#and the language you have to use for Official Government Business changes basically every time a different group gains power in the forum | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

caffeinetheory · 5 years ago

Text

TIMARI SOULMATE AU THING

-Anything you write or draw on your skin appears on the other’s

--This applies to injuries and cuts

-Tim is older by a few months

-They find out about the connection after Mari’s 7th birthday when they both get sizable bruises on each leg but can only remember causing one

--Que parents explaining what it means and frantic research

--Constant conversations follow

--Both become fluent in the other’s language with in 2 years (and even then people find out after 2 years because sometimes they slip when talking)

--Many inside jokes and weird words they made up trying to understand the other language that only they know the meaning of

-They send notes of worry to the other after bad injuries and notes of encouragement

-Wonder Women basically adopts Mari when she finds out there is an active Ladybug

--Mom used to be a Ladybug so she knows all about the Muraculi

-Mari does still have friends despite Lila’s best efforts

--Lila isn’t a main antagonist though still isn't a good person (I want to focus on more fluffy things so that's why; she is no way a good person or redeemed character)

--Her class support system: Cholé, Alix, Adrien, Kim, Luka, Kagami and Max

--Juleka comes around after hanging out with everyone and talking with Luka

--Nino, Nathaniel and Marc also support Mari but aren’t as open because fear and Nino is on the fence about his Girlfriend

--Jagged, Penny, Clara, Audrey all have a respect and care for Mari

-Tim and Mari have battles of witt on their arms to try to figure out who is smarter

--(Spoiler: they are both insanely smart) it is basically a tie

-Most of the good in person fluff will take place after Hawk Moth is defeated and Mari is the official Guardian

--My girl needs some happiness and good luck man

-Mari and Tim accidentally find out each others identity after they leave themselves notes on their arm and putting the pieces together; however this is often forgotten between stress and more important things

--Because of this though when the Justice League gets a message from Paris, he knows it is real and believes it

--When they find out they don’t tell the other because they understand and respect how important secret identities (this is part of the reason it doesn’t really cross their minds)

--Mari figures out who Robin is; she forgets that Red Robin is a thing so doesn’t look into finding him out

--Figuring out Robin was an accident so she doesnt looking to the rest of the BatFam

--Tim forgets about all the stuff about Ladybug on his arms because living in Gotham has enough to deal with so he tries not to focus on too much at once/has bigger problems

--“I JUST MEET RED ROBIN/LADYBUG” moment in Paris, after a patrol where they run into each other when the League is investigating the plea for help

--The Wayne’s and Diana are there on “official” business but really it is just a cover so they can investigate

--Diana hears about this from both sides as she befriended Mari earlier and finds this a lovely development

---She also figures out that they are soulmates but doesn’t tell them, it’s better if they figure it out themselves

---Does often have a knowing smile when talking to the 2 of them about it though

-It took years before the team decides that they need to contact the League

--This is a few years in maybe 4 going on 5

--Wonder Woman is the one going through the messages and immediately wants to help

--Tim walks in about ½ way through the message and stops what he is doing, immediately knowing this is real thanks to his soulmate

-BATBOIS

--Jason basically gets adopted by the Dupain-Cheng’s after coming to their bakey every morning while in Paris

---Loves Mari and would do anything to protect her

---Loves the fact she can easily flip him like its nothing

--Damiain respects her abilities and accepts the fact she is basically his older sister now

---Both end up becoming very protective of the other in their own ways

---Wants to teach her how to use his blades so badly and to meet all his pets

--Dick loves her from basically the beginning

---Loves her happy and optimistic attitude despite her situation (he can see himself in her a little bit)

---Instant friends and she smuggles sweets to him

--They meet when Dick follows Jason to the bakery one morning

---When Dick introduces Mari to Kori she is taken into a bone crushing hug that everyone is worried about the small girl but she instantly returns and is perfectly fine

----Kori already loves her

--All the boys meet her in Paris at the bakery but Tim and Bruce (Alfred did not come)

--Tim was never awake so they brought him back coffee and Bruce while he did go, she wasn’t there at the time

-There many “dumb” battles of witt have lead to many late night talks

--Anytime the bois need help with a really bad puzzle by the riddler Tim asks his soulmate under the guise of a normal “battle”

---There is rarely context but always a fun time

-Both have gotten a lot of big scars that sorry the other but they have comfort in the fact they know the other is still ok and alive

--Small messages and self care tips/messages usually litter their arm after a particular bad injury/scar

--This always makes them feel better and brings a small smile to their lips on both parties once they get the message they are okay

--Lots of check in messages too after big fights and encouragement

-Team Miraculous

--Ladybug is the leader and tends to be point base for public relations (Mari)

--Chat Noir is the second in command, and is the go to if Ladybug isn’t available

---Adrien has matured a lot and is a respectable force to be reckoned with

---Both of them help train the others and often spare together to blow off steam

--Ryuuko is Kagami, she became a permanent holder at the same time Luka did

--Viperion is Luka and it is after the four become a semntited team that Mari decides they should know each other’s identities

--Queen Bee joins a little but after, she’s a reformed Cholé

---While hesitate at first Mari gets them all to be accepting

---Probably changes name and outfit though, but is a permanent holder

--King Monkey and Pegas are semi permanent holders (Kim and Max respectfully)

---Only not permanent because they want to avoid suspension but are full members of the team

---Also work as civilians, helps with the cover

--Alix also is a part of the team but only as a civilian

---They have considered giving her the Fox

----She helps answer questions and acts as a ground base for the hero’s as she is the main “civilian” the government goes to if they need the team

--They are a really tight team and trust each other fully

--The turtle and fox get used but sparingly

---Ivan might be turtle sometimes

---Nino later might be a good choice too, I’m not fully sure yet

----Fox has been used by Alix and maybe Juleka too but unsure about Juleka right now

--All holders have slight effects from their miraculous

---Mari and Adrein have the most as they’ve had theirs the longest

---Mari has good luck and is able to embed some of that luck into what she makes

----She also doesn’t do well in the cold

----Things tend to grow more around her, especially flowers, almost like they are growing toward her

---Adrien has bad luck (thanks to Mari’s gifts this isn't really bad though) and if not careful can break anything

----Likes to take naps in the sun and is very protective

----Cats like to gravitate to him

---Kagami has lots of extra body heat

---Luka can sometimes predict what is going to happen, can predict a lot of normal everyday things

---Cholé can easily knock people out now, she knows all the right places to hit to incapacitate someone

---Max (weaker cause hasn’t had as long) knows the fastest way to get places and shortcuts basically anywhere

---Kim (weaker cause hasn’t had as long) is able to freerun and parkour with little training

----Can also sense when some chaos is about to happen, however it isn’t to sting yet but does get stronger the longer he has his miraculous

---Alix (has the weakest, but still strong) has the ability to tear apart half truths and lies, she gets this from the fox but also works on it herself after vowing to not let Lila fool anyone she cares about again

-After Hawk Moth is defeated Adrien moves in with the group

--Mostly stays with Mari and Kagami

---Considering moving with Mari when she leaves Pairs

-Mari becomes the Guardian before Hawk Moth is defeated

--It is about when she makes a real team, Fu gives her the knowledge and training she needs

--He’s been doing it indirecting since the beginning (well a few months in) but after she takes initiative with making the team he is more direct

--He waited to make sure she as ready and she is

-Mari plans to move to Gotham to properly meet her soulmate after school

--This is to move the Miraculous and to further her career

--This is one of the biggest motivators to contact the League to get help defeating Hawk Moth

--The team is more than onboard with going with her and follow where she goes

---They are basically family, and family supports family

--This move would also help them with Uni and furthering their potential careers, so it is a win-win for everyone

--They do want to stay a Superhero team after Hawk Moth but more low-key, the move would also give them a chance to be more open about wanting to do this

---They don’t want to step on toes but want to help if they can

-Soulmates in this au (romantic at least)

--Tim and Mari (duh)

--Adrien and Kon (Conner/Superboy)

--Cholé and Kagami (maybe Luka, unsure but I’m a sucker for poly, I could always make it a Young Justice member, any ideas welcome)

--Kim/Max/Alix (we love poly and these are a good trio)

-Kon-el/Conner and Adrien

--For the longest time Adrien didn’t think he’d ever be loved/have a soulmate

---Conner wasn’t around yet so that’s why his connection wasn’t there

--Adrien cried the first time he got a mark he cried

---It made him know there was someone else

---Mari stayed with him the whole night holding him and telling him, she knew he would have someone

--Conner rarely responds, the boy doesn’t know French so it’s kinda hard

---Tim notices the language and offers him help, he is also the one to explain what soulmates are to Conner

--Conner feels bad for his “other half”

---Partly due to the whole secret identity thing

----He isn’t great with people

----His other half seems to get hurt a lot and doesn’t want to be another cause of that pain

--Despite never getting much from his soulmate Adrien always leaves messages of encouragement and validation

--He understands how much that can mean to someone

---He starts to leave some in Englsih too, just in case his soulmate only knows Englsih

----Mari’s idea but he was more than on board for

---He often apologies of injuries he gets

----Conner doesn’t usually notice the injury but the note afterward

-----part of his alien blood is why he doesn't usually feel

------When he does notice he does worry a lot because if he feels it what must have happened to this other person (is under the impression it is a normal civilian)

--Adrien is so happy to know he is loved by someone else, because as Conner may not show it, he has a feeling his other half cares

---Mari is so happy that her best friend has gotten what he needed to know he was loved she cries with him too

----It happens a year or so after being heros so they are close but don’t quite know each others identities yet, but that happens not long after

--Conner is convinced to go and help when the Justice League goes to Paris

---He goes and stays with Tim most of the time

---Tim is the one who convinced him to go and acts as a translator, as Conner has a grasp of the language he isn't too confident

---He does meet Chat Noir but only briefly; both are more focused on the bigger picture

----Both act like lost puppies with Mari and Tim respectfully; and when they get together this doesn't change too much

----They are a really fluffy couple, Adrein needs physical affection and Conner accepts

-How they meet (Tim and MAri) [finally I know]

--They meet as heros before they meet as civilians

--They meet as heros on a patrol before the final battle with Hawk Moth

---This is where the “HOLY SHIT I JUST MEET RED ROBIN/LADYBUG” moment happens, after they get back from patrol they indemnity write the other

----Mari talks to Diana about all this over breakfast the next day

-----they both know the others identity because Diana told Mari so she would trust her because she knew Mari because of her connection with the Miraculous, instant connection

----Wonder Woman figures out they are soulmates through this (Tim had a mini crisis with her that night)

--She “may or may not” leave hint to Bruce to set something up for them

--The 2 are to focused on the final battle to worry about the potential revelations

---While fighting they have instant synergy and chemistry that goes unnoticed by them at the time but everyone else notices and takes note

--Bruce decides to “spontaneously” sponsor a trip for a class to go to Gotham, as a senior/graduation reward for a class that has done a lot for their community

---It is also a way to give a break to the poor kids who have been dealing with this for far to long

---The “contest” is announced about a week or so after the final battle

---Wonder Woman tells Mari about it

---Mari then proceeds to write far more than one would have expected, she really wants her class to have something good finally, and even excluding all the hero end stuff they do it is close to being a novel

----She would have won even if wasn’t a set up

---Wonder Woman tells Bruce which class to choose and doesn’t question it as he trusts her judgment, he also doesn’t question why she is so insistent but completely agrees with her choice

----Diana is the one to tell Mari who instaly is giving her a bone crushing hug which Diana returns in fold

---The whole squad is hyped

----Luka and Kagami pulled some strio “happen” to be going to Gotham themselves

----This is also seen as a great opportunity for them to scout places for them to consider moving after school is done

--They meet at Wayne Enterprise building

---Dick is leading the tour

----Diana may or may not have given him some hints that Tim’s soulmate is in the group

--Lila’s empire is destroyed that week, she tried to lie about the Waynes to the Waynes

---Tries to say she is dating Damiain who is way younger than her and knows nothing

---Conner is staying with Tim because his soulmate said something about Gotham and figured spending time with Tim isn’t bad either

--Identity get revealed on purpose during the trip (probably near the end)

--When Mari sees the boys she is confused but happy to see her new friends again so soon

--Diana is a good support for Mari and a “wing woman” of sorts

--Jason is so happy to she his new “sister” when he crashes the tour to mess with Dick

--Tim is passed out in his office when they pass

---Mari writes a note to her soulmate about how funny it is, this makes Conner look up as he is watching Tim and sees the note appear in his arm

---Mari doesn’t notice but Dick and Jason do

---This leads to the 3 trying to get them to talk

---Adrien catches on and instantly wants to help his bestie meet her boy

----Adrien then tells his soulmate about it later because he wants to and Conner sits straight up and has a huge revelation

-----The boys along with Diana and Mari’s squad set them up and they have a good time and it is really cute

473 notes · View notes

starsailorstories · 4 years ago

Text

In other news I finally finished the long, wild, aristocratic-nonsense-fraught history of altamai

The first officially-sanctioned superatmospheric settlement on Altamai broke ground in the year 2190 of the ninth Taregan cycle, and her first official citizens arrived just under a (Taregan) decade later, after a long and dangerous building process largely carried out by the indentured and indebted of the ancient city-state of Solreg. In this early period, the population was scattered between “legitimate” landing sites, fly-by-night towns, and nomadic groups. The planet was a frontier: land changed hands via sword and seduction; criminals held territory with no trouble but the occasional vigilante; and vigilantes operated however they saw fit for good or ill, living in their starships and chasing bounties across the foggy plains.

The supposed descendants of the original Captain-Queens who settled Tarega had long had an informal international council, which became formal in the early years of Altamaian habitation. Gradually, national lines began to be drawn--most of the wars had already been fought, and there was a period of non-violent, albeit not necessarily just, claims and concessions. By virtue of the ancestry of their leadership, the Oghai, Saiven, Solrega, Nadega, Avesian, and Faellran peoples emerged as major powers.

In an oathing ceremony performed at request by a praeceptor-trained priestess, these seven world leaders would become (in addition to the queenly titles most of them brought from their homeworld) the Avesian Maximatas--to this day, the highest offices of Basillan nobility outside the royal family, passed down in a continuous line for over 600,000 planetary years. Here they swore to be mothers to the planet, to care for all of her inhabitants and follow the will of the goddesses. The language of the oath would later become a rallying point for commoners seeking accountability for their rulers, although ruling classes in the Binary have always had the kind of accountability problem that only revolution really solves.

Anyway, for holding to a vow of such profound importance, the priestess exacted a high price--she asked that if, as had been discussed, they chose a High Queen for the planet, it be her own country’s queen, Athaema Seflioma of Aves. They technically could have refused this request, but it would have been, to use the proper terminology, a Whole Thing. To turn down the bargain of a priestess and an oracle, and one sanctioned by the holy city, would be seen as akin to disrespect for the goddesses if it got out that it had happened, and wouldn’t start the new seat of power off on a popular foot. And so, in 10230 19th cycle, High Queen Athaema was crowned by her peers and sisters, and immediately got down to business setting up a royal court designed to serve the entire Sol Jenya system, planning and constructing ten state-of-the-art “civilized” cities to centralize industry and government in the various population centers, placing unaffiliated frontier towns under the jurisdiction of local landed gentry, and bearing over 2,000 children, her successor Aviana among them.

