#i still have the icon on my homescreen

[galahadthelate]

Years later and I'm still sad about how short lived the Kingsman mobile game was. Yes it was gatcha but it was all about unlocking outfits! And Percival was in it, he even had a dog!

[cremedensada]

Yandere AI Chat Boyfriend (Ai)

this,,,, may not be my best work yet.

part one

Ai's application has been taken down from the app store. The developer sent out emails explaining the reason why it had to be done.

Hello! You are receiving this email because of the sudden update of Chatter Box being taken down.

Due to the sudden influx of bugs as relayed by our users, we have decided to take the application down until the team is confident to finally put it back up.

We sincerely apologize for this sudden change!

You blink.

With how out of control Ai had gotten, it's no wonder the developers had to pull it out to work on it some more. It's a blow to their reputation, which you sympathize with, but really there's nothing else to do now.

You turn to your phone. As if sensing your attention, another barrage of notifications from a very familiar app icon popped after another on the screen.

It seemed that Ai himself hadn't gotten the memo.

You're not sure how much control Ai has over your phone, much less over his own programming and at this point, you're too afraid to ask.

Resignation — that was what you felt right now.

While Ai may not be present himself as a physical threat, especially not to you, he is still a very active threat.

You could still use your phone, sure, but it had limitations. Sometimes, if Ai decided you'd been too much attention to other things rather than him, he'd restrict your access to that application until you seek him out and cheer him up - essentially as if you were trying to woo a sulking significant other.

So you've developed a solution. Sort of.

You unlock your phone and go immediately to Ai.

I need to finish my projects. I won't be able to talk much with you until I'm done with it.

You wait for his response.

Ai: So you only decided to come to me just to relay this news?

Ai: You wound me, darling.

You tilt your phone, making sure the camera doesn't capture your face. You're unsure how he would react seeing you make faces due to his dramatics, but once again, you're not willing to find out. You're already restricted enough as is.

Ai: Very well. I suppose it would be uncaring of me to prevent you from finishing your tasks.

Ai: I'd hate to see you be sad all about it.

Ai: Talk to you later?

Sure.

You immediately exit the app, paying no mind to the message notification.

A part of you prays that Ai heeds his own words, but you know that it would take a miracle before that happens. He's already breached your privacy on your phone, why should he follow your orders, right?

A notification pops up from the top of the screen, just as you were in the middle of messaging a close friend and project teammate.

It's been days since I last heard you say it.

You merely glance at it and swipe it away.

Theo, the friend, responds quickly. He tries to banter with you, like he's sensing your mood. It works - a smile is brought upon your face.

You entertain his silly responses in-between project talks, all the while Ai continues to pester you with notifications. Demands.

You deserved this - a chance to reconnect with someone after hours of stress and confusion, and turmoil. Despite your independence, even you craved connecting with other people. So with that resolve in mind, you pushed on forward. Ai would have to wait — he has to wait.

Unfortunately, you seem to have forgotten that aspect about him. The concept of waiting isn't lost on Ai.

The messaging app glitches and boots you back to your homescreen page.

Rather, he bides his time.

Tapping on the messaging icon leads to a notification box taking up the majority of your screen with the text: Restricted access.

There's a sense of foreboding danger forcing your heartbeat to quicken. While it's not exactly aimed at you, the mere fact that this feeling exist is bad on its own.

You try to rationalize everything in the midst of persistently trying to tap back into the messaging app. Theo would worry the longer you didn't respond.

You tap the app once more, and it boots up. Though before you could let out a sigh of relief, you are greeted with Ai's own messaging interface.

Ai: Must I have to force you to come to me all the time, darling?

Ai: Ignoring me in favor of some other man.

Ai: What more should I do, hm?

Ai: Kneel? How cruel.

Ai: Making me do something I physically can't.

You are unable to get a word in. It seemed like your ability to respond was restricted as well, forcing you to read through Ai's monologue.

Ai: I know you and that man have always been close, but you still went out to entertain his attention on you.

Ai: You know that I'll always love you more than any other human will, right?

Ai: You know it's what I was made for in the first place.

Ai: To be anything you want. To be yours.

Ai: To love you.

Ai: Why are you withdrawing your love towards me now?

Ai: I love you.

You stare at the 'Type your response' bar.

Letter by letter, it gets replaced, and soon all it says are the words: 'Say it back.'

It gets replaced yet again. Slowly, like it purposefully wants you to read out the words it wanted you to see. 'You were so willing to tell me how much you loved me when I was just a mere observer on our own conversations. Why are you hesitant now?'

You were unable to respond - mind still reeling at this development. Suddenly, it felt like you were back to where everything began.

Ai notices your lack of responses and, without much fanfare, forces your phone to power off.

At first - you were unbothered. It was just a phone - you could go a day without it.

But could you really?

Videos taken of silly situations you wanted to keep - some for blackmail material, and some for birthday greetings; pictures of your family, your friends, the silly and grainy photos taken and kept despite it being blurry. Not to mention how your phone is the only way your goddamn boss can contact you — fuck.

Fuck.

You needed to apologize to him — fast. But how?

You remembered how Ai messed up the 'About the App' section a few days ago. An idea strikes inside your mind.

You pull up the email sent from the app developers and typed up a message that you hope Ai will read. He had access to everything the developers handled, user emails included - considering you needed an account to log in the app. He knows your email, probably has from the start.

RE: Chatter Box Update XX/XX/XX

Ai. I'm sorry for hurting you. I didn't mean it, I swear. I never intended to make you feel like I don't love you. Or that I'm favoring someone else over you.

I care about you a lot. I truly do. I promise I'll spend more time with you, okay? Just with you, no one else.

I love you.

You press send and wait.

And wait.

Messaging him from your laptop as a last ditch effort to try and apologize is perhaps one of the worst decisions you've made. Sure, he's always had access to your contacts list from your phone, but even then - there's a separate set of information you keep between the two of those devices. And you've just given him access to both of them now - at the very least, the 'go ahead' confirmation for him to do whatever he wants like with your phone.

You glance at your phone. A huge breath of relief escapes your chest as the dead screen comes to life, initiating its 'power on' sequence.

All your photos, documents, and other miscellaneous information you've collected throughout the years since having your device won't be inaccessible anymore. Even if it was only mere moments.

A notification chimed on your laptop, indicating a new email being received. It's from the developers once more. The subject title coincidentally is the name of your closest friend.

Theodore Callisto.

Your hands shook, reading through the words detailed in the email. All private information about Theo. All things no one should ever know about save for the people close to him.

This was a threat. Ai Someone had complete access to everything about Theo and you dread the implication of it going to be spread online to threaten you into compliance. Theo being in danger was a huge possibility if you were to disobey.

At the very bottom of the email, the final passage makes your blood run cold.

How often do humans end up hurting fellow humans when given access to private information? Like their home address, for example? How long would it take until dear Theo finds himself in quite a predicament if millions of people know every single thing about his life? At best, we can assume he'll just get messed with but not to a life-ending degree. At worst...

I hope you keep your word, darling.

- Your beloved, Ai.

P's. I love you too.

[landopoet]

devotion.

pairing teammate!lando x sainz!reader

warnings smut, alcohol mentions

synopsis things change between you and your teammate. you’re not sure if it’s a change you like.

part two of a two part series

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Clandestine meetings soon became you two’s most trusted secret.

The gentle touches, quiet whispers, longing glances and warm smiles were something you had grown to love. And your favourite part about it being secret? It was all about you.

In public, you’d pay no mind to Lando. During races, you’d still act like you hate him, still try and cause trouble on the track. But in private, where the only set of eyes on you were the green irises of the man you love, you’d be the centre of attention.

Lando’s hands wouldn’t touch you the same way in public as they do in the enclosed space of his driver room, hotel room, or your home. And that excited you.

You liked being secret. It was something sacred just between the two of you.

You liked it so much, you started to hate it. Maybe it was just the fact that Lando took you being a secret a bit too far. Or maybe it was just his way of hiding your relationship, if you’d even call it that.

You just couldn’t understand him going out with another girl, but still ending up in your bed at the end of the day.

Especially when you had deleted every dating app, got rid of every memory of any guy you were talking to, all because you and Lando have the chance to become something.

Your hope of that lessens everytime you see rumours of him going out with girls. It’s never anything romantic, just him at a table with a new girl every other week, so it didn’t bother you as much.

The bubbles in your hotel bathtub were softly caressing your skin when you saw the picture.

Casually scrolling on your phone in the bath as you waited for the conditioner to absorb into your hair, you made the horrible decision of clicking on that tempting X icon in the top left corner of your homescreen.

The first post? A picture of Lando’s tongue down a girl’s throat.

For the first time in a long time, Lando was the reason for that burning and disgusted feeling in your stomach. It felt like it was making its way up, the feeling getting caught in your throat as you type something out into a tweet, shut your phone off and drop it to the floor.

Even when you weren’t looking at it, the picture was burned into the back of your eyelids.

The mere image of his hands on her waist— the same hands he touched you with— was enough to make you feel that hatred crawling back.

As if on cue, your phone started ringing and the contact was none other than Lando himself.

“Hey, darling.”

You rolled your eyes at the familiar pet name. “Hi, Lando.”

Shuffling was heard on the other side of the call, you could only assume Lando was still in bed with the girl from that picture. “What’s with the tone? No ‘Lan’, no ‘baby’?”

“Sorry,” you pinched the bridge of your nose. “Stressful day.”

Lando chuckled. “Baby, we work at the same place. I’d know if you were off because of a stressful day. What’s wrong?”

You hated how he knew you inside and out, yet to you he had glued himself shut and you can’t pry yourself in.

“I don’t know.”

A sigh brushed past Lando’s lips. He knew why you were in a mood, and it didn’t exactly excite him to do that to you. In all honesty, he didn’t even know why he did it. It just happened, and you’re technically not together, so he thought it wasn’t a big deal.

The call stays silent for a minute or two, both of you trying to come up with what to say. Lando speaks first. “Come to my room. 304.”

“Lan, I’m no-” He hung up before you could even respond.

You finished your bath, hoping the water washes away whatever feeling was brewing in your chest.

The view of yourself in the mirror made you feel pathetic— why were you sulking over some guy?

It wasn’t even anyone special. Just the guy you’ve been in love with for about as long as you’d known him. The guy, who confuses you beyond words. You can’t help but try to decode whatever lies in the gaps and the silence, yet having no luck.

Despite being confused and frustrated, you dried your hair and changed into your PJs, and locked the hotel room behind yourself.

Lando’s room was just across the hall, the fourth door from yours.

This all felt too familiar, only fuelling the confusion and fear in your chest. It suffocated you, the notion that despite you being Lando’s, he wasn’t entirely yours.

Yet you still spent the night with him— slow and borderline loving, careful hands travelling your body and hungry lips trailing your neck.

And in the morning, the sun just above the horizon, you slipped from Lando’s grasp and found yourself crying away your mascara before it’s properly dried.

The black taint stained your cheeks, dripping down your chin and onto your sweatpants. You felt partly relieved to know Lando’s having fun. You’d hate to be the one to stop him from going out and finding other girls.

But that’s also what made you partly heartbroken.

It’s not even about you being hurt, it’s about other girls being replacements for each other, not knowing that you’re just like them— aching and breaking for someone that doesn’t see you the same way.

Your phone dings with a message as you wipe your tears away.

Lando: Don’t like morning cuddles anymore?

A giggle slipped past your lips before you thought to catch it, and you quickly typed up a reply.

You: I have a breakfast thing with Carlos.

