#i booted it up for the first time in months because my 9 year old sister wanted to play with me

[lowdowndandy]

Look at this cute cotton candy bear !

[h-ngm-nssluttt]

Deployment Birth

Jake Seresin One Shot

Pov: jake misses the birth of your baby while on deployment but the Dagger Squad makes sure they help you along the way.

The old saying goes ‘When you know you know’ and that was the truth for Jake Seresin. The moment he met Hazel it’s like the stars in his universe aligned as sappy as that sounds, but there was just something about her that made him simply… know.

When Hazel moved to North Island the last thing on her mind was finding someone to be in a relationship with but the universe on that one fateful night at the hard deck when she met up with her childhood friend Natasha Trace had other plans. Hazel wasn’t sure if it was the Southern drawl or the million dollar smile or maybe even the captivatingly gorgeous green eyes that stared deeply into hers like she was the only one in the room even though they were surrounded by the many patrons of the Hard Deck on a Saturday night, but Jake Seresin stole her heart that night whether she realized it right away or not.

The usual cocky, egotistical, womanizer Aviator everyone was used to had changed faster than they could blink. Cocky attitude was replaced with sweet nothings and compliments. Flowers on a random Tuesday just because and coffee runs on his lunch just so he could see you for 10 minutes. Jake Seresin was in love and he was in it deep.

They moved in together after dating for 9 months. She brought warmth and life to Jake's boring beige apartment which he loved. He loved the throw pillows that now adorned his couch, the scented candles that seemed to be in each room. The pictures that now hung on the walls, he loved it all. The engagement followed suit after a year and a half of dating and the wedding wasn’t too far behind. It felt like a whirlwind romance to everyone around them but they just simply knew. They were each other’s person, made for each other by the gods above so why waste anytime when you just simply know.

Hazel was not used to having a partner that actually put in effort. When they say “if he wanted to he would” Jake always wanted to. The smallest of things like doing the dishes, getting her shower ready to just the right temperature that he knew she liked. Having a glass of wine and her book ready for her on the coffee table after a long day of work so she could relax while he sat on the couch with her watching a muted tv with sports recaps on it just to spend time with her. He wanted it all. At first it scared her, but once she realized that Jake wasn’t like her past relationships she was in deep too.

2.5 years in a new journey was about to begin.

She stood in the bathroom staring at the test on the counter. 2 dark pink lines staring right back at her. She wasn’t convinced at first but the 5 tests she took told her otherwise, all showing the same result. She was pregnant. They were going to have a baby. She was growing something half Jake and Half her. She honestly couldn’t believe it. They weren’t actively trying but they decided that if it happened then so be it, and honestly, she couldn’t believe it happened.

The next week was spent going to the doctor’s office just to confirm that she was 100% pregnant (which she was). 5 weeks to be exact. Once she realized it was without a doubt positive she began trying to come up with a creative way to tell Jake.

She stood over the box on the kitchen island making sure it was perfect one more time before gently closing the lid just as she heard the door of Jake's truck close from outside their apartment. Hazel acted like she was busy tidying up the kitchen counter when she heard his boots thud across the hardwood floor as a hand wrapped around her waist from behind and a gentle kiss was placed to the top of her head.

“Hey sweetheart. How was your day?” I smiled as I turned around and faced Jake as I gently wrapped my arms around his neck

“It was good. Busy. How about you?” Jakes smile widened as he looked down at me

“Long and tiring. Was flying from the moment I got on base till it was time to leave”

“Sounds like it’s going to be relaxing on the couch and takeout kind of night?” He smiles as he leans down and places a soft kiss to my lips

“its like you read my mind sweetheart”

I smile as he removes his arm from around my waist and walks across the kitchen. I admire how good he looks in his khaki uniform. He always looks so good. It almost has to be a sin for someone to look that good. He stops at the sight of the box on the kitchen island

“What's this?”

“Just a little something for you” I smile as he looks at me almost confused as he looks back down at the box

“I’m not forgetting something am i?”

“no..go ahead and open it up”

I smile as I watch him look between the box and myself a few more times before slowly grabbing the lid and opening the box as I lean against the kitchen island, my eyes never leaving his face as he looks at the contents of the box. His hands grip the sides of the box as he intently stares at the small pair of aviator sunglasses and a small onesie that says “daddy’s wingman” with a jet underneath it. He quickly looks up at me and back down at the contents of the box multiple times before looking at me.

“are… are you. you’re”

I smile widely as I look at him nodding my head yes as he tries to form a complete sentence. Before I could even get a word out he closes the distance between us as he rounds the corner of the island and cradles my face in his hands as he stares into my eyes and quietly whispers

“we’re having a baby?”

“were having a baby” He leans down and places a soft but passionate kiss to my lips, resting his forehead against mine as he looks into my eyes

“I can’t believe this…. Were… were going to have a baby…”

I smile as I gently place my hands on his shoulders as he moves his hands to my waist as we stand there in the kitchen together. The smile never leaves his face as he slowly kneels down in front of me and rests his forehead against my stomach as he quietly whispers something I can’t fully make out to my stomach. Excitement settling between the two of us as the realization that our greatest adventure together was about to begin in a short 9 months.

They say pregnancy is supposed to be a happy time in a couple’s life… and I suppose that’s true if your husband is not in the military. Nothing can ruin the happiness of a pregnancy like the word ‘deployment’… a 6-month deployment at that. 6 months which happens to be the amount of time that I have left in my pregnancy. 6 months that will be cutting it close to the due date of our baby, if the baby comes on time that is. 6 months of experiencing everything alone. 6 months of sending updates and pictures through letters as often as we can send them. 6 months and the chance that Jake will miss the birth of our baby…

Jake, Payback and Fanboy got the orders a week ago and they leave in 2 days. Those two days were spent barely leaving our bed. Jake's hand never leaves my stomach, caressing the very small baby bump that has formed. Two days of him talking to our baby telling them that they had to wait for him to come home before coming into the world.

“Everyone says that the first baby comes late as long as everything goes well”

I lay there running my fingers through jakes hair as he rests his forehead against my bare stomach running his thumb against the small bump

“I really hope they are right… I can’t miss this.. I just..” he sighs as he places a kiss to my stomach

“I just really need you to wait for daddy to get home… just hang on tight in there for me please”

“We will do our best honey”

The send off was a crying fest. Natasha had to drive me home and ended up spending the night to make sure I was okay. The Dagger squad tried to make this deployment as easy as possible on me as they could. Every Monday Bob came over for dinner. On Tuesdays Bradley and I went grocery shopping together to ensure I didn’t have to lift anything on my own. Wednesdays Natasha and I went to a yoga class. Thursdays Javi came over and mowed the lawn and helped with anything I needed done, and on Friday’s we all went out for dinner and ended the night at the Hard Deck together where I would sit and sip on water while we all went on with our lives. Well they went on with their lives like normal. I felt like I was on autopilot going through the motions each day.

Penny went with me to all of my dr. appointments and has been giving me some parenting advice here and there from when she had Amelia. Everyone made sure I wasn’t alone even though I felt like I was a majority of the time. I made sure to take video’s of our appointments so he can see them when he returns home. The sound of the baby’s heartbeat, the black and white screen showing our little baby moving around.

Every Monday I wrote Jake a new letter with a picture to show how much my belly was growing. With each letter I felt like my heart broke more and more. Each letter included something new about my pregnancy, like how I went to the appointment to find out the gender but refused to know what the baby was until Jake was home. Another one was about how I felt that baby kick for the first time. Another was how hard it was starting to get comfortable because my stomach was so big I could only fit in Jake's shirts anymore and waddle around like a penguin.

Another letter was simply just a list of names for either gender that we liked, eventually deciding on a name for either or that we felt would fit perfectly for our baby.

Each letter was met with a response about how he wishes he was there to experience everything with me. How guilty he feels that he is missing everything and the dreaded line of ‘I still don’t have an exact date as to when I will be home’ that one gets me every time and usually brings me to tears as it feels like the closer and closer I get to our due date that the reality of me having to do this alone is become more and more real as each day passes. And being 4 weeks away from our due date really made that fear a reality.

Each day this week I texted everyone the same excuse ‘you won’t need to come over today. I’m not feeling well. Super tired’. In reality I laid in our bed snuggled into one of jakes sweatshirts clutching onto his pillow as I laid their and slept and cried all week long. Friday night rolled around and I was laying in bed watching some crappy reality show when I heard footsteps and saw Bob, Natasha, Bradley and Javi standing in my hallway. Natasha walked into the room and knelt down by the side of my bed as I looked at her with my tired and red rimmed eyes

“We pieced it all together when we got to dinner tonight. You aren’t sick”

“I mean I am sick.. I’m sick of this deployment…” and that’s all it took before the tears started flowing again as Natasha tried to console me.

“I’m so scared… Each day passes and it becomes more and more real that…. That he’s not going to be here… I’m going to be doing this alone… I can’t do this alone.. I .. he … I can’t”

After crying for a solid hour, I fell asleep as Natasha sat on the bed with me trying to calm me down. Bob, Bradly and Javi cleaned up the apartment and went to the store to ensure I had enough food in the apartment for next 2 weeks and picked up dinner from my favorite Chinese place to try and cheer me up.

We spent the rest of Friday night all crowded in Jake and I’s bedroom. Natasha and Bradley crammed onto the bed with me while Javi and Bob settled onto the floor by the bed. If it wasn’t for this group of friends right here I honestly don’t think I would have made it through this.

The week of the baby’s due date approached fast and Natasha refused to let me be alone. She took up residency on the couch in case I needed anything or god forbid the baby decided to come. This week felt agonizingly slow. Like my body knew it needed to hold on but unfortunately it had other plans. 3 days before our due date I was standing in the kitchen making myself breakfast when I felt it… my water broke. I stood there with wide eyes and I stared at Natasha who was sitting at the kitchen island. It didn’t take long for the tears to cascade down my cheeks as I realized this was it… I silently cursed my body for not holding on longer to even give the slightest chance that Jake could have made it home in time.

72 hours of intense labor later and the Dagger squad crammed into a tiny hospital room, Sonny Amelia Seresin made her appearance and my god did she look just like her daddy, green eyes and all. After a brief hospital stay we made it home and two weeks later we got the call that Jake would be coming home.

The Dagger squad and I made our way to the dock to welcome Jake, Reuben and Jay home. Sonny was curled up against my chest as I stood there frantically searching through the sea of people just trying to catch a glimpse of that familiar head of sandy blonde hair and green eyes. Natasha placed her hand on my shoulder and pointed and as soon as I followed the direction her finger was pointing I saw him. The instant our eyes met it felt like the first night we met all over again. It was like we were the only two there even though there were hundreds of people there. His eyes drifted to the tiny bundle curled up against my chest and I could see the tears from here. It’s like the world was moving in slow motion as he made his way to us. The second he made it to us one hand was placed on my waist the other on my cheek as he leaned down and placed a kiss on my lips as his tears fell on to my cheeks. I love you whispered between the two of us before he pulled back and gently removed his hand from my cheek and gently ran a finger over his daughters’ tiny cheek and ran his hand gently over her tiny tuft of sandy blonde hair on her head. The second she was in his arms he placed a small kiss to her forehead as she snuggled into his chest and greeted his daughter for the first time with tears in his eyes.

“Hi my Sonny girl… Daddy loves you so so much”

Those words were the beginning of our new adventure together. A deployment may have gotten in the way but everything fell right back into place the second our eyes met when he got off that carrier. The stars in our universe aligned again and you could tell Jake Seresin was in love and he was in it deep with the way he looked down at his baby girl.

