#how to increase height in 1 week

[azsazz]

Ride for Me

Cassian x Reader [Starfall Week Day 1]

Summary: @starfallweek Day 1 Prompt: Rumor has it, stardust increases attraction, and character A could really use some help right now…

Warnings: None

Word Count: 804

Notes: Starfall Week 😍

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“Sweetheart,” Cassian chuckles against your lips, groaning when you slide your tongue easily into his mouth, grazing it languidly against his, “We’re going to be late.” 

“Don’t care,” you pant, pressing even closer to his large body. He’s so warm, solid in all of the right places. Namely, his cock stirring against your hip. “Need you so badly, Cassian. Please.” 

You want to whine when his large, calloused hand caresses your jaw, gently straightening to his full height. His hazel eyes are swimming with an emotion that is gone before you can pick up on it, but the soothing motion of his thumb against your cheek helps settle the raging need inside of you. 

“What’s gotten into you today?” he wonders. Then, as if he’s made some sort of mistake, he tacks on quickly, “Not that I’m complaining. I love when you’re all needy for me…” His voice turns rougher and he pinches your hindsight which makes you jolt against him. He grunts a little at the feeling. Maybe you don’t need to be at the House of Wind on time…

You shrug bashfully, cheeks pinkening. “I don’t know,” you admit, “There’s something about Starfall that always gets me a little…”

“Aroused?” he teases, dipping down to pepper your cheeks with kisses because you’re too adorable not to. “No need to get all shy on me, sweetheart. I can smell it on you, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever smelled.” 

His words make your grip tighten around his neck and your thighs tremble. His hands are so big where they’re settled on your hips and you just want to feel those hands all over your skin, running down your sides, cupping your breasts, slipping into your cunt—

“Fuck, sweetheart,” he groans, dropping his head onto your shoulder and nuzzling into your neck. You shiver as his breath tickles your throat. Cassian digs his nose in, right where he can scent you the most. “You might just break me yet.” 

“It wouldn’t take much,” you croon, dragging your nails right down his back, reveling in the way that his grip on you tightens and he nips at your neck. “We can be a little late,” you offer, but it sounds more like a desperate plea. You’re uncomfortably wet, the ache between your legs distracting and in need of relief.

“We can,” Cassian answers, his lips brushing the shell of your ear. You squeeze your eyes shut, moving even closer into him, pressing your breasts up against his chest. “But then everyone would know that I fucked you so hard that you couldn’t walk.” 

There’s always something about Starfall that has you feeling like this. Maybe it’s the energy in the air, the excitement of seeing the greatest Night Court tradition, spending it with your mate. The celebration leaves you feeling needy, like those colorful star clusters darting across the night sky brings a spirituous sense to the court, to your soul.

It started early this year.

“So maybe we don’t show up at all,” you try to joke, but a night alone with your mate under the stars sounds too perfect, you don’t think Cassian would ever go for it.

As if you’re right, Cassian pulls away slightly, staring deeply into your eyes. His face is serious as his gaze flickers between each of your eyes, taking you in. “Is that what you want, mate?” he asks softly, and it makes your heart ache a little. 

You’d love to spend the night alone with Cassian, but you understand how important it is for him to spend it with the rest of the Inner Circle. It’s been an important tradition to him for centuries now, long before you came into the picture. You couldn’t ruin that for him, you wouldn’t ruin that for him.

You part your lips to speak but Cassian’s already swooping you into his arms and bounding for your bedroom. “What…?” 

His voice is gruff, sure of his words as he strides for your room. “My mate needs me,” he says, and butterflies explode in your stomach. “Everyone is going to understand that,” Cassian adds softly when he feels the worry emanating through your shared bond. He plants a reassuring kiss to your forehead, shouldering his way through the doorway. “And if they don’t, they can get fucked.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” you beam and he laughs. You snuggle closer into his chest, loving the way that it rumbles with his laughter.

“You’ve succeeded in that, sweetheart,” Cassian whispers, finally setting you down on your feet right at the foot of the bed. Your heart jumps into your throat when he gets down on one knee, but he’s lifting your foot, helping you out of one shoe and then the other. “Now, let me help you out of this dress.”

[catbread0]

Hiya, may I request a Sebastian Solace x (GN/fem)reader, where the reader had also went through urbanshade’s experiments to enhance mobility in the water or abnormal strength. Maybe it could take place a day or two before the whole lockdown where the reader is put in with Sebastian in hopes for trying to tame Sebastian’s bumbling rage and a companion (aka, another sentient being) in hope of keeping him under control.

Mayhaps as well when the whole lockdown does happen Sebastian goes to find the reader since they might have also been getting transported and they had more of a larger dose of the tranq (since Ik Sebastian faked being knocked out and someone had to smart enough to hear the gaur panic about it and gave reader and extra dose.). Just a smidge of angst.

Sorry if this doesn’t make complete sense, I tend to do that when I’m excited about something rush to put all my thoughts and ideas down 😭

-🌽 anon

Sebastian Solace x Fem! Experimented! Reader 

I loved doing this. Sorry for the late response. There have been so many requests since the last time I saw. Hopefully, you enjoy reading this.

(*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ*.ﾟ

Words: 3,148

Very OOC, mention of killing/death and drugs (anesthesia), a bit of angst, happy ending, a bit of comfort

All the information I found is from the official Pressure wiki, urbanshade.org!! NOT FANDOM WIKI (MOST STUFF ON THEIR IS NOT CORRECT, PLEASE CHECK THE OFFICIAL WIKI!!)(Note: I made this before the friendly fire update came out)

Sebastian Solace Masterlist

Beloved Companion

Document:

Z-##, codename: _________, real name ��(Y/n)(L/n)”. Z-## has undergone experiments to enhance the ability to breathe underwater and strengthen humans. Z-## has successfully gained the ability to breathe underwater. However, their strength has also increased but only to a certain point that could break in half the body of a human. When added more DNA of stronger sea creatures, it seemed to stay the same no matter the animal. After that experiment was done, Z-## underwent another experiment that had DNA strands of sea creatures that are known to be calm and friendly towards sea creatures. However, due to most of the fish being small, it had a drawback, it decreased her height to 8 '2", she was originally 10' 1".

After the calm sea creature experiment, Z-## was put in containment cells for other experiments in Hadal Blacksite for a few days. Some include Z-317 (Eyefestation), Z-367 (Pandemonium), Z-283 (The Angler), and S-Q (Squiddles). All of the interactions with Z-## have been a positive outcome. The specimens have been calmed down and/or have been less hostile for a few days until Z-## is put back with them. 

Because of the variants of success with Z-##, her rank has been moved up to MR-P, and she was given more benefits with her rank being moved up. These benefits included: better living conditions, being allowed to roam the facility freely, and being involved in non-deadly testing. 

Recently, Z-13 (Handy Man) has been getting harder to control due to his anger and rage whenever he sees one of the scientists. We have debated if Z-## should enter Z-13’s containment cell. While Z-13 is also an MR-P, it is unpredictable if he would harm and/or kill Z-## due to the burst of outrage he has been having for the past week or so. In the end, it has been decided that Z-## will go into Z-13’s containment cell. If Z-## gets harmed, then Z-13 would be neutralized by any means necessary but not to the point of killing him. Then, Z-## would be taken out immediately and rushed to be checked up on.

The goal is that Z-## will hopefully calm down Z-13’s rage, just like the other specimens that have encountered her. This will also be a test to see if there could be a potential chance of them being partners to see how their human DNA mixed with the DNA of sea creatures in both of them, could affect genetics when it comes to their offspring.

End of Z-##’s current document.

You were roaming your spacious water enclosure when you heard your ‘name’ be called on the speaker in your enclosure.

“Z-##, please come outside your enclosure. You will be entering another specimen’s enclosure today. They are an MR-P just like you.”

You swam to the door that will get you out of your enclosure. You stood in the middle of two doors, the door behind you closed shut, and the water started to drain from where you were in between the doors. Once the water was fully drained, the door in front of you opened, and you entered the room.

 You followed the small scientist to where these new people you would be meeting today. You would wave to some of the scientists. It was a habit since you would always wave at the other sea people each time you met them in their enclosure. 

You soon arrived and stood in front of the glass window to the water enclosure. 

“Today you will be meeting Z-13. He recently has been having outbursts every time a scientist walks by or when they try to communicate with him through the intercom. You will be with him for 5 days and 5 nights, in the morning you will return to your enclosure. Then, later in the day, you are scheduled to have another experiment. If anything were to happen to you in Z-13’s enclosure, yell, and you would be taken out immediately. Understood?”

You nodded at the small scientist. You looked back through the glass window to try and find ‘Z-13’. To no luck, it looked empty in the water enclosure.

“I should warn you that he is bigger than most specimens you have encountered before. Z-13 is 10 '6".”

The small scientist stated that as you entered the door. At least they gave you a warning.

The door behind you was shut, and you were again in between two doors. The water slowly rose and filled the small room you were in to enter the water enclosure. The door in front of you opened once it was filled with water, and you swam into the enclosure.

The small scientist pressed a button that made the glass window no longer able to see through both ways. It was for Z-13 not to be outraged if a scientist were to accidentally walk by.

You swam around but still couldn't find Z-13. 

That was until you spotted what looked like a cave on the side of the wall near the floor, its entry was covered up in large seaweeds, making it almost hard to see it in the first place.

You swam into the cave, “Hello? Are you here?”

You soon see 3 blue eyes in the corner of the cave, and you jump a bit, not expecting that. You swam closer but stayed a few distance away.

“Hello, I'm Z-##, but my real name is (Y/n)(L/n). What is your name, Z-13? It would be nice to put a name to a face.”

Sebastian didn't answer. He thought you were just doing this because of the scientists forcing you.

When you realized he wasn't going to answer you, you waited on the opposite side of the cave and made yourself comfortable.

You kept talking about small things, like what you did before you were jailed, why you were put in jail, how nice the other sea people were to you, etc. Whenever you talked, you seemed genuinely happy every single time.

After talking, you started to think that maybe he thought you were annoying. 

“I'm sorry, I will leave if you are uncomfortable.”

You got up and started swimming the same way you entered since there was only one way to exit and enter the cave. 

“Sebastian, Sebastian Solace is my name”

You immediately paused, not expecting him to answer or talk to you at all. You immediately swam right towards him.

“That's a nice name. Can I see what you look like? If that's fine with you, of course.”

He was silent for a bit before pulling on his anglerfish lure.

Goodness, when you saw him, you felt something inside you, as if your heart skipped a beat.

He was quite handsome, at least in your eyes. But you shook that thought out of your head.

You both started small talks, but they would give brief replies.

Soon, the day would end. You slept on the opposite side of the cave, not wanting to invade his space.

Meanwhile, Sebastian would stare at you for a few minutes.

���She'll probably ask the stupid scientists to take her away tomorrow’ he thought before turning off his lure and going to sleep.

The next day, he woke up to you gone, ‘I was right. It was stupid to think she would sta-’

“Oh, you're awake? I got your bucket of fish that the scientists brought. Here.” You said as you entered the cave and handed him the bucket full of fish.

Sebastian took the bucket but looked at it before eating it. He thought you put something in it before realizing you didn't. 

You talked, and he ended up opening up to you a bit more this time.

As some hours passed, you both were out of the cave and swimming around Sebastian's enclosure.

At some point, Sebastian was teaching you Spanish, or at least how he speaks Spanish since he's Chilean-American. Different countries speak the same language but say it differently.

You both ended up spending almost the whole day outside of the cave and returned to sleep.

On the 3rd day, he woke up and saw you sleeping. He went outside the cave and picked up both of your buckets of fish, and brought them back to the cave.

The whole day, you two spent knowing more about each other's life, your family, colleges you both went to, what classes you both majored in, and some of your talents. Sebastian even used some of the plants, rocks, and garbage he had lying around to make a prop that looked like an electric guitar and tried to teach you. 

You both laughed and smiled with each other almost the entire day.

Night came back more quickly than you both thought. You and Sebastian returned to the cave.

As you were getting comfortable to sleep in your corner, you felt a soft material cover your upper body.

“I snatched this when the scientists weren't looking while I was doing some janitor duties. Perks of being an MR-P.”

You gave Sebastian a warm smile and thanked him before falling asleep.

Sebastian didn’t want to admit it, but he felt happy when he was with you. You would listen to him, and it didn't feel like he was talking to the wall. Unlike those scientists, they only asked questions about his mutation and waited for a response from him to record it. 

Only caring about the progress.

On the 4th day, Sebastian woke up early and decided to pour some of his fish from his bucket into yours.

The scientists had seen this through the glass, during the night they decided to make the glass be 1-sided, they could see you but you couldn't see if they were there.

They saw this as a sign of success but also that maybe he was trying to court you. This made them think that there could be a possibility that you two could have offspring and they could continue their testing.

Later in the day you and Sebastian were messing around, he was trying to teach you how to ‘dance’. The dances were ones that he saw people dancing to at Chilean/Hispanic parties that he went to. It was a mess since you both didn't have legs to step on, but you both enjoyed each other’s attempts.

On the 4th night, you both moved closer to each other and slept peacefully. But both of you had your back to each other.

It was the 5th day, and you and Sebastian were getting closer to the end of your visit.

“Sebastian, I have to leave tomorrow morning, and after that, I'm scheduled to be experimented on. I'll make sure to see you after it's done”

After telling him you could tell he didn't look pleased, his ears and tail twitched.

“I am also scheduled to have an experiment done on me tomorrow. Maybe we will be able to see each other again right before it happens.”

You smiled when you heard that, “I hope we can.”

Soon, it was the next morning, and it was time for you to leave. You said bye to Sebastian and gave him a warm smile before you left. 

After a few hours, he was called out for his scheduled experiment. 

He was left in the surgery room and was given anesthesia. He pretended the effects had worked on him, but he was fully awake.

