#i think when making these you should have to disclose how many times you got dress-coded in high school bc i do not trust their judgment

[doppiomacchiato]

i wish i could find reliable inspo for work clothes without influencers in office siren cosplay everywhere get that tube top out of my face and stop pissing me off

[the-joy-of-knowledge]

25 Laws of power for women

Conceal your goals especially the ones that are appealing. Losing weight, reinventing yourself, marrying wealthy. Instead talk about your altruistic goals - to help children, invest in education, this will chase insecure people with vile intentions.

Do not give anyone your source of power: Was is a book that changed your life? a mentor? a movie? Never give up your secret to success. If forced to do say allude to God, the universe, the a random phenomenon

Use the patriarchy to your favor; we live in a world that is, only associate with men who have power, use that power for good.

Never appear too perfect but be selectively vulnerable when needed. Only share something that you will be comfortable saying. You might say “I forget my keys all the time,” “I don’t know how to perfectly park a car “. But never disclose something you are not comfortable with just because you are afraid of being perfect.

Maintain distance in relationships. Friends are the best and you need them. But if you feel that they are becoming too dependent, see them at your own will. But also the reverse could be the case. Your friend may keep a distance, and that is the way of life. You have got to move on from it.

Develop your own style that makes you unique, beautiful, and elegant. Avoid trying to fit in the crowd of people who claim to care less about their style yet have too many opinions about other women’s style

Avoid male friends at all cost, you will have male colleagues, male bosses, male acquaintances, business partners. Keep it that way. You do not want a Truman Capote divulging your secrets to the world. Do not keep a man who does not fit your standard.

You do not have to win at every game. Pick and choose what is best for you and leave room for others. And step down if you have attained that level of success, do not let the society do it for you.

Trust people but remember that we are all humans. So trust with discretion!

Confuse people with kindness; people are not always comfortable with beautiful and intelligent women. That power is too intimidating so confuse them by being genuinely generous, curious, kind, and passionate.

Keep your strong opinions to yourself.. if you support a movement, a way of life, do so silently.

We all have dirty laundry, wash them privately, don’t expose yourself. Remain silent when people try to attack you or shame you. Whatever is not confirmed is not true. You are the only one who knows all the truth about you.

Don’t attract pity or praise: People who pity you do not help you, in fact they might think that you are weak and could mock you at their annual gossipping meeting. And if you are doing things for the sake of praise you are wasting your time.

Choose yourself all the time; never put any one’s feelings above yours.

Trust your own intuition if you feel someone is being malicious towards you, giving you back handed compliments then you should let them go

Never speak bad of another woman. Do not lazy around gossipping. Keep your hands clean and your conscience clear.

Avoid women with low self esteem they will bring you down. For some reason they do not like seeing other women who are doing better than them

Be careful who you seek validation from. Not everyone needs to be pleased. If they are in no way capable of contributing to your life in the ways you prefer, then don’t ask them for their opinions or please them.

Do not compete with other women, if you do you are only putting them on a pedestal. You are making the the standard by which you measure your progress. If you do compete, begin digging your grave.

Do not give unsolicited advice, do not share the inner workings of your mind, If your mouth is very charitable you better start journaling.

Be well-rounded and interesting. It attracts people. It also keeps you busy because you are continually improving and learning. An idle mind is an easily subdued one.

Avoid women who want to live vicariously through you; they want to know who you know, shop where you shop, befriend who you befriend, wear what you wear.

Pay attention to the source of your discomfort; get rid of them. You tell them your dreams and they remind you of all your hindrances. They ask why are you dressed so fancy as though fancy isn’t subjective. They undermine you interests and goals. They will also be quick to bring you down because they are afraid of your potential.

Do not fear power or please power. When we see powerful people we try to hard to befriend them, to be close to them but you need to be comfortable without them. Don’t push yourself in the name of friendship, do not try too hard to be in their inner circle. Your independence of mind is the most important. Instead become a powerful woman, aloof to the presence of power but aware of its importance. Be an ingenious and intelligent and use your creativity to uplift yourself. When you do so it will be hard to ignore you. Even the powerful will become an ally.

Enjoy moments of solitude. Use that time to develop yourself, improve your body, learn new skills, create with your mind, read widely, become more elegant, then launch yourself.

Remember the most powerful women are the most intelligent. Inspired by Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power. Use at your discretion.

[sopebubbles]

Two

Masterlist

Synopsis: in a world where alphas, betas, and omegas live along side modern humans as second class citizens, you've fallen through the cracks of a society that wants to take everything wonderful from you. Luckily a timely encounter with the boys just might save your life.

Chapter summary: the boys try to find your pack and face some painful truths.

Warnings: I feel like I should warn you that mc does not appear on screen at all for this whole chapter, language, honestly it's just pretty fuckin angsty.

Wc: 4k

The ride through the kaleidoscope of traffic lights and street lamps passed in near silence as they got closer to your address. Jungkook didn't notice, as caught up as he was in his own head, but for Yoongi the tension was excruciating. With one hand still on the wheel he stretched the other out to grip Jungkook's arm.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

Jungkook turned slowly to look at the other. "Talk about what?"

With a knowing smile that wasn't truly happy at all, Yoongi slid his hand down to grasp Jungkook's fist, which had been clenched to trembling on his thigh.

"Whatever is bothering you."

Jungkook rubbed his forehead and sighed, consciously unclenching his fist to let his fingers slot between Yoongi's and take the comfort the alpha's large, warm hands offered. He wouldn't really know where to begin. He'd seen so much shit today, the worst parts of society, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. When he first became a cop less than a year ago, he thought he could make a difference, make this world a safer place for everyone in it. But he'd quickly learned that more often than not he was merely a witness, someone who gathered the pieces to say this is what happened when something terrible occurred and to pray for justice that would likely never come. Sometimes it was just a bit too much to handle or to speak of.

Yoongi knew that all too well. And Jungkook knew the offer to talk was just that, an offer, not a demand. Like Jungkook and Jimin, Yoongi saw horror on a daily basis, and he knew there were times that there weren't words to speak. All the pack knew there was an overwhelming amount of injustice all around them. Jin saw so much evidence of it in his office where he worked within the legal system to try and make a difference. But none of them saw it as viscerally each and every day the way the three of them did.

"I can't stop thinking about the phone call with that woman. The way she sounded…not just disgusted but shocked. She really had no idea that Y/N isn't Sap. How is that even possible?"

Yoongi shrugged. "It's not uncommon for Lykos to try to pass for Sapiens in the workplace. It's usually only betas who can get away with it but," he shrugged again. "You said it was a bar right? Between scent blockers and so many other people, maybe it's easy to hide. She gets better wages, better tips. Even though lots of professions aren't required to disclose a second gender, there are plenty of assholes out there that won't hire an omega. Or an alpha for that matter," Yoongi added.

Jungkook sneered. "I still can't believe there are betas out there who honestly think it's better for them to pretend to be Saps. I could never imagine doing that. To just disown your entire heritage like that?" He shook his head and stared out the window.

Yoongi just pursed his lips. He didn't think he could explain it to Jungkook, nor did he think it would matter at the moment. It was good that Jungkook was a proud Lykos, that he was proud of his family and his pack. But Yoongi knew from experience that it wasn't so easy for everyone. Passing for Sapien was, in most cases, a uniquely beta privilege. It was probably even harder for alphas than omegas in Yoongi's opinion. If Yoongi could have passed for Sapien or if alphas weren't so strongly discriminated against, he might have gone to med school and become a doctor. Not that Yoongi was complaining. He was proud to do his job most of the time, even if it wasn't everything he had once dreamed. Luckily, Yoongi didn't have to continue the conversation because the GPS on his phone told them they had arrived.

The building they were looking at was a dingy, dilapidated brown that hadn't seen a fresh coat of paint in several decades. Just as well. The building would probably be better off torn down than renovated.

"Jesus," Yoongi muttered under his breath. Jungkook unbuckled his seat belt. "Wait, let's have a plan. You wanna do good cop, bad cop?" Yoongi asked, gesturing first to his partner and then to himself.

Jungkook shook his head but there was a smile on his lips. "How about a cop and a concerned citizen."

Yoongi sighed. "Sounds lame, but okay."

The pair exited the vehicle and walked briskly up to the front door. The external entrance to the building didn't appear to have any functional lock, and Yoongi's alpha growled in his head at the lack of security as they walked right in the door. Inside, they could hear several TVs playing loudly, probably trying and failing to drown out the sound of the couple fighting on the second floor who they heard as Jungkook navigated them to the unit printed on your license. The mixture of scents in the building was just as loud. Everyone living in the building must be Lykos. When they arrived at #23–only the gold 2 was still present on the door while the 3 was outlined by peeling brown paint–Jungkook rapped on the door with three firm, decisive knocks. Yoongi could practically hear every asshole in the building clench at the sound of what could only be a cop's knock. He had to suppress a chuckle.

After a few seconds, they heard the sound of a chain and several deadbolts make way so that a young Lykos could open the door a few inches. By the smell of her, Yoongi would guess she was a beta.

"Good evening, ma'am. We're sorry to bother you. We're looking for the home of a woman named Y/N Y/L/N. Does she live here?"

"No, sir. She doesn't live here." The woman replied mechanically. Jungkook couldn't read her expression from behind the door.

"Please, we need to get in touch with her family. If you have any information about her," Jungkook pressed.

The woman hesitated a moment before speaking again. "Wait just a moment."

She closed the door on them and Jungkook and Yoongi shared a look of raised eyebrows. The former hoped to hear the slide of the last chain, but seconds ticked by and when she returned the door remained blocked. The woman passed several envelopes through the small space.

"I think she must have been that sad omega that lived here before me. I've been collecting these. Meant to take them to be returned to sender but I keep forgetting. Maybe you can get them to her."

Jungkook took the envelopes, not knowing what else he could do. He cleared his throat. "Thanks."

The beta closed the door once again without another word.

Jungkook heaved a defeated sigh and turned back to Yoongi. He flipped through the various envelopes he had been given. Past dues and final notices in among the junk. Just as they were about to walk toward the exit, a door on the opposite side of the hall opened, and a man stood against the door jam with his arms crossed.

"You looking for that little omega girl?" The tall man asked. Yoongi didn't need to smell him to know he was an alpha. He didn't want to smell him.

"Maybe. You know anything about her?" Jungkook replied vaguely.

"Y/N, right?" Jungkook gave a curt nod. "She lived across the hall for a year and a half. Three weeks ago she was evicted," the alpha informed him. Jungkook looked down at the late bills in his hand. That made sense.

"Any idea where she lives now? Or how to get in touch with her pack?" Yoongi chimed in.

The man gave an amused smile and shook his head. "This is not a place for people with packs," he answered with a gesture toward the general state of the place. "People in this building are usually lone wolves," he added. "Not that I didn't offer to help her with her heats, you know? I'm a helpful guy, especially for a pretty little omega like that."

Jungkook swallowed down the bile that rose in his throat while Yoongi merely stared the man down with a stoney look usually reserved for people who walked a little too close to Hoseok.

"Yeah, thanks for your help," Jungkook muttered as he walked past the man's door and down the hall toward the exit. Yoongi held his stance until Jungkook was a few paces ahead and then fell in line.

The drive back home was even more silent than before, and when they finally arrived they were surprised to find the house just as quiet. All five of their pack members were still awake, but no one spoke as Hoseok sat at the entrance to the hallway and stared down Namjoon and Taehyung. Jin cradled Jimin in his lap with his face buried in Jimin's scent gland. Or maybe it was Jimin that was holding him down.

"What's going on here?" Yoongi chuckled as he dropped his keys into the communal dish.

"These spoiled little alpha fucks have forgotten what the word no means," Hoseok replied, arms flexing as the crossed tightly over his chest.

"Is that so?" Yoongi asked with a raised brow.

"Yes, and just in case you've forgotten too: it means you cannot mount strange omegas without their consent, and consent cannot be given in the middle of heat," Hoseok said tightly.

"Jesus, did you jump her?" Jungkook asked, looking at his mates.

"No. We did not jump her!" Namjoon insisted just a little too forcefully.

"But you would have!" Hoseok fired back. "Alpha scum."

"You're acting like we're pigs or something," Taehyung grumbled.

"You are pigs," Jimin offered from behind him.

"You guys don't get it," Jin finally broke in, showing his face for the first time. "It's not like we want to fuck her. It's just a need. We are alphas, it's our duty to breed an omega in heat."

Yoongi shook his head as he joined his fellow alphas on the couch, squeezing in between Jin and Taehyung before pulling Jimin half-way into his lap to get a sniff because yeah, your scent had saturated every molecule of air inside the house. "Yeah, I don't think that's gonna fly this time, Jin."

"Look, we are doing our best to control ourselves here. Can you give us some credit?" Namjoon asked, but he only met with Hoseok's stony glare.

"Do you think her actual alphas will be thanking you for your bare minimum decency?" He turned his head to Jungkook. "Speaking of which, did you find them?"

Jungkook sat down near Hoseok and for once made an effort not to let his scent spread out, not until he could level himself out. The omega was on high alert, and didn't miss the pungent edge of mildew coming from him. Hoseok grabbed his sleeve and tugged until the beta scooted closer.

"What's wrong? What happened?" He urged as he ran fingers through Jungkook's hair.

The youngest sighed. "She doesn't live there but she used to. An old neighbor said she got evicted a few weeks back."

"No forwarding address?" Jin asked, fighting to keep his clarity.

"Neighbor said she was a 'lone wolf,'" Yoongi added, voice muffled by Jimin.

"Alone?" Someone echoed as Jungkook rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"That place…it was awful. Even though I see it all the time—I don't think. I come home every night and I let myself forget that there are people out there with no pack, who are struggling just to survive."

"Kookie," Hoseok cooed, rubbing a hand up and down his mate's back.

"We're very lucky," Jin agreed.

"There are so many loners these days. We're trying so hard to get kids into good packs, but it can be tough to find the right fit. And so many of them have trust issues or have never had a pack…they don't know what they're getting into at all. It scares me to think that could have been me," Jimin reflected. It was only a handful of years ago that a chance meeting with Yoongi had led him to his home. Jimin's light scent and lack of a family history often excluded him from groups and from forming proper bonds with other Lykos. He was the last to join their pack, but it was always a blessing.

The sadness filling the room and his mates caused panic to rise in Hoseok's chest. His fingers curled into Jungkook's shirt. "Maybe the neighbor was wrong. Maybe she moved out to move in with a pack!" He suggested with forced cheerfulness. "Did you find any other leads in her bag?"

Jungkook shook his head. "I didn't have a chance."

Hoseok popped to his feet. "I'll go get it from the room!" He paused as he turned. "Keep your eyes on those four," he added before padding to your door and closing it behind him in a futile attempt to keep your heavy scent inside.

"I was just reading an article today about how pack life is healthier for people. Omegas live 8 years longer on average as part of a pack than alone," Namjoon told them just to fill the silence. He was one of the lucky ones, like Jin, Hoseok, Tae and Jungkook, who had only ever known pack life. For them any other way seemed inconceivable. They'd gone from pups to their own mature pack without ever living one night on their own, but even the thought of it ached with unbearable loneliness. Lykos were not meant to be alone.

Hoseok returned a moment later, large black purse in hand.

"How is she?" Yoongi asked.

Hoseok gave a dramatic eye roll. "She's fine."

"Hyung," Tae whined.