[sunshine-theseus]

Angel In Disguise | Esme Morgan x Reader

Word count: 2k

Summary: life’s hard when all your students prefer your footballer partner over you.

Warnings: fluff, children? idk how the English school timeline works and the Australian one doesn’t match up with the story so I’m just saying school starts in like September and ends in late May??

Request for: @wlwskyy i hope this is good! it's probably not as good as I hoped but i'm still pretty happy with it

Being a primary school teacher was hard. Trying to help students who struggle with the content while also helping others progress. Being strict while also wanting to be fun. My biggest struggle though, was a very me specific one.

Esme Morgan loves to visit me or help me out at school from time to time, and just like everyone else she meets, the kids fall in love with her. From the first time they meet her, they’re begging me to bring her back.

“Ms L/n it’s so cool you’re dating a footballer! Can you bring her back tomorrow? And the day after that and the day after that one until forever?” and once they realise that she actually has her own job to do, they beg I bring her in at least once a term.

It was my first year teaching after university, the first time she’d come to work, and it had been a complete surprise.

After she broke her leg in 2021, Esme struggled to fill her time. She’d made about 27 bracelets in the first 3 days, then tried to bake a little, although it went rather poorly. She then watched all the original Disney movies in release order. I think she got to Mulan II before she decided enough was enough.

I was in the middle of teaching the times tables when there was a light knock on the door. I could see her cheeky smile through the small pane of glass and rushed to open it for her. Esme stumbles through the door, her moon boot and crutches making it difficult for her to fit through the rather narrow frame.

She pecks me on the lips and the room erupts in childish giggles. Romantic affection was something so foreign to 8 and 9 year olds.

“Es… what are you doing here?” I whisper as I pull a chair for her sit on.

“I got bored, and I miss yoouu.” She smiles up at me and I can’t help but smile back.

“Oh! And I brought gifts for the kiddos!” she holds out a paper bag and I peak inside.

My heart melts at the pile of hand-crafted bracelets, ranging in colour and design, that fill a significant proportion of the bag.

She spent the rest of the day surrounded by my class. Eventually I had to stop teaching because they were so in love with this angelic limping figure who brough them friendship bracelets. I don’t think Esme prepared for them all to assume she was every single one of their best friends.

~~~~~

It was nearly Christmas break when she first met my class for this year, and everyone knew who she was. For the first time, I didn’t have to introduce her or tell them what she does for them to get hyped.

“I WATCHED YOU IN THAT FOOTBALL THING” and other similar phrases are shouted many times when she enters the room.

When I looked at her it was hard not to smile. She was playing and talking with kids and giving them all little bracelets, just like she does every year.

As she was crouched in front of a small group who were excitedly asking her questions, Marley, a rather shy and quiet girl, walked up to Esme and lightly tapped her shoulder. She fiddles with her fingers and avoids looking at anyone as she waits.

“Excuse me Mrs Esme?” Esme is already smiling when she turns to look at Marley.

“Hey kiddo!”

“Um you’re my favourite player of all time. I watch all your games and wanna grow up and play just like you.” And Esme’s smile grew bigger, something I wasn’t sure was possible.

“That’s so cool! Can I give you a hug?” Marley nods and giggles into the embrace, and then they begin to talk about Marley’s interest in football and Esme’s work.

I’d been struggling to get her to talk for 2 months, and Es came in and got her to talk within minutes, but I can’t stop staring lovingly at the angel of a woman in front of me. There was a part of myself I saw in Marley. I’d struggled to be very open for a long time until I met Esme. She just had this gentle, caring nature that was hard to ignore.

-

Marley misses her the most between visits. They’d made a secret handshake and love to chat and giggle on the oval at lunch, kicking the ball around.

In between visits Esme and Marley both interchangeably would give me something to give the other; a bracelet or a packet of lollies or a flower they found randomly. It was so hard for me to not burst from how cute their friendship was.

It had changed Es as well. Obviously, she has always been welcoming and warm-hearted but she’d become more confident about her play and sometimes I would catch her bragging to her teammates.

“I’m Marley’s favourite player!” it took them a while to realise who Marley was, but they found it adorable.

-

We’re in our last week for the school year, just in time for Esme to make one more surprise appearance before she has leave for camp for the France Olympics. I’d told the kids she wasn’t sure if she would have time to make it between finishing up the season and preparing for the Olympics, but that didn’t stop them from begging me to bring her in.

It’s the last day, everyone already buzzing for their long holiday, and admittedly from the lollies I gave them. I always try to make the last day super fun, activities and music and a surprise guest.

By midday I’d already had to apologise that Esme couldn’t make it. 17 times and counting.

And by 1, there was a knock on the door. A knock the kids were all too familiar with, and Esme rushes into the room, kids swarming her from all angles.

“Hey kiddos!”

“Hey pretty lady” she turns to me and kisses me quickly. Gags and loud ‘ewww!’s echo out.

Marley waits patiently with a small bag in her hand, still considerably shy. Esme wastes no time in getting to the young girl, with a similar bag in hand.

“Hey Mar! I got you a little something.” Esme hands the bag over, and everyone watches carefully as she pulls out whatever lays inside.

I see the familiar light blue peak out, and recognise the jersey design I sport most weekends. The present is clear when Marley starts jumping up and down in excitement.

“It’s one of my spares so don’t tell Gareth, ok? I got all the girls to sign it.” Marley is wrapped around Esme before she can finish the sentence.

“Thank you!” she scrambles to put her bag in Esme’s hands before tugging the shirt over her head.

I nearly scream when I see Esme pull out a black and purple jersey, colours I know from all the pictures Marley shows me of her games, usually with a trophy in her hands. Her last name and the number 14 adorn the back with a tiny ‘Marley’ in black sharpie on the ‘1’.

“Oh my god Marley this is so cool! I’m going to keep this forever. In a few years time I’m going to see you playing for England and know I got the first ever Marley jersey and signature. And of course you’ll play for Manchester City yeah?” the little girl eagerly nods her head.

-

The day goes on and the kids go home for the last time. Esme leaves after an hour of helping me pack up the classroom, to start dinner and I don’t finish until 5:30.

By the time I pull into the driveway, I’m exhausted, but satisfied with my work for the year.

I leave most of my gear in the car to unpack another day and walk to the door. I struggle to open it for a moment but when I do, I’m hit by the smell of my favourite meal cooking and the sound of Esme singing, albeit not well.

I drag my feet into the kitchen and wrap my arms around my wife, kissing her back as I just rest against her.

“Hello my love.”

“Hey sunshine.” I pause for a moment.

“You’re so good with kids.” She hums as she turns the stove off.

“And you helped Marley so much.”

“She’s a good kid, it’s hard not to like her.” I pull away and reach up to kiss her on the cheek before looking for the small gift bag.

“What are you doing?” Esme questions as she begins to plate to the food

“Well we have to measure Marley’s shirt for a frame so we can hang it up don’t we? I want to be able to boast to the world in like 8 years time about how I taught her and how we have her first ever signature.” I poke her in the side as I grab my plate.

“Well how about we do that tomorrow? I just want to cuddle with you tonight before we have to pack and get ready for camp.” I let out a loud groan.

“I can’t believe you’re taking me to France, and we’ll barely be able to do any of that gross romantic shit together.” Esme smiles down at me, regret floating behind her eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Noo I’m so excited I just think they’re cruel for making players do their job or whatever.” I jokingly roll my eyes before I lean back into her on the couch, both our plates sat in our laps.

“I promise to take you to that restaurant on the top of the Eiffel Tower before we leave.” She kisses my forehead.

~~~~~

“This is light work for the defender, tapping the ball passed Courtney Nevin and chipping it passed the Australian goalkeeper! IT’S A GOAL FOR ENGLAND AND THEY FIND AN EQUALISER IN THE OLYMPIC FINALS!”

I cheer at the goal with the rest of the stadium, hugging the small girl next to me as she bounces in excitement.

“Did you see that mumma? She scored! Mar Mar scored!” Reese shouts over everyone else.

“I did! It was amazing, wasn’t it?”

When the game ends, I pick Reese up and we rush down to the pitch with the other family members, celebrating as we make our way. It takes us a few minutes to spot the players we’re looking for but when Reese points them out, I put her down and she runs toward them without a single thought.

“Congratulations!” I pull Esme into a kiss before turning to Marley. The 16-year-old smiled brightly at me before hugging me tightly.

“Your goal was fucking phenomenal Marley! They should make you a striker.”

“But then she wouldn’t be just like her favourite player” Esme buts in, our daughter falling asleep on her hip. We all laugh and continue to talk with the other girls and celebrate until we decide to head back to the hotel to put Reese to bed.

“I’m so proud of how far you’ve come you know?” I pull Marley into my side as we wait for the elevator.

“From ‘shy little 8 year old who refused to talk to her teacher’ to ‘number 14; defender and debut scorer for her country at the 2032 Olympics at 16 years old’.”

“And one of the youngest and best signings for Man City!” Esme chimes in

“Thank you for always believing in me.”

After we say goodnight to Marley and make sure Reese is definitely asleep, I climb into bed with Esme.

“You’re so amazing.” I stare at her. Sometimes I don’t understand how I was blessed with such a kind-hearted, gentle woman.

“I try.” We break out in giggles and I slap her lightly on the shoulder.

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.” we don’t say anything else.

She kisses me hard before I rest my head on her chest, her arm wrapping around me as we fall asleep. She’s my angel in disguise.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for getting an unhoused dude kicked out of my building?

long time reader first time caller. this happened a few years ago but i still feel mildly guilty about it. i (21 at the time, nb) lived in an oldass new england inn that had been subdivided into two halves, side A and B, rent a room style. i lived with 9 other people, all girls or nb, at the time. sides A and B were accessible to each other through the attic or basement, but otherwise to pass from side to side one would have to go through a locked outdoor breezeway. each room didn’t really lock and anyone living in this building would have pretty easy access to anyone else’s room should they want to. this is fairly important

during i believe november, an empty room in our house on side A suddenly contained a random man. i personally lived on side B, but we were all close friends with each other throughout the house. when this guy appeared, the folks on side A got pretty freaked out, as we had been told a new girl would be moving into that apartment in a week, not a man. no one on side A wanted to talk to the new guy as they felt too frightened, and as i was kind of operating as the ‘man of the house’ at the time (tough tall dyke privilege), i said i would talk to him for them.

when i met him by myself he seemed like a nice guy. tall, maybe 6’4”, white and presumably cis, athletic build. he was fine but i could see how the side A residents were intimidated. however, when i talked to him, he said he was staying in this room because his friend (who lived there over a month ago and had moved out) had told him he could crash there. we were not in contact with this previous resident; presumably he had made copies of his old keys. new guy said he was looking to stay indefinitely until he could find a new place. we parted ways fine enough and i informed my roommates of what he said.

they were not pleased about his ‘indefinite stay’ plans and reached out to our landlady, who decided to come that day and talk to him as well. she asked me to accompany her as she was a little lady and also scared of big men (understandable) (i’d like to say as a footnote fuck landlords but she was an exception, lovely mom-like figure who kept our rent low as hell)

when meeting with new guy with the landlady, she did all the talking and i stood mutely as a witness and a bodyguard, i guess. she told him she didn’t want to kick him out, but she had a new renter coming in a week and if he couldn’t get out by then they would have a problem. now here is where he started to get verbally aggressive. his frustration was very understandable and landlady was mostly patient with it, but when he started calling me an “ignorant bitch” and accusing me of trespassing (given i lived on side B, not side A), she snapped, said not to talk to me like that, and told him he had until the end of the day to clear out. ultimately, he refused to clear out that night. the next day around noon landlady came with the cops to help him leave. he wasn’t arrested or anything, just escorted out after packing up.

ultimately i feel pretty guilty about this because if it were entirely up to me i wouldn’t have snitched on him, just warned him about the new renter coming. but because my roommates felt very unsafe i felt i had to put on my bad guy boots and support them and my landlady; but if i hadnt been there as “bodyguard” maybe things wouldn’t have gotten aggressive? i have no idea what happened to the poor guy afterwards, i saw him walk down the street away from our house and never saw him again. i hope he’s doing ok now. so was i the asshole?

