#and on the phone they literally said i did nothing wrong and my regional manager said i’m a great worker and wanted me to stay

[steviescrystals]

got fired today!! love my life

[heresathreebee]

Garrote part 12

[Starz Power Diego Jimenez X Jazmine Mann (Black!OC)]

Summary: Healy and the Jimenez’ are gearing up for war. Jazmine’s getting antsy waiting for something to go horribly wrong. Previous Masterlist Next

Rating/Warning(s): Mature (+18 or I call the police). post-coitus fluff, swearing, anxiety, time skip, canon typical violence (I think...?), all plot, gringo using google translate Spanish and half remembered high school classes (sorry in advance), mentions of grooming/pedophilia (don’t worry, Porsche’s OK)

Word count: 2.2k words

Author’s Note(s): yeah so I wrote this back in December and just didn’t have the heart to put it out. I wanted to try and finish the other chapters (thinking I’m gonna wrap up at seventeen chapters) and I couldn’t. I have a problem with finishing anything I start, it never feels strong enough. I’m gonna try not to let that stop me though, promise. 

Waking up in Diego’s arms, Jazmine never expected to feel so calm. Truth be told she didn't really wake up, but drifted in and out of sweet harmonious consciousness to find Diego, whether he was cradling her or sitting up or rubbing her back. She finally managed to convince herself to get out of bed and by then it was already 2 in the afternoon. Diego had his pants and shoes back on but nothing else, so she relaxed a little. 

"You need to eat," he whispered, "come on, get dressed." 

Jazmine blinked slowly. "I need a shower. Maybe a wheelchair, too." 

She didn't miss the proud smirk that suddenly graced his handsome features. As he put on his shirt, Jazmine glanced past him at the open door of the closet. It was empty inside save for a few hangers, but it left a bad taste in her mouth and a lump in her throat. Diego followed her line of sight and said nothing. He let her shower, never more than five feet away (which is exactly how far the shower curtain is to the bathroom door). They ate somewhere family friendly, a pancake house she barely remembered the name of. Her legs still suffered from tremors and her pelvic region ached, but they were good feelings and she tried to make them last as they put a smile on her face. 

~

It's been about a week and Jazmine has seen neither hide nor hair of Haagen and it's starting to worry her. 

The only relief she had been able to accrue these past few days had been Healy's announcement that they had made a huge connection and were in the process of setting up task forces to take Haagen down. Alicia was confident that Haagen knew nothing and was continuing on with business as usual (or so she heard through the grapevine), and even Diego seemed to be relaxed about it. 

That was another thing that bothered her. Diego, relaxed. Diego doing more hands on business and clubbing at all hours of the night. He'd barely said two words to her after coming to the rescue and fucking her silly in front of Haagen. 

Sitting alone in the penthouse, Jazmine scratched at every itch and tugged on every baby hair like her skin was diseased. She didn't want to go outside, she was too afraid of Haagen's next move. She had been texting her mother regularly again just so she wouldn't call and have to explain why she sounded so nervous. It would have taken LaShawn all of ten seconds to realize something was wrong: so why couldn't anybody else see it? 

Maybe she was overreacting. Jazmine drew a hot bath in the jacuzzi sized tub and turned the jets on, finding bubble bath solution and a pink rubber ducky to cradle. The bathroom had a dimmer switch she turned down to near zero and let silky smooth R&B from the 90's wash her worries away. Her fingers worked to squeeze the ducky like a stress ball, and a traitorous part of her brain whispered longing thoughts. 

I wish Diego was here to massage my back.

She shushed her thoughts: at least the bath is perfectly hot. 

She washed her body and spent the better part of the day deep conditioning her hair and shaving her legs just for the hell of it. The music never stopped, it simply rolled from R&B to classic rock and then back again. Miguel checked in only to make sure she ate, and Jazmine managed to convince him to eat with her and play a co-op mobile game for a few hours. She plucked at the listening device in her ear for the thousandth time and decided to just call Healy. 

"Hey can't talk right now," were all the words she got out of him on the second call and then an immediate hang up. 

Jazmine growled and crossed her arms, suddenly reminded she was still wearing nothing but a bathrobe. She slipped into a pair of jeans and a tank top, and feeling bold, she marched up to Diego’s room and swiped a black button down that smelled like him. She tucked it unbuttoned into her pants and swanned up to the penthouse roof with a bottle of wine and one glass. 

She knew she would miss this level of extravagance. Never worrying about paying for rent or for food or selling her time and labor for someone else and next to nothing pay. Jazmine wondered what Diego would say to becoming her sugar daddy after this whole human trafficking business was over, but shook her head and topped her drink off. 

Probably overstayed my welcome, she thinks, that’s why Diego’s been distant lately. 

~

Jazmine was unnaturally quiet on her end, though Healy recognized the tinkling sound of bottle to glass. Probably on her fourth drink if he was counting correctly. No matter– she was safe for now at Diego’s penthouse suite and there were more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. Brasa was leaning over each and every agent sat in the boardroom as if to intimidate them into obeying her every command. She was a good detective, really she was, she just needed to work on trusting the people who trusted her. Her partner Holbrooke was no help at all– selective mutism was a nasty habit to overcome. Brasa had not breathed a word of thanks in Healy’s direction, but he had expected that. This wasn’t about the praise– it was about justice. 

When he could finally break away for coffee and a piss, he sent a text to Alicia. No doubt los hermanos Jimenez would be thrilled with the intel– but what would happen next? 

The safest place for Jazmine right now is Diego’s place, he thought, but for how much longer?

~

An address and a transcribed photograph of the documents they came from. Healy had told them that the most likely scenario for Porsche’s whereabouts was ‘adoption’ by people who did not want any adoption documents to surface later on. The family probably has prestige, they may have lost a child recently and are looking to replace it like a goldfish and hope no one notices. 

It didn’t stop Diego’s trigger finger from inching closer and closer to his gun at every small pump of the breaks. 

“Tranquil, hermano,” Alicia soothed. “We’re almost there. We can kill them after we get la pequena back.” 

Diego sniffed and hopped out of the car as soon as it finally parked. Alicia was right behind him, checking her peripherals on the well lit streets of this upscale neighborhood. It was them two and one guard each, a second car bearing two underlings coming in from the back door and four cars with heavily armed back up around the corner in case things went south. Brother and sister climbed the porch steps idly, slipping their guns back into their hidey spots before knocking on the front door…

~

“Fuck.” 

Jazmine’s phone battery flashed at 3%. She didn’t remember finishing the bottle, but she did really have to pee so she stood up from the pool’s edge to relieve herself. Miguel was asleep on the white leather couches in the living room, mouth open and drooling with his gun on the table. The woman’s steps were a little unsteady and her vision came in waves, but she felt that fuzzy warm buzz and decided she had better not drive. 

She shook the young man awake with a sigh. “Hey, I left something at my apartment. Can you drive me?” 

Miguel pursed his lips. “I don’t think jefe would want–” 

“Please,” she said, “it’s important.” 

Miguel relented, swiping the keys to a Ferrari from the rack by the elevator and handed Jazmine her coat. Just a few more items she couldn't live without. The way Miguel drove meant they were there in no time at all, and every light they passed by in the dark somehow made Jazmine feel lighter, less jittery and anxious. She had Miguel drop her off by the backside of the apartment and climbed the steps alone after insisting she would only be a minute. All of her doors and windows were locked, the place looked exactly as she had left it. 

“Thank god.” 

She had to search for her charger, a sparkly teal thing with a cat and an alligator charm on it. She found it hiding under her bed, then found her way into the bathroom to check on her face in the mirror. Jazmine fingered the black hickeys on her neck, smiling to herself. She caught sight of something white hanging out of the trash and dug it out: her Chicago shirt. Stuffing it into her back pocket next to her phone charger, Jazmine took one last look at her apartment and blew a kiss to it. 

“Bye,” she whispered, peaking into the dark and lingering on the memories she was about to leave behind forever until finally the lock clicked into place. Oh shit, this was the wrong door. Miguel was waiting out back– 

Pop-pop-pop

Gunshots rang out from behind the building, the returning fire was short and stilted, overwhelmed by the repetition of an automatic. Jazmine took to the stairs at the far side of the building and ran down them wishing she was in something other than slippers. Her heart began to pound in her chest and her breath billowed in heavy clouds before disappearing. The second she stepped off of the last stair, she tripped. Her flimsy footwear slid on the thin layer of ice and she fell, her eyes and ears following the clink clink plop noise of her phone literally going down a storm drain. 

She barely had time to scramble back to her feet before she heard tires come screeching around the corner down the street and she stumbled into a run. 

Jazmine wasn’t sure how far she’d gone, and she can’t recall how many streets she turned on, or even if she was being chased at all. Every sound made her jump, and every car coming her way made her anxious. Her lungs burned for air as she finally collapsed against the window of a minimart. There were tears streaming down her cheeks as she pushed the door open to hide among the tiny rows of snacks and gum and cigarettes and refrigerated beverages. The store owner was wearing headphones and didn't bother looking up. Deep breath in. Exhausted, shaking breath out. Jazmine curled tightly around herself to try and calm down before her heart exploded in her chest. 

~

Alicia and Diego have the father on his knees and bloodied. His wife and children are being held upstairs in one of the bedrooms, terrified. Diego wipes at a small spot of blood from his sister's face. 

"Donde esta el bebe?," Diego said, grasping the man's ear and dragging his head back to look at him. "I won't ask you again." 

"What baby?" The man coughed dryly, his eyes nearly swollen shut but still glimmering in fear. "I don't know what you're talking about." 

Alicia kneeled down in her white pantsuit. "The baby you bought from Jeremy Haagen, Mr. Fletcher. A beautiful little girl with dusky hair and big brown eyes. A baby that belongs to us." 

Fletcher squirms under the murderous gaze of los hermanos Jimenez but doesn’t break. 

“You know, Diego,” Alicia said leaning on her brother’s shoulder, “I didn’t see a fourth bedroom.” 

Diego pursed his lips. “So?” 

“So the contract specified a room for our mariposa, and he already has two children. Where’s the other room?” Alicia’s heels clicked as the gear turned in Diego’s head. “I bet la senorita Fletcher might know.” 

“No, please,” he begged, “leave my wife out of this– she’s got nothing to do with this!” 

“So you do know what we’re talking about,” Diego’s aha motion garnered a vague threat with the point of his gun– gold plated, of course. Emeralds in the hilt this time. 

“Secretly adopting a baby girl,” Alicia tsked, kneeling before Fletcher and brandishing a knife, “when you have two perfectly healthy girls of your own? Ay dios mio, what’s the matter? Three’s your lucky number, but your wife doesn’t put out anymore?” 

Fletcher stumbled hard over his words and made next to no sense. One thing that did make it clear through the haze of nonsense struck a nerve with the Jimenezes: “I didn’t know she’d be that young!” 

Alicia exchanged a queasy look with her brother. She had heard of it before: grooming. Usually starts when a girl is anywhere between nine and eighteen. Fletcher continued to ramble, about hiring a nanny and raising the baby anyway since Haagen didn’t do resales. He was probably just trying to get the baby off his hands…

Before Diego could pull the trigger, his phone rang. So did Alicia’s, both projecting the same number from a burner phone and three emojis to designate the caller: Healy. Alicia answered for Diego, jerking her head towards the door and mouthing, ‘I’ll take care of it from here.’ Diego reluctantly slipped outside, glaring at the nosy neighbors in the window who disappeared in a flash. He put the phone to his ear just in time to hear:

“– I need you to get to Nassau now: Jazmine’s in trouble.”

@mental-bycatch @kid-from-new-zealand @1zashreena1 @girlpornparadise @nicke0115 let me know if I missed anybody, I’m sorry it’s been so long

[perseusjackson-jasongrace]

Empires on the Horizon V

Jason is a CEO: Part V

Here’s my masterlist for the next part and my other stuff

But the most beautiful things in life are just not things.

They’re people and places, memories and pictures.

They’re feeling and moments and smiles and laughter.

-unknown

“Charles Beckendorf,” Jason answered the phone with a smile, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Hello Grace, how are you?”

“Absolutely wonderful,” And he was, he hadn’t felt so calm in a long time. “What can I do for you my friend?”

“I need your help with the wedding. I’m planning an outdoor structure with video screenings of all our favourite memories and you have two things that’ll make my dreams come true.”

“Anything for you Charlie.”

“The gorgeous meadow on the far side of town, you own that right?”

“Yep, you want to set up shop there?”

“Yes please,” His eagerness carried through the phone, “And can you send me any pictures or videos you have of us so I can add it to the slideshow.”

“Of course, is that all?”

He could hear the excitement in his friend’s voice, “That’s it, unless you know anyone who’s willing to look after the shop while we’re on honeymoon?”

“I can’t say I do but I can ask Hazel to hire a temp if you want?”

“I’ll suggest it to the ladies and tell them to get back to you.”

“Sounds great, and good-luck with the project. I’m excited for the wedding.”

“Me too man, me too. It’s still surreal to me that I’m getting married to my best friends.”

“You deserve the world Charlie.”

“No way, I am crazy emotional these days.” He sniffled.

Jason laughed, “You’re always emotional Beckendorf.”

“Screw you,” He snorted, “See you soon, and thank you again.”

“Bye man, have a good one.”

He ended the call with a smile. It was unbelievable to think he would be going to his friends’ wedding in a couple months. Just the other day he was sitting in a lecture hall laughing at Beckendorf’s impersonation of their business lecturer. Just the other day he was helping Silena and Drew paint the walls of their boutique. It was strange to face the reality that they were all grown up now– moving on with their lives, living them.

“Ready to go Boss?” Hazel’s head popped around the door.

“Yep, you have the files?”

“All in the room already, anything else we need?”

“Maybe some coffee and a miracle?”

“Unfortunately I can only provide one of those things, and it’s not the helpful one.” She gave him an apologetic look.

“Well I guess wish me luck then,”

“You don’t need it Boss, you’re gonna kill it today.”

“What would I do without you Miss Levesque?” He sighed gratefully, walking to the elevator.

“Forget which day of the week it is, and which shoe goes on which foot,” She grinned.

“Hey, the shoe thing was one time.”

“That only works if you’re a toddler, not a grown man.”

“No excuse for the elderly then?”

She shook her head solemnly, “None I’m afraid.”

The elevator doors slid open.

“Meeting Room A5.”

“Let’s do this.” He took a deep breath and pushed the glass door.

“Hello Jason Grace,”

“Hello Octavian.”

Jason always felt some level of life seep out the room when he me with the head of Titan Industries. The man felt…synthetic; chalk white hair gelled down flat and calculating pale blue eyes that missed nothing. Gods even his skin looked unnatural, pasty and veined.

He reached out a small, bony hand in greeting.

“You look as incredible as ever Miss Levesque,” He lifted her hand to his mouth.

She gave him a tight-lipped smile, “Octavian.”

He didn’t seem to notice, or care for her discomfort and simply turned to Jason.

“So,” They sat down, “Have we come to some agreement?”

“With all due respect Octavian I don’t feel this contract is justified.” He glanced between the man and the folder.

There was silence, as if he were waiting for Jason to continue but two could play at this game. He was not willing to be taken for a fool, fumbling over himself to bow to this man’s whims. So he met those cunning eyes, a smile playing at his lips. The only sound was the scratch of Hazel’s pencil as she set up her notes for the meeting.

Moments passed, frozen in time, and then a sigh, “What can I do to ease your concerns?”

He struggled to reel in a smug expression. “Let’s start with the supply times.”

And they went back and forth, pulling and pushing, cunning and stead-fast, a fox and a wolf. Two hours later the contract had been amended to both their liking and they were once again shaking hands.

“I will ask my assistant to send over the revised contract, once my lawyer has looked over it.”

“I will do the same. Thanks for the meeting.” He guided the door open and waited for his guest to move through it.

“Until then, Grace.”

Without waiting for a reply Octavian snapped at his bodyguard and they disappeared down the passage.

“How do you feel about this?”

“There’s something not quite right Hazel, I just can’t figure out his angle.”

“Fully agree,” She shuddered, “He gives me the creeps.”

“Have you managed to find anyone else that could potentially take over this project?”

“Not yet Boss but you will be the first to know when I do.”

“Thanks Levesque, you truly are my saviour.” He gave her a grateful smile.

“Better put that on my gravestone,” She raised a brow.

“Done,” He laughed, “Any other requests?”

“Let’s get subs for lunch. I could do with some bread.”

He shook his head in amusement, “You drive a hard bargain but I’m willing to sacrifice for you.”

“Oh what was your plan Mr big-shot?” She pushed open the door to their offices.

“Today is burrito-bowl day and you know it.”

“I did forget,” She scrunched her nose, “But I’m extra grateful now.”

He snorted at her, ready to give a snarky remark before he was cut off by the shrill ring of his cell phone.

“Talk to me.”

“What’s up Grace, how’s your lunch hour looking?” Leo Valdez greeted.

“Levesque and I are going to get subs at Garden Girl, want to join?”

“I’ll meet you there.” And then he was gone.

“Ever the efficient caller isn’t he,” Hazel chuckled.

“Most days, which is weird since he’s a rambler face-to-face.”

They got to the contemporary restaurant on eighty-fifth avenue, spotting Leo outside.

“Hello,” His smile was wide as he hugged them.

“Who decided to give you a break? Don’t you have lectures right now?”

“Nah,” He grinned, “Guest lecturer teaching my slot this week, so I got two hours free.”

“The beauty of teaching postgrad, I assume?” Hazel asked.

“You know it Levesque!”

“What are we getting?”

“Don’t know about you but I’m getting the ‘Jazz It Up’ sub, got to stick to my New Orleans heritage.”

“Good afternoon my favourite customers? Where’s the rest of the crew?”

Jason smiled brightly, “Hello Katie.”

