#can we say selfie again or is that word still banned?

[antikristvs]

*casually cosplays the Antichrist*

[dreamescapeswriting]

Midnight Adventures ~ BC [Request]

WORD COUNT:1.5K

GENRE: Fluffy, established-relationship, fluffy bang chan feels

PAIRING: Chan x GN!Reader 

A/N: I hope it’s okay I went with Chan! I was feeling really soft for him since I wasn’t feeling great when I wrote this...Nothing bad just a migraine and I was in the mood for some soft Christopher Bang Hours! I also made it GN that everyone could read it and enjoy, hope this is okay my lovely little anon

Once he was given the all-clear from Felix Chan flung himself out of the bed, changing into some sweats and a black hoodie, something baggy so that he didn't look too obvious to those around him. 

"Is Y/n ready?" Chan asked as Felix came into the room with a giant smile on his face, clearly proud of himself at the others for what they had been planning weeks in advance. This had been planned secretly by the boys, wanting to make sure you and Chan got to spend some one on one time together.

"Jeongin text them to start getting ready, the car is on its way, Jisung is covering at the studio," Felix explained to his nervous leader, it had been two months since you and Chan got to spend some quality time together and the boys were doing everything in their power to change that. Convincing their manager that Chan was sick and was staying home that night to rest when in reality he was sneaking off to go and meet you. Jisung was in charge of working in the studio to distract their manager enough and annoy him to the point where he would just stop asking about Chan. The two of you weren't supposed to be seeing one another since there was still a dating ban but that wasn't going to stop you from sneaking out and seeing one another.

"Are you sure the plan will work?" It wasn't that Chan was trying to get out of the evening that Felix had planned it was just him wanting to make sure he wasn't going to get caught and have consequences for everyone. He hated the thought of everyone getting into trouble for something that he could have prevented.

"It's foolproof, nothing can go wrong. I promise." Felix smiled weakly at Chan who still didn't look convinced on the whole thing but went along with it anyway, agreeing to get ready.

"Shower! I need to get the basket ready while Minho borrows his mum's car," Chan laughed at the thought of it, driving around in a Hyundai truck that the boys had specifically picked out for the date. It was a car that none of the paparazzi would be looking for and it was perfect for the both of you to climb into the truck part and stargaze together. The boys had planned everything out for you, putting blankets, pillows and food into the back of the truck while Chan got ready and making sure it was going to be a romantic time together. 

"I put in some torches in case it's dark, there are some battery-powered fairy lights around the bottom of the truck bed to make it more romantic," Minho explained what he had done to the truck bed to Chan while Chan nodded along, wondering when everyone else had got invested in his relationship with you.

"Guys don't you think it's too much, I mean Y/n loves it when we just hang out without all of this-" Chan stopped talking when Changbin placed his finger over his lips telling him to be quiet as he slid the keys into his hand.

"Just go, you and Y/n have fun and stay safe. We've put masks and maps in the car," Changbin began to push the leader towards the door that was parked in the garage, ignoring Chan's questions and concerns about the dorms watching him drive off. 

"Your chariot awaits," Chan spoke down the phone to you as you came out of your apartment to see him sitting in the car, your mouth fell open a little as you realised it was going to be a secret date but one of the best kinds. Secret midnight adventures were always the best, it didn't matter what you were doing as long as it was together with one another. 

"We have maps, we have food, we have everything we may need so tell me," Chan turned to look at you as you got into the passenger seat, 

"Where would you like to go?" Your mind flooded with possibilities but all you did was lean over and kiss Chan on the lips, enjoying the firey feeling you got whenever you kissed him.

"Let's just go anywhere we want, we have all night." You whispered looking back at him with loving eyes as he leant forward to kiss you again. 

"Then let's go," He started up the car again and began driving towards the motorway, turning on the radio to play songs you could both sing along to while on the drive. Changing gears together while he held your hand, never once letting go as he enjoyed the feeling of being close to you again. He never wanted to let you go again. 

"Take them off, you look too good," Chan mumbled as he handed you a different set of sunglasses. The two of you had driven to a service station with a 24/7 shopping mall, the place was practically deserted besides the workers who looked half asleep and didn't want to be there. Who could blame them? A 24/7 shopping mall off the motorway? Who was going to use it? 

"I'm not putting those on," You laughed staring at the bright orange, flashing pumpkin glasses that Chan was trying to get you to try on. Placing a pair on himself before raising his eyebrows at you, 

"They'll make us match, come on...They're cutttteeee," He said in a sing-song voice as he inched closer to you, trapping you between his body and the wall that was behind you, 

"You have no escape young one," He put on an old-gremlin like voice before placing the sunglasses on your face and smirking at you, 

"Look at that, we look fantastic." He smiled taking out his phone to snap a photo, it wasn't often that he took selfies but he took a lot with you. Wanting to remember and have memories of the times you spent together, he had a whole folder dedicated to your relationship.

"Don't you dare send that to the boys, I look like a trash-bin!" You yelled out trying to take the phone from his hands but he'd already sent it to the group chat while laughing menacingly as you slid off the sunglasses to stare at him. He suddenly felt as though he was in a library and being stared at by the librarian that had just caught him yelling too loudly.

"I can't unsend it-" He stopped speaking when his phone chimed, he looked down to see Felix sending laughing emojis. 

"They love it," He said to you as he turned his screen around to show you their reactions to the image but you continued to stare at him,

"I am going to kick your ass on the arcade games, no more going easy on you because you're my boyfriend," You scoffed as you put the glasses down and began racing towards the arcade machines that were inside of the mall. Chan racing after you with his unrealistically fast sprinting, catching up and surpassing you within seconds as he got to the machines faster than you ever could imagine.

Chan looked down at you as you stared up at the starry night, your eyes flicking over the different stars you could see. After a gaming disaster where the two of you competed with one another head to head on everything in sight, the two of you decided to go out and sit under the stars in the bed of the truck. The back was filled with the blankets and pillows the boys had given to you and you just laid there for hours, talking to one another and enjoying the company. 

"I missed you, I didn't say it before but I did miss you." You turned away from the sky to look at him and smiled, 

"I missed you too baby, I know how busy you get so it's fine," You cupped his face in your hand, running your thumb over his skin and smiling at how smooth it was. 

"I promise I'll do this more often...N-Not just every two months," You shook your head at him, you didn't want him to have to worry about sneaking out to create dates like this all of the time.

"You can come whenever you want, don't force it." You whispered snuggling your head into his neck as you got comfortable, 

"I could sleep here." You laughed softly as you relaxed in his grasp, his arm wrapped around your body as you laid there together, enjoying the sounds of traffic, bugs and people just walking around having no idea who he was. Spending quality time with one another and ignoring the rest of the world while it moved on around you. 

"I think Felix packed food..." Chan hinted thinking that you were still awake but when he got no response he turned down to look at you, finding you fast asleep in his arms, he smiled to himself leaning down to kiss your nose. 

"Sleep tight baby," He whispered as he pulled the blankets up on your body, trying to let you sleep for as long as possible before he would have to set off home again.

Tagline: @taestannie @kneel-begyourpardon​ @minholuvs​ @sw33tnight​ @acciocriativity​ @that-anxious-bisexual​ @mwitsmejk​

[wolfish-trickster]

💞Lovely Valentine💞

Peter Maximoff x female!reader

Word count: 1735 (way longer than I expected)

Summary: You didn't like this time of year. Until one cheeky speedster changes your mind.

A/N: you're X-Men (congrats!), your mutation isn't mentioned, so it can be anything. Let your imagination go wild!

And another too cheesy, too love dovey, too dumb movie appiered in TV. You rolled your eyes and turned it off. You felt a light breeze caress your hair.

"Why did you turn it off?" a familiar voice sounded from beside you.

"What? Did you want to watch something discustingly romantic?" you asked with a mocking tone.

Peter only laughed. "Yeah actually. Maybe you never noticed, but I'm hopeless romantic," he leaned into you holding a hand to his heart.

You felt your cheeks getting 2 degrees hotter as you felt his head on your shoulder.

"Yeah, no. You're not. You always gag whenever you hear a cheesy pick up line!"

"But only because they're dumb, mine are much better! Wanna hear?"

As much as you wanted to say yes, you declined. He didn't need to know how you felt about him.

"Alright, whatever," he looked away from you. Your mind must've played a trick on you, because he looked quite dissapointed to you.

In a blink of an eye he was gone. You just shrugged, not the first time somebody left you alone. Especially on a day like this.

~

'Pull yourself together Maximoff, you're such a lad with women around you and you can't even make your crush go out with you? You're losing your charm man.'

Peter was sitting at the top of Xavier's mansion. His leg was bouncing from pure nervousness. He must come up with something more than just a pick up line. Flowers? Chocolate? Plushie? Jewelry? He can steal all of that, that's not the problem. The problem is making you interested.

He's known you for quite some time, and he knows you don't really like Valentine's. All of those 'happy' couples making heart eyes at eachother the whole day annoy him too, but you are on a whole another level. He doesn't even know the real reason behind your hatred for this holiday. He must find out.

But first...

~

You decided to go to your room. Kitty Pride, your roomate, went out with someone, like 50% of the school, so you had the whole room just for you (finally). You were building a house from cards listening to some old tapes Peter gave you when the silver haired bastard ran into your room, knocking all cards to the ground.

"Really? Couldn't you just walk in like evrybody else? I suppose not," you started picking up your cards.

"No, I can't. I had to hurry, ya know?" he bent down to pick up those which fell from your table to the ground and gave them to you, making sure your hands brushed each other.

"And why?"

"To spend more time with you, why else?"

You rolled your eyes, but secretely, you were touched. "You could be doing hundred and one things, or stealing hundred and one things. Why spending time with me?"

He shrugged his shoulders. In a blink of an eye he was on your bed, your headphones on his head as he rolled your walkman in his hands.

"Do you ever NOT use the lightning speed for mundane things? How about walking? You may heard of it," you pulled the headphones from his head.

"It's cooler this way. Hey listen, I came here to ask you something. Why do you hate Valentine's so much? I mean, we've known eachother for a long time and you always lock yourself away from everyone."

It suddenly became very hard to look at him. You never told anyone, no one ever asked. Or cared enough to notice how you always disappear when a couple walks into a room, or how you try to desperately avoid any romantic movie on TV. It made your heart flutter that Peter noticed these things about you.

"I don't know. Probably the cheap things people do on Valentine's. Flowers being the stupidiest. They are all cut and binded with a glittery bow, leaving mess behind for mostly a week and then those lovely roses die. Very romantic. Or the fact that everyone suddenly feels the need to show their undying love to a person they met a month ago. Or the cuddling under a warm blanket. Or having someone to trust with your life. Or someone who will stay by your side and hold your hand against all odds. Or someone who doesn't abandon you," you started to trail off. You were touch starved, kiss deprived, lonely.

Many times you hugged a pillow to your chest wishing it was a human being. Many times you filled a glove with rice, heated it and held it as if it was the real deal. You even planned on buying this big pillow in the shape of a human to cuddle to at night.

This soft vulnerable side was only for you. No one else needed to know the big badass Y/N was romantic at heart. So you pretended to hate the holiday while you secretely read all those disgustingly sweet romance novels and watched cheesy romcoms, imagining it would someday happen to you. Find love with somebody.

Such a shame that somebody you wanted it with was in this room with you, probably ready do mock you for revealing your soft side.

Your eyes were still focused on carpet as you felt Peter sit up besides you on the bed and gently put his hand on your knee. "If it makes you happy, I will never abandon such a great girl like you. I can spend this day with you. And I don't accept any 'I feel better alone' bulshit you tell everyone."

A gentle chuckle escaped you. "Okay, alright. You can stay here. But no speeding!"

Peter rolled his eyes. "As you wish. I wanted to take you somewhere far away from here and show you something, but since you said no speeding," he trailed off teasingly.

"What? Where. Okay, speeding ban is down, take me there please!"

"Hold on tight," he said as he held the back of your head.

Few moments later you found yourself on top of a giant copper building. The view consisted of a classical square with not so many people and a long river snaking between houses in a deep canal. You looked over the railing and found out you weren't just on any building. You were on a top of the Eiffel Tower!

A cough from behind you brought you back to reality. You turned around and nearly died. Peter stood there, his usual band t-shirt, silver jacket and jeans were replaced by a white loose dress shirt and black trousers. His silver hair was still a mess but that's what you loved about him the most, so you didn't complain.

"Appreciate while you can, you'll see me like this only at somebody's funeral," he said jokingly.

You chuckled. "Can I at least take a picture? Pwetty pwease?" you did your best baby voice to convince him to say yes.

"Only if it's a selfie."

"Deal," you fished out your phone from your back pocket and srood next to his side. His arm hugged you to him by your shoulders. As you pushed the button you felt a soft preassure on your cheek for a short while. Did he just pecked you on a cheek? In his faster than light speed?

You checked the selfie and sure enough, there it was. You smiling, him leaning down, kissing your cheek in a slight blur. In the reflection of your screen you saw him with an almost soft smile.

"Why would you do that?" you asked gesturing to the selfie.

"Cuz I wanted to do that. A-and I kinda like you. Romantically, I mean," he said sheepishly. He was kinda cute when he was shy.

"Really? You're not kidding right?"

"Nope, I don't joke about serious stuff."

"Well, I kinda like you too."

He turned his head back to you with a giant smile plastered on his face. "Really?"

"Yeah, really."

There was an awkward silence for a full minute, both of you looking either into each others' eyes or just roaming around the other one's face.

"Well, that's cool," you broke the silence.

"We just told eachother we like the other one and you say that's cool?" Peter asked half laughing.

"I panicked and you didn't say anything so I thought-"

"Yeah, you think too much," he cut you off and leaned towards you. His lips fell on yours. After initial shock you gave into the kiss, your hands held the back of his neck. His hair tickled your fingers and the back of your palm.

He broke the kiss. "Damn, I'm moving too fast again," he shook his head, his nose brushed your own.

"Well, I don't mind moving fast, our lifes are way too short anyways."

"Yeah, but if it starts fast it ends fast. I don't want that. Besides, I had a plan to do this properly," he then ran away from you in a white and black blur and returned now in his usual clothes holding a box of chocolate and a giant stuffed bear. "I didn't know which to give you, so I took both. Like it?"

"Yes Peter, the bear is so cute!" you took him from his hand and squeezed him to your chest. "This will do great for middle night cuddling, thank you."

"What do you mean 'this will do'? You have me for cuddling now! Can a bear hug you like this?" he rushed behind you and hugged you from behind. "Or kiss you like this?" he kissed your exposed neck softly and rested his chin on your left shoulder and looked at you as if you were the only one in the world.

You turned your head towards his and pecked his nose. "Nope, he can't," you kissed his lips one more time before turning around in his arms and started heavily making out.

"By the way," you said as he nibbled on your ear, "did you steal these things?"

"Uuuuh what will you do if I say yes?"

"Nothin', still like you. Romantically."

He chuckled into your skin. "Still romantically like you too."

[kiarcheo]

Meowsunderstandings 2/2

‘We should do this again.’

‘Sleep together?’

Part 1

Can read it all here on Ao3

                              ——————————————–

‘Kitty.’ A groan.

‘Kat.’ Another one.

Two pairs of eyes slam open. ‘You’re not her!’ Twin exclamations immediately follow.

Cathy quickly checks herself. She can’t think of anything worse than sleeping with Anne. Still dressed except for her shoes, thank God. She lets out a sigh of relief. Still not sure what happened though. How did she even end up in bed with Anne? Where is Kat? Actually…Where is she?

‘Good morning.’ Catalina greets them as they drag themselves to the kitchen. One question answered, at least. ‘Care to tell me what happened last night?’

‘We got drunk?’

‘No shit.’ Catalina snorts.

‘Kitty came to pick me up…and I don’t really remember anything else?’

Catalina now turns to Cathy, eyebrow raised. She has not known her for as long as she has known Anne, but she would have not take her for the type to get blackout drunk.

‘Yeah, I just remember Kat showing up and…possibly getting into a car?’

‘Well, both of you fell asleep in the car, so Kat carried you home.’

Cathy doesn’t know if she is more embarrassed or upset that she doesn’t remember it.

‘Where is she?’ Cathy asks. The least she can do is thank the girl.

‘Out for a run.’

‘Ugh.’ Anne groans, from her slumped position on the table.

‘Hey girls!’ Speak of the devil...

‘Ugh.’ This time is more a pained sound than a disgusted one. ‘Loud.’

Kat just lays a kiss on Anne’s head.

‘Where did you sleep? Wasn’t expecting to wake up with her up in my face.’ Anne grumbles.

'Not a pleasant experience for me either.’ Cathy mutters.

‘I get it, Anne’s morning breath is terrible.’

‘Hey!’ Anne protests, pouting even if Kat can’t see her, her back turned as she is pouring herself a glass of juice.

‘She slept with me.’ Catalina explains. ‘You might all be tiny, but three in a bed never end up well.’

‘If you can wait for me to have a shower, I’ll take you home.’ Kat addresses Cathy.

‘I don’t want to be a bother.'

‘Don’t worry, it’s no trouble at all.’

Cathy wishes she wasn’t so hangover so she could enjoy it. Or perhaps that’s better...she is sure that sober!her would freak out at the idea of sharing a ride with Kat, spending time alone with her, in close proximity...too much of an effort for hangover!her, who can just muster gratefulness for not having to brave public transportation to get back home.

---

‘I know you don’t like going out for drinks but-’

‘It’s more than we don’t like what happens when we do.’ Catalina interrupts Jane. ‘What did you have in mind?’

'Ocean?’ Jane proposes.

‘We’re banned.’

‘Anne is banned.’ Catalina precises.

‘As if you weren’t seconds away from smashing a glass on his head too.’

‘What about this one?’ Anna turns her phone around to show them another possible location for their evening.

‘Nope.’

Anna brings up another page.

‘Eeh.’ Anne grimaces.

‘This too?’  Anna is baffled but she shakes it off, persevering in her search. She shows them another one.

‘Yep.’

And another one.

‘Not technically banned but I don’t think we’d be welcome.’