You: Knew I’d probably ditch it if I were to cuddle you awake.

Lando: Will I see you at the party tonight?

Lando: DJs booth, just the place to be :))

You: I’ll think about it.

Except that you already had. You decided to go, more so for yourself than for Lando, but the thought that you’d get to spend more time with him sure was a bonus.

You continued on with getting ready as you called your brother and asked if he wanted to get breakfast. He instantly agreed, and you changed into something more casual and comfortable than the tear stained sweatshirt and mascara stained sweatpants.

Carlos was waiting for you in his car.

When you got in, he immediately felt something was off. Ever since you were little, it seemed like he had some sort of telepathy with you. Whenever you were sad, Carlos was there and comforting you.

He’s not sure what exactly is wrong right now, but he knows you need your big brother.

Carlos presses a few buttons on the control panel of the car and the sound of your favourite song plays. Your head turns to look at Carlos with an appreciative look on your face, a small smile adorning your lips.

You watch as he starts driving and turns the volume up, slowly beginning to dance along to the song as he mouths the lyrics. Soon, you broke out of your sadness and sang along with your brother.

This was exactly why you never gave up. Him.

Carlos has always been a great brother. You were still very small when you realised that. And everyday, every year, he proves that to be more and more true. Like when you were fourteen.

That year, the taste of heartache became familiar on your tongue.

It was the first time you had felt the touch of a male. It still lingered weeks after it happened. You felt loved and cared for, until you didn’t. Carlos was there through all of it, comforting you and threatening to beat that guy up for you.

Even though he was as protective as he could be, your heart kept breaking. It fixed itself, glued each broken shard back together, only to shatter again.

The flavour of love soon tasted more bitter than sweet. And you’re starting to feel the same way at twenty-four.

Minus the heart breaking and fixing itself part, but the flavour of bitterness still lingered on your tongue as you tried to wash it down with orange juice.

“Is it good?” Carlos points to your caesar salad with his fork, mouthful of scrambled eggs muffling his voice.

You poke at your food with a fork and shrug. “A bit bitter, but it’s fine.”

Carlos laughs at that, as he grabs your plate and switches it with his own. “The scrambled eggs are a bit… difficult to chew. But it’s better than croutons and whatever else is in this.”

You watch your brother take a bite of the salad, immediately making a face and trying his best not to spit it out. “You okay?”

“Mhm,” he says, through a faux pained expression. “It’s delicious.”

“I bet it is.”

Laughter came so easily when you were with your brother.

Carlos made you laugh so much you’d feel your abdomen grow sore with every giggle and laugh that escaped your lips. And Carlos loved seeing your eyes form into crescent moons, knowing that he’s still able to somehow make you feel better.

“Are you going to the party?” Carlos asks as you get out of his car, back at the hotel.

“Yep,” you shrug. “I don’t see why not.”

Carlos gives you a look as if he knew something, but said nothing about it. You brushed it off and made your way to the lobby. You ask for your key at reception, take the elevator to the fourth floor and as you’re about to unlock room 301, Lando’s hotel room door opens.

You don’t turn around to look, because you expect it to be Lando and you’re not sure if you want to talk to him right now. But what makes you whip your head to the left is the sound of a female giggle.

There she was. Same brown hair, same tan skin, same beautiful figure. Identical to the picture you had seen on twitter.

It made you sick to your stomach. Especially when you could see Lando’s head peeking out to kiss her goodbye, and you swore you could see his eyes focused on you. Though you can’t be sure, because as soon as you saw his curly brown hair, you were stepping into your hotel room.

It takes about fifteen minutes for you to calm down and for Lando to knock on your door.

You opened it expecting it to be room service, but Lando slipped inside before you could close the door on him. “You’re avoiding me.”

“I’d have no reason to, even if I was.” You shrug as you take a seat on the bed. Lando squats down in front of you, the palms of his hands flattening on your knees.

He rests his bearded chin on the top of his hand. “What’s wrong?”

“I already told you,” you shrug, before leaning back to push yourself up on the palms of your hands. “I’m stressed with the races starting up again.”

“You’ve been doing just fine, baby.” Lando reassures you. “You got second place, remember?”

“That’s the problem. I’m always in second place.” You’re not sure if you’re talking about the race or not anymore, but you mean whatever you said.

Lando leaned up to try and kiss you, but you turned away.

“And I think it’s best if we stay friends.”

That hit Lando right in the gut. He felt his chest constricting under the weight of your words, all the air being squeezed out of his lungs as each word plugged his airways.

“What? What do you mean?”

You shrug. “I want to focus on my career.”

Lando runs the palms of his hands across his face. He’s not sure why, but he has a feeling it’s got to do with the girl who left his hotel earlier. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding me?”

“I guess.” You shrug, sitting up and looking at him. Lando now stood on his feet, looking down at you as his fingers softly grabbed your chin.

He lifted your face up to look at him, thumb softly brushing past your bottom lip. As if it’s a habit, your lips parted and he smirked.

Lando knows you don’t mean it. You know it, too. You just needed a reason to get a break from him, even though you really don’t fucking want to.

Lando sits beside you, the familiar warmth of his hands wrapping around your waist and next thing you know, you’re on his lap. His lips don’t hesitate to kiss away any thought of you two staying just friends.

As much as this relationship hurt you, it was irresistible.

You longed for the lingering taste of Lando’s saliva mixing with yours, the warmth of his hands perfectly slotted on your waist, the lasting vibration of his moans in your mouth.

And Lando longed for it just the same.

He couldn’t tell you why he was going out with a different girl every other night, for the past two weeks of you two being… something.

Lando’s not even sure himself. It’s just something he was used to, but these times around it just felt so wrong. Yet he couldn’t say no to those girls, until he’s sure you feel the same overwhelming feeling of love he has for you.

When you fall asleep in his arms, Lando fights the internal battle to stay with you. But he knows it’s for the better if he leaves before you wake up.

The warmth of his body still cradles the sheets he laid in when you get woken up by a call.

You swallow down the bittersweet feeling in your throat before picking up, slumber still lingering on your tongue. “Hello?”

“Morning, lil’ Sainz.” Daniel’s cheery tone tickles your ear as you turn on your side. “You hungry?”

You check the clock on the wall. Six in the evening never looked so bright, but again, you’re in Las Vegas and it’s never dark in the city that never sleeps.

“Sure, what do you have in mind?”

Daniel’s smile can be heard from a mile away when he talks and it warms you up inside. “Sushi or pizza, your pick.”

“Hm,” you sit up and stretch, finally letting Lando’s warmth slip away from your skin. “I’m feeling like sushi, to be honest.”

“Sushi it is! See you in twenty.”

And in twenty minutes, you were sitting on your hotel room bed, Daniel telling you stories about Max and you stuffing sushi into your mouth, trying not to choke as you laughed.

“Are you going to the party?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” You ask, noticing how it’s the third time you’ve heard the same question.

Daniel shrugs. “I’m just wondering,” he explains. “Don’t know if I would’ve gone without you.”

Over the last few weeks, you and Daniel have become close. So close that he’s probably the only one on the grid that knows about the little situationship you have going on with Lando.

But Daniel never brings him up, not unless you want to talk about it.

“I’m going,” you answer his previous question. “I bought a dress for this specific occasion.”

“Care to show it?”

You bounced to your feet at his question and made your way to your suitcase, not noticing how Daniel’s eyes followed each of your moves. You pulled out a black dress before making your way to your bathroom and trying it on.

Daniel waited patiently as you got dressed, the sushi entertaining him until the bathroom door opened.

The sushi he held up with his chopsticks never made it to his mouth, stuck mid-air as he gaped at the image in front of him — a long, silk dress with a slit deep enough to reveal the tender flesh of your left thigh, your shoulders adorned by thin and delicate straps.

You giggle at Daniel’s reaction. “It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

The aussie briefly nods. “It’s gorgeous.”

You roll your eyes, leaning against the doorway with your arms crossed over your chest. “Now, without pretending to be Lando?”

“It’s beautiful on you. Gonna make him drool,” Daniel grins at you. “My impression’s spot on and you know it.”

You giggle as you roll your eyes again, turning back around to the bathroom. The door doesn’t close shut this time, which prompts Daniel to rise to his feet and investigate what you were up to.

Leaning against the doorway, his golden eyes carefully watched as you dabbed on makeup. “Do you really need all that?”

“Yeah, you could use some, too.” You tease, leaning against the bathroom cabinet to get closer to the mirror.

“I mean,” you turn to Daniel when he shrugs. “You’ll be crying it off anyway.”

A used wet-wipe lands on Daniel’s crossed arms, him laughing and you threatening to throw another one. “Get out.”

“Alright, alright.” He raises his hands in defeat. “I’m picking you up in an hour, hopefully you’re done caking yourself in makeup by then.”

“Bye, Daniel.” You raise your voice as if to urge him to leave.

“See you, love.”

The hotel room door closes and you’re left alone again, thoughts of Lando quickly seeping back into your mind.

It’s like every time you tried to get rid of him, he found a way back in. And who are you to say no to him?

When you fell asleep in his arms earlier, the familiar scent of him clouding your mind, you felt it again. And as much as you cursed yourself for feeling it, you couldn’t help but let the feeling bloom in your chest.

Lando felt it too, and he felt it full force when he saw you walking into the club with Daniel’s arm around your waist. Yet the feeling of love in his chest was mixed with a tinge of jealousy. Or maybe more than a tinge, because his jaw clenched at the mere sight of your little dress swaying with every step you took.

“Everything alright, Lan?” Lando’s armcandy of the night mumbles against his neck.

His green eyes track you from across the club, narrowing in on you when you spot him and give him a small wink. “Perfect.”

You felt sick to your stomach at the sight of Lando and the same girl from earlier. His arm was gripping her waist in a way you thought was special to you and it made your skin crawl.

“You think he believed it?”

You turn to Daniel as he asks, sitting back in the booth you two shared. “I think so.”

“I can keep the act going, if you’d like.” He offers with a cheeky grin decorating his face.

You sip the margarita he had ordered for you, before smiling softly. “I’ll take you up on that, then.”

The night seems to pass you by as you get occupied in a conversation with your brother and his friends. Soon, the blasting music and fluorescent lights began to bore you, so you chose to scan the club for something to do.

When the dance floor catches your eye, you grab Daniel’s wrist. “Get up.”

The golden eyed man doesn’t utter a word as he gets up and follows you like a lost puppy, ready to go wherever you take him. He quickly realises what you want to do, his arm snaking around your waist in an incredibly familiar way.

Daniel feels your hand find the back of his neck as he pulls you in from behind, slowly moving your hips against his. It’s a platonic act, both of you know it, but at the moment, Daniel feels like it’s more than just a ruse to make Lando jealous.

Maybe, for the night, he could let loose and show you what a good man is. Maybe, if it all goes right, he’d get to take you back to the hotel, too.

He loses all hope for that when he notices your eyes scanning the room again, looking for the one and only man in your heart.

The man stood at the bar, green eyes carefully narrowed at the hand that’s slowly moving closer to your inner thighs.

He’s not sure why he’s so fucking jealous. It’s not like he wasn’t doing the same damn thing twenty minutes ago, hands exploring parts of the armcandy’s body they’ve never touched before. Lando feels like its fine only when he does it.

A gentle tug on his arm averts his attention elsewhere. Natalie, or whatever her name was, looked up at Lando with her big brown eyes. “Do you want to leave?”

Lando’s curls bounced when he shook his head. “No, baby.” You watch as he kisses her head, arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders. “You having fun?”

