#from someone who used to be a scared kid on this day and isn't anymore

[eighteen-gnomes]

Happy national coming out day. For anyone who needs to hear it:

If you came out today, I am so proud of you. You did something really brave and difficult. I am wishing you nothing but joy.

If you didn't come out today, I am proud of you too. No matter what the reason is, whether you are already out, or not at all. Whether you're scared, unsure, in danger, not ready, or just not feeling it, I am so proud of you.

You are a part of this community, you are loved and this day is yours, for you to participate as much or as little as you choose. The decision to come out is yours alone, and it can happen today, any day, or never, however you feel about it you are valid.

If you came out and it was a positive experience, know I am smiling with you. If you came out and it wasn't what you'd hoped, know you can tell me and I will accept you.

[colebabey888]

A few DIY beauty secrets I began doing to elevate my "natural" look | IT GIRL DIARIES

something that I noticed over the years, when looking to enhance your natural beauty, there are 4 main points that build the first impression, hair, eyes, brows and lips..

I have naturally bushy brows that I used to manage with eyebrow gel, but it would start flaking during the day, which gave me the ickk. So, I began laminating them with a kid-friendly relaxer every two weeks (my eyebrows grow pretty fast, which is why I do it so often and i don't get them professionally done because i don't trust people with my brows lol).

I always tweeze my eyebrows instead of waxing them; they seem to grow back slower that way + it's easier to do, just grab a tweezer along with a pocket mirror and you can do it anywhere if you see a hair out of place. ( don't over do it though, i made this mistake and it went horribly, just keep them neat )

Get your lashes laminated !!! Natural lashes are so classy and I don't have to worry about putting on mascara or falsies. This I'd get done professionally though lmao, I would do this myself but I'm way to scared to be messing with anything chemically so close to my eyes, so it isn't necessarily a diy but still, get it done!

ALWAYS make sure your hair, eyes (lashes) and eyebrows are done! You don't have to have a silk press, falsies and freshly waxed brows 24/7 but make sure they're neat. These are the key features that attracts people's attention when youre speaking to them

I have tight 4b type hair, and I used to have to lay my edges with gel or edge control because of how fluffy they'd get when I wore my curls out, but it was super damaging from constantly pulling on them and having them laid down. So, I started relaxing my edges every 3-6 months. Now, all I use is a bit of hairspray to keep them tamed, and now it doesn't puff up even during workouts and it lasts my whole silk press. Yes, my curls are still thriving.

I do weekly deep conditioning, monthly hot oil treatments, routine trims, and always use a heat protectant and frizz control when doing silk presses to stretch them out and minimize heat application. ( my hair has grown so much, leave your hair alone and only feed it when it's hungry! )

you'll hear everyone talking about silk bonnets, but as someone who hates the feeling of having anything on their head or in their face, I always took it off unknowingly throughout the night and it defeated the purpose, so i got silk pillow cases instead, game changer! i don't wrap my hair as often anymore and i don't experience frizz anymore.

I apply a face mask every week depending on what my skin is lacking, whether it’s moisture or something else. It just keeps my face looking fresh and plump in between professional monthly facials.

I use a lip tint every third day. It makes makeup application easier, and it doesn’t wear off throughout the day so i don't have to re-apply lipstick continuously. It also gives my lips a bit more colour so now I just leave the house with a pretty gloss or plain lip balm.

I take zinc supplements religiously!

Vitamin C everyday, all day. Lemon wedge in my greentea for breakfast, orange for a lunchtime snack and a naartjie for a late night movie. My skin is glowinggg!

hair removal cream! this is so slept on, i no longer shave or wax, both of them have caused ingrowns for me and accentuate my strawberry legs. i use hair removal cream now and i don't think I'll ever go back! i use it probably every week or so depending on how much growth i have, it's so easy and mess free. apply it before you get in the shower and use an exfoliating glove to slide it off gently and continue with your normal wash routine. always apply tissue oil and moisturizer after! baby soft skin all day, everyday!

It's not much, but these small changes have completely transformed my overall look. i do them specifically for those actual no makeup days where i want to give my skin a break from makeup or where im working out but still want to look prettyyy and done up..it's like a wash and go except it's for your face lmao, anyways

mwah! xoxo, colebabey8.88

www.investingforbeginners/gumroad.com

---

[etherealstar-writes]

I WANNA BE YOURS | WOSO X READER | PT 13

pairings: woso x reader

summary: in which you're accidentally added to a random group chat, not knowing they're all actually famous footballers, and obliviously end up having many of them competing for your love and attention.

part: thirteen

part one here

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

liked by ellatoone, alessiarusso99, leahwilliamsonn and 5000 others

yourusername: i'm so proud of you guys!! euros champions wooh!! 🤍💙

lottewubbenmoy: 💙💙

ellatoone: tysm!!

alessiarusso99: 💙💙💙

leahwilliamsonn: nahh what is that photo of me ↳ yourusername: lookin buzzin ↳ ellatoone: buzzin fr

stanwaygeorgia: still can't believe you wore that old rusty metal's jersey instead of mine 😔 ↳ lucybronze: it's because i'm her fav ↳ stanwaygeorgia: you wished

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

(doing a bit of timeskip and let's pretend it's been like around two months since the euros bcuz yeah)

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

THE NATIONAL DIVING TEAM

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ guys look at what leah and i found this morning

stairway YOU GUYS WENT WITHOUT ME ?!

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ well i was gonna offer you but leah said you were busy

stairway WHAT NO I WASNT

willlybum oh well that's so sad

earpsy so this is why you were late to training

willybum i forgot we had training

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ more like wanted to forgot

willybum oi don't expose me like that

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ :)) so how's training going

neev y/n save me from this torture we'll go to nandos together and drag jessie along too

the imposter aka y/n ❤️

neev added flaming hot

flaming hot stoppp not this nickname 😭😭 and we can't go to that nandos place anymore did you two forget? we're banned from last time

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ and who's fault was that miss flaming hot

flaming hot i blame niamh for all that

neev bruh you were literally the one that said you could handle the flaming hot sauce fleming and then practically screamed dramatically about how you were dying which got us kicked out

flaming hot I WAS NOT DRAMATIC AND YOU WERE THE ONE THAT PEER PRESSURED ME IN THE FIRST PLACE

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ it was incredibly funny ngl i mean you couldn't really tell the difference from jessie's face and her national jersey colour

flaming hot stop ittt you two are meanies it literally wasn't that bad i recovered fine

neev um you were literally crying the whole day jessie

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ and we had to buy you like twenty iced drinks for you to finally cool down

look this is you finally calming down after your twelfth drink

neev yeah not our fault you can't handle any spice flaming hot fleming but we're still kidnapping you and taking you to another nandos place tonight

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ we sure are

flaming hot i'm gonna pull a houdini

lotte oooh i wanna come along to nandos!

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ you're very welcome to

stairway me too!

neev absolutely not

stairway excuse you how can lotte come with you guys but not me?!

neev bcuz she isn't annoying like you are

stairway

neev

elton no wayy you guys

willybum oh my god i do not have the effort for this today what is she going to say

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ oh no

the REAL karate kid

ona batlle uh should i be scared?

kie very much

flaming hot what is happening?

stairway

elton did you guys know that you can lick someone's elbow (also known as their wenis) and they can't feel it

lotte righttt of course i needed to know this

flaming hot HELP WHAT 😭😭

neev the fact that i just saw georgia look at me after reading that seriously concerns me

the REAL karate kid unfortunately it's true 😭😭 she licked my wenis

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ ..... yeah i have no words

ona batlle 😭😭

steph what the hell 😭😭

rusty metal i wondered why everyone stopped working out and started looking at each other ella, i do not wanna know why you know that, and can everyone stop trying to lick each other's elbows it's freaking me out 😭😭

kie i'm convinced ella has no thoughts behind those eyes it is just elevator music. on repeat. all day. every day.

stairway i think lucy's wenis needs a licky lick

rusty metal georgia get the hell away from me

elton ALSO if you look at any object near you right now you know in your head what it would feel like when you lick it like the texture and stuff

mccard nahh that's insane i haven't licked everything near me so why would i know how it would feel?

lotte why did i just see rachel and millie taking glances at each other

rusty metal GEARGIA ISTG DONT YOU DARE TAKE A STEP TOWARDS ME CAN YOU ALL PLS STOP TRYING TO LICK THINGS WITH YOUR IMAGINATIONS Y'ALL ARE FESTY OMG 😭😭

esme NAAAHHHHH WHY DID NIAMH ACTUALLY JUST LICK SOME STUFF TO CONFIRM IF SHE IMAGINED IT RIGHT THIS IS SO WRONG 😭😭😭

flaming hot of course she would do that 😭😭

meado

steph is this just a daily occurrence for you guys? is this normal?

door knob i'm sad to admit that it is

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ i'm kinda glad i'm not near any of this rn

flaming hot fr

neev well i wanted to know if my brain was tricking me or not

esme you didn't need to lick it tho mate 😭😭

neev

alex nahh i'm done i'm leaving the gym just saw daly start walking towards bright like she was preparing to lick her i can't witness this today 😭😭

kie why am i not surprised that it's ella that started this again?

the imposter aka y/n ❤️

ona batlle amen to that

steph seconded so glad kyra and charli aren't in this chat to contribute to this chaos omg

flaming hot amen fr 😭

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ omg kyra and cha cha! we need to add em in here too

stairway wait a sec y/n YOURE NOT BRITISH?!

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ nopee lived in england almost all my life but proud aussie here 💪🇦🇺

steph ayeee 🇦🇺

willybum i cannot believe this

elton you're an imposter fr

neev and here we thought you were one of us

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ heyy i am an honourary lioness member isn't like lessi half italian?

thet REAL karate kid yeah?

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ see and she's playing for england i can support both the lionesses and tillies

willybum okay but now that the wsl is starting the more important question is which club do you support?

stairway oh yeah

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ oh uhh i gtg do something really important rn talk to you guys later! bye!

neev y/nnnnn dont forget our nandos!! i'll be waiting!!

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ i won't! better be prepared fleming

flaming hot oh no

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

part fourteen here

[aphroditesmoon]

Hi!! Same person who requested the Hades oneshot lol! I loved it alot and I know it's like super early to request another but I wanna get this out before I forget ^^. Okay so what about a Fem!Reader who is a mermaid or siren. Poseidons daughter, who is usually aggressive to anyone who enters her waters but Clarisse somehow is dating her, reader only has a soft spot for clarisse so when they need to cross her waters during capture the flag only clarisse can convince her ^^.(also reader often adopts random fish and clarisse is always swarmed with them when in her pond/waters.) Thank you!!

love letters from the sea to the shore

clarisse la rue x fem!siren!reader

warnings: reader doesn't like demigods, possibly ooc clarisse.

wc: 2k

a/n: i hope u like this🩷🎀

If there's one thing you hate more than demigods is their little capture the flag game. You view these half breeds as unresponsible, mischievous, and disrespectful beings.

You never saw the appeal in gods mingling with mortals and making children with them when they are so many other creatures they could be with.

Your father have tasked you into protecting the waters, and that is who you are. Lady of the lake, guardian of the sea.

The job isn't exactly glamorous, it have been more than a few time that you have caught some sneaky, filthy demigods canoodling in the waters, making out or doing worse.

Your ways into scaring them to leave have gotten less and less subtle as the years pass by and more aggressive. A few weeks ago, you had come close into strangling a kid from the Hermes cabin who had thrown his empty Snickers wrapper into the sea. You were deeply reprimanded by Chiron that same day.

