#cause i know the articles are for promotion

[thisshitisridiculous]

actually i hate watching a show where the actors and writers have articles every week about what's going to happen, like what do you mean ever take involves some quote from someone where they literally can't tell you what's going on because that's a spoiler, just watch the show, the show will tell you everything you need to know

[dollyichi]

A LITTLE MYSTERY NEVER HURT ANYBODY . . . pro-hero katuski bakugou x f ! actress reader. m—dni / fluff / hints of ‘tension’ and maybe suggestive… / established relationship / little smau at the end / not proofread / minors don’t read this !!

despite being a fairly new actress, you were able to catch the attention and hearts of the fans from your recent debut just two years ago. becoming a highly in-demand star, given every project possible just to be seen on the screen. however, you kept a secret. that one secret that could cause a frenzy, that the beloved actress of the nation is dating the one and only pro-hero dynamight.

they all assumed that they definitely knew the both of you are in a relationship… somehow. you had that certain glow and katsuki definitely made it sure that he’s not available. no matter how many fans tried to flirt, no matter how many interviews he’s gone through he says one thing very clear, “got a pretty girl already.” however, nobody knew it was with the two of you together.

countless articles are read about you, how you were overheard with a director from your upcoming series that you wanted to avoid any romantic scenes or a partner in general. which boosted more speculation on your ‘mysterious’ love life.

now, your manager says that she got you booked with a new project. you’ll be in a promotional shoot with a pro-hero for a fashion campaign with an upcoming designer. “that’s fine right? you’d be with someone in the shoot though.” your manager says. you shrug, looking over at the recent line the designer put out.

“it’s fine. no point in declining opportunities right?”

she nods enthusiastically, “that’s the spirit! we were actually surprised the team agreed immediately when they found out it was you. i heard they only accepted solo projects for him.”

you smile, “well whoever it’ll be i’m sure we’ll do great.”

the moment you step foot on the set, you were immediately greeted by the designer themselves. “y/n you’re so beautiful, you’re so perfect for us!”

“thank you for believing in me! please take care of me well.” you bow and was brought to your own dresser. quickly dressed in a silk robe and getting your makeup done. your hair was in curlers, the team taking their sweet time to make sure they enhanced your features for the shoot.

you hear a knock on your door, and you could hear your manager gasp when she opens it. peeking at the mirror with one eye, you see a familiar figure walking towards you, messing with the collar of his shirt.

“hey baby.” voice raspy and hoarse. now everyone in the room was shocked. looking at the two of you. to top it all off, katsuki places a quick kiss to your cheek and getting a stool to sit beside you.

your manager definitely felt like she was gonna faint. she had no idea what this was or when, or even how. everyone else was also in shock and confused, felt like time stopped somehow.

why is he now acting all lovey dovey in public? is what they all, including you, wondered.

“fuck baby you’re looking too pretty.” you giggle, trying to stay in place while the makeup artist adds their finishing touches. “thank you katsuki, no wonder you agreed to this shoot.” you say. the makeup artist finally says you’re done, you were all ready, just needed to change into the outfit.

katsuki was in a fitted velvet button up shirt with low-rise slacks. only the middle section of the shirt was buttoned, and for the first time in your career, your professionalism was definitely getting tested. just a little lower you could probably catch a glimpse of his happy trail. “who allowed you to wear that?” you motion with your head. but before he could answer you’re already turned around, moving behind the divider to dress up.

“aw come on, i know you fuckin’ like it.” he says loudly, then followed by the door closing. suddenly the staff was all on you after you stepped out. complimenting how you looked so good, how you’re going to be the new face of the brand after this. but most especially, the elephant in the room.

“i know everyone’s thinking you have a boyfriend but… dynamight?!”

“where, when, why, and how?”

“i never saw him speak that sweetly to anyone before….”

“i thought it was another celebrity! this is really unexpected.”

lots and lots of questions but they were immediately shut down by your manager who wanted to maximize the time. “we still got a shoot. y/n can tell us the details another time.” she gives you that look that reads ‘you better tell me everything’ and you give her an apologetic smile.

you take a look in the mirror, seeing how you matched with him. in a tight velvet dress that hugged your figure really well, probably a piece from the earlier collections. it’s pretty, the skirt is slanted with peaks of ruffled tulle.

you’re start walking to the set where katsuki was already waiting. “oh our princess! you look amazing.” the designer says, holding his hands to his chest. “i knew you and dynamight would look amazing together, i thank you both really.”

you grab their hands, “i’m really happy you paired me with him too!”

you approach katsuki with a smile, and he’s already grinning at you. “well shit this might be the hardest job i’ve taken yet.” he chuckles, placing a hand on your back to help you on the extravagant set.

you’re shining so bright and in your element that he’s just happy to be there. yet, the whole time he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off you, how his hold on you lingered, wanting to touch you even more, even deeper. despite the director giving clear directions that you followed with no fuss, he on the other hand just has to have a hand on you. but it definitely gave an effect on each shot.

katsuki couldn’t help but keep his eyes on you, eyes glimmering with desire. and how you’re looking at him with such a cool glare—it just felt so out of character for the both of you. who’s usually so sweet and him who’s usually so out for reach. “think i need you in this dress when i take you home.” he would whisper. and you’ll playfully hit him on his arm.

when you prepare for the next shot he’d always tell you things that’d rile you up. and when nobody’s paying attention he’d be looking you up and down. “bet you’re even prettier under this fuckin’ dress.”

even in between clothing changes you both looked picture perfect. both complementing each other’s visuals. he’d sneak you out from time to time to get a smooch here and there, resulting in the makeup artists on the set to fix him up because his and your lipsticks would smudge, wondering why he gets messed up all of a sudden.

“you’re so damn pretty baby. too bad the makeup’s gonna get ruined when we get home.”

“stop teasin’ during work kats…”

the last shot had you both seated on the carpet. it was sexy, your hand’s on his bare chest and he’s leaning in towards you with a finger under you chin. the two of you together felt magnetic. it’s so interesting to everyone in that room how the hero who’s usually uncontrollable became so compliant because if you. overall, it just felt too romantic, that petals of roses were somehow seen falling down on the both of you while you posed.

what was most unexpected was how katsuki really enjoyed being in front of a camera, as long as it’s with you (might’ve gotten a few ‘creative’ ideas too). he’s definitely making one of these photos his wallpaper when they upload it.

and the next day, that one shot trended all over the internet. blasted all over the digital billboards in the city too. finally seeing the elegant y/n who seemed to have helped show a new side of the pro-hero to the public.

showering the brand with praises and how much of a ‘genius’ they were for even choosing the two of you as the muses. because it really was just a coincidence that the owner was a fan of you both.

then there goes the online articles, the video complications, the noise that just won’t die down. tweets and photos, even a sudden rise in fanpages. dynamight and y/n, and the public that’s trying to piece every evidences of your interactions. how they were all tricked that your relationship was just under their noses. how in events you’re always seen together, or how your car was spotted in his neighborhood that one time. or when katsuki always keeps saying in interviews that his favorite shows and media always had you in it—main lead or not. the way nobody caught it even when you mentioned that dynamight was one of your favorite heroes. even showing them a small plushie charm that you carried on you hanged on your bag—everyone was stunned.

still, neither of you confirmed anything, yet.

till the moment the official account of the brand posted all the shots of you together, and it was very obvious how the two of you were actually in love, like the head over heels type.

well, the both of you are gonna have more projects together soon for sure.

bonus!

do not copy, plagiarize, translate, or repost my works

note : i really like this actress au i’m definitely gonna make more 😔🙏 different versions for sure

[literalgrill]

Do NOT Support Hard Drive On Patreon

You might see friends today suggesting you support Hard Drive on Patreon today. You know, the funny video games version of The Onion? As a journalist, I will firmly tell you DO NOT GIVE THEM A DIME.

The CEO has pushed out all former staff that have built the site up to its current greatness and has been pushing the use of AI. The staff begged to have a Patreon before basically all being pushed out, but the idea was refused until now, when it will only line the pockets of a single person instead of hard working writers.

I know they might have provided laughs before, but Hard Drive is a shell of what it was once. Let it die and support the people who actually made those moments of joy possible. Don't believe me? Check out what former employees are saying below:

Kevin Podas: Okay you know what, I would feel bad saying nothing about this, so here goes:🚨SAVE YOUR MONEY🚨

We passionately advocated for a Patreon at Hard Drive & were aggressively shot down. The talent & people who built the site were pushed out. To see this now is beyond upsetting. For the past few years or so I put a lot of myself into this website. I pitched a ton of jokes, got over 120 articles published, & met a lot of great people. I'm sure if you've been following me for some time you could easily see this.

However, there is a lot of misinformation. I was eventually promoted to Managing Editor of the site & was ecstatic. Grateful for the opportunity. Felt like all of my hard work in the comedy mines was finally paying off. But things took a turn for the worst, & each day there were new surprises that affected our livelihoods. These were all very avoidable surprises, mind you.

A patreon was going to be our hail mary, but alas, for some reason, the power that be did not want it. Causing us to leave a dream job behind. "At least we did all we could," we consoled ourselves afterwards. I put a lot of myself into this project. I pitched all sorts of ideas that could have helped-- we all did. Merch collaborations, Patreon-integrated YouTube content, so much more. And most of them were shot down out of sheer stubbornness and nothing more. To see lie after lie spread, and multiple big publications and YouTubers that I am a fan of promote this Patreon under these pretenses is incredibly upsetting. There are so many receipts.

Please share this and consider pulling out if you've already put money into this. On Hard Drive using AI, also from Kevin Podas: I can't personally confirm that part aside from some of the recent header images for articles on both Hard Drive and Hard Times are being made with AI. As far as writing, it's been mentioned in the past, but I personally do not know. Maybe others do, maybe not. MORE From Kevin Podas suggesting the owner denying a Patreon being set up earlier cost an artist a job that was replaced by AI: We had a social media person who was awesome! He made the images until this AI implementation. He had to leave because ad revenue was low and a Patreon was aggressively refused.

Luca Fisher: at the risk of burning some bridges, i have to back up kevin here. i've only been part-time, in-and-out of hard drive since i got in last year, but i can corroborate that management doubled and tripled down about not hosting a patreon/crowdfunding and that many other suggestions and ideas, including mine (and ones much smarter than mine!), were shot down in really long, apocalyptic threads of everyone left on deck desperately trying to come up with ways to keep the lights on. managerially it has been messy and sad

i've written for multiple publications that have long since died, ones that were in the process of dying, and ones that, in this case, are soon to be put in the ground. it is sad and sucks every time. i don't know what could have been done differently, but i do know that a lot of great writers and content creators were left shorthanded and unhappy by the way things have gone. and it is sort of puzzling to see the sudden championing of patreon after we were all told plenty of times that it couldn't work and we should move on also, just to add my own personal two cents here, i was really disappointed by the shuttering of many different article sections on the site over the past 6-8 months. i understand cutting corners in a deficit, and i know it had to be done. that said…

all in all, i'm really sad to see this all happen. i don't fault anyone, if only because i don't really know enough about how this all can happen to make sense of it. games journalism is in a sad, sorry state, and will likely no longer be a thing in the next decade

VideoSealMan: I'm gonna say this because I think I deserve to. For months, MONTHS on end I was bugging Hard Drive management about a Patreon. Often I got ignored for a week+, but when I actually got a response I was encouraged to - of all things, write up a Google Doc pitching the concept I did it regardless. I wasn't the only one trying to sway management on a Patreon, but so fiercely was I fighting for it that last night, I was accused of making this comment directly by the CEO! With no evidence whatsoever! After I'd been gone for over a month.

I vouched so hard for Patreon because I wanted all the writers and creatives working with Hard Drive including myself to get paid better. When I actually got a response, the idea was often shut down. Eventually due to the state of my company, my pay was cut for a second time I confronted management alongside a couple other important figureheads at the org and told them that if we couldn't do a Patreon - I could no longer financially justify staying there. The answer was still no, so I left. Baffled at the decision, but whatever.

It is unendingly frustrating to know that myself and many other people who put their soul into Hard Drive LEFT because of management's absolute refusal to compromise on a Patreon, to then see them launch one anyway a month later and get over 1000 people pledging money. I'm seeing a lot of things float around about greed and people being fired. No one was fired. Everyone who left, left because they were sick of management's decision-making. And honestly, management is a lot of things but I would not call them greedy. (From my experience.) They did genuinely make an effort to pay people as much as possible. I found the pay very fair for a while. I am not disputing that I was paid what I was owed - yet management frequently feels the need to remind critics of that. Lmao, yes. I was paid what I was owed. No one is disputing payment. You did the bare minimum a business owner should do and paid everyone their due, very well done. I make no allegations of greed, cheating or foul play. I make allegations of poor management and incompetence that has fucked over other people.

Basically the only people left at Hard Drive have been there for about 2 months. They will reap the rewards of this successful Patreon I and so many others passionately fought for for so long. We will not see a dime.

I do not know the new people at Hard Drive, But I feel bad for them. They were haphazardly thrust into Hard Drive's workplace with little to no explanation on how anything works, or given any context on the state of the place. Even now managements feeds them half-truths and misinformation about other people's grievances. I am broke and have been for a while. I had to move out of my flat in Reading and back with my family because of how little money I was making. This has basically doomed my flatmate to moving back in with abusive parents, which is something I feel guilty about every day. If we had gone with the Patreon I worked myself hoarse over back then, this could have been avoided. Some of my other good pals could also not have been fucked over.

It was a bad judgment call, but it's not a crime. It's just management getting it wrong.