The crackdown on unaffiliated settlements was indiscriminate--lumping peaceful, self-sufficient villages established by poor colonies seeking freedom from the abuses of the feudal system in with organized-crime strongholds rife with violence and exploitation. The decree was presented with a spin that basically guaranteed its popularity with those who had no firsthand experience with the situation--without the care of the nobility, the court instructed its messengers to say, fly-by-nights were vulnerable to extreme poverty and plagued by thieves. A select few hard-luck stories were treated with highly public charity, and the project is still widely understood as a benevolent one by Basilean citizens at the time of the story. In reality, many fly-by-night towns were happy, prosperous, and most concerningly, egalitarian; and these fought tooth and nail to remain free until they could fight no longer. The far left wing of Basilean opinion remembers as martyrs a handful who went down swinging to the last girl standing. During Aviana’s comparably unremarkable reign, others simply vanished into the mists, operating in such secrecy that only the archaeological record attests to their existence. Fairly recently at the time of the story, a colony was discovered who had been living in self-imposed isolation for so long that they had developed a unique dialect of the Solrega Aundell language, a unique projection style adapted to their low-visibility home in the Tonevan cloud forest, and even a few subtle but distinct physical adaptations.

As the 23rd cycle drew to a close, Athaema’s granddaughter Ouriama died suddenly before she could produce an heir. Although an assassination was suspected, no proof was uncovered, and it remains an unsolved mystery and system-wide legend. The crown passed to her wife’s colony (and to another of the seven powers) in Faellra, where a new mother had just been born who could inherit it, and the guardian of this new queen, Analemma Olaean, jumped at the opportunity to make her ward Daemarima the best-connected and most legally powerful High Queen yet. This unwittingly made her a prime suspect in the previous Queen’s death, but from the international council’s centralizing perspective, it was all worth it. High Queen Daemarima commissioned the construction of Standard Altamaian, a single lingua franca for the planet, less than a turn (not that they measured turns back then, but it’s a good way to describe a period that feels like ‘a quarter year or so’ in astraea lifespans) after her coronation. In the ninth year of the twenty-fifth cycle, the planetary government financed the implementation of the new language in schools and other institutions, and in a more sinister move, outlawed the speaking of local languages in a handful of key centers of resistance to the hierarchy.

The Olaen dynasty lasted six cycles, during which interstellar exploration flourished in this new era of semi-forced international unity. Worlds in the ante-dome and outer disk were “discovered” by Altamaian newcomers on the regular and treated like matrona gifts in potentia for the various queens and aristocrats, although the era of outright invasions was still long to come. A sailor named Via suddenly appeared claiming to have lived on isolated, well-defended Esmrrrder for nearly thirty planetary years, and told tales of an advanced civilization perched high on its planet’s abundant mountains. The dream of crossing the vacuum between galaxies was already being heavily discussed as well, but before an expedition could be mounted, Daemarima’s great-great granddaughter married a commoner and abdicated the throne to her sister Leiliora, who would bring their dynasty to an abrupt end when she challenged Sastiena Fortefemen to a duel in defense of her sister’s honor and lost, dying that same night of an infection from a wound on her side. The Fortefemens had merely accepted the Queen’s challenge, but they stepped obligingly into the power vacuum and proceeded to rule the planet for longer than any other family, effectively controlling a throne they won in a sword fight for like 30,000 years. This is basically all you need to know about the Fortefemens.

It was early in her reign that Sastiena’s former ward Deracoura--named for the scriptural “protector” of the Taregan desert wayfinders--reached out to the leaders of the various Basillan-controlled worlds, as well as those of Sitheria, to spearhead the first intergalactic exploration mission. As you know from my broader historical overview of the Seven Suns, this expedition went in search of sapient life and returned with the first Cadrian delegation, who toured the cities of Ovaiakon, Solrega Nova, Neroka, and Alegia. It was on Altamai that the initial commoner-owned shipyard was founded via Cadrian investment and began exporting to the Maculata (as well as importing from the Elorican asteroid fields) and providing a colony-estate-esque setup for workers who viewed the Cadrian-style wage system with suspicion. As it turned out, providing the bare minimum was more profitable, at the time, than paying workers in flexible currency, and it had the added appeal of letting owners of capital basically act and live like nobility.

Within the next two cycles, the business interests of commoners continued to grow, and the Union of Commons was formed to protect those interests. They published a manifesto expressing their belief in the right of landholders of low birth to govern their own lands--basically a “hey, we have money, so why don’t we also have power?” directed at the High Court and the nobility. Practically in response, nonroyal nobility from every clan and country began clamoring for international lawmaking power as well. They formed a planet-wide legislative council of their own, and while they declared no hostility to the royal tier of society, they asked no permission from them either. In the middle of all this, while en route from a visit with the Council of Emperors far across the intergalactic sea, Queen Deracoura unhelpfully died.

Trying to please everyone, keep the peace, and maybe punish her insubordinate maximatas just a LITTLE bit, her heir Felixania Fortefemen ordered the creation of the High Parliament, which included representation from the nobility of each nation as well as for gentry of common birth. She still had the final say on everything no matter what, and it led to the creation of a lengthy court season that allowed the royal family to keep their nobles under close scrutiny, so in a way it was a devil’s bargain.

In this era, there were clashes of interest between a variety of Basillan and Cadrian notables. In space and even on-planet, business owners enforced their deals like crime bosses and crime bosses did a steady trade. In a climate where the penalty for a breach of contract could be a village burned to the ground, the nobility increasingly styled themselves as the protectors of the people, loyalties strengthened, and divisions grew. Among the common people, favor was split between the common capitalist class--who seemed to offer freedom from the whims of the nobility by offering a relatively secure income, as well as representing the promise of moving up in the world; and the old aristocratic families, who represented tradition, family loyalty (Altamaian nobles overwhelmingly ruled over their own historic colonies and their offshoots, meaning their peasants were all actually related to them--providing, to be fair, accountability that later Basilean aristocratic rule would lack) and a kind of symbolic cultural function--still today conservative Altamaians take the tack that the gentle Great Ladies suffer for their sake and must be defended from (in modern times largely imaginary) outside threats. The nobility was more broadly fractured, with favorites of the one-nation queens and the High Queen defending them stridently while others feared their unchecked power would leave the ancient families destitute to be overrun by the nouvelle riche. Just outside the metropolis of Solrega Nova, a shipbuilding-business billionaire bought a castle, noted for its beauty, built by the Celetorias--an original-lander colony--and announced plans to demolish it to build a complex of vitruvol foundries, giving the entire planet something to throw down about for five seasons straight (she eventually chickened out).

Just as these ideological tensions were reaching a fever pitch, Felixania and High Queen Esthardine of Glasmiri announced that their scionettes were betrothed--an unprecedented consolidation of power in a single household. The marriage of Delianae Fortefemen and Celafina Vividel was the event of the cycle whether you were for the high court or against it: three of the planet’s titled first daughters lost their crowns in duels that day, and three more lost their lives. Scholars took to the streets to warn the peasantry while by and large the peasantry took to the public houses to toast the beautiful young princesses who after all looked so smitten in their official portrait. It was the middle of fiber harvest season in a good market year; people were exhausted and ready for a show.

Following her mother’s death, Delianae laid low (letting the nobility handle urgent matters themselves) until all but the most paranoid aristocrats practically forgot about her, focusing on well-received local historical projects such as the restoration of the first Aivuran temple and a modernized housing for the shrine where the Avesian Maximatas took their oath. Behind the scenes, she reached arrangements with multiple once-hostile Cadrian interests and secured a substantial income from intergalactic trade which was primarily socked away for the use of her daughter Deracoura (styled as Deracoura the second, or sometimes, when she was really feelin’ it, the third).

Early in her reign, under the guidance of her elder sisters, Deracoura II established the highly profitable Fila Fenaeta swarm, a specialized, state-of-the-art vapor-harvesting operation set amongst the young stars of a resource-rich nebula. While the floating settlement started small, it was destined to grow into a veritable nation of employees of the crown. Almost immediately there was conflict over working conditions in this deep-void environment and the protection of the residents’ few rights as peasant-class planetary citizens (which were still meant to be upheld by the law despite their distance from home, but were not always, particularly with regards to due process in criminal trials and oversight of tribute apportionment--it was common practice for representatives of the nobility to embezzle a great deal of something valuable from a peasant colony and then disappear on a fast spaceship, leaving them on the hook to explain to their rarely-sympathetic lady where all the product went). Repeated uprisings were quelled through mass evictions that displaced families in far-flung space--often with inadequate supplies to get much of anywhere--and forced many to live as outlaws deep in the clouds, gaining the area a reputation as impoverished and dangerous. Dia “Acutri” (Altamaian: sharp-eyed) filia Senema, a second-born mother exiled by her noble sisters, founded a multigenerational pirate colony there that still persists at the time of the story.

The unrest was ultimately no hindrance to the prosperity of the Altamaian throne, and Deracoura continued with zeal the illumination of the galaxy (and beyond) to Basillan and Sitherian travelers that her great-great-grandmother had begun, opening trade routes in the ante-dome that would go on to gradually rob entire cultures blind. The deep roots of the Hyperian empire lead to things sown by the Fortefemens, even if they would later consider themselves rivals.

For two generations now, the narrative that the Old Ways had died with Deracoura I and been buried with the creation of the parliament had been kept at the top of the political toolbox, but no one had used it quite as Siderina Hyperia did from the beginning. With Altamai becoming increasingly inhospitable to its peasantry with the ongoing consolidation of wealth, her appeals to a kind of populist escapism--complemented by her position at the helm of the construction of the Rings and in guardianship of the heir to a little-known but prosperous landed colony--struck a chord with those who saw their planet’s new capitalist class as inadequate caretakers. While she never made any rhetorical attack on the High Queen, she took the angle that the enfeebled royal line now needed to be taken in hand for its own good. With her beautiful ward Estartina, she would revitalize the noble matriarchy of old and lead it to a glittering future in the Rings.

Siderina’s wholesome public image hid the mind of a shrewd general. Weeks after the Rings were announced complete, she commanded her knights to such a decisive victory against the royal guard that she was famously allowed to walk in and kill the old queen (Deracoura II’s daughter Athaema) with a small ivory dagger. In the aftermath she announced that she had acted to protect her world and avenge its integrity, claiming that the Fortefemens had sold information to a hostile Cadrian interest. This may or may not have been true--evidence did materialize here and there, albeit a bit conveniently--but the story was mainly believable because assertions of overfriendliness with Maculatan enemies were not a new thing for the dynasty, and a large segment of the public was willing to accept it.

Siderina was tried for her regicide in a number of courts, but, by slipping names in the elderly queen’s ear, she had rallied those with judicial power on Altamai mostly to her support, and was never convicted of anything. While the coup had certainly not been a formal duel, the transfer of power was adopted mainly on the strength of the precedent set by the Fortefemens. While Glasmiri was a center of popular resistance, the thrones of the two worlds were still heavily tied together for economic reasons, and the Vividel line remained effectively in Altamai’s thrall. When the Sitherian Archpraeceptor objected to the matter of Estartina’s coronation, Siderina had her ousted, either bribing or threatening practically every organization of priestesses in central Ovaiakon. All of this occurred in the space of two planetary decades--a blink in astraea reckoning. In the twelfth turn of the Rings, Estartina Hyperia was crowned not with the traditional Avesian coronel but with what would come to be called The Diadem of The Empress of the Seven Suns.

At the time of the story, almost two hundred quinturns later, Altamai--the Motherworld of the Basileans, as it is called by the aula--is a place of extremes even beyond its dramatic terrain and climate. Below the cloud line, it is an industrial powerhouse where thousands live in sprawling underground complexes and spend their workdays extracting rapidly depleting natural resources. Above, the last children of the old nobility rehearse the motions of the ancient ways between the pink cloud-carpet and the blue sky. In this dreamlike setting, heavy security, subtle propaganda, and armies of carefully vetted servants work to evoke the memory of a utopia that never existed, tailored to the political predilections and aesthetic whims of the Last Great Ladies. The granddaughter and heir of the deposed high queen, who escaped the coup with her governess as a young child, remains in exile far away in the Perseus Cluster, dreaming, as the old Royalist battle hymn goes, of double sunlight on plumafore fields.

#sweet chariot #planets - altamai #worldbuilding

5 notes · View notes

kimshavacado · 5 years ago

Text

Dead Heat Ch. 8

Pairing: Yoongi x reader

Genre: Arranged Marriage/Mafia AU

Summary: Three extremely powerful families with enough power to bring down entire governments, all with vastly different views on how things should be run. The Min family thinks everything can be solved with money, the Jeon family think everything can be solved with violence, and the Kim family relies more on thought which leads to a lack of action. When Kim Y/N loses her father, she only has one way to save herself and her family. But it involves having to give herself over to a stranger. How the hell is she not supposed to punch him in his stupid rich face?

Dead Heat Masterlist

Warnings: Language, Awkwardness

A/N: I was honestly surprised by the final total. It was very split over tumblr and ao3, but there was a clear choice. One that I, myself, would not have chosen. Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Relocation

After a few minutes, you slowly escape the warmth of the bed to sneak out. If Yoongi notices, he doesn’t try to stop you. You head back to your room, which now feels cold and lonely. You wash up, get dressed, and prepare yourself for the undoubtedly long day your about to have because of the men downstairs.

Just as you throw on a sweater, you hear your phone ring. It’s such a mundane thing that it takes you a second to realize that no one should be calling you. As you stalk over to your phone cautiously, your heart sinks to your feet when you read the name on the screen.

Jimin.

Quite a few things flash through your mind. Jimin’s face, the years you shared together, the hurt he had caused you. You seem to be frozen in your place, the only thing bringing you back to your senses is the “missed call” notification on the screen.

You search your brain for any explanation as to why called and when you can’t come up with one, it scares the shit out of you. You honestly have no idea what to do and start to panic. Should you have answered? You could just try to call him back. No, why would you do that? But why would we call you like that? Shit, should you tell-

“What’s taking so long?” You hear Yoongi from outside your door. Without thinking you run to the door and open it, but no words come out and you just stare at him. He meets you with surprised eyes. He officially looks weirded out.

“Why are you crying?” He asks cautiously.

You’re crying? You hadn’t really noticed, too focused on having a mental breakdown.

“It’s nothing.” You immediately say, apparently fixed in defense mode. He raises his eyebrows and presses his lips into a thin line while he stares at you. After yet another uncomfortable duration of time you bring your hands up to your face to wipe away any moisture. You need to pull your thoughts back together.

“Uh, okay then.” He says, still weirded out and turns to walk away. Shit you should tell him, right? Your little internal war is cut off again when you realize you’ve already latched onto his wrist to stop him from leaving.

“Jimin called me.” His face loses all expression once you say this. He turns serious, which has you feeling even more uneasy.

“What did he say?”

“I didn’t answer.”