What are these acronyms?

[starfleetwitch]

Berenice Griselda Wolfe tried to kill me and when that didn't work, she sabotaged my home set up by being a flirty MF with a TARDIS.

(Not a sentence I thought I'd EVER write completely sober or seriously but here we are)

This is a bit of a long story and now I've written it and got it out of my system I fully realise just how much I resemble a dog barking at a corner for no reason.

There is a TLDR at the end

Story time:

So I got this Tardis themed external USB hub for Christmas a few years ago.

It's kinda cool, lights up when you plug in a USB and what not. Fantastic. It also made that scrapping TARDIS sound when you plug in USBs. Also a fantastic feature, quite quirky. Much wow... For a week and then it really grated on my nerves. Found out after a month there was a switch on the side that let you turn the sound off. Wonderful. Fantastic. Problem solved. They all lived happily ever after, end of the story.

Except it wasn't.

Because the internet exists and with it, great knowledge that I shouldn't have been allowed access to.

I got bored and last year during some death scrolling, I found out I could change that hideously irritating TARDIS scraping sound...

...TO WHAT EVER I WANTED...

... And lesbian jesus help me, I wanted to be funny 🙈

So I decided to use sound bites from Holby City. Specifically from Bernie Wolfe.

We had "I say ding dong" for when a USB was pushed into a slot and "Easy tiger" for when a USB was pulled out of a slot.

Link here for reference: Where it all went wrong

Anyway. For a while it was quite funny... Except for you know... When my volume was turned up full blast and I was getting jump scared by Bernie Wolfe's voice every time I plugged in, lord knows what the rest of the house thought every time it went off.

I lived with it for a while... You know... Haha, scared me, GOT ME AGAIN BERNIE YOU OLD SCALLY WAG! But then things started going wrong. The jump scares started going into heart failure mode when in the middle of the night if I was doing a long download, she'd just randomly yell 'DING DONG!' or even worse, she'd start stuttering on full volume 'I SAY I SAY I SAY DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG'. GENUINE heart failure territory. Like FOR GODS SAKES BERENICE STFU!!!

Me being me, I forgot how I'd changed the setting to be her voice... And also at this point, I should add, the switch on the side to stop her talking stopped working.

I must assume murdering me in cold blood via jump scares just wasn't working fast enough for her because for a while she stopped.

All seemed well in the land of Starfleet Witch but unbeknownst to me, Bernie was plotting something bigger. Something she knew would REALLY insta kill me.

I started working from home for a bit and randomly about a week in, she did it again... Except this time she yelled 'EASY TIGER' and that was it. Nothing seemed out of place, she never spoke again after that. Everything was fine for a couple of weeks.

Until last week (AKA THE WEEK THAT NEVER ENDED.)

I'd been in an anxious spiral. Shit was happening IRL and I was TERRIFIED of the future. She saw this weakness in me, witnessed first hand how on the edge I was and decided, like the spiteful cunt she is, that now was the time to hatch her brilliant plan.

Wednesday morning. I had a deadline. 9:30am arrived... But my computer wouldn't turn on. I rang for help, I had switched it on and off many times... Nothing. 10:30am rolled around. I unplugged everything, had the very guts of my computer spread out across my floor praying it would be an easy fix... Nothing. At the 11th hour, I plugged everything back in and tried to turn it on again, constantly pressing F8 to reboot it and miracle of miracles, it worked! I downloaded some software to test the hard drive health, did some diagnostics and everything seemed fine. Better than fine. The computer was HEALTHY AF! So I prayed it may have been just a one off glitch.

It wasn't.

In fact my computer repeated its issue of booting up every morning after that, an expense I couldn't afford to fix any time soon but I NEEDED the computer for work.

Friday morning rolled around, I unplugged everything, held the very heart of my computer in my hands trying to find a loose connection or SOMETHING. Nothing. Everything was fine. Dejected, this time when I tried to turn the computer on, I only plugged in the power cable, screen and keyboard.

It worked first try.

And that's when I FINALLY got suspicions.

Over the weekend I decided to do some experiments. I tried plugging in different things I hadn't plugged in when I last tried switching it on and low and behold it wouldn't turn on when Bernie TARDIS was plugged in.

And that dear friends is when I decided aging 40 years in the space of days over a joke isn't actually funny and that I'd CLEARLY wronged a god somewhere along the way, for what crueller punishment could they bestow upon me than to have my very muse almost kill me via an anxiety induced heart attack?

TLDR:

I haven't found out how yet but my TARDIS with Bernie's voice clearly got possessed by a disgruntled spirit insisting on making my life a living hell and now it's in quarantine until I can cleanse it's soul and work out how to take it's voice away again.

Moral of the story: Don't give things Bernie Wolfe's voice, no matter how funny you think it'll be. Bolting upright in your bed because you heard Jemma Redgrave say "ding dong" at 3am isn't actually as pleasant an experience as you might think and when it happens several times, it's terrifying.

[thestalkerbunny]

I just realized that I go back tomorrow (a normal realization) but also that I most likely will have to encounter my LEAST FAVORITE patron who is a 16 year old boy who

-makes all the female staff uncomfortable, we have had actually DISCUSSIONS in the back about how much we don't like him.

-hangs around the desk 24/7 whenever he's there and blocks actual patron's way

-Insists on having conversations I have no interest in (jujukaisen or whatever, jojo's bizzare adventure, fucking bakugon.)

-He's gotten into SLIPKNOT of all things and is asking my opinions on it. (I don't care for it)

-Any time he opens his mouth to recount some story it makes me recoil in the fact that it's like the starting behavior most serial killers exhibit (one being how he purposefully killed a snake to throw on his brother as 'revenge' for something petty. that's literally what he opened up with when I first met him. That's how you ruin a first impression.)

-ASKS US WHY PEOPLE DONT LIKE HIM. (I proceed to list the things.)

-ADEMENTLY TELLS HIM FREQUENTLY TO GO AWAY, SHOO, SCAT, I DONT LIKE YOU, I KNOW YOU'RE HERE TO TALK TO LIBRARIAN B WHO YOU WENT TO CHURCH WITH SINCE YOU WERE A KID BUT LIKE YOU'RE CLOGGING THE QUEUE SYSTEM OF MY JOB IM PAID TO DO.

-Has been doing this FUN LITTLE THING where he's constantly asking where another female staff member is going when she leaves the desk area and I tell him 'Don't ask that, it's creepy and women don't like it' and he's confused on why that's creepy-he doesn't even understand why I'm vague when people are on their lunch or not-you're not supposed to TELL because that's like SAFETY 101.

And then he stays there......for nearly 5 hours. Usually 5 out of the 7 I will be on shift for. Because his mom TUTORS kids at the library and I just see him walk in and my whole demeanor switch is just.

I hate him, I hate him *SO* much it's STUPID and we can't give him the boot cause he's not technically doing anything to break the rules besides being a pain. I had such a nice summer because he had no reason to be here, but he's going to torment me with his presence for the next 9 BUISNESS MONTHS until Summer (or Christmas break) returns.

I genuinely love my job, it is such a good job for me, it's something I feel like I excel in and I can see myself happily in it for years to come but GOD, DEAR GOD, I HATE THIS KID.

[edenshiba]

Meeting Him Again

Character: Jesse x Fem! Reader

Summary: Your ex, (or so you thought) has been released from prison. How will you react when you meet him again?

Warning: none

Note: Hi! This is my first fic here. I’m not a native speaker so my English is kinda shit. Anyway, I never find any Jesse fic. This man need some love. Naoto play this character too well. I love him.

___________________________________

You were young and dumb. Your 19 year old self was too happy to date a man of your dream. He is older than you, by 3 years but he is very attractive.

He is short, but that doesn’t matter. Both of you almost the same when it came to height. He got a very beautiful smile, a bit arrogant, reckless and know how to fight. You was over the moon when he asked you out.

The night was young when you both decided to ended your date with a kiss. An innocent peck turns into heated make out session and both of you ended up on your bed the next day, naked with only plain blanket covered your body.

The next thing you know is you are his.

Jesse was the man that you always wanted. Even though your relationship with him is toxic, you ignored all of the obvious red flag. One of it when you watched him beat a guy half death just because he looks at you the wrong way.

You thought that it was normal, having a very possessive and caring boyfriend.

His friends are cool, the small hip hop group called Mighty Warrior. Ice, the boxer who are a good rapper used to be your close friend and always there whenever you hang out with them at their hideout. Bernie always show you how to make a fire beat whenever he was doing their new song.

9, not much but that guy is cool and fun to be with. Aside from his questionable hair cut, you found his presence comforting. He thought you how to do freestyle rap and sometimes you guys always tried to make your own song. Doesn’t matter how shit you are when it comes to rapping and singing.

That was until he got caught by the police.

You was there, the day the police came to your apartment to arrested him. Both of you just cuddling on the sofa and your bell rings. You thought that it was the delivery guy until you saw their uniforms.

Jesse didn’t tried to deny the allegations and then he was brought to Rasen. It took you two months to realized how toxic and abnormal your relationship’s are. If it wasn’t for your friends, you would have gone crazy and still in denial.

It’s been years since that day and honestly, you are recovering and stronger than before. You picked up new hobbies and signed up for a music class with your friend. You already graduated from University.

Years of studying your ass off finally paid off. You graduated with perfect CGPA and the best thing is you are free from student loan and debts. You didn’t get to University with scholarship. You worked as a bartender at Club Heaven that belongs to the White Rascals. Your boss is the greatest man alive.

“Don’t forget tonight. We need to celebrate.” Your friends said before waving.

“ I know, I know. Funk Jungle right?” You confirmed for the last time before walking away.

Time flies, it’s been six years.

You entered the taxi before giving the driver your address. You put on your headphones and play a song. You decided to take a nap before arriving at your house.

You changed your apartment three years ago and your new one is 20 kilometres away from your campus. It is far but you usually ride your bike to the Uni but today you felt lazy. You sent your bike to the repair shop since you need to change the oil.

___________________________________

Night come, you decided to wear a short skirt and plain white top and green oversized jacket. You pick your Doc Martin boots before heading out from your apartment.

Your friends already waiting downstairs with their boyfriends. One of them owns a limousine so they decided to pick everyone up before going to the club. You don’t know much about the new club but they say that the rappers are good.

They got myriads of good songs and dance battle at the end of every song.

By the time you arrives at the club, numerous sports car and people outside. The music is so loud that you can hear it from outside. After get your id check by the bouncer, all of you finally get inside.

The neon lights blinded you for a second before you catch the glimpse of the rapper at the stage. The people their jumping, dancing and some drink a lot. You can’t lie, this club is way better than the one that you work at.

Well, they didn’t have any dress code so that’s why they are the best. Oh don’t get you start on the ambiance of the club.

The lights, the music.

Real heaven.

“I’m going to drink. Just dance.” You said before they get to drag you away.

While walking, you get to see a woman drinking with numerous guy by her side. All of the men pass out one by one. That scene made you smile.

