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#no i just spent half an hour watching VIDEOS ON FACEBOOK?????????
wewontbesleeping · 5 months
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idk sometimes i get sucked into watching videos on fb and it's like there's 3 different types of videos they always show me. first is the most miserable straight couple you've ever seen in your life, and the man literally wants the woman dead, but like, in a way that's supposed to be funny. the second is reenactments of supposedly real customer service interactions that have clearly never happened. and ofc there's staged prank videos. and it's all so bad. but i keep watching it. and sometimes i get to see a video of a cat.
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Whoops Game Grumps quotes
Crash: Inside, we're all a bunch of sadists.
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Bob: No matter how hard you work and how big a celebrity you become, you'll never be as famous as cheese.
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Lily: And then.. *pulls the cord on the Beyblade* ..you let it rip!
Lil Coding: I got it! *tries to catch it as it spins off the table* OWW!!!
Lily: Why would you try and catch the spinning metal blade from another country?!
LC: I thought it was like a dredel— Yeah, I really should disinfect this cut..
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Mia, to Tulip: Wouldn't it be funny if you... lose a family member? Maybe two?
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Mario: I'm the video game boy! I'm the one who wins!
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Laharl: You can't open up the story of my life and just go to page 738 and think you know me.
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Bob: I've got.. no money.
Lily: Why?
Bob, muffling his voice: Because I spent it all on gambling...
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SMG3: You've gotta draw the line somewhere, you've gotta draw a fucking line in the sand, dude! You gotta make a statement! You gotta look inside yourself and say, "What am I willing to put up with today?
SMG3: NOT FUCKIN' THIS!!
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Zack: Listen to your elders or whatever.
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Abyssal: I'm making lemonade out of a bad situation. You know what I'm saying, ohh gotta add the sugar. Gotta add the goddamn ice cubes!
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LC: Dremind me to get my bag then.
Cody: Dremind you?
LC: Yeah, dremind me.
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Tartarus, showing Olypmus around TOTK: I just like walking through the world, man.
Olympus: I love it too.
Tartarus: Look at all this stuff we're explorning! *seeing something move out of the corner of his eye* What was that?
Olypmus: Explorning?
Tatarus, leading him over to what sees to be a deactivated Captain Construct: See, I wouldn't-
Tartarus, as the Captain Construct snaps and locks onto them: OH GOD ITS ALIVE!!!
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Ash: You speak Fran-ques! (Français)
Tulip, as she laughs: What????
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Shantae: Okay, so. Tulip, can I share something with you from earlier today?
Tulip: What is it?
Shantae, pulling up a chat box: Well, I sent you a text early in the morning.
Tulip: Yeah?
Shantae: Because we needed to figure out some stuff for the upcoming meetups, what we're going to do, and all that. And so, I was so, I was like, "Do you have any preference whether we do it this meetup or the next meetup?"
Tulip: Mhm.
Shantae: Your response..
Tulip: *already laughing*
Shantae, trying not to laugh: At 9:30 in the morning; "Motherfucking Jesse Eisenberg Jesus Christ fuck dude motherfuckin Facebook movie bullshit Jesus can you fucking believe this shit"
Shantae: No punctuation. Random capitalization. So I respond, "I have no idea what we're talking about right now"
Shantae: 45 minutes pass, I get a text from you; "God damn created Facebook then fucking lawyers and shit right fucking Winklevoss twins god damn rowing the boat fuck yo shit I can't even fucking believe this shit have you seen this shit fuck I just watched this shit fuck Jesse Eisenberg man"
Shantae, as Tulip is on the floor, laughing: I respond, "Tulip, you're scaring me." An hour passes.
Shantae: You respond; "Motherfucking Spider-man Spider-man you put in the time fuck put in the time motherfucking built shit with this bare hands fucking best friend shit Jesse Eisenberg I'm very tired"
Tulip: *losing her shit laughing*
Shantae: So I'm just like, "No problem, Tutu. I'll let Ash know, and we'll do most of the talking for you today."
Shantae: Immediate response. I'm talkin' like 5 seconds later.
Shantae, barely containing her laughter: "No man I'll just talk about the Facebook movie all day shit man you have to be so interested in the shit I have to say about the Facebook movie fuck dude I just watched it a year and a half ago fuck Jesse Eisenberg man he fucked over Spider-man crazy Winklevoss twins rowing Trent Resin or did the soundtrack fuck this guy who invented Facebook I don't like dying I can't think of who the fuck invented Facebook All I can think is who played the guy who invented Facebook who the fuck invented Facebook"
Shantae: And then, in all capital letters, two hours later;
"MARK ZUCKERBURG."
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2wards-travelling · 1 year
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So we have ended up in Bolivia. 10 hours overnight from San Pedro took us to Uyuni where there is apparently one of the largest salt flats in the world. Unfortunately I have experienced more altitude sickness and spent 36 hours in bed. Uyuni itself is not really a tourist trap and I can't decide if the town is half built or half demolished. Also in the town is a military base, but looking at the soldiers they wont be playing any volleyball unless they use a ladies height net. Bolivia is very cheap and our first meal cost £3 each. We even managed to find a restaurant with a 5 course taster menu for £10 each and was actually very good., apart from the feckin quinoa. Once I was feeling better we went on a tour of the surrounding area and the salt flats, which were spectacular especially at sunset. We also took the obligatory perspective busting videos and photos, to follow either here or on Facebook. We then got the f*ck out of there to Sucre. Another 10 hours bus journey. Complete contrast to the conditions in Uyuni. However it is a bit like the 70s when dogs used to roam the streets in packs, and barked all night, with dog muck everywhere, and even white dog poo, who remembers that ?
Sucre is nice overall especially the protected areas, where all houses have to be painted white and have spanish colonial feel to them. Off to see dinosaur footprints tomorrow on a wall. Apparently genuine, but could be just another scam.
Not sure of our next steps as it could involve another 10 hour bus ride to La Paz and another chance of altitude sickness.
Watch this space.
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ladyrawthorm · 6 months
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What a stream!
Hey guys! How are you all doing? It’s been quite the day over here 😊 but as usual, we will start at the beginning of the week.
My week off of work last week was definitely needed and it was a bit of a shock going back on Tuesday (Monday was a public holiday for Easter) but finishing work and playing Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was just what I needed to relax., We actually got some story done! We made it into District 5, we got Roman killed and we added a new player to out roster. We were kicking ass. And of course we spent the rest of the stream playing Pokemon with humans which is always a blast. We do need to get back on the tram and take more pictures of questionable men in leotards.
This then brings us onto Horizon Forbidden West. We are playing this live on YouTube as well as Twitch. It seemed like a good idea at the time since we are currently uploading our Horizon Zero Dawn playthrough (There are 2 weeks left I think. Next weeks video has voice over as I spent the first half of the stream completely muted lol). This way I don’t have to do any video editing! We haven’t done much story yet but even the side missions, in true HZD fashion, are fantastic. The story is griping. So far the entire game is so well done. I get to Thursdays and I start getting hyped up for stream on Friday. I might start doing impromptu streams on Thursdays just to play more of it so keep an eye out for those go live notifications!
Rainbow Six Siege was fan fucking tastic today. Up until this point we have been average a level a week since I’m normally only live for about 4 hours and with my awful game play it’s all we can manage XD but not today! Today with the help of Re4PeR, KingSkorca and Jediseeker carrying me through many games, we made it 3 levels which means we finally made it to level 50 and now we can play ranked! So next Sunday we are going on our first adventure through the ranked season. Watch this space for an update on how I feel about that haha.
Ok, so I may be over exaggerating my uselessness in Siege because we did get some good first and second places today!
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There is no other news I’m afraid, the schedule is staying the same for a bit:
Tuesday - Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Maybe Thursday – Horizon Forbidden West
Friday – Horizon Forbidden West
Sunday Rainbow Six Siege!
As always, here are all of the links to all of the things:
ladyrawthorm | Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitch | Linktree
Have a wonderful week next week, make good choices and I will see you next week!
Lady Rawthorm
xxx
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"If you weren't there, you missed out big time"
Thanks for reminding me of how bad I wished I was there but I'm 800 miles away. Thanks for reminding me that the one thing I want in this world can never fucking happen, and it shatters my heart into millions of pieces. I want to be at every single one of your shows you're either performing or attending, but guess fucking what? I physically can't and I FUCKING HATE IT. There are literally not enough words in the English language to describe how much it physically pains me that I can't come out to your shows. My chest literally hurts when I have to miss out on your fucking shows. I wholeheartedly love that you're getting all of these endorsements and playing shows because you're amazing and deserve all of the attention and exposure...but I can't help but cry my fucking eyes out every time I see a new show announcement because it'll be another show that I once again miss out on and wishing I could be there so bad. I'm jealous and envious of every single person and band that gets to see you perform and play said show with you because I want that more than anything. Especially since I supported your band before you even had a fucking name. I should have been the first to see you guys play a show, but I missed out because I'm 800 fucking miles away. I feel like I'm never going to see your band play a show. I feel like we're never going to play a show together either. Yeah, when I came down to visit, I watched you guys practice, but it wasn't the fucking same as a show setting. Your singer wasn't even there, so it didn't fucking count. All I want in this life is to share the stage with you just once...but I'm bitter and angry that it will never fucking happen, and all I can do is cry. This is why I wish I didn't have dreams about things that make me this happy, especially when it's physically, financially, logistically, and irrationally impossible to make said dreams come true. So when you post "if you don't come to this you're missing out," I feel like I'm getting stabbed in the heart. It's a soul crushing reminder that I'm forced to miss out when you know damn well how bad it fucking hurts that I can't be there. It's a soul crushing reminder that everybody who lives closer can experience the one thing I never will. And I know you're gonna forget about me if/when your band takes off in the future. I'm never gonna hear from you anymore. Especially since you've literally gained over a thousand Facebook friends within the last eight or nine months. These new friends, fans, and potential girlfriends, are going to take up all of your time and attention, so I'll hear from you for like what, a few minutes here and there? I get left on read/delivered and will have to wait 18+ hours to get a response back from you, yet you're perfectly capable of responding to everyone else almost immediately. You message people while we're video chatting together. I see you active on Messenger all fucking day and I see you laugh reacting to other people's memes, care reacting to these other girls' sadgirl attention-seeking posts, heart reacting to these other girls' selfies, new profile pictures, etc, so don't you fucking dare lie to me about "being so busy" that you "didn't get a chance" to message me back. Remember, I spent an entire week with you. Unless you were passed out by 6:30/7pm, you were on your phone texting people nearly the entire time even though we haven't hung out in over a year and a half. So, I know you see my messages. I'm just not important enough to respond to, even though I'm apparently your "best friend." You don't interact with any of my posts anymore, even though I'm apparently your "best friend." Oh wait, that's right, I'm only your best friend when it's convenient for you. I'm only your best friend when people you'd rather talk to/hang out with aren't available. Now that you're getting Facebook famous now with your thousand friends, my posts probably don't even show up on your newsfeed anymore. Or maybe they do, but you just don't care.
Hope you're fucking happy. Remember who was there for you when you were on the verge of ending your own life.
Remember who was there for you when no one else was.
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goboymusic · 1 year
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Cow hoof trimming videos on YouTube are super satisfying to watch.
Following “The Rochester Police,” there would be a five month gap before the release of “#Throwback.” One month was spent writing, recording and mixing the song, and four months were spent making a #musicvideo for it with friends from my hometown.
The rap verses in “Throwback” were inspired by @beastieboys, @eminem, @macmiller, and @limpbizkit (the occasional falsetto voice inflections were inspired by @freddurst), and the melodic chorus was inspired by my all-time favorite band @blink182.
The idea of making a music video for “Throwback” was inspired by Mac Miller, who was blowing up on YouTube at the time by uploading a series of makeshift music videos made by himself and his high school friends.
The official audio for “Throwback” was released 24 hours prior to the music video being uploaded, which garnered praise from people on YouTube and Facebook. The music video was only live on the internet for a few hours, during which it garnered a few thousand views (not bad for a young, independent, underground artist). It’s after those few hours that shit hit the fan (had the music video stayed up, I’m not sure what sort of traction it would or wouldn’t have gained).
Before I explain further, I’ll mention that the dynamics of everyone’s extended families are different, some being more complex than others, and it can be difficult to convey those dynamics to an outsider, so rather than trying to do so, I’ll just say that my extended family’s dynamics are not so dissimilar to the families seen in the tv series “Succession” and the film “Knives Out,” though those families are highly exaggerated versions for the sake of entertainment.
”Throwback” (and it’s music video) enraged my relatives, whom I grew up in a neighborhood with, and who had tremendous influence over my life. A frenzy of angry emails, metaphorical pitchforks, torches, hulk rage. Being a young, neurotic kid, the backlash from them was too much for me to handle at the time, and to exit their spotlight, I halted further production of pop songs and ultimately pulled the music video and all 23 songs (GoBoy 1) from the internet.