You never see the boy near the waters anymore since that event.

But today...today is different. Every year, the demigods participate in the game of Capture the flag, and though every year they would try and use different routes and strategies, passing through the waters is always necessary. Which meant that whether you liked it or not, the demigods would pollute your waters anyways.

"I'm not going in." You could hear the kids argue among themselves. "Last time someone did, they got jumped by that thing."

"Mermaids don't jump, dumbass." His brother countered, only to be corrected by a familiar voice; "She's not a mermaid, she's a siren, and we don't have a choice."

Both of them were right. You would try and scare anyone who dares enter in, but you would let them in sooner or later. Even though you knew that rules must be abided.

"Move aside, I'll talk to her." Clarisse spoke again.

You weren't that close to land, but swam up nearer when you heard her approaching your territory. "Hey-hello?", she called out as her feet steps into the water.

"Lady...protector, I ask permission to speak to you." The daughter of Ares spoke as if she was unfamiliar with you, and either it was because her siblings were there or because she still considers the concept of your relationship a strange anonymity.

You knew who Clarisse was, you first met her 2 years ago. You wish you could say that she's different from the other obnoxious children, but she isn't.

The girl is as foolish as she is brave. She did not believe in other's warning to tread carefully around the waters, and so when you appeared despite her doubt that you would, she ran off in fear just like all the kids before her.

But a day after that, she came back.

She sat by the edge of dry land and waited for you to appear. And when you did, the same anxiety you've seen on many people's faces before was etched on hers.

But she did not run off that time, instead she gave you an apology, and a gift. A string bracelet made of tiny seashells. An offering, she called it. As if you were one of the gods.

You told her to stop collecting seashells, but thanked her for it anyway.

Since that day, she would come down ny the water more often, not too much that it'll annoy you, but enough times for you to grow a liking for her.

Some nights, when you're in a good mood, you'd even let her meet your sea creature friends. Not a lot of people manage to get close enough to not scare the fishes and crabs.

You are not in a good mood today.

Small waves were sent back up as a response to Clarisse, but it seemed that she needed more. "We need to cross the water." She informed, straight to the point.

She knew you wouldn't be answering her verbally, it isn't like you to appear in broad daylight. You kept the waves coming to indicate your presence and waited for her to speak again.

"Let us pass quickly, and we won't bother you for the whole year again." Clarisse attempted to bargain.

The truth was, she didn't need to ask you at all and you would've still let her pass. But she didn't know that and neither does her siblings, so you act as if you're still contemplating her deal. A few minutes later, the waves slowed down until they completely stopped, a finalised decision has been made.

"Is that a no?" Her brother asked. They couldn't read you like they could.

"Just get in the water." Clarisse instructed with an annoyed sighh as she lead the way, letting the waters surround her legs. That was another thing you had in common with her, you both agree that everyo e else in camp is insufferable.

You watched them waddle their way through from below, hidden from the side of the sea until eventually, they crossed over to dry land, getting closer and closer to the flag.

No one else tried to enter the waters again for the rest of the day. And 20 minutes after you had granted Clarisse safe passage, you could hear the cheers coming from the red coloured team.

---

As midnight approaches the hour, a rare sight comes into view around your space.

Fireflies dances above the large body of water, glowing over the places where the moonlight couldn't.

It's time like this where the most glorious parts of nature would come out of their hiding, the quiet is inviting. And the peace, comforting.

This has been your life since you could remember. And you were content with it. Despite your mother merely being a siren, your father acknowledged you and gave you responsibilities that he'd only give to people he trusted. The creatures of the water and the trees are your friends, a distraction for boredom and repetition.

And though you've had no problem repeating the same cycle of routine daily, you only knew what yearning meant after you met Clarisse La Rue.

Before her, you never knew what it felt like to wake up waiting on the best part of the day. You never knew what loneliness had meant up until you met her.

Only after Clarisse, did you realize empty and unfulfilling your life had really been. To be so good at what you're doing and yet, not having anyone who notices it or to care for you the way you've been caring for the sea and rivers.

But the thing with Clarisse is you never know when she's gonna come. It's impossible for her to visit you ever night, what with Chiron's guarding. And she had her own life apart from you.

Your infatuation with her soon lessened moderately when you realized just how ridiculous it is for you to assume that she views you as more than anything but a fascinating mythical creature, but your liking for her never truly leaves you.

You were not expecting her tonight, knowing full well how taxing and tiring their little game was. The children would all sleep like babies tonight.

And yet, from where you're sat, back leaning against a boulder, you hear her footsteps entering your grounds.

You tilt your head slightly, sneaking a glance at her before you turn back to your front, watching the fireflies disappear and the fishes lurking near your feet.

You felt her presence behind you and said nothing. It isn't uncommon for you to be silent around her, after all there is a risk of you accidentally affecting her with your voice.

You only turned to her when she knelt down to your left. Her face is shadowed by the darkness, without the fireflies, it was harder to see things.

"Hey." She greeted in a hushed tone. You stare at her quietly, responding to her in your mind. "I wanted to see you tonight, to thank you." Clarisse explained.

Her team had won, thanks to your cooperation. You offered her a small smile, something that is rare even between the two of you. Clarisse grinned back, encouraged by your positive attitude.

"I know how much you hate it when there's people over. You didn't have to let us cross, but you did."

You did have to let her cross, there are rules even you had to follow. But she didn't need to know that. Plus, if it were anyone else, you would've made it harder for them to cross.

The tiny goldfishes are surrounding your lower half that's still soaked inside the water, as if guiding you back under, you ignore them as your eyes remain on Clarisse. She looked beautiful like this, with her hair down and sleepy eyes that only you have the privilege to see before the sun rises.

She was pulling something out of her pocket suddenly and fixing her sitting position."I also got you something, a gift."

You had expected this. Clarisse often came to you with little gifts. Flowers, shiny rocks, dead butterflies.

Her hands are wrapped around the item strategically to hide it from you. If she was trying to get you excited, it's working. You push your neck out to try and get a peak on it, but it's gripped closely.

Clarisse pushes her hands outband slowly opened up her palms to you, exposing a circular bracelet, covered in a bright yellow colour.

"Gold." You noted aloud and looked up at her. "It is. Do you like it?" She asks, smiling.

You nod your head once and extend your wrist to her.

Clarisse easily puts it on over your hand, the size fitting perfectly. You wondered if this notion have somehow changed something in your relationship, but didn't know how to ask.

"I had someone from the Hephaestus cabin to make this for you. I wanted it to mean something...not just for you, but for me too." She had said it all so well, your heart skipped a beat over her words.

Clarisse probably didn't know, but for your species, gifting and offerings are usually considered as courting methods. And so you found it genuinely amusing how easy it is for her to be going around, getting you stuff unprompted.

You also had a gift for her. Something you've been keeping to yourself for months, contemplating on whether or not you should actually give it to her.

But it's been sitting down deep in the water, safely waiting to be retrieved.

And so without saying anything, you moved away from her and dived into the waters. You made sure to be quick, swiftly reaching for the closed shell into your palms.

And as you make your way back up onto the shores, you see that Clarisse is thankfully, still waiting.

Your fingers found hers as you tried to climb back up onto dry land. She does not hesitate to wrap her long arms under your elbow, pulling you up towards her.

Once you're seated next to her again, you nudged the shell onto her hand and waited for her to open it. Clarisse cracked open the pouch and opened her mouth to let out a soft breathy sigh at the sight of a singular white pearl that sat inside of it.

"Are you...giving this to me?" She asks, turning her head towards you. You nodded as a yes.

"You know, I think this would make a decent ring." She tells you, thumbing the stone. You raise your hand up to lightly graze over her collarbones. "You think I should make it a necklace?"

You nod again. Clarisse seemed pleased at how engaging you've been throughout this whole meeting, trying her best to coax a conversation out of you.

There are so many things you want to tell her of. Things you aren't ready to tell her yet. And so for now, whatever this is would have to be enough.

Clarisse shoves the pearl into her back pocket after. “Thank you.” She says gratefully. The silence was no longer excruciating nor suffocating. Instead it is loud in unsaid confessions and comfort in understanding.

[kryannoy]

Hii! Can we have another yandere Andrew graves x reader?

genre: (i don't know what to call this)

character: yandere!andrew graves x reader

warnings: manipulation, gaslighting, andrew traumatizing/scaring the reader, obsessive, possessive

He's cruel. So cruel.

But he loves you madly. Dearly.

And he wants you only for himself. No one can get you.

And the only way to make sure you understand that, is by breaking your heart and rebuilding it himself.

You and Andrew have been friends for quite some time now. In high school, he was the quiet kid with few friends and you were you, just living your life. He would never have noticed you if it weren't for when you made him realize that some kids were bullying him with running a few errands for them. It opened his eyes when you smacked him with a statement; "You know they're just using you to their advantage."

Call him dumb, yes, but he sincerely thought they were just asking for help. He didn't mind it and maybe that's because he's so used to running errands for his younger sister, despite being the older sibling.

Ever since that day, he stopped accepting those "helps" and you decided to approach him more often. You both talked so much and learned so much of each other that he fell in love with you without you realizing. Andrew has always been a chill and nonchalant guy so you often overlook his emotions, not including the times that he can be sassy. But his demeanor makes it easy to talk to and you enjoyed it.

When you started to hang out with Andrew, some of the kids took it as you were showing pity to him. Or you approached him with a trick up your sleeve. Be it all those rumours, Andrew didn't care. He knows you're not that kind of person from all your conversations, your behavior, your gestures. They were all genuine.

After you both graduated high school, he still wanted to keep in touch and you didn't mind. Both of you meet up at your free time and when college starts, he 'coincidentally' got into the same university as you. And how excited was he to see you and the thought of seeing you every single day.

But how awfully mad was he to find out you liked some guy at your part-time workplace.

Andrew tried to keep you from coming to work, or convince you that guy is just another flirty guy who's playing with your feelings. But of course, his efforts went in vain as you somehow landed a date with your crush.

"Y/N, he's not taking this seriously! Don't go on that stupid date."

"Andrew, I understand you're worried. But what if you're wrong?" You say as you keep rummaging through your wardrobe for what to wear. Fancy? Cute? Casual? "Besides, I'm not a kid and you're not my mother, Andy."

He rolls his eyes at the nickname. He felt a sting at your little comment. You really don't see him as someone more than a friend, huh? How is he going to change your mind?

You hold up two shirts in front of you and show them to Andrew so he can choose but Andrew isn't looking at you anymore. You notice the small pout he has on his handsome face and immediately you put down your clothes. You sit next to him on the bed and pull his face to you.

"What made you so mad, hmm? Is it because of my little comment?"

He raises an eyebrow with an unbothered look.

"Because I called you 'Andy'? Or because I'm not listening to you for still wanting to go on a date with him?"

". . . All of it." He may be upset with you right now but he still savours your warm touch on his cheek before you let go.

"Andrew," you sigh. "Look, I know you mean well but relationships are never going to be like a fairytale. It needs trial-and-error. So, let me go on this date and see how it goes, yeah?" You smile that sweet smile so he can change his mind instead. Gosh, he wished he could kiss you right now.

"And if you end up crying?"

"I'll come to you and you'll be my shoulder to cry on?" You giggle at this.

Oh, he will. He will make sure you come back crawling to him and never disobey him again.

Andrew tickles your sides and you shrieked. You hear his chuckle indicating his mood has changed for the better a bit. It changed because he has a plan set up.

"And I would have the right to say 'I told you so'!"

