#my room is NOT that big i am bad at measurements but it can't be larger than 3m by 3m

[aro-aizawa]

god i love when i finally get round to doing stuff that i've been meaning to for 2+ years. it feels so satisfying but at the same time i have DESTROYED the surrounding area. i am so sorry mum your sewing room JUST got clean and here i am cluttering it up again lol

[lynnbanks]

Ooh! Maybe a Luke x reader where it’s an unexpected pregnancy? She holds off telling him cause she’s afraid of his reaction, and accidentally tells Jack first.

She had no idea she was with child until her latest doctor's appointment where they made her take a test before she could be prescribed her new medication. One second she is worry-free and excited to get lunch with her boyfriend after her appointment and all of a sudden the thought of doing anything makes her sick.

“We know from your blood work you are pregnant but unfortunately you will have to go up to the 7th floor to make an appointment with an ob-gyn.” and y/n is still very much in shock and just shakes her head yes. Walking out of the doctor's hands shaking “What the fuck am I going to do.”

I can't tell Luke I'm pregnant, what if he leaves, what if this tears us apart, what if we are bad parents, what if I am ruining his career? All these what-ifs with nobody to pull her out of it.

She makes it to the spot where they agreed to meet for lunch “Hi baby how are you feeling?” Luke asked, taking in her pale face and shaking frame “Did everything go okay? You don't look too good.”

Pulling herself from her thoughts “Yeah um I-they had to take some blood so I'm a little shaky that's all.”

“Well, we should probably eat then!” He says it with a big smile, happy to see his girlfriend after just a few hours apart. and she couldn't be the one to wipe the smile off of his face so she decided to not bring up what the doctor had just told her.

3 weeks later y/n is now 11 weeks pregnant and has just about all of the early stage symptoms. Her first appointment with her ob-gyn is next week and she is terrified. Luke is starting to notice some changes in her too. She is more distant, and emotional this morning. He caught her throwing up after breakfast and when she was done she acted as if she had been caught doing something bad.

“Let's get you to bed sweet girl, you need some rest.” y/n can't tell if it is the fear, the guilt or the baby growing inside of her but she feels like she is about to throw up the very little food she has been able to keep down. “ you must have caught what jack had last week,” Luke says covering her up

And it is that exact reason Jack was home early from practice 3 days later to find his brother's girlfriend passed out on the floor in the middle of the apartment. And is sitting with her in the emergency room till Luke can switch with him. All is fine until the doctor walks into her room “Hi my name is doctor brown this is Emma she will be taking notes for me while we talk”

pulling out her stethoscope to do a plus measurement test “So what are we in here for today?” before y/n can say anything Jack says it for her “She was passed out on the floor of our apartment.” the doctor nodes her head “In your charts, it says you are in the early stages of pregnancy. Do you know how far along you are?”

the room goes dead silent “The reason I say that is because it is normal to be dizzy during the first few weeks but if it is causing you to faint we definitely want to check in with your OB to make sure mom and baby are doing ok.” y/n can feel the tears fill her eyes this was not happening right now

“ I'm assuming you are Dad?” the doctor says to Jack who looks just as pale as she did when she found out “Um n-no no that would be my brother” he says looking at y/n who looks like she might have a mental breakdown at any second

“Oh I'm sorry um well from what I am seeing everything looks good but we still want to do an ultrasound just to cover all our bases. We will have someone come in just a few minutes to get that done for you,” she says, pumping some hand sanitizer into her hands “My only suggestions would be lots of rest and to drink lots of water and if everything is all good with the ultrasound you should be out of here pretty soon.” be for leaving me to fix this mess alone.

“ Did you know?” Jack asked and all y/n could manage to do was sob into her hands and shake her head yes “Does he know?” she shook her head no “Oh y/n” he said as if she was a lost puppy coming up to hug her tight while she let it all go “I don't want him to leave me.”

She was full-on sobbing “What, why would you think that?” “ I am ruining his life!” Jack pulled away to get a good look at the girl he saw as a little sister breaking down in his arms “Hey it takes two to tango and it's not fair to him for you to say that when he doesn't even know.” y/n hadn't thought about how unfair it was to judge Luke for a reaction she didn't know he was going to have

“ I'm scared; every woman in my life has done it alone. I know what it looks like and I can't do it.”

Jack is rubbing her back trying to soothe her as best as he can. “Luke is nothing like those guys ok and if he did ever turn out to be one of those guys you know me and Quinn would be right by your side as you kick his ass.” y/n laughed a little at that “ but you keeping this from him is going to break his heart.

Let me know if y'all want Luke's reaction if I keep writing right now it is only going to get worse. I also love doing y'all requests. And again grammar spelling and all of the above don't exist here.💋💋

[fanfiction4sooya]

i need to hear/read your opinion on this one: g!p cho miyeon as a mafia boss hard dom

my mind has SO MUCH thoughts that I might just combust

Thanks for the ask babe 💖

And well I really can't see her as a hard dom, my girl is so bubbly all the time... BUT

Let's say she is, I think she would be a menace because of how obsessed she'd be with you.

Like imagine you and your friends entering the club she was at and she immediately falls for you, wanting you so bad her cock strains in her pants. It doesn't take much for her men to put you and her in a room together, her charming smile making you melt as she told you she needed to have you forever. And the craziest thing is that you actually thought the same!! (Sapphics am I right)

It takes only a few months for a big wedding to happen. She (possessively) wants you to be hers as fast as possible 😅

I feel like as your dom she'd slowly build you to get exactly how she wanted you to be. First she would lightly slap your face, then whip your ass a bit harder... Until you could really take all she wanted you to take 🫠🫠

I can imagine you on your back, your head upside down for her to use your throat as a fleshlight 🤤 her squeezing your neck as her cock slides in and out of your throat, moaning when she felt how tight it felt. Your wrists tied together under your knees as her free hand held a leather whip to strike your soaked pussy over and over, your screams making you tight around her length every single time the leather made contact with your clit, tears free falling from your eyes because of the pleasure and pain you were feeling. She likes to pull your nipples excruciatingly hard, almost breaking the skin.

She always makes sure to do your aftercare, take time to feel you and to actually help you recover. She is a monster to others, to you she is your kind and considerate wife.

I think she goes quite insane when someone does anything that upsets you, not measuring the consequences of what she'd do to those that troubled her woman... Of course you find it so hot when she protects you, always making sure to reward her by letting her balls deep into any of your holes she preferred to be in 🫠🫠🫠🫠

Oh and tell me about it when she starts size training you to take more than her big cock in your ass...

[dairy-farmer]

Okay but consider? Has Tim ever seen Ra's post-Critical Injury Lazurus Dip? Like not "oooh, I am back to my sexy Dilf-y glory~" but FULL ON "I have been Hard Reset back to the Prime Of My Life(tm), which statistically is early 20s, and am now a Young and Hot prowling bad boy. With no Grey in my hair and a SLIGHLTY higher voice, meaning while I sound familiar, you can't instantly place it like you usually could."

THAT sort of Hard Reset.

Bet he hasn't.

Bet he'd have an even HARDER time recognizing Ra's in a Masquerade mask. If Ra's had a smooth, freshly shaven, face. I mean... it's not like Ra's an assassin cult leader or anything. Him? Knowing how to DISGUISE himself? When in his centuries of life would he have had time to learn THAT?

So there Ra's is. Looking rich, dangerous, and slutty. As one does. Tight black pants, loose poet shirt, gold and gems dripping like honey down his skin. The very PICTURE of a WEALTHY young trouble maker. Blending in with all these wealthy fools, up too no good, some of them far more then others.

That's why the Bats are here.

For Intel.

But of COURSE, Brucie Wayne has aged out of this sort of scene. Tut tut. And his waste of a grandson is just a touch too young. A shame. So it's the Detective and a few others, leading the charge. But... ah, SUCH a big building! And can the Wayne's afford to be seen at such a disreputable event?

Of course not.

So they're in disguise. Layers upon layers, Detective. Masks upon masks. Delightful~

Ra's gets to watch Tim work the room. Prowl in magnificent heels. Dodge covetous hands so casually it seems by accident. Extract information people have DIED to protect. Blonde, tonight. He looks better with hair like the night.

Ra's smiles like a wolf.

And begins to hunt his prey though a sea of masks.

Which is how Tim meets a VERY rougish, tall, and delightfully muscled heir too...something. It's kinda obvious, given all the jewelry. Swordsmen too, from what he can feel of those INTERESTING and calloused hands. Tim knows he should focus... but...

Mystery Hot Guy is REALLY forward. Clearly in to him. And it's not like he's gotta marry the guy.

Did he mention the DELIGHTFUL rumble? His voice has a low rumbling quality to it, when he leans in close so he can be heard over the music. His hands are hot and gripping in that "just a bit too tight but not TOO too tight" sorta way? So yeah... he's gonna... uuuuh, go... "question so informants" real quick. Get back to you guys later!

Don't wait up!

And Ra's? Knows the chance of this working more then once is close to zero. So it has to be LEGENDARY. Life changing. Dick so good it ruins the Detective's LIFE. He's got to make sure the next time they meet, the Detective wants to kill him AND fuck him in equal measure.

After all, the Bats have a "no kill rule". Oh dear, Detective. Really only leaves you one option, then, doesn't it?

So Ra's goes to absolute TOWN on Tim. Sinks down to his knees and eats him out til his legs won't hold him. Carries him to the bed to the guestroom they're about to absolutely DEFILE, too use far too clever fingers, to stoke that burning NEED back up. Too stretch and tease, as his mouth worships that chest. That neck. That clever, clever mouth.

Runs his free hand along magnificent skin, wishes he could grip hair like the finest ink as he savors Timothy's mouth. It all feels decadent. Ra's is patient. Aaaand, there, Tim rocking against his hand has turned for lazy pleasure (savoring the glow of a good orgasm) to demanding.

His hands, his kisses, are growing hungrier. Commanding Ra's to give him what he needs. Spoil him like a pampered little prince. Either worship and adore him, or he will find someone else who SHALL. How can Ra's refuse? He'd be a fool too.

A fool not to suck and bite branding little marks upon that magnificent skin. A fool not to hike up those powerful hips a grind and tease with his length, until Timothy's sharp little nails dig into his flesh in warning. A gods forsaken incompetent, to NOT sink into that magnificent heat, pressed so close he can hear that breath taking little gasp of pleasure, as the thickness of himself presses wider and deeper then any BOY the Detective as ever taken.

Ra's AL Ghul is no fool.

But he IS a VERY giving lover.

Especially when he has something to gain from it. And oh, how it is a struggle not show the victory on his face. It would not do, to give the game away at the last moment. He knows better. So he moves his hips just so. Rolling at just the right angle. To grind with in as he thrusts, to grind against as he moves, his body angled just right to tease the Detective's clit.

Strong, calloused hands teasing what feels like EVERYWHERE. That deep rumbling voice monologing a god damned speech on how good Tim's body feels, how perfect he is, how sexy. That cock hitting everything over an over in a way marksmen would WEEP with jealousy at. Tim is pretty sure his brain is melting. Hook up too good, fuck why he came here actually. The others can handle it.

Will he later admit he fucked up? Probably. But that's when he gets the ability to reason again. Right NOW all he can think is a series of frantic porno noises and variations of the word "More". Turns out fumbling around with your teammates is NOT actually a good frame of reference for "what is Sex and how good does it feel?".

Tim doesn't even notice, two position changes and several orgasms later, when he loses his wig. His face is buried in Mystery Hook Up's shoulder, drooling and clinging, as he's worked up and down that mind melting cock like a toy. All that HE registers is that it feels nice to have that stuffy thing off and fingers running through his hair.