"She's so fucking out of it she doesn't know where she is right now, Taehyung."

That did not soothe any of the alphas fraying nerves.

"Maybe we could just cuddle–"

"No." Hoseok cut Namjoon off. "You are not going in there for anything. End of discussion."

He dropped the bag on the floor in front of Jungkook, who opened it and began to carefully sort through your belongings. At the top of the bag was a change of clothes that he couldn't stop himself from taking a sniff of, catching your normal crisp apple scent instead of the gooey apple pie you were giving off tonight. The trace on the shirt was so faint it was almost drowned out among the other smells in the house.

"Let me smell it," Namjoon chirped before he could stop himself.

"Don't you feel embarrassed?" Hoseok returned quickly and harshly, and Namjoon cowed his head because he did.

Jungkook merely set the clothes to the side and continued to search. Next he pulled out two boxes of extra strength scent blockers, the kind that go inside your nose so you don't smell anyone around you, and then a bottle of scent spray that you bought at a Sap store. It smelled similar to your apple, but more artificial and layered with other scents.

"I guess this is how she passes," Jungkook mumbled as he set the items in front of Hoseok, who picked up the bottle and sniffed its top, wrinkling his nose at the chemical smell. Your scent was much nicer than that.

The pack's attention was drawn to a rattling sound before Jungkook pulled out a large plastic medicine bottle. He looked briefly at the label before shaking the bottle and then handed it to Hoseok.

"If she had a full bottle of heat suppressants, why did she go down like that?" Jungkook wondered aloud.

The omega beside him unscrewed the cap and shook a single pill into his hand. "Holy fuck! I didn't know they were this big! How does anyone swallow that?"

"Let me see?" Jimin asked. He was probably more familiar with heat suppressants than any other pack member because they were required in order to stay in pretty much any mixed-gender shelter, and even in many single-gender ones. Hoseok replaced the cap and tossed the bottle across the room. Jimin picked it out of the air with one hand and brought it down in front of him and Yoongi. "Where the fuck did she get these?" Jimin asked after reading the label.

"What is it?" Jungkook asked. It wasn't something he was particularly well-versed in since Hobi had never taken any. And he'd never had any other omega.

"I've only ever heard about these," Yoongi said, taking the bottle from Jimin. "Some omega activists are trying to get these banned. They have mega doses of hormones to stop heats, but they can cause permanent damage to an omega's reproductive system. I've also heard that most omegas don't like to take them unless they have to because the side effects are really harsh."

"I've heard rumors that some of the shelters give them out to omegas who want to stay," Jimin added.

"Is this one of them?" Jungkook asked when he found a crumpled flier in your bag. The paper showed a posed group of people wearing smiles outside a generic looking building in the downtown area. It also stated the hours of operation and contact information. Jimin held out a hand and Jungkook passed it through the alphas to him.

Jimin gasped quietly. "This is the worst shelter in town. The people who run this are fundamentalists who think that Lykos are abominations. They preach that we are unnatural and against god. Kids sometimes come to us from there and have said they were prevented from nesting or sharing beds with others. I'm sure they gave her these before letting her in but-" That didn't answer how you had ended up in your current state.

Jungkook thought he was going to be sick, and he wasn't alone.

"Why would anyone go to an organization like that?" Taehyung wondered, his hand sliding into Namjoon's.

"Some people don't have any choice," Jimin answered.

Everyone sat in quiet thought for a moment until the sound of Jungkook's sob broke from his chest. Six heads snapped in his direction, but only one spoke up.

"Jungkook, come here, baby," Jin said with arms held open. Jimin moved down to sit over Namjoon and Taehyung while Yoongi squeezed to make room for Jungkook. In spite of being a beta, Jungkook was just a little too large to sit comfortably in the pack alpha's lap, but he sat down and let Jin pull his legs over his lap and snuggled into his chest. "Tell alpha what's going on," Jin cooed.

Jungkook tried to calm his sobs, which got easier when Yoongi pressed himself against the beta's back. It took a minute before he was able to speak, but no one rushed him.

"I saw an omega get killed today," he finally said in a watery voice. "He was just a couple years younger than Y/N. He was alone and he was shot by some hateful Sap, for no reason. And all I could think at the time was where is his pack? Why didn't they protect him? But he didn't have a pack. There wasn't anyone to call. And then we found Y/N. And I just…why isn't there anyone to call?"

Jin hugged the man tighter to his chest and let him cry. "It's okay, Kook. Let it out. It's okay. There are four good alphas here and no one is going to get hurt," he assured in a soft voice.

Jungkook sucked in the deepest breath he could before he pulled away and leaned into Yoongi. "Sorry, it was kind of a fucked up day," he said as he wiped his eyes.

Yoongi gave his arm a squeeze, one that said he was sorry there were so many fucked up days, because Yoongi always knew more about them than the others, because sometimes Yoongi and Jungkook would lay in the nest in the spare room and whisper the things that haunted them before they could go to sleep.

"You should have told me before we went out, Kookie. We didn't have to go." Jimin reached a hand out across the alphas and Jungkook took it.

"I'm glad we did though." He didn't want to think what it would be like otherwise.

"Pup, you need to tell us when things are weighing on you like that," Hoseok chided, still rooted to his spot on the floor.

"I honestly can't bring that to you all the time," Jungkook admitted.

"We’re your pack, Jungkook-ah," Jin reminded him. "It's our job to share your burden, especially when it's too hard."

"I'll try."

Hoseok sighed. "It's late. Everyone, go to bed. We can decide what to do next in the morning."

No one argued with the omega. The tone of the conversation had dampened their yearning for you in the other room.

"Are you coming, my love?" Jin asked with an arm outstretched to pull him up.

Hoseok shook his head. "You all go on."

"Honey, you can't sit here all night."

"I'll get some things settled for her and then I'll sleep on the couch. No one will get past me."

Jin pouted. "But it won't be the same in the nest without you. You haven't even gotten a chance to build it up yet. How can we sleep there?" Seokjin always became so codependent when he was sleepy.

Hoseok's resolve cracked just a little.

"Hobi, you go up. I'll stay down here. I think I'd be more relaxed that way anyway," Jungkook suggested. It would be easier to rest if he knew you were safe from danger. Is this what it felt like to be an alpha all the time?

Hoseok grumbled but he was already giving in. "I can't let you go to sleep smelling like that."

With a wave of the omega's hand, all of his packmates gathered around Jungkook and marked wherever they could reach until he smelled like the unique blend of scents that to him smelled like home. When they finally backed away, Jungkook wore a dopey, scent-high smile, and Hoseok could go upstairs to his nest with one fewer worry.

Once they had all gone up to bed, Jungkook took a thick blanket from the hall closet that was too thick to use this time of year and laid it out on the floor in front of your door along with a pillow from the couch. He thought briefly about going in to check on you, but he honestly wasn't sure he would be able to stop himself from climbing in the nest to cuddle you. He couldn't stop thinking about the way they wouldn't let you sleep with others in the shelter, or how you had probably slept alone for at least a year and a half prior to that. But Hoseok was right about boundaries and consent, and he could be good if he just stayed on this side of the door. If you couldn't be comforted, you could at least be safe.

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[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Since this morning, Hezbollah has been firing rockets at Israel's northern towns. There is at least one man dead, identified as 25 years old Zahara Bashar, an Israeli Druze, and 2 people injured as a result of this on going attack.

This is a reaction by Iran-funded Hezbollah to a strike by Israel yesterday on a different terrorist organization, al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Assembley, an ally of al-Qaeda), and following even more Israeli military activity in Lebanon, meant to stop a senior member of Fatah (the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority) from smuggling Iranian-funded standard explosives and additional weapons into Israel for terrorist attacks. As one TV military reporter I was listening to yesterday explained, the difference between improvised explosives and standard ones is in how lethal they are, for example when a small amount is attached to the side of a vehicle, the difference is whether one person gets killed or ten.

I've written about Israel still waiting for definitive proof that Marwan Issa, Hamas' #3 in Gaza, has been killed in a military strike. Yesterday, we got an official confirmation of that. This means that out of the 4 Hamas leaders that are on the top of Israel's list, two are gone. We're still left with Yahya Sinwar (#1) and Mohammed Deif (#2). Most Israelis tend to think that if Israel manages to kill Sinwar, Hamas will likely surrender, and the war would be over.

As Israel's military operation in the Shifa hospital continues, here is a really important batch of testimonies from captured terrorists, about how, once the IDF left this place, they returned to it, exploited it assuming they'd be safe there, and how they were not alone, with defined areas for the Hamas terrorists, and others meant for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists, cynically using spots such as the maternity ward.

A military reporter published the fact that Israel has refused permission for Turkey and Qatar to participate in air drops of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The reporter frames it as a political decision, but consider what it means that Qatar and Turkey are both politically hostile countries - that there is no way for Israel to verify they would not try to air drop military aid to Hamas. At the same time, I wanna highlight what this info also means, and hasn't been talked about... It means that every time you hear about yet another country air dropping aid into Gaza, that's done with Israel's permission. And there are way more countries permitted to do this than refused. This is one of many things that should make it clear that Israel is NOT targeting regular Gazans, and is making every possible effort to make sure they are getting humanitarian aid, while trying to minimize how much this aids Hamas (and in that sense, prolongs the war).

These are brothers Neria and Daniel Sharabi.

On Oct 7, they were at the Nova music festival. Not only did they survive Hamas' massacre, they also helped to save others. Since then, they've started a fund to help the survivors, and in order to raise money, they've been traveling abroad, telling their story, mostly to Jewish communities. A couple of days ago, they were traveling to Manchester, in the UK, when they were asked at the airport upon arrival what their religion was. They recount that after disclosing they were Jews and what they were there to do, they encountered hostile reactions, including being told (according to a TV interview I heard with them), "We don't like what you're here to do," and "We have to make sure that you are not going to do here what you are doing in Gaza." They were detained for a couple of hours, before being allowed in. The brothers said they're convinced this was motivated by antisemitism based on being questioned about their religion. The incident is said to be investigated.

This is 40 years old Amit Soussana.

She was kidnppaed to Gaza from her home in kibbutz Kfar Azza, and among the hostages released in late November. A lot of Israelis remember her as the hostage who was captured on film trying to fight off the men taking her, with no less than 7 of them (yes, Israelis have counted) involved in her abduction:

We've had private testimonies from Israelis about having been raped, we've had public testimonies from Israeli who have seen the physical evidence of the Hamas rapes, we've had public testimonies of Israelis who have witnessed those rapes, and we've had public testimonies of hostages, who've heard from their fellow captives about the sexual abuse the latter have gone through. All that wasn't enough for some people, who continued to deny Hamas' sexual violence. Now, Amit Soussana is the first Israeli to come forward and publicly talk about the sexual assault she had suffered at the hands of Hamas. Her testimony has been published in the New York Times, and for anyone without a subscription, other publications have quoted parts of it, like Times of Israel. A part of me really hates that Amit might have felt compelled to speak because of the doubt cast at raped Jews. Another part thinks that for the second time, she is showing outstanding bravery. And yet another finds it hard to believe that this will make a difference. Those who are dead set on not believing Jews, essentially calling us all liars, will do the same to her, and when they do, I hope she won't have to witness that firsthand. But in a sense, if their doubt is indeed the reason why she felt she had to speak up publicly, then it's clear that there's already been damage done to the victims of Hamas' sexual violence.

This is 35 years old Uriel Baruch with his son.

Uriel was married, and a father of two. He loved techno music, and on Oct 7 was attending the Nova music festival along with a friend, Michael Yoav, who was murdered there (his body was found shot in the car in which the two were trying to escape). Uriel was kidnapped. Yesterday, the army was able to confirm to the family that Hamas had murdered him while in captivity, and is still holding Uriel's body hostage. The number of Israeli hostages in Gaza is 134, and the official confirmations of death indicate that no more than 98 are still alive, though some count Hamas claims as well, in which case no more than 96 are. May Uriel's memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[weaselbeaselpants]

Legit Bad-take/Bad-Faith Helluvaverse critics you should not trust if you see them

Interpersonal squabbles within the critical tag are irrelevant, sorry. This here is a genuine warning against users you should keep your distance from in regards to any VivziePop drama-discourse because their names may come up and you should know what it is that crossed the line.

Starlatte/Starvader/HonestHazbinCritiques/OhGodDude and Woomycritiques/RaySquid - Serial harasser(s). Long story incoming. Starlatte was/is a Vivcritical who got involved in the fandom back in 2019/2020 when she was a minor and didn't tell anyone. Her blog on tumblr was HonestHazbinCritiques where she made some good points but also managed to find/be a part of everyone else's takes in the critical community. Her relationship with several criticalblogs turned sour when she started lashing out, talking over people, being accused of faking her age, and doing stuff like arguing with irl sexworkers abt how they should feel about Angel Dust. Whatever her age actually was at the time, she was also sending her own rewrite scripts and fanwritten episodes to Spindlehorse in order to 'fix' Hazbin. In 2021 Star returned to Tumblr under the name "Oh-God-Dude" w/o disclosing to new people who she was while also starting shit. When said new ppl found out her past and got mad at her, she proceeded to block-backtalk every one of them.

Woomycritiques (twitter handle: Raysquid) is a critical blogger who stans Star and calls everyone else in the critical community an obsessed stalker while lashing out herself. She accused others of racism (unfounded), her friends of predation just for being proship (not the 'cest and underage is good'-kind, the "I like some problematic stuff in fic-context"-kind), and heckled Dirgentlemen over how much they should hate Helluva, and more.

Regardless of if you believe Woomy and Star are the same person, which ppl do, they are both -by now- adult persons who have been asked to stop and DIDN'T, which is why people don't trust them. Star and Woom were asked to tone it down, stop making accusations and even asked by many criticals to leave and stop talking about Helluvaverse as she/they seem to have nothing good to say about it. To put that into perspective, cuz I know some HH/HB fans are gonna be reading this: the people who've self-styled themselves antis and criticals begged this person to leave cuz she had nothing nice to say and was being a nuisance. I know the stans think that's all of us anyway, so let that sink in.

LincarRox aka ToyTaker - Creep. Nasty jealous stalker freak who got kicked out of Helluvaverse servers and Aminos for saying nasty shit like how he "wants to put a baby" in Viv. No really. He took his shit and grievances to BadWebComics wiki under the name TheToyTaker while also seemingly trying to get work at Spindlehorse in order to have access to Viv directly and to 'fix' her show. He did so by faking his animation portfolio. BWW did eventually catch on and kick him out but yeah....bad. May or may not still be going under his old pseudonyms, but regardless if you see someone talking weirdly sexually abt Viv while saying they were "let go" both by SH and BWW, get out now. That's probably him.

Animation Call-Out - Bigoted shitlord. Twitter user who rags on Vivz' controversies w other people but also hates gays and BIPOCs. Admitted to submitting one of the anonymous reviews against Spindlehorse "for fun" amidst legitimate ex-employees. All of the reviews, even the ones that seem the most validating/believable should be taken with a grain of salt I believe especially since they are coming to us anonymously, but when a racist person admits to def being one of those fake reviews for "Lolz" sake, that's def when shit's hit the fan.

DoodleToons - Also bigoted creeperlooser. Altright white kid who hates BIPOC existing in anything and admits to hating Viv's stuff for their LGBTisms and 'demons'. Yes, there legit are bad-faith critics who are homophobic. Just because Viv and her crew have a way of saying that's EVERY critic of her work doesn't mean there aren't shitty people out there.

