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moonlightspencie · 1 year ago

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Devils Roll the Dice…

Description: A new recruit to the BAU catches Reid’s eye. Unfortunately for the both of them, she has a past with someone very close to him. Are they willing to keep secrets just to keep one another? (TWO-PART MINISERIES)

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!Reader

Warnings: alcohol consumption, sexual references/content (i’ll accept 16+ because its definitely not more than pg-13 material but writing anything sexy makes me feel weird if i know teenagers are reading it)

Word Count: 4k

I took a deep breath, looking in the mirror. I knew we were meeting the new recruit today, and just the thought of it exhausted me. Not that I didn’t like meeting new people. I just hated the break in routine.

We had a concrete team. Kate had already joined. We didn��t need anyone else coming in and messing up a very new rhythm we’d found with each other.

I finished tying my tie, pressing it down, and preemptively steeling myself against the new person. Probably some guy who didn’t know the difference between a tyrannical and enforcing sadist. Half of the students I’d met in recent guest lectures only wanted to go into the field because they’d listened too many crime podcasts anyways.

I walked into the bullpen, taking my seat as usual, ready to turn that cold shoulder at the first misstep of whoever this mystery recruit was. Unfortunately, I felt anything but cold when Hotch called our attention to the figure standing in his office doorway. He stood partially in front of her before he allowed her to stand right next to him as he introduced us. My eyes locked onto her at an embarrassing rate, and I felt far more embarrassed when she caught me and flashed a smirk.

She was anything but shy as a newbie, and for some reason that thrilled me. She wasn’t afraid to get into conversation with the team immediately as she unpacked her things at her new desk. She wasn’t afraid to tell Garcia everything she wanted to know. Much to my surprise, she wasn’t afraid to send me the cutest smiles every time she caught my eyes on her.

“Hey,” she said, walking up to me as I stood in the kitchenette.

Truthfully, I needed the time alone because of her. I couldn’t stop looking at her, and it was becoming a problem considering I was supposed to be doing work. She was just so… Different. She was sweet and funny and so attractive it made my mouth dry up.

“Hi,” I said after a moment. “Coffee?”

She nodded, holding out her mug. I filled it up from the pot in my hands after I topped off my own. She blew on it, looking up at me with big eyes. I watched her, not realizing how long it had been until she broke eye contact, a smile settling onto her face.

“You’re gonna keep watching me blow on my coffee?”

I opened my mouth to say something, but fell quiet when she smiled again. She moved the mug from her face.

“Got any advice for me with the BAU?”

I swallowed. “Uh, you came from Intelligence, right?”

She nodded, brows raised. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

“I was listening earlier. You said it to JJ.”

“Alright, so I know one fact about you other than the eidetic memory,” she said with a chuckle.

I smiled softly. “Right. Sorry, I haven’t been very talkative today.”

“That’s okay,” she said, giving me a reassuring smile. “I’ve tried really hard to get into this unit, so I don’t plan on leaving any time soon. We’ll have time to get to know one another.”

I nodded quickly. “Uh, so, advice. Um, I guess you should know this team is a lot like a family. We really care about each other, and we’re pretty close. Especially us field agents.”

“Good to know,” she nodded thoughtfully. “If you have any more wisdom floating around in that big ol’ brain of yours, let me know. I already heard Penelope calling you ‘boy wonder’, so I’d love to see you live up to that reputation.”

She finished off her sentence with a wink, turning away from me and rejoining the others who still gathered around her desk. She was shiny and new, and everyone wanted to know about her. I couldn’t blame them. I’d love to know as much as I could get my hands on.

One thing I learned very quickly is that she had a habit of flirting.

At first, I thought it was a general behavior she exhibited towards everyone. Then, after some keen observation I came to a terrible and exciting realization: she really only flirted with me.

I think most of it was due to the fact that she just liked to see me flustered. She could make it happen very easily, too. All it took was a sly, under-the-breath comment in passing and my face was turning red.

She’d smile at me, enjoying the tint in my cheeks. I’d stare back at her, just glad to see her smile.

Four weeks in and I was entirely wrapped around her finger.

She wasn’t shy about flirting on cases either, though she was always really good about making sure the only thing anyone ever saw was me being a total dork.

I almost never tried flirting back. I was pretty terrible at it anyways. But there were occasions when I’d make an attempt.

We were working on a case that leaned heavily on the geographical profile, meaning: I spent the entire case in the precinct. I finally cracked it after a few days, and the team found themselves at a farm. One of my least favorite places for a case to be, leaving me very thankful that I wasn’t along for the search and rescue. I really only went to the farm because everyone else was there.

By the time that I actually got to the crime scene, the unsub had already been apprehended. So, I stood near the cars, waiting on the others to come back. It was several minutes before I heard Hotch and Derek walking up and talking to one another. I turned as the rest of the team followed several steps behind. Y/N came into view last, and I couldn’t help but let out a laugh as she walked closer.

She gave me an exasperated smile, throwing her arms up as I took her in. She was covered in dried mud, clearly having taken a fall somewhere gross.

“I tripped and fell while doing absolutely nothing. I feel like you, all clumsy,” she joked, laughing.

I smiled, looking her up and down.

“How are you still pretty covered in dirt?”

“You can’t do that,” she said quickly, looking over her shoulder. “Not right now, anyways.”

I scrunched up my face. She had been much more forwardly flirtatious on cases before now. I couldn’t fathom how this was any different, especially since all I did was make a flirty comment. I guess my facial expression could’ve conveyed more. I seemed to have a hard time concealing my feelings for her when she looked at me the way she did.

“Why?”

She looked behind her again, like she was keeping an eye out for someone. But the only person there was Morgan. Maybe she was afraid of him telling on us for flirting on the job. But he was the one that relentlessly flirted with everyone else. Why would he be coming after us? Maybe she didn’t know that well enough.

“Morgan flirts with people all the time. He’s not going to—”

“Spencer,” she groaned, grabbing my arm and pulling me behind the SUV.

I furrowed my brow again. “What?”

“If I tell you something, you have to promise not to get weird about it.”

“Get… Weird?”

“Like, don’t be all freaked out,” she clarified.

“Okay,” I said, unsure where this was heading.

She cleared her throat, stealing one more glance at him. She looked back at me, chewing her lip with a coy smile. I had a feeling that now wasn’t the time, but I blushed, unable to stop myself from fully taking her in. Luckily, my upstairs brain started working again just in time to give all my attention to her as she started speaking.

“I’m sure this will make things a little awkward,” she stated, sighing softly, “but, he and I… Uh, Derek and I, we have a history.”

I quirked a brow. “Oh? How?”

She stared at me, expecting me to take a hint that I was most certainly not picking up on.

“We… We were involved. Romantically.”

My brows shot up. “Oh.”

“Yeah. It was only like five months, really, but,” she shrugged. “That happened. Hence why it’s been a little awkward between us.”

She said that bit like it was the most obvious thing in the world, but I hadn’t been any the wiser about it. Maybe it was just another case of me being a little more oblivious than some of my coworkers about behaviors that didn’t have to do with the job. Maybe I was just too enamored with her to pay attention to how she interacted with our coworker.

“I didn’t notice,” I said quietly.

“Good. I’ve been hoping to keep it on the down-low,” she said with a laugh. “I haven’t exactly wanted to endure teasing from the team about sleeping with Derek of all people.”

I swallowed, not having thought about the fact that she’d been… Physical with him. More so, that he’d gotten to be with her in that way. He’d seen her. Heard her. Felt her. All of her. I took in a breath, clearing my head of that image.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve told you sooner if I was going to keep flirting like this,” she said, suddenly a little shy as she shoved her hands in her pockets. “I know you two are close.”

“Yeah. I’m surprised he didn’t tell us about you.”

She laughed. “Our relationship wasn’t completely… A serious thing.”

“Serious enough to last five months.”

She snorted. “Most of the time we spent together wasn’t exactly romantic. He was great, but we both kind of used each other. Hard time in life for both of us back then.”

“Ah,” I said, nodding curtly. “So it was mostly, uh— Sexual?”

She smirked, looking away. “Not entirely just that. But that was a lot of it.”

I nodded again, feeling my cheeks flush. She nudged my arm, pulling my attention again.

“It’s been well over a year now since that all happened,” she said quietly. “I just… I don’t want to rock the boat right now. Being new to the unit, I should probably try my best to be on everyone’s good side, you know?”

“I get it. I’ll stop with the flirting,” I said, giving what I hoped was an affirming smile.

She furrowed her brow. “That’s not what I meant.”

“It isn’t?”

“The flirting is fine, I just think… Maybe we should keep it a little more quiet when we’re around the others,” she shrugged. “If that’s okay.”

“You’re okay with me— doing that?”

“Spencer, I don’t know if you know this, but you’re crazy hot.”

I was certainly blushing now. I swallowed, blinking in surprise as I looked at her. Her smile only grew. She enjoyed teasing me. I couldn’t say I didn’t like it just as much as she did.

“Uh, th-thank you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Quit acting so shy as if you don’t already know.”

My eyes widened. “I’m not acting.”

“Every woman who meets you flirts with you.”

“No they don’t,” I argued, my brows knitting together.

“Are you blind?”

“No,” I said, still in a state of confusion.

She laughed it off. “Alright, boy wonder, we’d better join the group. They’re gathering like vultures.”

I followed after her as she integrated into the group where they stood as Hotch spoke. She was so good at finding her way in. I was thrilled to see how she’d find her place in my life going forward.

In the following weeks, she gave me an idea of what that would look like. Stolen glances at every turn had my heart racing. It went even faster every time she found a way to touch me in some inconspicuous way.

A hand on my arm as she asked about the maps I was working on. A brush of fingers as she’d hand me a coffee cup. Her shoulder pressed into mine to whisper to me some detail of a case that really could’ve been said at full volume.

She usually didn’t step past those boundaries though, ever cautious not to let herself get caught out by anyone else. The comments she made towards me were still relentless, however. I didn’t know how she had it hidden so well.

I, however, had much more trouble hiding my attraction, and I was sure I’d heard some of my teammates whispering to each other about it. They’d give me knowing looks every time I got caught out staring at her. Even Morgan gave what seemed like mostly-good natured glances my way when I paid a bit too much attention to her. Probably only because he didn’t know that I knew about them, and even more likely didn’t want anyone else to know. It would be a tell-tale sign if he didn’t make fun of me.

It felt wrong to be keeping this odd little secret from him. I wasn’t necessarily sneaking around with his ex-girlfriend, but we were still flirting. We were still hiding something from him. I wondered how he’d react if he found out, and hoped for my sake that he was well and truly over it.

Especially after our last night on a case in Georgia. The summer air in the state was hot, and it felt like it was actively pulling air from my lungs every time I went outside. Maybe it was some kind of metaphor for what was to come.

I held back for hours from going to her door. The teasing had been terribly relentless the entire time we were on the case, and the week before. Tension was building, and I knew if I was easily picking up on it, she definitely had to be.

I paced around my room, contemplating my options. If I went to her, there was a chance we’d finally talk about whatever was happening between us. There was also a chance she’d tell me to leave if I attempted to tell her how I really felt, and I’d be left pining over her probably forever. Both were pretty scary.

Either way, I decided it was better than continuing to fall for her without having a real conversation about it. I walked to the door, my hand on the handle.

She stood just outside my door, her hand raised as if she was about to knock when I tugged it open. A smile graced her pretty lips, her hand dropping.

“Looks like we had the same idea,” she stated, pushing past me into my room. “Good timing.”

“It was.”

She chewed at her lip, looking around the space with her arms crossed. I stared at her as she took it all in, waiting for whatever was on her mind to be put out into the open. She looked back at me, apparently reading my mind.

“We’re both waiting on each other to speak up, huh?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“This is a ridiculous thing we’re doing right now. It’s like sneaking around with any of the fun parts,” she said with a laugh.

“I think it’s fun,” I shrugged.

“It could be more fun.”

I swallowed. “Yeah. But I’m happy just to have your attention.”

She smirked, walking towards me.

“I think you’re kind of needy.”

“Maybe.”

“It’s cute.”

I blushed, giving her a smile as I looked away. She still looked at me like she was about to devour me. I could sympathize with all of those animals I saw in nature documentaries as the predator closed in on them. It was in vivid color. She stalked closer and closer, knowing full well that my guard was down enough for her to launch an attack.

“You really enjoy this, don’t you?” I asked. “Knowing you make me flustered. Half of the time I can hardly talk when I’m around you. Everyone knows it, and they all think it’s one-sided.”

She leaned her chest into mine, surely able to feel how fast my heart beat for her.

“Are you embarrassed by it?”

“No.”

Her hands crept their way up under my shirt, leaving goosebumps in their wake as if her touch didn’t feel as hot as the sun. I watched her silently, letting her do whatever she wanted. She couldn’t asked me to jump out of the seventh-floor window with her and I would’ve gone head first without a question.

Panic only crept in when she started leaning in closer to my face, and I realized her lips were on a path that would end with mine.

“Wait,” I said, grabbing her wrists.

Her eyes widened, pulling her head back slightly.

“Are you okay?”

“I just don’t think this is a good idea,” I breathed out.