“Annabeth is at work, she has some big contract finally closing up,” Leo said by way of greeting.

“Frank is doing the security rounds at the office,” Hazel offered.

“Thalia isn’t even in the country right now.” He shrugged

“There’s still someone missing,” She frowned, scanning their faces, “Piper! Where’s the pretty lady?”

“Oh,” Leo winced, “Yea that is a touchy subject.”

Katie gave them a sympathetic look, “Well what can I help you with today? The usual for you Haze?”

They all rattled off their orders and chatted with the owner of Garden Girl while they waited. Jason had met Katie when he was doing business courses for his urban and regional planning degree. Her forest green eyes and bright smile struck him stupid the first time he saw her in their Entrepreneurship and Business Management lecture. He never had the guts to make a move, but it didn’t matter because she had just entered a relationship with Travis Stoll. Now they’re married and expecting a child, as is the latest update.

“How’s Project Hestia going Grace?” Leo asked, pulling out a chair.

“Ugh I’m having a hard time with the outdoor center. I’m not gelling with the contractor, and I don’t know what to do,” He scrubbed a hand down his face.

“I know I can’t ask what exactly is wrong because of legal reasons but what do you need done?”

He motioned to Hazel to explain as he bit into his sub.

“Basically we want to create an outdoor recreation center for the community which includes a gym area, a kids’ area, movies, a park and picnic area, rock climbing, you know the usual.”

“Right that shouldn’t be too hard to draft up,” Dark eyebrows scrunched, “But this guy is what? Trying to fuck you over?”

“Essentially,” Jason nodded, “The problem is we don’t know how?”

“Okay give me the weekend and let me call up some people. I think I know someone who can help.”

His eyes widened, “You are literally the best friend in the entire world. We’ve been looking for weeks, and we haven’t found anyone else who specialises in this.” 

Leo squeezed his hand, “I’m not letting you get screwed over, and my buddy would be more than happy to do it.”

“What’s his name?” Hazel had her phone out, the notes app open.

“Harley, he’s was the youngest kid in our engineering course. I think he graduated with his masters when he was like twenty,”

Jason choked, “What?”

“The kid is incredible. He beat us regularly in our weekly electrotech competitions.”

“Well tell him to give us a call and I’ll set up a meeting with Jason next week. We have until next Friday before we sign contracts with Titan.”

“Sounds good,” Leo plucked a pen he kept behind his ear and scribbled something on his hand, “So Jase,” His grin was trouble.

The blonde narrowed his eyes, preparing himself for trouble.

“What happened with you and Percy? Last I heard you were going on a date on Tuesday and then getting married.”

It was Hazel’s turn to choke, and after she recovered smacked her boss on the shoulder, glaring as if to say what the hell did you not tell me?

He rolled his eyes at his best friend, “I didn’t even get his number because I left so abruptly. And anyway I hear he’s dating Reyna now.”

Leo’s hickory eyes widened, “He’s what?”

“Yea I went by the school about a month ago and Nico told me they were dating.”

“How do they even know each other?”

“They met at the school. She was visiting Nico and he was wanted to become a sponsor cause he used to go there.”

“Yea sounds about right, he’s crazy nice.” Leo nodded

“How have I never met him before the dinner?”

“He moves around a lot,” Leo shrugged, “I’ve only met him a handful of times because whenever he’s here he makes a point to visit Annabeth.”

“Well he sounds like an angel,” His assistant mused.

“Looks like one too,” He muttered, “It’s okay anyway cause I uh–“ He scratched the back of his neck.

“Oh my gods,” Hazel’s earthy eyes glittered, “You met someone!”

Leo clapped his hands, a smile as bright as the sun on his face, “Who are they?”

“We’ve been on one date so no making a big deal about it.” He gave them a pointed look, “But Thalia set us up and she’s… wow.”

“Oh you are real caught up, aren’t you?” They raised twin brows at him.

“She’s just indescribable. She’s gorgeous and that’s the least impressive thing about her.”

“Well tell us everything.” Hazel prodded.

“Okay she’s a vet. She has four sisters, but she doesn’t talk to them much. She believes in order, oh it’s glorious. Everything in its space and a plan for everything.” He looked at Leo then, to which his friend flipped him off and then motioned for him to continue.

“She eventually wants to open her own animal clinic. And most importantly she gets along with Thalia.”

“She sounds like a dream Jase,” Hazel squeezed his shoulder, “I’m really happy for you.”

Leo nodded, eyes bright with love, “You deserve some happiness bud.”

“Thank you guys,” He found it hard to breathe as the overwhelming gratitude he felt for his friends swept through his body.

“Valdez, you’re going to the lake cabins in a couple weeks, right?”

“Oh yep,” Leo wiggled his eyebrows, “And guess what?”

“You are not!” He yelled, and then lowered his voice, “You are lying to me right now.”

“Oh gods,” Hazel caught on, “Are you ready? No wait of course you’re ready! When, how, what?”

“I bought the ring a couple weeks ago. We’ve been talking about it for a few months and this just feels like the right time.”

Jason whistled, “My best friends are finally getting married.”

“Oh gods I hope she says yes,” Leo looked a little sick all of a sudden.

“Of course she’s going to say yes. You guys have been inseparable since that first maths lecture when we all went to the wrong class.”

“There’s no way she turns you down, I’ve seen the way you look at each other.” Hazel agreed.

“The way we look at each other?” Leo frowned at her, confusion evident in his face.

“Like you’re the only ones in the room. Like she is the match and you are the striker.”

Jason nodded, “The moment you two locked eyes at the bonfire it was like the universe threaded two strands through the same needle.”

“Well now I’m emotional and feeling much more confident about it.”

They laughed then, getting up to hug each other. Jason felt the world settle, still, slow. The wind whispered softly, and beams of sun caught between them. If nothing else he had this, and he would hold onto it until his bones were dust and his soul was a star once more.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

So many weddings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tags (if you want to be added to/ taken off the tag list just let me know, all my channels of communication are open): @lesbian-peanuts

@leydiangelo

@queen-of-demons-and-hell

@msdrpreist

@sparkythunderstorm​

@nishlicious-01

@lucyisblue

[katlyn1948]

Happy Sunday/Monday/Whatever day it is for you

I’ve been going back and forth on whether I or not I want to proceed with the current chapter of “Tale of Six Weddings” that I am working on or scrap the whole chapter and start anew. I can share what I have to begin with and get thoughts...only because I’m not sure of how it is going. I think it’s alright, but definitely needs some major re-work. Now would be a great time for someone to beta the shit out it... 

Without further ado, here it is...what I have been working on...

Gendry new Arya came from money, it was no surprise since her last name was Stark, but when he rounded the corner to drive down a never-ending driveway, he hadn’t expected the quaint house at the end of it. Its was small, by any means, but it wasn’t some grand mansion he had in mind either.

               It was the perfect size to house a family as large as the Starks, and still have room to accommodate any guests that decided to make a visit. And it was surprisingly homey.

               There were dog toys scattered across the lawn and a bike on its side perched by the stairs leading up to the porch. Several cars were already in the driveway and Gendry has to park his monster of a truck on the side of the house where Arya directed him to.

               It was a house that was definitely lived in; not just for the sole purpose of being on display. He could tell, but just the outside, that the Starks were a family unit that would be impossible to break up, no matter the situation.

               When his truck was finally parked and he turned off the engine, he noticed the hesitance in Arya’s eyes as she stared at the house before them. She had mentioned it had been near eight years since she was last home, and he could only imagine was memories were conjuring in her mind.

               Mindlessly, he grabbed her hand, squeezing it reassuringly.  

               It was a small gesture, but one that set his body aflame as his skin touched hers. He hadn’t meant for his hand to linger as on long as it did, but she made no move to pull it away, not until she gave a sharp nod and exited the vehicle.

               When he followed, he hadn’t expected the slight chill in the air. It was much cooler up here in the northern part of the region than it had been in King’s Landing. It was very different from the sticky heat, and a rather welcome reprieve to harsh summer slamming down in his hometown.

               No wonder Arya told him to pack warmer clothes. Albeit, he had to go out and buy some warmer clothes, considering his wardrobe consisted of t-shirts and shorts, with the occasional jeans, of course.

               “Are you cold?” Arya chimed as he pulled his sweater tighter around his body.

               Gendry shook his head, “No, why do you ask?”

               She smiled, a small laugh escaping her lips, “Because you’re shivering.”

               “Am I? Hadn’t noticed.” And he hadn’t. He was too preoccupied marveling that the house before him. He had never grown up in anything like what Arya’s childhood home was. Not even after Robert had found him. It was just him and his mother, up until her death, and then he moved into Davos’ place with his wife and their three sons. He was lucky to get the bathroom in time before the others did, let alone live in something as grand as her home.

               “Well,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “Let’s get this over with.”

               They made their way to the steps of her home with their bags in hand.

               Gendry could tell Arya was nervous, just by how reserved she was to enter. They stood outside in the crisp air for longer than Gendry would have liked, as Arya gathered the courage to enter. When she finally managed to step inside, they were greeted with nothing buy chaos.

               There were two young children screaming on the floor, a teenage boy and his girlfriend bickering on the couch in the living room. There were dogs running about, chasing after one another and the sounds of clattering in the kitchen wafting through the air.

               Who Gendry assumed to be Arya’s mother, had passed by their standing forms at least four times, with a phone pressed to her ear as she chided with someone on the other end.

               “I told you peonies, not daisies! My daughter’s wedding is tomorrow and you sent the wrong flowers! I need this corrected yesterday! We do not hav-” she stopped in her tracks, noticing them standing in the foyer. “I’ll have to call you back.”

She clicked off the phone in her hand and nearly ran to Arya, throwing herself into her arms and bringing Arya into a suffocating hug.

Gendry noticed the tension in Arya’s shoulders relax as she snaked her arms around her mother’s torso, squeezing her tightly.

“Oh my darling, girl! Why didn’t you tell you were coming today?”

Arya pulled from the hug and gave her mother a weak smile, “I wanted to surprise you.”

“Consider me surprised.” She turned to Gendry, giving him an interesting look. Like one of curiosity, but also scrutiny. He could see the gears working in her head, as if she couldn’t quite place him, but definitely recognized him. “And who is this?”

“Oh, mother…this is Gendry. He’s my…boyfriend.” Arya said a bit sheepishly. They had never actually called one another as ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend.’ It has always been ‘we’re together.’ The term has sent a chill down his spine, and he conceded that he quite liked the way it sounded coming from Arya’s lips.

“Ah, yes. I do remember Sansa mentioning that you would bring someone.” She extended her hand for Gendry to shake, and he gladly took it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Gendry, I’m Catelyn.”

“The pleasure is all mine, truly.” He smiled, putting his best foot forward. He wanted to impress Arya’s mother, even if their relationship was fake. They were, after all, trying to fool them.

“You won’t be saying that in a few days.” Arya scoffed as she took in the exchange.

Her mother gave her a disapproving look, before glancing back at Gendry.

He could tell there was judgement in her eyes, as if she didn’t truly trust him. And why would she? She has just met him.

“Yes, well…I must get back on the phone with the florist. They sent the wrong flowers; can you believe that? I specifically said peonies and they sent daisies! Your sister is allergic to daisies; I cannot have her turning into a balloon on her wedding day. If you’ll excuse me.” She straightened herself up and stalked off towards the kitchen with her cell phone glued to the face.

Arya let out a forced laugh, “Well that could have gone worse.”

Gendry shrugged, “I think it went fine. I’m sure your mother will be a bit cold towards me, but she doesn’t know me. I get it.”

“No you don’t.” she sighed. “Come on, my youngest brother is in the living room, so are my niece and nephew.”

Gendry followed her to the living room past the foyer. It wasn’t by any means a formal living room, but one that was used constantly by revolving family members. Gendry noticed the teenage boy cuddled on the couch with a girl about the same age. Their earlier bickering has ceased, and they were now watching some stupid cartoon on the tv in front of them.

The boy had the same shade of auburn hair as Arya’s mother, with the same light blue eyes. There was no doubt he belonged to Catelyn, where Arya was the complete opposite. The girl in his lap had a light shade of brown hair, almost matching that of Arya’s and her brown eyes glistened in the light of the tv.

“Don’t let mom see you on the couch like that.” Arya said as she threw herself in between the young couple. The teenage boy groaned and shoved her out of the way, clearly annoyed by his sister’s antics. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was his sister, someone he hadn’t seen in ages, that had wedged herself in between them.

“Arya? What the hell are you doing here?” He exclaimed as he pulled her into a bear hug.

“What, like I would miss Sansa’s wedding? I’m sorry, but do you think I have a death wish?” She turned her attention to the girl, a sneaky smile creeping on her face. “Ly, does your mother know you’re here?”

“Oh, shove off, Arya! Of course my mother knows! You think she would let me see Rickon if your mother wasn’t supervising? Not to mention, Tal and Sansa are somewhere around here.” She scoffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. “By the gods, we can’t get even a little privacy. You know Robb tasked us with watching the twins.”

“Well do you blame them. I heard what happened. As if mother would ever trust you two alone again.” Arya’s gaze shifted to Gendry. He was awkwardly standing from the couch, unsure of where to move. “Gendry don’t be shy. This is my brother Rickon and his girlfriend, Lyanna.”

Gendry shuffled his way to where they were sitting on the couch and gave a small smile, “Hi.”

“Wow, a man of many words. You sure know how to pick ‘em sis.” Rickon scoffed.

Arya punched his shoulder as she rose from the couch, a scowl etched on her face, “Don’t listen to him Gendry, he’s just sour.”

She grabbed his hand again and weaved them through her childhood home. It was bit like a maze, and he was sure he would need a map to figure out where the kitchen was again.

“What was that about?” He asked as she continued to show him her home.

“He’s mad that our mother won’t let him go anywhere unsupervised with Lyanna. They were caught having sex when my mother was literally down the hall. I remember that call from Sansa and I could hear my mother yelling in the background.”

“And that’s why they were watching the twins.”

Arya nodded, “Robb’s doing. A good way to make sure they keep out of trouble.”

“Who? The twins or the melodramatic teens?”

Arya let out a laugh and Gendry couldn’t help but smile at her outburst. It was stark difference to her earlier demeanor, and he was glad she was feeling more comfortable around her own childhood home.

As she pulled him to, what he assumed to be a den, he noticed four adults huddled around a table, laughing and enjoying a bottle of ridiculously expensive wine.

“Arya….Arya!” a woman with the same hair and eyes and Rickon and her mother screamed, as she jumped from her chair, throwing her arms around Arya. “I knew it! I knew you would come today! And this must be the person you were telling me about. My name is Sansa, the bride. I’ve heard very little of you, except that you are my sister’s boyfriend. Gosh, it is so nice to meet you an-”

“Gods, Sans, how much wine have you had?” Arya grimaced as she took in her sister’s breath.

“Like two glasses.” She shrugged.

Theon scoffed from behind her, “Try like five. We’ve been getting intoxicated while the youngsters watch the smaller youngsters.”

Arya scoffed, “Classic Theon. Tell me again why my sister agreed to marry you.”

“My charm. My wits. My devilish good looks,” he turned his gaze to Gendry, eying suspiciously. “Speaking of devilish looks, who let this brooding man in?”

“I’m Gendry. Arya’s boyfriend.” This time he was the one to introduce himself. He wanted to gage Arya’s reaction of the word, and as he suspected, her cheeks flushed, and her body went tense. He gave a cheeky smile, knowing her could rile up a reaction like that.

“Well it’s nice to meet the mysterious man my future sister-in-law had kept so well hidden.” He gave a pat on Gendry’s back before turning his attention to Sansa, resting his hands on her shoulders. “Come on, love, let’s get you to bed before your mother has another cow.”

He guided out of the den, leaving Robb and Talisa still perched at the small table.

Robb had a steady glass of beer in his hand, while Talisa sipped on her own wine respectively.

“Was that about the flowers?” Arya asked as she took her seat across from her older brother. Gendry followed, taking his own seat.

It was interesting to see Arya interact with her family. It was side of her he had yet to see, and he delighted in watching it. It made him wish he had grown up with that type of family dynamic. Sure, Davos and Mayra did all they could to make sure he was felt included, even their sons were like his brothers, but it was different. He had joined their family when he was fifteen; he hadn’t grown up with them, not really.

To see the ease she had around them, her family, he envied it.

“Unfortunately, it’s not just the flowers.” Talisa chimed. “The caterer cancelled last minute, and the venue flooded.”

“Then is there a bloody wedding to even go to?” Arya asked.

Robb nodded, “The wedding is going to be here, with about half the guest list. And…mother may ask you a favor.”

“And what is that?”

“Her wedding party was also cut by half. It’s only Talisa and Jeyne…and you.”

“Me! But I-no! I told Sansa I didn’t want to be in her wedding! I-”

“Ar, it’s our sister, come on.”

Arya slumped in her chair and Gendry instinctively put a hand on her shoulder.

“Well fuck.”

[purplesurveys]

1148

What was the last song you added onto your iPod or any music player? The most recent was What Type of X by Jessi on one of my Spotify playlists, but I’m due to add even more K-pop songs that have been recommended to me over the last few days by friends.

Grab the nearest book to you. What's the copyright date on it? No books in the living room to check.

Are you usually the one who throws the parties or attends them? Attend them. I do like being able to provide something fun for my friends but throwing one is so exhausting, and I usually end up never eating trying to make sure everyone is happy and that everything is going smoothly.

Do you ever look at the tags on a survey? Like, on Bzoink? I look at them but only to check if that tag can be a lead to see more interesting surveys to take.

What's your favorite flavor of popsicle? Chocolate.

Do you believe that one day the sun will burn out? Sure, but not for like several billion years from now.

Did you go see the movie The Great Gatsby? Nope. I don’t dislike it but I just never bothered to check it out, and I’m too lazy to check the plot anyway.