-

The day of your stupid date has come and he's all set. He's nervous whether the plan will work or not, but in everyone's right mind, anyone would be heartbroken to see their crush kissing another person that's not them.

You were all dolled up it made his expression dark and deadly. Anyone walking by would be running after their lives.

He allows you to have fun with your date to let you have high hopes for something you would never get in the first place, just to be crushed and make you disgusted by that boy. He brought along his little sister, Ashley, for the plan.

"You're so weird, Andy," Ashley provoked while waiting for the perfect time to move. "You're letting your dear little sister kiss some random guy just for a girl?"

"As if you're not a slut with your boobs always sticking out," Andrew spits back. "And don't call me Andy."

Ashley rolls her eyes as she mutters under her breath, "Goes to show that you have been ogling at it like a weirdo."

"She's leaving. Go, now." Despite the little comment, she still obliges her brother and went after the boy you were dating. Andrew wasn't sure where you're going but the plan was once you return to your date, you'll be seeing a big surprise.

And surprise it was to see your dream boy talking to a girl, smiling and laughing and ending up kissing. Ashley notices your return. Thinking that this was enough sight for your sore eyes, she stuck her tongue out into the boy's mouth and pressed her boobs more into his chest.

Andrew admits he felt really bad for you but this is the only way to get you and make you understand that you don't need anyone else but him.

When the two parts themselves, you can see the boy's eyes filled with want before changing into guilt and fear once noticing you. And you really felt disgusted. You walked up to him and slapped your anger across his face.

"Oof, didn't know you had a girlfriend," Ashley says to act it out.

You heard your name being called by the boy after you left them and ran back home. In your room, miscalls and texts are lining up in your phone but you ignore all of them. There's no way you're going to let him explain what happened. There's no explanation to that evidence. The only person you want to calm you down is one tap away. But then, he would say "I told you so" because he was right and he claimed it. Gosh, you should've listened to him.

Your thumb hover over Andrew's contact but you hear a knock at your door. It must be one of your parents. You wipe your tears and suppress your anger.

"Yeah?" Before you could even tell them to come in or go away, the door opens and reveals Andrew instead. There goes the first person yet the last person you want to see. "Andrew?"

"I'm here." He walks in, closes the door behind him and engulfs you into an embrace. His warmth, his reassuring hug without saying anything, his presence; it all made you burst into tears once again.

"I should've listened to you," you sob into his shoulder, wetting his sweater. He's glad you couldn't see his face because he was smiling widely from his successful plan. He's sure, with this you'll be traumatized to find another man, traumatized that you might be disappointed again. And from here on, he'll have to make sure he'll always be there by your side whenever you need. Be it running errands for you, buying snacks that you can get yourself, or when you're lonely and sad, he'll be there for you to show that he's the only guy who would never betray, never cheat, and never make you run away.

All of these thoughts excite him that he didn't realize he kissed your head. Thankfully, you didn't push him away in disgust. That's the first step.

"I told you so."

[dreamescapeswriting]

Stray Kids Reaction || They're Protective Over You [Mafia Edition]

⤜Copyright: © DreamEscapesWriting - September 2023

⤜MASTERLIST

CHAN:

Ever since Chan's driver had almost hit you with a car all those years ago there was someone with you, always. It didn't matter what you were doing, he was just with you constantly. It never really bothered you, if your husband wanted to make sure that you were protected then you were happy to take part in that, as long as it wasn't going too far.

"You know, she doesn't need a babysitter while I'm around," Kat said snarkily to the bald man who was walking beside you, holding his hand out in front of your body to prevent you from crossing the road. You looked at Kat and smirked a little, you knew Chan was just trying to look out for you but Kat saw it as him trying to dictate your every move and she was worried you were too blind to see it.

"Relax babes, it's just Chan's way of watching out for me." You whispered as the man you'd come to know as - Pike - gave you the all-clear to cross the road. Kat slipped her arm into yours and you began crossing together, you could tell this was playing on her mind a lot and you wanted her to express herself with you.

"Doesn't it make you feel like a child though? Having someone tell you when you can and can't cross the road?" Kat looked at you suspiciously and you smiled a little, you didn't like that he was there but you didn't hate it either. God, you'd tried to fight Chan on it but he was adamant that you needed Pike around to look out for you.

"Not a child. Besides, I'd gotten Chan down to only giving me one man instead of the five he originally wanted me to have," You laughed, looking at Pike who kept his eyes in front of him and not getting involved in your conversations.

"Five?! What would you need five men for!?" Kat laughed a little and Pike let out a low chuckle,

"To surround her in a circle and protect her from oncoming traffic." He teased, winking at you both before you both giggled and headed inside the store you'd come to.

MINHO:

Over the years you'd gotten used to Minho's little quirks, you knew your husband was a protective man and was always looking out for the best of you.

"All I'm saying is, I don't need an armed escort to the cat sanctuary every day," You told Minho at breakfast, the two of you were discussing what you could do to lessen the number of men that stood outside of your work place every day. If it was down to Minho you wouldn't be working there anymore but he wasn't going to stop you from doing something that you loved doing.

"What if someone comes in and tries to take you? Or one of the cats?" You stared at him and sighed, you knew that he was right but ten guards was a bit much.

"Okay, then how about we compromise." You suggested, lifting a strawberry to your lips and taking a bite out of it.

"Three guards," You suggested, trying to make this as an easy business deal for him to agree to but Minho looked at you and put a strawberry in his mouth.

"Five," He suggested, shrugging his shoulders at you.

"Three."  You smiled warmly but he just shook his head at you. There was no way he was going to put you at risk by leaving you alone. You knew he was a powerful man but you still didn't want the ten guards outside of your shop scaring everyone away.

"Nine." You stared at him as he told you his suggestion and you blinked completely stunned by him,

"This isn't how that's supposed to work, you're supposed to lower." You pouted at you and Minho resisted the urge to smirk at how cute it was to see you like this.

"Five. Final offer." Sighing you nodded your head, agreeing to it and shaking his hand as if this was a real business deal you'd done together.

"Fine."

CHANGBIN:

Changbin had never been clingy before in his life but there was just something about you, something that bought out that side of him and he rather enjoyed it. Ever since the two of you ha gotten married last month, it seemed he'd gotten clingier. 

"You know, I could walk in the garden alone." You giggled a little as Changbin walked by your side through the gardens of your home. The two of you lived in a huge mansion which meant the gardens were just as - if not more - as big and you could get lost.

"What if you fall and no one is there to watch out for you?"

"Binnie." You giggled, he despised anyone else using that nickname for him but hearing it come from your lips made his whole world shine brighter,

"I know I get a little protective but with good reason. Anything could happen out here," He gestured around you both and you arched an eyebrow at him. When the two of you first started dating one another he wouldn't let you out of his sight, he would walk you to and from the club every night and then a few months into dating you were living together. Not that you minded, you enjoyed having this side coming from him but you didn't want this to become tiring for him.

"I don't want anything to ever happen to you," He told you as you both stopped in front of the rose bushes that lined the property, you smiled and reached up running your hand across his cheek,

"Nothing will, I promise you." You whispered, kissing him quickly before pulling away. As soon as you were apart a twig snapped and you were suddenly on the ground with Changbin above you,

"Binnie..I think it was a rabbit, not a spy or anything." You told him when you saw the panicked expression on his face, he nodded a little.

"I'm getting you a guard," He mumbled before standing you both up and you agreed, knowing you could never change his mind.

HYUNJIN:

"What do you think you're doing?" Hyunjin quizzed as you walked into the living room attempting to put your earrings through your ear and looking out of the window.

"I'm running late for girls' night," You'd told him a million times what tonight was but it seemed he'd forgotten once again,

"I know that, but what are you wearing?" You looked down at your outfit and frowned, there was nothing wrong with what you were wearing. It covered your body and it wasn't anything extremely revealing - unlike what you used to wear on nights out.

"A dress?"

"Says who?" He quizzed and you resisted the urge to quote a film and sighed,

"Hyunjin, it covers everything." You told him as he shook his head at you it wasn't that he didn't trust you because he did, it was everyone else he didn't trust.

"But it's so tight, everyone will be watching you...Looking at you, looking at what belongs to me." He let out a low growl at the thought of it and you stared at him,

"No one will. They all know I'm yours and if they value living they'll keep their eyes on something else," He smirked a little as you told him that but it didn't put his mind at ease.

"I'll send someone and if anyone so much as looks at you for longer than ten seconds I'll take names and faces," He told you sternly and you nodded, you knew you weren't going to go out completely alone without someone there to watch over you.

"Sure, I'm going now." You turned away from him but you were quickly spun into his embrace and kissed roughly.

"Now you can go," He winks, making you giggle as you walk for the front door.

JISUNG:

Whenever it was storming outside Jisung cancelled everything he had going on, even if he was in the middle of a meeting, he would cancel and walk out without speaking to another soul about what he was doing.

"You can't keep doing this," You giggled as you watched your husband kick off his shoes and crawl into the bed with you, wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling you closer to him.

"I can, I'm the boss." He reminded you, laughing as you cuddled closer to him. You weren't even THAT scared of thunderstorms but ever since your first meeting with your husband he'd been there for every single storm. It didn't matter what he was doing, if there was a storm he was racing home to you to make sure you were okay. It might have seemed silly to anyone from the outside looking in but this was Jisung's way of being protective over you, watching out for you to make sure you were cared for.

"You are, but you know a boss has responsibilities," You teased before you let out a loud yelp when the sudden crash of thunder made you jump. Your hands clutched onto his shirt and you hid your face in his neck, suddenly very thankful for him being right there with you calming you down with his breathing and small kisses on your skin.

FELIX:

"You're being ridiculous." You told Felix as you stood in the kitchen together, your new chef standing and cooking for you both as you glared at your husband. You couldn't believe he'd done this after you told him not to, it was a simple accident.

"I could have done that at any point, it was an accident. You didn't need to get a chef," You mumbled, smiling weakly at the chef who tipped his head at you. 

"You hurt yourself. So now, it won't happen again because I took you out of the kitchen," You rolled your eyes at him, you could hardly believe that he'd resorted to this,

"But you love my cooking." You reminded him and it was true, Felix adored everything you ever made him but if it came at the cost of you hurting yourself he was never going to let you in a kitchen again,

"I love you more." He whined making you roll your eyes, it was one tiny cut that you'd done it wasn't as though he knew about all of the other times you'd hurt yourself by accident.

"Felix, I won't seriously hurt myself. It was one tiny little cut-"

"And a burn, Don't think the maids haven't told me about the accidents that have happened when I'm not even here," You shot a look at the two maids who were quick to make themselves look busy and avoid your gaze.

"One day I'll get back in that kitchen," You warned him before he kissed your cheek, walking you into the living room where you could watch a movie while waiting for your food.

SEUNGMIN:

It wasn't that he was too protective but Seungmin wanted you to have privacy and if that meant emptying out a whole store just like his men had done the day he met you then he would gladly do that for you. But this was a bit far with his protectiveness, you never would have expected this.

"Seungmin, baby, don't you think this is going a step too far?" You quizzed as you stared around at the completely deserted mall and then over at your husband,

"No." He mumbled, running his hand over the small of your back, he'd planned this weeks ago when you mentioned wanting to go dress shopping for a charity event. The last thing he wanted was for someone else to see you in a jaw-dropping gown, instead, he wanted it to be a surprise.

"Seungmin, other people need to shop as well." You mumbled at him, there was no one around besides the workers in each of the shops and you could hardly believe that he'd done this.