[damn-stark]

Chapter 20 Intergalactic

Chapter 20 of Sugar

A/N- I know Uraume’s gender is not disclosed but they’re still mother, so, mother vs mother off this chapter

Warning- Swearing, ANGST!, fluff?, Violence, death, blood and gore, spoilers, SLOW BURN, heavy pining, Kenjaku being weird, long chapter, and we start switching to the manga now too!!

Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader

Takes place during- 2x22-2x23, and chapter 138 from the manga

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

————

Breathe. Breathe…

Think with both the heart and mind, even if you’re pissed over Noritoshi Kamo possessing Suguru’s body, even if you’re in agony and mad at yourself for not being able to save Nanako and Mimiko. And even if you’re directing all that boiling anger to the man making a living hell you have to be rational just like you’ve been taught.

Yet when you step into the crater left behind by the chaos that transcended today, all you feel is raging anger at the sight of Noritoshi Kamo. Even if he’s in Suguru’s body and you love him, after what happened earlier, after he took Satoru, all you feel is hatred for this man.

It actually reminds you of a quote you like by Edgar Allen Poe, “years of love have been forgot, in the hatred of minute”, because all you want to do is kill him.

“You really are a relentless one, aren't you? It must run in the family,” Noritoshi announces your entrance and makes everyone's eyes that were trained on him fall on you, a ghost, the woman who is supposed to be dead.

“Smile,” he quips at you with a growing malicious smirk, “aren't you happy to see me?”

You stop striding and narrow your gaze to a burning glare. “No,” you grimace and curl your hand into a fist. “But when we cross paths in hell maybe then I will.”

Noritoshi snickers. “You’re going to have to wait a long time before I show up.”

You smirk and tap into your fire-cursed technique, causing the dragon mark on your arm to glow and making the veins under your skin glow as flames lick your flesh, craving to release.

“I don't mind waiting,” you counter.

“Y/N?!”

You drift your eyes to where your name is being called and see Itadori on his knee, covered in blood, and with half of his jacket torn. He looks baffled upon seeing you on your two feet and breathing—Which you’re surprised you are too, but regardless, past the blood and the determination painted over his face, you see relief and exhaustion. So you break the scowl on your face and offer him a small smirk.

Itadori offers you a small nod in return, and you proceed to look past him, catching Panda in his gorilla form, and another teenager you don't recognize. Past them, you see Kusakabe, Utahime, and two other students with them. All of whom look just as baffled to see you.

So it makes you wonder who all thinks you're dead; Nanami?

Where is he by the way you wonder since you don't see him here, and knowing him he'd be on the frontlines trying to protect who he can.

Unless he's hurt.

Is he hurt?

If he is, Shoko’s got him.

“Hey, Choso,” Noritoshi cuts you from your stupor, making you look to your side to see that Choso finally caught up.

When you made it past the veil and saw all the destruction, and the giant crater on the ground that looked almost apocalyptic, you went a bit overzealous and ran faster than you should have, leaving Choso behind.

“Looks like you’ve realized it,” Noritoshi adds nonchalantly, whereas Choso is panting and enraged.

So much so that you hear him grind his teeth from where you stand before he bellows, “so that's how it is! Noritoshi Kamo!”

Said man doesn't give any reaction, he doesn't flinch to start an attack, he's overly calm and collected.

“It's not above you to ally yourself with the stray, huh, Y/N?” Noritoshi directs at you as he drifts his eyes over to you.

You clench your jaw at the sound of your name coming out of his lips and snap back. “Don't talk to me like you know me, Kamo.”

Noritoshi huffs. “Noritoshi Kamo is merely one of the many names I’ve had,” he retorts. “Call me whatever you like.”

“How dare you,” Choso growls. “How dare you make me try to kill Itadori?! My little brother!

You watch him walk ahead without giving any thought to what he wants to do, which is dangerous regardless of how strong he might be, or how vengeful he might feel at the moment, so you try to interject, “Choso, wait.”

You go after him, but when you reach his side you both stop when a small figure with white hair, dressed in monk’s garments, menacingly slides in front of Noritoshi out of the blue.

They then quickly stand up straight and immediately imbue their hand with cursed energy.

“Stand down, third-rate,” they grimace. “Don’t keep me waiting any longer.”

You furrow your eyebrows in confusion to what they just said whilst you make your flames begin to lick the surface of your palm.

“Move it!” Choso exclaims angrily with a swing of his hand. “I’m his older brother!”

“Feeling scared there Noritoshi?” You tease the man in your husband's body. “You need a little nun to come fight for you?”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Scared of what? You? I know all your moves, this body turned you into the sorcerer you are.”

You fist your hand and laugh. “Half true, sure, but you forget who really turned me into the sorcerer I am. She deserves the credit, she taught me a lot more than he could, but you can underestimate me if you want.” You sigh and rest your hand on your hip as you slide your eyes to the person with white hair and a red stain on their short bob.

“You,” you point your chin at them and shoot them a sweet smile. “Why don’t you come here and I’ll give you some sugar, honey,” you speak in a silky voice and raise your other hand to blow them a kiss.

“Huh? How dare you speak to me like half-wit,” they snarl.

You smirk and feel Choso’s eyes on you so you return his gaze, but then proceed to spare Itadori a glance, seeing him look baffled by who you're standing by and by what’s unfolding. Yet there’s no time to explain, just to demonstrate, so you look back at Choso and share a short determined look that makes him step forward and raise blood off the ground to spin it elegantly around him as he summons it all to his hands.

When the blood is in between his palms, you see steam rise out of the gaps between his hands before he suddenly shoots it in the blink of an eye, managing to impale it through the hands of the person beside Noritoshi.

All while the man himself jumps out of the way, making you walk past Choso’s back to face Noritoshi with flames slowly imbuing your hand.

Noritoshi sees you and prepares to counter, but you discreetly use your feet on the ground instead and kick over spikes that move underground. And when they’re behind him they pop out and shoot at him from behind, however, he dodges your attack just like you thought he would and slides away, right into the spot Choso carves out with his blood.

Which is fucking impressive. The magnitude and power of his blood are truly astonishing, and the fact that he uses it to shoot the earth beneath Noritoshi hundreds of feet into the air using just his blood is amazing. You can’t help but watch him with slight awe as he quickly chases after Noritoshi all the way to the top.

Albeit since he does leave, you’re left behind with the monk.

“It’s just you and me now,” you direct at them and slide one foot back to position yourself in a fighting stance.

“Let’s make this quick,” they quip and lift their head to blow out a mist into the sky.

You blink in confusion and lift your gaze. And just as you look up you smirk as you catch sharp icicles raining down.

Thus before they can hit you, you throw your hands up to shoot fire out and burn through the hard ice, making sparks fly out like fireworks at first contact before those icicles turn to water you pull down to form into an orb in between your palms.

“So it is true you are a pest,” they grimace and harden their scowl.

You hum in agreement and then break into a sprint towards them.

They don’t falter and mirror your actions.

Just as you’re going to meet halfway, you summon a gust of air to mix with the water and shape it into sharp needles before you blast it at their stomach, considering air and water don’t mix well and normally hurt when they’re both together and angry.

Yet they of course counter you perfectly and freeze the water before shaping it into a blade in their palm. And since you’re close to clashing against them you slide forward on your feet.

They quickly swing down when you’re close, but you meet their attack with your hands basked by flames, causing the ice to halt in your hands as it begins to melt instead of hurting you.

However, they are strong, and the ice they can make is a perfect counter to all four of your elements. Besides, it seems that they might be older than they look, so they’re wiser and stronger than meets the eye. Defeating them won’t be easy, even if you see their wounded hand falter and twitch.

“You know what, I like you,” you let them know. “You’re the first person I know with a technique similar to mine. It’s too bad we’re on opposing sides.”

They push you down harder, making your legs bend, but you continue trying to push their ice blade up.

“Do you usually talk so much?” They spat at you.

“Depends,” you say, and tilt your head while you pull back your fire-wrapped fist, making them ready to counter.

However, instead, you make a thin pillar of the ground blast out from beneath them and smash it over their torso, causing them to be thrown up a few feet in the sky.

Before they can counter you hastily gather the air around them, and then proceed to run a few paces ahead before you hop and flip in the air to whip the wind around their neck with a swing of your leg, and smash them on the ground.

When you swiftly land on your feet you move pieces of the earth around them to trap their body underground, and then use the air to boost yourself up the large pillar Choso impressively rose.

Once you make it above the surface you see Noritoshi has Choso’s arm twisted over his back, so without thinking you scowl at the sight, looking like a menacing shadow no one can see but you feel behind them. So before either man can see you when they look back, you blast towards Noritoshi and grab a fistful of his hair and the back of his neck.

He reacts with a groan and lets Choso go.

“My brother,” you sneer by his ear. “Give him back.”

Noritoshi snickers and twists one hand back. “I’ll have that curse back, thank you,” he interjects and suddenly you feel the weight around your shoulders lift off as the Worm-cursed spirit begins to float to Noritoshi’s hand.

However, he should’ve known better, Suguru said he did this too and just like then, the moment the Worm touches Noritoshi’s fingers, it ends up burning him and it bounces back to you.

“It doesn’t work like that,” you spat spitefully since he just tried to steal your Worm-cursed spirit.

“Tsk.”

You smirk smugly, and Choso sees that the Worm mimics your gesture as if you were one. You then snap your eyes towards Choso, and so does the Worm, but Choso only holds your fire-kissed eyes; which are filled with words not spoken, but speechless words he understood seconds before you shove your knee through Noritoshi’s back and slam him towards Choso.

And since he had read what you wanted to do, he throws Noritoshi a right hook and makes the man stumble.

You quickly try to overwhelm him, but Noritoshi snaps his head towards you and sends out multiple eel-like curses at you using a portal made in front of his feet, causing you to leave Choso alone to avoid the attack.

Which you only manage to avoid because you think fast and use slices of the earth to shuffle away.

The moment you’re at a safer distance, you pull down the moistness around you that's naked to the human eye and form the water into spears that you shoot through the open mouths of the curses.

When the water is inside you quickly begin to drown them from the inside before you make the water explode out of their flesh and exorcize them.

Yet now that you can focus on Noritoshi and Choso again, you see Choso throw punch after punch, but Noritoshi keeps dodging each swing with quite ease. He doesn’t let up one bit, and just as you try to help Choso, Noritoshi kicks his torso harshly, making you gasp as you hear the impact against his body.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Noritoshi tells Choso as he begins to fall down the pillar. “You’re exhausted, aren't you?”

“So what?” Choso spats, and you both jump after Noritoshi at the same time.

“Is that any reason not to risk my life for the younger brother right in front of me?” Choso adds loudly so his voice can be carried through the howling wind, making Noritoshi chuckle, while you smirk softly in admiration.

That is until Noritoshi snaps his attention to you. “I see you want to play Gojo.” He snickers. “I’ll play along. Remind me you like it rough don’t you?”

You scrunch your nose in disgust and spat back. “Don’t be a perv and poke around through his memories.”

“I say only what I see,” he counters and his response triggers you.

Who does he think is? Going through and seeing Suguru’s personal memories, talking to you like he knows you on a personal level as if he and Suguru are one now because he stole Suguru’s body.

Well he’s wrong, he’s not Suguru. He can never be him, and the way he talks to you is wrong.

He’s not him…

It’s why you tear three large pieces of the earth off the large pillar and hurl them at him out of rage.

Of course, Noritoshi misses the first two, but you manage to slam the third one at him and keep pushing him down. Before he can hit the ground, you tilt face down and boost yourself forward. When you reach the piece of debris you swing your fist and smash through the hard rock, breaking it into pieces and facing Noritoshi with your jaw clenched, your nose flared, and your lips curled to a furious scowl. He prepares to attack, but you beat him by a second and manage to grab his throat and slam him down on the ground, creating a small crater where he lands.

Right before he can counter you use water trapped underground and make it travel up. However, he hears the movement of the water rising, and just as the water violently blasts out of the ground he snaps his head to the side, missing being hit on the back of his head by mere seconds.

However, you’re relentless and rise up another blast of water, and he barely misses again.

“You’re starting to piss me off,” he grimaces and slaps his hand on your torso. “I didn’t want to kill you yet, but maybe then—“

Knowing what he can do with his technique from a close proximity like this, you don’t finish hearing what he has to say and quickly use the water you were just using to push away from him

When you’re close to Choso, you land on the ground and slide back.

Choso peers at you and you look at him, and from the corner of your eye, you see Noritoshi move, so you look back to where you left him, but he’s gone.

“What the,” you gasp and turn your head, and barely catch him above Choso with his fist raised.

“Choso!” You warn him and regardlessly blast him away using the air.

Noritoshi slams his fist on the ground but doesn’t get discouraged by his failure, instead, he follows by snapping his head towards you with a smirk.

You stand your ground and reach back to pull out a blade from the Worm’s mouth. Noritoshi gets close so you quickly bask your blade with fire and swing the moment Noritoshi swings, but he swerves you. Choso sneaks up behind him, and you see him try to reach over, but Noritoshi swerves and has Choso stumble towards you.

Before he can crash into you he balances back on his feet and you meet his intense gaze fueled with rage to share your thoughts with your gaze alone, hoping he understands even if you fear that he won’t.

Nevertheless, when you consume the flames on your blade to instead crack the ground with fire and aim it at Noritoshi with ease, Choso surprises you and lunges while Noritoshi is distracted, just like you wanted, and manages to hit his father with a sharp uppercut.

“Yes,” you whisper with pride and put the blade away to move your hand and counter with another attack using the elements.

However, before you can do a thing, suddenly hard and bitter ice grows around you and captures your entire body in place, leaving you only able to move your eyes, and see your failure to stop this sorcerer with the ice technique.

They captured everyone with their ice, Itadori, the students, Utahime, Kusakabe, and Choso.

Sure you can easily melt this way, but you still should’ve stopped them before. Damn.

Damn. Damn!

You exhale deeply and hear Choso complain near you too. “Tsk.”

“Don’t kill them,” Noritoshi tells his ally. “I need messengers.”

You slightly squint out of curiosity while you begin to use your fire through your arms to melt the ice into water.

“Is that any reason to leave them all alive?” The monk argues and lifts their wounded hand to show how they heal it.

“This ice isn’t enough!” Choso cuts in and puts his hand over the icy surface. “Flowing Red scale!”

Once again he surprises you by using his blood to melt the ice. Which, you never knew blood manipulators could do anything at the scale he does things. It’s so fascinating!

But regardless, as the ice around you now turns to a puddle because of your fire's intensity, the monk approaches you and points one ice-covered finger at you, and then another at Choso.

“Then how much is?” They threaten him and then look at you. “Let’s test it out on the both of you. Tell me when.”

The ice over their finger extends, but you grow flames out of the ground around Choso and you, to help him out of the ice and block their attempts.

Nevertheless, just as you get ready to blast them with fire, simultaneously, Itadori then runs through the fire at a speed you see almost as a flash, and kicks Choso out of the ice, leaving you baffled.

“Whose body do you think that is?!” The monk spats back, letting you fall back to where Itadori and Choso are to face the monk at a distance as you think of a clever way to immobilize them. Or kill them.

“You’re our ally, right?” Itadori asks Choso.

“No!” Choso shouts, making you twist your neck to side-eye him.

“Huh?” Itadori exclaims.

“I'm your older brother,” Choso reveals.