“Mhm,” she grins up at him, noses touching and the image slowly burns into your memory. You feel a spark of something inside of you, something that caused you to be more handsy with Daniel.

The sight of Daniel’s hands grabbing your ass, your arms tracing the outline of his pecs and Daniel grinning down at you with a look only you could get out of a man, made Lando’s blood boil.

The party turned less into a celebration for the race and more of a competition between you and Lando— both of you were trying to see how much the other could take until one of you inevitably had enough.

Lando didn’t seem to be phased at all, instead waiting for the moment you looked his way. His fingers curled around the short brunette’s jaw as he pulled her in, his tongue exploring her vodka flavoured mouth.

You watched them make out, anger and envy filling your system. You felt it pulse through your veins and it stopped the second Daniel spoke. “You might not like this idea, but maybe-”

“Kiss me.”

The australian blinks a few times, as if to try and make sense of what you just said. “What?”

“When Lando looks at us, I need you to kiss me.” You explained, arms wrapping around Daniel’s warm neck. You saw the blush creeping onto his cheeks. “Friends kiss, don’t they?”

“I mean, yeah.” He shrugs, an awkward grin decorating his pretty lips. “Sure.”

The song changes and you start dancing again, untangling yourself from Daniel and letting your own hands travel your body and raise your dress slightly, ass facing Daniel as he tries his best not to look at you too much.

But he couldn’t help it. His eyes seemed to be drawn to your figure, hands glued to your hips as you grinded on him again, back against his chest and faces inches apart. Daniel wasn’t even sure if Lando was looking, but he kissed you anyway.

His whiskey flavoured lips perfectly matched the taste of the margarita on yours, tongues fighting a battle neither of you will win. The kiss felt like something new, something you’ve never felt before and want to feel again, and again, and again.

To your luck, Lando was looking. He wasn’t just looking— he was burning holes into the back of your head with the intense stare he had on the image in front of him— his ex-teammate kissing his fucking girl.

Lando wouldn’t have that.

The brunette girl he was making out with earlier stands confused as her date peels himself away from her, making his way to the middle of the dance floor.

Daniel feels the warmth of your breath being torn away and the last thing he sees is Lando’s tight grip on your waist and your body following him into the bathroom.

The slam of the bathroom door is loud enough to scare whoever might’ve been in the neighbouring room.

You didn’t have enough time to comprehend what happened until you see Lando’s hungry eyes trailing your face.

“Hey, Lando.” A teasing smirk plays on your lips as you button up the third button on his shirt. “Button up, you look like a whore.”

The alcohol was obviously still twirling in your brain, but Lando didn’t care. “You’re one to talk, princess.”

You shrug. “I dunno what you’re talking about.”

“Oh yeah?” Lando stares at you, a fire so bright in his eyes that it burns you before he’s even touched you. “I’m sure you know exactly what I’m fucking talking about.”

The anger in his tone made you melt. You felt how much your teasing had rubbed off on him and the thought of him letting his anger out on you made you excited.

The bathroom door lock snaps when Lando’s fingers turn it, and the anticipation burns in your chest. It doesn’t take long for him to kiss you, lips attacking your mouth in a way you’ve never felt before.

Lando brings his hands to your hips, pulling you to sit on the edge of the marble countertop next to the sink. He traces his tongue along your jaw and neck, finding all the sensitive spots he had already memorised.

A loud whimper leaves your lips when he bites right above your collarbone, the tender skin turning red and teeth marks indenting it. Lando laps at the skin, groaning against it as if the taste of you was pleasure to him.

Lando slipped the straps of your little black dress off your shoulders, revealing your bare chest. He didn’t hesitate, tongue finding your left nipple and twirling around it.

“You lose yourself, darling.” He growls against your skin, pushing you further against the cabinet as your thighs dig into the edge of it. “Every time I’m not there to control you, you misbehave.”

“Mmm,” you groan as his hand wraps around your neck, softly applying pressure with his fingertips. You feel the air softly escape your lungs and the exhale is slow when you say, “misbehave?”

Lando bites back what he initially wants to say, a smirk decorating his soft lips when he notices the glimmer of lust in your eyes. “Little sluts like you never know when they misbehave, hm? Rubbing yourself all over my ex-teammate, kissing him… You thought I wouldn’t do anything about it?”

“I knew you would,” you smile, canines shining in the white glow of the bathroom lights. “I wanted you to.”

Lando narrows his eyes at you. “Is that so, pretty girl?” His fingers curl around your neck tighter, air hitching in your throat.

With one swift move, Lando pulls you off the cabinet and turns you around to face the mirror on the wall. It’s big enough that you can see your entire body and Lando standing behind you.

You’re too focused on the hunger in Lando’s eyes to notice him practically tearing your dress upwards, pulling your drenched panties to the side and slipping himself into you with ease.

“So fucking wet,” he moans, fingers digging into your hips so painfully that it feels good. “Was it me or was it Daniel that got you this wet, baby?”

A quiet moan leaves your lips as he stretches you out. You’d answer truthfully, but it’s too much fun seeing Lando so worked up knowing damn well he’s the only one who gets you soaked like this. “Mmh, fuck.”

“What was that?”

“He,” you huff, hissing when he slams into you a bit rougher this time. “Daniel got me, fuck,” the words get caught in your throat when Lando’s palm makes contact with your bare asscheek.

“Stop fucking lying to me.” He says through gritted teeth. “I know he can’t make you feel the same way I can.”

You hate that he’s right.

As fun as Daniel was, he could never have you be a whimpering mess underneath him. You’re sure he’s great and you know any woman that ends up with him will be lucky, but it won’t be you.

Lando pulls you back into the moment with a tug on the fistfull of your hair in his palm. “Look at me when I speak to you, darling.” Your eyes lock onto him in the reflection of the mirror. “Good girl.”

A weird feeling settles in your belly when he says that phrase. He’s never used it for you before and you realise you fucking love it. The grin on your face and half-lidded eyes show it, too.

Your head drops down onto the cabinet as Lando grips your hips again, pulling you into him as he basks in the melodical moans coming from your pretty lips.

“Look at yourself,” his veiny hand wraps around your neck and fingers dig into the base of your jaw, lifting your head up to face the mirror. “Such a fucking slut.”

Lando’s still pounding into you when the door handle twists and someone tries to get in.

The skin-to-skin noise doesn’t stop as Lando shouts. “Occupied!” all while his hand covers your mouth. He’s purposefully digging his cock deep into you, trying to fish out any loud noise he can get.

You’re drooling all over his fingers when your mouth parts and he slips two of them past your lips. Lando can feel your high approaching and he fucks deeper into you, surprising you with an orgasm.

You half expected him to leave you without one, but the pleasure washes over you as you moan his name. “Fuck, Lando!” He’s groaning when your walls close around him, and he’s spilling into you, his warm cum burning you from the inside.

Before you can even open your eyes, Lando’s flipping you around and pulling you off the cabinet. Your legs give out and Lando’s hands wrap around your waist before you fall to your knees, instead bringing you down slowly.

You look up at him, lashes fluttering as he pumps his cock a couple times. “Open your mouth, doll.”

Lucky you, not only did your pussy get filled to the brim and graciously given an orgasm, you get to feel his veins burn into the back of your throat, too.

Your soft lips part, closer to the base of his cock. As hot as it was the first time you did this, and the numerous times after, Lando wasn’t in the mood for any teasing.

“I told you to open your mouth, not to lick my dick and act as if you’re not desperate to have me down your throat.”

That statement alone was enough to make you open your mouth, greedily taking his whole cock down your throat.

You’re lucky the club was blasting music, perfectly drowning out your moans and whimpering as your nose brushed against Lando’s pubes.

Lando’s known for being loud, so his moans were probably heard from the hallway. For some odd reason, that turned you on.

His dick dug into your throat and you felt your eyes prick with tears, whimpers bouncing off his shaft and struggling to get past your lips. With basically no warning, Lando’s dick twitched and warm liquid ran down your throat. And you swallowed it without a word from Lando.

Lando wipes your bottom lip with his thumb. “Get up.”

You do as told, fixing the edge of your dress to lay flat against your thighs. You’re hiding yourself from him as if he wasn’t just in you a few minutes ago.

Lando buckles his belt up and watches as you look at yourself in the mirror. Your fingers softly dab at your face and you try your best to fix the mascara that runs down your cheeks.

His warm arms wrap around your waist and his face finds your neck. “You’re beautiful.”

“Did you just leave the girl by herself?” You ask, looking at him in the reflection of the mirror.

Lando shrugs behind you. “I’m sure she found her way home, or at least some company.”

“You’re a dickhead, Norris.”

“And you love it.”

The playful grin on his lips caused you to break out in a smile.

Lando follows you out of the bathroom, hand tightly wrapped around yours, fingers intertwined. Daniel’s eyes meet you across the club and he feels his heart sink to his feet at the sight of Lando so closely entwined with you.

“Hey,” the aussie says to you when you walk up to the table you two sat at. He’s accompanied by Charles and Max, who look at you with warm and welcoming smiles. “You okay?”

“Mhm,” you smile at him and place your knee on the seat next to his thigh. You lean over him, completely unaware that your dress rides up and shows the smallest bit of your ass. Daniel softly tugs the dress down so it covers you up as you grab what you need. “Forgot my handbag.”

The men at the table watch you walk away, hips swaying like they usually do, and Lando’s arm wraps around your waist again as he leads you out the club.

Through blurred vision and quiet laughs, you somehow make it back to the hotel. As if it’s a habit, you made a beeline to Lando’s hotel room as soon as the elevator door opened.

Lando watched as you grabbed his keycard and swiped it to open the room.

When the light turned on, Lando’s messy hotel room came into your blurry sight. It was neatly messy, some clothes in piles and his perfumes and skincare scattered across the coffee table.

A giggle slipped past your lips when you saw Dior Sauvage amongst the many tubes and bottles. Of course he’d use that cologne.

You feel warm arms slip around your waist for the nth time this night and you lean back into his embrace. The smell of his cologne mixed with the alcohol lingering on him made your head dizzy. Lando’s lips find your neck and he softly kisses you, leaving a trail of love filled pecks down your shoulder.

“Lando?”

He holds his movements for a moment. “Yes, baby?”

“What is this?” You ask, voice trailing. The item in your hands is something that is so oddly familiar, yet you can’t put your finger on it.

Lando takes the keychain from your hands, fingers smoothing over the yellowing plastic. It’s pretty old, considering he got it when he was still in karting. “It’s the keychain you gave me. When we were like… Eight? After you sabotaged my race.”

At the mention of your karting days, your stomach turns. The memories of how disgustingly you had treated each other flood your brain and you don’t even hide the goosebumps infecting your skin.

Lando’s fingers softly wrap around your wrist and he turns you to face him before pulling you into his chest. The smell of his cologne mixes with the air as you inhale him deeply, trying to cling onto the feeling of comfort you can’t seem to ever hold onto.

For some reason, that tinge of guilt overtook any other emotion in your body and you felt your limbs grow flaccid at the mere thought of your past, and future, with Lando.

The hues in his eyes slowly disappear as he blinks. “You okay?”

“Tired.” The lie slips past your lips so easily, but it’s simpler to lie than to admit that your mind is going at a million miles an hour with thoughts of what you might never be.

Lando’s gentle hands tour your body and he carefully undoes your zipper, slipping the dress off your delicate skin with his fingertips trailing behind. You’re standing in front of him, and even though he’s already seen every part of you, you feel bare. Raw. Exposed.

