#here we go again with yet one more problem

[jessiexflem]

- all-american | jessie fleming x reader

content: fluff, UCLA Jessie! (and Teagan being a butthead)

requests are open :)

“You’re staring again,” Teagan pokes her teammate with the eraser on her pencil.

Heat rises up Jessie’s neck and face as she turns her head to glare at the Australian, “I am not!”

“Oh, whatever,” Teagan scoffs, rolling her eyes, “you’ve been giving her heart-eyes the entire time we’ve been here.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah? Then what’s the answer for number twelve?”

Jessie glances down at her calculus homework, the paper mostly unaltered except where she had scribbled her name in the top corner. 

“Thought so,” Teagan replies smugly, “Gotta get your head screwed on, Jess, our grades depend on it.”

“You aren’t even supposed to be talking right now,” Jessie points at the ‘quiet please’ sign above the librarian’s head before focusing back on her homework, hoping it would encourage her friend to drop the subject.

“Come on, Jess, why don’t you just ask her out?” 

“I thought you told me to focus on our homework,” Jessie sets her pencil down with a huff, “Plus, why would I do that?”

“Because you like her?” the Australian gives her a ‘duh?’ look.

“No, I don’t!” Jessie’s cheeks flush, “What makes you think that?”

“Well, for starters, we’ve been sitting here for over an hour, and you haven’t noticed that I moved your calculator underneath my notebook” Teagan chuckles, “Not to mention, any time you see her, she’s all you can talk about for hours. ‘Y/N’s so smart, Y/N showed me how to do this in lab, Y/N wasn’t in class today, and I missed her so mu–’”

“We’re just lab partners, that’s all,” Jessie shakes her head. 

Teagan crosses her arms, tipping her chair onto its back legs. She narrows her eyes at her roommate, a cheeky smile tugging at her lips. “Alright, so if you insist you don’t like Y/N, you won’t mind if I ask her out on a date?”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“But you don’t like her, right? So, you wouldn’t be jealous?”

“Go for it,” Jessie replies dryly. She knew there was no way Teagan would actually ask you out, she barely knew you. She wouldn’t even know who you were if she hadn’t (annoyingly) crashed one of your study sessions during midterms last semester. 

Putting her head down, Jessie redirects her attention back to her neglected math problems. The assignment was due at midnight, and she managed to make zero progress. Copying the numbers from the first question, she starts working through the equation until she realizes she needs a function on her graphing calculator.

“Can I have my calc–” Jessie stops mid-sentence as she looks up to see Teagan waving you over to their table, “What are you doing?!”

“You said I could ask Y/N out, so I figured I’d catch her as she was leaving.”

Backpack slung over your shoulders, you weave your way toward where the two were sitting. You notice Jessie’s posture tense as she whispers frantically to her teammate. Catching her eye, you direct a smile at your lab partner.

“Y/N!” Teagan greets cheerfully, “Done studying for the day?”

You shrug, “I should probably look over my ethics study guide a bit more, but I could feel my brain going numb and figured it was time for a break. What about you two?”

“Well, if you’re needing another study break later this week,” Teagan starts. Intrigued by what she had to say, you didn’t notice the color drain from Jessie’s normally rosy cheeks. “We were wondering if you were free Saturday afternoon? Jessie and I have a game at 4, and we wanted to invite you to watch.”

Jessie, realizing she was subconsciously holding her breath, let out a deep exhale. 

“I’d love to! I haven’t been able to make it out to one yet,” you say as your phone begins to buzz in your hand, “I’ve got to head out, but text me the details, Jess?”

Jessie nods rapidly, her brain unable to form a coherent answer. She watches you walk away, feeling Teagan’s eyes burning a hole in her cheek. She didn’t even have to turn her head to know that her friend had the biggest smirk on her face.

“So, if I ever think that my lab partner’s getting asked out on a date, should I look like I’m about to puke, too? Or are you going to admit you have a crush on the girl?” Teagan teases.

“I hate you,” Jessie mutters, glaring at her.

“Bet you can’t wait to show off your first team All-American skills, huh? You better practice what goal celebration you’re going to dedicate to her.”

“I’m done talking to you.”

“Jessie and Y/N, sitting in a tree, K–”

“Just give me my calculator back.”

--------------------------------------

Jessie was having a horrible game. She couldn’t remember the last time she played this poorly. Constantly losing the ball in the midfield, getting outrun and out-muscled by her opposing mark. Her head was running a thousand miles a minute, and the only thing she could focus on was that Y/N was sitting front row. 

It was the opposing team’s corner, and Teagan was shouting directions, ensuring each of her outfielders had their mark. The ball gets served in, and Jessie goes up for the header, making contact square on her forehead. However, instead of directing the ball out of the 18, her body was angled slightly toward the goal, meaning the ball veered toward Teagan instead. Luckily, it hit off the post and fell to their teammate, Hailie’s, feet, who cleared the ball toward midfield.

“Jessie, what the hell?” Jessie hears Teagan shout from behind her.

The halftime whistle blows, and Jessie couldn’t get to the locker room faster. Before she could reach her cubby, Coach Cromwell pulls her off to the side.

“Fleming, do you want to explain why it looks like you’ve never touched a soccer ball before in your life?” Coach Cromwell raises an eyebrow at her. 

“I–I don’t know, nerves, I guess,” Jessie gnaws on the inside of her cheek, unable to make eye contact with her coach.

“Well, you better get your nerves sorted by the end of halftime unless you want to get benched for the rest of the game.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jessie nods, keeping her head down as she shuffles to her locker. Teagan, assigned the cubby next to her, frowns at her, brows furrowed with concern.

The second half went smoother for the midfielder. Her tackles were timed better, and she had better possession of the ball. The game remained tied at 0-0, UCLA pushing the ball into the opposing half of the field. Hailie sent a ball into Jessie’s feet, and she dribbled down the sideline, the opposing winger closing in on her. Faking left, she got the opponent to bite, leaving her a hole for Jessie to slip the ball between her legs. The crowd went nuts, you included. Jessie laid the ball off for her teammate, Ashley, who took the ball into the corner drawing a defender so the Canadian could make a run in. Ashley crossed a low-through ball into the box, which Jessie met at the top of the six, slotting it into the bottom-left corner of the goal. 

You jumped to your feet, cheering as loud as you could. Noticing Jessie scanning the crowd, you give her an overexaggerated wave, to which she acknowledges with a smile. The game ends 2-0, Ashley tacking on another goal in the final two minutes. Waiting for Jessie and Teagan to complete their “good games” and post-game huddle, you stick yourself by the fence in a spot where they could easily find you. 

“Y/N, you made it!” Teagan exclaims, jogging over, Jessie not far off her heels. 

“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” you beam, “you guys did awesome! Great goal, Jess.”

Jessie’s cheeks flush as Teagan throws an arm around her, ��She nearly had two.”

“You’re never letting me live that down, will you?” she groans, trying to avoid Teagan’s soft punches to her ribs.

“Teagan!” the three of you turn to see Hailie motioning Teagan back over to the bench, giggling, “Come here!”

“I’ll be back,” Teagan says, shooting Jessie an obvious wink before running off. Jessie throws her hands up in protest, grumbling something under her breath. She turns back to you, cheeks still red.

“Um, thanks for coming to watch,” she smiles sheepishly. A few yards behind her, she can hear Teagan making loud, fake coughs. Their conversation from the other day flashes through her mind. “I still have to shower, but would you, uh, maybe want to get dinner? With me, I mean?”

“Teagan and Hailie, too? Or, are you asking me out on a date?” you grin.

“I–well, I mean,” Jessie stammers, her face hot. 

“Because I’d much rather it be a date,” you assure.

Relief floods through Jessie’s entire body. “Then it’s a date.”

[rwshfordgirl]

CHRISTMAS DINNER

all images were taken from pinterest.

where reader and jude bellingham are used to spending christmas together, but this year's christmas could change their relationship forever.

a/n: hope you like it;)

requests are open | check here my masterlist.