To the creative kids who find themselves surrounded by people who want to halt or control their creative endeavors, best of luck. I want to say “find a way out,” but that might result in further deterioration of your creative output. If you were born into an environment where you’re free to explore your creativity without constraints, you’ll never know how lucky you are. Maybe Lil Peep had the right idea, become homeless to achieve creative freedom (half kidding).
After the “Throwback” debacle, focus would be shifted towards creating instrumental songs that would fly under the radar (GoBoy 2, songs 24-35). Fly under the radar they did. Following GoBoy 2, I quit music for seven years. Songs 1-23 wouldn't be reuploaded until 2020. Why does this matter? It doesn't.
I make fun of #highereducation in the lyrics of “Throwback,” which was a mistake in hindsight. I went through a phase where I thought higher education was socioeconomic insurance, rather than a place to learn, as you could learn a majority of educational topics on the internet. I regret it, alright?!? (excerpt from post 14)
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Anthony’s Stupid Daily Blog (191): Thu 22nd Sep 2022
Looked after Luna today. After subjecting me to "Toot Toot Crissy Carson" possibly the most annoying TV show I have ever seen (It's a show about a family of cars that live in a house...fuck off) we had some fun playing games including stacking dominoes on every step of the staircase and trying to get them all to knock over which they eventually did. I love playing with Luna but the problem is she can't just do one thing once she has to do them over again. That would be like me staying in all night and watching the same YouTube videos over and over and...Oh. Anywho, I listened to Reece Sheersmith on Richard Herring's podcast where said that the ninth series of Inside No 9 will probably be the last. I get that this would be really poetic and I can understand the strain that doing this kind of show must put on Reece and Steve but I hope that this news turns out not to be the case because Inside No 9 is one of the best shows on TV. The rest of the podcast was a joy to listen to as well as Reece is a great interviewee especially when he's getting angry. I particularly enjoyed his rant about how fans are always suggesting he do a story set on a Number Nine bus...and that's it, no ideas for characters or story or twists just a setting. I also got a big belly laugh where he said that he'd turned down the chance to appear on Strictly Come Dancing, reasoning: "Imagine being told off by those cunts". He also expressed an interest in appearing on Taskmaster which needless to say I would be all for. I realized today that December 1st will be the 10 year anniversary of this blog (I wrote this blog under a different name on Wordpress for 8 years, then continued to write an entry every day just for myself for two years and earlier this year started publishing it again here on Tumblr). Man it seems like a previous life when I first started writing this blog but I can still remember the exact moment I posted on Facebook (from my cubicle at the call centre which they were starting to decorate with Christmas regalia) that I was going to be starting a blog. I was inspired by comedian Richard Herring who also does a daily blog after seeing an interview with him where he said that every day there are these great little moments that get lost in time because you don't write them down. At the time I had hoped that this would become a Hunter S Thompson-style blog where I would go out of my way to do things in order to get a story out of them...hasn't quite worked out that way. I normally finish the day during which nothing has happened and so I'm forced to write a bout a YouTube video or an episode of Hollyoaks and drag that out for a few hundred words. With the ten year anniversary of this blog not far away it feels like I really should do something special to commemorate this occasion and something this captures the original purpose of the blog. My gut is telling me to book a trip to Sarajevo in order to see the spot where Archduke Ferdinand was killed as this has long been a weird fascination of mine but it's now the run-up to Christmas so the money could be better spent on that instead. I was trying to think of something I could do locally. I've been interested in booking an IQ test at a Mensa centre for a while in order to confirm exactly how stupid I really am so I might look into that. I also think it would be a good day to have another attempt at launching a podcast which I have tried before but it didn't last long. One of the things I could do for the podcast is in the morning I could write down the top news stories on Yahoo News (one of the few news sites left where you don't have to subscribe to read the stories) and then just riff for half an hour on them sort of like what Collings and Herrin used to do in their podcast. Plus every Thursday I could upload a review of AEW Dynamite, on Fridays I could review Impact and on Saturdays review Rampage, plus occasional specials where I review pay per views.
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attack on titan social media headcanons
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how i think the 104th would use social media in a modern!au (includes eren, mikasa, armin, jean, marco, sasha, connie, historia, ymir, bertholdt, reiner & annie) - mac
masterlist
eren jaeger:
most used app: snapchat
still does streaks on snapchat - over 600 day streak with jean and to keep it going they just send insults to each other.
has the most cracked screen, it’s literally hanging together but he refuses to get a new screen until it no longer works.
would leave the house with 14% battery (this makes me incredibly nervous but eren knows he’ll be able to charm his way into someone giving him their charger.)
mikasa ackerman:
most used app: instagram or tumblr
mikasa should be hired by the fbi or something - give her a name and she will find all their social media pages.
i’m not sure what it would be but she’s definitely part of a fandom of a tv series or music group which is why she spends so much time on tumblr.
unlike eren, she actually has a case to prevent her screen from smashing - it would probably be one of those clear ones with flowers on the back, and she’d put in a polaroid picture of her and her friends in the back of it.
armin arlert:
most used app: youtube
he hasn’t got many posts on his instagram but a few of some pretty landscapes and a couple of group photos of him and his friends. his profile picture is of him, eren & mikasa.
literally could spend all day on wikipedia. he goes to google something but then falls down a rabbit hole. 
vsauce? asap science? random reddit videos? sign armin tf up. 
jean kirstein:
most used app: twitter or spotify
does gaming live-streams with eren. people watch not to see gameplay but to see the entertainment that is jean and eren’s competitive arguing (they play a lot of call of duty, mario kart, but also minecraft when they’re actually on good terms with each other)
gets into heated arguments with people on twitter. they go on forever because jean likes to have the last word/tweet.
you know those people that always have their headphones in? jean is that kind of person. he’d be sneakily listening to music during class (let’s be real he’s definitely got airpods.)
marco bodt:
most used app: instagram (& whatsapp because he’s in a lot of group chats)
the best hype man. comments on all of his friends selfies telling them how gorgeous they look.
he sends motivational quotes and wholesome memes to all of his friends which are always appreciated.
marco’s the one to put together group chats and ensure that arguments in them are smoothly resolved (eren and jean are usually the culprits.)
sasha braus:
most used app: tiktok
definitely makes very chaotic tiktoks/tweets that just blow up and end up on popular pages that repost to instagram.
her and connie would spam group chats with memes and selfies with stupid filters on. sometimes they’ll just target one person in particular (always jean) and they end up getting kicked or blocked.
her instagram captions tend to be random quotes and inside jokes from her friends (mainly connie) much to the confusion of everyone else.
connie springer:
most used app: instagram
has a private account on instagram just to post embarrassing pictures of his friends.
goes into conspiracy theory facebook groups just to troll the people in them.
out of everyone, the most likely to have games on his phone. when he’s bored in the car or during class he’ll just start playing geometry dash or temple run.
historia reiss:
most used app: tiktok
you know she’s got a tiktok with 100k followers. tiktok dance trends, makeup tutorials, look books - she does it all.
loves pinterest so much. gets a lot of outfit/home decor ideas from it - it’s likely that there’s a ton of photos of her on pinterest as outfit inspiration.
types !! like !! this !! and uses these emojis: ✨🌸💖🥰 way too much.
ymir:
most used app: facetime
half the time she’s on her phone is going to spent spent facetiming historia i can’t lie.
i personally hc that ymir in a modern!au would play either the bass or drums and i can just see historia begging to post a tiktok of her playing that then blows up - ymir would be so nonchalant about it but inside she’s dying of excitement.
probably has every group chat she’s in on mute - occasionally will lurk to see what’s going on, would only ever join in the conversation if drama was going down in which she’d send a gif of someone eating popcorn.
bertholdt hoover:
most used app: youtube or discord
likes to watch those reddit story time videos. would spend a good few hours watching them without even realising what the time is.
has 0 posts on instagram. cannot do any insta stalking of him (unless you looked through his tagged photos and find the ONE selfie he ever took with reiner.)
does a lot of gaming and uses discord to talk to his gamer friends (probably plays more story based/quest games compared to eren and jean - maybe like the last of us & skyrim!!)
reiner braun:
most used app: instagram
at least two shirtless pictures of him on his instagram (and way more if you’re on his private snapchat story - he likes to make it known that he’s at the gym. )
uses ‘lmao’ so much to the point he says it out loud not just over text
for some reason these emojis (👍👏👋💪) make me think of reiner ?? instead of replying ‘okay’ or ‘bye’ you just get ‘👍👍’ or ‘👋👋’
annie leonhardt:
most used app: spotify
follows so many cat accounts, she’s considering making her own to post pictures of her cat.
out of everyone, likely to be the person who uses social media/her phone the least, it probably overwhelms her quite a bit so unless she’s messaging someone (or looking at cats,) it’s unlikely to see annie on her phone.
does listen to a lot of music on spotify though - she’s got a study playlist, a playlist for when she’s at the gym, songs to listen when she’s just chilling at home - her spotify wrapped every year is pretty impressive.
BONUS:
spotify or apple music?
spotify: jean, mikasa, bertholdt, ymir, reiner, annie, sasha, historia
apple music: eren, armin, marco, connie
who sends memes into group chats?
eren, jean, sasha, connie, reiner
how long do they take to reply to messages?
replies instantly: marco, historia, sasha, connie, reiner
leaves you unopened for 3 days but then replies: eren, jean, mikasa, armin, bertholdt
leaves you on read: ymir, annie
who has the highest screen time?
eren, historia, sasha
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youryanderedaddy · 3 years
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Love Fuel
Summary: You were Jason’s first love before you broke his heart and rejected him. It’s all your fault that he can’t move on.
Tw: female reader, obsessive behavior, incel behavior, nice guy behavior, self - hatred, threats of non-con, implied non - con, implied masturbation, bullying based on appearance (not reader), deregatory language, kidnapping, misogyny, generalizations, stalking
this is a hot mess but its 1 am and i am tired, ik that incels are bad irl (obviously), but this is fiction and I kinda wanted to explore the dynamic and shit. 
Everyone used to call him JJ or The-Big-Jay back in high school. Well, most of the time his classmates weren’t really calling out to him or even talking to him, the names were whispered behind his back, after he had just passed the hallway, or on bad days - right to his face. The jocks, these dumb motherfuckers, would beat him up, mock him for whatever stupid reasons they had chosen to use as an excuse to torment the smaller and weaker. The popular girls would giggle like brainless bimbos as Kyle or Brad or any other football player stole his glasses or continuously punched him in the guts until he threw up all over the floor. Even the nerds, the kids at the bottom of the school hierarchy, messed with Jason from time to time when they wanted to feel the oh - so desired rush of power they so rarely managed to experience. 
Looking back, Jason could see why his classmates hated him so much - he was everything that society deemed as wrong and unattractive. He was thin, pale, “scrawny” as the others called him, on the shorter side, and on top of that the teen was terribly shy and introverted, never having the guts to stand up to his bullies or even tell someone about the abuse. The male spent most of his free time at home, playing hours upon hours of video games, watching anime and reading books he was simply too young to understand or look critically at. As he grew older, the man began to view the world as it trully was - a dark, miserable place that ate up sore losers like him. Men were primitive and foolish, which somehow managed to soften their faults. Women, on the other hand, were  calculative and manipulative, greedy and sinful. His whole life they had done nothing but reject him when he needed love and support the most. Of course, there were many other reason why the brunette detested the weaker sex. In his eyes women were evil two - faced sluts, showing off their bodies yet acting innocent and hurt once someone finally decided to use them for the only thing they were actually good for.
But you Jason hated the most. You reminded him that no matter how much he hated the outside world, he would always hate himself the most. He had to admit you were pretty, painfully so, with a perfect little body to match your looks and a sweet sugary smile that almost deceived him years ago. As much as the man regretted his weakness, he had fallen right into your trap at the time.
You weren’t the most popular girl, but you had your fair share of friends, all nice and loyal like puppies. You weren’t the smartest either, but unlike the other stupid giggling sluts you always tried to do your best. You were beautiful just like them but you were actually kind to the pathetic bullied kid no one else bothered to acknowledge even existed outside of being a punching bag. You always asked him whether he was alright and often took him to the infirmary when he looked paler and sicker than usual. You talked to him as if he was a normal human being and despite the initial doubt, Jason appreciated it. 
It was the last day of your senior year when the teen finally gained the courage to confess. He was shaking the whole time and by the end of his little speech there were small tears in the corner of his eye. You were the first girl the male cared about, the first one to show him kindness, to offer him friendship without asking for something in return. You were the only one who could make him feel deserving of love, worthy of affection. And then you took it all away in a matter of seconds.
“I am sorry, bud.” You had said that day after giving him a  half - hearted hug and an apologetic smile, that started to seem more and more like a mocking grin the longer the teen started at you. “I already have a boyfriend, but I am really flattered. I am sure that you will find a lovely girl once you start college.” You had added quickly, cheerfully, rubbing the salt all over his wounds, honey dripping from your plump red lips. He had wanted to kiss them, bruise them, bite them until your stupid lying mouth was filled with blood. Obviously you didn’t have a boyfriend or he would have known by now, he stalked your social media religiously after all. Even if you had one, he probably treated you like shit. And how could you even suggest him finding another woman? As if he wanted any of the stupid money - grabbing sluts out there. As if some of them could replace you.