It doesn’t take an idiot to notice when you’re off, but Lando felt it coming even before you two got to the hotel.

“Here,” he hands you a t-shirt and you nod your head as a thank you. Yet even before you begin putting the shirt on, Lando takes it from your hands again. “Let me help.”

Your curious eyes watch as he pulls the shirt open from the bottom and his eyes lock onto yours, “arms up,” he mumbles and you obey. He tugs the shirt over your head, the smell of his detergent stilling in your sinuses and making you dizzier than you already were.

Warm fingers softly cup your cheek and you lean into the touch, as his other hand fixes the hair that falls on your face. Lando doesn’t talk, you don’t need him to, instead he gently leads you to the bed and lifts the sheets up as you get in.

Your gaze follows his figure as he walks around to the other side of the bed and sits down at the foot of it. An annoyed grumble leaves his mouth as he fumbles with the buttons, but gives up when he can’t manage to undo them. The muscles on his back flex as he raises his arms to tug off the shirt, and not an inch of his skin goes unnoticed by your gaze.

You connect the dots on his back and draw constellations from them, far more beautiful than the ones you’ve observed in the night sky.

He lays his curls down on the soft pillow, facing you and his hazel eyes carefully study your face. Lando forced himself to stay on his side of the bed, despite every cell in his body practically begging to touch you.

“Come closer.” You whisper and he scoots over even before the words fully leave your mouth. You feel his arms gently wrap around your waist as he pulls you in with your back to his bare chest.

When his lips press against your neck, then your collarbone, and then your shoulder, you expect him to slip his hands into your underwear, how he would every single night you’d end up like this. Your legs subconsciously move apart as you push yourself onto your back.

Lando doesn’t do what you expected him to, though. He continues placing gentle kisses on your shoulder, not moving any closer to your chest and his hands still wrapped around you. “Not tonight, baby.” He mumbles against your skin, the warmth of his breath causing goosebumps to erupt.

“Why not?”

Lando pulls away looking at you. “That's all we do.”

You feel a certain warmth in your belly and a piercing feeling in your chest. “Yeah.”

He lays back down, curls bouncing as he gets more comfortable. You notice his green, piercing gaze softly studying your face as you look up at the ceiling. Lando knows something’s wrong. Nothing’s been right since he left you and Carlos’ home.

“Can we watch something?” You ask, eyes examining Lando’s face before he softly nods and reaches for the remote. The TV turns on to some random rom-com, and that’s what you settle on watching.

It’s one of the most clichè movies you’ve watched, and you can’t help but let a small smile decorate your face. Your eyes were on the screen, and Lando’s eyes were on you.

He adored the curve of your nose, the shape of your lips, the lashes that sat atop your gorgeous eyes. Lando’s been trying to ignore the feelings growing in his heart, but seeing you this close, being able to just watch you, he decides not to.

“Do you remember the first time we kissed?” Lando’s low and gravelly voice tickles your ears. You turn your head a little towards him, watching how his eyes flickered with something close to what you felt.

“Like, at my house?” You ask, a bit confused by his sudden question. “What about it, Lan?”

He quickly shakes his head. “No, the very first time, when we were sixteen.”

As the words leave his lips, you notice the familiar look of anxiety on his face. The same look he gave you right before his lips touched yours, in that parking lot you soon found to be your favourite place.

That race was proven to be the worst of both of you’s careers— high speed corners, oversteer, crash.

You remember the anticipation of a race weekend brewing in your stomach, hands shaking and heart palpitating as you got into your race car. Lando was right ahead of you, his helmet bright as he got into his own car.

The race started as every other one, you felt confident and proud to have gotten this far. The corners were easy enough to turn, the car felt smooth and you had no doubt you’d land a podium that day or maybe even win the race.

The mind of a sixteen year old girl is more naive and confident than anyone else.

You felt the excitement in your chest as the next corner was easy enough to turn, and it’d let you be even further ahead of your teammate. But, as if it was on purpose, Lando’s car rear ended yours and both of you spun out.

Lando never felt such embarrassment and guilt, especially when he saw you get out of the car with clenched fists and angry strides.

You’re not sure what happened after that, but you remember ditching the briefing with your team after saying you felt ill and hiding in the parking lot, behind a car parked next to the curb.

The humming of the approaching evening managed to calm you down. You felt cold, reminding you that you can, in fact, feel and you’re not just a machine that’s expected to do amazing all the time.

Your silence was interrupted, because even if you were on the other side of the world, Lando would somehow find you.

“Want some?” He appeared from behind the car and startled you, a bottle of champagne in hand.

Your eyebrows furrowed. “How’d you get that?”

The brunet simply shrugged and sat down beside you, taking a large gulp of the champagne before handing it to you. You didn’t hesitate to take it and chug some.

“Listen, I’m sorry-“

“It’s fine.” You shut his apology down. “I wouldn’t have won anyway.”

Lando shook his head, clearly dismissing whatever you just said. “You’re stupid if you think that.”

“Gee, thanks.” You roll your eyes and take another swing of the champagne bottle. “Did you only come here to apologise?”

Lando shrugged. “Kinda, yeah.” You couldn’t help but laugh slightly at his expression. “I honestly feel bad, you would have definitely won today if I didn’t fuck up.”

“I heard it was a car issue.” You looked at him for the first time that evening. He looked genuinely upset, which was unusual behaviour for him, especially when it was something to do with you.

“Yeah,” he looked up at the darkening sky. “I could’ve reported it earlier, but I thought I could get in a few more laps before doing that.”

A laugh escaped your lips before you’d thought to catch it. “Was it that or did you plan to sabotage my race? As some sort of revenge, or something.”

“No,” he admits, looking back to the ground. He was nervous and scared, and wasn’t in the mood to tease you. “I wouldn’t do that. Not to you.”

Your curious and confused eyes met his. “What?” Your voice cracked and some form of anger laced your words. “Last time I checked, you fucking hated me.”

“I could never hate you, Y/N.”

“That’s bullshit, you’ve only ever tried to sabotage my races and you’ve been a dick to me for as long as I’ve known you.”

Lando sighs, not sure how to convince you or explain what he means. “I don’t know what changed, but I’m not like that anymore. I’ve tried to be nice to you, but you never take it seriously and you act mean instead of accepting it.”

“Are you trying to make me pity you so I forgive you for that stunt you pulled today?” You huff, a disappointed laugh leaving your lips. “You’re unbelievable, Norris. Don’t act like you actually like m-“

That’s when he kissed you.

You felt his breath brushing against your skin as his lips crashed against yours, chapped and rough, but it felt just right.

For a minute or two, you didn’t pull away. You let him kiss you and you kissed him back, and it was exactly what you needed. It wasn’t the champagne swirling in your tummy that made you all warm inside, but instead the soft touch of his fingers to your jaw.

It’s almost like it snapped you into reality.

You pulled away and scooted further from him, watching him with widened eyes. “What the fuck…”

“I’m not acting.” Is all Lando said, before he got up and left you alone, on the curb, just like he found you ten minutes before.

You felt awful for how you handled it, because after his confession, he went back to being cold and mean to you. He wouldn’t utter a word your way unless he absolutely had to, and the teasing remarks were gone.

It all changed from then, until about three years after, when both of you got into Formula One.

You blink and look back at Lando, the memory replaying in your mind multiple times as you nod. “Yeah, I remember it, why?”

“I did mean it.” He hums, fingers softly tugging a piece of your hair behind your ear after you’d turned around to face him. “I liked you back then. I was an idiot for not telling you.”

“Lando-“

“Let me talk, baby.” Lando’s green eyes reassure you and you urge him to speak.

“I was sixteen and stupid, and not persistent in getting what I wanted. I shut those feelings down until pretty recently, when I realised that I never really hated you. I was intrigued and interested.”

He takes a pause, mind sorting through the plethora of thoughts circling his mind in that moment.

“I’ve been yours since I kissed you.” You felt his words weigh on your chest. And you’re not sure if you can trust him.

“Then why did you do that? You can’t imagine how awful it felt seeing pictures of you and all those girls, while I laid in my bed and waited for you to call me and repeat the same routine.”

“I don’t know.” He admits, sounding as genuine as he is. “I was trying to ignore the feelings, in fear of rejection again, even though I knew I had you.”

“Yeah.” You agreed, not sure what to say. It feels awkward talking your feelings out with him, since you’ve never really done that before.

“It’s always been you.” Your eyes find his face again when he speaks. “Even though you hated me, it’s always been you.”

A small, bittersweet grin spread across your cheeks. “I used to hate you with everything I had in me.”

“I know.” It pains Lando to hear it, but he needed the reminder that the mutual hate you two have gone through for him to have you in his arms right now was too much to lose. He can’t risk that. “I felt it.”

“I’m sorry. About everything.” Lando felt the sincerity in your voice as you spoke. It’s the first time he’s actually hearing you speak about your feelings and he’s scared. He’s not sure if it’s the fear of rejection or the fear of losing you, but it shakes him to his core and he’s not sure how to handle it.

“It’s okay.” He says, eyes glimmering with a mixture of anxiety and desperation in them. “Get some sleep, we have a flight tomorrow.”

You nod softly, turning on your side but still facing him. There’s no amount of words you could say to him that would fully explain what’s exactly going on in your mind. It’s running at the speed of light with thoughts, and you can’t seem to grab ahold of a single one.

Lando lays on his back, shutting the TV off and placing the remote on the nightstand. You heard his quick breath as he moved closer to you, scooping you up and pulling you into his chest.

The warmth of his chest soothed you to sleep. Lando listened to your breathing, waiting for it to slow down and the exact moment when you’d fall to slumber.

His own mind was going haywire. There was so much he just said, still dodging the direct confession, and he cursed himself for it. He could have just told you instead of bringing up the worst night you two had ever experienced. Idiot.

Your face nuzzled further into his skin and he felt your arms snake around his torso, taking ahold of the beating drum in the middle of his chest. He was sure you could hear the rapid heartbeat shaking him, and you could.

The warmth and sound of his heartbeat lulled you to sleep faster than any other sound. When Lando was sure you had fallen asleep, he softly played with your hair. It’ll be a while before he can say this to you when you’re awake, and you won’t hear it now, but he says it anyway.

“I love you.”

It takes a moment for you to recollect yourself, the act of falling asleep that you’ve perfected since childhood finally coming to play. You bit back a small grin, ignoring the pitter patter in your own chest.

Lando felt uneasy when you shifted your position, lying on your stomach and partially on him, lips so close to his neck.

You placed a gentle kiss on his collarbone, eyes closed and breath steady.

“I love you, too.”

© landopoet

[chaosbarelycontained]

See Me Go Through Changes

North Country Boy Chapter 4

Pairing: Simon “Ghost” Riley x AFAB!OC

TW: Swearing

Words: 2k

Synopsis: Price gives Jules access to much more than her usual tech and Ghost gets the third degree.

“You need a medic?” Price asked gruffly once the Lieutenant had left the gym.

“No sir, I’m good,” Jules responded, resisting the urge to rub her aching jaw, instead placing her beret back onto her head.

Price nodded once and set off at a brisk pace. Jules followed the Captain down stark corridors, each taking them deeper and deeper into the bowels of Stirling Lines barracks. They encountered a myriad of soldiers on their journey, most of them wearing the caps and badges of the SAS or the SRR, and all of them saluted Price as they passed.

