#i hate company policies sometimes

[ilkkawhat]

you’ve heard of secondhand embarrassment now get ready for secondhand heartbreak!!

[flanaganfilm]

Mr. Flanagan, I’d like to ask a question and I deeply hope that it does not offend or upset you. I am strongly considering canceling my Netflix subscription due to their new password sharing policy. However, Midnight Mass is one of my favorite shows of all time and I know it isn’t available on DVD, and I’m also profoundly anticipating your take on my favorite Edgar Allen Poe story. So I wanted to ask your take on people accessing your work through, uh, other means. If it’s something that’s offensive to you or will harm you or the other people who work so hard on these shows, I’ll happily keep my Netflix just so that I can keep supporting your work. I respect you far too much as an artist to do otherwise.

Again, I really hope I’m not upsetting you by asking this question. Thank you for everything, and I hope you’re having a great day!

(NOTE 6/4/2024: I'm editing this entry because, well over a year since it was posted, some journalists dug this up and used it to create click-bait headlines that are misleading, out of context and artificially combative. While I was of course disappointed over the years that Netflix opted not to release my work on physical media, I never experienced any hostility or aggression in those discussions, and I sincerely regret the manner in which this post was used in the press this week.)

Hi there - no offense taken whatsoever, in fact I think this is a very interesting and important question.

So. If you asked me this a few years ago, I would have said "I hate piracy and it is hurting creators, especially in the independent space." I used to get in Facebook arguments with fans early in my career when people would post about seeing my work on torrent sites, especially when that work was readily available for rent and purchase on VOD.

Back in 2014, my movie Before I Wake was pirated and leaked prior to any domestic release, and that was devastating to the project. It actually made it harder to find distribution for the film. By the time we were able to get distribution in the US, the film had already been so exposed online that the best we could hope for was a Netflix release. Netflix stepped in and saved that movie, and for that I will always be grateful to them.

However...

Working in streaming for the past few years has made me reconsider my position on piracy.

In the years I worked at Netflix, I tried very hard to get them to release my work on blu-ray and DVD.

It became clear very fast that their priority was subscriptions, and that they were not particularly interested in physical media releases of their originals, with a few exceptions.

While companies like Netflix pride themselves on being disruptors, and have proven that they can affect great change in the industry, they sometimes fail to see the difference between disruption and damage. So much that they can find themselves, intentionally or not, doing harm to the concept of film preservation.

The danger comes when a title is only available on one platform, and then - for whatever reason - is removed.

We have already seen this happen. And it is only going to happen more and more. Titles exclusively available on streaming services have essentially been erased from the world. If those titles existed on the marketplace on physical media, like HBO's Westworld, the loss is somewhat mitigated (though only somewhat.) But when titles do not exist elsewhere, they are potentially gone forever.

The list of titles that have been removed from streaming services is growing.

I still believe that where we put our dollars matters. Renting or buying a piece of work that you like is essential. It is casting a vote, encouraging studios - who only speak the language of money - to invest more effort into similar work. If we show up to support distinct, unique, exciting work, it encourages them to make more of it. It's as simple as that. If we don't show up, or if they can't hear our voice because we are casing our vote "silently" through torrent sites or other means - it makes it unlikely that they will take a chance to create that kind of work again.

Which is why I typically suggest that if you like a movie you've seen through - uh - other means, throw a few dollars at that title on a legitimate platform. Rent it. Purchase it. Support it.

But if some studios offer no avenue for that kind of support, and can (and will) remove content from their platform forever... frankly, I think that changes the rules.

Netflix will likely never release the work I created for them on physical media, though I'll always hold out hope.

Some of you may say "wait, aren't The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor available on blu-ray and DVD?" Yes, they are, because they were co-produced with Paramount, and I'm grateful that Paramount was able to release and protect those titles. (I'm also grateful that those releases include extended cuts, deleted scenes, and commentary tracks. There are a number of fantastic benefits to physical media releases.)

But a lot of the other work I did there are Netflix originals, without any other studio involvement. Those titles - like Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and the upcoming Fall of the House of Usher - along with my Netflix exclusive and/or original movies Before I Wake and Gerald's Game - have no such protections. The physical media releases of those titles are entirely at Netflix's discretion, and don't appear to be priority for the studio at this time.

At the moment, Netflix seems content to leave Before I Wake, Gerald's Game, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club on the service, where they still draw audiences. I don't think there is a plan to remove any of them anytime soon. But plans change, the industry changes.

The point is things change, and each of those titles - should they be removed from the service for any reason - are not available anywhere else. If that day comes - if Netflix's servers are destroyed, if a meteor hits the building, if they are bought out by a competitor and their library is liquidated - I don't know what the circumstances might be, I just know that if that day comes, some of the work that means the most to me in the world would be entirely erased.

Or, what if we aren't so catastrophic in our thinking? What if it the change isn't so total? What if Netflix simply bumps into an issue with the license they paid for music (like the Neil Diamond songs that play such a crucial role in Midnight Mass), and decide to leave the show up but replace the songs?

This has happened before as well - fans of Northern Exposure can get the show on DVD and blu-ray, but the music they heard when the series aired has been replaced due to the licensing issues. And the replacements - chosen for their low cost, not for creative reasons - are not improvements. What if the shows are just changed, and not by creatives, but by business affairs executives?

All to say that physical media is critically important. Having redundancy in the marketplace is critically important. The more platforms a piece of work is available on, the more likely it is to survive and grow its audience.

As for Netflix, I hope sincerely that their thinking on this issue evolves, and that they value the content they spend so much money creating enough to protect it for posterity. That's up to them, it's their studio, it's their rules. But I like to think they may see that light eventually, and realize that exclusivity in a certain window is very cool... but exclusivity in perpetuity could potentially limit the audience and endanger the work itself.

[theflyingchair-mhj]

me, googling the ending of a show/movie i’m watching after noticing that one of my faves is starting to have it a just a liiiiiiittle bit too rough (especially if they’re bad with a sad backstory/morally grey):

*puts on reading glasses* ok now what’s it say here, let’s see…

article: “…[CHARACTER I LIKE] ends up dying (/going to jail/suffering somehow), but perhaps they deserve it. this goes to show…”

me:

…

…

…

*sigh of someone who is at their fucking limit and is starting to lose their patience* *opens laptop and pulls up google docs*

*cracks knuckles*

[heartsfromia]

critical inquiry — l. jihoon

pairing: non-idol! jihoon x reader

word count: 6,018

genre: fluff, workplace romance, reader isnt tech-savvy, jihoon kinda gives loser (endearing) energy

warnings: valorant (jk), profanities, proofreader? i hardly know her

author's notes: get me an IT guy like jihoon y'all, also idk i struggle when writing in mainly the guy's pov bro i cannot think like a man, can they be pathetic, yearning beings? idk bro

Lee Jihoon loved one thing about his job—working from home. With enough people in his team to cover tasks both from the office and at home, they're given the option to work either and Jihoon always picks home, time after time.

Until today, when Jihoon had received a message that his Work-From-Office buddy would be taking time off work for the next week because his grandfather fell ill, and he was asked to go back home for the time being.

“Only a week, Jihoon, and I swear you can go back to your PC set and slippers,” Wonwoo had reassured him, but it still wasn’t enough, “I’ll even help you rank up to Ascendant 3.”

So, that was how Jihoon found himself waking up at seven and taking public transportation to the office because his car was at his parent’s, and honestly, he wasn’t close with anyone to the point where he’d ask for a lift.

During the entire trip on his first day back to the office, he cursed the corporate slave routine. To think that before social distancing, that we would wake up at the crack of dawn to beat traffic or the commuter rush, go to a job that we’re not even sure we enjoy (spoiler: we don’t), and then have to go through that same rush and traffic when going home, only to sleep and reset the routine for the next day. As an IT support member, being in the office was the most useless and time-consuming thing. The Wi-Fi at his office is crap, the computers are old and laggy because the company doesn’t want to invest in better quality technology, and the team leaders are always breathing down your neck—but, hey, at least they compensate those that choose to come to the office.

One thing that Jihoon was grateful from the pandemic was the normalization of working from home. Having the option to attend the 10AM meeting, waking up at exactly 9:50 AM—clocking in—then joining the Zoom meeting without having to shower, change out of your pajamas, or even get out of the bed was something that was too good to be true. Alas, it happened, and he had been thriving and taking advantage of his Work From Anywhere policy in his company. Granted, he is only able to continuously work from home as long as there were two team members working from office, and luckily enough, that condition was met for the past six months

“This is new,” Hansol quipped when he spotted Jihoon signing at the entrance of the office. “Ah, Wonwoo is taking time off, right?”

“Yeah,” Jihoon muttered, most of his face hidden under a mask and cap, with his eyes peeking through the lenses of his glasses. “Do you think there’s coffee in the kitchen?”

“Obviously,” Hansol chuckles, finding the question obsurd. Can you blame Jihoon? The ceiling in the entrance of the building is almost falling apart from mold forming because of rain, and their computer to clock in was an old ASUS model from 2014 that can only function on a LAN cable—which is why its only purpose in this marketing agency was for signing in.

Sometimes Jihoon even wonders how the company can last for the past decade with its cheap ways.

He made his way to the second floor where the pantry, and overall kitchen was placed, making himself a cup of coffee before climbing the next step of stairs to the IT room—the main base for programmers and the support team. Another thing he hated about working from the office was the fact that the AC in his office just never seems to function. It’s the middle of summer, the city is going through a massive heatwave, and here, in his company placed in the smack middle of the city, they have a policy to not let the AC go anywhere under 23°C.

At least, when he is in the comforts of his own home, he can have the AC go as low as it can get, all while still in his pajamas, and could even multitask with Valorant opened in another tab.

“Oh, Jihoon, you’re switching with Wonwoo, right?” Jeonghan asked, turning in his chair and pushing his glasses up above his head.

“Yeah, I am, where does he usually sit?” Jeonghan taps the desk on his left, and watched as Jihoon got settled, a glint in his eyes that the younger one spotted. “What?”

“Did Wonwoo tell you anything?”

“Other than keeping my Google chat opened, nothing really,” he responded.

“You’ll be handling his division, too, right?” Jihoon nodded. “The Marketing team.” Rather than a question, Jeonghan confirmed the division, and once again, Jihoon nodded. A crease formed between his eyebrows, unsure of what his senior was referring to, and the latter noticed, chuckling at his puzzled expression. “You’ll see.”

It’s too early to understand what he means. Usually, he’d still be asleep right now if he were at home, especially since there aren’t any meetings he needs to attend today, he could’ve slept until three minutes before he required to clock in. He wasn’t use to having to be on work-mode even with ten minutes before his shift officially starts.

God, I miss working from home.

The first few hours into the shift was tedious. Since the company is a small PR agency, as a member of the in-house IT team, he’s required to wear multiple hats and take on various tasks. Unfortunately, since he is replacing Wonwoo for the time being, he’ll be taking on the task of Website management and ensuring that the Marketing team didn’t have any issues, as well as any technical issues the team might face, which is inevitable as their equipment is, as mentioned, crap quality. Every day Jihoon wonders why he claims to resign from the place but never does.

“Let’s grab lunch across the street,” Jeonghan invited Jihoon once the clock had struck twelve, signaling lunch time for all employees. Jihoon was about to agree and turn his computer to sleep mode when a ding! notified a message had come in. He rose a hand, indicating for his senior to wait a moment as he checked the message. He hadn’t received any complaints during the first half of the day from the team he was in charge of so this was a bit unusually for him.

It was a message from you.

Y/N: Afternoon, Jihoon. This is Y/N, and I’m new from Saerom’s team. Y/N: I was told by Wonwoo that he’s currently on PTA, and to message you instead. I have an issue with my Google Analytics account, I’m currently logged out and usually Wonwoo helps me with that because I haven’t been given my password (it’s been two weeks I’ve started 😅). Y/N: Can you help me with this?

“Who’s that?” Jeonghan ducked down, looking over Jihoon’s shoulder as he read the message, then a chuckle left his lips. “Ah… it’s Y/N, she’s a new, and struggles with a lot of the tech things—you’ll be meeting with her a lot.”