He heard the door open and close to his room, footsteps walking around the room, and heard the scientists speaking.

“After we are done with Z-13 we have to perform on Z-##, even if the chances of her dying is 75%, there is still a slim chance of her surviving and for it to be a success. It would be a great benefit for Hadal Blacksite.” One of the scientists said

“But she’s an MR-P. They are only allowed to be experimented on if it's non-deadly.” the second scientist asked.

The first scientist answered, “Well no surgery or experimentation is 100% safe. If she perishes, then we will start back on square 1 on another inmate.”

Sebastian felt his body fill with rage once again. Once the 2 scientists were close enough, Sebastian immediately killed them by slashing them with his claws. 

Sebastian immediately slithered out of his surgery room, and an Elite Guardsman was standing right outside. Just as the Elite Guardsman was about to shoot at Sebastian, Sebastian killed him and stole his keycard.

There were other scientists and guardsmen around as this happened. 

Everything went into chaos. 

People ran to escape, and guardsmen shot at Sebastian, but the bullets did not affect him, making some of them run away with the others. Desk’s, doors, tables, chairs, and the lights were either destroyed or thrown around.

Sebastian killed the Guardsmen who were shooting at him or trying to stop him. As he was doing this, he was trying to find your room to take you away before they could kill you.

Meanwhile, you were lying on the surgery table. You trusted the scientist who would perform on you since you are an MR-P. But also because you were always nice to them, helping them calm other sea people around the lab, always following orders, etc. 

How naive you were, or was it because of the fish's DNA that mixed with yours? It didn’t matter to them. To most of them, you were just a lab rat who benefited them.

As the scientist in your room gave a syringe of anesthesia, you both heard the sound of people screaming and things being trashed. That's when the scientist's handheld radio (or walkie-talkie) started making noise from the other end.

Blood-curdling screams could be heard loudly, “Z-13 HAS FEIGNED HIS EFFECTS OF ANESTHESIA AND IS ON A LOOSE KILLING SPREE. I REPEAT Z-13 HAS FEIGNED-” 

That’s all that was heard until the other end was abruptly cut off.

You sat up immediately, “Sebastian is wh-”

That's when the scientist gave you 3 more syringes of anesthesia quickly. They knew if Z-13 wasn't affected, then you mostly weren’t with just one. They were frightened with the idea that you would do the same. Your strengthened ability could break a human's body easily in half. They thought you would follow Z-13 and try to kill them.

You immediately fell off the table, from the sudden effects making you pass out. 

The scientist was about to give you another syringe again with anesthesia until Sebastian barged into the room. He finally found you but saw you on the floor unconscious. He saw the scientist who did this with the syringe in their hand. He immediately killed them, tore them up, and they were almost unrecognizable afterward.

Soon, the commotion died down and came to an end. It was only the two of you currently. Everyone who survived escaped or maybe died while running away.

Sebastian carried you in bridal style with his 2 arms and used the 3rd one to try and feel your pulse. 

He felt that your pulse was dangerously low.

He carried you out of the surgery room and went looking for other rooms. He soon found a vent that led to another small room. He laid you down carefully on the floor. 

He knew he couldn’t do much. It was just a matter of luck and time to see if you would wake up. Too much anesthesia could kill you or send you into a coma. All he could do was just watch and protect you from any further physical harm.

4 days have passed of endless waiting.

Sebastian watched over you, trying to find more things to make you comfortable, feeling your pulse from time to time, bringing in extra fish, or whatever snacks that were left behind by the scientist, and stored them on the shelves in the room in case you woke up from your coma.

During your coma, Sebastian used the keycard he stole earlier from the Elite Guardsman and released the monsters in Hadal Blacksite. Some of the monsters decided to help after being told what happened to you by killing the people who would enter to try and retrieve the crystal to get the place back into running its cruel experiments.

You slowly opened your eyes. It was pitch black. You didn't know where you were. That's when a sudden light lit up the room. (Sebastian’s angler lure)

“You're finally awake. You had me worried that you would leave me behind. I have food for you, go ahead and eat. I’ll explain what happened while you eat.”

You slowly started eating, still somewhat under the effects of the anesthesia that was steadily wearing off. As you were eating, Sebastian explained what he had overheard when he was faking about being under anesthesia, the killing spree he went on to find you, him releasing the monsters, causing the lockdown, you being unconscious for 3 days, etc.

You felt betrayal dig a small hole into you, but you also felt stupid for thinking they wouldn’t do that to you at some point no matter your rank. 

Sebastian helped you process everything and pat your back when you would choke on your food. Sebastian helped you all the time while you were still too weak.

After a few days, you started to become your old self again. You went to see some of the monsters and wandered into rooms you never got the chance to see.

You helped Sebastian set up his shop by collecting the items he accidentally found when he was trying to find files to blackmail Hadal Blacksite. 

After some months, you both started to gain feelings for each other. It took a while for the both of you to realize you felt the same way towards each other.

You both helped each other, you patching his arm, him protecting you from people trying to kill you because they mistook you for being dangerous, talking with p.ai.nter (Z-779) and spending time with each other in the shop while inmates buy things from the both of you.

You were glad that he saved you from your deathbed and glad you were both in a relationship.

You gave him one last kiss before you both went to sleep for the night. Already looking forward to tomorrow.

Bonus!

How you both learned you both felt the same was by accident.

You were visiting p.ai.nter, and you were talking to him until they accidentally mentioned that Sebastian likes you.

“Sebastian did tell me that he thinks that he has feelings for you, since when you were first with him.”

It was dead silent for a bit, both of you realizing what he said.

“Oops…”

He also made the same mistake with Sebastian, telling him you like him.

....Maybe it wasn't actually a ‘mistake’.

~Lilly's

[chasteandpregnantmale]

The immaculate conception of Michael Part 4

Part 4

Br Aidan’s friendship with Br John was flourishing too.   They were often seen in the chapel praying.   Aidan found John’s prayers very supportive which he needed more and more.   He was still so pleased to be doing this as God’s vehicle to give Jan & Jon a child but was now finding it physically burdensome.   He didn’t know how much he weighed now, but it was a lot.   Br Bernard weighed him regularly but he couldn’t see past the bump any more to see what the scales read.

Sometimes Br John got a little more friendly, even intimate, than he should.

That summer turned out to be one of the hottest on record.  Aidan had never sweated so much in his life - particularly in the small of his back which then ran down his butt crack, on his belly and in the cleavage he was developing now in his chest.   Br Bernard insisted he drink a lot so as not to get dehydrated and what with that and being very pregnant, he was always peeing.

Br Aidan continued to feel the strong sense of calling and privilege in his condition though as he continued to grow he sometimes wished he could have some respite from the physical awkwardness and weight of his baby bump.   His belly could no longer sit at the main dining table as the benches to sit on were fixed and his bump would no longer fit.   One of the brothers had fitted a deep shelf at his chest height so that he could eat standing with his bump pushing under the shelf.   He wondered if his belly would touch the wall by the time he was due.

Aidan didn’t know how he felt about giving birth.   He wasn’t at all apprehensive about the birth itself because while he didn’t know how it was going to happen, he knew that God would see him through.   It was more about wanting this amazing privilege to continue while at the same time wishing he could be free of the awkwardness that was increasing day by day.  Added to that, he was finding his pregnancy so tiring now, partly because there was so much of him to move around now in what was still a fairly active life, and also he was finding it increasingly hard to get comfortable in bed.

By the end of August Br Aidan had got so big that even he conceded that he would have to go on to lighter duties.   The Abbot and Br John had been saying this to him for over a month but he was determined to carry on as normal despite his special calling.   

The romantics were disappointed when the Feast Day of St Aidan came and went with no sign of the baby appearing.   Br Bernard was getting increasingly concerned that the baby would be born soon but he was not sure how.   He suggested to the Abbot that they should have another mass with the intention of the baby.   Once again, Br Aidan sat through the mass with his belly exposed.

The brother who took this photo caught Br Aidan just as the baby gave a big kick - an event that occurred with increasing frequency and strength as his pregnancy progressed.   Br Aidan was encouraged by the prayers of the mass.   Deep within him he knew that everything was going to be alright but that he wouldn’t be giving birth in the near future.

Because the Mass took place on a Saturday, both Jon and Jan were able to be there.   They were able to meet with him afterwards in the visitors’ sitting room.  They believed the delivery to be imminent so asked for a final photo of their surrogate’s belly.   Obedient to the last, Aidan was willing to oblige.

It was about this time that Br Aidan had a recurring dream.  It was similar to the one he had had once earlier in the pregnancy with St Michael supporting him at the birth.   This led Aidan to be convinced that he would give birth on Michaelmas - almost four weeks past his due date.   When he told Br Bernard, he was told that was not very likely.

 An aspect of the dream that slightly alarmed Aidan was the size of his belly.   It was enormous.   He was finding the size of the baby bump big enough now, so he hoped Br Bernard was right and he would give birth in the next week to 10 days though Bernard could see no indications that Aidan was near birth.   

He was concerned about Aidan’s size too.   From his basic examinations of his colleague brother he knew Aidan was carrying a lot of amniotic fluid.   He didn’t know why this should be so but thought it was maybe an aspect  of the pregnant male as the cave pictures of pregnant chiefs all showed them very big when with child.   In one way this meant it was more comfortable for Aidan as the baby had room to move around.   But it also meant that there was a lot of extra weight for him to carry.   Another downside was that it was harder for Br Bernard to feel the baby by examining the bump - which was the only option open to him.   Despite that, he was pretty sure Jon and Jan’s baby was a very good size.  It might weigh in at 10lb at birth he thought.

The days of September ticked by slowly for the whole community; particularly so for Br Bernard, Jon and Jan and, of course, Aidan.   It was the morning of the 25th when Br Aidan felt a bit strange during Matins.  He could quite put his finger on it - he just felt a bit “off’.   He put it down to sleeping badly.  With his belly the size it appeared in his dreams with St Michael, he found it hard to find any comfortable position.   That evening after Compline, on his way back to his cell, he felt a huge cramp starting in his back and spreading round to the bump.   

He knew he was well overdue but it didn’t occur to him, at this point, that he might be going into labour and so went to bed.   Br Bernard was unaware of these developments.   Had he been so, it would have given him some relief.   With Br Aidan almost 4 weeks overdue,he was wondering at what point he should take him for proper medical care.

Br Aidan spent a pretty uncomfortable night.  The cramps were pretty sporadic but painful.   He had been well drilled in what he could expect during labour and knew there was nothing to worry about as the cramps didn’t have any regularity to them.   However, after Matins the following morning he went to see Br Bernard who checked him over and said that he thought things were beginning to happen in regard to the birth.   Even so, he thought it best to admit Br Aidan to the infirmary and inform the whole community of the young brother’s confinement.

By the evening of the 26th Aidan’s contractions had become regular and Br Bernard could see that he was definitely in Stage 1 labour.   Nothing much changed overnight and the gyne brother was concerned about how slowly the young brother’s labour was progressing.  On the plus side, the brother was bearing his labour well and was really stoic with the pain.   In fact, Br Bernard reflected, he had been really stoic throughout his huge pregnancy.  It was incredible really.

Another plus was that Br Aidan was very innocent and naive about pregnancy and labour.   He knew that labour was normally lengthy and just assumed that his long labour was quite normal.   He was surprised how painful and tiring the contractions were and had no idea that they would get increasingly worse up to the birth.   It was strange.   Yes, the contractions were painful, but they also filled him with a deep joy as they heralded the coming of a new life into the world which he had the privilege to deliver.

Br Bernard gave Br Aidan frequent examinations and was relieved to note that his anus was dilating.   The young brother could therefore give birth naturally.   The baby’s heartbeat was strong and regular.  Everything looked to be going well even though progress was slow.   Things continued like this all through the 27th and 28th.  After Compline on 28th Br Bernard gave the labouring brother one last check and noted he was now 8 cm dilated so he decided to stay with him.

From there things moved fairly quickly.   The Abbot was notified and he called for Jon and Jan to be present at the birth.   By the time they arrived, Aidan was pretty much fully dilated and was pushing within the hour.   It was a long and painful night and at 6.14 in the morning the baby was finally born with Aidan on all fours.   The boy was caught by Jan who, under the direction of Br Bernard took the baby away before Aidan saw him so that the baby bonded with Jan not Aidan.

There was so much joy and relief in the room it was overwhelming.    Aidan, Jan and Jon were in tears and Br Bernard was just relieved it was all over and had gone so smoothly.   The joyful news got out into the community and a full peal of bells rung later than morning.

Br Aidan was exhausted but felt so fulfilled and happy that he had managed to see his God-given task through to the end.   He had never doubted that he would though others had thought it impossible.   Needless to say, Jon and Jan were over the moon and named the boy Michael as he was born on the feast of St Michael.

Jan and Jon took the baby home with them that day.   Aidan stayed a couple of days in the infirmary to recover from the birth and then it was back to normal.   Normal, apart from a sore and leaking chest which he was not keen on.   But after a fortnight or so his breasts dried up.   He was shocked when he put on his habit, which the vesterer had taken the gussets out of while he was in the infirmary.  He filled it far better than he had at the same time the previous year.   Nor could he use the original girdle.

The swelling in his belly did decrease over the next couple of months but not entirely.   In late November he was called into the Abbot’s office again.   The Abbot told him that he knew God wanted Jon and Jan to have a proper Catholic family as did they themselves and informed him that they would be praying over him again on the coming Advent Sunday.   Br Aidan knew he had no choice but to agree and was happy to continue his work for the Lord.

