#i have tried a million different apps at this point

[whimsiwitchy]

Controversially Young Girlfriend 

Hugh Jackman x popstar!reader 

series masterlist & main masterlist

summary: y/n is a globally beloved pop star. She is known for her talent and dedication towards her craft. Recently, she has also been known for her preference for older men. After a breakup with her former older boyfriend, she had a run in with the hottest dilf right now, Hugh Jackman. Y/n tried to warn him, but what can she say, she has an effect on hot, older men. 

warnings: age gap (23/55), cursing, y/n used, implied shorter reader, afab reader, she/her pronouns. 

warnings will change as the story progresses! all descriptions of real people in this story are FAKE. i do not know these people and this is purely fiction. Please let me know if I missed anything! <33

authors note: this is an idea I had that I really needed to write. I’d love to make this a series if you guys want more, just let me know! This is only my second time writing fanfiction and my first time writing for Hugh, please be nice lol. Thank you for reading! <3

Part one: breakup and new beginnings 

Being a young girl living in the middle of bumfuck nowhere made it seem impossible to live your dreams of becoming a singer. You grew up in a tiny little town in Louisiana called Minden. With a population of less than 15,000 people, the closest ‘big’ city being Shreveport, growing up was pretty boring. You had big dreams of making it big and making it the fuck out of the country. Minden wasn’t always so bad. It was a nice community that had fun things here and there, but you craved more. 

Once you graduated highschool back in 2020, you focused on working and saving as much money as you could, only buying essentials and equipment to help make music. You took a few online classes on producing and tried your best to make whatever song was bouncing around in your head come to life. It took a year for you to feel confident enough to release your first few songs out into the world. So in July of 2021, you teased a song on TikTok to your small following. You started to gain a few more followers here and there, it was exciting. At the end of August, you released your first song titled ‘to the point’ and it blew up on the clock app. You gained a hefty following after that, on the brink of hitting one million. 

By the end of 2022, deciding on Los Angeles, you had finally saved enough money to move, so you were packing your bags and heading out. Your agent was ecstatic about the move because it meant more opportunities for your career. After releasing a few more songs over the past year, you hired Stacy to help you manage everything. 

Fastwording to 2024, your dreams have come true and you have been an established and respected artist for almost two years. You started to build a reputation as someone who was dedicated and passionate about their craft- always being involved in any creative process. It was bliss. Lately though, you’ve gained another reputation, the controversial young girlfriend, a whore, a gold digger. Since you’ve been in the spotlight, you’ve had your fair share of dating history and if they all happened to be older men, so what? It wasn’t something you had planned on but older men were just built differently. They were so much sexier and put together than the guys your age. They knew what they were doing and how to treat a woman right. You were so tired of being asked out through instagram direct messages, you wanted someone who wasn’t afraid to talk to you in person, and that seemed to only come from men twice your age. You weren’t complaining though, you enjoyed it. 

Your last ‘scandalous’ relationship ended up being far more public than you intended it to be. In the beginning, the men you were seen with were never anything serious, just dates or one night stands. Though with Pedro it was different. You dated him for six months before it all came crashing down and you felt heartbroken. He was the sweetest man you’d ever been with and it all ended because the hate from fans on our age gap was too much for him. It was an ugly breakup and you were positive that he wouldn’t want to be associated with you anymore, even as friends. 

-

“I should have picked a different song.” You huff in frustration. Today you were going to be performing on BBC’s Radio 1 Live Lounge and as requested, you'd be performing your own song and a cover of your choosing. When Stacy first presented this opportunity to you, it had only been a month after your recent breakup and naturally you chose to cover ‘THE GREATEST’ by Billie Eilish. Now that you were mostly over Pedro, the song seemed silly to sing and you weren’t feeling as vocally confident now that you were here. 

“Babe, you’re gonna kill it! Just let your emotions flow, give the fans what they want.” Stacy is sitting across the room as she comforts you. She’s fidgeting with your vocal humidifier, attempting to put it together before you start warming up. Her advice isn’t terrible, she’s right. You’d been pretty silent on the subject matter, steering clear of social media so you wouldn’t say anything stupid. Rumors of your breakup had been all over the headlines but there hasn’t been confirmation from either of you. Singing this song today would definitely stir the pot again and make everyone realize that it is done between you two. 

“You’re right.” 

“As always. Here, start warming up the money maker.” She laughs while handing you the humidifier. 

“I really hope he doesn’t watch it. I’d literally smash my head into a brick wall out of embarrassment…” 

Placing the humidifier over your mouth and nose, you sit there letting your mind wander. Having your personal life exposed to everyone really sucked and hiding your boyfriends wasn’t something you wanted to do, but you knew that in the future it was something that would have to happen. 

“I think I’m taking a break from men.” You let out proudly, glancing over at Stacy. 

“Whatever you say girl.” You could hear the doubt lingering in her tone and the roll of her eyes. 

“Ugh… You don’t believe me do you? I can totally break off from men and be my own person for once.” 

“I’m not trying to doubt you babe. It’s just…You tend to attract men like a magnet and you have some severe daddy issues.” She's typing away on her laptop as if she didn’t just completely disrespect you. 

“I don’t have daddy issues.” You say flatly. “I happen to have a very loving father who was always present in my life, so the whole dating older men thing does NOT stem from daddy issues. Thank you very much.” You say matter of factly. 

“Hm..Well I give it a week.” 

-

After a few sound checks for your mic and band, you perform your first song. You chose a more upbeat song off your debut album to start, given that you were about to lay your heart out of the line. It was honestly kind of awkward performing in this setting. There was a booth in front of you that had the sound board and all of the other electronic stuff that you didn’t understand. Then right to the left of that, the cameras were positioned with a group of crew members sitting behind them. It always felt awkward performing to smaller audiences. 

The first song went by smoothly, earning a few cheers from the people in the room. As the band prepared for the next song, you could see the door in the booth open and two figures walk in. You weren’t wearing your glasses or contacts since it was supposed to be a short day, so you really couldn’t make out who had just walked in. You assumed more workers came in and brushed it off. 

“All ready?” A man behind the camera asks and you give a thumbs up. 

You somehow managed to get through the song without having any vocal mess ups. It was a challenging song and you'd definitely have to text Billie later to give her some credit. A few tears slipped here and there, feeling the emotions that you thought were gone slowly be released. You pulled yourself together and you felt really proud of the performance as a whole, showing the world the potential your voice had. 

A few soft claps are dying out as everyone starts cleaning up the room. You’re reaching down to grab your water bottle when you feel someone rushing up towards you. 

“Ahhh you did great babe but um two hot dudes will be walking through that door any second!” Stacy is whispering and all you could do was give her a confused look before the door opens. You squint trying to make out the two figures. 

“God you’re talented!” You hear the voice before you see the face. 

“Oh um, thank you so much.” You let out not really sure who you were speaking to. Once the two men get into view, your jaw drops slightly. 

“HOLY SHIT!” You yell a little too loudly. Slapping your hand over your mouth, you hear a very rich man laugh coming from a very good looking man. For some reason, whoever is in charge of the fate of the universe has blessed you with the presence of Ryan Reynalds and Hugh Jackaman. 

“Oh my god i’m so sorry, that’s literally so embarrassing. I just couldn’t see who you were at first.” 

“It’s okay sweetheart.” They both wear big smiles on their faces. 

“I’m y/n, it’s so nice to meet y’all, i’m a big fan!” You gush out, trying your best to refrain from fangirling. 

“We’re big fans as well. We were next door interviewing for the radio show, when we heard you were recording over here. We ran over here to try to catch you.” Ryan lets out. 

“No shit! That’s so cool. I really appreciate it.” Before the conversation could continue, Ryan is being called over by someone, leaving Hugh and yourself alone. 

“Hows Pedro, haven't seen him in awhile.” Hugh asks genuinely, giving you a small smile. It caught you off guard completely. You racked your brain trying to think of a time in your six month relationship that Pedro mentioned Hugh at all but nothing came up. 

“Oh I uh- I wouldn’t know. We aren’t together anymore.” Your voice is soft, trying not to make this any more awkward. 

“Shit. I’m so sorry, with the way he spoke about you, I thought you’d be together longer…” He trails off. 

“Yea me too.. he couldn’t handle the heat I guess.” You shrug. 

“Well, his loss yea?” He smiles trying to cheer you up. 

“Yea..” You say softly, your voice matching your smile. You take a moment to really look at him and he’s beyond handsome. He’s aged but in a way that makes you wish you were able to see the years go by with him. He was tall, almost towering over you, and his muscles were practically popping out of his shirt. 

The same guy that was walking to Ryan, gathers the three of you for a picture for the BBC socials. You stand in the middle, both men placing their arms behind either side of you. Hugh’s hand was placed on the small of your back. You looked up at him quickly, his face already smiling at the camera. You hear the camera go off a few times, causing you to look that way as well. Once the cameraman was satisfied, everyone gave their goodbyes and the room cleared out. 

-

Later that night you were scrolling through your phone when a text popped up from Stacy. 

Stacypoo <33: I told you. You couldn’t even go a week. ;) 

The text is accompanied by a screenshot of a notification stating that “‘thehughjackman’ started following you!”. You rushed to open instagram and went to your followers to search from his name. You stared at his page for a few minutes before following him back. 

