#bid and win trick

[vampmcr]

ppl dont know how to bid on ebay and it rlly annoys me ☠️☠️ if u bid too early u drive the price up sooner n quicker and it means rich ppl win in the end .

[qrrieterisunnq]

if you don’t write smut ignore this :)

jack and berrys first time and jack shiny so sweet and soft and making berry feel so beautiful

No More Virgin - Jack Hughes

Thank you for requesting my lovely! It's a bit longer so I hope it doesn't mind And I'm sorry for taking so long and sorry for it being shitty.💖🤣MINORS DNI - 18+ content

PART OF STRAWBERRY GIRL AU

strawberry girl masterlist

“I-I’m ready, Jack,” Amara says while she stands in front of her man, nervously fidgeting with her fingers, not daring to look at him. "I uhm, I think I'm ready."

Jack who's sitting on the couch, looks up at her, his eyes wide, but a smirk rests on his lips. He knows what his girl is talking about, but he doesn't expect her to come to him and tell him just like that.

“Why so suddenly?” Jack asks, reaching his hands out for hers to take them.

“I…uhm…I don’t know. Just feel like I’m ready.” She whispers looking at him with doe eyes. Gosh, she’s so fucking beautiful is what runs through his mind.

Jack stands up hovering slightly over her and looking down at her with a smirk. His right hand cups her cheek, tilting her head as he leans down pressing his lips on hers.

He knows he should probably ask her if she’s ready but knowing her and her personality, he doesn’t.

Amara’s arms sneak around his waist, moaning softly in the kiss. Jack chuckles quietly, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs.

“We’re not doing it now,” he whispers in the kiss. “Today, after our game, we won’t go to the club if we win instead we’ll go home and celebrate the win like this.”

“Okay,” she swallows hard, looking into his beautiful eyes. “But you have to shoot at least one goal.” She smirks and giggles when a surprised look washes over his features.

“Well, then I’ll shoot a hattrick.” He mumbles in the kiss with a wide grin. Amara just shakes her head at his cockiness and kisses him again.

Jack is breathing heavily as he and the other Devils make their way into a locker room with wide grins on their lips.

Laughter fills the locker room as the boys start to undress themselves from their gears. Coach walks in and grins at them clapping his hands to get their attention for at least a few minutes.

“You did amazing guys!” he shouts clapping his hands. “Johnny! Defence was amazing keep going like that! The offense wasn’t the best but compared to theirs it was great. And the last thing I want to say before Nico gets the word is,” he trails off looking around the locker room until his eyes land on Jack. “Jack! Congratulations on your first hat trick!” He shouts and the guys cheer and clap their hands with laughter and shouts of Jack’s name.

Nico grins when he stands in front of Jack with their hat trick hat. “You played a hell of a game bro!” Nico sets the hat on Jack’s head with a grin on his lips.

“Thanks, man!” Jack smiles hugging Nico and grinning when the photographer takes a photo of him with the ridiculous big hat.

“Yeah! Now listen to me! We have a few days off which doesn’t mean we won’t have any practice, except for tomorrow. That’s a free day for all of you, enjoy your time with family, celebrate, and do whatever shit you want to do, but the day after tomorrow is two-hour practice at 6 am sharp and then at 8 pm only for an hour.” This is the last thing the coach says before he and the staff leave the locker room leaving all of the guys in there. Jack doesn’t waste any time and he undresses himself and hops in a shower so he doesn’t smell so bad when he comes home to Berry.

With a smile on his lips, he bids goodbye to the guys and gets out of the arena. He waves to the fans on his way out of the garage and drives to his apartment complex. Grin doesn’t leave his lips as he says hi to the lobby man, walks into the elevator, pushes the button of his apartment, and clicks the code on the keyboard, making the elevator move to his apartment.

Amara is impatiently waiting for the door to open and jumping on her place lightly. The door swings open, and Ara throws herself on him peppering his face with kisses while he giggles at the welcome he receives.

“I’m so proud of you Jacky!” she kisses his lips, making him let out a soft moan.

“Thank you,” He whispers and pulls away just to put his bag on the ground and comes back to her pulling her to his chest with hands on her hips. His eyes roam her figure and he lets out a low groan at the sight of her bare legs and his shirt low on her shoulders. “Fuck you look beautiful.”

“Thank you.” She giggles, soothing her hands over his chest. She clasps his hand in hers and makes her way into their bedroom. Jack closes the doors behind them observing her movements.

He can see how nervous she is but she’s trying to be confident, which makes his heart flutter with pride. “Look at me, baby.” He sighs reaching for her hand and turning her around. “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

“And you are the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.” She blushes lowering her head.

Jack chuckles and leans down to capture her lips with his. His hands go to her hips as he slowly backs her to their bed and slowly lays her down his lips still on hers in a hungry but slow kiss.

He swallows her moans when his hands travel down her torso, brushing the sides of her breasts. Her back is arched slightly at the feeling of his hands on her skin.

“Jack,” she moans throwing her head back with her eyes rolling back. “Fuck.” She cusses and Jack chuckles at her language.

“Am I making my innocent Berry cussing?” he whispers in her ear his lips playing with her ear lobe.

“Yeah.” She says her breaths are heavy and her eyes are fixed on his face. Jack leans down, connecting their lips in a heated kiss, and his hands land under her knees as he urges her to wrap them around his waist.

“You are gorgeous, baby.” A blush appears on Amara’s cheeks from the compliment.

“You too.” She giggles her hands playing with the hem of his shirt.

“You want me to put it off?” he asks, a cocky smirk playing on his lips. Amara bites her lower lip and nods her head. “Then do it.”

Amara looks up at him with wide eyes, but her hands automatically do what he says. Her hands slide under the shirt, caressing his skin before she pulls it over his head, smiling at the view of his bare and toned chest.

“Can I?” he asks, tugging at the shirt she’s wearing. Amara just nods her shy eyes watching his face carefully. Jack sits on his heels and helps her sit up so he can pull the shirt over her head.

Amara always thought she would be extremely nervous about someone seeing her naked, but with Jack, she feels loved and beautiful like she never felt before.

“Fuck, Berry, you are so fucking gorgeous.” He let out a groan at the sight of her full breasts. With his eyes locked on hers, he lowers his head down to capture her left nipple between his lips, gently nibbling at it.

Amara lets out a surprised gasp that is followed by a loud moan when she feels the pleasure running through her.

“You taste so good,” He mumbles into her skin as his lips move to the other nipple, playing with it for a while. After he has his time with her breasts he moves his kisses down her stomach until they reach her panties. “May I?”

Ainsley looks deeply into his eyes looking for some type of disgust in them but when she finds none she nods with a small smile her hands nervously playing with his hair.

“Are you sure? I can see how nervous you are.” Concern is in his eyes as he watches her from down there.

“I’m positive, plus I know you’re jerking off in the shower so.” She shrugs giggling at Jack’s surprised and little ashamed expression.

With a chuckle Jack pulls down her panties, observing her beautiful pussy. “Fuck you are so beautiful.” He whispers and his middle finger slides through her folds, which makes Amara moan.

“No,” Amara takes his head in her palms shaking her head when Jack leans down to kiss her pussy. “I’m not really ready for this.”

“Okay,” he smiles at her and turns his head to kiss her palm. “But I can use my fingers, right?”

“Yeah.” her voice is not even above a whisper as she speaks. She shivers when Jack's finger slides across her clit and down to her entrance.

“Relax, it won’t hurt.” With that Jack pushes his middle finger in her, holding a groan in his throat. He looks up at his girl, whose head is thrown back and her mouth is open in ‘o’ shape. His wrist starts moving from itself while his eyes keep glutted on her face.

When a loud moan escapes her lips Jack increases the speed and adds another finger earning yet another loud moan from her. “Does it feel good Berry?” he murmurs his voice hoarse as he watches his girl getting to the edge. Jack groans when she squeezes around him, her tight walls tightening even more around his fingers.

“Yeah.” She shudders out tightening her walls around him again.

“Fuck, baby. You’re so tight. Keep squeezing my fingers like that.” He groans leaning down to place his lips on her’s in a soft kiss.

"So fucking beautiful my love." he keeps whispering sweet things in her ear while she moans and squeezes around his thick fingers.

Her orgasm is slowly but intensely shooting through her body as she moans loudly her whole body shaking from the pleasure.

“Gosh, Jacky, what was that?” she looked at him with shock. Jack chuckles kissing her forehead before answering.

“That was your first orgasm my sweet berry,” he says before he pulls his fingers from her and brings them to his mouth groaning at the sweet taste. Amara looks at him with wide eyes catching his wrist. “What baby? I’m just tasting you.” Smirking he leans down, pressing his lips on hers, letting her taste her sweet juices.

She moans at the taste of herself, her hands running down Jack's back. With a smile, Jack pulls away standing up and stripping from his pants taking the boxers all the way down with them. Amara takes in his toned chest and muscles while he stands there with a smirk on his face. She blushes when her eyes land on his big cock.

“You like what you see?” Jack asks teasingly, taking his cock in his hand and stroking it a  few times as Amara watches him.

“Yeah.” She squeaks, her hand clapping around her mouth as Jack giggles. Jack slowly climbs up to her so his face is on the same level as hers. He bends down a presses their lips together in a sweet kiss.

“I know you already said that but are you sure you want this?” he asks her again stroking her cheeks with his thumb. Amara looks at him with a soft smile, her hands cupping his cheeks. She pulls him down pressing her lips to his in a hungry kiss.

“Is this enough for an answer?” she asks him, a smirk on her lips.

“Yeah,” He smiles at her, and his hand trails down her side, until he reaches her knee. He wraps it around his waist, his eyes never leaving her. Amara groans when she feels his cock on her pussy. “I’ll go slowly okay?”

“Okay.” She swallows hard when she feels his cock rubbing against her entrance.

“Relax, baby,” He whispers as he slowly pushes himself into her. Amara shifts under his body and he stills for a second, watching her features. “It’s okay baby, just relax okay?”

Amara nods, breathing in and then out, relaxing her muscles, which allow Jack to slide more into her, stretching her walls. Amara lets out a soft moan at the pain and pleasure mixed together.

“Oh fuck. You feel so great.” Jack groans in Berry’s neck as soon as he’s fully inside her. He can feel her wall tightening around his cock and her fingers scratching his scalp. “Can I move?” he asks pushing himself up on his forearms so he can look her in the eyes.

“Please.” She moans and grinds her hips against his. Jack chuckles and presses his lips against her forehead as he starts moving slowly.

“Fuck.” He groans and squeezes her tight as his hips jerk a little too quickly, earning a loud gasp from Amara.

“Oh my gosh.” She moans kissing his shoulder and squeezing around his cock when he hits the spongy spot.

“Keep squeezing me, baby,” he says as he pounds into her increasing the speed of his thrusts. “Just like that beautiful.” He smashes his lips on her, his tongue making its way into her mouth, fighting with hers for power.