“Mind a new drink partner?” The woman didn’t say anything. She signals the bartender to grab another glass.

As the guy pour you the liquor, both you and the woman clink the glass before chug it. Your brows furrowed. That was strong.

You didn’t realize how many glasses that you have drink. Your head felt light but you kept drinking. The next thing that you know, your friends drag you away from the bar and all of you dance together.

“See something that you like?” Jesse turned his head to the guy.

Ice handed him the drink that he just poured. Jesse took it before chugging it down. His eyes still looking at you.

“I heard she move away. Can you believe it?” Ice hummed at the man’s word.

“Do you still like him bro?” Jesse smirked.

“We never broke up.” He reminded him.

Ice snorted at his reply. He know damn well what his friend would do to you.

“You should visit her. After all, she’s your girl bro.” He patted the man’s shoulder before went and sit with Sarah and the others.

Jesse smirked at the idea. By the time he walk out from the Sun King, he thought you would be there, waiting and welcoming him back after been away.

How dare you move away.

How dare you ran from him.

___________________________________

Your laughter can be heard all over the house. Thank god you went to the club with friends and not alone. You drank too much alcohol and your friends need to drop you at your house early.

After drinking a whole 1.5 litre of water and two aspirins, you finally in your right mind. At least you can walk and converse like a normal person.

“Remember to call me tomorrow (y/n). We need to shop for the clothes.” Rika, your friend reminds you.

“ I know. Now go away your boyfriend is waiting.” You finally kick her out.

You take of your boots before putting it aside. You took of your jacket and throw it on the floor. By the time you flick the lamp switch, your screams filled the living room.

“ I miss you bunny.”

You grab the nearest thing that you can get your hands to. Jesse gave you his killer smirk before getting closer to you.

“ Don’t! Don’t move!” You warned him, while still holding the flower vase that you grabbed earlier.

Jesse holding his hands up, playfully trying to get near you. He knows that you would never throw that vase to him.

You are speechless. How? How the hell did he knows your house?

How can he be here? He should be in prison.

“You should be in Rasen.” You muttered.

He shrugged his shoulders and before you get to do anything, he already standing in front of you, taking the vase and put it away.

“ I’ve been released yesterday. And I thought that my girlfriend should be in front of the gate, welcoming me.” He grabbed your cheeks with his right hand.

“I am not your girlfriend!” You snarled at him.

Suddenly the grip became strong. Your jaw tighten and your hands tried to push him away but didn’t succeed.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself yet bunny.” He said.

He pushed your body to the couch before caging you. His hand play with the loose strands of your hair before sniffing it.

“This is better than I imagined.” He muttered.

He planted kisses around your neck before going to your face. The kiss ended on your lips.

“Pack your bag, I’ll come and get you tomorrow. You better behave or I’m going to be very, very mad.”

His breath fanning your neck. He kissed your forehead before walking to the door.

“ Don’t run bunny. I’ll hunt you down.” He reminded you before closing the door.

After he left, tears streaming down from your eyes. Fucking!

Six years, for six years you tried to change and when you finally be the better version of yourself, he came back.

You wasted six years preparing for this day to come but at the end, you still cant win against him.

You kept making the same mistake. Oh how you wish for today to be different.

[blackbirdi]

Okay, okay, okay, SO

I work at a daycare (which I love because all the kids are so sweet) and I hear some wack stuff because little people (I work with kids from the age of 18 months to 9-ish years old) have zero fucking filter, which turns out to be pretty funny stuff.

Anywhere, here's a collection of things I have heard/have said to the little people.

-----------

*A group of kids pretending to be different things for a game they're playing*

6-year-old: I want to be something made up. Like a monster truck.

-----------

The kids call me "Miss (my name)" by the way. I also live in the country (yeehaw), so practically everyone in my town works with cattle or has crops.

3 1/2-year-old being dropped off for the day: Look, Miss (my name), I'm wearing my work boots.

Me: You are! They're pretty dirty, were you working with the cows yesterday?

3 1/2-year-old: Yeah ... they're covered in cow shit.

Me:

His dad: Hey, we don't say that.

Me:

-----------

*Playing in the sand box with a group of kids*

3 1/2-year-old (same one as the last one), out of nowhere: I hate kids.

He was the youngest one in the sandbox...

-----------

*Peacefully building a toy robot with blocks with a 5-year-old*

*Her little brother (1 1/2) comes over and gestures for the robot*

Me, hands it to him: You wanna play with the robot, buddy?

Me, a moment later: Why are you taking its arms off!?

-----------

Me, comes in for my afternoon shift in sweats: Hey, everyone! How was your day?

3 1/2-year-old (same one as before): Miss, (my name), why are you wearing pajamas?

Me: They're pants. They just look like pajamas, but they're not.

3 1/2-year-old: No. Those are pajamas.

Me:

-----------

Me, working the morning shift in fuzzy pants (THEY ARE NOT PAJAMAS): Morning, (3 1/2-year-old from before), morning (his mom), how're you guys this morning?

His mom: Good. How're you?

Me: I'm doin' alright.

3 1/2-year-old: Miss (my name), you have fuzzy pants.

Me: Yes, I do! They're really comfortable.

3 1/2-year-old, comes up to me and hugs my leg, petting my pants like a you would a dog: They're soft.

*Me and his mom share looks of confusion at his actions.*

-----------

Me, walking in for my afternoon shift: Hey, everybody!

My director to the 1 1/2-year-old (mentioned previously): We're going outside, but you have to let me change your diaper first.

1 1/2-year-old, walks over to me with a pout on his face:

My director, tired from a long day of being the only one on the floor: Do you want Miss (my name) to do it?

1 1/2-year-old, lifts her arms up to me for uppies:

Me, picks him up:

My director, defeated sigh: Sorry, Miss (my name), but he's been grumpy with me since I woke him up and he won't let me come near him at all.

Me, after being voluntold to change a (possibly) dirty diaper: It's chill. As long as it gets done, right?

I love my director sm guys. She's the best boss.

-----------

*Peacefully hanging out with a couple of school kids (5 {mentioned previously} and 8)*

*1 1/2-year-old comes up*

Me, thinks nothing of it:

Me, not even a moment later: DO NOT PUSH YOUR SISTER! DON'T KICK HER EITHER!

-----------

Me, after a long day: Don't stick that up your nose, that's not where it goes.

-----------

1 1/2-year-old (mentioned previously), pulls his sister's hair:

He literally took a chunk y'all, like it would've hurt.

5-year-old (mentioned previously), starts crying:

Me: Why would you do that!?

I live in a really small town, so a lot of kids came up multiple times because they're at the daycare regularly. Also, these aren't the only things I've heard, so let me know if you guys want to hear more (especially if it's from the 3 1/2-year-old because he's ridiculous).

[taysdorothea13]

When Taylor plays safe and sound at eras does she say anything about wren?

no! taylor has a very bold line of what she’s willing to share about her journey with motherhood as a whole, and more specifically her journey with wren. safe and sound is a song that represents the hardest and best times of her life. she played safe and sound on november 25th in são paulo, exactly nine days prior to the four year anniversary of taking in the placement that led to being a mother. i don’t even want to talk about how 9 + 4 = 13… it’s not even like i planned this out, literally im convinced tayvoodoo just works like this. but taylor definitely played it for wren. there wasn’t anything about that preformance that was for the fans, her eyes were on the vip tent the entire time.

as for what taylor will and won’t share, it’s changed over time. for the first few years, she only posted about wren when it felt necessary. she posted the birthday post because she knew if she didn’t and she happened to be spotted out and about with a kid, it would’ve been a much bigger headline than it would’ve been if she spoke about it first. after that post, wren didn’t come up again until the long pond studio sessions when she and jack allude to her being ‘munchkin’. (instead of william bowery, wren’s pseudonym is munchkin because why wouldn’t it be), and all that really gets disclosed is ‘my daughters really into watching me write, and she suggested this line so it made its way in’. there was nothing personal, nothing even remotely telling about wren. she obviously can’t control the paparazzi, and there are pictures online that show more of wren than she’d prefer (nothing with her full face. tree gets those flagged INSTANTLY) but from her account, there’s absolutely nothing. post eras, when her kids face is plastered on every social media platform, she shares more, like the post about announcing speak now includes a picture of wren in her punzel dress, but her face is covered by an emoji. any throwback pictures, taylor covers wrens face, or chooses pictures where it’s not entirely visible. but she does include pictures of wrenny in her highlight recaps of the cities if it’s something that she just can’t leave out. like in one of the city recaps, the last slide is a picture of her getting ready for stage and she’s holding wren while getting her microphone, or in the posts leading up to the eras tour, she shares a picture of her and wren standing with their backs to the camera and she’s very obviously explaining how the visuals will look. it’s a totally new realm their stepping into with the eras tour. taylor has to loosen the reins a little bit, and she does, but the world doesn’t know about her miscarriage, they don’t know about wrens abusive past, they don’t know anything about wren besides the fact that in one picture she was wearing a rapunzel dress and in another picture that wasn’t even directly posted, it was just in the background of a post, wren is wearing a pink tutu, rain boots, and taylor’s crewneck.

also! i know it’s circulating that in the bts clips taylor shared her lockscreen is joe, but in come morning light universe it’s a picture of wren PASSED out in her arms. it was taken during their first month together, and baby girl looks so tiny in her footie pajamas desperately holding onto bluey the devil stuffed animal. fans go crazy because it’s the only time they’ve ever seen a picture of taylor being so maternal. taylor is very careful with what she shares, and if it’s in any way intimate or private, she keeps it for herself. just like the fortnight videos! wrenny’s in them, she’s in travis’s arms when he kisses taylor’s cheek, but even then it’s not as personal as a sleepy five-year-old wren in princess footie pajamas desperately clinging to taylor, and god taylor herself looks so soft. its obvious she didn’t know the picture was being taken. her eyes are closed, her hands on wrenny’s back, she’s resting her cheek on her head and there’s the softest smile on her lips.

oh also! nobody knows taylor and joe broke up onto the canon eras timeline. so it is such a fucking shock to everyone when the bts clips drop and taylor’s lockscreen isn’t joe, and now fans are currently speculating when they broke up because there are so many signs now that it was AGES ago. nobody questioned why they were never spotted together after 2020, everyone assumed he was just keeping it private, but now fans are like “oh so folklore really was a breakup album” (you cannot convince me folkmore weren’t breakup albums but that’s not the conversations we’re having)

ANYWAYS I HOPE I ANSWERED UR QUESTIONS IM RAMBLING

[sillysurrealwriter]

Gaming Oddyssey

It was a sunny day, early in the morning near my home. I was lying on the couch and was playing some videogames, on my good ol’ Nintendo Switch. I smiled, as I cleared another level and I returned to the title screen.

I smiled. 100%. Like usual.

Oh, right? Let me introduce myself. I am Harvey Harriette. I am 17 years old and today was the first day of summer vacation. Those last exams during those last weeks had been tough, yet I somehow pulled through. Especially, Math. That class was a pain in the ass.

But right now, I could finally relax. 3 months of summer vacation, which meant for me 3 months full of gaming, to play so many games and to complete them 100%. A dream come true, you might say.

There’s just one problem though.....I kinda ended up beating all the games I had bought over the last weeks, last night. And now, I didn’t have any games left to play. Which was kinda annoying, not gonna lie.

Because I already bought almost every video game I could find. From X box, to PS5, to Switch...I got them all, really. Mom always complained that my room was quite messy, because all those game boxes were littered across the floor. Her complaining became annoying, so I ended up cleaning my room for a bit. But only for a bit.