“She’s bad with tech and chose to be a social media specialist?”

“Ironic, huh?” Jeonghan laughs. “But she means well, even though she sucks with tech, she has good ideas and already has a viral TikTok video for one of our clients.”

“And she says she hasn’t been given her passwords? Aren’t we supposed to give it to them when they start?”

“Yeah, but usually they don’t ever log out, only she has that case,” he explains, the corner of his mouth lifting before he pats his junior’s shoulder reassuringly. “Just head on over there and help her, it doesn’t take more than ten minutes.”

Jihoon heaved a sigh, reluctant to help because of how tedious and unnecessary and easily avoidable this problem would’ve been if she’d had her hands on her account passwords.

Jihoon: Lee Saerom’s team? Y/N: Yes Jihoon: Alright, wait a minute Jihoon: On my way

“Are you dining in or taking away?” Jihoon asked Jeonghan, while he wrote down the password for your account on a sticky note.

“Dining in.”

“I’ll meet you there then.” With that, Jihoon tossed his cap off and trudged down to the second floor where Saerom’s team should be located. Since it was lunch time, most of the office space was empty, with only the office boy who was busy sweeping the floors from the aftermath of earlier today. He found the main room for the Marketing team fairly quickly, and didn’t have to look far for you as you were the only one in the room, seated in front of your computer, shoulders stiff and hands placed on your lap as if you were starting your first day.

Immediately upon hearing the creaking of the door, your eyes met above the desks and monitors, and for a brief second, Jihoon paused—almost shell-shocked as to finding someone like you working in a rundown company such as this.

“Y/N?” Jihoon called out, just making sure despite the obvious newbie aura that wafted around you.

“Yes… Are you Jihoon? The one covering for Wonwoo?” He nodded, and you were almost sure he’d say something to follow up to prevent an air of awkward silence from appearing between the two of you. He did not. Instead, he barely uttered anything as he approached your desk. You didn’t hesitate to push away with your chair to let him take the reigns and input your account. How you were able to stay logged out of the account and not have said anything earlier was unbeknown to him. You had been finishing up last week’s reports, but had only moved on to Google Analytics just twenty minutes ago. You’d usually have your account still logged in, always clicking the Remember me, however, to your surprise, you were logged out.

“This is your password.” Jihoon handed you the sticky note. “If you need any more help, you can just message me—Wonwoo is on leave for the next week.”

“A-alright.” Maybe it was the way he carried himself that intimidated you. Or the fact that he never made any attempt at small talk, thus, a tense and awkward air floated in the space between you two. Maybe it was his tone, lacking the usually bounce you’d usually hear from Wonwoo as he explained the mechanics of Hootsuite.

It is definitely his aura, it’s ice cold, you couldn’t help but think and maybe when he wasn’t looking, you’d shiver. “Thank you,” you uttered, and with a stiff smile, he nodded and left the room without anything further, leaving you to finish the last half of your report alone.

If you need any more help, you can just message me.

And that’s how it started, a back and forth of at least twice a day since that first exchange between you and Jihoon. At first, you had to introduce yourself again, despite the fact you were using Google Chats and your name was clearly displayed. After a brief introduction, you explained the problem at hand, then after a minute or two came Jihoon’s go-to reply.

Alright, wait a minute.

On my way.

The first couple of times, you almost thought it was an automated response he had somehow coded every time someone messaged him. Maybe he had set it so that after a couple of messages from the sender, it would trigger the short response from his end, however, you learnt that it was just purely him when your own messages grew shorter and shorter.

So, short to the point that this was your most recent exchange:

Y/N: Jihoon :( Jihoon: On my way

Thus, it became almost a routine for the two of you. Jihoon didn’t have any complaints, despite Jeonghan’s claims that the junior would usually complain from having to go back and forth, ascending and descending the same set of stairs more times than he should be. “Aren’t you tired?” Jeonghan had asked on Thursday after Jihoon had returned from helping you with the extension cord for the presentation you had scheduled the afternoon.

Jihoon merely shrugged. “I barely get to exercise with coming in.” Of course, as Jeonghan has been working with Jihoon since he started, he could tell the guy was bluffing, hiding whatever his true intention was behind his nonchalant facade, but he never said anything. Sooner or later the truth will come to light.

Jeonghan wasn’t the only that could tell that was a different air hanging around the avid-WFH-over-WFO tech employee, and whatever gossip that surrounded him managed to reach the ears of the guy he was covering for as the two got into a game of Valorant Thursday evening. As the two waited for a match to be found, Wonwoo informed him that his grandfather was feeling better and could be released from the hospital by Saturday morning.

“Oh, that’s good to hear, glad he’s doing alright,” Jihoon offered, although a bit half-hearted as he was eating his dinner by his desk at the same time.

“Yeah, and by Monday you can return to your world of working from anywhere,” Wonwoo said, a deep chuckle echoing on his end. “And by anywhere, I mean, literally just your room.”

“Nah, it’s fine, I can come in to the office next week,” Jihoon replied without thinking twice, then realized what he said and added, “you can make sure your granddad’s fine.” He internally sighed, believing he made a good save. However, a dead silence hung in the Discord call, even after the loud ‘Match found’ reverberated, breaking the silence for a second.

“What did you say?”

“What?” Jihoon tried to play dumb, then added, “I’m playing Gekko,” to change the subject.

“Did you just say you’re willing to leave the comforts of your own home to work from office?” Wonwoo asked again, clearly twisting Jihoon’s words causing him to roll his eyes. His colleague then added, in a faux tone of panic, “The end of the world is nearing, isn’t it?”

“Shut up and pick your damn agent.”

“Are you even Jihoon right now?”

Jihoon defended himself, “I can want to work from office from time-to-time, you know?” Wonwoo was exaggerating, wanting to work from office is tiring, but nothing is more boring than working alone with only a dumb FPS game there to entertain you every time you’re free. Admittedly, he found working while being surrounded with other people was enjoyable—he wasn’t a social butterfly, didn’t make an effort to start a conversation by the coffee machine either, but it was… nice being around others every now and then. Humans are meant to be social creatures, after all.

“You have been working from home ever since probation had ended, which was literally two years ago, Jihoon,” Wonwoo reiterated, “you have been working from home since.”

“That’s not true.” He frowned, the comment caught him off guard and he almost started the round with buying any abilities. “I worked three days last October.”

“Which was, what? Nine month ago?” He couldn’t rebuttal that. It’s common knowledge among his peers that he despises working from office—Jihoon knows that, too. It’s just that this week has changed his mind. People can change their mind. “I have to bribe you with Valorant just so you come to company dinners, and now you want to willingly cover me for another week? For free?”

An irritated groan shook his chest as his character died on screen. “Damn it—” He pushed to talk, “90 on Reyna.” He fell back into his chair with a sigh, annoyed that Wonwoo was ruining his focus on the game—it was supposed to be his rank up to Ascendant 3. “Okay, and what’s your point?”

Jihoon swears he could hear the guy smirk. “I know.”

“You’re being annoying, you’re distracting me.”

Wonwoo paid no mind to his complaints, hitting clean headshots on the enemy but the spike detonated causing them to lose the round. Despite that, Wonwoo kept his cool as he continued to taunt his colleague. “Vernon told me about your round trips to and from the Marketing team.” He was definitely grinning now. "The problem is, I know Saerom’s team don’t usually need any help from IT support—at least, not to the point to where you need to go there twice a day.”

Jihoon cursed under his breath as he, once again, misses his utility and gets killed barely ten seconds into the round. This time he doesn’t even bother to communicate with his team, in fear of his voice shaking in anticipation of Wonwoo’s suspicions. “Except for one person,” his peer begins, letting the silence drag between the two as he focused on the game, getting three kills in a row, winning the round for them. Then Wonwoo asks, Jihoon picturing a shit-eating grin on his damned face. “Y/N’s cute, isn’t she?”

“I’m forfeiting.” Jihoon presses slash then F, to which it was denied, their teammates sending in question marks in response. Wonwoo’s burst out laughing at Jihoon’s ‘missclicked sorry’ reply. “Focus on the game—if I derank, it’s on you.”

Wonwoo’s laughter only grew louder, letting himself have the last word. “Jihoon enjoying working from office wasn’t on my 2024 bingo.”

Neither was it on Jihoon’s because he never enjoys working from office. Whatever friendly and social air that was present the previous week wasn’t present now as he finds himself at the wrath of the Operation’s team manager.

“I was on a call with Miyoung and she told me she couldn’t access their website, Jihoon,” Eunkwang scolded, his greying brows forming deep crevices disguised as wrinkles between his eyebrows and across the length of his forehead. “You’re supposed to be on top of this—she couldn’t access it the whole weekend, Jihoon, what happened? We’ve never faced this problem before.” Yes they have, Jihoon recalled, it happens when you run an agency that barely gathers clients and doesn’t really care enough to provide quality platform options, either, but of course Eunkwang says the same argument. Talk about selective amnesia.

“I don’t care how long it takes for you to fix it—” Might take half an hour, could’ve dealt with it within the time you’re yelling at me but I’ll shut up, Jihoon bitterly thought but kept his lips pressed in a tight line. “I want it done until Miyoung calls to confirm.”

Once he was sure the old man was done projecting his anger, Jihoon bowed his head, uttering, “Understood.” He turned his body to climb up the stairs to the third floor, grumbling to himself how this wouldn’t have happened if he worked at home because he wouldn’t be tired from commuting and socializing during the weekends and could monitor the websites every now and then. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case because he was tired, and he is still tired, he hates working in the office, he doesn’t even know why he agree to go for another week, he could’ve been at home and in a Valorant Swiftplay by now—

“Jihoon?” He turned to find you, standing by the door of your team’s room, a timid look on your face. Something had happened, he could see it written all over your soft features as you eyed him wordlessly. Without saying anything, he followed you towards your desk, where you idly by your computer with pursed lips and furrowed brows.

The dreaded blue screen. It had only reached 15% and didn’t seem to budge even after three minutes of watching it.

“For God’s sake,” Jihoon cursed under his breath, however, it was loud enough for you to hear it and the unusual sharpness in his tone caused you to jump slightly, your heart beginning to race in your chest as his face contorted into frustration. “How did you manage to get stuck like this?”

“I-I don’t know.” God, you hated it when you started stuttering. It always made you look stupid and helpless. You inhaled a quick breath, hoping it would help calm the nerves that seemed to climb the more you avoided his intense gaze. “I was coming back from my break and turned it on, and it did this… I didn’t do anything, I swear…” If your lack of technological capabilities looked pitiful to Jihoon, your inability of forming a coherent and sensible answer was the cherry on top. “I’m really sorry.”

Upon seeing her stricken face, Jihoon inhaled a deep breath, letting his tensed shoulders fall. “No, Y/N, I should be sorry. I’m taking my anger out on you, you just needed help.” He glances back at your monitor, heaving another sigh. “Just leave it, it should be able to restart on its own, but if it doesn’t, just tell me.”

“Alright…” Would it be even more pathetic to say you were fighting away tears? You had to turn your head a bit, angling away from Jihoon so your hair fell to cover your face enough for him to not notice your obvious internal battle with letting your emotions take over. “I’m really sorry I keep bothering you with not being tech-savvy.”

An ache thumped in his chest hearing your apology, sounding defeated. “It’s fine, Y/N,” he tried to reassure you, but he knew damn well the damaged was done and whatever unspoken agreement to two of you had, had gone. Jihoon knew he was terrible with people, but he really messed up with ruining it with you—the one person that made coming into work, commuting back and forth, and facing nagging higher-ups, the least bit bearable.

It didn’t seem to register in him how bad the damage was until he got through the day without any messages from you. Even Jeonghan was surprised as the day was coming to a close. “Y/N didn’t come in?”

“She did,” Jihoon mumbled.

“And she didn’t need any help?” He only shrugged, trying to hide his own bewilderment. Did his words strike you that much? He decided to message you, just in case you were reluctant to ask him for help.

Jihoon: Y/N Jihoon: Everything alright?

He waited on the edge of his seat, his heart skipping a beat when you began typing back.

Y/N: Yes, everything’s fine ^__^

Everything was, in fact, not fine.