[greyyson-but-no]

five small moments | tommyinnit

let me know if you want me to do another one of these. they're really fun [not chronological order but can be from the same relationship]. tommyinnit x fem!reader

1 - tickling them from behind before hugging them [318]

you stood at the kitchen counter, stirring the tea with mossy cobblestone by bears in trees echoing from the speaker in the office. today it was only you and tom in the office, having the whole place to yourself as tommy streamed from his individual room and you edited on the shared computer for a new video that was supposed to come out tomorrow.

being so into the music (since it was tommy's playlist), you didn't hear tommy exit his office to sneak up behind you. a shriek came from you as his hands swiftly moved to your waist and tickled against the exposed skin. your heart rate increased slightly as a laugh came from you, tommy burying his face into your neck, pressing a tickling kiss to the skin there as well.

"tommy!" you laughed, listening as he laughed as well, squeezing your waist as the tickling came to a stop.

he moved his arms around your waist, pulling you against his front, a chin on your shoulder. the hoodie he was wearing engulfed you, and suddenly you were the calmest you'd been in ages. suddenly the song turned to ultimately by khai dreams and tommy was slowly starting to move to a sway, along with the soft beat of his favourite artist.

"tommy..." you asked slowly, head rested back against his shoulder, at the perfect height. "what are you doing?"

your boyfriend chuckled softly, enjoying the confusion. "nothing in particular. enjoy my time, that's all."

"you're cute." you giggled at him, turning around in his arms to pull him into a tighter hug, head against his chest. his arms move from around your waist to your shoulders as he holds you tighter than before. nowhere else did you feel as safe, nowhere else made you feel like you didn't need to be anywhere else. with tommy, you knew you were the safest you possibly could be.

2 - knuckles brushing against each others and getting shy [367]

the london vlog had been in the works for a few weeks now, but since ranboo could only just get to the uk in the past week, it could only have been filmed now. london was busy as hell, as usual, but that was good because it meant there were lots of distractions to keep the video on its toes.

tubbo and ranboo were walking ahead of you and tommy as the four of you walked down southbank. somehow, you and tommy had gotten distracted by the skateboarders under the bridge and so tubbo and ranboo were a few meters ahead. it didn't take them long to notice, but ranboo immideately noticed how close the two of you were standing together.

soon enough, the camera was directed at the two of you. "what do you think they're talking about?" tubbo asked, zooming in with the camera.

"i dunno, but they're both being rather cute about it, huh." ranboo declared.

it was then that your hand dropped from the railing, falling to your side and so close to tommy's hand that both ranboo and tubbo noticed, one of them reaching over to zoom the camera even more onto your hands brushing up against each others.

"just hold her hand, dude!" ranboo whispers, loud enough so that the camera can hear it. and then there were the actual skin touching. an obvious shy attempt of tommy's to hold your hand but the action was taken over by nerves as he pulled away and shoved his hands into his pockets. "c'mon!" ranboo cried, tubbo raising a hand in disbelief.

"i've been telling him to ask her out for months now." tubbo explained. "they're both idiots, though."

"they're both idiots whether its to do with the fact that they like each other not, toby." ranboo laughed, shoving tubbo slightly. "come on, lets walk on, they'll catch up eventually."

both you and tommy felt the disappointment in yourself that you didn't make the move that day. tommy was sure to get a teasing by both tubbo and ranboo during the sleepover thatg occured that same night. maybe he would ask you out the next day. since you were seeing each other anyway.

3 - one small kiss before a passionate one [484]

tommy held your hand at your front door, the moon high in the sky above the two of you as he smiled down at you. nothing in that moment could have taken the grin off your face. the first date with him went so much better than you expecting, a goofy session of bowling in town ending up in the park and getting locked in. he had hefted you over the fence to get out, both landing on your sides and not being able to get up from stomach-pain inducing laughter.

"thank you tommy." you smiled, watching as a chuckled sligjtly under his breath. "i had a really fun time tonight."

you felt his hand squeeze yours slightly. "even when we got stuck in the park."

"even when we got stuck into the park, yes." you nodded.

suddenly a comfortable silence took over, the rush of traffic at the end of the road and a slight breezing being the only sound. it wasn't bad, and you were even about to invite tommy inside. maybe to watch a movie or something, but he spoke first. it was a question that you certainly hadn't been expecting - but in no way does that mean you didn't want it.

"can i kiss you?" and maybe the nod you answered with was a little too eager.

tommy was still hesitant, though, reaching a hand slowly up to rest against the skin of your cheek, thumb caressing the skin slightly. it took you to nod again for him to lean down finally and press his lips against yours. it was everything you expected and more, but over too soon. nerves got the better of him and he pulled away, making it a simple little peck. not enough.

"sorry." he mumbles, a hand lifted away from your cheek and going around the back of his head to scratch the back of his neck.

your eyes softened, noticing how shy he became all of a sudden. it wasn't the tommy you really knew, but it was sweet and even endearing. you knew that he would appreicate the move you wanted to take, so you took it immediately. a hand reaching up to his wrist, using it to pull him down against your lips again. a longer, more eager kiss that represented how much you liked him. how much you wanted to ask him inside because somehow this boy had gotten you more smitten than with anyone else.

and when you pulled back, you didn't miss the excited look in his eyes that said he really did appraicte the move you made. that, and the small gasp he let out as he stood up straight. "woah."

"you're welcome." you laughed, grabbing his hand again. "i really don't want to say goodbye. did you wanna come inside and watch a movie?"

tommy smiled again, nodding. "only if there's popcorn."

"you under estimate me, tom."

4 - playing with each others hair [291]

the lion king was playing on the tv in front of you. the soft pillow that was your boyfriend was laying beneath you, arms wrapped tight around your waist, his face buried in your hair. ignoring the obstacle of the blanket that was laid over the two of you, you swiftly spun yourself around so that you were kaying stomach to stomach with tommy, being able to see the grin on his face when he saw yours.

"hi." he smiled.

you didn't say anything, just pressing a kiss against his forehead and resting your head alongisde his, nose against his hair. he moves so that there's one hand around your waist and the other moves up to your hair, twirling a strand of his around his fingers.

his hair didn't smell the same, though. instead of his usual shampoo smell he always had, there were a softer, more familiar smell to it that you recognised. you pulled away from him and frowned at him. "did you use my shampoo?"

"maybe..." he grinned slyly. "i ran out of mine, that's all."

you giggled at his words, a hand now in his hair, brushing the fluffiness around and twirling it inbetween your fingers. "no i don't mind at all. it's made it really soft."

tommy mumbled something, smiling up at you and pressing a surprising peck against your nose. "maybe i should use it more often, then."

"well, i certainly won't be complaining." you laughed, letting your hand fall from his hair and onto his chest, cushioned by his favourite hoodie. you let your head also fall onto his chest, feeling his arms squeeze you tightly as you closed your eyes and let yourself be comfortable around him. oh, how you loved him.

5 - small comforts while the other is crying [545]

your eyes were hot with tears that fell down onto your cheeks and then to the floor, some landing on your shoes as you ran up the stairs that led to his apartment. you didn't know why you had come here it seemed like he was the only that could comfort you enough to get you out of a mood like this.

the knock on his door was weak. weak enough that you were worried he wasn't going to hear it, but then you hear him call 'i'm coming!' from inside and all most of your nerves were gone. and just a second later, the door swung open, revealing tommy in jeans and that same hoodie you loved, his arms dropping from the edge of the door and the grin on his face dropping as he saw the look on your face and the tears in your eyes.

"love." he murmurs. "come here, oh my god."

you practically fell into him, the softed of his hoodie instantly becoming home and the sense of inevitable doom slowly whitling away into nothing. just a figment of your imagination. there were a small close of his door before he took your hand in his as he took you into the living room. he told you to ignore the show that was playing on the tv but you cold help but check to see whether you had seen it. you had.

he settled you on the sofa, taking you immeditely into his arms again, his cheek resting against your hair, unconsciously rocking you back and forth. worried started to overtake him, though, as thoughts of what could have caused this breakdown on you entered his mind. if it was something, he would make sure you never had to do it again; if it was someone, he would make sure whoever it was apologised and you got revenge.

but you were more important. "do you wanna talk about it? what happened, lovely?"

"uhh." your voice was shakey as you pulled away from him, using your sleeve to wipe the tears from your cheeks. "i can't-" you paused, gathering your thoughts. "i can't remember. i just suddenly felt so alone, there was no one around and i just felt so lonely so i thought i would come to see you and on the way i thought you wouldn't want me to interupt your day off so i turned back but then i started crying and now i'm here and i don't know why and i'm so sorry, oh god, you probably don't want me here-"

tommy laughed as he pressed his hand up against your mouth, stopping your fast train of thoughts in an instant. "you're rambling, love."

"sorry." you mumbled from under his mouth. he took it away frmo your face and took your hand in his again.

"you've got nothing to be sorry for." he explained, "i told you when i moved here that you could pop around any time you wanted and i wouldn't care less. you mean the world to me, and i couldn't stand you being lonely, ever. please, i'd rather you be here and not feel isolated than suffer at home."

you smiled, sniffing and leaning your head onto his shoulder. "yeah. thank you."

"always." he smiled, and your worries came to an end.

[sweetie-bri]

GHO/ST [Giantess Growth Caption]

Hope used to always roll her eyes at the idea that growing could addictive. She was always very quick to debate anyone trying to claim height-challenged people being helped was an objective good thing and there was next to no one who was abusing the system despite the grossly exaggerated claims and statistics about average female height tripling. She scoffed and quibbled until eventually she decided to put her money where her mouth was and apply for government height operation/size treatment, or GHO/ST.

Anyone below 5 foot qualified but, those in more disenfranchised groups like Hope were given priority. She had no issue getting her request approved and card distributed literally within the hour. "Huh, that was... easier than I expected. Is there really no background check? Cool." Hope thought.

Her dosage was in medical jargon she didn't understand, but it was easy to schedule on the app. She accidentally ordered WAY too much, but that didn't stop the system from just accepting her input. "Oops, wait, that's my order confirmation! Really? I clicked an extra 0! Well, that's... convenient." Hope couldn't deny it was surprisingly unregulated. I guess it makes sense since the tech is in its infancy.

Supply after supply was doled out to Hope and eventually after a few weeks of carefully following the instructions to the letter, she gained negligible height. "How on EARTH did people get to be like... 12 feet?! There isn't even enough time. I've gained a CENTIMETER! Are they... overdosing..?" Hope was too scared to check online because she didn't want "How to OD on GHO/ST" in her search history. The thought had crossed her mind before. It does taste... pretty good.

She caved, worst case scenario she loses her card and gets her stomach pumped. Instantly she saw her results exponentially increase. The more you take the more you gain. What took before months was done in weeks. She was already 6 feet tall which was the cutoff point for those apply for GHO/ST but she didn't lose her card and the app didn't deny her. Okay, maybe it was a *little* addictive. But Hope wasn't some mindless junkie. She thought.

She wasn't stopping, she didn't know this, but she couldn't if she wanted to. She was hopelessly addicted to growing. She was excited for every chance to follow her routine self-imposed perscription. Nobody was stopping her, especially not herself. She maybe had an inkling something was wrong at this point but who cares?! It feels *good.* I'm *big.* I'm so *strong.* "Of all people, *I* deserve this. I'm not doing anything illegal." She thought.

Her addiction got more fierce. She got more codependent on GHO/ST, and as long as she kept shilling, the pharmacy kept distributing to her. If it was ever late, her day would be ruined, and if it came early, her day was made. Living and dying by GHO/ST. She spent most of her time fantasizing about growing. "Okay, it might be a *little* addictive, but. I just have an addictive personality. It's not GHO/ST's fault." became "I'm pretty sure I need help, but... I don't *want* help." became "If this is wrong, I don't want to be right!"

Reasons to Tip Sweetie-Bri

1.) She's trying her best.

2.) She'll 100% see that message.

3.) It would make her day.

[appl3kenpii]

birds of a feather ➳ chapter 1

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ . . ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : .

Only two months were left until March. That meant three months until the end of third year and consequently the end of Kageyama’s time in Karasuno, and worse, his time as the setter for the Karasuno boys’ volleyball team. No one had really spoken much about it, apart from anxious mentions about the looming final exams that would be taking place during the end of February. Even then, Yamaguchi and Tsukishima were smart, so they were barely worried. It was only now, gazing from across the volleyball court at a small calendar on the wall, that it had dawned on Kageyama that everyone really would be graduating. He couldn’t really decipher if his peers were nervous, excited, or some strange other option. He couldn’t decipher how he felt about it himself.

He was excited, of course. He knew so many opportunities for his volleyball career would appear and he would soon have all the time in the world to focus on the one thing that mattered most. He would be free from so many school-related responsibilities, free from anything that tied him down, free to become who he really wanted to be. Free to -

“Kageyama!” called out an all too familiar voice from across the court, completely interrupting his train of thought. Kageyama looked up, ensuring his annoyance would be clear on his face with a scowl. “Let’s practice some more!”

Ah, yes, the person that would be the most shocking loss following graduation. Hinata. His obnoxious partner and classmate. It wouldn't be a shocking loss because Kageyama would miss him, necessarily, but rather because he had accustomed himself to his constant presence. His voice, the familiar bright orange of his hair, and his moronic antics that despite some increased maturity had remained during their highschool career.

Kageyama was usually always, and really always, up for practice. But he found that during that particular afternoon he had a lot on his mind. Plus, it was late. Everyone had already gone home, and while he and Hinata always practiced extra when they had the chance, he felt a bit light-headed and uncomfortable. It was best to go home. It wasn’t a bad idea to get a head start on studying for finals, either, considering Kageyama’s interesting academic record.

“I’m going,” he said, giving Hinata a curt nod. Hinata’s expression changed almost comically from a powerful and lively grin to what could best be described as despair.

“What?” Hinata drew out the ‘a’ on that ‘what’ with a whine. “But everyone else already went home, and I don’t want to practice by myself,” he bounced a volleyball unhappily, giving Kageyama a look of both disappointment and hope.

