#being on the road around other potential traffic

[toytulini]

i Will learn stick shift

(not looking for advice)

[bgomtori]

☆ falling behind - k.th

synopsis - where everyone around you falls in love but you.

-> taehyun x reader

-> strangers to potential lovers, college au!

-> warnings! talks about the inability to fall inlove, yn zones out a lot, mentions of almost dying and being suicidal, alcohol, slowburn

-> note! happy tyun day!! love this man so much :' + laufey is so theraputic, i love her songs sm

love, a complex and profound emotion, an emotion experienced by many at least once in their lifetime. many may find solace in the warmth of shared gazes and the gentleness of intertwined fingers. love is like a canvas painted with the hues of understanding and compassion, where every stroke tells a story of shared excitement, or even bitter arguements. however, not everything is perfect, love can be exhausting and scary. while people yearn for the feeling of affection, some individuals decide to isolate themselves and prevent hurting themselves in the future, and completely destroy the meaning of love.

you sighed at the thought of being attracted to someone romantically, as you listened to your friends' sappy love stories about their partners, you couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy in your heart. when someone confesses their feelings to you, you can't help but feel disgusted, why can't you feel any romantic feelings towards anyone, like a normal human being? were you a robot? why can everyone around you fall for each other but you? your best friends have been in and out of relationships for god knows how many times, but you could only watch that happen. while everyone was falling inlove, you were falling behind.

"the right one will come to you, maybe by then, you'll feel your heart racing faster." ningning reassured you. but how? how would you know how love would feel like? you looked down, feeling devastated about the thought that you may never get married in the future. "don't worry yn! they'll come to you, it may not be in college, but maybe when you start working? who knows, or maybe they're here right now?" giselle exclaimed, trying to be more positive after seeing your gloomy state.

"i've never fallen in love with anyone before, how am i supposed to know how that feels." you groaned, stirring your coffee even though the milk has already been mixed in. "don't worry! the both of us can help you." you looked up from your sad coffee, just to see your friends stare at you with hopeful looks, you couldn't help but chuckle at them.

"fine." you couldn't believe you agreed to something like that, how were you going to find someone to try, or force yourself to fall inlove with. you were an introvert, you barely knew anyone that was in your college, all you did was follow your friend group around campus and laugh along with their jokes. as you left the cafe, walking in the opposite direction of your friends, you couldn't help but wonder how it was like for you to openly like someone, hold hands, or even kiss. the thought made you cringe, hell no, you can't imagine yourself doing that. however, the sound of finally having a shoulder to cry on, and calling someone yours, made you smile to yourself, that must be nice.

you were completely lost in your own world, not even noticing the traffic light infront of you, it was still red. cars quickly zooming past before the green man appears, you were clueless enough to almost step foot onto the busy street, until someone yanked you away, making you shriek in fear. you came back to your senses, finally realising that you were infront of a traffic light, you looked over your shoulder to notice the man holding you back from almost killing yourself. he was quite attractive, despite his outfit being a graphic tee with some sweatpants on, he had a nice face with big eyes.

"are you blind, or suicidal? why would you walk onto a road with oncoming vehicles." his tone was harsh, you could feel him belittling you. "i was lost in my thoughts, sorry.." you spoke barely in a whisper, slightly embarrassed that a stranger had to save you from a tragedy. he finally let go of your bag, walking away into the distant, you stared at his disappearing figure, wondering why he looked so familiar.

ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

"please yn, let's watch the football finals tonight. don't you wanna support our school." giselle whined, hugging onto your arm. "fine.." you grumbled, you were forced into this, you wanted to go home earlier today after your lecture and rest, but the universe has planned a different fate for you.

"yes! then you're gonna follow us to the after party too." your head turned towards ningning so fast, your head could fly off. "i didn't agree to that." you almost shouted, "nuh uh, you need to socialise, especially since you're in college." ningning gave you a smug look before walking off towards her classroom. you rubbed your head in annoyance, you couldn't believe that you were forced into this, but you were slightly excited, maybe you could find the someone you've been longing for. you quickly shook your head, why would you be thinking about stuff like that now. what are the chances that you would meet your future partner.

"i hate this so much." you mumbled to yourself, taking a seat near the back of the lecture theatre, trying to complete the last few questions of the homework assigned. you hoped that the day would go by faster, so that you could be in the comfort of your own home. yet again, you were occupied by your own thoughts, zoning in and out of lessons, only to be interrupted by the sudden movement at the front of the lecture hall.

"kang taehyun, how many times have you been late to class this month alone." the lecturer complained, taehyun apologised for his tardiness, completely ignoring the lecturers fussing as he made his way to the back of the class, where the only seat available was the one beside you. you stared at his face, trying to make out who he was, he felt familiar.

"oh it's you." he suddenly said, you looked at him with a puzzled expression on your face. that was the guy who saved you yesterday, you blushed at the sudden memory. how embarrassing.. "is this class the reason why you wanted to walk onto oncoming traffic? if it was, i understand." taehyun joked, taking out his laptop from his bag. you rolled your eyes at him, did he really think that you wanted to kill yourself?

"i already told you last night, i was just in my own world, i didn't notice the road infront of me." you retorted, taehyun chuckled at you, bringing his attention back to what the lecturer was teaching. you couldn't help but sneak glances at taehyun, he had to admit that he was fucking attractive, how have you not noticed him before. heck, you didn't even know that he was in your class to begin with. you quickly snapped yourself out of it, trying to focus in class.

"you really zone out a lot." a voice brought you back to reality, you didn't even realise that class had already ended, which part of lesson did you zone out at? "sorry, i think i'm just tired.." you rubbed your heavy lidded eyes, about to leave your seat.

"i'll send you my lecture notes, you gotta repay me though." taehyun stated, you stared at him in confusion, why was he acting so nicely to you? "what are you staring at me for? do you want to fail?" ouch, he was really straightforward. you gave taehyun your email in order for him to email you his notes. you briefly thanked him, walking out of the lecture theatre as fast as you could. you saw your friend group standing in the distance, probably waiting for you, you jogged up to them, giving them an apology for holding up their time.

"what took you so long?" ningning asked, eyeing you suspiciously.

"i zoned out in class, so i needed to get notes from my tablemate, sorry." you explained yourself. ningning gave you a slow nod before pulling you along with her, "well, let's go hang in your dorm before we head out for the match."

not long after, you've been lazing around with ningning and giselle, talking about basic things like what you did during the day, your classes, and obviously, their current partners. you sighed into the palm of your hand, looking down at your phone, scrolling aimlessly on tiktok, nodding your head occassionally at what they had to say.

"i'm so excited to support him later, hey yn, do you want me to introduce some players on the football team to you? i think there's some that may suit you." giselle suddenly questioned, you flinched at the sudden question, shit, you weren't listening at all up till that point.

"it's fine, i'm not looking for anyone right now." you mumbled out your answer, apparently that upsetted giselle, causing her to pout at your words. "you gotta have a look at them, seeing you all single and lonely hurts me too." she whined into your arm, making you cringe a little. you let out a nervous chuckle, pulling her away from your arm, "i'll try."

ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

this was definitely new to you, the loud screaming, along with the band blasting in the background felt foreign to you. the stadium was packed with students from your school and the opponent's school. the guys were already warming up on the sideline, getting in their stretches as quickly as possible, looking up at the bleachers time to time to spot their friends, family or partners. you looked at the players from the opposing school, you have to say they looked really tough to play against, hopefulky your school would be able to beat them.

now you scanned the players from your school, but to your luck, you accidentally made eye contact with a certain black haired male, kang taehyun? you really didn't know he was apart of your school's football team. you stared at him with widened eyes, shocked to find him there. he caught your gaze, returning the same surprised look you had before slowly waving at you. you looked around you, maybe he was waving at someone else? ah fuck it, you waved back at him, giving him an awkward smile.

"you know taehyun?" ningning teased, bumping your shoulder as if you successfully flirted with someone. you rolled your eyes, "yea, he's in my class. he was the one who gave me notes earlier today." you bluntly replied.

"ooo, he isn't the type who would help someone so easily." giselle smirked, giving you a knowing glance. you glared at her, no. you and taehyun would never be something like that, he was out of your league, and especially if you may not even feel any romantic attraction, you can never be with taehyun.

"that'll never happen." you whispered out, leaning onto the railings infront of you, staring at taehyun as he runs across the field, dribbling the ball with his foot before passing it over to his teammate. yea, he was kinda attractive, but he was off-limits. you hear chanting from your side of the stadium, before it turned to loud screams of delight. they scored, your school scored. you clapped your hands, smiling at the field infront of you. this was fun, something out of your comfort zone, yet so exhilarating.

the match was extremely close, it was currently a tie between your school and the opposing school, the win for your school was dependent on this singular penalty kick. the whistle was finally blowed, signalling for the penalty kick. the tension was high, the stadium was pin-drop silent, eyes fixated on the ball infront of taehyun. everyone was praying for either a good or bad outcome, taehyun took a deep breath in, backing up from the ball slightly, getting a few jogs in before kicking the ball towards the goal.

there was a brief silence before the referee called for the whistle. the game ended, the crowd roared in happiness, screaming their lungs off. the boys on the field jumped onto taehyun, hugging him.

"holy shit, you just helped us win the entire season, you sick bastard." yeonjun yelled, slightly tearing up. taehyun smiled widely at his teammates, if it weren't for them, he wouldn't be able to score that perfect goal at the end.

"they did so well!" ningning slapped you shoulder, along with giselle, making the two of you hiss in pain. "come on now, let's go to the after party before it gets too crowded." ningning exclaimed, hugging the two of you by the shoulder, pulling you guys towards the taxi stand.

ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

"let's all get fucking wasted tonight, this win was ours, let's celebrate it." a tall, lean male shouted causing the whole room to burst in screams and cheers. this night was going to be a hectic one.

fuck, but now this was an awkward situation for you. you were sitting at the corner of the room, sipping on the alcoholic beverage you had in hand, snacking on the snacks infront of you. apparently, giselle and ningning left you to take care of their bags while they were off finding their partners, it's even worse that you barely knew anyone here, you only knew their names, but have you spoken to any of them? that was another thing.

you scrolled on your phone, tuning out the obnoxiously loud music that was blasting, you really wanted to leave. you were zoning out from time to time, either that or observing the people around you. pockets of couples dancing with one another, or making out with each other near where the toilets were, gross. you sighed to yourself, this was getting boring, how much longer into the night must you be here? giselle was supposed to introduce some of the football players to you, but guess that was scraped off her agenda.

"zoning off again?" a voice broke your trance, making you jolt in your seat. it was kang taehyun, again.

"you don't seem like the type who would go to parties." taehyun assumed, taking a seat next to you.

"i was forced here." you simply replied, not wanting to socialise with anyone right now. there was awkward silence between the two of you, allowing you to dive into your thoughts again. recently, you realise that you have been seeing taehyun more often than usual, why was that? was it because he saved you from not accidentally killing yourself.

"you wanna leave this place together?"

"excuse me, what?"

"you heard me, wanna ditch this place, i'm getting bored here." taehyun admitted, shrugging his shoulder while waiting for your response. you played around with your fingers, you were getting bored as well, but is it really worth it to leave this place with a guy you barely knew? furthermore, you have two designer bags that were entrusted to you. well fuck it, you're gonna leave with an attractive guy.

"you know what? sure." you stood up, looking down at the male who was staring at you with shocked eyes, taehyun could only chuckle at your actions, pulling you through the crowd. finally, the air didn't feel hot and sticky anymore. the cool breeze hit your skin, making you shiver slightly. you quietly followed behind taehyun to his car, hoping that he wouldn't knock you up in his car or something.