She retreated from me, and it was hard not to let my body follow hers. She was only a step away, but it felt like a continent’s worth of space. My fingers itched to reach out and pull her back in.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, eyes wandering over her face.

She swallowed. “I don’t know what you want, Spence. One minute you’re telling me you want me, the next you’re pushing me away.”

Logic kept trying to overtake my head. It was annoying.

“I can’t… You’re Morgan’s ex.”

She sighed. “I’m also a human being. I am my own person separate from him. One that is very attracted to you.”

I wet my lips, not missing how her eyes followed the action. I felt a fluttering in my stomach just watching her react. She smiled, as always, catching me in the act of being wildly into her. She took half a step forward.

“You’re telling me this is a bad idea, but every time I look at you I’m getting a different message.”

I swallowed. “I know.”

“So, which is it?”

“It is a bad idea,” I started, intending on making it a whole sentence, but not knowing what to say next.

“But?”

“But I don’t know if I care enough to stop it.”

She smirked again, not holding back this time. She reached up, pulling me down to her lips with her hands wrapped in my hair. I wound my arms around her waist, pulling her tightly into me. I relished feeling her body fully pressed against mine, especially when she let out a contented sigh as I deepened the kiss. She started guiding my backwards towards the bed, and I obliged her silent request until the backs of my knees were against the mattress.

“Sit,” she requested, the word whispered against my lips.

I did, peering up at her as she staying standing in between my legs. She grasped my chin in her soft hand, tilting up my head to see me.

“How sure about this are you?”

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully.

She smiled. “Good. I don’t either.”

She dropped into my lap, kissing me like we hadn’t even stopped in the first place. My hands gripped her hips for the first time, and she was everything I had daydreamed about. Soft and responsive. I couldn’t imagine being the one to let her go, and I found myself questioning Morgan’s judgment in that moment.

It made me feel even better every time she smiled or made a little comment about the ways I reacted to her. Usually I’d be embarrassed, but she just made me feel good.

“Sweet boy,” she mumbled against me, moving her lips from my jaw and down my neck.

My hands found themselves wandering across her back, and my eyes were practically stuck shut as I felt her lips against my skin. I could’ve died right then and there and been happy to go.

But a knock at the door sent us both into high alert. She sat up straight, looking towards the door.

I stood with her legs still wrapped around me before I turned and dropped her on the bed. She bounced on the mattress, looking up at me with a surprised smile.

“Just— Stay here and stay quiet. Please,” I said, then walked to the door, trying to frantically fix my hair.

I cleared my throat as I opened the door, forcing myself to not look like I was embarrassingly close to…

I shook myself out of that thought the second I saw Morgan. He definitely put an end to any sexy thoughts that clouded my head.

“Hey, kid, can I ask you something?”

I furrowed my brow. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I just… Do you know what’s been up with JJ? She’s been a little off. Won’t really talk to me, so I was wondering if she said anything to you.”

I let out a breath of relief. “No, she hasn’t told me anything. But I know Henry’s been pretty sick the past week. Maybe that’s it.”

“Hm,” he hummed, nodding slowly. “Alright, thanks. Just… Worried, you know?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “It’s JJ, though. She’ll be okay.”

“Right, yeah, I know,” he nodded again. “Alright. Thanks, again. You get some sleep tonight, alright?”

I nodded, bidding him a goodnight. I shut the door, seeing her on the bed still. She was propped up on her elbows, smirking at me.

“That ruin the mood?”

I locked the door.

“Not particularly.”

To my surprise, she ended up being the one who wanted to take it slow. We kissed for another hour or so when I got back within her reach, but didn’t go much further. Not that I was in a position to complain. I was ecstatic just to be touching her, and she somehow felt the same about me. I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand why that was.

She’d told me when I’d dropped onto the bed, crawling over top of her, that she didn’t want to go all the way. She said it so sweet. Almost like she was afraid of whatever answer I’d give to her. As if I’d say I didn’t want to kiss her all night long.

Besides, I was pretty sure I’d spontaneously combust if we had gone any further.

We woke up the next morning, still holding onto one another. She had changed into my t-shirt before she climbed into bed with me, and looked absolutely incredible with her messy bed-head and sleepy smile.

“Good morning,” she mumbled.

“It is a very good morning,” I said, pressing a soft kiss to her lips.

Her hand pressed against my cheek, the smile spreading on her face as she looked at me.

“You’re adorable,” she said quietly, granting me another kiss.

I sighed. “I don’t think I want to stop this.”

“Why would we?” she asked with an incredulous smile.

“Because, I mean, we can’t tell anyone about us,” I said with a shrug. “I just thought you wouldn’t want to make this— A thing.”

She wet her lips. “We don’t have to tell anyone in order to be together.”

I contemplated that for a moment. I’d never considered having a completely private relationship. At least not with someone who wasn’t actively being stalked. That was an entirely different scenario. I guess to her, it was probably scary to get into a relationship with one of your ex’s best friends. I couldn’t blame her for that.

I took a breath. “You… You want to keep it a secret?”

She nodded. “If that’s okay with you.”

“I’ll do whatever you want,” I said with a nod, not bothering to filter my thoughts as they came out into the open.

She smiled. “Anything?”

“Almost. I draw the line at murder.”

She laughed. “Team’d catch you anyways.”

I laughed right back, giving her another kiss. She leaned into my touch, shyness creeping into her face.

“I do really like you, Spencer.”

I nodded. “I do too.”

“This’ll be great, you know?”

She smiled brightly, causing one to form on my face. She brushed my hair away from my face, just looking at me.

“Yeah. I know.”

…ANGELS ROLL THEIR EYES (part 2)

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid reader insert #spencer reid fluff #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds reader insert #reid x y/n #reid x you #reid x reader #luna’s spence fics

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invis-o-william · 6 months ago

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Day 2: Wish

All Amity Parkers knew that “wish” was practically a forbidden word. Years of interactions with Desiree had all but guaranteed that. Younger children weren’t even taught the word anymore out of an abundance of caution, after all nobody wanted a repeat of the “Toddler Wish-mageddon” that had occurred just a year prior. The firemen had been cleaning chocolate syrup out of the streets for weeks afterwards. This left the naive and unassuming newcomers as targets for Desire’s power, many of whom didn’t quite believe the city moniker of “The Most Haunted Place on Earth” yet. One of those newcomers was Thomas Kincade, and one way or another he too would learn the consequences of the word “wish”.

. . .

Thomas had barely lived in Amity Park a week before his coworkers started messing with him. He had just been sitting down in the breakroom for lunch when Craig from accounting had sidled up in the next chair.

“Oh hey Tom,you’re new to town, right?” he asked while grabbing a bowl from his bag.

Thomas hummed an affirmative while digging through the box chock full of leftover lo mein that his wife had left him that morning. “Yeah, just moved from Springfield like a week and a half ago, why? Also, it's Thomas.”

Craig pointed a fork his way, “Well you should probably invest in a lunch bag or something. That box is a prime target for the Box Ghost you know. He’s usually pretty harmless, but he’ll definitely steal that thing in a heartbeat if he sees you with it man.” He accentuated his point by tapping on said box with his fork.

Thomas sighed. Although he’d only lived in the city for under two weeks, he’d already seen more than enough of the “ghost tourist trap” schtick. “You can give the “ghost” thing a rest Craig, I think I’ll be fine.” he said with a roll of his eyes.

Craig shrugged, “Alright Tommy, don’t say I didn’t warn you. You transplants never quite believe it at first anyway.”

“It’s Thomas.” Thomas said pointedly. Craig made a noncommittal noise before digging into his meal.

. . .

The next day it happened again. Thomas was working at his computer when his deskmate Maria leaned over the divider.

“Hey Tim, did you see the news this morning?” she asked excitedly.

Slightly irritated, Thomas looked up. “No, I didn’t. And it’s Thomas.”

Maria didn’t seem to hear him as she waved her hands around, “They got some footage of the fight between Phantom and that big metal ghost last night on the corner of Park Place and Amity Row! It looked so intense, and the big ghost is so cool looking!” She practically squealed the last words.

Thomas groaned and let his head fall back. “Look, I get it, you guys are pulling my leg, ‘ha-ha lets haze the newbie’ kind of stuff, but its getting old.”

Huffing, Maria crossed her arms. “How long have you been here now? Two weeks? You can’t tell me that you haven’t seen one of the ghosts yet! Hell, blob ghosts are so common I’m surprised one hasn’t popped into your yard yet” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Just hope you don’t encounter any big ones, you definitely don’t want to run into the Fenton’s with their tank-on-wheels.”

With a sigh and a shake of his head Thomas turned back to his work as Maria shrugged and did the same.

. . .

Thomas was getting fed up. Everyone kept talking about ghosts. “Phantom’s been seen here” and “The whisps have been really active lately” and all that crap. How long was everyone going to pull this? Not to mention that nobody wanted to call him anything but nicknames. Why was calling him Thomas so hard for them???

The last straw was his boss stopping by his desk an hour before quitting time.

“Hey Timbo, everyone on the floor is going to head over to the Mitty Boulevard Bistro after work for dinner, company’s treat. Want to join?” he said, leaning an arm on the desk divider.

Thomas’ eye twitched. “Yeah, sure that’s fine. And please. It’s Thomas.”

His boss smiled, “Great! Originally we were going to head over to the Mexican place on Park Place, but they’re closed for cleanup from that ghost fight last night.”

“Yeah! You can thank Phantom for that, honestly the Bistro is sooo good. I like Mexican food and all, but you gotta try the Bistro’s fries Tim!” Maria said, perking up from her seat.

Thomas had had it. “Ghosts this, ghosts that! I’m so sick of this! Just give it a rest already! And my name. Is. THOMAS. Not Tim, not Tommy, just Thomas!” he cried as he picked up his coat and lunch box. “If this is how all of you are going to treat me, then count me out of the dinner. Honestly I wish you guys would just cut it out already!”

Everyone in the office went deadly silent and stared at Thomas with wide eyes.

“Thomas,” began Maria, “you shouldn’t say that word. I’m sorry that we were teasing you so much about your name, but you really shouldn’t say that word.”

Thomas scoffed, “What word?”

Everyone looked around nervously, “The “w” word,” his boss said, “there’s a ghost who grants them, usually in the worst ways possible.”

Thomas threw his hands up in the air. “What, wish? Now you’re telling me that there’s a wish-granting ghost? If there was, I'd wish she’d make you all see sense right now because ghosts aren’t real!”

The office was deadly still and many held their breath. There was always a chance Desiree wasn’t around, but some still expected her to appear and grant the wish.

Instead the Box Ghost popped in out of nowhere, grabbed Thomas’ lunch box, shouted “BEWARE!”, and vanished.

Thomas could say he knew better now to pack his lunch in a bag.

#dannymay2024 #dannymay #danny phantom #amity park #box ghost #desiree #oc characters #wish is a forbidden word for a reason

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binaural-histolog · 11 months ago

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Zotoro, Scihub, and more Cool Hypnosis Papers

CW: severe nerdery

I don't have an academic background, and while I've been poking around at hypnosis nerdery for a while, I was limited to an extent by what I could get my hands on.

This is especially important when it comes to the academic texts. There's only so many books out there on theory, and a bunch of it doesn't make sense until you go back and read the actual papers.

For example, I knew that Kirsch had something to do with placebo and expectations, but I only had a vague understanding of what and how. A paragraph critique in Theories of Hypnosis wasn't enough to give me the proper context.

Until I decided I was going to rewrite the newbie guide to explain hypnosis from a modern neuroscience perspective and then I was committed to pulling the citations and digging up the actual papers.

At first I was doing it by hand by pasting things into Scihub and downloading the PDFs. This sort of worked, but at some point there are just too many PDFs and it's work to keep them consistent.

This is where Zotero comes in. It's a PDF database that is set up to scan for academic fields and give you a UI for finding, reading and annotating the PDFs. It syncs between MacOS, Windows, and iOS and keeps the annotations and highlights. And even better, it's got plugins.

Specifically, it's got a plugin for Scihub. You can add a DOI number and it'll pull the abstract data for the paper, and then you can right click and it'll download the paper from Scihub automatically.

It doesn't cover everything. Some stuff is too new for Scihub, and I've had to fallback to https://reddit.com/r/scholar to request articles, but there's so much stuff.

In particular, you get the sense of how academic papers can be a conversation, an argument, or a lawsuit. You get to see the most brutal putdowns phrased as passing comments. And the grudges and ego can go on for decades.

There are a couple of papers that I recommend everyone read, because they're just great at summarizing the field and current thinking.

The response set theory of hypnosis reconsidered: toward an integrative model

I love this paper not just because it goes over response expectancy theory from the inception to the general whittling down from "Once expectancy effects are eliminated, there may be nothing left" to response expectancy as 25%-35% of suggestibility and the addition of a "readiness response set" to cover the rest of it... but also because despite Kirsch's hand in response set theory and response expectancies and being in a journal issue devoted to Kirsch's career and achievements, he is not an author to this paper that is reconsidering his work. Instead, he gets a hand clap.