“Jack,” She moans as she feels her another orgasm approaching really fast. “I-I think I’m coming.”

Jack smirks leaning on his right hand, bringing his left one down to her clit rubbing it at a quick pace to bring her to her orgasm. As soon as she finishes, Jack pulls out of her, lying down next to her and pulling her in a hug.

“What about you?” she looks up at him with a confusion written all over her face.

“I’m fine, Berry. Today was about you not about me.” He smiles and kisses her forehead but doesn’t miss when Amara pulls the blanket around her body.

[scoobydoodean]

The thing is that Krissy did not save anyone's ass in 7.11 "Adventures In Babysitting". I think she created a more dangerous situation intentionally in order to prove herself.

When Dean came in alone to save Sam and Krissy's dad, he immediately knocked one vetala unconscious with a huge metal bar. After a brief fight, he also got the upper hand on the other vetala, knocking her to the ground with a crow bar and was about to stab her with the knife when Krissy disrupted the fight. She ran into the room, rushed right past the first vetala that was starting to wake up under the guise of trying to get to her father, and then it grabbed her and held her hostage. This resulted in Dean having to surrender to "protect" her. Krissy then plays the helpless little girl, letting the vetalas think they have the upper hand, then turns a hidden knife on one of them and everything turns out okay.

What confused me is that Sam and Dean say afterward that she saved their asses... even though what she actually did was rush into a fight Dean was already anticipated to win, disrupting the situation and putting everyone around her at unnecessary risk. I couldn't figure out... why Sam talked up her "saving" them to her father and why Dean agreed with her when she claimed she saved his bacon. If I'm meant to believe Krissy actually saved them, why did the writers show me a scene where Dean seems to have the upper hand and she disrupts that?

Then I realized I've always assumed in the past that when Krissy first came in, she misjudged the situation and thought the first vetala was already dead. But the thing is, the episode goes out of its way to tell me Krissy isn't a stupid kid—just a very foolhardy kid. She's brash, but she's also shrewd, observant, and calculated. She hangs up on Sam when he answers Bobby's phone instead of jumping to ask for help because she doesn't trust him. She lets Sam think she doesn't know about the supernatural. She burns her father's notes so Dean can't leave her behind and turns a gun on him. She notices the waitress getting into the truck. She picks the lock on the cuffs after Dean tricks her to keep her from joining the fight.

She's not the kind of kid who would rush into a situation before actually assessing the scene. She isn't the kind of kid who'd fail to give a vetala a wide berth out of blind desperation to reach her father. She is a kid who's desperate to establish some control over her life by proving herself, who desperately wanted to be included in this fight.

So. She sabotaged Dean on purpose. She ran in in that moment and ran right past the vetala because Dean was going to win without her and she wanted to prove that she could handle herself. The disappearance of her father exposed her to the potential reality of ending up alone if he was dead. Her burning her dad's notes and putting that gun in Dean's face in their first scene was a desperate bid to gain control in a situation that made her feel powerless. She was dependent on adults she found she could not count on.

KRISSY: My dad left, and he didn't come back. Sam left, and he didn't come back. I give you the info, you leave, you don't come back.

And I think Dean knows this. He knows she did all of it from start to finish completely on purpose, and he knows why. I'm not totally sure if Sam spent enough time with Krissy to get that or not, but I think Dean gets that Krissy did this all on purpose so that she could prove to herself that she could protect herself by herself one day if she needed to... so he lets her keep that confidence instead of lecturing her, agreeing that she saved him, while pleading with her father in the previous scene to leave hunting forever.

DEAN: Don't thank us. Quit. Your daughter's 14 years old. She's already a hunter with a kill under her belt. I'm not trying to be a dick, but what do you think that does to her life span? She could still be a regular kid.

It's incredibly dark to think about, but it's also very likely that Krissy wanted to prove not just that she could rescue herself, but that she could kill. And that's what guts Dean the most. This is the first episode after Bobby's death—Bobby—who took Dean out to play catch like a regular kid when he was supposed to be practicing with guns. Dean also could not depend on his father's protection most of the time growing up (because John was gone a lot). So he understands her desire to prove she can protect herself, but he also knows that the fact that she (at FOURTEEN) so desperately feels the need to prove she can protect herself that she'll create a more dangerous situation unnecessarily in order to gain the upper-hand on someone planning to kill her speaks volumes about the damage already being done to her psychologically by her father's blind insistence on being a hunter.

[finniestoncrane]

Old Times Pornstar!Cooper Howard x Fem!Reader, multi-part au fic cooper howard is a former actor, novice pornstar, and current wasteland escort. reader mistakes him for a bounty hunter and ends up getting far more entwined in his lifestyle than they intended in a bid to get what they need from the first 'kind' person they've met in a long time🤎

☢️ Chapter 3: Show Time, word count: 4.5k cooper has a little idea that really seems like a win-win-win-win!! reader gets enough money to hire a bounty hunter, cooper gets paid his due, they both get to spend more time together, and hundreds of people will benefit from that!! unless you hate cowboy themed puns, in which case you WILL NOT benefit... Chapter 1 Chapter 2 request info • prompt list • send me a request • kofi • masterlist minors DNI!! 🔞 cw: penetrative sex, blowjobs, cumshot, facial, sex on tape, pornography/sex work, rough sex, exhibitionism, puns and bad acting abound, missionary/doggy style/cowgirl, fingering

The bar was open when you woke up, surprisingly selling alcohol as well as some food. No one else appeared to be eating, only sipping out of bottles or chipped mugs in complete silence. So you thought it would be best to join them. 

Once you were comfortable on your stool, you rifled through your bag, finding a few caps in the inside pocket. You asked the bartender for a beer and took a swig, scowling at the taste, but taking another one immediately after anyway. The bitter flavour was waking you up, heightening your senses, clearing your mind with enough of a shock that you could hear your thoughts. About Cooper, about the night before, about how or when you were going to either continue on your mission, or return home empty handed, worse off than when you left. 

It would be a difficult choice. But not one you had to make immediately. You could allow yourself a day, maybe another night here or in the next settlement. A break from reality. From the pain of home. You rifled through your bag once more, making sure you had enough of what you needed, except for caps, which you were now lacking in completely, and finished the last of your beer. You had intended to go for a walk around the town, see what else a big settlement like this had to offer, but as you stood up and turned, you walked straight into the person standing behind you. 

“You leaving without a goodbye then, darlin’? When you owe me money?”

“Cooper! I, uh… I wasn’t actually-”

“You think I wouldn’t notice?” 

He tossed your caps onto the bar, all of them jangling together in their container. 

“I seem to be missing a few.”

“Well, I had to pay for the other room, so I thought-”

“No excuses.”

He tapped the tin with one gloved finger, looking at you intently, never blinking, not once.

“You didn’t even leave me a tip. Was it that bad? ‘Cause it sure didn’t seem like it was.”

“No! Cooper, it was… it was really good.”

You had lowered your voice, aware that there were people close enough to hear your discussion, and not wanting to embarrass Cooper in front of them, or have yourself outed to the entire town as the new girl who was only there to fuck their resident trick pony. In response, Cooper leaned in, whispering, his voice rumbling through his chest as he grinned.

“Well, I suppose I can let you in on my plan. A way for you to keep that pittance for your bounty hunter and to give me my dues, plus interest. Whaddaya say?”

It took all of your focus not to jump immediately at the opportunity. Most of that enthusiasm was down to the idea that you might get to spend even more time with Cooper, something you’d been pining for since you’d left the room the night before. And it killed two birds with one stone, because the longer you were here, under the guise of actually working on the plans you set out with, the longer you could avoid the seemingly inevitable conclusion of having to return home with nothing. 

Maybe Cooper would offer you something new. An opportunity. Maybe, if you prayed hard enough, you could spend the rest of your life doing nasty things with Cooper, having fun, with someone more exciting that anything you had ever encountered before, and then you’d never have to face home or the failure that came with it. That felt like a pretty good deal. 

For Cooper, it was a chance to feel like himself again. He’d spent so long in this new body, this new way of thinking, that he had almost forgotten what values he held close. Before this, before the bombs, before Barb and Vault Tec and the divorce. Until you had spoken simple words of kindness to him, he’d never thought about how much he’d given up. But he realised that with you, he had a chance to help someone, and help himself, his old self, at the same time. 

And it wasn’t as if he was giving up on being a reprehensible bastard cold turkey. Even though he was doing some good, he was lining himself up for a damn good time in the process. He just couldn’t send you away yet though, not when he was feeling a proper connection for the first time in a long time. Not when there was someone he felt something with. 

Both of you were also worried about the same thing, though neither of you would admit it. It felt far too soon, almost cliched, to be so tied to one another already, but there was a tether there between you. Cooper couldn’t face the idea of going back to anonymous, meaningless sex where his body was the focus and his mind and soul were locked in a box until he was finished doing the task he was paid for. He couldn’t bear the thought of feeling the inside of someone else’s body, when he’d known yours so intimately, although briefly. And on very much the same train of thought as Cooper, it pained you to think about him going off and being with other people, forgetting about you maybe, after one or two or three more clients. There was more to your encounter than that, more than could, or should, be forgotten. Fate, kismet, destiny. 

But those felt like very sappy words to throw out so soon after meeting each other, if at all. So you both kept looking at one another until you broke first under his intense gaze.

“Ok then, Cooper. What did you have in mind?”

“Follow me.”

He stood up from the bar and walked towards a table in the corner of the room, shaded and dark, as though he required the atmosphere to drill home the nature of the deal which you imagined was going to be shady, given Cooper’s mischievous grin. Once you were both seated, he leaned in across the table and spoke in a hushed tone.

“Now, I told you I have a way for me to get paid, and for you to make enough money to find a better bounty hunter than you were gonna for that shit budget you had before, but you’re gonna have to hear me out, darlin’, because I don’t think you’ll take kindly to this to begin with.”

You nodded slowly, brows furrowing in a look of concern as you wondered what Cooper was about to say to you. But instead of opening with his plan, he opted to ease you into it, sort of uncomfortably, by reflecting on the night before. 

“Listen… I don’t want to give you any undue credit for what was all my work, but last night… Well, that was really something.”

Swallowing your nerves, you nodded once more, trying to downplay the excitement burning in your throat. It might never happen again, despite how much you wanted it, but at least Cooper had felt the same way. It had been different. Special, if you wanted to use a word that made you almost cringe. 

“I gotta tell you, I haven’t had that kind of chemistry with someone since… well, in a long time. Usually, this work, it’s a means to an end that doesn’t seem to be coming. But I think I know how to get out of it. If you’ll… indulge me.”

Another nod. Still no words. You didn’t think you could speak even if you had anything to say except a shrill, giddy scream. 

“Now, before all of this, and I mean before all of this, I was something of a star. Up on the big screen, and the small screen. Just about any screen they had. And while I’m not particularly proud of some of my work, having had to let my body do the lead role, I can’t deny that it was lucrative. There’s always money in sex, y’know?”