"This is insane," You laughed listening to the way your voice echoed inside of the mall. It felt like something from a horror movie and Seungmin was enjoying the smile on your face,

"Let's go wherever you want, no one can disturb us." He told you as he took your hand in his and began to walk through the deserted mall together.

JEONGIN: 

As soon as news spread that there was a shooter inside of your hotel Jeongin wasted no time in getting to you. You'd tried to text him but were taken hostage by the crazy man wielding a gun around and you were starting to regret not taking Jeongin up on his offer for a security guard.

"I suggest you release my wife before you lose a hand," Jeongin said as he stared at you, tears were springing in your eyes as the metal of the gun was pressed harder against your temple.

"You better get out of my way if you want her to be alive," The man stuttered out, It was clear he was nervous about this and you knew Jeongin was going to play on that.

"If you were going to kill her you would have by now." Jeongin stared at you, studying your face to make sure you were truly okay and you smiled weakly at him, letting him know he hadn't hurt you yet. 

"GET AWAY!" The man screamed as Jeongin tried to step closer to you and he yanked you backwards, everything happened within a matter of seconds. One moment you were in the man's arms and the next you were on the floor with something warm over your face.

"What-"

"Thank you, boys," Jeongin said to two men who were standing above you, you recognised them as some of the new bell boys you'd hired a few months ago.

"How do you know them?" You stared at him and a smirk began to take over your husband's lips.

"Baby, they're your private security."

"You got me security," You grumbled as you let out a laugh, you should have known.

"Did you really think I would let the love of my life walk around without protection?" He scoffed, laughing a little as you hit against his chest watching as the two men began to clean up and you straightened yourself out.

"I need to comfort the guests, you can help." You told Jeongin sternly as you both got up.

Tagline: @chiisaiblog @hanasonmi @sw33tnight @taestannie @acciocriativity @scarletemeterio @halesandy @aerastus @laylasbunbunny @critssq @lenfilms @btsiguess-kpop @meowmeowisdaname @imafivestarkpopstan @lost-leopard-beanie @djeniryuu @backintomykpopphaseagain @choisoorin

[raziiyah]

Can we all agree that

Randall is NEITHER a Sweet woowoo misunderstood baby NOR is he a completely Heartless and soulless demonic creature with 0 feelings?

Like even in Monster's at Work we can see that Yes. He's definitely an awful person who has done terrible things and is still out to go do more terrible things BUT we also can see he has shown to be genuinely grateful to Johnny for saving his life and actually considered Johnny to be his Best Friend (even if it was completely one-sided on his part)

yesss randall is definitely not one or the other for me

i LOVE randall but i do not see him as a sweet misunderstood baby. he has done so much awful things and as of now shows no sign of remorse. it's supposedly been 20 years since college and he's only gotten more bitter over the years; far from who he was at the beginning of college. it's unfortunate that he got mixed up in the wrong crowd, but every bad choice he's made was his choice to make. also i feel like some people forget just how messed up his plan with the scream extractor in mi was, not to mention his sadistic and murderous desires (if randall was visible during his fight with sulley it would NOT be family friendly 💀)

but he isn't doing what he's doing just for the sake of being evil, yes he's mean, but at his core, it's just that randall will go through great lengths to get what he wants, to get the recognition he craves so much, and most especially, to one up sulley. his mindset was warped by ror, which changed his life forever. monsters university fleshed out this part of randall's character, as it provided context on why he’s the way he is, and gives a different meaning to his words, actions and intentions.

though i felt randall and johnny's best friendship was random considering what happened in mu, it was an interesting change of pace to see post mu randall actually like someone. randall mentioned that he owed johnny one, but i feel like they still genuinely enjoyed each other's company. like you can see that randall and johnny actually have a connection that isn't just strictly business, unlike randall and waternoose.

i do think that part of randall also still craves johnny's attention like he did in mu. considering he's been wanting to get in with the “cool kids” since literally day one of university suggests he's been wanting recognition and status for a very long time. and with johnny still having power and status as the ceo of fear co., i feel like randall would've still wanted to work with him despite what happened in mu.

i feel that even post uni randall still feels a need to impress johnny. like when he scares tylor, it seems like he immediately looks to johnny for his reaction and approval. then, he makes a joke at chet's expense, and after, goes to stand by johnny's side. with chet being johnny's former right-hand man, it makes sense why randall takes digs at him

i imagined that sometime in university, randall said something mean to chet and johnny found it funny, so he kept doing it for his attention (like the chet-wetter thing) and even now, he still brings it up and likely says and does other mean things to chet to raise himself up and put chet down

i would've liked to think that randall narrating johnny as his “best friend joined at the hip” could've just been something he made up for his own sake, but since maw johnny seems to actually neglect chet in favour of randall, i guess the writers just decided randall would actually just be his bestie moving forward (though i think leaning into the other concept would've been cool)

would randall feel like johnny was just using him, perhaps like he did in university? maybe. but perhaps he'll take a false sense of love and acceptance over nothing

though i don't think randall would've stuck around unless it benefited him, and that proves to be true when randall abandoned johnny after he got jailed lol, with johnny not being in a place of power anymore, he's useless to him now

now that randall is on his own, i want to see him work solely for himself, by himself. not under anyone, no boss, no more with being a follower. unless some other random monster shows up or they bring back waternoose or something, randall is very likely going to be the main villain of the next season, and this could be an opportunity to see more of his personality, especially since we still have yet to see randall interact with mike and sulley

maybe he could show a shred of regret, acknowledge the weight of his actions, or how much he's changed, but still show that he's gone too far now to go back to how he was. maybe he hates who he was before. or maybe he hates who he is now. but he's done too much and worked too hard to just accept that he's lost and go back to how he used to be

maybe mike could say something along the lines of "what happened to you, randall? what happened to the nice, friendly guy i knew in university?" and randall could be like "the guy who was naive? the guy who was insecure? the guy who was nothing more than second best? that guy is gone wazowski. long gone."

or maybe randall could tell sulley how he genuinely feels about him, and how much he was affected by always being in his shadow. perhaps sulley could acknowledge his skills and say that he could turn things around and do great things at the factory, and randall could laugh at the idea and say some stuff like "work together? under your management? what a joke. i don't think so. i'm not standing in your shadow, sullivan. not anymore."

idk lol but i think it would be cool to give randall some kind of scene that acknowledges his past or makes you sympathize with him a bit but not excuse his actions, or something to make the audience reflect on how tragic his character is or what could've been. i'd also like if he went as hard as he did when he nearly pushed sulley off the door to his death, especially considering the position sulley is in now

mu's existence changed and fleshed out randall's character (even if he didn't have as much scenes as he could've) and i would love to see this show do the same. except tylor is the main character and the show focuses more on mift; even mike and sulley aren't really the focus so i don't think they'd put that much emphasis on randall (but i'd love to be proved wrong)

for the record, though i currently think randall is in a state where he's far from redemption, i'm not completely closed off to the idea as long as it's in character and written well. though no offense but idk if maw/disney could actually manage to pull that off lol. whatever happens i just hope they do his character justice at least 🙏

[yourdakg]

Donation Found 2!

It took a little while longer than expected, but we finally found an appropriate donor for Brick! Brick was in desperate need of a donation. As the owner of a high quality gym and something of a fitness influencer, he was catching a lot of shit for not showing any empathy to his clientele or, in general, people who weren't in peak condition.

Maybe that's what scared some donors off, the sheer ego of having to maintain a physique like Brick's. But, by God, he paid the $325,000 to get his new body. Did he read the contract? No. But he insisted the customer is always right and he demanded action from the team at Turnaround Technologies.

Not that he could help how he looked, he was always athletic as a kid. Football, wrestling, water polo, gymnastics. He hit the weights hard as soon as high school started. And now he's a fitness enthusiast's wet dream. Let's remind everyone where Brick is starting this journey:

But thankfully we were able to find someone who fit the bill for Brick. This is someone who has the ego, the drive, and... honestly, a lot of the same toxic masculinity that Brick has. Just in a different form. So honestly it's a perfect match. Which we were relieved to find. After all, Brick doesn't fully understand the permanence of this yet. So let's take a look at our donor plate:

Meet Lemmy Chungus. A man who is almost permanently online, a moderator for the r/gayincel subreddit, a prolific user of 4chan, and a man with a subscription to 12 OnlyFans pages and PornHub Premium. He has an interesting take on why this exchange should work.

Donor Statement: This world has winners and losers. I am naturally born to be a dominant male, and it's becoming clear to me that Brick doesn't understand the role he is supposed to have. It's not fair that some buff fuckboy was deprived of the body he needs to match his true, inner self. It's obvious he wants this, so let's seal the deal and make this exhange.

I have to admit, we hear at Turnaround hadn't thought about it like that, adjusting two men into their, perhaps, more honest selves. It really is a public service. Both subjects are being stripped down, injected with serum, and placed in their uniforms as our technicians prepare the chambers.

Just prior to taking Brick's final "before" photo, he was informed that the contract had been signed, this medicine injected, and that his fate was sealed. Of course, we expected him to fight us a bit when told it was one way, one trip per lifetime, and permanent. Instead we were shocked that the young man started to cry.

Patient Statement: What do you mean permanent? What do you mean *sniff* 'new lot in life'? I don't understand why you're taking my designer underwear. I'll never wear it again? Wh-why not? I'll be fit again! What do you mean role adjustment? Huh? I dunno what a gaycel is. I don't spend a lot of time on the Internet. Whadda ya mean that's gonna be most of what I do now? *Sniffsob* I'm still an alpha. I *sniff* wanna change my mind. I don't understand. This body isn't legally mine anymore? I'm *sniff* I'll be a good boy, please!

So docile! He's really sliding into his new role quite well, and we're all very pleased. Brick was injected again when he saw the donor body, and his eyes almost went cross from shock. There will be a stiff financial penalty for requiring several staff members dragging his muscular body to the chamber.

The process was a difficult one. As the waves started to swing back and forth, Brick was grabbing his dick and squeezing his own pectorals as if to hold onto them. The beams and serums and molecule destabilization took days. It's like his body didn't want to assume a new role. But we held out hope that eventually the assault of our technology and pharmacology would win out and he would be shoved, unalterably, into his new body. So I'm happy to report the following:

As you can see, both men are now secured in their new bodies, roles, and lifestyles.

Patient Report: Ohhh God. It's hard to move, it's hard to move. I heard some fat guys had power, but he's... got none. I have none. Oh fuck. I'll get back in the gym and... look at him. What a slut, strutting around in that thong with a muscled up ass. Like he's some hotshot. He's not! Why does it make me so angry???

Donor Report: Chances are there a lot of other losers out there who have hot, buff bodies. Cute faces. Huge dicks. Guys who look like they should be on top, but know they're a beta bitch at heart. Stop being selfish. Ask for a donation today and let the real alphas assume their natural position.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Precaratize bosses

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SUNDAY (Apr 21) in TORINO, then Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Combine Angelou's "When someone shows you who they are, believe them" with the truism that in politics, "every accusation is a confession" and you get: "Every time someone accuses you of a vice, they're showing you who they are and you should believe them."

Let's talk about some of those accusations. Remember the moral panic over the CARES Act covid stimulus checks? Hyperventilating mouthpieces for the ruling class were on every cable network, complaining that "no one wants to work anymore." The barely-submerged subtext was their belief that the only reason people show up for work is that they're afraid of losing everything – their homes, their kids, the groceries in their fridge.

