#like they're saying 'here's the HUGE picture - now let's zoom in and start looking at this one corner of it - and as we add new corners

[whentherewerebicycles]

question: when you're starting a new job, what do you most want out of your first week of onboarding? what's most helpful for you to know/understand upfront? also... what's not helpful? tell me your onboarding nightmare stories too lol

[marvelous-harry]

Snapshots from The Grammys 2023

Harry/Florence/Reader

"You're so pretty!" I gushed as I reached out and stroked the crystal-covered jumpsuit. "I want one. It can be my birthday present," I grinned.

Harry chuckled. "Yeah, you're not getting a Swarovski crystal jumpsuit for your birthday," he said and took my hand.

I hummed and looked through the car window. We were in line and we were slowly getting closer to the red carpet. "Can I hold the Grammys after you've finished with the press and stuff? I want a picture with them," I asked and looked back at Harry.

"I'm probably not going to win any. The people I'm nominated with... yeah, there's no way," Harry replied and smiled.

"Don't say that, you have just as good of a chance at winning. You've done so many good things in the last year and I know that people will see that," Florence said and looked at him pointedly.

"I'm just grateful that I was even nominated. That itself is such a huge honour," he said, looking over at Florence.

"It is but I have a very good feeling that there will be more than one Grammy on that shelf when we get back home," she smiled and gave him a kiss on the lips.

"And then I can hold them all. Right?" I asked with a grin. "They're so cute and tiny,"

Harry and Flossie laughed. "Yeah, you can take a picture with them if you want, babe," Harry agreed and smiled.

Harry/Ben/Oliver

"Oh gosh, here we go," Ben said as he looked up at the TV in the green room Harry's team and he and Oliver were in. It was time for Harry to perform and they were all super excited. Poor Harry had been so nervous before going on but everyone reassured him he would do great.

Oliver took Ben's hand and squeezed it. "They've been practicing all week, they got this," He told him and smiled at him.

The music started and everyone was glued to the TV as the camera zoomed in on Harry and the dancers.

Oliver frowned slightly as he looked at it. "Isn't it supposed to go the other way?" he asked as he watched Harry on the turntable.

Ben squeezed his hand tightly. "Oh no," he whispered. He couldn't look away.

They were managing it very well considering they had to do everything in reverse of what they had practiced. Harry only had a small hiccup as he tripped slightly but quickly found his balance again.

Everyone in the room clapped and cheered as Harry took his bow. It had gone well.

Ben and Oliver stood up and waited for Harry to return, both wondering how he was feeling after that knowing that he was a perfectionist when it came to his work.

Not too long after Harry and Jeff came into the room and everyone clapped and cheered again.

Harry waved his hand at them before he started taking off his mic pack.

Oliver put his hand on Ben's lower back and walked towards Harry. "You did so good, love," he told him as they got close to him.

Harry shook his head and kept trying to get the in ears wire out from his outfit, getting more and more frustrated.

"Let's go into your dressing room," Ben said and accepted the hanger with Harry's suit on it before they ushered Harry into the dressing room.

"It went the wrong way! And it was awful. I just embarrassed myself in front of god knows how many people," Harry bit down on his lip hard and tried to undo the zipper on his back.

"Hey, it's okay. That's not true. You did so amazing, I'm sure no one watching would even know it went the wrong way. You all handled it like it was no big deal and it was supposed to go that way," Oliver told him as he cupped Harry's face in his hands and made him look up at him.

"I want to watch it," Harry whispered.

Ben started unzipping the jumpsuit. "Of course we can watch it but not right now. You need to get out of this, eat something, and then get back into your suit,"

Oliver smiled and nodded, holding Harry's hand so he was steady while Ben undressed him.

"Not hungry," Harry replied, his tone short and sharp.

Oliver leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You're eating,"

Erica/Harry

All eyes were on Trevor as the video ended and he started speaking. Erica was clutching her hands tightly together.

"And the Grammy goes to.." she glanced over at Harry and saw that he was just staring straight ahead. She reached out and put a hand on his thigh and gave it a little squeeze.

Trevor looked around before walking over to the older woman. "You can read it," he tells her and shows her the envelope, and holds the mic to her mouth.

Erica gasped and turned to look over at Harry as she listened to her announce the winner. "Ha-Ha-Harry Styles!"

Erica's eyes filled with tears as she stood up and started clapping, watching as Harry put his head in his hands in shock. Everyone around stood up as well and started cheering.

Harry stood up as well and received hugs from the others around their table before he looked at Erica.

