#i just like declining/inclining lists

[sondersil]

things that were decidedly not on my 2024 bingo:

making deep connections with people that i will cherish for years

meeting my international friends (not just once, but four times)

travelling to three different countries to meet said friends

hosting a fandom event with relative success

being diagnosed with ADHD

finding out i'm aromantic

passing my exams

getting arthritis

being alive

[scoonsalicious]

10.4 Major

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Summary: Lily McIntyre, trainer for new SHIELD recruits at the Avengers Tower, has been in love with her best friend, Bucky Barnes, from the moment she met him. She's been content with her role of the #1 girl in Bucky's life, even if it means she has to sabotage a romantic relationship or two. It'll be worth it when he realizes that they're meant for each other, right? There's just one small problem: Lily McIntire never expected Bucky Barnes to fall for You.

Warnings: (For this part only; see Story Masterlist for general Warnings) Language, alcohol consumption, drunkenness, brief mentions of sexual situations.

Word Count: 3.6k

Previously On...: Bucky ran to Lily for comfort after running out on you. Despite her best efforts, Bucky realized he done fucked up, A-aron.

A/N: Sorry for the delay. Everything but this and all of you is shit right now, lol.

If you ever feel so inclined to support my work, hop on over to buy me a coffee; it's much appreciated! <3

NOTE! The tag list is a fickle bitch, so I'm not really going to be dealing with it anymore. If you want to be notified when new story parts drop, please follow @scoonsaliciousupdates

Thank you to all those who have been reading; if you like what you've read, likes, comments, and reblogs give me life, and I truly appreciate them, and you!

After Bucky had stormed out of The WarZone that evening, you had tried to call him. Dozens of times. At first, he’d declined the calls, but soon, they went straight to voicemail, and you knew he had turned off his phone. Either that, or he’d blocked you. 

You knew he would be upset when he saw the contents of that envelope, but for him to make those accusations of you, and then to run away without even giving you an opportunity to speak or explain yourself? To say you were pissed off would be an understatement. So, you did the one thing that came to your mind as a way of dealing with the pain and frustration you were feeling: you went home and drank.

You’d been obsessively staring at her phone screen as you put back glass after glass of wine, willing Bucky to call you and apologize, to text asking for your side of the story, for anything, really, but after hours of his silence, you finally had enough and composed a single message to him:

>> When you’re done with your temper tantrum and want to talk like a grown up, you know where to find me.

Probably not the most mature thing you could have done, but you had been drinking, after all. Besides, it’s not like it had mattered; he’d never answered, anyway. You’d probably never hear from him again. That thought, amplified by the alcohol, had sent you down a dark tunnel of tears and ugly sobs. You honestly couldn’t remember ever crying this much over a man– not even when you’d found out about Connor’s affair, and you’d been married for nearly a decade; no, that had felt more like a relief, like finally having an answer to a question that had been stumping you for ages. But now, here you were, a blubbering mess over a man you hadn’t even known for a full week. 

You weren’t sure what hurt the most about it: the fact that he thought you went looking for that information, the words he’d said to you, or the way he ran out without even hearing your side of things. You didn’t even have the bandwidth to consider the betrayal of him going through your private papers.

There had just been so much potential with Bucky. So much promise. It could have been something beautiful and amazing, and now, it was over before it had even had a chance to really begin. And that just made you sad. Sad, and lonely. Maybe you’d finally get yourself a cat. Yeah, that seemed like a good idea. Perhaps it was finally time to embrace your destiny as a spinster cat lady, just like your mother had always threatened since your divorce. Why fight the inevitable?

A soft knock at your door took you out of your depression spiral. You quickly glanced at your clock– 10:45 pm. Far too late for a social call. Most likely, your nextdoor neighbor, Jeremy, had locked himself out of his apartment and wanted to hang out at yours until maintenance came by with the master key, again. 

Wiping the tears from your eyes, you made a move to stand, but the alcohol sent a wave of dizziness through your system and you almost fell stumbling back down to the couch. This time, you moved more slowly, holding on to furniture for support as you shuffled toward the front door. When you made it about half way, you heard a voice from the hallway that definitely did not belong to Jeremy. You froze.

“Sugar? Are you there? Will you open up, please?” 

Shit. What the fuck was Bucky doing here? You couldn’t possibly talk to him right now– your face was an absolute mess from crying and you were still so drunk. And what if he was still angry? 

You considered your next course of action. Opening the door was a no go– any conversation could only end in disaster. For the same reason, you couldn’t try to talk to him through the door. Knowing the effect he had on you, it would probably only be a few minutes before you were letting him in, begging him to fuck you. No, the best thing to do would be to retreat to your bedroom and hide until he went away. Maybe he would just assume you weren’t home.

Yes, that was the way to do it. To your wine-soaked brain, this seemed entirely logical.  You turned to head back into your bedroom, but you missed-stepped and banged your shin into one of your end tables.

“Fuck,” you hissed in pain, trying to keep your voice down as you rubbed what would no doubt become a spectacular bruise.

“Doll?” Bucky called from the hallway. “I know you’re in there. I just heard you. Please let me in. I just want to talk to you.”

Damn it. 

Without another thought, you hightailed it back into your bedroom, throwing yourself under the covers. Just hearing the sound of his voice through the door brought back the memory of his tirade from earlier in the day, and the words he’d spoken to you:

“You wanna know how many people I killed that didn’t make it into those files, because I promise you, sugar, there’s a hell of a lot. You want to know about the time Hydra sent me to kill an ambassador, told me to leave no witnesses, and I took out his wife and his two kids, too? ‘Cause they couldn’t have been more than ten years old. That kind of thing get you off, doll?”

The rage in his voice had been palpable, and if you were being honest, it had scared you. Not the rage, itself. You knew he was capable of it. No, what had frightened you was how quickly he had turned that rage on to you.

The thought brought a fresh wave of tears, and before you knew it, you were crying yourself into a fitful, restless slumber.

*

There was an incessant pounding coming from the living room that echoed the pounding in your skull. Moaning, you rolled over and picked up your phone to glance at the time. 1:47am. The pounding persisted, and it took your now hungover brain a moment to realize someone was knocking on your front door. 

With a groan, you shoved your head under your pillow, hoping whoever was there would go the fuck away and leave you to die in peace. 

“Ms. (Y/L/N), it’s the NYPD; please open your door.” Well. That got your attention. Sitting bolt upright, you jumped out of bed and nearly tripped trying to get to the door in a hurry. 

You checked the peep hole, making sure it actually was one of New York’s finest, and opened the door. 

“Can I help you, officer?” you asked, leaning against the door frame.

The officer gave you the once over and smirked, and it was then you remembered you’d chosen a pair of boyshort panties and an off-the shoulder cropped Army t-shirt for your pajamas that night. With a scowl, you crossed your arms over  your chest. 

“Are you “(Y/N) (Y/L/N)?” the officer asked, obviously amused by your discomfort. 

“I am,” you nodded. “What is this about?”

“Do you know this man?” the officer stepped aside, revealing Bucky, who was standing sheepishly off to the side of the door where you hadn’t been able to see him at first.

“Hey, doll,” he said with a shameful half smile and small wave.

“One of your neighbors found him sleeping against your door and called us. He claims he’s your boyfriend and he was just waiting for you to let him in. Since he’s an Avenger, I figured I’d give him a chance to prove his story before I booked him for trespassing.”

You pinched the bridge of your nose. You were far too hungover to be dealing with this right now. “He’s not my boyfriend,” you clarified, and you didn’t miss Bucky’s face falling at your words. “But we are dating.” You stood back from the doorframe, making some space. “Come inside,” you told him with an exasperated sigh.

Bucky gave the officer an “I told you so” smirk and shoulder checked him before going inside your condo. You rolled your eyes at the childish display of machismo. You thanked the officer and moved to close the door, but he put a hand out, preventing you from closing it.

“Are you going to be safe if I leave you alone with him?” he asked you in a low voice, all trace of his earlier smirk gone. “Do you have any reason to fear for your life?”

You couldn’t help it– you snorted in laughter. “God, no,” you said. Yes, Bucky’s anger had frightened you, but you couldn’t believe he would ever go so far as to actually hurt you. He just wasn’t that kind of man, right? “I promise you, officer, I’m perfectly safe with Mr. Barnes. I mean, he’s an Avenger.”

The officer nodded. “Just making sure, miss. My partner and I will stay in the area; if there’s any trouble, call 911 and we’ll be nearby.” You thanked him for his concern, but assured him it wouldn’t be needed. He tipped his cap to you and headed for the elevator. 

You closed the door and leaned against it with a sigh. You needed to get some liquid in you. Immediately. 

Without sparing a glance at Bucky, who was standing by your coffee table, studiously avoiding looking at you,  you made your way into the kitchen to pour yourself a glass of water.

“Boyfriend, huh?” you said eventually, keeping your back to him as you ran the glass under your refrigerator’s water dispenser.

“Yeah… I wasn’t sure what to say to him to get him to let me stay,” he said, and his voice was closer now; you could tell he’d followed you to the kitchen.

“What are you doing here, Bucky?” you asked. You took a couple of sips from your glass before finally turning to face him. He looked… rough. His hair was disheveled, his clothes were wrinkled, and his eyes were red-rimmed, as though he, too, had spent some of the last several hours crying. 

Bucky swallowed thickly. “I came to apologize if you’ll let me,” he said, looking intently at your face. “Shit, sugar– have you been crying? Did I– fuck– I made you cry, didn’t I? I’m so sorry, doll.”