"my God, you started getting ready for dinner at two in the afternoon, it's almost seven at night and you haven't finished?" my brother appeared at the bathroom door, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and completely incredulous. "i'm almost done." i replied. "you're already very pretty little sister, you don't need all this." he said making me smile "but i'm sure jude bellingham will notice all this effort." in response, he received a middle finger and the door closing in his face.

james knows me like no one else, unfortunately. not that i'm trying to get jude's attention with excessive makeup and flashy clothes, on the contrary, i want to be as natural as possible. and now, i have to say that thinking like this, i look like a 15 year old teenager trying to win over the boy she has a crush on school.

and my brother is exaggerated, i started getting ready almost now.

from my room i could hear the voices downstairs in the house, i could hear the voices of all the bellinghams but not jude, he didn't arrive.

my family and his family are friends, our mothers grew up together, he and i grew up together. and it's a christmas tradition to have dinner together, there wasn't a year when we weren't together. 

i think i was ten when i realized i had a crush on jude. he seemed like my superhero defending me from the bullying i used to suffer.  and he always showed concern for me, always sending me messages wanting to know if everything is okay with college, wanting to know if i'm in good health.

i can say that i love everything about jude, especially his worried way, but i also love his polite way of being. the smile he gives when he sees me, the photos he sends me after games, the way he touches my hair.

i don't know if jude is interested in me in the same way that i am interested in him, sometimes i believe that it is just his way of showing affection, even if it makes me fall more and more in love with him.

i was putting away what i had used when two knocks on the door made me jump back. i was distant, caught up in my thoughts."hey, are you ready yet?" it was jude. i was caught off guard again. "oh, hi jude! i'm done now." i said as i opened the bedroom door to see him. i looked bellingham up and down, he was as handsome as ever. "i loved your dress, it looks good on you" jude ran his hand over the back of his neck "thank you! you also chose your clothes well today." he chuckled.

"i bet my mom asked you to come get me." i said, turning off the light in the room and then leaving. bellingham moved a little more to the side. "you got it right." i nodded. "i thought you hadn't arrived, i heard everyone's voice but yours." he smiled. "i'm less talkative today." he commented as he directed his gaze to the floor. "lucky we have time to tell each other our problems today."

i signaled for bellingham to follow me downstairs and he promptly came. "green is definitely your color." his mother said as she hugged me. "you look stunning, jude will be even more in love." my cheeks flushed as i heard my mother's laughter and saw jude rolling his eyes. i was so embarrassed that my thank you came out almost silent. i greeted jobe and his father, then i sat between the youngest bellingham and jude.

jobe and i spent exactly fifteen minutes watching videos on tiktok, jude even laughed at some things but he's acting completely weird today. "what's going on in your head?" i turned my face towards the player who smiled shyly, without showing his teeth "a lot of stuff." i laid my head on his shoulder "do you want to talk about it?" he nodded and i got up from the couch, extending my hand to help him up.

i wanted to take him out to the backyard so we could have privacy, even though no one in the room would be able to hear our conversation due to the noise of the voices. jude sat across from me on the wooden table seat. we stared at each other for a few minutes, i raised my eyebrows when i noticed his eyes analyzing every detail of my face and bellingham laughed. 

"first laugh of the night, we're already moving forward." he chuckled before clasping his hands together and resting them on the table in front of him. "my mom is right, green is definitely your color." bellinghams love to make my cheeks blush "thank you mr jude! you don't look bad in black and white either." i complimented him "and you know you don't look bad wearing any color, that impresses me." i rolled my eyes. he has no idea that his playful flirting makes my heart race.

"i think this is a great time for you to tell me what's bothering you so much." he bit his lower lip "never mind, i don't know how to explain it." he said "oh please, draw a picture with twigs in the snow then." he smiled "does it have anything to do with madrid?" He denied "let's forget about it, i already feel much better." he smiled "ugh, it's okay! if you want to talk about it, i'll be willing to listen."

"let's go back inside, i'm going to freeze." i said, pretending my jaw was shaking. my coat isn't doing me much good. jude got up, I thought he was going to wait for me so we could go back inside my house together, but he sat down next to me. "let's stay here, i'll warm you up if anything! but i just want to stay here with you." i pouted "are you needy or do you miss me?" i turned my face towards him. "both of them." he rested his face on his hand. again i was rolling my eyes, again i was getting nervous.

"didn't you find anyone in madrid?" i questioned as i stood in the same position as the player. "my heart is set on birmingham." i laughed. "i bet it's that girl who used to go to school with us, but i must say she's engaged to a friend of yours." i said as i played with jude's hand "i don't even remember her anymore. unfortunately, only girls in green occupy my mind for a long time." 10 seconds to process what he had said. i laughed awkwardly and licked my lips. "you went from downcast to flirty really fast."

jude turned my face to him again. i looked at him confused. "i'm starting to think you're drunk." he threw his head back laughing. "but seriously..." he ran his hand over the back of his neck before continuing. "seriously what?" i asked. "do you think you and i wouldn't work as a couple?" i was speechless. jude bellingham is out of his mind. 

"are you kidding me?" i laughed nervously "what? you don't think so? if you knew how much i think about you every day you wouldn't say that." jude was serious. i was sure of it after analyzing his body posture. i can't believe what i'm hearing. "of course you think, we are bests." i said and then turned my head to the other side.  

jude put his hands on his face and then shook his head "you know i don't think of you as just a friend." my heart could jump out of my chest at any moment "i know?" i scoffed. jude turned my head towards him once more, his hand promptly brushing a strand of hair that was falling over my face behind my ear.

i could hear his breathing getting louder as he got closer. his mouth was just inches from mine. i want them to stick together.

"was that what was eating at your mind?" i questioned. bellingham's eyes flickered between my mouth and my eyes "maybe." he replied.

"my mom is looking for you, she wants everyone in the room now." james appeared in the backyard, making bellingham and I jump back. "okay, we'll go." i stood up first and saw james looking at me with an arched eyebrow, but he laughed and continued toward the house. "think about what i told you, please." jude held my hand, he was still sitting down. "if you knew everything that goes on in my head, you wouldn't say that." he stood up and again we were close enough to hear each other's heartbeats "and you hid this from me?" he questioned before giving me a kiss on the corner of my mouth. "we'll work, i promise." he continued.

[mantequillamcwhoremick]

I always believed that the reason why Kenny never tried to tell butters at all about his “curse” was never that he wouldn’t believe it in fact I think he would whole heartedly believe but because Butters would get like VERY paranoid & stressed about it and that Kenny doesn’t want to put any more baggage on him than butters is already dealing with

Well, the reason Kenny never tried to tell Butters about his curse first and foremost is because Matt and Trey haven't figured they should make this into a canon interaction yet, but when we talk about hypotheticals I think there's a lot to unpack.

Kenny and Butters aren't significantly close in their current canon age, so the reason Kenny might not have told him is because he just doesn't see the point, plus he doesn't really care about Butters and his opinion. Post COVID and "Going Native" have proven there's very much an insanely big potential for their dynamic, so it might be an interaction that could happen in the future sparked by a number of things in different ways.

Mostly, I think Kenny would tell Butters in a moment of weakness. This was the case in my fic Chaos Plan (sorry to bring Chaos Plan into this lmao but my writing is how I explore certain headcanons/interpretations of characters so bear with me), because I doubt that Kenny would usually try to convince anyone again, so as to not be disappointed when they don't believe him. The line "I knew there'd be no point in telling you guys" (s14's "Coon vs. Coon & Friends") is pretty much proof to me for this, as is Kenny's apathy towards his curse by the end of the trilogy. But I think it's necessary that Kenny and Butters are close friends for this to happen, because Kenny should want to confide in Butters in the first place.

The point you make about Butters being paranoid & anxious is a pretty interesting one, but I doubt this would be a reason Kenny wouldn't tell him. Butters may have a lot of baggage, but at the end of the day I think Kenny wouldn't see why BUTTERS would be anxious about KENNY'S curse.

Butters mirrors other people's emotions a lot when it comes to getting hyped or scared about something, (like how in "Poor and Stupid" he gets very "psyched" because Cartman is lmao), and Kenny isn't in any danger for Butters to be worried about him. He just has a pretty shitty situation going on that won't go away, and Kenny would treat it as such. All that Kenny needs here would be emotional support & someone who listens to & believes him, and I think Butters would recognize that.

Think of how Butters comforted him in "Major Boobage" when Kenny was addicted to cheesing. Butters definitely has the stuff to be an emotional crutch when he sees someone in distress, like in "A Boy and a Priest" or "Worldwide Privacy Tour" when he reaches out to Kyle after he sees him upset.