Erica brought him in for a tight hug. "I'm so fucking proud of you, love you," she told him before giving him a kiss. Harry had yet to say anything but the look in his eyes was more than enough to tell her how he was feeling. "Go get your Grammy, mister album of the year," Erica grinned and cupped his face - giving him yet another kiss.

Harry cleared his throat and did his best to blink away the tears before he started making his way up to the stage.

Erica let out a long breath and dabbed at her eyes with a napkin.

It was quite easy to see that Harry was very overwhelmed as he accepted his award and walked over to the mic. "Shit," he said as he looked down at the Grammy.

Erica grinned and put her hands on her chest as she looked at him, almost feeling like her heart was about to burst through her chest with pride and love. She could not wait till they finally had a private moment so she could really congratulate him.

[fortunatelyfresco]

Rupdate (rat update) bc i have a lot of stuff to process

cw pet death if the readmore doesn't work

Found Clementine dead at the bottom of the cage last night. She looked... fine. No visible wounds, nothing twisted the wrong way. Location maybe suggested a fall, but we would have heard it. There was substrate clenched in one paw, like she'd been digging. I don't have many good pictures of her for a tribute post because she spent most of her time zooming around or (happily) nestled into hiding places. Here's a couple favorites, though. She's the blond one.

I think she might have just been older than we thought. We adopted her from a breeder who was retiring her due to her age. They rescued her, so they weren't sure either. She had no apparent health problems. I've always seen warnings that Sometimes Rats Just Die. This is our first brush with that. The timing is eerie and unfortunate only a couple days after having ʻImi put to sleep, but I don't think there's anything more to it.

Half a mind to ask the property owners about carbon monoxide monitoring bc that's the second seemingly healthy animal we've had drop dead in less than two months, but it would have killed more of the rats by now if that was the case. It's just a series of unfortunate coincidences. David's genetics were stacked against him and rats are fragile and just don't live that long.

I haven't posted much about David because it doesn't feel like he's mine to grieve, but I do miss him. I was learning how to be his friend in the way he wanted. He was hanging out with me more. So many of my pictures are just... him.

ʻImi had a mass in her stomach that the vet thought was maybe a tumor, and almost definitely inoperable. It was nice to speak to a vet who was frank and realistic about the odds without veering straight into "rats are tricky and small and i won't touch them" territory.

ʻImi was having good and bad days but it seemed like she was starting to have more bad days than good, or the bad days were getting worse. She was scrunched up in the carrier and her body was... not the right shape. I could see the vet trying to carefully guide the conversation towards euthanasia, so I brought it up first. They let me hold her. She demolished most of the treats in the carrier first. She wouldn't drink water out of a bowl but she'd lick it off my fingers. We did that for a long time while we waited for the paperwork. I didn't want her to die thirsty.

Addie's collection of reoccurring abscesses and skin problems are, the vet thinks, due to the small cyst under her arm getting reinfected over and over again. Of the three rats I brought in, he said she had the best chances of surgery fixing the problem. She's always seemed unfazed but she's a prey animal, that's what they do, so I brought her in anyway. The appointment was originally only for Bandit and ʻImi, the two emergencies, but the vets let me add a third rat. I left them a very nice review.

Bandit has a huge mass near her genitals. It started small and accompanied by discharge, and we panicked about pyometra and took her right away to a vet who looked her over, refused to test anything, and prescribed an antibiotic without weighing her.

This new vet talked to me seriously about what it might be, how to measure her quality of life, the pros and cons of surgery depending on what it actually is, and took a sample to have tested. He called me today to say he thinks it's a cyst.

I scheduled her and Addie for surgery on the same day. It's the day after we get our vaccines, so not ideal, because the mask mandate has ended here, but I asked about precautions and the vet said they're still doing curbside service and having staff wear masks. They only brought me inside last time because there was confusion about which rat was which and, reading between the lines, because he suspected we'd be euthanizing one of them.

So our remaining rats are: Bandit, Addie, Malino, Kiki, and Phantom. We are ordering more coco coir today for their digging substrate. I keep expecting to look into the cage and see someone else lying dead in the dirt. We were in the middle of a conversation when I glanced over and saw Clem lying there in the corner, too flat and too still.

I always tell people I think of the rats as a colony. As long as I have at least a couple, the colony survives. I guess this is when I find out how much I really mean that. I think it's okay to love them individually and be sad about losing them, but if it destroys me every time then I can't afford to be a rat owner. They're too fleeting for me to give my whole heart to each and every one.

[echo-three-one]

I have another one shot for today. If y'all don't mind.