Not only did your computer take almost an hour to restart after the dreaded blue screen, whatever the computer had gone through during said hour had your accounts logged out, and you, being clumsy, misplaced the sticky note that Jihoon gave you, forcing you to borrow someone else’s computer to pull up the Instagram analytics. Fortunately, most of your inputted data was still available from before your break, it was still a hassle to transfer the data from your colleague’s computer to your own, and because, once again, you are tech-savvy, you didn’t know any shortcut. You had to turn to Google, open up YouTube tutorials on Excel shortcuts, consuming almost an hour of your day trying to learn everything from scratch.

But you promised yourself you wouldn’t bother him with any measly problems if Google already had a solution.

Even it meant running into the risk of never seeing him again.

Two days had passed. It was Wednesday and Jihoon was ready to pack up and head back to his old life of working from the comforts of his bedroom. Two days without his favourite snacks. Two days without his functioning PC that he paid hundreds, probably thousands of dollars to build. Two days without his fast Wi-Fi that was optimal for a quick ranked game.

And two days without the usual ping of his Google Chat, the room with you now collecting dust as the last message exchanged was his check-in on Monday.

Now Wednesday’s work day comes to an end without your plea for technological aid. You’re genuinely the only thing in this bleak, rundown, cheap company that makes the work worthwhile, Jihoon couldn’t help but think to himself on the train back home.

Was it pathetic of him to think of you as a reason to wake up in the morning, fight the morning rush and sit through eight hours of blank staring at a computer screen if it means he can get a glimpse of you every now and then when he goes down to get another fix of shitty coffee? The two of you only officially met last week after all, and yet, he has grown drawn to you, attached even, finding the brief sight of you as you sat by your desk, an ever-so-present clueless look to your face as you try to remember how to VLOOKUP the third time. He finds endearing, so endearing that his heart aches and his days grow grey when he hasn’t seen you yet.

Has he always been one to fall so quick for someone?

Would it be even more pathetic for him to fear that feeling? Mind you, he has never left the house unless bribed to, social interactions were scarce aside from the call outs to teammates in his ranked games, and even then, he never bothered to make small talk with the people he’d temporarily need to rank up. Was he a bit too deprived of social interactions that meeting you overwhelmed him to the point of creating a false sense of falling in l—

“Wonwoo, when are you coming back?” This time the two weren’t in a game of Valorant. Thank God, Wonwoo had thought when Jihoon asked to get on a Discord call. The latter had dinner prepared and was watching Big Bang Theory while on the call, but his head wasn’t focused on neither the ramen nor the TV show. “Can we switch back soon?”

“What happened to your willingness to go to the office?” Again, that damned smirk was noticeable in the way he spoke, but Jihoon needed to keep his cool.

“Changed my mind.”

“How come?”

“Sick and tired of being in the direct line of shot for Eunkwang’s spit when he yells at me,” he half-lied. He had to wash his face after that meeting, to the point he used the strawberry-scented hand soap to make sure he couldn’t feel the droplets on his skin.

“Oh yeah, Jeonghan told me.” A pause. “Sorry that happened to you, but it’s just Eunkwang, his ammunition is making you work overtime every now and then.”

“I just don’t want to deal with him every now and then, much rather read him yell in the group chats than in real life.”

There was a longer pause now, Jihoon’s eyes glanced at his second monitor just to make sure his friend didn’t disconnect. Then, Wonwoo spoke up, tone matter-of-factly and the shit-eating grin heard clearly. “Vernon tells me you haven’t been to the Marketing room in a bit.”

“Vernon you piece of shit snitch,” Jihoon cursed under his breath, but obviously his microphone caught it, Wonwoo throwing his head back in laughter.

“I’m guessing the Tech-Illiterate hasn’t been asking for your help?”

“Y/N,” Jihoon corrected, not liking the term used—even if it did fit you.

“Hey, there are a lot of tech-illiterate people in our company,” Wonwoo pointed out, then added, “so I guess you admit it then, you’re thinking of her.”

His eyes roll far back, he gets a mild ache in his temples. “Fine yeah,” he admits with a defeated sigh, “she doesn’t need any more help from me so why should I even bother to go to the office?”

“For work, Jihoon,” he says casually. “I mean, you get compensation to come to work. Extra money.”

“I’m already rich enough,” he responds, clearly dodging.

“Then why work?”

“I’m bored.”

“You piss me off.” Wonwoo’s comment successfully makes Jihoon chuckle. “I hope Y/N becomes so tech-savvy that she doesn’t need your help anymore, and you will never see her again.”

“Asshole,” he hisses and disconnects from the call immediately, Wonwoo’s words pushed to the back of his head as he finished his ramen and closed the TV show, opening Valorant for a quick game to relieve the stress built up for the day.

Unfortunately, once he laid on his bed, eyes stuck on the ceiling, his peers’ words returned tenfold, echoing a sickening mantra in his head. What if you do end up learning how to do your job with little to no help, technology-wise? It’s hard for the guy to admit (and a tad bit dramatic), but he truly did feel like his entire being has lighten since meeting you.

Maybe he is deprived of social interaction, and you were the fix he needed, but didn’t want it to be temporary. He wanted to know everything about you, the reason why you struggle with technology and remembering passwords and working different Google suites. He wanted to know why you chose this line of work, why this shitty company, and why hadn’t he met you before.

He wanted to know more about you, and he doesn’t want to ruin the chances of being able to do so.

Although it might be pathetic of him to feel so strongly over someone he only met the previous week, he knew this would be a missed opportunity to not get to know you better, that it would become his biggest regret and he didn’t want his leaving the comforts of his WFA routine be for nothing.

So, he had a plan. A bit of a cheesy, cliché of a plan, but a plan and he lost sleep wondering if it’ll work or not.

As he entered the office, his mind kept replaying what he needed to do. It was simple, he just needed to wait for you to reach out to him, ask for help with an issue and it should be smooth-sailing from there, all depends on your answer, of course, but that was something he could worry about later.

Phase one starts with you and your uncooperative computer.

Jihoon waited, eyes glancing between tabs where his Google Chat was opened, looking at the bottom right corner of his computer at the time, watching the time tick by and still no ping from you. But that was okay, it was only two hours into this gloomy Thursday, there was still a whole seven hours before he could truly panic.

So he waited more.

And more.

And more.

He waited until he couldn’t wait, and time was running out. Eyes shifted towards the clock: 16.39.

Less than thirty minutes until the work day, and tomorrow is Friday, and he needed to get this done today because if he didn’t then, it’ll mess up his plan for tomorrow (which depends on your answer, too, if you say ‘yes’ then there’s another plan for that, but if you say ‘no’ then Wonwoo was already back in the city so he could cover for Jihoon while the latter wallows).

“Fuck it,” Jihoon mutters as he pushes himself up out of his chair, causing everyone else in the room jumps and turns to his desk, only to see him already out the door and rushing down the stairs.

“Go get her, man,” Jeonghan utters, loud enough for everyone to chime along with him.

With long strides and quick steps down to your floor, everyone Jihoon seemed to past knew he was a man on a mission—a man on a mission for you. He tries to ignore the mild chills that rose up his spine at that thought. He might be pathetic sometimes, but he likes to believe he can be quite the cheesy romantic, despite what his friends might say.

As expected, since it had been a slow day, a lot of staff had clocked out early, their jobs for the day done and all ready to end the work week. However, you were still by your desk, focused on the task at hand, only two of your coworkers in the room with you, but even they were mindlessly playing with their Excel sheets, waiting for the clock to strike five.

When he stood close enough to you, he saw that you weren’t focused on a task, instead on a game of Minesweepers. He watched you win a game, pursing his lips and nodding, visibly impressed. Sensing a present, you turned around and jumped slightly. “Jihoon… Hi.”

“Hey, Y/N,” he greets back with a stiff smile. “Is everything alright?”

A brief look of confusion passed your face, glancing between him and your computer, before nodding, “Yeah, everything’s fine.” And it was. You got through your day just fine, nothing needed to be troubleshooted, or restarted. You didn’t panic, other than when you forget to send a file to Saerom, but everything—technology-wise—was fine.

“Really? I got a notification on my computer that there was something wrong with yours,” Jihoon lied through his teeth. He didn’t, but he needed you away from your computer so he has ample time to put his plan in motion. His statement caused your brows to furrow together, genuinely confused because you didn’t receive any notification from your own computer, shouldn’t that be the case? Unless you did, and you didn’t noticed because you were too focused on your Minesweeper game.

“Oh…”

“Yeah…” Jihoon rubbed a nonexistent itch at the back of his neck. “Are you done with your work? It might take a bit for me to check it.”

“Oh yeah, I’m done for the day,” you said, then to the clock above the door. “I didn’t realize it was almost five.”

If you could hear anything right now, it would be the pounding beat of his heart against his chest as he tries to formulate an excuse to get you off the computer. “It won’t take more than ten minutes, though, Y/N.”

“Alright, I’m just going to fill my water bottle and clean up while you deal with it.” With a stern nod, Jihoon watched as you stood and walked out the room. Once outside, he took his spot and started his plan.

Recalling the steps he saw on Google, opening Notepad as he pulled out the sticky note where he wrote the code beforehand, typing it in and inserting the necessary message. Once he had saved it, he tested it once, and almost yelled out in triumph when it worked, displaying a fake error message.

“What’s the problem, Jihoon?” You approached him, bottle filled to the top with water. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, you just…” He stood from his chair, gesturing for you to sit. He leaned down, keeping one hand on the back of your chair as the other guided you. “You just need to click that, it’s to install a… an update… Yeah, an update.”

“This one? The ‘Critical Inquiry’ one?” Jihoon hummed in response and watched with sweaty hands and a racing heart as you clicked it, an error message popping up on your screen.

Is this how IT guys flirt? The blood in your face travelled the distance to your cheeks, a bright pink beneath the glow of your skin as you tried suppressing your smile, Jihoon’s way of asking you out so unconventional, so out of the blue, so unique, that you couldn’t help but mentally applaud him, this was a new way you’d been asked out.

“What’s your option?” Jihoon asked, his voice so clearly on edge as he anticipated your answer, for a second even worried you’d decline then he’d be forced to return to his hermit habits and hide his embarrassment.

All that tension, no matter how hard he tried to hide it behind a nonchalant façade, was visible to you and gosh, he is so cute.

You sent him a smile, turning back to your computer wordlessly, letting your choice speak. Your cursor hovered towards the options, for a second too long it hovered over ‘No’, Jihoon’s breath hitching in his throat before his heart skipped a beat as the cursor moved and you clicked your mouse right on ‘Yes’.

The two of you stared at each other, a warmth in your eyes, and brightness in his, sharing a knowing smile before he uttered with the confidence he mustered between the panic.

“I’ll pick up at eight then, Y/N.”