In closing, Irving Kirsch has greatly advanced our understanding of hypnosis. The construct of expectancies that he articulated and championed for decades has well withstood the test of time and replication. We extend our personal gratitude to him for his shaping influence on our personal views of hypnosis and for his many contributions to the field of hypnosis that he so immensely enriched.

I'm not sure what I'm looking at, but I love it.

How Hypnotic Suggestions Work – A Systematic Review of Prominent Theories of Hypnosis

This is a preprint, but it's comprehensive not just in how it picks out theories of hypnosis that are more recent than the book, but also in how it pokes holes and points out weak points in the various theories. It's also recent enough to talk about fun new things like predictive coding and interoception and somatosensory feedback.

Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness

Devin Terhune's papers are always good to read. His papers read like a story where every chapter builds on the last one. This one is a "synthesis of current knowledge regarding the characteristics and neurocognitive mechanisms of hypnosis" and I can't tell you how many times I've read through this paper by accident because I wanted to pick a point out of it and got sucked into it all over again.

#binauralhistolog #hypnosis #nerdery

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onyxsboxes · 6 months ago

Note

I haven't had the time to read the latest 100th Find Out which is a tragedy if you ask me but I hope to have the time to properly read and review it by wednesday ��️ In the meantime, I wanted to ask you, I think you mentioned somewhere that Wolf!Buck had some scars from fights, does he often get into fights? Are there any other Were in the Air Force or the RAF that he got into a fight with ?

Ps: I'm now stuck with the idea of Buck getting hurt in a fight and not being able to hide it because of his light fur and either Bucky finding him like that or Buck turning back into Human form to hide his wounds but Bucky still finding out. I swear I didn't mean for my whump tendencies to shine through like that 😭

Hi there, hope you are doing well.

Thank you for the ask 🥰

If you know how many new chapter notifications I still have to read…. 😅.

(I'm leaving the rest under the mark because it's longer than expected)

I think you're talking about this post and specifically this part: "He has scars: some date back to his childhood, the bite, and serious injuries he's accumulated over the years. Most of them are usually hidden under his clothes."

Gale doesn't get into many fights on his own. In fact, it's mainly because of Bucky and the 100th that he fights most often. Thankfully, he can be pretty intimidating effortlessly, so people back off pretty quickly when the tall, quiet leader stands up. When he fights however, pray you're not on the other side, because he knows how to fight, and viciously.

Were-people are not common. Because most were-types are territorial, they don't like to move around much. The army has the highest concentration of were-people, compared to the navy and air force.A large number of werewolves in a small area can quickly turn nasty, especially if it's a new werepeople. In support functions (administration, technical, logistics, etc.), they are much more numerous. In the air force/RAF, weres are mainly werebirds (they are very good meteorologists) and werecats but not a lot of them fly. Some werebirds even get airsick when they fly, because their bird parts go haywire when they're not changing while they are up there.

In the 100th group, Buck is the only were-people. This isn't unusual and doesn't bother him at all, because he keeps his distance from the others.

During his childhood, and especially after he was bitten, everyone watched him like a hawk, waiting for him to lose control, to make a mistake. The villagers wanted nothing more than to see him lose it, so they could justify their actions. That's also why he doesn't fight. Because to fight would mean losing control, proving them that he's dangerous, wild and untrustworthy (even if it's only in self-defense). But there are also things he won't let go of, things that break his resolve to prove them wrong. And that's when people attack what's his.

During the bar scene in episode 2, Buck almost gets into a fight with another were, but Curt takes the fight. During the training days, he got into several fights with people who spoke ill of Bucky (calling him a mutt and other degrading terms). Buck loses it, not because of the insults (which are bad, but to which he's unfortunately accustomed) but because they're talking about Bucky. People quickly learn that Bucky and the 100th are under his protection. Newbies learn not to talk about Bucky's dog-like behavior (werewolf to them) if they don't want to get on the wrong side of Major Cleven's wrath.

Oh whump, I love these. Don't worry, I've got plenty too.

In this au, the were-form also shows a psychological aspect. Someone can be in perfect health physically, but if they're not in good health psychologically, it will show on their were-form: dull coat, lost feather, lost hair, behaviors, ….. So for Gale, who always shows a strong front, Bucky can always tell when he's not well when he shifts.

I have two fic ideas about Gale's whump where he breaks down. For one the trigger is more physical and for the other more psychological (but for both there is an important psychological part). I'm still working out the details and writing, but part of these ideas is that Bucky finds out.

Hope the answer isn't too messy.

#thanks for the ask!#werewolf buck cleven #gale cleven #clegan #werewolf au #clegan werewolf au #mota #wait WHAT ?#talking about wait what #ask #mota au #alienoresimagines

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mariaofdoranelle · 2 years ago

Text

Look at Us Now — Ch. 2

Fic masterlist

Thank you for all the love on the first chapter!! I hope you like this update <33

Warnings: language, parents fighting, Fenrys

Rowan heard the chorus of Fenrys’ students before he even got to the place.

“Thank you… Moonbeam!”

He stopped for a second and then hurried up, curious to know what was going on in that class.

When Rowan graduated as an engineer, it didn’t even cross his mind that he’d end up working as a drill instructor for the Air Force. And liking it.

It started organically. His subordinates were trained well enough, but something was off with their coordination while marching, or sometimes they thought it was okay to show up with a stubble. Rowan was doing this job even before being offered the position, or so Colonel Darrow pointed out a few years ago.

It wasn’t what he’d planned for himself, but it worked out perfectly. Rowan was reaching the age of settling down. His cousin Sellene was currently facing a difficult pregnancy, and the thought of being deployed and leaving someone at home like that didn’t sit well with him. Instructing new recruits gave him the stability he wanted without having to leave the Air Force. It wasn’t perfect, but it was exactly what Rowan needed.

His current issue wasn’t the newbies, though. It was the instructor.

“Thank you… Moonbeam!”

Fenrys was sat on a chair, grinning like Hellas himself while all of his students were shouting “Thank you… Moonbeam!” while doing push-ups.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Rowan whisper-yelled so only Fenrys could hear.

His friend turned to him smiling, unfazed. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m training my little munchkins.”

Unbelievable.

Fenrys was fucking unbelievable.

“So you’re telling me that you borrowed my drive last minute for your class,” Rowan snarled, “Only to get here and teach my class instead?”

“But it’s the military! Exercising is everyone’s class.” He did a double-take on Rowan’s dissatisfied face and continued, “I went through hell as a newbie, it’s really fun to do the same to them. It’s a psychology thing, you should look it up online.”

“You’re supposed to be teaching them gun safety.” Rowan took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “Starting tomorrow, if I hear a word that you taught them something that doesn’t involve guns, and safety—“

“Okay, okay.” Fenrys waved him off. “There’s no need to snitch me to Salvaterre. Let me fix this.”

Before Rowan could stop him and say he didn’t have time left to start his actual class, Fenrys turned to the 40 new recruits who were still chanting Thank you, Moonbeam and shouted, “Okay, instead of my name, you’ll say Whitethorn. Now!”

“Thank you… Whitethorn!”

Rowan stared at them speechless. Whenever he thought Fenrys couldn’t be more unserious, his friend outdid himself.

“Thank you… Whitethorn!”

”That’s not what I asked you to do at all, Lieutenant.” Rowan added, a hint of resignation in his voice. Sometimes giving up was the smart thing when it came to Fenrys.

“You deserve it. By the way, did I tell you…” he trailed. “Fuck, I lost count. How many push-ups do you think they’ve done already?”

“One more reason you should stick to your job. You suck at doing mine.”

Fenrys chuckled. “You little shit.” Then turned to the recruits again. “Galathynius!” Fenrys shouted. “I want push-ups, jumping jacks and crunches. I want twen-“ He sneaked a glance at Rowan. “Thirty of each! You’re counting for me this time.”

“Yes, sir!”

Rowan’s whole body froze.

He knew that voice. Rowan had long, wet daydreams and nighttime fantasies about that same voice saying Yes, sir to him again, but in a completely different tone and situation. He never thought he’d see her again.

His heartbeat was going a mile a minute when he slowly turned around, and there she was. Fierce blue eyes already trained on him. Rowan forced himself to look back at Fenrys.

“Did you say Galathynius?”

“Oh, that’s what I was going to tell you!” His friend’s eyes sparkled like they did every time he had good gossip. “She’s the class’ nepo baby. Brigadier Galathynius’ niece.”

Oh, that’s great.

Fucking a student was completely against his moral code as an instructor, but Rowan wouldn’t blame himself since it happened before he knew anything. That student’s uncle happened to be the man with highest rank working inside this Air Force base, but if nothing happened in the six weeks following Aviator’s Ball, it wouldn’t happen now.

These weren’t Rowan’s biggest issue.

His biggest issue was wanting to do it again. Which was completely off-limits.

“Rowie, you listening?”

He wasn’t, and Fenrys knew that.

“Sure. Go on.”

“So I’m trying not to be too hard on her because I really want her to put in a good word for me—“

Rowan’s eyes bulged. “I cannot believe you’re giving her special treatment because of her connections to the brigadier—“

“What?” Fenrys barked a laugh. “No! I’m not giving her special treatment because of her great-uncle.” He tilted his head. “He kinda gives a daddy vibe, though… but I’m doing it because her boyfriend’s playing hard to get.”

Rowan could swear his heart stopped for a beat. “Her what?”

Fenrys let out a heavy sigh. “Her boyfriend, Dorian. Hottest man on earth. We matched on Tinder a few months ago. I just explained you the whole thing.”

Months ago. Plural. Which means they were already dating when Rowan slept with her.

Did Aelin use him to cheat on her boyfriend that night? Rowan had vivid memories of her saying she wasn’t married.

He sensed the building ache of his fingernails digging into his palms, hands clutching into a fist.

She didn’t exactly lie, but he felt as if she did.

Rowan should forget about Aelin and her boyfriend. They weren’t his problem.

“So he’s cheating on her?” Rowan asked.

Fenrys shrugged. “He told me they’re in an open relationship, but I don’t really care. If I’m nice, she’ll like me. If she likes me, she won’t mind me fucking her boyfriend.”

“I don’t think that’s how relationships work, Fenrys.”

Relationship. The word felt heavier than Rowan predicted before he said it.

“You have very little faith in what a pretty face and dazzling personality like mine can do, Rowie.”

Forcing himself to not slump his posture in front of the new recruits, Rowan just closed his eyes and lowered his head, rubbing one temple. He felt tired. He didn’t want to argue with Fenrys now about something as meaningless as this.

“Just give me the flash drive, Fen.”

He turned to the newbies again. “Galathynius! I need the flash drive on the desk near the door.”

Great.

If Rowan didn’t play his cards right, he’d have ten weeks of hell ahead of him. A lifetime, depending on which part of the Air Force Aelin was going to after her basic training.

Analyzing her stance now, she seemed a lot sharper the day they met. Recruit training did that to people, though, and the first few weeks always felt particularly ruthless.

Rowan had an extended hand, ready to get this over with, when she shook it.

She shook his hand instead of giving him the flash drive.

Rowan dropped her hand as if it’d burned him.

“Ten on the floor.”

Aelin blinked. “What?”

“Ten push-ups on the floor, Galathynius! Now!” Rowan shouted.

He was right on track, considering this is the same treatment he usually gave to the other recruits. She was supposed to salute him, not make physical contact. These were the rules, and tough was part of the job. Rowan wasn’t teaching children, he didn’t need to be soft.

Aelin didn’t think so, from what he saw as she rose up from the floor. Her fierce eyes were burning into him, eyebrows scrunched.

Rowan would be lying if he said it didn’t send a thrill through his spine.

He didn’t acknowledge it, though. Just grabbed his flash drive and left.

He had been dreaming about another man’s girlfriend. For six weeks. It didn’t sit well with him. Staying the hell away from Aelin Galathynius. That’s what he needed to do.

Rowan flexed his hand, still feeling her touch against it.

Today’s reaction was just the shock of seeing her again, ignoring Aelin would be easy. If he kept it together, he could finish these ten weeks and walk out like this never happened.

“Look, Dada, I ate all the broccoli.”

Rowan kissed the crown of his daughter's head, trying to give her attention while low-key freaking out. "Well done, Mai."

He had completely forgotten to buy Maisie's strawberry yoghurt. Should he go to the store with her and destroy today’s sleeping routine? Ask to borrow some from Aelin's and destroy his pride? Or maybe not get the yoghurt at all and destroy his sanity tomorrow morning, when she inevitably throws a tantrum.

The latter wasn't an option, though. Mais already had a hard time before going to school, she deserved that strawberry yoghurt.

"Daddy, the ice cream?" she asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

Maisie sighed, as if she was explaining something obvious. "I was a good girl and ate all the vegetables. Now you give me ice cream."

Aelin.

This new rule had Aelin Galathynius written all over it.

Rowan took a deep breath. “Mais…” he trailed, trying to think of a good way to explain this to her. “I can’t give you ice cream every time you eat your vegetables. It’s not good for your body.”

"Daddy."

"What?"

"That's not showing love."

Rowan pinched his lips together, somewhere between frustrated and amused. Getting cranky on a sugar withdrawal and arguing with him. Her mother’s daughter through and through.

"I don't even have ice cream here, Mais."