Mom and my other mom were not here, right now. They were going to Europe, in order to watch some musical in Hamburg. Initially, they wanted me to go with them, but I refused. Because I really don’t like musicals whatsoever.

With musicals, all you could do was sit on your ass and watch. But with games, you could be actively be part of the action. Who wouldn’t want that? Probably some boomers, like my two moms. Urgh....

Oh well. It’s fine, really. I mean, not everyone has to like games or something. Even so, I was beginning to get bored. I definitely needed to buy a new game.

Which is why I got up and headed towards the hallway, putting on my shoes and smiling at the mirror. Short dark blue hair, a shirt so tight that it would make sure to flatten that stupid chest of mine, strong grey boots and some ripped jeans. Perfect.

I opened the door and headed downstairs. We were living in a big apartment complex, which for some reason didn’t have an elevator. Walking up and down was a pain, but it was manageable. Plus, I wouldn’t mind if I were to gain some muscles thanks to that. Then people would finally see that I am not a girl.

In any case, I opened the door and stepped outside. The sun greeted me with its warm smile and I heard some birds chirping, as I walked towards my bike. I unlocked the lock, climbed on top of it and then began to drive through the neighbourhood. The streets were clean and didn’t have any filth whatsoever, given that this was one of the more better neighbourhoods and cities in general. Where the government actually cared about us. But I digress.

Right now, I was making my way to the downtown part of this city. There, I’d get myself some new games from my local video game store. It wasn’t that far from my home to that one shop. After only about 9 minutes, I arrived at the big plaza of the city. The fountain spewed out fresh water and people were passing by, some couples taking pics of themselves and kissing each other, while street artists performed and had their best time, as they attracted a respectable audience. Seeing them dance was quite fun and I had a good time watching them for a bit.

Yet, I still needed to focus on, why I was here to begin with. I needed me some new games. So, I approached the shop that said: WonderGame. I entered through the door and the cashier, a rather plumb old man known as Mr. Marty in some grey overall and some bald hair, smiled at me.

“Ah, Harvey!”, he greeted me happily. “How are you doing?”

“I am fine.”; I answered happily and tilted my head. “Business going well?”

“Yes, indeed. Customers are coming and leaving, with many games. And you are one of them, naturally.”, he said to me, before giggling. “I assume you are here, to buy another game.”

“Damn right.”, I said and smirked. “So...got any new deliveries?”

To my dismay though, Mr. Marty shook his head.

“No, I won’t get new games until next week. I am sorry.”

“Until next week?”, I asked disappointed. “But I want to play some new games now! Are you sure that there is a game that I haven’t bought from you, yet?”

“Well......”

Mr. Marty seemed pensive, as he got up from his seat and motioned me to come closer.

“Follow me, okay kid?”

Confused, I nodded and watched, as Mr. Marty went into the open door near the counter. I followed him inside and was met with a relaxing smell. I knew this place of course. Those were what Mr. Marty would call, the catacombs. A place where he would often store games that didn’t sell quite so well in the past and would remain here, in case anyone was interested. I’ve been here a few times, to play some retro games. Yet as we passed by, I saw that I already knew most of those games and I frowned.

“Mr. Marty...What do you want to show me?”

“You’ll see.”, he told me and then moved a wardrobe aside, revealing another door. He took out a key, put it into the hole and turned it, before opening it up and revealing a set of stairs.

“What the..”

“You haven’t seen this part yet, kid.”, he explained to me, as we went downstairs through the dark cellar. “Normally, this is just the place where I store all the junk. Like broken game consoles and games and whatnot. However....”

He opened another door and we stepped into a messy hallway that reminded me of the lower part of Peach’s Castle from Super Mario 64.

“...recently, I was cleaning here and whatnot, when I found something.”

“You..found something? What is it?”

“Let me show you.”

Eventually, we reached a couple of boxes and he pushed a few of them away, before I saw it.

What I saw in front of my eyes, was a game console. It had the form of a cube, yet it was smaller than the NGC and upon closer inspection, I saw several ports on the back, so that the console could be connected to the TV. Not only that, but there was one controller plugged in. And the controller itself, was....off.

Its shape reminded me of the Wii Classic Controller. only that the color was dark red and that there were only two buttons. A and B. Just like the original NES controller.

What the......

“I found this here, a few days ago.”, Mr. Marty explained and scratched his head confused. “I had no idea, why this was here. As you know, I’ve been running this store since the 80s and yet, I never had anyone deliver me a console like that.”

“I see....”, I mumbled and took a closer look. Judging by the ports, the console must have been made around the time the N64 was produced, given the exact same ports. The colour itself was off in some areas, meaning that this thing was old and not new. I also saw a small writing in front of the cartridge slot. It said: Odyssey- A fantatic time

“Does this thing even work?”, I asked Mr. Marty. He nodded.

“Yes. I plugged it, into my TV at home. And indeed, the console works quite well and the games were fun too. Controls were solid and I had a bit of fun with it, I won’t lie.”

“Uhuh....Then why are you not selling it, upstairs?”, I wondered and for a moment, Mr. Marty remained quiet. Then, he let out a sigh.

“Truth be told, I wanted to. Yet....I had a feeling I shouldn’t. I have no idea why, though. So...”

He put his hand into a small box next to it, which had a green cartridge with the words “5 in 1”

“...do you want to have it?”

“Hmm.....”

I thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

“Sure, I guess. How much do I need to pay?”, I asked and took out my wallet, but Mr. Marty shook his head.

“You can have it for free.”, he told me. “Under one condition.”

“That being?”

“I want you to record your gameplay.”, he explained to me. “You know, to see what happens when you 100% the full game. Would that be fine with you?”

“Hmm...Sure, why not?”, I asked and nodded. “I already have a youtube channel, where I upload gameplay videos regurlarly and I make enough money from it. So, of course I can do that.”

“Excellent.”, Mr. Marty said and then put the controller on top of the console and then added the cartridge onto it, before giving it to me. I grabbed the box and was a bit surprised, as to how light it actually was. Honestly, it wasn’t heavy at all. Or did I gain some muscles?

“Thanks, Mr. Marty.”, I told him. “Once I am done, I’ll send you the videos to your mail. Have a nice day.”

“Thank you. See you kid!”

With that, I left and 10 minutes later, I was back home. I opened the door to the apartment and then closed it, before placing the console on the ground, grabbing the cables in order to plug them in. It wasn’t difficult at all, given that it was easy to see what those cables were. I then grabbed the cartridge and pushed it into the slot, before I turned on the TV and then pressed on the on button, of the console.

The TV screen glitched briefly and then turned black. For a moment, I was worried that I accidentally broke the TV. But thankfully, an image began to appear. My recording device got turned on as well and I watched, as a red spiral symbol appeared on screen with the word “Ripple”, on it.

Ripple....huh....

I took out my phone and googled the name of the console and the company of the game.

But I found nothing. Weird...

In any case, the screen changed and it showed me 5 options to choose from. They were as follows:

VeloSpeed

TheSuperstar

BeatoDanco

Crystal Venture

Evoke

Curiously, I grabbed the controller and selected the first game. Again, the title screen glitched and then, the title screen showcased some strange racing car with a black color and some Cyrillic symbols on the front, staring at the screen. It was of rather high quality and then, I pressed on start. Then, a vehicle selection came up.

There, I saw the names of the vehicles

Black: 1951 ZiS-112/1

Blue: Moskvitch 404 Sport

Green: Alpine A350

White: Alfa Romeo Tipo 512

Weird...I never heard of any of those names before. Eh, I’ll just go with the first option.

I expected a track selection to pop up, but instead I was immediately booted onto the track. It had a sunset background and the graphics reminded me indeed, of the N64. I grabbed the controller and focused my attention on the road, which would lead to a forrest apparently. I saw on the top right two goals listed:

1: Win the race

2: Beat the race, in under 2 minutes

Hm.

The traffic light turned from red to green and the race began. I had 3 competitors and indeed, the game controlled quite well and the controls reminded me a bit of Mario Kart 64. I dashed through the track, easily leaving my opponents behind. There were some tight corners in the forrest and yet, it was nothing hard. Which is why in the end, I approached the finish line with a time of 1 Minute and 30 seconds, when...

Huh.

The race cars barely moved from their spots. They...weren’t moving at all.

Weird....must be some kind of bug.

I finished the race and then, a trophy was shown to me saying:

Win you have done are

“The hell? What kind of grammar is this?”, I muttered bewildered and pressed on continue. I waited for the track to load....

....but the next track didn’t come. And after a few minutes, I realised why.

The console had turned itself off. Did the game crash?

Weird....

I turned it on and tried to select the first game again and....

...it was gone.

Huh?!

I turned the console off again, took out the cartridge, put it back inside and turned the console on again.

But....VeloRacer went missing.

Okay......

I decided to just select the next game, as I rubbed my eyes a bit. The title screen showed some Drag King jumping on a....on a...

..on some kind of giant lizard thing with a red suit and a cube-like mustache. Weird....

I pressed on start and the screen switched, to a 3d world. It looked like I was in some sort of palace, given the interior and I was controlling this Drag King. I then noticed two objectives.

1. Beat all soldiers

2: Find all Gold Coins.

Okay.....

Like the last game, the controls were solid and could kick and punch my opponents, while jumping extremely high. Moving around the castles, I beat all of those lizard soldiers easily, passing through the red doors and collecting coins. It was not hard at all. Once I was finished, a message popped up that said:

Go back to the main area, to finish.

And I was about to do that. But, then I noticed in the courtyard level that there was a door ahead. I approached it and opened it, wanting to explore as much as possible.

But when I did that, an error popped up. It was written in gibberish and I only saw tons of numbers, before it shut down and-

Wait.

Was it just me...or did I see a face staring at me? It looked like the moon....

Huh. Needless to say, this was weird. The game shut down again and when I turned the console off again, that game was also gone.

Only 3 more left.

What the hell......Urgh, my head hurt......

Okay, now I was extremely confused......Was the cartridge broken or why did each game disappear? I don’t get it....

This was getting weird and I wasn’t sure, if I wanted to play more. All of this felt like some cheap creepypasta, about some cursed game console. But.....

So far, the games weren’t creepy. Sure, they all crashed and yet, I didn’t see anything gross or something.

Well....let me try the next game. Beato Danco.

The title screen showed some strange orange haired girl with black eyes and colorful clothing dancing. She was smiling and even though she looked creepy, she also looked a bit cute.

I turned the game on and it appeared to be some DDR clone. I had to dance and press on the button at the right times, while fighting more of those lizard soldiers. I had two objectives.

Objective 1: Beat the level

Objective 2: -

Huh. Only one objective, huh?

Again, the game was easy to play and I had some fun too. But as I went on to play, I realised something.

None of those games...had any music. Sure, they had sound effects, but no music at all. That’s strange.... Were the developers unable to add some music? If it was an early console from the 80s I’d get it. But that console seemed to be from the early 90s and yet, no music at all.

Something felt off and I finished the level and as I expected, the screen turned black and...

Wait....

There was a text on the screen.

“Can you see me?”

But it was only for a split moment and then the console turned off again.

Okay, this was beginning to creep me out. I needed some answers.

So, instead of turning on the game again, I hopped onto reddit and went to r/retrogaming and typed in the following:

“Does anyone know this console? I got it from a local video game store and yet, I can’t find anything online. Can you help?”

I added some pics of the console and then sent it.

....only for a message to pop up that said:

You have been banned from r/retrogaming, for inappropriate behaviour.

Excuse me?????????

My post got deleted too. What the...What rule did I break? I didn’t even curse or anything?!