The boy was too furious to form a proper response besides “Fuck you, bitch”. His cheeks turned red and he didn’t realise that the bitter words had escaped his lips before he could stop them, then his legs took him far away from that shithole of a school. He didn’t manage to see your reaction before running away but it didn’t matter anymore. You were just like the others. 
***
That day Jason swore to show you just how small and insignificant you had made him feel. He wanted to see you crumble, cry and beg for forgiveness, desperate for his love but never good enough to get it. The man formed a plan to change himself and come back for you once he had erased each and every trace of his past. The brunette came to terms with his terrible social anxiety and decided that he needed to gain social abilities more than anything. That’s why, as much as he dreamt of working from home as a boring programmer with an even more boring, but flexible working schelude, the male chose to study something that involved a lot more human interactions. The next step was to hit the gym for the first time and get a monthly subscription. It wasn’t hard to see that females nowadays liked brain - dead athletes with defined jawline and cheekbones, toned chests and strong muscled bodies, so if he wanted to impress you, he had to look his best. It wasn’t easy at first - it felt like everyone in the fitness salon had their eyes on his weak frame, laughing and pointing their fingers at his imperfections, but things gradually got better as time went on. The trainings became easier to get through and from time to time they even helped the man forget about his loneliness and nihilism. 
Jason soon returned to his old habbit of spending hours looking through your accounts - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, he knew all of your usernames, each post, every picture and text. He couldn’t believe how much of a desperate attention whore you had become over the years. The male remembered you in your long brown skirts, cozy sweatshirts and pure-white shirts, all the gray buttons closed to the very top, blushing, laughing, smiling like the adorable Goody-two-shoes you were. Now you were smirking seductively in every photo, overconfident and vibrant, flaunting your tits for every man to see and wearing tight little dresses that barelly covered your ass combined with heels so high and sharp they could be used as a weapon. You were such a stupid slut it was disgusting, and he couldn’t stop himself from jerking off every single time he saw your pretty little face on the screen. He wanted to cum down your throat so badly it was ridiculous, and even after knowing that you had probably already had hundreds of cocks shoved deep inside your pussy, the brunette still wished to see you split open on his, taking his lenght like a good little cocksleeve. 
***
The moment when he could see you again finally came. How many years had passed since graduation - five, ten, fifthteen? It hardly mattered. Jason was successful, at last. The male had his own business that was doing surprisingly well, there were some guys from the gym he could call friends and the best thing, he looked absolutely unrecognizable. There was nothing left of the tiny scrawny kid with quiet voice that everyone stepped over, he was now replaced by a strong capable man, determined to get what was rightfully his and his alone.
It wasn’t hard to find you since the brunette knew everything about you - where your job was, what time you finished, how long it took you to go home and what path you took. You lived alone and worked as a barista in a small local cafe even now that you had finished your studies in your dream faculty. Turns out the princess wasn’t so great and smart after all, having to resort to working a minimal - wage job day and night just to be able to pay her rent. Jason was absolutely delighted though, he loved your stupid dead - end job and your endless struggles to survive in the materialistic world honestly and fairly without selling yourself like a common whore. On one hand the male was happy that you had clung onto your last bit of innocence and on the other your pitiful lifestyle gave him the chance to snatch you away much easier. And that’s exactly what he did.
 ***
You woke up confused just like he had expected, bombarding him with questions, asking him who he was was, begging him to let you go, to at least explain what’s happening. You were so dumb, but God, you were still so pretty, if not prettier than before. You cried so beautifully when Jason told you you belonged to him now and you cried even more when he slammed his cold rough lips over yours in a deep wet kiss. You whimpered and whined while the male sucked on your lower lip and bit down, good, he wanted it to hurt. The stalker couldn’t wait to be inside you, he couldn’t hold back anymore. 
He climbed on top of you and pinned your wrists to the floor before tying them up with delicate red rope and tightening it. It wasn’t like the man was scared of you slipping away and hurting him, you were too weak and tiny to stand a chance against his years of power - lifting and muscle - training anyways, he just wanted you to be as uncomfortable and squirmish as possible. Your tormentor wished for you to be in worse pain than he had been during his youthful years, and he knew exactly what to do. Next thing you knew Jason had ripped your dress apart, leaving you vulnerable and exposed in just your plain old panties and bra. Cold shivers ran down your spine when the chilly air hit your naked flesh and you finally realized there wasn’t getting away from this. You had to stay there, limbs bound together, unable to move or fight back, the stranger’s hands caressing your neck before moving dangerously close to your clothed breasts. You felt so sick you were going to throw up for sure if your abductor didn’t step back so you decided to use your last resort.
“Jason, please stop!” You screamed out of the blue, forcing the brunette to freeze instantly at the use of his birth name. You had already called him a pervert and a psycho which didn’t seem to faze him, but the name clearly caught him off guard. This only seemed to prove your theory further - the man really was your former classmate, despite the only similarity between them being the dark distant look in his eyes. “I beg you, don’t hurt me!” You continued, hoping to at least buy yourself more time before the assault took place. 
He gulped loudly and stared at your quivering form. The impossible had happened, you had recognized him and now together with fear, there was also pity in your gaze, the one emotion your captor absolutely despised. You used to be the only one who pitied him, and even now that he was bigger, better and stronger than before, you still had the guts to pity him. It drove him insane but any attempt to hurt or touch you was fruitless now - your soft skin was suddenly burning his fingers like hellfire. 
“You must be thinking that I am a monster.” Jason started out dryly, chuckling bitterly, humorlessly even. He clenched his fists unconsciously and brought them to the floor in a fit of rage, missing your head by mere inches. Your heart was beating like crazy and you only hoped the mandman couldn’t hear it. “A freak.” The man spat out the word like it was a curse and for a split second his eyes softened before turning into two spinning torches. “Right?” You were sure that if looks could kill, his would have you dead by the end of the night so you quickly nodded your head no.
“You are lying to me again, pretty girl.” The brunette replied feisty, "pretty” rolling off his tongue like an insult. Then he broke into hoarse maniac laugher and lowered his head so his face leveled up with yours, so close you could feel his warm breath on your tear - stained cheek. “When I am done with you, you wouldn’t be so pretty anymore, darling.” Your captor growled and attacked your neck, sinking his teeth deep into the flesh. “You will see exaclty how ugly my love is.”
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calvin-af-crone · 2 years
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My Long Goodbye to Calvin Fandom
I devoted years of my life to Calvin Harris because I loved his music then I loved the man I thought he was. And I was entitled to that delusion because I paid in hours of research & study to write my History of Calvin Harris & watched every video & interview related to him on YouTube. I became convinced he was a flawed genius who might be slightly on the spectrum but his insecurities made him a humble nice guy. I felt that was a reasonable appraisal because I never idolized him. He's done some incredibly stupid stuff over the years & I called him out when they happened. But no one accused me of being a hater...
My reality got shattered by The Split™. There is no excuse for what he did to Aarika. NONE. We've talked that to death. I'm firm in my opinion & that's that. I had just barely recovered when I got the second shock—Vick! Then came the shock of her tabloid stories claiming they'd been dating for 5 months! Excuse me if I do not approve. I'm an Old w/ clearly defined ethical boundaries. Nice guys don't overlap relationships. That's cheating.
Since then I've been holding on in case I felt the need to say anything about FWBv2. I am so relieved that I like it. Even filtered thru my negative opinions of him as a person, I can still appreciate his musical genius. I'm very happy about that.
But that was not the end of being shocked. This happened on 1 June:
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I thought Vick having nudes on the internet was a joke until I entered her name & the word "nudes" into Google Search. Oh wow! How dare I give away such deeply hidden search secrets? No one made a fuss when I joked about Calvin's dick pix on Twitter. Public information is public. There's no "weird conspiracy theories involved". Facts are facts.
Also, he's full of bullshit. Here's a screen shot of his Archive from this morning. Opting out of an Archive is the only way to "exclude" Google Search & he obviously still has one.
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Then Supa did this:
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Honestly. He's the one who was harassing me for posting stuff about Aarika. I switched that content to my side blog to avoid annoying him. Then he starts using trolls to trash talk about me & pulls this shit like he's a victim.
Wait!
You're wondering how I can see his Archive & can take screen shots of his content after he blocked me. First, Tumblr is dependent on Google Search to compile their Archive function. That's the down side of setting your blog to "private". Blocking only keeps me from directly visiting his blog or communicating w/ him. Second, years ago I made a bookmark to quickly access his Archive for reference. I was only slightly surprised that it still worked.
So yeah, all this time Anons were running back & forth telling tales, I could see them! And I saw how Supa responded by continuing to refer to me as crazy hater. That was his new theme & being allowed to drag me boosted his Anon content.
Then this happened on the morning of 7 July:
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This Anon is outright trolling. I never "pretty much revealed" where they were because I never knew. All I ever said was Northern Italy, which doesn't exactly narrow down their location to a resort.
But here's the part that bothers me. Supa believed the troll! If I had gotten a similar message about him, I never would have believed it! Why should he think I would suddenly change the rules we all agreed upon years ago? Ah but, he was building up his theme & this Anon message served that purpose.
Then that evening this showed up...
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Followed by realizing...
Calvin blocked me on IG!
Oddly, I wasn't shocked after a gang of people spent a month making me out to be a crazy hater. But why only IG? If he meant to exclude me, why wasn't I blocked on Twitter? But the strangest thing is: losing that access didn't interfere one bit w/ my blog's content. It was pretty remarkable to realize...
Calvin's IG was not a necessary source for my blog!
If Calvin did post something worth seeing, it got shared by half the people in his inner circle. Or I found it on TikTok AND Facebook! Most of my info comes from Google News Alerts.
You, too, can know as much as I did. The parameter that works is "Calvin Harris DJ". Otherwise, you get baseball players & criminals. I'm deleting my Alerts. If Calvin wants my attention, he'll have to do something that goes viral on Twitter or pops up under the Entertainment section of Google News.
I'm done w/ him & I'm done w/ this blog.
If you're interested in my personal journey, you know where to find me. If you absolutely need to talk to me do so via chat. Except for a small group of virtual friends, this chapter in my life is closed.
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jungshookz · 4 years
Text
the one where yoongi hates his therapist but kind of likes her receptionist; lveb!verse
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➺ pairing; min yoongi x reader
➺ genre; lveb!universe equal parts emotionally constipated and cheeky yoongi!! the man of our dreams!! i don’t really know what to categorize this drabble as but it’s cute and it’s sfw <3 
➺ wordcount: 5k 
➺ summary; yoongi hates going to therapy - but you and your dumb little hershey kisses make it a tiny bit better, he supposes. 
➺ what to expect; “you like a man who’s unable to form emotional bonds with people, baby?”
➺ optional reading: not necessary but feel free to read la vie en bonsai just to get a feel for what yoongi’s like and why we’re all falling hopelessly in love with him!! 
                                          »»————- ♡ ————-««
“see you next week, yoongi!”