He's much less anxious and paranoid than people give him credit for, because most of his panicky moments are usually sparked deliberately by Cartman or his parents with unnecessarily scary threats of consequences that he's sadly learned to believe to be true. But Butters is actually awesome at emotional support, without letting the other person's problems get to him. He's more so than a rational problem-solver, which is where Kyle's strength lies, and is the reason Kyle isn't the person Kenny can confide in for this particular problem.

Butters, however, would be perfect. Kenny's problem doesn't need solutions, he needs someone to listen to him, believe him and maybe give him a hug so he can cry a little (a lot). And we've seen Butters is an incredibly emotionally intelligent guy, especially in the episodes "Raisins" and "Butterballs".

For all these reasons, I highly doubt Butters would get paranoid and stressed over Kenny's curse. Especially because he'd recognize there's no use in stressing about it, and I think he'd know right off the bat what Kenny actually needs.

Now, allow me to introduce a different hypothetical where your theory could definitely hold truth; another fic wip I have (sorry) where Kenny loses his immortality and develops a panic disorder. The premise is that Kenny can't stop seeing possible death causes anywhere he goes, and with his immortality gone, he's in constant fear that he's always on the verge of death.

(screenshot from season 3's "Tweek vs. Craig")

In this particular fic, Kenny and Butters are already together, but Kenny's never told him about his curse, or that he's lost his immortality. So when Kenny starts panicking about all the ways he thinks he could die, Butters mirrors this fear and unknowingly makes everything worse for Kenny, because he's accidentally reinforcing Kenny's irrational fears.

What I'm saying is; Kenny could very well THINK Butters would be stressed and paranoid if he knew about Kenny's curse, based on reactions Kenny's seen Butters have whenever Kenny is scared about a possible death cause. He could accidentally give Butters fears that Butters didn't have before because, again, Butters MIRRORS these kinds of emotions when someone convinces him it's rational/threatens a consequence that is supposed to inspire fear.

In these kinds of scenarios, your theory could very well hold truth. I think it's an interesting darker side to Kenny and Butters' possible dynamic, and I'm happy you pointed it out. I'm also excited to get that fic I mentioned out someday and hopefully spark more conversation about Kenny's possible anxiety issues originating from his curse >:)

[flamingspud]

Now, Cleo couldn't speak for every family, but if they had to take a guess most families wouldn't really have more than one Christmas A&E story, maybe two in the worst cases. Cleo's family had six.

It’s once again Christmas at the Clocker’s house, but this year Cleo is determined to keep anything from going wrong.

Fic under cut

It was midday on Christmas Eve at the Clockers' house, and Cleo was getting ready as they had invited a few people over for a festive party, (the idea hadn't originally been theirs, but now that it was approaching they had to admit it was something to look forward to.)

There was one problem though: her family's record at getting themselves injured on Christmas.

Now, Cleo couldn't speak for every family, but if they had to take a guess most families wouldn't really have more than one Christmas A&E story, maybe two in the worst cases. 

Cleo's family had six. 

The first time was when Joel was eleven, he had managed to swallow one of Jellie's chew toys. In retrospect it was funny as hell, but at the time Joel's distressed squeaks frightened the lot of them.

Next was Scar, when Jellie had managed to bring the tree down on the two of them in a cacophony of screams and smashing ornaments.

The year after that was Grian, who had slipped on an icy footpath and broken his elbow. It had taken them a little longer to bring him to the hospital than ideal, as they hadn't immediately realised it was broken. He still hasn't forgiven them for that one.

Then it was Jimmy, he had reached across the table to grab some more roast potatoes, and his sleeve had dipped just close enough to one of the candles to go alight. They managed to put him out right away and he only had minor burns on his arm, but lets just say they don't have candles at the dinner table anymore.

The year after that… Cleo shuddered at the thought, not wanting to think of that incident ever again.

And finally came last year, when Bdubs ate rat poison as part of a dare.

This year, however, was going to be different, as Cleo vowed that she wasn't going to let anyone get hurt. Well, at least not enough to require professional medical attention. 

Baby steps.

It wasn't quite Christmas yet, but as there would be a lot more people around they figured it wouldn't hurt to be prepared. 

They had just finished cutting up some brownies they had made when their two sons ran in from outside, where they had been having a snowball fight with their friends.

"Mom!" Fourteen year old Bdubs yelled as he ran inside. "Scar maimed me!"

"No I didn't!" Sixteen year old Scar protested, "it was just a snowball!"

Cleo turned to face them, leaving the knife on the counter.

"That's what we thought when Grian broke his arm," she said, "Here, let me see." She then took Bdubs' face in her hands so that she could take a look at it. It was probably fine, but this year Cleo wasn't going to risk it.

Scar rolled his eyes.

"Scar, why don't you put the brownies on the table?" Cleo suggested, their tone indicating that it wasn't a request.

Scar groaned. "Fine."

Once she had decided that Bdubs was fine, she sent the two boys up to their rooms to change into dry clothes.

It wasn't long after that that guests started arriving.

Ding dong.

"I'll get it!" Seventeen year old Joel called, making his way to the front door. Him and his brothers had been to the first to arrive, as always.

When he opened it, who was on the other side but Jimmy's boyfriend-not-boyfriend, Martyn. He supposed Scott was there too.

"Hi," Joel said, somewhat disappointedly. He was hoping it'd be Lizzie.

"Well would you look at that, it's mistletoe!" Martyn, who was nineteen, said, pointing to the headband on his head. A wire stuck out from it, a piece of mistletoe stuck to the end.

It hung right above Scott and Joel's heads.

Seventeen year old Scott shook his head and let out a groan. "Martyn, it's not as funny as you think it is-"

"Ew, get away from me!" Joel exclaimed, cutting Scott off and shoving him away from him. And into an end table. Oops.

"Joel!" Cleo scolded, rushing in from the kitchen. 

"It was deserved!" Joel quickly retorted.

"Still, we don't need anyone getting seriously hurt."

Joel rolled his eyes. "I didn't even push him that hard."

"I'm fine," Scott insisted, righting a photo frame he had accidentally knocked over in his stumble.

"You sure?" Cleo asked, shooting Joel a pointed look.

Scott nodded. "Yep."

"What're we standing around for? Let's go party!" Martyn said, making his way down the hall and further into the house.

The others followed, but not before Cleo could grab Joel by the shoulder. "Don't do something to break any of your necks."

Joel sighed. "Yes Cleo."

"Good."

While this was going on, some of the others were in the living room trying to find something to do.

Fourteen year old Pearl absently grabbed a bottle of water and flipped it. She hadn't thought much of the action, but the others were impressed.

Mumbo, who's also fourteen, scoffed. "Anyone could do that."

"Oh yeah?" Pearl asked, "prove it."

Grian and BigB (both fourteen) were watching him, so of course Mumbo grabbed the water bottle.

He tried to flip it, but it landed on its side.

Pearl was not impressed, but Mumbo was not about to give up.

"That was a warm-up."

He quickly grabbed the bottle and threw it again, and this time it landed upright.

"See! In fact, I can do it twice in a row." He then proceeded to flip the bottle again. He smiled smugly at Pearl.

The girl rolled her eyes, and snatched the bottle from between them. She then proceeded to flip it four times in a row, only messing up on the fifth.

She smiled at him, while he frowned, and before they knew it they were going back and forth to see who could do the most bottle flips in a row while the others watched.

BigB turned to Grian. "Who do you think's going to give up first?"

Grian tilted his head from side to side. "Knowing them it could go either way."

Meanwhile, nineteen and sixteen year old Jimmy and Scar found themselves by the tree, examining the presents underneath it.

"What're you two up to?" Martyn asked, approaching them.

"Trying to guess what we got for Christmas," Jimmy replied, shaking one of the boxes next to his ear. "There's something loose in here."

Martyn crouched down next to the two of them, and Scar scooched to the side to make room for him. 

"This one's from Bdubs," Scar said, picking one up. It had candy-cane wrapping paper on it.

"What do you think you're doing?" The fourteen year old brother in question demanded, seemingly appearing out of nowhere behind them.

"Trying to guess what's in our presents," Scar replied nonchalantly.

Bdubs was not happy with this response. "You're not meant to do that! Those are surprises for tomorrow!"

"It's not like we're going to open them," Jimmy explained.

"Mom!" Bdubs called, "Jimmy and Scar are trying to find out what presents they got!"