[allpiesforourown]

more hatman brainrot takeover incoming

sy was a normal dude before being transmigrated into the role of 'hatman', a role specifically meant to evoke sheer terror into the masses who are getting too close to seeing into the other dimensions of the world, and lbh has been trying to dissociate from his entire life's bs since he was old enough to sell drugs to dumbass college students so he could pay for his moms medicine (she still dies, and his dad showing up later to claim him as his heir does Not Help)

he's trying a new strain given to him by dear ol dad, who's big into fashion drugs himself, which is how lbh and hatman!sy meet for the first time, but sy being sy, he is Instantly Enamored by binghe's whole everything, and doesnt wanna give binghe even more trauma, so he doesnt really scare him, cue the beginning of a very confusing and erotic trip for binghe

binghe is now obsessed with the entity with the insanely green eyes who seems to only ever visit whenever binghe is trying to enter another plane of existence (only ever touching him gently when hes paralyzed, sometimes even lightly smacking him when binghe tries to ask questions in the tripscape, but his eyes are so kind, and binghe is so horny) which is precisely against Company Policy, and eventually somebody above sy figures out he's visiting the same victimtransgressor and threatens to demote sy from hatman to transdimensional paperpusher in the departed souls dimension

now sy has to figure out how to convince binghe that he's actually something to be feared, gives him a REAL fright (dumping binghe's mind into the abyss), and binghe being binghe, he's deeply upset by this shift after spending time getting to know sy and being treated so "sweetly", and spends the next 3 years tracking down anyone else online who has seen The Hatman so he can figure out why sy suddenly hates him and prove to the hatman that he's worth crossing over into their world for, even going so far as to invent a machine that will trap the hatman in the material world (at least until he fan figure out how to make him stay on his own)

it leads to a lot of the wrong hatmen being captured and sy getting into a lot of trouble with the higher ups who are trying to keep him and the rest of their operation from being found out, and it wouldve all gone according to plan, except binghe manages to successfully catch him while sy is visiting liu qingge, but not successfully enough create a corporeal form for him, and it leads to sy thinking binghe is doing this on purpose for torturing him

the delicious misunderstanding of it all~ gonna stop there for now cuz i havent thought of how they reconcile this shit but i need binghe and mobei jun to both get high together and mobei meets his own hatman sqh who ends up being more terrified of of mbj and gets harrassed into helping catch sy for binghe

Dude the world building here is INSANE I need you to make this a best selling book idea

[hanniebaeee]

Feral Puppy

Hyunjin x fem!reader

Warnings: SMUT MDNI

Genre: colleagues/friends to lovers, fluff, smut

Summary: Hyunjin has the hugest crush on you, and you've been trying to avoid any workplace drama. He's an idol after all. But what are you supposed to do when this feral puppy is totally invested in winning you over?

a/n: Sweaty Jinnie is a weakness 🤭🤭🤭

You sat at your desk, deep in work. The office was quiet this early in the morning, except for the rhythmic tapping of keys. You were so focused on your task that you barely noticed the group of boys passing by your little cubicle.

That is, until a soft thud caught your attention.

You glanced up, just in time to see a certain dark haired menace dropping a cupcake onto your desk - perfectly adorable with heart-shaped sprinkles, no less.

Hyunjin flashed you a wink that could make anyone melt. And you? You were trying so hard to not react. 

You could feel your heart skip a beat, and you sighed in exasperation, your cheeks heating up. Felix who was passing by gave you a wink. 

“Honestly, I don’t know if I should be flattered or embarrassed.” you muttered, and Felix snorted in response. 

"A little bit of both, I think." He said, picking off a sprinkle and popping it in his mouth.

You couldn’t help but laugh, because Hyunjin had been trying to get your attention for months. He was always sneaking little treats or flowers to your desk, or winking at you as you passed each other in the hallways.

It was adorable in the most frustratingly complicated way, especially since you were colleagues - technically- and it was strictly against the company policy. Especially since he was an idol and all that. 

But you still felt a rush of affection that made your heart ache. Hyunjin was too cute, and you hated that you had to keep it professional.

---

It was just a little after lunch that you had walked into the practice room to have a word with Chan. You've been bracing yourself for impact, because you know what a feral puppy he could be sometimes. 

The second you entered, naturally his head snapped around - he’d caught a whiff of your perfume. His eyes locked onto yours, and you could see the way his whole body seemed to tense.

"Down, boy!" Changbin barked, grabbing Hyunjin by the collar just as he took an eager step forward.

But Hyunjin just growled, still looking at you with those wide, pleading eyes.

"I just need to see her face," he insisted, his voice a little too dramatic, and oh dear, lets just say it hit you just at the right spot.

Felix was leaning against the wall now, clearly entertained.

"Bro, her face is your phone wallpaper," he teased with a wink.

The comment made you blush harder than you ever had in front of these idiots. Your eyes darted to Chan, who was supposed to be the mature one here. And now the said mature one was desperately trying to stifle his laughter.

You gave him a glare and he just shrugged, like there was nothing he could do to stop this chaos.

“Chan, are you serious right now?!” You hissed and he cleared his throat trying to regain some seriousness. 

But before he could respond, Changbin was back at it, pulling Hyunjin back by the shoulder.

"Nope," he said, shaking his head. "Down, puppy, down."

You couldn't help the little chuckle that left your lips.

God, you loved him. It was undeniable. But there was no way you could get involved with him, not with all the rules in place. You just had to keep pretending that his antics weren’t making your heart flutter in the most inappropriate of ways.

"You’re such a menace, you know that?" You muttered, shaking your head at Hyunjin. 

Hyunjin's eyes sparkled with mischief as he said, "If that means getting your attention, then I’ll gladly wear that title."

Your poor heart screamed at that, because honestly, you loved every minute of it.

And so did he.

A few days later, you found yourself staying late at the office, finishing up some urgent reports. You were surrounded by an ominous stillness, because you were the only one left working on your floor and it was getting a little creepy by the moment.

You sent your emails quickly, packed up in record speed and bolted out of your workspace. But as soon as you turned the corner, you walked straight into a wall of muscle.

You froze, heart skipping a beat as you looked up slowly. And seeing Hyunjin’s sweaty, disheveled face staring back at you, you let out a sigh of relief.

That didn't last long because this exactly was your biggest…undoing. Sweat soaked Hyunjin was a weakness you didn't even like to discuss with yourself. 

His shirt was soaked through, clinging to his body, and you could actually see the muscles in his chest through it. His damn hair fell messily around his face, and there's a sheen of sweat on his forehead, making him look like some kind of god sent from another realm.

His wide eyes met yours, and for a moment, neither of you moved. You looked away quickly, absolutely embarrassed, but the damage was already done.

You could feel the string of control inside you stretching taut, ready to snap. 

Hyunjin watched you with a predatory gleam in his eyes. Not aggressive. No, it’s playful - and so damn hot.

“Didn’t expect to run into you tonight,” he said, his voice husky. 

You forced yourself to look up at him, and for a second, you both just stared at each other. Your body was screaming for release, but your brain was holding on.

You couldn’t cross that line. Not when it could ruin everything.

"I…uh, didn’t mean to startle you," you managed, your voice trembling just a little too much for your liking.

His scent is intoxicating, a mix of sweat and his cologne. And pheromones or whatever. 

"Startled?" he teased, his lips curling into a smile. "You’re staring. Are you sure you didn’t come to see me?"

"I-I wasn’t staring," you stammered, but you couldn’t even look him in the eye. You were so aware of every inch of him right now - it was like the droplets of sweat trickling down his skin were begging for your attention. 

"You're not fooling anyone, you know," he murmured, his voice dipping lower, sending a wave of heat shooting straight to your core. "You’re trying not to break, but I think it’s too late for that."

“Hyunjin-”

"How long are you going to pretend you don’t want this?" he asked, his words heavy with desire, making your heart race faster. "I can’t be the only one who feels it."

You swallowed hard, your hands trembling, your resolve completely gone. You wanted him so badly, it hurt. And maybe, just maybe, you didn’t want to fight it anymore.

Seeing that he has tormented you enough, Hyunjin pulled back just slightly, giving you a playful look that said, I’ll let you off the hook for now. 

"You’re so annoying," you whispered, more to yourself than to him.

He just smiled, completely unfazed, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. "Am I?"

The next few days were a nightmare. The lingering, burning tension that Hyunjin’s created between you two was literally frying your insides. And let's be real. Seeing him in all his sweat soaked glory, you were so unbearably turned on. 

Seeing you at the edge of your own self control, has unleashed something in him. He knows you were just as interested. That little moment? He was holding onto it. 

So you did the best thing - the only thing at this point - avoiding him. You asked Chan to meet at a conference room for a quick chat when it was necessary. Or you generally didn't venture towards the practice room. 

You’ve learned to keep your distance, at least a little. And you hoped that Hyunjin wouldn't notice. But Hyunjin was not having it. No. He was making it his personal goal to make sure nothing went unnoticed.

---

You were walking through the hallway, minding your business, trying to get to the elevator. You heard the footsteps behind you too late. You could swear you felt the heat of his presence before you even saw him.

Hyunjin, being the menace he was, barreled into you out of nowhere, pressing you up against the wall in a move that was so absolutely ridiculous that for a split second, you wondered if you were dreaming.

“What the hell, Hyunjin?!” you exclaimed, flailing as you try to regain your balance, your palms slapping against the cold wall.

You're heart raced and you glanced around feeling kind of dazed. But Hyunjin just stood there, smirking, totally unbothered.

“What?” he said innocently, his body still pressed against yours. “There’s not enough space to pass.”

“Are you serious?!” You flailed again, trying to step aside, but he just shifted his body to keep you pinned, making it impossible to escape. 

“Oh my God, Hyunjin, move!” You were flushed, not just from the physical contact, but from the audacity of it all. You didn’t even know if you were angry, embarrassed, or completely turned on. 

He looked down at you, his eyes glittering with something so mischievously feral.

“I know you don't mind, sweetheart,” he said, and you groaned internally. How did he keep doing this? The way he was so confident, so sure of himself. 

“Hyunjin, please.” You tried to get him to step back, but it’s like he’s glued to you.

“I didn't even do anything,”

Oh the nerve!

You tried to wiggle away, but his arms came up on either side of you, trapping you even further. You’re caught, pressed against the wall with nowhere to go, and his body is all around you.

“Let me go, Hyunjin,” you breathed, but it’s almost a plea now. “There are cameras everywhere!”

His grin widened as he watched you, and said, “Oh is there?”

You let out a soft growl of frustration, realizing you’ve lost all sense of control. Your grip on his shirt tightened, and Hyunjin bit his bottom lip seductively. Your were trembling in his arms. 

Maybe that was what he was aiming for, because he dropped his arms and took a step back. 

You quickly scrambled away, muttering curses under your breath as you speed-walked away. And Hyunjin watched you go, that mischievous smirk never leaving his face. 

“See you around, sweetheart,” he calls out after you.

Hyunjin has successfully invaded every corner of your mind that you had so meticulously disciplined against doing exactly that. 

The teasing. The tension. Oh the need - it's been eating you alive. You couldn’t focus at work. You couldn’t go anywhere without your heart hammering at the thought of him. 

You’ve tried to ignore it, tried to compartmentalize it, but the truth is - you were well past the point of no return.

And then, of course, it happens again.

It was another late night at the office - one you tried so hard to avoid, but here you were. You were discreet and quiet.

You thought you'd made it. That this time you’d escaped his clutches. But as you walked down the dimly lit hallway, your heart just started to race again.

Because of course, he was coming toward you from the other side. And he stopped in front of you, his hands stuffed into his pockets. 

"Are you trying to avoid me?" he asked, his voice so low and husky, you wanted to jump off a cliff.

You swallowed hard, shaking your head as you said, “Why would I do that?”

Your voice wavered worse than a leaf in a storm. 

“Just making sure you don’t get any ideas,” he whispered - his face was so close now that you can feel his breath on your lips.

You were so damn tempted to lean in just a little. You shouldn’t. You couldn't.

“You know, I’m waiting for you to crack, baby,” he murmured. “Just let go, you know you want to.”

Your heart raced and flipped and fluttered all at once, and you could feel the heat creeping up your neck. You tried to step back but obviously there's nowhere to go. But he followed, matching your every movement.

“Hyunjin,” you said his name so softly, a breathless sound that made his eyes flash with something darker, something predatory. “Please, just-”

But he was done playing nice. His hand came up to gently hold your chin, lifting your face so you couldn't look away and you were forced to meet his gaze.

“You think you can just keep running from me?” he breathed, stepping impossibly closer. “If you didn't want me, you would've said that by now. But you keep me hanging, and I'm just about done with that.”

And that was when you lost it.

Before you knew what you were doing, your hand came up to grip the back of his neck, pulling him closer. His lips crashed against yours, desperate, unrestrained. The kiss was hot, messy - all tongue and teeth.

And it was everything you’ve wanted.

He groaned into the kiss, his hands sliding down to your waist, pulling you even closer. His body was hard and slick with sweat, and you could feel the heat radiating from every inch of him. 

His lips trailed down your neck, making you gasp as he kissed the sensitive skin just below your ear.

“Told you,” he whispered against your skin, his breath hot. “I knew you couldn’t keep pretending.”

He pulled back just enough to look at you, his lips  slightly swollen from the kiss. 

“I need to hear it, okay?” he said, his voice low and filled with promise. “Tell me you want this too.”

You looked at him, your breath coming in shallow pants. You were done pretending.

“No more running,” you whispered. “I want you too…”

And Hyunjin gave you a smile so radiant, you could die happily at the moment.