"where are we going?" you asked, your voice was soft, you weren't exactly comfortable with going into a vehicle with a male in it.

"i know a spot, i find you interesting, i wanna get to know you more." taehyun answered, unlocking his car door. you sat in the passenger seat, not knowing what to do. this was so new to you.

"don't feel too uncomfortable, i won't do anything bad." taehyun reassured, reading your exact thoughts. you nodded your head slowly, looking out of the window, taking in the views while softly humming to the music in the background.

"you're not a talker aren't you?" taehyun broke the silence, trying to brighten the tense atmosphere, only to be shot down by your quick, 'yea'. taehyun remained quiet for most of the ride, unable to find topics to talk about.

"what's your view on love?" you suddenly questioned, taehyun was taken aback, he didn't know how to respond to your inquiry. did you always start conversations like that?

"hmm, i think it's quite meaningful?" taehyun was deep in thought, what really was his view on love. he didn't know, it comes and goes for him, he has never experienced real love. "how about you? you must have had a horrible experience to ask me that question." taehyun shot back the question to you. you stared out of the window, unable to form any words, you barely knew this guy, but he seems reliable.

"it sucks."

"what?"

"i think love is hard to understand." you mumbled, feeling slightly embarrassed, now you looked like a loser.

"wow, what made you think that." you pursed your lips, opening up to a new person was harder than you expected. "it's better if i don't tell you.."

"why not? don't trust me enough?" you groaned, rolling your eyes in the process, "i barely know who you are, i'm not telling you my personal feelings." he was getting on your nerves, even though he didn't do anything to harm you.

"yet you're sitting in my car, not knowing where i'm bringing you. wow your priorities are set." taehyun sarcastically said, he was right, you remained silent, unable to argue back. "cat got your tongue?" taehyun tease, you could hear the smirk that was adorned on his face.

"just shut up." you scoffed at him, bringing your attention back to the scenary outside. it was empty, too empty for your liking, at this point you felt like you were getting kidnapped. you recited multiple prayers in your head, you haven't even been able to live your cat lady dreams, but now you may be killed by a football player. how sad is that? you squeezed your eyes shut, hoping that maybe a slight nap would be the solution to whatever was happening currently.

"we're here." you stirred from your nap, looking around to check your surroundings. an empty, secluded field, away from the vibrant and bustling city, away from the chaos happening at the party, this was theraputic. the way the wind blew gently into your face, the pretty view of the ocean, plus the night sky embellished with countless stars, the moon's soft glow adds a touch of silver to the tranquil scene.

"you always come here?" you sat next to taehyun, making yourself comfortable as you watched each wave crash onto the rocks below.

"yea, to relieve stress or when i wanna be alone. feels nice right?" taehyun took a deep breath in, the air felt so much cleaner here compared to the polluted air in the city centre. you nodded your head, humming in response, "so why'd you bring me here?"

"nothing in particular, you're quite interesting i guess." taehyun shrugged, his large brown eyes meeting yours, you felt yourself heat up under his intense gaze, what's this feeling? why does it feel so icky, yet so nice..

"so, about earlier, can you tell me why.. why you think love is so complicated." you let out a nervous chuckle after hearing his words, he's going to make fun of you, definitely. "it's kinda embarrassing." you whispered, rubbing your sweaty palms against your thighs.

"i won't judge." taehyun reassured, his eyes speaking to you that he can be trusted. you sighed, comtemplating on whether you should tell him or not, your head was telling you no, but your heart said otherwise.

"i, i don't think i can ever fall for someone romantically, and even if i did, i don't think i'll be able to commit into a relationship." you admitted, your voice was barely a whisper.

"have you tried it with the right person?" taehyun suggested, his eyes now fixated on the glimmering stars in the sky, you continued to gaze at the ocean, knees proped up to your chin, resting your gead on your knees.

"no."

"then that's the problem i guess." taehyun said non-chalantly. "no, but i've not felt any of those sensations you get when you're in love, like butterflies in your stomach, kicking your feet in bed when they reply you. i want to feel those as well, but it's so hard.. seeing all my friends fall in love is so wholesome and it makes me feel happy for them, but what about me? i'm always falling behind." you complained, plucking the grass beneath. you could feel him staring at you, your eyes darting around the empty field as if you were searching for something. his silence was killing you, you shouldn't have said that, the longer the silence was, the more you felt smaller under his piercing gaze.

"sorry–"

"what are you sorry for?" you smacked taehyun's shoulder for interrupting your apology, "let me finish, i'm sorry for suddenly ranting to you like that."

"you're apologising for that? you're cute." taehyun joked, laughing at you. your face started to heat up, how humiliating, you should have shut your mouth from the first place, but that wasn't the thing that bothered you, rather the fact that he called you cute. why was it that when it came out of his mouth, you feel flustered?

"you're just protecting yourself from hurting yourself, there's no wrong in that. even if it means you barely experience what love feels like, it's better to build up your walls than to go through a heartbreak." taehyun looked into your eyes, before looking at the ocean again.

"but experiencing love is better than never being able to have a shoulder to cry on, or rely on. i just want to find someone to love too." you groaned, hoping that it'll make him understand where you're coming from. as much as you supported your friends with their love lives, you've always wanted to have what they have, but your heart shuts this emotion out.

"then wanna try with me?" taehyun suddenly blurted out, his eyes gazing into your now widened eyes. is he insane, does he want to get heartbroken this badly?

"you're not gonna want to be with me." you mumbled, rubbing your fingers against one another.

"but this is my own decision, let's try it. you've not met the right person to love yet, maybe i can be the one." his hands on top of yours, as if he was reassuring you that it was fine to try out love with him. your heart skipped a beat, what is this? why are you feeling so giddy? your lips tugged upwards, "alright." you agreed to his proposal, making taehyun smile to himself, his thumb playing with your hand.

"you know i've noticed you for some time, i've always thought that you were quite cute and interesting." taehyun admitted, his cheeks flushing a light hue of pink that was barely visible under the moonlight.

"what." your jaw dropped, here you were thinking that no one was into you.

"crazy right?" you nodded your head.

"let's go now, it's getting late, i'll send you home." taehyun quickly stood up, pulling you up together with him, walking back to his car, this time hand in hand.

perm taglist! (send an ask to be added) @mrsyawnzzn @tinyelfperson

[dix0nvix3n]

𖤓°⋆ Chapter 1 °⋆𖤓

⋆☀︎｡Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader  ⋆☀︎｡Media: The Walking Dead; No Apocalypse & Alternate Universe ⋆☀︎｡Pronouns: She/Her  ⋆☀︎｡ Warning: Smoking (Cigarettes), One mention of weed, Talk of a bad past relationship. (That's it I think?) ⋆☀︎｡ Word Count: 2.5k

⋆☀︎｡ Author's Note: It's finally here... the beginning of my magnum opus. Even though I only have this one chapter out, there hasn't been a single day since I came up with the idea for the fic where I didn't think about it at least once. I just wanna thank all the people who let me infodump about it; y'all are true soldiers, cause I can really ramble on. Special thanks to @sinkdownbeneath for helping me write the intro because I was completely stuck for months with almost nothing to show, and being the person who let me yap the most, he can account for me pretty much talking about it every day for the past five months. So, anyway, I guess I hope y'all like my first finished something that wasn't just a blurb. Last night I only had a little over 200 words at 10 PM something, and now it's 7:44 AM with 2.5k words as I write this... I don't know what got into me, but anyway, enjoy!

June 1st, 1992

Daryl finds himself propped up against a tree, catching his breath. The cool summer air around him makes his chest ache with every breath he takes. He had been running, hearing the twigs snap and the leaves crunch beneath his feet as he darted past every tree, trying to evade potential capture from a party that had him jumping out a window when the cops showed up due to a noise complaint.

He spent much of his life within the comfort of the woodland, underneath the thick canopy of leaves and branches, the first roof he ever felt safe under.

He gasped for air, his legs exhausted and his lungs overworked, adrenaline still pulsing through him as he slid down the rough bark of a tree, pulling his legs up to his chest.

He's close to the road, hearing a solitary car cruise past. He can tell it's late from the stars that peek through the leaves that loom above him in the thick black sky, but he spots his glimmer of hope, which seems to be the soft light of a gas station just a bit beyond the road's traffic barrier closest to him.

With a deep inhale, Daryl knew he had to walk to the gas station and reluctantly call for a ride in a phone booth.

After fully catching his breath, he pulled himself off the ground and began walking towards the gas station, already dreading the thought of the phone call.

Reaching the gas station, he saw two cars; one belonged to the lone worker at the cash register inside, and the other belonged to a woman smoking a cigarette at the side of the building. The woman did a quick wave at him, which he found to be a little odd just because most people at this time of night aren't too friendly, but he gave a polite wave back anyway. 

Finally getting up to the phone booth, Daryl looked down at his watch, which read 1:00 AM, causing him to let out a deep sigh, realizing how late it was and how much of an inconvenience it would be for someone to come and pick him up. 

He stepped inside the phone booth, staring at the phone for a minute before popping in the quarters he luckily grabbed from the living room floor of the party. If he hadn't grabbed them, he'd be completely fucked and have to figure out his way back to his apartment.

After dialing the number he knew would pick up, the phone rang just a few times before a tired and clearly just woken up by a phone at one in the morning voice picked up.

"Hey, Mr. H... Could ya pick me up?"

"Thanks. 'm sorry about this; kinda just started walking and didn't stop. Ended up at some party, and now I don' know where I am."

"Yeah. Place is called Peachy Speed, never seen another gas station called this; it must be family-owned or somethin' and the closest road sign says it's on Navel Street. You know where I'm at?"

"Okay, cool. See ya in a bit. Sorry again."

After hanging up, Daryl stepped out of the phone booth with his head held down, letting out a deep exhale and running a hand through his hair until he heard a pair of feet shuffling up to him.

He looked up to see who it was, and it was you, the woman who waved at him.

"Need one?" You held out an open pack of Marlboro Reds, with only one cigarette missing from the pack.

"Oh. Yeah. Thanks." His thoughts stuttered for a moment because he was caught up in the fact that you came over to him. You're really pretty, and now Daryl feels like a nervous schoolboy trying to ask a girl to the prom just because of a simple gesture.

He grabbed a cigarette out of the box and reached to pull his lighter out of his pocket, only not to feel it, and checked the other pocket to have the same luck. "Shit."

You let out a small chuckle. "Need a light too?” You pulled a lighter out of your pocket and handed it over to him.

He nodded his thanks and popped the cig in his mouth before lifting the black bic with a spiderweb seemingly hand-painted on up to the end of the stick. Flicking the flame to life, he took a long inhale and handed you back the lighter, as he really took a moment to take in the sight of you. 

You were in a black tank top tucked into a pair of black ripped jean shorts. Under the pair of jean shorts were fishnets with an intricate pattern of moons and stars, and you had on a pair of slightly battered-up Doc Martens. 

As he exhaled the first plume of smoke into the night sky, he saw your kind smile, which sent a rush of warmth through his face. Your lips had a simple gloss on them, but your eyes were a different story, painted with smokey eyeshadow, sharp graphic eyeliner, and two rounds of mascara on each set of your top lashes. He also noticed the simple yet pretty titanium stud on the left side of your nose and two helix rings on both your ears.

He thought you were gorgeous, his heartbeat a slightly faster pace than what it normally rested at.

"Rough night?" You asked as you lit up a cigarette for yourself, letting out a slight gag at the taste and smell that you weren't used to, which caused Daryl to let out a small chuckle.