"Don't upset your brother," Cleo shouted back from where they were in the kitchen.

"But we weren't even doing anything!" Scar complained.

"I don't care!"

Bdubs' smile made Scar want to punch him in a way that only brothers can, however he put the present back. Jimmy did the same.

He was staring daggers at him when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Joel called, running for the door.

Unfortunately, it was just Etho.

"Hi Joel-"

"Ugh, it's just some loser," Joel muttered, turning away and walking back to the living room without any sort of a greeting.

"Ok…"

"You can hang out with me you know," Scott told him.

Joel made a face at him.

"I thought you were warming up to me after the funfair?" Scott said, putting his hands in his pockets.

"That doesn't mean I like you," Joel said with a huff.

Scott shook his head with amusement.

The doorbell rang again. "I got it!"

This time when Joel opened the door, he saw who he was waiting for. 

"Lizzie! Hey." He leaned on the doorframe to give the illusion of being cool.

"Hi!" The other seventeen year old smiled at him. "Thanks for inviting me."

"It was no problem," Joel responded.

"Hi Lizzie," Scott greeted, suddenly behind Joel.

"Hi Scott," she replied cheerfully, before turning back to Joel. "You didn't tell me Scott was invited."

Joel tried to hide his frown. He had forgotten about him. This proved quite the problem, as he had been hoping to spend some alone time with Lizzie.

"It hadn't come up in conversation."

Joel closed the door behind Lizzie.

"Should we play a game or something?" Scott suggested.

"Sure!" Lizzie agreed.

"I'll see what we have," Joel said, turning and heading for the press where they kept their board games. 

"Excuse me-" he said as he stepped between Pearl and Mumbo's bottle flipping contest.

The bottle Mumbo had just tossed landed on Joel's foot and fell over.

"That's not fair!" Mumbo insisted. "Joel intercepted it!"

"Well you're going to have to start again," Pearl informed him without remorse.

Grian groaned loudly. "For the love of god, can you do something else? You've flipped that thing hundreds of times at this stage!"

"It is getting a bit repetitive…" Pearl admitted.

"You're just saying that because you're in the lead!" Mumbo exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at Pearl.

"You could always try doing cooler tricks," BigB suggested.

"Yes!" Mumbo snatched the bottle. "I can have it flip twice in the air before landing, watch."

It took him a couple of attempts as the others awkwardly watched, but he eventually managed to complete the trick.

"Hah. Beat that."

Pearl considered her options before picking up the bottle. "I'm going to flip it with the lid off."

The others watched in anticipation as she took the lid off of the bottle. She took a deep breath, gathered her thoughts, and threw the bottle;

It proceeded to fly into a lamp, knocking it to the floor.

Grian quickly picked up the bottle before it could pour too much water onto the ground, while BigB picked up the lamp.

It didn't take long for Cleo to come into the room after the racket they made. "What are you guys doing?" She exclaimed.

"…bottle flips?" Grian answered sheepishly.

"Hand me the bottle," Cleo said, putting their hand out.

"But-"

"Now."

Grian sighed and gave the half-full bottle to his aunt.

"Thank you."

The teens all watched as she took the offending object out of the room.

"…so does that mean I win?" Mumbo asked hopefully, breaking the silence. 

"Mumbo!" Pearl exclaimed, "I was clearly better than you."

"Were not!"

"Were too!"

"It felt a bit overkill to take the bottle away from us on the first offense," BigB thought out loud, breaking up their bickering.

"That's probably because 'our family has a knack for trying to get ourselves killed on Christmas' or however she puts it," Grian explained, using airquotes to exemplify how ridiculous he thought the whole thing was.

"Seriously?" BigB asked.

Grian nodded. "Yeah… once I broke my arm and it took six hours and thirty four minutes for anyone to believe me."

"Oh. That's…" Mumbo said, surprised.

"I know, I'm truly a martyr."

He then got up to go get something to clean up the water.

Cleo put the water bottle on the counter before going back to join the other adults.

"This is quite the party you have going on here," Etho commented, looking around at some of the Christmas decorations.

"I know," was Cleo's response. 

Etho nodded awkwardly, unsure where to take the conversation from here.

Luckily for him, Martyn intercepted.

"Etho, hi!" He greeted, standing between them.

"Hi?" Etho was realising he didn't actually know Martyn, only hearing of him third hand from Tango talking about Ren and Jimmy.

"I wanted to ask on behalf of Scar and Jimmy if they could try and guess what you got them-"

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Bdubs yelled.

"I mean, you said BigB got some of his presents early because his parents are divorced."

"Yeah but Etho's spending Christmas with us so it doesn't count!"

"Guys just leave the presents alone," Cleo asked them, as Scar and Jimmy joined them in the room.

Jimmy raised his arms in the air in frustration.

"That's a shame…" Martyn said. 

He then glanced up. "Oh, would you look at that-" the others in the room moved their eyes up to see what Martyn was referring to- "it's mistletoe."

Bdubs' jaw fell open, Scar threw his hands back and into the air, and Jimmy was coming up with excuses as to how he didn't actually know Martyn, he must've just broken in.

"Um…" Etho glanced quickly between Cleo and the plant attached to Martyns head, frozen like a deer in the headlights.

Cleo took a big step backwards. "No way, not gonna happen."

"That's a shame," Martyn said, before going back to join the others.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Cleo heard Jimmy hiss as they left the room.

As Martyn was shunned from the group for his antics, he went to see what Scott and the others were up to.

"What's going on over here?" He asked.

"Cluedo," Joel responded. He was still annoyed by the fact that Scott was third wheeling with him and Lizzie, but he couldn't come up with and excuse to make him go away.

"Oh, fun! Can I play?" He asked.

"Sure, but you're not being on my team," Scott replied, picking a card to show Lizzie.

"Fine; Joel I'll be with you," Martyn decided, sitting next to him.

"What? No, I want to be on my own…!" Joel insisted.

"We're gonna make a great team Joel, I can feel it."

"You can be with me if you want," Lizzie suggested, patting the ground next to her on the other side of Joel.

"Nah, I'm alright here with my buddy Joel." Martyn put an arm around Joel's shoulder, who was scowling.

A few more rounds were played when a grin formed on Scott's face.

"Oh no, he knows it," Lizzie said as realisation dawned on her.

"Dammit…!" Joel cursed.

"Um- was it Mr. Green in the kitchen with the candlestick?" Lizzie guessed, before looking in the envelope.

She dropped it back into the middle of the table in disappointment. "No dice."

"Ok, Martyn it's down to us," Joel said, looking at his options. They had figured out who did it and where; Colonel Mustard in the kitchen, the only question left being was it with the gun or the dagger?

"I'm going to guess the gun-"

"Hold on," Martyn interrupted, "I think it was the dagger."

"Why?"

"Because Scott smiled when I said it."

Joel shook his head. "No, he's obviously bluffing."

"I've known him longer than you, and I'm pretty sure it's a double bluff."

Joel looked Martyn in the eyes. "And you're one hundred percent sure?"

"Absolutely."

Joel sighed. "Fine. Was it Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with the dagger?"

Joel reached for the envelope and opened it up. Colonel Mustard. The Kitchen. The Gun.

Joel let out a slow exhale before putting the cards back. 

"Oops," was Martyn's feeble response.

"Martyn," Joel said dangerously, "I'm going to kill you!"

Martyn took that as his cue to run, and Joel was right on his tail. "Get back here!"

"So, I guess I win," Scott said.

"Guess so," Lizzie agreed, sorting her cards.

"Honestly, I had no idea what it was, so it was handy you two threw your guesses away."

Lizzie frowned.

Meanwhile Joel was chasing Martyn around the house. It was during this hazardous chase that Joel accidentally knocked the bottle Cleo had put there earlier off of the counter, spilling water onto the ground.

It was around this time that Scar had made his way back to the tree, and was rooting around the presents once more.

"Scar! Don't make me get mom again," Bdubs threatened.

"She'll have to rip the present out of my cold dead hands," was Scar's response.

"Oh, that's it!" Bdubs snapped, and tried pulling the present out of Scar's hands.

"Give it back!" Scar shouted, pulling back on it.

"Mom! Scar's trying to open his presents again!" Bdubs yelled.

"For goodness sake you two will you give it up-" Cleo said, speed walking over to the tree. As they went by the counter they didn't notice the water on the ground. 