They finally manage to find a place.

‘I’m surprised this one allowed you in.’ Anna remarks as they are sitting down, half-joking and half-serious.

‘It’s new, they just opened.’ Jane comments, having been the one who found it.

‘This explains it.’

‘Don’t look at me like that!’ Anne protests.  ‘Not my fault guys can’t understand the word no or how to keep their hands to themselves…and off Kitty.’

Understanding dawns on the others.

‘We’ll make sure not to leave her alone.’ Anna promises.

‘Not going to help. Last time I left her with Lina, and I came back to this guy asking them to prove Kitty is a lesbian by kissing. I decked him. I mean, imagine if my cousin had managed to kiss Lina first, before I ever did.’

‘Because that was the problem?’ Catalina looks unimpressed.

‘And that he was an objectifying, sexist, misogynistic asshole.’ Anne adds.

‘Wait…you’re together?’

‘You’re cousins??’

‘Yes.’

‘No.’

‘Maybe.’

‘Yes, we’re cousin. Yes, they are seeing each other. Yes, they are exclusive. No, they haven’t had the talk yet.’ Kat sums it up, trying to clear the confusion evident on their friends’ faces.

‘If you plan to have that talk tonight, please tell me so I’ll make sure to vacate the house.’ she adds, seeing how they are looking at each other. ‘I have no intention to listen to my cousin and my sister slash mom friend getting it on.’

‘You can stay with me.’ Cathy blurts out. ‘I mean, it’s just a room, but-’

‘Trust me anything would be better than…’ she trails off with a grimace. ‘If you don’t mind...’

‘I really don’t.’

‘I bet you don’t.’ Anna mutters, while Jane shushes her.

‘Do you need clothes? Or, you know, to pass by the house to get anything?’ Catalina asks, feeling slightly guilty about effectively kicking her out of her own place for the night.

‘I’m sure she can borrow Cathy’s with no problems.’

‘Are you really talking about height?’ Kat stares at her cousin. ‘Really?’ Anne is even shorter.

‘If the shorts fit…’ Anne shrugs with a shit-eating grin.

If Cathy’s brain short-circuited at the suggestion of Kat wearing her clothes, the actual vision almost kills her, especially as she stretches her arms up, yawning, and a sliver of abs is revealed (Anne was mostly right...they are both pretty short, but Cathy more than Kat).

‘This is really soft and comfy.’

Cathy smiles at her. She sort of chose them on purpose for that exact reason.

‘I can sleep on the floor.’

‘Absolutely not! You’re a guest! I will.’

‘I’m not going to kick you out of your own bed.’ Kat counteracts.

They stare at each other, unwilling to relent.

‘We could...share?’ Cathy proposes. ‘If you don’t mind?’

‘You didn’t seem happy to wake up with Anne.’ Kat points out.

‘It was more about the person than the sleeping arrangement.’ Cathy admits, while scooting towards the wall. She pats the empty space on the bed she just freed. ‘Hop in.’

‘Okay.’ Kat sits down. ‘I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.’ Kat apologises once she gets under the duvet and lays down. ‘I’m just so used to sleep with her. Or Cata. That I didn’t really think twice about it. Like the fact that you don’t actually know Anne that well.’

‘Honestly I could have slept with the queen and not realise it...or remember it.’ Cathy reassures her. It was not that big of a problem. ‘Just wasn't expecting to wake up to that. Her.’

‘But if at any time you feel uncomfortable, you need to tell me.’ Kat’s sleepy voice breaks the silence. ‘It’s been a while, but I used to sleep on the floor a lot, I’m sure I won't have any problems doing it again for one night.’

Cathy has questions, but when she finally musters up the courage and turns to face Kat, the girl has her eyes closed, breath deepened already.

She thought she would have troubles falling asleep, not used to share her bed, and even less with someone she is crushing on, but before she knows it, Cathy is waking up half lying on Kat, the light filtering through the thick curtains announcing it’s morning already.

‘Sorry!’ She immediately rolls off.

‘Don’t worry.’ Kat chuckles. ‘Anne says that I’m a furnace.’ Not that her cousin needs to justify why she loves to cuddle with her. But the older girl tends to run cold, and when she is asleep, she is like a heat-seeking missile. Even when falling asleep on opposite ends of the couch, Kat will wake up with Anne wrapped around her.

Cathy turns on her side, head lying on her arm. ‘You know, I thought that Anne was-’

‘My sister?’ Kat interrupts her. ‘She is more a sister than a cousin. Although...does it make it weird if I also consider Cata like a big sister? Ugh.’ She shakes her head as to physically dispel the gross thought.

---

‘You okay?’ Kat asks emerging from the ensuite bathroom Cathy had chivalrously let her use first.

Cathy is laying on her bed, face down. ‘Uhuh.’ It’s the reply, muffled by the pillow.

‘Really? I don’t think okay people usually try to suffocate themselves with a pillow.’

Cathy flops on her back not so gracefully. I mean, it can’t go any worse, can it?

‘Ever think about embarrassing stuff and just want to scream into your pillow?’

‘All the time.’

‘You? Please!’ Cathy snorts. ‘I can’t imagine you ever doing something embarrassing!’

For once Cathy blesses the lack of filter she seems to have around Kat because the other girl is flushing, a bashful smile on her lips.

‘You can ask Cata or Anne-’ Kat abruptly stops. ‘Wait. On a second thoughts...please don’t!’ No doubts they would be thrilled to share every single awkward moment they had ever witnessed or heard about.

‘Well, I better be going.’ Kat announces once Cathy had her turn in the bathroom.

‘You can stay.’ She blurts out. Nice going, Cathy! Way to sound desperate.

‘Don’t you have to finish that essay?’

‘Right!’ Cathy’s face falls. She does.

‘We should do this again.’

‘Sleep together?’ Back to cursing her lack of filter.

Both are blushing wildly, but Kat recovers first. ‘I meant hanging out just the two of us, but the sleepover was nice too. Give me your phone.’

Cathy hands it to her before turning and looking around the room to make sure Kat isn’t forgetting anything. ‘Call yourself so you have my number too. And call me when you get home.’

‘Yes ma’am.’ Kat teases.

Cathy is munching on a cereal bar while working on her essay when the call arrives…and she promptly chokes because Kat is smiling at her from the screen. Eyes crinkling, bare faced with no make-up, hair up in a messy bun…she is the most gorgeous girl she has ever seen. She has no idea how Kat managed to sneakily take a selfie and set it as contact photo, but she is grateful. And embarrassed when she has to call her back because she was so lost in contemplation of the picture that she didn’t pick up in time.

----

‘Can we talk?’

Cathy looks up at Catalina.  Her friend has a serious expression on, but she doesn’t seem angry or sad or upset. Just serious. Cathy can’t think of anything she’d want to speak to her about. ‘Sure?’

Catalina sits down. ‘You don’t like Anne?’

‘What?’ That was not what Cathy expected.

‘I get that she is an acquired taste,’ she is a lot...and usually it takes some time to fully appreciate it. ‘but you’re my friend and I’m dating her, and you like Kat-’

‘What?!’

‘And she absolutely adores her cousin,’ Catalina continues, ‘so if you don’t like her, it might make things a bit complicated.’

‘It’s not that I don’t like– how long have you known I like Kat?’

‘Pretty much since you kept asking “you’re Lina’s Kat??” when you first met her…and almost spilled your tea all over yourself because you were too busy ogling her.’ Catalina grins as Cathy shrinks down in her seat, as if trying to disappear, red faced. ‘But don’t think you’ll get away with avoiding the Anne question.’

Cathy has to decide. What is less embarrassing? Telling her friend that she thought her housemate was an actual cat? Or that she was jealous of her girlfriend because she thought she was dating her crush when instead she was her cousin?

[paper-chain-queen]

String of Fate 2

Kyo Sohma X Freader

The part 2 that I don’t think anyone on tumblr wanted XD but here it is

Soulmate Au / Red string that connects you to your soulmate

Words: 3,000+

Rating: Teen, Some swearing

Summary: Kyo thinks the universe is against him and the reader finds herself in a terrible nightmare that she hopes will end soon. And... someone should really just ban me from my keyboard already :p

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"NO! Stay the hell away from me!"

You replayed the clip in your mind of the orange-haired boy who was your soul mate had jumped out a second-story window to get away from you. Kyo Sohma had ripped your heart out of your chest and smashed it on the ground. And then stepped on it.

Or at least, that's what it felt like.

"I'm home..." You called out to the house as you slipped off your flats. The house smelled good, like freshly baked goods, and a tangy citrus smell wafted out of the kitchen.

"Welcome home honey, how was your first day of school?" Your grandmother asked as she stepped out of the kitchen and smiled at you, wiping her hands on her apron. Your grandfather and Mother were nowhere to b found.

"It was fine, thank you. Where Jiji and Okaa-San? " you asked as you slipped into the kitchen and peeked into the fridge.

" They had to go to the market."

"I'm going to lay down for a bit." You told her, giving her a small fake smile as you passed.

"Not feeling well?"

Well, I met my soulmate, and he jumped out a window to get away from me, so yeah, 'I'm not feeling well.'

"Just tired, big day and all" It wasn't exactly a lie, more like... withholding details.

"Here, baked fresh. You can even eat it in your room. But don't tell you're Jiji." She handed you a muffin, and it was still warm from the oven, it looked delicious.

I wonder if Kyo liked lemon poppy seed muffins?

You felt your mood worsen as you realized that he would probably smack it out or your hand or something even if you got within speaking distance.

"Thanks, Baba." You took the muffin and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

You escaped into your new room and dropped your bag on your floor and placed the muffin on your desk. You didn't have much of an appetite at the moment.

Letting out a large sigh, you flopped down on the bed, grabbing a fluffy pillow and curling yourself around it. Hoping to find some small sliver of comfort.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

You lifted your hand and looked at the red string. You had someone finally found him.

Kyo Sohma was your soul mate.

And he had screamed at you to get away before even trying to get to know you. You felt your eyes burn and you clenched them shut and curled your body in tighter as if that could keep you safe.

I'm an idiot... to believe in the soulmate thing...

A true fucking idiot

Your phone vibrated, and you ignored it for a bit.

Til it buzzed again. And again. And again.

Letting out a huff you reached over and grabbed your phone, the screen lit up, and you had 4 messages. All from (BF/N).

-Miss you already!-

-Hope your making friends!-

-Went for ice cream today, wish you were here!-

The fourth message was a selfie of her and her soul mate, Katie. Both had over the top sad faces, and if you were in a better mood, you might have giggled, but all you felt was a slight bitterness. She had found her soulmate. And she's pretty sure Katie didn't scream at her to getaway.

-Katie wants to know how the cafeteria food at your school was like?-

-Also.. are you wearing a school uniform? If yes, we need pictures ;) -

You decided to answer all these questions later, and as for the uniform selfie... maybe never.

Right now, you just wanted to sleep.

Maybe this is all a bad dream

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Is anyone gonna tell me why Kyo came home early today?" Shigure asked the two teens as they sat down for dinner. There was a place made for Kyo, but he had yet to come down from the roof.

Tohru had tried to get him, but he was in a fouler mood than usual, snapping at her and telling her to 'go away.'.

" We had a new student today, and the stupid cat threw a fit and ran away." Yuki scoffed before taking a bite.

"Oh, a new student, that's exciting. What's he do to make Kyo snap?" Shigure enjoyed a bit of gossip.

"SHE didn't do anything. The Idiot just screamed at her and jumped out the window." The student council president had spent a good ten minutes apologizing on Kyo's behalf, but there was something about the crestfallen look on the girl's face that made him want to slap the Cat for being so rude.

" Poor (L/N)-San, she looked completely devasted." Tohru had been at the other end of one of Kyo's angry moments, and it could be disheartening and a little scary. She hoped that the girl wasn't taking it too hard.

"I think anybody would be upset had someone acted that way towards them...I wonder what made our Kyo snap on her? Was she trying to hug him or something" Shigure asked, but the teens shook their heads to say 'no.' Tohru couldn't erase the look on the new student's face and the way she stared sadly down at their hand and to the desk that Kyo had occupied all day.

Tohru had wanted to try to make friends with her during the lunch break, but she had disappeared, and when (y/n) had returned, her eyes were red and slightly swollen.

" You should try to befriend her Tohru-Kun, it must be scary being a new student. It sounds like she could use a friend like you." Shigure put forward, a bright smile on his face. Yuki didn't trust it, but then again, he rarely trusted the Dog.

"Oh! That's a great idea, I'd love to be her friend!" Tohru felt empowered with Shigure's words.

"And maybe invite her over sometime. I'd love to meet a cute foreign highschooler." This earned Shigure to have chopsticks thrown at him by Yuki, who called him deplorable as he did so.

The brunette didn't really notice the two cousins clashing as she thought of how she could introduce herself, maybe make extra food for lunch so she could share it with (y/n).

Tohru was going to make friends with the new student and make her feel welcomed. And also try and tell her that Kyo wasn't all that bad.

She thought of the orange-haired boy on the roof and hoped he would feel better soon and hopefully make things right tomorrow.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It wasn't a dream, you had 'met' your soulmate, and he had no intention of seeing you.

Kyo didn't return..... it had been two days, and he had yet to return to school.

His cousin, the 'prince' of the school, Yuki Sohma had apologized for Kyo's actions. Two people couldn't be any more different in terms of looks and personality.

Well... not like you really knew anything about Kyo's personality other then he might have a temper.

Yuki was another very handsome boy, and you could see why he was so popular, but he just didn't light a fire in your heart the same way Kyo had with one simple glance.

You had asked Yuki if his cousin was okay, but the grey-haired boy simply told you that Kyo was just...like that? And that you shouldn't worry about him. He had said so while smiling, contrasting his harsh words, and you'd be lying if you said that it didn't creep you out a little bit.

They must not get along...

Tohru, a friendly girl with large kind eyes from your class, had been quick to befriend you, offering you a place with her friends during lunch hours. She even tried to defend Kyo's actions, stating that he really was a wonderful person.

Him being a 'wonderful' person somehow made you feel worse. You told Tohru that it was nothing for her to worry about, but she didn't seem convinced.

Her two friends Uotani and Hanajima were... interesting but very lovely people. Your ebony-haired classmate could even sense 'waves' and had outed you to her friends about the red string wrapped around your finger. You wondered what else her mysterious powers were capable of. Tohru was enthusiastic about you having a soul mate. Apparently, her parents had been soul mates and had been absolutely crazy for each other.

Your own enthusiasm was non-existent. Now you were just worried about Hanajima being able to connect the strings through her 'superpowers' when Kyo did return.

If she had been able to sense yours, then it was possible she was able to detect Kyo's and knew what he was to you. Not only were you heartbroken, but you were also now aware that someone else knew about your humiliating rejection.

Things at home were... fine. You didn't tell anyone what had happened and tried to put on a brave face. But your Mother, who was usually aloof to how you were feeling, had noticed that something was wrong. Her idea of a fixer-upper?

A shopping trip. At least your Mother tried.

Plus, your grandmother kept trying to feed you baked goods, but you just weren't hungry. Their hearts were in the right place, and they wanted to make you feel at home.

But how were you supposed to tell them why you were sad?

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

As you walked through the school hallways, you wondered if Kyo would show up. He was missing so much class.

Even if you were hurt by him, and you should be angry at the boy. You couldn't do it. All you wanted was answers.

Why did he run away? Why was he so mad at you? How was he doing? Was he okay? What were his interests? What kind of food did he like? Was his hair as soft as it looked?

Perfect. I'm thinking about the guy who screamed at me to 'get away'. Maybe I should ask if I can take his homework to him, perhaps we can talk and - Oh?

You slid open the classroom door, and there he was. His beautiful orange-hair seemed to be glowing in the morning light.

Day four and the boy who successfully ripped your heart of your chest had finally returned to school. The boy at the other end of your red string sat in his desk with his arms crossed and staring out the window. You held your hand over your heart to try and calm it down and took a deep breath.

It's now or never...maybe this time... will be better

"Um... hello" You tried to greet him as you approached his desk, hopeful that this time he wouldn't try to leap out the window.

"Don't." He snapped, not even turning to look at you.

" But I-" You tried again, but this time he turned and gave you a hard glare, but you stood your ground, waiting to hear his side. You could hear a few other students in the room whispering as they looked over at the two of you.

"Come with me." He said, and he got up from his desk and left the classroom, you quickly hurried after him, a little spark of hope in you as you fell in step behind him. He would look back at you every so often, and every time you looked into his eyes, you felt your heart jump, a fluttering feeling in your stomach. You even smiled at him when you caught him looking back.

His orange eyes widened at your smile, and he let out a huff and turned around, continuing to lead you up a staircase. You couldn't help but notice that the tip of his ears were slightly red.

Maybe he's had to time to cool off, maybe he was overwhelmed with meeting me, maybe..... just maybe

He opened a door, just leaving it open long enough for you to follow. He had led you to the roof, you felt a small breeze and closed your eyes, the fresh air helping to put you a bit at ease. You were feeling lighter already.

Maybe everything's going to be alright...

You turned to Kyo, waiting for him to say something and you were met with his back. His shoulders were tense, and you could sense his agitation but assumed it was just nervous.

"Here's how this is going to work, You're gonna stay the hell away from me. Don't talk to me, and I'm gonna pretend that you don't exist." He declared, and you felt your blood go cold. The light hope in your heart had grown and been struck down all within a moment. Kyo took a deep breath and then turned to face you, his eyes glaring daggers into you. The fluttering feeling of butterflies had turned to spiders crawling.

Kyo Sohma didn't want to even try or be friends or anything. Was it so easy to squash my feelings as if I were an ant beneath his shoes. Did the universe really think that this was the man I was meant to be with?

" I don't understand.." you whispered... it wasn't even towards him, but he just sneered at your comment. As if you were supposed to be understanding.

" I never wanted this. To me, this soulmate thing is bullshit. It's a curse. I don't want you." He spat, his words felt like sharp knives, and you had no shield to protect you.

" Ya should've stayed wherever the hell you came from but because I have the worst luck in the world... you're here. Do me a favour. Stay. Away. From. Me." He sounded it out, slowly, word by word, as if he was speaking to a child.