So should you give to the Hard Drive Patreon? I don't know! I don't think any of the new people working there to patch up the holes left by the recent mass exodus have any bad intentions. Maybe they deserve it! But it is not the same site you knew a year ago, or even a month ago. Myself and many people who were there far longer than me and did far more for it than I did are all gone now because we could not deal with management's terrible decision-making and dogass communication any longer. That's what you should know, imo

I had an agreement in place with management that I would receive the next 8 months of revenue from the Hard Drive YT channel from my leaving in November. This was a deal I appreciated, and thought was very fair on management's behalf. So far, the deal has been honoured for 2 months. However as of last night I was removed from the Hard Drive Slack without warning, and as an editor for the YouTube channel. This means I no longer have any way of verifying how much I am owed, I just have to take their word for it. I'm sure management will make their own statements full of half-truths and weird language on the many cases being brought against them - I'd take everything they say with a pinch of salt if some of the screenshots I've seen of them talking about me are any indication lol

To management; I do not want to talk to you. I want you to DM me a screenshot of how much I'm owed every month and then send me the money per our agreement until June, then we can go our separate ways. Do that and admit to your mistakes, and maybe you can recover your reputation! That's it from me, lol. If they pull out of the deal and fuck me over I'll have more to say, but most of what I know is other people's stories of incompetence and poor decision-making, lol. I genuinely get no pleasure out of doing this; I do not think management is evil - I just think they're really bad at what they do and it's cost other, more talented people, lol. You should believe the writers imo

One last thing I wanna say btw, management did often stress that no one should try to make Hard Drive a full time thing. They were transparent about that, and that is fair. I was working on it because at a few points, I was lead to believe we actually were doing a Patreon. Many other ppl have similar stories of being strung along by management changing their minds and stop-starting shit every 2 weeks. We all made the fatal mistake of overestimating our manager - who would tell you one thing one day and something totally opposite the next week lol

Hunter R. Thompson:

I'm not your dad, but speaking as a Hard Drive writer, I don't know that funding Hard Drive on Patreon is worth it

The driving talent on the back end—behind the kickass site I joined in 2019—have peaced out over the years as the site's been (in our view) increasingly mismanaged. Mismanagement like, not setting up crowdfunding before the ship sank and all its best crew failed; or publishing a screenshot of Andy Ngo pedojacketing a trans writer, complete with her deadname; or a disgruntled ex-writer getting falsely accused of shit-talk, by actual staff. I'm grateful for the writing I've gotten to produce for HD (and will forever be kicking myself for not writing even more, in the four years I've had to do it!! i'm a dumbass!!!) but it is very much no longer the site I signed up for.

I don't want to resign as a contributor altogether, because I'm open to the idea of the site recovering and bad practices being retired as finances level out-- it would just be dishonest for potential backers to not be Aware Of The Circumstances, I think.

Jeremy Kaplowitz: i truly don't want to start shit, but feel compelled to say: i want to see Hard Drive succeed w/o resorting to throwing former writers & editors, myself included, under the bus. surely there's a way to save the site without building it over the corpses of those who left. my $0.02 i don't blame anyone who wants to sign up for the HD patreon and i support the website, but that includes those who worked on it for years, have complaints, and don't deserve to be treated like bitter assholes like this kind of stuff is just objectively true, meanwhile there's these new writers who joined the site after i left (meaning, in the last ~3 months) claiming people are liars. decide for yourself if you care, but this is what happened! [Quotes this Tweet]

Seth Finkelstein: Writing for Hard Drive has been a privilege the past few years, and it makes me so angry to see people I looked up to get jerked around behind the scenes. The amount of grenades the editors jumped on our behalf is immense, and I don't think the way they're being treated is right.

Other Bits On AI: We do know for sure however that AI art has been used by the site. Its fucking owner confirms it here:https://twitter.com/MattSaincome/status/1743040541603123622. Seems the owner pushed AI written articles as well! TayFabe: My vaguetweet is making the rounds & these made me apoplectic. - owner regularly lobbied using ai. Once he tested it & said ai was writing better satire than 25% of the HT/HD writers. - ai images were used on the site & socials w/o consulting the team or disclosing it publicly I found the ai bit relevant to include bc 1) it illuminates a stark change in HD's current direction & leadership, 2) ai images have previously been used on the site and (since deleted) ig posts, 3) ai content fucking sucks, and repeatedly pushing to use it is a telling quality The "handful of writers who chose to leave" includes 2 editors-in-chief (both cofounders who wrote a combined total of >1,000 articles & defined the voice of HD), & at least 3 other editors. These guys put in WORK since 2017, so cool to be corrected by ppl who joined in Nov 2023 [Link to mentioned vague tweet from post.] More from TayFabe: owner continuously lobbied for using ai in every possible way. No one else wanted to do it, but he kept on, saying ai was writing better satire than 25% of the HT/HD writers. Also, ai images were used on the site & socials without public disclosure or consulting the team.

The owner has responded now multiple times in a private discord... Thank you for people sharing screenshots! First Screenshot:

Kevin's Response: He banned me from the server for speaking out, so no, I didn't see it. And he gave no indication of a timeline, it was just "we'll do one when *I* say so" and gave every inclination he was totally against it. It bred an environment that pushed our hands to have to leave. Screenshot Round Two:

Kevin's Response: "Starting one in 3 months" is an absolute lie. He denied it, I have screenshots and others who can confirm. No timeline was given. Just "this is what it is now" and like, I couldn't live off of that. I wanted to do more but he was allergic to good ideas from others around him.

Matt, owner of Hard Drive, responds publicly on Twitter.

Matt: Kevin, the patreon launch was delayed because I didn't think it would work. Everyone is happy that it did work. Everyone who left the site because we didn't have money to pay for creative content which didn't revenue is welcome to return home. But unclear why the hostility.

Hard Drive paid out literally every dollar it had, then a bunch more, to creative people who worked on the site. When we ran out of money, we couldn't pay anymore. We did our best.

Kevin: Right, and my point of this thread was that it was completely and totally avoidable. This is reasonable to be upset about. How could I have been any more clear?

Matt: If we knew with 100% certainly that the community would have supported us via patreon, we would have done that. We didn't know. We had tried 4 years ago and got no support. We were wrong this time. We did our best to figure it out. We paid all the money we could.

Kevin: So you knew with 100% certainty this time? Or you took a leap of faith?

Matt: It was a last gasp panic effort after ad rates got cut in half on january 1st due to seasonal spending changes. We didn't know it would work. We were embarrassed to ask for support. We wanted to figure it out.

Kevin: Every site has a Patreon. Every YouTuber, comedy group, etc. But you insisted that nobody cared about Hard Drive. Which is wildly untrue. I know you see that now, but again, I think you can see why I and many others are pretty upset. A last ditch panic effort was long overdue. A couple more things from Matt:

It was about the size of the hole we needed plugged budget wise, the time I had left of personal resources, and the past data I had about us trying a patreon (which turned out to be a bad indicator). I didn't think the Patreon would help us fast enough. I made a bad estimation

aka "if we make $1000 more dollars a month via patreon, which would be 10x what we got last time, we will not solve any of our problems. If instead we try to plow down path B, we might make it out in time." That was the thinking. I chose the wrong path, but didn't mean to Kevin also retweeted this comment from the user Matt was responding to: So you're saying that you're bad at running the business, didn't listen to any of your employees until after they were forced to leave their jobs, and now you're going to get more of the money from the Patreon that was their idea in the first place? Matt's Response: Respectfully, I made a mistake delaying the patreon decision. But keeping a comedy site alive for 9 years is not easy, there are lots of potential ideas, and think overall we've done a good and honorable job. Will leave this thread in peace now to allow people their space.

Sorry for linking to Elon's hellsite (derogatory), but sources need links so...

[chvoswxtch]

promotion

pairing: frank castle x fem!reader

summary: you and frank have to deal with the aftermath of his decision.

warnings: swearing, lots of angst, a lil surprise at the end ;)

word count: 4.6k

a/n: I can't believe that this is the second to last chapter of this series. pls excuse me while I go cry. as always, feedback is welcomed/appreciated!

[previous chapter] | [final chapter] | [series masterlist]

The last time you stepped foot in a hospital had been when your mom passed. When you walked that familiar path to her room that day, you hadn’t known then it would be the last time. You knew her fate was inevitable, and that it was coming, but you thought you had more time with her. You thought you would at least get a chance to say goodbye, but that final moment of closure had been stolen from you, just like the time you were supposed to have with her. 

That had been one of the worst days of your life, and now you were anxiously awaiting to find out if you were about to have your second, because Frank had been in a coma for the past forty eight hours and you had no idea if you were out of time with him too.

“You alright?”

In the midst of your brain cycling through the worst possible outcomes like some kind of fucked up lottery, you hadn’t heard the rhythmic tapping of a cane against the cold sterile floor. Lifting your head to the sound of the familiar voice, you just stared up at Matt for a moment. The red tinted sunglasses hid his sightless eyes, but there was a fresh bruise blooming on his left cheekbone. Knowing the shape Frank was in, you wondered how many of Matt’s injuries were hidden beneath his clothes.

“You want my honest answer, or you want me to lie to you?”

A wry smile tugged at the edge of his mouth.

“I’d know if you did.”

A faint furrow formed between your brows at that admission, and then a soft snort of disbelief left you as you shook your head and rubbed your hands tiredly down your face.

“Is that your secret to being a really good lawyer? Being a human lie detector?”

Matt shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, anxiously tightening his grip on his cane with both of his hands. His tongue darted out to wet his lips and he cocked his head slightly to the side.

“Can I ask you something?”

“What?”

After hesitating for a moment, Matt folded up his cane and took the empty seat next to you where you were waiting outside Frank’s hospital room. He leaned in a little closer, dropping the volume of his voice.

“How…how did you-”

“You have a very distinct voice, you know.”

Matt’s lips parted for a second as if to speak, and then he closed them a moment later. A dry chuckle suddenly sounded in his chest and his lips spread into an amused smile, causing faint dimples to appear within the dark grown out stubble covering his cheeks. 

“I don’t know whether to be flattered or concerned.”

“Why would you be concerned?”

“Because you know who I am now.”

Even though Matt wasn’t outright voicing his worry, you could hear it in the undertone of his voice. He must have been aware that you had written articles about the infamous Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, and now you knew the name of the man behind the horns. Letting out a deep exhale through your nose, you reached over and placed your hand on top of his, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“Yeah, I do. You’re my lawyer. You helped put my ex in prison for life after he almost got me killed. And, you’re also my friend, who just happens to have a…interesting choice in night time hobbies.”

Matt arched one of his dark brows, a hint of humor in his smooth voice.

“I don’t know if I’d call it a hobby. Hobbies are usually fun.”

“Matt, you helped save my life, and his.”

Matt was quiet for a moment before he turned his hand beneath yours, palm side up, and curled his fingers around the back of your hand, giving it a gentle squeeze when he spoke.

“Thank you.”

“Thank you.”

 A soft smirk gently graced the edge of lips as he nudged your shoulder with his own.

“You know, I’ve never had to work so hard to save two people in my life. Most people aren’t so stubborn and have at least some sense of self-preservation.”

“Okay, surely I wasn’t as bad as him-”

“Pretty close.”

Pressing your lips together, you rolled your eyes which earned a laugh from Matt, and he gave your hand another faint squeeze. After a comfortable silence fell over the two of you, he turned his head in your direction.

“You’re not gonna ask?”

“Ask what?”

Matt shifted in the chair and turned his body towards you, tilting his head to the side slightly when he heard the evident confusion in your voice.

“About me.”

Arching one of your brows in silent questioning, you looked at Matt curiously, and his own confusion was written clearly all over his face.

“I mean, everyone that’s found out has a lot of questions. You know, how does a blind man-”

“Matt, aliens came out of the sky and nearly destroyed New York. A giant purple asshole wiped out half the universe with a snap of his shiny rhinestoned glove, and then all those people magically came back five years later. Luke Cage has bulletproof skin. Jessica Jones is super strong. Thor is a literal norse god, Bruce Banner turns into a really big green guy, and according to Homeland Security, my boyfriend is a former homicidal maniac that is technically dead. No offense, but you being Daredevil is kind of low on my list of weird shit I have questions about.”

Matt was silent for a solid minute before a burst of laughter bubbled up and erupted from his chest. His lips spread into a wide tooth bearing grin, both of his dimples now deeply indented into his cheeks.

“Well, when you put it like that.”

Letting out a soft laugh of your own, you shook your head faintly. Matt opened his mouth to say something and then abruptly paused, turning his head towards the wall behind the both of you, his dark brows knit together. Your eyes flickered between the wall and the look of concentration on Matt’s face.

“What is it?”

“He’s awake.”

Matt barely finished his sentence before you let go of his hand and shot up out of your chair, rushing over to push open the door of Frank’s hospital room and step inside. Your heart was pounding in your ears and your hands were trembling watching Frank slowly regain consciousness, a soft pinch forming between his dark brows as he inhaled deeply through his large broken nose.

When his eyes finally fluttered open, you were already at his side. He blinked slowly a few times, faintly squinting as his eyes adjusted to the artificial light after being unconscious for two days. He glanced around the room in a state of hazy disorientation, but when his eyes eventually met yours, that blurry perplexity swiftly sharpened into clarity. For a minute, the two of you just silently stared at one another.

It was hard to see Frank like this, lying in a hospital bed, battered and broken. There were even more cuts and bruises he’d sustained after leaving you in that hallway. But even with the deep blooms of fresh bruises and the dark angry wounds that had begun to clot and heal on his face, he still looked every bit like the man you had fallen in love with.

Frank’s face was just as blank as it had been for the past two days while he was out. For a second you were worried that he had sustained some kind of head trauma the doctors had missed and that he was currently suffering from some form of amnesia, but you could see recognition in his eyes when he looked at you. He just wasn’t talking. You didn’t know if he was waiting for you to speak first or if he just didn’t know what to say after the way he’d left you, but you didn’t waste another second before firing off.

“Dinah told me about the deal you made with her. Were you ever gonna tell me?”

You didn’t bother trying to hide the anger on your face, or disguise it in your voice. For the past two days all you had been able to think about was the fact that Frank had told you he loved you and then left you behind, seemingly without intending to make it out of that situation with Billy alive. He had told you goodbye in that moment, and you had been too overwhelmed to realize it.

But when the shock faded, you were furious. 

The expression on Frank’s face was still unreadable, and the longer he went without speaking, the angrier you got. He stared at you for a moment before his gruff voice broke the tense silence.

“Yeah.”

“They found Schoonover and Rawlins both dead. Was that you?”

“Yeah.”

There wasn’t even a hint of remorse in his voice when he confirmed that he’d murdered two of his former superiors. It was firm and unwavering. Frank didn’t attempt to lie to you or defend his actions. He was completely unapologetic about it, just like he had been when he’d killed Cavella and Walker. Forty-eight hours ago, he’d wiped out Billy’s entire team like they were nothing, and there was no trace of guilt over it in his eyes.

You were still trying to reconcile the two versions of Frank in your head; the one you knew, and the one currently in front of you. The image of him in that bulletproof vest with the bloodied skull on his chest was seared into your memory.

“Why didn’t you kill Billy?”

Frank could hear the faintest of a waver in your voice, a break of raw emotion in your audible frustration and confusion. He turned his head to stare out the window on his left, though he didn’t appear to actually be looking at anything. There was a far away look in his eyes, but his face was as hard and cold as his rough voice.

“Dyin’s easy. He has to live with what he’s done.”

Letting out a dry scoff, you look a step closer towards Frank’s bed as your brows furrowed in disbelief.

“You think he’ll feel an ounce of remorse now?”

“I don't give a shit if he feels bad.”

Frank turned his head to look at you, displaying that familiar broody expression that you currently wanted to smack off of his face. He was looking at you like you’d just asked the most ridiculous question in the world.