“uh-huh, yep.” the smile on yoongi’s face drops as soon as he shuts the door behind him and he immediately rolls his eyes
well
that was an hour and a half of his life that could’ve gone towards something more productive
watching paint dry probably would’ve been more productive than whatever the hell that was
dr. i-don’t-have-chairs-but-i-have-beanbags basically spent the entire session asking him to list out things that he loved which he thought was going to be an easy task because he liked a lot of things!
and everything was easy peasy lemon squeezy until dr. glittery-purple-nameplate pointed out that yoongi kept saying that he ‘liked’ this and he ‘liked’ that and he’d never actually said he ‘loved’ anything once and then she went into the whole ‘why do you think you’re so scared of love?’ thing and his eyes rolled so far back into his skull that he actually saw his pink, wrinkly brain
he knows that she’s just doing her job but he’d really appreciate if one of his sessions with her just consisted of the two of them sitting in silence while scrolling through their phones
he even asked her one time if it’d be alright if they did that just so he could tell his friend (the one that sent him here) that he willingly sat through an entire session of therapy 
obviously she said no and yoongi resisted the urge to use that as an excuse to give her 1/5 stars on google reviews (unfortunately the option to give 0 stars isn’t available) 
it’s just really hard to believe that dr. are-you-more-comfortable-opening-up-to-my-homemade-handpuppet-rory-the-lion has 5/5 shining gold stars on basically every single one of her google reviews
yoongi should be happy that he’s going to one of the best therapists in the city but he’s noT because: he doesn’t even need therapy!
he doesn’t even know why he’s here!
he shouldn’t be in therapy!
he’s min frickin yoongi!!
what the hell does he need a therapist for??
what the hell does he need therapy for?!
he can literally solve his own problems
if he’s sad he just plays video games all day and also eats an entire pint of ice cream  
if he’s mad he just plays violent video games all day and aggressively shoves an entire pint of ice cream into his mouth
he’s spent his entire life coming up with different coping mechanisms for himself and he thinks that he has a pretty good grip on his emotions
the only one that he’s a little iffy about is obviously <3 love <3 but-
that’s not a big deal, is it?
yes, technically speaking, he’s “emotionally unavailable” or whatever, but he really doesn’t know why that’s such an issue
yes, the thought of committing to someone in a long-term relationship and the thought of saying “i love you” to someone makes him want to rip his skin off but again, he really doesn’t know why that’s such a big iSSUE
besides
emotional unavailability is sexy
whenever he tells someone that he’s incapable of loving and the sex we’re going to have in three seconds will be animalistic and primal and will also mean nothing to me whatsoever their underwear basically flies off their legs and out the window
so, again: what! is! the! big! problem!
the only reason why he’s here is because, as mentioned earlier, one of his friends set up an appointment for him because god knows he’s not here of his own accord
(also, she did it without asking him first, so he’s still a little upset with her, but she made him a whole batch of brownies as a form of an apology so now he’s a little less upset with her. just a little, though.)
he knows she means well and only wants the best for him but he’s starting to think that maybe she sent him here to torture him and not to help him
his original plan was to go for like one or two sessions and then end it there buT there’s just a teeny little detail he has yet to mention 
there is one (1) thing that keeps him coming back every week
he’d even go as far as to say that this thing is the only thing that motivates him to continue to waste his hard-earned money on these weekly appointments
and that thing is-
“yoongi!” your eyes light up and yoongi can’t help but smile at how excited you are to see him even though you literally saw him when he was checking in an hour and a half ago, “how was your session?”
“it was-”
“oh, wait!” you gasp before pressing a finger up against your lips, “i don’t know if i’m legally allowed to ask you that. pretend i didn’t said anything.”
“my session was fine-” yoongi ignores you as he folds his arms up on the counter and leans forward, “i’m still dead on the inside and the concept of love remains ever so terrifying, so… yeah! everything’s pretty much the same.”
“ah, yes.” you lean forward as well, “that’s exactly what every girl wants to hear.”
“oh yeah?” the corner of yoongi’s mouth twitches in a smirk, “you like a man who’s unable to form emotional bonds with people, baby?” he asks in a particularly sultry tone and you grin in response
“you gotta stop calling me that before i fully fall in love with you, yoongi-” you sigh dramatically before flittering your lashes at him and yoongi laughs lightly, “well, it is what it is. one day at a time, right?”
“baby steps.” yoongi hums and you nod in agreement before suddenly perking up
“hey- you want a kiss?”
another reason why yoongi enjoys your company is because you keep a little gumball machine on your desk
except you despise gumballs (you told him that on his very first day here when he asked you why there were no gumballs in what was obviously a mini gumball machine) so you filled it up with hershey’s chocolate kisses instead (you change the flavour of them every week! last week they were the milk chocolate almond ones)
“a kiss? from you?” yoongi digs his hands into his pockets, “at least let me put some chapstick on first, darling.”
“you know what i mean, yoongi.” you roll your eyes playfully before plopping the machine down in front of him, “they’re the cookies and creme ones this week!”
"mhm. whatever helps you sleep at night, y/n.”
                                                                  ♡
“see you next week, yoongi!”
“you got it, chief.” yoongi forces a smile before promptly shutting the door behind him
he lets out a huff before shaking his hair out of his eyes
somehow the hour and a half in there felt more like four hours and a half
he kept looking at the clock and whenever he thought that at least a good twenty minutes had gone by, it’d turn out that only like two and a half minutes had gone by!
he feels like maybe once the door is shut that time just ceases to exist
today he was forced to talk about all of the romantic relationships he’s ever had and that’s something that he’s never really discussed with… anyone, really.
not even his closest friends! 
yoongi’s had a multitude of flings but he’s been in three serious-ish relationships (yes, he knows that’s a huge surprise) - obviously none of them worked out because he’s now in therapy for his intimacy issues, but still
needless to say, they messed him up pretty bad
see, his problem was (and you probably wouldn’t be able to guess it after looking at him) the fact that he… fell in love too hard and way too fast.
his first one was in high school - he was pretty much ready to marry this girl and even gave her a promise ring to which she freaked out and broke up with him on the spot 
(she said she felt that it would be better if they broke up since they were both going off to different universities and long distance relationships were tough)
(on the same day they broke up she immediately changed her facebook status back to single which yoongi thought was a pretty icy thing to do)
his second one was in his first year of university (not very long after the high school breakup because that’s how desperate he was to fall in love again) and he wasn’t super sure if he loved this person or if he just wanted to fill the empty void inside of him bUT after two months of dating yoongi asked them if they wanted to move into the same dorm together for the second semester of first year - they said no. 
and then they broke up with him. 
and yoongi ended up with a single-person dorm, which was great!
:D because it meant no one could hear him crying himself to sleep at night worrying that he would never find true love and that no one would ever love him :D
and finally, with his last relationship, he told [unnamed person because yoongi would like to keep that private, thank you very much] that he loved them, like, two weeks after they’d started properly dating (they’d known each other for a year before getting together so yoongi didn’t think it was that weird. it’s not that weird, right??)
long story short, they didn’t say it back, and instead responded with: “oh! thank… you?” and that was a pretty devastating (and humiliating) blow for yoongi and it was after that breakup that he decided that things just had to change
he couldn’t be this person for the rest of his life!
this pathetic wimpy shrimPY little ‘<3 i love you <3’ weak-ass PUNK
eventually he figured that if he just turned all his emotions off, he wouldn’t run into anymore issues
it’s like that saying mo’ money mo’ problems except in this case it would be less emotions less problems
and he thinks it’s been working out pretty well for him so far!
he’s never gotten attached to any of his one-night stands (although he can’t say the same for them, because c’mon - he’s an absolute catch)
and he kind of takes pleasure knowing that they want to have something more with him when he doesn’t want anything at all
he likes playing with feelings
it’s like dangling a piece of candy over a little baby
it’s fun!
…does that make him a twisted individual? 
is he going to go to hell for being a little emotionally manipulative?
also he always finds himself snickering whenever one of his friends started talking about how much they love (gags) their significant others
even the one who sent him here - she just started dating someone in her apartment building - is fully in love with her significant other (he might even go as far to say it was love at first sight for the both of them (double gag)) and sometimes yoongi has to shove a croissant into her mouth just to get her to stop blabbing about how fond she is of her boyfriend
after all this time, yoongi has finally figured out that love is merely a concept
it’s not real!
it’s an idea. 
love is not real.
so, again - yoongi genuinely doesn’t see the issue with being emotionally unavailable. 
this isn’t just him being stubborn or anything - he literally cannot come up with one single reason as to why being emotionally constipated is such a bad thing 
real life constipation is pretty bad but emotional constipation is totally fine! 
emotions make everything that much more difficult and he doesn’t have the time nor the energy to deal with it
being emotionally unavailable makes life easy, breezy AND beautiful!
...
of course, there is the one slight issue that sometimes pops into his mind
is he okay with being like this for the rest of his life?
because if he is, he’s… literally going to die alone.
sure, his friends will be there (unless they die before him, in which case he’s actually going to be alone), but even yoongi has to admit that platonic companionship and romantic companionship are two entirely different things 
is he truly incapable of falling in love with someone? 
he... doesn’t like thinking about that
he prefers to keep those gloomy thoughts tucked away in the dusty basement of his brain
he’d much rather think about-
“yoongi!” you greet as enthusiastically as always as yoongi rounds the corner, “have fun today?”
fun?
in therapy?
that’s hilarious.
“fun? oh, yeah.” yoongi snorts as he folds his arms up on the countertop, “i even got to talk to rory today.”
the two of you exchange knowing glances and you snort before quickly reaching up to clap a hand over your mouth
hey! 
you’re supposed to be supportive of rory’s role in therapy!
he has a very important job
one might say that his job of providing emotional support is far more important that yours, you measly little receptionist
you make appointments all day but rory saves lives 
“well, i’m… glad that rory is helping you during these trying times.” you clear your throat as you straighten up in your seat
if you get caught making fun of rory you’re dead meat
“mhm.” yoongi nods before leaning over a little, “now gimme a kiss, babe.”
your heart skips a beat in your chest and you can’t help but grin when yoongi turns his head and points to his cheek, “well?”
“milk chocolate caramel this week, babe.” you hum as you place the little gumball machine in front of him
“ooh, yummy-“ yoongi’s eyes widen in excitement as he cranks the metal knob, “so, you got any plans tonight?”
a single kiss plops out and he opens up the little metal flap to take it out
“eh, i mean i guess i do?” you shift in your seat before shrugging, “sort of.”
yoongi raises a brow as he unwraps the tin foil, “what’s that supposed to mean? you got a hot date or something?”
“...yep!”
wait what
yoongi pauses right as he’s about to pop the chocolate into his mouth
because he was… just kidding about that
that was supposed to be a joke
“oh!” yoongi clears his throat, “well, who- who are you… who are you going out with? tell me about them.”
“oh, you don’t wanna-” you shake your head, “the details are boring, i promise it’s nothing to geek out over-”
“no, c’mon! tell me.” yoongi shoves the wrapping into his mouth as the chocolate melts over his tongue, “give me the deets.”
“alright, well…” you reach up to push your glasses up, “i actually met him at the club that he works at! he’s a bartender. we’ve gone out on a couple of dates and he’s really nice! he’s super nice, i just- i don’t know. i guess i just- there’s not much of a spark, you know? he’s taken me out four times and he kissed me on the last one and it was nice but… i don’t know. i’m not sure i even know where i’m going with this story- b-but he’s nice!”
yoongi nods slowly as he pokes his tongue against the inside of his cheek
ah
well
good for you!
whatever
you’re going on a date and it’s whatever
it’s not like he cares
because if he cared it would imply that he has feelings for you
and in case it wasn’t already clear, yoongi is incapable of having any feelings at all because that’s just who he is
he’s spent years building his status as an emotionless android and he’s not going to let a stinky girl like you ruin it (you are not stinky. you smell like pears and it’s very pleasing to his nostrils. and he hates that he spent thirty minutes at the drugstore sniffing multiple shampoos until he found the one that he’s pretty sure is the one you use. and now his pillows smell like you.) 
“nice, nice…” yoongi mutters under his breath, “anyways, i should, um, probably go! i’m like, two minutes away from getting a parking ticket-” he laughs nervously before reaching up to scratch the back of his head
“oh! okay, yeah-” you take the gumball machine down and set it back down next to your monitor, “are you- is everything okay?”
yoongi’s no longer looking at you and you’re usually the first one to break eye contact so this is… odd  
“yeah, i just- i remembered i had a thing, so-” yoongi coughs into his fist, “yeah, i gotta go.”
“should i- should i put you down for next week, or-” you get up from your seat quickly when yoongi basically sprints towards the elevators
“yeah!” he flicks his wrist at you, “um, yeah- go for it. i’m just gonna-”
ding!
the elevator doors slide open and yoongi rushes in at the speed of light
“s-same time, or-”
the door glide shut before you get a chance to finish asking your question and you can’t help but feel a little… rejected?
even though you’re not entirely sure what it is you’re being rejected by
that was weird
that was weird, right?
it’s not just your imagination?
you frown to yourself as you plop back down on your squeaky chair
maybe your chocolates tasted funky or something?
you unwrap one for yourself before popping it into your mouth
no, the chocolates are fine!
what went wrong?
you chew on the inside of your cheek anxiously as you quickly go through what just happened
everything was fine
everything was normal up until the point you said you were going out on a date…
oOh, maybe you shouldn’t have brought up dates or anything like that
you don’t know too much about yoongi’s sessions besides the fact that he has intimacy issues but maybe the subject of dating was triggering for him?
damnit
you idiot!
this is why you could never be a therapist because you’d probably end up traumatizing your patients instead of helping them 
you should’ve just told yoongi that your plans tonight involved NO dating and it was just going to be you going to town on a pizza at home
it’s too bad
you were kind of hoping the reason why he started acting so weirdly was because he didn’t want you to go out on a date
here’s the thing: 
you… you sort of… have a little crush on yoongi. at least, you think you do.
you can’t help it!
he’s surprisingly very sweet and he has that boyish charm that you’re really into anD he’s also super goofy AND hello!!!! even when you’re not wearing your glasses you can see that he’s really attractive!!!
sometimes you find yourself daydreaming about that smirk of his 
it just makes you feel tingly 
...
what were you talking about again?
oh
right! 
you’re pretty sure the two of you use the same shampoo and you don’t want to be that person but... 
match made in heaven? 
you’d like to think so. 
you just don’t want to ruin this super fun and bantery and also kind of flirty relationship you have with him (though, now that you’re thinking about it, you can’t help but wonder if it’s actual flirting or if yoongi’s just doing his thing) and you knoW he’s definitely going to freak out if you’re suddenly like hey,.,. do u,.,. maybe wanna go out on a date or something.,,. because i think i have a teeny crush on you because even though you’re dead on the inside you are OBSCENELY charming and witty and attractive and everything i want in a significant other,.,.
yoongi would run for the hills if he ever found out you felt that way about him!