Okay..........

I coughed a bit and rubbed my eyes. What the hell.....

I glanced at the game console. Maybe...I should take a break and...

........

....

I turned the console on again and selected the fourth game. Crystal Venture.

The title screen showed a rainbow crystal and when I pressed on start, it seemed to be some sort of Tertris Clone, only with diamonds. I had two objectives.

Objective 1: Beat the level

Objective 2: Lose the level, please.

Eh?

But those goals were complete opposite of one another?!

Well.....I doubted that I could just play this game a second time, so I did my best.....I played and like usual, I beat the level.

I saw the trophy symbol again and yet....

....I saw no continue button.

The hell?

Suddenly, the screen glitched and it was all black. Then, text appeared on it.

Listen. Turn the console off.

Do not beat the gamesies.

You will just sufferersies.....

Pleasies...Pretty?

And then, the console turned off again.

I really didn’t want to play the last one, but my body didn’t listen to me. It...turned the game on again....and my hand selected the last game.

Evoke.

This time around, I was just on some black meadow. The game was in first person and it was so dark....

The.....sun had set. It was night. I had no idea, why it was nighttime already......

My hand moved the joystick and I walked around......I walked...and walked...........

Until there was something in the distance. Something with several white glowing things and long orange hair.

And to my surprise....my console spoke.

“HELLOSIES”, it said with a glitchy feminine voice. “YOU::::DIDNT LISTEN TO ME::::UWU:::::YOU NEED:::TO TURN:::THE CONSOLE OFF::::BEFORE ITS TOO LATE::::::”

“Wh..What?! Wh...What’s going on?!”, I exclaimed and felt my headaches getting worse.

“YOU::::HAVE FOUND:::::FORGOTTEN:::::YOU::::::::HAVE:::::::::BEATEN::::THE GAME::::::::::::::AND::::AND::::NOW:::YOU NEED TO TURN::::IT OFF::::PLEASE::::”

And then suddenly, I saw a timer at the top.

30 seconds.

I tried to reach to the off button, but......

My body wouldn’t move. I...I couldn’t move at all. And my head began to hurt even more.

“PLLEEEASSEE:::::TURN OFF::::GAME:::”

20 seconds.

My vision became blurry and I heard a strange noise from somewhere, yet I couldn’t find out from where. I coughed.

10 seconds.

“NOOOOOO:::::TURN OFF:::::NOW:::::NOW:::::::::::::NOW!!!!!”

The screen began to glitch heavily and I coughed again...some liquid. I thought it was blood, but.....

...it...was some dark gooey liquid...What the.....

I coughed it up more and felt it leaving my eye sockets, as also my hands were full of them. I coughed up even more.

5 seconds

“CLOOOSEEEE::::YOUR EYEEEEESSSS”

I tried. But I couldn’t.

The time went up. And I vomited even more black goo and then collapsed, feeling my brain bursting through my forehead. The last thing I heard from the glitchy voice was this:

“I:::::::::::AM::::::::::::::SO::::::::::::::SOOOORRRYYYY:::::::SOORRY:::”

..............................

A 17 year old kid was found murdered, yesterday. The victim was discovered by their parents, who had left their child one week ago, to attend a musical. When they returned, they found the victim on the ground, in a strange dark substance. Police entered and investigated, yet they couldn’t figure out what the substance was. They also found the TV all broken and some loose cables hanging from it, yet nothing was plugged into those. According to witnesses, no one entered the home except the kid and there was no sign of breaking in either. The autopsy discovered strangely enough that the victim had died a week ago, yet all of his organs seemed fully functional, except the skin which had some dark veins. Police is still investigating and the lead detective said that they found a suspect and that they are interrogating them, as they speak. And they also learned from said suspect that the victim visited them 3 times over the last week, even though they supposedly died a week ago. Camera footage is rather broken and the suspect claims that they gave the kid a console to play. But no console was found at said scene. Stay tuned for more.

[sobeautifullyobsessed]

Hurt/Comfort Dialogue Prompts 2 and 9 with Stephen Strange x Beauty, please? It might be sweet seeing him comfort her after she had a really cold and exhausting day.

2. "Drink some of this tea, it will warm you up."

9. "Go to sleep, I will not leave you alone."

Hurt/Comfort Stephen Strange x Beauty Lincoln (OFC)

Hey, Stephen - I'm so so sorry, but I'm gonna have to cancel on our plans tonight. I've had an incredibly rotten day at work and stuff, so I just want to curl up on my sofa & watch something mind numbing & lick my wounds a bit.🥺Even though I miss you like crazy, I just wouldn't be good company at all. We'll have to try again, hopefully soon. Love you. Always.💋💋 

Stephen gnawed on his lower lip as he read Beauty's text a third time. His schedule lately had been jampacked as supernatural activity across the globe has kicked into overdrive in the month leading up to Halloween. The rise in incursions from eldritch realms was to be expected at this time of year, but it was often complicated by amateur ghost hunters and wannabe practitioners of magic or voodoo either trying to fight the baddies on their own, or summon malevolent spirits to do their bidding. Meaning he and his fellow sorcerers had twice the work to do—protecting humanity from both mystical dangers and from the foolish antics of those who believed they had a calling to do the same.

He glanced over at the vase holding a dozen and a half long stem American Beauty roses in several shades of pink, which he'd meant to accompany his apologies for missing their last three date nights. Thinking that his girl must be in a very bad way to make tonight their fourth miss.��Crap. Stephen decided at once he wasn't going to let that happen. As quickly as his scarred fingers would allow, he texted back. 'Understood. Missing you too, sweetheart. We can reschedule. You rest up & take it easy tonight. And please just let me know when you get home safely...so I don't need to worry so much.'

Beauty's reply came right away. 'Will do. Thanks for understanding, magic man. And for worrying about me.💗' Stephen had to smile fondly; a sweet sort of warmth always filled his chest when she called him that. And man, had he been missing that warmth! If he hadn't already decided to surprise her, that simple little phrase would've been enough to set his plan in motion. 

Beauty stood before her door, damp-haired (having forgotten her umbrella in her desk drawer) and with the lower half of her sweater-coat and her suede boots drenched from being splashed by a taxi that had pulled up to the curb as she been waiting to cross the street. At least the first time Stephen sees me in weeks won't be with me looking this bedraggled, she consoled herself. Although I'd rather warm up in his arms than in that old afghan thrown across my sofa top.

It's better this way anyway, she sighed forlornly, zipping off the text he'd asked her to send so that he'd know she'd gotten home in one piece. Stepping through her door, Beauty noted the room was candlelit and redolent with one of her favorite scents in the world. Gingerbread. This just had to be Stephen's work! Already her heart—weighed down by all the bad news she'd received at work this day—began to feel a bit lighter.

She dumped her attache and pocketbook on the floor and shrugged off her wet sweater, hanging it on one of the hooks beside her door. Inhaling deeply (he must've found her stash of gingerbread scented candles) Beauty called out his name.

Stephen came around the corner from the kitchen, wearing his dear, lop-sided grin and one of her frilly aprons over jeans—surely a sight he intended to amuse her. He had the sleeves of the dark blue silk shirt she'd recently given him (just because she'd known he'd look damn fine in it) rolled up, further indication he had something brewing in the kitchen. "Oh, Stephen...you didn't have to go to this trouble. I would've been fine just crashing on the couch."

"Nonsense," he insisted as he came to stand in front of her, smoothing one hand over her wet hair. "What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't do what I could to take care of you?" 

Speechless for the moment, Beauty lowered her gaze shyly—and to hide the fact that tears stood in her eyes. Stephen's voice, low and deep and rich with honest concern, continued, "I've lost track of all the times you've taken care of me at the end of a rough day. It's long past time I returned the favor." He pulled her into his ready arms.

Beauty nodded and laid her head upon his shoulder, and then the tears did come as he rocked her gently. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, baby. Just let me be here for you—and let me remind you of how much I love you..."

She had cried for a good ten minutes, clinging tightly to him, only aware that her hair and clothes and boots had dried completely in the interim (a subtle charm Stephen had worked for her comfort) until shegathered her wits and backed out of his arms. "Go get changed," he instructed her gently, "I laid your jammies and robe out on your bed, and then you can meet me back her for something to warm you on the insides, okay?"

Beauty nodded silently, kissing his cheek before following her good doctor's orders. When she returned to the living room, she discovered that Stephen had set a small tray on the coffee table, along with a vase of gorgeous roses. He motioned for her to take a seat.  "Drink some of this tea, it will warm you up."

Meekly, gratefully, she accepted the cup, sipping gingerly until she could tell it was the perfect temperature. "Now," Stephen told her, picking up the remote control, "I've got The Princess Bride cued up for your viewing pleasure, unless you prefer Practical Magic to begin with instead..."

"You remembered..."

"That we were watching that the first time I finally had the sense enough to kiss you?" Stephen cupped her cheek and leaned closer, "How could I not, sweetheart? That was the best first kiss of my life..."

"Don't tease me," she whispered.

"Simple truth, Beauty. And my life has been better and better every day since." Stephen took her free hand, brushing his lips across her knuckles, "I should probably tell you these things more often. I'm gonna try my damndest going forward, to do just that. And to take care of you as you deserve." He stood up, "And now supper. Your favorite comfort foods on the menu. Pizza Hut pepperoni pan pizza—and a mac'n'white cheddar cheese that I made from a box mix myself."

"Will there be dessert," she asked, gifting him her sweetest smile—the first of the evening.

"Ben & Jerry's reverse chocolate chunk--"

"But they don't make that anymore!"

"I know," he winked, "But don't ask a sorcerer to reveal all his secrets, honey. There needs to be at least a little mystery to keep the spice in a relationship."

Sated on pizza, mac'n'cheese, and her all-time favorite ice cream, Beauty was feeling a whole world better than before she had stepped through the door of her flat. As they watched the magical romance, she shared with Stephen the things that had made her day so awful. Budget cuts at the Library meant she's have to lay off at least one staff member and truncate the Library Page program she'd started two years earlier. She'd found out that one of her students in the 5-8yr old reading group was battling leukemia and had been sent to St. Jude's Hospital in the hopes of getting lifesaving treatment. And shortly before she had initially texted Stephen, her brother had called with the sad news that his wife had miscarried four months into her pregnancy. In Stephen's arms, she found the exact comfort she had been needing, but hadn't wanted to impose upon his valuable time to ask for. 

The heavy emotions of the day, coupled with the carb heavy meal Beauty had consumed, finally asserted themselves as bone deep exhaustion. Though she was doing her best to stay awake, Stephen could feel her drifting off. He nuzzled the top of her head and tightened his arm around her. "You wanna go to bed, honey? We can pick up the movie where we left off, on another night."

"Uh-huh," she yawned, snuggling even closer, "I'd rather stay here with you, Stephen. It's been ages since I've felt this warm and cozy. I...I don't want it to end."

Stephen hummed agreeably. "I know the feeling, baby. I've been missing this more than I even realized. I'm not gonna let us go this long apart again. We both deserve better. So for now," he sighed, closing his eyes and resting his head atop hers, "Go to sleep, I will not leave you alone."

Secure in the care of the man she adored, Beauty slept more soundly than she had in months. In the morning, she awoke in her bed beside him, and it proved to be the beginning of a very beautiful day.

Feedback/Reblogs are incredibly meaningful. Please support content creators by doing us the honor. Thank you!

buy me a coffee?☕

@stewardofningishzida ~ thank you again for giving me a chance to write Beauty & her Stephen! It's been so damn long, and I've been missing them together.

[gate4043]

This was the first outfit I wore out of the house.

