#and that should be taken into account before we take the handful of lines we got fifteen years ago as the One True Canon

[nerdallwritey]

Don't! Cross! This! Line! With Your Hand.

Summary: “I’ll tell you what, they didn’t call me ‘Astarion the Trustworthy’ for nothing.” He made to hand you the instrument, then snatched it back just as quickly. “They DIDN’T call me ‘Astarion the Trustworthy,’ they called me ‘Astarion the BLOODTHIRSTY, who KILLS whoever doesn’t give Astarion exactly what he wants in the moment that he wants it! Which is RIGHT NOW when I had better get my back read out to me!’” You looked at him with wide eyes, trying and nearly failing to withhold a laugh. He was trying to play this game with you. He really was. But you could see how desperately he wanted answers, too.  Astarion, in turn, puffed his chest out as if trying to stand his ground.  Just a little longer with the teasing, then you’d help him. “That’s what they called you?” you asked. Astarion looked up as if trying to grasp what exactly he should say next. “It was… shorter in Elvish.” OR Astarion asks for help with reading the scars on his back. You give him a hard time in the process. NOTE: This is a crack fic is based on this scene from Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian. ADDITIONALLY: This is a tumblr exclusive post because I can't be bothered to properly format it on ao3 or taint the Night at the Museum tag over there 😅 (I'm willing to post it there if people want me to but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Pairing: Astarion x gn!reader Rating: Mature Word count: 2.1k CW: strong-ish language, stupidity, Night at the Museum 2 Spoilers: Minor spoilers for Act 1 (in-game dialogue, plot points, etc.), as well as Astarion's plotline

a/n: I wrote this back in March of 2024, WAAAAAAYYY before I ever posted An Evening to Ourselves. It was never supposed to see the light of day and yet, here we are. I recently reached 300 followers on this account and was encouraged by @vividiana and @khywren to post this crack fic as a celebration of sorts. Here's what I wrote in the google doc I originally wrote this piece in: "I wrote this purely because I love this dumb scene a lot and I thought it was a funny dynamic between Astarion and my Tav. It’s bad. It’s good. It is what it is." Please enjoy!

There it was. Your precious lute. Wood worn from loving hands cradling it through years of song. Haphazardly shoved into the back of a tent with jars full of what you assumed was the blood of wild animals. Rags and other miscellaneous objects thrown on top of it to try and hide it from view. Nothing too heavy though. She’d sing another day.

You KNEW Astarion had taken it. The bastard.

He’d begged you to stop playing when you were working out a tune on the way to the Risen Road. He’d begged you to stop playing when you made your way back to camp. It hardly seemed fair that he would take it and hide it while you were helping Gale with dinner. You couldn’t help that annoying him was one of your favorite pastimes.

Still, he hadn’t destroyed the instrument as he had threatened to do so eloquently. That was something. Though Astarion rarely ever made good on his threats to you or your prized possessions.

Puffing out a short breath to move a strand of hair out of your face, you crouched, doing your best to mimic what your resident rogue might do in this situation. Looking around, Astarion was nowhere to be seen. Strange, given the time of evening - perfect time to ignore everyone and read something he’d picked up on the road - but you couldn’t complain. Here was the perfect time to take back what was rightfully yours.

On your hands and knees you crawled forward, ducking your head under the low flap of his tent. Gently, you removed the debris covering the beloved instrument, and scurried backwards again to make off with your loot.

“Stoooooop-” you heard a familiar voice bellow from the treeline, “-right there, darling.”

Spinning on your heel, you turned to greet an irritated, and shirtless, Astarion. His brows were knit together in a scowl as he marched towards you. Specks of blood littered his skin. He must have just come from a hunt.

“Evening, Astarion,” you chirped innocently. “Were you out hunting for a shirt?”

He ignored your quip and instead got up into your personal space. Thrown off by his proximity, you dropped your guard a bit, allowing him to reach forward and snatch the lute out of your hands.

“Give me that!” you lunged after his hand but he held the instrument out of your reach.

“No, no, no, no, no,” he tisked. “First, you’re going to do something for me.” He turned to give you a look at his back.

You were met with the intricate scar you’d only seen a handful of times before. Once when you’d accidentally come across him washing his shirt in a nearby stream, and another the morning following the Tiefling party after you’d spent the night with him.

The intricate patterns drove a dull ache through your heart. Astarion had mentioned it had been carved into his skin over the course of a single night by his ruthless master, Cazador. You scrunched your nose and scowled at the thought, then softened, feeling sympathy for the man before you. Speaking of-

“I know a few healing spells, but I don’t think they’d help with this,” you said, genuinely.

“Obviously not,” Astarion spat over his shoulder. Then he sighed. “Sorry, I- That’s not what I meant. I was wondering if you could help me read them. The scars. I’ve been trying to read them by touch, but I can’t. They may as well be written in Rashimi.”

You crossed your arms and examined his back. You recognized the language of the runes: Infernal. Your eyes zeroed in on the lute in his hand. Might as well have some fun if he insisted on being annoying.

“I’ll help you read your back,” you said, a teasing lilt in your tone, “when you release my lute and give it back to me.”

Astarion turned again to face you and caught a mischievous look in your eye. You saw him mirror it. He knew you’d read the scars for him. But a game was afoot.

He straightened his posture and lifted his head in a way you’d seen him do dozens of times now: I’m better than you. I’m looking down on you. Come here and I’ll snatch you right up.

“I shall release what I want to release the moment I want to release it.”

You snorted. “Great. And I’ll read what I want to read at the exact moment that I want to read it, okay?”

Astarion huffed, a smirk playing on his lips. “Tell me what it says right now or I shall destroy ALL your instruments, starting with the little worn out piece of driftwood here.” He waggled the lute by its neck lamely to punctuate his point.

“It’s spruce!” you feigned offense. “Fine, if you’re not gonna give me back my lute, then I’m never going to help you translate the Infernal on your back.”

Astarion’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Infernal… what was that bastard up to?” His eyes flicked back to yours. “Alright,” he said. “Alright.”

“Good,” you said, leaning forward for the lute.

Astarion tilted back a little, keeping his grip firmly on the lute. You gave him a look of confusion.

“I’ll tell you what, they didn’t call me ‘Astarion the Trustworthy’ for nothing.” He made to hand you the instrument, then snatched it back just as quickly. “They DIDN’T call me ‘Astarion the Trustworthy,’ they called me ‘Astarion the BLOODTHIRSTY, who KILLS whoever doesn’t give Astarion exactly what he wants in the moment that he wants it! Which is RIGHT NOW when I had better get my back read out to me!’”

You looked at him with wide eyes, trying and nearly failing to withhold a laugh. He was trying to play this game with you. He really was. But you could see how desperately he wanted answers, too. 

Astarion, in turn, puffed his chest out as if trying to stand his ground. 

Just a little longer with the teasing, then you’d help him.

“That’s what they called you?” you asked.

Astarion looked up as if trying to grasp what exactly he should say next. “It was… shorter in Elvish.”

“Great, well, I’ll read your back after you give me back-” you reached forward once more for the lute and your fingers brushed one of the strings, letting out a soft trill. 

“How dare you,” Astarion pivoted on his heel away from you. “If you touch that again, I shall kill you right now.” 

You playfully rolled your eyes. For all his talk, you knew Astarion would never hurt you intentionally. 

He pointed at the lute and continued: “Do not touch this. This is a no touching zone.” He waved his free hand in front of the lute, drawing an invisible barrier through the air. 

“Good! Well, then-” you reached out and strummed a few of the strings that were within your reach.

Astarion angled his body to cut you off. “Oh my gods,” he exclaimed. “I can’t believe you reached across like that.”

Again, you tried extremely hard to keep yourself from laughing. 

Astarion smiled and kept going. “I can’t even believe it. Oh, gods, I want to kill you right- If I didn’t need you to read my back you’d be- you’d be so dead right now, it would be unbelievable.”

For all his practiced words and charm, he was failing miserably at threatening you articulately. You both knew it but neither of you would be the one to break first.

“Great, but you DO need my help to read your back.”

Astarion used his free hand again to dramatically redraw the barrier between you and his arm holding your lute. “Don’t! Cross! This! Line! With your hand.”

“No-”

“How dare you-”

“What I’m saying is-”

“If you speak again-”

“Nobody else-”

“If you SPEAK again, I’m GOING to kill you. Do you understand?”

You attempted to give an answer to this, but the vampire cut you off gleefully.

“Don’t say any- Oh gods I see you getting ready-”

“I wasn’t-��

“Oh my gods! Don’t say anything!”

Sucking in your lips and holding your breath, you did your best to remain nonchalant. Astarion could see you were about to break. He leaned in and lowered his voice.

“I shall murder you if you talk again. Now would you please… read what's on my damn back?” He turned once again to show you the pattern in his skin. You took this as your chance to snatch your lute back.

Your hand connected with the instrument. “Okay, after you give this back to me.”

Astarion slowly turned back to you, feigning disbelief and using his free hand to clutch at his chest in mock pain. “You did both! You spoke, and you reached your hand across!” He whipped his arm holding the lute back to his side, forcing you to let go.

“Look,” you said, placing your hands on your hips, “I could do this with you all night, okay?”

“How about this?” Astarion moved his hand to the pegboard of the lute and brought his free hand to the base. He then kicked the back of your knee, making you shift off balance, and finally came around behind you, holding the neck of the lute against your throat. “How about I DON’T kill you right now like I really, REALLY want to, and I give you precisely five seconds to read what’s been carved into my back.”

“Oh my gooooooods,” came another voice. “You two need to stop flirting so loudly around the rest of us.”

Karlach meandered over, dragging her hands down her face indicating she’d heard enough. 

“Astarion, the infernal on your back doesn’t say anything specific. It’s part of some larger devilish pact or some shit. I can’t be fucked.”

You both looked to Karlach and then back at each other. Astarion released you from the “threatening” hold he had you in and the pair of you turned to face your tiefling friend. 

“Karlach,” Astarion started, “you know how to read?”

The flames that surrounded Karlach’s body burned brightly for a moment. “Of course I know how to read, you absolute twat hat.”

That made you start to laugh in earnest.

“And you, soldier!” Karlach focused her attention on you and you immediately shut up. “If you’re gonna bang fangs, good for you by the way, but if you’re gonna bang fangs, have the decency to keep it down? Some of us are really pent up and can’t do anything about it.”

You cringed inwardly. “So sorry, we’ll keep it down from now on.” you elbowed Astarion.

“Ow! Yes, sure, sorry.”

“Good. Now put a shirt on, fancy boy.” With that, Karlach made her way back to her tent. 

The both of you stayed quiet for another moment.

“Still feel like murdering me?”

“Not particularly, no.”

“Great. Turn around.” You knelt down in the dirt.

“What are you doing?”

“Turn around,” you repeated.

Astarion did as he was told and turned to show you his back. You stared for a moment, then took to drawing it in the dusty ground in front of you. When you were done, you patted Astarion’s calf and he turned back to face you.

“What in the hells?” Then, after a moment, “What did he do to me?”

Looking at the runes you’d dutifully copied into the dirt, you weren’t exactly sure what to make of it, apart from what Karlach had already told you. You stayed silent.

“Two centuries carrying this, and I can finally see it.” Disbelief and confusion coated his words. 

“You really have no idea what this is?”

“None at all… Cazador was only figuratively hellish - there were never any devils hanging about the crypt.” 

You rose to stand and joined Astarion by his side. 

He sighed. “Whatever he’s left carved in my flesh, it’s a mystery to me. But if this is part of a contract, it must be powerful. Or valuable. Or both.” Something hungry played in his tone.

You nudged him gently. Come back. “No wonder he wants me back. What have I run off with?” 

He spoke more to himself than you. You left his side briefly to rummage through his things not a few feet away from you. You tossed one of his own shirts at him, knocking him out of his thoughts.

“We’ll figure it out,” you walked back to his side. “I promise.”

“Will we?” He searched your eyes. “How… sweet.” 

You half smiled, then your eyes trailed down to your lute still in his hand. “Can I have that back now?”

“Not a chance, darling.”

[crossdressingdeath]

It's kind of funny seeing people claim that Zevran's not mentioned in DAV because all the Crows are terrified of him, because like... guys, it's infinitely more likely that he's just causing problems for House Arainai as the only house we can say with any certainty he's had any interactions with, especially given when he's mentioned in Tevinter Nights Viago seems distinctly unfussed and basically dismisses him as House Arainai's embarrassment (which is definitely partially because the writers didn't want to get into potentially variable details, but they didn't have to mention him at all if that was the only reason). It makes far more sense to me to assume that he's not mentioned because we're dealing with houses Dellamorte, de Riva and Cantori and none of them have any reason to care.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How I got scammed

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security

I wuz robbed.

More specifically, I was tricked by a phone-phisher pretending to be from my bank, and he convinced me to hand over my credit-card number, then did $8,000+ worth of fraud with it before I figured out what happened. And then he tried to do it again, a week later!

Here's what happened. Over the Christmas holiday, I traveled to New Orleans. The day we landed, I hit a Chase ATM in the French Quarter for some cash, but the machine declined the transaction. Later in the day, we passed a little credit-union's ATM and I used that one instead (I bank with a one-branch credit union and generally there's no fee to use another CU's ATM).

A couple days later, I got a call from my credit union. It was a weekend, during the holiday, and the guy who called was obviously working for my little CU's after-hours fraud contractor. I'd dealt with these folks before – they service a ton of little credit unions, and generally the call quality isn't great and the staff will often make mistakes like mispronouncing my credit union's name.

That's what happened here – the guy was on a terrible VOIP line and I had to ask him to readjust his mic before I could even understand him. He mispronounced my bank's name and then asked if I'd attempted to spend $1,000 at an Apple Store in NYC that day. No, I said, and groaned inwardly. What a pain in the ass. Obviously, I'd had my ATM card skimmed – either at the Chase ATM (maybe that was why the transaction failed), or at the other credit union's ATM (it had been a very cheap looking system).

I told the guy to block my card and we started going through the tedious business of running through recent transactions, verifying my identity, and so on. It dragged on and on. These were my last hours in New Orleans, and I'd left my family at home and gone out to see some of the pre-Mardi Gras krewe celebrations and get a muffalata, and I could tell that I was going to run out of time before I finished talking to this guy.

"Look," I said, "you've got all my details, you've frozen the card. I gotta go home and meet my family and head to the airport. I'll call you back on the after-hours number once I'm through security, all right?"

He was frustrated, but that was his problem. I hung up, got my sandwich, went to the airport, and we checked in. It was total chaos: an Alaska Air 737 Max had just lost its door-plug in mid-air and every Max in every airline's fleet had been grounded, so the check in was crammed with people trying to rebook. We got through to the gate and I sat down to call the CU's after-hours line. The person on the other end told me that she could only handle lost and stolen cards, not fraud, and given that I'd already frozen the card, I should just drop by the branch on Monday to get a new card.

We flew home, and later the next day, I logged into my account and made a list of all the fraudulent transactions and printed them out, and on Monday morning, I drove to the bank to deal with all the paperwork. The folks at the CU were even more pissed than I was. The fraud that run up to more than $8,000, and if Visa refused to take it out of the merchants where the card had been used, my little credit union would have to eat the loss.

I agreed and commiserated. I also pointed out that their outsource, after-hours fraud center bore some blame here: I'd canceled the card on Saturday but most of the fraud had taken place on Sunday. Something had gone wrong.