"We can walk to Mommy's. She always has ice cream.”

He knew it.

Maisie crossed her arms. "I'm going to count to three. One... two... Don't let me get to three, or...”

"Or...?" Rowan raised an eyebrow.

Maisie's little green eyes drifted around as she thought of an answer, then she shouted, "Or I'll call you!"

It was like time had stopped, his chest feeling tighter each millisecond.

I’ll call you.

He and Aelin argued about their calls every week, but he was so careful about not letting their daughter listen to their fights. How in hell did she pick up on that?

"Honey, I'm home!" A familiar voice sing-sang from the living room, making Maisie leave the kitchen running.

Rowan relaxed for a minute, sighing. This wouldn't solve any of his issues, but it was enough to distract his daughter from the ice cream issue.

He could hear Maisie squealing before he got to the living room. Fenrys was checking the mail Rowan left on a side table while Dorian gave Mais his trademark bear hug.

“You need to change your address at work,” Rowan quietly complained as they watched Dorian pretend to wrestle Maisie and roar like a bear while she shrieked with laughter.

It took Rowan a long time to adjust to Dorian being around, but as Aelin always says, every kid needs a cool, rich uncle with no kids. He was good with Maisie, so Rowan sucked it up until he got used to it.

“You know I won’t,” Fenrys finally answered.

Rowan looked at his friend dead in the eye. “You’ll come here to get your mail for the rest of your life?”

“You’re so dramatic, Rowie.”

“You moved out years ago.”

“And you love my visits,” Fenrys cheered. “So does your little munchkin.”

Well, Rowan had begrudgingly accepted that Fenrys wouldn’t change his address at work before he retired. But Maisie? She loved those two idiots. Probably because they had the same level of maturity as her.

An idea struck Rowan, so he quickly gripped Fenrys’ arm and leaned closer.

“Do you think you can watch Maisie for a minute?” Rowan quietly asked. “I just need to get her yoghurt—“

“Babe, we’re babysitting tonight!” He screamed to Dorian, then crouched on Maisie’s direction. “Munchkin, why don’t you show me your new toys?”

Rowan had no expectations of those two making Maisie follow through her nighttime routine, but this would do. He quickly thanked Fenrys and Dorian, then left to the store closest to the Air Force housing complex he lived in.

Since Maisie was relatively well-assisted, he decided to wander through the aisles and get a thing or another that was also running out.

Rowan could swear he saw a very familiar blur of golden hair, but it was gone before he knew it.

He was thinking about getting some new foods and seeing if Maisie accepted them. He’d recently found a pediatric dietitian online that gave great advice—

Right there, examining every bottle of wine available.

He frowned. Why was Aelin buying wine on a Thursday? Did she have plans for the weekend? That couldn’t be, this was her turn to spend the weekend with Maisie.

Rowan was ready to go talk to her and talk about today’s ice cream issue, but he saw her peeking at him from the corner of her eye and focusing back on the wine.

Oh. That’s how it’s going to be, then.

Well, Rowan didn’t care. She didn’t want to talk to him? Fine. He was busy anyway. They would talk tomorrow after pick up.

He went to the cereal aisle. He got Maisie’s favorite, but what if he tried giving her a more nutritious one?

He started reading the nutrition facts. Picks one up, too much sodium, puts it down. Picks another one, too little vitamins and minerals, puts it down as well.

“Tough choice, huh?”

“Sure.”

This one seemed nice. It also helped that there were some cartoon animals on the box, so—

Rowan felt a hand gently stroking his arm, which made him jerk it away and snap his gaze to the person next to him. A woman. Pale blond hair, pale blue eyes.

“Do you need help to choose?” She asked.

Rowan relaxed. She probably worked here, even though she wasn’t wearing the staff uniform. Maybe something happened with it? He tried to remember himself that some work environments were a lot more forgiving than the military.

“I’m trying to choose a cereal.”

“I always pick that one,” she said before pointing at a box near them.

Organic, vegan and gluten-free. There was no ice cream in the world that could make Maisie eat that.

Rowan grimaced. “I’m not sure my daughter would like this one. I’m actually between these.” He showed her the two boxes and its nutrition facts.

“You have a kid. Cute.” She sneaked her hand on his arm again. What was wrong with the staff today? “Let me show you something…”

Then the inappropriate employee showed him an app that scanned the bar code and rated the food from zero to one hundred.

Rowan’s eyes widened.

This was fucking genius.

He thanked the woman and started scanning everything.

She stayed close for a while, then went away once she was sure Rowan was well-assisted by the app.

Right now, Rowan was no better than Maisie when she got a new toy. How had he never read about this app?

He scanned some to decide, and others just to be judgmental and prove his point. He knew those colorful little things were worse than sugar cubes. He should tell Lorcan know about this app—

“Where’s Maisie?”

Aelin snapped him out of his thoughts, squinting at him with crossed arms.

Oh, she wanted to talk to him now?

“At home. With Dorian and Fenrys.”

She looked unimpressed. “Well, I didn’t know you liked to leave your child to flirt with other women.”

“Are you kidding me?” His mouth opened, then closed again. “I was talking to an employee.”

Aelin’s eyebrows rose up. “You want me to believe that? She clearly doesn’t work here!”

Rowan frowned. Was Aelin telling the truth? The arm thing was weird, maybe she was trying to flirt. Over cereal?

“You know what? I’ll tell you if you tell me what’s all this wine for.” He pointed to her small cart.

“I do not need to tell you what I’m doing during my days off!”

She only wanted him to question what she was doing on her days with Maisie? Sure, he’d do exactly that. “Fine. Then at least tell me why does Maisie think she will get ice cream every time she eats vegetables.”

“Because she’s a kid! She’ll try anything to make you do what she wants.”

Rowan crossed his arms. “You’re telling me you have nothing to do with that?”

Her mouth fell open. “That’s exactly why I don’t want to talk to you between pick-ups. I need a fucking break.”

Rowan let out an incredulous laugh. “A break from your daughter?”

“No, a break from you.”

Rowan pinched the bridge of his nose. Of course. How could he ever forget that Aelin needed space because he was the cause of all her issues?

“Could you please…” he breathed deep. “Just please, give her less ice cream?”

She inched closer. “Could you please, just please, not question the way I take care of my child every fucking day?”

“I don’t—“

“Yes, you do! She’s four-year-old girl who threw a tantrum because she wants ice cream. It’s not rocket science.”

Rowan looked away for a second, trying to calm down and talking in a gentle tone this time. “Okay, but maybe she wouldn’t do such a big tantrum if she had healthier dessert.”

Aelin frowned. “Healthy dessert?”

“Yeah, like grapes, watermelon—“

“FRUIT? You’re giving Maisie fruit and telling her it’s dessert!?”

“Fruit is dessert.”

“When it’s on top of a pie, Rowan.” Aelin’s eyes bulged like he’d just told her the most absurd thing.

Rowan bit his lip, trying not to laugh at her observation. They had talked about this many times already, and he still didn’t know if he found her stubbornness on this subject more comical or frustrating. Probably the latter, at least depending on the day.

He glanced at his phone. Fuck, it was so late. Time really flies with that food-ranking app.

“I have to go now, but I’ll call you—“

Aelin shook her head. “Personal space. Boundaries. We just talked about that.”

Rowan pinched his lips together, then remembered Maisie’s words from earlier. I’ll call you.

“Tomorrow after pick up, then?”

“Sure.” Aelin nodded and went away.

He did a mental note to see if someone could watch Maisie tomorrow evening. They’d probably end up having a huge fight about needing to have fewer fights. It’d be a shitshow.

The real shitshow was getting Maisie to go to bed, though. At least that was how Rowan felt when he was finally ringing Aelin for her goodnight call with Mais. He didn’t know what felt heavier, his limbs or his eyelids.

After grocery shopping, Rowan arrived home to the loudest state his home has ever been. Maisie’s squeals sounded louder than the TV. There was half-eaten chocolate in the couch. Fenrys was holding Maisie by one arm and one leg, spinning her sideways by the sound of *You Spin Me Round* while Dorian filmed everything.

Right before bedtime.

Rowan immediately felt his stomach fold into a tight knot inside.

This was every parent’s nightmare.

The rest of the evening went on exactly the way Rowan predicted the moment he stepped his foot into the house.

Maisie didn’t want Fenrys and Dorian to go. She cried when Rowan told her it was time to wind down and stop playing. Her uncles told him they didn’t bring the chocolate, but Maisie refused to tell him where she got it from.

By the time Rowan almost literally wrangled his daughter into bed, he was afraid he’d sleep in her tiny bed during story time before she did. It happened before.

He was now outside Maisie’s bedroom, giving her privacy with her mom. Aelin would complain about his calls the whole week, but Rowan was a dead man if he didn’t call her to say good night to her daughter.

“Daddy?” Maisie had her hand outstretched when he peeked into the room. “Mommy wants to talk to you.”

Rowan forced himself not to sigh, squared his shoulders and grabbed that phone. An officer going into battle.

He felt too drained to have another fight.

“Just so you know, I don’t give her ice cream every day.” Aelin’s voice sounded a little too quiet, or maybe it sounded like this to him because she wasn’t screaming.

He relaxed. ”Okay. Good.”

“I don’t keep track of how many times I give her ice cream, but it’s probably a lot less than you think.”

“That’s good to know. Thanks.” Rowan meant it. Not knowing or not being able to control some things left him more uneasy than he’d like to admit. Aelin probably knew that.

The silence stretched a little, and he tried to figure out if there was something else he needed to warn Aelin about.

“Good. Rowan, I need to—“

“I found some illicit chocolate today,” Rowan interrupted. “I think Maisie found your new stash.”

Aelin sighed. “That kid is outsmarting me.”

“She is.” He snorted.

“Rowan.”

“What?”

“I need to go.”

“Sure. See you at the pickup.”

“‘Kay, bye.” She hung up when the silence stretched for too long.

Rowan put his phone down and managed to lay on Maisie’s tiny bed. She hugged him, but only settled after squirming a little.

“I miss Mommy.”

“You’ll see her tomorrow.” It was a common thing, Maisie missing one parent while staying with the other. The trick was to acknowledge his daughter’s feelings, but not prompting her further enough to start a meltdown.

“She gives better cuddles.”

Curious, he chuckled and asked, “Is that so?” He’d never not be amused at his daughter’s bluntness.

Maisie nodded. “Mommy’s all squishy and comfortable.” Then she poked his abs so hard he grimaced.

He wasn’t focusing on Maisie’s sudden show of strength, though. He was currently fighting the wave of nostalgia flooding him after his daughter’s comment. Rowan used to know Aelin’s body like a kid knows their favorite toy, and he wouldn’t call it squishy. It must’ve changed after the pregnancy. He wouldn’t know.

He forced himself to focus back on Maisie, who was still frowning with her head laying on his chest.

“You can’t comment on your mom’s body like this, Mais.”

Her frown deepened. “But she comments on mine!”

Rowan held on a sigh. She was a very argumentative little girl, this one. Much like her mother. The ‘but she’s your parent’ explanation was never well-received, so he had to try another tactic.

“But she’s a doctor. She can comment on people’s bodies, it’s her job.”

“I don’t like it when she says I have baby cheeks. I’m not a baby.”

Rowan snorted. “So you’re reading on your own like a big girl tonight?”

Her eyes went wide. “Daddy, you’re mean! I can’t read.”

He chuckled and kissed that light blonde hair. “What am I reading to you, then?”

“No reading!” She exclaimed, “I want a story from your head.”

Rowan hummed and scratched the back of his neck, stalling. God, he was terrible at this.

“There was a family of birds—“

“Doggies.”

“Okay, doggies. There was a family of doggies. There was the Mama Doggie, the Dadda Doggie and Doggie.”

“Doggie needs a name, Daddy.”

“Okay, the dog’s name is—“

“Fleetfoot. Now tell me the rest of the story.”

And Rowan would do, if Maisie hadn’t slept halfway through it.

Which left him time to think about his day. And Aelin. And how they needed to talk about what Maisie said today during dinner. Rowan already knew what he had to do, though. He needed to distance himself from Aelin. Boundaries, like she always says. Forget about the fact that this had already been his goal for a good part of the last five years.

TAG LIST

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#rowaelin #throne of glass fanfic #throne of glass #aelin x rowan #aelin galathynius #rowan whitethorn #rowan and aelin #look at us now #enemies to lovers

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djpachipikachu · 4 months ago

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omgomg i’m so interesting in you usagi/tmnt iteration!!!

okok first what’s like.. the starting point/inciting incident of the story if there is one?

second what are the characters personalities/inerests like?