His family, though? Freaking out. Tim left with an "informant" (their ASS) and never showed back up. They've all HAD the traumatizing Honeypot Talk from Bruce. They KNOW Femme Fatales are a thing. Homme Fatales are a thing! Did someone send a sexy assassin after Tim!?

Soooooorta.

Dick, powered by the sheer force of Brotherly Murder-Panic and 👌close to showing the world why he and FUCKING DEATHSTROKE have a weird decade long "Thing(tm)" going, kicks down the door to waaaay too many random hook ups... until he eventually find the RIGHT hook up.

Where Timmy ain't got no bones. He be truely, magnificently, well fucked and boneless. A cooked noodle. Orgasm machine ran dry and he can see the shrimp color, Captain. He's cuddling a sex god and actively plotting to tattoo his phone number somewhere on this guy's body. Who CARES where he lives. Tim will MAKE it work. How you feel about breakfast?

Ra's is the exact flavour of Lounging Smug Bastard you imagine.

It's not even smirking "pleased with himself" territory anymore. It's full on "if a tiger were turned into a human, got revenge on the bastard who did it, and was lounging around feeling pleased with itself covered in blood" grinning. Because NOW, he has won.

Dick is, of course, going to break every bone in this Mystery Bastard's body. Jason. Hold him.

Which... just as Tim is about to throw a lamp in defense of his new Sex... something, Robin kicks the window open because "fuck it, I'm helping. Timothy may be an idiot. But he's OUR idiot and you've clearly seduced him with some sort of evil demonic sex magic, you fiend, time to fight." Etc etc.

Only then Hot Hook Up takes of his mask.

He.... He looks a LOT like Damian. A concerning amount. Like... if you were to say, take away the Wayne traits, he'd be almost identical.

Tim is ALSO not a fool.

That grin is very familiar. Those EYES are a shade he knows INCREDIBLY damn well. And oh sweet fuck on a stick he boned Ra's AL Ghul.

And it was amazing.

DAMN IT!!!

Does Tim absolutely HATE that Ra's was right? That Tim SHOULD consider sleeping with him? Yes. Is Tim going to do it again? According to the flashcard forcefully handed to him by his Father, ahem, "No. We do not sleep with Supervillians. We have self control." So... noooooooo, of course not. He would NEVER. Don't be absurd.

(Yes.)

-🐼🐼🐼

tim knows he shouldnt but also knows bruce has no moral highground to say 'dont sleep with supervillains 😭

[biblio-smia]

congrats on 800! “where's my goodnight kiss?” with clapton 🥹🫶

clapton is so,,, i want him so bad | part of v’s 800 follower celebration!

it's not very often that clapton takes extreme measures to see you. most days, he is satisfied with holding you between classes, taking you out almost every day afterwards, having you over and making you stay for dinner.

however, some nights he experiences this insatiable longing - a pain in his chest that begs to see you.

so, naturally, clapton sneaks out and finds his way outside your window.

he's knocking lightly, though he's anxious to be inside. it's chilly out and clapton didn't exactly layer up, his feet taking him to his desired destination without much thought. clapton doesn't even know if you're awake - selfishly, he hopes that even if you are, you'll wake up.

it takes a few moments but you're there, thoroughly confused, even more so as you push your curtains aside and see clapton standing on the other side of your window. clapton doesn't mind the playful roll of your eyes because you open your window for him, letting him climb in (with your help, of course).

"what are you doing-" you're cut off by clapton kissing your cheek and the laughter that erupts out of you as his hands find your sides. "clapton, shhh!"

"you're the one being loud," clapton whispers, taking a break from kissing you to look at you.

"what are you doing here?" you finally manage to say.

clapton shrugs. "i missed you."

"so you just... came over?"

clapton grins, resting his head on your shoulder, wrapping you up in his arms. "am i not allowed to see you?"

"not at twelve a.m. when my parents are asleep."

"they don't have to know," clapton chimes, pulling you back into the cozy bed he'd pulled you out of.

the gesture is dramatic, but you can't deny it's romantic. clapton, walking for how long, just because he missed you? your heart beats a little quicker as you let clapton pull you into his chest.

you cherish it. the little habits clapton is guilty of when he's tired, the deepness his voice takes on. he stares at you while you talk, wide-eyed and focused. he tries, and fails, not to yawn, knowing you'll have no choice but to send him home if his eyelids begin to droop.

when clapton can barely keep his eyes open, your sweet voice lulling him to sleep, you give him a look. here comes the worst part: saying goodbye.

it'll only be for a little while (you have a feeling clapton will be at your doorstep tomorrow morning), but clapton resents the feeling regardless, wishing he could stay until morning with no consequences. he dreams of nights where he can sleep next to you and mornings where you're the first thing he sees when he wakes up. maybe one day.

you open the window back up for clapton, not minding the big 4:46 that flashes on your clock. he's one leg out when he stops, eyebrows suddenly furrowing.

"hey," he beings. "where's my goodnight kiss?"

you fight the laughter that bubbles in your throat as you kiss clapton's cheek, watching the disappointed frown form on his face.

you give in eventually, grabbing clapton's face and pressing a long kiss to his lips. then another. then another.

by the time you're done, clapton's ears are red and his eyes are hazy.

"is that good enough?"

"perfect," clapton mumbles, swinging his leg out of your room. he stands through the opening of your window, soon to be too far to hold. "i'll call you in a few hours."

you wonder how much sleep you'll be able to get. "you're on thin ice."

"i miss you already."

you smile bashfully, nudging clapton in the direction of his house. "go home."

"i wanna kiss you again."

"tomorrow," you promise. "as many kisses as you want."

this satisfies clapton, at least for now. who knows about tomorrow?

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

Headcanon/Concept:

'The Tattle-Tale Heart'

"You should be dead." Lucifer advises, his tone bored and overall utterly unenthused about the whole situation. To be fair to his majesty, Lucifer was doing this under duress.

Said duress was a few feet away, eyes brimming with anxiety and worry as her father crouched over the pinned Overlord, clearly concerned for a number of reasons. The chief of which was the injured red prick, and a close second was likely the fact she'd had to use force against someone even for their own good.

A Princess of all that was dark and demonic, and yet, the little lives of sinners and their miserable woes seemed to wring her heart out. It was touching, and infuriating, in equal measure. Sometimes he can't help but wonder if she held more of Lillith or himself in that deceptively sweet humanoid form. Both had loved to help, in their own way... but only Lucifer had once agonised over enforcing his will on others.

Struggling against the bonds tethering the idiot to the floor, -and good luck with that you pompous fuck because those are divine bindings-, Alastor snarls at the King. Face so close they could just about kiss, though nothing would disgust him more, and he's pretty sure from what he's sussed out about the guy... Al here wouldn't be a big fan either.

Hah, maybe he should, just to get one over on the assho-... whoa, no, nope. That would cross a line. He blinks back to the situation at hand as Charlie touches his shoulder, a gentle query.

"Uh, Dad? Are you okay?"

"Er, yep, yup, yes totally my duckling! Just got lost in my head, you know how it is." Cemented into the current moment, Lucifer again rests his palm against the damaged flesh before him, the divine energy surging back at him was almost depleted through his earlier efforts but the wound looked pretty bad underneath.

"And you, you arrogant dick, should be dead."

"And you, your majesty, should have your eyes checked... it is merely an injury taking it's time to heal over. It's hardly the first time an angel has gotten too close... speaking of, would you care to remove your hands from me before I remove them for you?"

The warbling warning in the voice is easily batted aside by the royalty present, as the severity of the injury becomes clear as the light leaves it. Lucifer feels the divine surge of it in his palms as it joins his own half-divine, half-demonic form and writhes about for a bit.

An angelic essence tantrum, one could say, and knowing that it came from Adam of all the arrogant feathered fools above... Lucifer would have to say it was on-brand.

Charlie gasps, "Oh Al, you should have said something..."

Lucifer's gut clenches as he can actively see the way something sharp in Alastor's expression softens as he addresses Charlie.

"My dear, this is hardly the worst thing that has happened to me in Hell, it would have healed in time. What else do we have down here but time to make further mistakes? Hah-ha!

"No. I asked you to fight with me, and you took on the First Man to help defend my dream... so Im telling you, as your business partner and weird sort of managerial kid, that you should have said something to someone before it got this bad. And I am really, really angry with you, right now, because I hate seeing any of you hurt... and knowing that you didn't think you could come to ask for help was-... was-..." Charlie's expression dissolved into angry, desperate sobs that seemed to throw both the men into the room into disarray.

"Now, Charlotte-... "

"Char-Char, it's okay, Daddy's fixing it!"

"...indeed, 'Daddy' is trying, apparently." Alastor can't help but snipe, earning a tightening of the bindings until he snarled. He opens his mouth to deliver what might be a withering statement about Lucifer, when things go rather awry.

With a violent slam, the door opens, and Vaggie enters with the spear aimed point-first. "What's wrong, babe? What did he do?"

"Contrary to your opinion, Vagatha, it appears it may be what I did NOT do... that is cause for this kerfuffle." Alastor explains, and his ears flattened backward against his skull, clearly surprising Charlotte enough that she stopped crying.

"Wait, those are your EARS? Ohmygosh they look so fluffy, can I to-... no, wait, you don't like touch. I'm so sorry..."

"A negotiation for later, perhaps."

"Oh you sonovabitch, don't you dare try to make a deal with her-...!"

"I wouldn't dream of using such a paltry thing for-..."

"Actually, Sir, they already made a deal." Vaggie adds in, and the room goes dead silent. "Which yooooooooou clearly didn't know about, and I'm going to need you to take several deep breaths because we JUST rebuilt the hotel, your Majesty."

"Oh relax, she still has her soul... it was for a favour. It was the best way to ensure our reputations remained intac-..." the sentence broke into a sharp static scream as Lucifer's clawed hand slipped into the angry maw of the jagged wound. Blood, fever-hot, slipped down his arm as the King slipped under a frantically trembling set of lung to grasp-...

...nothing.

The confusion snapped him right out of the momentary malice, eyes flickering back to normal as horns and tail receeded. Only just noticing Charlotte and Vaggie's hands on him, trying to yank him back from a very dark place.

Anger surges back up, how dare this sinner make a deal with his Charlotte? And then dare to call out the King for being a terrible father?

And yet... the statistical anomaly doesn't line up here.

"You should be dead." Lucifer states in a monotonous voice, no inflection of the curiosity and bewilderment that races through him. He casts about again and feels Something that isn't right, beating away impossibly... and a trace of something familiar. "Where's-... where's your-..."

"Dad, STOP!"

"SIR, PLEASE!"

Heeding the frantic cries, he allows the women to haul him back and away from the Overlord, his arm covered to the elbow in slick crimson blood. With some small amount of smug pride, Lucifer notes that the Radio Demon is ashen and panting, the frayed stitches about the wound were snapped from his attempts to pull away in his bindings. He sure hoped that the fucker would feel his hand there anytime he thought to try making a deal with Char-Char again.

An enraged Charlie fills his vision, horns on full display.

"Dad, what the seven rings was THAT?! You had NO RIGHT to hurt him like that, and I can-... I can make a deal if I want to. If you ever do that again I'll-..." She looked to be struggling to find a good enough threat.

"...sell your soul to the porn moth guy?" Vaggie grimaces.

"Yes! That!" Charlie points, eyes wild. "I'll let Valentino have my soul, and probably all my ho-..."

There's a loud screech of static and a demonic "NO!" at the same moment Lucifer cried, "SWEETIE NO!"

"You will never even jest about such a thing!" Alastor adds, his fixed smile twisting into a truly disgusted grimace. Charlie turns to him immediately, as if to reassure, but chooses instead to snap away the bindings.