Itadori’s eyes narrow and his eyebrows furrow as he snaps back. “Could you please take this seriously?!”

You sigh in annoyance.

“Why don’t you try saying it once, for starters,” Choso rebuttals. “Call me, big brother.”

“Why don’t you both take this seriously,” you scold them as you keep your eyes on Noritoshi.

“I was just telling him the truth,” Choso argues.

“Are you working with him, Geto?” Itadori asks you now.

You nod. “He is your ally. I trust him,” you vouch for Choso without hesitation. “Talk later. Oh, and by the way do you know where Nanami is? It’s unlike him to miss this,” you change the subject and glance over at Itadori.

The shirtless boy meets your gaze and the annoyed scowl falls to a frown.

“What?” You press. “He doesn’t answer his phone.”

Itadori mutters your first name quietly, but that’s all he gets to do because you hear someone flying overhead. And when you look up you see some blond girl on a wooden broom, as if she’s some cartoon witch.

“Tool manipulation,” you hear her chant as she lands on the ground. “Wind Scythe!”

She blasts wind toward Noritoshi and the monk, but they quickly dismiss it. Which is predictable. They’re too strong, which means you need to fight with a lot more fiery.

You need to bring them out…

“Itadori!” The girl yells and catches your attention. “We’re the only ones who can move right now! We need to buy time for Utahime to finish her preparations!”

Preparations? What does that intake?

Whatever, you’ll help regardless.

“Supreme art,” you mutter under your breath and loosen your fists. “Hell—”

You cut yourself off as you see the monk bend down to press their palm on the ground, meaning only one thing; they’re going to use their ice. So you drop what you’re going to say and quickly bend down to mimic their actions, but instead, summon flames out of your palms whereas they bring out ice.

“Yuji Itadori, is the only messenger you need, right?!” They yell as a dangerous layer of ice begins to form out like a sheet at first before big icicles grow out and rapidly rush towards you.

You quickly counter by sending a hot wave of fire out to clash against their ice, causing the fire and the ice to sizzle and blast out thick steam.

Yet that doesn’t seem to be hot enough, the ice continues approaching at a slower pace now, but it comes, so you need to think bigger, and attack the source before they turn you into cute popsicles.

“Hm,” you hum and smirk down at the ground as your fire is suddenly being seeped by the ground, leaving Itadori confused.

“Y/n?!” He calls out as the ice intensifies.

You swing The Worm off your shoulders and place him on the ground to sway your hips as you slowly walk forward, and creep on a menacing smirk on your face as you look at the white-haired monk.

“I’m a special grade Yuji Itadori,” you respond and peer over your shoulder, letting him, the small blond student, and Choso see your red-orange colored eyes give off a spark as if the fire was alive in your eyes.

Itadori looks at you confused, just like the other student does, but Choso’s lips pull to a smirk and his eyes widen with awe you miss when you look ahead again.

“I’m fighting fire with fire,” you mumble and slowly put your hands out as you continue striding forward at a slow pace.

When your arms are spread out, a deafening silence settles for a second before suddenly the ground erupts as fire blasts out of the ground like an enormous geyser, burning away all the ice that spread on the ground, and the ice that was falling from the sky.

The fire captures you in the progress, but it only burns away the tight black uniform on your body, leaving light white linen wrapped around your breasts that travels over your shoulders to connect with the linen around your hips, and elegantly flows down over your lower body, leaving long slits over the front of both legs.

Which is practically inconvenient in any battle scenario, but you find this option helpful, you discovered that in your time with Yuki. This way you can move a lot more swiftly like water, and without restriction. The fire can move through your body with a lot more vigor, and lastly, you can feel the wind over your skin.

Like now.

You raise your arms that are spread out as you begin to gather up a large amount of wind behind you that howls like if caught in a loud raging storm, that collects dirt and thickens the gusts. When you have enough, you smirk at the enemy across from you, making Noritoshi slowly frown, and infuriating the monk even more. And without warning, you snap your arms forward and blast the wind out towards them to enrage the flames you rose and mix it together to shoot it over at them too.

You continue to stride forward, and slowly close your arms together as you keep collecting more wind that Itadori, the student, and Choso have to shield against and fight to stay grounded as it flies past them to unfurl over your skin as it flies past you and hits Noritoshi and the monk.

The only reason why neither of them get thrown back by the force of the wind is because of the monk's ice shield, but your fire begins to penetrate through, so you tap into your fire and blast it out of your hands before you once again seep it through the ground, and have it erupt out of the ground around Noritoshi and the monk.

However, when they feel a blast building up beneath their feet, Noritoshi uses a curse to get out of the way, leaving the monk to shield themselves with ice all alone and leaving them open to you.

Which is why you drop the air and the fire and run forward to close the gap left between the monk and you by smashing through the ice and grabbing them by the throat. You then proceed to slam them against the ground and skid them forward until they manage to grow curved icicles around their fingertips and swing them at you, making you push yourself off them and slide back on the ground.

When you face them again you collect wind over your palm and summon fire out. You get ready to swing it at them, but then out of nowhere, you’re suddenly falling through a large gap in the ground that just appears out of the blue, leaving you enclosed by the darkness that only grows darker the further you get, and making you scream out of fear.

However, you then blink and suddenly you're hundreds of feet above around.

“What the hell?” You hiss in confusion and look at your surroundings as you’re falling back to the surface that isn’t broken anymore. It’s all intact.

So was that some effect of a curse?

It has to be. To catch you off guard…

“Ice formation: Ice fall!” You suddenly hear before you see ice grow over the surface again, and form into tall and thick shards.

“No!” You bellow and tilt your body as you’re falling down to try and blast fire down to melt the ice.

Yet the monk notices you and throws something out at you that you don’t see move through the air until suddenly you feel something sharp and burning cold rip through your arm.

You cry out in pain and reach over to hold your wound, but you see that your arm is ripped off.

“Y/N!” You hear Choso cry out.

“Fuck,” you groan and begin to pant as it burns. “Fuck.”

But the pain nor the bleeding stump matter. It hurts like hell but it doesn’t matter, you’re still falling. You’re still fucking falling and getting close to the damn ground.

You prepare for impact and protect yourself from getting more injured.

However, before you can hit the ground, strong arms catch you, and the moment their feet touch the ground they slide back on their feet with you to move closer to the glistening ice you see from the corner of your eyes.

Before you can look up to see your savior they carefully set you down on your knees in front of them.

Is it Choso?

It doesn’t smell like him…

They actually smell like—it can’t be.

You snap your eyes up and immediately smile when you see Yuki.

“Master,” you mumble with relief.

Her brown eyes fall on you and she shoots you a wink before looking ahead again to address the person a few feet away from where you are.

“Long time no see, Geto,” she interjects. “Could I get your answer to my question from back then?” She asks and puts her leg back as she leans forward with a smug smile.

“What kind of woman is your type?” She asks and blows Noritoshi a kiss with her finger.

“It’s not him,” you whisper.

“Gathered,” she says back in a whisper. “Now heal your arm.”

You hum and roll your shoulder back to start regrowing your arm with RCT.

Which, you should thank your jealousy for. Without you trying to impress your parents and get a sliver of their attention, you wouldn't have learned to use it and you’d be dead right now. So thank your jealousy! Thank you!

If only it didn’t take so much out of you though. You won’t be able to fight properly for some time now thanks to you needing to heal.

You have weapons, but your energy isn't any good either, you’re running on fumes right now—but even still you need to try and help.

There’s people trapped in the ice, students, and Choso. You need to help them…

“Do you remember,” Yuki interjects. “The ways to rid cursed spirits from our world?”

As she talks to Noritoshi and your arm heals you begin to drag yourself back towards the ice wall.

“Regardless of which method is pursued,” she continues. “It means advancing humanity to the next stage. Humanity’s next stage is freeing itself from cursed energy.”

Why can’t you have Satoru’s healing speed? He heals so fast whilst you take longer to heal, it’s so annoying! Especially in times like now! Damn…

But you’re almost done, and then you can help the others out of the ice.

“No,” Noritoshi argues. “It’s optimizing cursed energy.”

You stop moving and look over at Noritoshi with slight confusion. Yuki looks back, but since she’s peering over at Itadori you don’t see her reaction, you do however see her shrug, so you know she’s not necessarily completely serious.

So that means she’s got a plan.

“Uh,” you hear Itadori comment. “I don’t get it, either.”

“I thought you already gave on your plan twelve years ago when Toji Zen’in died,” Noritoshi adds, whilst you close that gap between the ice and you and finally finish healing your damn arm, which…yay, you have your arm, but…BUT!!

Your cute manicure didn’t fucking regrow! That’s money down the drain—well, not your money, Satoru paid for you to get your nails done, but still! Now you look lopsided with one hand well done and the other just simple looking. Tsk.

“I was talking to Geto, you know,” Yuki finally reveals to him that she knows he’s not Suguru. “Well, whatever. I went back to my original idea. Besides, there’s a big hole in your optimization plan. Extremely few sorcerers and cursed spirits emerge in other countries compared to Japan. So Tengen’s barriers should be indispensable to your optimization plan.”

You glance over at Noritoshi and see him slightly narrow his eyes on Yuki as he hears her out.

“Using Tengen to optimize cursed energy would mean only the humans of this nation would become sorcerers. Japan would practically have a monopoly on cursed energy. Other nations, especially that superpower, wouldn’t stand by and allow that. Flesh-and-blood humans would become an energy source. It’s easy enough to imagine what misfortune that would bring.”

Destruction, chaos, blood, and death…right?

Getting rid of non-sorcerers would be…well…

What would it mean to you?

Great…it’d be great…

Yet at the cost of what he wants? No.

“That’s a world far removed from the ideals I pursue,” Yuki finishes making herself clear, while you place your hand on the ice and use a little bit of cursed energy to summon flames to your palm and spread the fire out, like flames following a fuel line, and carefully melt the ice around the blond student with the long and stiff ponytails.

“So what?” Noritoshi rebuttals. “For one thing, our objectives are different. I don’t desire a world without cursed spirits or any sort of idyllic peace. Non-sorcerers, sorcerers, cursed spirits…those are all possibilities for the shape of cursed energy that is mankind.”

Hm…

You glance at Noritoshi and slowly narrow your gaze as he catches your attention.

“Though,” you hear him add a bit quieter. “That shouldn’t be anywhere near the full extent. I tried to give rise to other possibilities for mankind on my own…but that didn’t work out,” he shares and you get what he means…Choso.

So that’s why he left him and his brothers? Because they were his failures?

He made them just to leave them, all because he didn’t like how they turned out. All their suffering, all their loneliness means nothing to him. He’s no parent, he’s a selfish monster.

“Everything that I created myself,” he continues as cursed energy begins to rise out of his palm and flow up at an incredible amount, “was limited by the bounds of my own potential. The answer was always glimmering darkly within chaos. Do you understand?”

Hardly…but he won’t stop talking will he?

Whatever, it gives you time.

Now that you freed the student you make sure she’s fine.

She catches your gaze and offers you a thankful nod, causing you to offer her a sweet smile before you gently push yourself up, ignoring the ache on your arm, and walking over to Choso since he’s the only one you can reach. The others will have to wait.

“What I should have created was chaos that went beyond my own control,” Noritoshi says. “I’ve already finished extracting the technique.”

You come to stop by Choso and look at Noritoshi with surprise.

“There was a cursed spirit called Mahito, right?!” Yuki asks over her shoulder. “The one with the technique that let it interfere with souls?!”

“That guy absorbed it earlier,” Itadori informs her.

“Seriously?!” She exclaims and then snaps her eyes to you. “And where were you?”

You point at your chest with slight shock and quickly respond. “Me? I was getting my throat stabbed and my neck snapped,” you snap back annoyed. “Oh, and I was getting tortured by curses from my past. If you had answered your phone you would have known! Did you even see it?”

Yuki shrugs as if it’s not a big deal. “I got your message and I’m here now aren’t I?”

You slap your hand on the ice trapping Choso, and scowl at Yuki as you melt the ice. “Great,” you answer sarcastically.

“I’ll say. You know what this all reminds me of?”

“Egypt,” you both answer at the same time and share a smile.

Yuki winks at you and nods in agreement before turning away, letting you face Choso, and see that he’s studying you in your light and exposing gown. Which makes your face burn, and makes you feel a soft fluttering in your stomach.

“Your arm,” he immediately points out but glances at the scar across your torso before he finally looks at your arm. He wasn’t looking at your arm before. “It’s healed.”

You glance down at your arm regardless and move your fingers. “Yeah,” you let him know the obvious. “I’m all good. I can’t say I’m in any state to fight anymore though, so, if anything happens will you have my back?”

Choso slowly drags his eyes up, and you mirror his gesture and finally lock eyes when he lands on your face.

“Of course,” he doesn’t hesitate to immediately assure you, making you smile at him and feel relief.

“You,” he interjects and digs in his pocket to pull something out. “Will be needing him back either way.”

Choso opens his palm and when you look down you see The Worm unfurling himself now that he senses you.

“Oh!” You exclaim gleefully. “You kept him safe! I was wondering where he had crawled off to. Thank you!”

“Mommy!” The worm yells out in a broken voice.

You grin at it and take it from Choso to wrap it around you, making it snuggle tightly around you.

And now that you have that resolved, and helped Choso out, you shift your feet to turn.

Yet before you can look over, a large glowing purple symbol rises in the sky and castes over your heads, stealing your attention and completely casting away the fluttering in your stomach to drop an eerie feeling in the pit of your stomach.

“You have my thanks, Yuji Itadori,” Noritoshi interjects. “A cursed spirit’s mastery of their technique ceases to progress from the moment they’re absorbed by the Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Mahito truly matured through his fight with you. To be honest, I wanted to have Jogo, as well, but no matter.”

“What did you do?” You snap at Noritoshi and drop your gaze to glare at him.

“I remote activated Idle Transfiguration on two types of non-sorcerers that I marked ahead of time,” he answers without any hesitation, which should worry you.

Who goes around spilling their master plan?

“One type was people whom I had absorb cursed objects like Yuji Itadori did,” he continues to say. “And the other was people like Junpei Yashino who have cursed techniques, but whose brains were structured like non-sorcerers. Now I’ve adjusted their brains to match those of sorcerers. For the former, I gave them the strength to be vessels, and the latter have obtained the ability to activate their techniques.”

Why? What for?

“And now…” he trails off and pulls on a seal. “…I’ve released the seal on those cursed objects. Some of them have been in deep sleep after being exposed to my cursed energy when I marked them, but they’ll soon awaken. So, starting now, I’ll have them kill each other in order to deepen their understanding of cursed energy.”

What the hell! What’s wrong with him?

“I’ve carefully hand-picked these people and cursed objects,” he keeps on going, which you’re grateful for. Otherwise, you’d be left confused. “Think of it as unleashing a thousand malevolent Yuji Itadori’s.”

“A thousand?” You ask in disbelief.

“That’s conservative,” Yuki continues. “You’re also underestimating human rationality. Do you think people will start killing each other just because they were granted power?”

“There’s an order to everything,” he says, “I certainly didn’t cut corners like that when making my preparations. Your questions are starting to become shallow.”

You scoff, and Yuki looks back and points at Noritoshi.

“He’s pissing me off, so let’s all beat him up together!”

You have little energy, but you can pull off something big; maybe your domain expansion, or your supreme art.

“I can’t move right now, though,” Itadori says and as soon as he does the ice suddenly turns to water and begins to fall like rain.