“Every day he’s gonna look at that ugly, mangled face, and he’s gonna remember what he did. He’s gonna remember me. He's gonna spend the rest of his life rottin’ in a goddamn cell, knowin’ I put him there. Knowin’ that he had everything, and now he’s got nothin’-that he is nothin’. For him, that’s worse than dyin’.”

Revenge didn’t dull the sharp edge of Frank’s hatred for Billy, and it didn’t ease the grievance of his loss. If anything, it just seemed to rip open that wound even wider that had never really healed in the first place since that tragic day in Central Park. Getting vengeance on the three people who were the sole facilitators of his family’s murder didn’t bring Frank peace any more than wiping out all those men years ago did. Billy’s betrayal had twisted that knife further, cut Frank deeper, and you were afraid that it would never have a chance of healing now.

“Frank-”

“You uh…you should go.”

Those words were like a bucket of ice water being dumped onto your head, sobering your heartache and frustration. Frank wasn’t looking at you, and you couldn’t look at anything other than him. 

“What?”

The shock and disbelief rang clear in your breathless whisper, sounding as if the very wind had been knocked right out of your lungs, and it cut Frank to his core. He couldn’t look at you. He couldn’t see the hurt and perplexity on your face. He kept his gaze averted towards the window, a muscle feathering in his clenched bruised jaw.

“That deal I made with Madani, it’s over. She ain’t a miracle worker. She got me a second shot, she can’t get me a third one. And I don’t want it.”

“Frank-”

“You gotta walk away, Y/N. You gotta walk away, alright. You can’t…I’m not…you’re better off, alright. You’re just…you’re better off.”

“Don’t say that-”

“I am not the man you think I am, alright? I’m not. I…I’m just…”

Frank closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, and his large hands gripped the blanket so tightly that the bruises and cuts on his knuckles paled and went stark white. He muttered incoherently under his breath, letting out a shaky exhale, and when he opened his eyes they were blurry with loss and pain.

“I was done. I was…I was, I told Maria. I’d just gotten home the night before, and I woke up the next mornin’ and I was just…it hit me, ya’know? It was just time, ya’know? I wanted…I was done, I wanted to be with them. It’s where I shoulda been the whole time, ya’know? It just…I saw her face, and it hit me, and I just knew. I wasn’t goin’ back. And the kids, ya’know, I was…I was gonna tell ‘em that day. Tell ‘em that daddy wasn’t leavin’ anymore, that he was…he was stayin’.”

Frank’s tear filled eyes were darting back and forth as he stared off towards the window, his bruised and beaten face contorted in grief and guilt. The raw agony cracking in his quiet voice and the sound of him struggling to suck in a breath had you reaching out to grip onto his hand as heartbroken tears slipped down your own face. Seeing the tears slip down his face when Billy confessed to being involved in his family’s murder had gutted you, but seeing Frank cry like this…you could physically feel it breaking your heart.

“That day we went to the park, ya’know the kids, they were too old for that stupid carousel, but they just laughed and laughed and…ya’know they were smilin’ and so happy. And I was…I was too, ya’know. I was home, I was…I was with them, and I was stayin’, but I…I didn’t get to tell ‘em. And it’s my fault they’re gone. It was…it was my bullshit. I got them killed, and I nearly got you killed and I can’t…I can’t do that again, Y/N, I can’t.”

Out of all the things you were expecting Frank to say when he finally woke up, this wasn’t it. This was not how you’d imagined this conversation going. Your heart ached seeing Frank so distraught and hearing the pure anguish in his voice. You couldn’t even begin to imagine the weight of his trauma or the sting of that suffering, and you knew why he was afraid, but this couldn’t be it. It just couldn’t. Not after everything you had been through together.

When he started to push you away for a second time, something within you snapped, and it set your bloodstream ablaze.

“No.”

“Y/N-”

“No.”

Frank snapped his head up in your direction when you yelled at him. You’d lost your temper with him before, but not like this. The sheer force behind your voice and the fire burning in your eyes caught him off guard. 

“You don’t get to do that.”

Hearing the accusation in your tone, the melancholy lingering along his bottom lash line faded and his face shifted into an expression of crestfallen puzzlement. 

“You don’t get to tell me that you love me and then push me away.”

Frank’s dark brows knit together suddenly, frustration creasing along his forehead as he looked up at you and spoke in a defensive tone.

“Hey, I do love you. That’s why I’m pushin’ you away, don’t you get that? I’m not draggin’ you down with me-”

“Oh so I don't get a say in this anymore? That’s it? You’re just giving up?”

“I’m doin’ what’s best for you-”

“That’s bullshit!”

Frank watched as you let out a dry and incredulous short laugh void of any humor. His brown eyes tracked you as you walked towards the end of his hospital bed, furiously pacing and stressfully running your hands through your hair. He let out a deep exhale through his large broken nose and shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment as his face twisted up in anguish. 

“Oh c’mon Y/N. Look I know you, alright? I know that you’re brave and you’re smart and you’re strong, but you are so goddamn stubborn and I cannot let you throw everything away for me.”

“So it's okay for you to risk everything, but not me?”

Frank’s features were contorted in exasperation tinged with frustration when he finally looked at you, and your own features were a convoluted tangle of irritation, despair, and treachery.

“C’mon, don’t do that, alright? It is not the same thing-”

“You’re not even gonna try-”

“You know what I am now, alright? You know what I did.”

The hardened edge to Frank’s rough voice caused any rebuttal to lodge in your throat. He was making you face it. That complicated truth you’d been wrestling with and trying to hide from, he was shining a light right on it and shoving it right in your face without mercy.

“I did it. I murdered all those people. That’s my life, that’s my world, and that’s what I do. You really wanna be a part of that?”

The familiar sting of saltwater started to burn in your weary eyes. Frank’s aggressive demeanor visibly softened seeing the glossy evidence of how he’d upset you. He was being a relentless asshole, and he knew it, but he thought it was for the best. The further away you were from him, the safer you were. 

When you turned away from him, it tore through the remaining thin strings keeping Frank’s heart together. A faint sheen glimmered in his own eyes as he looked at the back of your head, and a devastating silence fell over the room. This time when he spoke, his voice came out quieter and much more gentle as he tried to reason with you.

“C’mon sweetheart, you…you know who I am-”

“I know you’re the man that’s saved my life more times than I can count.”

Turning back around, you looked at Frank with a heavy wave of tears threatening to spill over your lash line at any moment.

“And you’re the only person that I've ever been able to depend on, besides myself.”

There was a pleading look in Frank’s warm glossy brown eyes when he whispered your name, but you couldn’t stop.

“I know you’re the only person that’s ever taken the time to truly understand me. You listen to me. You support me and encourage me. You actually read my work. You put up with my shitty mood swings. You’re patient with me, even when I don’t deserve it. You remember things that I tell you. You make me laugh as much as you make me wanna rip my hair out. You frustrate me more than any person I have ever met in my entire life, and you push buttons that I didn't even know I had, but I have never felt happier than I do when I’m with you.”

Letting a few stray tears fall, you walked slowly around the edge of Frank’s bed, coming to stand by his side as you looked down into his warm brown eyes. 

“I told you months ago, I’m safer with you. I meant it then, and I still mean it now. Okay everything…everything that’s happened…who you were…it doesn’t matter, okay? It doesn’t change anything, not for me. It doesn’t change how I see you or how I feel about you. Okay, it doesn’t change the fact that I-”

Your breath caught in your throat as the words that had been buried in your chest clawed their way to the surface. You had known since that day at the cabin. Deep down, a part of you had always known. In the midst of waiting for the perfect moment to finally say those words, and hiding from them in fear of saying them out loud, you almost didn’t get the chance to. For the last forty-eight hours, you’d been haunted by your own mistake. 

You knew better. You knew time was too precious. You never got to tell your mom you loved her one last time, and you’d been so paralyzed by your own apprehension, you almost never got to tell Frank at all. You swore to yourself that if he woke up, if you got the chance, you weren’t going to waste it. 

“-that I love you.”

Sometimes when Frank looked at you, it felt like he could see right into your soul, and at this very moment you wanted that to be true, because you desperately wanted him to know that’s where these words were coming from. You wanted him to feel it. 

Frank swallowed thickly when he heard the crack in your voice, the irrevocable emotion in it,  saying those words he didn’t think he deserved to hear. For a moment he was speechless, and all he could do was stare into your teary gaze. 

Finally speaking the words that had been lingering in your heart for so long felt like a weight being lifted off your chest. You had been terrified that you would never get to say it back, that Frank would never know just how much you loved him. Now, you weren’t going to let him forget it. You weren’t going to let him push you away because of how he felt about himself. You weren’t going to let his past, or anything else, come between you. Not after all this time and everything the two of you had gone through just to get here.

When he opened his mouth to speak, you shook your head and cut him off.

“No. I don’t want to hear any more of this shit about walking away, because that’s not fucking happening. We’re gonna figure this out, and we’re gonna do it together. Do you understand me?”

Frank’s face fell slightly as he looked up at you, giving a subtle shake of his head with an apologetic look shining in his soft brown eyes.

“Sweetheart…there ain’t no warm, cozy ending. Not for me. Alright, when it gets out-”

“Do you really think Homeland Security is going to let it leak that they were involved in a cover up for the Punisher?”

Frank lightly clenched his jaw as he looked up at you, his eyes flickering over your face. That name had never bothered him when the media gave it to him, or when anyone else referred to him by it, but hearing it from you made his stomach twist with shame.

“Dinah doesn’t need to perform any miracles because not a single fucking person in that department is going to hang themselves out to dry like that. Homeland already has their story about what happened, and none of Billy's men are alive to contest it.”

“There’s Bill.”

“You cracked his head like a goddamn egg and his jaw is wired shut. Even when he heals, with they evidence they found on him, no one is going to listen to a fucking thing that comes out of his mouth. And Dinah is making it her personal mission from God to convict him with as many life sentences as New York will legally allow. So what’s your next excuse?”

Frank arched one of his dark brows at your snappy tone, noticing that the sadness that had previously been lingering on your face completely transitioned into a familiar expression of firm stubbornness he was used to seeing in you. His eyes dropped down to take in the way you’d placed your hands on your hips, a stance of yours he’d come to associate with defiance and rebellion. Flickering his gaze up to meet your challenging stare, amusement faintly crinkled around his eyes. 

“Guess you got it all figured out, huh?”

“You were unconscious for two days.”

Frank let out of a puff of air past his lips at your deadpan response. Glancing away for a moment, he slowly shook his head before looking back up at you, his warm brown eyes roving over your figure. Cocking his head to the side, his tongue darted out to wet his lips as the ghost of a smirk tugged at the edge of his mouth.

“Ya’know, you’re kinda scary when you’re all pissed off. Sexy, but scary as hell. Anybody ever tell ya that?”

“If you think I'm scary, you should see my boyfriend.”

Frank straightened up a little as he looked at you, his warm brown eyes searching your gaze deeply. After a moment, he dropped his head to look down at the gray thin blanket covering his lower half, brushing his thumb over the clear plastic tube connected to the I.V. in his arm.

“You’re still lettin’ me keep that title, huh?”

Frank’s voice was quiet when he spoke, almost hesitant. Crossing your arms over your chest, you turned your head for a moment as you looked around the hospital room, dragging your teeth along your bottom lip before looking back down at him with a faint shrug of your shoulders.

“I can always demote you back to bodyguard, but I'm not paying you.”

Frank let out a deep chuckle, faint crinkles appearing around his eyes as he gave a subtle shake of his head.

“Nah, I don't want that.”

Lifting his head to look up at you again, his warm brown eyes flickered over your face. He slowly reached out to grab your arm and gave it a gentle tug, prompting you to uncross your arms. His warm calloused hand gradually caressed your arm from your elbow down to your wrist, taking your hand to hold gently, but tightly, like he needed your touch to ground himself in this moment, and to anchor himself to the idea that you still wanted him.

He couldn’t wrap his head around it, and you could see a flicker of hesitation in his concentrated gaze as he stared down at your hand, brushing his thumb along the back of it. Letting out a soft exhale through your nose, you gave his hand a faint squeeze of reassurance, and you opened your mouth to speak, but abruptly paused when you saw Frank slip his free hand down beneath the collar of his hospital gown. His hand was in a loose fist when he pulled it back out, slipping the chain from around his neck and over his head. When he opened his palm, he stared down at the gold wedding band silently.

A soft crease of confusion nestled between your brows when he let go of your hand, but before you could say anything, he reached for your left hand and pulled it towards his chest. A sharp gasp caught in your throat when Frank slowly slipped the golden band onto your ring finger, brushing his thumb over it gently. It was entirely too large for your finger, but Frank grasped your hand in his gently so the ring wouldn’t slip off. 

Lifting his head to meet your stunned expression, there was a softness in his warm brown eyes and a nervous smile on his lips as he lightly squeezed your hand. He guided your palm to rest on his chest over his heart and covered it with his other hand.