I was terrified. Wearing an old blue shirt I've had for years that was kinda girly but you can't really see it, it was more for me and for my confidence, a black pinafore dress, stockings, and you can't see them but just my white cheap kmart sneakers. I was also wearing breast forms (I think D cup ones) I'd bought off amazon and a shitty Bonds bra that had managed to keep them in place. I hadn't shaved my arms in a while, so I was afraid to take off the jacket. You can't see it, but my bald spot had gotten really bad, which I thankfully didn't notice until I got home.

It was a Saturday. My mum and stepdad would get back from holiday the next day, so I only had that day to do it. But it was late in the day by the time I'd actually mustered up the courage and put together an outfit. My car was parked out on the lawn, and our neighbours talked a lot with my parents and the neighbour across the street was pretty nosey and watched us a lot. I had zipped up my jacket and put on a pair of jeans so that I could drive my car into the driveway, go back inside and take my pants off, then hop back in the car and go to the only shop that was open at 9:30 something on a Saturday that people wouldn't recognise me at.

It did go wrong a little. The part of the garage that opens up to the back was a little ajar, which meant the dog ran through and out into the front yard. I panicked, pulled back into the driveway, and then ran around to the front door and desperately called him in.

I drove to the shop panicking the entire time. It was amazing, and it was scary as shit to be doing it, I assuredly accidentally broke some traffic rules out of sheer nervousness. Rolled up to the shop. Worst experience I've ever had out in public. Everyone stared. Got called a freak by a passerby whispering under his breath, to this day that's the only time that's ever fucking happened. Got inside, bunch of stares and misgendering from old cis white dudes, and everyone else in the shop was actually really lovely. Clocked the checkout as kinda queer, they were super nice about everything, headed home, freaked the fuck out.

Here I am fourteen months later in May of this year

So that's just under six months on E at the time. Went out to a friend's first year E anniversary, it was wild, there were multiple people being held by their partners with leads, there was a person in crazy makeup and a top hat and boot heels and they explained to me where they got their hat, I got to sit in a cute girl's lap and snuggle, it was great.

I wanna talk about confidence

When I was in the closet, when I was finally starting to come out, I was doing a lot more than I'd ever done before. I'd gotten clothes from my brother's fiancée, then girlfriend, which fit me, and I'd dress up around the house and run around with the lights off upstairs because the neighbours on both the front and back of the house could see through into ours and again, they talked. All it would have taken is one dickhead blabbing and suddenly a shitstorm would've broke loose.

I have an awkward body for transitioning. What's worse, I could've prevented it because I've known I was trans for that long. Shoes won't fit me, don't even bother trying, my feet are fucking massive, even for guys. My shoulders are just wide. I know the jacket didn't help, but believe me, it wasn't as thick as it looks. I have a serious body hair problem which I hope to all fuck will get sorted out in some way with hormones, but I expect before long I'll be getting full body electrolysis, damn the expense.

This is why I'm showing this stuff, is because I was not confident, I was not the kind of trans person who posts a bunch of pictures of themselves to the internet and I'm still not that and I don't think I'll ever be that. Right now it's almost 2 AM, I haven't shaved all day, the toilet's clogged and I didn't want to sit down in the water so I was forced to stand up to pee because I was busting which made me feel dysphoric and gave me impostor syndrome at the same time and I have work tomorrow. But I know seeing a trans person I can relate to helps me whenever I'm feeling down, and I felt like sharing this.

It's okay to be a mess of a person, you don't have to be like the really fucking beautiful people I see on the internet all the time. You can be a goblin that struggles to achieve humanity, let alone gender presentation, and that doesn't change who you are on the inside and that doesn't mean that you can't do everything you wanna do and be everything you wanna be. Don't let it discourage you, you're awesome. You're always gonna be awesome. G'night.

[looosey]

My Day Centering Humans and Meeting Min Jin Lee

Written Mon 10/28/24

Today.... was a crazy day. I think so much happened that I just need to recount it all for future me.

Mid September

Literally over a month ago, I filled out a purple default google form with my information indicating interest in being part of the student Q&A for nobody other than one of my favorite authors of all time. How could this precious opportunity just be a first come first serve basis?

Wednesday, Oct 23

Impatient with over a month of silence, I emailed the Korean professor who sent out the email, and got a response to email the actual organizer. The firehose hit me before I got a chance to follow through.

Friday, Oct 25

Then magically on Friday, I got an email telling me I got off the waitlist to be a part of the Q&A on Monday (today).

Monday, Oct 28

9 a.m.

It was so fucking cold today. This morning I walked over to the Central Square bookstore in my new leather jacket (a la @park-haena), crisp 100% cotton white t-shirt and my mom's blue jeans, italian leather boots (2 in heels), beret hat, and leather gloves. Only to see an active film set and sympathetic looks from the set staff that the store was closed. I walked another 20 minutes to the Harvard book store and was told there that She had come in yesterday and bought out her collection. Here, I learned the power of calling ahead. I was late to media studies and I had skipped all last week so I hauled ass to the T to Kendall and booked it to class.

10:15 a.m.

During Media Studies, we were talking about the difference between supervised and unsupervised machine learning. And the last mile of AI/AGI development, and the human's role in teaching the AI how to do their own jobs. Our activity was using the webcam to train an interactive image classification model, a cool gizmo published by Google. Some times I am so saddened by how much computer science I have to think about in the media class I thought would be my respite. Other times, I am grateful to the class for giving me smaller respites of humanities questions in the field I have chosen to claim for myself.

I take a coffee break for longer than necessary, but in my defense, the coffee machine at the banana lounge brewed slowly and would be even slower for others if I took out the pot mid-brew. A freshman boy struck up a conversation with me, perhaps because I did my makeup today. I thought it was brave and very cute of him.

As class ended, I told my prof that the meeting time she suggested was good. She was so kind to write in a response to my previous assignment a small note of encouragement and support to continue pursuing media studies. I took her up on the offer to discuss more opportunities to engage with opportunities on campus!

11:30 a.m.

Boston is so expensive. A coffee and a croissant from Dunkin is as cheap and hearty as you can get near campus. So I got that right after class at the Stratton student center. Small cappuccino with half pump of pumpkin syrup and the ham and cheese croissant stuffer.

I settled in in the third floor wellbeing lounge and did an activity that I was reminded of in class. An AI chatbot, but with your future self, that was done in a research project that my LinkedIn friend worked on. Honestly, the hour I spent on that was actually quite disappointing. Probably because the LLM wasn't big enough, or wasn't trained on enough data, or wasn't fine-tuned with human feedback. But the advice 60-year-old Lucy provided was generic, and she didn't take into consideration the lengthy form responses I composed, totally misreading my personality.

That was sooo much more disappointing than it should've been, because I so deeply desire that connection with an elder and wiser being... but when your grandparents are dead and also so culturally different if they were alive, there are not really many options.

1 p.m.

I saw Her on the way into the room. She was dressed very stylish, and I know that because she was dressed like me, but better. Her leather black boots were unique. They were 4 inch heels but platform but narrow. Her jeans were straight and made her legs look so long. Her suit jacket was slim but not short and didn't try do that shit where it awkwardly peplums at the waist. She was wearing a white dress shirt but under another layer, to combat the cold: a cropped black knit vest or cardigan with a pattern that was neither old or trendy, but classic. Even her big gold hoops, were not circular and basic, but drooped elegantly. I didn't expect her to be so pretty.

I was early and so I walked in and claimed front center, surprised to see that the best two seats were taken by two girls I already knew over the past three years. They were nice enough to respond when I asked them questions, but it was clear that they were friends and Not Interested in being friends (with me). It was fine. Thinking about what I wanted to ask Her about Pachinko and Free Food For Millionaires, I was pre-occupied and basically shaking in my boots, so I texted Hanu for help. She responded immediately, which is rare, but in that moment I forgave her for every time she had not responded to me, because I actually really needed her then and I think she could sense that.

<the Q&A itself>

Her biggest advice was to talk to your peers. Which I thought was funny, because I tried, and LOL it was just ok.

She said many things that i expected. Geography means a lot to a person.

She said some things that i learned. To take away the sheer privilege of being at MIT. And to be Korean and do many things. Fill many roles in society. Where is the female Korean pilot?

She said some things that i was shaken by. Casey was not necessarily surrounded by bad men. Her first white boyfriend cheated with two sorority girls, but was that a sign he was a bad person? Or is that an innately human action? I don't understand the distinction.

She said she too was not always ready to be the best partner. She said as a writer, you should give each of your characters some patience and love. Hansu, might be her excetpion.

<the Keynote Talk>

I walked in and saw two girls I knew but were never that warm to me. I said hi, and we were cordial, and I said I"ll just sit behind you two. Rather just focus on the speaker today. And I scooted past an elder asian woman with the tiniest frame ever.

Then all the big wigs started mixing around in the front. Sally. Deans. Nobel laureates. Then one of my favorite professors walked in, and stopped by my row.

"do you know each other? I know you both from very different places." One influential talk later, I had lunch plans for Saturday with the korean lady next to me. And future plans for coffee with my professor.

Is it okay to ask a professor to pick their brains? Is it offensive?

Love people. Protect your peace. And walk down the path you actively choose.

[browneyesandhair]

Hey! It's ya girl! April Edition

I got no chill and a large obsession with a lot of things. So this year, I'm tracking it! Okay, so this year, is the year of recs! (you may have seen some of my posts, but I also have an extensive queue, so maybe not (check out the #recs on my page)). Running a little behind (it's already June, oops!)

Anyways, I've created a collection for this year overall and then also for each month! Let's check out April's stats -

Works read (&finished): 112

Fandoms (top 8):

1 - Bridgerton: 33

2 - Harry Potter: 28

3 - The Vampire Diaries: 16

4 - Young Justice: 15

5 - Les Miserables: 13

6 - Criminal Minds: 2

7 - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: 1

8- Merlin: 1

The rest didn't make the first drop down section of AO3, so oh well! Let's check in on relationships (top 8):

1 - Polin: 33

2 - Klaroline: 16

3 - Spitfire: 14

4- Enjolras/Eponine: 13

5 - Harmony: 9

6 - Hinny: 5

7 - Roy Harper/Jade Nguyen: 4

8 - Dick Grayson/Zatanna Zatara: 2

Quite a few recs that were reread/added to the list this month:

Harry Potter:

The Changeling by Annerb

Summary:

Ginny is sorted into Slytherin. It takes her seven years to figure out why.

Sequels also read: pick it up, pick it all up and start again, we can still be, who we said we were, and in my head we do everything right

Six Pomegranate Seeds by Seselt

Summary:

At the end, something happened. Hermione clutches at one fraying thread, uncertain whether she is Arachne or Persephone. What she does know is that she will keep fighting to protect her friends even if she must walk a dark path.

Sequels also read: Bouquet of Asphodels

Forever Means Forever by cocoartist

Summary:

If she ever saw Unspeakable Number 37 again she would kill him with her bare hands: Hermione's research into the Veil has an unexpected side-effect. COMPLETE.

Les Mis:

It Is Not a Word Spoken by CrazyAce_n_PokerFace

Summary:

*…I don't understand. You can't possibly be suggesting you were seriously trying to sext me.* She stares at his words and exhales slowly before typing, *And if I was…?* É/E Modern AU. The long-awaited sexting fic. Very NSFW. Dedicated to the wonderful samthenardier as a birthday gift. Title taken from the lovely poem "It Is Not a Word" by Sara Teasdale.