Am I truly that disgraceful in his eyes? Does he even see me as a person? Did he ever care about the person at the other end of the string?

You were cursing Tohru in your mind for getting your hopes up because she was wrong. Kyo Sohma was NOT a wonderful person.

The universe was also wrong. Life was too short to be treated this way. Your Mother wasn't going to take any more shit from your father, and you weren't going to take it from Kyo Sohma.

"..fine... asshole." You muttered under your breath as you were about to walk away.

"What did you say?" He grabbed you by the wrist, and you tried to ignore the jolt of electricity that went through you. His touch was warm, and you were able to take in his gorgeous tangerine eyes up close. It was a shame that they were glaring into yours.

Why did he have to be good looking?

"I said, FINE! I won't bother you. I'll leave you the hell alone. Now, do me a favour.... Let. Go." Your words felt bitter coming across your tongue, tears were burning in your eyes, but you stood your ground.

"Tch." He didn't say anything, he released you and stormed off the roof through the door you had come through. Leaving you alone.

You never prepared yourself for this. This pain. It was worse than anything. Worse than the time you tripped down the concrete stairs and broke your arm. Worse than the time you went swimming in the ocean and was stung by a jellyfish. Worse than having to leave your childhood home behind.

"It's a curse."

Those were his words.

You wanted to run away. But there was a proud part of you that felt like if you did that, then Kyo would win whatever battle you two were having.

How did it come to this?

Hot, salty tears flowed from your eyes and down your cheeks, wails left your throat, and you cried like a child. Any hope you had was gone. Kyo Sohma wanted nothing to do with you.

And if that's what he wanted... then fine. You would not speak with him or even look at him. And once high school was over, you would never look back.

You grabbed your handkerchief and tried to calm yourself down, hoping you had enough time to pull your self together before the first bell rang.

Kyo's words just kept ringing in your ears.

" I don't want you "

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Kyo marched into the boys' bathroom, narrowly colliding with another student it was coming out. The stranger was about to yell at him to watch where he was going, but after seeing the wild look in the orange-haired boy's eyes decided it was better to stay quiet and pretend it didn't happen.

The frustrated boy went the sink and gripped the edge, trying to breathe and calm himself down. He ran the tap and splashed his face with water, hoping it could help wash away the terrible feeling that was running through his body.

He was sweating, but his body felt cold like he had a fever or something. The boy thought maybe he caught a cold or something by spending the last two nights under the stars, trying to get his head straight and come up with the best way to solve his 'problem.'

Rehearsing, going over his words. He wanted to make (Y/N) want nothing to do with him. Push her away. Make her wish that she had never met him.

And by the broken look in her eyes and the hollow sound in her voice, he succeeded. (Y/N), his soul mate, was going to hate him and stay away from him.

A wave of nausea flew over through him and leaned over the sink, retching what little was in his stomach, dry heaving.

He couldn't get her face out of his head. Kyo wanted to run his hands through her hair, wondering if it was as soft as it looked. Her small smile that was directed at him when he looked over his shoulder. God, it was beautiful, and it made his heart race and made him feel like he could take on anything.

But then...

The look on her face when he told her to stay away, when he lied. Telling her that he didn't want her. Kyo felt his heart drop to the floor, and his skin felt ice cold. Her large eyes filled with sorrow, a profound sadness that dropped him into this bottomless pit of hopelessness. The string around his pinky no longer felt tight, but there now seemed to be a heaviness to it. Weighing him down.

Everything hurt now

But this was all for the best... right?

It was always hopeless, to begin with, so better to hurt her now rather than give her any sense of hope that they could be together.

Because he was cursed, and she was free to live her life without him.

She was beautiful and glowed like the sunshine. She could have anyone she wanted. Kyo knew it couldn't be him. That it shouldn't be him.

The cursed teenager looked down at the beads encircling his wrist and to the red string wrapped around his pinkie. Taunting him.

      .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. To Be Continued? .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

[nightswithkookmin]

JIKOOK:DON'T ASK ME TO STOP LOVING YOU. I WON'T- Jikook Shading eachother pt3

Disclaimer:

Everything expressed in her is my opinion. It is not intended to be malicious or disrespectful to any of the parties here in mentioned. Please don't be weird.

Jeon Jungkook is in love with Park Jimin. Period. If you have doubts, take my word for it. That man heard a bell ring and he's been following that jingle sound till thy kingdom come. Bless him.

No, I am not off track. We are still on the Jikook breakup/fights 2020 train and it's express. Beep beeeeep! Sorry.

Jk loves Jimin and it is the cause of all his woes- with Jimin as well as with the other bandmates. His problem is he loves that man- too much.

Yes, the 2019 November-December tensions with his bandmates was all because he keeps blurring the lines between his relationship and his career. He is lucky, both of them are lucky that they found eachother in a space like this where they have the opportunity to love and still have it all. Trust me, it's rare.

Except JK didn't join BTS to pursue a career. Bless him. He went there to harvest him some sweet love. Lol. Jokes aside, Jk when he started out had no goals, no ambitions whatsoever. He was young. He was just following the path set out for him by his parents perhaps, his teachers- and also he thought Namjoon's thighs were hella delicious. Lol

He has had to grow to love and appreciate his craft and career just as he's said in the recent Japan comeback interviews. He even almost quit singing to go be a dancer and all it took was Jimin telling him he had an amazing voice for him to stay- the power of park Jimin!

That's how young and naive he was when he began his career path. Let's get a bit deep and psychoanalyze him real quick. He made an entire life decision to join a boyband for seven years not because he loved to sing and dance but because he admired the zeal od RM?

Then when layer he was exposed to dance, and had to make an equally important life decision, he allowed another bandmate(Jimin) to make that decision for him. This should tell you the state of his mind as at the time. He was young and impressionable with no aspirations of his own.

Even as of 2019, he said he had no idea what he was going to do with his life after BTS had the band disbanded in 2018. That's a lot of experience span to not know what he wants to do with his life.

Now I don't mean to say he is immature but we all know the members especially Jimin have pointed out time and again that JK is in fact immature or can be.....

He seems to me as the type who still have a lot to figure out and per his recent interviews where he's talked about taking time to himself to work on himself and his hobbies etc. I have a feeling 2020 has been a period of awakening for him. A period where he is self actualizing a lot and I'm happy for him.

But it is what is causing this age of enlightenment in his life that has me curious.

Moving on, this young, naive, impressionable JK as he was in the early days of BTS started developed feelings for his hyung. Do you see the problem? I'll wait....

These feelings, I assume, began as pure admiration and fondness of Jimin. Jimin was this talented and hardworking, spontaneous, energetic hyung and JK with an impressionable mind as his was was bedazzled by him.

Soon these feelings would morph into what could be seen as an obsession, infatuation and then finally love.

The way I see it, loving Jimin gave him purpose for the first time in his young life. He may not have known much about his life goals and ambitions but he knew being with Jimin gave him a solid ground to stand on, a new sense of direction, certainty and purpose.

He got to share in Jimin's passions, share his with him, dance together, sing, practice, rehearse, make him the subject of his photography, the subject of his attention, care for him, be cared for by him- something he hadn't had the chance to experience from home before he was yanked away into idol life.

Growing up, we all experience that moment where we imprint on friends and relatives. My uncle was my mentor as well as my elder brother too. I admired them so much I sometimes confused that with romantic love till I got socialized properly.

Jk's socialization was.... He....

-Jk may be an introvert but he thrives and shines best when he partners up or is in a group like BTS or his friends group etc and Jimin i feel was the ideal partner for him; his queerness, his adventurousness, pushing JK's boundaries, challenging his beliefs, showing him how to have a good time- ok I really want this Jimin back! Like right now!

Jimin left an impression on JK's young mind. He imprinted on him. And for the longest time, we've seen the way he stares at Jimin.JK really loves Jimin.

So what's the problem?? Loving JM is consuming his mind y'all. It's all he thinks off. All he cares of. He seems super hyper focused on Jimin so much so that it is affecting the dynamics of their group.

His jealousy,possessiveness- He knows he has to keep his relationship a secret for the sake of the group because it is their secret too and yet he just can't help himself.

I feel RM and the others complain a lot about how he let's his jealousy get the best of him. Like how he almost exposed JM as his boyfriend on several occasions verbally( see previous post for further details)

Like how him getting jealous and possessive gives them away more often. I mean JM is bad at hiding it too but let's be honest JK isn't winning any awards with that bad acting. *sigh. He is hopeless.

But yes this is what led to the MMA standoff with RM. It is also the reason for the tensions between Jikook during Jin's birthday VLive (JM asked him to keep his distance because the members had tried to separate them earlier and so JM was just being salty af during this period. It had nothing to do with JK but the others. See Golden Disc and you'll understand)

This also led to their subsequent break up( which you will notice during the comeback interviews and promotions periods- I don't know about you but they were giving off two exes tryna to keep it happy for the cameras during that period but failed cos their interaction were just....)

PS: there are a lot of moments I want to point out but don't know where to begin cos there are a lot.

The blackswan behind scenes moments( JM asking JK if he he wanted to be in a subunit with someone else, JM making JK jealous during the interviews, JK using Tae to make JM jealous the next day, JK holding JMs hands not wanting to let go- he was missing his ex. Lol it's what you do when you have to be friends with that ex you still love and won't hesitate to touch them given the slightest opportunity and once you do you don'twanna let go)

Just look at that whole On comeback promotion moments. You'll understand what I mean.

Also the Run episode moments- you know the one JK almost beat Suga up with the frying pan- JM for this phase seemed to be to be trying to get back together with JK. Dude was clingy as fuck! And for once he was on his best behaviour, trying his hardest not to make JK jealous. I mean the Run behind scenes moment where JM was helping Tae clean off food residue on his mouth but stopped immediately when JK lifted his head. *insert skull head emoji. Lol

To say JM was a bit clingy during this getting back together phase would be an understatement. Remember his clingy moments during Suga's birthday Vlive 2020? And during Festa too? He was trying to get JK's attention and also impress him throughout.

Around this breakup moment too was when he was spending a lot of time with Tae playing video games with Army, posting their selfies at 4 AM and what not. It is also the same period he posted a picture of himself with his dogs on Twitter and said he was trying to spend time with loved ones- if that wasn't shade to JK!

They couldn't post 13th May because of these issues they were having. Not that JM didn't try though. He posted on the 1st, JK should have followed with 3rd but did was busy pouting somewhere. JM still gave us a 5/8=13 selca though so yaay!

What I'm trying to say is, their fight has been about JK not wanting to be separated from JM and JM asking JK to cool it off for a while to not cause trouble with the members and the company.

To which Jk responds with:

1. Interrupting JM's call with Jin during his VLive to ask him on a date and say I love you to him. Dude is a rebel, I don't know what you want me to say. He is not gonna cool it just because it makes the other worried he is exposing them too much.

Jk interrupting JMs live I feel got Jikook in trouble because after that Vlive JM never did a solo live on VLive again to this day. His subsequent lives have all been on YouTube.

I have a feeling he was penalized because that VLive exposed them. And no, I'm not being delusional. Jikook were both banned from doing a VLive together alone following their New Jersey VLIVE in 2019 when they- I don't even know how to describe what they did in that live!

And to make it less obvious, I think BigHit decided the others should stop doing solo Vlives on VLive altogether because now they all do their solo lives on YouTube as well and if they have to do a Vlive it is heavily monitored by BigHit staff or its radio and not done in their rooms too.

So I think Jimin got pissed at JK for doing that and getting them in trouble again. I mean if you heard him sigh during the new Jersey VLive you would know how frustrated JK makes him. He loves him too but.... Jk can be a bit too much ya know?!

Anyhoo, so I believe JM called for some space and told JK to take up interests in other things beside him and I don't know how JK took it but he responded with this:

Posting the cover of the song Not Never. Which was him basically saying for as long as he lives he will not never think about JM. As in he is never not ever keeping away from JM. We might have to pry Jimin from his cold hands! *sigh

Which leads to the radio Vlives moments,

Something Jimin said during his interview with suga caught my attention. He said it was nice that they get to speak with Armies at least like this. I believe all these were putting a lot of stress on Jimin as he has decided to take a break off social media prior to him saying so on this interview. But the wording of that statement also made be believe some thing or someone was preventing him from talking to Armies in the usual manner.

Earlier with RM he had said how he would go crazy if they weren't allowed to do certain things he was used to doing on stage as well. So that also raised a flag to me.

I had a feeling Suga had invited JM on that Radio live to address his 'issues'- including his issues with JK. Jikook have a subtle way of communicating with each other and somehow social media has a huge part in that. They not the only ones, Beyonce and JayZ also addressed their relationship issues through their music, going back and forth yet they lived together. I DONT UNDERSTAND THESE CELEBRITIES!!!

Sorry for the rant. Anyway I had a feeling JK was listening to the radio interview too.

Suga asked JM why he didn't come to his music video set to support him- which I believe he was referring to his Daechwita shoot. JM didn't go because, take a guess...

JK was there too. Lol. He had gone with Jin and even ended up filming a part in the music video. My guess is Jk thought Jimin was gonna be there because he always go to Support Suga and the others in times like that.

So Jimin responds with 'were you expecting me? .... I didn't come because I want you to want me more.' Now that's an absolutely random response don't you think? He couldhave said something logical like he had to record at a studio or something- unless he wasn't talking about Suga but was sending that message to someone else who was listening in. A certain man with a JM tatto ring on his ring finger perhaps??

JM from this response revealed he intentionally missed that shoot. He knew JK would be there and he wanted him to ask where JM was at it he wasn't at the shoot. It's also interesting how during this period JK was spending a lot of time with Jin. When he interrupted JM's Vlive call he was with Jin. He went with Jin to Suga's MV and Jin posted a selca of him and shirtless Jk dieimh this period too while JM was mostly seen with Tae. What does this remind you of??

MANILA. same thing happened when they had that Manila fight. Jin was with JM and we all know who was siding with JK!

Why would JM say he wants to be enacted more? Easy- He a slytherin and a Libra and those two mixed together is sinister. Kidding.

I believe JK intentionally took a step back from JM, to give him the space he wanted and it had JM feeling someway about it. Probably had him feeling JK didn't want him as much anymore. Dude is insecure we been known. He a Libra and a slytherin what y'all expect?

So I'm guessing JM put up the classic textbook attitude towards JK which had JK all confused because he had no idea what their issues were anymore or why his boyfriend was spending his nights at Tae. You want space, you got it. Why you mad?

So JK reaches out to Suga for help. because the intention was fix his relationship not have it plummet. Dude is in love with this man and will do whatever it takes to keep his relationship. *Sigh

Suga comes through for him with the interview. And I think JK put two and two together- literally. He comes up with still with you a few days after JM's interview and does a radio interview with Suga as well.

Now the focus of this interview was his "apology to Armies for his scandal.' But funny, cos his scandal happened a month before the interview. Suga radio had been ongoing after the scandal and yet this man didn't think once to come on it and apologize to Armies about an incident that BigHit had already addressed until JMs interview.

You don't talk about scandals. That's the protocol.

Let me also point out JK has had several scandals in the past of which he had never addressed in a Vlive let alone apologize in that way. Not saying he wouldn't, he hasn't. They themselves don't address scandals unofficially, that's the protocol and he knows it.

If they were allowed to think Armies would be more interested in him addressing the Tatoo gurl scandal not his Friday night happy hours with his friends. That apology was for Jimin not armies.

Also, he pointed out how still with you was written when he was alone in the dark thinking by himself. That sounds to me like something you do when you've had a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend and they've packed their things and left your shared apartment.

Interestingly, Jk mentioned during Festa the rain fight. Still with you literally has rain drops sounds in the beginning of the song and also on the cover on sound cloud. Seems to me that whatever happened that night had JK reminiscing about times he'd fought with JM- the rain fight. Which is what inspired still with you (I will do a full analysis of that song and others soon here on my blog'

Yea, so he apologized to JM for their fight I guess and said he loves Army. *smirk.

And things started falling into place right after that. They started- Jikooking again. Jk called JM out on Weverse so they start their online flirting thingy- posting immediately after each other, 13, those kinda things

Things seemed good. Untill their Japan interviews when JK said spending time alone pursuing new hobbies was gold to him and JM saying maintaining his relationships with friends and family is good to him. Seems JK is still salty about JM wanting space. It will take sometime for him to get used to not being around JM 24/7. Know what I mean?

I don't think there was major tension there. Just two lovebirds shading eachother. *smirk I mean the passive aggressiveness of it all. Lol

I have a feeling JK will keep jabbing at JM with that because let's face it, he is the emo one in that relationship and most importantly he loves JM with all his being and wants to be with him always. A partner asking for space can feel like they are pushing you away or rejecting you. It triggers a lot of insecurities so I understand JK in that sense. They are both not wrong in my opinion. Space can be a good thing and hey at least JK got to read a whole book during this time! Who woulda thought!

And quiet honestly, if Jikook are real as I believe they are then these issues they are having pales in comparison to the hurdles that lie ahead of them for when they decide to come out or live as a forever couple.

I guess It is why JK put these lyrics in GCF Helsinki at JMs part:

Why do you spend your time leading the chorus,

When the war was just waiting before us?

As if you didn't know

I guess it's sums up what Jikook were dealing with during that period of you take into consideration the fact this was released end of December/ early 2020.

Jimin pays too much attention to what people thinks of their relationship as if he didn't know what he was getting himself into. ...

This has been a long one, chai! Sorry. I get carried away sometimes talking about Jikook. Lol.

So what is the state of their relationship? They good. I been told y'all JK is trying to bring back their old online filtering habits. He did it on Weverse when he posted about him reading and asking what JM was doing forcing JM to come out with a response.

He did the same yesterday when he posted a cover song after JM posted his selca on Twitter. They good. They more than good I believe. I will keep observing and will update y'all with my observations as and when.

Oh and I will be doing an analysis of his new cover may be later tonight. Until then its Jikook forever bishes! Gang, gang, gang,

I'M OUT!