"I'm sorry, I won't... he licked my arm that one time I went there and I accidentally set fire to his studio, so I'd rather fight ten Adams than try that again, so-..." she was rambling, her hands hovering as if she wanted to help but didn't know where to start.

Thankfully, Vaggie happened to have at least basic field medic training and some excellent common sense (hell edition) in her possession. She did wrinkle her nose at the strong scent of blood, exposed innards and some sort of infection that had yet to flush out as she knelt beside the overlord.

"Well, this is gross. No two ways about it. I think we'll need to clean this up first and then do some dressings... do we have any antibiotics floating around the hotel? Or was draining the angelic energy enough to get your regeneration to kick in? Not sure how it works for Overlords compared to regular sinners."

All business. In the moment and handling the crisis in front of her like Lucifer should have.

Chagrined, Lucifer snapped his fingers and removed the extraneous blood from everyone present. "Charlie, I'm sorry you had to see that, I just-... you can't go making deals. Not with sinners, or goetia, or hellhounds, or the Sins - especially not Uncle Mammon if I see one sexbot version of you I will exterminate him to ashes- or ANYONE ever again. You're the Princess of Hell, a favour can be twisted to topple the entire realm if used carefully..."

"Dad, I know that. But I made a choice, and you don't get to come along and torture people I care about because of that choice." Charlie shoots back, there's a pointed venom in the statement, and briefly Lucifer considers what it must have looked like for her, to see him go from healer to harm-inflicter without a momentary pause.

"You're right. I overreacted." Next time he would wait until Charlie wasn't there to enact violent revenge. "Now, if you want me to I will heal the deer as long as he uses your favour up to get that healing."

"What?!" Charlie is indignant. "No, no you don't get to make my decisions for me like that. If you make that the condition, I'll just... make another deal for-... for twenty favours! Including weird sexy stuff that would make Angel blush!"

"...please don't, on my account." Alastor drawls, looking vaguely ill at the notion. "And do not trouble yourself over it sire... I have no intention of using the favour, it was necessary to share the information across. You created the rules for this place after all. "

Lucifer could second that. "True." Damn, he hated giving ground to the daughter-bewitching demon.

"Would you like to make a deal about the favour, little majesty, to make you feel better?" Alastor grinned, strained at the seams and uncomfortable to look at for too long.

"Oh fuck off... how about this, I heal you and you tell me where the FUCK your heart is?" He offers instead.

"WHAT?" It's unclear who shouted that lounder, Vaggie or Charlie. Telltale footfalls on the lower staircases meant that this little exchange had not gone unnoticed by other staff and their solitary guest. The door locked itself with a little devilish insurance against sudden intruders.

Alastor tried to glare hatefully at the King, but the effect was rather ruined by his pale features, and the obvious strain of remaining functional given everything going on.

"Perhaps you do need to have your eyes checked, I am certain you just missed it due to your ineptitude with anatomy. Isn't that why your wife le-...mmph?!"

Vaggie had taken the initiative to slam her hand over his mouth in a brave and very desperate action to stop the King from incinerating the Overlord they begrudgingly cared about and worked with.

She made a shrug gesture and tried to laugh it off. "Uh, Sir, sometimes the bloodloss makes people a bit delusional... and conceited... and really fucking rude... so let's pretend he didn't say that, okay?"

Seething, tail lashing, the Devil hiimself had to count to fifty-eight in his head to calm down... but he managed it. He could be the bigger-... uh, the better demon here. Can't let the guy bait you again, he's just deflecting.

"Oh come now, Bambi... is that the best you got?" He grins, moving closer and enjoying (a tad too strongly) the way the other pulled back from his outstretched hand, only Charlie and Vaggie's presence trapped him in place. Subtly moving to pin his arms down. "We're going to overlook your bullshit bignoting for now, because I can see that Adam really fucked you up, and I suppose that you do kinda deserve a little bit of help for defending the hotel. I just need you to tell me where your heart is... and how in the seven rings you're still breathing."

Those ears remained flattened.

"Al, is it... something you CAN speak about?" Charlie asks, and the red eyes shoot open to stare at her, taken aback. "I... I saw the collar, a little while back. It was by accident, I swear!"

"I would rather you not have known, little majesty, it will draw attention... but I can. Speak about the situation. I guess."

"I really appreciate you trusting us with this." Charlie encouraged, genuinely proud of getting honesty from her friend, whose past, secrets and motivation were all a mystery at this point.

With a flat sigh, refusing to look at Lucifer, Alastor simply advised "Vox has it."

There's a beat of silence.

"Like, in a jar or-...?"

"You mean, metaphorically...?"

"Ugh, is this a cannibal dating thing?"

As their questions garbled together, Lucifer could see the way the Overlord immediately closed off to them, that fake smile brightening until a fake persona was firmly in place.

"Nevermind. If you have sated your curiosity...?"

"Hold on, if what I think you did happened, then it's not possible. So what I want to know, is how you managed to do it?" Lucifer says, shifting on his knees because the carpet wasn't as plush as he'd originally assumed, and tentatively putting his hand against the wound. The weirdest thing... was that he could FEEL a heartbeat.

With concentration, he sent healing throughout the injury, encouraging broken vessels and torn muscles to mend, binding flesh and viscera back into place, and sending a sharp flush of energy to root out the infection he could just about taste in the air at this point.

As his magic passes through the pulse-point centres, a picture begins to form in Lucifer's mind.

"You have a pulse... so something's doing the pumping." He murmurs. "There's a shadowy something there, like a fake heart... made of something imbued with three different types of magical signature... and I can't think of anyone who would have known how to do this, in this ring. But it's not...real? Like an echo, but it's working."

"As I said... this is not the first encounter with an angel, your majesty."

"Hey, you alive in there?" a voice calls, multiple fists bang on the door. "Say the word, we got weapons!"

"We're okay! Thank you, though!" Charlie calls back.

"Use ya safeword if ya need it! We'll come... heh... right in and start blastin!"

"Fortheloveof-... OKAY, THANKS!"

Lucifer snapped his fingers in front of Alastor's face.

"Hey, focus, I need to know how this happened, it doesn't make SENSE and reeks of something sinners shouldn't be able to do. I healed you, so spit it out already."

"...fine. During a disagreement several years ago, in the manner in which we often disagreed, neither Vox nor I realised the Extermination had begun until angels flooded the area. Enlarged forms making us the centre of attention until one managed to pierce Vox's heart and take him down."

Alastor clenched his teeth so hard that rivulets of crimson began to run down his chin. A faint outline about his throat glowed a familiar colour, and Lucifer was rather hoping that the digs at his eyesight might be true, because there's no way that-...

"When the exorcists assumed we were both deceased or dying, they left... and someone else arrived. Someone who we all know... who would not be pleased to have their name shared. Someone whose magical healing was more... creative than most, and would use that for the chance to collar at least one overlord to their cause."

"Don't you hate Vox though?" Vaggie asked.

"Not really, no. I dislike what he has chosen to become, and the disagreement was around the liberties that foul moth was taking... if you think having him lick your arm was bad, Charlotte, try having him attempt to jam his tongue in your mouth before formal intorductions were even made. I wanted him dead. Vox saw potential and growth there... we disagreed."

"So you were... friends?"

Alastor tilted his head with a crunching sound, positively beaming as he added, "Why no, dear... we were married."

Lucifer rubs his temples, feeling like the main character of a sitcom at this point. "Okay, so you like the television, got it... next part, tell me about the heart!"

"I already have. To clarify, Vox was almost gone and Someone knew a way to move a willing participant's organ to the body of another, until such time as the recipient's own has healed or the living donor is killed. The specifics of it all remain somewhat... blurred, due to the nature of the situation, but it also creates a facsimile that works in place and at the same rate as it's real counterpart outside the body. I suspect it was bound with a trace of Vox's magic, as well as my own... and that of Someone."

"Ho-ho-hokay, that is ridiculous, that kind of thing has never worked. I saw some weird humans trying that sort of nonsense in the Living World a few centuries back, but they also seemed to think drilling holes in your skkull could make headaches stop, so I didn't take any notice!" Lucifer rambled, digging through the disorganised mess in his head for some clarity on where, when and which peoples that information pertained to. Downside of being immortal... you remembered a lot, but you only had the one main train of thought to check all the stations.

"Oh, it worked, alright... as you could see. Or more aptly, could not." Alastor rebutted. "It worked, because there were elements that Someone needed to use, that a living world counterpart would have no ability to extract or utilise. Such as memories, feelings, concepts that were given form as part of whatever it was they did."

"Does... Vox know?"

"No."

"Wait, how does he not know? Did you just like, not tell him 'oh hey by the way you have my heart in a literal and a metaphorical way'?" Lucifer frowned.

"Part of what Someone did required the blood of an enemy, the loss of an innate right, and the memories of affection shared. Somehow this conveyed into lost freedom and Vox's memories of our relationship being erased entirely. He is, however, alive."

"That, uh, that sucks... dude." Vaggie tries to provide comfort, but is wildly out of her wheelhouse here. Charlie looks likewise flummoxed.

"Hah! Why yes, it does suck... but what is done is done. I have chosen to see it as mildly hilarious... after all, if the picture box does get his fondest wish and manages to kill me, he'll drop dead right alongside my corpse! Hahahahahaaaaaa!"

Charlie grimaced. "Oooh-kaaaaay, Al... you know I love and value you... so please don't take this the wrong way but... I'd like you to maybe try a few of the therapy sessions."

"My dear, I'd rather have your faher go fishing for my non-existent heart again..." there's a pause. "Hah, how poetic... the Devil seeking after the heart of a sinner, it feels like one of those telenovelas Niffty loves to watch. Oh, she will get a kick out of this when I tell her!"

"Whoa, I was trying to hurt you... don't make it weird!" Lucifer backtracks, eyes wide in alarm.

"Were you not elbow-deep inside m-...?"

"Nope! No! Not doing this, I get enough innuendo from the tall guy downstairs, thanks. From you, it's horrifying. Just... no." Lucifer flushes, angry and a little horrified about how this had all gone to (heh) Hell from the minute Charlie had decided to ask for his help.

'Dad I'm worried about Alastor, he's really hurt and won't tell me what's wrong.' She'd said. 'Please help me corner him and see what we can do, Vaggie said she feels angelic energy on the guy.'

And so he'd trundled along to play hero dad for Charlie, as always, and the red fucker had thrown such a hissy fit that normal restraints couldn't pin him down. So Lucifer had to break out some blessed ropes that he hadn't seen since Lillith left, and Char-Char had to whip up some royalty-grade divine bindings. He was very proud of her, but this was a mess of a situation.

Not to mention the fuss the big baby kicked off when Lucifer had snapped his shirt and coat aside to get at the bandages. Ugh.

And now here he was dealing with the only person in all hell he thought wouldn't thrown an innuendo his way, making weird insinuations while Charlie and Vaggie sat in stunned apprehension.

What was his life these days?

Ah, fuck it.

"Okay, so... what does this mean for the hotel? If the Someone is who I think you're alluding to, 'cause I'd know that magic anywhere, then clearly you're here for more than entertainment." Lucifer levels at Alastor, who was subtly wiggling his way free of the restraining girls.

"Nothing I can share. It would suffice to say that I was with Someone in a place a Cut Above the Rest for seven or s years... and then was tasked with ensuring that the others remain In Their Place without overtly damaging anything. If that makes sense?"

"...loud and clear."

"But why would... that person... want to see me fail?" Charlie asked, crestfallen, and Vaggie was instantly shuffling across the carpet at her for a hug. "I... I called so many times..."

