, Asuka's original voice actress, will narrate the audiobooks for the Neon Genesis Evangelion: ANIMA light novels which explore an Instrumentality-free path for the show. Seven Seas Entertainment published them in English from 2019 to 2021, which, to be honest, was also news to me.

This one's for my fellow library workers: the obscenely popular Who HQ nonfiction series for children is publishing a book about Godzilla next June. I don't know if this will have quite the same impact on today's young Godzilla fans as the Ian Thorne tome had on Gen Xers and Millennials, what with the Internet and all, but it's certain to be more factual. Expect illustrations instead of licensed photos, and not just because of Toho.

I can finally talk more about the Godzilla x Kong: Titan Chasers mobile game without fearing a DMCA. Not that there's much to talk about; it's freemium through and through and I'm not sure I know a single person who's excited for it. Interesting to see some critters from the comics break into another medium, at least. Here's the trailer.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

hello readers. AITA for visiting a friend in another country before visiting a different friend in a different (neighboring, but still a good 7-10hr trip) country?

some context: friend 1 and i have been online friends for over a decade. by reasons of circumstance- they're a few years older than me so they could travel easier, their family is more affluent whereas mine couldn't shell out ~1k for an overseas flight until i was able to make that money myself as an adult, they had already graduated college and could travel easier than when i was still in college and could not (summer was technically an option but friend 1 hates hot weather and getting sweaty, so they always wanted to meet up in colder months, which limited my schedule)- the four times we've been able to hang out in person, they came to visit me instead of vice versa. the 4th time was a couple years ago, and they purchased tickets at the start of that year (2022). however, at the same start of that year, i got involved in a new community and met a lot of amazing people, especially friend 2, who quickly became one of my best friends in a short amount of time. it was just one of those instant connections, y'know?

anyway. fast forward about six months. since friend 1 was already coming here towards the end of 2022, and there was no refunding those tickets, friend 2 and i wound up making plans to see each other. but they couldn't easily afford the plane fare, so i decided to go visit them in their home country instead. part of the reason i never had done so with friend 1 before was bc i just wasn't mentally ready to be so far from family, in a different country, by myself - i had a lot of anxiety about such a long trip. i still had some now, but after going through covid and such, i changed a decent amount as a person, and wasn't quite as anxious anymore. i had also moved out, so i was more used to being away from family by then.

the trip with friend 2 wasn't going to happen until 2023. when friend 1 came to visit, however, they found out about the trip (by apparently looking through my likes on twitter, where friend 2 had made a post about it) and completely broke down. i had been trying to figure out a way to tell them, but had a feeling that any method would result in this exact reaction, so i had put it off, until i was unfortunately proven correct.

further context: friend 1 and i have never been great at honest communication. this is a fault of both of ours, but i feel like i am able to admit it more honestly, apologize/own up to it, and try and make changes. we met young and immature, and the majority of our talk over the years has been superficial, solely about fantasy characters. when i got too busy in college, and my time/interest in characters declined, i felt more and more like our relationship wasn't as fulfilling. i was afraid to bring this up because on two separate occasions in the past, when i mentioned hanging out with other friends (and in one if the situations, which was an online game, i invited friend 1 to join us) i was immediately ghosted by friend 1 for a few days. so i stopped feeling able to bring up any plans with friends going forward, for fear they wouldn't take it well. i made up excuses and lies when i DID hang out with other people to explain away my absence (we were used to talking daily, but it felt like an obligation after a time, as they'd always ask why i wasn't online for a day). obvs, none of this is healthy, but it led to how i (mis)handled the current situation.