You imagined there was. Already you’d sunk your remaining life savings into it, and you’d only been propositioned once. It was clearly an industry worth something, even though Cooper hardly sold it by proclaiming he wasn’t proud of it. Still, you were keen to know where he was going with this, still unsure, or perhaps not allowing yourself to read too far ahead in fear of making an assumption that would be incredibly embarrassing. 

“See, the kind of chemistry we had - have - is one you don’t come across too often, and it works so well on screen. We’d be foolish not to take advantage of that, don’t you think?”

“I agree.”

Your voice cracked on the last syllable, but you felt you had managed to play it cool as best as you could be expected to when Cooper was smiling at you the way he was, leaning over the table, close enough to you that you could feel his warm breath on your cheeks.

“So I propose that we use it to our advantage. A contact of mine, scavenger, he found some pretty good equipment, and one of his friends figured out how to work it. I bought it from them, nostalgia’s sake. We could make ourselves a little movie, sell some bootleg holotapes at the bar to my vast and varied clientele. Profits for me, profits for you. What do you think?”

“You want us… to…?”

“Make some pornography. You’re familiar with it, aren’t you?”

And of course you were. Who wasn’t? Explicit material was hoarded, traded, treated like high class art because of its desirability but rarity. Hand-drawn, audio recordings, some magazines. But you’d never watched any before.

“And that’s… that’s something people would want?”

Cooper scoffed, settling back in his chair, shrugging his shoulders so nonchalantly at your query. 

“They might not know it, but it is. Any TV out there, provided it’s not blasted to shit, you can connect it to power. It won’t show anything new of course, but they’ll play a holotape. I know we’ve got a market for this. I know it. But you’ll just have to trust me, I suppose.”

You mulled it over. There were so many things to take into consideration, and so few of them were actually permeating past the excitement of getting to fuck Cooper once more. Besides, you needed the money. It wasn’t as if you were in a position to turn down whatever it was he was going to offer in the way of a grand scheme. You still felt like there should be at least an attempt at pretending to think it over, so you asked him the only question you could think of. 

“How will I know what to… do? Or say? Is there going to be a story?”

Cooper grinned wide, his yellowed teeth bared at you in a mischievous expression as he leaned in once more. 

“Oh don’t you worry about that. I had a bit of a hobby, writing scripts. No one ever wanted them, but I always fancied myself moving into writing or directing in my later years. And how much later can we get, I’m already two hundred years after considering that.”

Despite giggling at his comment, you could feel the sudden stress rising up in your chest, and you took a deep breath before asking him the follow up question that was playing on your mind.

“Do I need to like… remember what to say?”

“You know what, darlin’?”

Cooper took your hand in his, patting it condescendingly, but you took the comfort eagerly.

“You don’t have to say a thing except for what comes naturally. You let me carry the scene. I am the actor, after all.”

He winked to you, lifting his glass and downing his drink in one. 

“Shall I show you my script then? You in?”

With an enthusiastic nod you got up when he did, following him back through to the room you had paid for the previous day and sitting down on the bed with him, clutching the frayed, torn papers he had tossed to you from his pocket. Reading over it, you could feel both a desire to giggle and blush, as well as a heat crossing your lower back. It was so corny, so obvious, but nevertheless it was arousing. 

“So, what do you think then, darlin’? Am I good, or am I good?”

“Oh… you’re good, Cooper.”

“You in then?”

Again, you didn’t want to seem too eager, so you pretended to mull it over, looking at the paper so you could avoid Cooper’s gaze, before you set them down next to you and nodded to him.

“I’m in.”

He clapped his hands in excitement, stomping heavily towards the pack in the corner of the room, his own possessions stowed away neatly, a lifetime condensed, dust picking up around him, becoming unsettled in his frenzy. 

“What are you… Oh… Oh, Cooper… really?”

In his hands he held two items of clothing. A skirt that was barely anything, moth-bitten and stained slightly, but still surprisingly white in colour. And a shirt, similarly discoloured, fringe detailing on the collar with frayed embroidery detail the shoulders.

“You gotta look the part, darlin’. Now, you go put that on and I’ll get us set up.”

In the bathroom, you put on the outfit Cooper somehow just had, clearly waiting for an opportunity like this to come up, waiting for someone to fill the role. It made you feel special, like you were the chosen one. And that boost of confidence made you feel all the more attractive in the skimpy skirt and shirt that felt a little too tight across your chest. Upon exiting the bathroom, you found Cooper waiting for you by the side of the bed, the big heavy lump of equipment sitting on the wonky dresser and aimed at the bed. 

“Shouldn’t it look more like… a Western in here?”

“You got the budget for set dressing, missy?”

You raised your hands up, a silent apology for even questioning it, realising that Cooper had quickly been distracted by your outfit and was already forgetting your insolence as he took in how much of your legs were on display. 

Snapping himself out of the fugue state brought on by your body, he swallowed the collecting drool in his mouth and hit the button on the camera, walking over to you and winking. You did your best to recollect the bare bones of the script, enough that it might see you through this. But you were confident that in your excitement, you could play the part well enough.

“You’re safe now, ma’am. Those raiders won’t be comin’ round here no more.”

Standing before Cooper, you hesitated for a moment. But when he caught your eye, he offered you an encouraging nod and a smile that washed away most of your nerves, enough that you managed to get out your first line. And once that was out of the way, everything after it came easily.

“Why, kind sir. How can I ever repay you?”

“Well, little lady, I can think of plenty of ways you could thank me for my valiant efforts.”

“And what might those be, sir?”

Cooper hooked his arm around your back, pulling you into a quick embrace, tipping up the brim of his hat so he could lean into you.

“Oh! Well, sir… is that a pistol in your pocket? Or are you just that happy to do a good deed?”

“It’s my six shooter, darlin’. And if you’re a good girl, I’ll let you unload it.”

“Wow, you truly are a real cowboy, ain’t you?”

Pushing past the urge to cringe at the slight accent you were putting on, you managed to keep up the flirtatious act as you leaned into Cooper, hands behind your back to push your chest out further as you swayed a little. 

“Indeed I am, little miss. Now, let me show you how a cowboy gets his thanks.”

Cooper grabbed your hips, pushing you backwards until you landed on the rusting bed with a thud and a squeak. He was quick to hike up your skirt, pushing the fabric up until you were exposed to him, no underwear on. He pulled at your waist, angling you so you could be seen by the camera, and as you nervously pressed your thighs together he pushed his hand between your legs and spread them back apart.

Two of his fingers began gently stroking at your already wet and aching cunt, diving into it slowly, testing the waters, teasing you, like a glimpse of what was to come as his fingertips tapped right against the perfect spot. 

“You sure are somethin’, sweetheart. A mare to tame, huh? Lucky for you, I’ve done my fair share of ranch work.”

He worked quickly at his belt and pants, letting them slide down to his thighs, freeing his thick, hard cock. No sooner than you had begun to admire it, mouth watering, stomach clenching, he had lined it up with your entrance. He slid the tip against your folds, the head tapping your clit and sliding back down before he shifted his hips and pushed forward, entering you in one smooth motion. 

Your body reacted with a wave of heat, electricity flooding your nervous system, waves of static rushing over you as he began to pump his hips into you. He pushed his arms behind your back and lifted you slightly, bringing you to an angle, bucking up to fuck you deeper. You hooked a leg around his waist, holding him as close as possible, not wanting him to ever slide his cock back out of your cunt. You felt complete with it in there, throbbing against your walls. 

With your body close to his, he pressed his forehead to yours, unblinking as he focused on your eyes. There was an insatiable hunger in them, a ravenous desire for you that wasn’t just a bit for the camera. Cooper was really that hungry for you, greedy in his ruinous pounding as he let his cheek rest beside yours, tugging on your earlobes with his teeth as he grunted with exertion. Your heart thrummed as he teased your skin, working down your neck, biting the skin and sucking it into his mouth with a soft groan. 

But he let up quickly, softening the blow of his sudden stopping by cupping your cheeks in his hands.

“Bend over, darlin’. I wanna ride you like the wild pony I know you are.”

You were up and repositioning yourself almost immediately, his cock slipping free of your cunt with a deliciously wet sound, your thighs coated in your arousal, spreading apart once you were on your knees before him on the bed, waiting to be filled again. 

Cooper watched as you opened yourself up to him, holding his breath as he lined his head up once again with your cunt, pushing in slowly, inch by inch, until he was completely swallowed by your warmth. Setting himself at a brutal pace, he snapped his hips back and forwards against you, biting back his moans, breath hitching as he pulled your hips down onto him hard and fast. His fingers dug into your waist, nails pressing sharp crescents into your skin as he recklessly fucked you.

With a silent scream you arched your back as he rutted into you, deep and penetrating, only becoming more erratic as you writhed under him, squirming with pleasure as the head of his cock pounded against your g spot. Each knock felt like a jolt surging through you, each buck of his hips, the way he rolled into you, a sweet impact of pain and pleasure. You could feel him through you, full of him, happy to take him like this, his co-star, a place for him to bury his cock and make his money.

His legs began trembling, and he slowed his pace with a deep exhale.

“Wanna see if you can make me scream ‘yeehaw’, sweet thing? Why don’t you hop up on my lap. You can ride me so hard they might need to take me out back and shoot me.”

Cooper settled himself onto the bed beside you, patting against his thighs and waiting as you adjusted yourself once more, your legs straddling his hips. He held the base of his cock still as you sank down onto it, your cunt spreading, stretching to fit him once more, taking the entire length immediately, feeling completely stuffed.

He hissed, biting his lip as his cock disappeared into you once more, the pressure around him as you clenched, gripping him, had him whispering out in heated moans, until he was finally accustomed to the feeling. 

“I hope you’ve got good balance there, darlin’, cos I want you riding me bareback like you were a pro.”

His voice rasped on the words, a low, guttural sound that fell over his lips, a threat more than flirtatious joking, and you were happy to see it through. 

Working your thighs, you began rolling your own hips against him, feeling him twitch as you slid up and down his cock. Cooper’s breathy moans only spurred you on, moving faster, harder against him. His eyes were focused on your body, the way your breasts bounced as you rode him.

In a frenzied move that almost had you falling from him, he pulled your neck, bringing your body down to him, your hips moving up and down to keep sliding over his cock, bringing it inside of you, still buried deep within your cunt, but now he could nuzzle against your chest. 

His breath was warm against your skin, his neck stretching so he could catch your nipples in his mouth, worrying the buds with his teeth and tongue, sucking at them with satisfied sounds of ecstacy. Cooper’s own hips had begun bucking to, a syncopated rhythm between you both that led to a wild, frenetic pumping of his cock inside of your aching, fluttering walls. 

“Fuck… fuck… fuck.”

He’d lost all control of himself, and could feel the climax approaching, faster than he had hoped, but he couldn’t have expected it to feel this good. With a smile, he pushed your shoulders back, watching you as you sat on his lap, cock deep within you, pulsing, close to cumming with every little movement you made. 