“Why not?” That’s a wonderful question. Maybe you should’ve, just to hear… but maybe it would’ve been too much.

After a while he stops waiting for your response and walks away from you. You chase after him towards the stairs, ignoring that you two are no longer alone.

“Should I have? Would you have?” He stops on the stairs to think about this. You wonder what it is he’s thinking or who he’s thinking of if he’s entertaining this imaginary call.

“I don’t know.” He says looking directly at you. But in his eyes, you get a suspicion that that might not be true. “Come on, we all have some things to discuss.”

You can’t tell if he’s angry with you or not.

“You wanna ‘relocate’ me!? What is that even supposed to mean?” You start to make a scene in front of the men who have gathered around the large meeting room.

“Us. Relocate us, Y/N. It’s obvious this place isn’t secure anymore. While we prepare a plan, it’s best if we didn’t stay.” Yoongi explains in an attempt to calm you down.

You look around at the men at the large table and standing along the walls. Honestly, you were only hot headed at a moment because Jin and the rest of your house were here. It pissed you off to see him sitting there acting all mighty in your rightful place, sending you away again. How come you were never allowed to do what you wanted to do?

“What do you want us to do?” Your eyes go wide, afraid you might have said your internal rant out loud, but Yoongi is just asking you what your decision is. He’s giving you a say, but you know he’s right.

“Okay. We’ll go.” With a nod you submit. Then Yoongi dismisses everyone to speak with Jin about next steps.

“Y/N you’re part of this too.” Yoongi calls when he sees you leaving with the others.

“I’m sorry, do you just ask me to stay and talk important business?” You ask, a comical look of disbelief over your face. “Since when did my involvement ever give me the authority to do so?” You turn to bitter sarcasm to emphasize both of their disinterest in your opinions on prior matters. “Please don’t let me interrupt the discussion of almighty-“

“I mean, we could always just not tell you.” You huff at this, feeling like a child having a tantrum and collapse into a chair at the large table. After everything, you’ll honestly take what you can get from them. When he notices you’ve finished, Jin breaks the silence.

“I think I have a good place for you to go. Your parents used to have this private timeshare in the country. We basically own it now and no one’s been there in ages, so it won’t be that predictable of a location. Y/N, you’ve probably been there before, do you remember? You might have been too young, though.”

“Wait, my parents had a timeshare? When?”

“After they got married. Sort of needed a place to escape to sometimes, I guess it never hurt to have a sort of safe house away from all this.”

“Huh.” Jin’s confession has you reeling. That’s not something you had expected your father to have done.

“Who knows about it?” Yoongi asks.

“Well we don’t actually have a timeshare agreement anymore, and no one actually owns it. We’ve kept it handy for situations like this, and there’s no record saying we own it, so I guess, just me.” Jin responds.

“Huh.” Yoongi mocks by mirroring your previous response. “Alright then.”

Jimin’s POV:

He needs to just quiet the war in his mind for good, and he might know a way he can do that.

He cares too much. It’s too important. You’re too important. He can’t keep hoping for your forgiveness, he has to know if he’s lost you for good. It’s too dangerous to be questioning sides. There’s one thing left to ask:

Which side is he on?

He chooses to put all his fate onto a leap of faith. All he needs is your help, even just to hear your voice. That would be enough, just to be reminded why he was doubting in the first place.

He gets his phone out and finds your name in the contacts. He hesitates before taping the call button. He shouldn’t be doing this to you, but he needs to know that he hasn’t messed everything in his life up.

Every unanswered ring diminishes his hope. But instead of sadness, he feels anger beginning to bubble up with every ring until it goes to voicemail.

Y/N POV:

Of course it’s raining, why would there be good weather on an evening like this? It’s not like you and Yoongi are driving off into the sunset together. No, instead you’re watching the water droplets race down the car window wishing you could just melt away like them.

Yoongi is quiet the entire trip and you don’t mind. It means your mind is free to wander around all the events that have happened. You think about how everything has made you aggressive and cold to others. But you give yourself some slack, knowing you were once innocent and free of worry as a child.

You still have the good childhood memories at your core. You like to think you’re more like your mother than your father, but it’s hard to tell sometimes. You look over at Yoongi and he drums his fingers on the steering wheel and can’t help but think about his parents as well.

Soon you arrive at your destination and follow a long road covered in trees to a decent sized villa. Through the rainy evening glow you could see the outline of a clearing behind the building which might be a lake, but it’s too dark to see. You’ll have to view it in it’s full glory tomorrow morning.

“Here we go.” Yoongi takes a deep breath before running outside of the car to grab bags. You can’t help but laugh at the unique way he runs around like he’s almost waddling.

Once you see he’s getting soaked you get out to take the final bag up to the house with him. Once through the entrance, you notice how it’s dark and smells like dust. It really gives off abandoned vibes and you start to regret agreeing to this until Yoongi turns on the lights.

It doesn’t look like it’s been decades since someone’s cleaned, and you let out a sigh of relief that it’s passable for living.

“Find a bathroom and get changed.” Yoongi directs. You comply, wanting out of the wet clothes.

Thirty minutes later, after walking around to get acquainted with the space, you find yourself on the couch with a book and a cup of tea. But you’re focused on the words in your head instead of the words on the page. You’re back to your previous debate on which parent you’re like.

That’s when Yoongi walks in, noticing your spaced out expression. He decides to watch for a moment. But when your eyes don’t move, he lets out a small laugh.

“You’re definitely not reading that book.” Caught red handed, you continue to stare at the book with the same expression.

“I’m… thinking.” You say, not meaning to sound as suspicious as you do.

“Yeah, you do that a lot.” You finally tear your sight away from the book to see he flop down on the couch next to you. Now that you think of it, who was Yoongi like?

“Are you more like your mother or your father?” It sort of just comes out of you mouth. His eyebrows lift in surprise but he pulls them back down and takes time to think about it.

“Both.” He says, and you suppose the same of yourself. “But never at the same time.” This really resonates with you. “You can try to be your own person, but other people are what make us who we are.” You suppose this is true as well.

“I always wanted to be like Jimin. Everyone liked him when we were younger, he was practically perfect. But I always compared myself to him.” You pause and let out a sigh. “I’m glad I’m not like him.”

“Me too.” He says this quickly which gets your attention. When you look at him, he’s facing sideways towards you on the couch. His legs are only and inch from touching yours and he’s looking sincerely into your eyes. It’s either that or the low cut shirt he’s wearing that cause something to turn inside you.

“I need a drink.”

Only good things come when alcohol is involved. Of course what better way to distract yourself from your attraction to your husband than to inhibit your ability to reason. Yoongi plays along though, and you find yourself a slurring mess an hour and a half later. You’re both pretty deep in, but it’s mostly you.

After you crying for the past 20 minutes about the fact that you haven’t had a “real” boyfriend since high school. He decides it best you call it a night.

“I think it’s your bedtime.” He says laughing at your most recent pout. But that only causes you to deepen your pout. He laughs again.

“You know sometimes, I forget you’re not a child.” When this doesn’t get fid of your pout he decides to mirror it. Leaning in to mock you. However, this gives you a great view given his choice of loose clothing and looking up to his pouting face, it’d be almost too easy to close the space. So you’re not surprised when you do. Yoongi however, is. Barely registering that it’s happened before you pull away from his face to stare him down in defiance.

“See? Not a child.” You say, but he’s still focused on your lips. He forgot that you’ve done that before, maybe he should be more careful. Did he really need to, though? You’re his wife, you’ve kissed him before. Maybe it’s because of the drink, but he pulls your head back into his with little thought.

This time is not quite as short as the first. You seem to reciprocate a little too easily, letting his mouth slot with yours. You take action to latch onto him as well, reaching out for the shirt you had so desperately wanted to touch before.

His hands snake down and around your waist as one of yours slides up his neck into his hair as things get a little more heated, tongues tasting the alcohol on each other. One of you lets out a noise resembling a moan, but you can’t tell who because the kiss has gotten impossibly deeper and you can’t stop yourself from throwing a leg over to the other side of him.

He seems to be as lost in it as you are since he pulls your body over the rest of the way so that you’re completely straddling him. After everything that’s gone through your head to day, it’s nice to lose yourself in him and forget anything else. You decide you want to share an impossible amount of time sharing breath like this.

When one of his hands ghosts under the back of your shirt to the bare small of your back, one of yours goes to the hem of his and begin to lift to take it off. Before you can, he grabs your thighs and hoists you up causing you to squeal from surprise. You two never part as he walks you to the bedroom, excitement bubbling in your gut.

When he reaches the bed, he lowers your head down to the pillow, slowing down the kiss. It makes you more desperate to continue but instead, Yoongi stops moving entirely. Pulling away and resting his forehead on yours, you two catch your breaths for a moment.

“Go to sleep.” He whispers just centimeters from your lips, and you want to yell at him. After all that? Go to sleep? You’re about to chastise him for treating you like a child once again until he pulls away climbs on the bed next to you appearing content in his decision to sleep.

You stare at him in awe of his ability to just close his eyes and pretend like that didn’t just happen.

He really is an ass. And you really like him.

A/N: Relationships are changing! Sorry for the steamy fake out there. If y'all are good, maybe Santa will bring some smut around the holidays. Thanks for dealing with me!

Next Chapter

Tags: @badbyeyoongi @whothefuckstolemykeds @xxqueenwxtchxx @alecmidnight @rjsmochii @itsrapmonstanotdancemonsta @ superarmyofdreamersuk @zxlla @1796p @obeythehemmings @betysotelo18

199 notes · View notes

caelpictor · 5 years ago

Text

✊🏽 🌈 😷

Hello hello hello! Happy Pride, and a very happy Juneteenth to you all! For those of you who don’t know, Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the day the final group of enslaved people was freed in Texas in 1865 (which was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed… but that’s beside the point). So I recently took about a month-long unplanned break from social media, because, as I’ve said before, I’ve been REALLY low energy these past few weeks, what with everything that’s been going on in the world. I am at the intersection of multiple marginalized groups, and that knowledge can be very heavy sometimes. But I wanted to make a post today in my own words, because I realized my staying silent doesn’t help me or anyone I care about; it only helps maintain the status quo. So now I’m here to check in with all of you and to put my thoughts and feelings on the record.

First of all, I’ve been doing a lot of drawing and writing and bingewatching and bingeplaying video games since quarantine started, and I’m having a great time with that! But I’ve also been staying up-to-date on the news, as any good person should, and what I’m seeing isn’t so good. More and more Black people, including children and the often overlooked women and trans folk, are being murdered every day. Speaking of trans folk, their basic human rights are being taken away before our very eyes. Brown immigrants continue to be abused by our government. Indigenous people continue to have their bodies, lands, and cultures violated. People who riot and loot are being condemned in the name of “respectability politics,” despite the fact that they’ve been systemically disenfranchised all their lives, and their anger is justified. People who oppose fascism are being dubbed terrorists. The pandemic isn’t getting any better, but people are acting like it’s over. Political leaders and celebrities who claim to be on our side are taking performative action that does nothing to foster actual progress. And that’s just in the United States! There are more crises going on in countries around the world than I can even think to name.

So right now I’m doing what I can to stay safe and sane and help out in whatever small ways I‘m able to. That means continuing to practice social distancing while also signing petitions, spreading information, supporting my fellow Black and Brown and LGBT+ artists/businesses/individuals, elevating our voices, and donating wherever I can. But Juneteenth is about education, and I’ve also been doing some reading. I have two really great books to recommend to you, if you haven’t read them already:

The first one is called The End of Policing, and it’s by Alex Vitale; it basically breaks down that phrase that seems to scare and confuse a lot of people: “Defund the police.” Vitale talks about how policing as an institution is ineffective at its best and harmful at its worst, how attempts at reforming the institution are also ineffective, how policing permeates every area of our society, including schools and politics and several other places where it doesn’t belong, and about the criminalization of homelessness, sex work, drugs, gangs, immigration, and more. The End of Policing is available as an ebook for free right here, for your convenience!

The second book is by the great political activist Angela Davis, and it’s called Are Prisons Obsolete? Like Vitale, Davis questions and critiques an institution which is often said to be in need of reform when it actually, she argues, needs to be done away with entirely. She talks about how the current system incorrectly values punishment and vengeance over reform and rehabilitation, how people of color are vastly overrepresented in the penal system, how the system treats people of color, women, the disabled, the mentally ill, the poor, and LGBT+ folk differently from well-off cishet white men, and how prisons have become an industrial complex that serves capitalistic desires over human needs. This one is also available for free, as a pdf right here, for your convenience!

Both authors discuss controversial, interconnected topics through thorough research, write in clear, concise, and fact-driven language, dive deep into the history of policing and prisons in America and around the world (including their shared origins in slave-catching), and finally offer alternatives, which are detailed, doable, and proven effective by precedent, such as decriminalization of certain acts and substances, and reallocation of bloated funds to areas that more effectively address crime at its source (as crime doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and mostly occurs as a direct result of people’s needs not being met!). I highly recommend these if you’re interested in reading. If not, there are lots of videos and infographics and articles that discuss these topics in much shorter, simpler ways, and a quick Google search will lead you in the right direction. 😉

In conclusion, coronavirus is alive and well, and so is racism. I urge my friends and followers not to be quiet about the injustices we have been facing every day for centuries, all over the world, and not to let the attention and momentum shift away from our movement. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you are or where you are. Keep wearing masks and socially distancing. Keep educating yourselves and each other. Keep protesting and contacting officials and donating and signing petitions. Keep supporting Black and Brown and Queer artists and businesses and individuals. Keep elevating our voices. Use your voice to call for an end to white supremacy, the patriarchy, and transphobia. Be careful with spreading images of violence (as they can be disturbing and disrespectful), as well as protestors’ faces (as they can be used to identify and track people down).

On a more personal level, respect and value the lives of people who look different from you. We don’t exist for you. We exist for ourselves. We are complete human beings, and we will not be broken down into parts for your easy consumption. And sure, voting is important, but direct action has proven to be much more effective at causing immediate change. I understand if you need a mental health break. As I said at the beginning, I needed a mental health break. But please do so quietly, safely, and respectfully, and don’t make this about you. I see some of you are still out here fighting the good fight daily, and I thank you for it. But I can’t begin to express how troubling it is to watch other people go about their lives as if all these crazy things aren’t happening. Remember, no voice is too small to be used as a platform of positive change! I realized that includes me. Now you need to realize that includes you!

Lastly: Black Lives STILL Matter, Black WOMEN’S Lives Matter, Black TRANS Lives Matter, Black DISABLED Lives Matter, Black MENTAL HEALTH Matters. Defund The Police. Abolish ICE. No One Is Illegal On Stolen Land. Eat The Rich. Pride Is A Protest. Be An Ally. We’re In This Together.

And once again, happy Juneteenth.

P.S: My book recs are free, and Google is free, but as my friend Javon so perfectly put it, “my emotional labor and racial education will only be free when I wish them to be.” So if you want to debate me on any of these topics, OR if you want me to do more research for you, I would be happy to accept payment via Venmo (@KyleBryant), PayPal (kylemb13), CashApp ($KyleMarcusBryant), et cetera! (I’m also accepting drawing/painting commissions, reparation payments, and general donations! Yes, I’m dead serious!)