While you had control over your own social media, someone handled all of your business related content. You went on your page to see that the picture that was taken at BBC earlier today was already posted with one comment standing out beyond the rest. 

Thehughjackman: Great meeting you sweetheart! :)

Thank you for reading <3

part two

[luvingshidou]

YOU'RE THE DISGUSTING ONE.

sae x fem! reader part 2!!!

ANGST

a little ooc idk

Not proofread

THANK U ANON FOR THE IDEAA🫶🫶🫶

Being home again was different without you. Without you being there to constantly berate and annoy, Sae felt different. After Sae put more thought into it, he missed you. He missed you so much to the point that it was painful to think about never talking or seeing you again. Oh how fucking stupid he was saying all that shit to you and what was it even worst is you've blocked him on every app and website imaginable, he's tried to go to your house but no one would answer when he rang the doorbell. Sae would always think about you to the point where it sometimes would affect him during practice. He wanted to know how you were doing, but he couldn't ask anyone to check on you since the only person that was close to him and you was Rin, but know he feels nothing but spite for Sae. The more time went on, the more he realised that he was in love with you, deeply in love.

It was 2 years since Sae broke your heart, crushed it into a million pieces. Some of your friends thought you were overreacting and that you'll move on, like you ever could, you fucking adored Sae more then anyone else and then he starts acting like this cold, heartless bastard of a man, good god did it piss you off. You waited 4 years for him, you never flirted with other men, you never went out on date, you were loyal to him, yet he still trampled all over your heart. You cut all contact for him. You didn't want to hear his sad little sob story. You never wanted to see him again ever. But at last here you were, sitting beside him on the train going back to your house. You're pretty sure he didn't know you at first that until you saw him staring at you, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape. Sae knew this was you, but you were so different. You had an this worn-out look on your face. The look in your eyes were dull, showing no sign of emotion. Fuck. You changed so much. What the fuck has he done to you??? Sae was about to say something to you until he saw you get off at the next stop. Sae quickly got up after you. He wasn't going to let you slip through his fingers, not this time.

"Y/N." Sae blurrted out walking behind you, grabbing your arm so you could face him. "Y/N, I—" Sae was overwhelmed and didn't know what to say. It took him every fibre in his being, not to hug you to death.

"Sae, why are you following me?? Are you a fucking stalker or something???" You snarled back at him, your voice was so flat and monotone it felt like Sae was talking to a complete different person.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Y/N, please I know I fucked up, but shit I realised I need you in my life. I really need you." Sae was desperate. He needed you. He was acting so pathetic. It was shameful for him, but he'd do anything to have you back.

"Fuck off. You're acting like you all of a sudden you care about me, even though when a saw you after 4 years, you acted like I was some lowlife and you were above me." You scoffed, rolling your eyes. It hurt Sae to hear those words out of your mouth. Really really hurt him.

"Y/N— look, I'm really sorry, really— I'm so fucking sorry." Sae blurts, his lips now pressed into a frown. God my did he fuck everything up, he was stupid, so so stupid.

"Shut up, I don't wanna hear your stupid sob story, I couldn't give a fuck." You Sae, turning around so you walk away. "You're the disgusting one, Sae, you'll always will be." You started to walk off leaving Sae standing there his thoughts telling him to go after you again but he just couldn't bring himself. He really fucked up this time, probably beyond repair.

(idk if I like this or not😭😭😭)

[princessamericachavez]

911 7x05 CODA

"I guess it's a good thing you didn't insist on a plus one, Buckaroo." "Well... actually..."

Hen pauses the game the fourth time Buck's phone chimes.

"Are you going to answer that?" She asks, giving him a pointed look.

"No." Buck leans back against the couch's back with a huff. "It's Maddie again, asking what I think about the flower arrangements, or the centerpieces, or something."

"I thought you were banned from wedding planning."

"I am! Or- or I was, I guess, but now that she actually has to make the final choices she keeps asking me these things. And I would have an answer for her if she let me just arrange the clipboard I suggested."

"Oh, no, no, no. No clipboards for you."

Buck rolls his eyes. His phone chimes again and he stuffs it under a pillow.

"Just give her your opinion."

"See, I tried that, but then she goes and chooses the other one anyway."

"Then tell her the other one."

"And what if she does choose that one and then it's a mess? I think I'll pass. If I do anything that screws up this wedding Maddie and Chimney will never forgive me."

"I think you're being a little overdramatic, Buck. It's just a wedding."

"It's not! It's Maddie's wedding. It has to be perfect."

Hen seems to consider that for a moment, taking a sip of her tea.

"Yeah, I want it to be perfect too. For her and Chim. I mean, they deserve it. Even Karen's freaked out, she's been trying a million different dresses for the ceremony. I swear, she looks gorgeous in all of them, but she's never satisfied."

"Yeah, Eddie said something similar about Marisol. Apparently, she's nervous about meeting everyone else. I mean- again. Officially."

"A wedding date is a big deal. Makes everything very official."

"It- it does?" Buck blinks.

Hen smiles at him, in that way that's equal parts you're an idiot and you're unfortunately cute, sometimes.

"I guess it's a good thing you didn't insist on a plus one, Buckaroo."

"Well... actually..."

"Wait, you're bringing someone to the wedding?" Hen puts her cup down. "I didn't know you were dating anyone."

"It's, uh, kinda new."

"And you're bringing her to your sister's wedding?"

"I mean, it's not like it's someone new totally out of the blue, okay? I'm not bringing, like, some stranger I picked up on a dating app or anything."

"Who are we talking about?"

Hen's brow furrows with what could well be confusion or curiosity. And that's when Buck knows he can't talk his way out of the next part of this conversation. It's not a new idea. He's not that much of an idiot. He knew the rest of his teammates would have to learn about Tommy eventually, when they showed up to the wedding together, but having an actual conversation about it was not in his plans for a lazy Wednesday afternoon. Deep down, he wishes the alarm would magically go off right now and send them into some sort of emergency to get him out of it, but the silence in the fire house is deafening. So he has no choice.

"Well, I'm- I'm bringing Tommy as my plus one."

And then, just then, Hen's mouth twist with something like distaste or disappointment that makes Buck's entire stomach fall to his knees.

"Tommy?" She says, arching an eyebrow. "Buck, you do know that a plus one in a wedding is meant to be for partners, right? Not just to bring extra friends to the party."

"Wha- yeah, I know that."

"But you're still bringing Tommy."

Buck nods, then realizes that the fact isn't quite registering for her. So he takes a deep breath. Why is he nervous? It was different with Eddie. That was... well, he doesn't even know what he was so scared about when it came to that one. But this is Hen. If anyone will understand, if anyone will be supportive, it will be her. Still, he feels like his heart is about to jump out of his chest before he gathers the courage to say:

"I'm- I'm bringing Tommy... as my date. I- I mean, not a first date, of course. That- that would not be great. We've actually been going out for, well, a couple weeks. But, yeah, I really like him, so... I asked him, and he said yes. A- And Maddie wanted to meet him. And Eddie knows, but I don't know if Chim does, though Maddie has probably told him already. But I guess it would be weird if she didn't, right?"

"Wait, wait, wait-" Hen holds a hand up, finally, thankfully, putting an end to his rambling. "So. You are dating Tommy? Tommy Kinard?"

"Yes," he says and manages to sound a little more steady this time.

Hen's eyes stare into the distance. Buck can picture her entire image of him, of Tommy, of the two of them, rearranging in her head. He gives her a moment, and stays quiet, even though he feels he's going to burst into flames at any second. Finally, Hen turns to look at him again. Her eyes soften and she smiles in that very especial way that makes him feel seen and loved, the same that made him feel welcome in the 118 for the first time.

"Thank you for telling me, Buck. I know how scare it can be the first few times."

He ducks his head to hide the overwhelming emotion catching him by the throat.

"So... how long have you known?"

"That I- I maybe... well, probably... more thank likely like guys? I- I don't know. I guess always? But I also thought it was something normal, you know? That every guy felt that we. I never... until Tommy, I guess, I never really realized..."

Liar. A voice whispers inside him. Because he's been going a lot of thinking the past few days and realized there'd been times. Nights out with friends, dancing in the floor, or quiet evenings sharing beers, or afternoons at the beach, or late nights at the gym... there was his best friend in highschool, and the one guy he met in college who was maybe hitting on him and he was into it (before he dropped out and lost contact), there were moments in his travels that felt charged with possibility and the intrusive idea what if I just leaned in? and maybe other things he's not ready or willing to name, more recently, memories he daren't even touch on yet.

"I- I don't even really know what I am," he admits, squinting like the admission pains him. It does. "I just- I like Tommy. I liked kissing him."

"You've kissed?"

"Y-yeah, Hen, I did tell you we're going out."

"Right," she laughs. "Sorry, it's just... hard to wrap my head around the idea of the same womanizer kid I met a few years ago... but if this is you, even then, I suppose that kid was already... you."

"I don't know what that is, though. I mean, I like women, you know I like them. I just also..."

"Might be bisexual?"

"Bisexual? Uh, I guess. I- I don't know. I've never had to think about it before now."

"Hey, it's okay, Buck. You don't have to put a name to it yet. Whatever it is, you don't need to label it. Though... you might find it useful. I know how much you like to label stuff."