Kageyama sighed. In a bizarre feat of honesty and openness, he mumbled “I don’t feel well, so I’m going,” and began to gather his things to walk home. He readied himself to listen to more incessant whining and complaining, but Hinata remained silent, giving him a stare with a tilted head like a curious puppy. Then, inexplicably, he gasped as if he had a genius idea. Kageyama groaned in response. “Don’t start -”

“It’s cold outside,” Hinata explained, sounding too glad about it. “And you’re not feeling well. What if you get sick before our practice match with Date Tech next week?”

“Your point?”

“I’m giving you a ride on my brand new bike!” He responded, characteristically unfazed by Kageyama’s sour mood.

⋆

Kageyama’s insistence that he didn’t need a ride and that that wasn’t what he meant when he said he wasn’t feeling well went wholly ignored. And so there he was, stuck holding onto a boy shorter than him on a bike, with the cold air of incoming spring hitting his face. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The bike was adjusted perfectly to Hinata’s height, which meant Kageyama sat with his legs in a less than ideal position. Before he could say anything else to protest, Hinata gave him a grin, and took off after a hurried warning to hold on tight.

If Kageyama hadn’t known the boy, he would’ve sworn that this was a purposeful attempt on his life. Hinata swerved too fast more than once while rushing to get Kageyama home, more often than not causing Kageyama to crash right into his back, which was quite humiliating regardless of the warmth it provided contrasting the cold air. Kageyama didn’t even live far from school. He had no clue why Hinata would be in such a rush. To make matters worse it began to snow almost as soon as the two set off and Hinata sped up even more in response. Kageyama considered praying while he clutched his bag with one arm and Hinata with the other. The two spent the majority of the ride yelling, although Hinata’s yelling consisted of booming laughs, a clear sign that he was having fun. If Hinata didn’t get himself killed then, Kageyama swore he would do the job himself.

When they arrived at Kageyama's house, he dizzily got off the bike, holding his head with one hand. Hinata hopped off his bike with a smile and began to turn it around so he himself could go home.

“Were you… trying… to kill me?” Kageyama said breathlessly, still clutching his bag as if he was on a roller coaster that was approaching a loop. “I thought… it was strange that you wanted to help out…”

Hinata gave him a look that screamed that he felt betrayed. “I was only trying to get you home fast so you wouldn’t get sick!” He protested dramatically and scoffed, already getting on his bike to leave.

Kageyama turned the claim over in his mind. He had said he didn’t want Kageyama to get sick, and he had sped up once it began to snow. He let out a defeated sigh. “Fine. Thanks.”

Hinata looked at him with brief disbelief. Even Kageyama was surprised that he had thanked him so easily. Usually, he would’ve called him a dumbass or some other poorly worded insult even if Hinata had good intentions. Kageyama couldn’t comprehend why he gave in so quickly without a fight.

The two stood there for a moment in the snow, eyes locked onto each other’s. For some reason, Kageyama noted only then, after having known Hinata for years, that his eyes weren’t a pure brown. They were a more honeyed brown, light caramel. Hinata then gave him a sunny grin, a wave, and off he was. Kageyama stayed there standing alone. He felt that same light-headeness as earlier, then he shook it off and began to walk inside.

Graduation would be a gift. So what if Hinata wasn’t coming with him? The two were inseparable, that was true, but they were much more independent now than they once had been. At the very least there would be no more bike related attempts on Kageyama’s life.

But there wouldn’t be anyone to give him a ride like that. There wouldn’t be anyone insisting for him to throw a few more sets like that. There wouldn’t be anyone to do any of that. Or maybe there would be, but whoever it was, it wouldn’t be Hinata.

Kageyama ignored the thought. Graduation would be a gift. He felt a bit light-headed again.

He had no reason to feel this way.

After all, Hinata looked fine. He wasn’t worried at all.

Right?

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ . . ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : .

| chapter 1 illustration

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ . . ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : .

chapter 2

[devilry-revelry]

Untitled - Male Orc x Female Human (Part 4)

OOPS I TRIPPED.

Not lemon, but maybe lemon zest?

Minors Do Not Interact

This marks the original concept/story for these two. First story was Riley worrying about stuff and things. Names may have changed since then. It's hard to remember. Ya know, because I deleted everything.

-

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

-

“Fuck,” Arzok snickered. He sounded absolutely winded from all of the laughter. “I’m not just going to ram it in and hope for the best, Riley. I promise you, we’ll fit together just fine.”

-

Riley’s curiosity was a dirty little bitch; a needy insatiable little whore.

Four weeks, and seven dates had left Riley’s baser urges feeling frayed and restless. After their second date they had shared the first kiss, and had since enjoyed a bit of necking. It was during their last date when their kisses turned downright sinful. Sitting in the car outside of her apartment in the middle of the night, Arzok’s hand clasped around her throat, the other slipping up her skirt as his tongue dominated her mouth. He’d teased her for just a moment, thick fingers tracing a slow path over the cleft of her pussy before he completely withdrew and bid her goodnight. Riley had been a mess ever since then. Any attempts to ease the tension Arzok had created left her feeling bereft and wanting. His had been such a strong, and commanding presence. Fiddling around with her vibrator didn’t do her any favors. 

And that’s where her dirty, dirty curiosity came in. 

Riley couldn’t help but think that her and Arzok’s first time together would be coming up soon. They had discussed her staying at his place for a weekend. Planning was still tentative at best but it was something they talked about with increased frequency. Arzok lived a little over thirty minutes outside of town, and while he claimed that the commute wasn’t any trouble, they had both agreed that a relaxing weekend without all of the typical date-night run around would be a nice change of pace. That, of course, meant that Riley would be staying at Arzok’s house and, sure, she could sleep on the couch or in a spare room, but she probably wouldn’t. Sex or not. Because they were adults. And they were dating. 

But those thoughts took a hard turn and she had been stuck with thinking about what she should expect were she to sleep with Arzok. He had mentioned that he was dominant and controlling, but what else should she anticipate? Arzok was big. Huge. He dwarfed her by nearly two feet and Riley was on the taller side of average. He was broad, and he was strong, but what about the rest? Short of just coming out and asking Arzok “hey, how big are orc dicks?” her only real avenue of getting that information was the internet. 

And that’s where Riley’s curiosity turned into a dirty, insatiable, little tramp. 

The initial search was a simple request on average sizes, but then a few videos showed up. The first video Riley stumbled into involved a beast of an orc, his height easily breaching the eight foot mark. He was paired with a petite, tiny little woman. The orc’s dick was bigger than Riley’s whole forearm, and while the pornstar took it like an absolute champion, Riley was aghast. It was porn so of course there were so many degrees of separation, but there was no way. No. Way. One video chased another in an effort to debunk the sudden theory that orc men were just obscenely massive in the pants department. Absolutely nothing was debunked. She’d even tried narrowing down her search, but it yielded no results. Instead, Riley had somehow ended up on orc-human BDSM play – and that was how Arzok’s phone call found her: stunned, horrified, whole-heartedly curious, and completely dejected. 

Riley didn’t process the first ring. She was far too engrossed in what was going on on the screen. On the second ring, she had a whole body reaction like he just walked in the door and caught her personally. Riley yelped - actually yelped - and slapped at her keyboard to pause the video. Then she abandoned the laptop on her coffee table and retreated to her bedroom as if getting away from the laptop would hide the evidence of her insatiable curiosity. She even closed her bedroom door. Locked it. 

“H-hi-llo–?” Hillo. Jesus. C’mon Riley. 

“Hey, baby,” Arzok said. His voice was low, and sleepy-quiet. He had informed her earlier that day that he wouldn’t be getting home from a work-thing until late. Nearing midnight, he sounded absolutely knackered. The growling rasp that was always in his voice was more prominent with his fatigue. Riley couldn’t help but like the idea of hearing him sound like that in person, grumbling sleepy good mornings. “I was just calling to say goodnight.” 

“I won’t keep you then,” Riley replied. Her voice matched the quiet pitch so as not to rouse him. “Did everything go okay, though?”

“Don’t know, and right now I’m too fucking tired to care,” he groused. Riley was able to pick up the teasing inflection of his words despite his bitter tone. “How about you? How was your night? What’re you still doing up?” 

“Oh it was fine,” Riley replied quickly. 

Arzok asked again, “What are you still doing up? You’re usually down for the count by now. Is everything okay?”

The heated flush that rushed into her cheeks felt as if her own body was trying to betray her. She moved away from the bedroom door to sit on the edge of her bed, then she flopped to her back. She hated that he was right. Riley was typically curled up, in bed, and on the verge of sleep by 9:30 most weeknights.

“Oh, everything is fine. I just… lost track of time.”

“Yeah? Doing what?” 

His question didn’t feel as if he was prying. He sounded genuine in his interest. Riley worried her lower lip, wishing that she had curiously looked up videos on how to knit or crochet. 

“Nothing. Just…” The idea of lying left a sour feeling in the pit of her stomach. So she skirted the details and addressed it in broad strokes. “I’ve just been thinking. It’s really nothing crazy though. But, hey, why don’t we both go to bed and we can talk about it tomorrow, okay?”

“The fuck we will. What’s wrong, what happened? Is everything alright?” The sleepy timber of his voice was gone, and he now sounded wide awake, and bordering on frantic. 

“It’s literally nothing to worry about. I promise–”

“Riley.”

“Fine just… Just don’t make fun of me, alright?”

“Never. Just talk to me, baby. You’re freaking me out. ‘I’ve been thinking’ sounds like a goddamn death sentence.”

Riley sucked in a slow breath, held it, and released. She tried to control the swell of stinging, hot, embarrassment. She had thought about it so much that it worried her, which drove her to the internet, which worried her more. The fact that she had thought about it enough that she was driven to consult the internet was so stupid–

“Riley, sweetling, come on.”

“Okay, okay.” She babbled, “You have to promise not to make fun of me though, alright?”

“I already said I wouldn’t. Look, if you don’t tell me I’ll drive over there and–”

“Whatifyoudon’tfit?”

“Fucking what?”

I said,” she heaved another heavy breath. “What if… you don’t… fit?”

Silence. Quiet, deafening, silence. Riley waited with baited breath, waiting for him to say something. Anything. It felt as if the quiet stretched on for an eternity before a hint of sound broke through. It was barely there. Muffled. There was a sound like a snort, and then another–

“Don’t you laugh at me, you monster!”

The laughter came through full force suddenly. It was loud, booming, jovial. Riley could imagine him; his head tilted back, eyes squeezed shut tight as he succumbed to it. Imagining him laughing made Riley’s mood darken. He was making fun of her, but he was beautiful when he laughed. The bastard. 

“I–I’m not–I–” His efforts to calm himself only seemed to make the situation that much worse. 

Riley sat up in bed, glaring daggers at her bedroom wall. “Hey, I’m serious!”

Arzok’s rolling laughter slipped into its decline, and eventually he said, “Fuck, sweetheart. You’re–you’re up this late worrying about whether or not my dick will fit–?”

“Yes!” Riley wailed. “I am! Look, I know it’s dumb, but I like you a lot. And if this whole thing doesn’t work out because you have a third arm–” Arzok cackled. “--then that’s really going to suck.”

“Fuck,” Arzok snickered. He sounded absolutely winded from all of the laughter. “I’m not just going to ram it in and hope for the best, Riley. I promise you, we’ll fit together just fine.”

Riley grumbled morosely through his reassurance, thoroughly embarrassed and ready to hide under her bed for the next century. She should have known better than to let her curiosity win. And on top of it, she sure as shit shouldn’t have been data collecting by watching pornography. Even if it was mostly accidental, once she started it was hard to look away and she fell down the rabbit hole. 

“Sweetling,” Arzok growled. “When we are ready to take that step, I’m going to take pleasure in making sure you’re good and ready to take me.”

His voice cut her grumbles short, and she fell into surprised silence. She sucked in a quick breath, searched for a reply, and managed an airy and incredibly eloquent, “Oh.”

“And I’ll make damn sure that you enjoy every fucking second of it, baby.”

The low rasping purr of his voice was warming her in ways that the insane porn videos didn’t. This was for her. She crumbled back into the bed and let her eyes close as he spoke. She imagined lying beside him as he made his dark promises, and that familiar want that had been plaguing her began to flood her system. 

“I’ve thought about you cumming on my tongue as I prepare you to take my cock. Would you like that?”

Riley shivered. The ache in her core assaulted her with no mercy. She could feel her pulse leap in her sex, and the sensations resonated through her body, making her toes curl. 

“I asked you a question, Riley. You will answer me.” Arzok’s tone dipped lower still. It was suddenly threatening in a way that Riley liked far too much. 

She pressed her thighs together, and hummed her agreement. 

“No. You will answer me. Use your words.”

“Yes…” she whispered feebly, feeling more heat gather in the apples of her cheeks. The heat seemed like it was everywhere now, emphasizing her timidities, and fueling the fire he had created with just his voice. 

“Good. Now stop worrying about this shit, you hear me?” The way the threatening rumble of his voice shifted into something entirely casual and bordering on playful smacked into Riley like a Mack truck. The spreading fire was doused with a bucket of water. Her eyes popped open to stare dumbfounded at the ceiling. “I don’t know who got into your head and told you we wouldn’t work, but we will. I can’t tell you how I know that, but I look at you and I can feel it in my goddamn chest. We’ll work. Promise me that you’ll give us a chance before you let someone convince you that we won’t. I–”

“It wasn’t anybody,” Riley said gently. She had initially been willing to let him ride with the assumption that an actual person had stirred up her concerns. Now she didn’t want him to think that she was willingly associating with someone who was trying to cause problems with their relationship. That wasn’t fair. 

“Then what did it? Do I need to slow down? I will…”

“No,” she said quickly. Maybe too quickly. “The only reason I was thinking about it is because I’m-I’m looking forward to it. But… Okay, you can’t make fun of me this time.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“I assure you, it is. No laughing.”

“No promises.” When she didn’t immediately reply, Arzok pushed onward. “Can you tell me so I’ll stop worrying about it?”