This isn't a new development. Back when Clinton destroyed welfare, his justification was that "handouts" make workers lazy. The way to goad workers off their sofas (and the welfare rolls) and into jobs was to instill fear in them:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/welfare-childhood/555119/

This is also the firm belief of tech bosses: for them, mass tech layoffs are great news, because they terrorize the workers you don't fire, so that they'll be "extremely hardcore" and put in as many extra hours as the company demands, without even requiring any extra pay in return:

https://fortune.com/2022/10/06/elon-musk-jason-calacanis-return-to-office-gentlemens-layoffs-twitter/

Now, there's an obvious answer to the problem of no one taking a job at the wage being offered: just increase the offer. Capitalists claim to understand this. Uber will tell you that surge pricing "incentivizes drivers" to take to the streets by offering them more money to drive during busy times:

https://www.uber.com/blog/austin/providing-rides-when-they-are-most-needed/

(Note that while Uber once handed the lion's share of surge price premiums to drivers, these days, Uber just keeps the money, because they've entered the enshittification stage where drivers are so scared of being blacklisted that Uber can push them around instead of dangling carrots.)

(Also note that this logic completely fails when it comes to other businesses, like Wendy's, who briefly promised surge-priced hamburgers during busy times, but without even the pretense that the surge premium would be used to pay additional workers to rush to the restaurant and increase the capacity:)

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/feb/27/wendys-dynamic-surge-pricing

So bosses knew how to address their worker shortage: higher wages. You know: supply and demand. For bosses, the issue wasn't supply, it was price. A worker who earns $10/hour but makes the company $20 profit every hour is splitting the surplus 50:50 with their employer. The employer has overheads (rent on the shop, inventory, advertising and administration) that they have to pay out of their end of that surplus. But workers also have overheads: commuting costs, child-care, a professional wardrobe, and other expenses the worker incurs just so they can make money for their boss.

There's no iron law of economics that says the worker/boss split should be 50/50. Depending on the bargaining power of workers and their bosses, that split can move around a lot. Think of McDonald's and Walmart workers who work for wildly profitable corporate empires, but are so badly paid that they have to rely on food stamps. The split there is more like 10/90, in the boss's favor.

The pandemic changed the bargaining power. Sure, workers got a small cushion from stimulus checks, but they also benefited from changes in the fundamentals of the labor market. For example, millions of boomers just noped out of their jobs, forever, unwilling to risk catching a fatal illness and furious to realize that their bosses viewed that as an acceptable risk.

Bosses' willingness to risk their workers' lives backfired in another way: killing hundreds of thousands of workers and permanently disabling millions more. Combine the boomer exodus with the workers who sickened or died, and there's just fewer workers to go around, and so now those workers enjoy more bargaining power. They can demand a better split: say, 75/25, in their favor.

Remember the 2015 American Airlines strike, where pilots and flight attendants got a raise? The eminently guillotineable Citibank analyst Kevin Crissey declared: "This is frustrating. Labor is being paid first again. Shareholders get leftovers":

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/american-airlines-flight-attendants-bash-citi-analyst-who-put-shareholders-before-workers-14134309

Now, obviously, the corporation doesn't want to offer a greater share of its surplus to its workforce, but it certainly can do so. The more it pays its workers, the less profitable it will be, but that's capitalism, right? Corporations try to become as profitable as they can be, but they can't just decree that their workers must work for whatever pay they want to offer (that's serfdom).

Companies also don't get to dictate that we must buy their goods at whatever price they set (the would be a planned economy, not a market economy). There's no law that says that when the cost of making something goes up, its price should go up, too. A business that spends $10 to make a widget you pay $15 for has a $5 margin to play with. If the business's costs go up to $11, they can still charge $15 and take $1 less in profits. Or they can raise the price to $15.50 and split the difference.

But when businesses don't face competition, they can make you eat their increased costs. Take Verizon. They made $79b in profit last year, and also just imposed a $4/month service charge on their mobile customers due to "rising operational costs":

https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/1c53c4p/79bn_in_profits_last_year_but_you_need_an_extra/

Now, Verizon is very possibly lying about these rising costs. Excuseflation is rampant and rising, as one CEO told his investors, when the news is full of inflation-talk, "it’s an opportunity to increase the prices without getting a whole bunch of complaining from the customers":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power

But even stipulating that Verizon is telling the truth about these "rising costs," why should we eat those costs? There's $79b worth of surplus between Verizon's operating costs and its gross revenue. Why not take it out of Verizon's bottom line?

For 40 years, neoliberal economists have emphasized our role as "consumers" (as though consumers weren't also workers!). This let them play us off against one-another: "Sure, you don't want the person who rings up your groceries to get evicted because they can't pay their rent, but do you care about it enough to pay an extra nickel for these eggs?"

But again, there's no obvious reason why you should pay that extra nickel. If you have the buying power to hold prices down, and workers have the labor power to keep wages up, then the business has to absorb that nickel. We can have a world where workers can pay their rent and you can afford your groceries.

So how do we get bosses to agree to take less so we can have more? They've told us how: for bosses, the thing that motivates workers to show up for shitty jobs is fear – fear of losing their homes, fear of going hungry.

When your boss says, "If you don't want to do this job for minimum wage, there's someone else who will," they're telling you that the way to get a raise out of them is to engineer things so that you can say, "If you don't want to pay me a living wage for this job, there's someone else who will."

Their accusation – that you only give someone else a fair shake when you're afraid of losing out – is a confession: to get them to give you a fair shake, we have to make them afraid. They're showing us who they are, and we should believe them.

In her Daily Show appearance, FTC chair Lina Khan quipped that monopolies are too big to care:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDTiWaYfcM

Philosophers of capitalism are forever praising its ability to transform greed into public benefit. As Adam Smith put it, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." The desire to make as much money as possible, on its own, doesn't produce our dinner, but when the butcher, the brewer and the baker are afraid that you will take your labor or your wallet elsewhere, they pay more and charge less.

Capitalists don't want market economies, where they have to compete with one another, eroding their margins and profits – they want a planned economy, like Amazon, where Party Secretary Bezos and his commissars tell merchants what they can sell and tell us what we must pay:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/01/managerial-discretion/#junk-fees

Capitalists don't want free labor, where they have to compete with rival capitalists to bid on their workers' labor – they want noncompetes, bondage fees, and "training repayment agreement provisions" (TRAPs) that force their workers to stay in dead-end jobs rather than shopping for a better wage:

\https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Capitalists hate capitalism, because capitalism only works if the capitalists are in a constant state of terror inspired by the knowledge that tomorrow, someone smarter could come along and open a better business, poaching their customers and workers, and putting the capitalist on the breadline.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-extremis-veritas/#the-winnah

Being in a constant precarious state makes people lose their minds, and capitalists know it. That's why they work so hard to precaratize the rest of us, saddling us with health debt, education debt, housing debt, stagnating wages and rising prices. It's not just because that makes them more money in the short term from our interest payments and penalties. It's because it de-risks their lives: monopolies and cartels can pass on any extra costs to consumers, who'll eat shit and take it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#overinflated

A workforce that goes to bed every night worrying about making the rent is a workforce that put in unpaid overtime and thank you for it.

Capitalists hate capitalism. You know who didn't hate capitalism? Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels. The first chapter of The Communist Manifesto is just these two guys totally geeking out about how much cool stuff we get when capitalists are afraid and therefore productive:

https://pluralistic.net/SpectreHaunting

But when capitalists escape their fears, the alchemical reaction that converts greed to prosperity fizzles, leaving nothing behind but greed and its handmaiden, enshittification. Google search is in the toilet, getting worse every year, but rather than taking reduced margins and spending more fighting spam, the company did a $80b stock-buyback and fired 12,000 skilled technologists, rather than using that 80 bil to pay their wages for the next twenty-seven years:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Monopoly apologists like to argue that monopolists can rake in the giant profits necessary to fund big, ambitious projects the produce better products at lower prices and make us all better off. But even if monopolists can spend their monopoly windfalls on big, ambitious projects, they don't. Why would they?

If you're Google, you can either spend tens of billions on R&D to keep up with spam and SEO scumbags, or you can spend less money buying the default search spot on every platform, so no one ever tries another search engine and switches:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Compared to its monopoly earnings, the tech sector's R&D spending is infinitesimal:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/11/nor-glom-of-nit/#capitalists-hate-competition

How do we get capitalists to work harder to make their workers and customers better off? Capitalists tell us how, every day. We need to make them afraid.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

Image: Vlad Lazarenko (modified) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wall_Street_Sign_%281-9%29.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[bad268]

Hello my friend! I've recently discovered your work for the frog boys and also saw you have requests open (if this isn't true anymore I'm terribly sorry!) I was wondering if you could write something about Pezzy (and maybe the rest of the frog house included if you want) playing horror games with his s/o? Have a good day!

Scared in Love (Frog Boys X Reader)

Fandom: RPF/Miscellaneous

Requested: Clearly (I decided to make this part of [Blank] in Love. I could be read alone though. Thank you my friend <3)

Warnings: Horror games

POV: First Person (I/me)

W.C. 1027 (about 250 each)

Summary: Horror games are scary, who knew?

As always, my requests are OPEN

MASTERLIST // HITLIST

Technically can be read alone, but Part 4 <-

~~

Puffer (At Dead of Night)

“This is stupid! All we’re doing is running from a bald guy,” I laughed as I controlled the movements in the game as we ran between rooms. Puffer had been asked to play At Dead of Night. Despite knowing he did not like horror games, he agreed as long as I was there for it. Neither of us had heard much of this game, and so far it was pretty boring. “Am I supposed to lock this door?”

“Maybe? Isn’t the guy chasing you?” Puffer answered as he leaned closer to the screen. He broke his glasses recently, so he was blind for this stream, and that’s the main reason he asked me to join. “Wait, why is that light flickering?”

“Like I know,” I scoffed as I immediately moved toward it. Nothing happened. “See chat, y'all just be hyping up this game, and it's plain.” I turned around in the game and jumped in my seat as some random person showed up. “Holy shit!”

“Dr. Bose was accused of the worst crime possible,” Puffer joked with mock seriousness. “We need to go to the ground floor now to see the police lights!” He took over the controls, again leaning close to the screen to see.

“Maybe you shouldn’t speed run out of the room,” I advised.

“Nah, we’ll be fine,” And almost like Jimmy was listening, he jumped out from around the corner to kill us. Puffer jumped back in his chair, causing it to fall back.

“What did I fucking say!?”

~~

Pezzy (Doors)

“It’s Roblox. How scary can it possibly be?” were going to be my famous last words. I was sure of it.

“I swear to god if one more of these things pulls me out of the closet again, I will throw my controller at the screen!” I shouted as I died once again. 

“Welcome to the club,” Pezzy laughed, “It only gets worse.”

“I’m going to cry,” I joked as I respawned. “This is literally torture! I did not agree to do this!”

“Yes, you did!” Leave it to Pezzy to pull up the receipts in the form of a text you sent him a while ago. He briefly showed it to the camera before clearing his throat, and imitating my voice, “I doubt it’s even that hard. I bet that I could speed run it faster than you.”

“I don’t remember saying that sober,” I admitted as I ran through the doors, ignoring Pezzy’s laugh. “I really don’t. In fact, I think a certain someone stole my phone and texted someone while we were drunk. I wouldn’t put it past you honestly.”

“I cannot believe you would accuse me of such a thing,” Pezzy gasped as he put a hand to his chest. “I seem to remember you bragging about not being scared of anything. You’re eating your words now, huh?”