“good going, y/n.” you grumble to yourself as you lean back against your chair
well
you can worry about your yoongi-related issues later
you have a date with a cute bartender to get to
a cute, very nice bartender
                                                                 ♡
yoongi’s jealous.
at least, he thinks he’s jealous
this is weird, right?
because yoongi doesn’t get jealous!
he doesn’t get jealous over anything so whY does he not like the idea of you going out with someone who isn’t him?
yoongi squeezes his fingers tighter around his steering wheel as he stares ahead with knitted brows
he left the office like half an hour ago and now he’s just been sitting in his car in silence
and before you ask, yes, there was a parking ticket tucked behind his windshield wiper when he came down here
“jealous, jealous…” yoongi mutters to himself before shaking his head and letting out a huff, “no. i’m not jealous. i’m not!”
he’s not jealous because he doesn’t like you!
he doesn’t!
he likes flirting with you, it doesn’t mean that he likes you
of course, if he didn’t like you… he wouldn’t be grinning like an idiot every time you greet him
if he didn’t like you, he would’ve called you out on your lame ‘you want a kiss?’ joke a long, lonG time ago - instead he just lets you keep saying it because he knows you like making the same joke over and over again
if he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t be coming back to therapy every week, for crying out loud
if he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t have bought pear-scented shampoo for himself
he should be buying manly shampoos!
like… winter breeze!
or… musky oak??
or diRTy monster truck??!? (he’s not sure if that’s an actual shampoo scent for men, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it was)
you know, those kinds of scents!
not frickin pear
yoongi pauses when he realises that he actually doesn’t mind the thought of waking up next to you
he feels his heart skip a beat and he gasps in surprise before quickly slapping his hand up against his chest
oh god
it’s happening!
“…son of a bitch!” yoongi groans as he slams his head back against the headrest, “are you kidding me?!”
he’s feeling!
NO!!!!
that, or he’s having a heart attack
(he’d rather have the heart attack.)
yoongi turns his head right as you exit the building and he doesn’t know where these emotions are coming from but all of a sudden he’s being flooded with what can only be describe as…
pure, blinding rage
“what the hell did you put in those damn chocolates?!” yoongi slams the car door behind him and you practically leap ten feet into the air
“i have no money in my wallet i only have a starbucks gift card and it has like three dollars left on- oh.” you immediately relax when you realize that you’re not about to be robbed
it’s just yoongi 
your eyes widen in slight fear when you see him storm his way over to you with his fists clenched at his sides looking like he wants to skin you alive
“you are unbelievable.”
“me??” you shake your head in confusion, “yoongi, what are you-” you pause to glance down at your watch, “why are you still here? you left, like, forty minutes ago-”
“answer the question, y/n!“ yoongi crosses his arms, “you did something to those chocolates! that’s the only reason why i’m feeling like this-”
“what- i don’t- is it your stomach or something?? maybe you’re lactose intolerant-”
“nO, i don’t mean i physically feel something-“ yoongi looks around before leaning in, “i’m feeling something.”
you frown
“yoongi, the chocolates aren’t special chocolates, if that’s what you’re implying. there are kids that come to the office, i can’t go around giving out marijuana infused hershey kisses-”
“i don’t want you to go out with your nice bartender guy!” yoongi blurts out, “because i… i want you to go out with me instead.”
you pull back in surprise before tilting your head curiously
…what?
“what do you- what are- what?” you ask incredulously before narrowing your eyes at him
did he just... ask you out?
yoongi swallows nervously
his pure rage has now been replaced by pure anxiety
“i’m saying that i-” yoongi shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans, “i’m- i wanna be the one to take you out. o-on a date. or whatever they’re called.”
“you wanna take me out on a date?” you ask dumbly and yoongi rolls his eyes
“a.. i mean i guess it’s technically a da..ate...” yoongi’s mouth goes dry and you can see the panic quickly filling his pretty brown eyes 
“we don’t- we don’t have to call it a date!” you perk up, “we can just... we can call it a... flirty hangout!” 
“a flirty hangout?”
“a flangout.”
“a flangout.”
yoongi takes a second to think it over
a flangout
yeah!
he can do a flangout because a flangout is noT a date 
“i’m sorry, i just-” you wave a hand in front of yourself, “i thought your whole schtick was that you didn’t believe in dates- flangouts- and ooey-gooey holding hands related situations, so why would you wanna-”
“because i like you!” yoongi groans before looking away from you and running a hand through his hair, “i think? i don’t know, okay? i know that i’m definitely attracted to- i just- you make me- i like talking to you after my sessions are over, and i like that you keep a gumball machine on your desk even though it still doesn’t make sense to me that you’ve filled it with kisses and not with actual gumballs, and i like that even though you know i, professionally speaking, have very intense intimacy issues, i-i like that you don’t judge me for it...” he trails off before letting out a breath and turning back to face you, “you can say no, obviously, but… i just think you’re really pretty and i think you know exactly what you’re doing whenever you ask me if i want a kiss.”  
you blink owlishly at yoongi and he immediately feels like he’s about to projectile vomit everywhere
see??
this is exactly what he means when he says that feelings make literally everything ten times more complicated
he just told you that he likes you and now he just made things awkward!
which means noW he has to go find a new therapist-
wait, no
nope! he’s not going to find another therapist - he’s just going to noT go to therapy
why?
because min frickin’ yoongi doesn’t need therapy-
“i do.” yoongi looks at you with wide eyes when you suddenly speak up
you do
did… did he PROPOSE to you?!
great!!
of course he did!!
his feelings are back and they’re even worse than before-
“i do know exactly what i’m doing whenever i ask you if you wanna kiss-“ you hold up a finger to correct yourself, “if you want a kiss.”
“i’m happy with either one of those options-“
“there is one minor issue, though.” you turn your phone around to show yoongi, “what am i supposed to tell sweet tae?”
“who the hell is tae- ohhhh, bartender guy.” yoongi winces as he glances at your texts briefly, “i forgot about him.”
“nice bartender guy!!” you push your bottom lip out in a pout as you scroll through your texts with taehyung
:-(
his last message to you was ‘excited for tonight!! see you soon :-)’
:-(((((((
“do you… do you genuinely like him?” yoongi asks cautiously
“i mean, i- i don’t noT like him, you know?” you sigh and reach up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear, “it’s just that… he’s so nice-”
“okay, i think we’ve got that part covered-”
“i don’t wanna break his heart!!” you whine, “what do i do?!”
“alright, here’s what you’re going to do-” yoongi clears his throat, “you go out with him tonight-”
“but i don’t want to lead him o-” 
“you go out with nice bartender tae tonight to tell him that it’s over. and you tell him that you’ve really enjoying spending time with him, but you feel like the two of you would be better off as friends. it’s simple, it’s clean, it’s straight to the point! no harm, no foul.” yoongi dusts his hands off before smiling proudly, “and then i’ll take you to the mcdonalds drive-thru for dessert.”
“i mean, i guess so…” you purse your lips in thought, “should i, like… if he kisses me or something, should i kiss him back?”
“you’re going to pity-kiss him?” yoongi gasps dramatically before tutting at you, “wow. and i’m the one in therapy.”
“wha-”
“now, c’mon-” yoongi places his hand on the small of your back as he leads you towards his car, “let me drive you to your gross date so that we can go on our cool flangout afterwards-”
“you know, they’re doing a limited edition chips ahoy mcflurry right now-“ you grin excitedly as yoongi opens the door for you, “you wanna split one with me?”
“split one?” yoongi scoffs and bends down a little so he can look you directly in the eye, the corner of his mouth curling upwards in a teasing smirk, “baby, i’ll get you your very own mcflurry-”
(it turns out that taehyung actually planned to end things tonight, too - he said if you ever made your way back to his bar he’d give you a cocktail on the house! so, it looks like you can have your cake and eat it too.) 
help me help you make your wishes come tru (aka send me a request)
requested drabbles masterlist
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Well, it’s been a weird half hour. I’ve just tapered off SSRIs and I know to expect mood fluctuations for a bit as a result. I genuinely don’t know if that is why I’ve spent the last half hour laughing incredibly hard at one picture and then getting halfway through reading this next picture and suddenly crying. I don’t know if it’s a disproportionate reaction due to medication changes or a normal reaction due to the world ending.
For a start, here’s the one that made me laugh. Thank you, Joe Lycett. Thank you for this. Never change, Joe Lycett. God he’s funny.
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I’m going to put the next bit behind a “keep reading” link because shit gets dark. Trigger warning for people dying.
For context: today, my Facebook feed is mostly full of assholes support anti-vaccine protests going on this weekend. But my Facebook feed also has a fair bit of people who posting memories of a girl who died almost exactly a year ago (the other day was the anniversary of that, which is why she’s all over my Facebook feed now). I didn’t know her well, but I knew her well enough to be very saddened by her passing. She was only twenty years old. We were all in full lockdown. When I heard what happened, I went over to my best friend’s apartment for one night to mourn, and then went back to never leaving my own place except for groceries. I sat alone in my own apartment (actually it was my brother’s place, where I was sort of subletting for a bit, but the point is that I was living there alone at the time) and grieved by myself. But I hadn’t been close with her, and my heart mainly broke for the people who had been close with her, and had to mourn her alone. Her parents, who had to bury their own daughter and not share it with anyone in person.
Amazingly, shockingly and tragically, it was only about a week and a half later when I learned exactly how it felt to lose someone with whom I was close. A good friend of mine died very suddenly, just under a year ago today. Again, I spent one night with my best friend (made some black humour jokes about how my rule was I’ll only break lockdown for the death of a friend and how the fuck did that mean two nights at his place in two weeks?), and then I was on my own again. I watched my friend’s funeral on a livestream. His girlfriend, who was another friend of mine to whom I’d introduced him a couple of years earlier, absolutely drowning in grief, sent a letter that was read by the priest at the funeral because she couldn’t attend in person due to lockdowns. The only people who were there in person were his mother, his brothers, and the priest. All distanced from each other. You think that image of the queen mourning Prince Phillip alone is bad? I have a video of a livestreamed funeral saved on my computer with a mother sitting alone in a plastic chair, only a few other people in the room and they’re not allowed to sit with her because they don’t live with her, burying her own son.
So I don’t know. Given all that, you tell me whether it’s a reasonable response or a medication-change-induced disproportionate reaction to burst into tears while reading a Joe Lycett Tweet.
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Last week, I posted about how fucking funny the Boris Johnson party-gate scandal is. And I stand by that. We have to be able to laugh at things. It is funny, and things have to be allowed to keep being funny. These days, it feels like the best we get is stuff that’s devastating and tragic but also funny, instead of all those things that are just devastating and tragic.
So seriously, thanks Joe Lycett. Thanks for acknowledging the devastating and tragic side of things, while also finding and enhancing the funny side of things. I need all of that right now.
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let-the-dream-begin · 4 years
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In My Daughter’s Eyes Chapter 30: Family
Chapter 29
Read on AO3
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November 27th
Jamie felt a flutter of excitement as he rang the doorbell to the Abernathy home. It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and neither doctor had had the day off on Thursday. Claire had mentioned they’d done exactly this last year. Claire had casually asked if Jamie wanted to make a pie or pick one up, and he’d stared at her, bewildered. 
“Ehm...fer what?”
Claire eyed him as if he’d asked what color the sky was. “For Thanksgiving?”
“Oh! I...thought ye spent it wi’ Joe’s family...”
She blinked at him like he had two heads. “Yes. And you’re coming.”
And that was that. 
This was a big step for them as a couple, as a potential family, and Jamie knew it. He knew better than to make a big deal out of it to Claire, but that simple assumption that of course he’d be celebrating with Claire’s adopted family had made him fit to burst with joy. The next day, Jamie had texted her:
speaking of holidays and families, how do you feel about spending christmas with mine?
She’d replied hours later, likely during her first break of the day:
I’d absolutely love to. 
So they were there now. They were officially bringing each other “home for the holidays.” Well, Jamie’s family was coming here to avoid putting Faith through air travel, but still. If somebody had asked Jamie last Thanksgiving or last Christmas if he’d ever imagined this, with her, with them, he’d have told them they were crazy. 