What's your homepage when you bring up the internet? I have an extension on Chrome called Momentum that gives me once nice nature photo a day and displays the time in big white text in the middle as well as my to-do list on the bottom right corner of the screen. I’ve had it for such a long time I don’t even remember what the default homepage for Chrome is when you open a new tab or window anymore.

What’s your favorite smell? I like sweet scents, like chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, anything being baked. I’ve started exploring scented candles recently and I usually gravitate to ones with scents like those, or ones with ocean notes.

Have you ever seen or been in quicksand? Never been. I feel like this was definitely something that was blown way out of proportion when I was a kid, because I remember seeing infographics about it in my books and fearing there would be quicksand everywhere I went lol.

Have you ever cracked your phone screen before? I have cracked all my iPhones’ screens, and I’ve had three of them. The one I have has been the most resilient, but only because my parents have invested in durable tempered glass and phone cases so that I don’t wreck my phone like in the past. I’ve still managed to give it very noticeable cracks though, lmao. I’m the world’s worst phone owner.

Do you like Train's music? Literally just the one that they blew up from, Hey Soul Sister.

How many different languages can you say "hello" in? Fun fact, we don’t even have direct translations for hi and hello in Filipino. That said, I know hello in several languages: Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, Chinese, and English.

True or False : Superman is your favorite super hero. False. I don’t like superheroes.

Do you like to look at license plates to see where people are from? Not really. The government recently modified the content seen on license plates, and the part about displaying the region where the car was registered had been removed a couple of years ago so all you’ll see is just the actual plate number code. But yeah, before that happened I usually liked to look at license plates for this reason, especially whenever I was travelling to a different part of the country.

When was the last time you went to Wal Mart? I’ve never stepped foot in one.

Nothing is worse than being sunburnt agree? I do remember the pain of getting sunburnt and it is not pleasant; but there are definitely worse sensations.

When is your last day of summer this year? I don’t go to school anymore. I also have no idea about the current school calendar ever since schools have had to adapt to online classes and Covid as a whole. I remember my UP friends tweeting about the start of the sem just last March 1st, and it surprised me because I thought they had started the semester all the way back in January, as was the standard pre-pandemic.

Have you ever seen the movie High School Musical? I was born in 1998. Of course I have seen the movie, I was definitely the target audience for it HAHA

Are you one of the oldest or youngest within your group of friends? I fall right in the middle since some were born in 1997 and others in 1999.

Do you ever have dreams where something happens and then it does? Sometimes.

Sunset or sunrise? Sunset.

One of the best feelings in the world is turning in a test agree? Not if you know you didn’t do well, lmao. I’ve taken tests where I turned it in just to get it over with but that I knew I didn’t get like 30–40% of the questions right.

Do you have a pair of Beat headphones? I have a pair of broken Beats headphones.

How was your week? Manageable, but nothing to write home about.

Are any of your electronics not working properly at the moment? My iPod hasn’t worked in years, but I also don’t use it anymore. The gadgets I frequently use are fine.

Are you excited to pick out your wedding dress one day? Yes, but it’d be nice to have someone else do it with me just so I don’t make any wrong style decisions.

When was the last time you felt relieved? This morning.

Does it bother you when an artist remake a song that one has previously done? No, but I also wouldn’t listen it because I don’t like covers.

What brand of ChapStick do you use? Isn’t Chapstick its own brand? Anyway, I don’t use lip balms.

[mrdanielbond]

Bond’s New Flatmate (Chpt. 9) Preview

Plot: You and Jonathan arrive in Geneva, a familiar face decides to give you a call.

A/N: For the full chapter I’ll place the link below as I’ve been uploading a hella lot on my AO3 account. I hope you enjoy this little piece and are compelled enough to read the full thing! Jonathan again is the man of your choosing.

The two of you sat in a train cabin, heading for the airport in Ireland after stopping for a connection flight to Geneva. During this time, you enjoyed the idea of going abroad with a friend as you hadn’t been abroad in years, maybe this was the well deserved break you were looking for after all. However, the handsome gentleman across you still left you with doubts ever since you decided to accept his offer. It did take you a few days and he was patient with you, then when you told him you would be joining you, he was elated.You hadn’t seen a man this way since your dear ‘husband’ had gotten married to you.

Oh yes. You forgot to tell Jonathan you were married.

***

The night manager stood at the counter smiling upon your arrival. “Good evening, I am the Night Manager, at your service.”

“Hello, I have a reservation under Harrington.” Jonathan stated.

“Harrington. Ah, we have been expecting you Mr. Harrington, you have booked the best room we have to offer. The Lake Geneva suite, five star quality, I’ll just grab the keys and show you to your room.”

The three of you made your way to the room together. Jonathan turned to you, seeing that you had your eyebrow raised and your arms folded. A reminder of the conversation you had on the plane, based on a joke about having a secretly prestigious background. The man turned to you and whispered, “It’s the name I have to use from the company. I know you’re looking at me as if I’m related to royalty, I swear to God I am not. My surname is far from it.”

Even with his breath against your ear, a tingling sensation emerged quickly. You know it was wrong and tried to push it away but this man had been winning and you were stuck under his spell for the time being.

“What is it then?” You boldly asked back.

Jonathan placed his finger on his lips and winked.

“Like that’s supposed to make it any better.” You rolled your eyes. The man had the nerve to keep even the simplest of things from you! That’s when you realised that on this trip, it was going to be your mission to get to know who you were now living with as much as you could.

The suite was incredible, and to your relief it was a two bedroom luxury suite on the top floor. It had a perfect view of the city and the nature behind it. The lake from a distance and its mountainous regions, but it also contrasted with the urban life below. Yet again, this wasn’t what you had expected to come from Jonathan.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take my bag.” You quickly stopped Jonathan and pulled your small suitcase from him.

“There she is again, wanting to be all Miss Independent. Well, there are two rooms, you get to decide which one to have and I’ll take the other.”

“Pine?”

“No.” He called through his room.

“Jonathan Pine - it has a nice ring to it.” You said smirking.

“I’m not named after a bloody tree.”

“I bet it’s something embarrassing like cocks or Dickon.”

“Jesus Christ, you must think my family really hate me. Of course it’s not!”

His comment made you grin. “Is it even English?”

“You’d be able to pronounce it just right. That’s all I’m going to say.”

“I’m starting to think your surname is actually Harrington.” You suddenly started as you sipped on the glass of wine, provided by room service. Your legs were placed to once side as you made yourself comfortable on the couch, already dressed in your long t shirt and shorts for bed soon.

Jonathan entered the living space and raised his head from his phone chuckling, “Believe what you want but I assure you it is not that.”

“Are you sure it’s not an embarrassing one? I will not make fun of you that is the case.”

“What is the deal with the surname talk? You plan on ratting me out to my boss or do you plan on marrying me? I wouldn’t mind being the first man to put a ring on your finger.” His laughter suddenly erupted and filled the room, caused you to nervously laugh with him. The latter at this stage was impossible for millions of reasons that you could not say aloud. You watched the man make his way to the glass coffee table and swipe his bottle of Guinness. You couldn’t let him have the upper hand, so you casually leaned back on the luxurious couch beside you, smirking as you took a sip from your wine.

“Look as much as the latter appeals to me, I want to know at least something about you that is at least as basic as your surname. You are literally a closed book! It is completely unfair that you know so much about me yet I know so little about you!”

Jonathan eventually turned to you and there was something about this man that also wound you up. It’s almost like he knew you inside and out, all the things you loved and hate about anything and everything but he still remained an enigma.

“Who’s fault is that?” He asked, catching your attention.

“Okay - it’s mine but still! Give me something!”

“In due time, good things come to those who wait.”

“Fuck this, I’m going to bed. Good riddance.” You let out a large huff and pulled yourself up. He quickly took your hand before you could leave, as you quickly spun round and almost tumbled into his lap, stopping yourself at an abrupt halt. Your hands were on his lap, intertwined with his. When your eyes moved up, you were caught in his orbs and time stopped for a moment. Your breath hitched and all thoughts in your mind left you blank.

“Ah, I’m sorry, let me just.” You quickly pulled your hand out of his and stood back.

“Oh no you have nothing to apologise for. I didn’t even realise I was doing that. I should be the one saying sorry.” He laughed nervously.

“No - no. It’s fine.” You tried to recollect your thoughts and remembered why you were standing in the first place. “Christ, I need some sleep.” You face palmed, “Don’t look at me, I’m going to walk back and if you try to grab my hand, you will not be using those to touch anything else, mister.” You sassily managed to retort. Your attitude caused him to laugh hysterically on the couch.

Here’s the link to the rest of the chapter:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18790765/chapters/44863414#workskin

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Disruption for Thee, But Not for Me

http://locusmag.com/2019/01/cory-doctorow-disruption-for-thee-but-not-for-me/

The Silicon Valley gospel of “disruption” has descended into caricature, but, at its core, there are some sound tactics buried beneath the self-serving bullshit. A lot of our systems and institutions are corrupt, bloated, and infested with cream-skimming rentiers who add nothing and take so much.

Take taxis: there is nothing good about the idea that cab drivers and cab passengers meet each other by random chance, with the drivers aimlessly circling traffic-clogged roads while passengers brave the curb lane to frantically wave at them. Add to that the toxic practice of licensing cabs by creating “taxi medallions” that allow businesspeople (like erstwhile Trump bagman Michael Cohen) to corner the market on these licenses and lease them to drivers, creaming off the bulk of the profits in the process, leaving drivers with barely enough to survive.

So enter Uber, an app that allows drivers and passengers to find each other extremely efficiently, that gives drivers realtime intelligence about places where fares are going begging, and which bankrupts the rent-seeking medallion speculators almost overnight.

Of course, Uber also eliminates safety checks for drivers (and allows them to illegally discriminate against people with disabilities, people of color, and other marginalized groups); it used predatory pricing (where each ride is subsidized by deep-pocketed, market-cornering execs) to crush potential competitors, and games the regulatory and tax system.

Uber (and its Peter-Thiel-backed rival Lyft) are not good companies. They’re not forces for good. But the system they killed? Also not good.

In 2016, the City of Austin played a game of high-stakes chicken with Uber and Lyft. Austin cab drivers have to get fingerprinted as part of a criminal records check, and Austin wanted Uber and Lyft drivers to go through the same process.

Uber and Lyft violently objected to this. They said it would add a needless barrier to entry that would depress the supply of drivers, and privately, they confessed their fear that giving in to any regulation, anywhere, would open the door to regulation everywhere. They wanted to establish a reputation for being such dirty fighters that no city would even try to put rules on them.

(Notably, Uber and Lyft did not make any arguments about criminal background checks perpetuating America’s racially unjust “justice system” in which people of color are systematically overpoliced and then railroaded into guilty pleas.)

Austin wasn’t intimidated. They enacted the rule, and Uber and Lyft simply exited the city, leaving Austin without any rideshare at all. All the drivers and passengers who’d come to rely on Lyft and Uber were out of luck.

But the drivers were undaunted. They formed a co-operative and in months, they had cloned the Uber app and launched a new business called Ride Austin, which is exactly like Uber: literally the same drivers, driving the same cars, and charging the same prices. But it’s also completely different from Uber: the drivers own this company through a worker-owned co-op. They take home 25% more per ride than they made when they were driving for Uber. Uber and Lyft drivers commute into Austin from as far away as San Antonio just to drive for Ride. That’s how much better driving for a worker co-op is.

I remember when the term “platform cooperativism” was first bandied about to describe this kind of thing. I was at a small, invitational tech conference where nerds, investors, activists, lawyers, SF writers and other technologically oriented types were gathered. I was on a panel about these platform co-ops and I said that I thought Uber would be really easy to replace with a co-op: the riders and the drivers valued the service, not the logo on the app, and plenty of people were happy about the convenience of Uber but unhappy about the creepy, rapacious nature of the company behind it.

An investor in the audience stood up to tell me how full of shit I was: I had no idea just how complicated Uber’s app and infrastructure were, and there was no way a bunch of grubby drivers would ever be able to match its expert coding and administration.

He was so wrong.

But there’s another, better argument against this kind of platform cooperativism: “discovery costs.” I first hailed a Ride car at South By Southwest, not long after Lyft and Uber had exited the city, and everyone going to the festival had been repeatedly warned that they would have to download the Ride app to get around the city (Austin’s taxi fleet hasn’t been up to the SXSW crowds for more than a decade, and never less so than now, having been crippled by Uber and Lyft).

So I was prepared. When I land in another city, the first app I try when I need to get around is Lyft, then Uber (Uber was a godsend in Shanghai, where we were repeatedly cheated by regular cab drivers, but where the Uber app kept everything aboveboard). Some or all of these cities might have co-op rideshares, but there’s no easy way to know about it, and without passengers, there’s no incentive for the drivers to drive for the co-ops, so even when you do try to hail a co-op, there won’t be any drivers available.

Lyft and Uber have moved back into Austin, and their drivers get fingerprinted. I just got my speaker-info package from SXSW for the 2019 festival, and the advice to download Ride before touching down is no longer the top of the checklist. I imagine that most of the attendees at SXSW will be getting around with Uber and Lyft, and 25% of the money they spend will go to those companies’ shareholders, not to the drivers.

But imagine a disruptive app that disrupted the disrupters.

Imagine if I could install a version of Ride (call it Meta-Uber) that knew about all the driver co-ops in the world. When I landed, I’d page a car with Uber or Lyft, but once a driver accepted the hail, my Meta-Uber app would signal the driver’s phone and ask, “Do you have a driver co-op app on your phone?” If the driver and I both had the co-op app, our apps would cancel the Uber reservation and re-book the trip with Meta-Uber.

That way, we could piggyback on the installed base of Uber and Lyft cars, the billions they’ve poured into getting rideshare services legalized in cities around the world, the marketing billions they’ve spent making us all accustomed to the idea of rideshare services.

This Meta-Uber service would allow for a graceful transition from the shareholder-owned rideshares to worker co-ops. When you needed a car, you’d get one, without having to solve the chicken-and-egg problem of no drivers because there are no passengers because there are no drivers. One fare at a time, we could cannibalize Lyft and Uber into the poorhouse.

The billions they’ve spent to establish “first-mover advantages” wouldn’t be unscalable stone walls around their business: they’d be immovable stone weights around their necks. Lyft and Uber would have multi-billion-dollar capital overhangs that their investors would expect to recoup, while the co-ops that nimbly leapt over Uber and Lyft would not have any such burden.

Could we do this?

Yes. Technically, this isn’t all that challenging. Create a service where drivers and passengers’ devices all register unique, per-ride codes, have the Meta-Uber check to see if the driver’s device has just posted a unique code that matches yours, and then use the built-in ride-cancelation tool that’s already incorporated into Uber and Lyft to tear down the old reservation and re-create it with Meta-Uber.

What about legal impediments, though?

That’s where the trouble starts. Tech law is a minefield of overly broad, superannuated rules that have been systematically distorted by companies that used “disruption” to batter their way into old industries, but now use these laws to shield themselves from any pressure from upstarts to seek to disrupt them.

First is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, passed in 1986 in part to assuage Ronald Reagan’s panic after seeing the movie Wargames (I am not making this up). CFAA is nominally an anti-computer-intrusion statute, which criminalizes “exceeding your authorization” on a computer that doesn’t belong to you. Even when it passed, more than 40 years ago, technologically clued-in scholars and practicioners warned that this was way too broadly defined, and that someday we might see this rule used to felonize normal activities involving computers we owned, because the computers would have to talk to a server to accomplish part of their work, and the server’s owner could use onerous “user agreements” and “terms of service” to define our authorization. If this became widespread, then these licenses could take on the force of criminal law, and violating them could become a jailable offense.

40 years later, those fears are vindicated: CFAA is used to threaten, intimidate, sue, and even jail people engaged in otherwise perfectly lawful activity, merely because they have violated some term of service on the way. The metastasis of terms of service into sprawling novellas of impenetrable legalese has created a world where anything you do to frustrate the commercial ambitions of digital monopolists is a potential criminal offense.

Then there’s Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, a Bill Clinton bill that creates a felony for “bypassing an effective means of access control” (AKA Digital Rights Management or DRM) for copyrighted works. Twenty years ago, the proponents for this bill argued that it would be used to safeguard certain marginal commercial technologies: under DMCA 1201, it would be illegal to bypass the region controls on a DVD player, allowing movie studios to force you to buy your DVDs in the same place where you bought the player – it would also allow Sega to force you to buy your Dreamcast games on CDs that came from official Sega pressing plants, rather than direct from the games’ authors, ensuring that Sega would always get a share of the revenues from the sale of games you played on your console.

Again, experts warned Congress that DMCA 1201 was way too broad and would be ripe for abuse, as software crept into more systems. Again, the experts were right. Today, DRM is used to force people with artificial pancreases to buy proprietary insulin and people with inkjet printers to buy proprietary ink; it’s used by car manufacturers and phone manufacturers to control who can make parts for their products and who can service them; it’s found in voting machines, tractors, thermostats, virtually every device with software, and it has no connection with copyright enforcement. Rather, it is used for “business model enforcement,” to ensure that disruptive, but legal, ways of using a product or service are made illegal – from refilling your printer’s ink cartridge to getting your car or phone serviced by an independent neighborhood repair shop.

Together, the CFAA and DMCA have given digital businesses access to a shadowy legal doctrine that was never written by Congress but is nevertheless routinely enforced by the courts: Felony Contempt of Business-Model.

The CFAA and DMCA 1201 have been carefully distorted into defensive, anti-disruption shields that are only available to digital businesses. Taxi medallion owners can’t use the CFAA and DMCA 1201 to keep Uber and Lyft out of their cities.