Gary's Undercover Tour Inside the Task Force 141 Base

The following are the contents of a 10 minute video that Task Force 141 Sargeant Gary 'Roach' Sanderson keeps in a flashdrive hidden below the memory foam of his extra shoes he doesn't use.

He always wanted to create YouTube videos to gain popularity but the nature of his work doesn't allow him to upload such content. But that didn't stop him from creating such videos.

--------

The video starts with Roach extending his arm high up like a selfie, he waves quickly at the camera and smiles.

"Hello everyone, and by everyone I mean only me. I'm not allowed to disclose anything in this video to the general public so I guess this is just for me." he begins.

"Today, I'm doing an undercover tour to the lovely Task Force 141 base located in Cr- I mean somewhere here on Earth." he grins, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

"You may ask? Roach, why do you call it undercover? Well my friend, it is because I'll be using this hidden camera pen I found in Capt. MacTavish's office last week, and they'll never suspect that they're being filmed!" He continued shifting the view to a room full of bunk beds.

"This is the quarters. Most of us sleep here, while higher officials and VIPs get their own rooms. This is my bed and on top of mine is Ghost's." he patted his sheets and raised his camera pen up, Ghost's bed was just a plain bed with folded clothes on top of it. No posters, or something on the walls, just plain nothing.

"Mine's got a picture of my family back home, my schedule and a checklist of weekly PTs which I hate so much." he explained.

"Oi Roach, who are you talkin' to?" Ghost's voice asked from behind the camera. Roach quickly clipped the pen on his shirt and faced Ghost, who just came from outside. Even in the secrecy of the bunker, he still wears his signature baclava mixed with a plain black t-shirt and cargo pants.

"Nothing, did I say something? You might be just hearing things..." he lied as he slowly exits the room. The video was shaky, but it was showing a short hallway with an open door on the end.

"That was close... No one should know about this undercover mission" He whispers on the camera, panting as he does it.

"Oi! Roach!" a deep scottish accent called him. The feed quickly stops and peeks inside the office. It was a simple and small office with a bookshelf just behind the den desk, a huge glass window overviewing the entrance of the base fills half the wall.

"Yes Captain?" Roach asks, trying not to sound exhausted.

"Have you seen a pen around ere? Last time I saw it was in this desk, but I can't find it now." The Captain runs his hand across his mohawk, looking slightly worried.

"Apologies, but I don't have any idea what you're talking about." Roach lies and exits the area making his way to the huge double doors just a few steps from Captain MacTavish's office.

"Ah. The cafeteria." Roach swings the double doors open, showing an empty hall, full of tables and chairs.

"This is where the Task Force eats, sometimes when we're very free, we push all the tables to the side and make this a huge theatre where they'll let us borrow a projector and watch a movie from that big white wall. That is if we're really free and nothing bad is going on in the world." he explains while walking the path to the other double door.

He swings the door open and in front of him was a huge hall, it has three circling sofas lower than the ground where some of his mates were sitting together discussing things. The audio was full of chatter, like when you're in your high school hallway. Roach gets called a lot of times and he turns to every one of them as the camera shows them waving at him.

The camera makes its way outside, just across the road was a training course where his allies practice a bunch of exercises in order to stay physically fit. He simply crosses this area letting the camera focus on how hardworking the people he's with are. And you can see an old man with an explorer hat on the watch tower, crossing his arms while looking at the soldiers training.

Once the coast is clear, he began talking again.

"This is the shooting range and the combat area. This is where we train how to use our guns and combat skills in different situations. My favorite part here is they let you slice up some fruits." he narrates as he makes his way inside.

"Doing the shooting range today, Roach?" a young looking man with a baseball cap asked.

"Yeah Kyle, er Gaz!" Roach replies in panic and they both high fived as Gaz exits the area. Gary once again crosses through the facility, this time the camera was picking up loud explosions and gunshots.

"Now for our last stop, the hangar." His voice was bearly audible, but at the end of the said facility was a small door leading to a runway. Gusts of wind filled the camera audio as Roach walks across the blistering heat to the Hangar.

"Nikolai! Say hi to my camera!" Roach yells as he pulls out the pen and shows it to the russian man, who happens to fly a remote controlled helicopter.

"Hello Roach's Camera. Hey isn't that the pen Soap is look-" Nikolai spoke in his russian accent in which Gary shushed.

"Can you attach this pen to your helicopter? I want it to zoom away as I end the video." Roach asks excitedly. Nikolai on the other hand, didn't hesitate. The feed that followed was of how their hands cover the whole view as they attach it to the microphone as both of them wave goodbye and their figures become smaller as the helicopter ascends, the words "The End" show as the screen turns to black and the video stops.