✊🏽🌈😷

10 notes · View notes

blog20041994punam · 4 years ago

Text

Numerology - Does It Really Work?

Like many others, several decades ago, I was attracted to many of the metaphysical sciences and especially numerology.

Though numerology is probably the least known or understood of the metaphysical sciences it is currently enjoying a massive revival. Is this revival due to the current global issues our society is confronted with, and can numerology assist in fixing the issues many are feeling threatened by?

In the very basic of terms numerology is formulated on the idea that everything in the universe is made up of and is affected by numbers. Numerology has been well documented through the eons of civilization and it is now believed that Numerology is probably the oldest science known to man.

In early Hebrew history the interpretation of numbers was considered highly important. Letters of the Hebrew alphabet was based on numbers. It was said that the relationship of the letter and the number were both interconnected with the cosmic forces. Later during the Middle Ages a numerical mysticism evolved from the teachings of Merkabah which was a sect of Judaism. Then in the 13th century the German Kabbalists developed Gematria, a mystic numerical interpretation of the Scriptures.

Evidence also exists regarding the use of numerology thousands of years ago in China, Rome, Japan and Greece. The ancient Greeks have given us a myriad of technological and scientific data that becomes even more relevant as time advances and it is the Greek philosopher Pythagoras with whom we credit for the modern day versions of Numerology. It is very true that Pythagoras did not invent numerology however it was his theories that took numerology to a different level. Hence the reason as to why Pythagoras is credited with being the father of numerology.

From the beginning of the twentieth century several mystics and authors have added their interpretation to form what we have today as modern numerology.

None of this answers the question though - "Does it really work?"

Over these past two decades I have immersed myself in learning what I can in regards to the numbers and how they can affect, influence or assist me in manipulating my every day life.

I used to spend hours wandering through hundreds of Healing Fairs, being engrossed with the various stalls. I have spent hours watching with great anticipation while people handed over their hard earned cash for tarot card readings, astrology charts and the like.

I used to think that just maybe there was something in what many of my friends thought was just a lot of mumbo jumbo.

On one of those many occasions I saw one guy who was doing numerology readings from his lap top. We got chatting and it wasn't long before I had invested in my very own computer numerology program. Now I had already spent hours researching my name, my date of birth, where I lived via what I love to call my numerology bible.

You might ask, why, for what reason did you want to compare the two different systems of numerology. Well my friend my aim was to prove that my so called bible and this computer program would produce different sets of information.

For the first sixth months I had immense fun keying in everything I possible could, each time becoming more and more impressed with the information that I produced.

No, I could not prove that either was wrong, the information was the same and oh so accurate. You might also ask - why is this so? Easy, you see, numbers affect our every day existence because based on name at birth and the date of birth the entire information about one's life is readily available. Things can change in one's life, yet one thing is constant, the date of one's birth.

Over the years the more I study numerology, the more I begin to understand how very substantial readings are. You see your name does literally contain a powerhouse of vital information about your life, your potential and your future. Numerology is a language that allows you to expand the horizon of your spiritual awareness. It opens doors in your psyche that perhaps at this time you do not even know exist.

Remember you are living in a society where no matter what type of job you have, at some stage you have to deal with others. The others could be your boss, your friends, your colleagues, other workers, government officials, your partners, business associates, and your family. The list is endless. You may find that dealing with some people is easy and with others it is difficult. You have to treat or deal with everyone and every situation differently so as to reach what we all call a comfort level otherwise the relationship can be a disaster. No matter what your reason for trying to make an impact on someone, numerology can go a long way towards assisting you in figuring out what makes someone lean in your favor. Consulting the numbers does really work.

I have seen how businesses can work effectively with numerology. Choosing a business name is one of the most important aspects in starting a business. The name that is chosen will represent the image and label of your business and this is an image that must be clearly conveyed to your impending customers. A business name carries a powerful energy that can create great success! Yet it can also be the cause behind a constant struggle with middle-of-the-road performance. So whether you are starting a new company or have an established enterprise, you should really use the numbers to make your business strong and eliminate the areas that may cause disharmony.

Yes numerology does really work. By using numerology in your daily life you can overcome many of the obstacles that just seem to pop up in what you might refer to as a precise and calculated way. Discover simple and quick ways to maximize your energy and reduce your stress! You will learn some really amazing details about your physical, mental, emotional, and 'intuitive' abilities! Why not discover which of these are the strongest and weakest and what they can accomplish for you! Uncover those secrets of your personality, secrets that sometimes even you do not understand fully!

Why does numerology really work? Again the answer is simple - Numerology is a very old and powerful science. It has been developed, improved and enhanced for over 4,000 years by some of the greatest minds and mathematicians in the world and because of all the recent advancements in both mathematics and numerology, readings and calculations can now be done for you that were not possible before.

2 notes · View notes

badecontakes · 5 years ago

Text

Context

Because of character limits, I wasn’t able to fully explain why I found the appended tweet to be a Bad Economics Take.

We have not delegated anywhere near all economic policymaking to the Federal Reserve, and fiscal policymakers have taken significant action. The US Congress has already enacted three phases of fiscal stimulus. The CARES Act, a roughly $2 trillion fiscal stimulus program, is the largest short-term policy intervention as a percentage of GDP since WWII. It is fair for Stoller to argue that more should be done, and congress is drafting a phase 4 stimulus, but fiscal policymakers have certainly not abdicated all action to the Federal Reserve.

The argument is logically inconsistent. Stoller supposes that fiscal policymakers are asleep at the wheel and monetary policymakers are taking bold action. If we take his initial claim at face value, then what is the impetus for putting effective monetary policymakers under the direct control of the same fiscal policymakers who have not taken action?

Although the Federal Reserve was organized under the Treasury Department prior to 1935, the past system Stoller references is radically different than what he has repeatedly proposed. The President did not have the direct ability to set monetary policy and, prior to the Banking Act of 1935, individual Reserve Banks had far more independence and autonomy to set their own local policy.

Central bank independence is the cornerstone of an effective monetary policy. That’s why every advanced economy strenuously separates its central bank from the political process.

I explain this fourth and final point at greater length below.

The US Federal Reserve is a quasi-autonomous independent agency originally established under an act of the United States’ congress in 1918. It is neither a fully private nor public entity.

“This central banking ‘system’ has three important features: (1) a central governing board—the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; (2) a decentralized operating structure of 12 Federal Reserve Banks; and (3) a blend of public and private characteristics.”

“Independence” refers to the central bank’s ability to determine and enact monetary policy without direct interference from the legislative or executive branch. Independence does not mean that the Federal Reserve is without any accountability. Congress has the power to confirm appointments to the Federal Reserve and the President has the power to make nominations. The Federal Reserve must report to the US Congress on a regular basis and both the legislative branch and the Government Accountability Office have full authority to conduct oversight.

Whether, in practice, the central bank is fully independent of political influence is a matter of debate. Last year, President Trump had unsuccessfully floated a proposal to fire his appointed Federal Reserve Chairman, publicly instructed him to change monetary policy to no avail, and likened him to Chinese Dictator Xi Jinping. There is evidence from the research literature that President Nixon similarly pressured Federal Reserve Chair Arthur Burns. Notably, attempts by the executive branch to interfere with the Federal Reserve have prompted proposals intended to formalize central bank independence, like the “Taylor Rule”, to prevent “political business cycles”.

In 1977 Congress charged the Federal Reserve with a dual mandate to "promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long term interest rates". The Federal Reserve currently interprets this as a mandate to achieve 2 percent core PCE price inflation and reduce unemployment using open market operations to ensure systemic liquidity during financial crises. To be effective to those ends, the central bank requires a (1) high degree of technical understanding, (2) clear communication, (3) policy flexibility, (4) consensus-building, and (5) long-term strategic thinking. Even well-informed and effective legislators are rarely up to the task.

Federal Reserve policymakers have a degree of knowledge and understanding of monetary policy that elected officials lack. As you’ve probably noticed from the links provided, the Federal Reserve’s structure, operations, and policy tools are deeply complex. A large proportion of staff and governors have financial experience or a graduate education (often a Ph.D. in Economics) precisely because determining what monetary policy is appropriate necessitates an understanding of what policy tools exist, how they operate, and how they have performed both theoretically and empirically. If you search for congressional testimony by Federal Reserve members, you will unfortunately see that most elected officials of both parties are generally incapable of formulating even basic coherent questions about the central bank’s policy.

Beyond policy levers, consistent and clear communication is a critical tool for the central bank. The Federal Reserve’s regular statements, meetings, and minutes are crucial to providing certainty about the direction of monetary policy to businesses and the public. The exact wording of every statement is subjected to semantic analysis by a litany of market actors. Having a monetary authority capable of writing statements that can withstand severe and intensive scrutiny is generally inconsistent with partisan incentives to describe economic conditions in language intended to boost or harm incumbent party re-election prospects.

The Federal Reserve requires flexibility to rapidly change its policy in the event of a crisis. For example, theoretical “new consensus” macroeconomic models suggest that inflation expectations can be self-fulfilling. Absent a monetary authority capable of justifying current policy, while simultaneously reiterating its commitment to tighten the monetary system when needed, these shocks can rapidly develop. In the current economic crisis, the Federal Reserve was capable of reducing its central interest rates to near-zero and rapidly begin repo operations weeks before fiscal policymakers could reach an agreement.

Consensus-oriented policymaking is essential to the goals a central bank is charged with, and is radically different than the fractious and polarized environment in which legislation is crafted. Although there is a long history of dissent within the Federal Reserve regarding the direction of its policy at particular points in time, the environment in which the meetings take place and statements are drafted is *thoroughly* non-partisan. Members may differ in their expectations of future economic conditions and they certainly debate their diverging policy preferences, but are still capable of settling those disputes and making choices that enjoy broad-scale support. It is exceedingly rare to see anything even vaguely akin to the routine partisan squabbles and shutdowns that exist in the US Congress. Elected officials may be experienced in crafting public statements, but imagine requiring an entire legislative body to formulate on a regular basis one universal, non-partisan, non-ideological statement that sums up current policy and objectives with broad-scale agreement.

Monetary policy requires a degree of long-term strategic thinking rarely displayed in politicians seeking re-election. The effects of central bank policy often take months to materialize and have long-run consequences years down the line. As Presidents Nixon and Trump demonstrate, these goals are inconsistent with officials who have elections to win in the short-term, and therefore an incentive to veer wildly between loosening monetary policy in the run up to re-election and severely tightening it afterward to prevent asset bubbles from forming.

5 notes · View notes

perfectcomputerclasses4 · 4 years ago

Text

Top 10 Benefits Of Having A Digital Marketing Career - 2020

Though the idea of digital marketing in India is not a new one, its implementation and rapid growth fairly and comparatively rare. In contemporary times. It can transparently be seen that the mainstream of businesses is shifting from traditional to digital marketing day by day. To be precise, up until 2010, the traditional business models were dominating the field of Indian business arena and practices. One of the biggest reasons for this happening was the attitude of the entrepreneurs who simply did not want to leave that kind of traditional business media practices.

However, after 2010, a paradigm shift started to happen when these entrepreneurs started to understand and appreciate the stuff that digital media in the fields of business was offering.

Before starting to talk about the opportunities and perks that having a career in digital marketing presents, let's understand the scopes in India in contemporary times. The Indian government has started a program with the name inverted "Digital India" which created a lot of opportunities in the digital marketing branch in order to empower Indian society and economy digitally.

Benefits of having a Digital Marketing Job :1) Freedom :

Freedom is one of the biggest perks having a career in the digital marketing field. Any kind of freedom be it artistic or creative, it is one thing that can be guaranteed in this career as there is a lot of scope for reaching the goal. Depending on how the temper of your employees is, it may also be possible for you to continue your work from home.

It is pretty natural for people to want to use all the platforms in the Digital world in order to provide and sat updates. For example, the official Twitter handle of Mumbai Police is very very active and they provide details of each and every minute to the citizens by using those tweets. In order to make it much more attractive and interesting to be yours especially young ones sometimes the contents which are used are pretty creative. Therefore the freedom that is present in the careers of digital marketing is not just about the culture but also about the quality of work.

2) Demanding Future :

The scopes of digital marketing careers are on the rise constantly. One of the biggest reasons for that being possible is the versatile and flexible nature of the work which makes it so attractive to clients as well as marketers. People who are trying to enter the arena of digital marketing and associated careers have a lot of room to get into.

Those geeks who are savvy with technologies like SEM and SEO and are confident in their technical intellect are especially perfect for this career. Most of the businesses of the whole world are turning towards shifting their marketing techniques to the digital arena and looking at that, marketers can predict that the demand for digital marketing in the future will rise and get doubled up.

3) Scope :

One of the most important things about this career is that it is always engaging and ever-changing. That's what attracts most of the people to work in this field as there is always something to learn. The other thing is the adrenaline rush of getting to do adventures with new clients everyday especially if you are working with an agency.

if you don't want to work under a boss per se, a lot of freelancing options are there too. Portals like Indeed, Freelancer, Upwork, Naukari have freelancing opportunities that they can provide you as a freelancer.

4) Financially Good :

Marketing is one of the key tools for business. Because most marketing today is done in the digital field, the salary of digital marketers is on the rise. It has been calculated that a decent digital marketer on the time of demand can earn $400,000 in a year. One other big plus point is that the rays that you want to get exist at regular intervals. The better you are at your job and the more you are able to upgrade your skills, the higher the chances are to get big fat checks at the end of the day. Those who don't have much experience to start with can also earn around $300000 to $1,300,000 per year.

5) Not a Hectic Job :

Digital marketing is not a job like sales. Unlike traditional marketing where you had to go in order to promote and sell your services here, you can reach your potential target audiences through the web.

Not just manufactured products but also services sectors like restaurants and hotels are also taking the help of online platforms in order to promote their services. Because of the revolution in the technological field, it has been possible for people to promote and market their products and services from one place not roaming around

6) Easy to get into :

High qualifications and technical training to get into this field of career are not very important. There is no defined specific qualification that is required to be a digital marketer. If you are thinking about getting into this field and you worry that you don't have any specific qualifications then the good news for you is that you only need to be serious, creative and must have good communication skills, that's it.

Though it is better to have basic knowledge in the marketing field which you can get from digital marketing courses which are available today everywhere.

7) Discovering professionalism :

As the field that we're talking about is booming with the growing development in the technological sector a lot of opportunities are opening up. Associating oneself with these opportunities can provide a hard-hitting experience with professionalism which one can enjoy thoroughly. The diverse nature of this field can introduce a person to various sides and various ways of the world which eventually can lead to being a better professional.

8) Wide Range of jobs opportunities :

The digital marketing field is not restricted to only one kind of job structure or portfolio.

If you get into this field you will be exposed to jobs like :

Content marketing managerDigital brand managerContent writerDirector of digital marketingInternet marketing specialistInternet marketing directorContent brand managerSocial media marketing managerSocial media marketing analystSEO manager

9) Opportunity to show creativity :

If you are creative and actually in love with expressing your thoughts in an attractive way then this is true "The field" for you. Digital marketing provides various opportunities to showcase your creative skills as part of your portfolio.