But Uber and Lyft could use these legal tools to keep Meta-Uber out of their bottom lines. Uber and Lyft have lengthy terms-of-service that set out the rules under which you are authorized to communicate with Uber and Lyft’s servers. These terms of service prohibit using their servers to locate drivers for any purpose other than booking a ride. They certainly don’t permit you to locate a driver and then cancel the booking and re-book with a co-op app.

And Uber and Lyft’s apps are encrypted on your phone, so to reverse-engineer them, you’d have to decrypt them (probably by capturing an image of their decrypted code while it was running in a virtual phone simulated on a desktop computer). Decrypting an app without permission is “bypassing an effective means of access control” for a copyrighted work (the app is made up of copyrighted code).

Uber and Lyft can use DMCA 1201 to stop you from figuring out how to use them to locate co-op drivers, and they can use the CFAA to stop you from flipping your booking from Uber to Meta-Uber.

There are a hundred other Metas we can imagine: a Meta-Amazon that places your order with the nearest indy bookstore instead; a Meta-OpenTable that redirects your booking to a co-op booking tool.

Every single one of these co-ops would disrupt a digital monopolist who came to power preaching the gospel of disruption. Every single one of those digital monopolists would switch to the aggrieved bleats of a bewildered incumbent apex predator snarling and twisted impotently as its flesh was rent by a thousand tiny bites from swarms of fast-moving, highly evolved successors.

But we never get to bring those lumbering relics down, not so long as felony contempt-of-business-model is still in play in America. Until then, disruption will always be for thee and never for me.

[ryuzakisan]

Yagami Light’s Biggest Mistakes

Before you start reading this, I want you to keep in mind that:

- My native tongue is not English. I apologise for all the mistakes I might have made.

- I don’t want anyone to get offended by anything I write, because I definitely do not hate Yagami Light. I will just be stating my objective opinions about him.

- It’s been a long time since I last watched the anime, so I might have remembered some things wrong. Please correct me if you notice anything like that.

- If you think I am wrong or there’s a detail I missed, please share them with me. Reading your opinions would be a pleasure.

- If you have anything to ask me about this article-kinda-thing or anything else related to Death Note, you can submit questions.

In my opinion, none of Death Note characters were %100 pure and innocent. Most of the characters weren't even the kind of people they claimed to be, especially Yagami Light and L Lawliet.

Who we will discuss about in this article is the main character Yagami Light. In the whole anime/manga, he had one ideology. To provide justice to the world full of rotten people by killing criminals and eventually become the God of the new world that he aspired to create. It, of course, wasn't the easiest thing to do. Even though there were lots of people who worshipped Kira already, there were also people who contemplated Kira's actions as crime and stood against him. As a result of that, Light had to deal with various hardships that came in his way in order to prevent from getting caught by his biggest enemy L, the greatest detective in the world who also considered himself as justice. 

In the fight of the world's greatest detective and world's greatest serial killer, Light made multiple mistakes that caused him being L's number one suspect. These, in my opinion, were his biggest mistakes:

 1) Killing Lind L. Tailor in the live broadcast: 

He basically revealed that;

 He lived in the Kanto region in Japan. (It was first told that the broadcast was live worldwide which probably gave Light the courage to kill Lind this easily but, in fact, L was planning to do the broadcast in every region of Japan at different times to find out where Kira could be living and he started with Kanto since it had the biggest population out of others, so that was basically a trap.)

He was able to kill from distance and (since there was no way Kira could be in the highly-protected studio) the only thing he needed, in order to kill someone, was to know their name and face. L proved how Kira kills for the second time after Lind’s dead body’s vision faded away, his signature appeared on the screen and he told that the person who had just died wasn’t actually him and challenged Kira to kill him.

The two clauses you have just read above were really efficient and helpful for L to find out who Kira could be. In addition to that, Light killing Lind also gave clues to L about what kind of a person Kira could be. He made sure that;

Kira was childish and certainly hated to lose, considering on how fast he could kill an innocent person (Lind was actually a high profile criminal who was sentenced to death) just because he stood against him and basically told him what he was doing was wrong and he was a criminal.

2) Changing the time of killings:

Since Light’s dad, Soichiro Yagami, was working for the police; Light had the opportunity of hacking their system and see how the Kira investigation went. By the help of that, he realised L already suspected Kira could in fact be a student considering on the victims he picked (they were mostly shown in the evening news) and the time period he chose to kill them. That’s why he decided to change the time of killings. I can’t say it was the best decision because when he did that, L:

Immediately noticed either Kira could have hacked their system or someone had been leaking private information about the case for some time.

The possibility of Kira being a student had increased since it definitely was abnormal for Kira to change the time of killings right after L had the suspicion.

NOTE: If my memory doesn’t serve me wrong, Light found out he could control the time of his victims’ death after he realised L was suspicious about Kira being a student. That’s why I definitely don’t think changing the time of killings was Light’s biggest mistake because he was so new at using Death Note and he still had a lot to learn.

3) Killing Raye Penber:

I can’t decide if Raye Penber’s death was necessary. When I think about it, it sometimes makes sense and sometimes it just doesn’t. That’s why I divided this part into two sections: Excuses for Light to kill Raye Penber and Why Light shouldn’t have killed Raye Penber.

Excuses for Light to kill Raye Penber:

After Ryuk told Light he was being followed by a stranger, Light immediately answered him saying whoever was following them was probably an agent and he would get rid of him as soon as he saw the agent’s face and found his name. For me, that was the second time his Kira self took over Light (the first one was when he killed Lind L. Tailor.) because there was someone who was after the person that was supposed to be the God of the new world and that person was trying to prevent him from providing justice.

He made a perfect plan not only to murder Raye, as well as murder all other FBI agents that were on duty of following the other suspects. He knew he would be under danger if he killed Raye only.

Why Light shouldn’t have killed Raye Penber:

After following Light for some time, Raye was not suspicious of him anymore. The last day of Raye following him was indeed when Light planned all the chaos in the bus just to find out Raye’s real name. Although the fact that Light couldn’t have known if Raye still doubted that Light could be Kira makes this clause certainly invalid.

Light never intended to kill his victims outside his room as long as it was necessary which means there was literally no way he could do something suspicious as Raye was following him.

Naomi doubted one of the suspects Raye was following could be Kira. Because, before his death, Raye had told her about what occurred in the bus and Naomi had some reasons (especially the criminal dying because of a heart attack) to think it could be something related to the case. After he died, she was sure that she was right about her thoughts. That’s why she immediately tried to communicate with L. If Light didn’t meet her by coincidence, he would surely be under danger. In addition to that, by killing Naomi, he put himself into a higher risk in my opinion. Even though she didn’t manage to communicate with L, it was later told to L that she tried and when she went missing, Light would have become the main suspect if L thought Naomi was murdered by Kira.

For me, by killing all the FBI agents, he confirmed that Kira was in fact one of the suspects, he was still able to reach information about the case and he would continue killing whoever comes in his way to stop him, which is surely opposite to his ideology and is just another proof that he is childish. Instead of killing the agents, he should have waited for Raye to be convinced Light was innocent and stop following him. Then he wouldn’t have to act inconsistent to his motive. 

4) L’s test:

After “Ryuga Hideki” confessed Light that he was indeed L, he basically told him that he thought Light had a strong sense of justice, he had great deductive skills and because of that, he wanted to work together with him in order to catch Kira. However, before accepting Light to be a part of Task Force, L had to make sure if Light really isn’t Kira. These were at least what L said, nevertheless Light already knew L wasn’t genuine about any of that.

L eventually took Light to a cafe and showed him the pictures of what victims in jail wrote on the walls (Those writings were, for sure, a taunt to confuse L, but also a proof that Kira could control his victims’ actions before their death.) then asked him about his thoughts. Light, of course, found the secret message behind the notes immediately: L, do you know Shinigami loves apples? 

Right after Light found the message, L showed him another picture which was fake and told Light that there was actually another note but Light acted like he knew there was three of them and never asked if they were the only notes that were left. In addition to that, the fact that Light kept insisting if there were three notes, his theory would be perfect did nothing but increase L’s suspicion about him being Kira. Plus, Light was the only person in the entire Task Force who could see things from Kira’s point of view and answer all of L’s questions easily and quickly. 

In my opinion, instead of being competitive, he should have focused on his number one priority, which was obviously decreasing L’s suspicions on him and killing him eventually. So basically he should have played the stupid.

5) Calling Misa:

When Misa and “Ryuga Hideki” first met , she knew that “Ryuga” was lying about his name (because Misa had the Shinigami eyes) but she wasn’t aware that she was talking to L indeed. When Light realised that he could have used Misa and L’s unexpected meeting as an advantage to kill his biggest enemy, L had already collected enough evidence to prove Misa was Kira 2, which increased the possibility of Light being Kira 1.

Once Misa and her manager left, Light immediately called her to ask Ryuzaki’s real name. However Ryuzaki caught him, because he had stolen Misa’s phone when she was with them. So he was the one who picked up the phone and because of that, Light just made things even more obvious. Light, of course, couldn't have known Misa was going to be taken under custody for being the second Kira, although he should have waited for asking her for Ryuzaki's real name.

Thank you so much for taking your time and reading all of this. I hope you liked it! (:

[peachyjie]

Royals and Diamonds || Huang Justin

— Author Note :

Hey, she’s back and settling down once again to write.

Being fair, I really miss writing during my hiatus. I swear I thirst so much to pull my hands and type during my time in the hotel room all alone with just my phone. So, here I am. I dedicate this piece as my comeback from that hiatus, sorry for the long wait guys. Enjoy :)

— Wc : 7K+

— Pairing : Huang Ming Hao - Reader

— Genre : Royal!au + slight!angst + fluff

— Summary : A caretaker and a royal, being faced by their feelings. Where’s the only problem is the question if a royal can ever be together with a lower rank status or not? Will it ever be a sin if such royal decided to dedicate his future by breaking his own royal law?

Huang Ming Hao, Justin Huang. Isn’t it cute to suddenly imagine him being a royal? The next heir to rule on the throne of the Huang Kingdom, the young growing teen who’s growing into a very dashing fine man despite he’s only 15?

To compound Justin Huang in a nutshell will be hard, because his life is too complex to even be put into a small compartment to be concluded. Let’s start from his early days, despite he is the youngest out of the 9 Power Kingdom. This is the early life of Huang Justin, the royal of the Huang Kingdom. The child who’s already destined which path he should take, without any freedom to choose his future as he was forced to be what he is born for.

The Kingdom of Huang, a place or kingdom where the sun shines the brightest. All seasons always warm and cheerful, where the skies stay blue even when a light shower came. The land filled with smiles and cheers, peace and endless love to the royal family.

Justin is born with love and attention, love from both of his royal families and love from his own citizen who celebrated his arrival to the world. He was more than proud to be born and raised as a royal, despite having the packed schedule to study and train and study and train again. He didn’t mind it one bit, he always dreamed for his time to come and lead the Kingdom. He wants to be ready.

He could say that he’s well acquaintance with the other 8 Kingdoms in view. He aspired to be as powerful like a Wang one day, to fight well like the Fan, to negotiate beautifully like a Chen, but not get himself killed like a Cai.

To say it directly, he hated the Cai. He hated their ego, their pride to think they’re the best when everyone knew it’s the Wang without a second glance. But also, because Xukun once broke his train sets when he was like 7 or something and never even apologize to him. Call him petty to hold onto that grudge for 5 years already, he didn’t care.

Huang Justin is also hard-headed, very self-centered and too independent. He doesn’t like being bothered, to be more precise he doesn’t necessarily like being helped or babied. So, when his parents bought him a caretaker when he was 12, he pretty much hated everything about her. He finds her very much too annoying and too bossy, he finds her babying him too much on his studies, he finds her too uptight on his own schedule, and he finds her babying him too much.

He hated you

You weren’t a natural born royal, but you grew up and spend most of your childhood in the Huang’s humble castle grounds. Being the daughter of the most loyal and trustful servant of the king and queen, you already knew where your path lies.

To serve and obey the royal, and you didn’t mind it one bit. You know the simple etiquette for a royal, discipline and polite, and calm. Well you tried to be calm dealing with the lovable prince of Huang. Despite they say he’s already very much very mature for his age, you would say otherwise.

Because you’re not dealing with an actual royal, a mature soon-to-be crowned king.

You were dealing with an actual child

He was only 12 when you first met him, a 4 years gap which wasn’t so bad. You were a teen and he was growing into one, you hope. The thing that irk you was his putrid manner, he literally ignored your whole existence when you came into his life. Like a little prick, he does everything to make your life like hell.

Like Justin explained before, he doesn’t like being babied and being told off to. So, when you came barging into his life, he sees you more of a brick wall that will just interfere with his future plan. Hence making him the most annoying kid in the whole universe.

“That’s not the spoon we use to drink the soup, Prince Huang”, you once said to him. He only stared at you, a visible glint of mischief in his eyes.

“I do what I want”, he said. Purposely he would throw his dining utensils between one another to make those annoying clinking sound, which would surely get him kicked out in a formal dining between the royals dinner or such. So, what did you do? Forcement method, make him learn the hard way.

Oh, you can so conclude he hated you more since then.

Surprisingly, 2 years passed like a swish and you managed to cope up with his antics, tantrums, whatever you want to call it. You could say you lost count on how many headaches you’ve handled, how much pent up emotions you wished you could direct it all out to him, and how amazing you manage to not murder the favorable angel of the Kingdom.

You thought you had to deal with more of his tantrum on the following years, it was until the extent you tried to believe and pray for miracle to happen.

And it did, that miracle is the most lovable, mature, actual human sunshine Chen Li Nong. You could never be more grateful of his existence making a surprise visit to the Huang. Linong literally made the stop to rest at the Huang’s humble home after striking the all time deal with the You Kingdom. Giving you the one and only chance to see Justin being all giddy and less than annoying for the first time in your life.

“Ahh, you must be this child’s caretaker?”, he said. You smiled politely at him and my oh my, he was literally the actual definition of an actual living sunshine. “Linong, Chen Li Nong from the Chen Region”, he introduced himself. “Your stay is our greatest pleasure, Prince Chen”, you said before he was dragged out by Justin to catch up.

Linong stared when they were already in a decent distant from you, he stared at the younger. “I don’t understand you sometimes, Huang”, he said. Justin only scoffed and guided him to the guest room Linong usually occupied when he plays to his kingdom.

Linong slumped down on the bed, feeling the relief to feel an actual mattress instead of velvet cushioned chair. “She’s a beautiful muse, perfect”, Linong said as he faced Justin who’s opening the window to let fresh air in the bedroom.

“She is”, Justin said. A small smile played on the yellow turnip’s face, his eyes glints in wonder. Linong stared at the younger in amusement, he finds his own limbs take place to where the younger is standing. His eyes locked on your figure, who’s chatting aimlessly with one of the servants who’s trimming the bushes. Justin awed a little on the small interaction, which caught Linong in surprise.

“You like her”, Linong stated.

Justin only stared at Linong, his chin resting on his hands which are being held by the windowsill. His eyes locked on Linong’s which is filled with excitement, his was filled with adoration. He pulled up a bigger smile, his cheek slightly tinted.

“I never said I hated her, have I?”

“Well you made it seems like you do”, Linong pointed out. Justin only hummed in approval, the older wasn’t wrong. “I don’t deal with feelings too well, you know this”, he said.

“Ahh, a 14 year old sprouting love”, the sunshine teased. Justin only smiled adoringly, his eyes still glued at you who’s laughing for whatever had happened.

“Who knows, maybe it’s only puppy love or such.”, he said. “But I never hate her, I would never”

*****

You would never know what did Linong do to Justin during his short stay, all you knew the progress happened quickly. Mostly, you assumed Justin was on his puberty mood-swing phase and ended up being the nicest kid when he hits his 15.

He would still annoy you whenever he can, but it wasn’t too much of a hassle. At least he did open up to you, just a slight change but it was better than nothing.

Wearing your usual outfit, a simple white shirt with a pair of black jeans. A small yellow diamond rested itself on your collar, a symbol of the Kingdom’s warmth and color. It was tea time, or more to a sugar spree for the young prince.

He hummed when he caught the scent of the freshly brewed tea, paired with the sound of the fluid gentle flow as it hits the bottom of the porcelain teacup. “Two cubes”, he said in pure excitement on the sight of the cubes. You chuckled and nodded.

“I know”, you said and plumped two in his fair of cup.

Slowly he took the warm cup, sipping it slowly to not burn the tongue of his.

Tea time, in the meaning also as his alone time to relax and forget as he feeds himself away in a sugar rush. You began tidying the table bit by bit, occasionally filling his cup whenever it’s almost empty as he devours the shortcake and scones on his plates.

He would occasionally let out a small sight in content, his lips tugged into what you would call an angelic smile.

Beautiful

“Come with me”, he spoke out suddenly.

Your hands stopped every movement, afraid losing any balance and would ruin the expensive porcelain his family got from England. You stare at him, slight confusion in your eyes.

He smiled, sweet like honey and soft like the clouds.

“To the gala, come with me”, he said. The gala, the annual gala everyone had waited for the entire year. How could you forget such important date, The Cai’s Annual Gala

“Your mother already disapproves this”, you calmly stated. Taking another sweet to put on his plate but he only shook his head as his eyes still locks on yours.

“Your mother already found your own partner, I heard she’s the younger sibling of Prince Fan”, you said mindlessly tidying the plates and cups. You knew this already, he had been bugging you and simply asking you the same question every single time, every single moment. You rejected him all the time, despite the countless rejection for the past month, he still ask you anyways.

“I am not fit for such thing”, you said. He stared at you, a little bit of sad glaze slides in his eyes. You sighed. “I am not a royal, I am not fit to go to such high meeting”, you concluded.

“But, you have me. I am a royal”, he said in a persistent tone. “I have to go with a partner, Y/N. And I can’t go without a partner, where shall my face land?”, he whined.