“Come on,” He said, taking your hand and pulling you away. “Let's go somewhere safe.”

A room next to their studio. Barely used. Kind of dusty. But it worked.

The minute you stepped in, his lips were on yours. He had you pressed up against the cold wall of the unused office, your bodies tangled together in an almost desperate need. Your hands tugged at his shirt, trying to get it off, and he didn’t even hesitate, pulling it over his head and tossing it aside. 

His hands roamed over you, caressing, groping, pulling you closer as if he was starving for you. 

“God, I love you-” He growled, his hands sliding down to your hips, pulling you into him. The heat  radiating off his body and the feel of every muscle flex beneath his skin - you were blinded by it. 

His hands were sliding up your sides, tugging at your clothes, as if he was hungry to see every inch of you. You gasp when his fingertips grazed the skin of your waist, as he took off your shirt. 

"Hyunjin..." you whispered, breathless, the sound of his name escaping your lips like a prayer. 

"You’re so fucking beautiful," he growled, his lips finding their way down down chest. His fingers pulled down the cup of your bra, as he pressed soft kisses around the flesh. 

Your lips parted, but no words came out, just breathy gasps as his lips wrapped around your nipple. The soft scrape of his teeth on your skin made you shiver, and you couldn't stop the low moan that escaped from deep in your chest.

“Fuck baby,” he moaned against your skin, his breath hot, sending goosebumps across your body.

“Hyunjin,” you gasped, tugging him closer, your hands finding his waistband of his sweats. He groaned, clearly as desperate as you are, and his lips crashed back to yours. His tongue sweeped over yours, and you lost yourself in the kiss.

His hands moved down to your waist, his grip tightening as he lifted you effortlessly. Your legs wrapped around his waist, and you felt how hard he was for you. 

He carried you effortlessly toward the desk in the corner of the room. Placing you on the edge of the desk, his hands trailed up your thighs as he leaned in to kiss you again. You couldn't stop the trembling in your body as you pulled him closer. 

Hyunjin’s hands move quickly, pulling off the rest of your clothes. His dark eyes take in your body, pupils blown wide with lust. 

“You’re perfect,” he murmured, his hands sliding over the exposed skin of your tummy. 

“Hyunjin… now.” you said desperately, pulling at his pants again, and they're gone in a flash. 

When he finally stood completely bare before you, the sight of him sent a shock of heat straight through your body. He was so beautiful - every inch of him. 

His eyes never left yours as he positioned himself between your legs, his hands gripping your waist as he brought you closer to him. You felt his hard length pressed against you, and you whimpered softly at the thought of what’s about to happen.

“I need you,” you whispered, your hands running through his hair, pulling him in for another kiss. “Now.”

And with that, Hyunjin moved, spreading your legs and pushing into you slowly. You shivered as he filled you completely, stretching you out.

You gazed up at him, the beads of sweat (he was sweating again - again) trickling down the side of his face. 

“Oh my God,” You whined softly, closing your eyes, and he grinned, a chuckle escaping his lips. He began to move, slipping in and out of you with every thrust. Your hands gripped at the edges of the desk, trying to steady yourself as the pleasure built between you both.

You were so wet, and Hyunjin couldn't stop looking at where you two were connected, and with a frustrated sigh, he pulled out completely. 

You gasped and stared up at him, as he grabbed your legs and pulled you more to the edge and then, his face was in between your thighs. 

You almost shrieked - because that was absolutely unexpected. He wasn't wasting any time, his tongue lapping at your dripping folds and nudging your clit. Your hand landed on his hair, pulling at it gently and Hyunjin hummed - the vibrations of it making you drip even more.

“Hyun… Hyunjin!” You moaned, as he licked softly over your clit and nibbled on it gently making your breath catch. 

It didn't take long for your first orgasm to crash down over you, and when Hyunjin straightened, he had the most satisfied grin on his face. 

“You're so sweet, baby,” He cooed and you were sure your cheeks were at least two shades redder than before. “I couldn't resist it.”

You laughed, a tired one at that and he laughed with you before stepping in between your legs again. He ran his hands up and down your thighs and you watched, breathing heavily. 

“Can I?” He asked softly, and you nodded with a smile. 

It felt deliciously good when he slipped in this time, and the rhythm between you was slow at first -  tender - but it didn't take long for that to change. Hyunjin’s need took over, and he began to move faster and harder, his body crashing into yours with a force that left you breathless.

The sound of his body slapping against yours filled the room, and you couldn't stop the moans that escaped your lips. Every thrust sent waves of pleasure coursing through you, and you clung on to him tightly. 

He was everywhere - his hands, his lips, his body - and you were drowning in him.

You pull him closer, you lips kissing down his nand -  glistening with sweat - and you loved the way he moaned as you bit down right below his ear. 

You didn't know this was such a turn on for you until today. This man did things to you that even you didn't understand. And you didn't mind really. 

And you could feel that knot tightening in your belly again. Your eyes met, and you gripped him tightly, as his name escaped your lips in a breathless gasp. 

Your whole body shuddered as you hit your peak again, and Hyunjin kept moving, till you heard him groan and pull out quickly, spilling all over your tummy.

You were both left breathless, hearts racing, tangled together in a mess of sweat and your releases. For a moment, neither of you speak. 

Finally, Hyunjin gently cupped your face with his hand, his eyes softening. 

“I love you, Y/N. So damn much.” He whispered and you could swear you've never seen him being this serious. Ever. 

“I love you too, Jinnie,” You said, and your smile had him smiling. And the two of you were giggling and hugging each other tightly. 

“I told you I’d make you mine,” he mumbled against your neck, pressing a gentle kiss there.

“Yeah yeah,”

The next morning, you walked into the office, trying to act like everything was normal. But as soon as you stepped in, the atmosphere just felt different. 

You sat down at your desk, but before you could  even open your laptop, Changbin, Felix, and Chan came strolling into the office like they’ve been waiting for you. 

Oh they knew. 

“Morning, Y/N,” Changbin said, his tone way too casual. “Sleep well?”

You forced a smile, trying to stay calm, but inside you’re screaming. 

“Yeah, sure. Thanks for asking.” you managed to say, as you avoided making eye contact with him. 

“I’m sure you had a very eventful night, huh?” Felix was leaning against your desk now, his chin on his hand and a toothy grin in place. 

You dropped your head into your hands, already feeling the embarrassment creeping up. And then, you heard it. That sweet, chuckle which had you wanting to crawl under your desk and never come out. 

“Hyunjin,” you hissed, glaring at him as he strutted over to you, like a damn puppy who’s just been given a treat. 

And he looked so fucking proud of himself.

"Good morning, sweetheart,” he said, dropping that mandatory cupcake on your desk. 

You didn't hold back the sigh.

“Oh my God, Hyunjin,” you whined, burying your face in your hands in defeat. “Please.”

“What? You think they didn’t notice?” he asked innocently, pointing at the spot under his ear, where he sported a very evident hickey. 

Oh you wanted to die. Felix snickered, totally enjoying this. 

“And you’re glowing love, it looks good.” he said kindly. 

“Oh my god, oh my god,” you groaned, pressing your fingers into your temples. “Could you not?”

“You know we should have a talk about office etiquette. But then again... if it was that's good…” Chan added, raising his eyebrows, a smile tugging at his lips as he glanced between you and Hyunjin. 

“I’m going to murder all of you.” 

Divider: @saradika-graphics

Tags: @moonchild9350 @velvetmoonlght @eastjonowhere @pixie-felix @sailor--sun @satosugu4l

[nohoney]

Bakugou would listen to you rant all about work. Even though he’s the one out on the streets with more exciting stories to tell, one of his favorite things is to hear you talk about your own work. He follows and nods along with whatever work story you have for him for the day, always attentive but never telling you what you should do to handle it (as he had learned from a prior relationship).

“I can tell he fuckin’ hates me, you know?” You continue on about your current work events as you sit on the countertop and watch Bakugou cut vegetables, “He keeps on bringing up my old manager as if she has anything to do with it now. Like, no motherfucker! You answer to me now and I’m saying pay your stupid invoice!”

The vegetables for dinner are set aside while the oven is still preheating. Two pieces of pork chop are taken from the fridge and is set aside on a clean plate as Bakugou looks for spices to rub into the meat. “So what happened baby? Did he pay? Y’said you were dealing with this for almost two weeks.” He asks you, genuinely curious if your annoying client is actually complying with you. The thought in his head is wondering how you handled it.

“I have to read you this email that I wrote. I gotta say the professional ways of dissing someone in email is something I finally understand now.” You laugh as you pull up your work email on your phone. Word for word you read out your well thought out response to your difficult client, not backing down and upholding work policy as you are expected to. Bakugou had never really bothered with any type of skill of being professional through communication in his job; it’s what his team is for while he gets the really privilege to cuss as he pleases and have his team handle it for the public. “Here is how I signed off, I think it’s probably my most eloquent and business-like ‘fuck you’ I’ve written so far.”

You clear your throat first before reading aloud, “‘I hope that the explanations of how to navigate your account has cleared up any confusion you may have and that you are able to move forward in compliance with our company policy, if you have any further questions then please let me know.’ God I know he’s going to hate me as soon as he reads it!”

He chuckles, happy that you know how to stand your ground in such a manner that Bakugou knows he struggles in. “You tell him, baby.”

“I fucking did Katsuki!” You boast with a proud little smile as you hop off the countertop and go to his side as he heats oil in a pan. “Sorry, I’ve been going on about this annoying client for a while. I wanna hear about your work today Tsuki.”

Bakugou shakes his head though and urges you to talk about what else happened at your work. The meat sizzles as he presses it into the pan, crackling and sizzling in a way that’s reminiscent of his quirk but to a much lower degree. The oven beeps to indicate that preheating is finished and you move to put all the vegetables into the glass pan and stick it in for him, already setting a timer before he can even ask. “What about that other guy? The one who keeps on saying that he’s getting investors so he wants to make you wait a little longer?” He asks you when he recalls another client you complained of a few days ago.

You excitedly pop off about your work again, unknowing how you calm Bakugou down with your own work stories. Your series of responsibilities that he wouldn’t know the first clue how to handle are interesting to him to hear how you handle yourself. It’s simple compared to what he does but in no way is it easy either. To see you struggle sometimes with your own career wasn’t easy for him but you were also strong enough to handle it all the same.

And he liked to think that he made it easy for you to handle because he wanted to hear anything and everything about your job that’s so different from his. “Tell me about the parking permits, did that get solved yet?” He asks as he starts to set food on the plates.

“No! I’m on week three of dealing with it and it’s ridiculous! I sent everything in so early and they deal with it so late!!”

Bakugou listens with a happy heart to hear you talk, never wanting you to apologize over the things that frustrate you. And by the end of your rants, even he feels a little lighter as he readies to get in bed with you.

And the next day as he’s just about to enter a meeting in his agency, Bakugou gets a text from you.

[1:57 pm] omg i need to tell you what this mofo emailed me when we’re home

He looks forward to it, letting a little smile come onto his face. He can see you all cute and puffed up and mad, and he can’t wait to hear about it.

[1:58 pm] can’t wait baby. love you.

You text him back within seconds.

[1:58 pm] love you!!!

Bakugou can’t wait to be home and listen to you.

[siryouarebeingmocked]

SYABM comic 70 “Donation Aggravation”.

[ Older comics | Chronological order | Subreddit ]

Some people get really mad about a computer asking them to give pennies.

AP says this meme is false.

Customer donations aren’t income, legally. So they can’t be ducked from the company’s tax bill.

Tax Policy Center says the same thing, and points out that consumers forget to deduct their donations.*

This meme was apparently popularized by, of course, TikTok.

Also, if they get a tax break, so what? 

The point of that is to encourage charity and social benefit. If you care more about the tax break than whether they’re actually helping anyone, I think your priorities are skewed.

And getting a tax break means the company has more money to spend on stuff like...the charity. Or employee raises. Or just staying open.

I know the implication is that they must be insincere, but it doesn’t actually prove anything. It’s just point-scoring.

I recently saw people complaining that Panda Express falsely takes the credit for their charity, which is entirely funded by donations from customers and employees. PE Cares openly and explicitly says so on their website.