You let out a short bark of a laugh. Part of you wanted to throw your arms around him, bury your face into his shoulder, and never let him go, but what he had said to you earlier in the day was… well, it was horrendous and uncalled for, and you couldn’t, out of respect for yourself, just let it slide without some kind of explanation, and some real groveling.

“Explain yourself,” you said shortly, crossing your arms over your chest once again, as though putting a physical barrier between the two of you. 

Bucky swallowed and moved back toward your living room and began to pace. You followed, keeping a decent amount of distance between the two of you.

“I freaked out when I saw what was in that envelope,” he said. “As you no doubt know by now, I did a lot of shit, back when Hydra had me, that I’m not proud of. I’m… well, I guess you could say ‘sensitive about it’ would be an understatement. I carry a lot of guilt for what they made me do, and a lot of shame. Ever since I…” he paused, mulling over his word choice, “came back to myself, for good, I’ve been trying to make amends for all the harm I caused. To make things right. I know I can never erase all the pain I inflicted, bring back the people I killed, but I try to… to make things better. Where I can.”

He slumped down into one of your armchairs, a look of defeat crossing his handsome features. “It’s never going to be enough,” he sighed. “I know that. There are always going to be people who look at me, and only see the Soldier. No matter what I do, how much I atone, or how many lives I save, they’ll never see Bucky Barnes.”

“I told you from the beginning, Bucky,” you said, leaning against the wall that divided the living room from the kitchen, “it was obvious to me that you were blameless. A victim. And so, for you to accuse me of getting off on—”

“I know, sugar,” Bucky interrupted. He was looking up at you with sorrowful eyes. “I never should have accused you of that; I was an ass. I was…” he averted his eyes, embarrassed to admit this next part to you. “I was afraid.”

“Afraid.” You rolled the word around on your tongue. “Bucky, you’re a super soldier. A fucking Avenger. What the hell do you have to be afraid of?”

“I was afraid that if you saw the real me, what I had done, you’d run screaming in the other direction,” he admitted without looking back at you. “Or, that the only reason a dame like you could be interested in a guy like me was because you were attracted to the darkness. To the monster. That it wasn’t actually me you were into, but the Soldier.” He finally looked up at you in time to see the puzzled look you gave him.

“It happened before,” he said, voice low and shamed. “There was this girl– her name was Jessica– and I thought I was in love with her, you know? Thought maybe I’d finally found my person. Was gonna ask her to move in with me but, turns out she just had a thing for the Soldier. She got off on the violence of it.” He looked down at his vibranium hand, flexing and unflexing his fist. “The old one did so much damage. They had me use it to hurt so many innocent people, and then I found out she searched for Winter Soldier choke porn on my computer. This thing that had caused so much pain, brought me nightmares, that woke me up screaming at night, and it was her fucking kink.” 

He looked back up at you, eyes desperate and pleading. “I couldn’t stand to go through something like that again. Not with you, Major. Especially not with you. So, I panicked, and I was an ass, and I hurt you before you could explain, because I didn’t want to give you a chance to hurt me.”

You sighed and moved away from the wall. He was weakening your resolve to be pissed at him by the second. In fact, your heart was breaking for him. 

“And now I’ve ruined things between us,” he said, “before they even really had a chance to begin.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am, and I understand if you don’t want to forgive me. I was awful. I just… I just want you to know that I’ll always look back on the time we spent together as some of the best days of my life.” He made a move to stand up, but you took a step toward him.

“Oh my god, sit down, you idiot.” You walked closer, putting both your hands on his shoulders and slowly moving down to straddle his lap, his hands slipping almost subconsciously to your waist. “I don’t know if this is going to come back to bite me in the ass or not, but I forgive you.” You draped your arms around his neck and softly kissed the corner of his mouth. “Were you dumb? Yes. Did you overreact and behave like a child? Yes.” He narrowed his eyes at you, but you just playfully wrinkled your nose at him. 

“But are your concerns understandable, after everything you’ve been through? Also, yes.” You began to toy with the short hairs at the nape of his neck. “Next time you find yourself feeling like that, or questioning my motives, please promise me that you’ll talk to me instead of yelling at me and icing me out, okay?”

“Yeah,” Bucky said, nodding profusely, “I can do that. I promise.”

“Good. Now, I feel this goes without saying, but I want to make sure we’re both on the same page, here,” you said to him. “ I did not seek out those documents. Someone sent them to me, anonymously. I didn’t tell you about them when I got them because I didn’t want to offend you or remind you of a past I know you don’t enjoy reminiscing about. I meant it when I said that I only want you to tell me if and when you’re ready, so I hadn’t done more than peruse the documents to get an idea of what they were and see if there were any hints as to where they came from. The only clue I have to the sender’s identity is a note where they wrote “Do you know who you’re fucking?” in black marker, but the letters are all blocky, so it’s not even like I can compare handwriting samples or something.”

Bucky’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Oh, shit. Sugar, I’m so sorry. If someone is targeting you because of me…”

You blew out a raspberry and waved your hand dismissively. “I’m a big girl,” you told him. “I can take care of myself. I have a ton of guns and awards for marksmanship, so don’t worry about me.”

A corner of Bucky’s mouth tugged up. “That’s actually really hot,” he admitted. “Remind me to take you on a date to the shooting range sometime.”

You tried to bite back your grin, but failed miserably. “Cheeky of you to assume there’ll be more dates,” you teased him.

Bucky tightened his grip around your waist. “Are you saying there won’t be?” He looked genuinely concerned, and you didn’t want to tease him.

“That’s gonna depend on you, Bucky,” you told him. “I’m not Jessica, and I’m not going stand by and let you punish me for the ways she mistreated you. I can tell you right now: if you ever talk to me again the way you talked to me in my office, it will be the last time you ever talk to me, at all, do you understand?”

Bucky nodded. “I don’t want to lose you, Major,” he said, and you could feel the sincerity in every word; and you hoped that he would be true to his word. “I promise to never let my anger get the best of me and speak so disrespectfully to you ever again.”

You nodded, satisfied for now. “Good,” you said, standing up from his lap. “Then we can call it a night.”

Bucky rubbed his hands on his knees and stood up. “Uh, yeah,” he said. “I’ll, uh, just be heading back to the Compound, so…”

You tilted your head. “No. It’s late, Bucky. Come to bed.” You reached out a hand, and Bucky’s entire demeanor changed, his face lighting up with surprised, but cautious delight.

“Really?” he asked, as though he almost expected you to pull your hand away from him and tell him you were just joking. 

You shrugged your shoulders. “I missed you,” you said simply. And it was true– it had only been a few hours, really, since your fight, but you had missed him. You had seriously considered that the two of you might be over for good, and you didn’t want to waste an opportunity to be close to him. 

Bucky reached for your hand, pulling you into him in the process. You let out an ‘oof’ as you collided with his chest, but soon his arms were around you, the fingers of his flesh hand tangling in your hair. 

“I missed you, too,” he said, leaning down to kiss you, and you felt yourself melt into his hold, the rough skin of his calloused right hand dragging along the exposed skin of your hip, the cold metal of the left tracing delicate patterns up and down your side. You could forgive him practically anything when he kissed you like this.

“We should go to sleep,” you said, breathlessly pulling away from his lips, “before we get ourselves worked up into a situation.”

He followed you into your bedroom, and you did your best to not ogle him as he stripped down to his boxer briefs. The second he joined you under the covers, you scooted over to snuggle yourself against him.

“You said we can’t get each other off,” you reminded him as you burrowed your head against his hard chest and rested a hand on his ass. “You didn’t say I couldn’t cop a feel.”

Bucky chuckled, wrapping his arms around you, and you could hear the rumble of it through his skin. “Yeah, that’s definitely a loop hole, sugar,” he said. He kissed the top of your head and rested his cheek against it. Slotting his knee between your thighs, the two of you fit together like perfect puzzle pieces. 

“Goodnight, Bucky,” you said, trying to fight off a yawn.

“Goodnight, doll,” he replied, running his hands up and down your back. “Thank you for giving me a second chance. I promise, you won’t regret it.”

As you drifted off to the sound of his heartbeat, you couldn’t help but hope he was right.

<- Previous Part / Next Part ->

[ddarker-dreams]

Hi🌹Would you write a few Chrollo crumbs, please?

warnings for yandere themes, somewhat macabre discussions because being around chrollo makes you lose it

"If you got stabbed, would it hurt?"

"Hm? Pardon?"

"I think we've established that you don't experience pain like most people," you take a sip of your favorite specialty drink through a straw. Paper, for the turtles, naturally. Except for when it inevitably becomes soggy in ten minutes. Then the turtles have to fend for themselves, environment be damned. "I've never heard you say so much as an 'ouch'. So, I got to thinking."

Chrollo swirls his own drink — red wine, or so he claims, his paleness raises suspicion — contemplating the matter because you raised it.

"My perception of pain is still intact, it just doesn't bother me as much as it would the average person."

"That's the thing, though. Have you been stabbed?"

"You seem charmed by the idea."

"Admittedly, it is a nice idea. But, hey, no deflection," you frown. Then, you reiterate your previous inquiry, heavily emphasizing each word. "Have you been stabbed?"

"If you must know, then yes, I was stabbed once, many years ago."

"And? Did it hurt?"

"It wasn't pleasant."

"Oh, please, you don't have anything to prove here," you roll your eyes. He's got to be acting obtuse on purpose.

"My memory of it isn't the best, I was a child," he explains. There's an odd gleam to his eyes when you stiffen, like a cat waiting to pounce on an object that's been taunting it. "You're very sweet, dear, worrying like that for my younger self's sake. Don't let it distract you, finish your point."