"The ties that bind sometimes have knots in them, my dear... and as I am a man of my word, so are they."

"Who did... they... make a deal with?" Lucifer asked, curious and anxious all at once, feeling rather like a well-shaken can of soda.

"...one whom Niffty managed to tidy away. I do not know what that means."

"Okay, this is not great, but its more info than I had before all this started. So... is Someone coming here? What does it mean for you if they do? Does the whole..." Lucifer taps at his own chest, "stop working if you tell us anything, or something happens to them?

"I... don't know. The deal was made under circumstances of altered consciousness and bloodloss... but I would not be willing to test shattering or pressing against the boundaries just yet. I will not put that idiot video podcast in harm's way, even if he will never remember why."

"Understood." Fuck this fucker for starting to feel relatable. But if it was Lillith, or Charlie... he'd do whatever it takes to keep them safe.

"Okay, so we just... prepare for whatever happens, then, I guess. And if we have to do magical CPR on a television or something, we do it." Charlie says, right eye twitching as she makes some elaborate plans in her terrifyingly clever brain. "Vaggie, I'm going to need to break out my glitter glue for this... but I have a plan."

A flash of fear in that bright eye, before love replaces it. "Anything for you, babe."

"Do you require assistance, or would you prefer I return to regular duties instead? I understand that one of the rooms may have gained sentience and has attempted to eat Niffty twice today." Alastor says, buttoning his shirt closed, and using a small flick of his magic to remove both rumples and bloodstains from the fabric.

"Oho no, mister, you are taking it easy!" Charlie threatens, finger pointing and waggling sternly.

"Yeah, you don't look great... your body at least needs a chance to restock. Magical healing doesn't mean it didn't deplete your energy, just that a little boost tried to get stuff jumpstarted." Vaggie adds, matching the Radio Demon's glare.

The room starts to go dark, as distortion swims freely through the air; no longer constrained by blessed rope and able to use his powers again.

"Yeah, no... not dealing with this." Lucifer rolls his eyes, extends a hand to the sinner's forehead and intones, "Sleep." Expression impassive as the Overlord crumples forwards, almost directly into Lucifer, who is thankfully stronger than his diminuitive form suggests.

As he rises from the floor and hefts the other into his arms, the King can't help but notice the frantic tempo of the other's pulse, visibly beating against that pale throat. Lucifer frowns, sure he'd managed to purge the infection from the Demon, because right now his pulse should be languid in sleep...

...and then a small flicker of movement outside the window catches his eye. A flash of crimson sunlight accidentally alerting the three royals and royal-to-bes of an unexpected voyeur.

"...he's gonna kill us all when he wakes up." Vaggie groans.

Charlie snaps her fingers and the drone shatters, but it's already too late.

-------

Across town, with his eyes wide in horrified awe, Vox finds himself putting a clawed hand atop his thundering heart.

"...fuck."

And wasn't that just the understatement of the day?

[velvetvexations]

RE: Lovecraft's racism

I don't have anything meaningful to add, just some personal anecdotes.

I started reading Lovecraft from some selected works books, and I didn't see any issue for most of it. I didn't know his reputation, and also I am European so race is not something that I am actively aware about (because POC here are extremely rare and mostly are rich tourists and exchange students rather than minorities). Up until he described Inuits as "dwarfish creatures who call themselves Eskimos".

Later I have read complete collections of his works and saw some absolutely horrific racist sentiments, and also now that I am tumblr-level socialist I can see all problematic innuendos in selected works as well, so it's in no way defense of Lovecraft. Just my addition.

P.S.: I also think that people calling Lovecraft exceptionally racist just didn't read a lot of popular USAmerican fiction of the time. Burroughs is IMO worse, or at least more obvious about it.

P.P.S.: There was a popular joke some time ago like "Lovecraft would go insane if he met me" that was made by white neurodivergent queer people, and I feel that it's weirdly tone deaf. We don't know Lovecraft's opinion on homosexuality or transgenderism, at all. He probably was at least somewhat homophobic considering times, but we just can't prove that he wouldn't have changed his mind if presented with science-based arguments, and autism is definitely not what he considered scary mental illnesses. His entire deal was being racist, not just generally bad person.

P.P.P.S. (wow): Also, not enough people talk about him describing political system of Great Race of Yig (or whatever they are called) as "a mix of socialism and fascism"

Actually, we DO know how he felt about queer people!

From a letter to J. Vernon Shea:

I guess it is true that homosexuality is a rare theme for novels—partly because public attention was seldom called to it (except briefly during the Wilde period) until a decade ago, & partly because any literary use of it always incurs the peril of legal censorship. As a matter of fact—although of course I always knew that paederasty was a disgusting custom of many ancient nations—I never heard of homosexuality as an actual instinct till I was over thirty…which beats your record! It is possible, I think that this perversion occurs more frequently in some periods than in others—owing to obscure biological & psychological causes. Decadent ages—when psychology is unsettled—seem to favour it. Of course—in ancient times the extent of the practice of paederasty (as a custom which most simply accepted blindly, without any special inclination) cannot be taken as any measure of the extent of actual psychological perversion. Another thing—many nowadays overlook the fact that there are always distinctly effeminate types which are most distinctly not homosexual. I don’t know how psychology explains them, but we all know the sort of damned sissy who plays with girls & who—when he grows up—is a chronic “cake-eater”, hanging around girls, doting on dances, acquiring certain feminine mannerisms, intonations, & tastes, & yet never having even the slightest perversion of erotic inclinations.

Even worse, from a letter to James F. Morton:

Have you seen that precious sissy that I met in Cleveland? Belknap says he’s hit the big town, and that he’s had some conversation with him. When I saw that marcelled what is it I don’t know whether to kiss it or kill it! It used to sit cross-legged on the floor at Elgin’s and gaze soulfully upward. It didn’t like me and Galpin—too horrid, rough and mannish for it!

The idea that this fucking dweep saw himself as the alpha male in the room is dadgum hilarious.

And yet, R. H. Barlow and Samuel Loveman (again) were gay. Did Lovecraft know? He met the aforementioned "precious sissy" at a gathering Loveman had taken him to. R. H. Barlow wrote a story lost to us called "I Hate Queers" which Lovecraft read that certainly sounds psychologically revealing, but his brief commentary on it really tells us nothing about the content and if it made Barlow's closet more transparent or not.

Derleth said Lovecraft "seemed" to be unaware they were gay, but what the fuck does that asshole know? Lovecraft personally explained the ideas behind his stories to him and he still fucked up the Mythos for decades with his bullshit. On the other hand, Derleth was bisexual himself, and I don't know how Lovecraft couldn't have picked up on it from this letter he sent him:

I can understand your detestation of sex irregularities in life as violations of harmony and I here fully agree with you. I had previously misunderstood you to mean protestation from a basis of morals, and on this basis I would have stood squarely opposed to you. I have known and still know many people who are sexually irregular, both homosexual men and women, and except for three cases out of perhaps 21, I have always found these people highly intellectual, fully aware of what they were doing, and in all cases quite helpless. Speaking perspectively and in the abstract, I could as easily conceive myself entering upon a monogamous homosexual relation as a heterosexual one—though perhaps practice would change that point of view. To quibble about mere words, I should not say that perverts necessarily lived inartistically.

As to if Lovecraft would have accepted scientific evidence in favor of queer validity, maybe. He was becoming a full-blown Actual Communist towards the very end of his life and his racial views, while still preferring to keep cultures separate, had gotten to the point where he believed a Chinese baby raised by White parents would be essentially the same as a White person, which is, uh, technically progress?

[ikamigami]

What gets me is that both Sun and Earth acknowledge how kind New Moon and they used to be, that he and Earth were super close to the point of sharing their deepest thoughts with one another, Sun had said to New Moon "I liked you more than the old you", it wasn't about New Moon being smarter or stronger than Old Moon, that didn't matter to Earth or Sun, they were okay if New Moon couldn't bring back Solar, they were okay with New Moon 'not measuring up to the old him', even now New Moon is their brother, not in a transactional way but in a real, close way, he a really good brother and just a kind person even when he got angry or messy! That's it too, New Moon could get angry or reckless before, that isn't the problem here, the problem was he decided to "snap", and its one thing to be really messy with grief and say some not great things, this episode made it clear the insults weren't the big problem, though I should also point out that if you start lashing out to hurt people on purpose, cutting ties with them like that, then why would you not expect consequences? And it's not like Sun and Earth disowned him, they didn't, but their trust in him was broken by what he said, because he went beyond insults and instead chose what he knew hurt them both the most and meant it, you don't get to do that, betray someone like that, and then walk away expecting your relationship with someone to be exactly the same, not without working to fix it, which he hasn't so far But either way the big problem was New Moon going further than Old Moon in the sense of actually attempting to kill a family member willingly, Old Moon was terrible, but the closest he ever got to murdering one of his siblings on purpose was punching Sun in the face or verbally threatening to "unplug him", which was still very messed up mind you but New Moon took it several steps further, it wasn't an accident like "oh I didn't know you were in here", or a "I am doing this but I will give you time to get out", he told her he doesn't care about her right before doing it and would've killed her if the blast wasn't stopped and everybody knows that and is not okay with it, rightfully so, grief is not a justification to attempt to willingly murder innocent people, especially ones own family who you claimed to love so much, I do not could Ruin or Bloodmoon because they aren't innocent, if it was just them in the room there wouldn't be a problem here, and if New Moon did that because "he feels they disowned him", they made it clear they didn't, I don't even think New Moon in his moments of reflection he actually said "they abandoned me", and isn't it just as bad that you betray someone close to you and they express they are hurt and that your relationship will be different going forwards, but they're still there, and your response is effectively "welp I don't care if you die now, get out of my way"? And even then both of them are still conflicted, Earth is still very angry but as she said she still can't fully just cut ties, and Sun is even more hesitant, and yeah, them going "Forgiving them depends on if the apology was actually sincere" and even then if they didn't forgive him for going that far that would be valid considering the severity, if it is revealed there was a corrupting influence that would help New Moon's case, but he still made bad choices he needs to answer for, even a part of his conscience knew it was all wrong but he chose to do it anyway

100% true! All of this! Everything you said is exactly true and right!

They still care and can't fully stop caring about New Moon. But they have every right to feel betrayed and hurt and to not want to forgive him. But like you said they are thinking about the option of forgiving him because they loved him and I think that they still do cause emotions are a funny thing which is hard to control and even if they may say "we don't care about him and we don't love him anymore". That love and care is still there in their hearts. And this is also why it hurts so much. This is why New Moon's betrayal hurts so much.

And you're right that virus or not New Moon still has to be hold accountable for his actions and he needs to show regret and apologize and even maybe he should do something to show that he means that. And also like you said Sun and Earth saw New Moon as brother. Sun liked New Moon more than Old Moon as his brother. They don't care if his smarter if he can do and fix everything. Like you said they don't care about it. I agree with everything you said here, dear anon.

Thank you for this long message because you addressed everything, every little and important detail and I think that it's very needed for everyone in this fandom to see. Thank you ^^

[littlegreenwyvy]

Wear a fucking covid mask

Wear a mask Wear a facemask, when you're indoors

Wear a N95 face mask if you're gonna be in public

wear a face mask

Wear a mask if you're going out

I don't know how to explain to people -- my friends and coworkers and family and strangers and people who make important decisions and people just living their lives -- that you are the reason over a thousand people die every week.

You are the reason I cannot leave my house without risk

You are the reason I can't go to the movies or a bar or to get a haircut or a restaurant or the doctor or the dentist or the library or go to fucking WORK OR SCHOOL without coming to terms with there being a non-zero chance I will be dead within the month.