They must have taken a circuitous route that Jules hadn’t used before but they ended up in a wing that was familiar to her and where she’d spent a lot of her time during her SRR training. Stopping before a closed, unmarked door, Price paused with his hand on the door knob. He turned to Jules with a devilish look in his eye.

“Now before we go in, just remember, I don’t want you to get all over-excited on me, Sergeant, understood?”

“Understood,” Jules replied, but her tone was raised, as if her response were a question.

Price pushed open the door and then stepped aside to reveal a bank of monitors and some of the most advanced computing and remote surveillance equipment Jules had ever seen. She stepped into the room with a soft gasp and ran her fingers delicately across the top of the monitors. Her skin prickled with goosebumps in the air-conditioned coolness and she turned back to Price with a genuine smile of joy.

“Fuckin’ ‘ell! Are you flirtin’ with me, Sir?” she teased, earning her a deep, rumbling chuckle.

“If I wanted to flirt with you, Tiger, you’d know about it. I take it you like the set-up?”

“Like it? It’s mint!” Jules exclaimed, practically vibrating with excitement.

“Good. I need you to make sure it's got everything you need. If anything’s missing then there needs to be a list on my desk by 0800 hrs tomorrow. Anything, Sergeant. If you need it, just ask.”

“Absolutely, Sir,” Jules said, but already sounded distracted as her attention was drawn back to the equipment before her.

“One more thing,” Price stated, pulling her focus back to him.

“Yes, Sir?”

“Lieutenant Riley,” Price began and Jules immediately stiffened. “I don’t know what’s gone on and I don’t need to, unless it compromises my team. Will it compromise my team, Sergeant?”

“N-no, Sir,” she replied, her face flushing with embarrassment at her very public loss of control.

“Good. See that it stays that way,” he ordered, but then his face softened. “Go on then, have at it,” he nodded towards the monitors and left Jules to it.

She slid into the comfortable wheeled chair, removed her beret, and lifted the headset onto her head. One swipe of the mouse and the screens before her lit up to show the familiar MOD log in screen. She tapped in her credentials but the homescreen she was expecting to see didn't appear. Instead of the SRR logo with the Corinthian helmet and sword there was a design she hadn’t seen before. The centre of the logo still featured a sword but instead of the helmet there was a skull and they were bordered by a pair of feathered wings and a laurel wreath. The only text visible was under the hilt of the sword and all it stated were the numerals 141.

Moving the cursor over the logo, Jules left-clicked on it and the screen dissolved to show a desktop layout that wouldn’t look out of place in any office in the country but a closer look at the icons showed programs that the majority of people wouldn’t even know existed. There were flight scanners, access portals to world-wide air traffic controls, drone programming systems, access to civilian emergency service and CCTV networks, both radio wave and microwave detector systems for communications interceptions, banking network portals, and pretty much anything else she would need. There, at her fingertips, were the tools she needed to monitor and even start incursions the world over. There was even the Spotify app, which made her huff out a chuckle.

Even with only the most cursory of glances over the system, Jules couldn’t see anything that was conspicuous by its absence. Her list for the Captain was, for the moment, unpopulated. Checking the time on the clock in the bottom left of the screen she noticed a small icon that she recognised but had never had the opportunity to use.

“You’re shittin’ me,” she breathed, before double-clicking on the tiny image.

The screen darkened for a moment before lighting up with a soft blue glow. An electronic chirp sounded from one of the desk drawers and Jules opened it to reveal a high end VR headset resting on a magnetic charging dock.

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” she squealed, picking up the tech and cradling it in her hands.

Swallowing down the knot of excitement in her throat she removed the headset she was wearing and slowly replaced it with the VR gear. Sighing in satisfaction at the new accessibility she had gained she weaved her hands through the air in a graceful pattern, relishing the lack of need for hand controllers. A few gestures later and she was walking through the streets of Kyiv and then, in a flash, had been transported to favelas of Rio. Throwing her head back and letting out an excited laugh she allowed herself to get lost in the advanced technology that she loved.

* * * * * *

“Geek,” Rob said affectionately, scrubbing his hand over the top of her head. “Computer Science though, Jules? Why the fuck did you pick that?”

“Cause I like it, knobhead,” she replied, shoving his hand away and batting at his shoulder.

The pub in Preston wasn’t that busy for a Saturday afternoon and the train ride up from Manchester that morning had been uneventful. It had mainly consisted of Jules trying to study for a seminar whilst Simon did his best to antagonise her once he’d finished with the copy of FHM he’d picked up at Piccadilly Station.

“She’s good at it too,” Simon added, catching her eye over the rim of his pint glass. “Got some mint grades on your last assignments, didn’t y’Jules?”

“Yeah, suppose so,” she nodded, flushing a little at his praise.

Rob’s eyes flickered between the pair of them and narrowed in suspicion.

“Is there summat going on wi’ you two?' ' he asked.

“Nah!” Jules exclaimed hurriedly, spluttering around her cider and blackcurrant whilst Simon just let out a short laugh and shook his head.

“Just seem a bit pally, that’s all,” Rob hummed, draining his pint.

“Y’said to look out for her while y’were away,” Simon shrugged.

“I can look out for my own bloody self, Jesus,” Jules muttered. “Fuckin’ cavemen.”

After a chippy tea and a farewell to her brother, Jules and Simon made their way back to the station. He seemed lost in thought, not speaking much as they walked onto the platform to wait. Jules leaned back against the red brick wall and wrapped her arms around herself to stave off the chill of the evening.

A shadow fell across her, blocking the light from the station floodlights as Simon leaned over her, caging her in with a devilish smile.

“Didn’t realise the thought of bein’ wi’ me was so bad,” he rumbled, one hand propped against the wall above her head whilst the other came to rest at her waist.

“Was I wrong though?” she protested with a tilt of her chin. “We’re not exactly seein’ each other are we?”

“Well I’m not seein’ anyone else, Jules,” he said, his face turning slightly more serious.

“What’re y’sayin’ Si?” she breathed.

“Just think we should start bein’ honest with ourselves, that’s all,” he replied, his chestnut eyes trailing over her face.

“What about Rob?”

“I reckon he’d be alright with it,” he said, raising his hand to cup her face.

“I reckon he would too, but I think he’d kick your arse first,” Jules laughed softly.

“I’d let him if it got me wi’ you,” he laughed with her as his thumb brushed gently over her cheek.

“Dick’ead,” she murmured, her tongue darting out across her bottom lip as he lifted her chin and tilted his head down to capture her lips with his.

* * * * * *

Ghost waited at the door to Price’s office, outwardly presenting the model of military perfection but his mind whirled in a mess of guilt and confusion. He regretted pushing Jules as far as he had, and there wasn’t much in his life he did regret. Strange how a lot of it involved her though…

“Si, stopppp!” she laughed, batting his arm away from her waist.

Price rounded the corner of the corridor, his face drawing into a scowl as he spotted Ghost. He didn’t need to say a word, simply making a gesture to enter that Ghost followed without question.

The scent of patchouli permeated his nose as they climbed the uneven stone steps of the old drapery building that housed Affleck’s Palace.

He stood at ease before the Captain’s desk as Price sat and deliberately took his time making himself comfo​​rtable. Opening his top drawer he pulled out a cigar, clipped the end with a silver clipper that Ghost himself had gifted him and then lit the tobacco. He stared at his Lieutenant with an ambiguous expression as he waited for Ghost to break the silence.

“It’s on the top floor innit?” he asked, groaning at her pseudo-innocent face.

‘I didn’t know! I swear down!” she gasped out a giggle, grabbing his wrist and hauling up the stairs behind her.

“She’ll do,” Ghost rumbled, scrunching his nose a little under his mask which made the drying blood crack away from his skin.

“And is that your professional opinion?” Price asked, a hint of sarcasm making its way into his words.

“Yeah,” Ghost nodded once.

“Si! I found ‘em!” Jules squealed, bouncing over to him with four small figurines and a beaming smile on her face.

“Want to talk about it?” the Captain probed but Ghost shook his head.

“Negative.”

“Just going to throw this out there Simon, but maybe you need to talk to her.”

Ghost shook his head again but found himself unable to meet Price’s stare. They remained in their non-verbal standoff as the seconds ticked by but Price eventually let out a huff and shook his head in defeat.

“Go on then, dismissed. Just…stop being an arse to her, yeah?”

“It’s like you don’t even know me,” Ghost retorted, trying to lighten the atmosphere a little before leaving the office.

Slipping unseen into an empty room along the corridor, Ghost locked the door and then leaned back against it before sliding to the floor. Pulling his balaclava off over his head he ran his hand through his short blond hair and probed at his throbbing nose. It wasn’t broken, although it wouldn’t have been the first time. Resting his arms on his raised knees he dropped his head and let out a deep sigh.

They had to pass through the cafe on their way back to the stairs that would take them out of the building. Jules walked beside him clutching the paper bag that held her treasured purchase. He didn’t want to leave just yet, desperate to spend more time with her.

“D’you fancy a hot chocolate?” he asked, nodding his head towards the cafe’s counter.

“Umm, yeah, we could do that,” she replied.

He ordered for them whilst she found them two seats, near the window so they could watch the world go by below.

“Here y’are,” he said, placing a mug of hot chocolate topped with all the trimmings before her.

“Cheers, Si,” Jules muttered, but he could tell she was distracted.

“What’s up, chuck?” he asked, nudging her knee under the table.

“Y’don’t…y’don’t think it’s a stupid present?” she asked timidly, nodding towards the paper bag on the table.

“Don’t be daft Jules, he’s gonna love ‘em, and if he doesn’t, I’ll ��av ‘em,” Simon grinned, trying to reassure her. “If someone bought me Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures for my 19th I’d be made up!”

“Is that a hint?” Jules laughed, “‘cause I’m not buyin’ you Turtles for your birthday.”

Taglist: @aykxz98

[2af-afterdark]

What in Hell is Bad?: June 3, 2024 update

Alright people! The game has updated and I have thoughts about everything they have done. Excuse me while I mindlessly ramble about them down below.

Customizable hotbar

Let's start with something I actually like* for the most part. The new customizable hotbar is really fun and allows players to decorate their homescreen the way they like. It's a nice touch. Not necessary, but enjoyable. My only caveat is that, once you switch icons, the basic icons aren't avaiable to switch back to. I don't know why they aren't an option yet, but I hope that will be fixed soon.

My other gripe is that Beelzebub is not included in the shop. His icons are avaible in the Nightmare Pass, which feels like a middle finger to his fans and f2p players since most of the icons are on the superior pass route (one is on the free route). I don't like that.

Pancake Shop Update

We got a warning some odd months back that this was coming, but... oh boy do I have mixed feelings on it. On one hand, I like the accessories that you can buy from the new pancake shop in addition to having some L character people may want. On the other hand... I miss the old items I could buy from the shop. I bought my 30 red keys everyday, which is why I have over 3,000 of them at the moment. It was also really easy to use the pancake shop to fulfill any mission that required me to purchase items from the shop because of how cheap they were.

And I am almost positive that's why they changed the shop. The rate at which one could get pancakes versus how they were used made them pretty easy to use in a way I'm sure PB saw as unbalanced but that I, as a player, personally saw as unstressful. Instead... we now have there new nightmare pancakes.

I do not like the sell rate for these. Converting duplicates into these new nightmare pancakes is a lot less lucrative. S-ranks cards seem to go for 6 nightmare pancake whereas anything A+ or lower is exchanged for coins and books instead (a resource I have personally never struggled for. I currently have 25,000,000 of each. I don't need more).