"It's not called being sweet, it's called having basic empathy."

"I'll have to take your word on that. Go on, then. I'm curious to know where you were going with this."

"A hypothesis. Let me stab you and tell me if it hurts."

He raises an eyebrow. "Do you think you're capable of committing such an act of violence?"

"Do you think I could?"

"... In a situation that induces fight-or-flight, maybe," he muses. What a strange thing to fondly muse over. "Though, speaking from experience, you're more inclined to freeze than follow through with the other two options."

You utilize all your willpower not to say some very unkind words. "Hence the experiment. If you're so confident, then let's put it to the test."

Chrollo hums, as if actually considering your idea. "It's an interesting pitch, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline. This is such a nice shirt and bloodstains are a pain to get out."

"That's the best excuse you have? Just take it off and—"

The self-satisfied expression he gives is enough to make your tongue freeze.

"And...? Oh? There's more? I like this dominant side of you, don't stop on account of me. Keep listing your demands."

Your paper straw starts crumpling over, as does your posture. "You... you ruined it. You somehow twisted a nice idea into a revolting one."

"Twisted, you say," he murmurs, a hand on his chin. "Like a knife?"

"Ugh, forget it! I don't want to think about it anymore."

[persianflaw]

i've been feeling a little embarrassed lately by how my attention span has dwindled when it comes to reading. i can still focus on other hobbies more or less the same, but those hobbies are more physical (cross stitching and making miniatures are my main two right now) and i often have music or a video playing in the background for additional stimulation. which i don't think is a bad thing, i actually find that i'm more attentive to both tasks when i do this, it just means that my ability to focus there isn't really representative.

i think some of it is anxiety-related; i find that i am more inclined to seek familiar stimuli of all kinds when my baseline anxiety levels are higher. and when i'm going through a period of higher inattentive behaviors, i struggle to initiate activities that require sole focus (as opposed to a creative project where i'm using my hands while listening to a podcast). same reason i have a bunch of movies and television shows stagnating on my watch list. obviously my adhd is a major element, arguably the underlying one. but adhd can be managed better and it can be managed worse, and this does feel like a decline.

cutting the rest for length because somehow this post ended up longer than i thought it would lol

this really stood out to me when i decided, last minute, to scrap my yuletide WIP in favor of reading a totally different book my recipient had requested and writing a fic based on that. it wasn't especially long, only 348 pages in the print version, but it took me maybe a week to get through when back in the day i would have knocked that out in an evening. of course, work was a factor, as well as the fact that i was having some medical procedures done, and the book itself was somewhat complex (an arthurian murder mystery with a lot of similarly-named characters whose relationships with each other are a complicated but extremely plot-crucial web). hell, even the fact that i had more or less assigned it to myself as homework probably contributed. but i didn't like the feeling of picking it up and feeling like i was dragging my heels. reading has never been a chore to me. i was an early reader and i took to it like a duck to water. this is not a pleasant experience.

(i HAVE noticed - and this is kind of funny - that font size totally impacts my reading process. i read very, very fast, and tend to process text in chunks (not skimming, it's just how i've always done it), so if the font is too large it slows me down a lot, which i think in turn tells part of my brain "this is a non-preferred task because it is going slowly". that's why i had trouble with e-readers at first: different font size than what i was used to in print books. but my eyesight is also getting worse as i get older, so i've had to size up text in digital formats, and i'm still finding a balance.)

all this to say that i want to work on my reading this year. i don't know if setting a specific book goal will energize or paralyze me, so i'm not sure if i'll do that or not. maybe... twenty-five books? i do have a lot of other hobbies in addition to working and attending college part-time, so i don't think that's unreasonably low. i also want to get back into reading short stories, so maybe i'll work out some kind of equivalency system there. i don't want to overcomplicate things. i just want to read like i used to.

[digi-lov]

Hey I just wanted to give you guys a little insight into several projects I'm working on.

So first of all, some of you might remember me mentioning being sick earlier this summer. I was bedridden for like 2 months, and my health has been bad ever since, getting sick again every couple weeks.

Because of that I accumulated a bit of back log of cards to edits that were released since then. I mentioned before, starting with EX5 the english twitter previews started having the "SAMPLE" text pasted on it as well, but since around EX6 the quality of the previews has also declined significantly. Despite being the same pixel size as the japanese previews, the english ones have a lot more jpeg artifacts now.

[Left a cutout of EX6 Lopmon's japanese twitter preview, right the same section from the english preview]

Working with these now increases the amount of time I need to spent on each card, which really adds up with over 100 cards per set.

Besides the current card releases, I'm also slowly working my way through earlier sets trying to enhance the cards as best I can.

[Left BT1 Yokomon from Bandai's online card list, right my edit]

In the process I use multiple sources, trying to find the highest resolution I can find for the image and do color corrections if necessary. I also decided that instead of favoring "authenticity" I'll favor legibility, meaning I will paste in keywords I sourced from higher resolution cards, and in some cases retype the effect text entirely.

This is a very slow process, and is lower on my priority list so the progress is not very far. My goal is a complete library of all cards.

Another thing I'm working on is the Un-Dub Project, which I had previously introduced to you before.

I plan on assembling my edits in "packs" so people can decide themselves how much change they want. This will include the options from my original poll as respective levels, as well as a Tamer Pack.

[Left BT17 BurningGreymon, right my edit changing the names to Vritramon + Agnimon]

People will have to mix and match at their in discretion, being aware of card interactions etc.

Next is a bit of a smaller project, the Errata edits. Most cards that got Errata had their already fixed versions released as previews, but are printed incorretcly. Some however got their Errata after the preview releases, in which case I'll edit the card text accordingly.

The official card list will have the correct text, but those have very low resolution.

[Left original preview of ST19 ShoeShoemon, right my edit with text errata]

When releasing the Errata pack I'll include Errata cards that I didn't edit as well, in order to represent the full list and not cause confusion.

Finally I have a little passion project of doing edits of all cards with <rule> updates.

[Left BT6-085 Eosmon, right my updated rulings edit.]

This is gonna get a little technical, so bear with me. As per the rules Effects don't trigger in the breeding area. Before the <03> card layout revision, additional rules were included within the effect text. This resulted in card interactions not working as intended.

For example, BT11-063 Geremon has the effect "The name of this card/Digimon is also treated as [Numemon]."

But going by the rules, this would not be in effect in the breeding area, so for example Numemon X, which can evolve from Numemon, would not be able to evolve from Geremon in the breeding area.

With <03>'s introduction of the <rule> box, this was fixed, and some cards have been revised with this new <rule>. But as always, no reprints.

This is the edit-heaviest of my projects, as I felt inclined to not slap the <rule> box on there, but remeake the entire card in the new layout style to go along with it.

[aldbooks]

25. "I forget what your face looks like if I close my eyes too long. It scares me."hello. I love your writing. Could it be an Elain/Lucien with that?🥰🥰

Sorry this so long to get to! Thank you for the kind words dear 💕

prompt list

---

The sharp tug in his chest woke Lucien from a dead sleep as he was suddenly filled with a nearly overwhelming sense of panic that was not his own. For once he didn't stop to asses or consider the consequences of his actions. No, this time he acted on instinct, following that thread around his heart, smashing through the wards surrounding the River House in Velaris, straight into her room.

He was half surprised he'd been able to winnow so far. Granted he'd been staying in the Dawn Court, which was much closer than the human lands, but he'd never moved so far in one go before. He'd chalk it up to his mate instincts taking control for now and contemplate it another time.

He found Elain thrashing in her bed, her sobs and wordless pleas shattering his heart. He threw up a hasty shield around the room before going to her since the last thing he needed to deal with on top of attempting to soothe his erstwhile mate was an angry High Lord or Lady ready to reduce him to nothing for breaking into their house.

Her skin was ice cold when he touched her shoulders and he tried not to think too hard about just how much of it was currently exposed to him as her thrashing pulled the thin fabric of her nightgown tight around her body and exposed her thighs. One of her sleeves had fallen down her shoulder and was dangerously close to exposing her breasts. Luckily the lust that tried to stir in him was currently overpowered by the need to rouse her from whatever terror held her captive.

"Elain," he said firmly, giving her a slight shake. Her hands clutched at him with surprising force, sharp nails slicing through the skin of his arms but she did not otherwise seem aware of him.

He shook her once more, "Wake up!" He sent a pulse of power through her, warming her too cold skin and could feel her magic respond to him. So he did it again.

Slowly her cries quieted and her body stilled, her hands falling away from him. Carefully, he reached up with one hand and cupped the side of her face. She nuzzled briefly into his palm as her eyes fluttered open. He withdrew as soon as she saw him.

Elain blinked at him a few times before sitting up with a gasp, glancing around herself as though unsure where she was. "Wh-How-what are you doing here?"

He held back a sigh at the way she clutched the covers against her chest and pulled away from him. He was suddenly aware of his own state of undress. He normally slept without clothes but, by chance, he'd fallen asleep tonight still wearing the soft linen pants favored in Dawn, though he still wore no shirt or shoes.

He felt foolish for coming here at all, Feyre would have found and woken her eventually. Now that he'd contented himself that she was well, he'd leave her to her sister's care. He stood, flicking a hand at the door to lift the shield he'd placed around her room. "Your dream woke me," he said refraining from further explanation.

"I'll leave you now before Rhysand decides to kill me for destroying his wards."

He froze at the sound of his name though he didn't dare look back at her.

"...you've- it's been a long time since you've- been here."