One cool thing about banking at a tiny credit-union is that you end up talking to people who have actual authority, responsibility and agency. It turned out the the woman who was processing my fraud paperwork was a VP, and she decided to look into it. A few minutes later she came back and told me that the fraud center had no record of having called me on Saturday.

"That was the fraudster," she said.

Oh, shit. I frantically rewound my conversation, trying to figure out if this could possibly be true. I hadn't given him anything apart from some very anodyne info, like what city I live in (which is in my Wikipedia entry), my date of birth (ditto), and the last four digits of my card.

Wait a sec.

He hadn't asked for the last four digits. He'd asked for the last seven digits. At the time, I'd found that very frustrating, but now – "The first nine digits are the same for every card you issue, right?" I asked the VP.

I'd given him my entire card number.

Goddammit.

The thing is, I know a lot about fraud. I'm writing an entire series of novels about this kind of scam:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

And most summers, I go to Defcon, and I always go to the "social engineering" competitions where an audience listens as a hacker in a soundproof booth cold-calls merchants (with the owner's permission) and tries to con whoever answers the phone into giving up important information.

But I'd been conned.

Now look, I knew I could be conned. I'd been conned before, 13 years ago, by a Twitter worm that successfully phished out of my password via DM:

https://locusmag.com/2010/05/cory-doctorow-persistence-pays-parasites/

That scam had required a miracle of timing. It started the day before, when I'd reset my phone to factory defaults and reinstalled all my apps. That same day, I'd published two big online features that a lot of people were talking about. The next morning, we were late getting out of the house, so by the time my wife and I dropped the kid at daycare and went to the coffee shop, it had a long line. Rather than wait in line with me, my wife sat down to read a newspaper, and so I pulled out my phone and found a Twitter DM from a friend asking "is this you?" with a URL.

Assuming this was something to do with those articles I'd published the day before, I clicked the link and got prompted for my Twitter login again. This had been happening all day because I'd done that mobile reinstall the day before and all my stored passwords had been wiped. I entered it but the page timed out. By that time, the coffees were ready. We sat and chatted for a bit, then went our own ways.

I was on my way to the office when I checked my phone again. I had a whole string of DMs from other friends. Each one read "is this you?" and had a URL.

Oh, shit, I'd been phished.

If I hadn't reinstalled my mobile OS the day before. If I hadn't published a pair of big articles the day before. If we hadn't been late getting out the door. If we had been a little more late getting out the door (so that I'd have seen the multiple DMs, which would have tipped me off).

There's a name for this in security circles: "Swiss-cheese security." Imagine multiple slices of Swiss cheese all stacked up, the holes in one slice blocked by the slice below it. All the slices move around and every now and again, a hole opens up that goes all the way through the stack. Zap!

The fraudster who tricked me out of my credit card number had Swiss cheese security on his side. Yes, he spoofed my bank's caller ID, but that wouldn't have been enough to fool me if I hadn't been on vacation, having just used a pair of dodgy ATMs, in a hurry and distracted. If the 737 Max disaster hadn't happened that day and I'd had more time at the gate, I'd have called my bank back. If my bank didn't use a slightly crappy outsource/out-of-hours fraud center that I'd already had sub-par experiences with. If, if, if.

The next Friday night, at 5:30PM, the fraudster called me back, pretending to be the bank's after-hours center. He told me my card had been compromised again. But: I hadn't removed my card from my wallet since I'd had it replaced. Also, it was half an hour after the bank closed for the long weekend, a very fraud-friendly time. And when I told him I'd call him back and asked for the after-hours fraud number, he got very threatening and warned me that because I'd now been notified about the fraud that any losses the bank suffered after I hung up the phone without completing the fraud protocol would be billed to me. I hung up on him. He called me back immediately. I hung up on him again and put my phone into do-not-disturb.

The following Tuesday, I called my bank and spoke to their head of risk-management. I went through everything I'd figured out about the fraudsters, and she told me that credit unions across America were being hit by this scam, by fraudsters who somehow knew CU customers' phone numbers and names, and which CU they banked at. This was key: my phone number is a reasonably well-kept secret. You can get it by spending money with Equifax or another nonconsensual doxing giant, but you can't just google it or get it at any of the free services. The fact that the fraudsters knew where I banked, knew my name, and had my phone number had really caused me to let down my guard.

The risk management person and I talked about how the credit union could mitigate this attack: for example, by better-training the after-hours card-loss staff to be on the alert for calls from people who had been contacted about supposed card fraud. We also went through the confusing phone-menu that had funneled me to the wrong department when I called in, and worked through alternate wording for the menu system that would be clearer (this is the best part about banking with a small CU – you can talk directly to the responsible person and have a productive discussion!). I even convinced her to buy a ticket to next summer's Defcon to attend the social engineering competitions.

There's a leak somewhere in the CU systems' supply chain. Maybe it's Zelle, or the small number of corresponding banks that CUs rely on for SWIFT transaction forwarding. Maybe it's even those after-hours fraud/card-loss centers. But all across the USA, CU customers are getting calls with spoofed caller IDs from fraudsters who know their registered phone numbers and where they bank.

I've been mulling this over for most of a month now, and one thing has really been eating at me: the way that AI is going to make this kind of problem much worse.

Not because AI is going to commit fraud, though.

One of the truest things I know about AI is: "we're nowhere near a place where bots can steal your job, we're certainly at the point where your boss can be suckered into firing you and replacing you with a bot that fails at doing your job":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-brainworms/#four-hour-work-week

I trusted this fraudster specifically because I knew that the outsource, out-of-hours contractors my bank uses have crummy headsets, don't know how to pronounce my bank's name, and have long-ass, tedious, and pointless standardized questionnaires they run through when taking fraud reports. All of this created cover for the fraudster, whose plausibility was enhanced by the rough edges in his pitch - they didn't raise red flags.

As this kind of fraud reporting and fraud contacting is increasingly outsourced to AI, bank customers will be conditioned to dealing with semi-automated systems that make stupid mistakes, force you to repeat yourself, ask you questions they should already know the answers to, and so on. In other words, AI will groom bank customers to be phishing victims.

This is a mistake the finance sector keeps making. 15 years ago, Ben Laurie excoriated the UK banks for their "Verified By Visa" system, which validated credit card transactions by taking users to a third party site and requiring them to re-enter parts of their password there:

https://web.archive.org/web/20090331094020/http://www.links.org/?p=591

This is exactly how a phishing attack works. As Laurie pointed out, this was the banks training their customers to be phished.

I came close to getting phished again today, as it happens. I got back from Berlin on Friday and my suitcase was damaged in transit. I've been dealing with the airline, which means I've really been dealing with their third-party, outsource luggage-damage service. They have a terrible website, their emails are incoherent, and they officiously demand the same information over and over again.

This morning, I got a scam email asking me for more information to complete my damaged luggage claim. It was a terrible email, from a noreply@ email address, and it was vague, officious, and dishearteningly bureaucratic. For just a moment, my finger hovered over the phishing link, and then I looked a little closer.

On any other day, it wouldn't have had a chance. Today – right after I had my luggage wrecked, while I'm still jetlagged, and after days of dealing with my airline's terrible outsource partner – it almost worked.

So much fraud is a Swiss-cheese attack, and while companies can't close all the holes, they can stop creating new ones.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to post about it whenever I get scammed. I find the inner workings of scams to be fascinating, and it's also important to remind people that everyone is vulnerable sometimes, and scammers are willing to try endless variations until an attack lands at just the right place, at just the right time, in just the right way. If you think you can't get scammed, that makes you especially vulnerable:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[puckinghischier]

I can just imagine doing a “soft launch” with Nico and him not understanding the concept of it and posting just a picture that’s very much you and the teams gc blowing up giving him shit

when you opened the burst of notifications suddenly flooding your phone, you’re confused. sure, you had just posted a soft launch of nico on your account, but you didn’t expect this kind of reaction to it, most of your close friends and family already knowing about him.

when you open the instagram app, though, you see none other than a post from your oh so sweet boyfriend, your smiling face next to his looking right back at you. his comments are full of fans talking back and forth about who you are and where you came from. you noticed the sudden influx of followers to your account, quickly switching your profile to private before any more make their way through.

the two of you had discussed doing a soft launch last night, agreeing that now is the time to do it, seeing as you’re getting pretty serious. you thought nico understood the concept, but bless his heart, he didn’t.

he had posted one of the most recent pictures the two of you had taken together. you were standing nestled close to him in front of the large tree at rockefeller center just across the bridge, big, loving smiles on both of your faces. the icing on the cake, though? he tagged you in the picture.

you noticed a few of his teammates in the comments, cheering the new relationship on and congratulating him for making it social media official.

ones such as timo, jack, and jesper, however, were poking fun at him. the three of them were the first of nico’s teammates you ever met, so you feel a bit closer to them than some of the others. you had actually crashed their lunch yesterday, joining the four hockey players for a quick cafe meal in-between practices.

they were included in your conversation, asking them their opinion and if it was too soon. when they all gave you their approval you continued the conversation with nico later that night, setting the plan into motion.

jack’s comment read “wow cap, this launch was about as soft as a rock,” while timo’s was along the lines of “soft on the ice, but not on the launches.”

jesper’s was a bit more to the point, simply stating “you’re not supposed to tag her, dumbass.”

before you could read any further comments, your screen was taken over by an incoming call from none other than your new instagram official boyfriend.

“sweetheart, i fucked up. i’m so sorry. i should have asked what you meant last night, but i thought we were just posting about each other. i had no clue it was supposed to be secretive and clever. you should have just told me what to post, now-“

“nico, neeks, calm down. take a breath, it’s fine,” you laugh at his rambles, interrupting his spiral that started the second you answered the phone, not even getting to say hello.

“you’re…not mad?” he stops mid-sentence, confused at your lack of fury at his mistake.

“no, i’m not mad. even if it did cause my phone to nearly crash because of how many notifications were coming through, it was cute,” you smile through your sentence, even though he can’t see you.

“oh…well….i guess i didn’t need to leave practice early then, huh?” he tells you, right as you hear the door open to your apartment, nico standing there with the key you gave him in hand.

you hang up your phone, standing from your couch and walking over towards him.

“why in the world would you leave practice early for something as silly as this?” you stand with your hands on your hips, looking at him disapprovingly.

he doesn’t meet your eye, seeming bashful all of a sudden. “well…if you were going to yell at me i would rather have had you do it in person, that way i could kiss you and tell you i loved you in person instead of over the phone,” he tells you honestly, looking like a little boy getting scolded by his parents.

rolling your eyes at him, you walk over and run your hands through his hair, letting your hands stop at the nape of his neck, arms resting on his shoulders as he looks down at you.

“well i’m not mad, but you can still kiss me and tell me you love me, since the entire state of new jersey—well, the united states and most of switzerland, probably—knows now,” you poke fun at him, scratching the bottom of his scalp while his arms come to circle around your waist.

smirking down at you, he meets your lips in a sweet kiss, barely able to savor it before his phone starts buzzing like crazy in his pocket, distracting both of you.

“now listen, i know i don’t have that many followers to freak out about my new hockey star boyfriend, so who’s blowing your phone up?” you pull back from the kiss, looking down at where his phone rests in the pocket of his sweats.

he pulls the device out, bringing it over so both of you can look at it. you see the messages continue to come through, the same name being seen on all of them: “the handsome devils”.

“that’s your groupchat name? the handsome devils? how original” you laugh at the team’s lack of creativity.

“it was jack’s idea,” nico shrugs, the explanation making perfect sense.

you can hardly read the messages because they’re coming in so fast, but you catch a few.

“nico, do we need to host an instagram class in lieu of practice one day?” dougie offers his admin skills to his captain.

“cap, even i know that soft launch means partial, not a full face shot,” followed by “i didn’t mean that the way that sounded, jack, don’t laugh,” from curtis, and then a “HAHAHA” from jack.

“does this mean i have to start calling her mom?” from luke was the last one you saw before looking up at nico, his furrowed brow showing his annoyance with his teammates.

you reach up to smooth the wrinkle between his full brows, leading him to look up at you instead of his phone.

“nico, they’re just poking fun. they all mean well,” you assure him, taking the still buzzing phone from his hands.

he pouts at you anyways, huffing out a sigh. “i just…felt really bad about all of this and they were all laughing at me when i was rushing out of the locker room, worried you were about to break up with me.”

you can’t help but let out your own laugh, finding it comical he actually thinks you would break up with him. his pout deepens at your laugh, crossing his arms and tucking into himself, yet again looking like a child.

“nico, i’m sorry, i’m not laughing at you, it’s just funny you think i’d break up with you over being too excited to tell people we’re dating and posting one of my favorite pictures of us on your very public instagram,” you assure him, untucking his arms from themselves and placing them back around your waist.

he lets himself relax a bit, getting comfortable in his hold on you again. “it is a really good picture of us, isn’t it?” he asks, looking down at you.

you nod your head yes, humming out a “mhmmm” before standing on your tip toes and pressing a kiss to his nose.

“now, why don’t we go make ourselves comfortable on the couch, order food, and think of snarky comebacks to send to your teammates for making fun of you?” you suggest, causing his face to light up.

“i knew i loved you for a reason,” he says enthusiastically, taking your arm and dragging you over towards the couch.

[literarylesbo]

spike’s changing perception of love and his actions surrounding how to show it is such an interesting concept…

as a human, spike, or william, was never shown love in a true way. he loved his mother, and he took care of her. he showed love to a girl in his town, and he was made fun of and shut down. he was a bit pathetic (and i don’t mean this as an insult, it’s just one of the only words to describe what i’m trying to convey). when he becomes a vampire, he turns his mother in an act of love to cure her sickness (as another post has mentioned before), but she becomes cruel, and in another act of love, he kills her. he ultimately ends the life of the one person he cared about completely as a human.

then there is the power dynamic between drusilla and spike, as i think there always is between the sire and the sired. she knows more about the world and changes him to be like her. despite her mental state, she has the upper hand about what they are and how they should act. that isn’t to say that they don’t truly love each other; it just presents another obstacle.

i am a spuffy shipper all the way, but I do love dru and spike’s relationship as well. however, it is built on obsession and violence. spike’s birth as a vampire is due to his death as a human by dru’s hands (or fangs lol). they do grand acts of violence for each other. they are aggressive and passionate with one another. they love each other (this can be seen not just through their actions but through the episode with the judge when he says he can sense love and jealousy in both dru and spike). but this love is not built on things that we associate love with. it is built on violence, sex, passion, but also a strong sense of loyalty.

when spike realizes he loves buffy, he is taking his own perception of love that he has developed throughout his life. from what we’ve seen, he does not have experience as a human, so most of his definition is being taken from his time as a vampire. we see this deep caring he has for buffy, but he has no way to convey it properly. he kidnaps her and threatens to kill dru to prove his devotion to her, by killing the person he loved first.

however, he sees the fault in his ways. he’s fiercely loyal to her by the fifth season. he’s willing to sacrifice himself for dawn; he’s willing to put his life on the line in a way he hasn’t for anyone before. he counts the days buffy is dead and continues to fight with her friends. he helps her fight her way out of her depression.

he tells her that she belongs in the darkness with him because he truly thinks that. what friend was really trying to help her after they resurrected her? do i agree with him? no, but also what image of healthy love does he have to look back on? none.