“Now I know you ain’t a one trick pony, why don’t you show me what else you got up your sleeve.”

Cooper lifted your hips, guiding you off of his cock, your slick coating it in strands that pulled and dripped against your thighs. Following his strong arms, you sank to your knees on the floor in front of him, noting that you were directly in the line of the camera lens, ready for your big finale. 

He began stroking his cock, his palm becoming sticky with your arousal, the smacking sound of the well-lubricated motions so lewd, almost sultry. The perfect addition to the film.

“How familiar are you with ropes? Because I got a few for you here.”

His face was growing warmer, nerves on fire, cheeks burning, as he felt himself reaching his climax. With a racing heart, Cooper began to lose his composure, hitched breaths leading into a loud cry, a choked sob and moan as he came, white, thick ropes of his seed spilling onto your cheeks, against your lips, your neck and chest covered in droplets too.

Standing unsteadily, Cooper began to dissolve into the pleasure of a satisfactory conclusion, but not before he finished up the scene. His hand moved to the side of your neck, stroking around, fingers trailing over the front of your throat before his touch left you. 

“I’ll be on my way now, ma’am. But you ever run into trouble again… I sure would like to be the one that saves you.”

You managed to suppress the giggles until he was standing in front of the old camera, hitting the button again. He started dressing himself, presentable enough that he could leave the room.

“Cooper… that was…”

The words wouldn’t come to you, or rather, too many words came to you. Silly. Fun. Surprisingly hot. But as you watched his face contort into one of anticipation, almost nervous, you knew which one he wanted to hear.

“... amazing.”

His charming, cheeky smile rose back up on his lips as he nodded towards.

“Well, thank you, darlin’. You never know… this sells well enough and I might be looking to find a permanent position for you in this little business venture.”

You hoped he would. Beyond anything else, that’s what you wanted. Somewhere, at some point during all of the fun you were having with him, your subconscious had come to the conclusion that spending more time with Cooper, potentially all of your time with him, was what you wanted now. You could send money back to your settlement. You could hire a bounty hunter to do the work for you on their behalf. You could free yourself from a quiet life. You could find excitement, pleasure and, potentially, love. All of it was possible now. And you suspected that Cooper was certain it was too. Otherwise, would he even have mentioned the possibility of continuing to work together? He didn’t seem like the kind of man who would tease about something like that.

The thoughts remained in your head, too afraid to say them out loud in case you scared Cooper off with your quick attachment and your eagerness to be fucked by him on a long-term basis. You tried to think of something to say. Sharp, witty. Something that would set you on the same level as him, or at least close to it. Something that told him how much you wanted him, how much you wanted to stay here, without actually saying those words out right. But as you pondered over it, you realised you had another burning question, one that actually might work on all the levels you needed it to.

“Wait, don’t I get to finish?”

Cooper turned to you from the doorway, smiling wide, a smirk that made your stomach muscles tighten.

“When this little movie gets us our money and you can afford to pay me, I’ll make sure you do.”

He turned away, walking out of the door with the camera and the pile of holotapes in hand. Once you were dressed, and you had cleaned him off of your face, you followed after him, quick and dutifully, as you expected to, or at least hoped to, for as long as he’d let you.

Just as you finished dressing yourself, Cooper appeared in the door frame, tipping his hat to you as he winked.

“You comin’ then, partner?”

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Uncle Sam paid to develop a cancer drug and now one guy will get to charge whatever he wants for it

Today (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. Tomorrow (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

The argument for pharma patents: making new medicines is expensive, and medicines are how we save ourselves from cancer and other diseases. Therefore, we will award government-backed monopolies – patents – to pharma companies so they will have an incentive to invest their shareholders' capital in research.

There's plenty wrong with this argument. For one thing, pharma companies use their monopoly winnings to sell drugs, not invent drugs. For every dollar pharma spends on research, it spends three dollars on marketing:

https://www.bu.edu/sph/files/2015/05/Pharmaceutical-Marketing-and-Research-Spending-APHA-21-Oct-01.pdf

And that "R&D" isn't what you're thinking of, either. Most R&D spending goes to "evergreening" – coming up with minor variations on existing drugs in a bid to extend those patents for years or decades:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3680578/

Evergreening got a lot of attention recently when John Green rained down righteous fire upon Johnson & Johnson for their sneaky tricks to prevent poor people from accessing affordable TB meds, prompting this excellent explainer from the Arm and A Leg Podcast:

https://armandalegshow.com/episode/john-green-part-1/

Another thing those monopoly profits are useful for: "pay for delay," where pharma companies bribe generic manufacturers not to make cheap versions of drugs whose patents have expired. Sure, it's illegal, but that doesn't stop 'em:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/competition-enforcement/pay-delay

But it's their money, right? If they want to spend it on bribes or evergreening or marketing, at least some of that money is going into drugs that'll keep you and the people you love from enduring unimaginable pain or dying slowly and hard. Surely that warrants a patent.

Let's say it does. But what about when a pharma company gets a patent on a life-saving drug that the public paid to develop, test and refine? Publicly funded work is presumptively in the public domain, from NASA R&D to the photos that park rangers shoot of our national parks. The public pays to produce this work, so it should belong to the public, right?

That was the deal – until Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980. Under Bayh-Dole, government-funded inventions are given away – to for-profit corporations, who get to charge us whatever they want to access the things we paid to make. The basis for this is a racist hoax called "The Tragedy Of the Commons," written by the eugenicist white supremacist Garrett Hardin and published by Science in 1968:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/01/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-how-ecofascism-was-smuggled-into-mainstream-thought/

Hardin invented an imaginary history in which "commons" – things owned and shared by a community – are inevitably overrun by selfish assholes, a fact that prompts nice people to also overrun these commons, so as to get some value out of them before they are gobbled up by people who read Garrett Hardin essays.

Hardin asserted this as a historical fact, but he cited no instances in which it happened. But when the Nobel-winning Elinor Ostrom actually went and looked at how commons are managed, she found that they are robust and stable over long time periods, and are a supremely efficient way of managing resources:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

The reason Hardin invented an imaginary history of tragic commons was to justify enclosure: moving things that the public owned and used freely into private ownership. Or, to put it more bluntly, Hardin invented a pseudoscientific justification for giving away parks, roads and schools to rich people and letting them charge us to use them.

To arrive at this fantasy, Hardin deployed one of the most important analytical tools of modern economics: introspection. As Ely Devons put it: "If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’"

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/27/economism/#what-would-i-do-if-i-were-a-horse

Hardin's hoax swept from the fringes to the center and became received wisdom – so much so that by 1980, Senators Birch Bayh and Bob Dole were able to pass a law that gave away publicly funded medicine to private firms, because otherwise these inventions would be "overgrazed" by greedy people, denying the public access to livesaving drugs.

On September 21, the NIH quietly published an announcement of one of these pharmaceutical transfers, buried in a list of 31 patent assignments in the Federal Register:

https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2023-20487.pdf

The transfer in question is a patent for using T-cell receptors (TCRs) to treat solid tumors from HPV, one of the only patents for treating solid tumors with TCRs. The beneficiary of this transfer is Scarlet TCR, a Delaware company with no website or SEC filings and ownership shrouded in mystery:

https://www.bizapedia.com/de/scarlet-tcr-inc.html

One person who pays attention to this sort of thing is James Love, co-founder of Knowledge Ecology International, a nonprofit that has worked for decades for access to medicines. Love sleuthed out at least one person behind Scarlet TCR: Christian Hinrichs, a researcher at Rutgers who used to work at the NIH's National Cancer Institute:

https://www.nih.gov/research-training/lasker-clinical-research-scholars/tenured-former-scholars

Love presumes Hinrichs is the owner of Scarlet TCR, but neither the NIH nor Scarlet TCR nor Hinrichs will confirm it. Hinrichs was one of the publicly-funded researchers who worked on the new TCR therapy, for which he received a salary.

This new drug was paid for out of the public purse. The basic R&D – salaries for Hinrichs and his collaborators, as well as funding for their facilities – came out of NIH grants. So did the funding for the initial Phase I trial, and the ongoing large Phase II trial.

As David Dayen writes in The American Prospect, the proposed patent transfer will make Hinrichs a very wealthy man (Love calls it "generational wealth"):

https://prospect.org/health/2023-10-18-nih-how-to-become-billionaire-program/

This wealth will come by charging us – the public – to access a drug that we paid to produce. The public took all the risks to develop this drug, and Hinrichs stands to become a billionaire by reaping the rewards – rewards that will come by extracting fortunes from terrified people who don't want to die from tumors that are eating them alive.

The transfer of this patent is indefensible. The government isn't even waiting until the Phase II trials are complete to hand over our commonly owned science.

But there's still time. The NIH is about to get a new director, Monica Bertagnolli – Hinrichs's former boss – who will need to go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for confirmation. Love is hoping that the confirmation hearing will present an opportunity to question Bertagnolli about the transfer – specifically, why the drug isn't being nonexclusively licensed to lots of drug companies who will have to compete to sell the cheapest possible version.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/19/solid-tumors/#t-cell-receptors

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[the-banana-0verlord]

Heartslabyul and Savannaclaw's dreams: theories and predictions

I've been having shower thoughts so here it is

Leona

We've been shown that he knows when he's dreaming, so i think he's aware, but he denies it because in this world, he's king, and everyone sees his worth. He changes his kingdom to be more modern to thr joy of the citizens. Since he's aware of the dream, there will have to be a little push for him to not adknowledge that, and that will be a little voice manipulating him from the shadows. That voice will be his overblot self, which he'll fight after overblotting himself.

Ruggie

Special card- richman ruggie

In this dream, ruggie is filthy rich and everyone else is poor. Everyone obeys to his orders and the crew gets thrown out of his estate a lot. When he finally snaps out he'll be like ugh fineeee, complain about, mourn the money and then help

Jack

I have very little ideas tbh- i think he'll be like the strongest at everything but then when he snaps out we'll have a speech that goes "something something strenght is earned through hard work and not something given in a dream yada yada."

Riddle

I have also little ideas but i suppose either his mom will be more leniant or she never found out he sneaked out. In most cases he'll be true childhood friends with chenya and trey

Trey

I have zero ideas trey lovers help me out here

Cater

So this dream is about surface level happiness right? Instead of dropping the façade and being happy as himself, i think the façade will be reinforced, like he's trying to convince himself that the happy bubbly façade is really him. He'll be pretty much miserable. Everything will be cammable, everything will be sweet, and basically you'll feel like you have pink sunglasses on. I hope that at this moment his friends will be able to make him drop the façade and be really himself.