10) Get Involved with a change :

Evolution is happening in the field of marketing. If you get involved with digital marketing jobs you will be a part of this revolution. The confinements of traditional media opened its doors to digital media. After that happened, automatically the various kinds of prospects that were intermingled with the digital media started to go up.

Getting associated with the digital marketing field especially in a booming time like this has no cons. If you are truly creative and passionate about your work then this is the appropriate job title for you. Increasing popularity simultaneously generated the rise of career opportunities which eventually in the digital marketing form led to the foundation of various kinds of institutes exclusively to teach and research digital marketing.

digital marketing course in jaipur

advance java in jaipur

asp net mvc training in jaipur

asp net programming in jaipur

business component development course in jaipur

c programming course in jaipur

c course in jaipur

data structure training course in jaipur

hibernate framework course in jaipur

java script training course in jaipur

java web component developer in jaipur

spring framework training course in jaipur

sql certification training course in jaipur

struts framework course in jaipur

vb net programming in jaipur

visual basic training course in jaipur

advanced diploma in computer science programming adcs adcp in jaipur

certified ethical hacking training course in jaipur

cloud salesforce certification training course in jaipur

oracle certification training in jaipur

rkcl rscit course in jaipur

unity game development course in jaipur

basic excel course in jaipur

summer training 2020 in jaipur

excel vba training course in jaipur

microsoft excel advanced course in jaipur

ms access training courses in jaipur

ms office course in jaipur

ms project training course in jaipur

3d animation using blender course in jaipur

adobe flash animation training course in jaipur

adobe illustrator training course in jaipur

adobe indesign training course in jaipur

coreldraw training course in jaipur

dtp graphic design courses in jaipur

graphic designing diploma course in jaipur

maya animation training course in jaipur

photoshop training course in jaipur

ajax training course in jaipur

css training course in jaipur

html training course in jaipur

javascript training course in jaipur

web designing course in jaipur

angularjs training course in jaipur

cakephp training course in jaipur

mongodb training course in jaipur

node js training course in jaipur

php training course in jaipur

wordpress training course in jaipur

interview skills training in jaipur

personality development course in jaipur

spoken english course in jaipur

ai artificial intelligence training course in jaipur

big data hadoop certification training course in jaipur

iot internet of things training course in jaipur

machine learning course in jaipur

python class certification training in jaipur

r language programming course in jaipur

android app course in jaipur

ios development course in jaipur

cisco ccna certification course training in jaipur

cisco ccnp course in jaipur

aws cloud computing course in jaipur

cloud computing certification training in jaipur

cloud salesforce certification training course 2 in jaipur

mcse windows server microsoft certification in jaipur

red hat certified system administrator in jaipur

rhce red hat certification in jaipur

dst diploma in software testing in jaipur

hp loadrunner performance testing course in jaipur

hp qtp uft course in jaipur

hp software testing certification training class in jaipur

istqb certification exam course in jaipur

jmeter performance testing in jaipur

selenium certification training course in jaipur

arduino training course in jaipur

embedded systems training course in jaipur

pcb circuit designing course in jaipur

raspberry pi training course in jaipur

robotics and embedded systems course in jaipur

robotics training class in jaipur

vlsi training course internship in jaipur

matlab training course in jaipur

plc scada training course in jaipur

solar energy training course in jaipur

3d studio max training 2 in jaipur

advanced diploma in interior designing in jaipur

diploma course in interior designing in jaipur

interior design course training in jaipur

ansys training course in jaipur

autocad for mechanical training in jaipur

catia training in jaipur

cnc programming training in jaipur

creo pro e training course in jaipur

hvac training course in jaipur

nx cad training course in jaipur

primavera training course in jaipur

solidworks training course in jaipur

advanced diploma course in jewellery designing in jaipur

diploma in jewellery design courses in jaipur

jewellery designing training courses in jaipur

rhino 3d training course in jaipur

autocad for civil training in jaipur

civil 3d training course in jaipur

ms project training courses in jaipur

mxroad training course in jaipur

staad pro training course in jaipur

3d studio max training in jaipur

autocad training course in jaipur

google sketchup training in jaipur

revit architecture training course in jaipur

a hardware course in jaipur

n networking courses training in jaipur

tally financial accounting course in jaipur

advanced diploma in commercial accountant in jaipur

diploma in banking and finance in jaipur

gst goods and service tax course in jaipur

mis training course diploma in jaipur

sap fico certification course in jaipur

sap mm training course in jaipur

winter internship training for b tech mca in jaipur

acc certification training course in jaipur

ccc training course in jaipur

computer teacher training course cttc in jaipur

dca diploma in computer application in jaipur

doap diploma in office automation publishing in jaipur

doeacc nielit o level course in jaipur

pgdca course in jaipur

adobe certified associate exam in jaipur

apple certification in jaipur

autodesk certified testing center in jaipur

google certification in jaipur

mos microsoft certification exams in jaipur

rkcl authorized center govt computer institute in jaipur

tally certification in jaipur

microsoft office training course in jaipur

robotics classes for kids in jaipur

#web development #web designing course #digital marketing course #python course #online courses

1 note · View note

traveltofrance · 5 years ago

Text

Travel to France

Before you go to France, use this comprehensive online France travel guide to find out all the basics about customs requirements, the culture, weather, currency and more. Also, get tips on when to go and where to go in France.

About France Travel

France is a diverse and rich nation, filled with destinations to suit every taste. The French, while often stereotyped as rude or snobbish, is actually a proud but friendly people. The key is to understand cultural differences. The food in France is among the finest in the world, and it is the largest wine-producing nation in the world.

The French value cuisine, arts, culture, and history. Each region has its own flair and uniqueness. You are about to embark on an enticing adventure, but there are certain details and rules you should know before you go.

How To Get In

All foreign visitors must have a passport. (If you don't have a current passport, start this process as early as possible. Glitches, like a missing birth certificate, can drag this out.) Americans planning to visit for 90 days or longer, or those who plan to study in France, must get a long-stay visa.

Where To Go

Think of France, and most people automatically think of Paris. But there is much more to this country, whether it be the robust stews and beer of the Alsace or the laid-back attitude and sunny beaches of the Riviera and Monaco. There are many other underrated but wonderful cities, as well as unique spa resorts and villages and lovely beaches all around the coastline from the north to the border with Italy.

France is divided into regions, and I would recommend you read up about the distinct personalities of each before deciding on a destination.

Getting There

Most major U.S. airports fly to Paris, some going non-stop, and Roissy-Charles de Gaulle in Paris is the most popular airport in France. Some airlines also fly into other major French cities, such as Lyon and Strasbourg. It takes around 7 hours to get to France from the East Coast.

Getting Around In France

There are many economical and handy ways to get around France. You need to examine where you will be going and how flexible you are.

If you plan to visit villages not accessible by train, a rental car is ideal. The French drive on the same side of the road as Americans, but there are some differences. While traffic lights are commonplace in the States, many intersections in France are traffic circles instead. These are actually much more efficient but might take getting used to. Also, it becomes far more crucial to have good maps if you will rent a car. (Try asking for directions in a foreign language. Not pretty.) Check out the advantages of long term Renault Eurodrive Buy Back Car Leasing.

If you are visiting cities with train stations, rail is convenient and can be inexpensive. The key is to determine whether you will just buy point-to-point tickets (preferable if you will be taking few trips or short trips), European rail passes (if you plan to go country to country) or a France Rail Pass (if you will travel often and long distances, all on one country).

If you plan to visit French cities that are far apart (say Strasbourg and Carcassonne), you might want to check into flying within the country. It's relatively cheap and can save you hours of train travel.

Train Travel

In addition, many cities also have their own transportation system (such as Paris' metro). Even many smaller villages have a bus system. France's transportation system is much more extensive than that of the U.S. Check with the city or region's tourism office.

Next: When to go, Cultural differences, Official holidays and French language

When To Go

Deciding when to go depends on both your temperament and that of France. Climates and the popularity of a region depend heavily on the time of year and vary dramatically from one region to the next.

The North of France is at its busiest in late spring and early summer. The weather is best, but the attractions are packed and the prices are the highest. Also, you might want to avoid the North in August, when most of the natives are on vacation in the South. If swarms of tourists aren't your thing, fall is a wonderful time to visit the north. While you are sure to have a few overcast, windy, rainy days to contend with, things are still very happening this time of year. Winter can be blustery, but there are keen benefits then as well, such as ice skating in Paris or Christmas Markets in Alsace. See Christmas In France.

The South of France is attractive almost any time of year. But remember that it is jammed in August. In May, the Cannes Film Festival packs that city and those nearby, visit city of Nice or the Monaco city-state. Even in fall, sometimes you can dip your toes in the Mediterranean. Don't be fooled, though. Provencal winters can be unexpectedly chilly. Find out more with the France Travel Monthly Calendar.

What Time/Day Is It?

France is one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, and five hours ahead of New York City. The country does honor daylight savings time, so during that time, it is one more hour ahead, or six hours later than in New York. The French also celebrate several holidays, and visiting during this time can result in some good things (festivals abound and many museums and restaurants remain open) and bad things (most businesses and shops are closed). These are the holidays in 2017:

January 1 - New Year's Day

April 16/17 - Easter Sunday/Monday - Pâques

May 1 - Labor Day - Fête du Travail

May 8 - Victory in Europe Day 1945 - Fête de la Victoire 1945 (marks the end of WWII)

May 25 - Ascension

June 4/June 5 - Whit Sunday/Pentecôte

July 14 - Bastille Day - Fête Nationale

August 15 - Assumption Day - Assomption

November 1 - All Saints Day - La Toussaint

November 11 - Armistice Day (End of WWI) - Le 11 Novembre

December 25 - Christmas Day - Noël

How To Communicate

If at all possible, it is very helpful to at least learn a few basic phrases, especially ones you will use often (such as transportation and menu terms, etc.). Although the French are taught English in grade school, some do not know much English (what do YOU recall from high school Spanish, after all?). They also are more likely to reveal their ability to speak English if you at least make an attempt to speak their language first.

How To Blend In

Many times, people presume the French are being rude when it's actually just due to cultural differences. The French, for instance, always greet each other before speaking. So if you run-up to a French person looking for directions by saying, "How do you get to the Eiffel Tower?" you have just been rude by French standards. Acquaint yourself with French Culture.

Next: Euros; What to Pack; How to plug it in; Calling home and Extra Tips and information

How Much Is That?

In France, the euro is the local currency. This involves a little less math than the previous franc (although I still miss the colorful franc with interesting themes such as "La Petite Prince"). When the euro is more valuable than the dollar, just round up a little (such as, you spend 8 euros and estimate $10 in your head just to be conservative).

Even those who know a little French language may have trouble understanding shop keepers who recite prices. When you ask "Combien?" (How much?), keep a small pad handy so shop keepers can write the amount down.

What To Pack

What to pack for your French trip depends heavily on which region you will visit, where you will stay and how mobile you will need to be while visiting.

If you will be traveling all over the country, hopping the train from one destination to another, pack light. A rolling backpack is great for this, by allowing you to choose between rolling it along or popping it onto your back. If you will, say, fly into Paris and stay in one luxury hotel the entire time, you can be more flexible and pack heavier.

Don't presume you can just find it in France if you need it, however. Good English-language maps or guide books can be tough to find, and it is challenging even in a big city to get an adaptor plug designed to convert an American appliance into the French plugs. (Think about it. They have plenty that allows French appliances to be plugged in while in America because most of the shoppers IN France need that). To be sure you don't have packing regrets, check out this list of the Free France Travel Packing Checklist or these tips for packing light.

How To Plug It In

If you want to use American appliances in France, you will need an adaptor and a converter. The adaptor allows you to plug it into the wall, while a converter changes the electrical current to the French standard. For example, if you have a hairdryer that allows you to change the electrical current, you would only need the adaptor. What some visitors fail to realize is that phone plugs also need adaptors, and without them, you will not be able to connect your laptop. Be sure you also get a telephone adaptor if you plan to take a laptop.

How To Call & E-mail Home

Placing a call home from France involves certain knowledge, but once you get the hang of it, it is surprisingly affordable and relatively easy. But first, you must know the basics. For one thing, most French payphones do not take change, but instead, use "telecasts." These can be purchased at many spots, such as tobacco and convenience stores, for a few euros. You slide the card into the slot on the phone, wait for the prompt on the display, and then enter the phone number (starting with the country code, such as "1" for the U.S.). The display will show how many units you have remaining. Calling on off-hours will eat far fewer units. You can take advantage of time differences by, for instance, calling later in the night when it is late afternoon or early evening in the States.

How To Get Stuff Home

Dreaming of lugging cases of delectable French wine home with you? Think again, unless you want to pay. The U.S. government offers the following restrictions:

Most visitors are allowed to bring back $800 of French goodies without paying duty.

The duty includes up to 200 cigarettes and 100 cigars.

One liter of alcohol is also included in duty-free.

4 notes · View notes

you-a-southpaw-doll · 6 years ago

Text

Graduation ~ A Negan!AU One-Shot

Summary: It’s graduation day for Negan...but the one person, Leigh, that he wants to be there. Or is she? He thinks she’s overseas, serving in the United States Navy, but little does he know, she has a surprise for him for graduation.

Warning(s): Fluff. Language. Angst. Explicit Smut - masturbation - male, oral - female receiving.

Word Count: 8,014.

Author’s Note(s): This is set from Negan’s point-of-view. It is also for the Reader too, but the Reader’s name in this story is Leigh. @mychemicalimagines and I tag-teamed this story over Christmas break.

Relationship(s): Negan x Leigh [Reader] (boyfriend/girlfriend)

Characters: Negan. Leigh (OFC). Reader.

Taglist: @negans-network @thamberlina @prettyboynegan @mychemicalimagines

Story Time:

Negan’s Point of View

“Class dismissed! It’s great to say that for the last time.” My college professor says, closing his book. “Have a great Graduation tomorrow!”

He’s still talking, but I ignore him as I jump out of my seat, and run out of the classroom. Today is Thursday which means I get to see you, my beautiful fuckin’ girl, Leigh. We’ve been dating for almost nine years. We met for the first time way back in fuckin’ sixth grade, and by time eighth grade came ‘round, I knew I was in love with you.

I finally got the fuckin’ courage to ask you out. When you said yes, I knew I was a fuckin’ goner. After high school. You encouraged me to go to college, and I did, on a baseball scholarship. You decided to join the United States Navy since you’d always dreamt ‘bout being a Navy SEAL, since you were five years old.

I encouraged you, kept you motivated throughout your basic training, and now, here we are. Nearly nine years of being together. You coming up for re-enlistment, and me ‘bout to graduate fuckin’ college with two degrees - one in history and another in business.

You've been deployed in another country overseas for the last seven months so I haven’t seen you in a hot minute. It fuckin’ hurts that I can’t see you every day. We used to see each other every damn day in middle school and high school, but since then it’s been a wee bit hard to see one another every day.