(i do not take into account the actions of “seeing red”. in all honesty, i act like they didn’t happen because of the reasons behind it being petty and cruel *cough cough joss* and sending james to therapy etc etc etc, just a disclaimer)

so spike gradually learns how to love. properly. he gets his soul back to prove he can be the type of man she could love. to be worthy. and that is something so beautiful. he didn’t force buffy to show him how to love. he did it himself. for her. he learned how to love with and without his soul. he made the decision to get his soul back when he still didn’t have one.

his character is so interesting to me because he is a goofy guy but he’s also deep and deeply flawed. i have a lot of thoughts obviously but this explains some.

[kremlin]

"This event ends the moment you write us a check, and it better not bounce, or you're a dead motherfucker" -- Big Bill Hell

There was a time when you'd see little old ladies paying for the groceries with a hand-written personal check, holding up the line, causing an immediately-forgiven slight sense of annoyance with those behind her. Buddy. Those days are over. They've been over. What, did you think you were going to just pop a couple extra zeroes on the end of your paycheck there? Maybe scan your paycheck, open it in photoshop, make a template, print em out all nice? You think you're the first to think of that, dipshit?

It takes the law a long time to catch up with the state of the art. You're reading this on the internet, which means you never use checks. The law has caught up. Your ass will be going to prison immediately and you will see zero return.

You can't even kite checks anymore, and hell, nobody under 40 will even know what that means, due to the blazing fast, two day settlement on all ACH transactions. Let me paint you a picture.

You get paid on Friday, but it is Monday, and bills are due on Tuesday. And you're broke: $0 in the bank. Goose egg. Pop open your checkbook, go to a store, "buy" some things, write a check for the amount. The cashier takes it!

Now take those things you "bought", across town, to another store location, and return them for cold hard cash. Sweet. Bills paid. Friday rolls around, and you just make it to the bank to deposit your paycheck before it closes. After the weekend, the checks you wrote finally post, and they don't bounce! You've kited a check. You've surreptitiously taken a zero-interest loan. And we know your broke ass. The interest rate on that short-term payday loan should have been straight up usurious. We're talking 29%. That makes predatory fuckers like us horny for sex. We're so mad. Now you are going to Federal Prison. For a good minute. Fuckface.

COST: $0.10 (With banks offering free checking accounts + Bic pen)

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor sleet, if you fuck with the mail, we'll rip your nuts off" -- Ronald Mail (Inventor of Mail)

Many people have this misnomer that the most powerful people in politics are democratically elected. The president, of the United States, of America, is a stupid cartoon hotdog. All of them, I don't care. Way less clout than you'd think. Brilliantly, it is the people that the hotdog president appoints who are actually doing anything significant. The director of the CIA. The fucking chairman of the Federal Reserve. Probably the, like, most senior, uh, general of the military, and shit too. I don't know, we don't "do" army here at Bloomberg. You probably don't even know their names! I don't! These are the ones you should be seeing in your sleep.

There's another position like that. Appointed directly by the hotdog. The Postmaster General. That's a real title. He's the CEO of the mail, and buddy, what he may lack in political power relative to the director of the CEO, he makes up in raw sexual energy. Total Tom Selleck energy. Like an airline pilot. We're talking Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I'm tentpoling in my black business slacks just writing this, and all my Bloomberg newsroom bros are peering over my shoulder and also tent-poling. We're not gay though, and especially me, I'm probably the least gay, but sometimes I just lay awake for hours at night what that mustache would feel like pressed against my lips, the unbelievable and utter, total sense of security I'd feel burying my head into his hard chest.

You get it. He's your dad. And if you fuck with the mail, you've fucked with the tools in your dad's garage. And dad's been drinking. You're in for it, bucko, you are in trouble. Do you think the United States Postal Service actually makes any money? Hell no. It costs like five bucks to mail a box basically anywhere I can think of and they give you the boxes for free. You can just walk in the post office and take them. I do that, and then just throw them away, I don't know why, some kind of compulsion. Being able to move shit around like this, quickly, cheaply -- Jesus H, I've got a huge amount of money in my bank account, probably tens of trillions of dollars (due to financial knowledge gained from reading Bloomberg articles) and I could probably mail every single person ever something and still come out in the black.

No way pal. They've thought of that already. The Postmaster General is going to know every time, and he's going to grab you by the shirt collar, wearing his cool as fuck hat, and you're going to get your pants pulled down, and your bare ass spanke...I need to go use the restroom real quick.

We rely on the mail system to get important shit done. It's not something to be taken lightly, and it isn't. Trust me. This is why, like almost every other person who receives mail in this year 2023, I just fucking put a wastebasket under my mail slot. I don't even shred that shit anymore. I just burn it. Takes less time.

COST: $0.63 (Postal stamp)

"Can call all you want, but there's no one home // And you're not gonna reach my telephone // Out in the club, and I'm sipping that bubb // And you're not gonna reach my telephone" -- Lady Gaga

I read something wild that the children of today do not know what a dial tone is, because of how fucked up and stupid they are. Isn't that super fucked up?

While it's not really our style, allow me to fill you in on some ancient, arcane knowledge about the telephone. You can turn it on, and then you can punch in numbers. Any numbers. Random ones, or maybe not random ones. If the ten numbers you punch in are the same as the numbers in someone else's telephone number, their phone will ring, and then you are talking to them. This is called "Phreaking".

Here's the kicker: You can tell that jackass anything you want. "Oh, Hi, Yes, I am Reginald Sumpter calling from Avalon Consulting LLC, we are just following up on the invoice we sent you. Please remit to ###### routing ###### account."

BOOM! Your name isn't Reginald whatever and that company doesn't exist, but you just received a deposit. It's fucking beautiful. What have you done wrong? It isn't your responsibility to handle who your business' clients/etc are, it's their's. If they want to just pay you money for no real reason, well, that's kind of on them, isn't it? I haven't stuck a pistol in your face and demanded everything in the register.

Well, it's too clever. It's too slick. This is the United States of America. It's one thing to commit a felony like armed robbery, it's another thing to piss off someone in charge of the accounting division who uses a special bathroom you need a key to get into.

You can do it on the computer too, I use a PC Computer at work and send email, so you can see how it'd work there. You can make a document that is indifferentiable from a real invoice and, straight up, 1/3 of the time they will pay that shit. Lmfao.

It's called wire fraud because, uhh, duhhhh, there's wires. What do you think that thing is strung between the telephone receiver and the dialer? And computers? Give me a break. There's so many wires with those.

COST: $0.25 (Coin for payphone)

"People calculate too much and think too little." -- Charlie Munger

It is insane how dumb the common man can be when it comes to our world of expertise. I hear this same sentiment, like, ALL THE TIME:

"Durr hurr I will buy an insurance policy for my car or house or whatever so that in case something happens to it I will get money". And then that same person proceeds to drive safely or not burn their house down. Dumbest crap imaginable.

Let me break it down for you. Insurance is a two player competitive game. There is a winner and there is a loser. Go take out an expensive insurance policy on your American sports car. Buy a neck brace, a football helmet, and pack that bitch with throw pillows. Then get in the left lane of a major highway at like noonish, let it rip and then SLAM on your brakes. Hit from behind! Your fault! Congratulations. You have won insurance. How this gets past people is beyond me.

You can only do this once or twice before the insurance companies catch on. Then they don't want to fuck with you. It is also..I don't know man...something feels off about taking a car or a house, which like, some guy had to build and just destroying it, but that is only a weird emotional thing, since you're making money, more than whatever the destroyed thing is worth, so in reality you've built that house plus some extra. You've contributed.

COST: $106.00 (Average monthly car insurance payment)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SUBSCRIBE TO MY WHATEVER FOR PART TWO, COMING SOON. i'll post it later today probably. whatever time frame will juice the numbers. have a sneaky peaky

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[edennill]

In which I puzzle over metaphysical implications as regards the peoples inhabiting Arda

fyi, a certain familiarity with the (predominantly Christian, I think) concept of fallenness/unfallenness is assumed, although it turns out that it doesn't necessarily work here. Feel free to ask for clarifications

So. I'm once again wracking my head as I try to make sense of what I shall call: 'metaphysical states' of elves, men and others, because the subject is emphasised and lampshaded a lot in the books, and I can't force it all to make sense when taken together.

Ainur are a specific case and I should really leave them aside for now. They certainly can fall — and, unlike angels, change their mind, apparently (which goes both ways) — although they do seem to be more all-or-nothing than everyone else. Still, I think as long as one doesn't go into the implications of time and what its existence or nonexistence changes, they're almost straightforward. But then you have:

Elves. The 'Fall of the Noldor' is very strongly emphasised as a metaphysical fall from grace and further evils, even ones unconnected with the matter of the Silmarils themselves, are blamed on it later (Maeglin!) So far so good. Except. Non-Noldor are also liable to behave in ways that are not exemplary in the slightest, and it doesn't seem to signify a cesura in the same way — and the Noldor in Valinor were able to commit acts that perhaps weren't as heinous as what we call crimes, but weren't good either. Getting into rancid fights with your brother isn't much in comparison, but these are not the actions of unfallen people.

And on the other hand, authorial quote (paraphrased): "Elves in some ways represent Man in an unfallen state". And I'm inclined to agree: they aren't subject to death (except they may be killed, so doesn't this already break down?), and there is something very poignant in the image of their artistry, "extempt from earthly limitations". But they do not lose it, not in any easily tangible way. We can argue that evil diminishes creativity and it's probably true, but there is no hard line anyone passes. And this is again lampshaded in-world with the Númenoreans ("If we die because of some darkness that lay on us before, than why don't the Noldor?").

Which brings us to Men. The existence of a direct cause-effect relationship between fallenness and mortality in Arda cannot be ascertained (Even taking into account a Catholic framework, I feel that logically it need not be the same relationship as the Biblical one since, in contrast with the Garden of Eden, the world was already marred when humans appeared). While I consider the Tale of Adanel to be Gondorian in origin, I can also see the possibility that whatever Men did back then, beyond memory (or in other words "we purposefully forgot") was just that much worse than Alqualondë and the Oath. In any case, Man is very straightforwardly Fallen.

Hobbits. The rules for Halflings are presumably the same as for Men, which is certainly notable, given that they seem to be the least inclined to evil of all incarnates. Not perfect, not by a long shot, but unknowing of wars and violence. A pastoral image, only in-world it's true.

And at the same time, my musings bring me to the unexpected conclusion that dwarves are the only notable "generally unfallen" kindred. Which is, in context of everything that regards them, weird — because by their actions, they are very similar to Men. And yet — either the circumstances of their creation make them disadvantaged from the start (which doesn't really make that much sense), or something happened off-screen, or it's the same case as Saeros, or Thingol sending Beren to his death.

Ents? I honestly don't know if we've seen enough of ents to judge, although they seem generally good-inclined? Huorns are a different kettle of fish.

Before I try to explain orcs, it would do well to know what they are exactly.

In other words, I cannot make sense of it all, enough that I've resorted to calling the default state of incarnates in Arda "semi-fallen" (or, as is, "semi-unfallen"). Which is not a thing that makes sense, philosophically speaking — but I can find no better way.

(Although, to be quite honest, the default state of being in Arda (because of the discord?) seems to be significantly different from the unfallen state of Man as described by religious thinkers in some ways, and not all of them regard merely such things as physical marring, so perhaps "semi" isn't the worst way to describe it.)

In any case, if someone has thoughts on the subject, I'm very open to hearing them.

[hellcatinnc]

How the Men Of Love And Deepspace Would Be On Being Fathers

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Warning This includes: SFW (Read Tags Before Continuing)

Tags: sfw, fathers, daddys, pregnancy, baby daddys, babies, baby rooms, morning sickness, fluff, love and deepspace, zayne, xavier, rafayel, lamaze, birth, pregnancy test, flirty, kuudere

Word Count: 2,292

Feature: x Fem! Reader

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Zayne

That moment when you show up at the hospital and he is in between surgeries. He has been there for over 24 hours now with all the wrecks of recently but you just can't wait to tell him. You let his nurses know to tell him that you will be waiting in the cafeteria until he has a moment. A couple hours have gone by and your play candy crush or one of your other addictive mobile games this week it might just be the new game that came out "Love and Deepspace". ;)

After time has passed you happen to look up yawning its nearly 9pm cafeteria hours are almost up but you see a shadow out of the corner of your eye. He is grabbing a few croissants and a few sweet treats then walks over at the table and sits down in front of you. Same Zayne you have always loved even though its hard to know what he is thinking you know he loves you in the little things he does for you. Like the fact he had already slid across the table your favorite pastry and coffee and he didn't even ask, he has been with you long enough to just get them now.

You take a deep breath then look at him "You're going to be a daddy!" You are so used to no expression so you expect it you just happen to tell him when he was sipping his coffee and he started coughing, it had gone down the wrong way because the moment he heard that he breathed in the liquid. After a few moments it took and he got his composure he looked back up at you. "I thought we been using protection and pills, you been on pills right?" You nod yes "Sometimes they aren't all full proof, you're a doctor you should know that."

He looks at you then sighs, "Well you know we financially can afford it but we will have to look for a bigger place and then balance our bank account and see what we need to take out each month on what we are going to buy for the baby's room. Then there is the care after they are born......" He trails off on this logic train you lean over put your finger to his lips "Shhh, honey lets take one day at a time. For now its to be happy that we are going to have a little one together. Tomorrow on we can think about the logics but for now lets just be happy. I mean you are happy right?" He nods yes, you know he is just freaking out under it all but you wouldn't expect it any other way than him trying to plan ahead to make sure you and the baby is taken care of.

He always goes out of his way to make sure you are safe and secure and he wants to do the same for you during your pregnancy right on into having the baby. You two think differently however this ride you will be on having a baby you will teach him to breathe and feel the baby kick, and he will be there making sure your lined up for the best daycares and have just enough diapers when you come home from the hospital. He doesn't always tell you how he feels but the next 9 months he will be the man who brings you home lotions to give your feet massage from where they are swelling due to water weight in the pregnancy. He will pick up you prescription on his way home for lunch for your prenatal. He is there holding your hair out of the way when you have morning sickness in the toilet. He helps you decorate the baby room with a more clean look to it but not to childish but with name brand stuff in the room.

The day the baby is born it will be induced earlier since he was able to get one day off the clock to be there for you in the emergency room. He will be there holding your hand as you push. Because he is a doctor you won't have to worry about him being squeamish. He is there when they cut the ambilocal cord and he is the first one with his baby in his arms. Its a little girl looking up at her daddy in that moment you see a smile curl up on his face. If no one else can get an expression from him the moment he sees her she melts his icy demeaner and thats how she will always be wrapping her daddy around her little fingers.

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Rafayel

You show up at his art studio day and you wanted to surprise him with lunch because he has a habit getting caught up in his artwork and sometimes forgets to eat. You step inside and see him painting away and don't want to startle him so you go sit on the couch and set up a little lunch picnic on the table for him. He happens to look back at one point sees you there and heads over to you walking over leaning in and kissing your lips first as he gives you a playful smile. "This looks amazing, also you look absolutely radiant today. Something new about you darling?" No sooner than he says that you think your sweet Raffy has been in tune with your emotions and feelings from the very start so doesn't surprise you that he can already tell your pregnant even though he doesn't know he can still notice the differences in changes in your appearance.