Riley rolled so she could suffocate herself with the pillows in the event that the humiliation proved to be too much. 

“I watched porn, okay?” I watched dirty, filthy, orc-on-human porn and I regret it! Stop laughing–!” He did not stop laughing. “Alright. Well, I’m going to go walk into the ocean now. Goodnight!” 

“Baby, what the fuck?” He was still coming off his most recent bout of laughter. “Wh-why?”

Riley shoved her face into her pillows, mumbling a muffled reply, “Can we stop talking about it?”

“I will never stop talking about it. Fucking wow.”

What a nightmare of a night. If she managed to get to sleep after all of this, she was going to wake up still embarrassed. 

“I’m assuming I don’t need to explain why porn isn’t the most reliable source.”

A mumble of agreement. 

“All of this worrying because some pornstar with a monstercock spooked you,” he said good naturedly. 

“Stop.”

“Alright, alright. I’m done. No more orc porn though, got it?”

“Got it.”

They elapsed into silence, but it felt like Arzok was smiling like an idiot. Riley felt it in her heart. She glowered and mumbled about going to bed. He agreed, and she was almost completely certain she could hear him smiling. 

“Goodnight, sweetheart.”

Almost as soon as they hung up, her phone buzzed once, twice, three times. Three text messages. All from him. Two were images. 

First there was a picture of his face. His torso was bare, his arm curled around a pillow as his dark eyes stared into the camera. His inky hair was splayed out over his big gorgeous shoulders and white sheets. Riley smiled, simply staring into his eyes for a moment.

The text read: 

> Just so you can get an idea of what you’re working with. 

The angle of the picture came from somewhere over his head. It started just at the bottom of his chin, and it went down, down, down over his splayed chest, his stomach, his waist, to the tops of his thighs where the sheet was precariously bunched. His green skin offered a stark, beautiful contrast against the pristine bedding. Basked in warm lamp light, the contours of muscle were highlighted from his pectorals, all the way down to the tantalizing V of his hips. One of his hands was resting over his navel, and she followed the strong musculature of his tattooed arm down, and up, and down again. Riley’s eyes caught on the smattering of dark hair that met the sheet.

That awful (wonderful) orc.

Another buzz. Another message. 

> Sleep sweet, Riley.

[Part 5]

[in1-nutshell]

Bot Buddy being Swerve’s older sibling

SFW, familial, platonic, Cybertroninan/ Bot reader, slight angst but has a happy ending

MTMTE

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 here

Part 3 here

For this writing, Swerve’s older sibling is going to be BIG. We are talking Fortress Maximus Big.

How does Buddy have a sibling like Swerve with their height? No one knows and quite frankly, Buddy doesn’t care. They are very close to Swerve.

Buddy doesn’t mind their younger brother talking their audial off about the most random things. They have gotten used to it by now.

“Hey Buddy. Do you think that if minibots ever became a combiner it would just turn out to be a normal sized bot?”—Swerve

“I honestly don’t know how to answer to that question.”

“No, no, but see if the size of one minibot—“—Swerve

“There goes my sleep…”—Buddy

Swerve is insecure, that’s nothing new. But it increases a bit when he is with Buddy in public. He doesn’t like it when bots or himself start comparing them with him. He really wants them to be proud of him and all of his accomplishments. Would 110% support anything Buddy… but he also has his limits.

“Hey Buddy, what are you doing?”--Swerve

“I’m trying to hone in my hiding skills.”--Buddy

“Under a table?”--Swerve

“Yep, and it surprisingly comfortable down here in this crouching position.”--Buddy

“Your stuck aren’t you.”--Swerve

“… maybe? Yes? Help?”--Buddy

“I’ll get the screwdrivers.”--Swerve

“Thanks Swerve!”--Buddy

“This has been the third time I’ve had to disassemble that table…This is getting ridiculous…”—Swerve

Swerve has taught Buddy a thing or two about what he knows about being a metalourgist. As well as teaching them bit of knowledge he knows from doing weird jobs here and there.

“Swerve what do we do when the light turns red?”--Buddy

“Oh! That’s a good question. That usually just means to-- HIT THE DECK!”—Swerve

Buddy is extremely protective of Swerve. They can sometimes get to a ridiculous level of overprotectiveness for Swerve. For example, breathe wrong in his direction, you will feel pain.

“Swerve hold my drink. I’m going to go teach a mech about keeping one’s servos to themselves.”--Buddy

“They just brushed by on accident! There is no need for violence!”--Swerve

It was no surprise that around the time the war rolled by, Buddy was approached and recruited into the Elite Guard. Swerve despite his worries fully supported Buddy.

“Don’t worry about it Buddy! I’m sure your going to have the best stories to tell me when you come back from your missions!”--Swerve

“You really think so Swerve?”--Buddy

“I am positively sure of it Buddy! You know what, this calls for a celebration! Lets go find some engex.”--Swerve

Whenever Buddy was on long trips, they made sure to try and send a message through their personal channel. Swerve tries to make his messages short, but that was nearly impossible for him to do.

“Hey its Swerve! I have so much to tell you, Buddy! First there’s this bot named Blurr and I got his number and now there is a big plan when the wars over. So the plan is that…”--Swerve

Now for some hurt.

Swerve gets notified from some officers from Buddy’s team that there was a good chance that they were killed in action in the last mission. Swerve was in denial at first, but it soon turned into a depression that would follow him for many years even after the war was over. To try and cope with the loss he would still try and send out deep space messages telling them about his day and how much he misses them.

“Hey Buddy, its Swerve again. It’s been a slow week at the bar today. Whirl’s has been on a cocktail binge and nearly attack a poor bot when he asked for the time… And Tailgate, did I talk about Tailgate, well Tailgate is… and then he exploded, I swear Buddy, he exploded!”—Swerve

Timeskip after the events of Swearth

Swerve was getting better. Sure, progress was slow but he was getting to a better place mentally, with the help of his friends and therapy. The only person who he had ever talked about Buddy was Rung. Buddy was a subject that Swerve was not comfortable speaking about too much about. Now Swerve only knows that Rung knows about Buddy ever existing but there were two another bots on board who knew about Buddy. It was Rewind and Whirl

Why? Why those two bots?

Rewind knew after accidentally stumbling on some footage of Swerve and Buddy. After seeing enough footage, Rewind could tell that Buddy at least meant something important to Swerve. He doesn’t bring it up to Swerve. He wants to but he knows if Swerve wants to eventually talk about something then he will talk.

Whirl knows Buddy as his ‘Buddy’ when he was working with the Wreckers. Buddy had joined as a collaboration between the Elite Guard and the Wreckers. Buddy ended up saving Whirl from certain doom and from then Whirl made sure that he was now Buddy’s problem.

“Hey Buddy, what do you think about breaking into a Decepticon clinic and crushing Killmasters brain module?”--Whirl

“How about we don’t do that.”--Buddy

“Your no fun, you know that.”--Whirl

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go get with the others. I think they are debriefing now.”--Buddy

Absolutely loved working with Buddy. He did find out the Buddy’s designation was on the KIA lists after he heard of their mission going off the rails. He had long accepted that Buddy was dead, or missing. Now being on the Lost Light, Whirl has some hope that Buddy might still be out there. If Swerve could create a giant holographic planet for months and not die or Rewind coming back, in a way, then anything was possible.

Now present time

Buddy was very much alive.

[levi-venn]

Tech and Crow

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 (Final) Available also on AO3)

On Eriadu, statistically speaking, humanoids died more often from unnatural causes than old age.

Seventy percent perished from animal attacks.

Ten from disease.

Eighteen percent from venomous plants. 

One-point-ninety nine percent from the Empire.

The remaining zero-point-zero-one percent were given to those flinging themselves from a moving monorail car to save their siblings from death.

Eriadu is not an ideal place to die, Tech thought, midfall. But it’s preferable to dying on a fool’s mission for Sid.

For a few treasured seconds he seemed to be floating rather than falling, the cloud cover making it near impossible to orient himself in any direction, though his stomach was telling him his back would meet the ground first. It would be a painful, but hopefully quick death.

The trees, however, had other ideas, both on how Tech would land, and whether he would survive or not.

The first branch shattered against Tech’s pauldron sending him spinning. Another branch broke against his shin guard. There was a nest of twigs, cotton, and unfertilized eggs that slammed into his helmet essentially blinding him.

As he continued in this downward spiral he attempted to quantify how many branches were needed to slow his fall and increase his survival rate. The fact he was hitting branches once every half second told him the odds were in his favor. Evidently, the Eriadian redwood forest was an ideal place to free fall from a considerable height.

Good to know.

While he couldn't control the rate in which he was falling, nor the amount of branches he was shattering, he did manage to land on his back. And in doing so, he jettisoned the remaining breath from his lungs.

He lay there, very still, unfortunately awake, and gasping for air that wouldn't come. Darkness crept around the edge of his vision. He struggled to stay awake. Struggled to breathe. Panic was rising within him.

There is no need to panic, he tried to remind himself. This is just a reaction to present trauma. There is no immediate danger. Breathe...breathe...

Even as the breath returned to him, a new problem arose. He couldn't slow his breathing down, nor calm his heart rate, and the anxiety frayed his nerves as if he were still falling. 

He tried a different tactic: He recalculated the unnatural death toll on Eriadu:

Seventy percent perished from animal attack.

Ten from disease.

Eighteen percent from venomous plants. 

And now two percent from the Empire.

As a youngling, Tech's exceptional mind had mastered every intellectual acuity test presented to him. However, no amount of brilliance would help him when it came to combat training. All altered clones had a defect in one form or another. His came in the shape of bowed and twisted legs, not suitable for a soldier.

It was logical that the Kaminoans broke his legs to reset them. Logical and agonizing. Tech was bed-ridden for weeks. 

They gave him a datapad filled with as much reading material as he could absorb, but even then there was no distracting him from the pain nor the panicked episodes that came with it.

He didn’t want visitors. Didn’t want to appear weak to his brothers. Soldiers weren’t bed-ridden. Soldiers didn’t cry from fear of an uncertain future.

Crosshair ignored Tech’s request for isolation. He appeared every day, three times a day, always for meals. He claimed he was just there to steal Tech’s bread roll, but he only ever took a bite and stayed long after Tech ate the rest of the meal.

Crosshair wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but he would sit on the edge of Tech’s bed, cleaning his beloved DC-15A cadet blaster rifle, and casually ask Tech questions. 

“Why do Kaminoans have such long necks?”

“Who would win in a fight? A Jedi with a vibroblade or a Mandalorian with a lightsaber?”

“How many B1s would it take to equal the power of Jango Fett?”

Tech stared up at the Eriadian sky, mostly obscured by broken branches and his cracked and smudged lens. 

He’d give anything for one of Crosshair’s thinly veiled questions to distract him from the pain and panic.

And truly...he’d give anything to see Crosshair again, regardless.  

***

It took fourteen days and seventeen hours to find Mount Tantiss on the planet, Weyland. It would have taken half that time if Tech had his goggles, a working datapad, and (admittedly) his siblings. Fourteen days was plenty of time to heal his body from its fall, but even at peak condition the climb up the mountain was arduous. Tedious even. Slower as he had to make camp and find food and disarm Imperial sensors the whole way up.

Seventy-eight hours later, he found himself at the base of the Imperial science facility. 

He also found himself exhausted.

“Come on, Tech! You can do it!” Hunter had cheered all those years ago as young Tech clung to the middle rung of the monkey-lizard bars high over the training grounds. The platform might as well be located on another planet.

Tech’s legs had been reset the previous year. He was fully healed. There was no excuse for this fragility. Yet his muscles shook with effort, sweat poured down his face, stinging his eyes.

“I’m gonna get him,” Wrecker said.

“No!” Hunter pulled his brother back. “He can do it!”

“No, he can’t! Look at him!” Wrecker whined, face full of worry. 

“C’mon, Tech! A little further!” Hunter looked worried too, even as he cheered his brother on. 

Even as Tech’s grip began to slip.

To this day, Tech didn't remember Crosshair's reaction to his failure that day. What was the point of recalling it, anyway?

Utterly meaningless, he always told himself when he'd try to recall. And he would attempt this often.

***

A carrion crow visited Tech the morning after he collapsed from fatigue a kilometer from the science facility. 

The corvid landed on his back, then proceeded to hop in little circle as if Tech was his own personal, albeit ineffective, trampoline.

Tech hadn’t noticed he had become an amusement ride for the crow until it cawed rather rudely and directly into his ear.

Jolting awake at the caustic alarm, Tech jumped to his feet, pulling his blaster and pointing it at...a few feathers that had been jostled from the startled bird. The crow landed on a nearly smooth boulder nearby, croaking as if flabbergasted by the audacity of Tech’s reaction, then flew off in a cackling rage.

The day was spent doing recon of the area. The sheer density of this side of the jungle kept troopers away, and by nightfall Tech had made a decent, albeit temporary, base.

That evening Tech dreamed.

“You remember ‘C’, don’t you?” Tech asked the small boy sitting beside him. It was a very real memory, but his subconscious twisted timelines, making him a fully grown adult sitting next to a small, gray-haired boy hunched over the datapad, stylus awkward in his little fingers.

“I remember,” Crosshair said, stubbornly, stylus making a vertical line.

“C is for curved,” Tech recited the pneumonic, smiling to himself as Crosshair quickly readjusted his stylus, making a shaky but clear C.

“Now an ‘R’.”

Crosshair hissed in frustration, stylus lifting and lowering onto the screen making little angry dots on the workbook page. “I don’t want to.”

“Shall we do it together?” Tech asked.

“No,” Crosshair insisted, even as he sat closer to Tech and leaned against him. Tech put his hand over his brother's to guide him. “Up, and around, and down to the ground.” Tech said.