Just because somebody had a friend over who had a ''''cold'''' last week and I happened to sit next to them on the bus.

“Oh it's not that likely” “Oh it'll be mild” “Oh HEALTHY people don't get severe illnesses”

First of all: Wrong

Second of all:

I"M NOT HEALTHY PEOPLE; I'M DISABLED FROM FUCKING COVID

"Oh it's okay because only YOU will die, not us good and healthy people : )"

My favourite is all the excuses

“Oh things aren't that bad yet so I won't take the preventative measures”

"Well I already had it and it wasn't a big deal, so I'm not gonna bother"

"I'm not gonna live my life in fear"

“Well I don't have to anymore so I'm not going to”

You SHOULD HAVE TO

I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I genuinely think that you SHOULD have to wear a face mask and stay a meter apart and take a test before going somewhere. At least in a fucking HOSPITAL or something.

I shouldn't have to BRING MY OWN EXTRA FACE MASKS because my doctor DOESN'T FUCKING HAVE ANY IN THE FUCKING OFFICE

And then they give me the fucking look

That look they get in their eyes

From my fucking DOCTOR, who I go to for my CHRONIC ILLNESS, which I got FROM HAVING COVID.

I should be able to go to work or the library or just out in public without risking catching the fucking plague.

So to all people who choose not to wear a mask: I hate every single one of you. All of you who don't wear face masks indoors:

YOU are the reason for this.

Yes even my friends; I'm sorry but I am blaming you and guilting you about it. If we lived nearby I would not be able to hang out with you because you are unsafe for me to be around. And that is fucking HEARTBREAKING. My FRIENDS, who I LOVE DEARLY, and WANT to be around, and I fucking can't, because of decisions that YOU make. All those times we talk about 'oh if we met up' 'oh if you travelled here' I can't fucking TRAVEL are you NUTS?

Do you know how long you're supposed to isolate if you suspect you've been 'in contact' with someone who had covid? CDC says 10 days from when symptoms start. If you still have symptoms on day 11? Start another 10 days.

Do you know what 'in contact' means? Maybe you do maybe you don't; I had to look it up myself, but maybe it was communicated better in your area. If you've been in the same ROOM as someone for 15 minutes; up to 2 days before their symptoms STARTED (and of course while they are showing symptoms) and up to 10 days AFTER their symptoms began. That means if you know someone had covid last week? They're still potentially transmissible. A stranger in the waiting room at the doctor's office has a cough? Possibly covid. And you know the BEST PART? We have NO IDEA how many cases are asymptomatic. That means that ANYBODY in public could potentially transmit it to you. Lower estimates suggest in the single-digits to 10s of percent of covid cases are asymptomatic, while higher estimates say up to 50%. We just don't know! There's no way to because it's not monitored fucking AT ALL anymore!

Do you know what this means?

It means there is NO WAY of knowing what the risk is. It's a gamble, full-on. Even more so than ever before. And do you wanna know what? I wanna fucking live. The potential to lose my entire fucking life isn't worth it for just about anything, if I'm being honest. I've already been through that once. I had a career in music lined up. I was just about to finish my degree as a clarinetist. I was performing in orchestras as a soloist. And you know what happened? I got covid. Suddenly my lungs and my diaphragm don't work so well anymore. For two whole years I couldn't stand or sit upright for more than an hour at a time, or else I would pass out. Nowadays it's improved; it's not more than 4 hours at a time, and I only feel faint for a while before passing out.

But do you know what that means? It means I can't play clarinet anymore. Over a decade of schooling and practicing and mastering my craft: Gone in an instant. I'll never play again. I lost my entire future and my entire career, because I got covid in 2021, from people who had stopped wearing masks because 'covid was over'. They got it. I got it from them. They survived and are fine. I barely survived and I very much am NOT fine.

This is why I'm so reluctant to take any more risk. Even if I survive, what else will I lose?

My ability to taste or smell? My muscle control? Will my heart condition get worse? Will I never be able to think clearly again? I already can't. How much worse can it get?

Sources seem to say: Much worse

I can't stress this enough that I am LUCKY to be where I am now. I can't function if I don't get more than 10 hours of sleep. I have to take medications every day to SURVIVE. At the end of my work day I pass right out, and wake up just in time to get ready for the next day at work. I do not have a life anymore. And I'm LUCKY, because I RECOVERED. THIS is what 'recovery' looks like, from long covid. It may get better over the next few years. It also might not. It DEFINITELY won't if I get covid again.

If YOU don't care about that, or about how that could happen to you, then I will never willingly be around you. Again, this even goes to my dear friends.

Wear a face mask and STOP being the problem

[sweaterkittensahoy]

WE HAVE A FLOOR

OH THANK FUCK

So, for those of you who don't know or don't recall or just love seeing this fucking story again and again because this shit has HAUNTED me for NEARLY TWO YEARS, let's turn back the clock:

2022:

By the end of June 2022, the following things had happened to me in the year 2022:

Six sinus infections, one right after the other. Tested for Covid each and every time. Not Covid. When to the doctor on day 12, got the antibiotics, shit cleared up. And basically the moment the antibiotics cleared my system, new sinus infection.

Had so many in a row, in fact, that my my ashtma wouldn't calm down, and we had to get me on steroids for ten days to basically reset my lungs.

Went to a family wedding, first big trip since lockdown.

Came home from the family wedding and had Covid. I regularly get body pain with my fevers, and this was the worst body pain of my life. I barely remember going to the doctor for the test so I could take time off. It was bad.

Was very close to a major realization that a friendship I thought was going to last my whole life had become utterly toxic and abusive.

And then the end of June hit. And I woke up one morning to Sean cursing, which was alarming. Because I curse like a sailor, but he does not. I get up to see what the problem is.

The problem is a quarter-inch of water through most of our apartment. It was coming through our light fixtures. We are in a renovated basement of a house from the 1920s. I ran outside then up the stairs to see what was going on up there.

The house is two stories. Overnight, the toilet supply line on the second story had begun to leak. This kind of leak is a silent affair. We don't know when it started. But when we woke up, the entire living/kitchen area was flooded. The laundry room/bathroom was flooded. The water had soaked into the bedroom carpet so far that it was sopping wet from the door to about two feet in.

The office had, miraculously, not taken a drop. Still not sure how that worked.

We call the management company. We call insurance. I swear my ass off because Sean has to go to work, which means I'm stuck alone all day with the mess and a dog who does NOT understand why her paws keep getting wet.

Demo guys show up. They are very, very nice. By the time they're done on day one, there are two dehumidifiers and several large fans going in my house.

We don't have A/C by the way. And it's late June, and even in PDX, that's not great.

Three days later, the demo guys show back up to take out everything that can't be fixed. Our place looked like this:

Once they took all the wet out, we had this hole in our ceiling:

And were walking around on this floor:

That's the original cement floor that was put in when the house was built, by the way.

And then, we spent the ENTIRE SUMMER waiting for someone to FIX OUR FUCKING HOUSE. From the end of June until FUCKING SEPTEMBER we were living with an open ceiling and no actual floor.

I'd email the management company. I'd call. They'd say "Oh, we're working on it. The owner is dragging his feet."

Put a pin in that claim. We'll come back to it.

At the end of July, I ended that friendship I mentioned. I am using it as a measurement here so you understand that a month into my house being like this, I was also going through a massive emotionally fucked up situation.

Work was so fucking busy I nearly burned out. On top of trying to get some answers about when I was gonna get a fucking ceiling and floor again.

By August, I snapped and sent a terselye worded email about how it should not take this long to make some fucking decisions. I got back, "Oh, we're trying, but the owner isn't communicating with us."

Put a pin in that claim, too.

Finally. FINALLY. After FOUR contractors came and looked and gave estimates, we got told "Okay, we're gonna fix your place. In September. It'll take three weeks."

So, for three weeks, we moved into a hotel, and it was...it was fine. But it's not home, okay. I just wanted to be in my fucking house with a fucking ceiling and floor.

Finally, three weeks later, we moved back in, and we had a ceiling! And a floor!

And then I got what I thought was food poisoning. 48 hours of some of the worst pain I've ever had, and my endometriosis is severe enough I had a full hysterectomy at 31 or 32 (I honestly don't recall). Okay. I know from pain. Went to the doctor. Got an anti-nausea injection from the biggest needle I have ever seen in my LIFE. The doctor pushed on my gall bladder and asked if it hurt. I'd been continuously sick for 48 hours. Everything hurt. I said, in all honesty, I couldn't tell.

Went home. Rehydrated. Things seemed fine. They guessed it was my gall bladder anyway, and since I had no history of issues, said "Let's try to change your diet before we go through surgery."

Fine. Whatever. Didn't care.

A week later, in the first week of October, I ended up in the ER because I was sick again. So sick, in fact, I could not keep down apple juice. It took TWO DAYS to get a surgical spot. I went through caffeine withdrawal. The Try Guys released their video about firing Ned. All I wanted to do was go home to my finally fixed house and fucking sleep.

Surgery went fine. Had a full-room hallucination that Sean and I were Chucky and Tiffany from the Chucky movies. Kept telling Sean to kill the nurse so we'd get a larger cut of the money. This has never happened before, but I've also never been on Dilaudid for several days in a row to control my pain. Apparently, when that happens, I think I'm a serial killing doll.

Go home. Rest up. Things seem fine.

In November, I walk into the kitchen one day, look down, and see a space between two of the floorboards that should not be there.

I refuse to deal with it and throw a rug over it.

Over the next several months, more boards start bubbling and warping.

The floor, it appears, has some fucking issues.

I ignore it for almost a year. Yes, I know what you're thinking, "Gayle, why?"

Because 2022 was a fucking disaster, and a major part of it was the flood, and sometimes you just gotta avoid that shit, okay?

But, finally, it's bad enough I know I gotta say something. I send the management company a note. They send a guy. He's great. Says I'll hear back in a week.

I don't.

And then I don't.

And then I don't.

And then the owner asks to inspect the property to see how things are looking.

He sees the floor and is shocked. This is not good. Why is it like this? How long has it been like this? When did I put in a maintenance request? And what was the last thing I heard?

This is November.

In December, we are informed via letter from the owner that he would like to be cc'ed on every request we send to the management company because he is not pleased with their performance.

Well, okay.

In January, we get a hard freeze. And then we got a pinhole leak in a pipe. That I discovered when walking into the kitchen and stepping into--you guessed it--a quarter-inch of water on the floor.

It was comin up from under the boards, but the hole was actually in our wall. We had glare ice. No one in PDX knows how to handle glare ice. The owner made the trip from the deep suburbs to us every day he could (he got stuck once) to get the problem fixed as quickly and neatly as possible.

I heard him on the phone with the management company several times explaining what he was doing, how long he thought it would take, and thanking them for communicating with us.

Which.

It took 4 days. I got one email. At 6:30 PM. On a day I heard him call them at 10 AM.

So. Suddenly "the owner isn't responding" and "the owner won't communicate" seem like complete fucking bullshit. Because he sure as hell responded when he found out there was a leak (we cc'ed him on the email as requested), and I fucking HEARD HIM communicate.

And then we found out that the owner had not had final say on the floor, which now had to be replaced not just for bubbling but for being fucking wrecked from NEW water damage.

But for this new floor, we just went through him, and would you look at that. Clear communication. Regular updates. We were on the concrete again for about three weeks because that's just how far out contractors are booking right now. But the work was done when he said it would be, and by god, it's clearly a much higher quality of flooring.