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

⚔️ Sun 15 March 🦠

Current things: tickets for Niall's US tour (pt 2) won't go on sale yet as they wait to see what develops, and Niall Self Isolates (be like Niall everyone PLEASE!) Frankly I've never related to Niall more than today as we both lounge about watching TV and celeb livestreams (he dropped by Troye Sivan's) and anxiously reposting things urging people to take this seriously and act responsibly even if they aren't personally at high risk of death. I'm not drinking piles of cans of water though cause I still think that's terrible, that's all Niall. Oh and he did the thing and tweeted the tweet we've all been waiting for- "now that we're on lockdown stream Heartbreak Weather" THERE IT IS. Sorry shitposters you've been overtaken by the real deal.

Also current, Liam says good morning with a selfie! Nice to see you again bud, but not much to report. Is he isolating? Is he planning on doing something? We just don't know.

And in not so current bits to tide us over during this worldwide pause on business as usual, Harry's got us covered! Tommorow we get his tiny desk concert! The perfect quarantine treat, truly, something to look forward to. Today we have a fan picture of him in London from a few weeks ago and some teases from Beauty Papers, a magazine with a Harry feature coming out this week. It's hard to really say but it looks to be artsy (well that part isn't hard to say, it definitely does, that's what makes the other stuff hard to pin down) and involve Harry's met gala outfit and maybe Harry in makeup, I mean he's always in makeup but like obvious gender bendy makeup, so clearly that's exciting stuff. Also there are the Aussie interviews still trickling out. He says his tour tickets are good value cause they buy you two hours of love from him, that it wasn't difficult to choose the naked picture for the album because they only took one, "the lone nude" (title of my sex tape), and leans into his Australian interview go-to, the shooey. Everyone's favorite is the show that illustrated Harry's call in interview with old footage of him and Louis being cute on an Australian yacht- now that's the not so current content we like to see!

Paul Arthurs (Oasis) answers tweets about Louis: "Love him" and, about Walls, "it's great." No word from LTHQ on the UK shows yet, presumably because the UK is being slow to ban large public gatherings and LTHQ need that ban to take the financial burden of cancelling off them: a shitty conservative government is truly good for no one, not even pop stars.

[throwaway-account-of-a-dead-man]

i am back in here to do some petty little venting after recovering from the folly which overtook me in my first post. i am a changed man, fuck cops, i knew this blog would have come in handy again. >:] but that's not the topic of this post.

it's rather a masterpost for my own convenience of something a person in my life (well. in my discord friend list, but they are there in my life in a way) has been doing, we will dub them as E.. I do not expect anyone to see this, but if you do, good for you! have some tea and an admittedly poorly baked cookie overloaded with butter while you're here. :] more beneath the cut, but be aware, it's sort of long.

also, this is in no way a callout post, just- again- personal documentation. my memory is bad and i need to compile the things they have done, or else i will not be able to remember when i need it. in this post i will default to they/them pronouns for everyone as an extra safety measure of sorts.

me and E. began speaking on tumblr, before moving on to discord, where they joined some servers i was in as well. in one instance they were kicked due to being disliked by most of the staff and some members, which was understandable since it was a majority and E. did not seem to make a big deal out of it. i simply chalked it up to them not fitting in with my friends well, but i've come to see that maybe it's not that much of an "us" problem anymore. we have had our disagreements and they were mostly about minor things relating to fandom stuff and such, which were of course resolved peacefully, but after a while of knowing them they exhibited some,, glaring flaws.

E. appears to be completely tone-deaf and lacks quite a bit of self-awareness, not seeing when they make others uncomfortable, not knowing what is an appropriate thing to do and what is not (more on that in a later point), misreading the tone of messages and misinterpreting things people say. it would not be that bad in and of itself, it could easily be resolved with a bit of communication and the use of tone tags if it was just that, but there's also a bit more.

they tend to be a bit man-splain-y, if that makes sense? stating the obvious as if others won't get it by themselves and such. again, annoying and awkward, but nothing to lose it over.

they are misinformed about certain mental disorders such as DID or delusions (apologies if i get any of those terms wrong). once again, a forgivable mistake, but they seem to not have done their research at all yet. i do not know for sure, but had they at least tried to, they wouldn't talk about it the way they do. they very much come off as condescending or judgemental, the former in servers and the latter in dms. and. in servers as well to an extent, but i am not inclined to provide screenshots for privacy reasons.

they have consistently showed up in my dms to shit-talk the mods in a server i own. i am not in the position to call out shit-talking behavior as- it is what i was doing up until about half an hour ago as of writing this, but there's that. i can understand why they would do that, i too am culpable of talking about the people i dislike behind their backs, but. they act as if the other mods would be making me uncomfortable/overall be unpleasant while E. has been the one to cause consistent unease in the servers they were in with me. again, lack of self-awareness and all that.

when one of my friends, which we will name N., shared a selfie in one of my servers, they reverse google searched it to look for more of N.'s social media accounts. i know this because E. dm'd me about it as if it were a normal thing, which is. appalling. i initially thought i was overreacting as i tend to do and did not mention it to N. (fully my mistake, even if it was out of concern for their mental wellbeing), but as i discussed it with another friend i realized that- hey maybe i wasn't fucking overreacting- and decided to tell N.. me and another mod have settled on banning E. from the server once i get a reply from N., to avoid it happening again. now i know E. might have done that to like.. prove that N. is a real person, internet safety and all that, but i still don't. think that was an ok thing to do.

i am afraid of how N. will react to this, that being why i hid it from them before. i fear it will cause them to panic badly, but i realized that hiding it from them any further would be.. unloyal, for lack of a better word? just flat-out bad? either way, i'm doing it now and that is what counts. i hope this goes well.

[sambergscott]

a peralta guarantee

“I promise I’ll come home safe, Ames. That’s a Peralta Guarantee.”

(missing scenes from 7x08 - amy worrying about jake)

hUge thanks to johanna for inspiring this fic and helping when i had a lil breakdown halfway through

When he approaches her desk mid-afternoon with a decaf coffee and the white chocolate chip cookies she’s been craving from the bakery across town, she knows he’s either a) broken something, b) wants something or c) has bad news. She narrows her eyes suspiciously, detecting an excited bounce in his step which can only mean it’s b and c; he wants something she’s not going to like.

“Hey, babe,” he tries to play it cool, clearing a butt-sized space on her desk on which to sit. “I come bearing gifts.”

“What do you want, Peralta?” She cuts to the chase.

“Damn it, you know me too well,” he mutters. “OK, so, here’s the thing: Doug Judy’s gettin’ married. He invited me to his Bachelor Party this weekend and I know he’s a criminal, Ames, but I really wanna go. Like, so bad. Would you be cool with that?”

She conjures up a mental pro and con list. On one hand, Doug Judy is The Pontiac Bandit, known felon, committer of God knows how many crimes, an overall bad dude. On the other, he’s Jake’s friend, singer of the smush songs CD in the glove box of their car that they always forget to take out, giver of the Le Creuset pot she adores. He’s always been nice to her and—.

“Sarge?” Gary interrupts her decision-making process with a quick question about a perp he just brought in, snapping her back to reality. She’s a Police Sergeant, her job is to serve and protect the city they call home and as much as she loves cooking her mom’s beef casserole recipe in Judy’s awesome wedding gift, she has a responsibility to bring him in.

“I’m sorry, babe. I just think it’s a bad idea.”

His face falls, his disappointment coming through loud and clear.

“What were you expecting me to say? Ignore the million arrest warrants out on this guy, many of them submitted by you, so you can drink beer and go to strip clubs?”

“You’re right,” he sighs. “You’re obviously right. Man, being good at your job sucks.”

She nods in agreement. “Remember last month when I had to shut that binder store down for running a secret drug dealing operation out back?”

“How could I forget? You cried for three days straight.”

“They had the best binder collection I’ve ever seen!”

(It was actually what was so fishy about it. In four trips to buy pregnancy binders, she hadn’t seen any of the founding members of the Brooklyn Binder Babes blog — Mary Sue, Catherine, Margaret or Jane — once. And there’s no way a stationery start-up would attract such long queues without their recommendation. It was a pretty easy solve from there).

“The point is, you can’t go to a criminal’s Bachelor Party.” She pats his hand. “You’ll just have to come maternity clothes shopping with me instead. None of my jeans fit me anymore.”

“As much as I would love to, you can take Kylie. I’m going to the party.”

“What?” She double-takes. “Jake, did you not listen to what I literally just said? We’re cops. We cannot be friends with criminals.”

“But we can be friends with informants who have helped us catch numerous, even bigger, more dangerous criminals,” he says with that look on his face, the one he gets when he finds a loophole that he can use to his advantage. She recognises it from home videos Karen has shown her where, instead of tidying his room like she asked him to, seven year old Jake shoves everything under his bed and carries on enacting a police chase with his race cars. “Captain Holt has given him immunity before, so technically I should be able to go party it up with him in Miami!”

“Wait... It’s in Miami? Miami... Florida?”

It’s a stupid question, she knows. Of course he means Miami, Florida. It’s just... they both promised on the flight home that they would never, ever go back there. After everything that happened with Figgis and not knowing if they’d ever see each other again, a statewide travel ban seemed a good way to put it all behind them, focus on all their future moments together, not on all the moments they missed.

“This isn’t like last time,” he reassures her. “It’s only for a weekend and then I’ll be coming straight home for snuggles with you and —,” he lowers his voice to a whisper because they haven’t told anyone she’s pregnant yet, “the baby.”

Her eyes fill with tears and she bites her lip so hard to stop them overflowing in front of all her uniformed officers. It’s pretty clear that he wants to go and she never wants to be one of them wives who control their husbands’ every move. All she wants is for him to be happy. And if going to Doug Judy’s Bachelor Party makes him happy, he should go, no matter how much she hates the entire state of Florida. She agrees, on one condition: “You have to text me hourly updates to let me know that you’re still alive.”

“Don’t I text you constantly anyway?”

“I guess so,” she sniffs.

He lifts her chin so she’s looking him in the eyes. “I promise I’ll come home safe, Ames. That’s a Peralta guarantee.”

“You better,” she warns, tears suddenly flowing down her face at the thought of him not coming home, not being there to watch Property Brothers with her, not raising their baby and proving to everyone what a great dad he will be.

Used to her extra strength pregnancy hormones shifting her emotions from 0 to 100 faster than John McClane can say “Yippie-Ki-Yay, motherfucker”, he pulls her into a tight hug, careful not to crush the precious cargo that is behind said mood swings.

He strokes her hair and whispers that he’ll be home before she knows it and that nothing, not even the worst state in the country, will tear him away from her.

When it’s time for him to leave, she follows him out to the street and, after a brief argument over the fact he packed his bag before he OK’ed the trip with her and another hormone-induced cry when his cab shows up, reluctantly waves goodbye.

True to his word, he texts her before the car is even out of sight. Miss you already 😘.

--

Her phone buzzes periodically throughout the rest of the day.

In a meeting with Holt and Terry: flying on mark cuban’s dope ass private plane!!!!! ✈️

Cooking dinner: florida is HOT (not as hot as u babe, dont worry)

Doing her crossword in bed: g’night ames, g’night baby, love u both SO MUCH

She smiles, tells him she loves him too and braces herself for the barrage of drunk texts and selfies coming her way.

--

Sleeping without him sucks. The bed is cold, her pregnancy pillow is not as good of a cuddle buddy and she tosses and turns all night worrying about him, where he is, what he’s doing, whether he’s safe.

Her eyes finally slip shut around 1 am when her phone buzzes. Again. And again. And again.

She tries to ignore him, bury her head under her pillow and go back to sleep, but the messages keep coming thick and fast. She groans, giving up and unlocking her phone.

There are 47 new messages from him.

Forty-seven.

Her initial annoyance at being woken up quickly disappears as she scrolls through the thread. He’s mostly sent her random, meaningless emojis and keysmashes, interspersed with the odd “I love you”, “you’re my best friend” and “I’m thinking about you” that warm her heart. He mentions something about their proposal, about crying with Doug Judy, which obviously makes her cry too.

(Dumb pregnancy hormones).

By the time she reaches the bottom, he’s sent her 10 more.

She decides for her sake — and the sake of all of her officers who would have to deal with a tired, emotional pregnant lady — to turn off her phone and reply to him in the morning.

She returns her phone to her nightstand, settles back into a comfortable position and closes her eyes.

She lies motionless for what feels like hours, unable to fall asleep. She tries the breathing technique her brother David brags about constantly, counting sheep like little Matthew, even reciting police codes like Teddy used to go to sleep after sex. Nothing works. She’s still awake.

She turns her phone back on to see what Jake’s up to now, only to see his messages ended abruptly with a caterpillar emoji over an hour ago.  

She immediately panics, dialling 911 into her phone.

Her thumb hovers over the green call button.

She’s heard thousands of crazy operator call stories, frequently reminded the general population to only call in a genuine emergency and watched the YouTube compilations for fun. She deletes the number, positive that if she told an operator her husband was missing because she hadn’t heard from him while he’s at a Bachelor Party, she’s positive she would be added to those videos.

In an attempt to stop her spiral, she contemplates the possible scenarios in which his constant texts would cease.

Scenario 1: He’s living in the moment and has put his phone away (something she has been encouraging him to do lately to reduce his screen time)

Scenario 2: He’s very drunk and has completely forgotten about his promise

Scenario 3: He used up all his battery texting her and his phone has died

Scenario 4: He’s fallen asleep (although a quick check of Trudy Judy’s insta reveals the party is very much still in full flow)

Scenario 5: Judy’s criminal buddies have killed him and thrown his body into the ocean

Once the thought pops into her head, no amount of squeezing her eyes shut will make the image go away.

Holt giving an emotional eulogy about wearing ties and being an amazing detective/genius.  

Some rookie taking over his desk.  

The sympathetic looks when she tells all the other moms in baby group that her husband died.  

Usually Jake is there to hold her when her nightmares get bad. She rolls over, expecting to see his kind eyes and soft smile, the untouched side of his bed only serving to make her cry harder.

She can’t lose him. Not yet. Not until they’re old and grey, and maybe not even then. She spent so long denying her feelings for her dorky partner, rueing every missed opportunity to be together, and when they finally, finally took the plunge, she had never been happier. She can’t lose him yet. They have so much more life left to live.

She can’t lose him because he promised her he would come home safe. He guaranteed it.

She clings onto the tiny grain of hope like one might cling onto a raft in the middle of the ocean.

He would never break a Peralta guarantee.

--

Her phone finally buzzes again an hour later.

From: Unknown

Ames, it’s me, Jake. Judy’s buddies found out I’m a cop + destroyed my phone. So sorry I couldn’t text before. Hope you didn’t worry too much, although I know you probably haven’t slept. You can stop worrying now. I’m safe. Love you + see you tomorrow.  

Love you too, she responds, yawning as she places the phone back on the side table.

Relieved that he’s OK, and exhausted from all the worrying, she falls into the easiest sleep she’s ever had.

--

Before she knows it, it’s the next afternoon, Jake’s keys are turning in the lock, he’s dropping his holdall on the floor and rushing to her side to kiss her all over her face.

“I missed you too,” she laughs, kissing him properly.

“Sorry it took so long — Doug and Trudy made me fly commercial —.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re home now. That’s all that matters.”

“I’m never leaving you two again,” he swears.

“You’ll have to leave us eventually to go to the bathroom and stuff,” she points out, raking her fingers through the unruly curls that she so hopes their baby will inherit. “Just don’t go back there.”

A solemn understanding passes over his face and he nods. “Never again. Not even if our kid wants to go to Disney World. We’ll take them to the California one instead.”

“Smort,” she says, stealing his line and in an instant, that familiar grin is back.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

A dozen memories flood back, of oldies in short shorts and shuffleboard and Doug Judy getting away again. Of noice and smort and saying “I love you” for the very first time. Her eyes fill with tears — dumb pregnancy hormones strike again — as she buries her face in his shoulder.

“Let’s go to bed,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and lifting her bridal style to carry her to their room. He places her carefully onto the mattress and flops down next to her.

She snuggles into him, eyes closing once more. “Did we even get an invite to the wedding?”

“Not even close,” he sighs.

“Damn it. I would’ve loved to see that trainwreck.”

“You and me both, babe. You and me both.”

[onisiondrama]

(Note: I’m not repeating stories he’s told before and just putting them in parenthesis. I have a lot more videos to go until I’m caught up so that would save me a lot of time. If he gives details I never heard from him before, I will type those.)

“Should I Get A Divorce?” Speaks,  Oct 6, 2020

- This video is weird. He’s trying to make himself seem smart and insightful about marriage because his marriage is “successful”, while most people complain about their marriage. - There’s one part where he says people don’t understand you don’t have to be lied to or cheated on in a relationship. Which is pretty ironic coming from him. He shows a clip of an upset wife asking her husband what he’s doing with a woman in a bedroom. The husband and the woman are getting dressed. The husband keeps asking “Who?” “What?”, pretending the woman isn’t there. Later he shows more of the clip where the wife is still questing him. He keeps pretending he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She looks in the bedroom again and the woman is gone. The wife looks confused. Love that gaslighting. Just like when Jamsey boi cheats. “I didn’t cheat. It was the other person who cheated on you, my spouse” “You said I can’t have oral or vaginal sex with your friend. You didn’t say anything about anal.” - In another part he says there are people who constantly complain about their s/o and they hide away in a man cave.. he says this while in his garage man cave. 😑 Which we know he spends most of his time in. Like, way longer than normal working hours.  - He says he used to look angry in his old Speaks videos because of his marriage at the time. That’s total crap. He only shows clips from videos where he used his old militant persona for videos like his anti-meat videos. He made plenty of mushy Speaks videos talking about how happy he was with Skye back then too. 🙄 - I think he made this video during his short guru / advise phase.