“Think I’d like a promotion better.”

tags: @thyme-in-a-bubble @day-dreaming-goddess @messymissy @itwasthereaminuteago @strawberry1042 @queenofthenoobs @wanda2themax @xcastawayherosx @avengerstower-houseplant @stevenknightmarc @ponyosmom35 @babygal-babygal @wellwwhynot @oldermenaremyreligion @combustiblemeow @tired-night-owl @fairykiss32 @danzer8705 @calkissed @fxckahs-blog @lemon-world1 @polskiperson @imperihoe @v4leoftears @harperdoodle @spideyvibez @joalslibrary @cherry-berry-ollie @sorrowfulfragmentation @kdogreads @sumo-b98 @blackhawksfanatic @gloryekaterina @whistle1whistle @starbritestarlite @callmebrooklynbabes @hallway5 @scarletfvckingwitch @bifuriouslatina @soupyspence @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @wonwoosthetic @linguist-breakaribecca @nerdytreeflower @mrs-bellingham @smhnxdiii @s3riou2 @slavic-empress

[hiraizyo]

i’ve been thinking only of you.

synopsis — the lines between your agreement with daniela begin to blur the longer it continues, causing serious confusion of feelings.

friends with benefits, slight fluff, jealous!dani, lesserafim 6th member!reader

now playing: woo, by rihanna

a/n: here y’all go! this is a little longer than i expected, so i split it up into three parts :) the second part should be up in a few days. there’s also slight kazuha x reader, also not proofread!

when you first met daniela avanzini, it was during lesserafim’s surprise greeting with the dream academy girls. from the moment you stepped foot into the dance room, you couldn’t keep your eyes off her.

the second time you met her was after the katseye members had been announced, and your group had promotions to do in america. yunjin, being the social butterfly she is, arranged for the two groups to meet up during a free day within your schedule.

you and daniela hit it off immediately. spending the whole day side by side, wandering off together while the other girls waited in line for a carnival ride, clinging onto each others arms. by the end of your little outing, you and daniela had exchanged numbers, texting each other when you had the chance despite the time difference and the busy schedules.

the third time you saw one another, katseye had come to south korea. upon hearing this news, daniela immediately set up a date for the two of you to hang out together.

that day, while it was only you and her in the room of your dorm, the dynamic shifted. you now saw her in a different light. there was something about her that kept you entranced, wanting to feel her close, her body against yours.

this marked the beginning of your agreement.

you understood each other — the busy schedules, the overworking, the long hours of learning and practicing choreography, all the time spent in the studio. the stress of being in a girl group allowed for you and her to take it out on one another in the best way possible; ravishing her body as she would do to yours.

the rules were simple. you were not to tell anyone about the arrangement, nor were you allowed to leave any evidence of being together. that meant no hickeys, no scratch marks, no leaving clothes at each other’s dorms, and no staying the night.

to the public and group members, you were simply good friends. but behind closed doors, that was when the truth about you and daniela came out, allowing for your deepest desires to rise above the surface.

at first, it was easy.

months had gone by without a single slip up, meeting one another whenever either of you were in the same country. although as time went on, neither of you could deny you were falling deeper into each other, no matter how much of an attempt there was to hide it.

but you had to remind yourselves that this was all fun and games, nothing was to be taken seriously.

the first time daniela could feel the strings of her heart being tugged was the when you had broken one of the rules. you knew it was dangerous territory, but it was late, and daniela’s bed was even more comfortable than you remember. the kats’ would be out for a few more hours, and the moment they were out the door she was calling you over, the empty place allowing for you and her to have as much fun as you could.

the latino shifted to lay on her stomach beside you, leaning up her forearms that were tucked under a pillow. you lay with your head facing up, one hand tucked behind your head while the other rests atop your stomach, body being covered by the sheet.

daniela gazed at you, her eyes tracing over your neck and collarbones. “do you want to stay the night?” she asked, quietly.

you looked at the girl, her lips bruised and her curls a mess. it was silent for a moment, as daniela watched you think over her proposal.

“dani, i shouldn’t…” you whispered, voice hoarse.

you turned to look for the nearest article of clothing you could find, knowing where this was leading. it caused you to run a hand through your hair, avoiding her gaze. daniela brought up a hand to rest on your shoulder, her touch warm.

“i know we have all the rules, but this won’t mean anything.” she insisted, her nails raking over your skin. “c’mon, it’s late, and it’s dark out.”

you sighed, staring at her for a moment. “fine.”

realizing she had won you over, daniela smiled, her pearly white teeth on display. she shuffled closer to place a kiss on your cheek, earning a chuckle from you.

you moved your hand away from behind your head until it rested on her lower back, tapping your pinky and ring finger just above her ass.

“but we should get dressed at least, i doubt manon will let you live this down if she finds us naked and sleeping together.” you told her, cheeky smile in place.

she nodded, understanding where you were coming from. and when she moved off the bed to search for hers and your clothing that had been wildly scattered around the room, you couldn’t help but shamelessly stare at her body.

the following morning, while the rest of the girls were all in their rooms still sound asleep, you and daniela stood in the kitchen of the katseye house. it was early in the day, but you needed to be back at the hotel lesserafim was staying at before leaving for you scheduled plans.

you pecked daniela’s lips, tasting the remnants of the coffee she had finished. “thank you for breakfast.”

“you’re welcome.” she grinned, trailing her hands up until they wrapped around your neck and kissed you again.

you smiled into the kiss, letting yourself relax in the intimate moment, until you remembered where you were.

you pulled away, alarm clear in your eyes. “aren’t you worried about the girls?”

daniela played with your baby hairs as she smirked. her lips ghosted over yours, whispering, “we’re sneaking around, this is what makes it fun.”

before you could speak again, she shut you up with another kiss. rough and fast paced, you kissed one another with passion as you knew this would be the last time you’d see one another for a while. her hands tangled in your hair, while yours gripped her waist tightly.

a few more seconds went by, and when you finally separated both of your cheeks were flushed, chests moving up and down in quick motion.

daniela bit her lip, moving her hands down until she was holding onto the chain of your necklace, twisting it between her fingers. “this is cute.”

“you think so?” you glanced down at the necklace briefly, smiling when you saw the latina nod.

you moved her hands away from you, letting them go and reaching behind your neck to unclasp the necklace. with ease, you placed it around her neck, and fastened the necklace. it dropped around her neck, hanging loosely as you settled your hands on her shoulders.

“you should have it.” you told her, brushing her hair behind her shoulders to admire the way the necklace looked on her.

daniela looked at you with a blush, her eyes shining with wonderment. she could feel her body fill with warmth, her stomach fluttering.

for a moment, everything around you stilled in place as you stared at the stars in her eyes.

she lightly pushed against your chest, her heart stuttering at the brief intimate moment. clearing your throat, you took a quick look at the clock hanging in the wall, realizing you’d have to leave now before chaewon would start calling your phone.

“i’ll see you in a couple weeks.” you told her once you were standing outside the door.

daniela was leaning against the doorframe, nodding along as she said her final goodbyes. she watched as you walked off, back now facing her.

when she made her way back to the kitchen, she was playing with your necklace absentmindedly, not noticing megan standing by the coffee machine, yawning.

“morning.” daniela greeted her, cleaning up the cups and plates from having breakfast with you.

“oh, hey.” megan replied, watching her friend move around the kitchen. “did yn just leave?”

“yup.” the latina nodded, and began running water in the sink for the dishes. “she said she needed to get back or else chaewon would have her head.” daniela laughed, remembering the description you gave her of seeing chaewon angry, like a young puppy.

megan positively shook her head, moving around the kitchen silently as she opened the draw for a tea spoon and some sugar from the cupboard. she made her cup of coffee quickly, stirring the drink together with milk.

“you guys are getting really close.” the ginger noted, taking a small sip of her drink after blowing on it.

daniela could feel a heart a skip a beat, wondering if megan has any suspicions of your agreement. she wiped her hands on a hand towel, facing her friend with a small smile, leaning against the counter, trying to seem as comfortable as possible.

“yeah, i mean, we’re becoming good friends.” daniela said, coughing lightly. she subtly breathed in a deep breath, trying to control her heart rate.

megan took another sip, tapping her finger on the side of the mug as she set it down on the kitchen island. “i take it you know about kazuha then.”

daniela tilted her head, curiosity now creeping in on her. “what?”

her eyebrows were creased together in interest. the reaction told megan that she was unaware, but the ginger didn’t think much of it as she continued with her story.

“yn and kazuha?” she leaned to rest her chin on her hand that was on the counter. “they had a thing a while back. i don’t know much of the details, but yunjin was telling me about it cause she’s worried it’s starting up again.”

daniela froze, her body running cold.

what the fuck was megan talking about?

the latina had never heard about you and kazuha being a thing. not once had you mentioned it to her, and she didn’t pick up on any weird vibes between you two when lesserafim and katseye were together a couple months ago.

she forced a smile. “yeah, no, uhm… i-i heard about it. little things, here and there.” she lied, her focus wavered as she stared in front of her.

megan hummed before beginning to talk about the events of the day. the group would be going into the studio, preparing for a new release. daniela, on the other hand, drowned out her words.

nakamura kazuha. you and kazuha. when did this happen? how long ago? and was it like what you and daniela were doing now? or was it something more?

she shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. she decided it wasn’t worth her time, and daniela knew if you didn’t saying anything about you and japanese girl then it was for good reason.

daniela never considered herself a jealous person.

she was secure enough to not be bothered by feelings like that. she knew she was a catch, and that anyone would be lucky to be with her. she was confident in herself, in her abilities, in her way to easily make any person fall in love with her.

so why was she so pressed about kazuha?

daniela didn’t want it to worry her, but the more she thought about it, the more a fire began to burn in her chest. the tight, hot feeling spread through her body as she watched a past live on her phone. staring back at her, was a video focused on you and the japanese from a couple days ago, when lesserafim had done group live.

kazuha sat in between you and eunchae, wearing a checkered flannel that showed this was a pretty casual and last minute decision to go live. beside her, you wore a black sweatshirt, with matching black sweatpants. daniela couldn’t help but stare, thinking you looked absolutely stunning despite the low effort outfit.

the japanese girl lay her head on your shoulder, laughing at something yunjin was saying in the background. daniela wasn’t taking note of anything, solely focused on the interactions between you and the other girl.

her jaw clenched as she watched you intertwine your hand together with hers, leaning your head back against the wall.

her attention shifted once yunjin’s forehead came into the frame, reading some of the comments. the american chuckled to herself, looking back at you and then at the phone once again. “yn, some one asked ‘is it true that you have a soft spot for kazuha?’” yunjin leaned away, gasping and pointing, “yes! fearnots, is it sooo true!”

your free hand was quick to rise up in the hair, shaking it violently. “that is not, jennifer! i love all my members equally!”

eunchae swat your arm playfully, her wide smile showing that she was clearly joking, but the rage daniela felt inside her didn’t see this as a joke.

“unnie, don’t lie!” she cackled, “i’ve seen it with my own eyes, anything i ask for you say no. but if zuha-unnie asks you’re immediately saying yes!”

the maknae nodded enthusiastically, trying to make it seem as if she wasn’t making this up. you shook your head, rolling your eyes at your youngest members antics.

chaewon chimed in, “remember that time we wanted to go out to eat, but yn said she was too tired? then when kazuha spoke about it, she was the first one out the door!”

the three girls all laughed, collectively shouting over one another as they recalled the memory. sakura tried her best to calm them down, trying to do some damage control.

daniela continued to watch as you weakly defended yourself, while kazuha pulled you into her and whispered in your ear. your cheeks flushed pink, then you snuggled closer to her, and daniela wondered to herself what the girl told you in that moment.

she locked her phone, the video cutting out and all she was left in was the silence of her thoughts. daniela had a sour expression, dropping her phone on the bed and turning to lay on her back.

she thought over the conversation with megan. what did she mean when she said yunjin was worried about things starting up again between you and kazuha?

“oh, for fucks sakes.” daniela groaned, running a hand through her hair.

manon heard her sound of displeasure as she walked into their shared room, closing the door behind her. “what’s got you so fired up?”

daniela rolled her eyes, “nothing.” she huffed, voice sharp. it was a little more aggressive than she intended, earning a teasing smile from her roommate.

“damn, who pissed in your cereal?” the girl chuckled, walking over to her side of the room and looking around in her closet.

daniela glared at the back of her friend, digging her nails into her hand. she didn’t reply, knowing that she would end up saying something she didn’t mean.

the sound of her ringtone caught her attention. she reached for her phone, sitting up in bed and saw your name flash across the screen.

for a second, her anger washed away.

she bit her lip, contemplating her thoughts. daniela’s gaze switched between her phone and manon, deciding to walk out the room in search for a more private space.

“hey,” she said as soon as she answered.

“hi pretty girl.” your voice came through the phone, as daniela sat on the couch. she made sure no one was around, playing with your necklace.

“why’d you call?” daniela asked. her mind was still focused on the live she had seen, the necklace now feeling like a cold burn on her skin.

you laughed lowly, “i wanted to talk to you, hear your voice.”

the words flowed easily off your lips, as if it meant nothing to you. but to daniela, it made her feel special. you wanted to talk to her, even if hours prior you were in the arms of kazuha.

she felt her lips tug upwards, a small smile in place. it did little to overshadow the jealousy she felt, but she had no right to feel this way. she knew that.

“well, you’re hearing it now.” she replied, masking her feelings. “wait— isn’t it late over there by you?”

her concern was valid, knowing the time difference was quite large. it made it difficult to communicate at times, but you and daniela worked around it as much as possible.

you shuffled around your room, the noise being heard on daniela’s end of the call. “don’t worry about that.” you told her, settling into your bed. “so, i’m coming to LA next week for a few photoshoots. i was hoping we could see each other again.”

daniela’s heart stuttered. here she was, being jealous of you and your group member, but all you wanted to do was see her. it had been over a month and half since the last time you’d been together, and you missed her much more than you’d like to admit.

“uh, i don’t know. i’ll have to check my schedule first.” daniela brushed off her nervous feeling, dismissing you completely.

“oh,” you mumbled, voice dropping. “i’m flying in on the thursday, but the saturday is one of my off days. do you think that’ll work for you?”

daniela let your necklace drop from her hand, instead picking at a loose thread of a couch pillow. “i was supposed to go out with lara on saturday.”

you swallowed, feeling a weird sensation in your chest at the mention of the girl. “ooh, replacing me now, are you?”

daniela giggled, moving the phone to her other hand so that she could press to her left ear. “maybe,” she played into your teasing. “does that bother you?”

“not at all.” you grinned, flexing your hand as you stared at it. “as long as i get to have you by the nighttime, it all works out.”

the latina pouted, “so, you’re just using me for sex?”

you chuckled, “was i being that obvious?”

she gasped at your words, and you could already imagine the mock offended look on her face. you laughed even more at the image you had in your head.

“that was such an douche move.” she scolded, her smile widening as she tried to sound upset. “you can forget about seeing me!”

“oh, come on,” you sighed heavily for dramatic effect. “i was only kidding. you’re much more to me than sex, babe.”

daniela paused her breathing, wishing what you had said was true. she blinked a couple times, distracting herself so that she wouldn’t face the truth of her feelings.

“you still there?” your voice cuts into her thoughts, reminding her of what was happening.

“yeah, sorry.” she mumbled. daniela cracked her knuckles of her right hand with her thumb. “uh— saturday works.”

“great!” you exclaimed, turning to lay on your side. “i have a little surprise, just so you know.”

before daniela could ask any further questions, you let her know that you were going to sleep, needing to be up early in the morning. she wished you a goodnight, and was left staring down at the material of the couch.

she wasn’t jealous, she couldn’t be. and she wasn’t allowed to be either, you weren’t hers, nor you were anything serious.

it was a harsh reminder that she chanted in her head, even when she restlessly lay in bed later than night, struggling to fall asleep.

i don’t know if i like this??

also felt like it was getting a little long and i lowk struggle with writing long imagines (personal preference) butttt i have some more ideas for the plot to progress, thats why i split it up into 3 parts :)

[anamericangirl]

A South Carolinan woman was arrested and held for 22 days in jail after being initially denied bond, but eventually released with an ankle monitor, after suffering a miscarriage of a wanted daughter in the second trimester and being charged with murder.

This is the horror of criminalizing abortion. Jail time for a miscarriage.

It's great that y'all send me these stories because the lies you and the media spread need to be exposed and I'm happy to be the one to expose you as the liar you are.

And I'm done being nice about this. Just so you know, spitting lies in my inbox doesn't work on me because I actually read the stories and will provide the context you maliciously leave out and show everyone that pro-aborts like you never tell the truth.