You smiled a little at his tone, like a small child asking for a candy

“That’s why your mother already found and arrange your meeting with young Princess Fan”, you said as you tried to shut him off. “Go with her, you’ll have fun”, you assured him.

“If it’s not you—“, he trails. His eyes locks at yours, raw and tension mixed in one as his orbs pierced itself on yours. You gulped on the sudden intensity the young royal gave out, a somewhat dominating presence.

“—I’m not going”, he said.

“What nonsense are you playing?!”, you jumped by the sudden shriek whilst he was unbothered. He stares at the intruder in such boring gaze, you thought he would fall asleep in spot.

It wasn’t a joke, or a simple prank to give anyone a heart attack. He didn’t mind going with his caretaker, the only person who knows him despite his torture on her for the past 3 years. He finds himself more comfortable around her, he was able to be himself when she’s around. He’s serious on bringing you to the annual ball, he didn’t care if you’re not a royal. To him, you’re far more worth than a royal. Beautiful and elegant in your own way, intimidating and fierce in an amazing way.

He loves it

“M-My Queen”, you stuttered out as you bowed at his mother, the Queen herself stood in front of you.

“Rise, my child”, she said shortly.

The young prince didn’t do anything, he just stood there watching without even giving a single bow to his own mother. You stare in horror at his etiquette and beg him to not let his ego win. Well, what did you expect? He simply threw his face away from his own mother, the queen to pay interest in those tea leaves that had been stuck on the white surface of the teacup.

His mother didn’t pay any mind towards her son’s attitude, she knew this is one of his petty pest taking over him. You only stared in horror, the amount of odd string being pulled between the Queen herself and her own son who paid no mind to her existence.

“I-I am sorry by his sudden behavior, my Queen”, you splashed the words out in a hurry. The young royal only stared at you in a sad glance, it wasn’t even in your place to protect him.

“What do you want, mother?”, he said.

You swore, you wished you could slap the ego in his voice as it was laced with pure cockiness and a sack of pride. “That’s not a tone to be used when you speak to your mother”, the Queen glared at her own son.

When she turned her head to face yours, you sucked up a breath hoping for the best.

“I would want to have a word to my son, Y/N”, she said. “Privately”, she ended in a press. You nodded and soon took your leave despite the gaze the young royal gave out as a sign for you to stay by his side. But you didn’t pay any mind to his silent plead, it wasn’t your place to be anyway.

When both has seen your silhouette disappeared, shadow swallowed in the far end of the garden’s door, the mother spoke out again.

“It’s the Cai’s Annual Gala, I suppose you knows how we are always invited every year”, she stated. He only grumbled and decided to find other objects to pay his mind on. Either it was the sunny blue skies or the green fresh trees.

“I’m not dumb, I know what this Gala meant to our family”, he said coldly.

“Good”, she smiled proudly. “You’ll be leaving in a week, I’ve arranged your suit and other jewelries for you to be worn in the Gala later on. About your partner, I’ve received the letter from the Fan this morning, such lovely young lady who’s smitten by—"

“I will not go to the gala with the Fan’s sister, mother”, he hissed out. The older female only stared at her son in surprise. “I’m not giving my hand to be held unwillingly by the Fan’s, she’s smitten by another royal and I’m not in place to make such drama”

“Then who do you have in mind?”, she stared at him coldly.

A tug of mischief finds itself on his eyes and mouth, he stare at his mother. “That, I think you know who I have in mind”

“You are not taking your caretaker as your partner to the gala”, she hissed out like venom.

“Then I’m not going”, he said as he stood up from his seat. His mother stared at him in horror, a royal and a low life in the Cai’s gala, stupid.

“What game are you playing against your status and this Kingdom?!”, her hand slammed loudly on the glass table, impacting the other porcelain as it clutters against each other by the sudden force. “You have your responsibility as the next heir, I did not teach you to be such a brat!”

He stared at his own mother in amusement, it had been some time since she let her fury out. But he knew, he was winning.

“I have my own responsibility as a soon-to-be King, I realized that”, he travels out the words slowly. Irking the tone, making it very much spiteful.

“But I also my own rights to choose my own path, mother”, he said.

“NONESENSE!”, she spites back at her son, he didn’t waver a single bit on her tone

“You never raised me to be a true King, mother”, he stared at the Queen coldly. Each words were like venom and knives piercing themselves on his mother. “I was raised by the royal tutor, he who teaches me all the knowledge and responsibility that lies upon me. I was raised by my father, a true king and fighter who fought in many wars as he teaches me how to be strong for myself and for the kingdom. It was a shame he died before I could even properly hold my sword—“, he chuckled

But I was raised by my caretaker the most, she who teaches me etiquette, accompanied me during my self-defense class, who knows not just my schedule but also who I am. You never raised me, you forced me into things I never wanted”

The fury in her eyes poured out a bigger fire in her system, she swung her hand to her son’s face. He knows her antics, before long he stops the sudden force as he held his mother’s hand in place, firmly. A look of disbelief on her face, her mouth gapes open by the sudden action.

“You are not forcing me into your wishes without my consent, mother”, he hissed out. “I am not going to sit down silently as you make plans to a future where I am miserable. I have my own rights to choose where my path lies, as a prince and as a soon-to-be King”, he said as his grip tightened a little on the Queen’s hand.

“You don’t even have anyone to wed to be a King”, she said back

This made him smile, a glint of softness in his once cold gaze. “That’s what you thought”, he said calmly.

“I know my future, from who I shall bring to the gala as I introduced the girl in my hands proudly to the other royal until who I shall marry in the future making her a queen, my queen”

And with that he throws the Queen’s hand from his grip, taking his leave without a single bid of goodbye to his mother.

He wasn’t letting her control him anymore, its not her place. He wasn’t going to live in a life where he’s being controlled against his own will, he wasn’t going to live in a life where he’s far pressed just by a certain status. This time, he’s choosing his life. Who he shall be, his paths, but also who shall take him fully and claim him as theirs.

He knows who going to take that place, he was only reserved for one person and he knows too well he’s going to marry you one day.

At the end of the day, making you his queen

*****

The halter top dress is pretty much very comfortable when it hugs your figure. The golden-yellow colored hue was sure to catch a lot of attention as you passed by, but you chose to pay no mind on it. You stared at your arms linking itself on Justin’s hold, an obvious grin on his face.

“I would never understand how you manage to get this to happen”, you said

His lips tugged into a bigger smile, this time it was more than satisfaction, smug and playful. He clucked his tongue in a playful manner, a hand playing with his waxed hair as he pulls it here and there.

“I get what I want”, he said.

You didn’t know how long did the gala last, but you knew there was more drama being putted in this year’s annual gala. It was amusing going to a royal gala, especially since you’ve never been into one. It struck you like stars when you saw the Wangs with your own two eyes, how they stride in like they own the place.

But you never knew Justin was close with them, or with the princess herself

Occasionally throughout the night you felt the off churns in your system, as if you felt sick. Your gaze wander around the young royal who’s conversing with the female Wang. Tall, lean and strong, very beautiful. You wouldn’t be surprised to see Justin being completely smitten by the other female, everyone is.

But why did it felt like everything is wrong? That the sudden sickness was stuck on your throat as your eyes burn in fury when you see Justin’s arms circled itself around the female Wang to protect her from Prince Cai? It wasn’t possible, you couldn’t possibly be smitten by Justin.

You’re his caretaker, his somewhat tutor. Years passed since you met him, watching him grow to be the royal he stood now. You were proud of him, amaze with his improvements. Why does this seems off to you then? You know him by now, a child but also a royal. It was always between you and him in the Kingdom, taking care of him but also knowing who he truly is. Why now? Seeing Justin conversing to one royal to another royal, you realized you would never stand like him. You found your hand gripped on the champagne glass tight, a harsh weight on your throat.

“Y/N?”

You snapped back from your own trance, gasping quite loud when you saw Linong standing in front of you with an expression of shock and glee.

“Prince Chen”, you blurted out.

“It’s great seeing you here”, he said in much joy. Linong turned around, finding his ways on the large ballroom, trying to find a certain thing or person. “Where’s that child?”, he asked finally.

“With the Wang”, you simply said.

Linong nodded knowingly, he knew Justin is apparently very close with the female Wang. Everyone knows it, it was as if she was his sister from a different family.

You smiled at him, knowing with this you could busy your mind with this odd conversation aside of thinking about the young royal.

“I never thought to see you again”, he suddenly said catching you off guard. Probably noticing the tone and wording, Linong gawped in horror. “I-I’m sorry! That’s not what I meant—I mean—Oh lord Chen Li Nong!!”, he stuttered out in shame.

“No, it’s fine!”, you said back to the flustered royal.

You waited for him to take a deep breath, calming himself in the end. A tinge of pink still on his face, but his smile forever will decorate his face.

“I meant—I never thought I would see you so suddenly in a place like this”, he pointed out. You only laughed softly at him, nodding. “Prince Huang has his own way”, you said.

“I’m sure he does”, Linong said.

“Linong?”, a sudden subtle soft voice called out. Linong turned around slightly, his face contorted into pure joy by the sudden intruder

“Hey, beautiful”, he said softly. It’s like as if everything was so familiar to them already, everything unravel itself as if it was a script. Small hands that found itself circling around Linong’s as he pulls her closer to his side, he smiled to her. The smile with pure adoration and softness

Pure beauty, like a goddess. Delicate and soft like a feather, sweet and beautiful like a flower. The Princess of Lin, the girl who’s smitten for the young Prince Chen. She looked so small and fragile in Linong’s hands, polite and pretty much raised as a true royal.

“Hello”, she greeted. You bowed a little knowingly, a smile on your face. “Evening, Princess”, you said softly.

“This is my childhood friend, Princess Lin from the Lin’s Kingdom”, Linong said as his tone laced with pure pride. “I’ve heard, her beauty does out best the others”, you said teasing the young princess. She only laughed politely and brushed your compliment as she felt shyer than ever. It didn’t took long for her stay, she dashes away as soon as she exchanged some words with Linong, to her brother’s side who’s with his fiancée.

“I heard from Justin beforehand, his mother was forcing him to marry her”, Linong trailed. You grew rigid on the sudden topic, shaking the pressure off you continued. “I’m aware”, you said.

“The Lin’s life isn’t the best”, Linong said as he stared at the other female in a sad gaze. “She lives without any love from her parents, her brother is ruthless and very much cold to everyone. It amazes me to see such royal family exist sometimes”

You only hummed, glancing your way on the young Princess. She smiled wide when she sensed Linong’s gaze on her, giving a small wave which he replied back with a small smile.

You could see Linong truly cared about her, like a lover. His gaze broken knowing what had lied on the young royal’s life, she was broken. You smiled at Linong’s obvious feelings for the other female royal. Linong sighed.

“Congratulation on your marriage”, you said out of the blue. Linong stared at you in shock, soon his face softened up with the sudden future he’s having. He smiled and thanked you, it didn’t took long for his eyes to wander itself back to the young female royal.

He hummed in approval seeing her smile when she’s having a small talk with Prince Fan. “She’s beautiful when she smiles”, Linong said. “She is”, you nodded.

“I wish nothing but happiness for her, an oath to protect that smile on her face”

*****

Nothing was more amazing or annoying than an unplanned visit. Meaning by an unplanned visit, you meant standing in sleep deprived mode at 2AM in the morning in the Wang’s Kingdom. How did this happen, you may ask?

It all started with a lovely gala. Glamorous food on the long buffet table, classical music playing as it fills the giant ballroom, odd conversation between one royal to another, their beloved Prince Cai being smitten by the female Wang in just a night, until him getting into the wrath between the hand of the male Wang.

It’s more amazing to know that everything happened in just a night, then a few days later you’re with Justin in the Wang’s castle witnessing such fight in early morning hue.

You didn’t know how you manage to end up in the Wang’s Kingdom so early, so sudden. Everything happened in a blur. You remembered Justin barging into your chamber, dragging you out as quickly as possible from your own blanket, soon dragging you to the Huang’s royal carriage and off you all go to the Wang’s region.

None know his intention, even Ziyi was surprise when he saw Justin on his front door. When he was asked why he was even there, without sending a proper letter of his arrival. Justin just brushed it off, making himself home at bloody 2AM in the morning.

“Will you just tell me why we are barging in?”, you asked him as you settled your belonging in your designated room with the young royal trailing behind.

“First, We’re not barging in—“, you raised an eyebrow at his statement which he tried to shushed you out. “Ziyi-ge once told me I can come to play whenever I want to”

“At least send him a letter or give me a warning in advance!”, you grumbled out which made Justin shrugs.

“Secondly, I am not missing any chances on seeing that nasty Cai getting his head off”, he said in pure joy. You stare at him judgingly, he did not just admit that.

“He broke my toy train!”, Justin tried to defend. “That was 5 years ago, what’s up with you and your petty arse?! Dear lord, Huang Minghao!”, you said.

You widen your eyes when the realization hits you. A bloody low rank is throwing her frustration out to a royal, the prince who’s ready to be King. The amount of audacity you brought upon yourself to even scream his full name, you could’ve gotten yourself hung dead in a ditch right now, in this bloody place.

“I-I’m sorry, oh my god. This—I am sorry, I let my frustration out. No wait—”, you stuttered out flustered. “This—I shouldn’t have done that. Prince Huang, I’m—"

And his lips are on yours

The sudden action he pulled was enough to make you gasp in pure shock, but who would’ve thought relief and pure joy would laced itself with the shock. Instinctively you closed your eyes to savor the moment, you sighed with content as he hummed in satisfaction.

It didn’t take long before both of you decided to pull away from one another, the feeling of neediness hits both you quicker giving both conflicted thoughts on going on for another kiss. Silence, where the only sounds that accompanied the silence were just both of your breathing.

He stared at you, you stare at him back. Both in softness and relief, but there’s more unsettling conflict in your orbs.

“You don’t know how long I’ve waited to do that”, he said.

Cough, you could only let out an awkward cough. “You’re basically 15, what do you mean by I’ve waited so long to do that”, you scoffed at him.

Justin only shrugged, unbothered than ever. He smile cheekily expecting more things to happen, but you were too flustered to even be near him.

Hence, you came out with the most lame excuse any caretaker could give.

“Get some rest. I’ll make you some tea, Prince Huang”

Justin thought you were just joking, playing with him a little. He thought that simple kiss was able to break you and make you his. A kiss being shared together, mutual feelings. Doesn’t that always works out in fairytales where a prince fall for a girl and he kissed her then they live happily ever after. You must be joking, he thought again.

To his disappointment, you didn’t even try to glance back at his desperate gaze. Swallowed by the soft click of the wooden door, he was faced with a reality that dawned him with nothing but silence.

Making tea at busk of dawn was very much unplanned. You were tired and sleepy, but you still stood unwavering to boil the fresh batch of water to drawn the dried tea leaves.

Thinking back on the sudden kiss you shared with the young prince, you couldn’t help but felt a leap on your heart, accompanied by the slight flush on your cheek. You tried to convince yourself it wasn’t because you’re smitten for the young royal, it was just due to the sudden rise of the temperature in the kitchen.

You sighed, this whole situation will never happen. A royal and his servants, it will never work out. This is like bloody Cinderella all over again, but this time miracle doesn’t happen that easily.

It was till the extent you kept that odd promise or reason to brew him some tea, you manage to do it and finished it. Standing near his room’s door, you were about to knock.

Until voices are visible to your ears

You didn’t mean on trying to peak or steal some wording here and there, especially words that are exchanged between royals. But you didn’t know what stopped your from moving away from his door.

“I heard from the birds that you’re off marrying the Princess from the Fan Region”

“I tried to decline such offer, I have no interest in her”

The lump was on your throat now. How could you forget. Justin is a rising soon-to-be King, a prince who shall be off marrying another royal to continue the Huang’s legacy. He needs a true royal to accompany him, not some pesky servants or caretaker that babies him.

“Then who shall be the lucky lady to be wed by your yellow-haired self then?”

A laugh was heard, despite it was being swallowed by the doors, you could still his voice very clearly.

“I’m only reserved for one, I’m either marrying her or not. But right now, I can’t even grasp if she would say yes if I suddenly propose to her”

And you ran away from his chamber, leaving the freshly brewed tea on the floor, slowly it went cold like your un-ending nightmare.

*****

Morning came easily, you woke up from the most discomforting sleep in your life and dragged yourself to get ready for the day. You barely could even make up your mind that you’re still in the Wang’s manor. Strolling with the young prince on the Wang’s garden, you know what’s being anticipated by the royal. Prince Cai is coming, and he’s about to get killed.

“You’ve been off, was it because of the kiss?”, Justin asked mindlessly.

When you turned around to face him, Justin could clearly see the broken gaze you set upon to be showcased to him.

“W-What’s wrong?”, he asked. Slowly, he tried to get closer but you only shake him off.

“Prince Huang, I just—“, you stuttered out. Great, what an amazing start. He stared at you worriedly but spoke none to bother you.

“Whatever you’re feeling right now, towards me or towards what you are expecting in the future with me, forget it”, you said desperately.

Justin swore his heart plummeted or jumped off a cliff fighting away gravity. You must be playing with him, you couldn’t be serious. In such early morning with a start of a beautiful stroll in the Wang’s garden, you hit him off with a rejection before he could even do anything about his raw feelings

He stared at you coldly, his lips pursed in a thin line.

“Who are you and where do you stand to order such irrational decision on my life?”, he hissed out every single word.

You could feel yourself feeling oddly intimidated, shaken under his dominant behavior instead of his usual playful self.

“You deserve a true royal to be by your side, Prince Huang”, you said. Justin could feel yourself breaking slowly, yet he couldn’t do anything to help you. “I may stand by your side when you became King, but I am not the person who will stay with you to rule like a true royal for eternity. I am not fit to be a Queen”, you manage to whisper it out.