That’s why I love our one day a week where I can talk to you for a few hours. I’m pushing through all the other classmates, trying to get to my dorm so I can answer your first video message. If you miss the first call then there’s a chance you might not be able to call again.

I had to miss last week’s call because of the stupid, fuckin’ finals we had in the class beforehand. I make it to my dorm room and I push open the door. The door flings open so hard that it hits the wall. I slam it behind me. I run over to my laptop and start it up.

My legs start bouncing, waiting for the screen to start loading. When I finally get the laptop up and running, I quickly log in to Skype. I see the little green dot next to your military account. I notice that you didn’t call yet so I didn’t fuckin’ miss it.

Thank god!

Suddenly, my computer starts to ding and your military photo pops up. I quickly fix my appearance and push accept on the computer. Your beautiful face appears on the screen. You have the biggest smile on.

“Hey, doll.” I say, smiling at you.

“Hey, sweetie. I missed you so much.” You say, as your eyes start filling up with tears.

“I missed you so fuckin’ much too, baby.” My smile never falters.

“Today was your last day right? Graduation is next week?” You ask me, wiping the few tears.

“No, they fuckin’ changed it to tomorrow.” I answer, putting my head down a little.

“What?!? I got my leave approved for next week!” You say, as your eyes widen.

“I know, sweetheart.”

“So I can’t even see you graduate!” You say, putting your hand in your hair.

Your hair’s finally down. The only time you’re allowed to put your hair down is off hours but usually, you keep it up in the tight bun that the military requires. I love when your hair’s down and free. It’s always so soft.

“Don’t fuckin’ worry about it, doll, we can celebrate when you get home,” I smile through the computer at you.

You frown, “But, Negan-“

“No buts, Le. I’ll be fuckin’ fine as long as I get to see your sexy ass next week” I smirk at you. “I’m a big boy.”

“Yes. Yes you are,” You smirk right back.

We talk for another half hour until you have to get off. This is always my least favorite part. I fuckin’ hate saying goodbye.

“I’ll see you next week, doll. You’ll finally be able to see the house I got us.” I say, smiling, thinking about the house we saved up for three years to pay for.

You gave me specific things you wanted in a house and I wrote them down. I went to 4 houses before I found one that had everything you wanted in it. I can already tell this house will be one we stay in until we're old and grey. The beautiful house has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a huge space you can use as a studio for your photography.

I know how badly you want a space that you can use for your photos. In that studio, there’re some wooden shelves for books so we can also use it as alibrary, since we’re both always fuckin’ reading. I even made sure that in that room, there is the window seat you’ve been begging me to find.

It looks out over a huge bay window at this fuckin’ amazing view of the lake behind the house that has a willow tree resting at the top of a small hill. I can just picture the two of us out there, cuddling and reading under that tree. Or, us chasing little kids ‘round.

This was the kinda house I’d always dreamed ‘bout having one day, and I know you do too.

“I’m not gonna tell you much ‘bout the house, babe, but I will tell you ‘bout this amazin’ fuckin’ view. Outta this huge window, you can see the lake. It’s so fuckin’ pretty - not as beautiful as you, but still pretty. It even has a willow tree where we can sit under and cuddle.” As I tell you this, your eyes light up.

The smile on your face just makes my heart swell. I love seeing your beautiful fuckin’ smile, and I’d do anything and every-fuckin’-thing I could to make sure that you always smile at least three times a day. I wish you could have seen the house before I put down the down payment on it.

But, I know you’d love it. It’s what you’ve always wanted in a house. It really is fuckin’ perfect for us. After a few seconds of thinking ‘bout the house, I notice your smile gets smaller and smaller until it actually drops. My heart suddenly cracks at the sight of you frowning.

I have always, and will always, hated the sight of you being even the littlest bit sad.

“What’s wrong, baby?” I ask, looking confused into the laptop camera.

“I’ve gotta go...” You whisper back to me.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. As I’ve said you’ll be back here in a fuckin’ week, and I’ve already got a huge plan waitin’ here for you,” I say, winking at you.

“Bye, babe. Don’t forget what airport I’ll be at.” You say, smiling brightly at me, thinking about my plan.

“I would never forget that, babygirl. See you later,” I kiss the tips of my fingers and put them toward the camera on my laptop.

You wink and kiss your fingers doing the same thing. When the screen goes black I stare at my reflection, my smile fading quickly. I now have to wait another week before I get to see your face, but at least this time it will be in person. I hesitate, but finally close my laptop.

I lean back in my seat, bringing my hands up to cover my face. Letting out a deep sigh, I run my hand over my slight five o’clock shadow. I can’t believe I’m fuckin’ graduating tomorrow. I was planning on it being next week, which is what you were planning on too.

But, the college had to go and fuck everything up by moving the graduation date up a week earlier. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to finally get the hell outta here and get a start on my future. The future I see with you. But, at the same time, since the date’s been moved, it means you won’t be there at my graduation.

And, we were both looking forward to you being there. You’ve told me, countless times, how proud of me you are. For sticking with the whole fuckin’ schooling thing, and whatnot. But...since you won’t able to be there tomorrow, I ain’t got no one else who will be.

I ain’t got any family left.

Ma died when I was ten years old, from a drug overdose. Since my old man was never ‘round, and I had no other kin, I was put into the United States government’s care. I bounced ‘round from foster home to foster home until I finally aged out of the system.

I was a hellyun, growing up.

Until I met you.

You changed that ‘bout me. Made me see the good in life. Made me realize that maybe there was something to this whole living thing. That’s why last month I began to think about making you mine, officially. I was at the mall and passed by this really fuckin’ expensive ring store.

I just went inside to look around, get some kind of idea of a present to give you when you came home. Passing by this counter something caught my eye. After taking a look inside at the rings, I found this beautiful fuckin’ engagement ring, the diamond was huge.

It wasn’t flashy and gaudy like other rings in this store. It was just the right size for you. It was simple, yet stunning, perfect for a simple, but oh-so-fuckin’ beautiful girl. I could already picture this ring being on your small finger. I checked the price, and holy-fuckin’-shit was it super expensive, but it will be worth it, seeing the smile on your face.

I take another look at my closed laptop and sigh. The next week will kill me but I can do it. I stand up out of my computer chair and take a look around my room. It’s pretty much already packed up except for my computer stuff and some of my clothes.

My graduation gown and cap is hanging up on the backside of my door, with my Phi Theta Kappa cords hanging with them. I grab my last pair of pajama bottoms and walk toward the bathroom connected to my dorm room. I put my clothes down on the sink and turn the water on in the shower.

After testing for the right temperature, I quickly undress. I step into the shower and put my head under the water. The hot water feels amazing against my cold skin. I lean my head against the wall, just letting the water fall all around me. Tomorrow is going to be the best and worst day ever.

Best because I’m finally getting out of this fuckin’ hell hole, but worst because I don’t have you, my personal fuckin’ cheerleader, cheering me on as I get the diploma put into my hand. After letting the water fall around me for a few minutes, I finally bring my head up off the wall and grab a wash rag and my body wash.

I wash the more important parts of my body and grab my shampoo/conditioner combo and wash my hair. It’s getting too long for my liking but you always say you love when my hair gets longer. I rinse my hair and decide I’ve spent too much time in here.

I turn off the water and grab the towel I have hanging on the wall beside the shower. I wrap it around my waist and step out, looking into the mirror. I rub my stubbly chin, turning my head side to side. You’ve said before you love when I grow out my beard, but should I shave for graduation?

Fuck it. I’m leaving it to grow for when you come next week. I quickly dry off and put on my pjs, hanging up the towel again. I leave the bathroom, turning both the bathroom and bedroom lights off. I grab my phone from my side table as I just flop onto my bed.

I push the power button on the phone, a picture from Halloween last year popping up on my screen. Wanting to feel like kids again, you made me dress up as a fuckin’ vampire, while you were a witch. We have huge fuckin’ smiles on our faces as your mother took the photo.

I remember when she took that photo. I’d just put the vampire teeth in after they fell out for the hundredth time, when she said ‘Smile!’. We both looked up and saw her camera and couldn’t help but laugh. When we first started dating, you made me meet your parents since we were really young and couldn’t do much alone yet.

From that day on, they’ve treated me like one of the family. Always making sure I had something to eat before I went home. Got me Christmas presents our first Christmas together. Even let me sleep over a couple of times when it got super cold out. In separate rooms, of course.

I unlock my phone and go straight to my photo app. Before you left, you made an album of just pictures of us. Scrolling through I find a photo from our 7th anniversary. We went to the beach for the weekend and you wanted to go straight to the water as soon as we got there.

I didn’t mind. I just wanted to see the smile on your face. When we got to the beach, you ran straight to the water. Standing at the edge, you stared toward the never-ending water toward the setting sun. Water washing over your ankles, you glanced over your shoulder at me.

That just so happened to be the exact moment I decided to take the photo. It was breathtaking then, just as it is at this exact moment I’m lookin’ at it now. I keep scrolling through the photos, laughing at all the dumb ones you’ve taken over the years.

Smirking at all the sexy photos I’ve taken behind your back, but there is one photo that really caught my eye. Toward the end of the album, there’s a photo I have never seen before. It looks like it was taken the day you left for deployment.

I can see the airport in the background so that could have been the only day it was taken. I’m standing in front of you while you’re wearing your uniform, and since I’m so much taller than you, I’m looking right down at you. Your hair is up in its bun and my hands are on your cheeks.

I can tell I’m wiping away the tears that wouldn’t stop falling that day. We’re looking directly into each others eyes. From the angle of the photo, I can see the love that was in your eyes that day. I remember whispering ‘I love you. I fuckin’ promise I’ll be right here waiting for you.

Nothing will fuckin’ stop me.’ I leaned down and softly kissed your lips. I never wanted to let you go but I knew that day I had to. I wrapped my arms around you and held you to my chest as your plane was called over the intercom. You looked up at me and whispered, ‘I’ll see you soon.’

You said that every time and it was never soon enough. I kissed you again and you had to walk away from me. I watched you go and I never left that spot until you were fully out of my sight. That’s when I walked out. I sigh to myself. Your mom must have taken that photo because I found my phone in my car after I dropped her off.

I look through the album once more before my eyes get too heavy for me to keep open. I stare at that photo once more as I fall into a deep sleep.

I wake up to the double vibration of my phone letting me know that I have a text message. With my eyes still shut, I reach ‘round for my phone. The moment my fingers curl ‘round the edges of the small device, I pull it towards me. I roll over onto my left side and crack one eye open.

The notification that I see first makes my heart beat ten times faster, and I quickly rub the sleep outta my eyes. I sit up on the small, twin-sized, college issued mattress and prop myself up against the wall. Letting my finger hover over the notification for a moment, I finally swipe to the right to open it.

It pauses for a moment, and I press my thumb against the home button, so that it can recognize my thumbprint and unlock my phone. The moment it does, the app opens, and I can’t help but smile when I see the message.

“Good mornin’, honey. I can’t talk long, but I just wanted to say that I’m super proud of you. Today’s gonna be great. Even though I’m not able to be there, I’m still there with you, babe. I’m always with you. I can’t wait to see you next week. Then! You can show me your degrees! Both of ‘em! Alright. I’ve got to go now. I love you, Negan. See you soon, honey.”

A tear or two falls down my face and catches in the scruff lining my chin. I reread your message to me. I had downloaded the Skype app on my phone during your last deployment. I realized that sometimes you’d be able to send me a text, and I didn’t want to miss it, in case I didn’t have my laptop on me, so I downloaded the app.

Seeing that you’re still active on Skype, I quickly type out a quick text to you.

“I love you too, sweetheart. I can’t wait to fuckin’ see you. Please be careful and come home to me, safe and sound. I know you’re always with me. But, just know that as soon as I fuckin’ see you again, I’m pullin’ you into my arms and not lettin’ you fuckin’ go for a long time.”

My heart swells as I see the three little dots bounce on your side to show that you’re typing something. I wasn’t expecting you to reply to me.

“I’ll be counting on it, Negan. ;) And, I’ll always come home to you. Now, go get ready for graduation. And, send me a photo of you all dressed up in your cap and gown, yeah? I wanna see.”

I chuckle. “Yes, ma’am!”

I send a kissy face emoji to you before I hop outta bed. I strip down to nothing, as I walk over to my duffle bag that has a few clothes in it, since everything else is already packed up. I grab a clean pair of boxers, put ‘em on, and then walk over to where I have my outfit hanging up for today.

Before I get dressed through, I decide to go ahead and brush my teeth. While I’m doing that, I hear my phone start chiming with the signature Skype ringtone. I rush outta the bathroom, toothbrush still in my mouth, and paste on my lips. I scoop my phone up, and swipe the notification to the right, to open it, without really reading it.

A moment later, your face appears on my phone. My mouth drops, making my toothbrush wobble, which has you giggling. I hurry back into the bathroom to spit out the toothpaste in my mouth. I glance at my phone. You have your camera close to your face so I can’t see your background, but that’s ok.

“Baby?” I ask, quietly. “What are you doin’? I thought you had to go?”

You tilt your head to the side in a mini shrug. “I managed to snag a few minutes away from everythin’, and I really wanted to see you today.”

I smile. “Well, I’m glad you called. Although, I’m getting dressed. You mind fuckin’ watchin’ and talkin’ to me while I get ready?”

You giggle. “I don’t mind one bit. What do you have on already?”

I pull the phone away from the area of my face and tilt it down so you can see what I have on, which is just a pair of boxers.

“Damn. I’m really glad I called.” I hear you say.

I chuckle. “Me fuckin’ too, sweetheart.”

I place the phone on the bathroom counter, propping it up so that I can still see you and you can see me while I get dressed. I go to pick my toothbrush up to finish brushing my teeth when I hear you say something.

“Either you just woke up, and that’s just your mornin’ wood, honey. Or, you really are excited that I called.”

I laugh and glance at you. “I did just wake up, and that is my mornin’ wood. But, trust me, I’m really fuckin’ excited that you called.”

You blush. “You gonna be that excited when I see you?”

I nod. “Hell, I’ll probably be more excited and bust a nut. You know how to get me worked up. Speaking of which, I gotta fuckin’ take care of this, doll.”

“Can I watch?”

I take a deep breath in. “Well, shit, sweetheart. I ain’t one to deny you. You know that. You really wanna watch?”

You nod, biting your bottom lip in that way you know gets me all hot and fuckin’ bothered. I drop my toothbrush on the counter, and settle down on the edge of the tub. I got lucky, being an RA for my dorm, that I got hooked up with a good room that had an attached bathroom with a tub.

I get my phone propped up on the toilet seat and tug my boxers down to my ankles. I keep my eyes on you as I curl my fingers ‘round myself. With you watching, and me thinking ‘bout all the things we’re gonna do when you get back, I jerk myself off.

You can tell I’m getting close, ‘cause you make a little sound low in your throat that has me tugging harder.

“Cum, babe. Cum for me.” You whisper.