"Woah!-" As she slipped she went to grab the counter to catch herself, where the knife she had been using earlier still was, as she had forgotten to put it away in the chaos.

Cleo then said a string of words that I am not allowed to repeat here as their hand made contact with the knife.

In their quest to make sure nobody got hurt, they forgot to look out for themselves.

"Cleo!"

Everyone gathered around her in seconds, her right hand being clutched by her left.

"That looks bad," Etho commented.

"Looks like you'll need stitches," Scar added.

"It's not that bad! Bdubs, get me my sewing kit from the other room-"

"No! No one's getting the sewing kit, you're going to a hospital!" Jimmy told her.

"Seriously, it's fine-"

"I'm already getting the car keys," Jimmy said finally, walking out of the room.

Cleo groaned. "Party's over everyone."

"Wow, someone going to A&E on Christmas Eve? That's a new record for us," Joel commented.

"It's not as bad as swallowing a chew toy," Jimmy commented with grin as he walked back in with the keys.

"At least I didn't light myself on fire!" Joel shot back."

"Hey! That was traumatic for everyone involved, yours was funny."

"At least everyone believed you when you said you were injured," Grian interjected.

"Shut up about your arm Grian, it's been four years!" Joel retorted.

"Remember when you made me eat rat poison-" Bdubs started.

"Guys!" Scar suddenly shouted. "Mom needs to go to A&E, remember?"

"Oh, right-" Jimmy quickly left with Cleo (who had wrapped their hand with gauze by this point) to go to the hospital, and it wasn't long until most of the guests had left.

Joel was in the middle of cleaning up the puddle that got them into this mess when Lizzie approached him. "Hey."

"Lizzie?" Joel stopped what he was doing. "What are you still doing here?"

"Well, I figured I'd give you a hand with the cleanup," she explained.

Joel waved her off. "Nah, I've got it covered, you don't need to stick around."

Lizzie frowned and grabbed the mop in Joel's hand. "Joel."

"Huh?"

"I have been trying to get a moment alone with you all night, I even tried catching you under Martyn's stupid mistletoe at one point, and when I finally get one all you want to do is clean a puddle."

Joel dropped the mop. "You were???"

"Yes! I thought I was being obvious about it too."

Joel hadn't even realised.

As he was busy staring at her like an idiot, she leaned closer to him. "There isn't any mistletoe, but I was hoping that maybe I could still get a Christmas kiss…?"

Joel blinked, snapping himself out of his stupor. "Y-yeah!"

The two leaned closer, and Joel could confidently swear that that was the best Christmas present he got that year.

"Ew."

"Grian!" Joel exclaimed, suddenly jumping back from Lizzie. "Aren't you supposed to be doing dishes or something?!"

"I finished those and decided to come in here. Now I'm going to need to bleach my eyes."

Joel rolled his eyes at his brother's dramatics.

"I should probably get going now," Lizzie decided, "Merry Christmas you guys!"

Joel followed her to the door. "You too!" He called after her. Once he closed the door after her, he turned on Grian. "What was that for?"

Grian shrugged. "I was making sure you didn't forget about me again."

"Grian!"

"Merry Christmas Joel!"

It was the early hours of the next morning when Cleo and Jimmy finally made it back, just in time to spend Christmas morning with the others.

If you asked Cleo, they would take a guess that most families wouldn't really have more than one Christmas A&E story, maybe two in the worst cases. 

Cleo's family had seven. 

[ephie-om]

Starting to realize how much I like writing chaotic MC ':)

Day 24: RAD

“The halls of the royal academy have seen thousands of demons’ footsteps over the centuries. Discoveries have been made in these rooms which revolutionized magic as we know it. And not just magic; the sciences of biology, persuasion, and chemistry all have a home here.” You nod along to Barbatos’ explanation as he guides you through the labyrinthian academy grounds. The vaulted ceilings make you dizzy if you look up for too long, and you try to focus on keeping pace with Barbatos’ efficient strides. “You will be taking a set of introductory courses specifically selected for a non-demon student. Your professors have all been notified of your status as an exchange student with a one-year tenure and will adjust their lesson plans accordingly. You will have one-on-one training with certain professors before the year properly begins to provide you with a foundation of basic Devildom subjects that you will use throughout your time here.” Your eyes have already started to glaze over.

As far as you were concerned, you were pulled from your boring human life by the most powerful demons in existence. You live with the Avatars of the seven deadly sins, who you’re quickly learning can be bribed to do your chores. You’re going to do everything you can to make the absolute most out of this year, and school is looking like the last thing on your list right now. You try to pay attention to Barbatos again, but he’s started talking about the demons whose paintings line the front entrance and you find yourself not caring at all.

Your staunch indifference to your studies serves to make you yet another thorn in Lucifer’s side. You aren’t directly opposed to the idea of paying attention to your classes, you just end up finding more interesting things. Like an incantation to make Mammon speak without his accent for an hour, or the myriad of ways to make something explode into sparkly magical smoke . You’re sure you get disapproving looks from your centuries-old professors, but you’re too busy trying out new things to notice them. You’ve singlehandedly caused at least two classrooms to temporarily close for repairs (the third one could arguably also be Satan’s fault). Your textbooks have to be replaced almost on a weekly basis due to water damage, fire damage, lava damage, mastication, vanishing, or transmutation.

To the chagrin of everyone else, the problem only worsens when Solomon officially takes you on as his apprentice. Now you have the tools of a wizard to sow chaos on academy time instead of just your pact magic. On your first day, he lets you choose which basic spells to learn first, and without blinking, you choose every single one that sounds like fun. He chuckles knowingly, but you take solace in the fact that at least one person here finds you predictable.

As it turns out, Solomon’s lessons are much more engaging than those at RAD. Maybe it has something to do with the connection you two have as humans, or maybe you just learn better when your teacher is just as insane as you. You start to learn all the principles you’ve been unknowingly applying to your little experiments in class, and you revel in the way Solomon’s eyes shine when you finish a sentence for him. You’ve actually learned quite a lot from your class activities.

The following weeks, your destruction is a little more controlled. You think you catch one or two of your professors letting out a sigh of relief as you catch a runaway spell for the first time instead of sitting back and watching it go. You and Mammon are still inseparable in class, but now you understand why you get the results you do. He laughs under his breath when you mutter to yourself just like Solomon, eyes trained on a deep purple flower in your potions class. You look back and forth between the petals and the chalkboard at the front of the room, frown deepening.

The board says that the ingredient should dampen the water-summoning effect from the other reagents to create a controlled stream, but you swear you remember that it acts as an enhancer. You open your mouth to ask the professor if he’s sure he copied down the instructions, but the glare he shoots you makes you close it again. You shrug indifferently, excited to see the result either way. Sure enough, as the crushed petals hit the bubbling mixture, a rush of water shoots straight up from the murky liquid, and demons around the room cry out as their uniforms are instantly drenched. The force of the flow threatens to rip off the ceiling, and your professor can barely shout instructions over the sheer noise of the thing. You laugh to yourself even as you slog out of the room, spilling water over the floor in the hallway.

You recount the story dramatically over dinner that night, with Mammon adding in colorful details you must have missed. Satan laments how a professor, of all demons, could have made such a simple mistake. Lucifer listens silently, but you notice the glint of blue in his eyes as you speak. You text Solomon to fill him in on anything he hadn’t already heard, and he sends you several smiley stickers in a row. Bit by bit, the demons at RAD start to take you a little more seriously. Ever so slowly, you actually start to complete your homework, and the RAD you knew begins to change.

Not physically, of course. It’s still suffocating and stuffy and *old*. The imposing portraits of important Devildom figures in education still stare down at you from their massive frames in the lobby, following you with their dark eyes. You still get scolded for doodling sigils of your own creation instead of drawing out your arithmancy matrices. Barbatos still stalks you from behind random columns (no you can’t actually prove that, but some part of you can *feel* his beady eyes on you).

But you start to understand what the vision for this academy is. Like it or not, you’ve learned a lot in your time here, and its resources are indispensable to your work. You may not do serious wizard things like Solomon, but you’re definitely doing something that wizards do, which is doing magic for the hell of it. You surprise your housemates with fun little spells. You’ve learned one to reinforce Beel’s lunchbox at the seams, preserving it from the demon who gets a bit too distracted to find the zipper on the first try. You still blast off the occasional fireball to not let anyone’s nerves get too settled, but you’re finally starting to feel like RAD could be a place for you too.