First of all, the story you are referring is about a woman named Amari Marsh and what actually happened here was she woke up in the middle of the night in a lot of pain and went to the bathroom where she gave birth to a live baby over the toilet.

Her boyfriend called 911 and dispatcher repeatedly told her to get the baby, who was still alive, out of the toilet but no one did. And the reason she gave for ignoring the dispatcher and just leaving her child to drown in the toilet was "“I couldn’t because I couldn’t even keep myself together.”

When the emergency responders arrived the baby was still in the toilet and still alive. They attempted to perform life saving procedures and rushed the baby to the hospital but sadly, the baby died while at the hospital.

The reason she was arrested is because she failed to remove her living daughter from the toilet as she was instructed to do several times by the dispatcher which ended up being "a proximate cause of her daughter’s death."

Anti-abortion laws had nothing to do with this case and the CNN article that reports on this story even includes that admission from the prosecutor even though it's at the end because, like you, they are liars and want people to believe this is somehow the fault of abortion bans when it's not.

So tell me, what do abortion laws have to do with this? What anti-abortion law is responsible for the death of a baby that was born alive?

This baby was born alive and her mother left her to die in the toilet. So she should not be charged for that?

And also, just going to add people like you always claim infanticide has nothing do with abortion and y'all are still laughing at Donald Trump for talking about babies being left to die after birth following failed abortions because iT dOeSnT't HaPpEn but here we have a case of it happening. This baby was born alive and left to die. This was a case of infanticide and you pro-aborts are immediately blaming anti-abortion laws but I thought abortion and infanticide aren't related so how come they are in this case?

Anyway, you should feel bad about how you presented this story. You should be ashamed of yourself for either being willing to lie to promote murder or being too lazy and stupid to actually read about the case before spreading blatant disinformation.

I know me responding to you with what really happened will not change anything for you and you will continue to lie and spread disinformation because the reason you are willing to do that in the first place is a serious flaw in your character that will only change when you decide to be a better person but at the very least people reading this will know not to ever trust these claims from pro-aborts because it's always a lie.

So please keep sending these because it helps everyone see that pro-aborts are bad people who lie about everything.

[lovelaetter]

https://youtu.be/T9uQzj1-I5k?si=tQzcmpNYzVy3cDQs i cant get over how good she looks lately but THIS interview i’m actually foaming at the mouth

aside from loving the concept of her being so open about past relationships…the sick part of me is obsessed with the idea of rosie being in a toxic relationship because it just fits her so well. i can imagine her in a situationship but not being able to detach because 1) she’s needy and attatched, and 2) gets fucked right so its worth it.

i just want her to cry and yell in my face, throwing stuff around, literally going batshit crazy just for her to come back in a week to say sorry with *that* look on her face to get her pussy stuffed, craving your fingers or getting dicked down (g!p) cause she “can’t do it herself.”

on-and-off relationships with her, being possessive and controlling over her when she’s in different cities - whether its for her little ysl shows, or music promotions, asking who she's with, adding in a certain comment about the skin she shows, acting like she hates it but deep down knows she loves being your fixation cuz it feeds her ego lol

loving being mean to her because she knows how to take it (and *other* things) and sometimes getting an earful back, just for both of you to end up in bed tearing each other apart. like, you getting upset about her writing a song in her album, calling you out subtly on your guys' relationship, fighting in the studio in front of her team, 'embarrassing' her just for kick everyone out so you can fuck right then and there because seeing you angry gets her feeling a way oops maybe i just like arguing - 🥀

😵‍💫😵‍💫

okay but what if: you also being someone in the industry, not necessarily a singer, could an actress, a director, a writer, just both sides being put out there by you and being equally messy, you know, equal rights and people love being nosy and everyone is like this is the worst relationship ever but the next day there’s an article saying how you got back together and people simply can’t be on anyone’s side, you both are the worst !!

look, i don’t have a thing for cheating, i hate it actually, awful thing, but it’s fitting here, let’s be real. her going full taylor swift and admitting on cheating on you on her album? exactly. the drama, just sitting in her room waiting for your call or worse, for you to bang at her door mad as fuck but instead you just text her like “okay girl i fucked someone too so what lol” BUT THE THING IS you are mad, yes, you cheated, but you ARE mad and playing it cool and now so is she and it triggers this week long ass fight that culminates in, not joking, weekend long sex, the type your agent calls you because you have schedule to follow and you pick it up just to tell them to fuck off, change of plans, more important things showed up— blondie on your door looking so pissed but also wearing the most “visiting my not-so-ex-girlfriend-we-complicated to scream some facts at her but also let her know i need to feel her deep inside me” outfit she could find. and the thing you said about controlling her? omg, doing it here, the subject the discussion you are having quickly changing once you take a proper look at whatever she’s wearing with a “and what the fuck is that?” and her being sooo entitled saying “well, i have places to be” and it’s like “you do?” “yeah” “yeah?” “uh-hm” until you are already too close to her and she has nowhere to run once your hands get on her like she’s a doll. you actually loved her outfit, she looks so hot as always, and deep down you know she did it just for you… but you simply wouldn’t let her win this game.

her people probably would think she is dead or something during all weekend unless they are smart enough to contact someone that works with you because she would tell her manager oh i’m visiting someone and just leave and they wouldn’t be able to reach her as the whole time her phone is inside her bag turned off and she’s busy laying belly down with her pretty face being into the pillows and spread out, moaning and crying out for you to (not) give her holes a break, pussy leaking around four fingers and pushing up every time you tease her little asshole.

sex so good it has you apologizing to each other by the end, hands between the other’s thighs, her mouth on your tits, awkwardly muttering “sorry” against your skin.

[cordycepsfem]

Play With It

So I'm reading this book, Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America, by Wendy A. Woloson, mostly because I'm fascinated by collectors and how things like Beanie Babies and Precious Moments figurines became huge in the market. I just started the chapter on novelties, gag gifts, joke things like exploding cigars - you know the stuff.

And I was not expecting genuine exploration of "gendered stuff" in this book, but there it was, and damn, was it a punch in the chest. It made me realize exactly why I'd always hated pranks.

In the 1883 book Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa, George Peck argued that the "best" boys are "full of tricks." He explained, "Those who are the readiest to play innocent jokes... are most apt to turn out to be first-class businessmen." Pranking showed a high-spiritedness, a willingness to take risks, and most important, the drive to show oneself as top dog. Perpetuating practical jokes on each other was a way for the best and the brightest to establish hierarchies within bonded groups in the guise of good-natured fun.

The pranks themselves were violations; the "conspiracy" that brought about public embarrassment made them doubly so. The point of performances with theaters of aggression was to distinguish the people who were in on the joke - witnesses and collaborators - from the humiliated, who were not... Likewise, boys could have fun "scaring your mother, uncle and aunts and the neighbors" with the Tarantula (a.k.a. Mexican Spider). Just when the "victim" was starting to smile, a button on the Royal Novelty Company's Squirting Camera could be pushed, releasing "a good squirt of water." "Boys, this is the very best joke and causes no end of fun and laughter," the company promised... The "fun commenced" with the Girl Catcher only after a girl inserted her finger into one end: "No matter how hard she pulls she cannot get away! The harder she pulls the tighter it holds. When you are ready to release her she can get her finger out easily, but not before." Jokes and gags of this sort created "disruptive" and "provocative" situations that ultimately reinforced the status quo... many jokes and gags involved a distinct gender component. Jokes like Girl Catchers and Squirting Cameras gave boys license to dominate girls as they would later dominate women. What was more, these jokes made girls complicit in their own humiliation, since perpetrators needed ready victims who, because of habits of politeness and deference, would have to be good sports. Although there was nothing preventing girls from buying and deploying novelty goods, they were told in so many ways that this was not their world. Humor and play belonged to boys more than them. Despite the promise of "fun for all," joke and gag articles were in truth a boy's (and man's) game, and pranking reinforced gender hierarchies. Boys (and men) did things while girls (and women) looked on. Further, boys (and men) had the power - physically, culturally - to do things to girls (and women)... pranking reinforced the widely held assumption that the fairer sex did not possess an innate sense of humor; women didn't even have a legitimate reason for engaging in humorous activities in the first place.

These small consumables opened boys to expansive worlds of limitless possibilities far beyond the confines of the home and its stifling domesticity. Merchandise evoking wonderment, curiosity, and acquisitiveness put within boys' reach, often quite literally, fun, exciting, new, and unapologetically frivolous experiences. In contrast, the toys available to girls prepared them for the domestic work they would be performing for the rest of their lives. Advertisements in girls' magazines dutifully promoted toys offering only inward-looking experiences... meanwhile, boys' literature... promoted toys and games that looked outward, toward adventure, the frontier, and anything else that might seize the imagination.

More sophisticated jokes and gags were predicated on the prescribed roles of girls and women as domestic and domesticated caretakers. Doubly cruel, they not only reinforced women's inferiority but also exploited their submission for a laugh. Women's caretaking sympathies made them susceptible to gags like the false ear bandage and the false chipped tooth. Likewise, their charge to maintain a clean household provided the fodder for many fake ink spills on fine linens... Because an imitation cigarette pretended to obliterate a woman's careful work and ruin her furnishings, it was, apparently, hilarious. The humor of novelties was not just "transgressive" and "subversive." It was also mean-spirited and corrosive, used to demean and embarrass, "at the expense" of someone else. ... perpetrators of jokes needed not just gag and pranks but also victims to serve as the "butt" of the joke.

How many of these things are still with us today? The notion that "women aren't funny." Or "she just can't take a joke."

The toy stores with their gendered aisles, providing dolls and toy houses and pretend kitchens with very obvious marketing to girls, while the aisles geared towards boys have cars and sports equipment and robots and spaceships and building blocks. Girls' toys are still made for them to "look inward," and boys' toys are still giving them the chance to "look outward." Even "girls" versions of Lego are pink and purple, because apparently we wouldn't want those girls to build anything too serious like a car or a rocket; their sporting equipment is covered in flowers or made by Mattel and rarely holds up to adequate sporting interaction.

I worked at a toy store for a period of time and only once did I have a parent specifically ask for, then purchase, a toy version of a pretend home good for a boy. It was a woman who wanted to buy a toy vacuum cleaner for her son, who was obsessed with the family's vacuum cleaner and wouldn't accept that he couldn't run it all the time. The general idea I got from her was that instead of being a normal adult who owns a vacuum and enjoys keeping their home tidy, she was hoping that her son might grow into a vacuum cleaner retailer, maker, or repairer. Even the "girls' toy" was "looking outward," simply because it was for a boy.

I had a lot of parents ask me for toys for girls that were "less" or "more" in many ways. Where are your dolls with more clothes on? With less makeup on? Do you have a doll that's not wearing a dress? Do you have it in a color that's not pink?

We haven't grown out of this since the 1880s. And I'm tired of the periodic regression that happens with toys. The Lego I used in the 1990's and early 2000's didn't have a purple or pink version. Every kid who bought Lego in the 1990s bought a bucket full of mixed colors. The ads looked like normal kids in their play-clothes - I'm sure you've seen them, because there's been a lot of talk about how the girl in them is dressed "like a boy." No, she's just dressed like a kid.

I looked today for that image and found something actually really amazing. My jaded heart thought that I would see ads from 2023 that had girls playing with the "girl" Lego only when I looked for recent content. Wow, was I wrong.

Lego took the original 1980's ad (bottom center) and used it to create the new ads for International Women's Day this year.

It's not as hard as it looks. We can have gender neutral toys that are still fun for all kids. Toys can just be toys. And if that appeals to you, there's a fantastic group in the UK begging toymakers and book publishers to do just that: Let toys be toys.

This was a whole mess of a ride, and I'm grateful if you got all the way through. It's important for me to know that in some way we've grown beyond gendered novelty, and that we'll continue to grow beyond gendered toys.

[watermelonsugacry]

Harry pulling y/n on stage with him to honour her with his AOTY award!!!!!!😭😭😭😭🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

#myheartwillburst

GRAMMYS 2023

A/N: student teaching and uni work are really giving it to me so thank you all for being patient with me! 💚

SUMMARY: Highlights from the first award show that YN and Harry attend as a married couple.

GENRE: 1dbandmember!yn, married ynrry

SINCE 2010 masterlist

As soon as Harry steps off his side of the Range Rover, he’s immediately extending his hand out to his wife. A loving smirk graces his face at the fact that over her pink embellished gloves, YN wears her wedding ring on her finger. This is the couple’s first major outing since they announced their new martial status online and being at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards only added to the excitement of the night. They’re easily the most anticipated guests of the night; it’s no question since every social media site and news article has named them the couple of the century. 

As usual, the couple first needs to take a couple pictures on the red carpet as individuals for promotal purposes before they can take some together. 

As they both take their stances at the red carpet, out of the corner of his eye, Harry can see how elegantly she poses for the screaming crowd of men in front of her. She smoothly shifts her head around the flashing lights with a smile that can make anyone’s knees weak. It’s difficult to not even spare a glance at her direction and in turn, YN can’t even hide the way she gives her husband loving looks. He looks absolutely amazing in his pastel patterned jumpsuit, possibly showing off more skin than she is but it’s not like anyone is complaining. 

When it’s their time to shift over a spot, YN playfully makes a shooing motion with her hands as he just stays there standing, full on gawking at her. He just shakes his head and pulls her to him and the blinding, flashing lights only increase as they capture the happy couple looking at one another like love-sick teenagers.

“Wait, then lemme stand on your left.”

“Why?” Harry questions as his love shuffles over to his other side, but a boyish smile overtakes his face at her response. 

“So I can show off me ring.”

She says it so nonchalantly before placing her hand on his tummy but her words cause such an impact for him. While she looks back towards the paparazzi, he just continues to stare at her that one can practically see the hearts in his eyes. For a good chunk of his life, he’s dreamed of a moment like this: just him and YN on the red carpet, head-over heels in love with each other, and their relationship out in the open. And they’re not here as bandmates, secret lovers, or any of that—they’re here married. Seeing the way her wedding ring sparkles from the flashing lights before them, he could almost cry from how happy he is. 

He can’t believe that this is his reality. So instead of questioning it further, of reminiscing in his daydream, he tugs her closer to his side and basks in this stomach flipping, butterfly-flapping feeling. 

...

“Oi, I know you!” YN beams at the curly haired photographer who did her Glambot for the past Grammy shows she’s attended.

“I know you,” Cole Walliser teases back as he watches the couple take the short steps up to the platform.

“V’brought a friend this time around,” She jokes and huffs out a laugh when she sees her husband’s dramatic, confused face. 

“Friend?”

“Alright, do you guys have any idea on what you both want to do? I think we need this one to be you two together.”

“We can do like, a serious pose that turns into a silly one?” YN suggests. 