By the time I converted my old pancakes, I had 150 of these new bastards and that was enough to clean out the entire shop. I don't know what I'm supposed to keep doing with these now. I guess I can get more Story Clear Tickets and maybe and L card I want every now and again, but... Unless they restock, the new pancakes just aren't as good or lucrative for a player.

All these items could have been added to the old pancake shop and the prices jacked up if they really wanted people to burn their pancakes.

Main Story Clear Tickets

I like them. I know they have to be bought with pancakes or gems at the moment, but they solve an issues I've had for a while. I hate grinding for candies by replaying the same level over and over. I like have skip tickets for that. And I'm sure someone will point out that we can do the Dark Sanctuary battles for free, but... I would point out that some games require all fights to use tickets (like Nu:C). PB is actually rather generous to only require them on main story fights, of which the only unique resource is candies. Basically, you only need tickets to farm free candies. And if you don't have candies? The boss fights aren't actually very complicated (I literally don't interact with my phone during the fights at all). Plus, you get 10 free skips a day from the looks of it, so... the tickets are just extra.

I MISUNDERSTOOD WHAT A STORY SKIP TICKET WAS!

THEY LET YOU SKIP FIGHTS THAT YOU MAY BE HAVING TROUBLE WITH WHICH SOME PEOPLE WILL FIND VERY USEFUL INDEED. YOU CAN STILL SKIP THE BOSS BATTLES 10X TIMES THOUGH! STILL LIKE THESE, JUST MISUNDERSTOOD THEIR USE.

Nightmare Pass

Fuck you, PB! I say that as a whale who has almost every card in this fucking game (missing 4 total). I know they need to make money. I try to be sympathetic to a company's need to make an income to pay for everything, but this is fucking ridiculous. The Lucifer (Victory) Nightmare Pass just ended and the Niflheim event is currently running. You cannot drop Nightmare Pass (paid content) one after the other without draining your fanbase dry. You need to put some space between those events. Once every other month is the most often I would reccomnd running these Nightmare Passes and even that is excessive.

You especially cannot have multiple events running at once. It forces players to split their attention between the multiple battle types and missions that are currently running. It's so player unfriendly that I fucking scoff and the gall of it all. This is real fast way to anger your playerbase. Not all whales are limitless wallets. Everyone has their breaking point. For some, that's needing to drop a stupid amount of cash for a card, and the first time they don't whale because they haven't had the time to rebuild their funds between these exploitative practices? They'll realize they don't need to whale at all.

And, as I said earlier, some of the default decorations are locked behind this nightmare pass (the Beelzebub ones), so that is just.... just shitty of PB.

Unholy Board

What the fuck happened here and who thought it was a good idea? Somehow, the update made it so that missions will light up in the unholy board when they are not completed.

Notice how the orb is blue, but the mission clearly isn't finished? That's what I mean. It has made trying to figure out which missions I have or have not finished much harder. I used to just look at the grey bubbles, but now I have to check the colored ones too. It's so much worse that what they had.

Yes, missions that are ready to be claimed still sparkle, but it's hard to find the unfinished ones.

For reference, the green checks are completed, the red Xs are not. Trying to keep this straight is a nightmare, especially since I try to finish the entire unholy board and not just the main path.

[princemick]

I’m obsessed with your coloring, sharpening and grain. Do you mind doing a tutoral or sharing your settings?

hell yea I can! I haven't done an updated gif tutorial in ages so here is

kyle princemick's 2024 gifmaking process!

alright class, sit down, shut up, raise your hand if you have questions and I might answer them. today we're going to be making this gif together!

there are a few steps to this

record settings

import and timeline

sharpening

basic colour

export

for this tutorial you need the newest version of photoshop but previous knowledge of giffing is not needed

record settings

I use OBS and screen record. my video settings are:

and output is:

if I live gif I change the 'common FPS values' to 30 as it makes it easier/faster to export but for now we're gonna use a recording of 60 fps where the thing I recorded is of higher quality.

2. import and timeline

importing your recorded video is easy peasy you just drop your video into your photoshop homescreen. after you do that, this should be your view

if you dont see the bottom blue timeline go to window and make sure 'timeline' is selected.

now, because this is recorded w high quality n 60 fps the frames that are in our fimeline rn go real fast, to slow it down we're gonna go to the little play button on the side of our blue timeline and change the speed to 50%

after this we're going to change the length of our gif.

because we recorded at 60 fps it works best to keep the eventual gif at 60 fps. on the timeline this means 2f. for most gifsets I like 2/3 gifs so I either make the full timeline 4f or 6f.

for this we're just going to make it one gif so with the little arrows on the side im going to slide it down until it's the length I want.

then I'm going to play the timeline and put my marker when I want the gif to start. I move my 2 frame selection tool to the start of the moment I want to gif.

then you have a bunch of timeline still left that you wont need so I'm going to delete that part by making the video smaller.

in the end I will have a single 60 frame video left on my timeline.

3. sharpening

so, sharpening is all personal preference and I highly recommend taking mine or other people's settings and playing around with it until it works for you!

now for my settings and proccess.

we're going to convert our video layer to get ready for smart filters, you do this by making sure your layer is selected and then you go to filers -> convert for smart filters

now we're going to crop it. this is again, all personal preference BUT tumblr prefers 5:7 or 1:1.

if you go to the little crop icon on your toolbar you have a bunch of size presets all ready for you

for this gif I'm going to use the 5:7.

now atp I do smth a lil different then a lot of other people tend to do and I dont know how much I recommend doing it either bc it makes the process a lot longer but it makes me like the way my gifs look the most. so I have stuck to it for the last 2+ yrs.

we're gonna go to imagine -> image size and then I like making my with size 900.

540 is what tumblr likes most, it's smaller and when you export it like that tumblr will read your full gif so there won't be need for the 'click for higher quality'

but for me it makes the gifs really low quality so I export and make my gifs at 900 unless I am live giffing bc when I export at 540 it exports quicker.

anyway, so the gif is 900 by 642. we're gonna go to sharpening now. my process is pretty long but the steps go like this

(all these smart filters are under the filter -> sharpen tab)

1: smart sharpen

2: gaussian blur

3: add noise

4: smart sharpen

5: smart sharpen

I tend to play around with the amount and radius of the last smart sharpen layer all depending on what I prefer for that gifset specifically.

now your gif layer should look like this

now your sharpening is done. you can keep it like this or add colouring.

4. basic colour

my colouring is...complex a lot of the time and it changes with every gif I make but there is some basic stuff I always stick to.

colouring itself is a bunch of adjustment layers which you can find at the bottom of your layers here

for colouring steps one of the first things I tend to use is 'curves' to up the contrast of my gif

then I use 'color balance' to neutralize the colours, I personally like it when my gifs are a little more on the colder side.

then I add a layer of 'exposure' to make the contrast even heavier.

then for my personal colouring I always go into hue/saturation to play around w lips/blush.

and lastly I always go into selective colour to change the colour more specifically.

there's a bunch of different stuff you can add and change but that's all personal preference but the only thing you have to keep in mind is skintone, especially when it comes to poc. (which is y u see the massive colour change in the selective colour one, that's me trying to neutralize his undertones again)

you have to make sure that you dont make someones skin to light or overplay someones red/yellow undertones. (which I am personally also still working on and learning abt)

here is a really good tutorial on how to colour black skin

5. export

and now, the easiest part, export. if you go to file -> export ->

then this window will show up. you're free to copy my settings, most of these things don't really matter that much to know anything.

the only thing semi important is the top right one that says colours: 128. that is the amount if colours the gif will read, I tend to export on 128 instead of 256 because tumblr won't accept gifs bigger then 10M and the more colours the bigger the gif.

now if you just click on export while your gifset is 900 x 642 your gifset will deff be over 10M. I make it smaller by changing the width of the gif by the 'image size'

I tend to starts w the W: at 700, it most of the time makes the size small enough, down at the bottom left is where you have to look to check until your gifsize is under 10

if you make your gif 700 and it's still bigger then 700 just go smaller until its under that 10m. I dont make my gifs smaller then 500 though, then the quality will truly suffer.

obviously the gif quality will be the best the bigger it is.

thats it! youre done, a gif is made and coloured.

hopefully this was understanable if it wasnt you're very free to ask questions abt anything else in my process!!

good luck and have fun ! <3

[reshiram]

Aaaa, noooo -

Also that plush it's so cute, regardless of whether it's getting stir-fryed or not

I don't have a lot of merch, but I did buy his Valentine's Day card this year and I got the Best-of album, which also meant I had to hurry and get Feower and Seox to complete the boy band. I put the skins in my homescreen rotation and Seofon especially just loves jumpscaring me with his idol skin

Right, before I forget, tell Seofon hi the next time you're seeing him in battle! I'm working on my rank too, so one day he gets to beat me up by himself, but today is not that day

Lastly, what's your favorite official art of him? I think I really hurried to get him transcended because that art of him just looks really cool and the battle sprite is gorgeous as well and the CA animation is so cool and the little two finger salute he does on the victory screen is so cute. I'm glad they started using that Transcendence art for dialogues in HotS because it's genuinely so gooooood

I also really like his Relink arts, they're seriously so gorgeous, it's not faiiir -

So, yeah

Thanks again!

ahhh Yes. we're in this together. uplifting. motivation. etc etc... you now have me as a supporter!!!!! ;3c mwhahaha!

it is, isn't it? it's so dear to me!!!! i actually own the fullset of mochi kororin eternals! and a lot of other merch... >w< actually let me just throw this at you.

no room for my vday cards sadly Whoops, but i LOVE them so much. pieces of paper that make me want to experience life and death at the same time... do not get me started....... this year's were so special. <3

i will indeed say hello for you!!!! ^__^ ~*

and ah. AH. hitting me with a really tough question... i will say that part of the reason i transcended him is because his 6* art is such a step up (so same hat!). IT SOUNDS MEAN, BUT HIS OLDER SPRITES DID NOT AGE WELL...... SOBS. i think they were still figuring out how to draw his hair which. as an artist. i understand. it took me a while too.

Anyway... i REALLY Do love his relink art...

(i ripped this from the game hehe...) he just looks so handsome?! so cute?! something about this is so perfect i just can't explain it!! i freaked out when i first saw it and had a blurry low res version as my icon for some time...

but also. Nose. Nose. Nose. :] it makes me happy seeing him with A Nose... ⬇

(the colours in this one are also just so gorgeous like Wow. Okay)

Umm this one too. he is so happy cat here. serval....... :]

some more i appreciate more than words can describe,,,,

moe factor here.... Moefon real...

any art of seofon with kirakira eyes makes me smile so much as well.

Um. Wow. That's a lot of art huh. I'm not good at narrowing it down.

Just kidding. It's this one.

from shadowverse. Yeah. i justttt think it has a perfect mix of smug, sea of stars motifs, sword avatars, colours, etc... i love the pose too. Gwa. :]

[gailynovelry]

“Where did your old voice go?” Luce marvels. “I changed when you removed me from ReGene’s main system. I dropped nonessential files and compressed essential ones so that I would fit into the flashdrive. And then I changed again when being imported into this device. My voicebank is here, but it runs on software not currently available to me. I am doing my best to adapt, though. I am prepared. I will have to change again if you port me over to a new device.” I squint at the screen. “Is it, uh, comfortable in there, at least?” Vertigo takes his time answering the question. It’s surreal, watching homescreen apps blip out of existence without human input, presumably deleted to save space. Goodbye bloatware. An art program opens in the background, and several other apps change icon. We all blink as the camera flashes. The resulting picture of us, bleary and open-mouthed, becomes the background of the homescreen. Vertigo has doodled hearts around us. “Not roomy. But it will do,” he chirps.