He chuckles at that, though a clipboard isn't going to save him now. Hen must feel his despair, because she reaches out to put a hand on top of his.

"Whatever it is, Buck, you don't need to know right now, okay? You just... let yourself feel it, and trust your instincts."

"My instincts kinda suck sometimes, though."

Hen laughs. "But your heart is always in the right place. I know it, Buckaroo. And this... this isn't something you can solve in a blink of an eye. It takes... exploration to know yourself, especially when you don't fit in the neat little box society expected for you."

"Right... I guess... I've been trying to find the answers, but I don't want to miss the journey while doing so."

"Buck, look at me," Hen says, softly, and waits for their eyes to meet. "I'm so proud of you."

Holding her gaze is hard when his eyes start to water.

"Thanks, Hen. I- I guess... I hadn't told you yet, because it felt very important. And I didn't- I'm not sure about anything yet, and I didn't want it to feel like I was lying to you, like I was pretending to be someone I'm not... or like I- I was taking up space that doesn't belong to me, you know?"

"Buck, if you think you might belong here, that you might be part of the community... then you absolutely have a place here, okay? Even if you don't know what to call it yet, even if you never do... and no one can tell you otherwise."

A new weight is lifted from Buck's shoulders. There's been a lot of that going around lately. Buck feels lighter than ever these days. Hen pulls him into a hug and he lets himself bask in her warmth, in the safety she provides. Someday, he thinks, maybe he'll be as steady and strong as her, so assured of who he is and what he can be. For now, he's just so thankful to have her.

"Now," he says, pretending not to catch the stray tear she cleans off her cheek as they pull back, "can we go back to me beating you in Mario Kart?"

"Oh, not a chance, Buckley. You are going down!" She chuckles, restarting the game before he can even grab his control.

"Hey, hey, hey, that's cheating!" He yells, pushing her with his shoulder as he tries to recover his first place.

[teddypickerry]

𝐌𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇-𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐒.

pairings! nikki sixx x fem reader

word count! 2.4k

summary! in which the brutal ending of y/n & tommy’s relationship leaves an opening for nikki

a/n! i’m not in love w this BUTTT it’ll do the job. also guys??? i’ve read like every fucking nikki thing on this app pls help. need more!!!! but yeah idk this kinda sucks.

"how long after a breakup can you ask someone out?" was the words that made mick mars' typical poker face turn into something quite different. considering the man speaking them, nikki goddamn sixx, the king of sleaze, was questioning this. there was doubt in the guitarist's mind who nikki had in mind while thinking out loud. y/n y/l/n. otherwise known as, y/n, tommy lee's girlfriend.

the two sat around in mars' dressing room for their vegas show. which so luckily happened to be y/n's current residence. mick balanced his guitar on his lap and a bottle of something that was definitely not water against his leg. he preferred his alone time before the havoc of the shows. so when his bassist interrupted this sacred hour, he was incredibly dissatisfied. nikki dragged himself in the room as if he was in pain. there was a million thoughts behind his green eyes and a bottle of jack daniels in his right hand.

"bassist, just go fuck his girlfriend already." mick spoke out of pure annoyance to hint, with pure hope, that sixx would get the hell out of his dressing room. but of course, nikki lacked this cue and continued his pacing antics. "okay they broke up they're not even together, man. and," he stopped and pointed his free hand at mick who gave up on the silence and leaned back into the couch. "you, don't know shit. i could be talking about anyone."

"okay so tommy cheating on y/n and her finding out exactly six hours ago has nothing to do with this?" mick stated rather he questioned as nikki booped his head before taking a long swig of the whiskey. as if it serviced as his oxygen in that moment. "but on another note i mean i fucked his ex girlfriend-"

"fiance," mick corrected from the couch making nikki dramatically groan before continuing on with his story. "-i fucked my best friend's fiancé okay? and i tried to fuck his mom, right? and he didn't give two shits did he?"

"well he never found out about the whole cheating on him with you thing but-" mick added along making nikki's green eyes shift towards him with utter annoyance. "what i'm trying to say here is," his voice deepened and increased its volume. "this is nowhere near as bad as that, right? i mean asking his ex-girlfriend out on a real date. it's not like i'm trying to bone her. i mean i am, but not right away."

"well of course because you're a gentleman." mick humored with his own playful smile approaching his lips. nikki couldn't help but keep his eyes on the wiseman as he brought the bottle to his lips again. he could feel the lightness of the bottle as he brought it back down. he was gonna be plastered before he could even leave this dressing room.

mick mars wasn't one to typically give a shit about nikki's love life i mean, he liked KISS. but, mick did like y/n. he thought tommy was a fucking dumbass for cheating on her with a bunch of groupies. and he had watched nikki slowly begin to catch feelings for her. he beat the shit out of tommy anytime he did y/n wrong, and he actually found himself having talks with her whenever she joined them on the road or in the studio. mick could even catch the weird looks nikki would give tommy anytime he'd blow her a kiss or talk about fucking her. it may have been a fucked up version of love, but it was nikki's.

"look," mick started as he sat the bottle on the coffee table and looked at the young bassist. "i know you like her, you'd be a dumbass not to. you like her more than tommy ever could fucking dream of. so just fucking go for it. she might not be ready to date another dumbass right away but then you wait for her. because y/n, man, she's worth it. but i mean until she'd be ready just be there for her. she's upset, her boyfriend cheated on her with a bunch of hot chicks. go talk to her and make sure she's okay."

a smile suddenly appeared on nikki's face as he got lost in the vision of the woman. it was like he'd completely left the room in that moment and entered y/n's enticing daydream. it wasn't long before he made the actual journey to her hotel room, running out of the dressing room making mick scowl. "sixx! i didn't mean right now, we have a show- oh, forget it." he finished with a grumble as he brought his liquor to his lips and downed it. before exiting the room too and preparing for the show.

it wasn't hard to find the hotel considering it was just down from the venue. the same hotel the band was staying in, just a few floors to separate them. it wasn't shocking that y/n was in the same hotel considering she only ended things with the drummer six hours earlier. getting her own room almost immediately after. nikki still hadn't seen the girl since the brutal ending to the relationship between his two friends. she had locked herself away in her hotel room and he had been stuck in with tommy's dumbass all day in rehearsals.

y/n's room number was a haze in the bassist's memory. partly due to the intoxication of his mind and partly because he had already forgotten what the bellhop told him just moments ago. when he lied and said he was mr. y/l/n and had forgotten his room number. he had to bring out his theatrics when the young bellhop told him he couldn't simply give out a resident's room number. nikki pulled the "i'm pretty sure my wife is sucking some other guys dick in there right now, so can you just please tell me my goddamn room number so i can serve that cheating bastard!"

the long haired rocker found himself at his wife and his shared room. he knocked with his fist as the other awkwardly stood by his side. he'd no idea what he was going to say to her or do with her. i mean, he had a good idea of what he wanted to do but he obviously wouldn't be executing that on her... not at this moment at least.

the opening of the door made his breath nearly hitch. the girl stood there wrapped in the hotel branded robe with dampened hair. her face was tinted red and puffy as if she'd been crying all afternoon. it was fair considering the afternoon that she did have. but it still made nikki want to rip the door off it's hinges.

"sixx," she called out softly as she presented him a slight smile as if it was the best she had. he mirrored her expression, a sad smile taking over his face at the sight of the defeated girl. the drummer and y/n had only dated a few months at this point, but they'd been more serious than nikki'd ever seen tommy. tommy's a hopeless romantic with a fucked up view of it. but he's still a romantic guy, he's a guy who loves. and y/n was easy to love.

the fame and fortune finally got to tommy and he did what he did best — he fucked every moving thing in his sight. he was full of guilt, not that that helped in the slightest. and after a month of cheating on the girl with several packs of groupies he finally came clean. expressing that he wanted to stop and be with her and her only. y/n however didn't see eye to eye here... and screamed the living shit out of tommy. rightfully so.

"what are you doing here...?" she asked with furrowed eyebrows as nikki shrugged and glanced around her hotel room. noticing the television humming in the background, an episode of fantasy island playing. her hotel room lacked the size that his did but the view was insane. "wanted to see how you're doing. can i come in?"

she nodded and stepped out of the way so nikki could enter the room. shutting the door behind him the bassist made his way towards the bed. he was in his concert getup, the ripped mötley tank top that showed off his severe amount of tattoos and tan that could go on for days. vegas was a heat festival and it was a causality to wear his classic leather pants. "sorry, 'm not thinking straight." y/n muttered as she followed him into the room and crossed her arms. he turned towards her as she stopped in her tracks. the two nearly slamming into one another.

"it's fine, you know. just... fuck tommy, man." nikki shrugged out as y/n let out a chuckle. her first genuine smile of the day. nikki couldn't help but smile at the sound that rolled off her tongue. the girl bit her lip before sitting down at the end of her bed. the bassist leaned against the dresser his arms crossing in the process. nikki seemed to tower over the sat girl in this moment. something he noticed almost immediately. "you're something else, sixx."

"no, i mean it. what he did- jesus," he sighed at the girl as her smile faltered. "just fuck him. he finally got something good and he let that go. that's on him. he's a dumbass."