“I love that idea! Alright, let’s do it,” The photographer claps his hand. “Right this way, Mr. and Mrs. Styles.”

Harry brings YN over to stand closer beside him on the designated mark. With her back angled towards the camera, he places a hand on her exposed lower back while she places hers right where the fabric over his tummy ends. 

“Hear that, Mrs. Styles,” Harry says lowly in her ear, making her smile. “Friend my ass.”

“Alright, 3...2...1!”

As the camera moves quickly in front of them, the couple share the same ‘I own you’ face that their fans can’t get enough of. After a quick second, Harry breaks out into his dimply, open-mouth smile and his infamous peace sign. YN widely sticks her tongue out with her right eye scrunched closed.

...

“May the best man win,” Harry extends his hand out to her with a smirk. 

“Or woman,” His wife gives him a sly smirk of her own as she takes his hand in hers. She can’t help but give him a fond smile when he brings her hand to his mouth to place a gentle kiss on her knuckles. 

The couple’s nominations are mainly in the same categories. While they joke and jest about how they’re no winner or loosers, another part of them knows that their egos are just too big to not let their competitive sides simmer off to the side. 

Even then, as they announce that Harry’s House is the winner for Best Pop Album, nothing but pride and happiness overtakes YN for the man next to her. She’s practically a blubbering mess as she watches Harry take his second Grammy to add onto his shelf. 

“Making the album from start to finish has been the greatest experience of my life...aside from getting married, of course,” He huffs out a laugh while looking at his wife. The ceremony cameras turn to YN in between Lizzo and Adele. The two other women laugh and squeeze her a little tighter as she wipes away at the happy tears. 

“YN should be up here with me like I asked her to but she insisted that she was the competition so,” He teases as the audience chuckles. In all honesty, when he asked if she could come up with there with him if he were to win any of his categories, she told him that it’s his win, not hers. While she played a major part in making his music, she’d rather have all the attention, all the love, and all the cheering be for him. “From making it with two of my best friends and my YN to playing it to people has been the greatest joy I could have asked for...”

...

“Dare,” YN ultimately decides with a challenging raise of her eyebrow and a tempting smile.

As exciting as these awards shows can be, there are loads of downtime in between commercial breaks or stage performance set ups or even when the host begins to interact with one of the other celebrities in the audience. 

As a way to pass the time—and to help calm down their nerves for their upcoming categories—the couple has decided to play an innocent game of Truth or Dare. Well...as innocent as a game can get with the size of their egos. So far, Harry has been dared to cuss in his next acceptance speech, YN has admitted to running off to talk with Cardi B backstage instead of coming to be seated with Harry right away, and Harry revealed that had a wedgie the entire red carpet.

“I dare you to...” Her husband pinches at his bottom lip while his eyes scan the room. She eagerly watches as he looks to somewhere behind her and a dimpled smile overtakes his face. A giggle tumbles past his lips  before he says, “I dare yeh to go over to Bad Bunny and ask him if the fruit on the table is real.”

“Hmm...okay.”

Harry tries to cover up his laugh with a cough to his fist as he watches his wife get up from her chair next to him and makes her way over to Bad Bunny. The famous Latin artist is immediately getting up from his seat and greeting her with welcoming arms. 

“Hey, you,” YN says in Spanish. “How are you?”

“I’m doing amazing, my love. And you? You look absolutely stunning.”

“Thank you. I’m good, I’m good. Your performance earlier was absolutely amazing.”

It’s true, when he took the stage for the opening of the ceremony, she was already on her feet and moving her hips to the upbeat music. She even pulled Harry out of his seat, held onto both of his hands as she guided him to the beat of the song. She’d be lying if she said that he wasn’t getting better at dancing—this becomes more and more apparent every show on tour he does. 

Benito puts a hand over his heart with a shrug, “Thank you, I try. That’s an honor coming from you.”

“You’re too sweet. Hey listen, can I ask you something?”

“Anything you want.”

“So...are we allowed to eat those?” She nods towards the array of delicately sliced and decorated fruits scattered around the center of the small table. “Like are they even real?”

“I think so, my love,” He nods reassuringly with a furrow of his eyebrows, clearly confused by her question but he doesn’t want to come off as rude. 

“Cause I’m starving, man, but I don’t want to get in trouble or anything.”

When Bad Bunny leans over the table to get a better look at the fruit, YN playfully widens her eyes at her husband a little bit away, a smile threatening to break out on her lips before she regains her composure once the artist stands upright again. 

“Here you go, mama.” YN coos and cups her hands as he hands her slices of cucumber. He takes a thin slice and pops one in his mouth, “They’re all good, sweetheart.”

“Aw, thank you so much. I love you,” She leans closer to him and plants a kiss on both of his cheeks. It’s an odd experience for Harry to feel only a flicker of jealousy at the sight of his love and another man because despite his possessiveness, seeing her walk back over to him, pushing a cucumber slice past her cheeky lips with her wedding ring shining under the roaming lights is enough to dose the same flame.

“If the camera happens to pan over to us, I dare yeh to just dead stare at the camera.”

“Want one? They’re real,” His wife teases before the speakers announce that they’ll be live in 10 seconds. As Trevor begins to prepare to speak with one of the cameramen in front of him, YN leans over to Harry and whispers in his ear, “Truth or Dare?”

His brows pinch together for a second, really seeing if she wanted to continue their little game despite the show starting up again. One look at her tempting smile is all the confirmation he needed, “Dare.”

“And we’re on in three...two...one...”

“Truth or dar—”

“Dare,” A cheeky smirk tugs on his wife’s lips.

“I dare you to do it with me.”

Soon enough, Twitter and every other social media site blows up with people recording the bottom corner of their TV screens to capture how the newlyweds just stare at the camera with a furrow in their brows for an unsettling amount of time.

...

“I have the very special honor of introducing this next performer. I’ve known this man since we were merely sixteen years old and it’s taken him 12 years to finally put a ring on it,” YN smiles and takes a second to let the audience members have their laugh. “This man has made a tremendous impact on me life and to the lives of many others through his heart-touching music to promoting how the world can be a better place if we all show each other just a little bit of kindness. Harry, you are an inspiration to so many people and just know that your kindness does not go unnoticed. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for my husband, Mister Harry Styles!”

...

“Harry and YN YL-Styles are here tonight, everybody!” The camera captures the way the couple sits happily together. Harry has his right hand securely and protectively resting on YN’s knee. After giving a brief wave to the camera, he secretly boasts when she places her left hand on his to show off the rock on her finger.

“That's right. I mean what can you say about these two that hasn’t been said? Incredible albums, mind-blowing tours, both men and women alike throw their pants at these guys!” Thankful for their media training, they huff out a dry laugh making it seem like a genuine one. It was a silly thought to assume that the host wasn’t going to make a jab at the couple given the way he’s been cracking jokes all evening.

“Easily the world’s sexiest couple. There’s no competition. Sex symbols of the globe. Especially now since they killed off the Green M&M. Give it up for the newlyweds! Congratulations to you both. Come on, another round of applause for these guys!”

The couple give him a polite nod of gratitude and once the cameras and Trevor walk away, Lizzo leans over to them and lets them see the dramatic roll of her eyes. They chuckle at their friend’s reaction and are eternally grateful for her acknowledging the inappropriate comment. Not like the comment like that was new to them, they’ve been receiving that type of commentary ever since they were sixteen years old. One could say that it’s part of the job, of the industry they decided to enter into, but it’s 2023 now. One would think that those comments would be dead at this point. Clearly, it’s not.

“Just to ease all the gears turning in yeh head,” YN leans close to her husband’s attempt to disclose his irrated face (an outsider would assume that nothing’s wrong but she can tell). “I think you were sexy way  before they killed off the Green M&M.”

“Fuck off,” Harry huffs out a laugh and it ignites one from her. His one distraught expression is replaced with his eyes squeezing shut, his dimples digging into his cheeks and his nose scrunching up cutely.

...

(performance audio!) 

“65th Grammys!” YN’s sweet voice rings throughout the arena. She stands at the center of a grand staircase in her minimal and revealing outfit with a crowd of background dancers around her. “Let’s go! Whoo! You might think I’m crazy, the way I’ve been craving, if I put it quite plainly, just gimme them babies...”

The cameramen are able to capture the way a sea of celebrities are all on their feet as they watch YN perform: Lizzo and Adele dance with their hands in the air as they sing along to 34+35, Taylor Swift bounces to the beat of the song with a content smile, Beyonce claps along and mouths along to the lyrics. 

And of course, the camera never fails to record how Harry holds a fond dimpled smile as he watches his wife take the stage. All he can think of when he watches her is how good of a performer she is. As nervous as she was to perform at this prestigious award show, she’s absolutely killing it, treating this with the same about of love and passion as any other show on her tour. The audience feeds off of her positive energy and it shows as the entire room dances and sings along. 

As the bridge of the song comes on, YN keeps her eyes on the distinguishable white blazer among the crowd. She lowers herself to do her floorwork dance routine with her four core tour dancers and the crowd goes crazy at her sensual moves. Especially when she lays on her tummy while doing the splits, resting her head in her hand while her leg slides across the floor with a bounce of her bum. 

Despite the loud crowd, she can hear the ear-piercing whistle from her husband. She can help but huff out a laugh, trying to keep her composure but failing. 

...

“And the Grammy goes to....YN, Need To Know!”

YN’s dreaming, she must be. Life certainly doesn’t seem real as she walks up the steps of the stage and hugs non other than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson after he announces that she won for Best Pop Solo Performance. After hugging her husband and the other two women within her category, she finds herself holding yet another Grammy award in her hands. 

“Holy shit!” YN beams. “I have so many people to thank for this award but this one—hands down—goes to me fans. I—” She lets out a genuine laugh, the kind where a snort slips out. The audience members laugh along with her, feeding off of her bubbly energy. 

“The fans made this song what it is. I—this song wasn’t even supposed to be on me album! But it got leaked and when the fans gave it so much love, they made it into a single. Never in a million years would I think that this song would get this much love, let alone get one of these so, thank you to all me fans. I love you all very much!”

...

Harry stands beside her at their designated table but rather than looking out at the performers, his eyes are set on YN. A fond smile graces his lips as he sees her dancing and rapping along with every artist that comes out on stage for the 50 Years of Hip Hop Tribute. 

He gives her an amused smile when she turns to look up at him, pointing at him aggressively as she sassily raps along to Queen Latifah’s U.N.I.T.Y. 

He laughs at her reaction to Busta Rhymes taking the stage. With her eyes still glued to the stage before them, she grips on the flap of his blazer with a shocked, excited smile. She lets out a laugh mixed with a squeal when Rhymes raps his verse from Look At Me Now at lightning speed. Her fingers cover her temples, completely blown out of her mind at the absolute magic that is happening right in front of her.

And when Missy Elliot comes out, YN sways her way in front of Harry. With his arm resting over her shoulder, she takes his dangling hand and while leaning over she moves her hips to the beat of the female legend rapping, “rump shaking” over and over again. She gives him a cheeky look over her shoulder while she does it and when they hear Lizzo and Adele cheering her on, the couple bursts out laughing.

For the rest of the performance, Harry has her back pressed to his chest, arms secured over her shoulders and chest as they lightly bounce together to the beat of the songs. 

...

Although neither Harry nor YN won Record of the Year, they both couldn’t be happier that Lizzo was the one to receive the award. As soon as her name was called, the married couple were quickly on their feet, cheering and whistling loudly in celebration for their good friend.

“I also want to thank my girl, YN, over there!” Lizzo points over to where the couple stands with a loud laugh. YN yells out an Oi! Oi! with her hand up, a big smile gracing her face as she looks at one of her dear friends. “Miss m’am, you’ve been such an inspiration to me and I just wanna give you a shout out for helping produce some of my songs. This girl is the one who said this song should be my single!”

The camera turns back to YN as Harry tugs her to his side, throwing an arm over the tops of her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her forehead. 

...

“I see your point,” Riley puts his hands together in an understanding way from his spot at the round table, trying to be as polite as he can towards the elderly woman. “But have you considered listening to his former band mate turned wife’s album MY FUTURE?”

“Hi, I’m Riley and I think YN YLN’s album MY FUTURE is the Album of the Year. I have been a Directioner since the band first started and have been YN-ie since she went solo.”

A vertical video clip plays of an over-excited tween Riley at the barricade of the Take Me Home tour stage. Nineteen year old YN stands as close to the edge of the stage as she possibly can with her arm out towards the superfan. She blows him a kiss and gives him a twiddle of her fingers before walking back over to where the rest of the boys are lined up in a row.

Another clip shows YN decked out in her iconic sparkly blue bodysuit from her current tour standing at the end of the catwalk and pointing to Riley with a beaming smile, recognizing him from the shows he’s been to for the past couple of years.

“Her music is that light at the end of the tunnel, you know? She’s a bad B and sunshine all wrapped into one.” He moves his hands in front of him as he speaks passionately about his favorite artist. “She speaks to everyone through her music—it’s truly for everyone. She has grown so much as a songwriter, a producer, a human being over the past couple of years and this album is a true testament to that.”

...

It’s one thing to be nominated for Producer of the Year for a second time but it’s another to win it a second time. So imagine YN’s utter shock to hear her name be called for possibly the most significant award of her career. 

“I would like to thank the academy, my wonderful team, me mum, me fans. And last but not least, I would like to thank my better half, my husband over there—” YN huffs out a laugh when the audience goes into a fit of cheering as the sight of Harry standing and blowing her kisses. “If it wasn’t for you, I would have never chased my dream of becoming a producer. That man has supported me and just encouraged me to work hard and to make music that makes me happy. I love you with all my heart and thank you so much. 

To win this award a second year in a row—the first and only female to be nominated and win—” YN takes a step back with her eyes watery, her laughter ringing through the arena as the audience gives her a standing ovation. She can hear Harry’s whistle over all the cheering and clapping, and she couldn't be any happier.

“This is the highlight of me career and quite frankly, the coolest fookin’ thing to ever happen to me. Thank you so much and this one is to all the female producers out there!”

...

“And the Grammy goes to...” Trevor looks among the superfans behind him. He passes by Riley and says to the older woman that she can read out the winner.

”H-Harry! Harry’s House!” Reina yells out in utter excitement. 

Harry puts his face in his hands as he’s overcome with emotions. Never in a million years would he ever think that he would win the award for Album of the Year and yet here he is with his name being called as the winner. 

Meanwhile, as soon as her husband’s album is called, she puts her hands up in the air and screams at the top of her lungs. There are no bitter feelings of jealousy in her. He deserves it. She knows more than anyone that this ball of sunshine has been working his bum off to create the music that he loves and this award just proves that he’s doing something truly special. She puts her hands on Harry’s shoulders and tugs him close to her, him still covering his face as he digs his head into the crook of her shoulder. She beams and laughs along with Lizzo, reaching over to meet her high-five.