"Sorta. More of just hated the fact I had to call and wake someone up to come and get me. First time smokin'?" He said before he took another drag.

"How'd you know?" You said sarcastically as your face contorted in disgust a bit at the taste building up in your mouth and throat after each puff.

"Maybe try a different brand. You'll find one ya like." A small smile graced his lips as he butted off the ash at the end and took another drag. 

"Nah. Think I'm quitting after this one. I'll just stick to weed."

He let out a chuckle. "May I ask, why'd ya even start?"

You let out a small groan, running your hand through your hair in slight embarrassment. "I finally left my shitty boyfriend once and for all. I finally realized he'd never like me for the real me. I constantly had to put on this mask around him, and I finally found out that it was impossible to fix him and the fact he didn't actually like me. I know it sounds weird, but I guess my thought process was that my epiphany about him would stick with me after smoking one like a character in a movie or something." You let out a laugh. "Stupid, right?" 

He snubbed out the end of the cigarette, as it was almost a roach at this point. "Nah, it ain't stupid. A lot of my best thoughts come after smokin' one, cleared my head more times than I can count. You deserve one after the bullshit he put you through, I think. Hope the prick is havin' a shit night after realizin' he's lost you cause ya seem awesome to me so far."

You felt warmth begin to rise in your cheeks at his words. "Thanks. I know I deserve better. I'm just pissed; it took me so long to realize it. So, anyway, what's your name? I can't believe I haven't asked yet."

"Name's Daryl; what's yours?"

You had a few good puffs left of your cig but decided to snub yours out as well since you didn't like it anyway. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Daryl. My name is (Y/N). Do you wanna come sit with me at my spot against the wall? My most likely melted slushy is calling my name to get this taste out of my mouth." 

"Yeah, I can. Might be a bit till my ride gets here, so I might as well sit down." He started walking to your spot, and you followed in tow. 

When you got back to your spot, you looked down at your slushy on the ground. The dark purple concoction of blue raspberry and cherry slushy combo was completely melted. "Goddammit." You didn't fully care though; you paid for that slushy, because you were stubborn it meant you were going to have all of what you paid for, so you drank down the rest of the sugary liquid with a satisfied sigh. It was luckily still cold, at least, and it was just what you needed to get the taste of the cigarette out of your mouth.

As time passed, you and Daryl talked about whatever came to mind as you doodled some intricate pattern on the front of the pack of the Marlboro Reds with a sharpie, ultimately moving to the back when you ran out of room. You found out that he works as a mechanic for motorcycles and cars at a nearby auto body shop, that he rides a motorcycle that he built himself a few years ago, that he loves to hunt on occasion, specifically with a crossbow, and that he ran from the cops at a house party tonight.

You knew your short time with Daryl was up when you saw a 1987 Ford Sierra MK2 pull into a parking spot at the gas station, and Daryl stood up, doing a quick stretch. The man in the car smiled and made a small wave at you, and you did the same back.

"It was nice meetin' ya, (Y/N). I'd talk more, but I don't wanna keep him up any longer." He said as he gestured a hand towards the man who came to pick him up. 

"It was nice meeting you too. Thanks for talking to me, Daryl." You pulled the pack of cigarettes from your pocket and held them out to him. "Take these. You need them more than me. Plus, I just quit." You grinned at him as he took the box from you. 

"Holy shit, thank you." He smiled back as he placed the box in his own pocket and slowly started walking backward towards the car. "Hope ya have a good night and that Nick the dick has a shit one. 

You let out a laugh at the nickname Daryl gave your ex-boyfriend and waved him goodbye with a "You too." You leaned your head back against the wall, staring up at the night sky as your eyes finally began to feel tired, knowing you should head back to your friend's apartment soon and try and get some sleep before your nine AM shift. 

Once Daryl got in the car, he let out a quiet sigh as he looked out the window at you, wishing he dared to ask for your number. You were the first good conversation he'd had in a while, and his schoolboy-like crush on you kept growing the whole time you talked.

"So, who's that?" The man said as he shifted the car into gear, Daryl noticing the grin on his face.

"A girl that started talkin' to me after our call. Name's (Y/N)." He pulled the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, mindlessly tracing the pattern of doodles you did.

"You ask for her number? The car was now beginning to be backed out of its parking spot.

"Nah. Mind if I smoke?" Daryl shook the pack and began looking for one of the lighters he left in the glove compartment a few weeks ago. 

The man shook his head with a slight sigh and said, "Go ahead." He wasn't shaking his head over Daryl wanting to smoke, but over the fact he wouldn't ask for your number when he obviously liked you, but he knew he couldn't push him; he understood Daryl's nature.

Daryl looked back out the window at you, opening it as he blew out the first cloud of smoke. He then looked back down in his lap where the box lay, flipping it over to the back to see what you had drawn there as well. His breath hitched as he saw it. On the back was your phone number, and above it said, "Call me" with a smiley face. 

The tips of Daryl's ears were beet red, and he tried to hold back his face from turning the same color. He looked back out the window at you to see you grinning at him this time, to which he smiled and waved goodbye to you as the car pulled out of the lot. In Daryl's twenty-three years of life, he could say that this night was one of his best.

"Daryl, why'd you call me Mr. H again? Son, you've known me for five years; how many times do I gotta remind you to call me by my name? It's Dale for you."

Daryl let out a small cloud of smoke this time, wanting to savor this one on the peaceful ride back. "I'll tell ya again, it happens when I'm nervous; didn't wanna wake you up, s'all, and you still are my boss after all."

"Daryl, you're like a son to me, and I told you to never be nervous if you need help, and that includes coming and picking you up in the middle of the night if needed. I'm here for you." Dale placed his right hand on Daryl's shoulder, keeping his left on the wheel as he squeezed his shoulder lightly before returning it to the steering wheel.

"Now, it's not Mr. H or Mr. Horvath, son. It's Dale."

Daryl rolled his eyes playfully. "Yes, sir," he joked, letting out a chuckle.

It was the next day around 10:30 PM when Daryl picked up the phone on his nightstand and finally called the number you gave him, nervously wrapping the cord around his finger. The phone only rang twice before the other end picked up, "Hey, is this (Y/N)?" 

The inner teenage girl in your brain screamed in excitement, so happy that he finally called. "Omg, Daryl! I was wondering when you were gonna call me. I've been waiting since I got off my shift."

"Didn't know if you worked a mornin' shift or got off at night, and I didn't wanna leave too many voicemails on your friend's phone."

"Yeah, I worked a morning shift at the diner today. I got off at five. Morning shifts are the fucking worst." You're lying on your stomach on the couch, playfully curling the phone's cord around your finger and kicking your feet back and forth in the air.

You and Daryl talked for an hour, mainly talking about the shitty customers you dealt with today, sounding especially frustrated about the woman who yelled at you just because the diner was out of unsweet tea that you couldn't do anything about because the place was also out of tea bags to make more. What did she want you to do? Just up and leave your job and go buy the tea bags, your fucking self?

"Even though I don't want to, I gotta go to bed 'cause I have another morning shift tomorrow. I get off at five, so call me around six-thirty, okay?" 

"I get off at five too. Works for me. Goodnight, (Y/N)."

"Goodnight to you too, Daryl."

The call ended, and you both looked up at your respective ceilings, smiling as warmth bloomed through your faces. You both slept well that night, falling asleep to the thought of calling each other tomorrow.

⋆☀︎｡ Extra author's note: Here's what Dale would look like in 1992, I took Dale's age of 64 from the show since the apocalypse started in 2010 so he'd be 46 in 1992. I think this picture of Jeffrey Demunn is from when he was 43 maybe? I can't remember but that's close enough to 46 and even if he isn't 43 in the image he fits the look of someone in their mid-forties. Just imagine him without the cowboy hat, okay? There's not a lot of pictures of him when he was younger.

⋆☀︎｡ Taglist: @mrdixon , @yevmarie , and @shadowcitrine

⋆☀︎｡ Divider creds: @ saradika, go check her account out! She has some very cute dividers!

[enavstars]

Cyberpunk au

RGB designs for a new au

Important things:

The inspiration for this was the game Stray (that I finally played).

This is a hyperfixation that I don't know when it's going to end. I'll probably draw things from it as much as my motivation lets me but don't expect it to be a constant thing like Eclipse or On the road.

I love worldbuilding so there is a lot of details of this au already, feel free to ask questions.

The world is dark and very corrupted but the tone of the au is chill because the sibs dgaf about the world.

Worldbuilding details (my friend wrote this because this is complicated and I suck at writing) [very long text under the cut]:

The key element of this AU’s worldbuilding is a new biohazardous artificial plant which was originally genetically engineered by the scientist of the RGB’s city-state to fight the air pollution that plagued the region by attempting to reduce the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere (yes this is a biopunk universe :)). However, because they are an ugly reddish colour, have a bitter taste and are extremely nutrient-deficient and unhealthy, they have no natural predators and can spread like wildfire across both fertile plots and forests like weeds. On top of that, due to that nutrient deficiency, which stems from the slow absorption ability of their roots (not nearly enough to keep the heavy rate of photosynthesis), they evolved on their own to attach themselves to other living beings as parasites and basically invaded the entire area around the metropolis. With them being potentially lethal, this caused a massive problem that made the city panic; although they have plenty of weak points (like fire and a vulnerable immune system) and it takes them very long to get their roots to the rest of the body, their grip is so deep and strong that the only option is to remove the infected body part. So their special ability became a critical issue when the plants unexpectedly ended up liking animals better, and with them humans themselves, because they could carry them to other places and infest those too while still sucking the life out of them until they die (oopsie). Ultimately, with the lack of proper information on the parasites, and because the situation was handled very poorly overall, they ended up taking many people’s lives and made the most vulnerable species of the area (like cattle) go endangered or extinct, which in turn altered the balance of the ecosystem and the working class’ means of living :).

Sorry this chunk was so technical, we (@kaigoesbrr and I) are biology nerds, but basically the plants were so good at making more oxygen and so ass at getting what they needed to do so that they became parasites, and now they get what they need from plants and animals (and they like animals better, like humans, because they have more stuff and help them spread further). Then society collapsed :).

All of this caused a deep economic crisis that brought about high rates of poverty, and with it, a deep fear of the infested world outside the city walls. So this whole conundrum led to the city closing off to the lands around it, implementing absurd levels of security like a tight border control and a slower, more strict business traffic, and making a huge dark translucent dome that encapsulates the whole city to keep any potential smuggled plants from ever growing by blocking the natural sunlight. They even made a ditch around their walls (kind of like a moat) and burnt and bombed the fields and suburbs around them to make them extremely infertile. So yeah, this city-state is a terrible place to live, a gloomy prison where not even the sun and stars can be seen, but most the inhabitants never leave out of that paranoid terror and the heavy bureaucracy needed to just go outside and touch grass.

(haha with poor funding corrupt scientists who didn’t know what they were doing made a mess, shocker how that would backfire horribly).

However, the outside isn’t as bad as they make it out to be. In the end, the plants did clean the air as they were supposed to, and, as nature does, it did somewhat recover from the disaster to where human life is now sustainable again.