Justin didn’t know what to feel. Confusion on how did you manage to think like this, sorrow to see how a status could impact you and him so much, fury to see you give up on his hope on having a future together with him by forcing him to neglect his own damn feelings.

“You are in no place to command such words on me, Y/N”, he manage to snap. “What I am planning to do is my own path and no one can change it but me, you are in no place to tell me to bloody give up on my feelings towards you!”, he yelled out making you flinch.

He sighed, running a hand on his hair as the action messed up the well combed hair easily with one swift.

“I am not fit for you”, you said. Eyes staring at him, broken. “Just forget about this whole imaginative of yours, Prince Huang. I’m sorry”

He stared at you, blank and cold. His mouth opened to speak and try to object you but no words were exchanged out of his parted lips.

“You’re speaking nonsense”, and he pulled you in the castle ground once again. “Shut up and just enjoy the show”, and you did. You didn’t speak to him any words, you stayed silence even when the tip of a sword was held upon Ziyi’s throat.

*****

Justin is furious, he still is. He finds himself bothered for the whole day, everything irked him. You didn’t even try to talk to him anymore despite what he meant by shut up was pls bloody talk to me I am a desperate lonely bean

He pushed and pull the food on his plate, a wonderful lunch for the 3 royals that had suddenly gathered together. He sighed wishfully.

You were standing by his side, clearly trying to appear unbothered. He stared at Ziyi who’s feeding his raven, The Princess of Luo and Ziyi’s sister who’s hitting off pretty quickly with Xukun despite he almost died on the Wang’s hand.

“Until how long are you planning to ignore me, Y/N?”, Justin spoke out catching everyone’s attention. You were surprised, caught in shock.

“Speak to me, please”, he was pleading now.

“P-Prince Huang—”

Justin had enough, he had just about enough on everything in his life. He was not going to deal with an unwanted marriage that will leave him miserable. He knows he was 15, he knows he was bound to be king when he’s 17. 2 years is what it takes for him to find true happiness, he knows where to find it. The path that lies in front of it, clear like the sea waters in the Chen’s Region. He knows who’s fingers he’s going to put a ring on.

He stared at you, none was glanced towards the others attention that had managed to be grasped by him. He didn’t care. If he’s acting all childish and whiny again, so be it

“Call me by my name”, he said. Almost like he was begging, maybe he was. He had been so desperate to have you for so long. Listening to his name that roll off your tongue so easily was so satisfying and so enduring, he felt his life was completed.

You stayed silence. This is not how you plan on spending the last few days in the Wang’s manor, clearly with Justin’s sudden behavior that’s being showcased towards the other royals on the table.

“Prince-“

“Call me by my name”, he pressed once again. You swallowed down the lump

“Minghao”, he sighed in pure bliss. “Stop your game, it’s not the time for this tantrum”, you snapped back to him. He only smiled, like a child who got praised and awarded with sweets.

“What’s so wrong about a royal who suddenly fell for his servant, his caretaker? What’s so wrong about a royal who suddenly felt the urge to marry the person he loves despite she is in a different status than him?—”

“Princ-“

“I have a name”, Justin brushed off. “Tell me, Y/N”, he said softly. Orbs locks against yours, soft in wonder and anticipation. “Is it a sin for a royal to fell in love with his servant? To want to continue a path with you despite what others might say? Or to imagine a future with you?”

“You’re only 15—“, you tried to fight back

The screeching between the chair and floor was very much loud and distracting, yet the others saw this as a real life drama that’s too good to be true. Justin walked closer to you, closing the distance. His eyes still locked itself on yours, letting you know all the raw emotion that lies beneath him.

“I am far capable, too mature as a 15 year old royal. I am the next King which responsibility had already lies on myself since my father died. A 15 year old child who learns what love is truly is, what a path he wants to choose and who he shall take as his queen”, he said.

“I know I am only 15. But I also know who I want to spend my whole royal life with”, the fangirling shriek from Xukun was heard before a loud slap closed his mouth, which you assume was from the female Wang.

Ziyi’s lips tugged in approval, he does favor Justin since he was young. A true strong royal despite he’s only a small blooming bud of flower. He knows what Justin is capable of, he knows what Justin can do with his own two bare hands. A small child who’s able to control the land and skies, making the waves cowered under his feet.

You were speechless. You tried to speak, fight him but no words were coming out of your lips. Your eyes waver against his, you didn’t know what to do nor what would happen next.

“I don’t care about your status nor your family history lines with the Huang’s. I’ve liked you for so long to even make myself a prick to get your constant attention, why can’t you read those hints?”, he said desperately.

His hand took yours, interlacing his fingers on yours slowly. You sighed feeling the warmth of his gentle touch, he smiled. He knows where your future lies now.

“I’ve fell for you ever since you came into my odd and hectic royal life”, and he lulls you away in a gentle kiss.

You didn’t know what was happening. All you knew was the electricity and butterflies bursting into your system, your eyes closing automatically when his lips lands on yours. Content and home, like it was meant to be.

His hand rest itself on your back whilst the other still held on your hand, not wanting to let go. You felt a cold metal ring slid itself on one of your right ring finger, it tingles a little.

When he pulled away, he stared at you with the most pure satisfaction and adoration within him. He took your hand, raising it as he plant a small gentle feather-like kiss on the ring. The silver band that rest perfectly, tucked between your middle finger and pinky. A yellow diamond rest itself upon the band, shining like the sun.

Justin smiled at you, he was ready for his future. He didn’t mind other obstacle that lies upon him. As long as he has you by his side, he was willing to do anything.

“Rule with me”, his finger twirled a little on the silver band, you felt the sudden tingle on his soft touch.

“Be my Queen for eternity”, he said

“Marry me, Y/N”

[cinnaminsvga]

Uh for the drabble game can I get 39+ 45 with Tae? 💕

au: best friend!au + fluff/humor/super crack

prompts: “You can’t make me.” - “What are you? Five?” + “I’m your lock screen?!” - “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

words: 1.8K (this isn’t even a drabble anymore i’m sorry)

rating: b for ballsweat

a/n: so i had this drabble game open ten million years ago and i only just finished writing this drabble today… i’m sorry anon HAHA but at least now you have an extra 800 words to compensate?

request more from this list!! (closed)check out my other requests

despite almost two decades of being best friends with an overgrown toddler, there were just some days when taehyung’s incessant whining started getting on your nerves. not that you had much patience to begin with, but there were just some days when you just wanted to—

“i’m literally going to smash your balls so far up your body that you’ll be tasting your own nuts for the next ten years.” you said with saccharine sweetness, your voice contrasting the sadistic look in your eyes. from the corner of your eye, you can see jungkook recoiling in fear as he timidly tugged on taehyung’s shirt.

“hyung… i don’t think she’s joking.” he squeaked, the two of you making eye contact for a split second. he jerked back, finding solace behind seokjin’s wide shoulders. he tugged seokjin’s sweater instead. “jin-hyung, i think you should call the police.”

the six other boys in the room watched with bated breath as they waited for either one of you to desist. to the horror of the maknae and his five hyungs, taehyung’s relaxed grin said exactly what he thought of your threat.

“damn y/n! you’re finally admitting that you want to touch deez nuts? not surprising, since we’re talking about me after all!” he snickered, watching with sick, twisted amusement as your face grew redder and redder by the second.

“oh my god, jin-hyung! call the police right now; y/n is literally gonna pop off!” jungkook pleaded with seokjin, and from the corner of your eye, you saw how seokjin tried to covertly sneak his phone out of his pocket.

you pointed a finger at seokjin threateningly, daring him to move a muscle. even before any words had left your lips, you were satisfied to see him lower his hand back down in defeat. “if you even think about calling for reinforcements, your balls are going to be the next in line.” seokjin gulped, nodding aggressively back at you. he liked his balls intact, thank you very much.

they didn’t call you ‘ball crusher y/n’ for nothing.

“damn jin-hyung, lighten up! y/n is all bark but no bite; she isn’t going to hurt you.” taehyung said much too confidently. seokjin’s tense shoulders don’t relax any bit more after taehyung’s reassurance.

“taehyung… i think you should return y/n’s phone already. she doesn’t look too… happy.” seokjin said slowly, hesitant to say anything that might cause you more anger.

“hyung is right. this is getting a little bit too childish,” you heard the apathetic voice of min yoongi suddenly joined the fray, but his gaze betrayed how he actually felt about the uneasy atmosphere. yoongi glanced at you warily.  

the three other boys in the room who had yet to speak only nodded their heads in agreement, their heads bobbing up and down almost too enthusiastically. you noticed namjoon wiping away a sweat drop that had begun to make its way down his neck, as well as hoseok and jimin holding tightly onto one another.

all of this fear and anxiety because kim taehyung, the boy with hot air for a brain, would not give back your cellphone.

“i’m going to ask you one last time, kim taehyung: give. me. my. phone. back.” your words came out stilted, enunciating each word with a hard jab at his solid chest.

to no one’s surprise but to everyone’s exasperation, taehyung just grinned cheekily back at you, even shrugging his shoulders faux apologetically. “sorry, you can’t make me,” he said simply, before having the audacity (THE AUDACITY!!) to turn his back on you and head to the kitchen. “although, i could offer you a sandwich. want ham?”

“you fucking asswipe! what are you, five?” you hissed after his retreating form, trailing swiftly after him. you heard the rest of the inhabitants of the living room following suite, and you all watched as shits-for-a-brain began merrily making the aforementioned sandwich.

“you know, y/n… for someone who really doesn’t want to show their phone to me, you didn’t do a very good job of hiding it.” taehyung said almost too nonchalantly, opening your bag of bagels and snatching the unopened tupperware of ham you had been saving for yourself. you felt your eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

“i don’t recall allowing you to eat whatever you want, shithead. and also? why the fuck would i hide my phone when human ethics dictates that you normally ask for proper permission before borrowing something?”

“firstly, of course i can eat whatever i want; i practically live here! what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine too,” he chuckled, scooping a disgusting amount of mayonnaise onto the sandwich. he slapped the two pieces of bread together, making the excess mayo to explode all over your counter. he turned to you cheekily, offering you the monstrosity. “peace?” he tried.

“fuck,” you heard seokjin retch behind you. “what the fuck is wrong with you? that’s way too much mayo.”

“this is what you get for dropping taehyungie on the head when he was five,” namjoon whispered back.

“ok first of all, i fucking hate mayonnaise. and second of all, you better clean this mess up right after i drag your ass to hell and then back,” you snarled, pushing the sandwich back towards him. taehyung shrugged, before taking a humungous bite. he had devoured almost half of the sandwich in that one bite. jungkook whistled lowly behind you, mildly impressed.

“look, y/n. i have a proposition for you,” taehyung’s mouth was overflowing with meat and bread product, causing spittle to fly onto your face. when jimin and jungkook will recount this story to the rest of their friends when they get home, they swore that they saw taehyung’s spit evaporate the moment it touched your skin. you were that close to losing it.

“prithee, what is this fucking proposition? it better involve me, a spoon, and your nuts scooped out.”

yoongi coughed out a laugh, before clearing his throat to hide it. noticing his eagerness, you raised an eyebrow at him in silent question. he shrugged, “nice mental image, that’s all.”

taehyung quipped back, “as much as i would love to indulge you with your diverse sexual kinks, my proposition includes less spoons and my nuts and more you showing me your phone background.”

“over my dead body.”

eerily silent this entire time, hoseok finally decided to interject in that moment. “y/n… as much as i agree with you in that taehyung is an asshole (“traitor!” taehyung gasped in mock hurt), why can’t you just let him see your background? it’s not like he’s going to look at your phone messages or internet history.” he said hesitantly, watching worriedly as your expression turned darker and darker as he continued speaking. “um… right guys?” he squeaked, turning to the other five men beside him. after seeing your face, they all conveniently needed to leave suddenly, like, right this very moment (if they want their balls still attached to their nether regions.)

“umm… hey namjoon? i think we should probably start on that composition project for class… you know, that project.” yoongi nudged namjoon on the shoulder not too covertly.

“what? it’s our break, hyung. we don’t have any pro—fuck!” namjoon was in the middle of finishing his sentence before seokjin and jimin stepped on his feet, effectively silencing him (as well as making his big toe swell to twice its size.)

“haha, oh namjoon hyung… you know how passionate about music yoongi-hyung is… hey, didn’t you say you needed seokjin-hyung, jungkookie, and my vocals for this? how about we all just go together.” jimin said hastily, already pushing them all out of the door.

seeing them all start to leave, hoseok rushed after them. “h-hey! i’ll help too!”

one after another, they all tumbled out of the door, leaving you and taehyung alone in the kitchen. just before the door slammed shut, seokjin leaned back into the apartment. he smiled nervously, “um… try not to kill him, ok y/n?”

well. that leaves you with less witnesses to see the body you were about to eviscerate.

“you know y/n, hoseok-hyung was right. it’s just a phone background. all you have to do is unlock your phone, show me your background, and boom! you have your phone back. easy peasy ballsy squeezy,” taehyung chimed, retrieving the phone from his pocket. he dangled it in front of your face for a split second before swiping it back into his pocket. wait, that’s not his poc—

“did you put my fucking phone into your fucking underwear?” you screeched, trying to aim a well-aimed kick to his groin. due to some miraculous twist of fate, taehyung managed to dodge it swiftly.

“the longer i wait for your decision, the more time the phone will be stewing in my ball sweat, so you better make your choice quick!” he laughed sweetly.

“why do you even want to see my phone background so badly?” 

“well, why are you so adamant i don’t see it in the first place? no one has seen your phone. not even jimin, the nosiest bitch in south korea!” taehyung retorted, hands on his hips.

fuck. you’d rather have your phone permanently damaged by taehyung’s ball gunk than have him find out that your fucking phone background was—

“whoops, i think your phone is sliding riiiight into the perineum area now.” taehyung comments calmly.

that’s it. “ALRIGHT FINE! GIVE ME MY PHONE BACK AND I’LL SHOW YOU THE DAMN BACKGROUND!” you finally relented, raising your hands in silent prayer for a lightning strike to come and instantly kill you. or maybe just have jungkook come back and smash your head against the wall. either or.

“see, was that so hard?” taehyung smirked, triumphant. he fished the phone out of his boxers, carefully wiping the liquid off the screen. “there you go! good as new,” he grinned cheekily, handing it to you.

you grasp it from the smallest edge you could manage, before placing it on the countertop, waiting idly for the radioactivity to kick in and melt your sink away. when nothing happened, you sighed in defeat, before unlocking your phone as slowly as possible to prolong the inevitability of death.

at the sound of the click of your phone, taehyung giddily looked over your shoulder, waiting to see what all the mystery and commotion was about—

“oh my fucking god. i’m your lock screen?” taehyung guffawed, slapping your counter with uncontrollable glee. you see, there wasn’t anything inadvertently wrong with having your best friend as your lock screen (albeit it is a bit weird). what was interesting, was what type of photo you had for your lock screen.

“this was when we went to the beach that one time and you said i had negative abs! so you did think i was hot! i fucking knew you were checking me out!”

“you weren’t supposed to see that,” was all you could mutter out, your head hung low in shame. this was it. this was the day you would die.

“oh my god, wait ’til the grandkids hear about this!”

some time in the future––

“and that, my youngins’, was how i knew your grandma was super into me. then we had bangin’ sex ten-ish years later and that’s how your parents were born.”

“ok grandpa, that’s nice. can you get off the swing set now? you’ve been hogging it for thirty minutes already.”

“don’t sass me, yeontan the third.”

[ahnsael]

My last post said yesterday was a long day. It was.

So much so that I literally fell asleep at my desk last night.

Now it’s just after 9am, I woke up maybe 20-30 minutes ago, and I’m not sure I’ll be going back to sleep any time soon.

I’m almost certain to try -- there’s just something about being awake during daylight hours that doesn’t feel right on a day off.

I’m kind of glad that, sometime in the near future (though not this next week) I’ll be moving back to graveyard hours (11pm-7am). The night-owl nature is the ONE thing I inherited from my bio dad that I’m mostly okay with (as opposed to looking like him, which I hate every time I look in the mirror, and that fear of abandoning the people who love me as he abandoned me...but I idolized him as a kid and then lost him, only to have him come back when I was in my 30s in an attempt to reconcile our past, only to abandon me again and refuse to answer my phone calls or emails right afterwards).

The world is (mostly) more peaceful at night. Yes, there is more of a chance for shenanigans at the casino (though we have shenanigans on swing shift, as well, so my “security manager” experience is still good to have), but...for the most part, the world is quiet and I can enjoy it without all the hullabaloo of the daytime hustle and bustle (sorry, just thought I’d throw in a couple antiquated phrases there, just because they sounded right under the circumstances).

I also won’t have to deal with so much smoke in the casino, just because there will be fewer people there.

I mean, I still smoke a few a day (my doctor was very happy with how much I’ve cut back, though he still wants me to go the rest of the way, but...even with the patch, that oral fixation tho). But second-hand smoke has always been a different beast. It’s one thing to inhale your own smoke, but breathing in the smoke that has already been in someone else’s lungs has never been pleasant. And I notice it a LOT more since my hospital stay (and the fact that our ventilation doesn’t seem to be working right lately has led to my last two shifts leaving my breath short and my lungs hurting, even on days like yesterday where I don’t have a single smoke during my shift; many people have told us that our ventilation is the best in the area, but that hasn’t been the case for at least the past week or two). Stale, used smoke isn’t fantastic to inhale, and I have to do it for eight hours a day.

I should probably start job-hunting soon. Don’t get me wrong...I have a strong loyalty to this casino. And I HATE job-hunting. And it could be that I just put feelers out there for an office job in this same company.