You nod yes as you pull out a box from your purse and hand it to him. Well Raffy loves getting gifts from you but he hadn't expected what was to come. Its a longer box so he is kind of surprised but smiles wide at you as he opens the box. He pushes the paper aside to see a pregnancy test sitting in the box. He flopped down in the chair and has a shocked look on his face. He starts to smile and looks up at you with tears starting to form in his eyes. "You.... Y-ou mean......I'm..I'm going to be a d-daddy?" His cute stutter was precious but with his actions, the tears in his eyes you knew you had picked the perfect partner to have a family with and spend your life with. You reach over wiping his tears out of his eyes and kiss him softly. "Yes my love, your going to be a daddy." He starts to chuckle a bit then gives you that sheepish smile he knows he did well to get you pregnant and you can see that gleam in his eyes he is proud of himself.

He is there every step of the way, you thought he was clingy before you haven't seen anything. He will make sure everything is done though, he will make food for you and keep the house cleaned up. Even though he is normally a messy person he refuses to be the reason you fall and get hurt or hurt the baby. He is sitting beside you in morning sickness wiping your face with a cool rag and handing you water in between getting sick so that you are keeping hydrated. He is all about going out shopping for baby stuff like cute rompers, and he will find little baby paint brush sets that look like paint brushes but are rattles instead. He will decorate the baby room by painting cute baby stuff all around the room. He will paint a underwater theme he did it with more of a kid friendly feel to match the rest of the baby room.

He is set and ready to go. Those 9 months are just not gonna go by fast enough for him. He is super excited and can't wait to meet his offspring. You will go to lamaze classes with him and sign up for a midwife to do a water birth. So the day you go in labor he will have the midwife on speed dial on his phone so that she can get over there and give birth to your child in the garden tub you have in the bathroom. No matter how much Rafayel tries to keep it together he gets dizzy at one point and looks away but refuses to leave your side. He holds your hand through it all no matter how much you scream at him he doesn't leave. When his daughter cries for the first time he is in tears looking down at his sweet little baby. First words out of his mouth is "I love my baby girl and thank you darlin for giving us such a beautiful family." Now its time for selfie time he will take a 100 of photos of you and him and the baby before the nights even over because he will be so proud. He will take care of everything while you recover after birth for the next couple weeks.

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Xavier

You sent him a text seeing if he was home and awake. When you got a response back he asked you if you wanted to come up and make them some pancakes. You agree because you know he is better on a full stomach and well rested so this would be the perfect time to tell him. You get up to his apartment and even though normally he doesn't get too excited when it comes to food he is all in ready for it. So you decide to get creative and after you make the pancakes you draw with the syrup the word daddy on the pancakes well that didn't work. No sooner than you sat the plate in front of him he jumped right into eating didn't even notice the words in syrup. You sit across the table and you sigh of course now you have to go a different route.

"Honey, have you ever thought about having kids?" The moment he hears you say this he almost chokes on his pancakes then looks up at you like you have got to be kidding. I mean sure have you ever thought Xavier would be good daddy material, probably not but hey its going to happen your pregnant and he is your boyfriend. He gives you that curious stare he likes to give like he is trying to figure out if your pulling his chain or if your serious. "I can't say I have." He says in a hurry but then goes back to eating like you had interfered with his enjoyment. You look directly at him put your hand on his hand as he looks up at you. "Well we are going to be having a baby, I'm pregnant!" He just stares at you like he is trying to figure out how to address this.

He sits there eating as he does so in silence like he is trying to figure out what to do next. You sit there uncomfortable thinking that he doesn't want you and the baby now. After some time he finishes his breakfast then grabs your hand and walks you to the bed. Pulls you onto it and into his arms where he wraps his arms around you. "I'm not prepared, nor am I ready. I have never wanted kids or even thought about them. However I feel for you like no one else, so lets see where this takes us." He made you happy in that moment, yeah sure he isn't over the moon but he is also still staying by your side through it all. He goes to the doctors appointments with you and finds out you are having a girl he had no performance thought.

You two went to appointments and he asked alot of questions. Went to help you get baby stuff for the house and he asked you to move in with him so that you two could be there through out the pregnancy. Whenever you got sick with morning sickness he would teleport you to the hospital. When it came to picking out baby furniture he just wanted the items to either be accented in stars or lights or both. He strung all the lights himself so that you dont have to do alot of work he wanted you to lay low while he did most everything so that your pregnancy stay healthy.

When it came the day you were to give birth you woke up from a sound sleep. So as he realized you were in labor he teleported you to the hospital. He wanted to be in the room with you but the moment they told you to push and the baby was crowning he got nauseated and passed out. When he woke up the baby was already laying in your arms. He crawled on to the hospital bed cuddling up to you watching you talk to you two's little girl. He looked down at her "She is so precious". you could tell he was interested in her even if he acted like he wasn't. When you got home you realized he had someone there cleaning up so you could focus on you and the baby. He still couldn't believe he was. He cuddled you two for a few hours and then he went and laid his head against you as you both snuggled up and pulled a bassinet next to you to put your baby in as he held you the rest of the night so you could get rest after the long day as well you felt safe.

[amsznn]

Hi can I request Matt x reader

The reader and her friend are going to one of the boys show.They do the meet and greet and the reader talks to Matt.she is really shy but the more they get to talking the more comfortable they are together.Later on the the boys the boys are on stage and one the challenges is singing.They have to pick someone they met earlier and Matt picks the reader.He remembers her saying even though she is shy she loves singing.In the end the reader ends up winning for Matt’s team and he asks for her number.Lots of fluff!!

STAGE FRIGHT - m.sturniolo

warnings: none

-

if someone told you a couple of months ago that you would be standing in line to meet your favorite youtubers, you’d probably laugh. not only was it difficult to get tickets, but it seemed impossible to you since they were also expensive.

but that all changed when your best friend surprised you with two tickets to one of their shows.

which is why you’re hear. standing in line, minutes away from meet the three boys for the meet and greet portion, hands sweaty, and fidgeting every second. “you good?” you’re friend asked from behind you, clearly noticing how you couldn’t stay still.

“yeah, im just a bit nervous.” you said while sipping on the last of your water. “don’t worry me too.” your friend laughed as she pulled out her phone. “let’s take a selfie before we pass out.” she raised the phone and snapped a pic of you both smiling.

a couple of minutes passed and you were at the front of the line. you had brought your fresh love hoodie hoping you could get signatures from them all. after the last person had went it was now your turn.

you walked up to where the boys were standing, giving them all individual hugs. “hey, i love your guys’ videos.” you said while smiling to which all three of the boys greeted you kindly back.

“thanks, how are you enjoying the events so far?” matt responded as chris and nick had taken your hoodie to sign. “it’s fun, im most excited for the singing portion though.” you said, remembering how the boys listed their events on their group instagram account.

“oh really? you sing?” matt asked as he got passed the hoodie to sign from chris. you nodded and took the hoodie from him once he was done. “yeah, here and there.” matt only smiled before standing off to the side so you guys could take a group photo.

“so you’ll stick around for the events im guessing?” matt asked when the photo was over. you gave him a quick ‘yes’ before you had to leave.

around an hour had passed when the meet and greet ended. the boys had now moved to the stage to begin more activities.

“so first up we will have…a singing competition!” nick announced into the microphone. the crowd of fans cheered before he continued. “so matt, chris, and i will pick on of you guys to do a song with us and you guys will vote on who did better.”

“alright lemme pick.” chris said before running across the stage, looking onto the stage. he pointed to the person of his choice and she was brought on stage. nick had done the same and his partner was on stage with him. “okay matt its just you left.” chris said into the mic.

matt glanced around the crowded and his eyes landed on you. “this girl told me she could sing at the meet and greet so i would like her to come up.” he said while smiling.

you nervously looked around for a second. not sure if your ears were playing tricks on you or not. but eventually you snapped out of it and made your way to the stage.

“okay, lets start this!” nick said as he looked to his partner. the two groups had picked their songs and let out some..interesting vocals. after a couple of minutes it was you and matt’s turn.

“what song should we do?” matt asked as he turned to you, moving the mic so it wouldnt pick up the conversation.

you shrugged and thought for a bit. “maybe one of the girls by the weeknd? it’s a good song for a duo.” matt agreed and went on to tell everyone your suggestion.

the song started and you could feel your palms literally forming pools of sweat. matt went first and everyone found it amusing. near the end of the song it was your turn. matt handed you the mic and you went on to sing the rest of the lyrics.

the crowd cheered once you were done. you could see your best friend screaming from where she was standing. you turned to see the reactions of the people that accompanied you on stage.

“we are so cooked.” chris yelled into the mic while laughing. “this has to be unfair.” nick argued.

“you’re really good.” matt said ignoring the chaos his brothers were causing. you could only smile while thanking him. if he only he knew how much that meant to you coming from him. “okay i think we clearly know who the winner is right?” matt asked the crowd to which they all erupted into cheers again.

afterwards, the guests were asked to go back to their seats but as you made your way down stage, matt stopped you shortly.

“hey.”

“hey.” you responded back, a little confused. “could i maybe get your number?” the brunette asked while fumbling to get his phone out his pocket before pointing it towards you.

“oh, of course!” you said while taking his phone to type in your number. “can i text you?” matt asked when you gave him back his phone.

“i mean you have my number don’t you?” you retorted. matt only laughed and nodded before running back up the stage. leaving you, shocked at what just happened. actually, shocked at what’s been happening throughout this day.

little did you know a few other fans were watching this interaction. videos of you surfaced a lot of platforms, even some of you and matt’s private interaction.

there was no way matt would forget you now.

-

A/N: im sorry this was so late. I was in boston for spring break and i just wanted to relax for a bit. i hope you liked this <3

tags:

@junnniiieee07 @tillies33ssss @whore4matt @stellarsturns @summerl986 @inveigledvex @beccaluvschris @stingerayyy2 @bunnysturns @braindead4l @vickyzloserz @sturnzsblog

[beautifultypewriter]

Hi! I love your account, I’ve been reading your Game of Thrones stuff (I actually just finished the show for the first time!) and I was wondering if you would write another Podrick x reader work? You can take it however you want, maybe the two of them having feelings for each other and dancing around it until something/someone makes them admit it? Pod quickly became my favorite character, he’s too good and trustworthy! Thanks for reading all this! :)

Hi!! Thank you so much and I’m so sorry for the delay! I love this concept though! So cute and so perfect for Pod. I love him. Before anyone comes for me, I know this is not how the dynamics were in the show, but I don’t care. I’m doing what I want. Hope you like it!

*Also this kind of has spoilers for the later seasons, so proceed with caution I guess*

Sansa had stopped talking when she noticed that you had stopped responding. She followed your line of sight and smirked as she saw what had taken all of your attention. She cleared her throat and your eyes snapped back to her, your cheeks heating up as she gave you a sly smile, “Something distracting you?”

You scoffed, looking away from her, “Not at all, my lady.” Slowly you turned back to her and she shook her head.

“You should just say something to him,” she looked off into the distance, her face turning grim, “life is short.” You slipped your gloved hand into hers, squeezing it gently. She forced a smile and met your gaze, squeezing your hand back.

You gave her a soft smile, “I really appreciate your advice, but I think it’s best,” Sansa’s smile turned into a smirk as she quickly glanced at something over your shoulder before meeting your gaze again. Your eyebrows furrowed, but you continued, “If I just-”

“Sorry to interrupt,” you froze as the voice reached your ears, the man seeming not to notice as he went on, “but I wonder if I might have a word.” You turned your head to see Podrick looking directly at you and you felt your heartbeat quicken. He turned quickly to Sansa, “If it would not be an inconvenience, my lady.” He looked between the two of you, waiting for one of you to reply.

Sansa continued to smirk as she pushed you towards the man, “Of course not.” She nudged you again, “Please take all the time you need.” Slowly she turned to look at you, her brows lifted slightly as she waited for you to say something.

Holding up your hand, you opened your mouth, “Um…” Closing your mouth, you looked at Sansa and then at Podrick, “Actually, I have forgotten that I am meant to meet with Arya,” you pointed over your shoulder, taking slow steps backwards in the snow, “so I really should get going.” Your pace quickened slightly and you hoped you would stay on your feet as you forced a smile to your lips.

Podrick was frowning as he reached towards you, though he knew you were too far away for him to reach, “Perhaps we could speak later?”

You waved a dismissive hand, “Sure!” Spinning on your heel, you hurried away, stoping briefly to turn back towards the disaster you left behind, “I’ll find you.” You spun around again so quickly that you missed Podrick’s wave. Once you were out of the courtyard, he deflated. His shoulders sagged and his frown deepened, a million thoughts running through his mind, as he rubbed the back of his neck. Sansa stared at him, her own frown forming as she looked at the spot you had just disappeared from. Podrick glanced at her, the tips of his ears turning red as he remembered that she was still standing next to him.

He cleared his throat, “My apologies, my lady. I should…” He looked around the courtyard, trying to find something to get him away from his embarrassment.

Sansa gave him a soft smile as she gently patted his shoulder, “Don’t be discouraged. You should still tell them.” Podrick’s ears burned as he stuttered, trying to deny whatever the Lady of Winterfell was implying, but she only shook her head and walked away. Podrick was frozen in place, words still failing him as he watched her go in the same direction you had gone only minutes ago.

The hour was late when you got word that Sansa had wanted to speak with you. You rushed to her Solar, not wanting to keep her waiting. As you pushed the door open, you breathed heavily, “I’m here, my lady. What did you need…” any other words caught in your throat as you stared at Podrick. He was stood by the fireplace with a bunch of wildflowers clutched tightly in his fist. Sansa was no where to be found. The door fell shut behind you and your mind went blank. Pod smiled at you and you returned it, at least you hoped you did. You might have grimaced.

You were snapped from your thoughts as Podrick cleared his throat and held the flowers out to you, “Might we have that word now?” You could see the redness creeping up the back of his neck and a true smile broke out on your lips.

With a nod, you stepped closer and took the flowers from his outstretched hand, “I would like that.” Pod grinned and moved closer, his fingertips brushing gently against your knuckles.

[ino-takumas-baggy-sweater]

A Second Chance, A Father's Curse - Part 3 (Ryomen Sukuna x Reader)

I'm trying so hard not to burn myself out on writing because I've written and posted so much the past few weeks. which is a really short amount of time for me, also I'm going away for about a week which means I won't be able to write, so hopefully by the time I come back I'll be refreshed and ready to write more! In the meantime enjoy part 3 :)

Part 2 here

Warnings: sukuna is a volatile lil shit, possibly incorrect descriptions of disabilities? i did do a bit of research but also it's a lot of heavy headcanoning

Word count: 3.6k

“Have you seen the news?” “Prince Ryomen L/n…” “Why do you think he changed his last name?” “He’s part of Iqoria now, whether he meant it or not,” “Surely there’s an explanation for it,” “There must be, but he’s here now and he’ll be a great asset if he knows what he’s doing,” “That is true, I suppose we should just trust the King, if he trusts him with Princess L/n then we should too,”

There have been no shortage of murmurings in the streets about the sudden and unexpected marriage and arrival of the newlywed Ryomen L/n. It’s only been a couple of days, the people will adjust. You’re making sure that you take the time to walk him around the castle and actually get to know him before you take up the traditional clan tattoos that will bind the pair of you to Iqoria, of which he holds a curious fascination.