Taking advantage of their thick crust, trees were the least affected by the plague, and the other plants in the forest developed new natural defences against the parasites, which was yet another reason why they in turn became best at infecting animals. And many of the fungi, abundant in the now more humid forest (haha cooler air equals more rain), took advantage of their weak immune system (due to their fucking incompetent creators making a mess of the original plant’s DNA) and infected them (haha scammer get scammed). So basically, the fields and farmlands were lost to the people, but the forests are still intact. Also, even though one of the rivers around the city, the one which makes its ways under it and is therefore connected to the water supply and sewer systems, is trashed, the other, which is further away, is now perfectly healthy due to the city closing off and therefore leaving it alone for enough time. The real issue here lies within the actual government, which obviously does not want to expose how corrupt and lazy they are when dealing with problems and so they keep fueling the paranoia of their most vulnerable citizens since they are kids :). One way they do so is by manipulating the information their people get, claiming bullshit like “the current ecosystem is wild and polluted, it cannot offer our economy anything anymore!” and “the plants are dangerous and will kill you if you ever come into contact with them, and they have infected virtually every living thing around!”. Another is by not educating their population about “the Outside”, treating it like a sort of taboo. Therefore, they refuse to explain, or hush those who try to, the actual danger of the plants and how to deal with them (they do have many weaknesses, after all).

But the people in this world have yet another nasty problem. In this AU there are beings believed to be anthropomorphic demons due to their pointy ears, fangs, and sometimes strange behaviour. But in fact, these people are descendants of the dragons that once lived in these nations, but their origins were forgotten as the world gradually lost touch with its spirituality and ancestry, and now those who were once revered for their “godlike attributes” (yes, they kinda worshipped dragons, I mean, who wouldn’t) are today facing discrimination. However, even though they aren’t considered exactly “people”, the pure humans are still kind of afraid of them, so they usually choose the subtler kind of racism. In most governments, “Demons” get less job opportunities and are denied high positions, can be freely banned from any establishment, and face unmatched prejudice just for existing, especially those with a stronger blood relation with their ancestry. In the city, they are treated as less than even the robots (nindroids of all kinds), who are treated like any other respected social group by now because they have grown so advanced that most of them are just like humans in metal armour. In fact, many of them are mechanics, who are held in high esteem for making the many bionic implants for the humans.

And all of that combined made the RGB siblings (who are obviously demons, especially Lloyd), decide never to leave the Outside, where they grew up, to go live in the city.

When they were younger, Kai and Nya adopted Lloyd when they found him asleep in a box in the middle of nowhere, after having been abandoned themselves a few years earlier. This time, though, their dynamic in this AU is more of a team than Kai being a mom to them both like he always is, so even if Kai feels the most responsible for being the eldest sibling, they rely on each other almost equally. They fend off the plants that threaten them with fire (no they do not have powers, but Kai uses a fucking flamethrower because it’s Kai), and usually live on whatever they can find in the wild: mostly by making traps for game, fishing in the cleaner river and occasionally foraging edible plats (that’s more risky and they are more carnivorous anyway). Also, Nya routinely strolls through the ruins of the suburbs to collect scrap junk to turn as much of it as she can into useful trinkets, the rest of which she sells to Ed and Edna’s junkyard and their son, who is an amateur mechanic (wink wink but no shipping actually). Apart from that though, they usually sneak into the metropolis to cause a bit of mayhem here and there, which over time and on top of the fear over their species has earned them a reputation of People You Don't Wanna Mess With (or "Demons", more like). More than once they’ve even messed with a few of the gangs around town, which started sprouting up after the disaster, so overall their presence in the city is tolerated, but frowned upon. They manage to bypass the annoying border control thanks to the faulty assistant robot who raised them, named Echo (wink wink), who cannot perform any other social job (what he was made for) than to be the ferryman for those few people who decide to cross the wide moat and venture out into the Outside. They usually take a secret tunnel that a few smugglers managed to make, and the Guard do nothing because they do not give a fuck about demons anyway (in fact, only a few people know that their actual names aren’t Red, Blue and Green because nobody gives a fuck indeed). They do actually know a few people there, some of whom are also demons (like Mistake and Ronin), but especially as kids (which is when the story starts) they spend most of their time in the wild chilling and going on adventures :³.

(no the city and the plants are not named, we’re lazy :))

Anyway this is what I'll say for now. There's a lot more info, and hopefully drawings, coming. Hope you like this au because I love it for now ^^

(Btw let me know if you want me to make a post/reblog explaining the designs for the Rgb siblings and some info behind them)

[cosmerelists]

Cosmere Characters: Would They Be Fun To Take A Road Trip With?

[Main spoiler is for Way of Kings! Oddly enough. Some spoilers for Stormlight as a whole.]

You're planning a road trip, and you want to bring a Cosmere character with you! You know, as one does. But would the following Cosmere characters actually be a good road trip buddy?

1. Dalinar: Yes

Dalinar's whole dang philosophy is that it's the journey that matters. He'd be stopping at interesting roadside attractions, enjoying good food, watching sunsets, and generally enjoying the trip. What a great person to have on your road trip with you!

2. Adolin: Yes

We saw road-trip-Adolin in Shadesmar--he's great! Organized, interested in making sure everyone is doing well, good conversationalist. You'll have a great time.

3. Kaladin: Depends

To be fair it was a stressful situation, but when Kaladin and Shallan "road tripped" through the chasms, he basically just marched off with his long Alethi legs and left her to scramble along behind him. I feel like that's equivalent to, like, being really particular about the radio or something. Plus, he totally thinks he knows the way and ain't asking for directions. On the other hand, if Kaladin has warmed up to you, then I think he'd be an okay travel buddy. He'll definitely pull you out of the flaming wreckage when the trip inevitably turns into some sort of dramatic life-or-death situation, at least!

4. Vasher: No

You're like, "Oh look! That town has the country's largest cow statue! Wanna stop and take a look?" and he's like, "No." It's the first time he's spoken in 45 minutes.

5. Tress: Yes

By the of her book, Tress is all about adventure and she's a literal delight to everyone on the ship. Plus, if your tire got flat or something, Tress would absolutely learn how to change a tire on the fly and get you back on the road.

6. Teft: No

Teft will fight to his dying breath to protect you, but I do not think he'd be fun to sit in the car with for eight hours a day. He'd be a grumbler, I think.

7. Kabsal: Yes

He'd bring amazing car snacks, potentially homemade ones. He seemed like a good conversationalist too. Now it's true, he might try to assassinate you or inconveniently fall in love with you--or both!--but, like, the rest of the road trip will be lots of fun.

8. Navani: Depends on the type of road trip

Navani would, I think, make for a very organized road trip buddy. If you're trying to get somewhere on a time table, Navani would be great. You WILL be up at 8:00am and you WILL get to your destination on time and in one piece. But if you're hoping to, like, chill out and enjoy the scenery casually, then maybe not so much.

9. Elend: No

Elend is great 'n' all, but has a plan of his ever worked out in his life? There's gonna be a huge traffic jam caused by, like, political sabotage or something. And all of his books on tape are about philosophy, too.

10. Mare: Yes

She's definitely a "cow! cow!" type person, I think.

11. Eshonai: Hell yeah

Eshonai loves to travel and is delighted to meet new people. She's going to get chatting with some fruit vendor and the next thing you know, you've both been invited to dinner and are about to have the absolute best homecooked meal of your life.

12. Raoden: Yes

I feel like Raoden is very likable and cares a lot about how the people around him are doing. He'd make sure you had a good time and would be very thoughtful.

13. Lirin: Depends on whether Hesina is coming too

I feel like on his own, Lirin would be a very...stressed road trip buddy. Concerned about the speed limit, about not being too unhealthy, about doing the road trip right. But if Hesina were there, I think he'd be able to chill out a lot more. Because Hesina would want the trip to be fun, and I think Lirin would let it be fun with her around.

14. Lezian: Hell no

The FIRST person who cuts him off in traffic is gonna spark so much road rage in Lezian. Now you're weaving erratically through traffic in pursuit of that truck he's mad at, and you're only like 30 minutes into the trip.

15. Raboniel: Well...

At first she was like, "I am the driver here. You will address me only as the Lady of Roads and will know your place" and you were like, "Wow. This is going to be the worst trip of my life." But by the end, the two of you are singing together and crying for some reason, and now you think she might be your soulmate.

So...50/50?

[clumsiestgiantess]

My first piece for the @gtgotcha4gaza fundraiser! This one was donated by @biggnansmol with the prompt Overhead; enjoy!

My body presses close to the ground as I watch the traffic rush by in a cacophony of tremorous footsteps and raucous voices.  I hunch down near the street corner of a building who knows how many thousands of times my size, looking intently out over the giants walking past.  They travel without a single downward glance at the tiny man just barely taller than their palms.

Many, if not most, of my kind avoid anywhere near this kind of foot traffic.  As a borrower, you can only withstand so much noise and movement constantly around you before your instincts tell you to run.  What separates me from the rest is that my instincts can guide me through the crowd of gigantic beings, to other places entirely.  I can make it to stores all the way on a different street if I really want to.  I haven’t, but I can.

Cracked Concrete Colony — my home — lies halfway between the giants’ colony above, and the giants’ watery wasteland below.  You’d think the giants — humans, they call themselves — would try pitching in to help us ever since they found out we exist.  They didn’t.  In fact, they now have the audacity to label us as pests; vermin.  No wonder we decided to stay away from them.  

As a seasoned package-runner, my job is to deliver supplies from our place to other smaller groups above, and sometimes bring supplies back again.  Oh, and myself.  I bring myself back every time.  Not everyone does.

The worst shape I’ve come out of running is a sprained wrist, but there are some who’ve broken bones, lost limbs, and even died on the exact routes I take.  I’m not too worried, though.  My instincts are better than theirs, I’m sure.  No one in the history of my colony — that people know of — has survived as long as me.  I’m the best there is.  Sure, I’ve come a mere arm’s length away from the sole of a shoe multiple times, but that’s normal for my line of work.  Defying certain death is my average Tuesday.

So, once I see a break in the crowd, I make my move.

My brain and eyes work in tandem to spot every potential danger coming at me.  Thankfully it’s mostly coming from the same side.  The first few pairs of feet I dodge with ease — weaving in and out between the giants’ legs with perfect timing to their methodic gait.  

However, one giant hurriedly stumbles through the crowd in the wrong direction.  I have just enough time to brace myself before their foot rushes up to meet me.  For a brief moment, I believe they’ll dash by right overhead, but the idea is short-lived.  

The tip of a gigantic shoe digs into my stomach, catching on my side and kicking me across the rugged surface of the cement walkway.  I cry out in pain as skin tears off my bare arms in shreds and I land in the ditch between the walkway and the awful road of machines.  Rule number one of package-running: never go into the road.  Ever.  Everyone knows it’s certain death.

Agony spreads through my body, but I grit my teeth and bare it.  I have to get back up onto that walkway.  After a few minutes of desperate struggling — getting blown down and dragged backwards by the sheer force of the machines’ speed — I realize it’s pointless.  It’s hard enough just hauling myself up with my scratched arms.  Even without the machines, I don’t think I’d make it.

Just as I break out in a cold sweat, a shadow descends over me.  A giant’s hand grabs me from above — fingers coiling around my midsection.  Shrieking in both fright and pain, I claw at the human’s hand and get this close to biting them, when I’m flipped over and tucked much more securely against their palm.

Only briefly do I stop struggling to wonder why their grip is so cautious before trying to escape it again.  “Hey, no no; it’s ok!  I’ve got you little guy, you’ll be alright.”  I… what?  The giant slides their hand up against me to keep me from squirming out of their grasp.  Their palm settles against my chest and my heart skips a beat.  “Let me just find a safe spot to put you down.”

Fear still spikes through me like lightning at the way their fingers wrap around my torso to keep me still.  My mind screams at me to keep fighting them because they’ll hurt me for sure if I don’t.  However, there’s something about the way they’re handling me — as much as I hate the fact that they are handling me — that deters me from wanting to escape.  

Then there’s the way they spoke… they immediately wanted to assure me that I’d be alright.  The only things I’ve been told by giants are “Get out of here!” and “Oh eww, what the heck are you?!” so it’s quite the unexpected upgrade.