“Never,” I said definitively. It didn’t last long as, almost immediately, the red skull thing chased me through the rooms. “I swear! PLEASE!”

~~

Droid (FNAF Help Wanted)

“It’s not even that bad,” I laughed as I glanced at chat while Droid stood behind me playing Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted. I had played it before since I was practically a FNAF channel, so Droid made it his subgoal to play it when they hit 5,000 subs. Granted, he did not think it would happen that quickly. “Just wait until you get to the third game.”

“You’re kidding me!” He shouted as he frantically looked around the room. “There’s no way it gets worse than this! You’re capping!”

“Nah, you’re just a baby,” I laughed as a highlighted chat caught my eye.

“You should shove him.” it read. Thankfully, he could not read chat while in the game, so I took this as my opportunity. With a smirk, I stood up and walked around to stand behind Droid. Just as the music picked up in the game, I grabbed his shoulders and he was jumpscared. From me and the game as Bonnie jumped out at him. 

He flung his arms back to try and drab me, but I ducked and ran back to my chair. He pulled the headset off and immediately glared at me. He let go of the joycons as he pointed and slowly approached me. 

“I will murder you,” He joked as he leaned down to be at eye level with me. “I will threaten domestic violence live on Twitch.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I joked back as I raised my eyebrows.

“WOAH! WOAH! WOAH! Nah, don’t even!”

~~

Grizzy (GMod Horror Maps)

“I don’t like the squidward-looking thing or the witches,” I cried as I ran my character through the dark maze. “Why did you mod them in?”

“Because I knew you didn’t like them,” Grizzy laughed as his character followed mine around. “I can remove one of them if you want.”

“Please do,” I laughed as I purposely let myself get killed by Squidward, so I would respawn. Grizzy exited the game to fix the mod as I stayed on the call with him, entertaining his chat. Eventually, he got it changed but did not tell me what he put in. 

“Can I know what was spawned?” I asked as I reloaded the game. I had to update it since the mods changed, and I got stuck on the loading screen for a minute. I thought he would have told me at that point, but no. When I loaded into the game, I saw a hoard of witches immediately. I slowly looked over to Discord to see Grizzy’s face cam, and of course, he’s got that malicious smile. “I will murder you.”

“You always say you could outrun the witches,” Grizzy laughed as his character also loaded it. As soon as he spawned, he threw a bomb at the group. “I’m testing you.”

I screamed as I ran my character the opposite way through the maze, “What the fuck is wrong with you!”

“See!? It’s not so easy, huh?” Grizzly laughed as he watched my character run. ”What are you mumbling?”

“California girls were unforgettable,” I said a little louder than before as my voice got higher. “Daisy dukes bikinis on top.”

~~~~~

© BAD268 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

[half-bakedboy]

Hi! I saw that you were asking for Tommy/Buck prompts! What do you think about: "You're allowed to be happy, y'know."? With Tommy continuing to be just as gentle with Buck as he was with that kiss! I'm still not over it 🩷

Tommy kisses Buck on a Thursday and takes him on their first date the following Saturday. They go on two more official dates before Tommy reminds him his sister's getting married in a few weeks. They're five dates into their... well, whatever they are, when Buck watches Tommy dance with his newly married sister.

There's something so gentle about the way Tommy holds Maddie's manicured fingers delicately in his own. He has what can only be described as a gentlemanly hand on her waist and he's almost letting her take the lead like he's making sure he doesn't scare her away.

Maddie doesn't get scared anymore, not like she used to, but the fact that Tommy can put that amount of care into someone just in case makes Buck's eyes water. Even though he tries not to show too much emotion in public, he doesn't put any effort into holding the tears back. His sister just got married! He's allowed to feel.

"Buck!" Chimney shouts. He's running toward Maddie and Tommy with a faux scowl that couldn't reach his eyes even if he tried. "Get your man before he woos her with his fancy helicopter license."

"Pilot's license," Buck says as he stands, wiping subtly at his eyes. A smile tugs at the corner of Tommy's lips because he knows that's his influence. Buck had called it a helicopter license approximately five times before Tommy finally taught him how it all worked. 

“There’s only one firefighter for me, Howie,” Maddie says dreamily. Buck can’t remember a time he’d ever heard her so wistful, not since she was a kid reading him fairytales when they were both supposed to be sleeping. 

“And there’s only one Buckley for me,” Tommy adds, winking at Maddie dramatically before placing her hand in Chimney’s, “but I always have a plan b. Isn’t that what you taught me, Han?” Chimney swats at him half-heartedly, his attention already back on his bride. 

Buck watches them for a few moments, reveling in the sheer joy that illuminates between them like no storm cloud in the world could cover the sunshine they feel. He's struck by a stray bolt of lightning--pun only partially intended--when he thinks about what she's gotten through to be here, but it settles into calmness when Tommy clears his throat from beside him.

Buck snaps from his thoughts and realizes he's been ignoring Tommy's outstretched hand. He clasps their hands together, fully intending to drag them back to their table, when Tommy clicks his tongue and pulls him close.

Then they're dancing underneath a backyard tent surrounded by their friends and family, and Buck thinks that he's never been as happy as he is right then.

There's guilt in the feeling, as there almost always is. There are people in need of saving, people who are hurt or scared or lonely, and here is Evan Buckley--happy. He can’t begin to comprehend why or even if he deserves that. He's made mistakes, he's lied to himself his entire life without intention, he never protected his sister or his team well enough, and now he's with a man who he really likes but isn't sure exactly what it means.

He doesn't deserve--

"You're allowed to be happy, y'know." 

Tommy says the words like he's reading Buck's mind.

"I am happy," Buck says instinctively. Tommy chuckles and nods.

"You are," he agrees, "but you need to stop feeling so much shame about it."

His large palm presses against the small of Buck's back, leading him into a slow sway. He dips his head the few centimeters between them and rests their foreheads together like he's trying to keep Buck's attention. Like Buck's attention could be anywhere else when he's being held like this, with such tenderness that he feels weak in his knees.

"You're going to find happiness that you don't need to feel guilty for one day, Evan."

It feels like a promise, and Buck only hopes that Tommy's the one to keep it.

[imraespace]

HONESTLY, I SHOULD'VE BEEN THERE..

Friends with someone like him came with certain prices, one was by choice and one was by fault. You told him one day that it's never his fault yet he still blames himself and say that he should've been there..

SUGURU X READER

genre: angst, fluff (I think..)

WARNING: death..(sorry), mentions of a disease, bullying.

imraesnote: my summer rn is sad so you too, feel sad with me tyvm also guess what movie this was based of its really easy!

<- 1K SPECIAL

"SUGURU, GOOD MORNING!"

Those are normally the common words everyone hear as soon as the male enters the classroom every morning.

His signature smile, a smile that brightens everyone's life for that moment, is also another common thing in the morning.

But for you, your common thing in the morning is the small hug he gives you, before making his way towards his friends.

.

.

.

A hug! followed with a bright smile.

Those were the common actions both you and him did everyday. In pre-school, in middle school.

The way his small arms wrapped around your smaller body every morning and when it was time to leave and meet up with your parents, those same arms found themselves right back around you.

Same way he got taller, slightly bigger yet the actions stayed the same. In the morning, his slightly bigger frame is cuddling yours, and in the afternoon..

His arms wrapped around you and you did the same. yet that time you felt the need to pull him closer and hold on tightly. Maybe you're scared that he might run away. Would he? Or would you?

.

.

.

What about you? What's common for you?

The half hug you gave and the weak smile you framed. That seems about right.

Yet for some reason he just didn't get it. It never got to him. Maybe because he's too focused on his new life. Are you even in there?

.

.

.

Your school life isn't anything interesting, you're just there really. You wake up, get ready, go to school then go back home. Yep that's it.

Maybe these girls thought that, hey your life seems a bit dull! Why not make it worse.

So as you closed your locker, it wasn't a big surprise to see that the same trio who won't keep themselves out of your life, right there, next to you.

Naturally, you've learnt to block them out. You don't care about their faces yet the words always seems to hit you the most.

It's mostly.. partly.. actually. It's mainly about the one and only.

"Suguru..."

Suguru this, Suguru that. If you want him so much then go find him yourself, not make my life a hell. That's what goes through in your head everytime you hear his name from these girls. Its either using you to get to him or lashing out on you for being too close to him.

You sighed, zoning out until they left.

.

.

.

Now you're home, alone. Like normal.

Taking off your school shoes, making your way towards your room and taking out whatever assignment you got, maybe trying to forget everything that happened today, just like you did for the previous day and the day before.

Your eyes landed on a certain paper, and stared at the mark on it.

You got a bad mark.. This wasn't usual.

The frown that was creeping up whole day, had finally made its way onto your face.

And with that, you just landed on your bed, shoving your face deep into the blanket hoping that maybe everything will just go away.

.

.

.

"Y/N? Y/N!" His voice.

Before you could react, a ball landed right on your forehead.

"ow.." You mumbled, rubbing the pain away.

His short legs ran towards you with a small pout as he glared at the other kids on the playground.

"Try aiming somewhere else next time!" he yelled at the random boy and all he got in response was a tongue out from the boy.

Suguru rolled his eyes, rubbing your forehead.

That's right, Suguru has always been there to help you.

So right now, the notifications from your phone, reminding you that he's not here to help you anymore, he's out there with them, enjoying his life.

.

.

.

Your phone rang, waking you up from your sleep. You don't remember falling asleep..

Maybe you did when you tried to disappear into your blanket before, oh well.

It was a call from your mother.

"Y/N. Did you take the medicine I left on the counter?"

Medicine..

You didn't reply back instantly, you just rose from the bed and made your way towards the kitchen.

"I found it. Thank you." You mumbled, hanging up the phone.

You took them. As usual.

It was 2:00am, and at that time, you decided to take a shower.

.

.

.

"Are you okay?"

"No."

Suguru eyes was glued onto his screen.

His white haired friend sighed as the brown haired girl turned towards their direction.

"Maybe you're trying too much. Give her some space." She said.

But it didn't help him.

"I should be there for her."

His eyes didn't look away from the thousands of messages he sent you and not once he got a reply. Of course he noticed that weak smile and half hug he got in return.

But he didn't speak up, he didn't wanted to ruin the small, weak relationship you both are hanging onto right now.

Something deep down inside him, he feels that you're hiding something, maybe you have a reason for pushing him away.

.

.

.

Taking showers at odd hours like this was one of your favorite activities. It helps wash away the worries and thoughts that lay heavy on your shoulders throughout the day.

You turned on the tap causing the water to burst out the shower head, turning from ice cold to the warm temperature you wanted.

The water that hit your body drowned out all sounds from outside. You closed your eyes, enjoying the feeling of the water as it ran off you. It seems your mind has it own will as it ran off to memories you don't really enjoy..

.

.

.

" -..Are you listening?"

If you're gonna be honest you stopped listening as soon as you heard it.

A disease.. Heart disease..

You felt as if maybe you might die in that moment, maybe tomorrow, who will know?

You disconnected yourself from the conversation, focusing on your fingers at that moment. The first thing you thought of was..

"What will Suguru do if he found out?"

.

.

.

Pitter. Patter.

Suddenly the sounds of the shower was back in your head. Now you felt cold, as if you've been in there for a while.

How long were you in the shower?

The sad memory made you remember something important. After the 3 years of being aware of your disease, you have yet to tell him.

You turned off the shower and let out a sigh.

Maybe tomorrow you will tell him but right now, you really want to sleep.

At 3:05am you decided to drift off in the dreamland.

.

.

.

Suddenly a small milk box appeared in front of your face. Strawberry infact.

You look up from the table and towards the person infront of you.

None other than..

"Good morning.." You mumbled.

Suguru's smile widen as in return to your words he gave you a hug. A warm one that gave you life. The life that's on a gamble right now but that's not on your mind right now, what's on it is..

"Suguru." You let out, with a smile.

He pulled away from the hug and gave you the same smile he had from before.

He grabbed his chair from behind him and sat right infront of you.

"How are you feeling?" He asked you, turning his head to the side.

You followed his actions, causing the both of you to giggle.

"I'm okay actually.." You replied. Yet it caused him to raise his eyebrow in confusion.

"Okay? Yesterday you were amazing, why is it different today..?" He mumbled.

You masked it up really good.. is what you thought.

"I'm turning a new leaf." You joked.

But he didn't like it. His smile dropped a bit, which caused yours to drop completely.

But.. when he took his fingers and guided it towards your face, taking his pointy fingers to bring back your smile, the genuine one to found its way back.

His fingers then made its way towards yours, intertwining them while pulling you a bit closer.

"Now copy my words."

"Today I'm feeling amazing.."

You decided that maybe if you moved your lips the same way he did, it will be easy to lie through your teeth infront of the one you love. Maybe.. if you lie this one time, you can repay it by giving yourself a small bit of punishment later but right now..

Wait right now you're crying.

The smile he brought on your face were faltering, the tears were falling and you couldn't believe what you were thinking. Lie to him?

Lie to the boy who gave you life and offered his love to you in different ways he could? Why think like that?

"Why are you crying..?"

Why are you him? Why are you the way you are?

.

.

.

That, sadly, was your breaking point. You didn't wanted to lie to him.. but you didn't have the heart to confess about your problem. You knew that he should know but soon you notice that he hung out less with you and met new people.

But you can't blame him..

Yet he blames himself. Everytime he hung out with Shoko and Satoru all he thought of what went wrong that day?

All he knew was that he should be there for you.

He tried to, he continued to give the hugs, the smiles and the good mornings but it seemed like you didn't want them anymore.. So he tried another method, maybe you would rather talk online instead.

No. He was wrong again, but he didn't give up. He lost count on how many times he tried to make you open back up that it felt numb to give up.

After three years who would?

.

.

.

Now rest Suguru, in his bed up at 3:05am, staring at your contact name. He wonders if he should call you..

His thoughts went on until 3:34am when he finally decided to call you, but he doesn't hear your voice. It just goes to voice mail.. Why are you ignoring him?

He wonders if you're over with his desperate attempts, trying to force his way back into your life.

Maybe he is desperate, he just want everything to go back how it was 3 years ago, the day before that one when you broke down right infront of him.

Oh how he knows how much you wanted that as well, how the feeling of hiding from him and pushing everyone away were eating you up from inside.

The last thing that was in your mind, was finally opening up to him. Forget those girls, forget your words. It was enough and you've finally made up your mind.

But sadly.. Your life just decided that it was too late.

Those unanswered phone calls, the desperation he felt, was all for nothing as in your sleep you finally gave up on life.

.

.

.

The first few messages you received from him, you noticed them but you pushed it away.

You already made up your mind on your life and out of sadness, feeling that the world is unfair to you, you decided to write out your feelings in a book. How you wanted to tell him that you had very dear feelings for him and how you always wanted to tell him but you couldn't, because you won't be here for long.

You remember a few words that stood out in that book, that you always reminded yourself that it wasn't his fault.

Each time a word was placed in that book the more the tears came falling down. You ended your small confession with two simple words.

"For Suguru."

.

.

But now it wasn't only your tears on that book. It was now decorated with his own, it kept on falling as he read the words.

It was his fault for not realizing that something was wrong with you and it was his fault for not trying hard enough to figure out your feelings.

He knew that he should've been there yet he wasn't.

It was unfair to you.

A few days have passed, could be a month, he doesn't care. All he cared about was that honestly.. he should've been there.

Yet now here he is, laying in that same bed he was in trying to call you when at that time you chose to sleep on for a long time.

Here he is reading over those words again and again.

How he wished he could've known your real feelings.

[izuqi]

today was just a nice day to yourself, walking around, shopping, eating, with only your own company. it was nice. at the end of the day you find yourself on a bench, infront of a cute park near your apartment with some lively kids screaming and playing. you smiled at the thought of of their youthfulness. it was still chilly, your cheeks and nose were flushed red from the air. some person sits down next to you, you don't pay them much mind, them probably being one of the children's parents, or just someone random.

"hey, y/n."

you stopped in your tracks, the familiar voice bringing back all the memories you shared with that voice. you glance back at the voice, secretly hoping it wasn't who you thought it was. god you hope it wasn't him. what could you even say to him, he scares you, the last memory isn't so fond. and yet, here he was, sitting next to you on this park bench. acting like nothing ever happened between the two of you.

you feel like you can't breathe anymore, "hello, suna."

suna laughs hesitantly, he's scared. it's weird to see this man be hesitant just to talk to you. "let's talk."

you blink at him, wondering if you heard him right, "talk?" you sigh, running your hands through your hair. "what else is there for us to talk about anymore?" your voice is quiet, barely above a whisper.

suna leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his hands on his cheeks. "you know i hate it when you say stuff like that y/n." his voice is quiet too. "i just want to talk, about us, about this park, about anything." he peaks back at you, his hands still on his cheeks and he tilts his head backward to get a glance at you.

you avoid his lingering gaze, you can feel his eyes scan every part of you. from your outfit to your face. "you look pretty, you always do." he smiles, his voice is just as beautiful as the day you met him.

"there's no us anymore and there is nothing for us to talk about anymore. i have a boyfriend. he makes me happy." suna's eyes narrow at your words.

"does he?"

"does he what?"

"make you happy."

you hesitate, your first thought would be to say yes, but it just won't come out.

"thought so."

you glare at him. "don't put words into my mouth rintarou. he makes me happier then you ever could." that was a lie.

"you're lying. why?" suna sits back up, his eyes locked on the view infront of you two.

you stay silent, unsure of what to say to him. "and how do you know i'm lying? you don't know my life."

"how could i not." suna laughs voidlessly. "i know everything about you, the things you do, how you start twirling your hair in awkward situations, how you avoid eye contact when you're scared, every single facial expression you make depending on the situation." suna sighs, his voice lowering. "i know everything about you."

"bullshit. you don't know anything about me. it's been too long."

"no it hasn't."

you don't know what to say anymore. silence and awkwardness fills up the space between you two. "why did you come and talk to me. you're the one who left. not me, you." your voice is shaky. "what the hell are you even doing back in tokyo."

"i never wanted to leave you." suna replies. "i had to."

"whatever. it doesn't matter anymore. it's too late. i don't even know why i'm talking to you." your legs tremble as you walk away. suna doesn't stop you.

[girlwiththoughts13]

Things I understand

Dallas Winston x F!Reader

Warnings: None

Word count: 1k