“I can do ‘O’ by myself,” Crosshair said, pushing Tech’s hand off of his own, though he still leaned against Tech as he drew a mathematically perfect circle. 

The dream had taken liberties, but the scene was more or less how Tech remembered Crosshair writing his name for the first time. The dream neglected to recall Crosshair asking Tech not to tell their brothers that he struggled to write his own name.

But Tech was allowed to know. Only Tech. And Tech kept his word to this day.

“Let’s see how you did,” Tech said, in this more or less accurate dream.

He picked up the datapad and read in perfectly block letters.

[H E L P  M E]

Tech startled awake. 

He told himself it was just a dream. Memories and information and out of context stimuli colliding together into something nonsensical.

Utterly meaningless, he told himself, even as he wiped the tears from his cheeks.

It was still night. The moonlight punched its way through the canopy of trees, offering illumination that only helped to remind Tech just how alone he was on this mountain.

Actually, Tech corrected, the moon doesn’t illuminate anything. The light I’m seeing is a reflection of the sun. 

This factoid did little to alleviate the situation. 

But he felt better acknowledging it.

***

The crow returned the next morning holding something in its beak: a small pinecone, young and green. The pinecone had no nutritional value to the corvid, nor was it proper nesting material.

Crows have been known to offer gifts as a sign of gratitude for an agreeable exchange or action.

The gift was obviously not for Tech considering he had pulled a blaster on the corvid upon their first meeting.

Who are you giving your gifts to? Tech wondered. A bored trooper? A sensitive officer? A desperate prisoner?

“A desperate prisoner wouldn’t sacrifice food for trinkets,” he concluded to the crow.

The crow hopped around the boulder once, twice, then flew directly at Tech, who ducked just as the crow smacked a wing against his head mid-flight. Even with the pinecone in his beak, Tech swore he could hear a throaty cackle.

Tech continued his recon of the science facility as best he could without being discovered. Getting close to the building wasn’t an issue, it was getting near anything resembling an entrance that was the issue. He had one blaster against an unknown amount of guards, which meant all he could do was recon. And then he would fill his siblings in when they arrived.

It never occurred to him his brothers and sister wouldn’t eventually come to the same conclusion as he. They would find this planet. They would find Tech and receive his very useful intel, and then they would save Crosshair. The squad would finally be reunited.

It would all work out. It had to.

He couldn’t afford to think of the alternative. Worrying about it was useless.

Utterly meaningless…

***

The next morning, he awoke before dawn. No crow was waiting for him.

Trying a different tactic, he broke off a bit of plastoid from his cracked pauldron and set it on the crow’s boulder.

He waited.

Just after dawn, the crow landed on the boulder, cawing immediately at Tech, feathers literally and proverbially ruffled at an unauthorized object occupying his boulder.

But then the corvid calmed, eyeing the object properly, pecking at it as if appraising its value.

“I assure you, it is of a high-quality material,” Tech told the crow. “The fact it is broken means it worked as intended. It did not survive the fall so that I could.”

The crow listened, or at least stared at Tech with intensely black eyes, and then decided - perhaps entirely on his own - to take the plastoid and fly off.

This time Tech ran after crow. 

As he hypothesized, the crow flew directly towards the science facility.

Tech kept his goggleless eyes to the sky as he ran, thanking his imperfect genetics that he was far-sighted, allowing him to track the crow in his pursuit. So long as the crow didn't require him to read a datapad, he only needed to worry about the thick underbrush tearing his compromised under-armor, thorny vines scratching his cheeks, and the uneven ground threatening to trip and trap him.

“Come on, Tech! You can do it!” Hunter’s words echoed in his mind. He chose not to think of Wrecker’s face full of doubt. The crack in Hunter’s voice betraying his words.

Actually, Tech realized. I can do it. 

A crow is capable of flying over ninety kilometers an hour. Tech, even at his healthiest, could reach thirty kilometers an hour.

The crow wants me to follow him, but to where?

As if to answer, the crow suddenly dove towards a hole in the fortress and Tech skidded to a stop just below it.

He gazed quietly at the barred window approximately seven meters above him, the crow’s tail feathers twitching and wiggling as it seemed to be eating something on the sill. 

And then he saw it. Briefly. A flash of familiar fingers. Long and callused and always itching to pull a trigger. 

Fingers that used to wrap around Tech’s hand when the lightning was too bright outside. Fingers that would hold soggy bread in the rain, hoping to conjure a bird that would never come. Fingers that could draw shaky C's and perfect circles.

I found you, Tech thought, his heartbeat growing irregular from this sudden turn of events. Now to get your attention.

***

“Where the hell are your goggles?”

It wasn’t not the first question Tech expected, but a fair one nonetheless.

Tech touched his temple reflexively, trying to adjust goggles that clearly weren’t there. “A long story that I can narrate at a later time. Are you hurt?”

Crosshair pressed his forehead against the bars. “What do you think?”

It wasn’t the answer Tech had hoped to hear.

“How did you know the crow was coming to my cell?” Crosshair asked.

“You used to birdwatch when we were children. That combined with the lack of incentive for anyone on this base to feed a carrion bird. It was obvious. So I gave the corvid a message to give to you.”

“His name is Egg.”

“Egg?” Tech frowned up at Crosshair. “Why is his name Egg?”

“He likes Eggs.”

“So, by that logic, if he enjoyed Colo Claw Fish-”

“Does it look like they feed me sushi here?”

Tech raised a finger…then lowered it. “Point taken.” 

“How are you going to get me out of here?” Crosshair asked. His head disappeared from view a few times and Tech assumed it was to ensure they were speaking privately.

“We’re going to wait for our siblings to retrieve us,” Tech answered.

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know.”

“When are they coming?”

“I’m uncertain.”

“Then how do you know they are coming?” Crosshair asked and the crow - Egg - seemed to echo with an indignant craah. 

“Because they were searching for you when we were separated, and I managed to find you on my own. Given that they are lacking my brilliant mind, it may take some time, but I am sure they will figure it out, find the path to Mount Tantiss and we will be reunited...eventually.”

“Eventually…fantastic,” Crosshair hissed.

It could have been Tech’s impaired vision, but it looked like both Crosshair and the crow rolled their eyes at the same time. 

Tech had missed his brother’s sarcastic wit terribly.

Even if it was directed at him. 

Part 3: Cross and Tech and Egg

[byunpum]

The new member | Part 4

Pair: Miles Quaritch (baby blue boii) x Human reader

tw: Smut, Teasing, jealousy, mmmm I don't know...maybe a little bit of miles being soft.

POV: Y/N is sent from Earth to Pandora to be part of a particular group of people…

p.s. This story is created after the ship altercation. Neteyam never dies, the sullys are able to run away, but spider decides to go with his "father" to the base. All recoms are still alive.

Note: This is half of what I had written. If I put it all here. Literally the reading would end in another part and that's it. So I decided to make the parts a little longer, and split them up.

AVATAR MASTERLIST | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

You knew that inviting him into your room was the wrong thing to do, you had only been on base for two weeks and you had hooked up with your team leader, but no one, absolutely no one could judge the two of you, there was chemistry between you guys, the attraction was there and you could feel it. So when you invited him into your room, Quaritch didn't refuse. First of all you attracted enough interest to him and secondly why not?

So here you were, fucking him like a bitch in heat. His cock barely fit in your pussy, but it was just enough to give you both pleasure. Your pussy moved up and down his length, while Quaritch's hands squeezed the sides of your hips. Causing bruises, the man was trying not to be too hard on you. You were so small compared to him, and you still wanted to take him completely. Your breasts were bouncing, your mouth was open and your eyes were half closed, it was all a show he wanted to treasure. "Does it feel good honey?" asks Quaritch lifting his hips to keep up with your hips.

Every time he lifted his hips your whole body followed him up and down, and you swear he was getting deeper and deeper inside you. "Y-yes" you cry out softly, trying to stifle your screams. " Ohh baby, don't hold back…I want everyone to hear how good my cock is filling you" Quaritch moves his hand to the bulge that was forming in your lower abdomen. "Look at that…watch it come out" Quaritch pulls his cock out of your pussy, and slowly pushes it back in. Causing you to lean forward, and placing your hands on his stomach. "And how then… it goes in" hearing his comment, you bite your lower lip. " You fill me up so good" you cry out, increasing the speed of your thrusts. The sensation you felt was one of burning and pleasure, his cock was already touching you in the necessary places.

Quaritch's head falls back, enjoying the staxis that the sensation of his cock in your hot walls was giving him. You felt so good. He could feel you were reaching your limit, He could feel the contractions your pussy was making around his cock, and how your movements were getting out of control. "I'm… ahhh" you cry out, as you try to find a coherent rhythm. Quaritch can notice your movements, and lifts up a little on his shoulders taking your hips. Mutilating your movements, as he began to thrust into you at full speed. "There….right there" you drool, as you look him in the eyes, reaching your height. Quaritch is staring at you, with a cheeky grin as you watch your orgasm make you shudder and scream. "Like this sweetheart… take it fully. You look so beautiful."

He doesn't stop the thrusts until he sees you collapse on his chest. "mmm it feels so good" you cry out a little, as you feel Quaritch's cock continue to enter you gently. " I know honey…I know" you can see him take a little air from his oxygen mask. He looked so good, he was naked right below you, and only had his mask on so he could breathe every now and then. " If you want…" you settle a little on his cock, it's still hard inside you. " You can finish inside me" you whimper a little, moving a little. Quaritch bites his lower lip, you could notice a little blush on his cheeks. " Honey… I want to come in your pretty mouth" Quaritch says, lifting you up with ease. Causing a scream from you, as you felt the empty sensation inside you. sliding you down, Quaritch took his cock in his hands and started pumping it. Your mouth was open waiting for his discharge, your hands were placed on both thighs. As you caressed his skin with your hands. Quaritch doesn't take long to feel the nub in his stomach, he was very stimulated. "Open your mouth" Quaritch moans as his movements become sloppy. You place one of your hands on his cock, helping him pump it, giving several licks to the swollen tip. " You are so cute" you say, as you look up at him between your eyelashes. "Y-you think so?" says Quaritch in a breathy voice. You look up at him, as you go up a little and give him a wet kiss on his lower stomach, then go down and continue working with your hands. The man was all flushed, as his chest heaved up and down.

After some pumps, Quaritch's discharge falls on your face, with your mouth open you receive it all. "You're such a good girl" Quaritch laughs, as he watches you swallow what could enter your mouth, and how you clean with your fingers what fell in other parts. "come here…" Quaritch grabs your arm, and pulls you to his chest. You settle there, staying quietly for a while. Quaritch gives you a few kisses on the crown of your head, enjoying the smell of your hair. "Mmm, I love your smell" he says, as he traces circles on your back. "I like yours too" you kiss him, on his chest.

"Do you want to take a shower?" asks Quaritch. "Aren't they closed at this hour?" you look up. Quaritch gives you a look, getting up and dragging you with him. Taking you bridal style. "What are you doing?" you laugh. "Let's get cleaned up" Quaritch kisses you on the lips, you place your hands around his neck to pull him closer to you. Pulling away from him, you take the mask and place it on his nose. "We have to get the clothes on and then we're going over there" you say, as you watch Miles take a breath of air. "You win… but you have to let me clean you completely."

After taking a shower together, you both say your goodbyes and return to your rooms. Quaritch gives you several kisses on your fingers, as you giggle. "Are you sure you're okay… you're not in pain" he is giving you soft kisses. "I'm fine, a little sore…but it's worth it" you copy his movements, and kiss his hands as well. This gesture was so new to him, that he stood still watching your lips kissing the knuckles of his hand. "Perfect… because tomorrow I'll stop by your room" you laugh at his comment, as you let go of his hand and walk into your room. "Get some rest" Quaritch says, as he watches you close the door. He stands there thinking for a bit, analyzing what just happened. Shit… you had caught him. He doesn't remember the old Quaritch, ever feeling this way in his life. He couldn't recognize any feelings in his memory.

The next morning…

Early in the morning you had woken up, it was around 5:00 am, although you could hear the voices of some of your co-workers. You had woken up to make your report. It was actually the first one you had ever done and you had a lot to say.

"Dr. Williams… what I am going to tell you is something that I know you are not going to like. At the base they are hiding things. I know they are working behind our backs, their workers don't know how to hide it well. We have visited several tunnels, and laboratories. But this place is huge. They are doing things that are illegal and that are very risky for the planet. I will try to give you more information, but it will take time. This is Y/N."

You finish the recording and close the computer. You were going to leave to go to breakfast, you weren't going to lie. You felt a little pain in your legs, but you could handle it. When you come out of your room, you meet the entire squadron. All the members look at you with a suspicious smile, you knew you hadn't controlled your screaming the night before. "Wow… I guess you're hungry" says lyle, laughing a little at you. " Yes, I am very very hungry" you say somewhat annoyed, and walk out of the room into the hallways. Everyone was silent as they watched you walk away. Quaritch came out of his room, his plan was to go get you up and then go with his squad. But noticing that his whole squad was there, he changed his plan and headed in their direction. "Is something wrong?" he was curious, because they were all looking at the exit.

"No, nothing…just that your girlfriend is upset" says z-dog with a bit of sarcasm. "Upset? What did you guys do to her now?" Quaritch looks at his team. Mansk raises his arm and points at lyle. "He was the one who talked" mansk says blaming his friend. "Hey!!!!!" lyle looks at him and punches him. " Lyle leave her alone" Quaritch says as he starts walking to the dining area. The team headed to the dining area, trying to catch up to the colonel. When they arrived, everyone grabbed their breakfasts and sat down. You had gone ahead, and you were already eating. It wasn't the best breakfast, but it worked.