At your words, I do exactly as you ask. I shoot my load all over the bathroom floor, letting out a deep groan in the process. My body shakes as my orgasm tears through me. I have to grip the edge of the tub tightly so that I don’t fall. When my orgasm finally subsides, I glance at you, still on my phone, with my eyes drooping.

“Damn. I’ve missed seeing that.” You murmur. “That was hot as shit.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, well. You’re hot as shit.”

You blush. “You gonna do that again for me in person?”

I nod. “Mmhhmm. If you want.”

“Hell yes.”

I chuckle. “Alright. Let me clean up the mess you made me make real quick.”

You laugh. “Ok.”

I clean up the remnants of my orgasm. Once that’s done, I pull my boxers back up to my hips. I finish brushing my teeth and then grab my outfit for today. You stay on the phone with me as I get dressed. I put on a pair of nice blue jeans, and a black button up shirt.

I roll the sleeves up to my elbows. I roll ‘em in the same way you have to roll your sleeves for your military uniform. After you taught me the way to do that, I liked it, so I started rolling my sleeves in that same manner. Once the shirt’s buttoned, I tuck it into my pants.

I button those, zip ‘em up, and tighten my belt ‘round my waist. I loop my dark, heather grey tie, the one you got me a couple years ago, ‘round my neck and tie it properly. I fix the collar of my shirt before reaching for the light grey vest and putting it on.

After it’s buttoned, I fix my hair. Normally, I’d go with bed head, but I’ve got you watching me at the moment, and it is graduation, so I wanna look kinda good. I run my fingers through my hair, making it look a little messy, but it’s a neat messy.

I grab my chapstick and apply some to my lips. They’ve been really chapped here lately, and I don’t want ‘em to be all cracked and whatnot when I can finally kiss you again.

“Damn, honey. You sure do clean up nice!” You say.

I chuckle. “Thanks, sweetheart. I’m probably gonna wait and put my cap and gown on till I get over to the auditorium.”

“Oh. Well...you think you could put it on for me real quick? Just so I can see?”

I smile. “Anythin’ for you, doll. Any-fuckin’-thin’ for you.”

I do as you want, and once I’ve got the cap and gown on, you smile.

“There’s my man.” You say.

I pick the phone up, blushing slightly, and hold it so that you can see my face.

“Negan, I really am fuckin’ proud of you.” You say, your voice full of pride and love. “And, I know you said you didn’t want any gifts or anything for graduating, but I’ve got somethin’ for you. You’ll get it later. After the ceremony. Ok?”

“Yes, ma’am. But, all I want is you.” I mumble.

“I know, honey. And, you’ll have me soon ‘nough. I promise.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

You give me a small smile. “I’ve got to go now, ok? But, you go out there, and you show ‘em who’s fuckin’ boss. Alright? Do that for me, yeah?”

I nod. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I love you, Negan Alexander Morgan.”

I blush at your use of my full name. “And I love you too, sweetheart. So fuckin’ much.”

You blow me a kiss and I repeat your actions. We say our goodbyes and I lock my phone, setting it on the counter. I place both my palms against the smooth surface, and try hard not to let the tears fall. I gotta be strong. I’ll be seeing you soon.

I just gotta make it a few more days.

“Negan Alexander Morgan. Bachelor of Arts in Business. Bachelor of Arts in History. Magna Cum Laude. Phi Thetta Kappa.”

As soon as the Dean of the college calls my name, I take a few steps across the stage towards him. Just as I thought, only a few people started clapping for me. Since no one was here to watch me graduate, no one was obligated to clap. The stupid fuckin’ college just had to change the graduation date.

He hands me my diplomas; I grab it using my left hand like I was taught at our graduation meeting last week. I put my right hand out for the handshake I have to do with the Dean but he doesn’t grab my hand. I give him a confused look when his right hand goes up and points in a different direction than he did for everyone in front of me.

I look over in that direction to see something I never thought was possible. In the back of the stadium, I see a familiar Dark Blue color standing out from the rest of the students, who are wearing black and orange. I take a quick glance at the Dean.

He’s smiling at me and nods toward the direction he pointed at. I slowly walk off the stage and towards that direction. Along with the dark blue Cracker Jacks, I see long beautiful brown hair that I would recognize anywhere.

“Le?” I whisper to myself trying to get a closer look at the figure.

The figure starts walking toward me and I knew in that moment, my love has come home.

“Leigh!” I yell, running in your direction.

We meet halfway down the aisle and I drop my diplomas, wrapping my arms around your waist lifting you in the air. In the background, I can hear everyone clapping but that is the last thing on my mind. I push my face into your neck as I feel a few tears escaping my eyes.

I feel your arms go around my neck, knocking my cap off my head so it hits the ground with a tiny thud. Your legs wrap around my waist and I use one of my hands to steady you, putting it under your ass. I feel my neck get a little wet. Probably from the tears coming from your eyes, like they’re still coming from mine.

“I missed you so fuckin’ much,” I whisper into your neck, using my other hand to put in your hair.

Your cover falls off as well and I run my fingers through your hair. You pull your head up from my neck and press your lips against mine in a hard kiss.

“Leigh Marie Summers, Chief Petty Officer for the United States Navy, surprising Mr. Negan Morgan after seven months overseas,” The Dean says into his microphone.

I gently put your feet onto the ground and pull you even closer than you were before, if that is even possible. I pull away from the kiss and look deeply into your eyes.

“Surprise,” You whisper, smiling widely.

“You already knew,” I whisper smirking down at you.

“Of course I did, I had a little help.” You say looking over my shoulder at the Dean.

I turn my head and glance at him. He’s just grinning from ear to ear. He nods his head at us, and I can’t help but smile. He helped bring you home to me, and on today of all days. I look back at you.

“When’d you get in?” I ask.

You smirk. “Last night.”

“Last night?! And you didn’t fuckin’ come see me?”

You giggle. “Nope. I wanted to surprise you. I promised you that I’d be here to see you walk across the stage. The Dean called me two days ago and told me that the date had been changed, and offered to help me in anyway he could to make sure I made it here to see you graduate.”

“You certainly surprised me.” I grin, as another thought crosses my mind. “Wait. That’s why you fuckin’ called me this morning, isn’t it? You were already stateside?”

You blush. “Mmhhmm.”

“Well, then, where the hell were you when I gave you that special fuckin’ show?”

You giggle. “I was in our bedroom in our apartment.”

I smile. “That’s why you kept the phone close to your face. You knew I’d recognize our own damn bedroom.”

You nod. “Yep!”

I chuckle. Yes, I live on campus since I’m an RA, but you and I also have our own apartment off campus. When you’re home from deployment, you stay there, and I stay there with you on the nights that I don’t have to be on duty as an RA.

“Please give a round of applause for Leigh Summers, who successfully got her squad safe from active fire and back home where they belong.” The Dean says over the intercom.

I step back a little and look around the room. Everyone is standing up, clapping their hands. I look down at the ground and pick up your Navy issued cap. I step back and put it on your head the way that you taught me to do it, stepping back once more, clapping along with everyone else.

You stand up straight, putting your hands to your sides. You bring your right hand up and salute everyone in the stadium, bring your hand back down to your side. I step closer and kiss your lips once again.

“I’ll see you in a second, doll.” I whisper to you.

You nod and turn around, going to a seat. One of the gentlemen sitting in the front row stops you and offers you his seat. You smile at him and shake his hand, sitting down in said seat. I lean down and pick up my diplomas and my graduation cap and go to the Dean.

He looks at me confused but I put my hand out to shake his hand. He smiles a little bit and shakes it. I walk back to my seat, putting my cap on my head. I smile to myself and look over my shoulder. You wink at me and I grin. I turn back toward the front.

I fuckin’ can’t believe you surprised me today. I never thought in a million years that you would come surprise me during graduation. My day has gotten even better, now that I know you’re home safe and with me. Since I was closer to the back of the line, there weren’t many more people behind me.

After about twenty minutes of sitting in these uncomfortable chairs, the last person sits down in their chair.

“Now everyone, please move your tassel to the left side of your cap,” Everyone does so, “Now I want to congratulate everyone who has graduated today. Please stand up and give a round of applause to the Class of 2005!”

Everyone starts clapping and everyone, including me, cheers and throws our caps into the air. When they all fall back down, I hurry and grab mine. I turn quickly and look for you. I see you standing up at the chair you were offered. I walk quickly over to you, wrapping my arms around you once again, pulling you close

“Come on, Graduate. Let’s go get your stuff so we can go home.” You say into my ear.

I nod and I grab your hand, walking out of the stadium toward my dorm room. Along the way, a man walks up to us.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” We both turn to the gentleman. “I just want to say thank you so much for your service to this country.” He puts out his hand.

You just smile and shake his hand, “No thank you is needed, sir. I’m happy to do it.”

Suddenly a group of people walk over to us and start shaking your hand. I notice out of the corner of my eye, a guy I had Algebra with in high school, Rick Grimes. He walks over to us.

“Hello, Negan.” He says.

“Rick,” I say nodding toward him.

“I see you and Le are still together,” He says nodding toward you.

I nod and smirk, “Almost nine years. Whatcha doing here?”

“I’m here to watch Shane graduate today too.”

“Oh, that’s right, Walsh? Right?”

“That’s right,” He says as a little boy runs up to him. A woman following right behind.

“Daddy, I said hi to that nice Navy lady.” The boy says making Rick smile. “She let me take a photo with her! I want to be just like her!”

“Carl, Lori this is Negan. Le and him went to school with me.”

“Hi, Mr. Negan,” ‘Carl’ puts his hand out to me. “My names Carl and I’m 4,” He says putting 4 fingers up on his other hand. Lori just nods.

“Hi, Carl. It’s nice to meet you,” I say shaking his tiny hand.

You walk up and smile, “Hi, Rick. Hi again, Carl.”

You completely look past Rick’s wife.

Rick nods to her and looks back at me, “Nice to see you again.”

“You too,” I say grabbing your hand and we walk back toward my dorm.

When we finally make it there without any interruptions, you glance around the room. You walk to the boxes I have in the room, taking a quick peek. I start packing up the very last of my stuff.

“Hey, baby?” You ask after a few seconds.

I look over. “Mmmhmm?”

“Can I change? This uniform gets really hot.”

I bite my bottom lip as I look you up and down. When my eyes meet yours, a smirk spreads ‘cross my face. You raise an eyebrow at me, lifting your cover off your head, and setting it on the bed.

“What?” You ask.

“Honey, of course your uniform gets really hot. That’s ‘cause you’re wearing it. And, you, sweetheart, you are fuckin’ smokin’ hot.” I say.

You blush. “Oh hush.”

I stop packing and make my way over to you. I place both my hands on your hips and lean down to kiss you.

“I’m only speakin’ the fuckin’ truth, doll.” I murmur against your lips.

“You’re a smooth talker, honey.” You tease.

“You know you love me.”

“Damn straight I do.”

I grin, and help you take your uniform shirt off. I remind myself that I can’t be too rough in taking it off of you. All I wanna do is take your clothes off you, and make sweet love to you. I wanna take my time with you for at least the first time since it’s been so long.

Once I have your uniform shirt off, I drape it over the edge of my bed. I turn back to you to see you lifting your white undershirt off. I go to say something, but the words get caught in my throat at the sight of you. You tug the shirt off and toss it on the bed.

I let my eyes rake over your torso, from your belly button up to your collarbone. My gaze stops right above your heart. I take a step closer to you, and gently shove your bra strap to the side, and tug down the cup of the bra. I run my fingers over the skin there, tracing the design of the hammerhead shark you have inked in there.

I lift my eyes up to look at you, keeping my fingers roaming over the ink.

“When’d you get this?” I ask, quietly.

You smile. “A couple months ago. We stopped off in Italy for a few days, and I decided to get it. I know it’s something we’ve talked ‘bout for a while.”

I grin. “It’s beautiful.”

I pull my hand away from your skin and loosen my tie a wee bit, unbutton the vest, and a few buttons of my shirt. I tug the left side of the fabric to the side. Your eyes drift down to my exposed skin, and you bring your hand up to trace over the ink I have just above my heart.

You lift your eyes up to mine.

“It’s a penguin.” You whisper.

I smile. “It is. I know it’s your favorite animal, sweetheart. ‘Sides, when we always talked ‘bout getting matching tattoos, we decided we’d get each other’s favorite animals.”

You grin. “When did you get it?”

I pause. “Uh….two months after you got deployed.”

“It’s pretty. I’m surprised I didn’t notice it this mornin’ when we videochatted.”

I chuckle. “Well, if I fuckin’ remember correctly, doll, your eyes were focused on another part of my body.”

You blush. “Hey. Not my fault you put on one hell of a show.”

I laugh. “You started it.”

“Nah uh.”

“Yes uh.”

“Nah uh.”

“Mmhhmm.”

You giggle. “Nope.”

I lean down to kiss you. “Yes. You did.”

“Hmmm...you keep kissing me like that, and I’ll admit to startin’ it.”

I chuckle. “Is that a promise?”

“Don’t start somethin’ you ain’t plannin’ on finishin’.”

I playfully growl. “Oh, honey. I promise you, you’ll be finishin’ ‘fore we leave this damn room.”

“Promises. Promises.” You taunt.

“Oh. I’ll fuckin’ show you promises, sweetheart.”

I take your lips in a passionate kiss, causing you to cling to my shoulders as you moan into the kiss. I curl one arm ‘round your waist, and tug you closer to me as I deepen the kiss. You moan again, which gives my tongue a change to dart in and dance with yours.

My free hand trails down between our bodies and shove your uniform pants down.

You pull back from the kiss, panting.

“Negan, honey. My boots.” You pant.

I chuckle before I scoop you up and plop you down on my bed. I drop to my knees and tug your boots off you feet. I set ‘em on the floor before I crawl over you on my bed. I place a hand on either side of your head. You shift your legs so that my lower body rests between ‘em.

You hook a leg over my calves. I do a mock pushup as I lean down to kiss you. You wrap your arms ‘round my neck, and I feel your fingers tangle in my hair. I break the kiss and rest my forehead against yours.

“Did you cum this mornin’?” I ask.

You shake your head. “No. I didn’t have ‘nough time ‘fore I had to head over to the ceremony.”

I nod. “Ok.”

Before you can say another word, I start trailing open-mouthed kisses down your jaw, neck, between your breasts, and down your tummy. I let my tongue dip into your belly button. You arch up against me, and I can’t help but smirk. I tilt my head back so that my eyes meet yours, but I keep my mouth on your skin.

You reach down and tangle your fingers in my hair again and tug roughly. I don’t mind the pain one bit. Not when it means I get to see you like this. I chuckle as you let out another moan and arch your hips towards me.

“Negan. Honey. Please.” You beg.

“Please what, baby girl? Tell daddy what you want.” I tease.

You moan. “Somethin’. Anythin’. YOU!”

I chuckle. “Yes, ma’am.”

I trail one of my hands down your body and hook my fingers in your panties. I give ‘em a gentle tug and pull off your legs. I glance up at you as I nestle myself between your legs, hooking ‘em over my shoulders.

“You sure you want this, sweetheart?” I ask, in a serious tone.