“What are the origins of your clan tattoos?” He asks on the second morning. A lovely warm day, you’ve chosen a light dress and a parasol to accompany you on your walk through the gardens. You look over to him beside you, the pair of you hidden amongst the bushes as you sit together on a shaded bench, “There are a few different opinions and accounts, but I believe the most popular stems back to an ancient era of the kingdom where curses were much more abundant than they are currently."

"One of my female ancestors centuries ago used ink to disguise herself and played pretend as a fierce and strong curse, almost acting as a god, and she led great numbers of them to their destruction to protect her village. Adenfast is said to be named after that village, but the original location is unknown,” You explain.

“Have they changed much over the years?” He has taken your hand and is tracing his thumb over the lines on your wrist, “Not as far as I know, I know a few lines here and there that came from specific people from my family tree because of things they achieved, but it’s mostly stayed the same,” You point to your wrists, the two thick black bands there prominent, “These were added by my great great grandmother, as protection for the young children in the family, two lines done at age ten and then renewed after marriage,”

He smirks, but it’s softer than it has been, “Interesting…” He murmurs. “How will you be incorporating your clans tattoos into mine?” You ask quietly, because ultimately it’s his decision, and you’re already fearing his answer. He just shrugs, “Not sure,” He looks away, still holding your hand, “It all doesn’t feel real,” He murmurs. “Freedom?” You squeeze his hand gently.

He nods, his gaze traveling around the quiet gardens as you take in the moment. He’s been skittish, he flinched when your father raised his voice at dinner the night before and you’d made sure to scold your father afterwards. You can always sense the storm within him, he can’t easily suppress his energy and you’ve had to deal with one other outburst than the one on the journey here.

He’d been here only a day, his sleep was restless and this you knew because you spent that night in the same bed together in lieu of the wasted night spent in a carriage. Nothing happened between the two of you, but he jolted the both of you awake in the early hours of the morning after a nightmare. The sun hadn’t risen, his face was barely visible in the dim starlight creeping through the window, but you could feel his sadness. He wouldn’t tell you what it was, he didn’t say a word, just allowed you to pull him against you and hide his face in your chest. His outburst later that day was aimed at Geto, who’d foolishly commented on his younger brothers.

“Does your father not see your younger brothers the way he sees his precious eldest heirs?” He’d said during one of your tutelage sessions with Gojo in which Ryomen was watching from the sidelines, and you knew he was deliberately stepping over a line. You thought Geto was better than that, but after this happened you weren’t sure you could trust him in the same way you always had.

You felt Ryomen coming up behind you and stepped to put yourself between them with a glare in your eyes before Ryomen could even think about throwing a punch, “Suguru Geto, you know better than that, do I have to tell my father about this?!” You had shouted. His eyes had widened and he’d dropped to a knee, immediately apologising. He clearly hadn’t expected you to support your husband. You suppose he held a grudge against the man for his actions towards you on the journey to Iqoria and thought you would share these reservations, but you refused to stand for it. “You fucking bastard, never speak of my brothers again, do you hear me?!” Ryomen spat over your shoulder, “My brothers are better men than you will ever be, I can fucking smell the hatred that you exude,”

You also didn’t appreciate the accusation that came from Ryomen but you let it slide, you’d seen his last interaction with his brothers and knew it still rubbed him raw to even think about them. “We’re done here, Geto I will speak with you at a later time,” You turned and herded Ryomen out of the room. His eyes held that familiar tint of red at the edges of his irises and his energy had flared to such a level that you’d taken him out to the rear of the castle, where the guards trained, and he had destroyed a wooden dummy halfway across the courtyard beyond recognition within mere seconds of arrival.

He was breathing heavily when he finally looked back at you, and you refused to look away or show you were afraid. He was in pain, and you needed to let him work through it and seek help only where he wanted it. “Let’s not tell anyone about that,” You nodded vaguely in the direction of where the dummy used to be as he returned to your side, his breath ragged and sweat dripping down his face and neck.

He nodded in response, swallowing thickly, “I’m sorry,” He mutters, “You shouldn’t have to see me like this,” “Is that your technique?” You asked, gaze flitting to the pieces of the dummy. He looked away and you didn’t question him further, you just took his hand and lead him into the castle to force him into a bath.

Back in the present as you’re reminded of the fear in his eyes, you look back to him, “Are you… afraid of yourself?” You murmur. He looks like a kicked puppy when he turns to you and your eyes widen, “Sorry! Sorry, I take it back, you don’t have to answer that,” He clutches your hand just a little tighter, his knuckles going white and his lips set in a thin line, “Yes,” He states, his voice shaky, “I am afraid of myself,”

“I’m afraid of what I might do to you if I’m left unchecked,” He continues, “I’m afraid of hurting you and lashing out at the people around me because I still feel like a caged wolf even though the reality of my situation has changed,” “I hope you can one day see me as home,” You say, putting your parasol down to reach your hand up to his cheek, “I know it will be hard, and I promise I will know you down to your core one day, but there is no rush,” He nudges his nose against your palm for a moment, “I am first and foremost your new friend, and I want only to be your strongest ally,”

He nods, “Thank you,” He whispers softly. “Princess Y/n!” The shout of your name shatters the small bubble of peace around the two of you. You drop your hand from his face but keep your fingers intertwined as you stand. A young maid around your age that you grew up with, Belinda, comes racing around a dense rosebush and comes to a skidding halt when she spots you. She bows for a moment, “Your father has requested your presence for the application of the L/n clan tattoos,” She informs you and you hand your parasol to her, “Thank you for letting me know, take this to my closet and we will make our way to the throne room,”

She darts off with the parasol in hand and you link arms with Ryomen as he stands again, leading you back into the castle. Once in the throne room, you’re greeted by the pair of artists responsible for both your and your brother’s tattoos, “Ah Princess Y/n, and Prince Ryomen, an honour it is,” The couple bow as your father stands and opens his arms, “My children, it is time,” He smiles widely, “See to this duty with dignity,” You curtsey to the tattoo artists before they lead the two of you to a room dimly lit with candles.

“As you aren’t the Crown Prince and Princess, this isn’t considered an extravagantly formal affair,” The woman assures you, “You may speak freely with one another while we work, there are a few rituals we will conduct during and after the inking process, but nothing remarkable,” The tattoo artists are specially chosen for their artistic abilities and their knowledge of cursed energy, as a reverse cursed technique is needed for royal family tattoos which are expected to appear to the public within the first twenty four hours of application.

“If you please,” The other artist, the man who gave you your wristbands when you were ten, gestures to the outline of a person on a poster you didn’t even notice at first on the wall. It’s not quite life size, just smaller than you, but it shows you the complete map of tattoos that you will be getting for the L/n clan including a back view just beside it.

Bands on your upper arms and around your shoulders as well as a large spot on your shoulders, two sharp parallel streaks down your abdomen with matching lines reflected on the small of your back, two broken lines that wrap over your shoulders like overall straps and veer up and then down again just below your collarbone on your breasts. You’d always known about the facial tattoos, the lines that follow the jaw bone, the emblem in the centre of the forehead that was said to represent wisdom, and the line over the nose, but you’d always seem then as quite delicate and symbolic of the fragility of life.

The tattoos hidden beneath the clothing were thick and strong, reminiscent of the ones on your wrists that were there for protection. These were the tattoos of fierce and noble protectors. Those who would risk their lives to keep the weak safe. Your family was strong, a fact perhaps forgotten in times of peace, and this reminder gives you a boost of confidence as you begin stripping down to just your bottom half undergarments. There are no tattoos below the waist save for a pair of thick ankle bands and the symbol on your forehead copied on both hips.

“How would you like to incorporate the Itadori clan tattoos?” The man asks Ryomen behind you. You hear the shuffle of clothing and then his hand on your bare upper back. Having to get really comfortable really fast with one another, you rip the bandage off and turn to him with your arms crossed over your chest, hugging yourself, “I don’t think I will,” He grins as he looks you up and down, his gaze flicking between you and the poster on the wall a couple of times. The artists exchange glances but you just nod, “Make it so,” “Your majesties, this isn’t a wise decision diplomatically speaking,” The woman speaks softly, her head bowed.

 “This marriage wasn’t for the sake of diplomacy so why the fuck should I care what my father thinks?” Ryomen snaps. You grab his hand, still keeping one arm tight over your bare chest, “Ryomen,” You say softly, “Ryomen, it’s okay, they’re allowed to be worried for their kingdom, this has never happened before, are you sure you don’t want to add anything? Even if it isn’t from your clan?” He looks into your eyes for a fleeting moment and then looks to the map again, frowning as he breathes deeply. “Can you tattoo a pair of fake closed eyelids just above the edge of where the lines will end on my cheeks?” He gestures on his face just below his real eyes.

You look confused for a moment but he clarifies, “My second eyes, Yuji always used to tell me I had an extra pair of eyes reserved for my brothers,” The artists seem to relax only slightly and the woman asks you if you’ll be getting that modification to which you reply, after confirmation from Ryomen that he is comfortable, that yes you will. The entire process is long and tedious, difficult, you spend more time squeezing Ryomen’s hand than actually talking because the pain gets to you after a while. He’s antsy the whole time, he reaches up and fidgets with your fingers and plays with your hair after his arms and shoulders are done while you’re sat up getting your back done.

“Tell me about your brothers,” You ask softly once the man starts work on his back, the woman in between the two of you tattooing atop your breasts and collarbones. “My brothers? What would you like to know?” You shrug, “Anything you want to tell me,” He looks up for a moment, “Well, Yuji and I were always the closest, since Choso is the Crown Prince he spent a lot of time in studies and learning how to be king. Eso and Kechizu are five and eight years younger than me, fifteen and twelve, both born with disabilities that prevent them from leading normal lives,”

There is an intense sadness in his eyes and you squeeze his hand gently, “Eso significantly lacks in his movement and coordination ability, the doctors would never tell us exactly what it was but we knew he couldn’t play the same way we used to as children, so we never played rough. Kechizu is hard to explain, because he was born with significant tunnel vision and a high sensitivity to light, and so hasn’t bothered opening his eyes most of his life, but also has problems with his blood. He bleeds heavily if he gets hurt, he bruises extremely easily, so then we learned we had to be gentle with both boys,” You’re sure your sadness is palpable at this point, but he seems to be perking up slightly just talking about them with someone.

“Despite the limitations in their abilities, they were always so lively and never wanted to be left behind if we went out to train, Eso spent his time describing in exaggerated detail the three of us as we trained to Kechizu, and I just remember them being so happy when my father wasn’t around-“ He cuts himself off, his lips returning to a thin line as his eyes sparkle slightly in the candlelight. You know he doesn’t want to cry in front of the artists, so you instead begin to tell him stories of your childhood, your brother and Geto, the young maids who grew up alongside you and now serve you, the kindness of the Iqorian people and the events and festivals you’ve attended all your life.

“That all sounds lovely,” He murmurs as he cups your cheek, tracing a thumb over the new tattoo just below your eyes and letting his energy flow through you to heal the raw skin left there. The gesture warms your heart, healing his addition to your clan tattoos, and you uncover your chest shyly to place your own hands over the newly healed tattoos on his collarbone, tracing the edges of the thick lines gently. “You know, now that it’s happening, I couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone else,” He says, his voice thick with emotion.

You blush softly, “You really do have a way with words sometimes, I think you could have been a poet in another life,” He steps into your space, half attempting to hide your exposed skin from the artists, “I think I’d very much like to be reborn as a songbird,” He whispers, his large hands still gently holding your cheeks as the artists begin their final rituals, leaning his forehead down and resting it against yours. “Then I could sing you songs of every kind of love every morning when you wake,” A soft glow surrounds the pair of you as you look into his eyes, the tattoos emitting the glow as the artists murmur softly.

You’re unsure of what exactly they’re doing but you know this is a moment you won’t ever forget, stood in the center of a dark room with the man you saved within mere hours of meeting him. Your new husband, perhaps the most dangerous man alive if Satoru Gojo’s Six Eyes are to be believed. But he’s here, he’s right in front of you holding you like a butterfly, bearing your last name and the marks of your clan because of the ignorance of his father.

The artists have left the room by the time you come back to one another, the glow slowly dimming with every second, but his hands never leave your body. He traces his hands over everything he can see, and everything he can’t, in an effort to familiarise himself with you and seek comfort in your warmth. It doesn’t occur to you that this is a little scandalous, you simply allow him to softly caress your skin, nothing but a hint of innocent desperation in the air. He needs this. He needs you to step into the role Yuji had tried his best to fill, his main protector and advocate, and if Ryomen needs to know you inside and out to allow himself to trust you then you’ll do whatever it takes.

“We have a people to address,” You murmur, still looking up into his half-lidded eyes. He nods gently, sitting back down on the table and breaking the trance, allowing you to search for the robes and bring them back to him. Simple white clothing, symbolising purity, adorned with green stitching, symbolising new beginnings. Both outfits are sleeveless, the straps thin and the neckline plunging deep on both your front and back to expose the main shoulder to collar tattoos to the air. Nothing can be done about the tattoos on your stomach and lower back, but the sleeveless nature allows for the arm and shoulders to be fully exposed.

“Allow me,” He murmurs, reaching for the simple dress and then helping you step into it, clasping it at your hips and just below the middle of your back to secure it. It’s oddly comfortable, it had looked itchy and uncomfortable on your sister-in-law but you suppose she just didn’t like the stares of the people. When you turn back to him he’s already pulled the loose pants on and you watch his muscles flex and relax as he slips into the shirt.

“You look good,” You murmur softly, clasping your hands at your stomach, “Are you alright?” He looks up, fixing his hair slightly. His soft smile sends a shot of warmth through your body as he reaches for you, pulling you closer and pressing a kiss to your forehead, “I can say with full confidence,” He starts, holding you to his chest and hiding you against him as the door opens again, revealing your parents, “That I’ve never been better than I am right now,” He whispers for only your ears, and you feel tears welling up in your eyes as you nuzzle against him.

“It is time,” Your father announces, “For you to address the people as husband and wife,” You steel yourself as you pull away, noticing a hint of red in Ryomen’s eyes as he looked down at you, but feeling nothing but strength from his aura as opposed to rage. You look to your father and nod, “We’re ready,” Time had seemed to stand still while the two of you were in that room, but the moment you stepped out you saw the day had ticked over and it was now the morning again. The rituals performed by the artists had prevented you from becoming weary or hungry, you felt refreshed if anything, and the two of you walk hand in hand with your parents in tow to the main castle entrance.

Geto is there at the open doorway, and past him you can see the courtyard and the steps up to the entrance are flooded with the Iqorian people. This is it, the first step into the public eye, with your husband by your side. News travels fast, you’re sure the Itadori clan will hear of his tattoos before the sun has set, but a small part of you holds no remorse. “Are you prepared for the consequences?” Ryomen murmurs into your ear, “There’s no backing down now,”

You squeeze his hand and then tug him out into the growing sunlight, walking forwards until you’re at the edge of the steps. The reactions you can see are mixed, but there is an overwhelming amount of positive energy flowing up at you. Your emotions get the best of you, tears slip down your cheeks, you tuck yourself closer to Ryomen as he lifts an arm to wave. “Live in the feeling,” He whispers, seemingly to himself, “Savour the moment,”

You decide to do just that. Peace washes over you, and you find yourself once again thinking to the future, the countless possibilities and unknowns. Whatever comes next, you’ll face it with Ryomen L/n unapologetically by your side.