It had been. He'd declined Feyre's last few invitations, using his duties in both the human lands and Spring as an excuse, though in truth, he was sure they both knew the reason for his reluctance to return here. To travel so far to see her, only for her to dismiss him with barely a look. There was only so much he could take. Even he had his pride.

He wasn't sure what she meant by bringing up his absence now when she'd never been inclined to so much as speak to him in the past. But whatever reasons he might have thought of, none would have come close to the words that tumbled from her next.

"I forget sometimes, what your face looks like, if I close my eyes too long... "

Slowly he turned to face her, his breath held. Her face was unreadable in the darkness. "Does that bother you?"

"...it scares me."

Lucien forgot to breathe for a moment. "I would've thought you'd be happy to forget me." The words were out before he could shove them down. Even in the darkness he could see her flinch. Next he knew, he was crossing the room once more to kneel before her. Wide, doe eyes followed his movement.

A twitch of his fingers brought the candles at her bedside to life, illuminating them both in a soft glow. For several seconds, neither of them said a word, simply stared at one another, Lucien's eyes drinking in the sight of her lovely face, enough to last him until he saw her again.

To his surprise, she reached out a hand to brush his cheek. His eyes slid shut at the touch, he inhaled her sweet scent but held still while she traced the planes of his face.

After a long moment that was filled with nothing but the sound of their uneven breaths, she whispered, "I don't want to forget."

[usmsgutterson]

OKAY!! We are a day away from autumn, the fall menus have kicked in at most establishments, and I love the fall season so I was like "I want to have an event around it," and that's what this is!

Requests for this event will have the largest window for acceptance I've had in a long ass time--they'll be open until November 7th and requests in the general sense will be accepted until the 10th. Any requests sent after that weekend will either be declined or deleted and I'll reblog this post to remind people when it closes

As is the usual per these events, my requests are open for the following characters: Genya, Alina, Mal, Zoya, Nikolai and David from the original Grisha trilogy, Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Nina, and Matthias from Six of Crows, and Aaron Warner and Kenji Kishimoto from the Shatter Me series

when dividin' up the universe you could have mine- this is a more musically inclined prompt! What I mean by that is this: give me a character, a gender pref for the reader (gn, fem, masc) and a song! I think of this prompt and I think of slow dancing but you don't have to send in a slow song if you're thinking of like, a group dance type thing in a city square! Send in a character, a gender pref and the song of your choice and I will write a 1-3k word fic involving the characters dancing while the song is playing in the background.

I think I might have fallen in love- realization fics! Fics with this prompt can be the realization of anything--a characters imminent death, the moment wherein someone realizes they've been betrayed, or they can be super fluffy and detail the moment a character realizes they're in love, the moment where they realize they can see a future with the reader--perhaps one that entails settling down or one that involves leaving the past behind--, the moment where they realize that they want to marry them! Anything goes with this prompt, and I'll write 1-5k words using it!

And you've got your demons and darlin', they all look like me- for this prompt, think bittersweet! Good relationships that ended due to some unforseen circumstance and lead to a very nostalgic and bittersweet reunion. Think the acknowledgement of a past relationship and the bittersweet tug of the heart that comes with looking back at shared memories. This is basically the bittersweet, nostalgic angst prompt, and I encourage that you do with that what you will.

my heart is yours- this is the general fluff prompt! I am looking for spooky fluff/fluff set in autumn that just carries with it the cozy feeling that picks up as autumn starts and the weather cools down. I will accept anything for this including prompts from the prompt lists which are located on my pinned post! Anything that is remotely fluffy goes here lol

We spent a week in the cold- this is collages! Give me a character and a fall themed activity, and I'll make a collage/moodboard out of it!

You must've been looking for me- ships! Give me your fandom pref, gender pref, and a couple of fall themed dates you'd like to go on/have gone on. I'll use that to ship you with a character and write a blurb!

[thunderheadfred]

I am super annoyed with ADHD hyper-focus brain right now. It won't stop obsessing over this house listing. First off, we haven't even seen the inside (we will tomorrow!!) so a lot of this is just my curiosity running away with me. I'm desperate to know the story behind this house, what could possibly be so bad there are no pictures of the inside... I'm a horrible little troll and the weirder the history of the house, the older it is, the more damage it's had and the more it "needs" saving, the more inclined I am to utterly throw logic and reason aside and scream like a toddler, "I want that one!!"

Found out via Facebook that several of my hometown school friends have connections to this house in one way or another, which has my curiosity even MORE hyperactive and unmanageable. One friend in particular has apparently known several of the owners and been inside the house, (She reports a spiral staircase!!??? I'll confirm with her that it's the same house once I've been in it) and she might have some insight into the troubles the current owner is going through that have led to the decline of the property.

I never trust my own excitement about things, because my hyper-focus tends towards the toxic and maladaptive side most of the time. I feel like I keep getting signs about this location, little pokes and prods that this one is special and unique, don't let it go!! But I'm skeptical of those feelings too. I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN INSIDE, and even without going in I know it needs massive renovations. This perversely excites me??? The idea of making a house our own, doing all the eco-friendly renovations we can scheme up... I need to check myself. I'm going to have a baby in July??? I can't do drywall while heavily pregnant or while boob-feeding a newborn???? I could hate the layout tomorrow and all this stress would have been for nothing!!!!! What am I doing?? I haven't slept in two days.

I hate ADHD hyper-focus, did I mention that?

[one-winged-dreams]

Fireworks - Part 1

ship: we came alive somehow (adriel wrynn x vincent valentine) source: final fantasy vii (post-DoC) word count: 913

Edge celebrates the 4th anniversary of Meteorfall. Adriel and Vincent are content to celebrate in their own way.

tag list: @dearly-beeloved @camellias-and-coriander @rebel-wolf13 @sunstar-of-the-north @mahitoslittlebird @goldenworldsabound @edencantstopfallininlove @sosoftandsweet @dorothys-wife

The prior two years of recurring disaster had done little to discourage Midgar's previous residents, and less so regarding their coming together to celebrate the anniversary of Meteorfall. Though last year's impending disaster with Deepground and Omega had coincided within the same timeframe, moreso than the surfacing of the remnants of Sephiroth, it only seemed as though humanity had all the more reason to appreciate the lives they'd managed to cultivate.

Edge had gone all out for the occasion, and though the night was alive with revelry, two particular individuals were less inclined to join in on the celebration.

"Are you and Vincent coming down to the bar, tonight?"

Adriel's eyes remained closed as he remembered Tifa's invitation. Letting out a soft breath through his nose, he took comfort in knowing the dark of his bedroom was not the only thing that held him in its comforting embrace.

"Shelke said she'd come if you two did. C'mon, it'll be fun."

The sounds of music and voices drifted up even as far as his fourth-floor apartment, though he didn't mind. Even though participation wasn't for him, it was comforting to know that Edge felt it had something to celebrate.

"Sorry," he had eventually replied, "We've already got plans."

A benign boom echoed through the city, followed by several more until the symphonic pattern of fireworks made itself recognizable. His lashes fluttered open just enough to peek in the direction of his bedroom window.

"Fireworks, huh?" he murmured softly, the height of his unit and the size of his window perfectly displaying at least a good fraction of the pyrotechnics.

A tender touch ran over his hair before gently tucking it off to the side. "You didn't expect this?" Vincent's tone was equally soft, slumberous, almost.

Adriel hummed softly as he nuzzled his face into Vincent's chest, on which he lay atop, one of his hands slightly bunching up the dumb WRO shirt that Reeve had given him. He only ever wore it at home.

"I did. The traffic coming home was crazy, it only makes sense… For a festival THIS big." Despite the comment, he sounded perfectly at ease, lifting his head to look at Vincent and offer him a relaxed smile.

Vincent offered a 'hm,' reaching up to smooth back Adriel's hair. "Not regretting declining Tifa's offer, are you?"

Chuckling, Adriel shook his head. "Not at all. This is much more preferable."

Vincent just gave an agreeable hum as they watched the display through the window, simply offering themselves to the moment. After everything, every fight that had been fought, every instance where disaster loomed on the horizon, all of it was a distant memory when they were here, together. While the intent of the celebration was that of the survival of the planet, it would be a lie to say that, for some, it wasn't about the continuation of their way of life and the ones they shared it with.

Adriel felt fortunate that one such savior of the planet had chosen to share his own life here, with him. After everything Vincent had experienced, the fight against Shinra, the defeat of Omega… And it was here that he ultimately decided to be. He could only express how happy Vincent made him so much before it became needlessly excessive. Neither of them were the type to recquire much verbal reassurance, all that was necessary was one another's presence. And moments like these.

The thought had Adriel's eyes fluttering shut, his grip on Vincent's shirt tightening just an amount that would vent his peaking emotions. Vincent gave him a gentle squeeze in return, not requiring any sort of elaboration. And for a while, they continued to sit, drinking in the vivacious sounds of life, and love, and celebration.

"… They've been going on for a while," Vincent's amused commentary broke the silence, but in a natural manner that didn't jar either of them from the mood.

Adriel looked on for a second longer before facing Vincent again, smiling a drowsy, content smile. "The fireworks?"

Vincent was still looking past him, possibly puzzling, possibly making a simple observation. "Mh. They must have been putting this together since-" He found himself cut off by the sudden realization that Adriel had moved closer, their faces inches apart. The latter's eyes were half-lidded, though his smile was evidence of his intentions.

Vincent found himself incapable of not reciprocating - neither of them smiled often, but when one did, so too, did the other find themselves infected. Their smiles persisted, even as their faces drew ever closer together, even as they could feel each other's breath against their lips, and even still, as their lips came to meet. The noises of revelry dimmed, and even did the explosive booming of fireworks fade to a quiet white noise in the wake of one, simple kiss.