HAIIII excitedly kicking my legs

the start of the main plot is when usagi goes back in time and is forced into the tmnt’s era of time ,,, he accidentally comes across an ancient relic in the woods with spot (these woods are made of massive ancient trees with equally expansive entangled roots , like if the ocean itself had been a forest instead of filled with water it is kinda horrifying) and it takes him and spot back to the tmnt era , before the relic itself was even created

i do plan on making a comic for this so it wont start out immediately like that but itll have some like . oneshots/episodic comics of usagi’s adventures before that happens, similar to usagi yojimbo’s way of storytelling

PERSONALITIES!!!! WEEHEEE!!!!!

usagi:

most similar to usagi yojimbo, a mature but still like . silly kinda guy ! in the usagi era he takes joy in chatting with people he meets on his travels, incredibly polite, loves to tell stories of myths and gods to children

although most of his days are spent alone with spot , his steed (spot is like horse sized)

he tends not to attach to people or things very much because he knows how easy it is to lose everything, so as much as he enjoys talking to people, he keeps his distance.

he doesnt dedicate himself to being a hero or anything … he will help if he feels people need the help but all hes really trying to do is survive on his own

hes basically like a formless side character . forced bystander in this story

its for the character development i promise

leo:

cold

hes the leader/general of an army, a bit harsh in his personality, doesnt want to be approachable or get close with anyone

hes stern and quiet and kind of a workaholic, his brothers think he needs a life outside of being a leader and Only a leader

tired ! so very tired !

a lot of shit that he internalizes

however a very strong leader and strategist, he is well trusted by those who follow him and they know that his main priority is to get everyone out Alive, more than fight for their cause

he protects fiercely , just insanely bad at showing it . the worst at social things out of all his brothers easily

forced to be an adult at a young age so he never rly got the chance to form a personality outside of his responsibilities

she likes reading in her lonesome though

raph:

PASSIONATE ! ABOUT MANY THINGS !

theyre the sibling that goes out the most and interacts with people on personal levels the most out of everyone ! they have a good rep in the general yokai public !

they do have problems with anger but a lot of the time they channel it into training newbie recruits , the main motivational speaker , they know how to encourage and pump ppl up

a bit recklessly bouncy in how they fight, imagine rottmnt mikey’s energy with mutant mayhem raph’s enjoyment of fighting

the most down to earth out of all their siblings . arguably the most mentally stable out of necessity

they love feeding pigeons and they teach lion dancing to a children’s dance group in the city !

donnie:

obnoxiously gen z . good god . insanely chronically online . most similar to mutant mayhem donnie

he doesnt go out like whatsoever Partially bc he has chronic fatigue syndrome and its easier for him to just stay home, partially bc his brothers are over protective of him and dont want him fighting in the war

so he helps from afar, piloting drones, targeting firearms into battle, building gear for everyone

he likes engaging in arguments online . most exciting thing to him . little fuckass teenager this guy

kendra is his worst online enemy and rival but also like . his only friend . rly sad . joking is his coping mechanism

he loves researching and learning things, it takes up most of his time when he finds a topic to extensivelt research and take notes on

his main interests are the usual coding, engineering, etc As well as the inner workings of mystic power

mikey:

most sociable next to raph !! a very altruistic spirit

he’s most similar to idw mikey i think , most upbeat and relaxed kinda nature !

However . he’s not at all as emotionally aware as any other iteration mikey

he’s very strong in his opinions, stubborn about being right, can very easily fall into a black and white point of view about things, its hard to get thru to him

he loves to dance the most, its how he uses his mystic power

whew okay yeah they might not be the Most accurate bc im still ironing out the main traits but here they areee

#dj ramblings #tmnt #tmnt iteration #tmnt fan iteration #asks 4 dj #uuau

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lunamkardas · 1 month ago

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COZY GAME?

So last night I saw this really cute looking farm sim game, yes another one, called Grimshire. It's just a demo but the pixel art is charming and it seems really interesting. So far you can only be a bunny or a fox so I picked bunny.

Game opens with a boat horn sounding. I and some random goat lady have been rescued from The Capital where Some Shit Is Going Down and we are both unconscious, dragged to safer shores by an otter named Fin. He lets the town know shit's going down and he's going back out on his boat to see if he can get more info.

We get taken to the town healer and I'm just a little banged up but fine. Goat lady is hurt much worse so she's going to take longer to wake up.

Day 1 Basic "hey welcome to town here's a run down farm house for you to live in new dude, we'd really appreciate it if you contributed to the town's root cellar by growing some stuff" tutorial. Quickly followed by the "You should talk to all 26 people in town newbie!"

They got a small town/hamlet version of Animal crossing's museum thing going on so any stuff I forage or catch for the first time can go there.

They gave me a pump and water pipes straight off the bat so it was SO MUCH easier getting the watering down for my baby farm.

Holy shit fishing is so much easier than Stardew valley my god I love it.

Day 2

Goat lady died in the night from her wounds.

None of us knew her name. The town burned her atop the mountain peak with all in attendance.

Everyone is pretty down about it. Some people mention they hope Fin gets back with news, especially since him and his boat are such an important part of their food supply because they're an island.

My eyes lock onto the root cellar and then to the previously mildly annoying but NOW VERY IMPORTANT game mechanic of food spoiling.

I immediately start selling everything I own including the swank new bed and bookcase I got for collecting specimens and begin rapid fire purchasing as many drying racks as possible, throwing every fish, fruit and mushroom I find onto them to start stocking up.

Day 3

Normal day of collecting and throwing stuff onto the drying racks. Selling junk to buy more drying racks. The game refuses to tell me how to make them myself.

Get a crack at the mines which has an interesting quirk where you actually mine out the rock from the walls and if you remove too much of the supporting walls it can cause a cave in. Also you can very easily find the ladder to lower levels, which I appreciate.

Learned how to make more pipes to improve my pumps range.

Did some logging for the woodcutter. Mining for the Smith.

Day 4

The Mayor and his assistant come get me and start walking me through the root cellar tutorial while telling me that they will no longer be expecting me to pay ANY TAXES under the circumstances. (Waaaaay ahead of you dudes I already pieced together I'm now the most important person on this island and I am panicking a little bit because I'm pretty sure Covid just entered your reality and thank FUCK we burned Goat lady.)

Thank you kindly can I PLEASE get back to foraging and fishing and drying so I can keep both herbivores and carnivores alive while we Quarantine.

Healer lady and her assistant had the same idea about us suddenly being cut off from the outside world. No one's saying 'disease' yet but I have my suspicions.

Anyhoo they put the town up to a vote over what we should build, a new medicine herb garden she definitely knows how to maintain and use or a mushroom hut to alleviate the island hamlet's food needs even though no one on the island knows the first thing about mushrooms.

I am sitting on a fucking throne of fish jerky and dried fruit/veg. WE ARE MAKING THE HERBAL GARDEN.

The other villagers agree and I immediately bum rush the donation box and slam all the wood and rocks we need into it.

Day 5 Herbal Garden is complete and Healer lady is excited to start researching new medicines.

I am desperately mining as much copper as I can to make more water pipes because I only have so much energy each day and I can't be wasting it watering 30 plants.

I also start planting the tree seeds I've been shaking out so I can have fruit trees. Fishing is easy but the island has both carnivores and herbivores and the plant supply is harder to come by every day plus Drying takes Time.

Day 6 The town gathers because Fin is FINALLY back with news!

It ain't covid.

The Capital is Gone and most of the other landlocked population centers are too.

But they weren't empty.

It's Zombies.

It's Zombies and the only places that still exist are boarded up and armed to the teeth refusing all entry or trade because it's ZOMBIES.

Thank FUCK we burned Goat Lady.

10/10 I need this shit now

#Cozy Game #Farming Sim #wtf #inject this into my veins

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flowerandblood · 1 year ago

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You put many thoughts on how complicated your characters are? Lemme tell you what no one from echo chamber called your blind fans won't ever come up to: they are not. Let's take lady B. She is this girl who her father treats like a son but that's where her symilarities to Arya stop. She is weak, doesn't know how to fight (whether with sword or with her schemes), unable to defy Aemond at anything, ends up manipulated every single time, has no idea how to use her feminine charm to get him to do what she wants, generally speaking as someone who is described as being raised in not typical manner for westeros girls she is just astonishingly idiotic, not to mention how you constantly present her as object, sexualise her, give her no agency besides Aemond's sex toy and her story is not heartwarming at all. It's just another story about naive girl being used by her husband in medieval society, the same as many popular aemond fics writers have done before. Honestly do you all consult each other and collectively decide to write the same thing with only changing oc's house (Baratheon/Targaryen/Strong/Velaryon) and keeping the plot the same or you just shamelessly copy each other's ideas for stories and present them as your own when there could be found lots of fics similar to yours in terms of the plot both on tumblr and ao3? I'm aware you could have newbie's reading your stories so they won't notice this, but I have been reading Aemond's fics since the show aired and unfortunately for you I have good memory and when I think of our fics I am reminded of at least 5 with Baratheon reader written before you started to write your own. Should I report you to all this wonderful people who have been there before you of your behaviour or will you come clean and say your stories are inspired by certain fics? Or should I send you fics who are nearly the same as your own so everyone will see what a terrible liar and even worse copist are you?

Okay, this is ridiculous.

Lady B - she should use her charm, but not in the sexual way. So in which way? Smile to him??? He should say not to Aemond and do what? Got hit in the face? She can fight, and she is not Arya. She doesn't want to be boy, she is just close with her brother and father. She wasn't prepare for her role as a wife. She try to survive ad best as she can. 🥲

Are kidding me? Baratheon fem! Reader belongs to first person who write fic with Baratheon female character or what? Of course the same themes and characters will appear, it's the same universe for Christ sake. I didn't read any fic with Baratheon fem before writing my fic and you know what? Send my fic to anyone you want and tell them whatever you want. What you're saying is just babbling, because I know that not a single sentence was copied from anyone. 😘

You won't threat me in my space. Why you're reading my fics if you don't like them? I'm surprised you have energy to write bullshit like that and think that you will make me sad. I have more readers than ever, more and more every day and I'm happy that some of them are waiting for new chapters from me. As for you - read fics by your favorite writers and block me instead of write to me anons like a coward. 💐

#kisses

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taomyou · 1 year ago

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The Romance of Reimbursements - Chapter 1

Pairing: Levi Ackerman x Reader Status: COMPLETED Summary: There’s a guy you see every Friday on bus 143, and you think he’s pretty hot. It wouldn't hurt to tell your best friend about him, would it? or, you and Levi take the same bus home from work every Friday, and you fall in love slowly, clumsily, and with all the time in the world to fold as many paper stars as your heart desires. Word Count: 5.3k Tags: slow burn, friends to lovers, modern au, office au, fluff, romance, meet-cute, matchmaking

(A/N: this fic is already completed and entirely available on ao3 here if you would like to read it. i am currently in the process of crossposting everything to tumblr, so please be patient!)

Chapter Navigation Accompanying Playlist

a bird keychain

“Thank you for helping me today! Have a good weekend,” Armin beams at you, sending you off with a wave.

You shoot him a small smile and a wave back before turning on your heel to go for the door. On the way out, you keep your briefcase tucked under your left arm as you wave with both hands to the rest of the people still on the floor.

Once the door behind you is shut and you’re out of your coworkers’ view, you let a smaller, more bashful smile break out on your face as you make your way over to the elevator. Your shoulders loosen up, and you find yourself taking lighter steps. Your arms are swinging freely, not paying any mind to how idiotic you might look. Ordinarily, you'd be walking normally when you clock out, so what has you acting so different today?

Well, it’s Friday, and Friday is when that guy on your bus is there.

✰

You first saw him in September, right around when Armin, Eren, and Mikasa started at your firm.

You remember Erwin begging you to give up your parking spot for Armin; it wasn’t hard to forget when the tall, usually levelheaded man got on his literal knees to ask you to find a different ride to the firm. You worked at a fairly busy downtown building with its own parking structure, but it wasn’t big enough to hold both client and employee cars.

Erwin was only able to negotiate a number of spots for your department, and, even then, most of them were reserved for clients. Erwin reasoned that Armin drove Eren and Mikasa to work, so it would be more logical for a spot to be given to them instead of having you, who drove only yourself, own it.

At the time, you didn’t know them all that well yet. They were freshly hired interns, the lot of them, and you had only worked with Mikasa so far. You were inclined to refuse Erwin, but seeing him on his knees was so… pathetic, and so you found yourself giving him a polite smile and saying you'd try to figure out a new ride.

Part of you also felt bad because Armin had already gotten ticketed 5 times by city security for parking at a client parking spot, and Mikasa had already asked you on several occasions where Armin could park without getting fined (to which you told her, "I don't know any better than you do. Before I got my parking space, I got so many parking tickets that I just stopped counting them.")

You and Erwin weren’t super close. Friends, sure, but you never interacted much outside of work. He was your work superior, and even if he was kind and cordial with you, he was like that with everyone. Perhaps he was more so with you because you were an intern around the same time he was starting out after coming from a different firm.

As the two “newbies,” the two of you would eat lunch together in the breakroom when the other coworkers got into heated arguments about workplace politics on the main floor. You'd eat in silence for a bit to ease out the stress from work, but you’d both talk about random things you did over the weekend when you had extra time before you had to go back to your desks.

You didn’t really peg him as the sort of guy to be into Gundam building, but most of the stories he told you from these small lunch breaks were about what figures he had in progress at home or how hard it was to find a certain model he wanted. You usually talked about the new recipe you tried that weekend or what you had planned for the next week, and he seemed as interested as he could for a guy who knew next to nothing about baking.