~~~~~

I know there's a lot of things they think I don't know. Maybe it's because they think i'm too kid-ish or what not. But being 14 didn't mean I didn't understand the way things worked.

For example I knew Dallas Winston and my sister were ruined. Ruined for any other person than each other. Since the day Dallas blew into town at the ripe age of 13 and I saw his gaze (one that was frightening to say the least) land on my sister, I knew that was it.

She'd practically fly down stairs after a rumble and blow past all of us, her own brothers, to get to him. She'd grab him by his bloody hands and pull him into the bathroom. He'd sit on the toilet while she stood between his legs to dress his wounds. Dally would look up at her and just stare, I don't exactly know what he was thinking but I have a few ideas, ones that make me sick.

She'd say "I hate when you fight" he'd always respond with "I know, I won't anymore", Lie.

Or the way she'd stand by the phone gripping it with every bit of her strength, twirling the cord with her finger, giggling at whatever he said on the other side from bucks bar.

This was the way they were from the time they were 13 and 12, and now that they're 17 and 16.

Darry would usually have a problem with someone such as Dally being anywhere near his baby sister but there was too many years there, to much history, we trusted Dally with her, knew he'd take care of her no matter what. Knew he'd die for her. But boy when it rained it poured.

"God he's such an asshole, we're done Pony I swear, Done!"

"Was you sister born that way or was she dropped on her head"

I'd sit and listen to both of their complaints, knowing they'd get back together before anyone had anytime to even find out they'd broken up in the first place.

That's why seeing her--while I was lounging on the porch with Johnny waiting for Dally--show up with a boy I'd never seen before, made me start to sweat.

"Who's that with your sister?" Johnny didn't turn away from the pair in front of us who were whispering back and forth, all smiles and soft laughs.

"No clue"

"Well he better get out of here before Dal shows up" I shrug at him and wait for her to part with this strange greaser to begin the integration. All while praying silently that Dally doesn't suddenly decide to be diligent on time.

Finally she parts with the boy with a wave and he starts down the street. She watches him leave for a few seconds before turning to face us and begins her short walk to the porch. "Who was that?" I say, all authoritative like those cops that round up greasers by the lot.

"A boy from my homeroom, isn't he cute?" She sways her body back and forth her soft pink dress moving with the action, if you didn't know her you'd think she was a soc. "I don't think he'll be anything if Dal finds out" Johnny buds in. "Yeah he'll be here any minute" I add

"So? he's not the boss of me. We're over" She places her hand on her hip before nudging us roughly out the way to reach the door behind us. She turns quickly on her heel and says "You two better not tell him a thing, James is taking me out to the double tonight and I won't have Dally ruining that too". She doesn't wait for either of us to respond before she disappears into the house.

Me and Johnny look at each other, our faces turning into a grimace. "James? What kind of name is that"

"A stupid one" Dally's gruff voice cuts through the silence after the question and startles me for a second. What's that saying about the devil?

"Hey Dal, you all set?" Johnny asks, no doubt to distract Dally from asking a question, that we'd answer without meaning too. Dallas nods as he stares up ahead. "Aye Pony, your sister home?".

"Uh yeah, just got here" He nods once again and looks aways quickly, making his way toward the street. "She was pretty mad" I say. Dally chuckles and says "She'll get over it".

As we made are way around town, scaring kids, and crashing diners; just killing time before the movie later at night started, Dallas told us bits and pieces of their fight, nothing major. But then again none of their break up were ever serious. "What if she doesn't?" I ask.

"Huh?" Dally looks over at me, I don't know how my sister handles it but having Dallas Winston's full attention was scary. "What if she doesn't get over it?" I clarify. Dally looks down in thought and when he looks up again he has his dangerous face on. "She say somethin' to you?"

"N- no I was just wonderin ", I backtrack. "Yeah well stop wondering, once she stops being dramatic, we'll be fine". He seems to be convincing himself of this more than me or Johnny who's been silent since we pasted a group of socs.

We make it to the double and enter through the side. And to my excitement, sit behind Cherry and her friend Marge? A cheerleader from our school that I guess you could say I had thing for. From the corner of my eye I could see my question earlier is still plaguing Dally and it was about to show in the worst way possible. I watch him lean forward and begin his way of flirting. Not that he even cared about Cherry or any other girl for that matter. This was just his way to get back some control that he felt he was losing.

"Are you a real redhead?" Cherry giggles at the question. Girls like her, socs who've been sheltered from the real world always want a tiny taste of something wrong. But everyone here knew that it'd never happen. That you could look as much as you want in a store and as long as you didn't buy anything, no foul.

Cherry would never buy anything.