That morning, they’d gone to see Moana. The local movie theater did half-priced tickets before noon, and the movie had come out the day before Thanksgiving. Jamie had told Claire that he and his family always went to the cinema on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day; since the closest one to Lallybroch was an hour away, it was a special occasion. Claire had immediately lit up, declaring that they had to go on Thanksgiving. Rather, their makeshift Thanksgiving. Claire had never actually brought Faith to the movies before, but the place was empty aside from one other family, so it was perfect. She was in heaven. She was absolutely enthralled by the hugeness of the screen, the colors, the music. They’d sat near the front in the wider aisle where the railing was, meant for handicapped viewers, so Faith could run around or lean on the railing, dangling Horsie over the edge with her mouth agape. Claire had bought the album on iTunes on the way home, anticipating that Faith would want to play the music all day, and she’d been right. Jamie already knew almost every word to “How Far I’ll Go.” He wondered if it would hold up against “Let it Go” for Faith, but only time would tell.
A gust of November wind brought Jamie back to the moment, and the front door opened to reveal Joe, white teeth flashing against his dark skin in a radiant grin. 
“Ah, there he is!” Joe enthusiastically clapped Jamie on the shoulder with one hand, and shook Jamie’s hand with the other. “It is so good to have you here, Jamie.”
“Hello to you too,” Claire said wryly.
“Come on, I see you all the time,” Joe said. At that moment, Faith slipped right out of Claire’s grip and bounded inside, humming loudly and flapping her hands wildly. 
Claire rolled her eyes at both Faith’s escape and Joe. Jamie watched with amusement as Gail appeared at the end of the hallway and exclaimed in surprise as Faith barreled into her. 
“Sweet Jesus!”
Joe ushered Jamie, Claire, and Angus, leash held by Claire, into the house. 
“Well it’s nice to see you, crazy bean!” Gail said, laughing, and Faith disappeared into the living room. “Dee-Dee! They’re here, and Faith is looking for you!”
Jamie handed off the pie (that he’d made from scratch, of course) to Gail, and insisted on helping her finish with the hors d'oeuvres and the drinks. Faith darted about, in and out of the rooms, until the pitter-patter of little feet coming down the stairs had her running back into the hallway. By the time all the adults were settled with finger foods and drinks, Delia and Faith were already in the corner of the room, engaged with dolls and a little house. Even Faith’s Horsie was involved in the game, of course. 
“They did this last year too,” Claire said as they sat down on the couch. “We got here and Dee-Dee had a whole spread. It was adorable.”
“She does it every time she knows she’s coming over,” Gail said. 
“Aye, I remember her at Faith’s party; she’s a sweet one,” Jamie said fondly. 
“Thanks,” Gail said.
“And that one got so big!” Claire exclaimed, looking at Lenny, sat in his own corner with a tablet. “Last Thanksgiving he still looked like a baby.”
“Four years old, you believe that?” Joe said, shaking his head. 
“Oh, I believe it,” Claire said, eyeing Faith. “They grow too fast.”
“Oh my gosh, Claire, I never even asked.” Gail said, putting down her drink. “Faith started school!”
“Yeah, she did.”
“You were scared shitless,” Gail dropped her voice to a low whisper. 
Claire chuckled. “Yes, I certainly was.”
Jamie put his hand lightly on Claire’s knee, and she took it, seemingly without thinking about it. They laced their fingers together with practiced ease, and Jamie squeezed. 
“You mentioned at work the first day went okay,” Joe said. “How’s she been since then?”
“Really good, actually,” Claire said. Jamie could feel the warmth of glowing pride radiating from her. “She stopped having any bathroom problems, finally, and she hasn’t had to call home or either of us at work in a while. Which is good, because it’s hard when I’m at the hospital or if Jamie’s with a client...but I think we’re finally past that.”
“That’s great,” Gail said. 
“I can tell she still doesn’t really love it. It’s a bit of a fight to get her on the bus after a weekend or a break. Monday should be really fun,” she rolled her eyes, “but she’s doing it. She’s getting her stickers when she earns them and prizes and after school treats.”
“Claire is doing all the right things,” Jamie cut in. “It’s hard to motivate her sometimes, but as long as she’s on the bus in the morning, then we’ve done all we can do.”
“Right,” Gail said. 
“Remember after Labor Day when she would not get on, no matter what I did?”
“Aye, I do. I had to leave the stables to try to get her on myself.”
“I couldn’t believe the driver waited that long.” Claire covered her face and shook her head at the memory. “If that never happens again, it’ll be too soon.”
The adults shared a quiet laugh. 
“I see she’s got a communication device now?” Joe said, gesturing to the tablet resting next to Faith. “The school provides that?”
“Yeah,” Claire said. “She’s been getting more and more comfortable with it lately. She still signs for her basic needs, and Mummy, but she loves being able to say ‘Angus,’ and all your names, and Gillian’s name, and Jamie’s. I don’t want her to lose the signing, but this is a great additional tool.”
“Yeah, of course,” Gail said. “I saw that video on Facebook that you posted, when she first figured out the ‘Mummy’ button.”
“Oh, yeah,” Claire smiled fondly at the memory, and so did Jamie. When it had first clicked for Faith that there was a word on her device for every sign, she could not get enough of saying “Mummy,” calling out to her beloved mother in a brand new way. “She did the same thing to Jamie the next time we saw him.”
“Over and over,” Jamie confirmed. “It was sweet.”
“Until the third hour,” Claire said, and Jamie could tell she was only half-kidding. He didn’t blame her at all. 
Jamie was about to ask about how Delia was doing in school, how pre-k was for Lenny, when Joe spoke again. 
“How are you guys?” He raised both of his eyebrows coyly. “I mean, it seems like it’s...going really well. Yeah?”
Jamie watched a blush creep up Claire’s neck and touch her cheeks with color. She flashed her eyes at Jamie, who felt warmth spreading from head to toe. 
“We’re great,” Jamie answered, looking into Claire’s eyes and raising her fingers to his lips. “Really great.”
——
December 17th
As Claire approached the door to Jamie’s apartment, shopping bag and leash in one hand, Faith’s hand in the other, she heard a loud shriek from the other side of the door. Faith let go of Claire’s hand to clamp her hands over her ears, and Claire’s stomach dropped.
Off to a great start.
Claire was nervous beyond all reason to meet Jamie’s family. They’d gotten off the plane from Scotland two days ago, wanting to give themselves plenty of time before the holidays, and wanting to meet Claire and Faith at least once before then. Jamie decided on a little pizza party at his place.
Claire begged and pleaded with Faith to calm down, but she would not move until presented with her headphones. Claire sighed in defeat and put them on her. She knew deep down that Jamie’s family would bear no judgement on her in the slightest, but she really hadn’t wanted their first impression of her and her daughter to be flustered mother of an irritable daughter.
The door opened while Claire was still kneeling on the ground, and she looked up in a panic, relief washing over her to see that it was only Jamie.
“Sorry about that,” he said sheepishly. “Wee Jamie is a bit of an imp.”
Claire stood up, laughing nervously. “Oh, hi, sorry.” She tried taking Faith’s hand again, but Faith recoiled, reaching up to Jamie instead. Claire rolled her eyes upward, and Jamie grinned.
“Aye, alright, let’s get ye in out of the cold.” He obliged Faith, lifting her up and settling her on his hip, leading the way into the apartment. Faith rubbed her cheek against Jamie’s, delighting in the stubble, and Claire peered around Jamie to see the face that she’d come to be so familiar with but had never actually seen in person. Jenny was sitting on the couch feeding star-shaped puffs to a toddler, and the just as familiar Ian was holding a little boy over his shoulder.
“Everyone,” Jamie announced. “This is Claire. And this is Faith.”
Jenny launched herself off the couch and handed the baby off to Ian, who expertly handled holding both children at once.
“It’s great to finally meet ye, Claire,” Jenny said, throwing her arms around her in a bone crushing hug.
Claire started in surprise at first, but then returned the embrace. Her embrace was warm, soft and solid all at once, much like Jamie. She was wearing an oversized cream sweater, similar to Claire’s own white cable-knit turtleneck. “Hi, I’m so glad to finally meet you, too.”
“I’m Jenny, as ye probably guessed,” she went on, pulling away from the embrace, but keeping a hand on one of Claire’s shoulders. “That’s my husband, Ian.”
“Hallo,” Ian gestured with his chin in greeting. “This heathen is Wee Jamie,” he turned around to show Claire his face, given that his feet were previously facing her, “and this is Maggie.” He turned back around.
“Great to meet you, all three of you,” Claire said, laughing.
Just then, Claire noticed the man that had appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, smiling down at her. Everything about him was warmth, strength, and comfort.
“Claire,” he said, his voice deep and laced with the deepest affection.
“Hi,” Claire said sheepishly, her smile hurting her cheeks. “It’s an honor to meet you, Mister Fraser. Jamie speaks so highly of you.”
“Och, I’ll no’ have ye calling me that. Ye’ll call me Brian, Da, whatever ye’re comfortable with.” He stepped in toward her and pulled her in for a hug that was somehow tighter than Jenny’s. “Ye’re family, lass.”
Claire squeezed him back, this man she had just met, and tears pinpricked her eyes.
My family.
Brian pulled away and gripped her shoulders, looking into her face. “Christ, my heart’s full to see ye.”
“Let her breathe, Da,” Jenny chided. “Here, let me take this. And give yer coats to Ian.” Jenny took the paper bag of crisps and cookies in Claire’s hand like this was her own home and disappeared with it into the kitchen.
Ian put little Jamie down and pointed a threatening finger at him, and the boy grinned impishly as his father took Claire’s coat, then Faith’s, from Jamie.
“Hi!” he burst to Claire. “Are ye my Auntie now?”
“Oh, I…”
“Jamie…”
“Oi, why d’ye no’ play wi’ the Wii, lad,” Jamie cut in. The boy bounced with excitement, planting his bottom on the coffee table right in front of the tellie. “Quietly, now,” Jamie warned, setting up a game for him with Faith in his arms all the while. She refused to be put down.
“That’s her, then? Wee Faith?” Brian watched as Jamie shifted her to his other hip after finishing setting up Jamie’s game.
“Yes, that’s my girl,” Claire answered, pride warming her chest.
“Beautiful,” Brian breathed, beaming at her as Jamie approached his father. “Yer spitting image.”
“Thank you,” Claire said. She stroked Faith’s cheek, who was still rubbing her face and arms against Jamie’s stubbled jaw.
Brian hummed in amusement. “Willie used to do that to me,” he said. “It’s comforting to them.”
“Yes, I suppose it is.” Claire’s eyes flicked nervously to Jamie, but he seemed alright. Perhaps they spoke fondly of Jamie’s brother often. She’d have to get used to that.
Jenny flitted back in from the kitchen and chided her brother for letting her son play with brain-rotting video games, but Jamie just rolled his eyes and sat down, Angus settling at his feet at attention for Faith.
“I didn’t even know you had a Wii,” Claire said, sitting down beside him.
“Aye, well,” he winked, “how else would I kick yer arse in Mario Kart?”
Claire snorted quietly and fought the urge to swat at his arm in front of his family. Ian sat down next to Jamie with Maggie, Brian sat on the leather recliner in the corner, and Jenny sat on the edge of the coffee table facing the couch.
“So! This is the wee lass I’ve heard so much about?” Jenny beamed at Faith.
“Aye, she canna hear ye just now wi’ these on; wee Jamie gave her a fright.”
“Och, I’m so sorry,” Jenny said. “I did try to explain to him — ”
“No, it’s okay. He's so young.”
“Aye, and a menace to society already.” Jenny rolled her eyes, and Claire chuckled. “I’m just grateful he didna make a run fer the dog. He retained that from our talk at least.”
She was obviously referring to the fact that when Angus was working, he could not be pet. Claire did catch a few longing glances at the animal from the little boy, but he was being very good.
After a few minutes, with Angus’s help, Jamie managed to coax Faith into taking the headphones off.
“There you go, good girl,” Claire praised. “She’d never take them off without Jamie here. He’s absolutely wonderful with her.”
“Aye, and she’s quite taken wi’ him as well,” Jenny said smiling at the way Faith was nuzzled into his neck.
“We’ve a…special bond,” Jamie said, his eyes twinkling. “Aye, princess?” He bounced her on his knee, and she giggled.
“Look, lass, this is Jenny,” Jamie said. “Can ye say hi?”
She buried her face further.
“She’s very shy,” Claire explained. “Strangers are a little tricky. But I promise the more she’s with you, the better it gets. Even Jamie was a scary stranger at some point. Right, lovie?”
Jenny and Ian laughed softly.
“I really appreciate you all coming here,” Claire said. “It can’t be easy traveling with little ones.”
“Och, ’twas nae bother,” Ian said. “Glad to do it.”
“We hardly ever get to see Jamie’s place anyway,” Jenny added. “We’ve only been to the Island…what, once or twice before?” Ian nodded in confirmation. “It’s nice to see the life he’s made here. And the stables are just great.”
“Aye, we’re very proud of the work Jamie does,” Brian cut in, the pride oozing out of his every feature.
“You should be. He’s…he’s got a special touch with those kids,” Claire said, unable to stop the heart eyes she knew she was giving Jamie. “He changes lives. I know he changed Faith’s, and mine for that matter. Even before, well…this.” She blushed, realizing she was rambling. Jamie reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze, likely sensing her embarrassment.