Though soft and tender, it lasted far longer than something casual and yet far shorter than they would have preferred, even still. They had barely pulled away from it before Vincent found his hand against the back of Adriel's neck. The smile persisted still, but the love in their eyes had increased 10-fold.

"How was that?" Vincent extended a playful quip, as his hand traveled off to the side through Adriel's dark curtains of hair until it cupped his cheek.

Adriel merely responded with a pleased hum as he nuzzled into the motion, his smile widening by the smallest of margins before lowering his eyebrows. "Fireworks~"

[dcviated]

@sercphs sent: "Based off of the information that the Immernachtreich Office provided, it seems that the collapse of Shi South occurred as a combined effort between the Star of the City 'The Blue Reverberation,' and Thelma - the Section 1 Director, someone who was acting heavily in his own self interest instead of following rules and code." The Shi West Section 1 Director stands before the Hana Fixer, old-fashioned clipboard in his hand as he glances over the information on the list. "Projected complete recovery time is suspected to take several months, upwards of over a year. With only a small portion of South Section 2 being returned after the second White Nights, I am personally coming to you as a representative of Hana to aide myself and Shi South in their recovery."

"So many fixers are inclined towards those sorts of actions, aren't they?" The ice blue gaze in the Hana Association's bears down on the Shi director. Or, up, rather. And yet despite that discrepancy in height there's no shortness of intimidation that the silver haired woman seemed capable of. Time and experience had tempered her from her own days working with the other associations. Carried in the expression are no words but a question echoes silently never the less.

And you're not like one of them, are you?

Challenging as her tone may be, the indifference and stalwart mannerism on display is itself largely unaffected. It's too early to say she's impressed by any of Seth's character, but at the least he's not a dog waiting to bark or chase something into a ditch for fun. The City had enough of those for Hana to deal with. To say nothing of phenomena. Both were sources of headaches more often than not. As prestigious as her position may be, there were those times that she missed Liu or other groups.

The climb had ended. Hadn't it? No. Of course not. Eira Kestrova still had a bit further to go before she would truly be free.

"And Thelma paid for his betrayal, before anyone at Hana had a chance to make any corrective actions ourselves." There's a hint of disappointment. Though in Eira's case it's because she knows that she wouldn't have been involved in that operation. Her team was more focused on phenomena and distortions herself. A huntress, set with the task of tracking down these villains that pose a growing threat. Cutting weeds. A dirty task.

This gives Eira an idea of why she may have been sought out by Seth. A Grade 1 fixer. An individual who came to prominence (so to speak) before her time at Hana. He was accomplished. Capable. But also with suspicious connections of his own. Eyes remain narrowed for a moment longer before she relents the undeclared confrontation and judgement. A sweeping gesture becomes a sweeping step. The white coat of her Hana attire flowing behind her as she takes up the clipboard to read for herself.

"I see no reason to decline your request. Hm. Fischl's work here even brings up what I already suspected. The Smiling Faces. What a perfect coincidence as I have my own interests in dealing with them. With Shi South weakened, they're like to try and expand their influences. And in doing so expose themselves."

A smile crosses Eira's features, perhaps just as intimidating as the glare she held before.

"I'll have my team sent over promptly. For now. How about we do some initial groundwork, Seth. I know your sort prefers cutting them down, but it's time to knock on a few doors."

[mthofferings2023]

fohatic

See fohatic’s existing works here.

Preferred contact methods: Tumblr: fohatic

Preferred organizations: - Anything from the list of approved organizations

Will create works that contain: anything your heart desires

Will not create works that contain: Scat Heavy gore/graphic bloodplay (my comfort level may vary here; open to discussion) MPREG-centric kink (ok as minor plot point) OCs (other than very minor roles) Genderswap (but feminization kink/gender kink/crossdressing is ok) I don't really have any hard no's besides the above, but if it's something really out there let's discuss it first!

  -- Fic or Other Writing --

Auction ID: 1099

Will create works for the following relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - MCU

Work Description: Fic length can range from shorter to much longer depending on the prompt; for gen fics I'll be inclined to keep it short -- if there's smut involved, it could get lengthy ;) The more money raised the more inclined I'll be to make it count, but even lower-end winning bids could lead to something big depending on what the prompt inspires! Feel free to reach out with your ideas and let me know what you're interested in -- I'm also very open to calls for sequels to my existing works (I know that there's a lot of interest in a continuation of "Not in Kansas Anymore," for instance), and would consider your wishes as to where such a story might go, but know that I may already have some Big Ideas about that... I am comfortable with anything from kidfic to dark stuff—including non/dub-con—so request away! The tags I've provided are just to showcase a range of options. I currently have plenty of time to devote to this, but that could change at any time. Please be aware that life happens but know that I take this seriously and am committed to seeing it through in a timely fashion.

Ratings: Gen, Teen, Mature, Explicit

Can pods bid on this auction? Yes - Podbids welcome!

CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

-- Fic or Other Writing --

Auction ID: 4006

Will create works for the following relationships: Steve Rogers/Any - MCU Tony Stark/Any - MCU Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - MCU

Work Description: This fic auction is ONLY for the following relationships: 1) Any MCU rarepair between Steve Rogers and a *villain* from any Iron Man, Captain America or Avengers film (e.g. Justin Hammer, Brock Rumlow, etc) 2) Any MCU rarepair between Tony Stark and a *villain* from any Iron Man, Captain America or Avengers film (e.g. Obadiah Stane, Aldrich Killian, etc) 3) Any MCU threesome between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark AND a *villain* from any Iron Man, Captain America or Avengers film (e.g. Justin Hammer, Brock Rumlow, etc) Fic length can range from shorter to much longer depending on the prompt. For this rarepair auction, smut is guaranteed. For the threesome option, I can add in either Tony Stark or Steve Rogers to any villainous rarepair involving one or the other, in whatever capacity you like! The more money raised the more inclined I'll be to make it count, but even lower-end winning bids could lead to something big depending on what the prompt inspires! Feel free to reach out with your ideas and let me know what you're interested in, anonymously or otherwise. I am comfortable with pretty much any dark stuff—including non/dub-con—so request away! I have a very strong stomach and a very perverse imagination so zero judgement here. In the event that I can't envision a prompt working for me, I will politely decline. The tags I've provided are just to showcase a range of options. Note that I currently have plenty of time to devote to this, but that could change at any time. Please be aware that life happens but know that I take this seriously and am committed to seeing it through in a timely fashion.

Ratings: Explicit

Can pods bid on this auction? Yes – Podbids welcome!

CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

The auction runs from October 22 (12 AM ET) to October 28 (11:59:59 PM ET). Visit marveltrumpshate.com during Auction Week to view all of our auctions and to place your bids!

[electronic-elevator]

Omovember Day 10: Just about made it

prompt list • my fills

Logistical Note: I skipped day 9's prompt.

fandom: ＷＫＭ victim: Ａctor Ｍark flavor: desperate wetting

Sometimes, when watching a film or show with Mark, his friends heard more of his opinions than they did of the actual story onscreen. This, though, was only when rewatching something, or when watching something he had little to no respect for. If he was viewing something he held in higher esteem, especially for the first time, he demanded silence and rapt attention — on punishment of dealing with Mark having taken offense for the rest of the day.

He had been away filming his own production during the release of the latest film from a top director who Mark favored more than was favored by. So, he’d say it had been scheduling conflicts that had prevented him from starring in the film, but this was somewhat wishful thinking — he’d declined the audition in the first place due to the standing conflict. So, something of a rival of Mark’s had landed the part instead. Surely, Mark would love to tear apart any perceived shortcomings in his performance, but on the first viewing, he needed to merely absorb it all — which meant he demanded silence. He still wanted companionship, though, and someone to talk at discuss with after, so his partners (Damien, the District Attorney, and Ben) had been invited to join him.

This was all well and good, really, except before the end of the film, Mark began squirming in his seat. First it was some innocuous shifting — chalked up to a simple change of position — but then it became thighs pressed together, leg bouncing, and finally, a hand shooting down to his crotch. All the while, of course, Mark hadn’t looked away from the screen, and as obvious as it was to the others that he was veritably potty-dancing on the couch, they equally well knew he genuinely didn’t notice his needs when he was too absorbed in something else, as he was now.

Ben had noticed first, and exchanged glances with the DA and with Damien as they, too, were cued in. Damien and the DA, though, were more inclined to let Mark figure it out himself than to provoke him to fuss at them about interruptions, so it was Ben who spoke up first, as well. “Master Mark?” And, when Mark didn’t react, he leaned forward, placing a hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Master.”

Mark broke his concentration with a scowl. “Whatever it is, it can wait, Ben! We’re almost to the end.”

“Sir, I’m not—”

Mark shushed him rudely, earning a sigh of annoyance that was ignored if it was heard at all.

Damien caught Ben’s eye again and shrugged, expressing a reassignment to this particular peculiarity of Mark’s. He’d figure it out sooner or later, after all. But, unlike Damien, Ben felt Mark’s bodily needs were, to some extent, his responsibility as his butler. So, he stood, moving to pause the film.

“Ben!” Mark said, sitting up indignantly.

“Master Mark,” Ben returned firmly, “I think you could do with a short break.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Mark huffed. Though his concentration had been interrupted, which was often enough to reacquaint himself to his bodily needs, he’d immediately switched his focus to annoyance with the interruption, so he’d not taken stock.

“You need to use the restroom, Master.”