Deuce

In this dream, Deuce is and has been a honor student all the time. He never made his mom cry and he has excellent test scores. In the end, he owns up to his delinquent past and admis that it is the thing that drives him to be better, and that you can't undo the past

Ace

Special card- housewarden uniform

This is where it gets good(for me at least). Ace is a second or third year, and he is housewarden. During book one, he won the duel against Riddle and took his place. Everyone adores him, Deuce and Riddle lick his booths, are dumbs and do his bidding and yuu stays by his side and adores him like everyone else(accompanied by grim). The real Deuce, enraged, challenges Ace to a duel. In the end, Deuce wins and Ace snaps out. I also think we'll get his unique magic, and that it will be linked with illusions, or trump cards. Maybe also linked to magic tricks like card tricks or coin tricks.

So yeah that's what i'm thinking

[victonair]

“Where’s the trophy? They just come running over to me” - in which you, a popular ace in NRC’s basketball team, is tricked into a deal involving your servitude to the esteemed Dorm Head of Octavinelle, Azul Ashengrotto

Or rather

The rather long blurb that the author wanted to write due brainrot, added with a short drabble

Author’s Note: This was supposed to be an attempt at writing headcanons, but unfortunately, I realized it looked too much like a oneshot. Aside from that, I would really appreciate any requests in my inbox for me to write! I’ll be able to write almost anything except anything that violates my rules! Please do request, I’d be very appreciative! I usually write about 1k-5k words so if you specify the word count, I’ll do just that!

Content Warnings: A bit of hatred on the reader’s part in the first part due to Azul tricking them into a deal. Both Reader and Azul are emotionally constipated. Reader is gender-neutral and is not Yuu. However, reader is implied to be quite brutish and strong physically - also slightly mean on their part. But to be fair, aren’t almost all NRC students mean?

-

At an early point in his life, Azul had decided that he had hated anything remotely athletic;  if anything involved running, flying, and exerting effort into one’s body, he resigned himself to a more moody disposition. That’s why it was so ironic that he ended up coming to love someone who loved athletics and took to every sport, almost like their body was adapted to flying, running, and tackling - it was astounding how talented you were in sports. But there was one sport that he knew you had come to love the most: basketball.

You loved the teamwork, the strategy, and the physical exertion that took for you to run, jump, and shoot; it was exhilarating and for a time - he knew that it was the top priority in your life to stay on NRC’s prestigious team. That was until you met him, and at that point in time, it had been a gradual and slow descent into your relationship.

At first, he had thought you like one of those Savannaclaw brutes who took everything to the physical level, and well, you did. You tended to get physical with people who offended who you treasured, which meant your friends within the school. Despite your popularity, you had an infamous reputation for your opponents ending up in the school clinic with scars and bruises - you on the other hand, came out unscathed usually, sometimes with a bruise or two if your opponents were lucky.

However, unlike the students in Savannaclaw, you were surprisingly decent with your grades and student activity - it was more of your record that was a flaw, but that was overshadowed by your wins and your position as ace in the basketball team, winning over RSA as well, granting you popularity and favorable treatment by students who were either intimidated or respected you. Azul, however, thought you would be a valuable asset to carry out his bidding - influencing students to support his business or get students who were being unruly with their contracts to be on line. And really, all he needed to do was loop you into a deal.

And so he did, he took the opportunity to loop you into a deal, doing a deal with your friend first to trap them into servitude- service! The moment you heard about the incident, you came to threaten Azul with the intention of beating the ever living lights of him; however, this action came with Jade and Floyd standing behind him, looking at you menacingly - you could take at least one of them, but both of them? You would end up in the infirmary injured if you took both of them on. It was a losing battle, and so you listened to Azul’s proposition instead. Even though you were struggling not to punch the lights out of him.

The result was a frustrated yet resigned you, signing the contract that Azul offered - making you one of his lackeys, if you not being able to beat him up didn’t hurt your pride - then that did. From there, your relationship was quite rocky, you worked for him and some of things that your contract forced you to do were: to ‘gently’ remind (threaten) students who didn’t comply with their contracts or Azul’s demands, work in the Mostro Lounge for your fans to come there (you were basically free advertisement), and use your influence to promote Azul’s business. You were basically a lackey, and to make matters worse: sometimes, you were used as an errand runner. At those moments, you were tempted to just smash his head against the wall when he set you up for simple tasks.

Begrudgingly, you basically obeyed his commands and became someone he usually handed over tasks, even using your face and games to advertise you and himself to the general public. Now, to put it short how you felt with him - imagine a dartboard with his face plastered on a picture stapled on it, then imagine there being multiple darts thrown mid-air, landing perfectly on his face. That was how you felt about him. You wouldn’t say you hated him. No, that was rather too light - you despised him.

As a result of being in servitude to him, you were basically stuck around him for quite a lot of time. Your usual location if people wanted to find you was always in Octavinelle (if it wasn’t the gym or basketball court) and even then - Azul capitalized your time and appearance by requiring people to pay if they wanted to stay and chat with you. And due to being stuck with him, you repaid his ‘generosity’ ten-fold by proceeding to constantly banter and annoy him.

It was hell. Hell was in the form of one person and it was you. Azul tried his best to focus on working, but eventually he snapped back with insults as well; most of your time together was in the form of snarky comments and banter that took insults almost personal. Eventually, both of your insults lessened as you got to know each other better since you stayed by his side most of the time - however, it still didn’t change the despise you had for him. And this didn’t change for a while. Until the result of his breakdown and overblot.

Originally, when you saw the breakdown - you were supposed to say a snarky comment and insult him, thinking he got what he deserved. And well, he did - he successfully enslaved a majority of the student population and tried to involve the Prefect of Ramshackle into his schemes, but failed due to intervention. You were happy that he got what he deserved, and most of all: you were free. Free of the chains he had cast on you since the contract.

But when you saw him breakdown, something hurt inside you. You didn’t know why too, and as a result you ended up freezing as you saw tears coming out of his eyes. He had never displayed any type of genuine emotion, this was the only time that you had seen a genuine and vulnerable display from him. You didn’t interfere as he wailed in pain of losing everything he had worked for. Maybe in other worlds and timelines, you’d have been kinder, more patient, considerate - but in this one, you weren’t. You were selfish, brutish, and you had the capability to be cruel at times - you were the perfect example of an NRC student.

But maybe, you could be just somewhat kinder in this school, because clearly, most of these students couldn’t be. And for once, you didn’t make a selfish decision: you took off running and casting spells to eliminate the entity behind him. Putting your all, you fought alongside the students, despite almost getting injured many times. When all was said and done, and when he was defeated - you didn’t freeze this time. You took off running once more to his body, and quickly checked all his vital signs - and once the Head Master came, you took off to the infirmary and from there everything was a stressed blur.

Azul woke up with you beside him, sleeping on a chair - there were flowers on his bedside in the infirmary and there was only one question on his mind when you woke up: why were you here after everything he had done to you.

And with all honesty, you responded with the answer that you’ve been wondering yourself for all this time: you didn’t know. The clinic was white, everything smelled like alcohol and sterilized materials, and you two were the only people present there - both of you stared at each other with unknown emotions brewing within both of your eyes. Multiple conversations ensued and by the end of it, both of you were confused and unsure. It was a moment that both of you would never forget, as later in the future you would be thankful that this moment happened in the first place.

From there on out, despite your contract being eliminated, you took to staying by Azul’s side - albeit with general denial if you were asked and confusion of the public as well as your admirers and fans. Azul, himself, was confused with his development and at some point, asked what you wanted from him. Which you replied with the same answer that you answered with in the infirmary: you didn’t know.

Initially, you came to the conclusion that it was most likely a habit out of the time you had served under him. But that didn’t really explain your behavior; it didn’t explain why you stayed by his side like a guard dog and defended his name, both physically and verbally, when people bad-mouthed him. And somehow, you were almost…seemingly gentle with him.

Both you and Azul were baffled by your behavior, it was something that both of you wondered and analyzed, separately. Despite your unusual behavior though, he refused to let go of you, since you were the only one who ‘served’ under him since the dissolution of his contracts by the Dorm Head of Savannaclaw.

For some time, there was an awkward tension between the both of you; it was palpable to everyone that the both of you were in a sort of awkward stage. You didn’t know why you were defending and staying with Azul, while Azul wondered the same thing too. The awkwardness didn’t dissolve until the both of you settled into a routine with one rule, which was to never bring up why exactly in the first place you were still serving him without your contract.

The both of you got to know each other, despite your tense relationship - and through the routine, you took to staying in Azul’s office more - making sure to take care of him when he was overworking and generally trying to make life easier for him. And somehow, you ended up having a sort of complicated ‘relationship’ with him. With the both of you spending most of your time together, but denying any sort of relationship with each other, with Azul stating that he was paying you whilst you were saying that you just took an interest in him.

Rumors spread through the student body, and at first, you were okay with it. Until people began asking and you, yourself, was coming to a realization: you didn’t know what you felt for him at all. It wasn’t exactly a working relationship or a relationship at all. It was a secret third thing. Out of pressure and tension, you broke down - stopping your visits to him and avoiding him at all costs. To Azul, it provided its own realization, a slow realization that descended into hell for him. It was like Dante’s Inferno, except with the stages of grief - eventually going into acceptance that he felt something for you.

He was going to confront you. Eventually. The only problem was that you were avoiding at every turn, using either your fans, speed, and everything that was a force to be reckoned against to avoid him. When he realized, he couldn’t exactly confront you with the way you were using everything in your power to hide from his sight. It was only through Jade and Floyd catching you and threatening you, then proceeding to drag you to Azul’s office is when both of you were able to talk.

From there, it was a conversation between two emotionally constipated and repressed people that had never talked vulnerably in their life. It was one of the hardest conversations you had in your life, but at the end of it - you were trembling as you hugged him. You weren’t exactly dating yet, more in the middle ground.

But from then on, you stayed by his side most of the time and invited him to every one of your games. And through a lot of communication and painful slow burn, you eventually entered into a relationship.

That was why it wasn’t unusual for you to see him at one of the VIP spots in all your games, events, and sometimes, he’d even be seen at practices - handing you a small towel with a snarky comment on the tip of his lips because even after all this time, both of you had never stopped bantering.

It was well-known that you were devoted to him, and that was seen in every event, but it was established in one particular event which were the championships ending with two schools facing against each other: NRC and RSA.

-

The stadium roared with cheers as you landed the last point that would score you one point over RSA, it was a close play and you had thrown the ball in at a far length. The moment you did, you didn’t go running to your teammates, you didn’t run to your coach, nor did you run to your friends who were cheering you on from a podium. You didn’t freeze either; you were sweating and your ears rang with the victory you had scored - the big smile on your face was palpable. Despite your feet racing on the ground, you didn’t run to any of the people just mentioned. Instead, your eyes zoomed in into one face in the crowd: one face that you had your eye on the entire time you were playing and whenever there was a break.

You ran to Azul. You ran quickly with the biggest grin on your face, and when you reached him - you hugged him while murmuring repeatedly three words that echoed in your own little world.

“I love you.”