“Aye, well it’s good ye ken how lucky ye are,” Jenny said. “Ye’ll no’ find a better man than my brother.”
“Christ, Janet…” It was Jamie’s turn to turn scarlet.
“I’m being nice, Jamie! I could go on instead about how difficult ye are to live with…”
“Claire doesna need a speech about treating me right,” he said. “She’s doing just fine.”
“That wasna what I meant.”
But given the look that Ian shot her, that was indeed what she’d meant. Though a little uncomfortable, Claire did not blame her. Jamie was her little brother after all, and Claire knew by now how deeply he felt things, how sensitive he was. Somebody cruel could tear him to pieces.
“It’s okay,” Claire cut in. “I know what you meant.” She squeezed Jamie’s hand.
“Aye, good. Well, it’s no’ as if it doesna go both ways. When Jamie sent me yer Facebook profile, I gave him an earful about how damned lucky he was,” Jenny said, and Claire bit her lip to stifle a grin.
“Janet…”
“What! Ye’re embarrassed? I couldna very well meet her. No shame in sending me something to get to know her by!”
If Jamie could have melted into the couch, Claire was sure he would have.
“Jamie went on and on about ye last Christmas, ye and the lass both,” Jenny explained. Claire’s heart fluttered to think that his family knew about her all the way back then, when she was still so far in denial she couldn’t see past her own nose. “So I was bloody curious what was so special about ye. Didna take long to see it, I’ll say that.” She smiled fondly at Claire, her eyes twinkling.
“Well…thank you. I think.”
“What Jenny is trying to say,” Ian cut in. “Is that we’re glad ye’re here, and we’re grateful to ye fer the joy ye bring our brother. Both of ye.”
“Aye, cheers to that.” Brian lifted his whisky from where he sat and took a sip.
“You know,” Claire said. “I heard all about this little one after the holidays last year.” She looked around Jamie and Faith at Maggie. “Jamie showed me pictures of her. She’s just adorable. I mean, both of your children are beautiful, of course.”
“D’ye want to hold her?” Ian offered.
Claire’s heart fluttered. “Could I?”
“Aye, of course.”
They both scooted forward for the exchange.
“Have to pish anyway.”
Jamie clapped Ian on the shoulder as he got up to leave, and Claire sighed loudly as the small weight settled in her lap.
“Well, hello!” she cooed, smiling enormously at Maggie’s sweet face. “Aren’t you the cutest little thing.” She bounced the baby in her lap, and she smiled lazily at her before breaking into the sweetest little giggles. Claire laughed in response, her head light and dizzy from the euphoria of holding a baby.
“Oh…I haven’t held one this small since Faith,” she sighed. “She’s just so sweet. Such a perfectly behaved baby.”
“Aye, she’s night and day wi’ that one.” Jenny nodded behind her to Jamie, engrossed in the game on the tellie.
Maggie gave another squealing giggle, and Faith abruptly sat up for the first time since burrowing into Jamie’s side.
“Ye look bonny wi’ a bairn, Sassenach.”
Claire looked up from Maggie to see Jamie boring smoldering diamonds into her, and she felt herself turn to a puddle. She’d be lying if she said she’d never thought about having another baby, and she’d also be lying if she said the thought of having one with Jamie hadn’t immediately crossed her mind the second she laid eyes on Maggie’s darling face.
They maintained eye contact for a long moment, and then Faith reached forward and grabbed the baby’s face, and Claire gasped, pulling Maggie into her.
“Gentle, Faith,” Jamie said quickly, as gently as he could muster. “The baby is very wee, and very sensitive. Ye must be gentle.”
“Gentle like with Pippi,” Claire added.
Faith bit her lip and sat up again, and then she gently stroked her fingers down the line of Maggie’s nose. Claire and Jamie both burst out laughing, and Faith hummed loudly, jiggling her hands and bouncing in Jamie’s lap.
“Pippi’s her horse?” Jenny said, chuckling herself.
“Aye!” Jamie said through his laughter, and then Jenny and Brian were also laughing out loud.
“What’d I miss?” Ian returned from the bathroom and sat back down on the couch.
“Faith started petting Maggie like her horse because we told her to be gentle,” Jamie explained, laughter finally subsiding. “Good girl, Faith,” he said.
“Come here, baby,” Claire summoned her closer. Faith clambered onto Jamie’s other leg. “You don’t have to pet her nose. Look.” Claire stroked Maggie’s head, then rubbed her back, all while bouncing her. “See? Gentle.”
Faith hummed loudly again, bouncing and jiggling.
“Calm down, lass,” Jamie crooned. “Ye canna play wi’ the bairn if ye canna be calm.”
Faith managed to stop one of her hands from flapping as she gingerly patted Maggie’s little head. Maggie turned to look at her, and Faith squealed.
“Yes, good job,” Claire said.
“Oh, how sweet,” Jenny said. “Ye’re a sweet girl, Faith.”
Faith did not turn at the sound of her name, but Claire beamed at Jenny. “She loves babies,” Claire said. “One of the moms brought her baby to the stables one day, and I had to hold Faith back from throwing herself in the stroller.”
Jenny chuckled. “She’ll make a braw big sister, then.”
“Janet,” Jamie warned, but Jenny just put her hands up in surrender, and Claire’s cheeks flushed red.
Faith gave another loud hum, and then she scrambled off of Jamie’s lap. She pattered over to the bag Claire had left by the door that contained both of her tablets and some emergency snacks that Claire had packed. She reached in for the school-provided tablet and walked back to the couch, standing in front of Claire and Maggie. She clicked around for a bit, and then she pressed the word she wanted to say.
“Play.”
Claire broke into a stupid, beaming grin. “You want to play with Maggie?”
Faith jumped up and down, letting out a squeal that gave way to a hum. “Play.”
“You’re so smart, good girl, sweetheart,” Claire praised. She looked to Jenny, who motioned for Claire to follow her. Claire set Maggie down on the floor as Jenny set out some toys she had brought.
“Play.”
“Yes, darling, we hear you, one moment please.”
Before long, Jenny had shown Faith all of Maggie’s toys, and Maggie was chewing on one while Faith became engrossed with the little baby piano toy. Jenny sat beside Maggie and Claire beside Faith, each making sure that Faith remained gentle and calm. They conversed over the children and across the room to the men. Claire learned how Jenny and Ian had gotten together, learned about the antics of all three of them growing up together, and at one point, she had tears leaking out of her eyes from laughing so hard at a story Brian told about the lads and the pigsty. 
Faith would occasionally take Maggie’s hand and make her press buttons on various toys, some more gentle than others, but Maggie did not seem to mind. Little Jamie only got too loud on his video game one time, and one stern word from his mother was enough to assure it did not happen again.
The pizza delivery arrived, and there was a flurry of motion to get everyone into the kitchen. Parents all made sure that little ones’ hands were clean, and plates and cups were set out. Claire watched in awe as Jamie pulled a pizza plate out of his cabinet.
“Where on Earth did this come from?”
“I bought one,” Jamie said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “If the lass is gonnae eat pizza in my home she’ll have a pizza plate.”
Claire didn’t have the heart to tell him that Faith was not picky about what she ate off of if she wasn’t home, so she let Jamie hand the plate to Faith, both of their faces glowing with joy. Jamie turned around to grab the juice from the fridge and Claire went to help him, and by the time they both turned around, Brian was cutting Faith’s pizza on the plate, and Claire stopped in her tracks to stare.
“Ye’re family, lass.”
Jamie noticed, and he looked back and forth between his father and Claire, his eyes twinkling. He hugged her around the shoulders with one arm and kissed her temple.
“They’re as crazy about her as I am.”
Jamie crossed the rest of the way to the table, and Claire wiped her eyes quickly before following.
“I like her pizza plate,” wee Jamie announced, crossing his arms.
“Well, it’s Faith’s pizza plate,” Ian said firmly. “Ye’ll eat off yer own plate, and ye’ll like it.”
“Why do I no’ get one?”
“Because ye dinna have all the worries and troubles in yer heid that Faith has. The pizza plate helps her feel better. Now eat.”
The table was crowded, not meant for nearly as many people as were there, folding chairs squished between the wooden ones, but they made it work. Maggie was passed between laps so that her parents could eat, and everyone took turns handing her tiny pieces of saucy, non-cheesy, soft pizza to chew on. The conversation passed easily as they talked more about Jamie’s childhood; they even asked about Claire’s. She had plenty to tell about her adventures with her uncle, stories that she loved sharing with anybody who would listen.
Once the pizza was gone, Faith disappeared into the living room and returned with one of the DVDs that Claire had packed. Jamie helped her get it set up, and then little Jamie and Faith were sitting on the couch, watching Lilo and Stitch, and Ian was putting Maggie to sleep in the stroller that they were leaving in Jamie’s room.
The adults stayed at the kitchen table with drinks, and Claire held Jamie’s hand under the table, his other hand stroking her knee and thigh absently. Conversation with this family was easy and familiar, as if she’d known them her whole life. She did not feel like an outsider as she’d predicted she might. The feeling of belonging enveloped her like a warm hug. Then she’d remember Jenny helping Faith play with Maggie, Brian cutting her pizza, Ian explaining to little Jamie why Faith was different, and she would well up with tears.
Family gatherings in England made Claire sick with anxiety and made Faith utterly miserable, which just made everything worse. The Christmas before Frank left, when Faith was three, Claire had cried herself to sleep with his parents’ sneers burned into her subconscious. But this…
This was acceptance, understanding, welcoming, joy, warmth, comfort.
This was family.
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hotdogjones44 · 3 years
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11-25-21
I had to block my ex best friend. The issues I've been having with her have finally tipped the scales and I had to block her from seeing any of my stuff on Facebook.
We are in the same spirit keeping group on Facebook. After her sending me explicit messages after we started fighting, I chose to ignore her. I wanted to just walk away and be done, because this hasn't been the first time we have fought. I didn't want to make a big rant post but she's pushed me to my limits and I'm sick of this.
To give some context to the situation, in the past I have tried over and over to get her to hang out with me outside of work. I even bought her a Nintendo switch and Animal Crossing so we could play together. She chose to play with her other friends and not me. I have bought Xbox games that she wanted me to, just so we could play together. And she never played them with me. I have spent money on stuff that she swore to me, we would play together. Each time, I got let down. And each time I tried to say "Fuck it" and walk away, she blew up and made waves just to keep me from leaving.
I asked her not to bother the man I was dating at the time, because we had agreed to leave our personal lives out of our relationship. We had a complex relationship, but we both were happy. She looked him up online and I blocked her for the first time, I was so upset. It caused a huge fight between me and my boyfriend at the time, and ultimately led to us breaking up. She and her wife accused me of overreacting, so I unblocked her.
I met a new guy and we clicked so fast and began dating. She got mad at me for dating him and accused him of making fun of her wife. Which later her wife stepped up and said that never happened, they were always friends.
It got so bad that we got separated at work. My boss saw how toxic she was being and how it was affecting my work. I got moved away from her and she exploded. She went into the office and yelled and cried to my boss for about a half an hour after work ended. She's almost 30.
We began talking again after she begged me not to stop. And then told me she can't forgive me easily, when she was the one who begged me to stay. I was stupid enough to keep being her friend. At this point she still told me her wife and her will never forgive me for how I treated her when I blocked her for "no reason". We began fighting again because she was ignoring me again. No response to my messages, promises to play video games and then ditches me, and just all around being negative.
At work my co worker told me she saw her go behind my back to try and get in trouble with someone, so I tested it. I was upset that a girl wasn't wearing her mask properly (my grandma has cancer, so it's important to me that people wear their masks properly at work because we're all stuck in a building with each other for 9 hours a day). She told the girl I was reporting her. So I told my friend to hide her cellphone because I turned in the girl for having her's out. (I didn't really). I left my station to get out of line of sight and I saw her go point to the girl's phone and tell her put it away. My co worker was right. A few other coworkers of mine caught her in lies as well.
During all of this, she sent me messages of a sexual nature. Knowing fully that it upsets my boyfriend. He's too nice to say anything to her, but I continued to ignore her. I didn't want to give her attention.
She started dragging in other people into this fight. I tried to ignore it, but she would go around asking if I was saying anything about her. I hadn't been. I wanted to be done.
She kept messaging me, and I kept ignoring.
I've been writing a spirit keeping/conjuring book for about 3 years now. I've really started working hard on it this year and I've researched countless hours and read so many books and watched so many videos. I've interviewed people, I've done so much work and even created some of my own original work that I shared with her freely.
I finally found someone who would conjure me a black arts spirit, a demon. Which was something she's wanted ever since she started copying my spirit journey. She used to laugh at me for collecting haunted dolls, and now she wants the biggest and baddest spirits she can find because she wants the power to control. She wants to control people and get attention. Her hunger for power comes from a very dark hallow place.
I'm upset because she won't take the time and research, and honestly the way she acts towards some of the shop owners is very child like. She wants them to do things for her and she wants it now.