PE also covers the admin costs for PEC. All of them.

And as someone pointed out, they could just as easily...not have the charity. In fact, it would be easier.

Heck, during the Hawaii Wildfires, PE donated meals to first responders and displaced people. And, oh yes, they matched donations to the Red Cross.

...It’s a “Cancel” button. 

Those are often different from regular choices, so people don’t click them accidentally. Heck, sometimes they’re made that way so they’re easier to see.

No 5D chess subliminal messages required.

And if you’re so easily influenced that a button color can change your mind, that’s on you.

“Saying your assumptions about us are wrong are gaslighting, even when I have no actual evidence  I am also confident that everyone does this, which justifies my assumption that any given company does this.”

It’s especially irritating because gaslighting is about perception. But assumptions are not actual perceptions, and perceptions are wrong all the time.

I also saw people in the Youtube comments complaining about grocery store food waste, because apparently stores love to waste money, and are not influenced by picky consumers or legal concerns (PDF).

I’ve argued with these types before, and naturally, they defaulted to attacking me instead of my argument. Didn’t even pretend to have any actual evidence. Unlike me. Just doubled down.

And, again, what does this have to do with charity?

Plenty of companies actually, quietly donate everything to charity that they can. But that doesn’t make the news as much. Sometimes because that leads to people trying to take advantage.

Incidentally, during the Texas blackout a few years back, one grocery store tried to donate their food to a charity. Except it was physically impossible for them to get there before the food expired, due to the bad weather.

People saw the store throw out the ruined food (under police guard), and said the store was selfish.

One Youtube comment said the Bible claimed people shouldn’t give openly. Okay, but that’s about self-aggrandizement and egotism, not just asking for donations and trying to set an example for others, out of actual caring.

I think the real motive is a combination of anti-corporate NPC hate, and the desire to attack the requester instead of admitting they just don’t want to donate.

And I gotta wonder what the overlap is with the folks who insist billionaires can “easily” afford to pay taxes that are more than what many people make in their entire lives, because it’s a small amount relative to their total wealth.

* Did see someone once claim that people pay higher taxes for donating. They may have been referring to people not knowing they can deduct donation. Which is, um, not the company’s fault. At all.

Behind the Scenes: This is the first comic drawn in Krita that I’ve animated. In fact, it’s my first Krita animation, ever.

And unfortunately for me, Krita can’t animate Vector layers or groups. I only figured that out after a literal hour looking up tutorials (which didn’t help). And it’s a tad irritating, because I often use vector layers AND groups.

So I had to manually create each frame. Three different elements with three different timings. Had to break out the paper and pencil and plot it out.

Kinda fun, actually.

This is also the first commentary in a long time that I didn’t write before I finished the comic. In fact, I’m doing it completely raw. All I had was the saved image and a link to the Youtube thread in question.

Comic Inspirations:

That one freakout scene in Bocchi the Rock.

The kiosks at my local McDonald’s.

Whatever this is;

[centrally-unplanned]

If I am gonna be an electoral popularist I gotta be a consistent popularist - I may think the idea of 'price gouging grocery police' to be very dumb, but it is popular! Americans hate high prices and blame companies, by huge margins, and are not economists and so don't really care if a price is "market clearing" or not. Particularly for a Dem politican, where anti-corporate is far more The Brand, it is probably a good issue to run on.

The important part is to just not do it when you win. Voters don't care and won't notice, they care about lower prices and such, so just do things that will *actually* help reduce costs and they will reward you for it (or, "reward", voters typically don't reward you for anything and sometimes actively punish you for your successes, but you won't be called out as a hypocrit or w/e at least)

And it is super vague anyway, right? Market collusion is *already* illegal, companies do do that (here is a current case in the meat industry!), we punish them now; you can keep doing that, increase enforcement, etc. You can just say doubling down on FTC actions in accordance with a 'new federal guideline' that is just defacto the same as the old guidelines But We Mean It This Time is your policy, and you arent even lying! Tons of rules go underenforced, this is fine. Wont change prices much ofc because the grocery industry just isnt that kind of space, but done right it can help at the margins.

One side of the popularist coin is that voters do actually care about issues, they are 'smart' and notice if you are hot airing them while endorsing different beliefs. They dont in fact vote solely on vibes. The other side though is that they are also dumb, and dont have any real theories of change but instead grab-bag, shallow policy preferences that they don't stick to if the underlying problem solves itself. Lower housing prices and they will not care if you did it via rent control or supply side reforms. Being a good politician is seeing where they care and where they don't.

[emry-stars-art]

What are your thoughts on Neil and Katelyn being friends? Either in your au or just in general. Personally I’m insane about it

SAME

Like if you’re asking realistically, if I was to write a post canon Neil and Katelyn friendship it would be that they don’t actually seek out each others company, but when they DO get together it is chaos for the twins. Like no one expected them to have that much or that kind of energy around each other. I don’t even know if I can describe it, it’s something adjacent to a sibling relationship with a wordless agreement to mess with Andrew and Aaron as much as possible and also having that step-sibling vibe that is both ironic hate and a little bit of real “still not a huge fan of u”. I do like Andrew being better with kids so Neil doesn’t necessarily have a special in with kateaaron’s girls.

But they get along completely well enough and are comfy around each other. My weakness for better post canon relationships for everyone strikes again

In the royal au it’s similar, obviously it takes even longer for Abram to be comfy/casual around the queen but once he is they have a fine time when they happen to around each other. As stated previously, he sometimes ends up watching out for her at parties and stuff bc Katelyn has always been incredible at sneaking away from her people - if she isn’t on Aaron’s arm she’s gonna be on Abram’s and like at least halfway drunk, if she’s not somewhere on the floor dancing. Since this universe (or at least Palmetto idk) doesn’t have super strict policy on dances and stuff, sometimes she convinces Abram to dance with her as long as there’s someone else near enough to keep an eye on the room around the prince. Andrew always rolls his eyes at their friendly/sibling-like affection but he’s also relieved Abram’s relaxing enough to allow it. He always lets Abram go dance (Andrew himself keeps the same arm-length distance from Katelyn that he does from everyone else). Aaron doesn’t mind either, HE’S just relieved she picked someone capable of protecting her to go drunkenly talk to when she disappears (he also likes the way she lights up when Aaron eventually comes to collect her. She’s very happy to see her beloved husband and I love that for them).

Anyway Queen Katelyn is very sweet to Abram (bc she’s a sweet person) and eventually yes they ABSOLUTELY cause chaos for the twins hehe

Find the royal au writing masterpost here 💕

[finickyfelix]

Writeblr Intro: Up-to-date Version

About Me:

You can call me Felix. 20 year old trans man, he/him pronouns exclusively. I am extremely shy and socially awkward, but I'm trying my best to become more social, mostly by talking in reblog tags, which is my main method of communication around here. I enjoy being tagged in tag games, although I can't get to them much of the time. But I still like being tagged in things and I will try to do them when I can; show me your writing!

Also I draw, sometimes. I occasionally post my art here, but only very, very rarely.

I am a very big fan of Slay the Princess at the moment, so I do reblog stuff related to it a lot.

What I Write:

I once would have said write fantasy, but who knows what I write anymore honestly. Horror mostly, lately, I guess, considering the fact that my current WIP is Faded Daisy, which is horror. Regardless of genre, I always write character-focused stories without much of a focus on plot. I often write fairly dark stuff so please be careful around here. Also I have been known to write (and reblog) NSFW writing on occasion. I do make sure to try my best to tag everything appropriately and use mature content labels when applicable, but still. You have been warned.

Below the cut are my currently posted works + info on my WIP, which I shoved down there because this gets long otherwise. Please click on the read more if you're interested.

Currently Posted Writing:

Note: Although I have works on AO3, I no longer can use AO3 going forward due to reasons involving their updated privacy policy and my anxiety. So although my works are staying up, I can no longer reply to comments and I can't read anyone else's work on AO3 anymore. Sorry!

Snakeskin:

(Available on both Tumblr and AO3)

Linos Tievis, a failing medical student who has an interest in monsters, finds an injured monster on the side of the road. Obviously he can't just leave her there, so he does what he can to nurse her back to health. However, she hates him, which is making things difficult.

Word count: 11,117 (on AO3. The word count on Tumblr is a little different due to edits.)

Genre: I have been told that it's horror. It's not supposed to be scary though, just... subtly disturbing. It's mostly meant to be a character study.

Content warnings: Blood and injury, misgendering, familial death, childhood trauma/child abuse, gender dysphoria, non-consensual kissing, past sexual assault, sexual thoughts, kind of cannibalism threats. Very brief and minor mentions of animal death and self-injury.

Notable features: villain origin story set 15 years before Faded Daisy, has a one-sided and very toxic monster/human "romance," has authentic evil insane trans man representation. Also there is a hot lizard lady.

There is also a separate NSFW monsterfucking bonus content story that I wrote for Snakeskin that exists both on Tumblr and on AO3. The Tumblr version is better because I added a bit to it. I am not linking that here. You can hunt it down yourself if you're so inclined (and if you're an adult.)

Some Company for the Evening:

(Currently only available on AO3, although I do have plans to repost it to Tumblr soon.)

Mazarian, a priest currently in line to become the High Priest of Palvis, has recently made a habit of sneaking out at night and drinking in the Lower District. He's kept his celibacy vow intact though; although he's breaking several other vows, this is one line he's not willing to cross. However, tonight he encounters a somewhat suspicious foreign prostitute who seems determined to make him break that vow.

Word count: 8,139

Genre: Fantasy-romance

Content warnings: No actual sex but there are a lot of sexual themes. Also contains themes of religion, implied self-harm, and mild transphobia

Notable features: Fluffy tea date, exploration of religious sexual repression, a cat indirectly contributes to a religious crisis

WIPS:

Faded Daisy:

A monster wakes up with no memories and no idea who or what they are, in a city that usually kills monsters on sight. However, they survive due to the help of the questionable Dr. Tievis, who names them Nameless and says he has never seen a monster like them. Grateful to him for saving their life, Nameless trusts him.

Estimated final word count: ~40,000 words

Genre: Horror

Notable features: Second person POV, a mad scientist, monsters, an extremely fucked up relationship

Content warnings: Abuse, manipulation, injury and mutilation, blood and needles, borderline sexual assault, cannibalism, body horror (and since it's not yet finished, this list will probably grow.)

I had other WIPs once, but I abandoned them all and Faded Daisy is all that's left.

[persephinae]

I think what maybe people outside the US perhaps don't understand or can't wrap their head around it, is that US healthcare is not nor has it ever been healthcare where they're interested in the wellbeing of their patients

US healthcare is set up to be paid through 3rd party insurance and very much treated exactly like car insurance, where you're paying into a policy in the off chance that something might go wrong, the expectation being to never use it because you're a good driver (good patient) (** baked in with American Evangelicalism/Calvinism where GOOD PEOPLE are rewarded with health and wealth because they did what God wants, and if you fall ill or are poor it must be because you're a BAD PERSON) (**** I wish John Calvin a very burn in fucking hell, I hate him so much)

They do NOT want you to use your benefits. Do NOT.

This is the entire premise of it, as well as being a capitalistic dystopia.

So even people who HAVE "good (lol)" insurance, you have an entire system set up against you getting what you paid into

So even people WITH insurance sometimes go without treatment because they KNOW they will be denied. They know how hellish it is trying to get treatment and care. They KNOW you can actually go bankrupt and become homeless because of these insurance companies and UHC is the fucking worst.

I wish for all these CEOs to be capped to be clear. They profited off of the death and misery of millions. They are death merchants. They hold cocktail parties and give each other bonuses off of our death and misery. They pay off politicians to kill any initiative to get universal healthcare because they make BILLIONS off of our deaths.

FUCK FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE

[disordercinema]

To add to your retail AU-

Fred worked right next door to the store and was really close with Tubbo and Tubbo fell in love with him. The store ended up moving so now Tubbo sulks about it, especially when he sees Pac and Fit flirting. His background is also him and Fred.

Fred is the son of the store owner so he just moved with the building. Now instead of working next door, they work a couple of blocks from each other. Tubbo always acts like he moved continents.