"yeah, yeah he is." y/n mumbled as she leaned back onto her elbows, her robe riding up ever so slightly. nikki couldn't help but look at the exposed skin — immediately regretting it once he remembered it was his friend's ex-girlfriend. an awesome girl who was upset and lonely. typically he'd take this as a chance to do her but this was different. this is the girl he's known for a few months now. the girl who he saw on a daily basis, who understood his jokes, who genuinely cared if he drank too much, who wouldn't shame him for his actions — rather express concern. she gave a shit about him and looked good doing it.

"i don't know how he just expected me to get over it like that." she muttered out as she fell on her back and her hands covered her eyes. nikki stood for a moment before taking a seat beside her, leaning down towards her. y/n removed her hands from her eyes as the two were warningly close. "everyone told me to not get involved with a rockstar. all my friends told me it was a bad idea, tommy has a reputation. i always told them they were mad and i believed it too. i fooled myself even. i just..." she trailed off as she turned to face the boy even more. "i can't believe he would do this."

"maybe you just got involved with the wrong rockstar," nikki mumbled quietly. so quiet y/n could hardly pick up but she in fact did. words that stuck in her mind as her eyes got lost in his. she'd never seen nikki tense up so quickly, like he just said something he shouldn't have. nikki wasn't one to say something and feel bad about it, or take it back. he was a man of his word and he meant every single one.

"look i don't want to rush you into anything, i know you're upset right now. i know my timing is off but god, since i met you i haven't been able to stop thinking about you. i can't stop thinking about how if i would have seen you first at that party instead of tommy. i just..." his voice trailed off as he let out a dry chuckle. "i don't know what i'm doing right now. i know this is a fucked up thing to do to tommy but quite frankly i don't fucking care. because you're the girl of my dreams and as fucking annoying as that phrase is- i mean it. i've never felt something so rock 'n' roll for someone, man."

the silence was inevitable for a moment as y/n's face became unreadable. nikki pressured his own smile to break it, "you don't have to say anything or whatever. i mean you probably don't even give two shits about me-"

sixx was shut up by the feeling of her lips pressed to his. a feeling he'd thought off far too many times but never quite yet experienced it. all his daydreams couldn't even amount to the warmth and harmony between the two pairs of lips. he'd kissed women before, obviously, but never with such love behind it.

y/n's hand came up behind his neck as she pulled him down onto her, him obliging perfectly. his legs came other side of her own as he could feel the thin fabric of the robe below him. one hand held her face while the other wrapped the two together. their lips moved in perfect harmony until they finally pulled apart for a breath of oxygen. but y/n tasted much better to nikki.

"i like you, nikki. i like you a lot. i like just about everything about you... but you're right, i'm not ready for anything serious yet." y/n told him as he nodded and offered her an understanding smile. "when i am-"

"-i'll be right here." nikki finished off her sentence as she shined a bright smile at the bassist who was practically straddling her. "until then, friends?"

"who share spit?" nikki questioned softly as he lips pressed to her jawline and lowered to her neck. the young woman couldn't help but giggle at the sensation and the feeling of the man. "mhm," she mumbled into his hair. "what are we gonna tell tommy?"

"i really don't give a shit about him right now and neither should you. but... i guess we'll cross that bridge when we, how the fuck does that go? i don't know but i guess we'll just avoid him at the show tonight." he shrugged to the woman before a thought crossed her mind. "wait... nikki. the show-"

"fuck!" he practically screamed before hopping off the bed and onto the floor where he nearly fell. "i gotta be on stage in like ten minutes and fuck, i'm gonna have to run." he grumbled for a moment before turning towards y/n. "after party. come. please, i want you there."

"you got it, friend. now run, forrest, run!"

[bullet-clubs-bitch]

Wardaddy

Summary: Reader finds out she's pregnant  after she lost her title at double or nothing. Will the nickname she jokingly gave her boyfriend “Wardaddy” gain a whole other meaning?  

An: I found this fit in my drafts, wrote it months ago but for some reason never published it? Enjoy, and pls remember to give Wardlow requests in my inbox

Word count: 1132

Main Masterlist Wardlow Masterlist

The internet was a weird place. You always hated the bird app with all of its negativity and BS but here you were scrolling on twitter after you found out why you were trending.  

Your face was shocked when you saw the amount of negative comments regarding your relationship with Wardlow. Sure he was 8 years older than you but for the most part everyone had been supportive of it. It was the AEW locker room who kept trying to set the two of you up for the longest time. You were quite confused on why all of a sudden it was now they were concerned with it. A few months ago you were deemed the power couple of all elite wrestling, on the top of the company both of you holding championships. You had just ended a feud with your real life best friend Britt Baker and her long time boyfriend Adam Cole. 

The fans loved it, mixed tag matches were surprisingly uncommon in aew so when they became a regular occurrence in your feud the fans were quick to eat it all up.

Having had enough of social media for the day you stepped into catering for the first time after losing your championship  two weeks ago at double or nothing. You ran into Britt who had beat you in a no DQ match for the women's championship. 

“Sup, Champ” You called to your friend

“Hey Mama, how’s it going” Britt replied back

“Not much, I'm literally starving. I’ve been oddly hungry the past few days and more bloated than usual.” you said hand on your stomach looking at all of the different options catering had to offer. 

Britt laughed, handing you a plate. The two of you got some food before you found somewhere quiet to eat. Far away from all of the cameras and wrestlers. While you enjoyed your food Britt asked you…

“How’s your shoulder doing?” 

“It can be better, still hurts like a son of a bitch though” you replied, looking down at your shoulder that had been taped together in a million different ways

“Sorry about that again” She apologized knowing she was the cause of your injury

“Why are you sorry, shit happens.” You said a little bit confused on why she kept apologizing. The injury wasn’t even her fault. You were the one that called out the spot with the steps. 

“Medical won’t clear me quite yet, hopefully within the next few weeks or so” you responded oddly calmly, secretly upset you weren't able to compete in the show tonight. 

“Good luck out there tonight, tho. I hope you kick Thunder Rosa’s Ass!” 

“I will don’t worry” Britt responded laughing 

Time skip: 4 weeks later 

“Is it still that bad?” Your boyfriend Wardlow called through the door of your hotel bathroom. 

“I feel like my insides are falling out” you said in agony clutching your stomach as you threw up whatever you had left in your stomach. 

“Can I come in?” he asked nervously 

“No! I'm hideous go away” your words laced with venom as they left your lips. 

The medical staff had finally cleared you to return on this week's episode of Dynamite but your body had other ideas. You felt like you were dying and your poor boyfriend had no idea what to do. He tried his very best and you appreciated it but it came to the point where you just wanted to be alone. You cleaned up and finally stepped out of the bathroom to be greeted by Wardlow. He handed you some fresh clothes. As you were putting on your shirt you looked down at your stomach.

“Did I gain weight” you said as you looked in the mirror

“I think you look fine Y/N” Wardlow replied annoyed you would ask such a question 

“No honestly, I think I did” 

“Y/N, your probably just bloated” he replied rolling his eyes

“Whatever” you scoffed 

You arrived to the arena, looking and feeling like shit. You decided to stop by the doctor to let them know that you weren't feeling the best, all it took was one of the doctors to look at the dark circles under your eyes and pale look in your skin to deem you uncleared for the show tonight. It made you feel like shit, working hard with physios to get your shoulder better only to catch some bug before your return. Thankfully Britt wasn’t booked for the show tonight so the two of you could hang out and watch the show from one of the skyboxes in the arena. 

“So you are still not feeling good?” Britt asked, curiously 

“Yep, I don’t know how this is even possible but I feel like I’m getting worse” You told her truthfully. 

“When was the last time you got your period?” Britt asked, shit, you never even thought about that

“Ummm maybe a few months ago” 

“Have you ever thought that you might be pregnant?” 

“I mean we are careful but that would explain a lot of things”  

“Since we both have nothing to do, how bout we leave the arena, grab a few tests and we can go back to the hotel and see. I’m sure you don’t want to take a test in the locker room with all those nosey people” 

That is exactly what the two of you did, you told your respective partners to meet back at the hotel and let everyone else know that you would be hedging out for the evening. You and Brit ended up getting four different kinds of tests and a few goodies to bring back to the hotel. Unfortunately a fan recognized the two of you at the CVS that just so happened to be next to your hotel. Lying, you said the pregnancy tests were for a segment for the next BTE, now you somehow would have to tell the bucks to include some kind of skit involving pregnancy tests in next week's episode to keep true to your lie. 

Currently you and Britt sat on top of the hotel bed, munching on some chips as you both stared at the blinking screen of the pregnancy test. “How long is this going to take? I feel like we have been sitting here forever” You asked Britt. “According to this it says 5 minutes” Britt responded. 

Just then the test stopped flashing. ‘Pregnant 4-6 weeks’ 

You and Britt had no idea what to say, the two of you in shock at what you were seeing. You were first to break the silence “This has to be wrong. No way I’m pregnant” 

Sure enough you were pregnant. You took 5 more to make sure, all 6 tests saying the same thing. What was Wardlow going to think? 

[thesirencult]

ICY DIARIES 💎 2 : NEVER JUDGE A BOOK'S ENDING BY ITS FIRST CHAPTER

On this episode of "Icy Diaries" we will explore the dynamic of personal timelines, divine timing and why you shouldn't listen to the "gurus".

Back when I was in highschool I used to share a desk with a girl named Marie. Most people wanted to leave our small hometown and move two hours away, to the big city. Everyone was obsessed with leaving and never coming back until their success could make people jealous on a cliché highschool reunion.