However, you manipulate the water and collect it over your head to swiftly and elegantly move it around Choso and you keep it on standby, whilst you watch the person who had created this fall to their knees.

“What’s the matter, Uraume?” You manage to hear Noritoshi ask.

“Poison?!” They struggle to say.

“My blood got mixed with yours through Piercing Blood,” Choso’s voice startles you. “Of course it is,” he spats.

You steal a glance at him and the corner of your lips lifts to a smirk before you look back at the person Noritoshi called Uraume, with a prideful smirk.

“Wait,” the blond student cuts in. “We’re not getting cover from Mai. They might still have more allies over there.”

“My ally is protecting Aoi, the girl with the gun, and that suit. They don’t belong here.” Yuki lets the student know.

“Wait,” you probe with concern at what you heard just now. “Aoi? What happened to Aoi?” You step forward. “Is he okay?”

Itadori looks back at you and answers for Yuki. “He will be. He got hurt, but he’ll live.”

You blink in confusion.

Ever since you’ve known Todo, he’s hardly someone who’s ever needed much help, he accepts it, and he can be a good team player with people he likes, but he’s not one who's ever needed help. He’s strong. He’s smart too, and for him to need help means he’s badly hurt.

You should have gotten here before, damn it!

“We were in the middle of our talk,” Noritoshi interrupts and actually sounds annoyed that he can’t keep yapping his evil monologue. “The cursed objects that I distributed are what’s left of the sorcerers I’ve been secretly making pacts with for a thousand years. Of course, I forged my pacts with more than just sorcerers, though my pacts with those were annulled when I obtained this body.”

“You don’t mean—”

“This is the world of the future,” Noritoshi cuts Yuki off and begins to look pleased, but in such a menacing way.

And only seconds later you know why. He opens a large portal and has dozens of curses come out of it, making Choso step forward and put his arms out to block Itadori and you.

The dark portal spreads and you reach back to take out a blade, while you also drag the same water you had kept floating around, and hover it over your palm.

Choso gets closer regardless of what you’re doing, to do more than what you asked of him earlier, and continues to secure you, and Itadori behind him.

“See you later, Yuji Itadori,” Noritoshi interjects smugly as he shows off the box Satoru is trapped in.

“Gojo!” Itadori yells and breaks away from Choso to lunge forward and desperately reach for something that can’t be retrieved anymore.

“I have high expectations for you,” Noritoshi adds as he begins to disappear through the shadows of his portals—of Suguru’s cursed technique.

That’s Suguru’s technique he’s using. That’s his body, his face. That’s his face and body that you see leaving in ways he’d never leave you.

“Suguru Geto!” You cry out desperately in hopes you can reach a fragment of his soul so he can fight back, so he can at least help enough to clear a path, and so he can come back.

Noritoshi freezes and slowly begins to peer back. You don’t move and stay behind Choso to grab onto his arm still guarding you from danger, and just start hoping, even if you make no attempt to go forward you start hoping.

“Suguru Geto is dead,” Noritoshi announces what you knew, but hoped was somehow not true. “It’s just me now.”

Tears fill your eyes, but instead of feeling sad over what you heard, you feel a burning rage that makes you want to use what energy you have and fight against him.

Yet before you can even attempt to act on that fury directed at the wicked man using Suguru’s body, Noritoshi disappears within the shadows, leaving the curses to spread out to the darkened city like wildfire.

——

*LATER*

“Kento please answer your phone, Shoko says that the last time Fushiguro saw you, you were okay, but if you’re in trouble call me, text me, or yell, I don’t know, just let me know you’re fine or I will go out and search for you myself,” you leave what feels like the hundredth voicemail because just like every other time he doesn’t answer his damn phone.

Maybe his phone is dead?

“Sorry,” you direct at Choso as you finally put your phone away. “I hope my incessant phone calling hasn’t annoyed you. I’m done now.”

Choso shakes his head stiffly. “It’s fine. It doesn’t bother me.”

You hum in comprehension and slide your eyes over to him with a worried look. “Are you doing okay? I haven’t asked.”

Choso’s eyes dart to you but when he meets your gaze he looks away as he shakes his head. “Don’t worry about me.”

You roll your eyes. “You’re my friend,” you counter. “I’ll worry if I want to. So answer me, and don’t give me that nonchalant crap. No one is here, it’s just us you can tell me.”

Choso slowly slides his eyes back to you and lets the silence linger as he holds your gaze for a moment before he answers. “I’m fine. I’ve been healing, but they’re all minor injuries I got from fighting Itadori and you. Which, you lied, by the way, you held back, your fight with Uraume proved it.”

You scoff softly and let a smirk tug on your lips. “Yeah well, I told you I didn’t want to kill you. My fight wasn’t with you, but you were in Satoru’s way, so I had to help him,” you tell him as you mindlessly start fiddling with your fingernails. “And by the way, I still didn’t even show off my full potential with the monk. There were too many people in the way to do that.”

“Well,” he says. “Perhaps I’ll see what you promised soon enough.”

Your face burns and you can’t help but share a faint and bashful smile. “Well now that we’re not on opposite sides, I’ll be happy to show off.”

Choso hums in comprehension and keeps his eyes on you as you look at your path ahead to look out for Itadori whom you lost in the chaos Noritoshi left to escape.

“Are you okay? Are your wounds healing? You should've gone to your doctor friend,” he interjects almost in a scolding voice, as if your stubbornness to see Shoko annoyed him.

“I'm fine,” you assure him with a faint laugh. “I used RCT, I’m healing, all I need now is a good meal and a good night's rest.”

Choso hums and doesn’t seem convinced, but he leaves it, letting you turn to grab his arm, and causing his eyes to snap down to your touch before he meets your gaze.

“Thank you for earlier,” you tell him softly and slowly come to a stop together. “You put your own life at risk to look out for me when you could’ve gone after your brother. You stayed behind for me. Thank you Choso.”

Said man draws in a deep breath and steals a quick glance down at your hand still around his arm before responding softly. “I’m in your debt, this was a simple repayment of that.”

You furrow your eyebrows in confusion and part your lips to press on that. “What do you mean? I haven’t done anything. You’ve saved me more than once, for example when I woke up, with that curse outside the station, and against all those curses just a few minutes ago. I owe you.”

“No you don’t,” he argues without any defense to back him up.

“Oh shut up,” you cut him off and let his arm go. “Please take my gratitude,” you scold him, making his face twist with confusion. “It’s the polite thing to do. Acknowledge what I’m saying. Thank you, Choso.”

Choso exhales and hesitates before he retorts. “You’re welcome.”

You offer him a tired but genuine smile before you flash him a grin. “You know,” you add. “For someone who says they’re not human, you surely do have a heart ten times bigger than a lot of others I know.”

Choso’s cheeks immediately grow a tint of red, and you hear his breath just slightly hitch, making you insanely proud and yet also deeply flustered that your words could make this nonchalant man express so much.

Is that why you also linger there before him, just looking into his sun-kissed eyes? Because you’re flustered by how you make him feel? Or is it because it’s easy to get lost in his eyes?

Both?

Even so, you can’t stay here forever even if it feels like the right thing to do. You still need to find Itadori.

“Come on,” you break the silence and blink to tear your eyes away. “We’re reaching an exit here just around this corridor. Maybe Itadori is outside.”

Choso hums and you both continue walking—“he’s near,” he cuts in. “I feel it.”

You groan out of exhaustion. “Great! My feet are starting to kill me.”

Plus you just want to lay down and…cry. Now that it’s quiet all you can think about is what you lost and the fact that when you go home you’ll be going without the twins.

“Just around here,” Choso announces and picks up his pace to do a little jog to round the corner that leads to a staircase.

You don’t rush albeit since you don’t hear any danger, or sense any curses.

Plus, you’re immediately assured about Choso’s finding when he speaks up. “Yuji, how are your injuries?”

You hold your breath and regardless of your comfort, you still worry because he might sound like he’s in pain.

“I’m good somehow,” you hear Itadori’s voice travel around the corner, and it sounds fine. But emotionally, you can sense his agony—“despite being hit by a black flash.”

You finally reach the stairs and you see Itadori sitting down in the middle of the last flight of stairs with his back hunched, and his head down. Oh, and it seems he found new clothes to replace his torn ones and exposed upper half.

“I think it’s because of Sukuna,” Itadori adds. “I can tell that his strength is growing.”

“Yuji,” Choso adds as he comes to a stop a few steps above Itadori. “Don’t worry about me. You can return to Jujutsu High. I have to collect the remains of Shoso and the others anyway.”

Instead of stopping behind Itadori, you continue to walk down.

“I’m not worried about you,” Itadori rebuttals honestly. “The problem isn’t whether I want to return or not. Sukuna is plotting something involving Fushiguro.”

You slow down and listen more intently now.

“Besides,” he continues. “I killed too many people. I can no longer stay with everyone.”

You reach the floor and turn to watch the boy with pity.

“Are you fine with it?” Choso asks.

“I also killed your little brothers,” Itadori brings up, but without hesitation Choso tries to assure Itadori.

“It’s fine. That was a misunderstanding. If Eso and Kechizu were in my place they would say the same thing.”

You look at Choso with a soft look because of his kind words.

“It isn’t about forgiving or not forgiving,” he says. “Brothers are just like that.”

Your face falls and you drop your head to look at the ground and think back to your brother and the night you told him you’d try to forgive him.

You’ve tried so hard to just forgive him, but it’s never that simple. And now he’s gone…

“Let’s go...”

…and even then you find it hard to just forgive him because you think back to what happened when he left and it hurts all over again.

“Y/N?”

You snap your head up and notice Itadori is off the stairs now too, and behind you. “Yes?” You probe.

“I said we should go and take care of the curses—”

“No,” you deadpan. “We won’t do that—”

“But—”

“Regardless of how fast you’ve healed,” you cut him off again and narrow your gaze to a pointed look to make yourself clearer to him. “Regardless of how much willpower you have, we are in no state to go curse hunting at this moment. I have a place nearby that should be backup generated, we’ll be staying there. Patch face and the disaster curses my brother told me to protect you from may be dead, but now your death sentence is up once again because of Satoru being sealed away. They’re going to send someone after you, someone strong. And just to be sure, they will send bounty hunters.”

Itadori nods. “I know that, but I can fight. Or let them kill me.”

You shake your head and argue. “No, you will not,” you sneer. “I made my brother a promise, I will keep it. Which means I’m still looking out for you. And I say we can save the curse hunting for later. No matter how many people they send, they’ll still be plenty enough for tomorrow, and the next day. We’re going to rest, understand?”

It’s not actually a question, but he still answers anyway. “Yeah.”

“Aren't you going home?” Choso interjects.

You look over at him and watch him descend the stairs. “No,” you let him know. “Now that Satoru is gone, my family will come after me to try and kill me. And the higher-ups will send someone to complete the death sentence my brother never executed. I won’t put my people at risk by being there. I'll stay hidden with you two.” You sigh deeply and continue softer. “And in regards to your brothers…with everything that happened the school will be filled with more people than usual. We have to wait to go there. I’m sorry.”

Choso swallows thickly and drops his eyes, but he doesn’t argue, he answers stiffly. “All right.”

You hum with pity and keep your eyes on him for a second before you point your head at the exit. “Come on. I’ll lead the way.” You turn, and just as you take a step forward, Itadori interjects.

“Y/N?”

You come to stop and peer back. “Hm?” You probe curiously and see him watching his hands before he fists them and lets out a shaky breath.

“I’m sorry about your daughters. It was my fault…”

Your curiosity falls and sorrow and confusion slowly take over.

“They’re dead because of me,” Itadori shares in a shaky voice.

“Yuji,” Choso tries to stop him, but Itadori continues.

“I lost control of Sukuna, and I killed them because of it. I’m sorry, I don’t deserve you to look out for me, I don’t deserve your kindness, just leave me behind and don’t worry about me.”

You knew he would never be capable of killing Nanako and Mimiko, but when he started to confess you feared the worst and doubted him because of the agony you’re under. But now that you manage to understand what he said, you know that nothing you say will ever let him change the way he thinks.

The guilt he holds should not burden him, he shouldn’t have to bring himself down because of something he didn’t do nor had no control over.

You wish you could make him understand that, but you know that there’s nothing you can say that will make him understand. All you can offer is your kindness and reassurance in hopes it eases his grieving heart.

“Yuji Itadori,” you whisper and get closer to him to grab his arm.

Itadori lifts his eyes the moment he feels your touch, and looks at you confused.

“My girl's deaths are not your guilt to carry. Just like the destruction that happened, and all those deaths you mentioned are not your fault either.” You say so he can at least hear. If he doesn’t want to accept it, he can at least hear the truth. “I know it doesn’t feel like that because it was your body Sukuna was using, but it was not you, not your soul, nor your will. I don’t blame you and I never will. And I know that,” your voice trembles. “Nanako…” you swallow thickly as you struggle to say their names. “And Mimiko would feel the same way. So don’t apologize.”

Itadori drops his head and lets out a deep breath without adding anything to the matter. So you give his shoulder a soft and comforting squeeze. You’d hug him because it looks like he needs a good hug, but you don’t want him to feel uncomfortable, so you just squeeze his shoulder and part away.

“Now,” you sigh and lift your eyes, catching Choso’s gaze that had been watching you interact with his brother the entire time—“Let’s go. We could all use a good warm meal, a nice shower, and a good rest.”

“Wait,” Itadori cuts in again.

“Itadori it’s okay,” you assume it’s about the same thing.

“You asked about Nanami before,” he blurts, making your hopes rise.

However, as Itadori lifts his head, he looks at you with his eyes glossy with tears, and with his lips trembling and dropped to a sorrowful frown, making your heart sink, and the realization of what he was saying in his silence slowly hit you.

It explains why he wouldn’t answer, why he didn’t just send at least a short message to assure your worry or stop your incessant calling.

Yet you can’t accept what he’s not saying and what your heart is grasping.

“No,” you deny him as if it was a choice you could take.

Tears roll down his cheeks, and you feel your inkling of hope shatter.

“I’m sorry,” he continues. “When I found him it was too late, Mahito had had a hold of him and…killed him. I’m sorry.”

You slowly lift your hand to clench onto your burning chest as it feels tight and heavy as if the news had stolen your ability to breathe.

“Y/N?” Choso calls out with his voice filled with concern. Yet through all the noise in your head, you don’t actually take in his voice.

All that runs through your mind is how; how could he—how could Nanami have died? He was strong, he was smart and skillful. If anything you always thought he’d outlive you. How could he have died?

It can’t be true. You can’t accept your best friend's death. You can’t accept that another one of your best friends died and that you lost someone else on this fucking horrible day! You can’t accept it.

“Where?” You ask Itadori in a quivering voice.

“What?” He probes.

You draw in a sharp breath and your chest hurts. “W-where?” You breathe out. “Where was he last? Kento? Itadori, where?”

Itadori tells you and you quickly and sharply turn on your heels to storm in the direction he gave you.

Itadori and Choso followed after you, but neither of them try to stop you. They just try to keep up with you, basically running over to where Itadori told you Nanami was.

And yet no matter how hard they try, they still get left behind as you manage to get ahead. The only time you slow down is when you reach the floor Itadori pointed you to because you begin to hopelessly hope that he’s somehow wrong. You desperately hope that it’s some stupid joke.