It was the only thing you repeated as you cupped his face, looking at him with pure adoration and devotion; you didn’t even notice how red he was and how the cameras were zooming onto you - the stadium screen focused on the both of you. And with the repitition of the three words, you did one last thing that staked your claim on him and the establishment of your love to the world. You kissed him.

The entire stadium roared, but really - you couldn’t care less. All you knew is that he was the constant in your life that you’d make sure stayed with you for as long as you lived. And you knew Azul thought the same thing as he cupped your cheek and planted a soft kiss on your lips once more.

[tobiasdrake]

“The best thing about Spy X Family is that the fake family that Loid fabricated for his spy mission is really good at being a family but really bad at being a spy mission.”

I feel that if everything went according to how he planned, it would’ve made it harder to be a family to root for since they are only manipulated or tricked to be one. What are your thoughts on Twilight?

Twilight is interesting both for how much he masks and disguises his feelings, and for how bad he is at masking and disguising his feelings. He is so invested in this family but he is lying to himself about it. He is convinced that this is only a mission, but he lacks conviction in that belief.

There are moments for Agent Twilight that are impossible to explain, but that make perfect sense for Loid Forger. Like when he nearly compromised his own mission to punch a smug school official in the face for the shit he was saying about Anya and Yor. There is no Twilight explanation for that. But there is a perfectly obvious Loid explanation.

What's interesting is that Loid has been an undercover agent for a long time. He has explicitly been in fake romances before. We know that. We've seen it. He has seduced women for the sake of gathering intel, and he has no problem breaking from those dynamics.

But so far as we know, he's never been a fake parent before. That seems to be what's slipping through the chink in his emotional armor. At least so far, his behavior with Yor has been strictly professional.

Yor and Loid both fret over maintaining their fake relationship with one another because they're dependent on the other for mutual cover. They both tend to constantly be scrutinizing the other to figure out how the other feels about them, not because they're romantically interested but because the other breaking things off would be catastrophic for their respective situations.

It's a very interesting and complicated dynamic that Loid and Yor have. And it is clear that Loid is starting to get accustomed to Yor, specifically, being his fake wife. Nightfall's main purpose as a character is to reinforce that, to give Loid an 'out' from his fake marriage to Yor that he can reject.

But it's Anya who breaks down Loid's barriers the most. He's trained himself not to get attached to women. But I don't think he ever trained himself not to get attached to children. His paternal instincts are wreaking havoc on his professional detachment.

It will be very interesting to see where Loid goes. I have the utmost confidence that the series will end one of two ways.

1 - Happy ending. Twilight's mission is complete and they find a way to keep the family together anyway. They all become a family for real.

2 - Bittersweet ending. Twilight's mission is complete and he has to bid farewell to the family. Yor keeps custody of Anya and becomes her mom for real.

One way or another, I have no doubt that Anya and Yor will stay together. But it will be interesting to see whether Loid Forger or Agent Twilight will ultimately win out over the other in the end.

[joaniejustwokeup]

Decided to make this prompt it’s own post- originally based off @noir-renard’s tags on this photo post:

I had an idea for where it could go…

Jason uses Bruce’s account to bid on the car.

Danny uses Vlad’s account to bid on it.

They drive up the price ridiculously high.

Danny wants the car to go on a summer road trip/ college tour with Sam and Tucker.

Jason wants to use it to pick up his brothers from work and school to embarrass them. He’s sure he can convince Alfred to let him be the designated chauffeur for a bit.

Danny just barely places the winning bid in time.

When he gets the car he tricks it out with a bunch of anti-theft and especially anti-ghost security measures. No way he’s letting Johnny or Technus or some other random ghost steal it from him, this car is his. He also adds special storage for ectoplasm and ecto-dejecto, since they’ll be on the road for a bit, but also in case there’s an emergency and they need to get out of town fast. And then they’re off on their summer adventure!

They stop in Gotham to check out Gotham University, and because Sam love the aesthetic and Tucker loves Wayne Tech, leaving their car in a lot frequented by tourists.

While he’s out on patrol Jason suddenly sees THE FUCKING CAR!!! Holy shit it must be destiny. Fuck it, Red Hood is stealing a car today because dammit this was supposed to be his janky-ass dead guy car. He’s gonna reclaim his undead honor and this shitty car if it’s the last thing he does. Only one problem. The car immediately zaps him, knocks him out, and soups him with the automatic thermos the second he touches it (what’s this? A halfa Jason Todd au??? Oh dear!).

Danny, Sam, and Tucker return none the wiser, having had a great day touring the city and the university’s campus. But soon they’re back on the road, having a couple more weeks of travel and touring campuses planned. They finally return to Amity Park, and it’s only then that Danny realizes the car had captured some random ghost while they were on the road. At least it looked like the car had fed them from the ectoplasm storage while they travelled, so they should be healed of any souping-related injuries.

Danny decides to release them in his royal keep in the Infinite Realms (AND a ghost king Danny au? wow who would’ve thought), so that he can have Wulf on hand to portal the ghost back to their haunt if they mean no harm, or contain them in the Ghost Zone if they turn out to be violent.

Jason is spewed out of that freaky thermos into a throne room of black marble, surrounded by glowing, translucent beings. Everything has a Lazarus-green glow, and something deep in his chest seems to be humming in recognition, like a tuning fork resonating with an entire orchestra (is that how tuning forks work? Jason doesn’t fucking know).

Above him floats a teenager in a black and white jumpsuit accented with pieces of medieval armor and a cloak lined with swirling stars and nebulae. Atop his snow white hair sits an obsidian crown bathed in green flames, the same bright Lazarus green as the boy’s eyes. He’s holding the thermos almost sheepishly, looking at Jason in shocked amazement.

“Holy fucking shit- I SOUPED RED HOOD??? RED HOOD’S A GHOST?!?!?”

Meanwhile, the Batfamily has been frantically looking for Red Hood for weeks now. No one knows where he’s gone- his tracker showed him traveling from state to state seemingly at random, before stopping and disappearing entirely. His last tracked location was in a small midwestern town called Amity Park.

[officialdaydreamer00]

House fire

ROLLO FLAMME — in which one can predict a student exchange program might go south real quick

COLLAB WORK with @unfictinalnightmare for [The chimes of comfort]

CONTENT — takes place after glorious masquerade, our yuusonas (hillary and irene) are yuu, silly shenanigans with hillary and irene, rollo will show up soon :)

TAGGINGS — @cloudcountry @identity-theft-101 @xen-blank @esmerulia-chantelle @dove-da-birb @cookiesandbiscuits @vioisgoinginsane @siren-serenity @loser-jpg @axvwriter @aqua-beam @edith-is-a-cat @minimallyminnie @thehollowwriter @taruruchi @cyanide-latte @ferris-thewheel + others :3

Do reblog or comment if you enjoy my work! ^-^

Chapter 1: An undeniable request || Chapter 2 || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4 || Chapter 5

"WHAT?!"

"As I have just said, I want the two of you to act as our representatives when Mr. Flamme arrive to Night Raven College in the next student exchange."

The headmage offered the two girls in front of them a smile. Black and white, blood red and sea green, both were staring at their 'beloved' headmage with a look of utter disdain.

"Wait, pause- Who the hell is Flamme?" Hillary gave the girl next to her a confused glance before averting her eyes back to the headmage. Irene only sighed, taking off her round glasses as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Rollo Flamme, Noble Bell's rep and School Council President, he was our guide in Fleur City."

Irene was still haunted by that incident in Fleur City. She thought it was a rare occasion to relax after weeks and months of doing errands for the damn crow, but no. Seven knew he was plotting such a devious scheme.

"Indeed, ahem... Since the student body were rather, well, hesitant when speaking about him, so I believe you two are the best option as his guide in the upcoming exchange program." Crowley said joyfully. "Oh, and by the way, Mr Flamme shall stay at Ramshackle Dorm in the short duration of the program, I truly hope the two of you can do your best to accommodate him."

The headmage went on and on with his monologue, ignoring every signs of refusals from Hillary and Irene.

With Irene and her unforgettable experience in Noble Bell College, she was rather afraid of Rollo still. Who knows what could happen during the entire program when he faced NRC's students, especially her upperclassman Malleus. It would be one hell of a meeting, and like hell she wanted to be the one cleaning it up for the nth time.

With Hillary, who wasn't on the list of students on that trip to Fleur City, her impression about Rollo was practically zero. And it wasn't like she could ask Irene or the others since they wouldn't peep a single word. Though perhaps that was enough signs to guess this Flamme guy was anything but a saint.

———————————————————

"I refuse."

Hillary immediately shook her head, cutting off Crowley's ramblings as he squawked in surprise. Not like he could force her to do his biddings anyways.

"I also refuse."

Irene followed her lead and answered as well, seeing how Hillary gave both of them a way out. It wouldn't hurt to work with that troublesome girl if it meant one less baggage on her shoulders.

"Oh no... Why must you two treat me, the kindest and most beloved headmage, that way? What a hurtful thing to hear from the Prefects themselves..."

Hillary and Irene could only watched in exasperation as the headmage blabbed on about his so-called kindness and hard work. However, the headmage was never an easy person to deal with, he gave them an unreadable smile.

"Nevertheless, as a careful teacher I am, I have come prepared! So I am counting on you two, Trein-sensei, Crewel-sensei."

———————————————————

Only after one long session of persuation from two most respected professors on campus, using various tricks and techniques, did Hillary and Irene agree to it, albeit reluctantly. Though it was a golden opportunity for them to upgrade Ramshackle dorm even more. They couldn't let that infuriating headmage win that easily.

"Fine. I promise to lend you some ingredients for your magic research." Crewel shook his head and sighed, looking at Irene with a tired stare.

The little dark pup excelled at everything and destroy every challenges thrown her way, which he was proud of as a Professor. Only that she was so damn stubborn and had a penchant for dark magic.

"Thank you, sir!" Irene smiled as she happily accepted the deal, thinking about all the things she could get from the Potions professor's laboratory.

However, if Irene was already headstrong, Hillary was completely, utterly a hardhead. Trein and Crowley even had to use the library key and give her free reign to it for her to agree.

And so the preparation the student exchange program began...

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played AMBER Diceless Roleplaying Game ?

By Erick Wujick

Play the powerful, reality-shifting, squabbling royals of Zelazny's Amber novels as you backstab, trick, and outmaneuver your compatriots. Character generation starts with the auction, where players bid to establish a set ranking for the four attributes; all else being equal, the higher ranking player will win a contest of that attribute, so players must scheme to create advantages or force a contest on their preferred turf. Unspent/overspent points in the auction become good/bad "stuff" as an extra flavour mechanic

The game was republished without the Amber IP as Lords of Gossamer and Shadow in a 2013 crowdfund

[mariacallous]

I know a lot of them are just Russian bots running psyop campaigns, but I wonder how many of the people refusing to vote for Harris because of Gaza realize that they're doing exactly what Netanyahu wants them to do. He clearly wants Trump to win and knows that Gaza supporters aren't going to vote for Trump, so the best he can hope for is for them to not vote at all (or vote for Jill Stein, which is functionally the same as not voting given that she polls at 2% on a good day).