[princess-charlie-of-hell]

Unpopular opinion (I think?)

The fandom needs to accept that Lilith is allowed to be flawed mother, wife and person without being treated like a monster

How was she supposed to perfectly know how to be a mother, she never had any parents from which she could learn to be one. Even parents who grew up in perfectly healthy families aren't perfect parents. She never was a child and therefore doesn't know how hard it is to go through puberty and other parts of growing up

She literally was one of the two first humans and i can image that neither Lilith nor Lucifer knew what it means to be in a super perfect relationship, Adam, Lilith first partner, literally demanded Liliths submissions which caused Lilith to meet Lucifer in the first place. So how is she supposed to know what a healthy relationship is supposed to be.

And from what we know so far fell Lucifer in depression after their fall and this can be hard for a relationship even if it was a healthy one. There was not really therapy invented to this time and for the next like thousand years or more. So how is she supposed to know what the perfect things are to do in this situation so maybe she did things which she thought would be right for him even if she it was wrong because she doesn't know better

We also don't really know how everything which happened affected her yet, we know that she motivated hell but that doesn't mean that she can't be traumatized as well

But from what we know what happened to her, it is just tragic

First she was trapped in a relationship with a misogynistic man who demanded submission from her

She found love with Lucifer and they tried together to give Eve and humanity freewill by giving Eve the apple

But that caused evil to find it's way and Lucifer and Lilith were banished to hell

Lucifer then fell in depression while Lilith motivated Hell with her voice

But that caused then the exterminations to happen in the first place where regularly sinners get killed, so I can image that Lilith was after that maybe not in the best head space

Ruling over hell is also a challenge itself and we don't know how Lucifer and Lilith split their work as being depressed can cause a person to be not able to handle that responsibility in Lucifers case, so maybe she did the main work while he just couldn't do it

The same with parenting Charlie, having a child is straight up exhausting whatever if the child is a human and or Sinner/angel hybrid. And if Charlie is now at least 200 years old how long took it till she was an adult?

We can't really say how she was as a mother but from what we heard from Charlie i can't image her to be cold and distant to her daughter. Charlie believes that Lilith would be proud of her if she saw her right now, she thinks that her mother is doing something important and in the pilot Charlie calls Lilith who disappeared for 7 years rather than her father (again not blaming Lucifer, he just was in shitty situation as well). Sure it could be a red hering so that it is more shocking that she evil but the same could be said about the last scene where we see her on the beach to make us believe that she is a villain despite her having a good reason for everything she does

Despite her being in heaven, we don't know why she is there, maybe she just couldn't take it anymore in hell, maybe she just saw an opportunity to be somewhere without her responsibility as a queen, the deal between her and Adam is unknown so we won't know the exact reason why she is there until later in the show

And honestly even if she is just in heaven for selfish reasons doesn't automatically mean that she is an unredeemable monster, this show afterall is about persons facing their flaws and personal problems to get redeemed so why should Lilith be the exception?

[cepheusgalaxy]

OKAY so that's what we have for Ola as of right now

[ID: A colored sketch of a boy with dark warm skin, a nose piercing and a colorful head covering styled like a hijab amira, but showing his hair and neck a bit. Its fabric is bright yellow with orange, red and blue patterns. He also wears a golden necklace. /end ID.]

I didn't want it to look like an actual hijabi so I made it show a bit of his neck and hair so it hopefully it isn't technically one

I am debating changing it completely so we don't mistake it but the problem is that I am completely in love with this sillouette so T_T

(Also im not sure if his clothes show his chest or what there's still a long way to go)

[longagoitwastuesday]

ngl it sort of pisses me off the way adults regard Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen at times. Which could be a very interesting and poignant point in a good way if well written, but as it is it becomes mainly just frustrating and sad in a negative way.

Nanami saying Gojo never cared about anything or anyone other than himself crashes interestingly with Kusakabe saying the whole situation was just all his fault because he refused to kill Itadori. The students are very aware of those aspects of Gojo's personality, but overall they seem to regard him with way more kindness and fondness even when at their rudest, not truly coinciding with either Nanami's or Kusakabe's views.

[zoppzoop]

Post-test vent

[pall0r-mortis]

James was being stubborn on purpose and not saying something, which of course made Sid want to know more because he was just the type of person that hated not knowing things, he wasn't going to weasel the information out of James just yet apparently. He made a mental note to return to the topic later.

"Yeah, something like that," Sid trailed off, because James wasn't wrong and the fact that magic seems so stifled even there in that town was one of his biggest problems. It was a problem he had expected, but having never experienced it before it had thrown him off quite a bit.

"We have acid rain that you just have to learn to dodge or keep your cloak with you all the time unless you want scars," a fact that Sid had been taught early in life but sometimes he'd still chanced it and did indeed have a few scars to show for that, "It's probably about as tame as you would consider anywhere when you're living on top of a giant corpse."

Was it honestly that odd? Sid's brow furrowed; it wasn't, but it was likely going to be one of the reasons that he would never really fit in around that town. "Or, well, technically I lived in Bonesborough, which is one of the tamer areas; you get farther out into the forests and the limbs and it's more dangerous I guess. Less people and more animals, sentiment plants, that kind of thing." Ultimately that didn't really seem strange to Sid; the mainland seemed bizarre to him.

"It's not like I don't know what a lot of things around here are, I wasn't born there, my father has always talked about things off the Isles, but I had to get used to those things being real instead of just ideas." It had been something of a culture shock, it still was at times.

"Like your holidays; Halloween is the only one that seems even remotely familiar, and the limitations on magic here, or even the fact that everyone in this neighborhood looks like my house like it's something strange when it's probably the most exhaustingly mundane version of the idea we've ever lived in." And while he didn't want to say it outloud, and he wasn't going to, the conversation was just making him homesick. He lost most of the edge to his tone during the course of the conversation because the topic had his guard down a little.

"How about this; you ever decide to visit the Boiling Isles and I'm still on this side of living and I'll go show you around and let you make up your own mind how different it is or isn't." Sid trailed off; sure, why not, it wasn't very likely he was ever going to see home again anyway at the rate things were going, it was just as unlikely that James would ever go there.

@captainjamesjoneshook

@pall0r-mortis

The Boiling Isles, eh? Ingarian! That was interesting. It made James look at him again with this new lens framing his person and he frowned a little because...well he didn't really seem like the others who had come from there. At least, the ones that James knew of. Like The Great Sorcerer Howl Pendragon, who was all flourish and whimsy! Sid was more doom and gloom.

...maybe the Boiling Isles bred a different sort. It was supposed to be a flying island of a dead creature, wasn't it? Probably did make for the more Emo brand.

"Ah, no I did not! That was on purpose, but good catch," James said with a smile but offered no further explanation.

What? Like he wanted this guy to know he was being threatened and attacked by monsters of his dads' past? He wasn't here to compare their differing experiences of horrors, thanks.

"Anyway– think of it likes this. You're coming from a place where magic is free to wander as it pleases, right? People practice it, sell it, whatever. Here, Swynlake is the only place people can do that and even then, we've got red tape over the whole thing. So I imagine it all builds up somewhere, waiting to tip out eventually. It's bound to make things weird every now and then," he said. "Other than that, are we pretty tame in comparison to where you're from?"

[discoreptile]

Wee ha

[phagodyke]

why are glasses so expensiveeeee

[a-soft-fluffy-girl]

TL;DR: Steam just made library sharing so much fucking easier and so much fucking better. Instead of login-trading, it's just a simple goddamn invite.

Read this. Really. It's a good read. Because it shows that, full-stop, Valve isn't just doubling down on their stance to make sure that people can and should be able to share their copies of digital goods as easily as they can physical ones, but they're making it better and easier than ever.

But you know how Steam allowed you to, with either friends or family, link accounts with another person to be able to establish an ability to share game libraries with one another? The general gist of Steam Family Sharing was that, with a limit of five people plus you (six in total) on a limit of ten computers total could share account access to willingly mix your libraries. You could play theirs. They could play yours.

This was a huge boon. It was meant to emulate sharing a physical copy of a game. A way to allow children to play games their parents or siblings had bought without having to fork over double the cash to buy it a second game. But it had some major limitations and drawbacks, and was archaic to use.