Mark opened his mouth, clearly planning to protest again, but now that he was forced to pay attention, he realized he genuinely was on the verge of an accident. “O-oh,” he stammered instead, hurrying to his feet. He didn’t understand why this happened to him, but in times like these, he didn’t have time to stand around thinking about it. He kept holding himself firmly with one hand, rushing out of the room. Luckily, the bathroom wasn’t too far away from the theatre room. Now that he was aware of it, his need was all-consuming — a cold sweat left him slightly clammy, and each desperate step sent little electric shocks through him.

Mark stepped over the threshold, and his need peaked — he was forced to a stop, whimpering and dancing in place just feet from the toilet. Shame flooded him; he couldn’t allow himself to lose control here — it was bad enough that he’d been just yards from the bathroom this whole time.

Mark forced himself to move, but the too-big step breached his control: A loud, hissing leak soaked into his clothes — he heard it first, piercing the near-silence, and then felt its heat, and he froze again. The delay ate up all the time he had left, though; he only barely headed off the first leak before more piss forced its way out of him. He was holding himself with both hands, now, but it did nothing to help him regain control again. He couldn’t move like this, either; he danced in place for a moment more, glaring daggers at the toilet just ahead of him. Spurts of wetness had soaked through his crotch and, as he felt piss begin to drip through his fingers, Mark gave up with a defeated whine. He let go, holding his now-soiled hands awkwardly to his sides. Glorious relief began to set in as he thoroughly soaked his pants, though Mark could hardly enjoy it.

It didn’t not feel good, though. The warmth cascaded down his legs, pooling below him. The size of the puddle betrayed how badly he’d needed to go.

When his stream subsided, he took a shaky breath, looking down at the damage. He wasn’t one for cleaning up after himself; he’d claim he wouldn’t know where to start. But he thought he should at least wash his hands, so he tip-toed out of his puddle — ineffectually, as he still tracked and dripped across the floor. The cool water from the tap contrasted with the heat still emanating from his wet pants — and his hot blush.

Before he finished, though, he heard footsteps approaching. As desperate as he’d been, he’d failed to close the door, so when he spun around to try to explain himself, he came face to face with Damien, who was holding a towel. He looked amused, but his eyes were kind as always.

Mark just pouted, pleading for sympathy rather than ridicule.

“Ben’s gone to get you some clean clothes,” Damien told him. “I brought this so that you can dry off enough to get to a shower.” This was only a half-bathroom, so Mark would have to make a trek of shame to somewhere he could clean up properly. Damien stepped around the puddle, holding the towel out to Mark, and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek when he’d handed it off.

“Thanks,” Mark mumbled glumly. He was blushing even brighter now that he knew his partners had found out — he didn’t even want to ask if they’d just assumed he wouldn't make it or if they’d heard him having his accident.

“Of course, my love. We’ll rewind the film a bit and finish up once you’re ready. …But do apologize to Benjamin, Mark, you know he’s looking out for you.”

“Yeah, I know..!” Mark huffed. He’d only needed a few more seconds… which meant he might’ve made it to the toilet if he’d listened to Ben from the start. “I-I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

This was a clear attempt at dismissal and Damien chuckled. “Not until you’re dried off — the least you can do for Ben is keep this all to one place for him to clean up.”

Mark huffed again, offended at the insinuation he might not do this responsibly, but he complied, shedding his wet things on the already-wet floor and patting himself down with the dry towel. “May I go now?” he asked sarcastically.

Damien took a long look, down and back up again, making Mark’s stomach flip with shame — and a surprising arousal — at being “checked out” after having an accident, and while still merely half-clothed to Damien’s sharp dress.

“I think you may,” Damien proclaimed with a smirk. He’d been teasing more than flirting, but made a mental note of the way Mark had reacted.

—

With that, Mark hurried to shower off any of the shameful remains of his accident. Ben brought his fresh clothes in while the water heated up. “Thank you, Ben,” Mark mumbled, avoiding his gaze.

Ben waited a moment, and Mark added, “and I’m sorry.” He wasn’t the best at apologies, but he was practicing.

“For what?” Ben prompted gently. (His partners were the ones making him practice.)

Mark pulled a tortured face. Ben knew already, so why’d Mark have to say it?! He thought for a long moment, trying to find accurate words. “Being, um, rude,” Mark decided on.

“You’re forgiven,” Ben said, kissing his forehead, “but please remember this next time, sir.”

This would be an unfortunately potent sensory reminder, so Mark suspected he might.

—

Mark kept his shower short, wanting to put this behind him as soon as possible and ensure he could still finish the film tonight. He returned to the theatre room, where his partners were talking amongst themselves.

“All better?” the District Attorney asked, shifting to allow space between them and Damien for Mark to cuddle up in — which he slid into gratefully.

“Mmhmm,” Mark mumbled.

“And did you apologize to Ben?” they asked, kissing the top of his head.

“Yes!” Mark whined, hiding his face in their chest — so he felt, as well as heard, their warm chuckle.

“Yes, he did,” Ben confirmed, again making Mark want to fuss — like they didn’t think they could just take Mark’s word.

“So, are we ready to finish the film?” Damien murmured.

Memories of everything Mark had seen thus far crept back into his awareness. He did want to finish the film — its ending, after all, was likely to influence not only his overall opinion but also his thoughts on the minutiae throughout. “Yes. Ben, could you resume it, please?” (Mark phrased his request especially politely to reinforce the fact that he could be well-mannered.)

Ben obliged with an amused smile. “Of course, Master.”

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: INFJ with weak Fe. Immature FPs can be amazingly noble and loyal at times, but their combination of sensitivity and insensitivity toward others can irritate me. In particular, with my ISFP (now former, I guess) best friend of many years, in response to a question she asked about why I list my educational background (I went to top universities) on dating apps, I mentioned that I want to make it very clear that I value my career (to indicate I won't be e.g. a homemaker).

I realize this may have come off as arrogant or prejudiced. I truly believe that college admissions is very noisy and biased in countless ways, but I also cannot engage with all the people who show interest in dating apps and the goal here was to filter as efficiently as possible. I have observed that some men have a strong reaction to my accomplishments, and I think it’s best to filter that out from the outset - forgot whether I said that to her explicitly at the time.

It's an open question whether listing my education is the best way of filtering for compatibility, of course. She went to a less prestigious university, and has mentioned many times that she is deeply insecure about this. I could tell that she was quite offended (there was a lengthy pause after I said that), and despite 13 years of fairly close friendship she ghosted me almost immediately (it’s been a couple months now of no response). She was also going through a hard time more generally.

I was also very offended in this same conversation that she revealed some very private information to me about another friend of hers and spoke in a condescending manner toward this friend, who was going through a very tough time. Now I feel like my ability to trust her has seriously declined. This is abnormal behavior from her, I should say - she normally speaks of her other friends in a respectful manner and doesn't gossip about them.

She has been insensitive toward me in countless small ways (self-absorption, often being late or flaky, some insensitive comments, although usually when she herself is under stress), though also extremely sweet and caring at times (e.g. sending me encouraging notes on the day of important presentations, sending me a care package when I was going through a tough time, etc.). I don't think she's ever really been healthy as she consistently has sort of a cynical attitude.

I also get the sense that immature Fi types basically cannot handle criticism so am not even sure we can have a rational discussion about these topics. We’ve never really had a ”meta“ discussion about our friendship - there’s a lot that has been unsaid, with silent resentment on both sides presumably. I kind of attempted to ghost her (very immature, I know - not something I would do now) a few years ago, in response to her being very late yet again without an apology. To be fair, she was going through a breakup and was a bit of a mess. However, she was somewhat persistent and we continued the friendship, albeit on somewhat shakier footing.

Conversations with her are not quite as easy as with N types, but there's something special about the very long shared history. I am seriously considering whether to reach out and apologize for the educational pedigree comment, or just let the friendship go. The latter would sadden me - she was the only person outside of my family who was there for me during the most difficult time of my life. As of now, my inclination is toward reaching out to her and at least trying to hear her perspective on why she ghosted me. This would be the first step toward a more "conscious" friendship, which is one of my main goals in life more generally. Do you have any advice on how to best go about salvaging this friendship?

What am I missing about my own blind spots here? From her perspective, I can see that I may have made insensitive comments to her (saying that I am unlikely to go back to school due to the financial opportunity cost, in a conversation when she shared that she is experiencing anxiety due to emptying her savings to do a master's degree). And also being fairly self-absorbed on a vacation we went on awhile back, due to stress about grad school.

I'm not sure it feels totally right to me to apologize for the education comment - I stand by my reasoning that it's crucial to filter out incompatible people from the outset - although I do feel bad if her feelings were hurt at an already difficult time for her. I'm debating whether to bring up in the same message how her violating her friend's privacy weakened my trust in her, or defer that to later. )

[addendum] Funnily enough, though around three months had elapsed since my last message to her, she just texted me and we're planning to meet up sometime soon. So I guess my question is if you have advice on whether I should explicitly raise these topics - me making it clear I don't think less of anyone based on which college they went to, and also express that the way she spoke about her friend made me uncomfortable - and if so, how.

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

1) With regard to communication skills: It's not my place to tell people what to do. You have to learn to trust your instincts in social situations, otherwise, you'll never be able to develop healthy Ni+Fe. When socializing, context matters a lot in deciding whether it's the right/wrong time to talk about something. There are no hard and fast rules other than be observant of the emotional atmosphere.

Work your way into difficult topics gradually or tentatively in order to gauge the other person's receptiveness. Being too abrupt/direct reveals your impatience and puts people on the spot, which is more likely to make them close up. Deliberately taking things slow makes difficult conversations go more smoothly because it gives people time and space to reflect and prepare mentally and emotionally.