Back then, you always brought food from the family-owned Chinese takeout place across the street because... well, you were a struggling grad student without enough time to make lunch for yourself to bring. You'd make little paper stars for Erwin with the chopstick wrappers you got there whenever you saw him after lunch (even when you didn't eat together).

He found it odd at first, but you explained that they were good luck charms (and that you had a habit of folding them for people any time you got your hands on a long strip of paper).

It was a peaceful thing—what you two had going on.

Just two coworkers who ate lunch and talked to each other sometimes. That went on for a long time until those others coworkers went on to other departments or other firms, and the two of you were promoted into your respective positions now and got too busy to have lunch anywhere besides your desks.

Well, more like he got promoted and you were hired full-time after graduation.

And even though there was less time for the two of you to talk like before, when he first showed you his new office, you didn't miss the small jar of white-with-red-lettering paper stars sitting at the edge of his work desk.

Either way, no matter how tight you were with Erwin, you were left without a parking spot now.

He practically leapt to his feet in joy when you said you’d at least try to find a way around it, and he apologized profusely for asking you to give up your spot. He knew you lived relatively far since you had to drive 30 minutes to get to work everyday, so he promised to get you an unlimited-use pass for the bus if you weren’t able to find a ride at the firm, which you took him up on, not wanting to bother your other coworkers with the inconvenience of picking you up from a neighborhood far from the building.

He also promised to give you a spot as soon as he was able to negotiate another one for the department, and you forced him to link pinkies with you to seal the deal.

Now, you weren’t inexperienced taking the bus.

You took it every day in university, only getting a car the summer before your first year in law school. Even if it had been 5 years since then, you figured it wouldn’t be any different. Erwin did promise he’d get you a spot again soon, and you knew him to be a man of his word.

Besides, gas prices were crazy—maybe you’d be better off giving your wallet a break for a while.

The day you first took bus 143, you were wearing an outfit you wouldn’t normally wear to work.

Erwin was the only superior working in the office that day, seeing as the others were off at some conference in the next town over, and he was fine with you wearing whatever you wanted to—within reason, of course. You had on a nice pink two piece blazer and skirt, as well as a white blouse underneath it.

You also remember your outfit because Petra, another one of your coworkers, complimented your outfit and asked if the two of you could go clothes shopping together sometime. You promised to invite her the next time you went out shopping, remembering that she was nearing her first anniversary with her boyfriend Oluo (who worked on the floor above you), and that she’d maybe want your help choosing an outfit.

On the walk to the bus stop, you weren’t nervous at all.

You already looked over the bus route several times at work during your breaks. It was quite the convenient route—you only needed to take one bus, and your apartment was only a 5 minute walk from the stop after the 45-minute ride.

You spent the earlier parts of the week at another office in a different building (with actual parking) because Erwin had sent you to handle some business there, so that explained why you didn’t have to take the bus until the tail end of the week. You had breakfast with Hange that Friday, so you didn’t have to figure out the logistics of actually getting to work since they dropped you off, but you’d figure it out next week.

"Get home safe! Text me when you're home!" They yelled for you through their rolled-down window.

It was good that you waited until Friday to try the bus anyway. You got out early on Fridays, so if you took the wrong bus or got off at the wrong stop, there would still be time to figure out the right way to get home. You were hardly worried about it, but it was nice to know that the sun would still be out if you ended up stranded.

You checked the time on your phone; 3:02 PM. You heard the screech of the tires seconds later, and you went to scan the card Erwin gave you earlier that week.

Well, curse you for thinking the ride would be normal.

It wasn’t until you actually got on the bus that you felt nervous.

After you settled into your seat and put your briefcase on your lap, you saw an admittedly really hot guy sitting right across from you.

He was clad in a neat suit, not unlike the ones the men at your work wore. He had a neat pair of cuff links pinned on his dress shirt and what looked like a watch peeked out from under his sleeve. His hair was trimmed neatly in an undercut, and it looked so impossibly soft and shiny. And even though he was looking down at his phone, you could still see his face quite well. His lips were downturned, his features were sharp and strong, and, worst of all...

His eyes were gorgeous.

They looked to be some shade of blue. Maybe even grey? Silver? You hadn’t even seen them fully yet, and your heart was already starting to race.

You didn’t even want to imagine how you would feel if you made eye contact with him.

You didn’t need to be knocked out of your staring. You knew it would be weird to stare any longer than you already had been, so you busied yourself on your phone while fighting off the blush you felt blooming on your face.

You occasionally stole glances at him throughout the ride, pretending that you were looking out the window he sat in front of, but your eyes never lingered on him for fear of getting caught. He never seemed to look back up at you though, so maybe he didn’t care that you were even there in front of him.

You were grateful for your choice in outfit, since you felt quite pretty in it—you wouldn't want such a handsome stranger to think you had poor fashion taste. Not that he probably cared. He didn't seem to look in your direction at all.

You were grateful he didn't look at you. Well... some part of you was grateful he didn't.

You had gotten bored of switching between the random games you had on your phone, so you took note of his bag. You were so entranced by his face that you hadn't even taken a look at his backpack yet, almost 30 minutes after you got on the bus in the first place.

It wasn't unlike the one you used in university and grad school—simple, black, practical.

What caught your eye, however, was a bird keychain looped onto the outermost zipper. It looked like some sort of white dove, but you didn't know anything about birds, really, so you couldn't guess what kind it was.

It was... cute. It didn't seem to really match him, but you suppose it added to the mystery of him. Maybe his girlfriend gave it to him? It seemed like it could be part of a matching set.

Before your brain could even wrap itself around the idea that this stranger could've been already taken, the bus stopped at 3:40 PM, and he got up from his seat, and left the bus without so much as a sound.

The rest of the ride was a bit of a haze.

You remember you got off the bus 2 stops later, walked the short route to your apartment, and put down your briefcase at your dining table after opening the door. You walked over to your cupboard and grabbed a mug, then you moved over to the fridge to take out a chilled pitcher of water you had in there. As you filled the mug, you felt a quiet bloom in your chest.

In the privacy of your own home, you finally let the blush you’ve been fighting finally reach your face in full, and it seemed that even your cold water couldn’t cool you off. After taking off your heels, you went over to the bathroom to start taking off your makeup.

The first time you looked in the mirror after taking bus 143, your face was alarmingly red.

What was up with you? You saw attractive men all the time, and you'd never been this flustered before. It had to be the mystery of a stranger, right? You splashed water onto your face, trying to calm down your burning cheeks. Hell, even your ears were red.

After you removed your makeup and got dressed in some home clothes, you plopped yourself down on your couch and groaned. This wasn’t you. You weren’t one to even care for looks all that much in partners, and you were all hot for a guy you didn’t even get to make eye contact with.

You decided then that the stranger on bus 143 would be someone you didn't think of outside of the 40 minute-ish ride you just shared. You’d probably never even see him again anyway.

And you were right. You didn’t see him that following Monday. Not on the ride to work, not on the ride home.

When you didn’t see him on Tuesday, you figured he would just be gone forever, and he could stay someone you could form an answer around if someone asked what your type was.

Truth be told, you probably didn’t even have a type. Your university days were filled with LSAT cramming and trying to figure out where you wanted your life to go, and when you got into law school, the academic rigor was too much for you to even consider having a crush on someone. Now, as a practicing attorney, you were able to relax a tiny bit, and you certainly had more time than when you were a student, but you didn’t have any particular interest in dating. People were attractive, sure, but that had more to do with their charms than it did their appearance.

The week continued as normal, with Erwin popping by your desk more than usual to ask about how it’s been taking the bus. He sounded just about ready to give up his own spot given how guilty he sounded, but you reassured him that he was probably the only person in the department that absolutely needed to have his car on him.

Armin, Eren, and Mikasa offered to grab lunch for you (seeing as you didn’t have a car to go out for food anymore), and you spent that entire week eating with them in your office.

You were glad that they were able to explore the city a bit more now that they didn’t have to worry about parking, and it was nice to be able to have lunch with someone else. You hadn't had lunch with anyone since Petra started going to the upper floor to have lunch with Olou. The three of them seemed to really appreciate you giving them their spot too, even going as far as to try and pay for your lunches that week, but you just waved them off and explained you had more than enough money. They weren’t too much younger than you—just 3 years younger—but you knew better than to let them waste even more of their money on downtown food that was already overpriced.

By the time Friday came around, you had completely forgotten about the man on the bus, and your days were filled with paperwork, meeting with clients, and having lunch with your new favorite interns.

Imagine your surprise when, a whole week later, you saw him again, sitting at the exact same spot as last time.

You guess you didn't consider he only takes the bus on Fridays. Or maybe just at a different time, since you got off of work at 5 on other days of the week. Either way, you avoided looking at him altogether to save face, but you still felt a bit of heat reach your face at just the thought of him being there.

When you got home, you went through the same motions as last Friday.

Splashing your face with water, looking at yourself red as a tomato, and groaning into your couch cushions to curse the universe for making such a perfect looking man.

After the fourth Friday you see him, you accept that this is just how your weekly encounters with the devilishly handsome stranger will go.

You don't even get to decide whether or not the stranger on bus 143 ends up becoming someone you think about every week.

✰

You sigh as you step into your apartment, letting your blush settle just as it does every Friday.

The air has gotten colder now that it's January, and you're grateful you wore a scarf today to both shield you from the cold and hide your blush. After hanging your scarf over one of the chairs in the dining room, you head immediately into the bathroom to get a quick check at your reflection, not even bothering to try to get the red to go away. You just empty out your pockets on the countertop, not wanting to deal with the discomfort of your items pushing into your skin in a few seconds.

You know all too well that you need to go take a breather on your couch to cool your face, so you just head over and throw yourself into your cushions, groaning and kicking your legs. In your anguish, you hear the faint ringing of your phone from the bathroom. You barely register it as your phone, but once you do, you bolt up off the couch and rush to the sound and pick up without checking the caller ID.

"Hello?" You say into your mic, bringing your phone up to your ear and trying to sound as neutral as possible.

"Hi! Can I come over?" You immediately recognize the voice as Hange's, so you relax into yourself again.

Before you even try thinking of an answer, you go back to your couch and flop onto it again. You move one of the pillows under your chin and shift around so you're lying on your stomach. Your phone's on the couch itself, and your hands keep your face propped up.

"Huh? Why? Aren't you at work?"

"Do I need a reason to see you? I miss you, and I got out early today!"

You shake your head with a small smile. Leave it up to Hange to joke with you.

"Hange, you live 2 doors down from me, I see you every morning. I got breakfast with you yesterday too!"

You can almost see them nervously smiling and scratching the back of their neck at your comment.

"Still! Can I come hang out? I've been craving some of your cookies, and you haven't made them in so long!"

"What cookies are you talking about this time?"

"I'm feeling like snickerdoodle today."

You roll your eyes, starting to get up. "Yeah. Yeah, you can come. If you're already at my door, it's unlocked."

There's a beep from your phone, indicating that the call's over.

Sure enough, Hange comes through your door in record time and saunters across the entryway and living room to give you a hug.

"Hange! Shoes!" You chastise. You return their hug, nonetheless, and they just laugh wholeheartedly.

They pull away from you before taking off their shoes and walking over to the shoe rack to drop them off. "Sorry! I got too excited thinking about the cookies. Besides, it's been forever since we hung out on a Friday!"

Lately, they've been staying late at their lab on Fridays. Something about some new scientific discovery and wanting the lab to themselves to research.

Oh well, such is the life of a scientist.

"How'd you even finish so early? You're usually at work until night on Fridays."

They laugh and motion for you to move over to the kitchen. They rest their face in their hands at the countertop, and you go to a cupboard to start grabbing ingredients and tools for the cookies they wanted. "Some other guys are staying late to work on a project, so I figured I'd head home after lunch. I got a snickerdoodle ad when I was—wait! Why's your face all red? Are you sick?"

At the mention of your apparently still-present blush, you look up at Hange to see them lean even closer to you.

"What? No, I'm not sick."

"Are you sure? You look really red, even your ears are pink."

You turn away from Hange as quickly as you can to avoid their gaze, opting to go to the fridge and get the rest of the things you need for the cookies. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

And just like that, you can almost hear the smile break out on their face.

"Holy shit! Do you like someone?"

You stop moving, milk carton in hand. You quietly shift to put it on the counter before turning back to get the eggs.

Your silence is probably more than enough to get Hange to keep going.

"So you do like someone! Who is it? Who!?"

Your face heats up at Hange's comment, and even though you have all the ingredients out and ready to go, you suddenly feel too shy to start. "I don't like anyone. You're making things up. Seeing things, too."

To that, they just straight up laugh in your face.

"You got even redder! Of course you like someone! Who is it? Is it one of those interns at your firm? Nothing's hotter than an office romance!"

You make a face of disgust at them and decide to start weighing out what you need. "God, no! They're all so young!"

"Well, they're the only people you talk about nowadays, I figured it'd be one of them. It's not your senior at work, is it?"

"No, it's not him. I barely even talk about him, I think I only brought him up when I was talking about how I had to give up my parking spot a couple months ago."

"Well, who is it? Is it me? I can keep a secret," they tease, continuing to badger you.

You roll your eyes at that and sigh.

It wouldn't be so bad to tell Hange about him, would it?