So. It's done. It's fucking done. It looks beautiful. The owner scrubbed our bathroom before he left for some fucking reason and was worried he'd lost the knob off our washing machine (we bought it used; it's never had that knob). When I met him the first time after the big leak, I thought he was a complete asshole, and it turns out he's actually all right. He gave us money for dinner this week and is also gonna get us a few days of rent comped for having to have people in and out. I'm never renting through this management company again, but if that dude's got other properties through someone else, I'd go there in a second.

April 5, 2024. May it be the last reference I ever have to make to a fucking floor repair in this house.

[familyabolisher]

what do you think of gretchen felker-martin’s work, if you’ve read it? I expected a lot from manhunt based on everything I heard about it but found it to be just fine

short answer: manhunt's prose sucked

long answer: i'm so over this little clique which has identified - by and large correctly - that what tends to sell in mainstream publishing scenes for genre lit is v meek, tepid writing with timid politics and didactic liberalism shaping its discourse, and used this fact to effectively carve out a marketing niche. the selling point of manhunt wasn't felker-martin's skill as a writer (to be perfectly honest: she does not have a lot of this); it was her consciously positioning herself amidst a discourse of "puritanism," liberalism, "censorship," "childishness"(!) etc in genre lit such that buying and adulating her book was a way to signal one's immediate "side" in the genre lit discourse wars. like ... that's a grift and a half, innit.

i do have some sympathy for this position! i know that gretchen is largely responding to the harassment of isabel fall, and i respect that. and i do, i guess, agree with her that the bulk of contemporary anglophone genre lit in mainstream spheres is having to measure up to a particular palatability such that eg. trans women's writing comes under heavy scrutiny & the sort of writing that fall was doing encounters precisely the backlash she got. i just - don't buy into her imagined solution of publishing a very graphic horror book about terfs with tor nightfire to own the libs.

the problem is that it's an incurious position. going to the capitalist hegemony and getting mad when there's liberalism in the literature is like going to the circus and getting mad that you saw clowns. there's no desire to move away from these circuits which reward easy stories & bury difficult ones; there's no desire to question why we hold these sites of production up as ultimately legitimating structures. there's a real sense that just getting the big names in publishing to publish the Right books is a significant accomplishment (and by extension, you as the participant who Agrees with gretchen on this matter must therefore Support Her Work).

i'll admit that i never actually finished manhunt - i didn't get very far in at all because the prose just drove me insane. so maybe i can't give a fair assessment of the book. but the problem i had reading it was that like, the prose was bad! more specifically, it was an incurious prose, reflecting what i identified above - an incurious approach to storytelling. it was an excessively didactic voice guiding me as a reader from discourse point to discourse point like she was worried i wouldn't get what she was going for if she didn't make it absolutely crystal clear in quotidian prose. this tends to make for the kind of story where i'll think about it for maybe 20 minutes and then be done with it forever, because you've already given me all the answers yourself. like. challenge me! stop patronising the reader! if i wanted this i would go read a medium article!

like, i like novels that construct discourse through literary technique such that they leave me with these various entry points & angles from which i can think about them & respond to them in a sophisticated manner. when a book comes barrelling into my living room and goes Hi, I Am About Discourse Points 1, 2, and 3, i am left with very little space in which to do that. i also just - and maybe this is boring of me, but - i like when prose is good! it's very like, well, congratulations on publishing a novel where you write jkr getting like burned alive in her castle or whatever it was but did you care about this story as anything more than a vehicle for Discourse? lol

(there's absolutely a place for quotidian + straightforward prose, fwiw, and i wouldn't appeal to Literary Technique as a measure of quality, but - like, it just wasn't a technically skilled book, and it wasn't a book which had much of a desire to be received as much more than a bit of grist for the discourse mill.)

also i find gretchen annoying on twitter but since twitter is the website for annoying people i guess i can't hold that against her

[babeczka415]

⚠️T/W: talk about depression and mental struggles

I feel myself slipping into a dark hole. It's been months since I've seen Jake as he had to run from his pursuer. Jessy and Dan have tried to help soften the blow but I don't want them tonight. I only want him here tonight.

I pull out my phone and see all the unread messages from everyone. Only chat I'm caught up on is his. I open it up and it says he's offline.

I let out a sigh "baby, please come on" I whimpered between tears on my couch in the dark.

MC: Jake, do you have a moment?

I watch waiting for him to come on and finally I see his picture next to typing bubbles.

Jake: Everything okay, my love?

MC: No, I really need you tonight. I'm in a dark place.

Jake: You know it's not safe.

MC: I don't care!

Jake: Baby please, you know I just want to keep you safe while I'm trying to clear my name.

I start typing but then I see him go offline. I sigh, throwing my phone down on the coffee table that's full of empty cups, tupperware and wraps. I wrap myself up in a big blanket and put on a movie just for some background noise.

About 30 minutes later I hear my front door open and I grab the baseball bat that Dan gave me the other day when he came over to check on me.

"MC?" I hear Jake's voice as the front door closes.

"Living room" I say not wanting to move at this point.

Jakes POV:

I signed off, frustrated that she doesn't care that I want to keep her safe. However, I can't leave her in the dark place she's in. I grab my bag from the spot I'm hiding in and throw my stuff in it. I order some Chinese food and stop by the grocery store for some of her favorite snacks and drinks before I pick up the food.

This is something we've talked about on what she needs when she gets into this place and right now she needs all of it and me. As I'm checking out at the store. I see some sunflowers and I pick them up for her.

I go to her apartment and unlock the door. I open it and there are no lights on, all I hear is the TV on in the living room. I call out for her and she says she's in the living room.

The fact she didn't come running to me, makes me worried for her. Before I enter the living room my phone goes off and it's a chat with Jessica and Daniel.

Jessica: Please tell me you've heard from MC, Jake.

Jake: I just walked into her apartment. I'm worried for her.

I put my phone back in and I see her wrapped up in her blanket just laying on the couch. I go to put the bags down but there isn't any room. I find a spot on the floor and kneel next to her.

"Hi my love," I say, brushing her hair out of her face. I see she hasn't been taking care of herself and it breaks my heart.

"Hi" she says with a numb expression as she takes a deep breath and smells the Chinese food.

Her eyes get big as she looks at me "I got all your favorites. I didn't realize it was this bad," I say as I hand her the flowers and see a tear drip down her cheek.

She nuzzles into my hand as I go to wipe it away. She moves back on the couch and opens the blanket. I crawl in with her and pull her close.

"Tell me what happened. Who do I have to hurt?" I ask wrapping my arms around her.

"I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough. Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up. Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low? Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know." She muffles into my hoodie.

I lift her head so I can look into those brown eyes. "Baby you are more than enough. You are love, you are strong, you are the top of my world. I don't want you to ever think that you aren't. I am not me without you."

She leans her head against mine and I pull up the hoodie so it's covering both of it. She finally starts to doze off but I don't want the Chinese food getting cold.

"Hey my love, why don't you go shower and I'll make you up a plate of the food?" I say running my hand on her cheek.

"Can you join me?" She asks so shyly, unlike her normal self.

I can tell she doesn't want to be alone right now.

"I'll be right here when you come out okay? I'll even clean up a bit for you."

She lets out the saddest shy I've ever heard from her. I finally get up and so does she. She heads into the bedroom and about 10 minutes later I hear the water running. I grab all the cups and bring them into the kitchen. I grab a garbage bag and toss all the food wraps.

I wonder how long this has been going on so I pull out my phone and open the chat with Jessica and Dan.

Jake: How long has she been like this?

Dan: A couple weeks. She never told you?

Jake: She mentioned she missed me but it's bad. I wish you guys would have told me sooner.

Jessy: Sorry she asked us not too because she didn't want you to worry. I guess it became too much finally.

Jake: She's showering right now and I'm cleaning up and making her up some Chinese food. Any changes for the worst I'll let you guys know

Dan: Thanks hackerman. I know you love her and are just taking care of her. We tried too for you.

I put my phone down and put the food and drinks away. I grabbed for her and make up her plate. She comes walking out wearing a big tshirt and her hair in a bun. I can tell she was crying and I pull her close.

"We will make it through this MC" I whisper into her ear.

She pulls away and notices everything cleaned up even the dishes. "You didn't have to do all this Jake. I just needed you " she says looking into my eyes.

I see the hurt in them and it breaks my heart because I know me not being there so much has caused it, but I promised her I'd always protect her.

"Yes, I did have to. I have to protect you from everything. The external demons and the internal ones. Those right now are the ones you've been fighting for too long without me" I say grabbing her face.

She pulls away and goes and sits down "you talked to Jessy and Dan" she sighs.

"Yes I had to know how long this has been going on. Why did you wait so long to tell me?" I ask handing her the plate I made for her.

"Because I knew you were trying to protect me from them finding me." Mc says.

"Love, yes I want nothing more than to protect you. However if you need me that bad that you're fighting your own demons I will always get here as fast as possible. I just happened to be near here right now so it didn't take me long." I say as I grab a fork of her favorite fried rice and put it up to her mouth.

She takes and eats " are you going to spoon feed me all of it?" She gives me a non impressed look.

"I will if I have to so you eat something besides the junk food I cleaned up" I say with a smile.

She smiles back at me, just a little one but enough she knows I'm going to take care of her.

We both finally eat and I take her hand and bring her into the living room. I put on her favorite comedy movie and pull out my laptop and set it on the coffee table so I can keep a watch but I wrap her in my arms.

She finally falls asleep and I can't help but smile because this is the life I'm trying too hard to get too. Having her in my arms daily and smiling even on her rough days.

[appynonna]

Our Universe

Chapter 12: Level of Concern Pairing: Poly!OT8xoriginal chararters Rating: 18+ Word Count: 3,337 Words

Trigger Warning: pet names. Teasing. Nothing bad at all I do believe.

This is a work of fiction. By no means is meant to be taken seriously and does not reflect on the people used within the story.

Previous Chapter -> Here Master list -> Here

Arthur notes: Hello dearies, So with trying to get the chapters longer, I'm not going to push them out as quickly, Most likely once a month or so. I currently am working on this story, How Ari Meets the Guys, as well as another story. The new story is still in the works and I don't know if I'm going to run with it yet or not. In the meeting chapters, I have Mingi's chapter almost done and Seonghwa's is about halfway done.

---

A few minutes later Yechan came back with a covered glass bowl and a long spoon. "It had this on it," She said handing me the chicken starch note.

'You need to eat. ~ W'

"Wooyoung left you a snack?" Seonghwa asked smiling like he already knew, Mostly he did. It turned out to be a fruit salad. Strawberry, Kiwi, Apple, and Dragon Fruit.

"It also has a bit of mixed berry jam," Hwa said. I nodded grabbing the spoon and taking a small bit as Seonghwa and Yechan returned to talking about animal Crossing.

Pulling out my phone I started scrolling through a random social app Send stupid memes to Kai that made me laugh, and a few to San.

After a few minutes, I felt the bowl be lifted out of my lap. I looked up at Yechan. "You were nodding" She stated, I looked over at the phone.

Seonghwa was still sitting in the low light but now Yunho was next to him. "Good Morning Peach" Yunho gave a soft smile, His glass sitting low on his nose.

"Annyeonghaseyo YuYu" I replied as Siren jumped up into my lap.

"Siren Down," Seonghwa said, making the dog in question look up at him, only to lay his head back down on my stomach. Seonghwa clicked his tongue. Siren set up again but looked behind the sofa at our front door.

"Siren?" Yechan called out turning to the door, At the same moment the door opened. The dogs alerted at the same time Yechan turned towards the door. Her matte black gun was at the ready.

"Listen here you little shit" Rhea walked into the living room as I watch in disbelief, Yechan was confused "How did you get in here," She asked looking down the slide of the pistol confused

"Don't worry about that" Rhea replied walking up to the sofa that I was sitting on.