Suddenly, the hands around me slide away and I’m deposited gently in a small alleyway.  I peer hesitantly up at the giant, kneeling down over me.  Their worried expression softens slightly when I do.  “There you go, safely away from the road and people.  Don’t go back there anymore, ok?”  My mouth drops open, utterly shocked.  “Th - Thank.. you?” I say in awed confusion.  How am I not dead?  Were they helping me get out of the road?

With a small smile, they stand back up and walk off into the crowd of other giants.  I was left standing only a storefront or two up from where I began.  In a few minutes it’s as if none of it had happened at all.

Briefly, I think about trying to go after the giant — ask them why they did that for me.  Then, I take a step and my entire body tenses in pain — dragging me out of my stupor.  Actually.. I think I’ll just head back and get healed up.  I’d tested my luck enough for one day.  Even without the giant’s help, I’m still lucky I hadn’t been stepped on, only kicked.

Maybe I’d dodge past my unlikely hero on the walkway sometime again and ask them then.  I’m just lucky that the strangely benevolent giant had given me another chance to keep surviving.  Hauling myself to the street corner once again, I dash off into the crowd, making it home in only a little less time than usual.

[spacedustpan]

Bullshit is Spreading and How to Volunteer in NC

I've noticed a lot of youtubers are purposefully NOT mentioning all of the different organizations that are VETTED BY NORTH CAROLINA'S EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT that you can sign up to volunteer with TODAY to help Asheville.

They're plugging the 501c's of their buddies and it's making me seething mad because there's also a bunch of youtubers spreading absolute bullshit about how "The government has completely abandoned Asheville and Unicoi!!!" when that's Absolutely Not the case.

Po**ce as much as they're contemptible are centralizing donations at approved locations with infrastructure to handle volunteers that can distribute them and the reason random ass people can't just use the roads for direct donations is because they're trying to keep it to registered volunteers that have clear and specific orders so that they know where people are and what they're doing.

That makes search easier and it makes things like clearing roads easier. It also makes it easier to keep an eye on volunteers for their own safety.

Literally if people want to volunteer they can go to the 211 website or the North Carolina Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster website to pick somewhere to volunteer.

As long as you've signed up with an organization that's doing work on the ground they'll let you in and let you use the roads that State and Volunteers have access to.

These youtubers are also spreading blatant misinformation with a bent towards trashing the democratic party's response to the disaster and trying to uplift snakes like J.D. Vance.

There's a newer website that the state has made to try to combat misinformation

But of course MAGA brainwash victims in the general neighboring region (the population majority mind you) are believing this bullshit.

Here's the info from the state website:

(It starts with the facts then states the Rumor that they disprove after)

There are many false reports and misinformation being shared on social media about the response to Hurricane Helene. Additional reliable information regarding Helene can be found at www.ncdps.gov/helene.

The public should get information about storm response and impacts from trusted sources like the State Emergency Response Team, National Weather Service, and other federal, state, county and local government sites. Be aware that Artificial Intelligence or AI-generated images are being circulated on social media that do not depict conditions on the ground.  

Do your part to the stop the spread of rumors by doing three easy things:  

• Find trusted sources of information.  

• Share information from trusted sources.  

• Discourage others from sharing information from unverified sources and question where information is coming from. 

Stop the Spread of Misinformation

FACT: False information is being widely shared on social media channels, including AI-generated content and images. Nefarious actors and those with ill intent may be taking advantage of this situation by spreading false information. The public is encouraged to find trusted sources of information; share information from those trusted sources; and to discourage others from sharing information from unverified sources.

FACT: The NC State Emergency Response Team, which includes local, state, federal and military partners, along with power and cell phone agencies, private businesses and volunteer organizations, is working around the clock to save lives and provide humanitarian relief to Western North Carolina residents. This is a coordinated effort aimed at saving lives and to speed recovery for residents, businesses and municipalities in the impacted areas.

RUMOR: The state and federal government are doing nothing to respond to the ongoing disaster in Western North Carolina.  

FACT: Roadways in Western North Carolina are still dangerous and impassible in many places. A recent landslide shows the potential for more serious incidents. In some areas, traffic is being rerouted to maintain availability of roadways for emergency response, coordinated disaster relief efforts and local traffic. 

RUMOR: Checkpoints are being established and donations and volunteers are being turned away from Western North Carolina.  

FACT: 

The state is encouraging financial donations to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund at www.nc.gov/donate, or to a NC Volunteer Organization Active in Disaster.

A list of these organizations can be found at www.ncvoad.org/members.

The state is working with these organizations to stand up logistical operations to coordinate the collection and distribution of countless physical donations from across the state and country. Donations are not being confiscated by state and federal officials.  

RUMOR: The state is discouraging donations in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Physical donations are being confiscated by state and federal officials.  

FACT: Coordinated volunteer disaster relief efforts are needed in Western North Carolina. We strongly encourage neighbors to continue helping neighbors in impacted areas.

Those wishing to volunteer should register at www.nc.gov/volunteer in order to be connected with a NC Volunteer Organization Active in Helene response.

Please do not self-deploy to Western North Carolina unless you are working with an organization already providing services on the ground.  

RUMOR: The state and federal government are discouraging volunteerism in Western North Carolina. 

FACT: The FAA is not restricting access for recovery operations. The FAA is coordinating closely with state and local officials to make sure everyone is operating safely in very crowded and congested airspace. Learn more.

RUMOR: The FAA is restricting access to the airspace for Helene rescue and recovery operations. 

FACT: FEMA is not controlling any airports in western North Carolina. Airport Managers and Airport Sponsors are the legal entities in charge of operating airports, even in Helene response. FEMA staff may be present at airports as they deploy supplies and stage for Helene response. Airports are critical for accessing impacted NC communities for response and recovery efforts for partners including FEMA.

RUMOR: FEMA is operating and controlling airports in western North Carolina.

Also - at this time MONEY is preferred over physical in-person volunteer work.

Please keep in mind infrastructure for electricity and water and sanitation is damaged.

That makes it more difficult to manage volunteers.

It's encouraged that you donate to the the state and to organizations working on the ground so that they can work alongside the military and federal resources to restore infrastructure in the area.

If you're a Modern Country fan then good news: Luke Combs, Eric Church, Billy Strings, and James Taylor are holding a

Helene Relief Concert in Charlotte NC on Oct. 26th!

You can donate money AND see a concert at the same time.

If you don't like country but love someone who does, consider asking if they'd like a ticket as an early Christmas or Birthday present or something.

Edit to add:

For people insisting that ONLY $750 is being offered to Hurricane victims:

The $750 is just for immediate food and gas and personal hygiene supply needs.

Victims have to apply with FEMA in affected locations to have assessment of damages and evaluation of funding with a top end of about $40,000 or so possible for Housing/shelter.

I wouldn't be surprised if people used the money to move to neighboring towns honestly.

Problem is that people affected in various areas and people unaffected in the region are wholesale believing the lie they are being told by people they trust that victims are only being given $750.

And the actual funding will absolutely run out if people don't apply for it.

And when they're being convinced that they've been left behind they're not applying for help.

So the people that actually know better (wealthy people with family or friend connections to people in state govt and thus correct information) will know and get to apply for funding for housing and take advantage of speed while others are reeling with disinformation.

Make sure your loved ones apply for everything they can.

[dailymanners]

When driving, if you have to stop at an intersection or stretch of road that has a crosswalk, do not stop on top of the crosswalk, keep the crosswalk clear.

If there is another car in front of you but on the other side of the crosswalk, you have absolutely nothing to gain by scooting forward and stopping on top of the crosswalk. Scooting forward a meter or two so that you're stopped on top of the crosswalk while waiting for the car in front of you to move will not get you to your destination faster or achieve anything at all besides being annoying, inconsiderate, and potentially a safety hazard for pedestrians and cyclists. Simply wait until the car in front of you has moved forward enough for you to get clear over the crosswalk.

Having the crosswalk blocked by a car stopped over it while you're a pedestrian can range from anywhere to annoying to dangerous, as it's been left impassible while you're stopped over it when it otherwise wouldn't be and would be left clear and safe to use.

And yes, a pedestrian on foot or a cyclist might be able to go around you by squeezing in front of or behind your car, but this can be dangerous. If cars are lined up close together, such as they might be waiting at an intersection or stuck in traffic, and the car at the tail end gets rear ended this can cause a domino effect of all the cars rear ending whoever is in front of them, which can squish, so severely injure or potentially kill, a pedestrian or cyclist trying to squeeze in front of or behind your car which is blocking the crosswalk.

Also, a wheelchair user or someone pushing a stroller won't have such an easy time weaving through the little gap in front of or behind your car blocking the crosswalk while you've left it impassible for them.

[sweet-slut]

you're driving back from the club, a tab on the passenger seat next you that is playing some rape porn. you were raised rich and your parents didn't care about you as long as you didn't run away. with all the money and freedom you were smart enough to stay with your parents instead of running away because they didn't love you.

you have three other rich friends - friend one, the one that came today at the end of the party naked and cum dripping down her thighs from her stuffed and swollen cunt. she pouted as she said sorry because she lost her clothes, but was ready to go home naked so her hot roommate could fyck her. friend two, the one always dressed in a lingerie and drinking at the party but rejects everyone hitting on her. friend three, the one that is usually the responsible one and drives you all home, but she said she was gonna get drunk today so you sacrificed your drinking day and decided to be the driver.

you're wearing a hot pink lingerie underneath a tube top and white skirt.

lingerie - https://pin.it/YZkgJ1c

skirt - https://pin.it/1jjdM9k

shirt - https://pin.it/3SBUDqU

a policeman asks you to pull over. he knocks on the window, "out young lady. now". you blush as you get out. it was a fairly crowded road and the traffic was all from the usual Friday night frat party.

everyone could now see you and your slutty dress. the man harshly pushes you against the door, and the traffic could see your lingerie clothes pussy. the policeman kneads your clothed boobs and you yelp trying to pry his hands off. he slips it under your top and takes off the lingerie top.

you gasp, as he flings it to somewhere. ypu pulls up your skirt and pulls down the bottom of your lingerie. he throws that also somewhere.

"that's all rookie. now cuff her and we'll take care of her." the older one says. the one that just stripped off your lingerie cuffs your hands.

"You're a potential drug suspect miss. We'll have to check you here." He says and takes a scissor, slowly snipping on your shirt. He pulls it off you and you hide your face that is burning with tears as a bunch of cars honk to support the policeman.

he pulls down your skirt and puts it in his car. you're now naked with tears rolling down your face. he pushes you against the hood of his police car and pries open your legs to look at your soaking wet pussy. he scissors it open with two fingers before inserting two long digits into it. you shake, cry and moan as his finger curl and uncurl, torturing your gspot. its not long before you cum all over his fingers. you pant, juices flowing out of you.

the man without any warning thrusts his dick hard into your pussy. you scream in pleasure, bycking your hips with his thrusting. You cum again, but it stays inside as the man releases his juices inside of you. the rookie is now given a chance. he squeezes in his thick, veiny, 9 inch dick alongside his superiors dick that is inside you.

you cry, moan, trash around and end up cumming thrice with both their dicks inside you. your cunt is filled to the brim with your cum, and the policmen's cum.

they confisticate your car. "Come to the station tomorrow slut. Wear something nice a slutty, and you can get your car back." They say, and you are uncuffed.

you end up walking back home, naked with juices flowing from your swollen pussy. you don't bother covering yourself, because you realize : you're in love with the idea of being abused and raped in public. you sit down in front of a wine shop, legs spread open, waiting for someone to come fuck you.

no-one does so, so you walk home dejected. "but there's tomorrow. I'll see them tomorrow." You think.