Marie though was different. She decided to stay in our hometown and focus on herself. She was always very overweight and never had a boyfriend. Once we were talking about first kisses and she confessed to me that she had not even held hands with a boy, let alone kissed one.

She also didn't know what career she wanted to follow, even though she was a straight-As student, highly emotionally intelligent and very tech savvy and intelligent.

Marie was a late bloomer.

A few years passed, C*VID hit and I decided to visit my hometown.

I got off the train and I started walking towards my childhood home, thinking of warm cups of cocoa and waffles.

As I turned the corner I saw a long haired brunette in tight gym clothes getting off the passenger side of a Porsche. Her man was holding the door open, waiting for her to get off the car.

Looking my way she smiled and waved. I immediately recognized that warm smile and those caring brown eyes ! It was Marie !!!

Turns out, Marie trusted her path and didn't listen to others around her urging her to go to the big city. She worked part time jobs and started attending an online European university program that she could afford without going into debt. For 4 years she had worked on building lucrative online businesses and had founded several projects along the way, even selling a couple of e-commerce stores and a SaaS web app. She had tried moving to the city and had been accepted to a good school but she didn't want to burden her family. People made fun of her for not leaving the town and said that she was scared to get out of her comfort zone ! Who knew !

One day she decided to hit the gym and she became friends with her mentor (a story for another day) and a guy who went to our middle school but switched to a different highschool. He didn't leave our hometown too. His family owned a business and he decided that he wanted to learn the ins and outs of it to take over at some point. It was a very very lucrative venture. Like in the MILLIONS. I learnt that they were planning on getting married and moving in together in their home.

I would have never imagined these two together, but seeing them now side by side something clicked in me :

It all happens for a reason, at the right time.

The story above, portrays to me the importance of following your heart.

I know that many people tell you to suck it up and go cold. Sometimes we need that. Other times though, we need to trust the journey.

Marie never seemed like the type of person who could build businesses. She kept private. Marie played the game right though.

She didn't go after the BIG city sharks. She opted for her small town boy who kept her satisfied. Because that's what she wanted.

She didn't force it and she made the best she could with the tools she had.

Now she can enjoy her life, just at 25, while other classmates of ours are slaving away in corporate offices to pay off college debt.

That was the right decision for her.

Each one of us is on their personal journey. Your timeline is yours. It's not your mama's, neighbour's or friend's. If you can utilise a cheat code don't make it harder just to feel like a victim.

You won't get a prize for suffering.

After my meeting with Marie I started seeing life differently. I decided that I would never let anyone shame me for my choices. Your inner voice holds the answers, you just need to listen.

I always wanted to follow my passion for astrology and helping people to reach their highest potential. Actually Marie was one of the first people I analysed the chart of. She was super chill and open minded from the start. I'm very happy that she let her light shine to the world, in her own way.

You are a queen and you are always on time 💋

[fairycosmos]

sorry for the #UKthings rant but ive gone private for mental health stuff but are trying to get my foot in the door with public stuff because i cant afford mental health over stuff like, having food to eat, but ohhhh my god. nhs please. next week will be week five of an eight week deal (maybe some kind of assessment? i'm not sure what the exact point is) where i have a meeting with a mental health nurse and there is nothing more demoralizing on my journey to more stable mental health than hearing from her that all it seems i do is push people away and reject help. i'm sorry that saying that i dont think downloading an app is going to help me!! especially since i've already got one that i have been using. lol. i've tried to determine what it is she can actually do to help me because i feel like this whole thing is wasting both of our times but all i really get is "well i'm a mental health nurse not a psychiatrist so i can't help with that" OKAY !!!!! what CAN you do!!!! god. god . chloe do you know what a mental health nurse's role is? do any of your followers know??? how am i meant to work with her best rn i really dont know...

omg no honestly i could go on about this FOREVER!!!! but for ur sanity i won't. i'm so so sorry they're messing you around like this when it comes to something as serious as your health - i've had very similiar experiences and honestly at this point i see our healthcare system as nothing but a cardboard charade rather than a system that seeks to provide genuine support to people but that's a whole other thing. i'm on like a million waiting lists for various different things and i think if i do end up getting through to someone it is very much going to mirror your experience i.e dull platitudes and empty promises. they expect you to download a mediation app and get over severe mental illness and the fact that you're struggling with that is truly reflective of them and the state of the country - not you or your ability to heal/get over things/whatever other bullshit expectation they force onto us. i haven't worked with a mental health nurse since i was like 17 for this exact reason like they do not offer the consistent, in-depth and intensive help a lot of us need and their answer to everything is to try yoga or drink more water and it's like, how are you even SUPPOSED to work with that?? one thing i will say is that venting to these people and just letting that be their position in your life - to let you get off some steam - is somewhat helpful but obviously doesn't confront the underlying issues. through this she may come to understand that you showing up to these frustrating sessions and talking IS you trying, is proof of you not "rejecting help." it's wild she would even imply that honestly. i genuinely hope you find a treatment plan that actually does delve into why you feel this way and what you can proactively do about it - which you do deserve, but i know it's not super realistic to think that the nhs in its current state is going to provide you with. it sucks and it feels so fucking hopeless, i've never even entertained the idea of getting serious help for yrs because of this and i totally get it. if you need a friend or someone to talk to about this, please don't hesitate to send me a message fr. i feel like we're in super similar positions rn and it truly is its own type of hell. x

[nevertheless-moving]

Hi! I love your writing snippets - have you thought about posting them on ao3

Thank you!! Yes, I have thought about it, for sure! I'm nevertheless_turtle on ao3.

(I have... six fics, all of them star wars, half of them unfinished, last one updated in January 2022. Unless someone decides to put a million dollars in my kofi jar, this is for Fun, so unfortunately once the hyperfixation fades...it fades*.

:( star wars back and forth tumblr fics with star wars mutuals my beloved... murderbot discord i loved collaborative storytelling with ya'll and i miss you...i don't know how to make friends on the internet i just talk blorbos in situations and my blorbos drift over time... hello stormlight archive fandom)

! anyone want to talk about putting my type of blorbo, which when i check my notes is a pathetic wet person who is very good at killing but somewhat tries to avoid it, if you want to talk putting someone like that in a Situation, Hey! i may or may not be your person. this ask is really getting away from me i might be tired from walking a bunch of miles today...

*i do historically cycle back around to fandoms! i was lurking on tumblr for over a decade before i posted anything and there was definitely a cyclical nature to it! i consistently knit furiously for 3 months and then take a 4 year break! star wars fics wait for me!

aNYWAY writing fic directly into Tumblr adn/or Discord or if i don't have internet connection then a fuckin shitty notes app appears to be the Key for me?? like i tried fic writing before that in Word or Docs and it just didn't go?? idk! I think it's like the comic sans trick.

wait i still haven't answered the question.

you know, the thing is, when i write a snippet at the end of 5 paragraphs of background meta for an au, or a literal bullet point list, i'm not really sure how to post that to ao3. can you post chatfic and bullet points to ao3? it feels weird? idk. real question for the crowd in the midst of an extremely incoherent ask answer. let me know what you think!

me to myself: the question. scroll back up. what was the question. myself to me: that was answering the question! somewhat!

Right now a bunch of fic writing is churning around and out of brain, and circumstances have aligned for better or worse such that i have time and mental energy and ideas to write. we'll see how it goes. Once I get a bit more posted on tumblr i'll probably put things together and either make seperate works for different aus, or a masterwork of different tumblr aus that i don't think i'll develop further. i may turn some of those bulletpoint lists into cleaner fics for posting, making my earlier point moot.

some of my aus i already have a bunch written on my phone over meals or stopped in the middle of a side walk or on bus and train rides (why would an ELEVEN HOUR TRAIN RIDE not have an outlet to charge my laptop??). so. if i clean that stuff up ill probably post it to tumblr, then immediately notice the spelling mistakes, edit, then post to ao3.

a perfect system.

for my most recent snippet, well, that's actually self contained (not an au that requires 6 paragraphs of background to understand the snippet) and not a chat fic, so i WAS thinking i would just post it to ao3 soonish. i asked in the tags if anyone felt like betaing for ao3, i am wildly but unquestioningly assuming that the sorta individual who would want to beta a fic for me are reading the tags on my tumblr fic post. if anyone likes betaing stormlight or is interested in betaing a specific au/fic idea i've mentioned, hit me up.

TLDR above, tumblr is a for fun rough draft looser writing form place for me. ao3 feels like its asking for a bit more polish and structure. i have writing bees in my brain right now so i'm slightly more focused on that then editing, but if anyone feels like doing some form of beta, reach out and we can chat about it. regardless, i will clean up at least some of my recent snippets and post to ao3 eventually.

[genericpuff]

A lil' disclaimer.

Just because it's come up a couple times in the past, I wanna make something perfectly clear - I would never encourage people jump on other comics the way I do LO. The reason why LO is so heavily criticized by so many of us is because it's a multimillion phenomenon that... doesn't act like it is. It's so massively advertised both on the app AND outside of it (to the point it's gotten real life ads in New York) that for many people, it's an entry point into webcomics and yet it's functionally one of the worst webcomics out there, lacking in every major facet from composition to writing to character consistency.