Everyone sat down and started eating. Even though they wanted to tease you, they kept talking about their stuff. Miles sees how you only have a few things on your plate. "That's what you're going to eat?" asks Quaritch, he was sitting next to you. "mmm yeah, I'm not really hungry" you give him a small smile. Quaritch takes an apple and puts it on your plant. "Eat this… even if it's just a bite" he says, as he fixes a piece of your hair. His ears were down, and his tail was wagging softly. He looked very calm. His behavior was very different than usual. This made everyone look at each other strangely. "You can't even feed yourself well" z-dog says laughing sarcastically, you look at her and squeeze Quaritch's arm a little. "Thank you" you say, looking at him and resting your face on his shoulder. Before anyone said anything, you feel someone sit down next to you.

"Hi!!!" says spider, holding an apple in his hand. "Hi!!!" you greet the boy, giving him a hug. Spider hugged you back. Quaritch pats spider's hair, making the boy groan. "I want to show you something" says spider, moving closer to you " But it's something secret" says spider in a low voice, close to your ear. "ok" you copy his movement. You are look at each other for a moment and laugh again. After breakfast, everyone goes to their different assigned areas. Quaritch didn't have anything assigned to him that day so he decided to accompany you and spider. This made sure you wouldn't get hurt again, he knew spider liked to do risky things. You two were in front walking and he was in the back chasing you. Every once in a while you would glance back to make sure he was following you. "And where are we going spider?" asks Quaritch. "It's something Y/N will be interested in, for his investigations" says spider, he was holding your hand guiding you. Quaritch got a little nervous, he knew that General Ardmore had hidden several things so that the PPA would not close the base. Although he didn't know much, he knew it was something they shouldn't investigate. The closer they got, the more nervous he became.

He thought that maybe spider was going to take you to the ikran area, he knew he liked to take care of them, and maybe he wanted you to meet them. But he became more concerned when instead of taking the right path, he turned left. He swallowed hard and saw how they were approaching a bodega. In the distance he could hear animal noises, like moaning. "Spider…what's that?" you ask, the anguish in your voice worried Quaritch. Spider stopped, and looked at Y/N. He just took her hand and led her towards the noise. When they arrived, they could see how many animals were imprisoned. The cages were small, it was hot, and they could tell they were not being fed well.

"This is what I wanted to show you" spider looked at you, he had a sad look on his face. You were in a state of shook. You couldn't believe what you were seeing. These animals were in inhumane conditions, in fact these animals were not supposed to be locked up. The RDA did not have the permission to keep the animals on the base. The image was so disgusting that even Quaritch himself was shocked. He had no idea of all this. He could see how all this was affecting you, and he reached behind your back and put a hand out to hold you down. "Let go of me!!!" you yell at him. This surprised Quaritch, he didn't know why you were rationing like this. "You knew about all this…and you didn't tell me anything!!!?" you are confronting him. "Wait…. I don't know what's going on here" Quaritch tries to defend himself. "Y/n" spider calls out to you, trying to get your attention. You both know you're upset.

"He…doesn't know anything. Nobody knows anything" spider speaks. You are still upset, you didn't believe much of what spider was telling you, so you decide to walk away and grab your communicator to call your PPA team. "Team 975…. I found something" you speak into the communicator. "Yes, Y/N I hear you" speaks a man over the comm. "I found something that will interest you, I'm sending you the location" you look at the communicator and work quickly to send all the information. Quaritch is watching you, he can see how tense, how sad this is making you. He was getting closer to you, until he saw how you looked up and looked at him with teary eyes.

"Who's coming here?" asks spider. You knew the boy wasn't to blame, you were grateful to him. "The investigation team is on their way. They will take care of everything" you approached spider and gave him a hug. You knew the boy was affected by this as much as you were. After all, he grew up on this planet, and seeing what was happening affected him. After a while, the entire investigation team was in the area. Including Quaritch's squadron and General Ardmore. The PPA team was interviewing General Ardmore, she looked uncomfortable and you knew that damn woman was lying. They were dealing with the animals and taking evidence. While you were right next to Quaritch, you hadn't talked to him the whole time they were there, but you knew he was there.

His tail was giving you gentle strokes on your back. And you knew he was giving glances at your figure from time to time. "This is so over the top, they're animals…please" says z-dog. You try not to lose your patience you knew she was saying these comments to irritate you. You take a deep breath and continue to watch the PPA team at work. "What are they going to be? Are they going to close RDA?" the woman says, looking at you. "Do you have a problem? Because since you've been here all you've done is annoy the hell out of me," you shout. Z-dog walks closer to you. "Yes…I do" the woman is getting closer to you. The team members become alert, Quaritch steps in front of you. "Okay, ladies…that's enough. That's an order," Quaritch says. "Tell that to her…she looks like your damn jealous wife" you spit. Z-dog tries to lunge at you, but lyle stops her. "hey calm down" the man holds her friend. While Quaritch grabs you by the shoulders and drags you with him into the halls.

When you were far enough away, the man kneels down to make you look at him. "What's wrong with you? You're not like that" says Quaritch, he holds your face with his big hands. "She's got me tired… and I'm not here to put up with her comments" he sees how you're turning red. He's studying you, hell…even annoying you looked pretty. "Z-dog has always been like that" Quaritch says, letting go of your face to caress your shoulders, then reaching for your hands. "He likes you!!!" you speak. Quaritch's ears perk up and he looks at Y/N curiously. " Yeah, don't look at me like you don't know. They all know…and she's like this, because she heard how your nice big cock was filling me up last night" you spit. Ok, it's settled…you were stressed and very very upset.

Miles laughs, it was weird to see you that upset, it was the first time I had ever seen you like that. "Well…that's something new" he says, with a smile on his lips. "What?" you ask. "That you're talking dirty like that…I like it" Quaritch grabs your waist and pulls you closer. " I promise you I had nothing to do with all this… And yes, I know z-dog likes me but that's her problem" Quaritch takes your jaw in his hands to make you look him in the eyes. "I know…" you speak, leaning in to give him a kiss on the tip of his nose. "It's not just that that worries me" You say, lowering your gaze. "Hey… tell me what's going on?" Quaritch asks. "You guys are part of the experiments the RDA is doing" you comment, causing Quaritch to tense up.

The "I know I can change him" squad: @mechformers @cullenswife @littlethief78 @nieshiren @parasiiite @bxnnywriting @shelbythequeen @sassvy-blog-blog @shaylang21 @perfectgradient99 @jinx14 @elvyshiarieko @littlethingsinlife @ilovedoms @the-hufflebird-girl @ronia-entries @drinking-tea-and-be-obsessed @mechformers @perfectgradient99 @mad-simp420 @quaritchlvr @kittycow8875 @mjnij @ladylovegood-69 @dilfs-bitch @witchywannabe3263 @fanboyluvr @stickyfictioninwriting

[scribeforchrist-blog]

Are Your Roots Deep Enough?

MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK

=========================

+ Habakkuk 3:19: “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to tread on the heights.”

=========================

VERSE OF THE DAY

========================

+ Romans 8:25  Now, if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.

=========================

** SAY THIS BEFORE YOU READ; HERE’S SOME CHRISTIAN TRUTHS **

I HAVE THE TRUE FOUNDATION WHICH IS JESUS

I AM FULLY  INVESTED

I AM HYDRATED SPIRITUALLY

I AM CONNECTED TO CHRIST

********************************

THOUGHTS:

=======================

So, it's hard to wait on anything; we discussed this the other week, but we will see that God is ready to bless and keep us and help us through all our things and problems. Still, we don’t see him doing it sometimes, but it doesn’t mean he's not working everything out for our good, and that’s what we must wait for is him.

   How patient are you with him working things out? Look at David; David waited so long to be king he had to be under King Saul; he was a musician before he was king, a shepherd, a giant slayer, and a furious warrior; he was all those things before he became king, and do you think he was wondering when his time will be ,but look David had some growing before he could just take over being king.

  He had to experience things before he became what he was called to do, and that’s where some of us are at right now; we are in our waiting season, our growing season and a lot of us don’t want to be here; we want to be out doing what we want to do, but we can't ,so we must wait eagerly with patience and for things we can't see. Other people won't see your growth and your change. They won't, but we must always keep pushing forward.

    Colossians 2:7: Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then, your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

   We must allow our roots to grow down deep. When we see plants growing in a pot, they usually do this because they are comfortable; they will even take the form of the pot because they feel secure in that pot, and that’s when you know that plant is secure. Sometimes, we must allow our roots to grow in God and let him build our lives, and when we do this, our faith will grow because we are growing in him; we are trusting in him that he has our best interest in mind and then we will start to be content because we no longer depend on ourselves.

   That’s what David had to do, even if everything looked shaky. Everything looked like a windstorm. He had to stay in it and trust that God got him through his problems. It took patience and trust in God. Are your roots deep enough? Have you become comfortable in this season, letting everything around you go and walking in his purpose for your life?

   2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test

  Every day, we must examine ourselves to see if we are where we must be; a lot of us aren’t where we should be because we are too focused on other things like more money, jobs, relationships, and fleshly desires instead of where we should be, which is where God has us; sometimes, we forget that our lives aren’t our own and where God places us is for a reason, and where he places us is supposed to mold us and shape us.

    When we allow ourselves to take root in the season we are in, we can see his plan because we aren’t focused on anything else; how long has it been since you went to God and said, "Am I where you wanted me to be? Am I heading in the direction you wanted me to go? I don’t see anything, but I know you see it all!

  Proverbs 1:5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,

  We must hear to be able to learn, and we must accept guidance from him and that’s because if we don’t hear and we don’t slow down and allow him to conduct us and allow him to give us what we need, we will grow deeper into more impurities than we could ever imagine. 

God is waiting for us to seek his will; we might think we are waiting on him, and we might think we are doing everything right, but if we are moving and doing everything else, we think he wants. Really and truly, he’s been trying to say to us stop and take root; we will miss opportunities and doors for our lives because we refuse to check in and see what he wants from us.

    We could be stepping into a place of dryness because we didn’t seek him before we moved; today, ask God do you want me to wait ? What is it you trying to show me? Because we can look and not see, we can hear and not hear because we hear what we want and see what we want. Ask God to open your eyes so you can see the bigger picture and take root in him.

   Luke 6:48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well-built.

    We always want to be the man in this story who dig deep and laid a foundation; when we have a foundation in Christ, nothing else can come and break it; nothing can come and shake it because when we are deeply invested with God, that’s all that matters and that’s the most powerful foundation anyone can have is with him. We can try to have the foundation in other things here on earth, but nothing can help us stand strong; nothing else can make our lives better when we read our word, we pray, and we mediate daily those things help hold us up because we are seeking him, start seeking God more start taking deep session with him than the ones you have. You’ll see a deeper connection developing between you and God.

   ***Today, we learned that when a plant is comfortable, it grows deep roots into the pot it’s in, and when we are going deeper with our time with God, we will become like the pot and build a foundation like the man in the verse, anything we do when we fully invested in God it will show in our actions and what we deem as necessary.

   Many times, when we don’t think something is necessary, we will not invest a lot of time in it. Still, every day, we don’t spend time with God; we are dying spiritually, we are becoming dry, and to stay hydrated, we must come and drink of the living water; he asks us to come many times in the word but do we hear his call or do we deny it, take root in God today and don’t deny him your time or your life. ©Seer~ Prophetess Lee

========================

PRAYER

========================

Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to see another day and for allowing us to be deeply rooted in you. Lord, help us stay connected to you and closer to you. Show us how to spend more time with you, lord; we ask you as we go through that; you show us how to not become disconnected because of life but to stay connected because you are what we need most of all. Lord, sometimes we become so confused, but we ask you to show us everything we need and more. In Jesus' Name Amen

========================

REFERENCES

========================

+ 1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

 

+ John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.

 

+ Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

========================

FURTHER READINGS

========================

Proverbs 8

Exodus 26

Judges 9

Jeremiah 42

 =========================

[fresh-bag-of-ham]

seeking urbanism / housing advocacy advice (because you're the only person i follow who both posts about it and does it): my city (primarily a college town, population < 100k) is holding a community discussion about ways to increase affordable housing, including inclusionary zoning and other zoning reforms. what kinds of policy ideas / comments are best to bring to this as A Member Of The Public? does inclusionary zoning work like it's supposed to? are there other specific zoning reforms that work well? i know getting rid of parking minimums is a big one, but i don't know if that's achievable here yet.

MY TIME HAS COME.

First of all, if the forum is about 'affordable housing', then you may need to start with drawing the connection between affordability and increasing housing supply. There are a lot of tangents you can go down in a discussion of affordable housing, but the crucial point to get across is that increasing housing supply on its own makes housing costs go down. Investor speculation in real estate, e.g., happens because supply is constrained and those are the conditions where real estate values reliably go up, creating profit. It is a symptom, not a cause. See also: landlords in Austin, TX melting down on Twitter because they're increasing supply so fast there that they're having to lower rents. Video recently studied and shown to be 3x more effective for changing people's minds about supply-side housing than other interventions.

INCLUSIONARY ZONING. a.k.a. mandating that for any development with more than X units, Y% of those units must be 'affordable' units reserved for families earning Z% area median income. In a perfect world, all housing would be mixed-income housing. In practice, the effectiveness of IZ depends almost entirely on what you set Y% at. About five years ago, our local DSA passed a referendum increasing Y% from 10% to 25%. This change has basically stalled all housing development that this applies to because the projects just don't pencil. You need subsidy to build affordable housing, you have to cobble that subsidy together from a lot of different funding sources, and all these sources have different requirements on how their funding can be used. Your problems become twofold: (1) Most subsidies for affordable housing want you to build something that's more like 80-100% affordable, so a 25%-affordable development won't get funding. (2) The subsidy available for affordable housing is finite, so even if your 25%-affordable development were able to get subsidy, that necessarily is taking subsidy away from somewhere else. The same number of affordable units will be built, IZ just ends up trying to dictate how those units are distributed. It mainly ends up kneecapping market-rate housing construction, which, again, adding market-rate housing puts downward pressure on housing prices.