She messaged me yet again asking me where I got my demon because she saw me post in the group we're in. It was a post similar to what I post here on my blog, with promises to give updates and my pure excitement to put this experience in my book, no matter what the outcome is.
I again ignored her.
She messaged me one more time asking if we could just talk like adults for a minute.
She wanted me to tell her where I got it. The shop owner is the kindest and sweetest soul you could ever imagine, and I refuse to send that negative energy her way. I will not send bad service to this woman.
So she made a post in the group asking everywhere where to get any and all "dark dark arts" spirits. She wants a demon, she HAS to have a demon. I had enough. I blocked her. I don't want to give any more time or energy to her.
Me being upset about this, does not benefit me in any way. I have my spirits, I have the most amazing boyfriend I could ever want, I have my sister in my life again, everything is going so well for me.
I didn't want to make this post, but I had to, it was eating me alive. I made this so I can give myself closure. After this post, I will no longer let her negative energy affect me. I've been told she's sending bad things my way, but I know I'm strong enough to not let it hurt me.
She no longer has access to my energy, my life, or my emotions. By my will, so it will be.
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cherryblossomshadow · 3 years
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Transaction
I was watching this video and was intrigued by the pitch for the show, Transaction.
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The Comedy Central show in question is six ~5 min episodes posted to YouTube or Facebook, and the pitch is transcribed below:
There’s this small web series I’ve been watching – it’s just a series of shorts – It’s called Transaction. It’s about a trans woman who’s just a bit of an idiot, and it’s performed by and written by a trans woman, and it’s pretty funny. Not earth-shatteringly great, but it’s a laugh, and the jokes are truly only the kind of jokes a trans person can tell.
[clip from show]
… It’s just disreputable fun, so even in a show from TERF island, the trans woman is getting the laughs and winning.
[clip from interview of writer]
“I love killing with kindness. I love people that just … if you can make somebody laugh, it brings down every barrier they have. And it’s my personal mission to make the kind of people that probably wouldn’t like this *waves hand over face* laugh with me at this experience.”
43:01-44:17 of Good LGBT Representation is Boring (and why that's a problem)
I spent the next several minutes looking for it on Facebook (Facebook Watch sucks; Youtube link here), and the next half-hour watching it. It was funny, and I liked it! I was shocked when I couldn't find anything about it on tumblr. So this is me. Making a little rec post for tumblr. Hope y'all like it!
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hotpinkhoshi · 5 years
Text
kiss it better | one
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pairing: mark tuan x reader
genre: angst, smut, brother’s best friend au (sort of)
warnings: age gap (nine years), cursing, explicit sex, slow burn
summary: you were off limits for more reasons than mark could count. but everything changed for him the day you walked into his tattoo shop with those big innocent eyes and a laugh like his favorite song. he couldn’t. he wouldn’t. and yet…
*a/n*: hiiiiii! so here we go. i don’t have much to say except that you’ll probably notice this chapter is a bit shorter than they usually are for my fics. with this story, chapters may or may not be shorter in length. this is just easier on me, and helps me to keep a regular posting schedule. now, i’m not going to say i won’t post longer chapters, but i just wanted to get it out there. i have a tentative posting schedule in mind, which i’ll make a post about later, but i’d say you can probably expect a new chapter every two weeks. 
also, just want to say- i hope everyone is staying safe and healthy right now. stay home, wash your hands, avoid contact with your face, and if you have to order food tip your delivery drivers a lil extra! and to those that don’t get to stay home and still have to work, i’m right there with you. we’ll get through this and all we can do is take it day by day ❤️
✩ index here ✩
make sure you read the prologue first! 
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Today had started just like any other day. Mark got up and went about his morning, brushing his teeth, eating his breakfast, and taking his usual ten minutes to sketch the ideas in his brain before heading off to work. 
It’d been slow, but Mark wasn’t worried. There were enough appointments on Saturday and Sunday to make up for a slow Friday. The temperature had reached an uncomfortable high, so he’d dressed himself in a black muscle tee to offer some relief from the sticky air. 
The early afternoon went smoothly. Mark took the opportunity to work on some new designs and do some organizing in his tattoo room, while the other guys opted to sit around showing each other funny videos on their phones. 
By the time lunch rolled around, he decided to sit outside with his iced coffee, scrolling through social media on his phone while relaxing in the shade of the awning. He glanced up mindlessly, his eyes drawn to a figure standing across the street. 
A girl holding an ice cream cone. Mark’s breath caught in his throat because, no, it wouldn’t be you. You’d be back home, attending some tiny college where your parents could keep a watchful eye on your every move, not here in the great big city. 
Then the girl dropped her ice cream cone, her whine audible even from where Mark sat. He couldn’t help the laugh that fell from his lips. He shook his head, just as there was a knock behind him on the glass of the door. 
Dahyun popped her head out. “Youngjae needs help grabbing some boxes from the back, can you help? Jackson and Yugyeom are being assholes.” 
Mark nodded, one last glance across the street before he stood up, heading back inside.
-----
You took in a deep breath, squeezing your eyes shut as Mark pressed the tip of his tattoo gun to your skin. Just the constant buzzing of the tool was enough to set your nerves on edge. 
Once you felt it, though, it wasn’t so bad. It hurt, but you’d been through worse. It was comparable to a thousand tiny kittens scratching you with their claws, over and over again. 
“You doing alright?” Mark asked, once one long minute had passed. 
You nodded, your arms squeezing the back of the chair you were straddling. It was an uncomfortable position, but it was the only way Mark would be able to access the back of your shoulder. You’d also had to strip down to just your bra, so at least you were given some modesty. 
“Yeah. Just... how long will it take?” 
Glancing over your shoulder, you noticed how hard he was concentrating. His tongue was stuck between his lips, peeking out the corner. He was entirely focused on the art that he was tracing onto your skin. 
“Not long. The shading is what will take the longest, but it’s small, so I should have you out of here within the hour.” 
You exhaled slowly and pressed your forehead into the cushioned back of the chair as he went over the same area a few times. Though he muttered a ‘sorry’, you found yourself wincing from the pain. 
Yerin had left to get ready for work, as the stenciling and position process had gone on longer than either of you had thought. You’d made Mark move the stencil several times until you liked the positioning. Admittedly, it had been a stalling tactic to delay the inevitable pain that was coming. 
“How’s Taehyung?” Mark asked, just as he took a break from tracing onto your skin. You opened your eyes to see him reaching for a cloth to wipe across your skin. 
The question caught you off guard. Just the name of your brother was enough to rub salt into the wound you’d been holding closed for the last two months. You gulped, turning your face to press your other cheek into the chair, hiding your expression. 
“He’s good. He’s been in Japan for two years now, I think. He’s happy there.” 
You barely even noticed Mark returning to your tattoo, the pain less noticeable while your mind was occupied. 
“That’s good. I saw on Facebook he has a girlfriend now?” 
You nodded. “Mhm. Her name’s Jennie--she seems nice.” 
Mark didn’t need to know that you hadn’t spoken to your brother since the week before you moved to Seoul. He didn’t need to know you’d been avoiding his calls, texts, and e-mails. Most of them you deleted without even opening. 
From what you knew, Taehyung and Mark had simply drifted once they both moved out of your tiny town and started creating a life for themselves. Taehyung spent his years after college roaming the world, taking photos and putting on exhibits until he secured a steady photography job for a Japanese magazine. 
Mark moved before that, though you hadn’t known he’d moved to the city until today. You hadn’t ever been close to him besides the casual greeting when he’d be downstairs playing video games with Taehyung while you were doing homework. 
When you were younger, you’d had an innocent crush on him, only because he was one of the few boys that paid you any attention. You’d only ever had a handful of conversations, but he was always polite and even helped you with your math homework once or twice. It really hadn’t taken much to impress you back then.
“So, how long have you been in the city?” Mark asked. 
You were grateful for the slight change in subject. It was only a matter of time before he started asking about your parents, and you wouldn’t have been able to pretend any longer. 
“A couple of months. I just… wanted a change,” you told him honestly. 
Maybe you’d gotten more than you’d bargained for… but regardless, you were grateful for your newfound independence. 
“I get it,” Mark replied. “Alright, outline is done. Now we’ll just have to shade. I’ll give you a few minutes, okay?” 
You lifted your face from the back of the chair and sat up straight. “Can I see it?” you asked. 
It took a moment for you to realize Mark’s ears were turning red because without the shield of the chair, your entire bra-clad chest was now on display for him. It didn’t help that you’d chosen a pink, lacy bra just because it was the first one you’d grabbed out of your laundry bag. 
Quickly, you leaned forward again to cover yourself with the chair, biting forcefully onto your lip. You could feel your cheeks burning with embarrassment.
“Sorry…” you said.
Mark cleared his throat and turned around, reaching for a handheld mirror on the table behind him. “It’s okay… I’ve definitely seen worse. Not that it was bad, or, well-” 
It was obvious he’d put his foot in his mouth. You found yourself giggling, bringing your hand up to cover your mouth. Mark looked as if he was desperate for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. 
“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head at himself as he turned back around. “Here,” he said chuckling softly as he held up the mirror behind you so that you could see the work he’d already done. 
You managed to stifle your giggles as you turned your head. It was no wonder Mark was known for pieces like this--his lines were crisp and clear, flowing in such a way that it looked as if your skin was born with this intricate design. You couldn’t wait to see how it looked when it was complete.
“Good?” he asked.
“I love it,” you said, smiling wide. “Makes the pain worth it.” 
Mark looked pleased with your answer. He set the mirror down and got up, switching out the ink on his pen for the color he was going to use for the petals, a soft cool toned purple. 
You resumed your position against the chair after a few more minutes, fists clenched as you prepared for the pain. 
-----
It turned out not to be so bad. Mark kept you distracted, asking you questions about your experience in the city so far. When he sensed you avoiding the topic of home or your parents, he didn’t push. 
Once he got your tattoo bandaged up, you sat around talking for another half an hour while he showed you photos of his drawings, as per your request. You’d never known that he was so talented. 
“I guess I should be going,” you said after a lull in conversation. If you wanted to get back to your room before your roommate began their daily music blasting and loud video game routine, you’d need to head back. 
“Where are you staying?” he asked, pulling off his gloves and washing his hands in the miniature sink against the wall.
“Just… this little place,” you answered. Little was an understatement. 
When you’d moved out, you’d only had a suitcase and a finite amount of cash. It hadn’t exactly been planned, so your options were limited. You stayed in the first hostel you could find, and you were disappointed to find that the wages you received from serving couldn’t provide you with anything better. 
You shared a room, currently with a Russian girl a few years older than you that seemed to only be staying in Seoul to play shooting games and blast ear-piercing rock metal. Your last roommate hadn’t been nearly as bad, but you weren’t having great luck. 
“Here, I’m just finishing up for the day. Why don’t we grab a bite to eat, then I’ll take you home.” 
Your efforts to refuse his offer were basically ignored. He gave you no choice as he led you out to the front room to pay for your tattoo, whispering something lowly to Dahyun as she wrote up your bill. 
“Mark,” you said in protest once you saw the total. You didn’t know much about tattoo pricing, but you were sure this was significantly lower than it should have been.
“What? It’s a family and friends discount.”
You sighed. As much as you wanted to refuse his help, you had to admit you could take whatever discounts you could get. Tattoos were expensive and you certainly didn’t have the budget to get one as impulsively as you had today. 
“I’ll get my stuff ready, then I’ll meet you outside, okay?” Mark asked and you nodded, watching as he walked off to his room. 
“Family and friends, huh?” Dahyun asked, eyebrows raised as she watched you sign your receipt. “You must have gotten really close back there.” 
You laughed, sliding the receipt back over the table. “It turns out, he used to be best friends with my older brother. So… family, I guess,” you said, though you never really saw him as such. No matter how many times your mother acted like he was her second son. 
“Wow, small world,” Dahyun said as she handed over a sheet of paper with a list of bullet points on it. She went over the aftercare process, recommending the creams and ointments that she preferred, and ways to help it heal faster. 
After thanking Dahyun over and over for her kindness, you gathered your things and waited outside of the front door for Mark. 
When your day began, you never would have thought you’d be having dinner with your brother’s old best friend, bringing back memories you hadn’t quite been ready to revisit. But he was so sweet to you, so easy to talk to, you couldn’t bring yourself to say no. You didn’t want to say no. 
You’d always admired Mark’s choice to move to Seoul straight out of school, with no plan and no connections to the city. And he only came back for holidays and special occasions. While you were hastily packing your clothes into a duffel bag, you remembered thinking briefly of him. 
“Ready?” Mark asked from behind you as he exited the shop. The sunlight hit his skin, bringing your attention to the swirling designs upon his shoulder. The way his shirt was cut allowed you a peek of his ribs—you could see loopy cursive etched on his skin but you were unable to make it out.
“Yeah, let’s go,” you replied with a smile, tearing your eyes from his bare skin. 
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