Besides, there's no way you actually like him. No, you don't even know him. You just... think he's pretty hot.

That's all.

Maybe they'd drop it if you explained it was just a stranger you saw every week. Maybe actually telling someone about it would help you not feel as anxious having to see him every week. It wasn't like you actually liked fussing over a man you didn't know.

You've been mindlessly mixing the ingredients together, now switching over from a whisk to a spatula to get the wet and dry parts combined.

You know Hange's gonna get you talking at some point, so probably better to just rip the band-aid off now.

"There's this guy on the bus. I think he's attractive, that's all," you mutter. Hange seems to light up at the information, and the excited cheer from them tells you that you maybe didn't make the greatest choice telling them about your bus guy.

"Well, tell me about him! What's he like? Have you talked to him? What's his name?" You nervously laugh at their questions and sort of bitterly continue mixing the dough.

"I've got no idea. He just sits there, looks pretty, and gets off, like, two stops before the one I do."

They whistle, not seeming to care that you knew nothing about him. "He's gotta be a real looker if he's got your attention with just that! You're gorgeous, your kids together would be beautiful! Describe him to me, maybe I know him!"

You scoff at that, reaching over the counter to give them a playful punch to the shoulder. "No fucking way, Hange. There's no way you know him."

"If you're so sure of that, then tell me!"

You dramatically groan, wanting to play up your frustration, but it's nice that Hange's so invested in this to keep asking questions.

The two of you met 5 years ago, about a month before your first year of law school started.

You struggled to get your couch up the stairs, and they laughed at you for a good minute or two before helping you up.

Turns out, they only lived 2 doors down and were excited to get a new neighbor their age because, quote, "all the people on this floor are old and grumpy!" It worked out that they wanted to hang out so often because you didn't know anyone in the area yet, and you probably would've become a hermit without them to drag you around.

Hange was doing their master's program, though, so it's not like you went out all the time.

On nights where they had too much on their plate, you'd come over with a batch of cookies and your textbooks so they wouldn't feel so lonely working alone. When you were crammed, they'd come over with some poorly brewed coffee and their laptop so the two of you could watch a bad movie when you were done studying. When you both graduated, you shifted to doing more homely activities, like doing laundry together or meeting up to buy furniture, but the two of you still met regularly outside of when you'd bump into each other in the morning on the way to work.

It was nice to have a friend who accepted you as you were. You knew too that they had a larger friend group that met every so often, but Hange never forced you to join them on their nights out. They'd ask, you'd decline, and they'd happily come back sometime later, usually the next day, and talk all about all the fun things they did. It wasn't that you didn't want other friends.. It was just daunting to try and become apart of a group of friends who've known each other for what seemed like forever.

You made other friends in grad school and later at work, but having Hange at your side throughout all the changes of the past couple years was greatly comforting, even if the two of you didn't really know each other's friends beyond quick descriptions and stories.

To hell with it, there's no way Hange knows this guy. They're right, it wouldn't matter if you told them what he looked like.

You grab some plastic wrap from the far side of the counter and start transferring your dough onto it.

"Alright. Let me put this in to chill first, and we can gossip on the couch."

They almost look surprised, but they get over it pretty quickly and rush over to the couch, making a big show out of getting comfortable. You roll your eyes yet again and close up the plastic wrap around the dough, turning to open the fridge and chuck it in.

"Hurry up! I wanna hear all about him!"

You walk over to them with a shy smile, and when you sit down, you wrap the blanket around yourself before turning to face them.

"Well, what do you wanna know?"

"Everything! But let's start with appearance! What color's his hair? What does he wear when you see him?" Your face starts to burn up yet again at the image of him in your head, but you figure you can bear with it while you talk to Hange.

"His hair's black. It's styled in an undercut. He's usually wearing a suit, but he's probably just coming home from work or something."

Hange seems to be a bit surprised again, but instead of lingering on it, they move on quickly to the next question. "And his face?"

"I've never really gotten a good look at it since he's always looking down, but his eyes are this really pretty grey. I.. don't really know how to describe faces without sounding stupid."

Hange's just eating this up, aren't they? They look like they're racking their brain for other questions, so you figure you could tell them about his keychain to give them some more time to think about what to ask next.

"He has a bird keychain on his backpack, it's pretty cute! It's white, and-"

"Did you just say bird keychain?" Hange interrupts, eyes seemingly boring into your soul. You nod slowly.

"Yeah? Does that mean something to you?"

Instead of answering, Hange goes to their back pocket to take out their phone. After some swiping and tapping, they hand you their phone. On the screen is a picture of... a bird keychain? It's pretty blurry, but it looks just like the one that guy on the bus had.

"Hange, you're messing with me. You just googled a picture of a white bird keychain and got lucky, right?"

You see them shake their head, and it takes you a second to process what that could mean.

"Please tell me you're fucking with me. Please tell me you have no idea who I'm talking about." You stare at them intensely, waiting for an answer from them.

"You take the 143, right?"

You nod slowly.

Instead of asking another question, they break out into a huge smile and tackle you into a hug, squealing excitedly. "I totally know who you're crushing on! Oh gosh, I gotta introduce you to each other immediately! You two would be so good together!"

Well, at least you know now he's single.

"I told you, I don't like him! He's just someone I see on the bus!"

They let go of you but keep their hands on your shoulders, that shit-eating grin still on their face.

"Darling, I'm not letting you get out of this one! Oh, this is perfect! We're having dinner on Sunday, you have to come!"

Before you can even protest, Hange starts rambling on about the details (most of which fly over your head) while animatedly moving their hands.

You knew how hard Hange went when it came to things they wanted. They worked relentlessly in their master's program, they were in charge of setting up plans for their friend group, and they even got your landlord to lower the rent a couple years back.

There was no way you could stop them from dragging you to this dinner. You knew that you really weren't going to "get out of this one," whatever that meant.

Better to accept your fate than fight it, you guess.

But... even though you know you'll be embarrassed to death and you'll probably have to figure out a new bus route to completely avoid this guy after whatever shenanigans Hange's bound to pull, you somehow don't regret telling them about him. They look so happy just thinking about you coming to dinner with them (who even is them?), and you don't have the heart to refuse them and break that joy. They'd never pressured you before into hanging out with their other friends before, so... maybe this could make up for you never taking up their offer to go out with the group.

Or maybe you could figure out how to change your identity and move continents by Sunday.

Yeah, maybe you could do that instead.

But first, you'll have to finish baking those stupid snickerdoodle cookies for Hange.

✰

Next Chapter

#levi ackerman #levi ackerman x reader #levi x reader #attack on titan #levi aot #tao.levi #the romance of reimbursements

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ghastlybin · 2 years ago

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Will you do skz Hyunjin where he is immortal but the reader is not? Thank you 💙💙

You just don’t want me to be happy.

(I’m jk LMAOO) but thank you for the request :) this is my first skz request & they are my ult male group so I was excited for this but also like… This concept makes me sad because?? I couldn’t think up an ending where EVERYONE is happy like??? Anyways, ily & thank you again for requesting <3

Pairing: Immortal! Hyunjin & Mortal! (GN) Reader

Feat: Immortal! (social worker?) Felix.

Word count: 1.7k

Genre/contents: Immortal AU, angst, I literally don’t see how this could’ve had a happy ending I’m sorry, a bit dialogue heavy

TW: Immortality bc why would anyone want that?, Car accident, descriptions of accident related injuries, D e a t h, blood mentions, hospital mention, it’s depressing y’all and I will be open for any hugs if y’all need one

Note: I love Hyunjin and I’m sorry to Hyunjin stans and Hyunjin stans specifically. This is also not a soulmate AU don’t let the whole soulmate bit fool you, that’s just for extra sap okay I hope you like it and I’m so sorry but you’re the one that asked for it HHHHHH I also love Felix too btw obviously. Btw, I put colored dashes to hint at who is speaking in case anyone gets confused. Any dialogue without a dash is a flashback.

Orange - Felix

Blue - Hyunjin

— “Hello, Hyunjin.”

— “Hello… Felix.”

— “You’re one of the immortal few?”

— “Yep.”

— “How long have you been here on this planet?”

— “Sorry, does this really matter?”

— “No. Just asking out of curiosity.”

— “Three hundred and twenty-five thousand years.”

— “Wow. This year would be year nine hundred, and fifteen for me. Any tips for a newbie?”

— “Don’t fall in love.”

— “Oh.”

— “Otherwise, you’ll be in the same spot as me.”

— “Um… Hyunjin. Mind if I ask you questions while we wait?”

— “Sure. Why not?”

— “Tell me about your happiest moment.”

— “Can I talk about a person?”

You knew Hyunjin was immortal. You knew you would be the only one out of the two of you that grew old, the only one that would inevitably perish.

You knew Hyunjin would have to watch you as you died if he opted to. He’d have to watch you go through the pains of aging, the pains of losing your loved ones while he and his family of immortals had lived on, and not a care in the world because his family members met their soulmates.

Their soulmates were immortal.

Hyunjin was the unlucky one.

He fell for a mortal, someone who he always thought deserved a normal partner, someone who could grow old with you and neither of you would have to live with the fact that only one of you would continue to live.

He was unlucky by immortality standards, but with you, he felt like the luckiest man in the world.

If he could, he’d meet you over and over again and not change a thing.

He would go back in time and relinquish his immortality just to live out his days with you.

You weren’t someone he’d meet, fall in love with, and just forget.

Your memory would live on, as long as he continued.

‘May your next lover be as great as me.’

‘And may the afterlife be as great as me.’

Your voice was probably his favorite thing about you if he had to choose.

He loved how it sounded when you said his name, asked him questions he had answered many times before, or even hummed to the melodies of your favorite songs.

‘Hyunjin! Hyunjin! Hyunjin!’

Like a broken record in his mind, for thousands of years, your voice was his favorite sound.

Yet he only had a short amount of time to experience it.

— “They sound nice.”

— “More than nice. Amazing. Lovely. Exquisite. Breathtaking. Astonishing. Incredible. Spectacular. I could go on.”

— “I could see it in the way you spoke of them.”

— “Ha. Yeah. I guess I got lost in the memories.”

— “How did you two meet?”

You watched the soft splash of water your coin made as you tossed it into the wishing fountain.

Another soft splash and you soon met the gaze of a very handsome boy, who was the former owner of the second coin tossed into the fountain.

‘Do you think my wish will come true?’

‘What did you wish for?’

Hyunjin wasn’t sure why he asked you that at first. He had completely skipped a proper greeting. A simple hello.

‘If I tell you, it won’t come true.’

‘Well, I wished to be immortal.’

He didn’t like where the conversation was going. He knew the pains of immortality. How every friend he had, mortal, had been long gone.

‘Guess your wish won’t come true now.’

And you laughed, thinking he was joking.

He laughed with you, thinking you were joking.

Even now, he thought you were joking about your wish. He wished you weren’t.

‘I’m Y/N.’

‘Hyunjin.’

— “So you met at a wishing fountain?”

— “Mhm. It was famous for the most wishes coming true.”

— “Do you wish they hadn’t told you their wish?”

— “…All the time. Is that selfish?”

— “No. It’s not selfish to want someone you loved to still be alive.”

— “But if that meant they had to watch their loved ones dying before them?”

— “That’s… Not my place to say. I’m sorry.”

— “Oh. Alright…”

— “What did this person look like?”

— “I have pictures but I can’t bring myself to look at any yet. Strange, isn’t it? It’s been eight thousand years and one day and I still haven’t looked at them… It still hurts but I’ll show you.”

Hyunjin took copious amounts of pictures of you and sometimes of the two of you.

Everywhere you went, he would take a candid photo of you. He had a collection of photos of you in your ‘worst’ state and a collection of you in your ‘best’.

Some depict you in front of a tree, a statue, a building, some off guard, somewhere you were completely aware he was taking a photo but didn’t react, and somewhere you were photogenic when he would pull out his camera.

He took a photo of your favorite things, things you were neutral about, and things you hated- Never in a way to spite you either, he just wanted to keep track of any details about you that might slip him later.

Hyunjin knew he would eventually lose you. Whether it be death or a breakup, he knew.

Still, he liked keeping tabs. He liked taking pictures. He liked- Loved, you.

You were special to him. The love of his everlasting life.

— “Wow, you really captured their liveliness in these pictures.”

— “I think this one has to be my favorite.”

You were smiling the brightest you had ever smiled for a picture Hyunjin decided to take.

It was a moment you were most happy and Hyunjin recalled the feeling of gratitude he felt to be able to experience that with you.

‘Hyunjin! Hyunjin! Hyunjin!’

— “I’m sorry…”

— “It’s okay to cry, you know. I won’t judge.”

— “Thank you…”

— “I can stop if you want me to.”

— “No. It’s okay. It’s nice to talk about it.”

— “So… What do you miss the most about them?”

— “Everything.”

— “But if you had to choose one.”

— “Do I have to?”

The truth was Hyunjin couldn’t pick anything, in particular, he missed about you because he just missed you.

Time didn’t change anything except the state of the world.

In Hyunjin’s mind, he was still stuck in the past eight thousand years ago took place.

During you.

His world had stopped long ago. The day after you.