God I love all of the long storys I get so so so so so much...and the extra with the lingerie

Shit yes yes yes yes

[tact-and-impulse]

Narumayo Zine 2024

Thanks @narumayo-zine for another fun and successful event! My fic's also on the AO3 collection. Everyone's amazing work can be found here!

A Cute Voice

Phoenix stamped the snow off his shoes. The wreaths on the lobby’s walls were a duller green, a few decorative pinecones had fallen on the linoleum. Holiday cheer had given way to a regular morning at work, back to business as usual. He checked the Wright & Co. mailbox, grabbed the stack of envelopes, and headed to the upper floor.

Hm? It’s not totally quiet. Music blared from behind the door, and a muffled voice joined in.

“Go, go! Steel Samurai…”

It sounded like Maya, especially because of the theme song, although he’d never heard her sing before. Curious, he turned the door handle as quietly as possible. The office was much tidier, the desk and table cleared of stray papers. But his attention landed on Maya, pulling up the blinds with her back to him.

“That brave hero will save the town, fly high!” A clear, sweet soprano left her lips. Effortlessly, she reached the high note, perfectly on pitch. She spun around and froze. “Ack, Nick! Uh, hi?”

“Hey, Maya. Having fun?”

She blushed, scrambling to turn off the music. “I came early to help clean, I thought you’d be here later.”

“Early bird catches the worm. Anyway, you don’t have to stop. You sing really well.” He insisted.

She let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, I don’t know. Aunt Morgan once heard me trying a lullaby on Pearl when she was a baby, and she told me to never do it again, so…”

A spark of righteous fury flared within Phoenix. “That’s-”

“New year, new stuff, right? What have you got there?” She dove for the mail, and then, they were occupied with sorting through the requests.

One potential client was at a ski lodge, and when Pearl returned from Medium Valley, they decided to make it a weekend trip. Of course, they were inevitably stuck in traffic. As Phoenix tapped the rental car’s steering wheel, Maya punched the radio button. A pop song poured through the speakers and from the backseat, Pearl screamed in delight, adding her own slightly off-key but animated enthusiasm.

Maya turned to grin at her. “You like this band, don’t you, Pearly?”

“I really do! Mystic Maya, won’t you sing along?”

“It’s okay, I don’t know all the lyrics.”

She pouted. “What about you, Mr. Nick?”

“Same here. But I’ll try if there’s something I’ve heard before.” And as if on cue, the next song was familiar. Just his luck. He could carry a tune, he wasn’t going to win any awards though. He sang the chorus and the bridge, glancing at Maya. She was smiling wide, her eyes lit up like shooting stars.

“Wow, you’re awesome.”

“I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic.”

“Totally serious, Nick!”

“Well, you can take a turn. You’re probably better than us and we won’t judge you at all.” He said, holding her gaze. Her lips trembled.

“What if you both sing a duet?!” Pearl exclaimed. “That would be so romantic-”

Then, the cars ahead moved, and the rest of the drive smoothly sent Pearl into a nap. Dense trees lined the road, glittering with salt, and signposts pointed to the main resort. In a promising sight, snowy slopes emerged from cloud cover, tiny dots of skiers creating downward trails. Phoenix spoke first.

“I’m sorry, Maya, I didn’t mean to pressure you.”

“You weren’t!” She countered. “It’s only…I don’t know. I guess I’m nervous?”

“That’s alright. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be cheering you on.”

“…Thank you.” Her soft whisper rose and fell, a caress sliding around his neck.

Within minutes, they rolled into the parking lot. Maya tumbled out, her face flushed as she coaxed Pearl to wake up. It had to be the brisk wind. Nevertheless, the cold wasn’t quite touching Phoenix, his ears still hot.

***

Cards flipped, fabric rustled, applause resounded again and again. Trucy had pleaded to attend this magic convention, and by her unwavering expression of wonder, Phoenix didn’t regret it. She watched the other magicians with rapt attention, happily relaying to him what she learned. While she practiced some new maneuvers with Mr. Hat, he went to grab drinks. Apple juice for her, cider for him.

As he picked up the glasses, murmurs rippled from the entrance. Some rich patroness, apparently. However, his breath caught at the figure assisting the newcomer. Long dark hair, cascading over purple robes. A touch of mascara and lip gloss, highlighting more mature features.

Maya.

There had been furtive phone calls and tearstained letters, but this was the first time he’d seen her in person since his badge was taken. He almost wanted to hide. However, any escape was rendered impossible, when he found Trucy chatting with Pearl, who had a growth spurt. He felt Maya’s gaze on him, unable to meet hers, until the convention ended and the girls declared they wanted to get dinner together. So, they ended up at a ramen shop, receiving generous bowls. Trucy and Pearl held an excitable conversation, Maya offering small compliments about the food.

In the dark blue evening, they returned to the hotel. Phoenix carried Trucy, as he walked alongside Maya and a staggering Pearl. Their room was because of Maya’s employer, she explained, who liked the occult. It was certainly a far cry from the Wright Talent Agency; Pearl crashed onto a large silk-covered bed, while Maya insisted on giving them some of the goodies. He couldn’t bring himself to walk away. In his arms, Trucy stirred, her brows creasing in internal turmoil. Pearl rolled onto one side, then the other. Maya started to hum, that became a verse under her breath, in a low, soothing song. The girls grew calmer, and Phoenix felt like breathing was a little easier.

“This is my happiness, I want you to know. I’ll turn to the sky, and keep singing by the window.” She handed over the bag, with a brave smile. “Here you are, Nick.”

He managed to choke out. “Thank you, Maya. For this, and the singing.”

“Not a lot else to do under a waterfall, so vocal training must have paid off.” She deflected. “I’m getting stronger, so I can help you. Just…please, wait. You’ll have your badge back, I know you will.”

He could only nod and pull his beanie further down. More than ever, he wanted to believe in her words.

***

The thought didn’t occur to Phoenix until they were stateside again. Outside the airport, it was pitch black. Bleary-eyed with jet lag and adjusting his watch out of Khura’in time, he asked Maya. “Where are you staying?”

“I guess I can find a hotel room.” She yawned.

After everything that had happened? “Or, you can stay over with me.”

Her eyes widened.

He quickly corrected. “And Trucy! I think she invited Pearl too, I’ll call…” Embarrassed, he brought out his phone and let the girls know, who said they’d have hot drinks and their bedding ready.

“Separate rooms, Daddy?” Trucy innocently asked.

“Y-yes, of course!”

“Aw, okaaay. See you soon.”

As they waited for the cab, they sat in an empty area. Maya gave a bemused look at his suitcase but instead, she said. “You know, I don’t think I’ve said it enough times, but thank you, Nick.”

“I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. And now, you’re home again.”

“Yes, it’s so good to be back.” She ran her fingers through her sleek dark hair, closing one eye.

“If you want to rest, you can use my shoulder.”

“I’ll take you up on that.” And she promptly did.

Phoenix dropped his gaze; their hands were an inch apart, and carefully, his moved closer, just enough for the slightest touch. She shifted, but didn’t speak. Still, he recognized that she was awake. It just felt right to summon his voice, into a tune from one of his daughter’s shows. A closing, and an invitation to see another magic act soon.

And unexpectedly, Maya began to quietly sing. Low warm notes, climbing to that pure bright soprano. “Tides may ebb and flow, and the sun may rise and fall. Still, you’re with me through it all.”

He held his breath. He didn’t want to miss a single second.

“The shell you gave me sings a lullaby of the waves. It takes me back to that summer day.” She paused. “My mom and Mia used to sing this to me, but that’s all I remember of it.”

“It was wonderful.”

“Even in my exhausted state?”

“Not that I could tell. You’ve always had a cute voice.” He murmured.

Her hand bumped his, in protest. But she didn’t draw away. In the next instant, he captured her wrist, and she twisted around to intertwine their fingers. “Probably, no karaoke yet. At least, for now, I can sing just for you.”

He couldn’t resist smiling. “I’m glad.” And maybe, a little thrilled he was the sole exception. He did like her singing voice very much. The minutes stretched on, and he was on the verge of dozing off when his phone rang with the cab’s arrival. Their hands remained in place, as they wheeled their luggage through the airport. And they walked into the cool night, towards a well-deserved homecoming.

[nerves-nebula]

Okay so Donnie at the end is a little OOC, but I figured this would happen a long ways down the line, after they were beginning to recover, and he’s gotten some more self-confidence. Pair that with “siblings potentially in danger” and I think it’s justified? I hope you like.

——

Their therapist liked to tell them that it was okay to have moments of immaturity. It was fine to indulge in childish things because it’s not as if they’d had time for it as children.

“You’d be surprised how many adults still love things geared towards younger audiences.”

This was the excuse Leo gave himself.

He was just embracing his childish side.

Donnie had said that the “Shell-mobile” as Mikey had dubbed it was technically road-worthy. He was still working in it, though, wanting it to work as a mobile command center for them when they were scouting or ninja-ing.

All Leo heard was “We have a car now.”

Technically, Raph and Donnie were the only ones with licenses. They had immediately gotten them when they’d officially moved to the Hidden City, just in case. So, technically, Raph and Donnie were the only ones who could legally drive the Shell-mobile.

However, Leo and Mikey still had learner’s permits and were allowed to drive as long as someone with a license was with them in the car, so this should be fine.

Leo slammed the gas, laughing hysterically as the junker van surged forward, tearing down the road as Mikey and Raph clung to their seats. It was exhilarating, the freedom of driving at ridiculous speeds. They’d pulled off the main road, of course, avoiding any major traffic (Leo was impulsive, not stupid), that way they’d be less likely to run into any cops.

The handling on the van was less than optimal. It swerved and Leo could swear he’d pulled them up onto just two wheels at least three times.

“Faster, Leo!” Mikey screamed, throwing his hands in the air as they took a sharp turn, “Donnie’s gonna fuckin’ kill us!”

Raph’s scream was far less excited, “Screw Donnie, LEO is gonna kill us! At least slow down for the turns, you’re gonna crash!”

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Leo laughed maniacally, popping the handbrake to drift them around another sharp corner. There was no way in hell he was slowing this vehicle until Raph either threw up or passed out.

“LEO LOOK OUT!” Raph shrieked (rather high pitched and girly if you asked Leo).

Mikey’s laughter also died down as the van slammed into something, thudding a few times. Leo slammed on the brakes, skidding them to a stop, the smell of burnt rubber quickly filling the air.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.” Raph made to grab at the door handle, but his hands shook too much to get a proper grip. Leo leaned over to help, letting Raph out to get some air.

He and Mikey also got out, all of them turning to see the hunched form of a cat yokai in the middle of the road.

“I’m gonna be sick.” Raph whined.

They approached the yokai carefully, unsure if he was even alive.

“Oh my God, Leo.” Mikey punched his shoulder, “You fucking hit someone.”

“It was an accident!”

“I’m so not testifying for you in court, dude. Lock her away, Your Honor! This woman is a certified-“

Coughing interrupted him.

“Oh fuck, he’s alive.” Raph put himself between the body and his brothers, “Can you hear us?”

The yokai groaned, slowly lifting his head. He was definitely not doing good, his face was scratched to shit and one of his eyes wouldn’t open.

“D-Donnie?” The yokai asked.

The trio froze.

No one spoke for a solid minute.

The yokai collapsed back to the pavement.

“How did he-“

“Could he be-“

“Abe?”

The yokai’s ears twitched.