"You can't just bust up in here like that, I could have shot you!" Yechan tried to tell her, But Rhea had her attention on Ari.

"Your life is more important than just blowing off a drug overdose" Rhea's eyes were watering a little bit as she continued " Someone drugged you and you're acting like it's just a random Tuesday" Siren kept looking between the two of us, Almost like he was unsure as to who he needed to go to.

"It's not big of a deal" I tried to tell her, petting Siren's head "It's not the worst thing that has happened to me" I smiled at Rhea, trying to play down the growing situation.

If I could measure the level of concern that was on her face on a scale of one to ten, It would have been an eleven.

"What do you mean Ari?" Seonghwa beat her to the question "Ari?" Yechan added. Looking between Yechan and Rhea then back to the phone, My head was spinning. "I-I" I stuttered looking back and forth between them

"NO," I said getting up from the sofa and taking off upstairs.

-3rd POV-

"Yechan, what is happening?" Yunho asked leaning towards the phone. Given that he used the legal name and not Her given Nickname, Yechan knew he was worried.

"I'll be back," Rhea said walking into the kitchen Yechan turned back to her phone "I don't know, but I think she got overwhelmed," Yechan told them looking towards the stairs

"I think she has something she needs to work out" Yachan reached for the phone as Rhea came back into the living room, Putting her Phone into the Pajama shorts pocket.

Walking around the sofa Rhea sat beside the other girl. "Ari hasn't talked to you much about before she came to town, has she?" She asked Seonghwa eyebrows knitted

"She has spoken a little bit of it, She is from Soule City, Shitty parents, No siblings" He added "I think Hongjoong tried to find her parents back at the beginning but nothing came of it," Yunho said playing on his phone.

"Ya, I know 'Ari' is a nickname that she goes by but I'm unsure of her real name," Rhea said taking the phone from Yechan "You know, because of privacy" She Side-eyed Yechan.

"Don't give me that look" Yechan's voice raised "We check everyone out that we work or have relationships with"Yechan crossed her Ams over her chest

"Besides I could kill anyone 127 different ways" Yechan smirked at Rhea

"If I didn't know you that would be very alarming," Rhea said as the others laughed together

"Someone needs to go check on her," Yunho said after a few minutes "She gets in her head too easily" he added "I'll go see if we can figure out where she went," Seonghwa said getting up leaving the girls with Yunho.

"Where are you at anyways?" Rhea asked Yunho

"We had to go up to Ganji city but we should be back later tomorrow or the following morning," he told the redhead "I'm going to get off here and try to get some sleep, If anything happens please call." He said then Yechan took the phone and stepped outside to talk to her husband privately.

Rhea pulled out her phone while waiting for the couple to talk.

-Ari POV-

I wasn't sure why I ran, I knew I could talk to any of them about the past and nothing bad would happen. They had always welcomed me with open arms, But I couldn't.

The past should stay in the past.

Wrapping the blanket around me I climb in San's bed, Holding his babies close to my chest. Sandeoki and Wooyonyang. The room had the purple low lights on, My phone lighting it up making it brighter.

Joongie

Connecting the video I could see that he was sitting at his desk. There's my love" He said with a smile "Yeosang told me you had a rough night" I nodded at him, hugging the stuffies tighter to my chest

"It's been a lot and everything just feels like it's too much," I told him my voice shaking

"I wonder if it would have been better if I had stayed in Soule City" Looking at the screen he was watching me, Intensely listening.

"I know Namjoon said it was for the best that I left but I wonder if he was right" Hongjoong eyebrow went up at this little information. "If you hadn't left then we wouldn't have ever met," He told me leaning slightly toward the phone

"But I have brought you nothing you nothing but trouble lately" I tried to argue back but he wouldn't have it "You are worth it and so much more" He placed his hand under his chin.

The family ring shone brightly.

-3rd POV-

"Are there a few things in the past that I would change? Yes, But I still would want you here. We all do, We love you, and nothing you say or do would change that. The past is the past and you are our future" If Hongjoong could have hearts in his eyes he would, as he looked at Ari with all his love.

Ari wiped the tears off her cheeks.

"Thank you Hongjoong" Ari Whispered to him.

"Anything for you my love." He smiled again "Want to see what I been working on?" Hongjoong asked trying to take her mind off the sour subject, But making a note as to why Namjoon's name was brought up.

Ari nodded, and Hongjoong smiled Nervously. He was holding up the sketchbook that he normally carries in his work bag everywhere. He placed the book back on the table and picked up his phone, flipping the camera around to show the sketch right side up.

It was a beautiful dress design, It looked like it was supposed to be a floor-length ball gown. You could tell that he had tried to do something in the middle of the dress but erased it a few times.

"I wanted to have a crystal-looking design here" He pointed to the part that was erased with the pencil. "But I just can't make it look right" Hongjoong let out a sigh. "It's pissing me off" he added flipping the phone back around

"You could ask Yunho for help with it" Ari offered. The tired man nodded. "I was going to, Just haven't had the right moment to. " He said with a soft smile, The Corner of his mouth curly up.

"Feeling Better now," Hongjoongs asked the sleepy girl. She nodded A little bit "I am" Ari nodded "Close your eyes, love," Hongjoong said, Ari did as she was told.

Ari fell asleep to Hongjoong softly singing as he worked on the dress design.

"I'm drivin' around in my car. I'm drivin' too fast, I'm drivin' too far. I'd like to change my point of view. I feel so lonely, I'm waitin' for you"

Hongjoong was mindlessly singing as Ari slept on, Stopping every few minutes to look at the sleeping girl.

-Ari POV-

Waking up I was still in San's bed. Checking my phone I had an unread message from Joongie.

Sleep well, my love. ~ KH

I laughed a little at it and sent him back a message that I loved him too.

I checked the time as I tried to get out of bed, 1:23 pm. Tried to push the blanket off me it didn't budge "Siren Move" I tried to wiggle my legs, Still, I was unable to move.

Sitting up I was able to see that it was not SIren in the bed with me but Rocky. Django was lying by the door. No Siren in sight.

"Rocky, why are you in the bed?" I asked the overgrown Pup as he rolled over on me, His stomach landing on mine, I scratched his head. "Come on, Up" I patted his back making him get up. I followed him out the door, Django following us.

Heading downstairs Rhea was on the sofa hugging Siren, Odd. Yechan's bedroom was shut but her office door was open.

Walking over to her office I could see she was at her deck looking at one of her monitors. I knocked to not startle her. Dune lay in his dog bed off to the side of the desk.

"Morning sleepy head" Yechan looked up for a second as I made my way to her.

"Something wrong?" I asked once I was at her desk. The monitor had the office security cameras showing. "I think so, I got an alert from the office but no one is showing in the building," She said pulling her phone out "I'm going to call Intak and have him go have a look," She said as she dialed the number placing it on speaker.

I sat on her desk.

Yechan eyed me for a second as I was fiddling with one of her pens, Trying to spin it between my fingers only to drop it when she grabbed my leg closest to her. Pulling me over slightly and placing my foot on the chair. Yechan started to rub under my knee tickling me as her phone started to ring.

I closed my eyes at the warmth from her hands. The guys had always told me Yechan always felt hot, Now I see what they mean.

"Hello?" A male voice called out, I jumped slightly. "Hey, Intak can I get you to do me a favor?" Yechan asked as she ran her nail along the back of my knee making me laugh a little bit

"Ya, I'm just finishing up what I was doing now, It should only take me a few more minutes. What do you need?" He asked, a tapping could be heard from the other end of the phone. "Can you go by the office and make sure it's all closed up?" She asked him. Leaning towards my knee, her lips lightly touching the scar on my knee.

"I'm here now, I'm in the building," Intak told her.

Yechan pulled away from me quickly dropping my leg in the process of turning back to her laptop. She muted her phone turning to me "Call Jongho and give him the run down" I nodded pulling my phone out and calling him quickly

The phone connected after the first ring "Ari, we are in the meeting right now" He quickly said as a door closing could be heard. "I know, I'm sorry. Yechan asked for me to call you" I quickly explained to him what was happening with the cameras not detecting.

"It's showing like that on mine too, Tell Yechan to go down and check out the office herself," He said "But I have to go back in there now, If something happens call me back" He then disconnected the call.

I walked back over to Yechan's desk "He said to go check it for yourself, and to let him know" Yechan nodded "Go get dressed and we will head into town" Yechan was typing away on her keyboard "We?" I asked her, and she nodded. "I'm not letting you out of my sight until the guys get back" She then turned and looked up at me from her office chair "Now little bunny, Go get dressed"

I could feel my mouth go dry. Nodding I walked out of her office, past Rhea who raised an eyebrow as I hurried past her. Quickly made my way upstairs with Django behind me. I grabbed the first thing I saw in my closet and a white long-sleeve shirt to go under it. Putting my hair up into its normal ponytail, I did my makeup quickly and put on my lacy white ruffle socks. Grabbing my black heels I went out the door heading back downstairs.

Rhea was still in her Pajamas but Yechan was dressed to the T, Corset and all. She had left her black curls down, The Black dress pants and white shirt had a black corset holding the look together along with looked like black boots with red soles. "I swear, could you look more polar opposite" Rhea said as she stood up from the sofa. I looked down at what I was wearing and then back to Yechan. Completely opposite.

Her black and white with a touch of red business was so starkly different from my short blue dress. It had a pop of black in it but the long white puffed-sleeve shirt out shined the little bit of black. Looking back at Yechan's sharp outfit, something was missing.

"Oh," I said then took off back upstairs "Ari, We need to head out" Yechan shouted behind me "Two seconds" I hollered back.

"One, Two" Rhea said laughing then yelled "Ow" I had to guess Yechan hit it. Heading back to my room and into the closet, I walked over to wear all of my hair accessories hung up. I quickly spotted the little Silver rhinestone stone star.

Quickly running, and almost falling, back downstairs. Rhea was sitting on the arm of the sofa and Yechan the tapping her foot while looking at her phone. Walking over to her I was able to tell that with her heels she was not slightly taller than me, I pulled her over to the stairs. "What are you doing?" She asked, I hushed her as I stopped at the stairs, and stepped up so I was taller than her again, Rhea watched with a smirk. I pushed Yechan slightly to one side making her turn then quickly pushed the baby hair behind her ear pinning it down with the little star.

"That's better" I stepped off the step and walked past Yechan to where my heels sat on the floor.

-3rd POV-

Yechan turned watching as Ari walked over to the shoe rack, Sitting down to put on the shiny black shoes. Turning around to Rhea, Yechan raised an eyebrow at her "She does that" Rhea walked past her heading to get her keys "I got to go to the apartment then to the shop" She then walked out the door right as Ari called out she was driving.

"What the hell is going on?" Yechan said to herself, following Ari out to the garage, and Dune followed her. Dune loaded in the back seat, Yechan bulked up as Ari pulled out of the garage not wearing a seat belt.

Ari [poked the other girl's hand "You good?" She asked Yechan. "Yeah, You just keep surprising me is all," Yechan told Ari, making her smile. "that's a good thing, Right?" Ari asked

"Yes, That's a good thing," Yechan told her and the two fell into a comfortable silence only to have it be broken by Ari's phone going off. A message comes up on the car's display that a text was received from Sannie.

Ari picked up her phone looking at the screen to see it say a photo was sent and then sat the phone back down, screen side down. "Everything ok?" Yechan asked looking at Ari's blushing face, Knowing full good and well what kind of photos San likes to send.

"YOu should check it" Yechan advised watching Ari's ears turn redder "It's fine, it can wait" Ari waved out her Right hand, Hoping thatYechan would drop it "But it might be important" Yechan offered innocently "No it's fine" Ari went to grab the phone sitting between the two girls but Yechan grabbed it first "I'll check it for you" Yechan smiled, swiping the phone up to unlock it.