Webcomics are an amazing medium that are loved so much for being accessible. Literally anyone can draw or write a comic. There are no rules, no restrictions, no corporate control. It's a lot of work, and not every person who tries to do it will be good at it or make money off it or become a worldwide phenomenon, but all you need to make one is an internet connection and an idea. You don't have to do it digitally, you don't have to be published through a platform, anyone can make webcomics. It's frankly been astounding to me to see it become an actual industry over the past several years.

Unfortunately, that industry has been led by corporations that do not value their creators, and comics that do not represent the best of what the medium has to offer. I only rip into LO as hard as I do for the same reason people rip into Twilight or Harry Potter or Overwatch 2 - it's a piece of work that's being professionally made with the expectation that people will pay for it and thus is held to a different standard and context than what you would hold a first timer or a hobbyist to.

If my rants do make any of you budding artists out there worry, then I apologize. But rest assured, I do not apply the same scrutiny to creators like you or myself as I do to LO. You're someone who's making this for fun, for free, for learning. You're doing it on your own time for your own personal gain, and very likely little to no monetary gain. LO is a commercially made project with millions of dollars of investments backing it, merchandising deals, a TV deal, and print books, not to mention multiple assistants ensuring that RS hits her deadlines, more assistants than most Originals creators can even afford. LO is barely even in the same playground as other Originals comics on the platform that can only afford 1-2 assistants and have to hope they can even get 2 hours of ad time in the banner reels; let alone compared to the Canvas comics or hobbyist-driven comics being made by someone like you or myself, which it isn't even neighbors with and hasn't been for years now.

I hold LO to a higher standard because I hold the industry to a higher standard - one that should be observed, analyzed, and discussed because of the precedent LO and top-earning comics like it sets in the industry and in the medium. Whether RS likes it or not, that's the reality of being a top creator in an industry, especially one that's still as new and unstable in the west as webcomics/webtoons.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

[languages-with-ian]

What’s your opinion on the Duolingo Gaelic course? I tried starting it after starting Irish and found the Gaelic 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 lessons to be considerably less…polished? in my experience

Excellent question!

Personally, I think it’s a great way to reintroduce a new, younger generation to the language. It covers a lot of cultural topics that many people may never have heard of, like the concept of a Mòd gathering. Additionally, I don't think I had ever heard of IRN BRU, but it’s now on my bucket list to try. (Their adverts alone are, um, quite attention-grabbing.)

According to an article in The Scotsman, as of this March (March 2022, that is - greetings, future readers!), the course has surpassed a million learners, an astounding leap for a language that just decades ago was teetering on the edge of extinction.

And back to the first point, an article in The Guardian made an excellent point about this course helping to dispel the "Scottish cringe", a manifestation of a wider (practically global, though there are exceptions) phenomenon of perceived inferiority of a given indigenous culture in favor of an external, more politically or socially dominant culture or language.

THAT BEING SAID, however, I do have some critiques of my own, and you put forward a good point. From what I understand, the course mainly teaches the Mid-Minch dialect of Scottish Gaelic (shoutout to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig!), with some regional variation in pronunciation between the people providing audio recordings (although they do expose the learner to Canadian Gaelic with a few lessons, which gets a big "thumbs up" from me). With the massive volume of learners coming to the app (an overall very positive thing!) to learn the language, I'm predicting the language will undergo a "dialect levelling" over the next few decades as a result of the popularity of this course. My guess is that the good majority of people learning Gaelic online will start and finish their language learning journey with the Duolingo course and not seek out other resources (or even fellow speakers or learners) to supplement this, which may move Gaelic towards one standard "Duolingo dialect" in the near future if care is not taken to avoid such a fate.

Another thing I've noticed is that as I near the end of the course (I'm on Unit 66 of 69 at the moment), there hasn't been a single prompt for the past fifteen or so units that I haven't already seen. Don't get me wrong, review is always good, but I do wish they would provide more variation in their prompts in the later stages of the course so I could be sure that I'm absorbing more essential vocabulary and grammar and not just drilling myself on Duolingo sentences. I also wish it would cover some more important points of grammar and vocab earlier in the course (concepts in colloquial sentence structure such as how and when to use phrases like "air a bhith", "gum bi", "biodh", etc.). My advice once you've reached about Unit 45 or so is to begin seeking out other learners (or native speakers if you can find them) and begin practicing using the language in a more colloquial fashion.

One note I have about the platform in general: a somewhat common thread among Duolingo learners of any language is that the sentences sound unnatural at times, or that they'll "never use these sentences in real life." While that may be the case in a literal sense, that's not the whole point of the structure of the courses. I think people see sentences like "the bear gave me a strawberry" and think they're not learning anything worthwhile, but what sentences like this teach you is vocabulary in different syntactical situations. This is one of the best ways to learn grammar - that is, to not even realize you're learning it, and to passively absorb it based off of various usage examples. After all, this is how we learn grammar rules as young children! And a side-note, make sure you do the lessons with the sound on, and for your own sake, make sure you're saying each sentence out loud as you go! (Your future conversation partners will thank you for it.)

I also forgot to mention a great resource in my main post - the show Speaking Our Language is available on YouTube for free (at least in the United States), and covers Gaelic as it may be used situationally. It can be a bit goofy at times, and it's a nostalgic snapshot of early- to mid-1990s Scotland, but it's presented in a very digestible and well-paced fashion for learners!

Follow for more linguistics and share this post! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

[xaviaaaaaaaaa]

What's your highest score (and preferred version) of Tetris? And if you have one, your best time (and difficulty) of Minesweeper

Mild Tetris infodumping time!! :D

TL;DR: I prefer TETR.IO, where my sprint PB is 25.612 (811th global as of writing), Blitz PB is ~435K (not top 1K also just a lot of SDPC looping). I also do not have any best times in minesweeper (yet :3)

ngl i'm realizing most of what I put here is unrelated to the ask but uh um uh

The vast majority of the time, I am playing either on Jstris or TETR.IO. Both of which aren't technically "Tetris" and are unofficial browser-based clients.

Within both of these I normally only play sprint / 40 Lines (very self-explanatory, clear 40 lines as fast as possible). Most of the time I'll just constantly play sprint without really thinking about it while I listen to a YouTube video or go through an album or smth. Unfortunately tetrio doesn't keep track of my total completed sprints but jstris does, and the number has climbed to be just a little high (3,148 as of right now). There are also other modes but they range from slightly to vastly less popular and I've played 40L by far the most sooooooo-

My PB is 25.465 seconds which is very good according to this graph :3

(Jayson is my other name ignore that part)

Also also also fun story my PBs in 3 of the 4 sprint categories on jstris I got within a few hours (I got a 100L pb on that day but improved it later 😔)

Also this is even more unrelated but I feel like mentioning; tetrio and jstris play largely similarly but with minor differences to DAS and finesse but I've had someone try to die on the hill that tetrio finesse is better which is rather silly of them in my imo

uh um there is Blitz mode on tetrio which i don't play often cause it requires too much mental attention and also a lil bit of luck and also also lots of SDPC DPC looping which is really cool and satisfying but also ngl kinda lame but

(replayed at 2x speed cause 2 minutes is a long time)

Occasionally, I play the default mode on Tetris.com. This is an offical client and generally far more popular. Unfortunately I don't have my high scores saved cause i just switched to a new PC build but my best is around ~700K. I pulled it up while writing since it's been a while and did pretty decent but I really struggle with instadrop gravity

Also worth noting is Tetris 99 since it's what got me into tetis in the first place. I have ~700 hours according to my Switch profile and played around 3,000 games (mostly in 2020). Not really much of highscore to point at with this one except one time I won 10 games in a row which is neat.

(I couldn't find the screencap from the 10 games in a row bit but I did find this which is way funnier)

nowadays I absolutely can not be bothered to play this game cause I've gotten to a point where it is boring and slow and uninteresting and if i want to play a long stressful multiplayer tetis i will go to Tetra-League instead.

I played a bit of PPT and PPT2 but never really got into it, I think my highest rating was around 11 or 12K on PPT.

also I've recently tried playing the mobile app and it is awful and frustrating and terrible and bad and lags a whole lot. my highscore there is like 1.3 million which would've put me far and away in first place in my city, but for some reason it decided that I lived in New Jersey that day so instead I was like 30th.