After the initial shock is over, he’s standing up and immediately pulling his teary-eyed wife into his arms.

“Congratulations, baby,” She lovingly says into his ear as he rocks them back and forth, gripping onto her as he’s afraid she may suddenly disappear. She sees his beautiful dimpled smile before cupping her face and planting a kiss to her lips. Both of them are so overjoyed, so blissfully overwhelmed by this award that they’re just floating on Cloud 9.

After she hugs the other producers—her teammates for this project—Harry quickly grips her hands and nods towards the stage. She shakes her head, wanting this to be his moment, but he’s not taking ‘no’ for an answer. The other two producers get behind her so she can’t go anywhere else and Harry has her arm looped through his as he guides them towards the stage. 

Once they make it to the stage, her heart nearly bursts when Harry playfully makes his way over to the elderly woman, wrapping his arms around her tiny frame and jumping up and down. It’s such a sweet sight and it occurs to YN how special and rare these moments can be. 

Before all of the superfans can make their way off the stage completely, YN quickly jogs over to Riley and he immediately accepts her warm embrace.

This is one of the first times where she can express her love to one of her fans, to show a tiny bit of appreciation for all the love she has for her fanbase—people who have been by her side since the very beginning. It’s not an easy feeling to come to terms with the fact that she will never know all of her fans on a personal level, to individually thank each and every single person for all that they’ve done for her.

Riley’s jaw is on the floor over her shoulder and when she pulls back, she takes his face in her hands, “‘Fank you so much, Riley. Love you, babe.”

After planting a kiss on his cheek, she rejoins her co-producers behind Harry. The two men welcome her embrace in a group hug and once Harry can see that she’s behind him, he begins his speech.

“Shit. Well, shit! Man, I’ve just been so, so inspired by every artist in this category with me. I listen to every single person in this category. I think on nights like tonight, it’s important for us to remember that there is no best in music.”

As Harry continues his speech, fans can see the way that YN’s eyes are glossy and how she bites down on her bottom lip, one breath away from truly bursting into a fit of tears.

“This is really, really kind. I’m so, so, grateful. I...this doesn't happen to people like me very often and this is so, so kind. I would like to thank my wife, YN, who I made the majority of the album with,” The audience collectively coos as he turns his attention to his love behind him. “You’ve been my biggest supporter, my best friend and the love of my life for as long as I can remember. Thank you for helping me make every album I’ve ever made and for this one in particular. This album is for you and so is this award.”

YN puts a hand over her bright smile as he passes her the Grammy with a kiss on her cheek. The audience cheers and claps in excitement as she comes up to the microphone.

Before she can even get a word out, she looks down at the Grammy in her hands and huffs out a light laugh of disbelief. 

“Erm, I think Harry said it best in that we don’t make music with the intention of us getting one of these. I’m so unbelievably honored to have worked with Harry since the start of our careers in the band and beyond that. 

My love, I want to thank you for the trust that you’ve given me when we make music. Every second that we’ve worked on this album has been incredibly special to me. It’s...I’m so incredibly over the fookin’ moon right now. I want to pass it onto my wonderful collaborators who helped make Harry’s vision come to life.” 

While the other producers give their brief ‘thank you’ speeches, fans are more focused on the couple behind them. 

When YN passes the Grammy off to Kid, she’s immediately engulfed by her husband. Her hands grip onto his shoulders as he digs his forehead to the middle of her chest and shakes it in disbelief—an action that looks like he’s motorboating her if taken out of context. She takes his face in her hands and gives him one of her breath-taking smiles. Although their conversation doesn’t get picked up by the microphones, fans can read her lips as she mouths “I love you,” and “So proud of you.” 

She closes her eyes with a smile when he digs his face back into the crook of her neck and rocks them from side to side. The faint sound of her giggling is picked up as he mumbles something against the shell of her ear.

If it were any other situation, the couple probably would have tamed their public displays of affection in front of so many watchful eyes. If. 

...

After the award ceremony has come to a close, everyone takes their turn doing a photoshoot with their Grammys.

YN certainly has her arms full trying to hold her four Grammys in her arms. It’s not long until she holds her Grammy for being one of the producers for Harry’s Album of the Year Award along with Tyler, Kid, and of course, her husband.

“Do the two of you want to do one together? Let’s do one together!” The photographer decides without the couple’s imput but they certain don’t complain. 

Soon enough, Harry sits on the fancy couch they have set up for them. While he holds his two Grammys in his hands, YN holds two of her own before sitting down on his thigh.

“Is this seat taken?” YN teases with a wiggle of her eyebrows. The photographer’s assistance places her other two awards beside them on the couch. 

“Never,” He smiles up at her and a flash of light washes over them at the photographer taking a candid picture of them.

When YN posts one of the pictures on her instagram, it’s YN in Harry’s lap with their collective Grammys sat on the couch with them. She’s cradling one of the awards like a baby and they both look at it with playful, exasperated love.

She captions it with: We’re just one big happy family.

.

.

I write for free so if any of you lovies would like to help a college girl out and buy her a ko-fi i would greatly appreciate it :) 💚

taglist:

@wobblymug @be-with-me-so-happily @ashtongivesmebutterflies @kiwiskiwiskiwi @darlingdesire @obsesseddd @hopefulwastelandcreation @cacapeepee @breezie-b00 @harrysfolklore @theekyliepage @sunshinemoonsposts @nervousspiderling @tbslonelyhes @tenaciousperfectionunknown @harrystylesrecs @certified-nalayak @itsjustsel @iknowyouthinkimbulletproof @gviosca @behindmygreyeyes @twobluejeans @allisonxmcu @theemeraldbutterfly @jean-love @marvellover-sam @b-reads-things @reveriehs @rach2602 @thurhomish @perrypughstyles @luvonstyles @mxltifxnd0m @teamspideyman @c00chiemonster @juiceboxrry @s8tellite @folklorehrry @illicithallways @claramllera @eunoiaax @hoya122 @nichmedder @sleutherclaw @gloriousmoneyrascalbiscuit @harianaswhore @teawithcyb0rgs @vrittivsanghavi @vc55bughead @futuristiccroissantlampsludge @onecrazydirectioner @valluvsu @itsgabbysblog @awkwardbisexuall @rosehel @sucker4angstt @isalove @diorchives @mrshiddlestyles02 @fdl305

[max1461]

I didn't know rationalism of the online rationalists was not the same as the one that has the Wikipedia article. When I first saw the term on Tumblr I went to that article and skimmed it and decided I don't really get what those bloggers' perspectives are. After your post I now have even less knowledge than I did before.

The following is an oversimplification, so for those who have quibbles with the history here, well, forgive me.

Online rationalism was founded by two guys named Eliezer Yudkowsky and Robin Hanson on the blog LessWrong. Of these two figures Yudkowsky has been much more influential. The ideology that Yudkowsky promoted is roughly as follows:

humans are, relatively soon, likely to develop a superintelligent AI which has the capacity to self-improve by rewriting its own code. This will cause the AI's intelligence to rapidly explode beyond anything we can imagine, a process which rationalists onomatopoetically call "FOOM".

This superintelligent AI, if it could be harnessed and controlled, could cure death, and possibly revive all already-dead humans in a simulated world, leading to a technological utopia in which humans have merged with machines; this is called "the singularity" (the idea of the singularity predates the rationalists, and is a broader transhumanist trope).

However, it is almost certain that a superintelligent AI could not be harnessed and controlled; in fact, if such an AI was created, there is a very high probability that it would end the world (in rationalist jargon this is called an "x-risk"), perhaps usurping all of the accessible matter and energy on earth, then in the solar system, then in the galaxy and beyond in pursuit of its inscrutable goals. Thus, humans have a responsibility to make sure we never create such a superintelligent AI (in a recent op-ed in Time, Yudkowsky went so far as to say that the US should use drone strikes to destroy any datacenter found to be training a large AI model).

The reason that people do not recognize the truths above is because people are too irrational to see them. Therefore, people need to be taught to be more rational, by Yudkowsky via the blog LessWrong. The tenets of being more rational are laid out largely in a series of blog posts known as "The Sequences", later published as a book. The main take-aways are: (1) use Bayes' Theorem all the time to estimate the probability of things, and (2) to eliminate one's various cognitive biases, as outlined in The Sequences.

LessWrong attracted a lot of people who did not agree with Yudkowsky about AI, but who liked the Bayes' Theorem stuff and the commentary on cognitive biases. There is a joke that "anyone who has ever disagreed with Yudkowsky is a rationalist". The people who settled on LessWrong were largely drawn from the milieu of Bay Area tech workers, economics blog enthusiasts, and sci-fi fans. They would come to be known as LessWrongers, rationalists, or aspiring rationals. From this group, two major subgroups worth mentioning were spawned:

First is the Effective Altruists. Effective Altruism, to my knowledge, isn't a strictly LessWronger phenomenon, and has also been influenced majorly by philosophers like Peter Singer. However, they have been so intertwined with LessWrongers throughout their history that I think they are worth mentioning as essentially an offshoot of rationalism.

Effective Altruists believe that, in order to do the most good in the world, one should use one's money in a way that does the maximum amount of good per dollar. Rather than e.g. donating to charities willy-nilly based on what feels important, one should use quantitative methods to estimate how much impact each dollar is making, and donate in a way which maximizes that. The Effective Altruists are split along one main ideological line: neartermism vs. longtermism. The neartermists are basically focused on what we would traditionally think of as charitable activities: fighting disease, giving people clean water, that kind of stuff. I think neartermist Effective Altruism is pretty sensible, and I think they've done a lot of good work evaluating charities and so on. GiveWill is an essentially neartermist Effective Altruist organization, and I think their activities are very worth supporting.

The longtermists, on the other hand, are focused on "the long-term interests of humanity". They are, well, in my opinion, basically a bunch of people trying to turn their sci-fi fantasies into a reality. They are often very worried about AI x-risk, like Yudkowsky, and they're often pro-singularity, and sometimes pro-eugenics, and a bunch of other stuff. Remember Sam Bankman-Fried, the guy who committed the largest act of financial fraud in human history? Well, he was an Effective Altruist with some longertermist sympathies. Some of the money that he stole he actually gave to worthwhile charities, but some of it he used on stupid longtermist sci-fi fantasy shit. His girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who helped him do a bunch of that fraud, was a member of rationalist tumblr. Some of my mutuals were mutuals with her.

The other major group spawned out of LessWrong were the Neoreactionaries, or NRx. These guys, too, weren't a purely LessWronger phenomenon; they were also majorly influenced by people such as the philosopher Nick Land (former student of Baudrillard, who took a far-right turn in the 2000s and started advocating for "hyper-racism") and blogger Curtis Yarvin a.k.a. "Mencius Moldbug". These guys are a rag-tag group of authoritarians, eugenicists, and racists, who are interested in rationality insofar as they view it as a path that leads to their desired sci-fi-inflected far-right future.

Oh, right, last but not least I should define the term "rat-adj". It means "rationalist-adjacent". Uh. So, I was never a LessWronger, and as I think my description makes clear, I find like 90% of this rationalist stuff either goofy or actively harmful. But I have, somehow, ended up basically acquainted with a bunch of people formerly or presently part of the LessWrong milieu, and in light of this I am what one calls "rationalist-adjacent". I talk to various rationalist bloggers somewhat often. And most of them are much more normal than all this would suggest, part of the rationalist discursive sphere but not really believers in the imminent AI apocalypse. Uh. So, there you go.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

I always used to wonder how Meghan is seemingly able to get away with so much bullshit she pulls everywhere she goes. I never understood why/how marrying someone powerful (or in this case, someone from a powerful family) enabled her so much. When the Blake/baldone situation exploded some people were making the same kind of argument about blake too , that she is absuing the power she has from being married to Ryan and ut has gone to head and she is trying to manipulate the situation.

Again, I like most, believe that women should support women. But inwanted to understand the power dynamics about blake, the bigger star and also a producer, working with a small time production house and first time director.

Then a couple days ago I came across this podcast on Spotify, called Reality Bites. It has a 6 episode (for now) series on the it ends with us situation. They do not discuss the lawsuits or accusations or debate the merits of the SH claims. Instead, they did a deep dive on the power dynamics behind the scenes during the making. Mainly, the star power of blake and Ryan, their (proven and spoken) ambitions about their careers and the decisions they have made in their careers recently, but most importantly the role the studios played in this whole saga. Along with the personal motivations of the PR reps and WME in creating/causing/escalating this situation between blake and baldoni.

I'll say, I had not heard this angle before, nor had it explained so well so far. The 2 ladies are producers of reality shows so they know the inner workings and know what they are talking about. If anyone is interested, give it a listen.

Some highlights for me :

- how scooter Braun may be tied up in this

- WME played a key role. decided to fire baldoni not because of the accusations but because they decided to go with the bigger fish, Ryan and his production company+ blake

- baldoni was very out of his depth from the get go

- blake had made a SH complaint against her make-up artist back in 2017 during MeToo, so she knew how to go about things and how/why to get SAG involved. So, why didn't she doesn't it this time when the SAG strike happened and they were fighting for the same kind of workplace rights at the time?

- blake pushed to get a PGA certification for herself instead at this time. She bulldozed Sony,wayfarer,baldoni and heath for letters for recommendations. After Sony and wayfarer refused because her involvement wasnt upto the mark. Then she blackmailed baldoni and heath personally saying she would back out of the movie. They agreed under duress and company communications from that prove this.

- she did not allow him to sit in on the initial editing process by himself with the editors, as per the rules of the DGA, which allows him to get a director's cut ready. She barged in from day 1, negotiated for a 2 day editing input and access, stayed for 10 days, and later stayed back in the editing rooms by herself. Later brought in the editor from Ryans movie and fired the actual editors. Changed the music score, fired the original music composer and made her own cut. Which as per DGA rules is not allowed. (There can be only 1 cut) And convinced Sony to show competing cuts to test audiences. She promised to agree to whatever the test results said but then later blackmailed Sony saying it she won't do promotions.

- apparently Ryan has previously done a similar things for Deadpool 2, where the original director then later left the franchise because of ryans harrassment. So they did the same on this movie for blake.

- the NYT article and how it came about is explained. And it's insinuated that it's a pr hit job.

- it's insinuated that Blake made baldoni sign a no- retaliation clause, per which, he wasn't allowed to say anything at all about her. He signed it as a sign of good faith when they resumed shooting after the strikes.

- all the claims she sites are from the period or may/June 2023, before the strike happened. And she never said anything at all to SAG or the producers. She was also a producer so she was in the place to make changes happening if the work environment was hostile. But she did not. Instead she started over extending budget, got involved in areas where she wasn't contractually obligated to and over ride Justine all over.