“gotta say goodbye for a little bit” Speaks, October 8, 2020

- Tells his viewers they can listen to this video without watching it if they like to listen to people talk, like Kai used to do. [This is definitely meant to be another guru / advise type video. I can tell by his tone.] - Says he’s married to Kai for almost 8 years. (How Kai found James story) Says he married a fan and had children with them. He says they now have an awesome dynamic, but he knocks on wood because people who are together 18 years still get divorces. Says you never know, things can suddenly fall apart. - Says it’s cool because at the time he didn’t listen to social standards. Kai was 17 at the time, but lied about his age. Most people would have said don’t go for the relationship because Kai lied and the age gap, even though it was legal. He listened to the law and his heart and now he’s in the happiest marriage of his life. - “F society.” If he listened to society, he wouldn’t know where he’d be or what relationship he’d be in. Says you have to follow the legal system or your life is ruined. - Says he was an air force cop at one point because he believed in justice. He doesn’t think he wanted to shoot people, but he excelled in the cop program. He says he met Magic Johnson in the cafeteria at Lackland Air Force Base. He barely knew who Magic Johnson was, but he thought it was cool a famous basketball player was there. James asked him if he could take a picture and he said yes. He says he took a picture of him like a reporter and not a selfie. He still regrets that. - Says he wants to talk about the future of this channel. Some people appreciate he’s been uploading every day, but he wants to focus on sites that aren’t shadow banning people or algorithmically demoting people. He feels like Youtube is king in letting negative opinions prevail, even if it’s invalid. If the engagement shows people are mad at you, Youtube used to go the harsh truth route. He says that was nice. He says he once made a fake meltdown video in response to a video Leafy made about him. He says it’s fun for him to make fake meltdowns. - He says he and Kai took a quiz today and found out Kai’s IQ is 136 and his is 129, so Kai is smarter than him. - After the meltdown videos, Youtube algorithm didn’t favor him as much. He says maybe it was because he said they were fake. - He says he has been thinking about websites and how they treat users. Says Twitter is one the best because they don’t care about what your opinion is. They just care about their rules. Says if people don’t like you on other sites, they will shadow-ban you and you’re done for. He says his reaction video to Leafy’s video got 1/6th the views Leafy did, so there was a bleed over of traffic. Now when someone says something negative about you, YouTube will only promote videos that agree with that narrative. Says if you only want to hear negative stuff about Joe Biden, you’ll only see negative stuff. He says it’s financially productive, but it’s not ethically productive.

[I just want to pause here and vent a second. Yes, James fell out of the YouTube algorithm, but he’s had plenty of chances to sweep back into it. Like when he was getting tons of views on those fake meltdown videos in January. The reason those viewers didn’t stay is because there is nothing good for them to watch. His Speaks videos are boring, long, rambling messes. He repeats himself, contradicts himself, talks about the same topics over and over. These videos are mind-numbingly boring. His comedy videos are extremely outdated. The characters, topics, and humor he uses are not going to get him anywhere anymore. Like is the Death Note fandom really that strong in 2020? That anime came out 14 years ago for Christ sake. His music is not particularly good or interesting. On top of all this, his reputation is complete garbage.

People just don’t want to watch Onision. If the algorithm tried promoting his Speaks videos, I guarantee most people are actively choosing not to click on his videos. The non-subscribers that do click probably regret it. He’s made ZERO effort into making interesting or engaging content. He’s ONLY been making Speaks content that either fuels his ego or defends himself using the same old arguments he’s used 100+ times before. He’s got to be in some kind of deep denial if he thinks his Youtube views are down because of the algorithm. 

There used to be a saying that whenever Onision’s fans grow out of him, there will always be a crop of young teens that start watching him. That’s not happening anymore. It’s not cool for the alt / loner kids to watch edgy Youtube videos anymore.]

- Says people only want to hear things they agree with, people want to take what he says out of context, blah, blah. I’m only 1/4th of the way through this damn video. - He asks why he’s busting his butt when there’s no chance for him to prevail on Youtube or anywhere. He says he’s on TikTok, OnlyFans, Twitch. [This video was from before his partnership was taken away on Twitch.] He says those are slightly less problematic because they are driven by human beings and not drama. - He says when you see him posting less to Youtube in the future, you’ll understand why. He says he wants to wait you guys out, 2 years, 20 years. (He tried to call out Shane story.) He says he had to wait a year or two until people admitted he was right about Shane. He says he has conflicting feeling about Shane because they had a personal friendship. Says Shane told him they were friends. - He says you guys seem to drive your narrative and agendas by emotion rather than science and facts. He can’t reason with them unless he picked a greater evil and wages war on that. You would have to join forces with him because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He says he wouldn’t do that because he’s not interested in being a professional wrestler and making fake drama. - In time you will feel passionately about other things. You don’t actually care about anyone involved because none of you are consuming yourself with anything that is not pop culture. You’re only interested in things other people are pretending to care about. None of you would care if someone found three bodies in a basement. If they were not celebrities you wouldn’t care. You only want justice for things that will get you attention. - If someone builds their whole platform about anti-person they might get bored and become anti-you. That’s why you don’t want to be friends with dramatic people. - He says he was dramatic about things, but that’s because he did care about those things. He wasn’t talking about 3 bodies in the basement either. - Says a long time ago when a celebrity died, he pointed out 30 people were murdered and washed ashore in another country. No one was talking about it because they probably didn’t hear about it. Nobody actually cares about human lives. If you did, every second that a human dies you’d be tweeting about it. - (Sarah blackmail story.) He says in a number of words Sarah said she wouldn’t ruin his life if she slept with him, then went back on it. [Wow. He really morphed his original story. It used to be: One time she jokingly said she could ruin our lives. Later we wanted her to sign an NDA and she said only if she gets something out of it, meaning sex. James said it was “good vibes” that day and he perceived that as her being kinky. She also said it was just a joke in the “proof” clip he always uses. They signed the NDA, then James pressured / tricked Kai into having sex with himself and Sarah. Then Sarah later came back and he decided they should have anal while Kai was out of town because Kai didn’t say no genital to butt. He only said no genital to genital and no genital to mouth before he left.] He says he decided to no longer sleep with Sarah because it was toxic and he decided he would rather be ruined than be with Sarah. [I have a theory he stopped sleeping with Sarah because he was afraid of Kai finding out. If he was truly afraid of Sarah ruining his life, why did he make those videos about weed smokers and BPD that would piss her off? She didn’t speak about their relationship publicly until he started bashing her through those videos.] Says Sarah went ahead and ruined his life and you fell for it. - He keeps mentioning Joe Rogan. - He says others have said he built an empire, uploaded thousands of videos. He gave so much of his life entertaining people and making them laugh. It was so important to him. He changed a lot of lives for the better. Says if you look on Twitter before the drama, you’ll see a lot of people thanking him. Says he was a positive influence to millions of people. That’s a fact. It all came crumbling down because people lied. They’re all criminals he kicked out of his life. He tries to play hero and he was only right with Kai. Kai wasn’t playing victim, he was on his way to college to be a surgeon. Once he was in the process of having kids, he lost the taste to be in a surgery room. Instead he got a bachelor’s in psychology. Kai’s diagnosis of James is aspects of narcissism, but says he doesn’t meet the qualifications to be a full blown narcissist. - He is investing a lot of time in people who don’t listen and don’t appreciate his content. Social media is a drug that tries to take up as much of your time as possible to make advertisers money. He doesn't create content that lies to you or brainwashing you into thinking your opinion is valid. He doesn’t pander to you to make money. Says when he says he’s one of the most honest people on Youtube, the bar is low. OnisionSpeaks is snake poison because snakes don’t survive on this channel. They aren’t going to have a voice that isn’t questioned. Most snakes on Youtube don’t even know how to activate charities on their channels. - Says he had a conversation with Kai about someone who said they vote for the economy over people. Humans are divided between helping their neighbor and helping themselves. - Says he was never taken to court because he never did anything. He’s still posting to places that he thinks is beneficial to himself and his family. Why would he stop because people have a bad idea of him? You shouldn’t alter your life just because people have an opinion of you. If you quit it makes you look guilty. If you quit you’re either guilty or incapable of dealing with it. He says he’s used to dealing with abuse since he began social media. - He wants to create content and help people and make them laugh. He wants to be socially capable and experienced. His ambitions are aligned with what he’s doing. - He says he can’t forgive his father if what people say about him is true. Everyone else he can forgive. If you are at odds with him, he doesn’t have any hate for you. He understands people can hear the wrong narrative and make mistakes. Says we are both imperfect people and have gone through different things. Says if we went through the same experiences, we’d think the same. Says we aren’t so different.  - Says he’s going away and he hopes you watch all his videos so you’ll know a little bit about who he is instead of listening to what Youtube manipulates you into watching. Says his advise is to quit social media. He wouldn’t quit because he’s passionate about it.

[thehoneyedhufflepuff]

oooo how about 5 for the kiss promts??

thanks anon! I really enjoyed writing this one, so I hope y'all like it.

prompt: Throwing their arms around the other person’s neck, hugging them close before kissing them passionately on the lips.

BAZ

My father gave me the Jag before I returned to Watford for second term. 

He said he was going to give it to me anyway, as a graduation present, and that I might as well start using it. (Personally I think he just likes the idea of me having a getaway car, on the off-chance everything goes to complete shit again.) (Unlikely, with the Mage dead.) I’ve not told him how often I use it to travel down to London. To see my boyfriend. To see Simon. (I think he might suspect, anyway, but he’s not said anything.) 

I’ve come down from Watford as often as I can this term; I can’t help myself. It used to be bad enough, being apart from Simon during holidays. Now that I have him, truly have him, it’s been near torture just being without him for a few weeks on end. A few days, even.

I try to give myself some credit. Try not to think of myself as weak.

I’m not weak. I’m just sick in love. And Simon needs me, besides. (Which I can barely bloody believe, sometimes.) 

He has Bunce, of course, and her family. And he has me, too, in a way; we talk on the phone every night, now that the Mage’s ridiculous mobile ban’s been lifted at Watford. (I’ve been using an old mobile of mine, since the bloody numpties destroyed my other one. I’ve a mind to buy myself something nice and new for graduation.) (I don’t need something nice or new to talk to Simon. Just something that’ll let me hear his voice. Something that’ll let him hear mine. Something he can send me ridiculous YouTube videos on, not to mention all the criminally good-looking selfies he’s been wont to send these last months.) (If I didn’t know better, I’d take it as a personal attack. Here I was thinking I spent a lot of time wanking feelings away at age fifteen, sixteen. I’ve been putting my younger self to shame, but that’s alright. I’m not trying to free myself from him anymore.) (It’s better, this way. Much better.) 

Come to think of it, maybe it is a personal attack. Just a more entertaining (and arousing) form of antagonism. (I do my best to give as good as I get, in any case.)

Bunce’s Hounslow neighborhood is familiar to me by now. The pull in my gut as I turn onto her street is familiar, too. It almost feels like the first time I met Simon, when the Crucible drew us together. (Fuck, I’m in deep, comparing this to the bloody Crucible. Aleister fucking Crowley.) (I was doomed from the start, really, all thanks to a fucking magickal bowl.) (I do thank it, honestly. Sometimes I wonder what school would’ve been like, if Simon and I weren’t roommates. The possibility alone terrifies me, and also I’m certain the last seven years would’ve been woefully predictable and a lot less entertaining.) (Less painful, too, I suppose, though I got what I wanted in the end. It was worth it, for that.) 

I pull up to the Bunces’ house, kill the Jag’s engine. The swell that rises in my chest is pleasant and petrifying all at once, because maybe, just maybe, this is the time Simon tells me it’s all been a mistake. That’s he’s done with me.

No, I think, and I remember all the late-night phone calls, Simon asking me to talk to him until he falls asleep, all those pregnant pauses at the ends of our conversations, and me saying I love you, I love you, I love you in my head and wondering if he’s thinking the same into the silence. The way he breaks that silence with anum or a huffed laugh. The way he tells me everything, when he wants to talk—like how Bunce’s little sister thinks he’s a Pokemon, or how he’s looking into courses for uni next term, finally, or how he’s made a batch of scones for me to try on my next visit (the scones never make it that long, but that’s alright). The way he tells me nothing, when he’s a million miles away, but still insists I stay on the phone. 

I undo my seatbelt. Open the door. 

I'm barely out of the car when I hear him. "Baz!" he shouts, and it doesn't matter how often we talk on the phone (or don’t talk at all), because nothing can compare to the sound of him now. He's right here. And he's grinning at me, which is absolutely lovely to see. It's not often I see him smile, not since Christmas, but it's been more lately, somehow, like he's coming back. Coming back to me.

He jogs down from the front door, across the drive, and before I know it he's plowed into me, his arms flung around my neck, his invisible tail coiling down my thigh. (There's one perk of being a vampire, I suppose; at least I'm strong enough not to be bowled over.)

He does manage to knock the wind out of me, however.

"Crowley, Snow," I say, but there's no venom in it. He just huffs into my neck as I pull him closer, let myself feel the sweet, burning heat of him against me. 

And then he's pulling back, almost too soon, grinning up at me crookedly, almost drunkenly. Grinning at me. Forme. The sun has kissed him golden since the last time I was here. He’s very nearly glowing, and if he wasn’t intoxicating before, well. 

I've memorized his face by now—of course I have—but that doesn't keep me from trying to count the freckles scattered across his nose. Because I'm close enough,finally. Close enough to touch him. Close enough to hold him. Close enough to know that'd I'd be here for hours if I truly tried to count every mark on his tawny skin. 

Snow doesn't let me get very far with the counting, anyway. No, he has better plans, apparently, because he's pushing me back against my car and pressing his lips to mine. 

We've kissed, since Christmas, but not like this. It's been pecks, mostly. Deeper, sometimes, soft and slow and sweet. But it's not been this, so heavy and heady and passionate. It's not felt like Simon's chasing the taste of me, not since that last night in my room in Hampshire. I'd started thinking that I'd imagined it, and then I'd swallow my shame, because Simon's been put through something trying and terrible. We all have, really, but him most of all. I don't forget that. There's no way I could.

I think, faintly, that we're doing this in public, right in the street, where anyone could see. I don't think I've ever cared about anything less, and Simon doesn't seem the least bit bothered, either.

So I let him in. Let him kiss and lick and suck at my lips. I let him take what he likes, and when he tilts his chin against me, I open for him. I think that his tongue has no right to feel this good against mine, but also it has every right. I'd let Simon Snow take me apart right here, if he wanted, right here in the middle of this quiet Hounslow street because Crowley, I want him. I think I've never wanted anything as much as I want him right now.

I wrap my arms around him and pull him closer, flush with me, as close as I can bring him, and he gasps against my mouth before tangling one of his hands in my hair. I think for a moment—no, I know—that he wants me, too. Simon isn’t the best with saying things in words, but the way he’s pressing close, so close, and the way he’s cradling my head in the broadness of his hand, the way his other hand catches at the dip of my waist and squeezes, the way his tongue is sliding wet and hot and sweet against mine…

He’s the only person I’ve ever kissed, but I know this isn’t how you kiss someone you don’t love. 

Simon Snow loves me, too, I think. It’s the only option, really, no matter how absurd it may sound. I should tell him, soon, tell him how much he means to me. Tell him that I love him, that I’ve loved him for a long time. That every time I think I can’t love him more, I prove myself wrong. 

I’ll tell him, soon. But not today. Not right now. Because his mouth is killing everything I’m trying to think. (He has a way of doing that, and I don’t mind. I could never mind, not when it means I get to have Simon Snow’s lips on mine.)

All I can hear is the sound of our mouths moving together, our breaths against each other's cheeks, the quiet sighs Simon's drawing from me, and the ones I'm drawing from him—

"Oi!"

And the sound of our lips breaking apart as Simon pulls away. A rush of surprised air. 

When I open my eyes, he's flushed. I'm not sure how much of that's from kissing me, and how much is due to the fact that Bunce is stood at her front door, arms crossed as she gives the two of us her best exasperated look. (She’s perfected it, I’ll give her that.)

"Hello, Bunce," I say with a raised brow and a smirk. I keep my hold on Simon's hips, give them a squeeze.

"Hello, Basil," she says. "You done groping him in the street now, or should I leave you to it?"

I glance at Simon. His cheeks are burning hotter, and he's pulled his swollen bottom lip between his teeth. 

"What about it, Snow?" I say, softly. "Fancy a drive?"

His lips quirk back up into a grin, and I know what he's thinking. I'm thinking it, too, that I'd like to drive us out somewhere quiet, somewhere secluded, somewhere out of the city. Somewhere I can put the Jag in park, and push my seat back. Somewhere Simon can crawl into my lap and snog me until my mouth is sore. 

"We'll be back, Bunce," I tell her. She's not so far away that I can't see her quirk an eyebrow at me. "We're going for a drive."

💛💙

[nocherryblood]

PLEASE REBLOG FOR AWARENESS- S*X BOTS:

So, only recently, in the past week I've been getting a lot (and a lot, for my blogs, is six) of random followers, and it was making me a little suspicious, so in the end I just decided to check everything out and see what was going on.

I mean, did a post of mine do really well or something? Did someone tag me a bunch of times? Did someone reblog something?

NO.

I checked who had followed me recently, and, low and behold, it was: bots! How great.

But what was even worse, was that these were s*x bots (I'm censoring some words to keep my blog somewhat safe). S*x bots.

So since I've seen a lot of these over the past few weeks, I've decided to put together a little of what I've found. It's nothing new- and it's pretty much common knowledge- but hopefully it might help a few people out (especially since I'm one of many people who try to keep their blog safe from harmful, or 18+ content) and maybe even help keep some people a little safer here on Tumblr

So, here we go:

PROFILE PICTURES AND USERNAMES:

First of all, check the pfps and usernames. Sometimes they'll be something like "d3rtyg1rl", but not always. Other times it'll be something like "sangdori" or "jpi011" (those are two real accounts that followed me, I've just changed one or two of the letters in them)- so something that sounds like a regular Tumblr account to tebe average user. So if the username checks out as 'normal', the next thing to look at, is the profile picture.

These, similar to the usernames, and all the other things I'm going to mention, may seem normal at first. Some of them may be fluffy kittens (a lot of them are "generic"), others may be a seemingly innocent selfie, a few of them are just blank Tumblr and some are just... straight-up 18+ photos. So be aware that not all of them are going to be easy to spot right away.