There are two candidates with a chance to win. One of them clearly doesn't care about Gaza and would be advised by people like Jared Kushner, who talks about Gaza's valuable "beachfront property." The other cares at least a little about Gaza and would be advised by at least some people who care a lot about it. I think it's safe to say who the people of Gaza would rather see win.

And that's not even mentioning the West Bank, where the Biden administration has placed sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers over the loud objections of hardliners in the Israeli government, something that would almost certainly be maintained and maybe even expanded under Harris but would probably be undone under Trump.

Voting for Jill Stein or refusing to vote isn't helping Palestinians, it's letting Russian trolls trick you into doing Netanyahu's bidding.

A lot of them don’t care, or at least say they don’t.

[leaderpinhead]

Jamil - Modern Dating (For Awkward Couples)

Prompt: Claw

Yuu didn’t say anything, but Jamil caught her glancing at the crane machine in the corner several times. He had noticed the machine when they entered the small cafe near the wharf. He gave it just a cursory glance though, frowning at the oddly shaped green humanoid dolls inside the machine. 

The distraction of the machine was so obvious in their stilted conversation that Jamil finally sighed. “Do you want me to win you one of those ugly things?” 

Yuu’s eyes snapped to him. Her cheeks ballooned with a hint of red. “They’re not ugly. They’re cute little green aliens with their little antennas and space suits. Idia has a whole collection of them, but he refused to tell me where he got them.” 

Jamil almost frowned at the mention of another boy on their supposed “date.” “Knowing Idia, he likely bought the set online. I doubt he’s been off campus long enough to discover a random crane machine in a random cafe in Craneport.” 

Yuu’s eyes strayed back to the crane machine. Her whole body turned in the booth to make her staring less strenuous now that Jamil had called her out on the behavior. “I don’t know. He seems pretty confident with his crane machine skills. You know they have one in Ignihyde’s lounge.” 

Jamil lost the fight against his frown. “No, I did not know. Why would they have a crane machine in their lounge?” 

“They use it like a vending machine and put all their junk food in it. They have these little tokens they use to operate the machine.” 

“That sounds like a waste of resources.” 

“They say it’s a modern version of hunting. It takes a lot of precision and strategy to grab a tiny candy bar with the claw.” 

Jamil snorted. “I doubt it’s that difficult. They just want an excuse to avoid the other vending machines on campus.” 

Yuu sighed and turned back to the table. She picked at the napkin she had already torn apart. “You’re probably right. Idia says most crane machines are complete scams anyways. The average person can’t win any prizes because they don’t understand the weight distribution of the items versus the area of claw coverage. Definitely not something I could win.” 

Jamil rolled his eyes at the obvious bait. He had heard enough from Najma about the way she had manipulated the boys in her own grade to do her bidding. Jamil wouldn’t be so easily tricked 

Yuu slid out of the booth and headed to the crane machine. “I’m going to try anyways.” 

Jamil choked on the sip of water he had just taken. Struggling through a coughing fit, Jamil stumbled out of the booth to follow her. She was already stuffing her coins into the machine slot when he caught up to her. “Wait a minute! Don’t waste your money on this thing.” 

Yuu grabbed the machine’s joystick and placed her forehead directly against the glass. “I won’t be stopped, Jamil. The little green aliens call to me.” 

“That’s your weird fixations calling to you.” 

“They want to go home with me.” 

“I’m questioning why anyone would want to go home with you.” 

Yuu’s lips pursed as she focused on maneuvering the mechanical claw. Jamil sighed and leaned against the glass to watch her. The claw barely nudged one of the small toys on her first try. She was already putting more coins into the slot before the claw returned to its starting position. With each failed attempt, her pout became more pronounced, her cheeks ballooning a bit more and a deep crevice appearing between her brows. She mumbled quiet curses after the first few tries, alternating between cursing the machine and cursing “Idia’s big stupid flaming head.” The lighthearted music from the machine didn’t help, cheerfully dinging when an empty claw opened over the chute. 

Jamil silently watched. He waited for Yuu to admit defeat and turn to him for help. The longer she struggled, the more amused he became. Eventually, her supply of loose change came to an end, and she patted down all her pockets like she didn’t quite believe her lack of coins. She silently stared at the machine, tapping her fingertips against her thigh in a silent pattern. 

Jamil sighed and straightened from where he leaned against the machine. “Are you finished?” 

Yuu tapped her fingers a few more times before turning on her heel. “I can come back next weekend and try again.” 

“Next weekend?” 

“I should have my next round of allowance by then. If I budget right, I’ll have enough thaumarks left over after buying Grim’s tuna and a few other necessities to try again.” 

Jamil shook his head. “You could probably find each of these toys online for less than what you’ll waste on this machine.” 

Yuu pinned him with one of her deadpan stares. “I’m not about to let Idia beat me at survival.” 

Jamil’s eyelids drooped to match her stare. “This has nothing to do with Idia. You just want the toy." 

“I’ll save them all from their imprisonment.” 

Jamil shook his head and silently followed her back to the table. When Yuu excused herself to the restroom later, Jamil snuck over to the crane machine with the intention of winning one of the toys before she returned. He was on his third round when Yuu appeared at the side of the machine. He didn’t have a chance to be embarrassed when she pressed her face right up against the glass and pointed. “Move the claw a little to the right.” 

Jamil and Yuu spent the rest of their time at the crane machine, switching places between games to help guide the claw into the right position. Jamil frowned at his lighter coin purse while Yuu stared at the one alien trophy from their dozens of attempts. Before Jamil could make a snippy comment, she smiled and held the alien out to him. “He looks like an avocado, so I’m going to name him Cado.” 

Jamil refused to look her in the eye the entire bus ride back to the campus until he was absolutely sure the heat in his face had dissipated. 

[kit-williams]

Zul alt Spray

I wanted to love Zul so much but its really hard to decide which one he deserved... SO I gave him two. This is an older Zul with his Spazeniye

This is also to try to help me break free from the writers rut I'm in

@bispecsual @egrets-not-regrets @moodymisty @bleedingichorhearts @liar-anubiass-blog

@thevoidscreams @barn-anon @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan

as always thank you @squishyowl for the dividers

Tw: SMUT

An untethered World Eater was a dangerous thing... But a World Eater with his higher faculties unimpeded was a threat to everyone around him. It was how in the span of a decade of getting his Spaseniye that he was in charge of his own warband and pulling off an insane heist of another warband's planet now being his own. He jealously guarded Spaseniye as she was the key to his success and while he didn't need to constantly stare at her to get the effects... he kept her around as she too learned a few new tricks. Zul had effectively unchained himself from a cruel master along with an uncaring father and Zul knew, while it looked like she was chained to him, he had chained himself to her... forcing her to take the yoke of Master.

His red-brown eyes glanced over to her as she stood beside him listening to the droning on of the mortal petitioning his aid. They called her The Brass Lady initially a mocking title given his prior dedicated worship of Khorne and the brass Gorget around her neck plus with her being a psyker bearing that title. She was still a pacifist in many ways and in others she realized violence would follow no matter what she did... she still only used her powers for non violence... soothing him and now she can knit his flesh back together and heal him. She was no longer the same shrinking flower that he had found chained to the floor screaming and wailing for her mistress to come back to her... only for Zul to find her instead.

He was thoroughly distracted by her as her robes were new as they had celestial patterns draped over her... a delicate veil of twisting shimmering colors over her head... hiding her hair. Her hands were still frail looking but there was only so much one could do for a Psyker. Perhaps he would be upset that all she uses her powers was for soothing him... healing him... and extending her life but he was fine with their arrangement. He glanced back to the droning man trying to focus on the words but he could smell a faint perfume upon Spaseniye skin... oh how he wanted to bury his nose into the flesh of her neck and rake his teeth upon-

"Please get to the point." Spaseniye spoke up as Zul's vision was both becoming lustful but starting to gain a red tint to it as what would win first his lust or his desire to spill blood? Well with the blood lust quelled for the moment his mind fixated on the delicate scent of the perfume tickling his nose, carrying with it a trace of her natural scent. Zul's favorite smell was when she was sweating with her scent drowning in his own in that post sex bliss... and now Zul was aroused.

He could hear that soft sharp inhale through her nose. Space Marines were akin to animals... powerful smells would assault her as he could see the way she would wrinkle her nose at him occasionally... though on the other hand she rather enjoyed that as she would have her face buried between his legs inhaling deeply as her tongue- "I will think this over. Leave." Zul said as a natural stopping of the conversation had arrived and he was done just being aroused. He stood up and gently tugged on her gorget silently bidding her to follow him.

She followed slightly behind him as they just walked out of the room. Zul was counting his steps and when he had gotten sixteen strides away he grabbed her. She hardly made a peep as he pressed his Spaseniye against the wall, forcing his knee between her legs. His scarred mouth pressed against her own softer lips. His tongue snaked its way roughly into her mouth as he was rough with her but she eagerly pressed her body against his and whimpered with delight. He pulls away with a gruff noise, "He kept looking at you." Zul groused as he pulled open her robes exposing her neck, shoulders, and bare breasts to him. Bite marks peppered her shoulders and once more his torn and scarred lips pressed against her own as he held her tightly and growled, "Mine."

"Yes yours." Spaseniye mewled as she left herself willing and pliant to his wishes. Zul bowed his head slightly as his mouth wrapped around one of her nipples and started to suckle. She writhed under his hands feeling her hands wrap around his head as she moaned softly enjoying this feeling. He could feel the way her thumbs moved against the back of his head over scars where a few of his nails were removed... a few in combat and a few via surgery... all healed by her loving hands. The shaven short blonde hair on the sides of his head moved under her hands as she moaned so softly... his own red hands held her waist, permanently blood stained and giving the rest of the skin of his arms a ruddy color to them. She felt his crooked nose push into the flesh of her breasts as he pulled his mouth away with a pop.

"I'm going to fuck you until you cannot walk." Zul stated as if it was a matter of fact.

"Oh yes please!" Spaseniye said, grinding against his leg eagerly.

He picked her up and held her close growling and snarling at anyone unlucky enough to be between there and their shared bedroom. It was clear what parts of the room were all due because Spaseniye lived in the room with him, as otherwise it would be spartan. But, he indulged in his baseline's need to have comforts where she slept; anything else was in another room out of his way. Though the large mirror in the room was his desire and it was one that had persisted for a long time to have. Oh yes for the longest time he had wanted a mirror for moments like this. Her flowing robes and his tunic quickly hit the floor leaving their bodies to press against each other.

She hollowed her cheeks as she sucked and slobbered over one of his fingers, she could taste lingering iron on the red digit, but she still ran her tongue over the callouses and cuts that lined the digit. Spaseniye let her teeth playfully scrape against his skin as he pulled his finger free with a pop and quickly bullied the wet digit between her folds. Her hands rested on his arm as she spread herself open for him to work her open as she chanted his name and Zul well he relished the softness of her skin against his torn up body and rough flesh. All the little blemishes she had gained over the years... the bites, the scars, the brand on her back, even the stretch marks on her were all from him.