I would still want to interact with the public, I think, in an ideal situation. When I was a teen, hunting for those first few jobs, I would tell potential bosses that I was a “people person” because I had heard that sounded good. But in the MANY years since, I’ve realized that I really AM a people-person (an introvert, yes, but an introvert in need of a certain amount of interaction with strangers...it’s a strange dichotomy, but I guess it falls in line with my social media presence; all of you here, and every facebook friend I have but one, started out as strangers who met online, who share a degree of openness that have made us friends).

I mean, I’ve mentioned my health issues to some of our regulars, or they’ve heard about them from other employees after asking where I was on days I missed (and I’ve told everyone there that, in general terms, I’m okay with them talking about the fact that I’ve had health issues, as long as they don’t get too specific), and then they ask me about it when they see me.

We have one almost nightly guest who comes in with whom I’ve never been close (I say a friendly hello to her, she says a friendly hello to me, but it rarely goes beyond that -- it’s not that I don’t like her or she doesn’t like me, it’s just that we’ve never sat and talked or anything). Last night, she asked me how my doctor’s appointment went, and was LITERALLY overjoyed when I answered that my prognosis was good, and that I should, if the doctor was right, be back to my old self in a few months. And she’s not the only person who I barely know who has reacted this way.

It’s kind of overwhelming, honestly, to get that kind of reaction from people who I only know from walking around the casino and having the occasional conversation with people. I’ve always felt so unimportant -- like, yes, I’m there to manage the place, which is not unimportant. And I’m there to help both the guests and my employees in any way I can (and it bugs me when I can’t help, like a slot machine that I can’t get working when a guest wants to play it and it has an issue I can’t fix). Most importantly, I’m there to be a friendly face who treats people well and is there to make their visit with us more fun, whether they are regulars or first-timers (as long as they aren’t there to sell drugs, but we’re working on that with the local sheriff’s department).

Still...maybe this will get better with my treatment, but there’s something appealing about a desk job right now, where I am not spending eight hours on my feet in a smoke-filled environment. I’ve only had one other desk job before, doing data entry in an oil company’s lab where I had to smell used oil all day (they would be sent samples of the oil in machines all around the world, test it for viscosity and usability, and then I would put the results in the computer n an AppleIIC-type program so they could be sent to the regional salespeople so they could tell their clients when they needed to replace the oil, but that constant odor of oil is one I still remember un-fondly to this day). I told them, when I left, that data entry was too boring, and that’s still probably true. But if I were to audit paperwork (as I do when I work graveyard), or have some other job where I can actually use my brain, rather than simply transferring data from one format to another by hand, which is nothing but tedious, I might enjoy it.

Let’s face it...if you’ve worked with the public, you know that some are a joy to serve, and others are the bane of your existence. There’s no getting around that. It’s your coworkers that make or break a job.

And...I’m kind of hoping, if I DO go for something else like an office job, that I would end up with coworkers who make it fun.

The hardest part is knowing that, at least in my current condition, I could NEVER do the job I used to do at Disneyland. I loved that job. I often tell people that it’s the hardest I’ve ever worked at any job, but also the most fun I’ve had at any job. Granted, it was not my first choice; I’d LOVE to be a Haunted Mansion host. I originally wanted to be a tour guide, but...let’s face it, I’m not attractive enough to wear the plaid (sore spot: my ex-fiancee once told me the same thing and I GUARANTEED her she was attractive enough -- not because she was my fiancee, but because it was objectively true -- and when I worked there the second time, after she and I were no longer a thing, she was in Guest Relations -- aka the department that conducts tours, so I was right that she was attractive enough, and I’m at least glad she went for it, even if she DID dump me in that Dear John email on Christmas Eve).

Dream job right now? Some desk job in Team Disney Anaheim (do they still call it that, and has anyone actually seen the Goofy in the atrium for themselves as opposed to internet pics taken from just the right angle? I’m not saying seeing the lines and being told that it’s Goofy from just the right angle, but actually SEEING Goofy in there for themselves? I’ve NEVER found the right angle, in all the times I was in that atrium. I mean, I see pieces, and the final product, from images I’ve seen isn’t...exactly on-model, 

(that awkward moment when you try to find a picture of Goofy looking like...well...Goofy, and the only result you find is on the blog you used to keep secret lest Disney get mad, in a post from nearly six years ago: http://backstagemagic.tumblr.com/post/24716104684):

You can see why it’s so hard to find Goofy, even if you find the right angle; it’s hard enough to see Goofy in the full image of what it supposedly looks like from the right angle, because Frank Gehry was being Frank Gehry when he designed it, and it looks more like “looking at Pluto on acid” (Pluto the dog, not the planet YES I WILL ALWAYS CONSIDER PLUTO A PLANET YOU CAN TEACH ME ON SOCIAL ISSUES AND I WILL LEARN BUT IT AFFECTS NO PERSON FOR ME TO STILL CONSIDER PLUTO A PLANET) than it looks like Goofy.

Then I could get free admission to visit the parks on my days off, (even in my current health state, I would often just go in and...hang out and people-watch, and the simple act of “being there” was enough, even if I didn’t go on many attractions), and I could contribute in SOME way to the magic. But living in SoCal is expensive. So I’d settle for just a place out of the second hand smoke, where even if I have to walk around for eight hours, it’s not frowned upon for me to sit down in between guests. I mean, if I truly do get back to where I was, as my doctor thinks I can, I’m okay to be on my feet for eight hours (I sat for about five minutes last night, and only because a guest asked me to sit and talk with him -- other than that, I didn’t even take a break); my chest hurt, as it did a couple nights before, from the second-hand smoke lingering and not being sucked out of the casino as it usually is, but other than that I was mostly okay.

On the other hand, one of my employees asked when our new manager starts. I had heard nothing about a new manager (why is it that, not only do I hear from employees that I’m moving to graveyard before I've been told, but I’m hearing about new managers from coworkers before I have been told? Oh yeah, because my boss SUCKS at communication). But we did interview a lady a couple weeks ago after I took her application. I wasn’t the interviewer, but I did speak with her for a short time, and saw her application. I was very impressed (she spent over two decades at one job, and ALSO WORKED FOR DISNEY AT THE DISNEY STORE!!! I COULD HAVE A DISNEY BUDDY AT WORK!!!).

Okay, granted, if I’m moving to graveyard, I won’t get many chances to talk Disney with her. But...at least I can know whatever shift she works is in good hands. I mean, not every cast member is a good cast member, but she was with the company for something like 15 years, if I remember her application correctly, and you DO NOT last that long at Disney unless you’re good at what you do (or unless you’re Michael Eisner -- sorry, gotta throw that one in there, because after Frank Wells died, Eisner was TERRIBLE).

[peacefulwriter88]

Wake Up and Make Up

Angry sex drabble that haunted me all last night so I had to get it out this morning. Can you imagine angry sex with Seb - he’s good boy act is a front!

Warnings: All the SMUT (18+), language but also some fluff

Reader x Sebastian Stan

A/N: This one is for @bucky-plums-barnes because her blog a) rocks and b) she’s an amazing human being that deserves tp receive a random smile!

I also want to tag @sexylibrarian1, @mellifluous-melodramas, @sanjariti, @bladebarnes, @denialanderror and @yesbucky because your blogs literally saved my sanity these past couple of weeks - such a talented group of writers! 

You had never been so infuriated in your life. Okay, maybe not your life. Maybe the past couple of weeks...whatever - you were pissed. And it was because of one Sebastian Stan.

You knew it wasn’t his fault. He was a proud working actor. Correction, famous working actor. He was talented and he loved the challenge of a new job. You loved that about him, how he liked to seek out obstacles only to overcome them. That he was motivated. That he kept challenging himself to be a stronger actor - a better person.

But dammit if that wasn’t the same driver that wedged a gap in your goddamn relationship.

You got it. You did PR work for Anthony Mackie. You understood the grind. The demands. The constant need to keep moving. It was what had brought you both together in the first place. He had instantly fallen for the sassy and silly girl that could get Anthony to focus. Anthony - the king of turning any phrase into a practical joke. But Anthony liked you - respected you and yes, at times even feared you.

That kind of power drew Sebastian to you like a moth to the flame.

He liked to challenge it, liked to push you. Liked to dominate you. You liked that also about him. Except when the push was putting off a well deserved vacation for the both of you for another six months. Six goddamn months.

As if you hadn’t postpone your first vacation, instead spending time with him in New York.

You said all of this and he challenged back that when he was free, you easily didn’t sacrifice time with him and you left his hotel room in an angry huff, afraid you’d say something you’d regret. You spent two hours downing too many margaritas before drunkenly making your way to your bedroom, falling asleep to angry drunk tears.

It was what had got you here, 6:30 am in a posh hotel room in Anaheim, California. D23 come and gone, your phone blowing up between Mackie’s manager and Mackie himself. Your head was surprisingly calm considering all the tropical tequila you had inhaled and you groaned as the harsh light of your phone pierced you.

The first few messages were standard - Mackie’s manager reminding you of some upcoming press Anthony was scheduled for and the time that you flight was departing. It wasn’t until you got to the messages from Anthony that you froze.

What did Vanilla Ice do to you now?

He had sent it around midnight, minutes before you had succumbed to your drunken slumber and you groaned. This only meant one thing.

Seb went crying to Mackie.

Fuck.

It wasn’t like Sebastian to share your personal affairs with anyone that you both knew. You both appreciated your privacy and you never wanted the people that you worked alongside professionally to be involved. However, since you had started dating Seb, Anthony had made it his personal business to know what was going on between the both of you. And Seb easily jumped on the opportunity to reach out to him because you were such a mystery to him.

He loved you like a younger sister and wanted to make sure that you were being treated right.

Another text message had come thirty minutes later.

But really, Y/N what did he do. My man is freaking the fuck out. Call me?

A text ten minutes later.

Are y’all about to break up? Cuz Seb is drinking and convinced you want to break up

The last text was simple

Either your passed out…..probably that. Didn’t realize it was one in the morning. That are you're pissed at me or want me to mind my own damn business. So I’ll just say this one thing - talk to Seb. He loves you he really does

You slammed the phone to your side, the anger re-filling you. Loving you wasn’t the problem. The lack of sacrifice and acknowledgement of said selfishness what what had you pissed.

You were so lost in your thoughts that you hadn’t heard the click of your hotel door being opened, the harsh dim light from the hallway contrasting against the soft morning rays peeking its way through your sheer curtains.  You turned your head to the side, not surprised to see Sebastian standing there, hair in disarray f as he stood in the jeans and T-shirt he wore the night before.

You also forgot you gave him a key to your hotel room.

“What the fuck do you want? I’m mad at you.”

The words travel across the room crisp and clear and he shuts the door, leaning against it with his hands crossed over his chest.

“I want to finish our conversation last night. I don’t give a damn if you're mad at me. We got to figure this out.”

You snorted, throwing the covers off of you and sitting up in bed. You didn’t miss the way his eyes drunk in your body, your simple black nightie hugging all your curves in the right places. He bit his lip, fighting back a groan. Of course you had to wear the sexist fucking thing as he tried to make amends for the way he had been acting lately.

Insult to injury.  

“What’s to figure out. You obviously don’t want to sacrifice any of your time to spend a week with your girlfriend. I don’t know what you want me to say from here. Thanks hon, for being a selfish asshole and reminding me that I mean nothing to you.”

You knew the words were all low digs but you couldn’t help it. You were hurt and you weren’t sure he understood that.

Of course Sebastian did. The words cut through his heart, causing him to close his eyes. When he had talked to Anthony last night, he had been told a similar thing in so many words. He didn’t mean to  push you away - it was just what he did when he was afraid and needed time to figure out how to handle a situation.

Time, per usual, was not on his side.

“That’s not - I’m not trying to shut you out of my life. I just have a lot of projects and with Infinity War coming out next year…”

You rolled your eyes, crossing your legs and sighing.

“You act like that doesn’t affect me either. I work for your colleague and friend. Anthony. Might know him. You fucking told him about our fight last night.”

His blue eyes shift before he huffs out,

“I’m going to kill him.”

“He’s not the problem,” you stand up, walking to him slowly. You’re unaware that he’s taking in your legs, imagining what they would look like wrapped around his torso as he fucked you senseless. When you're inches away from him you poke his chest, “You not wanting to spend time with me is the problem.”

“I love you! Of course I want to spend time with you.”

“Then fucking prove it. Go on a vacation with me. Hell I’ll even make it three days. I just want to spend time with you.”

He frowns, knowing that you aren’t going to like his response.

“I don’t know if I have three days to go away with you. Half of it we will spending  flying to said location and the other half would be flying back. That gives us less than a day together if you make it three days. That's not fair to you. Don’t you see? That’s why I wanted to spend time with you in New York a couple of weeks ago. It's an easier solution because we both live there and I can spend all of my time devoted to you.”

You throw your hands in the air,

“I get that but I want to, just once, enjoy a place and not work. And I want to enjoy it with you!”

His frown deepens.

“I get that I’m just unsure if realistically that's feasible. Why get your hopes up and then bail on you to have this fight over and over again. When things have slowed down, I promise I will give you the vacation you want. Hell, we can make it a month long vacation.”

You cross your arms over your chest, pushing your breast up and he shoves his hands in pockets, trying to ignore the way his cock twitches.

“I’m not going to bend over when it's convenient for you either! You have to make sure that it works with my schedule.”

“I would.” he mutters uncomfortably, his jaw set and blue eyes blown in fury.

Silence.

You both stare at each other, words failing either of you and your mind drifts. Even though you’re mad at him, you can’t stop your brain from thinking about how fucking hot he looked. The way the dark green shirt molded against his body, hinting at the sculpted muscles underneath. The way his jeans hugged every inch of his lower body, particularly a region you can’t help but allow your eyes to wander down to. You felt your mouth water from the thought of his cock in your mouth and  you shift, trying to ignore the pressure building up between your legs.

You knew he was trying. You really did. He went out of his way to come and see you when he could and always made time to call and text you. He sent you random gifts and funny videos. When he was hard press with a decision or just needed you to help talk him through his anxious thoughts, you were the first call.

You just loved him so damn much and he was always so far.

You snap back up at him and he’s looking at you with a half smirk, as if knowing your thoughts. Like hell you were going to admit that you were wrong.

“This is all Mackie's fault.” you mumble and his eyes knit together in confusion.

“You just said this wasn’t Mackie’s fault.”

You smirk, shrugging your shoulders casually,

“If he tried hooking me up with Evans instead of you, I’d probably wouldn’t be having this relationship problem.”

It was a low blow, an unnecessary snarky comment that didn’t need to be said. The button you needed to push him over the edge.

It did.

Before you could react he lunged for you, his hands quickly finding your waist and digging into the soft flesh as he pressed you against hte door,  his forehead pressing against your own.

“You think Evans could make you happy?” he mumbles, the anger hidden behind his cool, blue eyes.

The calm before the storm.

He doesn’t allow you to respond, instead lifting you up and pushing himself between you further, your legs comfortably wrapping themselves around his torso. His right hand moves up your thighs, slowly making its way to your center and you know you’re a wet mess before he gets close to confirm it.

His eyes never leave yours as he pushes away the small patch of fabric of your thong, inserting two fingers in you, slowly pumping in and out of you. You bite down on your lip, willing yourself to not close your eyes and give in to the pleasure he was giving you.

Praying that your body wouldn’t betray how turned on you were.

“You think Evans, knows how to make you squirm?” he curls his fingers up, causing you to yelp involuntarily. A smile slowly forms on his face, watching you with hooded eyes as your hands grab his shoulders, your nails digging into the soft fabric of his shirt.

“You think he knows how to make this pretty little pussy sing?” his thumb slowly starts to circle around your clit, teasing you and you whimper, low and needy as you finally submit to the pleasure he’s giving you.

“That’s right baby, I want you to come for me. I want to hear my name come out of that dirty little mouth of yours.”

It was enough. Enough to send your body over the edge and into that place that only Sebastian could get you to quickly. You feel yourself coming undone, your thighs weakening against his torso, your lower half quivering. But before you can reach it, touch that delicious state of happiness, he’s pulling his fingers out, sticking them in his mouth and taking in your taste, moaning around his wet fingers.

You push against his chest, mad that he’s robbed you of the one thing that could get you to forgive him.

“What’s that baby?” he asks, pulling his fingers out in a pop and you groan,

“I want you to finish.”

“Finish what doll. You’re going to have to be specific?”

You growled. He knew how much you loved to be called doll. Knew how much you liked to beg.

“Want you to make me cum. Want to feel you in me.”

“Hmmmm,” he leans in, his lips ghosting over your own and you move in closer only for him to pull back.

“Only good girls get kisses, doll. You’ve been bad. And bad girls don’t get to cum.”

You can smell yourself on him and you're even more aroused, your hips rolling against his causing him to moan. His head falls between the crevice in your neck and he moans, his left hand pulling at the buttons on his jeans while his left hand is pushing down the straps to your gown.

“First you tell me how much you want another mans cock,” his hands are digging themselves deeper into your thighs and you know it will leave bruises. He was marking you, reminding the world of his territory. “Then you demand for me to make you cum. What makes you think a dirty little slut like you deserves the reward of my cock in you?”

His mouth moves to your breast and you arch into him, your hands knotting themselves in his hair. You loved when he did this, talked to you dirty. Took control. Reminded you that you belonged to him as much as he belonged to you. It was part of what made you both so perfect together.

His tongue is lazy as it slowly trails its way down your nipple,  taking his time as he suckles the delicate skin. You’re shivering by the time he’s done, your nipple now a raw, hard stub that causes your body to flinch as his beard caresses around it. Sebastian doesn’t stop pumping at his cock, shifting as he bites his way to your other breast.

“Fuck doll, you’re so damn sexy.” his mouth finds his other captor, sucking through the sheer fabric until your nipple is raw and taught against the thin material.