Our prior level of 10% IZ seemed to work ok..? but I would caution strongly against relying on IZ if you are supply constrained, which, I can't imagine you're not. A buzzy new strategy for mixed-income housing creation is "social housing" -- AOC wrote about it in the NYT last week, here's a talk about it that I admittedly haven't watched yet. This is what's getting traction here as DSA is tentatively walking back support for their very aggressive IZ policy that has not created the affordable housing they wanted it to.

If you have parking minimums, KILL THAT SHIT. We were successful in advocating for our table of parking minimums to be turned into parking maximums. Add/increase bike parking minimums, bike theft is a HUGE deterrent from biking here, so having a safe place to store your bike at home is critical if you want anyone to start leaving behind their cars. You also probably want to look at dimensional standards: increase heights, reduce setbacks, increase lot coverage maximums, reduce lot size minimums, if you're anything like our city then you probably have even more and weirder constraints you'll want to relax so new buildings can be bigger and hold more units. You probably have just straight up caps on number of units per lot -- kill single-family zoning, get at least 4 units or something per lot allowed! Lot area per dwelling unit is a particularly terrible constraint, basically creating a minimum amount of land you have to own in order to be able to have a home. Horrible! Kill it!

My personal preferred urban form is the perimeter block enabled by single-stair apartment buildings that's common throughout Europe and basically anywhere outside of the US and Canada. This will take reforms at multiple levels before it becomes possible even here, but Seattle-based architect Michael Eliason (@holz_bau on Twitter) has stair-pilled me on this form so powerfully, and https://secondegress.ca/ makes the extremely compelling (Canada-centric) case for allowing single-stair apartment buildings, which for us means changing building code at the state level. #goals, though.

I have had a lot of practice recently writing and organizing public comment to advocate for this stuff so I would be happy to talk messaging/strategy at any point, I could go on and on about this subject! I'm so thrilled that you're asking about this though, it's so important to get involved and show up at these kinds of meetings, because the people who reliably show up to these things are the retiree busybodies with nothing but free time to oppose every type of change imaginable and are the ones who got us into this situation in the first place.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Alex Groth

COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin and across nearly half of the United States are at "high" and "very high" levels of activity at the end of the summer, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC monitors wastewater data to track the virus, which can lag a couple weeks behind current case counts. Data at the end of August showed nearly half of all states reporting "very high" levels of wastewater viral activity, although current levels of COVID-19 are still much lower now than during the highs reported at the height of the pandemic.

In Wisconsin, the CDC reported the state showing "high" levels of wastewater viral activity.

Here's a look at the data:

Levels of COVID-19 in Wisconsin wastewater currently 'high,' says CDC Wastewater viral activity levels are detecting 'high' levels of the COVID-19 virus in Wisconsin and have been increasing since early summer, according to the CDC.

While the CDC and Wisconsin Department of Health Services do not track individual COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have been increasing since the spring and were around 200 patients at the first week of September, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

What is the current COVID-19 variant in Wisconsin? The CDC estimates the KP.3.1.1 variant, part of the Omicron family, makes up about half of COVID-19 infections and the KP.2.3 variants makes up about one in 10 infections during the start of September.

"The KP.3.1.1 variant is very similar to other circulating variants in the United States. All current lineages are descendants of JN.1, which emerged in late 2023," Rosa Norman, a spokesperson at the CDC, previously told USA TODAY.

What are the symptoms of COVID-19? Typical COVID-19 symptoms can show up 2 to 14 days after contact with the COVID-19 virus. People with COVID-19 may only have a few symptoms, and can have none. Some people can have symptoms that progress about 7 to 14 days after symptoms start. According to the Mayo Clinic, COVID-19 symptoms can include:

Dry cough Shortness of breath Loss of taste of smell Extreme tiredness, also known as fatigue Digestive issues, such as upset stomach, vomiting, or diarrhea Pain, such as headaches, body or muscle aches Fever or chills Cold-like symptoms, such as congestion, runny nose, or sore throat When and where is the COVID-19 vaccine available in Wisconsin? COVID-19 vaccines in Wisconsin are administered by health care providers, local pharmacies and other community clinics. You can visit vaccines.gov to find your nearest vaccine provider.

COVID-19 vaccines are free at Milwaukee Health Department immunization clinics to the following individuals:

Children (18 and younger) with Badgercare/Medicaid or uninsured Adults (19 and older) who are uninsured How to treat COVID-19: People with COVID-19 usually can recover at home, and some require additional medical care. Mayo Clinic recommends the following medications to help with symptoms:

Fever reducers Pain relievers, such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen Cough syrup or medicine For those who are at high risk of severe COVID-19, your doctor may prescribe medicine such as Paxlovid and Lagevrio. These medications stop COVID-19 from replicating, which reduces the risk of severe COVID-19.

What is long COVID? Symptoms for long COVID can last weeks, months or years, according to the CDC. General symptoms include tiredness or fatigue, symptoms that get worse after physical or mental effort, fever. You can find a full list of symptoms on the CDC's website.

Most people with long COVID see improvement after three months, and other people may see improvement up to six months after the virus, according to the CDC. Long COVID symptoms can result in disability.

[66sharkteeth]

It's genuinely painful to see one of my favourite webcomics so mistreated by WT like this. The frustrating thing is that the issue lies not only with the lack of promotion (even though that's a big thing - I wouldn't have known that CoB came back if I didn't check the app everyday) but also with WT's apparent reluctance to deal out coins.

Mere months ago, there were numerous reading events which could grant someone like me (on a tight budget after Christmas and not able to get a fast pass) free coins which they could use to support their favourite creators. There were welcome weeks, "read x episodes total from these three series to get 5 coins", "read 10 eps from any canvas comic", "check out this new comic and get a coin or two for your time!" and so on and so forth. I'd discover new stories, receive free coins, and toss them at the creators I wanted to see more from. Now, I don't see that anymore. Apparently there's a sketchy looking treasure thing which gives you coins for interacting with ads or other games, but it's not available in my region.

WT's increased stinginess is a growing problem which I've seen affecting multiple creators. I hate to see it happen but I don't know what can be done about it.

But that's just my proverbial five cents. I'll try to get you some non-proverbial cents later on in the month :) looking forward to the rest of the season, can't wait to see how all those plotlines will come together! I've been following CoB since season 1 and it holds a special place in my heart. Hope that 2024 will be kinder to you from now on. 🐕🎭🍇🧡

Yeah, I'm ngl, that's...probably a factor that I'm trying to take into account. I just have no comments on it since it's something I have 0 say and little knowledge in. I'm sure even if they gave CoB the red carpet for it's return, it still wouldn't have reached heights that it did in the past, for multiple reasons, including the ones you listed. I just do not think they account for such a perfect literal 50% drop in revenue, especially when you account for how it's consistent it's been since. X% of readers have always fast passed CoB, regardless of coin events, how long the series gets, or slow arcs. But now 50% of that X% just doesn't know its back.

[baidar-oroq]

I think I've been here before...

So lately over on Twitter, there's been a bit of a shitstorm in the FFXIV community.

Okay hang on, that doesn't really narrow it down...there's been a shitstorm over the difficulty of Dawntrail's dungeon and raid content. To sum it up, people have offered criticism of the difficulty-generally fair criticisms-and a small army of entitled jackasses are running around yelling about how if people don't like it they should just leave, games are not for you, you just want easy modes, fuck off casuals.

I think I may have given a hint on which side of the argument I fall on.

Here's my opinion on DT's dungeon and raid difficulty, starting off by saying I legitimately LOVED the Arcadion raids, despite the problems I'm about to list. So here's the list.

The fights are generally too busy visually, with loads of effects going off at once as the game bombards you with overlapping mechanics. It's all too easy to blunder into something because you've become lost in the visual soup.

Mechanics are hitting far harder than they need to, and especially hard if you're someone who uses the Duty Support to learn the fights on your own.

The expansion has drastically increased the visual vocabulary of telegraphs for mechanics and does a poor job of easing you into them. (This has always been true about FFXIV.)

There are many fights that have overlapping mechanics for far too long and make it too easy for you to fail them because of point #1.

I think these are all fair criticisms and they are all things that can be overcome with repeating the content, yes. But if you say this on Twitter, you will be insulted endlessly. And here's the thing.

I've been here before.

Namely in 2010, playing Cataclysm in WoW.

It is fucking uncanny how alike the situation is; after Lich King, where WoW was at the peak of mainstream popularity, the hardcores got the ear of the devs, who decried the game was too easy, it needed to be harder, come on guys, throw us a bone.

And so Cata launched with some of the most painful content in the world to run-in fairness, far harder than FFXIV's current content-and a lot of players complained that the dungeons were overtuned, offering fair criticisms. I remember that the first boss of Shadowfang Keep was basically impossible if the group didn't have every member with a 10 second cool down on interrupts; some comps literally could not do it. The dungeons were not fun at all, and the raids were worse.

And of course the forums were aflame with people saying get good, the game is fine, you all just suck.

But here's the thing. And it's something that you'd think Yoshi-P would know, considering how much he valued WoW as an influence:

When the sub numbers came out for the first time after Cata launched, three million people had quit.

I can testify to the effect that Cata's launch had; my guild went from being able to run two ten man raids and a 25 man ICC each week to having so few players I had to switch to tank to allow the guild to do a 10 man raid, 25s were dead. The difficulty of Cata blew a hole in the game's casual players that WoW never recovered from. Now I am willing to admit that it probably wasn't the difficulty change that caused all three million subs to vanish; Lich King was the game's peak, it was never going to sustain it.

But it was definitely a factor, a major one, and 4.1 only having as content the brutally hard troll dungeons, where you could spend two hours not clearing, sure as fuck didn't help.

And FFXIV has done the exact same thing; at the height of its popularity, it has tipped the content difficulty scale in the favor of the hardcores. So if sometime next year, there are no congested realms and a lot of houses are being demolished because their owners unsubbed, history could very well be repeating itself. Hell, it might even be worse; WoW didn't force you to do dungeons unless you wanted to gear up for content. FFXIV forces you to do dungeons and trials at least ONCE as part of the MSQ.

Why can't MMO devs ever find a happy medium?

[puppyexpressions]

When to Stop Feeding Your Dog Puppy Food

Proper nutrition is an important part of caring for puppies and adult dogs. Most owners know that puppies need food specifically made to promote growth and development. However, many owners struggle to determine when the time is right to switch to adult dog food. This is because there is no rule that applies to all dogs. Different dogs grow at different rates. You and your vet can estimate the best time to make the change to your puppy's diet

Feeding Puppy Food

Puppies need more calories than adult dogs to support their growth, development, and high energy levels. Young puppies need about twice the number of calories as adult dogs of the same size. As your puppy approaches adulthood, his growth begins to slow and his caloric needs decrease. If you continue to feed puppy food once your dog stops growing, it will result in weight gain. Excess weight can quickly turn into obesity, which can lead to a host of health problems.

When to Switch to Adult Food

In general, dogs are considered puppies until about one year of age. However, different breeds age at different rates. For example, many large and giant breed dogs are considered puppies until two or more years of age and will therefore need to remain on puppy food beyond age one. Conversely, some small dog breeds reach adult size before the age of one. Your veterinarian is the best source of information when it comes to your dog's diet, so ask for advice before making the switch to adult food.

When deciding on the right time to feed adult dog food, the goal is to switch to adult food around the time the puppy stops growing but before he starts gaining excess weight. Keep track of your puppy's weight and height and look for the numbers to increase at a slower rate. Most dogs will begin to reach a plateau around one year of age, but you might notice the growth slow down as early as eight or nine months of age.

Assessing Your Dog's Weight

Be aware that weight gain does not necessarily indicate growth. If your dog is gaining weight but not getting taller or more muscular, he may be getting overweight. You can address your dog's body condition at home in a few steps:

Run your hands along your dog's ribcage. You should be able to feel the ribs covered by a thin layer of fat. If you cannot easily feel the ribs, your dog may be overweight. 

Look at your dog from the side. You should be able to see the upward tuck of the belly. An overweight dog will have very little or no tuck.

View your dog from above. There should be some narrowing at the waist just past the ribcage. A straight or bulging line from the ribcage to the hips indicates an overweight dog. 

Very prominent ribs and a very small waist may mean your dog is underweight. Visit your vet for an exam to be sure.

If your dog is less than a year old and seems to be gaining weight, you may need to simply reduce the portion size or frequency of meals before you switch to adult food. Vets recommend feeding young puppies three times per day. However, most puppies can go down to meals a day when they are approaching adulthood.

How to Make the Diet Change

Any diet change should be done gradually to avoid gastrointestinal upset. This process can take a week or two depending on how you do it.

It may take some time and research to choose the right food for your now-adult dog. You may wish to stick with the same brand of food but switch to an adult formula. Of course, your vet can help you find an appropriate diet.

Once you have chosen the adult dog food, determine the portion size of adult food you will eventually need to feed based on your dog's current weight. Then, add a small percentage of adult food to the puppy food, increasing it a little at each meal. For simplicity, you may want to work out a schedule so you are not trying to remember how much of each to feed. Many veterinary professionals recommend the "3 by 3" approach when switching diets:

Days 1-3: Feed 1/3 portion of adult food and 2/3 portion of puppy food

Days 4-6: Feed 1/2 portion of adult food and 1/2 portion of puppy food

Days 7-9: Feed 2/3 portion of adult food and 1/3 portion of puppy food

Day 10 and on: Feed full portion of adult food

During the switch, watch your dog's appetite and bowel movements. Slow the transition if your dog experiences diarrhea or vomiting. If GI upset continues, you may need to choose a different adult diet and re-start the transition. Contact your vet if your dog has vomiting or diarrhea for more than a day.

Watch your dog's weight over the coming months to make sure you don't need to adjust portion times. Also, be sure to keep up with annual or biannual veterinary wellness check-ups as recommended by your vet.