2) With regard to your blind spots: It's not a crime to want certain things from a relationship or even to hope for them. However, it is unreasonable to expect/demand things from people who aren't capable of giving those things. For example, if I was a parent, of course I would wish for my child to be on their best behavior at all times. But it's unreasonable to expect/demand that children behave like perfect little adults because that's just not what they are, and it would do them great harm to stifle their natural tendency to be active and exploratory.

Relationship expectations should always be grounded in reality. One of the dangers of unhealthy Ni is not realizing when you are disconnected from reality. In the worst case scenario, Ni's idealism mutates into perfectionism, and then that perfectionism gets projected out onto the world in the form of unreasonable standards and expectations.

For example, you said that your friend has experienced certain hardships that account for her negative behavior, so are you still expecting her to behave like a person who hasn't experienced those hardships? You must be, since you still judge her for it. Answer honestly: Do you expect her to live up to some ideal in your head about what she should be? If so, the problem is you.

In a truly close relationship, both people should be mature enough to discuss anything openly and honestly. If that's not the case here, then you have to think more carefully about whether bringing up a problem will help/hurt the relationship. As a general rule, if you're unhappy about how a relationship is going, you ought to discuss it and try to resolve the issue together. However, if the source of unhappiness lies squarely in your unreasonable expectations, the burden falls mainly upon you to change your perspective in order to resolve the issue.

3) With regard to Fe development, there are several aspects to it and your lack of Fe development might produce some blind spots.

a) Empathy: You give off the appearance of empathizing, such as pointing out her good qualities and trying to understand what motivates her behavior, but your empathy isn't real when you just end up passing judgment on her. Your judgmentalness even leads you onto a moral high horse to stereotype all "immature" Fi people. If this is how you're going to apply ideas about type, i.e, to justify and vent about your frustrations, you're doing it wrong. The purpose of learning about different personality types is to foster empathy.

Developing Fe should promote empathy by allowing INFJs to inhabit the experience of others. However, immature FJs with ego development issues often end up twisting the idea of empathy. Perhaps they try too hard to be a good person for ego identity reasons and then empathy easily morphs into self-sacrifice or martyrdom and, eventually, self-harm. The more they sacrifice in relationships, the more resentment builds up, and the more repressed anger and then rage they unconsciously harbor. This makes them less and less empathetic and more and more judgmental over time, which sabotages their original goal of being a good person. The more judgmental they are, the more jaded their outlook, and the more likely they are to conclude that people are bad, adversarial, or even irredeemable, which then justifies continued fixation on people's negative qualities/behaviors in a vicious cycle.

Thus, judgmentalness is a common symptom of Fe development problems. To be in the habit of positioning oneself as "judge" is to like the feeling of being morally righteous and/or morally superior... but only in one's own mind. In reality, a judgmental attitude is the mark of an insecure person. Secure people have absolutely no need to convince themselves of their own righteousness or superiority, let alone try to prove it to anyone.

b) Emotional Intelligence: Judgmentalness is a sign of emotional immaturity. Being immature means you have yet to learn how to set a healthy boundary between self and world, so you are very inclined to believe that your feelings/emotions are caused by others, and this means your emotional stability is always at the mercy of others. Whenever you feel hurt, disappointed, jealous, resentful, angry, etc, you don't take responsibility for how you generated that feeling and, instead, look for someone/something to blame.

To blame is to be morally judgmental. People like to blame because it feels good; it feels as though you're righting a wrong when you identify the source of wrongdoing. In reality, blame only feels good because people willfully ignore its downsides.

For one, the longer you allow yourself to live in a blaming mindset, the easier and easier it becomes to justify bitter, cynical, harsh, aggressive, controlling, manipulative, vindictive, cruel, and even violent thoughts and behaviors. People don't start out life wanting to be a bad person. They become so when they aren't aware that their judgment process is increasingly fueled by negative emotions like resentment and anger, thereby opening up the space for dark traits to eventually take over.

The other downside of blame is that it severs connection, so it's basically poison to relationships. Casting blame is like barking a demand. You didn't like what the other person did, so you demand that they change and behave as you want them to, which puts them on the spot of either submitting (which foments resentment) or resisting (which foments anger). Since FJs really dislike open and naked conflict, they may resort to blaming people silently, believing that it has no real-world effect. However, it still motivates you to detach. In a close relationship, emotional distance or coldness is easily felt.

c) Fairness and Equality: Conflict is inevitable in close relationships, so it's important to accept the fact rather than try to avoid or resist it. Different people have different needs, desires, goals, and aspirations, so there's bound to be some disagreement that sparks conflict. What matters most is whether you can handle conflict in an objective way that allows both people to walk away feeling as though they were heard, understood, and treated fairly.

Being judgmental means you're not being fair because it's really just about projecting and venting your feelings and emotions. Thus, it makes your view of things too one-sided. If you approach the conflict resolution process with judgmentalness, you immediately put the other person on the defensive and at risk of judging you back in an attempt to "even the score". What happens then? Warfare.

When two people disagree, it should be accepted as normal, acceptable, and something that needs to be worked out through proper communication. When your emotional needs aren't being met in the relationship, take responsibility for them rather than blaming the other person, and discuss ways to move forward in way that both people can live with. See the article in the site index about Communicating Through Conflict for more detail.

d) Compassion, Generosity, and Magnanimity: These things come as you work to improve your capacity for empathy.

- Empathy allows you to feel the suffering of others, which motivates you to treat them with kindness and compassion, in order to alleviate some of that suffering. Observe yourself carefully when you're feeling judgmental and blame-y, is there still space left for kindness and compassion in you? You can't have it both ways, so choose the person you'd rather be.

- Mature FJs understand the concept of emotional needs: what they are, how to read them, how to fulfill them, and what happens when they go unfulfilled. They attend to everyone's emotional needs because they understand that doing so will improve spirits and make it far easier for people to grow closer and cooperate (harmony).

It doesn't matter what type you are, if you grew up in an environment that didn't recognize and honor emotional needs (which is true for a lot of people), you're more likely to be an emotionally "stingy" person and view relationships as win/lose competitions. Emotionally stingy people tend to view love as something they get (to fill the void within) rather than something they generate (for transforming their entire way of being). Emotionally stingy people are: unwilling to give others the benefit of the doubt, ignorant about how to meet emotional needs, and unwilling to devote energy to anything larger than themselves. But an emotionally deprived upbringing can be reversed in adulthood by actively nurturing emotional generosity.

Emotional generosity is about the willingness to give and not expect something in return other than to feel the simple joy of seeing someone else satisfied. This is a concept FJs often struggle with. They understand that when you expect something in return for giving, you aren't really being motivated by generosity. If generosity isn't the motivation, then it must be selfishness, right? Wrong.

Everyone has emotional needs, including you. Are you able to accept that you're human and have needs? Perfectionist INFJs aren't. It is important to attend to emotional needs in order to feel truly fulfilled in life. What's most important is how you go about getting your needs met. You have to be assertive to work for the things you need in life or ask for them when you aren't able to get them for yourself.

However, many FJs struggle with assertiveness because they have trouble acknowledging their own needs, so, instead, they give a lot to others in secret hopes of getting something back. And this is how they get into relationship trouble. This goes back to the idea of setting healthy boundaries between self and others. Getting what you need should not be too entangled with giving others what they need because it might produce a conflict of interest where you're forced to choose between yourself or others.

- When you learn to be more emotionally generous, you also become more magnanimous. This means you are able to keep your eye on the bigger picture, e.g.: of what kind of person you aspire to be, of what value a relationship truly has in your heart, of what your existence contributes to the larger fabric of society. Armed with a broader vision of life (which also relates to Ni development), you become a much more giving and forgiving person because you don't fixate on meaningless details or get distracted by trivial matters.

One thing I've observed over and over again is, when you ask people who are estranged from formerly close friends/family about "The Fight" that ended things, they often can't remember exactly what it was about. What does that tell you? It tells you that small-mindedness and pettiness often get in the way of love. Only with time and distance (i.e. the bigger picture) do they realize how insignificant the conflict really was and how pathetic it was to break up a relationship over something so minor. But, at the time of the break up, it seemed to them like the world was ending.

Are you guilty of small-mindedness? Are you so narrow in your focus in relationships that you're unable to see the bigger picture and then waste energy sweating all the small stuff? This goes back to the idea of expectations. If you're the kind of person who feels compelled to remake the world to match your ideal images, you're not going to do well in relationships. And if you are this kind of person, why? Usually, it is because of insecurity or self-loathing. If there are aspects of yourself that you deem unworthy of love and are constantly trying to disown/remove, how are you going to be accepting of these aspects when you see them out there in the world in other people?

To love is to accept someone as is. To love is to appreciate every aspect of someone because all their aspects are important for making them who they are. Before you think about how to filter people out of your dating pool, perhaps you should reflect on whether you are truly capable of love, which starts with being able to embrace and love all of yourself. If you're not capable of love, it doesn't matter who you meet, does it? Even if your perfect soulmate were to magically drop into your lap, you wouldn't be able to truly see and appreciate them anyway.

[aashi-heartfilia]

Anime and Manga that I am following currently - July 2023 - Summer season

The seasonal anime I'm currently following:

My happy marriage

Zom 100 : Bucket list of the Dead

Probably gonna post a review after both of the series are over. My happy marriage is about a girl going through Depression and Trauma while Zom 100 is about a boy stuck in a Zombie Apocalypse.