She had such deliciously pliant flesh and he knew Slaanesh had gripped it's meager grasp on this part of his soul. Tightly milking all worship it could get out of the World Eater... and he gave the prince their due. He pulls his finger out before pushing into her and he feel Spaseniye gasp into his neck. His hips still as she lays under him, walls pulsing and throbbing around his cock, his blood stained hands petting her stomach and waist till she finally mewls out for him to love her. Zul chuckles for a moment as he was a fool to wait so long to tell her his feelings but he had to make sure he could keep her safe with no issue.

He fucked her in front of that mirror. Watching the way her breasts pressed against the floor and that fucked out look as he pulled her back onto his cock. When he took her on her back again he positioned them so that he could watch the way he split her open. Watching the way her sex had to be pushed open and then her body swallowing up his girth over and over just vanishing between her legs, Zul couldn't stop himself from drooling over the sight of her skin bulging slightly. "Oh gods..." She moaned as their eyes met in the reflection and she watched her own body get ravaged... she watched her breasts bounce with their stretch marks on the sides... the bruising from his fingers on her hips... he grunted over her and moved harder causing the clapping from their sweaty bodies meeting to become louder.

Zul grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her up to meet him in a kiss. Zul chuckled, feeling the way her cunt fluttered and squeezed him as he treated her roughly. It was amusing to him that someone so fragile enjoyed being handled and fucked like a whore. And he told her as such... watching her write in pleasure under him. She loved the bruises from him grabbing her too hard, bruising her easily bruised form, to have her rear be tender from a swat on her ass from him, her nipples dark from him sucking too hard and too long, her cunt feeling raw and overflowing from him fucking her till he was done... yes they gave the prince their due.

Her toes curled as she couldn't bite back the squeal of pleasure and that blissed smile on her face. Zul split himself inside of her not long after as the faces she makes when she orgasms tend to drive him mad with pleasure. He pulls out and they lay there in front of the mirror as he stares at the way her cunt is spread wide and oozing his cum. He picks her up and carried her to the bed as he collapses into his spot enjoying the mindless bliss he was in. Spaseniye eventually crawled over and nestled against him as she now smelt how he adored.

"But... I think you were right. He did keep looking at me." She spoke up.

An annoyed noise left Zul as his arm wrapped around her and he used that hand to grope and play with the flesh of her ass. "Good to know he was staring at what was mine. Wasn't going to accept his offer now I'm more certain not to." Zul groused before he pulled her into a kiss as they lounged together.

[emberleaf23]

You know, I've been thinking about how great it would be to crossover the Great Ace Attorney and Gravity Falls. There's so many good ideas, I'd be here for hours listing them all, but here are my main things:

You could have Dipper and Mabel getting chased through time by Wax Holmes (somehow, don't question it) and end up in Victorian London. Sherlock Holmes vs Sherlock Holmes is the main idea here

Sherlock ends up stuck in 2012 and immediately realizes Stan is lying about everything

Ryu, Susato, and Sherlock visit the future and Dipper realizes that Sherlock is lying about Kazuma

Sherlock and Mabel as a dynamic. The world is no longer safe

Sherlock and Ford in the same room. Would they be best friends or instantly get into a fist fight? Who knows!

Sherlock realizes that Old Man McGucket is actually suffering and not some crazy old guy

But my favorite?

If there was any mind that Bill would target to build him a portal, it would be Sherlock. No question. He's capable of making holograms, for God's sake.

But just one problem: Sherlock is far too smart to trick. So how do you do it? How do you get a man so clever to do your bidding?

Simple.

You make him.

Okay I wanted to end it there but I had some ideas for the Bill thing specifically, sooo... yeah. No dramatic cliffhanger, I guess.

Obviously, Sherlock can't defeat Bill forever. He won't be stopped for another hundred years, so how does Bill punish Sherlock for winning?

My idea? Bill erases Sherlock and his friends from all memory. As in, nobody remembers that Sherlock was anything more than a story. He shall not be remembered as a real man with real exploits, just an idea in some crazy guy's head. And his friends suffer the same. No matter how much Iris Watson or Barok van Zieks or Ryuunosuke Naruhodou accomplish, no one will ever know they existed. Their achievements are associated with someone else, and they are forgotten.

Up until 2012, where Bill is defeated once and for all, and the curse is lifted. The world blinks, and names reappear in the history books. Franziska von Karma stares in amazement at the old case record she's studying as information corrects itself on the page. Statues appear at the historic Crown Court building in London. Every copy of Sherlock Holmes fixes the name of the author.

And, well. Gravity Falls is already filled with ghosts. It's not hard for Sherlock and Co. to drop by the Pines family and offer their thanks.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

One of America’s most corporate-crime-friendly bankruptcy judges forced to recuse himself

Today (Oct 16) I'm in Minneapolis, keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. Thursday (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. Friday (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

"I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one." The now-famous quip from Robert Reich cuts to the bone of corporate personhood. Corporations are people with speech rights. They are heat-shields that absorb liability on behalf of their owners and managers.

But the membrane separating corporations from people is selectively permeable. A corporation is separate from its owners, who are not liable for its deeds – but it can also be "closely held," and so inseparable from those owners that their religious beliefs can excuse their companies from obeying laws they don't like:

https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2014/10/13/hobby-lobby-and-closely-held-corporations/

Corporations – not their owners – are liable for their misdeeds (that's the "limited liability" in "limited liablity corporation"). But owners of a murderous company can hold their victims' families hostage and secure bankruptcies for their companies that wipe out their owners' culpability – without any requirement for the owners to surrender their billions to the people they killed and maimed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

Corporations are, in other words, a kind of Schroedinger's Cat for impunity: when it helps the ruling class, corporations are inseparable from their owners; when that would hinder the rich and powerful, corporations are wholly distinct entities. They exist in a state of convenient superposition that collapses only when a plutocrat opens the box and decides what is inside it. Heads they win, tails we lose.

Key to corporate impunity is the rigged bankruptcy system. "Debts that can't be paid, won't be paid," so every successful civilization has some system for discharging debt, or it risks collapse:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/bankruptcy-protects-fake-people-brutalizes-real-ones/

When you or I declare bankruptcy, we have to give up virtually everything and endure years (or a lifetime) of punitive retaliation based on our stained credit records, and even then, our student debts continue to haunt us, as do lawless scumbag debt-collectors:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/12/do-not-pay/#fair-debt-collection-practices-act

When a giant corporation declares bankruptcy, by contrast, it emerges shorn of its union pension obligations and liabilities owed to workers and customers it abused or killed, and continues merrily on its way, re-offending at will. Big companies have mastered the Texas Two-Step, whereby a company creates a subsidiary that inherits all its liabilities, but not its assets. The liability-burdened company is declared bankrupt, and the company's sins are shriven at the bang of a judge's gavel:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/01/j-and-j-jk/#risible-gambit

Three US judges oversee the majority of large corporate bankruptcies, and they are so reliable in their deference to this scheme that an entire industry of high-priced lawyers exists solely to game the system to ensure that their clients end up before one of these judges. When the Sacklers were seeking to abscond with their billions in opioid blood-money and stiff their victims' families, they set their sights on Judge Robert Drain in the Southern District of New York:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/23/a-bankrupt-process/#sacklers

To get in front of Drain, the Sacklers opened an office in White Plains, NY, then waited 192 days to file bankruptcy papers there (it takes six months to establish jurisdiction). Their papers including invisible metadata that identified the case as destined for Judge Drain's court, in a bid to trick the court's Case Management/Electronic Case Files system to assign the case to him.

The case was even pre-captioned "RDD" ("Robert D Drain"), to nudge clerks into getting their case into a friendly forum.

If the Sacklers hadn't opted for Judge Drain, they might have set their sights on the Houston courthouse presided over by Judge David Jones, the second of of the three most corporate-friendly large bankruptcy judges. Judge Jones is a Texas judge – as in "Texas Two-Step" – and he has a long history of allowing corporate murderers and thieves to escape with their fortunes intact and their victims penniless:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#shoppers-choice

But David Jones's reign of error is now in limbo. It turns out that he was secretly romantically involved with Elizabeth Freeman, a leading Texas corporate bankruptcy lawyer who argues Texas Two-Step cases in front of her boyfriend, Judge David Jones.

Judge Jones doesn't deny that he and Freeman are romantically involved, but said that he didn't think this fact warranted disclosure – let alone recusal – because they aren't married and "he didn't benefit economically from her legal work." He said that he'd only have to disclose if the two owned communal property, but the deed for their house lists them as co-owners:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24032507-general-warranty-deed

(Jones claims they don't live together – rather, he owns the house and pays the utility bills but lets Freeman live there.)

Even if they didn't own communal property, judges should not hear cases where one of the parties is represented by their long term romantic partner. I mean, that is a weird sentence to have to type, but I stand by it.

The case that led to the revelation and Jones's stepping away from his cases while the Fifth Circuit investigates is a ghastly – but typical – corporate murder trial. Corizon is a prison healthcare provider that killed prisoners with neglect, in the most cruel and awful ways imaginable. Their families sued, so Corizon budded off two new companies: YesCare got all the contracts and other assets, while Tehum Care Services got all the liabilities:

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/prominent-bankruptcy-judge-david-jones-033801325.html

Then, Tehum paid Freeman to tell her boyfriend, Judge Jones, to let it declare bankruptcy, leaving $173m for YesCare and allocating $37m for the victims suing Tehum. Corizon owes more than $1.2b, "including tens of millions of dollars in unpaid invoices and hundreds of malpractice suits filed by prisoners and their families who have alleged negligent care":

https://www.kccllc.net/tehum/document/2390086230522000000000041

Under the deal, if Corizon murdered your family member, you would get $5,000 in compensation. Corizon gets to continue operating, using that $173m to prolong its yearslong murder spree.

The revelation that Jones and Freeman are lovers has derailed this deal. Jones is under investigation and has recused himself from his cases. The US Trustee – who represents creditors in bankruptcy cases – has intervened to block the deal, calling Tehum "a barren estate, one that was stripped of all of its valuable assets as a result of the combination and divisional mergers that occurred prior to the bankruptcy filing."

This is the third high-profile sleazy corporate bankruptcy that had victory snatched from the jaws of defeat this year: there was Johnson and Johnson's attempt to escape from liability from tricking women into powder their vulvas with asbestos (no, really), the Sacklers' attempt to abscond with billions after kicking off the opioid epidemic that's killed 800,000+ Americans and counting, and now this one.

This one might be the most consequential, though – it has the potential to eliminate one third of the major crime-enabling bankruptcy judges serving today.

One down.

Two to go.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/16/texas-two-step/#david-jones

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!