LIKES, FOLLOWS AND UPLOADS:

Right, so now we've come to the part where you've checked out the usernames and profile pics, and they both show no signs of anything sinister. Good- now, if you're still suspicious, it's time to check the actual account itself.

The first thing you might want to take a look at, is the content they've uploaded, or in some cases haven't uploaded, onto their blog. This is where things can get deceiving. Many of these accounts have just one "generic" post- such as slime, kittens, glitter, etc (usually these are eye-catching things, which means it can draw people, especially children, in)- immediately followed by some sort of sexual content underneath that, usually in the form of a nude photo or p*rn (some are obscured, though most aren't), which catches you off-guard, to say the least.

Now, as I said before, not all of these bot accounts are the same. Some don't have any uploaded content at all- this is where checking their Likes page comes in.

(And I'm aware that this may sound like we're stalking someone's account at this point, but trust me, we're not. We're just trying to keep ourselves safe- and these are not people, remember, they're bots. Bots don't care, bots don't have feelings. Bots don't care if we block them). So, back to the point, the next thing we check is the Likes pages.

Now, some of these pages will be purely 18+ content, as you would expect. Just straight-up p*rn links, or nude photos. But others, however, seem innocent at first... that is, until you scroll down the page. Usually, it's just liked photos of (again, the generic, and eye-catching stuff) some cute animals, a GIF of slime, or a popular meme, but if you scroll down a little further underneath that, you'll see that same innapropriate content all over again.

Though again, as with all the other things I've mentioned, some of these liked pages seem fine upon inspection, which is where we move onto the final thing to check if what you're seeing is a bot account: the following page.

To be quite simple... this is where you'll need to look at a bunch of accounts all over again... hooray! If you find that some of the accounts seem suspicious from just looking at the pfps and usernames, then great, that usually means you know that the account you were originally looking at is a bot account, and you can block them and be done with it (and even if you're not entirely sure, blocking them will keep you safe, and besides, it doesn't hurt anyone- believe me, your safety takes 100% priority over having that one extra follower).

But, if you can't tell just by looking at them, and you're still suspicious, and you don't want to just block the original account you were looking at... then this would be the time do all of the above again (checking likes, following pages, and content) just to make sure.

If you don't find anything else suspicious, then congratulations, it's probably not a bot account, and you don't have to worry about it. But again, if you ARE worried, then PLEASE do just block and/or report, the account. It's better to have one less follower, than be unsafe, or have to feel uncomfortable.

SO, I THINK IT'S A BOT ACCOUNT, NOW WHAT?

Now, if you've been through all of the above, and/or you're pretty sure that what you've seen is a bot account, then it's time to either block it, or report it.

To block an account, simply tap on the little 'human/person' icon in the top right of that specific account, and tap 'block' (note: this will only report them from one of your blogs. If you want to block them from another, or all of your blogs, you'll have to add them to the block list for taht specific blog). To report someone instead, just tap 'report'.

So, you might be wondering: what's the difference between reporting someone and blocking them?

Well, I'll tell you as best as I can. Blocking someone means:

They won’t be able to follow your blog, or send you fan mails or asks to your blog, and they won't be able to see your blog’s posts in their Dashboard. In addition to that, neither will they be able to like, reblog, or reply to your posts, and your blog won’t show up in their search results. It's a really good option.

They'll still be able to read your posts if they somehow come across them, but they can't interact/reblog them- at all. The only way people would even know you've blocked them is if they find that they get denied permission to interact with your blog- but remember, the chances of the finding out that youve blocked them is VERY slim, if it even happens at all (though remember we're talking about bots here though, not actual people, I just thought it would be useful information to include anyway).

Alright, so now onto reporting someone. Reporting someone means that:

The account will receive an email stating that they've posted banned content and must take it down. Tumblr will then still automatically take it down, and the account either gets suspended or deleted.

I would say that reporting the s*x bots would be the best thing you can do in this situation (you can still block them afterwards), seeing as the account will hopefully then be taken down (instead of just blocked on your blog) after being reviewed, which could help keep Tumblr at least a little safer once it does.

And just in case you were wondering: no-one will know if you've reported their account. The only way they'll know they've been reported (and they won't know who reported them) is if their content gets taken down or if their account is deleted- so don't worry about people accusing you of reporting them, as Tumblr keeps it anonymous anyway.

(Again, I've only added that part as useful information, seeing as s*x bots aren't real people and therefore won't care if they've been blocked or reported.)

There's more information about reporting and blocking people, along with Tumblr's policies and guidelines here, if you need it:

https://iheartmob.org/resources/safety_guides/tumblr_guide

Right... so I think that just about covers everything I wanted to say. If there's anything I've gotten wrong, or you think you could add on to, just drop a note or reblog this to help. After all, I don't know everything about these s*x bots, and just writing from my experience and what I've noticed about them. So help and/or additional information would be greatly appreciated.

I'm just fed up of seeing them everywhere and them making me think I've got a new follower who's actually interested in the blogs I make, when it's actually just a not trying to take me to some random p*rn website. It's wrong. So I just decided to write about my frustrations.

Now, Tumblr, if you could please sort your shit out, that'd be great, thank you very much, and we can all get on with our day.

If you've read this far, thank you very much for your time, and I hope I've managed to help you at least somewhat when it comes to dealing with these types of things in the future, or maybe just given you a little more awareness about how to stay safe on Tumblr, and other similar sites.

Anyway, I hope y'all have a wonderful day, and that you stay safe. Happy new year, too! 💛💙

[newstfionline]

Friday, January 8, 2021

Spending the pandemic talking to yourself? If you live alone, you’re not alone (Washington Post) One bleak pandemic day in November, Aisha Tyler caught herself vacuuming the inside of her freezer. Then she scolded herself. Yes, out loud. Sometimes the Los Angeles-based actress will tell herself to “snap out of it.” On brighter days, she’ll congratulate herself on what a good job she’s doing and call for a celebration. Humans leave little unspoken, and this past year, as many of us have avoided social events and worked from home alone, we’ve been forced to talk out loud to the only person still around to listen: ourselves. Sure, it may take the form of bantering with our pets, scolding the politicians on TV or cajoling our malfunctioning printers, but that’s really just another way of hearing our own voice, helping us discern what exactly is going on inside that head of ours.      What’s going on here? Charles Fernyhough, a psychology professor at Durham University and author of “The Voices Within: The History and Science of How We Talk to Ourselves,” says research shows people talk out loud more when under stress or facing cognitive challenges. It was praying aloud that kept 44-year-old April Harris going during her 32 days in quarantine with a deep cough at the California Institution for Women in Chino, Calif.—not just self-encouragements like “I can do this” and “You got this, April,” but repeated declarations like “by His stripes, I am healed.” “I would pray for our country and for a cure to this virus,” she says in an email from the prison, where she has spent 24 years but had never previously talked out loud to herself. “Now I pray that I am covered by His blood, not wanting to endure that again. I pray for the women who are in isolation now.”

Here’s Why Car Thefts Are Soaring (Hint: Check Your Cup Holder) (NYT) After years of declines, car thefts appear to be surging in cities and suburbs all over the country. The spree, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, does not appear to be the work of sophisticated crime rings, the police say. Instead, this new wave of car thefts seems to stem from a combination of simple carelessness and the same technological advancement that once made stealing cars nearly impossible: the key fob. The broad adoption of keyless ignitions that began in the late 1990s ushered in a dark era for car thieves. New cars had engine immobilizers that only a microchip in the key fob could unlock, and vehicle thefts quickly plummeted. Technology, it seemed, had largely solved the problem of stolen vehicles. Until people started leaving their fobs sitting in their cup holders. Now, the police say forgotten fobs and keyless technology have contributed to soaring stolen car cases. In Hartford, the police have traced the surge to teenagers joyriding in from the suburbs. In Los Angeles, stolen cars reappear so frequently that the police believe thieves are using them like Ubers. And in New York City, a related but different problem has emerged as more drivers leave their cars running to make pit stops and deliveries during the pandemic, making their cars easy targets for thieves who can simply drive away, even without a fob.

Canadian compensation (CBC) Based on companies that trade on the TSX, in 2019 the average total compensation for the 100 best-paid CEOs of Canadian corporations was $10.8 million, while the average annual salary for a worker in Canada was $53,482 the same year. That means top CEO pay is about 202 times that of the average Canadian worker, which is actually down from the 227 observed the previous year. It also means that at 11:17 a.m. on Monday, the average CEO had already made the annual salary of a typical worker.

An unimaginable moment in America (AP) To see it unspool—to watch the jumbled images ricochet, live, across the world’s endless screens—was, as an American, a struggle to believe your eyes. But there it was, in the capital city of the United States in early January 2021: a real-time breaking and entering the likes of which the republic has never seen. The U.S. Capitol was overrun by violent supporters of Donald Trump, who exhorted them to march on the domed building as lawmakers inside carried out their constitutional duty by certifying his electoral defeat. The proceedings were quickly abandoned as the selfie-snapping mob smashed windows, marched through hallways and rummaged through lawmakers’ desks. Fourteen days before Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated on the very same site, elected officials sheltered in place in their own building. Agents barricaded themselves inside congressional chambers, guns drawn. The stars and stripes—soaring over public property—was lowered, then replaced as a blue Trump flag ascended. In one of the day’s most indelible images, a hoodie-clad trespasser sat in a chair overlooking the Senate floor—minutes after it had been vacated by Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence—waving his fist in front of a thick, ornate curtain designed to summon the trappings of democracy. The United States on Wednesday seemed at risk of becoming the very kind of country it has so often insisted it was helping: a fragile democracy.

World reacts to US mob (AP) Amid the global outrage at the storming of the U.S. Capitol building by angry supporters of President Donald Trump was a persistent strain of glee from those who have long resented the perceived American tendency to chastise other countries for less-than-perfect adherence to democratic ideals. In China, which has had constant friction with the Trump administration over trade, military and political issues, people were scathing in their criticism of Trump and his supporters, citing both his failure to control the coronavirus pandemic and the mob action in Washington. The Communist Youth League ran a photo montage of the violence at the Capitol on its Twitter-like Weibo microblog with the caption: “On the sixth, the U.S. Congress, a most beautiful site to behold.” That appeared to mock House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her June 2019 comments in praise of sometimes violent antigovernment protests in Hong Kong. Iran, another country that faces routine U.S. criticism over violations of human rights and democratic values, jumped on the insurrection as proof of American hypocrisy. The semiofficial Fars news agency called the United States a “fragmented democracy,” while Iran’s pro-government Twitter accounts gloated, circulating photos of the mobs with hashtags that included #DownfalloftheUS. “The beauty of democracy?” with a shrug emoji was the reaction tweeted by Bashir Ahmad, a personal assistant to the president of Nigeria, which has seen several coups since independence—including one led decades ago by President Muhammadu Buhari, who most recently entered the office via a vote. Venezuela, which is under U.S. sanctions, said the events in Washington show that the U.S. “is suffering what it has generated in other countries with its politics of aggression.” Several countries, both allies and antagonists of America, issued travel warnings to their citizens.

America the exceptional? (Foreign Policy) It’s not easy to say how much the storming of the Capitol will contribute to the decline in the reputation of the United States abroad. That’s because that decline has already been so steep: A Gallup poll of 29 countries in 2020 found that 20 already had approval ratings of U.S. leadership that are at new lows or that tie the previous record lows.

‘The power of life and death is in the tongue,’ Senate chaplain says (NYT) “We deplore the desecration of the United States Capitol building, the shedding of innocent blood, the loss of life, and the quagmire of dysfunction that threaten our democracy.” Those words, spoken by Barry C. Black, the Senate chaplain, resounded through the government chamber in the early hours of Thursday, as he declaratively closed a joint session of Congress marred by violence with a prayer. A Seventh-day Adventist minister and former Navy rear admiral known for his penchant for brightly colored bow ties, Mr. Black has been the Senate’s official clergyman for nearly two decades. His prayers in the chambers have long been laced with rebukes for the infighting of the lawmakers surrounding him, and his words have often served as a conscience check for those on both sides of the aisle. That was never more true than on Thursday morning, as he warned lawmakers that their words could have great consequences. “These tragedies have reminded us that words matter, and that the power of life and death is in the tongue,” he said. “We have been warned that eternal vigilance continues to be freedom’s price.” His prayer also urged new unity in the face of the deep divisions among lawmakers and within the country, driving home a need to “see in each other a common humanity.”

Twitter, Facebook muzzle Trump amid Capitol violence (AP) In an unprecedented step, Facebook and Twitter suspended President Donald Trump from posting to their platforms Wednesday following the storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Twitter locked Trump out of his account for 12 hours and said that future violations by Trump could result in a permanent suspension. The company required the removal of three of Trump’s tweets. Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns, followed up in the evening, announcing that Trump wouldn’t be able to post for 24 hours following two violations of its policies. Facebook later said that Trump would be banned indefinitely.

Indian farmers take to their tractors (Quartz)  On the other side of the world, a protest of a different kind is taking place in Delhi, as farmers who oppose India’s newly passed agricultural laws plan to march into the city with 2,500 tractor trolleys today. It’s the latest action in nearly two months of demonstrations that have grabbed headlines globally for their scale, but also for their inventiveness—some of the tractors have previously doubled as screens for movie viewing as protesters dug in for the long haul. The latest round of talks between the government and farmers is scheduled for tomorrow. If the two sides can’t agree on a path forward, farmers’ union leaders say a tractor rally and nationwide protests will start on Jan. 26, when the country celebrates Republic Day.

With Mass Arrests, Beijing Exerts an Increasingly Heavy Hand in Hong Kong (NYT) They descended before dawn, 1,000 police officers fanning out across Hong Kong to the homes and offices of opposition lawmakers, activists and lawyers. They whisked many off in police cars, often without telling relatives or friends where they were being taken. Within a few hours on Wednesday, the Hong Kong police had arrested 53 people, searched 76 places and frozen $200,000 of assets in connection with an informal primary for the pro-democracy camp—all under the auspices of Beijing’s new national security law. In one swoop, the authorities rounded up not only some of the most aggressive critics of the Hong Kong government but also little-known figures who had campaigned on far less political issues, in one of the most forceful shows of power in the Chinese Communist Party’s continuing crackdown on the city. The message was clear: Beijing is in charge. The mass arrests signaled that the central Chinese government, which once wielded its power over Hong Kong with a degree of discretion, is increasingly determined to openly impose its will on the city. In the months since the law took effect, Beijing and the Beijing-backed Hong Kong leadership have moved quickly to stamp out even the smallest hint of opposition in the Chinese territory, where the streets once surged with huge anti-government protests. And they have shattered any pretense of democracy in Hong Kong’s political system.

Japan declares emergency for Tokyo area as cases spike (AP) Japan declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and three nearby areas on Thursday as coronavirus cases continue to surge, hitting a daily record of 2,447 in the capital. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga issued the declaration at the government task force for the coronavirus. It lasts from Friday until Feb. 7, and centers around asking restaurants and bars to close at 8 p.m. and people to stay home and not mingle in crowds.

The next catastrophe has already been predicted (Les Echos via Worldcrunch) The epidemic surprised us, but it was predictable. In the risk report regularly published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for its annual Davos summit, infectious diseases were listed every year as one of the 10 biggest threats. The report’s description of a virus spreading uncontrolled around the world was exactly what played out in 2020. There were frequent discussions at Davos about this type of danger. For example, in 2016, after the damage caused by Ebola, the general director of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, sounded the alarm about the next pandemic. Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, drew a parallel with the Spanish Flu, evoking the risk of an illness that killed 30 million people. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft-cum-health philanthropist, insisted on the necessity of training teams in public health management and logistics. If this health crisis is causing so much suffering, it’s because we refused to seriously prepare for it. We didn’t follow the advice of the philosopher and engineer Jean-Pierre Dupuy, who pushes us to think about catastrophe to prevent it from happening. The time has therefore come to think about the next global catastrophes—the less predictable ones.

[ashtheshortstack]

take my scars & make them stars - ch 4

Rating: M Ship: Kristoff/Anna Chapter Four

Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Sick Fic, Cancer Fic, Chronic Illness, Chemotherapy, Modern AU, Coffee Shop AU, Fluff and Angst, Fluff, Eventual Smut, Angst with a happy ending, Mutual Pining, Mentions of Character Death

Read on Ao3

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It was a date. He said it was a date. As much as that excited her, she didn’t want to jump into something too soon. Especially with her health. And when she explained that to Kristoff, he completely understood. Which only made her like him more.  

So, they were dating. But there wasn’t a label. Anna couldn’t bear saying she had a boyfriend during this trying time of her life. 

But, even though Kristoff wasn’t her “boyfriend” didn’t mean she didn’t start popping by the coffee shop on the regular to pay him little visits. It was always the same excuse—that Elsa wanted coffee. They both knew it was a lie, but it gave her a reason to go up to the register.  If she stuck around too long, sometimes Kristoff would take the coffee. S’mores lattes weren’t his favorite, but he didn’t seem to mind. 

Anna had never used Snapchat—she’d thought it was silly to send pictures all the time—but after Kristoff asked if she had one, she downloaded the app in an instant. And, quickly, that became the way she kept him updated throughout her day. Kristoff’s snap stories were very sophisticated. They didn’t usually feature his face, but mostly the coffee shop with different work-day filters. Lots of snaps of Sven being excited when Kristoff arrived home from work. On the occasion, there would be a Sven shaming story if the dog tore something up while he was away. 

But the private snaps he sent to her privately were much goofier. And she appreciated that. Anna liked that he was so real with her. So himself. Maybe he put on a front for those who viewed his stories, but not her. 

Kristoff sent her a picture of a large spill of coffee all over the floor of the shop with a caption of “why” and that’s all. Anna couldn’t help but giggle from her seat in the hospital lounge. At least the chairs she sat in during chemo were comfortable. And with Kristoff sending her entertaining snaps, it made her day just a little better. He always had a way of cheering her up no matter how miserable she may have felt. 

She sent him a selfie of her grimacing and looking away from the camera with the caption “at least it’s not vomit this time”. Did she keep bringing it up? Yes. She was mortified about the whole situation, so making fun of it at least let Anna live down her shame. 