friend 1 found out, we had a lot of difficult talks on a trip that was supposed to be fun, and throughout the remainder of the trip i basically felt watched for whenever i was on my phone - lots of passive aggressive comments dropped about how "they wouldn't use social media on a trip like this, bc they could just do that at home". i was accused of being in love with friend 2, bc why else would i wanna go visit them so soon into a friendship, of not wanting friend 1 to even be here, of "holding something that happened years ago" over them (the ghosting) when i tried to explain why i didn't tell them. (i don't hold the situations themselves against them anymore, but it's had a profound interaction on how i conduct myself in relationships now). they said that they wanted to be my first international experience, which i get, but in my mind, it's two completely different countries, and they were already coming to visit before these plans were even made. they also made it clear they didn't care about the circumstances, friend 1 just wanted to be "my first" no matter what i said. i felt/still feel like that's too controlling, basically asking me not to go hang out with friend 2 bc i didn't adhere to their timetable for it first.

i had an amazing time with friend 2, and it was just an overall more comfortable experience. i still feel like i owe friend 1 a visit, even though i don't see a long future for our dying friendship (and even, if i'm being very honest with myself, i don't want to go visit them). personally, i'm fine with this - we've just grown into different people imo. but they don't have many friends, and had a couple rough ghostings from previous friends of their own, so i feel guilty about wanting to call it quits on ours, which again i know they won't take well. i just don't think we're compatible anymore, but even so, this whole situation has continued to eat at me even though it's been nearly a year now. i keep wondering if i really am in the wrong here, if i wasn't as considerate as i should have been, if i shouldn't be so blase about ending a decade+ friendship.

so, AITA for visiting friend 2 in their country before friend 1?

[fdelopera]

Yo Gentiles! Stop trying to goysplain the history of the I/P conflict at us Jews.

We have studied this conflict extensively, and often for years, because we've had to. Because even when we are Jews in diaspora who have never returned to the Levant and never plan to, the antisemitism that this conflict generates still puts us in danger. And as many of you who are paying attention have witnessed, there has been a drastic world-wide rise in antisemitism over the past month.

When you try to "teach" us about it, especially when MOST of you are using talking points that were developed by Neo-Nazis and the KKK, all you are showing us is that you are lazy, patronizing antisemites.

If you actually want to HELP the Palestinians in this conflict (and I think that some of you do), you need to accept that the following 10 things are true:

We Jews most likely know more about the history of this conflict than you do. We have had to study it in all of its nuance, in all of its painful detail, in order to understand the broader Jewish world. We have to understand the broader Jewish world to decode how Neo-Nazis like Richard Spencer and David Duke are using the I/P conflict to coordinate attacks on Jews in diaspora.

.

We Jews have to know about the I/P conflict for our own safety. But many of you gentiles are learning about it for the first time. And instead of understanding how complex the conflict is, you are turning it into a wargame fantasy where you get to playact as a freedom fighter in La Glorious Revolution. Then you coordinate social media attacks against Jews online, and you go out and attack Jews in person, and you harass us until our mental health crumbles. Great job, goys! Great. Fucking. Job.

.

You are goysplaining Jewish history at us. Stop trying to tell us a bunch of propaganda that you learned from TikTok, Instagram, and Tumblr memes. It just shows us that you're lazy, and that you've got a lot of Jew-hatred that you need to unpack.

.

When we tell you that you're wrong, listen to what we have to say. Don't talk over us. Use this as an opportunity to do further research. Otherwise you're just behaving like some Fox News obsessed Boomer raging on about election fraud and vaccines.

.

The Palestinian people need our help, but you are making a TERRIBLE case for helping them when you base your arguments for helping them on shitty propaganda you learned on TikTok, Instagram, and Tumblr.

.

Let me say this again: Your bullshit propaganda DOES NOT HELP THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE, and it is easily debunked by just a few Wikipedia deep-dives.

.

When you spread this propaganda, you sound like the idiots on Fox News that knowingly spread conspiracy theories about Covid. Not only is the bullshit you're repeating easily proven wrong, but you're just showing yourself to be untrustworthy at best ... and at worst, a bunch of opportunistic liars.

.

When you regurgitate propaganda at us Jews, all you are telling us is that you don't give enough of a shit about the Palestinian people to do ANY research into the history of this conflict, other than looking at some infographics and memes.

.