Currently episode 4 of MHM and ep 3 of Zom100 has been released and I feel like MHM has a slightly better premise and storyline than Zom 100 but that's just my opinion for now, it may change later after the season is completed.

For those inclined towards the emotional aspects of anime, I highly recommend watching MHM. Don't go on the sappy name, it's a really good anime. For those looking for an adventurous story, Zom 100 would be a better fit.

I'm also following Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2.

For Manga, I'm following my usual BnHA and Ft 100YQ but lately my interest in FT has been declining steadily. The events are happening at snail's pace and the story feels like going nowhere.

I occasionally stumble upon Oshi no ko and Spy X family news / content as well. I get spoilers that I don't even need, lol. Quirks and perks of being invested in the community, I guess.

[buggyandthebartoclub]

Request Rules

*Minors DO NOT Interact!* this is an 18+ only blog even if the content is not always nsfw, I will check who is interacting with my nsfw posts and minors will be blocked

I will post if I'm rejecting your request so if your ask hasn't been answered, I either haven't seen it yet, or just haven't gotten around to that request just yet. Asks & DM's are welcome for requests you can remain anonymous even if you DM me- you can check my bio for an update on how many requests I have currently - requests close when I have about 10-15 until I catch up

Please specify in your request if it's for drawing or writing, or I will just do whichever I feel more inclined to at the moment

Ships I will and won't create for can be found here, if it's not on the won't list feel free to request it and see what happens

I will write for reader x canon, canon x canon, and oc x canon - if you request an OC ship please link me to info about your OC or tell me about them!

(I reserve the right to reject any request if I feel I can not do it justice)

This is a queer friendly blog, both to be here and for requests! Reader inserts will be presumed gender neutral unless the request states otherwise, any gendered posts will get a gender neutral version as well though just because I enjoy doing that

If requesting from a prompt list please specify which one in your request

🥵 spicy requests are welcome - kink content will vary, if I'm comfortable with it I'll give it a try for sure. Will not do watersports, non con*, (*some dub con may be considered), sounding, or any kind of severe bodily harm, choking/breath play (light bondage is fine)

WILL DO: breeding kink, ABO,

DONT'S THAT APPLY TO ALL REQUESTS - NO self harm, extreme gore, eating dis*rder, or any dead dove esque type stuff in general.

I like romcom and fluffy stuff (hurt/comfort, smut, yearning, goofy, etc) so don't expect anything to dark from here thank you!

The above being said, some angsty themes will be welcome, its a very case by case basis just dont go too dark or make me depressed okay? I do enjoy a good jealousy plot lol, I will write for ships etc from an outsider perspective that is angst/hurt no comfort for the character who is jealous of the ship being focused on or any unrequited love type plot (esp if its not really unrequited love!! love a good hurt/comfort lol)

Please be nice when making requests and dont take any declines personally! Its probably bc I feel I couldn't do it justice or I have personal issues with the topic, feel free to send in another request even if yours is declined!

[auncerra]

thoughts on the state of US affairs

1/13/2025 I

realistically, how does depriving constitutional rights bode in honoring constitutional roots?

if you take away free speech fundamentals, in a climate already plagued with corrupt rent spiking, displacement whether from natural disasters - hurricanes, fires, mudslides, climate change - economic hardship, impossible living wages - why then does it follow other structures will be followed and held up? structures that are corrosive to our interests when our communal interests aren't respected?

i've long said a new president likely isn't what this country needs.

and while i don't want to be flagged as a 'terrorist' for having a perspective on US nationalism decline - i can sympathize with the growing trend in american culture.

and that is to bridge away from what was supposedly upheld by the revolutionary ideology of that time.

what's been upheld in the last two decades - police brutality? avid racism? repealing trans rights and rights to gay marriage in an attempt from conservative leadership? mass deportation and heavy ICE policing? children in cages?

the fact that community efforts alone raised from apps like TikTok, viable and essential news sources for multiple generations, should say something. should indicate that to deprive us of vital resources is *actively working against community and American interests - for example: let's take the Rose Bowl donation drive/community fire relief efforts in light of the Eaton fire ravaging Altadena/North Pasadena and still uncontained - volunteer efforts publicized and spread through TikTok, through the app you and elite are actively lobbying to ban - including providing food, donated clothing, water, sanctuary and security to those affected.

i only learned about the fire tracking app through TikTok - i only ultimately downloaded it because i use it invariably more than i would cable or news networks, which don't typically have the insights to even recommend those resources. because TikTok users were supplying that information, circulating those resources.

do you think the people are blinded to the fact that president elect has likely hoisted 'saving TikTok' as a political/social strategy? that the threat presents itself only to be miraculously saved in the event of a 19th ban?

do you think that TikTok, and affiliate company ByteDance, have failed in creating an invaluable resource, not only in terms of independent income, news outlet, community resource, but pilot of free speech?

you fail to regard temu, fail to regard similar apps that are *actively mining american data. you fail to regard the alleged multi-million and multi-billion corporations screening our information through installed features without our consent, facing lawsuits as we speak.

now, americans are flooding over to a Chinese-owned, China-based app, enrolling in Mandarin indie courses, all to maintain a vital resource you are failing to see is just the tip of a resentment iceberg?

houselessness - all time high. inclining.

bird/avian flu - predictably trended towards a COVID surge.

debt rates - all time high.

American banks - struggling. American banks - alleged fraudulent surcharges at ATMs.

housing - 1) unaffordable 2) landlord-manipulated 3) in most cases competitive and unattainable without a list comprising of pay-stub, employment history, credit score, references, employment record, housing record, income bracket - need to go on?

does taxation without representation mean anything, or is it a filler course?

i don't see anyone being represented aside from a fragile few, hoarding.

and even without condemning them, most of that political footprint, the conservative-leaning attitudes aren't for radical or adamant acceptance of those worldviews, it's to preserve their pockets from taxation. taxation is the root of a lot of that evil, a lot of that disparity, a lot of that antagonism.

i don't think supreme court justices weigh that adequately.

awareness without action is often persecution.

i've predicted things will inevitably get worse before they improve.

i stand behind that.

i understood what 2025 forward comprised, pluto is in aquarius and the heavens are irate.

i subconsciously chose 'mass(sedition)' as my username, and while i wouldn't label myself as a conspiracy-theorist, i see it.

BLM and protesting, picket-line efforts haven't been effective because they haven't done more than influence popular culture to be box-ticking. for media platforms to struggle to grasp the deeper issues of inclusivity, and instead honor roll to meet quotas. it exposed what we already knew about police brutality, police murders - it didn't eradicate the issue.

things are more broadened now, but the superficiality of most of it is apparent.

to be frank, as much as people are hoisting LA efforts to sustain the community right now as praiseworthy generosity, i'm reminded of jamie lee curtis' comparing the fires in a historically wealthy pacific palisades to the ongoing strife and devastation in gaza. and while i do feel that perceptions around actors/celebrities and inherently having the wealth and resources is inane, considering that these communities are full of working-class people as much as earned wealth - these pledges, these donations, these mass efforts only come about in times of urgency.

why is urgency necessary?

why does the planet have to literally be burning to acknowledge what's been said for decades?

most of this country was founded in the last century on nuclear power and weaponry.

nuclear.

let that sink in.

let that sink in that americans would rather join a widely-condemned 'foreign-adversary' app now trending in the app store then continue to offer up their energy and data to Meta. that its stock is sinking. the same foreign adversary that has essentially manufactured every import we rely on, including the tech/chips to construct iPhones, allegedly.

how many times have you entered a grocery store, a department store, and read 'Made in China' 'manufactured in China', read a clothes label to find the exact same marking.

what perplexes me is how there even is a tax system when this country is in a massive, trillion-dollar deficit.

how the country is so disorganized - i.e. an empty reservoir in the palisades region that can be refilled - fire department critically underfunded - the mayor of LA not even present in the state of crisis, refusing assistance from the NYFD when offered. *When fires are not recognized as 100 percent containment.

if this is a joke it's not funny.

do you think rioting was just forgotten, blinked away.

do you think 2020 is lost on class-consciousness?

do you not find it telling looting was resulting of the recent fire outbreaks, that there was suspected and confirmed arson. maybe the disparity hasn't shifted much, when in the last few years, there was mass looting at the glendale galleria/major shopping centers.

people are struggling. they're applying to hundreds, thousands of job listings, most of which are un-updated. they're relying on AI to draft their resumes, which is - in my opinion - grossly unethical. but what's even more so is why it's becoming necessary?

fires blazing, family generational homes burnt to the ground, in LA and billboards in Nevada advertising AI 'human-replacing' helpers?

let's not even dive into the fact that apps like shein and temu are allegedly recognized for intellectual property violations. for allegedly stealing content from small creators repeatedly and haphazardly.

what the hell is the resolution in any of this?

personally, i'd rather live in some feudal society. i'd rather native americans get land-back autonomy of this entire country.

where the land is honored.

where capital isn't the bane of existing.

where fundamentals are assured, not hinted at.

how is it multiple other countries are promised healthcare and immigrants and natives alike here are billed like no other?

claims denied and action taken, whether it's reputable in most eyes or not, did we need the performative NYPD demonstration - a city block of cops against one alleged criminal, who in my opinion was at most the fall-guy, just the face for the anger of the corruption of higher-ups paying their way by undermining the claims of i can presume thousands.

when you take away basic liberties, you are an oppressor. that's not allegation, that is fact.

why was this country made?

will we watch it be un-made as a result of not acknowledging the warnings of history? - there's no threat imbued in this, but realistically, use your eyes.

flint, michigan.

los angeles, california.

etc.

etc.

etc.