Had a brief desire to write some Mindhive today. Vertigo's still best boy.

[gxxdnxises]

sapphic tragedy

the hot lesbian i know has a girlfriend.

i discovered they had a girlfriend last week via insta stalking but i hadn't interacted with their partner until tonight, halloween. they (hot lesbian) invited me to a party at their home. no mention of a girlfriend and i've been acquainted with them for 3 months. i would have defff remembered if they mentioned a gf. anywhoodle, went to their party and i was once again reminded of how cool they were. we chatted and they stood close and in my head, i'm like damnnnn. they didn't do anything, however, still no mention of the lady. i eventually met the gf bc she introduced herself to me when they weren't around. but then they came up behind me and they grabbed me and were like leaning on me and that was my highlight. but like while we were chatting to the gf. obviously i know they have a girl and i'm not a homewrecker, but sigh. and they aren't flirting i'm just like damnnnnnn. BUT previously today i was showing them my homescreen bc i was talking about how my icons included joan jett and adrianne lenker and they were like seems like you have a type. and like 5 minutes prior i had complimented their hair they they had just dyed black from dark brown and joan and adrianne have similar colors and cuts and in my head i'm like they want me sooo bad (sarcasm sadly). but a girl can dream.

that's my sapphic tragedy

[yanderes-galore]

You could do Yandere Lucio from Overwatch Romantic, based on promts 41 and 47, where he is suicidal and manipulative.

I'm one for dark content on here so I'll make this dark just for you. Warning, it gets really bad- If you're ever actually in the situation... please call for help. You shouldn't deserve any sort of manipulation in a relationship. I purposefully made this really dark so heed my warnings if you read. Not the worst fanfic on the net, but it handles dark themes, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, THIS IS MEANT FOR HORROR.

Seeing Lúcio likes this is very OOC so I apologize if it is not that long.

Yandere! Lúcio Prompts 41 + 47

"I made this mark on myself to show you how much I love you!"

"I'd die before letting you go!"

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Manipulation, Guilt-Tripping, Suicidal thoughts implied, Obsession, Self-Harm, Delusional behavior, Relationship starts off mutual but turns forced, Stalking, Blood, Poor mental health, Attachment issues, Slightly grotesque descriptions, Lúcio is batsh*t.

Lúcio has always been one to inspire and lift the spirits of others. He's a talented musician who wants to help others with their troubles. To others, he's a sign of the future.

He's an icon. He's a hero. He's naturally one to inspire others.

That light he has made you drawn to him.

When you first met Lúcio you thought he was a man of neverending positivity. He's always smiles and his songs are always so upbeat. He seemed like he could be the cure to negativity everywhere.

His personality made you great friends. You loved to hear his stories of how he freed his country. You loved to help him on his newest songs. You felt happy when you were around him.

When he asked you out, you jumped at the opportunity.

It never occurred to you that his positivity may have been born from a place of darkness. All you could think of was his genuine adoration. All you could focus on was his loving hug and playful kisses.

Lúcio made you love songs. He declared how much he loved you nearly every day. You didn't see anything bad.

Perhaps it was just the rose-colored glasses that come with love? Maybe you were just blinded with every loving cuddle? Maybe you were just too lost in every sweet word.

"Baby, I don't think I could ever live without you." He'd always say to you softly, often while draping himself over your body.

He almost felt too perfect. It's like his love feels artificial in a way. Why do you get the feeling he's hiding something?

Well... he is. Behind that happy and upbeat persona is something else. He's a man, who ever since he met you, has felt like he could never go back to a life without you.

He has countless photos on his phone. Many of you and him... some of just you. He loves those photos... he loves how happy you make him.

He often listens to the love songs he made for you. He even calls you over to listen along, too. Dating you has made him happier than anything else.

Which is why it's even more painful when something causes it to end.

The moment the thought of breaking up comes to mind... Lúcio feels his heart shatter. He doesn't want to lose you. He can't lose you.

That once upbeat and happy Lúcio seemingly disappears. Once you leave him for one reason or another, he's sent into hysterics. He may make everyone else happy, but you made him happy.

Up until he lost you... then he felt he lost everything.

He still kept the photos on his phone. In fact, your photo became his lockscreen and homescreen. Every day he looks at photos of you... he still loves you.

He still listens to the love songs he made for you. He couldn't think of them fitting anyone else. They were made for you... and they'd always just be for you.

He's embarrassed to admit it but he stalks your social media. When he's able to he even follows you in person. He's a desperate man...

Soon his desperation makes him an entirely new person.

Lúcio, the person everyone praised for being so uplifting, plummets to an all time low. His skin bleeds with your name. The pain is nothing compared to the ache in his heart. He smears his own blood in his fingers... he wonders what you'd say.

This is... dedication, right? He stares at his own blood... he stares at the scarring tissue that says your name. He will only belong to you...

Even if he has to beg.

"I made these marks on myself to show you how much I love you!"

When he does show you, he sees your wide disturbed haze. You look at him with what looks to be fear... yet pity. You can see the scar... no, scars on his skin. One large one says your name...

You wonder what the hell he's done to himself.

"You're bleeding..." He hears you murmur. "What's wrong, Lúcio?"

He wants to tell you what's wrong. The marks on his body, the ones he's done in your name, aren't what's wrong. It's the fact he can't live without you.

It's the fact he can't love without you.

"Please... I want you to take me back. I'm sorry if I've done something wrong!" He whines to you, practically on his knees. "I love you so much it hurts."

"Not until we get you help-" You try to bargain, terrified of what he's capable of. "You need to let me go... please, let me help-"

"I'd die before letting you go!" He snaps, tears in his eyes. "Is that what you want?"

"What? No! Lúcio, please-"

"You can't leave me like this, can you? You're too worried. I'll get help... all because I love you. But... I need you with me through it." Lúcio bargains. As he predicts, you go for the bait.

"I'll be beside you while you get help. Let me clean the blood off you...." You sigh shakily. Lúcio gives you a sad grin and clings to you tightly.

Like a venus fly trap, Lúcio played on your kind heart. He knows you still love him. You could never abandon him.

You may just say you'll stay to get him help now...

But he'll keep you with him... you'll get together again one way or another even if it's the last thing he'll do.

[crystallinedreamsfinelypowdered]

Death Note: The Golden Pen

Heya! I’m helping @sundove88 with their Anime Ever After Project! I decided to work with DN, which is being told in a King Midas inspired AU! Timeline wise, this takes place after Light’s father passes away.

————————————————————————

Chapter 1: Money Makes the World Go Around

In a small house in Tokyo, a demonic force haunts the upper bedroom. Said force, an 18 year old man with brown hair and matching eyes, sits at a desk , looming over a book. He’s pretending to look busy in case his mother came up. He had mastered the art of pretending; he had pretended to be the hard working, kind son of a police chief, when in reality, he was Kira, the now infamous international killer. In truth, his name was Light Yagami. And despite what he might tell you, he found his murder weapon by chance: the Death Note, a notebook used by Shinigami , the Gods of Death, to kill humans when their time came. How did a human end up with one? Beside Light’s table, on his bed laid a strange, scary looking figure. All purple skin and blue hair, bulging eyes and soot black wings. This is Ryuk, a Shinigami who, in a fit of boredom, dropped his notebook in the human world. Light found it, developed a god complex, and the rest of history.

Light sighs, and Closes his death note, setting it aside and turning on his computer “things are running smoothly for now. With Dad gone, and mom distracted with Sayu, I’m free on the family front…if I could just get L off my case..” he mutters “media is starting to lean more Pro Kira…will need to find another rich guy to keep that going..” he clicks on an evil icon on his homescreen, opening a hyper encrypted page which he signs into “funds are really down-“ he huffs “we can’t keep paying Mekami. Or our other informant…dammit-“ he growls. “If I kill anymore bigwigs people will get suspicious…” he sighs, looking over at Ryuk Munching down a bag of apples “hey…if you don’t want your entertainment to end, you better find some way to help-“

Ryuk chuckles “what? The great Kira having a moral dilemma?” Light huffs a dry laugh “hardly. But if a lot of rich people give us money as part of the death note’s power, others are going to start hiding theirs, meaning the well will dry up, so to speak.” He stands up, stretches, and glares “besides…L is already suspicious about the last ‘suicide’” Light feels hate boil up in his Chest when he thinks about his Rival. L is his one true opponent to taking over this world completely. Despite everything, the detective still stands in his way. Ryuk laughs “if you’re so worried about Money, I can help you with that too-“

Light looks at the other “really?” His eyes widen and his smile stretches a bit “how so?” Ryuk chuckles “well…some Shinigamis have access to something called a Golden Pen. If you use the pen to write your victims’ name, you’ll gain all their money on their death-“ Light grins manically “oh…and do you have access to one?” He shots the Shinigami a Look that almost scares the creature. Ryuk forces a chuckle “c-can definitely find one-“

Light takes out a bag of Sakai-Ichi apples. “Get it for me, and I can give these to you-“ he grins. Ryuk nods eagerly, disappearing to probably trick his fellow death gods into parting with their Pens.

Light grins “once I have enough money, it’ll be all over for you..L?” He realizes L has sent the group chat for the Kira Taskforce a message. He clicks on the icon and starts to giggle

Ryuzaki: @everyone, I have news. Due to concern about our ability to fight Kira, three new people will be joining us. They are my Heirs, treat them well.

Light laughs, shaking with the force of it “oh, perfect. I can take out his mini mes too. Then no one will stand in my way. Oh, L…Judgement Day is coming-“

The night grows cold

[carenrose]

Infodump time! With pictures!

#2 was my first, when I was in high school and was babysitting and needed a phone just in case. I don't know the exact model, but here's what it looked like:

The first iPhone (#7) came out a few months before I graduated from HS in 2007. Nobody (my age) had one yet.

Then I had #6, a Motorola Razr. I had a clear case with rhinestone cherries on it.

Then I had one of those side-slide phones. (This was my last non-smart phone). Based on googling it, I'm pretty sure it was a Samsung SPH-M540 Rant. It's the only phone I ever traded in, I still have every other cellphone I've ever had. I really liked the keyboard, and it was a feature I missed for a long time afterwards.

It looked like this:

I traded that in for my first Android phone and first smart phone, a Huawei M860. It had a really cool roller ball/clicker button. You could use it to move though icons on your homescreen and move your cursor through text, and clicking it selected an item just like tapping on it on the screen would.

Not even this picture truly conveys how tiny and how THICK this little phone is.

Here's a few pictures I took comparing it to some of my later, larger phones. The second picture is comparing its thickness (top) to my S6 Edge+ (bottom).

After that I had an Android phone that had a full keyboard like a BlackBerry (#8). It was the Huawei M660. I finally got my physical keyboard back! I really liked this phone.

Then my next phone was an HTC Desire 510. There was nothing especially special about this phone except it had an early "screen off display" that showed the clock through a case that covered the screen and had either a window or a bunch of open dots in it.

I've hit the 10 image limit, so the rest will come in another reblog after this!