Might start putting a 'fanart of the day' at the end where i link a fanart of the character in question (in this case sukuna) for you all to enjoy if you haven't seen it already lol

Part 4 here

[screaming-universe]

Several Sentences Sunday

wasn't tagged but I have several sentences and they wanted to be written instead of sleeping so now I'm posting them. Entirely unedited on account of it being late. This is somewhat inspired by the recent bucktommy mpreg hype, and is part of my werecat au

Tommy feels sick and it is not just because of the morning sickness. He didn’t plan to get pregnant; he'd honestly been kind of sure he couldn’t anymore. Not with the suppressants he’d taken in the military; they had actually been banned a few years ago for being unsafe. Not with the suppressants he’d taken for as long as he’d been at the 118 without ever getting his bloodwork checked. He’d actually acknowledged that he was an omega when he’d started at the 217, had worked through what that meant and come to accept himself. And part of then had been going to a specialised doctor who’d prescribed him newer, healthier suppressants and cautioned him to actually use the LAFD mandated quarterly heat leave for what it was meant for. It had been weird at first but also enjoyable and quite revelatory in a lot of ways. Recently he’d been sharing his heats with the loves of his life and that sure had let his enjoyment skyrocket. He’d also shared Eddie’s heat, which had been new and exciting and a lot of fun too.

And therein lay the problem: Eddie wanted to get pregnant, not Tommy. Eddie, who had also been on the toxic Army suppressants too. Eddie, who had been taking suppressants without pause until he’d been found out when he’d been in the hospital after being shot. Eddie, who had been shot through the abdomen in Afghanistan. The doctors thought he might still be able to carry but they were not sure. And so far Eddie was not pregnant.

But Tommy was; he was pregnant and Eddie wanted to be. He would not take this away from Eddie though, he would not overshadow him. So he’d left. Told his boyfriends that they should take a break or something along the lines and left. It was really stupid since they’d been at his house but Eddie had not given up his little house yet – and probably wouldn’t now – and Tommy still had the key.

He’d let himself into the house, and he’d allowed himself to curl up on Eddie’s bed that still carried their intermingled scents. This was probably the last opportunity he’d get because he had asked for a break but he knew that he should break this off entirely before they would and his heart would be broken. Deep down he knew that it was too late for that already. He stripped out of his clothes and shifted and curled up as tightly as he could, nose pressed against the pillows that carried Eddie and Evan’s scents.

Tommy had expected to get some messages after he had left so hurriedly – he saw them lighting up the screen of his phone; it was only Evan though. But he had not expected for the door to be opened and closed quite aggressively and for Eddie to storm in, looking furious. Just Eddie though, nobody following him.

“Yeah, Buck’s not here,” Eddie said, glowering. “He has a shift and our boyfriend just left us after asking for a break and didn’t even wait around long enough for us to talk.”

Eddie ran a hand over his face and through his hair. He sat down on the edge of the bed with a sigh, his back to Tommy.

“You know he’s afraid of being abandoned,” Eddie said quietly. And so was Eddie, though he had a hard time admitting it out loud. And Tommy too, even though he could hardly even admit it to himself. “What brought this on? Did we do something wrong?”

The last thing Tommy wanted to do was talking about this but to see Eddie – his boyfriend, one of the men he had been courting – sitting there like this, looking small and unsure made him shift before he could really think about it.

“I’m pregnant,” he blurted out and Eddie’s head whipped around.

“What?”

“I’m pregnant,” Tommy said again and he had to look away. “I don’t…“ He could not finish that sentence, didn’t even know what he wanted to say.

The mattress moved around a bit as Eddie settled down right next to him and then gentle fingers turned Tommy’s chin towards him. For a moment Tommy wanted to accuse Eddie of stealing his moves but this was not a time to get playful. Tommy had probably lost any right to that.

“You are pregnant?” Eddie asked and there was something tentative on his face. Maybe almost hopeful?

Tommy just nodded, gently jostling Eddie’s hand that now lay fully against his jaw.

“I didn’t think you could–“

“Neither did I.”

“How do you feel about this? Panicking aside, of course,” Eddie added, because he was nothing if not a little shit.

“I–I don–I,” Tommy tried and then took a deep breath. “I don’t know? I never thought I would or could be pregnant so I never thought about what I’d do. And if I do this I know I can’t do it alone but–“

“But what?” Eddie challenged him. “You’d think we’d leave you for being pregnant?” He sounded indignant; he sounded pissed again. “Why?”

Tommy took a moment to gather his thoughts and when he did he took Eddie’s hand that was still on his face and held it in both of his. “You wanted to get pregnant again,” he said softly and something moved across Eddie’s face. “And now I am. This was supposed to be your moment, not mine.”

“Fuck you!” Eddie said but his hand grasped Tommy’s tightly. “I would be happy for you – for all of us! I am!” He deflated again, about to pull back and Tommy’s heart was about to sink but– “If this is what you want, that is.”

“I don’t know yet,” Tommy whispered. “I don’t–“

“That’s fine,” Eddie said and kneeled so that he can grasp Tommy’s face with both hands, ever so gently. “You know that Buck would be overjoyed, and I would be too, but if you don’t want to keep it that’s fine.”

“But it’d feel wrong when you are trying to become pregnant and I am considering–“

“Tommy,” Eddie said and kissed him, very sweetly. “This is about you and not about me. If you want to keep it, you keep it and we will support you. If you don’t, we will support you too. But please talk to us before you run away again.”

“Yeah?”

Instead of answering, Eddie wrapped his arms around him and Tommy’s pulled into his chest. His arms automatically wrap around Eddie too and he pulled him closer.

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “And if you still want to take a break from this relationship then you’ll have to let me go because my heat is rapidly approaching and this is not helping.”

Fuck. Tommy totally forgot about Eddie’s heat; the reason he was not on shift with Evan right now. He did not let go.

Three weeks later, Tommy came home to Eddie practically shoving a pregnancy test in his face. A positive pregnancy test.

“You’ll be a father twice, Tommy,” Eddie says and beams at him.

[corzydoie]

Read Between The Lines

Author's Note: So THIS is why it's taken me so long to finally post (this and school cause MIDTERMS). This plus some (A LOT) more was originally supposed to be Part 2 of Sketches of Goodbye and was going to be published under a different title. HOWEVER, it was taking me too long to get to the meat of what I wanted Part 2 to be about so I just decided to post a chunk of it as Part 1.5. If you haven't read Sketches of Goodbye, you shouldn't read this yet cause it will make ZERO sense. NOT PROOFREAD!!

Summary: You finally got a much-needed break from your work, and decided to plan a getaway trip with friends you haven't seen in forever!

Word Count: 1.8k

Content Warning(s): Cursing, Mentions of Killing Attempt, Choking

It’s been over a year since you left Lando in Monaco to pursue your dreams in Japan. Although you texted each other congratulations on achievements and special occasions, calls and visits were cards that were never played. 

Lando would be lying if he said he didn’t stalk your personal and professional social media accounts. There were multiple times one of the other drivers caught him watching your story or commenting pleasantries on your latest post. Some thought he was delusional and others knew how hard it was for him to let you go considering the length of your relationship.

December 14th, exactly a week after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, you had just finished preparing for the company’s Valentine’s Day collection. You took photos of your discarded designs and messy workspace before leaving for your holiday break.

Lando’s phone dinged, signaling he received a notification. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he read his screen. His colleagues paid him no mind and continued to eat the postseason dinner they gathered for.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” Lando exclaimed as he jolted out of his seat. All of the drivers glared at Lando due to his sudden outburst.

“Mate what is so catastrophic you almost upend the whole table?” George questioned his friend. Lando frantically showed his dinner mates his phone screen, most struggling to see the image clearly, which led them to check their phones to see what the McLaren driver was upset over. They opened Instagram and were met with your most recent post. At first, they couldn’t understand how a simple wintertime photo dump would upset Lando.

Until they saw the third photo.

yns.sketchbook

Liked by carmenmmundt, lilymhe and 62485 others

yns.sketchbook fun in the snow 🌨️

lilymhe so cute can’t wait to see you again

yns.sketchbook omg I miss you too I’ll come visit soon

carmenmmundt we should all hangout when you come yn!!

yns.sketchbook say less already booking my flight

username her instagram is so aesthetic 

username literally my role model

username ok but who is that

username idk but maybe we shouldn’t ask??

username yeah shes literally hiding their face on purpose

username IS THAT A MAN???? THAT’S A MAN’S HAND???

username the internets favorite designer

username honestly at this point she should be the model

username deadass shes so gorg

username her face isnt even in this post hello??

username somebodys new here...

username does she have a new boyfriend??

username OMG I HOPE NOT I WAS ROOTING FOR HER AND LANDO TO GET BACK TOGETHER

username they broke up for a reason maybe it should stay that way

“There’s no way you’re upset 'cause she moved on,” Lewis laughed.

“Lando it’s been over a year, she was bound to find someone else.” Max tried rationalizing the situation to his friend, but Lando’s thoughts clouded his judgment. He felt betrayed. In his head, you were meant for each other. He was willing to wait forever to be with you again. He only wanted you.

“You’re getting mad because she posted someone that might not even be a man. But do you think she would be upset over the fact you slept with girls left and right after she left?” Pierre’s question prompted an uproar of oohs, laughs, and dropped jaws around the table.

“But that’s different.” Lando attempted a defense as he slumped back into his chair.

“HOW?” everyone screamed at him.

“CAUSE THEY MEANT NOTHING TO ME. Those were just hookups, she has a BOYFRIEND!” Lando explained.

“Y’know,” Franco interjected, “if I broke up with a girl that beautiful, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself either.” The group went silent as they looked quizzically at the Argentine who continued eating his dish.

Lando got up and started walking away from the group of drivers. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“I wonder if she knows he stalks her,” Pierre hollered after him.

“Oh, she knows.” Yuki’s statement causes Lando to freeze, slowly turning his body back towards everybody. She knew? Yuki knew she knew? How did he know? How did she know? Sensing the unwavering glares from his taller counterparts and what they wanted from him, Yuki answered their unspoken question. “I told her.” Yuki’s face remained unbothered until Lando came hurling at him, placing his hands around his neck as he vehemently shook the poor little guy, purely out of frustration. The other 18 drivers immediately got out of their seats, some yelling at Lando to get off Yuki, a few trying to pry Lando off manually, and others leaving the room to get help, even though the overlapped yelling was warning enough to anybody else in the building.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU TOLD HER?”

“WHAT THE FUCK BRO?”

“YOU TALK TO HER? DID YOU KNOW SHE GOT A BOYFRIEND?”

“LANDO GET OFF YUKI.”

“YOU’RE FUCKING INSANE.”

“YOU’RE GONNA KILL HIM LANDO.”

“WHY DOES SHE TALK TO YOU AND NOT ME?”

“HOW WOULD I KNOW?”

“LANDO THIS IS IRRATIONAL.” Eventually, Max could yank Lando’s hands off Yuki, sending the Japanese man into a coughing fit.

“You need to leave. Right now,” Max commanded his friend. And without putting up (another) fight, Lando walked out of the restaurant. Everybody slowly turned their attention to George, the dinner planner and GPDA director, wondering if this would be an incident he had to report.

“He’s lucky it’s the off season,” he sighed, easing any remaining tension at the table.

It was the middle of the night in Tokyo, and a storm was knocking against the glass of your windows. As much as you attempted to sleep, the constant pattering of harsh winds and repetitive dings from your phone overwhelmed your tired senses. Three blankets, hot chocolate, and another person to keep you warm were not enough to lull you into a fanciful dreamscape. You had barely arrived at your front doorstep when the interesting comments on your post began rolling in. It was always the same, so you became unfazed by their existence. You remembered commenting jokingly with your old friends Carmen and Lily. You truly did miss them, it just never seemed there was time for you guys to see each other due to vastly different careers. You were reminiscing about the winter trips the three of you would take to New York, with your boyfriends tagging along. As a wonderful plan began forming in your mind, you reached over to grab your phone off the bedside table, sending a quick text before finally falling asleep.

The next couple of weeks were spent preparing for your New York trip. It was a spur-of-the-moment plan, but Carmen and Lily were on board immediately since the last time you saw each other was during the Suzuka race week. It would almost be like old times, except you would be bringing someone else as your plus one. But you knew that Alex and George knew how to be cordial, even if it was their friend getting the short end of the stick.

Your phone rang as you were packing the last of your bags. You glanced to see the name YUKI POOKIE <3 plastered across the screen, deciding to answer immediately. It mostly contained catching up on your journeys and laughing about Lando’s murder attempt on his small companion, with a small reminder that he was supposed to pick you up in a couple of hours and drop you off at the airport.

You swiftly found your luggage at the claim and pulled your phone out of your jacket to call Lily. She arrived in New York with Alex a week before you, so now you just waited for Carmen and George, who would arrive in a couple of days. You stood waiting at the pickup zone for your friend as your phone kept ringing, signaling she hadn’t answered yet. As you were about to give up trying to reach your friend, you heard her voice from the other side.

“Hey y/n, sorry I took so long to answer I was in the bathroom. Alex is gonna pick you up, I have a few errands I need to run before the end of the day. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh, no worries, that’s fine. Do you know what car he’s driving so I know what to look for.”

“It should be a black Land Rover, the windshield isn’t tinted though so you should be able to spot him when he drives up.”

“Thanks so much, Lily, I owe you guys one!” You waited a few minutes before you saw Lily’s boyfriend, Alex, slow down and pull up in front of you. He rolled down the passenger side window, asking “Uber for y/n y/l/n plus one?” You were a little scared about George and Alex meeting your new boyfriend through this trip since it was usually Lando at your side, but Alex seemed cordial at the first impression. He got out of the driver's seat and helped the both of you load your luggage into the trunk, sticking his hand out towards your boyfriend for a handshake.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Alex.” Even though you were already on your way to the passenger side door, you slowed your pace to hear their curt interaction.

“Eiji, likewise!” ‘Likewise? Why are they being so formal?’ you thought as you took your seat. The two men walked along opposite sides of the car, one in the backseat and the other in the driver’s seat. Alex checked all the mirrors to make sure they were to his liking before he pulled away from the airport and drove to your destination.

When you arrived in front of your hotel, you made sure to thank Alex and asked him to say hi to Lily for you. The check-in process was smooth and you found your room with ease. As soon as you opened the door, you dragged yourself to the bed and plopped down with a thud and a groan.

“I don’t know why you were so nervous for me to meet them, Alex seems like a nice guy,” your boyfriend said as he closed the door you left wide open.

“He is a nice guy, I was just scared that it was gonna be awkward.” You could hear his footsteps faintly approaching you which were followed by the bed sinking next to you, indicating you joined you on the comfortable queen. You could hear him talking, but the jetlag hit you in a single strong wave, and his voice started to fade as you could finally get a reasonable amount of sleep for the first time in months. Eiji noticed you weren’t replying to any of his points of conversation and looked over to see you asleep, remembering the stressful weeks and sleepless nights leading up to this trip. He knew this was your only break before summer and decided to take a nap right beside you.

Written By: CorzyDoie <3

[justagirlwhowritesss]

Lost in Time- A Kenji Kishimoto series

Summary: Kenji Kishimoto and Leyla Demir, a time-manupilator, are accidentally transported decades into the past during a mission gone wrong. As they navigate a pre-Reestablishment world, their growing bond is challenged by the decision to alter history or return to their own time, facing the risks of changing the future.