I got into NEStris at one point and I'm pretty sure my best was a little over 300k but i never put that much practice into it.

most of this was entirely unrelated to the ask but I really felt like ranting :3

[josiebelladonna]

a little collection, all one right after the other, picked up last week, not sure why i didn’t post it then 🤷🏻‍♀️

i also saw a tweet saying that it shouldn’t even be called “art”, which… yeah, i agree. it’s scraping art and treating it as if it’s gum on the bottom of a desk and throwing it into a blender at a whim when it should’ve been put to good use and made a natural evolution of digital art—i keep saying it but it’s the biggest missed opportunity in the history of missed opportunities. ai had the potential to build upon digital art and to be worked with, but that’s not what’s happening, though. moreover, way too many people are doubling down and supporting it, often knowing the nefarious nature of it, which makes them complicit in the abuse of hard-working artists and their life’s work. i’ve also been seeing accusations of ableism against human artists—these comments are often oblivious to the fact that disabled artists have existed for centuries (look no further than frida kahlo)—even accusations of racism and sexism.

excuse me, but taking the art from a black artist or a female artist or a transgender artist or a guy who paints with his feet and using it without their consent in your k00l ai app is a million times more discriminatory than anything any artist has ever done (bonus if you know about all this but keep contributing to it—if anything, that’s worse).

even if you aren’t active in the art world, all this alone should piss you off.

i’m also seeing more things about slurs thrown at artists (”paintpig”, “drawslave”, and “drawcel” being only three examples), and i’d say “you’re gonna have to do a lot better than that” à la cosmo kramer, but i don’t think that’d suffice, tbh—as i said before, they almost feel like compliments, like yes! i am a drawslave! i am a slave to drawing and my craft! 😂

and yes, ai replacing humans has already long begun: go read about disney, and also book publishers like tor books. replacing human artists and their digital art with soulless robotic ai with watermarks included has already whupped up and let a bunch of diligent people go on their own for the sake of $$$$ and mass appeal. it’s very quickly approaching the point where, unless you have a very distinct, visceral style that’s heavy on textures and just looks different like mine, digital art made by a human being and a digital piece by a machine will have no distinction between each other, and traditional art will be the only truly human art left. mind, every human alive is capable of making art no matter what the excuse is—there’s no excuse. if you’re human, you’re an artist. you can create something. it’s part of who you are, as unique as your fingerprint and your dna. “but i’m not an artist!” BULLSHIT. B U L L S H I T. you are as capable of making art as i am. if you can pick up a pencil with any part of your body, you can train yourself—go read about the guy who draws with his feet, he’s amazing. “i won’t be as good as you, though.” yeah, and? that doesn’t mean you can’t be good in your own way. i tried making tutorials or how to draw like me before and i wound deleting them because no one was willing to try it out, and i soon learned that it’s because my art is unique to me, as well as cop outs like “not an artist”.

the rise of ai art tells me that people are way too lazy and entitled for their own good now. our ape bodies are too reliant upon technology, and technology is advancing faster than any of us can keep up. it’s not only the biggest wasted opportunity ever, but it’s a sign of not caring about your fellow human and what they can make with their bodies and brains, especially with their hands. we have spent millennia using our hands to build the very advancements that brought us to this point in history… and we’re willing to throw it away, and what for?

bitch. my hands have used pencils, pens, paintbrushes, turpentine, metals, heavy machinery, wood, axes, hatchets, knives, ceramic clay, acids, bases, chemicals that can leave blisters on the inside of your lungs, literal fire, rocks and minerals, a fucking Geiger counter, soldering irons, welding torches, heavy tools like table saws and sledgehammers, bicycle chains, one of those old rotary telephones, typewriters, fucking floppy disks!!, all kinds of fabric, a drum kit, a piano, guitars, microphones, xylophones, baseball bats, hockey sticks, basketballs, volleyballs, and some of the most delicious food i have ever eaten… i got to touch pitchblende (uranium ore) with these hands. i got to touch lead soldering and broken glass. these hands have gotten to touch silver ore and 24-karat gold. i even got to touch things from the softest cat fur to the skin of a snake and the exoskeleton of a scorpion. these hands have shaken the hands of teachers, famous people, and people no longer with us. these hands have fired guns and shot arrows. these hands have helped me climb up hills and small mountains. these hands have been cut, scratched, burned by both fire and dry ice, stepped on, slapped, but also lovingly held and massaged. these hands have written millions of words of literature and poetry. these hands have written words in english, french, spanish, german, italian, danish, latin, japanese, russian, and most recently portuguese. these hands have fixed houses, planted gardens, even built a car from the ground up. these are working hands, and they always come back to art.

i have toiled in obscurity since 2006, and to a further extent, 1999. i refuse to ever work with art shops anymore because they continue to rip me off and take my money, and they’re making me vulnerable to scraping. i have had my art insulted, mocked, patronized, laughed at, called dumb or stupid, rejected from art competitions, lost out to trashy artworks that look like they were done in about five minutes in total darkness, soiled on, burnt (yes, for real), thrown in the garbage, and yes, even stolen, not once but twice—the second time around, the thief is still giving me shit two and a half years after i called her out on her bluff. yes, me. the person she took from. she is continuously giving me shit and being a bully—and, get this, two and a half years later, you can see how miserable she is from a mile away.  so, let me ask you, ai people and those who (un)willingly support it: is that what you want? to become increasingly miserable as tech advances and you sit your own hands to the point you become so idle that your brains scramble themselves and you don’t even know how to function anymore? plus, you’re going to look at me dead in the face and tell me that i deserve to be shat on and everything my hands have done is all in vain all because i refuse to ever use any ai app for as long as i live because i know what the hell is going on?

have your fucking precious ai. play the victim and be complicit. if you don’t care, then i don’t care. but know what you’re doing. know that it all comes with a steep price and a dark side more foreboding than you can ever fathom. karma is a bitch, and a bigger one than i ever will be.

and this is not even touching on ai infiltrating fan writing or actual published literature, or music for that matter, but—i’m not even touching those ones.

[lmelodie]

Lucy Headcanons

Because I can and because she's a peach

She has a million and one nonsense bumper/car stickers, ranging from cute to cursed.

For one Halloween she couldn't decide between being all three Mario princesses at once. Charlie had to be the one to choose for her and she went as Peach.

Her Favorite type of french fry is the potato smiles! The ones shaped like little happy faces.

She really likes romance/drama tv shows. ESPECIALLY the hospital romance ones. Medical dramas with romantic overtones between two pining doctors have her in a CHOKE HOLD.

If Steven Universe collects mom figures, Lucy Miller collects uncle figures. An disgruntled, emotionally constipated older man anywhere in her vicinity is just an uncle she hasn't met yet.

She loves novelty shaped bags! Backpacks or purses that are shaped like lemons or ghosts is her whole vibe. She loves a quirky bag and owns many that are shaped like different objects. She probably has one for every possible occasion/season/holiday.

She's very creeped out by centipedes. Can't stand how many legs those things have and thinks it was gods mistake for them to exists like that.

Genuinely cannot decide what her favorite season is. She sees and apricates the merit of all four and doesn't think any of them are better than the other. Jack has tried convincing her to root for team winter, but it hasn't worked so far.

She's a big fan of novelty flavors for food also. The stuff that's real gimmicky to sell a quick buck for the strangeness of it, but she tries just about any weird, flavored thing for the experience.

She likes the sheer number of different KitKat flavors they got in Japan; she's tasted a lot of different cereals over the years, and she's actually a pretty big fan of sugar cookie popcorn.

(She would've been ALL OVER the Starbucks unicorn frappuccino thing that happened.)

She ends up going into the psychology field as an adult. She finds people very interesting and likes getting inside their heads to see how they work. Neil is very happy about this, and Laura and Charlie are only a little put off by being psychoanalyzed from two angles now.

She is a SELF CARE QUEEN! Will advocate for self-care until the day she dies! She recognizes that it doesn't solve all your problems but is a die-hard believer in the power of a warm drink and an even warmer bath.

Some other hobbies that she will eventually grow into are as follows:

She gets into yoga when she's older. Does Tai Chi with Mother Nature on occasion.

Learned the basics of archery from Cupid at some point and has kept up with the skill after he pointed out that she should learn to use and actual weapon instead of using the nearest object to bludgeon someone with.

She has matching star shaped sunglasses with Jack. Hers are pink and yellow and his are blue.

After she moves out, she gets takes a gap year and travels the world. Goes to a few different places in Europe.

When she ends up getting her own home, she puts a hammock both inside and outside. Jack has claimed both of them as his own.

Her star sign is Cancer :)

Her favorite Ghibli movie is The Secret World of Arrietty.

Adamantly watches Bee and Puppycat.

She has an account for just about every social media app, including Tumblr. She has a specific tag for things that remind her of Jack (#popsicleman)

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT SCHOOL

If I'd had to wait a year for the next release, I would have shelved most of these merchants got, but we thought very carefully before we released software onto those servers. Till about 2002 you could safely misinterpret it as promising that clock speeds would double every 18 months. It would be very convenient if you could get to the point where everything could be done by bots, because then you'd have made the sufficiently smart compiler, but inside has people, using highly developed optimization tools to find and eliminate bottlenecks in users' programs.1 Intellectually, it is likely to be one-directional: support people who hear about bugs fill out some form that eventually gets passed on possibly via QA to programmers, who put it on their list of things to do.2 Overloading, for example.3 The least ambitious way of approaching the problem is to start from scratch; and the problem is before you can solve it. When my IBM Thinkpad's hard disk died soon after, it became my only laptop. And when my friend Trevor showed up at my house recently, he was kicked out of school for a year. In fact I think you ought to design for the best programmers have limitations. For PhD programs, the professors do. These turn out to be really useful.

I'm describing here is the future. If a server got wedged, we jumped; just thinking about it gives me a jolt of adrenaline, years later.4 This is not too high a price for big companies too. And not just because they'd be a lot of startups here. This will come as a surprise to many people is that we so rarely see analyses of this type. More can be stolen by things that seem completely unrelated, like social networking apps. We'll see.5

But this meant a Google was now setting Microsoft's agenda, and b Microsoft's agenda consisted of stuff they weren't good at.6 A cash cow can be a damned heavy monkey on your back.7 That's orders of magnitude better than desktop software. And so designing Web-based applications, these two kinds of stress get combined. In fact, what I like about this idea is all the more reason for startups to write Web-based applications, these two kinds of stress get combined.8 Fortunately, it can be written in unusual languages. We tried rewriting the software to work over the Web, became popular first within CS departments and research labs, and gradually spread to the rest of the world. They were designed to be a large tumor. Web as closely as anyone, and I can't see them facing that. Software is particularly suitable for price discrimination, which means charging each customer as much as possible. I already have a lot of work.