If a person did not share the same computer, you had to manually log into that computer to give it and the accounts on it access. This wouldn't be a problem if both accounts were used on the same computer, but many households (and astronomically more family and friend groups) had multiple computers, all used by different people.

If that computer, at any point, was hard reset to any point before the sharing occurred, you lost access. And had to do the whole process again. This was also an issue with computer transfers. The whole kit and kaboodle needed to be redone on upgrades. On top of that, the old computer is now just dead weight that you may not realize you have to manually revoke access to.

Putting your account information on another person's computer opens up security issues. They could, intentionally or accidentally, land themselves on your account if the login information was stored. Which could easily lead to purchases or bans you did not want to happen.

If anyone was, at any point, playing any game on their own library, you had no access to their games. Even if it was a totally different game, you had to wait your turn as if waiting for their computer to be freed up to sit at. (Admittedly this is kind of like the "mom said it's my turn on the xbox" meme, but hey, kinda archaic.)

You could not choose whose library you accessed a game from. Not at all. It always prioritized the first library it gained access from, DLC access and multiplayer be damned. If another friend you were accepting games from had more DLC? Too bad.

And yet here we are. Steam Families Beta fixes EVERYTHING about the above issues. By just going through Settings > Interface > client Beta Participation and clicking onto Steam Families Beta? You get:

No more login sharing. No more computer links. You can now choose which person's library you borrowed from. And you can play any other game from someone's library, even while they're in-game. It just needs to be a different game than what they're playing.

Pick five people. Invite them to your family. And now everyone has access to everyone's library. My goddamn library went from 150-ish to almost a goddamn thousand in ten minutes of setup.

Account sharing and password sharing are dirty words that "lose" billions of dollars. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Max. They aren't game storefronts, but they still allow you to access massive libraries and scream like you murdered their firstborns for daring to share your password with your mother after you moved out.

Microsoft tried pushing to demonize and undercut used games sales and borrowed copies of physical games. Remember the first attempt to reveal the Xbox One? People forget, but these vultures tried to make an always online console that checked to see if you were the account that owned the game, even if you had a physical disc, and prevent access to the disc's contents if you weren't the original downloader.

Valve walked the fuck up. Valve tapped the mic. And Valve dropped the fucking thing right onto the ground with one feature's revamp.

About the only issues I can see with this are twofold:

If someone sharing your library gets banned from a game's servers... so do you. No one else in the family does, but the both of you do. This is... rather unpleasant, because banhammers can be dropped quite frequently by mistake. I'd urge Valve to rethink this one, but I see the logic: don't cheat and effectively bite the hand feeding you. Still making me side-eye that, though.

If you leave a family you've joined? You have to wait a YEAR to join a new one. It's to prevent people form jumping ship to another group and screwing over who's in the former one in the process, but a YEAR? OUCH.

Problems aside, though... it's probably the biggest fucking power move I have ever seen a media distributor make in the current economic climate. It's the kind of thing that would let so many new games be available in a way that's easier than ever. Just a few clicks to send or accept an invite, and bam. Permanent access to dozens or even hundreds of new games with so much more freedom than earlier drafts of the system.

It's the kind of thing that slaps you in the face with positivity after so many Ls from the games and media industries. And I'm all the fuck for a W like this.

[uzurakis]

NEARLY C★UGHT IN THE ACT!

featuring: fushiguro megumi. itadori yuuji. gojo satoru. geto suguru. (characters are all aged up)

NSFW MDNI. fuck! ya almost got caught screwing . .

n. been in the drafts for way too long.. cz i needa clear my reqs but idc! i’ve been wanting to write this for the longest time. enjoy my lovelies <3

GOJO SATORU. “s-shit, how much i’ve missed this view,” gojo was sitting in his office desk, slighty pulling your hair to guide you to the rhythm he wanted. you felt yourself melting into him with his warm shaft in your mouth, ever soo big and too much for you, bobbing your head up and down.

just then, a sharp knock echoed through the room, startling you both. your heart raced as you instinctively tried to pull back from gojo. “s-satoru, we—“ his hand gripped your scalp more firmly than before, making you swallow his shaft until it hit the back of your throat. in other words, he didn’t fucking care. “just do your job, darling. and relax, they won’t come in.”

“even if they do come in, we’ll just say we were having a very hands-on discussion.”

GETO SUGURU. “i’m sorry, princess,” he whispered beside your ear as he hit you raw from behind, both pressed against each other in the dim light of a public restroom. his hands gently putting your hair to the side, “i just, ngh, need you so badly,” whilst his lips found yours again, silencing any further protest.

the sound of footsteps outside the door made you freeze, heart pounding in your chest as the door handle rattled. “someone’s out t-there,” you tried to say as you held back the moans. yet not only your heart was pounding like crazy, it seemed your boyfriend was also still pounding your walls despite the chance you two will get caught screwing in public.

“j-just a little longer,” he pleaded as the groans left his lips again. “i can’t get enough of you.”

ITADORI YUUJI. watching movies together was the original plan, until itadori’s cock twitched because you were sitting on his lap. your ass brushed against his bulge and that’s it. he couldn’t hold it any longer.

a split second later his boxers are on the floor, your panties pushed aside as he rocked your waist front and back. better than the movies, he thought, “i’m havin’ a nice view, baby.” you circled your hands on his shoulders when suddenly you heard a knock on the door. “shit,” itadori murmured as he panicked, slowing down the pace a bit. “i’ll handle this.”

“uh, 10 minutes! don’t come in!” he shouted deafeningly, you were certain that if the person still opened the door, they must have hearing problems to miss that loud shout. “see? problem solved. now, where were we?”

FUSHIGURO MEGUMI. with a frustrated groan, he hovered above you, laying your leg on one of his shoulders and pumping two digits in and out of your hole while he ran a hand through his hair. “why did you have to sneak in here? tsk,” a groan fell from his mouth, “you’re going to get us caught one of these days,” he grumbled, but his fingers playing around your pussy said otherwise.

“because i—ah,” you were the one squirming under his touch, “i-i wanted to be with you—“

“fushiguroo, are you there?” came the voice from the other side of the door. megumi sighed, his expression quickly shifting to one of annoyance. “busy!” he called out, forcing his other fingers over your throat to stop you from making any noise, and tried to keep his voice steady while fucking your insides. “idiot, just keep quiet, okay?”

@uzurakis

[landoughnut]

Dream Girl

♡ masterlist - request!

♡ pairing - lando norris x fem!reader

♡ summary - when being interviewed, the conversation gets on the topic of you, lando's long term obsession crush, never in a million years did he think you would actually notice him

♡ warnings - obsessed/simp lando

♡ w/c & a/n - 0.85k | I hope you all are doing good! as usual send any requests xoxo

"Good afternoon, Lando! We're happy to have you here with us today," the interviewer smiles, sat across from the driver.

"Great to be here," he nods, putting his hands on his lap and leaning back into the chair, "Wow, nice chairs you've got here."

The interviewer laughs, "Glad you approve of them. So, let's get started with the questions, shall we?" Lando nods and the lady clears her throat, "First off, when racing at the high speeds you do, what are some things you're thinking about? Or maybe I should say, a someone?"

Let's rewind. If there was one thing, besides being a Formula 1 driver, that everyone knew Lando Norris for, it was having the world's most massive crush on you. In fact, pretty much everyone was aware of this; except for you.

You wouldn't call yourself oblivious, per se. You just weren't really one to be online, so you never saw all the drama surrounding Lando's infatuation with you.

He has been enamored with you for about three years now, and he made it everyone's problem. From liking instagram updates of you, to commenting on pictures and videos of you, to even reposting edits of you. His friends must have sat through hours and hours of hearing him just speak about your beauty and personality.

His friends teased him about it quite often, though he was never really embarrassed over it. He truly just found everything about you beautiful, you were his dream girl, everything he'd ever want in a woman.

"Well, uh, I think about, you know, winning. Also what I'm going to eat after, and uh.. my girl," he nods with a slight grin.

The interviewer raises her eyebrows, "I wasn't informed you finally got a girlfriend," she says, surprised.

He laughs and shakes his head, "No, no. She's not my girlfriend... yet. Although I'm not even sure if she knows that I exist, but I'm working on it."

"Ah, I should have known," the lady smiles at his flustered state, "I wish you luck with that. Now I believe we should move onto the more important questions, before I get in trouble," she taps on her clipboard.