His response was quick. A selfie of him grinning stupidly with “i’ll clean up your vomit anytime” attached. She snorted at that. Why was he sweet and disgusting at the same time? But she appreciated it nonetheless. 

Dr. Mattias entered the room with his usual smile, preventing Anna from returning a snap. She’d have to wait and send him a response later. 

He greeted her as usual before sitting in the chair across from her. “So, Anna, how are you today?” 

“Pretty good, considering,” she replied with a smile. She couldn’t help but feel a bit giddy. It was probably a bit obvious to Dr. Mattias that she was bubblier than usual. But that was okay. Everyone was allowed a good day. Especially when on chemo. 

“That’s great,” he said, clicking his pen. “How are your symptoms?” 

Her mind flashed to her date with Kristoff. Pursing her lips, she glanced away. “Um, I was wondering about physical therapy?” 

Dr. Mattias seemed stunned at her words, his brows raising, but he answered her anyway. 

                                                     o~o~o~o

  Anna sent Kristoff a snap video of her walking on the sidewalk downtown towards the coffee shop. In response she got a blurry image of his face with “oh shit” across it. She couldn’t help but giggle. He really was funny, even if he didn’t want to admit it. She could tell Kristoff was jittery and had a rough exterior… but she planned on cracking it down. 

The bell rang above her head as she entered the door. There was a new barista there she didn’t recognize. The girl had raven hair and a darker complexion… she actually looked a lot like Ryder. Maybe, they were related? 

Kristoff smirked when he saw her. “Why hello there, how can I help you today?” 

“Hello, Christopher,” she cooed. 

Rolling his eyes, he shook his head. “Oaken ordered me a new name tag, will you stop harassing me?” 

“No.” 

He snorted. “So, a s’mores latte for Elsa? ” Kristoff smirked, a knowing glint in those honey-brown eyes. 

Anna shook her head. “Nope! I’m having a cheat day. It’s getting chillier so I can reasonably get a hot cocoa. For Anna. ” 

“Well, well, well,” he grinned. “I finally get to write your name on a cup today.” 

Humming in response, Anna pulled out her wallet. “I guess it’s just your lucky day,” she teased with a grin before handing him her card. 

“Yeah, sure. It’s a true blessing when I get to write ‘Anna’ on a cup. As if it isn’t a common name.” 

“Bet you think about me every time another Anna comes in.” 

Kristoff’s cheeks flushed at that. “Shut up,” he pouted as he snatched a cup from the counter and headed over to the machine. 

Giggling, Anna moved to the side as the girl took the next customer. Her name tag said “Honeymaren.” Jeez, no wonder the owner couldn’t order the correct names. Did anyone here have a basic name? She was a little jealous of the uniqueness of it. Perhaps how her name was pronounced was a little different, but still. 

Kristoff returned with her cup and handed her the credit card as well. “Here’s your special cheat day drink, feisty pants. Glad you went with a caffeine free option.” 

“Well, I can’t get too crazy.” 

He laughed.

“When do you get off?” she asked, smiling slightly. 

Shoulders slumping, he sighed. “Still got a few hours today.  How about we meet up tomorrow? I have some work on the job site first, but I can see you afterwards?” 

Anna sipped at her hot cocoa with a smile. “I’d like that.” 

“I’ll text you?” 

“Yeah,” she said with a smile. 

                                                 o~o~o~o

  It didn’t take long after she left the coffee shop for the snapchats to start again. It was nice that she received so much attention from him. Kristoff really knew how to make a girl feel special.  

When Anna made it home, she was utterly exhausted. She crashed on the couch, finishing off her hot cocoa with a sigh. Setting the cup on the side table, she flopped back on the cushions. 

“Hey, long day?” 

Anna sighed when she saw Elsa rounding the couch to sit on the arm with a smile. “You don’t know the half of it,” she murmured. 

Elsa smiled at that. “I see an Arendelle Roasts cup, so someone paid Kristoff a visit.” 

“I did…” 

Her sister just gave a knowing smirk before looking away. “Sooo, how was chemo today?” 

“Same as usual… Miserable.” 

“Uh huh.” 

“Well, it was a little better actually. Kristoff convinced me to get a Snapchat, and we’ve been snapping each other a lot. He sends me some really funny stuff. I dunno, it was just a nice positive during treatment today. Does that seem silly?” 

Elsa was smiling at her. “Whatever makes you happy, Anna. Just a little pick-me-up is better than nothing,” she paused, “but we both know Kristoff is a little more than that.” 

The dreamy sigh that left her lips was a bit embarrassing. She couldn’t help it though. Kristoff made her mushy inside. He really did make her happy. It was a nice change of pace. 

“He’s really great, Elsa. Why couldn’t I have found him sooner? Ugh, I wish he’d gone to academy… maybe I’d never been with Hans.” 

Her sister gave a small shrug. “Life works in funny ways. This was just the right time to meet him.” 

Humming, she nodded. “Maybe, you’re right. He did say he used to be kinda grumpy.” 

Anna heard a faint laugh before slowly nodding off to sleep. 

                                                 o~o~o~o

  Kristoff had asked her to meet him in the park the following day. Anna wore appropriate fall clothing. She was so excited that it was finally cooling down. The heat was so exhausting, especially while she was on chemo. The treatments made her feel so weak and heat did not mix well with her symptoms. It sucked. A lot. 

Fall would be a calmer time. She hadn’t yet experienced chemo with the cold… she wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. But her light jacket over her purple dress and dark leggings was comfortable and worked well with the temperature. She was a little disappointed she wouldn’t be able to participate in the pumpkin spice craze as it began due to her ban on caffeine. But it would just make it all the worthwhile for next fall. 

Anna sat on a swing that overlooked the pond. Ducks waddled by, making her giggle at their quacking. There were a few girls sitting on a picnic blanket nearby… but Anna chose to ignore their frequent glances in her direction. It wasn’t exactly a poor you stare, so Anna wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. So, she stared at her phone and ignored them the best she could. 

Only when Kristoff told her that he’d arrived did she look up from her spot. She waved at him when she saw him crossing the browning grass. He wore a clean green flannel, but the skin beneath glistened. His hairline was damp as well. Clearly, he’d gotten a bit sweaty while working on the site. It was strange… the sudden spike in her libido at seeing him like this despite her sex drive practically being nonexistant since her first few months of chemo. Sure, she’d had thoughts about Kristoff before, but not like this. She hadn’t felt desire for someone in so long. And Kristoff definitely triggered such a reaction from her. 

But how was she to help it? His shaggy blonde hair, tanned skin in sight where his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, rugged torn jeans, and work boots… it suited him. And Anna couldn’t get enough of it. As much as she loved Kristoff in a cream colored apron and a button up, this just did many different things to her. 

Kristoff returned her gesture, waving a large palm in her direction as he sped up to reach her. There was a grin etched along his lips as he approached. When he came to sit with her on the swing, it seemed entirely natural for him to place an arm on the back of the bench behind her as Anna snuggled into his side. 

“Hey, how was work today?” she asked, smiling up at him. 

Giving a lopsided shrug, he hummed. “Nothing too exciting. Building, measuring, hammering--the usual,” he glanced down at her. “How was yours?” 

“Laid around, puked some, drank a smoothie because I can’t chew--the usual,” she laughed bitterly. 

“It’ll get better, you know.” 

Sighing, she nodded and leaned her head against his chest. “I know.” 

“Did you talk to your doctor about your symptoms?” 

Anna sighed. “Yes, we decided on some physical therapy options to help blood flow to my fingers. I just--God, Kristoff, I can’t wait until this is over. I mean, I know it’ll never be over over. Dr. Mattias already told me I’ll have to go back for regular number checks the rest of my life once in remission. But there can’t help but be that part of me that wonders if there’s more they don’t know about. If I’ll never actually be in remission and--oh, jeez. I’m sorry, Kristoff, I’m totally being negative and rambling.” 

Kristoff’s palm patted her upper arm lightly. His eyes seemed so sad when he regarded her. “Hey, hey, it’s alright. You’re free to rant as you please. Don’t stop for my sake.” 

She couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you. I don’t mean to just--talk about myself so much.”

“I like hearing you talk about yourself.” 

She snorted. “Don’t lie.” 

Cocking a brow, he smirked. “But I do. I really admire you, ya know? The way despite how everything you’re going through, you manage to keep a smile on your face.” 

Anna felt herself swoon at the compliment and hoped her reaction didn’t show too much on her face. Even though she trusted Kristoff, she had jumped into a relationship too quickly before, so she didn’t want the blonde to know how crazy she was about him. How much his compliments meant to her. Even the small ones. 

She responded by snuggling closer to his chest, pressing her body against his own. God, he was so much bigger than her. Anna knew she was scrawny from treatments… would he still be this broad compared to her even when her body returned to a healthier weight? She glanced down between them, noticing his hand sitting on his own thigh. Without a second thought, she grabbed his palm with both of her own. Anna idly played with his fingers, really noticed the contrast with her own. His hands were so healthy while hers… were so boney. And tiny. And weak. Her fingers ached just trying to squeeze his. 

Kristoff chuckled, turning his palm over and opening his fingers to her. Anna’s lips twitched and she gazed up at him as she intertwined her fingers with his. Humming, she relaxed into his touch as his thumb gently rubbed the back of her hand. The touch actually sent a warming sensation to the tips of her tingly fingers. 

It was nice being like this. To just enjoy one another’s company. She was sure she would find something else to talk about, but for now… this was enough. 

As she opened her mouth to speak, she looked up at him. Only to see him scowling off in another direction. His brows were pinched and a tight frown was etched along his lips. Anna followed his line of sight to see who he was glaring so harshly at. It was the two girls who had been staring at her earlier. They were giggling and whispering at their phones until they looked up and saw Kristoff’s eyes on them. The smiles on their faces quickly fell as they both glanced around uncomfortably, each looking very ashamed. Kristoff didn’t stop his squint until the two girls packed their things and quickly left. 

The entire encounter didn’t last but five minutes, but it felt like an eternity to Anna. What had they done to make Kristoff so angry?

“W-What was that all about?” 

His face relaxed as they watched him leave, eyes softening when he gazed at her. “Sorry, they were taking pictures.” 

Anna felt her cheeks flush as she glanced down at her lap. “Oh…” There was a beat of silence for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. “Well, I now know what you meant when you said you used to be grumpy. That glare could scare off anyone.” 

Snorting, he shook his head. “Sorry… People like that just piss me off. It’s not your fault that you’re going through this. You aren’t a side-show attraction.” 

“You’re amazing, you know that?” 

“No,” he shook his head. “It’s you that’s amazing.” 

She giggled at that before tapping on her knee and pursing her lips. “I… I-I need to know, Kristoff. What did you really think of me when you first saw me?” 

“That you’re beautiful. You have the most amazing eyes I’ve ever seen, and your freckles are adorable.” 

“That’s it? You didn’t think ‘oh, poor thing she looks sick?’” 

He shook his head. “You’ll never look like that to me, Anna.” 

Her lips twitched. “Yeah? What will I look like?” 

“A fighter.” 

Anna’s eyes went wide. Her cheeks flushed as she glanced away. “That’s just cheesy, and you know it.” 

“But it’s true,” he said with a grin. 

“You think I’m really a fighter?” 

“Yeah, like a warrior who has a battle to win. And I have no doubts you’ll see this fight to the end. Don’t you believe so?” 

Anna squeezed his palm. “As long as I have you.” 

[reddeadmort]

Hmm dunno if you do modern Arthur ones but I'd love a modern or time-travelling Arthur reacting to snapchat filters. Can includes other gang members too, whomever you feel like writing.

Thank you for being so patient @nordic-breeze ! This started as just a general Arthur and social media, but then kind of accidentally evolved into a slight commentary of issues that women sometimes face. Not too sure on this one, but I hope it’s along the lines of what you were hoping for :) 

If anyone wants a bit of background reading/scene setting, I wrote some HC’s for my take on Modern Arthur - they can be found here. 

Btw, the catcalls/comments are real ones, taken from videos on youtube. And, tbh, they are some of the milder ones that feature.

Modern Arthur x f! reader | “Surely that’s enough photos now….”

Guidance: Minor fluff, protective Arthur, catcalling/sexual comments/threats

Words: 2.1k

“I just….. I don’t understand? Why do I need to be in the picture, surely it’s the skyline they want to see?”

Arthur was standing in the doorway of your balcony, facing away from you, looking out over the city. He was topless, leaning against the door frame with his arms and ankles crossed.

“Arthur, they’re following you to see YOU, not some boring modern buildings” you chuckled, as you took yet another photo.

You’d waited a while before introducing Arthur to the concept of social media; you didn’t really use it all that much yourself. You quite enjoyed using Snapchat, it was an easy way to keep up to date with your friends back home. Arthur had asked what you were doing during one of your selfie sessions sat next to him on the sofa; you’d shown him some of filters, but they completely befuddled him. 

When you’d flicked on the flower crown, he’d looked frantically between your head and the face on the screen, muttering “but there’s nothing there…” to himself. He’d practically jumped over the back of the couch when you’d done a face swap with him; it was all a bit too much. He’d spent the rest of the evening in a bit of a confused grump, occasionally pausing Netflix to ask a question -  “why do people want to take so many pictures of their own face”, “why do they change how you look so much” “why would you want to look like a dog”. You tried explaining that it was just a bit of fun, but knew when a concept was a lost cause.

Arthur was much happier to help you out with your Instagram. You didn’t post that often, mostly nice photos you’d taken on your treks. But Arthur enjoyed helping you with pictures, and the man did have an artistic flair; he’d gotten pretty good at framing the photos. He’d even started taking some pictures of his work building treehouses, mostly just to show you. Eventually, you managed to persuade him that posting these to Instagram might help promote his business; he’d agreed, but only under the proviso that you dealt with the actual posts/timings/hashtags etc. You had got a few good leads for his work through Instagram, but those jobs were mostly for rich families that had more money than sense. Arthur didn’t love doing these projects, they always ended being more 4 bedroom houses on stilts than rustic treehouses, but they did mean that he could afford to do builds for local charities at less than cost price.

But you knew that the main reason people followed Arthur was for Arthur, no matter how beautiful his work was. And so here you were, once again making him reluctantly pose for yet another picture.

“There we go, plenty to choose from now. You’re free to go now Arthur.” He let out an audible sigh of relief as he walked over to you to have a look at what you’d taken.

“I really don’t see why this is a good picture. All you can see is me pretty much.” Arthur shook his head. “Those ones that fella took of animals back in my time were much better”.

“Arthur, I’ve got 4 words for you: shoulder to waist ratio.”

“I’ll pretend I know what that means” he grunted as he pulled his t-shirt back on over his head. It had a Thor design on it; Arthur had become quite keen on Marvel. That photo you’d posted on your Instagram of him messing around, pretending to pull something out of the ground (copying the first Thor film), had got thousands of likes, despite you only having a few hundred followers. It was at that point you’d decided to set up his own account.

“Anyway Y/N, we best be goin’ to the gym if we want to eat before bed.”

“Yeh, good point, I’ll go grab my stuff.” You went to grab your workout bag with your clothes in from your bedroom as Arthur went and got changed into his, then started the short walk to the gym. As you walked, you chatted, then Arthur asked you a question.

“Here, Y/N, how come you don’t wear your gym clothes? Why’d ya always get changed there? We only live a few streets away.”

“Because, Arthur, I don’t like the attention I get. It’s not so bad when we walk together, but if I’m by myself…. It makes me uncomfortable. It can be pretty bad even if I’m not wearing my workout stuff.”

“I don’t understand? What attention?” 

Sighing, you came to a stop, looking around.

“Look, Arthur, see that group of lads sat outside that shop?” you pointed up the street. “I see them a lot. I hear them a lot. Just walk behind me a bit, close enough to hear what they say, not so close that they think we’re together.”

“Alright, but I don’t really know why. They usually don’t say anything to me.”

“Arthur, that’s because you’re not a… never mind, just follow and listen, okay? And only listen. Whatever you hear, DON’T do anything, promise?”

Arthur grunted as you walked off, then followed behind as instructed. As you suspected, even though you weren’t wearing your gym leggings and sports top, the lads quickly took notice of you.

“Hey what’s up girl, how you doin’!”

“Smile baby!”

“That’s a gorgeous ass, I’d like to hold you down while I slap it”

“Hey bitch, we’re complimenting you, you should thank us!”

You controlled your breathing and continued to walk at a steady pace, stopping in a doorway further up the street so Arthur could catch up. When he did, he looked furious.

“I’m gonna kill ‘em.” He muttered through clenched teeth.

“Arthur, you can’t. And anyway, there’s like 6 of them and one of you. Let’s not get you arrested or killed, alright?”

“But…. they shouldn’t be sayin’ those things (Y/N)! It ain’t right.” You could see him clenching and unclenching his fists.

“No Arthur, it isn’t. And I hate that because of men like them I’ve changed my behaviour and changed what I wear. But I do it to try and make myself feel safer, cause one day, someone may do more than just say things.”

Arthur wrapped his large arms around you and hugged you tight. “I’m sorry (Y/N), sorry that I didn’t understand.”

“It’s alright Arthur, now come on, we want to get to the gym while it’s not too busy.”

Arthur was quieter than normal as you walked the rest of the way – you could tell he was mulling things over. Being yanked from his time into the modern world had made him a bit naïve; it baffled him that 100 or so years later, some of the same issues still existed. 

——-

Arthur was indeed thinking about what he’d heard, but he was also thinking about what he himself had said in the past. Some of those off-hand comments to prostitutes in the saloons, things he’d said to Karen when she’d been drunk…….

You thought he was a good man, and here and now he’d done nothing to prove you wrong, but every so often a memory of his past would float up, reminding him of the things he used to do. But he’d been given a second chance - this time, he was determined to do better.

—–

You had a good workout; you always did with Arthur. You would chat and laugh together, and he was always great at motivating and encouraging you. You helped out each other’s routines where you could, but one thing you could not do was spot him. For god’s sake, the man benched way more than you even weighed. When it came time for this part of his workout, you left him with some of the other gym guys he’d grown friendly with and went to do your cardio. You didn’t love running on a treadmill, but in the city it was really the only option.