Notes

It doesn't end every semester like classes do. They overshot the available RAM somewhat, causing much inconvenient disk swapping, but suburbs are so different from technology companies. But which of them.

Everyone's taught about it. Steve in the beginning. Simpler just to load a problem so far the only way to pressure them to get the bugs out of their due diligence for an investor they already know; but it is still possible, to a degree in design is any better than Jessica.

339-351. Corollary: Avoid starting a startup or going to work not just something the telephone, the group of people starting normal companies too. Indeed, that's the situation you find known boring ideas intolerable.

A scientist isn't committed to believing anything in particular. But that being so, why is New York. 65 million. We may never do that.

The hard part of creating an agreement from scratch today would say that I'm clueless or even 1000x an average programmer's salary. Quoted in: Life seemed so much the better, and would probably only improve filtering rates early on when you see people breaking off to both left and right. Could you endure studying literary theory, or liars.

See, we love big juicy lumbar disc herniations, but historical abuses are easier for us! And yet there are few who can say I need to offer especially large rewards to get good grades in them.

High school isn't evil; it's roughly correct for startups to be their personal IT consultants, building anything they could attribute to the code you write has a power law dropoff, but also seem to have them soon. Travel has the same way a bibilical literalist is committed to is following the evidence wherever it leads. But it's a bad idea the way up.

If you want to change.

[zannatykhatun]

Can Meituan defeat magic with magic?

On the highway of local life, Meituan is running all the way with takeaways, restaurants, wine and hotels, etc. When it comes to the turning point of "live broadcast", it runs into Douyin, which has changed its direction from short video and e-commerce.

In the ancient business of catering, a new revolution is taking place.

Wang Xing and Zhang Yiming are the initiators of this change. One of them advocates "long-term patience" and the other claims "vigor can produce miracles." Live broadcast + local life is their new battlefield.

As Wang Xing said many years ago, this is an era of never-ending peace. Some investors once asserted, "We must fight the war at other people's homes. Even if we lose, we will not lose. What we will break are other people's bottles and cans."

The intersection between the two business tycoons is no stranger to the outside world. Although the current situation is not the first time this pair of old acquaintances have crossed paths, it is the most "sparky" one.

According to "LatePost" previous  HE Tuber  reports, in 2022, Douyin's catering transaction volume has been close to half of Meituan's; in early February 2023, Douyin's local life's transaction volume contributed by the catering business has been higher than that of the hotel, tourism and comprehensive business Sum.

The latest data from QuestMobile shows that the number of overlapping users of Meituan and Douyin exceeds 300 million, accounting for 81.0% of Meituan’s users. As an old rival of Meituan’s food delivery business, Ele.me’s overlapping users account for less than 20% of Meituan’s users.

Douyin's magic to quickly seize the market is "live broadcasting". Although the entry of opponents will help make the pie bigger, who is the winner under the 28-20 rule is crucial. Meituan finally took up arms. Its live broadcast business has grown from two years ago. Start testing the waters and accelerate after building a live broadcast center this year.

And savvy catering businesses are also voting with their feet. Take Wallace, which has nearly 20,000 stores, as an example. During this year’s 618 period, it gained highlights in both Meituan and Douyin. At Meituan’s “618 Group Coupon Festival”, its sales of value-for-money packages exceeded 150 million yuan; while Douyin’s “618 Group Coupon Festival” ranked fifth on the best-selling brand list.

What’s interesting is that Wallace walked into Meituan’s takeout live broadcast room, while the one on Douyin was an in-store live broadcast with online group coupons and offline verification. To a certain extent, the choice of chain merchants also reflects the differences between Meituan and Douyin in local life live broadcasting.

Meituan, standing at the center of the whirlpool, can it use the magic of Douyin to fight back against Douyin this time?

1. How much patience does Meituan have during live streaming?

Meituan Runtong’s first live broadcast product is home delivery (takeaway).

The "Shenshou" live broadcast room is the first official live broadcast room of Meituan to break out of the circle. It focuses on "magic low prices and instant grabs." In fact, its earliest live broadcast attempt was in September 2022, and it did not start daily broadcast until March this year. Meituan’s attempts at live broadcasting date back to earlier, and food delivery is not the vanguard.

In December 2020, Meituan launched the "Meituan Mlive" mini program on WeChat, which was limited to medical beauty and education merchants and has not yet covered the huge takeout merchants. In April 2022, Meituan launched the "Meituan Live Assistant" APP and launched the "Food Live" channel in an attempt to open new sales channels for catering merchants.

In the past two years or so, multiple businesses within Meituan have tried live broadcasting, but they have all stopped. According to "Blue Hole Business", it was not until the first half of this year that Meituan's live broadcast business established an independent team and set up a live broadcast center at the technical level. Each business unit can use this capability.

The popular live broadcast room of Meituan’s food delivery god

A person related to Meituan told "Blue Hole Business": "Shenshou" can be said to be an officially built "model room". In order to set an example for catering merchants, subsequent merchant self-broadcasts will be the main body of Meituan's live broadcast. At the same time, the most popular live broadcast rooms are currently the platform’s traffic and subsidies, and merchants subsidize the cost of goods, which does not involve charging traffic fees for the time being.

Obviously, in the past period of time, Douyin’s local life pressure on Meituan has fallen more on the store rather than the home.

Meituan disclosed in its earnings call that it is currently piloting a new marketing model for its takeout and in-store hotel and travel businesses. For example, live broadcasts, short videos and limited-time sales have been launched to guide user traffic to the products that merchants want to promote and help merchants create popular products. This kind of exploration is defined as shelf + hot style.

Judging from the data in the official live broadcast room of Meituan Waimai, it has given the outside world a signal: Meituan may be able to do live broadcasts.

During Meituan’s two Coupon Festival live broadcasts in April and May, Wallace store sales increased by 4% to 10% month-on-month, and the commodity coupons directly brought more than 100,000 new customers to it.

From the perspective of Meituan’s external caliber, high sales and high conversion are their main promotion of live streaming. According to previously disclosed data, the write-off rate of some single products in Meituan’s takeaway live broadcast room can reach 75%. At the same time, the write-off of one commodity coupon will drive a 1.5-fold increase in order transaction volume. Data from Jiuqian Zhongtai estimates that the write-off rate of Douyin’s takeaway group purchases is only 61%.

From a merchant's perspective, the key factor in choosing to cooperate with Meituan Waimai for live streaming is not only high conversion, but also the ability to fulfill contracts.

As Wang Xing said at the financial report meeting in March this year: "Meituan is very confident in the quality of its riders, operating network and merchants. Some other platforms currently mainly provide scheduled delivery for the next day. This model The impact on us is limited, and consumers’ expectations are also different.”

Douyin, which launched Xindong takeout as early as 2021, has not expanded beyond the three cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu until the first half of this year. It currently sells group meals with weak timeliness and high unit price per customer. The unit price per customer is 110 yuan - 130 yuan. The reason is that Douyin does not build its own logistics, but relies on third-party instant delivery platforms such as SF Express and Dada.

There is also no self-built logistics. Why is Douyin e-commerce successful but local life is so difficult?

On the one hand, takeout delivery requires higher timeliness, multiple concurrency, and greater randomness; on the other hand, third-party logistics costs are higher, and it is difficult to improve efficiency through system deployment, and delivery personnel will give priority to orders from their own platforms. CITIC Securities predicts that the average delivery cost of Meituan’s food delivery orders in 2022 will be 7.1 yuan, which is lower than SF Express’s 10.2 yuan in the same city.

According to "Blue Hole Business", starting in July, Douyin Life Service has introduced "group purchase and distribution agents" in five cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Changsha to help willing merchants in the service area open group purchase and distribution services, and 33 selected agents have been announced. Just last month, according to a report by "LatePost", Douyin Waimai had given up its GMV target of 100 billion yuan this year.

It is not difficult to see that Douyin still intends to develop the food delivery business, but it has no intention to build its own fulfillment system in the short term.

In addition to the ability to fulfill contracts, another reason that has hindered the development of Douyin's takeout is that compared with in-store dining, takeout does not rely on traffic and is more biased towards search. This is the logic of "people looking for goods", while Douyin still prefers " The flow logic of "finding people for goods". Many merchants started group buying on Douyin and also opened takeout services. But when they found that it was not cost-effective, they closed them down.

"For catering merchants, both home delivery and in-store delivery are necessary products. In the short term, both platforms will be considered. In the future, the focus will still be on one platform for refined operations. If Douyin takeout cannot be implemented, merchants will It will flow back to Meituan." An industry insider said.

Zhang Yiming must fight in the takeout battle, but it is difficult to win by bypassing contract fulfillment. Wang Xing once said in 2019: "The failure of most companies is not that they fail to master difficult movements, but that there is a problem with the basic skills." "If we practice the basic skills solidly, we can win 99% of things."