He just missed you. Nothing more, nothing less.

And what he would give to have at least one more day with you.

— “Everything counts as one thing. It’s just a bunch of little things jumbled together into one… Big thing.”

There was this void in his heart from you.

It sucked in every returning feeling or memory of you and created a bigger hole as time went on.

Nothing would change how he felt for you.

— “How did you lose them?”

— “Death. The usual.”

— “Follow up: How did they die?”

— “It wasn’t old age or natural causes.”

There was not a single word anyone could say to you for you to have known what would’ve happened.

There was nothing Hyunjin could’ve done to have known either.

You were sick, you needed medicine.

Hyunjin was busy, and besides, you never told him he was sick. That was just a detail he found out after.

You made the choice to drive to the nearest pharmacy. You chose to not tell Hyunjin either.

To this day, he never once blamed you for what happened. No matter how many signs pointed to you or your decisions, you weren’t distracted.

You had a plan. Drive to the pharmacy, get medicine, and recover before you saw Hyunjin again.

You wouldn’t have known that at that exact moment, it would be you, the road, and a drunk driver.

Hyunjin was the first to arrive at the hospital. He filled out your information, identified you, and he saw you.

Hooked to various machines, intubated as your lungs had to have been ruptured in the crash. Every broken bone you had, every bruise the impact caused to your body, the blood.

The blood. More than Hyunjin had ever seen before in his time of immortality.

‘Well, I wished to be immortal.’

The bandage around your skull had bled through, giving the doctors a hard time trying to keep you alive.

The blood. It didn’t stop. It didn’t go away.

‘Guess your wish won’t come true now.’

Hyunjin remembered the slow breaking of his heart followed by the slow, painful numbing that followed as he watched various doctors trying to resuscitate you, the machines showing an unchanging flatline.

‘Hyunjin! Hyunjin! Hyunjin!’

He remembered not knowing what to do when the doctors called your time of death, unable to resuscitate you.

You lost a lot of blood, your lungs were ruptured- collapsed, your skull was fractured, your heart had given up entirely, the bleeding.

Too much blood.

— “Hyunjin, I’m so sorry.”

— “You, me, the doctors, the drunk driver, everyone who knows what happened. All of us are sorry, and it still doesn’t change anything.”

— “Will relinquishing your immortality change anything?”

— “No. But I will get to meet them again.”

Thousands of years later, after he had lost you, you were his only one.

He never met with anyone after you. If he did, it never went any further.

He saw you everywhere, in everything, and yet it was only glimpses and then you’d be gone completely and out of his grasp.

He saw you in your favorite things, and places, he saw your favorite color painting his world.

He saw you in the wishing fountain he met you at, and even if you weren’t actually there, he held your smile in his mind.

Heard your laughing.

‘It’s nice to meet you, Hyunjin. I hope your wish comes true.’

He stared at the fountain of coins sunken to the bottom.

— “I wished for mortality.”

Hyunjin couldn’t cry. He felt he had cried enough, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the table as he waited for his results to come back.

The person across from him, a nametag that read, ‘Felix‘, with a smiling face drawn beside it, was now preoccupied with the beeping from the printer as something had began to print.

Hyunjin was requesting his immortality be relinquished so he could live out his days as a mortal and eventually meet you again, whether you were waiting in the afterlife or already reincarnated and trying to find him again after eight thousand years apart.

The wait was excruciatingly long.

“Looks like the results are in,” Felix waited for the printer to finish printing the results page before he read it out loud, curing Hyunjin’s slight impatience.

“Your request to relinquish your immortality status has been…”

Hyunjin held his breath, waiting for Felix to finish. Another eternity passed between his words.

“Accepted.”

#stray kids x reader #stray kids imagines #stray kids hyunjin x reader #stray kids au #stray kids hyunjin #stray kids #skz

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kylewalker-peters · 2 years ago

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Hello!!⭐️ If it's not too much trouble, could you please rec some iconic Spurs games for a newbie to watch? Maybe Poch era or whatever comes to your mind first! If your cool Spursy friends want to rec some as well, I'd love that. Thank you💞 have a good week��

OMG yes i'd be more than happy to tell you any games my little goldfish brain can remember!!! firs things first though welcome to spurs!!!!!!! also if anyone else thinks of others hopefully they'll add them cause like my memory's awful

I'll go poch era onwards.

iconic but before 16/17 would be the spurs 2 v arsenal 1 game in 2015, the 5-3 against Chelsea at home but also the battle of the bridge 2-2 which everyone should watch just cause it WILL come up when talking about spurs and it's such a perfect encapsulation of Tottenham being Tottenham and also if i ever see mark clattenburg on the street it's over for that prick.

16/17

idk how many upon reflection are super iconic? even if the season as a whole was but i will say any game where we won by a lot of goals is worth watching just because we were so fun to watch at that time and we did it quite a bit. our home game against Chelsea was the dele show and it was soooooooo good idk how well it holds up on rewatch but like that was the Moment

17/18

again i think there's a couple where we won by a shit ton of goals esp at the end of the season so i'd give them a watch if you have time. we were actually so good in the ucl this season we were so unlucky against juve but i'd deffo recommend the dortmund games and THE real Madrid game at home like lives were changed, history was written, depression cured. the 4-1 thrashing of Liverpool which of course i missed but harry kane sent lovren to the retirement and oh my god i think we also had THE 2-2 game against liverpool this season too which is iconic if not because we were good then just because of the beef that it created. wouldn't watch the whole game but the 2-0 win against united where eriksen scored the opener in 11 seconds. THE WIN AT STAMFORD BRIDGE LITERALLY ICONIC oh my god i have been chasing the high of that game every single day of my life since it happened. the 5-4 against Leicester isn't iconic iconic but it lives in my head rent free for being the most chaotic thing I've ever seen as the scoreline suggests. wait okay like this will not be iconic to you but the 6-1 against rochdale (which was during our Embarrassing era of constantly needing replays) where kwp got his goal in the snow? top of the charts in my household!!!

actually this season had so many good games damn maybe we need to talk about this season more too

18/19

the whole ucl campaign literally the definition of iconic i want to run back into her arms all the time even if the wheels were falling off this club already you could forget it when you were knocking city out of the UCL. idk if the group games are as good now cause we know we got to the final but at the time that shit was literally do or die like we could have gone out on my birthday it was awful. but idk i always like to watch the highlights on youtube from the first group game to the ajax game just for the whole experience again. but obvs the first leg against dortmund, second leg against city, second leg against ajax are some of the most iconic games in spurs history

us beating united 3-0 at old trafford was a good game and "moura is practically like a new signing" was a fun 5 minutes until moura logged into twitter. us beating chelsea at home always good and great and amazing. dele, kane and son scoring we literally used to be such a Club. us knocking arsenal out of the carabao was very funny and iconic of us but i also might just be remembering danny's interview afterwards where he humbled them

19/20

i think our win against city was the only iconic thing we had that whole season. there was iconic in other ways (like losing to colchester) but i would only wish my worst enemy to watch that.

20/21

again iconic games but mostly in a bad way like us v everton in the fa cup. we did smash united 1-6 at old trafford though which was very iconic and cool of us

idk if you need any games after this so i wont cause this is already pretty long but i hope there's at least one good game in here you enjoy watching

#the amount of thoughts and memories and everything that went through my head while making this #wow i love spurs so much but like... we're so spurs #like just remembering who scored and who we've had in this team across the seasons i feel so nostalgic and full of love but also bafflement #i tried to just do the games and not waffle on too much but like i have also definitely done that too im so sorry

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vulpiximisa · 18 days ago

Text

im too old for this but ok

I wasn't sure if I was going to write a whole length review of the series since I pretty much blew through it in a span of two days. Which means that I didn’t care enough for it to linger but at the same time, means that the content was good/interesting enough for me to want to consume it immediately.

Came in for seiyuu reasons, didn’t necessarily leave with anything I didn’t expect, but I got what I wanted I guess.

First off to say I didn’t do too much research on this aside from the two seiyuu that I came in for. Saw some glimpses that it’s based off a game series, which are usually hit or misses.

From the get go, I was pretty impressed by the quality of the art. I’m not sure if I mean animation as well, but I guess I’m just astounded by the fact that there are two tones in the shading. I can’t hate the CG monsters too much because the humans look good where they are.

Man, I know I’m not the target audience for this show, this series, but I can’t help laughing at how chunnibyou it is. I mean, the fact that everything is taken so seriously, that wielding giant sword guns is supposed to be cool, we got a high commanding woman with a boob window and a lady jumping into battle with a giant gattling gun dressed like she has to make it to a formal party afterwards. Don’t get me started on Alisa.

Okay I didn’t mean to jump into the male gaze fanservice part first, I wanted to start with how “killing monsters in an apocalyptic world” is such a thing that impresses 10 year olds. Lenka doesn’t help, as he feels like Eren Jaeger but everyone wants to suck his dick. (I actually haven’t watched an actual ep of AOT so I don’t actually know.) Newbie comes in claiming he wants to kill all Aragami (young war soldier analogy?), gets a weapon that is immediately “the special one”, stupid kid jumps in where he’s not authorized because he “wants to help people” and then gets shown that he really doesn’t know anything. The only other New Type is a genius cool girl who knows what she’s doing, he sees some tricks and automatically learns how to do the same. Also he gets to sit in with the commander and somehow makes better battle decisions for her even though he hasn't actually been in many battles. He’s trusted with high rank missions. He’s what every 10 year old boy wishes they were, probably.

Okay, I don’t particularly Hate Lenka, but he hasn’t done so much for me. He is righteous and kind and cares for people but the way the series keeps making him soooo important and cool kinda sucks. I actually started liking Lenka during the whole encounter with Pita, where Alisa was rendered useless but the two stuck out for each other. Where Lenka’s God Arc breaks and he literally gets stabbed and watches more people die right in front of him. Ngl I thought the series could have made a turning point, Lenka actually dying and making way for another protagonist (Kota) djdjdmdmxmxm

I came in for Kota and Soma for seiyuu reasons so of course that’s who I’m keeping my eyes on. Kota’s intro is soooo “the cool friend bro who gets killed in front of protag’s eyes that drives him to become stronger”. So I was kind of surprised he didn’t die 😂😂😂 I mean, Kota didn’t do so much either, we do see that he’s the plain wimpy guy that eventually tries to get stronger and even if he “grew” a little (developed a bullet), I don’t think the series gave him enough time for it to feel good.

Soma on the other hand, got a whole episode to himself. Was A+ 👍👍👍👌👌 I liked the episode a lot and I can tell he’s a fan favorite. Ngl when Soma, Lindow and Sakuya were introduced, I thought they were a trio (and Eric but rip Eric), so I thought Soma was the same age as the latter two. I didn’t realize he was a teen like Lenka and the rest until his episode 😭 Anyway, I’m glad for Soma opening up, but I also kinda would like to see him chill with the gang more. Not possible given the time and place and the series tone. I think I would have liked a flashback or scene of Lindow and Soma because obviously he was affected by Lindow’s “death”.

So anyway, I came in hoping for Soma and Kota interactions and I got that, so I’m satisfied. 👍 Their early interactions was what I expected their relationship to be, but I’m glad they got a “conclusion” where Soma thanks Kota, even if I thought the Kota bullet scene wasnt even all that impressive. (I’d personally prefer if Kota just did a far range snipe that saved him but whatever.)

As for the other characters, we can all agree that Lindow is the Goat. He’s also had death markers on him since the beginning. I did cry for him tho. (Also me laughing because Hirata and Nakai Kazuya in the same place but not butting heads with each other.)

I don’t hate Alisa, more like I hate the idea of what guys see in her. Like her character design isn’t even bad (the hat and plaid is cute but they really could have given her an undershirt, like girl nipslips….), but I literally laughed out loud when she was shivering from the rain after getting separated and Lenka lended his cloak to her like Girl Of Course You’re Cold. I can’t tell if her character arc was concluded or not (I guess? If Lenka snapped her out of it by Being Lindow) but I’m glad Lindow had an impact on her as well that she was able to break away from the mind wash propaganda.

I guess the story itself isn’t anything I’m really into but I like how you get the glimpses of The Three Scientists, who we recognize and it slowly unraveling as we go through the current events. I’m glad there wasn’t a stupid love triangle and that the third guy wasn’t the crazy one, and that he’s actually the “good one”. More surprising is that Paylor is allowed to be in Fenrir and Johannes didn’t like try to kill him to silence him or anything.

Anyway, I think we all been know that Aegis isn’t actually a safe underground haven to save all of humanity. (whathaveibeenfoghtingfooorrrr) I’m not too invested that I’d pick up the games or anything to see the rest of the story.

I like the message of passing on hope, even if the fight feels meaningless. I was hoping Lenka would give the little girl Lindow’s compass, as a You’re Next sign, if she could be like the protag of the next game or something but that never happened.

Uhhh I have it an 8 on MAL, which is pretty high for me. I think the vibes and tone of the series is sound, the ost isn’t my jam but fits with what it’s trying to portray. Of course OldCodex fits right in for the OP. I haven’t played the games but I think this is a pretty good anime adaptation, if only just by appearance.

#pixi watches anime #re god eater

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