Donnie, back when they began training their ninpo, had done experiments about telepathy. He’d done tons of tests, both in safe and dangerous environments. He had definitively told them all that, thankfully, their blood line did not mean that they could read each other’s minds. He surmised that any “telepathy” the others thought they had was just them being able go understand one another and know how the other would react to circumstances due to their prolonged exposure to one another.

However, in that moment, the trio only had to exchange one look before they all turned back, going back go the Shell-mobile. They buckled up, fixed the mirrors, and Leo turned them around.

Thump

Thump

The drive back home was far less exciting than the drive out to the edge of town, but the adrenaline still ran through their veins. Leo parked the van, smiling to himself as he saw Donnie storming into the garage.

“Wh-what did you d-d-do?!” Donnie looked over the van, “Of all th-the reckless, kn-knuckleheaded- you realize I can remote tr-track the van’s sp-speedometer, right?”

“Oh, no, I didn’t know that.” Leo smiled, “That’s really cool, Don.”

Donnie paused a moment, “I- hey, wait! You can’t distract me w-with compliments!”

Mikey nodded, “Yeah, that’d be underhanded.”

Raph agreed, “You can yell at us, Don, go ahead.”

Donnie’s ire seemed to sizzle out as he looked over his siblings. They all just stood there, politely waiting to get yelled at…

“Have you been body snatched?”

Leo laughed, “That’s a good one. No, no, we’re us. You can run some tests if you wanna be sure.”

“Hey, Don, why don’t I make your favorite tonight?” Raph smiled, coming forward to put a hand on Donnie’s back, guiding him back into the complex, “You can yell at us while I cook.”

“And you can tell us about how you track the Shell-mobile!” Mikey grinned, bouncing beside him as they headed in.

—

It wasn’t until years and years later, after all was said and done, that any of the three of them broke their unspoken vow.

——

And there we go! Originally I wasn’t gonna have them hit him with a car, but that idea was too fuckin funny to pass up.

-Monster Anon

Can We Utilize Unsafe Driving For The Better? More at 11 !!

them being weirdly nice and polite to Donnie afterwards is so funny to me lmao.

[zenosanalytic]

Road Rage

Ok so here's the thing: people will say "driving the speed limit is unsafe", but why do they say that?

Because everyone around you is driving faster.

And why is everyone around you driving faster?

Because people will drive at the speed which feels "natural" for a road, and the lanes are wide and smooth and straight, with no obstructions to either side and open sky above("for safety"), all of which encourages fast driving. So why isn't that "Natural" speed the speed-limit instead?

For two main reasons:

in the US we use an absolutely moronic method for determining the "proper" speed for a road

because in the US we build fast(I mean 50+mph here but REALLY I should mean 30+mph) roads right through neighborhoods and commercial districts, which means entry/exits right onto that road from them and frequent traffic lights and the necessity of making allowances for ppl not in cars(ie peds and cyclists), and the official speed can only be so high through such areas and still meet US legal(note: NOT ACTUAL) standards for "safety".

So in the US we have a situation where the posted speed for EVERY ROAD(and Im just using the term generally in this post for all driving surfaces; streets, parkways, drives, highways, whathaveyou) is far lower than the road is built for, and people are just supposed to KNOW this even though no driving instructor teaches it, Know to ignore speed limits and match their speed to everyone else, but also if you drive like this and a cop sees you they can totally pull you over whether it's creating a safety issue or not(Im sure that doesn't lead to any sort of systemic abuse of authority or anything).

So the answer's simple and right at the top of the post; you drive "the speed of traffic" and you're safe, right?

WRONG! WRONG WRONG WRONGWRONGWRONG!!!!!!

But why wrong?

Remember the road features which determine "natural speed"? The wider, smoother, straighter and more open a road is, the faster people will drive on it. But it also makes them pay less attention cuz it's so "safe" and drive more recklessly cuz it's so "safe". THIS is how unsafe roads make "unsafe" drivers.

You can do everything "right". You can drive with traffic, signal early, attempt visual communication with other drivers, keep your eyes open and always concede the lane to those CLEARLY driving dangerously; do EVERYTHING they teach you in defensive driving... And you will STILL get rear-ended by someone looking at their phone too long behind you who didn't notice the light had turned red(on a road that never should have had even ONE traffic light on it in the first place, and which residential never should have been allowed to abut in the first place). You will STILL get t-boned by the guy who "always" blazes through that intersection because "nobody ever uses it". You will STILL find yourself on the business end of one of thousands of different potentially life-ending scenarios like this.

And it won't be because these people are "unsafe drivers" anymore than it will be because YOU Were going 50 in a 50 zone. It will be because we have a 50mph-rated road, built like a 75mph highway, right up against businesses and people's homes rather than being separated from them by frontage roads like it should be(not that US frontages are any safer), with no obstructions between them and ppl's backyard fences "for safety"(who cares if it makes it less safe for everyone not in a car), and not so much as partial turnoff lanes for entry and exit onto said highway-pretending-not-to-be-one. It will be because our roads are dangerous, our signage is wrong, and our laws are DESIGNED to be discriminatory and unsafe. It will be because our roads are dangerous on purpose.

If you are driving on US roads, you are in danger. Do what you feel is best to mitigate it, certainly educate yourself about that subject, but know that you will NEVER reduce that danger to a reasonable level. I belabor this because it's important that everyone understand the danger of US roads is not something anyone can fix or mitigate with their personal driving behavior. It is a political problem, and it must be fixed with political behavior.

So: Get involved. Educate Yourself on This Issue. Learn about candidates, what they have to say about road design, whose money is backing them, and then distribute your support accordingly. Meet people in your community and band together to go to city council meetings and have those of you who can speak in front of others complain about this at least once a week. "Road Safety" is one of the biggest public safety issues in the United States today. Carcentric civic design is LITERALLY KILLING US, in about half a dozen ways, and the Republican Party, as Fucking always, is not only dedicated to preventing us from fixing it, but dedicated to actively making it worse. I haven't even touched on increasing vehicle-size in all this. The idea of road deaths as anyone's personal failing, as someone's fault, distracts us into prisons and punishment and blaming victims, and away from doing what we need to do to actually stop road deaths from happening, which is Politics. The laws need to change or people will keep dying.

tl;dr: Roads should be narrower, rougher, built to be MUCH slower, crowded by trees, and much less common.

[aita-irl]

I put this in the old blog’s asks but it shut down before it could be posted, so:

Was I the asshole for potentially getting my school bus driver fired?

This incident took place about two years ago but I still wonder if I handled it correctly. I (F, 17 at the time, autistic, white) attended an out-of-district special needs school which is about an hour’s drive away by the highway. At the time of this story, I was starting my senior year. I have been the only student on my bus for the entire time I’ve been at this school, and I usually provide directions to the school for substitute drivers who are having difficulty navigating. At the start of my senior year, I started being driven by a different bus company than before. My new driver was an old African American man, and the new bus aide was an old white man.

As we started out, I told the new driver “So you’re gonna wanna make a left turn at this light”. The driver assured me he knew the way, then didn’t make the turn.

I (in a raised voice, because I was nervous about the unplanned thing) told him he’s going the wrong way, here’s how to get back on the right way. The driver then yelled at me that it’s his job to drive the bus, not mine. The aide said nothing. I shut up.

The bus driver proceeded to take a weird zigzagging route to the school, one that crossed the highway several times but didn’t go on it, we stayed mostly on backroads and local roads. As we approached the highway the first time, I started telling the driver to turn onto the highway and this time he completely ignored me.

I arrived late to school and told my teacher about all this, and she just said she’d talk to the office.

We took the weird route home that day, I told my mom (white, middle-aged) about it, she said she’d call the bus company.

We continued to take the weird route every day. I was late to school and coming home every day as well, and being late to school was fucking up the schedule for the work-study program I was in. The bus driver never deviated from his route even in the case of extreme traffic.

Then one day I had a (white, middle-aged) substitute bus driver but the same aide, and the substitute took the normal highway route and said that was the route printed on the instructions the company gave him.

The bus aide said that this meant the regular driver was intentionally disobeying the route instructions and this was against company rules, and the two agreed to report him. I said I’d tell my mom as well, and I did.

The next day the regular bus driver was back and we took the weird route again. But then at one point in the lane ahead of us there was a stalled out car. Other cars went around it, but the bus driver pulled up right behind it, rolled down his window, and began screaming at the two women who stepped out of the stalled car that they can’t park their car on the middle of the road like this.

Me and the aide began yelling at the driver that the car isn’t parked, it’s broken down. The driver yelled at me to shut up and began arguing with the aide before he started driving again. I told my mom about this whole incident when I got home.

Then a few days later, I had a different driver but the same aide. The aide said he saw our old driver get called into the company office and hadn’t seen him since. I never saw him again either.

TL;DR: Elderly African American man who may have had some kind of neurodivergence likely got fired from his job after white clients and colleagues reported him for not following company policy. AITA?

(For the record, I still would have reported a white and/or nuerotypical driver who did the same things)

[goonlalagoon]

Dot the i's & cross the t's || Hilda

A selection of excerpts from the records, reports and miscellaneous communications of Alfur Aldric from his time as Elven Observer of the City of Trollberg. Note to the reader: Whilst the contents of certain of Aldric’s Trollberg Reports may seem extremely unlikely, even fanciful, it has been independently verified that they are, in fact, true and accurate.

Edited to tag @hilda-appreciation-week as forgot despite the day 1: favourite character prompt being the reminder to post this. Not sure I have a single favourite, but I do enjoy Alfur as a character.

Read on Ao3

Report one: A preliminary report on travelling from the Elven Northern Counties to the human settlement of Trollberg via car

Like many Elves of the Northern Counties, I have restricted my travels thus far to that which is well-mapped and within a reasonable days travel by foot from my home village, with the occasional trip further afield with an overnight stay in order to assist with vital census updates and independent verification of records.

I therefore begin my records as the Elven Observer of the City of Trollberg with information collected before I entered the city, with observations on travelling the far vaster distance between my home county to the city itself. As expected, the interior of a human car is highly spacious, with an interesting array of safety features for the comfort of the driver and passengers. Sadly, these did not extend to anything suitable for an elf, and I on several occasions found myself sliding across the dashboard as we went around a corner until Hilda invited me to instead sit on her shoulder, where I could hold onto the collar of her jumper. I am pleased to report no injuries beyond a moderate bruise to my elbow, for which the appropriate paperwork has been filed.

The road in places was poorly maintained, a sad state of affairs for a piece of public infrastructure, but my companions seemed well used to the occasional abrupt clatter as the wheels caught in a crack in the road. Once we reached the more heavily used roads this became less common, suggesting a resource prioritisation effort may be the culprit. We passed an interesting array of signage, some of which was quite obvious to me and others which were inscrutable. Some were even directly contradictory - "Road works ahead", it transpired, meant not a reassuring statement on the continued availability of a road, but in fact was flagging that the road ahead was out of use for major repairs! Despite how illogical and potentially confusing this was, I admit to finding a certain charm in such differences compared to Elvish culture*.

The majority of the journey passed quickly; regrettably, as we drew closer to the gates to Trollberg we encountered what I was informed is a commonplace element of travel via car or other motorised road vehicle - the so called "traffic jam". I am yet to be able to find a reliable source for the origin of this term, but would posit based on observation thus far that it is a colloquialism  based on the ability of a large volume of vehicles attempting to utilise the same subset of roads causes you to slow as if caught in a vast swathe of sticky jam**

Once through the gates of Trollberg, late in the afternoon but fortunately before the sun was due to set, we took a meandering route through the city. I commented that the layout seemed somewhat counterintuitive, to which Joanna kindly informed me that city planning was rather ad-hoc, rather than the layout of the city as a whole being considered at the outset. While quite foreign a concept to one used to the clear zoning laws and building regulations of the Northern Counties, one must I suppose account for the necessity of limiting building to within a constrained space (i.e. within the encircling walls) and the impacts this would have on opportunities for building and restructuring. Human buildings, it would seem, are deeply attached to the very bedrock rather than being simply held in place via magic (which is, of course, not available to the vast majority of humans) which further complicates any attempt to impose logical order on their street layout.