You are making us Jews VERY wary and skeptical of you, because most of the "information" you've learned from TikTok, Instagram, and Tumblr is influenced by Neo-Nazi and KKK propaganda, and you are being useful idiots for white supremacists.

.

Again, repeating fake shit about this conflict DOES NOT HELP the Palestinian people. It just makes Jews distrust you. And it makes us SCARED to get involved in this movement. Because we are NOT going to march side-by-side with goyim that are spreading dangerous antisemitic lies about Jewish history and Jewish people.

AND NONE OF THIS MATTERS. NONE OF YOUR BULLSHIT FAKE HISTORY MATTERS!!

Because Palestinians are dying!

So stop trying to tell Jews made up stories about our history.

LISTEN TO JEWISH VOICES ABOUT JEWISH HISTORY. (And DON'T listen to JVP, for fucks sake. Learn more here.)

Accept that we know more about the history of the I/P conflict than you do.

AND START WORKING TO HELP PALESTINIANS.

ANERA

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

Doctors Without Borders

[stormsbourne]

<presses your mad about modern journalism button again> may I request a rant

Happily though I'm going to try and avoid talking about what happened last night/this election cycle specifically because it's still too raw.

So I graduated with a journalism degree in the late aughts. My specialization/emphasis is in print, the dyingest of all journalism, but to any journalist who gives half a fuck about the concept of the industry, it's clear that a lot of things are fucked. And it was obvious then, too!

Here's the big ones:

24 hour news fucking sucks. It's resulted in a world where even minor issues can get significant coverage and the journalists involved are always scrambling for something to keep people watching. Facts become tenuous in a setting like this and corrections to shit you got wrong become extremely easy to miss, so it turns out you're often just spreading misinformation and the people swallowing it will regularly miss you saying it wasn't true. There was an incident when I was in college of a hobby pilot accidentally crashing a plane into an apartment building in NYC and this got turned into a multi hour story about whether it was another 9/11. This problem has only been exacerbated by things like the advent of social media and the integration of the internet into absolutely fucking everything.

The concept of objectivity is broken. In an ideal world objectivity means that you report the facts without bias or prejudice. Modern journalism has scrubbed the first part of that out with an eraser and highlighted the second part. Climate change, vaccine effectiveness and safety, how COVID functions, it doesn't matter what issue you pick, if you look at how modern journalism covers it, it's all about remaining impartial, not about telling the truth. And this gets turned into representing both sides. Well we've got a climate scientist on. We've also got to have a climate skeptic, right, to remain objective? No, you fuckers, your job is not to get two people on the air to argue about whether it's raining, your job is to look out the fucking window and tell people if it's fucking raining!

Obviously, capitalism. Big money folks have their fingers in the pockets of newspapers and news networks and are using them as hand puppets accordingly. Wapo can't endorse Harris because Bezos wants Trump to be niceys to him. Sinclair sends its networks objectively false stories and requires them to put them on the air or get sanctioned and punished.

The media isn't innocent in any this; they aren't merely a victim of what's been done to the industry. They often go to bat for the upper crust, for the military, for cops. Donald Trump won 2016 (and maybe this year too) off the back of all the free airtime he got because the media could not stop paying attention to the circus, putting the circus on the air, yelling about the circus being in town, talking about how many people like the circus. They repeat false information and hype up studies that don't actually say anything. They often hide corrections or retractions out of embarrassment. Newsrooms have private secret rules about how to cover international politics and what side should be depicted as sympathetic. They post cop pr statements unedited and do shit like go to diners in Ohio to interview racist white guys about their "economic anxiety." Everything that's destroying journalism, they are complicit in, and often happily.

The media in its best form should be a way to examine and dismantle oppressive machines, like how much journalism was involved in helping tear down McCarthyism. But nowadays the media is gleefully complicit in all of it. The revolution will not be televised, or maybe it will be but with a headline of LOCALS CONCERNED ABOUT RASH OF CRIMES.

fuck, man, it blows!