Other members would come by and just talk for a while.

Bolas is just that one dnd group that hangs around after closing hours. Phil doesn’t do shit about it, he’ll actually join in with them every once in a while.

Bad would often yell at Tubbo for his mannerisms, like cursing while talking to a customer or back talking.

Pierre is the tech support that everyone calls if Tubbo doesn’t know how to fix it himself or makes it worse.

If someone is yelling at an employee and no one can calm them down and Phil is needed, he kills them with kindness. If someone yells at one of the kids though, he gets pissed.

The island is frequently visited. People will stay for a few months or less but most leave rather quickly. It’s small enough to where everyone knows everyone, but everyone knows the islanders as they’re own group.

The Islanders are one big family and are willing to do a lot for each other. If you argue cross one of them, you cross all of them.

The Federation is a government system and Cucurucho is the mayor

The eggs are the islanders children still. They came from an overcrowded orphanage so they took them in.

This is it! For now maybe- idk.

I like, I like, tho I don't follow all

I had imagined Bolas as like, the employees of the other store Philza owns across the city. All the employees are insanely terrible at their jobs but somehow always outperform the morning crew's store especially during holiday season and Tubbo absolutely hates them for it. He has a whole one sided rivalry with them and comes up with crazy plans to win against them while most of their stategy is just "Let's figure out a way to leave early".

I don't see a reason why the kids would be at the store, but I like Pierre being the tech support. I think Bad would be a former Karen turned regular after Philza won against him during a passive-aggressiveness-kindness-disguised contest. He starts going there out of pettiness, but actually becomes friendly with the employees over time and it is close to his job (daycare worker) so it's easy for him to buy stuff on the way home. Sometimes Tubbo convinces him to go terrorize Bolas when he finds out Bad has an errand across town and he does it for discounts.

I also like the idea of the Fred being from a nearby shop, maybe a flower shop?

The Federation would 100% the heads of the Retailers Association, always in contact with the government, observing and making sure the policies are being followed. Fit gets a spot in it for his strong presence in the union and all he does is cover up for all the things his store fails to comply on. Cellbit gets a place in it too, because he used to be a general manager at another big retail company, but he fucking hates it and wants to leave so he has been trying to get kicked out by leaking shit he shouldn't and it somehow doesn't work because no one figures out it was him.

I really like your ideas, this is just what my brain cooked since I made that post lmao

[serafilms]

song 56! you’re on your own, kid (taylor swift) + choi soobin requested by @explorewithd (spotify wrapped event)

i didn’t choose this town, i dream of getting out, there’s just one who could make me stay all my days

There’s a town on the west side of the coast, where the air is fresh with salt and pine. It’s small, quaint if you will, consisting of one market, one convenience store, a singular movie theatre, one McDonald’s and a whole bunch of family owned restaurants.

The town is yours, but you hate it.

You’re sick of walking through near empty streets, of seeing the same faces you grew up with at school, of trying to think of activities to do with your friends, and doing those activities knowing you’ve done them a thousand times before.

You can’t wait to leave it all behind.

You’re sitting in a booth in the McDonald’s, pondering this, when a tray slides in front of your face.

“Here you go, ma’am.”

You scowl up at the looming figure of the tall boy in front of you. He slides into the seat across from you and takes off cap embroidered with the restaurant logo, immediately reaching for one of your fries. He runs a hand through his dark hair, ruffling the flattened mess as he chews.

“Isn’t it against company policy to impose on your customer’s meals and eat their fries?”

Soobin shrugs at you, tearing open your straw and stabbing it into your cola to take a sip.

“Policy, schmolicy. There’s like two other people on shift and no customers. I’ll be fine,” he says, grabbing another fry. “And please, you love me being here.”

You tug the tray towards you protectively. “Not when you eat my food,” you mumble.

He rolls his eyes but a smile creeps onto his face as he looks at you, and you have to look down at your food to stop yourself from blushing and smiling back like a schoolgirl.

You open the box of chicken nuggets and frown. “Hey, you gave me one less!”

“Oh,” he says, blinking down at it, “yeah, I ate one of them when I was packing it.”

He sees your unimpressed stare and rises. “I’ll bring you two extra,” he says, then grabs the box and retreats into the kitchen.

Soobin’s absence gives you some time alone with your thoughts once more. Choi Soobin is, you believe, the only good thing about your town. He’s your best friend, your soulmate, twin flame, whatever you want to call it. He’s the one thing in this place that you could never be sick of.

You love your other friends and everyone else in the town too, of course, but it’s not the same. You know they’d all be there for you when you need them, but you aren’t quite sure when their concern stops being out of genuine care and starts being out of obligation. For their friend, neighbour, community. Nothing in this town acts by itself, and you feel sometimes as though you’re nothing more than a cog in its old, steam billowing machine.

You think back to your years at high school. You’d wait ages at some party for your friends to notice you, to find you and come up to you, only for them to not be there. Because you hadn’t asked them to. Because they were only there when you needed them to be.

You wanted something more. A city so wide that only those you wanted to find you could, that every friendship, every relationship is by choice. Freedom. More than that, you wanted somewhere that could contain your dreams, fulfil them. You were always overflowing in this town. You just wanted to know that you’re not on your own.

Your eyes flit upwards as Soobin returns and hands you the box. You’re pleased to find that he did put in two extra, and reach over to pat his head in gratitude. “Good job, Soobie.”

He squirms away from your hand and pouts at you, but forgets it as he grabs another of your fries.

“Stop that!” you protest.

“I’m only eating the super crunchy ones that you don’t like!”

You roll your eyes and take a few fries yourself, surveying the boy in front of you. His hair is tousled as it usually is at work, his face is a little shiny from the heat of the kitchen, and his eyes are wide as his mouth chews and he focuses on it. Something tugs at your gut, and you have a horrible reminder that to leave this town behind, you might have to leave Soobin behind too.

“Hey, do you ever think about getting out of this place?”

Soobin looks at you in confusion. “You mean McDonald’s? Well, yeah eventually, but it’s an easy way to make money right now—“

“No,” you interrupt, “I mean, like, out of this town. Move to the city or something.”

You feel the heat on your neck rising in embarrassment as his face morphs into one of surprise.

“I— do you?”

You begin to grow hesitant, but your desperation to confide in him wins, so you say, “Yeah, I do.”

He’s silent for a while, looking down at the fry in his hand, and you feel your anxiety start to take over, so you continue.

“I mean, obviously not forever, because I’d still come back and stuff, but I want to know what it’s like out there. I want to know if they can help me do the things I want to do.” He’s looking at you now. “I want to know that there’s more than just this version of myself.”

“So you’re thinking about moving to the city,” he speaks finally.

It’s less a question than a statement, and you aren’t quite sure how he’s feeling about this, so you ask, “If I was, would you come with me?”

There’s a long silence in which Soobin looks at you, and you meet his eyes, and you see uncertainty swimming in them until he says. “I don’t think I would.”

You feel your stomach sinking like a heavy stone. “Why not?”

“Well, because,” Soobin fumbles and his tall figure seems to shrink in on himself as he frowns, “because I’ve got friends here and family. I can’t just leave them like that.”

But what about me? You want to scream. How can he be so okay with letting you go? You want to yell at him, cry at him, rip your hair out, because if Choi Soobin wants to stay in this town you know that there isn’t enough resolve in you to leave him behind.

You want him to come with you, to fight to be with you, even to fight to make you stay. Anything, anything that will show you that he cares. Your hopes are disappointed.

“But if you do go, you know we’ll always be friends, right? You can call me whenever you need me.”

You feel as though you’ve been ripped in two, half of you left behind with the version of Soobin that sat there before this conversation happened.

You can call me whenever you need me, he said, whenever you need me.

You suppose that as much as Soobin is the best thing to come out of this place, he is still a product of it.

“Yeah, I know,” you say back, and manage a weak smile as he gives you one back. The two of you manage to divert the topic and spend some time devouring your meal until you’re finished and you finally have reason to leave.

“You should get back to work,” you tell him as you rise.

Soobin looks conflicted, and you see sadness in his eyes and the downturned twist of his lips, but he nods and makes his way around the table to give you a hug. You almost tear up at the feeling of his arms around you, chest pressed to yours, and you pull back before the tears fall.

“See you later,” he says.

“Bye, Soobin,” you say.

When you arrive home, you collapse into your bed and allow the tears to fall. You guess you really are on your own.

[destinygoldenstar]

🍀Our Unexpected Savior🍀 - Total Drama Viewer Reacts to Disventure Camp Season 2 Episode 5 “You Are A Monster”

Idk why Lake lost her hair. It wasn't explained. But you know what? She deserves stylish hairdos of whatever she wants.

You want to dye your hair blue and defect from your parents? Do it.

Lake is one of those characters that deserves the world, honestly.

I got nothing better to do, I'm honestly pretty tired. Tired of Yul.

But I'll power through because why not? We're already here and y'all enjoy my content.

So let's get into Episode 5.

Oh.

Okay so this is cool. This wasn't here before.

Bear with me as I read this:

"Disventure Camp uses references from different reality TV shows in its format, parodying them in this animated series."

Total Drama also does this. But this is a valid way of wording it, because at the end of the day, 'Parody of Reality TV' is NOT a character or a property that Fresh TV owns. It is an IDEA. A story idea. A creative decision to have that idea be its format.

Legally, story ideas cannot be protected under copyright.

Characters can be. Story IPs can be. But not its ideas.

If ideas WERE protected under copyright, then stories would stop being made, because every story idea that comes to human mind that CAN be done, HAS been done.

The day ideas get copyrighted is the day I die.

"All the characters and stories shown in the series are the legal property of Odd Nation Cartoons and its collaborators, for which Odd Nation Cartoons has the right to profit from them and use them as it sees fit."

They are using completely original characters for their show, and their own completely unique setting.

I know the Beta originated as Total Drama Fanfiction, but that's also why they remade Season 1, so that this could be dropped in favor of it being their own show.

Fresh TV HATES Total Drama Fanfiction of any kind, especially if its animated. It's not like Fanganronpas, when it comes to those, Spike leaves creators alone despite them stealing Danganronpa's story premise and SOMETIMES characters. Unless I'm stupid and they DO do that. Bu Fresh? Yeah they're more ruthless. If you make something animated that contains Total Drama's premise or characters, IT WILL BE STRUCK WITH THE BAN HAMMER.

I'm not saying Fresh is wrong though. Just that they're ruthless about it. There are cases I've heard of where they were in the right to sue people for stealing content.

I used to watch Total Drama on a site that I won't name, and the site was taken down about two years ago because Fresh went after it for uploading their show.

"The Odd Nation Cartoons team has taken legal advice on the issue of copyright, reaching the conclusion that Disventure Camp does not infringe the rights of any other intellectual property or any YouTube policy."

GOOD FOR THEM.

GOOD FOR ODD NATIONS FOR STANDING UP FOR THEMSELVES AND COMING TO TERMS WITH A CONCLUSION WHERE EVERYBODY WINS.

Back then, a lot of indie companies like this were forced to take the Ls if they got sued for anything, because they didn't have the financial or influential ground to stand their ground. So the fact that these guys went out of their way to defend themselves when they got sued and came to an agreement and conclusion that allows them to save their project: PROPS.

I have to give credit where credit is due. Y'all are gems.

I may not like everything you do writing wise, but you standing your ground is worth my respect.

So yeah, that's the start of the episode. I just thought this was interesting.

Oh Lake remembering Rosa's words, d'awww...

She's in your heart girlie.

I know she's still here, but she's still in your heart.❤️

"Do you think I need a normal life?"

Gee, I dunno Lake, are you human?

"Oh... well, what's considered normal nowadays, right?"

Facts.

He still has the black eye XD

I LOVE that he kept that.

I LOVE SEEING A MARK OF SUFFERING ON YUL'S FACE :)

"We managed to kick out the circus freak, but I doubt that strategy will ever work again."

Yeah, it's almost like you did not think this plan through.

What a great villain... /s

"You know, some medical emergency, it should be enough to get Aiden kicked off the show."

OH SO YOU WANT TO KILL SOMEONE?!

Wow. You keep IMPRESSING me on how despicable and disgusting you are.