I must of dozed off because the next second, Cherry is practically throwing Dallas off her. She was brave in the way she told him to shut his trap and made threats to call the police. I watch Dallas nuzzle his head into Cherrys shoulder, never one to take no as an answer. He wraps his arms over her as she struggles to break free. Somewhere along the line Dallas falters and then all at once stops and looks straight ahead. I follow his line of sight, and see my sister with James. They're lingering right outside of what I can only assume is his car.

Cherry notices the sudden switch and looks over her shoulder at Dallas to study his face because as much as she may deny, having his attention is fun and she knows as I do she could easily fall in love with him.

Dallas being silent is never a good thing. Without taking his eyes off the scene he asks "Who the hell is that?". I could see by the way his arms fell to his sides and his hands clenched into tight fists, he was about to burst. "James" I say. He looks over at me and then back. Not saying anything else he stands and begins to walk over.

"oh no" I whisper. Cherry turns her whole body toward me and asks "What happened?", I tell her the truth, "That's my sister and her and Dallas are complicated" That was the whole honest truth. We all look toward the oncoming conflict. I see Dallas shove 'James' out the way and grab my sister by the upper arm. Dragging her forward, all the while she tugs and leans her whole weight back to halt him. I could see her mouth moving a million miles per minute, no doubt cursing him up and down. Dallas just stops and turns and then takes the sides of her face in his hands and leans down to kiss her. One of his hands leave her face and go down to the small of her back to press her close, sightly lifting her off her feet.

When they part I see my sister smile, wide. Though his back is to us I know he mirrors her expression. They begin walking back to us. Dallas wraps his arm around her shoulders, her left hand resting around his waist while the right reaches up to hold his dangling hand.

"Tell Darry I'm staying at Bucks tonight"

Ruined once again.

[hatchetfield-omegaverse]

are u okay with michie? if u are, maybe some michie hcs??

This ended up really long and kind of turned into a mini fic, but I had a lot of thoughts.

Hatchetfield Omegaverse Headcanons: Max x Richie!!

So I do think Michie is possible, just not in high school. That's too big of a personality change in too short of time.

And I'm not a fan of the ‘person bullies someone to hide their feelings’ trope.

So this is how I could see Mitchie happen. 

They graduate from hs and go off to college. 

Max is on a football scholarship and is pressured into a business degree by his dad. 

I could see Richie going to school for Graphic Design with hopes to get into animation or video game development.

Richie thrives in college. There's a lot more people like him. 

He joins a bunch of clubs: anime clubs, gaming clubs, trans support clubs. 

He even gets better hygiene habits and works with a doctor to manage his overactive sweat glands. 

Basically he does a full 180 from how life was in high school. 

Max, meanwhile, isn't doing so hot. 

In Hatchetfield, Max was a big fish in a small pond. He was the star quarterback, pride of the town. 

That's no longer the case anymore. 

His new team has amazing players, and Max doesn't stand out the way he used to. 

What's more, his asshole personality doesn't cut it in college. No one wants to be around him. He's completely alone. 

College, however, does do something amazing for Max: he's introduced to lots of new ways of life, and he begins to realize that his dad and brother’s way of thinking isn't right. 

However, it isn't until their first winter break that real change happens. 

Max comes home expecting everyone to be so excited to have him back. Except that's not the case. 

There's a new hotshot quarterback on the team and Max is already a distant memory, his dad is too busy fawning over Max’s golden child brother to pay him any attention, and even his old friends don't want to hang out. 

Confused and more alone than ever, Max ends up drunkenly wandering onto the Hatchetfield High football field one night, reminiscing over his ‘glory days’. 

That's where he runs into Richie, who’s getting footage of the field for a school project of some kind. 

Only this isn't the Richie he remembers. 

The Richie Lipschitz that Max knew was a scrawny, awkward nerd. He smelt like a sewer, was covered in acne, and was known for bringing a katana to school on multiple occasions. Most importantly, he was scared of Max. 

The Richie that stood before him stood with confidence, not even flinching when he saw Max on the field. 

Max tries to ignore the beta, drinking heavily as Richie filmed different angles of the field. 

Eventually, however, it becomes to much for Max and he bitterly comments how things had changed: Richie was doing amazing and Max had lost all his friends. 

He doesn't know how he was expecting Richie to react. Maybe he wanted him to jump to reassure the Alpha that he was still top dog. He certainly wasn't expecting a scoff and to hear that it wasn't like he had any real friends before. 

When asked for clarification Richie responds with the following: 

“No one was really your friend: obviously I wasn't your friend, but even the other popular kids hated you. We were all just too scared of what you could do to us if we did anything about it. But when you weren't there… There was a week senior year where you missed school to go on some college tour. And the atmosphere was completely different. Everyone was nice to each other. People wanted to sit with me at lunch. The rest of the football team talked to me, they told me that they loved having me as a mascot. And then they apologized, because the second you came back to school everything was going to have to go back to the way things were before. And what's sad is that I understood; they just wanted to survive high school. The only reason you had any power over us is because the school was too scared to punish you because you were the star athlete. And now that we're in college, you don't have the same power. No one cares enough to pretend to be your friend.”. 

Richie left not long after but his words stuck with Max for the rest of his time home. He didn't want to be some friendless loser forever. Something had to change. 

When he gets back to school, Max is a new person. Or he tries to be. 

He starts being an active member of the football team, rather than expecting to just be handed success. He joins clubs, gets to know all kinds of people, goes to therapy, attends classes to unlearn his previous ways of thinking. He even changes his major to physical education and school counseling, wanting to help teens like him become better people. 

Sure it's a slow process, and he definitely has his bumps in the road, but every day Max strives to be a better person. 

He even realizes that he's bi, although he keeps that fact to himself for fear of his family's reaction. 

By the time Max goes back to Hatchetfield for summer break, he feels like a new man. And he's determined to make amends. 

He starts by apologizing to Kyle and Jason for being a shitty friend. It's an awkward conversation, but in the end, they agreed to give him a fresh start. 

After that, Max apologizes to every former classmate he sees around town. It's usually a quick ‘I'm sorry for being a shithead in school’, and he's not sure if anyone truly forgives him, but he wants to prove he's changing. There's only one person on his list that he can't seem find. 

It's a month before he finally sees Richie. He's at Lakeside Mall buying a new backpack when he sees the Beta at the Hot Topic next door. 

Not wanting to miss his chance, he heads over and says hi. It's an awkward conversation at first, Richie clearly not wanting to be around him, but Max apologizes for how he treated him throughout school. He tells him how much the verbal lashing he'd been given that night on the football field had stuck with him and that he was trying to become a better person. 

Richie knows all too well that sometimes people just need a fresh start and offers to catch up with Max over lunch. They end up talking for two hours and Max learns how well his life is going. 

Richie is a streamer with decent sized following. He's designing his own video game that people seem to be very excited to play. He's doing well in school and he's supposed to start an internship at a game company in the fall. 

He's got a lot more friends now, though he's still in close contact with Pete and Ruth. In fact, he'd been asked to be Pete's best man in his wedding to Steph at the end of the summer. 

Richie is the one to end their catch up, saying that he was supposed to meet his uncle for dinner and needed to get going. But, before he can leave Max asks if they could do this again sometime. 

A part of him wants to refuse: Why would he want to be around the person who made his life miserable for years? But another part of him can see that Max is making a real effort to change, and in the end, he says yes and gives Max his number, thinking he won't hear from him again. 

Boy, is he wrong.

They start out sending each other memes in their spare time, which then turns into messaging whenever they have a chance. 

Soon the messages turn into more meetings. Dinner, the movies, you name it. 

Anyone can see that they're dating, but Max is convinced that Richie is just being friendly. 

Just like all good things, summer begins to come to an end and they both find themselves preparing to return to their respective universities.  

Max tries to find a way to ask that they keep in contact during the school year, but nothing he comes up with seems good enough. 

Richie has a great life waiting for him at school. Why would he want to keep talking to someone like Max? 

He's agonizing over this issue when his phone vibrates, alerting him to a new message. 

Richie: Would you want to be my plus one to Pete and Steph’s wedding? They keep asking me if I'm going to bring my new boyfriend, and I need to let them know soon for the headcount. 💙 

And that is how Max Jägerman, former bully, started dating Richie Lipschitz, former nerd. 

I hope you like this, anon. It turned out very long, but I knew that I would want Max to have a lot of character growth before I could ship him with Richie. And if you have a request, just hit me up! My askbox is open!

[savage-rhi]

Ffxv headcanons whatever type you want just share with the class

Noctis: When he was a kid, he used to lift up rocks to see what critters lived underneath them. He stopped around nine or ten when he accidentally pissed off a snake and got bit. It spooked him so bad that he didn't do anything like that again until he went on the frog side quest. Now that he's over his fear, Noctis is always flipping over rocks and ushering Prompto to come over and take photos of the animals and bugs he finds.

Gladio: There's a saying among the kingsguard that, "if you give Gladiolus a beer and a mic, you're gonna have a GREAT time!" He's quite good at karaoke, and despite the gruff voice, he can hit high notes. Singing was something Gladio and his sister did together while growing up. While Gladio didn't like her taste in music, being the big brother, he still sang her favs to and with her. He tried to keep this hobby a secret until he had one too many drinks with his comrades. He's since embraced his reputation over the years, and isn't as embarrassed about it.

Ignis: There are a few things in this world that can make this man mentally break, but Feng Shui nearly destroyed him. Ignis got into the practice initially in an attempt to get Noctis to have better organization in his apartment. Per usual, Noctis didn't appreciate the principles, but it rubbed off on Ignis to the point where he became obsessed with Feng Shui. He did it to all the rooms in the palace, much to King Regis's chagrin. It all backfired when Ignis attempted to Feng Shui his own residence. Nothing satisfied him, and after he didn't come out for almost 10 hrs rearranging furniture, Noctis had to give him an intervention. After that, he swore off the practice. Sometimes, he'll get irritated if he hears about it in passing.

Prompto: In his spare time when he's not with a camera, Prompto is on a computer learning to code. While he's not the best at it, Prompto enjoys the process cause it satisfies a mental itch (he gets that from his father...haha). It's his dream to one day make a game like Kings Knight. He has pages of concept sketches for apps, and other social media ideas he'd like to try creating one day. He seldom shares his passion with the boys, assuming they'll think it's too nerdy.

Lunafreya: It isn't considered "proper" by an means for someone of her status, but Luna enjoys watching duels on TV or in person. Ravus from a young age was always taught how to be a warrior, and she felt left out on numerous occasions when he'd be sent off to learn sparring lessons among other trainings. As a kid, she used to sneak away from her home in Tenebrae to watch people battle for fun. Observing others helped her hone in her own skills, and she's memorized different stances and techniques over the years. She also used to place bets on people who fought, and did get into trouble at one point because of it.

Ardyn: He's very aloof and no one knows what the hell he does in his spare time when not running a country. He has the craziest of rumors made up about him, and he ravishes in how it all scares and fascinates people. What people don't know is that he often sneaks around Niflheim and observes others for his sketchbook. When he was a healer, he had a book of medicinal plants that he'd catalog and sketch out himself. It's one of the few things that soothes his mind anymore with the daemons he has in his head. For a few hours, Ardyn can silence them by focusing on capturing the details from another person or thing in his work. It's also his only means of connecting with humans given how far he's gone. His style is kind of like Da Vinci's, very detailed with lots of notes here and there. When he's sketching its also the time where he'll snack on something sweet like candy from his pocket. In general he'll always have candy on his person, but he likes savoring it without an audience.