- she and Ryan both bullyed Justin and Wayfarer, going over his head to Sony all the time. Justin was under immense stress and it was do or die situation for him because he just wanted to make the movie and agreed to everything that Sony and Blake demanded of him.

- she orchestrated a smear campaign against Justin way before the public had any hints of strife between them. She did this knowing that Justin was legal bound not to say, do anything about it.

- WME played a hand in the marketing strategy for the movie, especially the placements of blakes hair care brand, alcohol brand etc. Sony's agreed to message was "Hope", extending to resilience. Not florals. That was all blake. Justin did use the word "hope" in almost all his interviews.

- they speculate that all this is make baldoni give up his rights to the 2nd book due to sheer public pressure, so blake can help that project. On another note, WME has recently signed up with collen Hoover for her new book. Colleens initial contract with Justin may include a clause that allows her a right to refusal or voiding of contract incase of any reputational damage caused by baldoni. This 2-fold strategy gives blake a better chance of acquiring the book.

- Ryan based the character of 'Nicepool' in his movie on Justin - the manbun, feminism spouting, goody-two-shoes. She eventually gets taken down by ladypool, Blake's charactor (her voice). This apparently happened right after Justin signed the "no retaliation clause". It's symbolically shows blake destroying Justin, and that was ryans whole idea. The lawyers could prove this with the receipts they have.

- Sam Jones and Blake's pr rep played a huge role in this saga. It was a personal vendetta between Sam Jones and Jennifer able that may have caused baldoni to become collateral damage. (Jones believed that Able may have been behind the articles exposing Jones for her horrible boss behaviors and misusing client info. The articles and a website, why Sam Jones lies, came out last year that damaged Sam Jones reputation amongst her clients. So she fired Jen for that and further pursued this vendetta by aligning with blake in taking down baldonis reputation. Jen is widely believed to be the whistle blower in jones' take down)

...

I know this is not the usual fare for this blog but you've been saying we've all had too much of HnM. And I agree. This topic got me really interested when I started reading up the documents. And looking at blake, I can see Meghan may even operate. The way she got p.morgan fired, how she got hold of all those female senators' personal phone numbers. How Harry tried to bully the NYPD into arresting the paps and tried to get those included in his lawsuits. It's amazing how much power the right contacts - PR agents , WME etc - have.

So, anyway, anyone else interested in the unending saga of This Ends With Us? Or is it just me?

Thanks!

There’s a lot of people interested in this who I’m sure will enjoy this. I’m not posting on Blake/Justin anymore because it’s too messy for social media and not something that can be easily discussed.

(Scooter is involved because he’s a partner in the PR firm that Justin is signed to.)

A few other recent developments for everyone who is following this:

1. Justin’s lawsuit against the New York Times means one thing: evidence discovery. He’s after something in evidence discovery that he doesn’t think will come up otherwise. My guess is that his lawyers are hoping discovery reveals a coordinated scheme between Blake, her PR, and the NYT against him since the basis of Justin’s lawsuit is that he wasn’t given adequate time to respond to NYT’s reporting.

2. Blake filed her lawsuit against Justin on December 31st. Blake hasn’t sued anyone yet. She filed a complaint with a labor board, which is a precursor to a lawsuit, but the lawsuit hasn’t happened yet.

3. Ryan Reynolds gets more and more implicated and embroiled in this the more information that comes out. I don’t think this will end with his reputation fully intact. There’s been some gossip that he pressured some of the IEWU actors and crew that defended Justin to switch sides by threatening to blacklist them from future work in the industry.

4. Blake is now complaining that her separate companies/brands are suffering (ie losing money) and she believes the loss of sales is because of Justin’s PR’s smear campaign.

5. Blake has shut down some of her social media accounts, including TikTok. I’m guessing the comments weren’t what she expected.

Like I said before, I won’t post on this anymore since it’s too messy for social media and while I do stray into entertainment/Hollywood topics from time to time, this has evolved so much that it’s out of my depth now. Sorry.

—

(Meghan got away with everything she did because she immediately made it about race, and then exploited it with PR tactics. The whole premise of the KP love shield is that she was being harassed because of her race.)

Edits

[kaffkanya]

scratches head dont flame me for this but sometimes i kinda......hate the star trek worldbuilding (this is tos. we're in tos territory) cause they want soooo bad for me to believe that earth is past internal conflict and the federation promotes a classless society and no ones opressed anymore and we dont even use currency! and we aint even colonizers and definitely not a militarized force. far from it, actually. thats like, earths bloody past. we are not Them. but like... i dont know, dude. it wants me to believe in this incredible utopia without touching on the nasty stuff. and that just falls flat in on itself BECAUSE its a 60s show. because it was made during the cold war. and above all else, because its an us show, to us citizens. and gene roddenberry was a fucking cunt.

anyway, everyone should read this article:

[soapyghostie]

I felt kinda weird sending a request cause we talk outside of here but oh well

Do you think you could write Nubbins and Danny with a reader who does photography, horror is one of the reasons I got into photography so idk, sorry if I worded this weird

I had the motivation to do one more for now since I haven’t been very productive in my classes so far today. Hope you enjoy!

The Ghost Face/Danny Johnson

OMG! Can he help?! Danny is drawn to your passion for photography because he loves photography too! He admires your ability to capture the beauty of the world around you, and he often finds him lost in the amazingly well shot photos you took. Almost as good as his photography skills. 

Danny, being a journalist under his alter ego Jed Olsen, understands your creative drive behind pursuing your passion for photography. When you express your desire to open a photography studio, he’s not only super supportive but also is excited about the prospect. He sees this as an opportunity for you to showcase your amazing talent and creativity to the world. He, also, wants to help you start and run your photography business too! 

As someone who appreciates the power of storytelling through images and his articles, Danny will bring up the idea of collaborating with you on various photography projects. He’ll even ask you to photograph events that he’s having to write about so he can publish your beautiful photographs for the whole town to see in his well written top tier articles. 

Danny understands the challenges of starting a new venture, especially in a competitive field like photography (He might be the top journalist at the Roseville Gazette, but that doesn’t mean he became that great overnight. He’s had a lot of practice). He offers his support not only emotionally but also practically, helping you with business planning, networking, and promotion. 

As a journalist, Danny's schedule is pretty busy during the day and also he spends a lot of time with his ‘hobby’ (if you know what I mean), yet, he still finds time to make an effort to prioritize quality time with you (I don’t know how he does it so don’t ask me). He understands the importance of nurturing y’all’s relationship amidst y’all’s respective careers and often suggests going on photoshoot outings together as a way to bond and unwind. Danny enjoys brainstorming creative concepts and themes for your photoshoots.

When you finally open your photography studio, Danny couldn’t be more prouder. He attends the grand opening with a camera in hand, capturing the excitement and anticipation of the moment. He smiles and y’all’s shared passion for storytelling will continue to strengthen y’all’s bond and drive each other to success.

Nubbins Sawyer

When Nubbins finds out that you photograph for fun just like him, he’s excited. Obviously, your photography technique is very different from his and he doesn’t fully understand the artist form of your photography at first; however, he quickly becomes fascinated by the way you capture the world through your lens. He wants to know why your photographs aren’t dark and blurry like his. 

Nubbins often finds himself admiring your work in awe, marveling at the way you can turn the most mundane scenes into something beautiful and captivating. You’ll look over your shoulder and find him just staring at one of the many photos you’ve taken in his hand, unmoving. Who knows how long he’s been standing there admiring your work. Actually, the better assumption is how long has he gone staring at that photo without blinking.

Nubbins spends the majority of his time hitchhiking and looking for ‘food’ heading towards the Sawyer property. He’d enjoy it if you tagged along with him and brought your camera to document your adventures together. Your hobby is a great way to immortalize y’all’s experiences and memories, creating a photo album of y’all’s life.  

Nubbins encourages and supports you. He would point out interesting objects and compositions for you to take pictures of during y’all’s unorganized photoshoots. He’ll also scout for locations or offer input too. 

Nubbins is protective of your camera equipment, ensuring it’s always safely stowed away when not using it. He understands how much your gear means to you and goes to great lengths to make sure it goes undamaged, knowing how much their photography means to you. 

Nubbins often proudly displays your work around the Sawyer house for his brothers to see. He takes pride in showcasing your talent to them and often boasts about your skills to his brothers. When he shares your photographs with his brothers, Nubbins finds himself cherishing the photographs, reminding him of all the moments y’all shared together. Each image holds a special place in his heart, serving as a visual representation of y’all’s love and adventures.

[chvoswxtch]

the bodyguard

[status: completed]

summary: after a series of terrorist attacks in new york, an article you wrote calling out the cowardice of the organization's leader causes you to become a target, and frank castle is assigned to be your bodyguard. the resurgence of former flames and shocking sinister revelations will test just how far frank is willing to go to protect you. divulgences of his mysterious and convoluted past will make you question just how much you can actually trust him. will frank be your savior? or the reason for your demise?

a/n: a HUGE thank you to my love @thyme-in-a-bubble for that incredibly breathtaking header. this series was inspired by the absolutely lovely @lowkeythor's genius request for a bodyguard!frank x reader fic. it is a slow burn-so get comfy. this is a punisher series friends, so there will be mentions of violence and gore, as well as other mature themes. (there will eventually be spiciness bc i can't resist) if you'd like to be added to the tag list for updates, please let me know!

»— anything marked with an astrik contains explicit content. minors dni.

»— all work is my own. please do not repost anywhere else without my consent.

chapter one: it's my job

chapter two: take the day off

chapter three: trouble

chapter four: it's like that

chapter five: conflict of interest

chapter six: invasion of privacy

chapter seven: checkmate

chapter eight: sorry

chapter nine: stakeout

chapter ten: pancakes

chapter eleven: we got a problem

chapter twelve: confession

chapter thirteen: desire*

chapter fourteen: i got you

chapter fifteen: teach me*

chapter sixteen: an adjustment

chapter seventeen: a favor

chapter eighteen: first date*

chapter nineteen: personal

chapter twenty: secrets

chapter twenty one: a little more time

chapter twenty two: fade to black

chapter twenty three: revelation

chapter twenty four: i love you

chapter twenty five: promotion

chapter twenty six: epilogue*

the bodyguard soundtrack

[btstulip]

They are together and want to be seen

Possible delulu time here, but I can't get over how GCF Tokyo keeps coming up in the promotion for Are You Sure?! Once in an article and now in this video... out of the boys mouths themselves... while clips are being shown! GCF has probably gone under the radar for a lot of people, so bringing it up now and tying it to the travel show is.... interesting.

Someone on Tumblr posted a fantastic breakdown of the BTS content levels and how the majority of people are not familiar with or consuming some of the less mainstream content. (I am bummed I couldn't find it, but if you know what I am talking about, share the link!) I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think there are a lot of BTS fans out there that haven't explored enough content to see the GCF videos. There are a lot of people oblivious to the special bond Jikook share with each other. That's why I think it's so interesting to bring up GCF Tokyo.

It's an obvious consequence that referencing GCF Tokyo will cause new people to watch it, people interested in the travel show. I was shocked the first time I watched GCF Tokyo and I am sure others will be too. You can read my post about that experience here. Even people that don't know BTS think that video is about a romantic couple. Now there will be new people watching GCF Tokyo looking at Are You Sure?! through that lens. (or maybe viewers won't even need that lens to make Jikook look like a couple... we shall see)

I just can't help it... bringing up GCF Tokyo feels very loud to me. There is ZERO way they don't know how some people interpret GCF Tokyo. The only reason to bring that up is if they intentionally want to shine a light on that video AND link it to this new travel show. It feels to me that they are continuing navigate having plausible deniability to protect them from the hate while also wanting to been seen by the people willing to see and support their connection.

We see you boys and love you exactly as you are.

And a fun post from @stormblessed95 about GCF Tokyo just because:

[cupcakeshakesnake]

are you serious about believing that cats shouldn't be let outside?

why? like don't get me with that "oh they'll kill animals" well yeah, maybe they will. it's their natural instincts, and allowing them outside promotes a range of natural behaviours. so isn't it cruel to prevent that? and if you believe they shouldn't be allowed to go outside, isn't it cruel to choose to keep them inside instead of just *not having a cat?*

also for that arguement the rspb says " there is no scientific proof that predation by cats in gardens is having any impact on bird populations UK wide." while you may not be from the UK, the UK isn't a place where domestic cats are native either!

I wonder if you are American as so many Americans seem to have this weird opinion - is it very common to believe solely in indoor cats where you live? /gen q. it's very common to have cats that go outdoors here in the UK, and the concept of outdoor cats doesn't exist - if someone mentioned an outdoor cat I'd think of a cat that never went inside, like idk a barn cat. a website I found said 90% of cats in the uk can go outdoors but based on what I'm seeing on your feed and Tumblr it's very different for you?

Yes, I'm serious.

I suppose it's also a natural instinct of coyotes (US), foxes (UK) and hawks to kill cats, so isn't it cruel to prevent that? Cats may have natural instincts but they are not part of nature. They're not part of your local ecosystem, you brought it there. Do you only care about your cat fulfilling its 'natural instincts' and nothing else?

Let's say you have, oh I dunno, the Xenomorph from Alien. Let's say you love it a lot. Are you gonna set it free on the neighborhood because its natural instinct is to kill?

If you believe children shouldn't stick their fingers in the wall socket even if they want to, shouldn't you just not have children?

And yes there is plenty of scientific proof. Cats are not native ANYWHERE. If your cat just stays in a fenced garden or maybe a catio, it's fine, but studies found that cats' kill counts are so high because even 'freeroaming' cats roam less than their wild counterparts (i.e. jungle cats) and thus kill in a more concentrated area. They also kill for fun and not just to eat. Cats have contributed to the extinction of 63 species of birds, mammals, and reptiles in the wild, I'm directly quoting an article here.

Very weird of you to push the American button just because I disagree with you, I am in fact South Korean, and oh believe me outdoor cats are barely a thing here. Cats here are either firmly indoors or stray, save for very rare cases. Most cat owners (and people in general) live in the city and if they let their cats out, a variety of things could happen - such as their cats eating trash and getting sick, being hit by a car, or being killed (or worse, captured and tortured) by ill-meaning people (which has very well happened before).

+ Edit) Let's talk cruelty. What is more cruel, a cat being bored out of its skin, or the cat being flattened by a car, or countless small animals being torn apart and left to die? All of which is preventable with a few extra steps from the cat owner.

In my opinion, having cats (or any other pet) is a lot like raising children. Of course their needs should be paid attention to, but they themselves don't always know the best way to go about fulfilling those needs and it's your responsibility to keep them safe and happy at the same time. You can't let them do whatever they like all the time. AND, you are responsible for what your pets/children do.