You were in your own little world when you noticed a man stood to your side talking to you. He was smiling at you; you took your headphones out, assuming he wanted to ask how much longer you’d be.

“Hello gorgeous.” Those words, from someone you didn’t know, gave you chills. “I’d love to give you some tips.”

“I’m alright thanks” you said as you gave a slight smile. It was one that you’d carefully crafted over the years; not quite big enough to encourage someone, not too small as to risk being called rude.

“No, sweetcheeks, you realllllly need my help. Here…..” As the man said it, he stepped even closer and put his hand on your back, while you were still jogging.

You slammed the stop on the machine and turned as quickly as you could away from him.

“I said I’m fine, please don’t touch me.” You were forceful, but not loud – you really didn’t want to cause a scene in the middle of the gym.

“Bitch, you need my help. You need teaching a thing or two.” The man grabbed at you again, this time managing to get your wrist. He was big, strong, you tried to pull away but you couldn’t. Sod not causing a scene, you thought, I’m getting this fucker banned.

You were about to scream at the man when suddenly he let you go. This had something to do with the fact that an enraged, sweating Arthur had grabbed him by the front of his shirt and was practically lifting him off the ground. Arthur wasn’t much larger than him, but much stronger; Arthur wasn’t a poser, he worked out for strength, relaxation, not definition.

“I think the lady said she’s fine without you goddammit” he snarled into the man’s face.

“What the fuck do you care buddy” the man retorted back, pushing Arthur away. “Me and this bitch need to do some more talking.” This man either had balls of steel or was a complete moron. You suspected the latter; a case of more muscles than brain cells.

“No, mister, me and you need to do some talkin’. And I think my friends might want to help with that.“ The man paled as he finally looked past Arthur.

Turning, you saw what he’d just seen; 3 of Arthur’s gym friends, each of them the same size or even larger than Arthur. You knew these guys, they were always polite, always happy to help you when some other arsehole had left some massive weights on a stand you wanted to use. And, as an added bonus, one of them was the gym’s manager.

“I’ll finish this with you another time girly” the man hissed at you, before quickly turning and walking away as Arthur took a step forwards.

“No he bloody won’t. Y/N, I’m so sorry about this, I’ll go and get him revoked right away” said the manager. “I’ll also make sure that the office send round his picture to all the local gyms, try and stop him doing it elsewhere. If you want me to ring someone, just say.” You nodded and smiled, as the others went back to what they were doing. Arthur stayed with you, checking your wrist.

“You alright (Y/N)? I’m sorry for intervenin’, I know ya could’ve handled him, I just saw red. Especially after what you showed me earlier.”

“Yeh, I’m fine, thanks Arthur” you smiled at him as he rubbed your bruised wrist. “I just wish it wasn’t something I had to deal with, you know?”

“Yeh, I know. I just don’t understand why nothin’ much has really changed. At least back with the gang I could deal with someone that did stuff like this properly.” As you looked into his eyes, you could see that glimmer of animalistic rage that appeared occasionally. Arthur had done well to adjust to modern life, but you knew that sometimes he struggled with not being able to fight his way out of situations. It had worked well for him for years back in his time - to a point anyway.

“Come on Arthur, why don’t we go and do a little bit on the punching bags to cool off. We can take a few more pictures.”

Arthur groaned. “Surely we’ve got enough pictures already?”

“Stop your whining, I know you secretly love the attention.” You jokingly stuck your tongue out out him. “Tell you what, I’ll treat you to dinner on the way back after, to say thanks for being my big burly cowboy.” You knew Arthur liked it when you called him a cowboy, it always made him laugh and think of some of those ridiculous films.

“Sound’s like a plan, Y/N. As long as I getta choose.”

“So, Five Guys again then.” Arthur grinned as you sighed, smiling, and went to finish your workout.

[dalamjisung]

piece of heaven, part two ❃ seo changbin

genre: angst, slight fluff at the end, 

word count: 3078

pairing: reader x seo changbing

description: four years is a lot of time for things to happen. Will your relationship handle it all?

(inspired on the song CIGARETTE by OFFONOFF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AamatUtxev4) 

tag: @backtonormalthings 

You worked pretty much all of the time you weren’t in school. But this time, you worked with a smile on your face. You had set working hours, so after 6PM you could go out with your boyfriend and get proper sleep. You were in college now, almost done with the process of ‘growing up’ and ‘finding your true self’ in those systematic educational institutes, and already started on the professional world that awaited for you so patiently.

After that one night in the boys studio, it was so clear to you; what you wanted to do with the rest of your free time, and who you wanted right by your side as you ventured this unknown territory. Cigarette ended up not being used as a song in the debut album, as the boys predicted it would, but actually sold to another artist, and that was your first step into adulthood. Once the song hit the charts, Changbin’s company recruited you to be a producer trainee. For two years–your two first years of college– you worked hard, meeting demands and deadlines, producing one song after the other, and although you excelled at that, there was nothing you loved more than sitting down around that one familiar glass table, in a tiny room, with three of your favorite boys; Changbin, Chan, and Felix. Just like you were now. 

“Y/N,” Chan whined. “I’m tired.”

“That’s cause you don’t sleep,” You chuckle. “But go ahead to the dorms and I’ll finish up here.”

“I’ll stay with you,” Changbin said smiling. 

In four years, a lot happened. Firs you were recruited. Then, after the company president deemed your skills perfect, you were officially hired as a worker. While all of that happened, your relationship with the boys bloomed. Chan and Woojin became older brothers to you; always worried and ready to listen, those two made sure that you were staying healthy and well rested. Minho, Seungmin, and Felix were your best friends; you guys laughed together, and caused trouble together. Hyunjin, Jeongin, and Jisung turned out to be your adored dongsaengs; you’d protect them from any harm, and you were sure they’d return the favor. And finally Changbin… well, Changbin was now your boyfriend of four years. 

After that night at the studio, it all happened in a flash, and soon you were both sitting facing his manager, asking permission to date. The condition was that, because the boys signed the dating ban contract, they couldn’t date for one year after their debut, but after that, you two were free to publicly announce your relationship. The boys were so close to the debut at that time that you made sure to work double just so you could speed up the process. The faster they debut, you thought. The faster the one year goes by. And you weren’t wrong. With you training at the company, and him promoting his album, one year went by as if it was one month. Now, it’s three years after that. Three years of happiness, and misunderstandings, and fights, and make up dinners at the balcony of his dorm.

You smiled, remembering all of those good times– the bad ones, too– and reach forward for his hand. He is in the middle of writing a verse when you grab his other hand.

“What?” He mumbles with a hint of smile. 

“I love you.” You say and watch as your favorite thing happens: he blushes. 

“I love you too,” He says and puts the pen down. “Now where is this coming from?”

You shrug. “Just wanted to let you know.”

“Oh, I know,” He chuckles walking towards you. Leaning down, he gives you a kiss. “I know, love.”

“Good.” You whisper. 

“What’s going on in that head of your, Y/N?” Changbin asks crouching down in front of your chair, holding your hands. “You have this one look one your face…”

“We’re growing up, Binnie.” You say. “And that worries me a lot. I’m almost done with college, you’re winning prizes already… what will be of us in a few years?”

This thought had been haunting you for a while now. You saw each other a lot because of work, but you knew that soon he’d have to go on tour again, and that you’d be assigned a new group to work with while they are away. You��d grow to different directions. And there was also the question of your grandparents. Your grandfather hasn’t been well as of lately and you worried about him constantly. You weren’t ready to grow like that; not yet. 

“Y/N,” He sighs. “We’ll be fine. Remember? We made a promise; I will be your light. I will shine you bright. We’re here for each other, good or bad, yeah?”

And you nod, hugging your boyfriend, because this is how you wanted to stay. 

———————————

The months pass like they mean nothing; and soon you are graduating. Everyone is there, which causes a big ruckus of selfies and autographs, for both your boyfriend and the boys and your grandfather. You guys go out for dinner and drinks and celebrate your initiation into the full-time job life. 

Another month passes by and you and Changbin have a huge fight. As you finally had the time to fully dedicate yourself to your job, your name grew quite big in the music industry, resulting on unwanted attention from the media. The fight is about a rumor of you switching companies to work with another boy group. It’s stupid but both of you are hurt and Chan has to intervene; he tells you to go home and sleep it off, and promises to make Changbin call the next day. He doesn’t call for three days and you feel like that was the end. It wasn’t and you both are incredibly proud of the way you overcame that together. 

Time goes by just like that; with things happening and things happening over those other things, and you wonder if growing up is just like that; a bunch of things happening all at once and you have to chose which one you will pay attention to. 

It’s winter now, and Changbin and the boys are touring. You miss him while you snuggle in the bed, holding his pillow. The boys always asked you to take care of the dorm while they are away, which meant you slept in Changbin’s bed for about three months a year. It was heart shattering to have him gone, but you were so proud and happy for him that the hurt was barely felt. 

You are in the middle of a season finally when the FaceTime window pops. You quickly fix your hair, pushes your glasses up your nose bridge, and smile. 

“Hey,” You say, hugging the blanket closer to you.

“Hey,” He says back, teary eyes. He is smiling, but as his eyes whine with unshed tears, you can’t help but sigh. 

“Changbin…,” You mumble, hand touching his face on the screen. “Are you okay?”

“I miss you.” He laughs. “I miss you so fucking much, Y/N. It’s crazy.”

“I miss you too, my love,” You smile a sad smile. “But it’s just for two more weeks, yeah?” 

“It’s still too much,” He whispers. “Too much.”

“It is,” You agree. “But we got this. We got this, Binnie. I’m waiting for you with hugs and kisses, and when you get back we’ll both get off days to just cuddle and sleep, yeah?”

“I can’t wait for that,” He smiles, tears gone and a hopeful glint shines on his eyes. “You’ll wait for me, right?”

“If I didn’t then I’d just be stupid.” You snort, making his laugh. This is all I want, you think, relieved. Him laughing and happy.

You listen to him as he tells you about the concert they just played. The venue, the crowd, the vibe; but your attention is stollen as your phone starts vibrating. You ask your boyfriend for a second and picks it up, thinking that if someone is calling you this late, it must be important. 

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Y/G/N guardian?” The voice asks on the other side and your blood goes cold. 

“Yes, who is this?” You ask, feeling as if you could throw up at any moment now. 

“I’m a nurse at the Center Hospital, can I ask your relation to the patient?” 

“Patient?!” You gasp, eyes widening. “I’m his granddaughter. Is he okay?”

“Ma’am, your grandfather just suffered from a cardiac arrest but we’ve managed to get to him in time and now he is resting. Would it be possible for you to come down here? We have somethings we want to discuss with you.”

Forgetting all about Changbin on the other side of the screen, you shut the laptop and run to the door with only one thought in mind.

Please let him be okay. 

He was not okay. You cried as you held your grandfather’s hand. His face was pale and there were tubes everywhere; you’ve never seen his this fragile before, and it broke your heart to know he had been in pain. Your grandmother was in the waiting room, allowing you to have some privacy.

“Grandpa,” You whispered, trying to control yourself. “You can’t leave me yet. I’m not ready to be on my own, and neither is Grandma. It won’t be the same without you…”

“Don’t say that, Y/N,” You hear your grandpa’s hoarse voice. You look at him, raising your head from where it laid next to your joined hands, and saw him frowning. “You’re not alone.”

“I know,” You say feeling guilty. “Grandma is still here.”

“I’m not talking about your grandmother, dear,” He smiles. “Your boy, Seo Changbin. He will take care of you after we’re gone. He promised me he would.”

This was news to you; you never knew they talked about this before.

“What do you mean?” 

“I’ve gave him my blessing,” Your grandpa says, smiling. “I gave him my piece of heaven, Y/N. And he promised to take care of it forever.”

At this point, you were crying nonstop. To hear him talking like this was killing you; he talked as if he would be gone at any moment now, and you had to admit, he was old, and time was not a friend, but you weren’t ready. You wanted him to see you get married, and you wanted him to meet your kids. There was so much more that he had to be a part of, that you don’t know what you’d do if he was gone. 

“Grandpa, please,” You beg. “Please.”

“You’re my piece of heaven, Y/N.” He repeats, bringing you close and kissing your forehead. “Don’t forget that.”

“You always say that,” You sniff.

“And it’ll alway be true,” He chuckles, and then coughs. “Even when I can’t say it anymore.”

The next week was a blank of mixed days and lost memories; you were always at the hospital so you didn’t really remember anything besides that. Changbin made sure to call you three times– or more– a day, worried about your dark bags and large clothes. You looked like you’d lost so much weight, and honestly, you probably did; your stomach couldn’t hold anything down, except your grandmother’s soup. Work was a mess and it took about three days for your boss to notice what was happening, and then he gave you a couple of weeks of to stay with your family. 

My family, you thought, suddenly so angry. It’s not fair. This is not fair at all. 

Your phone gets you out of the toxic mindset your were getting trapped, and you sigh in relief. Changbin.

“Hey,” You mumble, looking at his worried face on the the screen.

“Hey, love,” He said softly. Changbin was making sure to be extra soft and careful with you, allowing you to feel safe enough so that you could talk to him easily. “How is it today?”

“He’s not getting better,” You mumble. “The doctors told us to prepare ourselves… they said it could be any day, now.”

“I’m sorry, Y/N,” He sighed. “I’m sorry I’m not there.”

“No, Changbin,” You smile, and this was the first one of the whole week. “You are touring. It’s not your fault. Focus on you, yeah? Grandma and I will get through this.”

He nods and tells you about the concert they had, trying to cheer you up with good news. Some of the boys pop in to say hi and send their support, but you don’t really feel like joking around. You guys say goodbye, and you go back to your grandfather, who is talking to your grandmother. As you watch them from the door, you try to smile, and you take a picture. A last memory together, you think and walk in. 

He passes away that night. 

———————————

You feel like you are not living anymore, just functioning. You drown yourself in work; writing song after song, but they were all too sad. Your boss, worried about your mental state, gives you another week, so you could stay home with your boyfriend, and grieve without worrying about having to hand in an assignment; but you weren’t really sure about that, because if you didn’t focus on work, you’d focus on him and you weren’t sure that was the best choice. There was no choice, though, and your boss and the CEO all forced you to go home. 

I get home tonight, Changbin texted you. Hang on just a little longer. 

You were only hanging on because of him; because you knew that he’d soon be with you, and that you could simply give up, and he would still help you get back on your feet. That’s how Changbin and you worked; you weren’t co-dependent, there was no real need for each other, but rather a want. You didn’t need his help, you wanted it. You wanted him in your life because you knew that then you wouldn’t be alone through anything– he’d always be by your side. And you by his. But sometimes, when you were too busy or when he was away, it was hard to keep thinking like that. It was hard to be positive and to keep your chin up, because although he will always be by your side, his physical presence is gone. He can’t hold your hand or caress your hair; there is no hugs and kisses and whispered promises. There is just a cold side of the bed where he’d usually lay, and limited phone calls. You missed him.

You missed him so much, that it was only natural you’s start thinking he didn’t miss you as much as you did, even though he has shown and told you repeatedly that this was a two way street– what you felt would always be reciprocated. As you sat on your couch, holding all tears in, looking through albums and albums of pictures, you started getting angry. Maybe if your parents didn’t leave, you grandfather wouldn’t have died. Maybe if they stayed, they would’ve taken the stress of taking care of you off of his shoulders. You were the type of person that when in doubt of which emotion you were feeling, it would be redirected to anger. Your first reaction was always anger. And then guilt. And only in the end, it would be sadness. You were still in transition from the second to the third when you heard the door opening, the cold winter air rushing in with your boyfriend; his desperate eyes looking for you, examining you, taking you in. You nod– a ‘hello,’ a ‘I’m fine,’ a ‘come here I could really use a hug.’ 

“Oh Y/N,” He sighs and drops his bag on the ground, walking towards you with arms wide open. You run to him, slotting yourself in this familiar body that felt so strange. “I’m here. It’ll okay. You’ll be okay.”

And you cry. You cry like you haven’t cried in two weeks; words falling out of your mouth, snot running down your nose, and wails of pain echoing in the dorm. You notice that the rest of the boys aren’t there, probably giving you two some privacy, and you are thankful. He holds you tight, not saying a damn thing, allowing you to simply put it all out, let it all go. Your fists were tight against his chest, sometimes hitting him softly, sometimes holding his sweater, sometimes just feeling his heartbeat; a reassurance that he was really there. A couple of hours after, when you have been reduced to a pile of sniffs and apologies, he kisses you, whipping out his phone. 

“I’ll tell the boys to come home,” He whispers, kissing your forehead. 

“Okay,” Your voice is raspy from the crying and you are embarrassed. You are embarrassed to have been this desperate for Changbin’s presence, embarrassed for being angry at him, embarrassed for thinking he didn’t love you as much as you did him. “I’m sorry…”

“For what?” He asks still typing. 

“For everything.” You say and hugs him again.

“Well now you’ve got me even more worried,” He chuckles. “What happened?”

“I had some thoughts,” You say, hiding in his neck. “That you didn’t love me; miss me. I was angry, Binnie, so angry… I hated thinking like that but I just– I just missed you.”

“Hey,” He smiles, grabbing you head and making you look at him. “I missed you too. I get angry too. I feel that way two. It’s so normal, babe, and you don’t have to apologize for feeling. It’s normal to feel needy and angry when your loved one is away, okay?”

“Okay.” 

“Don’t you remember?” He asks, smiling a nostalgic smile, and you know exactly what he is talking about. 

I wish I be your last

I could be there for you

I could be the one to

I'd be your cigarette

“I do.” You say smiling too. Only him, to make you smile in the midst of your pain. 

“I want to hear that again soon, Y/N.” His eyes bore into yours and your heart is racing. “I really, really want to hear that again.”

“I’ll say it how many times you want, love.” You say, arms around him, smell of his perfume on you, warmth of his body on yours. He’s home. I’m home. “We have time.”