Alas, when you enter the hall Itadori mentioned, you come to an immediate halt and feel your body stiffen, and those already short breaths feel as if they completely stops the moment your eyes land on…him; the lower half of his body recognizable by the tan dress pants he wore as his uniform.

In truth it could be anyone, you desperately want to believe it’s someone else, but this is where Itadori said he’d be. The hall is all battered by a battle as well. And the floor around the body is stained with thick blood, proving to you with each fact that what you see isn’t some trick or a stranger, it’s him.

Plus, no one else carries a cleave wrapped with a printed cloth around the blade, only he does.

And that hand, that single hand still wrapped around the handle; that pale and big hand further proves Itadori right.

This body you see is Kento Nanami, this is your best friend, and he’s…dead.

“Kento?” You still call out quietly and desperately regardless of what your heart and mind are forced to accept. “Nanamin?”

There’s no answer, you didn’t expect an answer, but you still wanted one even if you just saw the lower half of his body.

“Ken,” you whisper hoarsely and slowly walk to what remains of him. “Not you too. Please not you too,” you mumble. “Nanamin?”

When you reach his body you stare blankly at his legs and it begins to feel as if you’re being dragged down into a darker abyss by a stronger grip of grief.

First the twins, now Nanami too. Your daughters and your best friend. And what’s worse is that you couldn’t save either of them, you only found what was left of them; corpses.

You’re strong, yet you keep losing and failing those you love. They keep dying and you’re never there, you can never try to help. or at least say goodbye.

They’re gone and all you’re left with are pieces of them, memories, and agonizing pain that leaves you unable to breathe. You can process the truth before you but you have to clutch onto your chest as it burns with the inability to breathe.

You try to draw in breaths, but it feels like all the pain you feel heightens within you, squeezing your throat close, leaving you weak, and causing you to fall on your knees by what’s left of Nanami.

You don’t know how you’re still conscious but you still are, you can still see him, and you can still feel your agony sinking you further down into darkness and away from that light you had found after Suguru’s death. You had barely held on when you found the twins, you didn’t want to lose yourself, and there was a pull, a source that didn’t let that light flicker off, but now it’s all gone.

Now with Nanami gone, it all crumbles because he was your best friend, he was someone who gave you a second chance when you thought you had none. He was someone who was always there when you needed it, he never judged you on anything you did, and he never hated you for leaving everything and everyone with just a simple text. He loved you unconditionally and never asked for anything in return.

He was your best friend, someone you fought alongside with, someone you grieved the loss of Haibara with, someone who you went to when you felt hopeless or scared, and now he’s gone. Your best friend…your loyal and greatest friend is gone. Forever…

They're all gone…

Haibara, Suguru, Nanako, Mimiko, and Nanami are all gone…

And it’s just now as you keep repeating that in your head over and over again that your entire being is slammed with a wave of crueler pain of realization, and it feels like you can breathe again.

But maybe that’s because you begin to weep over Nanami’s body.

Everything around you disappears, and the sight of Itadori and Choso finally catching up drowns out, leaving only Nanami and you in this hall.

“I’m sorry,” you mewl as you try to reach for some part of him, but end up empty-handed as there’s nothing for him to grab. “I’m sorry.”

You hug yourself tightly and begin to rock back and forth as you continue to sob over your friend's corpse.

“Please,” you plead but don’t ask out loud for forgiveness or for him to not leave you alone; he’s gone you know, but you still plead for that in your head again and again for who knows how long.

Neither Choso nor Itadori try to get you up. There’s a looming threat everywhere now that curses are reigning over the city, but they don’t try to cut your grieving short, they let your sobs fill the room, and leave the chill of solitude continue to embrace you.

Neither of them knew you craved to be held, or comforted, neither of them knew how much you wanted someone to take you away from there, or simply hold your hand as you grieved for Nanami and the daughters you lost on what’s supposed to be a good day; your birthday. Itadori—no, Choso mostly just watched you, while Itadori began to quietly get lost in his own sorrow himself.

There does come a moment, a sudden feeling in Choso that makes him want to approach you. His hand twitches your way, and he moves his leg to walk over, but then he stops when he hears multiple approaching footsteps. One even sounds like they don’t have shoes on, so he grows cautious and gets ready in case it’s a threat.

Nevertheless, what enters the hall is no threat.

Not like you register any of it either way, your eyes stay glued to the corpse in front of you until you feel a hand grab your shoulder.

You look back immediately and gasp with relief when you see Larue.

“Larue?” You whisper and push yourself up to your feet.

Said man looks at you with pity and you don’t wait a single moment to throw your arms around him.

“I’m here now y/n,” he says as he presses you against him.

You hold onto him and cry harder into his bare shoulder.

“Tsukumo is here too,” he shares, making you open your eyes to see the woman he mentioned.

“I couldn’t leave without making sure you were okay,” she says softly, which is a tone she rarely uses.

You part your lips but you don’t actually respond, you can’t find the energy at the moment so you just nod in comprehension before you hide your face again on Larue’s shoulder.

“Who is that?” You hear Itadori ask.

“Larue, her family,” Yuki answers his curiosity.

“A Gojo?”

“No,” she quickly corrects him. “Family she's made along the way.”

“Oh.”

“Why don’t we go home, y/n?” Larue suggests as he rubs your back. “You need rest.”

You pull away from his embrace and face him with even deeper sorrow. “Nanako…and Mimiko,” you break the news before you can protest. “They’re…they’re gone too. Larue…Sukuna…he…he,” you gasp for air and drop your head as you can’t muster to finish the sentence.

“Oh,” Larue gasps. “Oh.”

You lift your watery gaze and see his face show his heartache instead of the pity he feels for you.

“I’m sorry,” you murmur and hold your hands together. “I'm sorry.”

Tears fill Larue's eyes but he still shakes his head and corrects you. “It’s not your fault and they wouldn't want you to blame yourself either. You know that. It’s not your fault,” he repeats harsherly so you’d understand.

“How can I go home and tell Satori?” You ask desperately. “It’s…It’s my fault they’re not going home. I should've turned them away when I ran into them.”

Larue grabs your jaw and leans in closer. “They would’ve stayed either way. It’s not your fault. I’m sure they tried to fight, you taught them too. Don’t blame yourself y/n, don’t do that to yourself.”

You swallow thickly and you still don’t feel convinced but you don’t argue.

“And Suguru,” you mention and fiddle with your fingernails. “I should’ve taken his body home to cremate him, now…some bastard is using his body. Did Yuki tell you that?” You ask and look at him. “Did she say it was not him that did all this? It was someone else.”

Larue drops his hand from your face and exhales deeply as he nods. “Yes, I know.”

You lick your lips and bring up something that comes to mind. “Manami and Toshihisa must not know though, that’s why they work for him. That’s why they betray us. We have to help them.”

Larue clenches his jaw and his eyes fall to hide his emotions, letting you figure out by that simple action that you’re wrong.

“They…knew?” You ask with disbelief.

Larue nods stiffly and you begin to realize something…how does he know that they knew that truth if Noritoshi barely dropped his farce? If he barely showed himself to the Jujutsu society?

He just revealed who he really was in that fight moments ago, so Larue knows about Manami and Toshihisa because…

“You…knew?” You ask and hope you’re wrong.

Larue drops his head and clenches his jaw harder, letting you know with his silence that you’re unfortunately right.

“You,” you gasp and step back in disbelief. “You knew?”

Larue slowly lifts his eyes and swallows back thickly. “We didn’t want you to suffer more than you already were. And the twins...they wanted to get Suguru back first before they told you.”

You’re slammed with a pang of pain that hurts your heart even more.

Yet no matter how hurt you are there’s nothing you can do about the twins knowing and hiding that from you. They’re gone, but Larue isn’t. And Miguel…

“Did Miguel know?” You ask with a mix of anger and betrayal.

“He did,” Larue confesses.

There’s a deeper and sharper pang in your heart now.

“You had just lost Suguru, we didn’t want to tell you yet,” Larue adds as if that made anything better, but it only works to add to the betrayal because if you had known you could’ve told Satoru, and he wouldn’t be sealed away. You could’ve stopped Noritoshi together before he caused such chaos in Shibuya. The deaths of Nanako, Mimiko, and Nanami could've been avoided if you had known.

Everything could’ve changed if you had known, but no, they chose to hide it, now your brother is gone, and Noritoshi is out there preparing to cause more disaster.

Nevertheless, you don’t tell him all that, you simply look at Larue with your eyes glossy, and express the betrayal, the fury, and the hurt you feel with your eyes alone. You can’t muster a word and he hates it because your silence hurts a lot more.

“Y/n,” Larue tries to make himself clear, but you push past him and walk to Yuki to speak to her.

“Satori and Belinda are leaving the country tomorrow morning, can you discreetly follow them and just make sure their plane departs without any trouble?” You ask her. “I don’t want to risk having the wrong people see me with them. And I can’t have Satori here with Noritoshi in her father's body. So if it’s not much trouble could you please do that?”

“Y/N,” Larue interjects. “I can go with them. And Miguel can catch up with us.”

You ignore him and narrow your gaze on Yuki. “Yuki?” you probe.

Said woman glances behind you but quickly looks back at you and nods. “Of course, just let me know the rest of the information later.”

You nod. “I’ll text you, and you call me if somethings wrong, please.”

Yuki assures you with a nod, letting you offer her a gentle smile before you look at Itadori and Choso. “Are you two ready to go?”

Choso and Itadori nod, so you move away.

However, Yuki interjects before you can get any further. “Where are you going? What are you going to do?”

You look over your shoulder and part your lips to answer with a sly smirk.

.

.

.

.

.

A/N- Mc: *does nothing.* Choso: “😳😍”

Tagged- @deniseabad1928 @secondary-character-25 @starlightanyaaa @notsaelty @d4rno @moonnime @kodzukein @yozora7154 @heijihattorisgf @elegantweirdorchest

[saintsenara]

what did you mean when you said tom was "grooming" ginny during cos?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

"grooming" is when someone establishes a social relationship with a vulnerable person and then convinces this vulnerable person that they are their closest friend in the world, that they alone understand and support them, and that they alone can be trusted to act in their best interest - in order to isolate, manipulate, control, exploit, and abuse them.

[know the signs!]

the term is primarily used in a legal context, and it is primarily used in cases in which the vulnerable person is a child who has been sexually abused - but it can be used to describe relationships in which both people are adults, and which contain neither sexual nor physical violence [i.e. relationships which feature emotional abuse or coercive control]. it often refers to relationships established online over significant periods of time - although short-term and in-person grooming is also possible.

the difference between grooming and other forms of abusive behaviour is that grooming hinges on flattery, rather than threat. someone who is being groomed will not [at first] be afraid of their abuser - they will feel listened to, supported, and understood; they will enjoy the conversations they have with the person who is grooming them; they won't think that any of the conversations they've had or information they've disclosed have crossed a line into behaviour they should tell someone about.

and so many victims of grooming often don't realise what's happening to them until the abuser has isolated them from other support networks and primed them to rely on them alone - and has also made the victim like them and want to avoid upsetting them - at which point the groomer will start a more active campaign of abuse against the victim [for example, making them perform sexual acts, or making them work for them as a drug dealer], using the strength of their supposed "friendship" ["i thought you were my best friend, but i guess you're not if you won't do this for me..."] to secure not only the victim's compliance, but to manipulate the victim into thinking that they're behaving consensually and with agency ["other people don't understand that you want to do this... but i do... i understand you better than anyone in the world..."].

and this is exactly what tom riddle does to ginny in chamber of secrets.

he makes ginny believe that they're best friends - and that he's the only person who truly understands her - by initially chatting to her about [relatively] benign things:

“The diary,” said Riddle. “My diary. Little Ginny’s been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes - how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how” - Riddle’s eyes glinted - “how she didn’t think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her...” [...] “It’s very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl,” he went on. “But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. No one’s ever understood me like you, Tom... I’m so glad I’ve got this diary to confide in... It’s like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket...”

it's unlikely that ginny regarded any of these things as personal secrets which nobody else was aware of - she is embarrassed and annoyed that her whole family know she fancies harry [and tease her about this accordingly], rather than terrified that they'll find out that she does.

but riddle then clearly manipulates her - since he's her best friend! - into disclosing things which she hasn't told anyone else:

“If I say it myself, Harry, I’ve always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets."

which she is clearly terrified of him revealing:

“Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you?"

which he then uses as a springboard into getting her to do things for him:

"I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her...” “What d’you mean?” said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry.  “Haven’t you guessed yet, Harry Potter?” said Riddle softly. “Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib’s cat.” “No,” Harry whispered. “Yes,” said Riddle, calmly. “Of course, she didn’t know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries... far more interesting, they became... Dear Tom,” he recited, watching Harry’s horrified face, “I think I’m losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don’t know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can’t remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I’ve got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I’m pale and I’m not myself. I think he suspects me... There was another attack today and I don’t know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I’m going mad... I think I’m the one attacking everyone, Tom!”

it's up to interpretation whether riddle convinces ginny that she's responsible for the attacks or not, but it's certainly clear that he promises her that he won't breathe a word of her fears that she is - and that this keeps her in thrall of him for months after the attacks begin:

“It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary,” said Riddle.

this entire arc of chamber of secrets really is textbook grooming [which i am sure was intentional, given the fact that so much children's literature is didactic]

while the doylist text immediately ceases to care about what happens to ginny at the end of the book because of standard genre reasons [both children's stories and mystery stories - which chamber of secrets is - always wrap up with that sort of "everything's fine now, no long-term problems here" vibe], the watsonian explanations are interesting to grapple with.

especially given the... lax approach the wizarding world takes towards the safety of children.

[samsm2mstories]

My coming out story.

I thought I should share you my story about coming out which was actually recently.

For many years I had a lot of suppressive issues that were out of my hands, society, cultures and other reasons which meant for me it wasn't the right time. Luckily for some countries it's easily being who you are compared to 10-20 years ago. The world sucks still as there are homophobic idiots everywhere, some are just sore losers who got not respect in society while others just don't know any better as their upbringing wasn't teaching them to respect others.

Luckily enough I live in the UK and we as a country have got better even although the early / mid 1900s generation are still hard at adapting to the modern world. It's not their fault as their times were different. Religion, society didn't know much better but that's history as we are the ones that living in this world and will be the ones moving forward. Some people will never understand it and respect it.

I'm lucky to come out around great people, I am a very well respected in person and in general a natural born leader so you could say I was like a captain that was popular which made my coming out harder.

Some of you might be thinking now does it become easier to come out as your identity?

I believe it's can depends on a number of reasons. You got to truly believe that you are who you are.

Don't question it.

If you question yourself, don't come out as that's a sign you are not ready. Talk to your friends, talk to strangers who are gay online (be safe not to disclose personal information)

I will admit I sat in my chair for a few good hours debating how to come out. I decided to go for it and do it in one big statement. That's a strong trait of mine as you all can tell on here.

I needed to write my story in a way that it wouldn't offend people, I did mention about the industry that was homophobic, some of my family and school.

It was that second most nervous point in coming out, just posting/saying it. I thought about listening to a few songs that were a big part of my life, thinking about those moments where sometimes I should of come out earlier to enjoy those moments.

You know what, I don't regret it at all, yes I missed out on some years but I had a brilliant life, travelling the world, experiencing new cultures, and making amazing friends on the way.

It did take a toll on my mental health at times but being the strong person I am, I dealt with it quickly enough.

So that night I sat there and my song came along.