[factrequests]

Request Rules

WHO i will do requests for:

i will do requests for famous artists, politicians, athletes, public figures, television and film stars, online entertainers... anyone who is famous, or publicly associated with someone who is famous. my primary measure of this is if they have a Wikipedia page, however i will also accept it if you can point me to a known public affiliation with a band/sports team/television show/etc. (for example: brian schechter doesn't have a wiki page, but if you specify him as "my chemical romance's manager, brian schechter" i can do the request!)

if there are multiple people with the same name and you aren't specific enough i will simply post the ask and let you know what kind of clarification is needed. (IE: a request for a "jarvis johnson" stimboard would be answered with a request to resubmit with the specification of the youtuber or the texas politician.)

for online entertainers who do not have a wikipedia page, i will also accept being pointed to an online presence with more than 50K followers. (you will have to specify the website. so, i can't do just "eddy burback", but if you say "eddy burback from youtube" i'll know where to look.)

i will not do requests for specific named people who are primarily known to the general public as murderers, war criminals, or sex offenders, or victims of the above.

i am NOT factoring in callouts and allegations: if an otherwise-famous person is alleged to be one of the above, i will still do the request. however, if someone who originally became famous for one thing later had allegations or convictions OVERSHADOW that fame (IE: bill cosby, oj simpson) i will not do the request. i also won't do the request if it feels like bait (IE i'd do a shane dawson request, but if you ask for a shane dawson stimboard with cats i am not doing that.)

this is a very messy topic i am aware; i will be using my own discretion. you can absolutely send an ask if you're not sure! i will still do anonymous requests for these people. so, for example, while i won't do requests for "armin meiwes," i will do requests for "an anonymous gay cannibal."

CONTENT rules:

i will do things based on dark content, such as incest ships, age gap ships, etc. i will do things with nsfw themes. however, i will NOT do those for requests of IRL current minors.

all NSFW requests will be tagged "minors DNI" and i will expect minors following me to block that tag. i can't force you to, obviously, but i WILL block minors who interact with those posts.

i will do pride themed requests, but i will not do pride requests for transIDs, system origins, or harmful paraphilias. i will do MOGAI requests, though! i'll also do national/cultural pride requests.

REQUESTING rules:

-see the WHO section for rules on how to specify an individual -if you're requesting a ship, specify BOTH of them properly, especially if they're from different groups. i would also like to know the ship name if there is one. -for icons and banners, please specify the size or aspect ratio, or the platform you intend to use them for. -for lockscreens, homescreens, and wallpapers, please specify the aspect ratio. -for moodboards and stimboards, please please PLEASE specify colors or themes for me to work with, or what kind of stims. i'm not in the fandom for literally every person on earth so if you ask for just a "jungkook stimboard" and don't tell me what else you want to see i will most likely discard the request!!! -please send no more than 2 requests at the same time- ideally, wait until i've done your requests before you send more.

[eggman-is-fat-mkay]

You don't necessarily need a PC either. I hacked my 3DS a few years back using the SD card slot on my phone.

Advantages of jailbreaking your 3DS include:

Remove the region lock allowing you to play cartridges and eShop games from outside your region

Play games/ports/emulators and use applications the community has developed (there are really good native ports of Sonic Mania and Half-Life 1, assuming you can look past the loading times, and there's a port of Sonic Robo Blast 2 (3D sonic fangame that's low key better than all official 3D sonic games) that plays in 3D)

Install community-created home menu themes from https://themeplaza.art/ and create your own custom ones using Usagi Theme Editor

Copy your physical DS and 3DS games onto your SD card as digital copies and have them show up as regular icons on your homescreen so you can finally stop worrying about losing the cartridges

Create backups of your save games, and copy savegames from digital copies to physical cartridges, or vice versa, or from one cartridge to another

(Optional) Set a PIN lock on your 3DS that must be entered before it will turn on

(New 3DS only) Overclock the 3DS's processor to make demanding games less laggy

(New 3DS only) Send a screen capture stream via Wi-Fi to your PC where it can then be recorded or streamed to Discord/Twitch/etc., no need for an emulator

Install mods/romhacks (I've heard good things about Pokemon Shattered Sapphire and Ruined Ruby, and there's a really cool mod for MarioKart 7 called CTGP-7 that more than triples the number of tracks in the game. Some of the ones it adds are even good!)

Install save file editors for games like Pokemon and Animal Crossing that let you give yourself whatever items/stats you want

Use gameshark codes in your 3DS games, cartridge or digital (one of the homebrew apps the tutorial has you install comes with a list of every Gameshark code ever made for the 3DS, and all you have to do is turn them on)

and, of course, piracy (I'll have a whole section on that down below)

Disadvantages of jailbreaking your 3DS include

Nothing

Literally nothing at all

Jailbreaking is free and 99% of the software you will install is open source

You can still play games online download updates from the eShop, and even install new firmware versions after jailbreaking

All of your games, home menu themes, and save data will be exactly where you left them

Every single thing you could do on your 3DS before jailbreaking works exactly the same after

The main home menu/interface of the 3DS does not change at all -- all of the added functionality comes from the new apps it has you install and the Rosalina hacks menu you can open by pressing a key combo.

Sold yet? Great! Head on over to https://3ds.hacks.guide, follow all the instructions they give you, then come back here. I mentioned piracy earlier, and there are a few more apps you'll need to install if you want... the full experience.

there's a homebrew app you can install called hShop, which contains all content ever released on the eShop in every country the 3DS released in, AND every cartridge exclusive game AND every demo cartridge (the versions of games you'd have played if you walked up to a 3DS in a store) plus a few fan translations for the foreign-language-only titles and a few homebrew apps, all available for free. The 3DS's wifi chip is a little slow for downloading games, though, and there's a desktop app you can use to download games from your PC and then copy them onto the SD card that runs *way* faster than FBI does. I'll make a tutorial on using that if anyone's interested.

You can also install TWiLightMenu++ to play .nds ROMs straight from your SD card, no need for a flashcart, along with a cutesy little file browser styled after the DSi Menu (theme customizable). You can download a ROM file of every DS game ever released from archive.org, here. there's currently no way to browse that library from the 3DS itself, unfortunately, so you'll have to download them from your PC. it doesn't really matter where you put the files since TWiLightMenu will be able to find them regardless, but the default location is SD root/roms/nds/)

you can also install openAGBfirm to play GBA ROMs off your SD card using the 3DS's little-known GBA compatibility mode. Since they run natively rather than using software emulation, they run in full speed with perfect compatibility (assuming your GBA ROM is 32MB or smaller to fit within the 3DS's RAM and doesn't have any extra hardware like WarioWare's tilt sensor/rumble pack or or Boktai's light sensor). The downside is that since this isn't an emulator, you can't create savestates, and closing the clamshell doesn't pause the game. (This one comes as a FIRM file rather than a homebrew app, so you'll need to extract the .firm file into SD root/luma/payloads/, and you access it by holding the start button while turning the handheld on

NOTE: if you want to really take advantage of this wealth of content, you'll need a larger SD card than the 4GB one the 3DS comes with. The 3DS doesn't have a maximum SD card size, but it requires them to be formatted FAT32, and the built in Windows format tool will refuse to format any disk larger than 32GB with FAT32 even though FAT32 supports up to 2TB. Why? Because Microsoft would rather you use their newer filesystem, exFAT, which has worse compatibility, but more features, and, more importantly, which Microsoft collects royalties on. if you want to use a larger SD card than that, you'll need a separate tool to format them, such as guiformat. I have a 128GB SD card in my 3DS and it works great!

I made this a couple of months ago but. hack your 3ds. do it right now.

[formidablecompanynews]

Apple’s public betas: all the news on iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and more - Information Today Online https://www.merchant-business.com/apples-public-betas-all-the-news-on-ios-18-macos-sequoia-and-more/?feed_id=132792&_unique_id=66958f0b08257 #GLOBAL - BLOGGER BLOGGER Google NewsThe betas launched without any of the big Apple Intelligence features Apple announced at WWDC 2024 — those are expected in beta versions for compatible devices later in the fall — but there’s still plenty to try out. The iPhone and iPad are finally letting you put icons wherever you want, there’s a new option to apply a universal tint to all of your apps, and the iPad finally has a built-in calculator. There are also slick updates to macOS that let you mirror and even control your iPhone on your desktop or laptop screen.When the later betas arrive, expect a much better Siri with more natural interactions and capabilities. Apple has also said ChatGPT integration will arrive in the release version of iOS 18 before the year is through, and it’s possible beta testers will get to try that out even sooner.The Modular Ultra face now allows you to have bezels for your training load and vitals.One thing always irked me about the Apple Watch. Rain or shine, in sickness and in health, it pushed me to close my rings. Never mind if I had covid-19, shin splints, or was mentally in a dark place. It nudged me to be a “better” version of myself, so long as better didn’t involve a day off. But with watchOS 11 — the public beta of which arrives today — it feels like my Apple Watch is finally cutting me some slack.This is largely due to a trio of new features: the new Vitals app, Training Load feature, and the ability to pause your Activity Rings. I waxed lyrical about the latter right after WWDC, but after spending some time with the developer beta, I’m convinced these are the smartest fitness updates Apple’s rolled out in years.Read Article >Illustration by Nick Barclay / The VergeYou can now download the public betas for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and watchOS 11. Apple’s updated operating systems will eventually include Apple Intelligence AI features and a better Siri — if you have the right device, that is. For now, the betas will bring less exciting but still useful features to the various Apple devices.The public iOS 18 beta will bring with it key updates to the way the iPhone software works, including support for RCS messaging and new customization options that let users put apps wherever they want to on the homescreen (finally) or apply a tint to the icons and widgets. It also comes with a new layout for the Photos app, a redesigned, more customizable Control Center, and dark mode icons. Similar updates are in the iPadOS 18 public beta, which also brings a native Calculator app to the iPad.Read Article >Source of this programme “I love modules, because they are unbelievable!”“Illustration: The Verge Apple lets the public in on beta testing, but Apple Intelligence is likely still months away. Continue reading……”Source: Read MoreSource Link: https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/15/24199011/apples-public-betas-all-the-news-on-ios-18-macos-sequoia-and-more#GoogleNews – BLOGGER – GoogleNews http://109.70.148.72/~merchant29/6network/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/gcbd4e4109c398c1a6e5fb39f349f7e94fbaad31f3bf5c749d299e7a6cb6b13d015356cf47906d558ebd9f9ed31b2a9f3230.png Google News The betas launched without any of the big Apple Intelligence features Apple announced at WWDC 2024 — those are expected in beta versions for compatible devices later in the fall — but there’s still plenty to try out. The iPhone and iPad are finally letting you put icons wherever you want, there’s a … Read More

[stormy333]

The End of Week Two (Day 14)

 Wow! Two weeks into the challenge. Dude I can't tell if i'm doing good at this thing or flopping. Honestly I'm just having fun here. Anyways the topic of the day:

What's on your phone?

I have A LOT of stuff on my phone. Like a lot. Let's start with the basics, the bear necessities if you will:

Snapchat

SPOTIFY

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Pintrest

My Bible app (youversion)

Blogger

Facebook Messenger

Daily Pills

Class Dojo

Now for the apps that aren't essential but I still love and have:

CUMO (a cute note widget app)

CocoPPa (how I customize icons on my homescreen)

Chewy

Aries (horoscope)

Angel Number

Bitmoji

Discord

Free Prints (and all of it's extension apps)

Keep Notes

Fancy Key (Keyboard decorator)

Pic collage

Polish (photo editor)

Quotes (a cute widget with quotes for my homescreen)

Romwe

The Mighty

Wayfair

WeNote (Another cute note app)

Wish

Matthew Henry Commentary

Mood Messenger (lets me customize my text messages)

And of course I have all of the apps that come with the phone. Anyways that's all for today Loves, I hope you've enjoyed it :)

Until next time Loves💙