Nevertheless, our driver was well aware of where she needed to go and we soon arrived at our destination with no diversions. We left the car on the street outside, with much muttered complaint about "parallel parking" and lamenting the lack of a "driveway", a statement I am yet to receive adequate clarification for. Joanna has promised to find a driver's theory manual for me to investigate to expand my understanding rather than being reliant on her or Hilda's ability to answer my questions.

As they appear to disagree quite drastically on some points, I will be pleased to verify my learnings with the approved instructions before submitting further details to the records of the Northern Counties.

* Statement intended as a positive observation on a novel culture and to indicate an open-minded and non-judgemental approach, not in to be considered in any form as a suggestion for adoption by the Elvish Council **Hilda, one of my two hosts in the city, has kindly offered to locate a scale model car and drive it through several varieties of jam in order to test the accuracy of this comparison; Joanna is insistent that any such experiments be done with suitable preparation, as is only correct for any scientific investigation. I have included a draft of this proposed experimental design with this report for reference.

-

Report one, subset A: A packing list

Shirts x 3 Reading glasses Underwear x 7 Towel Toiletries Books x 3 Woolly hat x 1 Scarf x 1 Mittens x 1 (pair) PJs x 2 Slippers Winter coat Notebook x 2 Pens Sleeping bag

Note: had I more time to prepare for travel I would perhaps have expanded my packing to decrease frequency of laundry, however there was limited time and a hard deadline for transport, necessitating a rather restricted research period to prepare for my travels.

-

Report one, subset B: A preliminary proposal for investigation on the coherency of "traffic jam" as a colloquialism 

Hypothesis A: Attempting to drive a scale vehicle across a surface coated with jam will result in a noted slowing of movement Hypothesis B: There will be no significant impact of variety of jam on the deceleration noted

Experimental materials required:

Scale model car with some mode of propulsion

A disposable or easily cleaned surface with sufficient texture for wheels to grip

A disposable or easily cleaned surface larger than the experimental set up

A stopwatch

Measuring tape

Jam (three or more varieties)

Cleaning wipes to clean wheels between trials

Knife or spoon (for spreading jam on surface)

-

Report one, subset C: A note on light and sound pollution

Residents of the Northern Counties will be well familiar with the historic conflict with the former residence of the Big People, largely revolving around what was long considered to be unacceptable levels of noise and light during the evening and night. Whilst that situation has been recently resolved, I must note that it is abundantly clear to me quite why the past residents of the cabin would have been fully unaware of this, in counter to one of the the more conservative objections that even if they had not yet completed the required paperwork to be able to interact with their neighbours their behaviour was clearly unruly and unacceptable in any case.

Quite simply, by the standards of the city of Trollberg our neighbours have been at worst consistent in their behaviour with their social norms, and in my experience thus far seemingly were frequently positively accommodating and considerate.

Outside of the windows of the room in which I am attempting to sleep is a light that seems set to be on throughout the night, one of several lining the street. Cars drive past at irregular intervals despite the late hour, throwing more light into the room (despite the drawn curtains) and splitting the night with the rumble of engines. Though at the time of writing this noise has ceased, until several hours after it became dark I could hear music coming from the flat below. While not unpleasant or offensive, it was nevertheless distracting to an elf used to the quiet of the Northern Counties.

I am not alone in finding this all rather jarring; Hilda is sitting up with me as I write, peering out of the window and mourning the peace and quiet left behind. She has just uttered an impatient declaration of "how does anybody get any sleep?" - I hope that we soon discover the answer, lest my reports quickly become unacceptably insensible.

[ctheathy]

Totono HCs.!! 🙏 I would love anything,, could range from domestic and cute to downright normal You and Me and Her vibes..

Aoi Mukou & Miyuki Sone Fluff Headcanons

Aoi x Reader x Miyuki

Fluff headcanons

Author’s note: Aahh, I remember brainrotting like crazy after seeing the walkthrough of the game. Totono truly is something special, you do not see such unique plots nowadays. Good memories ...

Aoi+Miyuki/Reader [Romantic]

[Gender-neutral Darling|Female Darling|Male Darling]

Potential ⚠️TWs⚠️ :

Aoi almost gets hit by a car💀

Aoi Mukou

Aoi has always had quite a complex relationship with other human beings. She’s always shown strange, unique and perhaps slightly off-putting mannerisms in behaviour. She’s almost like an open book, yet still extremely mysterious at the exact same time. She doesn’t seem to feel shame regarding her antics and naive nature, and neither do the comments of any other students bother her in the slightest. In fact, the puzzling female seems to have this interest towards the other students: wanting to befriend them at her own pace. Nonetheless, you always protected the girl from any potential ridicule and prevented her from feeling isolated.

Aoi’s naivety makes her incredibly vulnerable towards the dangers lingering around the school and streets. She doesn’t seem to understand the differences between wrong and right, and cannot tell apart danger from minimum safety for the human body. So when you see the female just crossing over the overcrowded road without even taking a single glance towards the moving traffic, your heart almost stops beating in your chest. You pulled her to the side within a blink of an eye, scolding the pastel haired girl while showing and making your concerns obvious to her. This doubling Aoi’s curiosity towards you after you showing this kindness and sense to protect her from nobody but herself.

I can see her many of the mannerisms of a cat growing on her, mainly due to her pet Eru. Aoi would start letting out meows and purrs of her own along with showing the behaviours as a lot of cats do. This mainly includes things such as rubbing her head against your frame or getting more touchy with you whenever desiring your attention, blinking slowly in order to show you a different form of affection and the many, many cat-like noises she tends to make out after she figured out her love for the animal.

Despite it having been slightly off-putting at first hand, I can imagine you specifically grow accustomed and perhaps even comforted by the little ‘turururu’ tune she makes every now and then. You tend to immediately associate it with your unique and special significant other, so instead of being weirded out like many others would be, you grow ... Happy when hearing it, finding a sense of relief when hearing the unique sounds she makes as it indicates that she’s close by.

Miyuki Sone

Just like when it comes to Aoi, Miyuki over here has never been the best expressing her emotions and the way she feels towards you in a desired method. Unlike her friend, she is more closed off as an individual and has a rough girl persona she prefers keeping on instead of allowing her feelings to shine through. It doesn’t matter what kind of connection you had to her from the very beginning, as Miyuki is always gonna be needing some time to warm up to you.

She seems like the type to need a lot of reassurance despite her being a tough cookie to crack. Her role as the adored female in school puts a lot of pressure on her and it often prevents her from opening up properly. She feels mortified of being taken advantage of in her through her kind regards, this often causing her to behave as a rather closed off girl and keep on the illusion to act differently than she actually is. You’d need to make sure that you’re trustworthy and try your hardest to be understanding of her current position. And that’s when her true colours would show.

She would start giving you small offerings of care in order to prove her love to you. She is awkward when it comes to terms of speech and words of affirmation, so she’s often one to avoid it. And instead goes after acts of service and tries to live up to your expectations. For example, whenever she’d notice poor eating habits or if you’re not even feeding yourself through the classes, she’d pack self-made lunches with her for you to feast on and enjoy. She also deeply enjoys spending her time with you. If you weren’t experienced with baseball, she’d insist that she helps out and teaches you the basic rules of the game and such, wanting you to join her during her training. The quality time you spend with one another being a major part of her trying to consider her emotions to you.

Definitely kind of a neat freak. Would constantly make sure her place is as tidy as ever and will scold you if you ever just so happen to make a mess or if you do not keep the same clean environments for yourself. Despite her sassy and bold demeanor, I can see her finding comfort in behaving like a house wife at times. Plus, she gets to tease you for the sake of you not being capable to take care of yourself, so bonus? Realistically speaking, she really just wants to see you in a safe state of mind and a safe home. When you’re feeling extra stressed out for example, she’d offer you to give you a personal massage in order for you to feel the extra relaxation. Not stopping until she’s a hundred percent sure every muscle in your body is calmed from their nerves. She still has an image to put up with though, so she’ll probably give you a good ol’ smack on the butt after she’s done with you, asserting her sense of pride and self-confidence.

[beyondthegame]

milaaaaa hello! first of all congrats on reaching 15K! that's exciting and very impressive! ✨ and for the prompt, what about ‘one giving the other their jacket / covering them with it when they fall asleep’ for n, please? thank u! I hope you're doing well 🫶

As your taxi stops, the door immediately opens for another passenger. You move to shuffle down in your seat before turning to the open door. Your eyes lock with dark grey ones.

N Tallon.

Their lips twist for a moment as they look down the street. They glance at you once more before taking a step back.

“I can get the next taxi.”

You snort before rolling your eyes. “It’s almost 2am and have you seen the weather?” you question, pointing towards the dark sky that is definitely going to open up with rain. “Don’t be stupid. Just get in.”

You can see N debating it. The way their eyes flit over you, the road, the taxi, and the potential of getting another so they can sit alone.

But, to your surprise, they hop in and join you. You sit next to each other. N’s knees are close to touching yours and despite that, the tension is almost palpable between you.

“You didn’t drive today?”

N’s gaze flits over you as the taxi moves off. “No. Besides, it’s London. No one actually wants to drive here,” they eventually reply. “We don’t have to do this small talk thing, you know.”

“You’re right,” you murmur. N arches a brow at you, “because I’m close to falling asleep here.” You smirk. “Clearly you’re boring me.”

N grimaces. “Very fucking funny.”

They glance out the window and it’s now the rain has started. All the two of you can hear is the loud patter against the window, the quiet music coming from the taxi radio, and the sounds of early morning traffic.

You can feel yourself starting to close your eyes, and considering it’s a Friday night, there’s more traffic than usual.

“What were you doing tonight?” you ask N. You instantly hear them groan.

“I literally said no small talk.”

“If we don’t talk, I’m going to fall asleep on you and I’m sure you’d hate that even more so get chatting.”

N leans back. “My teammates and I were team bonding.”

You give them a side eye. “I didn’t think you could bond with others.”

N lets out a humourless chuckle. “The only person I don’t bond with is you.”

“Charming,” you utter.

For the next few moments it’s silent again, and you’re really struggling. Your eyes are closing, your head is leaning to the side and you’re sure you’re going to lose this battle against sleep.

And you do.

Your head hits N’s shoulder and if you weren’t in such a deep sleep you’d feel them tense. They’re grimacing. They want to move completely. They could. They could just let you fall with a thud against the seat but…for some strange reason, they decide against it.

They can’t call this comfort. Being near you has never been comfortable for them, but being around you is certainly easier than it was before.

It’s another twenty minutes until you reach your home. Another twenty minutes of you against N’s shoulder. Another twenty minutes of you practically shivering against them.

“For fuck’s sake,” N murmurs, their mind going completely against what they’re about to do, but it happens anyway.

In a swift motion they remove their jacket, careful not to wake you before draping it over your shoulders and torso.

It’s a terrible time to think about it, but N begins to imagine what being friends with you would be like. How things would be so much more pleasant, that a moment like this wouldn’t make them feel so awkward.

But they shake their head because that’s something that’s never going to happen.

But at least they did a good deed for you, and surprisingly, you falling asleep against them isn’t as bad as they thought.