A/n: Had this idea for a while and decided to just write it out bcs I couldn’t stop thinking abt it. But idk if I should make it into a whole series tho. Anywaysss, Hope you enioy and do leave comments if you wish to write your thoughts on this:)

"Absolutely not."

"But Warner-"

"I said 'no', Castle and I won't be risking Juliette's life for it either."

Castle let out a frustrated sigh as he shook his head, leaning forward on the table "You are clearly not hearing me! I am telling you that this is a life or death matter Warner-"

"I don't care-"

"What the hell is happening here?" Kenji came strolling into the small room with an annoyed expression on his face.

He heard Warner mutter something along the lines of "Great, another imbecile." but decided to ignore it and looked at Castle for an explanation.

The older man sighed and stood up from the small chair and crossed his arms. Warner too, got up, saying "It is none of your business."

Kenji just rolled his eyes and pointed to the exit hissing "None of my business? Excusez-moi but your whole little 'argument' can be heard on every part of the base which is why Nouria even SENT me to come check on you guys."

Warner stared indifferently at Kenji. "Well you can go back and tell her that everything is fine-"

"Nothing's fine, Warner, and you know it. The mission-"

"Is not happening." The boy snapped as he glared back at Castle before continuing "I have had enough with this pointless conversation. I am not risking my and Juliette's happiness by doing that right after we got married and while we are all repairing a broken world."

Kenji furrowed his brows as he looked between the two men. "Uhhh....what exactly are you guys talking about? What is Warner going to do?"

Castle shook his head slightly as he said, "I got intel that the Nexus Device is still out there which is why I called upon Warner to inform him on the matter."

"And try to send me on that mission of yours to get it back. Over a meaningless rumor." Warner finished for him.

Kenji just put up his hands, feeling more confused than ever. "Wait a second, what the hell is a Nex-blabla device?"

Aaron sighed out frustratedly as Castle crossed his arms "A Nexus Device. And what it is, is an important relic that was kept very well hidden within the Reestablishment. It is rumoured to have the power to manipulate time which is why, we need to retrieve it before someone else gets to it-"

"You said it yourself, Castle, it is a rumor and I won't be risking my wife's or my life to go on a mission over a something that is only a rumor, a lie."

Castle glared back at the blond boy as he said, "That doesn't mean anything, Warner. You should know better than anyone else that during a war, all possibilities must be taken into account-"

"This isn't war. Therefore, we do not have to take all possibilities, all cases into account-"

"IT IS A WAR!"

Castles angry shout seemingly shocked not only Kenji but also Warner as his eyes slightly widened before becoming cold once more.

Castle gave neither of them a chance to talk as he opened his mouth once again. "Do you know how many people are still out there, still angry with us for taking out the old supreme leaders of The Reestablishment? Do you know how many of them are out there planning coups, assasination attempts and so on, on your, Juliette's and the rest of our lives? Just because we took out the big guys doesn't mean everything's over."

Kenji saw how Warner was clearly about to retort with something cruel so quickly intercepted their argument. " Maybe- maybe you could send me? I mean Warner and Juliette are busy with being leaders and all that shit, everyone else is also busy with the whole aftershocks of a war and I....well, I wouldn't mind doing something exciting."

Aaron slowly turned his head sideways to look at him as he deadpanned, "Exciting? You call this pointless, imbecile plan to go after something that may not even exist....exciting? Of course I should have expected to hear something like this from you, Kishimoto."

Kenji shrugged his shoulders. "Well sorry mr. 'I find everything and everyone except my wife boring and have no joy in life' but some of us want to go on missions and do something EVEN those that may or may not be real."

"Your not even fit for it."

Kenji's eyes widened before he scoffed "I'm sorry? You are telling me that I am not fit for the mission?"

Warner stood fully straight, scanned Kenji from head to toe, looked back at him, letting his emotionless eyes convey the message.

Kenji balled his hands into fists. "You-"

"Actually Kenji, you are right. You may be even more suited for this mission than Warner or Juliette."

They both turned to look back at Castle who has been analyzing them both this whole time.

Warner replied with a "You have gone mad." at the same time as Kenji said "Hell yeah, I am."

Castle sat back down, still seemingly assesing Kenji. "Why not? I didn't realize it when I called you here, Warner, but your and Kenji's skills are incomparable. I think you would be easily caught. Kenji, however, has been trained like a true soldier. I believe he would be able to move, attack and do the job sharply, stealthily, and to the point. Of course his invisibility power is a whole other advantage. Look how well he did when I sent him to take Juliette out of the jail Warner built the first time around."

Kenji smirked and nudged Warner who roughly pushed him away. But then his smirk fell as confusion overtook his features. "Wait, doesn't Warner also have the ability to be invisible."

Warner rolled his eyes. "I do, but I can only do it if someone else does it near me and I take in their power. Do you really think that there is someone in The Reestablishment with powers? Really?"

"Ohhhh right, right. Totally forgot about your whole copying people-"

"It is not copying, it is just mirroring. You idiot."

"Same thing-"

Castles stern voice stopped them both from another argument as he said, "Alright that will be enough you two. Warner, you may leave. Kenji, stay."

Warner looked at him and then at Kenji before heading towards the door "Can't wait to tell Juliette about your death, Kishimoto."

Kenji just laughed and sat down on the creaky stool opposite of Castles desk. "Love you too, bro."

Castles got up and took two steps to reach the small, wooden cabinet near the window. He took out some papers before coming to sit back down, putting the papers on the table and spreading them out.

Kenji took one and began eyeing it. "This is a map."

Castle nodded as he said "Yes, a map of both the insides and the outsides of the whole area where some supporters of the old Reestablishment have taken refuge. Thanks to Sam, I was able to locate this place and get a proper detailed map on their residence. You will be breaking in here."

Kenji looked back at his friend "Quick question, how does this...whatever device look like?"

Castle sighed, "Nexus Device, Kenji. From what I know, It is supposed to look like a small, sleek and advanced piece of technology, almost like a wristwatch or a handheld gadget. You'll know it when you see it."

Kenji looked suspiciously at him "Aha....so just look for small things while also trying not to be killed or discovered, putting the whole resistance in jeopardy."

Castle smiles knowingly. "That is where you're wrong. You won't be going on this mission alone."

Kenji's rolled his eyes. "Please don't send me with anyone from here, God, especially not with Adam."

That caused his friend to chuckle before he regained his composure. "Actually, you have not met her. None of you have. You could say that she is a....good friend of mine."

Kenji's eyes widened. "Wait, what? You have friends?"

Castle gave him a stern look but that didn't stop him from slipping op and smiling slightly as he watched his close friend chuckle.

But then, as if realizing, Kenji's smile dropped as his eyes widened in horror. "Wait wait wait- A she? And none of us know her or ever met her? And you're sending her with me? Who the hell is she?"

"Leyla Demir, she is Turkish and the best trained killer I know with the most unique power. Time-manipulation."

Kenji leaned back with crossed arms, a confused expression overtaking his face. "Time-manipulation? You mean, she can stop time or some shit?"

"Language."

"Sorry, yeah, I mean- she can stop time or stuff?"

Castle smiled while slightly shaking his head. "It means, she can do anything that is time-related. Stop it, blink in to the future, the past, and even reverse it."

Kenji's eyes widened, mouth hanging wide open. "Jesus Christ. How can someone have such kind of power?"

Castle leaned back in his seat and regarded him with a knowing look. "You'll just have to see her for yourself. But do be careful, she is usually deathly quite and her answers are often short, straight to the point and cold. You won't be making much conversation with her but I believe that is what makes her so great at her job. She just comes, does what she is assigned to do, and then leaves."

Kenji scoffed, stood up and took the papers. "Oh I'll make her talk, alright. No one can ever resist the Kenji Kishimoto, after all."

He turned around, intending to head for the door before Castle stopped him. "Don't you want to know when you'll be heading out?"

He turned around with a sheepish smile. "Right, yeah. Uhh when do I need to leave?"

"This night, at eleven sharp. That is usually the time twenty-five minutes before the guards do their shift change which leaves the area unguarded for exactly three whole minutes."

Kenji nodded and turned around to leave but stopped once more when he heard Castle get up and look at him, worry slightly evident in his tone as he said, "Be careful, Kenji. I trust you and your skills very much but-"

Kenji smiled softly before saying, "I'll try my best not to die and if I do, tell Warner I will be coming back to haunt the shi- stuff out of him."

***********

It had been a while since Kenji felt this amount of excitement. Before it was all about them fighting and figuring out how to bring down The Reestablishment and then, once they did that, they had a broken world to deal with. And while it was tiring but great how they were restoring and creating a better, more brighter world, Kenji admittedly felt very useless.

These past few months it was almost always "Do this Kenji" or "Don't do this Kenji" or "Maybe you shouldn't do that" or "Just go ask Juliette" or "I don't know, Kenji, you kinda mess things up. Just stick to easy day to day work."

So what he destroyed a building that had Juliette's wedding dress inside? So what if his attempts at organizing things ended in chaos? So what if he accidentally threw away a stash of documents Haider sent? It was all accidental, okay? Atleast he was trying his best.

"Useless, you're useless." Kenji scoffed to himself as he put on his weapons, attempting to cheer himself up with the mission ahead. Finally, some action. Something to distract himself from.

He has been analyzing and constantly checking the maps for the past couple of hours, planning the area from which he would sneak in, which room the Nexus device could be in. Honestly? The place doesn't even look big at all. Well, he will see it soon for himself anyway. Kenji looked at the electronic clock,

10:58 pm

Time to leave on a little suicide mission.

With a final look in the mirror at himself, his black tactical gear, and all his weapons, visible and not-visible, Kenii left the house.

Twenty minutes later, he had managed to arrive at the location, turning off his invisibility and immediately hiding behind a large bush. Where is this Leyla? They only have four minutes left before the shift change. Whatever, if she doesn't show up, he is going in alone. He doesn't need a nanny to track along with him-

A sound came from behind him.

Kenji quickly took the small knife hidden in his boot and turned around, intending to land a shot at whoever or whatever is behind him but stopped when he saw the person.

He couldn't see her properly at all because it quite dark and she is wearing dark gear similar to his but from what he can see, atleast due to the faint light coming from the broken tall lamp beside them, if this woman is Leyla.....she is absolutely gorgeous.

An elegant yet strong build, warm, slightly tanned complexion, seemingly dark hair but what stood out the most....those otherworldly emerald eyes that could hypnotize you and look absolutely lethal as they stare back at him.

Kenji's trance came to a stop when she said with a slight hint of an accent, "I guess you're the idiot Castle told me about."

He didn't have the chance to reply as she wordlessly crouched beside him and looked through a small opening at the base.

Kenji collected himself and looked at her, asking "I-I am Kenji, this is the first time we meet."

She looked down at her watch, muttering a "One minute left."

He scoffed looking at the guards "Rude."

She still ignored him.

"Um anyways, how did you get to know Castle? I mean, we are like this close with him so I thought I would know about yo-"

She silenced him with a hiss.

"We have nearly twenty seconds before the shift change and I would very much appreciate it if you could just shut the hell up so we can get this over with and then go our separate ways."

He furrowed his brows in frustration. "What's wrong with you? I was just trying to be civil but I guess you wouldn't understand that since you are acting like a cranky old bit-"

She clearly either heard him and chose to ignore him or was too focused on the time because she quickly cut his rant off "It's time. Get up."

Kenji scoffed but got up, refocusing his attention back on the main goal. Get the device and get the hell out. It can't fall into the wrong hands. It can't.

He held his hand out for her to take, causing her to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"How do you expect to get in there? Just walk in? I can make us turn invisible, just hold my hand."

She clearly didn't want to but looked at the base and then back at him before sighing and taking ahold of his wrist instead of his hand. He found it weird but just kept his mouth shut as they both turned invisible.

Kenji felt her hold on his wrist tighten as she adjusted into the feeling. He whispered silently as they began to walk, "Are you ok-"

"Shhh, guards."

Kenji didn't need any more explanation as he saw three guards in the distance seemingly talking with one another. Seems like an awful lot of guards for a small area. That could only mean that they do have something important to protect.

They began silently heading towards an open back door when a woman dressed in a black shirt and loose pants stepped out, standing right in front of the entryway with her head bowed down, looking at a....notepad?

Shit. How the hell are they supposed to move past her and get inside? It's not like they can just walk through her. Kenji felt Leyla's body stand closer to him as they both stopped and just stared at the woman.

Please, for the love of God, can she just-

"Mrs.Pierson, we have a report."

The woman lifted her head to look back at a bulky man who came from behind her.

"I don't have the time, Michael. Tell them if they are going to try and once again just prolong the matter-"

"No, mrs.Pierson trust me, we made it very clear to them that we don't have the patience for their games no more. And by very clear I mean....we used other methods to make them understand."

The woman--mrs.Pierson, apparently--smiled and said a simple "Good" and moved past the man.

What were they talking about? It sure as hell seemed quite crucial. Kenji really felt like he needed to follow them and it seemed like Leyla was thinking the same because she just gripped his wrist tighter with her gloved hand, and made him follow her as she took the lead, entering through the door and following the two strangers.

The hallway was extremely narrow and the walls looked like they are about to crumble down any second now. Kenji barely managed to not trip over something or make noise as he followed Leyla through the tight hallway. Honestly, it seems like she doesn't even have a problem with this. Not once has Leyla made a sound, moving so quietly making Kenji think that if she weren't holding his wrist right now, he wouldn't even be sure if she is still there.

Has she done this before? Of course she has, you idiot. Has she seen worse? What could possible be worse than the war they had? He wonders what she did during that time.

Stop it. Idiot. Why the hell do you care? Why do you even wonder?

Finally, they reached a small opening with only an open door in the center. The wallpaper's here were piss yellow and almost fully ripped off the walls. God, it's not like Kenji is currently staying in a luxury plaza but...what the hell is this shithole? And who the hell are these people?

They quietly came to stand in the entryway as they both took in the room and the people inside it. The woman and the man from earlier were here as well as two more people whom Kenji didn't know about. They were holding what looked like a medium sized, black, shiny box.

He felt Leyla about to step inside the room so he pulled her back immediately, getting the point across that they can stand here and listen. Surprisingly, Leyla listened as he felt her body freeze in one place.

Kenji and Leyla pressed against the wall, their breaths shallow as they listened to the muffled conversation inside the room. The two unknown figures were standing beside a table, the black box placed in the center. The woman—Mrs. Pierson—was now engaged in a conversation with a very short and fidgety man.

"We've had issues with the security systems," Mrs. Pierson was saying, her tone clipped. "Do you have the new codes?"

The man nodded, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a small, metal key. He placed it on the table next to the box. "This is the key to the main vault. It’s the last piece we need to complete the upgrades."

Mrs. Pierson’s eyes narrowed as she examined the key. "Good. The Nexus Device must be secured before the operation begins."

Kenji’s eyes widened slightly. The mention of the Nexus Device caught his attention. So it is something important. Hah! Kenji couldn't wait to see the look on Warner's face when he tells him that he was wrong.

The second man, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up. "The vault's security is tight, but if we can get this device out, it will be worth the risk. The information we’ve received suggests it's an invaluable asset."

Mrs. Pierson nodded, a grim smile on her face. "Indeed. Make sure it's kept in a secure location until the time is right. We wouldn’t want anyone else discovering it."