Starship: Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now (read the lyrics while listening to this song)

You know this was a song of mine but the words in it made me realised I want to go out there and enjoy myself.

I finally did it.....

Those nerves, stomach turning inside out, emotions running wild. It all hit me like a ton of bricks.

What will people think?

What will people say?

Will I lose some friends??

Everything was rushing in and out of my mind, I just went to bed, signed out of social media. I recommend you doing this for a day or two as you want to feel the response in one go.

People started to message me, those who had my mobile number. It became a bit easier, I wasn't in the mood for talking much so I text back in small sentences.

I went to work that day and luckily enough nobody there is on my social media pages. I managed to complete 8/10 hours of my shift.

I went home and cried for abit, emotions still hitting me like bullets. You will have moments thinking was this right but deep down you know you are right.

I decided to look at my social media pages.

The final verdict?

I'm finally a free man.

For those who are younger, there shouldn't be anyone under the age of 18 reading my stories as they are explicted but if you are reading this.

For you coming out would be different, I would recommend you do it now when the moment is right but take into consideration your family. Make sure you won't be disowned or kicked out of the house. Have a read-up online about it all and PLEASE RESEARCH EVERYTHING.

We all have different circumstances and you must be completely assured that coming out will be good when the moment is right..

Yes some might not agree with it.

Yes some might hate you now.

Yes some might be shocked and haven't replied.

Who cares????

This is your life so go out there and enjoy it, be safe while at it. Please use protection during sex with strangers.

Remember if you ever feel I doubt or want to talk, there's helplines, friends in the community, even send me a text if you want to talk more.

Don't be afraid to talk.

I hope you all enjoyed this irl story and it would be amazing if some of you reply to this about your coming out stories. It would make a brilliant discussion.

For those who are unsure on their sexuality, speak to me or other members of the community. Talking helps to make a decision. You will feel much better.

Sam your favourite Alpha writer 😎

[ed-recovery-affirmations]

Can being overweight be healthy?

This is a complicated question, anon. My go-to question is: over what weight? We know now that the BMI scale is largely inaccurate and does not take into account height differences, muscle training, breast size and other factors. I also know that many people have different ideals of what's a normal or "ideal" size.

I'm not a doctor. I do know personally know many people whose natural weight - as in no dieting, but no overfeeding - set them as being considered fat. I also know that a lot of those people ended up feeling shame for this, and spent lots of time putting themselves through restriction, various crash diets, and a traumatic level of hatred toward the bodies they lived in. Many of them did lose weight doing this, but at great cost to other aspects of their health, such as their hearts, gallbladders, brains, stomachs, and GI tracts. Would it have been healthier to leave well enough alone and stay fatter? I think so.

But I also think that health can be really complicated and a lot of people end up having to make choices as to what aspect of health they must prioritize. So, for example: say you need a medication that has a side effect of weight gain. Do you accept the weight gain, or do you deny yourself medication that you might need? Say that you used to be a runner, but then you got a permanent knee injury and gained weight from being less active than usual. Do you prioritize treating your knee, or do you keep running on your injury to maintain the same weight? Or do you give up something else, like restricting a favorite food, for no other reason than because you feel you must retain that body shape at any cost? Say you have recently given birth to a baby, and the pregnancy caused you to gain weight. You want to breastfeed, but you're struggling to produce enough milk when you diet. Do you focus on the diet? Or do you focus on your journey with your new baby? Now say you are diagnosed with an invisible disability. Your doctor advises you against heavy exercise because it would be dangerous, but your natural weight is bigger. Do you choose to exercise anyway and risk the consequences of further disabling your body? Or do you think that you should have to restrict your food intake simply because you have a disability? Now what if you also have a comorbid diagnosis that impacts your GI tract, limiting what you can eat already? (Yes, some people are in the situation of having multiple disabilities.)

Do you think that people with these conditions should have to disclose all of their personal health history in order to be accepted for being fat?

(How many people disclose these personal things, do you think, and are not believed anyway?)

If you live with these conditions, and are making the best decisions you can for your own health in every given moment, do you think that it's a healthy choice to accept a co-occurring hatred for your own body at that given time? Do you think it's always the healthiest thing to pursue thinness?

Life is not simple. Managing one's body needs will not always come down to a series of simple choices. It's always going to be a balancing act where each individual needs the liberty to choose what THEY are going to prioritize to live well. And it won't be easy for everyone else to tell, at a glance, what those carefully-selected choices looked like for that individual.

I'm someone who is not fat, but who does have a chronic health disorder. Am I more healthy than a fat person who does not have the same disorder?

All you can do, anon, is focus on the choices that are right for you. That might mean giving up restricting if your body feels better when you don't, even if that comes with significant weight gain, just as an example. It might mean you've spent so much time hating your body that preserving your mental health means avoiding dieting or diet culture. I can't tell you what the right choices are for you as an individual; I can only tell you to listen to your body's cues and use the information you have available to you in order to set your balance of choices as close to "correct" as you possibly can. Nobody else could understand your process for this, nor could you understand theirs if you don't live their life. And that means nobody else gets to judge you, or your body, at a glance. Loving it properly means taking care of it to the very best of your ability, and yes, sometimes that might mean letting it be naturally fat. And I think there'd be a lot fewer EDs in the world if we weren't always so afraid of that.

I hope this helps!

[vladdyissues]

(cw for vague mentions of abuse)

Sorry I just saw the tags (which were incredibly accurate and correct btw) on the one post you recently reblogged and it got me thinking: I would argue that the argument for creating complex fiction by pathologization (i.e. some people create complex fic to process trauma, and therefore it's okay) is inherently a little dubious. Not just because it inevitably puts the onus on people to unwillingly disclose experiences that they may want to keep private, not just because it inevitably leads to the brutal scrutiny of said experiences (such as someone telling you your experiences were not bad /enough/ to justify what you've created, which has happened to myself and others), but because it concedes to the moralizing message that is the Core of what antis/social conservatives believe fiction is meant for, treating it as an inconvenient last resort in the same way some Republicans argue that only victims of assault should have access to abortion, as if a superfluity of freedom would inevitably be abused. Even victims of abuse have interests and agency that extend past what abuse they have experienced - I like complex fiction, but I enjoyed it for many years before I experienced any abuse at all and consider my gravitation towards it mostly separate from my real lived experiences. Like people just like what they like in a purely instinctual way most of the time! It's not that deep and there should be no obligation to make it that deep, especially when discussing fiction and cartoons. I understand that this argument is usually made in good faith - and sometimes in a genuine effort to destigmatize the experiences of people who have experienced trauma and how they cope with said experiences - but I just personally find this line of reasoning antithetical to the enterprise of creating fiction itself, which should be the act of extending yourself far beyond your own experiences and beliefs to participate in another reality, to gain empathy and insight into perspectives that would not be accessible in any other way. 

Donald Barthelme once said, in rebuke to Tolstoy's really moralizing essay on the purpose of Art, "It is the meliorative aspect of fiction that forms its ethical dimension". And I don't think something is less meliorative (or ethical) if it exists for mere titillation - like a horror novel, or rule 34 cartoon porn.

-Apropos Nothing anon

(PS: again you're welcome to delete/not engage with this if it's too heavy/rant-y, it's just that your tags made me reflect on this subject again. Why is cartoon pornography taken this seriously? 😂)

Oh no, no, you're right, and you hit the nail on the head. You stated exactly the reason I avoid wading into the "justifying reasons for writing fucked-up things" angle when it comes to this type of discourse because, like you said:

1) we are not required to divulge our entire personal history to strangers on the internet in order to receive our Darkfic Writing Permit, and

2) people who write fucked up things to cope are not inherently more (or less) justified than someone who writes fucked up things purely because they find it fascinating.

Whatever happened to minding one's own business and letting people have fun with media? Is it any coincidence that younger generations are getting sucked into right-wing conservative Thought Crime ideology more than their predecessors? Could it be that the incessant moralizing, agonizing, hand-wringing, pearl-clutching, purity-obsessed hypervigilance over hobbies and fictional characters is actually not a good thing? That it is, in fact, funneling the queerest generation in history straight into an authoritarian utopia?

Not only is this well said but it very much deserves to be seen, and I'm glad you sent it. People are definitely taking cartoon canoodling way too seriously 💀

[jurijyuu]

Scratch an Itch Ch. 28: All I Can Give

MDNI. Mentions of Cannibalism

Link to full chapter

Ynna’s POV

You never thought there would come a day when being outside the hotel, amongst the rowdy crowds of sinners, would be preferable to the safety of home. After breakfast, you’d managed to convince Angel to window shop with you. He’d been a very animated companion until his phone started ringing non-stop and he was pulled into work a little after lunch. 

The concerned side eye you threw at him when the beeping of his phone became more and more erratic and demanding was met with a pair of gloved hands covering your eyes.

“No. You are NOT coming to my work place. EVER. Got it, toots?” You didn’t even have to utter a word. Angel knew all too well just how much you disliked his boss. The numerous times you’d expressed your hate for the moth and how he treated your friend were practically seared into his ears. 

“But it’s just—“ 

“Hapapapa! No.” Another hand went to stop your words. “How about instead of trying to threaten my boss, you go on back to the hotel and fix your shit with Smiles. I guarantee, that’ll be a lot easier than gettin’ involved with the likes of Val, kay?”

“I just hate how you’re practically a slave to the guy. You’re making him so much money; he could at least treat you better.” When the spider finally relented and took his hands back, you could only pout. It was true that you couldn’t do anything for Angel but that didn’t stop you from wanting to. You’d risk another threat of respawning if it got that asshat’s grubby hands off of your friend. 

In the end, you could only watch him grab a cab and go with a pout that did not work on him. Sometimes, when he was uncomfortable, Angel would say just the thing to distract you from his problems. His words about dealing with your situation with Alastor did some of that, shaking your chest despite the casual, almost joking, way he said it.

He was right. You should go deal with that. A sigh escaped your lips as you weaved around the many sinners walking. Since you’d resolved to distance yourself from him, you had to think about how to do just that. Living under the same roof made avoiding him difficult and no doubt, Charlie would question the break up. 

Oh, what were you going to do if the princess insisted that you two should make up? If she knew why this was happening then maybe she’d understand your decision but you couldn’t even utter the words about the shit he fed you because it related to eating him and your deal forbade you from disclosing anything related to it to anyone who didn’t already know. Not that having Charlie know the specifics sounded good. You didn’t want to know if her seemingly boundless forgiveness had a limit and you certainly didn’t want to know if Alastor or Charlie was stronger.

At least you had Angel and he knew how to be discreet.

“What a mess.” Scrubbing a hand down your face, you gave in to a bit of dramatics. A small sinner brushed past you, your shoulders brushing close enough that you had a whiff of the guy. Your nose wrinkled at the notes of sweat, slime and body odor. 

“Watch it, bitch.”

“I’m walking here, asshole.” The interaction took you out of your head for a minute, having to face the guy and assess whether he was going to look for a fight. He was small, with fishy features and also a bit furry. Despite how he smelled, he was clean-looking in a dark purple hoodie and mustard yellow baggy pants. The sinner only sneered but kept on walking.

It was only when the five second interaction ended did you notice the ache in your mouth. Teeth sharpened to points, you realized…that you were ready to rip into the guy if worse came to worst. 

What? 

Looking into yourself, you observed your body. You were expecting that hunger, greedy for the flesh of a sinner to serve you power. A rumbling in your stomach that was infernal and cursed. 

Yet there was none.

That was strange. You were clearly ready to sink your teeth into the man yet the urge to feed off him wasn’t there. Could it be that you needed to be injured to feel that hunger? When you were injured around Alastor, the urge to bite him had been strong, even when your wounds had been treated and your pain was minimal. But that wasn’t completely true, was it?

You weren’t injured last night when you woke up to that dream, not even remotely weak even though you hadn’t eaten. The urge had been there and so frighteningly strong that it almost made sense to bite the deer, to give in to wicked want and take what he would no doubt offer.

Like the whole thing wasn’t a sin.

Please don’t tell me that Alastor is the only one I want to eat.

[smosh-fessions]

In much recent streams Damien did disclose that he doesn’t feel the need the include himself in queer community/doesn’t expect people to include him under the umbrella etc. he said he is fine being a staunch ally. I don’t think that erases his complex feelings about his orientation and stuff, but it does tell us that he isn’t actively seeking that kind of support right know. Tbh even around the time of the stream that’s been discussed he wasnt asking for excaptence from community or whatever. He was just discussing his and his friends views etc. I don’t see this as him being inconsistent or hypocrite, it’s just the complexities being discussed openly, which the details of it might shift in time esp according to how relevant they are to ones needs. I think you are valid for laying out your stance clearly and arguing for your principles, I do not think you were doing all this for to be “Damien’s white knight” which is a very presumptios thing that was said by one of these anons, and them picking at your tone is just coward stupid shit which told me more about their intentions. But I still don’t think people not including him in conversations around querness is bad at this point esp, it doesn’t seem like something he is putting weight in at the moment. Who knows what’s changed but to me the important part is that he is aware of his privilege and I don’t think anybody could argue in good faith that he is taking some role/opportunity out of some other queer person in any material form that matters, this is a personal moment he shared with us at one time. It’s just that. It’s not posing as something else to get whatever . So it feels weird to me too when people act like you are imposing a foreign identity on him when you are just taking his word. I don’t think it matters that he is being discussed as queer in a corner on tumblr in a way that reflected his words at one time. You aren’t going under Damien’s comments and demanding that he openly identifies as queer or people/him arent demanding that he should be the voice of a queer only space or get ‘’benefits’’ -whatever they might be, from identifying as such. I find people calling other people/themselves things like queer lite a little annoying at worst in a sorta banal way regardless of how they actually identify. Just the verbiage is irrataring to me sometimes for many reason but I also get why people feel the need to work with that. I don’t see why this has to be adressed or fixed since it’s so “distastefu’’ I just don’t see the offensive part which means I also don’t see the need to prove Damien’s place in queerness so this flighty frustration of couple people can be absolved.

This was incredibly well put.

My whole argument is that whether or not he's actively looking to be in the community or just act as an ally, he's got a complicated orientation when you break it down to its base parts. And those have labels.

I'm thinking of it kind of like a watch. It's full of tons of small important pieces that all make it work, but they're still within a *watch.*

I'm simply taking him at his word and agreeing that he's absolutely always allowed to use cishet if that's the most comfortable way for him to do so. If he changes his mind, great! If he doesn't, also great! But we cannor erase the insides because they make up part of who he is.

[buckyownsmylife]

I would: a Tony Stark x Reader x Sam Wilson smut/angst one-shot

The one where Tony knows that you’re Sam’s girl, but that doesn’t stop him from listening in on locker room talk

WC: 1.1K

Warnings: Sam sharing private things about your relationship with his friends and basically disclosing your sexual relationship. You can read it as if you're into it or not, your choice.

A/N: thank you very much to @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog for giving this a read for me 💕 your comments give me life!

Tony’s P.O.V.

I huffed when I walked into the living room to find him already there, surrounded by the supersoldiers. There really was no escaping Samuel Wilson when I was desperately trying to avoid him, apparently.

“Hey, Tony!” He greeted me with a smile, and so I struggled to grind my teeth and swallow down the anger inside of me, forcing myself to go on with my original intention of spreading my body over one of the very comfortable sofas in the room instead of turning around and returning to my lab.

I could do this. I just had to ignore him.