The rest of the interview seemed like forever for Lando, now that he was thinking about you again, as he usually is.

You're in your bed, watching one of your favorite shows, How I Met Your Mother, when your phone starts to blow up with your friends messaging you and sending you a link to a YouTube video of some F1 interview.

You open the video is none other than the very cute, Lando Norris. Of course you knew who he was, you kept up with Formula 1 on your free time and enjoyed watching the races.

As the video is playing through, you open the comments and your eye go wide at everyone saying your name and commenting on how hot of a couple you two would make. You furrow your eyebrows at some comments talking about how devoted to you he must be for liking you for several years without a single interaction.

You continue to watch the video and your cheeks turn pink as he talks about, well you. You couldn't believe that he liked you like that, surely you were well-known, and you weren't too bad looking, but one of the best current racers in the world crushing on you?

After the video ended you messaged your best friend back, asking what you should do. She, of course, told you to message him on instagram.

You thought over the idea for a bit, before nervously clicking on his account and following him back before beginning to type.

Lando was hanging out with Oscar around the garage when he hears his phone ping with a notification. He glances at it and turns his phone off again before doing a double check to make sure he saw it right. You had followed him.

"OSCAR," he yells and turns to his friend, holding the phone in his face, "SHE FOLLOWED ME, LOOK," he waves the phone.

Oscars jaw drops, never did he see this day coming, "Wow! Mate, thats fantastic, and look! It seems like she just sent you a message!"

"What? I might faint, Oscar," the boys hands shake with excitement and nerves as he clicks on your message. "Hi! I saw your interview, and I must say, I'm truly flattered," Lando reads as his face turns dark pink, he didn't think you'd see it, guess he was wrong.

Oscar starts laughing, "Text her back!"

"I don't know what to say, I've never spoken to her in my life," he panics.

"Mate, she saw you call her your girl, it's a bit too late to be nervous," Oscar smiles, patting his friend's pack. Lando chews his lip and writes back, heart pounding.

After a few messages were exchanged and an anticipated Oscar waiting for an update clears his throat, Lando looks up from the phone with the brightest smile Oscar has ever seen on him, "Guess who scored himself a date with his future wife this Saturday?"

[ssahotchnerr]

begging for nanny!reader x hotch

aka aaron discovers reader is going on a date, our man gets a bit mean and jealous, things get a bit steamy and it ends with him begging reader not to go🙈🙈

right now

🤭 cw; fem nanny!reader, jealous and some possessive!aaron 😵‍💫, slight bratty reader?, heavy suggestion - minors dni wc; 1.2k

"Homework is done. Soccer bag is packed for tomorrow, but uniform is finishing up in the dryer now." You relayed everything on your internal to-do list, mentally checking off each box. "Oh, he has a permission slip for a class trip in his folder that needs signing. I reminded Jack to remind you, but just so you're aware, too. He's eating at his friend's, so you don't have to worry about dinner."

Aaron nodded along to your instructions. You looked throughout the kitchen, as if something would pounce out and remind you of something you'd potentially forgotten.

When nothing availed, "Okay, that should cover it."

"You're amazing, per usual." Aaron complimented, exhaling an at-eased breath. He glanced around the clean apartment, before discreetly admiring you. "I can't tell you how nice it is knowing things are taken care of here. I'm able to come home and breathe. Jack adores you. Seriously, what would we do without you?"

You blushed at his praise, warmth sweeping through you. "Happy to help."

"How was he today?" He asked, swiftly grabbing the mail from the table, beginning to poke through it.

"Perfect. Per usual." You shared, tossing Aaron a grin. Jack made your job tremendously easy - he was cooperative, kind mannered, overall the sweetest kid. "Although, I did have to remind him to stop leaving his shoes in the middle of the entryway." You added jokingly, as if it could be an inconvenience.

Aaron chuckled. His eyes squinted humorously as he quipped in return, "I'll have a chat with him."

Your smile lingered, fading away gradually as you began packing yourself up. "And thanks for relieving me early. I know how busy you are, so I really do appreciate it."

Nervousness pumped through your veins at the thought of your evening plans. You've been in the Hotchners' lives for a few months now, so casually discussing your plans should've come naturally, easily, but it didn't. Not with all things considered.

"No problem, happy to accommodate. You deserve to relax too." His eyebrows furrowed, tossing aside unimportant, junk mail. "If you don't mind me asking, what're you up to tonight?"

"I, um," Your gaze dropped, grabbing ahold of your bag. Your cheeks flushed, suddenly feeling very guilty. You took your time answering, "I have a date, actually."

He stopped stifling through the mail at once, his gaze lifting. "A date?"

"Yeah." You continued to pack up, throwing your bag over your shoulder and avoiding his eyes altogether. "A date."

"With who?" Aaron's words were harsher than he anticipated, causing you to freeze this time. He didn't like the concept of you seeing someone, not a bit.

Your eyes finally met his - his hardened stare. The expression awakened something in you, and you reciprocated back, your words equally as blunt. "Nobody you know."

You've never witnessed Aaron like this, and likewise, it brought something out in you as well; a newfound attitude. You wanted to disobey, solely to see how he reacted. He clearly wasn't happy, and you were entranced to find out more; curious as to what he would do, and hoping it was what you had in mind.

Aaron stood there rigidly, silently seething. The atmosphere had changed completely. No longer was it a light, witty one - but filled with the utmost tension.

"Well, thanks again-" Your hand found the doorknob, pulling the door open a few inches. You didn't make it far; Aaron's hand found the door above your head, pushing it shut.

"What's he like?"

You always caught whiffs of Aaron's cologne all throughout the apartment, whether he was in the residence or not. It was spicy, yet subtly sweet; suitable for him.

But now with his close proximity, mumbling into your ear, it was dizzying. You couldn't think straight even if you tried. You turned, coming face to face with his chest. His button-up was stretched tight against his torso, adding to the illusion of the strong muscle he possessed underneath. His arm had also stayed put, to the right of your temple.

You were caged in, and not complaining.

It had a notable effect it had on you. You wanted to be all consumed by him; you needed him to take charge, and you'd willingly allow it.

Your back met the door, as well as your head as you gazed up at him. You were lost with words, your heart thumping wildly in your chest, restricting any normal breathing.

"What's he like?" He repeated, urging you to answer. While his voice remained taut, it was joined by a condensing tone. As if he knew better. Knew you better, and you weren't the one to object.

Needless to say, he was enjoying this: making you noticeably squirm, and the fact it didn't take much to do so.

Your breath hitched, going fuzzy at the edges. "I don't know. A friend set us up."

"I think you should cancel it."

"Excuse me?'

"By all means, you can go. Only," His eyes flicked up and down your body, slotting a thigh between your legs. "What you're exhibiting tells me you'd rather not."

You resisted the urge to grind down on his leg, attempting to remain as neutral as possible. "Are you profiling me?"

"Maybe." Aaron smirked softly. His eyes were dark, a deep contrast to the glow you had witnessed earlier. "Maybe I have been for a while."

"Okay." You challenged him, forcing yourself to speak up. With an arch of your eyebrow, "What have you noticed?"

A delightful little laugh escaped him. As stern as he was portraying, there was still a gentleness to him. "You want me to touch you right now."

"What?" You squeaked out. He wasn't wrong.

"Don't interrupt. Let me finish." He leaned in closer, his hands itching to make contact with your waist - to firmly hold you - to dig his fingertips just enough into your hips to leave marks. "I see the way you look at me. I always have. Similar to now, only your pupils are dilated. Your breath has picked up so dramatically, it's almost amusing."

You remained silent, holding your gaze, while he continued.

"This is the closest we've ever been to each other, and by no means are you trying to move away. You have the space to." He relaxed his stance, to emphasize his point. "You're in no hurry."

You bit your lip, resisting the urge to squirm. You were getting worked up, arousal pooling in you - it didn't help with your need for friction.

"I haven't done anything yet, and just look at you."

A soft whimper left you as you forced your posture to straighten, slowly perching up on your tiptoes. Your lip ached to meet his. The gap between the two of you was maddening; you needed him on you, you on him, you didn't care. As long as the contact was there.

"Do you want me to? I need a yes, sweetheart." He inched closer, his lips dangerously close, centimeters apart.

And with that, you succumbed to him completely, scrambling to throw your arms over his neck and pulling his body to yours.

"Yes."