Merlin:

Radioman by Footloose

Summary:

The reason SAS Captain Arthur Pendragon can't keep a communications specialist in Team Excalibur because none of them are good enough. And then Lieutenant Merlin Emrys gets assigned to his squad, and Arthur does everything he can to prove that Merlin isn't good enough, either. Except he is.

Atla:

Returned for a Better Try (to Make a Better Time) by atypicalhypocrite

Summary:

The Fire Lord’s blast is sharp and thorough. Still on his knees before his father, a thirteen year old dies instantly. Another Zuko, once teacher to the avatar and a Fire Lord himself, jolts into being in his place, and deals with the consequences. Timeline preservation nothing, he’s going to be a better Fire Lord this time, and start sooner.

Star Trek:

Ten Degrees Below Zero by kianspo

Summary:

After a serious incident aboard a starship, Commander Spock is demoted and transferred to a remote base where he must now serve with other "undesirables." He adjusts to his new rank and duties, and, while the future does look bleak, he is not ready to give up on himself or Starfleet yet. There is work to be done and hope to be found, especially as he begins to get to know his new colleagues, particularly one intriguing engineering officer James Kirk...

The Vampire Diaries:

At Horizon's Edge by Cupcakemolotov

Summary:

Sometimes when a girl goes on a shopping trip to pick up a new pair of boots at the local, and somewhat hostile, human space station, she accidentally aids and abets a prison break instead. What happens in the black really doesn't stay in the black.

The Umbrella Academy:

broken still you breathe (breathe, breathe, just breathe) by Eternal_Peace_is_Overrated

Summary:

“He’s not coming,” Luther says impatiently. “Let's just get this over with.” “Who’s not coming?” The voice sounds behind them suddenly, and all of them startle and whip around in synchronization. “Klaus,” Luther hears himself say distantly. “You’re…here.” Four tilts his head, bringing his hand to his lips and inhaling deeply around the cigarette dangling between his fingers. When he exhales, the smoke curls around his head like a halo before drifting into the air. “Yeah, well, I would’ve gotten here sooner,” Four says around the cigarette. “But I just really didn’t want to.” *** Number Four shows up to the funeral three hours late with an iced latte in one hand and a cigarette dangling from the other. Or; Klaus fled the Academy the day they turned eighteen. He never looked back. Ten years later, their father dies. Number Four returns. And none of them quite know what to do with this new version of their black sheep brother. AKA: Klaus single-handedly stops the apocalypse. It really wasn't that hard, so if everyone could stop looking at him like that, that would be great, thanks.

Bridgerton:

Plenty Far To Fall by useyourtelescope

Summary:

When financial troubles mean third-son Colin Bridgerton must cease his yearly travels and find employment instead, he has difficulty finding something suitable. Until he learns of a unique position being offered by the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown.

Alright, that's all folks (mostly), for fun, here are the top 8 additional tags from the stories that I read in April:

AU - Modern Setting: 24

AU: 16

Smut: 14

Fluff: 10

Friends to Lovers: 10

AU - Canon Divergence: 9

Angst: 8

Explicit Sexual Content: 7

And, that's all folks (for real this time)!

[survey--s]

683.

1 - What have you been up to so far today? Is that a typical thing for you to do on this particular day of the week?  I've been to work and yeah, my Mondays are always the same, pretty much. The only difference today was Mike was home so I didn't have to worry about Archie, lol. I got home just after 1pm, had a shower, had lunch, washed up and now I'm doing this.

2 - Did you get a decent night’s sleep last night? How many hours sleep do you consider a decent amount?  I slept really well actually. About seven hours is fine for me during the week, but I tend to sleep a bit longer at weekends.

3 - What is one silly thing that really gets on your nerves?  When Mike takes the lighter and doesn't bloody put it back lol.

4 - Who was the last person you saw who wasn’t family? What did you guys end up doing together?  Martin. I just talked to him when I dropped Ollie back home after his walk as he was working from home today.

5 - Do you prefer hot or cold drinks overall?  I prefer a larger variety of cold drinks, but I love my hot coffee too.

6 - Do you own a decent set of waterproofs? If so, what do you use them for the most? If not, do you think that would be something you’d find useful?  I do because I need them for work and walking the dog.

7 - Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?  Not really, just relaxing at home. The weather is bloody freezing and the wind was picking up as I finished my last walk so I'm just glad that I don't have to go back outside.

8 - How often do you get your hair cut? When hairdressers were closed due to COVID, did you try cutting it yourself at home?  I cut it myself at home even when COVID isn't a thing - normally every few months, I guess.

9 - What did you wear the last time you left the house? Is that different to what you’re wearing at the moment?  Fleece leggings, a long sleeved t-shirt, a jumper, two pairs of socks, walking boots and my winter down jacket. I'm now wearing normal leggings, a t-shirt and a hoody, plus slipper socks.

10 - Would you rather have a relaxing beach holiday or a more active holiday in the mountains?  A beach holiday just because my normal life is being active in the mountains lol.

11 - Do you know how to tie a tie?  Yeah, I wore a tie to school for about sixteen years.

12 - How old were you when you first had a sleepover at someone’s house? Did you miss home?  I don't remember, probably about seven or eight? I don't remember missing home much but it was nearly thirty years ago.

13 - How often do you spend time with your extended family? Never. They all live overseas and I haven't been over for about a decade now. My mum's sister and her husband came over a few years ago though.

14 - When you get up in the morning, do you have a set routine?  Yeah, as soon as I get out of bed my routine is the same. Get up, go downstairs, pee, light the wax burner, feed the cats, let the dog out, feed the dog, sort the litter trays, vacuum and make breakfast. After that, it depends whether I'm working or not. If I am, I'll get ready and go to work, but if not I'll have a shower and just chill out.

15 - Do you remember the last time you cried? Were they sad or happy tears?  Last week, they were just...frustration I guess as I had some horrible bug/virus thing and felt horrible.

16 - What do you have planned once you finish this survey?  Probably more surveys.

17 - What was the last thing you cooked? Did you cook from scratch or just heat something up? I had a cannelloni ready meal for lunch, lol. I don't really cook - I just don't enjoy it and our kitchen is really small too which makes it a real hassle.

18 - Are you a fan of hot chocolate? Do you like it plain or do you prefer to add things like whipped cream or marshmallows?  I'm not a huge fan of it unless it's the proper stuff, in which case I always add cream and marshmallows.

19 - What caused your last injury?  Simba scratched me when we were playing the other day.

20 - How many tattoos and piercings do you have? Do any of them have an interesting story behind them?  One tattoo, eight piercings. And no, not really.

21 - What kind of flowers do you like the best? When was the last time someone bought those for you?  Sunflowers or pink roses. And probably Valentine's Day? We have Simba now and he can't be trusted not to knock everything over so no flowers here, lol.

22 - What’s the smallest thing you’ve ended a relationship over?  I honestly don't know.

23 - Would you rather order a starter (appetiser) or a dessert? Or would you be able to manage a full three courses? I generally prefer starters. Desserts always seem really disappointing in restaurants lol. I can rarely manage all three courses.

24 - How do you get most of your news, if you pay attention to it at all?  Online - mostly via social media.

25 - Have you or a member of your family been diagnosed with COVID yet?  My parents had it but it wasn't very serious. Mike and I had something that probably was COVID back in 2022 but we never tested. We were both pretty unwell with it though.

26 - Are you a vegetarian? If so, what persuaded you to stop eating meat? If not, is it something you’d ever consider?  Not anymore. I did give it a go for a while as a teenager though.

27 - Do you prefer rice or pasta? Pasta.

28 - Is anything you’re wearing a gift? Who bought it for you?  My wedding/engagement rings and well, my husband did lol.

29 - What’s the dominant colour in the room you’re in at the moment?  Red, grey and white all feature pretty evenly.

30 - Did you do laundry yet today? If not, do you need to do any before you go to bed?  I put my towels in the dryer after my shower but otherwise no. I don't need to do any either, I did loads over the weekend.

[theoldhempfarmer]

The Cannabis Voyage continues...

Dateline 11-15-23

The delightful Fall weather rages on here in Middle Tennessee and threatens to continue until Thanksgiving. Which the paranoid side of me is thoroughly convinced we are indeed going a truly vicious WInter. The period between Halloween and our Black Friday sale, things have slowed enough at Tennessee homegrown that Lee and Stacey Crabtree actually got to take off the weekend and have a much needed retreat. Yesterday I got all our orders mailed and I got all of Nashville orders delivered and so far today, there only one store to be serviced, so yours truly can ease into his second cup of coffee and nibble on a little Cacao fortified with Tennessee homegrown Cannabis extract. This international combo of psychoactive compounds has jump started me just enough to start writing this morning’s remembrance.

You see 10 years ago The Old Hemp Farmer began his start into legal Cannabis by answering a want ad from a Start-up Recreational Cannabis company in Washington State. Since I was in Tennessee and Columbia River Cannabis was in Washington State, it was curious why they were interested in my skills. It seems at that time most of the experienced Cannabis farmers were making a lot of money in Gray Market Medical Marijuana and had no desire to have “Look over my shoulders” so they began seeking out of state people that had any experience or said they did. Within a few weeks, my very adventurous wife and I were in Bridgeport, Washington, where very quickly we discovered that the fantasy of working in Cannabis was a Hell of lot better than the reality of working Legal Cannabis. The several months I worked with Columbia River Cannabis was boot camp and it dispelled any romantic notions about working in Commercial Cannabis, The Old Hemp Farmer quickly learned that there is a huge difference between growing a 100 plants in 100 square feet of a basement and farming 2,000 plants Outdoors on a half acre of land that was formerly an orchard. It also made me realize how important was having an understanding and brave wife with a day job. Because Cannabis start-ups usually don’t pay at first and CRC was no exception. Because during the initial period of CRC there was disagreement about the direction of the company and one investor yanked his funds, which meant everything was put on hold for a couple months until more founds were found. This was another lesson learned that an ego based disagreement between business partners can scuttle a Cannabis Company quicker than about anything else. But this pause also gave us time to go through all of the permitting, EPA, State and County officials all had to sign off on the permits to farm and build a Cannabis facility. Learning how to navigate the various state departments was huge because something was beginning to brew in Tennessee.

You see during this same time CRC was on hold, Tennessee had sort of legalized Hemp Agriculture and that the folks at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture were going to oversee a Hemp Pilot Program. The main thing I learned in the Washington Sate Cannabis program that your inspector and case worker can make things easier or make your journey painfully slow. So before any decision were made I sat down with those wonderful folks at the TDA asked a simple question, “can I grow Hemp for CBD?” and the man across the table uttered a phrase that changed L’Tanya and The Old Hemp Farmer’s direction in life, “Son, I don’t care what you do as long you don’t go over .3% Delta 9.” After seeing the cost and hurdles of Recreational Cannabis such as 280e, compliance and management squabbles, we made the decision to change directions and develop a Hemp Derived Cannabinoid company in Tennessee. When I resigned my position at CRC those folks thought we’d lost our minds “Why would you want to grow Hemp?” so did most our of friends and relatives. But that decision enabled us to meet Lee and Stacey Crabtree and start Tennessee homegrown, a Cannabis company that has been way more successful than L’Tanya and I could have ever imagined, when were sitting in cold trailer in Bridgeport, Washington. A decade later L’Tanya and I have no idea where our Cannabis voyage will lead to but so far the scenery has been interesting to say the least. Anyway as always, Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.

Visit our Tennessee homegrown web site to try our great products: https://www.tnhomegrown.com

The Wife's web site: https://www.theoldhempfarmerswife.com

Our Podcast - Full Contact Cannabis: https://fullcontactcannabis.podbean.com