"NO" Ari Yelled reaching for the phone. Yechan pulled back and leaned against the door. "Oh, you're full of surprises today. Why don't you want me to check it?" Yechan asked, Ari's face was as red as a cherry now. She mumbled "Because" as she fanned her face with her hand. If the blushing could get worse it would have.

"Because is not a real answer" The look on Ari's face was priceless as the blushing girl made a whining noise "Because why Ari?" Yechan playfully poked Ari's cheek drawing attention to her warm cheeks. "Because," Ari said as Yechan leaned on the center console placing her hand under her chin, "Because?" The banter was playful.

"Because it could be anything from a butterfly to a Dick" Ari tried to reach for the phone again while Yechan laughed at the blushing girl. "Bunny, You act like I haven't slept with him before," Yechan said so nonchalantly pulling the photo up on the phone. Yechan smiled.

"Oh, That's so Sweet. He has such a beautiful heart" Yechan poked her bottom lip out placing a hand over her chest "oh, Let me see," Ari said looking over at Yechan and then back to the road quickly. Yechan turned the phone around, trying not to laugh.

Ari made a noise that sounded like a mix between a whale, a mouse, and a strangle.

It was a classic San photo, He was sitting in front of a mirror holding up his phone to take the photo. The black and white silk shirt was left completely open, along with the black faux fur coat over it. His toned tan chest and abs were on full display.

Yechan was laughing as the car veered a little and quickly straightened up. "Yechan" Ari whined, taking her phone from the short woman. "I'm sorry, You're just too easy to mess with," She said pulling her out of her phone and typing something quickly before putting it back up.

By the time Yechan stopped her laughing and Ari's breathing was under control, Ari was pulling into the small parking lot of the office.

Intak was sitting on the steps in front of the door. "Is it just me or does he look guilty?" Ari asked leaning on the steering wheel "Yeah, He does." Yechan replied taking her phone out and sending a message to Jongho letting him know that they got to the office. He just replied with "Ok, I'm watching."

[ineffablyendless]

Tag Game To Better Know You! Send this to people you'd like to know better!

Tagged by @munsonsbabygirlie , thank u Chromie! Last year, technically, that i keep forgetting to do but this feels like a nice way to start the New Year!

Book Im currently reading:

American Gods by Neil Gaiman! I'm trying to get a bit more into reading this year, but its been a hot minute and im crawling by slower than I expected. That being said I've got a whole list waiting for me, and I'm incredibly enjoying AG so far <3

What I usually wear:

Blue, if I'm being honest. Its not my actual favourite colour, but it's my comfort one. I can't reliably say jeans even: ive really grown into a good pair of slacks. Tho i suppose if youre trying to imagine me, think blue jeans, a battered second hand pair of yellowing high tops, a white tshirt and an old plaid shirt, and ive been told i wear my hijab a very recognizable way 😭 also blue

How tall I am:

157 cm last i checked, 5 feet exactly in american measurements i think...?

My star sign. Do I know any celebrities or historical event that shares it:

Im a libra! Im sure plenty of people got born and big events happened in the first half of October, but nothing comes to mind immediately. I suppose i dont care enough to remember, lol

Do I go by a name or nickname:

Nickname. I go by Choice in all cyberspaces. It's a name that endeared itself to me many years ago, its nothing close to my actual name, and I enjoy the broad line of separation between my lives on and offline. Irl tho, i usually dont go by a nickname, at least nothing used by anyone outside family, and thats even MORE closely guarded. So.

Did I grow up to be what I wanted to be as a child:

I was an angry, suicidal, incredibly hurt child, and I had no true ambition besides finding joy and holding on to it with both hands. I wanted to be content and left alone, most of all. I wanted to be happy.

I'm a lot happier now. It's an uphill battle. Baby me would be glad to see where I am now tho i think. I hope

Something I'm good at vs Something I'm bad at:

I am. Very good at speaking. I take pride in this, many have told me I have the innate talent with words and the know how to lead a team and control a room. I know how to get myself listened. On paper, I know what I want said. Many things. Words are a power I wield well.

Vs

I am, sincerely, not very good at empathy, nor sympathy. I struggle to look outside my periphery, to crawl outside my own head and pop my own bubble. I have come across as-not cold, but callous, cruel, a little uncaring. I feel less remorse for this than I should, I think. I try, but thats not enough sometimes. I sincerely do not care of other opinions and perspectives as default. I like to think im better at it now. I'm aware of it. But its still a problem

If I draw or write, what's my favourite of anything I created this year?

Im taking that to mean 2022. I guess this line from my fic A Cosmic Kiss?

Millenia ago, a comet had come to strike down the surface of the earth like a Holy hand clearing a table, and decimated all that had ever existed, and it had been the end of things. It had been the beginning. It had moved with the leisure of treacle towards its purpose in the indifferent void, but close, close, pulled into the orbit of the earth with speed to singe the atoms of air. Creation, by the guide of Destruction. Life, then Death, then Life again. Such was the way of things. Fires that last are the ones that waited. Paradoxes; sudden, and not. 

Such was their way.

It was the first thing that struck me to write the one shot, the one partially inspired by Puppet History, and would be the ongoing theme of the fic. Its quite good, i have to admit. Im glad the fic went over well.

Dogs or cats:

Cats. Nothing against a sweet puppy, but I prefer the chill leisure of your everyday feline thank you very much.

Something I would like to make content for:

All my fandoms. All of it. I write less than I honestly should; Sandman and Watcher and Good Omens and OFMD

Something I was excited about that turned out to dissappoint me:

*blinks* Oh God, i cant think of anything. Theres that book carnival, but it was a surprise, and it exceeded my poor memory and expectations, even if I didnt find what i was looking for. Hmm. If anything dissapointed me, it doesnt come to mind.

Hidden talent:

I have no idea ❤

Something I wish to have at this very moment:

A bite of chocolate. Maybe a cookie. But I'm broke enough to keep an eye out for the bank account and i cant afford such luxuries. Im even out of cocoa. Sigh.

Tagging @freddykicksasses @ennas-aesthetic @wannabecoyote @waistcoat35 @youre-platinum-pussycat

[whispersafterdusk]

Horizon

"Far beyond the horizon, On the north side of the sea, lay a quiet port within the bay where home and heart await me. Let the waves be kind and wind be swift, may the sun shine through and through. May my cargo sell and my pockets sag when I come home to you."

"You seem in fine spirits."

Something halfway between a gasp and a strangled cough exploded out through Roaring Whisper's lips as he simultaneously stopped humming the shanty and also choked on his drink at the unexpected voice; he managed to keep from spraying anything on the book open in front of him but it took several coughs and a loud clearing of his throat to clear his airway as he spun on his stool to find Y'shtola standing in the doorway smiling in at him.

"Should I have knocked?"

He coughed again into his palm. "Sorry. Thought I was alone."

"It seems I should be the one to apologize for coming so close to ending our hero and having to explain that no man nor beast nor primal was the culprit, but instead an accidental inhale of tea."

Roaring snorted and wiped a dribble of his drink from the corner of his mouth as Y'shtola stepped into the room and carefully picked her way among the stacks and crates of books.

"What were you humming just now? I can't say I've ever caught you in such a mood."

"Old shanty. Feeling a touch homesick is all."

She tilted her head, silently studying him for a moment before running her fingertips over the piles of parchment scrap and books that cluttered the table between them. "So far as I'm aware there's nothing about to end the world at the moment - why not take some time for yourself?"

The answer was a simple one but not one he especially wanted to discuss at the moment so he settled for shrugging as he stuck a dry quill into his book to keep his place before closing it. He then could tell from the look on her face that he was not getting out of this conversation until she'd pried the answer out of him and inwardly he sighed as she settled on a stack of books across the table from him.

"What is on your mind, then?"

With a huff he dropped the book onto the table. "It's a song of home. Which I am lacking. I have a place I live but where you sleep does not make it home. All…that has happened, and things I was forced to remember. It makes me miss a place that does not exist."

That was really the crux of it. Having weathered the First and seen Elpis, and learned of his own past, it… There was an ache in him for something he'd never known he'd wanted and couldn't return to either. Whatever contentedness he'd had before in his life had been taken from him and replaced with something like an itch he'd never be able to scratch.

"I…see," Y'shtola said quietly. "And I assume you've thrown yourself into this current project to drown out the feeling."

Roaring nodded. Losing himself in research was better than being lost inside his own head, and at the very least the spell he was trying to locate and refine would benefit him in the future.

After a pause Y'shtola picked up one of the stacks of scraps he'd been scribbling notes on and looked it over, squinting -- Roaring felt a bit of guilt at that despite knowing that he'd never written he notes with her in mind so he shouldn't have felt bad at using the most basic of inks, causing her to expend more effort to see it. "You know, Tataru has been looking for an overseer for her next big project. Perhaps you should see what she needs? It may be better than burying yourself here."

"Perhaps," he replied.

She flipped the top scrap over in her hand to check the back then placed it face down on the table. "Do the lyrics of this shanty at least bring some measure of peace?"

"Not especially. But it's better than the silence."

"May I hear it then?"

Roaring scratched at his cheek, feeling them tint pink slightly; he hadn't actually sung a shanty since his sailing days, and there was also a question of whether he could carry a tune while trying to not be so loud.

Y'shtola, unbothered, continued to look over his notes.

Clearing one last trace of tea out of his throat Roaring picked up his book again. "…far beyond the horizon, on the north side of the sea-"

[membrevekyle]

Who I am?

I am Kyle Edrian Membreve a grade 12 HUMSS student, studied in Jagobiao National High School for almost 6 years and finally a graduating student this year 2024. But before the exciting moments I will go back first to my unforgettable memories while I am still in the process because behind this happy memories there's a lot of failures and mistakes I have done but still not giving up and hoping will graduate soon.

Working hard for just only one dream?

I had only one dream, nothing else but to become a successful entrepreneur in the future. Wondering why I need to spend a lot of time for training, learning, and growth just for only one dream? Why I need those people such as family, friends, teachers, mentors, and supporters just for only one dream? I need to face many challenges, obstacles, problems, and difficulties just for only this dream?

Realization

As the time goes by I realized that life is nothing without all of those important things. Even though it is just only one dream it doesn't mean that I will achieve it immediately, I will go through a long process, overcome difficult experiences, and learn from it to become a deserving person.

Moving on.

Work with others

I am confident to work with myself and work alone but I realized that not all the time I can do everything by myself. There are times that it's difficult for me to do alone because the problem is to big and heavy as a stone and I cant lift it alone with just my two hands. Sometimes I need the hands of other people to help me carry it through asking for help with my classmates, working together, and collaboration. It's great to recognize the value of collaboration and teamwork and then celebrating even small victories.

When it comes with my teacher's matter

Teachers in school is called the second mother because of their, roles and responsibilities is just similar as our biological mother they taught us lessons and proper etiquette. But despite the reality, I can't measure my sincerely gratitude to my advisory when I was grade 11 because she and her husband volunteer to clean our comfort room which is it is one of our responsibility as students. I really appreciated what my advisory have done to us even there are moments of misunderstanding and sometimes we are irresponsible of our responsibilities. I kept it to my mind what my adviser said because in my journey it is very important thing, the cleanliness and this will be the bases how clean my trait is.

The journey of being Student in Senior High putted a lot of memorable things even how good or bad my day, there is a lesson that will remain inside my head that I can use in future. Since I only have few months left before I say goodbye to my Senior High days, I swear to my self that if I did mistakes today it will be the lesson and do better tomorrow. Layo pa, pero layo na.