“You’re gonna let me fuck this pretty little pussy of yours,” his hand moves to the hem of your thong, pulling it down low enough to allow him access to your wet center. He runs his hands through your folds, causing you intake a quick break as he collects the wetness matted there, bringing his hands to his face and inhaling you.

“So fucking turned on for me, aren’t you doll?”

You mewl, nodding your hand in compliance. His irises are blown to black, filled with lust as he presses his hard erection between your folds.

“Tell me who you belong to?”

You look him in the eyes before whispering,

“You.”

“And who does this pretty little pussy belong to?” he cups you and you throw your head back before looking back at him.

“You.” you bite your lip as he slowly pushes himself into you. Just a little bit. Enough to have you working your hips into him but he holds you down, his hands resting on either side of his waist.

“What did I say baby? You gotta earn this cock.”

You nod.

“I’m sorry. I’ll wait.”

He gives a low groan, an animalistic sound that thunders down his throat as a smile splays across his face. There was nothing he loved more then when you submitted yourself completely to him.

“That's much better. What are you going to wait for?”

“For you to fuck me.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve been a snarky little shit.”

He moans, his mouth finding your neck and he lays soft kisses against your nape. It's only seconds before he’s asking in a low whisper,

“Who does this big cock belong to?”

“Me.” you growl this, your nail biting deeper into his shoulders and he moans.

“That’s right doll. I’m as much yours as you are mine.”

And before you can respond he’s slamming against you, bottoming out and causing you to give out an involuntary scream. He doesn’t give you time to recover before he pulls out and slams against you again, causing you to pull his hair back as he repeats this action, pulling back and watching you come undone.

“Sometimes, Y/N, sometimes you drive me fucking insane.” he manages out between gritted teeth and your hold around his hair tightens, pulling him just a little harder that causes him to moan.

“Sometimes I fucking hate you Sebastian.”

He hitches one of your legs higher, catching you in that spot that has you screaming his name in praise and he smiles as he feels your walls tightening around his cock.

“Say it again.”

“I hate you. I just...sometimes I just fucking hate you.” you haven’t recovered from the first orgasm, your body quivering when his thumb presses against your clit and you're seeing white, no chance in keeping your loud screams down, probably waking up the whole hotel screaming out his name.

He watches you come undone around him, taking in the way you cling to him, the sound of his name getting caught in your throat as his pace quickens, his hips slapping against you in a frenzied mess. He locks eyes with you, his eyes frenzied with lust but something more. That soft way he looks at you after being away for a long time, the way he looks when your name is brought up in casual conversation. That look of love that's only reserved for you.

“I hate you because I love you so damn much Seb. Love to hate you because i couldn’t imagine my life without you.”

Your voice is hoarse as you manage to whisper it out but he catches it and it's all he needs to come inside you, head thrown back as your name escapes his lips, singing you praises.

He was the most glorious when he was like this - giving all of himself to you.

You wait for his body to calm down, to calm his shivering frame as he clutches onto you tightly and you bring your lips to his ear, caressing his back as you whisper,

“You know, I really do love you. I’m just afraid that I’ll lose you.”

He pulls away far enough to look at you through sleepy eyes and presses his forehead against your own,

“If you only knew how much I love you,” his voice cracks as he grips you harder, “I can’t - I don’t know how to….” he stops at a lost for words and you know his internal battle. For you, he was the one. You knew he felt the same.

You both were just too damn stubborn to admit it. But you knew.

He recovers and says,

“I’ll….work on not being a selfish asshole.”

You smile, not realizing you had been crying until you feel a tear run down your cheek. He wipes its away, placing a soft kiss on your lips. When you pull away you can’t help but smugly say,

“That’s all I wanted.”

He snorts, shaking his head as he carry's you to your bed. He lays you down gently, throwing his shirt off and laying beside you, his arms drawing you close to him.

“I love you.” he mumbles before sleep wins and he’s softly snoring next to you. It's only seconds before you feel a soft vibrate against your thigh, and you dig in your covers to recover your phone. Its another message from Anthony.

Way to way wake me and everybody else up with your goddamn makeup sex. I assume all is well?

You smile, sending a quick text before throwing your phone on the night stand and falling asleep.

All good here Mack. Thanks for having our back. <3

[everyonethinksmynameiskayla]

We [tried] to drive through a river

It has been a long time since I last posted so this post might run a bit long (I was going to say “it risks to be long” but then I spent 10 minutes trying to remember if that’s a thing people say or if that’s a French expression that I translated in my head and decided was acceptable, and I couldn’t figure it out so I went with “might”). 

After I finished my Fulbright, I took a job as Global Learning Manager with buildOn (https://www.buildon.org/ if you’re curious). Almost exactly three months later I found myself in a pickup truck stuck in the middle of a small river in the mountains in Nicaragua, squatting on the backseat next to a Delgado from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education as the water rose inside the truck and the Mayor of the nearby town, in his boxers, and his men heaved on the front to push us back out onto the bank. 

A week prior I did not even know that I would be in Nicaragua. But the Global Learning Manager position is new and buildOn is an international NGO so nothing ever goes as planned and everything about my job and life seems to change every week. I am based in Senegal, so I still live in my apartment in Dakar, but our Senegal office is actually in Kaolack so every Monday at 7 am I take the new DemDik bus (which is a public transport revolution in Senegal if you ask me, it’s a big bus that’s air-conditioned (sort of) and leaves on time and only as many people as there are seats are allowed on) 3 hours east to Kaolack and then I return on Wednesday afternoon. Kaolack, it is widely known, is the worst (it’s commonly referred to as the armpit of Africa) because it is literally, not figuratively, hot as hell, covered in a layer of trash and there is nothing to do or look at other than said trash and the abundant dust, which you have to look at even if you don’t want to because it’s all over you and on your actual eyeballs. When it’s the rainy season, most of Kaolack looks like this: 

You can just smell the infection. 

Anyway, my deep and abiding love for Senegal does not extend to Kaolack. I’ve made a home for myself in Dakar over the past year; I rent my apartment but I am basically a homeowner since my useless landlord wouldn’t even do anything to the place if it was on fire. I’ve stopped calling him when something breaks or leaks or whatever and started going straight to the day workers that hang out across the street. They, along with everyone in my neighborhood (called Ouakam (or Wakam, Wolof spelling is up for grabs), it’s objectively the best neighborhood in Dakar with the most character and spirit) are very amused by me, the toubab woman who lives alone in Dakar and takes the bus everywhere. One of the best parts about my apartment is that it’s just 50 meters from where this Vietnamese guy sets up a stand every night and sells the best fried spring rolls I’ve ever had for 200 francs a piece (about 40 cents). 

Like I said, my job is rather nebulous at the moment as it’s new, but here’s what I do officially (I screenshot-ed this from LinkedIn because I’m lazy):

Key to my job is the constant traveling. We work in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Haiti, Nicaragua and Nepal. We are on travel schedule no. 4 for 2017-2018 so I’ve basically given up knowing when I’m going to be where. Until a few weeks ago we were having a West Africa regional conference in Senegal in early December and now I’m in Nicaragua planning a conference here with just the Nicaragua staff for the end of the December. So. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of fun and a priceless experience. The local staff in Senegal and Nicaragua (and I’m sure in the other places we work) - all of our in-country staff are from the country - are absolutely the best people and I love working with them. I would characterize the first few months of my work as getting on a roller coaster and not having time to put my seatbelt on before it started going and then trying to get the seatbelt on while going 150mph around loops and through tunnels and down the drops. 

In each country, we have our office in a city that isn’t the capital but is the largest city in the area of the country where we mostly work. In Nicaragua, that’s the north so our office is in Estelí and the communities where we work are in the mountains north of the city. The landscape is stunning, and really reminds me of Rwanda (here’s a taste: https://youtu.be/HHaTlaE91fs - remember to put it in HD to actually see it). Being in Nicaragua feels like a luxury vacation compared to Senegal (I miss Senegal though). Nicaragua and Senegal are so different that I couldn’t even begin to compare them. Estelí has neat streets on a grid, lots of backpacker hostels and cafés and little restaurants. The grocery stores have American products just sitting on the shelves like it’s no big deal, which blew my mind. I’m loving having to wear a sweatshirt here (it’s hot season at home right now) but I wouldn’t want to live here, I miss the excitement and energy of Dakar. I am crazy for the breakfasts (and if you’re out in the country, lunches and dinners too) here:

^ That’s gallo pinto (rice and bean mixture), a fried plantain, eggs, cheese, cream and a fresh corn tortilla.

I helped make tortillas this week in the field too: 

Everyone was very impressed with how round it was. Making roti in India served me well. I dig the kitchens in the villages here:

When the team here goes out into the field they rent nice pickup trucks, whereas the staff in Senegal either takes a motorcycle, the one truck we have or a sept place, which you’ve heard about if you’ve read any other posts and generally tend to look something like this: 

But once you get out of the city, it’s a different story. The roads are steep and narrow and winding and rocky and my butt is almost never on the seat. 

So, how did I end up in truck in a river taking on water? One of the main things I’m doing on my first trips out to each country is spending as much time ‘in the field’ as possible to get a feel for how things are done. My first excursion with Danilo, the Nicaragua Country Director, Keyla (very confusing), the Finance Manager and Carlos, the Construction Manger, was to a community near a town called Waslala which is just as fun to say a you might imagine. We never actually made it to the community though. It took 6 hours to get to Waslala, We stayed in a hotel there and then picked up the rep from the Ministry of Education, who was just full of stories about fighting the Contra, there the next morning to go to the inauguration ceremony for a school that had just been completed. The Mayor of Waslala and a few of his guys drove in front of us in a different truck. We bumped along for about an hour and then stopped when we reached a “creek” that had become a river in the heavy rains that was neck deep on the guy who was running a raft across for people and motorcycles.

^ He’s the real MVP

In every culture, men stand in semi-circles around things: grills, broken down cars, raging mini-rivers. We all stood around for hours trying to figure out what to do: to try to cross or to turn back. Keyla and I immediately were like “this is a terrible idea”. We both knew that our well-placed concern was no match for machismo, so we just stood around giving each other knowing looks while the mayor’s guy put on a show of observing that the water had receded half a centimeter. Danilo was worried because the community was waiting for us and determined that if the Mayor went we had to try to too. So after 3 hours of standing around, during which the Mayor took his pants off and waded in to “see if there were rocks”, we all got back in the trucks. 

^ I’m serious, the guy in the red polo is the Mayor

I wasn’t worried about my own safety at all, the water wasn’t deep enough or moving fast enough for it to be dangerous to swim in, I was worried about the truck. We all were. We knew if we got stuck and the engine went off we would have to go out the windows and abandon the truck, which would get washed away with the current without the engine on. The Mayor drove into the water and made it 3/4 of the way across and then got stuck. 

They were just stuck in the mud so it only took a couple guys getting out and pushing to get them up onto the bank. But we could see the oil draining out of the car, the black streaks flowing down the water away from it. I was sure that we wouldn’t try it after that, but we forged ahead. 

The water washed over the windshield as we drove in and then BOOM we hit a rock and were sitting still in the very middle, the water up to just below the the windows, which we immediately rolled down. Carlos, who was riding in the bed just in case, jumped out and waded to the front. He messed around with the rope we had tied to the front in case of this exact situation for a minute and eventually they got it tied to the Mayor’s truck, the idea being for them to pull us out. But in the meantime, the truck had started to fill up with water. Slowly at first, but then a few minutes had gone by and we were up to our waists in water. The Delgado had a big smile on his face like he thought this was hilarious but he turns to me and goes “no puedo nagar” (”I can’t swim”) and Keyla goes “tampoco” (”me neither”) and I realized that I was the only strong swimmer in the truck and felt a flash of panic. 

The rope broke after the first tug from the Mayor’s truck so gave up on that. The car alarm was going off, signaling that it would shut the engine off in two minutes to prevent damage to the electric system. Danilo and Keyla had been yelling for the people on the bank to get in and push us back out the way we came and finally after what felt like hours a couple of the mayors guys threw their phones and wallets on the ground and ran into help Carlos. With four of them pushing, we easily backed out on the bank behind us. We threw open the doors and water poured out. We were all soaked and basically stood around for a second staring at each other and then all burst out laughing. Danilo got back in the truck and drove it up the hill to check on it, the alarm still going off. Carlos told the Mayor to just go ahead (he was yelling for us to just try again), we had to deal with the truck. By the time Keyla and Carlos and I got up the hill, Danilo had turned the truck off and there were half a dozen guys standing around it. We ended up having to call for a mechanic to come from Waslala with a new oil filter and more oil. We sat around for hours waiting, eating bags of chips for lunch from the one store on the road. Finally, a truck full of guys showed up and they got to work. Several more hours of tense moments later, we were back in the truck sitting on the wet seats bumping back to Waslala. 

It was already late but we wanted to get back to Estelí so we had dinner in Waslala, changed our clothes and then hit the road. Everything with the truck seemed okay until the final two hours; the hazards kept coming on randomly and there was a weird beeping noise coming from the stereo. But we made it back around midnight. 

[rambles4sarah-blog]

March/April 2017

so I dont remember when that thing happened with the racist fragrance vendor. but it was ridiculous she was awful. I worked a whole bunch of hours. and I was getting so much pressure from savanna about the regional manager Jerrod. I was being watched without my know, obviously while I worked. and then the managers in the region got a mass email saying associate A,B,C; you get it, was doing. that Monday night I was tired I was stressed and that last thing I wanted to do was stand behind the sunglass display. 

So, I sat in a cosmetics but between my sitting I did some display cleaning and thankfully that what he saw me do. it made me insanely paranoid when Ifound out. I literally wanted to quit right there. but didn’t because I liked savanna she was a great manager at first. I just literally stressed myself out with school too I wasn’t finishing up my classes and I wasn’t doing homework. I got some reassurance from my advisors and I worked up until the night I had to fly out savanna would Thursday opening so I had to close. went home at 10 and I packed and tried to download 13 reasons (show was better than the book but I read the book in high school so I could be wrong) but I had to wait until 2am. because stupid timezones. I had to wait for California hit midnight because spoilers that so stupid. anyways I couldn’t find my bag so, I borrowed my moms purse but I couldn’t find the longer strap, and I woke everyone up. my nana thankfully was watching novelas of course. and I was finally able to go at like 2:30ish. I was tired and unfortunately I couldn’t get a ride to the airport. I never can to be honest so I parked my car. hopefully I can finally get full use of my car and I can drive myself. its more pleasant I guess. I get to destress myself I think the second time around it will be easier. you know me, once I get something down I’m a pro. I parked my car I was freezing I had to wait for a bus carry my suitcase and sit on a high bench while holding on to myself and my suicase. In other words I need to grow a couple inches and get a new suitcase. I made it to the airport got in line listened to people talk. tried to snapchat. I passed through the line easy peasy once it was done. I got in tsa line and again I beat the rush by two seconds no lie. I passed again in like 3minutes even though I was lugging around my moms purse which is not good for carrying a laptop. I literally had a neck pillow, laptop, iPad, and chargers. but that was too much and my shoulder bruised a little which is dumb. I didn’t even use my laptop except for the free wifi at LAX, btw did you know that their wifi is timed and their airlines all have their own sections so nothing mixes? like its all one thing for each airline. idk I thought was cool? also their airport is legit. you can check in your own bag and all that jazz. but Ill get to that later. I got to LA at 7:30 and I had to wait for Veronica. I looked like a hot mess. I literally shouldn’t have worked that Thursday but I wanted protection form the time off from the trip. Anyways, I sat for two hours and just saw beautiful men walk out of the terminal. I was hungry. I was tired. I met up with Veronica and we hit it off literally immediately made it to the airport shuttle which was easy enough for me. made it to the first hotel which was AUHMAZING. literally made me excited because it was my first trip alone like the adult I’m not. jk we unpacked got somewhat presentable. and headed to Koreatown. Sarah, this is literally when I was amazed because I was somewhere where I didn’t think I would be at under the circumstances. I went into the Korean mall which is awesome and when I went to the Kpop store to buy our bts bomb. it made me wish you were there with me. I made a mental note that if got7 (mainly because thats your bias group) that we would have to go to California to have the full experience. 

by the time we got out I was starving. we wanted to Korean bbq but in koreatown they don’t open until 4pm and it was noon so we went to a tofu place and that when you called. it was busy and loud and I was hungry but I answered the phone because the last conversation we had I know it upset you that I didn’t offer to cancel my trip to be with you. Im sorry for that. under that excitement. I spoke to you for a few minutes and told you I would call you back. I’m honestly going to say I did forget. once I got the the hotel with Veronica I remembered but it was 10pm California time and midnight your time, and I knew you wouldn’t answer.

we got lost. I rode a bus to Hollywood with all the Mexicans and I spoke Spanish in koreatown and I made friends with the store owners it was amazing oh! I bought sake soju whatever and first its really cheap second, I didn’t get carded. people are really nice but most keep to themselves. I did get irritated with Veronica I will say. she never travelled out I did everything. I planned I booked, I did time and pricing with Ubers and buses. she mainly didn’t think what I might want to do and focused on herself. which sucked and I did get so fed up on the second day. Day one I passed out. day 2 we woke up early got a lyft and headed to Anaheim. there was a convention and stuff the hotel was lit the first one was cooler we met up with mutuals ate lunch I missed the Frida Kahlo exhibit which peeved me, but I would lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy being around everyone and just the experience was amazing . by Sunday I got to see the exhibit for 45 mins I crazily enough paid $27 for 45 mins, because Veronica wouldn’t let me go alone. even though she didn’t know what it was. I saw I enjoyed and it brought me this peace and idk but I felt closer to myself as a Latina, I didn’t realize I was rejecting for such a long time but I was and seeing something so powerful it opened my eyes not to sound fake deep even though I do. I have to get ready for work ill continue this when I get back tonight.