(I SAY THAT LIKE I DIDN'T ENCOURAGE KILLING CONTESTANTS IN ANOTHER POST. I AM A DAMN HYPOCRITE.)

(That post, especially those portions, were designed NOT to be taken too seriously, btw. I don't actually endorse murder.)

"Do you really think the bald headed girl would be a problem for us?"

Lake, kick Yul's ass.

"Wait, are you saying you're going to poison Aiden to get him out of the game?"

"Uh, what did I just say? Do I need to spell it out word for word?"

"Lying? Sure. Manipulate? Whenever you want. But poison someone? That is way too much."

Well well well, good for James for having some moral decency.

Remember kids, poisoning somebody is ALWAYS WRONG. No matter the motive, YOU SHOULD NEVER POISON PEOPLE.

...unless heir name is Yul Kim. Then it's okay.

Imagine if James turns this on him and kills Yul.

GOD THAT'LL BE EPIC AND REDEEM JAMES.

"Attention campers, an immunity totem has been hidden somewhere in the camp!"

An idol is back?

T h e i d o l s a r e b a c k . . . ?

How lovely 😀

I'm so happy 😁

Alright, I'm going to the psychiatrist. BRB.

"Thanks for coming with me, Rosa."

"Oh, it's nothing. I really like you."

"I really like that you dragged me out of my team, Riya."

"Hunter Tess and Ally have an alliance, despite their... confusing relationship."

"I think that dude is Aro, what do you think? And the girls should kiss?"

"Well, whatever happens, I'll be on your side."

Rosa willingly being in the minority alliance on this team just because she doesn't want her to be lonely. Love it.

"I messed things up with Lake, but I won't make that mistake with Riya. I will help her, support her, and respect her every decision, like I should have with Lake."

Girl, no, you were right to call her out. Don't blame yourself.

Rosa really does seem to have a relationship complex the more I'm seeing it. She's always trying to be a people pleaser and take care of everyone, to the point where she's apparently done it with guys multiple times. She also had to grow up very fast to be a mother at such a young age.

So is this like "If I do something wrong or make a mistake that makes someone upset, I should be the one that takes the entire blame and I'm the screw up."

She is putting all of her own morals first over everything.

I love that out her, but it is an actual flaw if you're, you know, only judging yourself based on how other people see you.

"Hey Tess, since Hunter didn't want to talk, we should talk to each other."

"You know, since one of my options aren't open, I'll take another one."

"Well I never said I was in love with him."

Really? I thought you said you liked the kiss.

"If you felt that way too, I really wouldn't mind."

About who? Hunter, ooooorrrr...

And it cuts away before she can explain it.

"How hard can it be to find a stupid piece of wood?"

GEE, I DUNNO MAN, IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'RE IN A FOREST OF TREES THAT ARE MADE OF WOOD.

"In a forest?"

Yeah. EXACTLY.

"Oh? What do we have here?"

Oh no. Don't find the idol. DO NOT FIND THE IDOL. I SWEAR TO GOD.

What is that?

I know it's a mushroom, why is it that color and what is it doing in these woods?

I've never seen a mushroom that color before. Only brown and white ones.

"You had a couple of hours to find the totem, and just minutes before the challenge started, it was finally found."

Wait what?

We didn't see who had it?

Are they keeping it a secret on who found it?

So it's Simon Says.

"Easy. My fans support me unconditionally."

XD

"Nobody will cancel me if I kill someone, right?"

"Give me the perfume that Connor gave you."

Oh come on.

I hate this challenge. Hate it.

"How can I make everyone hate me in less than ten minutes?"

Oh goddammit.

WHAT IS THIS CHALLENGE? THIS IS JUST FLAT OUT CRUEL AND UNREWARDING.

She went and did it!

She really said "I WANTED TO DO THAT FOR YEARS!!"

Ally probably has even more of those at home.

The side eye Tess is giving XD

"Hunter, carry Tess as princess until Aiden returns."

XD

Yeah Hunter, treat her like a QUEEN.

"I don't see what the appeal in this is."

WHAT THE...

UUUUUUUUHHHHHH, WHAT?!

HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?!

YOU'RE ALIVE?!?!?

HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!?!

"Tess, I order you to throw your pills into the fire."

Okay, NO.

NO NO NO NO NO NO.

SHE'S DIAGNOSED. SHE NEEDS THIS OR SHE COULD DIE.

THERE'S GOTTA BE SOME LAW THAT PREVENTS KRYSTAL FROM BEING ALLOWED TO DO THIS, RIGHT?!

God I HATE THIS.

She just has no reaction doing it too.

CAN WE GET AN F FOR TESS?

SHE'S USING YUL AS A STOOL XD

OKAY ALL IS FORGIVEN.

Okay now I'm actually kinda liking this. This is fun.

OKAY THAT DOLL HAS GOTTA BE A DEMON.

THERE'S NO OTHER POSSIBILITY.

NO DUDE YOU CAN'T JUST DO THAT TO A GUY.

"Lake, I order you to remove your wig."

I mean, everyone already knows it's a wig...

Still sucks.

"Why are you so mean?"

Awwww, HONEY.

"Do you really enjoy making fun of us? Making us suffer?"

"Yes."

"Well I feel sorry for you. Only someone miserable needs to hurt others to feel better. And the puppet was wrong. You are not like your father, YOU ARE WORSE. YOU ARE A MONSTER."

"SHUT UP ALREADY."

OH GOD THAT LINE DELIVERY.

That actually got me...

Good for Lake though.

"How do you feel with everything that happened today?"

"You know... I feel good."

Props to Lake 👏

Lake just won a TON of points for me.

AAAAAWWWW

The height difference XD

But AAAAAAWWW

Lake all day, honestly. LAKE ALL DAY.

Aw, he saved one! What a gentleman!

OH MY GOD BLESS THIS MAN'S HEART❤️

HE SAVED SOME OF HER PILLS, AWWWW

HUNTER YOU JUST WON SO MANY POINTS FOR ME.

BLESS YOUR HEART.

"Listen, I know I've been a little distant and made you guys worry about me. I apologize for that."

"Well... are you ready to bring it up?"

"Yes. I'm ready."

"I'm aromantic."

NO AND IT CUTS AWAY GOSH DARN IT.

I WANT TO SEE HIM COME OUT.

"Hello friend, can we sit here?"

NO.

"Enough!"

YEAH TELL HIM OFF.

OH MY GOD GET OFF HIM.

"Don't say such toxic things."

YOU CAN FUCK OFF YUL.

NO JAMES IS ACTUALLY DOING IT?!

WHERE WAS THE "I DRAW THE LINE WITH POISON" THING YOU SAID?

"Lying? Sure. Manipulate? Whenever you want. But poison someone? That is way too much."

"I can't wait to see his reaction."

The reaction of him DYING? Yeah, OKAY. YOU SICK BASTARD.

So how is this gonna play out if Aiden is dead?

WAIT...

WAIT A DAMN MINUTE

OH MY GOD IS HE POISONED?!

OH MY GOD PLEASE. PLEASE LET ME BE RIGHT. OH MY GOD.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS

OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD YEEESS!!!!!

MY PRAYERS GOT ANSWERED!!!!

YOU STUPID SHIT! YOU GRABBED THE WRONG PLATE!!

I am watching a dude vomit and suffer and I am GRINNING EAR TO EAR AND CHEERING FOR IT.

"Oh, it must be the mushroom he ate in the woods."

And James is gonna play it off as though he did nothing XD

"James! What did you do?!"

"I did what Golden wanted!"

"You were supposed to give the mushroom to Aiden, not me, idiot!"

SO JAMES REALLY JUST WENT OUT OF HIS WAY TO KILL THIS GUY. OH MY GOD XD

"I don't poison people. I draw the line there. UNLESS HIS NAME IS YUL, THEN I'LL GLADLY DO IT."

OH GOD HE'S COLLAPSED... this is actually very serious...

"Now that he mentions it, the cameras caught Yul holding a mushroom when they were looking for the totem."

AND THEY SOMEHOW DIDN'T SEE JAMES WAS WITH HIM OR THEIR TALK.

OH MY GOD XD

"Yul is out of the game anyway. He had three votes."

XD

AINT NO WAY.

SO YUL WOULD HAVE BEEN OUT NO MATTER WHAT. BUT JAMES DECIDED THAT WASN'T ENOUGH AND DECIDED TO KILL HIM.

OH MY GOD. XD

THANK YOU! THANK YOU TOTAL DRAMA GODS FOR SAVING ME!!!

THANK YOU FOR ELIMINATING YUL EARLY IN THE SEASON!!

THIS IS REDEEMING A WHOLE LOT FOR ME.

They're ACTUALLY sending him to the hospital. Holy shit...

I don't really care cause it's Yul. But DAMN.

A CONTESTANT ACTUALLY KILLED SOMEONE.

"So Yul was planning to poison me, but you decided to poison him."

"My guy, so are one sick bastard."

"Make no mistake, I only did it to get rid of Yul."

Honestly, JAMES IS REDEEMED.

JAMES IS COMPLEELY REDEEMED OF EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE IN THE PAST.

JAMES IS THE BEST CHARACTER OF ALL TIME.

HE IS THE BEST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO HUMANITY.

TO THINK I EVER DISSED YOU IN THE PAST.

FORGIVE ME.

"Poisoning someone is too much... unless that someone is Yul."

HE USED THE SAME LOGIC. THAT'S HOW YOU KNOW HE DID THIS FOR ME.

JAMES DID THIS FOR ME.

"Don't mention it, Golden. It was a well fought battle, but I did it for honor and for a better spot on your list."

HALLELUJAH, I FEEL A GREAT SENSE OF RELIEF.

I thought I would have to put up with Yul ALL SEASON.

BUT THIS WAS A GREAT TWIST THAT I AM VERY HAPPY ABOUT.

Holy gosh, I feel so relieved. GOD I HATED HIS CHARACTER SO MUCH.

Did James go too far? Probably. But you know what? He earned points from ME.

As did Hunter. As did Lake.

I GET TO BREATHE NEXT EPISODE. YAY!

[actualaster]

Basically yes, Tumblr needs to make money or it'll be shut down.

But Staff Are Not Our Friends.

The SECOND somebody high up enough on the chain thinks they can sell the user base out and fuck us all over to get more money that's what will happen.

I'm not even saying like, the devs hate us or anything! Often those sorts of decisions come from way higher up and the sorts who make them don't always give a shit about what the devs and/or the staff that deal directly with users think.

But Tumblr staff are NOT our friends, they're employees of a company that wants to profit off this websites and that means you NEED to be vigilant rather than just going "lol they can meme its all good now, they're our buddies they're One Of Us" because getting users to be loyal to the company is the first step to getting users to accept all kinds of shitty treatment.

They've already made numerous shitty changes that they're sticking with. They've failed completely to do ANYTHING about the bot problems, to say nothing of the nazis and other bigots on this site (meanwhile users who've done no wrong have to fight to have wrongful account termination reversed). They've partnered with a company that has a privacy policy of "lol u don't have privacy anymore one you make about account with us" for their Live feature. They're pushing more and more ads--some of which you can't even report despite having things like graphic injuries on display. The Blaze feature let's people pay money to shove harmful stuff into the faces of a bunch of random people because staff doesn't see a problem with deliberately inflammatory posts getting Blazed sometimes. There have been animations added that are migraine triggers and the response has been a "*shrug* sucks to be you I guess" to the users trying to raise the alarm about accessibility problems.

And things will only continue to deteriorate and change until tumblr homogenizes with other socmed sites if people let it, and again--best way to get users to give them a free pass on shitty changes is to engender mindless loyalty to their brand.

So yes, Tumblr needs to make money so yeah buy tbe funny meme merch--that's definitely one of the most user-friendly ways they can make some money! Buy the ad-free subs and stuff if you want!

But don't act like the staff, both as a Concept and as individual members, are our friends and One Of Us because they're employees of a company that, in our shitty capitalistic society, will gladly sell us all out the second that it becomes easy enough to do so.

(That said don't be an asshole to the staffers, either. Just. Be aware that enticing brand loyalty is absolutely something companies use to get users to accept garbage changes.)