Kenji felt Leyla’s grip tighten on his wrist. She was clearly assessing the situation, trying to plan their next move. He could sense her tension; she was used to dealing with high-stakes situations, and this one seemed to be no different.

As the conversation continued, Kenji’s attention shifted to the black box. It seemed to be the central focus of their discussion, and if it contained the Nexus Device, they were very close to their objective.

Leyla and Kenji slipped into the room, moving with the practiced stealth that Leyla had demonstrated earlier. Kenji's heart raced, but he kept his focus on the black box, which now lay tantalizingly close. Leyla quickly assessed the room, noting the positions of the two men and the security measures in place.

As they approached the black box, their movements were swift but not without tension. He quickly but carefully as to not touch anything and cause alert, dragged Leyla towards a corner of the room, far from the four people and the three guards currently discussing something in low tones.

"Let's go through the left side of the table, no one is standing there." He whispered so quietly, he thought maybe she hadn't even heard him. But Leyla's confirming squeeze to his wrist told him that she agreed.

Kenji crept closer to the box, his heart racing with anticipation. As he reached for it, he felt a sudden jolt in his power, a flicker of instability.

In that instant, Kenji’s invisibility wavered. He was momentarily visible—a ghostly outline against the darkness—before he could re-stabilize his power. It was enough. Mrs. Pierson’s eyes snapped to his position, her expression shifting from confusion to alarm.

“There’s someone there!” Mrs. Pierson shouted, her voice echoing through the room.

The men turned sharply, their eyes scanning the space. Kenji and Leyla’s invisibility wavered again as they scrambled to adjust their powers. Kenji’s face was now partially visible, caught in the beam of a flickering overhead light. The guards’ alarms were triggered.

“Get them!” one of the men yelled, rushing toward Kenji and Leyla.

The room erupted into chaos. Leyla moved quickly, drawing her weapons and engaging the guards with precise, fluid motions. Kenji, trying to regain full control of his invisibility, grabbed the box and fumbled with it, struggling to keep his powers stable.

Mrs. Pierson lunged for the box, trying to reclaim it from Kenji. He fought back, his movements erratic as he fought to maintain his invisibility. The struggle was fierce, and the room became a whirlwind of combat.

Leyla managed to fend off the attacking guards, her movements a blur of skill and precision. She glanced over at Kenji, who was wrestling with Mrs. Pierson and another man for control of the box.

“Kenji, let’s go!” Leyla shouted, urgency in her voice.

Gunshots were heard everywhere as Kenji managed to regain control over his body and become invisible, quickly runing and appearing behind one of the guards and snapping his neck, then moving on to the man named Michael and using one of the knives strapped to his body to stab his back, causing the man to crumble on the floor with a cry.

Leyla seemingly swiftly took care of the other two guards, her swift and fluid motions knocking out mrs.Pierson in the process. She wanted to kill her but the shouts from the outside confirmed Kenji's thoughts that there are more guards coming and they needed to get the hell out....like right now. He quickly grabbed Leyla and ran.

With the box secured, Kenji and Leyla made a break for the back door, their path now clear thanks to Leyla’s skilled combat. They dashed down the narrow hallway, the sounds of pursuit growing louder behind them.

Outside, they sprinted through the darkness, Kenji still trying to stabilize his powers. As they reached a corner of the building, Kenji glanced back to see guards pouring out, their shouts growing fainter.

Leyla skidded to a halt, pulling Kenji into a shadowed alcove. “We need to get out of here before they catch up.”

Kenji nodded, his breath coming in ragged gasps. “I think... I think I’m losing my powers.”

"No you are not. I think its the effects of being this close to the device that are affecting our powers. It's too strong! Even I feel my own powers waning."

Leyla, her breath steadying, glanced at the device. “We need to figure out what this thing actually does. There might be a way to use it to our advantage.”

Kenji nodded, looking equally determined and exhausted. “Alright, let’s see what we’ve got.”

They moved to a small, dusty and broken chair in the alcove. Kenji placed the box on it, and Leyla began to carefully pry it open. Tension was high, and they both felt the urgency of their situation.

As Leyla worked on the box, Kenji’s impatience got the better of him. He reached over to help, but his movements were rushed and clumsy. “Come on, hurry up! We don’t have all night.”

Leyla shot him a sharp look. “Slow down, Kenji. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

Kenji’s frustration boiled over. “I know! But we need to get out of here before—”

He accidentally knocked the box off the table with a jolt. The device tumbled to the ground, and the lid popped open. A strange, pulsating glow emanated from within, filling the room with a blinding light.

“What did you do?” Leyla shouted as she tried to grab the device, but the light grew intense, enveloping them both.

Kenji reached for the device, but it slipped from his grasp. As he tried to stabilize it, he and Leyla were both caught in the expanding radiance. The light grew brighter and brighter until everything around them was engulfed in a blinding flash.

When the light finally faded, Kenji and Leyla found themselves in an entirely different setting. The warehouse was gone, replaced by a landscape that was completely unfamiliar. They were surrounded by a complete and vast greenery, the sun was high and shining brightly, there were cows and sheep on the grass, large trees covering the area.

“What the hell just happened?” Kenji asked, his voice tinged with panic.

Leyla was looking around, her face pale with horror.

"Where- where the hell are we?!"

"In the past....or the future, I don't even know."

Kenji came closer to Leyla, eyes wide with shock and frustration.

"What the hell did you do, Leyla? This wasn't a part of the plan!"

The moment Leyla turned around to look at him, Kenji felt the air get knocked out of his lungs. He was wrong, her hair wasn't dark at all. The sunlight casted it's soft glows over them, allowing him to see her clearly. Her hair was a very light brown, seemingly slightly curly, her eyes were even more breathtaking under the light, and that face...her soft face that currently held an ice cold expression on it as she stared daggers at him.

".....so you are the one to blame, not me! don't you dare blame me!" Kenji realized then, that she had been shouting at him for the past minute but he completely drowned her words out as his eyes admired every inch of her uncovered body, which wasn't much really, just her face. But it was more than enough because....dear God he had never seen anyone look so beautifully innocent and yet be so cold and hurtful.

"What?" Kenji said with a soft smile, his eyes never leaving her face as his mind was still in his own world. She pinched his ear with her gloved hand, causing him to finally come back to reality as he hissed an "Ow! Why the hell did you do that?!"

She crossed her arms. "Listen, Kishimoto, we need to know the date for us to even know where the hell we ended up in. Time travel, anything having to do with time in general, isn't simple at all. One wrong move and you could end up in a place where you can't even get out of."

"Kishimoto, huh? So we are absolutely formal now?"

She sighed and looked skywards. "Out of all the things I said, this is what you are stuck on? And we were never informal to begin with."

Kenji smirked. "We could be informal too, if you only say the word--"

"Hey! What the hell are you doing on my lawn?"

They both turned around to see a man, presumably in his fifties, striding towards them.

Kenji pushed Leyla behind him as a serious expression overtook his face, readying to strike at any sign of danger. Leyla just scoffed and moved past him coming to stand beside him when the man reached them. Kenji was about to say something but she intercepted quickly.

"What is todays date, old man?"

The man looked at her and threw his arms in the air. "Old man? Old man?! I am only 58! And who the hell d'you think you are, heh? Coming into my lawn, my goddamn property unnanounced-"

Kenji heard Leyla's voice turn even icier, if it was possible, as she asked- no, stated in a threatening voice, "What date is it."

The man too, clearly got the memo as he quickly stopped rambling and looked between them, his hands fidgeting.

The moment he said the date, Kenji wanted to tear his hair off. They were in the fucking past! With no way out! or...

That's right, Leyla had her time powers! she could get them out, right?....right?

Leyla seemingly also understood what timeline they were in as she quickly dragged him away without saying another word to the old man, who was still muttering something under his breath but was too scared of Leyla to shoo them away. Once they were in the other side of the lawn, behind a large farmhouse, Kenji looked at her wide eyed, "We are in the past! Are you kidding me?! Is this actually happening?! What the-"

"Will you shut the hell up, Kishimoto? Yes, we are in the past, but....this past is different."

"How different?"

Leyla's eyes drifted behind him, seemingly lost in thought. "This is thirty years before the Reestablishment took over. I have been in thousands of timelines but never this, never this one."

Kenji's eyes widened as his mouth hanged open. He whisper-shouted "What?! So, you mean to tell me that there is no Reestablishment?1 No wonder this place is so vibrant and alive. Why didn't you ever come to this timeline?"

Leyla crossed her arms, her expression becoming indifferent once more. "That is none of your business."

Kenji sighed. She wasn't an easy one, that much was clear about her. "Whatever, now can you please use your little time traveling powers to get us back to our rightful timeline?"

"No, I can't."

Kenji felt the hope drain out of him. "No? What the hell do you mean, no?! Aren't you supposed to have these time-manipulating powers or whatever-"

"I do, alright? I do. It's just that they are absolutely depleted at the moment. The Nexus Device- it seemingly affected me more than anyone else because we both have the power of time. Like calls to like, it seems. We drained each others powers. I need a couple of days to recharge even half of what that stupid device took from me."

This was madness. Absolute madness. Kenji prayed that maybe this was some sort of a nightmare that he was in, that he would wake up soon and go about his day. But, alas, it was all very much real.

Kenji leaned against the wall, his eyes wide in horror and realization.

"Holy shit."

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

[matan4il]

To the anon who wrote me about the bodies...

If you have an issue with bodies being held hostage, you should hold accountable the party that introduced that element to the Israeli-Arab conflict. That would be Egypt, back in 1954. The Syrians have also followed suit since 1965.

Hamas and Hezbollah have taken this one step further, intentionally keeping Israel in the dark over whether those that these terrorists are holding hostage are alive or dead. Case in point, on Oct 7, 2000 Hezbollah murdered and kidnapped the bodies of 3 Israeli soldiers. The IDF was able to confirm by the next day that the soldiers were all at the very least wounded during the kidnapping. In June 2001, it turned out the UN had material about the kidnapping, that it did not share with Israel, despite its obligation to do so. On Oct 29, 2001 (a year after the kidnapping), Israel was able to announce the 3 soldiers had been murdered. Hezbollah continued to lie about it even after the confirmation. I don't remember at which point it was exactly, but I remember that Hezbollah released a pic that was supposed to be these soldiers alive. I remember that by this point, while the announcement that the soldiers are dead wasn't official yet, it was pretty clear they were, and I remember thinking how cruel Hezbollah was to intentionally torment the families with false hope. A similar thing happened again on Jul 12, 2006, when Hezbollah killed 5 Israeli soldiers, and then kidnapped the bodies of 2 of them. The terrorists lied about it. So imagine the shock and pain the families experienced, when a hostage deal was conducted in Jul 2008, and after two years of hoping and waiting, they got bodies instead of to be reunited with their living loved ones.

Currently, Hamas has been holding the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul since 2014. For over 9 years. For over 9 years, their families can't hold a funeral, and they get no closure.

And this one's maybe the most important point regarding the part of my post you quoted. Hamas isn't just holding the bodies hostage. Israel and Hamas agreed on the release of women and kids, and Israel made it clear it will not make any hostage deals, before all the living women and children are back in Israel, safe and sound. Intel shows Hamas is still holding at least 19 living women that it could release. That's... taking into account that the Bibas family, with 4 years old Ariel, and baby Kfir, might have been killed. Even then, Hamas could easily stick to the deal, and release the women it's holding, who are alive. Hamas is intentionally trying to force Israel to take dead bodies instead, while having to release living convicted terrorists in exchange, based on the current deal, which was made to free living women and kids. We know that statistically speaking, roughly 60% of released Palestinian terrorists return to terrorist activity, and attempt to murder again. That means Hamas is trying to force Israel's hand, to put the lives of even more Israelis on the line, without even getting our living hostages in return.

Hadar Goldin:

Oron Shaul:

Hamas is now holding the bodies of at least 6 murdered Israeli civilians. Most are old men and women. Possibly the bodies of a child and a baby. They're not soldiers. They're def not terrorists, who chose to try and carry out the murder of civilians. Here are their faces:

And that's not counting the bodies of our soldiers. We know Hamas is holding the kidnapped bodies of at least 3 of them. I just wanna remind you, most Israeli soldiers do not choose the army as a career. Their service is mandatory, and is a result of the on going terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, which started before there even was a State of Israel, when the terrorist attacks were simply on Jews. Our soldiers, are mostly young people, they're our 19 and 20 years old kids, called to defend our 3 and 10 and 12 years old kids.They're human beings, too. They deserve burial, and their families deserve closure as well.

So how would you suggest Israel deals with this kind of inhumane depravity? What is it that we're allowed to do, when we're trying to get back the bodies, restore the dignity of our dead, and stop the torment of our grieving families and friends?

[angelshizuka]

Oooh okay okay, permission to be a little petty? This has been eating me up for a minute! On the topic of the helluva/hazbin redesigns: there are a lot of times in the critical side of this fandom where I’ll see people talking about what they would “fix” about the character designs, and like you said- some of the specifics people think they need to fix just…undermine the point of the character?? (I.e making Stolas big and burly) But it also feels like they’re ignoring that these characters look the way they do because they have to be ANIMATED. There’s been a handful of times I’ve seen people with that “fix it” attitude where they just waaaaay over complicate textures and shapes then say it’s so much better. For example some were saying Blitz’s design was bad because you can’t tell his burn scars were burn scars because the edges were too round. So they completely rendered the scars in their redesign and said they fixed it. I absolutely understand wanting to make detailed artwork. I LOVE detailing the hell out of a character in a drawing!! But to animate?? Especially with helluva where the spindle horse team doesn’t often outsource its animation?? I KNOW it’s silly but sometimes in passing I want to be like- ok. YOU animate your incredibly complicated redesign for a 20 minute animation at 24 frames per second. Then you get to handle the budget you’d need to get it finished and add in lighting/effects/etc. Then you ALSO get to handle the complaints from people who say episodes take too long to come out. Animation is a HUUUGE process! I feel like the work it takes to make it look so good is really taken for granted :,)

(I should be in bed so I hope any of this makes sense lmao I’m so sorry in advance!! Love your account your takes are so well thought out and you’re very funny <3)

Yes, thank you for your excellent point, I totally agree!

I mean, I will always defend CGI animation (I'm a firm believer all animation mediums are beautiful and valid), but I feel like it's spoiled people in how detailed a character's design can be. While part of the charm of 2D animation is how simplified lines can still get so much across.

It's been more than a decade since I studied animation and we only really did puppet animation, but even with that I quickly realized my designs could never be as detailed as when I just made a stand alone drawing (also, rip to my old animations that are lost to time, because my hard drive died a few years back...)

I'd honestly argue that for 2D animation standards the designs are really detailed. Maybe not for every character, but that's part of the beauty of it. Just like how in real life not all people dress all fancy and complicated, some people prefer simpler outfits, and they know how to make that come across in the character designs.

Especially Blitz is a prime example of being tailor made for 2D animation, that's also part of why some of the best facial expressions come from him, they know how to play around with his face shape. Regarding the scars, it's not just a 2D thing, it's the fact that imps scar differently than humans. So, again haters claiming they "fixed it" by completely ignoring lore.

(Aw, thank you! I try my best to put my thoughts into words and it helps make sense of whatever the hell is going on up there. I take a lot of pride in it, because my mother complimenting me on "knowing how to word things" was one of our last conversations before she passed.)