“I feel like I haven’t had the chance to talk to you in so long!” I cringed, feeling the bitter taste of guilt on my mouth. It was true, my anger was one-sided and solitary. Worse: it was unknown. Wilson had no idea I was irritated every time he was around, and so, he couldn’t really be blamed by his perfectly normal behavior towards a teammate who had always been nothing short of cordial towards him.

“Yeah, you know…” I tried my best to keep my tone neutral, although I avoided his eyes as I took a seat in one of the many couches around us. “Always working on a new gadget.” Wilson and Rogers chuckled and nodded, recognizing the truth in my statement, as it wasn’t new that I’d always spent most of my time down at the lab. But they didn’t seem eager to bring me into their conversation, as immediately after I made myself comfortable, they turned back to what they had been talking when I arrived.

“So” -this was said by Barnes, who was seating on the other side of the new Captain- “you were telling us about last night.” That got my curiosity - I hated not being in the know of something - and my frown most definitely showed it even before I asked, “What happened last night?”

“Sam took his girl on a special date.” Stopping myself from groaning, I simply nodded, for the first time in my life actually praying in the hopes that they’d somehow change subject, although it was obvious I wouldn’t have such luck.

“Hell yes!” Barnes celebrated. “And she found a very special way to thank him…” That was said while his focus remained on the star of the conversation, a clear nudge towards returning  to what was previously being discussed, and I already knew what was coming.

“Jesus fuck.” I couldn’t help myself. Not anymore. “Do the two of you ever stop fucking?” Somehow,  by God’s grace (ironically), the envious tone of my question wasn’t noticed by any of the other men in the room, far too focused on the perspective of hearing yet another tale of Samuel’s sexual adventures with his new girlfriend…

… and the object of my deepest desires.

When I introduced the two of them at one of the Stark enterprises gatherings, I didn’t anticipate their union would make my ordeal even worse than it already was. Sure, I knew she was hot already - that was precisely the problem.

She was way too fucking hot, and she was my assistant. I couldn’t stop thinking about her like that. It was consuming my mind.

Heart beating fast, I considered my options as Samuel prepared to resume his fantastic tales of fuckery. I really should leave. Even if I was friends with the guy, she was my employee, for God’s sake!

No good could come out of this. And still, I didn’t leave.

“She’s such a fucking tease, man!” Sam groaned, but the huge smile on his face made clear how little he was upset with it. “She wakes me up in the middle of the night, just because she wants it so bad.”

The guys groaned, but I remained silent - Sam’s words reverberating across my mind. What must it be like, to have someone desire you this badly? To have her want me so damn much she just can’t wait for me to wake up?

“I bet she feels perfect,” Barnes commented, but the eagerness in his tone was easy to capture. Sam chuckled as he nodded, not at all bothered by the soldier’s interest in his girl, and still, I made sure to keep pretending I wasn’t interested in what he was saying, avoiding his gaze so I wouldn’t be caught.

“Yeah, and she just lets me fuck her whenever,” he informed us, much to my agony. “And she’s always so fucking wet. She comes so fucking hard around my dick, sometimes I swear she’ll snap the entire thing off.”

Squirming on my seat, I briefly wondered if there was any way I could somehow watch them fuck without them knowing about it, but then I snapped myself out of it. What kind of a creep was I becoming?

“I’ve even made her squirt a few times.” Now, that was just evil. A small part of me was starting to consider Samuel did know about my interest in his girl, and he was doing this just as a way to torture me.

“See this picture that she sent me?” Suddenly, a phone was thrusted on my face, a picture of her on her hands and knees staring back at me.

I fell in love.

Hoping he wouldn’t look down and see my cock straining against my pants, I coughed to fake nonchalance, rubbing my sweaty palms against the fabric of said pants.

“Does she…” I hesitated before forcing myself to voice my question, not wanting the guys to question why I was so weirdly quiet. “Does she like it rough?”

My answer was a sound that was half wheeze, half laugh, Samuel nodding excitedly as he rubbed his hand over his chest, pride obviously pouring through every pore of his.

“But she looks so innocent…” This last thought escaped uninvited, eliciting another laugh from the man of the hour, as he shook his head in pity at me.

“I can assure you, she isn’t.” I gulped hard, not wanting to allow the thoughts in my brain to compose themselves fully, but Sam wouldn’t let me get any rest. “She doesn’t let me cum anywhere but in her pussy, says she’s hungry for it, just so you know.”

I should have left long ago. But I was stuck to the sofa now, not knowing how to escape this nightmarish conversation, just as she called him up and he put her on speaker for us all to hear.

“Fuck, daddy, I need you…” The faint sound of her vibrator couldn’t be missed, and while Steve and Bucky tried to reel in their laughter and Sam coached her through an orgasm, I couldn’t help but think that she deserved better.

Fuck, I wanted her to be mine.

[hotwaterandmilk]

Hi! I love your content and was wondering if you have any tips for those who might want to post their own scanned manga stuff on here?

I have some furoku, postcards, magazine clippings, etc and I enjoy scanning and cataloguing stuff, but I'm a bit shy about posting it online. I'm worried there might be some kind of etiquette regarding all of this that I'm unaware of. Like are publication dates important to disclose? should I try and find it for every scan I upload or can I just give some basic details about it? Oh and if someone else has already scanned something I own should I refrain from posting my own scans of that item? Hope these questions aren't too dumb, I just don't want to accidentally step on anyone's toes.

Hi, thank you for your kind words. I can only really share with you my opinion on sharing scans, as there are no real "rules" about doing this hobby that I'm aware of. I feel that things boil down to courtesy, like so many elements of fandom, and asking those involved when unsure.

I personally won't share something I'm aware someone else has shared before, unless I feel I can provide a better quality scan or additional context to make the effort worthwhile. For example, people have shared plenty of old Hana to Yume calendar scans in the past on sites like Minitokyo, but as they're not in 1200 dpi I feel like my effort in rescanning and sharing these images is "worth it".

If someone else is committed to scanning monthly furoku for a particular series, I won't double up by sharing scans of the same furoku - I'm wasting my own time by scanning/editing these items when someone else is doing them already, but I'm also potentially making the existing contributer uncomfortable.

However, we can't all be expected to keep track of every scanner on every website or through every fandom - sometimes there is overlap or there are multiple people passionate about a work. In that case, or in any case where unsure, I don't think it hurts to reach out to someone and ask "Hey, do you mind if I also share ____" ?

People can say no, but ultimately none of us involved in sharing scans/scanlating/fan works/etc. owns the original property and these are widely published titles. We can say "Hey I'd prefer it if you don't share ____ when I'm already sharing ____" but it is down to the other party if they wish to cease doing so.

In terms of things like publication information, that's very much a personal choice. My opinion on this is that it is respectful to include artist information wherever possible and publication details when you can so that others can find the original item for themselves. It's extra work, but it means I don't get messages asking "Where is ____ from?" as that information is already available.

The caveat to this, for me, is that sometimes we simply don't know all the details. Goodness knows I've got hundreds of postcards from 80s shoujo magazines that I've been gifted or received in bulk aucions without any information on the issue they were included with and at best I can narrow down the year they were released... right now I'm not sharing that content because I really do want to attribute that information if possible. But not everyone cares about things like that and that's OK, sometimes people just include an artist and the series and that's all.

I want to be clear that I'm not here to prescribe what you should and should not do when sharing your treasure trove. I'm just one person with a singular experience. So much of sharing scans as a hobby will boil down to what is important to you and how much time you have on your hands. And plenty comes from trial and error, along with feedback that others provide.

I feel it's important to convey that not everyone will like what you share or how you share it, while some will lift what you share wholesale to try and profit from it on other sites. I've had to develop a pretty thick skin regarding what people say about me online, despite being a nobody. I'd be lying if I said this didn't get to me sometimes, but for the moment my love of sharing has won out.

What I think is key, overall, is just that you want to share things with others and are willing to put the work into doing so. Missteps around doubling up on sharing may happen, but are more often than not resolved through communication.

I hope you can find a way of sharing the things that are important to you that best fits with your needs and schedule. ^^

[ninadove]

Nina reads Dracula 🦇

October 5th

Whereupon the captain tell him that he had better be quick—with blood—for that his ship will leave the place—of blood—before the turn of the tide—with blood. Then the thin man smile and say that of course he must go when he think fit; but he will be surprise if he go quite so soon. The captain swear again, polyglot, and the thin man make him bow, and thank him, and say that he will so far intrude on his kindness as to come aboard before the sailing. Final the captain, more red than ever, and in more tongues tell him that he doesn't want no Frenchmen—with bloom upon them and also with blood—in his ship—with blood on her also.

I love that these details made it to Van Helsing’s report. No Frenchmen allowed ❌

He was in no friendly mood, when just at full tide, the thin man came up the gang-plank again and asked to see where his box had been stowed. Then the captain replied that he wished that he and his box—old and with much bloom and blood—were in hell.

FSBSKSLLS

I feel a wonderful peace and rest to-night. It is as if some haunting presence were removed from me. Perhaps ...

My surmise was not finished, could not be; for I caught sight in the mirror of the red mark upon my forehead; and I knew that I was still unclean.

Mina no 😭

I know it by instinct rather than reason: we shall all have to speak frankly; and yet I fear that in some mysterious way poor Mrs. Harker's tongue is tied. I know that she forms conclusions of her own, and from all that has been I can guess how brilliant and how true they must be; but she will not, or cannot, give them utterance. I have mentioned this to Van Helsing, and he and I are to talk it over when we are alone. I suppose it is some of that horrid poison which has got into her veins beginning to work.

OH

Now my fear is this. If it be that she can, by our hypnotic trance, tell what the Count see and hear, is it not more true that he who have hypnotise her first, and who have drink of her very blood and make her drink of his, should, if he will, compel her mind to disclose to him that which she know?" I nodded acquiescence; he went on:—

"Then, what we must do is to prevent this; we must keep her ignorant of our intent, and so she cannot tell what she know not."

OH FUCK NO NOT AGAIN

Van Helsing has gone away to prepare for the meeting, and his painful part of it. I really believe his purpose is to be able to pray alone.

I wonder how many of his “preparations” are just him praying alone

I propose that we add Winchesters to our armament. I have a kind of belief in a Winchester when there is any trouble of that sort around.

Spoken like a true Texan! 🤠

How strange it all is. I sat watching Mina's happy sleep, and came as near to being happy myself as I suppose I shall ever be.

🥺❤️

"Promise me that you will not tell me anything of the plans formed for the campaign against the Count. Not by word, or inference, or implication; not at any time whilst this remains to me!" and she solemnly pointed to the scar. I saw that she was in earnest, and said solemnly:—

"I promise!" and as I said it I felt that from that instant a door had been shut between us.

😔💔

< Prev 🦇 Next >

[celestial-corner-of-desires]

Good day~ Are you accepting requests for Violet Evergarden? If so, may it be some soft moments with Dietfried and reader, please? Falling asleep on his significant other's laps? And his significant other stroking his head gently smiling. Much appreciated~

Thank you so much for submitting your request, my dear!

I hope I did him fair justice!

If you were to ask anyone what their first impression of Dietfried was, more than likely it would be along the lines of "the defined naval captain of Leidenschaftlich", " the charming and compassionate gentleman", or "dedicated leader, with the burden of assisting rebuild of Leidenschaftlich". To few known people he is heartless man who is willing to treat others as tools for any necessary means. But to you? A man with disclosed, but warming heart, who is funny and playful at times, while also keeping up the responsible face his workplace forces him to wear. Dietfried is the kind of man who despite working for long hours in his office, still finds time to come home, to embrace you in gentle hug. A simple touch from you is enough to return some light in his mind, after dark memories from his past haunt him in the moments of exhaustion.

If there is one thing Dietfried wouldn't admit to is his love for laying his head on top of your lap. If you had a dollar for how many times he silently pleads with his eyes to lay on your lap, you could end the world hunger. Dietfried is very decreet with how he asks for attention. Say you are sitting on the couch, catching up on the latest volume of your favorite novel, one that has been taunting you to read for the past week. Your eyes are scanning through the words, the imagery of the climax between two main characters is keeping you on your toes and you can't put it down. Suddenly, you feel Dietfried sits next to you, wrapping arms around your waist.

"So it seems that I no longer hold value in your eyes, my love. Here I am, on my day off, wanting to spend some time with my beloved. Only to be betrayed, and replaced by a book."

You chuckled at his pouty statement. " Well, I would enjoy my time with you, if you are willing to admit that you were wrong and I was right."

"For the last time, the letter said to meet at 9 o'clock, not 8."

"Even so, with all your military expertise, I would expect you to come earlier to the meeting."

"I am sorry, the previous night's documents have kept me all night. You have to cut me some slack for oversleeping." Dietfried nudges you to forgive him.

"That's not an excuse, dear. Since you seem to prioritize sleep over spending time with me, maybe I should stop letting you sleep on my lap." You tease the poor man.

You have never seen a man so shocked in his life. His eyes were blown out from the sheer fear of losing his favorite activity, besides kissing you.

"You are being heartless." Looking straight into your eyes, Dietfried is trying to see if you are serious about it, or joking. Trying to keep your face as still as possible, you gave him a simple smile. "I will admit my defeat, and I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for thinking otherwise.

Feeling that you got what you wanted, you gently pushed your free hand through Dietfried's hair, leaning forward to place a kiss on his cheek.

"See that wasn't that difficult, hehe."

Sighing, Dietfried placed his head on top of your lap, feeling the light sensation of peace hitting his buddy. To top it off your hand ran through his hair, patting and massaging his head in a rhythmic pattern. With your eyes returning back to the novel, and a gentle smile on your face. What more can he ask for, when he is already in heaven? The only thing that could make it perfect is if he were to ask you to be his wife and you said yes, but this is not the moment for such a major event. He knows that moment needs to be something bigger and more heartfelt. For you have given him so much. Having the patience to wait for him when he works late. It is his heart to bear all the struggles and sad memories that haunt him. When he lost Gilbert, the pain that coursed through his mind was beyond any pain he experienced. You still remember the day when he received the news from the messenger, the letter documenting his brother's records of deceased. That was the day when you saw someone who always conducted himself professionally and seriously when the time came, to break his persona into pieces. He wasn't sure what to do, and only because of your support and love, he was slowly, but not fully recovering from the heartbreak of the loss of Gilbert.

Laying there, surrounded by nothing but the tranquility of this moment, he knew that this was something he would never give up on in his life. Being here with you was something he never imaged happening in his future. He always believed that he would end up marrying someone because of his family status, not finding someone who can stand with him. But you changed that, giving courage when he needed it the most, loving him when everyone around him viewed as the lowest scum by how he treated Miss Violet Evergarden. You were someone who didn't see look at him through the lenses of his status or his actions. You were looking at a Dietfried, a man with bright smile, who cherishes his family, and is willing to work hard beyond his capacity. You saw a man who can achieve anything he desires, while also being someone who is simple in his heart.

"Thank you."

You kept your eyes on the pages, but your mind was on him. "For what, Dietfried?"

"For being here. For loving me. For caring about me. For supporting me at my lowest. I know that I don't say it enough as I should, but I am grateful for you. I find myself falling in love with you in more with every passing day. I love you."

You looked down at him smiling. "I love you too. And I promise I won't threaten your lap-napping time."

Dietfried chuckles, before closing his eyes in peace.

(Do not repost without permission. Sharing is allowed with credits.)