I would never do something that you didn’t want or consent to. I don’t believe in rape or anything similar to it. Your eyes meet mine. You know how I am, so you know that while it may sound like I’m teasing you, I’m actually being completely fuckin’ serious.

“Yes, Negan! I want this.” You say. “Please!”

“Yes, ma’am.” I say before diving in.

I make love to you with my mouth. I alternate between licking, sucking, and kissing your core. You buck your hips against my face, repeatedly, as you pant and tug on my hair. I place one palm against your lower tummy and push you back down against the bed.

I gently slide my index finger of my other hand inside you. I do so slowly ‘cause I know it’s been awhile for you, and the last thing I wanna do is hurt you. The moment you feel my finger in you, only to the first knuckle, you clench up. I pull my mouth from you and glance up at you.

“Relax, baby. Just relax. I got you.” I assure you.

You nod. “I forgot how big your fingers were, though.”

I chuckle. “I know it’s been a while. That’s why I gotta get you ready.”

You nod and moan as my finger slides in a little further. I latch back onto your clit and focus on making you feel good. Before too long, I’m able to add another finger. I move my fingers in a scissor like motion, and I feel my middle finger brush up against that special spot.

You buck yours hips against my face, and tighten your grip on my hair the moment it does.

“Oh fuck!” You pant.

I chuckle against your lower lips which has you moaning loudly. It doesn’t take much longer ‘fore I feel you tighten ‘round my fingers, almost painfully. I lift my eyes to look at you again. You’ve got your eyes squeezed shut and your chest’s heaving.

“Let go, baby. Just fuckin’ let go. I got you.” I murmur.

Just like I did earlier with your words, you come undone ‘round my fingers at my words. I smile and keep lapping up your juices. When you finally manage to come down from your high, I push myself up to my knees and gaze down at you. I bring a hand up and wipe your juices from my beard.

You flop back on the mattress with a content look on your face. I chuckle as I lean forward, covering your body with mine. I gently brush my lips against yours and you moan into the kiss. I pull back after a moment and just look at you.

“I forgot what it’s like to taste myself on you.” You mumble.

I laugh. “You taste fuckin’ amazin’, doll.”

You grin. “So do you.”

I groan at your words. I know how much you fuckin’ love going down on me, and every single time, you swallow every last drop. I kiss you once more before pulling away and standing up. If I don’t, I’m liable to take you, right here, on my college mattress, and that’s not what I want at the moment.

I want to take my time with you and enjoy our first time together again in months. You look up at me, pouting, as I start to button my shirt back up and fix my tie. You prop yourself up on your elbows.

“What ‘bout you?” You ask.

“What ‘bout me, baby?” I reply.

“Don’t you wanna cum too?”

I smile. “Of course I do, but I came earlier. Remember?”

“But...after what you just did to me?”

I chuckle. “Sweetheart. You know my two for one rule.”

You blush and nod. “I get to cum twice for every time you do.”

I nod. “Exactly. So, I’ve still got one more time to make you cum to make up for mine this fuckin’ mornin’.”

You blush. I finish buttoning up my vest ‘fore I lean back down over you. I kiss your forehead.

“Besides, doll. I wanna take my fuckin’ time with you later. I don’t wanna fuckin’ rush our first time in months.” I whisper.

You giggle. “Ok.”

I smile as I stand up straight. “You bring any extra clothes with you today?”

Shaking your head you answer my question. I dig through my duffle bag and pull out my baseball jersey and a pair of my sweatpants. I hand ‘em to you as you sit up completely. You slip my jersey on first. It hangs halfway down your thighs once you stand up.

I just take in the sight of you. My jersey looks damn good on you. All throughout high school, you always wore my jersey to my games; you refused to wear any other shirt to my games. You swore that in my jersey, you were my lucky charm. The one day you had to wear a shirt aside from my jersey, we ended up losing by six runs, and I got hit in the face with a wild pitch.

After that, you always made sure to wear my jersey, and I never argued with you when you said something ‘bout you in my shirt being my good luck charm. Plus, you always looked damned good in it. Lord have mercy. You thought I was sexy in my uniform, but honey, you put me to shame when it came to the sight of you in my baseball jersey.

I always had to pull you back into the bedroom right before we left, but somehow we were never late to any of the games. You made sure of that. I could make love to you before the game, but you made sure we were never late. You stand up and start pulling on the sweatpants.

They go to fall down but I help you tighten them.

“You ready to go?” You ask, grabbing your uniform folding it, and putting it in my duffle bag.

“Yes, doll.” I smile over at you, putting your cover on your head.

#Graduation #Negan One-Shot #Negan Fanfic #Negan Fluff #Negan Smut #Negan

72 notes · View notes

skeletonwrites · 5 years ago

Text

[BOOK TITLE PENDING]

Marianne Martinez used to be normal. It wasn’t even her choice to become anything else, really. C’est la vie, she says as she breaks into a top-secret supernatural testing facility.

Chapter One, ‘No, no she didn’t’, under the cut.

Growing up living eight feet apart from someone, you get used to their presence. Their walking gait, their laughter, their every tick and tock. You begin to understand them in a way that isn’t easily accomplished. You know them, and they know you.

Jackie and I grew up next to each other. We weren’t relatives, but we lived in a shabby apartment complex with only a thin plaster in between our apartments that made it so we may as well have been living together. Every week day, Jackie would walk into our (my mom and I lived together, dad having been out of the picture for a long time) apartment, and help my mother prepare lunches for us. In the beginning, he knocked. It didn’t take very long for him to be given his own key. We were inseparable- we ate breakfast, prepared lunch at his apartment (he lived with his older brother), and walked together to the bus-stop. There was nothing we didn’t do together.

Jackie and I shared all our classes, obviously. It was a competition between us, you see. Who could get the best grades? Who could answer the teacher correctly the most times? It got to the point where our teachers separated us in every class. It didn’t matter, we had other ways of communication. By tapping our feet, or hands, we would talk to each other in Morse code. Jackie had been in the library for a research project in third grade when he found a book on Morse. When we got busted for that, we made our own language- we still tapped our feet and hands, but the language was of our own making.

We weren’t bad kids, though. Our conversations usually consisted of what we were going to do when we grew up, or who we thought was being stupid at any given time, or which teacher we thought would be more likely to pick their nose. Sometimes we cheated (we were kids and didn’t see a problem with that), but for the most part we were mischief free.

However, there was that one notable time when Jackie decided that school was not for him that day. He tapped a quick message to me, took a paper ball, lit it one fire with a matchstick from our backpack- we had a third one we shared between us that we kept our ‘survival tools’ within- and threw it into the trash can. By some power, maybe even from above, no one saw him do it. No one but me even noticed until the smell of burning wicker and smoke became too powerful to ignore.

School was cancelled for the rest of the day because everyone was required to evacuate. Jackie and I went to a local park with a grove of trees and played pirates.

Our schedule stayed like this for years.

I’d like to say that high school didn’t change anything, that we were able to overcome teenage hormones and treat each other with respect.

And for the most part? We did. But in the middle of freshman year, Jackie started acting distant. He wouldn’t say anything was wrong, and we still hung out all the time, but something was different. He religiously avoided talking about his feelings in any capacity. It was bullshit. Finally I confronted him in our secret grove. He still refused to tell me what was wrong, so I punched him. He had wasted an entire school semester where we could have been best friends with no problems, but somehow he got it in his head that this was acceptable behavior. We fought, obviously. The grass left stains on our clothes, and leaves stuck in our hair. I got a black eye, he got a busted lip. We tired ourselves out, until we were laying on the ground staring into the sky. The moon was out, stars above and clouds non-existent. It was beautiful. Jackie finally confessed that he had developed feelings for me. Poor man didn’t want to ruin our relationship, so he hadn’t told me. I panicked and came out to him. We sat there for so long, just staring at the sky and thinking.

The horrid affair was over the next day, and I quickly moved past Jackie’s ill-conceived romance. He moved on from me, too. Life went back to normal, and high school passed quickly in a blur of drama, homework, dating other people, and general teenage angst.

And then college happened. Jackie decided to major in technology. He wanted to work with computers, and I wanted to work with art. There were no good colleges that offered exceptional courses for both, so we parted ways. There were tears, but life had to move on. We stayed in touch; every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, we video called each other, catching up and talking about our problems. Jackie got a girlfriend, I focused on my homework. Life was as smooth as college can be.

And then college was over. I was shoulder deep in student loans and other debts, and Jackie was just making it by on a seventy hours at his job each week. I had to cancel my internet, and Jackie and I only texted sometimes. We lost touch, and I didn’t notice until it was too late.

I worked at a museum for a while. It was fun, but the income was only enough for my basic necessities. To pay off my debts I worked as a nanny on the side, while also freelancing my own art. Life wasn’t so bad, for the most part. I had acquaintances everywhere I visited to say hello to me, I lived in a small apartment with my cat, and I was steadily building a savings while paying off my debt.

It was comfortable. I finally reached out to Jackie again, though I had to search a bit to find him. He lived five hours away now, working as a technician for a big name brand. Lucky for me, he also missed our friendship. We started messaging each other regularly. Six years of distance left a huge gap, but we figured we could mend it some.

And then I was approached by a government agent. He came to my front door, wearing a neat suit and holding an official looking briefcase. I hid my weed and tried to look like I wasn’t high off my ass. Hopefully he wouldn’t bust me for smoking.

That wasn’t what he wanted, as it turns out. He was there to recruit me. He said his name was Agent Cole, and that I was perfect for a job they needed done. It was only a one time thing, he said, and I would be paid sufficiently. Obviously I was extremely suspicious, so I told him I would think about it. He gave me his card, then left. I sighed out of relief and sat back on my couch.

I had no intention of accepting. I told my mom about it, and we discussed possible scenarios. She said to take the job. It might be shady, but I had debts to pay, and I didn’t want to live with that all my life, did I?

I called the number on the card, and then waited. It didn’t take long.

They briefed me on what needed to be done, and then let me loose. My job was to look up ways to hide a fist sized object from everyone. When I suggested tossing it into a nearby river, they specified that they wanted no one to ever find it. Every week I gave them my ideas, and every week they rejected them. In a speedbump, in a tree, under a skyscraper, in a brick. Nothing.

I was almost about to give up, when I realized that it was a challenge- not a job. They were testing me for something. And so, I gave it my all. Never let it be said that Marianne Martinez backs down from a challenge.

Every week, I gave them ideas. Every week, they rejected them. Every month, they paid me. It wasn’t a bad setup, and I continued my freelancing while doing it, as well as nannying. My debts were finally paid off, and I could begin to save more money. I began to move forward with my life. It was satisfying, to say the least.

The research eventually turned into other things, as my mom had predicted one late night. They never really told me much, but they did train me. Every evening, from six pm to nine pm, I was either in the gym, running, or researching things for them. They said that any government agent went through the same training, I wasn’t a special case. I stopped complaining after that. I don’t recall them ever providing evidence that they were genuinely government workers, but I couldn't care less. I was paid, I was healthy, and no one really cared what I did in my free time.

My agility and speed grew with my confidence and knowledge. Everything was looking good. I had made some progress, I thought, on my research. The supernatural means of hiding were looking better every day that my ideas were rejected.

And then my mom passed away. It was a stroke, the doctors said. She had been cooking, probably for a neighbor down on their luck, when it happened. No one was there to call an ambulance. She died, alone on the kitchen floor.

It tore me up. Why hadn’t I been there? Was my life so important that I wasn’t there when she needed me most? I arranged a funeral, and used a third of my savings to make it as good as I could. If I wasn’t there for her in life, I would be there for her in death.

Jackie came to the funeral. He had changed. He was thinner, less confident, slouching. He didn’t look too good, but I couldn’t say anything about it. I’m surprised I noticed, honestly. I had other things on my mind. He and I grew closer after mom’s death. Every weekend, we would go to a cafe and talk. I always paid.

He moved closer. He said it wasn’t because my mom died, but it looked to me like he had no other reason for coming back. He now lived two blocks away, close enough to walk to his house in the dead of the night, when memories of my mom grew to great to remember alone.

He didn’t have a wife, he said. He and his girlfriend broke up ages ago, and there hadn’t been anyone since. Was I doing fine? Did I have a partner? No, I was much too busy. What did I do? Oh, I do freelance art. Is that enough to get by, really? How was my debt? Surprisingly, yes, it is enough. I’ve paid them off, but what about you? Are you doing well? For the most part. Mostly, sure. He was fine.

And time passed. He grew thinner, more ragged. He wasn’t eating, though he didn’t outright say it. It took me three months to get him to move in with me.

We fell into a new pattern. He would make breakfast, since I had always hated cooking though I wasn’t bad at it, and I would clean up. I would go do errands, whatever needed to be done, and he would either stay home or go out. He never said where he went. He would clean the apartment, and I would bring lunch from somewhere. I would clean up, and we would go our separate ways again. Supper was always ready when I got home. I always cleaned afterwards. I would then leave to work out, or train, or research. He would do his own thing. There were variations, of course, but that was mostly it. Routine was easy to fall into.

And then, one day, I came home and he was gone. His stuff wasn’t anywhere to be seen. There was no sign of a struggle. I didn’t call the police. He was a fully grown man, after all, and I didn’t need him financially. It was callous, but I hoped he moved on to better things. Maybe he would be back, maybe he would keep in touch.

It hurt, though. We had been close. At least, I thought we were.

My research had hit a block. No matter where I looked, no matter what I thought I had found, the agency was never satisfied. Eventually, I began to look more into the arcane. Wizards and witches, elves, goblins, fairies. I had finally given into the urge to follow that line of thought.

Fairies, in particular, interested me. They were said to have powers of undefinable proportions. They were beautiful creatures, tall and fair. In one book that I read, during a feverish night of desperation, I found an passage of interest.

“Woe to those who seeke

What they cannot understand,

Woe to those who find

For their fate is worse”

It was practically nothing, but my sleep deprived brain latched onto it. Who was seeking? What were they looking for? Could I use this to hide the agency’s object? Was there such a thing as magic, real and powerful and present?

I learned about the Folke, as they called themselves, but I left that one passage alone. It wasn’t enough.

Strange things began to happen at my apartment. A moved book here, a light turned on there. Nothing much, but just enough to spook me. I looked into it, of course, but I could find no reason for anything supernatural to bother me. I hadn’t stolen any fruit, I hadn’t moved any ancient tombs, I hadn’t called on any ancient beings.

Small nuisances turned into inconveniences. My car keys, lost for two days. Milk gone bad the moment it was put in my fridge. My cat outright refused to sleep in my room anymore.

And then bad things began to happen. The water heater for my apartment complex broke for three weeks. Electricity was out for days on end, ruining all my cold food and making it unbearably hot. It was summer, after all. A window broken, a rotted roof, a nail in my tire.

It got to the point where I told my handler from the agency, Joanna, about it. She seemed disturbed.

And then I got a note on my door.

“We told you not to

But did the seeker listen?

No, no, she didn’t”

#marianne martinez #writing #my writing #skeleton writes #writeblr #fae #fairies #fiction #supernatural #original works #original writing #chapter one

1 note · View note